iStock/Thinkstock(INDIANPOLIS) -- Indiana is the only state in the country that bans carryout beer, wine and liquor sales on Sundays, but the prohibition-era laws could change in a matter of days.



Gov. Eric Holcomb is expected to sign a bill that would allow Sunday take-out alcohol sales after state lawmakers passed the measure overwhelmingly this week.



The vote put the Hoosier State on the brink of allowing residents to buy take-out alcohol at liquor stores, grocery stores, drug and convenience stores on Sundays.



State lawmakers approved Sunday sales after a decades-long battle to overturn the ban. But legislators this time gained support from the powerful and influential Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, which represents more than 1,000 small-business package store owners across the state.



In a statement, the association applauded the passage of Sunday sales, calling it a historic piece of legislation. This is only the latest milestone in the long legislative process that we expect to end with Hoosiers being able to purchase alcohol for carryout on Sunday for the first time since Prohibition, the statement read.



That 13-year nationwide ban on alcoholic ended 85 years ago. Indiana has some of the strictest liquor laws in the country, and although this bill would allow for expanded sales, it still comes with stipulations. The bill limits Sunday take-out sales from noon to 8 p.m. And existing state law that limits Monday-to-Saturday sales to 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. will remain in place.



Despite the new law, Sunday buyers who want a cold one on the go would still have to go to liquor stores. Legally, big-box retailers and non-liquor stores are still not allowed to sell cold beer.



Indiana is the only state in the nation that still regulates the sale of beer by temperature, and it appears that it will remain that way. A bill to upend that measure failed to pass a Senate committee and never made onto the floor for a full vote.



The Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers strongly opposed the passage of cold beer sales in big-box retail stores out of fear that it would hurt small-business owners.



Instead, the organization formed an alliance with larger retailers in late 2017. Both groups stood together and opposed the expansion of cold beer sales while throwing their support behind Sunday carryout sales.



The new Sunday carryout alcohol sales legislation will take effect as soon as Holcomb signs it, so residents could be buying alcohol on Sundays as early as March 4, just in time for spring.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Chinas military buildup and manoeuvres along the McMahon Line started as early as 1959.

Prior to the formation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 and its military occupation of Tibet, there was hardly any friction between the two ancient civilisations of China and India. They enjoyed cultural exchanges for millennia and kept a politically safe distance from each other, thanks to the natural barrier of the Himalayas.

But since the 1950s, as Tibet was swallowed by the dragon and ceased to be the buffer, the dominant theme driving bilateral relations between the Asian giants is of threat. The militaries of the two Asian neighbours stands face-to-face with no resolution to a simmering border dispute. Ideology, geopolitics and ambition have pushed China and India into a permanently edgy confrontation.

The book, Chinas India War, by Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, who has conducted decades of field work and research on the borderlands and fault lines of South, Southeast and East Asia, offers ample proof of why China and India cannot be friends. Its contention is that the two are politically and ideologically distinct like thesis and antithesis, and hence bound to compete.

The author starts his wide-ranging analysis by challenging the spin on the 1962 Sino-Indian war by British journalist Neville Maxwell in his 1970 classic, Indias China War, which claims that India provoked China into attacking it through its ill-conceived Forward Policy.

Lintner shows that the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru adopted the Forward Policy along the border with China only in November 1961, while Chinas Chairman Mao Zedong was planning war against India much before that.

Chinas military buildup and manoeuvres along the McMahon Line started as early as 1959. The Chinese premier deployed no less than 80,000 troops of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to overwhelm India. The locations and targets for the Chinese to hit in India were carefully selected, meticulously planned. The PLAs knowledge of terrain inside India was remarkableas Chinese intelligence-gathering on the Indian side of the McMahon Line was done over several years in the 1950s, says the author,

Indian intelligence agents had relayed to the Nehru government at least three years before the fateful war that China was massing forces for an impending attack. The saga of how India missed these obvious signals and was caught napping to suffer a devastating military defeat is, of course, now known and lamented among strategic circles in India. But Lintners point is to refute the historical fallacy propagated by Maxwell that China was justly responding to Indias unjustified aggressive patrolling and outposts near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The main motive for China to conceive and execute the coldblooded war in 1962 was conveyed by Mao in a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meeting in March 1959: India was doing bad things in Tibet and, therefore, had to be dealt with. Tibet was the crux of the matter because India had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama who fled the PLAs invasion of Tibet in 1959.

As a utopian socialist who believed that India and China had more in common, Nehru failed to understand Maos hardnosed (albeit mistaken) conviction that India was colluding with Britain and the US to overturn Chinas takeover of Tibet.

The CCP had branded Nehru a running dog of Western imperialism in 1949 itself. In 1959, when an armed Tibetan uprising broke out against Chinese colonialism in Lhasa, Beijing accused Nehru of inheriting Englands old policy of saying Tibet is an independent country and adopting the strategic aspirations of British imperialism. India, actually, never assisted armed anti-China Tibetan rebels before the 1962 war. But for the radical communists under Mao, India was pigeonholed as a bourgeois accomplice of the West to invade Tibet and enslave its people.

The author illustrates with examples that for China, political motives were more important than the exact alignment of the border with India. The 1962 war was not meant to grab territory but, in Maos famous words, teach India a lesson and weaken Nehrus credentials as a leader of the Third World.

The author points to the irony that China settled its border dispute with Myanmar in 1960 by accepting the same McMahon Line which it slams as an obsolete and unequal boundary drawn up by Western colonialists, when it comes to reaching a final agreement with India. He does not extrapolate from this insight but it is obvious that China uses border disputes and sovereignty claims to try and coerce India against strategically embracing other powers. A piece of land here or there is not the principal Chinese goal. Rather the larger objective is to tie India down to stay strategically inferior and incapable of equalling or overtaking China.

Chinas India War contains fascinating details of the proxy wars waged by China and India after the 1962 war. Naga, Mizo and Manipuri secessionist rebels were trained, armed and financed by China via Myanmar until Mao died in 1976. It is noteworthy that post-Maoist market-oriented China has not severed ties with separatists of Northeast India. The Chinese private arms dealers and black market which sustain anti-India guerrillas today through third party intermediaries may be after cash, but the author demonstrates that they are a product of Chinese security services turning a blind eye to the traffic. He predicts that China will continue opportunistic ties with anti-India insurgents for leverage on border talks and as a bargaining chip vis-a-vis the presence of the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile in India.

Lintner devotes one chapter each in this book to the intriguing methods by which China converted Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal into battlefields for pressurising India. With the intention of countering New Delhis influence in these Himalayan middle zones, Beijing has courted a vast variety of local players in these lands and tried to stoke anti-India sentiments. Lintners key observation in this context is that the Chinese always hedge their bets and never put all their eggs in one basket.

The central takeaway from this rambling but informative book of historical revisionism is that India faces a sophisticated and relentless adversary in China which has many aces up its sleeve besides the Pakistan card. India must grasp Chinas multifarious means and dissect its true intent, which remains essentially unchanged since the fateful decade when Buddhist Tibet was gobbled up by the godless Communists.

The writer is a professor and dean of the Jindal School of International AffairsRBI ordered lenders to comply with more than two dozen items within set timelines.

Many Indian banks, including PNB, have not linked their core banking systems with the SWIFT network.

Mumbai: Indias central bank has told lenders to link their internal software with the SWIFT interbank messaging system by the end of April, and to alter a range of other protocols with immediate effect, as fallout from an alleged $1.77 billion fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB) continues to swell.

In what has been dubbed the biggest loan fraud in Indias history, the No 2 state-run lender PNB has alleged that two employees at a Mumbai branch colluded with firms linked to well-known jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi.

The bank alleges the employees issued unauthorised letters of undertaking, or guarantees, that allowed the firms to secure credit from overseas branches of other, mostly Indian banks.

A lawyer for Modi has denied his client was involved in any fraud. Choksi has not commented but his firm, Gitanjali Gems, has also denied involvement in the alleged fraud.

PNB says the fraud dates back to 2011 and stayed undetected as the employees did not enter the transactions in PNBs core software after sending instructions to overseas banks through SWIFT.

Brussels-based SWIFT has previously said it does not comment on individual customer matters.

Many Indian banks, including PNB, have not linked their core banking systems with the SWIFT network, which is widely used by global banks to communicate with each other on transactions.

Rules tightened

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which supervises lenders, has moved to tighten regulations. In a letter dated February 20, a copy of which Reuters saw on Friday, the RBI ordered lenders to comply with more than two dozen items within set timelines.

The recent detection of a large-value fraud ... indicates ineffective implementation of the prescribed controls, the RBI said in the memo, sent to heads of all commercial banks.

It said banks must not send any transaction message on the SWIFT system or issue any loan or guarantee without ensuring it was reflected in the core banking or accounting system. It asked banks to integrate SWIFT with their systems by April 30.

The RBI also required a tightening of the use of SWIFT infrastructure; a limit on foreign currency payment instructions where beneficiaries were individuals; and an additional layer of security on transactions beyond a certain threshold.

Most of the actions have to be implemented at once, while the deadlines for others range from the end of March to the end of June.

Usha Ananthasubramanian, chief executive of Allahabad Bank, who also heads the Indian Banks Association, said the urgency of the demand to integrate with SWIFT was such that maybe Ill shelve one project and step into this and tell my vendor to fast track this.

Auditing probe

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), a state-controlled regulator, has said it is probing whether auditors played a role in perpetrating the alleged fraud.

The ICAI said it has asked the Securities and Exchange Board, PNB and investigating agencies to share their findings.

It also said it had set up a panel to study the systemic lapses that led to the fraud and suggest remedial measures.

Separately, PNB said a news report that it had approached the global accounting firm PwC to conduct a probe into the alleged fraud that would help it build a case against Nirav Modi and his associates was totally incorrect.

The bank also said it had received no instructions from the RBI or the government asking it to pay other banks that had lent to the jewellers based on the fraudulent letters of undertaking.

Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra, who also stars in the US television series Quantico, terminated her contract as the brand ambassador for Nirav Modis eponymous high-end diamond jewellery stores, which stretch from New York to Beijing, her spokesman said.

Speaking at a conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, no relation to the jeweller, said India would continue to take stringent actions against financial irregularities, without directly referring to the PNB case.

Shares in PNB have lost nearly 30 per cent of their value since the extent of the fraud was made public on Febuary 14. PNBs stock fell 1 per cent on Friday, while Gitanjali Gems fell by its maximum daily limit of 5 percent to a new low of 24.75 rupees.It is important for organisations like Oxfam to sustain the support for charity in their home base and to rein in sexual abuse among staff.

The sex scandal tumbling out of the British charity Oxfam, known for its work overseas and its surveys on growing inequalities between the rich and the poor, has severely jeopardised its 32 million pounds a year funding from the UK government. The European Commission could cut its 60 million pound funding too. To retrieve ground and re-establish its place as a compassionate organisation, Oxfam would have to show that actions are in place to avoid cynical behaviour among its staff whose behaviour has been unacceptable.

The charity sector was pushed deeper into trouble after new claims about Save the Children. While Oxfam, Britains fourth biggest charity, quite possibly deliberately misled governments, police and the public by hiding the scale and nature of sexual exploitation by rogue staff in Haiti, Save the Children apologised to three women who raised concerns about inappropriate behaviour and comments by Justin Forsyth when he was chief executive.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, the worlds largest NGO with 40,000 staff, had to deal with 24 cases of sexual harassment or abuse and 19 people were dismissed. Oxfam is discovering more and more shenanigans of sexual capers overseas. The global fallout of all this will be felt as the agencies operate like multinational corporations in several countries. Aid from foreign sources to poorer countries is a two-edged sword as Indian NGOs tell the story of how exploitative some of the conditions can be.

An NGO that educates and feeds 2,000 underprivileged children at its school near Chennai had a bad experience with funding from a German NRI. Sevalaya suspected a takeover bid that stooped to the level of bringing a sexual harassment charge against the chief trustee and the NGO had to fight a legal case for years to clear the name of its principal official.

The cynical exploitation of funding sources from abroad, which are given money either out of the donors compassion for India's poverty or from religious motivation, leads to money-making operations in which a margin is kept for the Indian middleman, either abroad or in India. Some of those receiving funding do not generally bother about the source of the funding. Says N Jagannathan of Sevalaya, Its not for us to moralise on the source of funding. Money is getting so tight that we have to make several pleas to keep operations going so that the poor can be educated in schools..

Is there a sense of Schadenfreude in Indian NGOs on Oxfam being caught out like this? Is this not an agency that uses its international prominence to raise funds in India for its Indian operations? Some would not admit it openly but they do point out that while many Indian NGOs are being shackled by all kinds of restrictions on their funding and their accountancy practices, international charities like Oxfam  2,500 staff and 31,000 volunteers  were thought to be too big to be touched in the donor countries.

The moral righteousness that countries like UK have shown after the scandal erupted, with Hollywood celebrities and socialites withdrawing their public support of Oxfam, is being pointed to by onlookers here who say India does not always react with the same attitude. While some say there is too much of the holier than thou attitude in the thinking abroad, they still believe that Indians seem to be more entertained by scandals than affected as a society.

The way Oxfam handled the case of Roland van Hauwermeiren - who was allowed to resign from his post in Haiti after admitting that prostitutes had visited his villa there  may have swung opinion even more against Oxfam. The charity may have blundered by not getting the police involved straightaway and it erred again in by making excuses for clear management failures when the seamy details of Hauwermeiren's activities finally came to light.

There is moral outrage over an aid organisation being caught trying to cover up. It stands to reason that humanitarian organisations must be really clean and totally transparent in order to get funding. They must live up to far greater standards than corporations, which are driven by the profit motive. This is the biggest lesson to learn from all this, concludes S. Narayanan, a well-known social worker from Chennai who helps poor kids find scholarships to study and homes to stay in.

It is important for organisations like Oxfam to sustain the support for charity in their home base and to rein in sexual abuse among staff. Otherwise, the spontaneous generosity of people responding to natural disasters will be lost and the losers will be the poorest people of the world. Development is an industry, but not compassion and any development built on compassion is what touches the heart - of the receiver as well as the giver. Modern cynicism should not be allowed to kill that compassion.The superstar threw some light on the decades-long question once again, and it is not something you'd expect.

Mumbai: Once upon a time, Salman Khan was without any doubt the most eligible bachelor in the industry or even in the country.

The term has eluded him now, not because he has become any less eligible, but perhaps because the citizens no longer hope that he would get hitched sooner or later.

Days after his Jai Ho sister Tabu, whos also flooded with marriage queries, revealed her reason for being single till today, the superstar has also given an insight about his singledom, in a similar fun-filled way.

"Marriage has become such a big thing. You spend lakhs and lakhs and crores of money in getting somebody married. I cant afford. Thats the reason I am a single man," Salman was quoted as saying at the recent TiE Leadership Summit in Mumbai on Thursday.

While a lot of us might have deferred wedding plans due to lack of funds, such a statement coming from someone who was in Forbes Top 10 of highest-paid actors, not just in India but in the world last year, is surely unbelievable.

Meanwhile, on the professional front, Salmans last release Tiger Zinda Hai might have become his highest grosser till date, his controversial front is still going strong.

A petition was filed in a Delhi court on Thursday seeking to lodge an FIR against actors Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, and others for allegedly making a casteist remark during the promotion of the movie Tiger Zinda Hai.

The comment for which Salman faced heat, seems to be same which also involved Shilpa Shetty Kundra before the release, but now Katrina Kaif has also been dragged into it.

The complaint, filed by Harnam Singh, a former Chairman of Delhi Commission for Karamcharis, alleged that the remark was made by Khan during a programme on a television channel while Kaif, rather than protesting at the offensive and insensitive statement, joined the accused number 1 (Khan) in insulting and abusing the victim through her conduct.

The plea, filed in the Patiala House Court, alleged that the accused persons had committed atrocity on the members of the caste and insulted and humiliated them by making the casteist remark.The actress died due to cardiac arrest late in the night in Dubai, where she had gone to attend her nephew's wedding.

Mumbai: Veteran Bollywood actress Sridevi, who had an illustrious career spanning over four decades, passed away in Dubai. She was 55.

According to the family sources, the actor, wife of producer Boney Kapoor, reportedly died due to cardiac arrest late in the night in Dubai, where she had gone, along with her family, to attend her nephew Mohit Marwah's wedding.

While some of the family members returned from Dubai after the wedding, Sridevi, Boney and Khushi stayed back.

A versatile actor, Sridevi made her Bollywood debut in 1978 with "Solva Sawan".

But it was only after five years with Jeetendra-starrer "Himmatwala" that she gained commercial success. Her beguiling eyes, scintillating screen presence and acting prowess soon made her one of the most sought-after artistes in the Hindi film industry.

While films like "Mawaali" (1983), "Tohfa" (1984), "Mr India" (1987) and "Chandni" (1989) kept her at the top in the box-office game, her outings like "Sadma" (1983), "ChaalBaaz" (1989), "Lamhe" (1991), and "Gumrah" (1993) earned her critical acclaim.

She went on a hiatus for 15 years after starring in home production -- "Judaai" -- co-starring her brother-in-law Anil Kapoor and Urmila Matondkar. It was director Gauri Shinde's "English Vinglish" in 2012 that marked Sridevi's comeback.

Her nuanced performance as a middle-class woman, learning to speak English to feel accepted by her family, won accolades, and the film was also a commercial success.

In 2017, she was seen in revenge-drama -- "Mom" -- opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Akshaye Khanna. She shot for a special appearance in superstar Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film -- "Zero" -- which releases in December.

But by the time she made her entry into Bollywood, the actor was a known face in South Indian films. She made her debut in Tamil films as a child artiste with "Thunaivan" in 1969. As an adult, she debuted in Tamil cinema in late 70s. She also worked in Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films.

Besides Boney and Khushi, she is survived by older daughter Janhvi Kapoor, who is currently working towards making her entry into the Hindi cinema. Sridevi was step-mother to actor Arjun Kapoor and his sister Anshula, who Boney had from late first wife Mona.The heart-rending incident occurred under Minapur police station area, when the school got over and the children were returning home.

Families of victims wait at the hospital in Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Saturday. (Photo: ANI)

Muzaffarpur (Bihar): At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when a speeding Bolero lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of the city on Saturday, police said.

The heart-rending incident occurred under Minapur police station area, about 10 km from the district headquarters, when the school got over and the children were returning home.

"The incident took place at Ahiyapur-Jhapaha in Minapur police station area of the district where a Bolero ran over the children who were returning to their homes after the school was over," Vivek Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur, told PTI.

He said "all the injured, said to be around 20 in number, have been rushed to to the Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital for treatment. The condition of some of them was stated to be critical".

Meanwhile, RJD MLA from Minapur, Munna Yadav, who rushed to the spot after the mishap, alleged that the driver of the vehicle was "definitely inebriated. There has been no control on consumption of alcohol despite the state government's claims of prohibition".Kejriwal also approached the Leftenant Governow to ensure the govt's work was not hit due to the bureaucrats boycott.

The woes of the AAP government did not end there as former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran resigned from its State Advisory Council For Education to express solidarity with Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, a Delhi Police team on Friday seized a hard disk containing CCTV footage from the residence of Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the chief secretary's "assault" incident, while the chief minister knocked on the Lieutenant Governor's (LG) doors to ensure that the government's work was not hit due to the boycott by bureaucrats, even as the Centre hinted that the AAP supremo might be questioned in the case.

A total of 21 CCTV cameras and a hard disk were examined by the police.

The hard disk was seized and any possibility of "tampering" with the system could be ascertained only after forensic examinations, Additional DCP (North) Harendra Singh said, adding that there was a time-lag of 40-43 minutes with respect to the time of the alleged incident.

He added that 14 CCTV cameras were working, while seven were not.

The woes of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not end there as former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran resigned from its State Advisory Council For Education to express solidarity with Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, who was allegedly assaulted by some AAP MLAs.

To make things worse for the ruling dispensation, the party's legislator from Narela, Naresh Balyan, triggered a fresh controversy by saying officers, who created hurdles in the works meant for people's welfare, should be beaten up, days after Prakash alleged that he was assaulted by the AAP MLAs.

Meanwhile, Union minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir hinted that Kejriwal might be questioned by the police in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat.

"Whosoever it may be, the police will question all those in whose presence the incident took place," he told reporters in New Delhi.

The AAP accused the Delhi Police of acting like a bully at the behest of the Centre by "illegally" entering the chief minister's house and alleged that the action was aimed at "insulting and humiliating" Kejriwal.

Without taking the name of the BJP or its leaders, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said it was "unfortunate" that some "dictators" and people with the mentality of "hooligans" had captured power, be it in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh.

"The dadagiri by the Delhi Police at Arvind Kejriwal's residence is being done at the behest of the BJP.

The Delhi Police is a mere puppet, but the Centre is resorting to such dadagiri to dismiss the Delhi government," he said.

At a press conference, the AAP also showed a two-and-a-half-minute clip, in which senior police officials were seen inside the residence of the chief minister, purportedly asking questions about the wall paint of the room.

The police claimed that its action (of dispatching a team to Kejriwal's house to collect evidence) came after its request for CCTV footage from the chief minister's residence "was not met".

The timing of the presence of the chief secretary at the chief minister's residence is important because Prakash has claimed that he was called at midnight and assaulted.

The AAP, on the other hand, has claimed that Prakash had reached the chief minister's residence at 11.25 PM.

"The time-lag of the CCTV cameras corroborates that the complainant was at the CM's residence at midnight (12.05 AM) and not at 11.25 PM, as was the plea of the AAP in the court," a top Delhi Police official said.

If the time-lag of 40 minutes was added to 11.25 PM, it would match the time the chief secretary claimed to have reached Kejriwal's residence, he added.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues met Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal and said the latter had assured them that he would take all steps to ensure that the officers started functioning normally.

The bureaucrats in the Delhi government had earlier decided to boycott all the meetings called by the ministers.

"Officers not attending meetings for last 3 days. Governance suffering. I m v concerned. LG assured he will take all steps to ensure officers started functioning normally. Council of ministers assured him all cooperation. All of us need to work together for betterment of Delhi (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted after the meeting with the LG. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Baijal had assured them that he would speak to the bureaucrats.

However, the LG sent out a very strong statement after the meeting.

"The Lt Governor strongly condemned the incidents and termed them as most unfortunate. The Lt Governor noted that no government can fulfil its promises to the people if the employees feel demoralised and insecure. There is no place for violence in a democratic and civilised society. Steps need to be taken to remove the mistrust between the government employees and the elected government, so that the development of Delhi and public interest do not get adversely affected," an official statement from the LG's office said.

Also Read: No CCTVs installed where Delhi chief secy assault took place: Cops

Meanwhile, a delegation of IAS officers working under the Delhi government met Union minister Jitendra Singh and put forward their grievances, following the alleged attack on Prakash.

After the meeting, Singh said, "We have heard the members of the delegation. We took cognisance of all the grievances and concerns raised by them and necessary steps will be taken."

The officers had submitted a memorandum, listing some of their demands, and necessary action would be taken on it, he added. The BJP launched an attack against Kejriwal and said his decision to call the chief secretary at his residence and the alleged physical assault on him was a case of bullying and thuggery.Haryana's education minister had earlier said that BJP govt's decision to include Gita shlokas in school syllabi yielded positive results.

'How can we increase the level of education, how can we bring ethics and culture into our educational system are some things that were included in the discussion,' said Khattar in Mathura. (Photo: ANI)

Mathura: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said the decision to add Gayatri Mantra in the morning prayers conducted in schools was taken to increase the level of education, ethics, and culture in the education system.

"The education department considered a lot of things before bringing this decision. How can we increase the level of education, how can we bring ethics and culture into our educational system are some things that were included in the discussion," said Khattar in Mathura.

On February 24, Haryana's Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said they were going to add Gayatri Mantra in the morning prayers conducted in the schools.

Sharma said that including Gita shlokas in the school syllabus soon after the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana yielded positive results.

"Now, we are going to add Gayatri Mantra in the prayer meetings of schools so that the children can understand its meaning," he had said.The case pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from the treasury between 1991 and 1994.

Patna: The Jharkhand high court on Friday rejected RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadavs bail petition in connection with the Deoghar treasury case.

The court observed that Lalu Yadav was the finance minister and chief minister of Bihar during the period and had knowledge about the scam.

Lawyers, appearing on behalf of the RJD chief, had appealed for bail on health ground, which was opposed by the CBI.

Lalu Yadav had moved Jharkhand high court seeking bail in connection with the Deoghar treasury case in which he is serving a jail term of three-and-a-half years, senior lawyer Surendra Singh said.

The case pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of `89.27 lakh from the treasury between 1991 and 1994.

The high court is expected to hear on March 9 Lalu Yadavs bail petition in connection with the illegal withdrawal of `33.61 crore from Chaibasa treasury case in which he was convicted for five years on January 24 this year.

The CBI court had convicted Lalu Yadav for offences related to cheating and criminal conspiracy under different sections of the IPC and the prevention corruption act.

Lalu Yadav, who has been held guilty in three fodder scam cases earlier, is facing trial in three more cases estimated to have caused a loss of `950 crore to the exchequer.

Fraudulent withdrawal from government treasuries and use of fake bills and vouchers in the fodder scam had surfaced in 1996. The officials conducting raids in 1996 had found that money was paid to various non-existent companies for supplying fodder to the animal husbandry department.

Five fodder scam cases were shifted to Jharkhand after the separation of the state from Bihar in 2001.

Legal experts and political observers are of the view that his troubles may not end soon as he may have to move Supreme Court for bail.Canadian PM Trudeau emphasises sustainable development at UN conclave.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with wife Sophie Gregoire gestures while speaking at the United Nations Young Changemakers Conclave in New Delhi. (Photo: G.N.JHA)

New Delhi: Reiterating the importance of diversity in India, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said that diversity is a key to resilience and success and creates new solutions and systems.

Diversity, pluralism brings together different experiences, different background, and different stories, the Canadian Prime Minister said, adding that it creates new solutions and systems, which are more multi-layered and do much better than mono cultures, he said.

Mr Trudeau said this while addressing the United Nations Young Changemakers Conclave, 2018.

He had earlier on February 21 in Mumbai said that India and Canada should lead the way in respecting diversity and that he has highlighted Indias pluralism to his three children.

On Saturday, he also laid emphasis on sustainable development and said a strong economy cannot be built unless the environment is protected. He said the G-7 meeting, to be held in Canada in June this year, will have two extra themes on gender and oceans and plastic.

The theme on gender will focus on empowerment of women, while oceans and plastic will discuss the menace of plastic, he said.

The G7 comprises Canada, the UK, the US, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan.

Pushing for empowerment of women, he said, When we empower (them), women grow. This will help in shaping business communities and politics for the better.

Mr Trudeau, who calls himself a feminist, has 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women in his Cabinet.

Responding to a students query on how does one enter politics, he said one of the most important things is to have the ability to mobilise people and make an impact on the community around them.

Responding to a question on whether he would like to invest in bitcoin, Mr Trudeau said he was not convinced about it.It may be recalled that Gokhale himself had played a key role in the resolution of the Doklam stand-off last year.

Both sides agreed upon the need to expedite various dialogue mechanisms in order to promote multifaceted cooperation across diverse fields of India-China engagement, the MEA added.

New Delhi: Months after Doklam stand-off, India and China on Saturday noted the need to build on the convergences between them and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each others concerns, interests and aspirations.

Newly-appointed foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale  who was also the former Indian envoy to China and an expert on China  visited Beijing in a two-day visit that started Friday and held talks with Chinese vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou. The two sides agreed to expedite various dialogue mechanisms. It may be recalled that Mr Gokhale himself had played a key role in the resolution of the Doklam stand-off last year.

Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing from February 23-24, 2018 for diplomatic consultations with senior Chinese officials. He held talks with the Chinese vice-foreign minister Kong Xuanyou and met foreign minister Wang Yi, the MEA said in a statement.

Both sides agreed upon the need to expedite various dialogue mechanisms in order to promote multifaceted cooperation across diverse fields of India-China engagement, the MEA added.

Mr Wang said that the two sides should enhance strategic mutual trust and accelerate common development in line with the political consensus of the leaders of the two countries, according to the statement.

We hope that the Indian side will handle sensitive issues prudently and work with China to promote the sound development of China-India relations, Mr Wang said, apparently referring to a host of sensitive issues between India and China, including the current political crisis in the Maldives.The attack was seen as an attempt by terrorist group to discourage people from participating in Assembly elections next week.

Guwahati: In a major breakthrough, security forces on Saturday gunned down the self-styled commander-in chief and one of the most wanted terrorists Sohan D. Shira in an encounter in Meghalaya.

The Meghalaya police had launched an operation against the GNLA commander after he was found to have been involved in killing of NCP candidate for Willimanagar Assembly constituency Jonathone N. Sangma in East Garo Hills on February 18.

Acting on specific intelligence inputs, the police succeeded in cornering Shira at Dobu Achakpek in East Garo Hills district. on Saturday.

Shira carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.Sangma, his personal security officer and two party workers were killed in an explosion when their convoy was returning from a campaign.

The attack was seen as an attempt by terrorist group to discourage people from participating in Assembly elections next week.

The GNLA was operating with the anti-talk Ulfa (Independent) in the Garo Hills region, which is sandwiched between Bangladesh on south and Assam on north. This area has for long been used as the passage to move in and out of Bangladesh clandestinely.

The GNLA was formed in the year 2010 by a senior police officer Pakchara R. Sangma who deserted the state police to launch the outfit. He had launched the outfit, originally to fight for a sovereign Garoland in western areas of Meghalaya. Slowly, it turned into a terror outfit with many instances of killings, abduction, extortion, bomb blasts and attacks on security forces.

Sources said that slain GNLA commander was reported to have returned from Bangladesh in December 2017 after a crackdown by security forces in Bangladesh.The man also gave a dying declaration at the hospital accusing the duo of trying to kill him.

Yakaiah and Aruna were supposed to get married on February 21. (Photo: Representational)

Hyderabad: A 22-year old groom died on Saturday after being allegedly set afire by his would-be wife and her lover in Telangana's Jangaon district.

The man, B Yakaiah, succumbed to injuries at a private hospital. His 20-year-old fiance, Aruna and her lover Balaswamy, on February 19, poured petrol and set him on fire outside her house in Madharam village in Jangaon district, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Yakaiah also gave a dying declaration at the hospital accusing the duo of trying to kill him.

Yakaiah and Aruna were supposed to get married on February 21.

According to the police, Aruna called Yakaiah to meet her outside her house on February evening. When he arrived, Balaswamy poured petrol on him and set him on fire.

The woman and her lover tried to mislead the people telling them that Yakaiah had attempted suicide, but the duo confessed to the crime during police interrogation.

Aruna did not want to get married to Yakaiah. Her parents were aware that she was in a relationship with Balaswamy, a distant relative, but did not approve of him, the police said.

Following the incident, relatives and villagers staged protest on the Jangaon-Warangal highway blocking traffic for several hours. They also demanded immediate arrest of Aruna and Balaswamy.Votes will be counted on February 28 and results will be declared the same day.

The EVM at Kolaras' booth number 57 were not working in the morning and people were waiting outside the booth since morning to cast their votes. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Byelections to two Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Mungaoli and Kolaras, which went to polls on Saturday, gave a glimpse of the battle royale that awaits the BJP and the Congress.

With an estimated 70-77 per cent polling recorded in the two Assembly segments, the outcome will decide many fates and set the tone for the Assembly elections in the state due later this year. Votes will be counted on February 28 and results will be declared the same day.

Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats, in Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindias Guna Lok Sabha constituency, had fallen vacant due to the death of sitting MLAs, both from the Congress.

Both the BJP and the Congress have been battling it out. For Mr Scindia it was a prestige battle, and for BJP chief minister Shivraj Chouhan, an opportunity to test the waters and to challenge the Congress leader in his bastion.

Kartikeya, the son of chief minister Chouhan, made his politically debut by campaigning in the bypolls.

The results of these bypolls will set the mood for Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. A BJP defeat could give a handle to Mr Chouhans detractors within the party to demand his replacement on grounds of anti-incumbency, and if the Congress fails to win, it will be a setback for Mr Scindhia who is trying to set the faction-ridden state Congress unit in order.

Mr Chouhan, keen to snatch the two seats from the Congress, had recently announced several measures for the people of the region, including Rs 1,000 monthly assistance to tackle malnutrition among Saharia tribals, who form a major chunk of the population in Kolaras and Mungaoli.

During the campaigning phase, the Congress had made several complaints to the Election Commission of India alleging violation of the Model Code of Conduct by the BJP. The poll body said that the chief minister violated model code of conduct by announcing the construction of a bridge.In another significant move, the BSP president has asked party coordinators to include maximum number of youth leaders in the organisation.

Lucknow: After a brief period when she underlined the need for focusing on dalits alone, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati has again decided to work on the Sarvjan concept and adopt an inclusive caste approach.

Elevated over the partys victory in the municipal elections, Ms Mayawati has dissolved all booth level committees and the bhaichara committees. She has asked party coordinators to reconstitute the both committee and increase the number of members to 20 each.

The party president apparently wants to include non-dalits in these committees so that the party can shed its dalit only tag for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and reach out to other castes.

It may be recalled that after the BSPs dismal performance in last years Assembly polls where the party won only 19 seats in the House of 403, Ms Mayawati had decided to work judiciously on bringing back dalit voters into the party fold. However, she has now changed her mind and is back to the Sarvjan Hitaye, Sarvjan Sukhaye concept

To break the inertia in the party ranks, Ms Mayawati has asked her leaders to identify BSP loyalists who have turned inactive. The leaders who remain loyal to the party but have become inactive, will now be given major responsibilities in order to make them feel wanted, said a BSP functionary.

In another significant move, the BSP president has asked party coordinators to include maximum number of youth leaders in the organisation.

The BSP, in recent years, has failed to recognise the generational shift in dalit voters and has not addressed the young voter which has led to the depletion in its popularity. The new generation of Dalit voters, in particular, do not share the loyalty that their elders had for the BSP and most of them gravitated towards the BJP.Taking into account other recent incidents, there is no doubt that the RSS was behind the act.

Taking into account other recent incidents, there is no doubt that the RSS was behind the act. (Photo: Pixabay)

An 18-year-old Keralite law student has complained of cyber bullying, allegedly by right wing groups, over a poem on her Facebook page about taboos attached to menstruation.

The abusers alleged that the poem on a menstruating goddess hurt their religious sentiments, Navami Ramachandran from Mallappally in Pathanamthitta district said.

The woman claimed she received threats on social media.

An activist of the Students Federation of India, the teenager posted the poem to extend support to another youngster who had also faced a similar threat for speaking out on menstruation on social media.

Navami alleged that even her school-going sister was not spared and was threatened by a group of unidentified people earlier this week.

A few bike-borne persons, with their faces obscured by masks, threatened Lekshmi, her younger sister, she alleged in another post.

"Taking into account other recent incidents, there is no doubt that the RSS was behind the act," Navami alleged.

Based on a complaint by her family about the alleged attack on Lekshmi, police registered a case and began a probe.All India Congress Committee (AICC) is preparing itself for a plenary session.

Nagpur: Former state minister in Vilasrao Deshmukhs Cabinet and a four-time Congress legislator Satish Chaturvedi on Friday was shown the exit door by the

Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) for indulging in anti-party activities.

Mr Chaturvedi claimed that he has not received any notice from MPCC and the one issued by Nagpur city and district Congress president Vikas Thakre has no value. He said the MPCC has no power to sack him and the notice has to be forwarded to the disciplinary committee since he was a former minister. Now the

All India Congress Committee (AICC) is preparing itself for a plenary session. How can MPCC jump to such a conclusion? said Mr Chaturvedi. He added that he was not in Nagpur currently and said will come out with a detailed response on Saturday.

After a series of process, first Nagpur city and district Congress committee issued him a show cause notice for his anti-party activities and asked to reply. The

MPCC through its general secretary advocate Ganesh Patil in a letter dated February 22, has written to Mr Chaturvedi claiming that he indulged in anti-party activities during the elections of Nagpur Municipal Corporation in 2017. Mr Chaturvedi was issued a showcause on January 23.Posted 2/24/18

Drones are higher in quality and lower in price than they were just a few years ago when farmers began using them, says University of Missouri Extension natural resources engineer Kent He and other kids from the locality would play around the girls house.

The police said that the boy, who was too disturbed to open up initially, was given counselling and treatment.(Representational image)

Pune: A 17-year-old girl has been booked for torturing and sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in Kolhapur. The police has taken her into custody while the boy is receiving treatment to overcome his trauma.

According to the police, the crime came to light ten 10 days ago. Sanjay More, police inspector, Shahupuri Police Station said, The girl  who stays with her parents at Tarabai Park in Kolhapur  had been sexually abusing the boy for some time. The girl, a school dropout, would burn the boys private parts with an iron. She would also physically and verbally abuse him regularly.

He added, The boy resides with his mother in a slum in this area. He and other kids from the locality would play around the girls house. She then started to take care of him and he started living in her house for the past one year. As the boys mother is underprivileged, she allowed him to stay at the girls house. But as soon she started to sexually abuse him regularly, the mother contacted a childrens helpline.

The NGO then approached the police. The boy, who was too disturbed to open up initially, was given counselling and treatment and he has resuming speaking since the past two days. We are trying to get more information as to why the girl was abusing him and what else she had done to home, said Mr More.

He added, We have taken the girl into custody and she has been booked under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. She will be sent to a juvenile home.Missing Hindutva leader appeared at Pune police station on Friday.

Milind Ekbote is the prime accused in the violence which broke out on Januray 1.

Pune: Radical Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote, who is the prime accused in inciting violence at Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, was interrogated by the Pune police on Friday for his role in the clashes, which left one person dead besides aggravating social tensions across the state. Ekbote, who was said to be allegedly untraceable by the investigating agencies, presented himself at the Shikrapur police station in the morning. The FIR had been lodged against him at this police station following the riots.



Making an appearance before investigating agencies for the first time since he was booked for the clashes, the Hindutva leader was extensively quizzed about his alleged role in the riots by Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sandip Pakhale. He presented himself in the morning.

He was quizzed for several hours and has been summoned for further questioning tomorrow, said an investigating officer.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had extended Ekbotes interim relief till March 14, granting him protection from arrest till that period. However, the court had pulled up the state government for the tardy pace of its investigations against the Hindutva leader, asking why Ekbote had nor been arrested before he applied for bail in the apex court.

The court had further questioned the claims of the state government and the probe agencies that the Hindutva leader was allegedly untraceable.

In his defense, Ekbotes counsel had stated that he was ready to appear before the police and cooperate with the probe, but that he had never received any summons from the police.

Ekbotes anticipatory bail application was rejected by the Pune sessions court on January 22 and again by the Bombay High Court on February 2.

On February 6, the Pune sessions court issued an arrest warrant for the rightwing leader, who then moved the Supreme Court for interim bail the next day, which was granted to him.

Two FIRs were lodged against Ekbote, who is the executive president of the fringe Hindutva outfit Samasta Hindu Aghadi, and the octogenarian Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide Guruji (who heads the fringe outfit Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan) for allegedly orchestrating the Koregaon Bhima riots, which left one person dead during the celebrations to commemorate the bicentenary of the Bhima-Koregaon battle.The incident came to light on Friday, when the child, Shireen Fatima, while playing outside her father's shop, disappeared from the sight.

The police started the investigation immediately and checked the CCTV cameras installed in the area. (Photo: ANI)

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police rescued a two-and-a-half-year-old girl within six hours, after she was abducted from outside a shop in Mumbai's Saki Naka area.

The incident came to light on Friday, when the child, Shireen Fatima, while playing outside her father's shop, disappeared from the site.

A 28-year-old man was arrested in the matter.

"Fatima was playing outside, but when we came outside to call her she was not there," said Shireen's father.

The family immediately filed a complaint with the nearest police station.

The police started the investigation immediately and checked the CCTV cameras installed in the area.

They identified the kidnapper as 28-year-old Sandeep Parab.

The motive behind the kidnapping is still not known.

The child was safely brought back her to parents.The BMC found irregularities worth Rs 352 crore in 234 road works. Of these, 34 works had been inspected in the first phase itself.

Mumbai: The second phase of investigation into the road repair scam by the Brihanmumbai Munici-pal Corporation (BMC) has found nearly 100 per cent irregularities in road repair and reconstruction. So much so, that it has recommended sacking of six engineers (including four from the first phase) for their alleged involvement in the scam.

The first phase of the inquiry revealed that around Rs 352 crore had been misappropriated by contractors while the second phase revealed nearly Rs 959 crore to have been misappropriated.

The report said, Almost 100 per cent irregularities have been found in the layers of sand blanket, metal, granular sub base and wet mix macadam material used for repair and reconstruction work.

The BMC found irregularities worth Rs 352 crore in 234 road works. Of these, 34 works had been inspected in the first phase itself. Out of 100 engineers, 96 were found guilty and only four were exonerated. Four engineers were also sacked from municipal services. In the second phase of inquiry, 200 roads were inspected. The second phase looked into the role of close to 200 officials.In a mature democratic republic, there is room for citizens to have their own opinion, and the right to express it.

When we adopted our Constitution in 1950 and became a Republic, our heart was in the right place. But somewhere, this heart has transmuted itself to hurt. Anyone and everyone has assumed that they have the right to be hurt about what anyone or everyone is doing! If not vigilant, we are fast becoming the Republic of Hurt Feelings, simply on the assumption that what an individual or a group does not like entitles them, under the misuse of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, to protest in any manner that they chose to.

The latest case in this saga of hurt is the song of Priya Prakash Varrier. I must confess that when I saw the clipping of the song from the forthcoming Malayalam film Oru Adaar Love, I was absolutely charmed. It was, to my mind, a captivating enactment of adolescent love, and had just the right mix of sensuality and innocence that anyone who has gone through love or infatuation at that age will vouch for.

The folk song was written as far back as 1978 by a Muslim, P.M.A. Jabbar, and was first sung by another Muslim, Thallesery Rafeeq, in praise of the Prophet and his wife Beevi Khadija. But now, some Muslim organisations have protested that the song hurt their religious sentiments. Where was their hurt for the last three decades, and what has made them suddenly voice it today? What is worse, in order to harass the makers of the film, and Ms Varrier, the hurt brigade filed multiple criminal proceedings in Telengana and Maharashtra, but none in Kerala itself! We have to be eternally grateful to the Supreme Court that, on a petition filed by Ms Varrier, it has stayed all criminal action or FIRs or private complaints against her, and the films director and the producer.

Those who claimed that their religious sentiments were hurt by the song were, in reality, a fringe group who believe that on the basis of their own narrow thinking, and their ossified religious fanaticism, they can use the law with impunity to browbeat creativity and freedom of expression, and make the state hostage to their ridiculous machinations. The SC has given a befitting riposte to their nefarious designs.

But, to be hurt is not the monopoly of one group of people or religion. You will find the hurt brigade on every side of the national spectrum. Actress Sunny Leone was to participate in a New Year eve event on December 31 last year in Bengaluru. ut the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Yuva Sene (KARAVE) announced that an invitation to her would be an assault on the citys culture. The secretary of KARVE said that he would have no objections if she attended the programme wearing a sari as per Indian culture. But if she wore anything else the members of his organisation would commit suicide. For days they took out rallies and burnt effigies of Ms Leone.

Reportedly, the Karnataka police refused to provide the requisite security to the event or the organisers. Finally, the hurt brigade won. The event was cancelled.

The kind of morality outrage that was witnessed in Bengaluru is on display in many parts of the country, including, most visibly, in UP on February 14, Valentines Day. Now I am not a great votary of Valentines Day, nor am I against it. At one level, its a cute Western transplant  like so many other things in our lives  and at another a bit of mindless mimicry. But that is not the question here. For hoodlums to chase young couples because their being together on this occasion is against Indian culture is so absurd that I dont know whether to laugh or cry. Have these lumpen protesters heard of Vatsyayana and know in which period he lived? Are they aware of the Radha-Krishna love lore, and ever read Jayadevas beautifully erotic rendering of it in the Gitagovinda?

Do the names of great poets like Chandidasa, Vidyapati, Bihari, Keshavdasa, Mira, Andal sound familiar to them, and are they even remotely informed about the sensual lyricism with which they describe the dalliance between Radha and Krishna? What do they know about the legendary stories of romance between Sohni-Mahiwal, Laila-Majnu? The hurt of the moral brigade is mostly in directly proportion to their abysmal ignorance of Indian culture. And, when they strut about using violence and abuse to protect it, they are not protecting Indian culture ,but reinforcing a Victorian morality that was used by our colonial masters to condemn Indian culture.

The other day I finally found time to see the film Padmaavat. I could not for the life of me understand why the Karni Sena was so hysterically hurt about this film. In fact, the film bent backwards to glorify the legacy of Rajput traditions and culture, and there was nothing whatsoever to be hurt about its contents. But no matter. Most of those of this Sena who resorted to threats and violence and abuse to vent their hurt had, amazingly enough, not even seen the film. For months they held the release of the film hostage to their misplaced sense of hurt, and it was only, once again, when the SC firmly intervened that sanity prevailed.

In a mature democratic republic, there is room for citizens to have their own opinion, and the right to express it. This right is protected by the Constitution. But neither the Constitution nor basic civility gives the right to some to be perennially hurt whenever they so please, and believe that they can either manipulate the law to harass those that dont agree with them, or worse, take the law into their own hands to express their hurt.

The lawless community of hurt people in our country is proliferating at an alarming pace, and there seems to be no boundaries on what can hurt whom: What one wears, or eats, or drinks, or does to prove ones patriotism.

At this rate, what will really be hurt is the freedom of choice and expression that our republic guarantees to every citizen, and which elected governments, at the Center and in the states, are duty bound to protect, not encourage.In addition, the government is worried that its last full-fledged Budget failed to make any impact despite various populist announcements.

Having shunned the media these past four years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers have now started courting press persons. The reason for this outreach is not far to see. The government needs the media since it is clearly on the backfoot with regard to the multi-crore bank fraud involving celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi and the Rafale aircraft deal sealed with France. In addition, the government is worried that its last full-fledged Budget failed to make any impact despite various populist announcements. Consequently, two women ministers invited a select group of journalists separately for an informal interaction to explain the governments position and also to get feedback about the prevailing public mood.

One minister admitted that the governments image had taken a hit as it had lost the perception war on the Rafale deal, while the Opposition had scored over it on this issue. In fact, the minister expressed her frustration with the complex functioning of the government machinery which, according to her, can be daunting for a newcomer. According to her, ministers are often clueless about the files which are cleared on his/her behalf. Another minister was unhappy that the provisions of the Budget were not grasped by the people as they were not explained properly to them. In fact, she hinted obliquely that finance minister Arun Jaitley had probably erred when he declared in his speech that there would be no changes in the income tax proposals which ended up negating the positive announcements made by him.

The CPM may have decided to keep its distance from the Congress as far as future alliances are concerned, but the grand old party is happy to come to the aid of the Marxists to ensure that liberal and secular forces are not swept aside by a resurgent BJP. As a result, the Congress took a policy decision to keep a low profile in the recent Tripura Assembly polls in order to leave the field open for the Left government. But as polling day drew close, the Congress suddenly realised that it was being wiped out in the north eastern state where it was once the main Opposition party, while an aggressive BJP had emerged as a major political force. In fact, there is talk that the BJP could even dethrone the 19-year-old Manik Sarkar government in Tripura.

The Congress pressed the panic button and hurriedly summoned extra forces to shore up its non-existent campaign  former chief ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Harish Rawat, even actor-turned-politician Nagma. But there was little they could do to improve the partys prospects.

Louise Khurshid, Congress politician and wife of former Union minister Salman Khurshid, started making pickles over a decade ago to tide over the loss of her young daughter. Over time, the therapeutic exercise has developed into a passion. Ms Khurshid now makes a variety of pickles with brinjal, ginger, mango, mandarin orange and grapefruit which are much sought-after as return gifts on the couples annual Christmas party.

Ms Khurshid now plans to go a step further and leverage her pickle-making skills in the next elections. She has already had one stint as a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, but failed to make it subsequently though she contested both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections from the Farrukhabad constituency. So she has now decided to make the pickles in bulk and present them  in bottles labelled, Louise Khurshid ki Rasoi Se  to the women in her constituency when she hits the campaign trail.

Having suffered several losses in the past, it is to be seen if the pickles will turn the electoral tide in her favour.

Rama Pilot, the wife of the late Congress leader Rajesh Pilot and mother of Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot, has been a politician in her own right. She was a member of the Rajasthan Assembly and also won the Dausa Lok Sabha seat after her husbands death in a road accident in 2000. She, however, decided to take a backseat after her son began his political journey in 2004.

Ms Pilot may have yielded the floor to her son but she keeps herself occupied. Having authored a book on her late husband, Rajesh Pilot: A Biography, she is currently penning a book on her son which is expected to come out this year-end to coincide with the Rajasthan Assembly polls.

It is being hoped that the book will boost Mr Pilots image in the polls, a major test for him since he took charge of the partys state unit four years ago.The Canadian PM has also attended gurdwara services in his country where convicted terrorists have been lauded.

There is a lot that India and Canada can do together, and yet the relationship has not lived up to its potential. Indias economic growth in the past two decades has drawn international attention, and leading countries have sought to enhance trade and investment ties with it. Canada is a G-7 member and advanced Western economy. Indias nuclear programme was initiated with Canadas assistance in the 1950s, when Ottawa provided India an experimental small nuclear reactor in the context of the Atoms for Peace programme. And yet, India-Canada relations need to be worked upon, primarily by Ottawa.

This would have become clear to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  whose father Pierre Trudeau, an important world figure and Canadas leader, had sought to foster close relations with India  in the course of his just-ended week-long visit to India. The ties between the two countries have been hobbled by the factor of Khalistani separatists and extremists, who operate freely in Canada in spite of the fact that the biggest terrorist attack on civil aviation was mounted by Canada-based Sikh extremists against Air Indias Kanishka, a gruesome episode in which the victims were mainly Sikh families. The Sikhs, settled in Canada over generations, are around 40 per cent of the total Indian diaspora of 1.4 million people, and their votes are eagerly cultivated by politicians, especially democrats and liberals, in the name of promoting diversity. The Canadian PM has also attended gurdwara services in his country where convicted terrorists have been lauded.

It is for this reason that Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh had refused to meet Canadas defence minister, a Sikh gentleman, two years ago. Mr Trudeau also got to meet Mr Singh earlier this week only after he made it clear that his government did not promote extremism and terrorism in any form.

This basic idea was reinforced when the visiting dignitary met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, some five days after he arrived in India  a fact commented on widely in the media.

At any rate, Mr Trudeau would have been left in little doubt that the Sikh in Punjab is a different species from the extremist contingents who seek to control the political discourse on India in Canada, and distort the contents of Indian democracy and its complex negotiations with the idea of diversity. It is noteworthy that two joint statements were issued after the Prime Ministers met. One, titled the Framework for Cooperation between India and Canada on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, named Pakistan-based terrorist outfits, the al-Qaeda and Islamic State, as well as Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation. This is an important step forward, and will add content to bilateral cooperation in the areas of Canadian uranium exports to India, agriculture, education and S&T, for which agreements were signed during the Trudeau visit.Parents in Dapchi, in Yobe state, said had they set up a support group after Mondays raid.

Heavily armed jihadists stormed the boarding school in the remote town, forcing terrified students to flee into the surrounding bush. (Representational Image)

Kano: More than 100 girls are missing after a Boko Haram attack on a school in northeast Nigeria earlier this week, parents said on Friday.

Parents in Dapchi, in Yobe state, said had they set up a support group after Mondays raid, which has revived memories of the 2014 abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok.

Our first step was to compile a comprehensive list of all the missing girls. So far, we have compiled the names of 105, said Bashir Manzo, the chairman of the newly created group.

Heavily armed jihadists stormed the boarding school in the remote town, forcing terrified students to flee into the surrounding bush.

But with many girls failing to return home, fears are growing that dozens of the girls have been kidnapped.

Hopes were raised on Wednesday evening, when the spokesman for Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam confirmed the abduction and said some of the girls had been rescued.

But Gaidam on Thursday questioned whether there had been an abduction, while his spokesman apologised and said they had been misled for publishing inaccurate information.

Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter, Fatima, is among the missing, said the schoolgirls mothers and fathers would seek a meeting with Gaidam.

We believe he was misinformed. The school authorities from the beginning denied and kept denying that our daughters were taken, he added.

We will see the governor and seek his help, as well as anyone who matters that can in one way or another assist in ensuring the freedom of our girls.In June 2017, President Trump had announced to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal.

President Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs. (Photo: File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump has once again named India and China to defend his policy on climate change and reiterated that these countries and some others benefited the most from the Paris agreement while America didn't get any advantage.

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," President Trump said in his address today to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

He was referring to his decision in 2017 to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In June 2017, President Trump had announced to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris Agreement, President Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision President Trump said, "You know, basically, it said, 'you have a lot of oil and gas that we found' -- you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world -- we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much."

"And basically, they were saying, don't use it. You can't use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. It's not going to happen, I told them. It's not going to happen," he added.

"And China -- their agreement didn't kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia -- they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," President Trump said.

Commenting on India and other countries, he said, "Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country.

"They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?," he said.

"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? We're developed. We can pay," President Trump said.

The President asked, if people understood about the Paris Accord and said that his country is in favour of his decision.

"Because it sounds so good. It's like some of the environmental regulations that I cut. They have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes, I'd say, look, I'm just going to close my eyes and sign this, because you know what? I'm going to get killed on this one. And I get so much thanks. The country knows what I'm doing," he said.

"We couldn't build. We couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," President Trump said.The FATF move comes days after reports that Pakistan had been given a three-month reprieve before being placed on the list.

Islamabad: A global money-laundering watchdog has decided to place Pakistan back on its terrorist financing watchlist, a government official said on Friday, in a likely blow to Pakistans economy and its strained relations with the US.

The move is part of a broader US strategy to pressure Pakistan to cut alleged links to Islamist terrorists unleashing chaos in neighbouring Afghanistan and backing attacks in India.

Pakistani officials and analysts fear being on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list could endanger Pakistans handful of remaining banking links to the outside world, causing real financial pain to the economy just as a general election looms.

At a meeting in Paris, the FATF on Thursday decided to place Pakistan on a so-called grey list of nations that are not doing enough to combat terrorism financing, after the Gulf Cooperation Council and China withdrew their opposition to the move.

Islamabad had launched last-minute efforts to avoid being placed on the list, but the campaign proved insufficient and FATF decided to put Pakistan back on the watchlist in June.

Before the big decision, the FATF had reviewed Pakistans action against the financing of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), two groups linked to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba founder Hafiz Saeed, that have been sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

The US has spent the past week lobbying member countries of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to place Pakistan on a so-called grey list of nations that are not doing enough to combat terrorism financing.

In a message posted on Twitter, Pakistan interior minister Ahsan Iqbal said that there was no official intimation of FATF decision yet and we should not speculate till official statement is released. He also thanked Turkey for its support.

Earlier, Pakistan had lobbied for support in western capitals and even turned to Russia to prevent its inclusion in the grey list, from which it was removed in 2015 after three years.

The FATF move comes days after reports that Pakistan had been given a three-month reprieve before being placed on the list.

Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Mohammed Faisal said, Pakistan has serious concerns over and objections to the introduction of this new nomination procedure which is unprecedented and in clear violation of established rules/practices of FATF.

He added that most of the concerns raised by the US regarding deficiencies in the anti-money laundering regime and combating the financing of terrorism had already been addressed in 2015 when Pakistan got an exit from the grey list.Court of Appeals of South Carolina. Benjamin GECY, Appellant, v. SOUTH CAROLINA BANK & TRUST, Jaime Hamner and Deborah Hamner, Respondents. Appellate Case No. 2014-002712 Decided: February 21, 2018

Robert V. Mathison, Jr., of Mathison & Mathison, of Hilton Head Island, for Appellant. James John Wegmann, of Weidner, Wegmann & Harper, LLC, of Beaufort, for Respondents Jamie Hamner and Deborah Hamner; and Thomas A. Holloway, of Harvey & Battey, PA, of Beaufort, for Respondent South Carolina Bank & Trust.

Benjamin Gecy appeals the circuit court's grant of summary judgment in favor of South Carolina Bank & Trust (Bank), Jaime Hamner, and Deborah Hamner (collectively, the Hamners), arguing summary judgment was improper because material questions of fact exist as to whether Bank intentionally interfered with the contracts between the Hamners and Gecy, whether the Hamners breached their contracts with Gecy, and whether Bank and the Hamners made negligent misrepresentations. Gecy further asserts the circuit court erred in declining to continue the summary judgment hearing so Gecy could compel discovery responses and take additional depositions. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

This case arises from a failed real estate and construction transaction between Gecy and the Hamners. In February 2010, the Hamners contracted to purchase 10 Meredith Lane, a parcel on a private road in Beaufort County, from Gecy for $150,000. Additionally, the Hamners contracted for Gecy to build them a house on the property for $156,900. Gecy referred the Hamners to Bank for financing. Later in February 2010, Bank informed Gecy that in order to approve the Hamners' financing application, all property owners on Meredith Lane needed to sign a road maintenance agreement (RMA).

According to Gecy, RMAs are generally only required for Veterans Affairs (VA) loans. Gecy contends Bank's own internal policies did not require the RMA; thus, under Gecy's theory, Bank misrepresented that the signed RMA was a requirement for approval of the Hamners' non-VA construction loan. Bank explained that the VA does not have a construction loan program, so the plan was for the Hamners' loan to begin as a conventional construction loan and roll over into a VA loan once construction was completed. Because the VA requires an RMA for its loans, Bank's policy in such situations is to require the RMA before closing on a construction loan when the permanent loan would require it.

Closing on the transaction was originally scheduled for March 5, 2010, but when the closing did not occur, an automatic thirty-day extension took effect. On April 5the date the extension expiredGecy notified Bank that all necessary landowners had either signed or agreed to sign the RMA. However, neither Gecy nor the Hamners ever presented Bank with an RMA signed by all property owners. On April 9, 2010, the Hamners' attorney informed the closing attorney that the contracts were null and void because the Hamners were denied financing based, in part, on Gecy's failure to provide the signed RMA by April 5. Gecy then sued Bank for tortious interference with contract and unfair trade practices, alleging Bank directed or otherwise motivated the Hamners away from their contracts with him. Separately, Gecy sued the Hamners for breach of contract. Finally, Gecy sued both Bank and the Hamners for civil conspiracy and negligent misrepresentation.

In March 2012, Bank moved for summary judgmentwhich the Hamners later joinedbased in part on an affidavit from Diana Chalmers (Diana). Diana's affidavit stated she owned property on Meredith Lane and never signed the RMA, despite Gecy's repeated requests.

In July 2012, Gecy filed for bankruptcy, and the case was stayed until the bankruptcy discharge in November 2013. In February 2014, Gecy filed a pro se motion to compel discovery responses and a motion to continue the summary judgment hearing. In the motion for a continuance, Gecy asserted Diana's recent deposition testimony contradicted certain statements in her affidavit. Consequently, Gecy requested time to depose two additional witnesses: Diana's husband, Ed Chalmers, and newly discovered witness Robert Walters.

The court denied Gecy's motion for a continuance and following a hearing, granted summary judgment in favor of Bank and the Hamners. At the subsequent hearing on his motion to reconsider, Gecynow represented by counselargued his misrepresentation claim against Bank was valid, citing  552 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts (1977). Gecy further argued the continuance should have been granted because he had actively prosecuted the case at all times, except during the bankruptcy stay. In response, Bank argued  552 was inapplicable, and Kerr v. Branch Banking & Trust, 408 S.C. 328, 759 S.E.2d 724 (2014), was dispositive.

In September 2014, the court denied Gecy's motion to reconsider but amended its previous order. The court found Kerr controlled and was a complete bar to Gecy's claims against Bank. Specifically, the court cited Kerr for the proposition that Gecy could not maintain an action against Bank because he was not a party to the Hamners' financing application. Thereafter, Gecy appealed the grant of summary judgment, but only with respect to the causes of action for intentional interference with contract, breach of contract, and negligent misrepresentation.

Standard of Review

In reviewing an order for summary judgment, the appellate court applies the same standard which governs the trial court under Rule 56 of the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure. M & M Grp., Inc. v. Holmes, 379 S.C. 468, 473, 666 S.E.2d 262, 264 (Ct. App. 2008). Summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.  Id. (quoting Rule 56(c), SCRCP). On appeal from an order granting summary judgment, the appellate court will review all ambiguities, conclusions, and inferences arising in and from the evidence in a light most favorable to the appellant, the non-moving party below. Id. (quoting Willis v. Wu, 362 S.C. 146, 151, 607 S.E.2d 63, 65 (2004) ). A court considering summary judgment neither makes factual determinations nor considers the merits of competing testimony; however, summary judgment is completely appropriate when a properly supported motion sets forth facts that remain undisputed or are contested in a deficient manner. Id. (quoting David v. McLeod Reg'l Med. Ctr., 367 S.C. 242, 250, 626 S.E.2d 1, 5 (2006) ). [I]n cases applying the preponderance of the evidence burden of proof, the non-moving party is only required to submit a mere scintilla of evidence in order to withstand a motion for summary judgment. Hancock v. Mid-S. Mgmt. Co., 381 S.C. 326, 330, 673 S.E.2d 801, 803 (2009).

Law and Analysis

A. Gecy's Claims Against Bank1. Negligent Misrepresentation

In a claim for the tort of negligent misrepresentation where the damage alleged is a pecuniary loss, the essential elements include: (1) the defendant made a false representation to the plaintiff; (2) the defendant had a pecuniary interest in making the statement; (3) the defendant owed a duty of care to see that he communicated truthful information to the plaintiff; (4) the defendant breached that duty by failing to exercise due care; (5) the plaintiff justifiably relied on the representation; and (6) the plaintiff suffered a pecuniary loss as the proximate result of his reliance upon the representation.

Redwend Ltd. P'ship v. Edwards, 354 S.C. 459, 473, 581 S.E.2d 496, 504 (Ct. App. 2003).

Gecy primarily argues that  552 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts validates his negligent misrepresentation cause of actionand Kerr is inapplicablebecause Gecy was a Bank customer with open lines of credit. We disagree.

Kerr involved a company (Skywaves) that used BB&T to fund its capital needs pursuant to a factoring agreement. 408 S.C. at 32930, 759 S.E.2d at 725. As Skywaves' business grew, it chose to enter a new and expanded factoring agreement with BB&T. Id. at 33031, 759 S.E.2d at 725. Several months after entering the new agreement, a BB&T employee made a presentation to the appellantswho were already affiliated with Skywavesand assured them BB&T would honor the new agreement. Id. at 331, 759 S.E.2d at 725. Based on these representations, the appellants invested in Skywaves. Id. A year later, BB&T ceased funding Skywaves, arguing Skywaves had defaulted under the terms of the new agreement. Id. Skywaves eventually sought bankruptcy protection and the appellants lost their investments. Id. The appellants, in their capacities as investors and Skywaves employees, sued BB&T for negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent inducement, negligence, and violation of the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Id. at 331, 759 S.E.2d at 72526. The negligent misrepresentation claim was based upon the BB&T employee's presentation. Id. at 332, 759 S.E.2d at 726. The circuit court granted summary judgment to BB&T, and the appellants appealed the court's findings as to the causes of action for negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and fraudulent inducement. Id.

Our supreme court noted the appellants were essentially trying to sue BB&T for breaching a contract between BB&T and its customer, Skywaves. Id. at 33233, 759 S.E.2d at 726. Rejecting this claim, the supreme court held there was no basis in the law for a finding that BB&T owed any duty to [a]ppellants, as non-customer investors, sufficient to support their claims. Id. at 333, 759 S.E.2d at 726. The court acknowledged that banks owe a limited duty of care to their customers, but explained this duty does not extend to non-customers when the non-customers' claims are premised on disputed contractual obligations between a bank and its customer, but the non-customer is not an intended third-party beneficiary to that contract. Id. at 333, 759 S.E.2d at 72627.

Likewise, Kerr bars Gecy's negligent misrepresentation claim against Bank. Assuming Gecy's allegations concerning the non-existence of both a VA loan and an RMA policy are true for the purposes of summary judgment, Gecy still holds a position similar to that of the investors in Kerrhe is attempting to proceed with a cause of action that, at its core, concerns a financing application between Bank and its customers, the Hamners. In this context, Bank owed no duty of care to Gecya non-customer for purposes of the Hamners' contractwhen evaluating the Hamners' financing application. Thus, only the Hamners could properly pursue Bank for any irregularities or misrepresentations. See Redwend, 354 S.C. at 473, 581 S.E.2d at 504 (requiring as an element of a negligent misrepresentation claim that the defendant owed a duty of care to see that he communicated truthful information to the plaintiff).

Further, we disagree with Gecy that  552 applies to these facts. Section 552 provides in pertinent part:

(1) One who, in the course of his business, profession or employment, or in any other transaction in which he has a pecuniary interest, supplies false information for the guidance of others in their business transactions, is subject to liability for pecuniary loss caused to them by their justifiable reliance upon the information, if he fails to exercise reasonable care or competence in obtaining or communicating the information.

(2) Except as stated in Subsection (3), the liability stated in Subsection (1) is limited to loss suffered

(a) by the person or one of a limited group of persons for whose benefit and guidance he intends to supply the information or knows that the recipient intends to supply it; and

(b) through reliance upon it in a transaction that he intends the information to influence or knows that the recipient so intends or in a substantially similar transaction.

Restatement (Second) of Torts  552 (1977).

Most of South Carolina's jurisprudence concerning  552 was summarized in First Federal Savings Bank v. Knauss, 296 S.C. 136, 140, 370 S.E.2d 906, 908 (Ct. App. 1988):

The concept of negligent misrepresentation as described in the Restatement (Second) of Torts is not new to South Carolina. This court recognized the existence of a duty to exercise due care in giving information when the defendant had a pecuniary interest in the transaction. Winburn v. Insurance Company of North America, 287 S.C. 435, 339 S.E.2d 142 (Ct. App. 1985). The South Carolina Supreme Court has recognized consultants may be liable in negligence to non-contracting parties who have reasonably relied upon their reports in taking action. South Carolina State Ports Authority v. BoozAllen & Hamilton Inc., 289 S.C. 373, 346 S.E.2d 324 (1986).

The most recent case cited by Gecy to support his  552 argument is ML-Lee Acquisition Fund, L.P. v. Deloitte & Touche, in which our supreme court adopted  552's standard of liability as to an accountant's duty to exercise reasonable care or competence in obtaining or communicating information. 327 S.C. 238, 241 n.3, 489 S.E.2d 470, 471 n.3 (1997). The court stated, To establish liability under Restatement  552, the party seeking to recover for a negligent misrepresentation must show he justifiably relied on the information communicated by the accountant. Id. at 241, 489 S.E.2d at 472.

Thus far, South Carolina has applied  552 to non-contracting third-parties only in the accounting and consulting contexts. See also Johnson v. Robert E. Lee Acad., Inc., 401 S.C. 500, 506 n.6, 737 S.E.2d 512, 515 n.6 (Ct. App. 2012) (noting South Carolina has recognized an accountant may have a duty to a third party under a negligent misrepresentation cause of action based on  552); BoozAllen, 289 S.C. at 37677, 346 S.E.2d at 326 (stating when a consulting firm is hired by an entity to critique that entity's competitors for marketing purposes, the consulting firm has a duty to exercise due care and accurately report factual data about the competitors). Applying  552 in such professional situations comports with  552's intent to prevent the supplying of false information for the guidance of others in their business transactions. (emphasis added). Conversely, such language neither envisions nor applies to transactions like the Hamner contract, for which Bank provided information about its own financing requirements to a third party in a real estate transaction. Therefore,  552 is inapplicable, and the circuit court's grant of summary judgment as to negligent misrepresentation was proper.

2. Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations

Gecy contends that through discovery, he learned the Hamners did not apply for a VA loan; thus, he argues Bank's statements that it required a signed RMA were false. Gecy further asserts Bank refused to provide him with any guidelines or policies confirming Bank's RMA requirement. Finally, Gecy argues the information he discovered about Bank's separate transaction with Walters demonstrates the falsity of Bank's assertions about any RMA requirement.

To establish a cause of action for tortious interference with contractual relations, a plaintiff must show: 1) the existence of a contract; 2) knowledge of the contract; 3) intentional procurement of its breach; 4) the absence of justification; and 5) resulting damages. Eldeco, Inc. v. Charleston Cty. Sch. Dist., 372 S.C. 470, 480, 642 S.E.2d 726, 731 (2007). [A]n action for tortious interference protects the property rights of the parties to a contract against unlawful interference by third parties. Dutch Fork Dev. Grp. II, LLC v. SEL Properties, LLC, 406 S.C. 596, 604, 753 S.E.2d 840, 844 (2012) (quoting Threlkeld v. Christoph, 280 S.C. 225, 227, 312 S.E.2d 14, 15 (Ct. App. 1984) ).

Unlike Gecy's negligent misrepresentation claim, his cause of action for intentional interference with contractual relations does not require a duty analysis. Nevertheless, we hold summary judgment was proper because, in the light most favorable to Gecy, the evidence here established that Bank required a signed RMA for the Hamners to obtain financing. Bank was within its rights to set its own lending policies, and it informed Gecy clearly about the need for an RMA, even extending the closing date to obtain this compliance. Bank was not required to provide a written policy to verify its own underwriting requirement. It is undisputed that Gecy (and the Hamners) failed to obtain an RMA signed by all necessary landowners before the expiration date of the closing extension. Thus, Gecy has failed to show an issue of material fact demonstrating that Bank intentionally procured any breach of the contracts without justification. See Eldeco, 372 S.C. at 480, 642 S.E.2d at 731 (listing the elements of a tortious interference with contractual relations cause of action). Evidence about the Walters transactionan unrelated transaction that occurred at a different locationdoes not give rise to the necessary mere scintilla or even an inference that Bank intentionally procured the breach of the Hamners' contracts with Gecy.

B. Gecy's Claims Against the Hamners

1. Breach of Contract

Gecy contends the Hamners' failure to perform pursuant to their contracts was not excused by Gecy's failure to comply with Bank's RMA requirement. Gecy asserts the Hamners refused to consider other financing options that had no RMA requirement and disappeared for all intents and purposes during the period immediately before the April 5, 2010 deadline so the closing could not occur as scheduled.

In an action for breach of contract, the burden is on the plaintiff to prove the contract, its breach, and the damages caused by such breach. Allegro, Inc. v. Scully, 418 S.C. 24, 34, 791 S.E.2d 140, 145 (2016). A condition precedent is an act which must occur before performance by the other party is due. Alexander's Land Co. v. M & M & K Corp., 390 S.C. 582, 596, 703 S.E.2d 207, 214 (2010) (citation omitted). If a contract contains a condition precedent, that condition must either occur or it must be excused before a party's duty to perform arises. McGill v. Moore, 381 S.C. 179, 187, 672 S.E.2d 571, 575 (2009).

We find the circuit court properly granted summary judgment on the breach of contract cause of action. Both the real estate contract and the construction contract had checked boxes under the Method of Payment headings indicating the contracts were Subject to Financing. Both contracts also contained language stating, Buyer's obligation under this agreement is contingent on Buyer obtaining said loan. Thus, financing was a condition precedent to the Hamners' performance of the contracts. See M & M Grp., 379 S.C. at 477, 666 S.E.2d at 266 (stating use of the language is contingent upon is unequivocal and patently indicates the parties' respective obligations to buy and sell  are contingent on [the buyer's] ability to secure financing). We agree with the circuit court that the uncontroverted testimony shows Bank did not offer the Hamners financing. Accordingly, the contractual provisions excused the Hamners' lack of performance. See id. at 478, 666 S.E.2d at 267 (The failure of one to perform under a contract because of his inability to obtain financing from a third party on whom he relied to furnish the money will not excuse performance, in the absence of a contract provision in that regard. (quoting Worley v. Yarborough Ford, Inc., 317 S.C. 206, 209, 452 S.E.2d 622, 624 (Ct. App. 1994) ) ).

As to Gecy's allegation that the Hamners hindered the contracts by their conduct, we note there were provisions in the contracts stating the Hamners had a duty to provide all documents or information requested by the lending company in a prompt and timely manner and a duty to take any action that is needed or requested by Lender to process the loan application. Gecy admitted Jaime Hamner actively participated in attempting to obtain signatures for the RMA. There simply was no breach, nor any evidence to support the allegation that the Hamners hindered the contracts by their conduct.

2. Negligent Misrepresentation

Gecy asserts Jaime Hamner made false representations about the type of loan for which he applied, falsely indicated his willingness to close the transaction, and then disappear[ed] during the critical period leading up to the scheduled closing on April 5, 2010.

A claim for negligent misrepresentation may be made when the misrepresented facts induced the plaintiff to enter a contract or business transaction. Armstrong v. Collins, 366 S.C. 204, 220, 621 S.E.2d 368, 376 (Ct. App. 2005). There is no liability for casual statements, representations as to matters of law, or matters which plaintiff could ascertain on his own in the exercise of due diligence. Quail Hill, LLC v. Cty. of Richland, 387 S.C. 223, 240, 692 S.E.2d 499, 508 (2010) (quoting AMA Mgmt. Corp. v. Strasburger, 309 S.C. 213, 223, 420 S.E.2d 868, 874 (Ct. App. 1992) ).

Gecy presented no evidence that the Hamners were anything but ready, willing, and able to perform pursuant to the contracts and close the transactions on either the original closing date, March 5, 2010, or the extended closing date, April 5, 2010. As noted above, Gecy admitted Jaime Hamner actively participated in attempting to obtain signatures for the RMA. It was only after Gecy failed to provide Bank with the signed RMAand Bank thus declined to extend financingthat the Hamners told Gecy they no longer intended to complete the transactions. The contracts, contingent upon such financing, permitted the Hamners to do just that, and Gecy has failed to produce evidence of a negligently made false statement on which to predicate damages.

Further, even if Gecy could provide evidence of a false statement by the Hamners, his cause of action against them still fails as he did not justifiably rely upon any such misstatement. While it is true that issues of reliance are ordinarily resolved by the finder of fact, there can be no reasonable reliance on a misstatement if the plaintiff knows the truth of the matter.  McLaughlin v. Williams, 379 S.C. 451, 45758, 665 S.E.2d 667, 671 (Ct. App. 2008) (quoting Gruber v. Santee Frozen Foods, Inc., 309 S.C. 13, 20, 419 S.E.2d 795, 800 (Ct. App. 1992) ).

C. Denial of Continuance and Motion to Compel

Gecy contends the grant of summary judgment should be reversed as unfounded or premature because the court denied his requests to depose two additional witnesses and denied by implication his motion to compel additional discovery.

We agree with the circuit court that Gecy's additional depositions and further discovery would not have contribute[d] to the resolution of issues in the case. First, Ed Chalmers's deposition would have been relevant only to Gecy's breach of contract claim against the Hamners because Gecy sought to depose Ed to find out if he and Diana had agreed by email to sign the RMA. If they had, Gecy argues he could have made out a prima facie case that everybody on that road had approved, and the Hamners could have proceeded with the closing. However, even if the Chalmers had agreed to sign the RMA, it would make no difference because no signed RMA was submitted before the expiration of the closing date extension. Without the RMA signed by all property owners on Meredith Lane, Bank declined to give the Hamners financing, and their non-performance was excused. Gecy admitted that the deposition would not establish Bank ever provided the financing.

Second, Robert Walters's deposition was unnecessary because he had no connection to this transaction. Walters participated in an unrelated transaction with Bank in 2012 that involved an unrelated road maintenance agreement; his deposition would have provided no evidence that Bank owed a duty to Gecy or that Bank intentionally inferred with the Gecy-Hamner transaction.

Significantly, the motions for summary judgment were heard nearly two years after the filing of Gecy's verified complaint. All parties had a full and fair opportunity to develop the record. For these reasons, and because the additional depositions would not have changed the analysis of the merits of the summary judgment motions, the circuit court did not abuse its discretion by denying Gecy's motion for a continuance. See M & M Grp., 379 S.C. at 47475, 666 S.E.2d at 265 (The grant or denial of a continuance lies with the sound discretion of the trial court and such ruling will not be reversed absent a clear showing of abuse of discretion.).

Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, the circuit court's decision is

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. According to Gecy, Walters participated in an unrelated transaction with Bank in December 2012; the Walters transaction involved a piece of property on Hester Lane, another private road. Gecy asserts no RMA was filed at the time of the Walters closing and, although a RMA was later filed, it was not signed by all neighboring landowners.

. The amended order also removed a statute of frauds analysis set forth in the original summary judgment order.

. We question whether Gecy's  552 argument is preserved as Gecy appeared pro se at the summary judgment hearing and did not mention  552. Gecy's counsel raised  552 for the first time at the hearing on Gecy's motion to reconsider. See e.g., Bank of New York v. Sumter County, 387 S.C. 147, 159, 691 S.E.2d 473, 479 (2010) (It is axiomatic that an issue cannot be raised for the first time in a post-trial motion.). Moreover, even if  552 were arguable here, Gecy has failed to set forth evidence that Bank provided false information for the guidance of anyone in this transaction. Gecy seems to suggest that Bank's requirement of an RMA signed by all property owners on the private road was false because an RMA should not be required for financing of the type sought by the Hamners. See infra, section A.2. We reject this contention.

. Notably, when asked during his deposition about how the Hamners breached the contracts if the contracts were contingent upon financing, Gecy merely repeated his allegations that Bank made false statements about its RMA requirement. When asked again how the Hamners were responsible for Bank's actions, Gecy added, That's a good question. Maybe Mr. Hamner might not be responsible here. Maybe it's the bank. Maybe Mr. Hamner's got a cause of action against the bank.

MCDONALD, J.:

GEATHERS and HILL, JJ., concur.When you see the pictures, its clear that whatever was left -- the mosques, the cemeteries, the homes -- theyre gone.

The Rohingya believe the government is intentionally eviscerating the remnants of their culture to make it nearly impossible for them to return. (Representational Image)

Yangon: Myanmars government is using bulldozers to erase dozens of villages in Rakhine state in a vast operation that rights groups say is destroying evidence of mass atrocities against the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.

Satellite images released by Colorado-based DigitalGlobe on Friday show the empty villages and hamlets completely levelled by authorities in recent weeks.

The villages were all set ablaze in the wake of violence in August 2017, when a clearance operation drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into exile in Bangladesh.

While Myanmars government claims it is simply trying to rebuild a devastated region, the operation has raised concern among human rights advocates, who say the government is destroying scores of crime scenes before any credible investigation. The Rohingya believe the government is intentionally eviscerating the remnants of their culture to make it nearly impossible for them to return.

One displaced Rohingya woman said she recently visited her former home in Myin Hlut and was shocked by what she saw. Most houses had been torched last year, but now, everything is gone, not even the trees are left, the woman, named Zubairia, said. They just bulldozed everything ... I could hardly recognise it.

The 18-year-old said other homes in the area that had been abandoned but not damaged were also flattened. All the memories that I had there are gone, she said. Theyve been erased.

Myanmars armed forces are accused not just of burning Muslim villages with the help of Buddhist mobs, but also of carrying out massacres, rapes and widespread looting. The latest crisis in Rakhine state began in August after Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on security posts.

Aerial photographs of the damage were first made public on 9 February when the European Unions ambassador to Myanmar, Kristian Schmidt, posted images taken from an aircraft of what he described as a vast bulldozed area south of the town of Maungdaw.

Satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe indicates at least 28 villages or hamlets were destroyed in a 50km radius around Maungdaw between December and February. On some of the cleared areas, construction crews had erected new buildings and helipads. A similar analysis by Human Rights Watch on Friday said at least 55 villages had been affected.

The government has spoken of plans to rebuild the region for months, and it has been busily expanding roads, repairing bridges, and constructing shelters, including dozens at a large transit camp at Taungpyo, near the Bangladesh border. The camp opened in January to house returning refugees; but none have arrived and Rohingya have continued to flee.

Myanmars parliament has also approved a USD 15m budget to build a fence and related projects along the Bangladesh border in Rakhine state, from which about 700,000 Rohingya have fled since August. Deputy home affairs minister General Aung Soe testified on Thursday that fences covering 202km of the 293km border had already been completed.

Myint Khine, a government administrator in Maungdaw, said some of the new homes were intended for Muslims. Many Rohingya fear authorities are seizing land theyve lived on for generations.

One list, published by the government in December, indicated 787 houses but only 22 were slated for Bengalis  the word Myanmar nationalists often use to describe the Rohingya, who they say are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Myint Khine denied an ulterior motive. Of course we have been using machines like earth removers and bulldozers because we have to clear the ground first before building new houses, he said.

Chris Lewa, whose Arakan Project monitors the persecuted Muslim minoritys plight, said: How will they identify where they lived, if nothing is left, if nothing can be recognised?

Their culture, their history, their past, their present  its all being erased. When you see the pictures, its clear that whatever was left  the mosques, the cemeteries, the homes  theyre gone.

Richard Weir, a Myanmar expert with Human Rights Watch, said: Theres no more landmarks, theres no trees, theres no vegetation.

Everything is wiped away, and this is very concerning, because these are crime scenes, he said. Theres been no credible investigation of these crimes. And so, what were talking about really is obstruction of justice.Hello,

Just a couple of questions re: spousal visa



1. Who needs the statutory declaration? (edited from character reference - my bad) Sponsor or spouse? I suppose technically it's part of the visa applicant's supporting evidence, but it attests to your relationship so not sure it's an either/or question.

2. How can they be written? Online or handwritten?form 888's can be filled out with Adobe on a computer and printed out to be taken for signing/witnessing. They can also be printed blank and filled out by hand

3. Do they need to be written on a specific form or any paper will do (within reason of course!)form 888 is a specific form with specific questions, however a blank stat dec can be used instead of form 888.

4. Who can write the statutory declaration? Family? Friends? yes



Kind regards

Matt, Lanen, and EdwardPhoto via eGuide Travel/Flickr

Following the lead of Enterprise Holdings and several nationwide companies, Hertz and Avis Budget Group announced they are ending their discount programs with the National Rifle Association.

Hertzs program offered card carrying NRA members up to 25% off daily base rates and additional program benefits, according to the rental car companys website; similarly, Avis offered up to 25% off.

Dear @hertz @avis and @budget, Because of your discount agreements with the @NRA, my husband @AndyRichter and I will no longer be renting cars from you. We will rent from @enterprise and @national bc they have severed ties with the @NRA.  USA  (@SarahThyre) February 23, 2018

The announcements are the latest examples of companies ending their partnerships, sponsorships, and discount programs with the gun lobbying group following the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at a Florida high school which left 17 dead.

Think Progress, which published a list of the 22 companies that had partnerships with the NRA Tuesday, first reported Avis Budget Groups decision, which will go into effect March 26.

We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRAs rental car discount program with Hertz.  Hertz (@Hertz) February 23, 2018

Protestors gather in support of stricter gun laws. Photo via Lorie Shaull/Wikimedia

Hertz announced its decision via Twitter, where the hashtag #BoycottNRA called on the companies named by Think Progress to end their affiliations with the lobbying giant. A request for comment on when exactly the discount program will stop being honored wasn't returned.

Earlier today, Enterprise Holdings announced its decision to end its discount program.

Many on Twitter thanked the auto rental company for canceling its discount program with the pro-gun rights group, which has consistently and successfully lobbied against gun reform and control legislation.

I will no longer support any company that drops the nra for political reasons. This is all about the liberals using a tragedy for political bs.  Margaret S (@swstargal1) February 23, 2018

While many on social media have been applauding the companies for severing ties, others are chastising for bowing under pressure.

The only auto affiliate that remains in business with the NRA at press time is TrueCar.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CALVIN LEE BANKS, Defendant-Appellant. No. 17-12131 Decided: February 22, 2018

Before TJOFLAT, NEWSOM, and EDMONDSON, Circuit Judges.

Calvin Lee Banks appeals his 120-month sentence, imposed above the advisory guideline range, after pleading guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Briefly stated, he argues that his sentence was procedurally unreasonable because the court failed to consider several of the sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) and based its sentencing decision on an erroneous fact. He further argues that the sentence was substantively unreasonable because the court abused its discretion when weighing the  3553(a) factors and failed to support the degree of variance.

We review the reasonableness of a sentence under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007). When a defendant does not raise a relevant procedural objection at the time of sentencing, we review only for plain error. United States v. Vandergrift, 754 F.3d 1303, 1307 (11th Cir. 2014). A defendant seeking to preserve an objection to his sentence for appeal must clearly articulate a specific objection during sentencing. United States v. Zinn, 321 F.3d 1084, 1088 (11th Cir. 2003) (emphasis in original). A sweeping, general objection is insufficient to preserve specific sentencing issues for review. United States v. Carpenter, 803 F.3d 1224, 1238 (11th Cir. 2015).

Under plain-error review, we, at our discretion, may correct an error where (1) an error occurred; (2) the error was plain; and (3) the error affects substantial rights. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732-36 (1993). When these factors are met, we may exercise our discretion and correct the error if it seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of the judicial proceedings. Id. at 736 (alteration in original). An error is plain if it is contrary to explicit statutory provisions or to on-point precedent in this Court or the Supreme Court. United States v. Hoffman, 710 F.3d 1228, 1232 (11th Cir. 2013). For an error to affect substantial rights, it must have affected the outcome of the district court proceedings. United States v. Henderson, 409 F.3d 1293, 1308 (11th Cir. 2005).

In reviewing the reasonableness of a sentence, we first consider whether the district court committed a procedural error. Gall, 552 U.S. at 51. We ensure that the district court treated the Guidelines as advisory, considered the  3553(a) factors, did not select a sentence based on clearly erroneous facts, and adequately explained the chosen sentence. Id. The district court is not required to state on the record that it has explicitly considered each of the  3553(a) factors or discuss each of them: the district court's acknowledgment that it has considered the  3553(a) factors and the parties' arguments is sufficient. United States v. Sarras, 575 F.3d 1191, 1219 (11th Cir. 2009); see also United States v. Dorman, 488 F.3d 936, 944 (11th Cir. 2007) (affirming a sentence as procedurally reasonable where the district court failed entirely to state it considered the  3553(a) factors because the record made clear that the district court considered the factors). Context is important.

After reviewing for procedural reasonableness, we consider the substantive reasonableness of a sentence under the abuse-of-discretion standard. Gall, 552 U.S. at 51. In reviewing a district court's sentence for substantive unreasonableness, we examine the totality of the circumstances to determine whether the statutory factors in  3553(a) support the sentence in question. United States v. Gonzalez, 550 F.3d 1319, 1324 (11th Cir. 2008). The party who challenges the sentence bears the burden of showing that the sentence is unreasonable in the light of the record and the  3553(a) factors. United States v. Tome, 611 F.3d 1371, 1378 (11th Cir. 2010).

The district court's sentence must be sufficient, but not greater than necessary to comply with the purposes listed in  3553(a)(2), including the need for the sentence to reflect the seriousness of the offense and to promote respect for the law, the need for adequate deterrence, the need to protect the public, and the need to provide the defendant with educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment. 18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(2). The court should also consider the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant, the kinds of sentences available, the guideline range, pertinent policy statements of the Sentencing Commission, the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities, and the need to provide restitution to victims. Id.  3553(a)(1), (3)(7). The weight given to a specific  3553(a) factor is committed to the sound discretion of the district court. United States v. Clay, 483 F.3d 739, 743 (11th Cir. 2007).

We afford due deference to the district court in determining whether the  3553(a) factors justify a variance and the extent of that variance. United States v. Shaw, 560 F.3d 1230, 1238 (11th Cir. 2009). A district court abuses its discretion in imposing a sentence when it (1) fails to consider relevant factors, (2) gives an improper or irrelevant factor significant weight, or (3) commits a clear error of judgment in considering the proper factors. United States v. Irey, 612 F.3d 1160, 1189 (11th Cir. 2010) (en banc). With regard to the third situation, such a clear error of judgment occurs when a district court unreasonably weighs the  3553(a) factors and arrives at a sentence that fails to achieve the purposes set out in  3553(a)(2). Id. To determine whether a clear error of judgment has occurred in a particular case, we make the sentencing calculus ourselves and review the steps the district court took in determining the sentence it imposed. Id. We have said that we must be left with the definite and firm conviction that the district court committed a clear error of judgment in weighing the  3553(a) factors before vacating a sentence. Id. at 1190.

No presumption exists that a sentence imposed outside the applicable guideline range is unreasonable, and nothing requires that extraordinary circumstances justify a variance. Gall, 552 U.S. at 47. The district court is free to consider information relevant to a defendant's background, character, and conduct in imposing an upward variance. Tome, 611 F.3d at 1379 (citing 18 U.S.C.  3661). Where a district court imposes an upward variance based upon the  3553(a) factors, the court must have a justification compelling enough to support the degree of the variance and provide reasoning complete enough to allow for meaningful appellate review. United States v. Shaw, 560 F.3d 1230, 1238 (11th Cir. 2009).

For Banks's procedural reasonableness argument, he has failed to show plain error because he has identified no binding precedent indicating that a district court must state it considered the  3553(a) factors overall. In addition, the district court has not been shown to have selected Banks's sentence based on the erroneous fact: that his prior robbery convictions occurred on separate occasions. On Banks's substantive reasonableness arguments, the district court acted to achieve the  3553(a) purpose of deterring criminal conduct but was not required to discuss this factor at sentencing. See Dorman, 488 F.3d at 944. Finally, the district court adequately justified its degree of variance by placing great weight on Banks's criminal history, the nature and circumstances of the offense, and the need to protect the public. See Clay, 483 F.3d at 743. Accordingly, we affirm Banks's 120-month sentence.

AFFIRMED.

PER CURIAM:Joseph Luiz can be reached at 395-7368 or by email at jluiz@bakersfield.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @JLuiz_TBC.MISS FASHIONETTA 2018

See the six Miss Fashionetta girls this year at Bakersfield High School's Harvey Audtorium, 1241 G St., on Sunday. Doors will open at 3 p.m. with the event starting at 4 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

The six young women will also participate in the Black American History Parade, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at 21st and V streets in downtown Bakersfield. See the accompanying map for the full parade route.Harold Pierce covers education and health for The Californian. He can be reached at 661-395-7404. Follow him on Twitter @RoldyPierceUnited States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff  Appellee, v. TIMOTHY A. YEIGH, a/k/a Timothy Yeigh, Defendant  Appellant. No. 17-4328 Decided: February 22, 2018

Before MOTZ and DIAZ, Circuit Judges, and Robert J. CONRAD, Jr., United States District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, sitting by designation. Brian J. Kornbrath, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellant. Sarah E. Wagner, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee.

Timothy Yeigh challenges the procedural and substantive reasonableness of the 96-month sentence he received for failing to update his sex offender registration. As we explain, we reject two of Yeigh's arguments regarding procedural error. The government, however, concedes that the district court erred by not addressing Yeigh's nonfrivolous argument that the nature and circumstances of his offense merited a more lenient sentence. We agree, and we therefore vacate Yeigh's sentence and remand for resentencing.

I.

Yeigh is a lifetime sex offender registrant. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 34 U.S.C.  20901 et seq., requires sex offenders to promptly update their registration after any change in residence. Failure to do so is a federal crime. See 18 U.S.C.  2250(a).

Yeigh registered as a sex offender when he moved to West Virginia in September 2016. Later that month, Yeigh left the state and drove to Florida with his grandfather to see his grandmother, who was in hospice care. After several weeks, authorities discovered that Yeigh never updated his registration to reflect that he was now in Florida. Yeigh was subsequently arrested and later pleaded guilty to one count of failing to update a sex offender registration.

Following Yeigh's plea, a probation officer prepared a presentence report (PSR), which recommended a guideline imprisonment range of 30 to 37 months. At an initial sentencing hearing, the district court announced a sentence of 96 months, notwithstanding requests from both Yeigh and the government that he be sentenced at the lower end of the guideline range. But before the court placed its reasoning on the record, Yeigh requested and was granted a continuance for time to file a sentencing memorandum in the hope of convincing the court to reconsider its upward variance.

In his memorandum, Yeigh argued that the nature and circumstances of the offensethat he was driving his grandfather to Florida to see his ailing grandmother and intended to return promptly to West Virginiacounseled in favor of a within-guidelines sentence. Nevertheless, when the sentencing hearing resumed, the district court again ordered that Yeigh serve a 96-month term. The court explained that it was varying upward and had considered all the factors set forth in 18 U.S. Code Section 3553 in doing so. J.A. 32. However, it pointed only to Yeigh's extensive criminal history in support of its decision and notably failed to mention why it didn't find Yeigh's argument for a lower sentence persuasive.

Yeigh filed a timely notice of appeal. He challenges the procedural reasonableness of his sentence based on the court's reliance on disputed facts in the PSR, the court's decision to impose a variance without considering a departure or using an incremental methodology, and the court's failure to address his nonfrivolous argument for a within-guidelines sentence. He also argues that his sentence is substantively unreasonable.

II.

We review all sentences for reasonableness, under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 46 (2007). Reasonableness review has procedural and substantive components. United States v. Mendoza-Mendoza, 597 F.3d 212, 216 (4th Cir. 2010). If we find the sentence procedurally reasonable, we then consider its substantive reasonableness. United States v. Lynn, 592 F.3d 572, 575 (4th Cir. 2010). However, if we identify a procedural error, we cannot review the sentence for substantive reasonableness and must remand. United States v. Carter, 564 F.3d 325, 330 n.4 (4th Cir. 2009).

A.

We first address (and reject) Yeigh's claim that the district court erroneously relied upon disputed factual allegations about his past convictions in the PSR.

A sentencing court may rely on any information concerning the background, character and conduct of the defendant in determining a sentence. U.S.S.G.  1B1.4; see also 18 U.S.C.  3661. Although due process forbids reliance on materially false or unreliable information in imposing a sentence, see Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736, 74041 (1948), [w]ithout an affirmative showing the information is inaccurate, the court is free to adopt the findings of the presentence report without more specific inquiry or explanation. United States v. Terry, 916 F.2d 157, 162 (4th Cir. 1990) (internal quotation marks omitted). The burden is on the defendant to show the inaccuracy or unreliability of the presentence report. Id.

Yeigh argues the district court was wrong to rely on the underlying narratives in the PSR about his past convictions because he had admitted only the elements of those crimes in previous guilty pleas. But Yeigh has not made any showing that those facts are materially false, and unless the district court's findings of fact are clearly erroneous, we must accept them. Id. at 160.

Yeigh also contends that the district court failed to respond to his objections about the facts in the PSR, violating Rule 32's mandate that the court mustfor any disputed portion of the presentence report or other controverted matterrule on the dispute or determine that a ruling is unnecessary either because the matter will not affect sentencing, or because the court will not consider the matter in sentencing. Fed. R. Crim. P. 32(i)(3)(B). However, a sentencing court need not articulate a finding as to disputed factual allegations with minute specificity, and [s]imply adopting the PSR's findings in toto is sufficient when the context of the ruling makes clear that the district court intended by the adoption to rule on each of the alleged factual inaccuracies. United States v. Walker, 29 F.3d 908, 911 (4th Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Here, the court's detailed recitation of the disputed allegations relating to Yeigh's criminal history in support of its decision to vary upward makes clear that it intended by the adoption of those facts to rule on the alleged factual inaccuracies. And by simply objecting to the PSR's findings, Yeigh failed to carry his burden to show the inaccuracy or unreliability of those facts. See Terry, 916 F.2d at 162. We accordingly see nothing wrong with the district court's reliance on the information contained in the PSR.

B.

Yeigh also argues that the district court erred by failing to use an incremental approach in arriving at its upward variance. But in a post-Booker world, a sentencing court is under no obligation to incant the specific language used in the guidelines, or go through a ritualistic exercise in which it mechanically discusses each criminal history category or offense level it rejects en route to the category or offense level that it selects. United States v. Rivera-Santana, 668 F.3d 95, 104 (4th Cir. 2012) (internal quotation marks omitted). Simply put, a sentencing court need not engage in an incremental departure analysis when varying from a guidelines recommendation. See United States v. Diosdado-Star, 630 F.3d 359, 365 (4th Cir. 2011). Contrary to Yeigh's assertion, the district court here was free to impose a variance without first considering a departure or the incremental methodology required for departures.

C.

Finally, Yeigh contends that the district court failed to acknowledge, engage with, or state whether or why it rejected his argument that the purportedly benign circumstances surrounding his failure to register warranted a more lenient sentence. The government concedes (and we agree) that this was error.

Our cases are clear that a sentencing court must address the parties' nonfrivolous arguments in favor of a particular sentence, and if the court rejects those arguments, it must provide a sufficiently detailed explanation for doing so. See United States v. Blue, 877 F.3d 513, 519 (4th Cir. 2017); Lynn, 592 F.3d at 584. Specifically, the district court must place its reasons for arriving at a sentence on the record, setting forth enough to satisfy the appellate court that he has considered the parties' arguments and has a reasoned basis for exercising his own legal decisionmaking authority. Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 356 (2007). Where, as here, there is no indication that the district court considered the defendant's nonfrivolous arguments prior to sentencing him, we must find error. Lynn, 592 F.3d at 585.

We have repeatedly noted that an error of this nature deprives us of a record that would enable a meaningful review of the sentence for substantive reasonableness and thus requires us to remand to the district court. See Blue, 877 F.3d at 522; Lynn, 592 F.3d at 585; Carter, 564 F.3d at 330 n.4. That is the case here. Accordingly, we vacate Yeigh's sentence and remand for resentencing.

VACATED AND REMANDED

PER CURIAM: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.United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. KENNETH SHOULDERS, Defendant-Appellant. No. 17-1523 Decided: February 22, 2018

Before FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge MICHAEL S. KANNE, Circuit Judge ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge

ORDER

Kenneth Shoulders operated a drug-trafficking organization in Chicago. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C.  846 and 841(a)(1). The district court sentenced him to 5 years' supervised release and 168 months' imprisonment, the bottom of his guidelines range. Shoulders filed a notice of appeal, but his appointed attorney asserts that the appeal is frivolous and seeks to withdraw. See Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967). Although Shoulders was notified under Circuit Rule 51(b) of his right to respond to counsel's motion, he has not done so. Because counsel's brief appears to be thorough, we limit our review to the subjects she discusses. See United States v. Bey, 748 F.3d 774, 776 (7th Cir. 2014); United States v. Wagner, 103 F.3d 551, 553 (7th Cir. 1996).

Counsel first considers whether it would be frivolous for Shoulders to challenge the voluntariness of his plea when the court did not wholly comply with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 in conducting the plea colloquy. Counsel, having verified that Shoulders wishes to withdraw his guilty plea, properly considers the issue. United States v. Knox, 287 F.3d 667, 67072 (7th Cir. 2002). Because Shoulders did not move to withdraw his plea in the district court, we would review the adequacy of the plea for plain error. See United States v. Polak, 773 F.3d 428, 431 (7th Cir. 2009). Counsel notes three omissions in the plea colloquy, but properly concludes that all of them are harmless. First, the court neglected to tell Shoulders that his sworn statements during the colloquy could be used in a perjury prosecution, see FED. R. CRIM. P. 11(b)(1)(A), but no prosecution is pending or anticipated. See United States v. Blalock, 321 F.3d 686, 689 (7th Cir. 2003). Second, the district court failed to mention Shoulders's right to counsel at trial, see FED. R. CRIM. P. 11(b)(1)(D), but Shoulders already was represented by counsel and nothing in the record suggests he did not know that counsel would continue to represent him if he opted for trial. See United States v. Lovett, 844 F.2d 487, 49192 (7th Cir. 1988). Third, the district court did not tell Shoulders that he had the right to persist in his plea of not guilty, see FED. R. CRIM. P. 11(b)(1)(B), but this information was conveyed to Shoulders in his plea agreement. See United States v. Adams, 746 F.3d 734, 74647 (7th Cir. 2014).

Counsel also considers whether Shoulders could challenge the validity of his plea based on a conflict of interest of the attorney who represented him at his change-of-plea hearingJoan Hill-McClainwho had previously represented three of Shoulders's codefendants in other cases. The government, anticipating that two of these codefendants would be called as witnesses at Shoulders's sentencing hearing, moved to disqualify Hill-McClain. The court held a status hearing to probe the possible conflict of interest and eventually appointed new counsel to represent Shoulders for sentencing purposes. Counsel considers whether Hill-McClain suffered from an actual conflict of interest while representing Shoulders but concludes that the facts here point only to successive representation of individuals, and this alone is insufficient to create an actual conflict of interest.

We agree with counsel that it would be frivolous to argue that Hill-McClain's earlier representation created a conflict of interest that undermined the validity of his plea. Successive representation constitutes an actual conflict of interest only when the earlier representation was substantially related to the lawyer's representation of the current client, or when the lawyer learned of confidential information during the earlier representation that was relevant to the current client's case. Enoch v. Gramley, 70 F.3d 1490, 1496 (7th Cir. 1995). That was not the case with Hill-McClain. She represented the codefendants in separate state-court criminal cases. Nor is there any evidence that she learned relevant confidential information while representing these clients. And we need not concern ourselves with the corollary danger that this successive representation would have led Hill-McClain to cross-examine her former clients less rigorously, see id., as she withdrew prior to Shoulders's sentencing hearing.

Counsel relatedly considers whether Shoulders could argue that Hill-McClain rendered ineffective assistance by pressuring him to plead guilty because of her conflict of interest, but appropriately concludes that such a claim should be presented in a collateral action under 28 U.S.C.  2255 so that a fuller record can be developed. See Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500, 508 (2003); United States v. Smith, 771 F.3d 1045, 1047 (7th Cir. 2014).

Next, counsel evaluates whether Shoulders could argue that the district court erred by increasing his offense level by four levels for a leadership role, see U.S.S.G.  3B1.1, but properly concludes this argument would be frivolous. In determining whether the adjustment applies, the district court considers, among other things, the exercise of decision making authority, the nature of participation in the commission of the offense,the claimed right to a larger share of the fruits of the crime, the degree of participation in planning or organizing the offenseand the degree of control or authority exercised over others. Id.  3B1.1 cmt. n. 4. At sentencing, the district court considered that Shoulders purchased wholesale quantities of heroin, set prices, cut and packaged the heroin, directed others where to deliver it, received the profits, and paid other members of the conspiracy. This is more than sufficient to support the imposition of the leadership adjustment. See United States v. Cooper, 767 F.3d 721, 73334 (7th Cir. 2014) (upholding adjustment where defendant financed drug buys, secured apartments where drugs were sold, sent codefendant to acquire heroin, and set price of drugs).

Counsel also asks whether Shoulders could challenge the two-level increase for criminal livelihood. See U.S.S.G  2D1.1(b)(15)(E). The adjustment applies when (1) the defendant derived income from a pattern of criminal activity that in any 12-month period exceeded 2,000 times the minimum wage and (2) the totality of the circumstances shows that such criminal conduct was the defendant's primary occupation during that period. See U.S.S.G.  4B1.3, cmt. n. 2. Shoulders objected to this increase at sentencing because, he said, his drug activity only supplemented his legal income. But the district court noted that Shoulders's legal income amounted to only $130 per week. The court inferred that because over $50,000 cash was found in his home on the day of his arrest, the bulk of his income derived from his criminal activity. See Lee v. United States, 939 F.2d 503 (7th Cir. 1991) (approving sentencing court's comparison between illegal and legal income to determine whether criminal conduct constituted that defendant's livelihood). It would be frivolous to challenge the application of the adjustment.

As a final matter, counsel considers and rejects a challenge to Shoulders's sentence as unreasonable. The court correctly calculated his guidelines range (168 to 210 months, based on an offense level of 35 and criminal history category of I). Additionally, Shoulders's 168-month prison sentence and 5-year term of supervised release are within the range suggested by the Guidelines so they are presumptively reasonable. See United States v. Jones, 774 F.3d 399, 404 (7th Cir. 2014).

Accordingly, we GRANT counsel's motion and DISMISS Shoulders's appeal.United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. WILLIAM BOSWELL, Defendant-Appellant. No. 17-1157 Decided: February 22, 2018

Before WILLIAM J. BAUER, Circuit Judge DIANE S. SYKES, Circuit Judge DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge

ORDER

William Boswell was convicted of possessing a firearm as a felon, 18 U.S.C.  924(g)(1), and sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act, id.  924(e). He filed a notice of appeal from his resentencing, which was ordered after Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), and Welch v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1257 (2016), invalidated the residual clause of the Act and held the invalidation retroactive. His attorney moved to withdraw on the ground that the appeal is frivolous. See Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967). Boswell has not responded to counsel's motion. See 7TH CIR. R. 51(b). Counsel submitted a brief explaining the nature of the case and addressing issues that an appeal of this kind might be expected to involve. Because the analysis in the brief appears thorough, we limit our review to the subjects that counsel discusses. See United States v. Bey, 748 F.3d 774, 776 (7th Cir. 2014); United States v. Wagner, 103 F.3d 551, 553 (7th Cir. 1996).

We begin by describing the history of Boswell's sentencing. At his original sentencing, the district judge deemed Boswell an armed career criminal based on three prior felony convictionsone in Indiana for Class C felony battery and two in Florida for aggravated battery. He imposed a 235-month prison term, which we affirmed along with Boswell's conviction in United States v. Boswell, 772 F.3d 469, 471 (7th Cir. 2014). After the Supreme Court decided Johnson and Welch, Boswell moved to vacate his sentence under 28 U.S.C.  2255. The parties stipulated that resentencing was warranted because they believed that Boswell's three convictions qualified as violent felonies under only the invalidated residual clause. The judge vacated the original sentence based on the parties' stipulation.

Before resentencing the government changed its position. It argued that all three of Boswell's convictions constituted violent felonies under the Act's elements clause,  924(e)(2)(B)(i). That clause applies to felonies that include as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another. At resentencing Boswell contended that his Indiana conviction did not meet this definition; he raised no argument about his two Florida convictions. Siding with the government, the judge concluded that Boswell remained an armed career criminal and resentenced him to 211 months followed by 5 years of supervised release. The judge also ordered him to pay a fine and special assessment.

Counsel first considers, and correctly rejects as frivolous, an argument that the judge erred by ruling that Boswell has three violent felonies under the Act. We begin with the Indiana conviction and look to the definition of Class C felony battery that applied at the time of Boswell's conviction, IND. CODE  35-42-2-1(a)(3) (effective July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008). Because the Indiana statute required a touching that either caused serious bodily injury or was committed by means of a deadly weapon, Boswell's Indiana conviction for Class C felony battery qualifies as a violent felony under the elements clause of  924(e)(2)(B)(i). See Douglas v. United States, 858 F.3d 1069, 1071 (7th Cir. 2017) (reasoning that an act that actually causes serious bodily injury must have entailed physical force within the meaning of the elements clause); see also United States v. Taylor, 630 F.3d 629, 635 (7th Cir. 2010) (deciding that battery with a deadly weapon qualifies as a violent felony under the elements clause).

We reach the same conclusion regarding Boswell's two Florida convictions for aggravated battery under  784.045(1)(a)1 of the Florida Statutes. Because in the district court Boswell did not dispute that these convictions were for violent felonies, we would review a challenge only for plain error, United States v. Butler, 777 F.3d 382, 38788 (7th Cir. 2015), but such a challenge would be frivolous. Section 784.045(1)(a)1 requires great bodily harm, permanent disability, or disfigurement, all of which entail physical force for purposes of the elements clause, i.e., force capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person. See Curtis Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133, 140 (2010). Two other circuits already confirmed that aggravated battery in Florida is a violent felony under the elements clause. See Turner v. Warden Coleman FCI (Medium), 709 F.3d 1328, 1341 (11th Cir. 2013); United States v. Dominguez, 479 F.3d 345, 349 (5th Cir. 2007). Thus we see no potential argument for plain error.

Boswell's attorney also considers whether the judge should have held [the government] to the stipulation that Boswell was not an armed career criminal. The attorney correctly concludes this contention would be frivolous. Judges are not bound by stipulations on legal questions. United States v. Lisk, 522 F.2d 228, 231 n.8 (7th Cir. 1975); see also United States v. Barnes, 602 F.3d 790, 796 (7th Cir. 2010) (A stipulation is a contract between two parties to agree that a certain fact is true.  A contract between the prosecutor and the defendant cannot bind a third partythe district court judge  .). Rather judges must independently consider whether a statute requires a certain sentence. See 18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(3); United States v. Siegel, 753 F.3d 705, 714 (7th Cir. 2014); United States v. Moody, 770 F.3d 577, 580 (7th Cir. 2014). The judge did exactly this by revisiting the issue of Boswell's status as an armed career criminal. Nor did the law-of-the-case doctrine require the judge to abide by the stipulation. That doctrine governs issues of law decided by judges. See Pepper v. United States, 562 U.S. 476, 506 (2011). Because Boswell's armed-career-criminal status was tentatively agreed upon by the parties, not the judge, no prior ruling governed Boswell's status at resentencing.

Counsel next questions whether the judge misapplied the Sentencing Guidelines. But counsel cannot identify any possible error; nor can we. The judge correctly calculated a Guidelines imprisonment range of 235 to 293 months based on a total offense level of 33 and a criminal history category of VI. Boswell's total offense level reflected his status as an armed career criminal. See U.S.S.G.  4B1.4(a), (b)(3)(B). And his criminal history category of VI was the result of a correct calculation of 17 criminal history points. Id.  4B1.4(c)(1). Two of those points were assessed because Boswell was on probation at the time of his arrest, id.  4A1.1(d), and the others resulted from his qualifying convictions under  4A1.1(a).

Lastly, the attorney has considered whether he could contend that Boswell's sentence is substantively unreasonable, but he has rightly concluded this argument would be pointless. Boswell's below-Guidelines prison term and within-Guidelines period of supervised release are presumed reasonable. See United States v. White, 868 F.3d 598, 603 (7th Cir. 2017); United States v. Jones, 774 F.3d 399, 404 (7th Cir. 2014).

Counsel has not identified any reason to rebut those presumptions; nor have we. At resentencing the judge assessed Boswell's arguments in mitigation and properly evaluated the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a). Boswell argued that a prison term of 180 months was sufficient based on his harsh childhood and good conduct in prison. As to good conduct, Boswell pointed to several factors: he had worked to pay his special assessment and some of his fine, taken prison classes, and received only one conduct report early in his term. The judge mentioned these aspects of Boswell's personal history, acknowledging that he lacked childhood role models and maybe had turned around to some degree in prison. The judge credited him for working to pay his sentencing obligations; for taking classes in anger management, personal development, and drug education; and for his lack of recent conduct reports. Nonetheless, the judge adequately justified a 211-month term (which was 24 months less than the original sentence) by saying Boswell had show[n] little or no respect for the law before his incarceration. In particular, at trial Boswell had lied about possessing the gun for which he was convicted, despite overwhelming evidence of his crime. The judge's balancing of these factors is reasonable, so it would be frivolous to ask us to substitute a different judgment if this case were to be argued on the merits. United States v. Warner, 792 F.3d 847, 856 (7th Cir. 2015),

Counsel's motion to withdraw is GRANTED and the appeal is DISMISSED.If you're perplexed by all the wrangling and bickering at the State Capitol over budgets and taxation, here's an opportunity to hear specific facts and numbers from experts and analysts.

It's tomorrow, starting at 9 a.m., but there's still time to register and attend. Registration is $20.

I'm particularly looking forward to the breakout session on the school funding formula. Much of the public conversation about school funding fixates on state aid while ignoring the other taxes that are earmarked for common schools. This session is a chance to look beyond the oversimplified sketch to study a detailed portrait of school revenue in Oklahoma.Manatee County issued a "no swim" advisory for the Palma Sola Beach South access on Feb. 23 due to a sanitary sewer leak.

The City of Bradenton informed the Florida Department of Health in Manatee County of a force main leak along the Palma Sola Causeway. The amount of wastewater in the spill is currently unknown.

A "no swim" advisory indicates that contact with water may pose an increased risk of infectious disease to humans.

City engineers plans on testing the water once repairs to the sewer main are completed.



Palma Sola South is located approximately 1,000 feet west of 81st Street West on the south side of the causeway. Other beaches and water recreation areas in Manatee County are not under the advisory.

As the legislature decides how it will respond to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, legislators are coming forward with their recommendations. State Representative Ross Spano (R-Dover), chair of the Criminal Justice subcommittee, announced his recommendations for preventing gun violence Friday, at Sheriff Grady Judds office in Winter Haven.

Expansion of Sheriff Judd's Sentinel program on list

Called for funding for hardening targets like schools

Other suggestions mirrored those made by Gov. Scott

High on Spano's list of nine recommendations was expanding Sheriff Grady Judds Sentinel Program, a voluntary program for teachers, administrators, volunteers (active and retired military and law enforcement) and parents who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon, according to the proposal.

They would only be permitted to participate with enhanced background checks," said Spano. "They would undergo emotional and psychological evaluations and complete very very comprehensive standardized training.



Spano said its his vision that every school district in the state would implement the program in conjunction with their sheriffs office.

He also recommended dedicating matching funds for school districts to spend on hardening school facilities, such as adding cameras, fencing, biometics, and bulletproof doors and windows. Like Governor Rick Scott, Spano would also like each school to have at least one armed school resource officer on every school campus.

Spano also advocated for criminalizing threats and mandating reporting by individuals with custodial responsibilities, including teachers, administrators, counselors, health care professionals, and day care providers. Hed like the mandated reporting to provide protection from liability and also to compel law enforcement to respond with action after receiving the report.

Similar to Governor Rick Scotts proposal, hes pushing for the creation of gun violence restraining orders, permitting law enforcement, a spouse, parent, sibling or roommate to petition the court for an order to temporarily remove a troubled persons gun rights. The petitioner would have to provide evidence the troubled person was a significant danger to themselves or others.

According to his proposal, the order would be appealable, and there would be penalties for false reporting.

In addition, Spano pushed for standardized security and risk assessment procedures for school districts, as well as standardized curriculum for the Sentinel Program and active shooter training.

Spano has already introduced the Church Protection Act, which allows gun owners licensed to carry conceal firearms to do so during church services if the church permits. If passed, the legislation would apply to churches that have schools on their campuses.

Sheriff Grady Judd said he expects Spanos plan will be mixed in with the others. He said hes been working with legislators for more than 30 years on this problem and expressed confidence that this time around some change will occur.

I have never seen the agreement early on in legislation that Ive seen with this," Judd said. "Everyone, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Independents, are all together in saying weve got to do somethingTheyre going to come out with legislation that not everyone is going to agree with 100 percent, but what we will agree is that our children will be safer as a result."



Spano said hell be meeting with House and Senate leadership to insure his provisions are included in the comprehensive House bill that's expected to be presented next week. He said he wouldnt be surprised if the legislative session is extended or if theres a special session.The man accused of attacking a worker in a Tampa Marriott bathroom has been caught, according to the Tampa Police Department.

John C. Eckhard is facing various charges

RELATED: Man sought after attacking woman in hotel restroom

John C. Eckhard is facing charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and kidnapping with the intent to harm or terrorize.

According to police, Eckhard is a registered sex offender.

On Tuesday morning when a female employee at the hotel on Westshore Boulevard entered the restroom on the first floor.

Eckhard, 41, walked in behind her and threatened her with a knife, according to police.

After a physical struggle, the woman was able to reach out for help on her work radio and Eckhard ran off, according to authorities.

On Friday, the police encountered Eckhard, who matched the description as the man who attacked the woman at the hotel, authorities stated.

Eckhard was identified by a pair of gloves and a knife, which was similar to the one that was left at in the bathroom, that was found in his backpack and the woman was able to identify him from a suspect photo pack, police confirmed.United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. GREGORY GARMONG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NEVADA SUPREME COURT; et al., Defendants-Appellees. No. 17-15715 Decided: February 23, 2018

Before: WALLACE, SILVERMAN, and BYBEE, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM*

Gregory Garmong appeals from the district court's judgment dismissing his 42 U.S.C.  1983 action alleging federal and state law claims arising from state court proceedings. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291. We review de novo a dismissal under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Noel v. Hall, 341 F.3d 1148, 1154 (9th Cir. 2003). We affirm.

The district court properly dismissed Garmong's action as barred by the Rooker-Feldman doctrine because Garmong's action is a de facto appeal of prior state court judgments, and raises claims that are inextricably intertwined with those judgments. See Cooper v. Ramos, 704 F.3d 772, 782 (9th Cir. 2012) (Rooker-Feldman doctrine barred claim that was inextricably intertwined with the state court's decision); Henrichs v. Valley View Dev., 474 F.3d 609, 616 (9th Cir. 2007) (Rooker-Feldman doctrine barred plaintiff's claim because alleged legal injuries arose from the state court's purportedly erroneous judgment and the relief sought would require the district court to determine that the state court's decision was wrong and thus void).

AFFIRMED.This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will provide a program at the 18th Ohio Battery positions on Moccasin Bend delving into the artillery batterys role during the Battle of Lookout Mountain, on Saturday, March 10 at 2 p.m.

This 1.5 mile hike and program will last approximately 90 minutes. Parking will be located near 202 Moccasin Bend Road and Special Event signs will also be placed off Manufacturers Road to direct visitors to the program parking area.



Officials stated, "Federal soldiers laboriously dug earthen field fortifications on Stringers Ridge to provide protection for the six pieces of artillery they fired toward Confederates positioned on the slopes of Lookout Mountain. Moccasin Bend, pressing the Tennessee River away from Chattanooga like a giant arm toward the mountain, coupled with the ridges topography and the caliber of cannon used by the 18th Ohio Battery, were crucial in providing the much-needed firepower to support General Joseph Hookers November 24, 1863, assault up the fog enshrouded mountain.



"Please remember to dress appropriately for weather conditions, wear comfortable shoes, and bring a bottle of water. Portable chairs are recommended."



For more information about upcoming programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, contact the Lookout Mountain Visitor Center at 423-821- 7786 or the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at 706-866- 9241.Olivia Connor was a resident in the local Project Inspire teacher residency program when she realized the need for more funding for Chattanooga's public schools so that students have every possible opportunity to learn inside and outside the classroom.





She and her husband Ty came up with a creative, innovative way to add more funding to the Hamilton County Department of Education-- and make an impact on the local schools. It is called 'Hattanooga'.





Hattanooga is a hat company - "one with great purpose and passion for giving back to the community."





For every hat sold, Hattanooga gives $5 to support Chattanooga-area schools and programs through microgrants.





Since they launched their website in November, Hattanooga has already sold more than 150 hats and plans to soon begin selling in local stores.Bryan Kelly, CFP, CDFA, APMA a financial advisor with Ameriprise Financial in Chattanooga, has been named to the list of Best-in-State Wealth Advisors published by Forbes Magazine. The list recognizes financial advisors who have demonstrated high levels of ethical standards, professionalism and success in the business.

The rankings are based on data provided by over 11,000 of the nations most productive advisors. Mr. Kelly was chosen based on assets under management, industry experience, regulatory and compliance record and revenue produced over a three-year period.

Mr. Kelly is part of Tandem Financial Partners, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

Mr. Kelly has 16 years of experience in the financial services industry. For more information, please contact him at 386-5751 or visit the Ameriprise office at 7047 Lee Highway, Suite 309.





Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado

Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACIONSeven seniors in Hamilton County Schools are recognized among the nations elite high school seniors as they were named Finalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program. Only 15,000 high school seniors nationwide earn this distinguished honor each year. Hamilton County seniors honored are Zoe Zimmerman, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences; Annika Lee, Hamilton County Collegiate High at Chattanooga State; Elias Basler, STEM School Chattanooga; Joseph Azevedo and Joshua Lagria, East Hamilton High; Phillip Dyer, Ooltewah High and Tamjeed Azad, Signal Mountain High.

These academically talented seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for approximately 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth $433 million. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, the high school seniors had to excel on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which is the initial screening tool used by the program. The recognized seniors represent less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and are among the highest scoring entrants in each state.

Tamjeed Azad, a senior at Signal Mountain High School, would like to attend a large research university and study biomedical engineering.

Joseph Azevedo, a senior at East Hamilton High School, plans to study and work in the field of computer science.

Elias Basler, a senior at Chattanooga STEM School, aspires to be a computer programmer.

Phillip Dyer, a senior at Ooltewah High, plans to pursue a career in mechanical engineering.

Joshua Lagria, a senior at East Hamilton High School, plans to study mechanical engineering.

Annika Lee is an early graduate of Hamilton County Collegiate High at Chattanooga State and currently enrolled as a freshman at Southern Adventist University. She plans to major in education and teach math or chemistry.

Zoe Zimmerman, a senior at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, plans a career in a medical field after graduation.

Each of these high performing seniors has excellent post-secondary options and are applying to some of the countrys top colleges and universities. Some institutions of higher learning considered by the teens include MIT, Columbia, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Stanford, University of Chicago and Vanderbilt.Autism & Behavior Services is hosting its second annual Trivia Night and Silent Auction on Saturday, March 3, from 6-10 p.m. on the fourth floor of the Downtown Public Library (1001 Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402).

Guests will be grouped together by tables to create teams. Teams will consist of six players per table who will compete against other teams in seven rounds of trivia for a chance to win a cash prize. Between rounds, guests will have the opportunity to bid on Silent Auction items.

Advance tickets for the event are $40 each or $240 per table. Tickets at the door are $45 each or $270 per table. Tickets include dinner catered by Taqueria Jalisco and 2 drink tickets. In addition, there will be a CASH bar serving wine, beer, sodas and water. Purchase advance tickets calling 423-664-0903.

ABS second annual Trivia Night & Silent Auction will help offset therapy costs which are not covered by health insurance and provide updated technology for parents and caregivers.



Officials said, "Imagine children struggling to communicate not only with their families but with their teachers and classmates. They get frustrated and fall behind. Often times, they may act out. Sadly, teachers and other key influencers in their lives are not aware of underlying issues. Approximately 12% of school-age children have been diagnosed with Autism or a related behavior disorder. At Autism & Behavior Services (ABS), our mission is to empower individuals and families, impacted by autism and other developmental disabilities, through the evidence based principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to become valued, contributing members of their community."

I have a necktie which I love to wear. It is a beautiful mixture of brown and green. It has a stream, with four deer standing beside it. Psalm 42:1, As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, O God is printed on it. I have long loved that verse but upon a more careful reading of Psalm 42, I have changed my interpretation of it. I will continue to wear that tie because of its beauty, but not because I want it to be true in my life. Psalm 42 is a description of a true and real experience in the life of the psalmist. However, it is not presented as the normal or ideal experience for a Christian. Rather, the recurring theme of Psalm 42 is that the writers soul is downcast; he is in tears, mourning for a previous joyful relationship with the Living God. Dear brother and sister in Christ that is not the normal Christian life. The normal Christian life is enjoying an intimate relationship with Christ, resting in Christ, drinking in Christ.

Psalm 42 presents the psalmist in a sad state where tears are his food; he is asking when he will be able to meet with God; unbelievers are mocking his inability to meet with God. The psalmist cries out that his soul is disturbed within him; he is asking why God has forgotten him. He likens his spiritual condition to that of a man who is being beaten down and drowned by the waves of the sea crashing over him. He paints a picture of himself just about to catch his breath when the next wave fills his mouth with water so that he cannot draw a breath of life-sustaining air. He declares that his bones are in mortal agony. That is not the picture of the Christian life.

Psalm 42 is not all gloom and despair. In verse 5 and verse 11, the psalmist asks himself a question and then gives the right answer. He realizes that this disturbed, downcast, despairing life is not good or normal or necessary. He reminds himself; he speaks to himself in third person as if he were giving advice to another; he orders himself to put his hope in God and praise Him. That is excellent advice for all of us. Even when we dont feel like it, especially when we dont feel like it, we must speak that truth and attempt to live in light of that truth. Our hope and trust must be in the Almighty. We must praise Him even when we feel like He is far away, especially then. In verse 6, the psalmist declares that because his soul is downcast he will remember the great deeds of his Almighty God.

Psalms 42:8 declares, The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. God loves us in the day and in the night. Gods song is with us day and night. What the psalmist is pointing out is that Gods lovingkindness and song are with us in the good times and the bad times. Here, the psalmist gives the key to leaving the life of panting behind and beginning the life of enjoying Christ. Dont miss the psalmist telling us to pray Gods lovingkindness and song back to Him. That is the way to enjoy God rather than be panting after Him. Im hoping to find a necktie with verse 8 on it. That would be nice but what would be even better is if I can learn to live verse 8.Guest Commentary Fair maps for our children, for our Hispanic communities, for our futures My son will vote for the first time next year. And for his first time, the state of Indiana will have brand new legislative and congressional districts. It should feel like a clean...

Voice of the People During the 13 years I have called Chesterton my home, there are few small-town activities I have come to enjoy quite like the high schools homecoming parade. It is always a beautiful moment of celebrating our students, gathering for an afternoon of fun and seeing...

Voice of the People I find it hard to believe that the majority of Town employees will put their self-interest over the GREATER GOOD which is, the viability of the Town of Chesterton by not getting vaccinated. Our town tried to save money by self-insuring itself. We could be...

Guest Commentary Local coalition aspires to achieve smokefree air for all More than 1 in 5 Indiana adults smoke cigarettes (21.5%), one of the highest rates in the nation, while the number of youths using vaping products remains a concern for anti-smoking advocates. Secondhand smoke is estimated...The U.S. embassy will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by May 14, in honor of the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence, the Israeli media Friday quoted a top Israeli minister as saying.

A view of the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, some of the holiest sites for Jews and Muslims, is seen in Jerusalem's Old City, Dec. 6, 2017. [Photo: IC]

According to Israeli media, the Minister of Transportation and Intelligence Israel Katz tweeted on Friday saying, "I would like to congratulate Donald Trump, the President of the U.S. on his decision to transfer the U.S. embassy to our capital on Israel's 70th Independence Day."

It seems that the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem will be earlier than what had been expected. The U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the move would take place by the end of 2019, when he gave a speech in the Knesset during his visit in Israel last month.

Media also quoted two Trump administration officials as saying that the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem will open in May 2018 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel declaring independence. At first, the embassy will operate out of the U.S.'s current consular premises in Arnona, south Jerusalem, reports said.

Waves of violence between Israel and Palestine have took place and the tension has turned worse since the U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorThree fresh incidences of financial fraud have come to light as the CBI filed cases against a jeweller, a businessman and a public servant on complaints by three different banks earlier this week, an official said on Saturday.



Oriental Bank of Commerce 3.9 billion fraud



On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Delhi's Karol Bagh-based diamond jewellery exporting firm Dwarka Das Seth International for an alleged bank loan fraud of Rs 3.9 billion involving the Oriental Bank of Commerce.



ALSO READ: After PNB, Rs 3.9-bn Oriental Bank of Commerce scam hits banking sector



After the PNB and the Bank of Baroda filed cases against Nirav Modi and Rotomac Global, the Oriental Bank of Commerce, the Bank of Maharashtra and Barmer office of the PNB rushed to the CBI as well with their complaints of fraud, leading to the agency filing three separate cases.





ALSO READ: Rahul Gandhi slams PM Modi over Rs 3.9 bn banking fraud by Delhi jeweller



The Oriental Bank of Commerce has alleged that it was defrauded by Delhi jeweller Dwarka Das Seth International and its owner Sabhya Seth. The loans turned into non-performing assets (NPAs) way back in 2014, but the bank approached the agency on August 16 last year, after the company had folded up and Seth fled the country.



The Oriental Bank of Commerce complaint has alleged that the Dwarka Das Seth International took loans by way of letters of credit and other such credit facilities for gold jewellery export/import between 2007 and 2012 but failed to pay back.



"We feel that Sabhya Seth of Dwarka Das Seth International Pvt Ltd had orchestrated an elaborate plan to dupe the bank," the bank said in its complaint.





ALSO READ: PNB scam: Won't tolerate irregularities in financial sector, says PM Modi



A probe by the bank found that the company had indulged in round-tripping of funds through fictitious companies abroad and had utilised funds by discounting bills based on the letters of credit of foreign banks, which were either non-existent or had negative ratings.



Bank of Maharashtra scam



The CBI on Wednesday filed a case against businessman Amit Singla and others on a complaint of the Bank of Maharashtra for a loan through forged documents and its criminal misappropriation and use.



It is alleged that Singla and his company took loans of Rs 95 million through cash credit facility from the bank between 2010 and 2012. The accused allegedly submitted three properties in Delhi and Haryana as collaterals. The properties, at the time of taking the loan, were valued at over Rs 180 million by Tech Mach International.





ALSO READ: PNB fraud: Justice I deserve is far off, says Mehul Choksi to jobless staff



The Bank of Maharashtra has approached the CBI to lodge a loan default complaint against Amit Singla. The loan had turned into an NPA in 2013 and the bank has even sold a property kept as collateral to recover its dues, sources said.



The Bank of Maharashtra's FIR names Singla, the proprietor of Delhi-based Ashirwad Chain Co, loan guarantor Roshan Lal Bhalotia, property valuation firm Tech Mach International and unknown officials of the bank.



But, after the loans turned into NPAs, the actual market value of the properties was found to be only Rs 25 million. One of the properties, a double-storied house owned by Roshan Lal in Rohtak, Haryana, was valued at Rs 48.5 million while sanctioning the loan. When the bank sold it off to recover its dues, it fetched only Rs 73,00,000.





Similarly, a commercial property owned by the accused at Chandni Chowk in Delhi was valued by Tech Mach at the time of disbursal of the loans at Rs 49.5 million, but it was actually worth Rs 31,00,000 only.



Tech Mach was later removed from the panel of values by the bank.

ALSO READ: Rs 114-bn PNB scam: Sin or crime?



In the complaint, the Bank of Maharashtra said: "The overvalued valuations were deliberately given in connivance with the borrowers and the guarantors ... to fraudulently induce the bank to finance the borrower."



The FIR also alleged that Singla had submitted inflated stock audit reports and balance sheets, apart from diverting the loans to sister concerns.



PNB Rajasthan branch fraud



The same day, the agency also filed a case against Inder Chand Chundawat, then Senior Branch Manager in the Punjab National Bank (PNB)'s Barmer office in Rajasthan, for abuse of his official position.





ALSO READ: PNB fraud: Priyanka Chopra ends contract with Nirav Modi

The PNB approached the CBI for a second time on Wednesday against one of its branch managers at its Barmer office in Rajasthan. According to the complaint, the branch manager had defrauded the bank of over Rs 20 million in 2011 and the bank had even suspended the official following an internal inquiry.

Earlier, cases of major financial frauds involving Rs 114 billion by diamantaire Nirav Modi and Rs 36.95 billion by Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari surfaced, in which the CBI has filed cases and made several arrests.Fascinating tales never cease to emerge from the mysterious backwaters of Uttar Pradesh. The latest addition to the genre is about a wiry-framed man who claimed to have killed a snake by biting its head off in a fit of anger. He was angry because it bit him, he says.

Sonelal, a 45-year-old farmer in Shuklapur Bhagat village in Hardoi district, was outdoors when he encountered the snake last week. Sonelal claims that the snake bit him and this enraged him so much that in a quick reflex action, he snapped the snakes head off with his teeth. Sonelal then allegedly fell to ...Security forces on Saturday shot dead Meghalaya's most-wanted militant and self-styled chief of the outlawed Garo Liberation Army (GNLA) in an encounter in East Garo Hills district, the police said.

The encounter of Sohan D Shira, who carried a reward of Rs 1 million on his head, came after NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED attack, suspected to be carried out by the GNLA in the same district on February 18.

Following Sangma's death, counter-insurgency operations had been stepped up in poll-bound South and East Garo Hills districts.

Acting on inputs regarding the probable movement of some armed GNLA cadre in Dobu area, counter-insurgency forces were pressed into service, a senior police officer involved in the operations told PTI.

He said the encounter took place around 11 am in Achakpek village near Dobu, in which Sohan was killed.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar said inquest on the body of the slain militant was on and necessary formalities would follow.

Earlier this week, Meghalaya Director General of Police S B Singh had said, "There are credible leads that are being obtained about the involvement of the group (GNLA) in Sunday night's carnage (Sangma's killing)."



NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma and three others were killed in an IED blast triggered by militants in the Samanda area of East Garo Hills district around 8 pm on February 18.Wooing the people of Tamil Nadu particularly women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the state got higher funds allocations and projects with huge investments under his Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

However in his about 15 minute speech, he avoided any reference to the strong demand from state parties for setting up of a Cauvery Management Board, as directed by the Supreme Court to which Chief Minister K. Palaniswami made a reference in his welcome address at a function here.

Modi was here to launch the Tamil Nadu government's subsidised scooter scheme called Amma Two Wheeler Scheme for working women as a part of 70th birth anniversary of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.



Also Read: PM Modi launches Amma two-wheeler scheme for working women in Tamil Nadu

He also planted a tree sapling and inaugurated the plan to plant 70 lakh tree saplings as a part of Jayalalithaa birth anniversary celebrations in the state.

Beginning his speech in Tamil saying that he is proud to stand on the soil of great poet and freedom fighter Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi, Modi said he bows his head to Tamil culture and language.

Noting that around 9.5 lakh women in Tamil Nadu benefitted out of the Central government's free cooking gas scheme, he said that over Rs 24,000 crore worth of projects are implemented by the central government in Tamil Nadu after BJP came to power at the centre.

The Central government has sanctioned Rs 3,700 crore for the Chennai Metro Rail project, he said.

Taking a dig at the earlier Congress-led government at the centre, Modi said under the previous regime, Tamil Nadu got just Rs 81,000 crore under the 13th Finance Commission whereas under NDA regime, the state got around Rs 180,000 crore under the 14th Finance Commission allocation.

According to him, Tamil Nadu got Rs 700 crore during 2016-17 and Rs 200 crore during 2017-18 under the rural housing scheme, while for urban housing, over Rs 6,000 crore has been given to the state.

He also added that around Rs 2,600 crore has been given under the crop insurance scheme.

Referring to the long coastline, Modi said the central government has given Rs 100 crore to Tamil Nadu for converting 750 fishing boats to long-liners for deep sea fishing.

Underlining the importance of woman in a family and society, he said empowering a woman is empowering a whole family.

He said around Rs 416,000 crore has been given under the Mudra loan scheme of which 70 per cent is for women.

Modi said the women of India are coming out of their age old shackles and seeking self- employment.

The subsidised two wheeler scheme is part of AIADMK's 2016 poll promise.

Under the scheme, the government would provide 50 per cent subsidy subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000 for the purchase of two wheelers by working women.

Palaniswami utilised the presence of Modi on the dais and requested him to take necessary steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee as per the apex court's order in the Cauvery river water dispute case.

Welcoming the gathering, Deputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam said the state government continues to follow the footsteps of Jayalalithaa.

Earlier Modi was received at the Chennai airport by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam.

From the airport he went to naval base INS Adyar by a helicopter and from there he went by road to Kalaivanar Arangam where the function was held.

A large number of people had gathered on the pavement along Modi's route to Kalaivanar Arangam and greeted him.Education up to intermediate level will be made free in Uttar Pradesh and the Yogi Adityanath government will make an announcement in this regard soon, a minister in the state cabinet said today.

Om Prakash Rajbhar, the minister for Divyang and OBC welfare, said this while addressing a meeting of his Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

"Yogi government will make education up to the intermediate level free and an announcement in this regard will be made soon," Rajbhar said without elaborating further.

Coming down heavily on the parents who do not send their children to schools, Rajbhar said that such parents needed to be sent to jail.

"We will make the parents understand that children need to go to school in the next four months or consider taking action against them," he said.

I have been working in this direction for the past two months and have been telling parents that education is most important as without going to school neither they will develop nor will they get employment, he said.

Later in his interaction with media, he said that his party will contest the 2019 elections alongwith the BJP.

To a question, he held Muslim leaders responsible for the backwardness of the community and asserted that there is no discrimination against them (muslims) under the Yogi government.

Meanwhile, four members of the escort team of Rajbhar and one other were injured in a road accident near Ubhaon turn later after the meeting.

The escort vehicle had to apply emergency brakes to avoid collision with a motorcycle and it overturned leading to minor injuries to four members of the team and the motorcyclist, police said.Korea based Worldbestech company would invest Rs 900 billion in Uttar Pradesh in various projects such as gas-based power plant, cold storage and food processing, a top company official said on Saturday.

We shall set up a gas-based power plant and allied companies in Mathura that would also solve the problem of potato growers of Mathura and adjoining districts," Worldbestech CEO and President K K Kim said while briefing state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the investment plans.

The company plans to invest Rs 900 billion in projects like gas power plant, food processing ventures and cold storage, the official said.

The Korean company had also attended the UP investor summit in Lucknow. The company officials were called for a meeting here today by the chief minister who was in the town for an event.

Yogi told the Korean investor that the state would provide all possible assistance and they should go ahead with their plan.

The chief minister also directed officials and state power minister Srikant Sharma to provide assistance to the Korean company.In Silicon Valley and on Wall Street, it has long been a guessing game about which of the most richly valued technology start-ups would be next to test the public markets. On Friday, there was an answer: Dropbox, an online file storage company privately valued at about $10 billion, filed paperwork to raise up to $500 million in an initial public offering. While Dropbox may not have the glamour of a ride-hailing app like Uber or a streaming music service like Spotify  both of which are likely initial public offering prospects  the company is in the same broad group ...Bits of colour were peeking out through cracks in the dark shades of La Misereuse accroupie, a 1902 painting by a young Pablo Picasso during his Blue Period. That was not surprising. X-ray images taken a quarter- century ago had shown that Picasso had painted this work, known in English as The Crouching Woman over another artists landscape. Sandra Webster-Cook, a conservator of paintings at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, which owns the painting, also observed textures of the brush strokes that seemed neither to reflect Picassos ...Within hours of announcing its decision to end a credit card relationship with the National Rifle Association, the First National Bank of Omaha found itself thrust into the centre of the resurgent national gun debate. Its Twitter and Facebook pages were flooded with comments. Some customers applauded the 160-year-old banks decision. Others said they would take their business elsewhere. In the aftermath of the deadly school shooting in Florida last week, businesses were making the same financial and moral calculus, quickly discovering that there is no neutral ground. ...The Supreme Court has spared the of a Rs 10 billion central excise demand raised on jute bags supplied to government agencies between 2011 and 2013.

In a recent judgment, the apex court said the demand was non-factual and unconnected by nature. A two-judge bench of R F Nariman and Navin Sinha ruled that the demand raised by the excise department was far from the facts.

The department had imposed the demand on the industry for jute bags supplied between March 1, 2011, and February 2013. The demand notice was upheld by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal in 2015.

We welcome the apex court verdict. The would have been happier had the order come earlier, said an industry source.

Jute bags were originally exempted from excise duty since 2004. However, the UPA-2 government had re-imposed an ad valorem levy of 10 per cent in March 2011. Based on the excise department notification of March 1, the Kolkata-IV office of the superintendent of central excise ruled on March 7 that jute bags supplied through Food Corporation of India and other state agencies for use in the Public Distribution System were 'branded and therefore came under the ambit of chapter 63 of the Excise Act.





Subsequently, many jute mills were slapped with demand notices that ranged between Rs 15 and Rs 300 million. There are around 60 mills in Bengal. Although aware that the government would soon withdraw the ad valorem levy, the officers under Kolkata-IV kept arm-twisting jute millers with threats of notices. From the record, notices were sent out in lots of 10 mills each.

The Union textiles ministry and the jute commissioners office vehemently opposed the move and sought urgent withdrawal of the notices, pointing out that the six items printed on top of jute bags were in line with the specifications marked by the government and were not to be treated as branded bags in the context of levies of duties. The commissioner's office noted that by printing items on the bags, the mills were not getting any extra mileage in promoting their products. Printing on jute bags started under government orders since July 2002.At least 20 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have been killed in a Taliban attack on a military base in the western Farah province of Afghanistan.

According to Farah provincial council official Dadullah Qani, the attack started at around 2:00 am in Shakh-i-Bala Kansk area of Bala Block district and at least 20 soldiers were killed, reports Afghan's TOLO News.

12 Taliban militants were also killed during the clashes.

Qani said shortly before the incident occurred, a clash broke out in Sore Shamal area, capital of Farah province, and while security forces were busy fighting the insurgents the Taliban attacked the base in Bala Block district.

According to the report, the Taliban stole a large amount of weapons as well.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Today, SMBs are growing at a rapid pace. The small is contributing majorly in the Indian E-commerce sector. With the increase in internet penetration, sellers have realized the need to take their online. Last few years witnessed the increase in traction of sellers moving to an online platform to sell their products.

For someone who owns a fashion shop, or a reseller, there are a lot of platforms in the sector which helps the sellers to grow their online with many benefits. Easy on-boarding, product listing, easy shipments to name a few.

Here is the list of 5 platforms which helps the SMBs with tools to boost their business online:

Kraftly

Kraftly is India's leading seller tools platform for online product commerce. The company develops solutions to drive online success for small and medium-sized sellers which helps them set up, manage, and promote their online stores. Kraftly enables sellers to sell across multiple channels and creates a unique value proposition as sellers benefit from the growth of both social selling and online marketplace commerce on one platform. Kraftly's mission is to democratize e-commerce by providing access for online selling to all new and existing sellers in India.

Utilizing its strong product and technology platform and advanced data analytics capabilities Kraftly is creating a new breed of successful sellers. The Kraftly platform provides sellers with an end to end support right from sourcing products and creating an online store to the delivery of the products to the end customer. Since its inception, Kraftly has grown to 2,00,000 sellers across multiple categories.

Meesho:

Meesho is India's no.1 Reseller-only app, trusted by 50,000+ Resellers earning money online from home. Working with Meesho is as simple as sharing and selling on Facebook and WhatsApp. Mesh provides an excellent career opportunity to build your own Internet business without having to build your website or app.

Shopmatic:

Shopmatic believes in removing the complexities of setting up an e-commerce business. They leverage technology to bring together all the pieces of the e-commerce ecosystem on a single platform. They want everyone to be able to sell online and do it well from the beginning.

Nowfloats:

The NowFloats product is actually a solution which comprises of (a) the Boost business website, (b) the Boost website management app and web portal and the most important thing, (c) the automatic search engine optimization (SEO) of the website. Which means, the business simply updates the website and our technology ensures it becomes discoverable.

Shopify:

Shopify focuses on making commerce better for everyone, so businesses can focus on what they do best: building and selling their products. Today, merchants use their platform to manage every aspect of their business - from products to orders to customers, selling online, in retail stores, and on the go.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An invitation to President Ramnath Kovind for the 65th annual convocation ceremony of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has ruffled some feathers amongst the student union, which has warned against the attendance of any member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the event.

The student union Secretary Mohammad Fahad has written to the AMU administration regarding the issue with inviting the President, and warned that "no 'sanghi' (RSS member) politician would be allowed to enter the university premises and the students would stage a protest" if this happens.

"We are not opposing the President, we oppose the 'sanghi' mindset. Our President had given a statement about Muslims and Christians in 2010, saying 'Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation'. So, I would like to remind him that the statement sill stings the students of Aligarh MU, but we respect him as the President and welcome him, but at the same time, we also warn him that no 'sanghi' person accompanying him would be allowed inside the university premises. Those coming as per protocol can come," student union Secretary Mohammad Fahad told ANI.

The convocation ceremony will be held on March 7.

RSS is a right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation, that is widely believed to be anti-Muslims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The founder of Baloch Students Organisation - Azad (BSO-Azad) and a prominent Baloch political guerrilla commander Dr. Allah Nazar (DAN) has rejected claims that Beijing was in contact with militants in Balochistan, where China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) were located.

Nazar, who calls himself a freedom fighter of Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) demanded an independent Balochistan.

Excerpts below of his exclusive interaction with ANI.

Q1. There are reports of talks between China and Baloch fighters. How true are these media reports? Will Baloch fighters agree to hold talks with China?

DAN: I would like to tell you that Baloch fighters and Baloch nation categorically reject the claims reported in Financial Times and other media outlets that Baloch are in contact with China with reference to the CPEC. China is providing oxygen to the occupier and the Baloch are fighting against Pakistan for their survival. Pakistan has illegally occupied the Baloch land and China is not a party to it in the first place. It is impossible for the Baloch to hold talks with China because China is supporting Pakistan to commit Baloch genocide. If Pakistani state withdraws its forces along with its political and security establishment, and the UN impartial peacekeeping forces are deployed here then Baloch will negotiate with Pakistan in their presence as mediators. Otherwise it is impossible.

Q2. China is aggressive with its multi-billion dollar CPEC project, which passes through Balochistan. What efforts the Baloch separatists are doing to oppose this illegal project?

DAN: Yes, the Gwadar port is not only for Chinese economic interests but for the strategic purposes as well as it is not only a threat to India but also to the USA and rest of the China has deployed its nuclear submarines at Gwadar Naval Base. Therefore, they will create many problems for India, the US and the because of their presence too close to the Strait of Hormuz. CPEC will only serve the economic and strategic interests of Pakistan and China. There is nothing for Baloch and Balochistan in it. At present China rigorously intends to eliminate Baloch nation through an all out genocide as Pakistan has been doing it for the last seventy years. So the Baloch are doing their best resisting these schemes and hoping that India in particular and the Western powers in general will help the Baloch in their endeavor for an independent Balochistan. Because, Baloch is oppressed and fighting for its survival, fighting for human norms and Baloch is the safeguard of human values.

Q3. Your family members were recently arrested and later released by Pakistan army. Is there any pressure on you and BLF members to surrender?

Yes, my family (wife and children) members were arrested and the government tried to put mental pressure on me and my family. But it is crystal clear that I will never succumb to such shameless intimidation. More than 45 members of my family have been martyred by Pakistani army and more than 60 houses were bombarded but neither I nor my family members ever surrendered to Pakistan. All of us are resisting Pakistani occupation stand firm against them.

Q4. What is the future of Baloch freedom struggle?

DAN: The future of Baloch freedom struggle is bright. Our people believe in us. They love and support our struggle for freedom. And with the blessing of almighty Allah and the sacrifices of our comrades, we will get our freedom back and reach our destination soon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)'There's no reason to mute it," said the director of the film 'Chirodiner Ek Onnyo Premer Galpo', who has been asked by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to mute the word 'Musalman'.

"I don't know why it's being done. When I asked them, I was told 'we aren't answerable to you'. I'll go to the revising committee," filmmaker R Chowdhury told ANI.

According to reports, the CBFC directive says the word has to be "muted in the duration mentioned" as it violates the guideline on "visuals or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other groups.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The third Partnership Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will begin on Saturday, with over 2,000 delegates attending the meet.

About 40 percent of the delegates belong to other countries.

Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the three-day event. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Ashok Gajapathi Raju will attend the function.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Fakeerappa said that arrangements are made for various sector-wise plenary sessions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi breaking his silence on multiple bank frauds plaguing the Indian economy, the Congress Party on Saturday lashed out at saying the former should answer why the frauds took place in the first place, among ither questions.

Speaking to ANI, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala shot several questions at the Prime Minister, first regarding the connection between the accused businessmen and PM Modi, "Prime Minister Modi has not said one word about Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi whom he affectionately calls as 'Humare Mehul bhai'. What is the connection of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi with the honourable Prime Minister? The nation wants to know how a Rs 22,000 crore fraud could happen under the watch of Modi government and everybody remains mum."

"FIR is reported by the bank in August 2017. For seven months, Modi government and CBI takes no action and FIR is lodged on 22nd February 208, why? In the meanwhile, everybody has run away," he added.

Surjewala also took on the Prime Minister over the bank fraud committed by the owner of Rotomac Pens, and remarked at length, "Words will not do, nation demands answers, Modi ji, and you have to give answers."

On Friday, PM Modi asserted that the government is taking strong action against financial irregularities, but did not take names of any of the defaulters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Oscar-winning star Jennifer Lawrence has opened up about dropping out of middle school to pursue her acting career.

In a sneak peek for her chat with Bill Whitaker, the 27-year-old admitted she left school at the age of 14.

"I dropped out of middle school. I don't technically have a GED or a diploma. I am self-educated," she told the '60 Minutes' host.

Lawrence explained, "I struggled through school. I never felt very smart. And when I'm reading the script and I feel like I know exactly what it would look like if somebody felt that way, that was a whole part of my brain that I didn't even know existed, something I could be confident in, and I didn't want to let it go."

When asked if she regretted the decision, the 'Red Sparrow' star responded, "No. I really don't. I wanted to forge my own path. I found what I wanted to do, and I didn't want anything getting in the way of it. Even friends, for many years, were not as important to me as my career. I mean, from the age of 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Holi is right here so is celebration around the festival colors. No matter whether you are planning a big bash or a small get together with friends and family on the eve of Holi, you look out for the places that offer not only good ambiance but also food deals and offers.

There are many options available to experience this Holi. Explore following aggregator platforms in Delhi-NCR to spend a nice evening or a brunch date with your loved ones.

Baromeeter

Baromeeter helps you discover anything and everything related to 'Going-out' and provides exclusive deals and offer to socialize with people this Holi. For its members, Baromeeter mobile app has exclusive BOMCombos that helps one book and avail deals at any bar, cafe, restaurant, club, etc. Based on your BOMCombo selection, it will tell you where you'll be able to redeem the voucher. Moreover, when in doubt, chat and socialize with other Baromeeter members by simply pressing the 'Connect' button for all your queries.

Zomato

Zomato helps people discover great places around them across the world. It gathers information from every restaurant on a regular basis to ensure the data is fresh and up to date. Its vast community of food lovers shares their reviews and photos, providing an unbiased experience so that the users have all that they need to make an informed choice. Zomato makes dining smoother and more enjoyable with services like online ordering and table reservations for better dining experiences this Holi.

Nearbuy

Nearbuy is India's first hyper-local online platform that enables customers and local merchants to discover and engage with each other. It provides services like fine dining, spas and salons and other places to discover within your city intimately. It also offers its merchants a strong branding and visibility-led platform that enables customers, in and around their establishments, to easily discover their businesses. They are present in more than 35 cities across the country and have more than 18 categories with over 50,000 merchants across 100,000+ unique locations.

CouponDunia

CouponDunia lists coupons from more than 2,000 online brands including Flipkart, Amazon, MakeMyTrip, PayTM and BookMyShow, and also has 7.5 million email subscribers and more than two million app downloads. It is one of India's largest discount and offers destination that helps one save money through their comprehensive listing of coupons, offers, deals, and discounts. Customers can also earn reliable Cashback on top of the merchant discounts every time they shop through CouponDunia, making better shopping experience.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Friday amid continuing tensions in bilateral relations following last year's Doklam standoff.

The Indian Embassy, through a tweet, announced the visit of Gokhale, who was also the former Indian envoy to China, on Saturday.

"The foreign secretary is visiting China to discuss the bilateral agenda, exchange plans and visits for 2018," the Indian Embassy in Beijing said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement late Friday night on Gokhale's talks with Wang.

"We hope that the Indian side will handle sensitive issues prudently and work with China to promote the sound development of China-India relations," Wang said, apparently referring to an array of sensitive issues between India and China, including the current developments in the Maldives.

According to the press release, Gokhale said he was pleased to visit China at the very beginning of his term.

A series of bilateral visits are expected in the lead up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting China in June for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held at Qingdao city, according to the reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Minister of State (Mos) for Home Affairs, Hansraj Ahir, on Saturday said that India will continue to give a befitting response to Pakistan for repeatedly violating the ceasefire at the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to ANI, Ahir said, "We are responding to ceasefire violations by Pakistan and will not budge even by a step. We are fighting back with our might and giving a response to Pakistan's firing. And one day Pakistan will have to stop the violation of the ceasefire."

The minister also added that the repeated firing and shelling into the Indian territory "will prove to be Pakistan's foolishness and will cost them dearly."

India and Pakistan, in January 2003, agreed to a formal ceasefire along the International Border, the Line of Control and the Actual Ground Position Line in Jammu and Kashmir. But unprovoked firing and shelling from Pakistani posts have become recurrent over the last few weeks.

The recent spate of ceasefire violation incidents has left four security personnel killed and dozens of civilians injured in Rajouri, Baramullah, Kathua, Kupwara and the Valley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan Army on Saturday resorted to an unprovoked ceasefire violation in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri Sector.

The Indian Army is retaliating effectively.

The firing started at 11.50 in the morning.

More details are awaited.

On February 22, the Border Security Force (BSF) said that Pakistan restores to incessant firing across the border because they don't want India to have a peaceful atmosphere.

"Pakistan doesn't want India to have a peaceful atmosphere. This is why they do such violations. There was a ceasefire violation yesterday too," Sonali Mishra, Inspector General of BSF told ANI.

On February 21, the Pakistan Army violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Karnah Tangdhar of Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier on February 19, three civilians were injured in the incessant firing by the Pakistani Army at Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the Amma Two Wheeler Scheme here on the birth anniversary of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

The scheme, which aims at providing 50 percent subsidy to all the working women to buy two-wheelers, was a pet project of Jayalalithaa.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said, "Tamil Nadu government continues to be inspired by the principles of Amma. This Amma two wheeler scheme was proposed in the election manifesto by our Amma. PM had close relationships with her."

"It was honorable Amma who took Tamil Nadu on the path of development, be it education or help to poor, all schemes were focused to uplift people. Water harvesting was a great initiative which is widely appreciated," said Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Earlier the Prime Minister planted sapling near the entrance of Kalaivanar Arangam auditorium in Chennai.

At least 70 lakh saplings will be planted across Tamil Nadu to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister E Palanisamy, Panneerselvam and others at Chennai airport.

On Sunday, Prime Minister will be visiting Puducherry. He will offer floral tributes to Shri Aurobindo at Aurobindo Ashram and interact with students of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. He will also visit Auroville to release a commemorative postage stamp on the golden jubilee celebrations of Auroville followed by addressing a public meeting in Puducherry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In the backdrop of the recent National Health Protection Plan announcement, hundreds of surgeons from pediatrics, urology, bariatric are heading to a specialist conference to gain insights from fellow practitioners in their respective fields this week.

Going by the agendas of national medical conferences this week -- 13th Pediatrics Endoscopic Surgeons conference at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, 2nd National Conference of Robotic Urology Forum at PGI, Chandigarh (both between Feb 23-25) and 16th National Congress of Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society at Chennai February 22-24 -- it is clear that the surgeons are serious about up skilling themselves.

By participating in these conferences, panel discussions, symposiums, sharing technical papers, making video presentations, the surgeons share experiences, expertise and practical solutions with others but they also learn from others.

Recognising the immense value that these conferences provide to the medical community, Vattikuti Foundation, is providing a da Vinci Surgical Robot to demonstrate the immense possibilities in the field of pediatric surgery, urology, head and neck surgery, and weight reduction.

"Live workshop feeds from operation theatres in hospitals equipped with da Vinci surgical Robots are a great way of learning various standard and novel procedures from surgeons from different locations," said Dr. Arun Prasad, Chief of Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Centre, Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.

The surgeons at the Urology forum in Chandigarh will learn from some of the best known surgeons in the field, a variety of techniques in robot-assisted radical prostate removal without affecting the nerve that is involved in urinary bladder control.

The pediatric surgeon's conference will cover the reconstruction of rare gastrointestinal tract, urinary system and lungs among newborns and infants using the surgical robot.

Robotic surgery, most beneficial for removing cancerous body cells, malignancies, tumours, is also used for repair and reconstruction of body parts like urinary bladder, uterus and pancreas.

"A da Vinci surgical robot is a bit of a miracle worker, an obedient assistant to an accomplished surgeon that enhances her ability to get a magnified view, allowing maneuverability that far exceeds a human hand. The big advantage is to do away with big cuts making healing far less painful and quicker," said Dr. Gagan Gautam, Head, Urologic Oncology and Robotic Surgery, Max Institute of Cancer Care, New Delhi.

A trained surgeon is in charge every second of the way. A da Vinci robot is a breakthrough in minimally invasive surgery and a major step up from laparoscopic procedures. It means negligible blood loss, less pain, shorter post-op care and minimal hospital stay.

"Trained robotic surgeons contribute to the body of knowledge around procedures. Vattikuti Foundation and hundreds of surgeons around the world have worked in several specialties to develop new procedures using a robotic instrument. The conferences will help spread a new body of knowledge," said Gopal Chakravarthy, CEO Of Vattikuti Technologies which has been working closely with Intuitive Surgical Inc. and Vattikuti Foundation to popularise Robotic Surgery in India.

Robotic Surgery allows for a hugely magnified view of the damaged tissue and provides very fine and precise instruments needed to access them inside the body and carry out the repair needed.

When working with a da Vinci, the surgeon, a specialist not only in the use of the machine, but also in his or her own field of surgery, is controlling the robotic arms, sending the right instrument in to remove or repair tissue. Because it is so precise, there is less chance of collateral damage. And because the cuts and incisions needed to send the robotic arms in are so tiny, the patient doesn't have to suffer the not-insignificant trauma of full cut-open surgery.

Robotic Surgery fits almost every situation involving soft tissue. It is certainly proving better than traditional surgery in many gynecological cancers, head & neck and thoracic surgery, removal of organs such as the kidney, liver, pancreas, thyroid, prostrate, and uterus, urology ailments and more. Robotic Surgery is also being explored more and more for pediatric patients.

The Roving da Vinci Robot

The 'Roving Robot' project instituted by the Vattikuti Foundation allows doctors, surgeons and students of medicine to touch, feel and learn about benefits of robotic surgery that the Detroit-based Vattikuti Foundation has been evangelising in India. Vattikuti Technologies distributes the da Vinci robot created by US-based Intuitive Technologies.

Since July 2016, Intuitive Surgical Inc. authorized Training and Certification center at Amrita Hospital in Kochi has trained over 150 multi-specialty surgeons from India and neighboring countries.

India has a pool of over 300 trained surgeons who are giving their best to the patients as also acting as mentors to expanding pool of robotic trained surgeons.

Vattikuti Foundation is executing a comprehensive plan to grow the pool of trained Robotic Surgeons in India from the current to 500 by 2020. This will be achieved through Vattikuti Scholar and Vattikuti Fellowship programs.

Vattikuti Foundation began promoting Robotic Surgery in the US in 1997 and has since played a stellar role in spreading it across the USA, Europe and India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three people have been arrested from New Jalpaiguri Railway station near Siliguri in West-Bengal with gold worth Rs 1.2 crore.

Acting on a tip off the Director of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Siliguri unit, seized Switzerland Gold bars and biscuits last night. The bars and biscuits weighted 3.618kg.

The gold is believed to be of foreign origin and estimated to be valued around 1.2 crore in the market.

The gold was seized from Padatik Express which was coming from Coochbehar.

According to Ratan Banik, lawyer for the DRI, the three arrested persons, Nitish Debnath, Rupam Sen and Pradip Debnath are residents of Coochbehar. The three accused were produced in a court in Siliguri by the DRI officers today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)To mark the birth anniversary of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, state government on Saturday presented gold rings to seven babies who were born today.

Minister D Jayakumar visited the Government Raja Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar (RSRM) hospital in Royapuram where he presented gold rings to the newborns.

"We have been celebrating Amma's birthday in a unique way so as to benefit the common people. It is in this direction, we have given gold-rings to seven babies who were born today. Also, today PM Modi will launch subsidised Scooty scheme for working women," Jayakumar told media.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami unveiled a statue of late chief minister Jayalalithaa at All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Headquarters in Chennai.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached Chennai to launch the Tamil Nadu government's Amma Two-wheeler Scheme.

The scheme, which aims at providing 50 percent subsidy to all the working women to buy two-wheelers, was a pet project of Jayalalithaa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump on Friday announced new sanctions on North Korea, specifically targeting the country's shipping and trading companies, in a fitting response to further isolate the communist country economically.

Announcing the new sanctions at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) here, Trump imposed sanctions against 27 entities and 28 ship vessels either registered or flagged in several countries, including North Korea, China and Singapore, the CNN reported.

16 North Korean shipping companies and nine international shipping companies were added to the US sanctions' list.

The US also included a Taiwanese citizen named Tsang Yung Yuan in the list, who has coordinated North Korea coal exports with a Russia-based North Korean broker. Tsang has a record of sanctions evasion activities, according to the US Treasury Department.

"The US is aggressively targeting all illicit avenues used by North Korea to evade sanctions, including taking decisive action to block vessels, shipping companies, and entities across the globe that work on North Korea's behalf." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

In an advisory, the Treasury Department, the US State Department and the US Coast Guard, have also warned the public of significant sanctions they could face if they help to enable any shipments of goods to and from North Korea.

The advisory has also alerted the industries of North Korea's deceptive shipping practices.

"The President has made it clear to the companies worldwide that if they choose to fund North Korea's nuclear ambitions, they will not do business with the United States," Mnuchin added.

While the new sanctions solely focus on "elicit maritime activity," administration officials clarified that it is aimed at denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

"The President is clearly frustrated, and rightly so, over efforts that have failed in the past and also over the uptick in testing and the advancements we have seen in the North Korean program in the recent period of time and over the last couple of decades. The point of these sanctions is not just to punish the rogue nation, but to raise the cost of doing business with North Korea for other countries," an official said.

North Korea has been known to falsify and conceal information displayed on its vessels and conduct ship-to-ship transfers, which is currently prohibited by the United Nations.

The new sanctions come as the Trump's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka is in Pyeongchang in South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Games on Sunday.

Continuing his tirade against North Korea, Trump on Friday said that Washington could initiate military action on Pyongyang if the new sanctions do not curb the communist country's nuclear ambitions.

We'll have to see. I don't think I'm going to exactly play that card. But we'll have to see. If the sanctions don't work we'll have to go to phase two. Phase two may be a very rough thing. May be very, very unfortunate for the world," Trump continued.

"But hopefully the sanctions will work. We have tremendous support all around the for what they're doing. It really is a rogue nation. If they can make a deal it will be a great thing. If we can't, something will have to happen. So we'll see," Trump asserted during his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence hinted that the US would impose the "largest and toughest" ever sanctions on North Korea.

The US and North Korea have long been engaged in back-and-forth barbs over the latter's threat of a nuclear attack, ever since Trump took over as the US President last year.

Trump threatened to rain "fire and fury" on North Korea and also called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a "Little Rocket Man", while North Korea denounced Trump as a "mentally deranged" US dotard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Saturday unanimously backed a 30-day ceasefire resolution in Syria to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

The vote comes in response to the seven-day airstrikes and bombings in the war-torn country that has claimed over 500 lives so far.

UN Secretary-General appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to "war activities" there and had referred to the Syrians living in the Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus as "Hell on Earth", according to media reports.

Earlier, the UNSC was supposed to vote on the ceasefire in Syria on Thursday, which is seeing a bloody six-year-old civil war.

Negotiations stumbled over Russian demands that the rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces should comply with the resolution.

Russia, which is also a permanent member of the Security Council vetoed 11 times to protect the Syrian government.

The draft resolution, put forward by Kuwait and Sweden, earlier called for a nationwide resolution to go into effect within 72 hours after the resolution is passed. Medical evacuations and aid deliveries would start 48 hours after adopting the resolution. However, the plan did not materialise.

The Bashar-led Syrian government and its close ally Russia have repeatedly said that the motive of airstrikes is to target militants.

They have said that they seek to stop mortar attacks injuring dozens in Damascus, and have accused the militants in Eastern Ghouta of capturing and holding people as "human shields".

Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

The Syrian military forces have not commented on the resolution so far.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on the Russian President Vladimir Putin to back the ceasefire resolution.

In November last year, Russia used its veto power to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Nearly 500 people, including 100 children, have died and hundreds more injured in the last seven days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

At least 35 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, the SOHR said in a statement.

Eastern Ghouta, which houses around 400,000 residents, has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years.

In May last year, Russia, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement to set up de-escalation zones, in order to prevent airstrike-related incidents in some parts of Syria.

The de-escalation zones include- Idlib province, some parts of Latakia province, Hama and Aleppo provinces, Homs, Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and al-Quneitra provinces in southern Syria.

Syria has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011. Protesters have been long demanding the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his autocratic rule.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has delayed a vote on a demand for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria and has put it back until Saturday.

The vote has already been reportedly delayed several times since Thursday.

The resolution aims at ending the carnage in the eastern Ghouta district and elsewhere in Syria.

After a vote was scheduled and delayed three times, the Security Council members were unable to settle on language that could gain Russia's support, the Washington Post reported.

As a permanent member of the council, Russia has veto power, and has used it 11 times to protect the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the report said.

"Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley posted on Twitter.

The draft, put forward by Kuwait and Sweden, calls for a nationwide truce to go into effect 72 hours after the resolution is passed. Medical evacuations and aid deliveries would start 48 hours after that.

According to the report, at least 700 sick and injured people are believed to be in need of medical evacuation to hospitals only a few miles away in Damascus.

Robert Mardini, the top representative for the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Middle East, said he was "shocked" by the level of violence around Eastern Ghouta and called for immediate access to its civilians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)John Rogers one of the credited writers for the 2004 infamous superwoman flick 'Catwoman' has described the movie as a badly made one.

Taking to Twitter, he described the Halle Berry starrer as 'shit' and admitted to feeling ashamed to be part of this project.

He said, " It was a shit movie dumped by the studio at the end of a style cycle".

A commentator D.C McAllister commented on the success of Marvel's Black Panther by tweeting about the comment made by the former First Lady of US, Michelle Obama as the latter compared the movie with 'Catwoman'.

She said, "Michelle Obama says it's about time black kids have a superhero that reflects who they are. Why didn't we hear this when Halle Berry as Catwoman was released years ago?"

The 'Transformers' writer in reply to the tweet went on to term the Catwoman movie as a 'bad take'.

He added, " The movie had a zero cultural relevance, either in front of or behind the camera".

He further admitted to have never seen the movie in one-go.

He said, "Also full disclosure: I've never watched the movie all the way through in one sitting. I skipped premiere night to shoot audition footage for Global Frequency. And they'd fired me anyway for, you know, snark".

Catwoman was released in 2004 and was panned universally.

The Pitoff-directorial was nominated for seven categories in the Golden Raspberry Awards which are a satirical version of the prestigious Golden Globe Awards acknowledging the worst movies in the Hollywood.

Catwoman won the awards for Worst Picture,Worst Actress, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay as the 100 million dollars budgeted film managed to gross just 82 million dollars.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bangalore Fort Farms will hold a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company on 05 March 2018, to make investments within the limits prescribed under section 186 of the companies act, 2013, to increase borrowings of the company under section 180(1)(c), to make investments exceeding the limits prescribed under section 186 of the companies act, 2013, to raise funds by issue of securities, convertible/non-convertible, by way of private offerings and/or qualified institutional placement or any combination thereof, to consider and approve postal ballot notice in accordance with section 110 of the companies act, 2013, to appoint the Scrutinizer for conducting the Postal ballot in a Fair and Transparent manner.

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Digital EditorUS Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said yesterday that the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan is nearly ready to be publicly released. In a speech Thursday at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics, Haley noted that the plan was still being written, but could be in its final stages.

The news came a day after US President Donald Trump's two top envoys on the Middle East, son-in-law Jared Kushner and adviser Jason Greenblatt, met with UN Security Council ambassadors and asked for their support of the upcoming peace plan. Palestinian leaders have said the Jerusalem decision means the United States can no longer be an honest broker. She added that she thinks the plan "won't be loved and won't be hated" by either of the two sides.

These comments come two days after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made a speech to the UN Security Council in which he requested the UN find an alternative to exclusively US-mediated negotiations.

Haley was interviewed by the institute's director, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama David Axelrod.

"I do have hope, I do have faith", Haley said. Right now they're in conflict.

She also said that in her opinion, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority "are pushing toward a two-state solution". She has repeatedly used her seat on the UN Security Council to defend Israel from global "bullies", and Trump's Jerusalem decision marked the first time since the UN-brokered partition of Palestine in 1947 that a president of the USA - a member of the Middle East Quartet, which is charged with mediating the peace process between Palestine and Israel - has departed from the established policy that the issue of Jerusalem as Israel's capital should be kept off the table.The Kerala Police on Saturday said it has arrested nine more persons in connection with the murder of a 27-year-old "mentally unfit" tribal man, who was attacked in the forest near Palakkad by a lynch mob for alleged theft.

"Apart from these, another four more are to be arrested," Inspector General of Police M.R. Ajithkumar said. Of the 11 persons named in the Thursday evening attack, police arrested two on Friday while nine were arrested on Saturday. Eight have been charged for murder.

Ajithkumar, who is leading the probe, told the media that all 11 accused were in police custody.

"The reason for the death is injury caused to the head," Ajithkumar said quoting Madhu's autopsy report. The perpetrators have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal code and the Forest Act, including murder and illegal confinement.

The autopsy report of Madhu has revealed that the victim died of severe internal bleeding.

Madhu, who was attacked by the lynch mob in the forest near Palakkad on Thursday evening, later died at a police station, after suffering severe injuries to his head, ribs and chest.

Following the autopsy, the body was taken to his home near Agali in Palakkad district on Saturday.

Madhu's sister Chandrika has accused the Forest Department officials of failing to do their duty.

"Madhu lived in the forest in a cave and access to this place is only to those who have the right. We are surprised how this group of people managed to go into the forest and beat him up," Chandrika said.

"Moreover, after he was beaten up, he was made to walk from inside the forest to the police station. He was hardly able to walk," Chandrika said describing the attack that took the social media and the Pinarayi Vijayan government by storm.

"When Madhu asked for water, he was teased and after giving a few drops they dropped the rest of the water on the ground to mock him."

Chandrika said while an injured Madhu struggled to walk with his injuries, a forest department jeep followed him.

State Forest Minister P. Raju told media persons that he will look into the matter raised by Chandrika, and appropriate action would be taken against the offenders.

Madhu was beaten to death after his hands were tied using his dhoti by a group of people who accused him of theft, according to the victim's mother.

The entire episode was filmed on a mobile phone and posted on social media which evoked a huge furore against the savagery that was committed by the group of people.

Chief Minister Vijayan, in a Facebook post on Saturday, announced that the state government would give ex-gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to Madhu's family.

State Minister for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes A.K. Balan who hails from the same district said he will be visiting the tribal village in Agali on Sunday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 22 Afghan Army soldiers were killed in a massive Taliban attack on a military camp in western Farah province overnight, an official said on Saturday.

"Militants numbering hundreds attacked an Army camp in Kanesk area of Bala Buluk district on Friday night. The Army soldiers fought back the attackers but some 22 soldiers lost their lives in the fighting," Naser Mehri, spokesman of the provincial government, told Xinhua news agency.

Several militants were also killed and wounded during the gun battle, but their number could not be exactly specified, the official said.

The Afghan Army and police have repulsed Taliban multi-pronged attacks against the provincial capital Farah within the past months as the militants have been trying to capture full control of the city and outer parts.

Violence has been on the rise as the Afghan security forces struggle against a surge in attacks by anti-government fighters since the drawdown of foreign forces in the past three years.

The Taliban militants have not made any comment about the report so far.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Adani Group will invest Rs 9,000 crore in projects across different sectors in Andhra Pradesh, it announced on Saturday.

Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Group, made the announcement at the inaugural session of "CII Partnership Summit" in this coastal city.

He said the investment would be made in the state over the next five years.

The group signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the Andhra Pradesh government on the first day of the three-day event.

He said the Adani Group would develop a greenfield seaport at Bhavanapadu in Srikakulam district.

Adani also announced setting up of a 1,000MW renewable energy project and battery storage facility in the state.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday invited investors to invest in the sunrise state, promising to bring down the energy cost and assuring them that he is only a call away to address any problem.

At the inaugural session of CII Partnership Summit, he told the investors that water, land and electricity will not be a problem while they will get all clearances for setting up an industry within 21 days.

Pitching Andhra Pradesh as a preferred investment destination, he said the state had potential with skilled labour, 1,000 km sea coast, and well developed infrastructure including ports and airports.

Recalling that he undertook first generation reforms in power sector when he was the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Naidu said he had now launched second generation reforms to bring down the energy cost with generation of solar and wind energy.

"I am only a call away. If you have any problems in getting clearances, call me," he told the investors.

Over 2,500 delegates including 230 delegates from 60 countries and ministers from 14 countries are participating in the three-day Summit, being held in the truncated state for the third year in a row.

The Summit is expected to see signing of at least 281 MoUs, envisaging investments of over Rs 2.56 lakh crore with a potential to create employment for 4.25 lakh people.

The Chief Minister claimed that during the last three years, as many as 1946 MoUs were signed involving a commitment of Rs 13.54 lakh crore investments and 31 lakh jobs.

"Out of theme, 1,153 projects with committed investment of Rs 5.69 lakh crore and committed employment of 11.1 lakh have either gone to production or in advanced stage. This conversion rate of 59 percent is highest in the country," he said.

Naidu said the state had set a target of Rs 10 lakh crore investment and 20 lakh jobs in five years.

"Our goal is to become number one state in the country by 2029 in terms of per capita income and growth. As of now, ours is the only state in the country which has clocked double digit growth consistently for the last three years," he said.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu lauded the progress achieved by Andhra Pradesh in the last three years despite facing the challenges of bifurcation and how the state had the potential to grow into an automobile hub, besides in jewellery, agro-industries sector and leather industries.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Noted social activist Anna Hazare will visit Lucknow on Monday to moblise support for the Lokpal and Lokayukta, one of his aides said on Saturday.

"The visit will be an attempt to mobilise public support for the Lokpal at national level and Lokayukta at the state level," Hazare's close associate Sunil Lal informed IANS.

"Following the forthcoming March 23 Satyagrah at Delhi, Anna Hazare would be in Uttar Pradesh for two days," he added.

The legislation to have an effective Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in all the states -- despite having been passed by Parliament in December 2013 -- has made little headway.

In fact, it was further diluted when in July 2017 it extended for the fifth time the deadline for filing of asset declarations by the nearly 50 lakh central government employees and their spouses, and NGOs receiving government funds, organisers of the Hazare visit said.

Anna Hazare will be in Lucknow on Monday and will spend the next day in Sitapur before leaving for Pune on Wednesday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Invoking the teachings of 12th century social reformer Basavanna, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that his party's government in Karnataka gave a clean administration in the last five years.

"Following the teachings of Basavanna, our party has given a clean administration over the last five years in Karnataka. We have developed rapidly and did not make any fake promises," said Gandhi at a public rally here in Belagavi district.

Gandhi, who is on a three-day visit to the state's erstwhile Bombay-Karnataka region, said the Congress government in the southern state had truly imbibed the philosophy of Basavanna's teachings -- follow what you preach.

"Basavanna said: 'Do not harm'. But under the Modi government, atrocities against Dalits, Adivasis and minorities have been on the rise. We started celebrating Akka Mahadevi Jayanti and Kittur Rani Chennamma Jayanti. The BJP only talks, it didn't do anything when it was in power in the state earlier (2008-13)," asserted Gandhi.

Noting that women's empowerment is an integral goal of the state's development, Gandhi said the Congress government had implemented many schemes, which helped the women improve their life and unlock their potential.

"For the benefit of women, our government has launched 'Anila Bhagya' scheme to provide free cooking gas connection and stove to about 30 lakh families. 'Mathrupoorna' scheme meets the nutritional needs of pregnant women," reiterated Gandhi.

Participating in the "Jana Ashirwade Yatra" (seeking people's blessings) to return to power in the ensuing assembly election, the party chief repeatedly quoted Basavanna.

"Basavanna had said five things -- don't indulge in theft, don't indulge in violence, do not lie, do not boast about yourself and don't spread anger," recalled Gandhi in a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

"Basavanna's first sermon is 'don't indulge in theft'. Modi says the Congress government in Karnataka is corrupt. When he says it, on his right side is his chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa who had gone to jail, on the other side, four more ministers who too had gone to jail," pointed out Gandhi.

"He (Modi) banned high currency notes, implemented GST (Gabbar Singh Tax) and destroyed lakhs of businesses, but Jay Shah's (BJP President Amit Shah's son) business turned into Rs 80 crore from Rs 50,000 within three months. But Modi does not speak about it," recalled Gandhi.

Quoting Basavanna's other sermon -- don't indulge in violence, Gandhi accused the Modi government of dividing society on communal lines.

Interacting with hundreds of women at Tikota in the neighbouring Vijayapura district, Gandhi said Karnataka was the first state in the country to have an industrial park for women entrepreneurs.

"Karnataka is ahead of most states in empowering women. We believe that everyone should have equal opportunities," added Gandhi.

State Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, party's state unit president G. Parameshwara, other state leaders and cabinet ministers from the state's northwest region accompanied Gandhi on his day-long visit to the districts of Belagavi, Vijayapura and Chikkodi.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The protest against withdrawal of financial aid given to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) scholars at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) continued for the fourth day on Saturday with the agitating students refusing to back down.

The Students Union is protesting since Wednesday against the withdrawal of financial aid to the Government of India-Post Matriculation Scholarship (GOI-PMS) students from SC/ST category across all the campuses of the institute.

Though the institute's administration offered some concessions, the students said they were not enough.

"On Thursday, the administration had agreed to exempt the SC/ST students of the 2016-18 batch from paying the hostel and dining hall fees," Professor P.K. Shahjahan, Dean, Office of Students' Affairs at TISS told IANS.

"If they are not able to pay now, they can pay it later when they get a job or scholarship is credited to their account. They will be allowed to appear for their examinations," he said.

However, a Union leader rejected this offer. "The 2016-18 batch SC/ST students have been told that they need not pay the fees now, but after they get jobs. Payment has been postponed not waived off," the student leader said, adding that the administration has not promised any relief for the OBC students and students of the 2017-2019 batch and upcoming batches.

The students decided to continue with their protest till the demands are fulfilled, even as the TISS administration said that they have not stopped any scholarships and are strictly following all government guidelines.

"The scholarship is a matter between the government and the students, the institute has no role either in the sanction or disbursement of the scholarships. The GOI-PMS is paid by the Social Welfare Department/Tribal Welfare Department of the respective state directly to the student," Shahjahan said.

"As per the government rule, we are not charging any course fee from the students of reserved category. They are only required to pay dining hall charges and hostel fees," he said.

"We are working to find resources and hope that we will be in a position to provide further subsidisation for the coming batches as well," he added.

The Post Matric Scholarship scheme is a centrally sponsored Scheme implemented by the state governments, providing financial assistance to the Scheduled Caste students studying at post matriculation or post-secondary stage to enable them to complete their

On Wednesday, after securing a successful shut down of all classes in the campus, around 500 students gathered at the TISS main gate and blocked the gate here.

Since then, the protesting students have been sitting at the main gate of the campus, even sleeping there at night.

TISS students at the Hyderabad, Guwahati and Tuljapur campuses also held protests.

The students are getting the support of TISS SC/ST Employee's Welfare Association and the TISS Teachers' Association. They are also being supported by TISS Alumni along with students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Delhi University Student Union, All India Students' Association, among others.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court has asked the Central government to set up a Committee of Experts to examine whether the statutory framework for disciplining and regulating the multinational accounting firms (MAFs) operating in the breach of Chartered Accountants Act requires a fresh look.

The top court asked the government to set up a three member expert committee to look into the question, "whether and to what extent the statutory framework to enforce the letter and spirit of Sections 25 and 29 of the Chartered Accountant Act and the statutory Code of Conduct for the Chartered Accountants requires revisit so as to appropriately discipline and regulate MAFs".

The committee, to be set up within two months, the court said, "may call for suggestions from all concerned" and its report "may be submitted within three months thereafter."

"The Union of India may take further action after due consideration of such report", the court said in its directions.

Section 25 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 says, "No company, whether incorporated in India or elsewhere, shall practise as chartered accountants", while Section 29 providing for reciprocal arrangement says that a subject of a country where an Indian accountancy professional can't practice too would not be allowed to practice in India or become a member of ICAI.

The Committee may also consider the need for an appropriate legislation on the pattern of Sarbanes Oxley Act, 2002 and Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, 2010 in US or any other appropriate mechanism for oversight of profession of the auditors, said the judgement by the bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit delivered on February 23.

The Expert Committee, the court said, may also consider "steps for effective enforcement of the provisions of the FDI policy and the FEMA Regulations referred to above".

"It may identify the remedial measures which may then be considered by appropriate authorities."

Another question that Expert Committee may examine, according to Justice Goel speaking for the bench, is "... whether on account of conflict of interest of auditors with consultants, the auditors' profession may need an exclusive oversight body ..."

Besides other material, the court said that the three member committee may examine the report of the Study Group and the Expert Group.

The Study Group was set-up by the Council of the ICAI in July 1994 to examine attempts of MAFs to operate in India without formal registration with the ICAI and without being subject to any discipline and control. This was in the wake of liberalization policy and signing of GATT by India.

The Expert Group was set-up in the wake of the Satyam scam, and decisions of the ICAI laying down the Code of Conduct.

In its report submitted on July 29, 2011, the Expert Group said that "MAFs are rendering services which are rendered by the CAs in terms of Section 2(2) of the CA Act... They solicit professional work in international brand name. They have registered Indian CA firms with ICAI with the same brand names which are their integral part."

"There is no regulatory regime for their accountability. Thus, the principle of reciprocity under Section 29 of the CA Act, Section 25 prohibiting corporates from chartered accountancy practice and Code of Ethics prohibiting advertisement and fee sharing are flouted."

The court verdict came on a plea on petitions by S.Sukumar and NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), who had sought investigation of MAFs and Indian Chartered Accountancy Firms (ICAFs) operating in India in breach of Code of Professional Conduct under the Chartered Accountants Act and its other provisions.

The petitioners had also sought penal action against them by cancelling their way of cancellation of permission by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to practice.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) on Saturday signed MoUs with Andhra Pradesh government to invest Rs 3,730 crore in the state.

The MoUs, spanning across e-mobility, energy efficiency and renewable energy and aimed to create 15,000 jobs, were signed at CII Partnership Summit, which began here on Saturday.

The MoUs entail supply of 10,000 electric cars and 4,000 chargers to various departments of Andhra Pradesh through NREDCAP; supply of approximately 17 lakh smart energy meters to both power distribution companies in the state - APEPDCL and APSPDCL, and establishment of small solar PV-based power projects in phases.

Through the MoUs, EESL, a joint venture of PSUs under the Union Power Ministry, hopes to save Rs 3,185 crore.

The MoUs were signed in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar.

"The signing of these MoUs underscores our commitment to enabling more innovation, transformation and transparency through cost-effective and scalable solutions," said Saurabh Kumar.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One of the accused in the $1.8 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, Gitanjali Gem's owner Mehul Choksi has written to a letter to his employees claiming his innocence stating that the company cannot pay the employees their dues at present.

"I am constrained to write the present email to you all concerned, as a situation of fear and injustice has been created against me and our organisation," Choksi wrote in the letter.

"But, now, with false allegations levelled against me of defrauding the PNB Bank and media frenzy, the situation has gone grave, which is turning graver by day," he added.

He further said: "It is very tough for me, as of now, to be clearing your dues or to pay the future salaries, in view of the seizing of various bank accounts and other properties by the government agencies/ investigating agencies."

Choksi said the company has worked with honesty and integrity.

"Though I am aware that a lot of hard work has been put by you all to bring our organisation to where it is today, but as of now, I am facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigating agencies/ government agencies have started to create a havoc, hell bent upon stopping the operations," he said.

"However, the fact remains that as of today, the justice that I deserve is far off, as it shall take time to prove my innocence, and the future seems uncertain presently."

He said: "I will face my destiny and I know that I have done nothing wrong, and ultimately, the truth shall prevail. But I do not want anybody to get even a shadow of adversity or injustice just because of their association with me."

Choksi said the "investigating agencies seem to be interested not in a fair investigation but in creating a fear psychosis within my employees. The kind of unfair treatment, unfair investigation, media frenzy and political statements are making me highly insecure about the safety of myself and my family members."

He further said the companies HR has been instructed to issue relieving letters and experience certificates if the employees require it.

Choksi added: "I reiterate that I am committed to clear your past dues, if any, once things return to normalcy."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maxim Group maintained the shares of CMO in report on Friday, January 29 with "Buy" rating. Its up 20.32% from 969,200 shares previously. As traders, we are more interested to take part in strong moves and don't join moves that show weakness - or we may even watch for an entry in the opposite direction of a weak move. Tower Rech Ltd Liability (Trc) reported 0% in Capstead Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:CMO). The company has a market cap of $1,787.10, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.31 and a beta of 0.67. About 338,503 shares traded. Capstead Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:CMO) has risen 6.72% since February 21, 2017 and is uptrending. It has underperformed by 4.18% the S&P500.

Columbia Pacific Advisors Llc increased its stake in W & T Offshore Inc (WTI) by 23.39% based on its latest 2017Q3 regulatory filing with the SEC. Evergreen Capital Management Llc acquired 8,408 shares as Wells Fargo Co New (WFC)'s stock declined 8.66%. This trading sentiment put the stock on Active spotlight. W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE:WTI) has risen 11.39% since February 22, 2017 and is uptrending. The analyst recommendations from a month ago are 1 Buy, 0 Strong Buy, 0 Sell, 0 Hold and 0. Therefore 56% are positive. The company was maintained on Friday, August 11 by Jefferies.

On the other hand the company has Relative Strength Index (RSI 14) of 44.31 along with Average True Range (ATR 14) of 0.19, Consequently Capstead Mortgage Corp (NYSE:CMO)'s weekly and monthly volatility is 2.16%, 2.18% respectively. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "buy" rating and set a $18.25 price target on shares of Invesco Mortgage Capital in a research note on Thursday, October 26th. The stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $18.08. The stock of Capstead Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:CMO) earned "Outperform" rating by Wood on Friday, December 8.

Analysts are expecting average earnings estimates of $0.17 for the current quarter based on the opinion of 2 analysts, relating to high earnings per share estimates of $0.17 and low estimates of $0.17, however Capstead Mortgage Corp (NYSE:CMO) reported $0.2 earnings per share for the same quarter past year. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 882,475 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $15,117,000 after acquiring an additional 291,355 shares in the last quarter. (NYSE:CFG) has "Buy" rating given on Sunday, September 17 by Piper Jaffray.

Investors sentiment increased to 1.94 in Q3 2017. Its down 0.09, from 1.29 in 2017Q2. 13 funds opened positions while 59 raised stakes.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in IVR. 70,045 were accumulated by Citigroup. Ls Inv Ltd Liability Company owns 3,405 shares. Capstead Mortgage Corp (NYSE:CMO)'s price to earnings ratio stood at 14.09. Mackenzie Fin reported 37,810 shares or 0% of all its holdings. Voya Limited Liability Corp invested 0% in Capstead Mortgage Corporation (NYSE:CMO). Its book value per share for the most recent quarter is $10.67 while its price to book ratio for the same period is 0.8, as for as the company's cash per share for the most recent quarter is $0.97, however its price to cash per share ratio for the same period is 8.81. 82,250 were reported by New York State Teachers Retirement. Cibc Asset Mngmt Inc accumulated 12,424 shares. The stock price value Change from Open was at 0.00% with a Gap of 0.23%. Telemus Limited Liability Corp owns 36,150 shares or 0.05% of their USA portfolio.

Capstead Mortgage Corporation operates as a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). It has a market cap of $320.99 Million. The Company manages a leveraged portfolio of residential mortgage pass-through securities consisting of relatively short-duration adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) securities issued and guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises, either Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), or by an agency of the federal government, the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). The firm has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. Its down 0.09, from 1.29 in 2017Q2. It turned negative, as 92 investors sold WFC shares while 725 reduced holdings. (NYSE:CFG) for 5.82M shares. 49,953 were accumulated by Old Mutual Glob Investors (Uk) Ltd. After $0.71 actual EPS reported by Citizens Financial Group, Inc. for the previous quarter, Wall Street now forecasts 5.63% EPS growth. Principal holds 0.03% or 818,023 shares. Wellington Mgmt Gp Llp, a Massachusetts-based fund reported 219,728 shares. Orrstown Finance Services Incorporated has 190 shares. Institutional owners hold 73.60% stake while Insiders ownership held at 0.80% in the company. Deutsche Bancshares Ag has invested 0% of its portfolio in W&T Offshore, Inc.Google Assistant is set to get smarter as the company makes it ready to be multilingual and be available in more than 30 languages, including Hindi, by the end of this year.

The search engine giant's digital assistant will be able to respond by text in Hindi, Danish, Dutch, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android smartphones and Apple iPhones.

"The Assistant is already available in eight languages, and by the end of the year it will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 per cent of all eligible Android phones worldwide," Nick Fox, Vice President of Product, Google wrote in a blog post late on Friday.

"We're also making the Assistant multilingual later this year, so families or individuals that speak more than one language can speak naturally to the Assistant.

"With this new feature, the Assistant will be able to understand you in multiple languages fluently. If you prefer to speak German at work, but French at home, your Assistant is right there with you," Fox added.

Multilingual will initially be available in English, French and German with support for more languages coming over time.

Google Assistant currently responds in eight languages by text on Android phones including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and China, during Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale's two-day Beijing visit, have stressed that "sound development of relations" between them will help in bringing stability to today's world, the External Affairs Ministry said on Saturday.

The visit comes amid a host of diplomatic issues the two countries are having to contend with, including the situation in the Maldives.

The ministry said, in a statement, that during the course of his visit on Friday and Saturday, Gokhale held talks with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou.

"During the consultations, the two sides reviewed recent developments in bilateral relations, including high level exchanges, and discussed the agenda for bilateral engagement in the coming months," the statement said.

"Both sides agreed upon the need to expedite various dialogue mechanisms in order to promote multifaceted cooperation across diverse fields of India-China engagement," it added.

According to the statement, both sides "noted the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's concerns, interests and aspirations".

"Both sides underlined that as two major countries, sound development of relations between India and China is a factor of stability in the world today," it said, adding both also discussed regional and international issues of "common interest".

The visit of Gokhale, who has served as India's Ambassador to China, comes amid the raging political crisis in the Maldives where President Abdulla Yameen has imposed a state of emergency in wake of the country's Supreme Court at the beginning of this month terming unjust the imprisonment of nine MPs and former President Mohammed Nasheed.

His visit also comes in the wake of last year's 73-day standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at the Doklam plateau in Bhutan. This came even as tensions have been continuing between the two for decades over the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control border issue.

India has also raised objections to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a part of Beijing's One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, as it passes through Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

China is the only country that has been blocking India's membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) on the ground that for a country to be a member of the 48-nation bloc, it should be a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Another major irritant has been Beijing's continuous scuppering of New Delhi's efforts to put the name of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group's leader Masood Azhar on the UN list of designated terrorists.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India posted 172/7 in the the third and final Twenty20 International (T20I) against South Africa here on Saturday.

Rookie pacer Junior Dala came up with an excellent performance in what was the second T20I of his fledgling career with figures of 3/35.

Fellow pacer Chris Morris returned 2/43 while left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi also got a wicket.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan was the highest scorer for India with 47 runs off 40 balls. Suresh Raina also batted well, producing a quick fire 43.

The two of them added 65 runs between them off 49 deliveries which provided a strong platform to the visitors' innings.

Asked to bat first, the Indians started their innings on a promising note with Rohit Sharma smashing two back to back boundaries off Chris Morris in the opening over.

But Dala dismissed him early for the second consecutive match when excellent off the the pitch movement and some poor footwork saw the Indian stand-in captain being trapped leg before in the second over.

Raina brought the innings back on track with a power packed 27-ball innings which included five boundaries and a six. He fell in the 10th over to Shamsi when he failed to clear the long-on boundary and was caught by Farhaan Behardien.

The in-form Manish Pandey did not last long, falling to a short-pitched delivery from Dala which cramped him for space and his mistimed pull holed out to David Miller at long-on.

Dhawan also fell soon after when an accurate throw by Dala from deep mid-wicket caught him short of his crease.

The visitors kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as the South African bowlers restricted them to a manageable total.

Brief scores:

India: 172/7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 47, Suresh Raina 43; Junior Dala 3/35) vs South Africa.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nearly 33 per cent of people, specially the younger generation that has grown up in a digital world, care more for their smartphones over engaging with individuals they love and India tops the list with 47 per cent, a report said on Saturday.

The study by telecommunications company Motorola, which is developed in partnership with Nancy Etcoff -- expert in 'Mind-Brain Behaviour and the Science of Happiness', from Harvard University, said: "We, as a generation, are losing control of our lives."

"Over half of the respondents (53 per cent) described their smartphones as their best friend and companion. India tops the chart with 65 per cent," the study, issued by the independent research company Ipsos, noted.

India again topped the list with 64 per cent when it came to people wanting help with phone-life balance.

The global numbers stand at 61 per cent where individuals said they wanted to get the most out of their lives when they were not using their phones.

Motorola defines phone-life balance as the desire to have a to support lives without becoming the center of it.

The study pinpointed key problematic smartphone behaviours that impacted people's relationships with others and themselves.

"Approximately 50 per cent people agreed that they check their phone more often than they would like and nearly 44 per cent felt compelled to perpetually check their phones. India figures at the top with 65 per cent and 57 per cent respectively," the study found.

Almost 35 per cent of the respondents agreed that they are spending too much time using their phones with 44 per cent of them belonging to Gen Z -- people who were born from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s.

India figures at the top with 48 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.

Further to this, 53 per cent Indians said that they would be happier if they spent less time on their smartphones.

Nearly, 65 per cent people panic when they think they have lost their smartphone.

"India stands at the top in emotional overdependence of phone with 77 per cent of respondents admitting that they panic when they lose their phone," the study said.

Even while not using their smartphones, 46 per cent Indians were thinking about using it the next time that they get a chance to check their devices.Following the Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank fraud by accused diamond trader Nirav Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday ruled out privatisation of public sector banks (PSBs), saying the move may not find political consensus.

In light of the PNB scam that has rocked the Indian banking system since February 14, the industry chambers Ficci, Assocham and CII have urged the government to surrender its majority control of banks and allow them to function like private sector lenders.

"This (privatisation) involves a large political consensus. Also, that involves an amendment to the law (Banking Regulation Act), as well as amendment in the political consensus," Jaitley said at the ET Global Business Summit here.

"My impression is that Indian political opinion may not find favour with this idea itself. It's a very challenging decision," he said.

Industry chamber Assocham said last week that the PNB scam should act as a "strong trigger" for the government to surrender its majority control of banks which should then be allowed to work on the lines of private sector lenders with a full sense of accountability to their shareholders and protecting interest of depositors.

Noting that recapitalisation of state-run banks over the last decade has had little impact on improving their health, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) called for their privatisation in the interest of creating "a dynamic banking sector" in the country.

Jaitley said the question of "moral hazard" comes up in using taxpayers money to recapitalise banks that are hugely stressed on account of their accumulated non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans.

The accumulated NPAs in the Indian banking system have crossed a staggering Rs eight lakh crore, with PSBs themselves accounting for over Rs seven lakh crore of bad loans.

In the face of this, the cabinet, in October 2017, approved a recapitalisation plan for PSBs worth Rs 2.11 lakh crore.

On Friday, Ficci President Rashesh Shah told reporters he had met the Union Finance Minister with a request to begin the process of bank privatisation in a phased manner, leaving just a handful of lenders in the public sector.

The Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has also advocated more private participation in public sector banks.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kabul has started discussions with the Qatari government to close the Talibans office in Doha as it has had "no positive consequence in terms of facilitating the peace talks with the group in Afghanistan", a senior government official has said.

"There is no need to keep the office open", said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, National Security Advisor to President Ashraf Ghani, in an interview with Middle East newspaper Ashraq Al-Awsat earlier this week.

"The aim behind opening (Taliban's) Qatar office was to start official peace negotiations with the terror group from the address, but so far no official negotiation from the office has been started with government. Even a single step has not been taken forward in the peace process through this office," Qadir Shah, a spokesman for Atmar's office said.

"It had no benefit for us even after seven years... It is better to close it," Atmar said.

He also said that Kabul has so far witnessed no sign of "sincere" cooperation from Islamabad in counter-terrorism efforts.

The Taliban had earlier reached out to the US with an offer for talks and urged people to pressurize Washington to bring an end to the invasion of Afghanistan.

The Taliban had said that they preferred to resolve the conflict that began in 2001 through peaceful dialogue and warned that the use of force alone would complicate the problem in Afghanistan.

The group had called on the "American people and the peace loving Congressmen" to pressurize US leadership to end the occupation of the Asian country, a precondition that Taliban has always maintained to begin any negotiation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Some of the most renowned figures from the world of photography have assembled here to participate in the third edition of "Jaipur Photo", an international photography festival held every February in the pink city.

The much anticipated event was inaugurated on Friday. Lola MacDougall, artistic director 2018 edition of the festival, highlighted the addition of Jantar Mantar (Jaipur) in this year's edition which they had been pursuing since the festival's inaugural edition.

"It has taken us three years to find a photographic body of work that does justice to this huge but modestly expressed ambition," she said.

Produced by Orange Cat Productions in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Rajasthan government, a total of 14 exhibitions are being staged across the city of Jaipur.

Locations include the Hawa Mahal, City Palace, Jantar Mantar and the Albert Hall Museum, with site-specific exhibitions and large-format prints adapted to the exceptional architecture of the venues.

MacDougall's speech was followed by the guest curator, Aaron Schuman, who spoke about curating this year's festival on the theme "Homeward Bound", which was inspired from the classic 1966 song by Simon and Garfunkel. He explained in detail about the exhibitions of all the participating photographers.

The keynote speaker Erik Kessels could not attend the festival due to poor health and was replaced by Karen Knorr, who spoke on the topic "Storytelling with Vernacular Photography" with her works.

"We are delighted to welcome the third edition of Jaipur Photo, a festival presenting photography from India and around the world in non-conventional formats and in public spaces. We hope that this eclectic mix of exhibitions scattered across the six venues will provide you with new insights into the 'homes' and 'homelands' of others, and will inspire to personally reflect upon your own idea of home and what it means to you," MacDougall said at the inauguration.

During this weekend, a series of talks, lectures and screenings at the Jawahar Kala Kendra by renowned photographers will complement the festival's exhibitions.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Special Force (SF-10) commandos in Meghalaya on Saturday killed in a gunfight a top Garo rebel leader wanted for his alleged involvement in several killings and bombings in the state.

Acting on a tip off, the commandos raided Sudugre area in East Garo Hills district and shot dead Sohan Dalbot Shira, the military wing chief of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), in a gun battle, a police official said.

"It is confirmed that he has been killed in a gunfight with the SF-10 commandos at 11.50 a.m. and we are waiting for further details of the entire operation," Meghalaya Police chief Swaraj Bir Singh told IANS.

However, the GNLA was yet to issue any statement confirming the death of Shira.

Singh said the gun battle began when the GNLA rebels fired at the commandos.

Shira was wanted in several cases of murder, kidnapping, bombings and extortion in Garo Hills, besides the killing of Nationalist Congress Party candidate, Jonathone Sangma on February 18.

Sangma was killed along with his bodyguard and two party workers in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion in East Garo Hills when their convoy was returning from a campaign.

Congratulating the fearless women and men of the Meghalaya Police who have led an untiring effort and commitment to eliminate enemies of the state, like Shira, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma tweeted: "Their effort has been vindicated and they have left no stone unturned in dealing effectively with criminals and anti-national elements to ensure heightened peace which is a prerequisite for growth and prosperity of our state."

"The committed endeavour of the government to strengthen our internal security apparatus with a zero tolerance policy for militancy has started showing positive results, especially with this latest incident," Sangma tweeted.

"It is now time for all the people from all walks of life to come together and unequivocally pursue the common and shared objective of ensuring the complete restoration of peace in the state and then to maintain it for the kind of development of the state we all envisage and dream of," the Chief Minister said.

The Meghalaya Police has sounded a security alert in the Garo Hills. SF-10 commandos continued their combing operations to track down other rebels.

The GNLA is fighting for a separate "Garoland" in western Meghalaya, led by police officer-turned-rogue champion R. Sangma.

It has also forged an alliance with the Bangladesh-based rebel group, A'chik Special Dragon, and operates jointly with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

Sangma is presently lodged in Shillong jail after being arrested from the India-Bangladesh border on July 30, 2012.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on major banking scams unearthed in the country over the last few days and termed him the "most expensive chowkidar" in the world.

Demanding a probe by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) into the alleged Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, the party demanded that the accountability of the Finance Ministry, the RBI and the management of defaulting banks must be fixed in the next 60 days.

"Modiji used to give a statement everyday against the Congress when a (2G) scam worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore was alleged during the UPA regime.

"That was a presumptive loss. Later, the court said there was no scam at all," senior party leader Kapil Sibal said at a media briefing.

Referring to the banking frauds by diamond jeweller Nirav Modi (worth Rs 11,300 crore) and others (Rotomac loan default worth over Rs 3,000 crore) as "actual" losses, he said: "Why is he (Prime Minister) silent now?"

Modi had spoken about the bank fraud for the first time on Friday at the ET Global Business Summit saying government would take "stern action" against irregulaties.

Sibal said: "The country has faced a loss of around Rs 21,000 crore and other banking frauds will also emerge in the coming days. Another Rs 390 crore OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) scam has also come out."

"He (Narendra Modi) gets a house, a plane; he is the most expensive watchman in the world," he added.

The former Union Minister said that the Prime Minister should explain why these scamsters "gained" while the nation faced losses under his watch.

"Several leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party have connections with these scamsters, who have left the country," he said, asking how Nirav Modi was allowed to escape.

Starting his briefing with a peom, Sibal said: "The banking system is adrift, core banking had escaped the SWIFT, depositors are truly miffed, Why was Nirav given this gift?"

"The time has come to explain, the nation lost, tell us who gained!," he added.

The party also demanded that the Swift communication system of all banks will be connected to their core banking system in 30 days, a check on all Swift messages in the last five years and called on the Prime Minister to assure the people on this.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A new analysis of data from India's Chandrayaan-1 mission and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests that Moon's water may be widely distributed across the surface, not confined to a particular region or type of terrain.

The water appears to be present day and night, though it was not necessarily easily accessible, according to the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

"We find that it doesn't matter what time of day or which latitude we look at, the signal indicating water always seems to be present," said Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute in the US, and lead author of the new study.

"The presence of water doesn't appear to depend on the composition of the surface, and the water sticks around," Bandfield added.

The results contradict some earlier studies, which had suggested that more water was detected at the Moon's polar latitudes and that the strength of the water signal waxes and wanes according to the lunar day (29.5 Earth days).

The findings could help researchers understand the origin of the Moon's water and how easy it would be to use as a resource.

If the Moon has enough water, and if it is reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe.

The new finding of widespread water suggests that it may be present primarily as OH, a more reactive relative of H2O that is made of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom.

OH, also called hydroxyl, does not stay on its own for long, preferring to attack molecules or attach itself chemically to them. Hydroxyl would therefore have to be extracted from minerals in order to be used.

For the study, the researchers analysed data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper spectrometer onboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

They came up with a new way to incorporate important temperature information, creating a detailed model from measurements made by the Diviner instrument on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.

The researchers are still discussing what the findings tell them about the source of the Moon's water.

The results point toward OH and/or H2O being created by the solar wind hitting the lunar surface, though the team did not rule out that OH and/or H2O could come from the Moon itself, slowly released from deep inside minerals where it has been locked since the Moon was formed.

--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 joint opinion piece with Serbia Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, Lavrov wrote that policies of "'either with us or against us' have fueled mistrust and instability on the European continent".

The unveiling was attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who arrived in the capital on February 22 for a two-day visit, alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Bosnian Serbia leader Milorad Dodik.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on Thursday accused the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation of creating an "unhealthy situation" in Europe, while his Serbian hosts thanked Russia for its support and repeated that Serbia will not introduce Western-style sanctions.

Russia's foreign minister is in Serbia on a two-day working visit.

22 de febrero de 2018, 11:00Belgrade, Feb 22 (Prensa Latina) President, Aleksandar Vucic, described as symbol of the brotherhood between Serbs and Russians the solemn presentation of the decorated dome of the Saint Sava Cathedral in this capital.

Lavrov said Wednesday during a visit to Slovenia that being a member of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or the European Union "does not mean it is necessary to avoid contacts with states that are not included in those worldwide organizations", like Russian Federation. Kosovo leaders have to deal with their affairs, because they are already charged with war crimes.

Russia's foreign minister on Wednesday criticized Western policies toward his country, blasting the European Union for failing to maintain good relations with Moscow despite the divisions over Ukraine and many other issues. "Serbia will not change its policy towards Russia", Vucic said, according to Tanjug news agency.

Serbia has refused to join sanctions against Russian Federation over actions in Ukraine. On Thursday, a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic was held.

Brnabic recognized the special potential in cooperation in the field of innovative technologies, science and education.

"Serbia can not defend its national interests without the help of Russia", Dacic said at a joint lecture with Lavrov at Belgrade University at Thursday, according to Sputnik.

St. Sava's Temple is the largest Orthodox church in Serbia and in Europe.At least nine people, including three assailants, were killed and 22 others wounded in three separate suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, authorities said.

In one attack, one intelligence agency officer was killed and 16 civilians injured when a terrorist detonated a truck bomb in front of a provincial intelligence office in Lashkar Gah city, capital of southern Helmand province.

Thirteen children and two women were among the injured in the blast which occurred around 9 a.m. and also damaged several nearby buildings, the local media reported.

The deadly explosion followed a blast in Kabul in which one civilian and two soldiers died and five people injured.

The bombing took place at the entrance to a high-security area -- where embassies and offices of international organisations are located.

The bombing occurred when a man wearing an explosives jacket tried to enter the Green Zone but detonated his vest after being identified at a security checkpoint in Shash Darak, a diplomatic district in central Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told Tolo News.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group reportedly claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack.

In another incident, a militant detonated an explosives-laden hijacked military armoured vehicle at an Army camp in Nad Ali district, west of Lashkar Gah, killing two soldiers and injuring another one, according to Rahimi.

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Helmand province which is notorious for growing poppy and militancy.

The attacks came one day after the country started construction of a major gas project in western Herat province to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to neighbouring Pakistan and India.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Brazil President Michel Temer has denied that he had any plan to run in the upcoming presidential elections in October.

In an interview on Friday, Temer denied that the federal takeover of Rio de Janeiro's public security operations was a move aimed at increasing his popularity so that he could run again, Xinhua news agency reported.

Temer is a former Vice President who took over in 2016 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Over the past week, it has been widely speculated that Temer might run again as the intervention in Rio was conveniently timed, especially as he could use its worsening security to try and boost his approval.

"The intervention is a master move, but it has no electoral motive," Temer said. "I will not be a candidate."

The second speculated motive for the intervention was the voting of a constitutional amendment on social security reform, which was due to take place on February 19, after months of government efforts.

However, Temer decreed the intervention three days before the vote, which the government looked likely to lose. Under Brazilian law, any constitutional changes are suspended when a federal intervention is declared, giving Temer more time to try and garner more votes.

In the same interview, Temer also denied he will create a new tax to finance public security efforts.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Over 59 percent of the 10.5 eligible voters exercised their franchise in the election for 95 wards of the cash-rich Ludhiana Municipal Corporation on Saturday amid reports of clashes, alleged booth capturing, rigging and firing during the day-long voting process.

Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal; and Aam Aadmi Party leaders accused the ruling Congress of malpractices in the municipal election.

Voting began for the biggest municipal body in Punjab, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation which has an annual budget of Rs 1,300 crore, on Saturday morning.

Voters started queuing up before 8 a.m., when the voting officially started. A total of 494 candidates are contesting for the 95 municipal wards.

Results will be announced on February 27. This time the contest was a trinangular one. The main fight is between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party-Lok Insaf Party alliance.

Civic issues like water supply, lack of cleanliness, pollution, bad roads and infrastructure and poor sewerage are the main issues for common people in the election.

The Congress, which runs the government in Punjab since March 2017, had won the municipal elections in the municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in December. It had also emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Panic gripped residents of border villages in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district on Saturday when Pakistan army made loudspeaker announcements asking people living near the Line of Control (LoC) to move to safer areas.

The announcements were made by Pakistan army using public address systems when heavy shelling and firing was going on in the Uri sector between Indian and Pakistan soldiers.

Authorities in Baramulla district have pressed ambulances and other modes of conveyance into service to shift people living in these areas to safer places.

Officials said over 100 people were shifted to safer areas from villages close to LoC in Uri sector.

Already around 500 people have already left behind their homes, cattle and fields to move away from areas close to the LoC in Uri sector.

Reports said some houses have been badly damaged by Pakistan shelling in Silikote and Churanda villages of Uri tehsil.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The voting for the bypoll for Bijepur Assembly constituency in Odisha's Bargarh district is underway on Saturday with voters turning out in large numbers.

The voters queued up outside polling booths much before 8 a.m. when the voting was to start officially. Polling would continue till 5 p.m., said an Election Commission official.

About 2,21,144 voters were slated to exercise their franchise which would decide the fate of 13 candidates, including BJD's Rita Sahu, BJP's Ashok Panigrahi and Congress' Pranaya Sahu.

The bypoll necessitated by the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August 2017, is witnessing a triangular fight between the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Biju Janata Dal.

There are 281 polling booths, out of which 155 have been marked as sensitive or critical.

While the voting was largely peaceful, reports of technical glitches in the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines have come from some booths.

Tight security measures were in place to ensure smooth and peaceful polling. Five platoons of central paramilitary forces, 36 platoons of the state police have been deployed at various strategic points within the constituency.

The results of the by-poll would be declared on February 28.

--IANS

cd/in/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's approach to the next stage of Brexit negotiations seems to be based on "pure illusion", European Council President Donald Tusk has said.

Tusk told a news conference in Brussels that the UK was still trying to "cherry pick" its future relationship with the European Union (EU), BBC reported on Friday.

Tusk said he could only go on media reports of Brexit talks at British Prime Minister's country retreat Chequers on Thursday. Theresa May is set to deliver a key speech setting out British ambitions on Friday.

Tusk, who is due to meet the Prime Minister the day before, said media reports suggested the "cake philosophy is still alive" in the UK.

He added: "If the media reports are correct I am afraid that the UK position today is based on pure illusion."

He went on to reject - as he has done before - any notion of the UK "cherry picking" aspects of its future relationship with the EU or being able to join a "single market a la carte".

Tusk said the EU would continue to be "extremely realistic" during the forthcoming negotiations.

The second phase of Brexit negotiations will cover transitional arrangements after the UK leaves and economic and security co-operation in the future.

Tusk, who spoke at an informal meeting of 27 European heads of states and governments, said he would present draft guidelines on the future EU-UK relationship at a summit in March.

"Our intention is to adopt these guidelines, whether the UK is ready with its vision of our future relations, or not," he said.

"Naturally it would be much better if it were. But we cannot stand by and wait."

He said he hoped to have more clarity when he meets the PM in London next week.

The leaders also spoke about the EU's post-2020 budget, the composition of the European Parliament, Turkey and Syria.

The government is set to pursue a policy which puts the UK outside a customs union with the EU -- but matching EU rules in some industries in an attempt to achieve "frictionless trade".

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who did not attend the meeting of senior ministers, said despite "divergent views" there was a "central common understanding".

He said some sectors could align regulations with European regulations, adding: "But it will be on a voluntary basis, we will as a sovereign power have the right to choose to diverge."

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Talks between the UK and Ecuador over the future of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the latter's London embassy have broken down, according to Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa.

On Friday, Espinosa suggested British officials had been unwilling to negotiate over Assange's potential release, reports the Guardian.

Earlier this month, a judge upheld an arrest warrant issued when Assange skipped bail as he fought extradition to Sweden in 2012.

The 46-year-old has been at the embassy ever since because he fears extradition to the US for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves.

Espinosa said of the failed talks: "To mediate you need two parties, Ecuador is willing, but not necessarily the other party."

Ecuador said it would continue to protect Assange's rights, however there was a risk to his physical and psychological wellbeing after spending nearly six years in the building as a "refugee", the Guardian reported.

In November 2017, Espinosa said Assange had been granted Ecuadorian citizenship.

The Foreign Minister said Ecuador was trying to make Assange a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations -- including special legal immunity and safe passage.

--IANS

ksk/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN Security Council has postponed a vote on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, till Saturday, said Kuwaiti ambassador to the United Nations, Mansour Al-Otaibi.

Al-Otaibi, who is President of the Security Council for the month of February, said the council members failed to reach consensus on Friday after rounds of closed-door consultations, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said the council members were "very close" to consensus but failed to close all the gaps.

"We are working to have a consensual draft resolution and hopefully the council will be united and all of them -- the 15 -- will vote in favour," he told reporters.

The resolution, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden, demands a 30-day ceasefire across Syria so that humanitarian aid can be through and those critically ill can be evacuated from besieged areas. A vote on the text was originally scheduled to come out on Friday.

Swedish UN ambassador Olof Skoog said he was "extremely frustrated" by the impasse on Friday.

"I am extremely frustrated with the fact that the Security Council has not been able to adopt the resolution to try to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people."

He said the text will be voted on Saturday one way or the other. "We are not going to give up because the situation on the ground calls for a Security Council resolution that demands a cease-fire," said Skoog, referring to the recent escalation of violence.

"I hope we will adopt something forceful, meaningful and impactful tomorrow (Saturday)," he told reporters.

Skoog said the council members were "very very close" to consensus on Friday but they were not able to close the gap completely.

He indicated that the main difference was over the timetable for ceasefire. "I think we all agree that there needs to be a ceasefire that has to be urgent immediately. There are still some discussions on exactly how to define that."

An earlier text provides for the start of ceasefire 72 hours after the adoption of the resolution.

In response to calls by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and other UN representatives in Syria for a cessation of hostilities of at least one month to improve the humanitarian situation, Kuwait and Sweden circulated a draft resolution on February 9.

However, consultations dragged on for two weeks without consensus. Russia, which has veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council, demanded amendments.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Events are moving at breathless speed in Andhra Pradesh, which hasnt got a penny or special status in the 2018-19 Budget. Opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddys party, the YSR Congress (YSRC) had won eight Lok Sabha seats from Andhra in 2014, but subsequently three MPs joined the Telugu Desam Party.

Now, after the Budget, Reddy has announced that the remaining MPs will resign from the Lok Sabha on April 6, the last day of the budget session, if the state does not get special status by then. What the MPs, who will lose their seats, say about this move is not known. YSRC has ...Altogether 22 persons were affected by diarrhoea at Baulgaon village in Odisha's Ganjam district, health department officials said today.

The villagers were taken ill after they had attended a feast on Thursday, they said.

The affected persons were admitted to the sub-divisional hospital in Chhatrapur, about 25 km from here today, an official said.

Samples of stool and water were collected from the village and would be sent to the laboratory of the microbiology department at MKCG Medical College and Hospital here, said Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) R Jagadeesh Patnaik.

"At present, 19 patients are undergoing treatment at hospital," he said.

He said a medical team which visited the village and detected three more cases there, were administered medicines, but did not require hospitalisation, the CDMO added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Around 35 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in the by-election to the Bijepur Assembly seat in Odisha till noon today, an election official said.

Polling began at 8 am and would continue till 5 pm, the official said.

Counting of votes would be undertaken on February 28.

The by-poll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August last year.

"Polling is going on smoothly and peacefully, barring brief interruptions in some booths due to technical snags in Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines," the official said.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the by-poll in the constituency located in Bargarh district, especially in the wake of pre-poll violence in and around the area, officials said.

Around 2.21 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 281 polling booths set up for the by-election, as against 270 booths used during the Assembly polls in 2014, according to Bargarh district Collector Yamini Sarangi.

"Of the 281 booths, 155 have been identified as critical. We have 12 dedicated squads to ensure free and fair polling in all the places," Sarangi said.

"Six check posts have also been set up in the border areas where vehicles coming from outside will be stopped and disallowed to enter Bijepur constituency," Bargarh SP Jai Narayan Pankaj said.

Security has been tightened following a series of violent incidents, including an attack on the brother of state Labour Minister Susanta Singh yesterday.

A total of five companies (500 personnel) of Central Paramilitary Force along with one company (85 personnel) of Odisha Swift Action Force have been deployed on poll duty, a senior police officer said.

This apart, 40 platoons (1,200 personnel) of state armed police have been deployed on poll duty, he said.

Late Congress leader Subal Sabu's wife Rita Sahu has been fielded this time by the ruling BJD. There are 13 other candidates in the fray including Ashok Panigrahi of BJP and Pranay Sahu of Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five civilians were killed today in clashes between Syrian rebel groups and jihadists in the northwestern province of Idlib, a monitoring group said. Rebel Islamist groups Ahrar al-Sham and Nureddine al-Zinki launched an operation Tuesday against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an alliance dominated by jihadists once linked to Al-Qaeda, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "It's a war to wipe out" the jihadists, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. HTS is the main force in Idlib but the Islamist groups, which on February 18 announced a merger under the name of Syrian Liberation Front, have captured 26 localities in this week's fighting, the Observatory said.

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Digital EditorThe Aam Aadmi Party today hit out at the central government over frauds in the banking sector, saying it was ironical that when the BJP was in the opposition it had created a hue and cry over the alleged 2G scam.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said scams in the banking sector have started getting reported on a daily basis under the present government.

"After Punjab National Bank fraud, now comes the about another fraud of Rs. 389.85 crores in Oriental Bank of Commerce. Nowadays, scams are reported in banking industry on daily basis.

"It is an irony that when the current government was in opposition, it made hue and cry in the Parliament over alleged 2G scam involving national loss, which was now rejected by our Honourable Judiciary," Bharadwaj said in a statement.

Accusing the saffron party of making false promises, he said, BJP government before the 2014 general elections promised to bring back the black money stashed abroad.

"However, since 2014 nothing has been done. Considering the events folding up now, it looks like not only money has been sent outside the country but also culprits involved in such frauds are leaving India without any problem," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP president Amit Shah is on a three-day tour of Karnataka during which he will hold meetings with members of various communities, including farmers, backward castes and schedules castes, a party statement said today.

He will also interact with traders and businessmen, and, as he often does in his trips, visit local temples.

Shah will tomorrow visit the family of a farmer, who had committed suicide, in Mangalgi village in Bidar, the statement said.

The BJP has accused the Congress government in the state of pursuing anti-farmer policies, and its leaders, including chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, have assured farmers remunerative price for their crops and other steps to improve their condition, if the party is elected to power.

Shah was in poll-bound Karnataka for three days only last week and his frequent tours to the state coupled with Prime Minister Narendra Modis public meetings there underscore the BJPs all-out efforts to oust the Congress from the last big state it is in power.

The statement said Shah will also meet sugarcane farmers tomorrow in Humnabad.

He will meet members of Koli community and those from other backward castes and schedules castes.

Shah will also address several party meetings.

The southern state is likely to go to polls in April-May.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu today said the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to work on his suggestion on making a big auto hub on the east coast.

"The state has responded positively and the state authorities have decided to take the next step forward in this direction. So, I am sure that in the next few years' time, India will drive cars made in Andhra Pradesh," he said here at the CIIs Partnership Summit.

He said that an MoU was exchanged between Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India, Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures and Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board to develop the automotive industry in the state.

Prabhu also informed that the ministry is also working on sectors like gems and jewellery and agriculture to promote exports.

Export promotion council for gems and jewellery is identifying areas in which they will set up jewellery making only for exports.

Speaking at the occasion, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that industrial revolution 4.0 is changing the land scape of manufacturing.

He informed that FDI in the country is growing at a rapid pace and India has received "USD 208 billion" foreign inflows since April 2014 because of rapid reforms and ease of doing business.

"India offers huge opportunities for both domestic and foreign investors," he added.

At the summit, foundation stone ceremony was held for the Lulu International Convention Centre, hotel and mall. It will be constructed by UAE based Lulu Group with an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore.

Chairman of Lulu Group, MA Yusuff Ali said that the company will try to complete the project in 36 months and it would create a direct employment to about 5,000 people.

But, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu urged him to complete the project in 30 months.

An MoU was also inked between the state government and Google India under which 25,000 wifi spots would be set up to provide internet services in about 13,000 villages, according to CII.

Naidu asked to complete the project by end of the year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today said that Assam and Arunachal Pradesh must work together, in keeping with the age-old close ties between the two states, to achieve all round development.

The Assam chief minister said this while attending a joint celebration of Ali Aye Ligang festival of the Mishings along with Solung festival of the Adi community at Mebo in East Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh.

"Both states are rich in biodiversity and we must harness these potentials for achieving rapid development of the region," Sonowal said.

He urged the youths of Arunachal Pradesh to work towards harnessing the state's agriculture, horticulture, hydrology and tourism potentials to usher in a period of rapid development in the Northeast.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of the Northeast becoming the new engine of growth for the nation can be achieved only if there is unity among the states in the region, Sonowal added.

The region must strive towards taking advantage of the Centre's Act East policy to take the Northeast into the high growth trajectory.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan today demanded a judicial inquiry or a probe by a special investigation team into the death of judge B H Loya, who presided over the Sohrabuddin Shaikh 'fake' encounter case trial.

Addressing a press conference here, Bhushan claimed that Loya didn't die of heart attack as claimed by the government authorities.

This should be investigated, the lawyer said.

"I will be filing a petition, demanding a judicial or SIT inquiry into Loya's death. If it was not a heart attack, then it should be investigated what was the cause of death.

"The CBI cannot do this investigation as there is a lot of government pressure. The government wants this case to be dismissed right away," he claimed.

Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case, allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014 where he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition related to his death.

Bhushan also questioned the Rafale fighter jet purchase agreement, saying he had never seen a more "corrupt deal" in his life.

Why was the original deal for 126 aircraft along with transfer of technology scrapped and a fresh deal for only 36 aircraft struck, why was Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd left out of it, and why a fresh global tender was not floated for the new deal, he asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh today courted controversy by saying that his party would take the fight for the upcoming panchayat polls from polling booths to crematoriums.

In an apparent threat to the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state, Ghosh said that the TMC should not think that the fight during the rural polls will be over at the booth level.

"If they think that the fight will end at the booth level, they are wrong. We will stretch it to crematoriums. We have to fight with this mentality," he told BJP workers at a party conference here.

He said the BJP will put up a strong fight and win the panchayat polls.

The TMC reacted saying that references to crematoriums and burial grounds would not result in electoral gains for the BJP.

"They want to flare up the atmosphere by talking about burial grounds and crematoriums. But that won't fetch any electoral benefits as they don't have any organisation at the ground level," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.

The BJP, which aims to become the main opposition party in the state, held a panchayat conference in the city to look into various organisational aspects of the party.

The rural polls would be held later this year, the dates of which are yet to be announced.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government of Central African Republic deployed troops alongside United Nations peacekeepers Saturday to a flashpoint district on Bangui after clashes between rival groups left at least three people dead. "The government must restore peace," said security minister General Henri Wanzet Liguissara in a speech broadcast on national radio. Peacekeepers from the UN's MINUSCA force were deployed with government forces in the fractious PK5 and KM5 districts of Bangui "to take out all those who don't want peace and want weapons to sound out," throughout KM5, the minister said. Three people were killed and at least seven others wounded in clashes in the PK5 neighbourhood late Thursday. Once a Muslim rebel bastion, PK5 is now home to several armed groups that have taken advantage of the weakness of the state since the end of a sectarian conflict pitting mainly Muslim rebels against nominally Christian militias. Last week, a neighbourhood traders' association called ACK demanded the peacekeepers take action to shut down such armed groups, who have long been accused of extortion and violence against shopkeepers and the local population. Fed up with having to repeatedly cough up protection money, local traders in January refused to pay, prompting a tense standoff with the militias as well as with MINUSCA troops, whom they accuse of inaction. Mired in poverty but rich in minerals, the former French colony has been battered by a conflict between rival militias that began in 2013 after then president Francois Bozize was overthrown. Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 23)  Vicente "Vicboy" de Lima has been seeking justice for over a year now.

He's calling for justice for the former Justice Secretary, senator, prisoner, and his older sister, embattled Senator Leila de Lima.

Vicboy narrates how the family was shattered when the senator, one of President Rodrigo Duterte's staunchest critics, was arrested a year ago.

He said their family simply couldn't understand how she was handed such injustice after dedicating almost all her life to public service.

De Lima was brought to Camp Crame on February 24 over accusations she had abetted illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison. The Senator has denied the accusations.

READ: Sen. Leila De Lima arrested over drug charges

But while her detention has been difficult for the family, Vicboy said there's still a bright side.

"This particular situation in our family has made us closer. With her in detention in Camp Crame, we get to visit her every Sunday at least once a week," he said.

Of course, the senator's lifestyle has also undergone changes in Camp Crame.

"She looks better, she looks sexier. The weight loss is not because of depression but because she is really, she told us that she's not anymore eating rice for dinner time," Vicboy said.

Since she's prohibited from entertaining visitors after 5 p.m., the Senator reads and has 11 stray cats to keep her company at night.

But her detention hasn't stopped her from doing her job at Senate.

Since being elected into office in 2016, de Lima has authored and co-authored 64 bills and 78 resolutions. Of these, 40 bills and 58 resolutions were filed while in detention.

Vicboy, meanwhile has very few words about President Rodrigo Duterte.

"As I've said the country deserves better," he said.

Although it's difficult for the family to find even a glimmer of hope for justice under this administration, he said they still keep the faith.

They join friends, supporters and human rights groups in seeking for de Lima's release and freedom.

Senator Antonio Trillanes, de Lima's most vocal supporter in the Senate, delivered a privilege speech on Wednesday in defense of the detained senator.

Minority senators have also filed a resolution making an "impassioned call" for de Lima's freedom.

De Lima was slapped with 3 illegal drugs charges filed before the Muntinlupa court and a civil case at the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court.

If there's a bit of good news for the detained senator, it's the recent dismissal of 3 ethics complaints against her.

READ: Senate panel junks ethics complaints vs. De Lima

De Lima's supporters also marked her first year in detention at the Commission on Human Rights on Friday. They prepared an exhibit for de Lima bearing messages of support and also launched de Lima's e-book which showcases her dispatches from Camp Crame.China's ruling CPC, headed by President Xi Jinping, would nominate new names for several high level posts, state media reported today.

The third plenary session of Communist Party of China Central Committee will be held from February 26 to 28 in Beijing, the party announced here today at the meeting of politburo, a top policy body.

The meeting headed by Xi discussed a list of proposed candidates for state leadership positions, state-run Xinhua agency reported without disclosing any details.

The names would be referred for the approval of Chinas parliament National People's Congress (NPC), which would begin its annual session on March 5.

The NPC often referred to as rubber stand parliament for its routine approval of the CPC proposals will hold its session along with the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a consultative body.

The changes were expected to be made at senior levels of leadership and ministers.

By March, China may have a new foreign minister as the incumbent Wang Yi was expected to be elevated as top diplomat, replacing State Councillor Yang Jiechi, who is also the Special Representative of India-China border talks.

Yang has been elevated to politburo during the last Octobers once-in-a-five-year Congress of the CPC which also endorsed a second five-year term for Xi, who has emerged as the most powerful Chinese leader after party founder Mao Zedong in recent years.

The seven member Standing Committee headed by Xi which rules the country was also expected to undergo changes in view of retirements and replaced with Xis loyalists.

Since he took over power in 2013, Xi had consolidated his hold on the party, the government and the military.

While thousands of officials were punished in his anti-graft campaign, observers say he also effectively used it to consolidate his hold on the levers of power.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur today stressed on the need for district-wise branding of local products, identified with the area for better access in the global maker and ensuring remunerative returns to producers.

There is a need to enhance skills to promote famous local products like Rumal of Chamba district, distinct shawls, caps, handlooms and handicrafts of Kullu and Kinnaur, Kangra paintings, which have already made a markat National and International level and help those who are interested to continue with the traditional vocation for self-reliance, he said, adding that geographic indicators should be notified.

The chief minister, who was presiding over the meeting of Himachal Pradesh Kaushal Vikas Nigam (HPKV) said that the focus should be on the trades and skills which could be easily accomplished rather than those which cannot be achieved in short span of time.

There is a lot of scope for providing skills to youth in farming and horticulture sector, besides short and long term training programmes for raising the level of employability.

Irrigation and Public Health Minister Mahender Singh Thakur emphasised on giving training in mushroom cultivation, tourism and training based upon the trades which could generate self employment avenues to the youth abroad.

He also stressed for training in plumbing, pump operation in his department to the youth besides, specialised training programme in horticulture sector which has vast scope of employability.

Managing Director Skill Development Project Rajesh Sharma gave a detailed presentation on skill development project and said that bachelor of vocational courses (B.Voc ) has been started in retail, tourism and hospitality in 12 colleges of the state.

He said that since inception, HPKVN has signed MoU with more than 20 Sector Skill Councils, Government of India and key Industrial Associations to provide employment opportunities to the unemployed youth in the State.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Industry body COAI today returned fire in the ongoing stand off with Reliance Jio, saying its "differences" are with regulator TRAI's orders, not with a specific operator, and it is duty-bound as an association to raise concerns on growth of the sector.

The rebuttal comes after Reliance Jio termed as "defamatory" and "malicious"recent allegations by the Cellular Operators Association of India's (COAI) that indicated that orders by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) are favouring the newcomer.

"Our differences are with the orders ofthe regulator and not with any specific operator. Our intention is not to aggrieve any particular operator. Individual operators are free to pursue the interests of their own company vigorously under the framework of the laws of the land," COAI Director General,Rajan S Mathews said in a statement.

Incidentally, Jio has demanded that both COAI and Mathews tender public apology within 48 hours over the industry body's allegations dated February 20.

COAI statement today further said, "However, the regulator's role is to ensure the competing claims of are appropriately handled in the interest of the entire industry. This is the mandate of the TRAI Act, which specifically tasks it with ensuring the orderly growth of the industry."



COAI emphasised that as an industry body it raises concerns over various issues. " ...we raise our concerns, as any relevant Industry association should, for the growth and development of the sector and in the interest of the nation," COAI said.

The association argued that all its "other" member operators areunanimous in their support of COAI's position "with absolutely no exceptions".

Jio - which is also a member of COAI - had yesterday claimed it was kept in the dark about the release issued by the trade body.

Yesterday, Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio had also launched a scathing attack on COAI, saying the body has become a mouthpiece of incumbents like Airtel and is issuing "defamatory" and "malicious" statements on Trai favouring it.

COAI issued a "motivated" press statement earlier this week alleging that the regulator Trai was favouring the new operator, Jio had accused, adding that such remarks were meant to "devalue the esteem, regard and confidence enjoyed by Jio" and cause injury to its reputation.

Jio had warned that it "reserves its rights to initiate criminal and civil defamation proceedings, including damages, against both COAI and incumbent dominant operators (IDOs)".

The full-blown war of words has erupted in the sector after COAI alleged that Trai's regulations, including its rules and definition of predatory pricing, had distorted the market.

COAI had also alleged that the orders appeared "to be strengthening the ambitions of one particular operator with deep pockets and monopolistic designs at the expense of other operators" although it did not name Reliance Jio which has hit the incumbent operators hard by its aggressive pricing of mobile and data services.College students are sensitive to their roommates' distress but tend to underestimate the level of distress being experienced by others, a study has found.

The research suggests that roommates' perception of each other's distress could be useful for monitoring the mental health of college students, but there are ways that students could be trained to be more accurate.

"College students can detect certain levels of distress in their roommates and spot changes over the course of a semester, but they nonetheless underestimate the absolute level of distress," said Patrick Shrout from New York University in the US.

"More universal training on how to identify and respond to the distress of peers might have the benefit of encouraging conversations among roommates about what actions each might take if he or she notices another experiencing extreme distress," the researchers said.

For the study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the researchers studied 187 same-sex undergraduate roommate pairs.

At two times during the academic year - February and April - each roommate in the pair reported his or her own distress level as well as that perceived in the other roommate.

Comparing these reports allowed the researchers to quantify accuracy and bias.

They were able to determine which students were becoming more (or less) distressed over time and to compare the changes to roommates' rankings.

The biases found at the separate time points did not carry over to the inferences about distress change.

When students' reports indicated that their roommates were experiencing more distress, the target roommates tended to self-report more distress as well.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today hit out at the central government after yet another bank fraud involving a Delhi jeweller came to light and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi fix accountability of those involved in such cases within 60 days through a probe conducted by the RBI.

The opposition party said the guilty in bank frauds should be brought to book as no one will invest in the country if questions are raised on its banking system and this will harm the country's growth.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi led the attack on the prime minister alleging that the Delhi-based diamond jeweller involved in the scam "disappeared" like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya while the government looked the other way.

He said the promoter of Dwarka Das Seth International, who was booked by the CBI for an alleged fraud of Rs 389.85 crore towards Oriental Bank of Commerce, operated with the same modus operandi of fake LoUs as Nirav Modi.

"Under Modi Ji's 'Jan Dhan Loot Yojana', another scam!



"390 Crore, involving a Delhi based jeweller. Same Modus operandi as Nirav Modi. Fake LOU's.

"Predictably, like Mallya and Nirav, this promoter too has disappeared while the Government looked the other way," he said on Twitter.

Gandhi also raised the issue during his rally in poll-bound Karnataka to attack Modi, asking him to first explain how the money was taken away from the bank under his nose.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal demanded a thorough probe by the RBI into the alleged Rs 11,400-crore PNB fraud and said prime minister should assure the nation that accountability of the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India and the management of defaulting banks would be fixed within 60 days.

"Until the prime minister gives an assurance to the country, people will think that administration is supporting those who were indulging in bank frauds. The money defrauded be brought back, guilty be booked, those involved in the conspiracy are dismissed and action be taken against them.

"If questions are raised on the country's economy and banking system, then no investment will come in the country and this will harm the country's growth...We demand that there should be an RBI probe in the matter (PNB scam) at the earliest," Sibal said.

He also sought to know why people like Nirav Modi, who were indulging in banking scam, were "allowed to escape the country".

"Country has faced a loss of around Rs 21,000 crore as of now and other banking frauds will also come out in a few days. Another Rs 390 crore OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) scam has also emerged.

"I am surprised that despite our prime minister being the most expensive 'chawkidar' (watchman), why are all these (banking frauds) happening under his nose," Sibal told a press conference here, taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his refrain during poll rallies that he would act as a watchman for the country,



He said that if questions are raised on banking system, it impacts the country's economy and affects investment as international trade is done through banking system.

"Why is Modiji silent? Modi yesterday said that government will bring back those people who indulged in banking scams. Leave the issue of bringing these people back to country, we want to first know why these people were allowed to flee the country," Sibal said.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram claimed that best decadal growth was under the UPA government between 2004 and 2014, when the GDP in current prices increased three times in dollar terms and four times in rupee terms.

Referring to the alleged 2G scam during the UPA government, Sibal said while it was only 'presumptive loss' alleged in it, the bank frauds are the 'real frauds' as public money has been looted by scamsters.

"It was 2G, but from now, we are going to call this (PNB scam) Nimoji," he said.

At the press conference, the party made four demands to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The prime minister should assure that accountability of the finance ministry, of the RBI, and the management of defaulting banks, must be fixed in the next 60 days.

"The Reserve Bank of India must conduct a forensic audit of all swift communications and swift messages matching them with underlying transactions within 60 days and report that to the people of India through a report, which should be made public.

"The prime minister must assure this country, must commit to the people of India that the swift communication system of all banks will be connected to their core banking system in 30 days," he said.

Sibal said every swift message in the past five years, will be checked by the banks, to report if they are supported, by genuine business transactions to expose any other frauds that are yet to be detected. This should also be done in the next 30 days. "We want the prime minister to assure this country."



He also targeted the investigative agencies, sayings they are "no longer caged parrots" and were "singing" the une of the government.

"They are no longer a caged parrot. They sing the tune of the government. They are the singing parrots. They are no longer the caged parrots," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Aam Aadmi Party today appealed to bureaucrats protesting the alleged assault on the chief secretary not to obstruct Delhi government's work, even as a forum of city officials met the Cabinet Secretary and apprised him of the "difficult working conditions" they were facing.

As the standoff between the bureaucrats and the AAP government continued, Lt Governor Anil Baijal met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, two days after he submitted a preliminary report over the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence.

In the meeting, the Lt Governor briefed Singh about the incident and the prevailing situation under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, sources said.

With the governance of the Delhi government hit, the AAP sought to extend an olive branch to the officers.

"We appeal to the officers that the government work should not suffer," Saurabh Bharadwaj, chief spokesperson of the AAP's Delhi unit, said.

Yesterday, Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues had also met the Lt Governor and sought his intervention in defusing tensions between the AAP government and the bureaucrats.

During its meeting with Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, the country's top bureaucrat, a joint forum of employees and officers of the Delhi government apprised him about the "difficult working conditions" prevailing under the AAP dispensation.

"The Cabinet Secretary gave a patient hearing to all officials and officers present and acknowledged that they are working in a difficult environment," the forum said in a statement.

"He assured all employees of complete administrative and moral support. However, he cautioned that citizens should not be put to inconvenience and delivery of services should go on, to which all the officers assured complete dedication," it said.

To register their protest against the alleged assault on Prakash, bureaucrats of the IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) have not been attending meetings with the AAP ministers for the last three days.

According to the officers, they would only maintain written communication until the chief minister apologises for the incident.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that there should be no place for violence in and administrative work.

During the last few days, the chief secretary was attacked in the presence of Kejriwal and after that in place of taking an action against the guilty MLAs, the chief minister tried to "cover up" the incident which has shocked everyone, Tiwari alleged.

Yesterday, former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran also resigned from the Delhi government's State Advisory Council For Education to express solidarity with Prakash.

In an unprecedented move, a Delhi Police team yesterday seized a hard disk containing CCTV footage from Kejriwal's residence in connection with the alleged assault.

Union minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir yesterday hinted that Kejriwal might be questioned by the police in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat.

"Whosoever it may be, the police will question all those in whose presence the incident took place," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A series of curious objects, including fertility symbols, collected by a British conservationist on his tours of India will help raise millions of pounds for a charity he founded to save the Asian elephant.

Mark Shand, the brother of Camilla Parker-Bowles wife of Prince Charles, had set up Elephant Family as a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to protecting the Asian elephant from extinction in the wild.

Mark Shands Adventures and his Cabinet of Curiosities has been conceptualised as a multi-medium exhibition that captures the many journeys made by the writer and philanthropist, including many riding his Indian elephant named Tara.

While Shand passed away suddenly nearly four years ago, his daughter Ayesha is spearheading a new fundraising drive for the charity by putting up for auction some of the unique objects he collected on his travels as well as photographs of his adventures by Indian photographer Aditya Patankar.

"Following his death in 2014, I inherited many of the photographs from his travels, and his cabinet of curiosities, and I looked for ways to understand and honour his exceptional life.

"My father collaborated with many artists in order to draw attention to the need to save the Asian elephant and their habitat," said Ayesha Shand, the co-curator of the exhibition.

Among the set of "curiosities" on auction is an extensive collection of phallic fertility sculptures from tribes and villages across India and Indonesia.

They have been re-imagined by being moulded in jesmonite from the originals by 48 artists, designers and illustrators, including Natasha Kumar, Philip and Charlotte Colbert and Jack Penny, among others.

The project included a collaboration with London-based mythologist and storyteller Seema Anand, who offered a sneak preview to her forthcoming book 'Arts of Seduction' based on the philosophies and the mythologies of the 'Kamasutra'. The exhibition, which opened earlier this month, was accompanied by a talk by Anand to contextualise the fertility symbols up for auction.

"The collection of Shands' fertility symbols, many of which he acquired during his travels in India, have a narrative that reaches far beyond the immediate physical aspect they are rooted in a mythology and philosophy that is both divine and terrestrial," she said.

"Much like the work of Elephant Family in the conservation of the Indian elephant, my work is based on the conservation and rehabilitation of India's ancient and medieval literatures and reintroducing them to society," she added.

The exhibition, with a total of 29 photographs and 101 original sculptures, is on auction via adventuresandcuriosities.com with all the funds raised ear-marked for the Elephant Family, which claims to have funded over 160 conservation projects and raised over 10 million pounds through public art events across the globe since 2002.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seven suspects accused of killing five South African policemen were shot dead by officers in a bloody gunfight outside a church, according to investigators.

The shoot-out erupted when police hunted down the armed gang that is alleged to have stormed a police station in Eastern Cape province and killed five officers and a retired soldier on Wednesday.

"The group which uses a church as a hiding place was cornered inside the church premises," the Hawks police investigative unit said in a statement.

"A gun battle between suspects and police ensued which left seven suspects dead and a task force member injured in the legs."



It added that 10 other suspects were arrested, while some escaped the scene near Ngcobo, the town where the policemen were killed.

Local media said the shoot-out had occurred outside the Mancoba Seven Angel's Ministries church in Nyanga village.

The gang had stolen weapons from the police station.

Attacks on police are common in South Africa, but the killing of five officers provoked national outrage.

"In the past, people would just accept it and move on but this time they are saying no," President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office last week, said.

"We want answers and we want arrests. When there is a disaster like this it should be attended to with maximum speed."



At least 57 South African police officers were killed in the line of duty between April 2016 and March 2017, according to the latest crime statistics.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In order to speed up development works in all unauthorised colonies, the irrigation & flood control department of the Delhi government has directed imposition of penalty on contractors for any delay in completing projects.

The department, headed by minister Gopal Rai, has asked officials to take steps to ensure that all projects, which are being executed, are completed within the time-line prescribed in the work order.

The move came a day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia directed officials concerned to speed up the pace of the development works in unauthorised colonies in the national capital.

"Appropriate action will be initiated against the contractors including imposition of penalty for not completing the work as per time schedule," an official said.

In Delhi, there are around 1,600 unauthorised colonies whose residents play a vital role in deciding the fate of any political party in elections.

The government directive comes at a time when the city is staring at likely bypolls following the disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs by the Election Commission (EC) for allegedly holding office of profit. The party has challenged the EC's order in the Delhi High court.

The official said that a fortnightly review meeting will be held in the chamber of the chief engineers to review the progress of each and every project with superintending engineer concerned of the circle.

"Besides, a similar protocol of review of all the cases on weekly basis will be followed by the superintending engineer with executive engineer," an official said.

Any laxity in compliance of the order will be viewed seriously and action will be taken against the entire erring officer, the official said.

"In cases, where the circumstances of delay are beyond the control of the department, a fresh time-line will be prescribed after taking into consideration all the constraints in the process of execution of the project.

"It will be the responsibility of superintending and executive engineers to ensure the project is completed within revised time-line," official also said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The draft area parking plan has recommended shared parking to be adopted by all future residential and commercial projects in the city, factoring in scarcity of land and its growing demand for various purposes.

The Delhi Transport Department has put the draft of guidelines for area parking planin public domain for suggestions from the stakeholders, said a Delhi government official.

Noting that land is a finite resource andthere are a number of pressing requirements to be met in the city, such as affordable housing, neighbourhood parks and community facilities, the draft says that public land cannot be provided for only parking of private vehicles in stand- alone structures.

"In order to ensure efficient utilisation of land, it is recommended that in all new projects -- commercial, institutional, housing, etc -- at least 50 to 100 per cent of the equivalent car space (ECS) be provided as an unbundled, shared parking facility," it says.

"Unbundled" means that the parking space shall be sold/auctioned separately during disposal of the property and not as a package deal where parking is a hidden cost to the buyer who may or may not own a car.

Therefore, buyers should be given the option to purchase an ECS-space separately during the application process for an apartment or commercial space, it says.

"This would reveal the true cost of parking to end users and unsold parking spaces can be sold to municipal corporations to be used as part of the public parking pool," it says.

Once sold to municipal corporations, the shared parking facility would be available on short-term rental leases with preference for the local residents, the draft states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 23)  President Rodrigo Duterte is again skipping the government-led commemoration of the historic People Power Revolution on Sunday.

This was confirmed by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a text message to CNN Philippines on Friday.

The Palace has yet to announce the President's schedule during the 32nd anniversary of the EDSA revolution of 1986.

National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Chairman Rene Escalante said Duterte will be in Mindanao while the government holds a "huge celebration" at the People Power monument on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue in Quezon City.

"Naimbita po natin ang Pangulo at sumulat po sa atin na meron daw siyang importanteng lakad sa Mindanao kaya di po siya makakadalo," Escalante told reporters on Friday.

[Translation: "We invited the President and eh wrote to us that he has an important event in Mindanao so he won't be able to join us."]

Duterte also missed last year's celebration. He was in Davao to lead the turnover of a drug rehabilitation center and launch of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

READ: Duterte: No single party can take credit for EDSA revolution

The Duterte administration was criticized last year for holding a low-key commemoration of the EDSA revolution, a historic event that gathered millions of Filipinos in a nonviolent mass action on the main highway of EDSA from February 22 to 25, 1986. This led to the overthrow of longtime strongman and alleged human rights violator Ferdinand Marcos.

The commemoration last year came after Duterte allowed the controversial burial of Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani on November 2016.

READ: FVR opposes Malacanang's 'moving on' theme for 31st People Power revolution anniversary

Former President Fidel Ramos, one of the key leaders of the revolution, will be this year's guest of honor and speaker. There will be a mass, wreath laying and flag raising ceremony on Sunday, the NHCP said.

The NHCP added the organizers have invited Vice President Leni Robredo, but she has yet to confirm her attendance. Last year, Robredo said she wanted to participate but was not invited.

Portions of EDSA's northbound lane from Ortigas to Santolan, and White Plains avenues will be closed to traffic from early morning until noontime.

Militants are set to stage protests starting 5 p.m.

Around 1,850 policemen will be deployed to maintain peace and order. The national police said it will carry out maximum tolerance during the rallies.

CNN Philippines' Gerg Cahiles contributed to this report.The seventh meeting of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations began here today.

The two-day meeting will mainly focus on the 1950 treaty, border issues, and trade and transit, according to a member of the group.

Work has started regarding preparation of a preliminary draft report on security concerns, water resources, trade and cultural ties between the two countries, said the member.

EPG members from Nepal include former foreign minister Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, former lawmaker Rajan Bhattarai, and constitutional and legal experts Nilambar Acharya and Surya Nath Upadhyay.

Members from India include BJP leader Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, former Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayanta Prasad and former vice chancellor of Sikkim University Mahendra Lama, among others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Donald Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than two million euros to lobby for Ukraine's then-leader backed by Russia, US prosecutors have claimed. The charges, lodged in a Washington federal court by Special Counsel Robert Mueller yesterday, said Manafort retained the so-called Hapsburg Group of onetime politicians to "take positions favourable to Ukraine, including by lobbying the United States." The group, which operated from 2012-2013, was managed by an unnamed "former European chancellor," who along with other members of the group lobbied US legislators and White House officials, the indictment alleged. They were to "appear to be providing their independent assessments of government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine," according to the indictment. Manafort, 68, has been accused by the team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he did for Viktor Yanukovych from 2006-2014. Austrian media reported that the former European chancellor in question was Alfred Gusenbauer, the country's leader from 2007-8. Gusenbauer today denied to the Austria Press Agency and to public radio that he had conducted any such lobbying work, however, adding that he had never heard of the Hapsburg Group. "I met Manafort two times I think... but I had nothing to do with Paul Manafort's activities in Ukraine or with Yanukovych's Party of Regions and his activities in the US," Gusenbauer, 58, told radio station Oe1. Yanukovych served as Ukraine's president from 2010 until he was ousted in 2014 as a result of a popular uprising. After that, Manafort stopped working for him, eventually returned to the United States and, in 2016, joined Trump's presidential election campaign. Backed by Moscow, Yanukovych was eyed suspiciously at the time in much of Europe for his pro-Russia stance and widespread accusations of deep corruption. Manafort is believed to have been behind Yanukovych's spectacular political comeback after huge protests dubbed the Orange Revolution overturned his fraud-tainted victory in 2004. With Manafort's help Yanukovych's Party of Regions won parliamentary elections in 2006 and in 2010 he beat rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a presidential poll. Yanukovych's allies say that the shrewd political strategist had enormous influence over him. A report in the Atlantic magazine said the two men developed a "highly personal relationship" and even swam naked together outside Yanukovych's bathhouse. Yanukovych currently lives in Russia and is wanted in Ukraine for high treason. The Hapsburg Group was meant to "act informally and without any visible relationship" to the Ukraine government, a memorandum written by Manafort in June 2012 read. While the latest indictment did not charge Manafort with any crime specifically tied to the Hapsburg Group, those activities were cited to show Manafort had been actively lobbying for Ukraine and had allegedly broken laws by not registering as such in the United States. In Kiev, Ukrainian prosecutors said Saturday they wanted to cooperate with Washington over Manafort. Sergiy Gorbatyuk, head of special investigations at the



General Prosecutor's Office, said Ukrainian prosecutors would be sending a letter to Mueller in the coming days. "We want to understand how they will be cooperating with us," Gorbatyuk told AFP. "We have criminal proceedings under way where we are looking into Paul Manafort's activities," he added. "The accusations made against him overlap with our investigation and cooperation is important to achieve results," Gorbatyuk said. "That's what we should say in the letter to Mueller." He added that Ukrainian prosecutors wanted to question Manafort several years ago but a formal request sent to the US authorities went unanswered.

"Until now we had practically no cooperation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dismissing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that strict action would be taken in the PNB fraud case, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked him to first explain how the money was taken away from the bank under his nose.

"A scam of Rs 220 billion happens, Nirav Modi runs away with Rs 220 billion from Indian Banks and Modiji (Prime Minister) says action will be taken," Gandhi said addressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka.

"Action will be taken? You first make us understand how did Nirav Modi take Rs 220 billion from Indian banks under the nose of Narendra Modi's government," he said.

He demanded to know why the finance minister and Modi "allowed this to happen".

Breaking his silence over the Rs 114 billion fraud at India's second-biggest PSU bank, Modi had yesterday warned of strict action against those involved in financial irregularities and said loot of public money would not be tolerated.

Rahul Gandhi has, however, been claiming that the size of the fraud is Rs 220 billion.

The Congress chief is touring parts of north Karnataka as part of his second leg of the campaign in Karnataka, where elections are expected in April-May.

During his speech, Gandhi today repeatedly quoted 12th-century social reformer Basaveshwara from Karnataka, revered by dominant Lingayat/Veerashiva community which is predominantly present in northern parts of the state, to attack the prime minister.

He said Basaveshwara had said five things -- "don't indulge in theft, don't indulge in violence, do not lie, do not boast about yourself and don't spread anger.""First one was don't indulge in a theft. Narendra Modi says that the Congress party government in Karnataka is corrupt. When he says it, on his right side is his chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa who had gone to jail, on the other side four more ministers who had gone to jail," Gandhi said.

The Congress president said that Modi, who gives "long speeches", was quiet on the Rafael fighter jet deal.

"He (Modi) banned the notes, implemented Gabbar Singh Tax and destroyed lakhs of businesses, but Jay Shah's (BJP President Amit Shah's son) business within three months converts from Rs 50,000 into Rs 800 million. On this Narendra Modi does not speak anything."Pointing out that Basaveshwara also said don't indulge in violence, Gandhi hit out at the Modi government, accusing it of dividing society and indulging in atrocities against Dalits and minorities.

Referring to Basaveshwara's preachings against lying, Gandhi said Modi made "promises in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, including that Rs 15,00,000 will be deposited into bank accounts of every Indian, jobs to 20 million youth and making India corruption free".

"Has he worked on this and shown to you? Wasn't the Rs 15,00,000 promise a lie...? he asked.

Gandhi also accused the prime minister of claiming credit for every achievement of the country. "You say nothing happened in 70 years and whatever is happening, whether it is in your party or in the country, it is only because of Narendra Modi.""Whether it is a rocket launch or the Army personnel that fight and are martyred on the border, Modiji says see I did it," he said.

"Sushma Swaraj (external affairs minister), Nitin Gadkari (transport minister) and Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) do not have any work in the government and only one man works, that is Narendra Modi.

"Modiji when you bow before Basawaji, remember what he said- do not boast about yourself, this is the truth," Gandhi said.The Norwegian couple who won Olympic curling bronze after their Russian rivals were disqualified for doping were flown back to Pyeongchang for free in first class so they could finally get their medals.

Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, partners on and off the ice, initially fell short of mixed-doubles bronze after losing to a husband-and-wife team from Russia.

But Alexander Krushelnitsky later tested positive for the banned substance meldonium, and he and wife Anastasia Bryzgalova were stripped of their medals.

By then, however, the 32-year-old Skaslien was back at her desk in Oslo, where she is an operations analyst at a major maritime company.

"I had been back at work for three days when I got an email with plane tickets, almost getting back into everyday routines," she said.

"I sent my boss a text message telling him, 'I've got first-class tickets to South Korea, I'll be back by Tuesday'."



So back to Pyeongchang she and Nedregotten went to finally collect their bronze in a medal ceremony on Saturday.

"You don't say 'no' to having new plane tickets for free to come back," said Skaslien.

"It is much better coming here than having it (the medal) sent by post months later, though I would have accepted it and picked it up in the mail box.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing yesterday and held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed a range of issues amidst continuing tensions in bilateral ties.

The visit of Gokhale, who was also the former Indian envoy to China, was announced today by the Indian Embassy here through a tweet.

"Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is visiting China to discuss the bilateral agenda, exchange plans and visits for 2018. He met with FM Wang Yi on February 23," the tweet said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement late last night on Gokhale's talks with Wang.

Wang said that the two sides should enhance strategic mutual trust and accelerate common development in line with the political consensus of the leaders of the two countries, according to the statement.

"We hope that the Indian side will handle sensitive issues prudently and work with China to promote the sound development of China-India relations," Wang said, apparently referring to a host of sensitive issues between India and China, including the current political crisis in the Maldives.

China and India are both representatives of emerging markets and big developing countries, Wang said, adding that commonality cannot be replaced.

According to the press release, Gokhale said he was pleased to visit China at the very beginning of his term. Gokhale succeeded S Jaishankar as foreign secretary last month.

He said India attached great importance to its relations with China and was willing to work with it to implement the consensus of leaders, strengthen strategic communications, take care of each other's core concerns and create a good atmosphere for the sustained and steady development of bilateral relations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit China in June this year to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held at Qingdao city.

The visit of Gokhale, who reportedly held the key negotiations to resolve the 73-day standoff at Dokalam, came in the backdrop of difficult bilateral and trilateral issues being dealt with by the two countries.

The Dokalam standoff ended on August 28 after the Chinese military stopped road building close to the strategic Chicken Neck corridor in an area claimed by Bhutan.

Besides the tensions along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the two countries faced a range of issues, including India's objection to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China blocking efforts at the UN to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist as well as India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The current political crisis in the Maldives also emerged as an irritant in bilateral ties.

The Maldives was plunged into a crisis when President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day emergency on February 5 and ordered the arrest of the Chief Justice and a former head of state after the Supreme Court termed "unconstitutional" the imprisonment of nine MPs and former President Mohammed Nasheed.

China which has made large scale investments in the Maldives, called for the crisis to be resolved by relevant parties internally and opposed any external intervention. Beijing also opposed to even UN mediation to resolve the crisis.

Former president Nasheed, who is currently in exile in Sri Lanka, however had called for the Indian intervention to resolve the crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 37-year-old gangster wanted in dozens of cases, including murder, and carrying a reward of Rs one lakh on him was arrested in Mumbai today, police said.

Accused Rakesh, at large for 10 years, was arrested by a Special Cell team from a rented flat at Virar West, where he was living under the fake identity of Rishabh Maan Singh, DCP (Special Cell) PS Kushwah said.

He was wanted in 42 cases, including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, threat and assault on police officials, he said.

Rakesh was convicted in six cases. In 2008, after being released on bail from Tihar jail, he continued committing crimes and evaded arrest by hiding in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Mumbai, Kushwah said.

A reward of Rs one lakh was declared on his arrest in 2010 in the sensational kidnapping-cum-murder of Dilip Kumar, a Canara Bank employee, the officer said.

Rakesh had managed to remain beyond police reach by snapping contacts with his family in Delhi.

In October 2017, police received information saying Rakesh was probably residing in Mumbai or Gujarat under fake identity, Khushwah said.

Accordingly, close watch was kept on his past associates and links, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress MP Shashi Tharoor today said the "botched" implementation of the Goods and Services Tax has created a "Frankenstein monster" in the bureaucracy where every small firm has to fill in several forms.

"We had one nation, one tax model. We did not have any idea that BJP will come with six different rates," he told reporters here.

"We also did not expect that they would create a Frankenstein monster in the bureaucracy where every small enterprise has to fill in 37 forms a year, three forms a month under GST," Tharoor said.

The MP was here to release a report "Unmade in India" prepared by the All India Professionals Congress (AIPC), a newly formed department of the Congress.

The report revealed that due to GST and demonetisation, several jobs were lost and firms shut in Tiruppur district in Tamil Nadu, a knitwear hub.

"Make in India is not working and has failed the people. Botched implementation of GST and the disaster of demonetisation have cost jobs," said Tharoor, who is also the AIPC Chairman.

Responding to a query that GST was also mulled by the UPA, Tharoor said, the concept of the Congress was a "bit different."



Noting that the entrepreneurial spirit in the country was "severely eroded" due to GST and demonetisation, he said, instead of faciliating Start Up india, the report from Tiruppur shows that central government policies "undermine" the spirit of entrepreneurship.

"This is a great dissapointment. We are not judging the government by our yardsticks. We are judging the government by what they claim and what they are trying to do," the MP said.

"They have failed in terms of their own goals. Their slogans and empty speeches have never looked more hollow when you look at this report from Tiruppur", he said.

The BJP government claims have been so "inefficient" that the Tiruppur companies despite paying GST, they were not getting the refunds, he said.

The cash flow in the textile firms has "dropped dramatically" and they have been firing people because the companies did not have the liquidity that was there in the past, he alleged.

Asked about what would be the next step, he said, "the next step is to change the government. Until then, people must be aware of this problem".

"These issues are man-made. This is not because of some global forces that have come in. These problems are created by Central government. People of India ought to know what is happening," he said.

The Congress leader said the victims were largely from the small, micro and medium enterprise sector, which is the backbone of the country.

To a query, Tharoor said he would take up the issue in Parliament when it meets next month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Half of the money spent on fighting wars could help in getting rid of diseases and humanitarian crises, Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo said tonight and urged the international community to work towards ensuring enduring peace.

Obasanjo, who headed a military government in the 1970s and was Nigeria's first president when civilian rule was restored in 1999, made the remarks during an ongoing international conference-cum-cultural festival of spiritual organisation Brahma Kumaris at its headquarters near Mount Abu.

The 80-year-old influential Nigerian leader, speaking as the chief guest, stressed that God has created enough for the needs of every citizen of the world but not enough for the greed of everyone.

"And what makes the world devoid of peace and happiness is the greed of all of us," he told a gathering of thousands during the session titled 'God's Plan: Rajyoga for World Peace, Health and Happiness'.

He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that 44 of the countries in Africa have humanitarian crisis, while another 11 are under the grip of epidemic or diseases.

"Now that is 55 -- the total number of countries in Africa. That is, humanitarian crisis or epidemic one for each country in Africa. With such atrocious condition, there can be no happiness. And yet, God has created Africa, Asia and in fact the entire world to be embraced with peace, joy and happiness," he said.

"Can we get rid of humanitarian crises? Can we get rid of epidemics and outbreak of diseases?" the former military ruler said, adding that, "Of course, we can!"



"Half of the amount of money that is spent by the international community on fighting wars, or necessary wars, can be spent to get rid of diseases and humanitarian crises. This is my message to the world and this my message to you.

"We, starting with ourselves, can be our source for dispensing peace and happiness in the world. May god help us to be able to do that," Obasanjo said.

Earlier during the international conference, which kicked off yesterday and would continue till Tuesday, the Brahma Kumaris' chief administrator Dadi Janki was honoured with the 'Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Vishwa Shanti Puraskar' (Dr A P J Abdul Kalam World Peace Award) by a Dubai-based non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The 102-year-old spiritual leader was awarded by the All India Council of Human Rights for her contributions towards propagating world peace, social service besides connecting people through spirituality.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and Israel have a great present and future with both countries having a variety of mutual interest, a top Israeli diplomat said.

Gilad Katz, Consul General of Israel, highlighted the ways the relationship between two nations can further strengthen.

Israel and India have a great present and future. It is well known internationally that Israel and India have a variety of mutual interest and above this interest, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and Netanyahu are true friends," said the former adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There has been dramatic growth during these years and balance and generosity between the two economic economies, 20 years ago the ties between Israel and India were USD 180 million. Now the ties are USD 5 billion. Export and Import are almost equal, he said.

Another way he defined the relationship as strategic has to do with the fact that a large portion is focused on defence and military agreements, which he would not elaborate.

It is a significant accomplishment that India a very large country has a good relationship with Israel a very small country. Both countries have different cultures. But there are a few similarities.

Consul General of India Anupam Ray echoed a number of Katzs sentiments, and focused especially on the connections of security, technology and culture between the two nations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Health Minister J P Nadda today said while other countries have set a target to eliminate Tuberculosis by 2030, India was looking forward to eradicating the disease by 2025.

Nadda was speaking at a national conference of the National Medicos Organization organised here today, according to an official release.

He said the central government has set a target to establish government or private medical colleges in each district of the country.

On the occasion, Haryana Finance Minister Abhimanyu said the current government has given a new direction to the medical sector.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 23)  A Manila judge hearing the case against alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa is concerned about his safety following the death of Espinosa's legal counsel last week.

Speaking to media, Judge Silvino Pampilo, Jr. of the Manila Regional Trial Court confirmed he felt threatened after a gunman shot Espinosas former lawyer dead.

All of us are scared because two lawyers of the defense died, so we have to do our job. I hope both parties don't take it personally. We are only doing our job, he said.

Espinosa's lawyer, Atty. Jonah John Ungab, was killed by an unidentified gunman after the promulgation of his two cases in a Cebu City Court.

Ungab, who was also the sitting vice-mayor of Ronda, Cebu, was the second lawyer of the Espinosa family killed in an ambush.

READ: Lawyer of alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa ambushed after court hearing

His ambush followed the death of Rogelio Bato from multiple gunshot wounds in August 2016. Bato was the lawyer of Kerwin's father, slain Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa.

The younger Espinosa has asked the court to give him ample time to find a new lawyer.

Ako po ay humihingi ng kaunting dispensa Sa ngayon po ang sa nangyari sa lawyer ko ay hindi po ganoon kasimple so hopefully maintindihan niyo, he said.

[Translation: Im asking for some leeway What happened to my lawyer isnt that simple so hopefully you understand.]

Meanwhile, the prosecution has filed a motion seeking Pampilo's inhibition on Espinosa's case.

Prosecutor Christian Bachiller said they have lost their trust in the judge after he allowed a former prosecution witness to testify for the accused.

Both Kerwin and his father were tagged by President Rodrigo Duterte in his list of alleged illegal drug coddlers and traffickers.

Authorities arrested the younger Espinosa in Abu Dhabi in 2016. In October 2017, Kerwin pleaded not guilty to charges of trading and distribution of dangerous drugs.The Islamic State group today killed two policemen guarding a northern Iraqi oil field, in a first attack on energy facilities since jihadists were driven from the region's towns, a security source said.

"A large number of IS terrorists attacked a post of the oil police force near well 43 in the Khabbaz oilfield, killing two and wounding a third," the source told AFP.

Iraqi forces announced the total defeat of IS in the country in December after a punishing campaign to oust the group from territory it seized in 2014.

But cells of jihadists remain behind and have continued to carry out bloody attacks, including killing 27 pro-government fighters in an ambush in the Hawija region last week.

Iraq's central government retook the vital oil fields around Kirkuk from the autonomous Kurdistan region last year after it held a disputed vote on independence.

The income from oil is vital for Iraq, OPEC's second biggest producer, as the country needs tens of billions of dollar to rebuild after the devastating fight against IS.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will deliver the 17th convocation address at the University of Jammu next month, a varsity official said today.

"Jammu university is holding its 17th convocation at the varsity on March 4. The Union finance minister has consented to be the chief guest and deliver the convocation address," he said.

The official said Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra, the chancellor of the university, and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will also attend the convocation.

The convocation was previously scheduled for April 8, 2017, but it was rescheduled for March 4 this year, he said.

The university will confer degrees to candidates who have qualified for the award of doctor of philosophy in 2015-16 up to December 31, 2016. It will also award certificates of merit, prizes and medals for the year 2015, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Jammu-bound GoAir A320 neo plane, with 112 passengers and crew on board, today returned to the Leh airport shortly after take off due to a "technical glitch", the airline said.

Powered by Pratt and Whitney engines, A320 neo planes, which are being operated in the country by GoAir and IndiGo, have been facing engine problems.

The Delhi-Leh-Jammu flight took off from Leh at 9.20 am but had to return shortly after due to a technical snag, airline officials said.

On the glitch, a GoAir official said there was an indication" in the oil chip detection system and spare parts would be flown in.

In a statement, GoAir said, "G8 205 (Leh-Jammu) with 112 passengers had a technical glitch right after becoming airborne. The flight crew chose to return to Leh. The aircraft is on ground and being inspected."



It did not specify the nature of the technical issue the plane suffered.

The airline said the passengers were being looked after.

"We are ensuring the next available flight options as well as hotel accommodation for passengers," it said.

A GoAir aircraft had earlier this month repeated glitches in oil chip detection system -- as many as three in a span of two days.

There are a total 45 A320 neos in the country. Out of them, 32 are with IndiGo and 13 are with GoAir.

Pratt and Whitney-powered Airbus A320 neos have been facing engine problems for the past more than two years.

Following a slew of engine issues, the civil aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation had last year ordered more frequent boroscopic inspections as well as grounding of aircraft on illumination of "oil chip lights".

Earlier this month, European aviation safety regulator EASA had issued an emergency airworthiness directive for A320 neo planes fitted with PW1100 engines having a particular serial number.

The European aviation watchdog's directive came in the wake of instances of engine in-flight shut-downs and rejected take-offs involving A320 neo family planes.

Following that directive, IndiGo had grounded three A320 neo planes while GoAir had said that none of its planes has "two of these engines on the same aircraft".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)JD(U) state president M P Veerendra Kumar today condemned the lynching of a tribal man by locals at a village near Palakkad for allegedly stealing food articles.

"The unapologetic cruelty of the incident has shaken the conscience of society. People have no right to take law into their hands. It is more painful that nobody came forward to prevent the cruel incident and remained mute spectators," he said.

"Taking pictures of the attack when a hungry, hapless man being lynched by a mob has exposed the ugly face of society," he added.

Some television channels had aired visuals purportedly showing people taking selfies with the 30-year-old Madhu, with his hands tied.

Veerendra Kumar urged the state government to conductan extensive probe into the killing and said exemplary punishment to the culprits would deter others from indulging in such activities in future.

Madhu, suspected to be mentally unsound, was allegedly beaten to death by locals at the forest fringe town of Agali near Palakkad on February 22 after they accused him of stealing food articles from some shops, triggering protests across the state yesterday.

Seven persons, including two who allegedly had a direct role in the incident, have been detained.

Tribals and human rights activists had staged protests in various parts of Kerala after photos and visuals of the fatal attack went viral on social media, besides being telecast by TV channels.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had condemned the incident and said stringent action would be taken against all the accused to ensure that such crimes, specially against people from communities that are marginalised, did not recur.

Today, the Centre sought a report from the Kerala government over the lynching to death of the tribal man.

Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram said his ministry has sought a report from the chief secretary about the incident and the action taken by the state government.

The state government also decided to provide financial aid of Rs 10 lakh to the family of Madhu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Jennifer Lawrence has said that she had dropped out of school when she was 14 to pursue acting.

In an interview with 60 Minutes Bill Whitaker, a sneak peak of which was released recently, the "Hunger Games" actor said she was not a "very smart" student during her school days and never fit in back home in Louisville, Kentucky.

"I struggled through school. I never felt very smart. And when I'm reading this script, and I feel like I know exactly what it would look like if somebody felt that way. That was a whole part of my brain that I didn't even know existed - something that I could be confident in, and I didn't want to let it go," Lawrence said.

"I dropped out of middle school. I don't technically have a GED or a diploma. I am self-educated," Lawrence said.

The 27-year-old actor next plays a Russian intelligence officer who makes heartbreaking sacrifices at a young age in the new spy thriller Red Sparrow.

Asked whether she regrets her decision, Lawrence said, "No. I really don't. I wanted to forge my own path. I found what I wanted to do and I didn't want anything getting in the way of it. Even friends, for many years, were not as important to me as my career.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A CBI court today handed over the custody of Rotomac pens owner Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul Kothari to the investigating agency for 11 days in connection with alleged loan default to the tune of Rs 3,695 crore.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today produced the Kotharis in the court of special judge M P Chaudhari after bringing them here on transit remand from Delhi.

The judge first took them in judicial custody and later remanded them in CBI custody for 11 days.

Both Vikram Kothari and his son have been booked for cheating a consortium of seven nationalised banks. Vikram Kothari's wife Sadhna Kothari is also accused in the case.

The CBI arrested the father-son duo on Thursday in Delhi after the agency alleged the accused were not cooperating with the probe.

On a complaint of Bank of Baroda, the CBI had registered an FIR against the Kotharis for allegedly defaulting on loans taken by Rotomac Global Private Ltd. from the consortium of banks from 2008 onwards.

The banks had extended loans worth Rs 2,919 crore to the company and the amount swelled to Rs 3,695 crore, including the accrued interest, because of repeated defaults on payment by the company, the agency has claimed.

The CBI initiated the action on the complaint of Bank of Baroda, a member of the consortium led by Bank of India, which had approached the agency fearing that Vikram Kothari might flee India after billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and owner of Gitanjali Gems Mehul Choksi reportedly left India before the registration of a case against them.

Modi and Choksi are the two main accused in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank scam.

In the Rotomac case, the principal exposure of the banks regarding the loan is Bank of India Rs 754.77 crore, Bank of Baroda Rs 456.63 crore, Overseas Bank of India Rs 771.07 crore, Union Bank of India Rs 458.95 crore, Allahabad Bank Rs 330.68 crore, Bank of Maharashtra 49.82 crore and Oriental Bank of Commerce Rs 97.47 crore, the agency has said.

Yesterday, a Delhi court allowed one-day transit remand to the CBI to take Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul to Lucknow to produce them before a court there in connection with the case, saying their presence in Uttar Pradesh was required to recover the alleged siphoned-off money.

While seeking their transit remand, the CBI had claimed that it needed to recover the crime proceeds and unearth the larger conspiracy. The agency sought the remand "to produce the accused before the competent court of M P Chaudhary, special judge, Lucknow, in the interest of justice".

Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, appearing for the Kotharis, had opposed the CBI plea, saying the accused were "illegally detained".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court has summoned a senior government official on a contempt petition filed against him for allegedly not complying with its order to pay compensation to the owner of a property which was acquired for the construction of MRTS here three decades ago.

Justice N Kirubakaran on Thursday ordered issuance of notice to Anbuselvan, District Collector of Madras and Land Acquisition Officer, returnable by March 5, on the contempt plea by TN Ramasamy seeking that the official be punished for 'wilful disobedience' of the July 31, 2017 court order.

As per the earlier order, the court had re-determined the payment to the petitioner for the land acquired by the state government for the purpose of Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) 30 years ago.

The judge noted that even after it had passed the order, and in spite of notice and reminder, the respondent had not replied to the notice or complied with the order.

"Prima facie there is a violation of court's order," it said.

The authorities concerned are not sensitive to the court orders and this case is a classic example of how the directives are ignored and not complied with, he observed.

The matter relates to the acquisition of 487 sq ft land from the petitioner in Mylapore village in 1993 by the then Madras Collector for alignment of MRTS after fixing Rs 2,53,056 as compensation.

Subsequently, the petitioner moved the high court seeking hike in compensation.

On July 31 last year, the court fixed the compensation at Rs 35.44 lakh and directed the government to pay the entire amount with costs within 12 weeks from the date of receipt of copy of the order.

As the time prescribed by it expired on December 2017, the petitioner sent a notice on December 28, calling upon the Collector to pay the amount, which evoked no response, the petitioner submitted.

Another reminder was sent on January 23, which too did not elicit any response following which he filed the contempt petition.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra minister Sadabhau Khot's car was attacked at Ridore village in Solapur district by alleged supporters of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), his former organisation, today morning, police said.

Khot, the minister of state for agriculture, was on his way to Barshi in the district to meet the supporters of his newly-floated party, Rayat Kranti Sanghatana, a police official told PTI.

His car was attacked with metal rods by some people, alleged supporters of the SSS, at Ridore, the official said, adding that windshield of the vehicle got damaged, though nobody was injured.

Police detained a person in connection with the attack and probe was on, the official said.

Khot resumed his journey in another car when some protesters showed black flags to him at Kurduwadi Bypass and some of them hurled carrots at his car, police said. Six of the protesters were detained.

Khot had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election on the SSS ticket from Madha in the district, but he lost. While the party left the BJP-led ruling alliance in the state last year, Khot stayed in. He was later expelled from the SSS.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Margot Robbie believes her job is not "glamorous" as compared to her other friends' occupations.

The 27-year-old actor said she feels envious of her friends who work in offices and they get to slip into smart suits every day.

"I feel like my friends who work in offices have more glamorous jobs. They do their make-up, put on a tailored skirt and blouse and go to work. I go to work in my pyjamas and my Ugg boots and we are pretty much on a glorified construction site, sitting in the dirt on plastic chairs using Portaloos and eating fried food," Robbie told Metro newspaper.

"That's what acting actually is. Then a handful of times in the year you get to put on a designer dress and get glammed up," she added.

Robbie recently starred in the biopic "I, Tonya", which based on the life of American ice skater Tonya Harding. She has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for the role.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Security forces today shot dead Meghalaya's most-wanted militant and self-styled chief of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) in an encounter in East Garo Hills district, police said.

The encounter of Sohan D Shira, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, came after NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED attack, suspected to be carried out by GNLA in Samanda area of the same district on February 18.

Following Sangma's death, counter-insurgency operations had been stepped up in poll-bound South and East Garo Hills districts.

Acting on inputs about movement of armed GNLA cadres in Dobu area, counter-insurgency forces, mostly from the state's elite Special Force10, were pressed into service last night, a senior police officer involved in the operations told PTI.

He said the police team ran into heavy firing at about 11:50 am in Achakpek village, where Sohan was killed during retaliation.

"He (Sohan) is dead after a challenging encounter. Our team is on a manhunt to trace his bodyguards," Deputy IGP (Western Range) O Passi told PTI from Tura.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar said a post-mortem examination was being conducted on the body of the slain militant and necessary formalities would follow.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, in a series of tweets, said: "I wholeheartedly congratulate the fearless women and men of the Meghalaya Police organisation that has led an untiring effort and commitment to eliminate enemies of the state like Sohan D Shira."



Earlier this week, Meghalaya Director General of Police S B Singh had said that there were "credible leads" about the involvement of GNLA in Sangma's killing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24)  The Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait is calling on undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in the Gulf state to avail of the offer to go back to the Philippines.

"Mayroon tayong mahigit na 10,000 na mga undocumented at runaways dito sa Kuwait at sa ngayon, ang napapauwi pa lang natin ay 2,500," Renato Villa told CNN Philippines "Newsroom" on Friday.

[Translation: We have over 10,000 undocumented and runaway OFWs in Kuwait and at the moment, we have only sent home 2,500.]

Villa was pertaining to the Kuwaiti government's amnesty program, which allows OFWs to leave Kuwait without applying for an exit visa and paying penalties for staying in the country illegally.

The Kuwaiti government extended the program until April 22.

Read: Kuwait extends amnesty program till April 22

"Mga mahigit 3,000 lamang ang naga-apply ng amnesty," Villa said. "Samantalahin na ng ating kababayan dito na may libreng tiket na binigay na ating gobyerno para makauwi na sila at, 'yun nga, magsimula ng panibago sa ating bansa."

[Translation: Around 3,000 people have applied for amnesty. Our countrymen should take advantage of the free plane ticket from our government so that they could go home and start anew in the Philippines.]

Villa said OFWs in Kuwait can go to the Philippine Embassy to apply for the program.

"'Wag na silang magatubili na pumunta sa embahada at mag-apply ng amnesty dahil may proseso pa ito na dadalhin pa namin sa immigration at baka maubusan sila ng oras," he said.

[Translation: They shouldn't hesitate to go to the embassy and apply for amnesty because there is a process where we have to bring applications to immigration officials and they might run out of time.]

Villa said a team from the Foreign Affairs Department and the Labor Department's Overseas Workers Welfare Administration is assisting in processing applications for the amnesty program.

The Philippine government is negotiating with Kuwait for better working conditions for OFWs, amid a deployment ban to the Gulf state.

Read: DOLE orders total ban on deployment of OFWs to Kuwait

The ban came after authorities discovered the body of 29-year-old domestic worker Joanna Demafelis in a freezer in Kuwait.

Read: Body of Filipina found in freezer in Kuwait

Authorities said Demafelis had torture marks on her body and there were indications she was strangled to death.

The Foreign Affairs Department said on Friday that a principal suspect in her killing, Lebanese national Nader Essam Assaf, was in the custody of Lebanese authorities.

Read: Suspect in Joanna Demafelis' murder in Lebanese custody

Prior to the repatriation, as estimated 250,000 Filipino workers were based in Kuwait.The watchdog that monitors global and illicit misuse of funds cited North Korea as a top source of "ongoing and substantial" money laundering and terrorist financing, and urged countries to keep North Korea at arm's length and close its banks.

A report issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) yesterday named nine countries with "strategic deficiencies," including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Tunisia.

Pakistan escaped mention, despite foreboding that it could be listed.

Pakistan was on the list from 2012-2015 and feared a return would deter foreign investment and hurt access to international financial markets.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad, Mohammad Faisal, said at a briefing earlier Friday that the US and Britain had jointly submitted a letter to the FATF nominating Pakistan for placement on a "grey list." Faisal said most of the concerns raised by Washington had been addressed in 2015, and Pakistan was still working to take more measures.

The FATF said after plenary session that North Korea has failed to address "significant deficiencies" in its system to combat the ills that pose a risk to the international financial system.

The FATF report on North Korea came as President Donald Trump increased US sanctions on North Korea on Friday, blacklisting scores of companies and ships accused of illicit trading with the pariah nation.

The Paris-based global watchdog that monitors measures taken by nations to combat money laundering and terrorism financing urged nations to be cautious about business ties and transactions with North Korea, taking "necessary measures to close existing branches, subsidiaries and representative offices of (North Korean) banks within their territories."



Targeted measures and sanctions are aimed at protecting world financial sectors from involvement in money laundering or financing terror or North Korea's nuclear programme.

Iran was singled out in the report, but the task force chose to maintain its suspension of counter-measures.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was removed from the FATF list, judged to be in compliance with efforts to counter money laundering and terror financing. Pakistan, which had feared it would end up on a watch list, got a reprieve.

The report urged Iran to continue addressing items on a now-expired action plan to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, citing an eight-item "to do" list that includes freezing terrorist assets and adequately criminalising terrorist financing, including by removing the exemption for designated groups 'attempting to end foreign occupation, colonialism and racism.'"



The FATF warned that that action could be taken in June against Iran if progress is not made.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu today said that adopting the regional value chain approach could be an appropriate model for India to foster intra-regional trade.

"Although India has a lot of trading agreements, both regional and bilateral, the country is yet to fully capitalise on the existing synergies in its Regional Trading Agreements.

"An example is the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) as the South Asian region is the least integrated among all the regions in the world," he said here.

"Adopting the regional value chain approach could be an appropriate model to foster intra-regional trade by deepening regional processes," Naidu said.

The vice-president said domestic firms should find ways to achieve higher exports.

"Indian companies need to identify segments of global value chains with higher value addition and low entry barriers in global markets to achieve higher exports in the short term," he noted.

Naidu was addressing a gathering of trade ministers of various countries, business heads and delegates after inaugurating the Partnership Summit 2018 this afternoon.

Noting that the global economy was showing signs of pick-up after a prolonged phase of slowdown, Naidu, however, said the projected rates for global expansion were much below pre-crisis averages, especially for the advanced economies as well as commodity-exporting countries.

"Already there are calls for protectionism from the advanced economies which, when implemented, could mean restrictive policies for cross-border trade and investment flows. This could bring attendant repercussions which might undermine the nascent signs of growth revival," he added.

Speaking about Indian micro, small and medium enterprises, Naidu said connecting them to global value chains was critical.

"Access to technology and internet can be a major factor to allow SMEs to integrate with the global market. E-trade allows SMES to reach out to new export avenues and access to low-cost imported inputs".

Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapati Raju, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee, CII chairperson Sobhana Kamineni and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, among others, were present on the occasion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BSP president Mayawati today accused the NDA government at the Centre of taking "decisions in the interest of a handful of top capitalists" and flayed its move of opening up coal mining to the private sector for commercial use.

Expressing concern over the coal mining issue, she alleged that it has come at a time when some "wealthy and capitalists" embezzled huge sums of money from public sector banks and fled the country.

"Privatisation of an important sector like coal, which is a national wealth, and allowing its exploitation is a matter of grave concern," Mayawati said.

"Decisions are continuously being taken in the interest of a handful of top capitalists and the wealthy whereas the promise of 'achchey din' (good days) for the poor and needy is yet to be fulfilled," the BSP supremo alleged.

Earlier this week, the Centre approved opening up of coal mining to the private sector for commercial use, a major reform in the sector since its nationalisation in 1973. Coal mines will now be sold in an e-auction to private domestic and global miners.

Announcing the decision, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had said the reform is expected to bring efficiency in the coal sector by moving from an era of monopoly to competition.

Mayawati alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working on a hidden agenda by privatising all important sectors, which would adversely affect the reservation system and will eventually harm national interest.

"The country is seeing with open eyes how private companies are indulging in loot while the BJP government is keeping its eyes and ears shut... the country is being looted while the 'sevadar and chowkidar' all appear to be intoxicated with power.

"It is anarchy and jungle raj in the economic sector...," she said.

After the four years of Modi government, it is clear that like the Congress, the BJP too is on the same page in the matter of looting national wealth, Mayawati alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel here today seized nearly 1,000 bottles of Nepalese liquor, worth about Rs six crore, and arrested one person in this connection.

Acting on a tip-off, an SSB team nabbed a local resident Dinesh Kesri from Amagachhi border outpost, Deputy Commandant Mukesh Kumar Gautam said.

Kesri, who entered the Indian territory from Nepal, was being followed by a number of persons carrying a huge sack full of liquor bottles who fled upon spotting the SSB personnel, leaving the contraband behind, Gautam said.

The sack contained a total of 991 bottles of liquor manufactured in Nepal, worth Rs 5.95 crore, he added.

Kesri and the liquor bottles have been handed over to the Sonamani Godam police station for further action, the SSB Deputy Commandment said.

Sale and consumption of liquor has been completely banned in Bihar by the Nitish Kumar government.

SSB, a paramilitary force, is entrusted with the responsibility to guard country's International borders with Nepal and Bhutan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A young married woman was arrested for allegedly throwing her 25-day-old daughter in a garbage dump in east Delhi, police said today.

Accused Neha, a resident of East Vinodpur, was arrested after her infant daughter died at the GTB hospital here today, a senior police officer said.

"The woman admitted throwing the infant in a garbage dump saying she did so due to anger and frustration over looking after the baby girl," he said.

The incident was reported yesterday and a case of kidnapping was filed. During the search for the baby, suspicion fell on Neha as a witness came forward who saw the woman throw something in the garbage dump, the officer said.

During questioning, the accused revealed the location she had dumped the infant, he added.

A police team found the infant alive and rushed her to the LBS hospital. She had sustained fractures in her skull, the officer said.

The baby was later shifted to the GTB hospital, where she died today, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan today summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh here for the fifth time in a month and condemned alleged firing across Line of Control by Indian forces.

The Pakistan Foreign Office said Director General (SA & SAARC) Mohammad Faisal summoned Singh over "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian forces on Feb 23 in Nikial sector.

Faisal said the firing killed a man in ThurtiNarr village located some 1,200 meters from the LoC and three other people were injured.

The Foreign Office had earlier summoned India's deputy high commissioner on February 5, 15, 20 and 22.

"This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when Indian forces committed more than 1,970 ceasefire violations," he claimed.

He said the alleged ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation.

Pakistani troops today fired mortar shells targeting villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, Indian police said.

"Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and small arms from across the border in the Lam area of the Nowshera sector around 6.15 pm," a police official said.

He said Indian troops retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for 15 minutes.

There was no casualty reported in the Pakistani firing, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistani troops today fired mortar shells targeting villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, police said.

"Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and small arms from across the border in the Lam area of the Nowshera sector around 6.15 pm," a police official said.

He said Indian troops retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for 15 minutes.

There was no casualty reported in the Pakistani firing, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistani troops today violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir, prompting retaliatory fire from the Indian Army, an official said.

The Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing on Indian posts along the LoC in Uri sector in Baramulla district of north Kashmir around 11.50 am, an Army official said.

He said Indian soldiers were retaliating effectively and no casualties have been reported so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Andhra Pradesh government today inked as many as 77 memorandum of understandings (MoU) on the first day of CII's Partnership Summit worth Rs 31,546 crore with different companies including Grasim industries and Essel Group here.

These MoUs, according to the details provided by industry chamber CII, will generate jobs for about 98,290 people.

The major companies who signed these pacts include Mytrah Mobility (Rs 7,000 crore) for electric vehicles; JBM Group (Rs 2,650 crore) for electric mobility, solar power generation and auto components; Adani Group (Rs 4,000 crore) for green field port at Bhavanapadu; Grasim Industries (Rs 2,500 crore) for a chemical unit in Kakinada.

In automobile sector, as many as 14 MoUs worth over Rs 14,000 crore was inked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the subsidised scooter scheme for working women on the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late leader Jayalalithaa.

It was launched in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam, among others.

The scheme, with a subsidy component of 50 per cent up to Rs 25,000 for working women, was launched by Modi, who handed over the keys and registration certificate copies to five women beneficiaries.

He also launched 70,00,000 tree sapling planting drive to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa.

The beneficiaries included women who worked in the private sector, an accountant, a salesperson and an assistant in a private store.

On the birth anniversary of Amma, launched the Amma Two Wheeler Scheme. This scheme will be beneficial for women across Tamil Nadu. pic.twitter.com/MYYqadqmXd  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 24, 2018

A smiling Modi exchanged a few words with the beneficiaries while handing over the keys.

Palaniswami in his address urged Modi to take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee, as directed by the Supreme Court.

He said 70 lakh saplings would be planted throughout the year and also thanked the Prime Minister for lauding the ancient language Tamil recently.

I am grateful to the people of Chennai for the extremely warm welcome. Here are some glimpses. pic.twitter.com/tbDXTevOlK  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 24, 2018

The Chief Minister also recalled a slew of welfare initiatives and freebie schemes launched by Jayalalithaa.

These included 'thalikku thangam,'(gold for mangalsutra) for women beneficiaries,free milch cow and goats,free of cost computers for students and new colleges for the uplift of rural students.

Hailing Modi, Panneerselvam said the Prime Minister was "courageously leading India."



Stating that Amma had implemented several schemes for the safety and well being of women, right from their birth to old age, Panneerselvam said this scheme too envisioned by the late leader, was for people's welfare and development.

He said this scheme too would be the forerunner for other state governments, like other previous initiatives.

So far 3,36,103 women have applied under the scheme and scrutiny of such applications were under process, according to the ruling AIADMK.

Palaniswami had announced in December last that scooters would be distributed to one lakh women at a subsidised rate on the occasion of Jayalalithaa's 70th birth anniversary.

Earlier Prime Minister Modi was welcomed by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and top State officials at Chennai airport.

From there, he flew to INS Adyar Naval base near Marina beach, from where he reached the function venue by road.

Cadres of BJP, ruling AIADMK holding their party flags and the general public lined up both sides of the road welcoming Modi to the venue, 'Kalaivanar Arangam.'



The Prime Minister, who planted a sapling to mark the event, is scheduled to stay at Raj Bhavan here later tonight and leave for neighbouring Puducherry tomorrow.

The subsidised scooter scheme for working women is an electoral promise of late Jayalalithaa.

During the 2016 Assembly election, she had promised 50 per cent subsidy for women to purchase two-wheelers.

Last month, the state government increased the subsidy component under the scheme from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.

Earlier in the event, Palaniswami presented a memento, Panneerselvam a shawl welcoming Modi.

Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, Tamil Nadu Ministers, MLAs were among the participants.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24)  Civic groups including Catholic priests staged a protest at the Quirino Grandstand Saturday to denounce drug war killings and the proposed divorce bill in the House of Representatives, among others.

Over 2,000 people, among them, priests, nuns and students joined the "Walk for Life" to express dissent over some policies of the Duterte administration.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, in his homily, said the government should value both the sanctity of marriage and life.

"Pero ang kanilang tinatapakan ay nabahiran na ng dugo. Ang kanilang tinatapakan, ang kanilang pinaglalakbayan ay punong-puno ng mga bakas ng karahasan at pagbabalewala sa buhay," Tagle said in his homily.

[Translation: But what they are stepping on is smeared with blood. The path they're treading on is filled with traces of violence and blatant disregard for life.]

The House committee on population and family relations on Wednesday approved a measure that would allow divorce in the Philippines. Under the bill, married couples may end their marriage for several reasons, including abuse, infidelity, and irreconcilable differences.

Religious officials emphasized the event was not organized by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) but by independent Catholic group Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas.

Opposition personalities also participated in the event like Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat. Also in attendance were Cabinet members of the Aquino administration like ex-Social Welfare chief Dinky Soliman and former Education Secretary Armin Luistro.

They denied, however, politicizing the event.

Government data showed that around 4,000 have been killed in anti-drug operations, but human rights groups believe the number to be as high as 13,000.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Jhunjhunu district on March 8 to launch the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) and expand the 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' campaign, an official spokesperson said here today.

A meeting was convened in this regard by Chief Secretary N C Goyal, in which Union secretary for women and child development Rakesh Srivastava and other senior officers of the department, the state government and the police were present.

Directives were used to make time-bound arrangements for the upcoming visit of the prime minister, Goyal said in a statement.

Srivastava said the prime minister might distribute 'Nari Shakti' awards during the visit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Reserve Bank has set an April 30 deadline for all banks to link the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) with their core banking solution (CBS), the apex body of bankers has said.

Indian Banks Association (IBA) chairperson Usha Ananthasubramanian said there is an urgency to fast-track SWIFT-CBS linkage.

This came after the country's second largest state-run lender Punjab National Bank detected a Rs 11,400-crore fraudulent transactions at one of its branches in Mumbai.

The firms of diamond jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoU) from PNB's Brady House branch in South Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

The LoUs were not recorded in the PSU lender's books and therefore were undetected for a long time.

Asked about the April 30 deadline, Ananthasubramanian said, "Correct. That could be a deadline, but it is an outer limit. Today, the urgency is such that everyone wants this (linkage of SWIFT to CBS) project to be on fast-track". CBS is a software used to support most common transactions of a bank.

In a release issued earlier this week, the RBI said it had alerted banks three times since August 2016 for a possible misuse of the SWIFT infrastructure.

"The risks arising from the potential malicious use of the SWIFT infrastructure, created by banks for their genuine business needs, has always been a component of their operational risk profile.

"The RBI had, therefore, confidentially cautioned and alerted banks of such possible misuse, at least on three occasions since August 2016, advising them to implement the safeguards detailed in the RBI's communications, for pre- empting such occurrences," the release said.

Ananthasubramanian, who is currently managing director and CEO of Allahabad Bank, said at her bank SWIFT and CBS is not linked. The bank has sent all its branches memos to take precautionary measures.

She said there is an urgent need for all banks to revisit their risk management system to plug any loophole.

"Banks are reviewing and revisiting the systems to ensure drawbacks/loopholes, if any, are addressed so that the system becomes robust. SWIFT linkage to CBS is being fast- tracked by banks".

Asked about Allahabad Bank's loan exposure to Nirav Modi's firms, she refused to divulge any information.

Last week, in a regulatory filing, Allahabad Bank had said it has an exposure of nearly USD 366.87 million in the form LoUs issued by PNB.

"The bank, through its overseas branch at Hong Kong, has been taking exposure with PNB as a country party under various LoUs issued through authenticated SWIFT message," Allahabad Bank had said in a filing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chartered accountants' apex body ICAI today said it has taken a statement from a senior official of Punjab National Bank regarding the Rs 11,400 crore fraud.

The institute, which has issued show cause notices to auditors of the bank, has also set up a high powered group to study the issues in the matter and suggest remedial measures for the banking system.

"First meeting of the group has already been held on February 23, 2018, in Mumbai. The officers of PNB were called by ICAI to appear and produce copy of all related documents in the said frauds. General Manager, Western Zone, PNB appeared and made his statement in Mumbai," the institute said in a statement.

The institute noted that its commitment to conclude the disciplinary process against those found involved in the PNB scam remains high.

"Till the time disciplinary inquiry is concluded, and the role of all those who acted in fiduciary responsibility is established in the matter, it would not be prudent to draw any conclusion against the profession," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The opposition Congress today released hundreds of black balloons to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi after police stopped them from carrying out a march to the venue of the Prime Ministerial programme.

Police said that some party workers also waved black flags as Modi's motorcade approached the venue from the helipad where the PM's aircraft touched down. The PM was in Daman to lay the foundation stone of some projects.

Police officials said that no one had been detained for the protest.

The president of the Daman and Diu unit of the Congress, Ketan Patel, however alleged that police had cordoned off his house and had detained party workers who had gathered there.

Patel said that he, along with these workers, had planned to march to the programme venue from his house but the plan was foiled by the police.

"Hundreds of party workers had gathered at my residence here since morning. But a large posse of police was deployed outside to prevent us from marching out," Patel said.

He said it was to overcome this situation that the party decided to release black balloons near the venue.

Patel said that the police allowed them to carry on with the protest march after the PM's programme concluded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Protesting lawyers squatted at a toll crossing here to press for a separate high court bench for western Uttar Pradesh, disrupting traffic on the route for over an hour yesterday, police said.

Bar association president Rakesh Tyagi Kakda said on Monday the office bearers of 22 bar associations will gather at the Press club of India in the national capital to decide the further course of action.

He said litigants were forced to go the Allahabad High Court which was around 800 km from Saharanpur district. and added that the government should provide cheap legal assistance to the victims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh expressed grief over the death of veteran journalist and editor-in-chief of National Herald, Neelabh Mishra, who passed away at a private hospital in Chennai today.

In his condolence message, the chief minister described Mishra as a fine journalist, whose in-depth knowledge coupled with dynamic and visionary writings on various national issues, made him popular among the masses and the classes.

Singh recalled the services rendered by Mishra in his career spanning over three decades, including his stint in National Herald - a newspaper founded by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Raveen Thukral, the Media Advisor to the chief minister, expressed his sympathies for the bereaved family and remembered Mishra as a journalist of deep understanding with an incisive edge in his writings.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab Government will be hosting the first international contemporary arts forum at the historic Qila Mubarak fort in Patiala this March to showcase the states rich art and cultural heritage to the world.

Punjab's Tourism and Culture Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said the first of its kind event 'Panorama Punjab' will unlock the states tourism potential by attracting art and history aficionados from across the globe.

As many as five embassies are participating in the grand two-day event which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on March 3.

The event will also witness the participation of globally reputed film artistes, troupes and Indian performers as well.

Sidhu said the Punjab government is working hard to hardsell the state to the world as a tourist destination, which will help generate employment opportunities and propel growth.

Sarah Singh, the founder-director of 'Panorama Punjab', said the event will bring together internationally reputed cultural representatives, including, artists, museum directors, musicians, historians and curators. Among the participants are Greece, Canada, Swiss Arts Council, Goethe Instut and Asia Society.

The programme, she said, will be marked by panel discussions and presentations that explore Punjabs culture and history through artifacts, films and architecture, in the framework of "Punjab as Protagonist" and "Hybrid Aesthetics".

It will see the representation of five major world museums (Denmark, Greece, UK, USA, Canada), 11 international film artists, 3 international performance artists and 3 Indian performance artists, she said.

The inaugural event will be marked by opening remarks from the Punjab chief minister, along with the Greek Ambassador and the Consul General Canada.

A souvenir book will be launched during the event, which will also witness a special programme on March 5 for the visiting dignitaries in Chandigarh, where they will be taken through a special tour of Pierre Jeanneret's contribution to Chandigarh, along with a high tea at the Raj Bhavan with the Punjab Governor.

The event is aimed at showcasing Punjabs hybrid history through a blend of international, regional and local art, the innovative event is a holistic package, carrying the stamp of various globally renowned cultural organisations.

Singh said a major highlight of the programme will be a curated exhibition of international film work by female artists from around the world.

She said Susan Stronge, senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, will give a presentation on Arts of the Punjab, while Elisavet Tsigarida, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Pella Museum in Greece, will make a presentation on "When the Greeks Met the Indians" which traces the cultural impact and legacy of Alexander the Great.

Besides, there will be a special conversation on fashion, dedicated to Patialvi Parmeshwar Godrej, to be conducted between fashion designer JJ Valaya and Jill Spalding, a legendary journalist and editor who has worked with Vogue for nearly 40 years.

The event, will see a Bossa Nova Jazz concert by artistes from Belgium the Bossa Brothers on March 3 ,and will conclude with classical music that explores the musical connections from Iran to Afghanistan via Punjab and Kashmir, with noted instrumentalists on the Tombak, Esraj, Santoor, Tabla and Rubab on March 4.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister Kiren Rijiju today said the BJP is dominating the of the North East and expressed confidence that the party would win Assembly polls in three states of the region.

While elections in Tripura were held on February 18, Nagaland and Meghalaya will go to polls on February 27. Counting in all the three states is fixed on March 3.

"These three elections are a defining election because we are going to win in a big way and will form the government," the union minister of state for home told reporters here.

Going by ground reports and the party's own assessment in Tripura, the party will win the state election with absolute majority, the senior BJP leader asserted.

"We are in a comfortable position in Nagaland and going to form the government," he said adding that the BJP is fighting the election there in alliance with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party.

Claiming that he knows Meghalaya well as he was the the party in-charge of the state for over 10 years, he said, "This time the difference is perceptible. We have fielded 47 candidates and hope to win many seats."



Earlier, the BJP used to fight in a few seats, he said.

Stating that the party has formed the government in three states of the region -- Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, he said, "This is because the BJP has dominated the of North East."



"BJP is the panacea to all the ailments which the people of North East are facing," he said.

Rijiju criticised the Congress for trying to paint the BJP with the colour of Hindutva, and said religion and are different things.

The union minister said, "BJP is only force which can take care of all the concerns of Meghalaya and North East people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior journalist and editor-in-chief of National Herald, Neelabh Mishra, passed away today at a Chennai Hospital.

He was critically ill and with complications resulting from non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Mishra, 57, was admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai earlier this month, and developed multiple organ failure before a liver transplant could be carried out.

Mishra steered the re-launch of National Herald, the newspaper.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi condoled his death, describing him as one who spoke the truth to power.

An editor's editor. A man who spoke truth to power. An institution builder. On Neelabh Mishra's tragic passing away this morning, my deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and admirers, he tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)/ -- A three-year initiative comes to a fruitful close - with better care for over 100,000 pregnant mothers and newborns across the Indian State



Healthcare leaders and specialists across Tamil Nadu and Singapore marked the successful conclusion of a three-year collaboration between the two countries on antenatal and child healthcare in Tamil Nadu. To conclude the programme, both sides came together for a Leader's Dialogue to share their experiences and learnings over the past three years, at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital. The Enhancing Maternal and Child Health Services (EMCH) Programme is a three-year specialist programme implemented by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) in partnership with the Department of Health and Family Welfare (DH&FW), Government of Tamil Nadu, Temasek Foundation International (TFI) and SingHealth.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/645445/Enhancing_Maternal_and _Child_Health_Services_Programme.jpg )



Since 2015, healthcare professionals from Singapore have worked with their counterparts in three districts in Tamil Nadu - Tiruchirappalli, Kanchipuram, and Pudukkottai - to train local healthcare professionals in government healthcare institutions in Tamil Nadu to reduce infant mortality rates (IMR) and maternity mortality rates (MMR). Tamil Nadu is one of the leading states in India with an IMR of 17 against the national average of 34 and an MMR of 67 per 100,000 births. The EMCH Programme has helped augment the government's efforts to tackle preventable causes of both infant and maternal deaths, with the aim of attaining a single digit IMR and ensuring safer pregnancies for more women. These efforts also contribute towards achieving the larger UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 of Good Health and Well-Being.

"Having a baby is a significant phase in a woman's life and this State Government is committed to ensure that every mother should have access to quality Antenatal Services and safe confinement on par with international standards," said Dr C. Vijayabasker, Honourable Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Tamil Nadu.

More than 1,000 doctors, nurses and public health leaders and officials from Tamil Nadu have participated in the three-year EMCH Programme. Through pedagogy workshops, management training, dialogue sessions, symposia and a study visit to Singapore just last week, the participants had the chance to share their knowledge and experience with their counterparts from Singapore, with all parties gaining valuable insights and perspectives from the learning exchange. Among the trained pool of healthcare practitioners, 50 Master Trainers were identified and received additional training on how to cascade their knowledge to their peers in the industry.

As part of the EMCH Programme, a multi-disciplinary team of 26 healthcare professionals, including obstetricians, gynaecologists, midwives, emergency paediatricians, neonatologists and allied healthcare professionals from KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) in Singapore, shared their expertise on CORE (Combined Obstetric Resuscitations and Emergencies Training) for better management of high risk pregnancies arising from postpartum haemorrhage, eclampsia and sepsis.

Mr Jaryll Chan, SIF's Director of Programmes said, "At the SIF, we believe in leveraging our strengths and learning from one another to enhance the effectiveness of our programmes that enrich lives and effect positive change. I am heartened that this collaboration between the Singapore and Tamil Nadu medical communities has contributed to safer pregnancies for women and healthier babies, setting the stage for stronger friendships to grow not just between governments, but between our institutions and our people."



Mr Benedict Cheong, TFI's Chief Executive, said, "Good health care is an essential pillar of the economic and social development of any community. We are pleased to know that this capability-building programme has facilitated a good learning exchange between healthcare professionals from Singapore and Tamil Nadu, leading to good outcomes such as improved nursing processes and practices in the area of antenatal and postnatal care. In the long run, we hope that this will bring about better healthcare support for the community and enhance the networks of cooperation between Tamil Nadu and Singapore."



Professor Ivy Ng, SingHealth's Group Chief Executive Officer, said, "SingHealth is privileged to have partnered the DH&FW, Government of Tamil Nadu to share expertise in the management of high-risk pregnancies, obstetric and neonatal emergencies. This mutually beneficial collaboration has enabled both organisations to nurture a strong and sustainable pipeline of healthcare professionals to provide quality antenatal and maternal care."



Dr Shephali Tagore, Director, O&G International Medical Programme, and Senior Consultant, Department of Maternal Fetal Medicine, KKH, who is also SIF Specialist Team Leader in the EMCH Programme said, "The past three years have been a great opportunity for us as healthcare providers to share our experiences - through these shared resources and expertise, we believe that we have helped play a small part in enabling safer pregnancies and deliveries in Tamil Nadu. Learning happens both ways - we too have definitely taken away insights and learnings from our Indian counterparts on their approach to maternity care and how they overcome challenges."



The EMCH Programme is yet another collaborative project in India in healthcare - one of the key focus areas of the SIF's work - and joins the ranks of similar maternity and child health programmes in Tamil Nadu (2009 - 2013) and Karnataka (2015 - present). It also marks another milestone in the 23- year friendship between the SIF and India to uplift lives and build enduring friendships between our people.

About Singapore International Foundation



The Singapore International Foundation makes friends for a better world. We build enduring relationships between Singaporeans and world communities and harness these friendships to enrich lives and effect positive change. Our work is anchored in the belief that cross-cultural interactions provide insights that strengthen understanding. These exchanges inspire action and enable collaborations for good. Our programmes bring people together to share ideas, skills and experiences in areas such as healthcare, education, the environment, arts and culture, as well as livelihood and business. We do this because we believe we all can, and should, do our part to build a better world, one we envision as peaceful, inclusive and offering opportunities for all.

Find out more at http://www.sif.org.sg



About Temasek Foundation International



Temasek Foundation International is a Singapore-based non- profit philanthropic organisation that funds and supports programmes, which aim to build capabilities with programme partners in Asia and beyond. These programmes enable human and social capital development, contributing towards a more vibrant and connected global community, with positive networks of cooperation. The programmes also aim to enhance capabilities in the areas of healthcare, education, public administration, urban management and disaster-response. Temasek Foundation International is a member of the Temasek family of foundations.

For more information on Temasek Foundation International, visit: http://www.temasekfoundation-international.org.sg



About Singapore Health Services (SingHealth)



The SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre draws on the collective strengths of SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School to drive the transformation of healthcare and provide affordable, accessible, quality healthcare. With over 40 clinical specialties, a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals, it delivers comprehensive, multi-disciplinary and integrated care. In 2018, the Sengkang General Hospital and Sengkang Community Hospital will be completed to serve the community in the north-east of Singapore. To enhance community care, the new Outram Community Hospital on SGH Campus will be completed in 2020.

For more information, please visit: http://www.singhealth.com.sg



Members of the SingHealth group:



Hospitals (Tertiary Specialty Care): Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital (expected completion: 2018)



National Specialty Centres (Tertiary Specialty Care): National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore, National Neuroscience Institute, and Singapore National Eye Centre



SingHealth Polyclinics (Primary Care): Bedok, Bukit Merah, Marine Parade, Outram, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Sengkang, and Tampines



SingHealth Community Hospitals (Intermediate and Long-term Care): Bright Vision Hospital, Sengkang Community Hospital (expected completion: 2018), Outram Community Hospital (expected completion: 2020)



About KK Women's and Children's Hospital



KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) is a recognised leader and Singapore's largest tertiary referral centre for Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Neonatology. Founded in 1858, the 160-year-old academic medical institution leads in patient-centred management of high risk conditions in women and children. More than 500 specialists adopt a compassionate, multi-disciplinary and holistic approach to treatment, and harness medical innovations and technology to deliver the best medical care possible.

Accredited as an Academic Medical Centre, KKH is a major teaching hospital for all three medical schools in Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. The 830-bed hospital also runs the largest specialist training programme for Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Paediatrics in the country. Both programmes are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I), and are highly rated for the high quality of clinical teaching and the commitment to translational research.

For more information, please visit: http://www.kkh.com.sg



Media Contact: Prakruti Jani prakruti.jani@pointninelintas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24)  President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look for the recruiters of slain overseas Filipino worker Joanna Demafelis.

"PRRD asked NBI to summon them," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a text message to CNN Philippines on Saturday.

The statement comes after the arrest of Demafelis' employer, Nader Essam Assaf, by Lebanese authorities.

READ: Suspect in Joanna Demafelis' murder in Lebanese custody

Assaf and his Syrian wife Mona are the suspects in the death of 29-year-old Demafelis, whose bruised body was found inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, where it may have been kept for over a year.

Malacanang welcomed Assaf's arrest. "We are thankful for the arrest but hoping that they be prosecuted and punished for Joanna's murder."

Meanwhile, Demafelis' mother Eva hopes the authorities will also find the other principal suspect.

"Sana po maging mabilis po ang proseso (We hope the process is expedited)," the elder Demafelis told CNN Philippines in an interview.

The family earlier said they went to the recruitment agency who sent Demafelis to Kuwait after they lost contact with her in 2016, only to find out that it had been shut down due to recruitment infractions.

Demafelis was recruited locally by Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Global E-Human Resources Inc., which was shut down in 2016. The foreign recruitment agency Demafelis was signed under was Fadilah Farz Kaued Al Khodor Recruitment Office, which is currently on the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration's watchlist because of a pending case.

READ: Family of OFW found in freezer warns against illegal recruiters

Based on a copy of her contract obtained by CNN Philippines, Demafelis was earning about US $400 monthly and her contract only ran for a year. She was deployed in 2014.

Demafelis' death prompted Duterte to order the repatriation of OFWs who want to come home from Kuwait. The government also banned the deployment of new-hires to the Arab country.

Kuwait has been a top destination for Filipino workers, mostly domestic helpers. Latest data from Philippine Overseas Employment Administration state around 240,000 Filipinos are working in that country as of 2016.Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today distributed cheques worth about Rs 5 crore to 30 households rehabilitated after their land was acquired for building a naval base, the defence ministry said today.

The land was acquired as part of 'Operation Seabird' project, which involves building the Karwar base in Karnataka. The Navy envisages to make it one of the largest naval bases in India.

Sitharaman expressed gratitude towards those who have given their land for the development of the strategic naval base on the western coast of India.

"Smt @nsitharaman distributes cheques worth almost 5 crores for 30 households (96 persons) who were rehabilitated under Operation Seabird (Naval Project). Smt @nsitharaman expresses gratitude towards those who have given their land for the development of the strategic Naval Base that shall strengthen the presence of the @indiannavy along the Western Coast of India," Sitharaman tweeted.

The defence ministry had acquired private land measuring 2412 acres 15 guntas 7 anas located in 13 villages of the Karwar and Ankola talukas, Uttar Kannada District in Karnataka for the purpose of creating the naval base.

At the time of acquisition of land from 1988 to 2000, a sum of Rs 22.55 crores was paid to the ex-land owners towards compensation besides Rs 126 crores towards rehabilitation packages to the project affected families.

Some land owners who were not satisfied with quantum of compensation awarded by Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO), had filed references under section 18 of Land Acquisition (LA) Act 1894, following which the courts awarded enhanced compensation at Rs 4.60 lakhs per acre which was confirmed by the Supreme Court, the statement said.

Accordingly, the defence ministry till date has already paid Rs 380.42 crore as enhanced compensation in respect of 1008 such cases, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A batch of petitions challenging the discharge of some senior IPS officers in the alleged fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Shaikh has been assigned to a new single-judge bench of the Bombay High Court, three weeks after a judge started day-to-day hearing on the matter.

A notice published on the high court website this evening said that Justice Revati Mohite-Dere, who was dealing with the petitions, will no longer hear criminal revision applications.

Apart from Justice Mohite-Dere, the assignment of cases of some other judges has also been changed.

Justice Mohite-Dere will now hear matters concerning anticipatory bail applications, while Justice N W Sambre will deal with all criminal revision applications, the notice said.

Revision pleas filed by Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin, challenging the discharge of IPS officers DG Vanzara, Dinesh MN and Rajkumar Pandian, and two revision applications filed by the CBI against the discharge of former Gujarat IPS officer NK Amin and Rajasthan police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod were being heard by Justice Mohite-Dere.

She had already heard a major part of arguments by all the parties in the case on four out of the five revision applications.

Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, who is representing Vanzara, Amin, Pandian and Dinesh MN, was to complete his arguments on behalf of Pandian on Monday, and the single-judge bench was to begin hearing arguments on the plea challenging Vanzara's discharge after that.

During the course of hearing, Justice Mohite-Dere had made some sharp observations about the CBI's attitude, saying the court was not getting enough help from the agency.

Rubabuddin's lawyer Gautam Tiwari said he has the option of approaching the Acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, V K Tahilramani, on Monday and request that the partially heard matter be allowed to continue before Justice Mohite-Dere.

Tiwari, however, said he was yet to receive clear instructions on the matter from his client.

Jethmalani said he had not received any information on the change of assignment, and added that if it was true, there was no need to "read too much into it".

"Assignments in courts change everyday. There's no reason to read too much into it," he said.

Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a gangster with alleged terror links, and his wife Kausar Bi were killed in a suspected fake encounter by the Gujarat police in November 2005. Shaikh's aide Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006.

Of the 38 persons named by the CBI as accused, 15, including senior IPS officers D G Vanzara, Pandian, Dinesh MN, and BJP president Amit Shah, were discharged by the CBI court in Mumbai between August 2016 and September 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lebanese security and judicial officials say authorities in Beirut are interrogating a man who is suspected in the death of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait.

A senior official with Lebanon's General Security Directorate refused to provide details other than that the man is being held by the agency and undergoing questioning.

A judicial official said Saturday Lebanese citizen Nader Essam Assaf was handed over by Syrian authorities to Lebanon Friday. He added that the man's Syrian wife is in Syria.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Assaf and his wife are suspects in the death of Joanna Demafelis.

Yesterday, the Philippine foreign secretary said the suspect is under arrest in Lebanon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tens of thousands of people marched in rival far-right and anti-fascist demonstrations across Italy today, with isolated clashes erupting as tensions threatened to boil over ahead of next weekend's election. Police estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 people attended a campaign rally in Milan led by Matteo Salvini, the head of anti-immigration group The League, which said the number was more like 50,000. The group, formerly known as the Northern League, is part of ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition, which opinion polls suggest is leading ahead of the March 4 election. "Italians first," Salvini, who hopes become the country's next leader, told the crowd. Violence briefly broke out at another Milan demonstration, with police in riot gear briefly grappling with anti-fascist protests marching in reaction to a rally by the neo-fascist CasaPound movement. There has been a dramatic uptick in violent incidents between anti-fascist and far-right activists in recent weeks, and more than 3,000 police were mobilised for demonstrations in Rome on Saturday. However the biggest march in the Italian capital remained calm, with a sea of red and green union flags waving in the cold rain. "We are here to say no to fascism, because there are too many toxic incidents at the moment, it must not come back," Rita Solo of the CGIL union told AFP. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and former leftist PM Matteo Renzi, who is vying to regain the top spot, briefly attended the demonstration, which was organised by the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), under the slogan "Fascism Never Again". Protesters shot firecrackers towards police at another protest in Rome, which was organised by a left-wing union to rail against labour reforms. Earlier in the day in Milan, hundreds of anti-fascist activists, many of them holding Communist Party flags, had gathered in a square to protest. "We find it really shocking that two demonstrations by racist parties were authorised in Milan," said local activist Gianni Fossati. The climate was tense in Palermo, Sicily ahead of an evening rally by the extreme-right Forza Nuova group, after one of the party's activists was beaten up by men wearing masks there on Tuesday. There have been numerous clashes between anti-fascist and far-right activists across the country, particularly after a racially motivated attack on February 3 by a far-right gunman in the central city of Macerata that left six African migrants wounded. The violence comes amid fears of a revival of far-right groups in the election, after several European countries have shifted to the right in recent years against a backdrop of economic and migration woes. An average of the last major opinion polls suggested Berlusconi's right-wing coalition, which includes his Forza Italia (Go Italy) party, The League and the far-right Brothers of Italy, could finish on top, but fail to achieve a parliamentary majority.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three men, including a Nigerian national, were arrested and 2.5 kg of high-grade heroin worth nearly Rs 10 crore was recovered from them, police said today.

The trio were part of an international cartel that smuggled heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan into the country, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P S Kushwah said.

Acting on specific intel, the special cell apprehended two Punjab-based suspected drug-traffickers, Surinder Kumar and Denny Kumar, from near an under-construction Metro station in Tikri Mor here around 12.15 am on February 19, he said.

They were headed towards Punjab with a consignment of heroin from a supplier in Dwarka, the officer said.

The duo were found carrying heroin, one kilogram each. During interrogation they revealed that their supplier was a Nigerian, John, he said.

They also disclosed that the drug was handed over to them at Amrahi extension, Dwarka, and Vikas Puri.

Police managed to catch John from Amrahi extension on February 23. Heroin weighing 500 gm was recovered from him, he said.

On further interrogation, the accused revealed that they had traded over 40 consignments of the drug weighing about 80 kg in the past one year, Kushwah said.

It also came to light that the cartel supplied heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan through couriers who ingested drug-filled capsules to carry it inside their stomachs, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three more CPI(M) workers were taken into custody today in connection with the February 12 murder of Youth Congress functionary S P Shuhaib here, police said.

The three were nabbed from a hide out at Virajpet in Karnataka, police said.

Two CPI(M) workers have been already been arrested in connection with the killing even as the Congress alleged that they were not the real culprits.

Congress-led UDF Opposition in Kerala had demanded a CBI probe into the killing of the Youth Congress functionary.

Senior Congress leader, K Sudhakaran, who was staging a huger strike here for the last five days demanding the arrest of the real culprits behind the killing, had also stated yesterday that he would continue the stir till the government order a CBI investigation in the case.

The 29-year-old Youth Congress Mattannur block leader Shuhaib was hacked to death on February 13 by a group of persons, suspected to be belonging to the CPI(M).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Days after holding an all party meet on Cauvery issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee.

Palaniswami made the request at the Tamil Nadu government's subsidised two-wheeler launch programme for women beneficiaries which the Prime Minister inaugurated.

"On behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu, I would like to request the Prime Minister to take speedy action to form the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee as per the directions of the Supreme Court," he said.

Palaniswami also thanked the Prime Minister for his recent comment lauding Tamil.

Modi had recently hailed Tamil as a beautiful language and older than Sanskrit.

A day after Modi told students that "Tamil is older than Sanskrit and is beautiful," DMK working president M K Stalin in a tweet welcomed the view.

Meanwhile, AIADMK today said an all party delegation will go to New Delhi next week to meet Modi on the Cauvery issue.

On Feb 22, an all party meet chaired by Palaniswami decided that the Chief Minister will lead a delegation of leaders of all parties, farmers and MPs from the state to meet Modi on the Cauvery issue.

The meet had also resolved to urge Modi to immediately set up the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulatory Authority as per the apex courts order to set up the bodies within six weeks.

The all party meet was held after the Supreme Court's recent verdict which reduced the quantum of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu by 14.65 tmc ft.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today reiterated their commitment to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific and affirmed the importance of expanding quadrilateral co-operation with India and Japan.

Following their meeting, the White House said Trump and Turnbull "discussed ways to deepen trilateral cooperation with Japan and affirmed the importance of expanding cooperation between Australia, the US, Japan, and India."



Expressing serious concerns about the situation in the South China Sea, they called upon parties to exercise restraint and resolve disputes peacefully based on international law.

Trump thanked Turnbull for his continued support for the US' program of Freedom of Navigation Operations.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Australia to advance United States-Australia support for high-quality infrastructure investment in the Indo-Pacific region and encourage reforms to improve regulations, transparency, and local capital markets.

This is probably aimed at the One Belt One Road initiative of China, which has created a sense of anxiety among various countries in the region.

The joint statement, however did not mention the Chinese initiative in this regard, which the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has called as predatory economics.

According to the joint statement, the two countries intend to launch the United States-Australia Strategic Partnership on Energy in the Indo-Pacific region to promote energy infrastructure, low emissions technologies, and global gas markets.

Affirming their support for global health security to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, the two countries also agreed to intensify cooperation to support the growth of digital trade between them, ensure an open, free and secure Internet, and advocate the liberalisation and facilitation of global digital trade.

Sharing concerns about terrorists' use of cyberspace and the evolving threat of terrorism to both nations and the global community, Trump and Turnbull discussed about Afghanistan and on-going efforts to assist its people in their quest for peace and security and to deny terrorists access to safe havens there.

Trump, according to the White House, thanked Turnbull for Australia's leadership on counterterrorism issues in Southeast Asia and its substantial contributions to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

They further discussed cooperation as terrorist fighters depart Iraq and Syria and return to their home countries.

Earlier at a joint White House conference, Trump thanked the prime minister for serving as a strong voice for peace and stability across the entire Indo-Pacific region.

"Australia is one of our closest partners in our campaign of maximum pressure to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula. Today, we put the strongest sanctions on Korea that we have ever put on a country. We must continue to stand together to prevent the brutal dictatorship from threatening the world with nuclear devastation," he said.

"Our nations, likewise, share a commitment to keeping our people safe from terrorism. Australian troops are currently serving alongside Americans and our partners in Afghanistan and the coalition to defeat ISIS. Together, we're denying terrorists safe haven, cutting off their funding and discrediting their wicked ideology," Trump said.

The strong partnership can also be seen in the flourishing economic relationship, he added.

Turnbull said that the meeting was a great opportunity to strengthen and deepen their engagement with the US and to lay the groundwork for a new phase of intensified cooperation, the next 100 years of mateship.

"We recognise that the prosperity of our region, and indeed the world, has been underpinned and in fact built on a foundation of a rules-based order which has been secured by the leadership of the United States ever since the Second World War. That leadership has been critical," Turnbull said.

The relationship between the two countries is based not only on history, but also the same values they share and a deep well of trust and spirit based on those enduring values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, enterprise, ingenuity, the spirit of having a go, he said.

"And, if it doesn't work out, dust yourself off and have another go. That is a core American and Australian value. That spirit of enterprise is what leads us on. Of course, our relationship is underpinned by millions of people-to-people and family links and, of course, the extensive economic cooperation we've spoken about," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Turkey today described as "extremely worrying" the US move to open its embassy in Jerusalem in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

Yesterday's announcement by Washington to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city follows US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December.

"This decision shows the US administration's insistence on damaging the grounds for peace by trampling over international law, resolutions of United Nations Security Council on Jerusalem," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Turkey will continue its effort to protect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian public... against this extremely worrying decision by the US," the ministry added.

Ankara said the decision showed the US does not hear, "and worse still, does not care about the voice of the international community's conscience".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led Islamic condemnation of the ruling in December and called an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit of the leaders of Muslim nations in Istanbul shortly after Trump's announcement last year.

The leaders urged the world to recognise East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after it seized control of the area in the 1967 war, but the move has never been recognised by the international community.

Jerusalem is a city considered holy by Christians, Jews and Muslims and is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinian leadership on Friday said the US move, a year earlier than originally expected, was "a provocation to Arabs".

The founding of Israel on May 14 1948 is mourned by Palestinians as the Nakba, or "catastrophe" when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians either fled or were expelled from their homes in the war surrounding Israel's creation.

Relations between Turkey and the US have already been strained over multiple issues including Ankara's latest offensive in Syria against a US-backed Kurdish militia.

Although Erdogan has frequently criticised Israel's policies, the two sides increased cooperation following the end of a rift in 2016 caused by Israel's storming in 2010 of a Gaza-bound ship that left 10 Turkish activists dead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is to receive a report that will recommend "other avenues including the application of universal jurisdiction" that could foster accountability in Sri Lanka.

The report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein will be presented at the 37th session of the UNHRC to be held in Geneva from February 26 to March 23.

Noting that though Sri Lanka had constructively collaborated with the UNHRC over its human rights record the transitional justice action has been virtually stalled for more than an year.

"Progress with some confidence-building measures has often been insufficient and inconclusive and the structures set up to coordinate implementation have not consolidated enough or did not receive sufficient political support to move things forward," the report says.

The report notes that 2017 was marked by intermittent ethnic tensions and attacks on minorities which are unlikely to dissipate completely.

The continuing allegations of torture and surveillance and lack of progress in implementing critical confidence building measures have not helped in achieving reconciliation and accountability allegations of human rights abuses.

The UNHRC in previous resolutions had recommended international judges and tribunals to probe the rights abuses.

But the government refused to allow international judges saying the move would violate Sri Lanka's sovereignty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24)  The family of slain overseas Filipino worker Joanna Demafelis wants her belongings back, saying these can help in their quest for justice.

"Ang hinihiling rin namin po dun yung mga gamit niya. Ang pinakaimportante po dun yung cellphone para makatulong sa imbestigasyon sa kaso niya," Demafelis' eldest brother Joejet told CNN Philippines in a phone interview on Saturday.

[Translation: "We also hope to get her things. The most important is her cellphone so it can help in the investigation of her case."]

He said Demafelis' things can be used as evidence of the abuse she suffered.

According to the Foreign Affairs Department, Lebanese authorities have arrested Demafelis' employer, Nader Essam Assaf. His Syrian wife Mona, however, is still at large.

READ: Suspect in Joanna Demafelis' murder in Lebanese custody

They are the suspects in the killing of 29-year-old Demafelis, whose bruised body was found inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, where it may have been kept for over a year.

The Demafelis' family hopes Mona will also be arrested soon.

Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa told CNN Philippines Assaf's mother is saying it was Mona who was hurting Demafelis.

"She visited the couple here in Kuwait, but she left because she could not take the supposed physical abuse done by the Syrian wife against Joanna like banging her on the wall and hurting her," Villa said, quoting an interview Assaf's mother had with Kuwaiti media.

Since Demafelis flew to Kuwait in 2014 to work as a domestic worker, her family got to talk to her only thrice a year, Demafelis' sister Joyce earlier told CNN Philippines. Demafelis never mentioned being mistreated by her employers. But During their rare phone calls, Joyce said it seems her sister was always being watched by her employers.

READ: Family of slain OFW in Kuwait had no idea she was maltreated

Initial investigation showed Assaf is wanted for cases related to falsified cheques.

Villa said the suspects face death by hanging in Kuwait if proven guilty of killing Demafelis.

Demafelis' death prompted Duterte to order the repatriation of OFWs who want to come home from Kuwait. The government also banned the deployment of new-hires to the Arab country.Veteran Bollywood actress Sridevi, who had an illustrious career spanning over four decades, passed away in Dubai. She was 55.

According to the family sources, the actor, wife of producer Boney Kapoor, reportedly died due to cardiac arrest late in the night in Dubai, where she had gone, along with her family, to attend her nephew Mohit Marwah's wedding.

While some of the family members returned from Dubai after the wedding, Sridevi, Boney and Khushi stayed back.

A versatile actor, Sridevi made her Bollywood debut in 1978 with "Solva Sawan".

But it was only after five years with Jeetendra-starrer "Himmatwala" that she gained commercial success. Her beguiling eyes, scintillating screen presence and acting prowess soon made her one of the most sought-after artistes in the Hindi film industry.

While films like "Mawaali" (1983), "Tohfa" (1984), "Mr India" (1987) and "Chandni" (1989) kept her at the top in the box-office game, her outings like "Sadma" (1983), "ChaalBaaz" (1989), "Lamhe" (1991), and "Gumrah" (1993) earned her critical acclaim.

She went on a hiatus for 15 years after starring in home production -- "Judaai" -- co-starring her brother-in-law Anil Kapoor and Urmila Matondkar. It was director Gauri Shinde's "English Vinglish" in 2012 that marked Sridevi's comeback.

Her nuanced performance as a middle-class woman, learning to speak English to feel accepted by her family, won accolades, and the film was also a commercial success.

Last year, she was seen in revenge-drama -- "Mom" -- opposite Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Akshaye Khanna. She shot for a special appearance in superstar Shah Rukh Khan's upcoming film -- "Zero" -- which releases in December.

But by the time she made her entry into Bollywood, the actor was a known face in South Indian films. She made her debut in Tamil films as a child artiste with "Thunaivan" in 1969. As an adult, she debuted in Tamil cinema in late 70s. She also worked in Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films.

Besides Boney and Khushi, she is survived by older daughter Janhvi Kapoor, who is currently working towards making her entry into the Hindi cinema. Sridevi was step-mother to actor Arjun Kapoor and his sister Anshula, who Boney had from late first wife Mona.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stray incidents of violence marred the polling in 95 wards of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation today, with opposition parties claiming that the ruling Congress indulged in "booth capturing" and "bogus voting".

About 60 per cent eligible voters cast their vote, though the exact percentage of voting could be known, officials said.

The counting of votes will take place on February 27.

As many as 494 candidates were in the fray for the elections. Nearly 10.50 lakh voters were eligible to cast their votes to elect their representatives in the 95 wards.

Reports said members of the ruling party and opposition parties clashed in several wards.

In ward number 75, suspected Akali workers fired a shot from his revolver after clashes between supporters of Congress candidate Varsha Rampal and Akali candidate Sukhwinder Kaur Bhinda. Two cars were badly damaged in the clashes.

The person who opened fire was arrested, a police official said.

AAP MLA and Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Lok Insaf Party leader Simarjit Singh Bains accused the Congress of indulging in "booth capturing".

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) charged the ruling party with resorting to "widespread violence and intimidation".

In a statement in Chandigarh, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema alleged that Congress leaders and legislators led mobs into polling booths to drive out SAD polling agents.

Cheema said Congress legislator Bharat Bhushan Ashu allegedly threatened SAD workers and people accompanying him indulged in "bogus voting" in ward number 72.

However, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu refuted the charges, stating that the opposition parties have accepted defeat even before the results are declared.

Ashwani Dhir of BJP was declared elected to the Municipal Council of Jagraon. He defeated his nearest rival from Congress, Madan Lal Bansal, by 792 votes, officials said.

Congress candidate Munish Aggarwal defeated SAD-BJP candidate Kavita Bajaj in ward number 2 with a margin of 1,292 votes.

Reports said Congress won the municipal council bypolls in two wards in Kapurthala and Sultanpur Lodhi.

In Sultanpur Lodhi, Congress candidate Jatinderjit Singh defeated SAD-BJP candidate by more than 400 votes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today laid the foundation stone of an international convention centre at Harbour Park here.

UAE-based Lulu Group will build the convention centre along with a five-star hotel and a mall on a 13-acre site at a total cost of Rs 2,000 crore.

Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu, P Ashok Gajapati Raju, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Lulu Group Chairman M Yusuf Ali and others attended the event, held on the sidelines of the three-day Partnership Summit here.

While Ali said the convention centre would be ready in 36 months, the chief minister hoped it would be ready to host the next Partnership Summit.

"This is a prestigious project for the city," the chief minister said.

Meanwhile, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited signed a memorandum of understanding with the AP government at the Summit to supply 10,000 electric cars and 4,000 chargers to various departments through New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP.

EESL will also supply about 17 lakh smart energy meters to the two power distribution companies in the state.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Automotive Components Manufacturers Association of India and Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board also signed an MoU to promote manufacturing of automobiles and auto components in the state.

Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, who was instrumental in the signing of this MoU, said he would make AP not only the most industrially-advanced state but also a fully-employed state.

"AP will soon emerge as automobile hub. The vision of the Prime Minister and the vision of the Chief Minister are combining to make this happen," he said.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani announced he would invest Rs 9,000 crore in various projects in AP in the next two years.

Besides 1,000 MW solar and wind energy plants, the group would establish logistics parks along the Inland Waterways and some ports in the state, he added.

Adani Group has already bagged the contract to develop a minor port at Bhavanapadu in Srikakulam district in a public-private partnership mode.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Voices of dissent have surfaced in the Congress within three days of expelled BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui joining it.

The party has sought an explanation from two of its leaders over their comments on social media opposing Siddiqui's entry.

"The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee considers as indiscipline the views in the party opposing the joining of Naseemuddin Siddiqui and others on Facebook," a party release issued here read.

Member of the disciplinary committee Fazle Masood sought an explanation from party's organising secretary Sanjay Dixit and secretary Avdhesh Singh in this regard, it read.

Party sources said Dixit, in a series of Facebook posts, had opposed the entry of Siddiqui in the Congress.

He accused UP Congress leaders of misleading party president Rahul Gandhi in this regard, they claimed.

"Siddiqui has been synonymous with all major scams during the Mayawati government and had been her right-hand man ... How can a tainted leader like him be permitted in the party when Rahul Gandhi is advocating clean politics," Dixit wrote on Facebook.

"It appears that local Congress leaders have struck a deal with Siddiqui as they are very good at match fixing," the Facebook post read.

When contacted, Dixit said he would personally meet Congress president and apprise him of the reality.

Singh is said to have opposed Siddiqui's joining on the ground that he had made derogatory remarks against the Thakur community during a BSP agitation in Lucknow.

In July 2016 during an agitation against derogatory references made by a BJP leader against Mayawati, Siddiqui had allegedly made remarks against a 12 year-old daughter of the leader who is a Thakur.

Siddiqui had formally joined the Congress in New Delhi earlier this week.

Once considered the Muslim face of the Mayawati-led party, he was expelled last year for alleged anti-party activities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump today warned that he will go with phase two sanctions on North Korea if the first one won't work, which will be very unfortunate for the world.

Earlier, he had imposed the "heaviest-ever" sanctions on North Korea's shipping companies in a bid to prevent the reclusive nation from acquiring nuclear weapons and developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"If the sanctions don't work, we'll have to go phase two. And phase two may be a very rough thing. May be very, very unfortunate for the world," Trump told reporters at a joint conference with the visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

However, he hoped that the sanctions will work.

"We have tremendous support all around the world for what we're doing. It really is a rogue nation," he said.

"If we can make a deal, it'll be a great thing. If we can't, something will have to happen. So we'll see," the US President said responding to a question on North Korea.

Earlier, the Trump Administration announced a series of sanctions the largest so far against the authoritarian North Korean regime.

"North Korea -- we imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before," Trump said in his remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"Frankly, hopefully something positive can happen. We will see," he hoped.

"This action targets the deceptive shipping practices that have enabled the Kim regime to fund its dangerous weapons programmes," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at a White House conference.

The latest American actions target shipping and trade companies, vessels and individuals across the world who are working on North Korea's behalf, he said as he announced imposing sanctions against 27 entities, 28 vessels, and one individual.

All of them are involved in sanctions evasion schemes, he said.

These shipping and trade companies, vessels and one individual, totaling 56 designations are located, registered or flagged in countries all over the world, including North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros.

"Today's actions will significantly hinder North Korea's ability to conduct evasive maritime activities that facilitate illicit coal and fuel transports, and limit the regime's ability to ship goods through international waters," Mnuchin said.

The American actions are part of the ongoing maximum-economic-pressure campaign to cut off sources of revenue that this regime derives from UN- and US-prohibited trade to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, he added.

The US is also issuing a global shipping advisory, in conjunction with the Coast Guard and the State Department, to put everyone on notice of North Korea's illicit maritime tactics, and underscore the significant sanctions risk of engaging in maritime business with North Korea, Mnuchin said.

"We are releasing new imagery of the deceptive shipping practices used by those who aid and profit from illicit trade with North Korea. These images from December 2017 reveal ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products destined for North Korea in an attempt to evade sanctions," he said.

They shine a spotlight on the practices employed by the government of North Korea to falsify identifying information on ships, and conceal illicit cargo, Mnuchin said.

These sanctions evasion tactics are prohibited by UN Security Council resolutions, and we are fully committed to shutting down those who engage in trade with them, he asserted.

"Through today's actions, we are putting companies and countries across the world on notice that this administration views compliance with US and UN sanctions as a national security imperative. Those who trade with North Korea do so at their own peril," Mnuchin said.

The Treasury Secretary warned that the countries who do business with North Korea will not be able to do business with the US.

A senior administration official told reporters that these designations are a critical part of our maximum-pressure campaign to diplomatically and economically isolate North Korea.

"These actions represent the latest development in the coordinated, whole-of-government US effort to disrupt, deter and dismantle North Korea's illicit maritime shipping activities that Pyongyang uses to skirt UN sanctions, and to fund its WMD (programs and delivery systems," the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Aishwarya Venugopal(Reuters) - Cheerios cereal maker General Mills Inc will buy Blue Buffalo Pet Products Inc for nearly $8 billion, foraying into a fast-growing pet food market to counter declining sales of processed foods.The acquisition announced Friday is the latest by a major food company seeking to expand in the $30 billion U.S. pet food market, while battling low demand for sugary, preservative-filled items."In pet food, as in human food, consumers are seeking more natural and premium products," General Mills Chief Executive Officer Jeff Harmening said in a statement.General Mills ...WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department has voiced support for the Trump administration's bid to impose national security restrictions on imports of steel and aluminum, although it would prefer a system of targeted tariffs and a delay for import curbs on aluminum. The Commerce Department on Feb. 16 recommended that President Donald Trump impose stiff curbs on steel imports from China and other countries and offered the three options to the president, who has yet to make a decision.U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said he was concerned about the potential impact of the proposed ...Samsung Electronics Co. has announced that it will cooperate with Qualcomm Technologies Inc to produce 7-nanometre chips for fifth-generation (5G) network service amid rising demand for semiconductors.

The two companies will expand their decade-long cooperation into Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography process technology, including the manufacture of future Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets using Samsung's 7-nanometre Low Power Plus (LPP) EUV process technology, said the South Korean tech giant.

Samsung and Qualcomm have been maintaining close ties with foundry business in the production of 10 nm and 14 nm technologies, Yonhap News Agency reported.

"We are pleased to continue to expand our foundry relationship with Qualcomm Technologies in 5G technologies using our EUV process technology," Charlie Bae, Executive Vice President of the Foundry Sales and Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.

He added that the collaboration is an "important milestone" for the firm's foundry business.

Foundry business refers to making chip designs for other companies that do not have a semiconductor fabrication plant.

Using the 7LPP EUV process technology, Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will offer a smaller chip footprint, giving more usable space inside upcoming products to support larger batteries or slimmer designs, it said.

Samsung introduced 7LPP EUV, its first semiconductor process to use an EUV lithography solution, in May 2017.NEW YORK (AP)  Recently filed federal charges against President Donald Trumps ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort could also pose legal and regulatory risks for the banks that loaned him millions of dollars against his New York real estate in recent years.

The most serious exposure may be for a Rhode Island-based bank that employed a conspirator in Manaforts scheme to obtain a loan he couldnt afford, according to the 32-count new indictment unsealed this week.

Dubbed Lender B in court papers, Citizens Bank not only lent Manafort $3.4 million based off of fraudulent documents but, in another case, appeared to help Manafort avoid being caught by sending back a crudely falsified financial statement that had been sent to them from a Manafort associate, according to federal prosecutors.

Looks Drd, the unnamed banker allegedly wrote. Cant someone just do a clean excel doc and pdf to me??

Peter Lugcht, a bank spokesman, declined to acknowledge that Citizens was Lender B or answer questions about whether Citizens had reported the alleged loan application fabrications to the government. He also wouldnt say whether it still employed the person identified as a conspirator.

The Associated Press identified Lender B and other unidentified banks referenced in court papers by cross-referencing loan amounts and dates described in the indictment with publicly available property records in New York City.

Experts told the AP the banks behavior as described in the indictment will cause problems for it beyond a possible loss on its loan, drawing scrutiny from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

I would expect the OCC upon reading this indictment or news accounts of the indictment to immediately launch an investigation of what went on, said Kevin Handly, a banking lawyer and former senior attorney for the Federal Reserve Board.

Details of Manaforts banking habits were laid bare in the court papers filed this week by Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating Russian ties to Trump. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to money laundering and other charges.

His longtime deputy, Rick Gates, who was similarly charged with banking violations, tax evasion, unregistered lobbying and other crimes, pleaded guilty Friday and will be cooperating with Muellers probe.

Along with the prospect that one of Citizens employees allegedly aided an attempt to commit loan fraud, the details in the indictment indicate the bank failed to heed the results of its basic due diligence, eventually lending Manafort $3.4 million despite twice having reason to be wary of Manaforts creditworthiness, prosecutors said.

In the first case, Citizens noticed that Manafort failed to disclose loans on other properties in New York in his application for a $3.4 million loan, using a condo in Manhattans trendy SoHo neighborhood as collateral.

Thats when Manafort asked Gates to find an insurance broker to hand over an old insurance report that didnt list one of the loans, making it appear as if he didnt have as much debt as he did, according to the indictment.

Good job on the insurance issues, Manafort wrote to Gates, the court papers show.

In a second instance, Citizens was apparently unwilling to loan Manafort money after noticing $1.5 million on his balance sheet from another account. But the banks concern was apparently mollified after Manafort and Gates asked their tax accountant to send the bank a back-dated document falsely stating the $1.5 million had been forgiven, court papers show.

In the case involving the conspirator at Citizens, it doesnt appear the bank made the $5.5 million loan that Manafort had sought for a property in Brooklyn. In that case, according to court papers, another conspirator on Manaforts behalf sent the bank a fake profit-and-loss statement. The person wasnt identified in court papers.

Handly said that bank regulators would likely want to know why a bank hadnt caught on to such a ruse.

That they could make a loan thinking they had the collateral in place is a failing of the banks internal operating procedures and controls, he said. Ordinary due diligence should have uncovered that.

Manafort has properties in Florida, Virginia, Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Yorks Long Island.

He was represented on multiple real estate transactions named in the indictment by New Jersey lawyer Bruce Baldinger, property records show.

Baldinger was reprimanded by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 2008 for violating attorney conflict-of-interest rules and again in 2013 by the New York for not reporting his past disciplinary history, according to records. He didnt return messages seeking comment.



Horwitz reported from Washington.OXON HILL, Md. (AP)  The Latest on President Donald Trump (all times local):

2:55 p.m.

President Donald Trump is blaming Russia, Iran and the Syrian government for recent violence in Syria, calling it a humanitarian disgrace.

Hundreds have been killed amid increased bombardments in recent days of the rebel-controlled eastern suburbs of Damascus. The death toll from the past week has climbed to more than 400.

Trump is speaking at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Turnbull says Australia has been very generous in accepting refugees from Syria and says the Islamic State groups attempts to establish a caliphate has now been smashed.

He says whats needed now is a political settlement reached by the people who live there.



2:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he has spoken to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about his plans to curb gun violence and bolster school safety in the aftermath of the deadly Florida high school shooting.

Trump says in a joint news conference with Australias prime minister that making schools a gun-free environment doesnt increase safety.

He says security guards typically dont know and dont love the children at schools. Trump again criticized the Florida deputy who didnt enter to try to stop the Florida shooter. He says the man standing outside the school doesnt love the children.

11:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump says only a fraction of teachers and administrators should have guns to protect students from attackers.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, the president said, maybe 10 percent or 20 percent of the population of teachers, etc should have concealed weapons. He added that nobody would ever see it unless they needed it.

Had this fraction of school personnel been armed last week when a shooter killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened.

He called reports that he wants all teachers armed, fake news. He said he only wants school personnel already trained with firearms to have guns, because they love their students and want to protect them.



11:28 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he goes to great lengths to hide a bald spot revealed in a recent photo.

Speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, Trump turned around onstage and smoothed the back of his famous hair.

He said, I try like hell to hide that bald spot, folks. The crowd cheered as Trump glanced at a monitor and added, doesnt look bad. Hey, were hanging in.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump let a woman tug on the top of his signature flaxen coif to prove the hair there is attached to his head.

The presidents bald spot was exposed Feb. 2 when he turned away from cameras to climb aboard Air Force One. As Trump climbed the stairs, a wind gust blew aside a flap of hair.



11:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump is blaming ailing Republican Sen. John McCain for impeding efforts to repeal Obamacare in a speech in front of conservative activists.

But hes refusing to mention the cancer-stricken senator by name.

Trump tells the crowd, I dont want to be controversial so I wont use his name, O.K.

McCains daughter, Meghan, told POLITICOS Women Rule podcast earlier this month that the president had called her last year to say he would back off from criticizing her father.

She said, I dont believe he would go there again.



11:15 a.m.

The White House is inviting a prominent gun safety advocate to a meeting next week.

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy tells The Associated Press the White House has asked to sit down with him.

Murphy says, Im here to hear the White House out. Hes not expected to meet with the president, but likely with his aides. Its unclear if other lawmakers are also invited.

The Connecticut senator became an outspoken advocate for more gun restrictions after the 2012 elementary school shooting in Sandy Hook.



11:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the Rev. Billy Graham is among the few people who deserve to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

Trump tells an annual gathering of conservative activists that few people are afforded the honor and its a big thing.

The famous evangelist died Wednesday at his North Carolina home. He was 99.

Trump says he bets the lines of people waiting to enter the Capitol next week to pay respects to Graham are going to be long and beautiful, because he deserves it.

The president says Graham was a great man who had a great family that was for us from the beginning.

Trump did not say whether he would go to the Capitol to pay his respects.



11:06 a.m.

President Donald Trump is bringing back his biggest campaign hits for his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Trump is speaking to an enthusiastic crowd at the annual gathering of conservative activist and playing to the crowd.

Trump at one point asked if they minded if he went off script, saying his prepared remarks were a little bit boring.

Hes also talking up his appearance in front of the group in 2011, calling it a love fest and his very first political speech.

The crowd is responding with chants of Lock her up! Build the wall! and USA! just like they used to do on the campaign trail.



10:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump is polling an audience of conservative activists on whether they prefer the Second Amendment or the tax cuts he signed into law late last year.

Trump tells those gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference that if the Democrats win seats in 2018 they will repeal your tax cuts and take away your Second Amendment, which he says, we will never allow to happen.

Then Trump asked the crowd which priority theyd pick if they only had a choice of one.

The cheers were louder for the gun rights, but Trump assured, Were going to get them all.

Trump has proposed increasing the minimum age for the purchase of certain guns in the wake of last weeks school shooting in Florida. The National Rifle Association opposes the plan.



10:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is urging his conservative supporters to keep up the enthusiasm heading into Novembers congressional election.

Republicans control the House and hold a slim majority in the Senate, but Democrats are hoping to flip either or both chambers in the fall.

Trump is telling attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference that if Democrats win they will repeal new tax cuts and take away their constitutional right to bear arms.

Trump notes that historically the party that controls the presidency suffers in the midterm elections two years later because after they fight, fight fight for the White House nobody has that same drive and so you end up not doing that well.

He tells his supporters that they have got to keep up the enthusiasm.



10:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is telling conservative activists that hes proven hes one of them.

Trump is opening his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference by reminding the group that when he first started running, people questioned the former Democrats conservative credentials.

He says, I think now weve proved Im a conservative.

The annual conference on the outskirts of Washington is considered the countrys highest-profile gathering of conservative activists.

Numerous members of the administration have been speaking.



10:11 a.m.

President Donald Trump says the armed officer who didnt stop the gunman who carried out last weeks Florida massacre was either a coward or didnt react properly under pressure.

Trump was leaving the White House to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference when he said: When it came time to get in there and do something, Florida deputy Scot Peterson didnt have the courage or something happened.

Trump added, He certainly did a poor job, theres no question about that.

Officials announced Thursday that Peterson never went inside to engage the gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while the shooting that killed 17 was underway.

Trump says this could have been prevented.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24)  Both government celebrations and protests by civic groups are set to mark the 32nd commemoration of the EDSA People power anniversary on Sunday.

As the National Historic Commission (NHCP) of the Philippines readies its EDSA commemoration on Sunday, some groups have also planned rallies to mark the historic holiday.

The NHCP is celebrating the event with the theme EDSA 2018: Effecting Change Towards Strengthened Democracy. It has scheduled a wreath laying, mass, and flag raising ceremony at the EDSA People Power Monument on Sunday.

The program will also feature a reenactment of the Salubungan, the coming together of the military and civilians during the EDSA Revolution.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos, who was a key figure in revolution, will be this year's guest of honor and speaker. He will be conferred the Peoples Power Heroes Award.

Representatives from civil society and various religious sectors will also join in the celebration, the NHCP said in a press release.

Aside from this, government agencies have scheduled medical and dental services from 7a.m. to 1p.m. along White Plains, EDSA on Sunday. A "Diskwento Caravan" with discounted food items, indigenous products, and leather goods will also be set up until 3 p.m.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who missed last year's anniversary event, will not attend the commemoration this year, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque confirmed. NHCP Chairman Rene Escalante said Duterte will be in Mindanao during the celebration.

READ: Duterte to skip EDSA People Power anniversary rites again

In his message from Malacanang, however, Duterte said he "joins the entire nation" in commemorating the People Power Revolution.

He said it has become "the enduring symbol of our determination to fight for what is right and... to defend and uphold our cherished democratic values."

"May this occasion foster unity and solidarity as we pursue our hopes and aspirations for our nation. Let us further enrich our democracy by empowering our citizenry, defending their rights and strengthening the institutions that safeguard their freedoms," Duterte added.

Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo will lead a commemoration of the People Power Revolution in Naga City, her office said in a press release.

Groups to hold protests on People Power Anniversary

Some groups, however, have chosen to mark the historic day with protests.

In Mendiola, groups led by the Movement Against Tyranny, Rise Up For Life and For Rights, Bayan Metro Manila and Stop the Killings Network plan to offer flowers and candles to honor martial law martyrs.

They will also criticize issues such as the drug war, charter change, martial law in Mindanao, and the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The event will be joined by martial law survivors former Department of Social Welfare and Development Sec. Judy Taguiwalo and former Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo. Contingents from Mindanao and Eastern Visayas will also be at the event, the groups said in a press release.

Meanwhile, militant groups including the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Sanlakas and Partido Lakas ng Masa, will hold another program in Quezon City. The groups will assemble at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani to launch their Kongreso ng Masa, BMP said in a press release.

They will also merge with political alliance Laban ng Masa and march towards Camp Crame, BMP said.

Among the issues they will call out is the administrations move for charter change, which they say will only benefit Dutertes political allies.

Early protesters

As early as Saturday, however, some groups had already converged at the People Power monument. The different groups protested several issues, including charter change, and alleged extrajudicial killings in the drug war.

Some of the protesters have camped at the site for over a week, while others say they plan to continue staying until Sunday.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, Quezon City Police Chief Guillermo Eleazer said protesters can stay only until 7 p.m. However, some said they will hold their ground and stay to continue programs tomorrow.

The People Power Revolution in 1986 was a civil resistance against the dictatorship of then President Ferdinand Marcos.

This show of solidarity among different sectors led to the ouster of Marcos.

Around 1,850 policemen will be deployed to maintain peace and order during its commemoration.

The national police said it will carry out maximum tolerance during the rallies.

CNN Philippines' Makoi Popioco contributed to this report.ATLANTA (AP)  A man known as the stocking strangler, who was convicted of raping and choking to death three elderly women four decades ago in Georgia is set for execution next month.

Carlton Gary was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1977 slayings of 89-year-old Florence Scheible, 69-year-old Martha Thurmond and 74-year-old Kathleen Woodruff. Gary, 67, is scheduled to die March 15 at the state prison in Jackson, state Attorney General Chris Carr said Friday in a news release.

Garys lawyers maintain that the wrong man was arrested, that their client didnt commit the attacks. But state and federal courts have repeatedly rejected their arguments over the years.

For eight months, from September 1977 to April 1978, a string of violent attacks on older women terrified the west Georgia city of Columbus. The women, ranging in age from 59 to 89, were beaten, raped and choked, often with their own stockings. Seven died and two were injured in the attacks.

Police arrested Gary six years after the last killing, in May 1984. A charismatic and talented musician, he was popular with the ladies and good looking enough to model for a local store.

He became a suspect when a gun stolen during a 1977 burglary in the upscale neighborhood where all but one of the victims lived was traced to him. Authorities have said he confessed to participating in the burglaries but he said another man committed the rapes and killings.

Gary had been behind bars on and off since his teens and had escaped prisons in upstate New York and South Carolina.

A jury in August 1986 convicted him on three counts each of malice murder, rape and burglary and sentenced him to die. While prosecutors only charged him in three of the attacks, they have consistently said they believe he was solely responsible for all nine of the so-called stocking strangler crimes and they presented evidence of the other attacks at trial.

Prosecutors argued that common factors established a pattern. The victims were all older white women who lived alone and were sexually assaulted and choked, usually with stockings. They were attacked at home, usually in the evening, by someone who forced his way inside. All but one lived in the Wynnton neighborhood, and all lived near where Gary lived at the time of the crimes.

Prosecutors also presented evidence that they said connected Gary to similar crimes in New York state.

Gary came within hours of execution in December 2009, when the Georgia Supreme Court stepped in, ordering a lower court to consider DNA testing. Following the testing and more hearings, a judge last September denied Garys request for a new trial. The state Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of that ruling.

In a November filing with Georgias high court, Garys attorneys said physical evidence that wasnt available at the time of his trial  either because new testing is now available or because the state didnt disclose it to the defense  at least raises reasonable doubts about his guilt.

That new evidence includes a DNA test of semen found on the sleeping gown of one of the victims that doesnt match Gary. Thats significant, his lawyers argue, because that victim survived the attack and dramatically identified him at trial as her attacker. Gary was not charged in her attack.

His lawyers also say a bite mark found on one of the victims didnt match Garys teeth and that a shoe print found at one of the scenes was much too small to be Garys. They also question the validity of fingerprint evidence presented in the case and an unrecorded and unsigned confession.

Lawyers for the state disputed those claims, saying Garys case has been repeatedly reviewed by the courts, which have rejected his claims. They noted in a filing with the high court that the state now has even more evidence that proves Garys guilt and that the judge who denied him a new trial found that none of the evidence Garys lawyers cited would likely have changed the verdict.

Gary would be the first inmate put to death by the state of Georgia this year.SPARKS, Nev. (AP)  The Latest on southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundys speech to the state convention of the Independent American Party of Nevada (all times local, PST):

8:50 p.m.

Southern Nevada rancher and states rights activist Cliven Bundy says a U.S. judge in Las Vegas did the federal government a favor last month when she threw out his criminal case stemming from an armed standoff at his Bunkerville ranch in April 2014.

Bundy told a gathering of the Independent American Party of Nevadas state convention in Sparks Friday night that he would have preferred the trial to continue because he knows he would have been acquitted of any crimes.

He says Judge Gloria Navarro saved federal prosecutors from further embarrassment. He says it would have been a great thing if it had been left to the jury to find him innocent because that would have set an important precedent across the country.

Bundy says he doesnt have any aspirations to run for political office. He says hes backing Nevadas Independent American Party because neither Republicans nor Democrats truly represent American citizens.



8:20 p.m.

The head of the Independent American Party of Nevada is hailing rancher Cliven Bundy and his wife, Carol, as true American heroes.

Cliven Bundy is preparing to give Friday nights keynote address to the gathering of the third-partys state convention in Sparks.

He served 700 days in jail before a U.S. judge in Las Vegas threw out the criminal charges against him and others last month stemming from an armed standoff with federal agents at his ranch near Bunkerville in April 2014.

Party chairman Joel Hansen says the Bundys are true patriots like those who fought in the American Revolution more than 200 years ago.

He says those defenders of freedom fought the battle of Bunker Hill and the Bundys fought the battle of Bunkerville.

The Independent American Party has a platform emphasizing state and individual property rights. Its members  many of them disaffected Republicans  make up about 4.5 percent of Nevadas active registered voters.



5:45 p.m.

Southern Nevada rancher and states rights activist Cliven Bundy is bringing his brand of politics to a gathering of like-minded conservative libertarians in northern Nevada.

Bundy, 71, was set to give the keynote speech Friday night at the Independent American Party of Nevadas state convention in Sparks where many consider him a hero. He spent nearly 23 months in prison before a federal judge in Las Vegas dismissed a criminal case last month against him and two of his sons stemming from an armed standoff with government agents at his Bunkerville ranch in 2014.

Joel Hansen, chairman of the Independent American Party of Nevada, said before the speech that Bundys story is one of tremendous courage and faith standing up against federal corruption and tyranny.

The party, which focuses on state and property rights, includes many disaffected, former Republicans. It now has 65,000 active registered voters in Nevada  up from about 15,000 in 2002. Its currently the third largest political party in Nevada, making up about 4.5 percent of the active voters.

Several of the Independent American Partys leaders have been involved in legal disputes with the U.S. government similar to Bundys dating to the 1990s.SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Utah lawmakers are overhauling an ethics committee that investigates the states top elected officials, but critics said Friday that the changes may make it harder to file a complaint and easier for elected officials to get away with unethical behavior.

Provo Republican Sen. Curt Bramble said the changes his bill has proposed would make it easier for the commission to investigate complaints but ensure that the committee is only looking into serious issues such as crimes or a substantial breach of trust.

The bill makes changes to the Independent Executive Branch Ethics Commission, which handles complaints filed against the governor, lieutenant governor, state auditor, state treasurer or attorney general, along with the Political Subdivisions Ethics Review Commission, which handles ethics complaints against local government officials and employees.

Critics said changes requiring someone to have firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing would mean fewer people could file a complaint.

Chase Thomas with the government-watchdog group Alliance for a Better Utah said of the 46 states that allow people to file ethics complaints against public officials, only five require someone to have firsthand knowledge to lodge a complaint.

Bramble said the change will prevent people from filing complaints based on hearsay or unsubstantiated rumors they might read online.

Anybody could say anything, Bramble said.

A Senate government operations committee unanimously passed his bill Friday. Four members, two of whom are the committees only Democrats, were absent.

Brambles bill now must be approved by the full Senate and the House of Representatives.

Brambles bill also requires the ethics commission to submit its annual report of how many complaints it handles and its finances to the governor instead of a panel of lawmakers.

If the commission finds that an ethics complaint has merit, it would still be required to send it to the Legislature for possible impeachment of the top elected officials.

The changes come after a former state prosecutor in January told the lawmakers on the Legislative Management Committee that a wide-ranging complaint he filed two years ago was not addressed by the commission.

Wanda Amann, who co-signed the ethics complaint with her husband, told lawmakers Friday that the bill did not go far enough to ensure that ethics complaints are fairly investigated.

Bramble said he was unaware of that Amanns complaint before the presentation and started making changes a year ago.

Her husband, Paul G. Amann, a former Assistant Utah Attorney General, has declined to name which state office he filed his complaint but told lawmakers that members of the ethics commission mishandled and dismissed his complaint despite having personal conflicts of interest.

The commission chair, Lorie Fowlke, is married to a man who works for the office he was complaining about, Amann told lawmakers.

Fowlke told the The Associated Press that she removes herself from complaints where she has a conflict.

She said state law prevents her from commenting on any complaint or confirming a complaint exists. While she said she could not comment directly on Amanns allegations, she added that if I could I suspect it is not accurate.

Amann is one of two former state prosecutors who have filed lawsuits against the Attorney Generals Office alleging they were retaliated against and forced out of their jobs for reporting wrongdoing and harassment.

Attorney General Sean Reyes office has denied the allegations and is asking a court to dismiss the lawsuits.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)  Florida officials have outlined their plans to make schools safer after a shooting that left 17 people dead last week, but some say they dont go far enough. Talia Rumsky is one of them.

Rumsky was among those who traveled to Tallahassee on Wednesday to lobby lawmakers about gun control. She said Gov. Rick Scotts plan to make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase a gun is a start, but shouldnt be the end of gun control efforts.

This is a great first step, and we appreciate it, the sophomore said. But its not enough, and were going to make sure they know its not enough and is not solving our problems.

Scott announced plans Friday to put more armed guards in schools and to make it harder for young adults and some with mental illness to buy guns, responding to days of intense lobbying from survivors of the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland nine days ago. Scott unveiled his school safety proposals as teachers returned for the first time to the school.

While criticized by some as not going far enough, the measures are significant in a state that hasnt passed any type of gun control since Republicans took control of state government in 1999.

After days of funerals for those killed in the attack, teachers began the emotionally fraught process of returning to the school Friday to collect belongings from classrooms that have been off-limits since the slayings. Following an orientation Sunday for teachers and students, classes resume Wednesday.

Broward teachers union president Anna Fusco met with the teachers as they returned to campus Friday hailing them as incredibly brave and strong.

I met with one that was grazed with a bullet.  She has a hole in her arm and a bruise from her shoulder to her elbow that looks like somebody whacked her with a bat and shes like, Im here because we need to get things ready,' Fusco said.

President Donald Trump said repeatedly Friday that he favored arming teachers to protect students, an idea many educators rejected out of hand.

I am totally against arming teachers, Broward schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. They have a challenging job as it is.

Trump told reporters Friday that schools need some kind of offensive capability to deter and respond to attackers.

If theyre not gun-free, if there are guns inside, held by the right people, by highly trained professionals, youre going to see this end. It wont be happening again. Our schools are essentially gun-free zones and that makes them very dangerous places, the president said.

Scott, a Republican widely expected to run for the Senate, outlined his plan at a Tallahassee news conference. In addition to banning firearm sales to anyone under 21, the governor called for a trained law enforcement officer for every school  and one for every 1,000 students at larger schools  by the time the fall 2018 school year begins.

Stoneman Douglas, with more than 3,000 students, had one armed resource officer who never entered the building under attack while a gunman was shooting people inside, officials said.

That failure was compounded by confusion about what was being shown to police on school security cameras the day of the shooting and the lack of meaningful response to reports to the FBI and local police that 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz might become violent, had guns and possibly would attack a school.

Floridas House speaker called it an abject breakdown at all levels. Cruz is jailed on 17 counts of murder and has confessed to the shootings, investigators say.

A woman close to Cruz warned the FBI on Jan. 5 that he had rifles and said, I know he is going to explode, according to a transcript of the tip to the FBIs call center, which was obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The FBI has acknowledged it failed to investigate the tip. The woman described Cruzs short temper and said he had the mental capacity of a 12- to 14-year-old. She said Cruz posted pictures of weapons on social media and he wrote, I want to kill people.

Among other things, the governors $500 million plan would create a violent threat restraining order that would let a court prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon under certain circumstances.

The proposal would also strengthen gun purchase and possession restrictions for mentally ill people under the states Baker Act, which allows someone to be involuntarily hospitalized for up to 72 hours. Scott is seeking $50 million for initiatives that include expanding mental health services by providing counseling, crisis management and other mental health services for youth and young adults.

No one with mental issues should have access to a gun. It is common sense, Scott said.

The governors plan made no mention of arming teachers on school grounds.

However, the Legislatures Republican leadership proposed letting teachers carry a gun if they have had law enforcement training. The legislators plan also calls for a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, with exceptions.

Democrats said neither plan goes far enough.

Unfortunately, both plans omit a third, critically important piece of legislation Democrats have been and continue to push for: a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, said state Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon. He added that recent mass shootings show that so long as these high-powered weapons of war remain available for purchase these killings will continue.

On Friday evening, Marion P. Hammer, former president of the National Rifle Association and longtime Florida lobbyist, issued an appeal to gun enthusiasts titled, EMERGENCY ALERT! Dont Let Them Blame You For Parkland. She mentioned several proposals they could support, such as hardening our schools, putting officers in schools and training volunteer teachers to use guns. But she said a three-day waiting period would not have stopped the Parkland shooter; bump stocks had nothing to do with it; and raising the age limit for gun purchases would be unfair.



Fineout and Farrington reported from Tallahassee, Florida; Anderson from Miami; Freida Frisaro and Jennifer Kay contributed from Miami; Kelli Kennedy from Parkland; and Jason Dearen from Gainesville.



Follow the APs complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: <a target=blank href=https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting>https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting</a>BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  For years, Russia has worked to gain influence in Southeast Europe, using Serbia as a foothold to establish a friendly pocket on a hostile continent.

The European Union finally is pushing back. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is embarking on a seven-nation Balkans tour Sunday to promote the EUs new eastward expansion strategy.

Russia mainly wants to discourage the Western Balkan countries  Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia  from joining NATO. But Moscow also is trying to deter them from joining the EU.

The EU sees the prospect of membership as an incentive for reform in the volatile Balkans region, which was torn apart by war in the 1990s. Its expansion strategy puts Serbia and Montenegro in position to join should the bloc open its doors to more members, tentatively by 2025.

Serbia is a major target of Moscows anti-Western activities in Europe because the two Slavic and predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian nations share deep cultural and historical ties. Their bonds also have experienced lows and highs, especially since the former Yugoslavia refused to join the Soviet bloc in 1948.

The Kremlin is so concerned about losing its ally that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeatedly argued while in Serbia last week that EU membership isnt all its cut out to be.

Lavrov also gave a warning; the EUs repeated calls for Serbia to align its foreign policies with the bloc as a precursor to membership and to impose sanctions on Russia, he said, are the same mistake the West made by pressuring war-torn Ukraine to choose between it and Russia.

Lavrov told Russias Rossiya 1 TV on Saturday that both Serbia and Russia are the object of the Wests overt pressure to turn Serbia against Russia.

We love our countries, and the Serbs love Russia, and the Russians love Serbia, he said.

Serbian political analyst Bosko Jaksic thinks the Russians are getting increasingly nervous as they lose allies one by one in the Balkans.

Its not clear how far they are willing to go to preserve their interests here, but judging from what they did in Ukraine, they are willing to go far, Jaksic said, referring to Russias annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Lavrov also said that Europe is facing an unhealthy situation because of NATOs eastward expansion. Montenegro joined the Western military organization last year despite Moscows strong opposition. He praised Belgrade for maintaining military neutrality and refusing to join NATO.

We are convinced that this status is one of the main factors ensuring stability in the Balkans and the European continent in general, Lavrov said.

There have been mounting fears in the West that Russia is using Serbia to foment tensions in the Balkans by arming its ally with warplanes and tanks while working to destabilize neighboring Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia.

The European Unions foreign and security policies grew out of Europes failure to respond to the wars in the Balkans that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. The bloc remains wary that some of the ethnic cleavages that sparked the conflicts of the 1990s persist.

Three countries have become EU members: Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, and Croatia in 2013. The rest either are candidates for membership of potential candidates.

Although Serbia formally has declared its interest in joining the EU, the right-leaning leadership now running the country repeatedly has expressed anti-Western sentiments.

Investing in the stability and prosperity of the Western Balkans means investing in the security and future of our Union, Juncker said ahead of the trip.

Junckers tour of the Balkans, which starts in Macedonia on Sunday and ends with an EU summit in Bulgaria on March 1, is seen as the EUs belated attempt to counter Russias reach.

Paradoxically, the Russians and their policies in the Balkans have triggered alarm bells that woke up the European Union into action, Jaksic, the analyst, said.



AP Writer Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels.BANGKOK (AP)  One of several bombs targeting government offices and other places in Myanmars troubled Rakhine state exploded Saturday morning, injuring a police officer, authorities said.

In all, three bombs exploded and three unexploded devices were seized in Sittwe, the state capital. One of the explosions was in front of a high-ranking government officials residence, state police officer Aung Myat Moe said.

There were three bomb explosions around 4 a.m. this morning where one policeman was slightly injured and we are still investigating crime scenes, he said

Last month, local police fired at protesters in the ancient city of Mrauk-U, killing at least seven Rakhine Buddhists and injuring a dozen. A township administrator was later found slain in his car by the side of the road.

Communal violence in Sittwe in 2012 displaced more than 120,000 Rohingya Muslims now confined to camps outside of the city, where most Rakhine Buddhists remain.

About 700,000 Rohingya have fled northern Rakhine towns and villages since last August to escape a military crackdown.BEIRUT (AP)  Lebanese authorities in Beirut are interrogating a man suspected in the death of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait, security and judicial officials said Saturday.

The Feb. 6 discovery of Joanna Demafeliss body in the apartment in Kuwait City, where it had reportedly been kept for more than a year, sparked outrage and refocused attention on the tragic plight of poor Filipinas toiling mostly as maids abroad. It prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to ban the deployment of new Filipino workers to Kuwait, where many abuses have been reported.

A senior official with Lebanons General Security Directorate refused to provide details other than that the man is being held by the agency and undergoing questioning.

A judicial official said Saturday Lebanese citizen Nader Essam Assaf was handed over by Syrian authorities to Lebanon Friday. He added that the mans Syrian wife is in Syria.

The judicial official added that it appears that when Assaf felt that the case might be discovered in Kuwait, he fled to Syria along with his wife hoping that he would not be detained. Syrian authorities detained him and later handed him over to Lebanon as he is a Lebanese citizen, the official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Lebanese media outlets reported that Assaf is from the northeastern region of Baalbek but he grew up in a neighborhood south of Beirut.

Assaf and his wife are suspects in Demafelis death.

On Friday, the Philippines foreign secretary said that the suspect is under arrest in Lebanon.KIEV, Ukraine (AP)  A new indictment against former Donald Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort focused a spotlight Saturday on uncovering the former European leaders who prosecutors contend were secretly paid by Manafort to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

The U.S. indictment handed up Friday by a grand jury doesnt name the European politicians, although it notes they worked in coordination with Manafort, his deputy Rick Gates and two Washington lobbying firms  the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs  to lobby U.S. officials and lawmakers.

At least four leaders  former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko  were named last year in public filings by the two lobbying firms. The firms said the politicians were involved in U.S. speaking events and meetings with U.S. lawmakers and others to promote Manaforts client at the time, Ukraines pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych.

The filings did not disclose any payments to the former officials, and its unclear if they are the same politicians referenced in the U.S. indictment.

U.S. law requires people who are lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of foreign governments or political parties to register, and a Justice Department database doesnt show that those former European officials did.

But its unclear from the U.S. indictment how much the former European politicians knew about their funding or if they could be covered by some legal exemption.

The lobbying by the European political figures, identified in the indictment as the Hapsburg Group, allegedly took place in 2012-13, when Ukraine was moving toward closer integration with the European Union. But the indictment doesnt formally charge any of the leaders or refer to them as co-conspirators of Manafort and Gates.

None of the four politicians responded to requests for comment Saturday from The Associated Press but three of them were quoted as denying the reports.

Gusenbauer told the Austrian national news agency APA that he never acted on Yanukovychs behalf.

I never undertook activities for Mr. Yanukovych or his party, the news agency quoted Gusenbauer as saying. He said his interests in 2012 and 2013 were in bringing the nation of Ukraine closer to Europe.

In public events in Paris, Brussels and Berlin, I advocated for the European Union concluding an association agreement with Ukraine, he said.

The press office for Prodi, the former Italian premier and European Commission president, denied that he was ever involved or paid by a secret lobbying group.

Prodi never took part in any kind of secret activity, let alone in secret lobbying groups, nor has he ever received compensation for this kind of activity, said the statement, carried by the Italian news agency ANSA.

The statement said Prodi has long worked so that Ukraines growing nearer to Europe can become concrete and added that his activity was public and thus easily traceable.

Kwasniewski was quoted as saying he had no financial or political agreements with Manafort and was not familiar with the term Hapsburg Group.

The leading Polish news outlet Onet quoted him as saying that he knows Manafort, having met him in 2012 when he and Patrick Cox, a former European Parliament president from Ireland, led a mission to Ukraine to try to persuade Yanukovych to release his rival, former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, from prison.

We met several times, with the hope that Manafort would help convince Yanukovych to release Tymoshenko, Kwasniewski was quoted as saying. I have not seen him since November 2013, when Yanukovych refused to sign the association agreement with the EU.

No money came into play. I did not have any financial or political agreements with him. This is some kind of misunderstanding, he said.

He said there were many debates and conferences on Ukraine in 2012 and 2013, and he took part in them, sometimes with Prodi, sometimes with Gusenbauer.

Of course, we took fees. Maybe Manafort paid for them through his companies? But these were public, open debates, Kwasniewski was quoted as saying.

A Ukrainian lawmaker, meanwhile, told the AP on Saturday that a former Austrian chancellor was among the European politicians secretly paid to lobby for Ukraine.

Serhiy Leshchenko, who says he helped uncover off-the books payments from Yanukovych to Manafort, said he saw the information about a former Austrian chancellor in a ledger of payments to Manafort.

I dont remember the name, but I remember the position, Leshchenko said in an interview.

Leshchenko noted that Gusenbauer had lobbied for Ukraine when Yanukovych was in power and said his activities clearly were in the interests of Yanukovychs Party of Regions and could be seen as a way to launder the reputation of Yanukovych in Europe.

There were a number of events that took place in Europe with the engagement of Mr. Gusenbauer and other former European politicians to present Mr. Yanukovych in better lights in Europe, he said. Mr. Prodi was engaged in this activity as well.

In a statement, Mercury partner Mike McKeon said his firm was misled by Gates, who pleaded guilty Friday in the case, about the nature of the work.

Gates admitted that he didnt tell the truth to the government and didnt tell the truth to our lawyers when he spoke to them about this project, McKeon said.

While he and others involved with this matter may have acted criminally and tried to hide it, we have acted appropriately, following our counsels advice from the start, he added.

McKeon said the firm is cooperating with special counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

A person familiar with the lobbying effort said that Podesta Group employees were not aware of any payments to former European politicians as described in the indictment, learning of the allegations only Friday when prosecutors made them public. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The EU integration issue eventually led to Yanukovychs ouster.

He had been expected to sign an association agreement with the EU that would allow for a freer movement of goods and was seen as a step toward eventual EU membership.

Russia, however, strongly opposed any tilt to the west by Ukraine.

Under pressure from Russia, Yanukovych backed away from signing the EU agreement at the last minute, sparking a protest in Kiev in 2013. Police brutally dispersed the demonstrators, which galvanized opponents to call larger anti-government rallies that developed into a huge, ramshackle protest encampment in the center of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

The protests persisted for months and descended into violence, which climaxed with the February 2014 shooting deaths of scores of people by still-unidentified snipers. Faced with growing chaos, Yanukovych quickly fled the country and ended up in Russia.



Jim Heintz in Moscow, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Chad Day in Washington, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Frances DEmilio in Rome and Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, contributed to this story.The key economic reports this week are the second estimate of Q4 GDP, January new home sales, February auto sales, and the December Case-Shiller house price index.



For manufacturing, the February ISM manufacturing index, and the February Richmond Fed and Dallas Fed manufacturing surveys will be released this week.



Also, the new Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, will deliver the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress.





----- Monday, Feb 26th -----

----- Tuesday, Feb 27th -----

----- Wednesday, Feb 28th -----

----- Thursday, Mar 1st -----

----- Friday, Mar 2nd -----

8:30 AM ET:for January. This is a composite index of other data. 10:00 AM:for January from the Census Bureau.This graph shows New Home Sales since 1963. The dashed line is the December sales rate.The consensus is for 600 thousand SAAR, down from 625 thousand in December.10:30 AM:for February.8:30 ET AM:for January from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for a 0.2% decrease in durable goods orders. 9:00 AM ET:for December.This graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted National Index, Composite 10 and Composite 20 indexes through the October 2017 report (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).The consensus is for a 6.3% year-over-year increase in the Comp 20 index for December.9:00 AM:for December 2017. This was originally a GSE only repeat sales, however there is also an expanded index.10:00 AM:, Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, Before the House Financial Services Committee, Washington, D.C.10:00 AM ET:for February. This is the last of the regional surveys for February.7:00 AM ET: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the8:30 AM:(Second estimate). The consensus is that real GDP increased 2.5% annualized in Q4, down from the advance estimate of 2.6%.9:45 AM:for February. The consensus is for a reading of 65.0, down from 65.7 in January.10:00 AM:for January. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in the index.8:30 AM ET: Thereport will be released. The consensus is for 230 thousand initial claims, up from 222 thousand the previous week.8:30 AM:for January. The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in personal income, and for a 0.2% increase in personal spending. And for the Core PCE price index to increase 0.3%. 10:00 AM:for February. The consensus is for the ISM to be at 58.6, down from 59.1 in January.Here is a long term graph of the ISM manufacturing index.The ISM manufacturing index indicated expansion in December. The PMI was at 59.1% in January, the employment index was at 54.2%, and the new orders index was at 65.4%.10:00 AM:for January. The consensus is for a 0.3% increase in construction spending.10:00 AM:, Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, Before the Senate Banking Committee, Washington, D.C All day:for February. The consensus is for light vehicle sales to be 17.2 million SAAR in February, up from 17.1 million in January (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate).This graph shows light vehicle sales since the BEA started keeping data in 1967. The dashed line is the January sales rate.10:00 AM:(preliminary for February). The consensus is for a reading of 99.5, down from 99.9 in January.Best Caesar cocktail in Canada revealed

National Caesar Day may have come and gone this year, but not the love affair the world has been having with this truly Canadian drink. The cocktail, created by Walter Chell at the Calgary Inn (now The Keg Steakhouse & Bar), was officially named Canadas National Cocktail by Parliament in 2009, and the drink truly celebrates that special moment in Canadas culture.Friday, February 23, 2018 at 10:42PM

We reported earlier that Airbnb was expanding its offerings for a wealthier clientele. But that wasnt all the company is working on. Airbnb also announced it plans to expand its experiences feature to 1,000 cities. The feature was launched a little over a year ago to offer its travelers unique, local activities they might want to try out. Some of the new places to get experiences include Iceland, Easter Island, and Tasmania.

The move to introduce experiences was a wise one especially when it faced regulation issues in some cities as well as continued competition from hotels and others that work in the travel industry. It helps supplant the revenue of the company, while drawing in more users that want more out of their trips. Some of the experiences the company offers range from those with a social impact to meeting others for a meal to activities for thrill-seekers, among many others. "The options are endless," said Joe Zadeh, Airbnb's vice president of trips. "We are working with our hosts where anyone can build an experience around their passion."

Source: CNETFriday, February 23, 2018 at 10:26PM

Review: Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

You may or may not have noticed the battery on your Pixel 2 or 2 XL draining faster than usual. Youre not alone. A bunch of pixel users have been complaining of this issue after the February security patch was released. Google stayed silent about the matter for a while but now the company at least acknowledges its looking into the problem. A community manager on the companys user forums confirmed they are investigating the issue. There are big releases yet to remedy the issue but for now they are reaching out privately for bug reports.

The issue revolves around battery levels dropping faster than usual and some even report their phones are taking longer to charge as well. And it seems even some original Pixel users have been experiencing these issues. Heres to hoping Google fixes this relatively quickly.

Source: 9to5Googlenews, latest-news

Calling all tiny train enthusiasts - and their parents and grandparents - Canberra Miniature Railway is re-opening and the first train leaves the station this Sunday morning. And at just $3 a ride, it's old-fashioned fun at 1980s prices. Canberra Miniature Railway kept the kids of the capital entertained for more than three decades in its former Kingston location, but development at the foreshore forced the 800m track to close last October and relocate 8km away in Symonston. Members of the Canberra Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (CSMEE) are working frantically between now and Sunday morning to put the final touches on the brand new rail yard, which includes its own miniature train station. Kids who pop along this weekend will be able to ride two outline scale locomotives - simply called "81 and AN1" - both built at at a scale of an inch-a-half to the foot. A mini steam engine called Bunyip, a one third scale model of the Bundaberg Fowler sugar cane locomotive, will also occasionally be rolled out on the new track. CSMEE president Peter Hateley said the new Symonston track, funded partly by an ACT Government grant and built by hard working volunteers, was the perfect way to "bring to life" a child's fascination with trains. But he admitted some were reluctant to climb aboard at first. "We have three and four-year-olds who get on the train and they're like, 'Oh, I don't like this' and they start screaming but then about half way around the loop they settle down and you can't get them off," he laughed. "It's just so good for the kids to be able to ride the train but also to see how they're powered - most of our locos are coal fired, so they get to see the stoking of the coal or briquettes or char. "We describe it as the perfect day out for people aged two to 102." CSMEE has 70 members across Canberra the region and according to Mr Hateley, there are scores of locomotives being built in the sheds of suburban Canberra at any given time. But building a miniature locomotive isn't for the impatient, he said, with the average loco taking 3500 hours, or a couple of hours a night, every night, for about four years, to build from scratch. While a certain British children's train character has inspired a renewed passion for trains in children in recent years, Mr Hateley described miniature trains as a "dying passion". "We're looking to get younger people involved with the society to ensure it has a future," he said. "The new track will certainly help with that." The new Canberra Miniature Railway is located at the end of Jerrabomberra Avenue in Symonston. Open on the second and last Sundays of the month from 10.30am until 2.30pm (not open last Sunday in March). Rides $3. For further information head to www.canberramodelengineers.org.au Follow Bree Winchester on Instagram and Facebook

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ACT emergency services have confirmed a two-year-old boy with a head injury was left without an ambulance in November due to a lack of resources. The news comes as figures show ambulance shifts fell below minimum staffing levels more than 40 per cent of the time in the last financial year, despite crews working almost 36,000 hours of overtime. The boy's family also found themselves without an ambulance for their young daughter in 2012, when she was spiking a dangerously high fever. On both occasions, the children's father said he was told an ambulance was on its way, only to get a call back saying that crew had been diverted to another call. He was advised to take his child to hospital himself, which he did, in a "mad, stressful" rush. "I'm worried some kid's going to die because they can't get an ambulance," said the Charnwood man, who did not wish to be named. "I don't live in a third world country, when you call an ambulance for your kid, you expect it to turn up." While ESA confirmed both incidents to Fairfax Media, quality and patient safety officer at the ACT Ambulance Service Megan Davis said the November case was unusual. "We were inundated with calls that night, a lot of them life-threatening," Ms Davis said. "Any child we will always try to get an ambulance to." She said life-threatening calls were given first priority, and in this case the boy was deemed to be stable enough to wait, but people were normally not told to make their own way to hospital. On each shift, a clinician will triage calls that are "not immediately life-threatening" and check on patients still waiting for ambulances, Ms Davis said. A review into both cases was undertaken and standard procedure had been followed, she said. ACT Emergency Services Minister Mick Gentleman said that, despite growing demand, the ACT had the best ambulance response times in the country as well as highest levels of patient satisfaction. Recruitment was currently underway for 11 new paramedics, with 25 more also coming on board later this year. But shadow minister for emergency services Giulia Jones said the government had created a workforce reliant on overtime, "leaving the Canberra community [and ambulance workers] vulnerable". "It's scary to think how much worse [this could be] if our workers weren't able or willing to put in this additional overtime which really cannot be demanded of people after working a 10- or a 14-hour shift," Ms Jones said. "This is not good management and it is putting our ambulance workers under further stress." Earlier this month, Mr Gentleman announced a review of the minimum staffing guidelines for ambulance workers, as the measure did not appear to be an "accurate reflection" of the staff actually required. "Advice to me from the ACT Ambulance Service is that during periods of low demand - for example night shifts during the middle of the working week - ACTAS can operate effectively with fewer than 10 crew," Mr Gentleman said. While overtime "plays a key role in operating any 24/7 emergency service", he said a new welfare manager had come on board with the ESA this month to develop a peer support program. The minister assured the community they could have "the highest confidence" in the performance of their ambulance service, and thanked paramedics for their work.

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Labor's deputy leader Tanya Plibersek is opening the new exhibition in Tuggeranong on Friday featuring work by executed Bali Nine member Myuran Sukumaran. Sukumaran was executed by firing squad in 2015 after being convicted in Indonesia of drug smuggling. Throughout March and April, Tuggeranong Arts Centre will present Another Day in Paradise, featuring the works of Sukumaran and other artists whose work relates to the death penalty and profile human rights. Curated by Ben Quilty and Michael Dagostino, Another Day in Paradise was developed by the Campbelltown Arts Centre and first presented as part of Sydney Festival. The exhibition "presents a vast and sobering series of powerful portraits by Sukumaran, painted during his incarceration at Bali's Kerobokan jail and from his final incarceration on Nusa Kambangan Island". Another Day in Paradise highlights "the importance of forgiveness and compassion for humanity, while proving the profound power of art to change lives", according to the centre. Tuggeranong Arts Centre CEO Rauny Worm said: "The centre is very much aware of the sensitivities of this exhibition and the ethical and moral complexity surrounding Sukumaran's story.". For this reason, TAC will present these works along with 'The Human Condition,' a suite of public programs that invite the community to explore the many difficult themes and questions emerging from the works and the associated story.

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Long-term Giralang residents have expressed grave concerns about a 24-person boarding house proposed for a residential street. A development application lodged by Chi Hung Tong proposes a $1.5 million two-storey building with 24 ensuite bedrooms, a carer's room and common kitchen, living and laundry areas for a large corner block on Chuculba Crescent. The ACT Planning and Land Authority has received about 60 submissions in response to the application, mostly opposing or raising concerns about the proposal, according to ACT government planning delivery executive director Brett Phillips. The site is classed RZ1 - the main residential classification - under the ACT's planning code. Controls that apply to boarding houses would require the development to be consistent with the "desired character" of a suburb and provide reasonable privacy to nearby homes. Some residents argue the proposal flouts both demands. Jeff Allen, who has lived behind the site since 1979, has told the ACT Planning and Land Authority he "would not wish this development on anyone". His representation against the proposed development noted 12 of the 24 rooms would face his yard, back deck, kitchen, family room and bedroom. He said the proposed recreation area was just a short distance from his back fence, presenting "further issues with privacy and noise". Mr Allen also argued the proposed development's facade was out of character with nearby homes and expressed deep fears about the project's impact on traffic, noting it was close to a roundabout on busy William Slim Drive. He told The Canberra Times he was worried about a broader lack of regulation of boarding houses. "Even if it is for students, because there is no current legislation or regulation of boarding houses in Canberra at all, this could be run by anybody without any due concern for the residents - insufficient toilet facilities, insufficient cooking facilities, that sort of thing," Mr Allen said. Neighbour Ian Warfield said he was also worried about a lack of regulations governing boarding houses and noted there were no guarantees on who would live in the house if it were built. Mr Chi, who could not be contacted by The Canberra Times, has previously told Fairfax Media the boarding house would be inhabited by students. "If this thing is established, and if 24 bedrooms are established on a residential block, there's nothing that says there'll actually be 24 residents," Mr Warfield said. "They could put bunks in each bedroom, so there could be 48 or even more residents in the place." He added: "Apart from the fact we'll be looking at an incredibly ugly building, noise will be a factor, traffic will be a factor, parking will be a factor." Boarding houses are allowed in areas classed RZ1 but are assessed on merit. Public submissions on the Giralang boarding house close March 2.

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There really is just something about Basil. We told you earlier this week about the hero rottweiler who alerted his owner to an eight-year-old girl who had fallen off the boardwalk into Lake Burley Griffin at the Kingston Foreshore. No one had noticed her go in and it was only the insistence of Basil, that Jarrad went to investigate and pulled the shaken girl out. Basil was showered with love by the online community. And that's what Jarrad wanted - a positive take on rottweilers, a breed he has loved since he was six. "I would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support from the community after The Canberra Times article was printed," he said. And now Jarrad says the story has resulted in another good result. He's started a Facebook page - Canberra Pack Walks - to encourage people to walk their dogs together and foster some new friendships. Maybe catch some dinner together afterwards. "I felt that many people would often baulk at my dogs, Basil and Pepper," he said. "However, due to the overwhelmingly positive comments, support from local businesses and the experience of making so many new friends, I wanted to start the group for like-minded, positive individuals." Jarrad is a firm believer in a dog being a product of their environment. He says his dogs have been loved from the start, which was why they had such a loving nature. You can follow Jarrad on the new Facebook page to learn about times for dog-walks and catch-ups, all free, community-minded outings.

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Ainslie man Peter Forster-Jones, 22, has been charged with the murder of Canberra artist Eden Waugh in 2016. He faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Saturday and was also charged with allegedly attending Mr Waugh's unit two months before the murder with a machete with the intent to commit an offence. Eden Waugh, 37, was found dead with a single gunshot wound to his chest when police were called to his Watson home on Windeyer Street shortly before 8pm on November 3 in 2016. After an extensive investigation, Forster-Jones was arrested in Parkes on Friday . Forster-Jones stood silently, without shoes, as the magistrate read the charges to him, including the murder charge. He did not enter a plea. Forster-Jones was not granted bail and will be remanded in custody until early March. In December 2017, Tavake Lee Pikula, 31, was charged with murder and trespass with an intent to cause harm in relation to Mr Waugh's death. At a press conference on Saturday morning prior to the hearing ACT Policing Superintendent Scott Moller said there was "every likelihood" there would be further arrests made and police could not rule out laying further charges as the investigation into Mr Waugh's murder continued. "Yes, certainly one person pulls the trigger, but that doesn't mean it's just one person involved," Superintendent Moller said. Police renewed their plea to anyone with information about the murder of Eden Waugh to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website.To the editor:

As a grandfather, a veteran and a life long Republican supporter I can no longer stand by while innocent children and adults are being slaughtered in our country by individuals wielding assault style guns.

For that reason I am taking two steps

1)I will not vote for any Republican candidate on any level until they openly support a total ban on the sale or ownership of assault style guns.

2)I will not shop in any store or on any website that sells assault style guns or anything that can be easily converted to same.

Few are guilty, many are responsible. -Herschel

Jim White

St. James CityBernard James Spencer, M.D., retired Pediatric Surgeon, 96, died January 4, 2018 at Hope Hospice of Southwest Florida. He was born in St. Charles, MN, Feb. 15, 1921 to John and Gertrude (Small) Spencer. In 1928, the family moved to Blue Earth, MN, where Bernie spent the rest of his youth as an Eagle Scout, an outstanding student, a great athlete, and a bass player in four music groups.

Bernie attended Marquette University, and with medicine as his calling, transferred to University of MN, where he earned B.S and B.MED degrees with honors. He was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and received his M.D. in 1945. After being inducted into the U.S. Army Medical Corps, he served for two years, one of three Spencer brothers in active duty in WWII.

Bernie trained in general surgery at the Mayo Clinic. With a vision to serve young people and families, he completed a second fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Boston Childrens Hospital, a division of Harvard Medical School. From there, he embarked on what would become a deeply meaningful and pioneering career, performing life-changing surgeries for children. Certified by the American Board of Surgery in General and Pediatric Surgery, he joined his colleagues, Drs. O.S. Wyatt and Tague C. Chisholm, in establishing the first Pediatric Surgical practice in Minneapolis, which is now Pediatric Surgical Associates, Inc., the oldest, continuous-running practice of its kind in the U.S.

Performing more than 16,000 surgical cases throughout his career, Bernie dedicated his life to helping children survive conditions that had been a death sentence until this time. His family enjoyed watching his face light up and his eyes tear when he would recount stories of the children and parents he had met.

Bernie was one of a cadre of physicians, philanthropic women and businessmen who were the founding group of Minneapolis Childrens Hospital, now the Minnesota Childrens Hospital. His service exemplified his passion and included: Assoc. Professor of Surgery, University of MN Med School; Minneapolis Childrens Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and on the Board of Directors for more than a decade; attending Pediatric Surgeon at Hennepin County Medical Center for 35 years; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Surgical Section; and charter member on the Board of Governors of the American Pediatric Surgical Associates. He authored numerous publications and lectured extensively, and he was especially fond of the friendships he had forged in his many years as a member of the Lilliputian Surgical Society.

In 1953, Bernard married the lovely and spirited Carol Fox (of Fond du Lac, WI), who preceded him in death in June 2017. Their marriage was one of great respect, joy and compassion. The couple belonged to the Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis and Sanibel Congregational UCC on Sanibel Island, FL. Since Bernards retirement in 1988, the family resided on Sanibel Island, FL and spent summers at Schroeder, MN, on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Bernard leaves behind three sons: Brian (daughter-in-law Teresa and granddaughter Kacy) of Naples, Fl; Todd of Schroeder, MN; and Kevin (daughter-in-law Andrea, granddaughter McKenna and grandson Kellen) of Summerfield, NC. Also surviving: brother Dr. David (sister-in-law Beverly) of Woodbury, MN; two sisters-in-law, Marie of Blue Earth, MN, and Elizabeth of Roseville, CA; and many nieces and nephews. His parents, two brothers and a sister predeceased himEldon Spencer, Cpt. William Spencer, USN, and Veronica Druckenbrod.

Bernard was a life-long optimist who valued his work, family and friends. He thoroughly enjoyed travel, nature, genealogy and reading, and was a devotee of fine arts and history, especially the Civil War and Native Americans. His lasting legacy is his 35 years of careful surgery on many thousands of children.

Memorials to: The Foundation Of Childrens Hospitals and Clinics Of Minnesota (5901 Lincoln Drive, CBC-3-FOUND, Edina, MN 55436) and Sanibel Congregational UCC (2050 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, FL 33957).A Cape Coral girl abducted from Oasis Elementary School Thursday by her step-father has been found safe and sound.

Eight-year-old-old Juliet Odierna was located by law enforcement in Alabama at 2 a.m. Friday, the Cape Coral Police Department reports. She was found with Theodore and Jennifer Moschovas, her step-father and her mother, who does not have custody of Juliet.

The Moschovas are in police custody; Juliet is being placed temporarily in foster care until her father arrives to retrieve her, the release from the CCPD states.

An Amber Alert for Juliet was issued Thursday after the CCPD notified of the on-campus abduction at 12:30 p.m.

According to the CCPD, Juliets father, Robert Odierna, has full custody of child, her mother has court-ordered supervised visitation only.

Theodore Moschovas, who police say is Jennifers new husband, showed up at Oasis Elementary and falsely identified himself as Robert Odierna, bringing lunch.

Moschovas then left the school with Juliet, a release from the CCPD states, adding Moschovas previously took Juliet and fled to Massachusetts.

The abduction was discovered when Robert Odierna showed up to pick up Juliet only to learn that she had already been picked up.

CCPD officials credit Juliets fast recovery to both its investigative personnel and inter-agency efforts

I simply cannot overstate how extremely proud of I am of all of you. The work you displayed yesterday into the overnight was awesome, said Captain Tony Sizemore of the CCPD Investigative Services Bureau in a statement to those who worked to locate Juliet quickly.

I had the privilege of observing you all in action and I continue to be impressed. If the stakes werent so high, and real lives werent at stakeyou would be far more entertaining to watch than any tv cop show. But it is real life, and real victims being saved. Your composure, professionalism, teamwork and consistent results are something to behold.

Take a moment to think about what youve accomplished. An 8-year-old child was abducted from a school and driven through three states and you were responsible for her safe rescue in roughly 12 hours.

Thank you for ALL that you do. Im humbled and honored to work alongside all of you.

The CCPD also thanked all of the agencies involved in working to locate Juliet after the Amber Alert was issued.

The Cape Coral Police Department would like to thank the multitude of law enforcement agencies across the southeastern United States that assisted in this case, but especially our partners at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who had boots on the ground with us from the very beginning, CCPD spokesperson Lieutenant Dana Coston said. We would also like to take the time to recognize and thank the citizens for their amazing response. Tips began flooding in within minutes of the AMBER Alert and our news release being issued. Juliets story was shared on social media thousands of times, keeping her face, and those of her abductors, in the spotlight.

Oasis Elementary is part of the city of Cape Corals municipal charter school system.

Jacquelin Collins, system Superintendent, issued a statement to parents Thursday. School personnel will adhere to existing policy that requires identification from all visitors and new procedures will be implemented, she said.

The statement reads:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Due to the incident that occurred today, involving an elementary student who was escorted off campus by a non-custodial parent, the following additional security measures will be implemented immediately:

Self service sign-in will not be available. All check in will be through the receptionist.

In accordance with classroom building protocol for entry, any person, volunteer, or visitor will be asked for a drivers license or a state ID to enter the administration building.

Parents will no longer be allowed to eat lunch with their child.

Birthday party treats can be dropped off in the front office and the teacher will distribute to class at a designated time.

If you wish to discuss this further please contact the Superintendents office. Remember we are Four Schools One Vision.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

Sincerely,

Jacquelin Collins

SuperintendentThe Cape Coral Police Department reported this afternoon that charges have now also been filed against Jennifer Moschovas for the abduction of Juliet Odierna, after the previous arrest of her husband Theodore Moschovas.

After the issuance of an AMBER Alert and cooperation through the night between Cape Coral police and several law enforcement agencies, Theodore and Jennifer Moschovas, along with Juliet Odierna, were located by police in Eufaula, Alabama, at approximately 2 a.m., today, Feb. 23. Eufaula officers conducted interviews, as did Cape Coral Police detectives via telephone. Theodore Moschovas was placed under arrest by Eufaula police based on the probable cause outlined in the Cape Coral Police Department warrant request.

Jennifer Moschovas was interviewed and released from the scene, as there was not yet enough probable cause to charge her with the crime. Detectives continued to work the case toward its conclusion, culminating in an arrest warrant for Jennifer. Eufaula (Alabama) Police re-located her at her hotel in Eufaula and placed her under arrest on the Cape Coral Police Department warrant. Jennifer was charged with Interference with Custody FSS 787.03(1), a 3rd degree felony.

 Source: Cape Coral Police DepartmentJisc and Agenta Team Up to Enhance Remote Education

Vscene, the UKs destination for remote education, will be getting an upgrade thanks to Ajenta. Jisc, the non-profit technology solution for education, has selected audio and video providers, Ajenta, to enhance, upgrade and take over Vscene video collaboration.

Vscene is the only true HD platform in the world to provide a large social community of teachers, students and research fellows with the ability to chat in real-time, share knowledge and collaborate in virtual meeting workspaces with encrypted document sharing and whiteboard collaboration. These features will help to shape a considerable part of each institutions larger digital strategy, shared John Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Ajenta.

Vscene is currently accessed by over 2,000 UK institutions, developing remote classrooms for 500 users, encompassing educating, learning, and colleague collaboration in both the UK and overseas. Recent upgrades to Vscene include an easy-to-use desktop, improved mobile access, and seamless integration with learning management systems and tele-education environments.

Vscene is provided at no cost to existing users in 7500 primary and secondary schools and will remain that way, assured Ajenta. Vscene will no longer be a part of the Jisc subscription but a new pricing funnel will be set up for customers.

Jisc is committed to helping schools, colleges, universities and research centers to perform at the forefront of international practice by exploiting digital technology, content and connectivity. We are delighted to partner with Ajenta, whose expertise will give Vscene many added benefits for our members and the wider public sector, Jisc chief executive, Paul Feldman said on the new partnership.

The new service is set to launch in March 2018 and already 450 current users have signed up for Vscene 2.0.

Edited by Maurice NaglePhoto: Contributed - Rowen Siemens Passengers on this chartered Greyhound bus were forced to exit through the front windshield after it crashed on Friday night near Princeton.

A group of travelers heading to Kelowna got more than they bargained for Friday night when their bus was forced to swerve away from oncoming traffic and ended up in the ditch.

The incident happened north of Princeton on Highway 5A, near Allison Lake. No one was injured in the crash, but it was a long wait for help because the accident occurred in an area without cell service.

It was nothing too serious, but we were stuck on the highway for hours, says 18-year-old Rowen Siemens, a passenger on the bus.

A semi truck slid into our lane and the bus driver had to swerve out of the way. Nobody got hurt because our driver did a rock star job of saving us all.

She says the bus ended up in the ditch, laying partially on its side. The door to the passenger side door of the bus was unable to open, meaning everyone was stuck inside until help arrived.

To make matter worse, Siemens says there was so much demand in Vancouver (where the bus originated) that Greyhound split the passengers onto two buses. Unfortunately, the charter bus she was traveling on was not a Greyhound bus and was not equipped with a radio.

This other charter, it wasnt a Greyhound bus, and just our luck it didnt have a radio or anything on it, explained Siemens.

(The driver) said he had no way of contacting anyone. So he basically just sat there and waited for someone to drive by, and then that person drove ahead until they had service and called 911.

When emergency personnel finally arrived two hours later they had to cut out the windows and build a ramp for passengers to get out.

They had to saw off the front of the bus. There was no way of getting out, we were completely stuck. We werent in any imminent danger, but we couldnt get out.

Everyone was then transferred to different bus, but due to another accident further up the highway, they were again delayed.

Siemens says when they finally arrived in Kelowna around 11 p.m. Friday night, they were nearly six hours late and without any way to contact family members, it was an emotional reunion for many of the passengers.

Were you on the bus? Send us your story, photos and video to [email protected]I read the letter from Ian Maclean and it occurred to me that without the Kinder Morgan pipeline there would be very little gasoline, or diesel getting to our beautiful province of B.C. As almost everything in this world that we use and consume is made from petroleum products in today's world.

I don't see all the people of BC riding there horses to the grocery store to get a litre of milk, why is that? Because we all rely on oil and gas to fuel our cars, heat our homes, transport our goods coming into our ports. Ask yourself how can we get all the hay to the horses in the lower mainland that everyone will be

riding, how can we make the bicycles that everyone will be riding. The answer is simple we can't, we have to work together to find solutions to some pretty hard questions folks and the only people we hear from are the far right and far left.

So many near sighted people trying to make their minority views the norm. Like it or not petroleum products are the norm in our world today, maybe one day we can find a way to rid our lives of this cycle, but until then lets try to work together.

Calvin ThomasPhoto: Contributed

We just returned from Jamaica where we put ourselves in reset mode, focusing on storing away some tropical memories for use on stressful days later in the year.

Since we returned home to much more winter than expected, I thought I would share a few tastes of the tropics with you, so we can all forget the blowing snow for a moment and feel the warmth of the sun and the sand.

Starting the day in the tropics is quite possibly the best part. I love breakfast, and I love being warm. Not having to bundle up when I get out of bed puts me in a good mood right away; nibbling on fresh papaya and pineapple feels wonderfully decadent.

Combined with the sweet breads often filled with coconut and fruity Jamaican coffee, this is the breakfast of champions, if you ask me. I think it must have been Usain Bolts secret.

My other favourite breakfast is ackee and salt fish. Not everyone likes salted fish, but I suppose, with my Icelandic roots, I have the right palate for it. Sauteed with ackee, a flavourful tropical fruit that can only be eaten cooked, it makes a savoury hot dish that will always remind me of Jamaica. You must try it if you get the chance.

There is a wonderful fishmonger in Kelowna who works hard to offer the best seafood in season. But how can you beat fresh off the boat that day, especially after having seen it live underwater while diving?

We had Caribbean lobster and snapper most days where we stayed, and it was delicious. Caribbean lobster is different than the cold-water variety we are used to eating; it is softer meat and is not quite as sweet. I love it with Jerk butter.

The snapper is tender and delicate, a perfect foil to the tangy escovitch sauce they usually serve it with.

Many people know Jamaica for its jerk spice. This blend of herbs and hot peppers used as a rub or sauce for chicken and pork is as popular as barbecue sauce in North America. That and curried goat are common meat dishes for a main meal, usually served with rice and peas and some kind of squash.

I love the intense flavours and rainbow of colours on the plate.

Dessert is not really sweet in Jamaica, but rather rich. Coconut and dried fruits are common, and pastry is usually quite short and buttery.

Rum cake is what I look for, black as the Caribbean night and studded with rum-soaked fruits and nuts. Gizzaras are delicious too  shredded coconut filling in a tart shell.

Both my hubby and I love to scuba dive, experiencing the wonders of that other world under the surface of the sea. Sometimes a simple taste can be the best culmination of a great experience, and for me sucking on a Jolly Rancher candy after a dive is just that.

The last of the seas saltiness and the fruity candy meld in my mind with the memories of nurse sharks, starfish, and eagle rays.

If you are more of a beach lover, then let me paint this picture for you: sipping on a Dirty Banana with your toes in the fine white sand as the waves lap the shore and the sandpipers little feet as they run.

The flavours of rum cream and coffee liqueur with milk and ice and a fresh banana are the perfect tropical sustenance.

If you are still feeling peckish, you can always grab a Jamaican patty (the island version of a Cornish pasty, with curried veggies or chicken).

For those who like to venture out, there is the famous Pelican Bar on the South Coast. This rickety shack sits on a sand bar all on its own, and it offers a delightfully rustic environment to enjoy a local drink.

Many choose Red Stripe, but Im not a big beer fan when its hot, so I chose a Dark n Stormy (rum and ginger beer).

My thinking was that its like carrying an umbrella; nothing will happen if I have one.

In the evening, there is nothing better than wandering down to the dock and watching for manta rays under the stars. You can sip on that delicious local coffee, or a bit of rum cream on ice if you like.

If youre like me, when you see a shooting star, you wish that you can come back again soon.Photo: Gerry LaMarsh Gerry LaMarsh spotted a rare site on Okanagan Lake when he noticed some otters chowing down on fish.

Gerry LaMarsh spotted a rare site on Okanagan Lake when he noticed some otters chowing down on fish.

LaMarsh spotted three otters eating two large fish at the north end of the lake by Tronson Road in Vernon.

He managed to snap a picture of the otters through a spotting scope with his iPhone.

Otters live in waterways throughout the province, but are not often captured on camera.

remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.Thompson Engineering celebrated Engineers Week by hosting a field trip that allowed more than 130 Chattanooga area students to see Dream Big 3D, a film that celebrates engineers and their work around the world. Engineers Week is a oneweek event to celebrate a year-long commitment to increase awareness about how engineers make a difference in our world and to inspire students to pursue engineering as a career.

Engineers create better lives for people through innovation, and safeguard our communities through professional design, said John Baker, CEO of Thompson Engineering. We take great pride in our work and in inspiring the next generation of engineers. We know they will have the power to solve community issues in ways that will be better than ever before.

A grant from the Thompson Foundation, the charitable arm of Thompson Engineering, funded the field trip. Students from Howard High School, Dalewood Middle School, Tyner Academy School and East Lake Academy of Fine Arts participated. The movie explores engineering marvels around the world.

Dream Big 3D helps everyone see that careers in science and engineering are fun and rewarding, said Thom Benson, Tennessee Aquariums Director of External Affairs. I think the students could see that these job opportunities are attainable and cover every facet of our lives. And after seeing this film, I hope these students will have a deeper appreciation for the educators in their lives who encourage them to dream big. While Dream Big 3D is not being shown on a regular basis, it can be booked by school groups as a Teachers Choice film.

Thompson Engineering is known for several significant projects in Tennessee including construction engineering and inspection of projects for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), the Volkswagen Academy, Alstom Plant, and the Henley Bridge. Company employees provide professional services from offices in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Clarksville, Tn., as well as company headquarters in Mobile, Al. and offices in six other Southeastern states.Blog

Chelsea's masked XI

Forget about whos behind the masks in the newest reality TV sensation The Masked Singer  its all about which Blues can make it into our Masked XI! Head coach Frank Lampard confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Andreas Christensen had flown to Milan to be fitted with a protective mask after having his nose broken in a challenge with Anthony Martial against Manchester United on Monday night. Should the Danish centre-back feature against Spurs, hell be in contention for a spot among a team of masked Blues, but until then hell have to sit back and admire what we think would make a fantastic Chelsea team!Access

Champions League trophy defence off to winning start, Lukaku bags again | Unseen Extra

Romelu Lukaku's fourth of the season, and Chelsea's solitary goal on the night, was enough to secure a winning start to the Blues' European title defence against Zenit St Petersburg at Stamford Bridge. Take a closer look at another memorable European night at the Bridge, exclusively here...Executives said the error was caused by insufficient accounting procedures and a misunderstanding of the company's electronic medical records system that resulted in an overstatement of its estimates for its contracts. In addition, managed care contracts were not fully loaded into the system, so the terms of those contracts were not fully taken into account. Also, its processes did not fully account for shortfalls in charity care reserves or bad debt, which accumulates when people dont pay.(Buffetts) many invaluable contributions to Kraft Heinz will have a lasting impact on the company for years to come. The board of directors looks forward to his continued partnership as chairman of our largest shareholder, Berkshire Hathaway, said Alex Behring, chairman of Kraft Heinzs board of directors, in the news release.But how many of us can be sure of our own courage? Most of us never have it tested in dramatic, public, physically dangerous ways. We can only know what we hope wed do, the sacrifice we hope wed make, when the bullets or the fire or the interrogation squad came.The 31-year-old man was standing on the sidewalk in the 1100 block of South Mozart Street when he was shot in the abdomen. He took himself to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was listed in critical condition.Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the public health agency, said it was an abundance of caution that led to an alert on Saturday, as some 300 cases of Legionnaires disease are reported in the state each year. The persons name and condition are not being released.Cancel was able to drive himself to St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond, Indiana but was later transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead Monday at 12:35 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiners office.The woman, who authorities estimate was 18 to 25 years old, was found by a group of juveniles in the 1500 block of California Avenue around 5:15 p.m., according to a press release from the Will County sheriffs office.Sucher has pleaded not guilty in Whiteside County to aggravated battery of a child. He is accused of dragging a 6-year-old by the foot and striking him in the face during a July 29 incident. He was free on bond in that case when Knight was attacked.Legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase assault weapons was still being written late Friday, so details werent available. Another proposal to allow family members or law enforcement officials to ask a judge to take away someones guns or Firearm Owners Identification card if they pose an immediate threat to themselves or others by having access to firearms received initial approval by a Senate panel last week. It also received some Republican support, with Sen. Chris Nybo of Elmhurst saying it was a reasonable response to recent gun violence.Hampton said she worked for several years out of the 13th Ward office, which is shared by Madigan and Ald. Quinn. She said the amount of time she spent there often depended on campaign cycles. She has also noted that she began to dislike going to the 13th Ward when Kevin Quinn was there  a factor, she said, in her decision to walk away from the organization in April 2017 rather than take a job as a precinct captain.About six hours after Emanuels last message on the subject, Reinsdorf wrote: Are your people considering the overall impact to restaurants and hotels and the taxes they pay if a concert is lost? We have a study done a couple of years ago that might shed light on that. Rather than conjecture, we will put all of our information together for everyones consideration.Donald Trump reacts after speaking at Carrier Corp Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis. Trump promised to save jobs at Carrier, but the company is nonetheless laying off hundreds of workers. (Darron Cummings / AP)Also on Friday, Human Rights Watch criticized the way Turkey is conducting its offensive in northern Syria, saying it has failed to take the necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties. The New York-based group cited three attacks in the Afrin region in late January that it says killed 26 civilians, including 17 children. It urged Turkey to thoroughly investigate these strikes and make the findings public.Treading lightly on Tanna We go on a new ecotourism adventure tour in North TannaMILWAUKEE  A cluster of flowers adorned the small, concrete doorstep of an apartment building in a blue-collar neighborhood Friday as relatives remembered three people shot and killed there as hardworking and family-oriented.



True Vue said her brother, Phia Vue, and his wife, Mai Vue, were a "very loving couple."



Xiomara Manso, meanwhile, said her brother, Jesus Manso-Perez, put his family first and moved to Milwaukee six years ago from Puerto Rico to give his two children "a better future." All he ever did, she said, "was work and go home."



The Vues and Manso-Perez were shot Sunday in front of their children in the four-unit apartment building on Milwaukee's southwest side, according to police.



A neighbor, Dan J. Popp, 39, has been charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths. He also faces a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide because authorities said he shot at Manso-Perez's 18-year-old son, Jesus Manso-Carrasquillo.



Milwaukee police spokesman Tim Gauerke said officers were investigating and working to determine a motive.



Popp, according to the criminal complaint, attacked Manso-Perez and his son as they were coming upstairs after putting a load of clothes into the washing machine. Before they went to the basement, the document states, Popp had asked where they were from, to which they replied "Puerto Rico." Popp, who is white, then said, "Oh, that's why you don't speak English," the complaint says.



When they came back up, Popp was waiting with a long gun, police say. He told the father and son, "You guys got to go," and shot Manso-Perez, according to the complaint.



Manso-Carrasquillo ran down the stairs and outside, where he alerted people who called 911, police say.



Shortly afterward, according to the criminal complaint, Popp burst into the Vues' apartment. Family members had fled into bedrooms when they heard the shooting, but Popp forced his way inside, led Phia Vue out and killed him, police say.



Popp then started to drag Mai Vue and her two young daughters out of the apartment, the document states. Authorities found Mai Vue dead in Popp's apartment.



Police, responding to an active shooter call, took Popp into custody without a struggle.



Popp will undergo a competency exam, which his lawyer, Christopher Hartley, requested. Hartley did not return phone and email messages seeking comment Friday.



Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said his office was "aware of concerns about the people who were targeted." He added, "we'll continue to evaluate those issues as the case moves forward."



The Vues were members of Milwaukee's Hmong community. The Hmong American Friendship Association was helping family members organize a vigil scheduled for Sunday evening and spread the word about a memorial fund to help with funeral costs.



"This has been really hard for all of us," True Vue said.



She said her 89-year-old father, Seng Vue, couldn't believe his son died. "All he did was cry. He couldn't believe it happened."



True Vue said her brother was a "Mr. Mom" who took care of the family's four children. She said her sister-in-law had just gotten a business degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and that "they had a bright future, not knowing in the blink of an eye, it would be gone."



Associated PressShe didn't dispute what her daughter told police, but said she actually killed her son by drowning him, putting him in bath water until his face turned purple. Moronez said she "put him in the water and saw bubbles coming out of his nose and mouth" and that she "held him down and felt him wriggle a little under the water," charging documents say. Her son was 18 days old."This was something I suggested to the heritage board, and they agreed," Irvin said. "I believe in the community it's important to recognize those individuals that year after year have shown excellence throughout their lifetime. Avis Miller has been a pillar of the community and to me, the thing that stands out about her the most is her selfless service to our youth."The students who went to the auditorium were marked absent from class, but did not face the same consequences as the students who walked out. The students who walked out, as in any other instance of a student leaving the building, faced discipline, Martinez said. The type of discipline depended on each student's individual discipline history, but could have included detentions, he said."They told all children in Florida that if you had talent and fire in your belly your first two years of college were free. I was scared but gave it a try and I made it in. It opened the doors for me. Today's unveiling will open doors for so many children like me to become our future entrepreneurs and educators," Sanguinetti said."They are sweet, loving animals. They act much like a dog  they like to play fetch," said Nancy Brown, who added that the couple also has three Chihuahuas. "We go to shows all around the country. We love animals of all kinds."No criminal act was found in either case, so the sheriff's office did not have a reason to notify the school district about either complaint, Kendall County Det. Bryan Harl said. In the initial complaint, filed when Lipke was principal at Long Beach, the child's mother said she did not think any abuse occurred and she did not think an investigation was required, records show.The building's sprinkler system kept the fire to the kitchen area of the apartment and firefighters had it extinguished in about 15 minutes, according to the news release. They remained on scene until about 12:15 a.m. Friday evacuating smoke, which had spread throughout the second floor, and helping people who lived in other second-floor units back to their apartments, according to the fire department.Police were able to track a number of jewelry pieces Detwiler sold to local pawn shops for cash. Included was a ring appraised at $8,500, taken from the home of an elderly man. The man was selling his home after having to place his wife in a nursing facility. The ring was a 25th anniversary gift hed given to her, another police officer testified.At the head of the table is MP Ephraim Kalsakau, Chair of PAC and on his right MP Fred William Tasso and MP Isaac Tongolilu. (L) Former Australian MP, Robert Oakeshott and a staff of the UNPD Vanuatu Office and (R) is Acting Clerk of Parliament, Leon Teter.But Massaro struck a deal and pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and two counts of concealing a homicide. Instead of facing life in jail, Massaro was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Because of sentencing rules and the time she served in the county jail, however, Massaro actually only served just under four years in state prison. She will serve a two-year parole term."I think in most professions there's an inclination to want to believe and protect those who do the work that you do," she said. "I think there have been a number of cases where if someone had spoken up earlier, you could have intervened earlier. But I don't think it is unique to police, prosecutors offices (or) defense attorney offices. There's an inclination to protect.""Legislators need to move beyond the politics of the issues and find some common ground that will at least begin moving the process forward. There is no easy solution but there are some first steps that should help," Kaptain said.The numbers from the Next Generation Science Standards exam were released just one month after the Illinois State Board of Education made public long-delayed scores from 2016, giving school officials the data needed to compare how students did from one year to the next on the new test that was implemented in 2016.4847 S. Kimbark Ave., Chicago: $3,200,000 | Listed: July 12, 2021



This six-bedroom home has five full baths, one half-bath, and an original winding carved staircase. The eat-in kitchen, which is large enough to accommodate an eight-foot table, is equipped with a Wolf range and two Bosch dishwashers. The primary bedroom suite has a gas fireplace, two walk-in closets and a spa bath with a double-sized steam shower, soaking tub, and two separate sink areas. The finished basement has a private office, a fully equipped fitness room, a game room, a theater room, a full bath, and a second laundry room. This home has a matching two-story coach house that includes three full garage stalls and a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment that can be used as an office or an in-law suite. A charming storybook playroom, landscaped grounds and a full SportCourt complete this home.



Agent: Robert Sullivan, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, 773-793-0458



*Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options.



To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com.



Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.Do you have an event coming up you would like to see included in Five Things to Do? Email your item, including time, date, place and a contact number, to wweber@tronc.com at least two weeks before the event.Another plus, apart from the ability to buy whatever you wanted at low prices at all kinds of unsocial hours, were the enormous number of restaurants. I know we have Indian restaurants in Naperville, but to me, at least, none of them tastes as good as the ones there. I think it's because ethnic food adapts to meet the tastes of the population in which it resides. I have no explanation for what counts as Italian food in the Chicago area, but if you want to see where I'm coming from, book a trip to Italy for your next vacation."I want there to be complete gun control. We shouldn't be able to buy them; there's no reason to have them," she said. "But clearly the most important thing right now is to protect children. You have to do things in increments and stages. That's what I think needs to happen, and that's what I think is happening.""We feel connected to them, because they were with us when we started our struggle, so we want to be here as they continue their fight against these flights," said Aguirre, co-coordinator of the Coalition Against the Elkhart County Immigration Center.The demand comes after the county council and the human resources director at the time said in the fall of 2016 that the directors in voter registration were salaried employees, not hourly, and should not have been receiving overtime, as they had in past years. The council eventually approved salary increases for Kozuszek and Schoon to bring their pay from just over $44,000 to $49,000, starting last year.Abiut has been removed from office following allegations he misused his power as VTU PresidentAfter the Volkswagen hit the Explorer, it went off on the inner shoulder and hit another vehicle, that of a driver who had stopped at the crash to see whether the people in the Explorer needed help, she said.Bulgarian Posts had released the postage stamp "2018 -- Year of the Yellow Dog", its chief executive officer Deyan Daneshki said here Friday.



The postage stamp had a circulation of 3,600, and cost 0.65 Bulgarian lev (some 0.41 U.S. dollars), Daneshki said at the validation ceremony attended by hundreds of philatelists eager to buy a copy.

A postage stamp dedicated to the Chinese New Year was first issued in Bulgaria in 2017, the Year of the Fire Cock, Daneshki said.

Spas Panchev, president of the Union of Bulgarian Philatelists and member of the country's parliament, said in turn that the stamp was very interesting because China and Bulgaria have traditionally maintained good diplomatic, political, economic and people's relations.

Meanwhile, the small circulation of only 3,600 copies made it attractive to collectors because its price would grow, Panchev said.

He said he hoped that in the coming years, Bulgarian Posts would issue more postage stamps dedicated to the Chinese Spring Festival.The Sun Festival of Abu Simbel temple in southern Egypt this year has brought Chinese festivity to the ancient land of Nubians, as Chinese puppetry show has joined the international celebration event for the first time.

The Sun Festival, which attracted thousands of visitors worldwide to participate in the event on Feb. 22, this year also coincided with the Chinese Spring Festival celebration week.

Built by King Ramses II, the statues of the king and the sun god remain in darkness inside the Abu Simbel temple throughout the year except on Feb. 22 and Oct. 22, when the sunlight showers on the statues to commemorate the king's coronation and birthday.

This year, the Aswan art festival is joined by folklore performances from Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Algeria, China, India and Thailand besides Egyptian local troupes.

Chen Yinghong, head of the Chinese puppetry troupe, told Xinhua that they had staged eight performances in various places in Aswan with three special shows.

"I was afraid in the beginning that Egyptian audience might not understand the Chinese puppet show due to cultural differences, but after the warm response from the opening ceremony, I was assured," said Chen.

On the closing ceremony in front of the ancient Abu Simbel temples, the Chinese puppetry troupe performed the stunt of changing puppet clothing in less than a second that marveled local audience and tourists.

Ahmed Aboabudula, a local audience took video and pictures of the puppet show and said, "everybody laughed and clapped, we like the puppet show, it is very nice."

Chen, who came to Egypt in 2001 when he was often recognized as Japanese tourist, said that this time, he met many Egyptians who greeted him with simple Chinese.

"This reflects the increasing number of Chinese visitors to Egypt and the expanding tourism exchanges between our two countries," said Chen.

In 2017, China has become the 4th largest tourists' source for Egypt and the number of Chinese travellers to Egypt is rising fast.

Local tour operator told Xinhua that direct flights from China to Abu Simbel, which started several months ago, bring several hundreds of Chinese tourists every day to southern Egypt. The number of tourists accounts for nearly a quarter thousand visits per day in average.

Shi Yuewen, Cultural Councilor of the Chinese Embassy in Cairo, told Xinhua that with growing economic and cultural ties between China and Egypt, he decided to make a change to the traditional Chinese lunar New Year celebrations in Egypt which used to include performances and food and handcraft stalls in the Azhar Park in Cairo.

Instead, he sent performance groups from China out of Cairo to Aswan and Egypt's red sea resort town of Sharm el Sheik to add a taste of Chinese festivity to the world-renowned Egyptian attractions and festivals while lighted the Cairo tower in red for the first time on the eve of Chinese Spring Festival.

Dragon boat competition on Nile and Chinese martial art competition will also be held in Cairo besides the Chinese food week in luxury hotels as part of the new Chinese Spring Festival celebration program this year, Shi revealed.Hainan Airlines said Friday it would deploy wide-body aircrafts and increase flights to help ease traffic jams for ferries in south China's Hainan Province.



The airline said it would add 88 flights with nearly 10,000 seats from Feb. 23 to March 2 to help transport stranded passengers on the island.

Passengers are heading home after spending their Spring Festival holiday on the island. Hainan, known for its tropical climate and clean air, is a popular destination for Chinese tourists in winter.

According to the local government, about 90,000 vehicles containing over 400,000 tourists had arrived on the island during this year's Spring Festival holiday lasting from Feb. 15 to Feb. 21.

Shipping on the Qiongzhou Strait, the only way for cars to leave the island for Guangdong, was suspended Wednesday night due to heavy fog. Ferries resumed Thursday morning as visibility improved.

More than 21,000 vehicles and 102,000 passengers were shipped to Guangdong across the strait from Hainan between Thursday morning and Friday morning.

Although the local government issued several warnings on bad weather and traffic at ports, queues continued as more vehicles tried to cross to Guangdong via the strait.

As of 7:30 p.m. Friday, over 12,000 vehicles remained stuck in the seemingly endless traffic jam.

"I prefer waiting in line than wandering around. I want to go home as soon as possible," said a passenger surnamed Mo from southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The city's traffic authorities said heavy fog, Spring Festival travel rush, and an accident on the shipping route all compounded the situation, and estimated that the traffic jams would continue for another two days.

Local authorities said the Spring Festival travel rush would last until March 10.

Hainan was among the top 10 domestic destinations during this year's Spring Festival. The island received 5.67 million tourists during the holiday week, up 10 percent on last year.

A local government official who declined to be named revealed that the government did not have a plan for such severe traffic jams caused by multiple adverse conditions. Relevant departments had failed to test their capacity to handle such a large number of drivers.

The extraordinary gridlock also brought up an old topic that has troubled Hainan for a long time. Whether to build an undersea tunnel or a bridge over the Qiongzhou Strait?

Supporters think the link will boost the local economy, while opponents argue it will lead to more traffic.

According to Gu Gang, executive vice mayor of Haikou, the city is considering setting up a ferry waiting area in the suburbs to avoid future gridlock.

Many tourists have suggested selling ferry tickets online in advance. Those without tickets would not then rush to the ports, and the traffic jams could be alleviated.

The civil affairs bureau of Haikou has sent water, food and quilts to stranded passengers to help them get through another night.You are here: Business

U.S. multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) said on Friday it signed a 1-billion-U.S. dollar framework agreement with the state-run Ukrainian Railways to supply 30 new freight locomotives.

The agreement is the largest ever for GE in Ukraine, GE's transportation unit said. Under the deal, GE will also supply additional locomotive kits over 10 years, rehabilitate locomotives in the railway's legacy fleet, and provide long-term maintenance services.

Locomotive production is planned to begin in the United States in early 2018, with the first deliveries scheduled for this fall.

In addition, certain work will be localized in Ukraine to further bolster job creation and economic development in the country.

The Ukrainian government said that about 40 percent of the vehicles' components will be produced in Ukraine.

"In addition to addressing Ukraine's needs for greater capacity, this strategic partnership with GE will also provide a powerful impetus to further develop domestic manufacturing," said Yevgen Kravtsov, acting Chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Railways.

"This deal demonstrates our expanding global customer base and is a promising step forward in our relationship with Ukrainian Railways, which can serve as a catalyst in attracting international financing and accelerating economic growth in Ukraine," said Rafael Santana, President and CEO of GE Transportation.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman described the deal as an "unprecedented agreement" for the Ukrainian economy.

The deal marks a major milestone in the country's efforts to modernize its transportation infrastructure and strengthen its position as a key European rail hub and trade corridor.

"It will provide a significant impetus for the development of Ukrainian transport infrastructure and domestic machine building," said Groysman.



Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) on Wednesday unveiled a plan to build its first factory in Mexico for the North and South American markets.

The company will invest around one billion U.S. dollars for the construction of the plant set to begin in 2020, Jimena Saenz, BAIC's director in Mexico, said in an interview with Xinhua.

BAIC launched brand automobiles in the Mexican market in mid 2016, while the brands of D20 sedans and X25 SUVs were assembled at a local plant in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.

"BAIC's commitment to Mexico is long-term. We want to be close to our suppliers," said Saenz.

Thanks to the positive market response in Mexico, the company sold 1,140 vehicles in 2017 and expects the figure to reach 4,000 units in 2018, she said.

"It is a year of uncertainty," she said, referring to the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada, and the country's presidential elections in the summer.

As one of China's five largest automakers, BAIC sells automobiles in 53 countries, including South American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela.More than 12,000 vehicles returning home from a week-long break remained stuck in a seemingly endless traffic jam for ferries in Hainan Province as of Friday afternoon.

Zhao Xu, a tourist from east China's Shandong Province, was not sure if he would leave the island Friday tonight.

His family of three spent their Spring Festival holiday on the island and found heavy traffic jams at three ports in Haikou, capital of Hainan, on Wednesday, so they settled down in a hotel for two more nights.

Zhao joined the long queue of waiting cars on Friday. "It's our first time on the island. It's an amazing experience, but we didn't expect the tough trip home," he said.

Shipping on the Qiongzhou Strait, between Hainan and Guangdong, was suspended Wednesday night due to heavy fog. Ferries resumed on Thursday morning as visibility improved.

More than 21,000 vehicles and 102,000 passengers were shipped to Guangdong across the Qiongzhou Strait from Hainan between Thursday morning to Friday morning.

Although the local government issued several warnings on bad weather and traffic at ports, queues continued as more vehicles tried to cross to Guangdong via the strait, the only way for cars to leave the island.

Heavy fog, Spring Festival travel rush, and an accident on the shipping route all compounded the situation.

"I prefer waiting in line than wandering around. I want to go home as soon as possible," said a passenger surnamed Mo from Sichuan Province.

The city's traffic authorities estimated that tens of thousands of vehicles will leave through the ports and the traffic jams will continue for another two days.

Liu Dong, head with Haikou's transport and port authority, said that 90,000 vehicles containing over 400,000 tourists had arrived on the island during this year's Spring Festival holiday.

Hainan, known for its tropical climate and clean air, is a popular destination for Chinese tourists taking winter holidays.

Hainan was among the top 10 domestic destinations during this year's Spring Festival. The island received 5.67 million tourists during the holiday week, up 10 percent over last year.

A local government official who declined to be named revealed that the government did not have a plan for such severe traffic jams caused by multiple adverse conditions. Relevant departments had failed to test their capacity to handle such a large number of drivers.

The extraordinary gridlock also brought up an old topic that has troubled Hainan for a long time. Whether to build an undersea tunnel or a bridge over the Qiongzhou Strait?

Supporters think the link would boost the local economy, while the opponents argue that it will lead to more traffic jams on the island.

According to Gu Gang, executive vice mayor of Haikou, the city is considering setting up a ferry waiting area in the suburbs to avoid the gridlock in the future."Like the bamboo tree, bend but do not break."



This is how Li Bei, 39, a police officer in Loudi, Hunan province, describes herself.

During her 18 years on the front line of crime-fighting, Li has captured drug smugglers on the China-Myanmar border, arrested a murderer of 13 victims and rescued a bleeding criminal with AIDS at the risk of infecting herself.

It's hard to imagine Li, who has a petite figure, fair skin and a dimpled grin, serving as a SWAT officer.

In August 2010, a woman was about to kill herself by jumping from a 13-story building in downtown Loudi. After about an hour of discussions, the woman agreed that Li could approach her alone and hand her a pen and paper to write her address.

Li sat beside her on the edge of the 50-meter-high roof, where they talked so she could gain the woman's trust.

"I glanced down. It was crowded with people. I was scared at that time. I did not want to lose my life," Li recalled. She returned to a safe area after failing to convince the woman she should accept help.

The standstill lasted three hours, and Li decided to risk it again and approached the woman.

When Li tried to lead the woman to a safe area, she ran toward the ledge. But Li held the woman's waist and brought her to the ground.

"Life and death are just a moment apart," said Li, whose parents were police officers. She always remembers her father's words: "No matter how time changes, responsible and practical people are always needed."

In 1999, when the killer of 13 people escaped to Loudi, Li immediately went to the train station with her colleagues and captured the murderershe was the only female officer.

In 2000, Li and her colleagues took up smoking and drinking to better disguise themselves as drug buyers in a trafficking case.

After less than half a month, they detained 13 traffickers on the China-Myanmar border, which destroyed the drug chain between Loudi, Yunnan province, and Myanmar.

Li was a delegate to 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Since returning from Beijing, she has devoted herself to conveying the spirit of the congress to her fellow Party members in Loudi.

She said she was improving herself and gaining new knowledge as she delivered speeches to others. "I feel touched when all the Party members applaud for me," she said.Three senior officials, including the former governor of Fujian province, Su Shulin, have been charged with bribery, the top procuratorate said on Friday.

Su was charged with bribery and abuse of power, according to a release from the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Su was also former deputy secretary of the Fujian Committee of the Communist Party of China and general manager of Sinopec, China's leading oil company.

The indictment was delivered to the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai by the second branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate, the SPP said.

Su took advantage of his posts to seek profits for others and accepted a large amount of property, it said. He was accused of abusing his power as general manager of Sinopec in the purchase of oilfields, causing great losses to the national interest, according to the release.

Lu Enguang, former head of the political division of the Ministry of Justice, was charged with offering bribes and with corporate bribery, the SPP said. The indictment was delivered to the Intermediate People's Court of Anyang, Henan province, by the Anyang people's procuratorate.

Lu is accused of offering significant amounts of money and gifts to officials to secure benefits for himself and the companies under his control, the release said.

Also, Wang Yincheng, former president of the People's Insurance Company of China, a State-owned enterprise, has been charged with taking bribes, the SPP said.

Wang had used his leading positions at the company to secure large bribes from others and to seek illegal benefits for the bribers, the release said.

The indictment was delivered to the Intermediate People's Court in Fuzhou, Fujian province, by the Fuzhou People's Procuratorate, according to the SPP.

An earlier statement from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft watchdog, accused Wang of engaging in "superstitious" activities and leading an extravagant lifestyle.

The prosecutors have informed all three defendants of their litigation rights and listened to their lawyers' opinions, according to the SPP.

Also on Friday, local discipline authorities in Hubei province announced a probe of Li Zhong, vice-mayor of Wuhan, the provincial capital. Li is suspected of serious violations of disciplines and laws. No details were released.What would you do if you won a lottery of 5 million yuan (around 790,000 USD)?

A 28-year-old man from Jinjiang, in southeast China's Fujian province, thought he'd won big when the numbers were called for a special lottery prize draw.

Cover News reports that the man, surnamed Liu, spent all his savings and maxed out his credit card in one massive night with his friends to celebrate his win. It was already too late when he discovered his mistake: he misremembered his numbers. He only won 500 yuan.

Feeling greatly disappointed, and humiliated in front of his friends, Liu intended to commit suicide, according to the Cover News report. After talking to his girlfriend about ways to commit suicide, his girlfriend called the police for help.

The police found the man in his apartment crying and distressed. He was taken into protective custody at a local police station.

Liu has since been released after recovering from the shock of his expensive mistake.Mr Gille Willie from Malekula with a solar system offered to people with disability under special arrangement by PCS Limited.Second volume of Xi Jinping's The Governance of China [Photo/Xinhua]





For anyone aiming to seriously study China's present and future policies, the second volume of Xi Jinping's The Governance of China, together with its companion earlier volume, is by far the best place to start.

The reason is clear: why read those who are merely interpreting what is happening when it's possible to directly read the analyses of the key person determining the decisions?

China's Foreign Languages Press, therefore, is making a big contribution to international understanding of China by publishing this volume in a timely manner  it brings together Xi Jinping's speeches up to September 2017.

This removes any excuse for non-Chinese writers to spend time merely reading foreign assessments of China without studying the country's own analysis. Chinese people would be astonished to know how many Western so-called "China experts" have never read any works of Deng Xiaoping or Mao Zedong, but, instead, only Western biographies or commentaries on them!

The fact that over 1,000 pages of Xi Jinping's speeches are now collected in English, and these have been widely bought and promoted internationally, means readers have ample opportunity to read the Chinese president's analyses, and anyone who has not done so evidently cannot be considered well informed on China.

As the latest volume covers 600 pages, it would be impossible to make a comprehensive review in the short space available here. The 17 sections range from rule of law, through culture, to the environment. Rather than skip over numerous topics in a superficial way it is better to concentrate on one, which may be taken as typical of the significance of the whole, and analyze its links to other sections of the book and to the previous volume of The Governance of China. As for those outside China, the country's primary impact will be through international relations and foreign policy, so this issue will be chosen for discussion.

A shared future for humanity

Xi Jinping's concept of a "shared future for humanity" outlined in this volume has always been the most intellectually-coherent analysis of global affairs  as will be shown. The new development, particularly since Xi's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2017 (contained in this volume), is that the big impact of its analysis is now admitted internationally even by those strongly in disagreement with China.

Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to President Trump, a clear opponent of China, stated starkly: "I think it'd be good if people compare Xi's speech at Davos and President Trump's speech in his inaugural."

Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, recently noted: "An important factor in persuading Mr Trump to attend the WEF was that the star of last year's Davos was China's President Xi Jinping. Mr Xi took the opportunity to position China as the champion of free trade, telling a delighted audience that 'pursuing protectionism is like locking yourself in a dark room'.'

U.S. National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, and Director of the U.S. National Economic Council Gary Cohn, meanwhile, jointly authored a Wall Street Journal article de facto attempting to set out an alternative to Xi Jinping's analysis.

Globalization

President Xi's endorsement of the fundamentals of globalization is unambiguous: "Economic globalization is a result of growing social productivity, and a natural outcome of scientific and technological progress." In consequence, "Economic globalization has greatly facilitated trade, investment, flow of people, and technological advances.

"Since the turn of the century 1.1 billion people have been lifted out of poverty, 1.9 billion people now have access to safe drinking water, 3.5 billion people have gained access to the internet, and the goal has been set to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. All this demonstrates that globalization is generally good.

'Of course, there are still problems, such as development disparity, governance dilemma, digital divide, and an equity deficit. But they are growing pains. We should face these problems squarely and tackle them. As we Chinese like to say: 'One should not stop eating for fear of choking'."

Economic roots of globalization

Such clear support of globalization in foreign policy is directly rooted in fundamental economic analysis. The first sentence of the founding work of modern economics, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, declares: "The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labor have been the effect of the division of labor."

The decisive advantage of such a division is that, by producers interacting in their productive activities, the resulting output and productivity is much greater than the sum of their individual efforts  as President Xi states it in popular fashion, in economics: "one plus one can be greater than two."

This economic reality destroys the concept that international relations are a "zero sum game." Instead of a "zero-sum" situation, both or indeed many sides, by engaging in division of labor, can all gain.

This, naturally, does not mean that there are no longer any conflicts between countries. However, it means they have a more fundamental common interest in that the prosperity of each state depends on an international division of labor  that is, the prosperity of each country depends on the activities of other countries. This creates the reality of an international community  a "common future for humanity."

China's foreign policy concept of "win-win" outcomes, as outlined in this volume, is therefore not warm words, but reflects this fundamental economic fact.

This economic reality, therefore, also provides an even firmer foundation for dealing with the common problems humanity faces, and therefore affecting its "shared future," than the fact that, as Xi Jinping put it in a recent speech to the dialogue of foreign political parties with the CPC, that all humanity necessarily has to share the same planet.

Certainly, numerous issues ranging from terrorism to climate change can only be tackled at an international level. Regarding the latter, for example, President Xi notes: "We should make our world clean and beautiful by pursuing green and low carbon development. Humanity must coexist with nature, which means any harm to nature will eventually come back to haunt humanity."

However, the international division of labor also means that the prosperity of each country is tied up with the development of other countries. This means different parts of the world are linked and therefore benefit or lose together  creating in a most direct economic sense a common destiny of humanity.

Diversity

This, however, immediately poses another question. A division of labor produces benefits not because those participating in it are the same, but because they are different. If they were the same, there would not be the same benefit. The division of labor in the modern world is necessarily international in scope  the age when even the largest national economies could be essentially self-contained is long past. As President Xi puts it: "In today's world, all countries are interdependent and share a common future."

This, therefore, creates a further pillar of Xi's concept of "a community of a shared future for humanity." Diversity is not a disadvantage, something to be feared, but it contributes to human development. As Xi puts it, citing China's classic History of the Three Kingdoms: "Delicious soup is made by combining different ingredients."

Diversity in human civilization not only defines our world, but also drives human progress. Civilizations are different, and only in identity and location. Diversity in civilizations should not be a source of global conflict; rather it should be a driver for progress.

Diverse civilizations should draw on each other to achieve common progress. Exchanges among them should become a source of inspiration for advancing human society and a bond that keeps the world in peace.

Instead of an attempt to impose uniformity, a single model considered "superior" to all others, and involving attempts to impose it on others, China's foreign policy precisely embraces the diversity of different countries.

President Xi directly draws conclusions from these fundamental concepts: "We should [] build a new model of international relations featuring mutually-beneficial cooperation, and create a community of a shared future for humanity. To achieve this goal, we need to make progress in the following areas:

"We should build partnerships in which countries treat each other as equals, engage in extensive consultation, and enhance mutual understanding. The principle of sovereign equality underpins theCharter of the United Nations. The future of the world must be shaped by all countries.

"All countries are equal. The large, the strong, and the rich, should not abuse the small, the weak and the poor. The principle of sovereignty is not just embodied in the inviolability of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. It is also embodied in the right of all countries to make their own choice of social system and development path."

In short, the fundamental and interrelated concepts in Xi Jinping's analysis are the mutual advantages of an international division of labor on which modern prosperity is based, therefore indeed providing a shared destiny of humanity, recognition of diversity, and equality of countries.

The alternative

To understand the profundity of Xi Jinping analysis, it is worth contrasting it with the main alternative being promoted internationally. In what was really an attempt to reply to Xi Jinping's Davos speech, U.S. National Security Adviser McMaster and Director of the National Economic Council Cohn jointly authored a Wall Street Journal article, which could not have appeared without sanction from the highest authority in the land.

In this they proclaimed: "The world is not a 'global community' but an arena where nations, non-governmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage." Or, as they put it drawing the practical conclusion: "America First signals the restoration of American leadership." This, therefore, is a profoundly unequal concept of international relations  in its most grotesque form expressed in vulgar references to "s**thole countries."

Xi Jinping's concepts on foreign policy in this book are the most advanced of any major political leader in the world. There is, bluntly, no work by a Western leader that is its equal. Because it is an integrated concept, ranging from economic foundations to direct conclusions on relations between countries, it is capable of providing a firm long-term basis for China's foreign policy in a way that corresponds to the interests of other countries.

China's foreign policy, therefore, does not consist of a series of unconnected initiatives but has a coherent underlying approach and strategy as set out in this volume.

It is worth buying the book just to read the section on foreign policy. However, as already noted, there are numerous other sections each of which provides the best starting point for understanding China's policy.

John Ross, Senior Fellow, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/johnross.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.You are here: Travel

 Flash





Tourists from across China tread 68 countries and regions during the week-long Spring Festival Holiday, and Southeast Asia has the lion's share among them.





The tourism industry revenue hit the 475-billion-yuan mark ($75 billion), an increase of 12.6 percent from last year.





About 386 million trips were consummated by tourists during the week-long break, up 12.1 percent from last year's figure, according to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).





The list of most popular tourist attractions among the provincial regions includes Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Shandong, Guangxi, Hubei, and Zhejiang.





The typical tourist's expenditure averaged approximately 6000 yuan ($156), according to LY.com, one of China's leading travel websites.



 Flash

Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pleaded guilty to charges of federal conspiracy and false statements on Friday in the ongoing Trump-Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, appeared at the federal courthouse in Washington for a plea agreement hearing Friday afternoon.

According to a court filing revealed earlier in the day, Gates pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators.

Gates' plea comes a day after he and his longtime business associate, Paul Manafort, were indicted in Virginia on new charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort was the former Trump campaign chief, and Gates was a former campaign aide.

The pair were accused of laundering US$30 million, failing to pay taxes for nearly 10 years and using their real estate to fraudulently secure millions of dollars in loans, according to a 32-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday.

Thursday's indictment was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were among the first to be charged, as part of a Mueller-led investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

They were charged last October with money laundering, conspiracy and other offenses in a federal court in Washington. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

In a statement following Gates' decision, Manafort said that he continues to maintain his "innocence" and Gates' plea would not alter his commitment to defend himself against "the untrue piled up charges."

Gates' plea marked the fifth known to the public in Mueller's investigation and came a week after a federal grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Analysts said that Gates' plea could be a signal that he's willing to cooperate with the special counsel and could provide insight into the inner workings of the Trump campaign and transition at moments crucial to Mueller's investigation.

However, neither the October indictment against Gates and Manafort nor the additional charges included allegations of collusion with Russia as part of the Trump campaign. Those charges are related to money from their lobbying work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin while describing the Russia probe as a "hoax" and a "witch hunt."

He has also argued that the charges against Gates and Manafort were related to events that took place long before they joined his campaign.

Russia has denied meddling in the U.S. presidential election. Flash

The Dutch parliament recognized the Armenian genocide by majority on Thursday evening, but the government will not follow this recognition, said caretaking Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigrid Kaag.

Last week, the Dutch parliament already announced its intention to recognize the Armenian genocide after ChristenUnie (Christian Union) MP Joel Voordewind had proposed a motion to do so. A large majority of the House of Representatives voted in favor, which was the first time for the Dutch parliament.

In 2004, the House of Representatives also supported a similar motion, but at that time it did not vote to call the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One the Armenian genocide so explicitly.

The three MPs of migrant-party Denk, with a large input of Dutch Turks, were the only opponents of the recognition on Thursday.

According to Denk MP Tunahan Kuzu, history is too one-sidedly explained. Kuzu stated that due to the recognition groups of people are being set up against each other and that the tensions will also rise in the Netherlands.

As in 2004, the government will not speak out on whether it was a genocide, emphasized Kaag.

Although the House of Representatives recognized the Armenian genocide, the government continues to talk about "the issue of the Armenian genocide". She stressed that there is no binding UN Security Council resolution that speaks of the Armenian genocide, nor a verdict by an international court.

The exact name of the mass killing of Armenians has been a sensitive subject for years. Turkey denies it was genocide and has strong objections to the use of the term genocide.

According to Kaag, the government wants to be cautious about applying the term genocide. "But it remains very clear to the government that a large-scale massacre has taken place," she added.

According to the majority of the House of Representatives, recognition is a first step towards reconciliation.

"If we do not remove the sorrow from the past, we will never get to the desired reconciliation, and the conflict between Turkey and Armenia will never disappear", said D66 (Democrats) MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma during the debate on Thursday.

Kaag added that she will send a member of the government to the 103rd anniversary commemoration of the Armenian genocide on April 22 this year in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

This will be done for the first time and thereafter the plan is to send such a high diplomate every five years. Who will be present at the commemoration is not yet known. Previously, the Netherlands was present at the commemoration with only an ambassador or an MP.

"With this presence, the government shows respect for all victims and surviving relatives of all murders of minorities," the minister said during the debate.

According to Voordewind, the initiator of the motion, the presence of the cabinet at the commemoration is a big step forward. "We house the capital of international law, and we have to make clear statements about things that really go wrong in the world," he said.

The question is what the recognition by the parliament will do to the tensions between the Netherlands and Turkey. These tensions rose to a peak in March last year when the Dutch cabinet refused to let Turkish governors to campaign in the Netherlands for a "yes" in a Turkish constitutional referendum. As a result of the diplomatic tensions with Turkey, the Netherlands has not had an ambassador in the country since that time.

"We strongly condemn the decisions of the Dutch House of Representatives recognizing the events of 1915 as genocide," the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release. "The baseless decisions of the House of Representatives ... are neither legally binding nor have any validity."

However, the Turkish Ministry also stated to have taken note of the Dutch government's statement that "it will not follow the House in its assessment recognizing the 1915 events as genocide and that being represented at a commemoration ceremony in Yerevan would not imply recognition of the events as genocide". Flash

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said he will be sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to search for schoolgirls who were declared missing after suspected Boko Haram terror group attacked their college in the northeastern state of Yobe last Monday.

In a statement, Buhari assured the families of the missing students from the Government Girls Technical College in Dapchi area of Yobe that no effort will be spared to bring succor to them, as troops will be mandated to "keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found."

On Thursday, the Nigerian government said it was not yet sure of the number of the missing girls and pleaded for more time to assess the situation.

Buhari described the incident as a "national disaster," saying "the entire country stands as one with the girls' families."

The tragedy of the missing girls has brought back memories of a similar occurrence four years ago in Africa's most populous country when more than 200 schoolgirls, also from an all-girl college, were abducted by Boko Haram in the northeastern town of Chibok.

According to officials, at least 46 students are still unaccounted for following Monday night's attack. Other reports put the figure at 13.

Over 94 students were missing at first. But the state government said 28 returned late Tuesday and 20 more came back early Wednesday.

Police and local officials said there was no evidence that the girls had been abducted but the Yobe government suspected that some of the students are in Boko Haram's captivity.

A local teacher said as Boko Haram outlaws went into students' dormitories, many of the girls jumped over the fence and escaped into the bushes.

Some of the girls who had returned told the school authorities that they were rescued by villagers from the bushes.

The outlawed Boko Haram group has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria. They have killed some 20,000 people and displaced millions of others.Country

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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349The first Chinese charter-flight tour group arrived in Tunisia on Tuesday, as the North African country looks to attract more visitors from the world's largest tourist market.

The tour route for the group of 165 covers Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, and was organized by China Youth Tourism Service, one of the biggest tour operators in China.

Song Chenxi, a tour group member who lives in Beijing, said she was impressed by the "half sea, half desert" aspect of her first trip to Tunisia in 2012, which prompted her to take her husband on a second visit to the North African country.Local police arrested a murder suspect who allegedly killed a father of two daughters in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, police said on Thursday.

The suspect, surnamed Meng, is believed to have attacked the victim Li with an ax in Li's home at about 4 pm on Feb 18 in Tuquan county. Li was sent to hospital but died on Feb 19. Meng called the police after the incident and turned himself in, according to a statement by Tuquan police.

Li's older daughter, Li Jinhua, is a graduate student at Communication University of China in Beijing. She posted an article on Wednesday on WeChat in memory of her father and made accusations against the suspect, which triggered a heated discussion online. According to the article, the suspect visited her home during the Spring Festival, which was normal for villagers in rural China. The suspect entered the house and hit her father with an ax. She and her sister were also attacked. Her mother passed out when she heard the noise and entered the room, then witnessed her husband on the floor covered with blood. After the incident, the suspect posted on the village's WeChat group, "I cut Li Changyin. He should be dead".Reports about China that Jesuit missionaries sent home had a profound influence in court and intellectual circles of Europe

In 1658 Martino Martini, an Italian Jesuit missionary who had spent time in China, published in Munich one of his four influential books about the country. Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima tells the history of China starting from antiquity and ending at 1BC, a year that falls under the reign of Emperor Aidi of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24).

Trying to incorporate Chinese history into the system and chronology of European history telling, Martini, who was preoccupied with converting people, failed to gauge the impact his works would have on intellectuals in the West.Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich thinks there is a bigger threat to Christianity than terrorist groups. He said an atheist and secular philosophy was more dangerous than the al-Qaida or the Islamic State.

Gingrich was giving a speech at a lawyers' event at the Ritz-Carlton over the weekend when he mentioned the rise of atheism and secularism in America and other Western societies. He implored his audience, which was comprised of about 300 members from the Ave Maria School of Law, to become the "centers of resistance" of this new threat.

The Republican further cited that secularism was the dominant tone at many American universities, school publishing mediums and in Hollywood. Religious institutions must then work together against this radical way of thinking.

Gingrich said: "Either the radical secularists will succeed in controlling the government and driving religion out of American life or the people who believe in faith will succeed in controlling government and insist that you cannot impose radical values on American people."

For Grinch, only one side will prevail between two beliefs, as the factions can never assimilate. He has complete faith, however, that religion will win.

"We're not going to give up on America," the former Speaker said. "We're not going to give up on God."

Gingrich grew up as a Lutheran but converted to Catholicism in 2009 following his marriage to Callista Bisek, who is Catholic. His wife currently serves as the ambassador to the Vatican as appointed by President Donald Trump.

The politician, who became the representative of Georgia for 20 years, ran for president and lost to President Barack Obama in 2012. He is one of Trump's staunch supporters who believe that the country is moving in the right direction under the latter's leadership.

Gingrich is no longer active in politics but he served as Trump's consultant during his election campaign. He sometimes works as a TV commentator for FOX.Johnny Galecki, one of the stars of the top-rating series "Big Bang Theory," has a new show on television. "Living Biblically" is also a comedy but Galecki works behind the scenes as its executive producer.

The actor, who is Catholic, told a press panel that he made the conscious decision to produce a comedy series about faith when he formed his own company. Galecki learned that this niche had been underrepresented on television, and he hoped the show would spark conversations about faith, religion and the Bible.

"One of the biggest hurdles is the fear to have the conversation about [religion]," the actor said. "The best way to approach [a topic] that people may be uncomfortable with it is with comedy."

Galecki also revealed that while he was not staunchly religious in his youth, he spent his childhood singing songs of faith. Catholic influences were a huge part of his life growing up as his mother actually stayed in a convent before she married his father.

Patrick Walsh created "Living Biblically" for CBS, which stars Jay R. Ferguson as a man named Chip Curry who wants to turn his life around by following the Good Word. The showrunner spoke with America Magazine and stated he chose to write a comedy rather than a drama about faith for one reason.

"For me, I think laughter is a great uniter, it brings people together," Walsh said. "It's a very confusing time in America; there's a lot of fighting going on. I think a lot of people feel lost."

The writers of "Living Biblically" have religious consultants on the set to ensure that they expound on the teachings of the Bible in the episodes properly. Galecki and Walsh both said that the show would be respectful and grounded, and everyone working on the series was committed to exercising care so that they would not offend viewers.

"Living Biblically" premieres on Monday, Feb. 26, at 9:30 p.m. EST on CBS.In 2020, we were the church on our heels. A global pandemic shut down much of our world. But the church has been on the move since it was birthed; it will continue to be on the move until God makes all things new.After almost 2,000 years of attacks from without and within, the fact that the church continues to not just survive, but thrive is nothing short of a miracle.

Leading A Church Through Difficult Times: A Lesson From The Most Bombed Hotel In The World

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Leading a church is often a lesson in managing and overcoming frustration. Hopefully not all the time. But there are those seasons...

This week Ive learned a great lesson about triumphing over extreme difficulty and frustration from a very unlikely source  a hotel my wife and I are staying at thats known as The Most Bombed Hotel In The World.

Leading a church is often a lesson in managing and overcoming frustration.

If you Google that phrase (or click here where Ive done it for you), youll read about the Hotel Europa. Were staying here courtesy of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland who weve come to encourage this week.

Thankfully, the hotel hasnt been bombed since 1994, so were very safe here. Its a beautiful building in the heart of downtown Belfast, and its an unexpected blessing to stay in such a nice hotel. Plus, I got to learn something new.

First, let me give you a little history of this hotel, then Ill share what it can teach us about managing difficulties as church leaders.

Europa: A Short History

The Europa Hotel was built in 1970 and opened in 1971. It suffered its first bombing while under construction.

Over the next 24 years, during what the Irish call the Troubles, it was bombed 32 more times, mostly in the 1970s and early 80s.

The reason they bombed this hotel so much? Because it was where journalists who covered The Troubles stayed, so they knew it would make the news.

In researching the history of this hotel (where I sit as a write this article) I learned there are three possible ways to deal with chronic attacks. And I believe they apply as much to emotional and spiritual attacks as they do to actual physical bombings.

(This is in no way meant to diminish the horror of dealing with actual bombs, of course. However, it is important to note than in all those attacks not one person was killed or seriously injured, which makes me feel better about using this story as an example.)

Option 1: Close it down

A recent article in The Irish Times about the Europa begins with this sentence. Its nothing short of a miracle that the Europa Hotel in Belfast is still standing.

No kidding.

The same could be said for the church. After almost 2,000 years of attacks from without and within, the fact that the church continues to not just survive, but thrive is nothing short of a miracle.

Jesus said hed build his church. And despite everything that has been done to stop it, the church will never die.The evangelist partnered with John Stott on the Lausanne Movement and helped revive the World Evangelical Alliance.

|

Image: BGEA

Billy Graham addresses the first Lausanne gathering.

In 1974, Billy Graham convened an enormous conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.

I traveled the whole world meeting such wonderful leaders, Graham later told Lausanne global executive director Michael Oh. But I found that they didnt know each other.

Graham wanted to assess the way political, ideological, and theological world issues affected evangelism, and to bring evangelical leaders to a common vision for both evangelism and social justice. He invited about 2,400 evangelical leaders from 150 countries.

The meeting turned out to be outrageously important. Not only did the participants make up possibly the widest-ranging meeting of Christians ever held and signal the rising strength of conservative Christians worldwide, it also delivered unity on the most divisive issue of the daywhether social justice should be as highly prioritized as evangelism.

And it kicked off the Lausanne Movement.

No one else did as much to turn evangelicalism into an international movement that could stand alongsideand ultimately challengeboth the Vatican and the liberal World Council of Churches for the mantle of global Christian leadership, wrote George Washington University professor Melani McAlister for TheAtlantic. Her forthcoming book is The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals.

He used his status as the most important religious figure of the 20th century to help lead American evangelicals into a more robust engagement with the rest of the world, she wrote.

In some ways, the first Lausanne conference was the culmination of a meeting 20 years earlier, when Graham was first introduced to British evangelist John Stott at Cambridge University.

The two became close friends during a mission at the school.

The first time I visited Billy at his old log home with Leighton [Ford], the very first thing Billy asked me was Hows John? remembered Doug Birdsall, honorary co-chair of the Lausanne Movement. This should not have surprised me because just a year earlier when I first met John Stott in London on Lausanne-related matters, his first question had been, Hows Billy?

Stott was among the small group of leaders Graham gathered in Montreaux, Switzerland, in 1960 to mull over how to unite evangelicals globally. The answer: Gather around evangelism, the only word that would unite them, Graham decided.

Out of the Montreaux meetings grew the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism, which drew 700 participants, including Stott.

And out of the 1966 Congress grew the Lausanne Congress, organized and funded almost entirely by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham and Stott both spoke, emphasizing the urgency of evangelism and addressing the argument over whether evangelism should be valued more highly than social justice issues.

They did it: Graham as the indispensable convener, and Stott as the indispensable uniter. The Lausanne Covenant brokered peace between the two sides (we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty) and gave walking orders for future partnerships in evangelism.

The Congress also gave walking orders to a Continuation Committee, which included both Stott and Graham and met in Mexico City in 1975. There, the Lausanne Movement was fleshed out, with Grahams brother-in-law Leighton Ford elected as chairman in 1976.

At the same time, Graham was supporting a global outlook at the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).

The week after the Lausanne Congress, in which the WEA was heavily involved, Graham took time to attend the WEA General Assembly nearby at Chateau d'Oex, the WEA stated. It wasnt the first time hed given input: in 1968, at a time when the WEA needed added impetus, he stepped in and provided resources for the relaunch and internationalization of the work.

Expanding evangelism to the entire world was immensely important to Graham. In one interview, he told Newsweek that the outcome of the 1974 Lausanne Congress may have been his most enduring legacy.

Fifteen years later, a second Lausanne Congress was held in Manila, Philippines; about two decades after that, a third was held in Cape Town, South Africa.

The world has changed greatly since the first Congress, Graham told the Cape Town attendees via fax. But in all your deliberations, I pray you may never forget that some things have not changed in the last 36 yearsnor will they ever change until our Lord returns.

Those are the deepest needs of the human heart, the gospel, and Jesus command to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel, he stated.

The numbers bear him out. While there was disagreement on the use of alcohol or how literal the Bible is, nearly all of the Cape Town leaders told the Pew Research Center that Christianity is the one, true faith leading to eternal life (96%) and that the Bible is the Word of God (98%).

When Blair Carlson, who directed the Third Lausanne Congress, met with Graham to report how it went, he began with the program, the speakers, and the numbers.

Mr. Graham interrupted me and said, Just tell me, are the Congress participants telling the people in their countries about the Lord Jesus Christ?

The numbers again bear him out. A 2011 Pew study found that of the nearly 2.2 billion Christians in the world, no one place has a majority.

Christians are so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity, Pew stated.

No small part of that can be credited to Graham, who preached to some 215 million people in 185 countries and territories. His largest live crusade was to 1 million people in Seoul, South Korea, and he inspired tens of thousands to come to Christ in Hong Kong. He was anti-communist, but visited both North Korea and Russia in attempts at opening doors for peace.

Christ belongs to all people, Graham preached in Johannesburg in 1973. He belongs to the whole world.  I reject any creed based on hate  Christianity is not a white mans religion, and dont let anybody ever tell you that its white or black.Faith and Family Groups Join Santa Ana Community in Opposing Drag Queen Storytime and LGBTQ+ Youth Fair MEDIA ADVISORY



Orange County Family Action PAC and Advocates for Faith & Freedom, Santa Ana Join Community in Press Conference to Oppose Drag Queen Storytime and LGBTQ+ Youth Fair at Santa Ana Library



Contact: Desare Ferraro, 714-348-0808 (weekdays, evenings & weekends)



SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2018 /



The first of its kind to be held in Orange County, two local drag performers, Kunda Couture and Isabella Xochitl, will read stories to children of all ages in both English and Spanish. Funded through a library grant from the state, this free event takes place at noon the same day as the press conference.



As advertised in both languages, "The drag performers will answer questions about the importance of educating the community about LGBTQ+ and drag culture. The LGBTQ+ Youth Resource Fair will also feature special drag queen-inspired crafts." The City's director over parks and recreation states that the drag performers "will be reading/performing children's books that focus on topics of kindness, tolerance and compassion, universal themes that resonate with all ages."



Upon hearing of the children's event, local church and community leaders shared several concerns with library officials including the sexual nature represented by drag queens in today's culture and the concern that the presentation will be inappropriate for children. Furthermore, the drag queen event is offensive to a vast majority of religious groups (Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Evangelical Christians, Mormons, Catholics) who also feel that the public library should be a safe place for all children.



Despite efforts made to ask the library to cancel or postpone this event until a community discussion about the issue can take place in a more thorough manner with all aspects of the city, including clergy, library staff, city officials, homeless advocates, LGBTQ advocates, and parents and doctors, the library insists on going ahead with the Drag Queen Storytime event.



Star Parker, Founder and President of Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), and Orange County resident shared, "Under the guise of 'celebrating diversity' the library is promoting a lifestyle without providing scientific data of the dangers of transgenderism. Santa Ana families do not want their kids to be unknowingly exposed to these issues."



Kim Bengard, president of the Family Action PAC asks, "Why would the state grant money to Santa Ana Public Library for drag queens to talk to children about kindness, compassion and tolerance? Why not invite a member of the clergy, city council member, firefighter or police officer to talk about those things? A man dressed as a woman sends a confusing message about healthy sexuality. We want to protect our children from exposure to adult topics not use them to advance agendas."



When asked why he disapproves of the drag queen event, Bishop Gale Oliver, Greater Light Family Church, Santa Ana, said, "Some topics are too mature and overwhelming for a child that is still operating in its stage of innocence. Let's allow our children to be children and not burden them with adult matters."



Pastor Refugio Sanchez, Santa Ana Free Methodist Church explains it this way, "Because we don't need someone else to teach our children in the wrong way of creation, we will stand and teach them according to our morals and bible values."



Community leaders are also concerned with where this genderless movement is heading. Advocates for Faith & Freedom's constitutional attorney Robert Tyler warns, "Eliminating gender norms has led to the confusion we now see in Delaware where the Board of Education has proposed a new regulation that will not only allow students to choose their own gender, but also their own race. This 'anything-goes mentality' turns civil rights laws on their head. A white student will soon be able to apply for scholarships designated for minority students simply by claiming to be a different race."



Here is a link to the Santa Ana website advertising the drag queen event:

newsantaana.com/2018/02/08/drag-queens-storytime-and-lgbtq-youth-fair-set-for-2-24-at-the-santa-ana-library/.



Family Action PAC based in Orange County is a California organization that supports qualified leaders who will advance a culture in which human life and family are valued, personal responsibility is encouraged and liberty thrives.



Advocates for Faith & Freedom is a non-profit law firm that engages in cases that uphold religious liberty and America's heritage and educates Americans about our fundamental constitutional rights.



Share Tweet Contact: Desare Ferraro, 714-348-0808 (weekdays, evenings & weekends)SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- On Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 11:00 AM, pastors and other pro-family organizations will join Santa Ana church and community leaders at the front entrance to the Santa Ana Public Library (W. Civic Center Drive), 26 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA, to hold a press conference in opposition to the library's special event, Forest of the Enchanted Drag Queens: All Ages Storytime and LGBTQ+ Youth Resource Fair.The first of its kind to be held in Orange County, two local drag performers, Kunda Couture and Isabella Xochitl, will read stories to children of all ages in both English and Spanish. Funded through a library grant from the state, this free event takes place at noon the same day as the press conference.As advertised in both languages, "The drag performers will answer questions about the importance of educating the community about LGBTQ+ and drag culture. The LGBTQ+ Youth Resource Fair will also feature special drag queen-inspired crafts." The City's director over parks and recreation states that the drag performers "will be reading/performing children's books that focus on topics of kindness, tolerance and compassion, universal themes that resonate with all ages."Upon hearing of the children's event, local church and community leaders shared several concerns with library officials including the sexual nature represented by drag queens in today's culture and the concern that the presentation will be inappropriate for children. Furthermore, the drag queen event is offensive to a vast majority of religious groups (Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Evangelical Christians, Mormons, Catholics) who also feel that the public library should be a safe place for all children.Despite efforts made to ask the library to cancel or postpone this event until a community discussion about the issue can take place in a more thorough manner with all aspects of the city, including clergy, library staff, city officials, homeless advocates, LGBTQ advocates, and parents and doctors, the library insists on going ahead with the Drag Queen Storytime event.Star Parker, Founder and President of Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), and Orange County resident shared, "Under the guise of 'celebrating diversity' the library is promoting a lifestyle without providing scientific data of the dangers of transgenderism. Santa Ana families do not want their kids to be unknowingly exposed to these issues."Kim Bengard, president of the Family Action PAC asks, "Why would the state grant money to Santa Ana Public Library for drag queens to talk to children about kindness, compassion and tolerance? Why not invite a member of the clergy, city council member, firefighter or police officer to talk about those things? A man dressed as a woman sends a confusing message about healthy sexuality. We want to protect our children from exposure to adult topics not use them to advance agendas."When asked why he disapproves of the drag queen event, Bishop Gale Oliver, Greater Light Family Church, Santa Ana, said, "Some topics are too mature and overwhelming for a child that is still operating in its stage of innocence. Let's allow our children to be children and not burden them with adult matters."Pastor Refugio Sanchez, Santa Ana Free Methodist Church explains it this way, "Because we don't need someone else to teach our children in the wrong way of creation, we will stand and teach them according to our morals and bible values."Community leaders are also concerned with where this genderless movement is heading. Advocates for Faith & Freedom's constitutional attorney Robert Tyler warns, "Eliminating gender norms has led to the confusion we now see in Delaware where the Board of Education has proposed a new regulation that will not only allow students to choose their own gender, but also their own race. This 'anything-goes mentality' turns civil rights laws on their head. A white student will soon be able to apply for scholarships designated for minority students simply by claiming to be a different race."Here is a link to the Santa Ana website advertising the drag queen event:Family Action PAC based in Orange County is a California organization that supports qualified leaders who will advance a culture in which human life and family are valued, personal responsibility is encouraged and liberty thrives.Advocates for Faith & Freedom is a non-profit law firm that engages in cases that uphold religious liberty and America's heritage and educates Americans about our fundamental constitutional rights. www.faith-freedom.comWe're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formSUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio - Melting snow and steady rain means water levels in rivers and streams are on the rise, and waterfalls in and around Summit County are surging.

Some waterfalls in the area are widely known, while others don't even have official names or established trails leading to them, part of a strategic effort to help protect surrounding habitats, according to Cuyahoga Valley National Park Community Engagement Supervisor Pam Barnes.



Here are seven worth seeing, even if only in photos.



Brandywine Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Erik Drost, Creative Commons 2.0 Generic

One of the most well-known waterfalls in Summit County, Brandywine Falls is a 65-foot high waterfall fed by Brandywine Creek. The thin layers of shale that make up the falls give it a bridal-veil appearance. The falls can be viewed any time of year from upper and lower boardwalks, although boardwalks are closed during icy conditions.



Parking for Brandywine Falls is available at 8176 Brandywine Rd., Sagamore Hills, which is adjacent to the falls.



Blue Hen Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Blimoco, Creative Commons 2.0 Generic

Located just outside of Summit County lies Cuyahoga Valley National Park's Blue Hen Falls. The 18-foot high falls are fed by Spring Creek and can be viewed any time of year.

The falls are accessible via the half-mile Blue Hen Falls Trail. The trail begins on the north side of the parking lot at 2001 Boston Mills Rd., Brecksville. The trail heads north -- leading hikers down an old driveway and across Spring Creek via a bridge. After the bridge, the Buckeye Trail splits off to the left, but hikers should continue along the Blue Hen Falls Trail, which veers to the right, to reach the falls.

"Buttermilk Falls," Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Megan Becka/special to cleveland.com

While the name of this tucked-away waterfall isn't official, it's certainly appropriate because of the 20-foot high falls' milky-white appearance, caused by water flowing over thousands of layers of shale.

"Buttermilk Falls" is located downstream from Blue Hen Falls but isn't accessible via an established trail.

"Twin Sisters Falls," Cuyahoga Valley National Park



Mady Stoner

At 70-feet high, the dual waterfalls dubbed "Twin Sisters" by locals are two of the lesser-known waterfalls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, primarily because no established trail leads to the falls, making them difficult to access.

Winter and spring are great times to view these falls, according to Wanderlust in Ohio blogger and photographer Mady Stoner.



"When the temperature drops low enough, the falls freeze and it's really something cool to see. Winter is also great because when it freezes, then begins to thaw, the water flow is pretty strong. The only downside is you're almost guaranteed to get muddy or wet, as there is no true 'trail' that leads you there," Stoner said.

These falls are located near the Station Road Bridge Trailhead in Brecksville.

"Greenwood Falls," Cuyahoga Valley National Park



Mady Stoner

Located on the eastern edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and south of "Twin Sisters Falls," the falls known locally as "Greenwood Falls" are 17-feet high and resemble "Buttermilk Falls" because of the many layers of shale that the flowing water cascades over.

These falls are located near the Station Road Bridge Trailhead in Brecksville, but are not accessible via an established trail.

"Contour/Sulfur Falls," Cuyahoga Valley National Park



Mady Stoner

The 40-foot tall falls, called either "Contour Falls" or "Sulfur Falls" unofficially, are one of the most interesting falls in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park because of their curvy shape, according to Stoner.

These falls dry up in the summer time, and are very difficult to reach as they are not accessible via an established trail, according to Stoner. They are located near the Station Road Bridge Trailhead in Brecksville.

Little Falls, Cuyahoga Falls



Sheraton Suites Akron/Cuyahoga Falls

Tucked away in downtown Cuyahoga Falls lies the 25-foot high Little Falls. These falls, fed by the Cuyahoga River, are difficult to view close up (a highway is on one side of the gorge and the Sheraton is on the other side), but can be seen downriver via an old bridge at the end of Prospect Ave., according to Go Waterfalling.

The Little Falls can be seen any time of year. To get a closer look, check out the picturesque Beau's on the River, located inside the Sheraton, at 1989 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through FridayAKRON, Ohio -- A 7-year-old girl and two women were shot while sitting inside of a car Friday afternoon, police say.

The 22-year-old woman, 19-year-old woman and girl were hurt in the shooting that happened about 4:45 p.m. on Hamlin Street near Wildwood Avenue, police said.

The three were inside of the car when shots were fired from a passing vehicle, police said.

Two of them suffered non-life threatening injuries, police said. One of them is in serious condition, police said.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call Akron police's detective bureau at 330-375-2490.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County has agreed to pay $4.5 million to three East Cleveland men who served two decades in prison for murder convictions that were later overturned.

The settlement will resolve claims of wrongdoing made by Laurese Glover, Eugene Johnson and Derrick Wheatt against the county and former county prosecutors Carmen Marino and Deborah Naiman.

The three men were convicted in the 1995 death of Clifton Hudson and were released from prison in 2015 when a judge granted new trials based on new information.

The proposed settlement is the product of negotiations that have taken place over the past few weeks. It will only cover claims made against the county, Marino and Naiman, according to Prosecutor's Office spokesman Ryan Miday. It will not resolve claims the trio made against East Cleveland and its detectives.

The County Council is expected to approve the settlement at a meeting Tuesday. If approved, each man will receive $1.5 million.

The county's settlement prevents what could have been an even larger verdict should the case have gone to trial along with the East Cleveland defendants and lost.

"We are seeking Council's approval to settle these cases," Dave Lambert, chief of the Prosecutor's Office's civil division, said in an emailed statement Saturday. "We are doing so in order to put this long-running matter behind us, and to avoid running the unacceptable risk of taxpayers footing the bill for large verdicts against the county based upon the amount of time these plaintiffs spent in prison."

East Cleveland has been in financial straits for years and has struggled while defending itself against the trio's lawsuits. U.S. District Judge James Gwin sanctioned the city in November after Law Director Willa Hemmons suggested the three men depose a former police sergeant who was in a coma at the time, among other unavailable witnesses.

Hemmons did not return messages seeking comment.

Johnson and Wheatt, who are both 40, and 39-year-old Glover maintained their innocence during their time in prison.

Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo in 2015 ordered a new trial after lawyers working for the Ohio Innocence Project found evidence was suppressed at the original trial that threw into question the state's theory. Russo wrote that Marino "maliciously inserted himself into a criminal proceeding."

The trio's lawsuits say Marino and Naiman told East Cleveland police in 1998 to not release records relating to Hudson's death to the defendants, who by that point had been convicted, and instead told the department to send copies of the records to the Prosecutor's Office.

Records were not released until 2013, when Ohio Innocence Project attorneys again requested them.

Russo later dismissed the charges.

The trio's lawsuits were filed in February and March of last year. In addition to claims against Marino and Naiman, the men said East Cleveland detectives who investigated Hudson's shooting death manipulated witnesses and withheld information that could help exonerate the men.

The lawsuits were on a fast track toward a trial that was set to begin in December, but both the county and East Cleveland appealed Gwin's decisions to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

The 6th Circuit has not yet ruled.

Updated with a statement from the Prosecutor's Office's civil division chief and clarified that the settlement will only cover claims against the county.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Suspicion, Windsor Drive: An agent of Homeland Security reported Feb. 6 that a package had been intercepted from China and was found to contain fake identification cards. The agent said there was no interest in pursuing charges, but asked that officers contact those people involved, since the package was to be shipped to a resident in the city.

Officers contacted the parents of five teenagers, who had ordered the fake identification cards on the Internet, and advised them of the situation.

Traffic stop, SOM Center Road: A Mentor man, 51, was charged with receiving stolen property Feb. 12 after the license plates on his vehicle were found to belong to someone else. He was also cited for driving under suspension and use of illegal plates.

Theft, Mayfield Road: A Cleveland man, 19, was cited for theft at Walmart Feb. 12 after being suspected of stealing 31 items of merchandise, valued at a total of $232.

Harassment, Lander Road: A woman reported Feb. 11 that her ex-boyfriend has been leaving her harassing voice mail messages and also showed up at her home uninvited. She said she was recently charged with trespassing when she was at his Lakewood home and he told her he would show up when she goes to court to make sure she gets the maximum sentence.

Officers contacted the Lakewood man, 28, and advised him to stop all communication with the woman. They also advised the woman to avoid contact with the man.

Impaired driving, Interstate 271:

A Cleveland man, 41, was charged Feb. 11 with OVI, using weapons while intoxicated and failing to inform an officer he was in possession of a firearm.

Warrant served, Interstate 271: Officers checked on a vehicle on the side of the highway Feb. 9 and found a man in the vehicle with a one-year-old child, who was lying down on the back seat.

The man said the vehicle ran out of gas and his friend went to retrieve some. Officers located the man walking back to the vehicle and found he had an active warrant in the city.

The Cleveland Heights man, 27, was arrested on the warrant and cited for driving under suspension, not using child restraints and no operator's license.

Theft, Golden Gate Plaza: A woman reported Feb. 9 that her purse was stolen at JoAnn Fabrics after she set it down and forgot to retrieve it for a brief period. She suspected an unknown woman, who was in line behind her at the cutting station, may have taken it. Officers said they would check with management to see if surveillance video could confirm the theft.

Theft, Mayfield Road: An East Cleveland man, 63, failed to show a Walmart employee the receipt for a vacuum cleaner when he was leaving the store Feb. 8. Surveillance video confirmed the man had stolen the item. Employees were able to identify him due to previous thefts he had committed. A warrant has been issued for his arrest for taking the $199 item.

Disorderly conduct, Marsol Road: Officers responded to an apartment building at 5:04 a.m. Feb. 8 after a woman reported that her boyfriend had assaulted her and would not let her leave. The man told officers he was concerned because she wanted to leave with a child, but she was drunk. The man and woman both had physical marks on their bodies, but neither wished to pursue charges.

Fraud, Iroquois Avenue: A resident reported Feb. 7 that someone had created a fake check and tried unsuccessfully to cash it in the amount of $2,295. Officers spoke to an employee of her credit union and were told it was unknown where the check was attempted to have been cashed. There was no monetary loss attributed with the incident.

Breaking and entering, Mayfield Road: Four unknown males broke into AT&T Mobility around 2:30 a.m. Feb. 3 by smashing out a window. They proceeded to steal $12,500 worth of items and left before officers arrived.

A former employee of the store is suspected of being one of the suspects. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the 24-year-old Cleveland Heights man.

See more Mayfield Heights news at Cleveland.com/hillcrest

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio Governor John Kasich issued an emergency declaration for 17 counties along the Ohio River and in the southern parts of the state due to dangerous conditions caused by severe storms and heavy rain.

The declaration allows the governor to use resources, including the Ohio Army National Guard, to help officials keep residents safe, according to a statement from Kasich's office.

The counties include: Adams, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Clermont, Columbiana, Gallia, Hamilton, Hocking Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Monroe, Meigs, Muskingum, Scioto and Washington.

"Ohioans do a good job of looking out for each other and we're doing it again now also," Kasich said in the statement. "Teams at the local level are hard at work and state teams have been coordinating with them and supporting them over the past week. As the weather and flooding is expected to get worse we're staying ahead of things by taking our readiness up to the next level and declaring an emergency where we expect the worst conditions."

Kasich urged residents to stay safe by being informed and checking on neighbors, especially senior residents and families with young children.

He also asks that residents call their local city, county or Red Cross if there is anyone who needs assistance.

The state has deployed some National Guard troops to address local requests to help install floodgates, the release says. The members of the National Guard also provided water Scioto and Lawrence counties and delivered sandbags to Athens County.

Kasich's declaration can be read here.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Litchfield man accused of killing a suspected drug dealer in the parking lot of Steelyard Commons barricaded himself in a Georgia home Friday before authorities took him into custody, officials said.

Charles Miller, 59, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force in Rossville, Georgia, according to U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott.

Miller is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 27 fatal shooting of 29-year-old Timothy Settles of Cleveland.

Elliott said tips led his officers to find Miller in Georgia. Officers surrounded the home where Miller was hiding and that he initially barricaded himself inside, Elliott said.

The officers told Miller they would send police dogs inside and he surrendered, Elliott said.

Miller is accused of shooting Settles about 3 p.m. in the parking lot outside Burlington Coat Factory.

Miller walked up to Settles' Chevy Equinox and shot him once in the head, according to police. Police described the shooting as drug-related, but did not elaborate.

Miller has a criminal history dating back to a 1977 breaking and entering conviction.

He most recently pleaded guilty on Jan. 29 on a felony heroin possession charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 12.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A longtime Kasich administration staffer has a new job advising Ohio's nascent medical marijuana program, but few details were available Friday about what he will do in the new role.

Mark Hamlin, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's chief of staff, will take a senior policy position at the Ohio Department of Commerce, which is one of three state agencies overseeing the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program, Taylor spokesman David Hopcraft confirmed Friday. The Department of Commerce is responsible for the cultivation, testing and processing portions of the medical marijuana supply chain.

The department has come under fire in recent months over reports it unknowingly hired a felon with a drug conviction to help score applications and for how it handled that and other concerns about the scoring process. Last week, six unsuccessful cultivators sued the department, alleging it did not follow its own rules during the scoring process.

Hamlin was the lead staff person on Kasich's "common sense initiative," a state effort to work with businesses and state agencies to cut red tape in rules and regulations. Much of Ohio's medical marijuana program is detailed in those agency rules instead of state law.

It was unknown Friday how big of a role Hamlin will play in the program going forward.

The Department of Commerce did not reply Friday afternoon to questions about the move. A spokesman for Gov. John Kasich referred cleveland.com to the Commerce Department, which is a governor's cabinet agency.

Hamlin will start his new job March 5, Hopcraft said. Emily Kaylor, the director of the common sense initiative, will serve as interim chief of staff.

Hamlin has worked in the lieutenant governor's office since 2011. He was promoted to chief of staff in March 2017, after several predecessors served only months-long stints in the position.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland police union that represents black officers elected a new president who was once the subject of a use-of-force lawsuit that cost the city $500,000.

Cleveland police Sgt. Vincent Montague ousted former Black Shield president Lynn Hampton for the position, Montague said in a Facebook video published Thursday on the Cleveland police department's Facebook page.

Montague, who will mark his 10-year anniversary with Cleveland police on Sunday, was promoted to the rank of sergeant in October. He has worked in the city's Third and Fourth districts, according to a release from the department.

Montague was at the center of a 2013 police-involved shooting in downtown Cleveland that led to the city paying out $500,000 to the Maple Heights man who was shot.

Gregory Love, 29 at the time, turned onto West 6th Street about 2:30 a.m. June 23, 2013, but he was unaware the street was closed, according to the federal civil rights lawsuit Love later filed against Montague.

Love said Montague blocked his path and ordered him not to proceed. He tried to turn around after a few minutes, but was blocked by pedestrians, Love said in the lawsuit.

Montague pulled out his 9mm service weapon and pointed it at Love before he reached inside the car for the keys, according to the lawsuit. He tried to turn off the car and failed, then stepped back and fired his gun, the lawsuit said. The bullet struck Love in his chest and lodged in his arm. He was then arrested.

The city settled the lawsuit with Love in December 2015.

In announcing his promotion in October, Cleveland police said Montague had also received the Medal of Heroism from former Cleveland police Chief Michael McGrath, a bravery award from former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and an appreciation letter from First District Commander Daniel Fay.

Montague said Thursday that he hoped to bring unity within the department and between police unions. His organization had some 200 members in late 2017.

The Black Shield gained particular attention in 2016 when its members called on Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association to rescind its first-ever presidential endorsement after a majority of its members voted to back then-candidate Donald Trump.

"There are about 36 percent minorities on the job, and there is close to 1,600 police officers, so it's important that our voice is heard," Montague said in the Thursday Facebook video.

He did not respond to several attempts to reach him for comment through a city police spokeswoman. Phone calls to the Black Shield Association headquarters were not returned as of Friday evening.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Despite the piles of ice lining the shores of Edgewater Park, the participants of the second annual Cleveland Polar Plunge braved the freezing waters to help raise money for the Special Olympics Ohio.

More than 325 participants raised money for the cause and dove into Lake Erie Saturday afternoon as friends and family cheered them on from the shore. The event was sponsored by Sheetz who donated nearly $75,000 that was collected as change in their stores in 2017.

In addition to taking the plunge, the participants took part in a costume contest before spending a few minutes in the freezing waters.PERRY TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Three people are dead after a man shot his sister and her daughter and then himself Saturday morning, authorities say.

Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies responded about 8:30 a.m. to a home on Maple Street near South Ridge Road after a man said he shot and killed his sister, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff's office.

Deputies went to the home and tried to talk to the man, but no one responded, authorities said.

They went into the home and found three people dead from gunshot wounds.

Officials have identified them as 62-year-old Ralph Moore Jr., Vickie Thornhill and her daughter Arianna Cope, 19.

Investigators say it seems Thornhill and Cope were moving out of the home and Moore was distraught over them leaving him, authorities said.

He shot and killed both of them. He called his sister and told her what he did and killed himself, authorities said.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland Heights woman is accused of carrying a loaded gun in her carry-on bag at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Crystal Ficklin, 49, was arrested about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon. Ficklin was charged Friday with having a weapon as a felon, court records show.

Cleveland police were alerted to the incident after the operator of an airport X-ray machine saw a handgun in Ficklin's carry-on bag, according to a police report.

Police asked Ficklin if she had anything in her bag, but she said she didn't, the report says. An officer then showed her the image of the gun in her bag and Ficklin told the officer "Oh I need to put that in my car," the report says.

Ficklin said she is not a concealed carry permit holder. She said the gun belongs to her son, who is a permit holder, the report says.

Ficklin was arrested and booked into the city jail.

Her convictions in Cuyahoga County include theft, possessing criminal tools, forgery and drug possession, court records say.

She also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in 2009 and was sentenced to four years in prison, records say. Police seized two guns and nearly $50,000 from her during that investigation, records say.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.South Carolina lawmakers have proposed a bipartisan bill that would make it illegal for a person to wear saggy pants. Violations would result in fines of up to $75 and six hours of community service. Many find the proposal both ridiculous and racist. Should policing the fashion of South Carolina residents really be the priority of the state that ranks 50th in education? But others support it and find saggy pants "unbecoming" and "unprofessional." What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

South Carolina lawmakers have proposed a bipartisan bill that would make it illegal for a person to wear their pants "three inches below the crest of his ileum" exposing their skin or underwear. Violations would result in fines of up to $75 and six hours of community service.

One of the bill's sponsors argues it is not meant to unfairly discriminate against minorities or put individual's futures at risk, but rather it is an issue of professionalism in public.

Many find the bill totally ridiculous. The fact that lawmakers are more concerned with policing fashion than tackling issues like gun control is insulting. Not to mention the racist overtones of a bill targeting a fashion trend common among minorities.

South Carolina lawmakers might ban saggy pants. Assault weapons are still totally fine. pic.twitter.com/eT2Lv7wj5H  NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 22, 2018

South Carolina ranks 50th in the U.S. for education. Are the fashion police really more important than improving the state's education system?

Soooo EDUCATION and ROADS were a lower priority than sagging pants?   Guava Tart Aficionado (@Tk2Necklace) February 21, 2018

But others applaud the ban. A similar bill was passed in Timmonsville, South Carolina, and some want to see every state adopt a saggy pants ban.

You'd think you wouldn't need legislation to force these idiots to pull up their pants. 



Bill 4957 widely sponsored by GOP and Dems alike. Some things are just common sense. 



Thank you, South Carolina House! #ThursdayThoughtshttps://t.co/QbcmGFBZPE  Redheaded Jenn  (@Redheaded_Jenn) February 22, 2018

OMG THANK YOU! CAN WE HAVE THIS BAN ON EVERY STATE IN AMERICA!!!!  Mr_Josh | ROBLOXian (@Mr_JoshROBLOX) February 21, 2018

The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Digital, Inc. property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say.CLEVELAND, Ohio - U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, said Saturday that Congress needs to take a fresh look at gun laws, but stopped short of committing to many of the reforms activists have been asking for in the wake of a Florida school shooting that left 17 dead.

The Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Fla. resulted in large demonstrations of high school student, largely spearheaded by survivors of the shooting itself. The victims have demanded action on gun control - assault weapons bans, limiting magazine size and universal background checks - from a Republican-controlled Congress that has refused to act for nearly a decade.

Portman's comments didn't steer far from other Republicans' talking points in the wake of the Florida - and other - shootings. Portman has benefited from the NRA to the tune of more than $3 million. He received an "A" rating from the NRA during the 2016 election cycle.

Portman said during a brief interview with cleveland.com after a Saturday tour of the University Hospitals Rainbow Center for Women and Children that Congress should act on some gun measures.

"Yeah, I think there's things that could be done on a bipartisan basis," Portman said. "One is obviously tightening up the background checks."

Portman also said Congress should look at raising the legal age a person can legally purchase a rifle from 18 to 21, a proposal GOP Gov. Rick Scott of Florida recently endorsed.

"I think 21 is already the age for at least some handguns," he said. "And I think that's something, you know, that Congress ought to take a look at. I don't think, you know, that there should be a distinction there."

While he did somewhat break with the National Rifle Association - a stalwart in commanding Republican politics and politicians - by entertaining the idea of increasing the age to sell rifles, the rest of Portman's comments were largely hedged.

He stopped short of endorsing universal background checks which would be required at any point of transfer instead of only from licensed firearm dealers. He didn't address magazine size.

And Portman equivocated on an assault weapons ban.

"The reason it was ended was there was not evidence that it was making a difference," Portman said. "Specifically, you know, there was - when the ban was in place, there was more gun violence in that 10 years than there has been say in the last 10 years. But there are lots of factors here and everything should be looked at."COLUMBUS, Ohio - Chanting "The people, united, will never be divided," and carrying signs with messages such as, "Solidarity works," thousands of union workers and their advocates rallied at the Ohio Statehouse on Saturday ahead of arguments in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could reduce money for organized labor.

The Working Peoples' Day of Action featured impassioned speeches from labor leaders and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan - similar rallies occurred in other cities across the country - who argued that wealthy American business leaders are fighting to crush unions, which they said created the American middle class.

"They're trying to rip us up," said Shelly Ferguson, who travelled from Cleveland for the event, in reference to the opposition in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31. "And the people who provide the service are the fabric that keeps this country together. The billionaires have no respect for the workers."

Ferguson boarded a bus at 7:30 a.m. with fellow workers with Service Employees International Union, District 1199, to rally in the rain on Capitol Square.

"Why be selfish with your Saturday when American livelihoods and paychecks are at stake?" said Case Western Reserve student Eugene Schnell.

At issue in the high court Monday are "agency fees." Separate from membership dues, state and local government workers who choose not to join a union are required to pay the fees in 23 states, including Ohio. Union leaders say they need the fees to help cover the costs of collective bargaining from which the non-members benefit.

The case stems from Illinois state employee Mark Janus, who doesn't want to continue paying agency fees since he disagrees with the union's stance on most issues and argues the fees violate his First Amendment rights.

The conservative Buckeye Institute submitted a friend of court brief in favor of ending the agency fees in December.

Robert Alt, the Columbus think tank's president and CEO, argued that even without the fees, unions can continue to thrive.

"What will change if Mr. Janus prevails is that our hard-working public servants, even those who disagree with the unions, will have their First Amendment rights protected and respected. And that is something all of us should rally behind," he said.

Organizers estimated around 3,500 people attended Saturday's event.Some Ohioans sincerely believe the Second Amendment trumps any attempt to regulate massacre-capable guns. Other Ohioans sincerely believe America's Founders didn't intend to guarantee the possession of massacre-capable guns.

Those are matters of opinion. But here's a matter of fact: Late in 2006, then-Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, vetoed Substitute House Bill 347. It forbade cities and villages from regulating firearms and reserved that power to the legislature.

Taft wrote that HB 347 would nullify "many local municipalities' gun regulations ... including the assault weapons bans enacted by the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo. This vast prohibition of local control is unwarranted and fails to consider the differing challenges and circumstances faced by different communities and regions of the State."

The General Assembly, led by Taft's fellow Republicans, didn't care. It overrode Taft's veto.

So, if an Ohio community wants to regulate massacre-capable guns, its residents are powerless, thanks to HB 347 and legislators who overrode the veto.

And that shows what matters to the legislature: For 20 years and 11 months, it's ignored an Ohio Supreme Court order to make a "complete systematic overhaul" of school funding. And for nine years-plus, it has ignored a 2008 ballot issue - backed by almost 64 percent of the Ohioans voting on it - to limit payday loan annual percentage rates to 28 percent.

Again, some Ohioans oppose regulation of massacre-capable guns. Other voters want to regulate such weapons.

Either way, amnesia is an Ohio politician's greatest friend. So, here's a brush-up:

General Assembly members who voted to override Taft's veto in 2006, and who are also running this year for statewide office, are Republican Rep. Keith Faber, running for state auditor; Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted (House speaker in 2006), running for lieutenant governor; and Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, running for governor. Three 2006 General Assembly members who voted to override Taft's veto are now in Congress: Republican U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan, Bob Gibbs and Bob Latta.

Members of the 2017-18 General Assembly who were also members in 2006 and voted to override Taft's veto, with their current titles, are Republican Sens. Bill Coley; Matt Dolan; Randy Gardner; Jay Hottinger: Scott Oelslager; and Joe Uecker; Democratic Sen. Kenny Yuko (who's Senate minority leader); Republican Reps. Tom Brinkman; Jim Hoops; Jim Hughes (running this year for Franklin County Common Pleas judge); Tom Patton; Kirk Schuring (who's House speaker pro tempore); Tim Schaffer; and William Seitz. Seeking House comebacks this election year are two Republicans who in 2006, as House members, voted to override Taft's veto: Steve Reinhard and Jim Trakas.

When the Ohio Supreme Court upheld House Bill 347 in 2010, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat, hailed the ruling.

"This is an important victory for every gun owner in Ohio," Cordray said. He added that, before HB 347, Ohioans "faced a confusing patchwork of local [gun] ordinances."

If Ohioans can't handle "patchworks," why do both parties tolerate 3,800-plus local governments - the census's 2012 count - including more than 600 school districts? Maybe metastatic government is the closest thing to a "jobs" program Ohio's crack legislators can think of.

Competing with Cordray for this year's Democratic gubernatorial nomination are Larry E. Ealy; former Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich; former Supreme Court Justice William O'Neill; Paul E. Ray; and state Sen. Joseph Schiavoni, of suburban Youngstown. Competing with Taylor for the GOP's gubernatorial nomination is Attorney General Mike DeWine (who unseated Cordray in 2010.)

Now's the time to ask candidates of both parties questions, starting with this: Why does Ohio forbid communities from regulating massacre-capable weapons?

Voters are entitled to an answer - if there's a good one.

Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.

To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-999-4689

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)We are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..Social progress is not a series of boxes to check in consecutive order. First we stop enslaving people, then we let women vote, now we work on LGBT rights, and at some point in the future we should probably figure out healthcare or something -- it doesn't work like that. It's really more like trying to assemble a series of jigsaw puzzle while some jerk keeps stealing key pieces. That's how some supposedly modern societies end up ridiculously behind the curve in areas others take for granted. For instance ...

5 In The U.S., Gay Men Couldn't Donate Blood Until 2015

Say you're a healthy man (a stretch, we know), and you're willing to donate blood to those who are in desperate need of a transfusion. You consume pretty much nothing but purified water and air for 24 hours, get a good night's sleep, and then proudly walk into the donation center with your sleeve rolled up, ready to face down your primal fear of needles to save a life and maybe score a free cookie. The doctor asks you some simple questions about what genitals you may have interacted with recently, and suddenly you're being shown the door.

What the heck happened?

The FDA has a longstanding restriction that prevents men from donating blood if they've ever had sex with other men. The rule dates back to 1983, when AIDS was still new and scary and called "a gay plague." But we're much more educated on AIDS and same-gender sex these days, so the FDA finally loosened its restrictions ... in 2015. All men can now donate blood! Uh, as long as they haven't slept with another man in the last 12 months. Sorry, guy in intensive care with a severe gunshot wound, but if you think about it, a year can really fly by, right?Michael Omari was born in a council house in Croydon, South London, in 1993.

He is one of four children raised by his single mother Abigail, an evangelical Christian, after his father walked out when he was an infant.

Mum emigrated from Ghana to Britain in the hope of giving herself and her family a better life. And she succeeded. On Wednesday her son  now known as grime rapper Stormzy  won two top gongs, for best British male solo artist and best album at the Brit Awards for pop music.

If ever there were proof that whatever your background, this is a country that provides opportunities, Stormzy is it. He is a formidable talent. Accepting his awards he thanked God, his family  and then proceeded to attack the Tory Government.

He rapped: Yo, Theresa May, wheres the money for Grenfell . . . and you got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time . . . we should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.

Accepting his Brit Awards Stormzy thanked God, his family  and then proceeded to attack the Tory Government

What was most shocking about this was its bile and ignorance.

The PM has never called anyone savages let alone the victims and survivors of Grenfell. Her government has committed 58 million to helping victims of the Grenfell tragedy and more will follow. And yet Stormzys message was that, as some vile form of retribution for Grenfell, Theresa Mays house should be burnt down to see how she likes it.

Stormzy got six A*s at GCSE level and A levels before he left school and entered a world of gangs, drug dealing and violence.

But thanks to tenacity, hard work and talent he escaped his past and created an exciting future for himself. By doing so he became an inspiration for young working-class men and, to his credit, he mentors children from his community and helps young people through charity work.

Which is why it is all the more depressing that he spouted such incendiary statements about the Grenfell tragedy, effectively parroting in vulgar language the hard-Left lies first made at the Glastonbury Festival last summer by shadow Chancellor John McDonnell  that Grenfells victims were murdered.

Thanks to tenacity, hard work and talent Stormzy escaped his past and created an exciting future for himself

For all his life Stormzy has happily benefited from the health care, housing and education opportunities the government, whether Tory or Labour, has provided.

Today, as he relaxes in his 2 million flat, employing accountants who specialise in ultra-high-net-worth individuals and overseas companies and non-domiciled individuals, is it asking too much that he show a scintilla of gratitude to the country that offered his mother and him so much? Instead of trashing it.

Announcing the end of her four-year marriage, The Crown actress Claire Foy says she and her husband Stephen Campbell Moore will continue to be great friends.

Announcing the end of her four-year marriage, The Crown actress Claire Foy (pictured) says she and her husband Stephen Campbell Moore will continue to be great friends

Both successful actors, theyve been together seven years, have a two-year-old, Ivy Rose, and last year she helped him through major brain surgery for a benign tumour. No explanation was given for the separation, which is very sad  surely theyve so many reasons to stay together?

Back in 2009, the little-known actress Natalie Portman signed a petition calling for the release of Roman Polanski from a prison where he was being held for drugging and raping a 13-year-old.

Now she says she bitterly regrets it.

Has she rediscovered her moral compass  or has she been bounced into it by the #MeToo crowd?

The Queen has carried the same designer bag for 60 years. Inside she keeps a few photos, including one of Prince Andrew on his return from the Falklands in 1982. A reminder that her third-born was a national war hero  until Fergie turned him into an object of national ridicule.

In the upcoming TV drama about the death of Gianni Versace, his sister Donatella is portrayed by a perma-tanned Penelope Cruz in a hideous blonde wig

In the upcoming TV drama about the death of Gianni Versace, his sister Donatella is portrayed by a perma-tanned Penelope Cruz in a hideous blonde wig. Donatella reportedly told Cruz: I feel if someone is going to play me, then I am very comfortable and happy that you are going to do it. Odd that, as Lily Savage would have been better casting.

The comic Stephen Fry revealed yesterday that he has prostate cancer.

One of the pioneers of social media, Fry was often derided for the trivia he shared with his 13.1 million followers on Twitter and the like  not least by me. Yet the 12-minute video that he uploaded explaining how he discovered the disease and has dealt with it will surely do more to raise awareness than any official campaign ever could.

Such honesty shows great courage.

Well done, Mr Fry.

The comic Stephen Fry revealed yesterday that he has prostate cancer, uploading a 12-minute video explaining how he discovered the disease

The most staggering thing about Jennifer Lawrence turning up in the cleavage-revealing Versace dress almost identical to the safety-pin number Liz Hurley wore in 1994 is that the fashion house can flog a copycat design for thousands of pounds nearly a quarter of a century later and get away with it.

Westminster wars

Of all the unanswered questions over Jeremy Corbyns meetings with a Czech spy, surely the most troubling is: how did he manage to get into East Germany with Diane Abbott riding pillion on his motorcycle at the height of the Cold War? But then even Checkpoint Charlie guards would quail if confronted by formidable Ms Abbott.

Unicef chief Justin Forsyths resignation after allegations of sexual misconduct while he was head of Save The Children was long overdue. He should have been sacked years ago when he approved a humanitarian award from the charity for his old boss Tony Blair  despite an internal Save The Children letter signed by 200 staff calling the award morally reprehensible and an online petition pointing out that Blair was responsible for thousands of deaths in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While celebrities have been virtue-signalling with #MeToo, two women from opposite sides of the political spectrum united to really make a difference. Theresa May hugged the former Labour Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell after they announced a 45 million funding increase for brain tumour research. The initiative may not be in time to help Tessa, but it was a terrific example of what girl power can actually do.

Theresa May hugged the former Labour Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell after they announced a 45 million funding increase for brain tumour research

The family of the Pulitzer-winning playwright Paul Zindel is suing the director of the Oscar-tipped film The Shape Of Water for allegedly stealing his idea.

They claim the Sixties Cold War tale of a lonely cleaner who falls in love with a man-fish held in a secret laboratory is in 61 ways almost identical to a play he wrote in 1969. Having seen the movie Id say they must be right  no two people could possibly have dreamt up such a bizarre and incomprehensible concept.

The films hailed as a metaphor for an outsider searching for love.

My friends and I ended up searching all right  for the cinema exit sign, long before the lights went up.As we all know, the world is an increasingly dangerous place. We live in an age of growing insecurity. Democracy has been thrown on the defensive, terrorism is a greater threat than ever and the streets have rarely seemed more dangerous.

Social media are dissolving our family ties. Inequality is ripping communities apart. Brexit has turned the generations against one another. And for the first time in living memory, tomorrow's children will probably lead poorer, less comfortable, more anxious lives than their parents.

If you agree with some, or indeed all, of that, then the Harvard psychologist and bestselling science writer Steven Pinker has news for you. To put it simply, he believes every one of those assertions is wrong.

For as he argues in a provocative new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, the modern world is not going downhill at all. Quite the reverse: for most people, life is better, even if they don't realise it.

Reading that, you might think the Harvard professor had lost his marbles. Aren't we supposed to be entering a new dark age of fanaticism and prejudice? Isn't the world more divided and unequal than ever? Hasn't something gone desperately wrong with the Western way of life?

I have lost count of the number of times I've heard self-consciously highbrow types whingeing about 'Brexit Britain', which they never mean kindly, writes Dominic Sandbrook

No, says Pinker, calmly and rationally. 'The world,' he writes, 'has made spectacular progress in every single measure of human wellbeing.' And if you don't believe him, he has the statistics to prove it.

More on those statistics in a moment, because I should admit that when I first picked up Pinker's book I was a bit dubious about his argument.

Nobody who studies history can be unaware of the fragility of existence. Empires fall; natural disasters strike without warning; order tips into chaos; previously decent-seeming people turn into bloodthirsty monsters.

One reason why I have always been scornful of Left-wing utopianism is that it ignores those basic realities and seeks to tear down the institutions that keep our demons in check. But as the horrors of dictatorships, the world wars and the Holocaust remind us, our capacity for evil is never far from the surface.

So when I found Professor Pinker telling me everything was splendid and the world was going to get even better, I began to worry about his grip on reality.

But then I thought again. In the past couple of years I have become increasingly weary of hearing bien-pensant intellectuals whining and whingeing about the state of the nation.

Reading Left-wing newspapers such as the Guardian, a visitor might assume Britain was some living nightmare of cruelty and deprivation in which feral dogs roamed the streets while top-hatted bankers danced on the graves of homeless paupers. Our visitor would never know that actually we are one of the most prosperous, stable, literate, sophisticated and safest countries on Earth.

And then, of course, there is Brexit. I have lost count of the number of times I've heard self-consciously highbrow types whingeing about 'Brexit Britain', which they never mean kindly.

When David Davis went to Austria last week and told business leaders that Britain would not be some 'Mad Max-style world borrowed from dystopian fiction', you could barely hear yourself think for the howling of the ultra-Remainers. They never seem to notice that the economy has performed much better since the referendum than anybody, including me, expected.

On reflection, then, I decided to give Pinker the benefit of the doubt. At least it would be good to have a bit of scientific perspective, I thought, in contrast to the confected outrage of the liberal Twitterati.

To cut a long story short, he is right. Not just a bit right but completely, utterly, incontrovertibly right  and his Left-wing critics will never forgive him for it.

In essence, Pinker thinks we are reaping the reward for the colossal advances we have made since the great scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was then, in countries including France, Holland and, above all, England and Scotland, that thinkers came up with a new way to understand our world, characterised by reason, science and individualism.

Ever since, the world has been getting better. Yes, of course people have carried on fighting wars, killing each other and generally behaving badly, because human nature never changes. But in page after page of fascinating graphs  two words you rarely see together  Pinker shows that the underlying story has been much happier.

To give merely the mostobvious example, the one thing we all want more of is time  and we get more than any generation before us.

In 1701, life expectancy in Britain was less than 40 years. In 1880 it was still less than 45. In 1930 it was about 60. But a child born in Britain today can expect to live to at least 80. Of course, that brings its own challenges  but who would want it to be less?

We are also healthier: we don't die of smallpox, we have vaccines for mumps and measles, we are better at treating cancer and have even turned Aids from a killer to a chronic disease, managed by drugs.

We are better fed, too. Most people who ever lived in Britain were terrified of going hungry. Today, despite all the headlines about food banks, the real problem is that we are much too fat  this writer included.

What else? Well, we are far richer. Britain's GDP has increased inexorably since records began. And yes, each recession feels dreadful at the time, but in the grand scheme of things it is never more than a blip on the graph.

Worldwide, too, poverty is dying out. In 1820 about 90 per cent of the world's population lived in 'extreme poverty', surviving on less than two dollars a day.

In 1900 it was still more than 80 per cent, and in 1950 roughly 70 per cent. But in the past few years extreme global poverty has fallen faster than ever and is now barely 10 per cent.

That fact alone is worth remembering. The next time some hysterical Corbynista starts ranting about the wickedness of Western imperialism and the evils of international capitalism, it is worth reminding them that Western capitalism is doing a pretty good job.

Steven Pinker argues in a provocative new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, the modern world is not going downhill at all

Refreshingly, Pinker also gives short shrift to the idea that inequality is the great scourge of the modern world. Actually, international inequality has declined in the past few decades. And even in Britain, where inequality undoubtedly increased in the 1980s and 1990s, we are much more equal than we were during the centuries before World War I.

In any case, Pinker doesn't think inequality really matters, because the rising tide has lifted all boats. In most countries, even the very poorest are generally better off than ever before. Indeed, the people who care most about inequality tend  in my experience  to be high-minded academics, festering with jealousy at old friends who went into the City.

Finally, what about the terrible threat of terrorism and war?

When you look at the figures for 2015, they show that 175 people were killed in Western Europe by terrorists, and precisely five  two Britons and three other Europeans  lost their lives in wars. By contrast, more than 19,000 were killed in car accidents.

That doesn't mean, of course, that some devastating war might not break out and kill millions. But wars are becoming rarer. And although we fret about 'dirty bombs' and biological weapons, Pinker points out that these would actually be extremely tricky to build and use, especially in conditions of total secrecy.

So why are we often told that the world is so wretched? Well, Pinker lays much of the blame with precisely those liberal intellectuals whom you might expect to be celebrating our achievements.

'Intellectuals,' he writes, 'hate progress.' And ironically, self-consciously 'progressive' intellectuals hate the idea of progress most of all, because it contradicts their obsessive belief that capitalism is a force for wickedness and division.

What is more, the intelligentsia's endemic pessimism about the state of the world is a sort of 'one-upmanship' which makes them feel superior to the man or woman in the street.

So when the ordinary man delights in buying a bigger television, enjoying a fancy meal or going on holiday to sunnier shores, the intellectual snobs turn up their noses in disdain. 'What a vulgar little man,' they say to themselves. 'What a slave to the consumerist fantasies of Western capitalism!'

Yet as Pinker points out, there is nothing to be ashamed of in these things. Indeed, the television, the meal and the holiday all reflect the kind of technological and cultural progress for which previous generations would have given their eye teeth.

It is much the same snobbery, of course, that has infected the commentary about Brexit. A genuine liberal might see the vote to leave the EU as a sign of a rumbustious but healthy democracy. Instead, the Euro-enthusiasts howl with rage like toddlers having a tantrum.

For Pinker, then, one of the things that most distorts our perspective is the 'liberal tilt' in academia, the media and intellectual life. As he puts it, 'a faction of academic culture', made up of hard-Left lecturers and a 'diversity bureaucracy', has created a false image of the 21st-century world.

Blinded by their own weird prejudices, they see racism everywhere, even though the modern West is more tolerant than any society before it. They are obsessed with inequality, though genuine deprivation is closer to extinction than ever before.

They peddle the myth of the evils of capitalism, even though capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than at any time in history. And in the last resort they try to demonise science itself, with academics in so-called 'science studies' claiming Western science is 'gendered' and 'colonialist' (this is not a joke, by the way. If you dare to disagree with them, they shout you down  as Pinker himself has found, with card-carrying liberals rushing to condemn his book, even though they have no serious answer to his barrage of facts.

What about the future? Well, Pinker is not a blind optimist. He recognises that there may be devastating wars, revolutions and natural disasters. Yet as he sees it, there is no evidence for believing the trends of the past few centuries will be reversed.

Even the environmental costs of progress may soon become an anxiety of the past. After all, we are more conscious of our environmental footprint than ever. We spend more time and money on conservation, take more care to preserve endangered species, and worry far more about climate change than any generation before us.

What is more, thanks to the continuing advance of prosperity, medicine and education, most people will not only be 'healthier, richer, safer and freer' but 'more literate, knowledgeable and smarter'.

When I picked up Pinker's book, I had my doubts. But by the time I finished it, I was converted.

We don't have a perfect world, he says, adding that 'it would be dangerous to seek one'.

And yes, I could fill every page of this newspaper with the woes of the modern world, from the shortage of affordable housing and the weakness of British industry to the perils of social media and the witch-hunts in our universities. But not only is our society better than any before, it is an awful lot better than the dystopian fantasy so often presented by the liberal Left.

The truth is, we are supremely lucky to live where and when we do. And although most of us love nothing better than whingeing about our lot, most of us have never had it so good.

Just don't tell Jeremy Corbyn, because he'd never believe you.Kate and William claim not to have known the sex of either George or Charlotte before they were born

The higher and wider the bump, the more likely it's a little Princess. Or so some believe. And as these month-by-month pictures show, there's a growing body of evidence!

With just a few weeks to go before another Royal birth, speculation is mounting about the sex of the Duchess of Cambridge's third baby. Kate and William claim not to have known the sex of either George or Charlotte before they were born, but that didn't stop the rest of us from trying to guess.

Tradition  or at least old wives' tales  suggest that a girl is carried high and a boy lower in the abdomen. (Though, confusingly, some claim it's the other way round!) There's also the belief that 'carrying wide' indicates a girl.

Whatever the truth, throughout this pregnancy with her third child, the Duchess has looked more like she did when she was pregnant with Princess Charlotte than she did with Prince George  with a higher and more pronounced bump  leading to speculation that this, too, will be a girl.

Medical experts, of course, point out that the way a woman bears pregnancy has far more to do with her own size and shape than the gender of her child and that, for example, tall women such as the Duchess tend to carry their babies high.

But with the latest member of the Royal Family due to arrive in April, it won't be long before the growing army of bumpologists have their answer. Look at the evidence and judge the gender for yourselves. There's a 50 per cent chance you'll be rightNadine Dorries has been forced to swap her Louboutins for something sensible

She campaigned against the banning of high heels in the workplace, choosing to save her 20 pairs of stilettos for outside the office.

But now Nadine Dorries is being forced to swap her Louboutins for something more functional as she recovers from a hip replacement. The 60-year-old bestselling author and MP for Mid-Bedfordshire was diagnosed with arthritis in her right hip last year and went under the knife last month.

I kept on going for as long as I could, she says. Before the op, I could only manage ten-minute walks in any 24-hour period and even then I was unsteady on my feet. With two dogs to walk, and a busy job, the surgery had to be done.

But she admits the first few weeks of her recovery have been challenging. Maybe Ive been doing too much, but it has been really tough going so far, she says. I first tried to make do on paracetamol when I got home, which just wasnt enough. I desperately needed both tramadol and codeine. Im now down to just paracetamol and a couple of codeine a day.

People tell you a hip replacement is amazing but Ive learnt you do need to be kind to yourself in the first two weeks.

From freshly laundered sheets to a hug from a loved one, there are many little things that make us happy in life. Now, researchers are inviting the public to take part in a pioneering test that aims to boost happiness for us all.

The questionnaire, which asks about significant life events and personality traits, is designed to reveal the most important factors for keeping us mentally well. The Secrets Of Happiness project (secretsofhappiness.co.uk) is being led by Peter Kinderman, a psychology professor at the University of Liverpool, in partnership with the BBCs Tomorrows World Campaign.

Prof Kinderman wants to ascertain whether our thinking style  the way we interpret events in our lives  influences our risk of developing mental-health problems. Following the 20-minute online test, participants, who remain anonymous, will get personalised, practical tips on improving their mental health.

Regular tea drinking can reduce the chance of osteoporosis by nearly 40 per cent

Good news for tea-lovers  regular consumption slashes the risk of osteoporosis by nearly 40 per cent.

Researchers at Nanjing Agricultural University in China examined data from 17 studies conducted worldwide. Their analysis, published in the journal Medicine, revealed a significant correlation between the highest intake of tea (with or without milk) and the lowest risk of osteoporosis.

Overall, there was a 38 per cent reduced risk when tea was a regular drink of choice.

About 300,000 people every year break a bone due to osteoporosis, while a quarter of elderly people  mostly women  are at risk of fracture.

The study supports previous research published in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition which found that older tea-drinkers have a five per cent higher bone-mineral density.

Scanner heralds end of painful liver biopsy

A new 15-minute scanning procedure could accurately diagnose liver disease, reducing the number of invasive, painful liver biopsies by half. As the obesity rate soars, so does the number of people with fatty liver disease  chronic inflammation of the organ that can cause cirrhosis and doubles the risk of a heart attack.

The 400 per cent rise in liver patients over the past 50 years has led to the development of less invasive tests, and researchers at the University of Birmingham say the LiverMultiScan  which uses MRI technology  can be used to help doctors diagnose liver disease, even at the early stages, and can also help to predict those whose liver disease is going to progress more quickly.

Dr Rajarshi Banerjee, CEO of the company behind LiverMultiScan, said: This scan can help a patient see liver disease and act on it  and a painless scan is clearly safer than a biopsy.Women who leave it late to start a family could be condemning their daughters to childlessness, according to a major new study.

The older the mother is when she gives birth, the more likely it is that her daughter will not have a family, it is claimed.

Women whose mothers were 35 or older when they gave birth are 40 per cent more likely to remain childless, compared to those whose mothers were pregnant with them in their early 20s.

An older mothers reproductive system might negatively affect her unborn daughters potential fertility, said researchers.

But the findings could also reflect the fact that daughters tend to copy their mothers behaviour. In the journal Human Reproduction, scientists reported a strong positive correlation between maternal age at birth and a daughters childlessness.

An older mothers reproductive system might negatively affect her unborn daughters potential fertility, said researchers

Women born to older mothers were substantially more likely to be childless, they concluded.

The study examined 43,000 women aged 44 or older.

More educated daughters were less likely to have children. But comparing women with a similar level of education, the link between childlessness and their mothers age at birth remained strong.

The researchers, based at McGill University in Montreal, said animal studies suggested the biology of the older womb could negatively affect the reproductive success of the offspring. Older female mice, for example, had a higher risk of placenta problems.

But the team conceded there was limited evidence over whether the daughters of older mothers were less fertile.

They concluded: Whether our results are due to biology, behaviour or socioeconomic factors  or a combination of these  the possible influence of maternal age on offspring fertility deserves further study.She was the waif who wowed the fashion world. He was the Cockney rebel who shook up the film industry. Not only were they there, they defined the Sixties. And luckily for us, Twiggy and Sir Michael Caine remember every swinging minute of it!

Looking back at the decade that made him, Michael Caine admits some odd things happened to him during the Sixties. I went to dinner at my agents house in Hollywood one night, he recalls. We were having coffee and I went to spoon some sugar into my drink. She goes, Dont do that. Thats not sugar. Its cocaine.

Not that he was interested in that sort of thing. Never touched the stuff, he says. Indeed, he reckons that might be one of the reasons why, half a century later, hes still around, approaching his 85th birthday next month. No ones more surprised than me that I am still here, he smiles. I assumed that when I got to 85, Id be talking like this... He assumes a comedy, old mans voice. Or, more likely, Id be dead.

Michael Caine and Twiggy confound that cliche about the Sixties: if you can remember them, you cant have been there

Both Twiggy and Caine admit they had no idea the work they were doing in the Sixties would have a lasting impact

As he sits in a studio in west London, still slim, still agile and immaculately dressed in a black suit, Caine explains that hes been thinking a lot about the Sixties recently, ever since he began making My Generation, a new documentary about the time when he was at the epicentre of Swinging London. The idea for the film, he says, was not his  not given to retrospection, he rarely thought about the old days. Rather, it came from his friend Simon Fuller, the man behind the Spice Girls.

He was always asking me about the Sixties because he wasnt there. So when he suggested a movie about it, I thought, yeah, this might shut him up.

Caine was 27 in 1960, a struggling actor in local repertory. Ambitious and determined, he was perfectly placed to surf the extraordinary wave of new opportunity that engulfed his home city. We were inventing a whole new world as we went along, he says. But the thing is, we had no idea thats what we were doing.

It took three years to put My Generation together, and the makers had to work around Caines still prodigious film schedule. But it was worth the wait. Giving voice to magnificent archive footage of mini-skirts, Mini cars and major social change are interviews he did with those who rose to prominence at the time  Sir Paul McCartney, David Bailey, Marianne Faithfull, Roger Daltrey and Dame Mary Quant. And, of course, Twiggy, the girl-next-door turned supermodel, with whom hes sharing Events photo-shoot. As they josh and giggle under the scrutiny of the lens, for a moment it is like its 1966 all over again. That was a laugh, wasnt it? says Twiggy of the shoot. Still love it.

In the film we see the young model, with her huge blue eyes, slight frame and Vidal Sassoon bob, changing the shape of fashion and transforming the high street. And, like Caine, she says that at the time she had no idea that what she was doing would have any lasting significance.

As they josh and giggle under the scrutiny of the lens, for a moment it is like its 1966 all over again. That was a laugh, wasnt it? says Twiggy of the shoot. Still love it

I was 16 when I started, and really young for my age. I see 16-year-old girls today and Ill tell you what, I wasnt like them. I lived in Neasden for Gods sake. Ill tell you how naive I was. The first time I went to Paris in 66 we were in a restaurant and all the photographers were ordering wine, and the waiter said to me, What do you want? And I said, Ill have a Coca-Cola. And he sneered and said, What vintage mademoiselle? But for me then Coke was posh.

And thats how we see her in the film: wide-eyed, short-skirted and in her Sixties prime. It is only Caine who appears as he is now. Although we hear their present-day voices, the rest of the cast remain visually as if preserved in aspic: the wild-haired Bailey snapping the exquisite Jean Shrimpton, Daltrey stomping the stage with The Who, Faithfull cavorting with rock royalty. And Twiggy bestriding the ever-changing world of fashion.

I loved fashion, she says. I was a right mod. Were you a mod, Michael?

What do you think, Twiggs? he replies. Can you imagine me as a rocker?

The longer they chat, the more the pair confound that cliche about the Sixties: if you can remember them, you cant have been there. Caines memory remains pin-sharp. As does his analysis. There were, he says, many reasons behind the huge social upheaval of the decade: baby boomers coming of age, rising incomes and rapid technological advances. But Caine reckons he knows the moment when things really took off. The trigger, he says, was the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. It was when [Soviet leader] Khrushchev said it would take four minutes to obliterate the world. We, as a generation, said, Right, weve got four minutes to live, so wed better have some fun.

Left: Roger Daltrey. Right: Julie Christie

Twiggy at Blaises nightclub, 1967. This is how we see her in the film: wide-eyed, short-skirted and in her Sixties prime

People say to me, Did you realise you were living at a special time? When youre living in the moment, you dont stop to think, This is amazing. Its only in retrospect you realise. Though I do remember thinking it cant have been easy for our parents to see us having so much more fun than they had. He pauses and smiles. Didnt stop me, mind.

He was not alone. Everywhere in Londons whirligig of hedonism he encountered like minds. One night I went to the Ad Lib Club, and dancing with me  well, not with me but at the same time  were all the Rolling Stones and all the Beatles. It wasnt just that everybody knew each other. Everybody you knew became famous.

I had this actor friend called David Baron. We were both broke, having a cup of tea in the Arts Theatre cafe, where out-of-work actors went to pass the time. He said to me, Im giving this up. Im going to write a play and youre going to be in it. I said, Yeah, right. He said, Im going to write under my proper name. So I said, David Barons not your real name? He said, No, its Harold Pinter.

Those starting out often shared flats together, and those flats were all close to each other, becoming informal communes of the ambitious. It helped that London was then so inexpensive. My first place was in Notting Hill, says Twiggy. Dirt cheap. Thats where everyone lived  Notting Hill, Chelsea, Fulham. Imagine that. Look at it now.

Left: Marianne Faithfull. Right: Jean Shrimpton

Caine also lived in Notting Hill, sharing a flat with Terence Stamp. I had to look after his girlfriends when he was away. Jean Shrimpton, Julie Christie  I had to keep them company. Terrible job but someone had to do it.

Caine reckons that his contemporaries were fuelled by a shared motivation. Ill tell you why London was the centre of things, and not Paris or New York. It was class. Sure, America had its own issues like race. But we were driven by this urge to defy our class. Working-class kids like me and Twiggs had been told we couldnt do what we wanted to do. That made us all the more determined. We thought, sod this, were doing it.

I was so lucky to be in the theatre. Suddenly there were parts for working-class people in plays about working-class people. Pinter wrote The Caretaker. Oscar Wilde and Terence Rattigan didnt write about caretakers, for gawds sake.

One thing that has changed from the days when Caine and Twiggy first came to prominence is the accent. Young people no longer speak in the Cockney tones they do.

I know, wheres it gone? says Caine. One of the oldest accents in the English language, gone in a generation.

One thing that has changed from the days when Caine and Twiggy first came to prominence is the accent. Young people no longer speak in Cockney tones

Caine at home with his mother Ellen Micklewhite and brother Stanley, 1964. It is class, Caine thinks, that has changed the most since the Sixties

Its not just working-class Londoners who speak in a different way, adds Twiggy. Posh people dont speak like they used to. Theyve toned right down. Even at the top. I mean, you listen to William and Harry and they sound middle-class, normal.

And it is class, Caine thinks, that has changed the most since the Sixties. Not least in the fact that he, a lad from Elephant and Castle, could become a knight of the realm. I couldnt believe it when I got the knighthood, he says. The Queen took one look at me and said, Ive a feeling youve been doing what youve been doing for a long time. I nearly said, So have you, your Majesty. Shed probably have loved it.

It was a rather different encounter from the one Twiggy had when she first met royalty back in the Sixties. I went to a Vogue party and Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon were there. I was at her table. Wed been told how to behave: dont speak to her unless she speaks to you and all that. And she ignored me the whole meal, chain-smoking through it. Then suddenly, over pudding, she leaned across the table and said, And whats your name? I said, My names Lesley Hornby, maam, but everyone calls me Twiggy. She went, Oh, how unfortunate, puffed on her cigarette and never spoke to me again.

Do these Sixties superstars think it could happen again? Could there be as groundbreaking a swell of youthful creativity today?

You can never say never, says Caine. But I dont see it. We were so lucky. Everything went right for us. I dont see that luck being there today.

Twiggy agrees. Its really tough for young people today. You hear everyone saying all the actors now come from Eton. Maybe kids from my background dont go to drama school because of the fees.

They certainly cant afford to live where we did, says Caine. And kids today tell me they want to be actors because they want to become rich and famous. I tell them I became an actor precisely because I knew I wouldnt become rich and famous. I did it because I wanted to act.

But never mind it happening again, Caine reckons he knows why it all stopped in the first place.

Iconic Sixties fashion designer, Mary Quant

The Sixties ended about 1971, he says. Drugs bought it to an end. They changed the dynamic. If people went out having taken cocaine they didnt stop talking rubbish for two hours, and if theyd smoked some pot theyd sit there all evening going, Wow, and boring the arse off everybody. I smoked marijuana once and laughed for five hours. Nearly got a hernia. Truth was, you couldnt work properly on drugs. At least, not in the theatre when you had to know your lines.

I never did drugs either, says Twiggy. Maybe thats why were still around. A lot didnt make it.

Indeed, watching them on the big screen, lighting up the world with their confidence, its easy to imagine that none of those who electrified the Sixties imagined they would one day grow into senior citizens. Quite the opposite. After all, that is the memorable line from My Generation, the song that gives the film its title: Hope I die before I get old.

People did think that, recalls Caine. I used to say to friends mixing with drugs, Why are you doing this? Dont you want to grow old? And theyd go, Why would I want to do that? But I did. I wanted to hang around for as long as I could do. I just never thought it would happen.

But he and Twiggy are still around, still current, still working, still relevant. Indeed, if you want to know the most significant way the Sixties changed the world, its writ large in Twiggy. When she was growing up, she would never have seen any woman aged 68 dressed in the clothes she slips into after our photo-shoot. And yet here is the face of a generation, 50 years on, not looking remotely out of place stepping out in a pair of leather trousers.

My first place was in Notting Hill, says Twiggy. Dirt cheap. Thats where everyone lived  Notting Hill, Chelsea, Fulham. Imagine that. Look at it now

I know, she agrees. There is no way my mum would have looked like this. Though, to be honest, when I say my age to myself I think: I cant be 68. Come on, how on earth did that happen? I mean, I lived through the Sixties.

My Generation is in cinemas on March 14, followed by a live Q&A with Michael Caine, broadcast from BFI Southbank. It is on general release from March 16, mygenerationmovie.co.uk

Dear Dictator is also available on Digital Download from May 21SILENCE ON SET PLEASE...

Where did Harry Potter learn his magic tricks, or the X-Men hone their superpowers? Oxfords Bodleian Library stood in as Hogwarts Library in the Harry Potter films and it has frequently been used as a film set, appearing in X-Men: First Class (2011) and The Madness Of King George (1994).

THE TOME RAIDER

William Jacques was Britains most prolific book thief. Jacques was first caught in 2002 when he admitted to stealing and selling more than 500 rare books worth over 1 million, including an Isaac Newton first edition he stole from Cambridge University Library. After fleeing to Cuba, he later returned to Britain and was imprisoned for his crimes. On release he went on to steal at least 13 rare books from a horticultural library.

The Vatican has long been rumoured to hold the worlds largest collection of pornographic material, which is supposedly known as the inferno

WHO'S THE MOST READ?

The Public Lending Right collects statistics from UK libraries in order to ensure writers are paid for the loan of their books. The following list reveals the most popular authors in the UK from 20002010.

1.......... Jacqueline Wilson..............16 million lent

2.........Danielle Steele............................. 14 million

3.........Catherine Cookson..................... 14 million

Catherine Cookson, Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl

4......... Josephine Cox............................. 13 million

5......... James Patterson..........................11 million

6.........RL Stine........................................10 million

7.........Mick Inkpen................................10 million

8......... Janet and Allan Ahlberg.............9 million

9.........Roald Dahl.....................................8 million

10.......Agatha Christie............................8 million

BOOK TO THE FUTURE

In 2014, artist Katie Paterson created the Future Library, a project to collect 100 books by 100 writers over 100 years. The books will be sealed, unread, in Oslo Library until 2114. Margaret Atwood was the first author to submit a work. Its called Scribbler Moon, but no one knows if its fiction, non-fiction, poetry, one word or 100,000 words long.

LIBRARY GIANTS: WHO'S GOT THE MOST BOOKS?*

162m - Library of Congress, Washington DC

150m - The British Library, London

54m - Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa

53m - New York Public Library, New York

44m - Russian State Library, Moscow

The Library of Congress in Washington DC. This library has the largest collection of books at 162m

*includes all items in collection as well as books

HOLY SMUT!

The Vatican has long been rumoured to hold the worlds largest collection of pornographic material, which is supposedly known as the inferno. However, no evidence for the collection has been found and the  admittedly incredibly secretive  Vatican librarians have denied its very existence.

LIBRARY MASTERS

Philip Larkin (19221985)

Larkin worked for 30 years at the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull.

Giacomo Casanova (1725 1798)

The legendary lover ended his career as a librarian for the Count of Waldstein in Dux, Bohemia, cataloguing the Counts 40,000 volumes.

Lewis Carroll (18321898)

Otherwise known as Charles Dodgson, Carroll worked as sub-librarian at Christ Church College, Oxford.

J Edgar Hoover (18951972)

The FBI head honcho worked at the Library of Congress.

Mao Zedong (18931976)

Mao was assistant librarian at Peking University before becoming involved in politics.

PAST ITS RETURN-BY DATE

The oldest library in the world is Moroccos al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, which was founded in 859AD by Fatima El-Fihriya, the daughter of a Tunisian merchant. The library has remained continuously open to scholars since its inception and recently underwent a restoration.

President George Washington

PRESIDENT NICKS ONE

In 1789, President George Washington borrowed law treatise The Law Of Nations from the New York Society Library; 221 years later, in 2010, the staff at his former Mount Vernon home finally got around to returning the book. The library waived the $300,000 fine.

A Library Miscellany by Claire Cock-Starkey is published by Bodleian Library, priced 9.99. Offer price 7.99 (20% discount) until March 11. Order at mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640, p&p is free on orders over 15Frozen

Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London Until May 5, 2hrs 30mins

Rating:

This psychological thriller is about a mother who, over 20 years, has to face up to the disappearance and murder of her ten-year-old daughter.

Her wait ends when we zoom forward to the apprehension of the multiple child-killer, Ralph.

Normally, encountering such killers in fiction has me convinced that capital punishment had its virtues. Bryony Laverys play, however, demands  and gets  a more mature understanding, by asking if such killers are evil or just ill.

Suranne Jones  of Doctor Foster telly fame  is terrific as wrung-out mum Nancy, keeping her girls bedroom tidy for the big day when she will miraculously come home

But the play rotates around Ralph, sublimely played by Jason Watkins with a limp, a Brummie accent and an obscene self-satisfaction

Suranne Jones  of Doctor Foster telly fame  is terrific as wrung-out mum Nancy, keeping her girls bedroom tidy for the big day when she will miraculously come home. But the play rotates around Ralph, sublimely played by Jason Watkins with a limp, a Brummie accent and an obscene self-satisfaction. He talks about his van, his centre of operations, and pats the suitcase containing his proud collection of child pornography videos.

In addition theres an American criminal psychology lecturer (Nina Sosanya) who visits Ralph in prison and whose own tragedy seems bolted on to a play thats already got quite enough going on. Through her lectures from a podium, we are invited to survey the frozen Arctic sea that is the criminal brain. As if to prove the dramatists point, her encounters with Ralph in prison unearth his own hellish childhood abuse.

Directed by Jonathan Munby, this humane, award-winning 1998 play feels a bit diluted by umpteen series of more recent TV killer psycho-dramas. It only feels exceptional when its really raw. In the final encounter between mother and murderer, you can hear a pin drop.

Frozen is definitely not to be confused with the Disney film, though oddly enough its message of let it go is much the same.

Girls & Boys

Royal Court, London Until Mar 17, 1hr 30mins

Rating:

I met my husband in the queue to board an easyJet flight and I have to say I took an instant dislike to the man. Thats the brilliant opening line to this funny, harrowing, one-woman play by Dennis Kelly, performed by the Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan (currently on TV in David Hares Collateral).

What we get from Carey Mulligan is a prolonged, witty chat. She reveals a hedonistic sex life (frank, funny and rude) prior to the man in the Naples airport queue

She stands centre stage, in trousers and a shirt, hair up, barefoot. Her estuary accent isnt wholly convincing, and theres a worry, as with all solo plays, that theres no supporting cast for a change of scenery. But I leant into this play from the front of my seat, partly because Mulligan is not totally audible in the circle  the director take note  but mostly because she is such a superb storyteller.

What we get is a prolonged, witty chat. She reveals a hedonistic sex life (frank, funny and rude) prior to the man in the Naples airport queue. He starts up a furniture importing business, she becomes a success making TV documentaries. All is lovey-dovey. They have a girl and a boy. She mimes picking them up, scolding them, playing games. The tone changes when his business goes bust. He stops washing and plays video games all day.

He became unreachable he just spiralled, she says.

I wont totally spell it out, but the conclusion is a tale of immense violence. Mulligans dimpled features are drawn and blank as we learn of unspeakable events, in pathologists report detail, that have led her into a wasteland of grief.

The designer-flat set is a triumph but its totally superfluous. The narrative does its own gripping job, directed with sudden slipknots of tension by Lyndsey Turner. By the end I was biting the back of my hand.

With an amazing performance from Mulligan, this short play hits home with shocking force.

Private Lives

Touring until April 21 2hrs

Rating:

You mess with Noel Cowards plays at your peril  especially this perennial crowd-pleaser, for which he wrote the main role of Elyot for himself. Its difficult to get away from the springy rhythms and witty verbal ping pong that animate this tale of a divorced couple who marry again, find themselves on honeymoon with their new spouses in the same hotel and end up rekindling their combustible relationship.

Gareth Bennett-Ryans (above with Olivia Beardsley) interpretation of Elyot works to a point but is mostly too flat (like Norfolk in one famous line)

The antics of these louche, self-absorbed people should be sparkling, but how do you reconcile this with Elyot hitting paramour Amanda and opining that women should be struck regularly like gongs. These days this jars horribly (and there was a gasp from the audience).

The solution in Michael Cabots production is to play Elyot as a spiky, dyspeptic type. Gareth Bennett-Ryans interpretation works to a point but is mostly too flat (like Norfolk in one famous line).

Olivia Beardsleys Amanda, played with a gravelly, knowing gurgle, fares better. As the dumped spouses, Helen Keeley blubs for Britain as Sybil, and Paul Sandyss Victor is a perky bantam of a man rather than the usual dullard. But by trying to unleash something darker amid all the stylish affectation, this is just too lumpy and uneven.

Mark Cook

londonclassictheatre.co.uk

Still Alice

West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds Until Sat, 1hr 30mins

Rating:

This play is based on Lisa Genovas bestselling novel of the same title, about a brilliant neuroscientist in America who finds she has early-onset Alzheimers at the age of 50.

Sharon Small plays the Harvard lecturer who forgets words, gets lost on a local run and cant even find her way around her own house. Its a good performance, refreshingly unlike the absurdly over-glamorised acting that won Julianne Moore an Oscar in the 2014 film.

Sharon Small (above with Dominic Mafham) plays the Harvard lecturer who forgets words, gets lost on a local run and cant even find her way around her own house

Dominic Mafham plays Alices chippy scientist husband John who, along with her son and daughter, watches her mind slowly crumble like a sand castle in an incoming tide. Christine Mary Dunfords adaptation is not sure-footed, though. It requires an actress (Ruth Gemmell) to play Alices inner voice (very stagey), and the diseases effect on the family is rather skated over.

Its undeniably a sad evening, directed with compassion by David Grindley. But its much less dramatic than the testimony of Alzheimers sufferer Wendy Mitchell, whose Somebody I Used To Know was just read to shattering effect as Radio 4s Book Of The Week.

Robert Gore-Langton

The Shadow Factory

NST City, Southampton Until Sat, 2hrs 30mins

Rating:

Howard Brentons lively new play, set in war-torn Southampton, opens a brand new theatre in the city. It tells the story of the Luftwaffes destruction, in 1940, of the Supermarine Spitfire factory.

In an excellent cast with a community chorus, Anita Dobson doubles as a generous aristo and a local granny and Hilton McRae plays the gruff Beaverbrook

Lord Beaverbrook  the Minister of Aircraft Production  orders the requisitioning of local premises to carry on making Spitfire parts in so-called shadow factories. But fictional Fred Dimmock, who runs a laundry, stoutly resists the takeover.

The play shows the proud locals torn between saving their country and their way of life; they resist Hitler but also, at first, Churchills no less dictatorial government.

In an excellent cast with a community chorus, Anita Dobson doubles as a generous aristo and a local granny. David Birrell is the laundry owner and RAF supremo Hugh Dowding, and Hilton McRae plays the gruff Beaverbrook.

Samuel Hodges stages superbly a play that celebrates both the plane and the courage of the city that built it.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Rose Theatre, Kingston Upon Thames Touring until May 19 2hrs 30mins

Rating:

When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote his gothic novella of split personality in 1886, it was a bit of a rush job  he needed to pay off some bills rather swiftly. Perhaps thats why it runs to only 70 pages.

Phil Daniels's heavily accented Hyde (above) seems more likely to inflict a Glasgow kiss than murderous intent

In this version from 1991 David Edgar bulks it out by adding in social comment and the character of Jekylls sister, a Leftleaning new woman as a contrast to the Victorian murk with its clubby, men-only spaces.

Jekyll here is avuncular, mild-mannered, with a (rather erratic) soft Scottish accent and roots out his late fathers potion in the interest of psychic research. As we know from the many adaptations of this tale, the draught turns him into the disturbed alter ego, Mr Hyde.

This transformation is not easy (it can be faintly absurd). Sometimes both sides of the good doctor are played by two actors, but here its Phil Daniels, with a swirling cloak, top hat and rictus leer, whose heavily accented Hyde seems more likely to inflict a Glasgow kiss than murderous intent.

Kate Saxons production tries to keep it all flowing but theres an inertness here, not helped by Edgars wordy adaptation. The set looks cheap and the lighting is harsh rather than moody  its a chill-free zone.

Mark Cook

touringconsortium.co.ukVineyards are often imagined as the idyllic lifestyle  perfect green regiments surrounding a picturesque country house with a pool of oceanic proportions. But with Fairtrade Fortnight upon us, its a timely reminder that there are good wines made by smaller producers who face challenging environments, from Lebanon to South Africa. By choosing Fairtrade, the idea is to improve living and working conditions. With careful selection there are plenty of decent Fairtrade wines.

Sainsburys, for instance, has some excellent bottles in its Taste The Difference range. To get you started, here are three spicy reds: Fairtrade Shiraz 2017 (14%, South Africa) 7, Fairtrade Carmenere 2016 (13%, Chile) for 8 and Fairtrade Morador Malbec 2016 (13%, Argentina), 8.50.

But the Co-op is the biggest seller of Fairtrade wine in the world, currently offering an impressive 29 different wines and whose biggest project to date is helping to build a secondary school and funding a clean-water facility in Argentina. According to Fairtrade, buying one of its wines helps ensure that farmers and workers are receiving a fair price  as well as an additional premium to help their community invest in services such as education, sanitation and health care.

I saw that impact at first hand on a visit to a Fairtrade winery in Chile some years ago, but as far as quality goes, I reckon its South Africa thats leading the way. Waitrose Fairtrade Chenin Blanc Oliphants River 2017 (12.5%), for 5.99, is a good bet, and for red, Tesco Finest Fairtrade South African Pinotage 2017 (14%) is as sleek and deep as mocha for 7. For a bit more of a treat, Santa Florentina Malbec Reserva Fairtrade 2017 (12.5%) 9.25 from corneyandbarrow.com is surprisingly elegant and reflects the effort of small producers striving for better quality in your glass and better quality in their lives. Seems a fair deal to me.The internet is full of tricksters, con artists and honest Russians. It's hard to know who to trust. Everyone's got an angle - even if scams aren't particularly new.

A scrubbing brush - but it is yours?

There's a lovely old story on This is Money about the guy who ran a corner shop in the 1950s - when everything apart from wifi was apparently better - who always kept a scrubbing brush on the counter and charged every customer for it.

If they questioned the bill, he'd feign surprise, apologise and reluctantly refund the money he'd just tried to steal. Everyone else got overcharged by the price of the brush, which remained on the counter.

But that was nearly 70 years ago and we've moved on - haven't we?

Our brilliant scams editor Lee Boyce keeps tabs on the big frauds that arrive in your inbox or phone every day in our Beat the Scammers section.

At the other end of the manipulation game, there are plenty of tatty 50s-style tricks still going on that remind us we have to be wary of everything we do online - even shopping. Here's a few I've come across over the last year.

ONE

The misleading special offer

Grocery comparison service MySupermarket is a godsend. You can look up your favourite soup, see which store has it on offer, pop in and buy it in bulk.

The uniformity of the price of soup is usually as bland as beef consomme

But the offers are not always what they seem. You'd think that something as inane as soup would be immune from small print skulduggery. But you'd be wrong.

Low-rent canned soup is pretty much always the same price everywhere - 95p a can, or 3 for a multipack. So why did the this-shop-is-better-than-that-shop service claim that 95p was half price - or to be exact: '47% less than its average' when clearly it wasn't?

How in the name of all the former British tin miners are these cans almost half price?

MySupermarket told me a 2 can had been on sale at Amazon at that price, which is ridiculous. Amazon isn't even a supermarket. Not yet.

One day when Amazon is the only shop left, sure we'll have to buy our soup there but for now don't include it in price comparisons for bog standard foodie fare? It's not fair.

Amazon had been advertising two quid cans of beef broth last summer. It sent the grocery comparison world into a spin.

TWO

The VAT trap

This one's for people buying goods from the USA - and soon possibly the EU thanks to Brexidermists who presumably want to stuff this up as well as the economy.

The rule is this: goods imported from outside the EU are subject to four fees:

1 The price you pay for the stuff

2 The postage

3 UK VAT at 20%.

4 UK duty

In simple terms, if the price you pay is more than 135 including postage you need to pay import duty and VAT, which is payable at 20% on anything (not including postage) over the VAT threshold.

The VAT threshold is just 15!

You can pay the VAT and your 'handling' fine in stamps.

It's easy to get caught out. Our volatile exchange rate is the enemy.

At old fashioned $1.60 to the pound, the VAT limit was $24.

At $1.50 to the pound it's $22.50 and by the time our currency had been properly Brexodomised it was down way below $1.30 ($19.50) to $1.22, about 18 bucks.

My $22 regular purchase of allergy friendly hair gunk (not available in the UK) suddenly fell victim to our weak pound and I was over the limit.

My goods were confiscated by the Post Office until I paid the VAT and a fine.

Go over the variable VAT limit and instead of your package you get a card through your door with details of the money you owe plus a post office fine, or handling fee as it's also known.

THREE

eBay sellers making up their own rules

Shopping on eBay is usually trouble free. Understand the rules and patterns and you'll get a deal.

By following a few auctions, it's pretty easy to see how much the dealers are prepared to pay for popular items such as iPhones and by making a bid that's slightly higher - you'll bag a bargain. Sometimes the odds are stacked against you.

'I do not accept returns' should have been the warning sign.

A shirt that belonged to a man who went on to lose FOUR stone must be big, you'd think

The description seemed clear.

For sale: 3XL shirt. Husband lost 4 stone. Shirt now way too big. Conclusion: shirt would fit me.

What showed up was a shirt so small it would have barely fitted fit Elvis in his prime. If he'd gone on to lose 4 of his then 12 stone he'd have become an emaciated, tender but unloved Elvis whose career may have gone way on down. It didn't go anywhere near around my waist.

Maybe if I lost four stone I'd fit into the shirt that was about the right size for Elvis in his heyday

The seller agreed, reluctantly, to accept a return but refused to refund the postage. I couldn't be bothered to fight even though I was entitled to not have to pay postage twice for nothing. Another lesson learned.

FOUR

Prices that are only available for other products

This is wrong. And it's rife.

Leather case for 99p or so it says

Sellers are gaming eBay's search function by advertising prices that don't exist.

Search for an item on Google and theirs come up with the cheapest price.

When you select the colour you want the price changes - it goes up

But when you play around with the drop-down menu on their product page to find the advertised price - it's for a completely different product - let's call it the eBay scrubbing brush.

Wake up eBay. This is not the 1950s!

 Slide me  The cases cost 3.95 not 99p as advertised. The 99p case is a pen (and a con).

FIVE

Cashback

Don't start me on cashback. Some people love it. But they're wrong.

This is what 10% cashback looks like.

You can fix it eventually maybe with a huge fight with anonymous online help but why not just give me the money off without the tedious e-obstacle course?

Click the link for 10% cashback and you'd expect to get cashback at 10%

But what you get is 10% of 3,350? Or 201 at modern internet rates of percentage.

SIX

Ticket refunds for cancelled events where you don't get all your money back

Buying concert tickets is a new kind of in-your-face corrupting experience where 'fans' buy up all the seats at the front and three minutes later realise they can't go and sell the tickets that have now sold out on secondary sites owned by the same agencies for ten times the price. We know about this. It's not news.

But at the other end of the ticket market small print is what happens if your event is cancelled.

Obviously, you get a no-quibble refund.

Less obviously, you don't get the booking fees refunded.

Full refund minus booking fee

SEVEN

Automated ads that display prices that don't exist

AFerry - the ferry ticket booking service - was recently admonished by the Advertising Standards Authority for advertising return ferry crossings in summer for 7 each - for a car and its passengers. Not even day trips in October with nine people in the vehicle appear to be available for 63.

To the credit of AFerry and to the ASA the ads have now been made clear.

You can't hire a car at the airport in Guadeloupe at this price

But these programmatic ads are everywhere all the time and though sometimes useful must not be misleading. Clickbait is one thing, misleading advertising is another.

If you were planning a trip to the film set of TV detective show of the moment Death in Paradise you need to fly to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean and probably hire a car.

If you thought Death in Paradise was implausible, check out the price of car hire on the island where it's filmed.

According to Argus Car Hire you can get one at Point a Pitre airport for 2 a day? Except you can't.

The cheapest I can find is a three-week rental for 254 in hurricane season, which works out at an impressive 12 a day - but that's still 500% more than advertised. And it's almost certainly per person and definitely not one way.

Argus said it was a technical error and that the ads would be removed.

And then this happened.

Free car hire. I don't think so.

Hello Advertising Standards Authority if you're watching.Most of us choose to give to charity  Britons gave around 9.7billion last year, according to the Charities Aid Foundation. But how do you know your money is having an impact?

As negative stories about particular charities emerge, such as the wrongdoing at Oxfam, or the furore over Kids Company, it can plant doubts about where our money is going  and even raise fears that it could be doing harm in some cases.

So how can you reassure yourself that your money is going to good causes? We run through the checks you can do, the warning signs to look out for and the rules to follow to increase the chances that your money is doing what you want it to.

Good cause: How to make sure your donations are making the greatest possible impact

1. See what the heavyweights are doing

To really understand a charity  to scrutinise what it does, how it spends money, what it achieves  takes a long time. It can be hard for an individual to go into this level of detail when theyre planning to give just a few pounds a month.

Caroline Fiennes, director of Giving Evidence, which encourages and enables giving based on sound evidence, suggests a strategy she calls copying someone elses homework. She says: There is no rigorous independent arbiter of how good organisations are.

'The quickest thing is to look at what the big, sensible donors do  and do what they do. I call it copying someone elses homework. Its the equivalent of investing like Warren Buffet.

'Who does the Gates Foundation give to, the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, or Comic Relief? They give a lot of money so you can trust they have done due diligence.

2. Look at the charitys impact and how they talk about it

Impact is what ultimately matters  not simply the activities that a charity carries out, but what those activities achieve.

You can learn a lot about a charity from the way it talks about its work on its website and in its annual report.

Does it improve every year, talk not just about what it does but the impact it has? What evidence is it basing its work on  does it have any proof that the activities it carries out are actually helping?

3. Mistakes are not necessarily a bad sign

It can be easy to be put off by charities that admit to failings or mistakes, understandably so when they are severe. However, the last few days have suggested that what makes it worse is when charities do not own up to their mistakes. Admitting to mistakes can be a good sign  it shows honesty.

A really good sign to look for in a charitys annual report is is it being honest about failures, says Angela Kail, head of the funders team at NPC, the charity think-tank. If we knew how to get all homeless people off the street, we would have done it.

'If we knew how to teach all kids perfect literacy we would be doing that. Most of the time some solutions work for some people but not everyone, some don't work at all.

'It is good when charities admit to that and learn from it.'

4. Look for progress

What has a charity achieved over the past year and how has it developed? A good charity will be able to talk about its successes and be able to point to changes it has made.

5. Dont get hung up on admin costs

It is understandable to want every penny of your hard-earned donation to go straight towards a charitys frontline activities  to buy blankets, build wells, research cures, whatever it may be. But admin is essential for a well-run charity.

Jane Hobson, head of policy at the Charity Commission says: You would not expect to find zero fundraising or administration costs except where the charity is very small-scale and run exclusively by volunteers; equally, it would need a very good reason for fundraising or administrative costs to take up more than half of the charitys yearly income.

She adds: Large or complex charities often need administrative support to ensure the charity is well run and spends money wisely.

Angela adds: These days most people work in an organisation where someone else takes out the rubbish or works in the reception  its exactly the same at a charity. Core costs have to be funded otherwise you would have specialist staff doing these jobs  which is a poor use of funds.

You wouldnt want, for example at Cancer Research, expert scientists doing the fundraising or updating the website. She adds that you dont want these costs to be super high, but 10 to 15 per cent is absolutely normal. The most important thing is impact.

Caroline notes that safeguarding procedures and maintaining complaints processes to keep staff and beneficiaries safe all require funding - which generally comes from the admin budget.

Take a look at the annual report: A charity's report can tell you a few things - especially if you know where to look

6. Find charities where your money is most needed

Some causes are much more popular than others.

There are some areas that are severely underfunded that need help. Victims of domestic violence, refugees and prisoners are some of these, says Angela.

If you have identified an area where you would like to help, make sure you find a charity that is having an impact.

7. Tell-tale signs that somethings not right

All charities must file their annual accounts to the Charity Commission for England and Wales, a government department that regulates registered charities and maintains a Central Register of Charities.

If a charity is late filing its accounts there will be a red flag saying Documents Overdue at the top of the page. Jane explains that late filing tends to be a symptom of the trustees not running their charity well and underlying governance problems or a lack of openness.

The Charity Commission website will also show if there is an enquiry open into the charity. If the charity has been investigated over the past two years, there will also be links to outcomes.

Jane adds: A statutory inquiry means the Charity Commission has recently or is currently investigating the charity. This is a big step for us to take in response to concerns about the charity and so does not happen to many charities.

8. Chief executive pay is not a barometer of a good charity

Pay should be proportionate. While some chief executives earn pay in the six figures, the vast majority dont get anywhere near that amount.

You have to think about the organisation that theyre running and is that a good figure to attract the talent needed, says Angela.

She adds that some are running huge organisations with massive fundraising operations, with a trading arm with more shops than Next does as a side job. In that context six figures doesnt seem out of kilter.

But again all this is in the context of impact, she says. 'It's better to double the salary if it means doubling the number of people that are helped than waste money on an ineffective organisation which has a lower chief executive salary.'

Another option: If you are still worried about tracking your money you could always volunteer instead

9. Ensuring your charity is not doing harm

There are many different checks you can do on a charity, but sometimes things will go wrong.

Angela adds that its really unrealistic to want to give to a charity and it never do anything wrong. Charities like Oxfam have 5,000 members of staff. Someone somewhere is probably doing something they shouldnt.

She adds that this cannot be an excuse not to give at all.

While you cant predict the next area of murkiness in charity, you can look for charities that are on top of their risks, with strategies to manage.

Angela explains that there is a section in most charitys accounts called risk to charity  this should tell you what risks the charity foresees and what it is doing to mitigate them. Oxfam now has a section in theirs called safeguarding.

Caroline adds that it's a good sign if a charity has a 'system for consulting the people it's trying to help'. This can help in terms of having the greatest impact, but also means that beneficiaries can report to the charity's headquarters or raise a complaint if they need to.

10. Ensure street collectors are genuine

Someone collecting for a genuine charity should be able to give you the charity's registration number, which you can verify on the Charity Commission's online register.

Collectors should also have an ID badge and their collection device should be sealed and their fundraising materials in good condition.

11. Once you find a charity you like, get the government to chip in as well

UK taxpayers can add Gift Aid to their donations. This allows charities to claim an extra 25p for every 1 you give and it wont cost you any extra.

You need to make a Gift Aid declaration for the charity to claim  the charity should explain the process to you when you make a donation.

If you are a higher rate taxpayer, you can claim the difference between the rate you pay and the basic rate on your donation  so you could end up with a tax refund as well.

12. If youre still worried about where your money is going, you could always volunteer

There are loads of charities that need your time where youll know youre making a difference. And if youre happy with how things are going and you can see the positive impact of the charity yourself, you could always donate money then as well.'The Shriek': Sanatander chairman Shriti Vaderaserved as business minister

On Whitehall they called her 'The Shriek'. As Gordon Brown's most trusted adviser, hot-breathed Shriti Vadera's volcanic eruptions were legendary.

The power-dressing former business minister stands barely 5 ft 2 in her Louboutins, but don't let her diminutive frame nor gentle, dowager-like tones fool you.

During her ten years in government, Shriti, 55, terrified junior staff, reduced experienced civil servants to nervous wrecks and even tore strips off a quivering Tony Blair.

True, she could be a handful. But speak to any of the senior figures involved in the banking crisis, and they'll tell you the bawling Baroness was one the few people in government who actually got things done.

Asked how he kept nuisance bankers in line, former chancellor Alistair Darling explained: 'You put them in a room with Shriti and lock the doors for a couple of hours.'

Her stewardship during this period was rewarded with the chairmanship of Santander UK.

Her 650,000-a-year role is under scrutiny after her chief executive Nathan Bostock was recently revealed to have overseen Royal Bank of Scotland's Global Restructuring Group, an odious business support unit said to have driven numerous small businesses into the ground.

Some feel Shriti should give him the heave-ho. For now, she insists Bostock is the right man for the job, though I dare say a few terse words have been handed down in private.

Her steeliness was forged during her first career at UBS Warburg. Ploughing a furrow through in the City during the 1980s amidst all the red braces and old school ties required thick skin. She thrived, thanks to sharp elbows and an exhaustive work ethic.

Her parents were wealthy. Born in Uganda, where her grandfather arrived from India in 1910 and became a successful entrepreneur, the Vaderas owned a tea plantation until Idi Amin's expulsion of Asians forced them to flee when she was just ten.

She was sent to an English private school before winning a place at Oxford. Contemporaries recall her hanging around with a rather bitchy crowd 'which enjoyed rubbishing everything'. It is said well-to-do Shriti would loftily boast she only wore silk undergarments.

After 14 years in the sink-or-swim world of investment banking, Gordon Brown lured her to the Treasury where she took on a number of high-profile assignments, including handling the partial privatisation of London Underground.

Terror: During her ten years in government, Shriti, 55, terrified junior staff, reduced experienced civil servants to nervous wrecks and even tore strips off a quivering Tony Blair

When Brown entered Downing Street, it was assumed Shriti would follow him there, but cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell wouldn't have it. Word was the Sir Humphrys were, by then, too rattled to work with her.

Instead she was ennobled Baroness Vadera of Holland Park and sent to be a minister at International Development.

She was moved to Peter Mandelson's Business Department six months later before taking a key position in the Cabinet Office during the financial crisis. After a tumultuous year cracking skulls and drafting the banking industry's rescue package, she departed for a job at the G20.

As well as her Santander berth, she has beefy directorships with BHP Billiton and Astrazeneca. Bit of a workaholic is Shriti.

She's said to have once rolled up at Downing Street at 5am demanding to discuss a pressing economic matter with Gordon Brown when the PM was still in his pyjamas.

As such, there's not much to report on the personal front. Her brother Rupin, 58, is boss of City firm First International Investments. She has never married.

She prefers to avoid the limelight, which is just as well. A say-it-as-she-sees it type of person, she's a bit of a public relations nightmare.

During a rare TV interview during the 2009 recession, a tactless observation that she was seeing 'some green shoots of recovery' sent Labour's hitherto well-oiled press machine into meltdown.

Formidable, forthright, tough-as-boot leather. All of the above. But perhaps it is also worth noting former Transport Minister Stephen Byers once observed: 'She can be forceful but sometimes she can be a real sweetie.'Are we surprised that when Carillion went under there was a huge deficit in its pension fund?

Are we surprised that the pension trustees had twice asked the Pension Regulator to force the construction giant to put more cash into the fund?

Are we surprised that the former finance director of Carillion told the trustees that he thought putting cash into the scheme was 'a waste of money'? I am afraid not.

This is partly a matter of regulation. As Frank Field MP, chair of the Work And Pensions Committee, put it to representatives of the regulator: 'They were shovelling money out to themselves, they were shovelling it to shareholders, why didn't you get them to shovel it to pensioners?'

When Carillion went under there was a huge deficit in its pension fund, despite the trustees having twice asked the regulator to force the construction giant to put more cash into the fund

But it is also a matter of policy, the way we have treated  or rather mistreated  pensions for many years.

It is little wonder so many are taking responsibility for their own pension saving.

A quarter of a century ago Britain had an occupational pension system that was the envy of the world.

Along with the Netherlands, we had better funded private pensions than any other country. The system was by no means perfect. Little more than half the private-sector workforce was properly covered.

There were scandals when a company chief stole from the pension pot. Robert Maxwell was the most notorious example of that. But it was a system that we could have developed into something even better.

We didn't. Instead we undermined it.

Governments of both colours have seen pensions as a soft target. Both have chopped and changed the amounts savers can put into their pension and the terms under which they can do so.

The cap on the total size of a personal pension pot is a tax on good investment. But the greatest damage was done by Gordon Brown in his first budget when he abolished the tax credit on dividends.

As a result of that change, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury received 117.9billion extra revenue between 1997 and 2014.

Add in interest and our company pension schemes would have an extra 250billion, maybe more, in the pot now.

As we reported last week nearly two-thirds of company schemes are in deficit and the total net deficit is 100billion. Had it not been for that tax raid, other things being equal, there would be a net pension surplus, not a pension deficit.

The catastrophic effect of that has been compounded by other factors.

For a start we are living longer and while that must be good news for us, it puts pressure on pensions.

Another matter is the rise and fall of different industries  a company in a growth sector hiring lots of young staff will be under less pressure than one in a declining sector laying off an ageing workforce.

Still another oddity is the way pension funding regulations work, in practice forcing funds into low-return fixed interest investments and discouraging them from investing in equities, which have over the long term produced much higher returns.

This has been particularly disadvantageous in this period of a share boom and falling bond prices.

Pressure: We are living longer and while that must be good news for us, it puts pressure on pensions

Regulation is designed to make funds invest against the interest of their pensioners, which is nuts. I suspect the underlying reason governments have not looked at this is because it is in their self-interest to hold down their borrowing costs.

It is a dismal litany, and it continues. I know that pension access is being extended by auto-enrolment and that is good.

But the so-called pension freedom, where people can take their pension pots and blow them surely undermines the whole idea of people saving for retirement.

The good news is that the Government is at least aware of all this and is making some progress with regulation.

The basic message it has to get across is that no one has any idea of the financial and social conditions in 2060 when the present 20-somethings will be drawing their pensions. But we do know people have to save more.

I was talking at a conference a while back, and asked the audience who they trusted to pay their pensions, the Government or their employer? A hand at the back went up. 'That is the wrong question,' the person said. 'There is a third option  ourselves.'

She was quite right.HSBC chairman Mark Tucker is reportedly axing three non executive director roles

BOARD SHAKE-UP The chairman of banking group HSBC is plotting a drastic shake-up of his boardroom, it is claimed.

Mark Tucker, who took the job last year, is reportedly axing three non executive director roles to leave a 14-strong board.

Those not standing for re-election are said to include Joachim Faber, chairman of German stock exchange Deutsche Boerse.

BIG DEALS There were 443.4million of deals for City offices last month  up 50 per cent on a year earlier, according to estate agent Savills.

Six agreements were struck in January, three involving British investors and three with Asian ones. Around 2.7billion of space is currently under offer.

SOLAR BOOST Investment titan Blackrock has snapped up 13.5 megawatts of UK solar panels in a 15million deal alongside partner Lightsource BP.

The firm bought the panels, enough to supply 13,500 homes, from Chinese company CTF Solar.

It means Blackrock backs more than 40 solar plants in Britain, generating about 350 megawatts.

SPANISH SELL-OFF The last Spanish operation has been sold for 178million by insurer Aviva as it seeks to focus on its most profitable businesses.

Bosses flogged their stake in life insurance and pensions joint ventures Cajamurcia Vida and Caja Granada Vida to Spanish banking group Bankia.

SWISS MISS Bosses at beleaguered bank Credit Suisse have vowed to fight on after losing a 251million court case over a failed Las Vegas resort.

A US appeals court found the lender had fraudulently lured investors, including Texas-based Highland Capital Management, to back the scheme, only for it to collapse into bankruptcy in 2008.

But Credit Suisse yesterday said it will continue to fight the judgement in the courts.British Airways has launched a war on low-cost long-haul airlines by offering its own cheaper deals to far-flung destinations.

The airline's owner IAG has faced increasing pressure from airlines which are offering flights to South America, the US and the Caribbean for a fraction of BA's ticket price.

British Airways has also struggled to appeal to business class customers and is overhauling its model to entice travellers to pay a premium with the airline again.

Flight fight: British Airways owner IAG has faced increasing pressure from airlines which are offering flights to South America, the US and the Caribbean for a fraction of BA's ticket price

Last year IAG launched low-cost long-haul airline Level and it also operates budget long-distance flights through its Irish carrier Aer Lingus.

Its increasing efforts come as Norwegian unveiled its first foray into South America with one-way flights from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires starting at 259.90.

The upstart firm has already had huge success with cheaper routes to New York.

Level runs flights from Paris and Barcelona which have previously been underserved by budget long-haul carriers.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, said the launch of Level has been 'fantastic' for the group, with three new aircraft planned for the airline this year, adding: 'It gives us significant advantages over our competitors.'

UK customers are taking advantage of cheaper flights by travelling to Dublin and flying with its budget carrier Aer Lingus, which flies to North America from 149 each way.

Ireland abolished air passenger duty in 2014, helping Dublin attract more routes.Serial business-buyer Phoenix Group was the talk of the trading floor yesterday after completing a 3.2billion deal for Standard Life Aberdeen's insurance business.

As part of the agreement SLA will get 2.3billion in cash and a 19.9 per cent stake in Phoenix.

Over the years, Phoenix has built a business hoovering up closed life books, known as 'zombie funds'.

The SLA deal means Phoenix will almost double the number of policyholders on its books to 10.4m, while it will receive an extra 158billion in assets.

It also marks the end of a 193-year association with the insurance industry for SLA, which was formed last year through the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.

Buyout boost: Phoenix Group has completed a 3.2bn deal for Standard Life Aberdeen's insurance business

Martin Gilbert, co-chief executive of SLA, said: 'Today's announcement represents a logical next step in Standard Life Aberdeen's journey to build a world-class investment company, positioning us strongly for the future and enabling us to meet the evolving needs of our customers and clients.'

Phoenix's shares finished up 7.3 per cent, or 55.5p, at 815p. However, Standard Life Aberdeen's price was down 2.5 per cent, or 9.6p, to 376.1p.

Just to confuse everyone, the similarly-named Phoenix Asset Management rode to the rescue of troubled stamp collector favourite Stanley Gibbons in a 19.5million deal yesterday.

Fund manager Phoenix, which owns three-quarters of toy maker Hornby, has bought a 58 per cent stake in the firm and has agreed to write off 7million of debt.

STOCK WATCH - DRIVER GROUP Shares in construction consultants Driver Group soared after it told investors its performance had exceeded expectations. In a trading update yesterday, results in the first four months of the year ending September 30 were significantly ahead of forecasts. It means the company, which was founded in 1978 and floated in 2015, is on track to beat the 1.2million profit it reported for 2017. Shares shot up 14.5 per cent, or 9.5p, to 75p.

It will also give the stamp firm 5.4million of working capital for its day-to-day operations and to buy new stock. Jersey-based Stanley Gibbons, founded in 1856, had been struggling under the weight of its debts and there were fears for the future of the company.

But the Phoenix deal has calmed investors' nerves and shares shot up 10.3 per cent, or 0.5p, to 5.35p.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 finished down for the second day in a row, falling 0.11 per cent, or 7.98 points, to 7244.41. The FTSE 250 fared better, ending the day up 0.33 per cent, or 64.99 points, at 19,801.05.

Shares in Welsh chipmaker IQE, whose technology is used in Apple's iPhone, continued their recovery after hedge funds accused the firm of deceiving investors earlier this month.

Not one for shirking a skirmish, plucky US investment firm Muddy Waters Capital branded the Cardiff-based firm an 'egregious accounting manipulator'.

Muddy Waters claimed CSC, a joint venture between IQE and Cardiff University, was nothing more than an 'alter ego' of the Welsh firm and did not have any customers  well, apart from IQE itself.

It argued IQE, which of course has refuted the claims, was misleading its investors.

Drew Nelson, chief executive of IQE, told this column that Thursday's announcement of a new tie up between CSC and tech firm ICS to create components for high-speed broadband was proof that Muddy Waters had been talking a load of old tosh. Investors sided with IQE: at closing yesterday IQE's share price was up 12.5 per cent, or 15.5p, to 139p.

Shares in Rightmove inched higher after the firm released a set of stonking results.

Its revenue jumped 11 per cent in 2017 while profits were up 10 per cent as the firm managed to persuade a record number of estate agents to list their properties on its site. It now advertises more than 1m properties, the firm said. Shares rose 4 per cent, or 172p, to 4482p.

However, rival On The Market struggled yesterday, despite announcing Chancellors Group of Estate Agents had started advertising properties on its website. Shares were down 2.7 per cent, or 4.5p, to 162p.A handful of small-scale household gas and electricity suppliers are at significant risk of failure, according to energy insiders.

Should a supplier flop - as Future Energy did earlier this month - it would plunge households into billing limbo and threaten consumers appetite for switching deals to save money.

Stronger competition is needed to break the dominance of the Big Six suppliers - British Gas, E.On, ScottishPower, npower, EDF Energy and SSE.

A handful of small-scale household gas and electricity suppliers are at significant risk of failure, according to energy insiders

But the worry now is that too many new entrants have flooded the arena, with some taking customer money upfront and operating as novices in a market that could swallow profits in a flash.

The number of new energy companies supplying British homes has increased by more than a third in little more than a year - from 48 in late 2016 to 66 now.

Joe Malinowski, of comparison website TheEnergyShop, says: Customers should be wary of companies asking for money upfront before they have even taken over the supply of gas and electricity to your home.

Some will rely heavily on your money while gambling on wholesale energy markets, without fixing deals in advance. They are at risk of going bust quickly, especially if they have minimal equity in the business acting as a buffer.

SUPPLIER OF LAST RESORT

When an energy provider goes bust, market regulator Ofgem appoints a supplier to take over customer accounts - a process known as supplier of last resort.

Households who are transferred to a new provider are placed on a deemed contract, which could be more expensive than the old deal because the new provider is taking on more risk and cost. Ofgem says any credit built up with the old supplier would be protected.

This safety net scheme has only been used twice in the last ten years. But both times have been in the last 15 months, coinciding with a boom in the number of new energy providers.

Most recently it was used for customers of Future Energy which ceased trading earlier this month. Its 10,000 customers have been shunted over to rival supplier Green Star Energy.

Advice: The Energy Shops Joe Malinowski

Previously the rescue rules were used for GB Energy Supply - back in November 2016 - when Co-operative Energy was chosen to absorb 160,000 customer accounts.

Ethical energy provider Brighter World Energy, which used its profits to establish electricity supply in remote African villages, also folded in December last year.

As a partner of not-for-profit provider Robin Hood Energy, owned by Nottingham City Council, a supplier of last resort was not needed. Customers were transferred over to Robin Hood Energy on the same terms.

But there could be more trouble to come as record numbers of customers abandon the Big Six and move to challenger brands.

Small and medium-sized companies netted 175,000 and 165,000 customers respectively in October last year - a rise of 92 per cent and 140 per cent from December 2016.

Of the 400,000 households who changed electricity tariffs in January this year, one quarter chose a small or mid-tier supplier.

Key steps for customers who want to change their deals l do not be deterred from finding a better tariff, even if the list of new entrants seems overwhelming. If you decide only to opt for a familiar brand name, a cheaper tariff is still likely to be available  especially for those who have never switched or have not for a while. Use a comparison website such as TheEnergyShop, uSwitch or comparethemarket to find a new deal. For further guidance about how to switch visit citizensadvice.org.uk/energy.

such as TheEnergyShop, uSwitch or comparethemarket to find a new deal. For further guidance about how to switch visit citizensadvice.org.uk/energy. Read customer opinions about individual suppliers before switching. You can get an idea of gripes and concerns on review website Trustpilot.

about individual suppliers before switching. You can get an idea of gripes and concerns on review website Trustpilot. Check whether a company asks for money upfront before it has even taken over your energy supply. This is an indication of a company being hungry for customers money because it has limited financial backing, which you may not be comfortable with.

before it has even taken over your energy supply. This is an indication of a company being hungry for customers money because it has limited financial backing, which you may not be comfortable with. Ask whether a supplier offers the Warm Home Discount . If you are on a low income or receive the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit you are eligible for a 140 discount on your electricity bill. You can see a list of energy companies signed up to the discount scheme at gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme.

. If you are on a low income or receive the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit you are eligible for a 140 discount on your electricity bill. You can see a list of energy companies signed up to the discount scheme at gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme. Wait a short while if you are being transferred to a new energy company because yours went bust. Delay comparing and switching until your account has been moved and the dust has settled.

if you are being transferred to a new energy company because yours went bust. Delay comparing and switching until your account has been moved and the dust has settled. Remember the Energy Switch Guarantee . It is free and ensures your new provider takes all responsibility for the switch within 21 days. This time-frame will in future be reduced to just one day. The old provider must send a final bill no later than six weeks after the switch and any credit owed must be refunded no later than 14 days after that. To find the list of participants in the guarantee, visit energyswitchguarantee.com/signatories.

Many young suppliers have built up their brands and are now established challengers to the Big Six. Often they represent good value for money and are recognised for good customer service. But experts say others have yet to prove themselves and it is likely they are not sitting on firm financial foundations.

Peter Earl, head of energy at switching website comparethemarket, says: There is a risk in choosing a start-up. Companies which are small, new and poorly capitalised may not have sufficient scale to meet their customers energy requirements.

The collapse of companies such as Future Energy and GB Energy Supply can make customers worry about switching away from a trusted, more established provider.

TOO EASY TO START AN ENERGY COMPANY

There is criticism of regulator Ofgem for too readily waving new providers through the licence application process.

Gillian Guy, of consumer group Citizens Advice, says: New entrants to the market should face greater scrutiny.

It is too easy for new firms to set themselves up as energy suppliers, often before they are able to provide good quality customer service.

Ultimately it is energy customers who pay the price when firms are not up to scratch.

Ofgem concedes that granting a new supplier a licence does not give an indication about the financial health of the company.

It says it only carries out checks on applicants to confirm they are not insolvent where possible. But a spokesman says it closely monitors suppliers conduct and any potential risks to consumers.

Malinowski says: The hurdles for setting up as an energy supplier are low.

Companies that already have a licence ready to go can simply be bought off the shelf.

An example of this is Supplier in a Box operated by Utiligroup - offering a new entrant everything it needs to get up and running.

It was behind Co-operative Energy which has flourished as a mid-tier provider.

Another customer was Tempus Energy, which closed its UK energy supply business following the Brexit vote in 2016. The company asked Ofgem to revoke its electricity supply licence and all of its customers switched elsewhere.

CUSTOMER SERVICE PROBLEMS

Householders comparing tariffs should be careful not to pick a deal on price alone.

Malinowski says: It is a minefield out there. If you have not heard of a company you have to do your research.

Check the terms and conditions for payment and read customer and energy expert reviews.

Though bigger energy providers field the highest proportion of complaints, when a small supplier hits a bump in the road often it does not have the resources to deal with problems swiftly.

For example, Nottingham-based gas and electricity supplier Iresa, which is being investigated by Ofgem over its treatment of customers, has struggled with large volumes of calls.

When The Mail on Sunday tried calling the company last week, it was 110th in the queue.

Despite the broad spectrum of customer experiences across the market, switching is still the easiest way to save significant sums of money on bills.

Earl adds: People should not be put off switching for two good reasons.

First, it is the best means of saving hundreds of pounds a year on your energy bill.

Secondly, if a company collapses, Ofgem will transfer your contract to a new provider and at no time should you lose power.Most companies dread being told their products suck. But for rival vacuum cleaner companies Dyson and SharkNinja it is the highest of compliments  and they are set to defend their suction power in a court battle.

US firm SharkNinja has doubled its market share in the UK in the past year. It now sells one in five upright vacuum cleaners in Britain.

The company tried to lure customers from Dyson with an advertising campaign that claimed two of Sharks cordless vacuum cleaners have better suction power than Dysons bestselling V8 model.

Battle: Dyson, founded by Sir James Dyson (pictured above), has filed a lawsuit

Dyson has now filed a lawsuit saying the claims are misleading.

However, SharkNinja insists its advertising campaign is fair and did not infringe Dysons trademarks. It complains that by resorting to court action Dyson is trying to undermine the advertising watchdog, which usually settles marketing disputes.

Sharks European boss Matt Broadway, a former Dyson employee, said: The industry is an aggressively competitive market and it is not unusual for this to get litigious.

'However, we are disappointed Dyson has brought litigation through the courts rather than seeking redress through the Advertising Standards Authority, which is set up to handle exactly this kind of dispute.

Invader: US company SharkNinja is cleaning up in the UK market

SharkNinja dropped its TV and online ads after Dyson filed the legal claim last September to take the heat out of the dispute.

The fierce rivals have previously sued each other in the US.

A Dyson spokesman said: Dyson takes action to protect ourselves against competitors misleading claims.The history of the Comanchero motorcycle club covers half a century but can be told through the stories of just two violent men: Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi and Jock Ross.

Ross was the gruff Glasgow-born former soldier who founded the club on the New South Wales Central Coast with four other motorcycle enthusiasts on April 15, 1966.

Hawi was the Beirut-born onetime show pony shot dead aged 37 in his Mercedes SUV after leaving a gym at Rockdale, in southern Sydney, on February 15.

Ross, the Comanchero's self-styled 'supreme commander', led the gang into the 1984 Milperra Massacre, in which four of his men as well as two Bandidos and a 14-year-old girl died.

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Comanchero bikies make their annual run from Milperra to Palmdale Cemetery to visit graves of their brothers killed in the Father's Day massacre of 1984

Mahmoud 'Mick' Mawi took over the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang when he was just 22

Jock Ross founded the Comanchero on the principles of brotherhood, respect and loyalty

The Comanchero bikie gang was founded by former soldier Jock Ross on a paramilitary model

Mourners lift an empty coffin above their heads at the burial of Mick Hawi on Thursday

Hawi, as the gang's 'national president', was in control when the Comanchero bashed a Hells Angels associate to death inside Sydney Airport in 2009.

Ross and Hawi were responsible for two of the most horrifying bikie incidents in the nation's history and brought more police attention on outlaw motorcycle gangs than anyone else.

The point the Comanchero moved from being bike-riding white yobbos to a multicultural organised criminal group can be traced to when Ross and Hawi violently crossed paths.

Hawi was buried on Thursday after an Islamic service at the Al Zahra mosque at Arncliffe, in Sydney's south, attended by hundreds of mourners and watched by a large contingent of police.

As Hawi was being farewelled, a 35-year-old man was shot at a Melbourne tattoo parlour which has had links to the Comanchero. The gang seems in disarray.

Following the Milperra Massacre, Ross had maintained nominal control of the Comanchero for almost 20 years until a new breed of bikie arrived.

Rapid recruitment of Middle Eastern members in the late 1990s, along with an increasing involvement in the drug trade were splitting the gang. The young had no respect for the old.

Bikies at the scene of the Milperra Massacre outside the Viking Tavern on Father's Day 1984

The Comanchero's war with the Hells Angels culminated in a violent brawl in Sydney Airport's domestic terminal in 2009 (pictured), which ended in Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas being bashed to death with a bollard

The Comanchero made headlines in 1984 after a clash between the gang and their rivals, the Bandidos, killed seven people

Ross was by then spending much of his time in retirement on the Central Coast near Mangrove Mountain when a group of the new brigade, including Hawi, drove up to visit about 2002.

According to former detective Duncan McNab's book Outlaw Bikers in Australia, the visitors were concerned about the gang's leadership and told Ross they wanted to chat.

The new members of the Comanchero, young and fearless, respected only money and power and had no time for how the old guard - including their club's founding father - wanted things run.

'Ross was unsuspecting and outnumbered and the discussion was quick and violent,' McNab wrote. 'The Comancheros, led my Mick Hawi, delivered a comprehensive beating to the much older leader.

'They left him battered and took both his club colours and his Harley-Davidson. It was the outlaw equivalent of spitting in Jock's face.'

Ross was about 60. Hawi was barely 21. Within a year Hawi was national president and Ross's leadership was done.

NSW police hold up a Comanchero banner after major anti-bikie raids in Sydney in 2013

William George Jock Ross (pictured) founded the Comanchero in New South Wales in 1966

Hawi joined the Comanchero at the age of just 18. At the time he was already dating Gonzaelz, who he met at high school

Ross's simple world was filled with blokes nicknamed Sunshine, Peewee and Lard. Hawi's complex orbit would include men with surnames such as Ngakuru, Ibrahim and Bazzi.

To understand where the club was now heading we need to go back to the start.

The Comanchero website states five men, including Ross, set up the club to pursue three common interests: brotherhood, respect and loyalty.

From the beginning it was keen to recruit former soldiers and the gang was run on paramilitary lines.

All Comanchero were originally required to swear allegiance to Comanchero law and the club's supreme commander, Jock Ross.

The brotherhood of the Comanchero was not a 'do as you like' social club. Members had to adhere to Ross's Ten Commandments, including that they not use hard drugs.

Comanchero Ten Commandments 1. The President is the Supreme Commander of the Comanchero. 2. Any member found guilty of cowardice will be thrown out of the Club. 3. Any member found guilty of stealing from a member of the Club itself will be thrown out of the Club. 4. Any member found guilty of screwing another member's Real Ol' Lady or taking advantage of a rift between them for future 'conning up' will be thrown out. 5. Any member found guilty of breeding dissension in the Club (ie Running down the President of the Club or Club policies in any way, shape of form - or bad s*** rumours) will be thrown out. 6. Any member found guilty of selling, distributing or using hard drugs will be thrown out. 7. Any member found guilty of using their superior ability to 'con' another member or nominated member out of their bikes, money or valuables will be severely dealt with. 8. Any member found guilty of not helping another member who is in genuine trouble, not bulls*** trouble, will be severely dealt with. 9. Any member found guilty of divulging Club business to anyone not a member, unless directed by the President, will be severely dealt with. 10. Any member found guilty of wearing his Colours on or around anything other than a British or American motorcycle of 500cc or more will be severely dealt with. Advertisement

The Comanchero claim to follow a strict policy of not associating with other outlaw motorcycle club members and have made particular enemies of the Bandidos, Hells Angels and Nomads.

'We are the infamous Comanchero MC,' the club's website states. 'Hated by some but respected by all.

'This is a brotherhood about quality not quantity, so you're either on our side or in the f***ing way.'

The club states that from the 1970s it developed into a 'brotherhood of Comos' who just wanted to 'ride free' and have fun.

'But the club soon caused nervousness among the local police as they never understood the lifestyle the club chose to live,' its website says.

That lifestyle was largely ignored by the general public until events in the carpark of the Viking Tavern at Milperra in south-western Sydney on September 2, 1984.

The Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang was founded on principles of loyalty and respect

Detectives arrest a Comanchero member after the fatal fight at Sydney Airport in 2009

Hawi was gunned down in the car park of Fitness First, a gym at Rockdale, in Sydney's south, on February 15

On that Father's Day the Comanchero engaged in a gun battle with the Bandidos, who had formed their own gang when a Comanchero chapter split from Ross. Seven people died.

The fallout from the massacre included prison sentences - Ross served the longest, doing just five years and three months - and led to changes in gun laws.

Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi arrived in Australia with his parents, brother and three sisters the year after the Milperra slaughter.

After the Father's Day massacre, bikies were no longer just seen as hairy outsiders who enjoyed riding motorcyles but their criminal enterprises were just warming up.

COMANCHERO OMCG The Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang was formed by five men on the NSW Central Coast in 1966. Original leader William George 'Jock' Ross was a former soldier from Scotland. The Comanchero engaged in a gun battle with the Bandidos which killed seven people at Milperra in 1984. Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi joined the gang in the late 1990s aged just 18 and was its president by 2003. Hawi led a group of new recruits from Middle Eastern and Islander backgrounds who attacked Ross in his home. The Lebanese-born bikie was jailed over the fatal attack on Hells Angel associate Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in 2009. Hawi was shot dead outside a Sydney gym while he sat in his Mercedes SUV on February 15. Advertisement

In 1988, Melbourne Comanchero Amad 'Jay' Malkoun was caught with heroin worth $5.5million and served more than a decade behind bars.

While some club members made lots of money, inter-gang violence was largely out of the news.

'They still hate each other's guts but they're not stupid,' one bikie said on the Milperra Massacre's tenth anniversary. 'Besides, they are too busy with other more profitable activities.'

In early 1994 a crime summit was held in Sydney where it was mooted that by 2000 there would be just six major gangs in the country: the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Rebels, Outlaws, Black Uhlans and Nomads.

Under the proposal, designed to concentrate control of increasingly lucrative drug markets, dubbed the Australia 2000 Pact, the Comanchero would be frozen out.

However, the Comanchero survived, even if some of its members did not.

In 1999 Comanchero Peter Michael John Ledger was dumped in the driveway of his ex-wife's home at Erskine Park. He had been tortured and beaten to death.

Two years later the gang's clubhouse in the same western suburb was firebombed, during a period the Comanchero were in a war with the Nomads which featured bashings and drive-by shootings.

Mourners at Mick Hawi's funeral on Thursday are led by a man carrying a picture of the bikie

Murdered father-of-two Mick Hawi had a penchant for gold jewellery and flash sports cars

Police dismantling a Comanchero clubhouse carry a sign to a waiting truck after a 2013 raid

Mick Hawi took over the Comanchero as the gang and stacked it with Middle Eastern members

For the first 20 years of its existence Comanchero gang members had predominantly been Anglo-Saxon and rode bikes.

In the early years of this century the Comanchero, like other Australian gangs, were recruiting outside their traditional white base.

Nightclub identify John Ibrahim's older brother Sam had become president of the Nomads chapter in Parramatta in 1997 and is often credited with turning Australian OMCGs into Middle Eastern crime groups.

Dr Michael Kennedy, head of the University of Western Sydneys Bachelor of Policing program and a former detective, said the Comanchero were ripe to be overtaken.

'The problem was although Jock Ross presented himself as the lifetime president of the Comanchero he wasn't that highly regarded,' Dr Kennedy said.

'Even back in the 80s just prior to Milperra there was a whole range of them that were sick to death of him.'

Rolls Royces led a procession of vehicles at the funeral of former Comanchero Mick Hawi

A vehicle used by those involved in the murder of bikie Mick Hawi was torched and dumped

Police from Strike Force Raptor raid a Comanchero clubhouse on the NSW Central Coast

Mick Hawi stepped up and took control in 2003. Hawi, at least, could ride a motorbike.

In the post-Jock Ross world, Comanchero members were often heavily-tattooed gym junkies of Middle Eastern and Islander backgrounds who got around in flash cars.

Hawi had joined the Comanchero aged 18 in the late 1990s but it would be years after he deposed Ross before his name was widely known.

Following his elevation to national president Hawi moved the Comanchero's Sydney base from Granville, in the city's west, to a clubhouse at Marrickville in the inner-west.

He hit the news briefly in 2005 following the Cronulla race riots when the Comanchero and Maroubra's Bra Boys surf gang held a joint press conference calling for the violence to stop.

Under Hawi, the Comanchero further expanded their recruitment to include young Middle Eastern and Greek men from the Botany Bay and Hurstville areas in Sydney's south, according to Duncan McNab.

They also targeted men of Serbian background - some of whom had fought during the break-up of Yugoslavia - around Wollongong.

The Comanchero continue to recruit ex-military men. Joshua Faulkhead, who served as a sniper in Afghanistan, was first brought into the gang as a bodyguard.

He was soon dispatched to Mildura in north-west Victoria where he ran ice, cociane and ecstasy for the gang. Faulkhead, who warned customers he was known as the 'White Devil' in Afghanistan, is currently in jail.

Hawi's leadership coincided with growing tensions between the Comanchero and the Hells Angels.

In 2006 a senior gang investigator said: 'The Comanchero are back and recruiting.'

'You see a lot of brand new Comanchero patches around now. If they weren't wearing the same patches you'd think they were from a different group.'

Army sniper Joshua Faulkhead was recruited into the Comanchero gang as a bodyguard

Former Comanchero boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was murdered last week in broad daylight

Hawi enforced strict rules that gang nominees must obey all orders without question, including committing crimes such as drug deals and assaults.

Members were forbidden to speak to police and had to contact specific solicitors if arrested and say nothing until that lawyer arrived, according to McNab.

Club business was never to be conducted by telephone and most importantly president Hawi had to always be protected from attack.

In November 2007 a car in which Hawi was travelling was hit by bullets outside Grappa Ristorante at Leichhardt in Sydney's inner-west.

Two men had pulled up and fired up to 10 shots before speeding away.

Also in 2007 a Hells Angels clubhouse at Petersham in Sydney's inner-west was firebombed. A few days later a Comanchero was shot in the leg by four men allegedly wearing Hells Angels colours.

Meanwhile, Hells Angel member Peter Zervas had set up a tattoo parlour at Brighton-Le-Sands, south of the city, which the Comanchero considered their patch.

The tattoo parlour was firebombed. Another Hells Angels-controlled tattoo parlour in Petersham was shot up.

Mark Buddle assumed the Comanchero leadership after Mick Hawi and is believed to be living somewhere in Europe still trying to control club affairs

On March 22, 2009, Hawi was on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney with other Comanchero. Hells Angels president Derek Wainohu was also on board.

Wainohu, feeling intimidated by the Comanchero's presence contacted gang members in Sydney, who headed for the airport. Comanchero members did the same thing.

When the two groups met in the domestic terminal, 12 Comanchero confronted five Hells Angels, punching and kicking each other.

Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas, brother of Anthony, was bludgeoned with a bollard and stabbed in the abdomen and chest. He died in the brawl.

Eight days of the Zervas killing, his brother Peter was shot at least four times in the driveway of his family home at Lakemba in Sydney's south-west.

That murder in front of dozens of horrified witnesses led to a NSW police crackdown on bikies that has not let up.

Comanchero founder and former British soldier William 'Jock' Ross pictured on Anzac Day

In the aftermath of the airport attack Hawi organised a meeting in an effort to calm tensions between the Comanchero and Hells Angels and to discuss strict new laws targeting bikie gangs.

Hawi was eventually charged with the murder of Zervas, found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of 21 years.

[That conviction was overturned on appeal in 2014, Hawi pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and was released for time already served in 2015].

In Hawi's prison-enforced absence from the Comanchero, Daux Hohepa Ngakuru became president. When Ngakuru left Australia in 2010, Mark Buddle was appointed the boss.

The violence continued as the gang spread.

In November 2012, Comanchero Faalau Pisu was killed when he was shot twice in the head at a fellow gang member's wedding reception at a Serbian function centre at Canley Vale, in Sydney's south-west.

Comanchero Faalau Pisu was shot dead at a Serbian wedding reception at Rhodes in 2012

Two days later Comanchero John Devine - Buddle's cousin - was shot at Rhodes in western Sydney but survived.

In 2013 former senior Comanchero Hayan Chandab was shot in the head, back, shoulder and leg outside his home at St Marys, in western Sydney. He survived.

Buddle fled the country in 2016 and is believed to be living in Europe.

Buddle's right-hand man, Ali Bazzi, who had been travelling in Europe with Buddle, returned to Australia and was reportedly involved in a punch-up with another high-ranking Comanchero, Mezan Chandab, in 2017.

That altercation reportedly led Buddle to send a text message to Comanchero in Australia which read: 'I'm the f***ing commander of the world... no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission.'

With a leadership power vacuum causing unrest, individual members have still managed to cause mayhem, while the broader big business of drug dealing goes on.

Hawi's wife Carolina Gonzaelz poses for a photo with Daux Ngakuru, himself a former boss of the Comanchero

Commanchero national leader-in-exile Mark Buddle leaving a Melbourne court in 2012

An Adelaide-based Comanchero member was last year sentenced to a minimum four years' jail for stabbing a stranger in front of his terrified seven-year-old daughter.

Raymond Patrick Harley Jones went on the run after stabbing the man and taunted South Australian police with a number of social media posts.

The onetime Victorian president of the Comanchero, Mick Murray, has been described recently as the national president.

Murray and his wife were last year caught allegedly owing the tax office up to $4million. He is currently in jail.

Alleged Comanchero Onur Ada was arrested on the Gold Coast in November and charged with trafficking cocaine.

Unlike many criminal groups the Comanchero are said to both import and distribute their own drugs.

From its humble Central Coast beginnings the club moved to Sydney and through NSW and now has chapters in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth as well as Sarajevo, Russia and Spain.

The club now brags of the 'Black and Gold Empire', and the 'Condor Empire', named for the bird of prey on the Comanchero colours.

Raymond Patrick Harley Jones went on the run after stabbing a man in South Australia

Raymond Patrick Harley Jones (picutred), an Adelaide-based Commanchero, was sentenced to a minimum four years jail for stabbing a random man in front of his terrified daughter last year

A court heard in 2015 the gang had about 400 members, more than half of them in NSW.

Police have described the Comanchero as Australia's most tech-savvy outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG), being the first to adopt encrypted BlackBerry devices to communicate.

Hawi had apparently not rejoined his Comanchero brothers since leaving prison but was still in touch with some former associates.

The motive for his murder is unclear.

Dr Kennedy said Hawi, who was apparently well-liked even by some members of rival gangs, seemed to live a relatively private life.

'There's a lot more people surprised he was shot then you'd think,' he said.

'It's inevitable in groups like bikies there's going to be violence. It's inevitable that people are going to be shot.

'Mick Hawi did everything he could to minimise that risk. He failed.'

Who now controls the Comanchero remains unclear. But Jock Ross, 74, may outlast them all.Justin Stahmer, 39, was charged with making a false distress signal and threatening US Coast Guard employees on Tuesday

A man who drunkenly made a false distress call to the US Coast Guard that there was someone overboard because his boat was out of gas was sentenced 56 months in prison.

Justin Stahmer, 39, from Newport News, Virginia, called a distress signal to the coast guard that a man was overboard.

But actually Stahmer was drunk on his boat and out of gas in the Chesapeake Bay, so he needed a lift back to land.

The Coast Guard sent two boats and a helicopter to look for the person overboard but only found Stahmer by himself.

Stahmer was sentenced 56 months on Tuesday for making the false distress call and threatening Coast Guard officers who boarded his boat.



Stahmer made the distress signal on June 26, 2016, when he was near Cape Henry in Virginia.

Stahmer called the US Coast Guard after his boat ran out of gas but lied and said a man was overboard. He was intoxicated when the Coast Guard showed up

The 39 year old from Newport News, Virginia, kicked a US Coast Guard worker while they were bringing him back to shore. The police were called and had to arrest him

The Coast Guard interviewed him for more than 45 minutes over the radio before sending out a 45-foot rescue boat, an 87-foot cutter and a Sikorsky HH-60 helicopter to rescue the alleged man overboard.

But all they found that night was Stahmer by himself on his boat.

He at first denied the distress call before saying he actually called the Coast Guard because his boat was out of gas.

When Coast Guard officials attempted to board Stahmer's boat, he became belligerent and police were called to arrest him.

Pictured is Stahmer's previous mugshot in April 2016. He reportedly brandished a weapon at a deli and threatened to 'kill' an employee while drunk. He has a history of disorderly conduct

The US Coast Guard used two boats and a helicopter to find the missing person overboard before they realized Stahmer had lied. He now has to spend 56 months in prison

While being transported back to shore, Stahmer kicked and threatened one official saying he would 'take him out' if he ever saw him again.

This was not the first time Stahmer drunkenly threatened people.

Two months prior in to this arrest, in April 2016, he was charged with brandishing a weapon and public intoxication at a deli.

Deli employees in Newport News told police that Stahmer threatened to 'kill' some of them and was carrying a gun while intoxicated.

Assistant US Attorney Joseph Kosky said Stahmer had a history of disorderly behavior, but has yet to receive a 'meaningful sentence'.

Stahmer will serve his 56-month sentence in federal prison.The armed deputy was has been labeled a 'coward' by President Trump after he hid while a shooting was underway at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had previously been named employee of the month.

An internal memo on Scot Peterson's personnel file shows that he earned the distinction in May 2012, and was given the honor in large part for his work with the students.

'Your district has recognized you as an exemplary deputy who has made a difference in the community where you serve,' reads the memo.

Performance evaluations included in that same file also show that Peterson received glowing performance reviews.

And in March 2017, Peterson was nominated for Deputy of the Year.

Winner: Scot Peterson was named employee of the month in May 2012 and deputy of the year in 2014 (above in December 2014 with the principal at Marjory Douglas)

'Throughout 2016, Deputy Peterson conducted numerous investigations. He always went the extra step and followed through on each case and conducted thorough follow ups,' wrote the recommending officer.

'The crimes he handled including property crimes, assaults, and batteries, aggravated assaults, and narcotics violations. His investigative skills resulted in numerous arrests and recovered property.'

The recommendation also noted that Peterson 'uses appropriate resources at his disposal, including mental health professionals and investigators from the school board.'

His recommendation for that honor came in the wake of his last annual review.

It also said that Peterson was expected to 'continue to produce the high level of service to the students and staff at his school' while recommending her 'seek specialized training related to his duties as an SRO.'

Deputy Peterson was the only law enforcement officer present on February 14 when the rampage started, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Peterson's actions were caught on video during the massacre, which ranks as the second-deadliest shooting ever at a U.S. public school, carried out by a lone gunman wielding a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault rifle.

'What I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of Building 12, take up a position and he never went in,' said Sheriff Israel, referring to the building on campus, popularly known as the 'freshman building,' where authorities said the bulk of the shooting occurred.

Israel told reporters the shooting in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland lasted six minutes, and that Peterson arrived at the freshman building about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired, then lingered outside for at least four minutes.

Asked what the deputy should have done, Israel replied: 'Went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.'

Peterson has not given a reason for why he did not enter the building, Israel said.

Neither the deputy nor any representatives could immediately be reached for comment.

Israel said he would not release the video at this time and may never do so, 'depending on the prosecution and criminal case' against Cruz, the 19-year-old former student who is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the assault.

Authorities have said that Cruz, who was expelled from Stoneman Douglas High last year for unspecified disciplinary problems, made his getaway moments after the shooting by blending in with students fleeing the school for safety.

Police officers arriving on the scene from the adjacent city of Coral Springs thought the gunman was still inside as they searched the building, based on a security camera video feed that they mistakenly believed was showing them real-time images but was actually footage from 20 minutes earlier.

Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi told reporters on Thursday that the confusion stemmed from human error and a 'communication failure,' not malfunctioning equipment.

He insisted that the mishap did not put any lives in danger.

The Broward sheriff has said Cruz, after slipping away from the school, casually spent more than an hour drifting through a Walmart store and visiting two fast-food outlets before he was spotted and arrested.

Israel said Thursday he had decided on the basis of his findings to suspend Peterson, but the deputy resigned first.

Israel said two other deputies were placed on restrictive administrative assignment, stemming from their response to numerous calls for service and reports received by the sheriff's department pertaining to Cruz during the past 10 years.

The shooting renewed a national debate between proponents of gun rights, as enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and advocates for tougher restrictions on firearms.

High school students from Stoneman Douglas and elsewhere around the country have launched a protest and lobbying campaign demanding new curbs on assault weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested school gun violence could be abated by arming teachers.

On Thursday, the head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, lashed out at gun control advocates, accusing liberal elites of politicizing the Florida mass shooting to try to attack 'our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.'

The carnage also raised questions about whether law enforcement agencies did all they could to detect and follow up on possible warning signs of last week's gun violence in advance.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation prompted widespread outrage last Friday when it said it had failed to act on a tip warning that a man, since identified as Cruz, had possessed a gun, the desire to kill and the potential to commit a school shooting.

The revelation prompted Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, to call for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli appeared in court on Friday for the first time since a judge locked him up for his online antics and the brash former pharmaceutical CEO showed off a scruffy beard and muscles.

He also was wearing a loose-fitting jail uniform instead of street clothes as he listened to the government argue that he's on the hook for more than $7million for his securities fraud conviction.

'Under the circumstances, I think he's doing remarkably well,' his attorney, Ben Brafman, told reporters when asked about his client's stint in a fortress-like federal jail in Brooklyn.

'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli appeared in court on Friday for the first time since a judge locked him up for his online antics. He now has a beard and looks more muscular

Shkreli was convicted on charges he cheated investors in two failed hedge funds

The 34-year-old seems to be working out in prison, as he looked more muscular during his latest court appearance.

According to a New York Post source, he is enjoying his time in Brooklyns Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is liked by other inmates.

'They dont put their arms around him and say "Give me your money" like they do to other new prisoners they like him,' said the source.

Shkreli was convicted on charges he cheated investors in two failed hedge funds.

U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto didn't immediately rule on the government's demand that Shkreli should have to forfeit $7.3 million in assets, including the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album that he has boasted he bought for $2million.

Prosecutors also want him to give up $5million in cash in a brokerage account, his interest in a pharmaceutical company and other valuables including a Picasso painting.

According to a New York Post source, he is enjoying his time in Brooklyns Metropolitan Detention Center, where he is liked by other inmates

'Under the circumstances, I think he's doing remarkably well,' said his attorney, Ben Brafman (pictured right entering the Brooklyn court on Friday)

The defense has argued that Shkreli owes nothing, because the hedge fund investors actually ended up making a profit off drug company stock he gave them. It also says that unlike most securities fraud cases, Shkreli himself never made anything off the scheme.

'This case was never about money as far as Mr. Shkreli is concerned,' the defense said in court papers. The papers added: 'Simply put, Mr. Shkreli was not indicted because he stole anyone's money.'

Shkreli is perhaps best known for boosting the price of a life-saving drug and for trolling his critics on social media, where he became known as 'Pharma Bro.'

Shkreli was out on bail during his trial last year. But the judge decided to jail him in December for violating his bail conditions because of a social media posting offering a $5,000 bounty to anyone who could get a lock of Hillary Clinton's hair while she was on a book tour.

Shkreli's sentencing is set for March 9. He faces as many as 20 years in prison.

The 34-year-old was on bail but a judge decided to jail him in December after offered a $5,000 bounty to anyone who could get a lock of Hillary Clinton's hair while she was on a book tourMark Fort, 52, is accused of shooting at a costumer's car on Wednesday morning

An Ohio McDonald's manager is facing assault charges after allegedly firing shots at a customer through a drive-thru window.

Cleveland police issued an arrest warrant for 52-year-old Mark Fort on Thursday - shortly after the incident at the McDonald's at about 2am on Wednesday.

The driver of the car, a 22-year-old woman who doesn't want to be named, told Fox8 the night manager fired two shots at her rental SUV after her friend in the backseat accidentally sprayed him with a water bottle she was opening.

'It got on everybody in the car, and we all giggled and laughed and I said "I told you it was going to happen," and all you hear is "f***!" [and then] "boom boom,' she said.

The three women, who had ordered a smoothie, were stunned, added the alleged victim. They quickly drove away and called police, who examined a bullet hole near one of the car's tail lights before issuing the arrest warrant against the night manager.

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The alleged incident happened at the McDonald's on East 152 and St. Clair in Cleveland, Ohio

The car's driver, a 22-year-old woman, says Fort shot at her rented SUV after her friend in the backseat accidentally sprayed him while trying to open a water bottle

When contacted by Fox8, Fort had a different take on the incident.

He said before the SUV left the drive-thru, the backseat passenger sprayed him in the face with a Super Soaker filled with a 'foreign substance that made his eyes burn'.

Fort refused to answer whether he had a gun and if he fired it at the customer's car.

He and another McDonald's employee told police they did not have any issues with any customers Wednesday night and denied knowing anything about a shooting.

Fort also told police he did not have access to the restaurant's surveillance footage, or the video captured by two cameras that point at the drive-thru line, according to the police report cited by Cleveland.com.

Police examined a bullet hole near one of the car's tail lights (pictured) before issuing the arrest warrant against the night manager

Fort told FOX8 he was sprayed in the face with a Super Soaker filled with a 'foreign substance that made his eyes burn'

Although no one was injured in the incident, the alleged victim said she could have been badly hurt by the manager's gun.

'You can't do stuff like that, you can't shoot at people! Who are you?

'If [he] had raised his hand a little bit more, I would be dead right now or paralyzed.

'You don't need to be in a customer service environment if you can't handle customers and if you can't present yourself as the type of person that you need to be,' she said.

It's not the first time Fort is in trouble with the law - he's received eight convictions for charges that include carrying a concealed weapon, heaving a weapon as a felon, unlawful restraint, drug possession, attempted trespassing and forgery, according to court records.

He is still not in police custody for his latest alleged offence.The woes of the National Party are set to continue despite the resignation of their embattled leader Barnaby Joyce as the woman who accuses him of sexual harassment says she wants him to be held to account.

Mr Joyce, who has been on personal leave this week with his new partner and former staffer Vikki Campion, said a sexual harassment allegation published on Friday was the 'straw that broke the camel's back' and pushed him to resign.

The Weekend Australian has named the woman bringing the complaint as Catherine Marriott, a former West Australian Rural Woman of the Year.

Mr Joyce has disputed the allegation, calling it 'spurious and defamatory', and claims that as an allegation it should have gone immediately to police, The Courier Mail reports.

Catherine Marriott has been revealed as the woman who filed a sexual harassment complaint against former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce

Ms Marriott's lawyer, Emma Salerno, said her client wanted Mr Joyce to be held to account, and hoped her complaint would see the party develop clear processes for handling such complaints.

Ms Salerno said Ms Marriott never wanted to go public with the complaint and has not taken it to the police 'at this stage'.

Mr Joyce will formally quit as leader of the Nationals on Monday and become a backbencher.

Nationals MP Darren Chester says the men battling to replace Mr Joyce will need to 'heal some divisions' after a bruising 16 days of pressure on the outgoing leader.

'I think someone like Michael McCormack from Riverina can pull together the Queenslanders, the New South Welshmen, the Victorians and unite,' Mr Chester told Sky News on Friday.

Assistant families minister David Gillespie is also a confirmed challenger, and he told Sky News he wanted to address the GST carve-up and decentralisation if he became leader.

Deputy leader Bridget McKenzie refused to say who she would back, but Mr McCormack has been tipped to be the front runner.

Mr Joyce's troubles have dominated headlines for more than two weeks, overshadowing Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's current trip to the United States.

Speaking to reporters in Washington DC on Friday (early Saturday AEDT) just hours before meeting President Donald Trump at the White House, Mr Turnbull thanked Mr Barnaby for his service as deputy prime minister.

Joyce has stepped down from his position as deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals party in the wake of the allegations

'He has personal issues that he has to address and he feels that he cannot do that from the dispatch box,' Mr Turnbull said outside Blair House in Washington DC.

'The issues that have been the subject of discussion over the past two weeks have not been issues between Nationals and Liberals, we have a 95-year-old political alliance, the longest in Australian history and it is absolutely enduring.

'I look forward now obviously to working with the new leader of the National Party who will be elected on Monday,' Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Joyce also acknowledged the government's need to clear the air.

'It's incredibly important that there be a circuit-breaker, not just for the parliament but more importantly a circuit-breaker for Vikki, for my unborn child, my daughters and for Nat (Mr Joyce's wife),' Mr Joyce told reporters in Armidale on Friday.

Mr Joyce faced repeated questions about jobs given to Ms Campion and his parliamentary expenses.

'Over the last half a month, there has been a litany of allegations. I don't believe any of them have been sustained,' Mr Joyce said.

The Nationals will meet at 8am on Monday to decide their new leader.The Republican governor of Florida has called for a police officer to be assigned to every public school in the state, and for the minimum age for gun purchases to be raised from 18 to 21 in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting.

'I'm calling for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school,' Rick Scott said at a news conference on Friday, as he unveiled a package of proposed safety measures in response to last week's massacre.

'I disagree with arming teachers,' Scott continued. 'My focus is on bringing in law enforcement. I think you need to have individuals who are trained, well trained.'

Florida 'will require all individuals purchasing firearms to be 21 or older,' Scott said.

He added that he intended to make it 'virtually impossible' for anyone with 'mental issues' to acquire a gun.

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Scott (pictured speaking on Friday) said that he intended to make it 'virtually impossible' for anyone with 'mental issues' to acquire a gun

Scott has called for the minimum age to buy a gun to be raised from 18 to 21 in the state, following the February 14 mass shooting at a Parkland high school; Scott is seen here with Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel

"I disagree with arming teachers," Scott said. "My focus is on bringing in law enforcement. I think you need to have individuals who are trained, well trained" Florida Gov. Rick Scott

Scott said he would work with legislators during the next two weeks to raise the minimum age for buying any kind of gun in Florida, with some exceptions for younger military or law enforcement officers.

This comes as students who survived the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have stepped up pressure on the governor to take action to protect their schools, demanding stricter gun control laws.

The student activists have traveled to meet with politicians in Tallahassee, the state capital, and Trump at the White House where Trump suggested that teachers should be armed with guns in order to prevent such a massacre happening again.

The shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, legally purchased the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle used to killed 17 people and injure 15 others at the Parkland, Florida school.

Scott, a Republican endorsed by the National Rifle Association, said the package of measures had been designed after meetings he held with some of the surviving students.

The measures do not include a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons like the AR-15. Scott said he opposed an outright ban on assault rifles like the one used in the attack, as some students have demanded.

Instead, the state would raise the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21 from 18, and ban the purchase or sale of so-called 'bump stocks,' devices that enable semi-automatic weapons to fire rounds much more like machine guns.

Two days ago, surviving students and the Broward County Sheriff participated in a town hall meeting, broadcast by CNN , where they address National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch (right) and lawmakers like Senator Marco Rubio, who have long argued that American gun laws do not need to be stricter

Scott laid out his school safety proposal during a press conference in Tallahassee on Friday

The plan calls for deploying one police officer for every 1,000 students in every public school in Florida, beginning at the start of the 2018-2019 school year.

There was an armed sheriff's deputy on site at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but it's now come to light that the former School Resource Officer deputy Scott Peterson has resigned, as he did not push forward toward the shooter on campus.

Peterson's training called for him to do so, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

In remarks to reporters on Friday, President Donald Trump criticized the armed sheriff's deputy assigned to the school for doing a 'poor job.'

'When it came time to get in there and do something, he didn't have the courage or something happened,' Trump said.

US President Donald Trump (center) speaks with Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel (left) and Florida Governor Rick Scott (right) while visiting first responders at Broward County Sheriff's Office in Pompano Beach, Florida, on February 16

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel (left) makes a point to NRA Spokesperson Dana Loesch during a CNN town hall meeting, at the BB&T Center, in Sunrise, Florida on February 21

Gun control advocates welcomed Scott's steps to tighten laws, but some wanted more.

Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said Scott's plan to have at least one law enforcement officer for every 1,000 students fell short.

'There should be armed guards at every door,' said Jeannette Formica, 50, who has a teenage son who attends a middle school near Stoneman.

Scott, who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association and has received its highest rating for supporting gun rights, has also called for mandatory 'active shooter training' for students and faculty.

An additional $50 million in funding for mental health initiatives is also included in the governor's proposal.

'If you look at what the governor's doing, they're very, very small, incremental changes,' Julie Kessel, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said in a telephone call with reporters.

'None of the [proposed actoins] get to the heart of what would really change gun violence, which is to ban assault weapons and close these loopholes immediately in background checks.'

On Wednesday, Israel implemented arming deputies at schools with rifles, including AR-15s

An NRA spokeswoman did not reply to an email seeking comment.

Overall, the Florida governor's plan closely mirrored proposed measures unveiled on Friday by leaders of the Republican-controlled state legislature.

Trump also called for a ban on bump stocks, in statements broadcast on Tuesday.

A bump stock replaces the standard stock on a rifle and works with the natural recoil when a round is fire. This makes it so that a shooter need only hold their finger in place to trigger another round to be fired, rather than releasing and pressing the trigger, a second time. The modification turns a semi-automatic weapon into something very close to an automatic weapon.

Scott's announcement of his action plan comes as staff members were returning for the first time to the high school in Parkland, which is the scene of one of the deadliest school attacks in US history.

'Everything was quiet, and looked like it was frozen in time,' said Greg Pittman, a social studies teacher who joined about 30 colleagues, working up the nerve together over breakfast to head back to the school. Some could not bring themselves to return, he said, still too shaken by the horrors they witnessed.

Outside the school, some teachers gazed at the piles of flowers and makeshift memorials to the victims. One woman who brought balloons to add to the memorials fell to her knees in tears.

Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old Florida shooter, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on February 15, after he legally obtained an AR-15 rifle and admitted to using it to shoot and kill 17 people and injure 15 others at a high school in Parkland on February 14; The massacre has ignited a nationwide debate about gun control, led by surviving student victims

Maintenance staff have used power washers to clean up the scene of the attack, but the building where the shooting occurred will remain closed.

Students are due to return to class on Wednesday. Two days ago, the students and the Broward County Sheriff participated in a town hall meeting, broadcast by CNN, where they address National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch and lawmakers like Senator Marco Rubio, who have long argued that American gun laws do not need to be stricter.

The shooter, who admitted to causing the deaths and injuries and is a former student at the school, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The surviving students from the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have formed an organization called March For Our Lives, and are preparing to stage a nationwide march on Washington, DC, and across the US, to be held on March 24.

Bump stocks were used by Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people at an outdoor concert on October 1.Republicans worry they can't win when there are fair sensible boundaries



Corrupt gerrymandrerers, Republican Senate President Joe Scarnati and state House Speaker Mike Turzai, are not taking the new ungerrymandered congressional map of Pennsylvania laying down. They're asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in -- and step on-- the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

But experts have said Republicans face an uphill battle. Several noted that Mr. Scarnati and Mr. Turzai have fought the courts ruling for weeks in an increasingly nasty political and legal battle but have been unsuccessful.



Just days after the state Supreme Court overturned the congressional district map, the top Republican lawmakers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and stay the order, arguing that the state court was usurping the legislatures power. That request was denied by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who did not refer the matter to the full court, as is often done, noted Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.



If youre a Republican defending a map and you cant even get Justice Alito to refer the thing to the whole court, thats a pretty weak challenge, he said Monday, saying he could not think of one that would be successful.

The Republican advantage in 13 of the state's unfairly carefully-drawn 18 districts will now yield far more competitive seats where Democratic voters have a chance to elect candidates who represent them. The Republican advantage disappears entirely in 3 districts. Democrats will now have an even-- or better than even-- chance to win seats that are currently held by Republicans Pat Meehan, Brian Fitzpatrick, Charlie Dent, Ryan Costello and Keith Rothfus. This morning Tom Prigg, the progressive candidate who decide to take on Rothfus when it looked like an impossible climb, is very happy with the new district lines. "The new district map has made my district far more competitive. The previous District 12 was 200 miles long and could take 3 hours to drive from end to end. The Partisan Voter Index gave the Republicans an 11 point advantage. Now it's far more compact, an hours drive with only a 3 point Republican advantage. This is a significantly improved district. Not all Pennsylvania districts were so lucky, but mine gives me a much better chance to beat an undesirable incumbent."





Politico: "most operatives and experts see Scarnati and Turzai, not to mention Senor Trumpanzee and congressional Republicans and their big money allies, are screaming like stuck pigs. How dare anyone try to keep them from cheating? What's this world coming to? Their whining is likely to fail. Elena Schneider for: "most operatives and experts see little hope in a legal challenge to the new districts... [B]ehind the scenes, Republican consultants are already urging their clients to get ready for these new districts in 2018... 'The likelihood that [Republicans] will get a response from the [U.S.] Supreme Court is near zero,' said Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles."

And, of course, the Republican version of the DCCC-- the NRCC-- is already in court demanding the right to cheat. Naturally, their statement didn't call it cheating: "state and federal GOP officials will sue in federal court as soon as tomorrow to prevent the new partisan map from taking effect. The suit will highlight the state Supreme Courts rushed decision that created chaos, confusion, and unnecessary expense in the 2018 election cycle."

For Republicans, its not clear yet what legal avenue they plan to proceed with first, or what relief they will seek. But if they return to the U.S. Supreme Court, experts said its unlikely the court will change its position from earlier this month, when it rejected a request for a stay.



The one thing they have going for them now is that the state Supreme Court has now acted, as opposed to threatening to act, but the big factor against that is [Justice Samuel] Alito already turned them down, said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California-Irvine. Theyre playing a weak hand.



Republicans have no real option left, said Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer whos worked on several redistricting cases. Its the same argument that the U.S. Supreme Court failed to entertain last time, and I dont expect them to entertain it this time.



The map you see is the map were going to have [in 2018], Elias added.



That map opens up opportunities for Democrats-- who currently hold only five of the 18 House seats in the battleground state-- particularly in the greater Philadelphia area.



The Pennsylvania case isnt the only partisan gerrymandering case working its way through the federal courts. Similar suits in North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin are also currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the court did intervene in North Carolina, setting aside a ruling that threw out that states congressional map. But unlike the Pennsylvania case, the other cases involve questions of federal, not state, law.



...Dan Meuser-- a Republican running to replace Rep. Lou Barletta, who is running for Senate-- exemplified that tension with a post on Facebook on Monday.



We will note, the court-drawn 9th Congressional District overlaps many areas in the 11th District where we have been campaigning hard for the past five months, Meuser wrote. At this time, we are going to continue to campaign in what was the original 11th Congressional District and will comment further once all legal challenges are resolved and district lines become definitive.

Meuser is an imbecile who, unfortunately, has little to worry about. Barletta's hellhole of a red district, the 11th, went for Trump by 24 points. The new hellhole's boundaries wound have seen Trump winning by an even greater margin-- +34. What was once an R+10 district will be completely untouchable for a Democrat. The Blue Dogs have a hopeless candidate of their own running, Denny Wolff and he's raised $208,775, but two Republicans-- Meuser and Stephen Bloom has each outraised him, with Meuser way out ahead-- $530,293. In 2016 Barletta beat Democrat Mike Marsicano 194,889 (63.7%) to 111,025 (36.3%).A Florida police department has accused local sheriff deputies of failing to confront the mass shooter or enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the attack last week.

Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, the armed school resource officer, was branded a 'coward' by President Trump after it emerged he waited outside the building during the recent mass shooting that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers.

Now Coral Springs police officers have revealed that when they responded to the shooting, they found another three Broward County Sheriff's deputies cowering behind their vehicles, law enforcement sources told CNN.

Not one of the four deputies had entered the school, sources said.

Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, the armed school resource officer, was branded a 'coward' by President Trump after it emerged he waited outside the building during the recent mass shooting (above in December 2014 with the principal at Marjory Douglas)

Broward County Sheriff's Office did not return reporters' requests for comment.

Peterson was suspended after the allegations emerged, and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that he plans to investigate the claims that the other three officers did not try and tackle the shooter.

'If our investigation shows that our deputies made no mistakes or did things right, or it's not corroborated, there will be no issue,' Israel told the Sun Sentinel.

'If we find out, as we did with Peterson, that our deputies made mistakes and didn't go in, I'll handle it like I always have. I'll handle any violations of policy or procedures or whatever accordingly.'

Surveillance footage, from cameras at the scene, is currently being reviewed which will provide definitive proof of the sheriff's office response, along with an official report from Coral Springs officers.

But it seems that the Broward deputies' alleged fail to act is causing friction between the two law enforcement groups.

That growing resentment boiled over on February 15, the day after the fatal shooting, when officers from both Coral Springs and Broward attended the candlelit vigil for victims.

Coral Springs City Manager Mike Goodrum angrily confronted Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, in front of a dozen witnesses, over the claims that Israel's officers had remained outside the high school while students could have been bleeding out inside, sources said.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel speaks before the start of a CNN town hall meeting at the BB&T Center, in Sunrise, Florida on February 21

An internal email by sent by Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi just days after the shooting, appears to show that his officers had concerned about how the Sheriff's Department were presenting themselves in the wake of the shooting

Goodrum later admitted to having a 'heated moment' with the sheriff but said they had put the confrontation behind them.

'Given the horrific events of that day emotions were running high and the sheriff and I had a heated moment the following evening,' he told CNN.

'Sheriff Israel and I have spoken several times since and I can assure you that our departments have a good working relationship and the utmost respect for each other.'

Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell is now demanding answers and told the Sun Sentinel that the allegations, if true, made him 'furious.'

An internal email by sent by Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi just days after the shooting, appears to show that his officers had concerned about how the Sheriff's Department were presenting themselves in the wake of the attack.

'I understand that another agency has given the impression that it had provided the majority of the rescue efforts, and that the tremendous work of the Coral Springs Police and Fire Departments has not been recognized,' he said in the email, obtained by CNN.

'Please know that this issue will be addressed, and the truth will come out in time.'

Suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz appears in court for a status hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer on February 19

The massacre ranks as the second-deadliest shooting ever at a U.S. public school, and was carried out by a lone gunman wielding a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault rifle.

Coral Springs officers reported that they arrived at the scene on February 14, and were stunned to find all four deputies still outside the building, with their pistils drawn.

With some direction from the Broward deputies, the Coral Springs officers entered the building to track down the shooter.

Additional Broward deputies soon arrived, and two of them joined the Coral Springs officers inside the building, along with an officer from Sunrise City Police.

Israel has confirmed that video from the school shows Deputy Peterson, the school's armed response officer and former employee of the month, standing outside the building for more than four minutes while suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire inside.

'What I saw was a deputy arrive at the west side of Building 12, take up a position and he never went in,' said Sheriff Israel, referring to the building on campus, popularly known as the 'freshman building,' where authorities said the bulk of the shooting occurred.

Israel told reporters the shooting in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland lasted six minutes, and that Peterson arrived at the freshman building about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired, then lingered outside for at least four minutes.

Asked what the deputy should have done, Israel replied: 'Went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.'

Peterson has not given a reason for why he did not enter the building, Israel said.

Neither the deputy nor any representatives could immediately be reached for comment.

Israel said he would not release the video at this time and may never do so, 'depending on the prosecution and criminal case' against Cruz, the 19-year-old former student who is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the assault.

Peterson was initially suspended without pay, and has since resigned.

PICTURED: Fourteen students, a geography teacher, coach and athletic director shot dead in Florida high school massacre Jaime Guttenberg, 14, (left) was described by relatives as a 'kind-hearted, sweet' girl. She attended the school with her younger brother who survived and rushed home afterwards. Senior Nicholas Dworet (right) was a gifted swimmer who had his sights set on 2020 Tokyo Olympics success. His devastated college student girlfriend is among those grieving his death. Friends said he was not just a talented athlete, but a 'good guy' who will be missed Martin Duque, 14, (left) was missing for hours on Wednesday and his frantic family desperately appealed for him to get in touch on social media. On Thursday, his older brother Miguel confirmed his death. Martin was a freshman. Meadow Pollack, 18, (right) was preparing for college. Her father was at the school on Wednesday and showed her photograph around in the hope that she would be found alive Cara Loughran (left) was missing on Wednesday afternoon. Her mother Denise and her father rushed to the designated hotel where parents were told to go to be reunited with their children in the hope that she would be found alive. Her grieving neighbor confirmed her death on Thursday. Alyssa Alhadeff, 15, (right) was eulogized by her mother who said she was a talented soccer player and creative mind. 'All she had to offer the world was love... I just sent her to school and she was shot and killed,' she said Luke Hoyer, 15, (left) was described as a 'precious' child by his grandparents who confirmed his death. They found out about the shooting on television. They said he was a 'good kid' who 'never got in trouble'. Joaquin Oliver, 17, (right) was also killed. Joaquin was a Venezuelan immigrant who came to the US with his family for a 'better future', they said on Thursday Gina Montalto, 15, (left) was described as a 'light and joy'. She and Jaime, another victim, volunteered at a local project called The Friendship Initiative where they acted as buddies for children with special needs. Gina's mother Jennifer shared pleas to find her on social media on Wednesday. Alaina Petty, 14, (right) was also killed. Her Mormon church confirmed her death, saying she was a 'valiant' member Carmen Schentrup, 16, (left) was also killed in the shooting. Carmen was a gifted student who last year was named as a semifinalist in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program. It includes students who score above average in their SATs or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. ROTC student Peter Wang, 15, (right) also died. His parents speak little English and relied on their neighbor to post social media appeals looking for him. They went to the Marriott hotel with other parents to wait for news of him on Wednesday night and have since confirmed that he was among those killed Alex Schachter, 14, (left) was also killed. His mother died when he was a child and he attended the school in Florida with his brother, who survived. The teenager's father Max said he was a 'sweetheart of a child' who 'just wanted to do well and please his parents'. Helena Ramsey, 17, (right) was described by relatives as a 'reserved' and studious girl who was due to go to college next year Geography Scott Beigel, 35, (left) was shot dead as he tried to lock the door of his classroom again after letting a group of fleeing students in to hide. They were running away from the gunman. Aaron Feis, 37, (right) died acting as a human shield. The track coach had thrown himself on top of the kids to stop the bullets from hitting him. He was a former student and was also a security guard at the school where he had worked for eight years Athletic director Chris Hixon, 49, was also killed shielding students Advertisement

An internal memo on Scot Peterson's personnel file shows that he was named employee of the month in May 2012, and was given the honor in large part for his work with the students.

'Your district has recognized you as an exemplary deputy who has made a difference in the community where you serve,' reads the memo.

Performance evaluations included in that same file also show that Peterson received glowing performance reviews.

And in March 2017, Peterson was nominated for Deputy of the Year.

'Throughout 2016, Deputy Peterson conducted numerous investigations. He always went the extra step and followed through on each case and conducted thorough follow ups,' wrote the recommending officer.

'The crimes he handled including property crimes, assaults, and batteries, aggravated assaults, and narcotics violations. His investigative skills resulted in numerous arrests and recovered property.'

The recommendation also noted that Peterson 'uses appropriate resources at his disposal, including mental health professionals and investigators from the school board.'

His recommendation for that honor came in the wake of his last annual review.

It also said that Peterson was expected to 'continue to produce the high level of service to the students and staff at his school' while recommending her 'seek specialized training related to his duties as an SRO.'

Deputy Peterson was the only law enforcement officer present on February 14 when the rampage started, Sheriff Israel said.

He was later joined by the other three deputies from Broward County, before the Coral Springs officers arrived.

Authorities have said that Cruz, who was expelled from Stoneman Douglas High last year for unspecified disciplinary problems, made his getaway moments after the shooting by blending in with students fleeing the school for safety.

Police officers arriving on the scene from the adjacent city of Coral Springs thought the gunman was still inside as they searched the building, based on a security camera video feed that they mistakenly believed was showing them real-time images but was actually footage from 20 minutes earlier.

Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi told reporters on Thursday that the confusion stemmed from human error and a 'communication failure,' not malfunctioning equipment.

The vigil began with a moment of silence for those slain at the school on February 15

Hundreds of people attended a heartbreaking vigil for the 17 shooting victims in Florida on February 15

He insisted that the mishap did not put any lives in danger.

Now an investigation has been launched into how two of the other deputies handled warnings about the gunman before the shooting.

The Broward sheriff has said Cruz, after slipping away from the school, casually spent more than an hour drifting through a Walmart store and visiting two fast-food outlets before he was spotted and arrested.

Israel said Thursday he had decided on the basis of his findings to suspend Peterson, but the deputy resigned first.

Israel said two other deputies were placed on restrictive administrative assignment, stemming from their response to numerous calls for service and reports received by the sheriff's department pertaining to Cruz during the past 10 years.

The shooting renewed a national debate between proponents of gun rights, as enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and advocates for tougher restrictions on firearms.

High school students from Stoneman Douglas and elsewhere around the country have launched a protest and lobbying campaign demanding new curbs on assault weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested school gun violence could be abated by arming teachers.

The head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, lashed out at gun control advocates, accusing liberal elites of politicizing the Florida mass shooting to try to attack 'our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.'

The carnage also raised questions about whether law enforcement agencies did all they could to detect and follow up on possible warning signs of last week's gun violence in advance.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation prompted widespread outrage last Friday when it said it had failed to act on a tip warning that a man, since identified as Cruz, had possessed a gun, the desire to kill and the potential to commit a school shooting.

The revelation prompted Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, to call for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.Nancy Moronez, 60, was charged with murder on Friday in Milwaukee

A woman has been charged with suffocating three babies more than 30 years ago - cases that investigators initially attributed to sudden infant death syndrome.

Nancy Moronez, 60, was charged with three counts of second-degree murder on Friday in Milwaukee, after allegedly confessing to killing her own son and two other infants in the 1980s.

The cases were reopened in March 2015 after Moronez's daughter told police her mother had confessed to suffocating Moronez's son with a garbage bag in 1980, prosecutors say.

The two other infants died in 1984 and 1985 while Moronez was their babysitter.

Moronez told a Milwaukee police detective this week she was responsible for the three deaths and said at one point that she 'can't take kids that constantly cry,' prosecutors said in charging documents that provide chilling details.

Moronez told a Milwaukee police detective this week she was responsible for the three deaths and said at one point that she 'can't take kids that constantly cry,' prosecutors said

She didn't dispute what her daughter told police, but said she actually killed her son by drowning him, putting him in bath water until his face turned purple, prosecutors said.

Moronez said she 'put him in the water and saw bubbles coming out of his nose and mouth' and that she 'held him down and felt him wriggle a little under the water,' charging documents say. Her son was 18 days old.

After her daughter went to police, investigators learned Moronez was also connected to two other cases where infants were thought to have died from SIDS.

Four years after her son's death, prosecutors said Moronez was babysitting a six-month-old boy after his parents answered an ad in the newspaper.

At the time, police said Moronez told investigators she noticed the baby was unresponsive less than an hour after she put him to sleep face down on a water bed.

She told police she became concerned when she saw the baby's face turn purple the way her son's did when he died.

A coroner concluded the death was due to SIDS, but in her interview with police this week Moronez said she used a blanket and held it 'real tight against the face' of the baby.

Moronez made her initial court appearance Friday morning, sitting almost silent and motionless. She has no criminal history

Moronez, seen in a family photo, allegedly told investigators that she drowned her own son in 1980, when the newborn baby was just 18 days old

A year later, Moronez was babysitting an 11-week-old girl when firefighters responded to a call for help. One of the firefighters had seen Moronez the year before.

'Do you remember me?' the firefighter said Moronez asked him.

'Yeah, I remember,' he said. Moronez then said, according to the court documents: 'I told my husband I didn't want to baby sit anymore.'

Again, the medical examiner said the cause of death was SIDS, but Moronez told police she used a blanket and that the baby 'kind of moved around her hands' as she suffocated.

Moronez said she didn't use a blanket with her son because she wanted him 'to go sooner.'

'She further stated that she knew she did wrong, that she is sorry,' the charging documents say.

Moronez made her initial court appearance Friday morning, sitting almost silent and motionless. She has no criminal history, according to Fox6.

Her lawyer said she's spent most of her life in the Milwaukee area before moving to Oshkosh a few years ago.

Moronez is being held in the Milwaukee County Jail pending bail of $105,000 cash.WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

A great white shark is responsible for mauling a woman as she swam laps, triggering the closure of four Sydney beaches despite soaring temperatures.

The woman, 55, was just 20 metres from the Congwong Beach shoreline, in Sydney's south-east, when she was attacked about 7pm Friday.

Department of Primary Industries (DPI) confirmed on Saturday that the shark responsible for her mauling was a juvenile great white, measuring between 2.7 and 3.2 metres long.

The attack means Congwong, Little Congwong, Yarra Bay and Frenchman's Bay beaches will stay closed on Saturday, when temperatures are expected to climb to 33C.

Scroll down for video

A great white shark is responsible for mauling a woman at Sydney's Congwong Beach (pictured), triggering the closure of three Sydney beaches despite soaring temperatures

The woman, 55, was just 20 metres from the sands of Congwong Beach, in Sydney's south-east, when she was attacked by a great white shark about 7pm Friday

The attack means Congwong (pictured), Frenchmans and Yarra Bay beaches will stay closed on Saturday, when temperatures are expected to climb to 33 degrees

The woman was in a stable condition on Saturday afternoon after she underwent surgery at St George Hospital.

Senior shark biologist from the DPI Dr Vic Peddemors said the woman suffered a 'severe' bite to her right leg, but expected her to make a full recovery.

He added: 'I would be surprised if she had any severe damage, and I'm hoping she'll recover soon.

'I can confirm that it was likely a juvenile great white shark between 2.7 metres and 3.2 metres in length that was involved.

'There have been no shark bites in the La Perouse area for an extremely long period - this is an unusual event.'

The woman underwent surgery on her right leg (pictured) at St George Hospital on Saturday

The woman suffered massive lacerations and multiple puncture wounds on her right leg

There have been no sightings of the shark since the attack at Congwong Beach

Randwick City Council mayor Lindsay Shurey described the woman as 'lucky to be alive' when speaking to reporters on Saturday.

'I think she's very lucky to still have her leg ... and to survive,' she said, according to the Daily Telegraph.

'She was swimming at dusk, which is never really recommended.'

Fishermen helped pull the woman - who was bleeding heavily - out of the water and called paramedics after she was attacked, Nine News reported.

There have been no sightings of the shark since the terrifying attack, which is the first confirmed in Botany Bay in 25 years.

Helicopters were seen above Congwong Beach on Saturday as they scoured the waters for the shark

A Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter hovers above Congwong Beach at La Perouse on Saturday

Officials from Randwick City Council said the beaches around La Perouse will be closed by lifeguards during the weekend.

Ms Shurey said: 'From all accounts the woman was very lucky and certainly the whole community's heartfelt thoughts are with her for a full recovery.

'I've lived in the area for 25 years and this is the first confirmed shark attack in Randwick City. We're all a little shocked and concerned.

'As a precaution, Council Lifeguards have immediately closed all the La Perouse beaches including including Congwong, Little Congwong, Yarra Bay and Frenchman's Bay for at least Saturday.

'Council Lifeguards will be stationed at the usually unpatrolled beaches on Saturday to advise swimmers not to swim.'Drivers are facing the most extreme postcode lottery at the pumps for years with a difference of up to 17 in the cost of a tank of petrol.

An investigation has found huge contrasts nationwide  sometimes between petrol stations in neighbouring towns and villages.

The difference is often most pronounced between busy towns and more remote parts of the country, where the cost of transporting fuel is typically higher and there is less competition.

The price of petrol can vary greatly across the country, an investigation has found

But the AA said the petrol postcode lottery has reached a scale it has never seen before and suggested some retailers in more affluent areas may be charging more because they believe drivers can afford to take the hit.

The most expensive area for unleaded in the UK is Markfield in Leicestershire, where the average price across local retailers is 134.9p per litre, according to analysis by petrolprices.com.

The cheapest area  at just 112.8p  is the town of Leigh in Greater Manchester.

In terms of individual forecourts, the cheapest price in the country is 108.9p per litre in Taunton, Somerset.

Petrolprices.com says it is unable to name and shame individual fuel retailers but this compares to 139.9 at Gretna, in Dumfries and Galloway. The 31p difference equates to an extra 17.05 to fill up a typical 55-litre family car.

According to the AA, the petrol postcode lottery has reached a scale it has never seen before and maybe due to retailers believing more affluent areas can afford to pay more (File pic)

And drivers can fill up on diesel for as little as 112.9p in Edinburgh, compared with a top rate of 141.9p  again in Gretna. This adds up to a difference of 15.95 for a tankful.

The gulf in prices is particularly baffling for drivers when they are situated just a few miles away from each other, or owned by the same company.

Separate analysis for the Mail by the AA has found a 9p difference between the price Sainsburys charges at forecourts in Hampshire, compared to those in Lincoln and Sheffield.

Drivers will have to pay 122.9p per litre of unleaded in Liphook, Hampshire, but only 113.9p at the sites in the North.

Oil company-branded forecourts  whether owned by independent retailers or the oil firms themselves  are typically more expensive than the supermarkets, which often offer cheaper petrol to pull in shoppers.

Supermarkets are also able to put a petrol station on land they own already, keeping costs down.

Leigh in Greater Manchester on average is the cheapest area for unleaded petrol and Markfield, Leicestershire the mot expensive

One BP petrol station on the M25 near Westerham charges 122.9p per litre, while just one and a half miles along the same motorway another BP forecourt charges 137.9p.

The average price at the pumps is currently at a three-year high of 120.73 for unleaded and 123.39 for diesel.

Luke Bosdet from the AA said: The pump price lottery is at a scale I have never seen before. Perhaps Sainsburys thinks the good folk of Liphook and other places in the South are well-heeled drivers who can afford to take the hit.

A BP spokesman said it controlled prices only at the sites it operated, which are determined in line with local competition. A Sainsburys spokesman said it always aimed to provide customers with great value.A tractor trailer packed with 103 migrants from Central America has been found abandoned in Mexico near the US border.

Mexican officials said on Friday that a military patrol had discovered the group of migrants pounding on the walls of the trailer in Cuidad Camargo, just across the border from Rio Grande City, Texas.

The migrants said they had been locked in the trailer for about 12 hours, apparently abandoned by human smugglers in a failed attempt to enter the US illegally.

The group, which included 36 minors, consisted of 91 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and five Salvadorans.

A tractor trailer packed with 103 migrants from Central America was found in in Cuidad Camargo, just across the border from Rio Grande City, Texas

The group, which included 36 minors, consisted of 91 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and five Salvadorans. The migrants said they had been locked in the trailer for about 12 hours

The trailer was found near a smuggling route into the US, very close to the border

Mexican Army officials contacted the country's National Immigration Institute, which assisted in treating the migrants for dehydration and feeding them.

That agency said in a statement that it had 'communicated immediately with the Consulates of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to carry out a dignified, orderly and safe return for the migrants.'

The Mexican federal agency added that it 'reaffirms its commitment to safeguard the physical integrity of migrants and respect their human rights in their transit through national territory regardless of their migratory status.'

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the Mexican government must do more to stop violent illegal immigrants from Central America from entering the US through Mexico.

The migrants are seen under guard by the Mexican Army awaiting humanitarian assistance

Officials with the National Immigration Institute fed the migrants and treated them for dehydration. Their home consulates have been contacted for their return

'MS-13 gang members are being removed by our Great ICE and Border Patrol Agents by the thousands, but these killers come back in from El Salvador, and through Mexico , like water,' the president tweeted.

'El Salvador just takes our money, and Mexico must help MORE with this problem. We need The Wall!'

More than 800 Central American migrants have been found in truck trailers or safe houses in Mexico so far this year, according to a government document reported by Reuters.

In July, 10 people died after a truck stuffed with more than 100 Guatemalan and Mexican migrants was abandoned in a Texas parking lot.Major Robert Campbell, 45, said he had been left broken after the Ministry of Defence told him and two other soldiers they would be dragged before a judge-led inquiry

A decorated Army major has handed back his service medals after learning that he faces an eighth investigation over the death of an Iraqi teenager 15 years ago.

Major Robert Campbell, 45, said he had been left broken after the Ministry of Defence told him and two other soldiers they would be dragged before a judge-led inquiry.

It was another nail in the coffin, said the bomb disposal expert, who has sent his six service medals back to the Queen. I was disowned by the military and so I sent them back in disgust.

One of his colleagues is said to have resigned from the Army in fury after being told he faces a public grilling over the incident. Major Campbell, along with his comrades, has been relentlessly investigated  and repeatedly cleared  over the drowning of 19-year-old Said Shabram in May 2003.

They have now been told they will be forced to give evidence in public to the Iraq Fatality Investigations (IFI) to satisfy human rights laws. The Daily Mail has campaigned for an end to the witchhunt against troops. This newspaper has revealed how hundreds of innocent soldiers have been dragged through repeated investigations.

Major Campbell still serves in the Royal Engineers despite suffering injuries in Afghanistan. He has waived his right to anonymity and said his 21-year career had been poisoned by the probes. This sordid process has broken me, he said. I leave the Army in six weeks time, with only a pair of hearing aids and a disabled badge for my car.

Among the medals Major Campbell sent back were Afghan and Iraq campaign medals and a Nato Meritorious Service Medal. He also sent back commendations which he was awarded for his bomb disposal work. Major Campbell added: No other army in the world that I know of treats its soldiers as political fodder like this.

He and his colleagues were accused of forcing the Iraqi teenager, who was accused of looting, into a river in Basra  a claim vehemently denied by all three. They first faced questions during a three-year investigation by the Royal Military Police that began in 2003. In 2006 the file was passed to the Army Prosecuting Authority and they decided not to take the case further.

The medals handed back by Major Campbell include an Iraq Campaign Medal (left) and a Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal (right)

A Diamond Jubilee Medal was also among the service medals which Major Campbell has returned to the Queen

A Nato Meritorious Service Medal was also returned by Major Campbell following the MoD's decision

The death was then investigated as part of The Aitken Report in 2008, and for reasons unexplained the Provost Martial (Army) then started a new investigation in 2010. Around the same time law firm Leigh Day mounted civil action against the MoD on behalf of the teenagers family. They were awarded 100,000, although the MoD did not admit liability for the teenagers death.

In 2014 the taxpayer-funded Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) took on the case after being passed the file by the now-defunct Public Interest Lawyers. Major Campbell said: Ihat came storming into my life in 2015 and made my ability to perform as an officer unworkable. My medication increased exponentially since Ihat turned up and by February 2016 I was no longer fit for service.

After he was deemed medically unfit to serve and signed off sick, investigators passed the file to the Service Prosecuting Authority.

It decided in December that no charges should be brought and Major Campbell thought his ordeal was finally at an end.

But this month Major Campbell received an email, with a letter attached from the MoD, informing him that he would now be called before Sir George Newman as part of a fresh inquiry. He called the latest investigation, which will cost the taxpayer around 200,000, unspeakably cruel and vindictive.

The MoD said: The welfare of our personnel is of the utmost importance and we have a legal obligation to ensure the full facts of the alleged incidents are known. The IFI do not conduct criminal investigations of soldiers, cases only take place once the prospect of criminal prosecution is eliminated, and individuals are granted anonymity.

We tried to save teen from an angry mob, say soldiers

Said Shabram drowned in May 2003 amid claims he and his cousin were forced into the water at gunpoint as troops struggled to quell riots in Basra, southern Iraq

Said Shabram drowned in May 2003 amid claims he and his cousin were forced into the water at gunpoint as troops struggled to quell riots in Basra, southern Iraq.

His cousin, Menem Akaili, claimed that he and Mr Shabram, 19, were approached by a British patrol and led at gunpoint down to a jetty before being forced into the Shatt al-Arab river.

The punishment was known as wetting and was said to have been inflicted on local youths suspected of looting to keep control of the city after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

It was claimed that Iraqi bystanders managed to drag Mr Akaili out of the water but his cousin disappeared.

Mr Shabrams body was later recovered by a diver hired by his father, Radhi.

Sapna Malik, the familys solicitor at law firm Leigh Day, said in 2011: Wetting was supposed to humiliate those suspected of being petty criminals.

Although the MoD denies that there was a policy of wetting to deal with suspected looters around the time of this incident, evidence we have seen suggests otherwise.

The tactics employed by the MoD appeared to include throwing or placing suspected looters into either of Basras two main waterways.

The soldiers  all members of 32 Engineer Regiment at the time  have previously insisted that Mr Shabram was pursued into the water by an angry mob and that they actually tried to save his life.More than one in ten French women have been raped at least once in their lives, a new poll has found.

Half of the victims said the rape had taken place when they were children or teenagers.

More than two in five - 42 per cent - of those who said they were victims of rape said they had been attacked in their own home.

Attacked: Half of the women who told French pollsters they had been raped at least once in their lives said the rape had taken place when they were children. Pictured are women marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in Paris, last November

Twelve per cent of the 2,167 women polled by the Fondation Jean Jaures think tank said they had suffered 'sexual penetration with violence, constraint or surprise', the legal definition of rape in France.

Five per cent said the sexual assault had happened more than once.

Of these, 31 per cent said they were raped by their partner, 19 per cent by someone else they know and only 17 per cent by a stranger.

Only 15 per cent had filed an official complaint but many remained traumatised by the incident, as evidenced by the fact that a fifth of them had attempted suicide - four times the general rate among French women.

The online poll was carried out by Ifop between February 6 and 16 and questioned women aged 18 and over.

A woman holds placards reading 'Disgusting patriarchal society', 'I am raped' 'Me too' during a gathering against gender-based and sexual violence in Paris in October

The Fondation Jean Jaures said some of the respondents may have been encouraged to break their silence by the tide of accounts of sexual violence shared on social media in the wake of the sexual assault scandal sparked by revelations about Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Last month, France's interior ministry said the reporting of sexual assault and rape had risen 31.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016.

'One can see the effect of reporting of possibly older incidents in the context of women speaking out following the revelations of the 'Weinstein' affair,' it said.A Brooklyn woman headed home after a long night at work ended up getting into a tussle and stabbing a man who had been masturbating in front of her on the subway.

The unidentified victim, who works as a director of events at a hotel, fell asleep on the Bay Ridge-bound R train around 2am on Friday. When she woke up the woman said she saw a man staring at her as he masturbated, police said.

The 42-year-old woman screamed but instead of fleeing the pervert, identified as 47-year-old Reggie Frank, pulled out a switchblade and canister of pepper spray and doused the woman in her face.

Reggie Frank, 57, was arrested and charged for masturbating in front of a woman on a Brooklyn-bound train on Friday. Frank is pictured above in this September 15 photo snapped by a woman who said she woke up to see Frank touching himself on the train

The 42-year-old victim in Friday's incident said she was headed home from work around 2am when she woke up to Frank masturbating as he watched her. The woman screamed and Frank doused her with pepper spray and pulled out a knife

The attacker then lunged at the woman allegedly cutting her on her left hand and a fight ensued, according to the New York Post.

The tussle spilled onto the platform at the 36 St. station in Sunset Park. Witnesses told police that the woman was able to wrestle the knife from her attacker and stab him in the chest and arm.

The victim's sister said someone on the platform helped her, the New York Daily News reports.

Shes been sleeping more than anything else, the sister said. I am besides myself. I cant imagine this happening.

Both the woman and Frank were taken to NYU Langone Hospital  Brooklyn, police said.

Shes always been strong. I just want (Frank) to be brought up on charges. I want him to be off the streets. I dont want this to happen to another person, the sister said. It could have been a child.

Frank and the victim for into a tussle on the platform and the woman was able to wrestle the knife from Frank and stab him

Frank has a long rap sheet, including two arrests in 2015 for masturbating on subway trains.

In September 2015, a photo of the gross perv went viral after a woman named Tiffany Jackson snapped a picture of him touching himself on the train.

Jackson, who said Frank was starting at her as he masturbated, reported the incident to the train's conductor but slammed the MTA for not doing more to keep her safe.

When I ran to the other conductor and told him what happened, he rolled his eyes, annoyed, and radioed dispatch. At this point, jerk off guy got off the train and smiled at me as he walked out the station. The conductor grumbled and told me to just go upstairs and report the incident to the booth. I wasnt even half a step away before the conductor peeled off.

Frank was charged with assault, weapon possession and public lewdness in Friday's incident.It is either the work of a madman or a visionary.

In the depths of a mountainside in Texas, a 200ft tall cuckoo clock is being constructed which is designed to outlive our civilisation.

Costing 30million and backed by an internet billionaire, the 10,000 Year Clock will sit in a massive man-made shaft.

Its giant components are already being assembled. The timepiece is intended to run for thousands of years with little, if any, maintenance by humans.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of online marketplace Amazon, is investing part of his 75billion fortune in the scheme.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of online marketplace Amazon, is investing part of his 75billion fortune in the scheme

It will take years to complete and is intended to encourage longer-term thinking rather than the quick-fix, instant gratification of the early 21st century.

Its a special clock, designed to be a symbol, an icon for long-term thinking, Mr Bezos wrote in a blog post. As I see it, humans are now technologically advanced enough that we can create not only extraordinary wonders but also civilization-scale problems.

Because of its long time-span, the ambitious project has been compared with the pyramids and Stonehenge.

Video footage shows an advanced stage of excavation in the mountain  owned by Mr Bezos  in the Sierra Diablo range in west Texas. A team of engineers is seen setting up huge cogs in the mountain cavern.

The clock was dreamt up by computer scientist Daniel Hillis. In an essay in 1996, he laid out his vision, which complained our civilisation is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The solution, he suggested, was a clock that would operate on a much longer timescale.

He wrote: I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium.

The project is run by a non-profit group called the Long Now Foundation.

The clock will be powered by variations in temperature each day that will be enough to work a pendulum. Visitors will also be able to contribute by helping to wind the clock.

The mechanism is powered by a large weight hanging on a gear and is constructed from titanium, stainless steel and dry running ceramic ball bearings.

Scientists at Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory have ensured that correction mechanisms are built into the clock so it can correct itself over the millennia.

Other billionaires and their brainwaves SERGEY BRIN, a co-founder of Google, is said to be funding a 107million supersized airship which could deliver food and supplies to remote areas on humanitarian missions, as well as being used for luxury travel. MARK ZUCKERBERG, the chief executive of Facebook, is donating 3billion to cure all disease by the end of the next generation. ELON MUSK is investing billions in his SpaceX projects  and recently sent a Tesla sports car into space as a test of his new Falcon Heavy, the largest rocket since Nasas Saturn V. The PayPal founder is also planning to build high-speed Hyperloop transportation systems. PETER THIEL, a tech venture capitalist, is investing large sums into curing death by extending human longevity, and has given tens of thousands to a Harvard professors project to resurrect the woolly mammoth. BILL GATES, of Microsoft, set up a foundation with his wife Melinda that has invested billions in fighting disease, including malaria. Advertisement

The clocks chimes  comprising ten bells  will be programmed to not repeat themselves for 10,000 years.

The clock will be opened to the public when it is ready  although no completion date has been made public.

Inside the mountain are five room-sized chambers which can be visited at the appropriate time. The chambers will mark the one year anniversary of the clocks operation; then ten years, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 years.

An orrery  a mechanical model of the solar system  will be held in the one year chamber, which also includes representations of the space probes launched last century.

The other chambers will be left empty for future generations to fill with the mechanics they see fit.

Tourists who want to visit will have a tough task  the nearest airport is several hours away by car and rugged trails to the clock rise to 2,000ft.

To see the clock you need to start at dawn, like any pilgrimage, says the Long Now Foundations website. Once you arrive at its hidden entrance in an opening in the rock face, you will find a jade door rimmed in stainless steel, and then a second steel door beyond it.

Inside, visitors will travel along tunnels and then climb a spiral staircase past the mechanism and the chimes. They will be able to wind the clock at a winding station which will need two or three people to move the capstan and its 10,000lb weights.

The clock face, higher up the staircase, will display the time only when visitors have completed the exercise.

Those not prepared to make the long trek can see a miniature prototype in Londons Science Museum.In days gone by, this magnificently built stallion would have been steadfastly pulling a plough out in the fields.

But the advent of the tractor made the powerful Suffolk Punch breed  perfect for heavy-duty work  surplus to requirements.

However, one has now found a remarkable new role  after an ambitious equine expert transformed a four-legged heavyweight who had never been ridden into a relatively nimble jumper.

Bruce McKim, bought nine-year-old Craikhow Hall Jensen, and found teaching him how to jump very easy

The majestic draught horse now jumps fences and rides with hounds in a hunt.

Bruce McKim, who runs the Thorpeley Stud near Market Harborough, Leicestershire, bought nine-year-old Craikhow Hall Jensen last year.

Until then, he had been used only for breeding, but Mr McKim revealed: It took just three days before we were sitting on and riding him.

The animal also found jumping a cinch. Mr McKim explained: It was very easy to teach him how to jump.

The horse made his debut with the local hunt two weeks ago and was 'good as gold' says McKim, though fellow riders were 'gobsmacked'

We started off by putting a few poles on the ground, we built up his confidence and away he went. He was very willing to please and happy to do the job.

The next stage was to get Jensen fit. Over the next two-and-a-half months he was exercised by the expert team to get the bulk off.

Then, two weeks ago, the stallion made his debut with the local hunt. He was as good as gold, said Mr McKim.

Asked about the reaction from fellow horsemen and women when they saw the Suffolk Punch, he said: People were gobsmacked and the social media reaction was huge.

I think there was astonishment that you could take a horse like that out and he could be nimble enough to jump. I like to do something different and my aim was to take a rare breed and make it more commercial.

There are only 300-400 of the breed left in Britain, making them the most critically endangered equine species in the country

What I am doing with him isnt what they were designed for, but that job doesnt exist any more. Im not looking to change the breed but I think they have to diversify.

Today there are only about 300 to 400 Suffolks left, making them the most critically endangered British equine species.

But Mr McKim has shown they are not redundant in the era of mechanised farming. Jensen and three other Irish draught stallions are all hunting now. All my boys have to have a life and have to do something, insists Mr McKim.

They jump, theyre bold and they do what they say on the label because of the life they have.Health minister Jackie Doyle-Price (pictured) said the Government planned to call it Max's Law after Max Johnson

Ministers backed a change in the law yesterday that would turn everyone into an organ donor unless they opt out.

Presumed consent is set to be introduced in England, in line with Scotland and Wales, after a Private Member's Bill was passed unopposed in the Commons.

Health minister Jackie Doyle-Price said the Government planned to call it Max's Law after Max Johnson, ten, who was saved by a heart transplant.

'We are determined to ensure that we secure more organs for transplant. We are very concerned that we are losing lives unnecessarily,' she said.

'Our best estimates are that this change will secure an additional 100 donors a year, which could lead to the saving of 200 extra lives.'

The Bill, tabled by Labour's Geoffrey Robinson, was given an unopposed second reading by MPs and will now undergo further scrutiny in Parliament. But Conservative MP Philip Davies said many people had 'misgivings' about the State presuming they 'have consented to something when they have not'.

MPs heard that around 1,000 patients die each year while waiting for a transplant, while England has some of the lowest rates of consent for organ donation in western Europe.

Tory Peter Heaton-Jones spoke about his constituent Keira Ball, nine, who died in a car crash and was able to donate her kidneys, heart and pancreas, saving four lives in the process  including that of Max, who received her heart.

The North Devon MP said Keira and Max's stories 'demonstrate that more organs mean more saved lives'.

Labour MP Julie Elliott, whose eldest daughter, Rebecca, has chronic kidney disease and is awaiting a transplant, said the 36-year-old, who has a daughter of six, requires dialysis for eight hours every night. The Sunderland Central MP added: 'As a mother, my natural instinct has always been to make things better for your children. It's what we all do.

'It's a terrible situation to be in, a situation where you can't fix something that's gone terribly wrong.'

However, Professor Chris Rudge, a leading transplant surgeon, has said he would opt out on the grounds that the State should not presume to take a citizen's organs without permission.

Professor Rudge, a former national director for transplantation at the Department of Health, said in October: 'I would opt out because organ donation should be a present, and not for the State to assume that they can take my organs without asking me.

'No one knows better than me the problems of thousands of people waiting for a transplant.'

MPs heard that around 1,000 patients die each year while waiting for a transplant (stock image)

But he added: 'I am so horribly opposed to a change in the law.'

Former Labour frontbencher Dan Jarvis said those who opted out should not be criticised.

He added: 'If people want to opt out, that is absolutely fine, and I am hugely respectful of any decision people want to make.

Tory MP Nigel Huddlestone said: 'We are talking about a genuinely life-or-death issue. Every single day, somebody dies because they do not get the transplant they desperately need.'

Labour MP Virendra Sharma told how his brother had been waiting five years for a kidney. He said the law would particularly help ethnic minority families, whose communities were 50 per cent more likely to refuse permission for donations.

Simon Gillespie of the British Heart Foundation said: 'There is a desperate shortage. People needlessly die as they wait for organs.'

Boy, 10, who inspired new law Theresa May named the opt-out law Max's Law in honour of heart transplant survivor Max Johnson (pictured) Theresa May named the opt-out law Max's Law in honour of heart transplant survivor Max Johnson. The ten-year-old waited nine months for a new heart until he finally got one in August. He was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, meaning he had to be kept alive by medical machinery. His mother, Emma Johnson, has campaigned for an opt-out system to help other children. Following surgery that left a six-inch scar on his chest, Max is on the way to recovery. In a video message for MPs, he said: 'Please change the law... it will save lives like mine.' Max's story is said to have inspired more than 1,000 people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donation Register. His new heart was donated by car crash victim Keira Bell, nine, who also donated her kidneys and pancreas. Mrs Johnson, 47, said: 'Keira saved four people. We will forever be indebted.' Advertisement

But Peter Saunders, of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: 'Presumed consent is illiberal, unethical, unproven and is based on the false presumption that the organs of deceased people are the property of the State rather than the family. There is no proof it increases organ donations.'

Former Cabinet minister Dame Cheryl Gillan said the law should leave 'room for relatives to be consulted and to withdraw consent...while trying to do everything possible to increase organ donation.'

Tory MP Philip Davies warned that similar legislation in Wales had led to a 'reduction, not an increase, in donors'.

In Wales, where an opt-out system was introduced in December 2015, there was a dip in the number of deceased donors from 64 in 2015-16 to 61 in 2016-17. This resulted in a drop in organ transplants from 214 to 187.

Miss Doyle-Price said: 'It's too early to draw conclusions about the number of organs the change in Wales has secured, but we have seen an increase in consent and opting on to the register.'

The Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill will now be examined by a committee of MPs. It faces further stages in the Commons before being debated in the House of Lords.Emily Ratajkowski pulled off her most shocking photo shoot yet on Friday, when she posted pictures from inside the Manhattan Clerk's Office and announced that she was a married woman.

This comes just 10 days after she was spotted with her new beau, actor and film producer Sebastian Bear-McClard, grabbing dinner in Los Angeles.

The pair have been together since at least December, when they were spotted together at two New York Knicks games in the wake of Ratajkowski's split from Jeff Magid.

They did: Emily Ratajkowski married Sebastian Bear-McClard on Friday, just two months after the pair were firs spotted together (couple above on Friday)

On top of the world: The pair tied the knot at City Hall alongside four of her girlfriends and his pals Fat Jew and director Josh Safdie

Letting loose: The model, 26, had a bachelorette party with her girlfriends (above) at a Manhattan hotel on Thursday evening

Style stars: She wore a $199 Zara pantsuit in mustard for her big day that was inspired by an outfit worn by Angelica Houston when she dated Jack Nicholson

Ratajowski, 26, had more surprises in store as well, selecting a $199 Zara pantsuit in orange for her trip to City Hall, where she and her now-husband were joined by guests including Fat Jew and director Josh Safdie.

Not present was Bear-McClard's good friend Robert Pattinson, who starred in the film that the groom produced alongside Safdie and his brother Benny, Good Time.

The group spent the morning at City Hall before dining at Emilio's Ballato, a popular Italian restaurant in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood.

Ratajowski and her friends all wore pantsuits, one night after they celebrated her final evening as a single woman with drinks and face masks at the Bowery Hotel.

She has only been dating Bear-McClard since December, having last been seen with former boyfriend Magid in November.

The two clearly hit it off quick, as the model and actress' rep[ later confirmed the nuptials.

Em Rata: Bear-McClord is an artist, actor and producer who is friends with Robert Pattinson, his co-star in the film Good Time

Bear-McClard produced the Safdie brothers last two films, Good Time and Heaven Only Knows, while also briefly appearing as a cop who arrests Pattinsion in Good Time.

He is also a partner in their production company Elara Pictures.

The group is currently at work on their new film, Uncut Gems, which stars Jonah Hill.

Little is known about the movie including when it will begin filming or who else is starring in the picture.

Bear-McClard's parents are both artists, as is he, with one of his installations described in a 2008 piece that appeared in the New York Sun.

He an two other artists 'injected three colors of nontoxic dye into a natural waterfall and filmed the colored water as it fell and mixed in the pool at the bottom,' filming and photographing it, calling the piece 'Waterfall.'

In 2017, he was named one of ten producers to watch by Variety.

'Soooooo,' wrote Ratajowski in a picture on her Instagram story that showed her between Fat Jew in a Planned Parenthood sweatsuit and Bear McClord in a powder-blue jacket.

'I have a surprise,' said the next image, showing her holding her dog.

The final photo of the series then showed her and Bear-McClard as she wrote: 'I got married today.'

Photos posted after that showed Bear-McClord holding his bride in his arms and the groom posting with the model's friends.

She also posted a photo of the two standing on the balcony of her hotel suite with two engagement ring emojis and 'ny.'

The pair also rocked new wedding bands, while Bear-McClord had two additional rings that said 'Em' and 'Rata' in honor of his new wife.Flash flooding in Queensland has caused havoc and led to dramatic rescues of people trapped in floodwaters.

Two people were rescued at 7pm Friday night after driving their car into floodwater on Mount Sampson Road in Kobble Creek, north west of Brisbane.

The tourists' car had swept from a causeway and they were washed 200m downstream.

A dramatic rescue took place when four people were trapped in cars in Hervey Bay, Queensland

On Thursday night four people were trapped in two cars in Hervey Bay after getting in trouble trying to cross a flooded creek.

And a man abandoned a flooded car with two puppies inside, leading to his arrest and charge while the poor little dogs now have a new home.

A ute drove into flood water in Traveston in the Gympie region of Queensland.

A man abandoned his flooded car in Archer River Queensland, leaving two puppies in the car. Police charged the man and the puppies reportedly have a new home.

One person who had wandered off looking for help was located by emergency services, while the two others in the ute managed to get out of their car.

Queensland State Emergency Services responded to 400 calls for help in the 24-hours up to Saturday.

A spokesperson said most of these jobs had been 'leaking roofs' and people sandbagging their homes in response to the 'heavy rain'.

He said he estimated about 10 people had been rescued from floodwaters which he said was 'quite good' considering the flooding had been 'fairly widespread'.

Friday's deluge continued on early Saturday morning, with several areas receiving more than their average monthly rainfall in 24 hours, flash flooding and some swift-water rescues.

Emergency services have warned motorists in Queensland's south east are warned to not drive through flooded roads

Emergency vehicles coming to the aid of people trapped in flood waters in Queensland as people were rescued from cars

Tamborine Mountain was the most rain sodden with more than 200mm in 24 hours, while Park Ridge had 167mm, Nambour 157mm and more than 150mm falling in some Brisbane suburbs.

SEQ Water has advised several dams are spilling and outflows have increased while flash flooding has occurred in creeks and rivers.

This motorist decided to take the risk and found themselves in a spot of bother

It seems not everyone has been taking on board the words of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Katarina Carrol who on Friday warned people to 'always have a plan B'.

'Ultimately remember, if it's flooded, forget it,' she said.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting more rain across the region on Saturday, including the chance of a thunderstorm, but falls are set to ease.

It appears some motorists aren't getting the message with Queensland Police having to help people get out of trouble near Brisbane

Parts of the Gold Coast have already received 95 mm of rain on Friday, which made for dramatic weather photos shared on social media

The Bureau of Meteorology forcasted heavy rainfall and possible flash flooding across coastal and adjacent inland areas extending from the Sunshine Coast hinterland down through Brisbane and into the Gold Coast hinterland on Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Queensland Police posted this photo of the access to Edens Landing Railway Station on Friday

Beaches on the Gold Coast were deserted during Friday's wild weatherA major hospital trust has banned women from having caesareans unless there is a medical reason.

Oxford University Hospitals will not offer them to those who are frightened or have had previous traumatic births.

Some women have had to travel miles to other hospitals to give birth while their families stay in local hotels.

The trusts policy breaches guidelines from health watchdog Nice, which say women should be allowed a caesarean without a medical reason once the risks and benefits have been explained.

Some women are anxious about natural birth or have endured previous traumatic labours they dont want to repeat.

Charities claim the trust is trying to save money and pressure more women into having a natural birth. Managers deny this is the case and say caesareans are not always the best option.

There have been cases of women having to travel 50 miles to give birth after the ruling

The trust still offers caesareans to women in an emergency, if they are having twins or triplets, or have a medical condition which makes natural childbirth riskier.

But some claim they have been denied the procedure despite having medical complaints which would make them eligible.

Last year caesareans accounted for 28 per cent of births on the NHS. This rate has trebled since the 1980s and compares to a global average of about 19 per cent.

Doctors believe this is due to the rise of older and obese mothers, as well as more having twins through IVF.

But some midwives say women are being offered the procedure too readily because they are worried about too much pain.

Last year some 8,000 women gave birth at Oxford University Hospitals, which includes the John Radcliffe Hospital. Of these, 24 per cent had a caesarean, slightly lower than average.

The trusts policy on caesareans is believed to be one of the strictest in the UK. Managers did not say when it came into place.

One woman, who spoke to the charity Birthrights, said she was told by staff she had no chance of having a caesarean and should make her own arrangements.

Another said she was refused a caesarean despite having fibroids  growths in the womb  which would usually make her eligible

She drove 50 miles to a hospital in Gloucester and her family stayed in a nearby hotel. Another said she was refused a caesarean despite having fibroids  growths in the womb  which would usually make her eligible.

Birthrights chief executive Rebecca Schiller said: Women requesting a caesarean without a clinical indication may have had a previous traumatic birth, other underlying health issues, be survivors of abuse, or may just be making an informed choice.

A spokesman for the Birth Trauma Association charity said: This policy is a breach, not only of Nice guidelines, but of common humanity. We suspect the policy is driven by an ill-conceived desire to save money.

A caesarean costs the NHS around 1,700, while a natural birth is usually about 750.

Oxford University Hospitals said its decision was not related to targets but to good practice and reducing harm to women.

The trusts Dr Veronica Miller said: A caesarean section which is not clinically indicated may have serious consequences for a woman and her baby.

Caesareans take longer to recover from than natural births. The wound may cause severe pain and some women need to be in hospital for three or four days.Some like it rugged and dirty, while others prefer it neatly coiffed and conditioned.

No matter which style you prefer, the mullet was the epitome of trendiness in the 1970s and it could be here to stay - at least for one Australian town.

Kurri Kurri is a small town nestled in the Hunter Valley and one woman is trying to put it back on the map by showing off the mullet in all its glory.

Mullet Fest, a competition for Australia's best mullet, is the brainchild of Laura Johnson.

Scroll down for video

Mullet Fest is the most Australian competition: No matter which style you prefer, the mullet was the epitome of trendiness in the 1970s and it could be here to stay

One woman (pictured) fixes up her red-dyed mullet. There's five women who are eagerly vying for the title of the best ladies mullet. The five categories are: the everyday mullet, grubby mullet, ranga mullet, ladies mullet and junior mullet

One boy sports his very own mullet - competing in the Junior category at Mullet Fest 2018

Women crowd around Dan Brown (pictured) who claims to be the inventor of the mullet

Each of the three judges on the panel award mullet contestants in five categories.

Whether it's an everyday mullet or a skullet - that glorious flap of hair that tickles your fancy, or back of your neck more specifically, there is a category for every sort.

The five categories are: the everyday mullet, grubby mullet, ranga mullet , ladies mullet and junior mullet.

Festival host Laura Johnson (left) is the brainchild of Mullet Fest, the competition which awards Australia's best mullet. She said people across the nation were coming all the way to Kurri Kurri just to see who was crowned with Australia's best mullet

'The everyday mullet is more washed and conditioned, but the grubby mullet - thats open to interpretation,' Laura told the Newcastle Herald.

'Weve got some dreadlocks coming, plaits, things like that.'

Mullet Fest shouldn't be mistaken as a competition just for the blokes. There's five women who are eagerly vying for the title of the best ladies mullet.

More than 180 contestants competing for 'The best mullet of them all' are equipped with their 'business upfront party at the back' game face on for the 2018 Mullet Fest held at Chelmsford Hotel in Kurri Kurri.

Mullet Fest is putting the small regional NSW town of Kurri Kurri back on the map by showing off the mullet in all its glory. The competition takes place at Kurri Kurri's finest, The Chelmsford Hotel

Two men eagerly wait to be judged on their mullets at Mullet Fest in Chelmsford Hotel

Three men (pictured) show off their well coiffed and conditioned mullets at Mullet Fest. 'The everyday mullet is more washed and conditioned, but the grubby mullet, thats open to interpretation,' Laura Johnson said

Men wait to be judged on each of the five categories of Mullets. More than 180 people competed in Mullet Fest 2018

One of the three judges on the panel include the mastermind who claims to have invented the mullet Dan Brown - also known as 'The Mullet Lord'

Laura said that people across the nation were coming all the way to Kurri Kurri just to see who was crowned with Australia's best mullet.

'Ive never seen Kurri like this. Even all the people in my yoga class are coming and theyre not exactly the kind of people who care about mullets,' Laura told VICE.

She said one man travelled from Victoria just for the one-day Mullet festival. He arrived late last night to the regional town 150km north of Sydney.

Australian rules football player Warwick Capper models his legendary mullet on the field in the 1980s-90s

'This lovely young man travelled from Victoria yesterday. He and his mum, dad and sister arrived at the pub at 11pm last night ready for the festivities today - and they're flying home tomorrow morning,' Laura said on the TODAY show.

Laura said she created the festival after finding out that her small town claimed to be the home of the mullet.

Three judges are on the panel including the mastermind who claims to have invented the mullet Dan Brown or 'The Mullet Lord' to locals.

Every man and his mullet: Five men show off their different mullet styles from the everyday and ranga mullet to the grubby mulletAn Alabama high school student has been arrested after allegedly sending a school shooting threat through a smart phone app, in order to get extra time to study for a test, authorities said on Friday.

Emily Nicole Wilson, 18, is accused of threatening her high school by sending an emoji of a toy gun, along with a date and time, through a messaging application called 'TextNow,' WBRC reported.

She was arrested on Thursday and has been charged with 'making a terroristic threat.'

The charge is a Class C Felony in the state of Alabama, which carries with it a minimum sentence of one year and one day, but not more than two years, in prison.

If convicted, Wilson may also be charged up to $15,000 in fines.

Emily Nicole Wilson, 18, was arrested on Thursday in Alabama after allegedly sending a school shooting threat through a smart phone app, in order to 'buy time' to study for a test

This stunt comes after a 19-year-old who legally obtained an AR-15 rifle admitted to using it to shoot and kill 17 people and injure 15 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14.

'This is a very serious situation,' Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry said on Friday.

Authorities said the teen thought sending the message would result in a school closing, which would 'buy time' to study for a test.

'When we make the decision to do something to give us time to take a text, well guess what, the end result is you get arrested and you go to jail for making a terroristic threat,' Gentry said.

Wilson, who is a senior at Vinemont High School, allegedly sent the message to her school on Wednesday.

Emily Nicole Wilson, 18, is accused of threatening her high school by sending an emoji of a toy gun, along with a date and time, through a messaging application called 'TextNow;' The message that was received is seen here, at right

The Superintendent of Cullman County Schools, Shane Barnette, said on Friday that he had not yet spoken with Wilson or her family.

'It comes down to a poor decision made by a teenager that it was going to be a short-term, get out of class thing,' Barnette said.

No official determination has been made on whether, and if so, what, consequences Wilson may face from the school.

Another student was also arrested on Thursday, for publishing a threatening Facebook post.

The minor, who was not named, attends Good Hope Middle School in Cullman.

'This is a very serious situation,' Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry said on Friday

Another student was also arrested on Thursday, for publishing a threatening Facebook post; The minor, who was not named, attends Good Hope Middle School in Cullman.

Schools were placed on a 'soft lockdown' on Friday, following the online threat made by the child, which authorities did not believe to be credible.

Gentry said the youth will likely be charged with a crime. The Cullman County district attorney and youth services are currently working to determine what charge is most appropriate, he said.

Following these incidents, Barnette has asked parents in the community to have a serious conversation with their children about this kind of behavior, as well as to closely monitor their children's social media use.

The Florida shooter who admitted to attacking his former high school in Parkland has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old Florida shooter, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on February 15, after he legally obtained an AR-15 rifle and admitted to using it to shoot and kill 17 people and injure 15 others at a high school in Parkland on February 14; The massacre has ignited a nationwide debate about gun control, led by surviving student victimsAlaina Petty, 14, died in last week's Florida school shooting

The Mormon parents of a 14-year-old girl killed in last week's Florida school shooting think better family values - not gun control - could have saved their daughter's life, they said in a new interview.

Ryan and Kelly Petty told the Deseret News they believe admitted shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, is responsible for the loss of their daughter Alaina, but they also think he wasn't given the love and support he needed after his adoptive parents died.

While many blame the shooting on weak gun control, and others such as President Trump suggest arming teachers is the solution, the Pettys think help for families is the way to stop the mass shootings epidemic.

'Strong families are vital to a peaceful, functioning society,' Ryan said.

'When families break down, that's where the problems begin. We need legislators and policymakers to pass legislation and create policies that strengthen families.'

'We wish and believe, that if somebody had been able to put their arms around him and show him some compassion and love to the extent that would have enabled him to get some help, things may have been very different last week.'

Alaina's parents are still piecing together what happened to their daughter. They said she was in her English class expecting to get picked up in about 30 minutes for an orthodontist appointment when Cruz walked into the high school and unleashed a bloodbath.

Ryan and Kelly Petty told the Deseret News they hope those seeking change in the aftermath of the tragedy consider 'policies that strengthen families'. They are pictured with daughter Alaina, daughter Meghan, 19, son Ian, 22, and son Patrick, 17

Alaina's funeral on February 19 was attended by 1,500, and the U.S. Army awarded her its Medal of Heroism

Their 17-year-old son Patrick, also a student at Stoneman Douglas High School, texted Kelly: 'There's a shooter on campus.'

Alaina, however, never answered her mother's texts.

As they waited for news of their daughter at the Marriott Hotel, the Pettys began hearing details about the shooter, who lost his adoptive mother last November and had a history of violent and threatening behavior.

'Having a strong family is the most important thing, to have support and love and to learn right from wrong,' said Kelly.

'When children don't have that, sometimes they end up doing really bad things. If strong families were encouraged more and fought for more, more kids could be helped and not fall by the wayside and not do things like last week.'

Ten hours after the shooting, the Pettys found out Alaina had died.

'There are no words to fill the hole we feel in our lives,' Ryan told the Deseret News.

He added that while his family is 'saddened' Cruz didn't receive help before he decided to unleash the massacre, they are not removing any responsibility for the choices he made.

Ryan also said that when he watched media coverage of previous school shootings he thought he would be angry if it happened to him, but now, aided by his strong faith, he feels a sense of peace.

'If strong families were encouraged more and fought for more, more kids could be helped and not fall by the wayside and not do things like last week,' said Alaina's mom Kelly.

The Pettys said their daughter was expecting to leave school early the day of the shooting to go to an orthodontist appointment (Alaina's siblings pose with authorities of the Mormon church on February 16)

'I'm amazed I haven't felt angry.

'We're choosing to focus on our eternal family,' said Ryan, who, aside from Patrick, also shares 22-year-old Ian and 19-year-old Meghan with Kelly.

Alaina's funeral was attended by 1,500, and the U.S. Army awarded her its Medal of Heroism.

She was part of her school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. The Perrys said that at first they thought their daughter was just trying to get out of P.E., but soon saw her running 5ks, obstacle courses and mile runs with a 30-pound backpack.

The dedicated girl attended Mormon Church seminary courses at 6am before going to school, and JROTC until 5.30pm. When Hurricane Irma struck Florida, she volunteered to help others with the group Mormon Helping Hands.

'Alaina always did more than the physical work. She was just caring. She would do anything she could to make the families feel safe and to help them emotionally, too, to feel better,' friend Hannah Beardall told the Deseret News.

One of Alaina's Mormon friends, Madeleine Wilford, was shot by Cruz four times but survived her injuries, which included a collapsed lung, and returned home on Wednesday.

Through tears, Madeleine said Alaine was 'amazing' and that she loved her.

'I loved her,' she said. 'She always lit up the room. She was always so lighthearted and spirited. She always made people laugh. It was rough losing her, finding out she was dead. I know she's in a good place.'

Speaking to the Deseret News, 17-year-old Madeleine shared her experience that tragic day, saying 'all of a sudden shots went off' when she was in her AP Psychology class.

One of Alaina's Mormon friends, Madeleine Wilford, was also shot by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz four times but survived her injuries

President Trump and First Lady Melania visited Madelaine in the hospital on February 16 and promised to give her a letter of recommendation for the college she wants to attend, Brigham Young University

Cruz, she said, was a few classrooms down from hers, shooting through windows as he made his way down the hall.

Madeleine recalled how frightened students dove to the floor in an attempt to get out of the line of sight of the door window as she wedged herself between the teacher's podium and a desk. As students hid, she was pushed towards the middle of the room.

'All of a sudden I felt a shot hit me,' said Wilford, adding that she doesn't recall feeling the other three bullets.

'I realized I was shot and an immense amount of pain went over me. The first thing I thought was that I was going to die. I was screaming, 'Help me! Help me!' I was frantic. I didn't know what to do.'

Then, Medeline recounted, she 'felt a sense of peace' and blacked out.

To save her life, doctors then put her on a ventilator, reattached three tendons in her right arm and fused titanium plates to her broken ribs.

President Trump and First Lady Melania visited Madelaine in the hospital last week and promised to give her a letter of recommendation for the college she wants to attend, Brigham Young University.

Madeleine, who attended a week-long Mormon girl's camp with Alaina, has also stuck to her faith.

Two weeks before the shooting, she gave a speech at a Mormon conference that would gain even more meaning after the tragedy.

'Most people say they don't believe in God because if there was a God, all these terrible things wouldn't be happening,' she recalled saying.

'But that's what we're put on this earth to do, to endure a lifetime, and life's going to be full of ups and downs. The only way we can make it better is to turn toward Christ and know that he always has a plan for us, and he'll help us through it no matter what.'Having two babies at once can be traumatic at the best of times. So spare a thought for the mother who has just given birth to two of Englands heaviest-ever twin brothers.

The average newborn twin weighs around 5lb, and Rosie Evans, 26, was told by doctors to expect her own babies to be small.

But in fact they weighed in at 16lb 3oz  heavier than an average set of triplets and 1oz more than the previous record-holding twin boys.

Twins Anthony and Johnny Evans (pictured) weighed in at 16lb 3oz, heavier than an average set of triplets and 1oz more than the the previous record-holding twin boys

Anthony Evans, named after his father, weighed 7lb 1oz at birth. Brother Johnny, born 11 minutes later, was 9lb 2oz.

They were born by caesarean section at Hillingdon Hospital in west London and there were complications after the second delivery.

Mr Evans, 27, of nearby Hayes, said: We nearly lost Johnny. He was not responsive and it took a minute for the doctors to bring him round. He is fine now and were just so lucky.

We didnt realise they were the heaviest until Rosies mother told us. Even then we thought she was just joking. It was such a shock.

Mrs Evans, who also has two daughters, Corina-Rose, three, and Katelynn, 20 months, suffers from epilepsy and was specially monitored throughout her pregnancy.

Her husband, who is a carer for both his wife and Corina-Rose, who has autism, said: Ive been hoping for boys my entire life. But were certainly not in a hurry to have any more. Im concentrating on Rosie and making sure she is alright.

Mother Rosie Evans, 26, (pictured) also has two young daughters but was told by doctors to expect her twins to be small

When the doctor started talking about baby one and baby two last summer we were shocked. Our other children were heavy but we were told to expect the twins to be light.

Until this week the reported heaviest twin boys born in England were Joseph and Luke Gardner, who arrived last October weighing 16lb 2oz. Britains heaviest mixed-sex twins at birth were Theo and Millie Ryder of Lancshire, born in 2007 weighing a combined 18lb 12oz.

The worlds heaviest-ever recorded twins, who tipped the birth scales at a gargantuan 27lb 12oz, were born in the US state of Arkansas in 1924. Patricia Jane Haskin weighed 14lb and her brother John Prosser was 13lb 12oz.A fashionable nursery has been suspended by Ofsted over claims that a staff member used a strap chair to restrain misbehaving children.

Lamb Setts Nursery in Sheffield, which follows the Montessori system, has closed its doors while allegations raised by parents are investigated.

One mother says her daughter told her about a chair with a wrist strap that was used to get children to behave.

This would be in direct contravention of Montessori values, which emphasise freedom of movement.

Lamb Setts Nursery in Sheffield has been suspended by Ofsted over claims that a staff member used a strap chair to restrain children

Well-off parents compete for around 5,000 Montessori places at 600 nurseries all over Britain, with many signing up up their children at birth. Prince George attended the Westacre Montessori School near Sandringham.

The Lamb Setts mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: When I asked my daughter, she said, Im a good girl so I dont go in the strap chair.

She said shed seen another child who had been naughty get strapped in the chair and prevented from playing or having their snack.

She said the strap was kept in a drawer and had been taken out and used as a threat.

But in a letter to parents, manager Christy Bakewell said using restraints was not Lamb Setts policy. She added: We are a Montessori setting and do not have a naughty chair, naughty corner or anything of that nature. We do not even use the word naughty.

Some children with special needs may need to sit on a chair with baby safety reins, or use a safety wrist strap. But this would be an agreed strategy used as part of their care plan and discussed with parents.

Ofsted said Lamb Setts Nursery had notified it of the allegation and the nursery had been suspended to allow an investigation to take place

If any member of staff was acting outside of this policy they would be doing so without our knowledge or consent and I would find this type of behaviour totally unacceptable.

Ofsted said Lamb Setts had notified it of the allegation and had been suspended to allow time to investigate our belief that children may be exposed to a risk of harm and for any necessary steps to be taken to eliminate or reduce the risk.

We will regularly review the situation and will lift the suspension if we believe children are no longer at risk.

We are continuing with our investigations. The provider is still registered with Ofsted.

The Montessori method, developed in the 1900s by Italian doctor Maria Montessori, is a child-centred philosophy that lets children learn from working on their own rather than by direct instruction.

Moving freely around the classroom is a key part of the system.

Research has shown that five-year-olds who attend a Montessori school are better prepared for reading and maths.A teenager hunting for kangaroos was left with a smashed jaw when the animal fought back and attacked him.

Joshua Hayden, 19, was out with his brother near Kellerberrin in Western Australia on Tuesday night when his jaw was broken as they hunted three animals.

He says he was lining up a shot at two kangaroos from the moving car and was leaning out of the window when it attacked and bounced straight off the windscreen.

Joshua Hayden, 19, was out hunting with his brother near Kellerberrin in Western Australia

After the other one disappeared, Mr Hayden put two of the animals in his crosshairs but the animal charged at the car before he could pull the trigger.

Mr Hayden was out cold for around 30 seconds before he regained consciousness and initially thought his brother had hit him.

'It actually collided with the side of the car and smashed the front window,' he told the ABC.

'Then it bounced back onto me and headbutted me straight in the jaw.'

He has been referred to the Royal Perth Hospital after two trips to local hospitals at Northam and Kellerberrin - 200km east of Perth.

He was lining up a shot at two kangaroos from the moving car and was leaning out of the window

Doctors have told him he will have to wait 10 days for surgery to allow the swelling to go down.

Perth Now reports that Hayden is 'pretty sure it headbutted me.

'It must have just like hit the car and swung straight back, tried hopping out of the way - and my face just happened to be there.'

The pair say they often go out hunting for kangaroos to eat but have not come across them fighting back on previous expeditions.

'They've got hard heads on them. I can say that' Hayden said. '[You should] keep your head inside the car unless you know where the kangaroos are.'

Mr Hayden was out cold for around 30 seconds before he regained consciousness after being smashed in the face by a kangaroo at full-speed

A Western Australian teenager sustained head injuries after being collected by a kangaroo while allegedly hanging out the window of a moving car.

The young male received facial fractures as a result of the run-in, which occurred as he was travelling through the north east town of Northam on Wednesday, ABC News reports.

St John Ambulance revealed he had been transported to Royal Perth Hospital for treatment, but was in good health.

A Western Australian teenager sustained head injuries after being collected by a kangaroo while allegedly hanging out the window of a moving car (stock image)

The well being of the kangaroo was unknown.

The incident comes just weeks after a cyclist was wiped at by a large kangaroo while riding in Bonnah, in Queensland, on Australia Day.

The cyclist, Rebecca, was thrown off her bike and partially dislocated her right shoulder as a result of the forceful impact.

Footage of the collision showed her setting the pace at the front of a group of riders who were making their way through the south-east Queensland countryside.

The kangaroo then emerged from the right-hand side of the road before collecting Rebecca and miraculously landing on its legs before hopping off.The FBI and the Parkland Police Department both received warnings about confessed school shooter Nikolas Cruz weeks before he killed 17 people at his former Florida high school.

The 19-year-old was also heard apologizing to Parkland police in a 911 recording following a violent outburst at his trailer park home during which he punched walls and broke items because his guns had been taken away from him.

According to a transcript obtained by the New York Times, a woman called the FBI last month to tell them that Cruz had a lot of guns and ammunition and she was worried he might be 'getting into a school and just shooting the place up.'

'I know he's going to explode,' the woman warned in a call to the bureau's tip hotline on January 5.

Nikolas Cruz was arrested and charged for killing 17 people at a Florida high school on February 14

Months before the killing, Cruz had gotten into a violent altercation at the Lantana mobile home he was staying at

Cruz told police that he became upset when he misplaced a photo of his mother, who had recently died

The tipster, whose identity was redacted from the transcript, said Cruz had been adrift since his mother's sudden death from the flu in November. She also provided the FBI with four Instagram accounts she said was associated with Cruz and contained images of guns and sliced up animals.

The woman said that Cruz purchased the weapons with money he received from his mother's life insurance policy.

A federal official told the Times that FBI deputy director David L Bowdich briefed congressional staff about the call on Friday acknowledging that the bureau failed to investigate the tip.

The caller also contacted the Parkland Police Department before she reached out to the FBI. The woman was worried Cruz was going to kill himself, but she didn't hear back from the department. She said she was also concerned about a post he wrote online saying 'he wants to kill people'.

It was also revealed that the Broward County Sheriff's Office, which staffs Parkland Police, received a similar call in November from someone in Massachusetts. That person told deputies that Cruz 'could be a school shooter in the making'.

Two deputies have since been placed on restricted duty while the office investigates how both calls were not investigated.

The anonymous tipsters weren't the only ones concerned about Cruz's behavior.

On November 28, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office received a call from Roxanne Deschamps, the woman who took Cruz and his younger brother in after their mom died.



Deschamps told police that Cruz became violent when she took away his guns and ammunition and he started punching walls and breaking items in their Lantana Cascade mobile home.

Roxanne Deschamps (pictured) told police that Cruz became violent because she took away his guns and ammunition. She said Cruz left the home following the altercation and she feared what would happen if he returned

A woman also called the FBI last month warning them that Cruz could be dangerous and he had a lot of guns. Pictured is an Instagram photo Cruz posted of his gun collection

The caller told the FBI that she was concerned about a post Cruz made saying he wanted to kill people. The woman's warning was never investigated by the FBI

A woman breaks down during a prayer vigil for the families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed

'Because that's all he wants is his gun,' Deschamps said, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald. 'That's all he cares about is his gun, and he bought tons of ammunition, bullets and stuff, and I took it away from him.'

Deschamps said her 22-year-old son, Rock, tried to calm Cruz down and the teen allegedly punched Rock in the face. Cruz then abruptly left the home.

Deschamps told police that she feared what would happen if he came back to their house.

'I'm afraid if he comes back, and he has a lot of weapons, and he has a weapon that he is going to get at Dick's (Sporting Goods) right now because he purchased it,' she said.

'He put the gun to the head of his brother before, so this is not the first time, and he did that to his mom.'

While Deschamps was speaking with police, Cruz had called 911 to report the incident. In a recording released Friday he's heard telling the dispatcher that he was attacked and the person who hit him threatened to 'gut' him.

'The thing is I lost my mother a couple weeks ago, so, like, I'm dealing with a bunch of things right now,' he told the operator.

Police later found Cruz in a neighborhood park. In a police report, the responding deputy wrote that the teen 'appeared nervous and calm' and said he had become upset 'because he misplaced a picture of his mother who recently passed away'.

Cruz is currently being held on 17 counts of premeditated murder after he opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on February 14.Stormzy tweeted 'job done' after a petition calling on Theresa May to take action to build public trust in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry topped 100,000 signatures

Stormzy tweeted 'job done' after a petition calling on Theresa May to take action to build public trust in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry topped 100,000 signatures.

The petition called for a diverse panel to be appointed to the probe amid diminishing confidence in current chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick.

Backed by Brit Award winners Stormzy and Adele, it now has enough signatures to be considered for debate in Parliament.

Stormzy used his performance at the Brits this week to take aim at the PM over the tragedy and asked fans to support the cause.

The rapper said: 'Yo Theresa May, where's the money for Grenfell? Do you think we've just forgotten about Grenfell? You criminals!'

He added: 'You got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time, you should pay some damages!

'We should burn your house down, we'll see if you can manage it!'

After the petition hit the 100,000 milestone he tweeted: 'Beautiful, legendary people. Job done' with a love heart.

The devastating tower block blaze at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington (pictured six months since) claimed the lives of 71 people in June

After the petition hit the 100,000 milestone Stormzy tweeted: 'Beautiful, legendary people. Job done' (above)

Organisers Adel Chaoui, Karim Mussilhy and Sandra Ruiz, who were bereaved in the tragedy, said in a joint statement: 'This week the public have shown they've not forgotten about Grenfell.

'Just as they supported us in the immediate aftermath of the fire, when local and national government response was lacking, they've backed us again  and demanded the voices of the survivors and bereaved are heard.'

A public inquiry is under way into the causes of and response to the Grenfell Tower disaster, chaired by retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick.

The devastating tower block blaze in North Kensington claimed the lives of 71 people in June.

The request for additional panel members with decision-making powers was turned down in December by Mrs May, who feared the inquiry's work would be hindered by any overhaul.

However residents and survivors are concerned the inquiry top team lacks first-hand experience of culturally complex areas such as North Kensington.

Stormzy used his performance at the Brits this week to take aim at Theresa May over the tragedy and asked fans to support the cause

The petition, backed by Brit Award winners Stormzy and Adele, called for a diverse panel to be appointed to the probe amid diminishing confidence in current chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick (pictured)

The petition's organisers said on Friday: 'It's important for communities across the UK that the Grenfell Tower Fire Inquiry holds those responsible to account and tackles the causes and neglect that led up to the fire, so that no community is ignored in the way we were and that changes are made, so an avoidable tragedy like this never happens again.

Stormzy has criticised the Prime Minister for her handling of the disaster's aftermath

'After speaking with Hillsborough families this week, Grenfell United are more determined than ever that this inquiry is set up in the best way to get truth and justice first time around  with an impartial, independent, decision making panel with the experience and expertise needed to sit alongside and assist Sir Martin Moore-Bick.'

Any changes to the inquiry's top team could risk stalling the progress of Sir Martin, who is eager to publish an interim report into the causes of the blaze later this year.

In December the Prime Minister defended the inquiry after Ms Ruiz, Mr Mussilhy and a teenage girl, who all lost loved ones in the blaze, joined former resident Nicholas Burton to deliver the petition to Number 10.

The Prime Minister has powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 to opt for a panel-led inquiry, rather than relying on one chairman.

On Thursday Downing Street insisted Mrs May was 'absolutely committed' to supporting those affected by the fire.

The PM's spokesman flatly denied she had been negligent about responding to the disaster in inner London, pointing out that more than 58million had been allocated to helping victims.Conmen who targeted British pensioners with millions of letter frauds are facing court action after a Daily Mail investigation.

More than 200 scammers have been charged or served with court orders in a joint action by US and Canadian police using evidence uncovered by this newspapers investigations unit.

One of those facing legal action, Andrew John Thomas, was caught on camera by an undercover Mail reporter boasting that he was a proud w**** who used his beautiful talent to sell this s**t to people who dont need it. Another is his associate Patrick Fraser.

The evidence gathered by the Mail is described in court papers as proof of the pairs intent to defraud. Police believe they may have run hundreds of millions of pounds worth of frauds, sending four million letters a year.

They are understood to have told their printing providers they valued having Royal Mail branding on their letters to dupe British victims into thinking they were genuine.

They are understood to have told their printing providers they valued having Royal Mail branding on their letters to dupe British victims into thinking they were genuine

The developments will pile pressure on postage firms in the UK and on Royal Mail, which has launched a drive to stamp out scam letters in response to the Daily Mails investigation in October 2016.

We revealed how conmen were using Royal Mails bulk mail contracts with postal partners to target the elderly. In some cases they paid to use the Royal Mail logo.

Some of their letters conned vulnerable people, including dementia patients, into thinking they had won a prize they could claim by sending money. Officials believe up to 10billion is lost to such scams each year.

Court papers filed in New York by the US Department of Justice on Thursday cite evidence gathered by the Daily Mail that Thomas and Fraser were directors of a mail fraud scheme to defraud the elderly.

They used eight shell companies, rented mailboxes and cross-border couriers to hide their activities, the US Department of Justice alleges.

The Mail, October 10, 2016

The pair have now been banned from sending further mass mailings pending an investigation by the department. Criminal charges have not yet been brought against them, but sources said they could later be charged with mail fraud.

The hundreds of scammers targeted by the action are accused of defrauding more than a million elderly people globally out of more than 600million. More than 200 have been charged and civil actions brought against dozens more.

The Daily Mails expose came after reporters infiltrated a conference at a ski resort in Canada where scammers met to trade suckers lists with names and addresses of those considered susceptible to fraud.

They boasted of ripping off suggestible victims and of using Royal Mails discounted bulk postage rates to send letters to the UK. This also allowed them to have Royal Mail branding on envelopes.

Royal Mail said last night it was working with industry partners and law enforcement agencies to tackle this issue even more vigorously.

Since its crackdown in 2016, more than three million fraud letters have been stopped before delivery.A sailor is dead and a desperate search is on for another after a yacht capsized during a race off the Western Australian coast.

Rescue crews were called out in the early hours of Saturday morning after the boat overturned during the Bunbury and Return Ocean Race south of Perth.

Five of the six people who fell overboard were pulled out of the water, however one of them was confirmed dead.

A sailor is dead and a desperate search is on for another after a yacht capsized during the Bunbury and Return Ocean Race (pictured) south of Perth

The boat is believed to have capsized 11 nautical miles south-west of Mandurah about 2.45am

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is coordinating a rescue attempt - involving a plane and five helicopters - for the sixth crew member who fell overboard.

The boat is believed to have capsized 11 nautical miles south-west of Mandurah about 2.45am.

A distress signal was sent to AMSA, but subsequent attempts to contact the yacht went unanswered.

The yacht's tracker then stopped updating about 3am, an AMSA spokesperson said.

A rescue helicopter eventually found the capsized yacht at 3.30am, before police, marine rescue crews and two race-participating yachts joined the search for the missing sailor.

The search on Saturday morning was being hampered by strong winds and three to four metre waves, before conditions eased in the afternoon, an AMSA spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the surviving crew members have undergone medical treatment.A former judo partner of Russian president Vladimir Putin who wanted to keep his name out of the papers after getting into a dispute with his ex-wife over money has lost his battle.

Judges have decided that wealthy Russian businessman Arkady Rotenberg can be named in media reports of the case after a freedom of speech fight with bosses at The Times.

Mr Rotenberg, 66, argued that his name, and that of his ex-wife Natalia, should not feature in media reports because of safety concerns.

The pair were locked in a legal dispute after he argued that he should not have to make a divorce payout to her because his assets within the EU were frozen.

The long-term acquaintance of Putin cannot come to Britain, where his ex-wife now lives in Surrey, because of EU sanctions.

Arkady Rotenberg (pictured with Vladimir Putin) has lost his battle to stay anonymous during newspaper reports involving his divorce battle with his ex-wife Natalia

Mr Rotenberg has argued that he should not have to pay his ex-wife any divorce money because his EU assets have been frozen

Most of his money, some 2.2billion, comes from Kremlin-awarded contracts given to his engineering company, including a current project to build a bridge between Russia and Crimea.

Journalists disagreed and editors at The Times tried to persuade judges to rule the pair should be identified.

They said he had featured in a public court hearing in the Court of Appeal in London and argued that reporters should be allowed to publish names.

The newspaper's lawyers, led by barrister Adam Wolanksi, won fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal.

Mr Justice Moor ruled that both Mr Rotenberg and his ex-wife could be named after analysing the dispute at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

Appeal judges, who considered the issue at a Court of Appeal hearing in London last year, upheld that ruling.

But they said the media must remain gagged until Supreme Court justices had considered Mr Rotenberg's arguments.

Supreme Court justices on Friday announced that they would not analyse the case - because it raised no 'arguable point of law' - and the reporting bar was lifted.

Mr Rotenberg and his ex-wife had fought over money at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

They subsequently reached a settlement.

Journalists and editors at The Times argued that they should be able to publish names and successfully won fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal

Four years ago Mr Rotenberg was one of a number of people made the subject of sanctions by European Union ministers.

They froze funds - and imposed a 'ban on staying' in EU territories - against people whose 'actions' threatened the independence of Ukraine.

A ruling published by the General Court of the European Union described Mr Rotenberg as a 'long-time acquaintance' of Mr Putin.

'Mr Rotenberg is a long-time acquaintance of President Putin and his former judo sparring partner,' said the ruling.

'He has developed his fortune during President Putin's tenure.'

'He has been favoured by Russian decision-makers in the award of important contracts by the Russian State or by State-owned enterprises.

'His companies were notably awarded several highly lucrative contracts for the preparations of the Sochi Olympic Games.'

The ruling sited business activities which undermined the 'territorial integrity' of Ukraine.

Pia Sarma, editorial legal director for Times Newspapers, said: 'Secrecy in the court system is a growing concern.

'The press has a duty to uphold the principle of open justice and act as the eyes and ears of the public in the courts.

'The Times will resist any attempts to erode those principles.'A US sailor remains hospitalized in critical condition two days after being struck by a spinning helicopter blade at a California military base.

The sailor, whose identity was not revealed, was at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base, north of San Diego, when the tail rotor blade of a UH-1Y Venom helicopter hit the sailor.

According to a tweet by Camp Pendleton, the incident happened on Wednesday around 6pm while the helicopter was on the flight deck.

A US sailor was hit by tail rotor blade of a UH-1Y Venom helicopter on Wednesday evening

The sailor was hospitalized following the incident and remains in critical condition

The sailor, who had been assigned to 34d Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, was taken to a local hospital.

No further details were released, and the military said the incident is being investigated.ASI understood to be one of those highlighted by former international development secretary Priti Patel (pictured) for excessive profiteering'

A disgraced foreign aid firm which made huge profits on the back of taxpayer funding could be awarded even more contracts by the Government.

Adam Smith International was lambasted by MPs last year for acting improperly by profiteering  overcharging for handling foreign aid work.

It withdrew from submitting any new bids for work after revelations that the company had engineered testimonials from beneficiaries. It also emerged their taxpayer-funded work in Nigeria had led to electricity consumers facing huge price rises.

The firm is understood to be one of those highlighted by former international development secretary Priti Patel for excessive profiteering. Its latest accounts show income of 154million and profits of 17.9million.

Despite these failings, the Department for International Development has now cleared the way for ASI to apply for new contracts.

The firm submitted its first new bid at the end of January.

DfID admits it cannot legally refuse to consider any bid, or decide not to grant a contract on the basis of previous mistakes.

The news comes weeks after a BBC Panorama investigation alleged funds from one of ASIs aid projects in northern Syria have ended up in the hands of terrorist organisations. The firm strenuously denies these claims.

The foreign aid sector has been hit by a series of scandals over the past fortnight, amid allegations that Oxfam aid workers used prostitutes in earthquake-hit Haiti.

Last week International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said she had agreed with Oxfam that it would no longer bid for funding in the wake of the Haiti sex scandal.

However, ASIs submission of a bid for funding just one year after it voluntarily withdrew from doing so will raise questions over whether the deal with Oxfam will be effective.

ASIs decision to bid again was announced by its interim chairman Rachel English. She said: After a year when we decided not to tender for new business with DfID, ASI now looks forward to re-entering the competitive market for contracts that deliver Britains assistance and foreign policy priorities in some of the worlds most fragile countries.

Christian Aid drawn into abuse storm One of Britains biggest Christian charities has become the latest organisation to be dragged in to the aid sector sex scandal. Christian Aid is set to report at least two cases of sexual misconduct over the last 12 months to the Department for International Development. Penny Mourdant has written to all overseas charities receiving government aid, giving them an ultimatum to declare concerns or safeguarding issues A spokesman for the charity said both incidents happened overseas, with one person sacked and the other disciplined. The Mail has also learnt that the charity asked police to investigate an historical incident. No action was taken after officers decided it did not amount to a criminal offence. International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has written to all British charities working overseas and receiving government aid, giving them until Monday to declare all concerns or safeguarding issues. Christian Aid, which acts as an umbrella organisation for 41 different sponsoring churches, is the countrys second largest Christian charity by income, after The Salvation Army Trust. It received 54.7million in donations in 2016/17 according to its latest set of accounts, along with more than 15million from DfID. Advertisement

The company spent 450million of UK development cash from 2011-17. But last February it was hit by claims it tried to profiteer by exploiting leaked DfID documents.

The company was also alleged to have tried to unduly influence a parliamentary inquiry by engineering letters of appreciation from beneficiaries of its projects.

ASI chairman interim chairman Rachel English said the company was looking forward to bidding for projects to deliver projects for the 'worlds most fragile countries'

The Commons international development select committee said ASIs actions were deplorable, entirely inappropriate and showed a serious lack of judgment.

DfID said it had serious concerns over ASIs ethical integrity, culture and behaviour. The companys three founding executives, Andrew Kuhn, Amitabh Shrivastava and Peter Young, stepped down along with chairman William Morrison.

New policies and procedures were brought in to raise ethical standards and improve governance.

A DfID spokesman said: All bids from ASI will be rigorously scrutinised, as is the case with any bidder.

ASI will only be awarded contracts where they demonstrate their ability to adhere to the high standards of integrity expected from government contractors while delivering the best results for the worlds poorest and value for money for UK taxpayers.

We have clamped down on the risk of profiteering, excessive charges and unethical practices by suppliers with the threat of legal repercussions for those who break these stricter rules.

A spokesperson for Adam Smith International said: Adam Smith International refutes the characterisation in this article. ASI has never been found to have overcharged or excessively profiteered, and the Parliamentary Committee found that it was not misled and did not find that ASI falsified testimonials.A charity called in police to deal with a teacher who misgendered a pupil.

Mermaids, which supports children who believe they were born in the wrong body, said the teacher had committed a hate crime because he did not address the child using his new gender.

The youngster, who had switched from female to male, wanted staff and pupils at his school to accept his new identity.

Under the Equality Act, schools have a duty to accommodate transgender pupils and make sure they do not suffer upset or bullying. According to Mermaids the teacher often failed to use the correct gender pronouns for the boy  he, him and his. The charity said the reminders of his past as a girl had caused the boy to become depressed.

Volunteers from Mermaids intervened on behalf of the boy, and when the teacher refused to accept their point of view, they called police. Susie Green, who heads the charity, told the Times Educational Supplement the tough action was necessary to protect the boys mental health. She said: We had to get the police involved because a young student was being regularly misgendered by his tutor. The tutor dismissed it until he was informed that it counted as a hate crime.

Under the Equality Act, schools have a duty to accommodate transgender pupils and make sure they do not suffer upset or bullying (stock picture)

The matter has now been resolved by the police, but in the meantime, the student was off school with anxiety and depression for two weeks. This damage to their mental health was unnecessary and completely avoidable. This is why the law exists and why we must stick to it.

The charity did not say how old the child was, or whether the police took any further action against the teacher or the school.

Mrs Green said schools had a legal duty to respect the wishes of children who want to identify with the opposite gender to that with which they were born.

But Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: The general population are unlikely to support the use of police to enforce a language code in schools.

Mermaids are well-intentioned but in this instance they are doing more damage than good. We all want tolerance, and pupils should be taught to treat each other how they should wish to be treated themselves.

But enforcing language using the police will antagonise. It could even make transgender children the focus of resentment.A New South Wales MP at the centre of a sexting scandal involving a Minister and an ex-girlfriend has denied the 'allegations' against her.

Minister Matt Kean, 36, was embroiled in a sex scandal after his furious ex-girlfriend Caitlin Keage, 30, exposed text messages to Eleni Petinos telling her 'I need to f*** you.'

Ms Petinos, 30, revealed her distress about being dragged into the sorry mess on Friday night.

'I am saddened that I have been drawn into this relationship breakdown,' she told the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader.

'I deny the allegations.'

Ms Petinos texted Mr Kean: 'Just got your Christmas card you're absolutely gorgeous - love you xx'

'It pains me to be making a statement about matters which are outside the scope of my work and are entirely personal.'

Ms Petinos confirmed in a statement to the Daily Mail she was referring to the allegations made by Ms Keage.

Ms Keage, the now ex-girlfriend of NSW Innovation Minister Matt Kean, on Thursday night shared copies of texts he sent to Ms Petinos.

The Innovation Minister's furious ex-girlfriend Caitlin Keage (pictured together left) posted copies of the texts (mock up right) on her private Instagram account on Thursday night

'When your boyfriend cheats on you when you're away with family,' Caitlin Keage, a media adviser to Malcolm Turnbull, captioned the Instagram post.

'I was in Adelaide trusting my partner not to play up. But alas, here we are. Another minister getting away with his predatory behaviour,' Ms Keage said.

The messages revealed Mr Kean told Ms Petinos he was 'tempted to drive down to see' her, just after 10pm on December 27.

She replied: 'Miss me huh? lol,' before he said: 'Yup. Really need to f**k you.'

The messages were sent to member for Miranda, Eleni Petinos (pictured), who has not yet spoken of the scandal

Ms Petinos said he already had 'CK for that' and when he asked, 'is that a no?' she replied: 'It's that time of the month'.

Mr Kean said: 'OK come up later x.'

She later texted Mr Kean and said: 'Just got your Christmas card you're absolutely gorgeous - love you xx'.

The NSW minister acknowledged his relationship with Ms Keage was over in a short statement on Thursday night.

Liberal MP Matt Kean (pictured) has acknowledged his relationship with Ms Keage is over

'I am deeply sorry my relationship with Caitlin ended in such a spectacular and sad fashion. I wish her all the best,' he said.

Mr Kean appeared to delete his Facebook and Twitter accounts on Friday morning.

'I was in Adelaide trusting my partner not to play up,' Ms Keage captioned the Instagram post, which has since been deleted

The minister's boss, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, said she would not be sacking him over the scandal.

Ms Berejiklian is in Washington for the US National Governors' Association meeting, alongside Ms Keage's boss, Mr Turnbull.

'What I've read this morning is extremely disappointing,' the premier said on Friday.

'I'm personally disappointed in him and have told him so, but it is nonetheless a personal matter.'

Ms Keage and Mr Kean's abrupt relationship breakdown was described by Liberal minister Christopher Pyne as 'very sad'.

'I know the people involved, they're both friends of mine and it's obviously very upsetting for them all to be involved in this story,' Mr Pyne told the Nine Network.

In 2015, another of Mr Kean's (left) girlfriend accused him of being in a relationship with Ms Keage (right)

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictrued right with Ms Petinos) said she would not be sacking Mr Kean over the scandal

The messages revealed Mr Kean told Ms Petinos (pictured) he was 'tempted to drive down to see you' just after 10pm on 27 December

'It's got nothing to do with the prime minister's office, but it's obviously a personal matter and very sad.'

Mr Kean's relationship with Ms Keage is understood to have been on-and-off, and photos of the minister have appeared on the dating app, Bumble, Fairfax reported.

Former partners Matt Kean and Caitlin Keage are pictured on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 2016

Ms Petinos told Mr Kean 'It's that time of the month' when her propositioned her. She his pictured with Treasurer, Scott Morrison

Mr Kean's relationship with Ms Keage (pictured right) is understood to have been on-and-off

Ms Petinos made headlines last year after vomiting in the back of a government car after a State of Origin game in Sydney.

A senior liberal source questioned Ms Petinos' maturity to serve the Miranda community and suggested she may be challenged for pre-selection by Sutherland Shire Councillor Kent Johns.

'Getting drunk at the State of Origin and throwing up in the Deputy Premier's car wasn't a good look,' the source said.

'Getting it on with the Minister when his girlfriend is away reinforces this position.'

The latest scandal comes after Sunrise host Samantha Armytage claimed that if every Minister was sacked in relation to sexual conduct there would be none left because 'they're all screwing everybody' in Canberra.

Speaking about her experience reporting in parliament, she said: 'There's a lot of rooting around - in the press gallery and by politicians.

Mr Kean told Ms Petinos (left) he was 'tempted to drive down to see you'. Photos of the minister (right) have reportedly appeared on the dating app, Bumble

Mr Kean is pictured with his boss, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian

'There's a lot of bad behaviour, it's a naughty spot.

'When Canberra is on it can be very boring, but when it's ON - it's the place to be,' she told the Daily Telegraph's Miranda Live radio show.

She was asked if Baranby Joyce, 50, should resign after his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion, 33, became public.

'Does it matter [the affair]? Because they're all screwing everybody down there,' she said.

Ms Petinos, who is at the centre of a new sexting scandal, is pictured promoting a suicide prevention charity

Ms Petinos (pictrued) said he already had 'CK for that' after Mr Kean said: 'I need to f*** you'WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

The woman mauled by a great white shark during a leisurely swim has been identified as 55-year-old Anna Shurapey, from Sydney's south-west.

Ms Shurapey became the first shark attack victim in Botany Bay in 25 years when she was attacked 20 metres from Congwong Beach on Friday night, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Department of Primary Industries confirmed on Saturday that the shark responsible for her mauling was a juvenile great white, measuring between 2.7 and 3.2 metres long.

The attack triggered the closure of Congwong, Little Congwong, Yarra Bay and Frenchman's Bay beaches, which stayed closed on Saturday during temperatures of 33C.

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The woman mauled by a great white shark during a leisurely swim has been identified as 55-year-old Anna Shurapey (pictured), from Sydney's south-west

Ms Shurapey became the first shark attack victim in Botany Bay in 25 years when she was attacked 20 metres from Congwong Beach (pictured) on Friday night

She was just 20 metres from the sands of Congwong Beach, in Sydney's south-east, when she was attacked about 7pm Friday

The attack means Congwong (pictured), Frenchmans and Yarra Bay beaches will stay closed on Saturday, when temperatures are expected to climb to 33 degrees

Ms Shurapey was in a stable condition on Saturday afternoon after she underwent surgery at St George Hospital.

Senior shark biologist from the DPI Dr Vic Peddemors said the woman suffered a 'severe' bite to her right leg, but expected her to make a full recovery.

He added: 'I would be surprised if she had any severe damage, and I'm hoping she'll recover soon.

'I can confirm that it was likely a juvenile great white shark between 2.7 metres and 3.2 metres in length that was involved.

'There have been no shark bites in the La Perouse area for an extremely long period - this is an unusual event.'

Randwick City Council mayor Lindsay Shurey described Ms Shurapey as 'lucky to be alive' when speaking to reporters on Saturday.

Ms Shurapey was in a stable condition on Saturday afternoon after she underwent surgery at St George Hospital

The woman suffered massive lacerations and multiple puncture wounds on her leg

'I think she's very lucky to still have her leg ... and to survive,' she said, according to Daily Telegraph.

'She was swimming at dusk, which is never really recommended.'

Ms Shurapey underwent surgery at St George Hospital on Saturday after she suffered lacerations and multiple puncture wounds to her right leg.

Fishermen helped pull the 55-year-old - who was bleeding heavily - out of the water and called paramedics after she was attacked, Nine News reported.

There have been no sightings of the shark since the terrifying incident.

Officials from Randwick City Council said the beaches around La Perouse will be closed by lifeguards during the weekend.

There have been no sightings of the shark since the attack at Congwong Beach

Helicopters were seen above Congwong Beach on Saturday as they scoured the waters for the shark

A Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter hovers above Congwong Beach at La Perouse on Saturday

Randwick mayor Lindsay Shurey said: 'From all accounts the woman was very lucky and certainly the whole community's heartfelt thoughts are with her for a full recovery.

'I've lived in the area for 25 years and this is the first confirmed shark attack in Randwick City. We're all a little shocked and concerned.

'As a precaution, Council Lifeguards have immediately closed all the La Perouse beaches including including Congwong, Little Congwong, Yarra Bay and Frenchman's Bay for at least Saturday.

'Council Lifeguards will be stationed at the usually unpatrolled beaches on Saturday to advise swimmers not to swim.'A widow may be priced out of her home of 15 years after the government signed off on a 70 per cent rental increase by her landlord.

Kathleen Garity, 63, has been left with just $132-a-fortnight to live on after Tasmania's Residential Tenancy Commissioner deemed the drastic increase as 'reasonable'.

The rent on her West Hobart unit increased on January 31 from $175 per week to $300 - which her landlord said was a 'discounted' rate because of her long tenancy, Mercury reported.

Kathleen Garity, 63, has been left with just $132-a-fortnight to live on after Tasmania's Residential Tenancy Commissioner deemed the drastic increase as 'reasonable' (west Hobart pictured)

The increase has ravaged Ms Garity's $732-a-fortnight widow's allowance from Centrelink, and left her devastated.

'I'm caught between a rock and a hard place. I can't afford to stay here, and I can't afford to move,' she told the publication.

'I really don't know how I'm going to cope in the future.'

Ms Garity's landlord engaged a property management company, who originally wanted to increase her rent to $350 per week, she was told.

She then appealed to the tenancy commissioner, but her claims of an unfair increase fell on deaf ears, as the commissioner ruled against her.

The commissioner Dale Webster noted he had to consider market value and an upwards trend.

'The act does not require or enable me to regulate the market, simply assess rents in line with what the market is currently achieving,' he wrote.

The rent on her West Hobart unit increased on January 31 from $175 per week to $300 - which her landlord said was a 'discounted' rate because of her long tenancy

Ms Garity said she is 'horrified' by the result and has not been sleeping properly since.

Friends have been offering food for the widow, but she said she has no savings left and doesn't know how she will pay upcoming bills.

She has applied for public housing, but plans to appeal the commissioner's decision.The criminal charges against Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, are adding up.

A recent indictment reveals that the banks that loaned Manafort, 68, millions for his New York real estate may face legal and regulatory risks.

Citizens Bank, based in Rhode Island, may be one of those banks that face legal and regulatory risks, after it was identified in cross checks conducted by AP as the bank that lent Manafort $3.4million based off fraudulent documents.

A recent indictment against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, above, puts the banks that financed him at legal and regulatory risk

Court documents reveal that banks gave Manafort loans based off fraudulent documents

Manafort, pictured center, worked as the campaign manager from June to August 2016

In another case Citizens Bank helped Manafort avoid getting caught by sending back a doctored document.

'Looks Dr'd. Can't someone just do a clean excel doc and pdf to me-,' an unnamed banker allegedly wrote in response to the document.

The bank revelations are a part of new indictment unsealed this week with 32 counts against Manafort.

But bank spokesman Peter Lugcht declined to acknowledge if they were the institution labelled 'Lender B' in court.

Nor did he say whether the bank still employed the conspirator of the loan.

The Associated Press also identified other unnamed banks referenced in court through cross-referencing loan amounts and dates with public records in New York City.

Robert Mueller (above), former FBI director, is leading the investigations against Manafort

AP cross checks revealed Citizens Bank as 'Lender B' mentioned in the court documents as a bank that lent money based on false documents

Courts alleged that a Citizens Bank employee aided an attempt to commit loan fraud.

Citizens noticed that Manafort failed to disclose loans on other properties in New York in his application for a $3.4 million loan, using a condo in Manhattan's trendy SoHo neighborhood as collateral.

That's when Manafort asked Gates to find an insurance broker to hand over an old insurance report that didn't list one of the loans, making it appear as if he didn't have as much debt as he did, according to the indictment.

'Good job on the insurance issues,' Manafort wrote to Gates, the court papers show.

In another case, Citizens bank was at first unwilling to loan Manafort money after noticing $1.5million on his balance sheet from another account.

But the bank was mollified after Manafort and assistant Gates asked a tax accountant to send the bank a back-dated document that falsely stated the $1.5million had been forgiven, according to court paper.

'I would expect the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) upon reading this indictment or news accounts of the indictment to immediately launch an investigation of what went on,' Kevin Handly, a banking lawyer and former senior attorney for the Federal Reserve Board, said to AP.

Manafort's extensive real estate property includes this $2.9 million condo in Washington DC

The Manaforts also own a floor in this chic Soho building which they purchased in February 2012 for $2.85 million

The Manaforts also purchased this $3million brownstone in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn which is undergoing renovations, that same year

Manafort purchased an upper-floor apartment in Trump Tower in November 2006 for more than $3million

He also paid $2.5million to purchase this Chinatown condo for his daughter

However, Citizens Bank did not agree Manafort's request for a $5.5million loan on a property in Brooklyn.

In that case, according to court papers, 'another conspirator on Manafort's behalf' sent the bank a fake profit-and-loss statement but the person wasn't identified in court papers.

Handly said that bank regulators would likely want to know why a bank hadn't caught on to such a ruse.

'That they could make a loan thinking they had the collateral in place is a failing of the bank's internal operating procedures and controls. Ordinary due diligence should have uncovered that,' Handly said.

The news that banks supporting Manafort's schemes may face legal and regulatory risks follows after his longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty on Friday to the similar charges of banking violations, tax evasion, unregistered lobbying as well as other crimes.

Gates will work with the Special Counsel Investigations Unit led by former FBI director Robert Mueller.

So far, Manafort faces five federal criminal charges including money laundering, foreign lobbying violations, and tax fraud.

Despite the charges against him Manafort maintains that he is guilty.

He served as Trump's campaign manager from June to August 2016.

Manafort has properties in Florida, Virginia, Manhattan, Brooklyn and New York's Long Island.A seven-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after falling 20 metres down a waterfall in a Victorian national pork.

The boy injured his head and legs after losing his balance and slipping down Wilhelmina Falls during a family outing at the Yarra Ranges, 7 News reported.

The incident occurred at around 11am on Saturday.

Rescuers said it was extraordinary that the boy did not suffer more serious injuries given the height form which he fell.

A boy, seven, is lucky to be alive after falling 20 metres down a waterfall and suffering head and leg injuries while on a family day out

Witnesses said the boy landed in the water at the bottom of the waterfall.

Bystanders rushed to the boys aid, holding his head above the water for 2 hours until emergency services were able to reach the site.

There were concerns at the time the boy may have suffered a serious spinal injuries.

Victoria Police Acting Sergeant Jason Reynolds praised the fast acting by standers, including the boy's auntie.

'Fortunately for us and the young lad there was a nurse on sight who was with him, she happened to be his aunt, so we had first aid,' he told 7 News.

Due to the location of the accident the rescue required multiple agencies working together to get the boy out, including an air ambulance, the police, the CFA and SES.

The boy was rushed to the Royal Children's Hospital in a stable condition.Eileen Cummings, head of the Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, said the families of children who have been removed should be in a program which allows the child to eventually return home

An Aboriginal leader has called for the Northern Territory government to remove at-risk children from their homes.

Eileen Cummings, head of the Territory Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, said the families of children who have been removed should be in a program which allows the child to eventually return home.

'You can't forever take children and not have anything to help parents come to terms with it and make changes in their lives so they can care for their children,' she told the ABC.

'Children can't grow up not knowing who their parents are, so I want the Government to try and put in place a program to get the parents back on track so they can't take the responsibility for their children.'

Her comments come a week after it was revealed a two-year-old girl was allegedly raped in Tennant Creek, in NT, at her home on February 15. A 24-year-old 'father figure' has been arrested and charged with the crime.

A two-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 'father figure' in a Tennant Creek home (pictured)

More than 20 notifications were made to child services about the house where the toddler was allegedly raped.

'They're leaving children far too long and the children are at risk. But if they had a process where elders were involved in the process then maybe they'll get somewhere better,' Ms Cummings said.

Ms Cummings is a part of the stolen generations and was removed from her parents as a child.

Tennant Creek is drowning in alcohol and law-abiding citizens are under siege, authorities and locals have said.

The town is among the most heavily-policed place in Australia. Any adult buying alcohol has to provide photo identification to prove they are allowed to drink.

The town has a population of 3,000, one supermarket and 10 main alcohol retailers, including three clubs, two pubs, three bottle shops and two licensed motels.

Tennant Creek, 1,000km south of Darwin, has 10 alcohol retailers for a town of 3000 residents

A toddler was allegedly raped at Tennant Creek, in the middle of the Northern Territory

The Northern Territory's town of Tennant Creek could be the most heavily-policed in Australia

Bottle shops in Tennant Creek can only trade Monday to Friday between 2pm and 8pm

Alcohol sales for 2013 were equivalent to 70,000 cans of full-strength beer a week - 23 cans for every resident - according to the Tenant Creek Alcohol Reference Group.

The most recent crime statistics showed in the year ending December 31, 2017 there were 319 assaults - more than one for every 10 Tennant Creek citizens - and 13 sexual assaults.

Domestic violence-related assaults had risen 32.7 per cent to 264 in the same period and alcohol-related assaults rose 21.9 per cent to 256 incidents.

There were 260 incidents of property damage (up 28.1 per cent), 104 commercial break-ins (up 33.3 per cent) and 81 home break-ins (up 26.6 per cent).

Until recently, police were stationed at bottle shops. Now customers are forced to produce identification proving they are not on the town's 'banned drinking register'.

Tennant Creek is the fifth largest town in the Northern Territory with a population of 2991 at the 2016 Census. Slightly more than half its residents  1536 - are indigenous.

The town is on the Stuart Highway, about 1,000 kilometres south of Darwin and 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs.

Tennant Creek has three clubs and two main hotels: The Tennant Creek and Goldfields

A sign in Tennant Creek where domestic violence-related assaults have risen 32.7 per cent

Tennant Creek (pictured) residents drank the equivalent of 70,000 cans of beer a week in 2013

The two-year-old toddler has been allowed to return to her home with her mother.

She was Alice Springs Hospital last Friday before being rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, where she was placed in an induced coma due to the severity of her injuries.

Her parents are understood to have troubled pasts and are known to be heavy drinkers.

The Northern Territory Government has admitted it failed to protect the girl.

Tennant Creek police (pictured) attended 58 jobs on the night the toddler was allegedly raped

To buy takeaway alcohol in Tennant Creek customers need to produce photo identification

The 24-year-old man accused of rape will appear at Alice Springs court (pictured) on April 19

A relative of the alleged rape victim told The Australian said there was a mounting crisis in Tennant Creek.

'It's a forgotten town running rampant with violence,' he said.

'Someone has got to be held accountable for this little girl. How many notifications do you have to put in before Territory Families does something?

'If this was a little white kid, it would be all over the papers nationally.

'By putting it in the paper, hopefully the whole of Australia can see what's happening in our little town.'

The Northern Territory Government has ordered an immediate investigation into its handling of the case.

Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison and Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw addressed a crowd of angry community members on Wednesday.

The toddler was allegedly raped at Tennant Creek (pictured) on February 15 and taken to hospital

Northern Territory Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison says the government failed the girl

The Government has already confirmed there were multiple substantiated notifications made to Territory Families about the toddler in the months before her alleged rape.

Ms Manison said Territory Families would be reviewing all files in the system where minors had multiple notifications.

'We will look at this situation and what happened in this particular case and why we failed this child, and what we must do to make sure we don't fail any more children the same way,' she said.

Tennant Creek, where a two-year-old girl was allegedly raped, is 500km north of Alice SpringsAdvertisement

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria 'without delay' to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

The sponsors, Kuwait and Sweden, amended the resolution late on Friday in a last-minute attempt to get Russian support, dropping a demand that the cease-fire take effect in 72 hours.

The resolution comes as air strikes on the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Saturday took the civilian death toll from seven days of devastating bombardment to more than 500.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (left) speaks to China's ambassador to the U.N. Ma Zhaoxu before the United Nations Security Council vote

Nikki Haley confers with members of the United Nations Security Council just outside the chamber before a scheduled vote on a resolution

United Nation Security Council members voting unanimously for the resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire

Paramedics tend to the injuries of a Syrian child who was wounded during the regime's bombardment

Smoke billows following a regime air strike on the rebel-held town of Haza, in the besieged eastern Ghouta region

A member of the Syrian White Helmets civil defence group carries an injured young man to get treatment

As she headed into the meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said: 'Today we are going to see if Russia has a conscience.'

'Every minute the council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew,' the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told the Security Council, accusing Russia of stalling.

'As they dragged out the negotiations, the bombs from Assad's fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling?'

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected accusations of foot-dragging, saying that negotiations were needed to arrive at a demand for a ceasefire that was 'feasible.'

Sweden's UN Ambassador Olof Skoog said before the vote that the resolution could de-escalate violence and save lives.

'The UN convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go,' he said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 35 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, it said.

The Observatory has said the air strikes are being carried out by Syrian and Russian forces. Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

White Helmets helmets helping residents through the smoke filled, bomb damaged streets of eastern Ghouta

A picture taken on Saturday in the Douma area of the besieged East Ghouta region shows the shrouded and prepared-for-burial bodies of civilians who were allegedly killed during government bombardments of the area

A Syrian girl looks at another crying child sitting on a hospital bed in a make-shift clinic in the rebel-held town of Douma, in the besieged east Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus

It was not just the young who have been killed and injured in the bombardments - here a elderly man is rescued by civil defence members in the Arbin town area of east Ghouta

Nikki Haley (right) looks on before the start of a United Nations Security Council concerning meeting concerning issues in the Middle East, at UN headquarters, on February 20, 2018 in New York City.

Fires have broken out after government forces carried out airstrikes in the Arbin town area of east Ghouta

Property has also been extensively damaged - this car was destroyed in the Arbin town area of east Ghouta

The rebel-held enclave of east Ghouta has again been subjected to a sustained bombardment throughout Friday and into Saturday

Smoke billows following a regime air strike on the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, late on Friday

The Kafr Batna area of East Ghouta has been singled out for attack in the latest bombardments

Local people and fire fighters arrive to extinguish a blaze fire after President Assad's forces carried out an airstrike over the de-escalation zone in Douma town of East Ghouta

Uwais, a two-year-old Syrian boy suffering from a broken pelvis, rests in bed in the rebel-held area of Haza, in the besieged enclave of East Ghouta

Wounded Syrian children await treatment at a makeshift hospital in the main East Ghouta town of Douma after fresh air strikes on the rebel enclave on Friday

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently described the situation on the ground in East Ghouta as 'hell on earth'

US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia's recent actions in Syria were a 'disgrace'.

On Friday the vote on a UN-backed ceasefire was again delayed by at least 24 hours.

But on Saturday, the meeting again failed to start as scheduled at 1700 GMT as negotiations continued in an effort to avert a Russian veto.

UN Security Council members had been discussing a cessation of hostilities for the last month to allow aid to be brought in and the injured to be taken out.

But negotiations have been bogged down over a number of issues, including when the ceasefire should begin.

Moscow said that it wanted to include a 30-day calming period to allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations but critics say that as the main ally of President Bashar al-Assad, it is in fact suing for more time.

The Security Council members were unable to agree on the precise language that could gain Russia's support.

As a permanent member of the council, Moscow has veto power, and has used it at least 10 times to protect the government of President Assad.

A child looks on, as staff clean stretchers at a hospital in the besieged town of Douma, East Ghouta

Damage in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Medical Surgery Hospital in the Baghdad Street of Damascus, Syria. According to media reports, a shell smashed into the ICU and caused severe damage- it was alleged to have been fired by terrorist groups entrenched in east Ghouta

But most commentators agree the worst of the suffering is in east Ghouta - here wounded children await treatment in a hospital in the besieged town of Douma, East Ghouta

A local resident is seen in front of a building as the fire breaks out after President Assad's forces carried out an airstrike over the de-escalation zone in Douma town of East Ghouta

Wounded children are seen in a hospital in the besieged town of Douma, East Ghouta

To win Russia's approval, language specifying that the ceasefire would start 72 hours after the adoption of the draft was scrapped, replaced by 'without delay,' and the term 'immediate' was also dropped in reference to the aid deliveries and evacuations.

In another concession to Moscow, the resolution said the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with 'individuals, groups, undertakings and entities' associated with the terror groups.

That would allow the Syrian government offensive to continue against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Idlib, the last province in Syria outside the control of Damascus.

The resolution also states that 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities are in 'acute need,' including 2.9 million in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Smoke billows following a government air strike on the besieged East Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, late on Friday

Firefighters try to extinguish a blaze after President Assad's forces carried out an airstrike over the de-escalation zone in Douma town of East Ghouta

Smoke billows following a government air strike on the rebel-held town of Haza, in the besieged East Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus

A citizen arrives to extinguish fire after government forces carried out an airstrike over the de-escalation zone in Douma town of East Ghouta

Smoke rises after government forces carried out airstrikes over the de-escalation zone in Douma town of east Ghouta in Damascus

Citizens and rescue team members inspect the destroyed buildings after government forces carried out an airstrike over the de-escalation zone in Douma town of East Ghouta

The fighting in east Ghouta has taken place while about 11,000 mostly Kurdish refugee children, mainly from the Kobani and Manbij areas of Syria, live in emergency camps in Turkey

The Syrian war has taken a terrible toll on children despite the brave faces of these children in a camp in Turkey

A Russian-proposed amendment, which the sponsors rejected, would have ruled out an immediate cease-fire. Instead, it would have demanded that all parties 'stop hostilities as soon as possible' and work for a 'humanitarian pause' for at least 30 days.

Control of eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present. Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the jihadists or their allies.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused and President Assad along with fhis supporters argue that jihadists are using the enclave to fire rockets at Syrian government positions.

The brutal wave of airstrikes and artillery bombardment has been supported by his Russian allies. On Friday rescuers claimed deadly napalm is being used to incinerate East Ghouta,

Two children - one with blood on her face - receiving medical treatment

A nurse washes the face of an injured child inside a hospital in Douma, eastern Ghouta

A sobbing boy with a bloodied face is asked about his father as another nurse treats him in a hospital

Aid volunteers captured images of what they said were missiles loaded with flammable liquid raining down on the city of Hamouria in East Ghouta.

A video, which is mostly dark apart from burning material appeared to fall from the sky, shows missiles 'loaded with prohibited napalm' being dropped in 'residential neighbourhoods'.

The use of napalm is banned in civilian areas by the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

Similar claims were made in 2015 after an alleged attack on the besieged city of Darayya.

In 2013 young children and adults suffered horrific burns after being caked in a 'napalm-like' substance when a bomb was dropped on a school playground near the country's capital.

A boy injured by the Syrian regime and Russian assault is lies on a hospital bed awaiting treatment

An injured girl receives medical treatment at a hospital in Douma, in the rebel held area of eastern Ghouta

A wounded Syrian girl is carried by a man at a makeshift clinic following Syrian government bombardments in Douma

A boy with a bloodied face lying on a hospital bed wrapped in a blanket. So far, 95 children have been killed by the attacks on eastern Ghouta

A wounded Syrian boy sits at a makeshift clinic following Syrian government bombardments in Douma, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus

A White Helmet volunteer carries an injured boy to an ambulance after a bombing raid yesterday

A missile that landed on the town of Douma is inspected by local people as it lies in the street

People on the ground in eastern Ghouta are huddled in basements while government forces pound the enclave with rockets and bombs, turning towns into fields of ruins and even hitting hospitals.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders said 13 of the facilities it supports in Eastern Ghouta were damaged or destroyed in three days, leaving remaining staff with very little to save the hundreds of wounded brought to them every day.

In the hospital mortuary in Douma, the main town in the enclave just east of Damascus, bodies wrapped in white shrouds were already lined up on the floor, two of them children.

Russia has so far denied direct involvement in the assault on Ghouta but the pro-government Syrian newspaper Al-Watan reported on Thursday that Russian warplanes and advisers had joined the battle.

Rescuers claim deadly napalm is being used to incinerate a rebel-held Syrian town where conditions have been described as 'hell on earth'. Pictured: Rubble after an airstrike in Hamouria on Thursday

Syrian children stand by the door of a house as smoke billows in the background durning shelling in Hamouria, in the rebel held besieged Eastern Ghouta region

White Helmet volunteers inside an ambulance helps an injured man after bombing, in the rebel-held Douma

Smoke rises in the aftermath of a raid by Assad regime forces on the outskirts of the town of Kafr Batna

The attacks have caused destruction on a scale that has not been seen since World War II

Fresh bombardment on Eastern Ghouta killed dozens yesterday, bringing the number of dead civilians in a five-day assault by the Syrian government to more than 400. This was the scene over Kafr Batn in Eastern Ghouta yesterday

The US said on Thursday Russia had 'unique responsibility' for the deaths.

Regime and allied forces have been massing around the enclave, in which an estimated 400,000 people live, ahead of a likely ground offensive to flush out holdout Islamist and jihadist groups.

The indiscriminate bombardment and the strikes on medical facilities have sparked global outrage but few concrete options have emerged to stop the bloodletting.

The aid community voiced its frustration as the world appeared once again powerless to stop a conflict that has left almost 350,000 dead in seven years and caused destruction rarely seen since World War II.

Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said jihadist fighters in Ghouta had rejected an evacuation deal.

The head of the defence committee in Russia's lower house of parliament said Thursday that more than 200 new types of weapons were tested as part of his country's military support to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

'It's not an accident that today they are coming to us from many directions to purchase our weapons, including countries that are not our allies,' he said.Australia's national mullet competition was plunged into controversy today when the fan favourite was denied a place in the finals.

Victorian potato farmer and coal miner Laurie Manuel was snubbed while fierce rival Shane 'Shag' Hanrahan took the crown of best mullet at the Chelmsford Hotel in Kurri Kurri, NSW on Saturday.

While fans were shocked by the judges' snub, Mr Manuel, 60, was gracious in defeat, saying: 'I'm just happy to be part of the festival.'

Australia's national mullet competition was plunged into controversy today when the fan favourite Laurie Manuel (pictured) was denied a place in the finals

Victorian potato farmer and coal miner Laurie Manuel was snubbed while fierce rival Shane 'Shag' Hanrahan (pictured) took the crown

Mr Hanrahan, to his credit, was similarly magnanimous in victory. 'This is the first trophy I've ever had,' he said after drinking Jim Beam from the silver cup. 'I can't believe it.'

Mr Hanrahan, to his credit, was similarly magnanimous in victory. 'This is the first trophy I've ever had,' he said after drinking Jim Beam from the silver cup. 'I can't believe it.'

The victor, whose waist-length mullet has gone uncut since 1986, said his hairdresser wife Julie signed him up for the festival.

He celebrated the win by leading the band, the Stunned Mullets, in a rendition of Dirty Deeds by AC/DC.

Surprised fans remained loyal to rival Mr Manuel. Auburn everyday mullet contender Brad Macmillan said: 'You get up on stage and you think you're tough with the mullet, but, when I look at Laurie all I feel is envy.'

Mr Manuel, who flew his luscious hair from Gippsland to Kurri Kurri, said: 'I just want the young guys to get inspiration from me.'

Left: Zac and Maddy Ralph dance together during Mullet Fest. Right: Mr Hanrahan is crowned champion

Mullet Fest is the most Australian competition: No matter which style you prefer, the mullet was the epitome of trendiness in the 1970s and it could be here to stay

One woman (pictured) fixes up her red-dyed mullet. There's five women who are eagerly vying for the title of the best ladies mullet.The five categories are: the everyday mullet, grubby mullet, ranga mullet, ladies mullet and junior mullet

'Even though you're 60 years old you can have a really good mullet,' he added.

'Any young guys get started yesterday - get a mullet and keep it going - we want to see you next year.'

Maybe due to his time on the farm or down the mines, Mr Manuel said he thinks dust is the key to a good mullet.

He said he wished his sons, sporting mullet wigs to support their dad, had followed in his footsteps. 'It's the family's pride,' his son Paul said.

One boy sports his very own mullet - competing in the Junior category at Mullet Fest 2018

Women crowd around Dan Brown (pictured) who claims to be the inventor of the mullet

Festival host Laura Johnson (left) is the brainchild of Mullet Fest, the competition which awards Australia's best mullet. She said people across the nation were coming all the way to Kurri Kurri just to see who was crowned with Australia's best mullet

'Dad wears the mane of the family - it's like a lion's mane. It's a symbol of his life and it's been around all of his life.

'And I haven't grown one just yet but, before they put the last nail in my coffin, I'll have a mullet - just for the old man.'

A victor was crowned in five categories - best everyday, ranga, junior, grubby and ladies mullet. From those winners a best of the best winner was chosen.



Mullet Fest is putting the small regional NSW town of Kurri Kurri back on the map by showing off the mullet in all its glory. The competition takes place at Kurri Kurri's finest, The Chelmsford Hotel

Two men eagerly wait to be judged on their mullets at Mullet Fest in Chelmsford Hotel

Three men (pictured) show off their well coiffed and conditioned mullets at Mullet Fest. 'The everyday mullet is more washed and conditioned, but the grubby mullet, that's open to interpretation,' Laura Johnson said

Men wait to be judged on each of the five categories of Mullets. More than 180 people competed in Mullet Fest 2018

One of the three judges on the panel include the mastermind who claims to have invented the mullet Dan Brown - also known as 'The Mullet Lord'

Festival host Laura Johnson said that people across the nation were coming all the way to Kurri Kurri just to see who was crowned with Australia's best mullet.

'I've never seen Kurri like this. Even all the people in my yoga class are coming and they're not exactly the kind of people who care about mullets,' the hairdresser told VICE.

She said one man travelled from Victoria just for the one-day Mullet festival. He arrived late last night to the regional town 150km north of Sydney.

Australian rules football player Warwick Capper models his legendary mullet on the field in the 1980s-90s

'This lovely young man travelled from Victoria yesterday. He and his mum, dad and sister arrived at the pub at 11pm last night ready for the festivities today - and they're flying home tomorrow morning,' Laura said on the TODAY show.

Ms Johnson said she created the festival after finding out that her small town claimed to be the home of the mullet.

Three judges are on the panel including the mastermind who claims to have invented the mullet Dan Brown or 'The Mullet Lord' to locals.

Every man and his mullet: Five men show off their different mullet styles from the everyday and ranga mullet to the grubby mulletA woman who alleged she was sexually harassed by former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce said she never wanted her claims to be made public.

Her complaint was filed to the National Party earlier this week, the woman, named as Catherine Marriot, said through her lawyer on Saturday.

But she said she had 'never intended' for the issue to become in the public domain and had requested a confidential internal investigation by the National Party.

The statement issued to 9News said Ms Marriot hoped her actions would change the situation generally preventing alleged inappropriate behaviour from happening 'towards woman in the future' by people 'in powerful positions'.

Catherine Marriott has been revealed as the woman who filed a sexual harassment complaint against former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce

It read: 'On February 20, 2018, I wrote a formal letter of complaint to the Federal Executive of the National Party outlining an allegation of sexual harassment against Barnaby Joyce.

'I want to stress that I never intended for this issue to become public.

'I requested that a formal and confidential investigation into this incident be undertaken by the National Party to ensure there is accountability in relation to the incident I raise.'

The statement added she would wait to decide on potential further action based on the outcome of the investigation she had requested.

Mr Joyce, who has been on personal leave this week with his new partner and former staffer Vikki Campion, said the allegation of sexual harassment pushed him to resign on Friday.

He referred to Ms Marriot's allegation as the 'straw that broke the camel's back'.

Mr Joyce has disputed the allegation, calling it 'spurious and defamatory', and claims that as an allegation it should have gone immediately to police, The Courier Mail reports.

Ms Marriott's lawyer, Emma Salerno, said the complaint had not been taken to the police 'at this stage'.

Ms Marriott's (pictured) lawyer, Emma Salerno, said the complaint had not been taken to the police 'at this stage'

Joyce has stepped down from his position as deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals party in the wake of the allegations

Nationals MP Darren Chester says the men battling to replace Mr Joyce will need to 'heal some divisions' after a bruising 16 days of pressure on the outgoing leader.

'I think someone like Michael McCormack from Riverina can pull together the Queenslanders, the New South Welshmen, the Victorians and unite,' Mr Chester told Sky News on Friday.

Assistant families minister David Gillespie is also a confirmed challenger, and he told Sky News he wanted to address the GST carve-up and decentralisation if he became leader.

Deputy leader Bridget McKenzie refused to say who she would back, but Mr McCormack has been tipped to be the front runner.

Mr Joyce's troubles have dominated headlines for more than two weeks, overshadowing Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's current trip to the United States.

Accusations against Barnaby Joyce emerged after his affair with Vikki Campion (pictured) was made public

Speaking to reporters in Washington DC on Friday (early Saturday AEDT) just hours before meeting President Donald Trump at the White House, Mr Turnbull thanked Mr Barnaby for his service as deputy prime minister.

'He has personal issues that he has to address and he feels that he cannot do that from the dispatch box,' Mr Turnbull said outside Blair House in Washington DC.

'The issues that have been the subject of discussion over the past two weeks have not been issues between Nationals and Liberals, we have a 95-year-old political alliance, the longest in Australian history and it is absolutely enduring.

'I look forward now obviously to working with the new leader of the National Party who will be elected on Monday,' Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Joyce also acknowledged the government's need to clear the air.

Mr Joyce was forced to quit as deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals on Friday

'It's incredibly important that there be a circuit-breaker, not just for the parliament but more importantly a circuit-breaker for Vikki, for my unborn child, my daughters and for Nat (Mr Joyce's wife),' Mr Joyce told reporters in Armidale on Friday.

Mr Joyce faced repeated questions about jobs given to Ms Campion and his parliamentary expenses.

'Over the last half a month, there has been a litany of allegations. I don't believe any of them have been sustained,' Mr Joyce said.

The Nationals will meet at 8am on Monday to decide their new leader.A legion of nearly 1,000 jihadi brides are set to return to the West as the caliphate collapses bringing with them a dangerous new wave of terror.

Brussels fears the decline of ISIS and its territories is prompting women and their children to flee the Middle East and relocate in the West.

A report by EU border agency Frontex warns the threat is 'evolving' and that it is hard to assess the long-term threat of widowed wives and orphaned children.

Brussels fears the decline of ISIS and its territories is prompting women and their children to flee the Middle East and relocate in the West (CCTV shows British schoolgirls Shamima Begum and Amira Abase 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, on the Turkish leg of their trip to Syria)

It comes amid a frightening trend of women having sought 'more active roles' in jihad following the rise of IS.

Several women were involved in a plot to attack Notre Dame cathedral in September 2016, while there have been numerous high-profile cases of British women fleeing to Syria to marry IS fighters.

Frontex says: 'An estimated 30 per cent of 5,000 foreign terrorist fighters who resided in Europe, and left to Syria, Iraq or Libya have come back to the Continent.

'The challenges are even more complicated when adding the hundreds of brides and children.'

'Almost 1,000 women from Europe have joined the different jihadist groups in the Middle East, mainly Daesh. Furthermore several hundred minors are also believed to have been brought to, or born in, the same region.'

In 2017 a British female jihadist who became known as the White Widow and Mrs Terror was killed in a US drone strike while attempting to flee the IS capital of Raqqa.

A report by EU border agency Frontex warns the threat is 'evolving' and that it is hard to assess the long-term threat of widowed wives and orphaned children (CCTV shows British schoolgirls Shamima Begum and Amira Abase 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, on the Turkish leg of their trip to Syria)

In 2017 a British female jihadist who became known as the White Widow was killed in a US drone strike while attempting to flee the IS capital of Raqqa

Onetime punk rocker Sally Jones, from Kent, fled to Syria with her son in 2013 before becoming a recruiter for the terror group.

She was killed by a Predator missile near the border of Iraq and Syria as she tried to flee the group's stronghold in Raqqa, it is understood.

While former director of global counter-terrorism at MI6 Richard Barrett said last October that from the start of 2017 to May women were involved in almost a quarter of all terror plots in Europe.

Women have become so prominent within jihadi campaigns that al-Qaeda released a propaganda magazine in December aimed solely at women.

The magazine called Beituki - translated as Your Home - advises women on how best to support their husbands including 'always greeting him with a smile.'A man died less than an hour after he was restrained by police on suspicion of assaulting paramedics.

Officers were called to a service station in Cabramatta West in Sydney's south west at 3pm on Saturday afternoon.

But the man died at 3.45pm in hospital after he was placed in handcuffs by officers.

Police were called to the service station in Cabramatta West on the Cumberland Highway at 3pm on Saturday

The man allegedly assaulted the NSW Ambulance officers during an incident on the Cumberland Highway when 'concerns were raised about the behaviour of a man'.

The 26-year-old was taken to Liverpool Hospital but died on arrival, police said tonight.

An investigation has now been launched by the New South Wales Police critical incident team.

A police spokesman said: 'It's alleged the man assaulted ambulance officers when they arrived and police were called.

'Officers from Fairfield City Police Area Command attended and restrained the man by placing him in handcuffs.

The man, 26, was pronounced dead after being taken to the Liverpool Hospital in western Sydney

'The man was taken to Liverpool Hospital by ambulance paramedics for assessment where he died about 3.45pm.

'A critical incident team will now investigate all the circumstances surrounding the incident and that investigation will be monitored by the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.'

Police could not confirm whether or not he remained in handcuffs on his way to hospital.A serial pervert dubbed the 'Perth buttock squeezer' has avoided jail for the third time after touching an 11-year-old girl in front of her family.

Peter Malca-Obando, who has been found guilty of touching seven young girls in the past eight years, assaulted his latest victim at a train station in Maylands near Perth.

He walked up to the platform and began staring at the girl as she sat on her sister's lap alongside her father, mother and brother.

Peter Malca-Obando, who has been found guilty of touching seven young girls in the past eight years, assaulted his latest victim at a train station (pictured) in Maylands near Perth

The girl's father saw him staring at his daughter and stood up, blocking him from looking at her.

But Malca-Obando followed the family as they boarded a train, walked towards the girl and rubbed his arm alongside her buttocks.

He then brushed his hand down her body from her shoulder to her backside, much to the horror of the girl's father who called for train guards.

Sentencing at Perth District Court on Friday, Judge John Staude said his offending was linked to his low IQ and schizoaffective disorder.

He said: 'The psychiatrist observed that the causal connection between your mental disorder and your offending is unclear, but he thought that your illness disinhibited your interest in young girls.

'He said that you appeared to be aware of the wrongfulness of your actions.'

A serial pervert dubbed the 'Perth buttock squeezer' has avoided jail for the third time after touching an 11-year-old girl in front of her family (stock image)

In 2004, Malca-Obando handed an 18-month community based order for touching a nine-year-old and a 10-year-old girl on the buttocks.

In 2010, he did the same thing to two girls aged nine and ten and also lifted up a five-year-old's dress but only got a suspended prison sentence.

In a submission to the court on Friday, Malca-Obando apologised to the girl's family and said he would seek professional help.

He was handed an 18-month intensive supervision order, reported WA Today.The first day of International Conference of Ahlulbayt and Islamic Sects was held in Dodoma, Tanzania on Thursday, February 22.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The first day of International Conference of Ahlulbayt and Islamic Sects was held in Dodoma, Tanzania on Thursday, February 22.



In todays meeting whose chairman was Sayyed Mofid Husseini Kouhsari, head of the Islamic Seminarys Office for International Relations, several Shia and Sunni scholars delivered speeches.



The participants of this two-day conference are senior scholars from East African countries including, Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi, Tanzania as well as Tanzania.



The Iranian scholars present at the conference are several seminary figures including head of the Office for International Relation Sayyed Mofid Husseini Kouhsari, Education Deputy of Islamic seminary Sheikh Rostamnezhad, seminary lecturer Sheikh Yousefi Gharavi as well as some other Shia and Sunni scholars.



The closing ceremony of the event will be held on Friday, February 23.











/129The ringleaders of a drugs gang who planned to assassinate their bosses after falling into debt have been jailed for life.

Leo Ellis, 24, and Jason Caswell, 41, bought a TEC-9 style automatic weapon capable of firing 900 bullets per minute in a plot to kill drug suppliers after being unable to pay them following police seizures.

In a succession of major raids in 2015-16, Sussex Police seized heroin and cocaine worth an estimated 1.4million, leaving the gang 850K in debt with other dealers.

Their debts worsened after a further 100,000 in cash was seized from Ellis and Caswell, who were convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to life in prison at Hove Crown Court on Friday.

Leo Ellis, 24, and Jason Caswell, 41, have been jailed for life for heading a major drugs gang who plotted to murder their rivals after being unable to pay their debts

This is the a TEC-9 style automatic weapon capable of firing 900 bullets per minute bought by a gang in a plot to kill drug suppliers after being unable to pay them following police seizures

These are some of the drugs seized by police. The seizures included heroin and cocaine worth an estimated 1.4million, leaving the gang 850K in debt with other dealers

Ellis, from Hastings, East Sussex, and Caswell, from Rotherhithe, south east London, were among 16 people convicted in the investigation.

The dealers sold drugs across East Sussex and Kent before buying a TEC-9 style 9mm automatic submachine gun pistol with a silencer to take out their suppliers.

Sussex Police worked with the National Crime Agency and examined texts, emails and the movements of the gang.

In the conversations, the duo boasted of having acquired guns and ammunition from Eastern Europe.

In another, Ellis discusses with Caswell plans to recruit someone to carry out the killings.

Five other men were also sentenced for their involvement with the gang.

John Gardner, 41, of Egerton Road, Bexhill, was jailed for six years for two offences of conspiracy to supply heroin and nine years for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Scott Gardner, 40, of Bexhill Road, St Leonards, was sentenced to 12 months having pleaded guilty to money laundering before the start of the trial.

Ellis, from Hastings, East Sussex, and Caswell, from Rotherhithe, were caught together on CCTV

Scott Gardner (left) and Wesley Long (right) were also jailed for their part in the plot

Wesley Long, 40, of Harold Road, Hastings, was jailed for three years having admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, again before the trial.

Jamie Peter Winchester, 25, of Sandy Close, St Leonards, was sentenced to seven years for supplying the automatic sub-machine gun, and three years for possessing ammunition.

Simon Grant, 45, of Sherriff Road, London, had earlier pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply and was sentenced to five months suspended for 18 months.

James Dunham, 37, of Roundhouse Cresent, Peacehaven, did not appear at court and will be sentenced at a later date for conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Anthony Hearn was sentenced in July 2016 to 11 years in prison after admitting possessing the sub-machine gun.

Anthony Hearn, Jamie Winchester and John Gardner were also jailed following a major operation by Sussex Police

Officers were able to track movements through surveillance and halt the duo before any murders could take place.

DCI Andy Bennett added: 'This has been a major operation for my team, working with the close co-operation and support of the National Crime Agency throughout, for which we are extremely grateful.

'It shows the determination of law enforcement at both national and force level to work successfully together, in order to effectively tackle organised crime to protect the public from dangerous criminals such as these.

'The operation was the culminating phase of a major enquiry, and another example of the way in which, working with our law enforcement partners, we are constantly attacking organised crime and frustrating its efforts to become embedded in our communities.

'The devastating effect of drug misuse can have a much wider impact than simply on the person who takes them.

It can corrode the quality of life for local communities and affect the health of those who are drawn into it.

'It is vital that we continue to receive support from our communities so that we can effectively tackle crime, and take weapons like this off our streets.'The classic Australian novel Picnic at Hanging Rock continues to captivate audiences five decades on and now a flash mob has added to the legacy.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the book, which was adapted into a classic Australian film, a flash dance mob paid tribute to Miranda, one of the central characters.

Mark Milaszewicz traveled to the event in the Macedon Ranges from Melbourne and said his wife's name happens to be Miranda.

People gathered form all over to take part in the flash mob tribute to the iconic Picnic At Hanging Rock which is celebrating its 50th anniversary

'What better way to spend my wife's 59th birthday?' he told ABC News.

'We'll be looking for Miranda later on and hopefully we'll find her wherever she may be.'

Choreographers for the 50th anniversary event designed the dance moves to match scenes from the film, with Luke O'Conner of the Asking for Trouble dance troupe and Christy Flaws lending their expertise.

Ms Flaws said that 900 people were involved, between students and the general public.

'We've been teaching choreography and giving people a chance to meet people they don't know, it feels like a real community building activity as well,' she said.

The Macedon Ranges Shire Council organised the flash mob and member Natasha Gayfer spoke about what it meant to the area.

Author Joan Lindsay famously said the story idea had come to hear in a dream and relayed the story to her then house keeper Rae Clements who said Miranda was the authors favourite character.

'Hanging rock's history goes back thousands of years as a gathering place,' she told ABC News.

'We've got representatives of traditional owners today.'

Picnic at hanging rock was first published in 1967 by author Joan Lindsay.

It follows the story of a group of female boarding school students in Australia who mysteriously vanish while on a picnic.

The Macedon Ranges Shire Council organised the event and highlighted the site a sone with significant historical importance going back thousands of years

The author said the idea for the story came to her in a dream.

Mrs Lindsay's house keeper at the time, Rae Clements, relayed the story to the Sydney Morning Herald in an article last year.

'She really did dream the sequence of chapters,' she said.

'She would come down from her study each day and say she'd had the dream again.

'Miranda was her favourite character.'Advertisement

An ancient cemetery with 40 mummies inside body-shaped stone coffins and a necklace charm bearing the hieroglyphic inscription 'happy new year' has been found in the Nile Valley, Egypt's Antiquities Ministry has announced.

Archaeologists, who started excavation work on the site last year, found tombs belonging to priests of Thoth, the ancient god of the moon and wisdom, as well as family members with their names in hieroglyphics.

The burial site, which is more than 2,000 years old, was discovered in the city of Minya, south of Cairo, and contains canopic jars and other funerary items.

It is north of the Tuna al-Gabal area, an archaeological site on the edge of Egypt's western desert, the ministry said on Saturday, and is the latest discovery in an area known to be home to ancient Egyptian catacombs.

An ancient cemetery with 40 mummies inside body-shaped stone coffins and a necklace charm bearing the hieroglyphic inscription 'happy new year' has been found in the Nile Valley

Archaeologists, who started excavation work on the site last year, found tombs belonging to priests of Thoth, the ancient god of the moon and wisdom

Skulls are seen inside the recently discovered burial site in Minya that contains more than 1,000 statues and 40 coffins

The ancient cemetery with more than 1,000 statues and 40 coffins has been found in the Nile Valley. Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said they will need 'at least five years' to work on the site

The priest's mummy was also found decorated with blue and red beads and bronze gilded sheets.

Archaeologists also uncovered 40 sarcophagi believed to belong to the priest's family members, some bearing the names of their owners in hieroglyphics.

Another tomb includes several coffins, statues depicting ancient priests and other funeral artefacts.

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said: 'We will need at least five years to work on the necropolis.

'This is only the beginning of a new discovery'.

Among the collection four well preserved alabaster canopic jars inscribed with hieroglyphics and designed to hold the mummified internal organs of their owner, the high priest.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the scarab charm with the new year greeting had been unearthed last New Year's Eve in a 'wonderful coincidence'.

He said eight tombs have been uncovered so far and he expects more will be discovered soon.

The necropolis is thought to host members of different families and is believed to date back to the so called 'Late Period' of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic era, the time between the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) and Cleopatra (30 BC).

Excavation work in the area started in late 2017, with archaeologists on a quest to find the remainder of the cemetery of Upper Egypt's 15th nome during ancient times.

Four canopic jars, made of alabaster with lids bearing the faces of the four sons of god Horus, that were unearthed are displayed at the site

The site includes several burial shafts and as well as more than 1,000 statues and some 40 sarcophagi as well as other artefacts

The burial site, which is more than 2,000 years old, was discovered in the city of Minya, south of Cairo, and contained canopic jars and other funerary items

The necropolis is thought to host members of different families and is believed to date back to the so called 'Late Period' of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic era

Ancient artefacts are seen in the Egyptian tomb, where excavation work started in late 2017, with archaeologists on a quest to find the remainder of the cemetery of Upper Egypt's 15th nome during ancient times

The necropolis is thought to host members of different families and is believed to date back to the so called 'Late Period' of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic era

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said eight tombs have been discovered so far and expects more to be discovered soon

The site is thought to date back to the 'Late Period' of ancient Egypt and the Ptolemaic era, the time between the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) and Cleopatra (30 BC)

Last May, Egyptian archaeologists unearthed a necropolis containing at least 17 mummies also near the village of Tuna el-Gabal, with mummified remains of women and children among the discoveries.

The area hosts a large necropolis for thousands of mummified ibis and baboon birds as well as other animals. It also includes tombs and a funerary building.

Earlier this month, archaeologists in Egypt discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb near the country's famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo.

The tomb was found in a wider area of Giza's western necropolis, which is known to be home to tombs from the Old Kingdom, according to the country's Antiquities Ministry.

It likely belonged to a woman known as Hetpet, who archaeologists believe was close to ancient Egyptian royals of the 5th Dynasty more than four millennia ago.

Archaeologists also uncovered 40 sarcophagi believed to belong to the priest's family members, some bearing the names of their owners in hieroglyphics

A skull is seen among the excavations in the ancient cemetery, the latest discovery in an area known to be home to ancient Egyptian catacombs

Some of the ancient artefacts discovered at the Egyptian cemetery, where excavation work started in late 2017

Excavation work in the area started in late 2017, with archaeologists on a quest to find the remainder of the cemetery of Upper Egypt's 15th nome during ancient times

Miniature statues are seen in the cemetery which is believed to be more than 2,000 years old

A sarcophagus is seen along with another ancient artefact in the tomb, where archaeologists have been working for months

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El Anany stands near a stone sarcophagi, discovered in an ancient burial site in Minya,

The tomb is made of mud brick and includes wall paintings in good condition depicting Hetpet observing different hunting and fishing scenes.

Hetpet's tomb is close to a new museum under construction that will house some of Egypt's most unique and precious artifacts, including many belonging to the famed boy King Tutankhamun.

The tomb of King Tut, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, was discovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings, located on the west bank of the Nile river in Luxor.

Egypt's relics are a draw for foreign visitors and authorities hope new finds can help attract more as a way to help revive tourism hit by the unrest that followed the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The number of tourists visiting the country rose 54 per cent to 8.3million last year, still well below the 14.7million who came in 2010.The sobering stories of the Victoria Cross heroes whose lives ended in tragedy or disgrace are told in a new book.

They were the bravest of the brave, earning the highest award for gallantry for acts of unrivalled heroism on the front line.

But receiving the accolade did not bring these men contentment, happiness or lasting fame.

In fact, their reputations were tarnished by incidents often out of their control and in some cases they were shunned by society.

Midshipman Duncan Boyes carried the Queens Colour through barrage of enemy fire during the Shimonoseki campaigns in Japan (left). But a court martial left him depressed and in anguish and in 1871, he jumped out of a hotel window in Dunedin, New Zealand

Boyes and his brothers in arms landed to destroy enemy guns and blow up ammunition but a large Japanese force hidden in thick bush launched a surprise counter attack

Author Brian Izzard has highlighted the plight of 27 Victoria Cross holders who befell ignominy in later life in his book Glory And Dishonour including one of the heroes of the remarkable rearguard at Rorke's Drift where 150 British soldiers held off 4,000 enemy warriors.

He also sheds new light on the tragic tale of a gallant midshipman who was awarded the Victoria Cross aged just 17 but couldn't cope with the shame of being stripped of it for a few misdemeanours and jumped from a hotel window to his death four years later.

Cheltenham-born Midshipman Duncan Boyes carried the Queen's Colour through withering Japanese fire as he led a squadron of British, French, Dutch and American ships at Shimonoseki in September 1864.

They landed to destroy enemy guns and blow up ammunition but a large Japanese force hidden in thick bush launched a surprise counter attack.

Only his captain's direct order stopped teenager Boyes from going further.

Afterwards it was found six musket balls had peppered the colour.

Robert Jones, who took part in the defence of Rorke's Drift, was plagued with nightmares and tragically turned a gun on himself when he went out to shoot crows

Seven seamen were killed and another 26 were wounded in the offensive.

Commander John Moresby recorded: 'They were met by hot fire from the parapet of a ditch in front of the battery and from the top of an eight foot wall protecting the palisade.

'Our men never checked, and rushing on swarmed over the wall and won the stockade, the enemy disappearing into the bush.'

Boyes' naval career ended abruptly in February 1867 when while serving on the HMS Cadmus he was court-martialled for breaking into the naval yard in Bermuda with a friend at night after a run ashore.

The pair, who may have been drunk, had been turned away from the main gate because they did not have passes.

Admiralty papers have revealed Boyes was warned several times about being drunk and being impertinent to a commander.

There is no record of Boyes being a problem before receiving the Victoria Cross, so his fall from grace suggests he found it hard to cope with his role of young hero.

The punishment left him shattered and severe depression and heavy drinking took over.

In 1871, he jumped out of a hotel window in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Welshman Private Robert Jones, of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot, took part in the defence of Rorke's Drift in January 1879 during the Zulu War.

When Private Robert Jones went to carry the seventh man, who was delirious and refusing to be helped, to safety he found him in his bed being stabbed by the Zulus in the defence of Rorke's Drift

A verdict of suicide while being insane was passed and Jones was denied a proper burial by the church who turned his grave in the opposite direction to others at the cemetery

The 21 year old was one of just two soldiers posted in a room of a hospital whose wall had been destroyed tasked with stopping any marauding Zulus from getting through.

They kept up a steady fire against enormous odds and saved six out of the seven patients in the room.

When Jones went to carry the seventh man, who was delirious and refusing to be helped, to safety he found him in his bed being stabbed by the Zulus.

Jones suffered four spear wounds, was struck by a bullet and had minor burns.

Sgt Paul Grant led a platoon at Bancourt, northern France in 1918. Almost 40 years later, he was turfed out of reception for Victoria Cross holders after slapping Lady Mountbatten's bottom

After his discharge, he settled in Herefordshire where he became a farm labourer but was plagued with recurring nightmares following his desperate hand-to-hand combat with Zulus.

He borrowed his employer's shotgun to go crow shooting and shot himself in the head aged 41 in 1898.

A verdict of suicide while being insane was passed and he was denied a proper burial by the church who turned his grave in the opposite direction to others at the cemetery.

Sergeant Paul Grant, of the 1st Battalion, Wellington Regiment, led a platoon with the near-suicidal aim of silencing a line of five machine gun posts which were proving 'a serious obstacle' at Bancourt in northern France on September 1, 1918.

Despite withering fire, the platoon advanced and when they were 20 yards away Sgt Grant rushed forward and attacked the centre post.

Grant's citation read: 'Throughout the whole operation on this and the two previous days Sergeant Grant displayed coolness, determination and valour of the highest order, and set a splendid example to all.'

Despite withering fire, Sgt Grant's platoon advanced and when they were 20 yards away Sgt Grant rushed forward and attacked the centre post

Almost 40 years later, Grant stumbled towards a reception for Victoria Cross holders in London hosted by Lord and Lady Mountbatten.

Clearly drunk, he went up to Lady Mountbatten and slapped her on 'the bum'.

After a handshake with a surprised Lord Mountbatten he went to the bar, threw down some money and fell over a table.

George Ravenhill received the Victoria Cross during the Second Boer War. He would later be jailed for stealing some metal worth six shillings

According to one report, the 66 year old was 'discreetly removed from the function'. Another suggested he was 'frogmarched' out.

He died aged 81 in 1970.

Birmingham-born Private George Ravenhill, of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, received the Victoria Cross after his heroics at the river crossing of Colenso in the Second Boer War in 1899.

Despite being shot in the shoulder, Pte Ravenhill made several dashes into a relentless Boer barrage to salvage lost guns, returning with one of them.

After leaving the army, he was so short of money to feed his family he was forced to give up three of his children to foster care, never to see them again.

He was jailed for stealing some metal worth six shillings.

Ravenhill told the court he believed he was entitled to an army pension of 50 a year but the authorities had failed to pay it and this is why he committed the theft.

Two other Victoria Cross holders to fall foul of the law were Frederick Corbett who stole goods and embezzled money and Michael Murphy who stole oats and hay at a barracks. Both were jailed.

Despite being shot in the shoulder, Pte Ravenhill made several dashes into a relentless Boer barrage to salvage lost guns, returning with one of them

Mr Izzard, 70, a former journalist from Brighton, Sussex, said: 'There are a lot of books about Victoria Cross heroes but they all seem to follow the same pattern of boys' own stuff.

'But for some of the men who were awarded the Victoria Cross it did prove harder to wear the medal than to win it.

'Glory and Dishonour takes an unusual path, exploring sympathetically the lives of 27 men who received the Victoria Cross but fell from grace.

Two other Victoria Cross holders to fall foul of the law were Frederick Corbett (right) who stole goods and embezzled money and Michael Murphy (left) who stole oats and hay at a barracks. Both were jailed

'They are very moving stories and one that stood out for me was George Ravenhill who ended up not being able to feed his family and having to give up three of his children to foster care.

'Today there is treatment for what is commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder. In Victorian times there was no such help.

'Nothing, however, can detract from the courage of these men.'Almost 100 leading academics have questioned whether the pensions black hole that has triggered the university lecturers' strike actually exists.

They have accused administrators of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) of taking a worst a case scenario when predicting the fund's future performance.

They say that salary increases are likely to be lower, the performance of pension investments likely to be much better than predicted and life expectancy will be shorter than estimated by the trust, which administers the pensions.

It is estimated that more than 60,000 students have been affected by the strike, which has resulted in the cancellation of lectures and delays in marking

Many students - such as these demonstrators in Leeds city centre - support striking university workers

The lecturers say they will escalate the dispute in the coming weeks if there is no resolution to their grievances

The potential miscalculation means that lecturers have been on strike for no good reason as the pensions shortfall is unlikely to exist.

About one million students have been affected by the strike, with lecturers not teaching, marking or carrying out research. It is likely that future exams and marking will also be affected.

The strike comes amid allegations that two of its ringleaders are militant left wingers while the main union leader is paid more than 130,000 a year.

University union boss Sally Hunt has been accused by The Times of taking home home more than 138,000 a year, including a 3,000 car benefit

Matt Waddup is accused of playing an instrumental role in the dispute - he is a hardline former Rail, Maritime and Transport union activist who has a history of disruption on the railways and on the campuses

Matt Waddup, who is the campaign chief behind the walkout of 42,000 staff at 64 universities including Cambridge, Oxford, Durham, Bristol and Manchester is alleged to have been planning strikes over lecturers' pension benefits for seven years, telling academics that industrial action should escalate gradually until 'real damage is done'.

Another prominent activist in the dispute is Ed Bailey, deputy head of campaigns at the University and College Union (UCU) who is passionately opposed to badger culling and has liked a number of far-left groups on Facebook, including 'Young Communist League  Britain'.

In 2008 he wrote on Facebook: 'Party in Trafalgar Square the Saturday after Thatcher dies remember. A generation will dance on Maggie's grave.'

UCU leader Sally Hunt meanwhile is alleged by The Times to earn more than 138,000 a year while at the same time having a record for condemning high salaries.

The group of academics have outlined their concerns in a letter in which they point out that the USS manages 60 billion in assets on behalf of its members.

'The most recent USS accounts and reports indicate the scheme has a large deficit,' it states.

Official UCU pickets outside of the UCL main gates and Malet Place in an attempt to keep students from crossing the picket line and to raise awareness of the changes to lecturers' pensions

The academics argue that there may be enough in the kitty to me lecturers' pension requirements

Members of the UCU are on strike because they say changes to the USS will leave a typical lecturer almost 10,000 a year worse off in retirement

Younger academics could lose almost half of their total retirement income, the union says

'However, the USS provides insufficient information about the methods used to value its assets and liabilities.'

They say that figures which show a fall in long-term investments and statistics that predict steep salary rises alongside increased life expectancy rates - which have not increased since 2011 - could all be questionable.

Steven Haberman, Professor of Actuarial Science at the Cass Business School at the City University of London was one of the signatories of the letter.

'Some of the assumptions are wrong in relation to a pensions black hole,' he told Mailonline. 'It is by no means clear how long people will live in retirement, nor is it necessarily true that salaries will rise by as much as four percent.

'We have not seen salary increases over the last 10 years that have been anything like that - they have been no higher than one percent a year.'

Prof Haberman said that figures show that pension investments in stocks, shares and bonds have also performed much better than predicted.

'The key point to remember is that university pensions are not wholly in the public or the private sectors. But pension regulators tend to panic if they see a fund under-performing in the short-term, when what is needed is a more long-term view,' he argued.

'Britain's universities are not going to disappear overnight and should not be treated in the same way as outsourcing company Carillion which is here today and gone tomorrow.

'What is urgently needed is for the government to intervene to relax the regulator's constraints.'

Meanwhile allegations have emerged that the lecturers are being led by radical left wingers eager to weaponise a dispute that is the worst to affect British universities in modern times.

Critics say that Matt Waddup, the campaign chief who has played an instrumental role in the walkout, is a hardline former Rail, Maritime and Transport union activist who has a history of disruption on the railways and on the campuses.

In 2008 Waddup encouraged people on Facebook to dance on Margaret Thatcher's grave.

Another key figure accused of orchestrating the dispute is Ed Bailey, the deputy head of campaigns at the University and College Union (UCU). He also has a radical reputation, expressing his sympathies for Irish nationalism online while also denouncing 'Israeli terrorists'.

The head of the UCU meanwhile has been accused by The Times of taking home home more than 138,000 a year, including a 3,000 car benefit. It reported that Sally Hunt, 53, the General Secretary of the UCU, receives her substantial salary and benefits despite never being an academic herself.

The Times also reported that more than 150 UCU staff earn an average of more than 50,000 a year. it said that the union spends about 9.5 million annually - more than half of its expenditure - on staff remuneration and expenses.

Members of the UCU are on strike because they say changes to the USS will leave a typical lecturer almost 10,000 a year worse off in retirement, they say.

Younger academics could lose almost half of their total retirement income, the union says.

Under the proposed changes, the USS will change from a defined benefit scheme, giving members a guaranteed income in retirement, to a defined contribution scheme, where pensions are subject to changes in the stock market.

The USS is reported to have one of the largest pensions deficit of any UK pension fund after it increased by 9bn in 2016, with some experts warning that student fees may have to rise or be diverted from teaching.

The USS funds pensions for academics who are mostly based in the pre-1992 universities, and has nearly 400,000 members.Hundreds of aboriginal people took to the streets on Saturday to protest the release of a truck driver who killed an aboriginal teenager by running him over.

The crowds marched through Kalgoorlie, Western Australia to support the family of Elijah Doughty, who was killed in August 2016.

The 14-year-old was riding a stolen motorbike when he was run down by the man who owned it after a chase through the town of Boulder.

Hundreds of aboriginal people took to the streets on Saturday to protest the release of a truck driver who killed an aboriginal teenager by running him over

The crowds marched through Kalgoorlie, Western Australia to support the family of Elijah Doughty, who was killed in August 2016

The crowds held signs and chanted 'justice for Elijah' as they marched through the streets

The 14-year-old was riding a stolen motorbike when he was run down by the man who owned it after a chase through the town of Boulder

The man, who cannot be named was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving rather than manslaughter, much to the anger of the local community.

After 18 months in jail, the convict is eligible for parole on Monday so Elijah's grandfather organised a protest to keep him behind bars.

The crowds held signs and chanted 'justice for Elijah,' reported 9News.

One woman said 'A child killer is getting set free in this community.'

There have been many tense periods between the community and authorities since the boy's death.

Elijah's killer, who cannot be named was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving rather than manslaughter, much to the anger of the local community

After 18 months in jail, the convict is eligible for parole on Monday, hence a protest to keep him behind bars was started by Elijah's grandfather

In August, protesters rubbed ochre on the windows of the Supreme Court of NSW to vent their anger over what they say is a light sentence for the man accused of killing the Aboriginal teenager.

Hand prints, finger marks and the words 'justice' and 'Elijah' appeared in a burnt red on the glass as a large crowd bearing placards turned out to vent their frustration.

One woman threw ochre on the steps of the courthouse.

'This is the blood of Aboriginal people, don't wait for this to be your children's,' a protester screamed, as she listed the names of Aboriginal people who had died in custody. 'The blood is on the Commonwealth,' she said.

After 18 months in jail, the convict is eligible for parole on Monday so Elijah's grandfather organised a protest to keep him behind bars

There have been many tense periods between the community and authorities since the boy's death.Former President George W Bush says famed evangelist Billy Graham ended up saving his life by getting him to stop drinking.

The Rev. Billy Graham, who died Wednesday at age 99, was a fixture of the presidency to every man who has held the office back to the early years of the Cold War.

George W. Bush, recalled in an interview with Focus on the Family that he'd been drunk the first time he met Graham at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.

But the two then went for a walk that launched Bush's rejection of alcohol and embrace of Christianity.

George Bush credits Billy Graham as the spark that finally turned him toward sobriety

Evangelist Billy Graham hugs then Texas Governor George W. Bush in San Antonio in 1997

'We started talking about religion,' the former president said in the interview.

'And Billy sent me a Bible and I started reading the Bible.'

In a personal piece written for the Wall Street Journal, Bush writes how he believes that Graham was, with C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th century's most influential figures in evangelicalism.

He recalls how after meeting him on his grandmother's porch in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1985, the pair went for a walk.

'I was captivated by him. He had a powerful presence, full of kindness and grace, and a keen mind... He told me about one of the Bible's most fundamental lessons: One should strive to be better, but we're all sinners who earn God's love not through our good deeds, but through His grace,' he said.

Bush explains how after he returned to Texas there was a package waiting for him - it was a copy of The Living Bible - a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments.

He said it was a transformative moment.

'God's work within me began in earnest with Billy's outreach," he said.

'His care and his teachings were the real beginning of my faith walkand the start of the end of my drinking.

'I couldn't have given up alcohol on my own. But in 1986, at 40, I finally found the strength to quit.

'That strength came from love I had felt from my earliest days and from faith I didn't fully discover until my later years.'

Bush made the revelation in his 2010 book, Decision Points, in which he revealed that in 1985, Graham helped him change the course of his life. Here Bush is pictured with wife, Laura

The former President tells of how he and the pastor had a long relationship and was in awe of his 'remarkable capacity to minister to everyone he met.'

'When I was governor of Texas, I sat behind Billy at one of his crusades in San Antonio,' he said.

'His powerful message of God's love moved people to tears and motivated hundreds to come forward to commit themselves to Christ.'

Bush tells how Graham's most meaningful service came just days after the 9/11 attacks after he asked him to lead the service at Washington National Cathedral.

'It was no easy task. America was on bended knee,frightened, angry and uncertain.' Bush writes.

Graham sent Bush a Bible, which he says aided him in his battle with alcoholism

'As only Billy Graham could, he helped us feel God's arms wrapped around our mourning country.

''We come together today,' he began, 'to affirm our conviction that God cares for us, whatever our ethnic, religious or political background may be. The Bible says that he is 'the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.' God comforted a nation that day through a very special servant.'

'In a difficult moment, Billy reminded meand us allwhere we can find strength,' Bush said.

'Those of us who were blessed to know Billy Graham benefited from his deep convictions and personal example, his wisdom and humility, his grace and purity of heart.

'We knew that his life was a gift from the Almighty. And I rejoice that he is now in the company of God, whom he loved so much and served so well,' the 43rd President concludes in a heartfelt tribute.

Though most presidents have sought guidance from spiritual leaders, Graham's role at the top echelons of American politics was unique, and there's no obvious successor likely to fill his shoes as an adviser to leaders from both parties.

In 1985, a fireside chat about religion with the Rev. Billy Graham at the Bush family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, launched Bush on a spiritual quest that friends say sharpened his interest in public service

The man dubbed 'America's Pastor,' Billy Graham, has counseled nearly every American president since Harry Truman. He is pictured here in 1970

The evangelical movement he helped turn into a political force is now most closely aligned with the Republican Party, including Trump, who has been publicly backed by numerous evangelical leaders.

Graham kept a lower profile later in life, but still kept in touch with presidents.

He accepted tributes from a trio of them - Carter, Clinton and the elder Bush - at the dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 2010, President Barack Obama visited Graham at his home in Montreat, North Carolina.

He met all 12 of them, plus Donald Trump before he ran for office, and counseled most as they grappled with governing, politics and peace of mind.A four-year-old girl pretended to be asleep in her Missouri home when her father allegedly shot her mother and half-brother and then turned the gun on himself.

Katrina Banks, 31, was found dead along with her son Kevin Johnson, 15 inside their Bellfountaine Neighbors, Missouri, home about midnight Thursday.

A man, identified as Dornubari Dugbor, 31, was also found dead with a self inflicted gunshot wound.

Katrina Banks, 31, and her son Kevin Johnson, 15, were found dead inside their Bellfountaine Neighbors, Missouri, home on Thursday

Dornubari Dugbor, 31,and Banks were engaged to be married in January but he was also found dead with a self inflicted gunshot wound

He and Banks had been engaged and were planning to get married in January.

The young girl pretended to be sleep in her room during the shootings, Bellefountaine Neighbors Police Chief Jeremy Ihler said according to St. Louis Post Dispatch reports.

The police chief said the child heard the first shots and came into the living room, finding her mother on the floor.

Dugbor was said to have told her to go back to her room, which she did.

The young girl had been pretending to be sleep in her room during the shootings, Bellefountaine Neighbors Police Chief Jeremy Ihler said

'She heard several shots fired after that,' Ihler added.

Initially believed to be a triple homicide - based on bullet trajectory seemingly coming from the front door - Ihler asked for assistant from the Major Case Squad.

Dugbor was found dead bent over on the couch with his cellphone in hand while also having a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in his lap.

That helped lead authorities to believe that the deaths were the result of a murder-suicide.

The child had heard the first shots and came into the living room of this house on 1200 block of Hoyt Drive, finding her mother dead on the floor

Police claim a 911 call at 11.50pm on Thursday was made by the man on his cellphone.

Refusing to reveal his name, the man gave the police the address to the home and told them that they would find 'three' bodies inside, according to Ihler.

Police believe that once the call ended, Dugbor put the pistol under his chin and pulled the trigger, killing himself.

Neighbors reported seeing the little girl playing outside and was aware that the man sometimes stayed there

Banks lived at the home, located on 1200 block of Hoyt Drive with Johnson.

Neighbors reported seeing the little girl at the home occasionally playing outside and was aware that the man sometimes stayed there.

And while Dugbor and Banks both were parents to the girl, custody arrangements were unsure of, Ihler said.

While the man did live at the house, he also had a home in St. Louis city.

The little girl is currently being evaluated at a hospital and will be turned over to relatives

A motive is unknown.

Mental health issues weren't previously reported and no disputes had been reported between the couple.

The little girl is currently being evaluated at a hospital and will be turned over to relatives.

Police believe that Banks was shot in the living room and that her son was shot after he came to see what the commotion was.

He made it to the hallway before succumbing to his wounds and dying, Ihler added.Six young men were lucky to escape more serious injuries in a horror day at the Eastern Creek Racing Facility today.

NSW Ambulance spokesman Phil Templeman was on the scene and said NSW Ambulance rushed to the raceway after they received multiple triple zero calls at 3pm.

'Paramedics arrived to find a total of six persons who had been injured in a collision,' he told 9 News.

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'All patients are stable, they received minor injuries consistent with seat belts  minor abrasions and lacerations to the face.'

Mr Templeman said precautions were taken in case any internal injuries had been suffered.

'A number of those patients had some spinal immobilisation put into place,' he said

'They had some collars put around their necks and we immobilise them and transported them to hospital.

'At this stage all persons are listed as stable and have been talken to various hospitals across the Sydney metro.'

Six men, one as young as 14, were all injured in a crash at the Eastern Creek Raceway, all were treated at the scene for minor injuries before being taken to hospital

Mr Templeman said at this stage they believed the accident occurred at a race meeting which involved predominantly young males.

'We do have one 14 year old and the rest were all in their late teens to early 20s,' he said.

Amateur racers have been cautioned to take care while using the raceway.Conservative MP Ben Bradley has apologised to Jeremy Corbyn for posting a 'seriously defamatory' tweet claiming the Labour leader sold British secrets to communist spies.

The Tory party vice chairman was threatened with legal action after tweeting the 'wholly untrue and false' claims earlier this week.

They came after newspaper allegations that Corbyn had been in contact with a Czech intelligence agent in the 1980s.

Bradley apologised 'unreservedly' and has promised to meet the Labour chief's legal costs, as well as making a donation to a homeless charity and foodbank in his constituency.

Conservative MP Ben Bradley (pictured left) has apologised to Jeremy Corbyn (pictured right) for posting a 'seriously defamatory' tweet claiming the Labour leader sold British secrets to communist spies

Labour said Mr Bradley has agreed to tweet an apology that says: 'On 19 February 2018 I made a seriously defamatory statement on my Twitter account, 'Ben Bradley MP (@bbradleymp)', about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold British secrets to communist spies.

'I have since deleted the defamatory tweet. I have agreed to pay an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice, and I will also pay his legal costs.

'I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false. I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.

'I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him.'

Bradley was promoted in Theresa May's January reshuffle, but quickly became embroiled in controversy after it emerged that he had suggested benefit claimants should have vasectomies.

Labour said it would not let 'dangerous lies' about Corbyn go unchallenged.

Ben Bradley's apology to Jeremy Corbyn in full A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) said he was 'pleased' with the apology Ben Bradley MP has today said: 'On 19 February 2018 I made a seriously defamatory statement on my Twitter account, 'Ben Bradley MP (@bbradleymp)', about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold British secrets to communist spies. 'I have since deleted the defamatory tweet. I have agreed to pay an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice, and I will also pay his legal costs. 'I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false. 'I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies. 'I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him.' Advertisement

It came after newspaper allegations that Corbyn (pictured today on a visit to Stourbridge, West Midlands) had been in contact with a Czech intelligence agent in the 1980s

Corbyn's spokesman said: 'We are pleased Ben Bradley has admitted what he said was entirely untrue and apologised, and that charities in Mansfield will benefit.

'Following the botched smear campaign against Jeremy, this case shows we are not going to let dangerous lies go unchallenged.'

Former spy chief Sir Richard Dearlove has insisted Corbyn did have 'questions to answer' over his Cold War links.

He said the Labour leader should have 'taken care to avoid' meeting a Czechoslovakian agent and cannot just 'laugh off' the claims.

The ex-MI6 boss said holding only a couple of meetings with Jan Sarkocy would amount to 'stupidity', but if the spy's claims that many more took place were true then 'this affair takes on a completely different aspect'.

Labour said Sir Richard should not be 'trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears'.

Mr Sarkocy, a former agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency, has been described as a fantasist by Corbyn's allies.

But Sir Richard, who was 'C' at the Secret Intelligence Service, said the agent could not be easily dismissed.

The 'discussion I have had with friends close to the current Czech intelligence community' suggests otherwise, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Labour said it would not let 'dangerous lies' about Corbyn (pictured taking selfies with supporters in Stourbridge today) go unchallenged

Sir Richard, who was posted to Communist Czechoslovakia, said 'everything I learned about the way the StB operated tells me that these accusations should be taken seriously'.

Corbyn's spokesman has previously challenged records of supposed meetings between the then Labour backbencher and Mr Sarkocy.

The Labour leader recalled speaking to a diplomat from the then communist country in 1986, as one of many meetings with ambassadors, politicians, activists and dissidents from 'the majority of countries in the world', said the spokesman.

But another meeting with the same man was recorded in StB files as taking place the following year in the House of Commons, on a Saturday when the Labour MP's own diaries record he was attending a conference in Chesterfield.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'Richard Dearlove, who as head of MI6 was involved in the infamous dodgy dossier that helped take us into the disastrous Iraq War, should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears.'Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued on Thursday (February 22, 2018) a royal decree appointing his son Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad as First Vice President of the Royal Family Council.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued on Thursday (February 22, 2018) a royal decree appointing his son Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad as First Vice President of the Royal Family Council.



The current head of the Royal Family Council is the King himself.



The new post comes in addition to the series of posts held by the Crown Prince, the most significant of which being the positions of Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, the First Deputy Prime Minister and the President of the Economic Development Board.









/129UK soldiers could be getting 'anthrax jabs' to prepare for a potential war between the USA and North Korea and terror attacks at home.

Plans are being made to roll out anthrax vaccinations to all military personnel, according to Whitehall sources.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is considering the measures amid growing tensions between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, reports The Times.

Anthrax is a deadly disease that comes in spray or powder form and is particularly lethal when inhaled.

Plans are being made to roll out anthrax vaccinations to all UK military personnel overseas, according to Whitehall sources

It causes flu-like symptoms for a few days, which are usually followed by severe breathing problems, shock and often death.

Patricia Lewis, research director for international security at Chatham House told the newspaper Kim Jong-un is believed to have a large range of biological weapons, including anthrax.

The foreign affairs and security think tank boss also said there are concerns about terror organisations like ISIS and al-Qaeda using anthrax.

This week Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle were believed to be targeted with anthrax after a suspicious white powder was found on a 'racist' letter addressed to them.

It was intercepted by staff at London's St James's Palace and was eventually found to be harmless.

American troops are already vaccinated against anthrax if they are sent overseas.

Anthrax is a deadly disease that comes in spray or powder form and is particularly lethal when inhaled. Kim Jong-un is believed to have it in his arsenal of biological weapons and ISIS and al-Qaeda could be planning to use it in terror attacks too

But only a small number of specialist British troops, including those in the SAS and SBS are given the jabs.

It is not clear if a UK anthrax vaccination programme would be compulsory or not.

A voluntary programme was introduced before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but many refused the jabs over concerns about side effects.

One soldier in particular said side effects were so painful he said he would 'rather die of anthrax than go through that again', reports The Times.

There are ongoing concerns about illnesses triggered by the anthrax vaccine after many troops fell ill in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman told the newspaper: 'We are considering expanding this vaccination, which has been given to UK armed forces personnel for decades, to make sure they are fully protected and flexible to face any potential threats wherever they emerge across an ever-changing world.'Disgraced former deputy mayor property tycoon Salim Mehajer was sued in court for $6.2million just two days before he was found guilty of assaulting a Channel Seven reporter, it can be revealed.

The company that excavated the site of his multimillion-dollar development Skypoint Towers in Lidcome, West Sydney has taken legal action to make sure it gets back money it lent to Mehajer.

Ace Demolition and Excavation's case, which was lodged with the NSW Supreme Court on February 2, made its first appearance on Tuesday.

Two days later Mehajer was found guilty of assaulting reporter Laura Banks by slamming a car door on to her outside a Sydney police station last year.

Disgraced property tycoon Salim Mehajer (pictured) was sued in court for $6.2million just two days before he was found guilty of assaulting a Channel Seven reporter

Property developer Salim Mehajer (right) was found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm against TV reporter Laura Banks (left) outside a Sydney police station last year

The Skypoint Towers development of 141 flats and 16 offices turned sour in June when two companies Mehajer used for the project - Sydney Project Group and SET Services - went bust with total debts of more than $100million.

Ace demolition is one of the creditors and is demanding its $6.2million back.

The company is also suing Mehajer's sisters - Khadijer 'Kat' Mehajer and Zenah Osman - who were named directors of the companies after he was banned from managing corporations by ASIC in 2016, reported The Daily Telegraph.

On Thursday, Mehajer was found guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm against Ms Banks in an incident that left her with hand and back injuries.

In sentencing, Magistrate Joanne Keogh criticised the behaviour of a media pack at the police station but still ordered a conviction to be recorded against Mehajer.

Ms Keogh also criticised evidence given by Ms Banks calling her 'a witness of little credit' and 'not a witness that has stood up to the scrutiny of cross-examination'.

'Can you get that thing off my leg? Can you stop touching me?' Mehajer told Ms Banks as she pushed a microphone towards him, the court heard

The incident took place outside Day Street police station on April 2 last year, where Mehajer had been taken early that morning after allegedly assaulting a taxi driver.

In court on Monday to enter a not guilty plea, Mehajer said he felt 'cornered, bullied and harassed' by a media pack moments before he slammed the door on Ms Banks.

The court heard Mehajer had traded insults with Ms Banks, who teased him about his height, after he asked if the jewellery she was wearing was a ring or a key ring.

'It all happened very quickly and my only thought was to leave,' Mehajer said of the door slamming.

'As selfish as this may sound I wasn't aware of the extent of the impact.'

Ms Banks had been standing in the doorway of the Porsche trying to quiz Mehajer on the incident when the assault occurred.

The court heard the pair had been trading verbal barbs before the incident, with Ms Banks asking the disgraced property developer if he had hit 'rock bottom'.

Ms Banks, a former newspaper turned TV reporter, claimed her back was 'still quite sore' almost 12 months on from the incident.

Taking to the witness stand on Monday morning, Banks told the court she had been standing in the doorway of the Porsche trying to ask Mehajer questions when the alleged assault occurred

Salim was refused bail when he appeared in court the day after his arrest. Pictured: Mehajer's youngest sister Mary - a former Miss Lebanon Australia

Mehajer told the court he felt cornered, bullied and harassed before the car door incident, but said he 'absolutely (did) not' mean to slam Ms Banks in the car door

She denied deliberately provoking Mehajer during their confrontation prior to the alleged assault.

The 31-year-old journalist even suggested Mehajer had been flirting with her when he asked: 'Why are you attached to me?'

'It was almost suggestive, flirtatious,' Ms Banks told the court.

'He was suggestive in some of his comments. Asking me to get in the back of his car felt like that was suggestive and (had) innuendo behind it.'

Mehajer is currently in jail without bail after being charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and perverting the course of justice following an allegedly faked car crash.

The tycoon was rushed to hospital, stopping the first day of his trial for allegedly assaulting a taxi driver, after his Mercedes supposedly crashed into a Mitsubishi Outlander on October 16.

Salim Mehajer at the scene of the accident in Sydney's south-west on October 16 last year

The tycoon was rushed to hospital, stopping the first day of his trial for allegedly assaulting a taxi driver. Pictured: The scene of the crash

His belongings were seen being removed from his Vaucluse rental home last week

Mehajer's youngest sister Mary - a former Miss Lebanon Australia - has been living in the house (pictured) since he was taken into police custody over claims he staged a car crash as an elaborate plot to avoid appearing in court on an assault charge

On Monday, furniture, security cameras and a tanning bed were among several items removed from Salim Mehajer's Vaucluse mansion as he languished in jail.

A group of men were seen loading the disgraced property developer's possessions into a removal truck after Mehajer was ordered on Friday to pay $18,000 in back rent and given 21 days to vacate the property.

A massage chair, a washing machine and couches were also seen being loaded into the large white truck as a man used a drill to remove CCTV cameras.

His youngest sister Mary - a former Miss Lebanon Australia - has been living in the house since Mehajer was taken into police custody over claims he staged a car crash as an elaborate plot to avoid appearing in court on an assault charge.

On Friday, he was given 21 days to vacate the house in an order granted at the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

A group of removalists were seen carrying furniture, a massage chair and a tanning bed from Salim Mehajer's Sydney home on Monday as the 31-year-old appeared in courtThree inmates broke out of an Ohio correctional facility after using a table to smash through a window and escape on foot.

Surveillance footage shows Joshua Natal-Morales, 26, Michael Kilgore, 23 and Reynaldo Franco, 26, contained in the Lorain/Medina Community Based Correctional Facility in Elyria, Ohio, on Friday night.

The inmates were sitting in a room together before they decided to pick up a table and break through a window.

Lorain County Sheriffs Office apprehended all three inmates later that evening after they escaped on foot away from the facility.

Three inmates escaped a correctional facility in Elyria, Ohio, by smashing a table through a window on Friday evening

Pictured left to right is Joshua Natale-Morales, Michael Kilgore, and Reynaldo Franco. The escaped inmates were caught a mere hours later and now face additional charges

The sheriff's office responded to a call from the facility at 6.47pm after the inmates broke through a glass window with a table.

The correctional facility houses felony-level prisoners as their 'last chance' before ending up in prison.

Deputies set up a perimeter around the facility to help capture the escaped inmates.

The Elyria Police Department was also enlisted to help find the individuals before they got too far away.

Surveillance footage shows the inmates pick up a table in the room they were being held and then smashing it through a window

The inmates quickly climbed out the window and escaped on foot before they were captured later by police.

Franco and Natal-Morales were caught by police at 7.45pm and Kilgore was captured 30 minutes after and brought back to the facility.

The correctional facility is now launching an investigation into the escape after the three inmates were able to smash a window.

New security measures may be imposed in the future to prevent future escapes.

The inmates now face charges of vandalism and escape.Nicola White, 33, from Llanelli in Wales, lost her battle with cancer on Friday after 'tragedy upon tragedy' as she fought to stay alive

A mother-of-two diagnosed with bone cancer aged 16 has died surrounded by her family after a desperate campaign to save her life.

Nicola White, 33, from Llanelli in Wales, lost her battle with the terrible illness on Friday after 'tragedy upon tragedy' as she fought to stay alive.

Friends and family started the Save Nicola campaign last year to raise money for pioneering proton beam therapy treatment not available on the NHS.

Nicola had already tried numerous treatments since her diagnosis and developed septicaemia in 2011, which resulted in her having an above-the-knee amputation.

And the cancer later returned - this time affecting her lung - and she was told there was nothing that could be done.

Not willing to give up on their loved-one, her family raised more than 100,000 with their campaign for the potentially life-saving treatment.

Campaigners even managed to find a Harley Street doctor who said he could operate on the tumour.

But at the end of last year, as plans for her lung surgery in London were being finalised, a scan showed the cancer had spread to her liver.

Nicola was moved to the Ty Bryngwyn Hospice in Llanelli, where she passed away.

'It's tragedy upon tragedy,' said family friend Gary Griffiths, who grew up next door to Ms White and knew her all her life.

'We're totally crushed. We tried so hard to help her but in the end we just ran out of time.

'I want to say a special thank you to the people of Llanelli and beyond who have helped us so much in our bid to help Nicola.

'The whole town of Llanelli came out to help - it was extraordinary.

'I'd also like to thank the Ty Bryngwyn Hospice for everything they've done over the past few weeks.'

A post on the group's Facebook page said: 'We are devastated, numb and heartbroken our brave friend has left us so soon.

'Our hearts go out to Nicola's family, her husband Alex, her children Owen and Ava, her mum Diane and her brother Andrew.

'Nicola's life itself was a miracle given her unrelenting battle with rare bone cancer from the age of 16.

'To have realised her dreams of marrying and having a family is testament to her incredible bravery, willpower and sheer strength to carry on and live through everything that life threw at her.

Nicola's (pictured with her husband and children) bone cancer spread to her lung and liver and doctors were unable to save her, despite a successful campaign to

'We hope to learn from that unbelievable strength at this incredibly difficult time.

'Nicola, you now reside with the angels, with Jean & Bill at your side, where pain can no longer hinder you and where you can smile down on your beautiful family.

'We love you with all our hearts, our beautiful friend. Rest in peace. X'

Within 17 days of being launched, the Save Nicola campaign raised more than 17,000.

In an interview at the time, Ms White said it was 'really overwhelming how much everyone is willing to help'.

'So many people have contacted us to say they have been really touched by my story,' she said.

'All I want to is be there for my kids and see them grow up.'

Nicola was awarded the Editor's Choice award at the Llanelli Star Community Awards last year.

She left behind her husband Alex, 12-year-old son Owen and eight-year-old daughter Ava.A pig who was saved from slaughter at the eleventh hour has becoming a world-renowned artist.

Pigcasso, as she is now known, was rescued with her sister Rosie from a South African slaughterhouse when she was just two months old.

Animal welfare campaigner Joanne Lefson took them to a farm in Franschhoek, near Cape Town, where the base for her rescue pet charity Sanctuary SA was still being built.

She noticed a young Pigcasso picking up workman's paint brushes in her mouth and decided to give her a canvas.

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Pigcasso (pictured) was rescued with her sister Rosie from a South African slaughterhouse when she was just two months old. Now at 21 months she is an artist in her own right

Animal rescue worker Joanne Lefson (pictured with Pigcasso) decided to give her a canvas to paint on when she noticed her picking up workman's paintbrushes in her mouth

Now at just 21-months-old, she is believed to be the world's only painting pig and has sold her artwork for as much as 1,700.

Despite selling 44 paintings across the UK, USA, South Korea and Malaysia, Ms Lefson says in many ways Pigcasso is just a regular pig.

She told The Times: 'She's not a diva and it hasn't all gone to her head. She's still very humble. All she wants to do is eat, sleep and paint.'

Pigcasso even launched her own exhibition - Oink - on Cape Town's Victoria and Albert Waterfront last month.

It is due to open at a central London venue next month, before moving on to Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam.

Pigcasso has a 'light-hearted take on current affairs', according to Ms Lefson.

Pigcasso loves painting Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain and often sets up an easel nearby

Despite selling 44 paintings across the UK, USA, South Korea and Malaysia, Ms Lefson says in many ways Pigcasso is just a regular pig

Her most expensive piece was called Brexit and featured a rough representation of the word in the colours of the British flag.

It sold to a Dutch collector for 1,730, after her debut piece was snapped up by a New York lawyer visiting her farm.

She signs each canvas by dipping her snout in a mixture of beetroot juice and acrylic paint.

As pigs have little concept of colour, Ms Lefson selects which paint to use before letting her creativity flow.

Ms Lefson added: 'Paintbrushes were the only things she didn't try to eat or destroy.

'Perhaps it was the bristles, but she kept putting them in her mouth, so I set up a canvas and paints for her and it wasn't long before she set to work.'

Her owner says she often takes inspiration from her surroundings and loves day trips to Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain where she 'loves getting sand between her trotters' on the beaches below.A North Texas woman will be sentenced on March 20 after pleading guilty to falsely claiming that three black men kidnapped and sexually assaulted her.

In March 2017 Breana Rachelle Harmon's fiance reported her missing and then she bizarrely showed up at a church bloodied and barely clothed.

A Grayson County grand jury had indicted Harmon, 19, on four charges, including three felonies, the Herald Democrat reported.

Breana Rachelle Harmon, 19, will be sentenced on March 20 after pleading guilty to falsely claiming that three black men kidnapped and sexually assaulted her

'She's very remorseful for what she did and what she said, and that's why she decided to plead guilty,' her attorney Bob Jarvis told the paper.

On March 8, 2017 Harmon showed up at a local church. She was bloodied and wearing just a shirt, bra and underwear and claimed to have been gang raped.

She later told police that she was abducted by 'three black males' in ski masks at her apartment before they took her to the woods near the church and took turns raping her while one of them held her down.

Harmon was reported missing by her fiance on March 8, and wandered into a Denison, Texas church (above) later that evening wearing only a t-shirt, bra and underwear

Police say her story fell apart almost immediately. She admitted it was a hoax on Tuesday. It's unclear why Harmon purposefully lied to police. Pictured above with her fiance

Within just a few days of the incident though, detectives say that Harmon's story started to fall apart.

One of the biggest holes in the story was the fact that medical professionals who examined Harmon at the hospital were unable to find evidence she was sexually assaulted.

Officers also combed the alleged crime scenes and didn't find anything backing up the crime.

Harmon (right, with her fiance) later told police that she had been kidnapped by three black men who took her to some woods near the church and gang raped her

'We believe the crime scene - from the initial kidnapping scene at the apartment complex to the point of Harmon's condition when she walked into the church - were staged,' Police Chief Jay Burch said.

Harmon told to police that she staged the hoax and that her wounds were self-inflicted.

A police report at the time stated 'Breana Harmon Talbott's hoax was also insulting to our community and especially offensive to the African-American community due to her description of the so-called suspects in her hoax. The anger and hurts caused from such a hoax are difficult and so unnecessary.'Ken Livingstone's ban from Labour could be lifted in a move set to reopen the party's fierce internal row over alleged anti-Semitism.

The former London mayor was suspended for two years after making controversial claims that Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s.

The ban is due to end on April 27 and it has been reported he will face no further action - unless further information emerges.

A source said Livingstone, as a full member, would be able to fully participate in the party again, according to the Observer.

Ken Livingston's ban from the Labour Party could be lifted. The former London mayor was suspended for two years after making claims that Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s (Pictured: Mr Livingstone in April 2016)

Labour MP Stella Creasy tweeted earlier today saying that Mr Livingstone has shown 'no contrition' for his anti-semitic comments, and said 'we cannot let ourselves get sucked into this vortex of hate'

The move sparked criticism from the party's own MPs.

On Saturday, Stella Creasy tweeted that Livingstone had shown no contrition for his comments.

She said: 'Ken has shown no contrition for his anti-Semitic comments and pain has caused - to be party of equality and social justice able to represent all of Britain we cannot let ourselves get sucked into this vortex of hate.

'Like many across party really hope this is just mischief making.'

And Wes Streeting, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for British Jews, told the Observer Livingstone's return would cause 'irreparable damage to the party's standing and reputation'.

One senior Labour MP told the Observer: 'All this shows that we have lost the party to the left. If Livingstone is allowed back, we could see resignations. It will be a tipping point for many people.'

Jess Phillips tweeted earlier today: 'Nothing says socialism quite like "I'll sue you if I don't get my way" forgive me but what does he offer the party other than embarrassment and ego?'

Ruth Smeeth, who has suffered antisemitic abuse in the past on social media, said Livingstone 'continues to bring the party into disrepute' and 'has no place in the party'.

Mr Livingstone has said that he would take legal action against the party if he was not allowed to become a full member again, and said the entire controversy was 'fake news'

Conservative MP James Cleverly also tweeted about Ken Livingstone rejoining Labour, saying: 'You have got to be kidding me!'

Some Labour party members have already threatened to leave the party if Mr Livingstone is allowed to return.

Rhys Morgan tweeted: 'If Ken Livingstone is allowed to rejoin Labour, Im done. Im out. Ill cut up my membership card.'

Novelist Linda Grant wrote: 'If I hadn't left already Id be leaving now.'

Another individual said: 'However Ken Livingstone acted when he was a member of #Labour, he has disgraced himself since his suspension. If he's in, I'm out, and you should be too.'

Meanwhile, George Galloway, who said Mr Livingstone should not be suspended at the time of his Hitler comments, congratulated him on his return to the Labour party.

He tweeted: 'Congratulations @ken4london on your return to the Labour Party from which you were so unjustly excluded @jeremycorbyn.'

Mr Livingstone told the Observer that he would take legal action against the party if he was not allowed to become a full member again, and said the entire controversy was 'fake news'.

'I did not say Hitler was a Zionist, and that was why I was suspended. That is just the problem of our fake news these days,' he said.

'What I referred was an agreement between German Zionists and the Nazi government in 1933 [the so-called Haavara agreement] and you cant expel someone for stating historical fact when you have done nothing about those Labour MPs screaming that I was a Nazi apologist and all that garbage.'

He also claimed that Labour MPs had not turned against him because of anti-semitism, but because he supported Jeremy Corbyn.Jeremiah Valencia, 13, was found buried on the side of the road in New Mexico in January

A teenage boy who was found buried in a grave on the side of the road near his home in New Mexico had been raped and burned before being beaten to death.

The body of 13-year-old Jeremiah Valencia was discovered in January buried along New Mexico State Road 503 near Nambe, two months after he was allegedly beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend, Thomas Ferguson.

But new details have come to light that suggest the teenager was actually sexually assaulted and burned. The child was also forced to live in dog kennel which was used to hold him as he was being abused, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department said.

Family members have told deputies that Ferguson kept Jeremiah inside the kennel as punishment, often making him sleep there and forcing him to wear adult diapers.

New court documents suggest Jeremiah's body had lacerations consistent with sexual assault and that portions of his body 'had possibly been burned.'

Police believe Valencia was fatally beaten by his mother's boyfriend, Thomas Ferguson, around Thanksgiving at their Nambe, New Mexico home. He had been forced to live in a kennel

Valencia's mother, Tracy Pena, left, and her boyfriend, Thomas Ferguson, right, were arrested in connection to his murder

Video courtesy KOB

Detectives obtained permission from a judge to search for evidence which corroborated the findings. An autopsy found Jeremiah was buried in a diaper.

Ferguson, 42; the boy's mother Tracy Pena, 35; and Ferguson's 19-year-old son Jordan Nunez were arrested at the start of February and charged with abuse of a child resulting in death, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence.

They are being held without bond.

Blood 'not visible to the naked eye' was discovered inside Ferguson's bedroom, as well as Jeremiah's bedroom, when police used a special light to search his room.

Meanwhile, his sister told investigators that Nunez and Ferguson washed Jeremiah's body in the tub 'to clean the blood off him' before placing him in his bedroom, where Pena has said she found him dead, wrapped in a blanket.

Ferguson's son, Jordan Nunez (center) was also arrested in connection to Valencia's death. Mugshots of Ferguson (left), Nunez and Pena (right) released by the Santa Fe County Sherif

Investigators said Valencia was forced to live in a dog kennel before he was fatally beaten to death

Deputies discovered the boy's body in January, after an inmate at the Santa Fe County jail told them Pena had confided in her about her son's death.

Pena, who was in jail at the time of the death, told investigators she was forced to help Ferguson move the boy's remains but kept quiet about it because she was afraid of Ferguson.

Nunez told a similar story and said he was abused by his father as a child. He feared retaliation from Ferguson if he went to law enforcement.

Detectives and prosecutors have said Nunez wrote a Facebook message to Ferguson, threatening to hurt Pena if she went to police according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Nunez and Pena are charged with child abuse resulting in death, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit evidence tampering.

Ferguson was indicted last week by a grand jury on first-degree murder and 17 other felony charges, including kidnapping, child abuse and tampering with evidence.

Investigators were tipped off to Valencia's (right) disappearance after his mother Tracy Pena (left) allegedly confessed to an inmate that her son had been murdered

Ferguson (left) and Pena (right) have been charged with abuse of a child resulting in death, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence

There were no charges for sexual assault brought forward.

Valencia had allegedly been tortured for years by Ferguson.

The District Attorney said Valencia was not enrolled in school. Investigators said he was beaten to severely that he had to use a cane to help him walk, KRQE reports.

'He was placed in a dog kennel for hours on end without food. It's absolutely heartbreaking, these acts are senseless,' District Attorney Marco Serna said.

Investigators believe Ferguson got angry with Valencia and punched him several times in the face and stomach, KOB reports.

The sister told investigators that she was pushed to lie about her brother's whereabouts and tell people that he was staying with other family members.

'It's absolutely heartbreaking, these acts are senseless and these people will be brought to justice,' Serna said.

Court documents reveal that Pena was investigated by the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department in 2011. Valencia and his sister were both placed in the care of their grandparents, but were eventually released back to their mother.Advertisement

An annual beauty pageant in Thailand compares plus sized woman to elephants.

Pictures from the Jumbo Queen Beauty Pageant in Nakhon Ratchasima shows the entrants on-stage, backstage and before the contest.

In order to take part in the pageant, which promotes elephant conservation causes, contestants have to weigh at least 12st 9lbs - and those are merely the featherweights!

This year Kwanrapee Boonchaisuk, who weighs 16st 7lbs, was crowned Miss Jumbo 2018 and the 17 stone 4 lbs Bantita Sangkachart won the 2018 Miss Jumbo Transgender title.

An annual beauty pageant in Thailand compares plus sized woman to elephants. Contestant Kwanrapee Boonchaisuk (right) reacts as she is crowned winner of the Miss Jumbo 2018

Kwanrapee Boonchaisuk has the winners crown placed on her head. The event attracts more than 100 entrants with judges looking to find someone who embodies the grace, elegance and enormity of the elephant.

The contestants arrive down the escalator for the Jumbo Queen Beauty Pageant in Nakhon Ratchasima

The plus size entrants strut their stuff as the competition gets under way for the pageant where entrants have to weigh more than 12 st

The winners are crowned 'Thi Da Chang' which is Thai for 'Daughter of the Elephant' and spend the year touring the country promoting elephant causes

The contestants look to wow the judges with their dancing skills. The pageant raises awareness for the elephant population in the East-Asian

The event attracts more than 100 entrants with judges looking to find someone who embodies the grace, elegance and enormity of the elephant.

Some of the Jumbo Beauty Queens can weigh more than topping 25st - while transgender entrants are also encouraged to take part.

The winners are crowned 'Thi Da Chang' which is Thai for 'Daughter of the Elephant' and spend the year touring the country promoting elephant causes.

Past winners include Miss Jumbo 2001, Soraya Srmitr who weighed 16 st and wowed the judges with her Latin dance.

Past winners include Miss Jumbo 2001, Soraya Srmitr who weighed 102kgs and wowed the judges with her Latin dance

While the elephant theme underpins so much of the competition that contestants are judged on how well they 'exhibit the qualities of an elephant'

The pagent raises awareness for the elephant population in the East-Asian country which have been steadily declining.

While the elephant theme underpins so much of the competition that contestants are judged on how well they 'exhibit the qualities of an elephant.'

But awards are not preserved just for winners, other contestants are awarded special prizes based on their weight.

But awards are not preserved just for winners, other contestants are awarded special prizes based on their weight

The Miss Jumbo Universe award goes to the heaviest contestant such as Thanchanok Mekkeaw, who tipped the scales at an impressive 182 kilograms some years ago.

The Miss Jumbo Universe award goes to the heaviest contestant such as Thanchanok Mekkeaw, who tipped the scales at an impressive 182 kilograms some years ago.

While another prize handed out in previous years poked fun at Thailand's economic failures, lampooning its reliance on aid given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF award is given to the crowd favourite, however it actually stands for 'I'M Fat.'

While another prize handed out in previous years poked fun at Thailand's economic failures, lampooning its reliance on aid given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The IMF award is given to the crowd favourite, however it actually stands for 'I'M Fat'

In Thailand elephants have for centuries been revered and highly valued creatures and traditionally worked in the logging industry.

But as the industry collapsed of elephants and their owners - or mahouts - have been forced to head for big cities such as Bangkok where they earn money begging from tourists who pay money to have their pictures taken with them.Delta and United Airlines have joined a growing chorus of US companies distancing themselves from the National Rifle Association in the wake of the latest school massacre in Florida.

The major airlines tweeted they are each ending the discounted trips NRA members previously enjoyed and want the lobbying group to remove the airlines' information from its website.

Petitions are circulating online targeting companies that offer discounts to NRA members on its website.

#BoycottNRA was the second most trending topic on Twitter on Friday.

On Saturday United and Delta were trending.

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre (pictured) spoke about the school shooting on Thursday as growing number of US companies distance themselves from the lobby group

Members of the gun lobby have access to special offers from partner companies on its website, ranging from life insurance to wine clubs.

But American companies have been publicly severing ties to the powerful gun-lobbying group since the shooting on February 14 where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz murdered 14 children and three school staffers in a brutal shooting spree with an AR-15 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

For a third consecutive day, companies listed on the site have cut ties to the NRA as it aggressively resists calls for stricter gun control in the wake of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The rental car company Hertz tweeted on Friday that it has notified the NRA that it is ending the lobby's discount program with Hertz.

The rental car company Hertz tweeted on Friday that it has notified the NRA that it is ending the lobby's discount program

Insurer Chubb Ltd. said was ending participation in the NRA's gun-owner Carry Guard insurance program but it provided notice three months ago

The insurance company MetLife Inc. discontinued its discount program with the NRA on Friday

First National Bank of Omaha, one of the nation's largest privately held banks, announced that it would not renew a co-branded Visa credit-card with the NRA

LIST OF COMPANIES THAT CUT TIES TO NRA: Hertz

Chubb

Met Life

Symantec

Teladoc

Simplisafe

Best Western

Wyndham Hotels

Alamo Rent A Car

National Rent A Car

Enterprise Rent A Car

First National Bank of Omaha

Delta Airlines

United Airlines Advertisement

The insurance company MetLife Inc. also discontinued its discount program with the NRA on Friday.

The software company Symantec Corp., which makes Norton Antivirus technology, did the same.

National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre said at the Conservative Political Action Conference that those advocating for stricter gun control were exploiting the Florida shooting

Insurer Chubb Ltd. said Friday it was ending participation in the NRA's gun-owner Carry Guard insurance program, but it provided notice three months ago. The program that provided coverage for people involved in gun-related incidents or accidents had been under scrutiny by regulators over marketing issues.

Those defections arrived a day after the car rental company Enterprise Holdings, which also owns Alamo and National, said it was cutting off discounts for NRA members.

First National Bank of Omaha, one of the nation's largest privately held banks, announced that it would not renew a co-branded Visa credit-card with the NRA.

Nearly two dozen corporations nationwide offer incentives to NRA members, according to ThinkProgress.com, a news site owned by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Amazon.com Inc and other online streaming platforms are also facing demands to drop the online video channel NRATV, featuring programming produced by the group.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, founded after 20 first-graders were shot and killed at a school in Connecticut in December 2012, sent letters to Apple Inc, AT&T Inc , Amazon, Alphabet Inc's Google and Roku Inc on Friday, asking them to drop NRATV from their products. None of the companies immediately responded to requests for comment on the letters.

#BoycottNRA was the second most trending topic on Twitter

Comedian Tommy Campbell applauded the boycott but called on politicians to follow suit

There was also plenty of backlash on Twitter in response to the NRA boycott

Some supporters of the gun lobby rushed to join the NRA in response to the calls for a boycott

'We have been just disgusted by NRATV since its beginning,' Shannon Watts, founder of the Moms Demand Action group, told Reuters.

'It really propagates dangerous misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric.

'It tries to pit Americans against one another, all in an attempt to further their agenda of selling guns.'

David Hogg, one of the outspoken student survivors of last week's attack who launched the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement, said the students would target any company with ties to the NRA, in addition to lawmakers who accept donations.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a blistering speech delivered on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference that those advocating for stricter gun control are exploiting the Florida shooting which killed 17 people, mostly high-school students.

'Evil walks among us and God help us if we don't harden our schools and protect our kids,' LaPierre said.

'The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous.'

Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg, who launched the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement, said the students would target any company with ties to the NRA

President Donald Trump has aligned himself with the NRA, suggesting some teachers could be armed so that they could fire on any attacker.

American corporations are moving in the other direction.

On Friday, a large Wall Street money management firm said that it wanted to engage with major weapons manufacturers about what comes next.

Blackrock Inc., which manages $6trillion in assets, has become one of the largest stakeholders gun manufacturers like Sturm Ruger & Co., American Outdoor Brands Corp. and Vista Outdoor Inc. through indirect investments.

The money is placed in index funds, so Blackrock cannot sell shares of individual companies within the index. Its fund clients invest in indexes that might contain companies like Ruger.

On Friday, spokesman Ed Sweeney said Blackrock will be 'engaging with weapons manufacturers and distributors to understand their response to recent events.'

Blackrock, through indirect investments, holds a 16.18 percent stake in Sturm Ruger, an 11.91 per cent stake in Vista, and a 10.5 percent stake in American Outdoor, according to the data firm Factset.

Shares of gun companies mostly fell in trading Friday.Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani said, "The US, the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia are mulling creation of a regional and international consensus against the Islamic Republic."

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Tehran's provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani blasted Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh regimes for pursuing their Iranophobic scenario, and said that the enemies are doing their best to establish an alliance against Iran in the region.



Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani said, "The US, the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia are mulling creation of a regional and international consensus against the Islamic Republic."



He reiterated that the enemies cannot achieve their goals because the Iranians have shown over the past decades that they will resist any kind of foreign interference.



In relevant remarks in mid-July 2017, Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani blasted Washington for defying its undertakings under the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers, stressing that the Iranian nation doesnt trust the US at all.



"The people dont trust the US and its allies even an iota and they are well aware of the US record of betrayal. As we see in the nuclear deal, the sanctions (against Iran) were due to be removed all together but they are increasing instead," he said.



He also warned Washington against any military aggression against Iran, stressing that the Iranian forces will leave no place safe for the US if the latter embarks on hostile action against Tehran.









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It's not every day you see hippies, Disney characters and The A-Team in the same place at the same time.

But head to the ski slopes of Jaun, Switzerland, and you'll find them, along with Minions and other wacky types, whizzing down into freezing water - in homemade snowmobile-sledge contraptions.

They are taking part in an annual competition, in the Gruyere district, where the aim is to glide over the longest distance possible in a pool of water dug in the snow.

The dressed-up contestants participating in the two-day event range from young children to adults - and they all meet an icy end, but they can at least warm up again afterwards in a jacuzzi.

Points are awarded for the originality of their chosen transport and length of their glide.

The event is free to enter or watch and all participants win a prize.

'Mr T' (seen here at the wheel of an A-team 'sledge') famously said: 'I ain't gettin' on no plane!' - but aquaplane is a different matter, as this slip-sliding vehicle in Switzerland shows

If you're going to San Francisc-oh! A couple of VW campervan 'hippies' take part in the annual Jaun waterslide contest, which sees participants try to glide as far as possible in an icy pool at the bottom of a ski slope

Never mind the Winter Olympics: Crowds gather to watch the sub-zero antics today

They must be bananas! A pair of daredevils in a Minions-mobile engage in icy fun during the two-day event, which this year falls on Feb 23-24

Just chilling out: The fun contest is free to enter and all participants receive a prize - and usually get a soaking

Alice in blunder-land: These brave souls went full-Disney in their attempt at skimming glory

Here wig go! Points are awarded for originality of chosen transport and length of glide

Hat's the way to do it! This youngster decided to go solo in his waterslide attempt at the event, in the Gruyere districtPresident Donald Trump insisted again on Twitter that armed educators would end school shootings and promised yearly bonuses to those who kept weapons in their classroom.

The president proposed a controversial bill on Wednesday to provide as many as 20 percent of teachers with concealed and carry permits after meeting with students from Marjory Stoneman High School.

He beefed up his proposal saying educators who chose to have weapons in their classroom would receive a 'yearly bonus'.

Neither Trump nor the White House has said who would pay to train them, but the decision would be 'up to states'.

Trump said in a tweet on Saturday: 'Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) lover our students and will protect them.

'Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus.

'Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.'

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President Donald Trump on doubled down on his controversial proposal to give teachers concealed carry permits on Thursday afternoon - saying as many as 20 percent of educators could be toting guns in some schools

President Trump (left) shakes the hand of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors Carson Abt (center) and Ariana Klein (right) during a White House listening session on Wednesday

President Donald Trump published this tweet Saturday afternoon. He is pushing a proposal for teachers to carry firearms in the classrooms

The president told public officials that he envisioned a force of ex-Army, Navy Coast Guard personnel and Marines like his chief of staff John Kelly carrying concealed weapons on their person.

'You can't hire enough security guards. You would have 100, 150 security guys, 'he told state and local leaders during a White House listening session. 'Who wants that many security guards standing all over the place loaded up with guns? But you could have concealed on the teachers.'

Trump said gun-free zones are to a killer 'like going in for the ice cream,' saying, 'That's like "here I am, take me." '

'And by the way instead of advertising "this school has no guns, we are gun free," you let people know the opposite, nobody's going to attack that school, believe me,' he said.

Trump explained in his tweet the use of teachers would be a 'very inexpensive deterrent' compared to the cost of extra security guards.

But only the most 'adept' teachers would be allowed to wield weapons. He insisted every educator would be required to have annual training.

Trump's initial proposal on Wednesday to arm 20 percent of teachers was criticized as excessive  that's roughly 650,000 of the nation's educators  but the president insisted in a tweet that it would be a 'GREAT DETERRENT' to potential shooters.

In other tweets earlier this week Trump encouraged the age restriction to be raised to 21 years old for firearm purchases and a ban of bump stocks, which were used during the Las Vegas massacre.

A listening session was scheduled at the White House this week with President Trump who heard from students, parents and teachers affected by gun violence.

Trump told the victims his administration would go 'go very strongly to age' restrictions on firearms purchases and 'go very strongly to the mental health aspect' of shootings like the ones at Parkland and Sandy Hook.

But the National Rifle Association (NRA) does not believe the age needs to be increased to stop these massacres from happening. Instead, the increase in age would punish 'law-abiding citizens for the evil acts of criminals'.

The NRA is currently in hot water from several companies that have previously supported the pro-gun organization.

As of Saturday afternoon, 14 organizations cut ties with the NRA after they were disappointed by its response to the most recent school shooting where 17 people were killed in Parkland, Florida.

The policy split played out on the eve of a conservative conference just outside of Washington, D.C. that attracts 10,000 of the movement's most ardent supporters annually, including several thousand students. NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre is seen here skewering ideological opponents of the organization

NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre spoke during a conservative conference outside Washington D.C. on Thursday after Trump proposed raising the age restriction.

His appearance came during an influx of gun-control lobbyist attacked the organization and its control over policy in Washington.

In the speech, LaPierre went hard on his organization's proposal to fill schools with armed guards. The conservative figure did not comment on Trump's idea to turn teachers into a security force or on the age restrictions Trump wants to put on buying some guns.

Trump said later, after a conversation with the organization, that he did think he would find himself in a face-off with the NRA, however.

'I spoke to them, and they're ready to do things. They want to do things,' Trump said at his school safety session. 'The NRA is ready to do things.'

Asked if he was ready to go up against them, a reference to the dispute over age restrictions, Trump said, 'I don't think I'll be going up against them. I really think the NRA wants to do what's right.'Advertisement

Being hit by sticks while dressed up as a woman and being forced to dance in public doesn't exactly sound like everyone's cup of tea.

But during the festival of Lathmar Holi in Barsana, India, that's exactly what thousands of revellers get up to in the lead up to the full Hindu festival.

Lathmar Holi, which translates to 'the festival of sticks and colours', is the recreation of a famous Hindu legend involving Lord Khrisna who came from Nandgaon village.

Lord Krishna is said to have visited Barsana and teased his beloved Radha by flirting with her friends before they turned on him and kicked him out of the village.

Every year men from Nandgaon village recreate the legend by returning to Barsana to be chased away or captured by women who dress them up in female clothing and force them to dance.

The following day women from Barsana travel to Nandgaon where men drench them in colour in revenge.

The festival of Lathmar Holi in Barsana, India, begins with women beating men with sticks (known as 'lathi') while they try to avoid being struck

The tradition stems from a Hindu legend involving Lord Krishna and his beloved Radha, who lived in the village of Barsana

According to the legend, Lord Krishna travelled from his home in Nandgaon village to Barsana and began flirting with Radha's friends

The women became annoyed at him and began hitting him with sticks and eventually kicked him out of the village. The tradition now continues every year

After beating the men with sticks, several of them are captured and forced to wear women's clothes before dancing in public

The men often sing provocative songs at the women to grab their attention before they beat them (Pictured: Men and women on the outskirts of Mathura in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh today)

Hindu devotees during the festival also climb the stairs toward the Ladali or Radha temple before the procession begins (pictured)

Hindu devotees are pictured praying at the Ladali or Radha temple earlier today before the celebrations truly begin

The coloured powder, known as gulal, was historically made from turmeric, paste, and flower extracts but today synthetic powder is mainly used

By the end of the day both men and women are drenched from head to toe in paint and powders of many different colours

Extracts from indigo plants, Indian berries, blue hibiscus and jacaranda flowers were used to create blue-coloured powders

The orange colour was traditionally created using a flower called Tesu that grows on Palash - or 'flame of the forest' - trees

Here, a hindu devotee with his face smeared with colours, is resting at the temple shortly before the procession starts up

Revellers cover their mouths and eyes with their clothes as a fine mist of pink and yellow coloured powder falls around them

The Hindu festival of Holi usually begins a few dates after Lathmar Holi. This year Holi celebrations begin on March 1

Yellow powder usually comes from turmeric but may be mixed with chickpeas or flour to get the desired shade

This man looks delighted as he throws pink powder up into the air towards the camera as several men stand around in the street

Here two women covered in colourful powder dance barefoot together at the Radha Rani temple as men crowd around them

This man took a moment for quiet reflection while covered in pink, yellow, and orange powder as the celebrations continue around himThe National Rifle Association (NRA) honored the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with a rifle for ending net neutrality, on Friday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was given the 'Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award' at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Named after the late actor who was also the NRA president, the award consist of a Kentucky long rifle.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was given the 'Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award' at CPAC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Friday

Not given every year, it is only presented when a person has 'stood up under pressure with grace, dignity, and principled discipline,' Carolyn Meadows, the second vice president for the NRA, said to Motherboard.

The gun was not allowed to go unto the stage however and the FCC, CPAC and the NRA failed to respond to questions relating as to why that was the case.

Metal detectors were present before President Donald Trump's speech earlier on Friday, but a Reuters reporter shared that no visible prohibitions were visible.

Named after the late actor who was also the NRA president, the award consist of a Kentucky long rifle

Past recipients of the award have been Mike Pence, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and talk show host Rush Limbaugh

Past recipients of the award have been Mike Pence, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Speaking at the conference, Pai was quick to defend his reasoning for ending former President Barack Obama's net neutrality provisions set in 2015.

'Some people urged me to go for sacrifice bunts and singles and try to nibble around the edges  make some minor changes,' Pai said. 'But I don't play small ball.'

Pai was supposed to attend a consumer electronic event in Las Vegas, back in January, but had to cancel because of death threats.The Republican National Committee is handing over $37,000-a-month to the Trump Organization in order to rent out an office in Trump Tower in Manhattan to 'prepare for the President's re-election campaign.'

The RNC is also paying about $12,000-a-month to Vice President Mike Pence's nephew, John Pence, for his role as the campaign's deputy executive director.

According to Federal Election Commission reports, an additional one-off payment of $9,000 for 'strategy consulting' was made in December, according to CNBC.

It means that almost $600,000-a-year is flowing into the pockets of the campaign all under the guise of 're-election'.

President Trump is seen with Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel in December

The money amounts to almost $300,000 in office space and Pence's salary since September and will be well over half-a-million dollars in less than a year.

The scheme is allowed under the law and all the finances are apparently being reported accurately but many are questioning how appropriate the payments are which effectively sees the campaign paying money directly into President Trump's bank account.

'This is permissible and it's being reported properly, but why they are doing it is a mystery,' said Brendan Fischer of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center to the New York Daily News.

'Why would the RNC be blowing through their allowed expenditures now, on something the campaign can easily afford?' Fischer said.

'Did they think they needed to show loyalty to Trump by paying the rent at the building Trump owns?'

The RNC is using campaign money to rent office space in Trump Tower and employing Mike Pence's nephew John Pence at a cost of $600,000 a year

The FEC is taking a closer look at the payments: 'It looks to me like the RNC is shuttling cash around to benefit Trump and the vice president's family in ways that are pretty unprecedented,' said Stephen Spaulding, a former special counsel at the FEC.

The RNC first started paying for Trump's bills in September but it had previously been footing Trump's legal fees.

$230,000 went to John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, two lawyers representing Trump in the special counsel's investigation into ties between the Kremlin and his 2016 campaign.

When the report emerged, officials questioned whether the legal defense fund was being used properly and the payments stopped.

Yet Trump and the RNC are able to get away with paying over the vast sums of cash because the Trump campaign never ended.

Trump filed the paperwork to run for re-election the day he was inaugurated, the first president ever to do so.

Trump's predecessor, President Barack Obama, did not formally launch his re-election campaign until April 2011, after serving more than two full years in office.A billionaire technology tycoon wants to lock the public out of a stretch of Californian beach his $32.5million mega-mansion sits on so he can have it to himself.

Sun Microsystems co-founder, Vinod Khosla, wants to keep all the sun to himself along Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay where his estate is located.

The owners previous owners had allowed public access to the beach for 70 years but Khosla slammed the gates shut resulting in a long-running dispute.

A California courts ruled it should open it's gates to the public but now the case may be heard by the highest court in the country, the U.S. Supreme Court.

'No property right is more fundamental than the right to exclude,' lawyers for Khosla said Thursday in asking for the case the be reviewed, according to SFGate.

Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla has been trying to legally block the public from accessing the beach in front of his $32M property in California for years

The previous owners of the property allowed the public to access the gorgeous beach for 70-years before Khosla first tried to shutter out the public in 2010

His attorneys argue that the state courts erroneously decided that 'owners of private beachfront property in California may not exercise that right without first obtaining the government's permission.'

Khosla purchased the property along with the Martins Beach and surrounding coastal lands from the previous owners in 2008, and he shut the public access gate in 2010 citing the cost of maintenance and liability insurance.

Several rulings regarding the beach transpired in the years that followed the billionaire shuttering access to the public.

In 2014, a San Mateo County court ruled that he should obtained a permit from the California Coastal Commission before closing off access.

Martins Beach sits along the California coastline just near picturesque Half Moon Bay

Then, a state appeals court upheld that ruling in August, saying the closure was a type of property development that needed the commission's approval.

'One of the basic goals of the state for the coastal zone is to maximize public access to and along the coast and maximize public recreational opportunities to the coastal zone,' said the three-justice panel of the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

Khosla again tried to appeal the ruling but the state Supreme Court denied review of Khosla's appeal in October.Radical plans to make millions of workers aged 40 and over pay hundreds of pounds extra in tax every year to fund the growing number of people who will live to 100 have been put forward by ex-Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green.

Mr Green says the move, bound to be dubbed 'Dementia Tax 2', is the only way to ensure that the very elderly who need full-time care can live  and die  in dignity.

He hopes to launch a campaign to win support for the latest attempt to tackle what experts have called the 'social care time bomb' facing Britain.

Mr Green was speaking in his first major newspaper interview since he was forced to resign as Theresa May's deputy in December over claims of inappropriate behaviour towards a woman journalist and pornography found on his Commons computer.

Ex-Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green (pictured) has put forward plans to increase National Insurance for the over-40s in a bid to tackle the social care crisis for Britain's elderly

Mr Green (pictured right with Theresa May centre and Philip Hammond right) says the move, bound to be dubbed 'Dementia Tax 2', is the only way to ensure that the very elderly who need full-time care can live  and die  in dignity

He realises that it is almost certainly the permanent end of his Cabinet career.

But he is determined to use his new backbench freedom to tackle controversial issues that Ministers shrink from.

Mr Green has first-hand family experience of the problems of caring for frail elderly people: his dad, Howard, 91, has dementia and is in a care home.

'He still has a reasonable quality of life,' says Mr Green, sitting in his Commons study.

'He is in a lovely home, he knows who I am and will talk about his favourite spot to sit in. It is very precious still to be able to talk to him.'

Before he left the Government, Mr Green was responsible for a social care review: that is where he started studying his plan for a National Insurance hike for the over-40s.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt took over the role and is expected to set out his own ideas later this year.

He is determined to use his new backbench freedom to tackle controversial issues that Ministers shrink from

It is a brave Tory who talks about a 'dementia tax'  although Mr Green prefers to call his idea a 'social care contribution'.

Mrs May's botched proposal to make the elderly give up more of the value of their home to pay for care was the main reason she failed to win a Commons majority.

Mr Green says the Government must  and will  return to the issue. 'More and more people are going to live to 100 and we must plan for it.

The next generation or two will not have the same amount of money invested in homes so we should add maybe two per cent in a compulsory National Insurance levy cutting in at around 40 years old  as they do in Japan  so your social care is guaranteed and you won't have to sell off your house.'

Mr Green stresses he is in the very early stages of working out the details. On the face of it, his levy would cost a person on an average salary of 27,600 an extra 364 a year. Someone earning 52,000 a year would pay an extra 884.

Mr Green says the scheme would raise around 20 billion a year  and says similar levies have been adopted in Germany as well as Japan.

Mr Green has first-hand family experience of the problems of caring for frail elderly people: his dad, Howard, 91, has dementia and is in a care home. File image used

'Yes, it is a tough message,' he acknowledges. 'But if for the sake of a couple of per cent on NI you can relieve people of the worry of what may happen at the end of their lives, it will be worth it.

'And it is fair: everyone pays for the NHS and no one minds that some people need it more than others. The same is true of my idea.'

And he insists the prospect of living to 100 is not all bleak. 'Increasingly, people can live very fulfilling lives.'

The pain of his humiliating Cabinet downfall is etched on his face when I ask how his wife, Alicia, reacted to him being dismissed by Mrs May.

Both the Greens have known her since they were friends at Oxford University in the 1970s.

'My wife is hugely strong-minded and supportive. Her view is the same as mine, 'Let's just get on with life'.' Did he apologise to her? 'I won't repeat private conversations but she has always been and is completely supportive.

'She accepts that in politics you have good and bad times.'A wild brawl erupted during a 21st birthday on a 'party boat' in Sydney's popular Darling Harbour on Saturday night.

The party turned into a chaos when police were forced to break up a fight between a large group of revellers on the boat.

A woman believed to be the birthday girl was stretchered off the boat with suspected hip injuries after she was allegedly pushed down the stairs, 9 News reported.

Another man was seen pinned to the ground by police while a large group of distressed party-goers looked-on.

Scoll down for video

A woman believed to be the birthday girl was stretchered off the boat with suspected hip injuries

The brawl erupted during a 21st birthday party on a boat in Sydney's popular Darling Harbour

The party turned into a chaos when police were forced to break up the fight between a large group of revellers on the boat

The fight broke out at about 11pm after a woman jumped from the wharf into the water.

The boat had returned to the wharf to remove an intoxicated person on board and police were alerted to a woman in the water.

She was rescued by emergency service workers and then taken to hospital for assessment.

Six people including four women and a two men were arrested and taken to the Day Street Police Station in the CBD.

Police were seen pinning a man to the ground in the ugly brawl at Sydney's Darling Harbour

A 25-year-old woman was charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest, while another 25-year-old was charged with hindering police.

A 23-year-old woman, 24-year-old man and 26-year-old man were charged with affray and a 23-year-old woman was charged with assault.

The revellers had been cruising on the Constellation Party boat since 5.30pm.A senior policewoman is facing questions over her links to the key witness in a failed female genital mutilation prosecution that cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds.

DCI Leanne Pook took control of the investigation after campaigner Sami Ullah claimed a minicab driver had told him he had allowed his daughter to undergo the barbaric practice.

But last week, a judge threw out the deeply troubling case, which prosecutors had hoped would bring about the UKs first FGM conviction.

And today The Mail on Sunday can reveal that DCI Pook is a trustee of the anti-FGM charity where Mr Ullah worked and has known him personally for several years.

Last night, critics said Avon & Somerset Police must explain why it allowed DCI Pook to head a case involving a friend and even take a formal statement from him.

FRIENDS: DCI Leanne Pook (left) and the trail's key witness Sami Ullah (right)

Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger told The Mail on Sunday: That is unbelievable  its a total conflict of interest. This shows there are major issues at Avon & Somerset Police  the force is losing credibility with the public its there to serve.

The case began in March 2016 when Mr Ullah took a ten-minute journey in a minicab from Bristol Temple Meads railway station to the offices of Integrate, where he worked as events co-ordinator.

Mr Ullah claimed he asked the driver if he knew what FGM was, using the Somali word suna, and the driver made a scissors motion with his fingers and replied: You mean to cut?

The driver  who cannot be named for legal reasons  then allegedly told him: I did the small one to my daughter. Other people they do the big one but I did the small one.

Mr Ullah reported the conversation to Avon & Somerset Police.

His initial statement was taken by DCI Pook, who became a trustee of Integrate in June 2016.

By then she had written about him online in glowing terms on several occasions, describing him as a lovely fella, the greatest and a champion.

Twitter messages sent by Leanne Pook to Sami Ullah

Another tweet sent by Pook to Ullah

After Mr Ullah reported the cab driver to police, the mans six-year- old daughter was examined by two experts for evidence of FGM but one could only find a tiny mark and the other could not see the alleged lesion.

During an interview with police, the 29-year-old Somali driver insisted he was against FGM, and called his passenger a liar for claiming they discussed the practice. Yet he was charged with child cruelty on June 13 last year. Just two weeks later Mr Ullahs charity sent DCI Pook a large chocolate cake to say thank you.

She posted a photo of it on Twitter on June 27 with the caption: From our gorgeous friends @_IntegrateUK who want to say thanks to the cops.

The cab driver stood trial at Bristol Crown Court last week but after three days  costing taxpayers at least 10,000  Judge Julian Lambert ordered jurors to find him not guilty.

The judge called the prosecution deeply troubling, branded the evidence of Mr Ullah inconsistent and said the medical evidence was wholly inconclusive at its highest.

Last night, Avon & Somerset Police confirmed: DCI Leanne Pook took his [Mr Ullahs] initial statement. Her role in the case was Senior Investigating Officer.President Donald Trump blasted a redacted version of the Democratic memo that seeks to undercut earlier Republican claims of FBI surveillance abuses after it was released Saturday.

Democrats on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee defended official investigations into claims of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the new memo.

The 10-page, partially-redacted document sharply criticized a previously released Republican memo as a 'transparent effort to undermine' investigations by the FBI, Justice Department and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump quickly responded to the new memo, tweeting: 'The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST. Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!'

'FBI did not disclose who the clients were - the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!,' he continued. 'This whole Witch Hunt is an illegal disgrace...and Obama did nothing about Russia!'

The minority's new memo defends the FBI's applications to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrants to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, a one-time advisor to the Trump campaign, saying that British former spy Christopher Steele's 'dirty dossier' was only part of the information used in the applications.

Among the new Democrat memo's key assertions are that:

FBI probe into Page's Russia ties began seven weeks before it saw Steele dossier

Steele dossier was not the main source of intelligence used in FISA application

The applications to wiretap Page came after he had left the Trump campaign

FBI admitted to FISA court the dossier was meant to 'discredit' Trump campaign

FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page did not sign the wiretap applications

Four Republican-appointed judges approved the spying application and renewal

FBI never paid Steele for the dossier, though it had considered such payment

Page lied under oath, though the specific subject of his statement is redacted

Scroll down for full memo

President Trump agreed Saturday to release a redacted version of the Democratic memo that seeks to undercut Republican claims of FBI surveillance abuses

U.S. House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (pictured) says the FBI had reason to surveil Trump's campaign adviser Carter Page as he was assessed to be an agent of the Russian government before the FBI even received the infamous Steele dossier

Trump also blasted Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, the architect of the new memo, as a 'total phony'. Schiff responded on Twitter, writing: 'Wait a minute, Mr. President. Am I a phony, or sleazy, a monster or little? Surely you know the key to a good playground nickname is consistency. I thought you were supposed to be good at this.'

For the first time, the new memo publicly quotes from the original classified FISA court application of October 22, in which the FBI sought permission to spy on Page.

The warrant application does not name any Americans except for Page, as is customary in such documents. But it does reveal that the FBI told the court its suspicion that the Steele dossier was politically tainted.

'The FBI speculates that the identified US person [Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, who hired Steele] was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1's [Trump] campaign,' the warrant application reads.

That contradicts the main allegation in the prior GOP memo, that the FBI and Justice Department did not tell the court about Steele's anti-Trump bias or that his work was funded in part by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Further, the new memo claims the warrant applications 'cited multiple sources to support the case for surveilling Page - but made only narrow use of information from Steele's sources.'

Many of the memo's redacted portions appear to refer to these additional sources and information used in the warrant applications, though this is impossible to verify.

The new memo also states that the warrant applications 'did not otherwise rely on Steel's reporting, including any "salacious" allegations about Trump, and the FBI never paid Steele for this reporting.'

The new Democrat memo also asserts that FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page (no relation to Carter), whose anti-Trump text messages were revealed after they were removed from the Mueller probe, did not sign the affidavits used to obtain the surveillance warrants.

Also newly revealed in the memo is information about the four FISA court judges who approved the wiretap application and subsequent renewals. All were appointed by Republican presidents: two by George W. Bush, and one each by George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

The key Republican memo points confirmed in the new memo are that the Steele dossier, at least in part, was used in FISA applications, as was a Yahoo News article that was allegedly based on information leaked by Steele.

Curiously, the Democrat memo states that the Yahoo article was only included in the application to 'inform the Court of Page's public denial of his suspected meetings in Moscow.' In fact, the article includes no such denial, instead reporting that Page declined repeated requests to comment.

Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele (left) was hired by the Clinton campaign to compile the dossier that alleged former Trump advisor Carter Page (right) had suspect ties to Russians

The US House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, gave insight into why releasing the highly anticipated memo was crucial, and that he preferred it was released sooner than Saturday.

'After reviewing the memorandum drafted by committee Republicans that was made public at the beginning of this month, the FBI rightly expressed its 'grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy,' Schiff wrote in a press release on the committee's website.

He went into a point by point explanation on what the Republican memo omitted that was cause for concern.

'The FBI supplied information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that Russia might be colluding with Trump campaign associates. DOJ provided the Court with a comprehensive explanation of Russia's election interference including evidence that Russia courted another Trump foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos, and that Russian agents previewed their dissemination of information damaging to Hillary Clinton. Russian assistance would, as we would learn in the Papadopoulos plea, take the form of the anonymous disclosure of thousands of Hillary Clinton and DNC emails.'

Moreover, the FBI was concerned about Trump's campaign advisor Page's ties to Russia.

'The FBI had ample reason to believe that Carter Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power based on his history, including the fact that he had previously been a target of Russian recruitment, his travel to Russia, and other information. The renewals of the FISA were also appropriate and based on new information obtained by law enforcement.'

'The document that we are releasing today is the product of a good faith negotiation between the Minority and the FBI and DOJ.'

'But it is unfortunate that the weekend release of the Democratic memo by the White House was delayed beyond what was necessary and to the advantage of those seeking to mislead the American public.'

'Now that the public has a clearer understanding of the early phases of the investigation, it is time for our committee to return to the core investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, the role US persons played in that interference and what we need to do to protect the country going forward,' Schiff's release concluded.

The White House, which had initially blocked the release of the Democratic memo, citing its inclusion of sensitive information, again took aim at the now-redacted text.

Deputy spokesman Raj Shah termed it a 'political-driven document' that is 'loaded with uncorroborated allegations' and 'fails to answer serious concerns raised' in the Republican memo.

Devin Nunes, the architect of the Republican memo, also criticized the Democratic rebuttal.

'What you're not gonna see is anything that actually rejects what was in our memo,' which aimed to show 'that FISA abuse had occurred,' Nunes said at an annual Republican conference.

Democrats 'are advocating that it's OK for the FBI and DOJ to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against the other campaign,' he said.

'In the United States of America, that is unacceptable.'

US intelligence has concluded that Russia sought to influence the 2016 election that brought Trump to office, but the president has repeatedly denied any 'collusion' between his campaign and Moscow.The Sunni Awqaf Department in Iraqs Diyala governorate said 109 mosques that had been closed in the governorate for three years have been reopened.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The Sunni Awqaf Department in Iraqs Diyala governorate said 109 mosques that had been closed in the governorate for three years have been reopened.



According to al-Sumaria news, Taha Mujami, head of the department, said the mosques were closed in 2014 for security reasons.



Now that the security has been restored to the governorate, he said, they are open to worshippers.



According to the official, one of the newly reopened places of worship is the Musab bin Umair Mosque in a town near the city of Baqubah, the capita of the governorate, that was the target of a Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) suicide attack three years ago.



That attack left a number of people dead or injured.



Mujami also hailed the positive role of security forces in ensuring the security of the place of worship.



Daesh made swift advances in northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large areas of Syria. But in late 2017, Daesh terrorists were flushed out of their last stronghold in Iraq tanks to the bravery of the Iraqi armed forces and Popular Mobilization Forces, known as Hashd al-Shaabi.









/129As international espionage plots go, it sounds more Del Boy than James Bond.

But the Kremlin offered to help a taxi-driver-turned-Labour-MP set up a pub in South London in a bid to persuade him to pump out pro-Putin propaganda at Westminster.

The bizarre incident happened in 2012 when Clive Efford was trying to establish a community pub at a site in his constituency in Eltham.

He has now revealed that two heavily accented businessmen approached him to offer help, claiming to be brewing experts. But when he met them over lunch, their real motive became clear, the MP said, so he sent them packing and never saw them again.

Weeks later, MI5 warned Mr Efford he was being targeted by the Russians. But he told the agent: Youre too late mate  theyve been and gone.

The Kremlin offered to help taxi-driver-turned-Labour-MP Clive Efford set up a pub in South London in a bid to persuade him to pump out pro-Putin propaganda at Westminster

Mr Efford, who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, told The Mail on Sunday the brewers had made clear they came from the Russian embassy and wanted him to help set up a group of MPs sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. The existing all-party parliamentary group on Russia had enraged Putin after its leader, Blairite Labour MP Chris Bryant, denounced the regimes anti-gay stance.

They werent happy with over-the-top criticism of Russia by the existing MPs group, Mr Efford explained. He met the men  chubby, in their late 40s or early 50s  via an unnamed acquaintance who, along with Mr Efford, paid the lunch bill to ensure they were not compromised.

When it became clear what they wanted, Mr Efford said: I told them they had got the wrong guy. They hot-footed it out. He said he did not make a note of the Russians names and did not think it worth reporting the incident at the time.

Later in 2012, The Conservative Friends of Russia group was set up but soon collapsed after strong links to the Russian embassy were revealed  and after they circulated a photograph of Mr Bryant in his underwear.

Labour MP Emma Reynolds said she had also been approached about setting up a similar group among her parliamentary colleagues.More than a dozen women have so far gone through a controversial secret counselling programme run by Angela Misra (pictured)

Jihadi brides who have returned from Syria after joining the Islamic State terror group are being deradicalised at taxpayers expense.

More than a dozen women have so far gone through a controversial secret counselling programme run by Angela Misra. The GP has spoken for the first time of her work trying to free the womens minds from the iron grip of ISs poisonous ideology.

The news came as the EUs border agency Frontex warned yesterday that 1,000 more jihadi brides  and widows  are heading for Europe from the collapsed caliphate in Syria and that they posed an evolving threat.

Dr Misra revealed:

One woman told how her white Western friend was married to a jihadi who beheaded his own mother after she told him to leave IS;

Some returnees include young girls who went to Syria for the romance of marrying a gangster husband, fleeing a forced marriage in the UK;

Other girls went to Syria because they were groomed online by jihadis who promised them love;

Divorced mothers went to Syria searching for a father figure for their children, as they could not find husbands in their home communities due to the stigma of being divorcees.

Women were injected with fertility drugs because they did not fall pregnant immediately and young girls were married off to men in their 50s.

Dr Misra and her husband Usman Raja, a former cage fighter, rehabilitate the women  whose identities have not been revealed  at a secret location. About 18 former IS men have also gone through the programme.

But critics question why the returnees were even allowed back. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said bluntly last year: A dead terrorist cant cause any harm to Britain.

Other experts wonder why the jihadi brides have not been charged with terror offences and their names publicised  not least because hardliners going through the programme are still hellbent on establishing a caliphate elsewhere.

But Max Hill QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has warned of the danger of losing a generation of men and women by automatically using the courts to punish them, and he urged reintegration.

In 2015, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, all from East London, fled Britain to join IS in Syria.

Kadiza is believed to have been killed in an air strike in 2016 while trying to escape and the fate of the other girls is unknown. More than 800 UK citizens are thought to have gone to fight for IS in Iraq and Syria, and despite it being a crime to be a member of such a terror group, Ministers admitted in 2016 that only 14 people who have fought for IS had been convicted of the offence. For now, at least, the softly-softly approach prevails.

From left: Teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Shamima Begum and Amira Abase flew to Syria in 2015

Dr Misra, 32, and Mr Raja, 41  who attended the wedding of Katie Price and her cage-fighting husband Alex Reid  are among the leading taxpayer-funded intervention providers, aiming to turn men and women away from extremism.

The couple co-founded a small organisation called The Unity Initiative (TUI) nine years ago, working with people who have been arrested or served prison sentences. While Dr Misra  a former Hindu who converted to Islam  uses words and patience with the women, her husband takes the highly unusual approach of appealing to the mens macho side and training them in mixed martial arts.

The couple claim their strategy works in 98 per cent of cases.

In a revealing interview, Dr Misra explained the variety of emotional and religious reasons why the women set out to join IS in the first place.

And far from all being docile followers of Islamist husbands, she described the ideology which seized them as a social movement, even comparing them to the Suffragettes.

Some younger single girl recruits were captivated by the romance of meeting a gangster hero who they could marry and escape a forced marriage in the UK. But there is no doubting the horrors witnessed by the women and their children, said Dr Misra. She recounted one example of an IS soldier who beheaded his own mother after she begged him to leave the group.

It was considered the ultimate act of loyalty, and he accelerated up the ranks, she said. His wife was a white woman from a Western country  while she detested the act, she was able to live in a more comfortable residence.

A British woman told Dr Misra of pregnant women beaten so badly the ultrasounds showed the disintegration of children in their wombs.

Other returning jihadi brides are apparently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the atrocities they experienced, with some attempting suicide.

The 12 women who were arrested on their return to Britain are at risk of having their children taken away from them by social services.

In an interview with the US Military Academy at West Points Combating Terrorism Center, Dr Misra said: Were having to expand significantly because of the demand for the work. One of the newer strands of work we are undertaking is working with individuals being investigated for foreign fighter travel to Syria and Iraq.

Like with convicted terrorist offenders, this involves working in tandem with British authorities. Ive worked with about a dozen female returnees so far.

She said while some women were escaping problems back home, others were deeply committed to IS. She explained: Their thought process was that by going over and helping setting up the Islamic State they were also setting up a place that could free other women and other people in this country to practise their faith fully without compromise. In their minds, they were the Muslim equivalents of Suffragettes. It was a question of female emancipation.

Comment: We should be told who these women are. And they should all be brought to justice By Professor Anthony Glees, Terrorism Expert Deradicalisation is a big problem. When Gavin Williamson said that it should be our policy to kill IS fighters on the battlefield, I thought he was right  as long as we were dealing with fighters. But were not Nazis, were not fighting a war of extermination. If these people are brought to justice, it may be possible to rehabilitate them, but first they must be charged  and realise they have lost their war and accept total defeat. We should not turn a blind eye to murder. Im very anxious about even those with British passports coming back to the UK because it is unclear to me that they will face criminal charges. It seems very odd that of 300 to 400 people who went out there to fight for IS and have returned, not more than a handful have been charged. I also think we should know who they are, and that would be part and parcel of being charged in a court. Not charging them means we dont know them. Were dealing with highly dangerous people because theyve proved themselves to be fanatics, and theyve received training in weapons and explosives. Once a terrorist, always a terrorist. You may not behave like one if you feel your defeat is definitive, but in your heart, if you see an opportunity, youll go for it. Have they changed their fundamental beliefs? No they havent. Advertisement

For younger girls the reasons were less ideological. She added: Ive seen cases where there have been young girls that have gone on the romantic idea of meeting a gangster hero who they could get married to because either they were escaping a forced marriage, or they were looking for a theologically sanctioned way to have a relationship of their choosing. Ive also seen divorced women who went there to find a strong father figure for their children or a husband to help take care of them as they were ostracised from these opportunities in the insular UK communities they were part of.

Dr Misra spoke of one young woman who fled to Syria to escape her family. I had one case of a woman who was the eldest child of a very large family. She found herself taking care of a number of the younger siblings and felt trapped.

Dr Misra said that the women who went to Syria soon came to witness the horrors of IS and some became trapped.

She said: Many were forced to marry continually as each husband got killed fighting.

To avoid being killed for apostasy [renouncing Islam] and maintain the resulting children and not have them removed by IS courts, they have to outwardly pretend to be supportive.

Dr Misra refused to give any details of the women she has so far treated, as TUI is bound by strict confidentiality rules. But she discussed the case of one woman, a white Muslim convert, to whom she gave the pseudonym Zaina. Zaina went to Syria to join her husband, rather being than propelled by radicalism. She ended up in Raqqa, ISs then de facto capital, where she spent three years.

Zaina had a baby in Syria, after which she vowed to escape, as she did not want her child to grow up in the caliphate. She is now believed to be the first British female to come back to the UK with a child born stateless.

She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing a number of atrocities, said Dr Misra. Zaina told me she saw young girls married off to elder men. She met a pregnant girl of 13 married to a man over 50. She met women who were being injected with fertility drugs.

She added: Zaina spoke of the sheer volume of sexual slavery, how Yazidi women were passed around. She said that other [IS] women not only supported it but would violently reprimand women who expressed revulsion over it.

However, Dr Misra said that a number of women she is treating went because they were ideologically committed to IS, with some even leaving behind their husbands who refused to relocate. The medic said deradicalising returnees has its risks, as she had faced verbal abuse and even death threats.

Dr Misra and her husband, who are based in Farnborough, Hampshire, founded The Unity Initiative in 2009, and have been rehabilitating jihadi convicts referred to them through the National Probation Service and the Home Office.

Last year, this newspaper told how some returning jihadis were being offered council houses to stop them carrying out attacks in the UK.

Among the convicts Dr Misra deradicalised are Ali Behesthi, 50, and Jordan Horner, 24, former lieutenants of hate cleric Anjem Choudary. Behesthi and two others were jailed for four and half years in 2009 after being found guilty of trying to burn down the house of a publisher in Islington, North London.

Horner was jailed for 17 months in 2013 for his part in running the so-called Muslim Patrol group in East London, which tried to impose sharia law in areas such as Whitechapel. Both men work as volunteers for TUI.

TUI and the Home Office declined to comment yesterday.A man is fighting for his life after he was allegedly bashed with an unknown weapon and left for dead in a shocking road rage attack on a Queensland motorway on Saturday night.

Police were called to the M1 about 9.45pm after reports the driver of a Subaru Forester station wagon was involved in an altercation with the occupants of a white van or mini bus on the side of the motorway between Pimpama and Yatala on the Gold Coast.

A Queensland Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia that it was unknown whether the incident was a targeted attack.

Scroll down for video

The driver of the Suburu Forrester station wagon was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after he was allegedly bashed with an unknown weapon

Police are yet to provide a description of the victim's alleged attackers and have appealed with anyone in the vicinity of the M1 between Pimpama and Yatala between 9.30pm and 9.45pm on Saturday night to come forward



The driver of the station wagon received serious head injuries and remains in a critical condition at the Gold Coast University Hospital.

Investigations suggest the van may have had up to 13 occupants and fled the scene before police and emergency services arrived.

Detectives have appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the incident or have dash cam footage taken in the vicinity of the M1 between Pimpama and Yatala from around 9.30pm to the time of the incident to contact them.For many years, we've known that extreme weather, hotter temperatures and rising ocean levels are the telltale signs of climate change.

Now, scientists believe that swarms of moths may be an indicator of what's to come on Earth in the near future.

A massive sample of moth scales, preserved in the mud of a lake in Quebec, are being used to track outbreaks of these insects over the past 10,000 years, according to a new study published Friday in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

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Scientists from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences uncovered a massive swarm of ancient months floating on the surface of a boreal lake north of Lake-Saint-Jean in Quebec

Scientists believe that past insect outbreaks could be linked to the presence and progress of climate change.

'This is an exciting discovery, which will greatly increase our knowledge of prehistoric forest ecosystems,' said Dr Miguel Montoro Girona, who co-authored the study.

'It is comparable to the fossil pollen and charcoal markers in sediments, which revolutionized prehistoric research to provide information on plants, climate and forest fires going back thousands of years'

'Our new method can be applied to many ecosystems where moths and butterflies have a marked influence on the landscape,' he added.

Most paleological studies look at the ways that wildfires can act as an 'agent of disturbance' on ecosystems.

But the scientists believe that moth fossils, in this case spruce budworm moths, can offer a new approach for interpreting past insect-related disturbances and how they impact the climate.

The scientists studied the spruce budworm moths under a microscope to gain greater insight into their wing shapes. They added that the wings are 'very thin and delicate'

'Insect outbreaks are one of the most influential factors that shape forest diversity,' the study notes.

Moths are able to stand the test of time due to their chitin composition, a fibrous substance that comprises their exoskeleton.

As a result, the moths remained well-preserved throughout a 10,000 year sediment record.

The scientists took samples of the moths from a five-meter-long core of sediment in the lake.

Lake sediment is often referred to as a natural 'hard drive' because it's able to record the environmental conditions and events that effect the surrounding landscape over time.

Millions of spruce budworm moths were collected from sediment in a lake in Quebec

WHAT ARE SPRUCE BUDWORM MOTHS? Spruce budworms are a type of moth that dates back as far as 1869 They're considered 'serious pests' of conifer trees and can be found throughout most of the United States, Canada and some parts of Eurasia The eastern spruce budworm has been called one of the most destructive insects of fir and spruce forests throughout Canada and the eastern U.S. Farmers and pest control experts have been able to reign them in using chemical control The spruce budworm (pictured) is found in the US, Canada and some parts of Eurasia Birds also help control populations of the eastern spruce budworm to prevent outbreaks In 2017, more than 7 million hectares of boreal forest in Eastern Canada were destroyed by the spruce budworm At the time, many scientists expected the outbreak to head south Defoliation by moths was also found to increase the risk of forest fires Advertisement

Until now, scientists tracked forest insect dynamics by analyzing fossilized insects' feces or by collecting insect heads recovered from peat moss.

They found these collection methods to be unreliable at times, however.



The scientists said the adult moth wings were easy to recover, despite being very thin and delicate.

Many of the moth wings were broken, folded or covered by other material, they added.

The moths were preserved in lake sediment, which scientists often refer to as nature's 'hard drive,' recording data over time

'Nonetheless, we could still confirm that peaks of identified fossil scales corresponded to periods of insect outbreak,' the scientists said.

Before this study, there was very little knowledge about the 'frequency and severity' of spruce budworm outbreaks and how they relate to our climate.

When temperatures spike and drop, it can affect organisms' survival, reproduction cycles and spatial dispersion, the study notes.

'It is critical to understand the links between past spruce budworm outbreaks and climate to as to understand the potential of spruce budworm outbreaks under future climate change scenarios,' the study continues.

The scientists said that collecting more data on moth outbreak cycles will help them improve forecasts of future ecological scenarios, should climate change worsen.

'Analysis of wing scales could improve our knowledge of the abundance and distribution (e.g., migration, range shifts) of these species, and provide an understanding of how moths reacted to past environmental change, to better discern their future vulnerability to extinction,' the scientists added.NASA has captured new footage of the moons of Mars from 19 images taken by the THEMIS camera.

The film shows Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos.

The pictures used to make the video were shot using visible-wavelength light, so that the human eye can view the footage.

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New footage from NASA's Mars Odyssey satellite has captured the red planet's two moons, Phobos and Deimos. This was the second observation of Phobos by Mars Odyssey

The camera's name is an acronym for Thermal Emission Imaging System, and it is a feature of the orbiter Mars Odyssey.

A statement from NASA explained how the video was created.

'The apparent motion is due to progression of the camera's pointing during the 17-second span of the February 15, 2018, observation, not from motion of the two moons,' the agency explained.

The latest footage is the second observation of Phobos by Mars Odyssey; the first was on September 29, 2017.

'Researchers have been using THEMIS to examine Mars since early 2002, but the maneuver turning the orbiter around to point the camera at Phobos was developed only recently,' NASA added.

At the time Phobos was observed, its distance from Mars Odyssey was around 3,489 miles.

Deimos's distance from Mars Odyssey during its observation was around 12,222 miles.

Arizona State University, Temple, developed and operates THEMIS.

Pictured is an artists's interpretation of Mars and its moon Phobos. NASA recently released a video of Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos made from photos taken by the Mars Odyssey

The Mars Odyssey previously gathered information on Phobos's surface temperature

The Mars Odyssey mission - from NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington - is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The orbiter was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, and the company partners with NASA to operate it.

In November news emerged that NASAs Mars Odyssey orbiter captured its first images of the Death Star moon Phobos  a region that could one day host a human-mission outpost.

Using the THEMIS camera the orbiter gathered new information on the changing surface temperatures of Phobos over the course of a day, revealing how quickly the ground warms and cools.

Stunning images from the September observation from NASA combined the visible-wavelength and infrared data to show the surface color-coded by temperature.

The data collected by the Odyssey could provide information on the mineral composition, as well as the texture, of the surface.After 20 minutes flying across the Channel in a 19-seater Dornier, I catch the glimmer of a coastline to our left and, above the din of the propellers, mouth to a fellow passenger: Is that Alderney?

He shakes his head. No, thats France, and points to the tiniest of dots on the other side. Thats Alderney, he says, and I gulp.

It seems hardly big enough for us to land on. But land we do, coasting in to a breezy cliff-top runway, and step into a place where the clocks stopped in 1954.

Alderney is one of the smallest of the Channel Islands and the closest to England. Above, an aerial view of Corblets beach surrounded by rugged rocks

Alderney is one of the smallest of the Channel Islands and the closest to England. Its so tiny - three miles long and a mile-and-a-half wide - you can easily walk its coastal path in a day.

There are sandy beaches that are ideal for grandchildren, headlands with spectacular views, and offshore rocks teeming with squawking, quarrelsome gannets. With the heather and gorse and a bright sun in a cloudless sky, its heaven on earth.

But Alderney has a hellish past, which is what draws a history buff like me.

In June 1940, 1,500 of the islanders were evacuated before the German army invaded. From then until its liberation in May 1945, it was a Nazi enclave, a secret fortress where all sorts of dark deeds took place away from prying eyes.

It is said that all the birds also left, their song replaced by the clank of weaponry, the bark of orders and the crack of gunshot and whiplash.

Slave labourers were shipped in by the thousands to build massive concrete defensive barriers as part of Hitlers Atlantic Wall against attack.

The view from a World War Two German bunker located on the coast of Alderney

There were forts and look-out posts, gun emplacements, and Nazi concentration camps too, the only ones on British soil. Discipline was merciless. Unknown numbers of inmates died, their bodies thrown into the sea.

There were also miles of underground tunnels carved out of the rock by those slaves with primitive tools and even bare hands.

What exactly they were for is still unknown. One local military expert argues controversially, but convincingly, that the tunnels housed V-2 rockets intended to target mainland England 60 miles away.

The remnants of those five years when Alderney became as much part of the Third Reich as the bunker in Berlin are still there to be seen, as awesome and as menacing as ever - monuments to evil and reminders of the darkness that awaited Britain if wed lost the war.

Islanders seem split on what to make of this unique history - so different from the other occupied Channel Islands, where many inhabitants had to live alongside Germans. Is it so grim that it deters tourists? Better to concentrate on the golden sands, the bracing walks, the lush scenery?

The Alderney lighthouse, which is located on the island's northeast coast, was constructed in 1912 to protect ships from the dangerous waters

Alderney certainly has all those delights in its compact space, along with yachts filling the port, a boutique hotel, called Braye Beach, overlooking the bay, and even a railway to ride. Forget the past. Concentrate on present leisure and pleasure.

But for me, thats missing the point. In most of Europe, signs of the war have been erased, built over, consigned to museums, sanitised, made remote.

But the crowded cinemas for films such as Dunkirk and Darkest Hour suggest there is still a yearning to know and to feel again those terrible but also uplifting times.

I gaze up at the fortifications on Alderney and imagine the slaves who sweated and died building them; scuff the surface of a field and see the foundations of a labour camp; trace the outline of a rocket ramp on a hill; run my finger across a brick wall pockmarked with bullet holes.

This is the authentic World War II experience, not in a textbook but at your feet and within your grasp.

And the fact that you can fly there and back in a Dornier, a plane from a German company that once made bombers to blitz Britain, adds to the drama of history in the raw.Sitting on the edge of the veranda eating watermelon and papaya for breakfast, I felt utterly content. I stroked the two kittens keeping me company and gazed out at the sand dunes at Ponta Sino Kite Beach. Id arrived in paradise to celebrate my 19th birthday.

I could have been in the packed canteen with most of the other holidaymakers at this all-inclusive resort, but by venturing outside to the table furthest away, I felt as if I was in a private villa.

I was on the first day of my holiday in Sal, one of ten small volcanic, arid islands in the former Portuguese colony of the Cape Verde archipelago scattered over 1,500 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, and 350 miles from the coast of West Africa.

Hero Douglas ventured to Sal in Cape Verde for her 19th birthday. She hired a quad bike to explore the northern side of the island and mostly travelled off-road to visit local attractions

The islands boast all-year sunshine with the bonus of a constant sea breeze, so the temperature is never stifling.

My holiday requirement list had included bikini weather, deserted sandy beaches, a small island, an authentic feel, vegan-friendly, a short flight, similar time zone and affordability. My budget was about 400 for food, flights and accommodation.

Id been plotting my escape since halfway through Michaelmas term when I changed my screensaver to a beach shot. Life as a fresher at Oxford Universitys Christ Church is amazing but also mentally shattering. I wanted to escape my music studies and have a holiday that didnt break my student bank balance.

I also wanted a companion. My boyfriend Jacob was being noncommittal and Mum was impossible to pin down, but I kept on researching online deals and warm locations.

I had set my heart on Jordan - I had visions of sleeping in a cave, riding to Petra on horseback and swimming with a million Nemos in the Red Sea - but my budget was inadequate, especially as Id offered to pay for anyone who would come with me.

Mum then said yes and so, too, did the boyfriend!

Bargains evaporated once hunting as a threesome, but one affordable destination was Cape Verde - amazingly, I found a deal for 187 each on latebookings.com.

Hero booked on to a five-day Padi Open Water Dive Course during her holiday with her boyfriend.

The Oxford University student said she loved the Pedra Lume salt mine, an eerie volcanic crater thats like a mini version of the Dead Sea. She explained: 'It was an amazing experience to float in the super salty waters'

However, when trying to book the offer it vanished, which became a common occurrence. Travel companies seem to dangle bargains in front of you but when you try to book, the price trebles. I finally got a good deal with the aptly named On The Beach site three days before departure.

I had hit the jackpot, a budget version of the Bahamas. I couldnt wait to fly to Sal. We were booked into the curiously named Smartline Crioula, a jaded-looking hotel on the beach about a mile from the main town of Santa Maria.

However, this worked in our favour as guest numbers were low, so it never felt as though we were in a resort. The three-star rating really seemed to keep the crowds away.

I love stepping on to a runway somewhere warm and feeling that furnace of hot air engulf me

I was ridiculously excited to be leaving my home in the rainiest part of the UK to head to Sal, one of the least rainy places in the world.

Then my stepfather showed me Government advice classifying Cape Verde as a country at risk of the Zika virus - not great news since Im a mosquito magnet. I decided not to tell the boyfriend, as he has hypochondriac tendencies.

We set off from Wales in a blizzard. A six-hour flight is bearable time-wise, and as a nervous flyer Im always euphoric when I land.

I love stepping on to a runway somewhere warm and feeling that furnace of hot air engulf me. I tried to gaze around at the sandy-coloured landscape but the brightness was dazzling.

Sal is named after the once-booming salt trade and it is a volcanic tropical island surrounded by golden sandy beaches and turquoise ocean.

I was amazed at the extraordinary resourcefulness of people who not only managed to survive but also thrive on this rocky speck hundreds of miles from Senegal.

Dream come true: Hero loved riding a horse on the beach and galloping through the water

Striking landscape: Sal is named after the once-booming salt trade and it is a volcanic tropical island surrounded by golden sandy beaches and turquoise ocean

I barely dropped my luggage before heading to the nearby Eco Dive School as Jacob and I were booked on a five-day Padi Open Water Dive Course.

I love swimming and always plan an open-water adventure when Im on holiday. I once swam across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia.

We needed to pop in to do a quick test to prove wed completed our e-learning, which wed done online so as not to waste valuable holiday time in a classroom.

The downside is you study all the scary stuff before dipping a toe in the sea.

My head was reeling with thoughts of burst lungs, sharks, stingrays, pulmonary embolism or, worst of all for a musician, barotrauma (ear damage).

Life as a fresher at Oxford Universitys Christ Church is amazing but also mentally shattering. I wanted to have a holiday that didnt break my student bank balance

Jacob is a maths geek who maps Mars for a living, and he kept trying to help me out with decompression theory, making it ever more complicated. Luckily Sandra, the dive instructor who runs the school, had simplified explanations and once we were putting it into practice, I began to comprehend what Id learnt.

Breathing underwater is magical, the equivalent of learning to fly. A whole new universe opens up and I felt as if I had been given a fabulous gift - swimming as one with shoals of damsel, parrot and soldier fish while exploring beautiful shallow reefs.

Its a fantastic way to escape the tourists sunbathing on beaches because here, of course, the crowds cease to exist - its just you and your dive buddies living in an underwater world.

The only blip happened when I managed to almost drown in knee-high water.

Disorientated after an hour in strong currents, I emerged on to the beach with my scuba kit. A big wave caught me unawares and I ended up rolling around tangled in my regulator, snorkel and fins.

Having swallowed water, I was unable to get up with a 77lb tank attached to me. It was about 30 seconds before Sandra yanked me back on to my feet and I was pretty shaken.

Wave machine: The surf rolls in at Ponta Preta Beach near Santa Maria

The course took five half-days and Im now qualified to dive anywhere in the world. It was also a great way to escape the resort as we were picked up by our instructor every day. The hotel was used solely for sleeping and eating. The rest of the time we were out having wonderful adventures.

Sandras local knowledge was very helpful, as she knew the fun attractions from the dud ones. She also regaled us with tales of the transformation she has witnessed during her seven years on Sal.

I was astounded to learn she was the first person on the island to have a pushchair and a bike. This made me realise the huge growth in tourism that has taken place in such a short time. The downside to this is that the island doesnt have the infrastructure to deal with all the waste that is generated and some areas are littered with rubbish.

I love going for long runs, and a ten-miler on Sal gave me a chance to explore. After leaving Santa Maria, there was about a mile of countryside covered in plastic. I cannot believe the tour companies arent managing this problem but hopefully they will soon.

Running took me to the most spectacular beaches and let me observe the simple life of locals in ramshackle houses miles from our resort. Sal is 25 miles long, so a bit too far for me to run around in one go, but I got to see most of it over the course of a week.

I also hired a quad bike to explore the northern side. There is hardly any traffic and mostly I travelled off-road. It was a good way to visit some local attractions without being in an organised group.

I loved the Pedra Lume salt mine, an eerie volcanic crater thats like a mini version of the Dead Sea. It was an amazing experience to float in the super salty waters.

I also went on sailing adventures, learned a bit about kite-boarding and went horseriding on the beach. However, Sal wasnt about the attractions for me. It was about walking away from the tourist bubble and getting lost in the Mars-like landscape.Rating:

The Andaz is all over the place. Theres a slinky Japanese restaurant, a champagne bar, a dreary pub called Lady Abercorns, and a brasserie further along nearer to Liverpool Street Station.

This is a Hyatt offering, which means that if you book on the telephone and ask questions you end up speaking to someone in Germany who has no idea if theres parking nearby.

Hold the line please and I will get back to you...  Do the windows open? Hold the line and Ill get...  What food is served in the pub? Hold the line and... 

The Andaz is built on the site of Englands first mental hospital, the Bethlehem Royal in London, which opened in 1247. Today it has 267 rooms

The Andaz is built on the site of Englands first mental hospital, the Bethlehem Royal in London, which opened in 1247. Today it has 267 rooms.

Ours is all black and grey (save for a photograph of a man with a horses head), and you cant open the windows. Whats more, the sills between the double glazing and original sashes are filthy.

The lobby and reception areas are modern but gloomy. We walk into Lady Abercorns and walk out again.

Instead we eat in the brasserie where the acoustics are dreadful, the food indifferent, the prices inflated.

Doubles rooms at The Andaz hotel start from 169

Were paying 175 room-only after rejecting the receptionists offer of breakfast for the reduced price of 50 for two.

Well just have a coffee and croissant, but this turns out not to be possible.

At weekends, when breakfast is taken in the ballroom, you either pay 28 per person for the buffet or go without.

That cant be right? we tell our waitress.

Im afraid so, she says but then, kindly, she brings us a cup of coffee and even smuggles a couple of pastries on to our table. Its the only redeeming feature of our stay.Reese Witherspoon may be the most bubbly actress in Hollywood.

The 41-year-old New Orleans native brought her contagious smile and southern charm to her keynote talk at the Watermark Conference for Women in Silicon Valley on Friday.

Reese cut an effortlessly stylish figure as she sat on stage in a bold red and blue dress.

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All smiles! Reese Witherspoon attended the Watermark Conference for Women in Silicon Valley on Friday afternoon

Journalist Elaine Welteroth accompanied Reese on stage as they discussed her wildly successful career and her involvement with the #TimesUp campaign.

As Witherspoon took her seat on stage, the audience was asked 'How many Reese Witherspoon fans do we have in here?' And 6,500 women raised their hands, according to the Watermark's Twitter account.

The Big Little Lies actress used most of her allotted speaking time to talk about the Time's Up movementan effort to provide equity and safety in the workplace for everyone in every industry.



'We have to share and protect each other from unsafe work environments,' she explained. 'It's imperative that we aren't silent with our sisters.'

Bubbly babe! Journalist Elaine Welteroth accompanied Reese on stage as they discussed her wildly successful career and her involvement with the #TimesUp campaign

Activist! The Big Little Lies actress used most of her allotted speaking time to talk about the Time's Up movementan effort to provide equity and safety in the workplace for everyone in every industry

More than $20 million dollars from 20,000 donors has been raised for the Time's Up defense funda pot of money that will help low-income men and women hire lawyers for their sexual harassment and inequality cases.

'We're chopping away at this problem by coming at it the way we know how,' Witherspoon said.

'But we cannot continue to exist in an environment where we're not represented,' she continued. 'We will never have our rights if we do not elect more women.'

'We have to share and protect each other from unsafe work environments,' she explained. 'It's imperative that we aren't silent with our sisters'

More than $20 million dollars from 20,000 donors has been raised for the Time's Up defense funda pot of money that will help low-income men and women hire lawyers for their sexual harassment and inequality cases

'Treat everybody equitably,' were Reese's closing words and advice to those just getting started in the workforce.

The #TimesUp campaign that started a mere month ago, has received more than 1,000 requests for help and more than 200 lawyers have offered up their services.

Witherspoon is leading the charge for change alongside Hollywood influencers including Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Nicole Kidman, and Eva Longoria.

Leading ladies! Witherspoon is leading the charge for change alongside Hollywood influencers including Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Nicole Kidman, and Eva Longoria



He recently confirmed that he was dating Megan McKenna.

But 'Muggy' Mike Thalassitis was pictured with his former flame and Love Island co-star Danielle Sellers at a kebab house opening.

The pair attended the launch of the German Doner Kebab restaurant in the West Midlands and put on a cosy display.

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Former flame: 'Muggy' Mike Thalassitis, 25 was pictured with his Love Island co-star Danielle Sellers, 22 at a kebab house opening

Danielle, 22, and Mike, 25, spent two hours meeting and greeting fans at the takeaway, and even tried one of the 'healthy' kebabs on offer.

The Celebs Go Dating star put on a casual display in a white t-shirt and black ripped jeans as he posed for paparazzi.

Mike teamed his coordinated look with white trainers and black denim jacket with a grey hoodie underneath.

New love: Mike revealed that reports the pair enjoyed a romantic break to Amsterdam on Valentine's Day for their very first date were true

Low-key: Danielle, 22, and Mike, 25, spent two hours meeting and greeting fans at the takeaway, and even tried one of the 'healthy' kebabs on offer

Danielle matched Mike's ripped-jeans look with a blue pair, tucked into black sock-boots elongating her enviable pins.

Hinting at her ample-cleavage the blonde beauty wore a tight-fitting nude top under a mid-length black fur coat.

Danielle wore her golden tresses loose and kept her make-up simple apart from a baby pink lip.

Coy: Mike - who kept quiet about whether the pair were still an item - insisted that despite his Lothario reputation, he would like to settle down and is 'open' to finding love

Mike and Danielle first sparked romance rumours last autumn after attending a string of events together, but their fling was short-lived.

It was even claimed Mike found himself embroiled in a 'heated' row with their co-star Theo Campbell at the Sixty6 Magazine launch party, held in October, after Theo was 'rude' about Danielle.

However despite the cosy display the Love Island villain confirmed his romance with Megan during an appearance on Good Morning Britain last week.

Revealing that reports the pair enjoyed a romantic break to Amsterdam on Valentine's Day for their very first date were true.

Mike was joined by co-star Sam Thompson and affable dating agency receptionist Tom Wilson to chat about the current series of Celebs Go Dating, and the tanned hunk certainly piqued host Susanna Reid's interest.

Our gang: Mike and Megan have been spotted out together on several occasions which led to speculation that the pair were an item

The presenter grilled Mike about whether he was dating Megan, to which he bashfully replied, 'Erm, we did go on a date, that came out on Valentines Day. That was our first date.

'No one wants to be alone on that date. We went to Amsterdam... we had a good time!'

Mike - who kept coy about whether the pair were still an item - insisted that despite his Lothario reputation, he would like to settle down and is 'open' to finding love.

Spilling the beans: The Love Island villain confirmed his romance with Megan during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Monday

He said: 'Im 25, I dont want to be single for ever. Im very open minded , if I did find someone on [Celebs Go Dating]. I would be open to it.

'I have been searching for love for 24 years off TV, it was alright to be fair.'

Susanna was perplexed by his 'Muggy Mike' nickname, clearly not having been a fan of reality phenomenon Love Island last summer.

'Basically I tried to take a guys girlfriend and he felt like I was trying to mug him off', he explained, reflecting on his attempt to woo Olivia Attwood when she was hooking up with Chris Hughes - from whom she recently split.Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement has submitted a proposal to the UN for ending Saudi Arabias three-and-a-half-year aggression against the impoverished Arab country, a report said.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement has submitted a proposal to the UN for ending Saudi Arabias three-and-a-half-year aggression against the impoverished Arab country, a report said.



We have officially submitted our proposal to the UN General Assembly and Security Council, the chairman of Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said in a message posted on his official Twitter account on Thursday.



The proposal, he said, had been issued by the Houthis High Revolutionary Committee and not by the groups official negotiating team.



The initiative reportedly calls for holding presidential and parliamentary polls and forming a reconciliation committee tasked with overcoming outstanding differences between the two sides.



It also calls for "international guarantees against further foreign intervention in Yemen, including a general amnesty, prisoner swap, and popular referendums to settle main points of contention.



If the UN fails to respond to the proposal, the global body would be held accountable for the Arab countrys ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, the Houthi official said.



Since March 25, 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.



Yemens Legal Center of Rights and Development has recently announced that the Saudi campaign has claimed the lives of over 13,600 Yemenis and left more than 20,000 others wounded.









/129She was won an army of fans as teen Bethany Platt.

But Coronation Street star Lucy Fallon was worlds away from Weatherfield on Friday as she joined co-star Faye Brookes, 30, on the front row at the Manchester Fashion Festival.

The 21-year-old actress showed off her curves in a casual jumper and trousers look as she made her arrival for the catwalk show, along with fellow soap beauties Nicola Thorpe and Bhavna Limbachia.

Here come the Weatherfield girls! Coronation Street stars Lucy Fallon, 21, (left) and Faye Brookes, 30, (right) put on a glamorous display on Friday as they attended the Manchester Fashion Festival

Lucy showed off her ample cleavage in the fitted grey jumper with loose-fitting tapered trousers as she arrived for the fashion show in Manchester Halls.

The blonde beauty had her tresses loosely curled, and added a splash of colour to her look with a matching mustard yellow scarf and suede heels.

Lucy has won an army of fans with her portrayal of teen Bethany Platt since 2015, and she was awarded Best Serial Drama Performance at the National Television Awards for her performance as part of the hard-hitting grooming storyline.

Statement: Lucy - who has played Bethany Platt on the soap since 2015 - flaunted her curves in a simple look to appear on the front row

Show it off: Lucy sported a simple grey top and navy tapered trousers combo as she arrived for the show in Manchester Halls

Meanwhile glamorous Faye flashed a hint of toned abs in a matching lace top and pencil skirt, temed with simple black suede pumps.

The brunette, who has played Kate Connor on Corrie since 2015, tied her brown hair into a simple topknot as she posed ahead of the big fashion show.

Faye posed up a storm with her on-screen lover Bhavna - who plays Rana Nazir - who also stunned in a dramatic black studded dress.

The duo have won an army of fans with their budding on-screen romance, despite numerous obstacles including Rana's husband Zeedan and her disapproving religious parents.

Stunning: Faye showed off her toned figure in the fitted top and skirt combo, which she teamed with simple black suede pumps

Pals: Faye also posed with onscreen lover Bhavna Limbachia, who plays Rana Nazir on the ITV soap

Glamour girls: The Corrie stars also posed with Nicola Thorpe, who plays Nicola Rubinstein on the show

Sparkling: Bhavna made a statement in a semi-sheer black studded dress, with her hair styled into a voluminous side-swept hairdo

Nicola, who plays villainous Pat Phelan's daughter Nicola Rubinstein in Corrie, also flashed some ab in a stylish blue two-piece as she made her arrival on the front row.

Teaming an electric blue kimono with high waisted trousers and a bandeau, the brunette beauty highlighted her tall frame as she posed up a storm with Lucy.

The stars made for a picture perfect lineup at the fashion show, with Lucy managing to catch a few sneaky snaps while the models showed off a variety of looks.

Dramatic: Nicola also flashed a hint of her toned abs with bandaeu and high-waisted trousers combo, teamed with an electric blue cover-up

Dramatic: Nicola added another pop of colour with a statement red lip as she made her arrival for the show

Pals: Nicola towered over Lucy as they posed together at the fashion show

Corrie girls: (L-R) Lucy, Nicola and Faye made for a picture perfect trio as they posed together before the fashion show

For Instagram? Lucy managed to catch a cheeky snap or two as she sat on the front row

TV favourites: The Corrie girls have become fan favourites since first appearing on the soap over the past few years

That's nice! Perhaps the stars were getting inspiration for their characters' looks as they attended the fashion show

Also spotted on the front row were Hollyoaks co-stars and real life couple Daisy Wood-Davis and Luke Jerdy, who play Kim Butterfield and Jesse Donovan respectively.

The couple shared a laugh or two as they perched on the front row, with Daisy looking glamorous in black crochet-style dress.

They joined the front row for the Mancunian style showcase, which showcased some of the hottest designers from the recently London Fashion Week.

Loved-up: Hollyoaks co-stars and real life couple Daisy Wood-Davis and Luke Jerdy also shared a cheeky laugh as they sat on the front row

On point: Daisy rocked a quirky black crochet dress as she watched the fashion show with her beau

Fans faves: All four Corrie girls have been at the centre of hot storylines in recent weeks

Explosive: While Lucy (as Bethany) has been shocking fans with her latest lap dancing storyline, Nicola has been on a mission to bring down her on-screen father Pat PhelanTogether for 35 years, they are one of showbusinesss most enduring couples.

But the key to a happy relationship, according to Ricky Gervaiss partner Jane Fallon?

Separate bathrooms.

The author, who has been dating the comedian since 1982, credits his n her loos - and friendship - for the couples continued domestic bliss.

Miss Fallon, one of Britains biggest-selling writers, also says the pair have not yet married because neither of them can be fussed.

She told the Mail: To paraphrase Joan Collins, separate bathrooms is the secret to a happy relationship - separate bedrooms would be a disaster though!

Other than that I dont really know; it sounds pathetic, but you just have to get on. Youve got to be friends, and you have to be able to laugh - I just dont understand couples that arent friends. Otherwise, whats the point?

I also find it very odd when people have separate friends and want to do everything separately.

Host Ricky Gervais (left) and his girlfriend Jane Fallon attend the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 10, 2016

Were not married because neither of are fussed. I think if one of us really cared then we would probably do it but its not really been anything that either of us have ever really needed. Miss Fallon, 57, the author of eight best-selling novels - one of which, Getting Rid Of Matthew, was optioned by Jennifer Aniston - met Gervais, 56, when she was a television producer - and years before he found fame.

The couple, who have homes in London and New York, met as students at University College London.

While Gervais went on to find fame transatlantically - first with The Office, and then Extras before hosting the Golden Globes for three years - Miss Fallon has established herself as a hugely successful writer.

Her latest novel, Faking Friends, has received almost unanimous five star reviews on Amazon, and been described as chick-lit noir.

However, in the wake of the ongoing gender debate - fuelled by campaigns such as #timesup and #metoo - Miss Fallon believes such a term is sexist and a bit demeaning.

She adds: What I find weird is that the term chick lit is used to encompass literally anything a woman writes about relationships.

Its the assumption that because youre female you must write in a certain way. I dont understand why that is - it is a bit demeaning.

Comedian Ricky Gervais and girlfriend Jane Fallon attend the TIME 100 Gala

There are a lot of male writers who just write about relationships, but they dont get tagged. I try not to get too hung up on it but I would like it to change, and perhaps that starts with the way in which we market books.. Perhaps that needs to be addressed.

I have a strong say in how my books are marketed and the covers - I am very firm that I dont want pink and fluffy, or stick figures sitting drinking cocktails. Thats simply not appealing to me.

Faking Friends by Jane Fallon is published by Penguin books, 7.99.She's the former Bachelor star who's now working on a tell-all book about the drama inside the mansion.

But on Friday night, Jen Hawke insisted she didn't need to speculate who the heavily-promoted 'proposal' would be made on the upcoming Bachelor In Paradise.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the Stan UnReal premiere on Friday, she said she believed it would '100 per cent' be Keira Maguire who gets proposed to by Jarrod Woodgate.

'What's his name again? The one that's really emotional': Jen Hawke reveals who she's '100%' sure will propose on Bachelor In Paradise

The Bachelor 2017 star first made the point of insisting: 'no way in hell would you find me on Bachelor in Paradise'.

She certainly didn't feature on the trailer for the upcoming show - what did, however, was the image of an engagement ring being presented to a mystery recipient.

So who is going to get engaged? '100 per cent Keira and what's his name? The one that's really emotional,' Jen said, before confirming she had meant Jarrod.

'100 per cent': Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at UnReal premiere, she said she believed it would 100 per cent Keira Maguire who gets proposed to

'What's his name?' Keira and whats his name? The one that's really emotional': Jen offered, referring to Jarrod Woodgate (pictured)

Jen also appeared to reignite her war of words with Keira, describing the pair as a match made in heaven.

'This is going to sound really mean, but I think he's desperate to fall in love and she's desperate to fall in fame,' Jen said.

As for her own time in the Bachelor mansion Jen wasn't too pleased with the producers, describing several of them as 'manipulative'.

'Manipulative': The 2017 Bachelor contestant also slammed some of the show's producers

'I love two of my producers, but [the rest] are very manipulative - there's some that I didn't like in the house because i could see what they would try to do,' she said.

'They pretend to be your friends - that's probably the most disheartening thing about it.'

'I love two': 'I love two of my producers, but [the rest] are very manipulative - there's some that I didn't like in the house because i could see what they would try to do,' she said

You've got people that you (think you) trust and you literally sit there for an hour and divulge your feelings to these people.'

'And its basically used against you.'

Daily Mail Australian has reached out to Channel 10 for comment.She is known for her striking looks and gym-honed physique.

And Jasmine Sanders oozed glamour at the Bulgari dinner party during Milan's Fashion Week on Friday.

The model, 26, slipped her svelte figure into a racy sequin-encrusted dress, complete with a sultry thigh-high split.

Glitzy: Jasmine Sanders oozed glamour at the Bulgari dinner party during Milan's Fashion Week on Friday

Jasmine, who boasts nearly 3million followers on Instagram, put on a leggy display in the floor-length gown while she teased a peek of her cleavage with its low-cut neckline.

She styled her blonde tresses in sleek Hollywood curls and complemented the glitzy gown with a smoky black eye, bronzed cheeks and a nude pink lipstick.

The best friend of Kim Kardashian West finished off the look with a dazzling red jeweled necklace, diamond drop earrings and a gold clutch bag.

Glittering: The model, 26, slipped her svelte figure into a racy sequin-encrusted dress, complete with a sultry thigh split

Born in Germany and raised in South Carolina, Jasmine has built a successful modelling career.

Back in December, she set temperatures soaring when she worked up a sweat during a racy Love Magazine advent calendar shoot.

Jasmine, who is referred to as 'Golden Barbie' on her social media accounts, looked smoking hot in the provocative clip directed by Phil Poynter.

Looking seductively at the camera, the blonde beauty revealed: 'I'm Jasmine Sanders, this is abs day.'

Sultry: Jasmine, who boasts nearly 3million followers on Instagram, put on a very leggy display in the floor-length gown while teasing a peek of her cleavage with its low-cut neckline

She made her big break as a model when she promoted Kylie Jenner's lip-gloss line.

Speaking of her close relationship with the Jenner/ Kardashian clan, she previously told Vogue: 'I've known the family for so long.

'Kylie just randomly called me one day and was like "girl I know this isn't our normal day out but I really want you to come to the middle of nowhere and shoot this video with me because I'm launching make up. I need you to kick down doors and hit guys with guns and just be the badass that you are."'

Not only has she modeled for Kylie, but Jasmine has also been featured on Paris catwalks, joining Kendall Jenner plus sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid at the Miu Miu show in March 2016.

She is dating actor and presenter Terrence Jenkins, 35 and aside from modelling, Jasmine is forging a film career and is best known for co-starring in Dance in 2014.

Monochrome: Princess Lilly Sayn Wittgenstein Berleburg (left) opted for a monochrome ensemble while model Hailey Clauson (right) showed off her pins in leather trousers

Stunning: Spanish model Nieves Alvarez, 45, also sported a sequin gown adorned with flowers

Bright: Elena Bordon slipped her incredible figure into a canary yellow shift dress, which she teamed with jeweled sandalsShe made history by sitting alongside Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth during her first ever visit to London Fashion Week.

But it was back to business for Anna Wintour on Friday when she stepped out in Italy during Milan Fashion Week, putting on a stylish display in a camel coloured coat.

The US Vogue editor-in-chief braved the element in the blustery city, shielding herself with an umbrella.

Chic: It was back to business for Anna Wintour on Friday when she stepped out in Italy during Milan Fashion Week, putting on a stylish display in a camel coloured coat

Anna looked a little windswept as she ventured out in Milan, wrapping her fluffy coat close to her chest.

The star was given a helping hand by her bodyguard, ensuring she stayed dry despite the rain.

The Queen swapped her throne for the front row of London Fashion Week where she sat next to style royalty Anna earlier this week.

Keeping snug: Anna looked a little windswept as she ventured out in Milan, wrapping her fluffy coat close to her chest

Protected against the elements: The star was given a helping hand by her bodyguard, ensuring she stayed dry despite the rain

They took in a runway show by designer Richard Quinn who was presented with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.

The Queen, who wore an Angela Kelly tweed dress and jacket in duck egg blue, embellished with tiny aquamarine Swarovski crystals, addressed the fashion crowd before presenting the award.

She said: 'It is a great pleasure to be here at London Fashion Week today.

FROW first: The Queen swapped her throne for the front row of London Fashion Week where she sat next to style royalty Anna earlier this week

'From the tweed of the Hebrides to Nottingham lace, and of course Carnaby Street, our fashion industry has been renowned for outstanding craftsmanship for many years, and continues to produce world-class textiles and cutting edge, practical designs.

As a tribute to the industry, and as my legacy to all those who have contributed to British fashion, I would like to present this award for new, young talent.

'I would like to thank the British Fashion Council for selecting the first winner  Richard Quinn.'

The Queen sat on the coveted front row  or Frow  in between Vogue editor-in-chief Wintour and Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council (BFC).She has reportedly quit Made In Chelsea in a bid to focus on her career and move on from ex Sam Thompson.

And Tiffany Watson was spotted partying in London on Friday night, stepping out for the first time since news broke as she attended her sister Lucy Watson's 27th birthday celebrations.

The 24-year-old blonde cut an edgy figure in a mesh top and a leather jacket as she left her family's Phene pub in London.

Stepping out: Tiffany Watson was spotted partying in London on Friday night, stepping out for the first time since it was revealed she had quit Made In Chelsea in order to attend her sister Lucy Watson's 27th birthday celebrations

Birthday girl: Her sister Lucy showed off her long legs in a leather miniskirt, pairing the rock chic number with a ladylike ruffled blouse

Tiffany embraced a grungy look in her halterneck top, which she teamed with high-waisted skinny jeans and a casual leather jacket.

Her sister Lucy showed off her long legs in a leather miniskirt, pairing the rock chic number with a ladylike ruffled blouse.

She covered up in a star print coat - naturally in faux fur since the brunette is a staunch vegan and animal cruelty activist.

Also in attendance at Lucy's birthday bash was fellow ex-MIC star Nicola Hughes.

Night out: The 24-year-old blonde cut an edgy figure in a mesh top and a leather jacket as she left her family's Phene pub in London

Low-key: Tiffany embraced a grungy look in her halterneck top, which she teamed with high-waisted skinny jeans and a casual leather jacket

The blonde flashed her flat stomach in a crop top and leather trousers, styling the look with a smart suede jacket.

She embraced a new look for the occasion, styling her blonde locks in tight curls.

Lucy had already quit the E4 reality show in 2016 to focus on her business endeavours and her relationship with boyfriend James Dunmore.

This comes after a source told MailOnline: 'Tiff has quit. She's doing other stuff now. And she's not announcing it. She's just not going to be on the new series when it returns.'

Having a blast: Tiffany appeared a little bleary-eyed as she called it a night

Keeping it casual: The blonde beauty set off her look with a pair of lace-up boots

Indeed, the 24-year-old was mysteriously not present at a recent press event for the structured reality series, which returns to screens for its 15th run next month.

Tiff - who is a fitness enthusiast and a vegan activist on the side - confirmed that she is set to leave via a spokesperson... but suggested it's more of an open-exit.

'Tiff has taken a break for now to concentrate on a number of exciting projects including TV as well as the opening of her vegan restaurant with her sister and her lifestyle/stationary business 365 which she launched a few months ago,' the spokesperson said.

Starry eyed: Lucy covered up in a star print coat - naturally in faux fur since the brunette is a staunch vegan and animal cruelty activist.

Looking good: The ensemble made the most of the brunette's toned and tanned legs

Toast of the town: Lucy chose to celebrate her big night at her parents' pub in Chelsea

'She also has a number of trips coming up for work and leisure as well as her best friend's wedding where she is her maid of honour so its a busy few months and seemed the right time to step back and work on all the exciting things she has coming up and give them her all,' they added.

A spokesperson for MIC added: 'Whilst shes yet to film in series 15, its never goodbye in Chelsea.'

Tiff mentioned on numerous occassions during the 14th season of MIC that she is opening a vegan restaurant with her sister and family. Their father - Clive - is already a restaurateur, and is said to be helping them put the business together.

Joining in on the antics: Also in attendance at Lucy's birthday bash was fellow ex-MIC star Nicola Hughes

Stunning in suede: The blonde flashed her flat stomach in a crop top and leather trousers, styling the look with a smart suede jacket

Goldilocks: She embraced a new look for the occasion, styling her blonde locks in tight curls

Heading off: Nicola turned heads as she clambered into her ride home

Tiff leaves behind a rocky year on the show which saw the demise of her romance with Sam Thompson - whom she dated for three years.

At the end of season 13, the pair decided to go on a Ross and Rachel-style 'break', and agreed to see other people.

This marked the beginning of the end for the couple, who spent the summer apart and found comfort in the arms of other people.

Following suit: Her sister - Made In Chelsea favourite Lucy quit the E4 reality show in 2016 to focus on her business endeavours and her relationship with boyfriend James Dunmore

On again/off again: Tiff leaves behind a rocky year on the show which saw the demise of her romance with Sam Thompson - whom she dated for three years

Despite them being 'allowed' to do this, things turned nasty when Sam had a fling with fellow MIC cast member Mimi Bouchard. While Mimi was never Tiff's 'friend' this caused much drama, and there were many tears when the pair reunited in Ibiza and back in London for season 14.

Tiff was seen, once again, fleeing Chelsea midway through the most recent season - and it seems this was her last appearance.

Her best friend Frankie Gaff is also said to have ditched the series.

While she will appear on season 15, the cast are only halfway through shooting the most recent run of episodes, and the same source reported to MailOnline that she is considering jumping ship as well.

Departing together: Tiff's best friend Frankie Gaff is also said to have ditched the series

The source continued: 'She wants to do modelling. And stuff on Instagram.'

Frankie boasts 368k followers on the photo sharing site.

Indeed, reality stars that rack up a healthy social media following can make a decent penny from their Instagram posts.

And it seems Frankie looks to be doing this full time - also 'departing' the show following an unstable romance.

Frankie's on again/off again boyfriend Jamie Laing has managed to woo her back on numerous occasions over the last few months. But it seems the pair have split for good - with Jamie recently announcing he's seeing someone new on his podcast Private Parts.

While Frankie's attempts at getting back into the dating game with James Taylor and Harry Baron ended unsuccessfully, it seems the blonde bombshell - much like pal Tiff - is also leaving to pursue work ventures.

MailOnline has approached a rep for Frankie for comment.

Made In Chelsea returns to E4 in March.He sparked a media storm after claiming Erin Molan 'doesn't answer my calls anymore'.

But The Footy Show's Beau Ryan has laughed off his comments, made during an interview with the Kyle and Jackie O Show earlier this month.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the Stan UnReal season three party on Friday, Beau revealed he had been in touch with Erin every day since her pregnancy health scare last week.

'I say a lot of stupid things all the time': Beau Ryan jokes about THAT Erin Molan comment ... as he reveals he has been speaking to his pregnant co-star everyday since her health scare

Beau and Erin were forced to deny there was any rift between them when the former NRL player told Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson he hadn't heard from The Footy Show host.

'Erin doesn't answer my calls anymore,' Beau told the hosts. 'She's obviously big time'.

Adding that she's 'probably running the entire (Nine) network at the moment', Beau answered 'no comment' when asked by Jackie if Erin and Karl Stefanovic were in charge at Channel Nine.

Media storm: Beau and Erin were forced to deny there was any rift between them earlier this month

Loved up: Beau attended the UnReal premiere with his wife Kara

Despite the interview sparking a flurry of media reports, Beau said he didn't regret making the comments.

'Not really, I say a lot of stupid things all the time so a lot of my things get twisted,' he said on Friday.

'That probably wasn't the most controversial thing I have said on radio, I've said worse things then that. To give our show any publicity is good.'

Beau also revealed he had been in touch with Erin, who is 25 weeks pregnant, frequently since her health scare last week.

'We are good friends and I was obviously worried when she had that fall last week': Beau also revealed he had been in touch with Erin, who is 25 weeks pregnant, frequently since her health scare last week

A perfect match: Kara looked stunning in a lace black jumpsuit and yellow YSL clutch while Beau wore a grey suit

'To give our show any publicity is good': Beau joked his rumoured rift with Erin had been good for The Footy Show

The TV personality fell and hit her head after fainting at Sydney's Channel Nine studios.

After being rushed to hospital tests revealed she had low blood pressure but her baby was fine.

'We are good friends and I was obviously worried when she had that fall last week,' Beau said.

'I spoke to her every day. I've been in touch with her, I love her, and it was great to see her today and I can't wait to launch our new show in two weeks.'He just split from his wife Rebecca Gayheart after 14 years of marriage.

And Eric Dane was spotted solo in a casual ensemble as he enjoyed lunch in Los Angeles on Friday.

The Grey's Anatomy actor, 45, rocked a black bomber jacket and faded denim as he was seen without his wedding ring.

Solo: Eric Dane was spotted solo in a casual ensemble as he enjoyed lunch in Los Angeles on Friday after splitting from wife Rebecca Gayheart

The handsome thespian cut a dapper figure as his muscular frame was swathed in a cool black tee.

His salt and pepper tresses were slicked back allowing his ruggedly attractive face to take center stage.

He accessorized the laid back look with a pair of Vans sneakers and a set of retro style sun glasses.

Eric and Rebecca filed for divorce Friday in their native Los Angeles, wrapping up a 14-year marriage that produced two daughters.

Handsome hunk: The handsome thespian cut a dapper figure as his muscular frame was swathed in a cool black tee

Rebecca, 46, is seeking spousal support  according to The Blast  and joint legal and physical custody of their two daughters, Billie, seven, and Georgia, six.

The split comes as a surprise, as they were seen on a romantic holiday getaway in late December in Hawaii.

Dane has been open about his woes as well, namely an ongoing battle with depression he candidly talked about last June on The Today Show.

'I was dealing with some depression, which was kind of odd to me,' said the actor. 'I felt very conflicted about it, because I didn't feel like I had anything to be depressed about.'

'It's a very serious thing ... like I said, I felt very conflicted because I couldn't figure out what I was depressed about, but it's very real. And that was the scary thing - when you wake up and you're like, "I don't want to get out of bed."'

Dane revealed that he had went to multiple physicians in feeling there was 'something physically wrong' with him that fueled his doldrums.

'I'd dealt with depression throughout my life, and it was always manageable,' he said on The Today Show. I just felt, you know, everybody feels a little blue.'She's the Sydney PR maven most often spotted wearing designer dresses with tags like Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Dior.

But on Saturday, glamorous Roxy Jacenko, 37, was caught out in a different type of gown.

Taking to Instagram, the mother-of-two shared one of her signature elevator selfie only this time in her Monopoly-inspired pyjamas, complete with dressing gown.

Caught out! Normally never seen with a hair out of place, Sydney PR maven Roxy Jacenko, 37, has shared a snap of herself in her Monopoly-inspired pyjamas

Always-on-the-go Roxy captured herself wearing the Peter Alexander PJs on her iPhone.

Despite appearing to have just woken up, the Sweaty Betty PR founder still looked radiant, with her long blonde hair looking slightly curled in the elevator mirror.

At the Unreal premiere party for Stan Australia on Friday, Roxy rocked a $2350 Dolce & Gabbana dress at the event.

Glammed-up! It comes after Roxy rocked a Dolce & Gabbana dress worth $2,350 for the Stan premiere of season three of show, UnREAL

It comes after Ritzy Roxy lost her $450,000 engagement ring down the drain of her Sweaty Betty offices after an appearance on radio on Friday.

'You know your seriously tired when you let your engagement ring go down the bathroom sink when washing your hands,' Roxy captioned the video.

'Thank you to my saviours @nutrendplumbingandtiling I can now go home tonight,' she added.

Ritzy! Roxy regularly appears in upscale designer dresses, like this Dior dress worth $10,950

In the video, Roxy was seen sheepishly smiling at the camera with ring in hand after the plumber had successfully saved her sparkler from a watery fate.

In a subsequent post, Roxy can be seen brandishing the pricey six-carat ring while flanked by a group trusty plumbers.

'Seriously what just happened? Thank you @nutrendplumbingandtiling,' she gushed in the caption.

Glamorous life! Roxy is regularly snapped in designer dresses while out promoting clients

Oliver proposed to Roxy with the ring for a second time last year, following his jail sting for insider trading.

The Nicholas Haywood ring Roxy is believed to be valued at up to $450,000 by a respected member of the National Council of Jewellery Valuers, which is more than double the $200,000 jewel she received when Oliver first proposed in 2010.

Meanwhile, Roxy made an appearance on KIIS FM's Kyle And Jackie O Show earlier on Friday to promote her ambassadorial role for STAN without her husband- admitting she had banned Oliver from joining her in light of his recent outburst.

'I didn't invite him in again today, I thought there's no need,' she told the shock-jocks during the interview.

'You know your seriously tired when you let your engagement ring go down the bathroom sink when washing your hands!' Roxy Jacenko dropped her $450,000 engagement ring down the sink of her Sweaty Betty offices on Friday

'Seriously what just happened?' In a subsequent post, Roxy can be seen brandishing the pricey six-carat ring while flanked by a group trusty plumbersChris Soules is still facing felony charges after his fatal road accident last year.

The Iowa Supreme Court has denied an appeal filed by the Iowa farmer-turned-reality television celebrity charged with leaving the scene of a crash, after he rear-ended a tractor-driving neighbor in his pick-up truck last April, killing him.

Last month, the 36-year-old lost a legal battle in the felony case against him when a judge dismissed his constitutional challenge to an Iowa law requiring the surviving driver in a fatal accident to remain at the scene until police arrive.

Rejected: Chris Soules has lost his legal battle to have the felony case against him dismissed after his fatal road accident last year (pictured in September)

Soules appealed; but on Friday the high court denied his request to hear the appeal, according to USA Today.

While the Bachelor star reported the accident, identified himself, waited for paramedics and even administered CPR himself, he left the scene before police arrived  which is against the law in Iowa, and Iowa alone.

Soules' attorneys say he vigorously disagrees with the judge's ruling and will ask the state's highest court, Iowa Supreme Court, to review it.

Soules, who became known as 'Prince Farming' during his 2015 appearance on 'The Bachelor' and also appeared on 'The Bachelorette' and 'Dancing With The Stars,'now faces trial on January 18.

Soules rear-ended a farm tractor driven by Kenneth Mosher on a rural northern Iowa road just after sunset on April 24. Mosher died soon after at a hospital.

Drama: Soules appealed; but on Friday the high court denied his request to hear the appeal, according to USA Today; seen in 2016

Crash: The Iowa farmer-turned-reality television star is fighting to avoid prison after driving his pickup into the back of a tractor and killing a neighbor in April

He was arrested at 1:16 the next morning at his home near Arlington, 12 miles northeast of the accident scene. Sheriff's reports indicate he declined to let officers into his house until after they obtained a search warrant.

He was charged with failure to remain at the scene of a fatal accident, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

His attorneys claim Iowa's law violates the constitutional rights of citizens to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and to avoid self-incrimination.

Trouble: Soules, who became known as 'Prince Farming' during his 2015 appearance on 'The Bachelor' and also appeared on 'The Bachelorette' and 'Dancing With The Stars,'now faces trial on January 18

The law in question says, in part, 'a surviving driver shall promptly report the accident to law enforcement authorities, and shall immediately return to the scene of the accident or inform the law enforcement authorities where the surviving driver can be located.'

Most states consider it a felony to leave the scene of an accident in which someone is injured or dies, but Iowa's law differs in that it has been interpreted to require the surviving driver to be present when law officers arrive.

'No other state has a comparable requirement,' Soules' attorneys said in court documents.

A driver forced to meet face-to-face with police is exposed to interrogation and observation by officers and risk self-incrimination, his attorneys argued.

State prosecutors contend the purpose of the law is to prevent drivers from evading liability for driving recklessly, driving while drunk or driving with a suspended or revoked license.

Victim: Soules performed CPR on Kenneth Mosher (seen with family) after April's accident. Soules' lawyers said it was 'reasonable' for him to stop after blood came from Mosher's mouth

'The state submits the legislature foresaw that drunk drivers could flee the scene of a fatal crash precisely because they wanted to escape and sober up before confronting law enforcement officers who may detect telltale signs of intoxication,' prosecutors said in court documents.

Initial court documents Buchanan County Attorney Shawn Harden filed in May said Soules was seen purchasing alcohol at a convenience store shortly before the accident. They allege he attempted 'to obfuscate the immediate facts and circumstances surrounding the accident, including a determination of his level of intoxication and an explanation of the empty and partially consumed open alcoholic beverages located in and around his vehicle ...'

Had Soules been tested at the scene or soon after and found to have been legally drunk, a much more serious charge such as vehicular homicide could have been brought. It carries a prison sentence of as much as 25 years.

Soules, 36, pleaded guilty to drunken driving in 2005 and was sentenced to one year of probation and a 60-day suspended jail sentence. In 2001, when he was 19, he twice pleaded guilty to underage possession of alcohol and also was fined for having an open container in a car.

The ruling Friday by Judge Andrea Dryer says Iowa's requirement to remain at the scene is not a seizure under the state or federal constitutions and it does not require the driver to divulge anything to police that would violate rights against self-incrimination.

Soules became a television reality show celebrity after appearing on the ABC network's 'The Bachelorette' in 2014 and played the starring role in the network's 'The Bachelor' in 2015. He also was chosen to be one of 12 celebrity competitors on 'Dancing With The Stars' in that year but was eliminated during week eight of the competition, finishing fifth.

One of Soules' attorneys, Brandon Brown, said in court documents that he may claim as a possible defense diminished capacity 'based upon his then-existing medical condition due to injuries sustained.'

Brown did not provide an immediate response to the judge's ruling or indicate whether Soules would appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court but indicated a statement was planned for release Friday.

Appeal: Soules' attorneys say he vigorously disagrees with the judge's ruling and will ask the state's highest court, Iowa Supreme Court, to review itHujjat al-Islam al-Qubanchi condemned the presence of American troops in Iraq on the pretext of securing and monitoring the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary election.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - During his Friday prayer sermon delivered to a large and fervent crowd of believers in the Iraqi city of Najafs al-Fatimiyah Husayniyah, Sayyed Sadruddin al-Qubanchi stressed that Iraqs Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shabi) are a source of pride and offered condolences to the families of the martyrs of Hashd al-Shabi who had been attacked by Daesh terrorist group in the countrys Kirkuk Governorate.



The Iraqi Shia cleric called for the Iraqi authorities to be vigilant about the secret actions taken by the terrorist groups and stated that the movements of the Baath party officers must be monitored.



Sayyed al-Qubanchi praised the Iraqi governments rejection of a request by the United States to maintain its twenty military bases in the war-torn Arab country, saying, The United States monitoring of the upcoming parliamentary elections which scheduled to be held in Iraq on May 12, in the governorates of al-Anbar and Nineveh is not acceptable to us and leads to the violation of the rights of the citizens of these governorates.



His Eminence condemned the action by the United States to establish a safe area to support its forces on Iraqi soil, saying, Iraqi forces have the ability to provide security in the two governorates of al-Anbar and Nineveh.



In his sermon on religious issues, he referred to the anniversary of the bombing of the dome of the Imamayn al-Askariyayn Holy Shrine by Takfiri terrorists, saying, The enemies actions were aimed at establishing a sectarian war in Iraq but this was neutralized by the sources of emulation and the sincere followers of the Ahlul-Bayt.



On February 22, 2006, explosions occurred at the Imamayn al-Askariyayn Holy Shrine in Samarra, effectively destroying its golden dome and severely damaging the shrine which contains the graves of the tenth and eleventh Shiah imams, Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari.



Sayyed al-Qubanchi described the heart-rending commemoration of the martyrdom of Lady Fatimah al-Zahra in Najaf and praised the efforts of the Holy Shrine of Imam Ali, the security forces and services, adding, God Almighty distances us from many tribulations due to the love for and attachment of the people to the Ahlul-Bayt.











/129Mama June Shannon is diagnosed with a re-detached retina in a new episode of Mama June From Not to Hot.

The 38-year-old reality star begins worrying after continuing to have blurry vision after just having emergency eye surgery in the episode before.

After the new diagnosis, June begins to freak out because she is unsure if she will ever be able to see her daughter Pumpkin's baby.

Not again! Mama June Shannon is diagnosed with a re-detached retina in a new episode of Mama June From Not to Hot

Mama June first realized her vision was getting more impaired while on a family shopping spree at the beloved Costco Wholesale store.

The mother of Honey Boo Boo was sitting inside of the electric shopping cart - which was being driven by daughter Alana - when she noticed her vision was giving out and making her paranoid of her daughter's driving.

The show's production crew comes to the rescue by stepping in front of the camera to help the inspiring pageant contestant with her vision.

June is over heard telling the crew: 'I dont know whats going on? My headaches are coming back and my eyes are killing me.'

While the family is at the ultrasound appointment, June freaks out because her vision begins to get blurry again

On a ride! The 38-year-old reality star begins worrying after continuing to have blurry vision after just having emergency eye surgery in the episode before

The show's production crew comes to the rescue by stepping in front of the camera to help the inspiring pageant contestant with her vision

Taking a moment! June is over heard telling the crew: 'I dont know whats going on? My headaches are coming back and my eyes are killing me.'

Mama June also revealed to production that she doesn't want to freak out her kids while having an episode.

The 38-year-old begins to accept the fact that something is wrong and visits the vision doctor who later diagnosis her with the re-detached retina.

June thinks about the worse case scenario - that she will go blind - and takes precaution by having Pumpkin get a 3D ultrasound in case she's not able to see the baby with her own two eyes.

A visit to the doctor: The 38-year-old begins to accept the fact that something is wrong and visits the vision doctor who later diagnosis her with the re-detached retina

June's beau Geno accompanied the TV star to her appointment for support

June thinks about the worse case scenario - that she will go blind - and takes precaution by having Pumpkin get a 3D ultrasound in case she's not able to see the baby with her own two eyes

While the family is at the ultrasound appointment, June freaks out because her vision begins to get blurry again.

Alana and June's boyfriend Geno calm the mother-of-four down by describing what the baby looks like in the 3D picture.

The doctor also reveals to the family that the new baby is a darling girl.

Another girl! The doctor also reveals to the family that the new baby is a darling girl

The show tries to imitate what June was seeing while at Pumpkin's ultrasound

Look at the face! Alana and June's boyfriend Geno calm the mother-of-four down by describing what the baby looks like in the 3D picture

Meanwhile, Alana attempts to help her father Sugar Bear manage his anger issues by taking him to a yoga class.

Sugar Bear admits that he's reluctant about the workout but continues to participate if it means he spends time with his daughter.

Midway through the yoga class, Alana gives up and states that the experience was not for her.

However, her father Sugar Bear admitted he was now at ease and even finished off his class with a 'namaste'.

Bonding: Meanwhile, Alana attempts to help her father Sugar Bear manage his anger issues by taking him to a yoga class

Midway through the yoga class, Alana gives up and states that the experience was not for herHer engagement to Karl Stefanovic was confirmed just weeks ago.

But it appears that Jasmine Yarbrough's wedding preparations are already well underway.

On Saturday, the 34-year-old blonde was pictured with her closest gal pals enjoying what may have been her bridal shower.

Bridal shower? Jasmine Yarbrough was seen celebrating alongside her gal pals in Sydney on Saturday, ahead of her wedding to Karl Stefanovic

Jasmine took to Instagram to share a series of Polaroid pictures from the opulent lunch, tagging all her friends, including sister Jade.

Dutiful Jade - who also doubles as Jasmine's best friend - similarly shared uploads to Instagram, which showed the bride-to-be dressed in a white halterneck top.

The talented shoe designer was seen cutting into a dessert as her friends looked on laughing.

Celebrations? Bride-to-be Jasmine was dressed in a white halterneck top

One to remember! Jasmine took a series of Polaroid pictures to mark the occasion

It's unclear whether the event was Jasmine's official bridal shower, as she gears up to wed her hunky Today Show host fiance.

Karl stated earlier in the month that the two will 'probably' wed later in the year.

Saturday's seemingly celebratory lunch comes after Jasmine's recent trip to New York, which saw her wining and dining with another clique of female friends.

Bride-to-be! Talented Jasmine was recently in New York, where she appeared to celebrate her happy news with another group of gal pals

Last week, the blonde beauty posted a snap from ritzy Cipriani restaurant in downtown Manhattan featuring three of her nearest and dearest.

'NY with the ladies,' Jasmine captioned the black and white snap, which saw her cuddled up with three of her friends, possibly her potential bridesmaids.

Featured in the photo was fashionista Edwina Forest, publicist Eloise Fraser and Jasmine's business partner Tamie Ingham.

Her bridesmaids? Last week Jasmine (far right) was seen celebrating with her girlfriends at a ritzy restaurant in New York

Mr and Mrs! The pair will 'probably' wed later in the year, according to the hunky Today Show host



She's never been one to shy away from the limelight.

And Friday was no exception for Lindsay Lohan, who was spotted looking laid back and chic stepping out of Scott's restaurant in Mayfair, London.

The 31-year-old looked stunning as she waved to the camera, dressed down in a relaxed purple shirt and figure hugging black leather-look leggings paired with suede knee high boots.

Glowing: Lindsay Lohan, who was spotted looking laid back and chic stepping out of Scott's restaurant in Mayfair, London

The Mean Girls star's long auburn tresses were styled in loose waves that tumbled over her shoulders as she strolled along the pavement in west London.

Lindsay kept her accessories simple, donning a mauve scarf and a black parka coat with a faux fur trim, and kept her makeup natural with groomed brows and minimal eye-makeup.

The starlet showed off her radiant porcelain skin, which was glowing as she smiled and looked relaxed after a meal out with friends.

Beaming: The 31-year-old looked stunning as she waved to the camera, dressed down in a relaxed purple shirt and figure hugging black leather-look leggings

Lindsay wore a hijab on Sunday during a visit to London's Modest Fashion Week, an event geared towards Muslim women's dress which was scheduled to coincide with London Fashion Week fanfare.

At Modest Fashion Week the latest styles in hijabs, abayas and long hemlines were showcased.

Lindsay 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.

The starlet showed off her radiant porcelain skin, which was glowing as she smiled and looked relaxed after a meal out with friends

There were previously rumours that she 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,' she said.She is expecting her second child with her husband Andrew Levitas.

And Katherine Jenkins, 37, proved pregnancy suited her down to the ground when she made a fashionable arrival at the BBC studios, in London on Saturday.

The songstress concealed her blossoming baby bump as she pulled her lilac chic coat around her body to keep warm in the icy temperatures.

Bumping along: Pregnant star Katherine Jenkins covered her baby bump in a lilac chic coat as she made a trendy arrival at BBC studios in PVC trousers and heels on Saturday, in London

Pregnant Katherine kept her look trendy with slinky PVC trousers, which caressed every inch of her pregnancy curves, and towering heel boots.

The expectant mother framed her face with her gorgeous strawberry blonde-haired curls when she stepped out for her low-key outing in the city.

The Katherine and Andrew love story goes back to October 2013 when they first started seeing each other.

Freezing beauty: The songstress concealed her blossoming baby bump as she pulled her lilac chic coat around her body to keep warm in the icy temperatures

They went onto get engaged in April 2014 and the lovebirds were married in a romantic ceremony at Hampton Court Palace, in London in September 2014.

The married lovers welcomed their first child Aaliyah Reign in September 2015 and they are expecting the arrival of their son in 2018.

In late November 2017, Katherine said: 'Andrew and I are overjoyed that our family will be growing in 2018 with the addition of our second child - a baby brother for our little superhero Aaliyah!!!' (sic)

Earlier in the month, the expectant mother confessed to Hello! magazine she would love to welcome a second child into their family unit.

Must be love: The Katherine and Andrew love story goes back to October 2013 when they first started seeing each other

She told the publication: 'It's all about timing, but I would really love to have a second child and for Aaliyah to have a sibling, to have a friend in the world.

'Life is not always what you expect it to be and when you find somebody that you fall in love with, it's amazing what you're willing to change,' she said.

'If I'm talking to a girlfriend who's just met someone and they're not exactly how she'd thought, I remind her, "I thought I'd get married in my local church to somebody from home."'Her boyfriend Matty 'J' Johnson recently secured his dream gig as a TV host.

But on Saturday, all eyes were instead fixed upon Laura Byrne as she let her hair down at the Sydney City Limits music festival.

One set of eyes, however, appeared to roll at the sight of the former reality star dancing along enthusiastically to a song performed by Australian artist Vance Joy.

Not impressed! Laura Byrne attracted the ire of a fellow music lover at the Sydney City Limits festival on Saturday, as she rolled his eyes at her enthusiastic dance moves

Standing in the crowd, Laura loudly sang the lyrics to Vance Joy's hit 'Riptide', as she showed off her freshest dance moves before bursting into a giggle.

Her exuberant antics appeared to irritate a bystander, who took off his sunglasses to glare at the Wollongong native.

It's unclear whether he recognised Laura, who is reality TV royalty, having shot to fame on the 2017 season of The Bachelor.

Recognise her? It's unclear whether the man recognised Laura, who is, after all, reality TV royalty

Appearing to take the stranger's side-eye in good humour, Laura uploaded a short video of the incident to her Instagram Stories, accompanied by the caption: 'The dude next to me. S**t mate, I'd eye roll me too'.

The clip was just one of several she shared with her adoring fans throughout the day.

The indie music festival, which also featured performances from Beck and The Libertines , appeared to be the perfect fit for the quirky jewellery designer, who owns a three-legged rescue dog named Buster.

Quirky! The indie music festival, which also featured performances from Beck and The Libertines , appeared to be the perfect fit for the quirky jewellery designer

Dressed to impress, Laura wore a strapless striped dress and accessorised with a tasseled handbag.

Making sure her feet were protected in the mosh pit, the sensible stunner wore a pair of Vans Old Skool sneakers.

It appeared her busy beau Matty did not join her for the festival, perhaps shooting segments for his new role on Channel Ten's lifestyle series, The Living Room.Jennifer Aniston, 49, and Justin Theroux, 46, are believed to have split their $21 million Los Angeles mansion in half amid their marital woes.

Now, according to TMZ, the American actor reportedly broke up with the actress because she refused to live in his New York pad instead of her lavish Bel Air home.

Justin's neighbour Norman Resnicow, of New York City, made further claims to the publication that Justin tried to force Jen to move to the Big Apple but she 'hated' it.

'She hated living there': Justin Theroux 'split with Jennifer Aniston after she refused to live in his New York City pad instead of her $21 million LA mansion'

Norman told TMZ: 'Everyone knows Jennifer hated the place. Theroux is acting crummy to her like he did to me.'

The neighbour is locked in a legal battle with Justin amid claims water damage from the A-lister's property has left Norman's New York apartment with mold.

Justin Theroux's spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Resnicows bizarre comments might carry more weight had he ever actually met Jen or toured Justins apartment, neither of which has ever happened.

'The leaks and conditions of which Resnicow complains are a building issue. Justin's deck and apartment had nothing to do with those claimed issues and Resnicow knows it.'

MailOnline has approached Jennifer Aniston for comment.

The fresh claims come after Justin quietly moved into Jennifer's guest house when their marriage fell apart.

The Leftovers star reportedly always felt more comfortable in the separate smaller guest quarters of Jen's huge luxury Bel Air mansion.

As their relationship fizzled out, the actor spent increasingly more time there and was even said to even prefer to sleep in the guest house.

Former flames: Justin's neighbour Norman Resnicow, of New York City, made further claims to the publication that Justin tried to force Jen to move to the Big Apple but she 'hated' it

A source told US Weekly: 'When Justin was in Los Angeles and staying with Jen, he would typically spend most of his time in the guest house of the mansion.

'He would play music, hang out and, in the final months of their marriage, would end up sleeping in the guest house.'

It has been claimed that a disagreement about where to live was the main cause of their split, with Jennifer preferring Los Angeles and Justin opting for New York.

According to property records obtained by The Blast, Jennifer and Justin kept the deeds to their residences in their own names and as their 'sole and separate property.'

In the eyes of the law, property acquired as a couple becomes community property.

The Cake actress already owned her 1965 Bel Air mansion and her two-bedroom Hollywood Hills property.

Meanwhile, the Leftovers star had his New York apartment in Greenwich village.She became a firm fashion favourite after starring in HBO smash hit Big Little Lies.

And Shailene Woodley dressed to impress as she sat front row at the Salvatore Ferragamo show during Milan Fashion Week on Saturday.

The 26 year-old actress wrapped up her lithe frame in a cosy burgundy wool jumper as she posed at the star-studded fashion event.

Dress to impress: Shailene Woodley caught attention in a deep red jumper and maxi-skirt as she stepped out for the Salvatore Ferragamo show at Milan Fashion Week on Saturday

The Emmy nominated star teamed her chic look with a deep red paisley maxi-skirt that billowed down to the floor.

Her form-fitting garb matched her demure look with a sophisticated handbag that coordinated perfectly with the outfit's rich colour scheme.

Hidden underneath the lengthy skirt, Shailene opted for a pair of casual tan boots to give a contrast to her matching ensemble.

The Descendants beauty rocked her wispy fringe and curled ombre tresses in a boho style which perfectly framed her face.

Bunlded up: The 26 year-old actress wrapped up her lithe frame in a cosy burgundy wool jumper as she posed at the star-studded fashion event

Smiles: The Descendants beauty rocked her wispy fringe and curled ombre tresses, perfectly framing her face while sitting with Danai Gurira (centre) at the bash

Her natural beauty was on full display with her nude make-up palette, a pink lip and smokey eye amplifying her facial features.

Shailene rubbed shoulders with Black Panther and Walking Dead actress Danai Gurira, who stunned in a ravishing crimson dress.

The Fault in Our Stars actress recently made her new relationship with Australian rugby beau Ben Volavola Instagram official.

Shailene was romantically linked to Ben in October when she was spotted supporting him at a rugby game in New Zealand.

Cosy style: The Emmy nominated star teamed her chic look with a deep red paisley maxi-skirt that billowed down to the floor

Seemingly ready to go public with her love, she shared a shot of the duo hand in hand at the fashion show, and captioned the sweet snap: 'This date tho'.

The couple reportedly met when Shailene was filming Adrift in Fiji - where Ben has family as his mother and father are both from the island country - early last year.

It seems Ben is the first guy to make an impression on the actress as, although she's previously been romantically linked to Theo James and musician Nahko Bear, she's always maintained that having a boyfriend is not something she's interested in.

In the frow: Shailene rubbed shoulders with Black Panther actress Danai, who stunned in a ravishing crimson dress

The actress apparently has a strict criteria when it comes to what she looks for in a relationship.

She said recently: 'When you're truly in love, for me, you're my lighthouse! You're somebody who holds me high, keeps me safe, you've got my f***ing back.

'You also love me whole, wild and free. You let me do me and I'm gonna let you do you. And I'll be the home that you return to.'She's the former Bachelor star who has kept herself in the spotlight thanks to her racy social media snaps.

And on Saturday, Kiki Morris was up to her old tricks as she shared a number of sultry posts on her Instagram Story.

Posing in a very low-cut white singlet and thigh-skimming patterned shorts, the 30-year-old highlighted her enviable physique.

White hot! Bachelor beauty Kiki Morris celebrates weekend by showcasing her surgically enhanced assets in plunging singlet

In one short clip, the blonde bombshell can be seen showing off her luscious pout as she shakes her hips in front of a mirror.

Kiki has applied a full face of makeup for the night ahead and captioned the video: 'party pants'.

Another selfies featured the stunner showing off her glam look, with her full pink lips and dramatic eye makeup making a statement.

Going glam! The blonde bombshell also made a statement with her plump pout and dramatic eye makeup

Kiki is no stranger to leaving little to the imagination, with the blonde regularly flaunting her scantily-clad body online.

Last week, Kiki took things to a whole new level when she took to Instagram to share a raunchy topless snap.

The image, which was taken at a Sydney nude beach, saw Kiki showing off some major sideboob.

'When in Rome': The former reality TV star last week shared a photo of her sunbathing topless at the beach to her Instagram story

Perched on a rock at Sydney's Obelisk nude beach, the model highlight her endless legs and tiny waist wearing only black bikini bottoms.

The former reality star captioned the snap, 'When In Rome,' referring to her visit to the risque beach.

Earlier that day, Kiki flaunted her incredible body in a tangerine bikini while enjoying Sydney's summer weather.Actor Richard E. Grant suffered an accident at home on Friday evening and was rushed to hospital.

The Spice World: The Movie actor, 60, took to Twitter after the ordeal to praise the nurses and staff at Stroud General Hospital for their care.

He wrote on the social network that he was 'truly indebted' to nurses Holly and Theresa for 'sorting out' his injury.

'Heavy metal bar clonked my cranium!' Richard E. Grant suffered a head injury at home and was rushed to hospital to get 'glued back together like Humpty Dumpty' on Friday

The actor was at home in Avening in the Cotswolds when he hurt himself.

He tweeted: 'Heavy metal bar clonked my cranium and they kindly cleaned me up & glued me together again like Humpty Dumpty!

'Am truly indebted to Nurses Holly & Theresa at Stroud NHS hospital for sorting out my head wound this evening.'

One Twitter user replied: 'As an NHS nurse working in Scotland we don't often get nice feedback.

Appreciative: The star was sure to send his thanks to the hospital staff

All the King's horses...: 'Heavy metal bar clonked my cranium and they kindly cleaned me up & glued me together again like Humpty Dumpty!' he tweeted afterwards

Back together again: 'Am truly indebted to Nurses Holly & Theresa at Stroud NHS hospital for sorting out my head wound this evening,' he said

'It's lovely to hear someone with such a high profile thanking staff. Speedy recovery to you.'

Someone else quipped: 'Because they recognise you as a good egg!'

Another commented: 'Oh goodness Richard, I hope youre ok? Take care of yourself and make sure someone checks on you regularly for the next 48 hours. Im so glad you were well looked after at the hospital. Get well soon lovely man.'

Dozens of fans wished him a speedy recovery, one commenting: 'Wowsers! That sounds painful! Hope you feel better very soon and a big thumbs up to nurses Holly and Theresa and all our wonderful NHS workers.'

Unfortunate: Richard E. Grant took to Twitter to reveal he was robbed at a cash machine in Swaziland on Friday

Not ideal: Showcasing Cape Town's picturesque coastal scenery, Richard detailed his unfortunate situation alongside the snap, as he penned: 'Feel like a right mug having been mugged at an ATM in Cape Town. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr' (sic)

It's not been a lucky 2018 so far for The Iron Lady star.

He revealed that his New Year festivities were dampened after he was robbed at a cash machine in Cape Town.

The London-based star who had grown up in Cape Town's neighbouring Swaziland and went to university in the capital explained to his followers that he was robbed while withdrawing money.

Showcasing Cape Town's picturesque coastal scenery, Richard detailed his unfortunate situation alongside a snap, as he penned: 'Feel like a right mug having been mugged at an ATM in Cape Town. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr [sic].'

The actor had returned to Swaziland to see his family over the Christmas period before heading to Cape Town to continue his trip. His father was a British government official in Swaziland before the country obtained independence in 1967.

'Iron out life's problems': Proving to put the disaster behind him, the Logan actor posted a cosy snap with his daughter Olivia, 28

On holiday: Richard posted a series of heartwarming pictures with his family, including a touching snap with wife Joan Washington, captioned with multiple love hearts

Richard holds dual British and Swazi citizenship. He began his acting career in South Africa before moving to the UK in the early 1980s, where he found fame in cult movie Withnail and I, released in 1987.

Meanwhile, Richard proved to put the disaster behind him, as he brushed off the incident by spending time with his 28-year-old daughter Olivia.

Making the most of his last day in Cape Town, Grant captioned his sweet family seflie: 'Last day of the hols on Clifton Beach with @ShmiviaGrant to iron out Lifes bumps!'

During his stay, Grant uploaded a series of heartwarming pictures with his family, including a touching snap with wife Joan Washington, captioned with multiple love hearts.

The Bram Stoker's Dracula star is set to join actress Keira Knightley in the upcoming Disney film The Nutcracker, set for release in November 2018.She is the bride who always looks glamorous for the camera.

And Sarah Roza has revealed her first impression of Dean Wells when she first met him on Married At First Sight.

'When I first met him, I thought Dean (Wells) was an actor because no one could be such an a**ehole and with so much gumption,' the 38-year-old told the Herald Sun.

'No one could such be an a**ehole': Sarah Roza has revealed her first impression of Dean Wells when she first met him on Married At First Sight

She went on to clarify he was not an actor, but added that their strong personalities clashed on and off camera.

The beauty specialist, who is 'married' to Telv, said the long hours filming commitment ceremonies and dinner parties often led to tension between couples who were getting along and those who weren't.

Sarah also said that she saw right through certain co-stars' decisions and behaviour on the show: 'I was just like, 'oh right, you are just here for the Insta followers.'

Clash of the egos? She went on to clarify Dean was not an actor, but added that their strong personalities clashed on and off camera

Still going strong: The beauty specialist, who is married to Telv (right), said the long hours filming commitment ceremonies and dinner parties often led to tension between couples who were getting along and those who weren't

The red-haired stunner added that she thought particular couples on the show were making fun of the process.

'That behaviour made a mockery of our relationships because we were trying so hard to make things work,' she said.

Sarah's first impression of Dean comes after a Channel Nine spokesman was forced to address speculation about whether Married At First Sight's Davina Rankin and Dean Wells are paid actors.

'Ridiculous': Sarah's recollection of her first impression of the 'alpha male' comes after a Channel Nine spokesman was forced to address speculation about whether Married At First Sight's Davina and Dean were actors

'How ridiculous  you couldnt actually dream this up,' a Nine spokesperson told News Corp.

Ryan Gallagher also denied the claim, telling the publication: 'People cheat every day in real life. It is still a common thing.

'So just because it is on camera doesnt mean it is anything different,' he said.Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah described the founding of the Imam al-Mahdi School in southern Lebanon as a turning point in the history of the southern Lebanon.



At a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of opening of the Imam al-Mahdi School in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah hailed the event.



Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah described the founding of the Imam al-Mahdi School in southern Lebanon as a turning point in the history of the southern Lebanon.



The top cleric made the remarks addressing the ceremony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the opening of the school on Saturday afternoon.



He also hailed the founder of the school, the former Hezbollah Secretary General Abbas al-Musawi as a creative and innovative leader.



Touching upon the upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon, Mr. Nasrallah urged the Lebanese nation to be vigilant in their picks at the ballot boxes.



Choosing is very important. Do we elect those who will give in our nation to US or our oil to Israel? Or those who would plot against resistance? Or those who would pile up upon our debts and ruin our economy?



The main reason that pushed us to get involved in political and parliamentary activities was to support resistance against plots, he affirmed.



The reason that the US secretary of state visited Lebanon was to convince Lebanese officials that there is one problem in Lebanon and that is Hezbollah which should be resolved, warned the resistance figure about US measures against resistance forces.



The popular base of Lebanon is safe because of the golden triangle of army, nation, and resistance, underlined Mr. Hezbollah.



Today after US and its allies got defeated in the region, and the ISIS got defeated too, the new plot in the region is against the resistance, asserted Hezbollah.







/257She's television's most controversial reality star.

And in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Married At First Sight's Davina Rankin has been slammed by fellow co-star Nasser Sultan for not owning up and taking equal blame in the controversial partner swap affair she engaged in with Dean Wells.

Nasser had no reservations in letting it be known how he really felt about Davina's 'affair' with Dean.

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MAFS' Nasser Sultan slams Davina Rankin for not sharing cheating scandal blame and tells Dean Wells to 'go ride your skateboard, do some bad rapping and don't be an a**ehole'

Addressing the controversial affair, Nasser complained to the publication: 'No girl pulled Davina aside and said "hang on a minute and apologise to the group".'

'Dean has copped it all but Davina should be sharing the blame. Davina just sat there smirking,' he said of the affair.

Adding: 'Everyone attacked Dean, but nobody attacked Davina.'

BUSTED! Addressing the controversial affair, Nasser said: 'No girl pulled Davina aside and said 'hang on a minute and apologise to the group'.'

Gabrielle  who has become close friends with Dean's 'wife' Tracey on the reality television series  chimed in to explain why the girls didn't throw Davina under the bus, despite wanting to support Tracey during the confrontation.

She admitted that they didn't want to tear Davina to shreds in a public forum

Scandal: Dean (right) was confronted for his part in 'cheating'on partner Tracey (left)

Nasser was also quick to share that, while he felt Davina needed to own up for her wrongdoings, Dean has lost all respect in his books and ruined the dynamic.

On this, he said Dean should: 'Go ride [his] skateboard and do some bad rapping.'

During homestays, Gab let it be known that her experience was isolated and alone, explaining that when the cameras would leave, so would Nasser.

On this, Nasser shared that he simply wished to enjoy some down time, have a cup of tea and watch some television.

The all-new episode of Married At First Sight airs on Sunday at 7:00 pm on Network Nine.

No respect here! Nasser said Dean should: 'Go ride [his] skateboard and do some bad rapping'She's been jet-setting across the globe for the numerous international Fashion Weeks.

And Hailey Baldwin took some much needed downtime as she stepped out in Milan on Saturday.

The 21-year-old catwalk queen rocked an edgier look than her usual glamorous garb, wrapping up in a large black biker jacket for her day out.

Casual: She's been jet-setting across the globe for the international Fashion Weeks. And Hailey Baldwin took some much needed downtime as she stepped out in Milan on Saturday

The model - who walked several shows for top designers at London and New York Fashion Week - gave a pop of colour to an otherwise grey day in an electric pink woolen jumper.

Going casual for her day in the Italian city, Hailey slipped her lithe pins into a pair of distressed acid wash jeans, offset with a pair of sharp patent black boots by Tony Bianco.

Shielding her eyes with classic aviator shades, the blonde beauty tucked her golden tresses behind her ears in a pin-straight style.

Power walk: The model - who walked several shows for top designers at London and New York Fashion Week - gave a pop of colour to an otherwise grey day in an electric pink jumper

Give a wave: Going casual for her day in the Italian city, Hailey slipped her lithe pins into a pair of distressed acid wash jeans, offset with a pair of sharp patent black boots by Tony Bianco

The natural beauty glowed with her flawless complexion and delicate pink lips.

In more recent months, Hailey was romantically linked to a number of other men, including Memphis Grizzlies player Chandler Parsons, model Cameron Dallas and Shawn Mendes, who she was seen holding hands with over Halloween.

She also famously dated Justin Beiber last year, and opened up after their split about how tough it can be to date someone as high-profile as the Canadian star.

Day off: Shielding her eyes with classic aviator shades, the blonde beauty tucked her golden tresses behind her ears in a pin-straight style

Blonde ambition: The natural beauty glowed with her flawless complexion and delicate pink lips

Speaking to Marie Claire for its May 'Fresh Faces 2016' issue, she said: 'I don't want attention out of dating somebody.

'Texts started coming through, crazy phone calls... it's hard to date somebody in this industry. You have to have really thick skin and be very strong. You have to focus on the person and nothing else.'

The fashionista has been photographed for Vogue, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar and has walked for top designers including Ralph Lauren, Moschino and Dolce & Gabbana.

She also topped the Maxim magazine list of the most beautiful women in the world.

Her father is the actor Stephen Baldwin and her uncle is 30 Rock and SNL star Alec Baldwin.Aubrey Plaza looked flawless as she arrived at the NHMC 21st Annual Impact Awards on Friday evening.

The 33-year-old actress, stunned in a white silk gown as she was honored at the event which celebrates achievements and contributions to the positive portrayals of Latinos in media.

Aubrey, who is of Puerto Rican descent, glowed in the slinky number which featured a low neckline and spaghetti straps.

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Angelic: Aubrey Plaza lit up the red carpet at the Beverly Wilshire on Friday night for the NHMC's 21st Annual Impact Awards

Adding a pop of color to her look, the Dirty Grandpa star wore scarlet red lipstick.

Earlier this month Aubrey reunited with her former Parks and Recreation co-stars Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones and Kathryn Hahn to celebrate Galentine's Day once again.

The foursome squeezed in for a smiling selfie, posted on Aubrey's account.

'happy happy galentines day,' she wrote. 'these women keep me alive.'

In season two of the hit comedy, Poehler's character Leslie Knope created the unofficial holiday, which falls on the eve of Valentine's Day, and is strictly ladies only.

The 33-year-old actress looked flawless at the event which celebrates achievements of Latinos in media

Siren: Adding a pop of color to her look, the Dirty Grandpa star wore scarlet red lipstick

'Every February 13, my ladyfriends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style,' she explained.

'Ladies celebrating ladies. Its like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.'

Galentine's Day was quickly adapted into popular culture, with female fans of the show celebrating their girlfriends every year.

The show, which ran for seven seasons from 2009 to 2015, also starred Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Rob Lowe and Adam Scott.

Glitzy night: Aubrey is pictured with her father David at the eventShe has found love again with an RAF engineer half the age of her famous estranged husband Nick Knowles.

And Jessica Rose Moor, 30, was pictured for the first time with her new squeeze William Babbage, 27, when they enjoyed a date day in London on Saturday.

Nick Knowles' estranged wife put the bitter divorce behind her as she cosied up to her hunky engineer hunk.

Love again! Nick Knowles' estranged wife Jessica Rose Moor was seen for the first time with her new RAF engineer beau William Babbage on Saturday amid bitter divorce

The golden-haired bombshell secured the gaze of her latest lover with her racy leopard turtleneck which flattered her lovely figure.

Jessica completed her sleek look with a pair of form-fitting trousers which caressed every inch of her enviable curves.

RAF engineer William, who is half the age of Nick Knowles, kept warm in the capital with his olive green and neon pattern jacket.

The lovebirds looked very cosy and comfortable in each other's charming company as they headed out for their date.

On the prowl: The golden-haired bombshell secured the gaze of her latest lover with her racy leopard turtleneck which flattered her lovely figure

Shock split: Jessica and Nick had married in Rome in 2012 but announced their separation in January 2016, following almost four years of marriage (pictured in 2014)

Their first outing together comes just a day after the revelation that Jessica had fallen in love again.

The couple allegedly met in Jessica's local pub four months ago and she went on a string of dates while he was on leave.

William, who is 28 years younger than Nick, is believed to have already been introduced to the DIY SOS star.

Moving on: Nick Knowles' estranged wife put the bitter divorce behind her as she cosied up to her hunky engineer hunk

A source told The Sun: 'She is really happy. It's no secret that at times she has struggled with the split. But she gets on with Will like a house on fire.'

According to the insider, Jessica's new love interest spends weekends at her place in Cheltenham. MailOnline has contacted Jessica's spokesperson for comment.

The blonde is in the midst of a bitter divorce battle with Nick Knowles, 55, who she has accused of 'emotional and physical abuse'.

Cosy: The lovebirds looked very comfortable in each other's charming company as they headed out for their date

Jessica previously hinted she was in a new relationship, wishing a Happy Valentine's to a selection of her female friends, before going on to mention her 'actual Valentine'. In a clip, she teased 'Happy Valentine's Day to my actual Valentine!'

'[My son] Eddie pipped you the post this morning at 7am and asked if I would be his Valentine but you never know... next year.'

Jessica shares son Eddie, three, with estranged husband Nick, who she recently accused of subjecting her to 'years of intimidation, emotional and physical abuse', claims he strongly denied.

Looking good: RAF engineer William, who is half the age of Nick Knowles, kept warm in the capital with his olive green and neon pattern jacket

She and Nick had married in Rome in 2012 but announced their separation in January 2016, following almost four years of marriage.

Their split was muddied by his fling with Emmerdale star Gemma Oaten and Jessica's shock cervical cancer diagnosis.

Nick insisted at the time they were happily working on their marriage again and the pair were ensuring their son remained their priority, while Jessica had credited Nick for 'saving her life' following her cancer battle.

It's official! Their first outing together comes just a day after the revelation that Jessica had fallen in love again

In June 2016, Jessica had been diagnosed with stage one cervical cancer and had to have her cervix and pelvic lymph nodes removed.

The pair are in the midst of a divorce, with Jessica reportedly asking for more than 48,000 a year from him.

According to The Sun, Jessica who is currently receiving 4,000 a month as part of their settlement, is demanding an extra 2,000 a month in order to fund their three-year-old son Eddie's education.

Must be love: She has found love again with an RAF engineer half the age of her famous estranged husband Nick Knowles

'Nick is distraught that Jessica has made these claims. She already gets 4,000 a month from him and he's funded her life for years,' a source told the publication.

Nick is reportedly refusing to pay Jessica the money and has said that he will pay Eddie's school the required fee directly.

This comes after Jessica retaliated against her ex husband's response to her 'open letter about my divorce' posted on Twitter.

In the long diatribe, she alleged 'years of emotional cruelty, physical abuse' by her husband as well as reportedly withdrawing their son Eddie from private education.

However, sources close to the DIY SOS presenter denied the allegations - saying he 'only wants the best for his son'.She's increasingly taking after her fashionista mother.

And Sophia Ecclestone was rocking ballerina chic on Saturday as she joined her wealthy family for lunch in London.

The daughter of 33-year-old F1 heiress Tamara and her husband Jay Rutland, 36, stepped out of the family car in a pink tutu and a sparkly leotard.

Sophia the ballerina! Tamara Ecclestone's three-year-old daughter wears a cute pink tutu as she joins the rest of her famous family for lunch

Adding pizzazz to the get-up, the three-year-old matched the silver top with ballet slippers in the same colour.

She practically danced her way across the sidewalk into the Bulgari Hotel - which is where she, her parents and her aunt Petra, along with her own children, were set to enjoy a family lunch.

The brood aren't strangers to eating at such lavish venues, with Tamara being worth an estimated 232million.

The February chill be damned, the mother-of-one opted to leave her coat at home, stepping out in a black woolen dress.

Tiny dancer: She practically danced her way across the sidewalk into the Bulgari Hotel - which is where she, her parents and her aunt Petra were set to enjoy a family lunch

Family day out: The daughter of 33-year-old F1 heiress Tamara and her husband Jay Rutland, 36, stepped out of the family car in a pink tutu and a sparkly leotard

Ecclestone brood: The family aren't strangers to eating at such lavish venues, with Tamara being worth an estimated 232million

She accentuated the look with knee-high suede boots, also in black.

Tamara held Sophia's hand as they entered the eatery, alongside husband Jay.

He kept things super-casual in jeans and a black fleece - a favourite get-up for the businessman.

Also with them was Tamara's sister Petra, 29, who unloaded her three children from the car to join the others for their lunch.

Worn out: Tamara looked every inch the doting mother as she carried Sophia as they left the restaurant

Glitzy: The tot looked she had a great time with her family, leaving the venue with a glittery design on her face

Favourite get-up: Jay kept things super-casual in jeans and a black fleece

In they go: Tamara held Sophia's hand as they entered the eatery, alongside husband Jay

Home sweet home: The handsome hunk led the way as the trio left the Bulgari hotel and headed home

Joining them: Also with them was Tamara's sister Petra, 29, who unloaded her children from the car to join the others for their lunch

The mother of Lavinia, five, and twins Andrew Kulbir and James Jr, two - who has currently been swept up in divorcing their father James Sr - wore a sweeping crushed velvet cover-up in dark pink.

Beneath this she sported a black top and black trousers, featuring a matching pink strip down the leg.

Her blonde locks were left to tumble in waves around her features and shoulders and she sported a heavy sweep of bronzer on her cheeks as well as thick pink shadowing over her eyes.

The younger daughter of billionaire Bernie Ecclestone carried her children out of the car and into the eatery.

She was helped by mother Slavica Ecclestone, who is the ex-wife of dad Bernie, who laughed as she attempted to haul one of the twins inside.

Luscious locks: Her blonde locks were left to tumble in waves around her features and shoulders

Who's hungry? The mother of Lavinia, Andrew Kulbir and James Jr - who has currently been swept up in divorcing their father James Sr - wore a sweeping crushed velvet cover-up

Designer goodies: Petra held her daughter in her arms while toting several designer bags in the other as they left the family meal

Her little princess: The heiress was laden with toys to keep the youngster entertained during the family meal

Glam gran: Petra was helped by mother Slavica Ecclestone, who is the ex-wife of dad Bernie

In November Tamara remained defiant in the face of the backlash she faced for her expensive lifestyle.

Along with admitting Sophia has 'never flown economy', Tamara also spoke candidly of her relationship with husband, Jay Rutland confessing that she wasn't even 'that into' him ahead of their blind date.

Speaking to Heat about their privileged life, Tamara - who lives in a 70million 57-room home in Kensington with her husband of four years - appeared unfazed by some of the backlash she has found herself subject to recently.

Of her daughter, she admitted: 'No she hasn't ever traveled economy. Her favourite way to travel is by private jet with a Happy Meal. It really is a beautiful life.'

Granny time: The brunette wrapped up in a much more February-appropriate coat than her daughters

Helping out: The children's grandmother attempted to haul one of the twins inside

Having found her happily ever after, Tamara, who was at the centre of a blackmail plot in 2013 when her ex Derek Rose tried to extort her of 200, 000, revealed: 'I met Jay, but there were tons of bad relationships before that'.

Speaking about her first meeting with Jay, who she married in 2013 before they welcomed daughter Sophia in 2014, Tamara admitted that she wasn't 'that into' her beau at first.

'I'd seen a picture and I wasn't that into him. I was like "No, no, no!" But then we met and he was so much more handsome in real life, and so funny and he was really charming,' she gushed.

'He takes the p*** out of me all the time. We have a really fun relationship and he isn't scared to tell me what he thinks. He also makes sure I don't spoil Fifi too much, but it's hard!'He recently declared he was in a relationship with a secret girlfriend.

But Jeremy McConnell reportedly enjoyed a passionate one-night stand with Wayne Rooney's party girl Laura Simpson after a boozy night out in Manchester.

In one steamy snap, the former Celebrity Big Brother star, 28, can be seen snuggling up to Laura, 29, in bed.

Romance? Jeremy McConnell reportedly enjoyed a passionate one-night stand with Wayne Rooney's party girl Laura Simpson after a boozy night out in Manchester

A source told The Sun: 'Jeremy and Laura were both single when they met and they hit it off straight away.

'One thing led to another and they spent the night together after partying with their mates.

'It's certainly not going to lead to a relationship but it's a night of passion neither of them are going to forget in a hurry.'

Sizzling: In one steamy snap, the former CBB star, 28, can be seen snuggling up to Laura, 29, in bed

In the selfie obtained by MailOnline, Jeremy poses topless in the background while Laura seductively gazes at the camera.

MailOnline has contacted Jeremy's and Laura's representatives for comment.

The claims that the two enjoyed a one-night stand comes after Jeremy revealed earlier this month he is in a relationship with a secret girlfriend and hopes to 'start a family' with her, in a bid to put his troubled past behind him.

He told The Sun: 'I see myself with a wife and a family, I just want to be happy and move on with this girl.'

Meanwhile, Laura has remained single since she was catapulted into the spotlight after enjoying on a drunken night with Wayne Rooney in September last year, while his pregnant wife Coleen enjoyed a getaway with their children.

Single lady: Laura has remained single since she was catapulted into the spotlight after enjoying on a drunken night with Wayne Rooney in September of last year

Their reported rendezvous comes as Jeremy is set to tell his side of the story on Jeremy Kyle after his ex Stephanie Davis told MailOnline that he battered her as she held her baby son - and crushed a glass into her hand during a blazing row.

The actress allegedly suffered two severed tendons following the brutal attack and had to undergo surgery.

McConnell was sentenced to 20 months in prison suspended for 12 months in August last year for a separate assault on Stephanie in March that year at their home in Liverpool. He has always denied assaulting the reality star.

The couple split in May 2016 but Stephanie fell pregnant with their first child Caben-Albi George, who was born in January 2017.

Turbulent: Jeremy is known for his tumultuous relationship with Stephanie Davis, with him being sentenced for assaulting her in March last yearFans of The Block may have seen some incredible renovations by the contestants on the show.

And now the show's co-creator and executive producer, Julian Cress, has revealed his stunning $4 million Sydney mansion.

The renovated Annandale warehouse will go to auction next month, and features art-filled modern spaces, opulent marble bathrooms and a turntable in the four-car garage.

Scroll down for video

From art-filled modern spaces to opulent marble bathrooms and a turntable in the four-car garage: Inside The Block boss' stunning $4 million Sydney warehouse up for auction

Selling: Pictured is the show's co-creator and executive producer, Julian Cress

He revealed that he and his wife Sarah find it 'heartbreaking' to be selling the spacious pad, as they thought this was their forever home.

'We are gutted to be selling,' Julian told News Corp about the four-bedroom and three bathroom home.

'But with two boys we have realised The Block is going to be keeping us in Melbourne for a while. The kids are going to start school soon, so we won't be back for 15 more years,' he said, with the show being filmed in Melbourne.

Moving on: He revealed that he and his wife Sarah find it 'heartbreaking' to be selling the spacious pad, as they thought this was their forever home

Making changes: 'We are gutted to be selling,' Julian told News Corp about the four-bedroom and three bathroom home

Under the hammer: Julian's stunningly renovated Annandale warehouse will go to auction next month

The publication reports the home was a studio for his artist father, Fred Cress, who has won the Archibald Prize.

The home has also featured on The Block before, with host Scott Cam revealing the judge's verdict to contestants there.

The home was renovated twice by Julian and his wife, with their builder winning the master builder award in 2015.

History: The publication reports the home was a studio for his artist father, Fred Cress, who has won the Archibald Prize

Look familiar? The home has also featured on The Block before, with host Scott Cam revealing the judge's verdict to contestants there

No expenses spared: The home was renovated twice by Julian and his wife, with their builder winning the master builder award in 2015

The pad was previously a one bedroom space with a small kitchen.

It features lots of light thanks to an abundance of skylights and exposed beams, hardwood floors, a black kitchen and bathrooms featuring copper and marble.

This year's Block contestants will be renovating the dilapidated Gatwick Hotel in Melbourne's St Kilda, a former hotel with a sordid past.

What a change: The pad was previously a one bedroom space with a small kitchen

All in the details: It features lots of light thanks to an abundance of skylights and exposed beams, hardwood floors, a black kitchen and bathrooms featuring copper and marble

'Yes we've done breathtaking. Yes we've pulled off the impossible and yes, we've captivated and occasionally even stunned the nation,' Scott Cam says in a teaser for the show.

'But we have never attempted anything like this before,' he adds.

It has been the site of four murders, including 34-year-old Arthur Karatasiosis - who was stabbed to death in the foyer in 2006.

During that same year a 52-year-old woman was raped and robbed in a gruesome attack.

The building has also seen a series of fatal drug overdoses.Pregnant Kym Johnson, 41, will welcome twins with husband Robert Herjavec, 55, in a matter of weeks.

The mom-to-be was spotted on Saturday morning heading to brunch in Beverly Hills with her dog Lola in tow.

She bundled up her bump in a black turtleneck sweater and a long camel coat for the weekend outing.

Mommy-to-be! Pregnant Kym Johnson was spotted heading to brunch in Beverly Hills on Saturday with her dog Lola in tow

Kym and Robert met when they were dance partners in 2015 on ABC's hit reality competition series Dancing With The Stars.

They married in 2016 in Los Angeles and announced they were expecting on December 11, 2017.

These will be Kym's first two children and number 4 and 5 for the Shark Tank investor. He has three children from a previous marriage to Diane Plese.

Big belly! Johnson and her husband Robert Herjavec are expecting twins

In an interview with E News, the Australian ballroom dancer talked about how 'it's a miracle' to be pregnant.

'I'm in the home stretch nowI'm feeling great,' she said. 'There's two coming so I'm going to be busy.'

Kym also revealed that she's 'hung up her dance shoes for good' in terms of Dancing With The Stars, but that she hopes to still be involved with the show in some capacity in the years to come.

'I'm in the home stretch nowI'm feeling great,' she told E News in an interview. 'There's two coming so I'm going to be busy'

The fitness guru has her own studio called The BOD in Beverly Hills.

And a handful of pregnant women attend her classes.

'The doctors said that dancing was really safe to do through pregnancy because it's low impact,' Johnson told ET. 'I think it's good to stay agile and move about when you're growing your belly.'He left his wife of 22 years heartbroken after ending their marriage when he fell for his younger co-star.

But Ewan McGregor has now been dumped by his mistress Mary Elizabeth Winstead because she hated being labelled a home wrecker, according to sources close to the couple.

Scottish-born McGregor, 46, filed for divorce from wife Eve Mavrakis, 51, last month  six months after being spotted kissing Miss Winstead, 33, his co-star in the cult TV series Fargo.

The Trainspotting and Star Wars actor blamed irreconcilable differences for the split from his wife, the mother of his four daughters who are aged between six and 21.

Ewan McGregor (right) has now been dumped by his mistress Mary Elizabeth Winstead (left) because she hated being labelled a home wrecker, according to sources close to the couple

Eve was reportedly left devastated after pictures were published last October of Ewan kissing his co-star in a London cafe.

His 15-year-old daughter Esther later posted a song on Instagram about the s*** I found online, singing: Seeing those pictures, theyre making me cry And I dont know how to forgive. I dont know if I can.

The news of McGregors reported split from Miss Winstead is revealed in the latest edition of US magazine Star.

A source told the magazine: Mary hated being labelled a home wrecker and the embarrassment it caused her. Its sad because a year ago Ewan and his wife were in great shape and then he decided to throw it all away for Mary. Now it looks like hes lost them both for good.

Miss Winstead (pictured) announced she was splitting from her husband of seven years Riley Stearns last May

Last night McGregors estranged wife told The Mail on Sunday, No, I hadnt heard when asked if she knew about her husbands split from his lover.

Asked for comment, she said: I really dont know. Sorry.

Production designer Eve was said to be furious when her husband won the Best Actor In A Limited Series award at this years Golden Globes and thanked both her and his mistress. I want to take a moment to just say thank you to Eve who always stood by me for 22 years and our four children Clara, Esther, Jamyan and Anouk, McGregor said. And there wouldnt have been any Ray [his Fargo character] without Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

When asked about his words, Eve said: No, I did not like his speech.

Eve Mavrakis (left) was reportedly left devastated after pictures were published last October of Ewan (right) kissing his co-star in a London cafe

She called their divorce disappointing and upsetting before adding: My main concern is our four children are OK.

McGregor and Miss Winstead play an engaged couple on the show.

Miss Winstead announced she was splitting from her husband of seven years Riley Stearns last May  as she filmed the series.

The Mail on Sunday attempted to contact spokesmen for McGregor and Miss Winstead but neither answered repeated requests for comment on the split.She is not afraid to turn heads with her daring fashion ensembles.

And Hailey Baldwin ensured all eyes were on her on Friday as she flashed her peachy derriere on the runway at the ADR Party during Milan Fashion Week.

The model, 21, was scantily-clad in a jewel-encrusted dress, leaving her tremendous pins and pert posterior on full display.

Pert: Hailey Baldwin ensured all eyes were on her on Friday as she flashed her peachy derriere on the runway at the ADR Party during Milan Fashion Week

Hailey seemed unfazed by the revealing outfit, which she paired with towering silver stilettos and tiny white knickers.

The daring white turtleneck dress, which was covered with a cascade of clear jewels, made the most of her leggy frame.

The American beauty styled her blonde tresses in tousled waves and complemented the look with deftly touches of make-up.

Peachy: The model, 21, was scantily-clad in a jewel-encrusted dress, leaving her tremendous pins and tiny knickers on full display

Scantily-clad: Hailey seemed unfazed by the revealing outfit, which she paired with towering silver stilettos and tiny white knickers

As well as managing her high-flying career, Hailey has been romantically linked to a number of men, including Memphis Grizzlies player Chandler Parsons, model Cameron Dallas and Shawn Mendes, who she was seen holding hands with over Halloween.

She also famously dated Justin Bieber last year, and opened up after their split about how tough it can be to date someone as high-profile as the Canadian star.

Speaking to Marie Claire for its May 'Fresh Faces 2016' issue, she said: 'I don't want attention out of dating somebody.

Svelte figure: The daring ensemble, which featured a white turtleneck vest top covered with a cascade of clear jewels, made the most of her leggy frame

'Texts started coming through, crazy phone calls... it's hard to date somebody in this industry. You have to have really thick skin and be very strong.

'You have to focus on the person and nothing else.'

The fashionista's modelling career has gone from strength to strength, walking for top designers including Ralph Lauren, Moschino and Dolce & Gabbana and being a prominent star on the catwalk for both New York and London Fashion Weeks.

Model of the moment: The American beauty styled her blonde tresses in tousled waves and complemented the look with deftly touches of make-up

She's a pro: The daughter of Stephen Baldwin put on a very confident display as she sashayed down the catwalk

Meanwhile, Izabel Goulart stormed the catwalk at the ADR bash in a skimpy mini dress that highlighted her phenomenal physique.

The 33-year-old model was a vision of beauty during the show as she showcased her enviably tanned and toned pins in a glittering mini dress that grazed her lean thighs.

The Brazilian beauty - who is best known for being a Victoria's Secret Angel - dazzled in the glamorous black gown which boasted an eye-catching silver swirl pattern.

Finishing off the look, Izabel wore her glossy chestnut locks in loose waves that framed her pretty features.

Leggy frame: Meanwhile, Izabel Goulart stormed the catwalk i n a skimpy mini dress that highlighted her phenomenal physique

Stunner: The 33-year-old model was a vision of beauty during the show as she showcased her enviably tanned and toned pins in a glittering mini dress that grazed her lean thighs

Glitzy: The Brazilian beauty - who is best known for being a Victoria's Secret Angel - dazzled in the glamorous black gown which boasted an eye-catching silver swirl pattern

Storming the runway: Alina Baikova showed off her model prowess in a velvet gold mini-dress, which was adorned with feathers and red beads

The 5ft10 catwalk veteran has been modelling since she was 14, but made her cinematic debut in the summer film Baywatch last year.

Izabel told HeyUGuys of her reaction when she discovered she had bagged the role: 'I had so [many] butterflies in my stomach.

'All I wanted to do wanted to scream out loud, but I couldn't, because I was right about 10 to 15 minutes away from hitting a runway.'

Sultry: Russian model Natasha Poly showed off her svelte frame in a velvet purple suit which she teamed with a lacy black bralet

Working the cameras: The 32-year-old put on a sultry display as she posed up a storm on the red carpet ahead of the glitzy bash

Elegant: She slicked her blonde tresses back into a neat bun and finished off the look with winged eye-liner and a glossy pink lip

Sizzling display: Meanwhile, actress Nicola Peltz, who is dating Anwar Hadid, donned a tiny latex mini-skirt and a fluffy black jacket

Casually-clad: Anwar Hadid joined his girlfriend Nicola at the bash, and opted for a graphic print t-shirt and skinny jeans

Model looks: Blanca Padilla looked effortlessly stylish in navy dungarees and a crisp white shirt while Doina Ciobanu showed off her ample assets in a plunging gold top

Lacy: Matilde Gioli cut an elegant figure in a lacy cream dress complete with a sultry thigh-high split

Understated: Fashion designer Neil Barrett rocked an all-black ensemble which he teamed with white trainers

Glam: Francesca Versace sported a duck-egg blue tailored coat and fuchsia shift dress to the star-studded event

Washboard abs: Following the show, Hailey slipped into a skimpy pink crop top and matching skirt which showed off her gym-honed figure

Fashionista: The starlet looked effortlessly stylish as she paired the look with a black leather jacket and added a boost to her statuesque figure with strappy sandals

Lithe limbs: The two-piece made the most of Hailey's frame showing off her endless pins with a sultry split in the mini-skirtA Yemeni military source told the Russian Sputnik news agency that the missile unit of the Yemeni army has pounded the UAE patriot missile defense system, inflicting major losses on them.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Yemens army and Popular Committees fired a ballistic missile at the command center of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) troops in the Arabian Peninsula countrys Marib province.



A Yemeni military source told the Russian Sputnik news agency that the missile unit of the Yemeni army has pounded the UAE patriot missile defense system, inflicting major losses on them.



Reports by UAE and Saudi media have confirmed the Yemeni troops missile attack, claiming that the Saudi-led coalition air defense has intercepted the missile.



The attack was carried out in retaliation for the Saudi-led coalitions relentless airstrikes on Yemeni civilians.



The Yemeni army and Popular Committees have also launched missile attacks against targets inside Saudi Arabia.



Yemens defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for almost three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.



Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, an ally of Riyadh.



Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.







/257The Queen of Fashion recently met the actual Queen.

Yet following the meeting she came under fire for her sunglasses-etiquette, as she chose to keep them on as she sat in the FROW with the monarch during London Fashion Week.

However, Anna Wintour, 68, seemed to brush off the controversy as she stepped out during Milan Fashion week on Saturday wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses.

Tweed sensation: Anna Wintour, 68 stepped out at Milan Fashion week, naturally, wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses despite the recent controversy

The high fashion mogul looked impeccable as ever as she headed to the Giorgio Armani showcase.

Anna donned a mid-length tweed dress to the event which she paired with an equally colourful jewelled necklace.

The US Vogue editor-in-chief covered her dress with a striking emerald green coat with red detailing.

Backlash: Anna came under fire for her sunglasses-etiquette, as she chose to keep them on as she sat on the front row with Queen Elizabeth II during London Fashion Week

Anna, who has been at the helm of US Vogue for 30 years, is rarely seen without her signature Chanel spectacles also sported her trademark bob.

The fashion mogul, who is British and was made a dame by the Queen last year, kept her sunglasses on as she spoke to and sat with the Queen on the front row of London-born designer Richard Quinn's fashion show on Tuesday.

Grant Harrold, an etiquette expert who worked in Prince Charles' household, said Anna's actions had broken royal protocol.

Leather lady: The high fashion mogul looked impeccable as ever as she headed to the Giorgio Armani showcase

Breaking royal protocol: The 68-year-old kept her signature sunglasses on as she spoke to and sat with the Queen on the front row on Tuesday

'Ms Wintour should know that to wear sunglasses when talking to another person, with no medical reason, is unacceptable.

'She should have removed them before being in the presence of the Queen, let alone in discussion.'

'Eye contact is important while holding a discussion, and not removing sunglasses is the height of bad manners and a serious breach of Royal protocol,' Mr Harrold said.

'If the Queen gave her permission to keep them on then that would be acceptable, however this would be unlikely.'

MailOnline has contacted Anna's representatives for comment.

Milan Fashion Week: Anna donned a mid-length tweed dress to the event which was a paired with an equally as colourful jewelled necklace

In an interview with CBS in 2009, the editor said her sunglasses were 'armour'.

'They're seriously useful. I mean, I can sit in a show, and if I'm bored out of my mind, nobody will notice. And if I'm enjoying it, nobody will notice,' she told Morley Safer.

People online expressed some shock that she did not remove the shades.

'Dame Anna Wintour,' said one, 'being a fashion editor surely you should know wearing sunglasses indoors is so naff especially being seated next to the Queen'.Timing is everything and there are many reasons why telemovie Riot has landed at the right moment.

The ABC film follows the real events that led to the first Mardi Gras parade in Sydney, airing in celebration of the festival's 40-year history, but it has also come at a particularly important juncture for Australia's LGBTQI community with the recent legalisation of same-sex marriage.

"It really is amazing. The 40th Mardi Gras is taking place less than a week after Riot screens but then there's the timing of the marriage equality debate and then vote, which was all very much on our minds when we were shooting," says one of the stars of the film, Damon Herriman.

At the time of the shoot the cast and crew, including actors Kate Box, Xavier Samuel and Jessica De Gouw, still didn't know the outcome of the same-sex marriage postal survey.

"We knew when this show came out that there was a very good chance that the parliament would have voted and no one really knew which way it was going to go but we knew it would certainly give the viewing of this film an extra resonance," he said.

Herriman plays the late civil rights activist Lance Gowland in Riot, one of a group of people depicted in the film who fought passionately for equality and started Mardi Gras as Sydney's contribution to the international Gay Solidarity Celebrations.

"There's no doubt everyone working on the show found something very moving and felt there was a little bit of weight on our shoulders to make sure we do this right," Herriman said.

The first Mardi Gras, which took place in 1978, was met with unexpected police violence. Gowland, who drove the truck down Sydney's Oxford Street in the first parade, was arrested as were many of the supporters, and some were beaten in their cells.

One of those arrested and beaten, Peter Murphy, was on set a few times when Riot was being filmed along with others from the original Mardi Gras known as the "78ers".

"It was honestly like a celebrity visiting set, we were crowding around like teenagers," Herriman said.

Herriman was also flanked by several 78ers who walked alongside the truck he drove, retracing Gowland's journey on that fateful night in the centre of Sydney.

"For me that was one of the most exciting things, doing what Lance did that night," he said.

Herriman believes that most people will be surprised at what they see in Riot. Personally, he wasn't aware of what people actually endured.

"I don't think too many people know what the first one was like, and how did it start and it was obviously very different to what it is now. But it's a story that should be told."

* RIOT premieres on ABC TV and ABC iview at 8:30pm (AEDT) Sunday February 25.A re-elected Labor government will provide $150 million to a new port authority to oversee the development of a deepwater port in regional South Australia.

The funds will allow the authority to borrow more than $500 million to develop the port in the Spencer Gulf, which is expected to create 400 construction jobs, Premier Jay Weatherill says.

"A new port in the Spencer Gulf region will help new mining projects export resources such as copper and iron ore to international markets," Mr Weatherill said.US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull took the two elegant butter yellow chairs while First Lady Melania Trump and counterpart Lucy Turnbull sat on opposing couches.

The foursome were in the Oval Office at the White House on Friday and it was a little awkward.

For the first 15 seconds or so there was silence. No small talk.

Just some uncomfortable smiles while a tsunami of Australian and White House press gallery reporters entered the room from a side door.

Mr Trump eventually broke the silence.

"It's an honour to have Prime Minister Turnbull, Mrs Turnbull - friends of mine and friends of Melania for, actually, quite some time," the president said.

Mr Turnbull had a big smile on his face as Mr Trump then launched into the long list of topics the leaders would discuss later in the day.

When the president finished talking he stuck out his hand toward the prime minister.

Unlike the long, almost shoulder dislocating handshakes Mr Trump gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron in past meetings, Mr Turnbull only endured a swift two second shake.

"I just say, thank you and Melania for your hospitality and your friendship," Mr Turnbull replied.

The visit was a carefully organised affair, obviously aimed at avoiding any public discord between the two leaders following the public airing of their salty phone conversation over refugees on January 28, 2017.

The Turnbull's four-day Washington DC trip has been branded with the slogan "100 Years of Mateship", and Australia and the US want it known they are great mates despite last year's call hiccup.

Proof was Ms Trump's visibility.

The First Lady has rarely been publicly spotted with her husband after reports surfaced alleging he had affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.

But, Ms Trump was there standing beside her husband at the White House South Lawn entrance when the Turnbulls arrived, and when the husbands retreated for their meetings she hosted Ms Turnbull.

"A lot of good things will come out of this visit," Mr Trump predicted in the Oval Office.

Maybe even a presidential visit to Australia.

"We will be there," Mr Trump said.

"Great place."A man has been charged after allegedly assaulting a police officer and kicking a police dog in Perth overnight.

The drama unfolded when officers were called to Nollamara address after reports of a suspicious person outside a home.

Police found the man asleep against the front door of a home but he refused to move.

He allegedly became aggressive and hit a police officer several times before kicking police dog Jack in the ribs with enough force to lift him off the ground.

The Nollamara man, 28, was charged with numerous offences including assaulting a public officer and animal cruelty.The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has detained a chemical tanker off the Queensland coast due to alleged labour breaches.

AMSA officials are investigating claims of several serious breaches of the international maritime labour convention made by the crew of the Tintomara - which is flying the Liberian flag - and checking on the welfare of seafarers.

The 182 metre-long tanker has been anchored off the northern tip of South Trees Island, near Gladstone, for the past number of days.

An AMSA spokesperson confirmed they had detained the vessel for inspection and investigations.

"There's a number of allegations which we are looking at," the spokesperson told AAP.

The Gladstone Observer has reported members of the 26-person crew had complained of a bullying culture, non-payment of overtime, long working hours and crew members losing weight due to the lack of food.

The Observer said the crew was made up of sailors from the Philippines, India and Bangladesh.The Queensland Reds face a nervous wait with skipper Scott Higginbotham and lock Lukhan Tui facing possible Super Rugby suspension.

The Wallabies forwards will face the SANZAAR judiciary on Sunday after separate incidents during the Reds' season-opening loss to the Melbourne Rebels at AAMI Park on Friday night.

Higginbotham was red carded in the 10th minute for a shoulder charge on Rebels lock Matt Philip, with a send-off automatically referred to the SANZAAR Foul Play Review Committee.

Tui was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on Rebels halfback Will Genia in the 22nd minute.

Both matters will be heard by video link by the review panel on Sunday, February 25 at 5pm AEDT.

The Reds host the Brumbies on Friday night.A man accused of assaulting paramedics in Sydney's southwest and who was restrained and handcuffed by police has died a short time later.

The man allegedly assaulted the NSW Ambulance officers at a Canley Vale service station on Saturday before police were called about 3pm.

Concerns were raised about "the behaviour" of the man, police say.

He was handcuffed before being taken to Liverpool Hospital by paramedics, but died there at 3.45pm.

A critical incident investigation team will probe all aspects of the incident.

Police couldn't confirm whether or not he remained in handcuffs on his way to hospital.Today's birthday, February 25: Brian Burke, Australian politician convicted of corruption (1947 - ).

Disgraced former Western Australian premier Brian Burke last year released a tell-all autobiography titled A Tumultuous Life.

In the book, he reveals the many ups and downs of his controversial career in politics, including his time spent behind bars for corruption-related offences.

Burke was born in Perth in 1947 and is the son of former federal Labor parliamentarian Tom Burke.

He began his career as a journalist at The West Australian newspaper and later worked in radio and television.

In 1973 Burke entered the Legislative Assembly at the Balcatta by-election, which he won by 30 votes.

He then defeated Ron Davies in 1981 to become state opposition leader.

At the age of 35, Burke led the Labor party to its biggest-ever win at the 1983 state election.

During the early 80's his government abolished capital punishment in Western Australia and enacted several important electoral reforms.

But his premiership was also characterised by his close association with businessmen Laurie Connell and Alan Bond, and his arrangement of joint government and business deals.

These corporate deals, and the attempted government-sponsored rescue of Connell's merchant bank Rothwells, were widely styled in the media as WA Inc.

In 1988 Burke stepped down as premier and was appointed the ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See.

Three years later, he was forced to return to Perth to face the WA Inc Royal Commission, which led to findings of his improper conduct as premier over dodgy business dealings.

In 1994, Burke was convicted and served seven months in jail for travel expense rorts, and later served six months of a three-year sentence for stealing $122,000 in ALP campaign donations before that conviction was overturned on appeal.

To rebuild his reputation, he set up a political lobbying business in Western Australia in the early 2000s. His activities as a lobbyist and involvement in the state Labor branch prompted concern from WA's Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) which launched a public inquiry.

After several trials, the former premier was given one conviction of giving false evidence to the CCC, for which he copped a $25,000 fine.Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will sign a sister state agreement with Nevada's governor as part of her US trade mission.

Ms Palaszczuk will meet with Governor of Nevada Brian Sandoval in Washington DC on Sunday morning (AEST) to sign the agreement to focus on innovation, investment and job generation.

It comes in a trade mission where the premier has made a pitch for Sesame Street to be filmed in Queensland and offered part of Brisbane's history, 134-year-old Edison tubes, to the Smithsonian Institute.Thousands participated in the funeral procession of the three Bahraini "martyrs of freedom" in the Iranian city of Qom, beginning their march from the shrine of Lady Fatima Al-Ma'sumah (AS), following Friday prayers.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Thousands participated in the funeral procession of the three Bahraini "martyrs of freedom" in the Iranian city of Qom, beginning their march from the shrine of Lady Fatima Al-Ma'sumah (AS), following Friday prayers.

Photos and video clips of thousands of Iranians and dozens of Bahrainis, who reside in Iran, taking part in a solemn funeral for the martyrs "Maitham Mohammed, Sayed Qassim Sayed Khalil and Sayed Mahmoud Sayed Adel," who mysteriously died at sea as they fled from Bahrain to Iran.



Earlier, Al-Wefaq mourned the three martyrs and the fourth missing (Hassan Ali Ibrahim) and said that they tried to escape to Iran because of "the lack of security and safety in their homeland Bahrain, as they left to ensure safety for themselves and their lives," confirming that the three martyrs "were among the oppressed youths who were living under persecution and security pressure."





















/129Swimmers at a Sydney beach where a woman was bitten by a shark shouldn't have reservations about venturing back into the water when it re-opens on Sunday, experts say.

Anna Shurapey, 55, survived the first shark attack in Botany Bay in at least 25 years after she was bitten on the leg about 7pm Friday, prompting the Randwick City Council to close nearby beaches for 24 hours.

Mr Shurapey, who'd been swimming off Little Congwong Beach, was taken to St George Hospital where she's recovering after surgery to deep cuts to her leg.

A Department of Primary Industries biologist speculated the culprit was a juvenile great white of between 2.7 and 3.2 metres in length.

University of Sydney shark researcher Dr Christopher Neff said the nature of the injuries could suggest a juvenile was to blame.

"Juvenile sharks generally don't know what they're doing," he told AAP.

"It's a curiosity injury rather than anything else."

Dr Neff shut down calls for shark nets in the area, saying there was no data to back up their effectiveness.

He also believes beachgoers shouldn't be worried about a repeat attack because sharks move between 50 and 100 kilometres a day.

"They don't stay in the same area - that's a myth," Dr Neff said.

"There's no real science behind looking for the shark, that's more to ease public fear and to make people comfortable going back in the water."

Dr Neff said while no swimmer was to blame for any shark incident, swimming at dusk and dawn can be hazardous because people are usually alone.

He said statistically two things are true about increased risk: that water temperatures below 20C can lead to an increase in white shark activity, and that shark behaviour is correlated to the lunar cycle.

"If there's a new moon, sharks come in closer to shore. You just want to be mindful."A woman who has accused Barnaby Joyce of sexual harassment says she did it to speak up against inappropriate behaviour by people in powerful positions.

Catherine Marriott, a former West Australian Rural Woman of the Year, broke her silence in a statement on Saturday and said she never intended the explosive allegations to go public.

Mr Joyce, who denies the allegations, announce this week he will officially quit as Nationals leader on Monday and go to the backbench following weeks of controversy over his relationship with former media advisor Vikki Campion, who's carrying his baby.

Ms Marriott says she requested the party undertake a formal and confidential investigation to ensure there is accountability.

"This complaint was not made solely to address the incident against me - it is about speaking up against inappropriate behaviour by people in powerful positions," she said in a statement.

Mr Joyce, who has asked the Nationals to refer the matter to police and has described the allegation as "spurious and defamatory", has been on personal leave this week.

The party leader will be decided in a ballot in Canberra on Monday morning and Veterans Affairs Minister Michael McCormack is frontrunner to replace Mr Joyce.Malcolm Turnbull has told the governors of more than 40 US states America's leadership in the world is in the interest of both nations.

The prime minister gave the keynote address at the National Governors Association gathering in Washington DC on Saturday, a day after meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Mr Turnbull talked up the need for infrastructure investment in the South Pacific, the importance of America's role in securing the region, and the benefits Australia expects from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership that Mr Trump pulled the US out of last year.

"We do not expect the US to return to the TPP anytime soon," Mr Turnbull said.

But, he added, the TPP was designed to accept new members.

Mr Turnbull was warmly welcomed by the governors with the NGA's chairman, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, declaring American states were ready to align with Australia.

"Governors are ready to elevate this important partnership," Mr Sandoval said.

Mr Turnbull was accompanied to the meeting by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, West Australian Premier Mark McGowan, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner.

Mr Sandoval joked about the large contingent of Australian leaders in Washington DC.

"We were having breakfast this morning and wondered who is running the government in Australia," Mr Sandoval said.A man has been critically injured during a robbery, one of four in Sydney's inner west that police believe are linked.

Two of the robberies occurred in the early hours of Saturday when a 29-year-old man in Ashfield and a 31-year-old man in North Strathfield were grabbed and assaulted before being robbed of their personal possessions.

In a third incident on Saturday afternoon, a 64-year-old man was robbed in Enmore after he parked his car. He was assaulted and fell, striking his head on the ground. He is in critical condition in hospital with bleeding on the brain.

A short while later a 27-year-old man was robbed in Marrickville in the same manner

In three of the robberies, the perpetrators were seen leaving in a black hatchback, which was stolen and abandoned in Dulwich Hill.Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has reportedly been hunting for a home with his pregnant lover Vikki Campion.

Mr Joyce, who has denied sexual harassment allegations levelled against him this week, announced on Friday he will officially quit as Nationals leader on Monday and go to the backbench.

It comes after weeks of controversy over his relationship with Ms Campion, his former media adviser.

The couple have been living rent-free in a millionaire friend's unit in Armidale. They were spotted in the town of South West Rocks visiting a real estate agent, The Sunday Telegraph reports.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he has made a compelling case to persuade US President Donald Trump not to slap large tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium imports to the US.

Mr Trump, who hosted Mr Turnbull at the White House on Friday, reportedly wants to introduce a global tariff of 24 per cent on other nations' steel and 10 per cent on aluminium imports.

"We believe we have made a very compelling case, but obviously the administration has to finalise its decision in this area," Mr Turnbull said, speaking to reporters at the end of his US trip on Saturday.A NSW senior constable has been charged with rape following an alleged attack at a Tamworth home in January.

Police on Sunday revealed the officer has been suspended and charged with sexual intercourse without consent and assault with an act of indecency following the alleged attack about 3am on January 22.

It was reported to police three days later and the 27-year-old senior constable, who was off-duty at the time, was arrested following "extensive inquiries", a NSW Police spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman wouldn't confirm if the victim was a man or a woman or if they were known to the officer.

He's due to at Dubbo Local Court on April 18.A police patrol car is in position as school buses head out of East Brunswick High School at the end of the school day on February 22, 2018

Outside the imposing brick school with the names of student athletes up in lights on the digital notice board, four security guards stand watch next to a police car.

Welcome to East Brunswick High School in an affluent New Jersey suburb close to New York where security has become an obsession as school shootings bedevil the United States and staff ponder how best to protect the 2,100 students.

"It has become part of something you think about all through the day," says Victor Valeski, the superintendent who oversees the 11 schools in East Brunswick.

For two years, unarmed retired police officers have patrolled the premises. But after last week's school shooting in Florida, Valeski is hiring armed police to stand guard eight hours a day.

Security has been a watch word long before a mentally unstable 19-year-old shot dead 17 people in Parkland.

It was the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20 children and six adults were killed before Christmas 2012 in nearby Connecticut, that spurred East Brunswick to act.

For the last two years, they have deployed 70 unarmed, retired police officers to protect the district's 11 schools and 8,200 pupils.

At the high school, everyone has to wear an identity badge. As soon as class starts in the morning, the school goes into lockdown, with all outside doors shut, except the main entrance which opens into a designated safe room.

Surveillance cameras monitor corridors and common areas -- but not classrooms.

- 'Matter of seconds' -

East Brunswick Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Victor Valeski says his New Jersey school district is hiring armed police to protect students in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting

Last Thursday, the day after the tragedy in Parkland, district officials decided to go to "the next step" -- after two and a half years of preparation -- and hire armed police, which as of next Monday will cover all 11 schools eight hours a day.

Valeski doesn't want to say how many there are or specify their movements, but the detachment will cost the district $430,000 a year -- on top of the $1.7 million spent on the non-armed security guards.

"This is a significant amount of money but it is a high priority," says the Air Force veteran, whose son narrowly escaped the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32.

Staff have done their best to make sure security doesn't deplete the education budget or create a fortress-like environment.

"We want schools to look like schools, but we want to make sure that when students come into the building and we lock the doors ... there shouldn't be anything in that building that could have been brought in, that could have created a problem," Valeski says.

Neither does he exclude installing metal detectors and he would still like to improve the communication system in an emergency.

"Districts who have been successful in locking down quickly and saving their students, it's been a matter of seconds," he tells AFP.

But what he does have a problem with is President Donald Trump's bid to arm teachers.

- Support Parkland -

Students at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey, where heightened safety measures, including surveillance cameras and police, have been in place since the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012

"Generally our teachers would not want that, that's a huge burden of responsibility on them when they are teaching in class," he said.

Students seem reassured by the measures already taken.

"I feel a lot safer," says Alexis Olvera, 18. "So I feel it's like the right thing."

Sameh Beshay, 16, agrees. "I think it's good right now... I don't think we need more."

But Vanessa Russo, 16, is less easy.

"If you are trying to solve a gun problem, you can't fight it with other guns," she said. "Is this the solution? Instead of better outreach for students who may be feeling homicidal or they want to hurt someone or themselves?"

But East Brunswick students are united behind Parkland students and will follow their call for a walk-out on March 14 to demand stricter gun control.

Valeski supports a ban on automatic weapons for personal use. "I think weapons of mass destruction belong with the armed forces," he says simply.

Part of students' growth, he says, is learning about social activism and how to articulate their thoughts.

"If they don't like what their elected officials are doing, then maybe they will become the elected officials -- this is a generation that is motivated to do that."(L to R) Cho Tae-yul, South Korean ambassador to the UN, speaks with US envoy Nikki Haley during an emergency UN Security Council meeting on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, November 29, 2017

The United States asked the United Nations Security Council on Friday to blacklist a number of North Korean entities involved in smuggling oil and coal in violation of sanctions resolutions.

The US request came after President Donald Trump announced new sanctions against North Korea-linked shipping assets in a package he described as the "heaviest" ever against Pyongyang.

The US mission said it had submitted a list to the council's sanctions committee "aimed at shutting down North Korea's illicit maritime smuggling activities to obtain oil and sell coal."

The mission did not provide details but said the action coincided with one taken by the US Treasury Department, which is expected to target "56 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses," according to the White House.

Imposing sanctions on North Korean entities requires the approval of all 15 council members, including the North's ally China. It was not immediately known when a decision on the request would be made.

"Today's unprecedented actions make it clear that the United States will not let up on North Korea," US Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a statement.

"We are ramping up the pressure on the North Korean regime, and we're going to use every tool at our disposal, including working with our allies and through the UN, to increase the pressure until North Korea reverses course."

The Security Council last year adopted a series of resolutions to tighten and expand export bans aimed at cutting off revenue to North Korea's military programs.

The measures ban coal exports and severely restrict deliveries of oil and refined petroleum products, but a recent report by a UN panel of experts found that North Korea had succeeded in circumventing sanctions.

North Korea earned $200 million in revenue last year from exports of coal, iron, steel and other banned commodities, the report said.Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort allegedly secretly paid a former European chancellor and other ex-politicians to lobby for Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych's government

Donald Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than two million euros ($2.5 million) to lobby for Ukraine's then-leader backed by Russia, US prosecutors have claimed.

The charges, lodged in a Washington federal court by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday, said Manafort retained the so-called Hapsburg Group of onetime politicians to "take positions favourable to Ukraine, including by lobbying the United States."

The group, which operated from 2012-2013, was managed by an unnamed "former European chancellor," who along with other members of the group lobbied US legislators and White House officials, the indictment alleged.

They were to "appear to be providing their independent assessments of government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine," according to the indictment.

Manafort, 68, has been accused by the team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he did for Viktor Yanukovych from 2006-2014.

Austrian media reported that the former European chancellor in question was Alfred Gusenbauer, the country's leader from 2007-8.

Gusenbauer on Saturday denied to the Austria Press Agency and to public radio that he had conducted any such lobbying work, however, adding that he had never heard of the Hapsburg Group.

"I met Manafort two times I think... but I had nothing to do with Paul Manafort's activities in Ukraine or with Yanukovych's Party of Regions and his activities in the US," Gusenbauer, 58, told radio station Oe1.

- 'Highly personal relationship' -

Yanukovych served as Ukraine's president from 2010 until he was ousted in 2014 as a result of a popular uprising.

After that, Manafort stopped working for him, eventually returned to the United States and, in 2016, joined Trump's presidential election campaign.

Backed by Moscow, Yanukovych was eyed suspiciously at the time in much of Europe for his pro-Russia stance and widespread accusations of deep corruption.

Manafort is believed to have been behind Yanukovych's spectacular political comeback after huge protests dubbed the Orange Revolution overturned his fraud-tainted victory in 2004.

With Manafort's help Yanukovych's Party of Regions won parliamentary elections in 2006 and in 2010 he beat rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a presidential poll.

Yanukovych's allies say that the shrewd political strategist had enormous influence over him.

A report in the Atlantic magazine said the two men developed a "highly personal relationship" and even swam naked together outside Yanukovych's bathhouse.

Yanukovych currently lives in Russia and is wanted in Ukraine for high treason.

The Hapsburg Group was meant to "act informally and without any visible relationship" to the Ukraine government, a memorandum written by Manafort in June 2012 read.

While the latest indictment did not charge Manafort with any crime specifically tied to the Hapsburg Group, those activities were cited to show Manafort had been actively lobbying for Ukraine and had allegedly broken laws by not registering as such in the United States.

- Ukraine wants to cooperate -

In Kiev, Ukrainian prosecutors said Saturday they wanted to cooperate with Washington over Manafort.

Sergiy Gorbatyuk, head of special investigations at the General Prosecutor's Office, said Ukrainian prosecutors would be sending a letter to Mueller in the coming days.

"We want to understand how they will be cooperating with us," Gorbatyuk told AFP. "We have criminal proceedings under way where we are looking into Paul Manafort's activities," he added.

"The accusations made against him overlap with our investigation and cooperation is important to achieve results," Gorbatyuk said. "That's what we should say in the letter to Mueller."

He added that Ukrainian prosecutors wanted to question Manafort several years ago but a formal request sent to the US authorities went unanswered.

"Until now we had practically no cooperation."

pmh-os-as-stuThe Catholic church has thrown its weight behind demands for peaceful change in DR Congo. The church wields much influence through its role in education and social support

Efforts to force DR Congo President Joseph Kabila to quit face a key test on Sunday when protestors, backed by the Catholic church, return to the streets after two demonstrations that the authorities bloodily repressed.

Fifteen people were killed by security forces on New Year's Eve and January 21 in peaceful protests that sought to heap pressure on Kabila to step down, according to a toll by the UN and organisers. The government says two people died.

Sunday's march in Kinshasa has been called by the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC), an organisation close to the church, an influential social and spiritual force in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kinshasa city authorities have "neither authorised nor banned" the planned march, according to officials who said they have not been contacted by the organisers.

Ahead of the protest, many Catholics in the capital attended mass on Friday, heeding a call by Pope Francis to pray for peace in their country and in war-battered South Sudan.

In the Sacred Heart church, Father Crispin Mbala urged Christians to join the non-violent march.

"The antidote to fear is commitment," the Jesuit priest told worshippers in a church frequented by several prominent public figures.

Some churchgoers told AFP Friday how they felt bolstered by Francis' action.

"When we march on Sunday, we won't be alone. The pope will be with us in spirit," said Gisele Mukadi from the poor, northern Matete district.

"He supports us. It's good to know for it motivates us more."

Civil servant Cesar Babwe, 62, found that Friday's mass was "spiritual rearmament for Sunday's assault. The pope is with us. The universal church is mobilised for peace in the DRC, which comes via democratic alternatives."

- Mounting tension -

Sunday's march comes on the heels of two previous protests, on December 31 and January 21, that were repressed by live gunfire

Political tension in DR Congo has been mounting since September 2016, when clashes between youths and security forces left dozens dead in Kinshasa.

Fears have multiplied that a sprawling, chronically unstable country, which experienced wars from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003, could explode into violence once more, shaking central and southern Africa.

Kabila, who took over from his assassinated father in 2001, is at the helm of a government that critics and grassroots groups say is freighted with corruption and incompetence.

He was due to stand down from office in December 2016, ending his second elected term, but he has stayed on under laws enabling him to retain power until his successor is elected.

Under a deal brokered by the church, he agreed that polls would be held by the end of 2017.

No caption

But this plan fell through because of what the authorities called "logistical problems" in preparing the vote.

Late in January, Kabila said that he stood by the latest timetable to hold elections -- on December 23 this year, two years later than scheduled. But he has refused to state clearly whether he intends to stand again.

Every Thursday, at 9pm, church bells toll across the city to remind people of the 2016 transitional agreement and the need to keep it.Just two days before the school shooting in Florida revived the US gun control debate, debt-plagued gunmaker Remington Outdoor announced it will file for bankruptcy

Just two days before the school shooting in Florida revived the US gun control debate, debt-plagued gunmaker Remington Outdoor announced it will file for bankruptcy.

The financial woes of the more than 200-year-old company illustrate a paradox of the Trump era: weapon manufacturers miscalculated, ramping up production in anticipation of a Hillary Clinton presidency that would drive sales of those fearing increased gun control.

Instead, they got a period of political dominance for the powerful gun lobby accompanied by financial fragility for the gunmakers.

Since Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, gun manufacturers have struggled to deal with excess supply, forcing them to rein back manufacturing, cut jobs and slash prices, as well as prompting some executives to be replaced.

"Because Republicans are in control of both the White House and the Congress, the threat of increased gun regulation went way down and so the stocking behavior of consumers went way down," said Emile Courtney, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings.

But since the February 14 Parkland shooting, which left 14 students and three teachers dead, survivors from the Florida school have emerged as powerful advocates for gun control, urging Trump and others to take action.

On Friday, a stampede of major companies, including insurers Chubb and MetLife, security company Symantec and rental car giants Avis Budget Group, Enterprise Holdings and Hertz joined others in ending discount programs for National Rifle Association members.

The move came amid heightened pressure from some consumers as the "#BoycottNRA" hashtag trended on Twitter.

- Demand fell 'off the cliff' -

If past trends hold, the revived talk of gun restrictions in the wake of the mass shooting will boost gun sales as more consumers stockpile weapons amid worries they could be banned.

But it is unclear how that will affect the companies' bottom line amid a rising tide of antagonism toward the gun lobby.

Sturm Ruger & Company this week became the latest industry player to detail the hit from slackening sales, reporting a 40 percent drop in 2017 profits to $52.1 million, a sharp pullback from the assessment of "stronger-than-normal demand during most of 2016."

The company cut manufacturing of its firearms and has eliminated 700 jobs over the last year, 28 percent of its workforce, executives said on a conference call this week.

Sturm Ruger chief executive Christopher Killoy said the company had made progress in working down inventory amid the tough climate.

Christopher Metz, who was hired as chief executive of Vista Outdoor in October, said pricing is now "much more rational" compared with a significant part of last year.

"There were competitors that were trying to catch up with the kind of falling off the cliff demand," Metz said early this month.

- New era? -

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Trump has opened the door to some changes, such as endorsing a ban on "bump stocks," an accessory that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one, and urging stronger background checks.

But the president, who praised the National Rifle Association as "very, very great people," also favors arming teachers, a stance ridiculed by educators.

Jeff Pistole, a gun dealer in Arkansas, expects the headlines to boost gun sales in the short run, especially for the AR-15, the gun used in Florida and many other mass shootings.

"Every time there's a shooting, the price spikes on them and then after everything settles down, the price falls back down on them. And after Trump got elected, they got really cheap," he said.

Pistole said the response to Parkland by gun control supporters has been much more muscular compared with the Las Vegas shooting in October, which resulted in 58 fatalities.

"There's been a lot of backlash," he said. "At first, people are saying 'Oh, Trump's president, we're not worried...' but with this one, there's a lot going on in the media, so people are paying attention to it."

This has also increased pressure on companies to cut ties with the gun industry. First National Bank of Omaha announced Thursday it was withdrawing its NRA-branded Visa credit card.

"Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA," First National Bank said on Twitter.

"As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa card."

Asset manager BlackRock, a large shareholder in American Outdoor Brands, Sturm Ruger and Vista, said it planned to speak with gunmakers following the Florida shooting, but would not sell the shares, according to news reports.Rakhine is festering with ethnic tensions and has been roiled by communal violence, but bombings in the state capital Sittwe are rare

Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine's state capital Sittwe early Saturday morning, including at the home of a high ranking official, Myanmar police told AFP, adding that no deaths were reported.

It is the latest violence to hit Rakhine, which is festering with ethnic tensions and has been roiled by communal violence in the north against the Rohingya and insurgencies in other parts of the state.

Bombings in the state capital are rare however.

"Three bombs exploded and three other unexploded bombs were found. A police officer was injured but not seriously," a senior officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The blasts took place around 4:00am (2130 GMT Friday), the officer said.

One exploded in the compound of the state government secretary's home, while the two others hit in front of an office in the city and on a road leading to a beach.

A local official from the state government also confirmed the explosions.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

"Some streets are being blocked by police already because of the bomb blasts," Zaw Zaw, a local resident of Sittwe, told AFP by phone.

In recent months unrest in Rakhine has been concentrated in the state's northern wedge, where a sweeping military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim community last August pushed nearly 700,000 refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

The state capital Sittwe lies around 100 km south of the epicentre of that conflict.

The explosions come almost exactly six months to the day since northern Rakhine was plunged into crisis on August 25 when Rohingya rebels raided police posts, killing at least a dozen officials.

Myanmar's military responded with a ruthless campaign that the UN says amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population, who are now overwhelmingly based in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Myanmar authorities deny committing any atrocities but have blocked UN investigators from investigating the conflict zone, where thousands of Rohingya are believed to have been killed.

Sittwe was once home to a sizeable Rohingya population but most were forced to abandon their homes by deadly communal violence in 2012.

Today a small community of Rohingya are confined to a Muslim enclave in the city while more than 100,000 others are still living in squalid displacement camps outside the capital.

In a separate conflict in Rakhine state last month, seven people were killed and a dozen injured when police opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who were trying to seize a government office in the town of Mrauk U.

The violence prompted an ethnic Rakhine rebel group in the state to promise "serious" retaliation for the deaths of the protesters.

Around two weeks later the town's administrator was found murdered on the side of the road.Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Lashkar Gah which killed at least two soldiers

At least 23 people, mostly soldiers, were killed and more than a dozen wounded in a series of attacks and suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest assaults on the war-torn country's beleaguered security forces.

In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers.

"Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area," defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Deputy provincial governor Younus Rasooli said the authorities had sent a fact-finding delegation to Bala Buluk to investigate the assault.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the diplomatic area of Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing at least three people and wounding five others, deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

"At around 8:30 am, a suicide bomber on foot, well-dressed with a necktie on, was identified at a checkpoint. He blew up his explosives, killing three and wounding five others," he said, updating an earlier toll.

A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The NDS compound is located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

Afghan security personnel seal off the site of a suicide attack near the diplomatic area of Kabul

"I was driving nearby when I heard a big explosion, the windows of my car were smashed. I saw several wounded people on the street near me," a witness told Tolonews TV adding that security forces had since swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the attack site.

The Islamic State group, which is trying to make inroads in Afghanistan, claimed the responsibility for the Kabul attack.

In December, a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near the same compound, killing at least six civilians.

Kabul has recently seen an increase in attacks by both Taliban and the IS group.

Since mid-January, militants have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in the capital, killing more than 130 people as the city remains on high alert fearing further violence.

- Car bombings -

In two other attacks on Saturday in volatile southern Helmand province, suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

In the first incident, militants used a Humvee to attack an army base in Nad Ali district but the vehicle was destroyed when soldiers identified it and hit it with a rocket propelled grenade, provincial spokesman Omar Zawak told AFP.

"Unfortunately, two soldiers were killed in the attack and seven wounded," he said.

The Nad Ali attack was followed by a second suicide car bombing in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah that wounded seven people.

The attack was against an NDS compound and near a police headquarters in the city, Helmand police spokesman Salaam Afghan told AFP.

The Taliban claimed both attacks in Helmand.

Militants including the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks on Afghan troops and police in recent months, sapping morale already hit by desertions and corruption.

Afghan soldiers have taken what the UN describes as "shocking" casualties since international forces ended their combat role at the end of 2014, though troop casualty figures are no longer released.Opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu was shot and wounded in Tanzania's administrative capital, Dodoma in September.

A recent spate of violent attacks in Tanzania threaten the country's democracy, the European Union has said.

"We note with concern the recent developments which threaten democratic values and the rights of Tanzanians," the EU said in a statement Friday.

The EU said it was "saddened by the tragic shooting" of a student, hit by a stray bullet during an opposition rally in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam earlier this month, and called for "thorough inquiries into all the recent deaths of political and human rights activists".

"We are worried by the rising number of reports of violence in the last months," the EU said.

On Friday the opposition Chadema party said one of its elected officials was murdered in "a political assassination" in the centre of the country.

Last September, senior opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu survived being shot several times at his home in the capital Dodoma.

The US recently raised similar concerns over political violence in Tanzania.The Philippines is the only state in the world aside from the Vatican where divorce is illegal

Around 2,000 Roman Catholic Filipinos protested in Manila on Saturday against a push to legalise divorce, with church groups also using the "Walk for Life" march to slam President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drugs war.

The pre-dawn protest was organised by church groups worried about the possible passage of a divorce bill, which is being championed by Duterte's allies in Congress.

The Catholic Church counts about 80 percent of Filipinos as followers, and its lobbying has helped to make the Philippines the only state in the world aside from the Vatican where divorce is illegal. Abortion and same sex marriage are also outlawed.

"Christ the Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. Let not Congress lay waste these victories with a divorce bill," a commission of the country's Catholic bishops said in a pastoral letter read at the march.

"What God has joined together, no man, no human being must separate. No to divorce."

Duterte has not personally taken a stance on the bill. But he has actively attacked the church since taking office in mid-2016, accusing the clergy of sexual abuses and hypocrisy.

The church in turn has been one of the most outspoken critics of Duterte, particularly his human rights record, with the government admitting to the killings of some 4,000 suspects in its drugs war. Activists say the real toll is three times that number.

Bishop Broderick Pabillo, one of the leaders of Saturday's rally, said the church's opposition to divorce and its criticism of extra-judicial killings under Duterte emerged from a shared "pro-life" stance on both issues.

"All of that involves life: the taking of life, even divorce.... That deals with the family that is the centre of life," he said.Iranian-Canadian environmentalist Kavous Seyed Emami died in prison

Three environmentalists have been detained in Iran, a conservative-linked news website reported late Friday, the latest in a series of arrests of wildlife campaigners in the Islamic republic.

"Members of the Association for the Protection of Nature in Lavardin were arrested by a security agency. The allegations against them are unknown," Tabnak reported.

It said they were arrested in Bandar Lengheh in the southern Hormuzgan province on the Gulf coast.

It follows the arrest of eight members of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Association, Iran's most prominent nature NGO, in January on espionage charges.

Its founder Kavous Seyed Emami, 63, died in prison around two weeks later.

Officials say he committed suicide in his cell, but the family have questioned the verdict and say they were threatened by officials.

The deputy head of the government's Environment Protection Organisation, renowned water campaigner Kaveh Madani, was also detained briefly this month.The three blasts at separate locations around Sittwe included one at the home of a high-ranking official

Three bombs exploded early Saturday in the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, a cauldron of ethnic tensions roiled by insurgencies and a military crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya, injuring one police officer, officials said.

The three blasts at separate locations around Sittwe included one at the home of a high-ranking official, police told AFP.

Besides the bloody campaign against the Rohingya in the state's north, Rakhine has been struggling with a decade-long rebellion fought by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist insurgents, though bombings in the state capital are rare.

"Three bombs exploded and three other unexploded bombs were found. A police officer was injured but not seriously," a senior officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The blasts hit at around 4:00 am (2130 GMT Friday), the officer said.

One was detonated in the compound of the state government secretary's home, while the two others exploded in front of an office in the city and on a road leading to a beach.

A local official from the state government confirmed the explosions. Photos of the sites showed shattered windows and scattered debris.

Photos of the sites showed shattered windows and scattered debris

"Some streets are being blocked by police already because of the bomb blasts," Zaw Zaw, a resident of Sittwe, told AFP by phone.

In recent months, unrest in Rakhine has been concentrated in the state's northern wedge, where a sweeping military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim community last August pushed nearly 700,000 refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

International attention has focused on that conflict, with the UN leading global condemnation of what it says amounts to a military-led ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

Yet restive Rakhine also hosts a lesser-known insurgency waged by a Rakhine Buddhist rebel group called the Arakan Army, which periodically clashes with Myanmar troops.

Unlike the Rohingya Muslims who are denied citizenship, the Rakhine are recognised by the government as an ethnic minority but are still marginalised in a country historically dominated by the Bamar (Burmese) majority.

Tensions between the community and local authorities shot through the roof after a police crackdown on an ethnic Rakhine mob left seven dead last month.

That violence in Mrauk U township prompted the Arakan Army's political wing to warn of a "serious" retaliation for the deaths of the protesters.

Around two weeks later the town's administrator was found murdered on the side of the road.

- Ethnic Rakhine tensions -

David Mathieson, an independent analyst based in Myanmar, said the Sittwe blasts were more likely tied to ethnic Rakhine tensions than the Rohingya crisis, whose epicentre is further north.

The Arakan Army is "the only armed group operating in central Rakhine that would have the sophistication to do something like this", he told AFP.

Coordinated strikes in an urban area would however mark a "significant escalation" of that rebellion, which typically sees clashes outside the capital.

He said it was unlikely that the bombs were linked to the Rohingya -- who also have a militant wing -- as very few Muslims have mobility in the capital.

The coastal city of Sittwe was once home to a sizeable Rohingya population but most were forced to abandon their homes by deadly communal violence with ethnic Rakhines in 2012.

Today a small community of Rohingya are confined to a Muslim enclave in the city while more than 100,000 others are still trapped in squalid displacement camps outside the capital.

Further north, the vast majority of Myanmar's 1.1-million Rohingya population has now fled across the border to Bangladesh in a mass exodus that began six months ago.

Refugees say they ran from a ruthless army assault that saw troops team up with ethnic Rakhine mobs to torch homes, murder civilians and commit mass rape.

Myanmar authorities deny committing any atrocities and say they were targeting Rohingya rebels who raided police posts in August, killing at least a dozen officers.

The government has blocked UN staff from investigating the conflict zone in northern Rakhine, where thousands of Rohingya are believed to have been killed.Wounded Syrian children await treatment at a makeshift hospital in the main Eastern Ghouta town of Douma after fresh air strikes on the rebel enclave on February 23, 2018

Air strikes and rocket fire hit the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta for a seventh straight day on Saturday after the United Nations again delayed a vote on a ceasefire.

The Damascus government launched a devastating bombardment of the enclave just outside the capital last Sunday that has now killed at least 474 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based monitor of the war said three civilians were killed and 12 wounded in Russian air strikes on the Eastern Ghouta town of Harasta early Saturday.

Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

The Observatory relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia's recent actions in Syria were a "disgrace".

Friday's civilian death toll in the enclave -- under siege by the Syrian army since 2013 -- totalled 41, including 17 children, according to the Observatory.

The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote on Friday on a resolution calling for a month-long ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians.

But the vote was postponed until 1700 GMT on Saturday as Western powers bickered with Russia over the wording.

Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two Islamist factions and Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the jihadists or their allies.

Fires light up the evening sky over the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta as the army presses its bombardment into the night on February 23, 2018

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called "hell on earth", but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.

The enclave is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.Ben Enwonwu's painting of a Yoruba princess became a symbol of national reconciliation at a delicate time in Nigeria's history

She's been described as "the African Mona Lisa", the subject of a long-lost series of three paintings by the artist considered the father of Nigerian modernism.

But like Leonardo da Vinci's most famous portrait, finding out more about the woman in Ben Enwonwu's "Tutu" has so far been elusive, even for her extensive extended family.

One of the missing works, which was discovered in a north London flat, goes on sale in the British capital on Wednesday and is expected to fetch 250,000 pounds ($347,000, 282,000 euros).

Enwonwu was professor of fine arts at the university in Ile-Ife, the cradle of the Yoruba people in southwest Nigeria, when he met Adetutu Ademiluyi and painted her in 1973 and 1974.

The painting of the Yoruba princess by an ethnic Igbo artist became a symbol of national reconciliation at a delicate time in Nigeria's history.

A brutal civil war had ended just four years earlier between federal forces and Biafran separatists wanting an Igbo homeland in the southeast.

- Royal stock -

In his Lagos studio, Oliver Enwonwu said: "It's a thing of joy that several decades after his death my father's works are being appreciated globally"

What is known about "Tutu" is that she was the granddaughter of the traditional ruler, Ademiluyi Ajagun, the Ooni (king) of Ife, who died in 1930.

He is said to have married up to 47 times, had many mistresses and, unsurprisingly, many children.

Surviving relatives in Ife said they remember an Adetutu in the family.

"Adetutu was... one of the daughters of Kabiyesi (king) Ademiluyi," said Olori (queen) Anifowoshe, who added that she was the only surviving wife of the former monarch.

But Anifowoshe, who is said to be more than 100, couldn't recall if Adetutu married or had children and told AFP: "She died many years ago."

Cecilia Ayoka is another centenarian and was married to Prince Okero Ademiluyi, a son of the former king.

"I used to know Adetutu in those days but for some years now I haven't heard anything about her," she added.

"Not many people knew Adetutu because Ademiluyi is such a large family.

"My husband who happened to be one of the direct children was over 120 years before he died and he had more than 40 wives," she said. "Only three of us are still alive."

- 'I can't believe she's alive' -

Ben Enwonwu's "Tutu" painting has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Mona Lisa

Giles Peppiatt, the head of modern and contemporary African art at Bonhams auction house who found what he describes as "the mythical picture", has been in Nigeria doing his own detective work.

Last week, he travelled the 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Lagos to Ife and said the older women in the family may have been referring to an Adetutu of a different generation.

He said family members told him a younger Adetutu was alive, in her late 60s and living in Lagos, which would tally with her being aged in her late teens when she sat for Enwonwu.

"Tutu is one of about 300 (children). That's why it's actually quite difficult to find her," he said.

He added: "It's amazing. I can't believe she's alive."

Enwonwu -- famous for creating a bronze sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II -- died in 1994 and appears not to have left any clues about his subject.

At his studio in Lagos, the artist's son, Oliver, said he can't recall his father ever discussing it and doesn't know where the remaining two paintings are.

But the 42-year-old, who is president of the Society of Nigerian Artists, said he was pleased about the increasing recognition his father was getting.

"It's a thing of joy that several decades after his death my father's works are being appreciated globally," he added.

Peppiatt said although he was hopeful of finding the real Tutu after so long, it had no bearing on the painting's worth as art.

"I will say, either way, I think it's... just a beguiling picture, it's an amazing portrait and whether we find her or not doesn't really affect the value of the work.

"The value of the work is what he painted in 1973, not whether we find the sitter in 2018."ZemZeman, a 73-year-old ex-communist with strong pro-Russian, pro-Chinese and anti-Muslim views, won a second five-year term in a presidential vote in January.n

The Czech Republic's pro-Moscow president has repeatedly lobbied for a Russian hacker held in Prague and wanted by the US to be extradited to Russia, the justice minister was quoted as saying Saturday.

Yevgeni Nikulin, sought by the US for alleged cyberattacks on social networks and also by his native Russia on fraud charges, has been in a Prague prison since he was arrested in the Czech capital in October 2016 in a joint operation with the FBI.

The case comes amid accusations by Washington that Russia tried to "interfere" through hacking in the 2016 US election won by Donald Trump, charges the Kremlin has dismissed.

Last May, a Prague court ruled that the 30-year-old Nikulin can be extradited to either Russia or the United States, with the final say left to Justice Minister Robert Pelikan.

"It's true that there have been two meetings this year at which the president (Milos Zeman) asked me to extradite a Russian citizen not to the United States, but to Russia," Pelikan told the aktualne.cz news site.

The site said the meetings had taken place in January, while earlier this week Pelikan received Vratislav Mynar, the head of Zeman's office, who also lobbied for Nikulin's extradition to Russia.

"It's none of your business, but I have handed the minister a letter from the detained Nikulin's mother," Mynar told aktualne.cz.

Zeman's spokesman Jiri Ovcacek declined to comment on the matter when asked by AFP.

Following Nikulin's arrest, Moscow accused Washington of harassing its citizens and vowed to fight Nikulin's extradition.

It then issued a separate arrest warrant for him over alleged theft from the WebMoney settlement system.

The US has charged Nikulin with hacking into social networks LinkedIn and Formspring and into the file hosting service Dropbox, Nikulin's lawyer Martin Sadilek told AFP earlier.

He also said Nikulin alleges that FBI investigators had tried twice to persuade him to confess to cyberattacks on the US Democratic Party.

Zeman, a 73-year-old ex-communist with strong pro-Russian, pro-Chinese and anti-Muslim views, won a second five-year term in a presidential vote in January.A party congress for Cameroon's main opposition Social Democratic Front held in the western city of Bamenda

Cameroon's main opposition party on Saturday selected deputy leader Joshua Osih as its presidential candidate to challenge the long-ruling President Paul Biya in elections later this year.

Osih was elected at a Social Democratic Front (SDF) party congress in the western city of Bamenda after veteran leader and perennial presidential hopeful John Fru Ndi ruled out running on Thursday.

Osih, a former businessman who hails from the troubled anglophone southwest of the country, told excited activists that he would mobilise the party in all 366 local authorities for the election, expected to be held in October.

"Etoudi is within our reach," he said, referring to the presidential residence.

He is fluent in both English and French, and the SDF draws much of its backing from two predominantly English-speaking enclaves in the west of Cameroon, formerly ruled by both Britain and France.

Tensions are high in the anglophone regions, where protesters who claim discrimination by the French-speaking majority have led to violence and a crackdown.

Anglophones account for about a fifth of the west African country's 23 million population.

- 'Atrocities' in anglophone regions -

After easily beating two other candidates, one of whom pulled out late, in Saturday's vote, Osih told the press that "our doors are open" and he would not rule out a coalition with other parties.

Fru Ndi ruled out running for president again after leading Cameroon's main opposition Social Democratic Front since he founded the party in 1990

He will likely have a rival in prominent lawyer Akere Muna, an anglophone who last month won the endorsement of several small opposition parties and grassroots groups.

The SDF's founder Fru Ndi, 74, said he would "pass the torch to the person you choose" on Thursday after losing to Biya three times -- in 1992, 2004 and 2011 -- as well as boycotting the vote in 1997.

In a letter to Biya published Saturday, Fru Ndi accused government troops and police of committing "atrocities" in the anglophone regions, as he warned that the deepening rift was "bringing us closer and closer to civil war".

"With every passing day an innocent Cameroonian dies, a wife loses her husband," Fru Ndi told Biya.

"Houses are being razed with no regard for life or human dignity, women are being raped ... and the granaries with the fruit of agricultural workers' hard labour are reduced to ashes," he added, as he blamed the "forces of law and order."

The 85-year-old Biya, in power since 1982, has not yet said whether he will stand for re-election, though his party regards him as "the natural candidate".

Critics say his rule has been characterised by ruthless exploitation, corruption and repression.

Anglophone demonstrators have demanded a federal state, while some secessionists have even called for an independent state they have dubbed "Ambazonia".The mullet has remained a staple hairstyle in Kurri Kurri, some 150 kilometres north of Sydney

"Business at the front, party at the back" was the mantra for the crowd of Australians sporting a mullet haircut at an inaugural festival celebrating the vintage style on Saturday.

More than 150 people showcasing the hairstyle popular in the 1970s and 80s flocked to a small town north of Sydney for the event, swishing their locks and parading their chops to cheering fans.

More than 150 people showcasing the hairstyle popular in the 1970s and 1980s flocked to the small town

The mullet has remained a staple hairstyle in Kurri Kurri, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Sydney, according to Laura Johnson, a local publican who organised the festival.

"There's a school of thought from our locals at our table of knowledge here at the Chelly (Chelmsford) Hotel that they have had the mullets for the longest," she told AFP at Kurri Kurri Saturday.

Mullet heads swished their locks and paraded their chops to cheering fans

"We've got folks here that have been sporting their mullet haircut for over 60 years."

For Lloyd Martin, a flamboyant mullet-contest participant passionate about the style, the cut is timeless and also intrinsically Australian.

"It's... one of the most Australian cultural haircuts you can have. You've got to grow a mullet at least once in your lifetime. It's not a hairstyle, it's a lifestyle," he told AFP.

Mullet fans say the cut is timeless and also intrinstically Australian

The winner of the junior division, 12-year-old Alex Keavy, said he was not fazed by the style's old-fashioned reputation.

"It's out of its time but I still like it and all my friends keep telling me that they want one but I don't think a lot of people can wear it properly," he told AFP.

The festival's flamboyant contestants are passionate about the style

"I just love it because I like its style and I like long hair."

Laurie Manurele, who drove 12 hours from the neighbouring state of Victoria to take part in the contest, has tended his mullet for 46 years.

He told AFP he was impressed at the competition he faced.

"The quality of mullets here today is absolutely unbelievable," he said.

"It's amazing what's out there and Australia is the capital of the world for mullets."An election campaign banner put up by supporters of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi looms over a Cairo street saying "We are with you for the sake of Egypt."

Campaigning began in Egypt's presidential election on Saturday with incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi likely to romp to victory in the absence of a serious challenger in the two-candidate race.

The former army chief will face the head of the liberal Ghad party, Mussa Mustapha Mussa, after the other potential contenders withdrew or were arrested ahead of the March 26-28 polls.

In January, a coalition of eight opposition parties and 150 public figures called for a boycott of the election, branding it a "charade".

Mussa is little known by the public and previously backed the incumbent.

Egypt's National Election Authority has urged the media to be "objective" and banned government officials from "trying to influence the outcome of the election, positively or negatively".

Sisi's campaign spokesman Mohamed Bahaa Abu Shukka, in statements aired Saturday by television stations, said campaigners will canvass the country door to door to encourage people to vote.

They will visit factories and farms to explain to voters the importance of taking part in the election even if Sisi is seen "as the favourite candidate," Abu Shukka said.

Banners by Sisi supporters glorifying him and calling for his re-election are strung across the streets, and the president's every move and official meetings get wide media coverage.

Before becoming president in 2013, Sisi led the military in ousting the country's first freely elected leader, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi.

He stormed to victory in the following year's presidential election after security forces crushed all his Islamist and liberal opponents and sent hundreds of them to prison.

His critics say he has silenced all forms of political opposition during his first four-year term.

"How can we speak of an election when there is no guarantee of a free vote?," Hamdeen Sabbahi, a former presidential candidate, told a news conference as the opposition called for a boycott in January.

Among key figures detained ahead of the polls were Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, a former leading member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and former army chief of staff Sami Anan.

Abul Fotouh, who had joined the call to boycott the election, was also put on a terror list and accused of spreading false news that could harm Egypt's interests.

The army detained Anan, saying he announced his candidacy illegally while still a registered officer.

He was seen as the most credible election rival to Sisi.Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe celebrated his 94th birthday Saturday with a private black-tie party hosted by his family, three months after he was ousted from power

Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe celebrated his 94th birthday on Saturday with a private black-tie party hosted by his family, three months after he was ousted from power.

Mugabe's birthday was previously a major public event in Zimbabwe, marked by an outpouring of fawning congratulations and tributes in official media from regime loyalists, government ministries and agencies.

His actual birthday on Wednesday was declared an annual public holiday for the first time this year, but the occasion was greeted without fanfare.

"The party is only for close family members and friends. It is not for the public and it is strictly by invite," Louisa Nyanhongo, a member of Mugabe's close circle, told AFP.

An invitation card that appeared on social media said guests would be "celebrating our hero", alongside a smiling photograph of Mugabe.

The card said the party was at "Blue Roof" -- the lavish private residence where Mugabe and his wife Grace, 52, have been living in apparent seclusion since he was forced to resign after a military intervention.

Nyanhongo's telephone number appeared on the invitation, but she declined to comment further.

While president, Mugabe typically celebrated his birthday with a long speech while wearing a suit decorated with images of his own face at a party that included a multi-course feast.

Vast birthday cakes were a regular feature, with the biggest cake said to weigh the same number of kilogrammes as Mugabe's age. It took several men to carry it into the marquee.

Mugabe, whose 37-year rule was criticised for brutal repression of dissent and economic collapse, has not appeared in public since his abrupt ousting.

This week, he was photographed with Grace meeting the new African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat in Harare.

The photographs were the first of the couple since his ousting.No caption

The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have banned a protest march planned Sunday against President Joseph Kabila, after two similar rallies were brutally put down last month.

Kinshasa governor Andre Kimbuta told the Catholic organisers in a letter on Saturday that without an agreed route, the city authorities "cannot guarantee proper supervision" of the demonstration.

Kimbuta's decision came after organisers were invited to a working session to discuss possible routes but the meeting ended without a deal when members of a key opposition group did not turn up.

Fifteen people were killed by security forces on New Year's Eve and January 21 in peaceful protests that sought to heap pressure on Kabila to step down, according to tolls given by the United Nations and organisers. The government says two people died.

Sunday's march in Kinshasa was called by the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC), an organisation close to the church, an influential social and spiritual force in the troubled central African country.

Political tension in DR Congo has been mounting since September 2016, when clashes between youths and security forces left dozens of people dead in Kinshasa.

Fears have multiplied that a sprawling, chronically unstable country, which experienced wars from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003, could explode into violence once more, shaking central and southern Africa.

Kabila, who took over from his assassinated father in 2001, is at the helm of a government that critics and grassroots groups say is riven with corruption and incompetence.

He was due to stand down from office in December 2016, ending his second elected term, but he has controversially stayed on under laws enabling him to retain power until his successor is elected.

Under a deal brokered by the church, he agreed that elections would be held by the end of 2017.

But the plan fell through because of what the authorities called "logistical problems" in preparing the vote.

In January, Kabila said he stood by the latest timetable to hold elections -- on December 23 this year, two years later than scheduled. But he has refused to state clearly whether he intends to stand again.Once a Muslim rebel bastion, PK5 is now home to several armed groups that have taken advantage of the weakness of the state since the end of a sectarian conflict pitting mainly Muslim rebels against nominally Christian militias

The government of Central African Republic deployed troops alongside United Nations peacekeepers Saturday to a flashpoint district on Bangui after clashes between rival groups left at least three people dead.

"The government must restore peace," said security minister General Henri Wanzet Liguissara in a speech broadcast on national radio.

Peacekeepers from the UN's MINUSCA force were deployed with government forces in the fractious PK5 and KM5 districts of Bangui "to take out all those who don't want peace and want weapons to sound out," throughout KM5, the minister said.

Three people were killed and at least seven others wounded in clashes in the PK5 neighbourhood late Thursday.

Once a Muslim rebel bastion, PK5 is now home to several armed groups that have taken advantage of the weakness of the state since the end of a sectarian conflict pitting mainly Muslim rebels against nominally Christian militias.

Last week, a neighbourhood traders' association called ACK demanded the peacekeepers take action to shut down such armed groups, who have long been accused of extortion and violence against shopkeepers and the local population.

Fed up with having to repeatedly cough up protection money, local traders in January refused to pay, prompting a tense standoff with the militias as well as with MINUSCA troops, whom they accuse of inaction.

Mired in poverty but rich in minerals, the former French colony has been battered by a conflict between rival militias that began in 2013 after then president Francois Bozize was overthrown.

Thousands of people have been killed in the fighting.Turkey called on the international community to end the "massacre" in the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta hit by intense regime bombardment ahead of a UN Security Council vote

Turkey called on the international community to end the "massacre" in the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta hit by intense regime bombardment ahead of a UN Security Council vote on Saturday.

"The regime is committing massacres in Eastern Ghouta," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.

"The world should say stop to this massacre together," Kalin said.

New air strikes hit the enclave on Saturday raising the civilian death toll from seven days of intense bombardment to over 500 including more than 120 children, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

"Have you seen or heard a country seriously react to the continued atrocity in Eastern Ghouta for several days?" Erdogan thundered later Saturday.

The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote Friday on a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians but diplomatic haggling delayed it.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday called on Russia and Iran to "stop" the regime's bombardment in one of the conflict's bloodiest episodes.

While Turkey has supported Syrian rebels, Russia and Iran are strong supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad whose removal Ankara has called for.

Ankara does not have any official contact with Damascus.

"There are still those wretched people who say 'let's come together with Assad'. What is there to repair, to instigate with a murderer who killed a million of his fellow citizens?" Erdogan asked during a speech in the southern city of Osmaniye.

As part of a peace process held in Astana aimed at stopping the seven-year war, the three countries sought to create de-escalation zones across Syria, including one for Eastern Ghouta.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions forced to flee the country or been internally displaced in the conflict, which began with anti-government protests in 2011.Taoufiq Bouachrine, director of Morroccan daily Akhbar al-Yaoum flashes a V for victory sign as he leaves a Casablanca court on October 1, 2009 after a hearing over a cartoon deemed offensive by the Moroccan royal family that his newspaper published

Moroccan police on Saturday detained a journalist and summoned for questioning two employees from an independent media group, a day after its outspoken publisher was detained, his newspaper said.

Prominent publisher and journalist Taoufiq Bouachrine, known for editorials critical of authorities in the North African country, was arrested Friday during a raid by 20 plainclothed policemen on the Akhbar al-Yaoum daily in Casablanca.

The authorities have not given the reason for his detention. Bouachrine, 49, has faced repeated legal cases in the past for allegedly defaming officials.

The newspaper said journalist Ibtissam Machkour, the head of women's news site Soltana, was detained by police Saturday and two employees from Akhbar al-Yaoum were also summoned for questioning.

Bouachrine's arrest has provoked a wave of criticism, with rights activists, lawyers and legislators offering him their support.

This is not Bouachrine's first run in with the authorities.

In 2009, Bouachrine and Akhbar al-Yaoum cartoonist Khalid Gueddar were each given a four-year suspended jail sentence following two separate trials over a cartoon about a wedding which was deemed offensive to Morocco's royal family.

The pair were also ordered to pay heavy fines and damages, while the paper was shut down.

Bouachrine has also faced lawsuits from government ministers who have accused him of defamation.

And in June 2010, Bouachrine was sentenced to six months for fraud relating to a property deal.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Morocco 133rd out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index last year.Sunday's march in Kinshasa has been called by the Lay Coordination Committee, an organisation close to the church, an influential social and spiritual force in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Tensions soared in Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday as hundreds of ruling party supporters stormed Kinshasa cathedral after authorities banned a planned church-backed rally against President Joseph Kabila.

The incident came as the chronically unstable nation braced for more unrest following months of tension and clashes sparked by Kabila's refusal to step down.

"We have come to take possession of Our Lady of the Congo Cathedral to take part in Sunday mass... and defend the homeland," Papy Pungu, youth wing leader of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), told AFP, vowing to "spend the night here".

Authorities banned Sunday's anti-Kabila march after previous protests on New Year's Eve and January 21 saw 15 people killed by security forces, according to tolls given by organisers and the UN.

The government says just two people died at those protests.

- 'Provocation' -

The storming of Kinshasa cathedral by ruling party supporters sowed panic, according to witnesses in the area, hours after authorities banned a Sunday protest march

Witnesses said the arrival at the cathedral of the PPRD supporters, many wearing red berets, sowed panic in the capital's northern Lingwala municipality.

"They arrived aboard several Transco (public transport) buses and stormed the shrine of the Virgin. It's a provocation," local parishioner Felicite Mbula told AFP.

"The church is closed, we couldn't hold mass this evening," she added.

Antoine Bokoka, a parish official, said the PPRD were "pretending to come to pray Sunday. But you don't stay overnight in our parishes".

The capital was already on edge after authorities banned the anti-Kabila protest, with two similar rallies having been brutally put down last month.

On Saturday evening, tensions were high in Kinshasa, where police put up barricades, searched vehicles and checked people's IDs.

Kinshasa governor Andre Kimbuta told the Catholic organisers in a letter that without an agreed route, the city authorities "cannot guarantee proper supervision" of the demonstration.

Kimbuta's decision came after organisers were invited to discuss possible routes but the meeting ended without a deal when members of a key opposition group did not turn up.

Sunday's planned march was called by the Lay Coordination Committee (CLC), an organisation close to the church, an influential social and spiritual force in the troubled country.

The church hierarchy has repeatedly urged the population to remain "vigilant" against the Kabila regime.

Kabila in January accused the church of interfering in Congolese politics, saying: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

On Saturday, the cabinet accused the clergy of undertaking "partisan political activism", according to the minutes of a meeting chaired by Kabila.

- Dozens dead in clashes -

Political tension in DR Congo has been mounting since September 2016, when clashes between youths and security forces left dozens of people dead in Kinshasa.

Fears have multiplied that the country, which experienced wars from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003, could explode into violence once more.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Kinshasa police chief General Sylvano Kasongo said he was under orders to "take measures to ensure the security of the population, and to stop anyone who attempts to disturb public order".

He added: "The goal is to have zero casualties."

Kabila, who took over from his assassinated father in 2001, is at the helm of a government that critics and grassroots groups say is riven with corruption and incompetence.

He was due to stand down from office in December 2016, ending his second elected term, but he has controversially stayed on under laws enabling him to retain power until his successor is elected.

Under a deal brokered by the church, he agreed that elections would be held by the end of 2017.

But the plan fell through because of what the authorities called "logistical problems" in preparing the vote.

In January, Kabila said he stood by the latest timetable to hold elections -- on December 23 this year, two years later than scheduled.

But he has refused to state clearly whether he intends to stand again.Delta has joined a host of companies that are cutting ties with the National Rifle Association, the powerful US gun lobby

US airlines Delta and United on Saturday joined the ever-expanding list of companies cutting ties with the National Rifle Association, the country's powerful gun lobby, in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Florida.

The "#BoycottNRA" hashtag has gained traction on Twitter since the Valentine Day's rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida left 14 students and three staff dead.

"Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program," Delta said in a statement.

"We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website."

United chimed in with a similar message, also discontinuing discounted rates for NRA members attending the group's annual meeting.

The two airlines join several other companies in retracting benefits for the NRA and its members, including rental car companies Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise and Hertz, First National Bank of Omaha and insurance providers Chubb and MetLife.

"Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA," First National Bank of Omaha said.

Allied Van Lines and North American Van Lines, along with security company Symantec, have also severed ties.

United Airlines also ended its partnership with the NRA, suspending discount rates that had been offered to its members

Allied Van Lines said it "no longer has an affiliate relationship with the NRA effective immediately."

None of the companies explicitly linked their statements to the mass shooting in Florida, but their decisions come as activists are pushing for stronger gun controls in the United States.

Bank of America said it would immediately "engage the limited number of clients we have that manufacture assault weapons for nonmilitary use to understand what they can contribute" to helping end mass shootings.

A 19-year-old former student at the Parkland school, Nikolas Cruz, used an assault-style rifle to carry out the February 14 shooting.

The incident has once again shone the spotlight on the NRA, which staunchly opposes any limits to the right to bear arms enshrined in the US Constitution.

On Thursday, National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre slammed what he called "the shameful politicization of tragedy," and called for Americans to be the first line of defense -- meaning arming teachers.

That idea has been embraced by President Donald Trump, who again pushed his controversial plan to arm "firearms adept" teachers with "annual training" to help protect the nation's schools.

"Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States," Trump tweeted.The United States is seeking to have the United Nations ban 33 vessels from ports worldwide and blacklist 27 shipping businesses for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions

The United States is seeking to have the United Nations ban 33 vessels from ports worldwide and blacklist 27 shipping businesses for helping North Korea circumvent sanctions.

The US request to a UN sanctions committee, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, came as President Donald Trump announced Friday the "heaviest sanctions ever" on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

Japan joined the United States in supporting the request concerning three of the 33 vessels for carrying out ship-to-ship transfers of oil destined for North Korea in violation of UN resolutions.

Council members have until Friday at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) to raise objections to the proposed sanctions.

The measures will come into effect if none of the council members, including the North's ally China, block the request.

Only eight vessels have so far been banned from ports for sanctions-busting and the US request would significantly expand the blacklist in a bid to cripple North Korea's maritime network.

Last year, the Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban North Korean exports of commodities in a bid to cut off revenue to North Korea's military programs.

The measures severely restrict deliveries of oil and refined petroleum products to North Korea, but a recent report by a UN panel of experts found that Pyongyang was flouting sanctions.

North Korea earned $200 million in revenue last year from exports of coal, iron, steel and other banned commodities, the report said.

The United States and Japan are strong backers of sanctions as a way to pressure Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table and end its drive to develop nuclear weapons.

- Ban on North Korean ships -

Of the 33 vessels that would be hit by the global ban on port entry, a significant number -- 19 -- are from North Korea in a move that could deal a blow to Pyongyang's use of ships to trade in banned goods.

Most of those North Korean tankers, merchant vessels and cargo ships are suspected of taking part in illegal ship-to-ship oil transfers.

The global port ban and UN deflagging would also apply to 13 cargo and tanker ships flagged by various African, South American and Caribbean countries, according to the confidential request sent on Friday.

One ship, the Hao Fan 6, sails under a Chinese flag and is cited for loading North Korean coal at Nampo port in August.

Japan wants three tankers to be banned from ports: the Dominica-flagged Yuk Tung, Belize's Wan Heng 11 and the North Korean tanker Yu Jong 2.

Japanese military patrol planes spotted the transfer of oil cargo involving the Yu Jong 2 in the East Sea earlier this month and reported it to the UN sanctions committee.

The US request targets a national from Taiwan, Tsang Yung Yuan, who is said to be coordinating illegal North Korean coal exports with a North Korean broker in Russia.

Of the 27 shipping and trading firms facing a UN assets freeze, five are based in Hong Kong including Huaxin Shipping, which has allegedly used its vessel to deliver North Korean coal to Vietnam.

Two other companies -- Shanghai Dongfeng Shipping and Weihai World Shipping Freight -- also based in China, are cited for carrying North Korean coal on their vessels.ISTANBUL (AP) - Turkey's official news agency says a court has ruled that three academics who signed a peace petition committed terror propaganda but deferred a final verdict for five years.

Anadolu news agency said the Istanbul court on Friday originally sentenced the three to 15-month prison terms but revised the sentences to five years of probation because of the defendants' good behavior and lack of prior records.

They are part of a group of 1,128 academics who signed a declaration in January 2016 denouncing security operations against Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey. Many of the academics lost their jobs.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the signatories of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Trials of some 150 academics started in December, and the verdicts handed down Friday were the first.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Russia investigation (all times local):

4:40 p.m.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is accusing President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman of secretly paying former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2017, file photo, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort arrives at federal court in Washington. In a dramatic escalation of pressure and stakes, special counsel Robert Mueller filed additional criminal charges Feb. 22, 2018, against Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The new allegation against Paul Manafort comes in a newly unsealed indictment made public Friday. The indictment followed a guilty plea by Manafort's longtime business associate, Rick Gates.

The indictment accuses Manafort of paying the former politicians, informally known as the "Hapsburg group," to appear to be "independent" analysts when in fact they were paid lobbyists. Some of the covert lobbying took place in the U.S.

The indictment says the group was managed by a former European chancellor. Court papers accuse Manafort of using offshore accounts to pay the group more than 2 million euros.

___

3:05 p.m.

President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman is maintaining his innocence after his longtime business associate pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Paul Manafort says in a statement that the plea by Rick Gates on Friday does not change his commitment to defend himself against what he calls "untrue piled up charges." Manafort says he had "hoped and expected" that Gates would have "the strength" to continue to trial. He says Gates chose to plead guilty for "reasons yet to surface."

Gates has pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and false statements charges in the special counsel's Russia investigation.

The plea is a strong indication that Gates is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as it continues to probe the Trump campaign, Russian election interference and Manafort.

___

2:55 p.m.

A former top adviser to President Donald Trump's election campaign has formally pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and false statements charges in the special counsel's Russia investigation.

The plea by Rick Gates is a strong indication that he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as it continues to probe the Trump campaign, Russian election interference and Gates' longtime business associate, Paul Manafort.

The 45-year-old Gates made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington. It comes a day after Gates and Manafort were indicted in Virginia on new charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort, who is Trump's former campaign chairman, has said he is innocent.

___

2 p.m.

Rick Gates, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, has arrived at a federal courthouse in Washington ahead of an expected guilty plea.

A court filing shows Gates has agreed to plea to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities.

The plea could indicate he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Gates' scheduled guilty plea comes a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned an indictment against him and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud.

___

12:30 p.m.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed two charges in advance of a scheduled guilty plea by a former top adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign.

Rick Gates is set to appear at 2 p.m. Friday at the federal courthouse in Washington for a plea agreement hearing. A court filing shows Gates has agreed to plea to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities.

The plea could indicate he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Gates' scheduled guilty plea comes a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned an indictment against him and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud.

___

11:05 a.m.

A former top adviser to the Trump campaign is expected to plead guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

A person close to Rick Gates say he is expected to enter the plea as early as Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details.

A plea could signal that he's planning to cooperate with Mueller.

The plea comes a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned an indictment against him and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. It was the second round of charges against the two men. They were charged last October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

___

12:10 a.m.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed additional criminal charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman and his business associate.

The Thursday filing adds allegations of tax evasion and bank fraud and significantly increases the legal jeopardy facing Paul Manafort, who managed Trump's campaign for several months in 2016, and longtime associate Rick Gates. Both had already faced the prospect of at least a decade in prison if convicted at trial.

The two men were initially charged in a 12-count indictment in October that accused them of a multimillion-dollar money-laundering conspiracy tied to lobbying work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party. Manafort and Gates, who also worked on Trump's campaign, both pleaded not guilty after that indictment.

Rick Gates arrives at federal court in Washington, Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. Gates, a former top adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign is scheduled to plead guilty in the special counsel's Russia investigation to federal conspiracy and false statements charges. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Rick Gates arrives at federal court in Washington, Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. Gates, a former top adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign is scheduled to plead guilty in the special counsel's Russia investigation to federal conspiracy and false statements charges. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on a bipartisan group of governors working on a health care solution (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

A bipartisan group of governors working to strike compromise on hot-button policy issues is taking on health care.

FILE - In this June 27, 2017, file photo, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, right, joined by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. Kasich, a Republican, and Hickenlooper, a Democrat, scheduled a Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, news conference in Washington to outline their latest bipartisan policy work for improving the nation's health care system. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sihk) presented the group's blueprint for policy changes at the National Press Club in Washington on Friday. He lamented that one of the country's largest challenges seems to have been set aside by policymakers.

Kasich and Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have been working for more than a year on identifying common ground in health care, immigration and other top policy issues. They were joined in Friday's effort by independent Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.

The governors' plan includes their ideas for improving affordability, restoring stability, promoting flexibility so that states can innovate and eliminating duplicative and burdensome insurance regulations.

___

6 a.m.

A bipartisan group of governors says the two parties can and should work together to improve the nation's health care system.

Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and others are set to discuss the group's latest policy work on health care during a news conference Friday in Washington.

Their blueprint lays out ways to improve affordability, restore stability, promote flexibility in the states and eliminate burdensome or overlapping insurance regulations.

Some specifics include urging the federal government to restore insurer subsidies that were stopped by Republican President Donald Trump, triggering sharp increases in premiums this year, and supporting more outreach to help sign people up for coverage.

Kasich and Hickenlooper, who are both term-limited, have been working together for more than a year.Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has been indicted on a felony invasion of privacy charge under a state law enacted to punish Peeping Toms who secretly photograph or shoot video of their victims. He's accused of taking a compromising photo in 2015 of a woman with whom he was having an affair without her permission. He has admitted to the affair but denied criminal wrongdoing.

Here is a look at the law and legal questions about it:

___

FILE- In this May 23, 2017, file photo, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens speaks outside the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. Greitens is the latest of several U.S. governors who have been indicted on a wide variety of charges in the last century. He is the sixth governor indicted since 2000. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

WHAT IS ILLEGAL INVASION OF PRIVACY IN MISSOURI?

It's knowingly photographing or filming another person nude or semi-nude without their consent in a place where the person should have "a reasonable expectation" of privacy, then distributing the images or transmitting them in a way that allows access to it on a computer. Under the version of the law in place at the time of Greitens' affair, the crime was a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

___

WHAT HAPPENED IN GREITENS' CASE?

Shortly after Greitens and the woman began having an affair, her husband secretly recorded a conversation in which she said Greitens invited her downstairs at his home because he wanted to show her "how to do a proper pull-up." The indictment says the incident occurred March 21, 2015.

She said on the tape that Greitens "taped my hands to these rings and then put a blindfold on me," took a photo of her partially nude and warned her to remain silent. She said she saw a flash through the blindfold and he told her, "You're never going to mention my name."

Greitens has not answered questions about whether he took a photo and has denied blackmailing the woman.

___

HOW DID MISSOURI GET ITS LAW?

State lawmakers enacted the first version of the invasion-of-privacy law in 1995, after a southwestern Missouri prosecutor discovered that his wife, daughter and two secretaries were among female customers secretly videotaped at a combination tanning salon and video store.

___

HOW COMMON ARE SUCH CHARGES?

According to the Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator, 274 felony invasion-of-privacy counts have been filed in 36 counties and the city of St. Louis after 2003. In St. Louis city, only one has been filed - apparently Greitens' case.

___

HOW DOES THE LAW COVER GREITENS' ALLEGED CONDUCT?

His attorneys argue that it doesn't. In a request to have the charge dismissed, they said that the law does not apply to adults engaging in consensual sexual activity. Allowing Greitens' case to go forward, they said, could lead to "criminalization of routine activity between consenting adults."

But former state House Speaker Jim Kreider, who sponsored the 1995 legislation, said he believes the law applies to more than voyeurs who photograph or videotape strangers. He believes it covers instances in which a spouse takes a photo or video of another spouse without consent in their home.

"The whole key here is the reasonable expectation of privacy," he said.

___

WHAT EVIDENCE DO PROSECUTORS HAVE?

That's not yet clear, though the woman's ex-husband was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury.

Greitens' former lover almost certainly would have to testify because of his constitutional right to confront his accuser.

The photograph in question might also be introduced.

Ben Trachtenberg, an associate law professor at the University of Missouri, said it would be key to a successful prosecution. Without it, he said, "it is hard to see how there is a case."

"If the charge is that somebody has illegally taken a certain photograph, the jury is going to expect to see the photograph," Trachtenberg said.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kansas, also contributed.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhannaLAS VEGAS (AP) - The Latest on calls for Nevada's governor and attorney general to enforce a gun background-check law that has not been enforced since it was passed by state voters in November 2016 (all times local):

4:05 p.m.

A Nevada judge made no immediate ruling whether to force state officials to enforce a gun buyer screening law that has not been implemented despite voter approval in November 2016.

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2016 file photo, handguns are displayed at a trade show in Las Vegas. With protesters outside the courthouse calling for action, a Nevada judge is due to hear arguments about a voter-approved gun background-check law that has not been enforced since voters passed it in November 2016. The Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, hearing stems from a lawsuit filed in October, just days after a gunman shot into an open-air concert crowd on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Attorney Mark Ferrario, arguing for enforcement, told the judge Friday that for unspecified personal or political reasons, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval and GOP state Attorney General Adam Laxalt have stalled the law for more than a year.

State Solicitor General Lawrence Van Dyke counters that Nevada can't force the FBI to expend federal resources to enforce a state law.

The measure would expand background checks to have the FBI screen criminal histories of weapon buyers during private and gun show sales.

Clark County District Court Judge Joe Hardy Jr. says he'll issue a ruling soon, but he didn't say when.

____

12:35 p.m.

A Nevada judge is due to hear arguments Friday in a lawsuit urging enforcement of a

The lawsuit was filed in October, just days after a gunman in a high-rise casino shot into an open-air concert crowd on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds.

Backers want the Nevada initiative enforced, although they concede it wouldn't have prevented the Las Vegas gunman from legally obtaining assault-style weapons.

Attorneys for the state argue that Nevada can't force the FBI to expend federal resources to enforce the state law.

About 25 protesters were outside the courthouse. They also spoke of the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Florida.

FILE - In this Oct. 4, 2017 file photo, agents from the FBI continue to process evidence at the scene of a mass shooting in Las Vegas. With protesters outside the courthouse calling for action, a Nevada judge is due to hear arguments about a voter-approved gun background-check law that has not been enforced since voters passed it in November 2016. The Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, hearing stems from a lawsuit filed in October, just days after a gunman shot into an open-air concert crowd on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - The public defender's office for Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state is complaining that a military-led crackdown on crime there is violating constitutional rights.

The agency's statement complains about the military's decision Friday to photograph and check the IDs of people coming in and out of crime-ridden slum areas.

Brazil's Constitution asserts citizens can only be approached by police when there are objective reasons to do so.

A soldier takes a picture of a resident and his identification card during a surprise operation at the Vila Kennedy slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. The public defender's office for Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state is complaining that a military-led crackdown on crime there is violating constitutional rights. The agency's statement complains about the military's decision Friday to photograph and check the IDs of people coming in and out of crime-ridden slum areas. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Brazil's government have the army control over security in Rio last weekend, hoping to quell a rising tide of crime in the city, which is the country's main tourist draw.

Soldiers patrol a street during a surprise operation at the Vila Alianca slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. The public defender's office for Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state is complaining that a military-led crackdown on crime there is violating constitutional rights. The agency's statement complains about the military's decision Friday to photograph and check the IDs of people coming in and out of crime-ridden slum areas. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired center Derick Brassard from Ottawa on Friday night in a three-team deal that sent defenseman Ian Cole to Ottawa and forward Ryan Reaves to the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Penguins announced the deal Friday night during their 6-1 victory at Carolina, with Pittsburgh general manager Jim Rutherford calling it "the most complex trade I've made" because of salary cap issues and the involvement of a third team.

The Senators also received goalie Filip Gustavsson and the Penguins' first-round draft pick this year as well as their third-round selection next year. Pittsburgh also acquired a pair of prospects - forward Vincent Dunn from Ottawa and forward Tobias Lindberg from Vegas - plus Ottawa's third-round pick this year.

Chicago Blackhawks goalie Anton Forsberg, left, blocks a shot by Ottawa Senators center Derick Brassard during the third period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, in Chicago. The Blackhawks won 3-2. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Vegas also received a fourth-round pick this year, and is retaining 40 percent of Brassard's salary. According to the Penguins, Brassard is signed through next season with an average annual salary of $5 million.

Rutherford said when he had been asked previously about acquiring Brassard, "the answer's always been, 'No,' because we really didn't think we could figure out how to fit him under the cap."

The 30-year-old Brassard had 18 goals and 20 assists in 58 games for the Senators this season. He has 159 goals and 261 assists in 702 regular-season games in 11 seasons with Columbus, the New York Rangers and the Senators.

Pittsburgh is trying to become the first team since the 1982-83 New York Islanders to win three straight Stanley Cups. Brassard figures to slide in as the third-line center behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

"We've tried to get more depth at center and get more insurance there," Rutherford said. "Our centers have played pretty well, but you've got to have a lot of strength at center and we just felt we had a chance to get a guy like this, this was a good addition."

The 29-year-old Cole had three goals and 10 assists in 47 games for Pittsburgh this season. He has played eight seasons with St. Louis Pittsburgh, helping the Penguins win the last two Stanley Cup titles.

The 31-year-old Reeves had four goals and four assists in 58 games this season for the Penguins, and is one of the league's pre-eminent fighters. According to Hockeyfights.com, Reaves has had 62 regular-season fights in his career with St. Louis and Penguins. He's been in six fights this season.

"He's a unique player," Vegas general manager George McPhee told reporters during a first-intermission news conference during the Golden Knights' game against Vancouver. "Tough guys in this league, many of them are obsolete because they can't play. This guy can play, and he will be able to help us out. We picked up a fourth round pick along the way."

Later, McPhee said the Golden Knights added "two assets that we think will help the hockey club."

The 19-year-old Gustavsson plays for Lulea in the Swedish league.

___

More AP NHL: www.apnews.com/tag/NHLhockeyRALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin each had two goals and an assist and the Pittsburgh Penguins routed the Carolina Hurricanes 6-1 on Friday night for their season-best sixth straight victory.

Jake Guentzel had a goal and two assists, Sidney Crosby scored a late goal and Olli Maatta also scored. The Penguins took control with three goals - two by Kessel - in a 7:39 span in the second period.

Matt Murray made 27 saves for Pittsburgh, which has won 11 of 13 to overtake Washington for the Metropolitan Division lead. Since the Penguins were shut out by Carolina on Jan. 4, they are 16-3-1.

Carolina Hurricanes' Brock McGinn (23) and Pittsburgh Penguins' Justin Schultz (4) chase the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

They were just as busy off the ice, completing a mid-game trade in which they picked up center Derick Brassard from the Ottawa Senators. As part of the complicated three-team deal, they sent defenseman Ian Cole to Ottawa and forward Ryan Reaves to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes.

JETS 4, BLUES 0

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Connor Hellebuyck made 34 saves for his sixth shutout of the season and Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor each had a goal for Winnipeg.

Hellebuyck has three shutouts in six career games against St. Louis.

Nic Petan and Patrik Laine also scored to help the Jets win for the fourth time in five games.

Jake Allen made 19 saves for the Blues. They are 0-4-1 in their last five.

BLACKHAWKS 3, SHARKS 1

CHICAGO (AP) - Jean-Francois Berube made 42 saves in his first start for Chicago.

Defenseman Jan Rutta, activated from injured reserve Friday, and Nick Schmaltz scored, and Artem Anisimov added an empty-netter with 30.5 seconds left.

The Blackhawks won their second straight and third in four games following an eight-game losing streak that dropped them to last place in the Central Division.

Timo Meier scored for San Jose.

WILD 4, RANGERS 1

NEW YORK (AP) - Mikael Granlund and Eric Staal each scored twice and Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves in Minnesota's victory over New York.

The Wild completed a three-game sweep of New York-area teams after beating the Monday night and New Jersey on Thursday night. The Rangers lost for the sixth straight time in regulation. New York is 6-17-0 since beating Buffalo in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1.

Jesper Fast scored for New York.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6, CANUCKS 3

LAS VEGAS (AP) - William Karlsson scored two goals and Reilly Smith had three assists to lead the Golden Knights to a victory over the Canucks.

Tomas Hyka, Jonathan Marchessault, Tomas Nosek and David Perron also scored for the Golden Knights.

Vegas, which has won five of its past six games, improved to 16-2-1 against Pacific Division teams.

Vegas' Marc-Andre Fleury, who is four wins shy of becoming the 13th goalie in NHL history to register 400 career wins, stopped 30 shots.

Vancouver, which dropped to 3-7-1 in February, is 5-11-1 against intradivision foes.KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide bomber killed at least two and wounded seven in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's capital on Saturday, and at least 18 soldiers died in an attack on a checkpoint by Taliban insurgents in the country's west, authorities said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the Kabul attack took place in the Shash Darak area near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. Danish said the initial casualty count could rise.

The Islamic State group in a statement on its website claimed responsibility.

Security forces inspect the site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, commander of Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, said at a news conference he expected IS and the Taliban to continue such attacks.

"We will work hard with our Afghan security counterparts and teammates to help protect the civilians of Afghanistan as much as possible," he said.

In western Farah province, at least 18 soldiers were killed when their checkpoint came under attack by Taliban insurgents, said Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He said two other soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Bala Buluk district.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official said at least three security personnel were killed in separate suicide bombing attacks in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand, said a car bomber early Saturday was shot by Afghan army soldiers but his vehicle managed to reach the entrance of the army base in Nad Aali district, killing two soldiers and wounding another.

In a second suicide bombing attack near another military base in Helmand's capital city Lashkar Gah, one security person was killed and seven civilians wounded, Zwak said.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for both suicide attacks in Helmand.

The resurgent Taliban and the newer IS affiliate have been blamed for increased violence in Afghanistan after U.S. and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014 that began after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.

On Jan. 27, a Taliban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives into the heart of the city, killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235.

The Taliban claimed the ambulance attack, as well as an attack a week earlier in which militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing 22 people, including 14 foreigners, and setting off a 13-hour battle with security forces.

The recent attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces more than 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban.

They also raise questions about President Donald Trump's strategy for winning America's longest war, which was announced in August but has changed little on the ground. That strategy was based on ramping up military pressure on the Taliban to eventually force them into peace talks with the government.

___

Associated Press writers Mirwais Khan in Kandahar and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Security forces inspect the site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

Security forces inspect the site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

Security forces inspect the site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

A woman talks to her phone as her relative were at site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy.(AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

Security forces inspect the site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) - U.S. Alpine director Patrick Riml began his trek back to Utah before the last ski race of the Olympics was done. He knows he has work to do after the country produced its fewest golds in the sport since 2002, fewest medals since 2006.

In a telephone interview Saturday, Riml called his men's team's Olympic performance "disappointing" and acknowledged that "we definitely have to rebuild" before the 2022 Beijing Games.

"We need to sit down and let it sink in and do a thorough evaluation," Riml told The Associated Press while traveling by car to Seoul ahead of a flight Sunday. "We have to take a very close look at how we prepare, how the season went, what we have to do better, what went wrong and what we have to do moving forward."

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2011, file photo, Alpine director Patrick Riml of the United States ski team looks on during the presentation of the United States ski team in Innsbruck, Austria. Riml tells the AP that his men's team's Olympic performance was "disappointing" and acknowledges "we definitely have to rebuild" before the 2022 Beijing Games. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson, File)

He spoke as the Alpine team event was still being contested, but after the U.S. had been eliminated by Britain in the first round of the 16-nation contest, which Riml described as "from our standards, a little disappointing." Switzerland won that last gold, Austria took the silver and Norway the bronze, leaving each of those countries with seven Alpine medals.

The Americans, meanwhile, finished with three medals from 11 Alpine races: one gold and one silver from Mikaela Shiffrin, and one bronze from Lindsey Vonn.

That total is down from five medals, including two golds, at the Sochi Olympics four years ago, when Vonn was sidelined after knee surgery. In 2010, the U.S. won eight medals, with two golds. In 2006, the full haul was two golds. In 2002, the American count at Alpine was two silvers, both courtesy of the now-retired Bode Miller.

"We had quite a few up and downs," Riml said about the past two weeks. "We had some very strong performances and, in other events, we definitely were struggling."

He said he was pleased with the U.S. women, including having three members of the top seven finishers in the downhill.

But "on the men's side, the performance was disappointing. ... We definitely would have hoped for better results there," Riml said, adding: "Not just talking about medals, but the performances on each day."

The American men had only one top-10 finish in their five individual events, Ted Ligety's fifth in the combined.

Looking ahead to the next Winter Olympics, Riml noted that Vonn and Ligety - who have earned a combined five Olympic medals, including three golds - are not expected to still be competing. Both would be 37 years old.

"We know we have to go into a rebuilding phase and develop some young skiers," Riml said, "and hopefully next time around, we can be competitive and perform on a high level."

___

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

___

More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org/

United States' David Chodounsky reacts after racing Britain's Laurie Taylor in the alpine team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

United States' Megan McJames skis during the alpine team event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)BANGKOK (AP) - One of several bombs targeting government offices and other places in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state exploded Saturday morning, injuring a police officer, authorities said.

In all, three bombs exploded and three unexploded devices were seized in Sittwe, the state capital. One of the explosions was in front of a high-ranking government official's residence, state police officer Aung Myat Moe said.

"There were three bomb explosions around 4 a.m. this morning where one policeman was slightly injured and we are still investigating crime scenes," he said

In this image made from video, police and officials inspect the site of a bomb explosion early Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar. Police say one of several bombs targeting government offices and other places in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state exploded, injuring a police officer. (AP Photo)

Last month, local police fired at protesters in the ancient city of Mrauk-U, killing at least seven Rakhine Buddhists and injuring a dozen. A township administrator was later found slain in his car by the side of the road.

Communal violence in Sittwe in 2012 displaced more than 120,000 Rohingya Muslims now confined to camps outside of the city, where most Rakhine Buddhists remain.

About 700,000 Rohingya have fled northern Rakhine towns and villages since last August to escape a military crackdown.DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - As the Syrian government escalates its attacks on opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, rebels in outlying towns are retaliating with volleys of mortar shells and rockets into the capital, killing more than 25 civilians in the past two weeks and spreading fear among its 4 million residents.

Many parents have stopped sending their children to school. Some are skipping work and hunkering at home. Some are even contemplating leaving until it all calms down.

The scope of the rebel attacks on Damascus pales in comparison to what has rained down from warplanes on eastern Ghouta, where more than 400 people have been killed this week in the region only a short drive from the capital.

This photo released on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a Syrian paramedic treating children who were injured by the shelling of the Syrian opposition fighters, in Damascus, Syria. As the Syrian government steps up its attacks on the opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, rebels in outlying towns are retaliating by sending volleys of mortar shells into the capital, killing more than 25 civilians in the past two weeks and spreading fear among its four residents. (SANA via AP)

But the intensity of the shelling has brought renewed anguish and suffering to the population, shattering a prevailing sense for some time now that the war - or the worst of it - was over.

Issam Dhahi, a 45-year-old resident of the Qassaa neighborhood, said his two children haven't been to school or university for the past 15 days, and the family only ventures out to buy necessities. The predominantly Christian neighborhood has been a regular target of random shelling, bringing life to a standstill.

Five people from his neighborhood were wounded Wednesday and five others were killed since the beginning of February, Dhahi said. Usually packed shops in the mixed commercial and residential district now close at 5 p.m., so people can get home before dark.

"My son's car was hit yesterday with shrapnel. ... Today, a condolences ceremony at a church in Qassaa was canceled because of fear. Everyone is staying at home," he said.

President Bashar Assad has consolidated his control over key areas of Syria in recent years with the support of Iran and Russia, but he has been unable to stop the rebels from occasionally striking at his seat of power from the sprawling Ghouta suburb. The mortar and rocket attacks stopped almost completely last summer after a Russia-brokered deal was struck with the rebels, designating eastern Ghouta to be a de-escalation zone.

For months until December, Damascus was brimming with life, its cafes and restaurants packed with people and its streets jammed with traffic again. There was hope that with Homs, Aleppo and Deir el-Zour back in the government's control, the conflict was winding to a close.

That sense has been shattered after the government escalated its attacks earlier this month on Ghouta, the only remaining rebel stronghold near the capital. Since Feb. 18, militants in the rebel-held suburbs have hit back hard, sending dozens of shells and rockets to Damascus each day, striking in markets, residential buildings and near schools in the Old City, Qassaa, Bab Touma, Umayyad Square and the suburb of Jaramana.

In three days this week, 17 people were killed, including 13 on Tuesday when 114 shells hit Damascus and its countryside. Among the dead was Lama Fallouh, a program officer at the Damascus Opera, who was killed when a shell struck near the landmark Umayyad Square in central Damascus, along with two brothers in their 20s in Jaramana and several children.

The whistle and thud of mortar rounds and rockets can come at any time. At home and at work, residents take shelter in corridors and bathrooms when the first shell hits.

"It feels like war all over again," said a mother of three who asked not to be identified because she feared for her family's security. "I get so scared every time my children or husband leave the house, I count the seconds till they're back."

The government has refused to order schools to shut down, although private schools and university can make their own decisions on whether to close.

In Jaramana, where more than 14 people have been killed since the beginning of the month, streets are deserted.

Ghabi Nakazi, the 60-year-old owner of a clothes factory, said he still goes to work despite safety concerns.

"Nothing will stop me," he said, calling on the army to eliminate what he said were "terrorists" holed up in the nearby suburbs.

___

Karam reported from Beirut.

This photo released on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians carrying a man who was injured by the shelling of the Syrian opposition fighters, in Damascus, Syria. As the Syrian government steps up its attacks on the opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, rebels in outlying towns are retaliating by sending volleys of mortar shells into the capital, killing more than 25 civilians in the past two weeks and spreading fear among its four residents. (SANA via AP)

This photo released on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian children in an old alley, in Damascus, Syria. As the Syrian government steps up its attacks on the opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, rebels in outlying towns are retaliating by sending volleys of mortar shells into the capital, killing more than 25 civilians in the past two weeks and spreading fear among its four residents. (SANA via AP)

This photo released on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians gathered next to a bunt car hit by a shelling of the Syrian opposition fighters, at a highway in Damascus, Syria. As the Syrian government steps up its attacks on the opposition-held suburbs of Damascus, rebels in outlying towns are retaliating by sending volleys of mortar shells into the capital, killing more than 25 civilians in the past two weeks and spreading fear among its four residents. (SANA via AP)COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Estonia is celebrating the centenary of its independence declaration with festivities and a military parade.

The celebrations on Saturday started with Estonia's blue, black, and white flag being hoisted atop the same downtown Tallinn tower it was flown from in 1918.

Like its Baltic neighbors, Estonia was part of the Russian Empire and briefly Soviet Russia before it declared independence 100 years ago. The small country was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and by Germany for three years during World War II.

It regained independence in 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

During Saturday's parade, President Kersti Kaljulaid reviewed troops that included a multi-national NATO unit stationed in Estonia.

Prime Minister Juri Ratas urged citizens never to forget the predecessors who established the republic.BEIRUT (AP) - Lebanese authorities in Beirut are interrogating a man suspected in the death of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait, security and judicial officials said Saturday.

The Feb. 6 discovery of Joanna Demafelis's body in the apartment in Kuwait City, where it had reportedly been kept for more than a year, sparked outrage and refocused attention on the tragic plight of poor Filipinas toiling mostly as maids abroad. It prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to ban the deployment of new Filipino workers to Kuwait, where many abuses have been reported.

A senior official with Lebanon's General Security Directorate refused to provide details other than that the man is being held by the agency and undergoing questioning.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, file photo, protesters picket the Senate at the start of the probe in the death of an overseas worker in Kuwait, Pasay city south of Manila, Philippines. The Philippine president says a ban on the deployment of workers to Kuwait, where a Filipina was found dead in a freezer, will continue and could be expanded to other countries where Filipino workers "suffer brutal treatment and human degradation." (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

A judicial official said Saturday Lebanese citizen Nader Essam Assaf was handed over by Syrian authorities to Lebanon Friday. He added that the man's Syrian wife is in Syria.

The judicial official added that it appears that when Assaf felt that the case might be discovered in Kuwait, he fled to Syria along with his wife hoping that he would not be detained. Syrian authorities detained him and later handed him over to Lebanon as he is a Lebanese citizen, the official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Lebanese media outlets reported that Assaf is from the northeastern region of Baalbek but he grew up in a neighborhood south of Beirut.

Assaf and his wife are suspects in Demafelis' death.

On Friday, the Philippines' foreign secretary said that the suspect is under arrest in Lebanon.JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - It didn't take long after Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted for alleged invasion of privacy for Missouri Democrats to tie him to Attorney General Josh Hawley, the presumed GOP front runner in Missouri's hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

Nor did it take long for Republicans to link the prosecutor who announced the charges to a prominent national Democratic financier.

The quick injection of politics was a strong sign that Greitens' potentially prolonged legal battle stemming from an extramarital affair could have implications for the 2018 elections - especially for fellow Republicans whom history suggests have a disadvantage as the party in power during the midterm of Donald Trump's presidency.

FILE- In this May 23, 2017, file photo, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens speaks outside the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. It didn't take long after Greitens was indicted for alleged invasion of privacy for Missouri Democrats to tie him to Attorney General Josh Hawley, the presumed GOP front runner in Missouri's hotly contested U.S. Senate race. Nor did it take long for Republicans to link the prosecutor who announced the charges to a prominent national Democratic financier.(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

So far, Greitens, 43, has remained defiant against growing but not-yet-overwhelming calls to resign from some fellow Republicans, while instead portraying the felony charge against him as nothing more than a political jab by a "reckless liberal prosecutor."

The Missouri Republican Party noted that St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner had received more than $200,000 from wealthy liberal financier George Soros during her campaign - casting the indictment as part of a broader Democratic attack on Republicans.

The Thursday indictment came just five days ahead of Tuesday's start of the candidacy filing period for Missouri residents wanting to run for U.S. Senate, Congress, and state and local offices. Hawley is challenging Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

An incumbent governor typically is a help to his party in races such as the Senate, but an indicted one could be a detriment.

"It doesn't help the image of the Republican Party, so in that sense it helps McCaskill and hurts Hawley" in the Senate race, said Ken Warren, a longtime political scientist at Saint Louis University.

The Missouri Senate race is being closely watched as one that could determine control of the chamber, where Republicans now have a bare majority of 51 seats. McCaskill is one of only two statewide-elected Democrats in Missouri, which Donald Trump carried by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. Republicans got behind Hawley early after a disastrous 2012 campaign when McCaskill defeated Todd Akin following his comments about "legitimate rape."

Whether Democrats can effectively tie Greitens to Hawley remains to be seen. But indications are that they will try.

On Friday, The Missouri Democratic Party noted that Hawley had accepted nearly $50,000 in contributions from Greitens in 2016 and has not called on Greitens to resign. The attorney general is conducting an investigation over Greitens' use of a secretive app that deletes messages once they've been read. It's unclear when the investigation will conclude.

Hawley took to Twitter on Friday and, without mentioning Greitens, noted that an indictment "is a serious matter" with no place for partisanship. He also expressed support for a newly announced legislative investigation into the governor, saying he's confident "the House's investigation will be thorough and swift, and will proceed without regard to party."

That House investigation could serve as a first step for impeachment proceedings against Greitens, though it also could determine he has done nothing warranting his removal from office.

University of Missouri political science professor Peverill Squire said the 38-year-old Hawley is in a "very awkward" spot.

"As the state's chief legal officer, he has to not appear to question the veracity of the legal process and certainly be supportive of prosecutorial staff," Squire said. "The other problem is, of course, he's sort of the other young and up and coming Republican, and although he obviously doesn't wish to get confused with Greitens, it'll be hard for him to distinguish himself."

McCaskill, a former prosecutor, has not commented about Greitens' indictment, and spokespeople for both her Senate office and campaign did not respond to messages seeking comment on Friday. But she took a political jab at him after the media reported last month that Greitens had engaged in a 2015 affair with his former hairdresser. The woman was recorded as saying that Greitens had blindfolded her, bound her hands and took an unwanted photo of her during a sexual encounter in the basement of his St. Louis house.

Speaking to Democrats in Columbia, McCaskill quipped last month that Greitens had run as a political outsider.

"He was going to do things that literally no other governor had done," McCaskill said, as reported by the Columbia Daily Tribune. "Little did we know it was sex in the basement."

Republican consultant John Hancock, who is not affiliated with either Greitens or Hawley's campaign, called the indictment a "political sham" but added that the underlying facts of Greitens' affair pose "a real political problem" for Republicans in the 2018 elections.

In presidential midterm elections, supporters of the incumbent president's party typically are less motivated that those in the challenging party, he said. The president's party typically loses seats in Congress. Hancock said Greitens' troubles could provide yet another reason for Republican voters to stay home on Nov. 6.

"A depressed turnout affects the entire ticket," Hancock said.

Warren said that if Hawley starts to fall behind in the race, Republicans could pressure Greitens to resign. Noting the governor's maverick streak, he doubts it would work.

"Since when has he taken cues from fellow Republicans?" Warren asked.

___

Salter reported from St. Louis

___

Follow David A. Lieb at: http://twitter.com/DavidALiebGANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) - Their nicknames, bestowed upon them long ago: "Kimchi 1" and "Kimchi 5," babies born aboard a ship that was helping them flee a war and a regime that, thanks to their rescuers, they'd never have to face.

Sohn Yang Young says he owes his life to the U.S. military. So does his friend Lee Gyeong Pil. They were among five babies born on an American ship that ferried 14,000 Korean refugees, including their parents, from North Korea in one of the world's largest humanitarian evacuation operations ever.

U.S. sailors from a ship called the SS Meredith Victory named the babies Kimchi 1 through Kimchi 5, nicknames that have become a symbol of the South Korean-U.S military alliance.

Lee Gyeong Pil waits for spectators to arrive at one the entrances of the Gangneung Curling center at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Lee was among five babies born on an American ship that ferried thousands of Korean refugees from North Korea during the Korean War. Nicknamed by U.S. crew as Kimchi 1 through Kimchi 5, they've become a symbol of the South Korea-U.S. military alliance. Lee, Kimchi 5, and his friend Sohn Yang Young, Kimchi 1, were in Gangneung to volunteer for the Olympics as part of their efforts to promote peace and remind younger generations of the lessons of the Korean War. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

They are 67 now, all of them, and the whereabouts of three are not known. But the final two - Sohn is Kimchi 1 and Lee Kimchi 5 - are making their way around the Pyeongchang Olympics, promoting peace and reminding younger generations of South Koreans of their Korean War history.

On Friday, they were in Gangneung's curling center, where South Korea's women's squad made a storybook run to the finals. The two men were volunteering for the Olympics with their wives, checking spectators' tickets and guiding them to the right gates.

"I'm the fruits of the South Korea-U.S. alliance," Sohn said. "The U.S. military is the savior of our lives and they saved my parents and other refuges. I always feel grateful to the U.S. military."

Both Sohn and Lee say they feel comfortable being called Kimchi - happy, even. During a joint interview, they often called each other by those monikers and said they were "Kimchi brothers." Lee's business card, in fact, shows "Kimchi 5" written alongside his name both in Korean and English.

"I didn't become Kimchi 1 because I wanted it. It was like my destiny," said Sohn, who runs a steel products trading company.

Their parents were among tens of thousands of civilians who gathered at North Korea's northeastern Hungnam port in December 1950, hoping to board one of about 190 U.S. vessels originally mobilized to evacuate U.S. troops retreating from advancing Chinese and North Korean troops.

Those civilians were mostly North Korean residents who wanted to flee from the North's harsh systems, such as big landowners, wealthy businessmen who feared political purges or others who sympathized with South Korea or sheltered southern soldiers.

The U.S. military eventually decided to ship those North Korean refugees to safety despite worries that the crowd might include North Korean soldiers disguised as civilians.

The 10,000-ton SS Meredith Victory was one of the last ships to leave the Hungnam port on Dec. 23, 1950. It discarded military supplies and other cargo to take as many refugees as possible.

The ship wasn't armed, didn't have enough food and water and had to navigate mine-infested waters. But after its three-day voyage to South Korea's southern Geoje Island, there were no fatalities or serious injuries. It became the "Ship of the Miracles."

In fact, the number of the ship's passengers increased slightly because of the on-board births of Sohn, Lee and three other babies - all presumably on Christmas Day. Both Sohn and Lee say the birthdays on their residence cards are December 25, 1950.

Lee's mother had massive labor pains and couldn't disembark, so she gave birth to him in the hold. A neighbor who had also fled the North cut her umbilical cord with her teeth, according to Lee's wife, Ock Junghee.

Among the refugees were the parents of current South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who described the ship's evacuation as a "voyage of freedom and human rights" during his speech in Washington last year.

"It was indeed a miracle of Christmas. And two years later, in Geoje, where the SS Meredith Victory had arrived, I was born," Moon said. "And, today, the son of the refugees that the American soldiers rescued sixty-some years ago became the President of the Republic of Korea and is here today meeting with you."

Lee, a veterinarian in Geoje, joined Moon's campaign team to support his election as president in May last year.

The Guinness Book of World Records later listed the ship's evacuation as the largest "from land by a single ship," and the ship's crew were awarded citations from both the South Korean and U.S. governments. In what is known here as the "Hungnam Evacuation," the SS Meredith Victory and other U.S. ships evacuated about 100,000 North Korean refugees.

The parents of both Sohn and Lee died long ago, but they left wills linked to their longing for their hometowns and relatives there.

Lee's parents asked him to move and bury their bones in their North Korean hometown once the Koreas are unified. Sohn's father asked him to find his elder brother and sister, left behind in the North because he didn't know his evacuation would be a permanent farewell.

"My mother always cried because of her children left in the North," Sohn said, his eyes filling with tears. "My father sometimes went out to smoke cigarettes and I saw him sobbing and wiping away tears with his handkerchief so many times."

He added: "I absolutely want to meet my brother and sister whom I have never seen. That's my father's dying wish."

___

Hyung-jin Kim is a Seoul-based correspondent for The Associated Press who is on assignment at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Follow him on Twitter at @hyungjin1972. More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org

Sohn Yang Young looks inside from one of the entrances of the Gangneung Curling center at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Sohn says he owes his life to the U.S. military. He was among five babies born on an American ship that ferried thousands of Korean refugees from North Korea during the Korean War. Nicknamed by U.S. crew as Kimchi 1 through Kimchi 5, they've become a symbol of the South Korea-U.S. military alliance. Sohn, Kimchi 1, and his friend Lee Gyeong Pil, Kimchi 5, were in Gangneung to volunteer for the Olympics as part of their efforts to promote peace and remind younger generations of the lessons of the Korean War. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)NEW YORK (AP) - Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated "The Post" has revived interest in the newspaper battles of the 1970s, the lives of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and executive Ben Bradlee and the risks of publishing the top-secret documents known as "The Pentagon Papers."

It also brought attention, however brief, to one of the country's signature First Amendment rulings: The New York Times Co. v. United States was a 6-3 decision in 1971 rejecting the Nixon administration's argument that releasing the Pentagon Papers endangered national security. Much of the movie focuses on the Washington Post's decision to publish the papers after a federal court injunction against the Times, which broke the story.

The ruling serves as the victorious climax to the press's battle against the government. And nearly a half-century later, the decision remains a major landmark in the history of freedom of the press.

In this image released by 20th Century Fox, Tom Hanks portrays Ben Bradlee, left, and Meryl Streep portrays Katharine Graham in a scene from "The Post." The film is nominated for an Oscar for best picture. The 90th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 4. (Niko Tavernise/20th Century Fox via AP)

"The decision powerfully reaffirms that even the most important government interests (such as national security) generally can't justify suppressing factual reporting, and courts have repeatedly cited it for that proposition," said Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at UCLA and a former Supreme Court clerk. "The decision also makes clear that courts generally aren't allowed to issue injunctions restraining speech."

The Pentagon Papers came out during a relatively liberal on the court, although it was becoming more conservative since the departure of Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1969. Warren Burger, who succeeded Warren, was a Nixon appointee determined to roll back the alleged excesses of the Warren court. And the resignation of Abe Fortas led to the appointment of Harry Blackmun, who became a prominent liberal but was initially aligned with his fellow Minnesotan Burger, the so-called "Minnesota Twins." One of the counsels for the Times, Floyd Abrams, said he was confident that he had the votes from four justices: Hugo Black, William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and William O. Douglas. Abrams and co-counsel Alexander Bickel hoped to win over Justices Potter Stewart and Byron White.

"We were well aware as the oral argument in the case commenced that four votes would all but surely be in favor the Times," Abrams told the AP in a recent email. "(But) we did indeed think the ruling could be a close one and that victory was by no means assured."

The Pentagon Papers were commissioned by the defense department in 1967 to provide a history of the country's involvement in Vietnam. One of the contributors, Daniel Ellsberg, had become disillusioned with the war and saw the study as a chance to show how the public had been deceived for years by the government. Ellsberg leaked what became known as the Pentagon Papers to the Times, which published its first report on June 13, 1971. After the Nixon administration obtained an injunction in federal court, the Post and other newspapers published their own accounts. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of the Times vs. the government on June 26.

Abrams said a key moment was Bickel's response to a question from Justice Stewart: "Let us assume that when the members of this Court open up this sealed record we find something that absolutely convinces us that its disclosure would result in the sentencing to death of 100 young men whose only offense had been that they were 19 years old and had low draft numbers. What should we do?" Bickel's answer was "controversial," but "essential," according to Abrams: "My inclination to humanity (would) overcome the somewhat more abstract devotion to the First Amendment." Abrams said that it was important to show the Court that if they believed soldiers really were in danger, the Times would act in a responsible manner."

The ruling was announced June 30. In a concurring opinion and his last opinion for the court, Black, who retired in September and died days later, contended that "The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the Government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." In dissent, Blackmun contended that the case had been argued in haste and that too much emphasis had been placed on the issue of free speech.

"The First Amendment, after all, is only one part of an entire Constitution," he wrote. "Article II of the great document vests in the Executive Branch primary power over the conduct of foreign affairs, and places in that branch the responsibility for the Nation's safety. Each provision of the Constitution is important, and I cannot subscribe to a doctrine of unlimited absolutism for the First Amendment at the cost of downgrading other provisions."

The Supreme Court is generally more conservative than it was in 1971 and scholars differ over how the Pentagon Papers cause would be decided now.

Volokh says that the court "is generally at least as protective of the First Amendment," but is unsure how a "First Amendment vs. national security" argument would fare because such cases are rare. Abrams believes Justice Samuel Alito would be the most likely to back the government, but adds that he's confident the First Amendment would be given preference. First Amendment scholar Ronald K.L. Collins says he was unsure how today's court would rule. He said the justices now are strongly libertarian, but not in all cases. He cites a 2010 decision, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, when the court ruled that the government "may prohibit all forms for aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities."

Collins senses that for a case like the Pentagon Papers there would be at least five court members who keep "executive privilege in check."

"But one advantage the Times had in 1971 was that so many other newspapers had reported on the Pentagon Papers that any prior restraint was essentially meaningless," said Collins, the Harold S. Shefelman Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law. "If it was just one newspaper this time, that would be a tougher case."CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's official news agency says a bus carrying workers has burst into flames after it overturned west of the coastal city of Alexandria, killing at least eight people.

The state-run MENA, citing an unnamed Interior Ministry official, said Saturday that civil protection forces extinguished the fire which also wounded 22 others.

It's not clear how many passengers were on board but officials said the bus is owned by a private porcelain company.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the accident took place as the bus driver was trying to avoid crashing into another vehicle, the official told MENA.

Road accidents are common in Egypt, often occurring due to badly maintained roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws. The country's official statistics agency says 14,700 road accidents took place in 2016 alone.Two states continue to have tornado watches in effect through the early morning hours of Sunday, out of nine that were issued such an alert on Saturday.

The latest update on the weather system that has impacted nine states bordering each other along the midwest, southwest and southeastern regions of the US has shown a tornado watch remains in effect for counties in Middle Tennessee and much of Kentucky.

'The main threat will be damaging winds, localized flooding and the possibility of brief tornadoes,' the weather center said of the remaining watch.

These tornado watches will persist until 3am Eastern, 2am Central, according to the National Weather Service.

Earlier in the night, in northeast Arkansas, an 83-year-old man was killed after high winds toppled a trailer home.

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A tornado watch remains in effect through 3 am Eastern on Sunday for Middle Tennessee and Kentucky, down from 9 states bordering each other throughout the midwest, southwest and southeastern US regions which were under the alert at its peak on Saturday

The 17 counties remaining under the watch at this time in Tennessee include: Cannon, Clay, Davidson, De Kalb, Jackson, Lewis, Macon, Maury, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Rutherford, Smith, Sumber, Trousdale, Williamson and Wilson.

These counties include the cities of Brentwood, Byrdstown, Carthage, Celina, Columbia, Cookeville, Franklin, Gainesboro, Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Gordonsville, Hartsville, Hendersonville, Hohenwald, La Vergne, Lafateyyte, Lebanon, Livingston, Mount Juliet, Murfreesboro, Nashvile, Smithville, Smyrna, South Carthage and Woodbury.

Kentucky has 23 counties still under watch, including: Boyle, Garrard, in Mercer and East Central Kentucky; Hardin, Larue, Nelson and Washington in North Central Kentucky; and Adair, Allen, Barren, Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Edmonson, Grayson, Green, Hart, Lincoln, Marion, Metcalfe, Monroe, Russell and Taylor in South Central Kentucky.

These counties include the cities of Albany, Bardstown, Brownsville, Burkesville, Campbellsville, Columbia, Danville, Edmonton, Elizabethtown, Glasgow, Greensburg, Harrodsburg, Hodgenville, Jamestown, Lancaster, Lebanon, Leitchfield, Liberty, Munfordville, Scottsville, Springfield, Stanford and Tompkinsville.

The Ohio River is seen here flooding areas of Downtown Louisville, Kentucky on Friday

Earlier on Saturday, a watch that had already included four states was expanded to by five more.

Until 9pm Eastern on Saturday, most of Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, northwestern Mississippi, western Tennessee, western Kentucky southern Illinois, northeastern Texas, southeastern Oklahoma and northeastern Louisiana were all under a tornado watch.

The National Weather Service said the system was capable of producing wind gusts of up to 75 mph (120 kph) and hail up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, or about the size of an egg. Heavy rain and flooding hit the areas listed.

In Arkansas, Clay County Sheriff Terry Miller told KAIT-TV that Albert Foster, age 83, died Saturday night after the home was blown into a pond.

About 50 miles away, the weather service said the roof was blown off a hotel in Osceola, which is located about 160 miles (257 kilometers) north of Memphis, Tennessee.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens signed an executive order earlier Saturday declaring a state of emergency ahead of the anticipated storms and flooding in parts of southern Missouri.

The order activated the resources of the Missouri National Guard and ensures state resources are available in the event of weather damage.

A levee breach along the Kankakee River in northwestern Indiana had local officials urging about 30 homeowners to evacuate.

Keener Township Volunteer Fire Chief Randy Woods said the breach was relatively minor when it was discovered about 3 pm Eastern on Friday near Demotte, which is about 50 miles southeast of Chicago.

Local residents tried to sandbag the breach 'to get it under control, but it just got bigger and bigger,' he said.

Local firefighters were called to help them, but eventually everyone had to pull out for their own safety. No injuries were reported.

The weather service said record flooding was occurring along the Kankakee following several days of heavy rains and snowmelt that sent streams out of their banks from the Ohio River to Michigan and Wisconsin.



CORSICANA, Texas (AP) - Police say a Texas woman attempted to hide evidence during an arrest by defecating in her pants and using the feces to conceal drugs.

Officers in Corsicana, about 55 miles (88 kilometers ) south of Dallas, were investigating a report of a theft at a grocery store on Wednesday when they attempted to subdue a female suspect and take her into custody. Police say they placed Shannen Martin in the back of a police cruiser where they say she intentionally defecated in her pants then hid a crack pipe, 2.3 grams of crack cocaine and a Valentine's Day card in her excrement.

Officers had to sift through the woman's feces to retrieve the evidence after Martin was booked on charges of tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance.SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Two car bomb explosions killed at least six people and wounded 43 others including civilians on Saturday in Yemen's southern city of Aden, security officials and witnesses said, in an attack claimed later by the extremist Islamic State group.

The first targeted an anti-terrorism military camp with detention facilities for suspected militants while the other, which also detonated in Goldmor district, targeted an office for the Southern Transitional Council which is also the residence of Aden's former governor Aidrous al-Zubaidi, witnesses and officials said. Al-Zubaidi was not present when the bomb went off.

The Islamic State's statement, carried by its Aamaq news agency, said two suicide bomb attacks had hit the anti-terrorism camp in Aden.

Medical officials said those killed include three civilians and three security personnel. They added that the casualties were taken to hospitals for treatment.

"The explosions terrified dozens of families living in the area that hurried to the street to look for their children," eyewitness Gamal Mahdi told The Associated Press. He added that the explosions left multiple causalities, including civilians, and were followed by heavy gunfire.

Ali al-Saya, an STC member, also confirmed that one of the car bombs targeted al-Zubaidi's residence, which is situated close to the anti-terrorism camp.

Other witnesses said that militants tried to storm the camp before the explosion occurred but failed. Photos surfaced following the explosion showing the charred vehicles and clouds of heavy smoke hovering over the area.

The witnesses and officials spoke on condition of anonymity either because they feared retaliation or were not authorized to brief the media.

Aden has been the seat of Hadi's government since 2014, when Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, seized the capital Sanaa and forced him into self-exile. A Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi has been at war with the Houthis since March 2015.PARIS (AP) - Second-place Monaco's defense fell apart as struggling Toulouse rallied from 3-1 down to salvage a 3-3 draw in the French league on Saturday.

Yaya Sanogo was given too much space by four Monaco defenders around him as he swiveled neatly to turn in fellow striker Andy Delort's cross in the 87th minute. Delort's 78th-minute penalty had pulled the score back to 3-2 for the home side after Monaco seemed in complete control.

Attacking midfielder Rony Lopes scored twice for Monaco, either side of an equalizer from midfielder Ibrahim Sangare, with forward Stevan Jovetic making it 3-1 to Monaco in the 72nd.

Lopes put Monaco ahead in the eighth minute when striker Keita Balde broke into the penalty area and held off three defenders before squaring the ball to him. Lopes swept in his second two minutes after the break, when forward Stevan Jovetic's half-volley crashed back off the post.

After Jovetic's confident finish for 3-1, Monaco center half Kamil Glik was harshly adjudged to have pushed Sanogo in the back when the striker was attempting an overhead kick and 16th-place Toulouse was given a soft penalty.

"Of course we're angry. He (Glik) didn't do anything, he just stood still and the referee gave a penalty," fellow center half Andrea Raggi said on Canal Plus television. "When we make mistakes we have to admit it, so they (referees) should too."

In matches later Saturday, Nantes needs only a draw at home to Amiens to move into fifth place.

Monaco is 11 points behind runaway league leader Paris Saint-Germain, which is at home to bitter rival Marseille on Sunday. Marseille can move above Monaco into second place if it wins at Parc des Princes.GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Oscar Julio Vian, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Guatemala City and an outspoken critic of corruption in the Central American nation, died Saturday after battling cancer for months. He was 70.

Auxiliary Bishop Raul Martinez said at a news conference that Vian's death in the early morning had been reported to the Vatican. In the last week, the archdiocese had announced that his condition had worsened.

Guatemala has seen a string of graft scandals implicating a number of top officials in recent years, and Vian was particularly vocal in accusing the corrupt of being bad citizens and demanding justice.

In this Dec. 2, 2011 photo, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala Oscar Julio Vian poses for photos during an interview, at the Archbishop Palace in Guatemala City. Roman Catholic authorities said Saturday, Feb. 24, 2017, that Vian, an outspoken critic of corruption in the Central American nation, has died. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Last year he opposed changes to the penal code made by lawmakers seeking to protect themselves from accusations of illegal campaign financing, and he demanded that corrupt officials "return everything that was stolen."

Born on Oct. 18, 1947, Vian was educated in Guatemala, El Salvador and Rome.

He was ordained as a priest in 1976, and he was named bishop in the northern Guatemalan department of Peten in 1996.

He also taught in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama.

Thousands of people went to the Metropolitan Cathedral in central Guatemala City to pay tribute to Vian, whose body was brought there for a wake. He was to be interred Tuesday in the cathedral's crypt.

Among those paying their respects was Ivan Velasquez, head of a U.N.-sponsored commission investigating corruption in the country.

Other top officials expressed their condolences, and President Jimmy Morales' government declared three days of national mourning.RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Brazilian police say the man considered to be the country's largest arms dealer has been arrested in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Inspector Fabricio Oliveira of Rio de Janeiro's police department says Frederik Barbieri was arrested Saturday morning at his home in Florida. He did not know the specific location of Barbieri's house and said that American authorities will provide details on the arrest next week.

Oliveira said that police seized 60 AK-47, AR-10 and G3 rifles Barbieri had sent to Rio's international airport last May to supply drug traffickers operating in Rio de Janeiro slums.

He also said that the arms trafficking operation had been dismantled with Barbieri's arrest.MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by coal company Murray Energy against HBO host John Oliver.

A segment of Oliver's Sunday show "Last Week Tonight" in June poked fun at Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who blames regulatory efforts by the Obama administration for damaging the coal industry. Oliver said the 77-year-old looked like a "geriatric Dr. Evil."

A Circuit Court judge in Marshall County, West Virginia, ruled on Wednesday that Murray's company failed to state a claim. The two-page ruling from Senior Judge Jeffrey Cramer was posted online by The Hollywood Reporter.

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2017 file photo, comedian John Oliver performs at the 11th Annual Stand Up for Heroes benefit in New York. A West Virginia judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against HBO host John Oliver brought by coal company Murray Energy. A segment of Oliver's show "Last Week Tonight" in June poked fun at Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who blames regulatory efforts by the Obama administration for damaging the coal industry. Oliver said the 77-year-old looked like a "geriatric Dr. Evil." A Circuit Court judge in Marshall County, W. Va., ruled on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 that Murray's company failed to state a claim. (Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP, File)

The Ohio-based company was seeking financial damages and a court order barring rebroadcasts of the segment's "defamatory statements."

HBO had argued the show didn't violate Murray Energy's rights or those of Murray.NEW YORK (AP) - Toyota and Hyundai have recalled roughly a combined 110,000 trucks and sport utility vehicles, including the 2018 Toyota Tundra and Sequoia, and the 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport.

In its recall announced Saturday, Hyundai says some of Santa Fe vehicles are at risk for the steering wheel breaking away from the steering column. Roughly 43,900 vehicles are included in Hyundai's recall.

Toyota recalled roughly 64,900 Tundras and Sequoias, saying these vehicles are at risk for having their electronic stability control systems shutting down unexpectedly.

Both car makers will notify impacted owners of the recalled vehicles starting in March, and if necessary, will repair the vehicles at no cost.

For more information on the recalls, visit www.safercar.gov.CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Admirers took photos on their phones, fire trucks parked on freeway overpasses and police officers saluted as a motorcade carrying the body of the Rev. Billy Graham crossed the evangelist's beloved home state of North Carolina for four hours Saturday from his mountain chapel to namesake library in the state's largest city.

Residents in some of Graham's most cherished places paid tribute to "America's Pastor," starting at the training center operated by his evangelistic association in Asheville. The motorcade rolled through Black Mountain, where he shopped and caught trains, and Montreat, where he lived.

Well-wishers lined sidewalks and medians as the motorcade reached Charlotte. Pallbearers, followed by family, carried the coffin into the Billy Graham Library, which will serve as a backdrop for the funeral.

People line the street as the hearse carrying the body of Rev. Billy Graham leaves the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)

Franklin Graham said he was fulfilling a promise to his father to bring the body to Charlotte. He said he was overwhelmed by "the outpouring of love."

Leighton Ford, the evangelist's brother-in-law, said the procession brought gratitude and tinge of sadness.

"I think he'd say, 'It's not about me. It's about the Lord,'" said Ford. "I remember at his last stadium meeting here in Charlotte, the mayor of Charlotte told us he was riding out on the platform with Billy, and everybody was cheering, and Billy said, 'Wait a minute. It's not about us. It's about Him.'"

Graham, who died Wednesday at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television.

A viewing will be held at the library in Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday. Graham will also lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Thursday, the first time a private citizen has been accorded such recognition since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.

The procession was part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial Friday.

Adults and children stood behind wooden barricades and yellow tape along a route that included parts of Interstate 40. A man played bagpipes at a highway rest area near Marion, where an overpass was draped with flags from about 15 nations. In Black Mountain, a group sang "Amazing Grace."

"He has never really reveled in all of the celebrity. It's come with the territory," said Joe Tyson, a family friend who runs a furniture store in Black Mountain, where he watched the procession.

The library in Charlotte was closed but admirers came to watch and lay flowers.

"He was so bold, he so boldly confessed the word of God," said Madeline Reid. "And I believe because of his service to humanity, that he's truly gonna be great in the kingdom of heaven."

Ruby Sparks, 85, attended a Graham youth ministry meeting in 1951, when she was a college student in Greensboro, North Carolina, and met him in 1970.

"He was such a wonderful man of God, and a messenger of God," she said.

Asked if there would ever be another force like his, she replied: "I doubt it. Perhaps, in my next, in another lifetime. Not in my lifetime."

Graham will be laid to rest at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the library, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007. His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one.

The funeral will be held in a tent in the main parking lot of Graham's library in tribute to the 1949 Los Angeles tent revivals that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark DeMoss said. About 2,000 people are expected at the private, invitation-only funeral.

___

This story has been edited to correct the quote from Ford.

___

Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Tom Foreman Jr. in Charlotte contributed to this report.

The hearse carrying the body of Billy Graham arrives at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham's body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Family members, including Franklin Graham, right, walk to vehicles before the body of Rev. Billy Graham leaves the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)

Mourners view the motorcade carrying Rev. Billy Graham through a window to in Black Mountain, N.C., on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Lyons traveled from Muldoon, Texas. It was a chance for residents in some of Graham's favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

Pallbearers carry the body of Rev. Billy Graham into a hearse before leaving the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)

People line the street to pay respects as the hearse carrying the body of Rev. Billy Graham travels through Black Mountain, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)

Family members look on as the body of Rev. Billy Graham is carried to the hearse to leave the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 in Asheville, N.C. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek, Pool)

Rose Salazar of Cornelius, N.C. waits for the motorcade carrying the body of the late Rev. Billy Graham to proceed through uptown Charlotte, N.C. on the way to the Billy Graham Library on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2010 file photo, evangelist Billy Graham, 92, speaks during an interview at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)

Visitors leave the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

FILE - In this May 9, 2003 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham quiets the crowd during the second day of his Mission San Diego revival at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

Pall bearers carry the casket containing the body of Billy Graham toward his birthplace home at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham's body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

The Billy Graham procession drives south on U.S. 321 near Dallas. N.C. as it passes through Gaston County on it's way to Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Saturday Feb. 24, 2018. (John Clark/The Gaston Gazette via AP)

The Billy Graham procession drives south on U.S. 321 near Dallas. N.C. as it passes through Gaston County on it's way to Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Saturday Feb. 24, 2018. (John Clark/The Gaston Gazette via AP)

Pall bearers carry the casket with the body of Billy Graham past family members to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham's body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Mourners line Hwy 70 through Black Mountain, N.C. as the motorcade carrying Rev. Billy Graham passes by, on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. It was a chance for residents in some of Graham's favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

Observers watch from Morehead Street as the motorcade carrying the body of the late Rev. Billy Graham passes beneath them through uptown Charlotte, N.C. on the way to the Billy Graham Library on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (David T. Foster III/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

Pall bearers carry the casket carrying the body of Billy Graham past family member to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Graham's body was brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Ann Lyons waits for the motorcade carrying Rev. Billy Graham to pass by in Black Mountain, N.C., on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Lyons traveled from Muldoon, Texas. It was a chance for residents in some of Graham's favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial next week at his library in Charlotte. (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

FILE - In this June 25, 2005 file photo, former President Bill Clinton, left, speaks alongside the Rev. Billy Graham on the second night of the Greater New York Billy Graham Crusade at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 1976 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham, 57, of Montreat, N.C., holds his bible while gesturing during the final service of the 10-day Southeastern Michigan Crusade at Pontiac Stadium, in Pontiac, Mich. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Richard Scheinwald, File)

FILE - In this May 20, 1985 file photo, Rev. Billy Graham sings a hymn as he stands on the stage at the Hartford Civic Center in Conn. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Bob Child, File)

FILE - In this March 12, 1955 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham stands with his wife Ruth Graham as he waves from the liner Liberte in New York, before departing on a European preaching tour. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this April 10, 2006 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham, foreground left, is applauded by former first lady Barbara Bush and former President George Bush after receiving the 2006 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (Butch Ireland/College Station Eagle via AP, File)

FILE - In this June 27, 1954 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 Berliners at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Werner Kreusch, File)

FILE - In this June 12, 2003 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham preaches in Oklahoma City, Okla. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

FILE - In this May 20, 1985 file photo, Rev. Billy Graham sings a hymn as he stands on the stage at the Hartford Civic Center in Conn. Graham, who died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at his home in North Carolina's mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television. Graham's body will be brought to his hometown of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb. 24, as part of a procession expected to draw crowds of well-wishers. (AP Photo/Bob Child, File)Garrison Keillor said several sexually suggestive emails exchanged with a former researcher on his A Prairie Home Companion radio show were 'romantic writing' that never led to a physical relationship.

In one of his first extended interviews since Minnesota Public Radio cut ties with him over the woman's sexual harassment claims, Keillor told the Associated Press that he rejected the idea that his status as the woman's boss meant he could have committed sexual harassment.

MPR terminated Keillor's contracts on November 29, after receiving allegations of 'inappropriate behavior' against him in October.

Garrison Keillor (pictured February 23) said that several sexually suggestive emails exchanged with a former researcher on his A Prairie Home Companion radio show were 'romantic writing'

Minnesota Public Radio terminated Keillor's (pictured in 2016) contracts in November 2017 after investigation allegations of 'inappropriate behavior' made against him in October

Keillor said he wasn't really the boss around the radio show and had no control over the woman.

The woman, however, said in an emailed response via her attorney that Keillor had power over her job assignments and opportunities, and she feared saying no to him would hurt her future.

The woman's claims referred to actions which allegedly occurred while Keillor, 75, was hosting the popular radio program, A Prairie Home Companion, which he created in 1974.

After he retired as host in 2016, the show was renamed Live From Here, with Keillor staying on as an executive producer until MPR ended his contracts in November 2017.

After an investigation of 'excerpts of e-mails and written messages, requests for sexual contact and explicit descriptions of sexual communications and touching,' MPR decided that Keillor's alleged actions constituted improper behavior towards the woman who filed the claims.

Keillor's attorney, Eric Nilsson told The Star Tribune that the woman, who has not been named, is asking for a financial settlement in the 'high six figures' from both Keillor and his production company.

Keillor gave The Star Tribune access to hundred of emails between himself and the female employee, who is said to have been a freelance researcher on A Prairie Home Companion for more than 10 years.

He noted that some of the emails exchanged between them were so personal, that it would be easy to 'assume that these two were sleeping together,' although he noted that 'We were not, and never even came close.'

In 2005, the woman wrote Keillor calling him 'the smartest man I've ever met' and said that she loved working with him.

Over the years, the two wrote to each other about their hopes and fears, medical issues and familial difficulties.

They also comforted each other during stressful periods and gave each other advice.

Their emails frequently ended with the words, 'I love you.'

The woman who reported Keillor for harassment is said to have been a freelance researcher who worked with him for more than a decade on A Prairie Home Companion

In one 2014 email, Keillor wrote, 'I wish we would lie down on the sand and listen to the waves and the gulls and if we did, I would kiss you. As many times as I could.'

At one point, the woman wrote in response, 'If we were on the beach, I would want you to tell me a story about summer when you were young, and I would tell you one, and I would kiss you back.'

In 2015, Keillor wrote to tell her that he was imagining them in his hotel room, naked in bed together.

She wrote back that 'the image of us lying together is sweet. I wish I were there, too.'

Other emails between them included sexual banter using 'language that your newspaper cannot print,' he told the Star Tribune reporter.

The most explicit of their exchanges were via iPhone text messages, though, which Keillor said are unrecoverable despite the efforts of a forensic team.

'It was utterly embarrassing, adolescent, utterly bad taste, and it was utterly mutual,' he admitted.

However, Keillor insisted that despite the intimate nature of their communications, he was not attempting to seduce the woman. In fact, he said, he 'leapt backward about 15 feet' after she complained about his behavior in 2015.

'She wrote to me and said, "I cherish your friendship but I think we need to draw boundaries." And boy, I couldn't establish boundaries fast enough,' Keillor said.

'I leapt backward about 15 feet.  You know, I am from Minnesota, and you don't have to tell me twice. When you say, "Take your romantic writing and send it to somebody else," I hear you.'

The woman's attorney, Frances Baillon, didn't argue that the emails were accurate, but did say that Keillor's assertion that he backed off was untrue.

Keillor (pictured in 1986) said that he and the woman exchanged hundreds of emails while working together, some of which included sexual banter.

The woman has accused Keillor (in 2017) of touching her inappropriately on three occasions.

Baillon told The Star Tribune that her client had told both Keillor and her Prairie Home Companion managers that his overtures were unwanted back in 2011.

She made four additional reports by October 2015.

In a 2011 email, the woman wrote a coworker to say, 'I have sent an e-mail to GK just now.

He will understand, upon reading it, that I want nothing to do with him apart from a working friendship.  I feel sad and nervous.'

And in 2014, she wrote a coworker saying, 'No intervention needed at this time.'

She went on to say that she didn't 'want to have sex with him or blackmail him or entice him. None of that. I love when we can have good writerly conversations and I think I help him and he helps me.'

In that email, she identified her feelings for Keillor as being akin to those for an 'older brother.'

Once, Baillon said that the woman claimed that Keillor 'seemed upset' when she told him not to come over and that she didn't want to have a sexual relationship with him.

In addition to the improper communication between them, the woman complained that he had touched her inappropriately on three occasions.

She said that in 2011, during a visit to the Prairie Home Companion's production office, Keillor had 'trailed his fingers up and down her left thigh' and that during a car ride in 2015, he had 'put his hand on her leg.'

Keillor said that he doesn't 'remember every knee I have touched, or every hand I have shaken.'

But, he did confirm her third touching complaint.

Keillor said that he and the woman rarely met in person because she frequently worked from home, although he recalled meeting her for lunch twice and it was during a 2015 lunch that he said he his hand 'slipped under the leading edge of her blouse' when he put his hand on her bare shoulder while he tried to console her.

'She winced ... and I said I was sorry,' Keillor said.

In one of their final email exchanges, in July 2016, following Keillor's farewell Prairie Home Companion broadcast, he wrote, 'I am very very sorry about the time I impulsively put my hand under your shirt. I have felt bad about it. I wish I could take it back. It was done out of honest impulse, but still. I am sorry.'

'I forgive you,' she responded. 'I forgave you. You can let it go. I'm glad you wrote me. I thought I might never hear from you again. Thank you.'

MPR said it stands by its handling of Keillor's case 'based on facts confirming unacceptable behavior in the workplace.'

Keillor and MPR had been in negotiations since January over payment of unfilled contractual obligations regarding his broadcasts, in addition to financial damages related to the negative publicity surrounding MPR's decision to end his contracts.

The negotiations stalled out on February 20, following 'completely unreasonable' terms, according to Nilsson, Keillor's attorney.

The Star Tribune has identified several other woman who claim that Keillor sent them inappropriate messages over the years.

One of the woman was a longtime staffer who had an affair with Keiller from 2007-2008, following their exchange of emails that that had sexual overtones.

Keillor admitted to the affair and said that: 'It was one of those interesting friendships that is not exploitative. It's mutual, and it comes to an end. But you are still friends.'MEXICO CITY (AP) - Four municipal police officers were arrested Saturday in the disappearance of three Italians last heard from more than three weeks ago in western Mexico, and authorities said the agents apparently handed the men over to a criminal gang.

Jalisco state Attorney General Raul Sanchez said at a news conference that the suspects, three men and a woman, all active-duty police officers in Tecalitlan, "confessed" to delivering the Italians to members of an organized crime group operating in the town.

"They were asked to hand them over," Sanchez said, adding that authorities were still investigating why.

Sanchez did not name the crime group, but the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel is dominant in the area.

The Italians have been identified on search posters as 60-year-old Raffaele Russo, his 25-year-old son Antonio Russo and his 29-year-old nephew Vincenzo Cimmino, all from the Naples area. They disappeared in Tecalitlan while traveling in two white SUVs, which have not been found either.

Authorities said previously that the men were apparently selling knock-off appliances and investigators were trying to determine whether that may have caused them to run afoul of someone in the area.

Before they disappeared, they reportedly communicated to a relative that they had been stopped by a police patrol.

The detained officers are suspected of forced disappearance, a crime punishable by 40 to 60 years in prison, Sanchez said.

News of the arrests had uncomfortable echoes for Mexico, where police in much of the country - especially local forces like the one in Tecalitlan - are often corrupt and in league with cartels.

In September 2014, officers from the city of Iguala in Guerrero state intercepted 43 teachers' college students and allegedly handed them over to a local drug gang to be murdered.

The students' precise fate has never been definitively cleared up, and the case remains an open wound for their relatives, human rights activists and other Mexicans appalled by the disappearances.

Earlier this week state prosecutors ordered Tecalitlan's entire 33-person municipal force to be sequestered at a police academy to prevent any interference in the investigation of the Italians' disappearance, a measure usually taken in cases where corruption or irregularities are suspected.

Sanchez said Saturday that authorities were investigating whether other officers in the Tecalitlan area may also have criminal ties.

"This is not over," he said, "and we continue to look for the Italians."NEW YORK (AP) - Supporters of organized labor rallied Saturday in New York City ahead of arguments in a Supreme Court case that could make it hard for unions to operate.

"This is the place, sisters and brothers, where we make a stand today," said American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees president Lee Saunders, whose union is the defendant in the case before the court.

The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a challenge to an Illinois law that allows government employee unions such as AFSCME to collect fees from workers who choose not to join. The unions say the outcome could affect more than 5 million government workers in 24 states and the District of Columbia.

The court split 4-4 the last time it considered the issue in 2016. Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the court in April and has yet to weigh in on union fees.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats, vowed to protect unions regardless of how the Supreme Court rules.

"We will not let our city or our country be taken over by the 1 percent," said de Blasio. He said New York "is the biggest union town in America and we are proud of that."

Cuomo said workers "need the strength and solidarity of the labor movement more now than ever."

He pledged that "as long as I am governor of the state of New York, the state of New York is going to have the back of organized labor."Theresa May is to deliver a long-awaited speech setting out her vision for Britains future relationship with the European Union on Friday March 2, Downing Street has announced.

The Prime Minister cleared the way for the speech by securing agreement from senior ministers at a Brexit war cabinet at Chequers on Thursday on key features of the future relationship.

(PA Graphics)

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt  who was not at the meeting  said the Government will pursue a policy putting Britain outside a customs union with the European Union but matching Brussels rules in certain sectors in an attempt to achieve frictionless trade.

The policy puts Mrs May on a collision course with Tory Brexit rebels who are backing an amendment to the Trade Bill which would mandate the UK to form a customs union with Brussels on leaving the EU.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Government will pursue a policy putting Britain outside a customs union with the EU (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

And Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is widely predicted to give his blessing to a customs union arrangement with the EU in his own speech on Monday, in which he is expected to give greater clarity on his partys Brexit policy.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said Labour now backs a customs union which would look pretty much like the current one after withdrawal.

Unlike previous keynote Brexit addresses in Florence and Munich, the Prime Ministers speech is expected to take place in the UK, though Downing Street refused to discuss the venue.

Mrs May is expected to speak to the Scottish Conservative conference in Aberdeen, which takes place on March 2-3, but it is not known whether she intends to use this as the venue for her Brexit speech.

Her official spokesman characterised the eight-hour Chequers meeting as very positive  and a step forward, agreeing the basis of the Prime Ministers speech on our future relationship.

The meetings conclusions will be discussed at by the full Cabinet ahead of Mrs Mays speech  probably at its regular Downing Street meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Hunt said the Brexit sub-committee agreed that Britain must not be part of a customs union as it should have the right to strike free trade deals with other countries, and claimed frictionless trade was still possible without one.

The Brexit `war cabinet at Chequers (Downing Street/PA)

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Customs union is one way of getting frictionless trade but its not the only way, and what were saying is we want to achieve frictionless trade by agreement between two sovereign bodies  the United Kingdom and European Union.

He added: You have divergent views on a big issue like Brexit, as you would expect, but the central common understanding is that there will be areas and sectors of industry where we agree to align our regulations with European regulations. The automotive industry is perhaps an obvious example because of supply chains that are integrated.

But it will be on a voluntary basis, we will as a sovereign power have the right to choose to diverge, and what we wont be doing is accepting changes in rules because the EU unilaterally chooses to make those changes.

Tory Brexit rebel Anna Soubry, who has tabled the customs union amendment, said she has cross-party support and called on Labour to back it, tweeting: It would be in the national interest if the Government & official Opposition also backed it.

I've tabled a new amendment to #TradeBill mandating Govt to form "a" Customs Union with #EU #Brexit. It's gaining x party support @ChukaUmunna @NickyMorgan01 et al. It would be in the national interest if the Government & official Opposition also backed it. https://t.co/DepbwMoKUf  Anna Soubry (@Anna_Soubry) February 22, 2018

Downing Street dismissed reports that the PM was preparing for a U-turn on the rights of EU migrants who arrive in the UK during any transition period following the date of Brexit in March 2019.

Her official spokesman said there was no change in Mrs Mays position that the rights of EU nationals arriving after the date of Brexit in March 2019 would be different from those coming to the UK before.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who chairs the European Research Group of backbench Tory Eurosceptics, said it would be unconscionable for Mrs May to cave in to Brussels demands for permanent settlement rights for anyone arriving before the end of the transition period  probably 2021.

Mr Rees-Mogg told Today: Id be astonished if Mrs May would make a U-turn of that kind; she is a lady of great backbone and for her to kowtow to the European Union is I think unconscionable.

European Council president Donald Tusk will travel to London for talks with Mrs May on Thursday, the day before the Prime Ministers Brexit speech, officials in Brussels announced.A woman has pleaded not guilty to harassing a senior lecturer at Kings College London.

History student Stephanie Christol, 30, pleaded not guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court to the harassment of German history lecturer Dr Christopher Dillon between April 2016 and November 2017.

She is accused of bombarding Dr Dillon with emails and letters as well as gifts.

Stephanie Christol pleaded not guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court (Rick Findler/PA)

She sent distressing emails, was given a harassment warning letter and there was also an unwanted visit, according to the charge.

Christol, of Islington, north London, was conditionally bailed to next appear for trial at Hendon Magistrates Court on April 6.Englands NatWest 6 Nations title defence resumes on Saturday against Scotland at Murrayfield  a venue where they have not lost since 2008. Here Press Association Sport examines five talking points heading into the 136th Calcutta Cup clash.

SCOTTISH MIND GAMES

Apart from a solitary claim made against Scotlands scrum, all shots fired in the phoney war have come from Edinburgh. The usual reference to English arrogance has been made, and inevitably the word hate has surfaced, but the chief accusation has been Gregor Townsends suggestion that Eddie Jones men repeatedly defend from an offside position. All teams push the boundaries, but notice has been served to referee Nigel Owens.

Eddie says England will have to be at their best to beat @Scotlandteam on Saturday: https://t.co/pnblm8WRhS pic.twitter.com/GS2AApvmAF  England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 22, 2018

THE REAL SCOTLAND

Scotland entered the Six Nations amid high expectations that were swiftly dampened by a 34-7 rout in Cardiff. Victory over France followed but it was not entirely convincing and an emphatic reminder of the teams direction under Townsend is needed against England. A win would reignite their title aspirations, defeat confirm the passing of another false dawn.

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend, right, needs a victory at Murrayfield against England (Andrew Milligan/PA)

FLAKY FINN

Finn Russell has every bit as much to prove as Scotland after the gifted fly-half, of whom such much was expected, bombed along with his team-mates against Wales before an error-strewn performance against France saw him replaced by Greig Laidlaw while the match was finely-poised. Townsend has kept faith with the Racing 92-bound playmaker, but his loyalty must soon be repaid before opinions are revised.

Scotlands Finn Russell can repay his coachs loyalty (Andrew Milligan/PA)

HUGHES RETURNS

Among the players looking to flatten Scotlands ringmaster is Nathan Hughes, the Fijian-born number eight who has been restored to Englands back row after eight weeks out with knee ligament damage. It is useful timing with Sam Simmonds likely to miss the remainder of the Six Nations because of a shoulder injury and although there are doubts about Hughes match fitness, his destructive carrying is sure to leave an imprint on the Scots.

Nathan Hughes return for England is timely (Paul Harding/PA)

BACK WHERE IT BEGAN

Murrayfield two years ago was the setting for the opening match of Jones reign, which can only be considered an unqualified success to date due to a ledger of 24 victories from 25 Tests. It was a cagey 15-9 win that launched a successful Grand Slam bid but while the personnel are much the same, this is a different team that is revisiting and the question now facing England is whether they have hit a ceiling.The Trump administration is hitting more than 50 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses with sanctions in the latest bid to turn up the pressure on North Korea over its nuclear programme, US officials said.

President Donald Trump is set to announce the action Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, followed by a public announcement from the US treasury.

One official said Mr Trump will call it the largest ever set of new sanctions on the North. The measures are targeted at sources of fuel and cash for Kim Jong Uns regime.

Donald Trump is looking to increase economic pressure on North Korea (AP)

The announcement comes as South Korea hosts the Winter Olympics, an occasion the two Koreas have used as an opportunity to try to restart talks.The UK violates womens human rights by criminalising abortions in Northern Ireland, a UN committee has said.

The country has strict restrictions covering cases like rape, incest or fatal foetal abnormality.

The UN Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women said great harm and suffering was caused by carrying unwanted pregnancies full term.

A UN committee has criticised Northern Irelands strict anti-abortion laws. PA/Niall Carson.

It said: The systematic nature of the violations stems from the deliberate retention of criminal laws and state policy disproportionately restricting access to sexual and reproductive rights, in general, and highly restrictive abortion provision, in particular.

Westminster and Northern Ireland authorities acknowledge the magnitude of the phenomenon and choose to export it to England where Northern Ireland women travel to access abortions.

Women receive free terminations in other parts of the UK, including those who travel from Northern Ireland.

The report added: The Committee assesses the gravity of the violations in Northern Ireland in light of the suffering experienced by women and girls who carry pregnancies to full term against their will due to the current restrictive legal regime on abortion.

It notes the great harm and suffering resulting from the physical and mental anguish of carrying an unwanted pregnancy to full term, especially in cases of rape, incest and severe foetal impairment.

The situation gives Northern Ireland women three deplorable options: (a) undergo a torturous experience of being compelled to carry a pregnancy to full term; (b) engage in illegal abortion and risk imprisonment and stigmatisation; or, (c) undertake a highly stressful journey outside Northern Ireland to access a legal abortion.

Women are thus torn between complying with discriminatory laws that unduly restrict abortion or risk prosecution and imprisonment.

Human Rights Commission chief commissioner Les Allamby said the situation was wrong and violated womens human rights.

The Commission brought a case on the issue to the UK Supreme Court.

The UN committee report called on the UK Government to change the law to decriminalise abortion and to provide greater access to abortion for women and girls in Northern Ireland.

Grainne Teggart, Amnesty Internationals campaigns manager in Northern Ireland, said: This damning report from the United Nations confirms what Amnesty has long said, Northern Irelands draconian abortion laws are a daily violation of the rights of women and girls.

The UN committee is very clear that it is the UK Government which is responsible for ensuring that our laws are in line with the states international human rights obligations.

Devolution, even if functioning, does not relieve the UK Government of their responsibility to uphold human rights in Northern Ireland.Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has condemned shocking treatment of detainees at the Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre amid claims dozens of women are on hunger strike in protest at the conditions.

After making her first visit to the controversial facility, Ms Abbott said she and Shami Chakrabarti were told by detainees that around 65 women were refusing food but management had denied it was a hunger strike.

Because they are refusing to admit they are on hunger strike, they are not monitoring them in the way that they should, she told the Press Association.

Diane Abbott and Shami Chakrabarti during a visit to Yarls Wood Immigration detention centre in Bedford (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Just arrived at Bedford Station with Shadow Attorney Gerneral Shami Chakrabarti. After nearly a year and a half of requestsI've final been granted access to #YarlsWood detention centre pic.twitter.com/RFzg3w2hyF  Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) February 23, 2018

Serco, which runs the centre, confirmed that some women were refusing to eat in the restaurant but said this did not constitute a hunger strike.

The Home Office also said it was aware of a situation where some detainees were refusing food but said the individuals concerned were being closely monitored by medical professionals.

Ms Abbott said she would be raising conditions at the centre in Bedfordshire  which was described as a place of national concern by the Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2015  in Parliament.

She said she had been seeking access to the site for more than a year and what she found when she got there had been pretty shocking.

There are concerns about standards of medical care, there are concerns about access to legal help. There are concerns about the length of detention. Even convicted prisoners have a release date, she said.

It cannot be right that people for whom the Government has a duty of care and who have committed no crime are being treated like prisoners and have so many issues in relation to their health and welfare.

A lot of them had issues with depression and some of them didnt seem to be getting help for that. It was all very concerning.

Shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti, who accompanied Ms Abbott on her visit, said a Labour government would end the practice of indefinite detention for people adjudged to have no right to remain in the country while they awaited deportation.

This policy is rotten. You dont leave people in limbo. It is wrong in Guantanamo Bay. You dont leave people in indefinite detention, she said.

She expressed concern about the attitude of some of the staff they met including a doctor working at the facility.

He was incredibly defensive and aggressive and he told me that we had an agenda and we shouldnt be listening to these women, she said.

Lady Chakrabarti said the management also tried to make light of the claims that the women were refusing food and claiming that sales in the centre shop had risen exponentially.

They said they (the detainees) are not going to the canteen sales in the shop had gone through the roof, she said.

A spokesman for Serco said: There are a number of women who did not take food in the restaurant over the last 48 hours but that does not constitute a hunger strike.

Furthermore the purchase of food by residents from the shop increased at the same time so we know people were eating. This was fully explained to Diane Abbott and her party.

A Home Office spokesman said: Detention and removal are essential parts of effective immigration controls , especially in support for the removal of those with no legal basis to stay in the UK.

We take the welfare of our detainees very seriously and detainees who choose to refuse food and fluid are closely monitored by on-site healthcare professionals.The Trump administration has escalated pressure on North Korea by slapping sanctions on scores of companies and ships accused of illicit trading with the pariah nation.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the US has now blacklisted virtually all ships being used by the North.

The administration billed it as the largest instalment of North Korean economic restrictions to date as it intensifies its campaign of maximum pressure to get the North to give up its nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump went further, declaring in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before.

Today the @USTreasury announced the largest NK related sanctions tranche to date. Companies who choose to help fund NKs nuclear ambitions will not do business with the U.S.  Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) February 23, 2018

While that claim was questionable  previous US measures have targeted bigger players in the North Korean economy, including Chinese and Russian banks and business networks  it significantly tightens the noose on North Korean trading.

Mr Mnuchin told reporters that the US has now imposed more than 450 sanctions against the North, about half of them in the last year  including virtually all their ships that theyre using at this moment in time.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions on North Korea in the past year.

The restrictions are intended to deprive it of revenue and resources for its nuclear and ballistic missile development that pose an emerging threat to the US mainland.

Washington is particularly concerned about exports of North Korean coal that are prohibited by the UN sanctions and ship-to-ship transfers of imported oil and petroleum products.

The Treasury Department said it was barring US business transactions with nine international shipping companies from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Panama, and nine of their vessels.

Donald Trump declared in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that it was `the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

It also blacklisted 16 North shipping companies and 19 of their North Korean-flagged vessels.

Additionally, the department designated a Taiwanese citizen, Tsang Yung Yuan, and two companies he owns or controls.

Mr Tsang was said to have co-ordinated North Korean coal exports with a Russia-based North Korean broker, and attempted a one million US dollar (720,000) oil deal with a Russian company sanctioned for dealing with the North.

Mr Mnuchin said the actions will significantly hinder North Koreas ability to conduct evasive maritime activities that facilitate illicit coal and fuel transports, and erode its abilities to ship goods through international waters.

He vowed the US would do everything to stop the ship-to-ship transfers.

We are putting companies and countries across the world on notice that this administration views compliance with US and UN sanctions as a national security imperative. Those who trade with North Korea do so at their own peril, Mr Mnuchin said.

In his speech, Mr Trump said hopefully something positive can happen from the sanctions pressure.

The announcement comes as South Korea hosts the Winter Olympics, an occasion the two Koreas have used as an opportunity to ease tensions and restart talks.

Although South Korea is a close US ally, animosity between Washington and Pyongyang still runs high.

Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter and adviser, arrived in South Korea on Friday to attend the closing ceremony this weekend.

Thank you President Moon and First Lady Kim for your warm hospitality and the very special dinner at the historic Blue House, marking the start of our visit to South Korea. #PyeongChang2018 #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/eOFYKH755o  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) February 23, 2018

At a dinner with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, she reaffirmed our commitment to our maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearised.

Mr Mnuchin said Mrs Trump had spoken to Mr Moon about the new sanctions before the announcement.

The US government also issued a global shipping advisory highlighting the sanctions risk to those who enable shipments of goods to and from North Korea.

It alerted industries to North Koreas deceptive shipping practices, which includes falsifying the identity of vessels and disabling transponders that track ships movements.

The Treasury Department published photos of a US-designated North Korean vessel, Kum Un San 3, which it said used false identifying information and conducted an illicit ship-to-ship transfer, possibly of oil, with a Panama-flagged vessel that was among the ships sanctioned on Friday.

APThemed Literature accompanying the nation, the event will begin with a workshop featuring Vietnams current poetic issues on February 27th, followed by another seminar on fiction reform on February 28th in response to the novel contest in 2017-2020 launched by the association.

Poetry contests and art performances will take place on March 1 at Van Mieu  Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature).

The 15th Vietnam Poetry Day at Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam (Photo VNA)



The 16th Vietnam Poetry Day will officially kick off on March 2nd, the 15th day of the first lunar month, at Van Mieu  Quoc Tu Giam.

This years event will welcome four members from Japans poets association to exchange with Vietnamese poetry lovers.

Additionally, a special space will be designed for children.

Poet Huu Thinh said the organising board has selected sail as a symbol of this years event.

A photo exhibition on Vietnamese writers who participated in the General Offensive and Uprising in the Spring of 1968 will be held on the margin of the event.

Such activities are important steps to turn the Vietnam Poetry Day into the Vietnam Literature Day, Thinh added.

Since its debut on Nguyen Tieu (the 15th day of the first lunar month) in 2003, the Vietnam Poetry Day, the biggest poetry festival in the country, has become a national tradition, taking place in the spring of each year.

Starting out as an initiative of the Vietnam Writers' Association, the Poetry Day has been organised in many provinces and cities to honour poetry, which has been an integral part of Vietnamese culture for thousands of years./.Arsene Wenger has conceded his Arsenal side are the underdogs in Sundays Carabao Cup final but believes recent trophy successes can help them upset the odds to beat Manchester City.

The Gunners will be the unfancied side at Wembley, despite winning three FA Cups in the past four years.

Wengers men beat City in last seasons semi-final before going on to see off Chelsea as the Frenchman lifted a record seventh FA Cup as a manager.

Arsenal beat Chelsea last season to win a record 13th FA Cup. (Nick Potts/PA)

Given their superb season to date, City pose an altogether different test this time around and Pep Guardiolas outfit completely outclassed Arsenal in a 3-1 Premier League win at the Etihad Stadium in November.

But, even though Arsenal sit sixth in the table and a mammoth 27 points adrift of leaders City, Wenger has faith in his players to perform.

Asked what recent success says about his teams mentality, the 68-year-old replied: What it means is that you have enough belief to think you can do it.

FT |  3-1  #cityvafc



City sweep aside the Gunners to make it FIFTEEN WINS IN A ROW! pic.twitter.com/9FKdlyzGB8  Manchester City (@ManCity) November 5, 2017

That on the day you managed to turn up with the right spirit and right mentality, the right belief.

The final, everyone says you have to be motivated, but it as well to find the right balance between focus, motivation and relaxed enough to play your game.

That will be the target again: to have a belief but as well to find that right balance.

Birmingham stunned Arsenal to win the League Cup in 2011 (Mike Egerton/EMPICS)

Wenger has never won the League Cup, often using it during his 21-year tenure to blood young players and give valuable minutes to those on the fringes of his first-team.

He came close in 2007 and 2011, losing surprisingly to Birmingham in the latter final when it was his Arsenal who were widely-expected to lift the trophy.

Now he accepts it is the Gunners who are able to spring a surprise this time around.

Wenger saw Arsenal lose to Alex McLeishs Birmingham in his last League Cup final. (Mike Egerton/EMPICS)

When you come through such a long way, you go to the final, you dont want to lose it, he said. You want to win it. At the end of the day, you have to be cool.

Because Manchester City is dominating the league in the head of everybody and so maybe we are more underdogs than in the FA Cup semi-final (last season).

We are maybe underdogs but we have to believe in our quality. The history, the fact we have done it before, shows why not do it again.

Wenger revealed he almost signed Guardiola as a player for Arsenal in 2001. (Martin Rickett/PA)

Guardiola came close to playing under Wenger after leaving Barcelona in 2001 but the move never came off and he instead went to play in Serie A with Brescia.

Asked if he liked the Spain international as a player, Wenger replied: Yes. It was the quality of his decision making and the quality of his distribution.

He played a very quick passing game and that is always our DNA. (But) he was over the top of his career already and we had top class players in his position.Jeremy Corbyn has 'questions to answer' over his Cold War links, a former spy chief has said.

Sir Richard Dearlove said the Labour leader should have 'taken care to avoid' meeting a Czechoslovakian agent and cannot just 'laugh off' the claims.

The ex-MI6 boss said holding only a couple of meetings with Jan Sarkocy would amount to 'stupidity' but if the spy's claims that many more took place were true then 'this affair takes on a completely different aspect'.

Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, has said that Jeremy Corbyn has questions to answer over claims he met a community spy

Labour said Sir Richard should not be 'trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears'.

Mr Sarkocy, a former agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency, has been described as a fantasist by Mr Corbyn's allies.

But Sir Richard, who was 'C' at the Secret Intelligence Service, said the agent could not be easily dismissed.

The 'discussion I have had with friends close to the current Czech intelligence community' suggests otherwise, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Sir Richard, who was posted to Communist Czechoslovakia, said 'everything I learned about the way the StB operated tells me that these accusations should be taken seriously'.

Sir Richard, who was posted to Communist Czechoslovakia, said 'everything I learned about the way the StB operated tells me that these accusations should be taken seriously'

Mr Corbyn's spokesman has previously challenged records of supposed meetings between the then Labour backbencher and Mr Sarkocy.

Mr Corbyn recalled speaking to a diplomat from the then communist country in 1986, as one of many meetings with ambassadors, politicians, activists and dissidents from 'the majority of countries in the world', said the spokesman.

But another meeting with the same man was recorded in StB files as taking place the following year in the House of Commons, on a Saturday when the Labour MP's own diaries record he was attending a conference in Chesterfield.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'Richard Dearlove, who as head of MI6 was involved in the infamous dodgy dossier that helped take us into the disastrous Iraq War, should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears.'Former Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire has voiced support for Dame Tessa Jowells calls to allow cancer patients to be free to take the risk of undergoing more experimental treatments on the NHS.

The Old Bexley and Sidcup MP, who returned to Parliament on Tuesday after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, said it was time to challenge the thinking around ways to treat the disease.

Baroness Jowell, who has brain cancer, has called for more opportunities for adaptive trials in which patients can undergo different treatments, and if one does not work they can immediately move on to the next.

James Brokenshire returned to Parliament on Tuesday after having a cancerous lesion removed from his lung.

Pleased to return to Westminster yesterday after my lung surgery and to my duties as MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup. Made my first contribution in the Commons & really touched by the kind & generous comments from colleagues from all parties on my return https://t.co/s0kiVUVtlU pic.twitter.com/MY5tluD6P9  James Brokenshire (@JBrokenshire) February 21, 2018

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Brokenshire said it was time to asses how novel therapies could be made accessible to help those fighting the disease, while ensuring the system still protects patients.

He said: Of course, equally ensuring you are not abusing that situation and taking advantage of people in hard, difficult circumstance.

But I think we do need to challenge the thinking around all of this and assess what more can be done.

Huge progress for brain cancer patients today. Thanks to Gov, friends & many more for commitment to create a new future to beat this disease pic.twitter.com/gbhdCAn4JO  Tessa Jowell (@TessaJowell) February 22, 2018

The former Cabinet minister first discovered he was unwell in September, when he started to cough up blood while on a weekend break with his family in Northern Ireland.

The 50-year-old underwent tests, including X-rays and CT scans, although they did not find anything of concern.

It was only after a bronchoscopy on December 7, the day the Prime Minister announced a deal on phase one of the Brexit negotiations, that a cancerous lesion was discovered.

He underwent surgery to remove the cancer and part of his right lung a week after announcing his resignation from the Cabinet on January 8.

Mr Brokenshire said Theresa May had been very human, very supportive and genuinely concerned about my health and well-being and praised her for her support at such a difficult time.

The husband and father said his experience had made him take a step back and think about what is important.

While continuing with his recovery, the MP hinted he may one day return to the Cabinet in the future, saying: I am strong, I am resilient, I look to the future with confidence.

In January Baroness Jowell was given an unprecedented standing ovation in the House of Lords after making an emotional plea for more cancer treatments to be made available through the NHS.

The Labour peer told BBC Radio 4s Today programme at the time: Brain cancers happen very quickly, you have to show that theres been change quickly and if you dont do that then basically nothing changes.

She went on: That (adaptive trials) is exactly the kind of risk that patients should be free to take, it should be a risk that they have the chance to take, and its certainly what somebody like me wants.

Dame Tessa has been treated in London on the NHS but had advice from the US and consulted a doctor in Germany.

I got to the point in the NHS in London where I couldnt be given any more treatment but it was very clear that if I went to Germany then I had a chance of taking out this immunotherapy  a new experiment, she said.

And I was and I am prepared to try that.Talks between the UK and Ecuador over the future of Julian Assange at its London embassy have broken down, the South American countrys Foreign Minister said.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa suggested British officials had been unwilling to negotiate over the Wikileaks founders potential release.

Earlier this month, a judge upheld an arrest warrant issued when Mr Assange skipped bail as he fought extradition to Sweden in 2012.

Julian Assange (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Statement on ruling: We are surprised. Judge went well outside what the parties presented in court. This seems to have led to many factual errors in the judgment. US DoJ confirmed to Reuters again yesterday that its case is ongoing. There are 3 months to appeal judge's decision.  Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) February 13, 2018

The 46-year-old has been at the embassy ever since as he fears extradition to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves.

Ms Espinosa said of the failed talks: To mediate you need two parties, Ecuador is willing, but not necessarily the other party.

Ecuador said it would continue to protect Mr Assanges rights, however there was a risk to his physical and psychological well being after spending nearly six years in the building as a refugee.

The country has assessed more than 30 similar cases in a bid to break the deadlock, including that of British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is in prison in Iran accused of spying.

This included options for granting diplomatic immunity, although Ecuador said it would continue to respect the UKs laws.

In November, Ms Espinosa said Mr Assange had been granted Ecuadorian citizenship.

The Foreign Minister said Ecuador was trying to make Mr Assange a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations  including special legal immunity and safe passage.

Last week, former Cabinet minister Sir Patrick McLoughlin asked the Home Office when action will be taken over Mr Assanges case during Commons questions.

He said the first three years of Mr Assanges five-year stay in the embassy had cost the Metropolitan Police an additional 11 million.The BBCs world affairs editor has told how he was targeted in a Czech honeytrap plot.

John Simpson said he was feeling vulnerable after the breakdown of his marriage when he received love letters from a woman he met in the country.

The journalist realised he was getting in a bit deep so went to his bosses, who brought in MI5.

Simpson had been allowed into the closed communist state to cover an international conference in 1983.

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson was targeted by Czech spies (Rick Findler/PA)

Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, he said: A few months later, a letter arrived, a love letter from a particularly attractive receptionist at the hotel where I had stayed.

I told myself Id play along with it. Ok, ok, I know that was stupid but my marriage was just breaking up and I felt a bit vulnerable.

Anyway, the letters kept on coming and one of them contained photos of the girl, glamorous photos.

Im sorry these arent very good, she wrote, but I took them myself at home.

The trouble was you could see the outline of a photographer in one of them. I was getting in a bit deep here so I told the BBC, who in turn told MI5.

A man in a suit came round to see me and explained it all. Id never heard the expression honeytrap before.

Simpson said the woman, known as Anna, had suggested meeting up in Hungary.

The MI5 officer told the journalist that if he had met the woman, a man claiming to be her husband would burst into the hotel room and there would be a fight.

Simpson would then have been detained and told he would only be released if he signed some statements.

In 1989, he returned to the hotel and Anna was on reception.

When he said hello to her, she gave a little squeal and ran into the back office.

Mr Simpson told the story after days of headlines about Jeremy Corbyns links to the Czech StB intelligence agency.

The Labour leader has dismissed claims that he passed information to an agent during the 1980s as nonsense.First came Nathan Chens gloriously redemptive five-and-a-half quads, followed by a career-ending gold for Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and a brazen and ebullient free-skate from 15-year-old Alina Zagitova.

According to the 1980 Olympic champion Robin Cousins, figure skating has never had it better than its two weeks in Pyeongchang, where records have tumbled and artistry in the sport has toe-looped to new heights.

When Cousins ruled the world, he was still cramming training sessions in between public sessions in London park rinks, and said the prospect of a quad jump was nothing more than a whispered fantasy.

Nathan Chen rose 12 places after his stunning free skate routine (David J. Phillip/AP)

Thinking about four or five quads in my day was science-fiction, Cousins told Press Association Sport. Now you go on Google and theres a 14-year-old Russian girl doing her quad-salchow, triple toe-loop combination.

We talked about quads and laughed. Now here a few of us still are, watching the Olympics with our jaws on the floor.

Chens stunning recovery after a calamitous short program had left him languishing in 17th position was one of the many highlights of a mens event which ended with gold medallist Yuzuru Hanyu being showered with Pooh Bears.

Fifteen-year-old Alina Zagitova stole the show (Mike Egerton/PA)

Virtue and Moirs ice dance routine illustrated a couple more in control of their craft than anyone since Torvill and Dean scored a string of perfect sixes in Sarajevo, and Zagitova pipped compatriot Evgenia Medvedeva with a routine that showed a glimpse of an even more outrageous future.

Cousins added: What they are doing now is just incredible  and what the women are doing is what the men were doing not so many years ago.

The quality has gone stratospheric. These have been an exhilarating and phenomenal games, and they will be remembered as a game-changer for future generations of figure skating.Three female Nobel Peace laureates have begun a week-long trip to Bangladesh to meet Rohingya women who were tortured and raped by Burmese soldiers before fleeing the country.

During the trip that began on, Northern Irelands Mairead Maguire, Irans Shirin Ebadi and Yemens Tawakkol Karman will assess the Rohingya refugees situation and the violence against the Rohingya women, according to the Nobel Womens Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006.

Ms Karman said they were standing in solidarity with displaced Rohingya women and calling for Rohingya womens voices to be heard.

Rohingya Muslims cross the border from Burma into Bangladesh (Bernat Armangue/AP)

About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled army-led violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since August and are living in Bangladeshi refugee camps.Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will attempt to kick off an amazing few weeks in style when former club Chelsea arrive at Old Trafford this weekend.

As if facing the club he led to three Premier League crowns across two spells was not enough, the Portugueses public spat with current Blues manager Antonio Conte has only heightened interest in Sundays Premier League encounter.

It is the first of five matches at Old Trafford between now and the end of March  a run of home games that includes Liverpool in the league, Sevilla in the Champions League last-16 and Brighton in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Jose Mourinho Mourinho is currently having to deal with a variety of injury complaints (Martin Rickett/PA)

The boss provided an update on @AnderHerrera and @PaulPogba ahead of Sunday's @PremierLeague encounter with Chelsea...  Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 23, 2018

I think the next few weeks at Old Trafford will be amazing, United boss Mourinho said.

Two big matches against two direct rivals in the Premier League, two knockout matches that, if things go well, can leave us in the quarter-final of the Champions League and the semi-final of the FA Cup.

Sometimes we have periods with three, four consecutive away matches but this time we have four matches at home, with Crystal Palace away in between, but four big matches at Old Trafford.

It looks a make-or-break month for a United side under the spotlight as Chelsea arrive on Sunday.

A day to remember for @ChelseaFC fans, as Antonio Conte masterminded a 4-0 win over Jose Mourinho's Manchester United#OnThisDay pic.twitter.com/REJr7PaJzy  Premier League (@premierleague) October 23, 2017

Mourinho is having to deal with a variety of injury complaints heading into the match and there continues to be questions over club-record signing Paul Pogbas form and happiness.

Romelu Lukaku is another big-money signing under scrutiny.

Last weekends match-winning FA Cup double at Huddersfield was impressive, yet his inability to score in any of his six Premier League matches against current top-six sides this season fuels long-standing questions about the striker.

Lukaku has failed to score in all 17 Premier League games involving Sundays opponents  including 10 league appearances made in a Chelsea shirt  but Mourinho is unconcerned.

Jose on Romelu Lukaku: 21 goals is not bad at all and I dont analyse the players performances the same way you [journalists] do. I have other points of analysis and Im happy with Romelus performances, even when he doesnt score goals. #MUFC pic.twitter.com/MFlgpGsr5A  Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 23, 2018

I dont know (why he has not scored against top-six sides) but Im not worried, Mourinho said.

Twenty-one goals is not bad at all and I dont measure the players performances the same way you do.

I have other points of analysis and Im happy with Romelus performance even when he doesnt score goals.

Lukaku had looked set to re-join Chelsea in the summer, only for United to swoop in to sign him from Everton at the start of their pre-season tour to America.

That training camp in Los Angeles feels just like yesterday for Mourinho, but the United boss is ready for the pressure and fixtures to pile up.

Time flies, Mourinho told MUTV. It feels like two days ago that we were in Los Angeles for pre-season and now were almost in March.

 How it stands in the #PL ahead of Matchweek 28 pic.twitter.com/mzDe12LM0C  Premier League (@premierleague) February 24, 2018

March, April and May can be really busy and going far in the FA Cup creates you problems.

We now play Brighton when we were supposed to play West Ham and we dont know when well play West Ham.

If we play the semi-final of the FA Cup, I dont know when that will be so it can be really busy and complicated.Chelsea manager Antonio Conte admits it is unfortunate that Nemanja Matic is now a Manchester United player.

Midfielder Matic played a key role in the Blues Premier League title success last season before being allowed to complete a 40million summer move to rivals United.

Chelsea will be reunited with their former player at Old Trafford on Sunday and Conte expressed regret at the Serbia internationals Stamford Bridge departure.



About this player I can talk only really well because he played with us last season, said Conte.

#MUFC is delighted to announce the signing of Nemanja Matic from Chelsea on a three-year contract. https://t.co/AH5KfCr9ZI #MaticIsRed pic.twitter.com/vbl8kSLbEO  Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 31, 2017

I think he was one of the key players in winning the title.

Now Matic, unfortunately, is playing for Manchester United. I wish for him the best.

Not on Sunday, but in the future.

Matic was a regular for Chelsea last year, making 35 league appearances and also helping the London club to the FA Cup final.

Nemanja Matic was a key player in last seasons Premier League success for Chelsea (Nick Potts/PA)

Conte said last summer that selling the player was a big loss for the champions.

Asked why Matic was allowed to join a potential title rival, his former manager replied: In the past we have already managed this topic.

I dont want to come back and speak about the past because I think its not important, not interesting for us.

Fourth-placed Chelsea travel to the north west three points and two places behind their opponents.

They produced a morale-boosting performance in the midweek Champions League clash with LaLiga leaders Barcelona, although a mistake from defender Andreas Christensen resulted in the Spanish side snatching a precious away goal in a 1-1 draw.

Conte has backed 21-year-old Denmark international Christensen to bounce back from the error and believes he can be a future Chelsea captain.

Personally I forgot this mistake, said Conte.

If I had to talk about all the mistakes I made in my career, wed have to be here for one day it doesnt matter.

Conte says Andreas Christensen has been excellent this season and adds he can be a defender for Chelsea for many years, and a future captain, too. #MUNCHE  Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 23, 2018

Christensen is having a fantastic season and showing great maturity.

Apart from the mistake, his performance was great, was wonderful.

I have a lot of trust in Christensen. This player is a player for the present for Chelsea, and for Chelseas future for 10 or 12 years.

He can also become the captain of this team in the future.Hollywood star Richard E Grant has thanked NHS staff  for having glued me together again after he was clonked on the head by a metal bar.

The Withnail And I actor, 60, praised two nurses, Holly and Theresa, after he was treated at Stroud General Hospital.

He wrote on Twitter: Am truly indebted to nurses Holly and Theresa at Stroud NHS hospital for sorting out my head wound this evening.

Richard E Grant (Matt Crossick/PA)

Heavy metal bar clonked my cranium and they kindly cleaned me up and glued me together again like Humpty Dumpty!

Am truly indebted to Nurses Holly & Theresa at Stroud NHS hospital for sorting out my head wound this evening.Heavy metal bar clonked my cranium and they kindly cleaned me up & glued me together again like Humpty Dumpty!   Richard E. Grant (@RichardEGrant) February 23, 2018

And he later posted a snap of himself in a Peaky Blinders-style cap.

Thank you for all the kind messages of support. Wearing a cover-up cap till Im Peaky Blinder better!, he joked.

THANK YOU for all the kind messages of support.Wearing a cover-up cap till Im Peaky Blinder better! pic.twitter.com/YVsG5c7zM6  Richard E. Grant (@RichardEGrant) February 24, 2018

Fans and NHS staff wished him well.

@susanlogan63 wrote: As an NHS nurse working in Scotland we dont often get nice feedback.

Its lovely to hear someone with such a high profile thanking staff. Speedy recovery to you.

@safc4ever wrote: Actor walks into a bar Ouch!  Im sure theres a joke in there somewhere.

Seriously, good to hear you got great treatment, indeed the best treatment in the world! Long live the #NHS!

@Lizzyvantonder wrote: Hope you are ok now Richard. Keep away from heavy metal bars in future. xxx

The Bram Stokers Dracula actor next stars alongside Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me.During a reception in Bangkok on February 22nd for Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Nguyen Hai Bang, the Deputy PM welcomed joint preparations for the fourth Vietnam  Thailand Joint Cabinet meeting scheduled for the second half of 2018.

He also informed that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha will attend the Summit of Leaders of the Greater Mekong Sub-region to be held in Hanoi in March 2018.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Thailand Prawit Wongsuwan (L) and Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Nguyen Hai Bang (Source: VNA)



Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan affirmed that Thailand will maintain the exchange of all-level delegations and existing mechanisms such as the national defence security dialogue and the joint working group on politics-security.

The host wished that both sides would continue working closely together to deal with illegal fishing in each others waters, pledging that Thailand is ready to partner with Vietnam within ASEAN framework for the sake of peace and stability in the region.

The Thai government always highly appreciates the Thai community of Vietnamese descent in the country, considering them a bridge of bilateral friendship and economic exchange, he said.

Ambassador Bang, for his part, suggested that the two nations seriously follow the principle of not allowing any individual and organisation to use ones territory to sabotage security of the other.

He thanked the Thai government for creating favourable conditions for overseas Vietnamese living in the country.

The diplomat urged Thailand to early conduct negotiations for the signing of agreements on extradition and mutual judicial assistance in criminal affairs to implement important agreements reached during Vietnamese PM Nguyen Xuan Phucs visit to Thailand in August 2017./.A 15-year-old boy has been killed in a collision with a bus on a popular seafront, police said.

The teenager died in hospital half an hour after the incident in Marine Parade, Brighton, in the early hours of Saturday.

Sussex Police said emergency services were called to the scene in the Kemptown area of the city at 12.51am.

The teenager died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton (Jonathan Brady/PA)

A spokesman said: The 15-year-old boy from Brighton was rushed to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, but was declared dead at 1.19am.

His family has been informed.Scotland registered their first victory over England in a decade to reignite their NatWest 6 Nations title aspirations and leave the champions nursing a conclusive 25-13 defeat.

The Scots had waited 14 years to score a Calcutta Cup try at Murrayfield and, when it finally arrived, it was the first of three as Eddie Jones men were run ragged in an electric Test inspired by home endeavour.

Huw Jones left his calling card on England with two of the touch downs and his power at outside centre repeatedly rattled a defence that has rarely been in such disarray.

Scotland overcame England at Murrayfield

A 22-6 lead had been compiled by half-time, leaving Jones pre-tournament questioning of Scotlands lateral offence and ability to deal with expectation looking ill-judged.

Instead the darlings of European rugby, as Jones described them, were magnificent as they matched their willingness to attack with a steely resolve that meant England were out-hustled throughout.

Owen Farrell crossed early in the second half but it was a lone shot as Dylan Hartley marked the occasion of becoming his nations second most capped player behind Jason Leonard with a painful loss.

Reports emerged shortly before kick-off that Farrell had been involved in a scuffle as the teams entered the tunnel once the warm-ups had been completed, team-mates intervening as peacemakers.

It set the scene for a captivating 138th instalment of the sports oldest international fixture, but from the start it was Scotland who produced most of the fireworks.

Breaks from Tommy Seymour and Stuart Hogg induced a roar from Murrayfield, but the real work was being done at close quarters where the Scots were winning the majority of the collisions.

England worked deep into home territory and were rewarded by two Farrell penalties, but their whitewash was breached in the 16th minute when Jones hacked on Finn Russells grubber and pounced when Jonathan Joseph failed to gather the ball.

Just after the half hour mark Scottish ambition conjured a second try. Starting from inside their 22, they first tested the left wing before a long pass from Russell swept play to the opposite touchline where the rampaging Jones found acres of space.

And when accurate handling directed the ball back to the side where the attack began, Sean Maitland dived into the corner while riding a tackle from Anthony Watson.

In contrast to Scotlands clinical touch, Englands attempts to make inroads were repeatedly ended by Nigel Owens whistle just as they were building up a head of steam.

And to compound their problems, a mini collapse in defence three minutes before the interval saw the unstoppable Jones run on to Greig Laidlaws pass and maraud through the midfield to touch down as Mike Brown and Watson made desperate late tackles.

England replied quickly after half-time when Farrell was able to run through a large hole and they thought they had scored on two further occasions only to be pulled back by Owens.

Scotland went back on the offensive and their cause was aided when Sam Underhill was sin-binned for a no arms tackle, allowing Russell to land a penalty that opened a 12-point lead with 14 minutes remaining.

That advantage remained intact at the final whistle, igniting wild celebrations.Crowds lined the streets as a motorcade carrying the body of the Rev Billy Graham passed through his home state of North Carolina in a running tribute to Americas Pastor.

Adults and children stood behind wooden barricades and yellow tape as police officers saluted and admirers captured the moment on mobile phones.

Flowers and notes are left outside the Billy Graham Training Centre(Kathy Kmonicek/AP)

He has never really revelled in all of the celebrity. Its come with the territory, said Joe Tyson, a family friend who watched the procession in Black Mountain.

But theyve managed to live a very normal life for such famous people. And I think hed be very proud that his neighbors turned out and quietly celebrated his reward and his passage into heaven.

The motorcade left the mountain chapel at the training centre operated by Grahams evangelistic association in Asheville on a long drive along Interstate 40 to his library in Charlotte, the states largest city.

Pallbearers carry the coffin of the Rev Billy Graham into a hearse (Kathy Kmonicek/AP)

It was a chance for residents in some of Grahams favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. He maintained his home in the nearby community of Montreat.

The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial March 2 at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.

Graham, who died Wednesday at his home in North Carolinas mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television.

A viewing will be held at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday. Graham will also lie in honour in the US Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Thursday, the first time a private citizen has been accorded such recognition since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.

Ruby Sparks, 85, attended a Graham youth ministry meeting in 1951, when she was a college student in Greensboro, North Carolina and met him in 1970.

He was such a wonderful man of God, and a messenger of God, she said.

Asked if there would ever be another force like his, she replied: I doubt it. Perhaps, in my next, in another lifetime. Not in my lifetime.

Billy Graham died aged 99 on Wednesday (Nell Redmond/AP)

Graham will be laid to rest March 2 at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the library in Charlotte, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007.

His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one.

The funeral will be held in a tent in the main parking lot of Grahams library in tribute to the 1949 Los Angeles tent revivals that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark DeMoss said. About 2,000 people are expected at the private, invitation-only funeral.Bill Clinton has said Americans are not aware enough of the dangers related to mixing alcohol with opioids.

The former US president said schoolchildren were not being warned of the risks.

Speaking after he delivered a keynote speech at the World Patient Safety Summit in London, Mr Clinton encouraged those part of the movement to continue in their work.

Bill Clinton delivered the keynote speech at the World Patient Safety Summit in London (Victoria Jones/PA)

He said: One friend of mine had a daughter having trouble with her marriage. He was desperate, he called her every day.

Mr Clinton added: He couldnt find her and the police went into her apartment and found her sitting there, watching television, stone dead with a glass of wine in front of her.

Speaking of Americas opioid crisis, he continued: It has been a problem for a decade or more in America and nobody tells these kids when they go to school that you can die if you do this.

You cannot mix these two things.

2017 Beau Biden Humanitarian Award goes to the UK Secretary of Health, the Rt. Hon. @Jeremy_Hunt, a public servant who has made patient safety the center of his work and created patient safety laws that are leading the world in eliminating preventable deaths in hospitals #0X2020 pic.twitter.com/5sinMUSKUP  Patient Safety Movement Foundation (@PLAN4ZERO) February 24, 2018

Mr Clintons keynote speech on Saturday addressed the need to identify the challenges that are killing patients in order to create actionable solutions.

It came the day after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunts speech in which he said doctors and nurses were terrified that opening up about their mistakes would see them struck off the medical register.

On Saturday Mr Hunt was presented with the movements Beau Biden Humanitarian Award for his work on promoting patient safety.Arsene Wenger believes Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be much sharper in the Carabao Cup final, having not featured for Arsenal in a fortnight.

The Gabon striker became Arsenals record signing when he joined from Borussia Dortmund on transfer deadline day.

He scored on his home debut against Everton before struggling in defeat to north London rivals Tottenham.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is set to come back into Arsenals line-up (Victoria Jones/PA)

Aubameyang is ineligible in the Europa League so has not played a competitive game for the Gunners since the 1-0 loss at Wembley on February 10.

But now the 28-year-old is ready to return to the national stadium for Sundays meeting with Manchester City.

He has only played twice but on the other hand when he came here he had not played for a while, said Wenger. He was not at his best physically and we took advantage of the last two weeks to build him up physically.

I think he will be much sharper than he was. You could see day after day that he is much sharper than he was two or three weeks ago.

While Wenger feels Aubameyang has benefitted physically from his rest, he did concede that a lack of understanding with his Arsenal team-mates could still cause a problem.

Its not ideal, he added. But I think his great strengths are his finishing, the quality of his runs and his pace, of course.

Our target on Sunday will be to find him two or three times each half in dangerous positions because he is sharp now.

The handicap is that we have not played a lot with him but his runs are so clever that I think we have players who can find him.

Training Done  before the Game tomorrow. I cant play this Game but i will support my team mates  #WeAreTheArsenal #aubameyang pic.twitter.com/iIGWHAgJBh  AUBA (@Auba) February 21, 2018

While Aubameyang can be recalled to the side, having missed both Europa League matches against Ostersund, Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be forced to sit out the cup final.

Aubameyangs former Dortmund team-mate was also signed by Arsenal last month but featured for Manchester United in the Carabao Cup earlier in the competition.

That means the Armenia international is cup-tied against City, with the likes of Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck competing for a place in support of Aubameyang.A minister of the United Kingdom has spoken to Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana regarding the incident involving Sri Lankan Military Attache Brigadier Priyanka Fernando who displayed his shoulder flash bearing the national emblem to pro-LTTE protestors in London on February 4.

The Brigadier displayed this as a warning, during a demonstration on February 4 by LTTE activists in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. The incident led to controversy, with pressure for removal of the Brigadier from office.

Against the backdrop, Spokesman of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) Suren Surendiran wrote to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson asking for the naming of the Brigadier Persona Non-Grata (A person not allowed to stay in that country).

The Foreign Office, in response to the GTF, assured that the UK government was taking the incident seriously.

Subsequently, the Foreign Office made immediate representations to the Sri Lankan government, and the Minister for South Asia has personally spoken to Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana in this regard.

We have been left in no doubt that the Government of Sri Lanka also takes this incident very seriously. As the Minister explained to the House on February 20, the Government of Sri Lanka has ordered their Defence Attache to return to Colombo, while the incident is being thoroughly investigated, the UK Foreign Office wrote to Mr Surendiran. (Kelum Bandara)The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) yesterday said the Kuwait government had extended the general amnesty period for illegal expatriates in Kuwait until April 22.

The SLBFE in a statement said earlier that Kuwait had declared a general amnesty period from January 29 to February 22 for expatriates who did not possess residency permits and for those with expired residency permits, to rectify their status or leave the country.

The amnesty will permit illegal residents to leave the country during the amnesty period without paying penalties. Those who leave the country during this amnesty will be allowed to enter Kuwait again in a lawful manner, it said.

It said however, residency violators who were banned from travelling out of Kuwait or subjected to court cases were not eligible for this amnesty and they should visit the Residency Affairs Department to sort out their issues.

It also said if an illegal resident was caught during the amnesty period, such a person would be arrested and deported.

There are 15,447 Sri Lankans living illegally in Kuwait. Among them, as of now, more than 4000 Sri Lankans have registered with the embassy over there to leave the country, the SLBFE said in its statement. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)Several roads in Colombo would be remain closed on Sunday from 5 am to 12 noon to make way for the Ironman triathlon race which would be commenced from the Galle Face Green, Police said.

Accordingly, the vehicle movement along the Chaithya Road, Galle Road towards Kollupitiya Junction from the Galle Face Green, Kollupitya Station Road and the Marine Drive from Kollupitiya towards Wellawatta would be restricted from 5 am to 12 noon on Sunday.

Motorists are advised to use alternative routes.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RBI ordered lenders to comply with more than two dozen items within set timelines. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Indias central bank has told lenders to link their internal software with the SWIFT interbank messaging system by the end of April, and to alter a range of other protocols with immediate effect, as fallout from an alleged $1.77 billion fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB) continues to swell.

In what has been dubbed the biggest loan fraud in Indias history, the No 2 state-run lender PNB has alleged that two employees at a Mumbai branch colluded with firms linked to well-known jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi.

The bank alleges the employees issued unauthorised letters of undertaking, or guarantees, that allowed the firms to secure credit from overseas branches of other, mostly Indian banks.

A lawyer for Modi has denied his client was involved in any fraud. Choksi has not commented but his firm, Gitanjali Gems, has also denied involvement in the alleged fraud.

PNB says the fraud dates back to 2011 and stayed undetected as the employees did not enter the transactions in PNBs core software after sending instructions to overseas banks through SWIFT.

Brussels-based SWIFT has previously said it does not comment on individual customer matters.

Many Indian banks, including PNB, have not linked their core banking systems with the SWIFT network, which is widely used by global banks to communicate with each other on transactions.

Rules tightened

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which supervises lenders, has moved to tighten regulations. In a letter dated February 20, a copy of which Reuters saw on Friday, the RBI ordered lenders to comply with more than two dozen items within set timelines.

The recent detection of a large-value fraud ... indicates ineffective implementation of the prescribed controls, the RBI said in the memo, sent to heads of all commercial banks.

It said banks must not send any transaction message on the SWIFT system or issue any loan or guarantee without ensuring it was reflected in the core banking or accounting system. It asked banks to integrate SWIFT with their systems by April 30.

The RBI also required a tightening of the use of SWIFT infrastructure; a limit on foreign currency payment instructions where beneficiaries were individuals; and an additional layer of security on transactions beyond a certain threshold.

Most of the actions have to be implemented at once, while the deadlines for others range from the end of March to the end of June.

Usha Ananthasubramanian, chief executive of Allahabad Bank, who also heads the Indian Banks Association, said the urgency of the demand to integrate with SWIFT was such that maybe Ill shelve one project and step into this and tell my vendor to fast track this.

Auditing probe

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), a state-controlled regulator, has said it is probing whether auditors played a role in perpetrating the alleged fraud.

The ICAI said it has asked the Securities and Exchange Board, PNB and investigating agencies to share their findings.

It also said it had set up a panel to study the systemic lapses that led to the fraud and suggest remedial measures.

Separately, PNB said a news report that it had approached the global accounting firm PwC to conduct a probe into the alleged fraud that would help it build a case against Nirav Modi and his associates was totally incorrect.

The bank also said it had received no instructions from the RBI or the government asking it to pay other banks that had lent to the jewellers based on the fraudulent letters of undertaking.

Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra, who also stars in the US television series Quantico, terminated her contract as the brand ambassador for Nirav Modis eponymous high-end diamond jewellery stores, which stretch from New York to Beijing, her spokesman said.

Speaking at a conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, no relation to the jeweller, said India would continue to take stringent actions against financial irregularities, without directly referring to the PNB case.

Shares in PNB have lost nearly 30 per cent of their value since the extent of the fraud was made public on February 14. PNBs stock fell 1 per cent on Friday, while Gitanjali Gems fell by its maximum daily limit of 5 per cent to a new low of 24.75 rupees.United States buys close to a fifth of Indias goods and services exports and its trade deficit has widened from $13 billion in 2006 to $31 billion in 2016.

New Delhi: US businesses and diplomats are pressing India to cut tariffs, industry and government sources say, after New Delhis move to increase customs duties on dozens of products to help its flagship Make-in-India drive aggravated differences over trade.

Ford, which has two plants in India, has sought a reversal of the new tariffs on auto components, while Apple Inc is concerned its iPhones have become even more expensive in the price-conscious $10 billion smartphone market.

India and the United States have built close political ties and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Washington last summer, bear-hugging President Donald Trump in his personalized style of diplomacy. But trade friction is casting a shadow.

A US State Department spokesperson in Washington told Reuters that India should lower trade barriers, which were holding back economic ties.

Trump has already called out India for its duties on Harley-Davidson motorbikes, and this month Modi ordered them cut to 50 percent from 75 percent for high-end bikes.

But that has not satisfied Trump, who pointed to zero duties for Indian bikes sold in the United States, saying he would push for a reciprocal tax against countries, including U.S. allies, that levy tariffs on American products.

It is important that India make greater efforts to lower barriers to trade, including tariff and non-tariff barriers, which will lower prices to consumers, promote development of value chains in India, said the State Department spokesperson, referring to Trumps comments on motorbikes.

The US Congress has been pushing over the past year for greater pressure on India to dismantle economic barriers, and now House Republicans have raised the issue of the new round of duties with New Delhi.

We conveyed our concerns to the Indian government last week to raising tariffs above WTO rates  especially as it relates to information technology, a Republican aide in Washington told Reuters.

Import taxes

India announced higher import tax on electronics products such as mobile phones and television sets in December, and then on 40 more items in the budget this month. These included goods as varied as sunglasses, juices and auto components.

India says the move is aimed at giving local industry the chance to grow and is part of a broader plan to lift the share manufacturing makes up of GDP to a quarter, from around 15 percent, and create the tens of thousands of jobs needed for a young workforce.

US commerce department referred questions to the US Trade Representatives (USTR) office in Washington, where a spokesman declined to comment.

The Indian commerce ministry did not respond to a request for a comment on the US criticism of the import taxes.

But a senior finance ministry official defended the decision to raise duties, saying it reflected a trend in other parts of the world.

When all the major economies, including the US and China, are following protectionist policies, why are we being questioned, the official said.

Trade ties

Bilateral trade between India and the United States has grown to about $115 billion in 2016 from $20 billion in 2001. The United States buys close to a fifth of Indias goods and services exports and its trade deficit has widened from $13 billion in 2006 to $31 billion in 2016.

The USTRs office is fairly negative on India at this point and is analyzing the impact of the customs trade tariffs on various American companies, an industry source aware of the matter told Reuters.

They are more vigilant than earlier, they are in bulldog mode under Trump, the source said. A spokesperson for the USTRs office declined to comment.

Even before the new round of hikes, India has been seen as one of the most protected major economies. The United States had an average tariff rate of 3.4 per cent on imported goods in 2016, compared with 13.5 per cent for India, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

China, which the Trump administration is targeting for its trade practices, had an average tariff rate of 9.9 per cent that year.

Apple, whose top-end iPhone costs nearly $1,700 after the company raised prices twice in recent months due to higher duties, is in talks with other firms on whether the issue could be raised at the WTO, an industry source said.

Apple did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Ford and European carmaker Volkswagen have written to Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying the new tariffs are going to hurt the auto sector and should be reviewed, sources said.

Anurag Mehrotra, Ford Indias managing director, said the company has invested $2 billion in the country and the governments move would hit the automobile sector.

Like many, we also see it as the return of protectionism, Mehrotra told Reuters, adding he expected car prices to rise up to 4 percent due to new duties.

Andreas Lauermann, the head of Volkswagens India unit said it remains a challenge to invest further because of sudden tax hikes.Harvey Weinstein has apologised for using statements by veteran actor Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence in his defense against a class-action sexual harassment lawsuit.

Weinstein's attorneys, Phyllis Kupferstein and Mary Flynn, had mentioned the names of prominent Hollywood A-listers, including Streep, Lawrence and Gwyneth Paltrow to prove that not all women had a negative experience of working with him.

The motion claimed that Streep had stated publicly that "Weinstein had always been respectful to her in their working relationship." The document also included comments Lawrence made to Oprah Winfrey where she had said the producer had "only ever been nice" to her.

However, the move did not go down well with Streep and Lawrence, who objected to being invoked in Weinstein's defense, reported Variety.

"Even though Mr Weinstein has worked with hundreds of actresses and actors who had only professional and mutually respectful experiences with him, Mr Weinstein has directed in the future that no specific names be used by his counsel, even where those actors have made previous public statements about him.

"Mr Weinstein acknowledges the valuable input both Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence have contributed to this conversation and apologises. Once again, moving forward, Mr Weinstein has advised his counsel to not include specific names of former associates; and to avoid whenever possible, even if they are in the public record," the disgraced Hollywood producer's spokesperson said in a statement.

In response to the motion, Lawrence described Weinstein as a "predator".

Her comment followed Streep firing back at the producer. She said the action was "pathetic and exploitative".

The lawsuit against Weinstein was filed by six female actors claiming that the producer, along with The Weinstein Company, used his power to bully women and cover up the cases of sexual misconduct.Two big films, Bharat Ane Nenu and Naa Peru Surya Naa Illu India (NPS) starring Mahesh Babu and Allu Arjun respectively were all set to release on the same date of April 27.

Alarmed at this development, producers K.L. Narayana and Dil Raju invited the producers of the two films  D.V.V. Danayya and Lagadapati Sridhar to discuss the issue, and prevailed on them to change the release dates for the sake of the industry.

We want to create a healthy atmosphere in the industry, so we both decided to alter our release dates. We also decided that a two week gap is good between the two big films, so we are releasing Bharat Ane Nenu on April 20 and Naa Peru Surya on May 4, said both the producers after the meeting.

Meanwhile, K.L. Narayana and Dil Raju opine that it is not a good idea to release two big films on the same date, except during Sankranti, when three to four films release simultaneously. Seems like alls well that ends well with these two big star films.A day after it was announced that director Harish Shankars next project is titled Seeti Maar, the spotlight turned on to the films protagonist. We have learnt that Ravi Teja would star in the breezy entertainer. Interestingly, this is the third time the actor-director duo is teaming up after Shock and Mirapayaka.

Harish has been a close aide of Ravi Teja and knows exactly how to portray the actors hitherto unseen side onscreen. So much like in their earlier two outings, this film too features Ravi Tejas antics thatll hog the limelight.

A source in the know informs, Ravi Teja is floored with his characterisation. He believes the film would bring him back in the vogue to the masses. The actor has recently commenced shoot of Nela Ticket and shall wrap it up before he takes on this new project.

Meanwhile, the director is giving finishing touches to the script and the project might go on floors in summer.Learning to respond to your failures with kindness, or self-compassion, may help offset the negative effects of perfectionism at any age, according to a small study of Australian teens and adults.

We know that perfectionism can often lead to people pushing themselves too far in the pursuit of an unobtainable excellence, and as a result experience burn-out and depression symptoms, lead author Madeline Ferrari, a clinical psychologist at Australian Catholic University in Strathfield, New South Wales, told Reuters Health by email. However self-compassion seems to offer the opportunity to manage these perfectionism beliefs and not fall into the depression trap.

While striving to attain high personal standards is not unhealthy in itself, the authors write in the online journal PLoS ONE, there is a maladaptive form of perfectionism that includes self-criticism, fear of making mistakes and worry about negative evaluations by others.

Past research has tied this negative form of perfectionism to heightened risk for depression, they write. To see whether self-compassion or a lack of it might influence that link, and whether age makes a difference, Ferraris team sent questionnaires to more than 1,000 teens and young adults.

The anonymous, voluntary questionnaires were administered to 541 adolescents in grades seven to 10 at five Australian private high schools to assess their levels of perfectionism, depression and self-compassion. About 8 in 10 participants were girls.

The study team gave similar questionnaires to a group of 515 adults recruited from the general population and ranging in age from 18 to 72 years, of whom about 7 in 10 were women.

Researchers found a strong relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression among both adolescents and adults. But among people with high levels of self-compassion, the link between perfectionism and depression was decoupled, they report.

Self-compassion seems to sever the link between perfectionism (and depression), even though it is really tentative and not definitive, said Serena Chen, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley who wasnt involved in the study.

Perfectionism, depression and self-compassion are all correlated with one another, but the direction and influence of the effects is unclear, she added. It could be that depression leads people to be more perfectionistic or maybe people who are perfectionists have lower self-compassion, Chen said in a telephone interview.

(The researchers) want to make the case that self-compassion is a good thing. It is good for you . . . but we dont know from this study that self-compassion is causing anything, she added.

Women and girls reported having significantly more depressive symptoms compared to men and boys in both study groups, but men tended to report higher self-compassion levels than women, the study authors found.

Among the studys limitations, they acknowledge, is that because both study groups had a high proportion of females, more research is needed to make certain that the findings apply equally to men and women. Further research involving an active intervention to see if increasing self-compassion weakens the risk of depression would be needed to prove the link, they add.

Our study contributes to the growing recognition that in embracing our mistakes, failures and vulnerabilities, i.e., being self-compassionate, we become more resilient, Ferrari said.

This should come as relief to parents, she added. Noticing perfectionist tendencies in children shouldnt be a cause for panic. Instead, this is an opportunity to model and teach self-compassion, especially when a childs performance doesnt meet their own standards.

We treat other people with more compassion and understanding than we do ourselves, said Kristin Neff, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin who wasnt involved in the study.

The most important part of self-compassion is being kind to yourself. Self-compassion doesnt mean you dont point out your mistakes. You do so with constructive criticism, Neff said in a phone interview. Validate that it hurts, youre disappointed and acknowledge the pain, but tell yourself that failure is part of being human. Ask yourself what you would say to a friend that made the same mistake and then tell that to yourself. Widely appreciated as one of the finest radio and television presenters of the country, Danishs tryst with the movies hasnt been bad either.

With love pouring in from across the city, Danish Sait, with his wit and versatility, has found himself a spot the heart of every true blue Bengalurean. Humble Politician Nograj, a scathing take on local politics, is Danish's newest brainchild, one that takes him off the airwaves and to the silver screen. He puts away his bevy of foreign accents for his favourite avatar, Nograj, the humble local! Danish Sait talks to Aksheev Thakur about leaps of faith and realising one's dreams.

Nograj, now a household name, drew people in hordes to the movie theatres when it made to the silver screen early this year, but Danish Sait, the man behind it all, does not see anything unsual about his transition from being a Radio Jockey (RJ) to an actor as he believes it was bound to happen one day, acting being one of his childhood dreams. It was natural and had to happen at some point in time. Nobody gave me a chance and so I dexcided to give it to myself, Danish smiles.

Widely appreciated as one of the finest radio and television presenters of the country, Danishs tryst with the movies hasnt been bad either. His Humble Politician Nograj has been showered with love and accolades, fulfilling his long held dream of becoming an actor. But being the multi-tasker he is, Danish is modest about his latest acheivement.

Danish as Humble Politician Nograj

I have spent enough time doing stage shows. For instance, the RCB insider show where I played Mr Nags had many funny moments. So playing the character was not a challenge, he explains, happy that at the end of the day there is hardly any box he has not ticked so far in his career.

As for the success of Humble Politician Nograj , Danish is all praise for director Saad Khan for striking the right chord with the audience while juggling with social issues. The duo have known each other since the time Danishs prank calls were getting popular. Saad, then presenter of The Improv comedy group, asked him to join the next act , sowing the seeds of a much longer association. We knew who we were targeting and that we wanted a commercial flavour so as to not make it boring. The credit goes to Saad, Danish goes on , revealing that Humble Politician Nograj has been well received even by the political community, which has found it astoundingly funny.

The movie is the only latest feather in the cap for Danish, who after pursuing his higher education at the St Josephs College of Commerce in the city, worked for an advertising agency for a while before moving to Bahrain and later Dubai, only to return in 2012 to become a much loved RJ. His prank shows on the radio made him a household name in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai and received over 32 million plays on the Internet not just in India, but also the USA and UAE.

But eager to conquer new territories, Danish decided to move to digital platforms and then to the visual. Lately I realised that the visual medium was catching up. I wanted to reinvent myself and so I started doing stuff on YouTube and took it to Facebook live, Danish adds

Multi-talented that he is, he was a hit here too as his satirical social commentaries on demonetisation and the protest against the steel flyover in the city got him much applause. In fact, one of the shows on demonetisation fetched him over six lakh views.

While doing a video on demonetisation, I just cried for five minutes saying I had black money and did not know what to do. People laughed and loved it. When we saw that the viewership was huge, we decided to go ahead and make a film, Danish recalls.

While reflecting on the controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmavath, he says philosophically that change is the only constant and hopefully things will improve.

We can crib about things that the people in power do, but the reality is that if we do not vote for the right people these issues will continue. However, life is not as bad it is portrayed on social media, he sums up, leaving you with the hope of a coming sequel to his much liked debut movie.Police said the deceased has been identified as Narasimha Murthy, who was residing with his wife Anita and their five-year-old son. (Representational Image)

Bengaluru: A 34-year-old snacks vendor was brutally hacked to death and his body was stuffed in a gunny sack at his house in Kurabarahalli in Mahalakshmi Layout police station limits on Thursday night.

Police said the deceased has been identified as Narasimha Murthy, who was residing with his wife Anita and their five-year-old son. Murthy, who hails from Ramanagara, was eking out his living by selling pani puri near Kurubarahalli circle.

He got married to Anita, who hails from Magadi, a few years ago. The police said that according to Anitha, on Thursday around 10.30 pm, Murthy returned home after work. After having dinner, while he was sitting along with Anitha, three armed men barged into the house and sprayed something on her and started attacking Murthy, while she fell unconscious. She regained conscious only in the morning and found her husband missing. She later found him stuffed inside a gunny sack and was kept in the toilet. She alerted the police, who rushed to the spot and shifted the body for post-mortem, added the police.

Extra-marital affair?

A senior police officer said, There was something suspicious about the entire incident. During the preliminary investigation, Murthys mother Hanumamma claimed that Anitha was having an extra marital affair with Praveen, an autorickshaw driver. Praveen used to visit Anithas house in the absence of Murthy and their son. Hanumamma had warned Anitha and asked her not to speak to Praveen. But Anitha continued the relationship.

Anitha and Praveen may have decided to get rid of Murthy and planned the murder. But for now nothing can be ascertained. While Anitha has been detained, the police are on the lookout for Praveen, who is currently absconding. When the incident took place, Murthys son was at his grandmothers house.Kerala government will provide Rs 10 lakh to the family of the tribal youth. (Photo: YouTube/Screengrab)

Palakkad: Two days after a "mentally unstable" tribal man was beaten to death for theft in Kerala's Palakkad district, postmortem reports on Saturday confirmed that the man had died of trauma caused by the torture.

It also confirmed that he was beaten up and had internal injuries and injuries to his head and back.

BJP workers staged protest in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram with a symbolic body, over death of the tribal youth.

Sixteen people have been arrested and charged with sections of murder. They will be produced in court on Sunday.

Kerala government will provide Rs 10 lakh to the family of the tribal youth.

The tribal man, suspected to be mentally unstable, was beaten to death by locals who accused him of stealing food articles from some shops at forest-fringe town Agali near Palakkad, triggering protests across the state on Friday.

Tribals and human rights activists staged protests in various parts of the state after photos and visuals of the fatal attack went viral on social media besides being telecast by TV channels.

Also Read: Selfie craze: Locals click while mentally unstable Kerala man tied, beaten to death

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the incident, describing it as a "blot on Kerala's progressive society".

The deceased was identified as Madhu, hailing from Kadukumanna settlement of Attappady, one of the largest and most backward tribal hamlets in the state, police said.

Some television channels aired visuals purportedly showing people taking selfies with Madhu with his hands tied.

Several ministers condemned the incident and called for exemplary punishment for the accused.Bengaluru: In a major embarrassment for the ruling Congress, Mr Loganathan, father of Vidwath, who was brutally attacked by Congress MLA, N.A. Haris' son, Mohammed Nalapad at an upscale restaurant last week, reportedly rejected the 'reconciliation' offer made by none other than Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

This development happened on Thursday night after the legislature session.

Realising that public sentiment on the issue could spoil the party's image, Mr Siddaramaiah and his team made an attempt to end the controversy ahead of AICC president Rahul Gandhi's visit to the state on Saturday. Mr Siddaramaiah invited Mr Loganathan to meet him and discuss the matter but Mr Loganathan reportedly rejected the offer.

The 'offer' was that the public prosecutor should not oppose the bail petition of Mohammed Nalapad, said sources. Mr Loganathan reportedly told Mr Siddaramaiah that he was not interested in giving a political twist to the case. Sources said he was not keen on joining hands with any political party on the issue. He reportedly firmly told Mr Siddaramaiah that he would not compromise on his son's future including fighting the case.

No sooner had the doors closed on the reconciliation effort, Shanthi Nagar MLA, N.A. Haris rushed to Mallya Hospital to personally meet Mr Loganathan who, after exchanging pleasantries, left without providing any scope for negotiation.Chennai: Observing that the professional degree obtained by the student must be considered as an asset, like any other secured asset by the banks, the Madras high court has imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on Indian Overseas Bank, Kelur Branch, Thiruvannamalai district, which refused to sanction an education loan of Rs 3.45 lakh to an engineering girl student.

Education is not considered an asset by the banks. The country would be denied of the service of scientists, doctors, engineers and other professionals in case financial assistance is not given to the deserving students to come up in life. The educated youth are an asset to the nation and their talents can be utilized for the growth of the country. The banks must realize this fundamental fact, said a division bench comprising Justices K.K.Sasidharan and P.Velmurugan while dismissing an appeal from the IOB, challenging an order of a single judge, which directed the bank to consider the plea of R.Muthazhagi, seeking education loan.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Sasidharan said though the banks would sanction loans and letters of understanding to the billionaire businessmen and affluent, even without sufficient collateral security and would take action for recovery only when the scam spinning out of control, they were adopting a totally different yardstick in the case of middle income group and poor people across India. The banks were not concerned with the directives issued by the Central government and RBI to help the poor students by giving them education loan.

Such instructions were violated by the banks with impunity. The present case was a classic example as to how the IOB dragged the daughter of a poor farmer belonging to a most backward community in Tamil Nadu from pillar to post, without considering her application to enable her to pay the college fees and complete the course. The bank by filing the appeal against the order passed by the single judge on November 30, 2012 succeeded in dragging the matter till the completion of the course so as to make the matter infructuous. The Himalayan arrears in courts and the inability of the system to prioritise the case also contributed for the delay and denial of justice to the poor student, the judge added.

The judge said the appeal was nothing but an abuse of process of court. The officer of a public sector bank wasted the public money and valuable time of the court by filing an appeal against a decision which would not cause any prejudice to the bank. Even if the money spent for this unwanted litigation was given as education loan, it would have helped the girl student. The bank acted as if the public sector banks have no social commitment. We are therefore, of the view that the appeal deserves to be dismissed with cost, said the court while dismissing the banks appeal and imposing `25,000 as costs payable to the girl within two weeks.Hassan: The stress of climbing the Vindhyagiri Hill for a darshan of the towering Bahubali statue atop it is taking its toll on devotees and even policemen providing security for Mahamastakbhisheka Mahotsav 2018 at Shravanabelagola.

As many as 20 people, including four policemen, have complained of chest pain, fatigue, sweating and other symptoms of a heart attack during climbing up and down the hill. A personal assistant of Shravanabelagola Jain Mutt pontiff, Charukeerthy Bhattaraka Swamiji, Brahmesh Jain, suffered a heart attack and was treated by doctors on duty at the event.

Administrative Medical Officer Yuvaraj, supervising medical arrangements at Shravanabelagola, says stress is to blame. We have saved 20 lives so far and it was possible only because of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) set up at Shravanabelagola, especially for Mahamastakbhisheka, he said, adding that the patients had been referred for further evaluation to the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research in Bengaluru and Mysuru. Yuvaraj, who was medical officer during 2006 Mahamastakbhisheka, recalled seeing people suffering heart attacks even then. At that time, I had advised the then Chief Minister to establish an ICU unit at Shravanabelagola and luckily it has been set up. We do have ICUs in the district. But the one at Shravanabelagola has come as a blessing as it has saved many lives, he said. It takes anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes to reach the hill top, climbing the steep 650 steps. The exercise is a test of endurance for the devotees determind to have a darshan of the Bahubali statue.

Scion Yaduveer in Shravanabelagola

Dressed in traditional attire, Mysuru scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamarajendra Wadiyar climbed the Vindhyagiri Hill from its west side to reach the statue of Bahubali on Friday, where he performed rituals associated with Mahamastakabhisheka. Yaduveer was welcomed by pontiff Charukeerthy Bhattaraka Swamiji. Yaduveer poured water and showered petals on the statue of Bahubali. He watched the devotees perform various abhishekas for some time.Police have launched a hunt for a man who conned the staff of a cooking vessel showroom in Parrys of Rs 25,000 by posing as a canteen staff in Anna University.

Chennai: Police have launched a hunt for a man who conned the staff of a cooking vessel showroom in Parrys of Rs 25,000 by posing as a canteen staff in Anna University. The conman identified himself as Jayaprakash and approached the showroom saying that he wanted to sell off old and used vessels in Anna University canteen as the canteen is buying new utensils.

A staff of the shop, Senthil Kumar (40), accompanied Jayaprakash to Anna University on Thursday. Jayaprakash had showed him vessels washed and kept near the kitchen. Senthil Kumar had evaluated the cost to be `25, 000 and told the same to Jayaprakash saying that the vessels are old and only that much could be given.

Jayaprakash had agreed to the same and collected the money and went inside the canteen saying he would hand it over to his supervisor and get the receipt. However, he never returned for a while after which Senthil Kumar went inside the canteen to enquire the staff.

It was only then did he realise that he was conned. He came to know that there was no person named Jayaprakash. Senthil Kumar then filed a complaint with the Kotturpuram police station. A case has been registered and further probe is on.Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches subsidized Scooty scheme for working women on the occasion of late Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa's birth anniversary in Chennai. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched subsidized Scooty scheme for working women on the occasion of late Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa's birth anniversary in Chennai.

The scheme, which aims at providing 50 percent subsidy to all the working women to buy two-wheelers, was a pet project of Jayalalithaa.

Addressing the event, Modi said he was glad to be able to launch one of the dream projects of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Speaking on the importance of empowering women in family, PM said it would ultimately lead to the development of an entire house-hold.

"When we help with a woman's education, we ensure that the family is educated," he said.

"When we facilitate her good health,we help keep the family healthy. When we secure her future,we secure future of the entire home," he further added.

Detailing the initiatives taken by the Government for the upliftment of women, Modi said the BJP government at the Centre has made changes in the Factory's Act and has also suggested states to allow women to work in night shifts.

He also spoke about maternity leave which has been extended by the Government from 12 to 26 weeks and the PM Awaas Yojana, where the registry of the house is done in the name of the woman.

Taking potshots at the Congress, he said the TN government received more funds under the NDA rule than during the Congress reign.

"When there was a Congress-led Government at the Centre, Tamil Nadu had received Rs 81,000 crore under the 13th Finance Commission. After the NDA came to power, this state received Rs 1,80,000 crore under the 14th Finance Commission," he said.

The Prime Minister who is on a two-day visit to the state, was received by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palanisamy, Dy CM O Panneerselvam and others at the Chennai airport.

Commemorating the 70th birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa, Modi planted saplings near the entrance of Kalaivanar Arangam auditorium in Chennai along with the CM and Deputy CM.

Addressing the audience at Amma Two-wheeler scheme launch, Panneerselvam said the govt of Tamil Nadu continues to be inspired by the principles of Amma.

"This Amma two wheeler scheme is proposed election manifesto by our Amma. PM Had close relationships with her," he said.

Remembering Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister Palanisamy said it was her who took Tamil Nadu on the path of development.

The CM also requested PM Modi to take appropriate action for the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board and for implementing Cauvery regulation committee as per the guidance of the Supreme Court.Narendra Modi will launch the ambitious Amma two-wheeler scheme that envisages providing 50 per cent subsidy to 1 lakh working women every year to buy mopeds  a key promise made by late J. Jayalalithaa in the 2016 elections  on Saturday here.

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the ambitious Amma two-wheeler scheme that envisages providing 50 per cent subsidy to 1 lakh working women every year to buy mopeds  a key promise made by late J. Jayalalithaa in the 2016 elections  on Saturday here.

At the function in Kalaivanar Arangam, Modi will also launch a drive to plant 70 lakh saplings on 70th birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa, which falls on Saturday.

Though the government envisages providing 50 per cent subsidy to 1 lakh women this year, allotment orders for 1,000 beneficiaries will be handed over on Saturday with Modi himself handing over the orders to a couple of people.

Modi, who will stay overnight at the Raj Bhavan here, is also expected to give audience to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his deputy O. Pannerselvam during which a host of issues are likely to be discussed.

City police have beefed up security arrangements ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the city on Saturday. More than 15,000 personnel along with 10 companies of commando police have been deployed for security.

Police said that the PM is expected to reach the city airport and will then be flown in a helicopter to INS Adyar where Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami and other ministers would receive him.

He is then scheduled to travel to Kalaivanar Arangam where he will launch the Amma two-wheeler scheme on the birth anniversary of the former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

The Prime Minister is then expected to stay at Raj Bhavan that night and would leave to Puducherry next morning.

Security has been tightened at airport, INS Adyar and other sensitive areas in the city ahead of PMs visit.From the next financial year, the states departments of agriculture and irrigation will become major consumers of Discoms.

Hyderabad: The future of TS Discoms is worrying the power department. From the next financial year, the states departments of agriculture and irrigation will become major consumers of Discoms.

The two departments have to pay around `15,000 crore to the Discoms towards power consumption. Going by past experience, power officials doubt the charges will be recovered from the government departments despite Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos assurance that the irrigation and agriculture departments will pay the bills.

As of today, the government departments owe about `4,000 crore. In addition to this, the state government has to pay about `6,000 crore to Discoms towards additional power purchase, tariff subsidy, additional costly power purchase and others.

At present the Discoms are supplying power of about 1263 MW to lift irrigation projects such as the Devadula, Alimineti Madhavareddy project, and the Kalwakurthi, Nettempadu, Koilsagar and Bhima projects. Once Kaleswaram and other lift irrigation projects are completed, the irrigation department will have to supply about 11500 MU of power to operate these projects. The Kaleswaram irrigation project alone will require about 1400 MU, the Discoms estimate.

According to TS Transcos estimates, after all ongoing lift irrigation projects are completed, the irrigation department will have to pay about `7,500 crore towards power consumption.

The state government is supplying free power in the agriculture sector from January 1, 2018. There are about 23 lakh agriculture pump sets in the state and to supply free power to all these pumps sets requires 7000 MW of power, Transco estimates. That will cost about `6,000 crore to `7,000 crore.

This means that the Discoms should get `14,500 crore from the irrigation and agriculture departments. To meet the additional expenditure, Discoms have proposed a tariff hike for 2018-19 financial year. But the Chief Minister has not agreed. He has assured the Discoms that the government will allocate funds for paying the power tariff in the irrigation and agriculture departments. But these funds are also collected from the people in several ways by the government departments. The CM told power officials that the government is prepared to spend `10,000 crore for lift irrigation and `6,000 crore to `7,000 crore for free power supply to farmers. If the government departments do not pay power charges regularly to the Discoms, the Discoms will collapse. At present, Discoms have to get about `14,000 crore from the state government and its departments.

The state government is giving a subsidy to the Discoms of about `4,700 crore in the current financial year. But in future, the subsidy burden will increase further. Power officials agree that they are getting the power subsidy from TS without any delay. They hope that in future the CM will ensure that the power charges are paid by the irrigation and agriculture departments.

Unless the CM is involved it is very difficult to get power charges from government departments. We have confidence in the CM that there will be no problem from the irrigation and agriculture departments in paying power charges, said a senior official of the power department.

Gram Panchayats owe Rs 3,200 cr since 2014

The Central governments decision to directly release funds to local bodies could lead to accumulation of arrears to Discoms by local bodies.

In the past, the Central government released local bodies funds to the state government. The state government after deducting power charges released the remaining funds to the local bodies.

In this system Discoms were paid power charges towards consumption of power by local bodies for street lights. But after the Central government changed the system, Discoms have a problem getting power charges from local bodies. In TS there are 73 urban local bodies and about 8,684 gram panchayats. Discoms have no issues with municipal corporations and municipalities. The main problem is with gram panchayats.

A senior official of the power department said that the gram panchayats are utilising all the funds for development activities without paying power charges to Discoms.

He said that Discoms have to recover power dues of `3,200 crore since 2014 from gram panchayats. Some municipalities too are in arrears.Hyderabad: In a major relief to the Telangana government, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene in an order granted by the Hyderabad High Court suspending the order of the National Green Tribunal at Delhi staying the construction of the Kaleswaram Lift Irrigation Project. The NGT bench at Chennai had on October 5, 2017 directed the Telangana government to stay the construction of the project. The bench was dealing with an application by Md.

Hayath Uddin, a resident of Medak district, who claimed the project did not have clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Aggrieved by the order, the state government moved the Hyderabad High Court, contending that the Principal Bench of the NGT passed the order in the absence of the expert member on the bench. TS irrigation minister T. Harish Rao termed the Supreme Court quashing the petition against the Kaleswaram project on Friday, a slap on the face of those opposing irrigation projects in the state.

Mr Rao, who attended the court hearing in Delhi, briefed Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao about the apex court's verdict. An elated Chief Minister directed the minister and officials to speed up the Kaleshwaram work to ensure that deadlines are met. Mr Harish Rao came down heavily on the opposition Congress party and TJAC chairman Prof Kodandaram were they the petitioners alleging that they were trying to stall the projects by filing cases in courts. He warned that the TRS will expose the conspirators who are behind these cases on the floor of the Assembly in the ensuing Budget session in March.

"Congress and Kodandaram are no different. Both are conspiring to stall irrigation projects taken up by the TRS government for the benefit of farmers and to solve the drinking water problem permanently in the state. Though they are filing hundreds of cases in the Supreme Court and High Court and approaching Green Tribunals in Chennai and Delhi against the projects, we are overcoming one by one. Because we are sincere and committed, we are winning the cases. The latest SC ruling will pave the way for completion of the Kaleshwaram irrigation project in time, the lifeline of Telangana," he said.KANNUR: Three more CPM workers were arrested on Saturday in connection with the murder of S.P. Shuhaib, Youth Congress leader of Mattannur, on February 12. The three, Ashkar, Akhil and Anwar, were taken into custody from Virajpetta in Karnataka. SP Shiv Vikram confirmed that they are CPM workers, thus proving the role of the party in the murder.

Ashkar was part of the killer gang while the other two were involved in the conspiracy, the SP said. It is learnt that five persons were taken into custody, but the police confirmed only three arrests. They have also extended the investigation to other parts of Karnataka as many party workers from Kannur district are settled in the towns in that state. The police had earlier arrested Akash Thilla-nkery and Rejin Raj, two CPM workers, in the case. They are in judicial custody now but the police have sought their custody for further investigation.

Congress leader K. Sudhakaran alleged that the CPM elements tap the mobile phones of investigation officials, Congress leaders and mediapersons. Though the CPM district leadership had tried to produce dummies in the case, the police team refused to budge. Akash had revealed that the quotation for the murder was given by the DYFI leadership at Mattannur.VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu denounced BJPs Rayalaseema declaration and said he was the son of Rayalaseema and had developed the region which people were aware of. He would not tolerate any injustice done to Rayalaseema, he added. The BJP on Friday announced a declaration, containing 16 demands that it wants met before the present term of the state government ends.

On Saturday at a teleconference, Mr Naidu mentioned about providing water to Rayalaseema. Even the public had recognised TD government establishing KIA motors in Anantapur which changed the face of Rayalaseema, he added. Mr Naidu directed leaders not to deviate from development activities. The Chief Minister on Saturday discussed with party leaders on Rayalaseema Declaration.

He wondered why the BJP, which remained silent so far, had suddenly remembered Rayalaseema, and said those criticising him should remember that he was the son of Seema. As the Union government failed in its assurance of treating AP as special, the situation had arisen for fighting for the states rights, he said, adding that the pressure on the Centre was only to protect the states interests and there was no politics in that.Hyderabad: A 15-year-old Class X student committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence in Kulsumpura Colony on Friday night. The deceased, identified as M. Manish, was a student of Sri Sai Talent School, said Kulsumpura police.

He had been suffering a constant headache for the past two-three years. He skipped school on Friday and told his mother at night that he would study till 11 pm, police said. When his mother Veeramma opened the door she found him hanging by a sari from the ceiling, said the police. No suicide note was found and the family did not suspect any foul play.The flammable powders were kept in a room inside the Pharmaceutical firm where the water used to kill the flames reacted and due to the place being closed. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: In a bizarre and unexpected turn of events, after the fire fighters controlled the situation by dousing the flames on Friday morning, the flammable chemical powders kept in a room at Seutic Pharmaceuticals reacted with the water sprayed by firemen, causing another blast later that night.

The residents of the area who went to sleep assuming that the threat was over, were alarmed and stayed up the whole night in fear. Explaining the incident, the station house officer, fire, Jeedimetla, Sridhar Reddy said, The flammable powders were kept in a room inside the Pharmaceutical firm where the water used to kill the flames reacted and due to the place being closed, the reactive substance got accumulated inside, leading to a blast.

Regional fire Officer, central region, V. Papaiah said that post the explosion, the fire began spreading to other parts of the factory area as well and the place, having stored several chemicals, many of them inflammable, added to their task of dousing the fire.

Menwhile, residents of an area near Gampala Veedhi weremade the occupants vacate their homes following the second blast.Hyderabad: Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on Saturday hit out at infighting in Congress and asked people in Telangana to choose between Congress whose leaders fought for posts even when out of power and TRS which always worked for the welfare of people. At a series of public meetings in Wanaparthy and Nagarkurnool districts on Saturday, the minister took the names of local Congress leaders for their open fight for party posts.

When Nagam Janardhana Reddy wants to join the Congress, MLC Damodar Reddy is opposing him. Senior leader D.K. Aruna is opposing Revanth Reddy. The whole history of Congress is nothing but infighting. Earlier too, Marri Chenna Reddy, N. Janardhana Reddy, Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy and Rosaiah, all chief ministers, had to step down due to infighting. Do people wish such leaders come to power again, Mr Harish asked.

Meanwhile, the minister hoped the Justice Brijesh Kumar Tribunal would do justice to Telangana state by making allocations of the Krishna river waters as per the states wishes. The irrigation minister said once the tribunal made its award allocating waters to TS and Andhra Pradesh, the state government proposed to confine entire utilisation of the water in erstwhile Mahbubnagar and Rangareddy districts only. He said the Godavari waters would be extended to Khammam and Nalgonda districts which were getting water from the Krishna.

Owing to efforts of the TRS government during the last four years, for the first time even in February Mahbubnagar district witnessed large extent of crops getting water. He said that in future Mahbubnagar district alone would get Krishna waters for as many as 20 lakh acres, a record in the country. He said all the major irrigation schemes in the district like Kalwakurthy, Nettempadu, Bheema, Koilsasagar, Palamuru Lift projects, besides the Jurala and RDS ones would get water from the Krishna.Patna: Nine schoolchildren were killed and about 20 injured by a speeding SUV while they were trying to cross the road outside their school in Muzaffarpur on Saturday. The injured children were immediately rushed to Sri Krishna Memorial College Hospital for treatment.

The incident occurred on the National Highway number 77 which connects Muzaffarpur to rest of the North Bihar. The Dharampur Government Middle School is located along the national highway. According to officials, Children who died in the accident were below 12 years of age. The incident occurred just after school had ended classes for the day. They said that most of the children had lined up near the road to go home after the school.Hyderabad: The Telangana state government was aiming bigger revenues through sale of liquor in the current fiscal (2017-18). The target set was the highest ever at Rs 17,000 crore when it was more than Rs 14,184 crore during last fiscal. With the current fiscal almost coming to an end, the state government revised the targets for revenue earning departments to close the year with a good balance, of which excise department had been given the maximum target.

Accordingly, the excise department was forcing liquor shop dealers to procure an additional 30 per cent stocks in March, the last month of this fiscal compared to the same period last year. Dealers approaching government-run liquor depots to procure stocks for March were shocked to see officials forcing them to buy the additional material and pay DDs to TS Beverages Corporation Ltd accordingly.

Though a few dealers were raising objections on the ground that they would not be able to sell the additional stocks in a month, excise staff were in no mood to listen, saying the target had be-en fixed by the government and they had to simply follow the orders.

The government has been earning Rs 1,300 crore per month on an average during the fiscal. With liquor earnings contributing a major sh-are to the state exchequer, the government had been raising the revenue targets year-on-year. After the formation of Telangana State in June 2014, the revenue earnings in 2014-15 were Rs 10,150 crore. With increased targets year after year, the government could earn Rs 12,200 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 14,184 crore in 2016-17. In the current fiscal, the government already earned Rs 15,300 crore till date and expe-cted to mop up another Rs 1,700 crore in the remaining one month.The Telangana prison department hosted a conclave for prisoners who have been released in the last two years from the different jails of Telangana.

Hyderabad: The Telangana prison department hosted a conclave for prisoners who have been released in the last two years from the different jails of Telangana.

About 65 released prisoners from different districts of Telangana along with eleven convicts were present on the occasion. The prisoners shared their experiences of how the programme Unnati has transformed their lives. Unnati is a cognitive behavioral change programme which aims to reform the prisoners from within.

Our programme aims at promoting the slogan return not to prison among all the convicts who are in jail and ensure that they are handed over to society in a reformed state. The Director General of prison VK Singh has been instrumental in making 'Unnati' the most popular phenomenon in the jails of Telangana said professor Beena Chintalapuri.Union minister of commerce and industry Suresh Prabhu in a fireside chat with Telangana IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on the third day of the 15th edition of BioAsia at HICC on Saturday. DC

Hyderabad: The pharma industry was a consuming one and so it needed to keep tab on the healthcare needs and purchasing habits of people, said Union minister Suresh Prabhu at the BioAsia conclave on Saturday. With increasing life expectancy of people globally and locally, there will be lot of people who want to look good which is an opportunity for creating anti-ageing products, he said, adding that due to development there were increasing lifestyle diseases which the pharma sector should look at and tap.

There are a good number of companies which are developing molecules and getting approvals at global level. India has become the pharma capital of the world and is helping many countries with affordable drugs and vaccines. Our industry should be positioned to take advantage of new technology and changing demographics, said Mr Prabhu

He advised the life sciences industry to take advantage of emerging trends of the world as predictive medicine would be important and asked the sector to prepare for genomics. He cited the example of Angelina Jolie who discovered that she carried a faulty copy of the BRCA1 gene which put her at risk of cancer.

India should look at the genomic opportunity given by the 7.5 billion population of the world. Industry should be able to earn enough to invest in new molecule, he said.

He said the industry would be given thrust at all meetings with foreign delegations in his role as Union minister of industries and commerce.

We cannot ignore that people get medicines from ayurveda and sidha. So, the development of pharma should also look at auryveda towards holistic healthcare, the minister added.

Hyderabad is the drug capital of the country and the government would work in collaboration with Telangana government and pharma industry, Mr Prabhu said

At the media briefing after the session, he said the Central was thinking of setting up a war room to monitor all investments, including domestic, and determining problems faced by investors.Bengaluru: Continuing his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed on Friday that he was a facilitator for corruption as he was allowing industrialists involved in various scams to flee the country .

The BJP is a corrupt party as many of its leaders, including former Chief Minister, B.S.Yeddyurappa have gone to jail. The Narendra Modi government at the Centre is facilitating corruption by allowing industrialists like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi to flee the country, he charged, while replying to the discussion on the state budget in the Legislative Assembly.

His speech was, however, disrupted by BJP members staging a dharna in the well of the House and claiming his government was most corrupt in the country and encouraged goondaism.

The BJP ruckus began when K. Rajanna of the Congress intervened during the Chief Ministers speech to suggest that he make a request to the Centre to ask nationalised banks to waive off farmers loans instead of favouring big industrialists like Nirav Modi. This brought BJP members to their feet but when Mr. Rajanna defended his remarks on the industrialist, BJP members stormed into the well of the House, raising slogans against the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Senior BJP members like R. Ashok, C.T. Ravi and Sunil Kumar even threw pieces of paper in the air and also at Speaker K.B. Koliwad in protest.

Ignoring the dharna, Mr Siddaramaiah recalled that his government had waived farmers loans to the tune of Rs. 8165 crore which they owed cooperative societies. We have allocated Rs. 4000 crore for this in the Budget and will use it to reimburse the cooperative societies when we return to power in the state, he asserted. Dismissing leader of the opposition, Jagadish Shettars claim that the BJP would present another Budget when it came to power in the state, he said, I think the BJP is over ambitious. People have not forgotten the corruption of the last BJP government and the jail term of its leader.

The House later passed the finance bill in the midst of the protesting BJP members before it was adjourned sine die.Tourists wait for ferries at a port in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, Feb. 23, 2018. More than 12,000 vehicles returning home from a week-long break remained stuck in a seemingly endless traffic jam for ferries in Hainan Province as of Friday afternoon. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]The breakdown of a working relationship between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of the National Capital Region and its officers is a seminal moment. On February 19, AAP legislators heckled, abused and allegedly assaulted chief secretary Anshu Prakash, the Delhi governments topmost bureaucrat, at the residence of the chief minister. Both CM Arvind Kejriwal and deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia were present. The legislators allege that the chief secretary (CS) used intemperate language in the shouting match between them. Cross-first information reports have been lodged by the two rival parties with the police. Further investigations would reveal the facts.

But the circumstantial evidence favours the chief secretarys case. He was summoned to the CMs house for discussions at around midnight. He found a group of 11 legislators and/or partymen  notably all male  assembled. He was made to sit on a sofa, sandwiched between two legislators, who subsequently assaulted him. The bone of contention, according to the CS, was that the legislators were outraged that TV advertisements on the completion of three years of the AAP government in Delhi were not approved in time. The CS avers the advertisements violate the Supreme Court guidelines for government advertisements. The AAP contends that holding up the advertisement, churlishly, is yet another instance of how the Central government uses the office of the lieutenant-governor (L-G) to shackle the state government.

The state government-level staff and officer unions have demonstrated and resorted to work-to-rule tactics against the criminal assault on a government servant while on duty  which attracts severe punishment under the Indian Penal Code. Two legislators  the alleged assailants  have been arrested. The Delhi government is in turmoil. Beyond the inter-personal behaviour issues, which may have sparked the conflict, a larger problem looms. Are institutional arrangements for governance in Delhi so fraught that they breed conflict between politicians and the hapless bureaucrats, who have to play to the tune of two masters?

Long-term observers would say that no, that is not true. After all, for over two and half decades since 1993  when elections were first held for the Government of the National Capital Region  this is the first instance of violent conflict. Delhi is just a half-state government  to twist Chetan Bhagats evocative phrase. The management of land, the police and the civil service remains with the Union government, represented by the L-G. If the same party is in power at the Centre and in the state government, any conflict can be resolved internally. This safety valve is taken away when different parties are in power.

However, this is hardly the first time that different parties have been in power. In 1993-98 the BJP under Madan Lal Khurana ruled the state, while the Congress under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao ruled the Union government till 1996. In 1999-2004 the tables were reversed with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of the BJP heading the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre and chief minister Sheila Dikshit, of the Congress, at the state level. So why the open conflict this time? One difference is, that on the previous occasions, when power was split in Delhi between two parties, both were national parties with mature leaders, well versed and socialised in working within the constitutional constraints of the separation of powers. Put simply, ever since Independence in 1947, a Lutyens political set has evolved, which often seems to have more in common with each other than their own party brethren from out of town. This is not unlike the Washington Beltway syndrome in the United States.

Since 2014, this Lutyens consensus lies shattered. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shuns the airy, closeted politics of the Lutyens kind. He draws power directly from the masses. Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi, is cast in a similar mould. He exults in being common  preferring sweaters to jackets even in Delhis winter, with a trademark muffler around his head to keep the wind at bay and is usually clad in sandals rather than shoes. His partymen emulate his casual dress style. Mr Modi and Mr Kejriwal are both visceral men. Every election is a zero-sum game which must be won. Compromise is akin to defeat. This strategy has worked for both of them. Neither is likely to change.

Delhi has become the battleground for Goliath Modi to slug it out with David Kejriwal. When elephants fight, the bureaucratic grass is bound to get trampled. Anshu Prakash, the incumbent chief secretary, finds himself between a rock and a hard place. A mild-mannered old-school bureaucrat, he has none of the Machiavellian skills needed to become a trusted adviser, simultaneously, to two implacable political adversaries. Is this sorry state of governance an outlier? Unfortunately, no. It festers in every municipality, where a different party controls the state government. Fuzzy separation of powers and functions and inadequate devolution of finance make local bodies dependent on state governments. This stops cities from becoming the fulcrum of participative democracy and vibrant growth centres.

More immediately, in Delhi, we need a truce. The AAP would relish being dismissed by the President of India on the charge of a breakdown in the constitutional machinery. Even as traditional Communist parties remain immersed in obscure, internal ideological battles, it is the AAP which has succeeded in igniting a genuine class war in Delhi, between the haves and the have-nots. Alas, there are too many of the latter. In this classic struggle, it is the establishment  the bureaucracy and the police  which bear the brunt of the ire of marginalised people. A dangerous trend, which could be a tipping point, in urban governance.The Supreme Court has categorically ruled that all the criminal complaints against the young actress who became an Internet sensation overnight should be stayed. Priya Prakash Varrier caught the nations fancy with just a wink in her debut film on adolescent love in school, with millions looking her up on Instagram and other social media. Certain Muslim groups objected Priyas song picturised in a promotional video on YouTube, and an FIR and several criminal complaints were registered against her and the films director and producer in Telangana and Maharashtra. Fringe groups took offence from distorted accounts of the traditional Mapilla song, popular for decades in Muslim-dominated Kerala areas. A fatwa was issued against a young girl and threats made to her well-being.

The courts action upholds the freedom of speech and expression and is significant as otherwise any artistic venture could be targeted like this. In a series of rulings on Padmaavat and other films, the court has ruled consistently and sustained the sacred principles of freedom of speech in a democracy. Regardless of which religion the objectors belong to, it is obvious they tend to take offence for the sake of opposing something and take delight in harassing artistes and film people by dragging them into legal battles in courts and police stations across the country. Only the Supreme Court can protect people from such harassment. While hate can be easily whipped up in these times of instant communications, the law must be empowered even more to stop this trend of spreading wanton disaffection for no reason at all.He said Let there be light

And there was a power cut.

He said the meek shall inherit

But the planet was ruined

He said in the beginning was the word

But the deaf couldnt hear it

He turned water into wine

And then we drank our fill.

From Mini Driver has to be a Parsi, by Bachchoo

When the worlds journalists call the two ISIS terrorists arrested and held by Kurdish forces in Iraq the Beatles, I wonder what Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the real surviving Beatles, think about it. There is no way they can object to the notoriety of the four brutal murderers, steeped in the nastiest medieval interpretation of a metaphysical text being associated with their pop star fame. These fours desperate British citizens of contemporary immigrant stock were so named by the journalists they captured and their associates because the most famous British foursome were John, Paul, George and Ringo. Its not known whether the victims of the beheadings, who named these demented murderers, distinguished between them as the publicists of the Spice Girls did for their pop group. They called them Posh Spice and other adjectives which supposedly distinguished each.

The victims of the murderers certainly dubbed Muhammed Emwazi as Jihadi John. The others were not specifically identified as Paul, George or Ringo.

Emwazi, who proudly displayed videos of himself cutting the necks of journalists and aid workers on the Internet, was killed by a drone attack within ISIS territory. The second Beatle, Aine Davis, was apprehended in Turkey and is now in a Turkish jail. The two remaining Beatles, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafi Elsheikh, have been apprehended by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces who are armed and supported by the United States. The quartet is known to have beheaded 27 of their victims who were either journalists or aid workers and after their capture, the relatives of these victims have spoken up.

It is estimated that 800 British men left to join ISIS and of these 400 have perhaps returned to Britain using their British passports. The British government, in a very infrequently-used measure, has withdrawn the citizenship of Kotey and Elsheikh and has rendered them stateless. These two captives of the Kurdish forces pose a universal legal problem. Whats to be done with them? They beheaded an American called James Foley, and his mother Diane Foley has told the press that she does not want them sent through the Kurdish-US connection to Guantanamo Bay, where they will be subject to no public, civil and judicial process. She wants them treated as murderers and arraigned before a jury in the United States. Depending on the state in which they are tried, they would face the death penalty. The two captives were also complicit in the execution by ISIS of two British aid workers called David Haines and Alan Henning. The relatives of Haines are of the opinion that the two murderers should be tried in the International Court in The Hague. The problem with this court is that the US, China and Russia dont recognise it as the arbiter of international justice, though it has been used to try African war criminals and Slobodan Milosevic. The court moves very slowly and the latter died before the trial was over.

In Britain, opinion is widely divided. There are those in government who, regardless of the fact that their passports were rescinded, want them returned to Britain. International law may challenge the process by which they have been made stateless. Nevertheless, this lobby favours their return to Britain to be tried and locked up in British jails for the rest of their lives as an example to those jihadi returners and others who are tempted into the ways and forces of terror.

There is no death penalty in Britain so such imprisonment is, ironically, the worst that can happen to these death cultists. It may be that questionable interrogation methods are frowned upon and certainly banned in the UK and so thered be no prospect of getting the names and perhaps the plans of their associates from them. They were, after the defeat and rout of their death cult, planning to make their way through Turkey back to Britain to carry on their version of jihad and the slaughter of innocents.

Their capture by the Kurds in their declared Kurdish zone of Syria means that Kotey and Elsheikh are no longer in a war zone and cant be targetted and killed by drones, missiles or by any other means. There is no legal question attached to the elimination of Jihadi John by a drone dropped on a vehicle in which he was travelling in a war zone. There is no prospect now of landing Kotey and Elsheikh in such a zone and shooting them at point blank range as South Asian police forces do to criminals whom they encounter. We civilised cats dont do dat shit!

The decent, civilised solution of a fair and public trial has the fundamental problem of evidence. If Jihadi John was on trial, one could have produced the self-incriminating boasts and videos he made as evidence. Is there parallel evidence from a war zone which could prove that Kotey and Elsheikh, despite being associated with the beheadings and being guilty as hell in the eyes of the men they beheaded, and who dubbed them part of the Beatles, partook in murder? The world may judge them from the fact as to who they were and where they were but is there clear evidence that they were murderers in ISIS?

Will they be able to plead, as they will be perfectly entitled through clever lawyers to do, that they were ambulance orderlies for the injured on the deluded Islamist side? There may be no evidence that civilisation recognises as part of due process to convict them of the crimes that this commentary and others assumes they are guilty of. Dead men tell no tales.President Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs. (Photo: File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump has once again named India and China to defend his policy on climate change and reiterated that these countries and some others benefited the most from the Paris agreement while America didn't get any advantage.

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," President Trump said in his address today to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

He was referring to his decision in 2017 to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In June 2017, President Trump had announced to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris Agreement, President Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision President Trump said, "You know, basically, it said, 'you have a lot of oil and gas that we found' -- you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world -- we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much."

"And basically, they were saying, don't use it. You can't use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. It's not going to happen, I told them. It's not going to happen," he added.

"And China -- their agreement didn't kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia -- they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," President Trump said.

Commenting on India and other countries, he said, "Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country.

"They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?," he said.

"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? We're developed. We can pay," President Trump said.

The President asked, if people understood about the Paris Accord and said that his country is in favour of his decision.

"Because it sounds so good. It's like some of the environmental regulations that I cut. They have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes, I'd say, look, I'm just going to close my eyes and sign this, because you know what? I'm going to get killed on this one. And I get so much thanks. The country knows what I'm doing," he said.

"We couldn't build. We couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," President Trump said.Kabul: At least 23 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in multiple suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults in the war-torn country.

In the biggest attack, Taliban terrorists stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers.

"Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area," defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Deputy provincial governor Younus Rasooli said the authorities had sent a fact-finding delegation to Bala Buluk to investigate the assault.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the diplomatic area of Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing at least three people and wounding five others, deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

"At around 8:30 am, a suicide bomber on foot, well-dressed with a necktie on, was identified at a checkpoint. He blew up his explosives, killing three and wounding five others," he said, updating an earlier toll.

A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The NDS compound is located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

"I was driving nearby when I heard a big explosion, the windows of my car were smashed. I saw several wounded people on the street near me," a witness told Tolo news TV adding that security forces had since swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the attack site.

In December, a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near the same compound, killing at least six civilians.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in Kabul, which in recent months has become one of the deadliest places in Afghanistan for civilians.

Since mid-January, terrorists have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in the capital, killing more than 130 people as the city remains on high alert fearing further violence.

Car Bombings

In two other attacks on Saturday in volatile southern Helmand province, suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

In the first incident, terrorists used a Humvee to attack an army base in Nad Ali district but the vehicle was destroyed when soldiers identified it and hit it with a rocket propelled grenade, provincial spokesman Omar Zawak said.

"Unfortunately, two soldiers were killed in the attack and seven wounded," he said.

The Nad Ali attack was followed by a second suicide car bombing in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah that wounded seven people.

The attack was against an NDS compound and near a police headquarters in the city, Helmand police spokesman Salaam Afghan said.

The Taliban claimed both attacks in Helmand.

Terrorists including the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks on beleaguered Afghan troops and police in recent months, sapping morale already hit by desertions and corruption.

Afghan soldiers have taken what the UN describes as "shocking" casualties since international forces ended their combat role at the end of 2014, though troop casualty figures are no longer released.Indian Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat has exceeded his brief with his remarks on the political situation in Assam. Speaking at a seminar, Gen Rawat claimed that the All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), led by Badruddin Ajmal, is growing at a faster pace than the BJP in the state. He made this remark while talking about the influx of migrants from Bangladesh into India's Northeast and was implying that the migration of Muslims into India is benefiting Muslim parties. Understandably, the army chief's observations have kicked up a controversy. It is not for the army chief to make a political assessment of which political party is growing, at whose cost or benefit and why, on a public platform. Gen Rawat is not new to controversy; he superseded two of his seniors to become the army chief. The BJP-led government at the Centre justified its decision then by claiming that he was enormously experienced in counter-insurgency operations. Critics pointed out, however, that his proximity to the BJP and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval played a role in his appointment. Gen Rawat has continued to court controversy with his comments on issues that do not fall under his remit. A year ago, he described Kashmiri stone pelters as terrorists and more recently, called for an overhaul of Jammu and Kashmir's education system. He also recommended Field Marshall Cariappa, India's first army chief, for the Bharat Ratna. It is unbecoming of an army chief to be publicly campaigning for government honours, even if it is for a much-respected predecessor.



India takes pride in being a vibrant democracy. However, its institutions, including the military, are getting politicised. It is in this context that Gen Rawat's wading into political waters is of grave concern. It has kicked up a debate on his motivations. Does the army chief have political ambitions? Is he aspiring for a larger role for the army in political decision-making? Or is he seeking to endear himself to his political masters in the hope of securing a post-retirement political sinecure? If the army chief was more circumspect in his remarks, such questions would not arise.

India's military is justifiably proud of its credentials as a disciplined, apolitical and secular force. Gen Rawat is eroding this institution's credibility with his politically-loaded comments. If he has political facts and figures of relevance to India's national security, he should share it with the government, but convey it through the right channels, not broadcast it at public meetings and through the media. The army chief must move away from the dangerous game he is playing. He needs to remain focussed on the security of India's borders., which has been under increasing threat during his term.A suspected mentally affected man gave some tense moments to police and local officials here early this morning after he climbed overhead power cable lines. However, swift thinking from the authorities, who snapped power supply ensured there was no untoward incident.



According to police, Irene from Bengaluru was on his way to meet his wife in nearby Pollachi along with his two minor daughters late last night when he took ill at Perundurai village and was admitted to a local hospital. He was subsequently referred to a government hospital in Erode.



The 55-year old man suddenly ran away from the hospital and with his two daughters chasing him, locals panicked and caught him and handed over to police, they said. However, the man once again tried to run away and climbed atop a lamp post but the officials were swift in suspending power in the area to avert any untoward incident.



The man suddenly held on to the overhead power lines and started walking through them, giving tense moments to police and other authorities besides the locals. Police and Fire and Rescue Department officials tried to talk to the man to persuade him to get down even as he suddenly jumped on to a nearby wall and fell. However, the man sustained only "simple injuries" and was undergoing treatment, they said.



A probe is on to ascertain if he was mentally affected, police said, adding his children were provided with food by them. His wife had also been informed, they said.Pakistani Army continued to target Indian posts and border hamlets along the Line of Control (LoC) in Haji Pir sector of Uri in north Kashmir's Baramulla district on Saturday.







Reports said Pakistani troops resorted to heavy shelling near Rustum post in Uri on Saturday morning which was strongly retaliated by Indian troops. The intermittent shelling was going on when reports last came in.





Eyewitnesses told DH over phone that the shelling started early morning. "Though it was moderate in the beginning, as the time passed it grew intense and the mortar shells fired from across the border start landing in border villages," they said.





On Friday around 500 people abandoned their homes in Uri villages as Indian and Pakistani armies continued to exchange heavy fire in the area. An official of state government said the dislocation of such a huge number of people in one day is a major displacement in the past three decades.





The displaced families demand protection of their lives. "The J&K government should build shelters for us. Either the authorities should create underground bunkers for all of us or rehabilitate us in the plains," they told reporters.





The Pakistani troops have been violating ceasefire in Uri sector since Monday as there has been heavy shelling from across the border. Uri was in the news after the September 18, 2016 fidayeen (suicide) attack on Army base that left 19 soldiers dead and triggered the latest tension between India and Pakistan.





Recently, Northern Command chief Lt Gen Devraj Anbu had stated that over 300 militants were waiting across LoC to infiltrate into the Indian territory. Sources said the infiltration attempt could rise in the coming days as weather has started clearing in some of the areas and so could ceasefire violations.





"Pakistani Army is giving cover fire to militants to infiltrate. However, Indian Army has devised its strategy accordingly and they are maintaining high alert along LoC and the IB to tackle the ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts," they said.Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the Centre had released a compensation of Rs 534 crore to the displaced families of the Seabird project and the remaining Rs 53 crore would be deposited with the district administration by February 27.



She was addressing the gathering after distributing the compensation cheques to the displaced families of the Seabird project at Rangamandir here.

"Before Narendra Modi-led NDA government came to the power at the Centre, only Rs 78 crore of the total compensation amount of Rs 587 crore was deposited in the district treasury. Since 2014, the Union government has released Rs 459 crore towards compensation payable to the displaced families," the Union minister said.

The Defence minister handed over compensation cheques to 96 displaced families during the programme.

Union minister Anantkumar Hegde was present.

Large and Medium Industries Minister R V Deshpande in Dec 2017 had submitted a memorandum to the Defence minister during her visit to INS Kadamba Naval Base, requesting her speedy release of compensation to the displaced families.Zhang Dejiang(C, rear), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the opening meeting of the 33rd session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 23, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A total of 2,980 deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, have been elected and are awaiting final confirmation.

A report on the election of new NPC deputies, from 35 electoral units across the country, was submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for confirmation Friday.

The deputy name list is scheduled to be published Saturday.

"The deputies to the 13th NPC make up a broad cross-section with each region, ethnic group and sector of society having proper representatives," said Xin Chunying, deputy secretary-general of the NPC Standing Committee, elaborating on the report at the meeting.

The elections were legal and the qualifications of all deputies are valid, according to a commission of the NPC Standing Committee in charge of checking their validity.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the meeting.

Members of the NPC Standing Committee deliberated a report on the work of the 12th NPC Standing Committee, the agenda of the first session of the 13th NPC, the presidium and secretary-general name list, and a name list of non-voting delegates.

They also reviewed an amendment to a 2015 decision on pledging allegiance to the Constitution, a report on the implementation of the Seed Law, and a State Council proposal to extend the adjustment to certain provisions of the securities law to allow reforms that will change the listing system of the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses from approval-based to registration-based.

The other documents submitted for reading were a report on the qualifications of some NPC deputies and a motion to add new members to the military's election committee, in addition to appointments and dismissals.

Lawmakers agreed that the 12th NPC Standing Committee has performed its duties well during its five-year tenure, with new progress made in theoretical and practical innovations to the system of people's congresses, and in the building of socialist democracy and rule of law, according to a statement issued after panel discussions Friday afternoon.

"The NPC Standing Committee has firmly safeguarded the authority and core status of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and the authority and centralized, unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core," the statement said.

The committee has introduced a number of important and much-needed laws and law revisions, stepped up supervision of law enforcement, served NPC deputies well and helped improve the work of local people's congresses, according to the statement.

On Friday afternoon, chairman and vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee also met and heard results of deliberations on the above mentioned documents. The meeting was presided over by Zhang.

They agreed that these documents would be subject to further deliberation before they are put to vote by the NPC Standing Committee.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Six months after it received a complaint from Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and days after Nirav Modi episode unravelled, the CBI has registered a case against another diamond jewellery exporter based in Delhi for a suspected bank loan fraud to the tune of Rs 389.85 crore.





The latest FIR comes close on the heels of the case against diamantaire Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi in a Rs 11,394.02 crore bank fraud towards Punjab National Bank. The bank approached CBI in August last year after their efforts to locate the Directors of Dwarka Das Seth International Pvt Ltd (DDSIPL) for ten months did not yield any result.



Besides the company, Directors Sabhya Seth, Reeta Seth, Krishna Kumar Singh, Ravi Singh and another company Dwarka Das Seth SEZ Incorporation are named in the FIR. Seth and others believed to have fled the country and CBI has initiated efforts to locate the accused as they were not available at the address they provided to the bank.



The loans had been declared non-performing assets (NPAs) on March 31, 2014 and the bank was holding discussions with Seth on the repayment schedule. According to the bank, the company had availed various credit facilities between 2007-12, which swelled to Rs 389.85 core crore during the period.



The bank claimed that modus operandi appeared to be that the company was using Letters of Credit (LoCs) to pay off other creditors against the purchase of gold and other precious stone and transfer gold and funds outside the country using fictitious transactions.



The OBC found that the company was dealing with Dubai Bank Kenya, Soeil Chartered Bank, Trade Chartered Bank, TF Bank Kontrackt Inc and Century Bank Corp LLC, which were "poorly rated" and stopped discounting any bills.



In its complaint, the OBC said, "Seth had orchestrated an elaborate plan for duping the bank." It claimed Trade Chartered Bank is an "equal partner" in crime as it had established that Letters of Credit were initiated without the request of the opener as alleged by one of the buyers Dubai-based Al Salam Jewellery.



At least three entities mentioned by Seth potentially could be "non-existent" and a way for the borrowers to funnel funds from the country, the bank claimed. One of the Letters of Credit was issued by a "non-existent" bank, if one goes by the address given in the invoice.Sixteen persons have been arrested in connection with the lynching to death of a tribal man for allegedly stealing articles from some shops in Palakkad district even as the Centre sought a report from the state over the incident.



The arrest was made after the post-mortem report revealed that the deceased Madhu had injuries on the head and bruises all over the body, police said.



There was internal bleeding and he had broken ribs, the report said.



The post-mortem was conducted at the Thrissur Medical College.



Sixteen persons have been arrested in the case, police said.



Madhu was beaten to death by a group of persons for allegedly stealing food articles from some shops in the forest-fringe Agali town.



Thrissur Range IG M R Ajith Kumar said cases under various IPC sections, including murder, and SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act would be registered against the accused.



According to doctors, who performed the post-mortem, the death was due to the severe internal head injuries, he said.



Police would also explore the possibility of registering cases under the I.T Act against them for circulating his photo on social media, the IG said. ............................................. Body brought to tribal settlement ...................................................



After the post-mortem, the body was taken to Attappady, where people from various walks of life thronged to pay tributes.



Attappady is one of the most backward tribal settlements in the state.



Earlier in the day, Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram said a report has been sought from the state chief secretary over the tribal man's death on Thursday.



"Our ministry has sought a report from the chief secretary about the incident and the action taken by the state government," the minister told a television channel.



The state government decided to provide a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the bereaved family.



Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directed the chief secretary to hand over the amount to Madhu's family at the earliest.



Madhu, who was said to be mentally unsound, was living in a cave in the forest for the past several months, his family said.



His mother, Mallika and sister Chandrika told television channels that a group of nearly 10-15 persons went to the forest and thrashed him.



"After being beaten up, Madhu was made to walk over four km with a heavy sack on his back," they alleged.



When he asked for water, he was mocked at, they alleged, quoting eye-witnesses.



They also alleged that some forest officials had allowed the local people to go to the area and attack Madhu.



The opposition Congress and BJP observed "hartal" at Mannarcaud taluk, under which Attappady falls.



Tribal activists staged a protest this morning, blocking traffic at Attappady.

Two car bombings killed 38 people in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, the city's main ambulance service told AFP on Saturday.



"We have seen at least 38 people dead," said Abdukadir Abdurahman Aden of the Aamin Ambulance of the bombings that targeted the presidential palace and a hotel.

The first blast, followed by gunfire, occurred at a security checkpoint close to Villa Somalia, the name for the seat of government, while a second followed soon after at a hotel, according to police.

The Shabaab Islamist militant group claimed the attacks in a statement posted online, saying it was targeting the government and security services.

The blasts follow weeks of relative calm in Mogadishu.

According to officials, the main attack involved the use of a vehicle loaded with explosives attempting to breach a checkpoint leading to the presidential palace, but security forces prevented the assault.

"The security forces foiled the intent of the terrorists. They were aiming for key targets but they could not even go closer, there were five of them killed by the security force," said Abdulahi Ahmed, a security officer.

The Shabaab is fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government. In October it carried out its deadliest-ever bombing, killing over 500 people.

In the wake of that attack Somalia's government declared a fresh offensive against the group and US drone strikes have increased in frequency.

While the militant group was pushed out of the capital in 2011 by an African Union force it continues to control large parts of the countryside and launches regular attacks on government, military and civilian targets.



The GST provision requiring transporters to carry an electronic way bill or e-way bill when moving goods between states should be implemented from April 1, a group of state finance ministers recommended today.





GoM head and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said the requirement for intra-state movement of goods of more than Rs 50,000 value would be introduced in phases after assessing the response for inter-state movement.





After implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, the requirement of carrying e-way bill was postponed pending IT network readiness. It was implemented from February 1 but the system crashed and its implementation was deferred.





Modi said the recommendation of the panel would be considered by the GST Council at its meeting on March 10. Besides plugging tax evasion, the e-way bill is supposed to boost revenues by 15-20 per cent.





E-way bill is an electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the GSTN (common portal). Movement of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value cannot be made by a registered person without an e-way bill. The e-way bill can also be generated or cancelled through SMS. When an e-way bill is generated, a unique e-way bill number (EBN) is allocated and is available to the supplier, recipient, and the transporter.Demanding a thorough probe by the RBI into the alleged Rs 11,400-crore PNB fraud, the Congress today said the prime minister should assure the nation that accountability of the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India and the management of defaulting banks would be fixed within 60 days.



Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal sought to know why people like Nirav Modi, who were indulging in banking scam, were "allowed to escape the country". "Country has faced a loss of around Rs 21,000 crore as of now and other banking frauds will also come out in a few days. Another Rs 390 crore OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) scam has also emerged.

"I am surprised that despite our prime minister being the most expensive 'chawkidar' (watchman), why are all these (banking frauds) happening under his nose," Sibal told a press conference here, taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his refrain during poll rallies that he would act as a watchman for the country.

He said that if question is raised on banking system, it impacts the country's economy and affects investment as international trade is done through banking system. "Why is Modiji silent? Modi yesterday said that government will bring back those people who indulged in banking scams. Leave the issue of bringing these people back to country, we want to first know why these people were allowed to flee the country," Sibal said.

Referring to the alleged 2G scam during the UPA government, he said, "It was 2G, but from now, we are going to call this (PNB scam) Nimoji." "Until the prime minister gives assurance to this country, people will think that administration is supporting those who were indulging in banking fraud....We demand that there should be an RBI probe in the matter (PNB scam) at the earliest," Sibal said.

At the press conference, the party made four demands to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The prime minister should assure the nation that swift communication system of all banks will be connected to their core banking system in 30 days. "Every swift message in the past five years will be checked by the banks to report if they are supported by Genuine Underlying Transactions to expose any other frauds that are as yet to be undetected. This should also be done within 30 days," the Congress leader said.

He also said that the PM should also assure the country that the RBI will conduct a forensic audit of all swift communications and swift messages matching them with underlying transactions within 60 days and that report will be made public. "The prime minister should also assure that accountability of the finance ministry, RBI and management of defaulting banks would be fixed within 60 days," he added.Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched a verbal onslaught against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa during his address at the Janaashirvad Yatra rally in Athani on Saturday.



"Narendra Modi is a great facilitator of corruption. The prime minister accuses the Congress government in Karnataka 10% government while his government allowed Nirav Modi to loot a staggering Rs 11,000 crore. He (Nirav) could not have siphoned off such astronomical sums without the help of his namesake (Narendra Modi). The Union government let the frauds Lalith Modi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya escape from the country," Siddaramaiah alleged.

Siddaramaiah said Modi is misleading the people with bundle of lies. "Ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections, you (Modi) promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of the citizens. You didn't give even Rs 15. Where is your Achche Din? You write off corporate loans but not willing to waive farm loans. Your's is 90% commission government," he said.

"How can you seek votes, keeping the 'jailbirds' Amit Shah and B S Yeddyurappa in the forefront, he wondered.

Taking a dig at the local MLA Lakshman Savadi, the chief minister said, "You know why the local MLA was made to resign. Do you still want to elect him, he questioned the crowd. Lakshman Savadi was accused of watching porn during an Assembly session.

Siddaramaiah called Jarkiholi brothers - Sathish and Ramesh, and Prakash Hukkeri to put up a united front and turn Belagavi district into a Congress bastion.

He said that the Centre did not give a single rupee for the Mahamastakabhisheka. It was the state government which released huge grants for the duodecennial event.

Earlier, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi arrived at Sambra airport here at 12.10 pm on Saturday for his second-leg of Janaashirvada Yatre.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Opposition leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge received the AICC president at the airport.

Rahul Gandhi, along with Siddaramaiah and Kharge flew to Athani in a helicopter.At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when a speeding Bolero lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of the city today, police said.



The heart-rending incident occurred under Minapur police station area, about 10 km from the district headquarters when the school got over and the children were returning home. "The incident took place at Ahiyapur-Jhapaha in Minapur police station area of the district where a Bolero ran over the children who were returning to their homes after the school was over," Vivek Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur, said.

He said "all the injured, said to be around 20 in number, have been rushed to the Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital for treatment. The condition of some of them was stated to be critical".

Meanwhile, RJD MLA from Minapur, Munna Yadav, who rushed to the spot after the mishap, alleged that the driver of the vehicle was "definitely inebriated. There has been no control on consumption of alcohol despite the state government's claims of prohibition".Making a mockery of the population control function, a BJP legislator asked the Hindus to keep on producing children until a law to control population comes into existence.



The BJP MLA Vikaram Saini did not stop at that. He revealed that he had forced his wife to have at least four-five children, when the latter asked him to stop after two.

''Jab tak koi kanoon nahin banta tab tak Hindu bhaiyon apko chhooth hai....rookna mat'' (my Hindu brothers...you have full freedom...do not stop until some law is enacted), Saini said at the function, which was held in Muzaffarnagar town in the state, on Friday.

''Do ke baad meri patni boli ki ab bahin chaiye...maine kaha char-paanch ke pahle nahin rukna hai'' (My wife told me after two children that she did not want more...I said I would not stop until I have four-five), the legislator said.

He said that the Hindus had followed the slogan 'Hum do, hamare do' (we two..our two) but some people (Muslims) believed in 'hum do hamare atharah'' (we two..our 18).

The video containing Saini's speech has gone viral on the social networking sites.

Saini, an MLA from Khatauli assembly seat in the district, had earlier also courted controversy when he had said that some ''idiots'' had prevented the Muslims from migrating to Pakistan in 1947, as a result, we had been facing many problems.UMeNew details have been revealed about founding Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive member Randy Bachman's upcoming tribute album to the late George Harrison, By George  By Bachman. It turns out that the album's initially announced March 2 release date is only for the digital version; a physical CD edition is due out on March 16.

By George  By Bachman is a 13-track collection featuring reworked versions of various Beatles songs penned by Harrison, as well as one tune each from George's solo career and his stint with The Traveling Wilburys.

The album also includes an original Bachman composition called "Between Two Mountains," that pays tribute to Harrison and appears at the beginning and end of the record. Randy also has interspersed throughout the album some famous guitar riffs and licks that George created.

Bachman recorded By George  By Bachman with members of his longtime solo backing band -- drummer Marc LaFrance, bassist/keyboardist Mick Dalla-Vee and second guitarist Brent Knudsen.

Fans who pre-order By George - By Bachman now will immediately receive a free download of two of the album's tracks, lead single "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun."

Bachman launches a 2018 North American tour in support of the album with a concert tonight in Riverhead, New York, and Saturday -- a day before what would have been Harrison's 75th birthday -- at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City. Randy then will move on to a series of performances in his home country, Canada, starting this Wednesday with a special intimate album-release show in Toronto.

Here's the track list of By George - By Bachman:

"Between Two Mountains"

"If I Needed Someone"

"You Like Me Too Much"

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

"Handle with Care"

"Taxman"

"I Need You"

"Something"

"Think for Yourself"

"Here Comes the Sun"

"Don't Bother Me"

"Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"

"Between Two Mountains (Reprise)"

And here are Bachman's forthcoming tour dates:

2/23 -- Riverhead, NY, Suffolk Theater

2/24 -- New York City, NY, B.B. King Blues Club & Grill

2/28 -- Toronto, ON, Canada, Adelaide Hall (album-release show)

3/2 -- Huntsville, ON, Canada, Legacy Theatre - Deerhurst Resort

3/3 -- Ottawa, ON, Canada, National Arts Centre  Southam Hall

3/5 -- Sarnia, ON, Canada, Imperial Theatre

3/6 -- Sarnia, ON, Canada, Imperial Theatre

3/7 -- Peterborough, ON, Canada, Showplace Performance Centre

3/8 -- Kitchener, ON, Canada, Centre in the Square

3/9 -- Brampton, ON, Canada, Rose Theatre

3/13 -- Victoria, BC, Canada, The Royal Theatre

3/15 -- Nanaimo, BC, Canada, The Port Theatre

3/16 -- Coquitlam, BC, Canada, Molson Canadian Theatre - Hard Rock Casino Vancouver

3/17 -- Cranbrook, BC, Canada, Key City Theatre

3/19 -- Calgary, AB, Canada, Bella Concert Hall - Mount Royal University

3/21 -- Sherwood Park, AB, Canada, Festival Place

3/23 -- Winnipeg, MB, Canada, Club Regent Event Centre

3/24 -- Winnipeg, MB, Canada, Club Regent Event Centre

3/26 -- Prince Albert, SK, Canada, E. A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts

3/27 -- Regina, SK, Canada, Casino Regina Showroom

4/28 -- Visalia, CA, Visalia Fox Theatre

5/25 -- Niagara Falls, NY, Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino Event Center (Bachman & Turner show)

8/10 -- Kelowna, BC, Canada, Rock the Lake - Waterfront Park

8/12 -- Windsor, ON, Canada, Rock the Plaza - Windsor Plaza

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Photo taken on Feb. 23, 2018 shows copies of the postage stamp "2018 -- Year of the Yellow Dog" in Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgarian Posts had released the postage stamp "2018 -- Year of the Yellow Dog," its chief executive officer Deyan Daneshki said here Friday. (Xinhua/Zhan Xiaoyi)

SOFIA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian Posts had released the postage stamp "2018 -- Year of the Yellow Dog", its chief executive officer Deyan Daneshki said here Friday.

The postage stamp had a circulation of 3,600, and cost 0.65 Bulgarian lev (some 0.41 U.S. dollars), Daneshki said at the validation ceremony attended by hundreds of philatelists eager to buy a copy.

A postage stamp dedicated to the Chinese New Year was first issued in Bulgaria in 2017, the Year of the Fire Cock, Daneshki said.

Spas Panchev, president of the Union of Bulgarian Philatelists and member of the country's parliament, said in turn that the stamp was very interesting because China and Bulgaria have traditionally maintained good diplomatic, political, economic and people's relations.

Meanwhile, the small circulation of only 3,600 copies made it attractive to collectors because its price would grow, Panchev said.

He said he hoped that in the coming years, Bulgarian Posts would issue more postage stamps dedicated to the Chinese Spring Festival.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]The lawyer of Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, whose discharge in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case has been challenged in the Bombay High Court, today alleged in the court that he was framed up by the CBI.



Pandian had a stelar reird and he was the "main" officer who had taken on fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI of Pakistan when he was with the IB, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, his lawyer, told the court.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the encounter case from the Gujarat CID in 2010, framed Pandian by fabricating evidence, he alleged.

"I (Pandian) have unimpeachable documentary evidence to prove that I was not in Hyderabad on the day of the alleged abduction," Jethmalani contended today.

As per the CBI, Sohrabuddin, a gangster with alleged terror links, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati were abducted by the Gujarat police on the night of November 22-23, 2005 while they were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in a private bus.

"I had taken a flight from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad on November 23, 2005.... However, the CBI claims I never took that flight and instead sent constable Ajay Parmar to Ahmedabad on my ticket as a cover-up," the lawyer said.

It was an international flight of Air India, where every passenger's ID card would have been checked, he said.

The CBI presented, as evidence, the custom declaration form submitted at the Hyderabad airport, filled in Pandian's name but bearing Parmar's signature, Jethmalani said.

The agency claimed that it proved that Parmar took the flight on Pandian's ticket to help him cover his tracks. "This is a fabricated document. I am a victim.... The victim of false investigation by the CBI," Jethmalani said.

"I was the main officer who fought Dawood Ibrahim and ISI (during a stint as SP with the Intelligence Bureau). I have an unimpeachable record, and yet, the CBI is trying to undermine me like this," the lawyer said.

According to Pandian, he was in Hyderabad on November 21-22, 2005 only to inspect the site of a bomb blast that had taken place near the city in October that year, and he had nothing to do with the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin.

Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat police in November 2005, while Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006.

Of the 38 persons charge-sheeted by the CBI for being involved in the two fake encounters, 15, including senior IPS officers D G Vanzara, Pandian, Dinesh MN, and BJP president Amit Shah were discharged by the special CBI court in Mumbai, where the trial is underway.

The high court is conducting day-to-day hearing on petitions filed by the CBI and Rubabuddin Shaikh, Sohrabuddin's brother, challenging the discharge of five of the 14 police officers.Lauding the role played by women in securing the welfare of their families, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said women-oriented schemes would go a long way in empowering them.



Launching the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's pet two-wheeler scheme for working women in the state, he said, "She would have been very happy to see the joy on the faces of beneficiaries." Modi symbolically handed over the keys and registration certificates of two-wheelers to five women on the occasion.

The Prime Minister, who also launched the planting of 70 lakh saplings, said these two initiatives would go a long way in women's empowerment and protection of nature. "When we empower women in a family, we empower the entire household. When we help with women's education, we ensure the entire family is educated," he said, adding their good health keeps the entire family healthy. "When we secure her future, we secure the future of the entire household." Stating that the NDA government was working in this direction, he said it is focussed on "empowering ease of living for the common citizen."A drunk man bit a snake at his farm here and killed it. Doctors who treated the man said the snake was a venomous one and he was lucky to have survived.



The incident happened on Friday at Pacher village in Sabalpur tehsil, some 40 kilometre from here, they added.

Doctor Raghvendra Yadav of the district hospital told PTI that Jalim Singh Kushwaha (34), who was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state, was discharged on Saturday after treatment.

Villagers said that Kushwaha saw a black-coloured snake at his farm and, in his stupor, bit the snake. It died a little while later, they added.

Yadav added that Kushwaha might have panicked and lost consciousness after he realised that he had bit a snake.

"It was venomous and if it had retaliated or if any portion of its venom had entered his bloodtsream, it could have been fatal for Kushwaha," Yadav said.A group of Dalit activists in Gujarat sought an FIR against police officers, and preventive arrests of those who "threatened to kill Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani".



Representatives of organisations such as Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, Dalit Muslim Ekta Manch and Hamari Awaz on Saturday submitted a memorandum to Gujarat DGP to this effect.

They were acting after Jignesh Mevani, legislator from Vadgaam in North Gujarat and Dalit leader, raised an alarm and levied allegations on his twitter handle quoting a discussion between two Ahmedabad police officials in a WhatsApp group.

He had tweeted: "Jignesh Mevani's encounter? Here is the link to a web portal which exposes a Whatsapp communication where two top cops are discussing how I could be killed in an encounter. Can you believe this?".

Mevani was referrring to a communication between two police officers in a WhatsApp group 'ADR Police & Media' , which is said to have several members of the Gujarat Police and media as its members.

Apparently, two videos were posted in the group recently.

In one video, a group of policemen were seen reportedly thrashing a person looking like a politician and the other video carried out an interview of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in which he is said to be defending the state police in relation to recent encounters carried out in his state.

The two videos were followed by a message by a DySP-ranked police official, which read: "Those who seek to become the 'baap' (fathers) of police, refer to police as 'lakhota' (marbles) and those who seek to take videos of police should remember that with people like you, the police will be like this. Scores will be settled - Gujarat Police."

The statement perhaps relates to a February 18 incident, where a video showing Mevani entering into a verbal altercation with Ahmedabad policemen, during the process of his detention, went viral.

He was put in detention just before he was to kickstart his call for Ahmedabad bandh in a protest against the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar.

The message by the DySP was soon followed by his senior who shared a few 'smiley' icons in response.

The activists have now sought to register an FIR under the Cyber Crime law and state that they "hope" that the DGP will take proper action and "will assure to the people of Gujarat, in future, that the police will act under the law without any discrimination."In the wake of another bank fraud by a Delhi-based diamond jeweller, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the Narendra Modi-led government alleging that the scammer "disappeared" while the government looked the other way.



Rahul took to Twitter as the promoters of Dwarka Das Seth International, a Karol Bagh-based company, were booked by the CBI for an alleged fraud of Rs 389.85 crore involving Oriental Bank of Commerce.

He said this promoter too operated with the same modus operandi of fake LoUs as Nirav Modi. "Under Modi Ji's 'Jan Dhan Loot Yojana', another scam!390 Crore, involving a Delhi based jeweller. Same Modus operandi as Nirav Modi. Fake LOU's. Predictably, like Mallya and Nirav, this promoter too has disappeared while the Government looked the other way," Rahul tweeted.

Later, the Congress urged that PM Modi should reassure the nation that accountability of the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India and the management of defaulting banks would be fixed within 60 days.

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal sought to know why people like Nirav Modi, who were indulging in banking scam, were "allowed to escape the country."

Addressing a press conference, Sibal said, "The country has faced a loss of around a21,000 crore as of now and other banking frauds will also come out in a few days. Another a390 crore OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) scam has also emerged. I am surprised that despite our prime minister being the most expensive 'chawkidar' (watchman), why are all these (banking frauds) happening under his nose."Dismissing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that strict action would be taken in the PNB fraud case, Congress President Rahul Gandhi today asked him to first explain how the money was taken away from the bank under his government's RPT government's nose.



"A scam of Rs 22,000 crore happens, Nirav Modi runs away with Rs 22,000 crore from Indian Banks and Modiji (Prime Minister) says action will be taken," Gandhi said addressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka.



"Action will be taken? You first make us understand how did Nirav Modi take Rs 22,000 crore from Indian banks under the nose of Narendra Modi's government," he said. He demanded to know why the Finance Minister and Modi "allowed this to happen".



At a women's rally in Tikota, Gandhi questioned Modi's silence over the Rafale fighter jet deal and attacked him over the Nirav Modi issue, also asking why Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi are still in London.



"Modi ji should also make us understand why Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi are sitting in London. Someone takes Rs 10,000 crore, someone takes Rs 15,000 crore and someone takes Rs 22,000 crore, and the Prime Minister of the country does not do anything," he said.



"But when farmers of India asks for loan waiver of Rs 50,000 or Rs one lakh, Narendra Modi Ji does not answer," he added. Breaking his silence over the Rs 11,400-crore fraud at India's second-biggest PSU bank, Modi yesterday warned of strict action against those involved in financial irregularities and said loot of public money would not be tolerated.



Rahul Gandhi has, however, been claiming that the size of the fraud is Rs 22,000 crore. During his speech, Gandhi repeatedly quoted 12th-century social reformer Basaveshwara from Karnataka, revered by the dominant Lingayat/Veerashiva community which is predominantly present in northern parts of the state, to attack Modi.



He said Basaveshwara had said five things -- "don't indulge in theft, don't indulge in violence, do not lie, do not boast about yourself and don't spread anger." "First one was don't indulge in the theft. Narendra Modi says that the Congress party government in Karnataka is corrupt. When he says it, on his right side is his Chief Ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa who had gone to jail, on the other side four more ministers who had gone to jail," Gandhi said.



The Congress president said that Modi, who gives "long speeches", was quiet on the Rafale deal. "He (Modi) banned the notes, implemented Gabbar Singh Tax and destroyed lakhs of businesses, but Jay Shah's (BJP President Amit Shah's son) business within three months converts from Rs 50,000 into Rs 80 crore. On this Narendra Modi does not speak anything."



At the women's rally, Gandhi said his party would get the women's reservation bill passed in Parliament "once it comes to power at the Centre." Gandhi also asked the party's Karnataka unit to ensure that more women aspirants get tickets during the coming assembly elections in the state. "We worked towards ensuring reservation for women in Panchayatraj; we had brought a bill aimed at providing reservation for women in Parliament, which the BJP has not implemented till today," Gandhi said.



He said, "once the Congress party government comes to power in Delhi, it will do and show you women's reservation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha." Gandhi is touring parts of north Karnataka as part of his second leg of the campaign in Karnataka, where elections are expected in April/May.

The Pakistani army on Saturday made announcements through public address systems asking border residents in Uri area of north Kashmir's Baramulla district to vacate their homes.



Local media reported that announcements were made from across the Line of Control (LoC) amid intense shelling and firing exchange between Indian and Pakistani armies.

In the twin villages of Uri's Silkote and Churanda, five residential houses were damaged on Saturday morning in heavy exchange of artillery between the two sides.



Evacuation of local population has been started on a war footing basis in Uri, said an official.With both sides keen on bringing bilateral ties back on track, India and China have agreed to respect each other's sensitivity, concerns, interests and aspirations to resolve bilateral differences.



Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing on Friday and Saturday. He met his counterpart in the Chinese Government, Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, during his stay in Beijing.



He also called on Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and State Councillor Yang Jiechi.



Gokhale and Kong noted the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of "mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's concerns, interests and aspirations", according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday.



This was Gokhale's first visit to Beijing after taking over as Foreign Secretary last month, succeeding S Jaishankar.



He discussed with Kong, Wang and Yang "the agenda for bilateral engagement in the coming months".



The two sides also reviewed "recent developments in bilateral relations, including high-level exchanges", particularly during the visits of Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor to New Delhi in December 2017 - a few months after the face-off in Doklam Plateau.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit which Chinese President Xi Jinping will host in Qingdao on the east coast of China in June this year.



Modi already visited China thrice since taking over office in May 2014.



If he attends the SCO summit in China in June this year, he is likely to have another bilateral meeting with Xi on its sideline.



The two leaders will also have opportunities to meet on the sideline of other multilateral events, which would be held in the third countries, like the G-20 summit in Argentina and the BRICS summit in South Africa, in the coming months.



New Delhi and Beijing on Saturday underlined that "sound development of relations between India and China", being the two major countries, was a factor of stability in the world today.



The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest, stated the MEA.



Modi may also invite Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on a visit to India this year.



The diplomats of both sides are also exploring the possibility of a visit by a senior leader of Chinese Government ahead of the or during the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB) at Mumbai on June 25 and 26.



New Delhi's troubled ties with Beijing worsened further in 2017. Beijing was upset about India's opposition to Belt-and-Road initiative of China as well as growing strategic convergence of India, US and Japan in Asia-Pacific.



New Delhi was disappointed by Beijing's persistent policy of shielding anti-India terrorists based in Pakistan from United Nations' sanctions.



The face-off between the Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army in Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan from June 18 to August 28 brought the bilateral relations to a new low.



Gokhale, who was India's envoy to China, during the face-off played a key role in ending it.









Mehul Choksi, one of two businessmen allegedly involved in perpetrating India's biggest ever banking fraud, broke his silence at the weekend with an open letter to employees claiming his innocence and telling them to look for other jobs.



Choksi, who owns Gitanjali Gems, told employees he did not want anyone to suffer due to an association with him, but that he was in no position to pay their salaries and they were free to look for other opportunities until he could prove himself innocent.

"With recent false allegations levelled against me of defrauding the PNB Bank and media frenzy, the situation has gone grave, which is turning graver by the day," Choksi wrote in the letter sent to employees on Friday.The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has issued closure notices to 133 rooftop bars and pubs in the city.



The civic body and Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services (KSFES) launched a crackdown on the waterholes functioning in breach of fire safety norms and other permissions.

A fire accident at a Mumbai pub on New Year's Eve, which killed several people, prompted the city agencies to inspect the rooftop bars and restaurants to see if they comply with fire safety and other licensing norms.

The BBMP officials claim that they have successfully closed at least 100 rooftop pubs and bars until now and have issued closure notices to 133 more outlets across the city.

The fire department has also listed out the number of outlets that have flouted the fire safety norms. "We will be releasing the list next week," said M N Reddi, Director General of Police and Director General, KSFES.

"All the rooftop pubs and bars functioning in the city are illegal. We have launched a crackdown on some of them and will soon close them," said BBMP Chief Health Officer Likes M N, who issues trade licences to the bars.

However, most rooftop pubs and bars in the East zone - Indiranagar and HAL 3rd stage - have sought a stay order from the high court.

"Most of these outlets in the East zone have brought in a stay order from the high court on humanitarian grounds. They will be given time until they find some other work or profession to be involved with," said Mujahid Pasha, chairman of the standing committee of health, BBMP.

Reddi also said he would soon be writing to the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board to stop the supply of electricity and water to these outlets. The BBMP will also be withdrawing the occupancy certificates for the buildings.

Asked about the delay, Lokesh cited poor staff strength to keep a check on the violations.With Assembly elections round the corner, the BJP and the JD(S) leaders on Saturday went all out to please the Brahmin community.



Participating in the 'Bengaluru Mahanagara Viprara Samavesha' organised by Akhila Karnataka Brahmana Mahasabha, JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy said that if his party comes to power, his government would set up a Brahmin Development Authority, as demanded by the Mahasabha.

Over and above this, his government would also create a 'Vipra Nidhi' and set aside Rs 100 crore for it, he added.

"The Siddaramaiah government had announced the setting up of an authority. However, there is information that this proposal has been dropped. The government should work for the welfare of all sections of society. Establishment of the authority is your fair claim," the former chief minister added.

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa also assured to set up the authority and earmark Rs 25 crore for the same. "We will also give Rs 10 crore for the development of Gundu Rao Community Hall and increase the honorarium for priests. It is the duty of the government to redress grievances of the community," he added.

Earlier, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy said that there was need for according reservation for the community members in employment and education, like in other states.

In addition to the demand for setting up the development authority, the Mahasabha has sought 10 acres for starting a school and a college.The ruling Congress, which is planning to win three of the four Rajya Sabha seats for which the elections are to be held on March 23, is again banking on the seven JD(S) rebel MLAs.



With 122 MLAs on its side, the Congress can comfortably win two seats. It is falling short of MLAs to win another seat. Support of the seven MLAs and some independent legislators is crucial for the party for this purpose. A candidate requires approximately 45 votes to win the election, in which MLAs are the voters.

These rebel MLAs of the JD(S) had helped the Congress win an additional seat in the Rajya Sabha elections in 2016. They defied the JD(S) whip and voted in favour of Congress candidate.

The JD(S) subsequently suspended them. The rebel MLAs have now decided to join the Congress.

No sooner the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the calendar of events for the Rajya Sabha elections, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah held a dinner meeting with the rebel MLAs at the Bengaluru residence of Nagamangala MLA N Cheluvarayaswamy.

According to sources, Siddaramaiah is learnt to have asked the MLAs to stay put in the JD(S) until the Rajya Sabha elections are held so that they cast their votes in favour of the Congress.

The MLAs are likely to join the Congress in the presence of party chief Rahul Gandhi during a mega rally to be held in Bengaluru after March 24.

Elections are being held to the four seats in Karnataka as term of four MPs -- Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Independent), K Rahman Khan (Congress) and R Ramakrishna and Basavaraj Patil Sedam (both BJP) a is coming to end.

Khan, who has completed four terms in the Rajya Sabha, is apparently vying for a fifth term. As the party has assured the seat to a minority leader, many Muslim leaders including Minister R Roshan Baig, former minister A M Hindasgeri and MLC C M Ibrahim are said to be lobbying for it.

Former minister Rani Satish and H Hanumanthappa are also lobbying to become MPs. However, the party high command will take the decision on the candidates.

The BJP, which has 43 MLAs, can win a seat in the elections. It is speculated that it may support Rajiv Chandrashekar's candidature if he contests the elections.

The JD(S) may not field any candidate as it lacks the numerical strength. Sources in the party, however, said that B M Farooq and JD(S) national general secretary Danish Ali are aspiring to contest.Despite his uncle and JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy's strong opposition to his candidature in the upcoming Assembly elections, Prajwal Revanna is not giving up on his political aspirations without a fight.

He has apparently coaxed his grandfather and party supremo H D Deve Gowda to let him contest the elections. After maintaining a low profile for the last two months, Prajwal, much to the chagrin of Kumaraswamy, has restarted building ground in Rajarajeshwari Nagar (RR Nagar) constituency in Bengaluru, from where he is hopeful of making poll debut.

On Friday, the JD(S) circles were abuzz with speculations after Prajwal was spotted in the constituency, going through the voters' list. The youngster had rarely entered RR Nagar after Gowda appointed him as the party general secretary.

He had, however, registered his protest against the party leadership by absenting himself from all the major events of the party in the last few weeks. But, with the elections fast approaching, Prajwal has decided to not lie low anymore.

He, however, told DH that he had visited the constituency to call upon families of the two JD(S) youths who had died recently. "It's true that I was in the constituency. But, I was only visiting the families of the deceased JD(S) workers. I did meet a few leaders, but I did not go around campaigning," he said.

Though Prajwal hinted that he was still an aspirant, he refused to comment on his candidature.

Sources said that Gowda, who was earlier reluctant to give his grandson the ticket, has however had a change of heart after the latter threatened to make matters worse for the party.

Prajwal has already left the party red faced with his "suitcase culture" and "bucket culture" remarks, following which Gowda had tried to silence him by giving him the general secretary post.

Gowda is now apparently willing to let his "darling grandson" contest from either RR Nagar or Yelahanka, another Vokkaliga bastion in Bengaluru.

Prajwal is however learnt to have picked RR Nagar, given his unfamiliarity with Yelahanka constituency.

Meanwhile, former corporator R Prakash claimed that he has been assured the ticket for RR Nagar and his name would be announced in the second list of JD(S) candidates.

Though Kumaraswamy continues to chant that only two members from his family will be contesting the elections, it is interesting to note that the party is yet to announce its candidate for RR Nagar. The same holds good for Channapatna, a constituency which Kumaraswamy's wife Anitha Kumaraswamy is eyeing.French producer and debutante director of 'You go to my Head' Dimitri De Clercq on Sunday made a pitch for more economically produced films.



"I made my movie with just four people in the crew. These days no movie is made with less than 100 people," he said said.

De Clercq was taking part in an interactive session at the 10th Bengaluru International Film Festival at Orion Mall.

The movie drew inspiration from the Taj Mahal. De Clercq produced it with money he got by selling his movie-poster collection.

Mahesh Narayan, director of the Malayalam movie 'Take Off', said it was lack of discipline among filmmakers that led to hiring large crews.

"Not many directors these days visualise the first frame to the last frame. They follow the idea that the actor will perform and they will shoot," he said.

Even when a large crew of 100 is hired, only 20 work at a time, he said.

Mahesh said his movie was inspired by what he had heard from nurses returning from war-torn countries. "These nurses are not briefed or given an orientation on what they are getting into. Once they go abroad, they are dealing with difficult shell wounds and bullet wounds. Often, they are not allowed to leave the hospital for months and years," he said.

Ratnottama Sengupta, film journalist and daughter of scriptwriter Nabendu Ghosh, said technology had brought down costs, and well-planned co-productions could solve the problem of funding.

Co-productions also act as a medium for cultural and talent exchange between countries, said Marc Baschet, co-producer of many Hindi movies, including the critically acclaimed Irrfan Khan-starrer 'Lunchbox'.BRASILIA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian minister of health, Ricardo Barros, proposed on Thursday to vaccinate the entire country against yellow fever, after the disease emerged in new areas.

The recommendation will now be discussed with international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

At the start of February, vaccination efforts began in states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, seeking to immunize 19.7 million people against yellow fever, for which cases have been rising since last year.

According to Barros, if the government approves the idea, separate programs will take place in each state of the country.

Barros added that the vaccination campaign should be rolled out gradually, according to the capacity of each state.

Certain northeastern and southern regions of the country have not seen campaigns so far, as there have been no outbreaks of yellow fever there.

34 million need to be vaccinated there, with 23 million in the northeast and 11 million in the south of the country.

A plant belonging to Libbs Farmaceutica in Sao Paulo is currently about to begin production of 4 million doses of vaccine a month.

From July 1, 2017 to Feb. 20, 2018, Brazil has confirmed 545 cases of yellow fever, with 164 deaths. A further 1,773 suspected cases have been noted, with 685 having been eliminated and 422 still under investigation.

[ Editor: WPY ]Performers from the Hohhot National Performing Arts Group stage shows at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Canada. [Photo/huhhot.gov.cn]

An art group from Inner Mongolia recently wrapped up their performance with rounds of applause and cheers after eye-opening shows for the audience at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Canada.

More than 1,500 performers from the Hohhot National Performing Arts Group staged classic dances including The Beautiful Prairie is My Home, demonstrating Mongolian ethnic features and unique local cultural elements during the annual Chinese New year gala in Toronto.

The event, hosted by Canada National Television (CNTV), has been held for five years. It has been the most representative and influential extravaganza for the Chinese community.

Canada and China enjoy strong ties and are looking forward to further strengthening their relations. As 2018 has been proclaimed as the Canada-China Year of Tourism, the gala is expected to attract more Chinese tourists to Canada.



The law on the peculiarities of the state policy on securing Ukraine's state sovereignty over temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which was published in the parliament's Holos Ukrainy newspaper on February 23, has come into force.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on January 18, 2018. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the document on February 20.

The law determines that temporary occupation of Ukrainian territory by Russia, regardless of its duration, is illegal and does not create any territorial rights for Russia.

The law recognizes as temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions the parts of Ukrainian territory within which armed formations and the Russian occupation administration have established and are exercising general control of the land territory and its internal waters within certain areas, towns, settlements and villages of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, inland sea waters adjacent to this territory, subsoil beneath the territories and airspace over these territories.

The preamble of the law, in the clause defining the date of the beginning of Russia's occupation of part of Ukrainian territory, refers to the law on ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens and the legal regime in temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, in which the date for the beginning of the occupation of Crimea is determined.

Borders and a list of areas, populated localities of temporarily occupied territories in Donbas will be determined by Ukraine's president under a motion from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, which should be prepared on the basis of proposals of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.No Ukrainian servicemen have been injured in 13 ceasefire violations by militants in Donbas over the past 24 hours, the press center for the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations has reported.

"Over the past 24 hours, Russian occupation forces have continued to grossly violate the Minsk agreements, using weapons that should have been withdrawn from the contact line to certain distances long ago. The aggressor was especially active in conducting provocations during the hours of darkness," the headquarters said in a report posted on its Facebook page on Saturday.

In the Luhansk sector, gunmen used 122mm artillery systems, mortars and entire arsenal of small arms, including grenade launchers near Luhanske.

"According to preliminary reports, several shells exploded in the vicinity of this front-line settlement and damaged the property of private houses of local residents. From the temporarily occupied Pervomaisk, the enemy fired at the outskirts of Pidlisne from 152mm artillery. The aftermath of the damage is being clarified," the press center said.

Militants used 120mm mortars and infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) weapons to fire at Ukrainian positions near Troitske. Militants also provoked Ukrainian defenders by firing from grenade launchers of various types and small arms from Novooleksandrivka, Novhorodske and Zaitseve.

In the Donetsk sector, militants used 120mm mortars, grenade launchers and small arms in the vicinity of Novotroitske.Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)

By Daily Wire , Feb. 22, 2018





Over the weekend the Seattle Times jumped at a news tip: there was a Confederate flag flying beneath the American flag in the city's Greenwood neighborhood, and residents were very concerned.





Only, it turns out, it wasn't the Confederate flag at all. It was the state flag of Norway, and a group of friendly Norwegians were just trying to show their patriotism and support for their Olympic Team when their very concerned neighbors contacted local media.

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Employees of the Central Investigation Bureau of Poland responsible for combating cybercrime, in cooperation with the FBI, have detained a 44-year-old Ukrainian citizen suspected of distributing malicious programs, according to a report posted on the website of the RMF24 radio station on Saturday.

The man was in Interpol's database, and an international warrant for his arrest was issued.

The Central Investigation Bureau of Poland started searching for the hacker after it turned out that he could stay in the southern part of Poland. He was finally found in Bielsko-Biala, where he was detained.

"The man is suspected of participating in an organized criminal group involved in spreading malware and hacking attacks. Malicious software monitored and then filtered out data from customer credit cards. Losses caused by criminal activity are estimated to be worth several hundred million dollars," reads the report.

The hacker faces up to 30 years in prison in the United States.

He is currently in custody, awaiting the decision on his extradition to the United States.Oplot tanks, as well as the Stugna and Corsar anti-tank missile systems, will be added to the arsenal of the Ukrainian army this year, Chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Viktor Muzhenko has said.

"We expected to receive such tanks at the end of last year and the beginning of 2018, but for certain technical reasons, that is the capabilities of our defense industry, we assume that we will get such tanks by the end of 2018," he said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Speaking about anti-tank systems, Muzhenko said that these would be the means of domestic production, which have already been tested by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"It is modern and powerful armament. It has already been determined which units should be equipped with such systems. We will significantly increase our anti-tank defense by the end of the year," Muzhenko said.The Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction will meet with a candidate for the post of governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Yakiv Smolii, on Monday, February 26, and the issue of his appointment to the post will be considered on Thursday, March 1, the Ukrainian president's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Lutsenko, has said.

"Smolii has already started consultations with the factions. He will be invited to a meeting of our faction on Monday," she told journalists in Kyiv on Friday, February 23.

According to Lutsenko, next Thursday, the Verkhovna Rada will most likely consider Valeriya Gontareva's dismissal as NBU governor and Smolii's appointment to this post.

She also said that on Monday, Social Policy Minister Andriy Reva would be invited to the faction meeting.

"We want to talk about military pension reform," she added.

At the same time, Lutsenko noted that at the next plenary week the parliament would most likely not consider the appointment of members of the Central Election Commission, since there would be no time to complete a special examination of candidates.Its not in our blood to strike civilians: Erdogan

President Erdogan harshly slammed the US Defense Ministry Spokesman for spreading fake news about civilian casualties during the Turkish military's ongoing operation in Syria's Afrin district.

President Erdogan lauded Turkeys counterterrorism efforts during the 6th Provincial Congress of the ruling AK Party on Saturday. Before his speech at the congress, Erdogan addressed the people of Turkeys Kahramanmaras province.

Referring to US Defense Ministry Spokesman, Some people say They strike civilians. Those who make such claims are unscrupulous, shameless and immoral! Its not in our blood to strike civilians, but its in your blood! You did it in Mali, in Rwanda, in Corsica, in Libya. You cannot charge Turkey with these kinds of things. Erdogan said.YPG terrorists enclosed elderly villages with mines

Four villagers tied hand and foot and encompassed with mines were rescued by Turkish Armed Forces in the Maskah village is located in northwestern Afrin.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to remove PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorists from Afrin region and to establish security and stability along Turkey's borders and the region as well as protect Syrians from terrorist oppression and cruelty.

Turkish Armed Forces on Friday cleared two villages in Afrin, northwestern Syria of terrorists as part of Operation Olive Branch. The Bafler village is located in southwestern Afrin, while the Maskah village is located in northwestern Afrin in Raju district.

During the operation in the Maskah village, four villagers ranging in age from 80 to 90 were found tied hands and feet and encompassed with mines inside of an house which was used as depot by YPG terrorists.

Mines and improvised explosives founded were destroyed by bomb disposal unit. Villagers were securely evacuated from the village and brought to border post.Now that The Notebook star Rachel McAdams is pregnant with her first child, fans are eager to know more about her boyfriend, Jamie Linden, who she has been dating for two years now.

McAdams and Linden were first spotted in 2016 as they were photographed walking together in Los Angeles and Paris, and then in Virginia while attending a friend's wedding. The couple continued to keep their relationship private until news of McAdams' pregnancy came about.

10 Years In Hollywood

Linden, 38, has been working in Hollywood for more than a decade now. He earned a degree in Digital Media Production and Marketing from Florida State University in 2001. In an interview in 2012, Linden shared how he started working in the film industry.

"My first job was an assistant at Mirage for Sidney Pollack and Anthony Minghella," Linden said.

After which, the Dear John screenwriter guested in The Price is Right and won $5,000. Linden said he was able to use the prize money to pursue graduate studies and stay in Hollywood for an extended period of time.

"I got a temp job reading screenplays and was fascinated by them. I was hired and fired from a few assistant jobs so I figured I'd try writing a script myself," Linden said.

Linden also wrote the screenplay for Money Monster, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and an upcoming sci-fi thriller Chaos Walking with Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.

Prior to his relationship with McAdams, Linden previously dated Zooey Deschanel. The latter is now married and has two children with Jacob Pechenik.

New Life

While McAdams and Linden were able to keep reporters out of their private life, reports have spread about the 39-year-old beauty's pregnancy.

It was believed that the actress is expecting her first child and is now seven months along the pregnancy. She was spotted in Toronto airport looking bumpy inside an oversized parka.

In 2009, McAdams said in an interview that she is looking forward to having children of her own.

"My mom is a great inspiration to me. She's a nurse and very nurturing and gentle," McAdams said. "She lets me be who I am. Hopefully, I can take on those qualities and be as great as her."

McAdams' camp is yet to give an official statement on the reported pregnancy.

Prior to her relationship with Linden, McAdams dated The Notebook costar Ryan Gosling for four years since 2004.James Woods backs Brendan Fraser's story against former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk, saying he was blacklisted by the executive for his politics.

The Ghosts of Mississippi actor went on Twitter to express his support for Fraser after the latter's tell-all interview with GQ published on Thursday.

Woods vs HFPA

In his tweets, Woods explained that he was blacklisted after one of the press junkets with HFPA, when Berk asked him if he would support Hilary Clinton if the former First Lady runs for president.

I recommend this interview highly. I, too, was blacklisted by that individual at #HFPA after nine Golden Globe nominations. During a press junket with HFPA, he asked if I would support Hillary Clinton if she ever ran for president. Never nominated again. https://t.co/fnAX5GM4Io  James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) February 22, 2018

A known conservative, the Oscar nominated actor has spoken out on Twitter numerous times about being a conservative in the liberal world of Hollywood. Previous tweets last year revealed that Woods has "accepted the fact" that he's blacklisted in the industry. He added that fellow Republican actors are scared that the same thing will happen to them and cause them to lose work.

Woods used to be a Democrat, until former President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998. Upon seeing the whole party stand behind Clinton after his conviction, Woods say, he withdrew his support for the party.

Brendan Speaks Out

The award-winning actor linked Fraser's revealing interview in GQ in his tweet. The original Mummy star, who's been out of the spotlight for a number of years, opened up on his family, sacrificing his body for acting, and his traumatizing experience with Berk in 2003.

According to Fraser, Berk groped him on the butt and between his legs until the actor was able to remove the executive's hand. He described it as a depressing experience that had him blaming himself. While the star chose not to make the incident public at the time, his representatives asked the HFPA for a written apology.

Berk did write a letter to Fraser, although the former president is adamant the actor's version of the events "is a total fabrication."

As a result of the incident, Fraser says HFPA told him they will not allow Berk in the same room as him again in the future. The actor also suspected he's blacklisted by the organization, rarely getting invited to attend the Golden Globes after the experience.

A follow-up tweet by Woods clarifies that he was never the subject of sexually inappropriate behavior from Berk like Fraser was, although they're similarly blacklisted by the HFPA.

HFPA Issues A Statement

In response to Fraser's allegations, HFPA released a statement to the Los Angeles Times, saying the GQ article revealed details they were unaware of.

"The HFPA stands firmly against sexual harassment and the type of behavior described in this article," the group states, adding that they have a good relationship with Fraser. "This report includes alleged information that the HFPA was previously unaware of and at this time we are investigating further details surrounding the incident."The project is funded by the Long Son Petrochemical Co., Ltd, a joint venture between Thailands Siam Cement Group (SCG) and the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN), covering an area of 464 ha of land and 194 ha of water surface, with a total capital of US$3.7 billion, which is projected to increase by US$5.4 billion.

This is the first fully integrated petrochemical complex in Vietnam with a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes of olefins per year. It has been designed to produce a wide range of petrochemical products, including the necessary materials for the plastics industry, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, and other products, with an annual capacity of more than 2 million tonnes.

The project will create about 20,000 jobs during its construction and more than 1,000 jobs when put into commercial operation in 2022.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged the investor to ensure the smooth progress of the project, whilst applying scientific and technological advances during the complex construction and assembly process, towards a standard of absolutely safe operation once completed.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged the investor to ensure the smooth progress of the project.

He requested that the investor and contractor abide by the regulations on the protection of natural and social environments, in addition to preserving the traditional culture of locals and rehabilitating natural forests within the project area in the aim of a sustainable and long-term development.

The Government leader asked ministries, sectors, the PVN, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau province to create favourable conditions for the successful implementation of the project, which he said holds both an economic and political meaning, as Vietnam and Thailand are strategic partners with close and neighbourly relations.

Earlier on the same day, PM Phuc visited and presented gifts to revolutionary veteran Dam Thi My, Vietnamese Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Dan, and war-invalid Nguyen Ba Mui in Vung Tau city.Letters

Community paramedicine may be what is needed to save lives The impact of the closure of the hospital in Oakland is already being felt across the area, with patients in emergency situations facing longer wait times before getting to a hospital and receiving 

Community paramedicine may be what is needed to save lives The impact of the closure of the hospital in Oakland is already being felt across the area, with patients in emergency situations facing longer wait times before getting to a hospital and receiving 

Letter to the editor Upon reading the article concerning the junior high football programs at Lyons Decatur Northeast (LDNE) and Oakland-Craig (O-C) I was inspired to write a short note. It gives one a 

Peterson Hospital The Balanced Budget Act passed in 1997 included provisions for rural hospitals to become Critical Access Facilities. It was recognized by our Federal lawmakers that rural hospitals were crucial to 

Doctor suggest community regain ownership of hospital It is now old news that Mercy One Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa, affiliated with Trinity Catholic Corporations of Novi, Michigan, has made a final decision to close out Oakland acute care 

Read more lettersThe argument that privatisation will remedy banking fraud is specious.

The Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam is the latest addition to the list of scams, real and imagined, that have rocked India in recent years. In the case of PNB, two things should be highlighted upfront. One, it is clear that a bank fraud was perpetrated. A bank fraud is a situation in which employees or outsiders subvert rules and regulations at the expense of the bank. This is different from a situation where the bank itself violates rules and regulations in order to benefit shareholders and managers at the expense of customers or taxpayers. Non-performing assets (NPAs) may involve a fraud (with bank employees colluding with a borrower) or they may simply arise from a bona fide business decision that has gone wrong.

Two, at this point it appears that the fraud relates entirely to what is called operational risk, that is, subversion of systems and processes. It does not relate to credit or loan risk. The distinction is important given that the losses have quickly acquired enormous political overtones. The opposition has been quick to point an accusing finger at the National Democratic Alliance government. The Bharatiya Janata Party, in turn, has responded by alleging links between the accused, Nirav Modi, and members of the Congress party.What visa is needed in order to work remotely in South Africa for an employer in EU (Sweden)?My situation is that me and my wife are thinking of a adopting a second child from SA (our first child is also from SA, and we really fell in love with the country our first time there). After our stay there for the adoption process (which takes about a month), we wish to remain a few more months in SA before returning to everyday life in Europe, and if possible continue to do so for 3 months every winter until the kids starts school. In order to afford this, I also need to work at least part time while there.My plan is to work remotely as I currently already work remotely domestically in Sweden. As a bonus, SA is in the same timezone as Sweden for half of the year. And Sweden and SA has signed a joint tax agreement.But my problem is what kind of visa I would need to do this.I have explored the possibilities of a work visa or an Intra-Company Transfer Visa. Neither seems to be an option for me, as I will get notice it's time to leave for SA less than two weeks in advance, and my company does not have any international branches.Will a 3 month visitor visa ("tourist visa") with a 3 months extension while in SA suffice when working 2-5 months remotely to Sweden? It seems to allow for "short duration" business activity. But how short is short? And does working remotely (but being paid in Sweden by a Swedish company, to a Swedish bank account) counts as a business activity?Or is it a better route to apply for a relative's visa in advance? As far as I understand, I am eligible for permanent residence through a 1st line of kinship to my child, who is a SA citizen. From what I gather, I would then be able to apply for an authorisation to work in SA, while in SA. (But again, maybe this is not needed for remote work paid in Sweden.) Also, how long does such an authorisation process take?Because if it takes 3 months it won't be of much use... I have seen first-hand the abysmal functionality of Home Affairs, after all...And what does a relative's visa/permanent residence require more than me being the father of my child? Can I just apply for one (with all necessary documents, photos, passport copies, police clearance, health checkups, etc... all of those are pretty standard to an adoptive father...). Can I get one 1-3 years in advance with the silent intention to only live there for 3-6 months every year, or do I need to actually intend to move there right away with the intention of staying indefinitely?Or is taking the relative's visa/permanent residence route a stupid idea altogether? I've read somewhere that while Home Affairs are processing a visa application request or a request for permanent residence, you are barred from entering the country (even on a tourist visa?). Anyway, that would beif I need to suddenly (less than two weeks notice) travel to SA for our second adoption, while my application is still processing... Then again, I guess I could return every winter for another 6-9 months of remote working with a permanent residence, right?Hi everyone!

I'm confused now((

I have been married to SA citizen for full 7 years now and all this time I was on relative permit visas, my last one still valid till end of November 2018 and allowed me to work in SA, we wanted to apply for my PR on a 5 years marriage condition but postponed it for some time, in June I went to my country of original to do some paperwork and visit my family, I'm still here (in Russia) but couple of days ago I received that horrible news - my SA husband passed away... What do I do now?

Can I still apply for PR? Is there any chance for positive outcome for me?

Thank you in advance.

Zadar Airport expects to establish flights with China over the coming years but will first have to expand its infrastructure in order to handle long haul services. Zadar County Prefect, Bozidar Longin, said Hainan Airlines still plans to launch services to the city following talks with the carrier. "They have already announced plans to introduce flights to Zagreb this year and they have shown particular interest in commencing services to Zadar, especially after the Port of Gazenica [in Zadar] becomes the main docking point for cruisers", Mr Longin said. He added, "In order to secure nonstop flights, we must lengthen the runway by 700 metres but we will first have to see how we can do this. One option is for the concession of the airport but this will ultimately be up to the government to decide". Zadar Airport expects to establish flights with China over the coming years but will first have to expand its infrastructure in order to handle long haul services. Zadar County Prefect, Bozidar Longin, said Hainan Airlines still plans to launch services to the city following talks with the carrier. "They have already announced plans to introduce flights to Zagreb this year and they have shown particular interest in commencing services to Zadar, especially after the Port of Gazenica [in Zadar] becomes the main docking point for cruisers", Mr Longin said. He added, "In order to secure nonstop flights, we must lengthen the runway by 700 metres but we will first have to see how we can do this. One option is for the concession of the airport but this will ultimately be up to the government to decide".





The latest developments follow on from initial talks held with Hainan Airlines in 2015 over possible services from Chongqing, in China's south-west, to Zadar, which would have continued on to Rome. However, the service never materialised. Late last year, Zadar Airport held talks with the Ambassador of China to Croatia in a bid to secure flights to the country. Furthermore, local authorities have also discussed potential operations from Guangzhou with China Southern Airlines, however, the carrier decided against launching the service. "Representatives from Hainan province will visit Zadar in April where we will further discuss these future operations", Mr Longin noted.





Some 200.000 Chinese tourists visited Croatia last year. "The cooperation with Hainan Airlines is a good opportunity for us to continue developing this new far-away market", Mr Longin said. The Chinese Ambassador to Croatia last week emphasised the need for nonstop flights to be established between the two counties in order to attract more tourists. "Now is the time for these services to begin", he said. Furthermore, Chinese companies are starting to invest in Croatia's tourism sector, with Zhongya Holding, recently unveiling plans to invest some thirty million euros in the Krapinske Toplice health resort. Such projects are excepted to eventually result in the introduction of nonstop flights between the two countries.TRIP REPORT



Submitted by Miroslav Mesanovic





The Economy Restricted Promo Ticket bought for this trip was booked at one of Air Serbias sales in mid-December 2016 for travel in October 2017.





My intent was to have almost full three days in Vienna, arriving early in the morning on the day of FIFA qualifier of Austria vs. Serbia. The price, combining morning outbound and evening inbound flight was 110 euros RT, instead of the regular 160 euros RT at the time. Economy Restricted Promo included: 1 piece of carry-on baggage, 1 piece of checked-in baggage, meal & drinks onboard, airport check-in and last but not the least  free seat selection during booking process. In the meantime, Air Serbia had switched from Amadeus to Sabre, so my original booking reference became obsolete and also had started to downgrade the economy product by enforcing paid check-in at the airport and introducing charged seat selection. Sadly to note, I was not informed of the new booking reference, and I had to contact the Air Serbia Call Centre. I always buy my plane tickets directly from the airlines and I find this to be the safest in case of possible situation/event. I wanted to get additional information 72 hours before my departure (such as why am I not assigned to any seat at all) and upon contacting a Call Centre agent I was referred to contact the travel agency/agent who had sold me my ticket, because it is evident that Air Serbia did not sell the ticket. I had to be rather persuasive at explaining that they did sell me the ticket and after a couple of minutes of waiting for the Supervisor to react and sort things out, it turned out that I really bought my ticket from Air Serbia but there are still issues with migrating to the new reservation system. Unfortunately, they were not able to assist me with the seat allocation  I may do it during online check-in or one of their colleagues from Ground Services would give me a hand at the airport during baggage drop-off.





A day before the actual departure for Vienna, I decided to give Air Serbias Online Check-In a try. Everything went smoothly and I was automatically allocated to seat 09C without any option to choose the seat on my own. Two hours later I received a text message and e-mail from Air Serbia. The text message was rather disturbing - your flight JU600 has been cancelled. E-mail is different - We would like to inform you that your flight JU600 within your booking has been updated. The revisions are included belowAir Serbia has upgraded this flight to a jet engine (Boeing 737-300) while rescheduling departure time from 06:55 to 07:20.





Day of departure - I was at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport Terminal 2 (BEG) at 05:30. Friendly ground staff agent was directing passengers into two lines - check in and baggage drop-off. Agent handling the drop-off was young and his attitude on the very border of being rude. Constant change of the business model led to weight and size checks of every possible item of carry-on baggage. The passenger in front of me found new rules disturbing and asked for a supervisor to be present. Once I had approached the counter, I decided to check-in my cabin size suitcase and enjoy the flight carrying only my trusty backpack (at the time of writing this review, the mentioned backpack is in line with sizes given for the 2nd personal carry on item in Economy Class). I gave my passport and Etihad Guest member card, and received a baggage tag. The agent inquired if I would like to have the standard boarding pass coupon printed, which I gladly accepted.





After clearing the customs and passport formalities I went straight to BEGs Business Club Lounge. It is worth mentioning that while not exclusive as Air Serbias Premium Lounge, this airport operated lounge works round the clock. Beside C Class Passengers, free access is granted to passengers holding certain debit/credit cards issued in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Privilege Pass holders. In the early hours, one can rest in a quiet ambient  not so many passengers. Lounge operates on self-service basis and boasts alcoholic, non-alcoholic and hot beverages. Depending on time of the day there is a selection of food. A selection of fabricated sandwiches is available 24/7. The only drawback of the lounge is stained carpet.

Half an hour before departure time, I left the lounge in direction of gate C1. Belgrade Airport is easy to navigate and although there are no moving walkways, one needs no more than five minutes to reach any gate. The good old YU-ANK Aviolet Boeing 737-3H9 (MSN 23715) was ready to board at gate C1. When needed, Air Serbia deploys this bird to its scheduled operations. By the book, it serves charter operations under Aviolet brand. Boarding went smooth, and I tried out Air Serbia mobile boarding pass for iWallet App. Without any issues, I was able to do the boarding pass scan in this manner. Ground Service Agent wished me a pleasant flight.

The cabin was almost full and a friendly cabin crew of 4 directed the passengers. Even before abandoning the dedicated business seats on board their A319/A320 aircraft, Air Serbia had replaced these seats in the Boeings 3 years ago. I managed my way to seat 09C, aisle. I like these genuine JAT Yugoslav Airlines seats by Recaro. Although old, they are still comfortable. Boarding completed, and it seems the middle seat will stay free to Vienna  nice! Pushback time 07:20, just on time. The plane taxied its way to Runway 30 and 8 minutes later at 07:28 take off. Soon afterwards, the crew started handing out very tasty small sandwiches (sandwich rolls with beef salad). Corn-flower pastry was a real treat. Morning flight, but who cares  red and white wine and beer were together on menu, so why not? Especially if one is thrilled because of the big match later that day. The only flaw of the service  no wet napkin. Unfortunately due to mild turbulences, service had to be stopped by the time the crew reached row 11. I was rather lucky!

At 08:19 the plane touched down at Vienna International Airport (VIE). Total flight time: 51 minutes. We were put on a bus and shuttled to passport control. Overall, a pleasant flight with dedicated crew on board. Of course, it is a pity that Air Serbia was not able to deploy one of its Airbus jets, but OK.

Share your travel experience by submitting a trip report to exyu@exyuaviation.comXinhua&ezhejiang.gov.cn

The Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra gives a show in Detroit, the most populous city in the state of Michigan, US on Feb 19. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

The Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra from East China's Zhejiang province began a special Spring Festival tour in the United States on Feb 15.

Four shows are expected to be staged in Chicago, Detroit, Muscatine and San Diego from Feb 15 to 25.

On Feb 17, the orchestra made its debut in Chicago at the invitation of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the top orchestras in the world.

Familiar tunes of a variety of folk Chinese operas including Huangmei Opera, Shaoxing Opera, Beijing Opera, Henan Opera and Qinqiang Opera reminded overseas Chinese of their homeland. A special performance named Picturesque Zhejiang presented the most distinctive culture of the province to the audience with music. The orchestra also showed to the audience Uygur folk song Lift Your Veil and the popular song Crossing the River.

This is the fourth year for the Chicago Symphony Center to stage a grand performance during the Chinese New Year.

Chinese Consul General in the city Hong Lei hailed the show as an opportunity for Americans to have a better understanding of Chinese culture.

The musicians were invited to Detroit two days later. There, their performances attracted roughly 2,000 spectators and added artistic hues to the industrial hub of US. They went to Muscatine, Iowa on Feb 21, bringing Chinese New Year festivity to the small city along the Mississippi River.

The tour in US is part of China's 2018 Happy Chinese New Year event. 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."

An American family watches the musical instruments closely after the show in Chicago, Illinois on Feb 17. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]Addressing the meeting, Vinh highlighted some of the key issues in terms of defence cooperation between the two countries, stressing the need of greater efforts in applying the agreements reached by both sides whilst working out new elements for bilateral cooperation.

He called for the US sides continuous coordination in order to complete the dioxin detoxification project at Da Nang Airport and expeditiously begin the dioxin detoxification project at Bien Hoa Airport in Dong Nai province.

For his part, Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink hailed cooperation on security and defence as a highlight of Vietnam-US relations.

The diplomat gave his affirmation that the US wishes to strengthen defence cooperation with Vietnam, especially in settling the aftereffects of war, aiming to enhance the mutual trust and understanding between sides.AN Australian is back at the helm of the big Landmark farm services group and determined to push on with expansion plans which have seen the company spend $270 million on business acquisitions in the past four years.

Rob Clayton, former director for Landmarks south eastern region, officially became managing director in late January, although he has spent a couple of weeks in North America with eight other senior Landmark staff.

Originally from a wheat, sheep and beef farming background at Coonamble in New South Wales, where his family still farms, Mr Clayton started work as a junior in the IAMA crop supplies branch in Moree, just weeks before the business was absorbed by Landmark in February 2001.

He replaces Tommy Warner, the US-born accountant and farm products business manager who moved to Australia in 2013 from Kansas, then last year became vice president of international retail operations for Canadian-based parent company, Agrium.

Mr Warner, who now oversees operations in Australia, South America and Canada, was excited to pass his leadership baton to somebody who truly understood the business and why it was successful.

Rob has been in agriculture his entire career holding a range of positions from shed sweeper to Big N co-ordinator and division manager, Mr Warner said.

He has been an extremely valuable part of Landmark since he joined.

Mr Clayton, 43, has a busy agenda of visits to Landmark branches and customers in his diary for the next month or two, starting in Western Australia, followed by Queensland and northern NSW.

His career to date, has spanned everything from agronomy product sales to livestock auctioning and rural property marketing, including stints as branch manager at Coonamble, divisional manager for north western NSW, based at Dubbo, and six years at Melbourne head office as a regional executive.

His South East region covered southern NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

Prior to joining IAMA/Landmark he worked on cropping farms in the Collarenebri and Coonamble districts for six years.

Mr Clayton has also studied business at the University of Melbourne, Victoria and Harvard Business School in the US.

Ive been very lucky to have been given some great breaks and to work with a lot of people who share my enthusiasm for this industry, Mr Clayton said.

I really do love this work.

Landmark, one of Australias big three players in the stock and station agency and farm services market, has about 380 business representation sites and 1600 staff.

Mr Claytons appointment has coincided with a busy start to the year for the company.

Last month it became the latest live cattle exporter to send a shipment of slaughter stock to China, following groundbreaking 2017 deliveries by the North Australia Cattle Company, Wellard and Elders.

Mr Warner and Landmark International boss, Andy Ingle, were in Huanghua in northern China on January 28 when 2070 slaughter-ready cattle arrived from Fremantle, Western Australia, on the Ganado Express  the biggest consignment sent so far.

Landmark is also taking possession of Louis Dreyfus fertiliser business, Macrofertil Australia, next month after a $70m deal in December.

That acquisition gives Landmark and its crop inputs division a much-desired footprint in WA, which it intends to expand, plus fertiliser facilities in SA and Victoria.

A total of six fertiliser storage and distribution assets handling about 300,000 tonnes a year.

Apart from taking Landmark head-to-head against WAs dominant Wesfarmers CSBP fertiliser business, the Macrofertil assets will complement its existing network of 400 sites around Australia.

Meanwhile, parent company Agrium, which bought Landmark in late 2010 from the collapsing AWB group, has officially renamed itself, Nutrien.

The change accompanied Agriums $32 billion end of year merger with another Canadian giant, Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.

While speculation in recent years suggested Landmarks North American parent was considering selling its Australian business, Mr Claytons agenda indicates quite the opposite.

Agrium/Nutrien is in Australia for the long term and at Landmark we intend to keep growing, he said.

Weve added about 45 businesses to our network in the past six years, and if the right opportunities come up, well be buying more if those assets or investments can add to ways we help our farmer customers.

From the top down there is huge focus on what we can do for our Landmark customer base and a lot of interest (from Nutrien) in the Australian model.

Landmarks investment activity in recent years included buying back franchised livestock and merchandise agencies and other sites it had previously sold, and acquiring or opening new business shop fronts.

It also bought product distribution depots offloaded in a restructure by chemical supplier and manufacturer, Nufarm.

Our agenda is based around how we can add value to what our customers do, Mr Clayton said.

Its central to our business that everything we do is about looking long-term at how this will assist farmers make decisions, or help them do their job.The Kimberley's first commercial cotton crop since 2011 was planted last week, with 200 hectares sown at Kimberley Agricultural Investment's Kununurra property.

WET weather in the States north didnt stop WAs first commercial cotton crop in seven years going in the ground within the Kimberleys Ord Irrigation Scheme last week.

Approximately 200 hectares of cotton was planted on the property of Chinese-owned company Kimberley Agricultural Investment (KAI) north of Kununurra over several days last week, with operations brought to a halt following 100 millimetres brought down by Tropical Cyclone Kelvin.

A further 100ha to 150ha will be sown in a few weeks when soils dry out.

Heavily involved in the operation is KAI farm manager Luke McKay, who oversees the companys cropping program throughout the irrigated Ord River valley and is one of this years Western Australian Nuffield Scholars.

Mr McKay said three cotton varieties had been chosen for this years commercial crop, after yielding positive results in CSIROs wet season trials in 2017.

Weve got a spread of varieties that we picked out of last years trials, so were putting them in to a commercial scenario to see how they perform and how we can manage them a bit differently, Mr McKay said.

We plan to target what each variety requires as opposed to just a blanket treatment over a trial, so were breaking it into separate areas.

Cotton has not been grown on a commercial scale in the Kimberley since 2011, with the industry facing several challenges including pest control problems and quality issues.

Typically, cotton has been planted in the dry season in the Ord, but developments in genetically modified technology have made an earlier sowing window viable.

Mr McKay said developments in Bollgard 3 technology had opened the opportunity for a wet season crop.

The advancement in the Bollgard technology  which is the insect management gene in the cotton  has made a big difference, it controls heliothis caterpillar and spodoptera caterpillars which have been a big problem, he said.

Normally cotton was only grown during the dry season which starts around April, but because of Bollgard we get control over caterpillars which we have a much higher prevalence of during this time of the year.

Previously when cotton has been grown those insects built resistance to the insecticides and it became uneconomical to grow cotton because of it.

If all goes to plan the crop will be harvested in July, giving KAI the option to grow a second crop this year.

As part of his Nuffield Scholarship  sponsored by Cotton Australia and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation - Mr McKay will research issues relevant to tropical cotton-growing systems such as double cropping, rotation crops, irrigation methods, staff requirements, machinery requirements, and resource and environmental management.

He will embark on a six week study tour, visiting countries such as Brazil, Canada, China and America.

Im really keen to get to Brazil and see what theyre doing over there, its probably the most comparable to some of things were trying to do over here and some of the conditions we face, Mr McKay said.

If we plant cotton early enough then theres the opportunity to put a quick crop on the other end of it like mung beans or millet, and part of looking around the world is to try and look at how we best achieve that.

Mr McKay said there was still a lot to learn about growing cotton in northern WA, but he was optimistic of its potential in the Ord River valley.

Hopefully we can target our development around what we think is going to work best for cotton and the other crops that were growing, he said.

If we were just setting the development up for cotton it would be a bit easier but weve also got our chia, quinoa and corn so were just trying to make sure they all work together in a system because we dont want to be just focusing on one crop.

Cotton definitely looks like it can provide something that will underpin the area, but we need to be cropping those high value grains and corn that has a rotation to support it.

The trial work suggests that were on the right track but converting that into a commercial reality is the challenge and just making sure we dont trip up too much in making it work.

KAI general manager Jim Engelke said the trial was the beginning of a long-term plan for developing the cotton industry in the region.

If successful, KAI plans to expand its cotton crop up to 3000ha and invest in a cotton processing gin.

Weve been focused on getting a cotton industry up and running and the trial commercial planting is really just to sure up our positions and understanding of doing cotton, Mr Engelke said.

Its the first step into scaling but its also an opportunity to learn a bit more about the commercial decision making process around planting cotton at this time of the year.Eastern States business Outcross is one of those companies that provides a range of services to the saleyard industry.

Outcross owner and director Tom Newsome visited Farm Weekly last week as he made his way to some of WAs saleyards, promoting his software products.

Mr Newsome said 80 per cent of the business was saleyard-related and 20pc mining-related.

Our main business is saleyard services but we also consult to mining companies and help them bring their mining land back into grazing land, Mr Newsome said.

Its a system or process of rehab so they have got viable grazing at the end of it.

Mr Newsome said Outcross could do a range of things for saleyards  we design them, operate them, supply software to run them, as well as general management consulting.

He said Outcross had about 28 saleyard clients across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Recent projects have been completed for Shepparton, Charters Towers, Forbes, WVLX Mortlake, SELX Yass, Dubbo, Dalby, Horsham, Emerald and Moss Vale saleyards.

We provide any of those services to those clients  some of it is consulting and some contracting and some providing technology software, Mr Newsome said.

We draft and pen about 70,000 cattle a year, at Dalby, Queensland and there are 22 saleyards that use our software systems.

The rest is consulting work.

We do everything from review of saleyard operations  so theyll get us in and pay us to come and visit the yard and look at how they do things and make recommendations, through to master plans and then in designing yards from the ground up.

Mr Newsome said Outcross aimed to enhance the business of our clients which is saleyards and agents.

The biggest issue for saleyards is competition  they live and die by the number of guys on the rail competing for stock  so anything we can do to increase the market depth gives a good outcome for our clients and they are benefiting from our services.

There are 15 privately-owned saleyards across Australia  the rest are owned by the councils.

Some of those, mainly because of geographic location, have evolved into massive operations over the years and they are highly profitable  some councils want to keep those and some want to sell them.

Mr Newcross went to the Muchea Livestock Centre (MLC) during his trip.

The cost of the MLC was where they got the most criticism, he said.

It was somewhere about $60 million for the final bill.

We built a yard in Yass, the year before last, for about a quarter of the price  which was the same size.

The site was a big part of MLC as there were a lot of earthworks.

Theres probably good reasons for it but being an outsider you think its a bit dear.

Mr Newsome said the MLC was a bit different to the yards that we are use to dealing with because in the Eastern States it is all post-weigh.

Thats very strong in the industry  although different people would like pre-weigh, he said.

We would like to do pre-weigh but we are restricted by industry requirements to continue to post-weigh cattle and thats obviously to do with gut fill and curfew and such.

We would like to go pre-weigh because you present more information to buyers, however, the buyers themselves  the guys on the rail  they are actually the biggest impediment to it.

They are just trying to protect their niche at the end of the day.

Theres good advantages in pre-weigh  you guys are lucky in a way that that is an industry norm  whereas we are sought of stuck with post-weigh.

Mr Newsome said there was a moved towards consolidation of saleyards across the country.

He said with there was 129 saleyards in Australia and the move was to get big or get out.

So there is significant consolidation going on, he said.

The big existing yards in the big regional centres are surviving and doing quite well.

The regional centres, such as Mortlake, are plonked in the middle of four or five smaller yards that are struggling and itll kill them.

Mr Newsome said the smaller yards in the Eastern States would die out because they werent anywhere near compliant to OHS requirements and they couldnt compete with the big yards.

Because some are getting bigger they will get more throughput and then they can utilise the services of guys like me who travel the countryside looking at livestock handling equipment and facilities, he said.

We use our knowledge in the design of these new yards from the ground up and theres sort of a merging business in the industry where its traditionally that the little yards just move along and do their own thing.

For livestock professionals like us its all about making the whole saleyards area more professional.

Mr Newsome said there were exciting things happening in the industry with online selling systems and cataloguing and providing that information before the buyers get there, but the industry needed one representative body to help the industry move forward working with governments and creating standards across the country.

Theres two different bodies at the moment  the Australian Livestock Markets Association (ALMA)  they originated in New South Wales but basically merged with Queensland, WA and South Australia - most of those yards are in ALMA, he said.

The Victorians didnt want to come in  they have the Livestock Saleyards Association of Victoria, and then they have changed their name to ALSA  Australian Livestock Saleyards Association.

So they run their own show.

Its not good for our industry  we need one peak body, not two.

Im not saying who is right and who is wrong, they are probably both wrong, but we need better representation in terms of a single industry body.PHENOMENAL was the only way to describe Mondays Koojan Hills Angus bull sale result.

While this sale has been a benchmark in the Angus bull selling calendar for many years, no one quite expected the sale to be as good as it was, with 65 out of 69 bulls selling to a top of $23,500 and a terrific $10,208 average.

The end result was even more remarkable given most bull sales have taken a hit to averages and clearances this year, but the quality of the Koojan Hills bulls shone through to see the average jump by $294, compared to last years $9914 with seven more bulls sold under the hammer this year.

The sale gross of $663,500 was up $88,500 on last years result, which was set when cattle prices were at record levels in WA.

The success of the sale in the past two years has more than vindicated the decision by Koojan Hills principals, the Metcalfe family to make the significant investment to purchase the stud from Lew Smit in 2016.

Constant drizzle throughout the sale didnt dampen buyer enthusiasm and when Landmark auctioneer Tiny Holly dropped the gavel at $14,000 on lot one, it was clear that a big day was pending.

In total 89 buyers registered for the sale (this also included buyers for the Melaleuca Murray Grey bull sale held after the Angus sale), but none were more determined than the Bairstow family to get the bull they wanted.

Noel and Luke Bairstow, Arizona Farms, Lake Grace, were in attendance at the sale, and with the assistance of Landmark southern livestock manager Bob Pumphrey, they picked out lot seven as the best sire to use among their substantial Angus breeding herd.

There were several prominent cattle producers competing for the bull, but in the end the Bairstows were successful at $23,500.

The bull, Koojan Hills Hector M3, was an AI son of Coonamble Hector 249, a sire that has earned a terrific reputation in Angus herds across Australia.

Out of Coonamble C68, the March 25, 2016 drop bull was an eye-catching bull that showed plenty of presence in the pen prior to the sale.

Mr Pumphrey, speaking on behalf of the Bairstows, said the bull had very good figures and was the style of bull that suited the Arizona Farms herd.

He is a solid bull with great thickness and depth, which is what the Bairstows like, Mr Pumphrey said.

He is compact with plenty of grunt and will fit in well with the breeding aims of the Arizona Farms cattle operation.

In terms of its figures, M3 was +43 for 200-day weight, +70 for 400-day weight and +96 for 600-day weight.

It was in the carcase figures that the bull really shone, being in the top 20 per cent of the breed for EMA at +6 and the top 5pc for rib and P8 fat at +2.1 and +2.5.

Its gestation length figure of -7.6 also put it in the top 5pc of the breed.

The chance to add a new bloodline to their herd pushed the Lester family, Lester Pastoral Co, Manypeaks, to set the second top price of the sale of $17,000 for a Thomas Up River 1614 son, Koojan Hills Up River M145.

A US sire, the Up River genetics will be added to the sire battery for the Lester family, who are WAs sole supplier of grassfed calves to the Graze beef brand sold in Coles Supermarkets.

Kim Lester said the bulls figures were another factor in their purchase as was its physical outlook.

He is a moderate-type bull that we can use over either heifers or cows, Mr Lester said.

He is nice and soft and will fit in well with our breeding herd.

M145 had plenty of growth potential with its EBVs reflecting this with a 200-day weight of +48 in the top 20pc of the breed, a 400-day weight of +95 that was in the top 5pc and a 600-day weight of +115 that put in the top 20pc.

It had a terrific milk value of +27 that was in the top 1pc of the breed.

The Lester family also paid $12,000 for lot four in the sale to complete their purchases for the day.

Three bulls hit the $16,500 mark, which was the third top price of the sale.

The first of these bulls is off to the Eastern States with Texas Angus stud, Warialda, New South Wales, successful on a Koojan Hills Reality K49 son, Koojan Hills M46.

In terms of figures, M46 was off the scale.

Its gestation length of -6.4 put it in the top 10pc of the breed, while its 200-day and 400-day weights of +56 and +102 were in the top 5pc.

With a 600-day weight of +138 it was in the top 1pc of the breed, while figures of +76 for carcase weight, +$140 for Angus Breeding Index, +$125 for Domestic Index, +$153 for Heavy Grain Index and +$135 for Heavy Grass Index were all in the top 5pc.

Also hitting the $16,500 mark was regular Koojan Hills buyer, Bullrush Farms, Gingin, which paid that value for lot 31, Koojan Hills Gatsby M131.

A son of Milwillah Gatsby G279, the bull was a May 20, 2016, drop calf that was also carrying terrific figures.

Its +51 200-day weight was in the top 10pc of the breed, while its +96 400-day weight was in the top 5pc.

A +130 600-day weight put it in the top 5pc, as did its carcase weight of +76.

On the index values, a +$132 Angus Breeding Index was in the top 10pc, as was a +$148 Heavy Grain Index and its +$125 Heavy Grass Index was also in the top 10pc.

Purchasing three bulls in total and paying $16,000 and $11,000 for the other two, Bullrush Farms was an active supporter throughout the sale.

The other bull to hit $16,500 is also heading to Gingin with Old Bambun Grazing the successful bidder.

A powerful VAR Reserve son, this bull Koojan Hills Reserve M92 was used by the Koojan Hills stud as a yearling.

Its EBVs showed a birthweight of +4.2, +47 for 200-day weight, +84 for 400-day and +109 for 600-day.

Old Bambun also paid $12,500 for a second bull in the sale.

One of Koojan Hills studs staunchest supporters, Sue Ray, Holbrook, New South Wales, was back again in force to take home six bulls.

With Elders stud stock manager Tim Spicer taking Ms Rays bids over the phone she went to a top of $16,000 for her group of bulls averaging $12,167 in total.

Other bulls to make higher values included the very last bull of the sale, lot 72, which sold for $15,500 to Gabyon Pastoral, Dongara, which also paid $10,000 for a second bull.

Also making good money was lot six, which went for $15,000 to LJ & SM McDougall, Denmark, while locals JP & J Davies also paid that value for one.

Jarrod Carroll, Rayview Park, Kalgan, went to $14,000 for one bull, while FV Hortin & Sons, Torbay, was a multiple buyer taking three bulls to a $14,000 top.

Also taking multiple bulls was GMC Corporation, North Fremantle, which went to a top of $11,000 for four, while M & M Gorman, Wellstead, bought two to a top of $10,000.

After being losing bidder on the top price bull, Gatti Sawmill went to $12,500 to secure lot 23, while MA & PK Wood, Green Range, averaged out their two purchases nicely, paying $12,000 for one and $5000 for the other.

Following the sale, Landmark auctioneer Tiny Holly simply said buyers came, they saw and they conquered.

There was excellent interest from all parts of WA and the Eastern States, he said.

The quality presentation of the bulls was again backed up by excellent figures and buyers responded to this with their bidding.

The top level of bulls sold to top demand and there were significant prices set throughout the catalogue right up to the last bull that sold for $15,500.RIDING on the back of an incredible result in the Koojan Hills Angus bull sale on Monday, the Melaleuca Murray Grey bull sale that immediately followed saw all values increase compared to last year.

Ten less bulls were offered by the Metcalfe family in this years Melaleuca sale compared to last year with 30 going under the hammer.

Of these 22 sold to a top of $9000 at an average of $5091 and a gross of $112,000.

Compared to last year there was one more bull sold and the average jumped by $305, while the top price was significantly up on last years $6000.

Once again it was a quality line-up of Murray Greys that was appreciated by the small crowd of mostly return buyers that sat through the Angus offering to compete on the greys.

The top price of $9000 came mid-catalogue when Landmark southern livestock manager Bob Pumphrey outlasted the competition to have the final call on Melaleuca Mayor M129.

Mr Pumphrey was taking phone bids on the bull from Tasmanian stud breeder Charles Wallace, Woodbourn stud, based at Cressy.

The March 24, 2016-drop bull contained mostly Woodbourn bloodlines, with it sired by Woodbourn Hot Expectations H71 and out of Melaleuca Pansy G258, a cow that in turn was sired by Woodbourn Warrior B48.

Mr Wallace said he was in WA a week ago to attend the Tullibardine bull sale, where he bought one Murray Grey bull, and at the same time inspected the Melaleuca line up.

This bull stood out from the rest, Mr Wallace said.

He was too bloody good a bull not to have with his outlook, thickness, good feet and excellent figures.

I have been very pleased with the bulls I have bought from WA in the past and I expect this one to be no different.

Mayor was looked at by Melaleuca principal Richard Metcalfe as a potential stud sire, but was put in the sale because the Metcalfe family had kept the pick of its sons from last years calf drop.

In terms of EBVs, Mayor was +4.4 birthweight, +8 milk, +27 for 200-day weight, +48 for 400-day (top 15 per cent of breed) and +70 for 600-day weight, which was in the top 10pc.

In terms of indexes it was +$47 for vealer terminal and +$51 for supermarket, which were both in the top 10pc and +$72 for EU heavy steer, which was in the top 5pc.

The second top price of the sale was set at $8000 when commercial cattle producer Yandilla Grazing, Manypeaks, outbid a South Australian stud breeder to grab Melaleuca Maurice M93.

A March 18, 2016-drop bull, Maurice was sired by Melaleuca Kenny K250 and out of Melaleuca Bettina K189.

Maurice was +4.2 birthweight, +2 milk, +26, +48 and +73 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights.

On the indexes it was +$49 for vealer terminal, +$51 for supermarket and +$75 for EU heavy steer.

Another bull to make good money was the first bull of the sale offered with another repeat buyer, TA & TL Bradshaw, Kojaneerup South, paying $7000.

Melaleuca Marley M4 was a March 3 drop silver bull that was sired by Melaleuca Hakea H202.

Its depth and thickness were matched by EBVs of +4 milk, plus 25+, +46 and +62 for 200, 400 and 600-day weights.

It was +$49 for vealer terminal, +$43 for supermarket and +$59 for EU heavy steer.

The Bradshaw family was the volume buyer of the sale taking three bulls in total and paying $4000 apiece for their other two purchases.

Also taking multiple bulls was Salamar Pty Ltd, Claremont, which picked up two at a top of $4500.

Another regular Melaleuca buyer Jeff Pyle & Co, Manypeaks, also paid good money buying one bull at $6500, while GE Bell, Narrikup, took a liking to the third bull on offer paying $5000 for Melaleuca Mackie, which was a Cam Grove Charcoal J91 son.

Relevant Investments, Atwell, took one bull at $6000, while RA & RE Gerovich, Albany, also took one at $5000.

Another repeat buyer, Lake Muir Prime Beef, Lake Muir, bought one for $4000, while AR & MA Muir, Lake Muir, also went to $4000 for one.

Rumbalara Pastoral Co, Gnowellen, bought one for $4500, as did TS & KH Meir, Albany.

Landmark auctioneer Tiny Holly said while the Angus wave had impacted on demand for Murray Greys in recent years, it was pleasing for the Melaleuca stud to have an increase in average compared to last year.

The quality of the Murray Grey line-up was exceptional and the fact that there were many repeat buyers in attendance again today shows the bulls are working in the paddock where it counts, Mr Holly said.A GOOD crowd of 200 registered buyers were in a buying mood at Scaddan last week as Landmark Brindley & Gale conducted a clearing sale on behalf of John and Rose Vermeersch.

Buyers from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and throughout WA provided plenty of competition for a sale gross of more than $1.6 million.

A big attraction which created a lot of interest and competition was the 2016 model CLAAS Lexion 770 header, which had only completed one season.

It was fitted with Terra Tracs and had recorded 441 engine hours and 340 separator hours and came with a CLAAS Vario 1230 front.

The opening bid was $380,000 and with four potential buyers bidding in $5000 increments, bidding steadily made its way to $445,000 when the header was knocked down to HM & MJ Ward, who had travelled from Wagin.

The previous lot, a Cat Lexion header (3552 engine hrs and 2561 separator hrs) also met with strong competition and sold to RJ & JA Thomason, Esperance, for $57,000.

Of notable interest was the 2016 model AMAZONE 4502W Pantera self-propelled boomsprayer (511hrs), with a 36 metre (120ft) boom.

These models are new to the market with no used models previously sold, so prospective buyers held back and eventually it was passed-in at auction.

It sold after the sale for $305,000 to Stecher Ag Services, Seymour, Victoria.

This item was preceded by a WCM938K front-end loader with a 1.5 metre (5 foot) bucket and came with a rock bucket, stick rake and forks.

Multiple bidders freely competed on this item and it was eventually knocked down for $82,000 to Westkirch Transport, Munglinup.

Leading up to all the items mentioned previously were the tractors, with the top price going to a Case IH STX425 Quadtrac (5722 hours) with GPS auto farm.

This sold for $77,500 and was bought by FG Smith, Cranbrook.

This followed the Case Magnum 255 tractor (874hrs) which sold for $35,000 to the McDonald family, Condingup, trading as Macsfield.

The seeding equipment led up to the tractors, with a Simplicity 12000 two bin, tow-behind model with camera, selling for $13,000 to AJ & MA Coward, Esperance, who had the winning bid on the previous item which was a Case IH PTX 600 seeder bar, which they secured for $15,000.

A 36m Goldacres trailed boomsprayer with an 8000 litre tank also found its way to Seymour, Victorai, when it was knocked down to Stecher Ag Services for $20,000.

Chaser bins were keenly sought with the first one offered being a 25 tonne dual axle Finch bin, which sold for $20,000 to GL & AM Harris, Grass Patch and a 30t Norrish dual axle chaser bin which followed, selling for $65,000 to Melkirch Farms, Munglinup.

A Merlo P26.6LP telehandler realised $24,000 and was bought by Lowana Enterprises, Condingup, which followed the Kuhn Knight Propush 204X Verti spreader, which was bought by local farmer Stephen Hoffrichter for $35,000.

A Massey Ferguson 9.1m (30ft) swather met with good competition and realised $40,000 when it was knocked down to Jimmy Gray, trading as Grayag Esperance.

A Marshall 910T spreader met with strong competition and was finally sold for $37,000 to CJ Broun, Cascade.

This was followed by a BHP 15 tine 5.8m (19ft) ripper which sold for $17,000 to Swandale Investments, Esperance.

Grain handling equipment was in strong demand with a 80T ECF mobile field bin with PTO discharge selling to the Gray family, Esperance for $29,000, trading as Sandplain Farming Trust.

A Landpoint bagging machine sold for $11,000 to Sam Hood, Esperance.

A 70T Vennings bin realised $11,500 when it was knocked down to RJ & EJ Oldfield, Esperance, while open-top mobile field bins sold to a top of $9000 (twice) and were purchased by Dave Vandenberghe and Murray Downs, Esperance.

Mr Vermeersch moved to Scaddan with his parents from the Belgian Congo in 1963 when they took up CP land which had been allocated to them and they spent their farming life in the district.

He and Rose sold their property to neighbours Mark and Haley Wandel, and are looking forward to retirement in Falcon.MORE than 500 people attended the Giovi Limited clearing sale at Irwin last week, taking advantage of the good value machinery on offer.

Elders auctioneer Dean Hubbard put up 371 lots of assorted sheep and cropping equipment to 350 registered buyers.

A 2014 John Deere R4045 self-propelled boomsprayer (2489 hours) topped the sale, when it sold for $296,000 to Jamie and Ben McTaggart, Mingenew.

Green triumphed the machinery section with a 2013 John Deere 9510RT (2869hrs) selling for $265,000 to Allied Equipment Sales in Midland and another John Deere 9510RT tractor (4350hrs) attracted $224,000 from firm bidding.

A 2016 8345R (1272hrs) John Deere tractor sold for $227,000 and a 2006 John Deere 8530 (9219hrs) sold for $36,000 to Ag Implements.

There were three CLAAS headers up for auction, each with a CLAAS Vario tin front.

The 2013 CLAAS 750 Lexion TerraTrac model (2287 engine hrs, 1686 rotor hrs) sold for $189,000, the 2010 Lexion sold for $85,000 and the 2012 750 model edged up to $105,000.

The main attraction for the day was the array of farm vehicles, comprising two Toyota Hilux models, one Great Wall, a Nissan Patrol ute and nine Landcrusier utes.

A 2001 Hilux ute (272,857km and not in working order) sold for $1900 and a 2007 Hilux (282,259km) sold for $5250.

The 2011 Great Wall V200 DTI (64,011km) made $3500 and the 2003 DX 4.2 Nissan Patrol ute (381,254km) was knocked down for $6250.

A 1994 Toyota Landcruiser (408,065km) with no working handbrake, sold for $7500 to Multi-Ag Nutrient Supplies, Coomberdale while a green 2005 T404 SAR Kenworth truck (700,000km) made $52,000.

A set of road train trailers with dolly made $53,500.

A CLAAS 620C front wheel-assist with loader sold for $40,500 and a Cat 12H grader was competitively bid up to $130,000.

An army truck with no registration or licence sold for $10,500.

Two Bourgault 6350 air seeders including the bin and bar were both passed-in but were later settled for $60,000 each, with both outfits going to the Three Springs area.

A Kwik Kleen grain cleaner sold for $4500 and Gregoire Besson mouldboard plough with four legs sold for $9000.

An Amazon ZG-B 8200 eight tonne spreader sold for $13,000 and a Scannels hay bale trail feeder sold for $14,250 to Minninup Pastoral Company.

At 10.4 metres (34ft), a pasture topper superior slasher bought in a profitable $14,600, while a JCB Telehandler with bucket and fork attachments sold to Durawah Pastoral Company, Chapman Valley for $36,000.

A single bid of $10 secured a one point ripper, which while sporting a rusted exterior, was in working condition.

A post hole digger and rake sold for $2800, while a 2.5 tonne Mitsubishi forklift (8768hrs) sold for $7000.

A servicing trailer, which included an air compressor and storage, sold for $4000.

Fencing equipment was a stand-out with other livestock owners buying anything from wire to steel posts.

Electric fence equipment sold for between $50 and $110 with wire strainers and chains selling for $90.

A spinning Jenny and some steel posts went to Tunney Cattle Company for $250.

There were eight lots of pine strainers up for grabs, with prices ranging between $200 and $450.

Gabyon Pastoral Company, Irwin, bought four of the eight lots and also a cement trough for $150.

A total of 150 new wool packs went to Clayton Park Grazing Company for $1700, at $11.33 each.

A VE sheep handling machine sold for $3400 and a mulesing craddle, in working order, sold for $1700.

Nine sheep feed troughs were sold for $100 each; four hay rings sold between $350 and $400 and 25 sheep feeders were knocked down  four Advantage sheep feeders sold between $800 and $1700; five Universal feeders sold between $2000 and $2200; eight Moylan feeders sold for between $2100 and $2400 and eight other large feeders made between $2500 and $2900.

A sheep feed trailer in good condition sold for $6400 to Yarney station, while a smaller portable feeder sold for $500.

A set of McDougall transportable sheep yards, which were in an excellent condition, sold for $19,500, with a licenced sheep trailer with holding pens selling for $12,250.

A Proway sheep handling trailer, which caught a lot attention, finally sold to Dandaragan Sheep Services for $21,250.

There were 460 bales of Baroota Wonder hay for sale, with bales selling between $56 and $62 a bale.

Two blue pencil augers sold for $1200 and $1300, respectively, while Burando Hill Farm King 1041 augers sold for between $7000 and $8000, with a 1061 model selling for $15,750.

A Rapid Plastic firefighter, with an 800L tank and a metal frame sold for $2800.

Nufab Industries purchased two sprinklers for $650 and $1000, respectively, also purchasing a Solaris 55 tractor with attachments for $5100.

Ag Impliments showed some interest on the day, taking home many lots including a set of metal cabinets ($325), a 500L firefighter ($1800), a Kerfab loader bucket ($2600), a chemical trailer ($8500), a licensed Nissan truck with a crate ($6000), a 30m (100ft) Sonic weed seeker with a 3000L tank ($50,000) and a Bredal 20t Super Spreader ($50,000).

A Honda water pump sold for $90, and a chemical pump sold to Canberra Springs for $410.

Windmill vanes went to Metal Art Creations Kalbarri artist Peter James, who purchased the eight pannels for $20.

Cement dividers sold for $800 with seven dividers in the lot, while other dividers sold for $350.

The day finished up in the shed with the last 58 sundry lots.

Included were five seperate lots of John Deere guidance equipment, which sold for between $600 and $10,000.

An Airman PDS1253 air compressor made $8250 and a Kubota 12kVA diesel generator went to Mullewa for $5000.

In total 358 lots were successfully sold at the auction with 13 lots being passed-in, including tyres, v-belts, tractor hubs, a chemical pump, bags of cement, gate parts and some seeder parts.The standing deputy PM made the request at a working session with the body under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) in Hanoi on February 23.

He praised the contributions made by officials and employees in the department to the protection, preservation, and promotion of national materials with significant content and historical values, including those recognised as World Documentary Heritages.

Deputy PM Binh watching materials stored by the State Records Management and Archives Department.

He urged the department to take effective and scientific measures in order to conserve and promote the archives and woodblocks with cultural and historical values, thereby contributing to boosting socio-economic development, enriching the country, and safeguarding national sovereignty.Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryThe delegates are village patriarchs and heads, intellectuals, and artisans from 14 cities and provinces nationwide, including Ha Giang, Nghe An, Ninh Thuan, Thua Thien  Hue, and Dak Lak.

Addressing the ceremony, the State leader reiterated the position of the Party and State in attaching a great importance to consolidating national solidarity among Vietnamese ethnic groups as well as facilitating ethnic groups in socio-economic development and safeguarding their indigenous cultural value.

Throughout the nations history, 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups have worked side by side to help the country to overcome difficulties and move forward, he stressed.

He expressed his hope that delegates at the festival would continue to popularise the Party and State policies and guidelines to their villagers while working harder to preserve and promote their groups cultural essences.

He asked ministries, agencies, and organisations from the central to grassroots levels to assist ethnic groups in socio-economic development, education, culture, and health care.

On the occasion, he planted a tree in a Muong ethnic village and attended the Gau Tao festival of the Mong ethnic group in the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang.Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt launches groundbreaking new measures to improve patient safety in the National Health Service

The 6th Annual World Patient Safety, Science Technology Summit kicked off with an important announcement about the progress being made to save lives in hospital settings. Nearly 4,600 hospitals in 44 countries have committed to adopting patient safety processes that are proven to eliminate preventable deaths in hospitals.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180224005027/en/

England's Health and Social Care Secretary, Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt, launches groundbreaking new measures on Day One of the 6th Annual World Patient Safety, Science Technology held in London (Photo: Business Wire)

The Patient Safety Movement Foundation has taken on an inspiring and ambitious goal of reducing preventable patient deaths in hospitals to ZERO by 2020. The annual Summit in central London plays a major role in taking on that challenge with the participation of 300 global leaders, medical experts, medical technology CEOs, and patient advocates.

"If I am standing here in 2020 and we have not reached zero preventable deaths, then we at least better have implemented all of the known processes for saving lives," says Joe Kiani, Patient Safety Movement Foundation Founder and Chairman. "That we can do and we must do."

The latest advances in patient safety, called Actionable Patient Safety Solutions or (APSS), were announced today, including:

Standardizing and Safeguarding Medication Administration

Person and Family Engagement

Reducing Unnecessary C-Sections

Nasogastric Feeding and Draining Tube Placement and Verification

Unplanned Extubation

Early Detection Treatment of Sepsis, for Low- and Middle-income Countries

Air Embolism

SUMMIT KEYNOTE SPEAKER REVEALS THE TRUE COST OF MEDICATION ERRORS

Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched groundbreaking new measures to improve patient safety in the National Health Service (NHS) during his keynote speech on Day One of the Summit.

The Secretary took action in response to a scathing report published on Friday, which shows the shocking toll that medication errors take on patients and the NHS system. The research some of the first of its kind in the world- shows that errors ranging from delivering a prescription an hour late to a patient being given the wrong medication, may cause approximately 1,700 deaths and are a contributing factor in 22,000 more. The NHS estimates its losses at 1.6 billion.

As a result, Secretary Hunt set out to reduce patient harm and improve safety. These measures include:

Creating new systems linking prescribing data in primary care to hospital admissions

Evaluate prosecutorial response only should a pharmacist make an accidental medication errors due to gross negligence or malice

Accelerating the introduction of electronic-prescribing systems across more NHS hospitals this year.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DIRECTOR-GENERAL OUTLINES FIVE BUILDING BLOCKS OF PATIENT SAFETY

"The needless suffering of patients and their families is bad enough. But each adverse event erodes the most precious resource in health care, and that's trust. When people aren't sure whether it is safe to seek care, they will cease to seek care," said Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

No one should be harmed while seeking care. But the reality is that every year, millions of patients die or are injured because of unsafe and poor quality health care. Two-thirds of all adverse events occur in low- and middle-income countries. In his address, Dr. Tedros outlined five building blocks for creating a patient safety culture: strong leadership; clear policies; data-driven improvements; competent and compassionate health professionals; and people-centered care. Every instance of patient harm is a tragedy, but it is a double-tragedy if we do not learn from it and take steps to ensure the same thing never happens again.

For more information, please visit the Patient Safety Movement Foundation website.

About Patient Safety Movement Foundation:

More than 200,000 U.S. patients and three million worldwide die each year from preventable causes. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) was established through the support of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare to reduce that number of preventable deaths to zero by 2020 (0X2020). Improving patient safety requires a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including patients, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers. The PSMF works with all stakeholders to address problems with actionable solutions. The Foundation also convenes the World Patient Safety, Science and Technology Summit bringing together some of the world's best minds for thought-provoking discussions and new ideas that challenge the status quo. By presenting specific, high-impact solutions to meet patient safety challenges, called Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, encouraging medical technology companies to share the data their products are purchased for, and asking hospitals to make commitments to implement Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation is working toward zero preventable deaths by 2020. Visit http://patientsafetymovement.org/.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180224005027/en/

Contacts:

Patient Safety Movement Foundation

Tanya Lyon, (949) 351-2858

tanya.lyon@patientsafetymovement.orgBARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- nubia, the innovative smartphone brand which boldly defined 'bezel-less' with its 90.36% full-screen ratio, edgeless Z17S, is ready to wow the smartphone industry all over again at the 2018 Mobile World Congress, with 3 new products that are sure to bolster the Chinese tech giants' reputation for outstanding smartphone design.

Firstly, nubia is excited to reveal a technological breakthrough at their innovation lab. With a diamond-cut, light-infused, nano-carbon graphite design, this top-secret project is ready to go public.

Secondly, the brand new Z17miniS will make its much-awaited debut. It packs top-notch specs, including front & back dual-lens cameras + AI-powered NeoVision7.0, new camera features such as AI Portrait 2.0, light-painting, macro-camera and clone-camera. Its design features four-sided curved glass with glare glass magical optical reaction. It's a mini marvel, not to be missed.

Lastly, nubia will showcase a range of new models which solve the full-screen/short battery-life design conundrum. The new full-screen, long battery-life N/V Series have arrived, which come equipped with Qualcomm processors and a whole lot of RAM, so mobile gamers better get their fingers ready.

More surprises await at MWC, where nubia will feature deluxe smartphone accessories and loT products & solutions. There's sure to be rumblings of when nubia's own 5G prototypes will make their appearances in 2018, as official nubia 5G models are set to launch in 2019.

Last year, nubia expanded its presence in the US, India, Germany, Spain, Indonesia and Thailand while embarking on fruitful partnerships with Amazon, Mediamax and Phone House. nubia also had a string of successful product releases including the Z, M and N Series - all of which means nubia's booth at MWC '18 is not to be missed.

About nubia

Founded in 2012, nubia brings premium, innovative smartphones to users looking to get an edge with their mobile device. Inspiring the world to "Be Yourself," nubia continues to elevate lifestyles with better handheld tech. Headquartered in China, nubia has operations globally, including North America, Europe, and Southeast-Asia. The brand is well known for its innovative smartphone features and professional mobile photography functions.

More nubia info can be found on the official website: www.nubia.com/en. Follow @nubiasmartphone on Twitter, @nubiasmartphone on Instagram or www.facebook.com/ nubiasmartphone for the latest news.BEIJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to work with Japan to improve bilateral ties, State Councilor Yang Jiechi said Friday, as he held talks with Japanese national security advisor Shotaro Yachi.

Yang said China had noticed Japan's positive attitude in developing relations with China for some time, and was willing to work with Japan to achieve further improvement and development of bilateral ties.

Hailing the four China-Japan political documents, as well as the four-point principled agreement reached in 2014, Yang said the two sides should continuously build up strategic mutual trust, properly handle vital and sensitive issues, and maintain the political foundation of bilateral ties.

"We also hope that both sides follow the trend of the times to seek mutual benefit, and make concerted efforts to promote peace, cooperation and development in Asia," Yang said.

For his part, Yachi said Japan looked forward to working with China to achieve continuous and steady improvements in bilateral relations.Banks are reviewing and revisiting the systems to ensure drawbacks / loopholes if any, are addressed so that the system becomes robust.

Mumbai: Indian Banks' Association chairperson Usha Ananthasubramanian on Friday said there is an urgent need for banks to revisit their risk management system and plug the loopholes.

Ananthasubramanian, who is managing director and CEO of Allahabad Bank, said at her bank also Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is not linked to core banking solutions (CBS) and the process of linking both the systems is currently on.

The country's second largest public sector bank (PSU) bank has detected a $1.77 billion scam where billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoU) from its Brady House branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders. The fraud allegedly started in 2011 at Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Banks are reviewing and revisiting the systems to ensure drawbacks / loopholes if any, are addressed so that the system becomes robust. Swift linkage to CBS is being fast-tracked by banks, Ananthasubramanian told reporters.

Before moving to Allahabad Bank, Ananthasubramanian was managing director and CEO of PNB between August 2015 to May 2017. She was also the executive director of PNB from July 2011 to November 2013.

She said the Reserve Bank has asked banks that have not linked SWIFT to CBS to complete the process by 30 April, 2018. "That could be a deadline, but it is an outer limit. Today, the urgency is such that everyone wants this (linkage of SWIFT to CBS) project to be on fast track," Ananthasubramanian said.

Last week, IBA had met to discuss the alleged scam at PNB.

In the meeting, Ananthasubramanian was present. It was also attended by Bank of India managing director and CEO Dinabandhu Mohapatra, ICICI Bank chief financial officer NS Kannan and IBA deputy CEO B Rajkumar, among others.

When asked about the outcome of the meeting by reporters, Ananthasubramanian said, "I don't know anything about it." She also refused to divulge Allahabad Bank's total loan exposure to companies related to Nirav Modi.

Last week, in a regulatory filing, Allahabad Bank had said it has an exposure of nearly $366.87 million in the form of LoU.

"The bank through its overseas branch at Hong Kong has been taking exposure with PNB as country party under various LoU issued through authenticated SWIFT message," Allahabad Bank said in a filing.

The Bank also purchased some Buyers' Credit assets from Axis Bank extended against PNB LoU through risk participation.The call for privatisation gathered currency after diamond jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly colluded with some officials of PNB

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today ruled out privatisation of public sector banks as a response to the Rs 11,400-crore fraud hitting Punjab National Bank, saying the move may not be politically acceptable.

Speaking at the Economic Times' Global Business Summit, he said a lot of people have started talking of privatisation in the aftermath of the PNB fraud.

"This (privatisation) involves a large political consensus. Also, that involves an amendment to the law (Banking Regulation Act). My impression is that Indian political opinion may not find favour with this idea itself. It's a very challenging decision," he said.

On Friday, FICCI president Rashesh Shah said that he met the finance minister and asked him to begin the process of bank privatisation in a phased manner, leaving just 2-3 lenders in the public sector.

The call for privatisation gathered currency after diamond jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly colluded with some officials of PNB to fraudulently obtain guarantees so as to avail of loans from Indian banks overseas.

Industry body Assocham has also urged the government to reduce its stake in public sector banks to less than 50 per cent so that they can work with the sense of accountability and with the interest of stakeholders and depositors on priority.

Some industrialists too have supported bank privatisation.

Adi Godrej of Godrej Group said the move would be good for the country as there are 'less or no' frauds at private banks. Bajaj Group head Rahul Bajaj too pitched for bank privatisation.

-Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems promoter and one of the main accused in the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank scam, wrote a letter to his employees telling them that he would not be able to pay their dues.

Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems promoter and one of the main accused in the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank scam, wrote a letter to his employees telling them that he would not be able to pay their dues, according to reports.

According to a letter released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot, he also told his employees that he is facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigative and government agencies have started to create havoc.

#BREAKING -- #BigBankScam | I am facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigative agencies/ government agencies have started to create a havoc, hell-bent upon stopping the operations: Mehul Choksi to his employees in a letter released by his lawyer pic.twitter.com/wQ1hJBwe63  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 24, 2018

He also informed his employees that it is very tough for him to clear their dues or to pay future salaries, in view of the seizing of the various bank accounts and other properties," reported The Indian Express. He also asked his employees to look for other career opportunities and retain their office laptops and mobile phones till their dues are cleared, the report added.

Choksi added that the relieving letters and experience certificates for the employees would be issued to them if they desire. "The justice that I deserve is far off as it shall take time to prove my innocence, and the future seems uncertain," Choksi wrote, according to India Today.

"Even the operations in India have come to a standstill and restarting the same make take time. In such a situation, it shall be wrong on my part to force you all to sit ideal (sic) waiting for the work to restart when the future for you is all bright. I will face my destiny and I know that I have done nothing wrong and ultimately, truth shall prevail," he said in the letter.

I will face my destiny and I know I have done nothing wrong and ultimately the truth shall prevail: #MehulChoksi to his employees in a letter released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

He ended with a note that his letter is in the interest of the employees but is likely to be given "some different colour by various vested interests" and he only wants the well being of the employees, according to Zee News.

Choksi, along with Nirav Modi, is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other 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 CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each to probe the case. Both Modi and Choski are said to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them.Above all the political blame games and ego clashes that have emerged since AAP MLAs allegedly assaulted Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash is a flawed framework that makes left civil servants vulnerable to attacks

Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, head of bureaucracy in the capital state, recently alleged that AAP MLAs assaulted him during a late night meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence on 19 February.

In his earlier statement, Kejriwal's adviser and close aide VK Jain had stated: MLAs started asking the chief secretary questions about doorstep delivery of rations, advertisement fund release and slow processing of files During this time, I got up and went to the washroom. When I came out, I saw that the chief secretary was leaving and the chief minister said to me that the meeting was over and I, too, could go home. I then went home.

Jain, who has now resigned from his post, contradicted his stand and said that he actually saw Prakash being assaulted before he left. And on Thursday, AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal were sent to 14-day judicial custody for assaulting the chief secretary.

The matter is sub judice but the existence of speculation and admissions have soured ties between the political executive and the bureaucracy, the two institutions that blend into each others flavours in a political democracy.

Above all the political blame games and ego clashes that have emerged since 19 February, lie something much larger, and has to do with issues in the constitution and the framework that was built for the institution of bureaucracy to function within, says K Mahesh, honorary president of Delhi Administration Officers Academic Forum, a Delhi-based think tank of civil servants cutting across services.

Lets not view this as an AAP problem or eruption of tension between the political executive and the bureaucracy, and anywhere else as a BJP, Congress, BSP, or Samajwadi party problem. Lets depoliticise this and understand that both the bureaucracy and the political executive run in accordance with the Constitution of India. Something larger is at fault, he said.

Mahesh says that the parliamentarians and the legislative assemblies have the power to enact laws and in the case of the recent assault on Prakash, the law makers have turned into law breakers.

He shared that Prakash is known for his honesty and impeccable integrity and is a team leader who was building bridges between the two institutions after two previous chief secretaries KK Sharma and MM Kutty (principal secretary to former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit) too faced issues dealing with the AAP government.

Yes, we have heard of SDMs being beaten up in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and district magistrates being beaten up but never has the head of the bureaucracy in a state had to face such a situation. Minister of Civil Supplies, Imran Hussain, wasnt part of the meeting on the scheduled meeting on 19 February. Using physical force till the bureaucrat cows down and signs the dotted line cannot be justified, he expressed.

This points to general vulnerability of the autonomy and safety of the bureaucracy at large. Last year, Sanjay Bhoosreddy, honorary secretary, Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association, had told Firstpost that thrown light on the fact that nearly a dozen civil servants had lost their lives due lack of law and order in far flung areas since the 80s.

He had also pointed to a sum of Rs 2.5 lakh offered as compensation whenever a death occurs and asked how many people know the story of Dashrath Prasad, a 1994 IAS officer who was killed by insurgents in Manipur during the national games.

Today, his parents are struggling to make ends meet in a village in Banaras, Bhoosreddy had shared.

Mahesh expressed the same concerns in a different way and said there cannot be an ad hoc response to such incidents of violence because it disrupts governance and affects the common man and what is needed is a more institutional way of dealing with the fact that public servants are being assaulted at the national, state and district levels.

He feels that the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 must be amended.

The Provision that was held to be unconstitutional was Section 8(4) of the RPA, 1951 which allowed a convicted person to continue if his appeal against the convinction was pending before a higher court. (In Lily Thomas Case vs Union of India, 2013). Under Section 8(3), the disqualification is for six years if the conviction is for a period of more than two years.

The section states: "a disqualification under either subsection shall not, in the case of a person who on the date of the conviction is a member of Parliament or the Legislature of a State, take effect until three months have elapsed from that date or, if within that period an appeal or application for revision is brought in respect of the conviction or the sentence, until that appeal or application is disposed of by the court. (sic)"

The act should be amended in a way that the disqualification should not be on the basis of conviction but the framing of charges. This will help instil fear within those in the system and will ensure nobody thinks they are above the law, he explained.

Going further, The Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, states in Section 8A that a person convicted for two and more years is barred from contesting elections for six years. Since criminal trials take years so the deterrence is lost in the process.

In Section 8A, the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, speaks of disqualification on ground of corrupt practices. It says:

"Disqualification on ground of corrupt practices  (1) The case of every person found guilty of a corrupt practice by an order under Section 99 shall be submitted, as soon as may be, after such order takes effect, by such authority as the Central Government may specify in this behalf, to the President for determination of the question as to whether such person shall be disqualified and if so, for what period:

Provided that the period for which any person may be disqualified under this sub-section shall in no case exceed six years from the date on which the order made in relation to him under section 99 takes effect.

(2) Any person who stands disqualified under section 8A of this Act as it stood immediately before the commencement of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 1975 (40 of 1975), may, if the period of such disqualification has not expired, submit a petition to the President for the removal of such disqualification for the unexpired portion of the said period.

(3) Before giving his decision on any question mentioned in sub-section (1) or on any petition submitted under subsection

(2), the President shall obtain the opinion of the Election Commission on such question or petition and shall act according to such opinion."

Aside from safeguarding the bureaucracy and re-emphasising a code of conduct, Mahesh admitted that the steel framework (of the services) is now rusted and that is a cause for concern.

Be it demonetisation, GST or Aadhaar, the success of implementation of any national decision rests on the competence and skills of the bureaucracy. To be able to implement policies, a machinery of human resources empowered by technology and specialised training is required.

People assume it is easy to become a civil servant but to sustain a machinery that is wedded to social justice, is above prejudices of caste, class, and gender, and reflects good communication skills and above all, is committed to preserving the rule of law, requires timely reform in training and recruitment, said Mahesh while speaking about the need to increase the focus on specialisation and post-retirement rehabilitation.

Mahesh states that bureaucracy is process-oriented because there is public money involved in the way it carries out its activities. "The bureaucrats are subjected to all kinds of institutional checks by MPs, MLA, the Central Vigilance Commission and through the Right to Information Act. If a senior officer signs on a document under pressure, there can be a CBI inquiry on him or her. One must understand that any decision taken by the civil servant is done so under several institutional checks, he adds.

Mahesh, however, points out that the Supreme Court and high courts are now functioning as courts of governance. Thus, the need to protect the sovereignty of the institution is quite necessary today.At least nine children died and 24 others were injured in Bihar's Muzaffarpur after an out-of-control vehicle rammed into a school building.

At least nine children died and 24 others were injured in Bihar's Muzaffarpur after an out-of-control vehicle rammed into a school building.

#SpotVisuals: Nine students dead, 24 injured after a vehicle rammed into a school building in #Bihar's Muzaffarpur pic.twitter.com/n8E4UNwY8R  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

CNN-News18 further reported that a speeding Mahindra Bolero rammed into the building after the classes at the school were over and the children were on their way home.

India Today further reported that the Bihar government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the family of the deceased children.

According to The Tribune, the injured children were rushed to the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) at Muzaffarpur. "The injured children were taken to SKMCH and all assistance is being provided," the report quoted Muzaffarpur SSP Vivek Kumar as saying.

Further details are awaited.It is unclear, therefore, why Pakistan has been allowed a breathing space till June before it is re-inducted into the hall of shame.

A new act is unfolding in Pakistans theatre of the absurd. The rogue state has been put in a state of suspended animation by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money-laundering and terror financing watchdog. The manner in which Pakistan was reinstated in the list of shame reinforces the belief that the world has reached a point of exasperation over the failed state and is running out of ideas.

The FATFs proceedings at plenary sessions are private. After three days of intense negotiations, official documents carried no mention of Pakistans name in the grey list that included the names of countries such as Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Yemen.

As Pakistan-based Dawn has since pointed out, Pakistan's name was also absent from a public statement issued by the regulator following the meeting. Similarly, Pakistan was not mentioned in a statement mentioning the outcomes of the FATF's plenary meeting.

And yet, international news agencies and newspapers such as Reuters, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times have quoted officials and diplomats involved in the process to report that Pakistan has been placed on the watchlist and an official confirmation will be released during the next meeting in June. In the interim, Pakistans actions on curbing terror financing and money laundering would be closely monitored by the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG).

This apparent discrepancy sends a message that all 37 members of the secretive group were not on the same page while taking action against Pakistan. In fact, reports indicate that decision which finally turned out to be near unanimous was arrived at through hectic lobbying and back-channel negotiations with the US as the aggressor and Pakistan the defender.

While Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia and China voted down a US and UK-led proposal to send Pakistan back into the watchlist where it had been placed for three years (2012-15), a second proposal moved by Washington did the trick. Trump administration found an opening to press the issue because Pakistans foreign minister had jumped the gun and announced on Wednesday, two days before the end of the plenary session, that Pakistan has been given a reprieve by the FATF and ended up breaching the groups confidentiality clauses.

Our efforts paid,FATF Paris 20Feb meeting conclusion on US led motion to put Pakistan on watch list

-No consensus for nominating Pakistan

-proposing 3months pause &asking APG for another report to b considered in June 

Grateful to friends who helped  Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) February 20, 2018

According to WSJ, US officials confronted Riyadhs representatives to remind them of the extensive partnership the two countries share. After Saudi Arabia subsequently dropped support Pakistan, China abandoned the challenge, according to officials representing the task-force membership.

In Times of India, Indrani Bagchi reported on the behind-the-scenes deal where India played a prominent part. The US persuaded (Saudi-led) Gulf Cooperation Council to lift their opposition. Russia was also tilting towards Pakistan but were persuaded by India. As for China, it was a tough call, given its ties with Pakistan. But China is lobbying for a top position in the FATF and will need support from the sponsor countries. India and US pledged support to China in return for China's neutrality on Pakistan.

Pranab Dhal Samanta provides further clarification in The Print: While the US worked on Saudi Arabia and Turkey, India dealt with China alone... Eventually, the Indian delegation, acting on instructions from New Delhi, struck a deal with the Chinese team that related to support for a greater FATF role for Beijing in the future.

Pakistan now must submit an action plan to the ICRG. If approved, it will be placed formally in the grey list and its future actions will determine the length of its stay. Interestingly, Pakistan media has been speculating that if Islamabads compliance report is unsatisfactory, the FATF might put it in a black list.

Miftah Ismail,Pakistans point man at the FATF,just confirmed in ( DKKKS) that Pakistan is already in FATF Grey list of nations suspected of Terror Finance Pakistan must exhibit sustained actions till June to stay in Grey List failing which FATF could blacklist Pakistan in June  Kamran Khan (@AajKamranKhan) February 23, 2018

This has also been reported by Pakistan-based Express Tribune, which writes: FATF would require Pakistan to submit an Action Plan in May in order to be removed from the list in the coming months or years. Once the FATF approves this Action Plan in June, there will be a formal announcement from FATF about placing Pakistan on the Grey List. If Pakistan fails to submit a plan, the FATF has the option of placing the country on its Black List, which carries adverse implications.

No one in their right mind seriously believes that the FATF action will force Pakistan to change its behaviour. The rogue nation took some recent steps to appear as a responsible stakeholder by seizing some Hafiz Saeed properties, established a financial monitoring unit and introduced new rules to curb money laundering but most of these moves were tokenisms aimed at escaping the FATF censure and at best superficial.

Saeed, the UN-designated terror mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks recently walked out of house arrest and has again started raising funds for his so-called charitable institution which is a front for his terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. Last year, Saeed, who carries a $10 million US government bounty on his head, floated a party called Mili Muslim League, betraying an attempt to mainstream his operations.

Though the Trump administration has signalled a change in its Pakistan policy by employing more sticks than carrots, Islamabad has found it convenient to stave off US pressure by playing out its growing dependence on China and many variations of the too dangerous to fail argument. The US withheld security aid worth $1.3 billion but it had little effect.

It has also given scant regard to the FATF directive in 2015 (when Islamabad was taken off the watchlist) that the country still needs to show intent and ability to fully implementing UNSC Resolution 1267 on UN-designated terrorists.

It is unclear, therefore, why Pakistan has been allowed a breathing space till June before it is re-inducted into the hall of shame.

After all, though the grey list does not invite legal or penal procedures, it may still cripple Pakistans banking sector, force foreign banks to reconsider operations on its soil and intensify the nations global isolation. Watchlisted nations (especially economically weak ones) find it difficult to raise funds, pay debts and access global markets. Pakistans stock market had undergone a significant correction as soon as news emerged on its inclusion in terror watchlist.

Pakistan has been blustering away as usual. Miftah Ismail, prime minister Shahid Abbasis financial adviser, told Geo News that grey list isnt such a big issue after all and nothing really will happen to Pakistan. He claimed that Pakistans macroeconomic fundamentals are strong and the stock market had risen by three percent even during 2015.

It is imperative that Pakistans ruling dispensation keeps up the facade because elections are due in about six months and it wont be a great publicity for the ruling party for people to realise that grey list will involve increased scrutiny from watchdogs, regulators and financial institutions that may turn adverse the climate for trade and investment. Overall there could be a deleterious effect on Pakistans already precarious current account deficit. Credit rating agencies may issue further downgrades.

As Reuters points out in a report, A decline in foreign transactions and a drop in foreign currency inflows could further widen Pakistans large current account deficit, the Achilles heel of an economy that required an IMF bailout in 2013 following a balance of payments crisis. The report also flags a situation where foreign banks such as Standard Chartered or Citibank may have to pull out.

One reason why Pakistans name has been kept off the grey list till June could be to offer the beleaguered nation a transitional zone of sorts and monitor its behaviour. Trouble is, FATF grey list is itself a transitional zone where rogue nations are expected to either comply with rules or end up in the more adverse black list.

To deviate from its own rules and create a light grey list, as it were, by threatening to but not yet putting Pakistan in grey is an indication that FATF wants Pakistan to comply with the rules and regulations more than Islamabad is willing to, or has the ability to do so. If Pakistan fails again, the rules may be further tweaked to create a dark grey zone before it is pushed into black.

Either way, regardless of the step that FATF has taken or has promised to take, there is very little chance that Pakistan will change its policy on terror. Ideological, existential or realpolitik impulses that drive it are far more powerful than the pressure the world can collectively put on it.Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing on Friday and held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed a range of issues amidst continuing tensions in bilateral ties

Beijing: Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing on Friday and held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed a range of issues amidst continuing tensions in bilateral ties.

The visit of Gokhale, who was also the former Indian envoy to China, was announced on Saturday by the Indian Embassy through a tweet.

Foreign Secretary Mr. Vijay Gokhale is visiting China to discuss the bilateral agenda, exchange plans and visits for 2018. He met with FM Wang Yi on 23 February. pic.twitter.com/2RWebY3NJO  India in China (@EOIBeijing) February 23, 2018

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement late Friday night on Gokhale's talks with Wang. Wang said that the two sides should enhance strategic mutual trust and accelerate common development in line with the political consensus of the leaders of the two countries, according to the statement.

"We hope that the Indian side will handle sensitive issues prudently and work with China to promote the sound development of China-India relations," Wang said, apparently referring to a host of sensitive issues between India and China, including the current political crisis in the Maldives.

China and India are both representatives of emerging markets and big developing countries, Wang said, adding that commonality cannot be replaced.

According to the press release, Gokhale said he was pleased to visit China at the very beginning of his term. Gokhale succeeded S Jaishankar as foreign secretary last month.

He said India attached great importance to its relations with China and was willing to work with it to implement the consensus of leaders, strengthen strategic communications, take care of each other's core concerns and create a good atmosphere for the sustained and steady development of bilateral relations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit China in June this year to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held at Qingdao city.

The visit of Gokhale, who reportedly held the key negotiations to resolve the 73-day standoff at Doka la, came in the backdrop of difficult bilateral and trilateral issues being dealt with by the two countries. The Doka la standoff ended on 28 August after the Chinese military stopped road building close to the strategic Chicken Neck corridor in an area claimed by Bhutan.

Besides the tensions along the 3,488 kilometres long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the two countries faced a range of issues, including India's objection to the $ 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China blocking efforts at the UN to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist as well as India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The current political crisis in the Maldives also emerged as an irritant in bilateral ties. The Maldives was plunged into a crisis when President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day emergency on 5 February and ordered the arrest of the Chief Justice and a former head of state after the Supreme Court termed "unconstitutional" the imprisonment of nine MPs and former President Mohammed Nasheed.

China which has made large scale investments in the Maldives, called for the crisis to be resolved by relevant parties internally and opposed any external intervention. Beijing also opposed to even UN mediation to resolve the crisis.

Former president Nasheed, who is currently in exile in Sri Lanka, however had called for the Indian intervention to resolve the crisis.A slew of big projects, with total investment of more than 10 trillion yuan ($1.58 trillion), are about to kick off in a number of Chinese provinces and regions in the new year.

A high-speed train heads to Ulanqab from Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in August, marking the openning of the region's first high-speed railway. [Photo by Tang Zhe/For China Daily]

As local governments aim for growth quality and sustainability, most of these projects will be in strategic and emerging industries, such as high-end equipment manufacturing and information technology, as well as infrastructure construction related to transportation and energy.

For example, East China's Shandong province is ready to launch 900 projects with total investment of 4 trillion yuan this year, according to the province's development and reform commission. Most of the projects cover emerging industriessuch as renewable energy, new materials and high-end equipment manufacturingand infrastructure construction including the building of high-speed railways and airports.

Emerging industries are expected to account for 30 percent of the province's GDP growth by 2022 as the province vies to find new economic growth drivers, according to a development plan released on Thursday.

"Upgrading industrial structure is a hard fight that we must win," said Liu Jiayi, Shandong's Party secretary, at a meeting on Thursday. "We will speed up fostering emerging industries and upgrading traditional sectors, while axing outdated capacity, to improve our economic growth quality and competitiveness."

Six other provinces, including Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guizhou, will also see project investment exceeding 1 trillion yuan each this year.

The projects will focus more on poverty relief and environmental protection.

Analysts said local governments are shifting their development strategies in accordance with the call by the country's top leadership for high-quality development.

Thirteen provinces and autonomous regions have cut GDP growth targets for 2018, with most local governments attaching more importance to innovation and environmental protection, according to government reports delivered at sessions of local people's congresses.

These projects will lay a solid foundation for future development, said Wu Xiaohua, deputy head of the Academy of Macro-economic Research of the National Development and Reform Commission.

"High-quality development will effectively deal with a series of problems brought on by high GDP growth, such as pollution," Wu said.

The projects will also offer strong support for traditional industries, such as construction machinery, coal and steel, analysts said.Pakistani troops on Saturday fired mortar shells targeting villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district

Jammu: Pakistani troops on Saturday fired mortar shells targeting villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, police said.

"Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and small arms from across the border in the Lam area of the Nowshera sector around 6.15 pm", a police official said.

He said Indian troops retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for 15 minutes.

There was no casualty reported in the Pakistani firing, the official said.A Jammu-bound GoAir flight, with 112 passengers and crew members on board, returned to the Leh airport on Saturday in the Ladakh region after take off due to some 'technical glitch

Jammu: A Jammu-bound GoAir flight, with 112 passengers and crew members on board, returned to the Leh airport on Saturday in the Ladakh region after take off due to some "technical glitch", officials said.

The Delhi-Leh-Jammu flight left the Leh airport for Jammu at 9.20 am, but returned within 10 minutes, they said. "G8 205 (Leh-Jammu flight), with 112 passengers, had a technical glitch right after becoming airborne. The flight crew chose to return to Leh," a Mumbai-based spokesperson at GoAir told PTI over phone.

He said the aircraft was on ground and was being inspected.

"All the passengers have been cared for and served refreshments. We are ensuring the next available flight options as well as hotel accommodation for passengers," the spokesperson said.

At GoAir, he said the safety and security of the passengers and crew is always accorded high priority and never compromised under any circumstance.

Earlier, an official of the airline in Jammu and Kashmir said, on condition of anonymity, the flight developed some "technical snag" after going air-borne, forcing the pilot to return to the airport. All the passengers and crew members, comprising two pilots and four other staff, are safe, he said.

The official said the flight has been grounded and a team of engineers are reaching Leh form Delhi for inspection and necessary repairs. If given a clearance, the flight might leave for its destination only on Sunday, he said, adding that the airline was working to accommodate the passengers in other flights to ensure their departure today itself.A life-size statue of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa was unveiled and the ruling AIADMK's official Tamil daily launched today at the party headquarters here on her 70th birth anniversary

Chennai: A life-size statue of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa was unveiled and the ruling AIADMK's official Tamil daily launched today at the party headquarters here on her 70th birth anniversary, which was celebrated by party cadre across Tamil Nadu.

Chief Minister K Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam, who are also AIADMK coordinators, unveiled the bronze statue of the late leader at the party headquarters in Chennai.

They also launched the party's official Tamil daily 'Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma,' (Our Revolutionary Leader Amma) on the occasion.

'Dr Namadhu MGR,' which was founded by Jayalalithaa and previously was the official Tamil daily of the AIADMK, is now aligned towards sidelined leader TT V Dhinakaran and VK Sasikala, who is in jail.

A festive mood was palpable at the party headquarters on the occasion of Jayalalithaa's birth anniversary, the first such event after Palaniswamy and Panneerselvam came together, easing out Sasikala and her kin Dhinakaran from the party last year.

The statue of Jayalalithaa, with a rose garland and the party's two-leaves symbol in her right hand, was unveiled near the one of AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran, which was also decorated.

As the statue was unveiled, firecrackers were burst and sweets distributed among party cadre who raised slogans hailing Jayalalithaa. Several events, including community feasts and distribution of aid to the needy, were held by party functionaries and cadre across the state.

Similar events were also held by rival leader Dhinakaran.

At Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli district, gold rings were presented to babies born on Saturday at a government hospital.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is just too fey and coy and cute and unreal.

We should have fallen head over heels in love with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He was so much like us on this visit. We customarily love this sort of schmaltz and are so good at going the whole nine yards what with our predilection for classical music and dancing girls and flinging rose water and planting tikkas at visitors from foreign shores.

Justin thought this was the done thing and went for it. He was more Indian than the Indians, just a step short from owning an attache case with a leather covering placed dustily on top of the cupboard and a set of three wooden ducks on the wall for decor with a coir mat carrying the legend swagathamat the door.

Except there was no welcome. We almost imagined him doing aarti when he finally met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With marigold flowers and incense sticks. It would have gone down well with his swiftly changing fancy dress attire but somewhere in all this, it left us all cold because he was so desperately falling over himself to be Indian that he not only put everyone off but it looked suspiciously like he was patronising us. The line between a polite and involved visitor imbibing cultural nuances and the white man easing his burden with a lets dress up folks and identify with the natives is very thin. The genius lies in knowing when to stop. Justin went Hollywood, beat the drums, yummed over Indian food and would probably have embarrassed the Canadians with so much nativity done ostensibly to please the Sikh vote bank in Canada what with his Indianness being beamed back home.

It was just too too much of healthy breakfast food wholesomeness which might have made Norman Rockwell delighted but left Indians mystified. What was he doing going desi on us?

There are three reasons for the general indifference from the government and people. Justin is just too fey and coy and cute and unreal. At the outset, it became a bit ludicrous what with the family joining in and all over Indian people wondering who is this guy, whats his problem. The result: mildly offensive and certainly not edifying for a world leader. It was so reminiscent of those frontiersmen smoking the peace pipe with native Red Indians and eating their food with fake relish before selling them glass beads.

In Justins case, the second strike was a weak gift bag of political goodies. There was nothing powerful in the agenda and the Indian governments transparent indifference detracted from two major democracies and their traditional closeness what with Canada home to nearly two million people of Indian origin and over 25,000 fetching up to chase a faux American dream every year. Fact is Modi didnt even fetch up at the airport to greet the Trudeau family. The small but significantly wealthy section of the 4,70,000 Sikh population in Canada profess to support the formation of Khalistan and the Trudeau administration allows the group to have its say. Add to that the snafu of giving a visa to Jaspal Atwal one of four Canadian Indians who in 1991 shot and killed Malkiat Singh Sidhu, a then-member of Punjab's cabinet. Trudeau created a furore when he attended a function in Toronto last year where a pro-Khalistan ambience was rife. Then Sophi Trudeau added to the awkward impasse by being photographed next to Atwal ostensibly unaware of who he was. How this terrorist got an Indian visa calls for a separate inquiry.

After which we observe the third dimension. The artificial de-icing with prime minister swinging into a heavy-duty hug mode only underscored the deliberate cold shoulder. Too little too late. With a very light schedule in mutual treaties and MOUs the seven-day trip has had the consistency of walking in treacle: sticky sweet and cloying and missing substance.As soon as the news spread, people from various tribal hamlets came out of their homes and blocked the ambulance carrying his body to Thrissur Medical College Hospital for post-mortem demanding immediate arrest of the persons responsible for Madhu's death.

Premature and unnatural deaths are common in tribal hamlets in the southern Indian state of Kerala but most of them go unnoticed and unreported.

But the death of a 30-year-old mentally ill tribal youth at Attappady in Palakkad district on 22 February has shaken the state. This is because of an unprecedented protest staged by the tribespeople against the brutal mob lynching of their fellow human being.

The tribals, who seldom raise their voice against atrocities committed against them, woke up from their slumber and paralysed normal life at Agali, the headquarters of Attappady block after the body of Madhu Chindaki was brought to the police station.

He was beaten to death by a group of people at Kadukumanna hamlet in Attappady after he was accused of stealing valuables from a house in the area. The youth, who has been living in a forest ever since he lost his mental balance ten years ago, used to come out to residential areas only to collect food to sustain his life, according to his mother, Malli.

Madhu had come out on Thursday in search of food. He had returned to the forest after collecting rice and some provisions from a grocery shop at Kadukummana. But the group followed him and questioned him about the theft at the house of a non-tribal. They later tied his hands with his lungi and attacked him with sticks.

The assailants then posted the video and pictures of the heinous attack in the social media and handed over the severely wounded youth to the Agali police. He collapsed and died in the police jeep while being taken to a hospital.

As soon as the news spread, people from various tribal hamlets came out of their homes and blocked the ambulance carrying his body to Thrissur Medical College Hospital for post-mortem demanding immediate arrest of the persons responsible for Madhu's death.

The protestors let the vehicle go only after two of the accused were taken into custody by the police. But the parents of the murdered youth along with his two sisters started an indefinite sit-in protest in front of Agali police station demanding the arrest of all the persons involved in the case.

The protest reverberated across the state with various groups taking to the streets against the mob lynching. Activists of Adivasi, Dalit and human rights groups took out marches in cities and towns across the state. The death also set the social media on fire with many questioning the brutal manner in which a mentally unstable man was killed.

Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha leader Geethanandan has viewed the protests launched by the Adivasis at Agali as a positive development. He said that the members of the community have been facing attacks ever since settlers from other parts of the state started grabbing their land and livelihood in a big way a couple of decades ago but none protested.

"The Adivasis kept mum even when a spate of attacks was unleashed against them by settlers a decade ago. They silently suffered the atrocities committed against them as the settlers were powerful and they enjoyed the support of the powers-that-be. The present protest indicates a new awakening among them," Geethanandan told Firstpost.

He viewed this as a positive development and hoped that the Adivasis will continue their fight against the exploitation and injustice being meted out to them. However, prominent tribal leader CK Janu isnt that optimistic.

She said there were not many Adivasis left in Attappady to fight. Adivasis constituted 90 percent of Attappadys population in 1951. It declined to 34 percent by 2011. The fall in the population followed the influx of settlers from across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. She fears that the Adivasis will become extinct in Attappady if the current trend of decline in population continues.

Usha Punathil, who worked with the Attappady Hill Development Society, said the major problem faced by the Adivasis at Attappady was poverty and health problems caused by lack of healthy food. She believes this is the result of displacement of the Adivasis from their original land and the forests that sustained them.

"After stealing the land and the forest-based livelihood they owned by affluent settlers, an Adivasi is brutally killed on the charge of stealing food. The settlers, who have stolen the livelihood of poor tribals are flourishing in Attappadi," Usha said.

Madhu's death caught the attention after video footage of the attack went viral on social media. But many others are dying unnoticed due to poverty and ill-health. The biggest problem at Attappady is the death of infants due to malnutrition and poor health of mothers.

The two factors have claimed lives of about 130 infants at Attappady with a total tribal population of 30,658 spread across 192 hamlets since 2013. The high infant mortality due to malnutrition at Attappady had prompted the prime minister to compare Kerala with Somalia in an election rally at Thiruvananthapuram in May 2016.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), which viewed this as an insult to Kerala, had promised soon after they after they came to power in May 2016 that no more infant will die at Attapadi due to malnutrition.

But the 18 months of LDF rule saw 22 infant deaths. This is despite pumping Rs 400 crores jointly by the Central governments for tribal welfare in Attappady. A report in The Hindu said despite the targeted interventions, which includes the supply of nutritious meal through community kitchens, 672 tribal children in the region were found suffering from malnutrition. Of this, 370 children had been found acutely malnourished, needing urgent attention.

Rajendra Prasad, president of Thampu, a non-governmental organisation that works with Adivasis in Attappady, said lack of money was not the problem at Attappady. He said that the money being spent on the welfare of the Adivasis were not reaching the actual beneficiaries.

"The top-down developmental approach followed by the state government has failed to ameliorate the condition of the tribespeople. The development agenda being imposed by the government is not suitable to the living conditions of the Adivasis. The projects should come from the local tribal hamlet development committees," he said.

Attappady Protection Committee K Sukumaran said the problems faced by the Adivasis in the region cannot be solved without restoring the land they owned. Settlers have forcibly taken more than 10,000 acres of land belonging to the Adivasis in the region. When they lost their land, they lost their livelihood.

He said that crores of rupees pumped into Attappady will not ameliorate the condition of the Adivasis unless they get their livelihood back. He doubts whether either the LDF or UDF will antagonise the settlers, who represent a solid vote bank.Brisk polling was witnessed in bypolls for Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday with poll percentage of 69 percent and 58.90 percent

Bhopal: Brisk polling was witnessed in bypolls for Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday with poll percentage of 69 percent and 58.90 percent, respectively, recorded by 3 pm. in the contests seen as a battle royale between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

The by and large peaceful polls were marred by sporadic clashes  especially one in Digoda village in Shivpuri's Kolaras  between the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party workers, a poll official said.

Police station in-charge in Mungaoli, Kushal Singh Bhadoria, was removed from his post, the official said, adding that Risheshwar Singh has replaced Bhadoria.

Chief Election Officer Saleena Singh has appealed to voters to remain calm and exercise their right to vote without fear. There is a public holiday in both places in view of the poll process.

A total of 22 candidates from Mungaoli in Ashoknagar and 13 from Kolaras are in the fray.

As many as 2,44,457 electors from Kolaras and 1,91,009 from Mungaoli were eligible to vote between 8 am and 5 pm.

Some 3,000 poll officials are conducting the process at 575 polling stations, the EC official said.

The assembly seats fell vacant following the death of sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

These bypolls are being seen as a prestige battle for Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is in his third term as Chief Minister, and his arch-rival Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress.

The two assembly segments are part of Scindia's Guna Lok Sabha constituency.

The votes will be counted on 28 February and the results will be declared the same day, the EC said.

Electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines are being used at all polling booths. Some 15 and 17 machines were replaced in Kolaras and Mungaoli, respectively.Meghalaya's hope of seeing through a peaceful Assembly election was reinforced when the state police announced that Sohan D Shira was killed.

Shillong: Meghalaya's hope of seeing through a peaceful Assembly election was reinforced when the state police on Saturday morning announced that Sohan D Shira, active chief of the dreaded militant group Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), was killed in an encounter between 11 am and 12 pm with Special Force-10 commandos in Adangpak village, near Dobu, in Songsak, an hour away from Williamnagar constituency of East Garo hills district.

Deputy inspector general of police (IG) (western range), Tura, Onimus Pasi, confirmed the information. Pasi said after 3 pm on Saturday that the forces were still combing the area and Shira was the only casualty in the encounter, according to latest reports.

Reacting to the news about Shiras killing, Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma said, The committed endeavour of the government to strengthen our internal security apparatus with a zero tolerance policy for militants has started showing positive results, especially with this latest incident.

My deep sense of appreciation to the women and men of the organisation that have led an untiring effort and commitment to eliminate enemies of the state like Sohan D Shira, the chief minister said.

Congratulating the Meghalaya police for their success in eliminating the GNLA chief, BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli said, The fact that they could do it shows that when there is no political interference, they (police) can do an excellent job.

It was last Sunday on 18 February when once again, violence was used to make a point ahead of Meghalaya elections, as NCP candidate Jonathone Nengminza Sangma and four others were killed in an IED (improvised explosive device) blast, while campaigning in Williamnagar constituency. Behemsing Marak, 57, who was on life support since being injured in the attack on Sangma, succumbed to his injuries on 22 February in Guwahati.

There was little doubt about who could have planted the IEDs since GNLA had allegedly put posters across Williamnagar a few days ago, threatening people with dire consequences if they voted for Sangma.

It has been reported that Jonathones wife Krenilla R Marak will contest from WIlliamnagar on an NCP ticket.

The GNLA was thought to be a spent force with many of its cadres either deserting the outfit or getting arrested, but the brazen attack on Jonathones campaign group came as a chilling reminder that the militants possess enough firepower.

According to police, GNLA cadres  who numbered around 200-250 when the group was founded in 2009  have gone down to 20 at present, operating mostly from dense jungles of East Garo Hills district. The outfit, police sources said, had planted over 30 IEDs in and around East Garo Hills to sabotage the ensuing Assembly elections, which they consider an apt occasion to press their demands.

GNLA was led by Shira after the arrest of Champion Sangma, a former deputy SP with Meghalaya Police who, along with Shira, had founded the outfit in 2009, but is now in Shillong jail. The militants were purportedly peeved since the Centre had asked the state not to hold any talks with them until they stop carrying out violence and illegal acts of abduction and extortion in Garo Hills region.

Looming threat

Threat perceptions, reportedly intercepted by intelligence agencies, in the aftermath of Jonathones killing, have seen Willamnagar MLA and Cabinet minister Deborah C Maraks family being shifted out of Garo Hills under armed protection.

SP, East Garo Hills district, Ringrang TG Momin, said the police had got a lead that GNLA was involved in the IED blast that killed Jonathone. He said the villagers are being interrogated since they suspect presence of overground GNLA workers among the villagers.

Momin attributed GNLAs capabilities with IEDs and sophisticated weapons to their collaboration with Assam-based outfit ULFA(I).

Pasi said the GNLA is no more a powerful organisation and their operation is confined only within some areas of East and South Garo Hills districts. GNLA has become weak because of the intensified operation of the security forces, the Dy IG said. We have strengthened our force to ensure a peaceful election.

Political murder?

The NCP has claimed the killing of its candidate as a political murder with its Meghalaya unit working president, Vijay Raj, saying, Someone has to gain from it politically.

Questioning the timing of the murder, Raj said that in 2013, when Jonathone contested as an independent candidate, an FIR was filed after he had received similar threats. Since then, however, he faced no threats, but was targeted soon after the polls were announced, Raj pointed out to drive his point about the attack being a politically motivated one.

Alleging that the NCP candidates are being targeted under the influence of some political parties, Raj said the house of another NCP candidate from Rongjeng constituency, Desang Sangma, was burnt down a couple of weeks ago.

Chief Minister Sangma said his government has never compromised on tackling insurgency and restoring peace in the state.

While condemning the killing of Jonathone and four others, Dr Sangma had earlier said, 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 has time and again reiterated that his government will invite the GNLA for talks only if they give up arms and violence.

The BJP, who during a meeting with an Election Commission team last week, raised the issue of revival of militancy in Garo Hills, believe this is a ruse by the chief minister to rig elections in his constituency.

Kohli said the number of Central security forces should be increased to ensure that vulnerable segments of the population, especially in the Garo Hills but not excluding Khasi and Jaintia Hills, are protected. Condemning Jonathones killing, Kohli said, These incidents shouldn't take place in a state like Meghalaya.

Examine demands

The Church, which was instrumental in bringing many of the youths who had gone astray back to the mainstream, has asked authorities to examine the outfits demands.

The Unified Peace Movement for Garo Hills (UPMGH), an umbrella organisation of Church and NGOs leaders from Garo Hills, said the only solution is to bring them to the negotiating table. This will be a big step forward in bringing back normalcy in Garo Hills, the UPMGH said.

The GNLA has a history of violent incidents, kidnapping and extortions.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since its formation GNLA has been involved in at least 184 fatalities (74 civilians, 28 security forces personnel, and 82 GNLA cadres; data till September 10, 2017).

(Kyrmenlang Uriah is a Meghalaya-based journalist and and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)Security forces on Saturday shot dead Meghalaya's most-wanted militant and self-styled chief of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) Sohan D Shira in an encounter.

Security forces on Saturday shot dead Meghalaya's most-wanted militant and self-styled chief of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) Sohan D Shira in an encounter in East Garo Hills district, the police said.

According to NDTV, Sohan was active in the Garo hills of Meghalaya, which goes to polls on 27 February.

The encounter of Sohan, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, came after NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED attack, suspected to be carried out by the GNLA in the same district on 18 February.

Following Sangma's death, counter-insurgency operations had been stepped up in poll-bound South and East Garo Hills districts.

Acting on inputs regarding probable movement of some armed GNLA cadre in Dobu area, counter-insurgency forces were pressed into service, a senior police officer involved in the operations told PTI.

He said the encounter took place around 11 am in Achakpek village near Dobu, in which Sohan was killed.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar said inquest on the body of the slain militant was on and necessary formalities would follow.

Earlier this week, Meghalaya Director General of Police SB Singh had said, "There are credible leads that are being obtained about the involvement of the group (GNLA) in Sunday night's carnage (Sangma's killing)."

NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma and three others were killed in an IED blast triggered by militants in the Samanda area of East Garo Hills district around 8 pm on 18 February.

GNLA was set up in 2010 by a senior police officer Pakchara R Sangma, who deserted the state police to launch the outfit, originally to fight for carving out a 'sovereign Garoland' in western areas of Meghalaya, the NDTV report added. Slowly, as India Today said in a report, it turned into a terror outfit with many instances of killings, abduction, extortion, bomb blasts and attacks on security forces.

With inputs from PTIPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the subsidised scooter scheme for working women on the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late leader J Jayalalithaa.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the subsidised scooter scheme for working women on the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late leader J Jayalalithaa. It was launched in the presence of Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam, among others.

The scheme, with a subsidy component of 50 percent up to Rs 25,000 for working women, was launched by Modi, who handed over the keys and registration certificate copies to five women beneficiaries.

He also launched 70-lakh tree sapling planting drive to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa.

The beneficiaries included women who worked in the private sector, an accountant, a salesperson and an assistant in a private store.

Modi said that the new initiative will go a long way in women empowerment and protection of nature. "When we empower the women in the family, we empower the entire household. When we help with a woman's education, we ensure that the family is educated. When we facilitate her good health, we help keep the family healthy. When we secure her future, we secure future of the entire home," he said.

Elaborating on the NDA government's efforts to empower women, the prime minister said they made a change to the Factory's Act and suggested the states allow women to work night shifts as well. "Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the registry of the house is done in the name of the woman," Modi said. Talking about the Jan Dhan Yojana, he said that out of 31 crore Jan Dhan accounts, women hold about 16 crore accounts.

We made a change in the Factory's Act & suggested States to allow women to work in night shifts as well. We also extended maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks. Under the PM Awaas Yojana, the registry of the House is done in the name of the woman: PM Modi in Chennai #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/JDaRjFr1Bo  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

The prime minister also took a dig at the Congress. "When there was a Congress-led government at the Centre, Tamil Nadu received Rs 81,000 crore under the 13th finance commission. After the NDA came to power, the state received Rs 1,80,000 crore under the 14th finance commission," he said.

Modi also said that 9.5 lakh women in Tamil Nadu have benefitted from the Ujjwala Yojana. "Union government has so far given 3.5 crore free gas connections under this scheme. The schemes of Union government are protecting nature even as we empower women," the prime minister said.

Meanwhile, Palaniswamy in his address urged Modi to take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee, as directed by the Supreme Court.

The chief minister also recalled a slew of welfare initiatives and freebie schemes launched by Jayalalithaa.

These included 'thalikku thangam,'(gold for mangalsutra) for women beneficiaries, free milch cow and goats, free of cost computers for students and new colleges for the uplift of rural students.

Hailing Modi, Panneerselvam said the prime minister was "courageously leading India."

Stating that Amma had implemented several schemes for the safety and well being of women, right from their birth to old age, Panneerselvam said the scooter scheme too envisioned by the late leader, was for people's welfare and development.

He said this scheme too would be the forerunner for other state governments, like other previous initiatives.

So far 3,36,103 women have applied under the scheme and scrutiny of such applications were under process, according to the ruling AIADMK.

Palaniswamy had announced in December last that scooters would be distributed to one lakh women at a subsidised rate on the occasion of Jayalalithaa's 70th birth anniversary.

Earlier the prime minister was welcomed by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Palaniswamy and top State officials at Chennai airport.

From there, he flew to INS Adyar Naval base near Marina beach, from where he reached the function venue by road.

Cadres of BJP, ruling AIADMK holding their party flags and the general public lined up both sides of the road welcoming Modi to the venue, 'Kalaivanar Arangam.'

The prime minister, who planted a sapling to mark the event, is scheduled to stay at Raj Bhavan here later tonight and leave for neighbouring Puducherry on Sunday.

The subsidised scooter scheme for working women is an electoral promise of late Jayalalithaa.

During the 2016 Assembly election, she had promised 50 percent subsidy for women to purchase two-wheelers.

Last month, the state government increased the subsidy component under the scheme from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.

With inputs from PTIIn his maiden visit to Puducherry after assuming office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the golden jubilee celebrations of Auroville International township

Puducherry: On his maiden visit to Puducherry after assuming office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the golden jubilee celebrations of Auroville International township at neighbouring Villupuram district on Sunday.

Arriving by a special flight at 10.40 am, Modi would first visit the Aurobindo Ashram and pay homage to its founder spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo.

Modi will also visit the room where Aurobindo carried out his spiritual experiments, sources in the Ashram said.

Later, the Prime Minister would interact with children of Sri Aurobindo International School of Education and then proceed to Auroville by road to participate in the golden jubilee celebrations of the former French colony.

After spending nearly two hours in Auroville, he will return to Puducherry to address a public meeting organised by BJP's local unit.

The international or universal project envisioned by the Mother of Aurobindo Ashram (Mirra Alfassa) is dedicated to the ideal of human unity.

Modi was earlier scheduled to visit Puducherry on 24 February.

Festoons, banners and lotus flags have been erected along the route which the prime minister would take.

Security has been beefed up at all places in view of Modi's visit.Check out this special way of welcoming the Spring Festival,"Da Tie Hua", which literally means to spray melted iron into the air. The old tradition dates back some 2,000 years in Shanxi province as a way to celebrate Spring Festival and scare away demons.

With iron melting in pots reaching temperatures of up to 1,600 degrees Celsius, professional workers spray the scorching liquid into the air producing a shower of spectacular sparks that seem like fireworks.

It looks like fireworks, but it's not! "Da Tie Hua" literally means spraying molten iron into the air.While debating over the privatisation of public sector banks, we must remember that India was cushioned from the 2007-08 global financial crisis because public sector banks commanded about 70.5 percent market share in the country

The last few days have been a whirlwind of allegations, speculations and controversies surrounding the Punjab National Bank fraud case. Much has been said, and like most things that capture nation-wide attention and scrutiny, it has been embroiled in a political blame game.

While I do believe that the government of the day must take responsibility and be held accountable for failing to recognise the red flags that may have prevented this situation from materialising, I also think that we must detach from politics and focus our energies on finding a solution to avert another banking fiasco.

A 2017 Quartz India report highlights the enormous wage disparity between those heading public sector banks vis-a-vis private banks in India. The report states that the chairperson of the countrys largest public sector bank, Arundhati Bhattacharya, drew a salary of 28.96 lakh in 2016-17, juxtaposed with ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhars 6.09 crore, and HDFC managing director Aditya Puris 10.05 crore in the same period.

These figures are completely at odds with the balance sheets of banks: those of public sector banks are much larger than private banks' balance sheets. This essentially means that public sector banks disburse loans in several multiples of what private sector banks do, particularly large high-risk loans approved and overseen by the senior management. Heres where the massive disparity in pay scales can be severely problematic  it can adversely impact the kind of talent thats attracted at the top, and can prove to be a breeding ground for corruption.

In an article in the Indian Express, Udayan Mukherjee argues that the army of low-paid managers is precisely why inefficiency and corruption reign unbridled in the public sector banking system. He, like many others, calls for de-nationalisation of public sector banks.

Many bankers and economists have proposed the privatisation of PSBs as the solution in the light of the banking crisis unfolding in the country. Im a huge proponent of minimum government, maximum governance, and I truly believe that the government must act as a regulator, not as a business operator.

However, the banking sector is fundamentally different, and cannot be equated to the privatisation of telecom or aviation assets, for instance. Essentially, its a toss-up between public sector inefficiency and corruption, and an entirely greed-driven private sector, both very dangerous attributes.

The difference is that the stakes are much higher in the banking sector. For instance, in aviation, if a private airline fails to be competitive, or is embroiled in a public scandal, the repercussions are borne exclusively by the shareholders and employees of the airline. If a private sector bank collapses, like many did during the 2007-08 global financial crisis, depositors are affected far worse than shareholders and employees.

The nature of the customer in the banking industry is unlike any other, because customers entrust their savings with their banks, and are, therefore, the most vulnerable in the banking ecosystem and the worst hit if disaster strikes.

We would also do well to remember that one of the primary reasons that India was cushioned from the 2007-08 global financial crisis was because, at that time, public sector banks commanded about 70.5 percent market share in the country. During a crisis fuelled by relentless greed, our public sector inefficiency proved to be a better alternative and saved the country from sinking.

The question to ask here is, when bankers advocate privatisation as the solution to our banking industry woes, have they forgotten their own excesses of merely a decade ago that jeopardised the very foundations of the system?

In the present context, it seems that as a society we must pick the lesser of the two evils, and decide whether our money is safer in the hands of a relatively underpaid and inefficient sarkari karamchari, or, if were better off placing our trust in an overpaid, greedy and most likely immoral banker.A last minute cancellation of a day-long visit of Rae Bareli MP and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to her parliamentary constituency on Saturday has triggered speculation about her health.

Lucknow: A last minute cancellation of a day-long visit of Rae Bareli MP and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to her parliamentary constituency on Saturday has triggered speculation about her health.

Gandhi was scheduled to visit her parliamentary constituency after a gap of almost two years and her visit was cancelled without any explanation late on Friday.

Poor health has prevented the senior Congress leader from visiting the family stronghold during the past almost two years.

District Congress President VK Shukla said all preparations for Gandhi's day-long visit had been completed but they were informed late on Friday over the phone from her Delhi office that she will not be able to make it.

No explanation was given for the cancellation nor any future date was suggested, the leader told IANS.

The Special Protection Group (SPG) that protects Gandhi had been camping in Rae Bareli for the last two days.

During her six-hour stay, Gandhi was scheduled to take part in a developmental meeting with district officials.

After that, she was to take rest at the Bhuremau Guest House and then inaugurate some developmental projects from there only.

She was also scheduled to meet district office bearers and some local residents at the guest house.While TDP is painting the Narendra Modi government in negative light for not providing for Andhra Pradesh in the Union Budget 2018, BJP wants to show that TDP has done precious little for Rayalaseema in successive state budgets

Last week, the Prime Minister's Office reached out to officials in the Andhra Pradesh government asking if there was any project that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could inaugurate ahead of the Parliament Session on 5 March. According to officials in Amaravati, the PMO was told that no project was complete.

The apprehension was that the prime minister would use the opportunity to say that his government has been more than helpful with funds to the Andhra Pradesh government. He could indicate that the allegations of lack of support to the bifurcated state that were being leveled by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), amounted to playing politics.

One cannot be sure if that indeed was the plan but BJP's Rayalaseema Declaration in Kurnool on Friday, certainly seems like Plan B. The content makes it clear that BJP has decided to take the fight to the TDP camp instead of allowing Chandrababu Naidu to paint the saffron party as the villain in the Andhra story. And it seems like BJP is looking at life beyond TDP.

Rayalaseema is the southern part of Andhra Pradesh consisting of four districts  Kurnool, Kadapa, Anantapur, and Chittoor. The dry region is considered more backward than the coastal Andhra patch and with most goodies going the coastal Andhra way, it has often led to a 'us versus them' feeling.

During the Telangana agitation, there was even a proposal to club Rayalaseema with Telangana to form Rayala-Telangana state instead of making it stick with the more prosperous coastal Andhra.

The Rayalaseema Declaration that consists of 16 demands, is proof that BJP has decided to ride the resentment feeling against Naidu that his focus is entirely on Amaravati region in coastal Andhra, ignoring Rayalaseema. The meeting of BJP representatives from Rayalaseema was significantly held in Kurnool, the capital of the then Andhra state between 1953 and 1956. Kurnool felt shortchanged when it was not made the capital after bifurcation in 2014.

Lawyers in Rayalaseema are now agitating for the high court to be established in Kurnool, something Naidu has rejected. The BJP has decided to support the demand apart from seeking a second capital for Andhra in Rayalaseema. It has also asked for a Rs 20,000 crore budgetary allocation for the region to control agrarian distress. It wants the four districts to be divided into eight and completion of various irrigation projects.

The aim is to put Naidu on the back foot and make him defensive. If TDP can attack the Modi government for not providing for Andhra in the Union Budget, BJP wants to show that TDP has done precious little for Rayalaseema in successive state budgets.

What the state is witnessing now is selfish politics. TDP wants to use the fact that BJP did not keep its promise on special category status and support for various projects including the building of capital Amaravati, to snap ties with it. That is also because it feels it has a better chance of electoral success if it creates a narrative of "we would have been successful in building a golden Andhra but for the BJP".

BJP has seen through this game being plotted by TDP. It is aware of how social media is used to paint BJP in a negative light and aims to fight back. Not that BJP on its own, has much political strength in Andhra, but it knows the danger of Naidu labeling Modi as an ally who can not be trusted to keep his word.

But will Andhra Pradesh not see through this game? How will BJP explain the fact that it was Modi who laid the foundation stone for the capital of Andhra Pradesh in October 2015? Why didn't BJP demand a second capital in Rayalaseema then?

Besides, BJP is a partner in the Naidu Cabinet. Have the two ministers pushed for any of their 16 demands during any Cabinet or TDP-BJP coordination meeting? If BJP wants to prove that its heart beats for Rayalaseema, New Delhi should allocate special funds for the four districts.

Moreover, when Naidu is struggling with funds for a primary capital in Amaravati, where will the money for a second capital come from?

BJP's focus on Rayalaseema is interesting given that the region has Muslim-dominated pockets in Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur districts. In fact, during the Nandyal bypoll in Kurnool district last year, TDP asked BJP to keep away from the campaign lest the Muslim voters may not vote for it.

The Rayalaseema Declaration reminds one of the BJP resolution in Kakinada in 1997 when it raised the slogan of "One vote, two states'. It meant that if voted to power, BJP would bifurcate Andhra Pradesh. The party conveniently went back on its word because it needed Naidu's support for th National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from 1998 to 2004 and Naidu's opposition to statehood for Telangana is well known. Those who remember BJP's earlier U-turn would now question its sudden love for Rayalaseema.

What BJP's move does is essentially encourage those who would want Rayalaseema to be a separate state in India. Interestingly, both Naidu and Jaganmohan Reddy hail from the Rayalaseema region. The TDP-BJP political battle could well have far-reaching consequences for the state's future.In the last Assembly election, the BJP understandably adopted a belligerent posture against the AIUDF projecting Badruddin Ajmal and his party as the messiah of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants.

It was on 12 July, 2005, the Supreme Court struck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 that was in vogue only in Assam among all the states in the country, in response to a petition filed by then an Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader Sarbananda Sonowal, the incumbent BJP chief minister in Assam.

As the Act was virtually working as a shield for suspected illegal migrants from Bangladesh residing in Assam in the process of detection and deportation of these migrants, the petitioner demanded the scrapping of the IMDT Act and make use of only Foreigners Act 1946 for the purpose as is the case in rest of the country.

So scrapping of the IMDT Act led to kneejerk reactions from about a dozen minor political parties in Assam which had been crying foul of harassment of minorities in Assam in the process and detection and illegal migrants as per Assam Accord and had considered IMDT Act as the saviour of minorities against such harassment.

Assam-based perfume mogul, Badruddin Ajmal then came to the forefront of the state's politics for the first time projecting himself as the messiah of religious minorities (Muslims) who were apprehending harassment in the wake of the scrapping of the IMDT Act.

Resourceful Ajmal took lead in amalgamation of over 12 minority-dominated political groups to form Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) in October 2005 to champion the cause of minorities in Assam and fight for protection of their interest in the state where problem of unabated illegal migration from Bangladesh has been threatening the identity and political rights of indigenous communities.

The AUDF was later relaunched as All Indian United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in February 2009 in New Delhi to acquire an all-India standing of the party so that it is no longer considered only a party active only in Assam which it still is anyway.

There started the journey of Ajmal and company in the political arena of Assam. The party gradually gained base among the immigrant Muslim population in the state at the expense of Congress. Ajmal and his party launched a tirade against the Congress stating that the Congress despite being in the seat of power failed to prevent the scrapping of the IMDT Act thereby exposing the minorities (mainly immigrant Muslims) to harassment in the process of detection and deportation of illegal migrants in Assam. The AIUDF also made inroads into the Congress' traditional base among the immigrant Muslim community by launching a campaign that all along the Congress has been interested only in the votes of the community but not in their welfare and protection. The growing clout of the AIUDF made some of the Congress leaders in Assam jittery which wanted to have a tie-up with the Ajmal-led party in 2011 Assembly polls, but the then chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi whose famous quote: "who is Badruddin" still rings, put his foot down and ruled out any ties with AIUDF reasoning that it would lead to wiping out of Congress among immigrant Muslim population for good.

Gogois stand was vindicated as Congress came back to power for the third time in a row in 2011 even though AIUDF emerged as the principal opposition party by winning 18 out of the total 126 Assembly seats in the state. The newly-formed AIUDF had managed to win only one seat in Assam in 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

Today, AIUDF has 13 MLAs in the current 14th Assam Assembly and three MPs from Assam in the current Lok Sabha. In the last Assembly election on 2016, AIUDF won lesser number of seats basically because of the division of minorities votes between the Congress and itself and resentment within the party over the selection of candidates in some of the constituencies.

Many AIUDF leaders over the years joined Congress on being peeved at the way of functioning of Ajmal whose words are final in the party.

In the wake of the army chief, General Bipin Rawat linking AIUDFs rise in Assams political arena to the design of external forces inimical to India to keep the country's North East on the boil by facilitating and patronising illegal migration from Bangladesh, it has to be taken note of that because of the fast-growing clout of the AIUDF, the BJP has been able to make quick inroads among ethnic groups and majority Hindu population in the state. These groups consider BJP as a formidable force to counter AIUDFs design to protect the interest of illegal Muslim migrants whose numbers have been increasing by leaps and bound posing threat to the identity of the indigenous population in at least six districts.

In the last Assembly election, the BJP understandably adopted a belligerent posture against the AIUDF projecting Ajmal and his party as the messiah of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants. This happened at the same time when the Congress alleged tacit understanding between the BJP and Ajmal to defeat Congress in the state. As the confusion led to a division of immigrant Muslims votes among the AIUDF and Congress, the BJP-AGP alliance had the last laugh by bagging the votes of majority ethnic population and Hindu community.

Realising that the messiah of illegal migrants tag would not augur well for the future of the AIUDF in Assam especially after BJP coming to power, the party lead by Ajmal has taken a stand in favour of the on-going process of updating of National Register of Citizens (NRC). The AIUDF has maintained that once the NRC is updated with 25 March, 1971 as the cutoff date, it will be clear as to who are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and who are genuine Indian citizens. This will lead to the eradication of the apprehension prevailing in the minds of the bona fide Indian minority population in the state who are often branded as 'Bangladeshis'.

Going a step further the AIUDF accuses the ruling BJP in Assam of trying to delay the process of updating the NRC to fulfill its intention to grant citizenship to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh residing in the state. It may be noted that as per Assam Accord illegal migrants coming to Assam after March 25, 1971 must be detected and deported irrespective of their religion.The Congress in Meghalaya on Saturday released its poll manifesto, promising to enhance the Rs 5 lakh health insurance cover announced by the Centre, if re-elected to power in the state.

Shillong: The Congress in Meghalaya on Saturday released its poll manifesto, promising to enhance the Rs 5 lakh health insurance cover announced by the Centre, if re-elected to power in the state.

The 20-page manifesto was released a day before the campaign ends. Polls for the state's 60-member Assembly will be held on 27 February and votes will be counted on 3 March.

Asked why the party was so late in releasing the manifesto, a leader who did not wish to be named said this is the most opportune time to release it.

"We are committed to enhancing the sum of the insurance cover for the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme over and above the insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family announced by the Central Government," said the manifesto released by Congress general secretary CP Joshi.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma who holds an MBBS degree and his party has been under attack from the BJP, its ally the NPP and others for the poor indices in health sector.

The manifesto emphasised on the youth and employment promising to create 3 lakh jobs, without providing any timeframe.

The manifesto, which was also released simultaneously at Jowai in Jaintia Hills region and Tura in the Garo Hills region, said the next Congress government will provide 'seed capital assistance' to cover 4 lakh small and marginal farmers every season.

It said the party is committed to a sustainable agriculture and a gradual shift to natural and organic farming to ensure remunerative price for the produce.

Countering the BJP's 'chargesheet' against the ruling Congress alleging corruption and misdeeds, the party on the included a report card on the 'achievements' of the government.

The tourists' inflow has doubled from 4.04 lakh in 2006 to 8.39 lakh in 10 years, and it was mainly due to improved internal security, the manifesto said.

It said the party intends to construct helipads in all district headquarters while all major tourist destinations will be connected through chopper services.

The Congress also claimed to have completed the survey for the mono rail and implementation will take place to help ease traffic movement.

A survey would also be done to check if cable cars are feasible for short distance transportation.

The manifesto promised to build markets where retailers will be women, at Shillong, Jowai and Tura, besides setting up women's hostels and Rs 15,000 wedding assistance to orphaned girls.Congress on Saturday launched a fresh attacked on the Narendra Modi government over the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam

The Indian National Congress on Saturday launched a fresh attack on the Narendra Modi government over the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

"The prime minister is the most expensive chaukidar we have. Why is all this happening under his nose?" Congress leader Kapil Sibal said in a press conference in New Delhi.

"Why did you let Nirav Modi escape if you are the chaukidar?" said Sibal, adding, "The nation lost Rs 21,000 crore."

Sibal then said that the Modi government only probed those who were opposing it.

"You (the government) are just connected to the people who support Vibrant Gujarat," he said.

He then referred to the outrage that was sparked due to the 2G scam. "That was 2G. From now on, we are going to call this NiMoji," he said.

The Congress leader then said that his party had made some demands from the government with respect to this scam.

"The government needs to assure us that the SWIFT communication system of all banks would be connected to the core banking system in 30 days... RBI must conduct a forensic audit of all SWIFT communications to detect any other scams," he said.

"Accountability of the finance ministry, RBI and the management of defaulting banks must be fixed in the next 60 days," the Congress leader said, adding, "Until the prime minister gives this assurance, the people will feel that the government is supporting wrongdoers."

Sibal's remarks come a day after Modi warned of stringent action against those involved in financial irregularities and said loot of public money will not be tolerated.

"I want to make it clear that this government has been taking strict action against financial irregularities and will continue to take strict action," Modi had said at Global Business Summit organised by The Economic Times.

"System will not tolerate loot of public money," the prime minister had said.

"I want to make an appeal to those who have been entrusted with the job of framing rules and policies and maintaining ethics to do their job faithfully and diligently," he had said, adding this should especially be followed by those who have been given the responsibility of supervision and monitoring.

Nirav Modi, whose diamond creations have draped Hollywood stars such as Kate Winslet and Dakota Johnson, and firms linked to him are alleged to have acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from one PNB branch in Mumbai between 2011 and 2017 to obtain loans from Indian banks overseas.

Investigative agencies have raided Modi's properties and arrested bank employees and persons linked to his firms.

With inputs from PTIThe Nagaland Assembly Elections 2018 will see five women candidates contesting the polls, the highest ever to fight an Assembly election in the state

Kohima: Nagaland participated in its first election in 1964, two years after attaining statehood. In 1969, for the first time, the state saw two women  Ravole U and RL Kinghen  contesting the Assembly polls. However, both of them lost the election after getting 32.6 percent and 37 percent respectively of the votes polled in their respective constituencies.

Since then Nagaland has witnessed ten Assembly elections, but the state is yet to see a woman representative in the state Assembly. Until 2013, a total of 16 women had contested. The first and only time Nagaland saw a woman legislator was when United Democratic Party member Rano M Shaiza was elected to Lok Sabha in 1977. When Rano fought state elections in 1982, even she ended up forfeiting her deposit.

This time, five women have joined the poll fray, the highest number of women candidates ever to fight an Assembly election in Nagaland. Is there hope this time around?

Barriers? Majority opinion, muscle and money

After a long legal battle by womens groups in Nagaland, when the state government announced it would hold the urban local body (ULB) polls with 33 percent reservation for women in February 2017, the opposition by some Naga tribal groups was loud and clear. They insisted that the reservation went against the customary laws, protected under Article 371(A) of the Constitution, which gives some special provisions to Nagaland.

There was a violent reaction against the decision as well. Two people died and many government buildings were set ablaze in the chaos, ultimately forcing Chief Minister TR Zeliang to step down.

The situation led to the ULB polls being declared null and void. The state government also requested the Centre to pass an ordinance to exempt Nagaland from reserving seats for women in the municipal polls.

Many aspects of life in Nagaland, even today, are governed by time-honoured customs and practices. This is one of the reasons why women are not encouraged to participate in governance. Abeiu Meru, president of Naga Mothers Association, which had been behind the campaign to get the reservation implemented, says Naga tradition, over the years has limited women's role to nurturing the family.

"A girl is schooled from her mother's lap that her role is to follow the footprints of her mother and nothing more. Even highly-educated women with the calibre, higher than most men, find it difficult to break it. And it has been boosted largely by the majority opinion, she says.

Chuba Ozukum, president of tribal body Naga Hoho which had opposed the reservation, says they werent against women participating and being part of policymaking.

"We know and understand the capability and capacity of Naga women, and they being part of policymaking will lead to less corruption in the state. But Nagas have a very strong and committed customary law that can't be bypassed even today. It is a fact," says Ozukum.

The tribal bodies and womens organisations couldnt come to an agreement, he says.

Asked why he thinks no Naga woman has ever won a seat, Ozukum says it's because Nagaland has one of the most corrupt and costliest elections.

"Clean election in the state may take another 20 years or more. For the current election system, Naga women candidates need to be very strong financially. Muscle and money power is the talk in Nagaland for election."

Political parties unenthusiastic

Of the five women candidates fighting this election, one is an Independent, two are from the newly-formed NDPP and the remaining are from BJP and NPP. Not enough, but political parties in Nagaland identifying potential in women candidates is a recent development. Historically, they have been reluctant in giving tickets. In the twelve assembly elections that have taken place in Nagaland so far, political parties have given tickets to only eight women.

Not surprisingly, the political parties shirk responsibility. Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) spokesperson GK Zhimomi says, When no women come forward to seek tickets, it is unfair to ask why political parties don't issue them to women.

Rekha Rose breaks that myth. She says she had approached top members of ruling party NPF in January this year for a ticket from Chizami constituency, but it did not work out. Eventually, the 35-year-old decided to fight the election as an Independent candidate.

Rekha talks about the added difficulty of fighting against a three-time MLA when you dont have people coming and campaigning for you".

"Unlike other candidates, I am not spending money, says Rekha, still, she is seeing some change in people.

A man came up to me and said enough of mans leadership and its time to give chance to women. I had opposition from my village and I may not win this election. But the message I put across will go a long way. I have not compromised on my principles, she adds.

Rekha says there are many reasons why women have been kept away from politics. "Its traditions, culture and customary laws which dont allow women to be part of policymaking. But we have come to a level where a man is ready to accept women in politics and leadership, she says.

Is anybody listening?



(Sarah Konyak is a Kohima-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)tech2 News Staff

A handwritten job application by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been listed on Boston's RR Auction website. The job application appears to have the handwritten details, penned down by Steve Jobs himself back in 1973.

Jobs was barely 18-years old then and had recently dropped out of Reed College. The letter was clearly filled in when he was looking for employment as "electronics tech or design engineer."

The listing takes us back in time during first days of the tech industry, little did Jobs know back then that he would change and revolutionise things for the better.

The auction house clearly mentions in its detailed listing how Jobs went about filling up the job application:

Incredible job application questionnaire filled out and signed by Steve Jobs, one page, 8.5 x 11, annotated 1973 in another hand. Jobs fills out the document with his name, 'Steven jobs'; address, 'reed college'; phone, 'none'; and major, 'english lit.' In the middle section, he writes 'yes' in response to 'Driver's License?' and 'possible, but not probable,' in reply to 'Access to transportation?' With regard to his skills, next to 'Computer' and 'Calculator,' he writes, 'yes (design, tech).' At the bottom, he describes his 'Special Abilities' as 'electronics tech or design engineer. digital.from Bay near Hewitt-Packard [sic].' In very good condition, with intersecting folds, overall creasing, light staining, and some old clear tape to the top edge. Accompanied by full letters of authenticity from PSA/DNA and Beckett Authentication Services.

Prior to filling up the form, RR Auctions also mentioned that Jobs had enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon for the fall semester in 1972 only to drop out six months later.

Also a part of the auction that will be held in March, is a newspaper excerpt that is personally signed by Jobs. The excerpt covers the announcement of the first iPhone redesign (iPhone 3G) and is expected to fetch more than $15,000.President Donald Trump has again blamed India and China for his decision last year to withdraw from the historic Paris climate accord.

Washington: President Donald Trump has again blamed India and China for his decision last year to withdraw from the historic Paris climate accord, saying the agreement was unfair as it would have made the US pay for nations which benefited the most from the deal.

Trump in June last year announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal, saying the accord would have cost America trillions of dollars, killed jobs, and hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries.

But he also, at the time, said he would be open to renegotiating the deal, which was agreed by nearly 200 nations over the course of years.

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," Trump said in his address to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris agreement, Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision Trump said, "You have a lot of oil and gas that we found  you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive  just about the top in the world  we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much".

"And basically, they were saying, 'Don't use it. You can't use it'. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. It's not going to happen, I told them. It's not going to happen," he added.

"And China  their agreement didn't kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia  they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," Trump said.

Commenting on India and other countries, he said, "Other countries, big countries  India and others  we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country.

"They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?" he said.

"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? We're developed. We can pay," Trump said.

"Because it sounds so good. It's like some of the environmental regulations that I cut. They have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes, I'd say, 'Look, I'm just going to close my eyes and sign this, because you know what? I'm going to get killed on this one.' And I get so much thanks. The country knows what I'm doing," he said.

"We couldn't build. We couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," Trump said.It would be an uphill task to try to do justice to what Asma Jahangir accomplished | #FirstCulture

She was, and remains, the best among us.

11 February started off on a wonderful note. The Sunday was supposed to see a celebration by several feminist groups in Lahore to mark Pakistan Womens Day (observed on 12 February), when in 1983, the Womens Action Forum lead a march down Lahores Mall Road against the Zia military regime and its proposed changes to the law of evidence. The women protestors were baton charged, manhandled into police vans and swiftly arrested. But the die had been cast: a loud, unabashed and firm protest had been made against the military regime. All the kings horses and all the kings men could not stop it.

But even before setting out from home to join the celebrations, a gloom descended on Lahore with the news of the passing of Asma Jahangir, who had been part of that very protest in 1983. Even if I didnt want to believe it, it was true. Asma Jahangir had prematurely passed away. The loud, unwavering, brave and dedicated woman at the heart of all sorts of progressive causes in Pakistan and in the region, had been taken from us too soon.

Much has been written about Asma since her death, and much will be written about her. Such is her legacy that even someone like me, who had never met her and never got the chance we all wanted to work with her, was touched by her life. It would be an uphill task to try to do justice to the work she accomplished; in this space, I pay homage to Asma for what she meant to those of us who knew of her rather than knew her.

Asma was dedicated. As a student of law, it is hard to research any area of Pakistani legal history and not find Asmas and her sisters name writ large over it. The register of her accomplishments would run longer than the limits of this article. Asma and Hina set up Pakistans first by-women-for-women law firm in Pakistan, winning such prominent victories as the right of woman to marry of her own choice in 1997. All manners of issues of womens rights, child rights, religious freedom, enforced disappearances, land rights and prisoners rights  she dedicated her life and her energies to each of these. Her last public address before her death is at a sit-in against the discrimination against Pashtuns by mainstream Pakistan. The sheer number and breadth of the causes she worked on is testament to her deep commitment to all sorts of fundamental guarantees.

Asma never let her friends and associations censor her. She was a friend of Benazir Bhuttos and a supporter of the Pakistan Peoples Party, but did not fail to criticise members of the PPP government for keeping indentured or bonded slaves. She was among the first to call out particular NGOs for not keeping their houses in order. For this reason, Asma emerged as a moral compass for so many of us. In the murkiness of South Asian politics and human rights conditions, one developed a habit of turning to Asma as a beacon of untainted commitment to fundamental human rights and democracy. After all, she was the first to speak against the American invasion of Afghanistan, and against enforced disappearances of terrorists at a time when most Pakistani progressives found themselves taking questionable stances, and against the judiciary in the aftermath of the Lawyers Movement of 2007 that she herself lead. She spoke up in favour of peace between India and Pakistan, but was still against atrocities in Kashmir. Her moral compass and foresight was unwavering.

Asma fought her battles irrespective of who she was pitted against. At the tender age of 18, she filed a habeas corpus petition against the military regime of General Yahya Khan for the recovery of her father. This case, Asma Jillani v. Government of Punjab went down in the annals of history as the first time the Supreme Court unequivocally denounced military regimes as illegal. In law school, I was in awe of how this young girl, the same age as me at the time, took on the might of the entire state, and came out victorious.

Asmas work was never easy. The causes she spoke for earned her enemies among the religious right, political parties, the state itself, the establishment and public opinion too. She kept fighting, despite grave costs to herself. Her life was under constant threat and often, state surveillance, her children had to be provided security because of their mothers work, she was placed under house arrest by the Musharraf regime in 2007. In public opinion and in the press, she was vilified as a non-Muslim, an enemy of the state, an enemy of happy marriages and a woman of loose morals. Asma remain undeterred, and unwavering in her commitment. Few of us would be as brave in her shoes. On her death, members of that very press paid homage to her for her commitment to freedom of the press.

As a pupil of this school of hardships, it is no wonder that she took to the courts with such ease. This adversarial space dominated by men is no easy workplace for any woman. In my weakest moments while I practiced law, I reminded myself of her iron will and her unabashed confidence to will myself forward. I never got to see her argue before the bench, but the mental image of this diminutive woman surrounded by a crowd of loud men ever eager to elbow out and shout down a woman remains a source of strength for me. When I first took up the study of law and family friends would chidingly ask, You want to be the next Asma Jehangir, eh? I would maintain a neutral face while my heart swelled with pride at being compared to her.

On a personal level, Asma was honest and humble. In 2016, this long-time admirer of hers confronted her at the Lahore Literary Festival with pointed questions about her seemingly questionable involvement in a friends case. She patiently listened to my questions and clarified her stance. Lawyers of her standing tend to be infamous for their pride. It is hard to meet one who would be as patient and as humble.

In her interviews and speeches, and in her private meetings, Asma always gave due credit to her own inspirations and her heroes: her father and IA Rehman among them. At the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which she helped found in 1987, she always shone the spotlight she attracted to the work of the Commission, and members like Rehman, Hussain Naqi and Justice (R) Dorab Patel. Speaking to the people who were her compatriots in the various battles Asma was part of, one repeatedly hears how she was a humble friend to each of them, always welcoming them in her life and in her home.

No surprise then, at her funeral I saw not only people who had known her, worked with her and loved her, but former clients of her pro bono law firm, activists and politicians of all persuasions from all corners of Pakistan, students, lawyers, literary giants, artists, and fittingly, also people from across the border. Each of them walked with heads lowered, shoulders slumped and eyes that welled up. On her death, even people who had developed differences with her stances over the years spoke with voices that cracked with grief. On 11 February 2018, few people who had cared for any cause in Pakistans history were unmoved by the passing of that lioness, Asma Jahangir.Chinese tourists were finally relieved of the false accusation of the graffiti sprayed in Chinese and English that read Happy Birthday at a Japanese national park, after local police arrested the true violator from Myanmar on Feb. 22.

The graffiti was found last month around the iconic snow-covered trees and ground on the slopes of Aomori Prefecture's Hakkoda mountain range in Towada-Hachimantai National Park.

Some netizens accused Chinese tourists, explaining that the graffiti was probably sprayed by Chinese tourists since a significant amount of it was in Chinese characters.

At the same time, some of them held that the Chinese characters werent enough to prove that the graffiti was indeed painted by Chinese.

After thorough investigation, local police arrested a 29-year-old man from Myanmar who currently lives in Tokyo. The man admitted to committing the crime, saying he sprayed the graffiti for his girlfriend as a surprise.

The graffiti has brought about a negative impact on the park, the police noted.

After the case was publicized, some netizens commented that as Chinese language is becoming more and more popular around the world, China must be careful to not become the scapegoat of preference in such cases.Satellite imagery shows Myanmar authorities have bulldozed at least 55 Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine in recent months, Human Rights Watch said.

Yangon: Satellite imagery shows Myanmar authorities have bulldozed at least 55 Rohingya villages in northern Rakhine in recent months, Human Rights Watch said on Friday, condemning the government for erasing evidence at sites where troops are accused of atrocities.

Northern Rakhine has been nearly emptied of its Rohingya population since last August, when a military crackdown drove some 700,000 of the persecuted group across the border to Bangladesh.

The UN has accused Myanmar of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Muslim minority, who face acute discrimination in the mainly Buddhist nation.

Myanmar denies the charge but has blocked UN investigators from investigating an area where thousands of Rohingya are believed to have been killed.

Hundreds of Rohingya villages were already damaged by fire during the initial months of violence last year, when soldiers and Buddhist vigilantes terrorised communities with arson, gunfire and rape, according to refugees.

Since November, Myanmar authorities have further demolished at least 55 villages with heavy machinery, clearing out all structures and vegetation, satellite images obtained by Human Rights Watch showed.

At least two of the flattened villages were previously undamaged by fires, the watchdog said.

"Many of these villages were scenes of atrocities against Rohingya and should be preserved so that the experts appointed by the UN to document these abuses can properly evaluate the evidence to identify those responsible," said HRW's Asia director Brad Adams.

"Bulldozing these areas threatens to erase both the memory and the legal claims of the Rohingya who lived there," he added.

Myanmar's government spokesman could not be reached for comment.

'Rehabilitation projects'

Haunting images of levelled villages first circulated on social media earlier this month after they were posted by an EU diplomat.

At the time Myanmar's Social Welfare Minister Win Myat Aye told AFP the demolition was part of a plan to "build back" villages to a higher standard than before.

Myanmar has trumpeted a government effort to rebuild violence-gutted Rakhine and welcome back refugees under a repatriation agreement with Dhaka that was supposed to commence in January.

But many Rohingya refuse to return without the guarantee of basic rights and safety.

Analysts have also sounded the alarm over the government's rehabilitation projects, calling the sweeping destruction of villages, mosques and property only the latest move to erase the Rohingya's ties to their ancestral lands, and prevent them from returning.

On Thursday, UN agencies said they had struck a partnership with Myanmar and Japan governments to provide $20 million for humanitarian and development projects in Rakhine state, where authorities have restricted access for aid groups since the crisis.

Food and other assistance would be provided to "people of all communities in Rakhine state," the UN agencies said in a statement, adding that access had improved but remained restricted in some areas.

The 1.1-million strong Rohingya have been systematically stripped of their legal rights in Myanmar in recent decades.

They have also been targeted by bouts of communal violence with ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbours and corralled into grim displacement camps in other parts of the state.

Myanmar's Army says its August crackdown was a proportionate counterstrike against Rohingya rebels who attacked police posts in late August, killing around a dozen officials.

Many in the Buddhist majority revile the Rohingya and brand the group as foreign interlopers, despite their having lived in Rakhine for generations.Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine's state capital Sittwe early on Saturday morning.

Yangon: Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine's state capital Sittwe early on Saturday morning, including the home of a high ranking official, Myanmar police said, adding that no deaths were reported.

"Three bombs exploded and three other unexploded bombs were found. A police officer was injured but not seriously," a senior officer said on condition of anonymity.

The blasts took place around 4 am (local time), the officer said.

One exploded in the compound of the state government secretary's home, while the two others hit in front of an office in the city and on a road leading to a beach.

A local official from the state government also confirmed the explosions.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

"Some streets are being blocked by police already because of the bomb blasts," Zaw Zaw, a local resident of Sittwe, told AFP by phone.

Although bombings in the state capital are rare, restive Rakhine state has been roiled by bouts of of communal violence and insurgencies in other parts of the state.

Last August, its northern wedge was plunged into crisis after a sweeping military crackdown on Rohingya rebels sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority across the border to Bangladesh.

In January, seven people were killed and a dozen injured when police opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who were trying to seize a government office in the town of Mrauk U.

The violence prompted an ethnic Rakhine rebel group in the state to promise "serious" retaliation for the deaths of the protesters..                   -.           .     .             .     ,        - ...The iron wok made in east Chinas Shandong province went viral overnight after a popular food-themed documentary started broadcasting last Monday, Jinan Times reported on Friday.

A Bite of China, a documentary which explores the relationship between Chinese people and food, returned for its third season during the lunar New Year holiday, and the first episode makes a variety of cookware used in Chinese cooking a hit, including the famous iron wok.

Many viewers said they plan to buy such a mirror-like handcrafted wok made through complicated means. A large number of locals and visitors swarmed into the showcase store in Jinan to buy an iron wok that was featured in the episode, or to see how the famous wok is made.

According to the current statistics, almost 3,000 woks were sold on Monday night. Up to now, the store owned by Liu Zimu, one of the inheritors of the iron wok, has received over 100,000 orders, half of which are from overseas.

Its a rare chance to make a fortune, but Liu declined all these orders for the sake of quality and reputation. Moreover, he made an announcement Thursday night, calling for rational consumption among customers and warning that an overheated market could lead to unhealthy developments in the industry.

Liu hopes to pass the techniques down to the next generation and continues to make every iron wok a high quality one. To this end, Liu and his fellows are preparing an association, according to Jinan Times.

Zhangqiu, what is now a municipal district in the east of Jinan, capital of Shandong province, used to be a center for iron smelting during the ancient Han Dynasty (202BC-220).

The time-honored wok forging technique was impacted by machine manufacturing about 20 years before, but it was revived in recent years under the perseverant efforts of a group of old craftsmen and passionate young people. Now, the hit documentary is further stimulating the spread and inheritance of this fine craftsmanship. :      

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The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) officially on Monday, February 26th, but most companies have scheduled their events tomorrow, and some of them including LG, Catphones, ARCHOS and others have already started introducing new products. The upcoming week is going to be a cornucopia of smartphone goodness and were on ground already to bring you the latest on the latest! With the tone set, we thought it right to bring you a quick rundown of the latest buzz from Barcelona about what to expect. So without further ado, heres the top announcements we expect from MWC 2018.

Samsung

We already know all the details about the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones, including detailed specifications and the price. The design, battery capacity and the display of the Galaxy S9 series is expected to be similar to the Galaxy S8 series, but the internals will have a minor upgrade. The Galaxy S9 is said to feature 12MP variable aperture camera to adjust between f/ 1.5 and f/ 2.4 aperture as well as 480fps super slo-mo recording. The Galaxy S9+ is said to come with dual rear camera.

The fingerprint sensor will be moved below the camera to make it easy to access. The phones are said to be powered by Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 in the U.S. and Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9810 SoC in other counties. Recent benchmark listings show promising results for the Exynos 9810, but we will have to wait to find out. While the S9 is said to stick to 4GB RAM, the S9+ is said to feature 6GB of RAM. These are also said to feature dual stereo speakers tuned by AKG.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ rumored specifications

S9  5.8-inch Quad HD+ (2960  1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display with 570ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

S9+  6.2-inch Quad HD+ (2960  1440 pixels) Super AMOLED Infinity display with 529ppi, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with Adreno 630 GPU / Octa-Core Samsung Exynos 9 Series 9810 processor with Mali G72MP18 GPU

S9  4GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory with microSD

S9+  6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory with microSD

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Single / Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

S9  12MP Dual Pixel rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.4-f/1.5 variable aperture, 480fps super slo-mo

S9+  12MP primary rear camera with f/2.4-f/1.5 variable aperture, LED Flash, 480fps super slo-mo, 12MP secondary rear camera with f/2.4 aperture

8MP auto focus front-facing camera with wide-angle lens

Water and dust resistant (IP68)

Stereo speakers, Ultra High Quality Audio Playback  PCM: Up to 32 bits; DSD: DSD64/128

Sensors  Accelerometer, Barometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Hall Sensor, Heart Rate Sensor, Proximity Sensor, RGB Light Sensor, Iris Sensor, Pressure Sensor

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz), VHT80 MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 5 (LE up to 2Mbps), GPS with GLONASS, USB 3.1, NFC, MST

S9  3000mAh battery with fast Charging both on wired and wireless (WPC and PMA) charging

S9+  3500mAh battery with fast Charging both on wired and wireless (WPC and PMA) charging

The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2018 will take place at 6 p.m.CET (10:30 PM IST) in Barcelona on February 25, 2018. It will offer live stream for the event as usual on its website samsung.com/galaxy and on its YouTube Channel.

HMD Global / Nokia

HMD Global is expected to introduce several Nokia smartphones at its event tomorrow including Nokia 1, Nokia 4, Nokia 7 Plus and we might also see flagship Nokia 9. We already know that Nokia 7+ will be Android One smartphone with Snapdragon 660, dual ZEISS lens and a 6-inch FHD+ full-screen display0 Nokia 1 is expected to be Android Oreo (Go edition) entry-level smartphone and the Nokia 4 is said to be powered by Snapdragon 450. Google already confirmed that Android Oreo Go edition phones and new Android One phones will be introduced at the MWC.

Nokia 7+ rumored specifications

6-inch (2160  1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla glass protection

Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPU

4GB LPDDR4x RAM, 64GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD

Single / Dual SIM

Android 8.0 (Oreo), upgradable to Android 8.1

12+ 13MP rear dual cameras with ZEISS Optics, 2X optical zoom, dual-tone LED flash

16MP front-facing camera with ZEISS optics, f/2.0 aperture, Tetracell technology

Fingerprint sensor

4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C

Fast charging

HMD Global event is scheduled for February 25th, Sunday, at Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and starts at 4PM CET (8:30 PM IST). It will offer live stream on Facebook and Nokia.com/phones.

Sony

Sony is expected to introduce its flagship Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact smartphones at the MWC. Both the phones are expected to feature full-screen displays, aluminum frame and 3D glass body. There are said to be powered by Snapdragon 845, run Android 8.0 (Oreo) and the fingerprint sensor will be moved to the back of the phones.

Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact rumored specifications

XZ2  5.7-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 Triluminos Display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

XZ2 Compact  5-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 Triluminos Display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with Adreno 630 GPU

4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 256GB via microSD card

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Single / Dual SIM

Water Resistant (IP65/IP68)

19MP rear camera with Exmos RS sensor, 1/2.3 sensor, f/2.0 lens, Predictive capture, 5-axis stabilization, 4K video recording, 960fps slow-motion video

8MP front-facing camera with 1/ 4 Exmor R sensor, 18mm super wide-angle for 120 degrees field of view, f/2.4 aperture, 1080p video recording

S Force stereo speakers, DSEE HX, LDAC, Digital Noise Cancelling

Fingerprint sensor

4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz / 5GHz) MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/ GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.1 Type-C

XZ2  3180mAh Battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology, Wireless charging

XZ2 Compact  2870mAh Battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology

The Sony MWC 2018 event takes place on 26th February, Monday at 8.30AM CET (1PM IST) and it will offer live stream at blogs.sonymobile.com

Huawei

Huawei is expected to introduce new Huawei MediaPad M5 series of tablets  MediaPad M5 (10), MediaPad M5 (10 Pro) and MediaPad M5 (8) at its MWC event. The MediaPad M5 10 is said to feature a 10.8-inch (2560 x 1600 pixels) LCD display, powered by Kirin 960 SoC with 4GB RAM and 32GB storage with microSD expansion slot, 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera.

The Pro version is said to come with 64GB of storage and feature 4G LTE support. It will reportedly run Android 7.0 (Nougat) OS. The company is not expected to introduce its P20 series of phones since it will have a separate event in March in Paris on March 27.

The Huawei MWC 2018 event takes place tomorrow, February 25th and starts at 2PM CET (6:30 PM IST). It should offer live stream on its website.

ASUS

ASUS teaser already hinted at the Zenfone 5 series with Snapdragon SoCs. Press shots of the Zenfone 5 Lite already surfaced, and we recently saw sketches of the Zenfone 5 with iPhone X-like top-notch and dual rear cameras.

The Zenfone 5 is said to feature 5.7-inch FHD+ display, dual rear cameras and come with metal body. The Zenfone 5 Lite is said to come with dual front cameras and rear camera with 20MP on the front and 16MP on the rear, one with 120-degree wide-angle lens, along with LED flash on both the sides and a full HD+ 18:9 display. The Zenfone 5 Max is said to pack huge battery and 18:9 screen. All the Zenfone 5 series smartphones are expected to run Android 8.0 (Oreo) with ZenUI 4.0.

The ASUS MWC 2018 is scheduled for Tuesday, February 27th, 2018 and starts at 7:30pm CET (12:00 AM IST February 28th). As usual it will offer live stream at asus.com

Lenovo / Motorola

Motorola is expected to introduce G6, G6 Plus and G6 Play smartphones at the MWC. Moto G6 is expected to sport a 5.7-inch (21601080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 display and powered by the Snapdragon 450 SoC with 3GB RAM+32GB storage and 4GB RAM+64GB storage with a microSD card slot for memory expansion. It is said to feature 12+5MP dual rear camera setup and a 16MP front camera. It is said to pack 3000mAh battery with USB Type-C port on board.

The Moto G6 Plus is said to sport a large 5.93-inch Full HD+ 18:9 display, powered by the Snapdragon 630 SoC with same 3GB RAM+32GB and 4GB RAM+64GB storage variants. It is also said to feature 12+5MP dual rear camera setup and a 16MP front camera along with 3200mAh battery with USB Type-C.

The G6 Play is said to feature a 5.7-inch HD+ screen, powered by Snapdragon 430 or 435 SoC, single rear camera and pack a 4000mAh battery. All the phones are expected to run Android 8.0 (Oreo). Even though Moto X5, Moto Z3 and Moto Z3 Play had surfaced, these are not expected to official next week.

Motorola has not scheduled a separate event, but Lenovo has an event on February 26th, so we can expected some Lenovo and Moto devices at the event.

LG

LG earlier this week announced new K8 and K10 2018 edition of smartphones that includes K8 2018, K10 2018, K10+ 2018 and K10  2018. Both the phones have HD display with 2.5D Arc Glass design.

It will also introduce V30 2018 edition with Vision A.I camera which can automatically analyze objects and recommends the best shooting mode and Vision A.I that further scans QR codes, initiate an image search or provide shopping options including where to purchase, etc. It will also have Voice AI that allows users to run apps and change settings through voice commands alone. LG has partnered with Google to work alongside Assistant. LG is also offering 32 exclusive Voice AI commands.

ZTE

ZTE already confirmed that it will introduce Blade V9 smartphone, which was accidentally revealed in an online listing.

ZTE Blade V9 specifications

5.7-inch (2160 x 1080p pixels) 18:9 2.5D curved glass display

1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU

2GB RAM with 16GB storage, 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

16MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, secondary 5MP camera with f/1.8 aperture, 1.12m pixel size

13MP front-facing camera

Fingerprint sensor

Dimensions: 151.4 x 70.6 x 7.5mm; Weight: 140g

3.5mm audio jack, DTS audio

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS, NFC (Optional)

3200mAh built-in battery

Xiaomi

Xiaomi is rumored to introduce Mi MIX 2S with dual rear cameras, 95% screen-to-body ratio and under-display fingerprint sensor, but the company has not announced a separate event, even though it will display its products.

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S rumored specifications

5.99-inch (2160  1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 display

2.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 845 64-bit 10nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 630 GPU

8GB LPDDR4x RAM, 256GB internal storage

Android 8.0 (Oreo) with MIUI

Dual SIM (nano + nano)

12MP rear camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, OIS, Optical zoom, 4K video recording

5MP front-facing camera with OV5675 sensor

Under-display fingerprint sensor

4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac dual-band (22 MU-MIMO ), Bluetooth 5, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou, NFC, USB Type-C

3400mAh (typical) / 3300mAh (minimum) battery with fast charging

HTC

HTC is expected to introduce mid-range Desire 12 smartphone at the event and the retail box already revealed the specifications.

HTC Desire 12 rumored specifications

5.5-inch (720 x 1,440 pixels) 18:9 HD+ display

Quad-Core 64-bit MediaTek SoC

3GB RAM with 32GB storage, expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android with Sense UI

Dual SIM

12MP rear camera with LED Flash, PDAF, 1080p video recording

5MP front-facing camera BSI esnsor

4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS

2730mAh battery

We can also expect few more Desire smartphones from the company at the event. It has not scheduled any separate event.

Alcatel

Alcatel 1x, 3, and 3x will be introduced its MWC event. The company showcased 1X, 3V and 5 under new Alcatel 1, 3 and 5 serie with 18:9 full view displays and fingerprint sensor on the back at the CES last month.

Others

Avenir Telecom, under its Energizer brand will introduce new Energizer POWER MAX P16K Pro Android smartphone with whopping 16,000mAh battery.

Finnish-based handset maker, Jolla will unveil Sailfish OS 3 and will also introduce new Sailfish devices, and probably Sailfish X support for more Sony Xperia devices. The Jolla event is scheduled for Monday 26 February and starts at 11.30 AM CET (4:00 PM IST) in Barcelona.

You can check out all the MWC 2018 news here. Which smartphone are you eagerly waiting for?Google ahead of the MWC 2018 is making some major announcements to its products including the ARCore, Lens, RCS Message and now it is the Assistant. The company says that it is aiming to improve Assistant with some key features like more than 30 languages support, multilingual support, location-based reminders, Routines and more throughout the year.

After teasing with Android One and Go phones that are coming at MWC in a couple of days, Google today mentioned that by the end of this year Assistant will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95% of all eligible Android phones worldwide. In the next few weeks, Assistant will be available in Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android phones and iPhones.

Furthermore, it also said that it is making the Assistant multilingual later this year, so families or individuals that speak more than one language can speak naturally to the Assistant. This move is to make Assistant understand you in multiple languages fluently. Multilingual support will first be available in English, French, and German and more languages to join soon.

Next up is the expansion of Assistant capabilities by allowing it to perform various actions on the phone and inside your apps. Google is said to close work with OEMs for better Assistant integration, and the three OEMs in the initial batch are Sony, Xiaomi, and LG (which is already mentioned an upgraded V30 model with better voice integration).

Google is also teaming up with carriers to let them offer you better customer insights and control over their services like helping people learn more about their plan, add new services, get customer support and more. In the coming weeks, Assistant in the USA be able to help you in six routines including your morning, commutes to and from work, and evening at home. Lastly, you will soon be able to set reminders based on a location with the Assistant on your phone. The list of features coming to Assistant is fascinating, and we would like to see what more the Assistant can do in the future.

SourceFlorine Gruen Goldfarb, 76, never thought her Trump-inspired activism during the 2016 election would earn her infamy and ridicule  but thats what happened thanks to CNN.

CNN correspondent Drew Griffin ambushed the Trump supporter outside her home earlier this week because she may have unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event during the 2016 election. Now she's receiving threats on social media, and she lays the blame at the news network's feet.

Goldfarb had her full name plastered on the video that was tweeted out to CNNs nearly 40 million followers. Her house number was also visible for much off the video. Her crime? Unknowingly organizing a pro-Trump event on Facebook that was influenced by the Russians, who are accused of meddling in the election.

Fox News reached Goldfarb, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., via Facebook Messenger and she declined a phone interview because she wants the situation to go away. She says she's been bombarded since Griffin showed up at her door.

"My phone is ringing off the hook and I can't keep up with the emails and Facebook messages. I am being trashed by anti-Trump trolls on Facebook. This would have never happened if Fake News CNN had not caught me at home and ambushed me trying to coerce me into giving them the answers they were looking for, Goldfarb told Fox News via the messaging app. CNN is doing a great job exposing themselves as Fake News."

This would have never happened if Fake News CNN had not caught me at home and ambushed me trying to coerce me into giving them the answers they were looking for."  Florine Gruen Goldfarb

Goldfarb was called public enemy number one, a traitor, miserable racist trash and a treasonous hillbilly. One Facebook user said she should be arrested and tried for treason in a series of messages arising in the wake of the CNN segment.

Outspoken liberal actor Jon Cryer, co-star of "Two and a Half Men," tweeted out CNNs video of the ensnarement and wrote, We are dealing with a cult. One user responded that Goldfarb should move and ought to be embarrassed to show her face in town. Yet another user called her a complete moron, and one person responded that there's no witness protection program for the willfully ignorant.

The episode puts the spotlight on CNNs own coverage and promotion of an anti-Trump rally that was allegedly coordinated by Russian trolls fingered by Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Back on Nov. 12, 2016, CNN gave enthusiastic coverage to the Russian-organized anti-Trump rally that day, with live reports every hour, according to the Media Research Center.

They should do an ambush of their own producers, Fox News Greg Gutfeld recently said on The Five.

Instead, Griffin approached Goldfarb on her own front lawn in Pembroke Pines, asking if she'd been part of a coverup. The Russians? I dont care if they were involved or not, she said.

The combative CNN correspondent then asked if she was aware of the Russian influence, but Goldfarb quickly shot down his question. They werent involved with us. Just make sure you report it correctly, she said.

Griffin then shifted gears, asking her if she was involved in Being Patriotic, which is apparently the name of a Russian troll group. But Goldfarb responded that she was very patriotic.

Griffin continued to question her outside her home, essentially accusing her of complying with Russian trolls. Goldfarb eventually walked away, calling the allegations bullst on her way inside the house.

CNNs verified Twitter account shared the video with the caption A Florida woman who ran a Trump supporters page that unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event on Facebook says she doesnt believe that she was influenced by Kremlin-linked trolls.

With the apparent shaming of her for being manipulated by Russians, CNN gave American trolls a green light to harass her on social media. She isnt hard to find, as only one Florine Gruen Goldfarb appears in the search function on Facebook.

Her page features an Ivanka Trump photo and reveals that she is part of numerous conservative pro-Trump groups. Goldfarb said she has received messages from fellow Trump supporters across the globe who saw the CNN segment.

I greatly appreciate their support, Goldfard wrote to Fox News.

The Five co-host Jesse Watters established himself as a cable news star conducting man-on-the-street segments and ambush interviews. Ive done this dozens and dozens of times and ambushed people. Ive never done it to a regular person outside of their house, Watters said. The guy can go to someones house with a camera and a mic, thats fine.  His tone was so wrong and accusatory.

Co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle added that Goldfarb would have quite a lawsuit if anything happens to her as a result of the CNN report.

Goldfard shared one of the threatening messages she has received with Fox News. She received it on Friday at 9:10 a.m. ET from a stranger on Facebook.

Hey Comrade, I saw you being interviewed and denying helping Russians. You and all the Russian allies should go prison once we hang Trump for treason. Looking forward to impeaching your treasonous pos fake President, and coming after his enablers like you, the message said.

While Goldfarb is concerned for her safety, she doesnt want anyone feeling sorry for because of her advanced age.

I may be 76 going on 77 but I am not an old lady. I have been active in politics for 10 years. Worked on many campaigns. In between my hobby is dancing, such as line dancing, couple dancing such as cha-cha, west and East Coast swing dances, Goldfarb said.

Pembroke Pines police did not immediately respond to request for comment.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Ivanka Trump is in South Korea for the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games and, inevitably, she is being compared to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Uns sister, Kim Yo Jong, who attended the opening ceremonies.

The disgusting fawning over Kim Yo Jong at the start of the Olympics exposed a truth about much of Americas mainstream media: any enemy of President Trump will be showered in praise.

It didnt matter than Kim Jong Un is a brutal despot who is starving his own people, allows no freedom, and imprisons or kills his opponents. A documentary called "Secret State of North Korea  made in 2014 using video smuggled out of North Korea  showed people in the countryside eating grass. What mattered was the opportunity to show up Donald Trump.

Writing in the New York Post at the start of the Olympics about the fawning coverage given Kim Yo Jong, Bethany Mandel, who frequently fundraises to rescue North Korean refugees hiding in China noted that it was strange reading a red carpet-like report about a member of a regime that has concentration camps the size of Los Angeles, where children have been secretly photographed starving in the streets and whose leader uses anti-aircraft weaponry to execute his political enemies.

Kim Yo Jong isnt to be celebrated, nor compared to a free woman like Ivanka Trump, who represents a country of free people. Kim Yo Jong should be confronted about her brothers atrocities at every opportunity.

But no, in the choice between Ivanka Trump or the sister of a murderous dictator (who is, actually said to have killed one of his other siblings), the American media just cant decide which way to lean.

Writing in the Daily Beast on Friday, in a piece headlined Ivanka Trump Struggles With Winter Olympics Charm Offensive, Donald Kirk wondered about Ivanka and Kim Yo Jong, which de facto ambassador won the charm offensive at the Winter Games? He concluded it was a draw.

Meanwhile Newsweek set up a competition with the headline: IVANKA TRUMP READY FOR PR BATTLE WITH KIM JONG UNS SISTER AT WINTER OLYMPICS CLOSING CEREMONY.

Jessica Kwong wrote in Newsweek: Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, captured hearts during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. She was dubbed North Koreas Ivanka, stealing the spotlight from stern U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who was under direct orders to shun the Norths propaganda campaign.

Theres something comically backward about the idea that Vice President Mike Pence was under direct orders while Kim Jong Uns sister was not. And theres something terribly wrong about celebrating the representative of the country that kills people who wish to leave, starves children and generally has its boot on the necks of its people.

Kim Yo Jong isnt to be celebrated, nor compared to a free woman like Ivanka Trump, who represents a country of free people. Kim Yo Jong should be confronted about her brothers atrocities at every opportunity.

The American media think they are brave when they call Ivanka Trump complicit to her fathers agenda. Actual bravery would be to challenge Kim Yo Jong to do something about the horrors perpetrated by her brother on the North Korean people.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

The retina is a thin layer of nerves lining the back of your eyes that sends signals to your brain, enabling you to see. We doctors have always referred to it as the window to the brain. Now, thanks to a remarkable new advance, there is reason to consider the retina as a window to the heart as well  and someday it might give your doctor information that could save your life.

Google Artificial Intelligence and its subsidiary, Verily Life Sciences, have assembled a database of retinal scans from nearly 300,000 patients and used it to develop an algorithm to predict the risk of developing heart disease over five years. These results are dramatically positive and the beginning of a new and effective approach to prevention.

The scan analyzes telltale signs of aging, smoking and high blood pressure found in the tiny vessels and structures of the retina. In a study just published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the algorithm was applied to almost 12,000 scans (with over 100 patients with known heart disease used as a baseline). It proved to be 70 percent accurate at predicting an acute heart problem, including heart attack and stroke.

Seventy percent is the magic number, because the European Society of Cardiology recently developed a Systemic Coronary Risk Evaluation Scale (SCORE) that has been shown to be about 70 percent accurate at predicting heart attack, stroke and related death in over 250,000 patients. The retina scan is just as accurate as SCORE, and will only get better with fine tuning. After a few years it will likely become a very useful tool in the doctors office.

It is very timely to see this new technology being verified during February, American Heart Month. It is also uplifting to see retinal scans and an associated artificial intelligence (AI), which puts comparative information together, being proposed as a means to promote health awareness.

Fans of science fiction are much more familiar with retinal scans as enforcement tools in a police state. In the popular 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, retinal scans were utilized to identify, punish and weed out enemy replicants  fictional robots made of organic substances. The replicants looked human and were used as slave laborers.

But the Blade Runner scenario is not purely fantasy. It carries its own useful warning against an excess reliance on AI.

AI carries inherent risks, and its value depends on usage. Its best use when it comes to heart disease would not be as a decision-maker for insurance companies or as a way for the government to keep track of a persons risk of heart attack or stroke  or even something you could buy over the counter to assess yourself. Instead, it can be a valuable tool to help doctors better treat their patients.

One day soon I will be able to look to the back of my patients eyes and tell them their risk of serious life-threatening events. This will help me determine how aggressive I should be in terms of lowering their cholesterol, their blood pressure, treating their diabetes, or providing other treatments.

Doctors have long known that the blood vessels in the retina show telltale signs of disease, including worsening diabetes (cotton wool spots), aging (macular degeneration), high blood pressure (arterial-venous nicking), and high cholesterol (plaques).

These blood vessels are predictive of what arteries throughout the body (including the heart) are experiencing. Putting this information together in a series of algorithms to help guide physicians and their patients is very smart science.

The purpose of public health is to protect society and its individuals from disease, whereas the purpose of law enforcement is to help identify and weed out societal threats. Retinal scans have the ability to work effectively on both fronts and may soon replace metal detectors. But as a practicing physician, I am much more focused on identifying risks to the heart and brain than in ensuring building security.

Food and Drug Administration approval should come quickly for the new Google AI retinal device. I am hoping that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local health agencies will soon be promoting doctors office retinal scans and other forms of artificial intelligence as tools for me and other physicians to help predict and protect your health.Plans for President Trumps requested military parade in the nations capital are moving forward after National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster ordered the military to start planning the event for Veterans Day, a senior U.S. official confirmed Friday to Fox News.

Trump has requested that the procession run from the White House to Capitol Hill on the national holiday, which this year coincides with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

The date of the planned parade: Nov. 11.

McMaster drafted a memo for the Pentagon earlier this week, reportedly telling Secretary of Defense James Mattis, per a request from Trump, to lay out "concepts of operation for this event," Politico reported, citing a senior administration official.

TRUMP ORDERS MILITARY CELEBRATION IN WASHINGTON

Inspiration for a military parade in Washington, D.C., was reportedly first spawned after the president attended Frances Bastille Day as the guest of honor in July. Trump admired the countrys celebrations and called the parade magnificent.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed on Feb. 6 that Trump requested that the Department of Defense explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation.

President Trump is incredibly supportive of Americas great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe, she added.

BILL MAHER TRIES TO RAIN ON TRUMPS PARADE

The president made the order in a meeting with top generals in mid-January, according to The Washington Post, citing officials.

Fox News Jennifer Griffin and Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.LONDON, Feb.23 British Prime Minister Theresa May has hosted a Chinese New Year reception at Downing Street to celebrate the enormous contribution of the Chinese community to British life and a Golden Era for UK-China relations.

Building on her recent trip to China alongside 50 businesses and organisations from across the country, the Prime Minister also welcomed guests from a range of sectors with trade links to China.

The Prime Minister also presented James Wong, Chair of the Birmingham Chinese Festival Committee, with a Point of Light Award in recognition of his inspiring work to attract thousands of visitors to the city, creating the UKs largest Chinese New Year festival. His restaurant also gives hundreds of free meals to elderly people in the local community.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: It was great to welcome people from all parts of the United Kingdom to Downing Street to celebrate Chinese New Year, the vibrancy of the Chinese community in Britain, and the deepening ties between our two countries. I would like to extend my best wishes to everyone celebrating this special day, as we mark the Year of the Dog and a golden era of UK-China relations.Washington Democrats and their supporters have recruited and backed dozens of military veterans to run in this years elections -- even sending some into deep-red districts to challenge the Republican Party for the so-called guns-and-God vote and to achieve the partys ultimate mission of taking control of the House.

Veterans are especially appealing candidates in key swing districts, Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton, who served four tours in Iraq and has been leading such efforts, told Fox News. Veterans have credibility, not just with Democrats, but with independents and Republicans, as well. Theyre the kind of people respected for their leadership, not just their politics.

Moulton has endorsed 19 military veterans in this years House races and plans to back a total of 24 -- the exact number of seats Democrats must win to retake control of the House, with primary races starting in just a few months.

Republican have, at least in elections in the past several decades, largely won the military vote, including the 2016 White House race in which Republican Donald Trump took 60 percent of the vote, according to exit polls.

However, Democrats see opportunity this year in what they consider the presidents lack of respect for the military -- including his offhanded remark about Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain being captured in Vietnam and the Trump's public spat with a Gold Star military family.

Moulton, a two-term congressman and Harvard graduate, has at times been critical of Trump, even calling him draft dodger. (Trump received a series of student deferments while in college and a medical deferment after graduation, according to Selective Service records.)

But hes also been outspoken about Washington Democrats and their continued anti-Trump platform, instead touting a pro-jobs message and cultivating what he calls the next generation of Democrats, including military veterans.

VoteVets.org, a liberal-leaning political action committee, is backing 36 Democratic military veterans in this years congressional races -- three sitting senators and 33 House incumbents or challengers.

The group was founded in 2006 to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and who were opposed to the Iraq War, get elected to Congress.

Four of the groups roughly 46 veteran candidates that year won their congressional race, enough to help Democrats retake the House.

But the group has higher expectations this year, largely because of the tremendous amount of anti-Trump sentiment and Democrats being shut out of everything from the White House to Congress to statehouses across the country, says Jon Soltz, VoteVets chairman and co-founder.

He also maintains that 2018 candidates are in a better position to win than those in previous years -- considering what theyve done since leaving the military, and because they have a more solid infrastructure of successful Democratic veterans in Congress.

Among the names he mentioned were Moulton, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who in fact lost in 2006, when she first ran for a House seat.

Theres big difference now, said Soltz, who points to candidates like Christina Houlahan, a former Air Force officer and nonprofit CEO with degrees from Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania.

Theres a broader definition of service, Soltz continued. Candidates are much more professional.

Houlahan is running in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District, a suburban Philadelphia seat occupied by GOP incumbent Rep. Ryan Costello. He won re-election in 2016 by 14 percentage points. But Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton essentially tied in the district.

Still, Democrats' efforts to run top-tier veteran candidates to help win back white middle-class voters who went for Trump will be stiff challenge.

The two-year budget deal recently passed by Congress had bipartisan support but was led by Republicans in the GOP-controlled Congress who successfully argued the increased spending in the $400 billion agreement was needed to keep the U.S. military from deteriorating under austere spending caps.

Our government has no higher responsibility than to support our men and women who are in harms way, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said about the measure, which raised the cap on military spending by roughly $160 billion.

In addition, the tax cuts signed last year by Trump, after being passed in Congress without a single Democratic vote, is also presenting a challenge to Democrats, who once appeared poised to have a wave election.

Two recent polls show Democrats losing double-digits leads in so-called generic polls that ask potential voters which party they prefer in congressional races, even though history shows the party that doesnt control the White House historically picks up about 30 seats in a midterm.

The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, whose mission is to help Republicans get elected and reelected to the House, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the NRCCs counterpart, told Fox News on Friday that is has more than 40 military veteran candidates in midterm races.

Were excited by the incredible candidates with records of service to their nation that have stepped up to run for office this cycle, said DCCC spokesman Tyler Law. Theres no doubt that veterans have unique qualifications and experiences that give them important credibility with Democrats, Independents, and Republican voters alike.

The first real test could come in just a few weeks -- in western Pennsylvania where Democratic nominee Conor Lamb, a federal prosecutor and ex-Marine with an Ivy League law degree, is competing for an open seat against Republican nominee Rick Saccone, a state lawmaker and Air Force veteran.

Trump won the district by nearly 20 points. Lamb is keeping the race close, trailing by about 3 percentage points with voting for the special election on March 13.

Lamb continues to argue that the tax cuts are more of a gift to corporations than to the middle class and that they could have been enacted without increasing the federal debt.

The 33-year-old candidate has also tried to distance himself from the Washington establishment, particularly House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has said the employee bonuses related to the tax cuts amount to crumbs.

Meanwhile, Washington Republicans and their political action groups are reportedly spending millions on TV and digital ads to protect the seat.

Everyone (except Lamb) must be seeing the latest round of polling that shows public support way up for the Republican tax cuts, the RNC said last week.

In addition, Vice President Pence has stumped in the district for Saccone, and Trump plans to visit before Election Day.

The DCCC seems noncommittal about whether it will continue to put money into the race.

Well continue to monitor that election day by day, group chairman Rep. Ben Ray Lujan recently said. But make no mistake, Conor will have the resources he needs to compete.

Still, his statement is not being viewed as a sign of defeat.

Moulton and others last summer blasted establishment Democrats for investing so much in their failed effort to win a special election congressional race in the Atlanta suburbs, which likely has them trying to avoid the same mistake, as outside groups continue to help Lamb.

Among the other highly touted Democratic military veteran candidates this year are Navy veteran Gil Cisneros, running for the House seat in Southern California now left open by retiring GOP Rep. Ed Royce, and Mikie Sherrill, a Naval Academy graduate and former helicopter pilot competing for the House seat left open by retiring GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee

She just scared him out the race because shes just an incredible leader, Moulton recent said on NBCs Late Night with Seth Meyers.

At the beginning of the 115th Congress, 102 members were either serving or had served in the military. That number was one more than at the beginning of the 114th Congress but six fewer than at the beginning of the 113th Congress. The House has 79 veterans and the Senate has 19, according to information from the Congressional Research Service to Fox News.The House Intelligence Committee on Saturday released a long-anticipated Democratic rebuttal that attempts to dismantle claims made in a GOP memo alleging the government used improper surveillance tactics during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The rebuttal claims that officials at the FBI and Justice Department did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.

The Democratic rebuttal backed the FBI and DOJ in its pursuit of the FISA warrant, saying that the agencies would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government.

They added that the DOJ met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis needed to meet FISAs probable cause requirement.

The GOP memo, released in early February, asserted that the FBI and DOJ relied on a Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier to ask the FISA court for a warrant to monitor Page, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump. They also claimed that the agencies left out the DNCs funding of the dossier and the anti-Trump motivations of author Christopher Steele, a onetime British spy, in its request for a warrant.

The Democratic memo was voted out of committee earlier this month but a redrafting was ordered after the White House demanded that sensitive information be stripped out before the document be made public. The Justice Department and FBI claimed the initial draft would reveal information about sources and methods, ongoing investigations and other sensitive information.

President Trump tweeted following the rebuttal memo's release, calling it "a total political and legal BUST."

He added: "Dem Memo: FBI did no disclose who the client were - the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!"

Here are some other reactions to the memo:

White House

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders calls the rebuttal a politically driven document which fails to answer serious concerns raised by the Majoritys memorandum about the use of partisan opposition research from one candidate, loaded with uncorroborated allegations, as a basis to ask a court to approve surveillance of a former associate of another candidate, at the height of a presidential campaign.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff, who spearheaded the rebuttal's release, said it should "put to rest" any concerns about conduct by the intelligence agencies. Along with a copy of the memo, he tweeted Saturday: "Some time ago, Republicans on our committee released a declassified memo that omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public and impugn the integrity of the FBI. We can now tell you what they left out."

In a follow-up tweet, Schiff responded to Trump's comment about the memo confirming "all of the terrible things that were done."

"Wrong again, Mr. President," Schiff said. "It confirms the FBI acted appropriately and that Russian agents approached two of your advisors, and informed your campaign that Russia was prepared to help you by disseminating stolen Clinton emails."

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, D-Calif., who spearheaded the release of the GOP memo, said in a statement that Americans "now clearly understand that the FBI used political dirt pair for the by Democratic Party to spy on an American citizen from the Republican Party."

"Furthermore, the FISA court was misled about Mr. Page's past interactions with the FBI in which he helped build a case against Russian operatives in America who were brought to justice," Nunes said. "It defies belief that the Department of Justice and the FBI failed to provide information to a secret court that they had provided to an open federal court regarding their past interactions with Mr. Page."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., tweeted that "the Schiff memo is a well-considered rebuttal to the misinformation in the Nunes memo," which she added, "shouldn't have seen the light of day."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Democratic memo indicated "that Chairman Nunes cherry-picked and distorted information from sensitive inteligence to sow discord and undermine" the FBI.

"By initially delaying the release of hte memo, the president purposefully silenced any Democratic rebuttal to the fabricated conspiracy theories pushed by Chairman Nunes," he added. "Obviously, there is something the president is afraid of."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a statement said the Democratic response "helps set the record straight on Republicans' attempts to obstruct the investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal."

She added that it was "imperative" for lawmakers on the other side of the aisle to "end their political charades" and said Congress needed to "take real action to investigate the Russian attacks on our democracy."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, called the FBI's actions "fully appropriate and entirely lawful" and said it was "deeply unfortunate that House Republicans decided to the release classified information in order to mislead the American people for partisan political purposes."

"Now that the Nunes memo has been thoroughly debunked, the White House and its allies in Congress must put a stop to the dangerous partisan sideshows that jeopardize classified sources and methods and focus on Russia's unprecedented interference in our election."

Fox News' Adam Shaw, Madeline Farber and Kaitlyn Scallhorn contributed to this report.President Trump on Saturday dismissed a Democratic rebuttal to the GOP memo outlining government surveillance abuses in the 2016 campaign as a total political and legal bust," claiming that it only confirms the terrible things that were done by the nations intelligence agencies.

The rebuttal, written by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, concluded that officials at the FBI and Justice Department did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.

Democrats sought to counter claims made in a Republican memo released this month that the FBI and DOJ relied on a Democrat-funded anti-Trump dossier to ask the FISA court for a warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page.

Democrats have vehemently claimed that the Republican memo left out important information.

But Trump was unimpressed by the 10-page memo that resulted.

Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff, D-Calif., countered by saying it confirmed that intelligence officials acted appropriately.

Republicans had found that the DOJ and FBI left out Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign funding of the dossier, as well as the anti-Trump motivations of author and former British spy Christopher Steele, in its request for a warrant. Indeed, Republicans have pointed to this as proof that intelligence agencies abused surveillance powers.

The Democratic rebuttal, though it did not directly challenge some of the key findings of the earlier one from Republicans, backed the FBI and DOJ in their pursuit of that FISA warrant to surveil Page.

In fact, DOJ and the FBI would have been remiss in their duty to protect the country had they not sought a FISA warrant and repeated renewals to conduct temporary surveillance of Carter Page, someone the FBI assessed to be an agent of the Russian government, the rebuttal said, adding that the DOJ met the rigor, transparency, and evidentiary basis needed to meet FISAs probable-cause requirement.

The memo said the Page surveillance warrant produced intelligence deemed reliable, and sufficient to justify renewals every 90 days.

The rebuttal said the FBI had an "independent basis" for investigating Page's motivations, and that he had been targeted for recruitment by the Russians. It also claimed that the DOJ "repeatedly informed the Court about Steele's background, credibility, and potential bias." And it maintained that the Justice Department infomed the FISA court that Steele had been hired by "politically motivated U.S. persons and entities and that his research appeared intended for use "to discredit" Trump's campaign.

The rebuttal added that the DOJ only made "narrow use" of information from Steele's sources and that in later FISA renewals the DOJ provided "additional information obtained through multiple independent sources" that backed up Steele's reporting. It challenged the Republican assertion that the FBI authorized payment to Steele, saying that it neglected that the payment was canceled.

The memo, however, did not directly challenge the Republican assertion that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to the House Committee that they would not have sought the Page surveillance warrant had it not been for that infamous dossier.

The new memo also asserted that the dossier had been corroborated by multiple sources. However, in June 2017 testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, former FBI Director James Comey said the opposite -- that three months after the warrant on Page had been granted he still considered the dossier "unverified" and "salacious" when he briefed incoming President Trump in January 2017 at Trump Tower.

The rebuttal was voted out of committee earlier this month but a redraft was ordered after the White House demanded that sensitive information be stripped out before the document be made public. The Justice Department and FBI claimed the initial draft would reveal information about sources and methods, ongoing investigations and other sensitive information.

Schiff said the minority's memo should "put to rest" any concerns about conduct by the intelligence agencies.

READ THE GOP MEMO

His confidence notwithstanding, it seemed unlikely to mark an end to the ongoing fight over the FISA application and the role of that infamous dossier. Indeed, while the two parties clash over whether that dossier was a primary or secondary driver of the surveillance application, the newly declassified criminal referral for Christopher Steele from Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the FBI and DOJ relied "heavily" on the controversial and salacious document for the FISA application.

And upon the new memo's release, Republicans on the intel committee responded with rebuttals to the rebuttal, providing more evidence that this battle has legs. For instance, while the Democrats say that the court was given information about the political motivations of Steele, Republicans say that such a statement is "buried in a footnote" that obscures rather than clarifies his motives.

The American people now clearly understand that the FBI used political dirt paid for by the Democratic Party to spy on an American citizen from the Republican Party," Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif. said in a statement.

"Furthermore, the FISA court was misled about Mr. Pages past interactions with the FBI in which he helped build a case against Russian operatives in America who were brought to justice. It defies belief that the Department of Justice and FBI failed to provide information to a secret court that they had provided to an open federal court regarding their past interactions with Mr. Page," he said.

The White House called the rebuttal a "politically driven document" that fails to answer the concerns raised by the Republican memo.

"As the Majoritys memorandum stated, the FISA judge was never informed that Hillary Clinton and the DNC funded the dossier that was a basis for the Department of Justices FISA application," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

"In addition, the Minoritys memo fails to even address the fact that the Deputy FBI Director told the Committee that had it not been for the dossier, no surveillance order would have been sought," she added.

Democrats have claimed that the original Republican memo was an effort to attack FBI Director Robert Muellers investigation into alleged Russian interference in 2016. Trump had previously said that the memo "totally vindicates" him in the investigation.

Fox News Catherine Herridge, Jennifer Bowman and Jason Donner contributed to this report.It was a typical retreat to the usual positions after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre.

The media delved into wall-to-wall coverage as reporters and satellite trucks invaded the states Broward County. #MSDStrong hashtags and logos dotted the virtual and South Florida landscape. Congressional Democrats excoriated Republicans for failing to act on assault weapons and enhanced background checks.

Most GOP lawmakers said little besides offering condolences. Many Republicans veered away from the now-pasteurized thoughts and prayers bromide that once punctuated mass shootings. The National Rifle Association laid low at first.

Then after a requisite blackout period, the gun-rights group returned to the oft-used script, which blamed the media and Democrats for the melee, criticized efforts to curb the availability of weapons and spoke of how more firepower could prevent future bloodbaths.

Twitter bots and conspiracy theorists attacked those who survived the shooting, accusing some who surfaced in media as crisis actors.

They argued that Parkland was yet another false flag -- an effort engineered by the deep state as part of Operation Mockingbird to manipulate public opinion, propagandize gun violence and prompt the mass confiscation of weapons.

A similar stage play ensues after each mass shooting. Everyone has their roles. Theres no rehearsing. This has happened so many times that everyone says and does essentially the same thing.

Its gone on for so long that some of the main players long ago exited the stage. The scene between Charlton Heston and Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine is but a distant memory.

The conventional cast includes Dana Loesch and Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Some have been involved in drama for decades. Consider California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who became mayor of San Francisco after she came upon the bodies of deceased Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk after their 1978 assassinations at city hall.

All characters in this drama may be crisis actors of another sort until something changes to halt the chaos in this never-ending macabre theatre. Theres a crisis. Everyone acts. Nothing happens.

Weve seen Orlando Strong. Vegas Strong. Newtown Strong. Charleston Strong. Aurora Strong. Echoes from the first acts like Virginia Tech and Littleton barely resonate today. Few involved on either side of the debate can even recall San Ysidro, Calif., and Killeen, Texas.

Look those up sometime.

So Congress returns to session Monday after a week-long recess. Well see if there are any new lines added to the gunplay canon.

Bump stocks entered the vernacular after Las Vegas. Theres been a tug of war since last fall between Congress and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms over who has jurisdiction to regulate and ban bump stocks, attachments that enables a semi-automatic rifle to fire more quickly.

There was lots of chatter about Congress addressing bump stocks following the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Vegas Strip. But its now late-February.

That conversation never fully gelled. However, talk about Congress acting on bump stocks is now back in the conversation after what went down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida -- which didnt involve a bump stock.

There will certainly be a debate offstage when Congress returns to work in the coming days. But little will unfold on the House and Senate floors.

The House plans to meet on just Monday and Tuesday, cancelling other activity so evangelist Billy Graham may lay in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

A fight over DACA, border security, a wall and immigration could eclipse the gun conversation and potentially commandeer floor time in March. President Trump on March 5 formally sunset the Obama administrations DACA program, that protects some younger illegal immigrants from deportation.

However, that deadline is up in the air due to pending court cases. And despite a bipartisan, two-year, broad spending agreement, the government is set to run out of money on March 23.

A failure to address DACA and the presidents spending request for a border wall is the flashpoint in the next round of negotiations -- again -- because much like the gun debate, nothing is settled on that score, either.

In fact, multiple congressional observers compare immigration reform and DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, to the firearms issue: an intractable, white-hot topic that seemingly never finds resolution.

What parliamentary options do Democrats have to pry loose action on guns? The gun sit-in led by Democratic Reps. John Lewis, Georgia, and John Larson, Conn., certainly garnered a lot of attention in the summer of 2016.

And yet here we are. Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphys nearly 15-hour speech on the chamber floor a week later certainly galvanized activists on the left.

And yet  .

The Senate observed the seemingly-perfunctory moment of silence the day after the Parkland shooting. The House appeared poised to do the same. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., even announced that intention at his weekly press conference.

Initially, the House considered holding the moment of silence vigil a week ago Thursday during its final vote sequence, just before lawmakers scattered from Washington on recess.

But a number of factors postponed the Parkland moment of silence. U.S. Capitol Police dragged out of the chamber dozens of demonstrators who erupted in chants, protesting against changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

There was confusion as to how many votes the House may take in that series. The House typically designates the moment of silence ritual to fall between the first and second roll call vote. That way, all members are on hand to take part and arent running in to make the vote or bolting out the door on the next. Third, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who represents Parkland, wasnt in Washington. Instead, Deutch was in Florida meeting with constituents after the shooting.

A leadership source said the House would wait to hold the moment of silence until Deutch returned to Washington following the recess.

However, something did happen amid the moment of silence confusion last week. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., who leads the Democrats task force on combatting gun violence, stood by the leadership table on the floor and sought recognition just after the votes ended. Thompson posed a parliamentary inquiry to the chair, asking when members may consider gun legislation.

The House ruled Thompsons interrogative out of order.

The Parkland moment of silence is expected in the coming days. Its unclear if the House or Senate does much more than that on guns in the near future.

Otherwise, the plays the same. Out-of-town TV crews. #SomethingStrong. Democrats pushing for stronger gun regulations. Trolls fearmongering online. The NRA arguing for looser gun restrictions.

Little changes. The crisis continues. And everyone is reduced to stage actors, uttering the same lines again.Leaders in Kansas and Nebraska are each opening their doors to the National Rifle Associations annual convention after a top Dallas official suggested the gun rights group find a different host city.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, took to Twitter on Friday to say that he and other residents in the Cornhusker State love our constitutional rights and welcome the convection in their state.

Kansas' Secretary of State Kris Kobach has also invited the group.

Ive already reached out to the @NRA and urged them to bring the #NRA convention to #KS., Kobach tweeted Friday. Kansans love our right to keep and bear arms. Kansas is the most pro-gun state in America. Our right to keep and bear arms const. amendment passed by greater margins than any other state.

Their remarks follow Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who in the aftermath of the deadly Valentines Day shooting at a Florida high school, said the NRA should reconsider coming to his city because there will be marches and demonstrations.

Seventeen people died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., when accused gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire with an AR-14 rifle.

The NRA has been criticized in the aftermath of the massacre by those who say the gun rights group is keeping lawmakers in Washington and across the country from passing measures that would curb gun violence.

Since the shooting, several companies have severed tied with the group, including Delta Airlines, Enterprise Holdings, First National Bank of Omaha, Symantec and MetLife. The First National Bank of Omaha said it would no longer issue NRA-branded VISA credit cards.

The annual NRA convention, which features meetings and exhibits over three days, routinely draws thousands of gun enthusiasts. This years event is set for May 4-6 at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas.

Following Caraways remarks, the NRA said after Caraways remarks that it will not consider moving the convention.

Our members work in fire stations and police departments, the group said. They save lives in local hospitals and own businesses in communities urban and rural throughout this country. No politician anywhere can tell the NRA not to come to their city. We are already there.

At the Conservative Political Action Conferences outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday, the gun right groups chief executive Wayne LaPierre slammed critics.

They dont care about our schoolchildren, LaPierre said Thursday. They want to make all of us less free, adding that Democrats are pushing a socialist agenda to deprive gun owners of their weapons.

Socialism is a movement that loves a smear," he added.

Fox 4 News in Dallas and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of the article misidentified Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The governor of Kansas is Jeff Colyer.The planned Obama Presidential Center in Chicago is being privately funded, but on Friday city officials estimated how much taxpayers will pay for roadwork and other construction around the center: $175 million.

It was the first time city officials put a specific dollar figure on the expected cost to the public, the Chicago Tribune reported.

These proposed investments are intended to make the (center) and surrounding Jackson Park a world-class destination on par with Chicagos Museum Campus, the citys Department of Transportation (CDOT) told the newspaper, in a statement accompanying the figures.

The planned taxpayer-funded work would include widening portions of some surrounding streets and constructing four or five new underpasses, the report said.

City officials said they intended to pursue all potential options for the project, including allocations from the state of Illinois.

The information was made public ahead of a scheduled meeting Tuesday, at which representatives from the Obama Foundation, a nonprofit leading the centers construction, is expected to detail its plans, the report said.

CDOT spokesman Michael Claffey told the Tribune that presidential libraries often get state financing for nearby infrastructure. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., received $100 million in such funding, he said.

However, in January, more than 100 University of Chicago professors and faculty members signed a letter saying that they and a wide range of neighborhood and activist groups agreed that the Obama Center as currently planned will not provide the promised development or economic benefits to the neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago.

They noted that because the center will be located near an existing museum and the University of Chicago, there will be no land to start new businesses or restaurants nearby.

The Tribune reported Thursday that the project was revealing race and class differences between its supporters and opponents, with one African-American woman telling the paper she has bene accused of being anti-black.

All I wanted to do was make sure my kids could play with no garage in their park, Bronwyn Nichols Lodato told the paper. I have three young children and we live in a condo and the Midway is our yard. My story is simply, how can we keep the park so our kids could play there?

In January, the former president said in a video statement that he has been "pretty hands-on" with the project and hoped it could help revitalize the neighborhood.

Michelle and I want this center to be more than just a building, Obama said. We want to create an economic engine for the South Side of Chicago, a cultural attraction that showcases the South Side to the rest of the world.

The center is scheduled to open in 2021.

Fox News Adam Shaw contributed to this story.The House Intelligence Committee officially released the Democratic rebuttal to the controversial GOP memo that purported to show improper use of surveillance by the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The Feb. 24 release came after the White House initially instructed Democratic lawmakers to revise their rebuttal memo regarding the Russia investigation, saying the document required certain redactions before it could be made public.

Earlier this month, Trump made public  without redactions  a memo written by Republicans on the committee that detailed alleged surveillance abuses by the FBI and DOJ in its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Trump further stirred controversy when he said the memo totally vindicates him of any wrongdoing.

Heres a look at what the Democrats partially blacked out 10-page memo contained.

Redactions

Unlike the Republican memo, largely authored by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the Democrats' rebuttal was released with many blacked out portions.

Most of the redactions appear to be related to intelligence regarding Russian activities, including contacts former Trump adviser Carter Page had with Russian-linked individuals. One section with multiple redactions is titled Pages connections to Russian Government and Intelligence Officials.

Page was the subject of a surveillance warrant obtained by the FBI and DOJ as part of their probe, according to the GOP version.

One redaction appears to involve former Trump aide George Papadopoulos. And another appears to block out information related to compensation the FBI considered giving to dossier author and former British spy Christopher Steele.

Even before the memos release, Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was wary of the redactions Trump would require for political purposes.

Contradicting the Nunes memo

The rebuttal released on Feb. 24 claims officials at the FBI and DOJ did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.

The GOP memo alleged Steeles controversial dossier  a 35-page document compiled for the firm Fusion GPS  "formed an essential part" of applications by the FBI and DOJ to spy on Page.

The surveillance warrant and renewals did not mention that the dossier was paid for, at least in part, by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the campaign for Hillary Clinton, according to the GOP memo.

But the Democratic memo contends the DOJ did disclose the assessed political motivation of those who hired him and that Steele was likely hired by someone looking for information that could be used to discredit Trumps campaign.

The Democrats say the FBI made only narrow use of Steeles sources in the request for the FISA application.

Republicans have said that is not enough, however, because the Clinton campaign and DNC were not named.

Dem Memo: FBI did not disclose who the clients were - the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!" Trump tweeted shortly after the Democratic document was released.

Further politicization of the probe

The Democrats memo, seen as a rebuttal to the GOPs document, was deemed a politically driven document by the White House following its release.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the memo fails to even address the fact that the Deputy FBI Director told the Committee that had it not been for the dossier, no surveillance order would have been sought.

Bolsters FBI credibility

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., previously told Fox News the Democrats document bolsters the FBIs credibility in the Russia probe. He said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was given a voluminous amount of evidence to obtain the warrant to spy on Page.

The memo contended the FBI had an independent basis for investigating Pages motivations. It also said the DOJ repeatedly informed the Court about Steeles background, credibility and potential bias.

The FBI had ample reason to believe that Carter Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power based on his history, including the fact that he had previously been a target of Russian recruitment, his travel to Russia, and other information, Schiff said in a statement. The renewals of FISA were also appropriate and based on new information obtained by law enforcement.

Additionally, the Democrats memo challenged the Republican claim that the FBI authorized payment to Steele, saying it neglected to include that the payment was cancelled.

However, the new memo said the dossier was corroborated by multiple sources  the opposite of what former FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2017. He said then, three months after the warrant had been granted for Page, that the dossier was considered salacious and unverified when he briefed incoming President Trump in January 2017.

Points of agreement

The two memos werent in complete opposition to one another.

Both memos said the Steele dossier was not the catalyst for the FBI opening its counterintelligence investigation into links between the Russia investigation and the Trump campaign. And both memos showed the investigation was prompted by concerns about contacts between Papadopoulos and individuals linked to Russia.

Fox News Madeline Farber, Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The White House and the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee sparred Saturday over the release of the memo by Democrats regarding the alleged surveillance abuses in the Russia investigation.

Some time ago, Republicans on our committee released a declassified memo that omitted and distorted key facts in order to mislead the public and impugn the integrity of the FBI, said California Rep. Adam Schiff, the committees top Democrat. We can now tell you what they left out.

Schiff led efforts to release the memo, a rebuttal to the one Republican leaders of the GOP-controlled committee released earlier this month.

The memo alleged that the Justice Department obtained a surveillance warrant on one-time Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, based on a loosely verified anti-Trump dossier, paid for at least in part by Democrats, including the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. The warrant request was made to the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Trump allowed the release of the Republican and Democratic memos.

While the Democrats memorandum attempts to undercut the president politically, the president supported its release in the interest of transparency, the White House said Saturday, after the memo was released.

Nevertheless, this politically driven document fails to answer serious concerns raised by the (GOPs) memorandum about the use of partisan opposition research from one candidate, loaded with uncorroborated allegations, as a basis to ask a court to approve surveillance of a former associate of another candidate, at the height of a presidential campaign.

As the majoritys memorandum stated, the FISA judge was never informed that Hillary Clinton and the (Democratic National Committee) funded the dossier that was a basis for the Department of Justices FISA application. In addition, the minoritys memo fails to even address the fact that the deputy FBI director told the committee that had it not been for the dossier, no surveillance order would have been sought. As the president has long stated, neither he nor his campaign ever colluded with a foreign power during the 2016 election, and nothing in todays memo counters that fact.

California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the Intelligence committee, said Saturday: The American people now clearly understand that the FBI used political dirt paid for by the Democratic Party to spy on an American citizen from the Republican Party.

Furthermore, the FISA court was misled about Mr. Pages past interactions with the FBI in which he helped build a case against Russian operatives in America who were brought to justice. It defies belief that the Department of Justice and FBI failed to provide information to a secret court that they had provided to an open federal court regarding their past interactions with Mr. Page.Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has been leading the charge against the GOP's memo, calling it a "political hit job" on the FBI.

"If the memo was really about oversight, committee members would want to read the underlying documents and bring in the FBI. Republicans voted against both," Schiff tweeted on Feb. 4, two days after the panel released the "surveillance" memo.

The four-page memo, released by the House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Feb. 2 claimed the infamous Trump dossier "formed an essential part" of applications by the FBI and Justice Department to spy on onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Schiff has called the Republicans' memo "shoddy" and "misleading," claiming it was released only to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

"The presidents decision to publicly release a misleading memo attacking DOJ & FBI is a transparent attempt to discredit these institutions," Schiff added. "We'll fight to release our classified response."

Schiff requested the committee release Democratic members own 10-page memo, with the promise to send it to the Justice Department for redactions  and the committee did just that on Feb. 24.

In a statement, Schiff said the Democratic memo should "put to rest" any concerns about conduct by the intelligence agencies.

"Our extensive review of the initial FISA application and three subsequent renewals failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement and instead revealed that both the FBI and DOJ made extensive showings to justify all four requests," Schiff said.

The memo's release comes after the White House told Democratic lawmakers the memo required certain redactions before it could be made public.

"The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency. Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!" Trump tweeted after the rubuttal's release was halted earlier this month.

Here's what you need to know about Schiff, his notable career moves and his recent Twitter exchanges with the president.

Who is Adam Schiff?

As a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, Schiff started his career in law. He spent six years working in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

During his time as assistant U.S. attorney, Schiff prosecuted the first FBI agent ever to be convicted of espionage for passing secret documents to the Soviets.

"This is a betrayal tinged with hypocrisy," Schiff said at the trial for former FBI agent Richard Miller, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, The New York Times reported. "We have here an agent who did just exactly what he was supposed to protect against."

Eventually, Schiff moved on to politics.

He was elected to the California State Senate in 1996, serving four terms before heading to the House of Representatives. The Democrat has been serving in Congress since 2001.

In recent years, Schiff has shifted his focus to foreign policy and national security. He now sits as a ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee and was a member of the Benghazi Select Committee, according to a biography on his official website.

Schiff's reaction to the FISA memo

Schiff recently said he believed the White House may have been behind the memo in an attempt to interfere with the Russia probe.

"I think its very possible his staff worked with the White House and coordinated the whole effort with the White House," Schiff said in an interview with ABC's "This Week."

The president said the memo completely "vindicates" him in the Russia investigation, though he said the "Russian witch hunt" would most likely continue.

"There was no collusion and there was no obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead)," Trump tweeted on Feb. 2. "This is an American disgrace!"

But Schiff said, while misleading, the memo was proof there was collusion with the Russians.

"Quite the opposite, Mr. President," Schiff replied on Twitter. "The most important fact disclosed in this otherwise shoddy memo was that FBI investigation began July 2016 with your advisor, Papadopoulos, who was secretly discussing stolen Clinton emails with the Russians."

Schiff versus Trump: The Twitter war continues

Trump targeted "Little Adam Schiff" on Feb. 5, calling him one of the "biggest liars and leakers in Washington," as both parties continued to argue over the newly released FISA memo.

"Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!" Trump tweeted. "Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!"

Within minutes, Schiff fired back, tweeting: "Mr. President, I see youve had a busy morning of 'Executive Time.' Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or...really anything else."

Trump's tweet came shortly before Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told "Fox & Friends" that there have been "almost 100 leaks" by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee related to the Russia investigation.

Trump's tweet also reflected frustration with a host of figures, including Schiff's Senate counterpart  Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who sits as ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which conducted its own Russia probe. He also named former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

When the Democratic rebuttal memo was released on Feb. 24, Trump, once again, took to Twitter to criticize the document.

"The Democrat memo response on government surveillance abuses is a total political and legal BUST," Trump wrote. "Just confirms all of the terrible things that were done. SO ILLEGAL!"

Schiff countered by saying it confirmed that intelligence officials acted appropriately.

"Wrong again, Mr. President. It confirms the FBI acted appropriately and that Russian agents approached two of your advisors, and informed your campaign that Russia was prepared to help you by disseminating stolen Clinton emails," he replied.

Fox News' Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Veterinarians at the Oklahoma City Zoo are baffled by an 18-year-old lioness new hairdo.

The lioness, Bridget, mysteriously began to grow a mane between March and November of last year, the zoo said.

While male lions typically develop a mane at one year of age due to an increase in testosterone, it is exceptionally rare for females to ever grow the extra hair, Gretchen Cole, an associate veterinarian at the Oklahoma City Zoo, told ABC News.

"After a while, it became obvious to everybody that Bridget was developing something a little different," Cole said.

While Bridget's mane is rare, its not the first time a lioness has grown a mane, according to the Oklahoma City Zoo.

A 13-year-old lioness living at the National Zoo in South Africa began to develop a mane in 2011 due to a problem with her ovaries. Her body produced too much testosterone as a result. And five lionesses living in Botswana were seen with manes in 2014, according to the Oklahoma City Zoo.

A benign tumor on Bridgets adrenal or pituitary glands could also be the cause, according to the zoo, as those glands regulate testosterone and other hormones.

Theres also a chance that Bridget's condition could be genetic.

To determine the cause, veterinarians took Bridgets blood and will compare it to a sample of her sister Tias blood. Unlike Bridget, Tia, who is also 18-years-old, has remained mane-less.

Thankfully, Bridgets veterinarians dont think the lioness quality of life will be affected by the condition. Overall, Bridget, who is considered to be geriatric, is in good health, Cole said, adding that big cat has retained her strong attitude.Beef exported from Belarus for the first time entered the Chinese market via the Shanghai Airport Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau recently, ThePaper.cn reported.

The frozen beef from Belarus, weighing 148.45 kilograms, is the first exported to China after the two countries signed a deal in July 2017 approving imports. The deal makes Belarus the 14th country approved to export its beef to China.

Belarus, an important country along the Belt and Road, boasts highly developed animal husbandry and high-quality beef. It exports over 130,000 tons of beef to other countries every year.

China, as the worlds third largest beef importer, consumes as much as 7.9 million tons of beef each year.

Against the backdrop of joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has been expanding its beef imports in recent years. The imported beef is popular among Chinese consumers as it maintains a high quality at a reasonable price.

Statistics show that beef import via the bureau in Shanghai stood at a growth rate of about 20 percent, while at the same time imports of traditional meat like pork and poultry saw decline in recent years.

The bureau also disclosed that it simplifies the quarantine inspection and customs clearance procedures for the beef imported from approved countries to the Chinese market.

Apart from Belarus, 13 other countries were approved to export beef to China including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Canada, the U.S., Mongolia, Mexico, South Africa, Uruguay, New Zealand, Hungary and Chile.Tourists leaving Las Vegas can now dispose of their leftover, legally-purchased marijuana at specially designated bins outside the McCarran International Airport, rather than hastily smoking it before the flight, or just donating it to a "chill bro" on the way out of town.

The green receptacles  of which there are 13 so far  have been bolted to the ground in high-traffic areas outside the airport and its car rental area, The Las Vegas Sun is reporting. The Department of Aviation moved to install the bins, or amnesty boxes, after Clark County instituted a ban on marijuana possession and advertising at McCarran back in September.

DELTA PASSENGERS ENDURE NEARLY 12-HOUR DELAY BEFORE FLIGHT IS CANCELED

"The amnesty boxes are offered as a way to help people comply with this ordinance," airport spokeswomanChristine Crews told The Associated Press.

The sale of recreational marijuana has been legal in Nevada since July 2017. Possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, or up to 1/8 ounce of concentrated marijuana, was legalized the previous January, according to The Sun.

In 2017, tourists who neglected to dispose of their leftover marijuana before arriving at McCarran would have to deal with the Las Vegas Metro Police, who would ultimately determine if the tourist was carrying a felony amount. However, Officer Aden Ocampo-Gomez of the Las Vegas police force said no citations have been issued stemming from the airport's new ordinances on marijuana possession and advertising, passed in September.

PLANE OVERSHOOTS RUNWAY AT NIGERIAN AIRPORT, SKIDS OFF INTO BUSHES

Spokeswoman Crews added that the amnesty boxes will be monitored to prevent tampering.

The drawer pulls out; you drop your stuff in and you close it. You cant really get your hand in there. If you start tampering with them, youd be detected pretty quickly, she told the Sun.

A contractor has also been hired to collect and dispose of the receptacles contents multiple times per week.

The county aviation department said it plans to install at least seven additional amnesty boxes at McCarran and nearby airports, but possibly more.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A guard at a privately run immigration jail beat a detainee because the man joined a hunger strike protesting conditions at the facility, the Washington state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a federal lawsuit Friday.

The organization sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as the GEO Group, which operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

According to the lawsuit, Jesus Chavez Flores is one of more than 120 immigrant detainees at the facility who began a hunger strike Feb. 7 to protest the conditions of their confinement, including the quality of the food they are served and that the prisoners are paid just $1 per day to perform janitorial, kitchen, laundry or other work there.

After one guard falsely identified Chavez as an organizer of the hunger strike, another guard punched him in the eye to retaliate, and he's been held in isolation  alone 23 hours per day  since Feb. 10, the ACLU said. It added that he continues to have trouble opening his eye, his vision is blurry and that his requests for medical treatment have been rebuffed.

ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said the agency did not immediately have any comment about Chavez's allegations. Pablo E. Paez with the GEO Group told The Associated Press in an email Friday that the company strongly denies the allegations.

Chavez, 34, is originally from Mexico, ACLU spokesman Doug Honig said in an email. A married father of five children in the U.S., he was arrested by Toppenish police in late December as he walked home while carrying an open beer, and he was soon transferred to ICE custody.

"I participated in the hunger strike because I've seen the injustices that people here in detention have faced," Chavez said in a statement provided by the ACLU. "And for taking peaceful action to protest injustice, I have been hit, injured and unfairly punished."

A complaint from Chavez's wife to the Tacoma Police Department about the reported assault prompted an investigation. Officers questioned Chavez and the guards at the detention center, the ACLU said.

Tacoma Police spokeswoman Loretta Cool declined to comment Friday, citing an ongoing investigation as well as the ACLU lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that GEO and ICE violated Chavez's First Amendment right to freedom of expression by retaliating. It seeks a court order for his release from solitary confinement and barring the defendants from retaliating further.

___

Follow Gene Johnson at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattlePolice say a St. Louis-area utility worker hit by a stray bullet from a shooting a half block away has died.

Berkeley police say 55-year-old Frank Langston, of Dellwood, died Friday. An employee of Raineri Ready Mix, Langston was delivering materials to a St. Louis sewer district project when he was hit by the bullet. He was taken to a hospital and died.

Police say the bullet came from a shooting that also killed another man, 27-year-old William Dortch, of St. Ann, about a half block away from where Langston was working. Dortch was inside a car sitting at an intersection when someone began shooting into the car.

Berkeley police asked St. Louis County detectives to handle the investigation.Like his cape says, this 9-year-old boy donut need a reason to thank a cop.

Tyler Carach, who has been dubbed the Donut Boy, visited the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday to deliver doughnuts for law enforcement officers.

"He's been doing this for 17 months now, and he's been to 27 different states and given out over 50,000 donuts," Tylers mother and former police officer, Sheena Carach, told NBC4LA.

Tyler, wearing a colorful cape, arrived at the Los Angeles police station with 300 doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts.

He began his mission to deliver the sweet treats to police departments nationwide when he was living in Florida.

"There was four cops and I asked my mom if I could buy them mini-doughnuts with my own money and when we left I said I wanted to thank every cop in America," he said.

Since then, he has traveled around the U.S. to continue to thank cops for risking their lives. At each stop, he wears a doughnut-printed cape with the words I DONUT NEED A REASON TO THANK A COP written on it.

They protect us, and even if they dont know us they still protect us and risk their lives every day, Tyler told FOX11 Los Angeles.

Carach said shes excited to see his son grow up and become a K-9 police officer.

Hes been pretty set on wanting to be [a police officer in the K9 unit] for a couple of years now. Even back when he was 5 years old he was dressing up in police uniform and hes just had a respect for law enforcement, she said.

We are super proud of him and we cant wait to see what the future holds for him and see what kind of officer he turns out to be.A 4-year-old girl pretended to be asleep while a suspected gunman shot and killed two people, then called 911 to warn about three bodies in a Missouri home before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Police received the cryptic 911 call around midnight Thursday from Dornubari Dugbor, 31, telling authorities they were going to find three bodies when they arrived at the home in Bellefontaine Neighbors, FOX2 St. Louis reported on Friday. When they arrived, they found Dugbors fiancee, Katrina Banks, 31, and her teenage son, Kevin Johnson, 15, shot to death.

WISCONSIN WOMAN CHARGED WITH KILLING THREE INFANTS IN THE 1980S

Dugbors body was discovered on the living room sofa with a cellphone in one hand. He died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

"It's a shame. I just would not expect it right here and then being so close to my home," Miceala Redmond, a neighbor, told FOX2.

Authorities are investigating the motive for the murder-suicide, but believe Dugbor had shot Banks and the 15-year-old before making the 911 call.

Meanwhile, the 4-year-old girl, who is the daughter of Banks and Dugbor, was in the house during the deadly incident. She allegedly heard the entire tragedy play out  from the initial gunshots to the 911 call. At one point she walked out to the living room to find her mother dead on the floor, Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Chief Jeremy Ihler said.

Dugbor then told the girl to return to the back room, where she remained and pretended to be sleeping.

Sadly, she'd heard the awful tragedy play out, Ihler told FOX2. She was close enough to the event where she heard the gunshots and heard other scuffles and talk during the event and I would imagine a 4-year-old is going to be scared from this type of event. I feel for her greatly.

Police found the girl unharmed. She was evaluated at a hospital and is expected to be placed in relatives care.

12-YEAR-OLD KILLED, 4 OTHERS INJURED AFTER HOUSE EXPLOSION IN TEXAS

Ihler said the couple got engaged in January.

We know they had some kind of relationship for the past four years because the 4-year-old was a child in common," Ihler said.

Dugbor had a house in St. Louis, but was living at Banks residence on and off, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Banks had lived at the home with her son since 2014. Police were never called to the home and none of the people killed had a criminal history.There's no more Sunshine for a 5-year-old girl in Southeast Texas.

That's because Sunshine, a horse belonging to little Arian Brock, was found dead earlier this week -- apparently killed by an arrow, Houston's Fox 26 reported.

But the story gets worse: Sunshine was a replacement horse -- donated to Arian by a rescue group -- for Sonny, the girl's previous horse, which was shot with a high-powered rifle just before Christmas.

They didnt kill him," Camie Brock, Arian's mother, told the station, referring to Sonny. "He was down and he was still alive suffering. And, I had to lay there and just pray with him until I could get someone to come euthanize him.

This week the mother wrote on Facebook: "(M)y poor child doesn't understand why someone can be so sick in the head to do something like this!!!"

In November, a horse belonging to Riley Brett, another 5-year-old girl in the area, was also fatally shot, the station reported.

Local authorities are worried.

"If it turns out to be the same person, our concern is she or he going to be discontent with killing animals and then move on to humans," Capt. Ken DeFoor of the Liberty County Sheriffs Office told Fox 26.

The cause of Sunshine's death was deduced from the aninal's injuries. But no arrows were found at the scene, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The other girl's mother also posted on Facebook after their family's horse was killed.

RIP Chicken Nugget. You now have your wings and are flying high. You will never be forgotten. You will forever be

The family gave the girl another horse, named Chicken Wing.

Residents of Liberty County have put up a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the deaths of the three horses, Fox 26 reported.Coral Springs cops who responded to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School say several Broward sheriffs deputies waited outside rather than rush in as the killer was gunning down students, according to reports.

The allegations emerged a day after veteran Broward deputy Scot Peterson resigned under fire for failing to enter the school during the Valentines Day shooting. President Trump on Friday said Peterson, who was assigned to guard the school, did a poor job.

The Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that according to police sources at least three Broward deputies, including Peterson, waited outside. The Broward Sheriffs Office said Friday it is investigating the Coral Springs officer's claims.

COP WHO DIDN'T ENTER SCHOOL DURING FLORIDA SHOOTING RESIGNS, HAS HOME GUARDED, IS SLAMMED AS 'COWARD' BY TRUMP

The allegations add to a series of failures that have emerged since 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and staff, and wounded 16. Cruz was arrested and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Two additional Broward deputies are also under investigation over whether they mishandled warnings about Cruz in the months leading up to the shooting. The FBI has admitted it failed to investigate similar claims, and Florida child welfare agency looked into concerns about Cruz, but concluded he wasnt a risk to himself or others.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the Sun-Sentinel that three Coral Springs officers said one or more sheriffs deputies did not go into the school building when they should have, and their concerns were relayed to the sheriffs office by the Coral Springs police chief.

If our investigation shows that our deputies made no mistakes or did things right, or its not corroborated, there will be no issue, Israel said.

If we find out, as we did with Peterson, that our deputies made mistakes and didnt go in, Ill handle it like I always have. Ill handle any violations of policy or procedures or whatever accordingly.

FLORIDA DEPUTY'S INACTION THE LATEST MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO STOP NIKOLAS CRUZ

At a news conference Thursday, Israel said Peterson should have went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer. Video footage showed Peterson did none of that, Israel said.

Coral Springs city manager Mike Goodrum angrily confronted Israel about the deputies response the day after the shooting, the Sun-Sentinel reported, citing sources.

Goodrum would only say he and Israel had a heated discussion.

The Coral Springs Police Department issued a statement late Friday that said, There were countless deputies and officers who responded on that fateful day from multiple jurisdictions, whose actions were nothing short of heroic."A slain Maryland police officer was remembered at his funeral Friday for a "selfless act in a time of selfish violence."

Officer Mujahid Ramzziddin, 51, of the Prince George's County, Md., police, was killed Wednesday while helping an abuse victim.

The hundreds of people who attended the funeral in Lanham, Md., included Ramzziddins family, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, police officers from across the region, and even strangers, the Baltimore Sun reported.

For many years, our brother woke up along with his fellow officers knowing this might be the last day they see their families, said Imam Ali Tos of the Diyanet Center of America, where the service was held. If this is not the definition of self-sacrifice, I dont know what is.

Prince Georges County Police Chief Hank Stawinski called Ramzziddins death a selfless act in a time of selfish violence, and regarded Ramzziddin a Muslim martyr.

Ramzziddin had been off duty Wednesday in his Brandywine neighborhood when a neighbor requested his presence. The neighbor was having the locks changed after a domestic dispute with her estranged husband, Glenn Tyndell, authorities said.

After Tyndell confronted his wife, he shot Ramzziddin five times with a shotgun, then took Ramzziddins service weapon, and fled in an SUV. Police fatally shot Tyndell along Indian Head Highway during a confrontation in which he used Ramzziddins service weapon, police said.

Without hesitation, he went out there to help that lady, Ramzziddins son, Eric Tyler, said. Today, my dad is a hero.

The funeral concluded with a Muslim prayer  the Salat-al-Janazah  while Ramzziddins coffin was loaded into a hearse and transferred to Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Maryland.An Alabama sixth-grade teacher said he learned a valuable lesson on kindness with a special note from one of his students this week.

Price Lawrence, who teaches at Highlands Elementary in Huntsville, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that his students could tell he wasnt himself.

When prompted about why he was a little off, Lawrence told his students that his father-in-law passed away over the weekend and that he was worried about his wife.

They all said they were sorry and then we got started on our work, he wrote.

When the students were leaving the class to go to their next period, Lawrence said one little girl stopped and put something in his hand.

She told me: This is for your wife. I know it was real expensive when my daddy died and I dont really want ice cream today anyways, he wrote.

The little girl handed him three quarters and a note that said: Ms. La[w]rence, Im sorry.

I wish the world would pay more attention to children. We could learn a lot from them, Lawrence concluded in his post, which has been shared more than 251,000 times.A police officer in central Texas narrowly avoided being hit by a runaway driver during a traffic stop on Tuesday, her second brush with death in the past two weeks.

The Williamson County Sheriffs Office told FOX 7 Austin the incident happened Tuesday in Liberty Hill, located north of Austin, when Deputy Tabytha Horseman pulled over a man.

"During the interview with the driver there was some information that wasn't making sense. There was no ID or DL (drivers license) produced by driver, Sheriff Robert Chody said.

When Horseman went to open the driver's door to take the man into custody he floored it and took off as her hand was on the door handle.

"There was something going on there. I believe he was wanted for something, Chody told FOX7.

Deputies briefly pursued the man, but had to call it off due to slick road conditions at the time.

The incident happened just two weeks after Horseman approached a vehicle that was sitting through multiple traffic light cycles without moving and the driver sped off a dramatic moment captured on dash cam video.

TEXAS DEPUTY 'NEARLY KILLED' AFTER MAN SPEEDS OFF DURING TRAFFIC STOP

In the dash cam video, the deputy could be heard calling for backup and yelling, "You have my foot, you have my foot," while holding on as the car speeds off. The driver in that incident, 22-year-old Jonathan Nunnally, stopped the car several hundred feet away, where Horseman was able to tase and arrest him.

"You can see the ground going by you. It's going by super-fast. You can hear the wind. It's pretty scary, Horseman told FOX 7 after the incident.

The sheriff said in the most recent incident, Horseman was noticeably standing farther away from the vehicle when it took off.

"She's probably a little gun shy for lack of a better word, Chody said. "Certainly the incident with Deputy Horseman opened our eyes to not just anything she necessarily did but reminding us of officer safety."

Authorities said the vehicle that got away in the Tuesday incident is described as a 1999 white Ford Explorer, which had plates that did not come back to any registration.[File photo]

Setting his feet in China over 700 years ago, the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo described Dunhuang in his detailed chronicle as a major pivot on the ancient Silk Road, creating an unprecedented connection between this oriental city of commerce and Europes trade empire, Venice.

Centuries later, as the ancient Silk Road is being promoted and reinvigorated by the Chinese government as the Belt and Road Initiative, the dust-laden history of trading and cultural exchanges between Venice and Dunhuang is once again being unearthed by experts and scholars from China and Italy, who have launched the first ever exhibition of Buddhist Art from Dunhuang in Italy, which represents the privileged route that once favored the diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations of Eurasia.

The exhibition, Jewel of the Silk Road: Buddhist Art of Dunhuang, kicked off in Ca Foscari University of Venice on Feb.22 and will last until 8th April. It has attracted Italian scholars, politicians and the public to brush up on the past memory and friendship of the two nations.

Venice and Dunhuang have a strong connection. Venice gave birth to Marco Polo, who reached Dunhuang during his trip to Asia. The two cities together contributed to giving a strong impulse to trade, the spreading of ideas, beliefs, customs and to the artistic expressions of the peoples encountered by Marco Polo and travelers who preceded and followed him, said Michele Bugliesi, rector of Ca Foscari University of Venice.

As Bugliesi indicated, the two cities predestined connection has stretched into the modern era. In 1987, the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang and city of Venice were enrolled in the UNESCO World Heritage List together, which remain the only two world heritage sites that meets all six UNESCO criteria up until now.

According to Ca Foscari University, the design of the exhibition space will be based on the unique colours of Dunhuang's art and will be inspired by the paintings of traditional Buddhist stories using, as the main exhibiting means, the works of art from Dunhuang and the original-format copies of the caves. The images and objects on the Silk Road, which have been brought in from other sources, will be used instead to render the context.

The intention is to bring the charm of Dunhuang's art to an audience that observes it from 6,400 km and a point of view 1,600 years newer.

The 1,600-year-old Mogao Caves are home to more than 2,000 colored sculptures and 45,000 square meters of frescoes. They are located in a series of 735 caves carved along a cliff in northwest China's Gansu Province along the ancient Silk Road route. The Buddhist site received more than 8 million domestic and foreign visitors in 2016, up 21.37 percent year on year, according to Xinhua.A U.S. sailor was in critical condition Friday after being hit by a helicopter rotor blade at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base, military officials said.

The unidentified sailor was struck by the spinning UH-1Y Venom helicopter tail rotor blade about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday.

Military officials declined to release further details, saying the incident was still under investigation.

The sailor was assigned to 34d Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, located north of San Diego.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.A Wisconsin woman has confessed to killing three infants whose unexpected deaths more than three decades ago had been classified as sudden infant death syndrome, police said.

Nancy Moronez, 60, of Oshkosh, was charged Friday with the murders of a two-week-old boy in 1980, a six-month-old boy in 1984 and a two-month-old girl in 1985, Fox6 Now Milwaukee reported, quoting police.

A criminal complaint says that during questioning this week she told cops at one point, I cant take kids that constantly cry, according to the station.

The station reported that Moronez was the mother of the youngest victim and the babysitter of the other two victims.

Police began investigating in 2015 after being contacted by Moronezs daughter.

The criminal complaint says the daughter indicated that the defendant had admitted to her that she had killed her son by suffocating him with a garbage bag.

The Associated Press reported that Moronez didn't dispute what her daughter told police, but said she actually killed her son by drowning him, putting him in bath water until his face turned purple. Her son was 18 days old.

Investigators say Moronez admitted to smothering the 6-month-old after becoming frustrated, Fox6 reported. His parents had responded to her newspaper ad for a babysitter.

In her interview with police, she said she used a blanket and held it "real tight against the face" of the baby.

A year later, Moronez was babysitting the 2-month-old when firefighters responded to a call for help. One of the firefighters had seen Moronez the year before.

"Do you remember me?" the firefighter said Moronez asked him.

"Yeah, I remember," he said.

Moronez then said, according to the court documents, "I told my husband I didn't want to babysit anymore."

She told police she smothered the infant, like she had before, with a blanket.

The complaint says she knew what she did was wrong and said she was sorry, Fox6 reported.

In each case, the medical examiner said the cause of death was SIDS.

Moronez was being held on $35,000.

She faces up to 20 years in prison on each murder count.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A North Texas woman will be sentenced March 20 after pleading guilty to falsely claiming that three black men kidnapped and sexually assaulted her, reports said Friday.

A Grayson County grand jury had indicted Breana Rachelle Harmon, 19, on four charges, including three felonies, last year, the Herald Democrat reported.

In March 2017, Denison police arrested her after she reportedly admitted to fabricating her story, the newspaper said.

Harmon was initially arrested for the misdemeanor offense of false report to a peace officer, Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown said in a news release obtained by the Herald Democrat. But he said that after considering the harm the matter has and couldve caused, he opted for more serious charges.

"She's very remorseful for what she did and what she said, and that's why she decided to plead guilty," her attorney Bob Jarvis told the paper.

"She's very remorseful for what she did and what she said, and that's why she decided to plead guilty."  Bob Jarvis, defense attorney

On March 8, 2017, Harmon ran into a church bloodied and without pants. She told police that three black men in ski masks abducted her and one of the men held her down while the other two sexually assaulted her, the Dallas Morning News reported. She said she was cut by a knife when trying to escape.

But a pair of blue jeans discovered at the alleged crime scene near a dilapidated house did not match the injuries on her thighs, the report said. Two weeks later, she confessed that the cuts on her body were self-inflicted.

Harmon later told officers that because she had been fighting with her then-fiance, she cut herself and her clothes, but made up the story to prevent her mother from being upset with her.

When people at the church asked if she was raped, she nodded without thinking because she didnt want her mom to be mad at her, the Herald Democrat reported.

As part of her plea agreement, Harmon will be sentenced either to probation or deferred-adjudication probation, Jarvis told the Herald Democrat.

Jarvis also said there are "mitigating factors" in her life that jurors will learn about at the sentencing hearing.

"Let's just say she has some fairly unusual circumstances that I think [the jury will] be interested to hear about," he said.An Alabama woman has been charged with making a bogus 911 call that led to the death of her daughter-in-law's father, police said Friday.

Dorothy Marie Gass, 65, called police in the early morning hours of New Year's Day to report that her daughter-in-law, Amy Gass, was threatening to kill her children and herself, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.

Arriving officers reportedly found Gass' father, Mark Steven Parkinson, outside with a gun in his hand. They shot and killed him when he pointed the gun at them, police said.

COPS, SWAT TEAM DESCEND ON HOME AFTER VIDEO GAME HOAX

Officers said they repeatedly identified themselves before firing.

But the victim's widow, Diana Parkinson, told local news stations that her husband grabbed his gun because he thought the arriving police sounded like potential intruders.

"He is not the type of man that would aim a weapon at someone, unless he thought someone was going to hurt his family.  Victim's wife Diana Parkinson

Her husband probably wouldn't have aimed the gun knowingly at police, she said.

He is not the type of man that would aim a weapon at someone, Parkinson said, unless he thought someone was going to hurt his family.

Police later found no evidence that Gass' initial 911 call was truthful, and charged her with misdemeanor false reporting.

The incident came amid a rash of so-called "swatting" attacks nationwide, in which people make false, urgent 911 calls that are designed to draw police SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams to the homes of unwitting victims.

The FBI estimates that roughly 400 cases of swatting occur annually.The severed head of a missing woman was reportedly found in a suitcase in Osaka, Japan, police said on Saturday.

Police, who have been investigating the disappearance of a woman from Hyogo, allegedly found the head at a lodging facility in the Nishinari Ward of Osaka, the Japan Times reported.

A few days before finding the head, police arrested a 26-year-old American man for allegedly confining the unnamed missing woman in an apartment in Osaka, according to the Japan Times.

The man, who is also currently unnamed, was seen walking into the apartment building with the woman on Feb. 16, security footage shows. But the woman was never seen leaving the building, the Japan Times reported.

Shortly before her disappearance, the woman said on Instagram that she was going to meet a man named Jay.

The womans mother contacted police after she could not reach her daughter, thus sparking the police investigation.At least two people were killed and seven wounded Saturday in an attack in Afghanistan's capital for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

A suicide bomber struck in the diplomatic area of Kabul near NATO headquarters and the U.S. Emassy, Afghanistan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said, adding that the casualty count could rise.

Meanwhile, at least 18 soldiers died in an attack on a checkpoint in western Afghanistan. That attack was linked to Taliban insurgents, said Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He said two other soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Bala Buluk district.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

ISIS, in a statement posted Saturday by its Aamaq news agency, said the Kabul attack was carried out by a bomber with an explosive vest and targeted the gate of the headquarters of the Afghan intelligence service.

The resurgent Taliban and the newer ISIS affiliate have been blamed for increased violence in Afghanistan after U.S. and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014 that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S.

Last month, President Donald Trump issued a stinging statement deploring a Taliban-orchestrated suicide car bombing that killed at least 95 people and wounded 158 others in Kabul.

The latest incident comes shortly after the U.S. Embassy in the Balkan state of Montenegro was attacked Thursday by an individual armed with a hand grenade, who hurled the explosive at the compound before blowing himself up.

That attacker reportedly resented NATO and posted pro-Marxist memes online.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Federal officials in India have launched a massive manhunt for a billionaire jeweler - who made pieces for A-list celebrities like Kate Winslet and Naomi Watts - for his alleged role in a $1.8 billion bank scam.

Indias Central Bureau of Investigation launched a global manhunt for diamond billionaire Nirav Modi, who authorities said allegedly cheated the state-owned Punjab National Bank by using fake bank "letters of understanding" to get loans.

Modi has not yet been charged with a crime.

Indian media reported that Modi and his family are hiding in New York or Dubai. The External Affairs Ministry said it has suspended the passports of Modi and his uncle, Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, for four weeks.

According to Sky News, officials have seized more than half a dozen luxury cars including a Rolls Royce Ghost and a Porsche Panamera from the billionaire and his companies, along with around $873,000 worth of jewelry, gold, diamonds, precious metals and stones.

On Tuesday, India's federal investigating agency arrested five executives who worked for the companies owned by Modi and Choksi.

Five bank executives and another employee of Modi's company Firestar group were arrested over the past three days for allegedly conspiring to cheat the bank.

India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday blamed bank management and auditors.

Such scams, he said, not only had a direct cost to the country and the taxpayers, but also an indirect cost to borrowings and development.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Modi sent a letter to the bank this week saying he owes less than half the amount claimed by the bank in connection with the alleged fraud.

Modi runs an international jewelry empire that reaches from India to New York, with a string of high-end brands. He and his family fled India weeks before the bank registered a criminal case with the CBI on Jan. 31.

In his letter to the bank, Modi said he owes about 50 billion rupees ($775 million), according to PTI. He said the $1.8 billion cited by the bank had resulted in a media frenzy that pressured authorities to quickly search and seize assets from his Firestar International and Firestar Diamond International companies.

"This thereby jeopardized our ability to discharge the dues of the group to the banks," Modi said.

The CBI spokesman said the agency had not yet received Modi's letter. There was no immediate comment from the state-run bank.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.More than 100 migrants from Central America were found in a freight trailer abandoned by a roadside near the U.S.-Mexico border, agents from Mexicos National Immigration Institute said Friday.

The trailer was found near Ciudad Camargo, across the border from Rio Grande City, Texas, the Mexican immigration agents said.

Passing military patrol personnel heard people pounding on the inside walls of the truck and calling for help.

The container had apparently been abandoned by migrant traffickers when the soldiers came across it in Tamaulipas, where migrants frequently attempt illegal border crossings, Reuters reported.

Thousands of Central Americans each year, fleeing violence and poverty, are transported by human traffickers in treacherous, sometimes life-threatening conditions, the report said. The migrants use Mexico as a channel to the U.S.

The rescued migrants, who crammed together for about 12 hours, included 91 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and five Salvadorans. Among them were 24 youths and 12 unaccompanied minors who were turned over to child welfare authorities.

The migrants were also suffering from dehydration and asphyxiation, Reuters reported.

Subsequently, President Donald Trump called on the Mexican government Friday to block MS-13 gang members from traveling through Mexico to the U.S.

77 IMMIGRANTS FOUND IN TRUCK NEAR CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER

More than 800 Central American migrants have been found in truck trailers or safe house in Mexico this year, Reuters reported, citing from a government document.

In July 2017, 10 people died after a truck carrying more than 100 Guatemalan and Mexican migrants was left in the parking lot of a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution demanding 30-day cease fire in Syria so that it can deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

The proposal was approved after a two day delay caused by a lack of support from Russia, which said that an immediate cease-fire was unrealistic.

The resolution was amended late Friday to remove a stipulation that the cease-fire take effect in 72 hours. With that, Russia voted in favor of the resolution.

Despite passing the resolution, U.N. members were quick to criticize Russia for the delay.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said that Russias attempts to initially delay the vote cost lives. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and shelling? How many more images did we need to see of fathers holding their dead children? she said.

The Syrian people should not have to die waiting for Russia to organize their instructions from Moscow, or to discuss it with the Syrians.

Haleys comments were seconded by U.K. Ambassador Stephen Hickey. While we have been arguing over commas, Assads planes have been killing more civilians in their homes and in their hospitals, imposing unbearable suffering, he said in a statement.

In the face of escalating violence, devastation and suffering, we must all now take practical steps to improve the situation for those living and dying in a hell of one mans making.

While there is no set time for the cease-fire to begin, Ambassador Olof Skoog of Sweden said that humanitarian convoys and medical teams are standing by and ready to go.

According to the proposal, 5.6 million Syrians are in acute need, of help, 2.9 million of which are in hard to reach and besieged areas.

The resolution calls for all parties to immediately lift the sieges of populated Syrian cities, but the council authorized one exemption. It said that attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State group and all Al Qaeda affiliates would be allowed to continue.

Fox News' Ben Evansky and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The world, Congolese people, and mostly relatives of the Congolese refugees in Kiziba camp (Rwanda) have been shocked by the disproportionate response of Rwandese security forces against unarmed refugees. The shooting of live bullets took place yesterday 22 Feb 2018 nearby the United Nations High Commissions for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Karongi/Rwanda but also innocent people who have remained in the Kiziba camp were too shot. It tends to confirm that the Rwandese security services have had a hidden agenda as they even shot those who did not move from the refugee camp. Though difficult to access the accurate information, it is being reported that more than 20 refugees were brutally killed and countless wounded. The whereabouts of young children who were collecting water in the Lake Kivu remains a concern. Hundreds of children, women and men are still hopelessly running away while their safety is yet in danger.

While in the hand of the UNHCR and Rwandan Government, refugees were shot simply because they were demanding to humanly be treated. Besides the desperation of having spent 20 years in the camp, refugees were discriminated in terms of remuneration, access to health facilities, the wrap up of the process of resettlement in a third country, the interference of security services in the management of refugees representation but also living out of $ 6.7 per month per person (that is $0.22 per person per day). Sincerely, such living conditions are humiliating as it as insult to injuries! Nevertheless, sources within the refugees representatives have confirmed that many efforts were deployed to find ways out but they never understood why things had gone worse. Therefore, they decided to peacefully protest in front of the UNHCR office within the region. It is in front of the UNHCR office that the tragedy took place.

We remind the world that out of 17000 refugees, roughly 13090 are women and children. Subsequent to the uncertain context we recommend:

- The Government of Rwanda to immediately stop the killing and chasing of refugees;

- The Rwandan Government must held accountable anyone who has individually or collectively engaged in shooting and killings;

- The United Nations, especially the UNHCR must take their responsibilities to protect the refugees under the 1951 Refugee Convention;

- The UNHCR needs to provide first aid and urgent support to survivors especially children, old people and wounded;

- The UNHCR and Rwanda Government have to find and establish a climate that appeases the immediate fear and working on a long term appropriate solutions;

- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Government have to take a step forward to defend its citizens.

- We recommend an international and independent inquiry to understand why this tragedy happened;[File photo]

Following concerns that Chinese business is taking advantage of French distressed rural communities, President Emmanuel Macron promised measures Thursday to help prevent foreign investors buying French farms, a move taunted by experts as a mere gesture of political correctness.

"For me, French agricultural lands are strategic investments on which our sovereignty depends, so we can't allow hundreds of hectares of land to be bought by foreign powers without us knowing the aims of these purchases," Macron was quoted as saying by AFP.

According to AFP, the president was referring to news last year that a Chinese fund had bought 900 hectares of land in the cereal-growing Allier region in central France, following an acquisition of 1,700 hectares in the Indre area in 2016.

Zhao Yongsheng, an economics professor at Chinas University of International Business and Economics, told Global Times that the French authorities will not carry out substantial measures against Chinese land buyers, noting that Macrons remarks are just out of political correctness.

There is no obvious trend of Chinese investors buying land in France. From what I know, those who bought land in north Normandy are not real estate speculators, but investors in dairy farming. Most Chinese would buy Chateaus instead, said Zhao.

Japanese and Russian investors are also great buyers of French land, who are as well boycotted by the French public. The truth is, the lands for sale are either too expensive for French buyers or disliked by them. Selling such lands would promote French economy, especially benefit the tax department, Zhao added.

The Chinese authorities have also responded to Macrons claims, noting that Chinese enterprises are required to observe laws and regulations when expanding markets overseas.

We also hope that the relevant party could provide an enabling environment and a level playing field for Chinese enterprises' investments and operations there and contribute to the sound development of bilateral economic cooperation and trade, said Geng Shuang, spokesperson of Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.Artificial intelligence (AI) technology will be utilized at the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games, which will take place in a few days, famous Chinese movie director Zhang Yimou told a press conference on Feb. 24, Chinanews.com reported.

Zhang said the AI technology will collaborate with human actors in the show Eight minutes of Beijing which will be staged during the closing ceremony. The AI technology will also interact with Chinese net users online, said the director.

Another feature of the show is the interaction between people and the internet, Zhang said, adding that so far they have received pictures of 60 million people, and these pictures will appear during the show.

The primary function of the show is to send a welcome message to the world about the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Zhang said.A Chinese sticker pack for social media app WeChat was recently exhibited on a 3-day promotion in Tokyo, as a showcase of Chinas new culture, Chinanews.com reported.

Created in 2015 by Chinese cultural company Block 12, the sticker pack has been used over 10 million times by Chinese netizens. Because of its cute and positive design and the sticker pack centered on cartoon figure Tuanzi, it has become extremely popular among Chinese internet users.

Tokyo was the first stop during the companys global promotion of the sticker pack.

The promotion was held by Japanese company Miniature Factory, a partner of Block 12 in Japan. The two signed an agreement in 2017 to promote products for each other in their respective countries.

Tuanzi conveys positive energy, and it has been a great friend of mine in my life and work, said Zhang Yuchen, a journalist from China Central Television who participated in the promotion of Tuanzi in Tokyo.

Im so proud that the figure designed by a Chinese company could have its overseas exhibition, she added.

According to Takuro Tsunekawa, chairman of the board at the Miniature Factory, more consumers and merchants will be interested in the sticker pack as the promotion continues. I believe that Tuanzi will be a new icon for Japanese to recognize China and its young generation, he said.

We hope to expand our international business and improve the influence of Tuanzi, said Li Chao, chief of Block 12s international division.When there were tough issues to resolve involving strong personalities and complicated transactions, Shan Mullin was the person you wanted at the table.

The former longtime chair of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center board of trustees, who died Wednesday at 83, went to that table again and again for the Hutch and for dozens of other community groups in Seattle and Washington state. During his tenure at the Hutch, from 1994 to 2005, few achievements reflect his skill as a community-builder than the role he played in helping create Fred Hutchs clinical care partner, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

A lot of the success of the Hutch over the time I was there, especially when forming SCCA, was due to his guidance, said Fred Hutch President and Director Emeritus Dr. Lee Hartwell, who became Hutch president in 1997. Shan was just a rock of wisdom and stability.

A partner at the venerable Seattle law firm Perkins Coie, Mullin represented corporate clients in complicated domestic and international business transactions for more than 45 years, amassing professional accolades that included alumni and citizen of the year awards from his alma mater, the University of Washington School of Law. (With an undergraduate business degree, he was a Dawg all the way.)

He brought those skills to bear in the delicate work of aligning three powerhouse institutions  Fred Hutch, UW Medicine and Seattle Childrens  to form the new cancer treatment center in 1998.

He also brought something else to the table  a big heart and an even bigger vision.

He was a high-powered attorney, a senior person in one of the most esteemed law firms in the region. But beyond all of that, he was just one of the most even, thoughtful, caring human beings Ive known, said SCCA Executive Vice President Norm Hubbard, who joined SCCA at its beginning. He had this really great vision for the Hutch and UW and Childrens and SCCA all working together for the benefit of the community, and he always kept sight of that.Like fallen leaves, tourbillons can be raked up by the armful, as too can minute repeaters and perpetual calendars. Wildly inventive versions such as a tri-axial double tourbillon are available from ten or so brands. Much like jazz standards, classics are repeatedly revisited and reinterpreted. In parallel, there is a whole host of specialized, strange or niche complications. They are rarely crazy, but they are all endowed with a subtly eccentric touch and a definite sense of purpose.

Unsual calendars

In some professions, references to the date always include the week number. There are in fact 52.14 weeks in a year, which is why some watches, such as the Villeret Week of the Year Large Date model by Blancpain, are graduated up to 53. Another date-related complication is the alarm: not as relating to a daily wake-up call, bur rather one that looks ahead such as the Senator Diary by Glashutte original. This model enables its wearer to program an alarm for a given time and date up to one month ahead. And when it comes to a more abstract timeline, Hermes has created the Slim dHermes Lheure impatiente. Its countdown ticks off the 60 minutes preceding the eagerly awaited chime.

Villeret Week of the Year Large Date  Blancpain

Slim dHermes LHeure Impatiente  Hermes

Rare sounds

The kingdom of chiming watches is vast indeed and encompasses such rare models as the Chopard L.U.C Fullstrike with its striking-mechanism power-reserve indicator. Minute repeaters are generally wound at the same time as they are primed to chime, by activating a slide or trigger. But some of them have a large striking barrel capable of making the watch ring out  up to 12 times in the case of the Fullstrike. Another variation on this auditory theme is the striking in passing or automatic strike. A press on the pusher is enough to have the watch sound a single note to mark the passing of each hour, as is the case for the Hourstriker by Ulysse Nardin. Playing a complete tune takes a watch teamed with a music box, such as the Jacob & Co. Opera model, featuring two identical cylinders enabling it to sound more loudly, along with the entire movement rotating throughout the melody.

L.U.C Full Strike  Chopard

Hourstriker Pin-Up  Ulysse Nardin

Unconventional actions

The modern definition of a horological complication includes control sub-systems and alternative displays. The Ring Command by Rolex enables the wearer to adjust the Sky-Dweller through the combined action of the bezel  which serves as a function selector  and the crown. As far as original displays are concerned, dozens have been dreamed up over the past 15 years, yet one of the most lasting is the wandering hour  as exemplified in the Golden Wheel by Arnold & Son. This watch does without hands and instead features a disk bearing hour numerals on an arc graduated from 0 to 60.

Exceptional specialities

Then come certain ultra-specialized watches designed for serving specific purposes and measuring certain phenomena. Richard Mille has thus invented a mechanical accelerometer called a G-sensor, which is incorporated within several watches including its RM 38-01 Bubba Watson. Oris has popularized the altimeter. Its Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter is dedicated to serving pilots in real time, including those of Switzerlands REGA airborne rescue service. Finally, for those with their head in the stars, Van Cleef & Arpels has joined with a watchmaker from The Netherlands named Van Der Klaauw, a specialist of astronomical watches. The Midnight Planetarium follows the respective orbits of virtually all the planets in the solar system, from the 88 days of Mercurys year to the 10,757 days of Saturn. Hubert Reeves and his fellow astronomers will doubtless have recounted just to be sure, before applauding the accomplishment.

Midnight Planetarium  Van Cleef & Arpels

PAUL O'NEIL's Point of view - Chief Editor of WorldTempus.com



Davids article is a great example of just how far watch brands think beyond the mere function of telling the time. From chiming the hours to waking you up, measuring G-force and displaying the altitude  all mechanically  there is no limit to the levels of ingenuity that can be packed into the small object on your wrist. Sure, you can get similar functions in a smart watch but you will never get the same emotion, not to mention the same history-defying durability. And you dont need to worry about battery life for the altimeter on a Favre-Leuba Bivouac 9000 if youre climbing Everest. As long as you keep it wound up, it will display the altitude up to 9,000 metres.Turkish officialdom and media sustained an increasingly strident and often bellicose campaign against the US for most of the past year.

Orchestrated from the White Palace in Ankara, it began some weeks after Donald Trump was sworn in, when Erdogan realised that the new occupant of the White House in Washington was not going to hand over the alleged mastermind of the so-called coup attempt, Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, and moreover that the US was going to continue to support the predominantly Kurdish forces that have been fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.

To hear Turkish officials in recent days and weeks, one would have thought that Ankara and Washington would finally part ways. "Relations between the two NATO allies are on the verge of rupture or being put on ice until further notice," one Turkish columnist wrote.

Some observers expected that Ankara would time this crucial decision to coincide with US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons two-day visit to the Turkish capital last week. As he was air-bound for Turkey last Thursday, his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, in a press statement, said that relations between the two countries had reached such a critical point that they would either have to be repaired or severed.

But much to the surprise of anyone unfamiliar with Erdogans demagoguery and cynical flip-flopping, nothing of the sort occurred. In fact, all Ankaras threats and ultimatums melted into thin air, even as the Trump administrations representative, Tillerson, explicitly reiterated the following points from the very heart of the Turkish capital: firstly, US will not withdraw from strategically important Mambij in Syria; secondly, it will not cease support for the Syrian Democratic Forces (which Ankara claims is an extension of the Turkish-based PKK); and thirdly, that Washington will not hand over Gulen unless Turkey submits tangible and substantiated evidence.

On top of the foregoing Nos, Tillerson reiterated his governments grave concerns over the deterioration in human rights, freedom of expression, judicial autonomy and rule of law in Turkey. Nor did he omit a reference to Turkeys contract to purchase Russian S-400 missiles which, if it goes through, will not have positive repercussions for Turkey.

In the aftermath of that visit, the very media organs that, for a year, snapped and growled at the very mention of the word Washington have been put to the difficult task of coming up with face-saving formulas for the diplomatic defeat.

Eventually, one stealthily emerged in a government communique following the talks: the two countries had agreed to normalise relations between them. With some relief, the government-controlled press seized upon it and blazoned it across their headlines with no allusion to the USs unaltered stances on Manbij, Syrian Kurds and Gulen.

In the process, the regularly broadcast opinion polls highlighting the Turkish peoples rejection of the USs anti-Turkish policy of supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were forgotten, as were the appeals from Turkish business and entrepreneurial quarters to Ankara to burn bridges with the West and turn eastward towards Asia and the Pacific.

Naturally, opposition forces did not miss the opportunity to express their views on this humiliating development. Social media abounded with satirical quips about how the mighty Erdogan, in pseudo-Ottoman warrior garb, was forced into retreat by the power that, if it wished, could get Turkey booted out of NATO.

As Erdogan knows this very well, his bombast was, as always, pitched for the gallery and geared to attain his political ends at home.

As for that Ottoman slap that Erdogan had promised to deliver, neither Tillerson nor anyone else in Washington appears to be feeling the sting. In fact, if anyones face is smarting at the moment, it is Turkeys thanks to Erdogans bluster and bravado style of brinksmanship.

One of the most widely circulated video clips among opposition quarters at present is that in which US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, in a press briefing, describes the Turkish presidents threat as "funny". In response a reporters question as to whether "the US has experienced the Ottoman slap," Nauert smiled, took a moment to collect herself as journalists laughed, and said As funny is it was Im not going to respond to every foreign leaders comment.

It was, perhaps, no coincidence that just the day after Tillerson's visit, SDP forces carried out a strike near the Kirikhan district of the Turkish Hatay province, which borders Syria. It was reported that the target was a military base where the invasion attacks against Afrin are coordinated. It was the first time that the SDF, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, has claimed a cross-border attack on Turkish forces.

It is unlikely that this action could have taken place without a level of support from the Syrian regime. Damascus has allowed hundreds of SDF reinforcements to pass through parts of regime-controlled areas in order to reach Afrin and contribute to the defence of that canton against the Turkish invasion.

Contrary to Turkish propaganda, Turkish forces on the ground in Afrin are encountering stiff resistance, which is prolonging an operation that had been billed as a blitz campaign that would achieve immediate victory.

Observers suggest that, because of the growing complexity of the situation in Afrin, especially with the increasing involvement of the Russian-backed Syrian regime, Turkish forces are at risk of becoming inextricably bogged down. Adding weight to this possibility, Kurdish fighters, as natives of the area, are fighting on home ground and determined to defend their families, homes and villages, unlike the invading Turkish forces and their jihadist allies.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Minette Batters, selected as first female president in the NFU's 109-year history  Ian Hinchliff/REX/Shutterstock

This weeks NFU conference was the biggest ever  bringing more than 1,500 delegates to the centre of Birmingham for two days that mixed farming business and pleasure.

We look back at some of our favourite highlights from Twitter below.

See also: New NFU leadership team sets out aims

1. Michael Gove likes the word shortly

The Defra secretary is one of the few key politicians to deliver a keynote speech to NFU conference without making any major announcements. Yes, there were hints about future policies but there was no Big Reveal  prompting a wry observation from National Pig Association advisor Ed Barker:

Michael Gove at #NFU18: Today I will announce some announcements that will shortly be announced.  Ed Barker (@edbarkerpig) February 20, 2018

2.  but Mr Gove knows which side his bread is buttered. Despite having little to say of substance, he is a dab hand at making his audience feel warm inside. Gove is a politician who can face four directions at once, remarked one conference delegate.

3. Vegan activists prefer to hurl abuse at farmers from a computer keyboard rather than confronting livestock producers face to face and having a reasoned debate.

4. Great British food can be fed to a great many people. More than 1,200 people sat down to a fantastic dinner on the first night of the conference  the most yet at the best-attended NFU conference ever, with 1,500 delegates. But some people still prefer chips.

Home from a great @NFUtweets conference congratulations to @barford100 @essexpeasant and @HertsFarmer top team I think for what is a important time one request though can we have chips next year at #NFU19 so its better than #NFU18 pic.twitter.com/A1Zyr44i17  Olly harrison (@agricontract) February 21, 2018

5. After-dinner speaker, comedian and actor Miles Jupp can do a mean impression of Michael Gove. We were laughing too much to take a photo, but its clearly something hes done before.

James and Jupp is probably the laziest comedians-travel-somewhere-and-chat tv programmes but its made endearing by the charm of the two hosts. Miles Jupps impression of Michael Gove is cracking too pic.twitter.com/JXeWxdJen9  Joel Taylor (@JoelTaylorhack) November 17, 2017

6. The Walkabout bar on Broad Street was the place to go after hours  and for some last-minute canvassing ahead of the NFU leadership elections.

7. Farm safety has a bright future. Farmers donned yellow and orange hi-vis jackets to launch a #SeeItChangeIt safety campaign.

Well done @nfu @nfu_farmsafety . Never seen so many farmers wearing hi-vis before. Let us hope they carry on wearing them around the farm yard, and in the fields back home, after #NFU18.

Hi-vis farmers launch #SeeItChangeIt safety campaign https://t.co/RVOmOBbKcu  Alan (@AlanPlom) February 22, 2018

8. Statistics can be memorable  and thought-provoking too. Weve some of the worlds most fertile farmland  and rightly make the most of it.

For ever acre of wheat we dont grow in the U.K. the rest of the world has to grow a hectare. Brilliant point by Jack Watts #NFU18 pic.twitter.com/T80iiWoEhA  Stuart roberts (@HertsFarmer) February 20, 2018

9. Meurig Raymond will be a much-missed farm leader. Youre nobody these days unless youve got your own internet meme  and it didnt take long for one to appear after Mr Raymond stood down as NFU president following a final heartfelt speech.

EXCLUSIVE. First look at the moment Meurig Raymond regenerated in to the first female Timelord of @NFUtweets ! pic.twitter.com/ojYXSWWKnW  TheFarmingProgramme (@FarmingShow) February 21, 2018

10. But the union has a strong team which has already hit the ground running. This conference will be remembered for the leadership election that saw Minette Batters become the NFUs first female president in the unions 109-year history  joined by deputy president Guy Smith and vice-president Stuart Roberts. All three are already hard at work, with Ms Batters travelling to Brussels the next day. How to Clip

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Egypt's presidential elections campaigning started Saturday, one day after the National Elections Authority (NEA) approved incumbent President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Moussa Mostafa Moussa, head of the Ghad Party, as the final candidates for the March 2018 elections.

Several billboards featuring President El-Sisi were seen in Cairo streets Saturday, the first day of campaigning that is set to continue until 23 March.

The elections are set to be held abroad 16-18 March, and inside Egypt 26-28 March, while in case of a second round, the elections will take place on 19-21 April for Egyptians abroad, and 24-26 April inside Egypt.

The first day of electoral campaigning comes one day after the NEA confirmed Friday both President El-Sisi and contender Moussa as final candidates, also approving electoral symbols requested by the candidates: a star for El-Sisi and an airplane for Moussa.

The NEA warned candidates to not violate the right of privacy of contending candidates, or threatening national peace or using religious slogans that discriminate between citizens.

It also urged against using violence or threatening to use it, as well as campaigning that involves presenting gifts or donations, or monetary or in-kind contributions, or any promised benefits, whether direct or indirect.

The authority also proscribed the use of state owned buildings, vital facilities, means of transportation, and public sector companies and NGOs in campaigning.

Earlier, the NEA has set a cap of EGP 20 million (approximately $1.3 million) on campaign financing for each candidate.

President El-Sisi, whose current term will end in June, won the 2014 presidential elections with nearly 97 percent of the vote in a two-man race with leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.

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The price of electricity has been at the centre of controversy over the last few years after the government began lifting energy subsidies leading to a gradual increase in electricity prices.

Arguments over how bills are calculated and problems resulting from inaccurate readings have escalated over the last few months.

My electricity bill has doubled for no reason, commented Hadir Adel, a married bank clerk with no children. Her words have been echoed by many people over the last few months since electricity prices went up in July 2017 as part of the governments plan to gradually lift energy subsidies.

They have gone from an average of LE500 to LE950 without any real change in my consumption, Adel said, adding that she had asked the meter-reader for an explanation. He said that her slight increase in consumption had placed her among consumers who pay significantly more.

My consumption is almost the same every month, and yet the bill still fluctuates. In December, I paid LE1,600, but the following month it was over LE3,000, said Mohamed Samir, an Uber driver in Cairo. Samir explained that sometimes the meter-reader did not come for the monthly reading, and then he found his bill exceeding the previous one. Thats how I know for sure there is something wrong going on, he said.

One extreme case was that of Sameh Abdel-Latif, the owner of a car accessories shop in Cairo, who received a bill of LE29,200 for his domestic consumption in December.

Despite living in a 600-square-metre villa, Abdel-Latif believes there is no way he had consumed electricity to that amount. He refused to pay and went to the North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company to ask for an explanation. There are nine electricity distribution companies in Egypt.

After checking the complaint, the company admitted there had been a mistake in the reading, resulting in the exaggerated bill. This was later lowered to LE4,700.

Some celebrities have also taken to social media to express their annoyance at their electricity bills. Ezzat Abu Ouf, a famous actor, posted on Facebook lately to complain about one electricity bill that had reached LE13,000. Abu Ouf said that he couldnt explain this huge bill as his consumption had remained unchanged. His previous bill had been for LE5,000, he said.

Officials from the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy (MERE) analysed Abu Oufs home consumption and compared it to his bills. One of them had said that some of his appliances, among them heaters, air-conditioners, and the pools power system and heater, were all heavy consumers of electricity, Abu Ouf said, and that these had put him among the highest domestic consumers of electricity.

However, some people have found inaccurate readings to be in their favour. Last months bill was only LE49 compared to LE350 the previous month, but our consumption was almost the same, said Ashraf Mustafa, an accountant who lives with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

I was happy to pay less money, but I knew there was something wrong. The meter-reader didnt visit before Januarys bill, and I suspect the next bill will compensate for the error, he said.

Mustafa may be right. It seems that an estimated reading was given that was less than the actual consumption and that put him in the bottom bracket of consumers charged a lower rate per kilowatt (kw) of electricity consumed.

When the next reading is taken, the actual consumption will be calculated and Mustafa may find himself placed in a higher bracket and pay more than expected.

DIFFERENT CONSUMPTION

Although there are cases where inaccurate meter-readings are to blame, many complaints result from a lack of knowledge of consumer brackets and how to calculate electricity consumption.

Electricity consumers in Egypt are divided into seven brackets, each paying a different price per kw of electricity consumed. The latest prices per bracket were issued in July 2017.

Consumers falling in the first bracket are those who consume anywhere between zero and 50kw at LE0.13 per kw. Second-bracket consumers pay LE0.22 per kw if their consumption falls between 51 and 100kw.

The third bracket includes those who pay LE0.27 per kw for up to 200kw of electricity. Fourth-bracket consumers use from 201 to 350kw and pay LE0.55 for each kw. The fifth bracket lies between 351 and 650kw at LE0.75 per kw. Sixth-bracket consumers pay LE1.25 per kw anywhere between 651 and 1,000kw. Those who consume more than 1,000kw pay LE1.35 per kw.

The brackets were designed to ensure that those who consume more pay more, and consumers in the seventh bracket do not benefit from any subsidies on their bills. There were about 34 million electricity subscribers in Egypt in December 2017, according to MERE figures, a four-per-cent increase on 2016.

Electricity prices were scheduled by the MERE in 2015 to move up gradually until they reached the real cost of production. At this point there will be no more government subsidies on electricity. The initial plan was to reach that goal in 2019, but this has now been extended to 2022.

Many people have expressed their dissatisfaction at the rising prices of electricity, which have added to their suffering after the series of price hikes that took place following the flotation of the pound in November 2016 as part of the governments economic reform programme.

However, the problem for many has not been the fact that electricity prices have been upped. Instead, it has been what they suspect have been inaccurate or random meter-readings.

Inaccurate electricity bills can also affect the prices of certain commodities. When the bill paid by a store, for example, is not stable every month, the store will need to price its products differently and add the additional expense to the pricing of certain commodities.

Billing problems have to be sorted out once and for all, said Sara Atef, a pharmacy teaching assistant. It has been a headache for a long time now, and it disrupts many aspects of our lives.

Complaints about electricity bills can be made in different ways. One way is to go to the relevant distribution company. Another is to register the complaint centrally by calling 121 or sending an SMS to 91121 with details of the bill. More than three million calls and text-messages have been made thus far, according to the MERE. A third way to complain is by registering a complaint on the MEREs website at www.moee.gov.eg.

The Egyptian Electricity Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (EgyptERA) has also launched a website (www.egypterases.com) to register meter-readings online by subscribers without third party meter-readers. There is also a mobile application called egypterases that can be used for the same purpose. Both the website and application allow users to register their readings and calculate their bills based on their consumption, possibly leaving no room for error.

Ayman Hamza, a MERE spokesman, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the ministry had realised that there were problems with inaccurate meter-readings some time ago. There were about 4,000 meter-readers and 7,200 bill-collectors across the country, he said, and the ministry needed at least to double that number in order to ensure more systematic meter-reading and bill-collection.

The MERE recently signed a three-year contract with a private company to cover the shortage. The company has now started to read electricity meters and collect bills in certain areas identified by each of the MEREs distribution companies.

The ministry is also implementing a project to replace about 30 million electricity meters with pre-charged and smart ones over the next five years at an estimated cost of LE60 billion. Pre-charged meters automatically cut the power from households when a pre-set amount has been consumed, with the power coming back on once the meter is recharged. New customers are already obliged to install pre-charged meters, and the current number of subscribers using them is estimated at 4.75 million, according to Hamza.

A pilot project to install 250,000 smart meters in six governorates started at the end of 2017, with the needed networks and data-centres also being set up. Smart meters differ from pre-charged ones in that they have additional features like enabling users to set their consumption at a certain rate before giving a warning and having two sim-card slots to allow for charging at any time.

COMPLAINTS

The pre-charged meters have helped to lessen the confusion about bills, though they have led to other problems.

I can check what pricing bracket I am in in real time, which helps me to monitor my consumption, said Mustafa Eissawi, a university student living in a rented apartment in Cairo. This saves the hassle of inaccurate or random readings that have been causing billing problems.

However, the users of pre-charged meters have complained about an additional charge of around LE500 after a month of usage that they have said they did not know they would have to pay.

Employees at the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company explained to the Weekly that this was like a fine for exceeding 1,000kw of consumption per month. Exceeding this amount pushes consumers into the seventh consumption bracket that does not benefit from subsidies, they said. The fine reflects earlier benefits from the subsidised rate charged earlier.

Because of timely payments through pre-charged meters, some consumers may feel they are paying more, and some of them may want to use the old meters, Hamza said. But electronic payments and the use of pre-charged or smart meters offer advantages for all, he said.

Ahmed Bahgat, a professor of electrical engineering at Cairo University, said that people needed to rationalise their energy consumption in order to avoid hefty bills. The government had already launched many campaigns to encourage lower electricity usage when prices were lower and many people were using unnecessary lights at home or at work, or were running multiple air-conditioning units, he said. The latter are responsible for most household electricity consumption, the ministry said.

Bahgat encourages people to replace normal light bulbs with LED ones. Millions of LED bulbs have been sold over recent years as people look to save energy, he said, since LED lighting can save more than 80 per cent of the energy used by normal bulbs.

He also said that people should be careful about home refrigerators, which can use a lot of electricity, and he advises people not to leave devices plugged in when not in use, like battery chargers and television sets. Rationalising energy consumption is now essential in order to receive lower bills, he stressed.

Hamza believes that pre-charged meters will help consumers monitor their consumption and encourage them to rationalise it. For the MERE, the meters mean it can collect bills more easily.

In the past, much money was spent collecting money due for electricity bills from individuals and business owners alike, and some government organisations also owe large amounts in unpaid bills. These amounted to some LE120 billion at the end of December. The ministry has been negotiating payments and rescheduling them where necessary in order to find the money required to continue the development of the electricity sector, Hamza said.

A stable and secure supply of energy, mainly electricity and natural gas, ensures that factories and industry as a whole can run without fears of shut-downs due to energy shortages, as happened some years ago.

Power cuts used to take place on a regular basis until summer 2015, resulting from a gap between the production and consumption of electricity. The MERE resorted to cutting power systematically across the country in order to prevent the collapse of the national grid under heavy loads during peak hours in summer.

The power cuts affected many factories as well as houses and shops for years until the problem reached its peak in 2014. An emergency plan was carried out during the first half of 2015 to add 3,600 megawatts (mw) to the grids capacity in order to avoid further power cuts in summer. No mandatory power cuts have taken place since June 2015, according to the MERE.

The ministry said that more than 16,000mw of electricity had been added to the capacity of the grid from June 2015 until the end of 2017. Current projects from ordinary electricity stations and renewables will raise that number to 25,000mw by the end of 2018, it said.

The total capacity of the national grid is currently about 40,000mw, with daily consumption hitting about 25,000mw. Peak consumption last summer was a little over 30,000mw. Last year, Egypt signed an agreement with Russia to build its first nuclear power station, and this should generate a total of 4,800mw from four nuclear reactors starting by 2028.

The development projects currently being carried out, in addition to population growth to over 100 million, have all changed the rate of energy consumption compared to previous decades and also the rate of electricity production.

Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker said in a press statement that in addition to covering current and foreseeable future needs for electricity, the MERE aimed to turn Egypt into a regional hub for energy exchange and trading through electricity connection projects.

Egypt currently has such connection projects with Libya and Jordan. The ministry is studying ways to increase linked capacity with the latter to reach 2,000mw instead of the current 450mw.

An electricity connection project between Egypt and Saudi Arabia is underway to exchange 3,000mw of electricity. The two countries have different hours of peak electricity consumption, allowing them to exchange electricity without disrupting the stability of supply.

Approximately LE120 billion was invested in energy projects in 2017, in addition to the cost of installing and exchanging electricity meters.

*This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Egypt is set to affirm its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the necessity of declaring the Middle East a region free from weapons of mass destruction, specifically nuclear weapons, before two international conferences in Brussels and Geneva.

In an official statement on Saturday, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry is set to travel on Sunday to Brussels, where he will participate on Monday with the six-party Arab ministers committee on the Jerusalem issue with European Union counterparts at the EU headquarters.

Shoukry will then head to Geneva to deliver a speech in front of the UN's Human Rights Council and a UN sponsored Conference of Disarmament.

Abu Zeid said the Brussels meeting is a continuation of efforts by the Arab committee to communicate and consult with international parties to deal with the consequences of a controversial US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December, and its effect on the future of the peace process, as well as exploring ways to revive Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

The Arab move comes in accordance with recent efforts by the European Commission and a number of active European countries to support the Palestinian cause, including the Ad Hoc Liaison meeting held in Brussels last January to coordinate international assistance to Palestinians.

"Minister Shoukrys participation in this meeting asserts Egypt's commitment to continue carrying out regional and international efforts in support of the peace process, as well as an invested communication with the Palestinians and Israeli sides and active regional and international partners to resume negotiations based on international legitimacy accords," the statement read.

Shoukry will head to Geneva on 26 February to head Egypt's delegation in the United Nation's Human Rights Councils (HRC) 37th session, where he will present efforts by Egypt in the field of human rights and its commitment to the country's 2014 constitutions guarantees for human rights.

Shoukry will give a speech discussing Egypt's comprehensive vision on human rights and its economic, social, and political aspects.

The speech will also speak about the impact that ongoing conflicts in the Middle East have on human rights conditions, as well as its destructive effect and the close relationship between the growth of terrorism and the enjoyment of human rights.

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nametalkam at 24-02-2018 09:11 AM (3 years ago) (m)

You could go to jail If someone sends it to you you could also get into trouble. Receiving could be as dangerous as sending. If someone privately sends you a classified video or sends it to a Whatsapp Group you belong to, you're as liable as the sender if you do not immediately report it....This story will shock you!!!

BE WARNED and remember this anytime you want to forward or someone sends to you!!!



Read this story which is a few months old....

You could go to jail If someone sends it to you you could also get into trouble. Receiving could be as dangerous as sending. If someone privately sends you a classified video or sends it to a Whatsapp Group you belong to, you're as liable as the sender if you do not immediately report it....This story will shock you!!!BE WARNED and remember this anytime you want to forward or someone sends to you!!!Read this story which is a few months old....

According to Independent.ie,a mother-of-three forwarded a child p*rn clip which showed a child being r*p*d,and she was arrested and arraigned.



Jadesola Agbalade (51) pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly distributing child p*rn on July 20, 2016.



Agbalade told gardai she forwarded on the video clip via the messaging platform Whatsapp in a bid to warn a friend about the dangers of leaving her kids alone with her boyfriend, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.



The court heard Agbalade, formerly of Deerhaven Avenue, Clonee, Dublin, is currently living in temporary homeless accommodation.



Garda Enda Ledwith told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, that he arrested a man in Dublin Airport in July 2017 in relation to credit card fraud. That man's phone was investigated and the child p*rn clip was discovered.



The court heard the clip showed a child between the ages of two and five being raped by a man. Upon further investigation, gardai discovered it is an international clip that has been in circulation since about 2014.





Gardai traced the phone number from which the clip was sent back to Agbalade. When they called the number, Agbalade answered and agreed to meet them at Blanchardstown shopping centre.



She handed over her phone to gardai and admitted to receiving the child p*rn clip and sending it on. As well as the male recipient identified by gardai, she told gardai she sent the clip to a female friend who has three young children in a bid to warn her not to leave her children with her boyfriend. That lady has never been identified.





Agbalade has no previous convictions.



Gda Ledwith agreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that Agbalade didn't understand the enormity of the situation when she was interviewed. She told gardai, I didn't know it wasn't right. I'm sorry.





Mr Bowman told the court it was a remarkably unusual case. He said there was no suggestion Agbalade profited in any way from distributing the video clip, nor was she involved in the generation of the material.





He said the usual circumstances surrounding child pornography distributors, who are usually found in possession of hundreds or thousands of images, were completely absent in this case.



The court heard no further material was found on Agbalade's two phones which she handed over to gardai.



Mr Bowman said Agbalade has one teenage child still living with her and two adult sons who are in university. He said she is a single mother, originally from Nigeria, who came to Ireland in 2001. There were no concerns regarding Agbalade's fitness as a mother, he said.





He submitted the stigma of a conviction would be punishment enough for Agbalade.



She will now be a s*x offender and as a mother, that is a significant stigma in the community, he said. Agbalade comes to the court absolutely aghast at what she has allowed herself to become involved in, he added.



Judge Karen O'Connor ordered a probation report and remanded Agbalade on continuing bail.



Ms Agbalade was sentenced on November 9,2017. According to Independent.ie,a mother-of-three forwarded a child p*rn clip which showed a child being r*p*d,and she was arrested and arraigned.Jadesola Agbalade (51) pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly distributing child p*rn on July 20, 2016.Agbalade told gardai she forwarded on the video clip via the messaging platform Whatsapp in a bid to warn a friend about the dangers of leaving her kids alone with her boyfriend, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.The court heard Agbalade, formerly of Deerhaven Avenue, Clonee, Dublin, is currently living in temporary homeless accommodation.Garda Enda Ledwith told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, that he arrested a man in Dublin Airport in July 2017 in relation to credit card fraud. That man's phone was investigated and the child p*rn clip was discovered.The court heard the clip showed a child between the ages of two and five being raped by a man. Upon further investigation, gardai discovered it is an international clip that has been in circulation since about 2014.Gardai traced the phone number from which the clip was sent back to Agbalade. When they called the number, Agbalade answered and agreed to meet them at Blanchardstown shopping centre.She handed over her phone to gardai and admitted to receiving the child p*rn clip and sending it on. As well as the male recipient identified by gardai, she told gardai she sent the clip to a female friend who has three young children in a bid to warn her not to leave her children with her boyfriend. That lady has never been identified.Agbalade has no previous convictions.Gda Ledwith agreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that Agbalade didn't understand the enormity of the situation when she was interviewed. She told gardai, I didn't know it wasn't right. I'm sorry.Mr Bowman told the court it was a remarkably unusual case. He said there was no suggestion Agbalade profited in any way from distributing the video clip, nor was she involved in the generation of the material.He said the usual circumstances surrounding child pornography distributors, who are usually found in possession of hundreds or thousands of images, were completely absent in this case.The court heard no further material was found on Agbalade's two phones which she handed over to gardai.Mr Bowman said Agbalade has one teenage child still living with her and two adult sons who are in university. He said she is a single mother, originally from Nigeria, who came to Ireland in 2001. There were no concerns regarding Agbalade's fitness as a mother, he said.He submitted the stigma of a conviction would be punishment enough for Agbalade.She will now be a s*x offender and as a mother, that is a significant stigma in the community, he said. Agbalade comes to the court absolutely aghast at what she has allowed herself to become involved in, he added.Judge Karen O'Connor ordered a probation report and remanded Agbalade on continuing bail.Ms Agbalade was sentenced on November 9,2017.

Post Reply I specialize in investigative reportage across several subject matter and sectors but mainly focus on metro events and investigation. Do leave your thoughts and opinion on my reports to let me know what you think about them. Thank you Posted: at 24-02-2018 09:11 AM (3 years ago) | Heronametalkam at 24-02-2018 09:50 AM (3 years ago) (m)

A Nigerian drug dealer Emmanuel Okwudili Ilichukwu has been arrested by the Thai police working with the US Drug Enforcement agency.

A Nigerian drug dealer Emmanuel Okwudili Ilichukwu has been arrested by the Thai police working with the US Drug Enforcement agency.

Ilichukwu was described as an international drug dealer in cocaine.



He was arrested in Suksawat Soi 26 on two warrants on Thursday, February 22.



A force led by deputy tourist police commissioner Surachet Hakpal raided his property where they found a quantity of ganja in a food cupboard.







Surachet told the media that the Thais had been working with the DEA to arrest the Nigerian. He had been on their radar but managed to avoid capture before.



He had made frequent trips from Bangkok to Nigeria and was involved in packaging cocaine in plastic and hiding it in electrical appliances.



The drugs found their way to Australia and New Zealand.



He was using Bangkok as a base and also dealing drugs in the Thai capital. He has been charged with possession and intent to distribute a class 2 drug (cocaine).



Thai Rath. Ilichukwu was described as an international drug dealer in cocaine.He was arrested in Suksawat Soi 26 on two warrants on Thursday, February 22.A force led by deputy tourist police commissioner Surachet Hakpal raided his property where they found a quantity of ganja in a food cupboard.Surachet told the media that the Thais had been working with the DEA to arrest the Nigerian. He had been on their radar but managed to avoid capture before.He had made frequent trips from Bangkok to Nigeria and was involved in packaging cocaine in plastic and hiding it in electrical appliances.The drugs found their way to Australia and New Zealand.He was using Bangkok as a base and also dealing drugs in the Thai capital. He has been charged with possession and intent to distribute a class 2 drug (cocaine).Thai Rath.

Post Reply I specialize in investigative reportage across several subject matter and sectors but mainly focus on metro events and investigation. Do leave your thoughts and opinion on my reports to let me know what you think about them. Thank you Posted: at 24-02-2018 09:50 AM (3 years ago) | HeroEgypt's Army Chief-of-Staff Mohamed Farid attended on Saturday the final stage of the Egyptian-French naval exercise "Cleopatra 2018" in the Red Sea, which was launched on 20 February and concluded on 23 February, according to a statement by Egyptian Armed Forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie.

The exercise involved drills using Mistral-class helicopter carriers, frigates and special marine units. It also witnessed the participation of members of the air forces, air defence forces and the southern command, along with units from the French navy using helicopter carriers, frigates, and special units.

The drills involved a number of combat exercises using live ammunition, submarines, and defence against asymmetric threats, as well as executing daytime and nighttime sailing formations.

The final stage of the drills was attended by commander-in-chief of the Egyptian navy Lieutenant General Ahmed Khaled as well as his French counterpart in the Indian Ocean and a number of other Armed Forces officials.

Cleopatra 2018 also included a comprehensive amphibious landing for the first time on one of the Red Sea islands. The landing was launched using reconnaissance groups on the island, followed by the landing of special marine and ground forces.

According to the statement, the two countries' forces displayed efficiency in planning and marine combat.

"The Army's Chief-of-Staff praised the depth of Egyptian-French relations, and its reflection on the bilateral military cooperation in various fields," the statement read.

Chief-of-Staff Farid also thanked the participating forces from both sides for their special performance and professionalism in carrying out operations.

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Grand Rapids, Mich., has redesigned its website , and in doing so, officials are hopeful that sometime soon the government will never have to talk with its citizens again.

That is unless, of course, the citizens actually want to talk to their government. Basically, in redesigning its website, Grand Rapids has made it so that 240 municipal services that used to require in-person appearances, letters or phone calls can now be done entirely online, at any time of day and from any location. This includes things like starting water service, signing up for refuse removal and paying parking tickets.

Creating a one-stop website  or a digital city hall as those involved with the project have dubbed it  was not easy, said Becky Jo Glover, Grand Rapids 311 customer service center manager and the website redesign team lead. In fact, this redesign process took between eight and 10 months, and it involved working across 41 different internal government departments and divisions.

It also involved going out and conducting interviews with the residents who would be using the site, as well as with internal government employees who would also need its functions. This sort of human-centered online presence redesign is part of a larger trend in local governments in which city halls have begun to shift from designing technology that simply satisfied bureaucratic needs, to creating simplified products that entice users, much like those built by the private sector.

Grand Rapids, for example, rewrote all of its website content from scratch to drop formal government phrasing and to adapt a friendlier, conversational tone. It was a major undertaking, one that Glover and the two others on her team  Zac Thiel and Alex Melton  fostered buy-in for by incentivizing citizens with $10 gift cards to local restaurants. They also offered a 5 percent pay increase on top of salary in exchange for public servants spending extra hours each week working on the project.

Rather than going out and hiring a whole group of people, we used existing staff that met our criteria, and they became our subject matter experts that helped us get the training completed and then also work on all the content, bumper-to-bumper, Glover said.

This sort of work lead to the website redesign coming in under budget, too. Glover said the city had allocated roughly $625,000 for the project, and that her team had done the work for about $187,000 less than that.

To accomplish the technical side of things, Grand Rapids used the OpenCities content management system. Although they are in a planning stage for the second phase, one that will involve digitizing even more services, the team is happy with the improvements theyve made thus far.

The biggest difference in my mind between the old site and the new is on the old site every department acted independently, Thiel said. In fact, they all had their own website with its own navigation. Youd go to one department and thats just where you were. There was nothing tying the whole thing together. With the new site one of our main goals was to present a unified city with a unified voice.

Although some internal employees were initially resistant to change, the user-centered research broke down those barriers quickly, specifically the sessions in which department heads sat in and watched actual residents struggle to navigate their services. That, Glover said, was one of the most powerful takeaways of the entire process.

Youre forever changed when you think youre so good at knowing what your community wants and in reality we are the antithesis, Glover said. Its nobodys fault. Were government employees and we know our business, and we do it every day.(TNS)  Special elections March 1 and March 8 will help make what could be a $30 million decision in Franklin County.Anyone can cast a ballot in those elections. You don't have to be one of the county's 854,000 registered voters or even an American to vote at the Board of Elections' 1700 Morse Road location those two Wednesdays. You also can vote as many times as you want.Officials are using those two elections to test the two finalists competing to provide new voting machines for Franklin County."This is so (voters) can touch it, feel it, see how it works," elections spokesman Aaron Sellers said. "The purpose of this is to try to get feedback from the general public ... so we can evaluate."The mock elections  each from 3 to 7 p.m.  also will give elections workers a chance to evaluate each system to see, for example, if they are easy to set up for poll workers and if the machines' software works correctly as votes are cast."We don't want a complex system interfering with voters' right to cast votes," Board of Elections Director Ed Leonard said.The new voting systems are needed because the current 4,375 Franklin County voting machines bought in 2005 are aging and need to be replaced.The two finalists are Elections Systems & Software and Hart Intercivic The options include machines that count paper ballots, machines in which votes are made on a touch screen and a hybrid that lets voters make selections on the touch screen, with results then printed out and fed into a scanner to be counted.That flexibility is needed because paper ballots account for about 40 percent of Franklin County votes cast, in the form of early or absentee ballots. Franklin County can have 1,200 different ballots, depending on where each voter lives and the number of issues and candidates eligible.The elections board's goal is to choose a voting system in time to be bought this summer. That's because officials want the new machines used in the 2019 election, when fewer votes are expected versus the 2020 presidential election year.The selection process started in May 2017, with five potential vendors in the mix."Obviously, price is going to be a consideration," Leonard said.The machines Franklin County ultimately chooses are expected to cost $16 million to $30 million.Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, whose office oversees elections in the state, has asked state lawmakers to provide $118 million for Ohio counties to buy voting machines in time for the 2020 election. No action has been taken on that request.County officials across Ohio are seeking $175 million to pay for about 85 percent of the cost of new voting machines, with counties pledging to pay the difference in purchase price and for the machines' maintenance. Franklin County officials already have put $1 million into a special account to help pay for the new machines.The machines bought in 2005 cost about $3,000 each but were largely paid for with federal funds. There is no federal money available this time.After each mock election, the public will be invited to provide feedback on each voting system.The question to be answered, Leonard said, is, "Do folks like the systems we're considering buying?"Notify, dont share

No plan is foolproof

(TNS)  Many Wabash Valley schools are already on heightened alert in the aftermath of last weeks school shootings in Parkland, Florida.But when social media threats, and hoaxes, are added to the mix  that only increases difficulties faced by school and law enforcement authorities as they must investigate those threats, determine the validity and then allay community fears.Social media is a double-edged sword, especially when it comes to school safety, says Sullivan County Sheriff Clark Cottom.Social media provide instant notification to warn people about legitimate emergencies, but the downside is misinformation can be spread just as quickly, Cottom said Thursday.This week, the department used social media to solve a school threat case that led to an arrest. But on Wednesday, Cottom and others worked late into the night investigating a possible social media threat referring to SHS that turned out to be a hoax based out of Ohio; the hoax spread nationwide and prompted investigations by law enforcement in other communities.Prior to that hoax determination, it did cause concern in Sullivan County, Cottom said.Social media and Internet can help law enforcement do their job, but there is a dark side to it, when people use it to spread rumors and misinformation, intentionally. That, in turn, may prompt people who see the school-related postings to panic and keep children home from school.And law enforcement must invest time, possibly working through the night or longer, tracking down those social media postings to determine whether or not they are a real threat  or a hoax.Cottom has some advice related to possible school-related threats posted on social media: Notify local law enforcement, and dont share the postings, which may be false  until law enforcement has investigated.Until the sheriffs department determined it was hoax, the social media posting caused concerns among some students and parents of Sullivan High School, which has the initials SHS. The threat indicated a gun would be taken to school.A community member made a screen shot of the threat and sent it to some current Sullivan High School students. Im proud of the students. They reported it immediately, said Chris Stitzle, superintendent of Southwest Sullivan School Corp. Parents reported it to the sheriffs office, which immediately investigated.Social media certainly is making our job more difficult. It certainly makes law enforcements job more difficult, Stitzle said. Im not sure how we change it; I dont think social media is going away.On Thursday, the district notified families by phone and email about what had happened.The school shootings in Florida, as with similar tragedies that have occurred, always create tension nationwide at schools. It cant help but do that, unfortunately, Stitzle said. Social media hoaxes just add to that tension.We take safety very seriously, just like every other school does. We want to make sure we uncover everything we need to uncover, he said. He didnt get much sleep Wednesday night, but whats far more important to him is ensuring student and staff safety.If I lose sleep, its not a big deal, Stitzle said. Its frustrating from the standpoint ... thats not why were having school. Its our job is to educate students. This certainly takes away from that.Its probably safe to say every school district is looking at safety protocols and how they can be improved in the aftermath of last weeks shootings in Parkland, Fla. Among those is South Vermillion School Corp.South Vermillion hopes to use social media in a positive way to launch a campaign, If you see something, say something, said Dave Chapman, superintendent. If something out there raises a red flag, we want to know about it so we can be on top of it.But he agrees, people should not share social media threats until they have been investigated. Social media has a way of expanding false information to the point everyone believes it, he said. As it spreads, if fuels fear and a minor issue turns into a major catastrophe.Misuse of social media is an everyday problem, not just in times of a crisis. For some, social media is a platform to air grievances, and not just in schools, he said.Ironically, last Thursday, Chapman attended a national superintendents conference in Nashville, Tenn., where he heard the former superintendent of the school system that included Sandy Hook Elementary when the mass shooting occurred in December 2012. Twenty-six people were killed, including 20 first-graders.The retired superintendent made the point that no matter how thorough and effective the school safety plan, its not perfect and there are loopholes.These deranged individual attacking schools and churches find ways to get around your plan, whether knowingly or unknowingly, Chapman said. We have to stay one step ahead of them and be pro-active.When he returned to his office this week, Chapman had received many emails about school safety and people asking, What are we doing?In addition to an if you see something, say something campaign, the district is looking into funding sources so it can hire additional school resource officers. Currently, it has one school resource officer based primarily at the high school and middle school.Chapman also believes its important the district look at what it can do as far as mental health services to help kids coping with issues.Were looking at every avenue to make sure were doing everything we can to ensure the safety of students and staff, Chapman said.He does not believe arming teachers with guns is the answer.This week, South Vermillion staff and the school resource officer are keeping a higher profile and making frequent checks around buildings.Tom Rohr, superintendent of North Central Parke Community School Corp., said his district, also, is rechecking safety protocols with added emphasis to be vigilant about everything we do.As with anything, we all get lax in our day to day operation. When something like this happens, it causes us to revisit what we are doing ... to make sure we are doing everything we can to keep kids safe, Rohr said.He did note that more students and staff are reporting if they hear anything questionable, including something they might have heard a few months ago. The district will investigate those tips, he said.Eight Egyptian workers were killed and 22 others were injured after their bus crashed on the international coastal road of Alexandria on Saturday, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The bus, which was heading to a factory in Alexandria's Ameriya carrying 30 workers, flipped over and caught fire after one of its tires burst.

According to figures from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), 14,710 road accidents were recorded in Egypt in 2016, an increase of 1.1 percent from 14,548 in 2015.

In 2016, 5,343 people died and 18,646 were injured in road accidents.

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(TNS)  Intel has confirmed to Oregon Rep. Greg Walden that the company withheld information about security weaknesses in its computer chips from U.S. national security officials until after news of the vulnerabilities leaked out online.Intel said there was "no indication that any of these vulnerabilities had been exploited by malicious actors," wrote Greg Pearson, an Intel vice president in charge of the company's public affairs.Standard practice, he wrote, is to keep security flaws secret until companies - working collaboratively - have had a chance to develop fixes. That prevents hackers from taking advantage.Intel and Microsoft, which wrote its own letter to Walden, said the government's own protocols call for a collaborative response by the companies affected. Those procedures don't necessarily include a coordinated response with U.S. security agencies.The flaws, known as "Meltdown" and "Spectre," could allow hackers access to passwords or other private material stored in computer memory. The flaw affects a wide variety of chips, not just Intel's. But the company is at the center of the tumult because Intel chips run the vast majority of PCs and laptops, and nearly all data centers."While the tech companies proved able to effectively contain the Spectre and Meltdown cybersecurity vulnerabilities, this incident brought to light the critical conversation about when to disclose a vulnerability and to whom," Walden said in a written statement Thursday. "The claim that information about the flaws may have fallen into the Chinese government's hands, before the U.S. was aware, is obviously disturbing."Intel declined additional comment Thursday. Its letter says that Google researchers discovered the issues and notified Intel of the issue last June, and that several companies went to work collaboratively on finding a fix.They had planned to disclose the issue on January 9, according to Intel, but online tech journal The Register broke news of the problem a week earlier Intel initially called the reports " wildly inaccurate ," but subsequently confirmed they were substantially correct. The company's letter said it then notified the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, US-CERT, and began deploying fixes for existing microprocessors.Those repairs have themselves been problematic, sometimes slowing computer speeds and in some cases prompting computers to spontaneously reboot.Still, there have been no public reports of hackers exploiting the underlying security flaws. And Intel has rolled out additional fixes, including some this week, that it says address the security problems."Cybersecurity is a collective responsibility," Walden said. "My committee will continue to investigate this issue and the trade-offs between disclosure and secrecy in cybersecurity incidents."A California legislator has introduced legislation that will force social media sites to protect users from bots and create a state privacy agency to regulate and protect consumers online information. The activity in Sacramento comes at a time of heightened urgency around these issues, including special counsel Robert Mueller's recent indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian companies for their use of bots on social media to diminish voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election.We saw the harm that this unregulated space could cause to citizens, and we decided to do something, said Rep. Marc Levine, D-District 10. There is just too much profit to be made off of real humans and bots, he said.

A social media bot or chatterbot is a computer program that engages with users conversation via text. The programs are designed to simulate how a human would behave in a discussion and are frequently mistaken for real people. Some 15 percent of the total users on Twitter that were active during the 2016 U.S. presidential election were bots. At least 400,000 thousand bots were responsible for about 3.8 million tweets, roughly 19 percent of the total volume during election season, according to Recode

To stop the bots, Levine introduced AB 1950 in January, a bill that would require social media sites to identify and verify all social media advertising purchases to be linked to verifiable humans. AB 1950 will regulate bots and prevent the spread of misinformation, he said.

According to Levine, the tech industry is unable to regulate itself. These things are not difficult to verify; the software they have written is not magic, he said. This is merely a work effort to add more lines of code. I am sure they can verify this stuff.

In addition to Levines bill on bots, the legislator has also introduced a placeholder bill ( SB 2182 ) designed to protect users from social media companies taking ownership of a users social media material; and other vital data that is held by companies.

The bill would create the California Data Protection Authority and oversee Californians personal data on the Internet. The legislation was inspired by the European Unions General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in late March.

The GDPR forces companies to erase a users identity upon request. It also requires that social media companies explicitly state what users agree to when they sign a consent to participate in the social media platform. The rule also addresses data breaches. In the case of a breach, the GDPR calls for users to be notified within 72 hours when personal and sensitive information has been released, and it also allows for an independent authority to monitor complaints and violation of the rule. The independent regulator could charge and fine those companies that have violated the law.

Levine says there is a significant number of questions that need to be answered by regulation. The federal government has failed to act on the issues of privacy and the issue of ownership needs to be clarified, he said. The federal government has been useless and powerless. California has a role to play and can be a model for federal law.

According to Levine, key questions must be answered: Who owns your data? Once you decide to leave Facebook, do you still want your information to continue (in perpetuity)?"

He points to the Equifax data breach that exposed more than 140 million Americans to identity theft and the hacking of Yahoo.com, which affected 3 billion email accounts containing passwords and birthdates. These companies were unable to inform their clients of the piracy in a timely fashion.

Facebook also gave academic researchers access to the home pages of some 689,000 users to conduct a study. Researchers manipulated users posts to make them feel more positive or negative through a process of "emotional contagion.

The bill would create an agency or privacy czar that would oversee the actions of Internet companies and hold them responsible for data breaches and other actions. I think it is important to have a regulatory agency that holds these companies and their actions accountable.

He said he purposely wrote the bill in an open-ended way so that fellow lawmakers and regulation experts could have input on the final product. This bill will go through many committee hearings; it will change.

With both bills, Levine hopes to engage the industry early in the process of crafting the laws. This is a consumer protection measure, and we want to engage these companies and get their input.The very open-endedness of the current bills has made it difficult for lobbying groups to develop positions. Two groups that one would expect to oppose these bills include the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), an advocate for the $1.5 trillion U.S. information technology ecosystem, and the California Chamber of Commerce. Both say they have not taken a position on either bill yet.

So far, he has seen lobbyists from trade groups within the sector but has not had contact directly with Facebook or Yahoo.com. I want to engage with social media companies to make sure this law works, he said. I would welcome heartier engagement.Palestinians reacted on Friday with anger to reports that the United States will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within months, saying this could destroy the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Clashes erupted in Gaza and the occupied West Bank earlier on Friday in a weekly protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's stance on Jerusalem, which has also angered Arab political and religious leaders across the region and dismayed European allies.

Palestinians claim East Jerusalem -- seized by Israel in 1967 and later annexed -- as the capital of a future state.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian's chief negotiator in peace talks that have been frozen since 2014, said the U.S. move showed a "determination to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe".

Erekat, who is also secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said: "Trump and his team have disqualified the U.S. from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem."

Trump announced in December that the United States would recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, setting in motion the embassy move and contravening decades of policy by the international community.

A U.S. official told Reuters on Friday that the United States was expected to open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May. This would be shortly after Israel's 70th anniversary.

"This is an unacceptable step. Any unilateral move will not give legitimacy to anyone and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas has rejected U.S.-led Middle East peace efforts as "impossible" since Washington's decision.

Abu Rdainah said the only way to achieve peace, security and stability was Abbas's proposal -- outlined in an address to the United Nations Security Council in New York on Tuesday -- that an international conference should be held to kick-start the peace process, including a "multilateral mechanism" to oversee it.

Abbas is still in the United States after undergoing medical checks in Baltimore on Thursday but will leave on Saturday, Abu Rdaineh said.

In Gaza, a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim nation, and the U.S administration must reconsider its move."

Twentyfive 25 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli army gunfire during clashes along the fence with Israel in Gaza on Friday, a Gaza health ministry spokesman. Protesters threw stones at the Israeli troops.

Palestinian health officials said at least 20 Palestinians, most of them in Gaza, have been killed in protests against Trump's decision since the Dec. 6 announcement.

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The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Saturday demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations with the support of Syrian ally Russia after a flurry of last-minute negotiations

The vote comes as warplanes pounded eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria's capital, for a seventh straight day. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to "war activities" there.

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Cyprus accused Turkey on Friday of threatening to use force against a drillship chartered by Italy's Eni, in a standoff over hydrocarbons rights in the eastern Mediterranean.

There was no immediate reaction from Turkey, which has vowed to prevent Greek Cypriots from exploring for oil or gas around the ethnically-split island and says some areas of Cyprus's offshore maritime zone fall under its jurisdiction.

On Feb. 9, the Turkish navy on manoeuvres in the Mediterranean stopped the Saipem 12000 vessel on its way to drill for gas in the waters off Cyprus, triggering a diplomatic standoff which has underscored tensions in the region over competing claims for offshore resources.

Deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos told the Cyprus News Agency on Friday the ship was heading to the same area, when five Turkish vessels interrupted its course.

"The drillship was halted by five Turkish warships and after threats of violence launched (by the Turkish side) and the threat of a collision with the drillship ... the drillship was compelled to return back," he said.

Turkey, which does not have diplomatic relations with European Union-member Cyprus, this week extended military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean to March 10.

The Saipem 12000 vessel was on its way to Morocco, an Eni spokesman said. Its chief executive said on Thursday it was very likely the drilling ship would have to be moved to a new location in the coming days. Local media reported earlier on Friday it was heading to Limassol in Cyprus.

Cyprus will officially protest to international forums over the latest incident, Papadopooulos said.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades was expected to discuss the issue with European Union leaders who are meeting in Brussels on Friday. He said this week that Cyprus was determined to press ahead with its plans for oil and gas exploration.

Eni and France's Total discovered this month a promising natural gas field off Cyprus, which they said looked geologically similar to the mammoth Zohr field off Egypt.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup. Peace talks collapsed last year. Greek Cypriots, who are exploring for natural gas, run Cyprus's internationally recognised government. Turkish Cypriots run a breakaway state in north Cyprus recognised only by Ankara.

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The deputy head of UNAIDS, accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague but cleared of wrongdoing by an internal United Nations probe, announced his decision to step down on Friday.

Luiz Loures "has communicated his wish to the UNAIDS executive director not to seek the renewal of his position," the agency said in a statement.

Loures, a Brazilian national, "will end his term as deputy executive director at the end of March 2018," it added.

UNAIDS spokesman Mahesh Mahalingam told reporters in Geneva that Loures's decision had no connection to the allegations against him, noting the findings of the internal UN probe.

A junior female colleague filed a formal complaint alleging that Loures sexually harassed her beginning in 2011 and sexually assaulted her in a lift at a Bangkok hotel in 2015, where UNAIDS was hosting a major conference.

The internal probe conducted by the World Health Organization's Office of Internal Oversight Services (IOS) said there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations.

But activists and a legal expert have questioned the credibility of the investigation, insisting that important circumstantial evidence was not taken into account.

UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe was faulted by the IOS for trying to settle the dispute quietly even as an official probe was underway.

Loures's decision to step down comes a day after UNICEF's deputy director Justin Forsyth resigned from the UN children's agency following complaints of inappropriate behaviour towards female staff in his previous post as head of British charity Save The Children.

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Dangerously cheesy gets a whole new meaning. Photo: Frito Lay

Cheetos are headed to the big screen, and its not an animated movie starring Chester Cheetah. In what Variety terms a highly competitive sale in which multiple studios [were] vying for the project, Fox Searchlight has gotten the rights to produce a film called Flamin Hot, about the eponymous Cheetos flavors true-life creation story.

The name alone will engender plenty of eye rolls, but its actually a serious biopic: Its about Robert Montanez, the janitor who invented Flamin Hot Cheetos by mistake, then convinced Frito-Lay to make them. The Mexican-born immigrant moved to California as a kid, struggled to learn English, and eventually dropped out of school. He picked grapes on SoCal farms for a while, before winding up at Frito-Lays Rancho Cucamonga plant in 1976.

In 2012, Montanez recounted to Fox News Latino how a production snafu one day left a batch of Cheetos sans cheese dust. The corn puffs were bound for the trash  he apparently looked down, said, Why not? and took them home. He made his own seasoning mix based on elotes, the Mexican street food that consists of a cob of corn topped with various combinations of salt, lime juice, chile powder, and mayo, butter, or cotija cheese. I see the corn man adding butter, cheese, and chile to the corn, he told Fox, and thought, what if I add chile to a Cheeto?

He did, and everybody  family, friends, even co-workers  said hed vastly improved normal Cheetos. Enough people were raving that he scored a sitdown with Frito-Lays president, who gave him two weeks to prep a presentation for company execs. Montanez copied a marketing strategy he and his wife found in a library book, bought a $3 tie his neighbor had to knot, and even constructed a bag mock-up, because hes a little bit of an artist. That was pretty much that  Frito-Lay had a ready-made billion-dollar snack.

Frito-Lay promoted Montanez up the corporate ladder, and today hes executive vice-president of multicultural sales at parent company PepsiCo, and seems to have received the nickname godfather of Hispanic branding. So, a biopic with a happy ending where delicious Mexican street food meets immigrant success story sounds pretty good  almost as good as a bag of spicy, dusty Flamin Hot Cheetos.Call For South Sudan Tricameral House

"King Wilson Gbudue has consistently been saying: When chiefs are gathered, they will discuss issues that are affecting them and settle issues that can bring conflict among the people. That was the policy of our beloved leader Dr. John."

By Acuil Malith Banggol (MATLC)

Juba, Republic of South Sudan, February 24, 2018

Pronouncement of sovereign nation state of Republic of South Sudan, on July 9, 2011 inspired enthusiasm for freedom, peace and prosperity for all. For centuries, there were sufferings due to injustice, in slavery, marginalization, exploitation, destruction, looting, exclusion, social disharmony and no development.

Sadly though, by 2003 to no end in sight, despite modern nation state having sons and daughters of South Sudan in helm of leadership, the former revolutionary cadres suddenly have turned looter elites, military and political oligarchs. There is now more social disharmony, more wanton killing, bad governance; corruption and acute lack of an envisaged citizenry-nation state social contract. The bicameral house of National Legislative Assembly and Council of States has excluded the traditional governance system of mutuality and peaceful coexistence.

There came in a chronic acute ethnic tension, hate, poor governance characterized with exclusivity and lack of trust. The noble goals envisaged of regional and social diversity was being eroded. There was no mechanism to enhance citizenry-nation state social contract, national unity in diversity with a command national loyalty as Jenuubeen.

SPLMs manifesto 2008 called for decentralized power structure redefining the relation between capital and the regions, now 32 federal states; with a view to devolving more federal powers to the regions, states; and, where and when necessary, full autonomy. To sustainably achieve these noble goals, the paper calls for institutionalization of a South Sudan Tricameral House.

This could be a consultative forum institutionalized and operated by adding, the constitutionally mandated National Council of Traditional Authority Leaders (COTAL) in accordance with article 168(2) of SSTC 2011, to existing National Legislature. This agenda could be added in Phase III of ACRSS 2015 revitalization. This is to institutionalize a routinized consultative annul/biannual meeting and collaborative mechanism to buffer the roles of current National Legislative Assembly and Council of States consisting of oligarchs.

Since the British colonial era, during the recent past, even now and possibly in the foreseeable future such consultative forums could institute an organizational culture expected to play positive roles.

The proposed practice should include efforts to incorporate and involve Traditional Authority Leaders (TALs) to enhance mutual dialogue and peaceful coexistence amongst the rural Peoples of South Sudan and improve citizenry-modern nation state social contract.

To reiterate, the envisaged Tricameral House is visualized as an annual or bi-annual meeting that could bring the existing bicameral house of National Legislative Assembly and Council of States on one hand and on other the (COTAL) to form a consultative House of the Peoples. This could instrumentalists a national level dialogue for wider ownership and inclusive collaborative decision-making process for wider ownership and actions.

In phase three of ACRSS 2015 revitalization, there could be furthermore discussion to institutionalize and operate the Boma Administration, as mandated by section 19(3) of Local Government Act (LGA) 2009, is recognized as the third layer and a domain of the TALs. This could instill in the envisioned twining between Political Nation State (National, State, County and Payam) together with the history long Societal Nation State that is the Traditional Commune Federal System (TCFS).

Honest and genuine South Sudanese nationals must now wake up to stop this dishonesty ploy through IGAD and Troika purporting to bring peace to South Sudan. Mediators through help of opposition are now institutionalizing a state of chronic transitional governance. South Sudan is being most likely subjected to chronic state of anarchy or it might end up being dismembered or become an extension of Congo tragedy.

In reality, South Sudanese political, military and elites oligarchs, joined by former revolutionaries turn looters, have become the classical agents of neo-colonization to dehumanize and loot the riches of South Sudan. Why this proclamation? There is a desperate attempt to create South Sudan as an extension of Congo tragedy. The fertile soil to achieve this dirty game is founded in extending the out-of-place perceptions of transitional mechanisms of CPA 2005 through ACRISS 2015 justifying separate armies and power sharing. This was clear in the so call balanced of forces against all odes that security is the monopoly or a viable modern nation-state.

In contrast to the oppressive, exploitative and exclusive colonial state, Johari (2010: 47) suggested that: there are four elements that constitute a people-centered modern nation-state. Firstly, the people  population  that live in peace, security. Secondly is the land and territorial integrity that is enabling productivity to meet the basic needs and production. Thirdly, the government that is able to protect the life and the property including protecting territorial integrity against any aggression. Fourthly, the sovereignty and supreme power and authority that is unchallenged in safeguarding the internal and external socio-political economic and cultural sphere of the citizens...

So what was the source of the theory of balanced forces and power-sharing arrangement that was imposed on South Sudan? It was a design to create South Sudan to be still born into transition. It has happened. More death shall occur with these two conspiracies.

It is a mistake to allow military, political and elites oligarchs now in opposition to call for separate armies to undermine the sovereignty of South Sudan beyond July 9, 2011. This ploy should be stopped.

The next phase of revitalization should include the elements of Traditional Authority Leaders (TAL) as mandated by articles 2, 4, 33, 36(4), 166, 167, 168 and 169(3) of SSTC 2011. New agenda is needed. This could be through home grown approach to incorporate TALs and Council of Traditional Authority Leaders (COTAL) as mandated by article 168(2) of SSTC 2011.

Hence, while going to the Third Phase of ACRSS 2015 the governance agenda should include two issues:

(a) Tricameral House by ways and means to discuss how to institutionalize article 168(2) of SSTC 2011 to become the Third Chamber.

(b) South Sudan National Dialogue to make it inclusive and allow international observers to ensure that all political divides are allowed to participate at all levels.

This paper cherishes the declared goals of the South Sudan National Dialogue as came and perceived and means to include:

(1) To end all forms of conflict in South Sudan: restitution, mutual recognition, rule of law, sustainable retirement support and sustainable DDR and adherence to article 37 of SSTC 2011

(2) To redefine and reestablish stronger unity in diversity: mutuality, collaborative existence, shared values, a routinized consultative forum for listening and harmonization. And

(3) To strengthen social contract between citizen and the nation-state: rights and dues and inclusivity.

So if there is a genuine search of sustainable and peaceful coexistence to be brought in by the revitalized ACRSS 2015, then, why ignoring such an opportunity.

The fiction of Troika and IGAD is now obvious in their hidden agenda by ways of sleep walking South Sudan into disharmony and total dismembering of its Jenuubeen social contract. Encouraging the opposition to suggest unbelievable terms like separating armies, power sharing and dissolution of 32 states is institutionalizing this.

Let me be clear here. I am ready to discuss the issue of 32 states, if needs be. My position is that I do not want my Twic Stat to be abolished. I have reasons to assume that more states agenda is a demand and is a popular view in Twic State. I could claim to advocate in asking my Twic Community to decline from seeking any transfer of money coming from Juba.

To have sustainable governance, Twic State is ready to explore its Traditional Communal Federalism (TCFS) of wuts, which are many and are well established in Twic State. An Executive Chief heads each wut, according to our traditional governance system.

Twic State has Twic East and Twic West subsections which are peacefully coexisting in harmony, mutuality, and we are interdependent. Twic State has six counties but they could be more if they so which. We could establish new public administration founded upon our traditional governance system.

Twic State could afford to maintain its TCFS and a modern Public Administration that could efficiently facilitate roles of individual and communities through its traditional elements to sustainably create wealth and develop its resources.

We shall have Twic State Legislative Assembly, which is now accommodating military, political and elitist oligarchs, I am included. Twic State COTAL as the second chamber mandated by article 155 of Twic State Transitional Constitution could be institutionalized.

This paper is not inventing new theories. There has so far been honest observation on possible roles of TALs and COTAL abilities to bring a lasting peace into South Sudan. Let me give some examples. JMEC chair Festus Mogae convincingly stated in one of his observations that TAL leaders have been effective as mediators and adjudicators in implementing peace and conflict resolution. Speaking during a meeting with Chief Council of South Sudan in Juba in 2017. Mogae said:

We can all agree that traditional leaders have historically been effective mediators and adjudicators in their communities by implementing positive traditional forms of peacekeeping, conflict resolution and intervention on behalf of victims of injustice,

He said traditional leaders and institutions play a key role in facilitating the process by which hostilities can be brought to an end) Mogae explicitly expressed that: I appeal to you [TALs] as I have done to the rest of the leaders of this country to go all out and bring peace and reconciliation by extending friendship to all including estranged members of the opposition, offering assurances of safety This is attainable with help of mediators while mandating upon a South Sudan nation state, its constitutional obligations.

Interviewed by Jacob J. Akol, Gurtong, March 2008, Prof. Alfred Lokuji stated:  First and foremost, they [TALs] are the only institution many of us in traditional localities know. The district commissioner and any government official from the towns are visitors and often have to be introduced even to the way the communities they are visiting think. In spite of the fifty years of independence, the governance we inherited from colonialists has not penetrated our cultures and still remains strange to the vast majority of our Peoples. I believe that the majority members of our rural household could never talked to a government official without consent from their community leaders... .

King Wilson Gbudue has consistently been saying: When chiefs are gathered, they will discuss issues that are affecting them and settle issues that can bring conflict among the people. That was the policy of our beloved leader Dr. John. During the conference in 2004, he mentioned that it would be very important for the chiefs to meet every year at all area administrative levels...

Pechter Polls Results of South Sudan Public Opinion, September 6-27, 2011 by International Republican Institute (IRI) on who the respondents think actually has primary responsibility for managing (Solving Local Disputes): Traditional Leaders scored 42%. Local Government scored 26% . Members of the Community scored 11%. State Government scored 10% and National Government 10%.

Political will in recognition and need to incorporate TALs could be read from President Kiir, May 21st, 2010: Rural transformation with a view to Taking Towns to the Rural Areas shall be the number one priority in my economic agenda. Every department in my government shall, therefore, be guided in its performance and operations by this priority of priorities: TAKING TOWNS TO RURAL AREAS and, Government officers who do not know enough to know that our real wealth is in the renewable natural resources of South Sudan: land, water and forests and in the industry of our people: farmers, herdsmen and fishermen, shall have a short life in my government

With this I was helped by South Sudan nationalist philanthropic and businessman, Makiir Gai Theip, to publish my thesis on this matter . http://africaworldbooks.com/roles-of-traditional-authority-leaders-by-acuil-malith-banggol.html





Elsewhere, outside South Sudan, there are exceedingly successful twining models in Botswana Model where the Kgotla (The National House of Chief) is the second chamber in the National Legislative Assembly and there are National, Provincial and District Houses of Chiefs on public admin, judiciary and land.

The Ethiopian Peoples Federalism mandated by the constitution to be recognized incorporated and is involving each of the 75 Nations, Nationalities and the Peoples of Ethiopia in the House of Federation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. It is the second house of the Ethiopian Parliament to ensure mutuality, unity in diversity and peaceful coexistence.

Martina Santschi (2012) recommended that: Chiefs have important roles in humanitarian, state building development, and peace building endeavors in South Sudan. External actors must take them into account in policies and programme implementation, for instance in service delivery and social protection. Chiefs play a key role in local government in South Sudan. They provide vital services and enjoy considerable local legitimacy. They act as a bridge between communities and government institutions. Nevertheless, their functions vary from place to place, and local government bodies, the formal judiciary, and community members sometimes contest their roles...

Article 166(6)(c) of SSTC 2011 mandates all level of government in South Sudan to encourage the involvement of communities and community based organizations in the matters of local government, and promote dialogue among them on matters of local interest.



Haiti - USA : Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan will meet Jovenel Moise





United States Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan will travel to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to meet with Haitian President Jovenel Moise and Caribbean leaders attending the twenty-ninth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which will take place from February 26 to 28.



The Deputy Secretary will focus discussions on issues of mutual interest to the United States and the Caribbean, including energy diversification, regional security, and economic development. The United States is an enduring partner to the Caribbean as underscored in the Caribbean 2020 strategy, which strengthens security, diplomacy, prosperity, energy, education, and health in the region.



While in Haiti, the Deputy Secretary will also engage with U.S. Embassy staff, as well as representatives from the business community and civil society, and make a visit to the Haitian National Police School, which receives funding from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.



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Haiti - Tourism : The Ministry signs an agreement with CAM Transfert





Friday in press conference Colombe Emilie Jessy Menos the Minister of Tourism and Rony Charles the Director General of the company CAM Transfert, announced the signing of an agreement of mutual support, technical and financial in order to value the promotion of Haitian Tourism.



Under the terms of the agreement, CAM Transfert will allow the Ministry of Tourism to use its various points of service and sales for the dissemination of promotional materials for tourism activities in Haiti.



"The Ministry of Tourism declares CAM Transfert as an official partner and as such participates in the promotion of Haitian Tourism. We will use the seniority of the company and its areas of activity to intensify our work to put Haiti on the world tourist map," declared Minister Menos.



For his part, Rony Charles says to see in the signing of this agreement an initiative of which the whole country will be a beneficiary, stating "From next May, the Ministry will be housed in a promotional kiosk at the Haitian Compas Festival which will be realized in Miami. CAM being the official sponsor of this Festival."



This agreement will also make it possible to revalue, among other things, the salary of Troubadour Group musicians who welcome visitors to the destination at Toussaint Louverture International Airport. Representatives of the SIWEL group who took part in this press conference held at the Ministry of Tourism thanked the Ministry and CAM for their ingenuity by this action.



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Haiti - Justice : More than 75% of prisoners in Haitian prisons have never been tried





The situation of people in prolonged pretrial detention is one of the causes of the overcrowding rate of prisons in Haiti. According to figures from the Directorate of Prison Administration (DAP), on average 74% of men, 82% of women and 95% of girls are detained without having been tried.



During his official visit to the United Nations Mission for the Support of Justice in Haiti (Minujusth), Bintou Keita, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, wanted to visit the Jeremie Prison, which has 304 detainees of whom only 20% have already been tried. A situation that shocked Keita "I was absolutely sorry to see the conditions not only of people who are in prison, but also those who work in prisons every day."



From the point of view of international minimum standards, the inmate's living space averages is 4.5 square meters. But in Haiti, this space is limited to 0.5 m2 and less according to the study World Prison (2016). There is a shortage of places available due to overcrowding caused by the large number of people in prolonged pretrial detention, resulting in serious human rights violations including unhygienic living conditions, health problems, illnesses and malnutrition.



Pre-trial detention sometimes takes longer than the sentence that the detainees would have had to serve under the law if they had been found guilty.



For Keita, the certification of prisons to improve their functioning according to international standards is one of the main objectives of the United Nations in partnership with the Haitian authorities. For the next two years, Minujusth will focus on 9 detention centers to create benchmarks that will serve as a model to gradually certify other centers in the country. These efforts are coordinated with national authorities and the 19 United Nations Agencies, Funds and Programs in the country.



The United Nations is leading projects in Haiti focusing on the promotion of human rights, HIV prevention, the protection of children and the prevention of violence in prisons, especially for women. That is why the UN Security Council has entrusted Minujusth with a mandate to support national authorities in the context of the rule of law reform.



The purpose of the Mission is to promote and defend human rights, with particular emphasis on access to justice, compliance with legal procedures, structural support for the prison system and respect for the detention conditions, overcrowding, hygiene, access to care and visits



UNAIDS providing technical support for the Health Through Walls (HTW) health project in prisons stresses the importance of AIDS prevention in prisons. For the 2016/2017 period, more than 19,533 detainees have been examined and tested for HIV and 1,156 are currently on antiretroviral therapy.



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Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry received on Saturday a delegation from the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham) as part of preparations for an upcoming door-knock mission, according to a statement by Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid.

Minister Shoukry answered queries by the delegation over different aspects of Egyptian-American relations, including the outcomes of recent visits by top US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Shoukry also discussed Egypt's position on various regional and international issues, which Abu Zeid described as being of common interest for both countries.

"The foreign minister is keen on receiving the AmCham delegation every year ahead of his yearly visit to the US for a door-knock mission to discuss boosting and supporting cooperation between Egypt and the US and upgrade trade and investment exchange to serve both countries' interests," the statement said.

The AmCham delegation expressed their keenness to boost cooperation between Egypt and the US, reflecting the private and strategic relationship between them in the economy, trade, and investment cooperation.

According to the AmCham in Egypt, the stock of US direct investment in Egypt stood at $22.6 billion in 2016, representing 35.4 percent of US direct investment in Africa and 46.2 percent of US direct investment in the Middle East.

As of 2016, Egypt became the third largest recipient of US foreign assistance in the world and the second largest in the MENA region after Israel, according to statistics from April 2017.

According to the US Department of Commerce, in 2016 Egypt was the largest recipient of US direct investment in Africa, and second in the Middle East after the United Arab Emirates. The stock of US direct investment in Egypt stood at $22.6 billion as of 2016.

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Haiti - Humanitarian : The US Air Force helps Haiti





Air Force reservists from the 315th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, delivered nearly 100,000 pounds of humanitarian aid to Haiti on February. Airmen move humanitarian cargo from an Air Force transport jet in Haiti. Two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft delivered donated supplies and a well-drilling truck.



According to the Denton Program office, it is estimated that more than 8,400 people from the rural areas in Haiti, including an orphanage and medical clinics, will benefit from the supplies.



"Its hard to see little kids and families suffering," said Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Reggie Godbolt, the loadmaster superintendent for the 300th Airlift Squadron and one of the loadmasters on the mission to Haiti. "But as a nation, we give people a hand when they need it. Thats what we are all about."



The missions can be challenging as well, he said. "We land in austere locations, have to manage different kinds of cargo and must deal with the language barrier," he explained. "But thats what we train to do. We move equipment and supplies wherever its needed."



The relief missions are part of ongoing efforts by the 315th Airlift Wing to use flight training hours to provide humanitarian relief to countries in need, while also providing mandated training for C-17 aircrew members.



Since October, the 315th Airlift Wing has delivered 72.1 tons of humanitarian aid to Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.



"Missions like these are the best part of what we do," said Air Force Maj. Jennifer Phillips, one of the pilots on the mission from the 300th Airlift Squadron. "We dont think twice about helping people. Its just what we do. On these missions we delivered a huge well-drilling truck, food and medical supplies; and enough equipment to build a library. Thats not something you get to do every day."



Missions like these are made possible by the Denton Amendment, a State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development program allowing the delivery of donated humanitarian aid to fly on Air Force assets on a space-available basis.



Kathy Cadden from Operation Ukraine, one of the organizations that donated some of the aid going to Haiti, said many of the donated items would have been thrown away.



Buckets and jugs were saved from going to a landfill and can be used for carrying water, she said, and the donated preschool tables were older tables being replaced by Woodland Hill Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. Now these supplies are headed to the Childrens Lifeline School in Barbancou, Haiti. She also said the many desks, chairs and supplies will go to schools, hospitals, medical clinics and orphanages in the area.



"I am so thankful to the Denton program and the U.S. Air Force for making it possible to get food and humanitarian into Haiti," Cadden said. There is a change being made in the area where these supplies are being sent."



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Haiti - News : Zapping...





CARICOM : 454 police officers mobilized for security

454 police officers will be mobilized for the security of the event, informs the deputy spokesperson of the PNH, Garry Desrosiers. He announced that traffic will be very difficult on some roads during these two days citing including the airport area to Clercine, Martin Luther King Avenue, Delmas 60, Delmas 33 and Canape-Vert.



The CSPN convened

The Justice and Security Committee of the Chamber of Deputies invites the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) to answer its questions on March 2 on the security situation in the country including the burning of two markets in one week in Port-au-Prince.



Irwin Larocque arrived in Haiti

CARICOM Secretary-General Irwin Larocque arrived in Haiti as part of preparations for the 29th Intersessional Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the organization to be held in Port-au-Prince on 26-27 February with the participation of about fifteen foreign delegations.



Talk on the integration of Haiti to CARICOM

Friday evening was held at the Marriott Hotel "the talk about the integration of Haiti into CARICOM", an event organized as a prelude to the holding of the 9th Conference Conference of Heads of State and Government the Caribbean community, the purpose of this talk was to discuss the issues, challenges, and opportunities for Haiti's integration into CARICOM. What prevents high-quality Haitian products from being easily exported to the CARICOM market? What prevents a Haitian investor from investing and trading? were some topic discussed last night.



"We give all support to this initiative and we once again affirm our commitment to work with the various public institutions, in particular, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the BACOZ, the CFI. Our diplomatic and consular missions, chambers of commerce and universities, to place Haiti at the heart of fruitful and timely economic exchanges that are in line with the best interests of the nation," said Prime Minister Lafontant.



Meeting between the Senate and the FESP

Meeting yesterday Friday between the office of the Senate of the Republic and officials of the Private Sector Economic Forum (FESP) and the Association of Industries of Haiti. The discussions focused on the economic partnership agreement signed between the Haitian government and the European Union since 2008 but which is still not ratified by the National Assembly.



22 years of CIMO

The Intervention and Maintenance Corps (CIMO) is celebrating 22 years of service to the Haitian people. To mark the event, a ceremony was held this Friday, February 23, in their premises, located in Delmas, in the presence of Jovenel Moise, PM Jacques Guy Lafontant, the Minister of the Interior and the Director General of the Police National, Michelangelo Gideon.



"22 years since the body of intervention and maintenance of order (CIMO) is at the service of the Haitian nation.

In the company of President Jovenel Moise, I was honored to celebrate with them these 22 years of hard work in fulfilling their mission, "said Jack Guy Lafontant.



"On the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the Corps of Intervention and Maintenance of Order, I pay a heartfelt tribute to our police officers and our police officers who work day and night, in conditions that are often extremely difficult to ensure the safety of the population," said President Jovenel Moise.



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On Thursday 22 February, the 6th Aswan International Festival for Culture and Arts concluded its activities with the celebration of the alignment of the sun on the face of Ramses IIs statue at Abu Simbel Temple in the presence of a large audience.

The visually invigorating closing ceremony, which took place in the evening of 21 February at Abu Simbel Temple, featured Egyptian and foreign troupes.

They presented their performances in the presence of Culture Minister Ines Abdel-Dayem, Governor of Aswan Major General Magdi Hegazi, head of the General Organisation of Culture Palaces Ahmed Awwad and head of the Egyptian Centre for Foreign Cultural Relations Hisham Mourad.

The ceremony was attended by a large audience of Aswan locals and tourists.

Also participating were folk dance troupes from Aswan, Ismailia, Alexandria, the New Valley, Luxor, Toshka, Halayeb, Shalatin and Sohag.

Among the participating foreign countries were Ethiopia as the guest of honour, as well as Sudan, Tunisia, China, Thailand and Greece.

Indias renowned 10-member Rajasthani Dance group, led by Swarop Khan, gave several performances, including in the opening and closing ceremonies of the festival. Rajasthan dances are essentially folk dances tracing their origin to rural customs and traditions.

Some performances were held at different venues in Aswan City and were open to the public free of charge.

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AN elderly man says he felt threatened into paying a 160 parking fine despite it being issued incorrectly.

Franz Matschy, 78, was called by a debt collector after refusing to pay the fine issued at the car park for the Hart and Bell surgeries in Henley.

He says he had been assured by the Hart Surgery that the fine would be cancelled but he continued to be sent letters warning him to pay up before he received the phone call.

Mr Matschy, of Mount View, Henley, said: Im not a happy person. At the end of the day Ive done nothing wrong.

He is one of dozens of patients who have received letters from debt collectors for fines issued at the car park off York Road. Many of them have been threatened with action by bailiffs or court action, as the Henley Standard revealed last month.

The fines date back to before the surgeries cancelled their contract with car park enforcement company Smart Parking in November following repeated complaints about unfair fines.

Many of the problems were caused by the system requiring people with an appointment having to enter their vehicles registration number at a touchscreen in the surgeries reception areas in order to obtain up to 90 minutes free parking time.

Mr Matschy, a retired car mechanic, was fined after visiting the Hart Surgery on November 11 for an appointment about his asthma problem and spent about an hour there.

He said: I asked the girl at reception to put my number in because the screen was too little and I couldnt see it. She booked me in and said it was all right, everything was done correctly.

When I received the 60 fine I immediately went to the surgery with the letter and asked, what is all this? She said, dont worry, lots of people have had it and she would take a copy and it would be the last I heard of it.

In December, Mr Matschy received a letter from Smart Parking telling to him to pay the fine or face action from debt collectors and then a follow-up letter in January.

He spoke to the surgery again and even tried to unsuccessfully to speak to someone at Smart Parking before he received the call from the debt collection agency.

Mr Matschy said: I was on the phone to Smart Parking for 40 minutes and didnt manage speak to anyone so I hung up.

As I put the phone down, a guy from the debt collectors rang and said he wasnt concerned about how it happened but he had been told to get hold of this money.

I felt threatened into paying it and paid him by card there and then. My partner was unhappy  she said I should never have paid the money as Id done nothing wrong but I believe they can come and clamp your car and I didnt want that to happen.

Smart Parking was employed in April last year in a bid to stop the surgeries car park being abused by shoppers and visitors.

It used automatic numberplate recognition cameras to track vehicles coming in and out and anyone deemed not authorised to park was sent a 60 fine which increased to 100 if not paid within two weeks.

The companys contract was cancelled following dozens of complaints from patients about incorrect or unfair fines.

The GPs were able to ask for fines they felt they had been issued unfairly to be cancelled but since the contract ended Smart Parking has not replied to any correspondence, including a letter to the companys chief executive Paul Gillespie.

Sarah Moberly, practice manager at the Hart Surgery, said she had asked Smart Parking to cancel Mr Matschys fine but did not hear back.

She said: This is the first case we have heard of when a debt collector has telephoned someone.

We can only apologise again to any patients affected adversely by this scheme, which was introduced with the sole purpose of making the parking situation easier for them.

Smart Parking is still employed to monitor the neighbouring car park for Townlands Memorial Hospital despite a growing number of complaints there too.Related Mourners bid farewell to renowned Egyptian film critic Ali Abu Shady

The passing of Ali Abu Shadi, one of the pillars of film criticism in Egypt, at the age of 72 is a major loss to the community.

Abu Shadi earned a BA in the arts from Ain Shams University in 1966, and a postgraduate diploma in criticism from the Academy of Arts in 1975. Abu Shadi held numerous major posts in the state including secretary of the Higher Council of Culture (2007-2009), a position second only to the that of the minister of culture, overseeing various arms of the cultural establishment: the Cultural Development Fund, the Plastic Arts Sector, the Censorship Authority, the Cultural Production Sector.

His career started when he was appointed editor of the state-supported magazine Cinema (1975-1983), published by the Popular Culture (now Cultural Palaces) arm of the ministry, whose brief is to provide free or affordable cultural products  stage plays, film screenings and book sales  to even the remotest villages, and which Abu Shadi would later head (1999-2001).

Abu Shadi also headed the National Centre of Cinema (2001-2008), in which capacity he managed to resume some of the centres previously discontinued activities, notably the Ismailia International Film Festival for Documentary and Short Films (which had not been held since 1994), which he headed until 2010. He was also head of the National Film Festival (1998-2010), secretary of the Higher Festivals Committee (2001-2008) and, most notably, perhaps, Head Censor (twice: 1996-1999; and 2004-2009).

He had refused to accept the post in the 1980s  when from within the establishment he fought the decision to ban Atef Al-Tayibs The Innocent (1986), in which the hero played by Ahmed Zaki openly and persuasively condemns the government and other repressive bodies  rejecting censorship altogether, but now he felt he could play a constructive role in mediating between artists and the state.

In 2005, indeed, he convinced then Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni to let him screen The Innocent uncut as part of the effort to honour Zaki. Many filmmakers and artists felt secure with a major critic and a strong and knowledgable intellectual like Shadi at the head of the Censorship Authority.

Abu Shadi himself once explained how he rescued Said Hameds comedy The Presidents Cook, starring Talaat Zakareya as the cook and Khaled Zaki as the president. Lotfi Labib was to play the presidents right hand man (a possible reference to then head of the presidential office under Hosni Mubarak, Zakareya Azmi), a rather hateful character. By persuading Hamed to replace Labib with Ashraf Zaki playing a more sympathetic character, in an intelligent move only someone of his experience and confidence could master, Abu Shadi managed to make the film safe and pass it.

Abu Shadi was a prolific writer, producing dozens of quality books on cinema that chronicled and analysed, among other works, documentary films of the 1970s, the history of Egyptian cinema (1895-1994), Egyptian film classics and trends of the aughts.

*This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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In the middle of the desert, six kilometres south of Tuna Al-Gabal archaeological site, Egyptian and international media gathered to witness the announcement of a new discovery.

Five showcases displaying the artefacts uncovered from burial sites in the cemetery were guarded by inspectors. Minister of Antiquities Kaled El-Enany, who was on site, announced the discovery of a 26th Dynasty cemetery that consists of a large number of burial shafts.

The discovery was made out by an Egyptian mission led by Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), who started excavations at end of 2017.

Excavation work is scheduled to last for five years in an attempt to uncover all the burials of the cemetery, El-Enany told Ahram Online. He explained that the discovery is still fresh, and many more are to come as excavation continues.

Waziri said that in the last three months the mission has discovered a group of tombs and burials that belong to priests of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth, the main deity of the 15th nome and its capital Al-Ashmounein.

One the discovered tombs belongs to a high-priest of god Thoth, Hersa-Essei. The tomb houses 13 burials in which was found a large number of ushabti figurines carved in faience. A collection of 1,000 figurines are in a very good state of conservation while other statuettes were found broken in pieces.

Restorers are now busy collecting all of the parts for restoration, Waziri pointed out. He continued that four canopic jars made of alabaster with lids bearing the faces of the four sons of the god Horus were also unearthed. They are in a very good state of conservation and still contain the mummified inner organs of the deceased. The jars are decorated with hieroglyphic texts showing the name and titles of its respective owner.

The mummy of high-priest Djehuty-Irdy-Es was also found.

The mummy is decorated with a bronze collar depicting the god Nut stretching her wings to protect the deceased according to ancient Egyptian belief. It is also decorated with a collection of blue and red precious beads as well as bronze gilded sheets, two eyes carved in bronze and ornamented with ivory and crystal beads.

Four amulets of semi-precious stones were also found on the mummy. It is decorated with hieroglyphic texts, one of which is engraved with a phrase saying: "Happy New Year.

The mission has also unearthed 40 limestone sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes, some of them with anthropoid lids decorated with the names and different titles of their owners.

Another family tomb was uncovered in the cemetery, Waziri said. It houses a collection of gigantic sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes, ushabti figurines bearing the names of their owners who were priests of the gods during their time.

Other funerary collections showing the skills and art tastes of the ancient Egyptians were also found.

Al-Gurifa site was subject to an attempt at illegal excavation in 2002, a matter that led the SCA at the time to start comprehensive excavation work on site in 2002 and 2004 under the supervision of archaeologist Atta Makram.

In 2004, the site was declared an archaeological site under the guard of the SCA.

In 2017, excavation work resumed to uncover the part of the cemetery of the New Kingdom and Late Period.

The cemeteries of the Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom were on the east bank of the Nile in Al-Sheikh Saad and Eeir Al-Barsha area.

The Ptolemaic period of the cemetery was on the west bank of the Nile at Tuna Al-Gabal.

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Turkish MP Ali Arkscon told reporters in Cairo Saturday that in spite of political differences between Egypt and Turkey he is sure that these differences will be ironed out gradually.

"Egyptian-Turkish relations are based on strong foundations, and so I think that the two countries should do their best in the future to resolve differences between them," said Arkscon.

Arkscon, who was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting held by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean in Cairo Saturday, said: "Egypt and Turkey are two powerful Islamic countries in the Muslim world and the Middle East and it is not good that they still have political differences."

"I can say that in official and popular terms Turkey respects Egypt very much," Arkscon added. "Also, as Turkish MPs we think we should play a greater role in settling differences between Islamic countries in general."

"I came here to Cairo to sit down with Egyptian MPs and with deputies from different countries and we accepted that the meeting be headed by an Egyptian (parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal), and that shows that any differences or difficulties between Egypt and Turkey can be settled gradually and that we as Turkish MPs have a strong wish to recover strong bilateral relations with Egypt."

Arkscon also said that "as a Turkish MP I am very happy to be here in Cairo today to help thawing the ice between Egypt and Turkey and let me thank Egypt's parliament speaker and Egyptian MPs for hosting us and for their generosity and hospitality."

Arkscon, who is a member of Turkish President Rcept Tayyib Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, argued that Turkey has no maritime border problem with Egypt. "Turkey is just defending its water rights in the Mediterranean and its maritime borders with Cyprus."

He said he does not expect the dispute between Turkey and Cyprus to reach the stage of military confrontation.

Political relations between Egypt and Turkey have rapidly deteriorated since the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. Erdogan led a hostile campaign against Cairo, refusing to recognise the regime led by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Egyptian officials and MPs have repeatedly accused Turkey and Qatar of supporting the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, helping some of its leading officials in Istanbul to own satellite television channels to target El-Sisi in person.

Egypt's interior ministry has also charged that many of the terrorist attacks in Egypt since 2013 have been masterminded by fugitive Brotherhood loylists in Turkey.

A parliamentary statement indicated Saturday that Egypt's parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal led a meeting of the bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. "This is the second meeting of the Assembly under Egyptian chairmanship, and it was attended by parliamentary representatives from Italy, Turkey, France and Egypt," said the statement.

The statement also indicated that the meeting discussed the financial conditions of the Assembly and the necessity of building its headquarters very soon.

"Some proposed that the headquarters be set up in Marseilles in France or Barcelona in Spain," said the statement, indicating that "it was agreed that member countries submit proposals in this respect until 30 March so that the coming plenary meeting of the Assembly, scheduled in Cairo for the end of April, would discuss it and make a decision."

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Eritrean army tanks besieged the information ministry in central Asmara on Monday after some 200 mutineers seized the building to call for political reform, diplomatic and diaspora sources said Monday.



No shots had been fired and the rest of the city appeared calm, the diplomats added, although very few details were immediately available.



There was no immediate indication it was an attempt to overthrow the government of Eritrea, which has been led by Isaias Afewerki, 66, for some two decades since it broke away from bigger neighbour Ethiopia.



The renegade soldiers forced the director of state television to make an announcement, the Eritrean intelligence official said.



The soldiers have forced him to speak on state TV, to say the Eritrean government should release all political prisoners, a source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.



There was no immediate official comment.



Amanuel Ghirmai, an Eritrean journalist in Paris for the opposition Radio Erena, said that around a 100 army mutineers stormed the hill-top ministry -- which towers over the capital of the Red Sea state -- early on Monday morning.



They reportedly ordered news readers at the government-run television and radio station -- the only source of media for the authoritarian state -- to read a statement that they will implement the countrys constitution.



The statement also reportedly ordered the release of prisoners of conscience.



We do not know who is leading the situation... everybody has been put into the same room (in the ministry), he said, adding that he had spoken to sources in Asmara.



The reports were not possible to confirm independently.



However, Eritrean expatriates who had spoken to compatriots in Asmara said they could confirm reports that troops had been deployed at the information ministry, and that state television Eri-TV had stopped broadcasting, they told AFP.



All Eritreas public media are recorded and broadcast from the ministry.



The local transmission has been cut, the only satellite signal is airing some archives, Amanuel added.



Afeworki has ruled the Horn of Africa nation with an iron grip from independence in 1993, following an epic 30-year liberation war from neighboring Ethiopia.



The United Nations last year estimated that 5,000-10,000 political prisoners were being held in the secretive Horn of Africa country, which is accused by human rights groups of carrying out torture and summary executions.





The gold-producing is also one of the most opaque countries on the continent and it restricts access to foreign reporters.



Eritrean opposition activists exiled in neighboring Ethiopia said there was growing dissent within the Eritrean military especially over economic hardships.



Economic issues have worsened and have worsened relations between the government and soldiers in the past few weeks and months, one activist told Reuters.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.As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

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After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

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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.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.The Finance Committee asks school officials to cut their proposed budget by more than 4 percent.

Clarksburg Finance Committee Working to Close FY19 Budget Gap

CLARKSBURG, Mass.  The town's new Finance Committee wants to know where all the money is coming from as it develops a budget for fiscal 2019.

Chairman James Stakenas and Ronald Boucher, joined by prior chairman Mark Denault, want to see a broad picture of the revenue sources  state aid, grants, revolving accounts, etc.  to get a better picture of how the town's finances operate. The preliminary budget has a gap of about $50,000 that has to be made up.

"I still want to see all the revenue and all the deficits," Stakenas said on Thursday after the committee asked the School Department to reduce its projected budget by more than 4 percent.

Clarksburg School had initially come in with a 6.55 percent increase over the fiscal 2018 budget, which had been cut by 4 percent last year at the behest of the Selectmen.

But restoring those funds and providing for an increase would leave the town grappling with at least a $230,000 deficit.

"You have to operate within your means," Boucher said. "If you don't, you're going to fail. ... We need you to come in at 2 percent."

Boucher said school officials could work with the committee  as late as they wanted to on Thursday  or come back with their own cuts. "I don't know what you need to do, but this is what we need," he said.

Superintendent Jon Lev, Business Manager Carrie Burnett and School Committee members Chairwoman Patricia Prengruber and John Solari attended the meeting, as did Town Accountant Donna Estes and Town Treasurer Ericka Oleson.

"In the past, for the 10 years I've been doing the school budget, we come in with whatever and it comes down to where the town's at and we find a way to do it," Lev said.

The school had already planned to use about $130,000 out of its school choice account, but to bring the budget down to $2,496,960 (a 2 percent increase over FY18) it would need about another $175,000. That would reduce the anticipated gap to between $50,000 and $60,000; town officials left open the possibility of asking for more from the school side.

The school currently has about $425,000 in the school choice account; another $320,000 is estimated to come in based on the governor's fiscal 2019 budget. Denault asked if it wasn't time to consider the school choice money as a regular revenue stream, rather than an emergency tap.

"I understand that you're utilizing some of that money but it's still building up at a pretty hefty pace," said Denault. "Maybe that's something that needs to be looked at, that this is a substantional revenue source for the town and if the school can continue to utilize it and keep a cap ... I don't expect you to draw it down to nothing."

Lev said it was possible the school would have to use more school choice funds because the tuition numbers to Drury High School are up from what was predicted a year ago.

School choice funds are part of the town's local aid and assessments, but they appear in different parts of the budget. School choice allows parents in Massachusetts to have some selection in the schools they send their children to. All towns have to allow children to "choice out" but schools can decide if they will accept school choice children and, if so, how many.

The base amount of $5,000 follows the child to the accepting school, along with any charges for special education. That shows up on the school department side of the budget and comes through the state; towns are charged on their side of the budget for the number of children school choicing out.

For fiscal 2019, the governor's budget estimates that the school will receive $320,850, about $70,000 more than this year; the town, on the other hand, will be charged $242,802, almost $60,000 more than this year, for students choicing out of the district and for those going to the charter school.

Lev said school choice really isn't state aid even though it's channeled through the state from the sending towns. The numbers are based on a snapshot of enrollment in October but the actual numbers aren't submitted until April. "They make it up in June if it's higher or lower."

Estes said state aid numbers often aren't firm and halfway through the year, the town has had to scramble to make up a difference.

"We rely heavily on state aid and in December, we found out we're not going to get $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 in state aid," she said. "We don't have any other revenue sources to make up that money this year. It's happened three years in a row ... we don't have a choice and we don't have any other revolving account that we can pull from."

Denault said the budget had to be looked at in totality, not as town or school. Money might going out one side and coming in on the other, but it's all part of Clarksburg's budget, he said.

"We can look at that as a standard practice moving forward," Burnett said of thinking of school choice as consistent revenue. "For Lenox, the money that comes in this year is put toward the operating budget next year and they maintain a certain balance."

The Finance Committee had asked to see all of the grants and other funding coming into the school and how that was used to offset salaries and programs. They also queried school officials about covering insurance for a few employees who also work in other North Berkshire Union schools. Lev said Clarksburg has generally covered insurance because the employees spend the most time here but he has broached the subject with the school committees about have them pay a share of cost.

The committee members will next look at the library, Council on Aging, town clerk, and other departments, and said they will be asking for the same information.

"We certainly did not not mean to seem we were setting up the school," Denault told school officials. "I want you to know that was not the case. We all have the same best interest in the town."



iciHaiti - Social : Amnesty International denounces gender violence





This week, Amnesty International (AI) denounced in its annual report the violence against women and girls in Haiti, particularly sexual violence, and the legislators' attempt to approve openly discriminatory laws against LGBTI people (Lesbians , Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexed).



Last April, the government introduced comprehensive reforms to the Penal Code in Parliament, which contained new provisions to combat sexual violence, including the criminalization of marital rape, cases that are not always reported, AI said.



The report cites figures from Medecins Sans Frontieres, which indicates that between May 2015 and March 2017, 1,300 victims of sexual and gender-based violence were identified in its clinic "Take my hand" in Port-au-Prince. 83% of victims were women under 25, 53% of whom were under 18 and 11% of those under 10 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21520-haiti-news-zapping.html



Moreover, in its report Amnesty International also denounced the decision of the Haitian Senate to vote in August 2017, a bill discriminatory against the LGBTI community https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21704-haiti-flash-the-senate-passes-a-law-against-the-gay-community.html , pending ratification by the Chamber of Deputies.



IH/ iciHaiti





















iciHaiti - Security : The PoliFront deploys in Ouanaminthe





Friday, a contingent of the Haitian Border Police (PoliFront) was deployed along the border separating Ouanaminthe from Dajabon to begin securing and monitoring the border of Haiti.



The PoliFront seems well equipped and would have military weapons and surveillance drones according to testimonies. The deployment of the PoliFront aims to prevent smuggling and control the recurring disorder that occurs on Monday and Friday, Binational market days in Dajabon.



SL/ iciHaiti

















Imperial Valley News Center

Vietnam Ambassador to United States visits USS George HW Bush

Norfolk, Virginia - The Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the United States Pham Quang Vinh, along with Under Secretary of the Navy Mr. Thomas Modly and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Southeast Asia Mr. Patrick Murphy, visited the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), Wednesday.

While aboard, the Ambassador and the official party, including his wife, staff members and members from the Vietnamese media toured GHWB's hangar bay, flight deck, pilot house and the President George H.W. Bush Tribute Room which is dedicated to the ship's namesake. They were welcomed by the ship's executive officer, Capt. Chris Hill and had lunch in the ship's wardroom.



"It is an honor to host Ambassador Vinh aboard USS George H.W. Bush," said Capt. Chris Hill. "It is important to continue to build on these relationships in order to increase security cooperation, humanitarian relief efforts and the. U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership"



During his first embark on an aircraft carrier, Vinh expressed his gratitude and appreciation for the crew of GHWB and explained the ongoing importance and value of the two nations' increasing cooperation and advancement of security and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.



"There's a number of messages which are very important, symbolically...and bilaterally reflect our partnership for peace," said Vinh.



GHWB was the first aircraft carrier to support Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) for a second time. GHWB is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.



Aircraft carriers provide decisive and sustained airpower to support a full spectrum of mission requirements.



The ship is in port in Norfolk while conducting routine maintenance in preparation for the Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV).Estonia National Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson: "On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, I wish to congratulate Estonia and its people on the commemoration of the centennial anniversary of your declaration of independence.

"Estonia is a vital ally of the United States and our relationship is stronger than ever. Our two countries are linked by shared sacrifice, vibrant economic ties and a common commitment to Western freedom. During his visit last year, Vice President Pence emphasized the United States unwavering support for Estonia and the region. He also reiterated our commitment to NATO and to Article 5. I commend Estonia on your successful EU Presidency, your leadership in cybersecurity, and for spending two percent of Estonias GDP on defense spending. I also want to thank Estonia for your continued support to defeat terrorism and defend democracy.

"Congratulations on your 100th anniversary, which we look forward to commemorating with you throughout this special year."Netflix's latest film has faced immediate backlash for casting Jared Leto as a yakuza member.

The Outsider stars the Oscar-winner as a captive American soldier in the final days of WWII, set free from prison with the aid of his yakuza cellmate. However, he must repay his debt of gratitude by joining the criminal gang, aiding them in their nefarious activities.

However, there's no apparent modern or historical basis for a white American being accepted into the yakuza, with the film's synopsis having little understanding of how the crime syndicates work. While the majority of members come from the burakumin, descendants of the outcast communities of feudal era Japan, ethnic Koreans are also a prominent part of the yakuza, as Japanese-born people of Korean ancestry are considered resident aliens.

Recommended Jared Leto says he was never to play Hugh Hefner in cancelled biopic

It's unheard of, however, for the yakuza to accept a white American. Stranger still that the film would call its lead the titular The Outsider, when the yakuza deliberately paint themselves an outsider force as a way to recruit new members.

Which has all led many to question why exactly the Netflix film felt the need to centre itself around a non-Asian character in an Asian setting. As author Nancy Wang Yuen tweeted, "There is literal #Whitewashing (Dr Strange, Ghost in the Shell) and figurative #Whitewashing when shows set in Asia center around a white actor."



William Yu, who created the #StarringJohnCho project, calling for better Asian-American representation in Hollywood cinema, stated, "STOP. WRITING. AROUND US"; indeed, it's impressive how far the Netflix film will go to warp the rules of the yakuza, rather than simply centre a yakuza film around an Asian or Asian-American lead.



The Outsider also stars Emile Hirsch, Raymond Nicholson, Tadanobu Asano, Rory Cochrane, and Shiori Kutsuna. The film will be available on Netflix from 9 March.

Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on Film, TV, Music, and more.Mallorcan rapper Josep Miquel Arenas Beltran, stage name Valtonyc, has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison over the content of his song lyrics.

Catalan News reports the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that his work, which he made available to listen to online for free, contained glorification of terrorism, slander, lese-majeste (defamation against the crown), and threats. Lawyers defending Valtonyc pushed for their clients right to freedom of expression and artistic creation, arguing that hip-hop and rap often contain provocative or symbolic language.

In Tuerka Rap the 24-year-old rapper criticises the Spanish monarchy over their relations with the Saudi royal family, their foreign policy, and their spending, as he raps: The situation worries me quite a bit, how to support two families: mine, and the royal one.

Elsewhere, the lyrics presented in the court case included, We want death for these pigs, referring to corrupt politicians and the Bourbon monarchy, and may they be afraid like a [Spanish] Guardia Civil police officer in Euskadi [the Basque Country], which references the armed conflict between Spain and the Basque National Liberation Movement, which sought independence from both Spain and France, lasting from 1959 to 2011.

The rapper argued that hip-hop and rap often contain provocative or symbolic language

Arenas took to Twitter after the decision to write: The Supreme Court sentence is already out. Three years and six months of jail for my songs. I have to enter prison. As soon as I have more information, Ill say more.



The Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, expressed solidarity with Arenas, adding on Twitter: Sad and dark times when you have to fight for something so obvious as #rappingisnotacrime, singing about Bourbon thieves... is #freedomofexpression.



Rapper Pablo Hansel had previously been sentenced to two years in prison by the Spanish National Court, with members of rap collective La Insurgencia being sentenced to two years and a day over charges of glorification of terrorism connected to the Basque conflict.

Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on film, TV, music, and moreStormzy is in talks to perform at a memorial concert dedicated to Stephen Lawrence, to mark the 25th anniversary of his murder.

The musician met Lawrences mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, at the Brit Awards last Sunday; she is currently working with Universal to put on a series of shows dedicated to the memory of her son, telling the Mirror that the grime star was keen to lend his support. Stormzy spoke to me about getting involved. Hes amazing, she stated. Wed like to put on a few different concerts around London rather than one single memorial.

Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham on the evening of 22 April 1993. After an initial investigation, five suspects were arrested but not convicted. A public inquiry in 1998, however, concluded that the police investigation had been influenced by institutional racism, with the law being changed in 2005 to repeal the double jeopardy rule in murder cases, allowing a retrial upon new and compelling evidence.

Doreen Lawrence has spent years campaigning for better reforms of the police service, establishing The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, and was awarded the OBE in 2003 for services to community relations. She has stated this will be her last year of campaigning. Then its time to move on, she added.

Stormzy won both best British male solo and the British album of the year at this weeks Brits, closing his performance at the ceremony with lyrics aimed at the Prime Ministers handling of the Grenfell Tower tragedy: Theresa May, wheres the money for Grenfell? What, you thought we just forgot about Grenfell? You criminals, and youve got the cheek to call us savages. You should do some jail time, you should pay some damages, you should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.

 BRIT Awards 2018: Stormzy calls out Theresa May over Grenfell Tower

The PMs official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: The Prime Minister has been very clear that Grenfell was an unimaginable tragedy that should never have happened and must never happen again. Shes determined that the public inquiry will discover not just what went wrong but why the voices of the people of Grenfell were ignored over so many years. In terms of support for the people affected by this tragedy, more than 58m has been committed.

There have still been no arrests, hundreds of survivors remain homeless, and 297 other towers in the UK are still covered in flammable cladding, campaigner Yvette Williams recently stated. Furthermore, requests from survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire to appoint a diverse decision-making panel to sit alongside the head of the public inquiry have been denied.

Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on film, TV, music, and moreDavid Mamet has written a play based on Harvey Weinstein.

The playwright, best known for writing Glengarry Glen Ross - which later became a hit film, talked about the play called "Bitter Wheat" in an interview with the Chicago Tribune.

According to the piece, a Chicago theatre veteran is interested in starring in the play.

Of the experience Mamet said, I was talking with my Broadway producer and he said, 'Why don't you write a play about Harvey Weinstein?' And so I did."

Mamet isn't a stranger to discussing sexual harassment in his work: he first tackled the topic in his controversial 1992 play "Oleanna," which emerged on Broadway in 2009 starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles.

But he hasn't revealed details of how the play will conquer sexual harassment, the downfall of Weinstein and the #MeToo movement.

Every society has to confront the ungovernable genie of sexuality and tries various ways to deal with it and none of them work very well," explains Mamet of his play.

He then further described the crackdown on sexual harassment saying, "There is great difficulty when you are switching modes, which we seem to be doing now. People go crazy. They start tearing each other to bits.

Alongside "Bitter Wheat," Mamet is also focusing on his new book "Chicago" and working on the film adaptation of the screenplay "The Force" for Fox.

While there's no concrete news of timeline or production happening, it sounds like "Bitter Wheat" is in good hands.Emma Chambers, the British actress best known for her roles in The Vicar of Dibley and Notting Hill, has died aged 53.

A statement from her agency said: Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many, and will be greatly missed. It said she died from natural causes on Wednesday evening.

Born in Doncaster, Chambers trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in the 1980s, working in theatre for 10 years before her major TV break as Charity Pecksniff in a TV adaptation of Charles Dickenss Martin Chuzzlewit.

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However, her best-loved role will always remain Alice Tinker in the BBCs The Vicar of Dibley, a character once described, by her good friend Geraldine  played by Dawn French  as having the intellectual capacity and charisma of a cactus. Chambers appeared in all 20 episodes of the series and four Comic Relief specials, winning the British Comedy Award for best TV actress in 1998.

She also famously starred as Honey, the little sister of Hugh Grants Will, in the 1999 romcom classic Notting Hill, penned by Vicar of Dibley co-writer Richard Curtis.

Dawn French led tributes to her former co-star. She said in a statement: Emma was a very bright spark and the most loyal & loving friend anyone could wish for. I will miss her very much.

Grant called news of her death very sad. He wrote on Twitter: Emma Chambers was a hilarious and very warm person and of course a brilliant actress.

Emma Freud, who worked as a script editor on both The Vicar of Dibley and Notting Hill, paid tribute to Chambers on Twitter. Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. Were very very sad. She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being, she wrote.



Chambers' co-star in Notting Hill, James Dreyfus, wrote: RIP the wonderful and talented Emma Chambers. Unique, & unspeakably funny. Too young. Thoughts with her family.



Presenter Jeremy Clarkson tweeted: Im sad about Emma Chambers. Knew her when she was a kid in Doncaster. She was very funny.



Chambers is survived by her husband, fellow actor Ian Dunn.Parts of the Arctic could be warmer than the UK this weekend after temperatures in the region soared more than 30C higher than averages for the time of year.

Mild air amassing on both sides of the Atlantic could cause temperatures to rise above freezing in some polar areas during February for the first time in recorded history.

The Danish Meteorological Institute recorded earlier this week the mercury had edged above freezing at Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland, the northernmost weather station in the world.

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In Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost city in the US, temperatures reached a record high of -1C, some 22C warmer than the average for the year.

Other parts of the polar region off the northern coast of Greenland have seen temperatures 30C higher than normal for February.

All this comes despite the fact that large parts of the Arctic Circle are currently trapped in perpetual darkness, with the sun not set to rise again until March.

Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland has been above freezing nearly all day. How weird is that? tweeted Robert Rohde, lead scientist at non-profit climate monitoring organisation Berkeley Earth.

Well its Arctic winter. The sun set in October and wont be seen again until March. Perpetual night, but still above freezing.

Although factors such as wind direction cause large degrees of variability in Arctic temperatures, scientists warn unseasonably warm winters in the region are becoming far more commonplace.

Meanwhile, a patch of high pressure drawing cold air across the British Isles from Scandinavia and Russia means temperatures could plummet to exceptionally cold levels in the UK, according to the Met Office.

Forecasters predict eastern and southeastern parts of England could be hit by up to 10cm of snow on Monday and Tuesday during one of the coldest spells of weather to hit Britain in several years.

Experts warned temperatures could drop as low as -8C in large parts of the country and will struggle to rise above freezing during the day.

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

Met Office forecaster Paul Gundersen said: Parts of southern England and Wales are likely to experience the coldest spell of weather since 2013.

Many places will be dry, but snow showers are expected to develop from Monday.

The regions most at risk of disruptive snow are parts of south-east England and East Anglia, although parts of northern England and eastern Scotland are also at risk.

Transport disruption is likely in areas with significant snowfall.You can now drink iconic Girl Scout Cookies in coffee form - thanks to a partnership with Dunkin Donuts.

Known for being practically irresistible, the new coffee flavours are inspired by three iconic Girl Scout cookie varieties - Thin Mints, Coconut Caramel, and Peanut Butter Cookie, according to the Dunkin Donuts press release.

And the coffee chain promises the new Thin Mints coffee flavour will incorporate the cool mint and decadent chocolate flavours found in the delicious cookie - with the Coconut Caramel flavour featuring toasted coconut together with creamy caramel.

Recommended Girl Scout sells 117 boxes of cookies outside cannabis dispensary in

But more importantly, Dunkin Donuts has found a way to create peanut butter flavouring with absolutely no allergens for the Peanut Butter Cookie inspired coffee.

According to the press release: Dunkin Donuts has crafted its first-ever coffee featuring the flavour of mouth-watering peanut butter (without allergens).

Of their decision to use flavours inspired by Girl Scout Cookies, Patty Healy, senior director of integrated marketing said: Our guests have come to expect and enjoy fun, innovative flavours from us, and what could elicit more smiles than the iconic taste of Girl Scout Cookie-inspired flavours in your favourite Dunkin Donuts coffee?

Dunkin' Donuts has created coffee inspired by Girl Scout Cookies (Dunkin' Donuts)

Its a natural fit and a powerful combination. We are especially proud that our franchisees, many of whom are small business owners themselves, are committed to fuelling the entrepreneurial spirit of the Girl Scouts by welcoming local troops to sell cookies at their restaurants.

So not only can you buy Girl Scout Cookie-flavoured coffee at your local Dunkin Donuts starting February 24, you can also pick up a box or four of cookies while youre there.

Dunkin' Donuts has created three cookie-inspired coffee flavours (Dunkin' Donuts)

In a sentimental touch, the coffee chain announced the new flavours in Savannah, Georgia - the birthplace of Girl Scouts of the USA.

The cookie-flavoured coffees will be available in hot or iced coffees, lattes, macchiatos, frozen coffee, and frozen chocolate and in Dunkin Donuts from February 26 through May.

Happy National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend!Mini Welsh rarebits

These tasty mini bites of cheese on toast are perfect for parties, as a canape, or as a starter or snack.

Prep: 10 minutes, plus cooling time

Cook: 10 minutes

Makes about 24

2 tsp English mustard powder

6 tbsp golden ale

50g butter

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, or to taste

350g Caerphilly cheese, grated

2 medium free-range egg yolks

6 slices sourdough with mixed seeds

For the pear and walnut relish

1 pear

2 tbsp lemon juice

50g walnut pieces, finely chopped

25g pack fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

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Mix the mustard with a little ale to make a paste in the base of a pan. Stir in the rest of the ale, the butter and Worcestershire sauce over a gentle heat and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the cheese and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, being careful that the mixture doesnt boil, until melted and smooth. Season, then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Beat the yolks into the just-warm but still melted cheese.

Preheat the grill to high and toast the bread lightly on both sides, then leave to cool on the grill rack. Spread the cheese mixture over the cooled toast and grill for 3-4 minutes or until bubbling and golden. Coarsely grate the pear and immediately toss with the lemon juice. Stir in the walnuts and parsley. Cut each toast into 4 slices and serve with the relish, ready to spoon on top.

Welsh cakes

These little teatime cakes are fruity and mildly spiced, delicious served warm on their own or buttered. Traditionally, theyre cooked on a sturdy griddle but a heavy-based frying pan makes a good substitute.

Serves 20

275g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

80g slightly salted butter

65g lard

75g raisins

75g caster sugar, plus a little extra to sprinkle

1 medium egg, beaten

100ml milk

Put the flour, baking powder and spices in a bowl and add the butter and lard, cut into small pieces. Rub in with the fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the raisins and sugar.

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Add the egg to the bowl and mix with a round-bladed knife, adding the milk to make a fairly soft dough (add a dash more if the dough feels dry). Roll out on a generously floured surface to 5mm thickness and cut out rounds using a 6cm cutter. Re-roll the trimmings and cut out more rounds so you use up all the dough.

Heat a griddle or frying pan with a little oil or butter and cook the cakes for 5 minutes on a low heat, turning once or until pale golden. Youll need to cook in two or three batches. Transfer to a warmed serving plate and sprinkle with extra sugar. Serve freshly baked.

Leek and Caerphilly lattice tart

With only 20 minutes hands-on time, this leek and cheese tart is well worth rolling your sleeves up for. Serve with steamed broccoli with a dash of lemon juice and olive oil.

Prep: 20-25 minutes

Cook 35 minutes

Serves 6

Small knob of unsalted butter

400g leeks, thinly sliced

3 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves stripped

300g Charlotte potatoes, diced

Plain flour, for dusting

500g shortcrust pastry

2 tbsp wholegrain mustard

100g half-fat creme fraiche

120g Caerphilly or Wensleydale cheese, crumbled

1 free range egg, beaten

Heat the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat and cook the leeks and thyme for 5-10 minutes until softened. Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water for 8-10 minutes until just tender, then drain and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the softened leeks and thyme.

Preheat the oven to 200C, gas mark 6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out three-quarters of the pastry to the thickness of a 1 coin and cut out a 25cm x 35cm rectangle. Re-roll the trimmings and reserved pastry and cut out 12 long strips of varying widths.

Transfer the pastry rectangle to a non-stick flat baking sheet and spread with the mustard, leaving a narrow border. Spoon the potatoes and leek over the mustard, then dot with the creme fraiche and cheese. Brush the border with egg and arrange the pastry strips on top of the filling, in a wide, diagonal lattice. Brush the pastry strips with more egg. Bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is cooked through and golden. Slice and serve warm.

Recipes and images courtesy of WaitroseApple will begin hosting iCloud data inside China despite concerns from human rights activists that authorities could use information to track down dissidents.

The technology giant will open a Chinese data centre next month in order to comply with new laws in the country, which could give authorities far easier access to users details.

It is the first time the company has stored cryptographic keys needed to unlock iCloud accounts outside the United States.

Until now, authorities have had to apply through the US legal system to gain access to a Chinese iCloud account.

Apple refused all 176 requests it received from Chinese authorities for information on its users between mid-2013 and mid-2017.

However, law enforcement will now be able to get their hands on text messages, emails and other data stored by Apple through courts in China, according to legal experts.

Human rights activists fear the government will use the new powers to trace dissidents, citing a case from more than a decade ago in which Yahoo handed over data which led to the imprisonment of two democracy advocates.

Jing Zhao, a human rights campaigner and Apple shareholder, said he could envisage worse problems arising from the handing over iCloud data than occurred in the Yahoo case.

In a statement, Apple said it had been forced to comply with recently introduced Chinese laws that require cloud services for Chinese citizens must be operated by Chinese companies.

The tech firm added that while its values did not change in different parts of the world, it was subject to each countrys laws.

While we advocated against iCloud being subject to these laws, we were ultimately unsuccessful, the company said.

Apple has established its data centre for Chinese users in a joint venture with state-owned firm Guizhou - Cloud Big Data, which has close ties to both the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party.

Technology comes to Bhutan Show all 19 1 /19 Technology comes to Bhutan Technology comes to Bhutan A youth drinks whiskey at a bar in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Drayang dancer Lhaden, 38, performs in a bar in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan, December 16, 2017. Lhaden, a divorced mother-of-two, dances until midnight, and like thousands of her compatriots, is struggling to make ends meet. "I'm not happy or sad about things, I have no other choice," she said. Lhaden, who earns $125 a month, is counting the pennies. "I live in such a small flat so I can afford food and clothes." Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Drayang dancers Ugyen Tshomo, 29, and Lhaden (R), 38, relax before going to work in a bar in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan December 16, 2017. Lhaden, a divorced mother-of-two, dances until midnight, and like thousands of her compatriots, is struggling to make ends meet. "I'm not happy or sad about things, I have no other choice," she said. Lhaden, who earns $125 a month, is counting the pennies. "I live in such a small flat so I can afford food and clothes." Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Men play snooker and gamble in a snooker hall in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Youths gather in an internet gaming centre in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Drayang dancer Lhaden, 38, prepares to leave her house and go to work in a bar in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan, December 16, 2017. Lhaden, a divorced mother-of-two, dances until midnight, and like thousands of her compatriots, is struggling to make ends meet. "I'm not happy or sad about things, I have no other choice," she said. Lhaden, who earns $125 a month, is counting the pennies. "I live in such a small flat so I can afford food and clothes." Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Smoke billows from machinery at a road construction site near the town of Punakha, Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Drayang dancer Lhaden, 38, checks her mobile phone as she rests at home in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan, December 16, 2017. Lhaden, a divorced mother-of-two, dances until midnight, and like thousands of her compatriots, is struggling to make ends meet. "I'm not happy or sad about things, I have no other choice," she said. Lhaden, who earns $125 a month, is counting the pennies. "I live in such a small flat so I can afford food and clothes." Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Youths sit outside a restaurant in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan, Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Youths play football near a highway in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan, Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Buddhist monks play football in the Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Sonam Tshering, 13, feeds cattle in the Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan, December 14, 2017. "I would love to become a science teacher and watch Cristiano Ronaldo play for Real Madrid," said Sonam. Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Houses stand in the capital city of Thimphu, Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Reuters Technology comes to Bhutan Zeko, 73, poses for a portrait at his home in Punakha, Bhutan, December 13, 2017. "I'm happy to have a mobile phone so I can talk to my relatives and children any time I want," Zeko said. Reuters

The company says the agreement will not give authorities a backdoor into data as its Chinese partner will not control encryption keys and it would only respond to valid legal requests for information.

But Chinas legal system lacks the equivalent of a court-approved warrant, which must be obtained by police before they can access a persons private data.

Even very early in a criminal investigation, police have broad powers to collect evidence, said Jeremy Daum, an attorney and research fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center in Beijing.

They are authorised by internal police procedures rather than independent court review, and the public has an obligation to cooperate.

Additional reporting by ReutersTrump officials speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week want attendees to know that America is the greatest country in the world.

We are enormously clever people, said Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke while asserting that getting rid adversarial government regulations will drive innovation.

And allowing us to innovate is what happened in fracking, in energy and batteries, he added. Theres no one more clever than Americans are, so our regulatory framework has to reflect that.

Mr Trump signed an executive order to roll back policies from the Obama administration aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. He has also withdrawn the US from the Paris climate accord  a global agreement to cut carbon emissions to slow the worst effects of climate change. Mr Trump said partaking in the deal would impose draconian financial and economic burdens on the US.

Mr Zinke joined Energy Secretary Rick Perry for a panel discussion during CPAC, the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the US. Both officials discussed the push for US energy dominance.

Thats the type of energy policy that President Trump wants to see, Mr Perry said at the gathering just outside of Washington. Where were using our resources, were using American innovation and were not sitting there and just saying were going to regulate our way into nirvana, because that is a fallacy.

Mr Perry also boasted that the US is the No 1 oil-and-gas-producing country in the world.

In 2016, Russia and Saudi Arabia both produced more oil than the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Show all 29 1 /29 Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump acknowledges the audience after taking the oath of office as his wife Melania (L) and daughter Tiffany watch during inauguration ceremonies swearing in Trump as the 45th president of the United States on the West Front of the US capital in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jim Bourg: "This photo was shot with one of two remote cameras. The cameras were monitored and triggered remotely and the pictures were transmitted to clients worldwide within minutes of being taken." Reuters/Jim Bourg Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Obama farewell address - 10 January 2017 US President Barack Obama wipes away tears as he delivers his farewell address in Chicago on 10 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "In his final days in office, Obama made a visit home to Chicago. As he spoke from the stage to his wife and daughter in the audience, he became emotional when he talked about what they had sacrificed during his time in office. I turned from photographing the Obama women embracing to find him onstage wiping away tears." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 A combination of photos shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (left) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009. Reuters/ Lucas Jackson/Stelios Varias Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Liberty Ball - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the Liberty Ball in honour of his inauguration in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "What I see when I look at this picture is the end of a very long day, not to mention weeks and months of preparation by many photographers, editors and network experts and the beginning of everything since." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception - 22 January 2017 US President Donald Trump greets Director of the FBI James Comey as Director of the Secret Service Joseph Clancy (L), watches during the Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House on 22 January, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "I have covered the White House for 16 years and normally either the President or the pool is in position when an event starts. In this case the President was not where anyone expected him to be. In fact, he was almost blocking the door when the pool came in. We had to scramble to find a position without bumping him or the furniture as he greeted and thanked members of law enforcement for their security efforts during the inauguration. Luckily, he greeted FBI Director James Comey a few seconds after the pool had made its way into the room." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Private phone calls to world leaders - 28 January 2017 US President Donald Trump, is joined by his staff, as he speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office on 28 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Very early in the Trump administration, weekends were as busy as weekdays. On Trump's second Saturday the official schedule said he would be making private phone calls to a number of world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin. I arrived early and, before sitting down at my desk walked up to Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office. He, too, was just taking his coat off. I gingerly made the suggestion that previous administrations had sometimes allowed photos of such phone calls through the Oval Office windows on the colonnade. To my mild shock, he didn't even think about it twice. "We'll do it!" he said. In truth, I really only expected the Putin call, but we were outside the windows multiple times throughout the day as the calls went on." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway - 27 February 2017 Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway (L) attends as US President Donald Trump welcomes the leaders of dozens of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the Oval Office on 27 February, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "We're often asked how much access we have to the Trump administration, and the answer is we have an awful lot. President Trump himself is very comfortable in the spotlight, and his aides are similarly unfazed by cameras. In this instance, senior advisor Kellyanne Conway was so comfortable in our presence she seemed not to consider the optics of kneeling on a Oval Office sofa to take pictures with her phone." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Angela Merkel heads to Washington - 17 March 2017 Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House on 17 March, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Chancellor Merkel made one of the earliest important visits of any US allies to meet Trump in his first months in office. When world leaders give joint news conferences they don't always tend to give each other their full attention - but Merkel watched Trump intently at several key moments, and here seemed particularly rapt." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump welcomes truckers to the White House - 23 March 2017 President Trump reacts as he sits on a truck while he welcomes truckers and CEOs to attend a meeting regarding healthcare at the White House on 23 March, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "The White House organised a listening session with truckers and CEO's of major American companies, regarding healthcare reform. An 18-wheeler tow truck was parked on the South Lawn of the White House and as Trump welcomed the truckers someone invited the him to come and sit in the driver's seat. Trump jumped into the cab and started yelling and pretending to drive - creating one of the most memorable pictures of the year. A lesson learned, always be prepared for the unexpected." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 6 April 2017 US President Donald Trump talks to journalists members of the travel pool on board the Air Force One during his trip to Palm Beach, Florida on 6 April, 2017. Carlos Barria: "During the many trips to President Trump's residence in Florida it is usual to see the president coming to the back of the plane to chat with journalists. During one of the trips to the so called 'Winter White House', Trump had a long talk with reporters while the Air Force One entertainment system was playing one of the latest Star Wars movies. As I was listening to Trump talk I was also looking at the movie waiting for a part of the movie to frame the mood of the day. Of the many scenes, I choose the one with Darth Vader." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House on 27 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "A day before President Trump's hundred days in office I was part of the team that interviewed the commander-in-chief in the Oval Office. I was only allowed to photograph Trump during the last five minutes of the interview. The time was very tight so I had to move fast as I had pictures in mind that I wanted to shoot. I walked into the Oval Office and saw that the President had printed maps of the country showing areas in red where he won. I raised my hands holding my camera as high as possible to get the best view of the scene using a 16mm wide angle lens." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump reacts as he arrives at Harrisburg international airport, before attending a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Pennsylvania on 29 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate his hundred days in office with a victory rally. He was in friendly territory as he won with a big difference over his opponent Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, during the November elections. As usual when the commander-in-chief arrives local residents gather to greet him. This time a small group of military personnel attended the arrival. Surrounded by secret service agents Trump walked from the Air Force One and raised his hand in a sign of victory as the crowd cheered him on." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 2 May 2017 White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (L) and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus watch as US President Donald Trump presents the U.S. Air Force Academy football team with the Commander-in-Chief trophy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on 2 May, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "Covering the White House does not just mean covering the President. White House staffers are an important part of the story and their relationship with the President and each other is an indicator of how things are going in the West Wing. The tendency is to focus exclusively on the President once an event starts but I always try to look around to see how people are reacting as things unfold." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Secret Service - 4 May 2017 Secret Service agents use a presidential limousine as cover from spraying water as US President Donald Trump lands via Marine One helicopter in New York on 4 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "The best part of any trip to New York City with the sitting US President is the helicopter ride into Manhattan. The ride out at night can be stunning. Here, Secret Service agents protect themselves from the spray from the East River as Trump lands on the helipad." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures NATO Summit - 25 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump wait the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron (unseen) before a lunch ahead of a NATO Summit in Brussels on 25 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "One of the best parts of travelling overseas for White House coverage is the chance to see the U.S. president in different environments and (literally) a different light. Here, Trump and his wife came out of the shadows to greet France's President Macron." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump meets Putin at G20 summit - 7 July 2017 US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on 7 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "On July 7, I witnessed one of the most important meetings of President Trump's first year in office. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Germany. The world's eyes were on these two leaders after speculation about Russian interference during the 2016 US elections. We entered the room for less than two minutes, where I took dozens of pictures. But there was this very interesting moment when Trump extended his hand to Putin for a handshake. Putin paused for a second and looked at Trump's hand. That was the picture that I was looking for, a little moment that seemed to say a lot." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures First lady - 8 July 2017 First lady Melania Trump chats with US President Donald Trump during their return from Germany at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on 8 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "After President Trump's trip to Germany he arrived back at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. First Lady Melania Trump said goodbye to Trump as she was heading off in a different direction that day. While chatting a breeze blew Melania's hair up in the air." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Made in America product showcase - 17 July 2017 Vice President Mike Pence laughs as President Donald Trump holds a baseball bat as they attend a Made in America product showcase event at the White House on 17 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "This summer the White House organized an event to showcase 'Made in America' products. All kinds of exhibitors brought their products as the President and Vice President toured the event. One of the companies was Marucci Sport, a manufacturer of baseball bats based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As Trump approached a table full of baseball bats, photographers at the event, including me, rushed to get a good angle hoping that he would pick up a bat. As we predicted, he did. He took one and joked around as though he was hitting something hard. The only thing closer to him right there, was the media." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 25 July 2017 Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says hello to reporters as he and White House advisors including Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci accompany President Trump for an event celebrating veterans at AMVETS Post 44 in Ohio, July 25, 2017. Jonathan Ernst: "The most visible person in any White House is naturally the President, followed by the press secretary. But there are also the staff who support them. For those of us covering the Trump administration, there seem to be more compelling figures in the West Wing than ever before. It's crucial to know who's who and why they're important. When I raised my camera and back-pedalled ahead of the group to take this image Lewandowski gave me a hello. I liked the photo, but had no idea it would go a little bit viral, especially since Scaramucci, who was the biggest mover and shaker that week, was hidden back in the pack. But I guess the image catches a glimpse of what it's like to be a West Wing staffer on the road." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Campaign rally - 3 August 2017 US President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in West Virginia on 3 August, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Huntington for one of his usual campaign rallies. While members of his family spoke to the crowd he was waiting under a black curtain to be introduced. Suddenly he walked onto the stage, one of the first frames that I took was of his hand. I set my exposure for the light on the stage hoping to create this dark background and it worked." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Staring into the solar eclipse - 21 August 2017 Without his protective glasses on, US President Donald Trump looks up towards the solar eclipse while viewing with his wife Melania and son Barron at the White House on 21 August, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "On a day when everyone, and I mean everyone, was told not to look at the eclipse without protective glasses, Trump, President of the United States, couldn't help himself." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Harvey - 2 September 2017 US President Donald Trump poses for a photo as he and first lady Melania Trump help volunteers hand out meals during a visit with flood survivors of Hurricane Harvey at a relief centre in Houston, Texas on 2 September, 2017. Photohrapher Kevin Lamarque: "Trump, eager to deliver the image of a hands-on response to Hurricane Harvey, made this visit to a relief centre and obliged this woman with a selfie as Melania continued to work." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House - 15 September 2017 Donald Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he cuts the Rose Garden grass at the White House on 15 September. Frank, who wrote a letter to Trump offering to mow the lawn, was invited to work for a day at the White House along the National Park Service staff. Frank was so focused on his task that he did not notice the President arrive to surprise him. He took his father jumping in to grab his attention and point Trump out. Photographer Carlos Barria said: The image of Trump shouting at a kid who is mowing his lawn might have many interpretations in today's politically polarized United States. But for me it was just a kid who loved what he was doing, to the point he almost appeared to ignore the President." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Take a knee - 27 September 2017 A man kneels with a folded U.S. flag as the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump passes him after an event at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., September 27, 2017. In September, soon after Trump had made comments condemning NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, he made a day trip to a rally in Indianapolis. Jonathan Ernst managed to capture a man on one knee with a tri-folded flag and was able to use a portion of the sign on the building he was kneeling in front of to track the man down and tell his story in full. US Army veteran Marvin Boatright wanted to send a message against social injustice. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Maria - 3 October 2017 President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of local residents affected by Hurricane Maria as he visits Calgary Chapel in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 3 October, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "During an afternoon visit to Puerto Rico for President Trump to survey damage from Hurricane Maria and greet some of its victims, Trump made a stop at a church where food and supplies were being distributed. Among the items were paper towels and Trump, apparently caught up in the moment, decided to distribute some of the rolls." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Jared Kushner - 1 November 2017 White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner sits behind President Trump during a cabinet meeting in Washington on 1 November, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "The role of Jared Kushner has gone through a series of changes. He began front and centre as a high profile adviser, but as time has passed and issues surrounding him have surfaced, he has become more of a background figure." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump in China - 9 November 2017 Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 9 November, 2017. Photographer Damir Sagolj: "It's one of those "how to make a better or at least different shot when two presidents shake hands several times a day, several days in row". If I'm not mistaken in calculation, presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump shook their hands at least six times in events I covered during Trump's recent visit to China. I would imagine there were some more handshakes I haven't seen but other photographers did. And they all look similar - two big men, smiling and heartily greeting each other until everyone gets their shot. But then there is always something that can make it special - in this case the background made of US and Chinese flags. The first time it didn't work for me. The second time I positioned myself lower and centrally, and used the longest lens I have to capture only hands reaching for a handshake." Reuters/Damir Sagolj Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 10 November 2017 US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One to depart for Vietnam from Beijing Airport in Beijing, China, November 10, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "There is a Reuters photographer in the tight pool covering the US president for every appearance he makes 365 days a year. This was just one of 32 images of mine that were transmitted on the Reuters wire of President Trump visiting China and Vietnam that day. You never know when a sudden interaction, a gust of wind or a unique facial expression will lead to a striking image that grabs peoples' attention." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures ASEAN handshake - 13 November 2017 Donald Trump registers his surprise as he realises other leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, are crossing their arms for the traditional "ASEAN handshake" as he participates in the opening ceremony of the summit in Manila on 13 November, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Having covered a few ASEAN summits, I knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. Not everyone in the room knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. A lot was written about this unscripted moment, and what deeper meaning it might have. The simple truth is that sometimes in life there are unscripted moments." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

We dont just export American LNG [liquid natural gas] around the world, we export freedom, Mr Perry added. And you think about what that means around the world, people who are our allies, people who we want to be our allies.

The conference, which is underway for the second time since Donald Trump became president, has essentially become a show for the Trump administration, with officials touting the benefits of tax cuts passed in December and other advantages of his policies.

During the panel, Mr Zinke applauded Mr Trump for the tax reform package.A suspected drug dealer has refused to use the toilet for 37 days and is now at risk of death, a court has been told.

Lamarr Chambers, 24, allegedly swallowed the drugs while being chased by police in Essex and has since rejected laxatives and an X-ray but has continued to eat and drink.

Essex Police officers have been tweeting daily updates of the operation they described as poo watch since the man was arrested in Harlow on 17 January.

He has been charged with two counts of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply.

Police said they would continue to apply to court for custody extensions until he empties his bowels or allows doctors to retrieve the package he is suspected of swallowing.

Chelmsford Magistrates Court has now been told that Mr Chambers was being kept in a normal prison cell with two police officers with him at all times and has therefore not had the privacy to use the toilet.

Police officers were in court to get an extension on Mr Chambers time in custody and said that he was in charge of his fate, the BBC reported.

His defence lawyers claimed there was the potential of something going seriously wrong. Were in an arena of risk of death.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

They added that the drugs that Mr Chambers had allegedly swallowed was not necessarily crucial evidence.

The magistrates said they were confident Mr Chambers life was not at risk and that he should be monitored by police  not only for evidence gathering  but also his own health and that police detention was justified.

The situation has been described as unprecedented and the previous record for avoiding emptying the bowels was thought to have been 33 days.The number of alleged rapes reported to police in London has risen by almost 20 per cent in a disturbing increase police are struggling to explain.

There were 7,613 reported rapes in the year to January, compared to 6,392 over the previous 12 months, according to figures collated by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC).

Sir Craig Mackey, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said the rise could not be accounted for simply by more victims feeling able to report abuse or better recording practices.

It is not as simple as saying this is increased confidence, he told the London Assemblys police and come committee.

Of course that plays a part, and faith in the process, but there is something going on with sexual offending in London that we dont fully understand.

We see the end of it but we dont understand the causes.

Joanne McCartney, the deputy mayor of London, told the meeting on Wednesday that Sir Craigs statement was the first time a senior officer has come to this committee and accepted that the increase in sexual violence may not just be about an increase in reporting and confidence.

Susan Hall, a Conservative assembly member, called for police to measure the outcome of plans in place to combat violence against women and girls in the capital.

Figures are really going in the wrong direction, she added.

Scotland Yard has emphasised that the vast majority of rapes are carried out by attackers known to victims but the statistics emerged following a stranger rape in Shoreditch.

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

Nayed Hoque, 20, of Manor Park, has been charged with rape, attempted rape and robbery following an attack on a woman in her mid-20s in the popular nightspot on Saturday.

MOPACs figures showed startling rises in several crime types over 2017, which saw 80 people stabbed to death amid concerns about acid attacks and violent robberies in the capital.

Homicide increased by a third to 137 murders, all knife crimes were up more than a quarter to more than 14,500 incidents that saw 2,000 victims under the age of 25 injured.

Personal robbery increased by 40 per cent, theft from the person a third and Islamophobic hate crime by 39 per cent to 1,678 recorded incidents.

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Scotland Yard is among the police forces calling for a blanket increase in Government funding to respond to a nationwide rise in recorded crime, 999 calls and pressures generated by the terror threat.

The Government sparked anger by calling on elected Police and Crime Commissioners to take more money from council tax to fill the gap last year, amid warnings that forces were unable to respond to some crimes because of significant stress caused by budget cuts.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has committed to generating an extra 110m for the Metropolitan Police over the next year.

City Hall will be funding 23 per cent of the overall police budget for London following a 700m fall in the Governments general grant.

Scotland Yard plans to merge local policing in 32 boroughs into 12 basic command units  a move hoped to save 353m over the next four years.

The force warned its numbers are due to fall to 30,000 by April, while there are now 114 fewer police station front counters and 120 fewer police buildings than in 2010.

Mr Khan said he would generate 49m using a 5.1 per cent council tax increase, as well as using business rates income and savings.Talks between the UK and Ecuador over the future of Julian Assange at its London embassy have broken down, the South American country's foreign minister said.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa suggested British officials had been unwilling to negotiate over the Wikileaks founder's potential release.

Earlier this month, a judge upheld an arrest warrant issued when Mr Assange skipped bail as he fought extradition to Sweden in 2012.

The 46-year-old has been at the embassy ever since as he fears extradition to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves.

Ms Espinosa said of the failed talks: "To mediate you need two parties, Ecuador is willing, but not necessarily the other party."

Ecuador said it would continue to protect Mr Assange's rights, however, there was a risk to his physical and psychological well-being after spending nearly six years in the building as a "refugee".

The country has assessed more than 30 similar cases in a bid to break the deadlock, including that of British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is in prison in Iran accused of spying.

This included options for granting diplomatic immunity, although Ecuador said it would continue to respect the UK's laws.

In November, Ms Espinosa said Mr Assange had been granted Ecuadorian citizenship.

The foreign minister said Ecuador was trying to make Mr Assange a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations  including special legal immunity and safe passage.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA 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

Last week, former cabinet minister Sir Patrick McLoughlin asked the Home Office when action will be taken over Mr Assange's case during questions at the House of Commons.

He said the first three years of Mr Assange's five-year stay in the embassy had cost the Metropolitan Police an additional 11m.

PAPolice are appealing for help to trace a mother who has gone missing with her five-month-old daughter.

Officers say they are increasingly concerned for the welfare of Toni McNelis, 24, and her daughter who have been reported missing from an address in Marine Drive in Edinburgh.

They were last seen leaving the area on Wednesday evening.

Ms McNelis is described as being of average build with long brown hair and brown eyes.

Police Scotland inspector Graeme Dignan said: Concerns are growing for the welfare of Toni and her daughter and we are appealing to anyone who may have seen them recently or know of their whereabouts to get in touch with us through the 101 number.

This is out of character for Toni and I would ask anyone who may have seen them to call us immediately in so we can ensure she is safe and well.

Likewise I would ask Toni herself to get in touch with us if she sees this appeal in order to let us know she is safe and well.

PALarge parts of the UK are set to be blasted with snow as forecasters warn the beginning of next week could bring the country's coldest weather for five years.

Chilly weather and clear skies over the weekend will give way to much colder conditions by Monday, when freezing air blown in from Siberia will force temperatures as low as -8C in some areas of the country.

Snow could arrive in eastern Scotland and the northeast of England by Sunday evening, but the worst snowfall is expected in East Anglia and southeast England by Monday.

The Met Office warned up to 10cm of powdery snow could settle in the worst-affected areas.

Recommended Tweet asking for 10 people to help clear snow for elderly draws 120

"Parts of southern England and Wales are likely to the coldest spell of weather since 2013," said Met Office chief forecaster Paul Gundersen.

The regions most at risk of disruptive snow are parts of southeast England and East Anglia, although parts of northern England and eastern Scotland are also at risk.

Transport disruption is likely in areas with significant snowfall.

With such low temperatures, snowfall is likely to be powdery, bringing the risk of drifting in the strong easterly winds.

However, the majority of the air is so dry that hoar frost and ice will be less likely to form.

Yellow weather warnings have been issued along the length of the east coast on Monday, with more warnings issued for largest parts of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Forecasters have warned the incoming snow has the potential to cause travel delays on roads, while rail and air travel could also be hit by widespread cancellations.

People living in rural communities may also be cut off by the heavy snowfall.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA 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

Dr Thomas Waite, of Public Health Englands extreme events team, said: With the days feeling a little longer and lighter it can be easy to forget that cold weather can still kill.

Over 65s, those with conditions like heart and lung diseases and young children, are all at particular risk in cold weather as their bodies struggle to cope when temperatures fall.

So before it gets cold check on friends, family and neighbours, who may be at risk and make sure theyre heating homes to at least 18C, see if they need any particular help or just someone to talk to and keep an eye on the Met Offices forecasts and warnings.

Remember keeping warm will help keep you well.The Government is facing the prospect of crucial Brexit legislation being held up by the House of Lords after the Liberal Democrats threatened to force hundreds of votes on far-reaching legal changes.

Opponents said ministers have not left enough time for the changes to be properly scrutinised by Parliament, and warned it is now logistically impossible to pass all the legislation needed to avoid legal confusion after Brexit.

Senior Liberal Democrat sources told The Independent the partys peers will probably try to call debates or votes on at least half of the 800-1,000 changes to EU statutes the Government says are needed in order to transfer them into British law before Brexit  potentially taking up weeks of parliamentary time.

Some of the legal corrections relate to crucial issues like the regulation of medicines, nuclear materials and aviation, meaning failure to enact them by next March could have significant consequences. Others are needed to clarify which bodies will uphold laws that were previously overseen by EU courts.

Opposition MPs claimed it would be logistically impossible for all the legislation to be implemented in time, unless the Government cancels MPs holidays.

Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: It looks logistically impossible for the Conservatives to get the statutory instruments resulting from their EU (Withdrawal) Bill through Parliament before their preferred Brexit date of March next year.

The only way they would have a fighting chance would be to cancel Christmas and summer holidays for MPs. That might upset their backbenchers, but well oppose their shambolic Brexit wherever, whenever.

Even if the Conservatives attempt to get this done in time, it will mean swathes of bills in other key areas would have to be dumped, which is not good for the country.

Ministers say the process of tabling the changes will begin as soon as the EU (Withdrawal) Bill is passed, most probably in June.

That gives the Government just seven months of parliamentary time to make the 800 to 1,000 regulatory changes that have been deemed a necessity before the UK leaves the EU.

Around 1,200 such statutory instruments have been passed by Parliament in each of the last two years. With the Brexit changes on top, MPs and peers would have to get through double that number in little more than half the time.

The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Show all 8 1 /8 The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Post-Brexit immigration workers sorting radishes on a production line at a farm in Norfolk. One possible post-Brexit immigration scheme could struggle to channel workers towards less attractive roles - while another may heighten the risk of labour exploitation, a new report warns. PA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Customs union A key point in the negotiations remains Britain's access to, or withdrawal from, the EU customs union. Since the referendum there has been hot debate over the meaning of Brexit: would it entail a full withdrawal from the existing agreement, known as hard Brexit, or the soft version in which we would remain part of a common customs area for most goods, as Turkey does? No 10 has so far insisted that Brexit means Brexit and that Britain will be leaving the customs union, but may be inclined to change its position once the potential risks to the UKs economic outlook become clearer. Alamy The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Northern Ireland-Irish border Though progress was made last year, there has still been no solid agreement on whether there should be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. To ensure borderless travel on the island, the countries must be in regulatory alignment and therefore adhere to the same rules as the customs union. In December, the Conservative Partys coalition partners, the DUP, refused a draft agreement that would place the UK/EU border in the Irish Sea due to its potential to undermine the union. May has promised that would not be the case and has suggested that a specific solution would need to be found. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Transition period Despite protests from a small number of Conservative MPs, the Government and the EU are largely in agreement that a transitional period is needed after Brexit. The talks, however, have reached an impasse. Though May has agreed that the UK will continue to contribute to the EU budget until 2021, the PM wants to be able to select which laws made during this time the UK will have to adhere to. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must adopt all of the laws passed during the transition, without any input from British ministers or MEPs. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Rights of EU citizens living the UK The Prime Minister has promised EU citizens already living in the UK the right to live and work here after Brexit, but the rights of those who arrive after Brexit day remains unclear. May insists that those who arrive during the transition period should not be allowed to stay, whereas the EU believe the cut-off point should be later. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreement (with the EU) Despite this being a key issue in negotiations, the Government has yet to lay out exactly what it wants from a trade deal with the EU. Infighting within the Cabinet has prevented a solid position from being reached, with some MPs content that "no deal is better than a bad deal" while others rally behind single market access. The EU has already confirmed that access to the single market would be impossible without the UK remaining in the customs union. Getty The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Future trade agreements (internationally) The Government has already begun trying to woo foreign leaders into prospective trade agreements, with various high profile state visits to China, India and Canada for May, and the now infamous invitation to US President Donald Trump to visit London. However the UK cannot make trade agreements with another country while it is still a member of the EU, and the potential loss of trade with the world's major powers is a source of anxiety for the PM. The EU has said the UK cannot secure trade deals during the transition period. EPA The biggest issues facing UK on leaving EU Financial services Banks in the UK will be hit hard regardless of the Brexit outcome. The EU has refused to give British banks passporting rights to trade within the EU, dashing hopes of a special City deal. However according to new reports Germany has suggested allowing trade on the condition that the UK continues paying into the EU budget even after the transition period. Getty

While agreeing a transition period with the EU could give ministers more time to make the changes, government sources told The Independent they are pushing ahead with plans to enact all of the changes by next March, because such a period is yet to be agreed with Brussels.

Most of the statutory instruments will be discussed in committees rather than by the entire House of Lords, but the threat of hundreds of debates is likely to cause ministers a headache as they begin the arduous process of amending existing UK law to make Brexit a reality.

Commenting on plans to oppose hundreds of the statutory instruments in order to force them to be debated in the Lords, a Lib Dem source said: This isnt about holding up Brexit  its about making sure these changes are being properly scrutinised. Its the Governments responsibility to leave enough time to get this through.

The EU (Withdrawal) Bill, currently before Parliament, gives ministers the power to use statutory instruments to make the legal changes needed to enact Brexit.

Statutory instruments are classed as either affirmative, meaning they require a vote of both Houses of Parliament, or negative, in which case they are approved by default after 40 days unless a peer or group of MPs request a debate or force a vote on the matter.

 What is the Brexit 'transition'?

If Lib Dem lords push ahead with the strategy, hundreds of hours of parliamentary time could be taken up as committees of peers pore over and debate the proposed changes.

A Brexit Department spokesperson warned: The purpose of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill is to provide a functioning statute book on the day we leave the EU.

If the majority of statutory instruments do not complete their parliamentary process before exit, there will be gaps in domestic law.

A report by the Brexit Select Committee late last year concluded that passing the 800-1,000 changes before next March was an absolute necessity.

But it warned: It remains the case that uncertainty will only be removed if all the necessary legislative amendments are in place by exit day to ensure that there are no gaps left in the statute book.

This will require substantial parliamentary time and we believe that this must be found even if it results in longer sitting hours or a curtailed parliamentary recess.

Among changes that need to be passed are laws that relate to EU institutions that the UK may no longer be part of after Brexit.

For example, the law currently states that British medicines are regulated by the European Medicines Agency, but there is no guarantee the UK will remain a member of this organisation beyond next March. Failure to amend the legislation to appoint a new regulator before then raises the risk of medicines being inadequately regulated after Brexit.

Similarly, EU policies on farming subsidies and fishing rights will need to be replaced by carefully considered UK alternatives.Nigel Farage has vowed to return to frontline politics if the British public are given a second EU referendum.

The former Ukip leader was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference when he claimed that if the public were consulted again he would be there and itll be no more Mr Nice Guy.

Mr Farage also said supporting Donald Trump was the best decision Ive ever made in my life.

He said: There is an attempt by that unholy trinity of big banks, big business and big politics to stop Brexit from happening.

If the intelligence of British people is insulted and we have another vote ... If they want that battle refought, Ill be there  and next time, from me, itll be no more Mr Nice Guy.

Attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference filled up a large ballroom at a hotel outside Washington to hear him speak.

Mr Farage  introduced as Mr Brexit  delivered a campaign-style speech in which he praised Mr Trump and said the President has exceeded all expectations.

He added: Hes on the way to being a truly great president of this country.

Mr Farage had joined Mr Trump on the campaign trail and is now often spotted at the Trump International Hotel, located less than a mile from the White House.

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

With many competitive midterm elections coming up in November, Mr Farage also urged conservatives at the conference not to become complacent.

The biggest single danger to the huge victories that were achieved back in 2016 is complacency, he said, echoing remarks made by Mr Trump earlier in the day when the President said Congress needs more Republicans to push forward his agenda.

Democrats are hoping to recapture majorities in both the US Senate and House of Representatives in November.Rebel Tory and Labour MPs have raised fears the Government is trying to strip the House of Lords of its right to alter a critical part of Theresa Mays Brexit plans.

MPs from both parties sounded the alarm over an apparent push to ensure the Lords is blocked from amending the Prime Ministers approach to post-Brexit customs arrangements.

They are planning multiple representations to Commons Speaker John Bercow in a bid to prevent the move, which one MP branded as an attempt to dodge scrutiny.

It opens up a new front in the battle over Ms Mays approach to the EUs customs union, with rebel Tory MPs already threatening to force changes to her legislation in the Commons.

Ms May has more chance of fighting off their bid in the lower chamber as she enjoys a slim majority there, but Tories in the Lords are heavily outnumbered, and ministers fear attempts to overturn Ms Mays plans could damage her ability to deliver them.

The new row focusses on what was announced in the Queens Speech last year as the Customs Bill, but when it was eventually presented to the Commons it was instead named the Taxation (Cross Border Trade) Bill.

Brexit so far: in pictures Show all 53 1 /53 Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson led the VoteLeave campaign PA Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit campaign Boris Johnson MP, Labour MP Gisela Stuart and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell address the people of Stafford in Market Square during the Vote Leave Brexit Battle Bus tour on 17 May 2016. Their lead line on the tour was: We send the EU 350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead. Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Voting day A man shelters from the rain as he arrives at a polling station in London on 23 June 2016. Millions of Britons voted in the referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Referendum results Leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, reacts at the Leave EU referendum party at Millbank Tower in central London as results indicated that it was likely the UK would leave the European Union AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Protesting the result A young couple painted as EU flags and a man with a sign reading Im not leaving protest outside Downing Street against the voters decision to leave the EU on 24 June 2016 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures David Cameron resigns British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on 24 June 2016 after the results of the EU referendum were declared and the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Theresa May Becomes the new Conservative Party leader Theresa May receives a kiss from her husband Philip, after becoming the new Conservative Party leader on 11 July 2016. May became Prime Minister two days later and although she voted to remain in the referendum was keen to lead Britains Brexit talks after her only rival in the race to succeed David Cameron pulled out unexpectedly. May was left as the only contender standing after the withdrawal from the leadership race of Andrea Leadsom, who faced criticism for suggesting she was more qualified to be prime minister because she had children AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Lancaster House keynote speech on Brexit British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech on Brexit at Lancaster House in London on 17 January 2017. Where she spoke about her offer to introduce a transition period after the UK formally leaves the European Union in March 2019. Despite repeating the pro-Brexit mantra of no deal is better than a bad deal, the Prime Minister claimed she wanted a tone of trust between the negotiators and said Britain was leaving the EU but not Europe. She said there should be a clear double lock needed for the transitional period to make sure businesses had time to prepare for changes to their trading relationships with the EU Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Triggering of Article 50 British Prime Minister Theresa May in the cabinet, sitting below a painting of Britain's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2017 Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Gibraltar nonsense Tensions have risen over Brexit negotiations for the Rock of Gibraltar. The European Council has said Gibraltar would be included in a trade deal between London and Brussels only with the agreement of Spain. While former Conservative leader Michael Howard claimed that Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect the territory. Spain's foreign minister stepped in only to assert that there was no need for the dispute Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Shock snap election Soon after triggering Article 50, Theresa May called on 18 April 2017 for a snap general election. The election would be on 8 June and it came as a shock move to many, with her reasoning to try to bolster her position before tough talks on leaving the EU AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Dissolution of Parliament for General Election Campaign Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street after returning from Buckingham Palace on 3 May 2017. The Prime Minister visited the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament signalling the official start to the general election campaign Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Conservatives lose parliamentary majority An arrangement of British daily newspapers showing front page stories about the exit poll results of the snap general election. British Prime Minister Theresa May faced pressure to resign on 9 June 2017 after losing her parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty as Brexit talks loomed. The pound fell sharply amid fears the Conservative leader would be unable to form a government AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Labour gains Britains opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a tumbs up as he arrives at Labour headquarters in central London on 9 June 2017 after the snap general election results showed a hung parliament with Labour gains and the Conservatives losing their majority AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit negotiations begin Brexit Minister David Davis and European Commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations Michel Barnier address a press conference at the end of the first day of Brexit negotiations in Brussels on 19 June 2017 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May speaks in Florence British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks on 22 September 2017, in Florence. May sought to unlock Brexit talks after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  insufficient progress German Chancellor Angela Merkel joins other EU leaders for a breakfast meeting during an EU summit in Brussels on 20 October 2017. The EU spoke about Brexit and announced that insufficient progress had been made AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures DUP derails settlement on the withdrawal part of Brexit DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds walks off after speaking to members of the media as a protester holding flags shouts after him outside the Houses of Parliament on 5 December 2017. British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to pull out of a deal with Brussels after the DUP said it would not accept terms which see Northern Ireland treated differently from the rest of the UK Getty Brexit so far: in pictures May suffers defeat over EU (Withdrawal) Bill Theresa May suffers defeat in parliament over EU (Withdrawal) Bill on 13 December 2017. The Government was defeated by Conservative rebels and Labour MPs in a vote on its key piece of Brexit legislation. MPs amended the EU (Withdrawal) Bill against Theresa May's will, guaranteeing Parliament a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels. Ms May's whips applied pressure on Conservative rebels who remained defiant in the Commons throughout the day and in the end the Government was defeated by 309 votes to 305 Brexit so far: in pictures EU council summit  sufficient progress Britain's Prime minister Theresa May arrives to attend the first day of a European union summit in Brussels on 14 December 2017. European leaders discussed Brexit and announced there was finally sufficient progress at the end of the two days AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures The game moves to transition Brexit Secretary David Davis gives evidence on developments in European Union divorce talks to the Commons Exiting the EU Committee in Portcullis House, London, on 24 January 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures Trade deal is what May wants French President Emmanuel Macron gestures to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May after they hold a press conference at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, on 18 January 2018. May and Macron agreed a new border security deal, through which the UK will pay more to France to stop migrants trying to reach British shores on 18 January 2018 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Transition period agreed The UK and EU agree terms for Brexit transition period on 19 March, 2018 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures No agreement on Irish border The EU and UK however failed to reach an agreement on the Irish border during the successful talks on other Brexit issues AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU attacks Mays fantasy strategy For months after the March deal is struck there is little significant progress in talks. One senior EU official tears into Britains fantasy negotiating strategy and accuses Theresa May of not even having a position on a variety of important issue Getty Brexit so far: in pictures UK releases Ireland plan Britain releases a new customs plan to solve the Northern Ireland border but Michel Barnier says it leaves unanswered questions and would not prevent a hard border EbS Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan agreed The cabinet agrees on a plan known as the "Chequers deal" on July 6 2018. The plan seeks regulatory alignment on goods and food, divergence on services, freedom from the European Courts of Justice and an end to free movement. Many were surprised that the hard Brexiteers of the cabinet would agree to this plan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Chequers plan sparks resignations Brexit Secretary David Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and numerous ministers resign in the days following the Chequers agreement Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Davis out, Raab in On 9 July, Dominic Raab replaces David Davis as Brexit Secretary. Raab is a keen Brexiteer and was a housing minister before taking over from Davis Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Barnier's "deal like no other" EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier claims on August 29 2018 that they are prepared to offer Britain a trade deal like no other, though he stressed that they will not divide or change the single market to accommodate Britain AP Brexit so far: in pictures "My deal or no deal" In an interview on Panorama on September 17, the Prime Minister insists that any Brexit deal will be offered to the EU on her terms. She asserts this amongst continued attacks on her approach to Brexit by Boris Johnson and the European Research Group, headed by Jacob Rees Mogg BBC/Jeff Overs Brexit so far: in pictures EU leaders reject Chequers Quite the blow was dealt to the Prime Minister at a EU leaders summit in Salzburg on September 20. European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the Chequers deal "will not work" Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures May demands respect Following the rejection of her Chequers plan the day before, the Prime Minister voiced her anger that the EU had dismissed it without offering an alternative. She stated that throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it." Getty Brexit so far: in pictures People's Vote march As the People's Vote campaign and The Independent's Final Say campaign gain traction, 700,000 people turn out in London to demand a final say on the UK's Brexit deal on October 20 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures More resignations As the Prime Minister settles on a Brexit deal, Brexit secretary Dominic Raab resigns along with Work and Pensions secretary Esther McVey and many other ministers Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Final Say petitions delivered to Downing Street People's Vote supporting MPs Chukka Umunna, Justine Greening and Caroline Lucas and The Independent editor Christian Broughton deliver over a million signatures in favour of a People's Vote to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on December 3 2018 PA Brexit so far: in pictures May delays vote On December 10, the Prime Minister delayed the vote on her Brexit deal as it was near certain not to pass through the Commons due to Tory rebels and lack of DUP support AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures No confidence motion Tory MPs triggered a confidence vote in the Prime Minister on December 12. She won by 200 votes to 117 Reuters Brexit so far: in pictures Commons rejects the deal Following the delay, the Prime Minister's deal was rejected in the Commons by a historic 230 votes AFP Brexit so far: in pictures Corbyn tables a no confidence motion Following the rejection of the Prime Minister's deal, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which the government won by a margin of 19 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Plan B The Prime Minister won the support of the commons to return to Brussels to renegotiate the backstop on January 29. In the same sitting, MPs also voted against a no-deal Brexit in a non-legally binding motion PA Brexit so far: in pictures EU council president savages Brexit campaigners who failed to plan for departure: Special place in hell There is a special place in hell for pro-Brexit campaigners who demanded Britain leave the EU without explaining how it should happen, Donald Tusk has said. The European Council president launched the scathing attack as he accused anti-EU campaigners of pushing for Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. Mr Tusk also dismissed suggestions that the EU could reopen negotiations over the controversial Northern Ireland backstop, dealing a blow to Theresa Mays hopes of securing fresh concessions as she tries to get her exit deal through parliament. Speaking in Brussels alongside Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Tusk said: Ive been wondering what a special place in hell looks like for people who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it out safely. He also tweeted the accusation moments later Getty Brexit so far: in pictures EU and UK announce talks to restart after Theresa May visits Brussels Both have agreed to restart Brexit talks to find a way through the deadlock in Westminster, following a visit by Theresa May to Brussels. In a joint statement the British government and European Commission said Ms May had had a robust but constructive meeting with president Jean-Claude Juncker, and that the pair would meet again before the end of the month. But the EU again refused to reopen the withdrawal agreement and its controversial backstop  with any negotiations expected to focus on the future relationship between the UK and EU instead Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brexit strategy lost MPs voted down May's Brext plans, with a majority of 45. The prime minister did not appear in parliament to see another defeat PA Brexit so far: in pictures Labour and Conservative MPs resign and create the Independent Group Back row of Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Chuka Umunna and Mike Gapes, middle row of Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Ann Coffey and front row of Sarah Wollaston, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Joan Ryan PA Brexit so far: in pictures Non-biding votes on amendments to Brexit motion On February 27 he house held a series of votes, unanimously calling for the UK and EU to guarantee citizens rights in a no-deal scenario AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Attorney General publishes legal advice A hammer blow for May as Geoffrey Cox said her renegotiated deal can still leave UK in backstop against its will. Mr Cox did say the prime ministers efforts had reduced the risk of the UK being trapped in the backstop indefinitely. MPs went on to vote against her deal by 391 to 242 UK Parliament/PA Brexit so far: in pictures No-deal off the table MPs rejected a no-deal Brexit by 43 votes on March 13, with cabinet ministers rebelling in another humiliating defeat for Theresa May. A day later they voted in favour of the prime minister seeking an extension to Article 50 AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures House speaker bans May from third Commons vote on same Brexit deal John Bercow sensationally told Theresa May he would stop her making another attempt to pass her Brexit deal unless she has secured changes. The Speaker said a further meaningful vote would be ruled out of order if the motion was the same or substantially the same  under an ancient convention to stop the government bullying parliament on issues MPs have rejected Parliament Live Brexit so far: in pictures May writes to Tusk The prime minister wrote to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, to ask for a three-month extension to give her more time to try to get her deal through parliament. However the European Commission advises the EU27 should offer a short extension to May 23 or a longer one meaning the UK would participate in European elections 10 Downing Street/AFP/Getty Brexit so far: in pictures European Council summit Theresa Mays request to extend triggering Article 50 until the end of June was rejected by the EU, and instead offered a shorter time frame. She accepted the offer of a delay until May 22 if her withdrawal deal is approved by Parliament. If MPs rejected it for a third time, the EU said Britain must propose a new plan by April 12. Ms May said she will not support a long delay because it would mean Britain participating in elections for the European Parliament Getty Brexit so far: in pictures Brussels confirms preparations for a no-deal Brexit are completed They warned that it is increasingly likely the UK will crash out. In a statement the European Commission (EC) said preparedness and contingency work, which the EC has been conducting since December 2017, was now finished. The announcement came days after EU leaders agreed to a request by Theresa May to extend the UKs Brexit date AFP Brexit so far: in pictures May resigns Reuters

The draft also carried a preamble showing the Government wants the legislation to carry supply bill status, which according to parliamentary privilege would make it harder  but not impossible  for the Lords to change.

But it also makes it more probable that it could be designated money bill status, normally reserved for taxation and finance bills and something which more comprehensively blocks Lords action.

One senior Conservative MP who said they would be making a representation to the Speaker, who has final say over the issue, told The Independent: I can see why the Government is doing it.

Its obviously very advantageous to them to have the bill scrutinised to a lesser degree in the Lords. But I dont think its justified.

Officials at the Treasury would not comment on the broader issue, saying designation of money bill status is an issue for the Speaker, but The Independent understands that they believe the bill should naturally attract money bill status because it deals with issues of taxation, relating to VAT and trade tariffs.

But MPs are refuting that because the bill also sets out broader powers, like creating customs relations with other countries after Brexit.

 David Davis tries to dispel post-Brexit chaos fears

Conservative MP Anna Soubry told The Independent: I dont understand why this was done.

She added: Its for the Government to give an explanation, but theres a suspicion, that may be unfounded, that it is being done to stop it being scrutinised in the House of Lords.

I would be surprised and disappointed if that was it. It would not be the right way to go about it.

The ministers heading the bill wouldnt do it without arguable grounds, but arguable ground is not necessarily solid ground. It would certainly help us if it is a money bill Government minister

The Government has already run in to trouble in the Lords with its legislation to trigger Article 50, launching Brexit, and is suspected to face challenges from peers to another piece of Brexit legislation, the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, in the coming months.

The Liberal Democrats are preparing to launch a bid to swamp that piece of legislation in the Lords with at least 500 challenges, stymieing it and potentially the push towards Brexit.

One minister told The Independent: Trying to get legislation designated a money bill like this is a dangerous thing to play strategy with.

The ministers heading the bill wouldnt do it without arguable grounds, but arguable ground is not necessarily solid ground.

It would certainly help us if it is a money bill.

 Guy Verhofstadt says there will be a no deal Brexit if the UK Parliament votes against the deal

A similar row broke out about the designation of a bill in 2010, when then-chancellor George Osborne moved to scrap Labour child trust funds with a piece of new legislation.

Labour MP and ex-shadow chancellor Chris Leslie said: Designating the customs legislation in the way they have and naming it as Taxation (Cross Border Trade) is a transparent attempt by ministers to dodge scrutiny of their Brexit plans.

The House of Lords should have every right to consider trade arrangements like the customs union and trade remedies such as anti-dumping powers and unfair foreign subsidies.

Ex-shadow chancellor and Labour MP Chris Leslie has warned that Parliament is being cut out (Getty)

The Government shouldnt try to cut Parliament out of this process.

The ultimate decision on whether the Taxation (Cross Border Trade) Bill receives money bill status is up to the Speaker, who is set to take a decision at report stage  which has been delayed as the Government attempts to ward off a Commons bid to amend the bill.

Ms Soubry and former chancellor Ken Clarke are among those backing an amendment to the bill that if passed would keep the UK in the EU customs union.A Tory MP has been forced to issue a grovelling apology and to make a substantial donation to charity after making false claims about Jeremy Corbyns links with communist spies.

Ben Bradley said his comments were wholly untrue and false and agreed to pay out an undisclosed sum to a homeless charity and a food bank in his Mansfield constituency.

Lawyers acting for the Labour leader contacted Mr Bradley this week over a potentially libellous tweet, in which he made unsubstantiated allegations about Mr Corbyns interactions with a Czech agent who was posing as a diplomat.

 Jeremy Corbyn hits back at communist spy claims

The party said Mr Bradley had agreed to tweet an apology, which will say: On 19 February 2018 I made a seriously defamatory statement on my Twitter account, Ben Bradley MP (bbradleymp), about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold British secrets to communist spies. I have since deleted the defamatory tweet.

I have agreed to pay an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice, and I will also pay his legal costs.

I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false. I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.

I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him.

The row centres on allegations that Mr Corbyn met with Jan Sarkocy, a former agent with the Czechoslovakian security service StB, who Mr Corbyn believed to be a diplomat, on several occasions in the 1980s.

 Steve Baker dismantled by Andrew Neil over Tory Corbyn spy claims

His office produced diary records showing that at least one of the alleged meetings between Mr Corbyn and Mr Sarkocy in Parliament did not take place as Mr Corbyn had been attending a conference in Derbyshire that day.

Mr Corbyn dismissed the claims as ridiculous smears and threatened legal action against Mr Bradley for repeating unsubstantiated claims that he had acted as an informant to the then communist regime.

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

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: We are pleased Ben Bradley has admitted what he said was entirely untrue and apologised, and that charities in Mansfield will benefit.

Following the botched smear campaign against Jeremy, this case shows we are not going to let dangerous lies go unchallenged.

Mr Bradley, who won Mansfield for the Conservatives for the first time since its creation, has previously come under fire for a blog post where he suggested benefits claimants should have vasectomies.Labour has moved ahead in the polls amid ongoing allegations about Jeremy Corbyns meetings with a former Czech spy in the 1980s.

A new YouGov survey put Labour up one point to 42 per cent, ahead of the Conservatives on 40 per cent, in the first poll since claims first emerged about the Labour leaders contact with Jan Sarkocy, a Czechoslovakian agent posing as a diplomat.

Opponents seized on the reports in an attempt to discredit Mr Corbyn but the latest Yougov poll for The Times found the attacks had almost no effect on the Labour leaders popularity ratings.

Only 8 per cent of voters think less of Mr Corbyn because of the allegations, most of whom were Conservative supporters, the poll found.

Some 64 per cent said it made no difference to their views, while 6 per cent said it made them think better of him, mostly made up of Labour voters.

Mr Corbyn has dismissed the accusations as ridiculous smears and provided records to show he was in Derbyshire when he was supposed to be meeting the former Czech StB agent in London.

It comes as ex-MI6 boss Sir Richard Dearlove said Mr Corbyn had questions to answer over the affair and could not laugh off the claims.

The former spy chief said holding several meetings with Mr Sarkocy would amount to stupidity but if the spys claims that many more took place were true then this affair takes on a completely different aspect.

Mr Sarkocy was branded a fantasist by Mr Corbyns allies but Sir Richard, who was posted to Communist Czechoslovakia, said everything I learned about the way the StB operated tells me that these accusations should be taken seriously.

The Labour leader accepts he met a Czech diplomat once in 1986, as one of many meetings with ambassadors, politicians and activists, but insists he had no idea the man was a spy.

He also strongly denies handing over any information, in response to unsubstantiated allegations that he acted as an informant to the then communist country.

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

German officials took the unusual step of announcing that there are no records on Mr Corbyn in the former East Germany secret police archive in response to widespread speculation in the British press.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: Richard Dearlove, who as head of MI6 was involved in the infamous dodgy dossier that helped take us into the disastrous Iraq War, should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears.Not a day goes by where Lily Madigan is not subjected to vitriol or threats. The 20-year-old, who is the first transgender person to be elected as a womens officer in the constituency Labour Party, has frequently found herself subject to virulent transphobia on social media.

But it has only made the activist, who is running for the role of Young Labours national womens officer, more dogged. She is determined to become Britains first transgender MP.

The trans community is so under-represented in politics that it can be hard for them to become engaged. It is difficult to get involved when you do not see people like you and there is a lack of role models, she tells The Independent.

Needless to say, this has not deterred Madigan from politics. On the contrary, it was her own experience as a trans person which ultimately gave her the impetus to get involved in the Labour Party.

I first got involved in Labour at the age of 19. I had a lot of trouble at school. They would not treat me like a girl which is really tough for a young trans person. I got a lawyer and used Labours equality act to threaten to sue, she recalls.

After her school in Maidstone threatened to suspend Madigan for wearing female clothes to school, forced her to wear a male uniform, denied her access to female toilets, and continued to use her old name, she managed to hire a solicitor in 2016 after scouring London to find one. The school later backed down and apologised.

Incensed fellow students supported Madigan and launched a petition  which received more than 200 signatures  to allow transgender pupils to follow the dress code they feel comfortable with.

Madigan, who is currently writing a memoir about her childhood experiences and the pro trans movement within Labour, has been living as transgender for four years now and has dealt with frequent obstacles.

She has had to leave home and is bullied online daily. Abusive messages catch you off guard. The violent-ness of it is very alienating and disenfranchising, she says.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. 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

A tweet she sent in December of last year further demonstrates her point: Please stop. I cant handle it anymore. Im so mentally distressed that I cant sleep or eat or go to school.

Just two days earlier, she had issued a similar plea. Im a strong person but Im also just a teenage girl, she says. Im not invulnerable and it affects me. Your words have the power to hurt, to heal, to inspire, or discourage. Remember that.

Madigan has also found herself caught in the firing line of an acrimonious debate over trans rights in the Labour party.

Her election as womens officer for Rochester and Strood CLP in Kent sparked an internal dispute in the party over whether transgender women should be allowed to gain the title of womens officer.

Criticism of Madigan was again exacerbated when she applied to the Jo Cox Women in Leadership Programme. Her application was unsuccessful, but she gained the support of a number of senior figures in the Labour world, including former leader Ed Miliband, who sent her a supportive message, activist and Guardian columnist Owen Jones, and MPs Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner. Indeed Ms Rayner has said she is keeping the green bench warm for Madigan who she has no doubt will be a great Labour MP.

Recommended More than a third of all trans people suffered hate crimes in 2017

Madigan makes a concerted effort to speak to politicians. MPs may not have known a trans person so I try and speak to them just to have a normal chat not even discuss politics, she says.

She is a fan of current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He is pretty good on trans issues, she says. He is very clear trans women are women and that is Labours position. When Ive spoken to him personally hes reiterated that he wants the next Labour government to look at laws to make it harder for the media to create moral panics around trans people and present them in unfair ways.

Despite the daily abuse the young political activist puts up with, Madigan is enthused by politics and determined to achieve her goals. She is also very relieved to have come out, claiming that not doing so had almost killed her.

Quoting Harvey Milk, the trailblazing LGBT+ rights activist and first openly gay elected official in the history of California, she says: Coming out is the most political thing you can do.

There will be a trans MP, sooner or later, and we will live in a more inclusive society, but history doesnt write itself, she wrote in a speech she has delivered to a number of universities. If we want to escape the weight of past prejudice, if we want to reach a better future, we have to work for it in the here and now. Let 2018 be the year trans people get the representatives we deserve in politics.A major American airline has stopped giving discounts to members of the National Rifle Association, joining a slew of companies that have cut ties with the gun-rights lobbying group in the wake of a Florida school shooting.

Delta Airlines announced on Twitter that they would be ending the NRA's contract for discounted rates through their group travel program. They also asked the group to remove all information on the airline from their website.

On Saturday morning, the NRA's annual meetings site still stated that they had contracted special flight discounts with United Airlines and Delta Airlines for members attending the their annual meetings and exhibits.

"By booking your itinerary with United Airlines for Delta Airlines, you will receive up to 2-10% off their online airfares," the site said.

At least seven major US companies have severed ties with the NRA in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 children and three adults were killed by a gunman with an assault rifle. The pro-gun group has become a focal point for those advocating for stricter gun control and more action from politicians since the shooting.

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

Student survivor Emma Gonzales said she wanted the organisation to "dismantle," telling CNN: "They are against the people who are dying. And there's no other way to put it at this point. You are either funding the killers or you are standing with the children."

Classmate David Hogg urged more companies to end their partnerships with the NRA on Twitter, using the hashtag #NRABoycott.

Car rental companies like Enterprise and Hertz, and moving companies like Allied Van Lines and NorthAmerican Van Lines have all ended partnerships with the organisation amid the backlash.

 NRA chief Wayne LaPierre says elites don't care about America's children in wake of Florida shooting

NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre defended the organisation this week in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, claiming that gun-control advocates wanted to "get rid of the second amendment" and make Americans "less free".

They dont care if their laws work or not, he said. "They just want get more laws to get more control over people."

President Donald Trump also defended the organisation on Twitter, saying their employees were "great people and great American patriots" who would "do the right thing".

The president has suggested several gun control measures that put him at odds with the organisation, including raising the minimum age for assault rifle purchases and expanding background checks. He has also suggested arming teachers in order to discourage school shooters.A local sheriffs office is investigating claims that three deputies on patrol at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School failed to intervene when a gunman entered the Florida school and killed 17 people.

Coral Springs police officers who responded to the shooting that day said two deputies from Broward County were standing outside the building when they arrived, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the department was investigating the claims. He plans to interview the two officers who lodged the complaint.

"If there is no wrongdoing in the part of our deputies, well move on," Mr Israel told ABC. "If there is wrongdoing on the part of our deputies, well handle it accordingly as I have for five years as sheriff."

The Coral Springs Police Department declined to comment on the claims, saying: Any actions or inactions that negatively affected the response will be investigated thoroughly, and the information will be released officially.

The news came shortly after a third officer, Scot Peterson, resigned after it was revealed that he had failed to engage the shooter. Video footage showed the deputy, who was assigned to patrol the high school, stood outside the building for upwards of four minutes while shots were fired, Mr Israel said.

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

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said at the time that he was in shock and outraged that Mr Peterson had not entered the school more quickly.

Its really disturbing that we had a law enforcement individual there specifically for this reason, and he did not engage, he said. He did not do his job. Its one of the most unbelievable things Ive ever heard.

President Donald Trump also criticised the deputy, saying he was either a coward or had not properly responded to the shooting.

He didnt turn out to be too good, I will tell you that, Mr Trump said at a conservative political conference. He was not a credit to law enforcement.

 Donald Trump: Florida school deputy 'did a poor job' and lacked 'courage'

Two more deputies are being investigated over whether they mishandled warnings about the alleged gunman in the months before the shooting, according to the Sun Sentinel. The office was warned by neighbours as early as February of 2016 that the suspected gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, planned to shoot up the school.

The FBI also admitted that they had failed to act on a tip from someone close to Mr Cruz, who reported concerns about the teenagers gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behaviour, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting, according to an agency statement.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered his deputy attorney general to review the mishandling of the tip.A German shepherd was shot and beaten while it protected its teenage owner from burglars, according to local media reports.

Two thieves broke into a family home in Washington while a 16-year-old boy was at home alone.

As the teenager hid in the closet, his dog, Rex, ran downstairs to confront the intruders.

The thieves attacked the animal, leaving him badly injured, but as they proceeded into the bedrooms Rex continued to defend the teenager and threw himself at the intruders, KTLA reported.

"As they entered the room where my nephew was hiding in the closet, Rex came out with the little strength he had left in him and threw himself at them as he knew my nephew was in danger," Susy Cadena said on a GoFundMe page, which has been set up to raise money for Rexs treatment.

"My nephew was protected by his eternal friend until the last bit of strength he had in him to do what his unconditional, loving instinct told him to, she added.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The thieves opened fire and shot Rex in the neck, leg and knee but he managed to survive.

He was taken to an animal hospital in critical condition and remains in the veterinary intensive care unit.A judge has dismissed a coal moguls defamation lawsuit against comedian John Oliver and American TV network HBO.

Jeffrey Cramer, a West Virginia Judge, conceded to HBOs argument that Bob Murray ceased to demonstrate the late night talk show host legally defamed him.

Bob Murray, a coal tycoon who is the CEO of coal mining giant Murray Energy Corp, asserted that Oliver portrayed his companies unfairly in a commentary about Donald Trumps treatment of the coal industry.

Recommended John Oliver praises Parkland students for speaking out on gun control

Murray Energy Corp told The Independent the company would be appealing the judge's decision.

Oliver, who hosts US show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, devoted a 24-minute segment last June to remarking on the decline of the coal industry and Mr Trumps pledges to resuscitate it.

The comedian denounced the 78-year-old mining magnate, who is one of the largest independent operators of coal mines in the US, and drew attention to Mr Murray's discussion of Barack Obamas evil agenda.

Prior to launching into his segment he offered a disclaimer explaining Murray Energy had been in touch with the show.

He said: Im going to need to be careful here because when we contacted Murray Energy for this piece, they sent us a letter instructing us to cease and desist from any effort to defame, harass, or otherwise injure Mr Murray or Murray Energy, and telling us that failure to do so will result in immediate litigation'.

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

If you even appear to be on the same side as black lung, youre on the wrong f***ing side, Oliver said about one of Mr Murrays lawsuits which was filed against a federal rule meant to reduce black lung disease among coal miners.

Oliver said: Im not going to say, for instance, that Bob Murray looks like a geriatric Dr Evil, even though he clearly does.

In a statement, a representative for Murray Energy Corp said the decision "contains absolutely no legal reasoning, whatsoever, and instead blindly adopts the defendants deeply flawed arguments.

"This is a flagrant disregard of the law, the facts, and the substantial damages intentionally inflicted by the defendants. Clearly, this decision is detrimental to our employees, who rely on Mr Murray and Murray Energy for their continued livelihoods, and to our lenders, customers, and suppliers who depend on our integrity and performance. Accordingly, we will immediately appeal, and we are confident that we will prevail."

In a statement released at the time, the company said: The false and defamatory statements in this broadcast severely and destructively impact Mr Murray, and all of Murray Energy, particularly our mines in the state of West Virginia, where we are the largest coal mining employer in the state, as well as coal mining itself, one of the primary foundations of that states economy.

HBO, a TV network owned by Time Warner, vigorously fought the claims.

Asking the West Virginia judge to dismiss the case, the company said: The fact that Murray found this speech embarrassing or disagreeable does not remove it from the broad protection of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court has stated time and again that the type of speech at issue here - news and commentary about public figures and issues of public importance - occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values, and is entitled to special protection'."

The Independent contacted a representative of Oliver for comment.A 14-year-old survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, has publicly accused First Lady Melania Trump of failing to stop her stepson, Donald Trump Jr, from bullying her and her family online.

The attack by Lauren Hogg was particularly acute given Ms Trumps vocal commitment to fighting cyberbullying.

Hey @FLOTUS you say that your mission as First Lady is to stop cyber bullying, wrote Ms Hogg, well then, dont you think it would have been smart to have a convo with your step-son @DonaldJTrumpJr before he liked a post about a false conspiracy theory which in turn put a target on my back.

Im 14 I should never have had to deal with any of this and even though I thought it couldnt get worse it has because of your family.

Ms Hogg is the younger sister of David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who has led the push for gun law reform in the wake of the attack and who was this week accused of being a crisis actor.

A video pedalling the conspiracy theory spent several hours at the top of YouTubes Popular Right Now playlist before being taken down.

According to Twitter account Trump Alert, which tracks the Twitter activity of Mr Trump and his family, Donald Trump Jr liked two tweets promoting conspiracy theories about Hogg and his family.

Mr Hogg said it was disturbing that Mr Trump Jr liked the posts and criticised all those who amplified the claims.

"I'm not a crisis actor," Hogg told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. "I'm someone who had to witness this and live through this and I continue to be having to do that."

Ms Trump made prevention of cyber-bullying one of her platforms when Mr Trump entered office.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

It is our responsibility to take the lead in teaching children the values of empathy and communication that are at the core of kindness, mindfulness, integrity, and leadership, she said.

Critics at the time were quick to point out the irony of her choice, as the President frequently uses Twitter to ridicule Democrats, Republicans, other world leaders, political opponents and news outlets including CNN and the New York Times.

Speaking just before an event at a middle school in Michigan in October, the First Lady reiterated her message.

By our own example, we must teach children to be good stewards of the world they will inherit, she said.

We need to remember that they are always watching and listening.

Ms Trump has not yet made any public statement in response to Ms Hogg's tweet and the Office of the First Lady did not immediately respond to a request for comment.A New York man says he kicked Chevy Chase in self-defence after the comedian climbed into a vehicle and tried to punch him during a profanity-laced traffic dispute.

Chase told police he was cut off by another driver on 9 February. Thinking his car might be damaged, he followed the car across the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Both drivers pulled over in South Nyack.

A truck passenger, Michael Landrio, told the New York Post that the former Saturday Night Live star got into their vehicle and tried to punch him.

Recommended China designs hypersonic jet that would reach New York in two hours

Mr Landrio says that's when he kicked Chase, sending him flying.

A spokeswoman for Chase says the National Lampoon star didn't get into the vehicle and didn't try to attack Landrio.

Mr Landrio was charged with harassment. Chase was not charged.

APThe Trump administration and key Asian allies are preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating sanctions on North Korea, a plan that could include deploying US Coast Guard forces to stop and search vessels in Asia-Pacific waters, senior US officials have said.

Washington has been talking to regional partners, including Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore, about coordinating a stepped-up crackdown that would go further than ever before in an attempt to squeeze Pyongyangs use of seagoing trade to feed its nuclear missile program, several officials told Reuters.

While suspect ships have been intercepted before, the emerging strategy would expand the scope of such operations but stop short of imposing a naval blockade on North Korea. Pyongyang has warned it would consider a blockade an act of war.

The strategy calls for closer tracking and possible seizure of ships suspected of carrying banned weapons components and other prohibited cargo to or from North Korea, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Depending on the scale of the campaign, the United States could consider beefing up the naval and air power of the US Pacific Command, they said.

The US-led initiative, which has not been previously reported, shows Washingtons increasing urgency to force North Korea into negotiations over the abandonment of its weapons programmes, the officials said.

North Korea may be only a few months away from completing development of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland, despite existing international sanctions that, at times, have been sidestepped by smuggling and ship-to-ship transfers at sea of banned goods, according to officials.

There is no doubt we all have to do more, short of direct military action, to show Kim Jong-Un we mean business, said a senior administration official.

The White House declined official comment.

The effort could target vessels on the high seas or in the territorial waters of countries that choose to cooperate. It was unclear, however, to what extent the campaign might extend beyond Asia.

Washington on Friday slapped sanctions on dozens more companies and vessels linked to North Korean shipping trade and urged the United Nations to blacklist a list of entities, a move it said was aimed at shutting down North Koreas illicit maritime smuggling activities to obtain oil and sell coal.

Tighter sanctions plus a more assertive approach at sea could dial up tensions at a time when fragile diplomacy between North and South Korea has gained momentum. It would also stretch US military resources needed elsewhere, possibly incur massive new costs and fuel misgivings among some countries in the region.

The initiative, which is being developed, would be fraught with challenges that could risk triggering North Korean retaliation and dividing the international community.

China and Russia, which have blocked US efforts at the United Nations to win approval for use of force in North Korea interdiction operations, are likely to oppose new actions if they see the United States as overstepping. A Chinese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such steps should only be taken under United Nations auspices.

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

Chinas foreign ministry, in a statement to Reuters, said they did not know anything about the plan, but that in principle China believes UN resolutions on North Korea should be fully and thoroughly implemented.

At the same time, we hope relevant countries act in accordance with security council resolutions and international law, it added, without elaborating.

But Washington is expected to start gradually ratcheting up such operations soon even if discussions with allies have not been completed, according to the senior US official.

US experts are developing legal arguments for doing more to stop sanctions-busting vessels, citing the last UN Security Council resolution which they say opened the door by calling on states to inspect suspect ships on the high seas or in their waters.

Washington is also drawing up rules of engagement aimed at avoiding armed confrontation at sea, the officials said.

A Japanese ruling party lawmaker briefed by the government said discussions with the United States were focused on the need for stepped up cooperation on surveillance and information-sharing between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul regarding ship-to-ship transfers suspected of violating sanctions, and on the need to notify authorities in ports of origin.

The lawmaker as well as a Japanese defence ministry official involved in policy planning said that under current UN sanctions, the agreement of the flag state and ship captain was necessary to conduct inspections on the high seas.

I think it is unlikely that the UN will strengthen the sanctions so that inspections on high seas are possible without agreement, the Japanese defence official said.

From the viewpoint of the country in question, that would be an act of war, he said, referring to North Korea.

US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters in Washington on Friday the United States does not rule out boarding ships for inspections.

But US officials said privately that such action, especially the use of boarding crews, would be decided on a case-by-case and with utmost caution.

Some US officials believe the risk could be minimised if Coast Guard cutters, which carry less firepower and technically engage in law-enforcement missions, are used in certain cases rather than warships.

The Coast Guard declined to address whether it might deploy ships to the Asia-Pacific region but acknowledged its ties to countries there. Future ship deployments would depend on US foreign policy objectives and the operational availability of our assets, said spokesman lieutenant commander Dave French.

A senior South Korean government official said there had been discussions over intensified maritime interdictions, including at a foreign ministers meeting in Vancouver last month where US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed counterparts on the issue.

We are discussing with various countries including the US and South Korea how to fully implement the sanctions, but I have not heard talk of creating a framework or a coalition, said the Japanese defence ministry official involved in policy planning.

Japans foreign ministry, in reply to a question from Reuters, repeated Tokyos call for maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

The ministry declined to comment on specific discussions with other countries, but said Japan continued its close collaboration with the US, ROK (South Korea) and the international community including China and Russia to secure the effectiveness of UN Security Council Resolutions to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The Trump administration has also sought greater cooperation from Southeast Asian countries, which may have little military capability to assist but are seen as sources of intelligence on ship movements, US officials said.

The more partners we have, the more resources we have to dedicate to the effort, said Chris Ford, assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation. He declined to talk about discussions with specific countries.

Washington is especially interested in detecting of ship-to-ship transfers at sea of banned goods, something North Korea has increasingly resorted to as vessels have faced greater scrutiny of their cargo in Asian ports, the officials said.

Reuters reported in December that Russian tankers had supplied fuel to North Korea at sea in a violation of sanctions. Washington also said at the time it had evidence that vessels from several countries, including China, had engaged in shipping oil products and coal. China denied the allegation.

US interception of ships close to Chinese waters is something likely to be avoided, in favour of informing Chinese authorities of banned cargo on board and asking them do the inspection, one official said.

Its probably impossible to stop everything, but you can raise the cost to North Korea, said David Shear, former deputy secretary of defence for Asia under President Barack Obama.

ReutersUnited Airlines has ended a discount agreement with the National Rifle Association, as companies across the US cut ties with the pro-guns group in the wake of the school shooting in Florida.

"United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website," the airline said on Twitter.

The move came shortly after rival airline Delta announced a similar move, ending the NRA's contract for discounted rates through their group travel programme.

Recommended Delta ends NRA partnership

The NRA's website still stated on Saturday that it had contracted special flight discounts with Delta and United, the second- and third-biggest airlines in the world, respectively.

At least seven other major American companies have cut ties with the organisation since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and staff members were killed by a lone gunman with an assault rifle.

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

As the largest gun-rights lobbying group in the US, the NRA has become a focal point for those advocating for stricter gun control in the wake of the shooting. Several students survivors have backed calls for a boycott of the organisation, boosting the cause on social media.

"#BoycottTheNRA because our lives shouldnt be measured in dollars," tweeted student Sarah Chadwick, an outspoken advocate for gun reform.

Classmate David Hogg went farther, saying that politicians who took money from the NRA should be voted out of office.

"If our elected officials are not willing to stand up and say, 'I'm not going to continue to take money from the NRA because children are dying', they shouldn't be in office and they won't be in office because this is a midterm year and this is the change that we need," he told CNN.

Car rental companies like Enterprise and Hertz, and moving companies like Allied Van Lines and North American Van Lines have all ended partnerships with the organisation amid the backlash.

 NRA chief Wayne LaPierre says elites don't care about America's children in wake of Florida shooting

NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre defended the organisation this week at a major conservative political conference, claiming that gun-control advocates wanted to "get rid of the second amendment" and make Americans "less free".

They dont care if their laws work or not, he said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "They just want get more laws to get more control over people."

President Donald Trump also defended the organisation on Twitter, saying their employees were "great people and great American patriots" who would "do the right thing".

The president has suggested several gun control measures that put him at odds with the organisation, including raising the minimum age for assault rifle purchases and expanding background checks. He has also suggested arming teachers in order to discourage school shooters.United Technologies handed Donald Trump bragging rights in late 2016 when, just weeks after he won the election, the manufacturing giant publicly credited the soon-to-be president with striking a deal to save hundreds of Indiana furnace factory jobs that seemed destined to move to Mexico.

In exchange for $7m (5m) in state tax credits, the firm agreed to retain 770 of roughly 1,400 positions at a Carrier plant in Indianapolis and send the rest to Monterrey, Mexico. Greg Hayes, the companys chairman and chief executive, later suggested federal contracts also played a role. He said: I was born at night, but not last night.... I also know that about 10 per cent of our revenue comes from the US government.

More than a year into Mr Trumps presidency, that federal money continues to flow to United Technologies subsidiaries. The Defense Department recently gave the companys Connecticut-based aeronautics subsidiary a $2.5bn contract without competition to provide propeller systems, wheels and brakes, landing gear, flight sensors and other equipment directly to the armed services.

The contract applies to aeroplane parts for which the Defense Department considers United Technologies the only qualified supplier, effectively renewing an earlier 10-year contract set to expire in April. The award followed an earlier $2.74bn sole-sourced Air Force contract handed to Pratt & Whitney, another United Technologies subsidiary.

A United Technologies spokesperson said in an email that the contract awarded Wednesday is in no way related to the deal negotiated with Carrier. The company merited the contract because it maintains numerous patents for airplane parts that it considers proprietary, an analyst said.

Its not that other people cant make [the parts being sold under the contract awarded Wednesday], but United Technologies holds patents that mean others are not allowed to make them, said Loren Thompson, an aerospace analyst with the non-profit Lexington Institute, which gets some funding from United Technologies.

Still, the size of the award raised eyebrows.

Sole-sourced contracts for these types of materials are not unusual, but $2.5bn is unusually big, Mr Thompson said.

It comes as United Technologies is moving forward with a $30bn merger with Rockwell Collins, another aerospace parts manufacturer. Mr Trumps tax bill will make it easier for the company to pay off debt under that deal because of regulatory changes that will allow it to return cash from overseas.

The fortunes of the Carrier plant have not been so bright.

Since Mr Trumps jawboning, the plant experienced a round of layoffs in July, when 337 workers left the plant. Another 300 positions were terminated in January.

It just doesnt seem that the government is going to use its contracts to exert any leverage on the jobs front, said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group. It seems like its not as much of an action item as it was a year ago, and it wasnt then either. It was just optics.

Robert James, president of the local United Steelworkers union that represents the Carrier employees, said he hasnt heard of more anticipated layoffs. But workers are sceptical about the future. Four days after Mr Trump visited Indianapolis to celebrate the Carrier deal, United Technologies chief executive Hayes said in a television interview that he planned to invest in automation, reducing the need for human labour.

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

Some Carrier workers expressed resignation that they would see little benefit from the big defence deals.

Thats the government doing business with big corporations like always, said TJ Bray, another worker on the factory floor.

The Washington PostA survivor of the Florida high school shooting says she has never been so unimpressed by a person in my life than when President Donald Trump called her in the hospital.

Samantha Fuentes, an 18-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was hospitalised last week after a shooter opened fire on the school, killing 17 students and staff members. Ms Fuentes was shot in both legs and hit in the face with shrapnel. She was recovering at a local hospital when Mr Trump called to offer his condolences.

He said he heard that I was a big fan of his, and then he said, Im a big fan of yours too," Ms Fuentes told the New York Times of the conversation. "Im pretty sure he made that up,

She added: Talking to the president, Ive never been so unimpressed by a person in my life. He didnt make me feel better in the slightest.

The president, Ms Fuentes said, called the shooter a sick puppy and said oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, like, seven times.

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

Leaving the hospital a week after the shooting, Ms Fuentes still had multiple stitches in her cheek and forehead and a bruise around one eye  the result of a piece of shrapnel that lodged itself in her head during the shooting, she told Inside Edition. Doctors may have to leave the shrapnel in place, as removal can be dangerous.

"Just one variable change and I could have easily died, Ms Fuentes said.

Many of the teenagers classmates have been outspoken about the need for stricter gun control laws in the wake of the shooting. Some have also hit out at the president directly, accusing him of inaction on the issue.

'You're the president. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us, student David Hogg tweeted.

 Donald Trump says teacher could have 'shot the hell out of' Florida school shooter

Mr Trump travelled to the town where the shooting took place this week. He visited with victims recovering in the hospital and met with police and sheriff's department officers who responded to the scene. He told the officers about a female victim he met who had been shot four times, and praised the victims families, saying they were really great shape given the circumstances.

The president later hosted a listening session at the White House with survivors of school shootings. After hearing survivors' concerns, he suggested raising the minimum age for assault rifle purchases and expanding background checks. He also floated the controversial idea of arming educators to deter future shooters.

In his hand, he held a notecard bearing a reminder to say, "I hear you".Floridas Republican governor embraced a sweeping gun laws package in response to a deadly high school shooting, vowing to keep firearms away from mentally ill people and dispatch armed law enforcement officers to every school.

Governor Rick Scott and other Florida politicians have come under tremendous pressure to act after a gunman killed 17 students and teachers last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. In a press conference announcing his agenda, Mr Scott endorsed swift action before the state Legislature adjourns.

We must get this done in the next two weeks, he said.

Part of Mr Scotts response involved limiting access to firearms. He endorsed raising the age for buying any type of firearm to 21, with exemptions for military personnel and law enforcement, and advocated measures to prohibit gun ownership for people who are mentally ill or deemed to pose a threat.

The latter proposal would allow courts to bar mentally ill or potentially violent people from possessing or purchasing firearms when a family member, welfare expert or law enforcement officer offered evidence of a threat of violence involving firearms or other weapons, Mr Scott said.

Suspected Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz had allegedly spoken about his desire to inflict violence - behaviour that the FBI was made aware of but did not investigate - and multiple government agencies were aware of a video in which he cut himself and talked about owning a gun.

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 person was not stopped from legally purchasing a weapon, was not arrested, was not detained, and was never forced to turn in his weapons, Mr Scott said, advocating doing everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of those dealing with mental problems or threatening harms to themselves or others.

The other piece of Mr Scotts agenda would fortify school security with a $450 million outlay that would include stationing armed law enforcement personnel in every public school. Mr Scott said they would be sheriffs deputies or police officers, downplaying a proposal - embraced by Donald Trump - to arm teachers.

I disagree with arming the teachers. My focus is on bringing in law enforcement, Mr Scott said. Let law enforcement do the keeping us safe and let teachers focus on teaching.

The Governor also called for banning bump stocks, a device that harnesses a guns recoil to enable more rapid firing.

The Republican-controlled state legislature rallied behind Mr Scotts framework, releasing legislation that tracked with his proposals and would also impose a 3-day waiting period for buying guns. Breaking with Mr Scott, legislators backed allowing trained and certified teachers to carry firearms on campus.Before serving as Donald Trumps campaign chair Paul Manafort enlisted former European politicians to clandestinely lobby on behalf of Ukraine, according to a new indictment from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

In a series of indictments, Mr Mueller alleged that Mr Manafort and his associate Rick Gates deliberately concealed from the US government proceeds from their lobbying work on behalf of Ukrainian political entities and failed to report their lobbying activity.

A superseding indictment filed this week alleges that Mr Manafort and Mr Gates secretly retained a coterie of former senior European politicians, informally dubbed the Hapsburg group, to advance Ukraines agenda. Mr Manafort allegedly wired them more than 2 million euros from offshore bank accounts, according to the indictment.

The group was intended to appear to be providing independent assessments of Government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine, the indictment says.

While Mr Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy and lying to government investigators, Mr Manafort has denied any wrongdoing.

Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence, Mr Manafort said in a statement. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.

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

The indictments of Mr Manafort and Mr Gates flowed from Mr Muellers investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mr Manafort at one point served as chairman of Mr Trumps presidential campaign.

Mr Muellers team has also secured guilty pleas from former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and former campaign adviser Michael Flynn, who also briefly served as Mr Trumps National Security Adviser. Both men admitted to lying about contacts with Russian emissaries.

Last week Mr Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals, alleging an elaborate years-long campaign to disrupt American politics and sway the 2016 presidential contest.

 Rod Rosenstein announces thirteen Russian nationals have been indicted in Mueller probe

Throughout Mr Muellers investigation Mr Trump has repudiated the notion of collusion between his campaign and the Russian government, dismissing Mr Muellers probe as a witch hunt distorted by a political agenda.The moment Cletus Lyman realised he needed to do something to mark the victims of guns was when he found himself on jury duty. The judge asked the pool of 40 potential jurors if any of them had personal experience of gun violence; a forest of hands shot up around him.

I said, My gosh. This is not just confined to a small circle of people in a certain community but a large proportion of people, he said.

Mr Lyman, a civil lawyer who had grown up in a Pennsylvania town where the local newspaper wrote full obituaries of everyone who died, had been shocked when he moved to Philadelphia and found the lives of many people  especially the victims of gun violence  were usually consigned to just a few lines. Sometimes, their deaths were not even recorded.

And so he went about establishing what has become the Philadelphia Obituary Project, an online nonprofit venture that investigates the incidents of violent deaths and commissions and publishes obituaries of the victims. It does not seek to smooth rough edges; where a person was struggling with drugs, it says so.

At the same time, it is driven by the belief that everyones life is of value and that their passing represents pain and loss for their loved ones.

There is a certain amount of victim-blaming going on, with people thinking, oh, so-and-so must have got themselves in this situation if that happened, said Albert Strumm, a former editor with the Philadelphia Daily News, who serves as the websites news editor, working remotely from Spain.

But I always feel, There but for the grace of God. If I was 16, maybe I would have been in the same situation.

 Florida shooting survivor tells Marco Rubio he could get the same NRA money from ordinary citizens

Trina Singletons 24-year-old son, Darryl, was shot and killed in September 2016 in south-west Philadelphia. The headline in one newspaper the following day read: Violent day in Philly: 10 people shot, three of them fatally.

She said her son was barely mentioned, other than to say the police were investigating his death.

These are the sorts of stories that no one bothered with until the obituary project came along, said Ms Singleton, who has two other children and works in real estate. I felt hurt. His whole life had been reduced to a sentence, or not even a whole sentence.

Ms Singleton said she was delighted that the students in Florida campaigning for change following a school shooting that left 17 dead were receiving such widespread and positive publicity. Yet she said, this was the sort of coverage that shooting deaths in south-west Philadelphia never attracted. I dont want to sound [racist], she said. But I believe its just as important to get the guns off the streets of south-west Philadelphia, as from the streets of Parkland.

Annie Coulter lost her daughter, Caitlin, when she was murdered last August at her apartment in the citys Passyunk Square neighbourhood. She said the 23-year-old had been struggling with drug problems but had recently started volunteering as as a counsellor.

After her death, the obituary project got in touch and said it wanted to tell the story of the young womans life  the good and the bad. Ms Coulter said it was an enormous help to the family to see their daughter remembered as a person, somebody with dreams, a young woman who was caring for family and who had plans of going to college.

She loved to take her family members to the cinema or ice-skating and had four brothers, Dan, Anthony, John and Mason, and four sisters  Miranda, Victoria, Rebecca and Cassandra.

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

I was so proud of her. It takes a lot to get knocked off your feet and to get back up, she said. The obituary was huge for us. It meant that people could read other things about her and get a sense of who she was.

She added: For us, were still struggling. It has just happened six months ago and it was extremely rough.

The obituaries are investigated and written by Taylor Farnsworth and Jen Lawson, who each month receive a list of homicides from the citys police department. They also scour for information  sometimes just scraps  in the citys newspapers and websites. They have also been developing their own contacts within the community.

I have really felt this has made a difference those people who have lost a loved one, said Ms Farnsworth. Some of the people we speak to lost relatives years ago, some it was just a few months earlier. The grieving process is at a different stage.

She added: Sometimes the media will just report that a 19-year-old was killed at some intersection and thats it. Depending on the way the media frames something, you can forget that it was a person with connections and family.President Donald Trumps former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, has pleaded guilty to charges brought on my Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russian investigation.

Mr Gates' plea addressed two counts: conspiracy against the US and making false statements to federal authorities. Mr Gates filed his plea at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC the afternoon of 23 February and no date has been scheduled for his sentencing hearing as yet.

Separately last October, Mr Gates and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort were charged in relation to work the pair longtime business associates in Ukraine. The 12 counts included conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, seven counts of failure to report foreign bank accounts and transactions, and submitting false Foreign Agent Registration Act forms as well.

Recommended All you need to know about Rick Gates

Both men had pleaded not guilty to those charges at that time but it is known that the pair earned millions from working with Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The charges recently filed in Virginia relate to the money and the indictment alleges that Mr Gates "hid the existence and ownership of the foreign companies and bank accounts, falsely and repeatedly reporting to their tax preparers and to the US that they had no foreign bank accounts."

He also is expected to plead guilty about lying regarding a meeting Mr Manafort reportedly had with a member of Congress and a lobbyist in 2013 to discuss Ukraine.

The charges don't name the lobbyist or the Congress member but filings with the US Justice Department show Mr Manafort and lobbyist Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs met with Republican Representative Dana Rohrabacher on that date as part of an effort on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

Mr Manafort responded in a statement: "I continue to maintain my innocence. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.

 Rod Rosenstein announces thirteen Russian nationals have been indicted in Mueller probe

He had written in a letter to family and friends, first obtained by ABC News, that despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, I have had a change of heart".

The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circus-like atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process," he wrote.

He added that the consequence is the public humiliation, which at this moment seems like a small price to pay for what our children would have to endure otherwise."

Mr Gates has a young family and the deal he has struck with Mr Mueller earlier this week will likely spare him some jail time.

ABC News reported that a source said it was "gut-wrenching" decision for the former aide who also faced a significant financial burden.

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

Mr Gates testimony could be a blow to Mr Manafort, who stopped cooperating with the subsequent Congressional investigations into alleged collusion between Russian officials and the campaign team once Mr Mueller's indictment was filed.

However, it is unclear what Mr Gates could offer Mr Mueller's team given that none of the charges filed against him either in October or the more recent charges in Virginia have to do with work he did on the 2016 campaign.

While Mr Manafort was fired in August 2016 on suspicion of his foreign ties, Mr Gates stayed on the team and even served as a consultant to the transition team after Mr Trump's election victory.

It was during this time that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had reportedly spoken with former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He pleaded guilty late last year to lying to the FBI about the December 2016 conversation.

The retired three-star Army Lieutenant General had also misled Vice President Mike Pence, then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer about conversations he had with Mr Kislyak, who had then repeated the false claims to the public.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the campaign, also pleaded guilty for lying to Mr Mueller's team about a meeting with a Russian national.

Mr Gates' plea also comes on the heels of the stunning indictment last week that laid out a broad operation of election meddling by Russia, which began in 2014, and employed fake social media accounts and on-the-ground politicking to promote Trump's campaign, disparage Hillary Clinton and sow division and discord widely among the US electorate.It was sixteen minutes past midnight when Stormy Daniels made her way to the neon-lit stage at a nightclub in Long Island.

She appeared wearing a Little Red Riding Hood costume, accompanied by the song Little Red Riding Hood. She quickly discarded the cape and changed the music to something a little racier - Still of the Night by Whitesnake. There were cheers and shouts as Ms Daniels went about her thing.

The 38-year-old adult film actor, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, had come to New York to seize on the publicity generated by the revelation she may have had an affair with Donald Trump a decade ago, and the admission by the Presidents personal lawyer that he paid her $130,000 on the eve of the 2016 presidential election in a settlement to keep her quiet.

Ms Daniels charged $20 for a selfie with her (Reuters)

During any other presidency, such revelations would have been huge, shuddering news - perhaps the trigger for an inquiry into whether campaign finances had been used incorrectly, and endless debate over if the presidency had been sullied by a campaigns admission that it paid hush money to a porn star.

But as with so many aspects of the presidency of Donald Trump, things have not played out as they might otherwise have.

After the media followed up the Wall Street Journals scoop that the Trump campaign had made the payment, and after Ms Daniels appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live where she refused to confirm or deny the alleged 2006 affair, things seemed to go quiet.

Some days, Mr Trumps possible relationship with a woman whose acting credits include 2007s Good Will Humping, has been only the third or fourth most strange and jaw-dropping thing involving the President.

There are so many scandals involving Trump that they seem to be cancelling each other out to some extent, said Ronald Weitzer, a professor of sociology at George Washington University who has written about the sex industry.

 Stormy Daniels obliquely denies having written statement on Trump affair

If it were the Daniels (plus the other two scandals involving sex workers) incident alone, it would arguably have greater traction in both the media and public discourse. A second explanation, at least for Trump supporters, is that they may expect this kind of behaviour from him, as they already know about the Access Hollywood tape and past allegations of sexual harassment. So, such revelations have much less impact than if they were made about a non-scandal plagued political leader, such as President Obama.

Ms Daniels is mining this for all she can get. Employing the skills befitting a striptease expert, she has been careful not to give too much away, too quickly. Too many interviews, too many admissions, and people would lose interest. She knows she must retain an element of mystery.

Meanwhile, her advertising slogan - Make America Horny Again - has been playing off Mr Trumps campaign catchphrase and the announcer in Long Island said she had a unique perspective on the President.

The general public understands opportunity, and how one seizes opportunity when given the opportunity, said Brian Gross of California-based BSG Public Relations, who represents a number of adult film actors. Daniels was and is a successful actress and director.

The location for Mr Daniels latest show was Gossip, a place for gentlemen in Melville, about 35 miles from New York City.

The club said it paid Ms Daniels three times her usual fee (Andrew Buncombe ) (Andrew Buncombe)

The club bore an air of seedy melancholy; the bright lights and loud music unable to distract from the spectacle of young women - a number of them from Russia and Europe - taking turns to slide against a shiny steel pole or try to persuade men to buy them drinks or agree to a massage. A number of them look bored to death - their smiles stuck on by sheer perseverance.

Those dancers who pleased the crowd the most, were rewarded with dollar bills tucked inside suspenders belts or their underwear. At the end of each performance, a young man with a brush swept up the notes and stuffed them in an aluminium ice bucket.

For many hours on Thursday evening, the crowd was threadbare. While the club opened its doors at 7pm and advised people to expect a sell-out, for the first three hours, members of the media greatly outnumbered regular customers.

Among the crowd were a couple of Trump supporters from Connecticut, Jamie, a 47-year-old engineer, and Dawn, a receptionist. The couple, who asked to be identified by their first names, said they were on a date - an idea that Jamie had suggested and Dawn had agreed to out of curiosity.

Another customer, Michael, had driven from New York. The 38-year-old, who also asked to give just his first name, said he had seen some of Ms Daniels films and was interested to see her in person.

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

Ive read about all the stories and its only ten minutes from work, he said.

Club owner Brian Rosenberg said he had been determined to book Ms Daniels for his club and had flown to the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas where she had received a prize. Im paying her three times what she normally gets, he said.

One report suggested some of Mr Rosenbergs 40 regular dancers were unhappy Ms Daniels was performing as it was taking away their tips. Mr Rosenberg rejected that, saying good business benefited everyone.

Yet what was striking was the generational gap between Ms Daniels and some of the younger dancers, several of whom performed stunts of such gymnastic dexterity and daring on the pole, that one feared for their safety. Ms Daniels did not attempt such endeavours.

One of the younger women, who said she was Russian, said she felt the woman who may or may not have had an affair with the man who now occupies the Oval Office was from an earlier time.

After the end of her first performance, Ms Daniels hawked merchandise and posed for photographs. Suddenly all business, she demanded $20 for a selfie and snapped at a bouncer who allowed someone to photograph her for free. She was also careful not to let anything slip when she answered a few questions from reporters.

What was it like to be in New York? This is not the first time Ive been here, she said. But what was it like to be performing in New York after the revelations regarding Mr Trump? Intense.

Given that your publicist said you were free to talk after Mr Trumps lawyer allegedly broke the terms of no-speaking deal by confirming its existence, what are you going to be talking about next? Lets wait and see.

By now it was gone 1am. Ms Daniels was due to perform a second set in an hour. For The Independent, it was time to to make its excuses and leave.The White House was placed on lockdown after a car struck a security barrier surrounding the complex.

The Secret Service said a woman drove her car into the barrier at 17th and E streets, but did not breach it. No shots were fired and no law enforcement officers were hurt. The woman was immediately apprehended at the scene, the Secret Service said.

Law enforcement sources told CNN that the woman crashed her car intentionally, but that she had not meant to target anyone in the White House. They added that the Secret Service knew of the woman beforehand.

Recommended US Secret Service respond to suspicious vehicle near White House

A witness told reporters at the scene he had seen a minivan crash into the barricade and attempt to push through.

"His tires were burning rubber and a lot of smoke was coming up," said witness Chris Bello, according to Reuters. "And then about 30 seconds after that the two security guards that were in the booth, you know, ordered him to stop doing what he was doing and he didn't listen."

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

Footage from the scene showed a white minivan with an American flag bumper sticker stopped near the barrier, its back window broken.

White House reporters tweeted that the door to the briefing room was locked, and reporters were not allowed in during the lockdown.

The incident came as President Donald Trump hosted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House. The prime minister stayed inside the building while the incident was investigated, according to the Press Association.

Officers responded to a suspicious vehicle near the White House two days earlier, but did not report any arrests. The nearby New Executive Office Building was briefly evacuated.A suicide bomber killed at least two and wounded seven in an attack claimed by Isis in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's capital on Saturday and at least 18 soldiers died in an attack on a checkpoint by Taliban insurgents in the country's west, authorities said.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the Kabul attack took place in the Shash Darak area near Nato headquarters and not far from the US Embassy. Mr Danish said the initial casualty count could rise.

Isis claimed responsibility in a statement on its website

In western Farah province, at least 18 soldiers were killed when their checkpoint came under attack by Taliban insurgents, said Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He said two other soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Bala Buluk district.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official said at least three security personnel were killed in separate suicide bombing attacks in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand, said a car bomber early Saturday was shot by Afghan army soldiers but his vehicle managed to reach the entrance of the army base in Nad Aali district, killing two soldiers and wounding another.

In a second suicide bombing attack near another military base in Helmand's capital city Lashkar Gah, one security person was killed and seven civilians wounded, Mr Zwak said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for both suicide attacks in Helmand.

The resurgent Taliban and the newer IS affiliate have been blamed for increased violence in Afghanistan after US and Nato forces concluded combat missions in 2014 that began after the 9/11 attacks in the US.

On 27 January, a Taliban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives into the heart of the city, killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235.

The Taliban claimed the ambulance attack, as well as an attack a week earlier in which militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing 22 people, including 14 foreigners and setting off a 13-hour battle with security forces.

The recent attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces more than 16 years after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban.

They also raise questions about President Donald Trump's strategy for winning America's longest war, which was announced in August but has changed little on the ground. That strategy was based on ramping up military pressure on the Taliban to eventually force them into peace talks with the government.

APCosmetic surgery including breast implants is to be made available free of charge to residents of a state in south India.

Tamil Nadus health minister, C Vijaya Baskar, launched the scheme in state capital Chennai earlier this week, saying: Why should beauty treatment not be available to the poor?

"If we don't offer these procedures for free they may opt for dangerous methods or take huge loans for it," Mr Baskar said, according to the Times of India.

Recommended The latest plastic surgery trend among millennials is bizarre

According to Dr VRamadevi, head of plastic surgery at Stanley Medical College and Hospital, where the clinic is located, many women had approached the hospital for breast reconstruction in the past few months.

She said some cancer victims and women with large breasts sought surgery for health-related reasons, while other women wanted to augment or shrink their breasts to boost their confidence levels, according to local media.

The new scheme is an extension of an existing policy, under which cancer patients can access free breast reconstruction surgery.

Now women or men who wish to alter their breasts for other health or cosmetic reasons will also be able to do so.

As a plastic surgeon I dont judge women when they seek surgery, Dr Ramadevi said.

Apart from providing breast surgery, the clinic will also perform free cleft lip surgeries for children and hand transplants among other procedures.

The hospital, one of the oldest in India, is renowned for its plastic surgery department, which was first opened in 1971 and specialises in reconstructive hand surgery, according to the website.

In the past four decades, the department has undertaken around 66,000 plastic surgery procedures, according to hospital statistics.

Across India, almost 93,000 cosmetic plastic surgery procedures involving breast augmentation, implant removal or breast reduction were carried out in 2016, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

That represents around 0.007 per cent of the countrys population, a far lower rate than the 586,000 procedures carried out in the US in the same year, equating to 0.1 per cent of the population.

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

Some citizens responded with anger or incredulity to the news from the state health department, with one Twitter user writing: What the HELL is this???? Is bigger breasts the only way to 'look beautiful'????

Others were frustrated that the government was choosing to focus on cosmetic procedures ahead of other health issues.

While this is a welcome step for those women who have got their breasts removed or damaged due to cancer, fire, or any other accidents. The same for pure cosmetic purpose in a govt hospital is a misplaced priority at the tax payers liability, wrote Sridhar Ren on Twitter.

Although India does have an extensive public healthcare system, access is a problem for many.

According to a 2016 study, "large health disparities between states, between rural and urban populations, and across social classes persist. A large proportion of the population is impoverished because of high out-of-pocket health-care expenditures and suffers the adverse consequences of poor quality of care."

A report by the London-based Legatum Institute in 2016 ranked India at 104 out of 149 countries on its prosperity index and noted that a poor healthcare system was holding the country back from further advances.China has reacted angrily after several of its own companies were targeted by new US sanctions aimed at upping pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arsenal.

The United States said on Friday it was imposing its largest package of sanctions yet in a bid to convince the secretive communist state to ditch its missile programmes.

President Donald Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work.

However, Chinese authorities have lodged stern representations with the US over the move, which has seen shipping and energy firms in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan sanctioned.

Recommended Western cynicism risks missing a chance at peace with North Korea

In a statement, China's foreign ministry insisted its government had always enforced United Nations resolutions on North Korea, and did not allow any of its citizens or companies to contravene them.

It claimed the new sanctions were harming bilateral cooperation.

"China resolutely opposes the US side enacting unilateral sanctions and 'long-armed jurisdiction' in accordance with its domestic law against Chinese entities or individuals," the ministry said.

"We have already lodged stern representations with the US side about this issue, and demand the US side immediately stops such relevant mistaken actions."

China has repeatedly expressed opposition to any sanctions against North Korea not done within the framework of the United Nations, but maintains it was enforcing existing measures.

Figures also appear to show China is holding up its end of the bargain, after January trade with its isolated neighbour fell to the lowest level since at least June 2014.

However, it does remain North Korea's largest trading partner and sole major ally.

Latest US sanctions name two Chinese shipping firms - Weihai World-Shipping Freight and Shanghai Dongfeng Shipping Co Ltd.

North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Show all 21 1 /21 North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Pukguksong-2 missile - 2 May 2017 A solid-fuel "Pukguksong-2" missile lifts off during its launch test in North Korea on May 22, 2017. They said that it was examining operational plans for attacking Guam, an angry reaction to UN punishment for previous North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile tests and a US suggestion about preparations for possible preventive attacks to stop the North's nuclear weapons program. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-12 -16 September 2017 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. Kim vowed to complete North Korea's nuclear force despite sanctions, saying the final goal of his country's weapons development is "equilibrium of real force" with the United States, state media reported on September 16, 2017. AFP/Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Donald Trump address South Korean assembly - 7 November 2017 President Donald Trump talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-In during their joint press conference at the presidential Blue House on November 7, 2017 in Seoul.Trump was the first US President to address the South Korean National Assembly since President Clinton in 1993. He addressed Kim Jong Un warning him to not underestimate the US and that for talks to materialize then Pyongyang would need to take steps into denuclearization. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Demilitarized Zone Haean-Myeon, is a small military town near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and border between North and South Korea, in Gangwon province. The zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula and was created after the 'Korean Armistice Agreement'. Any negotiations between the two countries tend to take place in this zone. AFP/Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Declared state sponsor of terrorism by Trump - 20 November 2017 President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a cabinet meeting at the White House on November 20, 2017, where he officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea had previously been on the list, however was removed in 2008. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile - 29 November 2017 The North Korean government launches it's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on November 29, 2017. It is supposedly capable of reaching all parts of the US. Korean Central News Agency via AP North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile - 29 November 2017 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un celebrating the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile on November 29, 2017. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Kim Jong-Un New Year's speech - 1 January 2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering his New Year's speech. He vowed North Korea would mass-produce nuclear warheads and missiles in a defiant New Year message on January 1 suggesting he would continue to accelerate a rogue weapons programme that has stoked international tensions. Korean Central News Agency via AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Intercontinental ballistic missile ice sculpture - 1 January 2018 Fireworks are seen above the Taedong River during New Year celebrations as visitors pose for a photo in front of an ice sculpture of an intercontinental ballistic missile at the Pyongyang Ice Sculpture Festival in Kim Il Sung Square in North Korea on 1 January, 2018. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures US-South Korean military drills postponed - 4 January 2018 South Korean President Moon Jae-in talks with US President Donald Trump on January 4, 2018 in Seoul. South Korea and US agreed to delay the annual "Foal Eagle" military drills until after the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in an effort to "de-conflict" the Games and "focus on ensuring the security" of the event. South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North and South Korea have first official talks in over two years - 9 January 2018 Vehicles transporting the South Korean delegation, led by South Korean Unification Ministrer Cho Myoung-Gyon, drive past a checkpoint on the road connecting South and North Korea at the Unification Bridge, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating them both on January 9, 2018 in Paju. They began their first official face-to-face talks in two years. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North and South Korea have first official talks in over two years - 9 January 2018 Members of the South Korea delegation (R) shake hands with members of the North Korean delegation (L) during their meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas on January 9, 2018. They focused on the forthcoming Winter Olympics after months of tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Foreign Ministers Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula - 16 January 2018 Foreign Ministers from twenty countries from North and South America, Asia, and Europe pose for a photo at the Vancouver Foreign Ministers Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, in Vancouver on January 16, 2018. The US urged an escalation in pressure on North Korea over its nuclear missile program, despite a more cautious tone from key US ally South Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, co-hosted the event with Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, and called for North Korean ships to be intercepted and for new punitive measures to be implemented every time Pyongyang tests new weapons. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea and South Korea to march together at Winter Olympics - 20 January 2018 PyeongChang 2018 Olympics President Lee Hee-beom, North Korea's Sports Minister and Olympic Committee president Kim Il Guk, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jong-hwan and South Korea's National Olympic Committee President Lee Kee-heung join their hands as they pose during a signing ceremony at the Olympic Museum on January 20, 2018 in Lausanne. North Korea will send 22 athletes to the Winter Games in the South. The two nations will also march together at the opening ceremony. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Anti-North Korea activists protest delegation arrival - 22 January 2018 Anti-North Korea activists burn a portrait of leader Kim Jong-Un during a rally Seoul Station as a North Korean delegation arrived to check out performance venues for the Winter Olympics on January 22, 2018. Protesters led by the Korean Patriots Party gathered and complained that the talks to encourage North Korea's participation is stealing the spotlight from their country to the benefit of the regime. Donga Daily via Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Panmunjom - 7 February 2018 South Korean soldiers stand guard at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between South and North Korea on February 7, 2018. In a sign of thawing bilateral ties, North Korea today announced that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korean ferry arrives in South Korea - 6 February 2018 North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 carrying a 140-strong orchestra approaches a port in Donghae, South Korea, February 6, 2018. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Anti-North Korea protest - 6 February 2018 A member of a conservative civic group tears a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an anti-North Korea protest as the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 carrying a 140-strong orchestra approached. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea at the athletes village - 8 February 2018 A North Korean flag is seen hanging on a building at the Winter Olympics athletes village in Gangneung, South Korea. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Olympic Welcome ceremony - 8 February 2018 Democratic People's Republic of Korea Vice Sports Minister Won Gil-woo receives a gift from mayor of the Olympic Village Kim Ki-hoon during the welcome ceremony ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Games at the Olympic Village on 8 February, 2018 in South Korea. Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Mike Pence meets Moon Jae-in - 8 February 2018 US Vice President Mike Pence shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in before their meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea on 8 February, 2018. REUTERS

The United States also named Taiwan citizen Tsang Yung Yuan and designated two of his companies in the sanctions list.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said it was in touch with the US and would investigate its citizens and entities suspected of helping North Korea.

It also called on Taiwan firms and citizens not to break UN sanctions.

The self-governed island's Justice Ministry said authorities have launched a probe into Tsang and his two companies, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency.

Additional reporting by ReutersThe United States aims to open a Jerusalem embassy in May, the State Department said, cementing details of one of Donald Trumps most controversial foreign policy decisions.

The planned opening is intended to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israels independence and would come earlier than administration officials had previously suggested, with Vice President Mike Pence saying in January the move would likely occur in 2019. The embassy will be housed in a building that currently contains a consular office, the State Department said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the move, saying in a statement that it would turn Israel's 70th Independence Day into an even greater national celebration.

Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and friendship, Mr Netanyahu said.

A search is underway for a site that could host a permanent Embassy, the State Department said, noting in a press release that constructing a new building would be a longer-term undertaking. The Trump administration is exploring the possibility of influential Republican donor Sheldon Adelson helping to pay for at least part of the Jerusalem embassy's construction, according to unnamed officials who spoke with the Associated Press

The decision carried brought geopolitical implications, drawing angry protests from Palestinian leaders who said America had undercut the peace process and forfeited its role as a neutral mediator. The United Nations overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the move.

Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Show all 22 1 /22 Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of Difa-e-Pakistan Council a coalition of right wing Islamic parties, burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump, during a protest in Quetta, Pakistan EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli police scuffle with a Palestinian protester outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn pictures of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu following Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protesters outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on 7 December 2017 AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), an Islamic organization, chant slogans as they burn Israeli and US flags during a protest against Donald Trump in Peshawar REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump which was painted on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors burn the Israeli flag and a poster of US President Donald Trump in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against Donald Trump in Lahore AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn the US and Israeli flags in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is burnt during a protest against Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces detain a Palestinian protester during clashes that followed protests against US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters shout slogans against Donald Trump EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A Palestinian protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask used by the anonymous movement during clashes with Israeli troops in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops during protests AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party chant anti-American slogans during a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Young Palestinian women look on as smoke billows from burning tyres as fellow Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protesters burn a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump at a protest in Islamabad REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protestors shouts slogans against US President Donald Trump as they hold Palestinian and Turkish flags during a protest near the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors put their feet over a picture of US president Donald Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistani protesters burn tires at an anti-Donald Trump rally in Multan AP

Administration officials have continued to spar with Palestinian leadership, with Mr Trump threatening to withhold aid.

On the same day as the Embassy announcement, the President said that were actually making great headway on forging peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, saying taking Jerusalem off the table was the right thing to do and praising the work of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is tasked with overseeing negotiations

Hes an extraordinary dealmaker, and if he does that that will be an incredible accomplishment and a very important thing for our country, Mr Trump said of Mr Kushner.

More follows...For years, Russia has worked to gain influence in south-east Europe, using Serbia as a foothold to establish a friendly pocket on a hostile continent.

The European Union finally is pushing back. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, is embarking on a seven-nation Balkans tour on Sunday to promote the EU's new eastward expansion strategy.

Russia mainly wants to discourage the Western Balkan countries  Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia  from joining Nato. But Moscow is also trying to deter them from joining the EU.

The EU sees the prospect of membership as an incentive for reform in the volatile Balkans region, which was torn apart by war in the 1990s. Its expansion strategy puts Serbia and Montenegro in position to join should the bloc open its doors to more members, tentatively by 2025.

Serbia is a major target of Moscow's anti-Western activities in Europe because the two Slavic and predominantly eastern Orthodox Christian nations share deep cultural and historical ties.

The Kremlin is so concerned about losing its ally that the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, repeatedly argued, while in Serbia last week that EU membership isn't all it is cut out to be.

Mr Lavrov also gave a warning; the EU's repeated calls for Serbia to align its foreign policies with the bloc as a precursor to membership and to impose sanctions on Russia, he said, are the same "mistake" the West made by pressuring war-torn Ukraine to choose between it and Russia.

Bosko Jaksic, a Serbian political analyst, thinks the "Russians are getting increasingly nervous as they lose allies one by one in the Balkans".

"It's not clear how far they are willing to go to preserve their interests here, but judging from what they did in Ukraine, they are willing to go far," Mr Jaksic said, referring to Russia's annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Mr Lavrov also said that "Europe is facing an unhealthy situation" because of Nato's eastward expansion. Montenegro joined the Western military organisation last year despite Moscow's strong opposition. He praised Belgrade for maintaining military neutrality and refusing to join Nato.

"We are convinced that this status is one of the main factors ensuring stability in the Balkans and the European continent in general," Mr Lavrov said.

There have been mounting fears in the West that Russia is using Serbia to foment tensions in the Balkans by arming its ally with warplanes and tanks, while working to destabilise neighbouring Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia.

The EU's foreign and security policies grew out of Europe's failure to respond to the wars in the Balkans that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. The bloc remains wary that some of the ethnic cleavages that sparked the conflicts of the 1990s persist.

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

Three countries have become EU members: Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and Croatia in 2013. The rest either are candidates for membership of potential candidates.

"Investing in the stability and prosperity of the western Balkans means investing in the security and future of our union," Mr Juncker said ahead of the trip.

Mr Juncker's tour of the Balkans, which starts in Macedonia on Sunday and ends with an EU summit in Bulgaria on 1 March, is seen as the EU's belated attempt to counter Russia's reach.

"Paradoxically, the Russians and their policies in the Balkans have triggered alarm bells that woke up the European Union into action," Mr Jaksic, the analyst, said.

APPolice have clashed with protesters in Italy as antagonism flared between anti-fascist and far-right activists in a violence-marred election campaign.

In the last weekend for political rallies ahead of Italys 4 March national election, protesters held at least a dozen marches or rallies on Saturday in several cities.

Italys northern powerhouse, Milan, saw far-left demonstrators clash with police trying to block them from reaching a far-right rally. Police in riot gear wielded batons against the front line of protesters to drive them back.

In Rome, a march drawing Paolo Gentiloni, Italys Prime Minister, and other ministers in his centre-left government deplored racism and the revival of fascist ideology.

At the Piazza del Popolo  or Peoples Square  about 100,000 people gathered to the cry of never again fascism with the aim of standing up against the far-right.

Im worried about this fascist and racist revival, said Carla Nespolo, the president of the National Association of Italian Partisans. I dont think we should panic, because theres an overwhelming majority of anti-fascist people, but we need to be united in providing a barrier against xenophobia and fascist nostalgia. This isnt only an Italian problem: the loss of historical memory concerns Europe in general; 60,000 fascists appeared in the streets of Warsaw on 11 November. It is crucial to be conscious of the risks of a return of fascism.

We see fascist groups taking roots in schools, said Giammarco Manfreda, a spokesman for a popular high school student union. At least one thousand students came to the anti-fascist rally from all over the country. We ask for a courageous stance; it is inconceivable that the neo-fascist leaders are still allowed to compete for votes.

Demonstrators confront police during an anti-fascism demonstration in Milan (Reuters)

Across town, another march protested against government labour changes that made it easier to lay off workers.

Justice Minister Andrea Orlando warned that fascism is a danger in Italy and Europe. And also dangerous is the underestimation of this phenomenon.

Elsewhere in the Italian capital, protesters denounced the governments decision to make several vaccines mandatory for schoolchildren, another issue inflaming campaign debate. Campaigning officially ends on 2 March.

Opinion polls indicate a hung Parliament could result, with three blocs, each short of an absolute majority: the centre-left, the centre-right and the populist 5-Star Movement.

Italys election campaign took a violent turn on 3 February, when an Italian man in the central town of Macerata opened fire on African migrants, wounding six of them.

 Italy drive-by shootings: Gunman 'targeting black people' opens fire on pedestrians in city of Macerata

The suspect, who once ran in a local election for the anti-migrant League party, has said he was avenging the death of an Italian woman allegedly murdered by African migrants.

In Milan yesterday League leader and premier candidate, Matteo Salvini, denied that his followers advocated violence. Instead he denounced what he called this angry anti-fascism and declared fascism a dead ideology.

The Italian constitution bans revival of fascism, the ideology of dictator Benito Mussolini before and during the Second World War.

League marchers held a banner with Mr Salvinis slogan Italians first.

Opinion polls indicate many Italians blame migrants for crime.

The League, along with the 5-Star Movement, contends that foreigners, by working for less pay, rob Italians of work.

In Rome, police stopped chartered buses bringing demonstrators to the city, opening participants backpacks and searching vehicles to ensure that clubs or other weapons were not hidden.

Three Milan underground stations were closed as a precaution near Mr Salvinis rally, near a rally by the far-right CasaPound group and near an anti-fascist gathering.

A few blocks away from Romes anti-racism march, thousands of unemployed people from the south, metal workers, far-left youth social clubs and advocates for public housing marched to protest the governments labour reforms.

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

Tensions were high in Palermo, Sicily, where days earlier the local leader of the far-right Forza Nuova party was beaten up on a street.

Some shops closed early on Saturday, fearing participants in an anti-fascist march would clash with those attending a Forza Nuova rally but the anti-fascist march proceeded peacefully.

Forza Nuova national leader Roberto Fiore, leading a campaign rally in Trieste, northeast Italy, blamed this campaign of hatred on far-left forces. Mr Fiore rejects the label of neo-fascist, saying instead he is fascist.

In Florence, a 17-year-old boy was fined when police noticed him ripping off campaign posters of the right-wing candidate for premier, Giorgia Meloni.

Just days ago, two youths were slashed when they were affixing posters for a tiny, far-left party.Americas ambassador to the United Nations blasted Russia for delaying a vote on a ceasefire in Syria for the besieged area of eastern Ghouta, saying the Syrian people cant wait.

Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria, Nikki Haley said on Twitter.

How many more people will die before the The Security Council agrees to take up this vote? Lets do this tonight.

Hundreds of civilians are estimated to have died in a bombardment of eastern Ghouta, leading the US and others to urge a temporary ceasefire allowing humanitarian aid.

Debate around a ceasefire resolution extended into a second day after Russia objected to an earlier version that would have imposed a 30-day halt in hostilities, with UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia calling the proposal unrealistic and accusing other council members of being misled by a massive psychosis.

Russia has been a key backer of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assads regime, lending military support to government forces in the bloody civil war.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia wields veto power and has repeatedly blocked resolutions on Syria. In November it vetoed its 10th Syria-related UN resolution, a US-drafted call to investigate who was culpable for chemical weapons attacks.

Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian woman and children run for cover amid the rubble of buildings. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Smoke rises from buildings following the attack on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascu. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian man carries a child injured. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured child receives treatment following bombings on several areas of eastern Ghouta. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A child reacts inside a hospital after relatives were injured in the bombing. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense group extinguishing a store during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A wounded 12-year-old Syrian boy, cries as he receives treatment at a make-shift hospital. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrians carry a wounded man. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured man covered with blood at a medical point. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures People sit a medical point in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense running to help survivors. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA

The US this week accused Assad of a systematic campaign to bomb and starve residents of eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the regime-controlled capital of Damascus, with US ambassador for economic and social affairs, Kelley Currie, telling the UN Security Council attacks have been relentless.

The regime wants to keep bombing and gassing these 400,000 people, and the Assad regime is counting on Russia to make sure the Security Council is unable to stop their suffering, Ms Currie said.

 Scenes of devastation in Syria after deadly shelling and airstrikes and eastern Ghouta

The UNs Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, pleaded with members earlier this week to take action and prevent a massacre.

We will be judged by history, Mr de Mistura said.It is often said that Leave voters knew what they were voting for. Well, we thought we did  but for a lot of us, its not what we seem to be getting.

Brexit means Brexit is a phrase thats become a bit of a joke. There are a thousand different ways to interpret  or misinterpret  a Leave vote.

What has become crystal clear, on the other hand, is that remain means remain. And the more I think about it, the more I realise that it is better than any of the Brexit alternatives currently on the table.

Remaining inside the European Union means maintaining the economic growth, cultural variety and ease of travel weve enjoyed for so long.

It means a veto on anything we dont like such as the euro, the accession of Turkey or the creation of an EU army.

It means being inside the largest trading block in the world, where were able to sculpt its future with our friends and neighbours for the benefit of all.

As for Brexit, it seems to mean something different to everyone. One things for sure though: the Brexit I voted for sailed a long time ago.

For me, Brexit absolutely did not mean leaving the customs union and single market. I still believe we should make every effort to stay as members of these entities or align as closely as possible to them.

But thats evidently not the vision of Brexit were pursuing. In fact, the Government seems set on coming out of everything associated with the EU, meaning well have to start from scratch.

This has serious ramifications, including a hard border in Ireland, which we just cant have. How do you have a border and not have a border? Its impossible.

It will mean the UK is a less attractive location for businesses, due to the additional restrictions on the movement of goods, services and people.

It will also mean that our trade deal with the EU itself, our largest trading partner, will unquestionably be worse.

 David Davis tries to dispel post-Brexit chaos fears

All this may be exactly what some Leave voters were dreaming of. But theres no doubt that Im not the only one who had a completely different vision for Brexit.

Whats more, we can surely all agree that we know much more now than we did in June 2016.

Such as the contribution of the European Arrest Warrant on deporting criminals, which we appear to be likely to lose; or the reduction in EU immigration to the UK since the vote, which means we dont have the workers we need to keep vital parts of the economy moving.

Brexit has morphed into a gigantic act of economic and geopolitical self-harm.

David Davis wisely said these words in a speech in 2012: If a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy.

Well David, I wish to change my mind, so why wont you give me the opportunity to do so?

If another referendum was held, regardless of the result, it would show democracy at its finest. I doubt anyone would (publicly) argue that theres such a thing as too much democracy.

Our system, the best democracy in the world, encompasses the ability to react to change by changing our minds. Its patriotic, its free, its agile, its independent and its revered across the globe.

Not allowing a second chance to confirm or overturn a previous, less well informed advisory referendum, goes against all of this.

We will be economically worse off under any scenario in which we leave the EU, or so say the Brexit impact reports produced by the Government itself. And the harder the Brexit, the worse the damage will be.

This alone should be enough to convince us that we need to look again at the entire question of whether we should depart the European Union.

Instead we get denial. The countrys had enough of experts, said Michael Gove. Apparently thats true even when the experts are the Governments own.

This madness can be stopped, even now, despite it seeming that we are too far down the rabbit hole.

Ive changed my mind; many others have too. So lets keep fighting for what we believe in and take back control.In regard to whether we should pay more for a longer transition period in our sluggish rush to Brexit, its about time we told M Barnier and his mates to do one.

Our craven politicians gave away a reported 40bn to get through phase one, which they had stated unequivocally that they wouldnt. Thats our taxes going west, quite literally. They lied.

Now we are into the meat of this deal, for dealing it now is.

Time to fight back. As a Remainer I hate this situation. But as a Briton and a businessman I cannot stand this havering any longer. We either stand our ground or cave in again.

My businesses will not survive further prevarication. I will have to fold them up as they rely on EU trade. The present uncertainty after years is strangling them to death.

May and her divided Cabinet must understand that they are not the agenda. We, the British people, and our economic and societal future are what they are there to represent.

I no longer care if we are represented by Tories or Labour or SNP. They are all too far gone to realise that we, the people, must have them stop any further bickering and negotiate properly for our collective benefit.

If the Tories dont finally get this we may see their end as a political force in the UK as the pain for the taxpayer will be ever more expensive.

John Sinclair

Pocklington

Trumps plans will see everyone shoot anyone

So Trump plans to give guns to schoolteachers so they can protect children from guns. Thats a great idea. And when a teacher has a bad stress day and manages to kill the whole class, then theyll have to give every student a gun to protect themselves from teachers.

The question then will be whether students can take the guns home and, if theyve had a bad day, kill their parents, or will have to hand them in to the school armoury before leaving. So schools could perhaps have hundreds of firearms available at a moments notice, and on a really good bad day everyone could kill everyone.

Buy shares in the arms industry now, before they explode.

David Buckton

Cambridge

Portugal has a historical connection to Arab culture

Robert Fisks excellent piece on Portugal notes the countrys proud Arab connections. There is so much more outside of, and especially to the south of, Lisbon.

The Portuguese never claimed to have discovered India. They knew perfectly well where it and the Spice Islands were. Their achievement was to work out how to get there in small sailing ships that were vulnerable to currents and reliant on seasonal winds. This may be what surprised the Arab trader when they turned up.

The Lisbon suburb in which I live has an Arab name. As they still say here oxala, by all means look that one up.

Tom Bloomfield

Alges, Portugal

The difference between Calicut and Calcutta

In his piece Theres a reason why anti-Muslim ideology hasnt found a home in Portugal Robert Fisk mistakenly describes Calicut, where Vasco Da Gama landed in 1498, as Calcutta. Calicut is located in the southern state of Kerala and Calcutta is the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal. It may interest your readers to know that the textile known as calico owes its origins to Calicut. Moreover, Calicut is now known as Kozhikode, and Calcutta as Kolkata.

Kanika Datta

New Delhi, India

[Editors note: This mistake has now been amended]

We must support the good aid workers

Andrew MacLeod is right to illustrate in his piece the dangerous conditions in which aid workers carry out their work. Several aid workers have made incalculable sacrifices to give a voice to the voiceless and to help people in the most volatile regions. Many were beheaded, kidnapped, detained and assaulted during their line of duties.

One could only imagine seeing first-hand the harrowing scenes of children trapped under the rubble of their neighbourhoods, or men, women and the elderly desperately searching for the smallest morsel, barely able to walk, with little flesh on their bones in war-stricken Syria or Yemen, or catering for the needs of desperate refugees taking treacherous voyages to reach safety in Jordan, Lebanon and far beyond.

It is time to salute humanitarians who chose to work and speak out against the unconscionable atrocities committed against humanity. In doing so we will keep the flames of hope, coexistence and dialogue alight.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob

London NW2

Spain: whatever happened to freedom of speech?

Last Wednesday Arco, Madrids international art show, opened after a work entitled Contemporary Spanish Political Prisoners  which included pixelated portraits of three of the leaders of Catalonias independence movement  was removed at the insistence of the organisers of Madrids trade fairs, where Arco is being held.

The next day Valtonyc, a rapper from Majorca, had his 3-year prison sentence upheld for having sung a song six years ago, when he was 18, that was rude to the Spanish crown.

That same week a judge demanded the seizure of Farina, a book on drug trafficking in Spain by the Galician journalist Nacho Carretero.

Thats three attacks on freedom of speech in Spain in a single week!

Henry Ettinghausen, Emeritus Professor of Spanish, University of Southampton

Catalonia, SpainRaghunandan Yandamuri, the first Indian American on death row, was scheduled to be executed Feb. 23 for killing a 63-year-old woman from India and her infant grand-daughter in a failed kidnapping for ransom attempt. The state of Pennsylvania has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2015; thus, Yandamuri remains on death row. (India-West file photo)A new online campaign called the Desi Wall Of Shame publicly shames Indian American leaders like Dimple Shah, deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, and their policies on net neutrality, immigration, and health access, and hopes that the community will learn about these issues and take action. (shameful.desi photo)By IndraStra Global News Team









Image Attribute: New Eastern Outlook





On February 22, 2018, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono met with Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar in Tokyo and have agreed to increase pressure on North Korea, which is continuing its nuclear and missile development. For Tsogtbaatar, this was his first visit to Japan since becoming foreign minister in October 2017.





In the meeting, Kono said the international community must be united in dealing with North Korea. He stressed the necessity of maximizing pressure on Pyongyang in various areas as both the countries agreed in March last year to urge North Korea to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions against its weapons programs.





They agreed to work together to boost pressure on the country after the PyeongChang Olympics and Paralympics now underway in South Korea.





Kono asked for Mongolia's cooperation on the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. He also said Mongolia should swiftly implement the austerity measures necessary to receive financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and others.





Earlier this month, Tsogtbaatar met with Kim Yong Nam, the president of North Korea's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly and Ri Su Yong, the top official in charge of foreign affairs, in North Korea. The two governments signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in emergency disaster prevention and control, according to the KCNA.









Image Attribute: Mongolian Foreign Minister Damdin Tsogtbaatar / Source: AKI Press





During the meet, the ministers have also agreed on a five-year action plan to further develop bilateral ties between Japan and Mongolia. In addition, Tsogtbaatar also met with officials from the Mongolia-Japan Friendship Group in the Japanese Parliament and with Japan's ministers of energy, commerce and industry, health, and labor and welfare. His schedule included meetings with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO).Gaza On Brink Of Collapse As Residents Remain Caged In

By Norman Finkelstein



"Seventy percent of the people of Gaza are refugees. More than half are children. They're trapped, there's no way out," author Norman Finkelstein

Posted February 23, 2018

This video was originally published by " Going Underground " -

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionCapitalist Utopia



If Extreme Capitalism is What Connects Americas Problems, Why Cant Americans Figure it Out?



By Umair Haque

February 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Heres a tiny question. What links kids massacring each other at school, no functioning healthcare or retirement, no safety nets, no mobility or stability, the average person having less than $1000 in savings?

Theyre uniquely American problems, of course  and what connects them is extreme capitalism. No, theyre not the results of capitalism alone, as in sole cause and effect, of course culture and history play a role  but wed be foolish not to see that capitalism is the thread weaving them together.

(Imagine that in any other rich nation, there was an a product, available in every town, that was linked to an epidemic of child deaths  but whose manufacturers banded together, and kept it from being regulated, banned, or outlawed, with lobbying, persuasion, influence, and manipulation, no matter how people cried out, or how many kids died. Does that sound remotely plausible? Probably not. Only in America does such a situation exist  the product, of course is called a gun, and the group is called the NRA. But the NRA is only doing what manufacturers organizations do, when there is nothing to counterbalance capitalism: band together to sell things, no matter their destructive effects.)

Now heres the strange thing. I read countless laments and jeremiads every single day  articles, columns, editorials, about these various problems  but not the underlying thread. This difficult week, for example, endless condemnations of the NRA. But. Why do I never read anything addressing the underlying thread? What does it tell us?

Capitalism today has become a kind of utopianism. A magical way of thinking that Americans cannot seem to think about, reflect on, or question  only accept, just as communism was for the Soviets. Perhaps it always was  but I will leave that for scholars of abstruse social theories. In the first part of this essay, I want to discuss what that means  and then I want to discuss why utopian societies like America are inevitably bound to implode (unless they grow beyond utopianism).

What do we mean when we say a social project has become utopian? We mean three things, generally. That it hopes to reach perfection, an ideal state. That through it, human beings, too, can be perfected. And that because it is perfect, soon enough, it will conquer the globe, spreading perfection in its wake.

Havent we seen such utopianism at work almost precisely regarding capitalism in America? It will create a perfect society  one that is perfectly free. By being perfectly free, in turn, people wil be perfected  they will be perfectly virtuous. And because they are perfectly virtuous, they will rise to the top of the natural order of things.

Only it didnt turn out that way.

Capitalism didnt create a perfect society. It created something like the rich worlds first failed state  a place where kids massacre each other in schools every few days, when theyre not busy killing themselves with opioids, no retirement, the average American having less than $1000 in savings, falling life expectancy, and the average person is perfectly powerless to change it.

It didnt create a perfect breed of human being. Americans have become meaner, nastier, more misinformed, brutish, afraid, and angry than their peers elsewhere. They are a hair trigger away from taking out their rage on one another, by denying each other the basics of life, on someone else, by starting a war, or even on their kids, by letting them simply kill one another. We can hardly ascribe much virtue to Americans today.

And it didnt create a world where America rose to the top of the natural order. Instead, it trapped America in something like a half-century long crusade, to spread the gospel of capitalism. Only the world didnt really want it, and so America fought unwinnable war after war  in Vietnam, throughout Latin America, in Iraq, and so on. But by fighting these wars, America depleted itself of the very resources it might have used to rebuild its own broken society.

But perhaps you know all this. It is easy enough to see that capitalism is a kind of utopianism. Perhaps what you really wonder is this. Why do Americans go on believing in the myth of utopian capitalism, when the rest of the world, shaking its head in horror, wonders why they cant see what it has reduced them to  their kids to killers, their elderly to beggars, and their middle class to paupers? Thats the more interesting question, isnt it?

Well, throughout history, societies built upon utopian ideals are the ones that crash down the hardest  implosively. Rome. The Soviet Union. Nazi Germany. America today. Why is that?

The first reason is that utopian societies tend towards authoritarianism. In societies where many values are balanced, there emerge healthier and truer forms of democracy. In France, liberte, egalite, fraternite  hence, a democracy emerged whose purpose was to balance these three competing, often conflicting objectives. But Americas only value was, and remains, freedom. A more sophisticated democracy, working to balance competing values, never emerged, or had to be built.

When a society only has one real value, what happens? It stagnates intellectually, socially, and emotionally, not just intellectually. Let me illustrate that to you backwards. Why has Americas notion of freedom never evolved beyond guns, gods, and subjugation  as in Europe, where it means healthcare, dignity, and education, too? Well, for a value to evolve, it must compete too, against a conflicting value. Freedom can only grow to mean something more than guns if it is conflict with, for example, equality, or fraternity  then we can debate it, reframe it, reorient it, and so it becomes a little more sophisticated, resonant, meaningful. But if there is only one value to begin with in a society, what reason is there for that society to ever think? To ever consider, reflect, mature, or grow?

So the second reason that utopian societies implode is that that the very definition of utopianism is perfection, but perfection can only ever contain, mean, hold one value, in Americas case freedom, in the Soviet Unions case equality  and so they grow incapable of thought, growth, or development.

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Now what happens when a society has just one value, that must be defended, shielded, and protected? Well, the world becomes a threatening place, doesnt it? In such a society, there is no real room for ambiguity, ambivalence, dissent, difference. So utopian societies pretty soon become places not just of rigidity and conformity, too  but places where the utopian ideal must be defended at any cost, because nothing else can really be allowed to exist  which is the third reason they collapse.

In American, freedom has essentially come to mean my right to harm you  but that is what equality mean in the Soviet Union, too. How funny. How strange. But how can that be? Utopian societies must defend their ideals at any cost  and those costs are always the same, ultimately, though the ideals differ. Their kids, elderly, neighbours, democracies, economies, societies, futures. The ideal soon comes to outweigh any semblance of reason, decency, humanity. Any shred of truth or reality.

Do you see the irony of all this yet? The Nazi ideal was power. The Soviet ideal was equality. The American ideal is freedom. Ah, but  and here is the tricky part  the ideal of a utopian society doesnt matter at all. It will never be attained. All that matters is that a utopian society has only one ideal  that it will then sacrifice anything for. Once that terrible anchor is laid, the rest is history. Let me put that another way.

Utopian societies think that they are different, each one from the last. We are not like them!, each cries,we are the chosen ones!! The Americans think they are different from the Soviets, who thought they were different from the Nazis.

But in the end, the dynamics are precisely the same. The single-minded pursuit of a one-dimensional ideal causes a society to be unable to tolerate anything else. First, difference. Then, dissent. Then, its neighbours, its social bonds. Then democracy. Its weak  young, elderly, infirm. Then truth itself. Then decency, humanity, reason. Finally, in the end, reality. That is when the utopian project falls. Hubris, at last, meets nemesis.

America, of course, is not so far down this path as its utopian forebears. But the writing on the wall is clear to see. The only question left is if Americans can still read the tragic, ironic words of history.

It is not an easy task for a utopian society to understand these lessons, you see. Every utopianism becomes a kind of sacred myth that, because it contains seductive illusions of perfection, is often hard to surrender, to dislodge  precisely because it is so much easier to go on believing in these grandiose dreams.

What would Americans have if they didnt the myth of utopian capitalism? They would have nothing at all. They dont have healthcare, retirement, leisure time, incomes, savings, a working society, safety, stability, opportunity. Easier, then, to cling to the myth. At least in it there is solace.

So perhaps you see how dangerous utopian myths are: they are all the more necessary to cling to, as a kind of emotional salve, the more precarious that they make life, creating a kind of trap. But it is when one is falling into that trap is when one needs to read the writing on the wall of history the most  because it contains the instructions on how to stop the fall brought about by ones own tragic hubris.

This article was originally published by " Medium " -

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionU.S. Military Trained Florida School Shooter to Be A Very Good Shot

By Amy Goodman



Dozens of students who survived last weeks school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida have arrived in Tallahassee to push for new gun control measures. On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives blocked a bid to bring up a bill to ban sales of assault-style rifles in the state. The Florida gunman, a 19-year-old white former student named Nikolas Cruz, was a member of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program before he was expelled from the school. Cruz was also part of a four-person JROTC marksmanship team at the school which had received $10,000 in funding from the NRA. For more, we speak with Pat Elder, director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that confronts militarism in schools. Hes the author of Military Recruiting in the United States.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Moonshiner by Bob Dylan, sung by a very young Bob Dylan, about getting older, something 17 people wont have the privilege of doing, getting older, in Florida. This is Democracy Now! Im Amy Goodman.

Dozens of students who survived last weeks school shooting in Florida have arrived in Tallahassee to push for new gun control measures, following last weeks mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Seventeen people were killed. The students are holding a rally today outside the Florida Statehouse, just a day after the Republican-controlled Florida House of Representatives blocked a bid to bring a bill to ban sales of assault-style rifles in the state.

While the Florida shooting has sparked a national debate over guns and the lobbying power of the National Rifle Association, the NRA, much less attention has been paid to another aspect of the shooting. The Florida gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was a member of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program before he was expelled from the school. He was wearing his JROTC shirt when he carried out the massacre, in an attempt to blend in with other students. Cruz was also part of a four-person JROTC marksmanship team at the school which had received $10,000 in funding from the NRA. Seventeen months ago, the school sent out a tweet saying, quote, MSDMarjory Stoneman DouglasJROTC Marksmanship team would like to thank the NRA for their grateful donation of nearly $10,000 to upgrade and replenish equipment! According to the Associated Press, Cruz and other members of the team used air rifles special-made for target shooting, typically on indoor ranges at targets the size of a small coin. One of Cruzs former classmates said, quote, He was a very good shot.

Meanwhile, the Army has awarded the Medal of Heroism to three Junior ROTC cadets who died in the Parkland, Florida, shooting: 15-year-old Peter Wang and two 14-year-old freshmen, Martin Duque and Alaina Petty. Wang reportedly died while holding a door open to help other classmates escape.

Were joined now by Pat Elder, director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that confronts militarism in the schools, author of Military Recruiting in the United States.

Can you respond to what is takingwhat took place at the school, how unusual it is, what JROTC is?

PAT ELDER: Well, thanks for having me on, Amy.

The JROTC program is a military recruitment program that has more than 3,000 schools. Of those, more than 1,600 schools participate in marksmanship programs across the country. So we have firing ranges in high schools in every state. They fire .177 caliber rifles. Theyre CO2-fired. The lead projectile travels at 600 feet per second. By comparison, a .22 caliber rifle travels at between 800 and 900 feet per second. So, its a lethal weapon, categorized by the Army. And Florida state law specifically prohibits carrying these weapons, these lethal weapons, into schools.

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AMY GOODMAN: So, you have Nikolas Cruz, the confessed gunman. Hes part of the ROTC program, supported by the NRA, at this school, even as the school has these complaints of harassment and abuse, and ultimately expel him. Can youhes wearing a JROTC T-shirt when he opens fire on his classmates.

PAT ELDER: Well, apparently he wanted to convey to the world that he was affiliated with the JROTC program. Amy, its an insidious practice. We have the United States Army and the other three branches in the high schools putting lethal weapons into the hands of 13- and 14-year-olds. Its time this stops. And the program has more than 575,000 children in all the states, and it teaches an insidious, horrendous, reactionary view of American history. The United States government, for instance, had an innocent Navy boat off of the Gulf of Tonkin, and it was maliciously fired on by the North Vietnamese. We helped Cubans win their independence because they were treated so poorly by the Spanish. I think you get the idea. Were not just talking about putting weapons into the hands of 13-year-olds. Were also talking about a system that brainwashes these children with textbooks. For instance, the civics textbook used in JROTC programs across the country has a unit on United States civics entitled You the People. I learned as We the People. Didnt you?

AMY GOODMAN: So what is the connection between the NRA and these JROTCprograms, at least at the school in Florida?

PAT ELDER: Well, the NRA typically does not give money. They give materials and supplies. That way, they can purchase the materials and supplies from their supporters. Throughout the country, and especially in the Rust Belt and poor urban schools, the individual schools want to set up firing ranges in their schools, and so they need materials. They need the backstops, they need the targets, they need the guns, they need the CO2 cartridges, and they need the lead pellets. So, the NRA will help these schools through a grants process, and they spend money on schools through these grants across the country.

Should be noted, too, that these are lead projectiles. The lead accumulates at the muzzle end of the gun, on the floor, and the lead accumulates at the target backstop. Theres been a link between the lead in firing ranges, that have only these types of guns, and elevated blood lead levels. Its something that needs to be discussed. And there is a health aspect of JROTC shooting in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Pat Elder, I want to thank you for being with us. Were going to continue our discussion and post it online at democracynow.org under web exclusives. Pat Elder, director of the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, an organization that confronts militarism in the schools, author of Military Recruiting in the United States.

Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now! , a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of The Silenced Majority , a New York Times best-seller.

This article was originally published by "Democracy Now!" -

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

School Shooting Survivors Confront Trump, Rubio on Gun Control

Join the DiscussionWatch: Palestinian Killed By Israeli Occupation Force Soldiers



By Tamara Nassar

February 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " A Palestinian man died after he was beaten by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho early Thursday.

Yasin al-Saradih, 33, was arrested from his house at approximately 2 am, Eid Barahmeh, head of the Palestinian prisoners club in Jericho, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Israeli forces notified the family of al-Saradihs death two hours later.

The Israeli military changed its story about the events surrounding al-Saradihs death after a video emerged showing soldiers striking him.

The video shows a number of soldiers gathered around al-Saradih, some apparently beating him while he is on the ground. They then drag his body away. The video does not show al-Saradih posing any threat to them.

Al-Saradihs brother-in-law, Ismail al-Masri, told local media that Israeli soldiers beat al-Saradih in every part of his body, especially his stomach and back.

Prisoners rights group Addameer and the Palestinian Prisoners Club are calling al-Saradihs death an extrajudicial killing.

Israeli occupation forces routinely use excessive force in an unnecessary and disproportionate manner, which is in violation of international law, the groups said.

Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Authoritys prisoners affairs committee, told local radio on Thursday that the cause of al-Saradihs death was a severe beating to the head.

Al-Saradihs family told Haaretz that he did not suffer from any prior medical issues. They added that he was not affiliated with any political organizations.

Al-Saradih had previously been wounded by gunfire in 2002 during the second intifada.

Changing story

Before the video was published, the Israeli military had claimed that al-Saradih attacked soldiers with a knife and attempted to steal a gun, Haaretz reported. They also stated that military medics treated al-Saradih on the scene.

The military retracted their initial statement and issued another one after the video emerged.

The new statement alleges that al-Saradih ran towards soldiers who were carrying out arrests of wanted persons in the city of Jericho and that he tried to attack them with an iron bar.

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The force responded with gunfire, confronted the terrorist and succeeded in stopping him, it states.

It does not clearly state his cause of death, however.

According to Haaretz, al-Saradihs body was taken to Israels Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for an autopsy, but no bullet wounds were found on the body.

Therefore, the growing assessment is that the man died from the beating he sustained from the soldiers, according to Haaretz.

Palestinians are planning to seek another autopsy in a Palestinian hospital once al-Saradihs body is returned, the Palestinian Authoritys Qaraqe told media .

It is unclear how long Israel will withhold his body or whether it will allow another autopsy.

Impunity

This is not the first time an official Israeli version of events has had to be revised following the emergence of video, +972 Magazine observed .

For example, Israeli army medic Elor Azarya was caught on video shooting at close range injured and disarmed Palestinian Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif while he was lying incapacitated on a street in Hebron in March 2016.

+972 Magazine characterized the initial reports as, Soldier stabbed, assailants killed.

Everything changed a few hours later when video of the execution-style killing was published, the Israeli news site added.

Israeli forces killed a second Palestinian during the same incident, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, though that slaying was not caught on video.

On Thursday, Palestinians in Jericho observed a strike to protest al-Saradihs killing:

                       pic.twitter.com/W9ZN0EvjWJ    (@ShehabAgency) February 22, 2018

            . pic.twitter.com/s2K3g3GmoG     (@qudsn) February 22, 2018

Addameer and the Palestinian Prisoner Club called on international bodies to respond in a way which seeks accountability from the occupation authorities.

However, even in cases that UN human rights officials have termed shocking and incomprehensible  such as Decembers shooting by Israeli forces of disabled Palestinian Ibrahim Abu Thurayya  nothing has been done to pierce Israels systematic impunity .

This article was originally published by " The Electronic Intifada " -

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionUS Aggression in Syria  an Imperialist Blueprint

Editorial

February 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Syrias prolonged conflict and misery going into its eighth year is no accident. It is by design. American imperialist design.

First though, we note the increasing reprehensible absurdity in this conflict.

Turkey, which invaded Syria nearly a month ago in violation of Syrias sovereignty, this week accused Damascus of terrorism after the Syrian government sent forces to defend the northern area near Afrin under assault from Turkey.

Meanwhile, US forces, again illegally occupying Syria in violation of international law, claim to be fighting terrorist militia. Yet more often than not, the Americans are affording protection to various terrorist groups. Then when Syrian state forces advance to clear the terror groups, the US claims it is acting in self-defense by massacring whole units of the Syrian army.

Further absurdity is due to France, which has been bombing Syria illegally along with the US and Britain, warning Iranian militia, who are legally present in Syria owing to Damascus approval, that they have to withdraw from the country.

As if the situation couldnt get any more bizarre, Israel has carried out more than 100 air strikes on Syria, claiming that the aggression are acts of self-defense.

The Syrian government of President Assad is the sovereign authority of the country, as recognized by UN resolutions. It has the right to defend its nation and to reclaim areas which have been usurped by illegally armed groups. Virtually all of these insurgents are foreign-backed proxies who have been waging a war for regime change according to the designs of their foreign sponsors.

The only armed forces legally present in Syria are those of Russia, Iran and associated militia who have been requested legally by the Syrian government to assist in defending the state from a foreign-backed war.

It is within the sovereign right of the Syrian government to take back all areas, including the suburb of East Ghouta near the capital Damascus. The district has been held under siege by foreign-backed extremists going by the name of Jaysh al Islam who are affiliated with internationally proscribed terror groups Al Nusra Front* and Islamic State*.

The impetus to liberate East Ghouta has come about because the militants have been firing mortars at nearby Damascus with deadly results.

Not only are Western states violating international law by militarily hampering the Syrian army and its allies in rescuing the country from foreign insurgents, the Western governments and media are mounting a propaganda campaign in an attempt to tie the Syrian state forces hands behind their backs by distorting their legal duty as barbarism.

Out of the half million people who have died in the past seven years of war in Syria, it is estimated that nearly half of that total were members of the Syrian army.

Added to the Western calumnies over Syria are claims that Syrian state forces have been using chemical weapons on civilian populations. The evidence points in fact to the Western-backed so-called jihadists who have been stealthily using these weapons for false-flag propaganda stunts.

To understand the chaotic conflict in Syria, we must refer to the decades-old imperial designs that the US and its allies have had towards the country. The Americans and the British governments going back to Eisenhower and Churchill in the 1950s wanted to destabilize and subjugate the Arab republic  a former French colony.

In 1996, a new generation of imperialists in Washington led by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser and other neoconservatives formulated the Clean Break strategy. The strategy in conjunction with Israel sought to destabilize and roll back Syria because of its alliance with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

More widely, the neoconservatives in Washington openly declared their aim of balkanizing the entire region in order to, in their calculation, make Israel more secure. Syria and Iraq were top priorities for US-imposed chaos.

Significantly, the Clean Break strategy designated Turkey as a key partner to the US and Israel for implementing this plan.

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The same American neoconservative planners went on to occupy key positions at the Pentagon and State Department during President George W Bush administrations. There is every reason to believe their stratagem of organized chaos  as a way of exerting hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East  continues to be the guiding, albeit tacit, policy of the US government under President Trump.

Russia, Iran and Hezbollah largely helped Syria bring the war to a close at the end of last year with the widespread routing of foreign-backed insurgents. However, a subsequent peace process brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey has lost momentum. The violence in Syria appears to re-igniting.

The increasingly overt military presence of US and Turkish forces, as well as Israeli incursions, is the clearest factor in the resurgence of conflict. More than ever, the US and its allies are operating on a brazen imperial design to dismember Syria and its territorial integrity.

This is nothing short of criminal aggression by Washington following a deliberate plan for regional domination. This imperialist intrigue should be called out for what is by the United Nations. But rather than upholding the UN Charter, the bodys senior figures are joining in the Western chorus of condemning Syria for defending its national rights.

The UN is appearing like the ineffectual League of Nations in the 1930s when it pandered to Nazi and fascist aggression. What the US and its allies are doing now in Syria is a repeat  fanning the flames of wider war in the Middle East.

Laws and sovereignty are being smashed at will and yet the Western media and UN are blind to the aggression. Indeed, they are turning reality on its head, by blaming victim-states for the aggression.

The straightforward bottom line is that the US, Turkey, Israel and other NATO powers must withdraw from Syria. Respect Syrias sovereignty and desist from criminal intrigues for regime change. This is a minimum of abiding by international law.

If these protagonists persist in their criminal schemes, the region is heading for a conflagration sparing no-one.

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This article was originally published by " Strategic Culture Foundation " -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionTrump Sets Deadly Precedent by Hiding Rationale for Bombing Syria



Our president must be restrained before he does the same thing for North Korea.



By Marjorie Cohn

February 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Pressure is mounting as the Trump administration continues to refuse to reveal its legal justification for bombing Syria in April 2017, despite increased scrutiny from Democratic senators and a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on February 8, 2018, requesting a copy of the State Department memo containing the Trump administration's legal justification for the US attack against Syria on April 6, 2017, when it bombed the Shayrat military airbase with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

At the time of the bombing, Trump suggested that he ordered the launching of the missiles in retaliation for a sarin gas attack at Khan Sheikhoun, allegedly ordered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian government, however, denied responsibility for the chemical attack. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary James Mattis admitted earlier this month he has "no evidence" Assad ordered the use of sarin gas against his own people.

In his letter, Kaine expressed concern that the administration persists in refusing to reveal its legal rationale for the bombing. "The fact that there is a lengthy memo with a more detailed legal justification that has not been shared with Congress, or the American public, is unacceptable," Kaine wrote.

Yet, in spite of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Protect Democracy on May 22, 2017, Trump refuses to release the memo. The administration claims it is classified. But, as Protect Democracy discovered during the litigation, the classified portion can be easily redacted.

Trump's Attack on Syria Violated US and International Law

In response to an April 2017 inquiry by Kaine and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), the administration said the 2017 missile strike in Syria was not based on the 2001 or 2002 authorizations for use of military force (AUMF), which related to Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively. Rather, the administration has cited the president's authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive under Article II of the Constitution "to defend important U.S. national interests."

But Article II does not give the president the power to mount a military attack in this instance. Article II states, "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States." Article I, however, says only Congress has the power to declare war. Taken together, Articles I and II mean that the president commands the armed forces once Congress has authorized war.

In fact, Trump's attack on Syria violated both US and international law.

Under the War Powers Resolution (WPR), the president can introduce US troops into hostilities or imminent hostilities only (1) after Congress has declared war, or (2) with "specific statutory authorization," or (3) in "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."

None of these three requirements was met to justify the use of military force in Syria. First, Congress had not declared war. Second, the administration stated it was not relying on the 2001 or 2002 AUMFs (which would not apply anyway ) and there was no other congressional authorization. Third, there had been no attack on the United States or US armed forces before Trump's missile strike. It thus violated the WPR.

Moreover, even if the military attack on Syria did not run afoul of the WPR, it violated the United Nations Charter, a treaty the United States has ratified, making it part of US law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says treaties shall be the supreme law of the land.

Article 2(4) of the Charter says that states "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

The Charter only allows a military attack on another country when conducted in self-defense after an armed attack or if the Security Council has authorized it. Neither occurred in this case.

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Syria had not attacked the United States or any other country before Trump directed the missile strike. "The use of chemical weapons within Syria is not an armed attack on the United States," according to Notre Dame law professor and international law expert Mary Ellen O'Connell. Nor had the Council approved Trump's attack. It therefore violated the Charter. In fact, Assad would have a valid self-defense claim, since the United States initiated an armed attack on Syria.

In his April 8, 2017, report to Congress , Trump claimed he ordered the missile strike to avert "a worsening of the region's current humanitarian catastrophe." So-called humanitarian intervention is not a settled norm of international law. To be lawful, military force can only be used in self-defense or with the blessing of the Security Council. Neither was present in this case.

It is critical that Americans know the administration's purported legal rationale for the Tomahawk missile strike because Trump has launched illegal strikes, and may launch additional military attacks in the future.

A Dangerous Precedent for Attacks on North Korea?

As Kaine wrote in his letter to Tillerson, "I am also concerned that this legal justification [in the secret memo] may now become precedent for additional executive unilateral military action, including this week's U.S. airstrikes in Syria against pro-Assad forces or even an extremely risky 'bloody nose' strike against North Korea."

Kaine was referring to the February 7 air and artillery strikes the US-led coalition mounted in Syria. And on February 10, the US-led coalition bombed a T-72 tank in Syria's Euphrates River Valley.

The Wall Street Journal reported in January that the Trump administration is considering a preemptive "bloody nose" strike against North Korea: "React to some nuclear or missile test with a targeted strike against a North Korean facility to bloody Pyongyang's nose and illustrate the high price the regime could pay for its behavior."

Preemptive military attacks violate the UN Charter's prohibition on the use of military force except in self-defense or with Security Council approval. In a February 5 letter , 18 senators informed Trump that he lacks the "legal authority" to conduct a preemptive military strike on North Korea. They cited "the risks of miscalculation and retaliation" and decried the administration's removal of Victor Cha from consideration for US ambassador to South Korea, reportedly due to his disagreement with the "bloody nose" strategy.

Besides being illegal, a preemptive strike on North Korea would be catastrophic. Nevertheless, Trump continues his provocative threats against Pyongyang.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in October that Trump's dangerous threats could put the United States "on a path to World War III."

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. A former president of the National Lawyers Guild, her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. Follow her on Twitter @marjoriecohn .

This article was originally published by " Alternet " -

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionNikki Haley: The U.S. Embarrassment at the United Nations



By Robert Fantina

February 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Of all the shameless people serving in the administration of the shameless Donald Trump, one looks in vain for one more ignorant, ill-informed and crass than the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Nikki Haley has proven repeatedly that she is an embarrassment on the world stage, and the fact that she seems completely oblivious to her repeated acts of appalling stupidity is only further evidence of it.

Her most recent foray into the world of head-scratching nonsense occurred on Tuesday, February 20. She basically, in her most eloquent way (not!), told the Palestinian government that she wouldnt shut up, as was very appropriately suggested to her. She suggested that the Palestinians take the path of negotiation and compromise.

One wonders what color the sky is on Haleys planet. Her disconnect from reality is so severe that its a wonder she is able to string two words together coherently (she seldom makes it much past two). Why, one might reasonably ask, is it always the Palestinians who have to compromise? Why is no demand ever made on Israel?

A few facts, those pesky things that Haley apparent disdains, may be enlightening.

+ In 1947, the nation of Palestine, by decree of the newly-formed United Nations, was partitioned to establish Israel. Over 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes; many of them, and/or their descendants, live in refugee camps to this day. Thousands of Palestinians were brutally slaughtered. + Since that time, Israel has encroached on Palestinian land, destroying tens of thousands of Palestinian homes to make room for Israel-only settlements which are illegal according to international law. + Israel illegally occupies the West Bank, and arrests without charge men, women and children. It also kills unarmed men, women and children, sometimes on camera, with complete impunity. + The Israel Defense Forces (read: Israeli terrorists) stand idly by as Israeli settlers (another version of Israeli terrorists), assault and kill innocent Palestinians, raid their homes and forcibly and illegally evict them, and desecrate their sacred buildings. + The illegal Israel blockade of the Gaza Strip is slowly and painfully strangling the nearly 2 million people who live in what is often described as the worlds largest open air prison. These people are in this prison despite never having been charged with any crime, other than, what, in Israels opinion, is the crime of being Palestinian. + Israels leaders have called for the murders of pregnant Palestinian women, saying the little snakes must be destroyed. + Israels leaders justify racism by stating that it is necessary to maintain the purity of the Jewish state.

Does Haley not see that Israel has any role in this? Does she fail to understand why Palestinians, including their spineless leaders, might feel some hostility towards Israel? Does she not recognize that Israel has a dismal human rights record and is in violation of numerous international laws? She seems to buy into the concept articulated by Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi: The Palestinians are the only people on earth required to guarantee the security of the occupier, while Israel is the only country that demands protection from its victims.

Haley wants Palestinians to negotiate and compromise. Israel, in its oh-so-magnanimous way, is always willing to negotiate without preconditions. That means that it will talk at the negotiation table as it takes more and more Palestinian land, and kills and imprisons more and more innocent Palestinian people. Such negotiations have occurred off and on for decades; the only result is decreasing Palestinian land and increasing oppression of the Palestinians by Israel.

The U.S. has been the dishonest mediator of these negotiations the entire time, and its clear bias towards Israel is nowhere questioned; it cannot now, and never could, be an honest mediator.

And this writer will ask once again why anyone thinks negotiations are possible or necessary. They are not possible, because negotiations can only occur between two parties, each of which has something the other wants, that it can only get by surrendering something it has. Israel takes whatever it wants from Palestine with complete impunity.

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Negotiations are not necessary, because international law recognizes Palestines and Israels borders as those established in 1947. If this writer robs a bank, no one would suggest that he and the bank manager negotiate how much of the money he must return. When caught, he must simply return it all, and suffer the consequences of his crime. Israel has stolen huge amounts of land from Palestine. The settlements must all be vacated, and the land returned to the Palestinians. Haley should be reminded that international law forbids an occupying country from moving its citizens permanently onto occupied land. Of course, with her disdain for international law, she would dismiss this concept, assuming she had sufficient intelligence to understand it.

In the U.S., following the most recent slaughter in a high school, there appears to be a shift happening in society. People who have long supported sensible gun control, such as banning the kind of automatic weapons, whose sole purpose is to kill lots of people very quickly, that were used in several mass murders, seem now to be taking control of the narrative. This is the first step towards real change.

Surveys in the U.S. repeatedly show diminished support for Israel, and increasing support for Palestine. This has alarmed even Israels leaders, who recognize that the younger generation of U.S. citizens, the U.S.s future leaders, are no longer supportive of the racist ideology of Zionism. It is time for people who recognize Israels constant, horrific crimes, to seize the narrative, and confront Haley and the other administration officials, and the members of Congress, who are beholden not to their constituents, but to pro-Israeli lobbies, and enable the Palestinians to live in the peace and human dignity that all people deserve, and that the U.S. and Israel have for generations denied them. Haleys ridiculous pronouncements at the U.N. notwithstanding, Palestine will be free. Those of us who believe in human rights must make it so.

Robert Fantinas latest book is Empire, Racism and Genocide: a History of US Foreign Policy (Red Pill Press).

This article was originally published by " Counterpunch " -

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionCapitalism as Obstacle to Equality and Democracy: the US Story



By Richard D. Wolff

February 23, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The Cold War displaced the legacies of the New Deal. Time and Trump are now displacing Cold War legacies. Where capitalism was questioned and challenged in the 1930s and into the 1940s, doing that became taboo after 1948. Yet in the wake of the 2008 crash, critical thought about capitalism resumed. In particular one argument is gaining traction: capitalism is not the means to realize economic equality and democracy, it is rather the great obstacle to their realization.

The New Deal, forced on the FDR regime from below by a coalition of unionists (CIO) and the political left (two socialist parties and one communist party), reversed the traditional direction (to greater inequality) of income and wealth distributions in the US. They shifted toward greater equality. US history thus illustrates Thomas Pikettys argument in his 2014 Capital in the 21st Century about long-term deepening of inequality that can be punctuated by interruptions. Indeed, the New Deal reversal was such an interruption and featured just the sorts of taxation of corporations and the rich that Piketty favors now to correct/reverse capitalist inequalities.

Yet, after World War Two the resumption of capitalist accumulation undid the New Deal and has since returned modern global capitalism to new depths of inequality. What Piketty proposes now again as a remedy proved then to be merely temporary. The reversal was itself reversed. After 1945, corporations and the rich devoted their profits and their high incomes/wealth to buy even further control of the two major political parties. That extra control enabled them to undo the New Deal and to keep it undone.

US history thus exemplifies more than capitalisms tendency to deepening inequality and the use of taxation to reverse that inequality. It also teaches us how and why that reversal was unable to be more than temporary. That lesson implies skepticism about whether tax-based  or indeed, any  reversals can be more than temporary given capitalisms proven success in undoing them. Such skepticism hardens when parallel evidence emerges from other capitalist countries likewise merely temporary reversals of basic tendencies to deepening inequalities.

The conclusion to be drawn from the US story is not that efforts to reverse deepening inequality are foredoomed to failure. It is to face the fact that mere reforms such as tax law changes are inadequate to the task. To make reforms stick  to overcome temporariness across so many histories  requires going further to basic system change. Because capitalism tends toward deepening inequality and can defeat reversals by keeping them temporary, it is capitalism that must be overcome to solve its inherent inequality problem.

Capitalism presents a parallel problem in its structural contradiction to democracy. The democracy label that so many modern nations use to describe themselves has always been a misnomer. The political sphere was indeed, at least formally, a place where governmental decisions were made by persons accountable eventually to a one-person-one-vote election. In that precise sense, those required to live with a decision exercised the democratic right to participate in making that decision via the accountability of governmental officials.

However, the economic sphere was never organized in a parallel democratic manner. The leaders of enterprises  the owners, shareholders, and the directors they chose  made all the basic enterprise decisions. These included deciding what, how and where to produce and what to do with the net revenues (or surplus or profits) of the enterprise. The leaders were not at all accountable to the people  all the other employees  who had to live with the results of those basic enterprise decisions. The latter were excluded from participating in key economic decisions affecting and shaping their lives. In short, democracy has been applied to societies whose political/residential sphere was at least formally democratic but whose economic sphere was decidedly not.

The ideological rigidity of most brands of anti-statism across US history served nicely to keep the focus forever on state/public versus individual/private in thinking and acting about social change. Democracy was redefined in practical terms as the liberty of the individual/private from the intrusion of the state/public. The democratic quality of the individual/private enterprise  the central structure of the economy  was exempted from analysis or even from view in terms of its structural incompatibility with democracy. Legalistic equations of capitalist corporations with individual personhood also helped to distract attention away from the undemocratic structure of the corporation. Likewise, the US governments commitment to a democratic foreign policy fostered the reproduction elsewhere of the same undemocratic economic structure that characterized the US.

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The right wing of US politics has long understood and responded to social movements for equality and democracy as threats to capitalism. Its leaders built their coalitions by working to mobilize public opinion against those movements as threats to the American way of life. It built its ideology on the notion that democracy meant a state kept from intruding on the lives and activities of persons and enterprises rendered as equivalently individuals. Equality to them meant equality of opportunity, not outcomes: and then only if opportunity was strictly disconnected from the wealth, income and social position each individual was born into.

The left wing of US politics has always tried hard to sustain the notion that capitalism was not only compatible with egalitarianism and democracy. It would also be strengthened, not threatened, by moving capitalist society closer to equality and democracy. In practical terms it contested against the right wing by insisting that the mass of people  the workers in capitalist enterprises  would become disaffected from and disloyal to capitalism if it indulged its anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic tendencies. Capitalism, it argued and argues, will be strengthened not threatened by less inequality and more democracy.

Both left and right  and their expressions in the leaderships of the Republican and Democratic Parties  live in fear, conscious or otherwise, that the mass of people, the working class, will become disaffected from capitalism. Populist is the currently popular epithet that expresses this fear. Both parties contest for the support of the leaders of capitalism  major shareholders and the corporate boards of directors they select  by offering their alternative strategies for avoiding, controlling, or safely channeling mass disaffection with capitalism.

The GOP offers a mix of (1) repression for egalitarian and democratic (i.e., populist) social movements, (2) support and subsidy for capitalists, and (3) symbolic gestures and policies pandering to certain sectors of public opinion (fundamentalist religion, patriotism, nationalism-anti-immigration, and so on). The Democratic Party offers a mix of limited, gradualist support for movements toward less inequality and more political democracy. It offers itself as the means to bring marginalized groups into full participation in capitalism, thereby keeping them from populism. Each party leadership deplores populists and tries to associate them with the other party. Democrats especially see populism in Trump; Republicans and quite a few centrist Democrats see it especially in Bernie Sanders. Both parties rarely refer to capitalism per se. Both proceed as if no critique of or alternative to capitalism exists or makes any sense.

Not only the Republican Party, but also the Democratic Party support, serve and reinforce the capitalism that stands as a basic obstacle to economic equality and democracy. Because those goals are never achieved they have long served as objectives to which both Parties offer lip service. The absurd contradiction of their shared position is now giving way to the recognition that the necessity for system change is the lesson of US history. If, in place of capitalist enterprise structures, a transition occurred to worker cooperatives with democratic organizations and procedures  likely to distribute net revenues far less unequally among enterprise participants than capitalist structures did  it would have removed a key obstacle to a broader social movement toward equality and democracy.

Richard Wolff is the author of Capitalism Hits the Fan and Capitalisms Crisis Deepens. He is founder of Democracy at Work.

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Join the DiscussionA few days ago, a group of girls were taken from Government Girls Secondary School, Dapchi, in Yobe State. This brings us back to the painful tragedy that befell our nation in 2014. On April 14, 2014, the now famous town of Chibok located in Borno state thanks to the abduction of 276 female students of Government Secondary School Chibok by Boko Haram insurgents. History has now repeated itself in Dapchi, as 105 girls were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram insurgents, who attacked Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, on Monday. Here are some things to note;

Yobe state Governor, Ibrahim Gaidam says hes surprised that security men were unexpectedly withdrawn from the town a few hours before the attack. He said the attack is a major setback in the war against Boko Haram.

This happens on a week when President Buhari boasted that he had fulfilled his 2 biggest campaign promises of Security and Anti Corruption.

According to residents, Boko Haram spent 4hours in Dapchi before vanishing with the girls without a trace. Where were the men suppose to be protecting these people? Why the slow response?

While Nigeria is yet fully recover from pains caused by the Chibokgirls abduction, we are again flung into another episode of apprehension and mourning. Almost 4 years since the Chibokgirls abduction, yet only a few of the girls have been rescued. Then this!Nollywood actress Juliet Ibrahim and her boyfriend, Rapper Iceberg Slim have just subtly addressed their breakup rumors.

For about a week now there have been multiple reports in the media and on social media suggesting that actress Juliet Ibrahim has broken up with her musician boyfriend Iceberg Slim.

The lovebirds remained mute on the issue. However, theyve finally loosed their lips on it.

The duo are currently together in the French capital and on the anniversary of MTV Base, took the opportunity to send out their wishes alongside with a message that there is no trouble in paradise.

Juliet Ibrahim Breaks Silence On Breakup Rumors With Iceberg Slim Happy Anniversary @mtvbaseafrica @mtvbasewest#Mtvbaseis13 Hurray!!! From Paris avec lamour, Ibrahim posted.

From Paris, with love.

source: GistreelA young student in Lagos state is currently battling to save one of his eyes after he was stabbed by a fellow student who is still at large.

A Facebook user identified as Yinka Ogunde, has taken to the social networking platform to share some photos and the story of how a student of Ojodu Grammar School, Lagos, named Benjamin Edet, was stabbed in the eye by a fellow student on Wednesday, adding that the culprit hasnt been arrested.

He posted the photos and wrote: This is Benjamin Edet, a student of Ojodu Grammar School. Benjamin was stabbed in the eyes by a fellow student on Wednesday and was operated upon yesterday. The injured eye was evacuated. The culprit has not been arrested.

Young Nigerians need help. Our public schools need help. Let us all look for ways of tackling these issues in our Schools.

See more photos below:New Telegraph

Twenty-five-years old Mr. Cornelius Chiadi Ezeibekwe, from Ekwulobia town in Aguata Local Government Area, Anambra State has become the buzz of the moment following his wedding to his younger sister, aged 17 years.

The Sun

Former Minister of Education and foremost campaigner for the return of the Chibok girls, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has said that she lost respect for President Muhammadu Buhari when he failed to follow sound economic policies and led the nation into recession.

Vanguard

We can excuse the police. The police have not had time to join the fight against corruption. Or perhaps they have not had the guile to pretend to be involved.

Punch

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State says his administration has earmarked the sum of N100m to build a befitting Labour House for the organised labour in the state.

Daily Times

As the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, marks its 40th anniversary beginning from Wednesday 28th February, 2018, the leadership of the organized labour, has decried its losses in the hands of military juntas of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and General Sani Abachi .

Guardian

Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom has expressed shock over the abduction of school girls from Government Technical College Dapchi, Yobe state, noting that such attack on children is an attack on the future of the country.

Daily Trust

The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has said that the governors of All Progressive Congress, APC, has (have) backed the partys National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun over the rift with Chieftain Asiwaju Tinubu.

Leadership

The federal government on Friday said it will support efforts being made by Ondo State government to develop the numerous mineral resources in the state.The Rivers State Police command has arrested the Senior Pastor of Alter of Grace Ministries, Chidiebere Okoroafor, for allegedly killing three people, including two pregnant women and an infant near Izuom market, Oyigbo.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Pastor Okoroafor had impregnated Olumma Onwaagba, who until her death was a member of the church choir.

It was gathered that Okoroafor allegedly pressured Olumma to terminate the pregnancy but she refused. Her refusal led to her death and that of those who knew about the scandal.

While speaking to newsmen, the suspect said: I dont know what came over me. It was the handiwork of the devil. I am just begging for forgiveness from the families.

According to the police,

We discovered that the Pastor was having an amorous affair with one of the deceased, Uloma. The Pastor manipulated the two women on the 10th of December by first luring Concila to an uncompleted building and killed her there.

After strangulating the late Concilia, he then took Uloma with Christabel in a tricycle to an isolated farm at Igberu road and gruesomely murdered her in the surrounding overgrown bush with the baby strapped to her back. .

She was suffocated with the wrapper she used in strapping the baby to her back. The bodies of the deceased have since been recovered.

Source  Ebiwalismoment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.02/23/2018





Jacksonville State University has been named a 2018 Green Ribbon School by the Alabama State Department of Education. The recognition comes from JSUs approach to creating green environments through reducing environmental impact, promoting health and ensuring a high-quality environmental and outdoor education.

The 2018 Green Ribbon Schools honorees are to be commended for their tremendous dedication to environmentally sustainable and innovative practices, said Interim State Superintendent of Education Dr. Ed Richardson. They are leaders and important examples for all schools striving to prepare students with the 21st century skills and sustainability concepts needed in the growing global economy.

JSUs first official commitment to environmental and sustainability education began in 1995 with the creation of the Environmental Policy and Information Center. Biologist Pete Conroy, EPIC director, has since led efforts to create a National Wildlife Refuge, two National Parks and a National Wilderness.

The Little River Canyon Center, opened in 2009, was one of the states first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified public buildings. Visitors learn about geothermal heating and cooling; sustainable technical practices; recycled materials; and a rooftop water silo that collects 2,500 gallons of rainwater to irrigate areas around the property.

JSU, which was nominated by a collaborative effort from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education and ASLDE, will be recognized at the Alabama State Board of Education on May 10. The day will include a picnic lunch provided by the Environmental Education Association of Alabama and a presentation of Green Ribbon Flags from Legacy and Partners in Environmental Education.

With this recognition, JSU has been submitted to the US Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools Program. National honorees will be announced in the spring.Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Thursday that Russia's combat efficiency and quality of weapons can be ranked the best in the world, which ensures the country's safety.

"Developments of the past years have shown that we are in the top tier in the world in combat readiness and in the quality of armaments and military equipment. Today we can say with full confidence that Russia's security is guaranteed," Putin said at a gala evening held in the Kremlin Palace in honor of the Defender of the Fatherland Day, a major Russian national holiday on February 23.

Russia will continue its efforts in enhancing its defense capacity in all its components, including reinforcing the capabilities and resources of strategic nuclear deterrence as well as promoting effective development of special and general-purpose units and formations, Putin said.

"We rely on the potential of our defense-industrial complex, its best enterprises and the achievements of research and development centers. They have already proved their worth and global competitiveness," he said.

Putin praised Russian servicemen who participated and are participating in military operations in Syria, which showed that they have been well-trained and committed to their duty with dignity, resolution and courage to the end.

Russia started participating in the military operation in Syria in September 2015 at the invitation of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.NANJING, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Police in east China have detained two men for posing in front of a war ruins site in Japanese army uniforms.

Police in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, said Friday that the men, surnamed Tang and Zong, would be held in detention for 15 days.

On Tuesday, a user on microblogging site Sina Weibo posted a picture of Tang and Zong at the site of a fort used during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945).

They both wore the uniforms of the Japanese army during the war, and their actions stoked anger, causing a strong public backlash.

Police soon launched an investigation, arresting Tang and Zong in the provinces of Sichuan and Jiangsu, respectively.

The men had agreed to wear the uniforms and hold "army weapons" to take photographs at the site during the Spring Festival holiday. They uploaded the photographs on the Internet, which were soon widely circulated.

Police said the men's behavior was "severely profane," hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and caused a "very bad influence."

Both men have expressed remorse.

Japanese troops captured Nanjing on Dec. 13, 1937, and killed 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers over six weeks.MEDFORD, Ore.- Dozens of school districts in Jackson and Josephine County called for snow days today. Our team talked with local school districts to see what today's day off means for the school year. Medford School District says it's adding another day to the school calendar this June. Other district superintendents across the region say they won't have a decision on if more school days will be added for another week.

Here are the responses from school districts around the region of the possibilities of another snow day tomorrow.

Eagle Point School District: At this time, we will follow our regular procedures which means we will have folks checking roads very early in the morning to make our determination. However, since weather is ever changing, we will be monitoring tonight including watching you folks for your forecasts and updates! It is possible, as you point out, that frozen ice covered roads tonight along with temperatures staying below freezing, could warrant a decision sooner than tomorrow morning. Thats as specific as I can be at this time!

Grants Pass School District: The determination will be made early in the morning.

Medford School District: We usually always make the call the morning of the weather event. If it looks to be really bad tomorrow by this evening, we will call it tonight, but thats unlikely.

Phoenix-Talent School District: That is a concern for us, but at this time we will make the call to delay or cancel in the morning as we did today.

Logos Public Charter School: No decision has been made yet.

Grants Pass Adventist School: We normally follow what the Grants Pass Public School District #7 does when it comes to school closures or delays. On Fridays, our normal dismissal time is 12:00 pm.WASHINGTON (AP) - A former top adviser to President Donald Trump's election campaign has formally pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and false statements charges in the special counsel's Russia investigation.

The plea by Rick Gates is a strong indication that he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as it continues to probe the Trump campaign, Russian election interference and Gates' longtime business associate, Paul Manafort

The 45-year-old Gates made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington. It comes a day after Gates and Manafort were indicted in Virginia on new charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort, who is Trump's former campaign chairman, has said he is innocent.

___

2 p.m.

Rick Gates, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign, has arrived at a federal courthouse in Washington ahead of an expected guilty plea.

A court filing shows Gates has agreed to plea to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities.

The plea could indicate he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Gates' scheduled guilty plea comes a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned an indictment against him and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud.

___

12:30 p.m.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed two charges in advance of a scheduled guilty plea by a former top adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign.

Rick Gates is set to appear at 2 p.m. Friday at the federal courthouse in Washington for a plea agreement hearing. A court filing shows Gates has agreed to plea to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities.

The plea could indicate he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Gates' scheduled guilty plea comes a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned an indictment against him and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud.

___

11:05 a.m.

A former top adviser to the Trump campaign is expected to plead guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

A person close to Rick Gates say he is expected to enter the plea as early as Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details.

A plea could signal that he's planning to cooperate with Mueller.

The plea comes a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned an indictment against him and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. It was the second round of charges against the two men. They were charged last October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

___

12:10 a.m.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed additional criminal charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman and his business associate.

The Thursday filing adds allegations of tax evasion and bank fraud and significantly increases the legal jeopardy facing Paul Manafort, who managed Trump's campaign for several months in 2016, and longtime associate Rick Gates. Both had already faced the prospect of at least a decade in prison if convicted at trial.

The two men were initially charged in a 12-count indictment in October that accused them of a multimillion-dollar money-laundering conspiracy tied to lobbying work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party. Manafort and Gates, who also worked on Trump's campaign, both pleaded not guilty after that indictment.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)UPDATE: Governor Brown is set to sign HB 4145 into law at 1:30 p.m. today, according to a press release from her office. The signing will be preceded by a meeting with Oregon students regarding gun and school safety.

SALEM, Ore.  A bill proposed by Governor Kate Brown passed the Oregon Senate yesterdaymeaning that it will return to the Governor for signing into law. House Bill 4145 is intended to close the so-called "intimate partner loophole," or "boyfriend loophole," prohibiting people with active restraining orders or certain convictions from owning firearms or ammunition.

Anyone with a restraining order which addresses the stalking, intimidating, molesting or menacing of an intimate partner, their family or children, will be barred from gun ownership. The restriction also applies to people convicted of certain misdemeanorsif the crime involved the victimization of a similar intimate partner.

These restrictions are not newbut previously, they only applied when the relationship between the two parties involved was somehow legally enshrined. If the two people were married, living together, or had children, then a similar law passed in 2015 would apply, according to The Oregonian. Now those restrictions can be applied when the relationship between two people is a little more nebulous, which the "intimate partner" language is meant to address. Thus, the topic's other nicknamethe "boyfriend loophole." Previously, a boyfriend censured for domestic abuse could be immune to restrictions on the ownership of firearms. Yet the language of HB 4145 aims to be more inclusive, addressing more than boyfriends alone.

Law enforcement will be required to log records of such restraining orders and convictions as soon as they happenso that the records will appear on background check reports if someone barred from gun ownership tries to buy a gun. The bill also includes language which would similarly flag gun purchase attempts when the buyer is subject to the Psychiatric Security Review Board, notifying the Board of an attempt to purchase.

A press release from the Governor's office said that Governor Brown praised the "bipartisan support of sensible legislation to prevent violence by a firearm." Yet with a handful of exceptions, the bill passed along party lineswith Democrats supporting the bill, and Republicans opposing it. Only Senator Betsy Johnson (D - Scappoose) broke with her party to vote against the measure in the Senate, and there were several members of the House who crossed party lines.

Any convictions or orders which are overturned, expunged, or otherwise dissolved will lift the restrictions described in this bill.

"'We need national action and federal legislation,'" said Governor Brown, "'Now's the time to enact real change, and I'm encouraged to see students in Oregon and across the nation engaged and joining the call for gun safety legislation. It's long past time we hold the White House, Congress, and legislators accountable.'"Phoenix, OR. -- Today students at Phoenix High School and Talent Middle School led a walk-out to remember the victims of the Parkland Mass Shooting, and show solidarity with the school.

"We really wanted to make sure that students had a voice, and that we had a place where we could stand at least for 17 minutes to be together," says Miranda Briscoe Taylor-Cheek, one of the student organizers.

Miranda helped lead 87 students at Phoenix High school in a walk-out this morning. For 17 minutes they stood in silence, honoring the 17 victims of the mass shooting in Florida.

"I'm very proud of my fellow peers for standing up, for educating themselves, and for going out and organizing marches and doing the right thing." says Miranda.

This morning Miranda and her peers notified the Phoenix-Talent School District of their plans, which were fully supported by the administration.

"They're trying to process a lot of difficult things that are going on in our world right now. Just having that voice and a process to do that is pretty inspiring," says Phoenix-Talent Schools Superintendent, Brent Barry.

The students at Talent Middle School heard what the high school was planning, and wanted to join in.

"It's phenomenal to see fellow students standing up and taking action, even at such a young age," says Miranda.

"You know the reality is that it affects all of us, at any age," adds Barry.

While the walk-out was partially to help unite students in Southern Oregon, Miranda says the goal was to show support for her fellow students dealing with the aftermath of the shooting.

"I just want them to know that they have allies here. The Pacific Northwest stands with them. It may not be every citizen up here, but you have friends," says Miranda.ASHLAND, Ore.  The Oregon Chocolate Festival returns to Ashland on the second weekend of March. This year, 10% of proceeds from the Oregon Chocolate Festival will benefit Asante's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

The Festival will kick off on the evening of March 9, 2018, with several introductory events$15 gets you into a social hour from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Stardust Lounge at Ashland Hills Hotel (featuring live music, chocolate craft cocktails, beer, wine and appetizers), followed by a chocolate maker's dinner at Ashland Springs Hotel for $75.

Saturday and Sunday, March 10 - 11 will mark the Festival's main days, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ashland Hills Hotel. Tickets for those two days will cost $20 per person, per day, or $30 for a two-day pass. Kids age 8 and under get in free. Both days will feature an assortment of different events (see flyer for details, or visit the Chocolate Festival's website).

This is the 14th year that the Chocolate Festival has been held in Oregon, and it is organized by Ashland Hills Hotel and the Neuman Group.

Anyone interested in volunteering for the Festival can contact Karolina with the Neuman Group at Karolina.Lavagnino@neumanhotelgroup.com or (541) 631-2004.Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) honour guards march at the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport on September 3, 2017. (WU HONG / POOL / AFP)

BEIJING - Chinese central authorities have launched a campaign to clear up outdated regulations to safeguard the integration of military and civilian development, according to a circular provided to Xinhua Thursday.

According to a circular, the aim is to identify documents that create barriers to two-way flow of technology, human resources, capital & information

The campaign will examine the regulations in this field adopted in the last 40 years, said the circular jointly issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission.

It aims to identify the documents that create barriers to the two-way flow of technology, human resources, capital and information between the military and civilian sectors, as well as those that fail to give private enterprises equal treatment in market access and intellectual property protection, said the circular.

The outdated regulations and requirements will be revoked or modified. Authorities in charge of the review were asked to fully consult other agencies, companies, industry associations and experts in the process. It also called for a long-term mechanism and routine inspections to keep the remaining regulations up to date.HONOLULU, Hawaii  The US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) proudly announced yesterday that Wisdom, a 67 year-old Laysan albatross, has successfully hatched another chick. Wisdom is the oldest wild breeding bird of which we are aware.

Wisdom makes her nest upon Midway Atollsite of a decisive naval battle betwen the US and Japan during World War II. Although the remote island is home to a memorial for the battle and the lives it cost, it also serves as a wildlife refuge, and a popular breeding ground for over three million seabirds.

First banded in 1956, Wisdom has been returning to Midway Atoll every year since. The Laysan albatross spends the vast majority of its life at seabut like many species of seabird, it returns to the same nesting site to breed annually.

The USFWS thinks that Wisdom has successfully raised from 30-36 new albatross chicks in her life. As with each of those previous eggs, Wisdom and her mate, Akeakamai, took turns for two monthsalternating between incubating the egg and flying off to look for food at sea. Now that the chick has hatched, it will be five months before the little albatross will leave the nest.

Midway Atoll boasts the largest albatross colony in the world, and is home to at least three different species of albatross alone. Every year they begin to arrive in late October. By the end of November, the island is covered in breeding pairs of the birds.

The USFWS works to maintain the habitats of seabirds on Midway Atoll. Some of these seabird species are endangered or threatenedand the Midway Atoll is home to 73% of all Laysan albatrosses.Security forces inspect the site of a suicide bombing in the diplomatic area of capital Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said several people were wounded in Saturday's attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)Source: armyrecognition.com

Tanzanian President John Magafuli has opened a Chinese-built training centre for the Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF). The Comprehensive Training Centre (CTC) was officially opened during a ceremony on 6 February, 2018 at Mapinga in Bagamoyo District, Coast Region. It was attended by Chinese ambassador Wang Ke.

President of Tanzania, John Magufuli on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, inaugurated the Chinese Comprehensive Training Centre of the Tanzania People's Defence Forces (TPDF) at Mapinga in Bagamoyo District, Coast Region (Picture source allafrica.com)

According to the Presidency, the Sh67.87 billion ($30 million) Centre was built with the assistance of China's People's Liberation Army and will be used to provide modern training to the TPDF.

The Centre will provide training to counter current and future threats, the Presidency said. During the opening ceremony, Magafuli witnessed demonstrations that included an amphibious landing and counter-terrorism operations.

Tanzania has enjoyed close defence ties with China, and this has included naval exercises, construction projects and the supply of military equipment.

For instance, in November 2014 the two nations concluded the month-long Exercise Beyond/Transcend naval training exercise, the first joint training exercise in the history of bilateral military relations between the two countries. This follows numerous naval visits by China.

China has delivered a variety of military hardware to Tanzania, including 24 Type 63A light amphibious tanks, 12 Type 07PA 120 mm self-propelled mortars, FB-6A mobile short-range air defense systems and A100 300 mm multiple rocket launchers.

The Chinese government also built the Tanzanian Military Academy (TMA) and the Shanghai Construction Group has been contracted by the Tanzanian Ministry of Defence and National Service to construct 12 000 housing units financed by a $550 million loan from the Exim Bank of China.Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of President Donald Trump, attends an event at the Trump Tower in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. For over a week the front pages of many Indian newspapers have promised that buyers who put down a deposit for an apartment in the new Trump Towers in a New Delhi suburb will get to spend Friday evening being wined and dined by Trump Jr. But the money had to be paid, the ads said, before Thursday. (AP Photo)Chinese peacekeepers of the 5th Chinese peacekeeping force to Mali rise the UN flag during the UN Peace Medals of Honor awarding ceremony United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Feb. 20, 2018. (gov.mod.cn/Wang Di)

GAO, MALI, Feb. 23 (ChinaMil) -- All 395 members of the 5th Chinese peacekeeping force to Mali were awarded the United Nations Peace Medals of Honor by the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Tuesday. the medal-awarding ceremony was held at the MINUSMA Super Camp in Gao.

MINUSMA Force Commander Lieutenant General Jean-Paul Deconinck, Brigadier General Anisuz Zaman, commander of the Sector East of the MINUSMA, Chinese military attache to Mali Senior Mao Fenghua, Mali government officials and commanders of the peacekeeping forces to Mali from other countries attended the ceremony.

The 5th Chinese peacekeeping force to Mali consists of a guard detachment, an engineer detachment, and a medical detachment.

The 170-strong guard detachment is responsible for the security of the MINUSMA Sector East Headquarters and emergency support for the MINUSMA Super Camp. Since its deployment in May 2017, the detachment has conducted armed patrols covering more than 13,000 km and handled over 10 contingencies.

The 155-strong engineer detachment has completed 14 large-scale construction projects in the mission area including construction of Menaka Camp defense works and renovation of facilities at the Gao International Airport.

The task of the medical detachment was to provide medical service for MINUSMA peacekeepers. The 70 medical workers of the detachment have treated 5,000 patients, conducted more than 140 surgical operations and salvaged 81patients in critical conditions.

"Your dedicated service plays an important role in the cause of peace in Mali and you have made outstanding contributions to Mali. All of you deserve this honor," said Deconinck in his speech delivered at the ceremony.

In the past nine months, the Chinese peacekeepers have completed all tasks assigned by MINUSMA with high standards, demonstrating excellent professional quality and strict discipline in the mission areas in Mali with the most dangerous situations, the most complicated environments and hardest conditions recognized by the UN, and The UN Peace Medal of Honor is the best compliment to the outstanding contributions made by the Chinese peacekeepers, Deconinck said.

Chinese peacekeepers of the 5th Chinese peacekeeping force to Mali raise the Chinese national flag during the UN Peace Medals of Honor awarding ceremony held by the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Feb. 20, 2018. (gov.mod.cn/Wang Di)SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Police arrested a man they said high on meth and combative.

On Thursday, officers with the Springfield Police Department were called to the Regency Motel on Main Street for the report of a man breaking items around 10:30 p.m. Officers said they found 20-year-old Kyle Baca standing outside of a motel room on the second floor, swinging a wooden bat-shaped object. They said his arms were covered in blood and he was threatening officers with it.

Police said additional officers responded which prompted Baca to challenge the officers to shoot him using the bat as a weapon. They said he threw the bat at a nearby motel room window and shattered it. After that, they said, he jumped onto a neighboring roof and took off.

They said officers surrounded him in a yard where he charged them with his fists clenched. Despite numerous orders to stop, police said Baca continued to charge and was tased. They said Baca jumped back up and continued to try to assault the officers. Police tased Baca a second time and were able to arrest him.

Police said Baca was high on meth. They said a bag of meth was located in his motel room.

Baca was arrested for possession of meth, menacing, interfering with police, resisting arrest, and criminal mischief.FLORENCE, Ore. -- Dean Howard is a Vietnam War veteran, an avid hunter, and a lifelong gun owner. Today he turned in his assault rifles to law enforcement.

He said he watched as the recent Florida school shooting happened and he was in disbelief. For him, the tragedy hit close to home.





"I had to watch my wife sit on the floor crying," Howard said.

In 2007 his son, Bryce, was killed by a suicide bomber while deployed to Afghanistan.

"Just think if your kid didn't come home... that emptiness feeling you're going to have," Howard said. "Because that's what it is."

Earlier this week during a White House meeting a father who lost his daughter in the Florida shooting made an emotional plea to President Trump and Howard was listening.

"I'm doing this for Andrew Pollack," Howard said. "I hope he hears about this and knows somebody felt what he was feeling and went and did it."

He said even though his son died under different circumstances, he still wanted to take action to send a message.

Shortly after KEZI 9 News spoke with him, Howard turned in his weapons at the Florence Police Department.

"I've turned mine in, they are going to be destroyed and I've done my part," Howard said. "It's up to the rest of the country and their conscience and what they feel is right."NEWBERG, Ore. (AP) - A search and rescue dog with Mountain Wave Search and Rescue fell 30 feet off a cliff while on a hike with her handler and survived.

KPTV reports Friday that Opal, a yellow Labrador, has multiple fractures in her paws after falling on a trail above Siletz Bay earlier in the week.

She was hiking with her handler, Barbara Linder, when she ran ahead and took a leap and landed far below the trail on sharp rocks.

The vet says it's amazing the 4-year-old dog wasn't injured more severely and credits her fitness from working as a search and rescue dog.

Opal will need six to 12 months of rehabilitation before she can work again.

The dog has been volunteering with Mountain Wave since 2014.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Opal. If you would like to donate, click here.New online photos of China's Z-20 10-ton utility helicopter have sparked heated discussion on the Internet. Lets take a look at the new helicopter.

The Z-20 is the informal name of a medium-lift (9-10 tons) utility helicopter (similar to the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk) developed independently by China. The official name of this helicopter will be announced when it is commissioned.

In recent years, a large number of Z-10, Z-19 and other armed helicopters have joined the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), making up for China's lack of reconnaissance and attack helicopters.

However, China has been lacking a 10-ton general tactical helicopter to carry out assault transport, airlift and logistic support tasks. Although China has the large military transport aircraft Y-20, it is more suitable for remote transport and delivery tasks. Short-range transport and assault operations still need a general helicopter like the Z-20.

China acquired 24 US Black Hawk helicopters in the 1980s. These helicopters helped China fully understand the leading aviation technology of the US. The Black Hawks flight performance, material technology and reliability were much higher than those of Chinas homegrown helicopters at that time.

In the 1980s, it was said that the Black Hawk was the only helicopter in China that could be used in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Black Hawk played a huge role in many remote areas of China. As late as the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, eighteen UH-60 Black Hawks were dispatched to conduct rescue operations, although these helicopters had been in high-load service for many years.

China once considered copying the Black Hawk when it was first introduced to China. Although the model was only the civil export model, the technology was something beyond Chinas reach at that time. For example, the manufacturing process of large-size titanium parts used in Black Hawk couldnt be found in Chine even in the 1990s.

Although the Black Hawk was a product of the 1970s, China was not able to come up with a similar product even in the early 21st century. As it is with most models, the learning process from the Black Hawk was a very difficult process requiring countless accumulation in materials, workmanship, processing and research and development, as well as 20 years of running-in and an experienced team.

The arduous course of the development of the Chinese helicopter industry has actually been a painful process that countries with less developed aviation industries must go through.

The Z-20 medium-lift utility helicopter is said to be in the late stage of development. It is expected that in the near future, the final design work of the Z-20 will be completed and the helicopter will soon join the PLA Army and Navy service.

In the foreseeable future, the combination of the Y-20 transport aircraft and Z-20 utility helicopter will effectively link the strategic and tactical transport in the PLA.

Disclaimer: The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author from the Ifeng News and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.COOS BAY, Ore.  Officers tracked down a Coos Bay man Thursday suspected of robbing a Subway. Officers said he admitted to the crime.

Coos Bay Police received a call of an armed robbery at the Subway on 1st Street on Wednesday. They said the suspect threatened the subway employee with a gun, demanded money, then ran away.

Police contacted Jason Garcia. They said he matched the description of the suspect.

During the interview, Garcia admitted to the robbery. He was taken into custody for robbery, unlawful use of a weapon, menacing and theft.

He was booked into the Coos County Jail.International sanctions seem to be dealing a hard blow to the North Korean economy, which may have acted as a spur to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's charm offensive toward South Korea.

The sanctions have left the North short of hard currency just as a degree of marketization was starting to improve the lives of some ordinary North Koreans. Kim's slush funds are being rapidly depleted, which means that regular handouts to the elite to buy their loyalty are also drying up, and even some in the ruling class are turning to open-air markets for their basic needs.

Even just a couple of years ago, the predominant views was that sanctions were mostly toothless because North Korea's economy is closed, but that underestimated the progress of marketization and dependence of goods imported mostly from China.

The North's trade-to-GDP ratio has risen significantly since 2010 and is now close to 50 percent, compared to the global average of about 60 percent. Its trade dependence on China is near-total at over 90 percent. "This shows how rapidly Pyongyang has increased coal and iron ore exports to China since sales of agricultural and fishery products to South Korea were banned in 2010," a researcher with a government-funded think tank here said.

The number of open-air markets has jumped from some 200 in 2011, before Kim took power, to more than 400. They mostly sell Chinese goods, and the informal currencies are dollars and yuan earned somehow from other trade. That means the North's real economic structure depends on international trade to keep functioning.

This is why the UN Security Council has shifted from banning weapons parts to broader trade transactions. In March 2016, the UNSC resolution banned member states from importing coal, iron and iron ore from the North except for civilian purposes. A series of follow-up resolutions banned member states from importing North Korean coal, underground resources, fishery products and textiles and asked the North to recall all its slave laborers from overseas within 24 months. This amounts to a full-fledged economic blockade.

China's attitude is hardening, and the biggest blow is that it is at least officially on board with most of the sanctions.

"The North's exports to China dwindled 37 percent last year, and once all sanctions kick in they are expected to drop more than 90 percent this year," said Prof. Kim Byung-yeon of Seoul National University.

Shrinking exports have also depleted Kim's loyalty funds from trading companies. "The living of the power elite, who used to line their pockets through exports, has become difficult," a source said. "This seems to be the reason why the regime has launched a charm offensive toward the South early this year."

Kim in his New Year's address admitted the country faces the worst situation because of the sanctions. Oil prices have soared and power supply is intermittent-to-rare. Once the open-air markets crumble, there will be hardly any lifeline left.

"The regime's imports will begin dropping this year because its purchasing power has dwindled due to shrinking exports," Prof. Kim added. "The sanctions will be a 'delayed bomb' in the markets."

But it remains to be seen whether the regime will make any real concessions even if another famine strikes.

CRESCO, Iowa  The Howard County Sheriffs Office says a former student asked an unknown individual to shoot up Riceville School.

Riceville Principal Cory Schumann told the Sheriffs Office on Wednesday that current students had witnessed a former female student chatting online and requesting the unknown person shoot up the school on Thursday. An investigation was begun and a number of current students were interviewed, then the former student who now lives in Rochester, MN was questioned.

The Sheriffs Office says the former student admitted to making the request but says she also sent the unknown person an acronym message that meant just kidding.

Classes were cancelled in Riceville on Thursday but the school reopened on Friday. Howard County Sheriff Mike Miner says they no longer believe there is any threat to the school or the Riceville community. He says the FBI is now investigating this matter.

Anyone with information on this incident should contact the Howard County Sheriffs Office at 563-547-3535.JAKARTA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo has nominated Perry Warjiyo, a deputy governor at Bank Indonesia (BI), as his nomination for central bank governor, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Saturday.

Warjiyo is the sole candidate submitted by the president to parliament for approval, said the parliamentary source, who declined to be identified because the information has not been officially released.

Warjiyo did not respond to a request for comment.

Johan Budi, a presidential spokesman, said he has no information on the nomination. A BI spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The term of the current BI governor, Agus Martowardojo, will end in May and parliament is due to conduct a "fit and proper test" on the president's nomination before approval.

(Reporting by Maikel Jefriando; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Ed Davies and Robert Birsel)(Adds ECB decision)

By Balazs Koranyi and Gederts Gelzis

FRANKFURT/RIGA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Latvian lender ABLV Bank is failing or likely to fail and will be wound up as saving it is not in the public interest, the European Union's Single Resolution Board and the European Central Bank said separately on Saturday.

Accused by U.S. authorities of large-scale money laundering, ABLV scrambled this week to come up with a survival plan but failed as customers fled and management could not come up with sufficient cash, despite offers of emergency central bank liquidity.

Latvia, a member of the euro zone and which borders Russia, has come under increasing scrutiny recently over allegations that it is a conduit for illicit financial activities involving Russia, Ukraine and even North Korea.

Privately held ABLV, Latvia's third biggest bank, has been in particular focus since U.S. authorities accused it of covering up money laundering, bribing officials and facilitating the breach of sanctions against North Korea.

"Due to the significant deterioration of its liquidity, the bank is likely unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due," the ECB, ABLV's supervisor, said.

"The bank did not have sufficient funds which are immediately available to withstand stressed outflows of deposits before the payout procedure of the Latvian deposit guarantee fund starts," the ECB added.

The money laundering accusations, denied by the bank, destabilised the lender and around 600 million euros worth of deposits left within days, forcing the ECB to suspend all payments on Monday to prevent a disorderly collapse.

The Resolution Board noted that ABLV does not provide critical functions and its failure is not expected to have a significant adverse impact on financial stability.

ABLV said it fulfilled its regulatory requirements but was not allowed to resume operations due to "political considerations."

"The bank emphasises: the amount of its assets is sufficient to satisfy demands of all clients and creditors. All deposits guaranteed by the Deposit Guarantee Law shall be disbursed with the funds of ABLV Bank," it said in a statement.

The bank, like many others in Latvia, has sizable deposits from foreign clients, many from Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, around 40 percent of all bank deposits in the Baltic country are from non-residents and international agencies have long warned that some are related to illegal activities.

To combat money laundering, Latvia announced plans on Friday to gradually halve the share of bank deposits held by non-residents.

But that was not enough to save ABLV, which had until Friday to present the ECB with a credible survival plan, or face closure.

Hinting at its eventual fate, Latvian Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola said the state would not step in to rescue ABLV if it were about to collapse as it is not critical to the country's economy. "ABLV is not regarded as a systemic bank, which means the government would not rescue it because its exposure to the Latvian economy is low," Reizniece-Ozola said. "There is some systemic importance (but) ... it is not crucial or critical."

($1 = 0.8129 euros)

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Leslie Adler)FRANKFURT, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, wants to invest in German medium-sized private companies if the Norwegian government allows it to do so this year, its head Yngve Slyngstad told German magazine Focus.

The Norwegian fund is seeking permission to broaden its investments to include unlisted companies, and has in the past lamented its inability to make early investments in fast-growing companies such as Uber or Airbnb. "There are many successful medium-sized companies in Germany that are not listed. Until now we could not invest in these firms because we did not have permission from the Norwegian government. We hope that will change this year," Slyngstad said in an interview published on Saturday.

"When you look at our investments relative to the economic power of the country, you can see that we have pent-up demand."

Slyngstad was also asked whether the Norwegian fund would invest in the planned $100 billion listing of Saudi national oil firm Saudi Aramco, given that the fund was considering stopping oil and gas investments.

He declined to comment, but added: "I think it's clear to many people that our exposure to oil is already very extensive."

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Alexander Smith)Police and parents help ensure student safety on first day of term

From:Shine | 2018-02-23 19:29

About 3,500 police officers and assistants ensured student safety around Shanghai during the first day of school this semester.

Police and assistants were especially focused on 373 schools and kindergartens which are located on very busy streets, Shanghai traffic police said.

Besides helping children cross the street and streamlining traffic on surrounding streets, police also stepped up the punishment of common traffic offenses like speeding, illegal parking and running red lights.

Ti Gong

An officer of Pudong traffic police worked to streamline the traffic flow outside Shanghai Fushan Foreign Language Primary School on Fushan Road on Friday morning.

Ti Gong

Parents work as volunteers to help with traffic outside this school in the morning and afternoon.

Ti Gong

Police make sure that cars stopped before zebra crossings when parents and pupils were crossing the street.

In the next few weeks, the traffic police will set up road blocks to give safety inspections of school buses in the mornings and afternoons.

Police said they will look out for offenses such as taking more passengers than allowed, speeding, taking a route different from the approved one, and drivers or passengers not wearing seatbelts. They will also crack down on vehicles with no license to transport pupils or kindergarten children.As festivals near, govt stresses on vaccination, following Covid protocols, responsible festivities

Noting that there is an overall stabilisation in COVID-19 cases, India govt urged people to be careful in the coming two-three months to retain the gains achieved in the pandemic management so far.



By Jung Min-ho







A Korean man has been shot to death in the Philippines, Koreans living there said Saturday.





According to them, the 41-year-old man was shot to death Friday night while driving on a street in Mandaue, one of three densely populated cities on Cebu Island.





He was reportedly shot by two men riding on motorcycles.





Given that the two did not take anything from him after the killing, police suspect it was a case of premeditated murder.





The victim was known to have run a Korean restaurant on the island.

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.Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Mostly sunny. High near 85F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.Hi, Im books editor Carolyn Kellogg, and this is whats going on in books this week.

THE BIG STORY

Known for his work as a playwright, David Mamet turns this time to fiction with his new novel, Chicago. Its a classic gangster tale set in that city in the 1920s: there are hard-drinking newspapermen, dames, crooked cops and mobsters, of course. Mamets ear for the dark poetry of the American male id fuels Chicago, writes Karl Taro Greenfeld in his review. Considering novels versus screenplays, dialogue and American masculinity, Greenfeld writes, In its scope and ambition, Chicago feels like one of the great American male novelists of the late 20th century  Updike, Mailer, Bellow, Roth  trying his hand at writing a genre novel. But unlike those novelists somewhat less sure-footed lunges  Mailers Tough Guys Dont Dance and Updikes Terrorist come to mind  Mamet lands this with aplomb.

David Mamets first novel in 20 years is Chicago (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times )

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MYRA BRECKINRIDGE

50 years ago, Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidals novel about an ambitious, secretly transgender woman who moves to Hollywood, became a huge bestseller. In it, Myra observes that young men are quite totalitarian-minded, even for Americans, and I am convinced that any attractive television personality who wanted to become our dictator would have their full support. Prescient, playful and panned by critics; Mark Athitakis has our appreciation.

Gore Vidal in 1968 (Los Angeles Times )

WOMEN AND TELEVISION

In Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television, former Los Angeles Times books and culture editor Joy Press tracks the history of women creating television shows. Chapter by chapter, Press charts the peaks and valleys of the female gaze through the lens of TV in the last 30 years, writes Maris Kreizman in our review. We see norms slowly change, from Vice President Dan Quayle questioning Murphy Browns family values for daring to have a child as a single mother, to [Shonda] Rhimes staff inventing a fake word for vagina (vajayjay, of course) because ABC would not let her use the anatomically correct word during her prime-time hospital drama Greys Anatomy.

Jenji Kohan, creator of Orange Is The New Black, in her writers room in 2013 (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times )

BESTSELLERS

Kristin Hannah blasts onto the fiction bestseller list this week with The Great Alone, a family that hopes moving to Alaska will help soothe the troubles of the father, a Vietnam Vet and former POW. But his wife and 13-year-old daughter soon eventually discover they may be in peril. The book is our No. 1 fiction bestseller.

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Its been in the top spot for six weeks running: Michael Wolffs book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, the No. 1 L.A. Times bestseller in nonfiction again.

See all the books on our bestseller lists here.

President Trump at the White House on Feb. 23. (Alex Wong / Getty Images )

A NEW YA TURN

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Tahereh Mafi, in works like her Shatter Me series, has become known for writing richly-imagined fantasy worlds. In her next book A Very Large Expanse of Sea  which she announced with us this week  Mafi taps her own experiences to tell a realistic tale of a hijab-wearing Muslim teenager in America after Sept. 11. I was a very angry teenager, she tells Agatha French. I felt trapped, not just by the complexities of being a teenager, but because the world had already decided what kind of teenager I was.

Tahereh Mafi (Tana Gandhi )

L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALISTS

This week we announced the finalists for the 2017 L.A. Times Book Prizes, which will be awarded at a ceremony on April 20 at USC. 50 finalists in 10 categories were announced, plus three special winners: John Rechy, whose 1960 novel City of Night was a groundbreaking work of gay fiction, will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim will take home the Innovators Award and Benjamin Taylor is the winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose for his book The Hue and Cry at Our House. Read about all the finalists here.

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John Rechy at home in 2003. Hell receive The Times Kirsch Award. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times )

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

@paperhausDelta Air Lines and United Airlines are cutting ties with the National Rifle Assn., the latest major companies to do so following the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school earlier this month.

Both Delta and United said Saturday they will no longer offer discounted fares to NRA members to attend their annual meetings, and both have asked the gun rights group to remove any references to their companies from the NRA website.

A growing number of large companies have announced they are cutting or reducing ties with the NRA. Rental car company Hertz will no longer offer a discount program to NRA members and First National Bank of Omaha said it will not renew a co-branded credit card it has with the NRA.A marvelously abundant, even overstuffed installation by artist and composer Charlemagne Palestine fills an industrial warehouse space with tons of plush comfort, kaleidoscopic color and rhythmic waves of noise.

The Brooklyn-born, Brussels-based artist, 71, has compared the copiousness of his work to an everything bagel. No purist, he; Palestine has seen to it that about 18,000 stuffed animals have taken up temporary residence in the gallery at 356 S. Mission Road.

Mickey, Minnie, SpongeBob SquarePants, Hello Kitty, plus a much bigger menagerie of anonymous animals (elephants, crocodiles, toucans, lambs, owls, you-name-it) and, most of all, teddy bears cavort among brightly colored fabric strips, table cloths and yards of inexpensive textiles. The rooms big window panes are smeared in bright colors, like finger-painted stained glass for a secular Chartres Cathedral. For good measure, spotlighted and spinning mirror-balls send dots of light gaily skittering around the room.

The plush toys are attached to both sides of nine freestanding walls on wheels. Petals torn from artificial flowers are scattered beneath them on the floor  a traditional wedding symbol of fertility made joyfully secular. Here, creation is artistic.

Charlemagne Palestine has installed television monitors showing past video works among 18,000 stuffed animals

Charlemagne Palestine stuffed 18,000 stuffed animals in baby grand pianos, coffins and more for his installation. Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times

Charlemagne Palestine, Ccornuuoorphanossccopiaee Aanorphansshhornoffplentyyy (detail), 2018, mixed media Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times

Charlemagne Palestine, Ccornuuoorphanossccopiaee Aanorphansshhornoffplentyyy (detail), 2018, mixed media Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times

Other plush toys are loaded inside seven coffins made of plain pine and ranging in size from small child to extra-large adult; piled in great mounds within the cabinets of three baby grand pianos; heaped inside two topsy-turvy rowboats and one small sailboat suspended from the ceiling (the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria); jammed within hanging bathtubs; strewn along the floor the length of one wide wall; covering the surface of the opposite wall and  here, there and everywhere  hanging from vivaciously colorful fabric parachutes that dangle in the air.

The parachute brigade is like a rescue team arriving to save the day, a Berlin airlift for the beleaguered soul.

The emergency is not topical. Palestine has compared school to a concentration camp and his mother to Margaret Thatcher, the cold-blooded Iron Lady, which gives at least some indication as to why liberation is needed. Soft kiddie toys are cuddly, all-purpose talismans of succor and solace.

In the center of the room, a ceremonial semi-circle has been set up with a makeshift ring of tatty television monitors playing a selection of Palestines video performances from the past 40 years. In one, the artist runs around a small, plain room, banging into walls as if trapped and unable to break free, yet confirming the protective shelter of the place.

In another, the camera seems adrift at sea. In a third, he swings a lantern on an electrical chord around his head, like a cowboy-shaman with a lariat of light.

Through it all, a soundtrack of rhythmic chanting swells and falls. Sound is integral to Palestines installation, whose title incorporates letters repeated like resonant sonic vibrations. Buried within Ccornuuoorphanossccopiaee Aanorphansshhornoffplentyyy, as the installation is titled, are an orphaned cornucopia and horn of plenty. The gallery, stuffed, becomes its own environmentally scaled stuffed toy.

Palestines cascades of emotionally loaded plush animals and exuberant explosions of bright commercial gewgaws for children preceded related work by accomplished artists as diverse as Larry Mantello in the 1990s and Mike Kelley in the 1980s. (Palestine taught at CalArts, where Kelley went to school, in the early 1970s, and the current exhibition is sponsored by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.) The installation is all really just too much  which, in these cruel and emotionally crushing days, means its almost just enough.

356 S. Mission Road, L.A. Through April 15; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. (323) 609-3162, www.356mission.com

christopher.knight@latimes.com

Twitter: @KnightLAT

ALSO

A rare Jim DeFrance retrospective

Hammer Museum receives $50 million in gifts for expansion

Frieze to launch a Los Angeles art fair at Paramount Studios in 2019

Takako Yamaguchi's portraits won't look you in the eye

Judy Fiskin's funny, thought-provoking confessions of an iPhone addictJim DeFrance (1940-2014) made abstract paintings that analyze more than accept, cogitate more than assume. Poetry eclipses prose, often with color as primary language.

A modest retrospective of around 30 paintings and works on paper, co-curated by Tom Dowling and Trevor Norris for the Doyle Arts Pavilion at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, offers a welcome opportunity to become reacquainted with DeFrances art, which isnt often seen. The high-flying Neo-Expressionist juggernaut that swept through art in the 1980s, followed by the 1990 market crash, didnt leave much room for an abstract painter of DeFrances manner.

His exposure was limited after 1987, following a string of closely watched solo shows over nearly 20 years at Nicholas Wilder and Jan Baum galleries. Jim DeFrance: A Retrospective is a concise and worthy reintroduction. More a thumbnail sketch of a career than a full accounting  necessary given the venues limited space  it succeeds in sparking interest to see more.

Oddly, if one juxtaposed an early painting with one of his last, it might initially look like two different artists had made them. The abstract motifs vary widely, but the survey also reveals a through-line of impeccable craftsmanship.

Deskilling is the currently fashionable, sometimes useful effort to eliminate the value given to artisanal competence. The aim is to shake up and destabilize institutionalized judgments of aesthetic worth.

"Jim DeFrance: A Retrospective" at Doyle Arts Pavilion, Orange Coast College Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times

Jim DeFrance, "Rainbow," 1990, acrylic on veneer Doyle Arts Pavilion

Jim DeFrance, "Kimono," 2009, acrylic stain on birch Doyle Arts Pavilion

But deskilling was not a part of DeFrances vocabulary  perhaps because his work was launched at a moment when the pristine aesthetic of finish fetish art, the so-called L.A. look, was ascendant. The path of DeFrances work after 1965, the year he graduated with an MFA from UCLA and had his first gallery appearance in a group exhibition, is long and winding.

It began with a bang.

Dazzler, one of the earliest works on view, is an Op extravaganza that melds chromatic dissonance (diagonal stripes of turquoise and vermilion) with physical and optical shape-shifting (a skewed, 10-sided canvas with an interior jigsaw-puzzle composition of interlocking and overlapping rectangles and triangles). Frank Stellas paintings are a likely inspiration, but with a slight difference.

A pair of cut-out trapezoid shapes in the middle of the canvas makes negative space  actual, not illusionistic  essential to the compositions success. DeFrance introduced an element of the new, environmental Light and Space art into painting.

Light and Space artists like Doug Wheeler and Robert Irwin were leaving painting behind  dematerializing the art object, in critic Lucy Lippards famous phrase  while Larry Bell was moving into sculpture. DeFrance refused to let painting go.

His next works, which launched his solo gallery career, were the so-called slot paintings. Minimalist, mostly monochrome canvases featured geometric patterns of cut-out rectangular slots.

Saint Cloud, 6 feet high and 12 feet wide, is emblematic: a black canvas pierced by six evenly spaced rows of seven horizontal slots. The cut-outs expose the wall on which the painting hangs, but slow perusal begins to reveal vaporous flickers of pale color within the neat lineup of empty spaces.

The works framing stretcher bars are unusually deep  maybe 3 or 4 inches  which allows light to circulate behind the picture plane. The optical haze arises from reflections of a rainbow of color blocks that DeFrance painted in an irregular pattern on the back of the canvas.

For the viewer looking at the front, hints of soft light lurk within the overall darkness. You practically want to crawl inside the painting to discover what is happening  and how.

Interactivity with a viewer is a hallmark of DeFrances work, which is positioned as a meeting point between artist and stranger. One later piece, 1984s Flywheel, is even a functional credenza, furniture whose colorful surfaces constitute a three-dimensional painting pushed up against a wall.

The show moves quickly through a variety of series. There are paintings with woven geometric patterns, some with combed and fluid surfaces, a few seemingly aerial views of abstract landscapes and a pair of doorway-like constructions made from interlocking shapes and implying passages into other realms.

A group of eccentrically shaped panels of wood veneer painted in wavy stripes of snazzy, multicolor acrylic is inexplicably mesmerizing. DeFrance was a gifted colorist, and his hues tend toward the tertiary  rather than a purists red, yellow and blue, for example, he gives us magenta, chartreuse and teal.

The concluding works, made after 2000 and the dawn of a new millennium, are precisely crafted, interlocking panels of softly stained birch wood  perceptually quiet and meditative in the extreme. According to the shows small catalogue, some are inspired by Japanese Zen brushwork (one is named for the gate of a Shinto shrine), while others are tagged for birds and for monumental, prehistoric stone monoliths.

The stained panels, although softly hued, bring you back to Dazzler, whose clashing colors of cinnabar and turquoise signal spiritual elements of celebration and healing within Asian and Native American cultures. (DeFrance was born in Alliance, Neb., a region rich in Native American tribes.) The early and late works look nothing alike, but they do fit easily together.

Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion, Orange Coast College, Merrimac Way, Costa Mesa. Through April 7. (714) 432-5738, https://www.orangecoastcollege.edu

christopher.knight@latimes.com

Twitter: @KnightLAT

ALSO

Hammer Museum receives $50 million in gifts for expansion

Frieze to launch a Los Angeles art fair at Paramount Studios in 2019

Takako Yamaguchi's portraits won't look you in the eye

Judy Fiskin's funny, thought-provoking confessions of an iPhone addictSome big bucks for an important Los Angeles museum and a look at where L.A.s appetite for road-building stands. Im Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, with the weeks essential culture and sexy vegetable news:

HAMMER TIME

The Hammer Museum announced a pair of important gifts for the expansion of its current Westwood space, designed by L.A. architect Michael Maltzan. This includes a $30-million gift from philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick  the largest gift in the museums history. It also includes a $20-million donation from the museums board chair Marcy Carsey. The Times Deborah Vankin has all the details. Los Angeles Times

Architect Michael Maltzans rendering of a new entrance for the Hammer Museum. (Michael Maltzan Architecture )

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Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne wrote about the proposed renovation when it was first announced last year. Los Angeles Times

Plus: The New York Times has a report on booming arts patronage in L.A.  which is so confusing because I thought the New York Times said L.A. had no patrons. \_()_/

CLASSICAL NOTES

The Los Angeles Philharmonic recently took on a pair of contentious 20th century works as part of the Green Umbrella series: African American composer Julius Eastmans provocatively titled Evil Nigger and Salvatore Martiranos Ls G.A for Gas-Masked Politico, Helium Bomb, and Two-Channel Tape  with performance artist Ron Athey serving as the electronically altered voice in the latter. Writes Times classical music critic Mark Swed: What does this concert, devised by John Adams, have to do with the price of tea in China, or, for that matter, the bombs in Syria or the Black Lives Matter movement? A lot, it turns out. Los Angeles Times

Ron Athey in Ls GA for Gassed-Masked Politico, Helium Bomb, and Two-Channel Tape. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times )

Former LA Phil musical director Esa-Pekka Salonen recently conducted a concert in tribute to architect Frank Gehry at Disney Hall. As part of his 60th birthday celebration by the orchestra he headed for 17 years, Salonen brought on the fog machine and cued the mermaids, writes Swed. That is to say that Salonen has always had a brilliantly quirky instinct for program making. Los Angeles Times

Plus, in the course of a single day, Swed attended Jose Pepe Martinezs mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna and a performance by the Balinese group Gamelan Cudamani. In these two wildly disparate shows, he found similarities in their shared ecological and spiritual worldview. Los Angeles Times

Mariachi Vargas De Tecalitlan salutes in Cruzar la Cara de la Luna. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

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THE FREEWAY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at our regions perhaps dwindling appetite for freeway construction in connection with a recently-unveiled Caltrans plan to add a highway between Palmdale and Victorville. The plan, he writes, isnt just about easing traffic  but also about making this corner of L.A. County more hospitable, despite the vulnerability of the desert ecosystem, to the business of subdivision building. Los Angeles Times

A section of Palmdale where Caltrans hopes to build an eight-lane freeway. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times )

COMPLEX CARIBBEAN

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A taut show, full of surprises, finds essential points of connection among the diverse island nations of the Caribbean Sea at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago features works that deal with the human (in a region defined by slavery) and the epic (hurricanes that lay bare fragile ecosystems and governments). Colonialism has made [the Caribbean islands] into these really vulnerable spaces, curator Tatiana Flores tells me, the smallness, the fragility, the vulnerability. Do not miss! Los Angeles Times

An installation by Dominican artist Scherezade Garcia at MOLAA. (Luis Zavala / MOLAA )

IN THE GALLERIES

Judy Fiskin has an exhibition that consists of a single 14-minute video exploring smartphone addiction at Richard Telles Fine Art  and its so enjoyable, says Times contributing reviewer David Pagel, that you may want to see it again as soon as its done.

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Pagel also has a look at some unlikely self-portraits by L.A painter Takako Yamaguchi at the new gallery As Is and some dreamy landscapes by Francesca Gabbiani and Iliodora Margellos at Baert Gallery.

Leah Ollman, in the meantime, takes time to walk through Robert Irwins astonishing 5,000-square-foot installation at Spruth Magers.

FROZEN FANS

Times culture reporter Jessica Gelt is in New York, where she sat in on a dress rehearsal for the new Broadway production of the hit Disney film Frozen. The musical, she writes, attracted a whooping and hollering house. Los Angeles Times

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The cast from the new Broadway musical Frozen on stage at the St. James Theatre. (Deen van Meer )

Gelt was back at the St. James Theatre on opening night, where she hung out with superfans of the popular cartoon film  some of whom turned out for the show in puffy parkas and Elsa dresses. Los Angeles Times

Plus: rendering a snowman on stage and the myriad other challenges of getting Frozen on Broadway. Washington Post

CHEKHOV THAT

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Sometimes you dont know how much you need Anton Chekhov until you re-encounter him, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. That re-encounter is happening in a spectacular way at the Old Globe in San Diego. This new Vanya, writes McNulty, has a conversational smoothness that removes the cobwebs sticking to those other translations that never let you forget that the play was written in 1897. Los Angeles Times

The cast of Uncle Vanya at the Old Globe in San Diego. (Jim Cox )

QUEEN OF THE STAGE

The Times Daryl Miller takes in a glittery, high-energy production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the Lex Theatre that provides a good shot of silly fun and makes good use of a tiny space. Los Angeles Times

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SUBTLETY VS. OSCARS FLASH

Since we are in mad Academy Awards countdown (we all want to go on vacation already), its a good time to turn to a terrific essay by Times film critic Justin Chang about how some of this years nominees are more about flash than nuanced craft. He singles out Oscar favorites Allison Janney, Frances McDormand and Gary Oldman as prime examples. Good read. Los Angeles Times

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in a scene from Darkest Hour. (Jack English / Focus Features )

LONG READ IM DIGGING

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Since Stewart Resnicks name has been in the news as patron, its probably a good time to look at the Central Valley agriculture empire that helped him accumulate his fortune  an empire that consumes nearly two-thirds as much water as is consumed by the entire City of Los Angeles. Settle in for some brilliant writing and reporting from Mark Arax. California Sunday

IN OTHER NEWS

 Jaime Martin, chief conductor of Swedens Gavle Symphony and the Spanish chamber music ensemble Cadaques Orchestra, has joined the L.A Chamber Orchestra as musical director. Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras music director designate is Jaime Martin. (Alexander Lindstrom )

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 Bernadette Peters on taking on the iconic lead role in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway. NPR

 The complex task of reviving old musicals that revive gender stereotypes in the era of #MeToo. New York Times

 The Times Deborah Vankin parses the upcoming summer season at the Hollywood Bowl. (Hint: Its a hard-knock life...) Los Angeles Times

 The Obama portraits have boosted attendance to the Smithsonians National Portrait Gallery. Artnet

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 Related: that chair that President Obama is sitting in for his portrait? It doesnt appear to exist. Greg.org

 A man broke the thumb off a 2,000-year-old terracotta warrior at an exhibition in Philadelphia and Chinese cultural leaders are not happy. BBC

 Frieze will be launching a SoCal fair in 2019 at Paramount Studios. Los Angeles Times

 Artist Alexandra Grant and actor Keanu Reeves are the minds behind X Artists Books, which publishes politically charged and other avant garde works. Los Angeles Magazine

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 In Austin, critic Mark Lamster writes about Ellsworth Kellys marshmallow of a building. Dallas Morning News

 Anne Tyng is perhaps best known as a design collaborator and romantic partner of architect Louis Kahn. Critic Karrie Jacobs considers her as architect  by visiting her only surviving solo project. Architect

 Apple employees keep walking into the clear glass doors at their new Norman Foster-designed campus. (Pro tip: You guys need some butterfly stickers placed at eye level.) Marketwatch

 In praise of negative reviews. The Baffler

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AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Sexy daikon is the pillow you didnt know you needed. Food & Wine

Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter 

carolina.miranda@latimes.com

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@cmonstahA West Virginia judge has tossed out a lawsuit filed by a coal magnate who was ridiculed on HBOs late-night show Last Week Tonight by host John Oliver.

Oliver targeted Murray Energy Chief Executive Robert Murray during a segment last June that blasted his company and criticized the standards of the coal industry at large. In the segment, Oliver revealed that when a producer for his show tried to get in touch with Murray Energy, it responded with a cease and desist letter from its legal team. The company has a long history of threatening litigation against its critics.

I know youre probably going to sue me over this. But, you know what? I stand by everything I said, said Oliver, who called the CEO a geriatric Dr. Evil.

Oliver turned out to be right. Murray filed a lawsuit shortly after the episode aired.

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Attorneys for HBO argued that Olivers comments were either factual  sourced from various court documents about Murray  or obviously satirical, both of which are protected by the 1st Amendment.

Judge Jeffrey Cramer of West Virginias second judicial circuit agreed, siding with the networks motion to dismiss the suit.

I find the arguments set forth in the defendants motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and reply well-founded, appropriate in this matter and will grant the same, Cramer wrote. The court adopts, with little exception, defendants argument in support of their motion regarding all issues addressed in the same.

Watch the original segment below.

gerrick.kennedy@latimes.com

For more music news follow me on Twitter:@GerrickKennedyIt's unclear how much of his change of heart arose from the striking political activism of students who survived the Valentine's Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., but they have certainly turned up the heat on the debate (which they need to convert into vote-mobilization).

The even better news is that Scott is not alone. Even as Congress refuses to slip off the gun lobby's leash, political leaders in several states say they'll push for more controls. New Jersey's recently installed Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, said he plans to form a coalition of like-minded governors to take a regional state-level approach to try to get a handle on the nation's gun-violence problem  a tactic loosely patterned after state responses to fight climate change after President Trump decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris agreement. He also has said he would sign a menu of gun-control measures that former Gov. Chris Christie vetoed.

In Vermont, long one of the nation's gun-friendliest states, Republican Gov. Phil Scott reversed his prior opposition to tightening gun laws, and called for measures that would increase to 21 the age at which someone can buy a firearm (unless they have passed a training course), ban bump stocks, allow police to temporarily remove firearms from someone deemed dangerous, and said he would consider requiring a background check for private sales of firearms and banning high-capacity magazines....

Another encouraging sign: Over the last couple of days, a number of businesses that work with the NRA have severed their connections. Enterprise Holdings will end a special rate program for NRA members renting cars through Enterprise, Alamo and National. A private Omaha bank said it will end co-branded NRA credit cards. MetLife said it would drop a policy discount for NRA members. And Chubb Ltd. decided three months ago that it would stop underwriting insurance that covered NRA members for legal problems arising from self-defense shootings.

>> Click here to read moreNorma Torres Alcazar of La Habra was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. (Orange County district attorney )

A 41-year-old La Habra woman and her two juvenile sons could face criminal charges after allegedly attacking a boy in a revenge hit-and-run, authorities said Friday.

Norma Alcazar was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after she used her car to strike a boy who had gotten into an altercation with one of her sons, La Habra Police Lt. Brian Miller said.

After the boy was struck, Alcazars two sons got out of the car and assaulted the victim again, police said.

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Officers responded to what was reported as a traffic collision about 5 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Harbor and La Habra boulevards. On arrival, they found the boy, who was taken to a trauma center with moderate injuries.

An investigation led officers to the suspected vehicle, and the three family members were arrested Thursday afternoon, police said. The names and ages of all of the boys involved were not given because they are juveniles, Miller said.

The case will soon be presented to the Orange County district attorneys office for possible prosecution.

corina.knoll@latimes.com

@corinaknollAs the father of a teenager, Ive got to make myself believe that even in crazy and scary times, its going to be OK, the world will survive, and todays young folks will lead the way.

Thats just the way it is for a parent. Youre a worried, cynical mess half the time and naively optimistic half the time. The Florida school massacre Feb. 14 was horrifying; the crusading response by young survivors was uplifting.

I think theyre amazing, said Miriam Antonio, whos not so old herself. She just turned 21.

Their speeches are inspirational and it gives me hope for a new generation thats going to be turning 18 and voting.

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If her name sounds familiar, you may have seen it here previously. And some of you have asked me whatever became of Miriam Antonio.

Today Ive got your answer.

I met Antonio in early 2015 at a school board candidate forum where two of the three candidates didnt bother to show up. The Fairfax High student and member of the United Way Student Leadership Program was properly indignant, and very well spoken, so I kept tabs on her.

Miriam Antonio in 2015. (Los Angeles Times )

In November of that year, I dropped into Antonios life for a day. I met her at the Koreatown apartment she shared with her mother and siblings, as well as with another family. Her mother supported the family with a seven-day-weekly janitorial job, which meant that Antonio often had to help care for her siblings.

I tagged along as she took one bus, then another, to get to Fairfax. She read Oscar Wilde on the way and talked about her goals. She wanted badly  for the sake of pride, a quality education and the opportunities that might bring  to get into UCLA or USC. She wanted to study law and go into politics, so she could fight for communities like the one she grew up in.

To be successful, she wrote in her college application essays, we must be greater than what we suffer.

Dozens of readers were impressed by Antonios hard work and fierce determination, and they donated to an education fund managed by the United Way. She was writing thank-you notes for months.

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But she didnt get into either of her top two choices, so she went to Santa Monica College instead. She says she loved it there, but applied again to USC during her first year. Last May, she sent me a message.

GOOD NEWS! said the subject line.

Shed been accepted to USC for the 2017-2018 school year.

A combination of financial aid, work, a scholarship and donations from readers have combined to pay her tuition, room and board. In addition, one local family has offered an annual stipend.

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I was impressed with the fact that shes a fighter, said attorney Luis Carrillo, who told me hed like Antonio to work for his law firm when she gets her degree. Shes fighting for an education and to overcome her difficult circumstances, so my wife [Beni] and I decided to help her.

Since I met her, Antonio has always juggled school, work, volunteering, political causes and family. She was so busy in the fall semester at USC, I delayed a visit. But the political activism of young folks in Florida offered a reminder that I wanted to reconnect.

When I called again, she went through her schedule in search of an opening, but there wasnt much to work with. And her evenings are booked, too. Shes often up until 2 a.m. or later doing homework, and averages five hours of sleep each night. She said she made the deans honors list, but she wants to boost her grade-point average.

We settled on a Thursday afternoon visit at the USC office of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics, where she works part time. Antonio was manning the front desk, but her regular duties include translation, student outreach and event coordination, such as the upcoming appearance by President Trumps former communications boss, Anthony Scaramucci.

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As part of her interdisciplinary major  philosophy, politics and law  shes working as a volunteer for the gubernatorial campaign of Antonio Villaraigosa. And shes a member of the campus Democrats club and the Society of Women and Law.

I always feel like such a loafer around her.

Shes constantly volunteering at our events and shes all over campus. Shes everywhere, said Unruh communications and outreach boss Kristy Plaza, who was editing a video about Antonio as a way to motivate other students to get involved.

The USC campus hasnt had a reputation as a hotbed of political activism, but Unruh director Robert Shrum said the rise of Trump and his effect on various issues has led to more student engagement.

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And then theres Antonio. Her engagement began with what she called a life-changing tour of the civil rights trail in the American South, where, as a teen, she became inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, among others.

Shes deeply engaged in political issues .. .I mean, she cares, said Shrum.

I think this whole younger generation is going to change America, and the big thing is, theyre not listening to adults who are telling them what to do, he said. Theyre deciding for themselves.

He was referring not just to Antonio, but to the Florida students who confronted their legislators and have refused to accept a corrupt political system that protects access to military-style weapons, putting students in the line of fire. Shrum said he was reminded of young people whose protests were the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War.

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I used to tell people I thought Miriam Antonio would be governor one day, but she says her goals have changed. She still loves politics, but partisanship and the surrender of privacy dont appeal to her, and she thinks she could make a bigger difference as an activist or a civil rights attorney than as a politician. She might also want to start a nonprofit with a focus on getting more low-income students into great universities.

But shes a sophomore, and all of that is a long way off.

My goal here, by the time I graduate, is to make this campus a little more politically active, she said.

This weekend shes at the state Democratic Party convention in San Diego. Next weekend shes headed to the Women Achieving Greatness conference in Sacramento.

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Sara Mooney, Antonios mentor at the United Way, said Miriam told her on a recent weekend that she was attending a political event in Hollywood and handing out burritos on skid row. Mooney says she suggested that Antonio schedule some downtime and make sure to enjoy her college experience, because itll be over too soon.

I told Antonio the same, but like Shrum said, shes of a different generation, and shes finding her own way.

This is me enjoying college, she told me. Getting involved is what makes it fun for me.

One last thing. I wanted to know about the day last year when she got the news.

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I came home from school and it was pretty late. No one was home, then my mom arrived with my brother, and she had a huge smile on her face, said Antonio. She was holding something behind her back, and she showed me this huge white package from USC that had come in the mail.

I knew what it meant and we both started crying. I was crying uncontrollably. It was my dream come true.

To read this article in Spanish, click here

Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopezA UC Irvine review has cleared an Israeli student support group of allegations of aiding Israeli military veterans in harassing a Palestinian support group during a campus event last year.

Students for Justice in Palestine alleged that members of Students Supporting Israel aided and abetted the military veterans in verbally threatening and sexually harassing its members during an Anti-Zionism Week event the pro-Israel group sponsored on campus May 8-11.

According to the university review, dated Jan. 10, witnesses who had submitted written statements accusing the pro-Israel group of misconduct refused to be interviewed by UCIs student conduct officer, Christopher Coronel, and he was unable to verify any of the allegations.

Coronel wrote in the review, dated Jan. 10, that none of the videos or documents he reviewed showed that the pro-Israel group violated university policy.

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If new information is presented, Coronel wrote, the case may be reopened.

Representatives of the pro-Palestinian group could not be reached for comment.

Students Supporting Israel founder and president Ilan Sinelnikov said in a statement that his group is pleased with the report.

Its important other universities do the same when these groups attempt to use these tactics to discredit our organization, and expose these groups fraught relationship with truth and facts, Sinelnikov said.

University spokesman Tom Vasich said the school had no official statement on the matter.

During Anti-Zionism Week, Students Supporting Israel sponsored a May 10 panel featuring former Israel Defense Force officers. During a Q&A period, about 40 members of Students for Justice in Palestine arrived and began asking questions. The discussion became heated, with shouting and chanting for several minutes, the university said.

Students for Justice in Palestine issued a statement at the time saying it protested the event to show that the Israeli veterans were unwelcome on campus because they enforce Zionist settler colonialism and military occupation of Palestinian land by the Israeli nation-state.

After the incident, university administrators placed the pro-Palestinian group on two years probation and directed members to attend free-speech meetings.

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It was the second time in a year that members of Students for Justice in Palestine interrupted an event presented by Students Supporting Israel amid ongoing tensions between the groups.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.comA military court has reprimanded a Marine two-star general at Camp Pendleton for unlawfully meddling in a court-martial case against a noncommissioned officer accused of abusing his troops.

In a ruling last week, the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington overturned the court-martial conviction of Sgt. Jaime Ortiz. The court found that Maj. Gen. Eric M. Smith went too far in his crackdown against hazing throughout the 1st Marine Division.

Prosecutors had alleged that Ortiz conspired with fellow noncommissioned officers to haze five junior Marines by forcing them to get special haircuts and ordering them to perform excessive physical exercises. Ortiz was also accused of punching two of them in the chest, according to court filings.

The Marines have tried to eradicate hazing for five years. In 2013, former Marine commandant Gen. James Amos issued an anti-hazing order that was designed to track and stamp out abuse throughout the Corps.

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Smith took command of 1st Marine Division on June 22. Echoing Amos, one of his first acts was issuing his Commanding Generals Policy Statement on Hazing. It called on his commanders to involuntarily discharge anyone found to have abused lower ranking troops.

On July 11 and 12, Smith sent a series of emails to commanders and others, urging them to take immediate actions to curtail hazing.

Smith noted that hed reviewed five hazing allegations during the week and called the abuse the single biggest issue I have, and that word does not seem to be getting down to all hands.

Smith urged his commanders to take action against a few salty lance corporals who think they are in charge.

Ortiz was arrested on July 13 in one of those cases and

Smith convened a court-martial against him on Aug. 15. Ortizs attorneys immediately filed a motion to quash the case, arguing that the general had strayed from unbiased justice to become a direct accuser.

Under military law, generals are barred from convening trials against Marines if they have a direct, personal stake in the case.

The trial judge agreed with the defense attorneys and moved to vacate Ortizs case without prejudice, which means that military prosecutors can try him again.

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The judge also disqualified Smith from any future role in Ortizs case, meaning another general in a different command would have to start the entire process over if the Marine Corps still wanted prosecute the sergeant.

Prosecutors appealed the decision on Nov. 7.

Smith declined to be interviewed, but his spokesman said his division would continue to go after Marines alleged to have abused their troops.

Military prosecutors have not determined whether they will continue to pursue the case against Ortiz.

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Prine writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.As Syrian warplanes continued to bombard a civilian enclave outside Damascus, killing hundreds, key European leaders demanded a cease-fire Friday while the United Nations struggled to bring Russia on board with the plan to end the carnage.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled, then postponed, then rescheduled, a vote on a 30-day cease-fire, but by nightfall in New York, no agreement had been reached.

Voices calling for urgent action, however, were abundant.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a joint letter Friday calling on his country to support the Security Council resolution.

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It is now time to act, the two leaders said in a statement.

War monitors say more than 400 people have been killed and 2,000 injured since the Syrian government, backed by Russia, escalated its bombardment Sunday of the densely populated rebel-held enclave known as eastern Ghouta. Bombing continued Friday.

Among the dead are at least 99 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog based in Britain.

Scores of people have also been injured or killed in rebel shelling of residential neighborhoods in the capital, Damascus.

The governments of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russia and their ally, Iran, have sought to justify the bombardment of Ghouta by saying antigovernment rebels there are shelling Damascus. Pro-Assad officials refer to those rebels as terrorists who they say are affiliated with Al Qaeda.

But the international community insists that Syrian and Russian attacks are indiscriminate, target medical facilities and civilian infrastructure, and are blocking the delivery of badly needed medicines, food and other aid.

Macron and Merkel acknowledged the attacks on civilians in Damascus, as well as on the Russian Embassy there, but said that such actions did not set aside the obligation and responsibility to protect the civilian population in eastern Ghouta and elsewhere.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the estimated 400,000 people in eastern Ghouta were living in hell on earth.

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Robert Mardini, regional Near and Middle East director for the International Committee for the Red Cross, told reporters in Beirut that the organization was shocked by the level of violence in eastern Ghouta.

The statistics are staggering, but many can still be saved, and this is our priority today, he said. We need to deliver badly needed supplies to thousands affected by the ongoing fighting. People are trapped and desperate.

He too said that shelling of civilians in Damascus was unacceptable but that the scale was totally different.

Russia can veto any U.N. Security Council resolution, and has frequently done so when any measure is critical of Assad.

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However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his government could support the cease-fire resolution if it contained certain guarantees, including stopping firing into Damascus. Ironing out those details seemed to be the cause of Fridays vote delay.

As drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, Lavrov said, the resolution does not provide guarantees that [the rebels] will not continue shooting at Damascus residential areas.

Russia is proposing a formula, he said, that would make the cease-fire real, based on the guarantees of all who are inside eastern Ghouta and outside eastern Ghouta.

Kuwait and Sweden held out hope that agreement could be reached that would establish a cease-fire within 72 hours of passage in the Security Council.

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We are so close to adopting this resolution, Kuwaits ambassador to the U.N., Mansour Al-Otaibi, told reporters. We are almost there. Kuwait currently holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council.

The United States seems to have taken a back seat in the cease-fire efforts. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert was asked repeatedly Thursday what steps Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was taking to urge Lavrov or other Russian officials to stop hostilities. But she would not provide an answer.

We are in Syria to fight ISIS, she said, using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group.

Russias military intervention in the 7-year-old conflict in Syria helped give Assad the upper hand against U.S.-backed rebel groups seeking to topple him.

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Wilkinson reported from Washington and Zavis from Beirut.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on TwitterSince the shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week, a student there named Sarah Chadwick has amassed a Twitter following of more than 150,000 people. On Thursday night, Chadwick decided to share a thought with them.

Was it time for a message calling for thoughts, prayers and privacy?

Hardly. It was time to dunk on one of Floridas U.S. senators for taking donations from the National Rifle Assn.

We should change the names of AR-15s to Marco Rubio because they are so easy to buy, Chadwick wrote, earning 45,000 retweets.

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This is what politicizing a tragedy looks like, and the kids are more than happy to keep doing it.

With 17 of their classmates and faculty shot to death, the students of the school have become celebrity activists, whom many left-leaning Americans have embraced as the new leaders of the nations gun control movement.

The students have been bold, confrontational and even abrasive, rarely holding back their anger, even if it means disrespecting their older, establishment opponents. They say what they mean.

Honestly, just using brutal honesty  thats it, said student David Hogg, one of the movements most prominent voices. I know people are saying its intense. I would argue the opposite. Were fighting for these kids that died because they cant fight anymore. Were really trying to get justice for them.

Hogg added: Everybody deals with grief in a different way. For me, its anger, and wanting to prevent whatever caused it from happening again.

The students stridency has added pressure on lawmakers and kept the shooting from fading from the headlines.

It has also insulted the feelings of right-wing adversaries at several points, including by implying gun rights supporters have the 17 deaths at Stoneman Douglas on their hands.

Sen. Rubio, its hard to look at you and not look down a barrel of an AR-15 and not look at [suspected shooter] Nikolas Cruz, student activist Cameron Kasky told Rubio at CNNs Wednesday night town hall with students, parents and lawmakers. The remark drew scorn on the right.

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No thanks, Cameron, a writer at the conservative website RedState.com fired back at the student later. I dont need some 17-year-old putz to defend my kids. In fact, either of my daughters, particularly the 13-year-old, can kick your ass. And when it comes to choosing sides, Im on the other.

The students have also faced accusations of being, well, disrespectful brats.

Parents, what would you do if your child lectured and ridiculed a U.S. senator on national television? Fox News personality Todd Starnes tweeted after Kasky and other students ripped into Rubio.

The kids know exactly what theyre doing, and they dont care about the criticism.

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When these politicians kill our friends, why are we expected to play nice? Hogg said. Obviously its due to their inaction; thats what were aiming at.

Hoggs own prominence has led to a backlash of conspiracy theories accusing him of not being a student at the school. It also led him to question who, exactly, has been lowering the discourse.

You know whats disrespectful? Hogg asked. Calling out witnesses to a mass shooting and calling us actors. Thats disrespectful. And even questioning whether we were even  there. We are teenagers  were not known for being mature, but cmon.

The students advocacy has also been expressed in the language of their generation, which is well-versed in the combative dunks, burns and owns of arguing on social media. They know how to speak into their own cameras, they know how to play to audiences online, and so when a fight breaks out on social media, its on their turf.

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Fellow student Chadwicks AR-15 zinger about Rubio drew the scorn of Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who, on her own Twitter account, called out the sophomore by name to flag concern over HOW TEENS SPEAK TO AND ABT ADULTS.

Chadwick, suddenly identified for misbehavior by one of the most powerful figures in conservative media, responded drolly with three words that earned 15,000 retweets: Im a junior.

While the movement has inspired students at schools around the nation to perform walkouts in support of gun control, the history of 21st century activism has shown that there are upsides and downsides to organizing over social media.

Platforms such as Twitter excel at helping newfound activists to create and document conflict, and to attract ever-larger audiences for their own messages. Their visibility also helps recruit like-minded peers outside of their own communities.

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But over the long term, social media platforms can also pose a risk to activist movements by magnifying and publicizing disputes between members or creating bitterness among core supporters who play key roles but who attract less public attention.

So far, few signs of internal dissent seem to have broken out among Stoneman Douglas students, whose cohesion has struck longtime advocates as unique.

I dont think weve ever seen an entire community, including the survivors, have a clear call to action, said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun control group.

In past mass shootings, it has been common for family members of victims to become passionate, outspoken gun control advocates.

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But in Parkland, its as if all of them agreed immediately that stronger gun laws would prevent anyone else from going through this tragedy again, Watts said. These teens are realizing they dont have to live this way, they dont have to die this way.

The students stridency, however disliked by their opponents, seems to have had an effect on Republican lawmakers. President Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who are strongly supported by the NRA, have signaled that they are open to raising the age limit for buying weapons.

Grilled by students, Rubio declined to say he would stop accepting donations by the NRA, but he said he would be open to banning large ammo magazines or supporting other legislation.

Rubio also learned firsthand the risks of talking to a radical younger generation that has been unfamiliar with the past failures of the gun control movement, including the inability to bring back the nations assault-weapons ban.

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Once you start looking at how easy it is to get around it, you would literally have to ban every semiautomatic rifle thats sold in the U.S., Rubio said at the town hall with students and parents.

Rubio was implying that such a move would, politically, go way too far.

What Rubio did not anticipate is that the audience of students would start applauding at the idea.

Fair enough, Rubio said. Fair enough. That is a valid position to hold.

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But he added the political reality that students will face as they prod federal and state lawmakers around the country: My colleagues do not support banning every semiautomatic rifle sold in America.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Matt Pearce is a national reporter for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @mattdpearce.

More national headlinesTo the editor: In 2004, I went to the Rose Bowl to hear Billy Graham, who died Feb. 21. I went out of curiosity and because I suspected it would be his last appearance in California. It was.

Because of traffic I was late and the event was already underway. From a distance I could hear Cliff Barrows, Grahams right-hand man, welcoming the crowd. As I entered the Rose Bowl, the sound of 90,000 people singing How Great Thou Art, the Billy Graham anthem, sent a chill up my spine.

I looked around and thought of how some people can move the masses. When it is done for evil (think of Hitler in the German stadiums), it can cause worldwide chaos and misery. When it is done for good it can make the world a better place.

Graham was no saint. His stance toward gay people was miserable and unchanging. He would not have approved of my marriage to my husband. Yet despite his lousy stance on LGBT rights, in general, he tried to make the world a better place.

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Sadly, his evangelic movement was hijacked in the 1980s by self-serving ideologues like Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority, who moved evangelism into politics and the culture wars. Graham himself publicly stated his regret for having been drawn into politics. Even more tragic, Grahams legacy is his son Franklin, who has moved his fathers organization to the extreme far right.

Evangelicals would be wise to look back to Grahams early days when his goal was simpler: to get people to live better and more loving lives.

Doug Jones, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: The German philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote the following:

The power of a country road when one is walking along it is different from the power it has when one is flying over it by airplane. The airplane passenger sees only how the road pushes through the landscape, how it unfolds according to the same laws as the terrain surrounding it. Only he who walks the road on foot learns the power it commands, and of how, from the very scenery that for the flier is only the unfurled plain, it calls forth distances, belvederes, clearings, prospects at each of its turns like a commander deploying soldiers at a front.

For the religiously faithful, the fly-over is sufficient. For the Rev. Graham, only the walk would do.

John Leverence, Studio City

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Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookGavin Newsom releases ad that highlights his push to allow same-sex couples to marry By Phil Willon A new ad from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom features Phyllis Lyon, who with her partner, Del Martin, received the first marriage license after Newsom vowed to allow same-sex couples to marry when he was mayor of San Francisco in 2004. The current lieutenant governors push for marriage equality thrust him into the national spotlight and he has emphasized that effort to portray himself as a bold, progressive leader. Facebook

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Failed California housing bill was not a bad idea, Gov. Jerry Brown says By Liam Dillon Gov. Jerry Brown (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Earlier this month, high-profile housing legislation that would have allowed for four- to five-story apartments and condominiums near transit stops failed to advance in the state Legislature. But had it reached his desk, would Gov. Jerry Brown have signed it? Maybe. I think that was not a bad idea, Brown said of Senate Bill 827 at a meeting with business leaders from the Bay Area Council on Monday afternoon. The bill, written by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), attracted national attention and a maelstrom of opposition in part because it would have eliminated single-family zoning near transit stops in favor of apartments or condominiums. Brown said that a relative of his who lives in West Portal, a low-density neighborhood in San Francisco, told the governor he was horrified by the bill. Brown also lamented dramatically rising housing costs. He said he bought his first house in Los Angeles in 1973 for $75,000 at a time when his salary as secretary of state was $35,000. Now, he said, buying a house for a little over twice ones annual salary is virtually impossible anywhere in the state. FOR THE RECORD

May 1, 9:32 a.m.: This post originally misstated the year Brown purchased his house as 1970. It was 1973. Facebook

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John Cox begins California barnstorm with the delivery of gas tax repeal signatures By Javier Panzar Gubernatorial candidate John Cox, left, and Assembly candidate Bill Essayli load boxes of signatures for the gas tax repeal initiative. (Francine Orr) GOP gubernatorial candidate John Cox strolled up to the stack of 12 boxes in front of the Los Angeles County registrar-recorders offices in Norwalk on Monday and placed his hands on top of his partys hope for success in 2018. The boxes, stacked four across and three high, contained 211,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees. Cox says the effort has gathered more than 940,000 signatures from registered voters to put the measure on the ballot  far more than the 585,407 signatures that are required. The aim: to bring out the partys base to the polls this November and help candidates in tough congressional and legislative races down the ticket. A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in November found 54.2% of registered voters surveyed said they would repeal the tax and fee hike, but a survey a month earlier by another group said a majority would vote to keep the higher taxes. Cox was flanked by Bill Essayli, a former federal prosecutor who is challenging Democratic Assemblywoman Sabrina Cervantes of Riverside in the June primary. Cervantes voted for the gas tax and Essayli plans to use that vote against her. He even launched his campaign at a 76 gas station in Norco. This is a central issue in my campaign, he said. Cox also submitted signatures in San Diego on Monday and is headed to Bakersfield, Fresno and Sacramento, as well as Shasta and Butte counties in coming days. We are going all across the state, Cox said. The whole state is paying this tax and the whole state wants it gone. Facebook

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All Californians would be able to serve on state boards  even people in the U.S. illegally  under new bill By Jazmine Ulloa Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) State lawmakers on Monday introduced legislation that would allow all Californians to serve on state boards and commissions regardless of immigration status. Senate Bill 174, by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles), comes as the state is locked in a broader legal battle with the Trump administration over state immigration laws and his call for mass deportations. Lawmakers point to what they say is the states own discriminatory history as their basis for introducing the legislation. The proposal would amend an 1872 provision that was first adopted to exclude Chinese immigrants and other transient aliens from holding appointed civil positions. At the time, antipathy toward the Chinese had been building in California, though, Chinese immigrants opened hundreds of businesses across the state and would play a critical role in building the transcontinental railroad. The Senate bill would delete the phrase transient aliens from the government code and make clear that any person, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, can hold an appointed civil office if they are at least 18 years old and a resident of the state. That would allow any Californian to serve on hundreds of boards and commissions that advice in an array of policy areas, including farm labor, history and employment development. Californias two million undocumented immigrants are a source of energy for our state, Lara said in a statement. It is shocking to read the words of fear and exclusion that are still in California law but belong in historys trash can. Facebook

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Tony Mendozas fundraising dries up after resignation amid harassment inquiry By Patrick McGreevy Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). (Steve Yeater / Associated Press) Political contributions to Tony Mendoza, who resigned from the state Senate under pressure amid sexual harassment allegations, have nearly dried up. New documents he filed with the state in his bid to reclaim the seat he once held show that his support has eroded. As a result, five other candidates for the 32nd District senate seat in the June 5 election have raised more than Mendoza so far this year. With the June 5 election approaching, Mendoza has reported raising just $7,750 in cash from six supporters during the nearly four-month period from Jan. 1 to April 21. Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia, went on a leave of absence from the Senate Jan. 3 and resigned a month later under the threat of expulsion from colleagues. An investigation ordered by the Senate found a pattern of unwanted flirtatious or sexually suggestive behavior based on testimony from six women. Mendoza has denied wrongdoing. Last year, Mendozas reelection campaign raised $412,600, or an average of about $34,000 per month, from more than 350 supporters. Most of Mendozas 2018 total was contributed by the political arm of the Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16 on Jan. 22, a month before Mendoza resigned. Mendoza also reported that his campaign loaned $125,000 this year to his legal defense fund. That left him with $446,600 in his campaign account at the end of April. Mendoza is running against eight Democrats and two Republicans. Democrat Bob J. Archuleta, a Pico Rivera city councilman, raised the most, $210,000, during the period. On Monday, Mendoza suffered another setback when the State Legislative Womens Caucus endorsed Democrat Vicky Santana, a member of the Rio Hondo College Board. Facebook

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Newsom and Villaraigosa affairs coming to TV ads in California By Phil Willon An independent political committee backing Republican John Cox for governor released an ad blasting both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for their past sexual affairs. The California Deserves Better ad, which was first reported by Politico, criticizes Newsom for having an affair with a woman on his staff in 2005 while he served as mayor of San Francisco. It also goes after Villaraigosa for having an extramarital affair with a television reporter in 2007 while he was mayor of Los Angeles. The ad, which begins airing on Fox stations in the states top media markets Monday, links Newsom and Villaraigosa to the men accused of sexual impropriety in the #MeToo movement, including movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and disgraced Today show veteran Matt Lauer. Powerful men are finally being held to account, punished for inappropriate sexual conduct with women over whom they exercise power, the ad begins. Newsom and Villaraigosa think the rules shouldnt apply to them. The independent campaign committee, called Restore Our Values, already has raised more than $100,000, said Leigh Teece of Emeryville in Northern California, co-founder of the group. Teece, the CEO of a nonprofit that helps line up students with professional mentors, said the campaign will actively support Cox. She called him a true conservative and noted that he supports cutting taxes and opposes Californias sanctuary state policy. John is a business person who has demonstrated integrity, Teece said. Facebook

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Was that Cisneros in the voicemail? Dispute is latest espisode of Democratic infighting in crowded primary races By Christine Mai-Duc Gil Cisneros speaks during a forum at Fullerton College in January. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) With less than five weeks to go before Californias primary, insults and accusations are flying with abandon in the most crowded races Democrats hope to ultimately win. The latest example of this is in the 39th Congressional District, where a half dozen Democrats are vying for a chance to replace Rep. Ed Royce, whos retiring. Its one of several California contests where Democratic leaders are already worried that divisions could ultimately split votes and shut Democrats out of key pickup opportunities. In that race, millionaires Gil Cisneros and Andy Thorburn are going negative  about going negative. Cisneros was recently elevated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committees Red to Blue program in hopes it would serve as a signal to Democratic activists and donors that his campaign was the most viable. But both Cisneros and Thorburn have poured millions into the race, which promises to be a knock down, drag out fight through June 5. At the center of the latest controversy is a voicemail, allegedly left by Cisneros on Thorburns home answering machine earlier this month. The recording, which the Thorburn campaign turned over to media outlet The Intercept, lasts less than 10 seconds. Hi Andy, its Gil Cisneros. Im gonna go negative on you, a mans voice is heard saying. Cisneros campaign manager Orrin Evans denied the candidate made the call, posting a cease and desist letter to The Intercept on Twitter. The letter, sent by a Cisneros campaign attorney, called the voicemail fabricated and demanded that the story be taken down, calling it defamatory. It gave the publication until 3 p.m. Friday to take down the story before they pursue all legal rights and remedies. An attorney for The Intercept, in a letter to Cisneros, said the publication confirmed with multiple sources familiar with Mr. Cisneros that his voice was on the recording, and that it stands by its reporting. Thorburns camp says it flatly rejects Cisneros denial, and that the timing of a negative website filled with unflattering background on Thorburn, released three days later, suggests it was him. Track the California races that could flip the House According to The Intercepts report, Cisneros campaign manager did not respond to initial inquiries about the voicemail, calling its questions ridiculous. In a follow-up statement Friday, Evans said called the episode a dirty, desperate trick by the Thorburn campaign and said they are readying to pursue legal action for defamation and false light against both him and the publication. It sounded like him to me! said Thorburns wife, Karen, in a statement released by the campaign. She was the one who first heard the voicemail, they said. Thorburn campaign manager Nancy Leeds called Cisneros threats Trump-like tactics and accused the candidate of trying to harass and intimidate anyone who stands in his way. Its not the first time candidates from the same party have clashed in the lead-up to the June 5 primary, and its all but certain to not be the last. Cisneros sued two of his opponents, Thorburn and Sam Jammal, over their ballot descriptions until they had to change them. Earlier this month, Democrat Bryan Caforio asked his opponent, Katie Hill, to sign a pledge rejecting the use of independent expenditure committees, entities that neither of them can legally coordinate with, in the race to unseat Rep. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster). Hill refused and called the attempt hollow and likened it to political theater, while Caforio accused her of empty campaign promises. Facebook

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California Politics Podcast: The money raised in the race for governor hints at a race thats now red hot By John Myers With less than six weeks before election day, the cash raised in the California governors race mirrors the overall dynamics: one major front-runner and a heated race for second place. This weeks podcast episode offers a glimpse into those cash reports and how the Republican field seems more settled in a new statewide poll than the battle between Democrats. We also examine the reasons why a nationally talked-about housing bill in Sacramento was killed by the Democratic authors own allies. Im joined by Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Liam Dillon. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher. Facebook

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L.A. County politician sexually assaulted woman when she was 16, lawsuit claims By Dakota Smith A woman sued an unnamed politician in Los Angeles County on Friday, alleging the man sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager after he gave her an unusual-tasting drink. The politician, identified as John Doe, was in his early 40s and a public figure at the time of the 2007 assault, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The man is an elected official today and lives in Los Angeles, said attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing the woman identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe. Bloom declined to say what branch of government the man represents. Read More Facebook

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Villaraigosa touts his working-class upbringing, accomplishments as mayor in first TV ad By Phil Willon Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa released his first TV ad in the governors race Friday, touting his record and accomplishments as mayor of Los Angeles when up against the economic downturn during the recession. The 30-second television spot opens with a sweeping shot of Los Angeles and cuts to Villaraigosa sitting on a bus. In kindergarten, my sister and I took three buses to get to school. As mayor, I remembered that, Villaraigosa says into the camera. And despite the recession, we built more new schools and rail lines than any city in America, added 200,000 living wage jobs, built 20,000 units of affordable housing and nearly doubled graduation rates. Campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino said the ad will air statewide over the next week at a cost of approximately $1 million. The commercial will being airing Saturday. Two Democratic rivals in Californias race for governor, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang, also launched ads this week, signaling the biggest ramp-up of the campaign as the June 5 primary approaches. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican John Cox. One recent poll has Villaraigosa trailing both Cox and Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach. Chiang has been stuck in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. Last week, an independent expenditure group called Families and Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor, funded largely by a trio of wealthy charter school backers, launched a spot in support of the former mayor of Los Angeles. That ad campaign is focused on increasing Villaraigosas chances of coming in second in the June 5 primary and moving on to the general election. Villaraigosas ad, titled Three Buses, emphasizes the struggles he faced growing up in East Los Angeles and addresses one of his central campaign themes  that hes the candidate best suited to help working-class Californians. I know how far a bus can take you, Villaraigosa says in the ad. Facebook

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein wont participate in pre-primary debate By Sarah D. Wire (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call) California Sen. Dianne Feinstein will not participate in a proposed pre-primary debate because there are too many candidates in the race, her campaign spokesman said Thursday. Political activists with the group Indivisible Los Angeles said they had a venue and date  May 5  reserved for a debate with four of the Senate candidates. But they said if Feinstein does not participate, it will be canceled. Feinstein faces 31 primary opponents in her bid for a fifth full term representing California in the Senate. Feinstein staffers initially said she had a prior commitment on May 5 in San Francisco. When organizers offered to let her campaign pick another date, her campaign said it wasnt fair for the group to invite only some of the candidates when there is such a big field, said Tudor Popescu, volunteer community organizer with Indivisible Los Angeles. The invited candidates, all Democrats, were Feinstein, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, political action committee director Alison Hartson and lawyer Pat Harris. They were selected based on fundraising and poll numbers. There are 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats, nine independents and 2 third-party candidates running for Senate on the June ballot. Indivisible Los Angeles is still hoping Feinstein will pick another date, Popescu said. Feinstein spokesman Jeff Millman pointed to a San Francisco Chronicle endorsement of Feinstein, which indicates that she told the editorial board she would be willing to have a debate ahead of Novembers general election. Senator Feinstein looks forward to debating her opponent in the general election, Millman said in an email. Feinstein holds a substantial lead in both fundraising and in the polls. Front-runners in statewide races have routinely declined to debate their challengers, knowing that its free publicity for candidates who dont have the cash to increase their name recognition on their own. De Leon spokesman Jonathan Underland said the state senator has done candidate forums before, but planned to attend the May 5 debate only if Feinstein did. We basically said well clear his calendar 100%, well clear his calendar if Feinstein shows up, Underland said. Wed love to make it happen, but we want her to be there. Facebook

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NRA, Olympic shooter sue California over its restrictions on ammunition sales By Patrick McGreevy Olympian Kim Rhode is a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the NRA and its state affiliate against California. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) The National Rifle Assn. and its state affiliate have filed a fourth lawsuit against California over its gun control laws, this time challenging new restrictions on the sale and transfer of ammunition. The NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. filed a challenge in federal court to a requirement that ammunition sales and transfers be conducted face to face with California firearms dealers or licensed vendors, ending purchases made directly from out-of-state sellers on the internet. The lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California also challenged a requirement starting next year for background checks for people buying ammunition. The lawsuit was filed in the name of Kim Rhode, a six-time Olympic medal-winning shooter, and others. It challenges Californias new ammunition sales restrictions as a violation of the 2nd Amendment and the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. Restrictions on ammunition purchases were included in Proposition 63, approved by voters in 2016, and in bills approved by the Legislature. As a result of these laws, millions of constitutionally protected ammunition transfers are banned in California, Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. Californias law-abiding gun owners are sick of being treated like criminals and the NRA is proud to assist in this fight. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running for governor, defended his initiative and vowed to fight the NRA lawsuit. We wrote Proposition 63 on solid legal ground and principle: If youre a felon banned from possessing guns in California, then you should not be able to purchase the ammunition that makes a firearm deadly, Newsom said in a statement. California voters said loudly and clearly that guns and ammunition do not belong in the hands of dangerous individuals  but once again, the NRA has prioritized gun industry profits over the lives of law-abiding Californians. Facebook

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Republicans hope to ride a gas-tax repeal to victory By Patrick McGreevy In a Central Valley barn decked out in red, white and blue, dairyman and state Senate candidate Johnny Tacherra drew cheers from a crowd of fellow farmers when he said he opposes the California Legislatures hike on gas taxes and vehicle fees. I would not have voted for that. It is not the time to be voting on (raising) the gas tax, said Tacherra, a Republican running against Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, who voted for the tax increase last year. Three hundred miles away the same week, a campaign mailer arrived at homes in Orange County from an Assembly candidate with a message blaring from the cover in bold type: Republican Greg Haskin  tough enough to stand up to Jerry Brown and repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Treasurer John Chiang launches ad in governors race touting his record as a fiscal steward By Seema Mehta In his first television ad in the governors race, state Treasurer John Chiang touts his record on fiscal issues as California faced the recession. Some thought we were done, Chiang says in a voiceover in the 30-second spot he released Thursday, with images of him standing seriously at a lectern and complimentary headlines about his work as controller and treasurer. But I knew better. I made the tough calls. And brought California back from the brink of financial disaster because you trusted me to manage our economy. Chiangs campaign is spending about $500,000 to air the ad in Los Angeles and San Diego in coming days. That buy is dwarfed by seven-figure purchases for ads supporting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Newsom is the front-runner, while Villaraigosa is battling for second place with Republican businessman John Cox. Chiang has been mired in the single digits in almost all polling in the race. His ad, called Quiet Storm, tries to portray Chiang as a progressive who is effective and can move policy in Sacramento. Chiang points to his work challenging Wells Fargo before arguing that he could accomplish what doubters say is impossible to improve the states healthcare, housing and schools. I say, we got this, Chiang concludes. Facebook

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Been ignoring the race for California governor? Thats OK, in some ways its just starting By Mark Z. Barabak On a recent trip to Iowa, Eric Garcetti  the mayor of Los Angeles and a possible 2020 White House contestant  raised eyebrows with a bit of exuberant outreach. Los Angeles and Iowa, Garcetti insisted, have a ton in common, and he didnt simply mean both are inhabited by carbon-based life forms needing oxygen to survive. Urban or rural, farmer or fashion plate, all of us harbor the same hopes and dreams, the mayor suggested, and if it wasnt a terribly original thought it also wasnt the most egregious sort of political pandering  like, say, ordering that every home in Los Angeles be powered by Iowa-produced ethanol. Read More Facebook

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California voters should expect to decide on an $8.9-billion water bond in November By Liam Dillon (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A proposal to borrow $8.9 billion for improvements to Californias water quality systems and watersheds and protection of natural habitats is eligible for the statewide ballot in November, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced in a press release Wednesday. Padilla said the measure, which is backed by agricultural interests, had exceeded the 365,800 valid signatures it needed to qualify for the general election ballot. The bond measure will appear on the ballot unless proponents withdraw it by June 28, the release said. The bond is one of many voters could decide on in 2018. A $4-billion bond for parks and water infrastructure improvements will appear on the June 5 ballot. State lawmakers approved it last year. Facebook

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They came for Darrell Issa. They stayed with their inflatable chicken, blue wall and signs for political therapy By Christine Mai-Duc (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) A mother of two turned ringleader of the resistance and more than a hundred of her faithful followers gathered on Tuesday morning outside Rep. Darrell Issas office in a northern San Diego County suburb. Across the street was her foil, a wedding DJ in a red Make American Great Again cap, setting up hefty speakers for an upcoming war of words. For about 65 weeks the deep divide in America played out along this 100-yard stretch of road in Vista. Here, at 10 a.m. every Tuesday, passersby found signs, chants, songs and, if they were lucky, sometimes a 20-foot-tall inflatable chicken with a Trump-esque coif. Theyd also glimpse the state of the body politic in 2018, a time when shock has turned to anger and post-2016 calls for reconciliation have morphed into grudging acceptance that each side might be better off in their respective corners. Or in this case, their sides of the street. On Tuesday, the anti-Issa, anti-Trump contingent fought this particular battle for the last time, declaring it their final protest at the congressmans office. They said they planned to use their energy to knock on doors and get out the vote, with an occasional protest on the side. Their pro-Trump rivals vowed to show up wherever they do. Read More Facebook

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Efforts to regulate bail companies have some unlikely allies: bail agents By Jazmine Ulloa Jane Un, chief executive and founder of Abba Bail Bonds, works with a client. ( Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) In recent years, the seriousness and number of official complaints related to the bail industry in California have significantly increased while bail agents and bounty hunters face limited oversight, putting vulnerable communities at risk of fraud, embezzlement and other forms of victimization. This year, as Gov. Jerry Brown has pledged to work with lawmakers in a push to overhaul how courts assign defendants bail and to better regulate bail agencies, even some who profit from the court practice admit its time for regulation. These bail and bail-recovery agents could become unlikely allies, saying they advocate for change because theyve seen the system abuse the poor. Read More Facebook

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California voters: Get ready for an onslaught of television ads By Seema Mehta After a sleepy campaign, California voters are now being bombarded with television advertisements in the governors race, an onslaught that is expected to ramp up in coming weeks. The ads most frequently seen on television are those promoting Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the race, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is trying to secure the second spot in the June primary. Newsoms campaign and an outside group backing Villaraigosa are spending seven figures weekly on these efforts, according to filings with the California secretary of states office and a media buyer who asked not to be identified in order to freely discuss the ads. Other gubernatorial candidates are expected to hit the airwaves soon, the media buyer said. State Treasurer John Chiang has reserved a half-million dollars in the coming days in the Los Angeles and San Diego markets, and Villaraigosas campaign has requested availability in at least five of the states biggest TV markets. The GOP candidates in the race, who will be seeking the state Republican Partys endorsement at its convention next weekend, have been much less active. Businessman John Cox in recent weeks has been spending about $90,000 per week, but doubled that this week in Los Angeles and added small buys on KFI-AM radio and cable in markets including Fresno, Bakersfield and Salinas. State Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach, who has been scooping up Republican Party endorsements across the state, has yet to make a notable television or radio buy, though he and Cox have received some attention as commentators on Fox News. Facebook

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Republicans ready to turn in signatures for ballot measure to repeal California gas-tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A Chevron gas station in Sacramento shows prices last year. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Republican activists said Tuesday that they have collected at least 830,000 signatures for an initiative to repeal recent increases in Californias gas tax and vehicle fees, more than enough to qualify the measure for the November ballot. The activists need 585,407 signatures of registered voters to qualify the ballot measure. Because signatures are still being processed and counted by the campaign, backers hope to have 900,000 by the time they begin turning them in to the counties on Friday, according to Carl DeMaio, a former San Diego City Council member and organizer of the drive. The breadth and depth of voter anger over the car and gas tax hikes is just amazing, said DeMaio, who hosts a radio talk show. We are seeing Democrats, independents and Republicans sign the petition and volunteering to carry the petition, people from all walks of life. The initiative targets a law approved in April 2017 by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown that is expected to raise $5.4 billion annually for road and bridge repairs and improvements to mass transit. The money comes from a recent 12-cents-per-gallon increase in the gas tax, a 20-cent increase in the diesel fuel excise tax and a new annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 for cars valued at under $5,000, to $175 for cars worth $60,000 or more. The petition drive raised more than $2 million with significant contributions from the California Republican Party and Republican members of Congress from California, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Reps. Ken Calvert of Corona and Mimi Walters of Irvine. Republicans hope the issue will help their candidates for office in this years election and hurt Democrats who support the higher taxes. I think this is going to put Democrats in real bad spot, DeMaio said. A spokesman for Brown declined to comment until the signatures are filed. DeMaio said there were approximately 20,000 volunteer petition circulators who brought in more than 250,000 signatures, with the rest collected by paid circulators who received $1 to $2.50 per signature. Its a pretty comfortable margin [of signatures] that we have been able to hit here, DeMaio said. Opposition will grow, he said, as more Californians get their annual vehicle registration notice. The repeal campaign hopes to raise $5 million for the campaign to pass the constitutional amendment, which would not only repeal the increase in the gas tax and vehicle fees but require future increases to be submitted to voters. We know that Gov. Brown and his cohorts are going to spend an amazing amount of money to mislead voters, DeMaio said. But I feel pretty confident that we will repeal the gas tax. Read More Facebook

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Rep. Duncan Hunter sets up trust to raise money for legal expenses amid ongoing criminal investigation By Morgan Cook Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, has filed paperwork to establish a legal expense fund amid an ongoing federal criminal investigation into misused campaign cash. Hunter filed the required paperwork March 27, seeking a rarely granted Legal Expense Fund through which members of Congress under investigation or being sued in connection with doing their jobs or running for office can raise money for their legal expenses. Such funds are administered by an independent trustee and allow donors to give above the maximum amount they can contribute a candidates campaign. Hunter has spent more than $600,000 of campaign money on lawyers. Read More Facebook

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Kamala Harris says she wont take corporate donations anymore By Sarah D. Wire (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press) California Sen. Kamala Harris says she will no longer accept money from corporate political action committees. In an interview with WWPM-FMs The Breakfast Club, in New York that aired Monday, the senator said she wasnt expecting a question at a town hall this month about whether she would accept money for corporations or corporate lobbyists. At the time, Harris said it depends, but she said on Monday that she had reflected on the matter and changed her mind. Money has had such an outside influence on politics, and especially with the Supreme Court determining Citizens United, which basically means that big corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money influencing a campaign, right? Harris said. Were all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation. So Ive actually made a decision since I had that conversation that Im not going to accept corporate PAC checks. I just  Im not. You can watch the video of the interview here. (Harris corporate money comments come about 30 minutes in.) Harris wouldnt be on the ballot for a second Senate term until 2022, though its widely believed that she is planning a presidential bid in 2020. Other potential 2020 presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have also ruled out taking corporate PAC money. Soon after Mondays show aired, Harris campaign sent out a fundraising request noting her new stance. As corporate PACs continue to corrupt our politics and twist Congress priorities at your expense, were going to focus on raising money from small-dollar, individual donors like you, the email says. Facebook

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With money tied up in court, California lawmakers try again with new plan to spend $2 billion on homeless housing By Liam Dillon A man sleeps on the sidewalk in front of the Union Rescue Mission in the skid row neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) A measure to spend $2 billion on housing homeless Californians could be on the November statewide ballot. State Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) is pushing the idea to deal with what he said was a burgeoning humanitarian crisis whose epicenter is here in California. De Leons new measure is a do-over for a 2016 plan passed by the Legislature to redirect $2 billion toward building homeless housing from a voter-approved 1% income tax surcharge on millionaires that funds mental health services. A Sacramento attorney sued over that decision, arguing that the move violated constitutional rules on approving loans without a public vote and that lawmakers shouldnt take money away from mental health treatment. The case remains active in Sacramento Superior Court and its unclear when, or if, the state will be able to spend the $2 billion. De Leons Senate Bill 1206 would put the $2-billion loan on the ballot in November, freeing up the money if voters approve the measure. De Leon said had he been able to predict the 2016 plan would end up in court, he would have sought a ballot measure at the time. We thought this was like apple pie and baseball and puppies, De Leon said. Who would oppose the idea of repurposing the dollars to build immediate housing as a permanent solution for homelessness? Obviously with a crystal ball, had I anticipated the litigation, I would have worked to place it on the ballot. De Leon noted that the 2016 plan had bipartisan supermajority support in the Legislature, something his new bill also will need to get on the ballot. Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) is a coauthor of the plan. SB 1206 is scheduled for its first hearing in the Legislature on Wednesday. Should De Leons measure be approved, it will join a crowded list of housing issues before voters in November. Californians will decide on a separate $4-billion bond to help finance new low-income housing and home loans for veterans. De Leon said hes not worried those two measures will compete against each other because voters are aware of the scale of the states housing problems and the proposed homeless housing bond redirects existing dollars instead of raising taxes. Once [voters] know that the impact on their pocketbook is not existent, Im confident that theyll join me and my colleague John Moorlach in support of this measure, De Leon said. Facebook

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California lawmakers say too many former felons are being denied professional licenses By John Myers Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) along with supporters of bills to allow more former felons to receive professional licenses. (John Myers/Los Angeles Times) A trio of California Assembly members urged colleagues on Monday to pass legislation that would prohibit state commissions and agencies from rejecting a professional license for those who were once convicted of less serious crimes. We cant say we want to rehabilitate people, and then block them from getting the jobs that they need when theyre released, said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco). That leads to more recidivism and to more crime. The bills, scheduled to be heard in Assembly committees Tuesday, would ban the use of arrest or conviction records as the reason for denying a professional license. The bill would not apply to Californians who served time for any of the offenses on the states list of violent crimes. The authors, all Democrats, said that a government-issued professional license is required for some 30% of all jobs in the state. Their bills would change the licensing process at the California departments of Consumer Affairs and Social Services and agencies that certify emergency medical technicians. The bills would block prior convictions from leading to the delay or denial of a license unless that crime is directly related to the profession the person intends to pursue. Two of the bills also specifically say convictions less than 5 years old could continue to play a role in licensing decisions. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that keeps private sector employers from inquiring about a job applicants conviction history prior to an offer of employment. Advocates joined the lawmakers at a press conference in Sacramento to point out that limits on awarding licenses should focus only on those whose prior criminal activity could pose a threat to consumers. Continuing to hold people back for crimes that are 6, 7, 8, 10, 20 years old does not actually make sense if youre looking at public safety, said Jael Myrick of the East Bay Community Law Center. One of the proposals, Assembly Bill 2293, seeks to make it easier for ex-felons to get a license allowing a job with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection  the same agency that often uses prison inmates to battle blazes around the state. If a person is good enough to risk their life fighting fires for the state of California as an inmate, said Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes (D-Grand Terrace), their previous actions should not prevent from having a job utilizing the skill set that they learned. Facebook

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Assembly speaker rebukes building trades union after it targets Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia By John Myers ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) The decision by a politically powerful labor group to openly campaign against an embattled Los Angeles-area lawmaker drew a sharp rebuke on Friday from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. The Lakewood Democrat lashed out hours after the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California filed paperwork for a political action committee to defeat Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens). Garcia, whos seeking her fourth term, took an unpaid leave of absence in February following allegations of sexual misconduct. She has denied the reports and an Assembly investigation remains underway. Rendon didnt criticize the labor group by name, insisting instead that the decision was driven by oil and gas industry interests. This is a thinly veiled attempt by Big Oil and polluters to intimidate me and my members. It is an affront to my speakership, Rendon said in a statement. We are proud of the work that the Assembly has done to increase jobs and wages while defending our environment. We will vigorously defend the members of our caucus from any ill-advised political attack. A statement from the labor group, which sparred with Garcia last year on her effort to link new climate change policies with a crackdown on air pollution, said it had decided to reverse past support for her. The Trades have thousands of hard working members in Garcias district, and we look forward to lifting up another Democrat in the 58th Assembly to better represent them and their families, said the statement. The political action committees campaign finance filing on Friday listed nonmonetary in kind contributions from Erin Lehane, a public affairs consultant aligned with the building labor group. Lehane said she had begun researching Garcia in November. In January, a former legislative staffer accused her of groping him in 2014. Lehane, who identified herself as a spokesperson for the labor groups political action committee, said on Friday that she believed Garcias hypocrisy threatened a movement that will dictate how much harassment and abuse my daughter will face in her work life. Garcia, who has been an outspoken advocate for women in the #MeToo movement, has complained that her political opponents helped fan the flames of the accusations. Through a campaign consultant, she declined to comment on Friday. Rendons critique came on the heels of a full-page ad in The Times on Friday, partly paid for by the Trades Council, that criticized well-funded ivory tower elites who push proposals that hurt the oil and gas industry. We are the real jobs that fuel the real California economy, read the advertisement. Facebook

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Legal tiff breaks out over independent committees ad backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor By Phil Willon An attorney representing Gavin Newsoms campaign for governor is demanding that California television stations cease airing an ad by an independent political committee supporting his Democratic rival Antonio Villaraigosa. Attorney Thomas A. Willis, in a letter to the stations, said the ad is false and misleading and violates California law because it uses snippets of video footage from Villaraigosas own campaign ads. Willis called that illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC. Under California law, advertisements made by entities other than a candidate are presumed to be coordinated  and thus not independent expenditures  when the advertisement replicates, reproduces or disseminates substantial parts of a communication, including video footage, created and paid for by the candidate, the letter states. A representative for the independent expenditure committee  Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor  fired back. Attorney Brian T. Hildreth says those allegations have no merit and accused the Newsom campaign of being misleading. Hildreth sent a letter to the television stations in response, urging them to ignore the Newsom campaigns accusations. He said the Newsom camp appears to intentionally misrepresent the law and that the video use was permissible. He said only six seconds of video from Villaraigosas campaign ads was used, which is well within the legal limits. The independent committee is sponsored by the group California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The ad is airing on broadcast and cable stations statewide. The committees ad is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and as mayor of Los Angeles when there was a drop in crime. Facebook

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Governors race snapshot: Californians are generally upbeat but not focused on the campaign By Mark Z. Barabak Armand Werden, a 29-year-old community college student who works the taps at Dust Bowl Brewery in Turlock, said the state is on the upswing. (Phil Willon / Los Angeles Times) As California chooses a new governor  one of just a handful in the last 40 years not named Jerry Brown  the state seems to be enjoying something unusual in these tumultuous political times: a feeling of relative contentment. Not to say things are perfect. Still, more than 100 random interviews conducted over the length and breadth of the state  from Redding in the north to Santee in the south, from the Pacific coastline to the edge of the Sierra Nevada  found most saying things are looking up, at least so far as Californias direction is concerned. Read More Facebook

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Sierra Club backs Gavin Newsom for California governor By Phil Willon Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks with members of the public following a debate at USC in January. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The Sierra Club endorsed Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in the race for California governor, with officials in the established environmental group praising the Democrats record on climate change and clean energy. He has a proven record for leading on environmental protection, public health and clean energy, Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California, said in a statement released by the Newsom campaign. He understands that we are feeling the effects of climate change and that California must reduce carbon emissions and reach 100% renewable energy to achieve our climate goals. Phillips said the Sierra Clubs extensive network of volunteers will campaign for Newsom as the June 5 primary approaches. Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also praised the Democrat, saying he will protect California from Donald Trumps attacks on our clean air and water. The Sierra Club joins a series of other influential groups in California that have backed Newsom. The California Medical Assn., the powerful state doctors lobby, announced its endorsement of Newsom on Thursday. The California Nurses Assn. and the Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful labor unions in the state, also support Newsom. Newsom is the races front-runner in polls and fundraising. A poll released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 26% of likely voters backed Newsom. John Cox, a Republican from Rancho Santa Fe, was favored by 15% of likely voters and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, by 13%. Facebook

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Californias GOP House members are taking their challengers more seriously and the numbers show it By Christine Mai-Duc For much of last year, consultants and campaign managers for some of Californias most vulnerable Republican incumbents maintained a bullish tone on the prospect that the GOP would hold the House in this years midterms. The National Republican Congressional Committee insisted that longtime Republican incumbents in California had built up reputations as effective champions of local issues that would help them weather a flood of Democratic enthusiasm. Since then Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) have decided not to seek reelection and the NRCC has opened a West Coast headquarters in Orange County. Read More Facebook

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California officials say Pentagon has confirmed National Guard funding despite Trump threat By John Myers (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) The awkward dance between Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government over the National Guard jerked back toward discord on Thursday, when Trump said he would refuse to pay for a new deployment of troops  just hours after his administration said otherwise. And a few hours later, California officials said they had received written confirmation from the Pentagon that the mission would indeed be funded. Trump had earlier called Browns decision to approve 400 troops for a mission focused on combating transnational crime and drug smuggling a charade in a tweet. We need border security and action, not words! the president wrote. Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy up to 400 National Guard Troops to do nothing. The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Browns charade. We need border security and action, not words!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2018 A spokesman for Brown pointed to a tweet written Wednesday night by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, thanking the California governor for his efforts. Trump was meeting on Thursday with Nielsen at his Mar-a-Lago estate not long after his tweet was posted. A tweet later posted by the California National Guard said that almost three hours after Trumps comment, the state received written confirmation from the Pentagon to fund the mission as outlined by Brown the day before. In short, nothing has changed today, said a subsequent Guard tweet. Just spoke w @JerryBrownGov about deploying the @USNationalGuard in California. Final details are being worked out but we are looking forward to the support. Thank you Gov Brown!  Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 19, 2018 Brown was the last of the nations border governors to respond to Trumps insistence earlier this month that National Guard troops were needed to assist with immigration-related duties at the U.S.-Mexico border. And he has consistently refused to allow California troops to engage in any mission related to federal immigration law. This will not be a mission to build a new wall, Brown wrote last week to Nielsen and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. Exactly what the California operations will cost remains unclear, as state officials have said it will depend on decisions made once the mission begins. The funds would not be transferred to the state, but instead would be paid directly by the Department of Defense. Trump has critiqued California several times over the past few days, often writing tweets that embrace the actions by some cities and counties to join his administrations lawsuit against the states sanctuary immigration law. He made similar comments to reporters on Thursday afternoon. If you look at whats happening in California with sanctuary cities  people are really going the opposite way, Trump said. They dont want sanctuary cities. Theres a little bit of a revolution going on in California. 2:26 p.m.:This article was updated with additional information from the California National Guard and with remarks from Trump. This article was originally published at 9:51 a.m. Facebook

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Gay conversion therapy services would be banned under measure advancing in California By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The California Assembly voted Thursday to add gay conversion therapy to the states list of deceptive business practices, following a debate that focused on the personal experiences of several lawmakers and hinted at potential lawsuits to come. It is harmful and it is unnecessary, Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), the bills author and one of the Legislatures most vocal LGBTQ members, said of the practice. Low, who told Assembly members that he explored conversion therapy as a teenager and suffered depression over his sexual orientation, insisted that the bill would be limited to efforts that involve the exchange of money. Theres nothing wrong with me, he said in an emotional speech on the Assembly floor. Theres nothing that needs to be changed. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, has become the focal point of intense debate on social media. Some religious groups have said that such a law would be a violation of their constitutional rights, while advocates insist the provisions are narrow and theres no credible evidence that the services work. One key part of the debate centers on whether Assembly Bill 2943 would stretch beyond businesses that charge for these programs and extend to printed documents, even Bibles. An analysis by the Assembly Judiciary Committee says the bill would apply only to services that purport to change a persons sexual orientation and offered on a commercial basis, as well as the advertising and offering of such services. Lawmakers who spoke in support of AB 2943 also made clear that they believe those kinds of services have been discredited. This is fraudulent, it should not be occurring, said Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton). But you can still try to pray the gay away, if you like. Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), who said the bill addresses a difficult issue, nonetheless said that its important to ensure laws dont tamper with religious freedom. We have to think about the legitimate experience of people who have gone through conversion therapy and said this was a good thing for them, Gallagher told his colleagues. California law already bans the use of conversion therapy by mental health professionals on those under age 18. Lows bill would expand the states efforts beyond minors. It would join a list of commercial activities deemed unfair or deceptive acts or practices and therefore banned under state law. Facebook

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Gavin Newsom gets backing from doctors group, despite differences over single-payer healthcare By Melanie Mason Gavin Newsom speaks at the California Democrats State Convention in San Diego on Feb. 24. (Kent Nishimura) Californias doctors are siding with Gavin Newsom in the governors race, even though they dont see eye-to-eye on a defining issue of the campaign: single-payer healthcare. The California Medical Assn., the state doctors lobby and a political heavyweight, announced its endorsement of the lieutenant governor on Thursday. Gavin is a lifelong champion for health care in California, and we know he will continue to fight for pragmatic solutions to our most crucial health care challenges, including working to achieve universal access and tackling our states physician shortage, CMA President Theodore M. Mazer said in a statement. Newsom has made his support for state-financed healthcare a centerpiece of his campaign, and he earned the early backing of the most ardent single-payer supporters, the state nurses union. The doctors, meanwhile, oppose the nurses bill, SB 562, which emerged as a flashpoint in the healthcare debate last year. The CMA said the bill would dismantle the healthcare marketplace and destabilize Californias economy. Newsom has said SB 562 should advance in the Legislature, but also said it has open-ended issues that still need to be addressed. The doctors group is also battling with another prominent Newsom endorser, the Service Employees International Union, over a new measure that would impose price caps on an array of medical services paid for by commercial health insurers in the state. The SEIU is a leading sponsor of the proposal; the doctors fiercely oppose it. Newsom and the physicians group have a history of political alignment. Newsom was the first statewide official to support Proposition 56, a 2016 tobacco tax pushed by the CMA that raised revenue in part to increase money for doctors who saw Medi-Cal patients. That year, the association also endorsed two initiatives championed by Newsom: Proposition 63, which imposed new gun control measures, and Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. Facebook

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Independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosa for governor hits the airwaves with first ad By Phil Willon Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the 2018 California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego in February.. (Denis Poroy / Associated Press) A well-financed independent committee backing Antonio Villaraigosas bid to be Californias next governor released its first television ad Thursday, praising his record for working with Republicans and as a candidate for all of California. The ad, which is to air statewide on broadcast and cable stations, is focused on Villaraigosas record as Assembly speaker and mayor of Los Angeles, including on education and a drop in crime while he was at City Hall. To move California forward, we need to help more Californians get ahead, the ad says. Thats why Antonio Villaraigosa brought both parties together to balance the state budget with record investments in public schools and new career training programs. The independent expenditure committee behind the ad campaign, Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018, is sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, according to the California secretary of states office. The committee is spending seven figures per week on the ad buy, said Josh Pulliam, a political consultant for the committee. As mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa clashed with teachers unions, starting with his failed attempt to take political control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. His fight with those unions continued after he left office in 2013. Money has poured into the committee this month from wealthy charter schools supporters: Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, donated $7 million, and Los Angeles billionaire and philanthropist Eli Broad donated $1.5 million. On Wednesday, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan donated $1 million. The independent expenditure committee is expected to provide a boost to Villaraigosas campaign. Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has a major advantage in fundraising over all other candidates in the race and has received the backing of the California Teachers Assn. and other education unions. A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll also showed Villaraigosa lagging in third place in the race, trailing Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox. The candidates who finish in the top two in the June 5 primary will advance to the November general election, regardless of their party affiliation. Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown says Trump administration will fund his National Guard mission  without immigration duties By John Myers (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown formally mobilized 400 California National Guard members Wednesday for transnational crime-fighting duties, thus preventing any effort by President Trump to have the troops focus on immigration enforcement on the Mexican border. The governor announced that federal officials have agreed to fund the plan he announced last week  a mission to combat criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers in locations around California, including near the border. The order Brown signed makes clear that the troops will not be allowed to perform a broader set of duties as envisioned by Trumps recent comments. California National Guard service members shall not engage in any direct law enforcement role nor enforce immigration laws, arrest people for immigration law violations, guard people taken into custody for alleged immigration violations, or support immigration law enforcement activities, the order read. The cost of the mission, a spokesman for Brown said, will be paid directly by the federal government. No initial estimate has been made, as the exact amount will depend on exactly how the troops will be used. Though the duties of California Guard members were outlined last week, the state had been waiting for an agreement by federal officials to pay for the operations. Since that time, the president has taken Brown and the state to task over its decision to avoid any immigration-related duties at the border. On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW! There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018 Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border, Trump tweeted Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to Browns announcement. On Tuesday, Brown told reporters in Washington that his plan was consistent with a safer border. That sounds to me like fighting crime, the governor said. Trying to catch some desperate mothers and children, or unaccompanied minors coming from Central America, that sounds like something else. The order Brown issued Wednesday after returning from a brief trip to talk climate change in Toronto and to speak to a national trade union and visit with reporters in Washington is set to expire at the end of September. It specifically says no Guard service member may participate in a mission that would exceed the mission scope and limitations related to transnational crime activity. It also says troops cannot help build any new border barrier. 5:27 p.m.: This article was updated with information related to the cost of the Guard mission and Browns trip to Washington. This article was originally published at 5:13 p.m. Facebook

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California bill aims to end practice that keeps workplace misconduct cases out of court By Melanie Mason A California bill would prohibit employers from requiring workers to use private arbitration to settle disputes, a practice that critics say shields improper workplace conduct from public view. The bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) would bar businesses from making employees, when they are hired, waive their future rights to take any harassment, discrimination or other claims to court. Arbitration can be a highly effective dispute resolution method when both parties can choose it freely, when both parties are equal, Gonzalez Fletcher said at a news conference on Wednesday. It is far less successful when the more powerful party forces the other to accept those terms, especially as a condition of employment. Forced arbitration has come under increasing scrutiny since the #MeToo movement, with high-profile figures such as former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson pointing to the practice as shielding workplace abusers from public disclosure because arbitration resolutions often include nondisclosure agreements. Last year, a bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress to end mandatory arbitration in employment agreements. Gonzalez Fletcher said she was pursuing an unusual tool to draw attention to the issue  a subpoena issued by the Legislature to compel testimony from a worker bound by a nondisclosure agreement as a result of arbitration. The Legislature has subpoena power but it is rarely used. The bills sponsors believe lawmakers last issued a subpoena in 2001 while investigating price manipulation by Enron. Gonzalez Fletcher said she has requested Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) to issue the subpoena to require Tara Zoumer, who sued the company WeWork in 2016 for overtime pay, to testify before the Assembly Judiciary Committee next week. Zoumers suit was moved to arbitration and resolved. She is now subject to a nondisclosure agreement and could face a financial penalty for speaking publicly about her case. A spokesman for Rendon said the subpoena request is under consideration. Business groups oppose the bill, AB 3080. The California Chamber of Commerce has dubbed it a job biller, claiming it would dramatically increase legal costs for businesses. Banning such agreements benefits the trial attorneys, not the employer or employee, the group said. The bill must first advance from the Assembly Labor Committee on Wednesday. Facebook

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At least 240 House lawmakers want a vote on immigration. California supporters say they arent ready to force one By Sarah D. Wire Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock), flanked by Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) and Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) speak about DACA legislation (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Rep. Jeff Denham says at least 240 of the 430 current House members have signed onto his resolution to hold votes on four immigration bills, and he hopes House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and President Trump are paying attention to the show of support. But, the Republican from Turlock and his allies said Wednesday that they are not yet willing to commit to forcing Ryans hand through a little-used procedural move called a discharge petition; they acknowledged theres no guarantee that all of 47 Republicans and 193 Democrats House co-signers will back them up if they try to force the issue. Im sure that it is something that will be discussed in the coming weeks. You should not need a discharge petition. When you can show the overwhelming majority of the House, the support of it, you should not need a discharge petition, but it is something we would talk about in the future, Denham said. It is far too early to talk about next steps. Ryan said last week that he opposes Denhams effort, saying its a waste of time for the House to vote on bills the president might veto. Denhams resolution would prompt debate and votes on four very different immigration bills: one favored by the Trump administration, one preferred by Democrats, one bipartisan proposal and another immigration bill of Ryans choice. Whichever got the most votes would move forward to the Senate. All four bills would help Dreamers to differing degrees and include varying levels of border security or immigration enforcement. For example, the Trump-backed bill would also dramatically reduce legal immigration, while the Democrats would only deal with legal status for Dreamers. Democrats say they dont expect the show of support will sway Ryan. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said Tuesday night she expects Ryan will have to be forced into allowing a vote. It doesnt matter how many signatures we get. We could have every signature, technically, except his, on the floor of the House and... if he doesnt want to, it doesnt happen, Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.) said. Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands), who gathered the Democratic co-sponsors for Denham, also wouldnt give a deadline for House leaders to act, but said the co-sponsors are only willing to wait weeks not months. We do want to give them an opportunity to bring up the rule and to use whatever process they want, Aguilar said. They do have options, but I think they need to understand that we have options too. Facebook

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Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer endorses Kevin de Leon in his insurgent bid against Sen. Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta Tom Steyer, left, and California state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). (Getty Images; Los Angeles Times) Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer is endorsing state Sen. Kevin de Leon in his insurgent challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and did not rule out funding an outside effort to boost De Leons chances. I think hes the kind of young progressive that reflects California and would be a very strong advocate for our state nationally, Steyer said in an interview on Tuesday, pointing to De Leons efforts on issues such as immigration, climate change and gun control while he was the state Senate leader. I know him well and hes a friend. We share a lot of values. Steyer, who flirted with running for the Senate seat, did not criticize Feinstein as he has in the past. Sen. Feinstein has been an outstanding public servant who has dedicated the bulk of her adult life to the service of our state and the country, he said. These are two strong, very good Democrats. I just believe Kevin is the true progressive and he reflects something we need representing California going forward. I have nothing bad to say about Dianne Feinstein. I have a lot of good to say about Kevin de Leon. De Leon faces enormous odds as he tries to oust Feinstein, who has served in the Senate for a quarter-century, is well known to the states voters and has daunting leads in polls and fundraising. But De Leon has gained notable endorsements, most recently from the 2.1-million-member California Labor Federation last week. Campaign finance reports released this week show that Feinstein has more than $10 million in the bank, while De Leon has just more than $670,000. Feinstein, a multimillionaire and one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, has already lent her campaign $5 million and could easily write another check. But Steyer, a billionaire former hedge fund manager, could write a larger one. He is among the largest Democratic donors in the nation and has already committed more than $50 million to push for the impeachment of President Trump and to register young voters. He was noncommittal when asked if he would fund an independent expenditure group on behalf of De Leon. I dont have any concrete plans for that, he said. Read More Facebook

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Californias largest pension fund sends next years invoice to state government: $6.3 billion By John Myers The California Public Employees Retirement System building (Max Whittaker / Getty Images) As part of a shift toward less optimistic expectations for investment returns to pay for government worker pensions, board members of the California Public Employees Retirement System voted Tuesday to require an almost $6.3-billion payment from the state budget in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The action, which could receive final approval on Wednesday, reflects a gradually higher annual contribution to public employee pensions by the state and from local governments across California. In 2016, CalPERS approved a half-percentage point decrease in its official estimate of the long-term investment return on its $353.3-billion portfolio. That shift was designed to happen over several years, in hopes it would lessen the financial shock of shifting more of the costs onto government employers. The highest costs are also, in part, a reflection of increases in the size of the states payroll. The states CalPERS payment will be about $450 million more than the total paid in the current fiscal year and more than double what it was only a decade ago. CalPERS board members voted on Tuesdays staff proposal with little discussion, save for a question about the increase in contributions also required from workers hired after a pension overhaul that took effect in June. It seems like it will be a ding on peoples salaries, said Theresa Taylor, the chairwoman of CalPERS finance committee and a member of SEIU Local 1000, the union that represents some 96,000 state employees. The $6.299-billion payment required from Californias state government must now be factored into the budget crafted by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in late June. Brown had already assumed a similarly sized payment in his budget proposal unveiled in January. In February, a coalition representing city governments warned about the effects of rising pension costs under the expectations of less money from Wall Street investments. The report issued by the League of California Cities projected an average increase of more than 50% in annual pension payments made by the states largest cities over the next seven years. A CalPERS staff report notes that the net return on all of the funds investments for the fiscal year that ended in July was 11.2%. But expectations on profits over the next 30 years remain significantly more modest, and theres long been a robust debate about how to properly set those future expectations. The lower the rate of projected investment return, the larger the share of pension costs that must be covered by taxpayers and some employees. Overall, CalPERS officials believe the system has assets to cover 71% of its long-term obligations. Facebook

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California warns legal pot sellers not to participate in unlicensed 4/20 events By Patrick McGreevy Marijuana on display at a dispensary in Los Angeles. ( (Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images)) The state issued a warning Tuesday that businesses holding licenses to sell marijuana could face penalties if they participate in unlicensed temporary events away from their stores, including on Friday, April 20, which has become an annual celebration for counterculture groups. The warning was issued ahead of 4/20 by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. Since Jan. 1, the bureau has issued more than 700 state licenses to sell marijuana for medical or recreational use. The bureau has issued 47 temporary event licenses to groups that are limited to holding the marijuana celebrations on county fairgrounds that have authorized such events with city approval. Any bureau licensee participating in an unlicensed cannabis event may be subject to disciplinary action, the warning said, adding that lawful participation by bureau licensees in any temporary cannabis event that allows sales and/or consumption is dependent upon issuance of the appropriate licenses from the bureau. While many Californians have been issued medical approval to sell or use marijuana, the law does not allow them to participate in unlicensed events, also referred to as Proposition 215 events after the ballot measure that legalized medical pot two decades ago in the state. Participation in such events may lead to civil penalties for unlicensed commercial cannabis activity, the warning said. Meanwhile, a survey of some 1,000 marijuana users that was released Tuesday by the firm LendEDU found that the average 4/20 participant plans to spend $71 on marijuana to celebrate the unofficial holiday, and about 35% of respondents are planning to take off work Friday. Facebook

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California police groups shift position on officer discipline records, now consider support for making some of them public By Liam Dillon Los Angeles Police Department recruits at a graduation ceremony in April (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Some major law enforcement groups signaled Tuesday they are willing to support making part of police officer disciplinary records public, a dramatic departure from their past positions. Local and national attention on police shootings and misconduct has led law enforcement organizations to reconsider their blanket opposition to proposals that would give public access to some internal disciplinary investigations of officers. Were going to be open to supporting efforts that would allow for some records to be released, said Ryan Sherman, a lobbyist with the Riverside Sheriffs Assn. Debate over secrecy provisions in officer disciplinary files came during a legislative hearing on Senate Bill 1421 from Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). Skinners bill, which advanced out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, would require public disclosure of all internal officer shooting investigations and confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. Currently, all police discipline information is confidential outside of a courtroom in California, which has some of the nations strictest standards against public disclosure. Unfortunately, the fact that we have such strict restrictions on any access to public records has affected certain communities trust towards our law enforcement, Skinner said during the hearing. Prior to Skinners effort, other have tried to loosen these rules, some of which date back 40 years. Most recently in 2016, a bid by then-Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) failed in a Senate committee. In debate two years ago, no major law enforcement groups indicated they would accept changes to state laws that would make individual internal investigations public, saying they were essential to protect officer privacy and safety. But Tuesday, Sherman and other lobbyists including those representing the states largest police labor organization, signaled they might be willing to entertain changes. They said they were negotiating with Skinner on the bills details. Law enforcement groups still have major concerns about SB 1421 as written. Ed Fishman, an attorney for the Police Officers Research Assn., told legislators that the bill would wrongfully expose police officers who acted within departmental policy to invasions of their privacy. It has unintended consequences that are extreme and will hurt the public, Fishman said. Tuesdays hearing featured testimony from many who have had relatives killed by police officers in recent years advocating for the bill. Senators on the Public Safety Committee also gave public rebukes to law enforcement lobbyists, criticizing them for a lack of diversity and insensitivity to concerns raised by communities of color. I think that you are completely and utterly out of touch with the realities of how those you are representing are perceived by major segments of California, said Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles). You are not going to be able to continue to lobby your way out of it. The bill faces at least one more committee hearing in the Senate before reaching the floor. It will have to pass both houses of the Legislature by the end of August. Facebook

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Newest member of the California Assembly arrives ready to work on criminal justice issues By John Myers Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove prepares for the oath of office from Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon with her husband, Austin Dove. (California Assembly Democrats) Two weeks after winning a Los Angeles special election, the newest member of the California Assembly says she hopes to focus on reforms to the states criminal justice system during her time in Sacramento. Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) took the oath of office on Monday, filling one of three vacant seats representing Los Angeles County in the lower house. The Democrat, a former community college trustee and legislative staffer, thanked her mentors in remarks from the Assembly rostrum. So many women, and in my life so many black women, have paid in giving me the kind of morals and integrity and grit that is required to fight on behalf of people that you know, and people that you dont know, she said. Kamlager-Dove won handily on April 3, receiving 70% of the votes cast in the 54th Assembly District which encompasses communities west of downtown Los Angeles, from Crenshaw to Culver City and as far north as Westwood. She will serve the remaining eight months of the term of former Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, who resigned last year citing health concerns. She has said she hopes to focus her attention on poverty issues and on reform of the states criminal justice system. I think we have an opportunity to really push the needle in terms of how we look at rehabilitation, how we look at incarceration, and how we look at changing the lives oftentimes of poor men and women of color, Kamalager-Dove said on Monday in a video released by Assembly Democrats. Facebook

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Survivors of violent crime raise their voices in California to call for a new approach to criminal justice By Jazmine Ulloa Aaliyah Smith marches with her cousins. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Her father, uncle, a cousin and two older brothers. Those are some of the family members 16-year-old Aaliyah Smith has lost to gun violence. Then there are her friends. Jermaine Jackson Jr., 27, was shot and killed in 2016 while he painted over graffiti in San Francisco. Toriano Tito Adger, 18, was shot there a year later at a bus stop. He called Smith, who was nearby, and warned her to run. She made it inside a library moments before the crack of gunfire. Last week, Smith was among hundreds who gathered in Sacramento for annual National Crime Victims Rights Week events, where calls were issued for a new approach to criminal justice and public safety in California, one that puts survivors at the center of policy. But a debate is brewing over what that entails. Read More Facebook

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California expects $14 billion in tax payments this month By John Myers State workers handle income tax returns at the California Franchise Tax Board offices. (Laura Morton / For The Times) Gov. Jerry Browns proposed state budget is built on what taxpayers might find an audacious assumption: almost $14 billion in tax payments in the month of April, an average of $83 million collected per hour on every business day of the month. Most of that money will come from the taxes Californians pay in advance of Tuesday nights filing deadline for income tax returns. If history is any guide, the rate of payment could quadruple by weeks end. While tax rules have shifted some of the payment schedules to other months, April remains a vitally important month to the fiscal health of state government. The state controllers office reports more than 15% of all personal income tax revenues in 2017 were collected in April. In the recession years of a decade ago, tax revenue predictions were frequently off the mark by hundreds of millions of dollars. The last two state budgets have seen significant windfalls of personal income tax revenue, thanks in part both to an improving economy and to the continuation of a temporary surcharge on the wealthiest taxpayers  extended by voters in 2016. In the budget plan he sent to lawmakers in January, Brown projected a $6.1-billion windfall and proposed using a sizable amount to top off Californias rainy-day fund ahead of schedule. The independent Legislative Analysts Office reports that through the end of last week, the months income tax tally stood at $3 billion, slightly ahead of projections. By the end of the current week, a single days total could be almost that large. Lawmakers began reviewing the governors $190.3-billion spending plan during the winter, but few decisions are made until they get a look at Aprils tax revenues. The governor will release a revised plan based on the new data next month; lawmakers are required to send him a completed budget no later than June 15. Facebook

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Feinstein war chest tops $10 million while Kevin de Leon struggles to keep pace By Sarah D. Wire Sen. Dianne Feinstein widened her already-massive fundraising advantage in the run-up to Junes primary, raising twice as much in the first quarter than her strongest Senate challenger has sitting in the bank. Feinstein raised $1.3 million between January and March, bringing her war chest to just over $10 million as Californias U.S. Senate race begins in earnest, according Federal Election Commission reports. Former state Senate leader Kevin De Leon, the best known of the more than 30 people who will appear with Feinstein on the June primary ballot, raised just $575,991 in that same period, bringing his cash on hand to $672,331, according to his quarterly FEC report. Read More Facebook

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Trump has met his match, says Gov. Jerry Brown in promoting climate action on a quick trip to Canada By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Gov. Jerry Brown told a Canadian audience Monday that he believes President Trumps efforts to reverse course on climate change policy are a momentary deviation as others in the United States seek limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Thats very temporary, I can assure you, Brown said at a joint event in Toronto with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. The governors quick international trip, announced only late last week, comes as Wynnes Liberal Party faces a stiff challenge in Junes election from the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its leader, Doug Ford. Critics of Wynnes party have called for Ontario to pull out of the Western Climate Initiative, a cooperative agreement between three Canadian provinces and California on efforts to limit greenhouse gases. Brown sought to link the efforts of Canadian conservatives with Republicans in the United States who oppose existing climate change programs. In contrast, he told the audience, several GOP lawmakers voted last summer to renew Californias cap-and-trade program. I would say to the conservatives of Canada, wake up and see what your friends in California are doing, he said. The Democrat took particular notice of Trumps efforts to shift away from climate change policies from the administration of former President Obama, as well as a push by the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel Californias strict limits on automobile emissions. If Trump tries to change that, well have litigation well beyond his term in office, Brown said while also noting Chinese government efforts to produce more low-emissions vehicles. Between California and China, Trump has met his match. What hes saying is not going to happen. Many of the governors remarks, though, were aimed at the tough political situation in which Wynne finds herself with seven weeks to go before Ontarios parliamentary elections. Dangers abound, but success is right in our hands, Brown said. So dont blow it! Facebook

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California voters are getting to know the states attorney general through his aggressive stance challenging Trump By Patrick McGreevy Less than two months from his first statewide election, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra has become adept not only at challenging President Trump but at using the bully pulpit of his office to raise his profile with voters. The aggressive effort may help boost the former Los Angeles congressmans chances at winning a full term in office this fall, almost two years after he was appointed to replace Sen. Kamala Harris in 2017. Appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, Becerra took office as attorney general four days after Trumps inauguration. Thats afforded him an opportunity to get in front of Californians  and potential voters  on an array of issues including immigration, healthcare and the environment. Read More Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown forms commission for 2020 census outreach By Melanie Mason In an effort to make sure California has a strong showing in the next national census, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday established a state commission to prepare outreach for the decennial count. It is vitally important for California to do everything it can to ensure that every Californian is counted in the upcoming census, Brown said in a prepared statement. The commissions formation comes on the heels of a Trump administration plan to ask about citizenship status as a part of the census. State officials fear that such a question, which has not been asked in a census since 1950, could chill participation among California residents. That could result in the state losing billions of dollars in federal funds and a seat in Congress. The 23-member panel, appointed largely by Brown as well as picks by legislative leaders, comes from private- and public-sector backgrounds, including civil rights groups, religious institutions and educational institutions. Facebook

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Garcetti kicks off Iowa visit with 2020 on his mind and a hardhat on his head LA Mayor - and 2020 prospect - Eric Garcetti makes his Iowa debut at the Carpenters Union Training Center. Fearlessly flaunts the never be photographed in head gear/safety glasses rule. pic.twitter.com/14bUOPXMvF  Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) April 13, 2018 Facebook

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Asm. Rocky Chavez takes the lead in race to replace Issa, while Doug Applegate slips By Joshua Stewart A new poll shows that Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chavez has taken a clear lead over 15 other candidates running to replace Rep. Darrell Issa in Congress and has overtaken Democrat Doug Applegate, the previous frontrunner. In a SurveyUSA poll by 10News and The San Diego Union-Tribune, Chavez, R-Oceanside, has support of 16 percent of likely voters, putting him ahead of Applegate, a lawyer, who was favored by 12 percent of voters and is in second place. The top two vote-getters in June, regardless of party, will proceed to a November runoff election. Competing with Applegate for the No. 2 spot is Democrat Mike Levin, also a lawyer, with support of 9 percent of voters. Several other candidates were right at his heels. Democratic Businessman Paul Kerr and Board of Equalization Member Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, were tied for fourth at 8 percent each. Read More Facebook

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Pro-Kevin de Leon group launches ad castigating Dianne Feinstein By Seema Mehta A group that is supporting Kevin de Leons bid for the U.S. Senate launched a blistering ad against Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday, questioning her progressive principles and tying her to President Trump. The ad buy from A Progressive California is minuscule  $10,000 to air it in Los Angeles for one day on CNN and MSNBC during programming such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews and Anderson Cooper 360. The minute-long ad features news clips about Feinstein not getting the California Democratic Party endorsement earlier this year, as well as footage of Feinstein saying that Trump can be a good president and appearing to share a laugh with Trump. That moment actually came during a White House meeting in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting when the president suggested an assault weapons ban should be included in a bipartisan bill to expand gun background checks. It also features extensive clips of de Leons speech at the state partys convention. De Leon, who just ended his final term as leader of the state Senate, announced last year he would run against fellow Democrat Feinstein as she seeks her fifth full term. Feinsteins longtime political advisor dismissed the ad, noting the size of the buy. Its not really a buy, said Bill Carrick. Ten thousand dollars in cable in L.A. Poof, its gone. Still, he said he planned to have the campaigns lawyers review the ad to see if it violates campaign law that limits what outside groups like A Progressive California can do. Such groups cannot coordinate with campaigns or candidates, and are limited in how much their messages can support a candidate. Ann Ravel, the former chair of the Federal Election Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said if the ad was in a state race, she is certain that the state commission would open an investigation into potential coordination with de Leons campaign because of the messaging and the types of footage in the ad. But the bipartisan federal commission cant agree on how to enforce the federal regulations, she said. The problem is [outside groups] understand that given the lack of very strong enforcement at the federal level, theres the ability to stretch the law, she said. A spokeswoman for the FEC declined to comment. Dave Jacobson, a spokesman for A Progressive California, disputed the suggestion that the ad violated campaign law. This frivolous allegation shows that Sen. Feinstein is afraid of the public seeing an ad which showcases her own words, that Donald Trump can be a good president, he said. Facebook

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Dispute over money emerges in campaign to repeal Californias gas tax increase By Patrick McGreevy A motorist prepares to gas up her vehicle in San Rafael, Calif., in 2015. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) A proposed initiative to repeal hikes to Californias gas tax has been caught in the middle of a dispute involving Republican rivals in the governors race. Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor, decided in January to drop plans for his own initiative and said he would urge supporters to sign a separate petition being supported by several Republican members of Congress. Then last week, the committee Allen formed to finance his ballot measure reported a $300,000 contribution from PISF Inc., a Novato, Calif., real estate firm. Now, an organizer of the still active Give Voters a Voice committee is urging the Allen committee to immediately donate their funds in support of the ongoing signature gathering efforts. There is only one gas tax repeal measure currently in circulation and that is the measure sponsored by the Give Voters a Voice Committee, said Dave Gilliard, a consultant to the group. PISF Inc., he said, gave to repeal taxes aDemocratic activists in Orange County threw an impromptu party with cake, party hats and singing after Republican Rep. Darrell Issa announced he was retiring.

But the exhilaration over the opportunity to capture a Republican congressional seat quickly turned to political panic.

There are so many Democrats running for Congress in some districts that they could split the votes in the June 5 primary and send two Republicans to the November election, thanks to Californias top-two primary system. Democrats need 24 seats to reclaim the majority in the U.S. House  and are putting money and attention toward 10 California contests. In other words, every race matters.

The volume of Democratic candidates is a particular problem in Issas 49th Congressional District in San Diego and south Orange County.

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On a recent phone call with 300 local activists, organizers fretted over the entry of a fifth Democrat into the race and rumors about a sixth.

What I would like to do is ship all these candidates to a deserted island for a season of Survivor,  Terra Lawson-Remer, who leads the Flip the 49th grassroots group, said on the call.

Democrats also see possible trouble in the 39th Congressional District, set mostly in northeastern Orange County and currently represented by Rep. Ed Royce, who is retiring. There are at least eight Democratic candidates, and only one with experience as an elected official.

The fears are well founded. In 2012, when the top-two primary system began, the same dynamic cost Democrats a congressional seat in the Inland Empire despite a 5 percentage point advantage in voter registration.

The question for this years high-stakes midterm elections is how Democrats can continue to harness the supercharged atmosphere of activism, enthusiasm and fundraising sparked by the resistance to President Trump in California while boosting the candidates with the best shot at winning.

There is a very real risk that we dont get a single Democrat through the primary [in those districts] if nobody decides to drop out, said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), western vice chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which runs House races for the party.

Track the California races that could flip the House 

Volunteers man a table for Doug Applegate before a debate between the five Democrats running for Rep. Darrell Issas seat. (Nick Agro / For The Times )

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We dont have the power to force anyone out. We are trying to do this in a respectful manner because this is America, Lieu said. But if youve got candidates that are polling at 2% or 4% in some districts  theres zero path to victory.

The DCCC has done polling showing Democrats could easily be shut out in some of these crucial California contests. At least two polls of voters in the 39th and 49th districts show its entirely possible two Republicans would break through and leave Democrats with a missed opportunity.

These worries are a backdrop in San Diego this weekend as the faithful gather for the California Democratic Partys annual convention. They will need to make decisions about whether to put the full force of the establishment behind certain candidates in certain races, or stay out of intraparty warfare. There are eight House races on the convention agenda where the endorsement remains up for grabs.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein denied party endorsement at convention 

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In January, small groups of Democrats met at the district level and voted for their preferred candidates. In several cases, including in the 39th District, no candidate received more than half of the votes. That means the state party wont make an endorsement.

Since they could not come to an agreement at the January meeting, Democrats from the 49th District will be voting at the convention on whether to back one of the five candidates seeking the party nod. To get the endorsement, the candidate would need support from 60% of the districts delegates attending the convention.

In some ways, having an excess of well-funded, viable Democratic challengers stepping up in congressional races up and down the state is a good problem to have. There are now multiple Democrats running in all of Californias GOP-held House seats except one. The candidates are veterans, attorneys, doctors, tech executives and Obama-era political aides, and 18 already have raised at least $500,000.

On the other hand, infighting is costly and could impede the bigger-picture goal: winning Republican seats.

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This also is not a unified group of Democrats. Lingering dissent within the ranks spilled out last year during the race to lead the state party. Eric Bauman, who defeated an upstart running to his left to become chair of the California Democratic Party, said he has had tough conversations with all of the candidates running in the 39th District.

I really am trying to avoid having to put my foot on anybodys neck, Bauman said. He said his conversations might be a less traditional method than a typical election year, but Trumps obnoxious agenda is an even greater danger.

Already, campaigns for the several dozen candidates attempting to make it past the primary in key races have gone on the attack against fellow Democrats, trying to get reporters to use their opposition research dredging up unsavory business practices, decades-old bankruptcies and exaggerated resumes.

The DCCC has allowed local candidates to sort themselves out instead of picking favorites. But there have been subtle moves to champion the candidates who seem like they have the best chances.

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DCCC officials have made a point to alert reporters to certain candidates they consider to be strong. Last year, the committee invited at least one potential candidate to Washington for a round of meetings with senior House Democrats before he announced his congressional bid. And DCCC officials say they have reserved the right to get more involved before June to spend money on preferred candidates or against others, something theyve already done in Texas.

The DCCC has commissioned extensive polls in Royces and Issas districts, testing potential campaign messages to assess the viability of the candidates.

Lieu says he and other California House members have presented some candidates with the opposition research they expect Republicans could easily turn into an October surprise in an attempt to persuade those candidates to opt against running. He declined to say which campaigns hed talked to.

While he believes some of the candidates are taking the advice to heart, Lieu added that theres also a lot of emotion tied to this and not everyone is listening.

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There are some candidates that I think have a delusional view of their chances of winning, said Lieu, who has not endorsed in the competitive races.

Still, many of the candidates are outsiders with little regard for  or knowledge of  the conventional rules of running for office. Several are self-funded multimillionaires who dont need to rely on the DCCC for financial help.

Candidates Phil Janowicz, Sam Jammal, Andy Thorburn, Mai-Khanh Tran, Gil Cisneros and Jay Chen at Fullerton College in January. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times )

Activists on the ground have tried to find ways to winnow the field themselves.

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At a recent forum for Democrats in Royces district, questions on LGBTQ rights and campaign finance were followed by a difficult one: Would they be willing to eventually drop their bids to ensure Democrats remain competitive? (None gave definitive answers, although one candidate promised the audience, All I know is I aint going nowhere.)

Back in Issas district, Flip the 49th organizers used their polling to identify the two Democrats considered the weakest and, unlike the DCCC, released the results publicly. They plan to ask all the candidates to outline a credible path to victory next week at a viability forum in Oceanside.

We havent abdicated to folks in D.C. or folks who arent local to figure out the path forward, Lawson-Remer told the activists on the call in late January. As imperfect and messy and challenging as it was, weve taken this into our own hands.

While many of the candidates have been running for nearly a year, the official filing period began last month. They have until March 9 to make up their minds and appear on the ballot, or March 14 in the 39th and 49th district open-seat races.

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Follow live coverage of the convention on our news feed 

Flip the 49th and other similar groups have organized candidate debates in hopes of helping voters sort through the issues and make early decisions.

Four of the Democrats running against Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in the 48th Congressional District along the north coast of Orange County demonstrated just how hard that can be at a recent Saturday forum.

In a lightning round, they agreed birth control should be free through all health insurers. They all want a $15 federal minimum wage and legal marijuana at the federal level. They also all would vote to remove President Trump under the 25th Amendment.

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The differentiation came later, when asked about their favorite junk food. Two candidates chose french fries and mustard.

One quickly noted he is partial to Dijon. The other prefers yellow.

Times staff writer Javier Panzar contributed to this report.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

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For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

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Updates on California politicsIn the wake of a mass shooting that left 17 dead at a Florida high school last week, Burbank Unified School District officials sent a message to parents Thursday affirming their commitment to student and campus safety.

BUSD Supt. Matt Hill said the district is working closely with the Burbank Police Department to review and increase safety measures at all schools. Each Burbank school does have safety and emergency plans that are reviewed annually, Hill said.

As a response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., students across the country plan to walk out of school at 10 a.m. on March 14 for 17 minutes  symbolizing the 17 who died in the incident. Planned by the organizers of the Womens March, the walkout will call on Congress to take action on gun-control legislation.

A website shows that a walkout is planned at Burbank High School.

While I fully support students and adults having the opportunity to express their concerns and opinions, I want to ensure those activities take place in a safe and productive manner, Hill said.

Each school will hold age-appropriate activities related to the walkouts, he said.

Elementary schools will have curriculum promoting peace, tolerance and mindfulness while secondary schools will hold individual events based on our students needs.

Hill said several students were interested in holding a forum where they can ask questions in a safe space based around gun control, mental health and school safety.

He also said the district will not entertain the idea of giving teachers guns, referencing President Donald Trumps push to arm instructors as a way to combat school shooters.

The last thing we need to do is spend money on firearms training and guns, he said. On the contrary, our teachers and students need funding and support so that they can focus on teaching and learning.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucBurbank officials will be teaming up with a local nonprofit on Monday to educate the public about the dos and donts of being a landlord or tenant.

The citys Community Development Department and Los Angeles-based Housing Rights Center will host a free workshop on housing rights from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Community Services Building, 150 N. Third St., Burbank.

Carla Contreras, an outreach coordinator for the Housing Rights Center, said the workshop will cover various topics, including the rights and responsibilities of a landlord or tenant, discrimination against those who have families, rent increases, evictions, disability rights and repairs.

The event will also touch on the Fair Housing Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act to let those who attend know how the federal and state governments protect them from different types of discrimination.

Contreras said the most frequent topic that comes up during the workshops the nonprofit hosts is rent control. She added that the cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are among the few in the state that have rent control regulations.

So you can just imagine that all the other cities other than those, which is a large number, are all worried about rent control, she said. Los Angeles County is only becoming more populated, so it is an issue thats been talked about greatly.

Marcos Gonzalez, grants coordinator for the city of Burbank, said the workshop is an opportunity for the city to be more proactive about fair housing.

Understanding that there is a housing shortfall in Burbank, Gonzalez said letting those who may be subject to housing discrimination  such as a retired senior who is paying rent through a federal program  know about their rights can help them find housing in the city.

Many people are being priced out because of their income and perhaps their participation in a federal program, he said.

Maribel Leyland, housing authority manager for Burbank, said it is important for tenants and landlords to understand the rules and guidelines for housing in the state and know where they can go if they have any issues.

She added that the city is fortunate to have had a Landlord-Tenant Commission for more than 30 years to settle disputes or provide additional information to residents about housing rights.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpioUFC Gym Costa Mesa will mark its first anniversary Saturday with a slate of live demonstrations, classes, music, giveaways and opportunities to meet UFC fighters.

Festivities start at 9 a.m. and run until about 4:30 p.m. in the gym, 2860 Harbor Blvd. The event also will include a raffle with prizes such as Disneyland tickets, UFC Gym memberships and gear, gift cards and training sessions.

For more information, visit facebook.com/UFCGymCostaMesa.

Costa Mesa council to review budget

Costa Mesa City Council members will hold a study session Tuesday to review the status of the citys current budget.

The meeting starts at 5 p.m. in the council chamber at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.Crescent Hotels & Resorts has rebranded the Duke Hotel in Newport Beach as the Renaissance Newport Beach Hotel.

Renovation of the hotels 444 rooms, lobby, restaurant and banquet space is scheduled for completion this spring.

The Duke Hotel was the temporary name for what had been the Fairmont Newport Beach. The property at 4500 MacArthur Blvd. opened in 1984 as the Hotel Meridien.

It is distinctive for its temple-like architecture and three terraced guestroom wings.

Costa Mesa industrial building is sold

Newport Beach-based Lee & Associates, a commercial real estate firm, recently negotiated the sale of an industrial building in Costa Mesa.

The 17,100-square-foot industrial site at 1635 Superior Ave. sold for $4.8 million. The buyers identity was not immediately available.

Forbes Travel Guide gives high marks to local resorts

Forbes Travel Guide recently recognized the Resort at Pelican Hill and the Spa at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast with its highest five-star rating.

The Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach was named a four-star hotel.

Networking group starts Huntington Beach chapter

The Business Executives Networking Group is starting a new chapter in Huntington Beach, its first on the West Coast.

It plans to bring job seekers and networkers together, according to a news release.

The group will meet from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. the last Saturday of each month at the Omelette Inn Cafe at 15070 Edwards St.

For more information, contact Ron Flores at ronflores@thebeng.org.

Huntington Beach apartment complex sells for $90.5 million

Pacific Shores, a 264-unit apartment community in Huntington Beach, has been acquired by TruAmerica Multifamily for $90.5 million.

The complex at 7701 Warner Ave. had been owned by affiliates of UDR Inc.

Los Angeles-based TruAmerica will invest millions of dollars in the property through a capital improvement program, according to a news release.

RSI Communities is sold to William Lyon Homes

Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes has acquired RSI Communities, based in Newport Beach and Round Rock, Texas.

Lyon bought the company and three related real estate assets for about $460 million, according to a news release.

The transaction is expected to close in coming weeks and marks Lyons first entry into Texas.

Newport apartment community sells for $18.5 million

The Mogharebi Group has completed the sale of the Landing, a 52-unit apartment complex at 20102 S.W. Birch St. in Newport Beach.

A unidentified investor based in Orange County bought the 1.79-acre property for $18.5 million.

Hoag breast and ovarian cancer program names a co-director

Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach has named Dr. Lisa Abaid co-director of gynecologic oncology for the Breast & Ovarian Cancer Prevention Program.

The most effective cure for ovarian cancer is prevention, so prevention is prominent in our programs name, Abaid, a Hoag medical staff member since 2008, said in a statement. As a result of its whole-woman focus on preventing this debilitating and deadly disease and preserving their quality of life, the Breast & Ovarian Cancer Prevention Program at Hoag has set itself apart from other high-risk programs in Orange County and nationwide.

Newport Beach-based firm invests in Indi

Cambridge Cos. SPG, a Newport Beach-based strategic investment firm specializing in emerging consumer food and beverage brands, has invested in Indi, a social customer influencer platform.

Indi creates a safe platform for brands to engage directly with consumers and drive word-of-mouth sales, according to a news release.

Indi is used by Starbucks, Macys and others.

Mothers Market donates $5,000 to environmental charity

Mothers Market & Kitchen, a Costa Mesa-based natural and organic foods retailer, has donated $5,000 to environmental education charity Naturalist for You, based in Silverado.

Funds were collected from grocery bag sales from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, according to a news release.A stiff breeze blew Friday as the Golden Rule sat in Newport Harbor. The boats sail, emblazoned with a peace sign, made a resounding snap as if to punctuate the mission of the craft and its crew.

The humble 34-foot wooden ketch is a peace boat made famous as the vessel a group of Quaker peace activists tried to sail to the Marshall Islands in 1958 to protest atmospheric nuclear bomb testing.

The restored boat, a project of the group Veterans for Peace, is docked at Newport Sea Base this weekend to help raise funds for another Pacific voyage, not to stop bomb tests but nonetheless to reiterate an anti-nuclear message.

Gerry Condon, president of the Golden Rule Committee, said the United States was lucky to avoid nuclear conflict during the Cold War.

Now theres nine different countries that have nuclear weapons, he said. Theyre all modernizing them, theres further proliferation going on, and in the immediate time theres actually an active threat of a  nuclear war with North Korea.

The plan had been to sail the boat around the Gulf Coast, up the Atlantic coast, into the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River. But after tensions began flaring last year between President Trump and North Korea, the team decided to take the Pacific journey of the original crew.

Dave Patterson, a crewman on the Golden Rule, teaches visiting elementary school students the flag semaphore signals for N and D, or nuclear disarmament, the basis for Gerald Holtoms design for the international peace symbol. (Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer )

According to Golden Rule project manager Helen Jaccard, the boat was built in Costa Rica and San Pedro not long before peace activists tried to sail to the Marshall Islands to interfere with U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing. Activists had tried other tactics, such as demonstrations and letter-writing campaigns, but decided to step it up.

They were very open, Jaccard said. They told the government and everybody: Were going to do this. Were going to put our lives in the way and interfere with this testing.

The first attempt was halted after the gaff broke and a crew member became seasick.

Going against a federal rule barring entering the test area, the sailors, under the direction of skipper Albert Bigelow, set out from Honolulu and were returned by the Coast Guard.

They tried a second time out of Honolulu and were arrested.

Inspired by the Golden Rule crew, another American sailor, Earle Reynolds, in a boat named Phoenix of Hiroshima ventured into the test zone at Bikini Atoll and also was arrested. Reynolds was an anthropologist who had studied the effects of radiation on children affected by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

The publicity from the protest voyages kicked off a movement that helped lead to a testing moratorium and the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, banning nuclear testing in the air, water and space, Jaccard said.

At an appearance in Hawaii, someone called the Golden Rule project a happy protest, Condon said. And he agrees. The ketchs back story, aesthetic and creative messaging have broad appeal, he said.

Really, how many people even on the conservative end of the political spectrum are excited about nuclear war? Condon said. Who wants a nuclear war? Nobody.

Golden Rule crewman Dave Patterson, an Air Force veteran who lives in San Diego, doesnt want the decision to launch a nuclear strike to be in the hands of any one person.

No one human being is stable enough to make a decision like that, he said.

Wil Van Natta, skipper of the Golden Rule, looks out over the bay in Newport Beach on Friday. (Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer )

Skipper Wil Van Natta, 62, said he told his parents at age 15 that he wouldnt join the military.

But the Golden Rule speaks to him because it combines two of his loves  he has spent his life on the water, most of it involved in social causes, he said.

Its just an honor to be a part of this effort, and Ive never met a more unambiguous group of people working for the most essential issue of our time, Van Natta said.

A Golden Rule fundraiser from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Newport Sea Base, 1931 W. Coast Hwy., aims to collect money for a voyage to Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, Guam and Okinawa. The event will feature a silent auction and the premiere of the documentary Making Waves: The Rebirth of the Golden Rule. Adelia Sandoval of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians will perform a welcome ceremony.

Tickets are available for $30 at bit.ly/GoldenRuleFundraiser.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDThe new combination fire station-library in Corona del Mar, an off-and-on project for more than two years, could be on again this spring.

The Newport Beach City Council will consider awarding various contracts totaling about $8 million for the fire-library complex when it meets Tuesday.

City staff recommends Orange-based TELACU Construction Management Inc. receive the $6.7 million construction contract. Construction management, design and other support services contracts, plus contingency and agreements for the temporary fire station to serve the area while building is underway, are expected to total $8.3 million.

The Corona del Mar Branch Library and fire station were built separately but adjacent about 60 years ago at East Coast Highway and Marigold Avenue.

The fire stations crew operates from a permanent single-wide trailer on site because the building doesnt meet current code. Deferred maintenance including termite eradication and painting along with a lack of air conditioning show the librarys age, although the city has attempted some stopgap repairs.

The City Council approved a conceptual design for a new complex in 2015 and had planned to demolish and rebuild the facilities in 2017. But city leaders said early last year that with unfunded pension liabilities straining the city budget, the project could be postponed for five years.

An anticipated influx of developer fees reignited the project. Work could begin in April and take about a year.

The temporary station would be erected in a parking lot at the Oasis Senior Center, about a quarter-mile away.

Also at Tuesdays meeting, the council will consider chipping in $363,000 for a new playfield at Newport Elementary School.

The project would be in partnership with Newport-Mesa Unified School District. The oceanfront field behind the school, 1327 W. Balboa Blvd., is a city park when school is not in session.

City staff recommends GMC Engineering Inc. of Tustin for the construction contract.

The new field is necessary as windblown nuisance sand chokes grass growth and creates uneven berms, according to a city staff report. The new field will be regraded and planted with sand-tolerant sod.

NMUSD will contribute $250,000 for the field, bringing the total cost to $613,000.

Tuesdays meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDOn Tuesday, six women who once worked together for the Ralphs grocery store chain met at Maggianos Little Italy in Costa Mesa for a leisurely lunch.

It had been some time since they all punched in at the same workplace.

Decades, in fact.

But for the former colleagues gathering over pasta and buttered bread inside the noisy dining room that sunny, blustery afternoon, determining just how long ago their workplace travails were proved difficult.

Did she leave in 80? Did she start in 78?

It didnt matter. When and how wasnt a priority, not at this point in their lives, anyway.

Their moments now were about maintaining friendships, keeping up on the latest in each others lives and, of course, recounting old workplace war stories.

The six women met doing the same job: sales auditing for the Ralphs corporate offices in Compton.

It was laborious, painstaking work in what they remembered as dreary conditions. The auditing space was a windowless, characterless, warehouse-like cavern with rows of desks  the ladies described them as cells  that were partitioned off so co-workers couldnt easily chat.

Sales auditing was relegated to women back then. Paper receipts from the stores came into corporate headquarters in bags. The auditors took the receipts, distributed them, organized them and compiled information.

Supervisors, mostly men, monitored the auditing army from nearby offices. Shifts were 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The scene was apparently humorless. They kept their heads down and made the best of it, muttering jokes under their breath, anything to lighten the mood. They considered it a repressive workplace.

But looking back, the women universally attribute the strength and longevity of their friendship to their time in the trenches.

Alice McCulloch did it for 19 years, longer than most of the six. She always liked math, so that helped.

But there was no hanky panky as far as the numbers are concerned, she says.

McCulloch grew up in Scotland. She met an American in Paris in 1956. They married, and he brought her to the United States the following year. Their union lasted four years. She never wed again.

The sales auditing office of the Ralphs corporate headquarters in Compton, circa 1976. (Photo courtesy of Cheryl Calac )

Several of her friends attested to her being the joy of the auditing room during their slumber parties, karaoke outings and other get-togethers, which started around 1979.

This time, in Costa Mesa, McCulloch kept a quiet profile but was quick to smile. She couldnt help but recall that, despite the tough environment, they were paid well.

People are fighting for a $15 minimum wage now, she says. But some 30 years ago, she was making $16. She was able to buy her little house in Long Beach on it.

The women were in the Teamsters union and evidently happier for it. They stayed because the pay was good, especially for the time.

Cheryl Calac was there circa 1972-78. She drove to the reunion from Palm Springs.

After Ralphs she worked for Ralph Lauren, training bookkeepers, and later in administration for a country club.

Dode Kennish of Maywood worked for Ralphs for 30 years, over two periods. She started in the late 60s, did sales auditing and also worked at the Ralphs store at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue in Los Angeles. She manned an area there that sold bus passes, money orders and the like.

Renda Ruiz of Mission Viejo worked for Ralphs from 1974 to 1986  or sometime thereabouts. Now shes in residential real estate and follows the career of her son, Rance, founder of the Rances Chicago Pizza chain, which started in Costa Mesa.

Jeanie Gomez spent 13 years there. Her former colleagues still recall with degrees of pride how her number-sleuthing helped uncover instances of employees who stole money.

Gomez, who lives in San Juan Capistrano, shrugs off the adulation. It was her job.

You kept your head down and did your work, Gomez says.

Gomez seems more proud of founding her family landscaping business, Horticultural Designs.

We love it, Gomez says. We are our own boss, come and go when we please.

Laraine Pipoly of Long Beach had her Ralphs stint from 1975 to 1983, or so she thinks.

Too long, she jokes.

She later founded a political consulting firm that hired petition signature gatherers  and, she says, always paid her people on time.

The retirees last met up five or six years ago. But each time they reunite, the group says its like time has never passed. Theyre their old selves, laughing and loving one another.

Its like getting back to your roots, Calac says. Every now and then.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZintA UC Irvine review has cleared an Israeli student support group of allegations of aiding Israeli military veterans in harassing a Palestinian support group during a four-day on-campus event last year.

Students for Justice in Palestine alleged that at various times during an Anti-Zionism Week the Palestine group sponsored May 8-11, Students Supporting Israel aided and abetted Israeli veterans in verbally threatening, sexually harassing and following members of the Palestine group.

According to the university review dated Jan. 10, UCIs student conduct officer, Christopher Coronel, interviewed Students Supporting Israels campus president, Kevin Brum, reviewed videos and documents and tried to interview 10 people who submitted written statements against the pro-Israel group.

Although I made attempts to interview the witnesses who submitted written statements, none of them agreed to speak with me and I was unable to verify any of the allegations in their written complaints, Coronel wrote in the review, which Students Supporting Israel posted on its website this week.

Similarly, the videos and documents that I reviewed do not indicate in any way that SSI aided or abetted the reservists on duty in violating university policy, Coronel added.

If new information is presented, Coronel wrote, the case may be reopened.

Representatives of Students for Justice in Palestine could not be reached for comment this week.

Students Supporting Israel founder and president Ilan Sinelnikov said in a statement that his group is pleased with the report.

Its important other universities do the same when these groups attempt to use these tactics to discredit our organization, and expose these groups fraught relationship with truth and facts, Sinelnikov said.

University spokesman Tom Vasich said the school had no official statement on the matter.

During the Anti-Zionism Week, Students Supporting Israel sponsored a May 10 panel featuring former Israel Defense Force officers. During a question-and-answer period, about 40 members of Students for Justice in Palestine arrived at the Student Center and began asking questions. The discussion became heated, with shouting and chanting for several minutes, the university said.

Students for Justice in Palestine issued a statement at the time saying it protested the event to show that the Israeli veterans were unwelcome on campus because they enforce Zionist settler colonialism and military occupation of Palestinian land by the Israeli nation-state.

After the incident, university administrators gave Students for Justice in Palestine two years probation, along with a requirement to attend free-speech meetings.

It was the second time in a year that members of Students for Justice in Palestine interrupted an event presented by Students Supporting Israel amid ongoing tensions between the groups.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaAs part of an ongoing effort to restore a once neglected park trail behind the Brand Library and Art Center, a community of volunteers and officials with the citys parks department planted 70 native plants on the site late last month.

The Glendale Parks & Open Space Foundation, a local nonprofit, led more than 40 volunteers to plant native, drought-tolerant plants along portions of the Miss American Green Cross Trail during a four-hour project.

Deveron Shudic, who supervises the trails and open space program with the parks department, helped supervise the project along with foundation board member Marc Stirdivant.

In early 2017, the city hired contractors to realign the trails path into a single route with the installation of some fencing that is expected to reduce trail-cutting as well as improve the overall look of the area for park users.

Stirdivant, who spent more than a decade working for the parks department before joining the foundation, sought to replant the barren slopes along the trail.

According to Stirdivant, the Open Space Foundation was awarded a small grant by the California Trails & Greenways Foundation. He then partnered with native plant experts at the Theodore Payne Foundation for selection of the right plants for the trail as well as where to plant them.

[The plants are] making quite a change in an area previously distinguished by weeds, abandoned water pipes and dead trees and other foliage, he said.

The Open Space Foundation is now working to recruit more volunteers to water the plants throughout the year along the steep trail, which currently consists of carrying a gallon jug of water for each plant.

Stirdivant said he hopes to alleviate the problem with a 200-foot hose tapped into the parks water supply for the lower 40 plants and is crowdsourcing ideas for watering the other plants, which are more difficult to reach.

Even though these are drought-tolerant natives, in these times, they need to be watered until they are fully established, Stirdivant wrote in an email to volunteers. That means we need to give them a good drink once a week, probably through the summer and into the next rainy season.

Stephen Webber, Brand Parks ambassador since July 2016, holds no formal power in the volunteer position but prides himself in bringing attention to problems at the 31-acre park when he sees them.

I think this [restoration] is very significant because people are starting to appreciate the park a lot more. They are starting to see that someone cares, Webber said. With the established trail, people can see that others are working to make the park more enjoyable.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLandaIn an address to community leaders and physicians Thursday, officials at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital outlined plans for improvements to the facility as well as an update on the search for a new president.

In April, Jack Ivie retired as head of Glendale Memorial, and Julie Sprengel, Dignity Healths senior vice president of operations in the Southern California area, stepped in as interim chief executive to learn about the community and get a sense of the type of person needed to permanently fill the role.

Sprengel has since made major leadership changes. In the past six months, shes hired a new chief operating officer, chief nursing executive officer and chief medical executive officer.

I have this new young leadership team that is so motivated to do the right thing, I just dont want to screw it up, Sprengel said. I want to find the right person who is going to lead this team into the future.

Sprengel said she has a couple of candidates in the mix and hopes to name a new chief executive next month.

As Glendale Memorial officials conducted their search for a permanent leader, the hospital continued its three-year initiative to upgrade the wound-care center and gastroenterology lab on its second floor, raising $4.1 million toward a goal of $5 million.

The initiative got an injection of funds Thursday as Sprengel announced the hospital received $2.5 million from the S.H. Ho Foundation. The donation is the largest philanthropic gift in the hospitals history, according to Wayne Herron, vice president of philanthropy for the Glendale Memorial Health Foundation.

Sprengel also announced plans to convert 80 double rooms  which have two beds with a separating curtain  into single rooms, complete with a patient bed, sofa beds for family members and additional chairs as well as a new paint-and-floor scheme.

Nobody wants to share a room when youre not feeling well, and when youre sick in the hospital, you want your privacy and want to be alone with your family or whoever is there, Sprengel said. We decided wed rather be a smaller hospital that caters to the patient experience.

A number of look and feel changes to the hospitals first floor have also been made, focused on the eyes of a first-time visitor, Sprengel said. These include warmer colors, a digital nature display wall with music, new furniture and stone tiles. The gift shop has also been remodeled.

Renovations aside, Sprengel said the accomplishment hospital officials are most proud of is the relationship between staff and patients. More than 10,000 patients came through the hospital in 2017 and Sprengel highlighted pain management, communication and responsiveness as three areas where increased positive experiences have been reported in patient surveys.

Obviously, nobody wants to be in pain, so its a priority of ours, she said. Communication and responsiveness are tied together. The leading cause of anxiety in the hospital is lack of communication, so we make sure to respond to our patients when they need us and proactively visit them.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLandaAuthorities say the death toll in a pair of explosions Friday evening in Somalias capital has risen to 21.

The director of Aamin Ambulance service, Dr. Abdirahman Abdulqadir, gave the new toll Saturday. It was confirmed by police Capt. Mohamed Hussein, who said it was based on figures from hospitals.

The two car bomb blasts shattered a months-long period of calm in Mogadishu, which is often the target of attacks by the Shabab extremist group.

The first blast occurred near Somalias intelligence headquarters and the second occurred near parliaments headquarters.

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Somalia-based Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack via its radio arm, Andalus.

Mogadishu was the target of a truck bombing in October that killed 512 people in the deadliest attack in the Horn of Africa nations history.Its 10 degrees on a February afternoon, and Boris Kazadayev has already been standing outside on the bridge just south of Red Square for four hours. Hes keeping watch over the flowers and candles laid here in tribute to slain Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov.

Tuesday will mark three years since Nemtsov was assassinated on the Bolshoy Moskovoretsky Bridge. On that night in 2015, a gunman in a passing car shot the fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he was walking with his girlfriend. With the colorful onion domes of St. Basils Church and the imposing red brick walls of the Kremlin behind him, Nemtsov died on the bridge minutes after his assassins car sped off.

The place of his death quickly became a makeshift memorial, and an irritant to the Kremlin.

Supporters of Nemtsov and his stance against Putins authoritative rule still come nearly every day to lay flowers, light a candle or simply pay their respects.

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On at least 80 different occasions, Moscow city workers or police have forcibly cleared the spot on the pedestrian sidewalk of the bridge, Kazadayev said. Volunteers who guard the site are regularly harassed by police and nationalists. In August, one volunteer, Ivan Skripnichenko, died a week after being attacked while on a night shift watching the memorial. But the volunteers goal is to maintain the memorial no matter how many times it is removed.

In the most recent incident on Jan. 11, workers from Moscows bridges department came and threw the flowers, pictures and candles into trash cans. One of the volunteers said she was roughed up by the city workers and had her backpack taken, according to OVD-Info, a nonprofit organization that tracks political repression in Russia.

Such confrontations are why volunteers like Kazadayev say they must stay vigilant at the memorial, no matter what the weather or time of day.

This is Russia, winter is always cold, he said. It doesnt matter if were in Siberia or Moscow, its winter. Thats not a reason not to be here.

At first, the volunteers started informal vigils a few days after Nemtsovs death. At that time city authorities regularly tried to clear the flowers and cards left on the bridge. Weeks passed and the volunteers became more organized, with a schedule and a website. Some 50 to 60 people volunteer to stand watch at the site around the clock every day, according to Kazadayev. The volunteers rely on each other for protection, and use whistles  worn around their necks  to alert others if theres a problem.

After each sweep by the authorities, more flowers arrive to replace them.

Although a Moscow court last year convicted five men from Russias North Caucasus for carrying out Nemtsovs murder, the opposition leaders supporters accuse the Kremlin of a coverup.

Various theories have emerged as to who could have ordered the murder. Some opposition leaders blame violent nationalist groups who have been encouraged by Putins strong rhetoric in recent years about a fifth column intent on destroying Russia from within.

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Nemtsovs family has pleaded with the Kremlin to investigate links to the men who were convicted and Putins appointed head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov. Nemtsovs daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova, claims the Kremlin is covering for Kadyrov, who has been accused of human rights violations in Chechnya. Kadyrov has acknowledged that he knew at least one of the assailants but denied any personal connection to Nemtsovs killing.

A group of Chechen men were also convicted of the 2006 murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The killer was never found. Politkovskaya had criticized Kadyrov and Putin in a series of articles.

At the time of Nemtsovs death, Putin said he would personally oversee the investigation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such investigations take time.

At the bridge, Kazadayev, 74, partners every Friday with Ivan Sharavin, 54, for the 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift. The two men keep warm by doing pushups against the stone walls of the bridge or by shoveling snow around the flowers and photos of Nemtsov.

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One day after a big snowstorm, Sharavin wrote Boris in a snowbank along the Kremlin wall near the bridge by stamping out each letter with his heavy boots.

On Sunday in Moscow, opposition activists expect as many as 30,000 participants at a march commemorating the third anniversary of Nemtsovs death. Thirty other cities across the country applied for permits to hold their own marches. Only three city governments approved the marches.

Other attempts to memorialize Nemtsov have drawn strong reaction from nationalist groups, as well as from the Kremlin. Last September, volunteers placed a plaque outside the apartment building just south of the bridge. A group of ultranationalists twice violently tore it down.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced last week that the city would ignore regulations that a person be dead at least 10 years and allow a memorial plaque to be placed on the building again.

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Thats just an election move, to calm the opposition down ahead of the elections, Kazadayev said. Dont expect it to actually happen after March 18.

Putin is expected to be reelected easily next month in a presidential election that has no real opposition candidates running against him.

On Feb. 28, a dedication ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C., to rename a section of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian Embassy as Boris Nemtsov Plaza.

When plans for the renaming of the plaza were announced earlier this month, Moscow responded by saying it was considering a name change for the postal address of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to 1 North American Dead-end.

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Sharavin is from a southern Russian town just six miles from the border with Ukraine. He said he watched in 2014 as Russian tanks and soldiers crossed the border into the rebel-held territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, Ukraine, where Kremlin-backed separatist militias are fighting against Ukrainian government troops. Sharavin said hes against Putins support for the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year with more than 10,000 dead.

Putin has denied accusations from the United States and other Western governments that Russia has provided military support to the rebel militias. Before his death, Nemtsov said he would release the results of a detailed investigation of Kremlin involvement in eastern Ukraine.

When Nemtsov was killed, Sharavin said he dropped everything and came to Moscow the next day. Hes been here ever since, rotating watch shifts with the other volunteers on bridge.

The hardest shift is the 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., of course, he said. But theres always at least two of us, so youre not alone.

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Sharavin had a plastic bag propped up against a lamp post on the bridge, where he kept a thermos of tea and some food. To keep warm he wore two sweaters, a light coat and heavy outer parka. He puts on a neon yellow reflective safety vest so he is immediately recognizable to people passing by who want to ask questions about Nemtsov and the memorial.

Theres an energy in this place, he said. You dont get sick standing here or catch a cold. Its a healing place.

sabra.ayres@latimes.com

Twitter: @sabraayres

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Ayres is a special correspondent.Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 will pay $250,000 under a settlement agreement to the family of a special needs child from Palmer Township who swallowed a plastic toy bear while he was in school, according to court documents.

The settlement comes after Richard "Ricky" MoDavis IV swallowed a tiny plastic bear while under the care of the intermediate unit during school on Aug. 27, 2014. MoDavis suffers from cerebral palsy, according to the federal lawsuit.

The now 19-year-old has the mental capacity of a 3-year-old and does not know any better than to keep toys out of his mouth, his parents told lehighvalleylive.com back in 2014.

Richard "Ricky" Modavis IV

"This was an unfortunate case where a multiply handicapped student accidentally swallowed a small plastic bear regularly used in special education classes," said attorney John E. Freund III, who represents Colonial Intermediate Unit 20.

MoDavis family attorney Jeremy Puglia of Doylestown said the bears were to be sorted and counted by the children but not to be used as toys. Testimony revealed that the bears were thrown around the classroom and used as toys on the day Ricky choked on one, Puglia said.

MoDavis choked on the toy until his mother, Rebecca MoDavis, came to the school and realized her son needed to go to a hospital, the lawsuit says. The toy was discovered via x-ray lodged in the child's esophagus. Attempts to remove it surgically failed at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, the lawsuit says.

MoDavis was flown to Nemours Dupont Hospital for Children the next morning to have it removed. Surgeons spent six hours trying to get the bear through the child's throat and through an incision in his neck, the suit says.

Eventually they pushed it through to his stomach and doctors surgically removed it Aug. 30, 2014, the lawsuit says.

The settlement was approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Lloret on Feb. 1, but it's not clear whether Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 has signed off on it.

Under the settlement, Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 admits no wrongdoing.

Easton Area School District was initially named as a defendant but was dismissed from the case Nov. 17, 2017, according to the online docket. So were several administrators and teachers from the intermediate unit and the school district.

Under the settlement, $41,150 would go to attorney Puglia. Attorney Michael Gehring of Berwyn, the MoDavis family's second attorney, would receive $26,983.

Insurance carrier Payment Integrity Solutions would get $27,000. That leaves $154,867 for a special needs trust set up for Ricky MoDavis.

"The settlement here reflected high medicals and attorneys' fees. There should be absolutely no imputation that anyone in Easton or the CIU did anything wrong," Freund said in an email.

Puglia said the attorney fees were contingent on the outcome of the case and not accrued by the hour. He called Freund's claim about the excessive fees "bogus."

"The settlement reflected the extreme negligent nature of the classroom behavior that day," he said.

According to the settlement agreement, the family now lives in Carbon County.

Before filing the lawsuit, the family spoke out at an Easton Area School Board meeting on Sept. 23, 2014.

"For him to put that in his mouth, he could not have been watched for that period of time," Richard MoDavis III said.

"He's a part of our family," Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 executive director Charlene Brennan told lehighvalleylive.com the day after that school board meeting. "We are as concerned for his safety and welfare as we are for all the children we serve."

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.An Easton Area School District paraprofessional assaulted an autistic student, according to a federal lawsuit.

When the school district failed to address the child's needs after the alleged assault, it was ordered to provide the child with "compensatory education," according to the lawsuit filed Feb. 9 in federal court.

The lawsuit was filed by a woman identified only as "Susanna H.," the mother of the victim, identified as "G.B." The lawsuit doesn't say where they live.

The family isn't suing over the assault, just the attorney fees they spent in order to win the child's "compensatory education."

According to the lawsuit, G.B. was assaulted Sept. 9, 2015, by substitute paraprofessional Linda Kharma while the regular paraprofessional was on her lunch break. G.B. reported the assault to his regular paraprofessional after her lunch, the lawsuit says.

School district solicitor John E. Freund III denies the assault took place.

Regardless, a Pennsylvania special education due process hearing officer awarded the family "compensatory education" for G.B. on Nov. 13, 2017. According to the lawsuit, the assault led to negative changes in the child's behavior which the school district failed to address.

It's unclear what specific "compensatory education" the child will receive or how much it will cost. The family's attorney, Michael Gehring, declined to comment. Freund said the cost of the education hasn't been determined yet.

The hearing officer awarded three hours a day of "compensatory education" retroactively for the period from Feb. 14, 2015 to May 17, 2017.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.The Northampton County Coroner's Office asked for the public's help in finding family of an Easton woman who died at home, according to authorities.

Lisa Brenda Schweizer died Monday. She was 57.

Authorities, in a news release seeking help in the case, did not include a cause or manner of death, or Schweizer's exact address.

The death was not suspicious, the coroner's office said. Easton police deferred comment on the death to the coroner's office.

The coroner's office asks anyone with information on Schweizer's relatives to call 610-258-1806.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.A northeastern Pennsylvania church says it expects about 300 couples bearing semiautomatic rifles and wearing crowns to attend a blessing next week.

The weapon of choice is the AR-15 for followers of the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Wayne County, just south of Lake Wallenpaupack.

That's the same firearm used in a series of mass shootings across the United States over the past few years, most recently the Feb. 14 massacre that left 17 dead at a high school in Florida.

To the sanctuary's followers, it is the "rod of iron" from the New Testament's Book of Revelation. The AR-15 "will be used to protect God's sovereignty as a defensive means," Tim Elder, director of world missions, told lehighvalleylive.com.

"We believe that we are living in the last days, that is to say the last days of Satan's dominion, and the beginning of a new history of God's sovereignty and goodness in the world," he said Friday.

The Unification Sanctuary's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, is the son of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church, which is often described as a cult.

The Pennsylvania offshoot is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. Unification Sanctuary operates a group called Rod of Iron Ministries, which is hosting a "President Trump Thank You Dinner" on Saturday -- a fundraiser for Gun Owners of America.

The Rev. Sean Moon's brother founded Kahr Arms, a gun manufacturer.

A first of its kind for the church's followers bearing the "rod of iron," the blessing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday. It will be broadcast live over the church's YouTube channel for followers who are unable to make the trip.

"We're expecting about 600 people here, about 300 couples," Elder said.

He's heard from a couple driving up from Florida, and the church expects more than 170 participants from South Korea, about 100 from Japan and others from Europe.

The rifles must be unloaded and will be secured with zip ties through the ejection port so they are inoperable, Elder said.

"Blessed couples are requested to bring the accouterments of the nation of Cheon Il Guk, crowns representing the sovereignty of Kings and Queens, and a 'rod of iron,' designated by the Second King as an AR15 semiautomatic rifle or equivalents such as an AK semiautomatic rifle, representing both the intent and the ability to defend one's family, community and nation of Cheon Il Guk," the church says on its website.

It continues to say those unable to purchase and legally transport a rifle to the blessing are asked to purchase and bring a $700 gift certificate from a gun store -- "as evidence of their intent to purchase a 'rod of iron' in the future."

"AR-15 is the recommended rifle," Elder said. "In some countries where American rifles are difficult to obtain such as in Eastern Europe or Russia, it is acceptable to participate with an AK."

The church is down the road from Wallenpaupack South Elementary School, and some parents expressed alarm at the planned ceremony.

"It's something I would consider keeping my child home. It's scary," parent Liz Zoccola told WNEP-TV.

"I wish they wouldn't have it at all. I don't think there's a good time to have it, especially this close," Kendra Hanor, another parent, told the station.

State police are aware of the event but do not plan to send any troopers to it, since the church is breaking no law, Trooper Mark Keyes said Tuesday.

Wednesday's blessing has been planned for four months, but following last week's school shooting and media coverage of the event, the church has gotten some backlash, Elder said.

"We're getting a number of emails, that's true," he said. "I guess we have had a few phone calls, but we're very busy preparing this. And this is something that is very important to us. And we're making sure that everything is legal and safe."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.TURKEYS

A feud over spending money to reopen the Alpha Borough pool has spilled into the courtroom. In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, Mayor Craig Dunwell, Councilwoman Tracy Grossman and Councilman Louis Cartabona claim thee other council members -- Thomas Seiss, Michael Schwar and Peter Pettinelli -- are using absences and abstentions to prevent a vote on a 277,000 contract to repair the pool. Borough residents have voted in nonbinding ballot questions to fix the pool, which has been closed since 2006. It's understandable that council has divided opinions about the pool, but elected officials must be willing to show up, speak their minds on a legally introduced proposal -- and vote.

Judging by the condition of his car -- the front of which was sheared off from the passenger compartment -- Christopher Adams is lucky to be alive. The 22-year-old Port Murray resident crashed his car, Mansfield Township police said, while traveling between 85 and 90 mph on Jackson Valley Road, striking several trees. Police said they figured out how fast the car was going by watching a Snapchat video Adams posted just before the crash. Adams was charged with drunken driving and several other offenses, including animal cruelty. A dog in the car with him was killed. He was released pending a court appearance.

TROPHIES

Dorothy Blyskal's three-year quest to get into screenwriting has paid off. After she leaving her corporate job and posting her talents on Facebook, she was chosen to adapt a book for "The 15:17 to Paris," a Clint Eastwood-directed movie that tells the story of three Americans who helped subdue a gunman on a Paris-bound train. The 35-year old Easton native has landed on Variety's top-10 list of screenwriters to watch. Her break came while working as a production assistant on an earlier Eastwood film, "Sully," which gave her access to producers and a chance to pitch some ideas, including a film based on her cousin, a firefighter who died during 9/11. Byskal credits Kathleen Dowd, her middle school English teacher in Easton, for helping to channel her passions into creative writing.

About 500 people took a dip in the Delaware River in Easton during this year's Lehigh Valley Polar Plunge. The air temperature for the noon-time event was 35 degrees. Some of the plungers, many in costume, managed to stay in for a swim. A group led by New Jersey State Police Lt. Jimmy Regan raised $5,000 in tribute to his 19-year-old daughter Caitlyn, who has a brain injury. The event generated about $100,000 for the Special Olympics.

A committee of Belvidere residents is working to bring back the town's Victorian Days, a September celebration that was canceled in 2017. Organizers said they couldn't meet the event budget last year because of a lack of homes to sponsor house tours or host teas. A new committee is working to address those obstacles, announcing that Victorian Days will be held Sept. 7-9 at Garrett D. Wall Park. The tours and teas will be back, along with vendors, a cotillion dance and an art competition to paint scenes in Belvidere.Our Back Pages

Issue #147

Issue Date: Summer 2004

Editor: John Barton

Pages: 105

Number of contributors: 24

Buy Issue 147: Print Edition

At the centre of this issue is Elisabeth Harvors prize-winning novella, selected by judges Robert Finley, Helen Humphreys, and Lorna Jackson. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves! First, Crispin Elsted, cofounder of Barbarian Press, welcomes us with six poems in riddle form, drawing inspiration and subject matter from the Exeter Book. These riddles set the tone for the following poems and the novella, where the playful exposes the profound and, in the novella in particular, the humorous can reveal (or mask) something more sinister.

Erin Moure, winner of the 1988 Governor Generals Award for her poetry collection Furious, contributes four poems. Moure writes first in Galician, a sister language of Portuguese, before translating the poems into English.Those of us not familiar with Galician are invited to bounce back and forth between the parallel texts, to tease out meaning from the unknown language by comparing it to the familiar. We discover that can must mean dog, perhaps nube is cloud, cristal is glass, correndo is runningthough we could easily be mistaken.

Bookended between two groupings of poetry is Elisabeth Harvors winning entry for the 2004 Novella Prize. Across Some Dark Avenue of Plot He Carried Her Body is a darkly comic rumination on a time the narrator spent working as a sessional lecturer at the fictitious, and prestigious, Stanopolis College in Montreal. The reader has full access to the narrators wonderfully neurotic thoughts and we watch, transfixed, as she describes how she fears her students, despises (and fears) her landlord, fantasizes about her facultys director, and drunkenly resists fleeing her dark, frigid, and exhaust-filled apartment during a prolonged power outage in a fierce winter storm. An entertaining read for anyone, perhaps in particular for those who attempt the precarious balancing act of teaching and writing. Or writing and anything else. Or writing, full stop.

Anne Simpson is waiting for us on the other side, to slow us down, to gently remind us to take a deep breath. She invites us into meditative stillness with her free form poems Willow Patternand Beyond.In the review section,Simpsons second book of poems, Loop, is critiqued by Shane Neilson, who feels that, though perhaps more risks could be taken in the collection, it nonetheless establishes Anne Simpsons place among the best new poets the Maritimes have to offer. The latter observation proves true, as Loop later won the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize. Also in this issue: poetry by Barry Dempster, David Winwood, Medrie Purdham.

Questions of balancebetween natural and man-made, between what once was and what can no longer be, between different selves, between parents and children, expectations and realitypermeate this issue. This same tension can been seen on the front cover, in the posture and gaze of the young man in Attila Richard Lukacs painting, Yellow (detail), 1994. An engrossing read from front to back.

Paige Lindsay

About Our Back PagesIn this Supreme Court judgment, the appellant claimed that they were the proprietor of the well-known marks Toyota, Innova and Prius and that the respondents were selling auto-parts and accessories in India by using the appellant's registered marks especially the mark "PRIUS" on their products. The appellant had no registration of the mark 'PRIUS' in India, whereas the respondents had a registration for the same in India since 2001. The Appellant however claimed that their mark 'PRIUS' was registered in numerous other jurisdictions since 1990. The Division Bench of Delhi HC vide its order dated January 12 2017 held that even though 'PRIUS' was a well-known mark outside of India, the trans-border reputation of the said mark had to be proved in India. Since the Appellants could not furnish necessary evidence to prove that the mark 'PRIUS' was also well-known in India, the Court ruled in favour of the Respondents. Aggrieved by the said order, the Appellant had filed a special leave petition.

The Supreme Court vide its order dated December 14 2017 ruled in favour of the Respondents by stating that the Appellants had not supplied enough proof of its 'reputation' in the Indian market. The Court agreed with the ruling of the Division Bench and held that the mark "PRIUS" had not acquired the degree of goodwill, reputation or popularity in the Indian markets so as to vest in the appellant the necessary attributes of the right of a prior user so as to successfully maintain an action of passing off even against the registered owner/the respondents.

The Court further held that the evidences submitted by the appellant, i.e. advertisements in international magazines, availability of information on internet portals, would not be a safe basis to prove the existence of the necessary goodwill and reputation of a product in India at the relevant point of time (in the year 2001) due to the limited online exposure at that point of time.



R Parthasarathy

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B6/10 Safdarjung EnclaveNew Delhi 110029, IndiaTel: +91 11 41299800Fax: +91 11 41299899 vlakshmi@lakshmisri.com www.lslaw.inAgaly: The family of Madhu, the tribal youth who was trashed to death by the 'moral mob' has raised grave allegation against the forest officials. While talking to the media, they pointed that the forest officials helped the moral mob to catch Madhu.

Some of the witnesses to the incident said that when Madhu asked for drinking water, the assailants poured it through his head, in a cruel way of mocking the thirst of the youth.

Meanwhile, the police is questioning the twelve people who were taken into custody in connection with the incident. A protest has been ongoing in front of the Agaly police station demanding the arrest of the culprits behind the heinous murder.SPRINGFIELD -- The Bing Arts Center has announced the spring 2018 schedule for the Richard & Ethel Hanley Arts Education Program that is being presented on Saturdays beginning in March.

The Bing Arts Center is located at 716 Sumner Ave., in Forest Park, is a multi-use hub for community cultural activity.The arts education program involves a series of workshops suitable for youth, ages 13 and older, and adults.

Bing Arts Center has announced the following workshop schedule.

Basic Photography with Chris Marion, March 10, from 1 to 3 p.m.

African Drumming with Jo Sallins, March 24, 1 to 3 p.m. The workshop allows participants to have their hands on their very own instrument and become a part of an ensemble. Participants are taken on a journey from percussion basics like hand positioning, sound techniques and warm ups to learning a part in a complicated cultural masterpiece! $15 adults, $10 students. Jo will provide drums, instruction, and lots of energy!

Basic Stencil Design Techniques with John Archambault, April 7 & 14, 10 a.m. to noon. Participants will create a one-part stencil art piece. Topics to be covered include: conceptualizing designs, stencil-izing images and type, taped stencil technique, and illustration board stencils. $50 adults, $40 students. Materials included.

Advanced Stencil Design Techniques with John Archambault, April 28 & May 5, 10 a.m. to noon. Participants will create a multi-part stencil portrait. Topics to be covered include: screened paper stencil portraits, making multi part stencils, found objects as stencils, and advanced spray techniques. $50 adults, $40 students. Materials included.

Beginning Watercolor Painting with Priya Nadkarni Green, June 16, 1 to 3 p.m. No experience necessary. $20 adults, $15 students. Materials included.

Beginning Acrylic Painting with Andrae Green, June 23, 1 to 3 p.m. No experience necessary. $20 adults, $15 students. Materials included.

Sketch Nights informal monthly artist get-togethers. March 15, April 19, May 17, June 21, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Participants bring their sketch pads and drawing tools. Cost is $5.

Those interested in participating are invited to register online at this site.

Workshop registration links are on the Calendar page. Or participants can contact Brian at this site.

The Bing received a $25,000 endowment from Dr. Jeffrey & Joan Lisse of Tucson, Arizona. The gift is being used to sustain an ongoing arts education program at the Bing in memory of Joan's parents Richard & Ethel Hanley. A graduate of Classical High School, Joan attended Springfield's public schools.

Executive Director Brian F. Hale said that he and Joan Lisse attended Kiley and Classical High School together "and always enjoyed sharing our enthusiasm for music and art."

"This very generous gift from Joan and Jeff enables us to broaden and sustain our arts education efforts at the Bing while honoring her parents," Hale said. "We are very grateful for the Lisses' continued generous support!"

The Richard & Ethel Hanley Arts Education Program at the Bing offers art classes and workshops year-round with some of the programs fostering the creation of new art to be presented and displayed at the Bing, Hale said.Japan has given fast-tracked approval for a pioneering one-dose, anti-viral medication said to stop replication of the flu virus in the body within 24 hours of being taken. This claim makes the medication more fast-acting for a number of infection markers than any available anti-viral medication for flu.

While complete recovery time for the ill may be similar to other medications, it is said to show in trials the ability to reduce fever more quickly, the time when a person who has the flu is infectious as well as to have reduced side-effects.

Xofluza (baloxavir marboxil) is from Japanese pharmaceutical company Shionogi. Baloxavir marboxil is an endonuclease inhibitor that the company says has shown to be active against both A and B viruses.

The company is working with Swiss drug maker Roche Holding on marketing the drug globally. Shionogi will market it in Japan and Taiwan.

Roche is the maker of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), one of three anti-viral drugs approved for treatment of the flu in the United States. Tamiflu is taken in 10 doses over five days, a routine not always completed by patients, and is said best if taken within 48 hours of flu onset in terms of shortening the length of the illness.

One study showed it took a median time of four days for Tamiflu to lessen flu symptoms in patients who took it, compared to five days in those who did not take it. Research has also shown it to be most effective in patients with laboratory- confirmed cases of flu.

Tamiflu is approved for use in adults, and children two weeks of age and older. Some issues regarding its use in children were raised in Japan a number of years ago. It was first approved by the FDA in 1999. Its out-of-pocket cost for a five-day course is upwards of $100, depending on dosage, when not covered by insurance.

Tamiflu works by blocking a protein on the surface of flu viruses called neuraminidase that allows the replicated virus to spread from infected cells.

Baloxavir is said to inhibit the virus from replicating within an infected cell.

Patients between the ages of 12 and 64 were involved in a randomized, double-blind, multicenter study in which some took baloxavir, some a placebo and some oseltamivir.

The Osaka-based Shionogi had received preliminary approval of its drug in January.

The company says non-clinical studies of its drug has shown resistance to oseltamivir-resistant flu strains and avian flu strains.

Roche is reportedly planning to seek FDA approval for the drug possibly in time for next year's flu season.

Anti-viral medications are not substitutes for the flu vaccine, but are given to relieve flu symptoms, particularly in patients at high risk for other complications from influenza.For MBTA passengers, riding the transit system can be a touch-and-go experience as they try to traverse Greater Boston, whether it's for work or play.

And they aren't shy about saying so, sometimes taking to social media networks like Twitter to not only voice their displeasure, but also to sometimes single out a T employee for a providing a pleasant trip.

And keeping riders happy will be the job of a new employee, according to a MBTA listing.

The MBTA is looking for someone to serve as "chief customer experience officer," reporting to the public transit agency's general manager.

He or she will be "responsible for improving the daily experience of MBTA riders and working to ensure a reliable, safe and pleasant experience for all of the MBTA's ridership."

The job comes with an annual salary that ranges from $113,980 to $151,525,000 a year.

Luis Manuel Ramirez, the former General Electric executive who took over as general manager last September, makes a base salary of $320,000 a year.

Ramirez is also a MBTA rider, encountering some problems his first day on the job when fare machines stopped working as he tried to get on the Green Line.

"That really indicates to me first-hand what are some of the experiences the customers are actually having, and why it's so important that we bring their experience into how we operate the business, how we set the metrics up for the business and the teams, and how we also drive the changes we've got to make," he told reporters at the time.

The new job's duties include acting as the "voice of the customer" in MBTA leadership meetings and leading customer experience departments.

The person has to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Minimum requirements and qualifications for the job include a bachelor's degree in business administration or marketing, and ten years of experience in finance, sales, operations, marketing or customer acquisition and satisfaction.

The full listing is available here.GREENFIELD -- The Massachusetts Nurses Association and Baystate Franklin Medical Center will have talks, not a strike and lockout, next week.

The two sides Friday agreed to return to the bargaining table on Monday.

"Encouraged by the MNA's change in position with Berkshire Medical Center today, we reached out to the MNA this afternoon and again extended our offer to go back to the negotiating table if they would call off their strike," Baystate spokeswoman Shelly Hazlett said in a statement. "We are very pleased that the MNA has agreed to call off their planned strike and move forward with us to settle the contract for Baystate Franklin nurses."

The Massachusetts Nurses Association called off a separate strike it had planned next week at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. That strike also was called off Friday.

The 200 unionized registered nurses at the 90-bed Baystate Franklin Medical Center have been without a contract since January 2017.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association said in its own release Friday night that nurses retain the right to re-issue a new 10-day notice of a one-day strike if necessary.

"Our community wants to see us reach a resolution that protects and improves patient care," said registered nurse Donna Stern, Senior Co-Chair of the BFMC RN Bargaining Committee, in a release. "We have been seeking to negotiate a fair contract all along, and we hope that the withdrawal of our strike notice gives us space to reach an agreement that benefits our patients, our nurses and our community."

In June, the nurses went on a 24-hour strike complete with pickets and a rally on the town square in the center of Greenfield. Management countered with a two-day lockout surrounding the strike day.

Management was planning a similar two-day lockout next week in Greenfield. The strike was set for Wednesday. The lockout would have been Tuesday and Thursday.

Hospitals hire replacement nurses on contracts no shorter than three days.

Two days ago, Greenfield city council members traveled to Springfield to meet with Baystate President and CEO Mark A. Keroack and with a member of the board of trustees. They were turned away because they didn't have an appointment.

Issues include the cost and availability of medical insurance. Nurses at Baystate Franklin didn't like the choices they were offered at Health New England, a Springfield-based health insurer owned by Baystate Health.

Nurses also wanted assurances of minimum staffing. Management said such guarantees wouldn't leave any flexibility to move nurses around the hospital to meet demand.

In December, Baystate named Ron Bryant, president of Baystate Noble in Westfield, as interim president of Baystate Franklin after Cindy Russo resigned after 18 months on the job. A month earlier, Bryant and Baystate Noble negotiated a contract with the Massachusetts Nurses Association members at Noble.

The new Baystate Noble pact runs until March 31, 2020.Two more Massachusetts State Police troopers linked to the Alli Bibaud arrest scandal are retiring, according to multiple media reports.

A Massachusetts State Police spokesman confirmed to MassLive that Col. Kerry Gilpin accepted the retirements of Lt. Col. Daniel Risteen, a top state trooper who served as commander of the field services division, and Major Susan Anderson, commander of Troop C in Central Massachusetts.

Both Risteen and Anderson are tied to the scandal involving the arrest of Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Judge Timothy Bibaud.

Two rank-and-file state troopers, Ryan Sceviour and Ali Rei, filed lawsuits alleging they were forced by superiors to scrub embarrassing details from Bibaud's arrest report. Anderson is a defendant in the lawsuits, while Risteen is listed as a participant in an effort to force edits in the arrest report.

The news of the latest State Police retirements broke Friday night, a traditional timeframe state and federal agencies use to release information in the hopes that few people will see it as they head into the weekend.

A State Police spokesman billed the retirements as a "restructuring" of command staff.

The former superintendent of the State Police, Richard McKeon, retired in November 2017. Lt. Col. Francis Hughes, his second in command, also retired.

Gov. Charlie Baker then installed Gilpin as McKeon's replacement.

McKeon admitted he ordered the changes to Bibaud's arrest report. State Police officials have claimed such requests for edits are routine, contradicting the police that says they're actually rare.

The lawsuit filed by Sceviour alleges that he was forced to remove remarks made by Bibaud and punished for including the statements in the original report. She allegedly said she performed sex acts for drugs.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey office is among the various entities investigating the scandal.

The full statement from the Massachusetts State Police is below.

Today, Colonel Kerry A. Gilpin continued her restructuring of the Command Staff of the Massachusetts State Police and has accepted the retirements of Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Risteen, Commander of the Division of Field Services, and Major Susan Anderson, Commander of Troop C.

Colonel Gilpin has promoted Robert Favuzza to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and assigned him as Commander of Field Services, the Department's patrol and tactical operations division. Lieutenant Colonel Favuzza most recently served as Major in command of Troop E, the troop that patrols the Turnpike, Tunnels and Tobin Bridge, and has additionally served in supervisory positions in Troops A and F, and at General Headquarters. Additionally, Colonel Gilpin promoted Thomas Zona to the rank of Major and appointed him as Commander of Troop C, which covers Central Massachusetts. Major Zona most recently served, as a Captain, as Deputy Commander of Tactical Operations, and also previously served as Station Commander of the Sturbridge Barracks and as a supervisor of detectives.

Colonel Gilpin thanks Lieutenant Colonel Risteen and Major Anderson for their many years of dedicated service to the Department and the citizens of the Commonwealth.Delta and United are ending the discounted rate for members of the National Rifle Association, the airline companies said.

Delta and United among several companies ending special offers for NRA members.

Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website.  Delta (@Delta) February 24, 2018

United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website.  United Airlines (@united) February 24, 2018

The Associated Press reported that MetLife Inc., the insurance company, stopped their NRA discount program, as did software company Symantec Corp. and car rental companies Hertz and Enterprise Holdings.

The pressure on the pro-gun group, and companies that have ties to it, comes after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and students launching a push for new action on gun control legislation.

Bob Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland, told the Associated Press that the potential impact on the national gun debate is unclear.

"If this is as far as it goes, it probably won't have any measurable effect. If other companies continue to (cut ties) it can start to have an adverse public relations effect," Spitzer told the news service. "Usually what happens is that the storm passes, and the NRA counts on that."

This post was updated with United's Twitter post.NORTHAMPTON -- Mayor David Narkewicz has plans to meet with officials and activists from Amherst and Pelham to discuss what the benefits of an energy aggregation co-op between the three communities might look like.

The meeting has not yet been set up but will likely occur in the coming weeks, Northampton Energy and Sustainability Commission member Chris Mason said Friday. "Those three towns are actively looking at setting up a meeting to have an initial discussion," he said.

Narkewicz could not be reached for comment Friday.

A state law passed in 1997 allows Massachusetts communities to choose the electricity supplier for individuals and businesses in their municipality, called energy "aggregations."

The specific energy aggregation process officials are interested in is a Community Choice Energy Aggregation, also called "CCA Plus," or "CCE Plus." With CCA Plus, communities may form joint municipal aggregations, forming co-ops.

The supposed benefit is improved energy efficiency, as well as allowing "energy decisions to be made at the local level rather than by an investor-owned utility or by a for-profit competitive electricity supplier," according to the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance.

Mason said that the city is "curious" about what a CCA model between itself and other surrounding communities might look like. "

"We want to understand it more," he said. "I think other communities want to understand it more as well, and we want to understand whether or not it would make sense for us to work together."

If the process does move forward, Mason said, an independent entity governed by the three communities would have to be set up to deal with the tasks of aggregation. "Some kind of a board or something," he said.

"How would something like this be set up? A lot of that stuff would have to be figured out first before anyone could pull the trigger on doing something," he said.

Mason said activists from Pelham, Amherst and Northampton have been behind a lot of the push to look into the CCA model. "They've been reaching out to those communities to see if those three communities would be willing to move forward on this," he said.

In Northampton, activists Sam Titelman and Adele Davidson, both associated with Climate Action Now, have regularly met with officials at public meetings to discuss the possibility of energy aggregation.

These efforts have already resulted in talk by officials. Amherst recently approved a resolution to explore CCA Plus, and Pelham officials have also expressed interest, Titelman said.

Thursday's Energy and Sustainability Commission meeting featured another presentation by Titelman, in which he touted the benefits of the CCA model, Mason said.

According to Titelman, enrollment would not be mandatory and consumers would have the ability to opt-out before and after the CCA process begins. However, national opt-out rates are relatively low, ranging from 3-5 percent.

One example of a successful implementation of the program is the Cape Light Compact, a public energy co-op that provides energy to 21 towns on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.

Final CCA Plus plans would require approval from local and state utilities departments.UPDATE: All charges against Remington R. Keyes were dismissed Thursday, according to an email from Keyes attorney, Corey Mescon, of the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Upon further investigation into the incident, the Commonwealth filed a nolle prosequi on the basis that it was in the interest of justice, Mescon said Saturday.

NORTHAMPTON - A Springfield man is facing rape charges for an alleged incident in Pelham, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Remington R. Keyes, 22, faces charges of rape and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over.

He was arrested by Massachusetts State Police on Feb. 12, and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him at his arraignment in Eastern Hampshire District Court.

Keyes was released on $5,000 bail Wednesday after a bail review in Hampshire Superior Court.

The incident allegedly involving Keyes began after Pelham police received a call for a possible sexual assault victim around 8 p.m. on Jan. 27.

The girl, who has not been identified but is referred to only as a "juvenile female" in court documents, was apparently picked up by police near the corner of Jones and South Valley roads, after fleeing a nearby residence. Police described her as "extremely distraught and emotional."

According to the victim, she met Keyes through Facebook and thought she may have gone to school with him because they shared a mutual friend. She agreed to meet up with him at his residence on South Valley Road, but when she arrived she told police she was immediately taken to a back bedroom and assaulted.

In an apparent attempt to escape the house, she asked if she could go get food. The two of them went out, during which time she attempted to send a message to her parents.

When they returned to Keyes' residence he apparently assaulted her again. Afterward the girl grabbed her clothes and ran out of the house, calling the police in the process.

A warrant for Keyes arrest was subsequently issued on Jan. 29.

Keyes terms of release include the conditions that he submit to GPS tracking and that he have no contact with the alleged victim.SPRINGFIELD -- A man was seriously injured when he was stabbed near the 100 block of Florence Street in the Six Corners neighborhood just after 6:30 Friday evening, police said.

Springfield Police Department spokesman Ryan Walsh said the victim said he was jumped by several men and stabbed multiple times. He was transported to Baystate Medical Center by ambulance.

The incident remains under investigation.SPRINGFIELD -- In the aftermath of a mass shooting in a Florida high school that left 17 people dead, Springfield Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick said that President Donald Trump's proposal to arm teachers with guns across the nation is the wrong answer.

"I would rather see us as a country do more about gun control and background checks rather than arming teachers," Warwick said. "I don't think that would fly at all."

Warwick also called for a greater focus on mental health services.

"I don't think people need to have automatic weapons, and I think we need to take a look at that as a country," Warwick said. "I think the NRA has been over the top on the issue of personal rights over the safety of the public and the safety of our students."

In the nation's schools, Warwick said, "(we) need to continue to make efforts to harden the target."

Nikolas Cruz, 19, is being held without bail, charged in a shooting rampage that left 17 students and adults dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He entered the school with an AR-15 style rifle in the killing spree, left the scene and was arrested later, police said.

Trump has proposed that some teachers be armed in the schools around the nation to help keep students safe.

The Springfield School Department has invested millions of dollars in recent years for public safety including cameras, technology and locks, including locks on all interior doors, Warwick said.

The School Department pays for a Quebec Team comprising 19 police officers who are responsible for the safety and security of students and staff, Warwick said. In addition, the schools use private security guards "where we feel appropriate," he said.

The use of police officers has been cited by the School Department as helping to reduce student arrests and suspensions.

Regarding the president's proposal to arm teachers, Warwick said he believes it is the "wrong approach."

"I think we ought to be taking these other methods to lessen the opportunity for people to get these weapons," Warwick said. "Providing mental health services and counseling should be part of the focus."

In Springfield, the School Department does a lot and will continue striving to increase those services to students, Warwick said.

Some of those who have been involved in mass shootings in the nation "seem to be folks who need mental health services and are not getting what they need," Warwick said.



"That's what we should be talking about, not arming teachers," Warwick said.US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, running for re-election this year, is hosting a town hall in Holden on Sunday.

The Feb. 25 town hall, her 20th within the last 20 months, is free and set to take place inside Wachusett Regional High School.

Doors open at 11 a.m. and the event starts at 12 p.m., according to Warren's campaign.

That same day, she is also holding a fundraising reception at the Log Cabin in Holyoke.

Warren, a Cambridge Democrat, was first elected to a six-year term in the US Senate in 2012.

Three GOP candidates are competing to take on Warren as makes a bid for a second term in November 2018: Former Mitt Romney aide Beth Lindstrom, Winchester businessman John Kingston, and Massachusetts state Rep. Geoff Diehl of Whitman.

A top critic of President Donald Trump, Warren this week turned to lashing the National Rifle Association after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and after she faced criticism from the head of the pro-gun group.

"Wayne LaPierre - the head of the NRA - gave a big speech today and made it clear that he isn't a fan of mine," Warren said in a fundraising email sent earlier this week.



"And you know what? That's perfectly fine by me. The feeling is mutual," she added. "I don't want the support of a radical extremist who puts the profits of the gun industry before the safety of our children in Massachusetts and across the country."A team of Opthalmologists at Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Bar-Ilan Universitys Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials developed eye-drops that have been found to repair the corneas and improve short and long sightedness. The nanoparticle solution called as "nanodrops" was successfully used on pigs corneas.

By Kashyap Vyas

https://interestingengineering.com/israeli-ophthalmologists-invents-revolutionary-eyedrops-that-could-replace-eyeglasses?_source=newsletter&_campaign=JqakQbEzv53vv&_uid=nXe0N3Xbxr&_h=64cc3b5d9718727b8670189a16e07bec629326aa&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=mailing&utm_campaign=Newsletter-24-02-2018Keeping your electric car charged is a big part of maintenance for those living the gas-free life, so Tesla is now bringing its Wall Connectors to offices  and its installing them for free.

Tesla introduced this month the Workplace Charging program https://www.tesla.com/charging-partners#apply , which brings electric vehicle charging units to office buildings, so that employees can get a charge while they work.

The program gives employees an easy way to juice up their cars while they sit in a parking lot for eight hours during the workday.

BY SASHA LEKACH

https://mashable.com/2018/02/23/tesla-workplace-charging-electric-vehicles/?utm_cid=hp-r-3#r_KGfkCghkq8Heads of international development institutions held a closed-door session with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday to discuss the uneven global economic recovery, access to vaccines, and strategies to drive a recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

Merkel was joined by the heads of the African Development Bank, World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

We have noted that the recovery after the pandemic is a two-speed recovery, which is cause for concern, Chancellor Merkel said.

The German leader added that the G7, IMF and World Bank continued to take measures to assist lower- and middle-income countries. She mentioned the IMF Special Drawing Rights and the importance of channeling them in a way that benefits the worlds poorest countries.

Highlighting the IMFs projection of 6% global growth in 2021, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said: The composition of the 6% is changing, with advanced economies broadly accelerating growth, whereas most emerging markets and developing economies are falling further behind. This is a dangerous divergence.

The consequences of the disparity include continuing supply chain disruptions and the risk of giving up hard-won gains in development, which would fuel unrest and instability.

Georgieva concluded that vaccines remain the number one priority today. World Bank President David Malpass reiterated this. He said progress had been made under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) initiative of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, but that advanced economies still need to make doses available to the rest of the world.

On debt relief, Malpass said: I have actively advocated for more transparency with regard to debt, as well as a greater balance within the debtor/creditor relationship around the world.

Addressing Africas economic prospects, African Development Bank President Akinwumi A. Adesina said the continents economies were forecast to grow by 3.4%. He said the IMF special drawing rights were invaluable in facing down economic headwinds. The recent IMF release of $650 billion in SDRs, with $27 billion to Africa, will go a long way in helping to boost reserves for developing countries, he said. He added: If the developed countries reallocate $100 billion of SDRs to Africa, as agreed at the Paris leaders meeting and by the G7, that will further support faster economic recovery in Africa.

ILO Director General Guy Ryder said the impact of the pandemic on labour markets was four times greater than the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Weve recovered perhaps half of the damage done in terms of work being done, but all of us agree that the recovery process is incomplete, uneven and fragile, Ryder said.

The institutional heads included messages of praise and farewell for the outgoing chancellors leadership on her thirteenth and final sit-down as head of state with them.

The meeting took place a day before a Compact with Africa conference, which several African heads of state are attending. The Compact with Africa is a G20 initiative that promotes private investment in Africa. It involves reform of the continents macroeconomic, business and financing frameworks.

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For the study, investigators studied patterns of DNA methylation, a process by which cells add tiny methyl chemical groups to a beginning region of a gene's DNA sequence, often silencing the gene's activation. They took fibroblast cells from human foreskin samples and followed an established, three-step laboratory process called Weinberg's classical transformation system to convert the cells to cancer cells. The process includes infecting cells with genes known to induce tumor development. The scientists also injected the early transformed cells into mice to monitor their progression. They took a second group of fibroblast cells and let them naturally mature into senescence. The researchers followed methylation changes observed in both groups of cells over time."Senescence is a very well-known, normal aging process that is actually an antitumor mechanism. It occurs when cells perceive an excess of DNA damage, when cells undergo too many cell divisions or when they experience cancer development-related stress. So it was puzzling to us how the senescence process could lead to the formation of tumors," says senior study leader Hariharan Easwaran, Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.To solve the mystery, Easwaran, Baylin and collaborators began mapping the evolution of epigenetic DNA methylation alterations during senescence and transformation. They found that although the alterations appeared similar between senescent cells and transformed cells, the way they evolved and the genes that got methylated were different for the most part.The researchers found that DNA methylation that evolved during senescence was very programmed, so much so that replicates of the senescence process in different petri dishes all had the same epigenetic pattern, Easwaran says. Independent replicates of the transformation process, by contrast, appeared very stochastic, or random.In addition, the transformation process primarily involved regulator genes that are critical for cancers to maintain the characteristics of a cancer cell, Baylin says. In comparison, senescence involves a number of metabolic process genes.In additional experiments, Wenbing Xie, Ph.D., the study's lead author, could not coax senescent cells into becoming transformed cells, serving as a protection against cancer development, and identified a subset of transformation-associated methylated genes that were most prone to get methylated during early tumor formation and during aging. In future work, the researchers will explore tissue-specific patterns of DNA methylation gains for the senescence and transformation classes of genes, and hope to use that to devise strategies for determining age-associated risk-stratification of tumor development.Source: EurekalertAdvertisement

The scientists analyzed the medical records of nearly 2,800 women in labor admitted to one hospital from 2008 through 2012. At the study hospital, one practice group of nurses and doctors had a policy of allowing laboring women to eat and drink ad lib (ad libitum, or "as they please"). Another four practice groups kept all patients NPO (nil per os, or "nothing by mouth").Recommendations to restrict oral intake during labor reflect concerns over the risk of vomiting and aspiration (inhalation) in case general anesthesia and surgery are needed. However, with advances in epidural and spinal anesthesia, the use of general anesthesia during labor has become rare (and, if needed, much safer than before).The study compared maternal and child outcomes in about 1,600 women who were kept NPO (except for ice chips) with 1,200 who were allowed to eat and drink ad lib during labor. The two groups were "sufficiently equivalent" for comparison. The women's average age was 31 years. Before delivery, a "preexisting medical condition" complicating pregnancy was identified in 14 percent of the NPO group compared with 20 percent of the ad lib group.Even though the women in the NPO group started out with fewer medical problems, they had a significantly higher incidence of complications during labor and birth, compared with the ad lib group. The women in the NPO group were also significantly more likely to give birth via unplanned cesarean section.Other outcomes--including requiring a higher level of care after delivery and the newborns' condition as measured by Apgar score--were not significantly different between groups. Analysis using a technique called propensity score matching, comparing groups of women with similar risk factors, yielded similar results.The findings add to those of previous studies suggesting that restrictions on eating and drinking during labor could be safely relaxed in uncomplicated cases. "Yet in keeping with current guidelines, most obstetricians and anesthesiologists in the United States continue to recommend restrictions on oral intake for laboring women," Anne Shea-Lewis and colleagues write."Our findings support permitting women who are at low risk for an operative birth to self-regulate their intake of both solid food and liquids during labor," the scientists add. They note some limitations of their study, especially the fact that the women weren't randomly assigned to NPO or ad lib groups.The authors hope their study will lead to reconsideration of current recommendations to keep women NPO during the "often long and grueling" process of labor and delivery. "Restricting oral intake to a laboring woman who is hungry or thirsty may intensify her stress," Anne Shea-Lewis and colleagues conclude. "Conversely, allowing her to eat and drink ad lib during labor can contribute to both her comfort and her sense of autonomy."Source: EurekalertRon Galella, Ltd./WireImage(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) -- The body of the Rev. Billy Graham, one of the world's most famous Christian evangelists, will be brought back to his North Carolina hometown on Saturday in a 130-mile procession that is expected to draw thousands of mourners and well-wishers.



The procession started Saturday morning at 11 a.m. ET with a ceremonial departure from a training center run by Graham's evangelistic association, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina. A private family prayer service was held at the chapel earlier.



From there, the motorcade carrying the casket passed through the town of Black Mountain before turning onto the interstate for an approximately four-hour journey to the Billy Graham Library in the city of Charlotte, near the town of Montreat where the evangelist was born and grew up on a dairy farm.



There are designated viewing areas along the procession route for the public to pay their last respects.



A ceremonial arrival for the procession will take place at the Billy Graham Library, where Graham's body will be buried alongside his wife, Ruth, after a funeral next week.



Graham died Wednesday morning at his home in North Carolina's mountains, spokesman Mark DeMoss said. He was 99.



He is survived by three daughters and two sons as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His wife died in 2007.



Known as "America's pastor," Graham was a key figure in the revival of the U.S. evangelical Christian movement. He began holding revival meetings in the 1940s and went on to become an adviser to several U.S. presidents.



Graham had been in poor health in recent years and had turned his international ministry over to his son Franklin Graham. The elder Graham did not have cancer, despite reports claiming otherwise, his spokesman said.



Despite numerous hospitalizations in recent years, Graham's work remained in the public eye late into his life. In 2011, around his 93rd birthday, he released what official reports said was his 30th book, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well, on the subject of aging. Also in 2011, audio files documenting six decades of his ministry were put online in a searchable database.



Graham brought evangelical Christianity into the mainstream. As a spiritual adviser to U.S. presidents, he had great access to the White House.



"Each one I've known long before they ever became president, been in their homes many times, always called them by their first names, until they became president," Graham said of several former presidents.



He was especially close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes.



Bill Clinton turned to him after his much publicized sex scandal, and George W. Bush credited Graham with helping him to quit drinking alcohol.



When asked how his life would be different if it were not for Billy Graham, George W. Bush said simply, "I wouldn't be president."



The evangelist brought his "Billy Graham Crusades" around the world, preaching to more than 210 million people in 185 countries and territories. His largest such gathering drew 1 million people in Seoul, South Korea, in the 1970s.



However, Graham was met with criticism in February 2002, when audiotapes released by the National Archives revealed a 1972 conversation with Nixon at the White House in which Graham said Jewish people had a "stranglehold" on the media.



He later apologized and said his work with Jewish people over the years belied that remark.



Donald and Melania Trump met Graham at the preacher's 95th birthday party in 2013, but they never met after Trump took office as president.



Invitations to Graham's funeral on Friday have been extended to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as living ex-presidents, DeMoss said.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.ANN ARBOR, MI - Drawing customers off the beaten path for seven years, Zingerman's Coffee Company is celebrating the grand reopening of its renovated retail location, which now features more seating and a renewed emphasis on the art of making a cup of coffee.

The wholesale center and retail spot at 3723 Plaza Dr. in Ann Arbor isn't your typical cafe, said Steve Mangigian, managing partner of Zingerman's Coffee Co. It started operations in the company's mail order delivery warehouse, with the simple intention of roasting coffee and packaging it for wholesale customers.



Operations soon became cramped as the business grew and prompted a move into its own separate space along Plaza Drive, tucked among other Zingerman's businesses and industrial buildings.

It wasn't the typical location for a cafe, which usually takes into account the amount of foot traffic and the visibility of a location, Mangigian said.

"We've defied that entire myth," he said.

People continue to travel to Ann Arbor's south side for Zingerman's baristas and to check out the Big Brew Board, a grid of combinations of methods and beans that ensure a customized coffee experience.

The continued growth has prompted a complete renovation of front-of-house operations, with construction taking place from July to early December last year.

Michelle Abbey, marketing manager at Zingerman's Coffee Co., said they have appreciated the flexibility shown by regulars and visitors during renovations.

Walking in, the coffee counter and production area is now shifted to the right of the entrance, and a new cupping lab area serves as a laboratory for Zingerman's baristas to test new creations and find the perfect balance of aroma and taste while roasting coffee beans.

Additional seating has doubled the number of people who can enjoy the smells coming from behind the front counter and the cupping lab, where classes are also held for those interested in learning the process from the experts.

There's also a new smell lingering in the air. A newly-added toast bar adds to a selection of pastries, Abbey said, "for something warm we make in-house."

Try the Bulgarian Toast: a combination of sesame semolina bread covered in cream cheese and a Bulgarian spread called lutenita, which includes roasted peppers, roasted eggplant and tomatoes.

"We wanted to serve something that honored our fellow Zingerman's Community of Businesses," Abbey said about the toast bar, which is available all day.

Customers who love a certain toast can then shop the row of businesses out on Plaza Drive, like the Bakehouse and the Creamery, and make their own version at home.

Most operations were not impacted during the renovations, except for hand-brewed requests, Abbey added.

It didn't stop coffee lovers from stopping in with laptops or books to escape the house or office, and feedback since renovations has been positive.

"We were really happy to remain open," Abbey said. "It is essential for a cafe for people to kick back and relax. Before, we were running into the issue of not having enough seats. Now, we have space to welcome in people. It really opened up the floor plan."

A grand re-opening event is planned for Febrruary 24 and 25 with toast samples, a raffle to win a coffee gift set and a special release of the rare coffee known as Panama Geisha.

"We had a chance to try it yesterday," Mangigian said, describing the roast as one of the silkiest he has had. "It tastes amazing."

How does rare coffee, a chance to win $200 worth of coffee goods, and free grub sound for weekend plans? Stop by for the... Posted by Zingerman's Coffee Company on Monday, February 19, 2018

Abbey said there will also be a special coffee and new toast recipe, available only during the grand re-opening weekend event. The Coffee Co. is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Mangigian said he's excited to try out the new roaster machine customized for Zingerman's Coffee Co., which took a year and a half to build.

Wholesale remains a core part of the business, Mangigian said, but renovating the retail side was important because it's where the heart of the business is.

He described the coffee bar as a warm and welcoming place to educate customers about the beverage they are drinking using methods like chemex and pour-overs.

It is one of the few places he is aware of that offers eight brewing methods and up to 14 types of coffee beans to personalize the experience for everyone from the amateur to the connoisseur.

"I do not start any of my days without espresso," Mangigian said. "I love the ritual of it."

Zingerman's Coffee Co. is about helping others find their perfect cup in a comfortable setting, he said.

"I want it to be innovative. I want it to be nostalgic," Mangigian said. "It's about your adventure."EATON COUNTY, MI - It was growing even as they stood there.

"You could hear it and watch the road crumble into it," Katie Youngs said of a pothole she and her family discovered Tuesday in Eaton County's Windsor Township.

Youngs, who lives in the area, took pictures of her father, Jeff Waldron, and her sons, Luke, 3, and Nate, 6, standing inside the huge crevice, on Spruce Road, a gravel stretch near Wilbur Highway, north of Eaton Rapids. She posted a picture on Facebook with the caption: "You think you've hit big potholes?!"

"We seized the moment," she said.

The family had been driving about the area looking at all the flooding fields and over-flowing ditches. Heavy rains and melting snow have caused waters to rise across the state, closing roads and placing some residents in kayaks. Flood warnings persist.

"All the roads are pretty beat up, in bad shape," Youngs said when asked about the condition of local thoroughfares; few in Michigan haven't griped in recent weeks about potholes.

"That one was exceptional, for sure," she said.

But don't go looking for it.

The family contacted the county road commission, and workers filled the hole on Thursday, Youngs said.ANN ARBOR, MI - A 28-year-old Romulus man is facing numerous prostitution-related charges from an incident that took place at an Ann Arbor hotel, records show.

Keith Avon Perry was charged with two counts of prostitution-accepting earnings, one count of prostitution-transporting and one count of aggravated domestic violence after being arrested at the Victory Inn Suites, 3750 Washtenaw Ave. in Ann Arbor on Jan. 17, according to court records.

Ann Arbor police were initially called to the hotel after receiving reports of human trafficking, according to a court motion filed by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office.

The motion, filed Thursday, Feb 22, seeks to use the victim's statements to detectives in court, rather than having her testify.

Perry is also accused of threatening the woman from jail, prosecutors say.

Perry was found in a room with the woman, who was "naked and crying with welts on her back," according to the motion.

The woman, who MLive is not identifying, told authorities Perry brought her to Michigan from Georgia and that he was her "pimp," the records say.

When she threatened to leave him, Perry allegedly whipped her with a cell phone charger and cord on her back, according to records.

Perry was arraigned Jan. 19. A judge set bond at $200,000, records show.

Ann Arbor police Lt. Matthew Lige said the arrest was part of a joint human trafficking task force operation with the FBI. Lige could not release any more information because it was still an open investigation.

The prosecutor's motion, however, lays out much of the case and includes details about how Perry allegedly made several phone calls from the Washtenaw County Jail in mid-January in an effort to intimidate the victim.

Perry called a woman in Arizona who has previously filed and dropped assault charges against him, according to the court filing. She described Perry as a "gorilla pimp" who frequently abused her, according to the motion. She said that when she tried to leave him, he found her and "choked her until she could no longer breath," records say.

Perry arranged a three-way call between the Arizona woman and the Georgia woman from the jail in which he told them that he was "the center of everything," the motion says. Perry also called his mother from jail and asked her to take measures to prevent the Georgia woman from testifying.

Judge Elizabeth Hines has not yet ruled on the prosecutor's motion to introduce victim's statements, according to a review of court records Friday.

A preliminary examination that was set for Thursday, Feb. 22 was rescheduled for March 1.

Court records show Perry has a lengthy criminal history. Between 2008-2015, he's been charged in Washtenaw County for cases involving the theft of financial transaction devices, drugs and fleeing police.

State prison records show he served time on a drug case between 2013 and 2016. He was released on April 25, 2016.

Hines denied a motion to reduce his bond at a hearing on Feb. 1.

Perry remains in the Washtenaw County Jail on the $200,000 cash bond.ANN ARBOR, MI - The birthplace of the Peace Corps - the University of Michigan - remains one of the top volunteer-producing universities in the country, according to numbers provided by the agency.

UM currently has 61 Peace Corps volunteers worldwide, which ranked No. 8 among "large schools" on the organization's 2018 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. The university also ranked No. 5 in the graduate category, with 14 graduate alumni currently volunteering.

UM has ranked in the top 10 among large schools every year since 2008.

"Peace Corps service is a profound expression of the idealism and civic engagement that colleges and universities across the country inspire in their alumni," Acting Peace Corps Director Sheila Crowley said in a news release.

"As Peace Corps Volunteers, recent college and university graduates foster capacity and self-reliance at the grassroots level, making an impact in communities around the world. When they return to the United States, they have new, highly sought-after skills and an enterprising spirit that further leverages their education and strengthens their communities back home."

Alumni from more than 3,000 colleges and universities nationwide have served in the Peace Corps. Since the agency's founding in 1961, 2,720 Wolverines have served in communities around the world.

In 2017, the University of Michigan launched the Peace Corps Prep program on their campus, which gives students a competitive edge before applying to the Peace Corps by allowing them to combine hands on experience with relevant coursework.

The state of Michigan ranked No. 9 among states with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers in 2017, while the Ann Arbor metro area also ranked No. 9 among metropolitan areas with the highest number of Peace Corps volunteers per 100,000 residents.

The Peace Corps ranks its top volunteer-producing colleges and universities annually according to the size of the student body.

"Large colleges and universities" are ranked based on having more than 15,000 undergraduates. The University of Wisconsin-Madison topped the list for most volunteers among a large college or university with 85 undergraduate volunteers.

The complete 2018 rankings in each category can be viewed here.

Historically, UM has had the fourth highest total of volunteers with the Peace Corps since 1961, with 2,720. The University of California Berkeley tops the all-time list with 3,671 volunteers.

The agency was created 57 years ago, shortly after a speech by presidential candidate John F. Kennedy outside the Michigan Union calling students to action.FLINT, MI -- The former operator of the city's water treatment plant says he found no detectable chlorine in parts of Flint's water system within months of the city changing its water source to the Flint River in 2014.

Michael Glasgow, the former plant operator and utilities administrator for the city, told Genesee District Court Judge Jennifer Manley Friday, Feb. 23, that testing showed little or no chlorine in areas where testing revealed bacteria in city water, requiring a series of boil water advisories starting in August 2014.

"There was no chlorine that we could test in the system," Glasgow testified. "That is a definite concern ... something was reacting with the chlorine and using it up."

Flint water officials ultimately added so much chlorine to river water to fight bacteria that the city was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act due to elevated levels of total trihalomethanes, a byproduct of chlorination.

Glasgow testified Friday during the sixth day of preliminary examinations for four current and former employees of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, each of whom has been charged with criminal wrongdoing in relation to the water crisis.

The DEQ never required the city to treat river water to make it less corrosive to pipes and plumbing, including cast iron transmission lines and lead service lines to homes while Flint was being run by state-appointed emergency financial managers.

Iron corrosion destroys chlorine, water experts including professor Marc Edwards have said, leaving no residual to disinfect and kill bacteria.

During the 17 months the city used the river as its source of water, Flint was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, had numerous boil water advisories due to bacteria in water and elevated levels of lead.

Researchers from Wayne State and Virginia Tech Universities have said the city water also likely triggered outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease, and special prosecutor Todd Flood has said he plans to ask Manley to add charges of involuntary manslaughter related to Legionnaires' deaths against two of the four DEQ defendants -- Liane Shekter-Smith and Stephen Busch.

In addition to those manslaughter charges, Shekter-Smith, former director of DEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, faces charges of misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty.

Busch, a district supervisor, also faces six additional criminal charges, while Prysby, a district engineer, is charged with two counts each of misconduct in office, tampering with evidence and violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Patrick Cook, a specialist for DEQ's Community Drinking Water Unit, is charged with willful neglect of duty, misconduct in office and conspiracy.

Despite a myriad of problems with water while the city used the river, city and state officials routinely defended its quality while the city was being run by emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder.

During his second day of testimony Friday, Glasgow said he contacted Prysby, advising him of boil water advisories in the city, including one related to fecal coliform, just months after the change in water source.

In an email to a supervisor, Glasgow also wrote that by mid-August 2014, Prysby suggested to him "off the record," that he city could improve results when testing for TTHMs by flushing fire hydrants in areas near where testing was taking place.

"By flushing the hydrants we would get fresher water in that area. We would get rid of some of the stagnant water," Glasgow said.

"Would it create a false test ...?" Flood asked Glasgow about the effect of hydrant flushing on testing.

"It would change the levels," he said.

Prosecutors on Friday introduced a briefing paper written by Busch for Snyder in October 2014. In the paper, Busch he blamed city contractors for contributing to water problems by improperly drawing water from city fire hydrants.

Busch and Prysby each received emails from Glasgow in advance of Flint starting to treat river water for the first time in decades.

In the emails, Glasgow warned that the city was not ready to handle water treatment but he told Manley he eventually deleted the email after receiving no response from Prysby or Busch.FLINT, MI - A judge declined to allow a former Flint liquor store employee to withdraw his guilty plea or his role in a $1.3 million food stamp fraud scheme after he claimed he would be targeted for an "honor killing" if he were deported back to India following his conviction.

Instead, Judge Linda V. Parker on Wednesday, Feb. 21, in Flint U.S. District Court sentenced Jatinder "Bobby" Singh to time served and ordered him to pay $81,197 in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

After an immigration court denied Singh asylum in the United States in December 2017, his attorney, Kimberly W. Stout, filed a motion requesting the judge allow him to withdraw his plea in the case.

"His position is that he was confused about the system and some of the total consequences, but the judge and prosecutors both believe they made that clear on the record in court," said Stout. "This is a very sad situation and I'm just very disappointed with immigration and our current administration. He has two American children ... he's fearful to return."

Singh, 31, pleaded guilty to aiding the food stamp scheme operating at Paradise House of Liquor in April 2017 under the assumption he would be allowed to stay in the United States due to the "horrendous circumstances" he faced if he returned to India, Stout's motion said.

If the former Flint liquor store employee is deported to India, he will be killed by his wife's family, Stout said.

"This is obviously a very troubling situation," Stout said. "He was very much used and preyed upon in this case ... He has two children here and now he doesn't know what going to happen."

The U.S. Attorney's response to Stout's motion was sealed in court records because it included exclusive information from Singh's application for immigration, according to court records.

A spokesperson for the office also declined to comment on the case.

According to Stout's filing, Singh fled to the United States from India in 2008 after being targeted by his wife's family for an "honor killing" -- a killing carried out on one who is accused of bringing shame to their family.

Because Singh's wife was of a different culture than him, the pair was not permitted by the family to marry, the court filing states. The filing added that when Singh proposed to the woman, she was beaten by her father and Singh was threatened with death.

In 2008, the couple obtained United States visas and lived in New York City for nearly seven years before moving to Flint with their two children - ages 6 and 8 - for work in 2014, the filing said.

While working at the Paradise Liquor House on Fleming Road in Flint, Singh allowed his visa to expire and no longer has legal status in the United States, according to court records.

Alongside Lakhbir "Lucky" Chahal and Tony "Paco" Price, Singh pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud before Flint U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker in April 2017.

In July, Parker sentenced Chahal - the owner of both Liquor Plus and Paradise House and accused ringleader in the scheme - to spend between 3.5 and 4.5 years behind bars, while Price was put on probation.

At both liquor stores, Chahal would pay customers 50 cents cash in exchange for each dollar of their food stamps benefits. He would also exchange benefits for ineligible items such as cigarettes and alcohol, authorities said, claiming that Chahal then illegally used the food stamp benefits to purchase stock for the stores.

Singh worked for Chahal at Paradise Liquor from February to October 2015, according to court records.

While he worked there, Singh bought Bridge Cards from beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to court documents.

Singh, at the direction of Chahal, also used the Bridge Cards to buy inventory for Paradise House of Liquor, investigators said

Flint police padlocked both liquor stores in 2016 following a rash of shootings at the businesses.

Although Singh waived his right to appeal his sentence when he pleaded guilty to the charges against him, he may still file an appeal on the judge's ruling on a technicality, Stout said.

The Indian government reports that since 2014, around 500 people - mostly women - have died in "honor killings" in the country, a number which some activists say is "vastly under-reported," according to an article in Reuters.

In November 2017, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the deportation of a metro Detroit woman who faced an honor killing if she returned home to Jordan.PARK TOWNSHIP, MI -- A 58-year-old Holland man was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after his pickup collided head-on with an Ottawa County Sheriff's Department SUV.

Deputy Chris Armstrong had responded to the area of Bay Circle Drive about 7:25 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24 after someone called 911 to report that a man was about to drive while intoxicated.

The 911 caller had talked to the man, who was sitting in a blue pickup in a nearby driveway. He said the man seemed intoxicated.

Police responded and Armstrong located the truck after it had driven through multiple yards in the area.

He was attempting to stop the vehicle when the pickup collided head-on with the SUV. The cruiser had its overhead lights activated. No one was injured.LANSING, MI - Jeremy Rook is fastidious about car maintenance, but right now his 2012 Chevy Cruze has a damaged suspension and a broken tire pressure monitoring system. He knows how it happened. Potholes.

"I feel like I'm in like an Olympic slalom event, weaving between these potholes trying not to ruin whatever's left of my car, and it's so frustrating that I have to do that," he said.

Under a roads package passed in 2015, Michiganders are paying more for registration fees and fuel taxes. But with pothole season in full swing, many are left questioning what they're getting for that money.

The changes from that funding, Gov. Rick Snyder said, are coming. It will be fully implemented in 2021, when the state dedicates an extra $1.2 billion per year to roads.

"It's starting to show up," Snyder said. "We told people that when we did it, it doesn't get solved overnight."

But those who see repair bill mounting are questioning if Michigan will ever solve the problem.

Patty Johnston, 63, of Royal Oak, was meeting a friend for dinner this week when she hit a pothole and popped a tire on her 2015 Chevy Equinox. She was lucky, she said, that when her car careened into another lane it was empty. She saw two other cars hit potholes and have to pull over while she was waiting for a tow truck. It's becoming a safety issue, she said.

"I think that the problem becomes more serious every year and it needs to be addressed because it's a big issue. We can't just keep putting a band-aid on it," Johnston said.

Legislature boosts funding

It was a huge legislative lift to get a roads package through in 2015.

Starting in 2017 the new law raised registration fees by 20 percent, the gas tax by 7.3 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 11.3 cents. Those comprise roughly $600 million in new revenue. The legislature, in annual budgets, will start shifting another $600 million from the general fund into roads. The total boost for road funding will reach $1.2 billion by 2021.

That money goes to the Michigan Department of Transportation but also trickles down to county and local governments for local road improvements.

But recently, there's been a push for a cash infusion that would accelerate road repairs. In Snyder's recently proposed budget, he puts an extra $175 million into roads in fiscal year 2019. The House took that a step further and voted this week to put that $175 million into roads immediately. It's a move Snyder supports.

Rep. Laura Cox, R-Livonia, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, sponsored the bill. She said she wanted to get it passed now so it could make a difference sooner, in construction this spring and summer. It will go to every community in the state, she said.

"Pothole season is already here and it's getting worse day by day," Cox said.

But Democrats were looking for more. House Democratic Leader Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, wants to see more effort than a one-time funding boost. Right now Michiganders are paying more, he said, and "they're not seeing the returns."

The 2015 road package, he said, doesn't fully solve the problem. Roads are getting worse.

Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, said in a November interview that when fully implemented, the $1.2 billion cash infusion doesn't mean overall road conditions in the state will improve.

"It means we're slowing the rate of deterioration. The projections still show that we aren't turning the curve around, they're still going to degrade, they're still going to continue to get worse. Just not as fast," Steudle said.

Potholes hit pocketbooks

For some Michiganders, pothole season has already been costly.

Benjamin Schroff, 23, of East Lansing, was driving some friends in late January or early February when one of them spotted a pothole. They hit it and two of his 2009 Honda Civic hybrid's tires were damaged.

He ended up needing to replace all four tires and get a realignment at a total cost of around $800. And, new tires in tow, he's seeing more potholes every day.

"I'm definitely a little bit more sensitive to it, and also having new tires it's like ok, so how many times is it going to take driving the same route back and forth to destroy these ones, which I just bought at almost $1000?" he said.

He's not the only one potholes have cost.

Glenn Freeman, assistant manager of the Belle Tire location at 8624 W. Saginaw Highway in Lansing, said the shop had replaced 240 tires this week as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, and said more could come in before they closed at six.

"This month at this store in particular we have been nonstop in the month of February," Freeman said. "Just this week alone we've done 50 alignments on cars. And it's just been nonstop."

Nicholas Stopher, 35, of Novi, hit a pothole coming home from Ann Arbor. It cost him $250 to replace a tire on his 2013 Ford Fusion, but he knows it had a ripple effect on Michigan's economy, too.

"Ultimately it cost me directly $250. But guess what I wasn't doing for half of the day? I was not working," he said.

How many people a day, he wonders, hit a pothole and lose time and productivity waiting for a repair?

Public losing faith

The House passed the $175 million, and the Senate could consider it as soon as next week. But lawmakers like Singh are calling for more.

"To me we have to have a long-term conversation around road funding and bridge funding. Otherwise we're not going to ever see our roads get better," Singh said.

Some communities, unable to wait for state funding, are putting up their own millages. Spring Arbor Township near Jackson passed one last May.

"People still are having a very difficult time wrestling with the fact that, in essence, the state has let us down," Township Supervisor David Herlein told MLive ahead of the vote last year. "Michigan roads are now some of the worst in the country. We're still not investing enough dollars in our local road infrastructure."

Jackson County, meanwhile, is launching a "war on potholes."

Lance Binoniemi, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, an industry group, said the weather had certainly contributed to the bad potholes. But what it really did, he said, was expose the lack of investment in Michigan's roads. Even the 2015 package, he said, wasn't enough to sustain a network of good and fair roads across the state.

But he counts the $175 million as progress, because it shows movement from the legislature.

"Before the last three weeks I think road funding and discussions on roads and bridges was not something the legislature was even willing to have a discussion on," Binoniemi said.

He sees the potholes, and he sees people clamoring for more funding to address them.

But some Michiganders aren't sure the money they're already sending to roads is making a difference.

"Just throwing more money at things isn't the whole picture," Stopher said.

Rook said he doesn't normally like the idea of more taxes, but infrastructure is something he thinks is worth of investing in. He drives in Wisconsin a lot, which has a similar climate, and would like to see Michigan have similar road quality.

"There's nothing special geographically about Michigan that prevents nice roads," Rook said. "So if it's not a geographical limitation, it's got to be a financial or a political reason, I guess, at the root of it that we don't have better infrastructure.

"I'll just keep on hoping that something changes."JACKSON, MI - The Jackson County Board of Commissioners on Friday mailed a letter to Gov. Rick Snyder asking the governor to initiate proceedings to remove Sheriff Steven Rand from office.

"The Jackson County Board of Commissioners has learned that the (the sheriff) engaged in conduct deemed by the board of commissioners to be an abuse of the office of the county sheriff. The sheriff has admitted to engaging in abhorrent speech with his command staff at the sheriff's office," reads the letter, dated Feb. 23 and signed by board chairman James "Steve" Shotwell Jr.

"The commissioners believe that this conduct is a threat to the core values of the community and has undermined the community's confidence in law enforcement. This crisis of confidence is directly related to the sheriff's ability to lead and perform his duties as sheriff to protect all the citizens of Jackson County."

In an 8-0 vote, board members on Tuesday resolved to petition the governor to remove Rand from office if the sheriff did not tender his resignation.

The sheriff has said he plans to stay. "I am not a person that likes leaving messes for other people to clean up," Rand said this week. "And I intend to resolve this issue."

Absent his voluntary departure, only a successful recall election or an order from Snyder could remove Rand from office. He was appointed in 2011, when former Sheriff Dan Heyns left with his undersheriff to lead the Michigan Department of Corrections. Rand handedly won the 2012 election and was reelected, without opposition, in 2016.

Last week, sheriff's Lt. Tommy Schuette filed a lawsuit against Rand and the county alleging the sheriff created a hostile work environment, harassing Schuette for his hearing disability, and the county retaliated against Schuette for reporting and opposing Rand's conduct. The lawsuit alleges Rand is a "multifaceted bigot" whose derogatory comments have targeted women, blacks, and other groups.

In audio recordings released by Schuette's lawyer, Jim Fett, the sheriff is heard degrading a woman job candidate, calling a female judge a "scatter-brained c---" and discussing the creation of a pornographic murder film involving a court employee.

Rand has repeatedly apologized for his comments, calling them inappropriate and embarrassing. He does not deny his voice on the tapes.

Since his election in 2010, Snyder has never removed a county official from office, a spokeswoman in his office earlier said.

If he were to initiate such a proceeding, the request for removal would be sent to the attorney general's office, which would review the claims to determine whether they meet the legal definition for misconduct in office. The governor's office would receive a recommendation as to whether the removal is warranted and if Snyder wished to continue, a hearing would be set, the governor's office has reported.JACKSON, MI - If Jackson County Sheriff Steven Rand does not resign by Tuesday, Jackson Mayor Derek Dobies intends to ask the City Council to formalize its position that the sheriff cannot continue to serve the community.

He plans to call for a vote at the Tuesday City Council meeting. He will go one step further and ask the council to approve sending a letter to Gov. Rick Snyder, encouraging Snyder to initiate the process of removing Rand from office.

"I think it is pertinent for us to formalize that in the body of a resolution," Dobies said on Saturday.

A majority of the City Council already called for Rand's departure in a statement issued within days of the release of damning audio recordings. Rand is heard calling a woman judge a "scatter-brained c---" and discussing the creation of a violent pornographic film starring a court employee.

"Anytime a public servant not only allows their office to be a haven to degrade and demean African-Americans, women, Hispanics, the LGBT community, and people with disabilities, but directly participates and encourages that behavior, it erodes the public trust," read the initial City Council statement, circulated by Dobies on Feb. 16.

In the days since, as the story has developed and residents have reacted, Dobies said it is clear to him that the sheriff, a Republican, lacks the confidence of the community. Rand has retained some support but many, including some in his own party, have condemned his words.

One week ago, a majority of @CityOfJacksonMi Council was first to call on Sheriff Rand to resign. Without action by Tuesday, Council member Sullivan and I will introduce a resolution to formalize that call, and send a letter to Gov. @onetoughnerd https://t.co/XF6A4qkCZo  Derek Dobies (@derekdobies) February 24, 2018

At least one person has resorted to apparent vandalism to convey a message.

Dobies on Saturday shared a picture of graffiti scrawled on a small metal building near the railroad tracks crossing E. Morrell Street. It reads: "Rand needs 2 go!!!"

Jim Fett, the attorney for sheriff's Lt. Tommy Schuette, gave copies of the recordings to reporters after he filed a lawsuit on Schuette's behalf alleging Rand is a "multifaceted bigot" whose slurs have targeted women, blacks, gays and others.

Schuette contends Rand created a hostile work environment, harassing him for his disability, and the county retaliated against him for reporting and opposing Rand's conduct.

Though he has not spoken to the specific allegations in the lawsuit, Rand repeatedly apologized for his offensive statements, and said he intends to stay and fix the problem, by undergoing training and rebuilding trust.

Last week, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, in an 8-0 vote, asked for Rand's resignation and sent a letter on Friday to the governor. The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and the county chapter of the NAACP have echoed the call for Rand to step down from his post.

Only an order from the governor or a successful recall election could oust Rand, last elected, without opposition in 2016. He was first appointed in 2011 to replace Dan Heyns, who left to head the Michigan Department of Corrections.ALLEGAN, MI -- After sandbags saved businesses from floodwaters in Allegan this week, a second influx of water is expected.

High water levels causing flooding in communities in West Michigan and Southwest Michigan this week are expected to continue this weekend.

Flooding hit Allegan Wednesday, Feb. 21, and the Allegan Dam was opened to full capacity, according to Allegan Chief of Police Rick Hoyer.

The Kalamazoo River water level has since receded by about six inches, he said on Friday, Feb. 23.

About 15 to 20 people volunteered to fill sandbags this week at Andy's Ace Hardware, including members of the Allegan High School boys bowling team, working for several hours to fill enough bags to protect the building, manager Dave Winsemius said.

Sandbags protected Andy's Ace Hardware, Perrigo Company and a couple other businesses from damage, Hoyer said, though the city is expecting another round of flooding that could bring higher floodwaters. Flooding had not caused damage to businesses midday Friday, the chief said.

A second round of flooding is expected this weekend because the Morrow Dam was opened on Thursday morning, Hoyer said, and it will take about a day for the additional water to get to Allegan.

Police are using a drone to monitor conditions on the river and watch for washouts, he said.

"At this point, we're feeling good about where we're at," he said.

He expects the river to crest in the area Sunday and police will monitor the rise and fall of the water at the Allegan Dam.

Winsemius said the business has sump pumps in place and has remained open throughout the flooding, selling plenty of sump pumps and other gear related to flooding.

On Friday, Feb. 23, the Kalamazoo River near New Richmond, downriver from Allegan, was at 17.95 feet, with a flood stage that begins at 17 feet, according to the National Weather Service.KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kalamazoo city staff are asking the public to help fill sandbags to help residents battle historic flooding in Kalamazoo.

City staff are filling sandbags at the Edison Neighborhood Association, 816 Washington Ave., and Washington Square Apartments, 710 Collins St. Community members who are available to help can show up at either location.

Sandbags are available to city residents and business owners to help prevent flood damage to their properties as the Kalamazoo River rises to record levels.

The Kalamazoo River was at 11.3 feet in Comstock Township Friday morning, higher than the previous record number of 10.9 feet set in 1947, according to the National Weather Service.

The city is encouraging residents to visit www.ready.gov/floods for additional information about flood safety and what to do before and after a flood event. Road closures due to flooding will continue to be updated at www.kalamazoocity.org/alerts.2018 South Korea Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 South Korea Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

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The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

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Executive Summary South Korea Telecom (News - Alert) Market - Strategic Analysis South Korea Telecom Market Outlook South Korea Telecom Competitive Environment South Korea Telecom Industry Benchmarking South Korea Economic Outlook to 2025 South Korea Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bzs4gs/2018_south_korea?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005820/en/2018 Croatia Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 Croatia Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes Croatia telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behavior, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

Croatia telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the report Further, emerging business environment in Croatia together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries are included, to assess the country's prominence on regional front.

On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of Croatia that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary Croatia Telecom Market - Strategic Analysis Croatia Telecom Market Outlook Croatia Telecom Competitive Environment Croatia Telecom Industry Benchmarking Croatia Economic Outlook to 2025 Croatia Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9sqqbl/2018_croatia?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005825/en/2018 Egypt Telecoms Market Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 Egypt Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes Egypt telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behaviour, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

Egypt telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the repot. Further, emerging business environment in Egypt together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries are included, to assess the country's prominence on regional front.

On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of Egypt that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary Egypt Telecom Market - Strategic Analysis Egypt Telecom Market Outlook Egypt Telecom Competitive Environment Egypt Telecom Industry Benchmarking Egypt Economic Outlook to 2025 Egypt Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/w72msc/2018_egypt?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005837/en/Adani Group today signed an agreement with the Andhra Pradesh government to invest over Rs 9,000 crore in various projects, including development of a greenfield port at Bhavanapadu, in next five years.

Group Chairman Gautam Adani said that the company would also be investing in a multi-modal logistics park.

He said Andhra Pradesh is also fast emerging as solar power and battery technology production hub.

The group with Indias largest renewable energy company is well positioned to contribute to this sector. We seek to set up one 1000 mw solar and wind facility along with battery storage station in Andhra Pradesh," he said at CIIs Partnership Summit.

Talking about the port, he said as the country's largest port operator, it is my promise to make Bhavanapadu as one of the largest and sophisticated port in the country.

All in all across the different projects, the group would make an investment of over 9000 crore in the state over the next five years, he added.An uninhabited and muddy Bay of Bengal island is in process to turn into home for 1,00,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar. The government of Bangladesh is reportedly making temporary arrangements for these people to the island named Bhasan Char (meaning floating island). (Reuters)

Floating Island, which emerged from the silt only about 20 years ago, is about 30 km (21 miles) from the mainland. (Reuters)

British and Chinese engineers are helping prepare the island to receive refugees before the onset of monsoon rains. (Reuters)

As per the architectural plan, there will be 1,440 blocks, each housing 16 families. (Reuters)

The island regularly floods during June-September. Taking this into consideration, the coastal infrastructure design is expected to include a flood defence embankment protecting the development area to international standards, set back from the shoreline, reported Reuters quoting HR Wallingford, a British engineering and environmental hydraulics consultancy. (Reuters)

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has cleared that putting Rohingya on the low-lying island would be a temporary arrangement to ease congestion at the camps in Coxs Bazar, which houses nearly 700,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar since August, 2017. (Reuters)

Describing the island, Hasina told a news conference in Dhaka that from a natural point of view it is very nice and said although the initial plan was to put 100,000 people there, it had room for as many as 1 million. (Reuters)

An adviser to Hasina told Reuters that it will not be a concentration camp for the Rohingyas and there will be certain restrictions. (Reuters)The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the government to set up a panel to suggest reforms to the regulatory mechanism that governs multinational accounting firms in India. The apex court has passed this order after hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) that had alleged that the failures and malpractices within the auditing community have led to losses to investors as well as the government. The SC's order has come about a month after the governments decision to rejig FDI norms with respect to audit firms. Last month the central government had tweaked those norms stipulating joint audits for Indian investing companies and cases but the foreign investor wishes to specify a particular audit firm having an international network. Two auditors cannot be from the same network. This is as part of the FDI policy that was given cabinets approval a short while ago.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Vishesh Chandiok, National Managing Partner of Grant Thornton India and Jayant Gokhale, Former Central Council Member at ICAI discussed the implications of what the SC had said and what are the issues that we now need to look at.Watch accompanying video of Sushil Kumar Modi, the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar addressing the media on ironing out the glitches for goods and services tax (GST) returns filing.

Also, in an interview to CNBC-TV18, Pratik Jain, Leader - Indirect Tax of PWC India shared his views on the same.After an embarrassing performance in the Europa League on Thursday, Arsenal have to bounce back immediately to face off against Englands best team, Manchester City, in the Carabao Cup final. The Gunners have had a disappointing season so far, but being able to add another trophy to their cabinet would be a bright spot in a season that continues to look like it will be devoid of happiness. They lost at Wembley Stadium for the first time in nine appearances against Tottenham on February 10th, but they are still on a nine-match winning run at Wembley as a neutral ground dating back to April 2014. That run, of course, includes their 2-1 extra time win over Pep Guardiolas Manchester City in last seasons FA Cup semi-final. That will give the Gunners a level of confidence going into the match as they will hope they come out of it with another domestic cup.

Manchester City arguably have more important games on the horizon with their Champions League run still alive and they remain heavy favourites in the Premier League. That said, their attention will be focused on winning the match on Sunday and getting their hands on their first of what they hope will be many pieces of silverware this season. City come into this match as favourites and will look to just play the same way theyve been playing all season. That should be enough for them to walk away from Wembley with a trophy.

Team News

Arsenal got a boost as Arsene Wenger said he believes both Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey will be fit for the match. They will, however, be without new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is cup-tied after playing in the competition for Manchester United, as well as Alexandre Lacazette and Santi Cazorla who will both miss out through injury.

Manchester City could be without Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus as both require late fitness tests, according to Physioroom.com. Benjamin Mendy will miss out as he is still recovering from his torn ACL and Fabian Delph will be suspended after his red card against Wigan in the FA Cup last weekend.

Key Players

Arsenal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Arsenal had a very busy January transfer window. That included signing one of the best strikers in Europe in Aubameyang. The Gabon international racked up the goals for Borussia Dortmund and scored on his debut for the Gunners. He will look to mark his debut at Wembley Stadium for his new team with another goal, hopefully, a winning goal. His pace and his movement will cause Citys backline problems and his connection with Ozil will likely be a crucial part of any success Arsenal have.

Manchester City: Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City have the talent advantage in this match and one of the reasons for that is De Bruyne. He leads the Premier League in assists and is third in the Premier League in key passes per 90 minutes, according to WhoScored.com. The Belgian is one of the most creative players in the league and is a big reason why City have been able to dominate the Premier League like they have.

Prediction

Arsenal may have a fantastic record at Wembley, but Manchester City are just the better team. Its hard to see them not winning this cup and keeping their dream of the treble alive.

Prediction: 3-1 Manchester CityThe National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed the Corporate Affairs Ministry (MCA) to freeze assets of 64 respondents in the Nirav Modi case.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, HP Ranina, Corporate Lawyer shared his views and readings on the same.Homebuyers in Haryana on Saturday met to discuss the provisions of Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA) and the status of the writ petition filed by them in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that challenges some provisions of HRERA rules as also the Haryana Building Code, 2017.

The briefing session that lasted for over two hours was held at Leisure Valley Park, Gurugram. The civil writ petition titled Harinder Pal Singh & Others vs State of Haryana and Others was admitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February 20. It was filed by homebuyers to seek quashing of several provisions of the Haryana RERA rules which dilute the purpose for which the main RERA Act was enacted.

A notice of motion to the respondents have been issued by the court for April 27. This writ, apart from challenging various provisions of the HRERA rules, also targets the Haryana Building Code, 2017 (as amended) in as much as it contains a concept of deemed occupancy certification which, can primarily be utilised by builders to escape the rigours of the RERA Act, says Gaurav Prakash, a homebuyer and a RERA enthusiast.

A group of home buyers and RERA enthusiasts under an informal group Undiluted RERA has been working towards promotion of robust real estate laws in the state of Haryana but despite representations and follow ups with the government, the recently enacted Haryana RERA rules (HRERA rules) fail to effectively redress the callous state of affairs in the real estate sector in Haryana, they said.

The major prayers of the petitioners in this writ petition that was heard by the court on February 20 included making HRERA rules compliant with the RERA Act by striking down the definition of ongoing projects in HRERA rules and also striking down the provisions of the Haryana Building Code which violate and are antithetical to the provisions of the RERA Act, Amish Tandon and Ayush Beotra, advocates for the petitioners, stated.

The writ petition challenges the provision of deemed occupancy certification in HRERA which, according to homebuyers has been utilised by builders to escape the rigours of the RERA Act, he said.

The aspects of occupancy and completion certificate and issues regarding their interchangeability have been addressed in the writ petition.

As of now RERA, set up in Haryana, has not started work in full swing. The website is not functional and buyers cannot get information on the registered projects or to file complaints. But Gurugram does have a dedicated RERA bench.

As of now many people know there is something called RERA Act but there is no awareness on its applicability, scope and status. We expect the government to come up with an awareness and education drive for the sake of the common masses. However, we still have a long way to go in this struggle for an undiluted RERA, Prakash said.

Homebuyers across the country have been raising their voice against the weak RERA rules by the respective state governments. Their main worry has been the dilution of the definition of ongoing projects that has the potential to grant leeway or escape route to builders.

Under HRERA, builders are exempt from the purview of RERA if they had applied for or received even an occupation certificate while the rules were notified.

Last year, Gurgaon Citizens Council, had filed a petition in the High Court challenging the HRERA rules.By Dinesh Rohira

Retiring investor in India might often get prompt to adopt Warren Buffetts investing strategy of aggressive risk tolerance on the face value of earning higher returns.

As highlighted in his 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders about his 90/10 strategy with 90 percent allocation going into equity and remaining 10 percent in bond.

It significantly paid off over a longer period with stocks earning about 60 percent returns in comparison to 8 percent by bonds on the overall portfolio.

The basic fundamental that he intended to cover in his letter revolved around retirement strategy with asset allocation overweighing on equities and overlooking on the emotion among other takeaways.

However, adopting this kind strategy comes with a deep understanding of the market and anticipating the future outlook. A suitability of 90/10 retirement strategy is further subjected to a willingness to withstand in bear phase and duration between now and retirement period.

This challenge opposes a setback for the strategy to play out as the majority of retiree investor seek to churn the portfolio during the market turmoil and hug losses. But, what if someone stayed invested in similar strategy?

Lets assume a static asset allocation of 90/10 invested in Nifty (90%) and 10-Year Gsec bond (10%) during 1st January 2008 with a corpus of Rs10 lakhs.

Taking December 2017 as an end period where 10-years average rate of returns for Nifty stood at 10.42 percent and 10-year Gsec bond was trading at 7.77 percent (YTM), which means that as on December 2017 the value of the portfolio stood at Rs. 26,36,475.

But, for a reverse asset mix with 90 percent allocation towards bonds and remaining 10 percent into equity, the value of the portfolio stands lesser by Rs. 4,64,165 which is a significant difference despite considering average returns.

Further, across this period there has been a major turmoil in market losing about 51.84 percent post-financial crisis followed by fall in 2011 by 24.9 percent and thus hurting the portfolio.

Yet, over a year it managed to recoup its losses and offer considerable corpus without altering any strategy. But, the fact that this strategy succeeded for Warren Buffett or for Indian investor, doesnt mean it will replicate similar performance in future.

Unless if its meant for longer duration and commitment to stay invested irrespective of market direction, this strategy doesnt hold true for an investor with limited time horizon or for risk-averse investors.

The author is Founder & CEO, 5nance.com. The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on moneycontrol.com are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.It was an eventful week for pharma and healthcare companies. While developments at Fortis kept unfolding - on regulatory front there were some interesting moves by the government citing public interest.

The government has announced a major rejig of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) - Indian drug regulator that grants approvals and monitors drug quality.

The government elevated S Eswara Reddy as new Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) and relieved GN Singh from the post with immediate effect. GN Singh was DCGI since 2012.

Reddy - the first insider to be named as DCGI, has worked as Joint Drugs Controller before the elevation. His appointment as DCGI will be effective for next three months until a regularly appointed person takes charge.

CDSCO followed the announcement of new DCGI with transfer of 42 drug inspectors and technical officers, many from CDSCOs headquarters, to various zones across India.

Deputy drug controllers from crucial west zone include R Chandrashekhar is now transferred to Goa-sub zone and A Ramkishan to East Zone, Kolkata. They will be replaced by PBN Prasad and Rubina Bose from CDSCO headquarters. The government said the shake-up was effected to strengthen the various zones and sub-zones.

Indian government has been drawing flak on quality of drugs sold in the country as its own studies found out substandard drugs and drugs not tested sufficiently for safety and stability have been circulated and consumed by patients.

The government on its part is trying to strengthen the regulatory agency by hiring more inspectors and technical officers, building capacity through training and conducting joint inspections and sharing knowledge with US and UK drug regulators on best practices.

A top-executive of pharmaceutical firm said expectations of Indian drug regulator have gone up in recent years.

The Fortis saga continued with InGovern Research, a proxy advisory firm, alleging that the promoters of Fortis Healthcare diverted the company's money to fund their own business interests without informing the shareholders.

Fortis called the report as misleading and done with questionable intent" and said it will take appropriate action on the publisher of the report.

Meanwhile, Singh brothers in a media statement said they are trying to resolve issues, not going anywhere. The shareholding of Singh brothers - the promoters of Fortis has failed to around 3 percent from 34.43 percent as lender invoked shares pledged by the promoters.When author George RR Martin of Game of Thrones fame said a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, he probably had Nishant Arora in mind. A computer engineer with an MBA in marketing Arora has literally read his way up in life going through various professions.

Quitting a high paying multinational job within three months because it was not challenging enough, Arora plunged head first into the corporate sale of printers. Though initial rejections were discouraging they were overcome through persuasion and gaining knowledge by reading by everything about the product he was selling. Within two years, Arora was confident of selling anything.

This confidence resulted in him venturing on an entrepreneurial spree. Arora turned into a serial entrepreneur, starting businesses ranging from dealership of multiple consumer companies and an event management firm.

During this time Arora continued with his reading and taught himself to play the guitar, piano and mouth organ by reading about them. In one such reading spree, he came across books on investing and trading. Arora felt he had found his mojo and dug deep. Before long, he was successfully investing and trading.

His journey to becoming a successful trader and an investor was just as arduous as most others. But unlike other successful traders and investors, Arora wanted to shorten the learning curve for others who were struggling to turn successful. He started a Facebook community for traders and investors who want to learn the how behind the process of trading rather than what to trade.

In an interview with Moneycontrols Shishir Asthana, Arora talks about his journey, his process and the investing community that is growing up in size just like his portfolio. Below is the transcript of the interview.

A: I have been in the market for nearly a decade. I started by investing and then moved to trading. Over the last few years, I have realised that resources needed for trading and investing are not easily available. Either they are very basic or very advanced. There was a clear disconnect between what was needed and what was available.

Thats when I decided to start a Facebook group under the name Techno-Funda Society (TFS). Within six months, we touched a membership of around 7,000. What we do not do in TFS is discuss specific stocks or what to buy or sell. We discuss the how of investing and trading.

We were pleasantly surprised at the success of the group. The general perception is that most participants in the market look for tips, but what we found out was contrary to that. I have also been writing a blog for the last five month on the process of trading and investing.

One of the first things that we come across is the misconception between trading and investing. The general perception is if we take a position and sell it in a short time it is trading and if we hold it for a long time it is investing. Time of holding is perceived to be the difference between investing and trading.

A: I do not have an educational background in commerce. I did my computer engineering and an MBA in marketing and IT. After completing my education, I worked for a reputed MNC company. I soon realised that I was just one of the 40,000 employees and there was not much to learn in a big company. Within three months, I quit my job and worked for a small dealer of computer products at one-fourth the salary.

This was a hard-core sales job where I was required to sell printers and computers to corporates. In the first 6-7 months, there was nothing to show for my efforts. I was sent back from the gate. It was depressing given my educational background. I did not lose hope and with persuasion and product knowledge I hit it big in a years time.

All along I had the entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to branch out on my own. After two years in the job, I started out on my own. I set up a series of businesses. I ventured into the distributorship of a number of personal care and food product companies. We then forayed into event management and exported consumer products to south-east Asia. Post that, we ventured into medical tourism by bringing patients into the country.

I am also a voracious reader and continued with my reading while these businesses were running. On one such reading spree, I landed up reading up a book on Warren Buffett. When you are introduced to Buffett, you end setting everything aside. I gravitated between Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Benjamin Graham, among others.

This was a completely new world and journey for me. Using learnings from these books, I managed to pick up some multi-baggers. In Warren Buffetts type of investing, I realised that he was the main trigger for value unlocking. Not only his name added value but he was in a position to dictate how the company should run. In my case, this was not going to happen. For me, it was going to buy and wait. There was a small chance that investing would have become a full-time profession unless I had a huge capital.

That got me thinking. If I cannot be a trigger, what else can I do to generate capital? While I was running other businesses and investing, I came across a book called Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, in which he had interviewed successful traders. Schwager opened the doors to a new and exciting world.

As I learnt and improved my trading, I found that though it was consuming a major portion of my time, it was rewarding at the same time. Hence, I started trading full-time and decided to shut my other businesses. Even now, I use the profits that I generate from trading and plough it into investing.

For me, trading helps build my profit and loss account while investing builds my balance sheet.

A: While investing, I follow three conventional methodologies. First, I look for value plays. Two, for stocks that are positive growth stories, and finally the workouts.

In value, I look for companies trading at a fair valuation based on discounted cash flows. Here too, there are badly managed companies or those that are in a bad sector which are at times available at distress valuations. In those that do not have any earnings to discount, I look for asset valuation.

Take the case of the MTNL trade I undertook in 2013-14. It was a badly run company which was running into huge losses. Though there was nothing in the P&L account, it has vast assets. In 2013-14, I was available at Rs 9 per share when I bought it. Within eight to nine months, it was trading at Rs 35 per share. These are the type of companies where one has to be ready to sacrifice quality provided they are cheaply valued.

Finally, there are workouts. These are basically event based such as mergers, acquisitions or spinoffs. They offer positive short- to medium-term value-unlocking opportunities.

A: I am an opportunist trader. I trade various strategies. I have trades going on for a few days to a few minutes. I have swing trades running in the background, while I look for day-trading opportunities. I am basically a technical trader but not the conventional type.

The general perception is that a technical analyst is a tea leaf reader who sees patterns and decides which side the market is going to move. However, I feel technical analysis is a study of people who are buying and selling. The market is about people and not about patterns.

My study is about people. Here I try to study the battle between the bulls and the bears. The fiercest battles are fought near the areas of support and resistance.

To look it at in another way, a stock price rises to seduce sellers and falls to attract buyers. If they do venture in, we find support and resistance, if not, we get trends. If price rises and sellers do not get seduced to sell, then we get a breakout and if they get seduced to sell we get a resistance. I try to view the psychology of traders at these various stages.

A: I started like everyone else by going through the grind. Thankfully, I found out quickly that this type of trading does not work. Trading is not scientifically driven. Price cannot go up, then correct to 38.2 percent and rebound each time as some Fibonacci traders think.

Traders are not driven by science but by emotions. Behind every technical pattern, there are emotions of people involved. It took me six to seven months to realise this.

My Eureka moment occurred in my first year of trading while I was trying to win on every trade like everyone else. Here, one assumes each trade will turn out to be a winner. However, if the trade does not move on desired lines, one gets dejected. Trading in this mind-set leads to losses.

This was the time I read books by Mark Douglas which changed my life as a trader. In it was a wonderful concept which states that what matters is not about the number of times you win, but about the amount you win when you are right. I began reading books on position sizing, risk management, and trade management. I learned that in trading even being right 50 percent of the time is a high number. Your strategy has to be such that you should be making money even if you right 30 percent of the time.

This realisation changed my life. You cannot win every trade. Every beginner, including me, trades on a trade-to-trade basis. His emotions are attached to every trade and he takes them personally. Rather than analysing every single trade, you should analyse a block of trades. Every trade is just a data point in the distribution curve of your trading career, so why give it so much emphasis. The realisation of this fundamental thought was the Eureka moment for me.

If you consider my trading record over the last five years, I have had winning trades only 47 percent of the time. But my win trades were 4.5 times bigger than my losing trades.

A: I trade only in large capitalisation stocks and that too only in the futures market. I pick my stocks by going through the NSE website. I do not use any screeners or software. What I am looking for is the list of gainers and losers, stocks which have seen a volume spike or where open interest has shot up. I look at anywhere around 100-150 stocks and each stock on three different timeframes.

I then prepare three lists of stock. The first is the urgent list, where the stock is in trading territory. Here, I will be placing the order immediately at market open. The second is the waiting list where the chart looks positive but the price is not in the area which will offer a positive risk reward. Third is the no trading list. A stock from the urgent list will be a day trading stock if there is a volume and open interest spike.

A: There are two ways in which I exit from my position. One, if there is price deterioration and second, when my trailing stop-loss is hit.

A lot of people in the TFS community talk of their stop losses being hit on a regular basis. This is because most keep a stop-loss based on affordability. For instance, one says I can afford to lose Rs 5,000 on a trade. So, they keep a stop-loss based on the capital they are willing to lose and not on any technical parameter.

I feel there are three conditions that need to be satisfied while placing a stop loss. First, it should be a technical point, either a pivot or support or resistance. Second, the distance from my entry point to the stop-loss should not be more than two percent of the capital. Third, the minimum earning potential should be two times the risk. If even one of these are not satisfied I will not undertake the trade.

A: In any form of trading, be it swing trading or day-trading, I trade through three timeframes. Lets take swing trade, where the hourly chart will be my primary timeframe. The higher timeframe will be the daily chart. I will only trade if the trend of both these charts is the same. I look for an entry on a pullback in the lower timeframe, which will be the 15-minute chart.

I wait for the price to correct on lower volumes in the 15-minute chart while seeking an entry. I enter, build upon my position and scale out from my position on this lower timeframe.

I use the primary timeframe for setting up stop losses and potential exit points, while the higher timeframe is used for trend seeking.

There is a proportion of timeframes that I use. I prefer the same to be in the four to six range. If the trading timeframe is 15 minutes, then the primary timeframe will be an hourly chart and the higher timeframe will be the daily chart which is built after over five hours of trading in a day.

In my intraday chart, I use the 3 minute as trading, 15 minutes as a primary and hourly chart as higher timeframes.

A: First, know what type of participant you are  a trader or an investor. Two, read books accordingly. There are many mentors and teachers who compare trading to swimming, saying you cannot learn swimming by reading books. I differ. I believe trading is like a brain surgery which cannot be performed without getting your basics right.

A: There are two types of personalities: Type A and Type B. Trading need reflexes and investing needs intellect. If you are an intellectual who does not like action, then you are best suited for investing. Those who may or may not be intellectual but still likes action are best suited for trading. The best part about technical analysis is that it is not difficult to learn. While fundamentals require a commerce background and a lot of patient learning, not many people are willing to put in the hours.

A: To be a successful trader you need a balance of three things - method, mind management and money management. On a scale of one to 100, strategy will have the minimum allocation of around 20. The other two will be 40 each.

In a trade, irrespective of the strategy, you will never know the outcome. Analysis needs to be good, but a lot of beginners while trading or investing lose out due to analysis paralysis. There is a big difference between an analyst and an investor. Similarly, there is a difference between a technical analyst and a trader.

A trader while beginning generally enters a market thinking it is a lottery and that he will make it big. But when he loses, he is shaken. He then thinks he should learn a strategy to give him an edge, but after a few losses, he is again disillusioned. He then looks at the chart more closely. The problem with over researching is you discover new things every time. If you are look at the clouds for long enough, you might think that the cloud is in the shape of an elephant or a dog. Same is the thing with technical analysis, you end up discovering patterns which are not obvious.

Analysis or method or strategy is the smallest contributor to a traders' success.

Mind management plays an important role. In real life, suppose someone is a sad person. When his trade moves into positive territory, he will book profits soon as he is happy when the trade is in profit and does not wants to miss out. If someone is angry, he would get upset if a trade goes against him and will blame the market for taking away his capital.

Most people talk about greed and fear being the dominating emotions in trading. I think the other two emotions should be revenge and recovery. Most people get in revenge mode as if the market owes them something. Beginners get into recovery mode as though the market knows they have lost money and deserve it back.

There are innumerable examples of very intelligent people losing money in the market. It is not because their analysis was bad but it was their mind management and risk management that let them down.Auto

The governments complete U-turn over formation of a formal policy for adoption of electric mobility in the country has startled the automakers. Several manufacturers who had hastily started work on electric vehicles  cars, SUVs, mini trucks, buses, three wheeler  are requesting for a clear road map that will give them enough time for product and technology development with regards to electric vehicles. Here is the wrap of all the top automotive stories of the week.

Until December last year, top officials of the government, including Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, spoke in favour of a stated electric vehicle (EV) policy for the country. Niti Aayog, the government appointed think-tank, was tasked to frame the policy. Only last month, as per news reports, a mission director was to be appointed and Niti Aayog was to act as the co-ordinator for the policy.

Manufacturers say that future investments depend on the policy route taken by the government and such flip-flops will only add to the confusion. Like us most companies were awaiting roll out of the policy which would have had addressed several concerns. Investments have to be made and business planning needs to be done. But now we are back to square one, said a senior executive of a Mumbai-based firm.

Despite the flip-flop, at least two companies have decided to go ahead with investments. EV pioneer Mahindra & Mahindra said it will make an additional investment of over Rs 500 crore in Chakan for product development and capacity enhancement for products and components. Pune-based Kinetic Group and luxury brand Tonino Lamborghini signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for producing electric off-road and gold carts at Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.

British luxury car brand Rolls Royce, introduced the eighth generation Phantom in the country priced at Rs 9.5 crore. Extended wheelbase of the luxury saloon is priced at Rs 11.35 crore. The Phantom VIII is equipped with a 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine that delivers 563hp and 900Nm of torque. It can reach 0-100km/hour in just 5.4 seconds.

India Kawasaki Motors introduced the retro modern roadster, Z900RS, in India at Rs 15.3 lakh. The bike is derived from the Z1 bike that was launched by Kawasaki in the 1970s. The bike is powered by a 948cc, four cylinder engine, delivering peak power of 111ps and will be imported to India from Japan. Bajaj Auto too added a new member to its family with the launch of the Avenger Street 180 priced at Rs 83,475. This new bike will replace the Street 150 that was launched by the company some months ago.

Honda Cars India has made yet another change to its top deck which is the fourth of its kind in just six years. Gaku Nakanishi will take over as the president and CEO of Honda Cars India from Yoichiro Ueno from April 1. Ueno had taken charge only two years ago. Before him was Katsushi Inoue who was at the helm for only one year. While Honda has not provided any detailed reason behind the abrupt exit (the statement said that the exit was a result of management changes done by Honda globally) market watchers point out to Hondas lacklustre performance as the main reason. Honda has slipped in ranking in the passenger vehicle space, beaten by a surging Tata Motors. Its flagship product City has ceded its position as the best-selling mid-size sedan to Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and later to Hyundai Verna.

Czech car brand Skoda Auto will raise prices of its entire model range by up to Rs 35,000 from March 1 to pass on the impact of custom duty announced in the Union Budget. Prices will rise by a percent which translates to an increase of Rs 10,000-Rs 35,000. Thereafter, prices will continue to rise until the overall rise reaches 3-4 percent. The company has decided to introduce a phase-wise increase to lower the impact on the customers.

Meanwhile, luxury automobile brand BMW Motorrad cut prices by up to Rs 1.6 lakh, which translates to a cut of up to 10 percent. The price cut is a result of slashing of customs duties by the government in the range of 15 percent to 25 percent. BMW Motorrad, which sells as many as 15 models, imports all of its bikes in India.Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama arrives at a temple in Bodhgaya. (PTI)

The Kolkata Police has arrested a suspected member of terrorist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for alleged links to the Bodh Gaya bomb case, a senior police official said today.

The man, in his early 20s, has been identified as Nur Alam and was picked up from Dhuliyan in West Bengal's Murshidabad district yesterday, the official said. Alam is a resident of Kamat village in the district and has been involved with the terror outfit for sometime, the police official said.

On January 19, two high-intensity bombs were recovered from Bihar's Bodh Gaya town during Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's visit. An explosion-like sound was also heard the same day although it has not been established by the police if it was a bomb.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Alam, along with four other members of the terror outfit, had visited Hyderabad to meet some senior leaders of the JMB in November, the official said.

In January, the Kolkata Police Special Task Force (STF) arrested four others in connection with the Bodh Gaya bomb case. According to the police officer, the accused has a garments business and he recently began selling Islamic books. We are looking into his role in the terror outfit. We are grilling him, the officer said.February 24, 2018 / 07:50 PM IST

19:49 That's all for today, readers. Thanks for staying on with our coverage of the day's action. Your enthusiasm encourages us to better our coverage every day. Do come back tomorrow for more news, views and insights.

data-scayt-lang="en_US">15:33 Madhya

bypolls

The Mungaoli and Koalaras constituency has seen a 50 percent and a 70percent voter turnout respectively.

17:03 Madhya Pradesh bypolls:

The last assembly elections in 2013 saw a 72.82 percent voting registered in Kolaras, whereas Mungaoli saw a 77.35 percent turnout.

16:42 Madhya Pradesh bypolls:

Voting is going on in the Mungaoli and Koalaras constituencies in the midst of heavy security arrangements. More than 70 percent voting has been done in the municipality till 3 pm. There have been reports of controversy between Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from some places in Kolaras. Kushali Singh Bhadauriya, who was in charge of the municipal police station, has been removed.

14:55 Odisha Bypolls

38 percent voter turnout was seen in Bijepur till 1 pm, reported Times of India.

14:42: Madhya Pradesh Bypolls

The BJP has fielded Baisahab Yadav from Mungaoli and Devendra Jain from Kolaras, while the Congress party has Mahendra Singh Yadav from Kolaras and Brijendra Singh Yadav from Mungaoli contending in the elections, reports Times of India.

14:31 Madhya Pradesh bypolls

Till 1 pm Kolaras saw a turnout 44.84 percent, and Mungaoli saw a voter turnout of 47.01 percent, ANI tweeted.

14: 15 The assembly seats fell vacant after the death of sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

14:13 Voting Underway for Assembly by-polls in Madhya Pradesh

Voting for by-polls in the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats of Madhya Pradesh began at 8 AM today, a poll official told PTI.

"An error was reported in the EVM machine in the beginning at booth number 57 of Kolaras, but it was rectified and polling began soon after," the official said. The by-polls were necessitated due to the death of Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

14:05 MP Bypolls

The outcome of the by-elections are important as they are expected to decide the course of Assembly Elections in Madhya Pradesh.

Bharatiya Janata Party is currently ruling the state.

13:33 Odisha bypolls

Around 35% of the voters exercised their franchise in the by-election to the Bijepur Assembly seat in Odisha till noon today, an election official said.

Polling began at 8 am and would continue till 5 pm, the official said, reports PTI.

Counting of votes would be undertaken on February 28.

The by-poll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August last year.

"Polling is going on smoothly and peacefully, barring brief interruptions in some booths due to technical snags in Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines," the official said.

Bypolls are being held on Mungaoli and Kolaras seats in Madhya Pradesh. Counting of votes will take place on February 28. We will get you all the live updates here.BSP president Mayawati accused the NDA government at the Centre of taking "decisions in the interest of a handful of top capitalists" and flayed its move of opening up coal mining to the private sector for commercial use.

Expressing concern over the coal mining issue, she alleged that it has come at a time when some "wealthy and capitalists" embezzled huge sums of money from public sector banks and fled the country.

"Privatisation of an important sector like coal, which is a national wealth, and allowing its exploitation is a matter of grave concern," Mayawati said.

"Decisions are continuously being taken in the interest of a handful of top capitalists and the wealthy whereas the promise of 'achchey din' (good days) for the poor and needy is yet to be fulfilled," the BSP supremo alleged.

Earlier this week, the Centre approved opening up of coal mining to the private sector for commercial use, a major reform in the sector since its nationalisation in 1973. Coal mines will now be sold in an e-auction to private domestic and global miners.

Announcing the decision, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal had said the reform is expected to bring efficiency in the coal sector by moving from an era of monopoly to competition.

Mayawati alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working on a hidden agenda by privatising all important sectors, which would adversely affect the reservation system and will eventually harm national interest.

"The country is seeing with open eyes how private companies are indulging in loot while the BJP government is keeping its eyes and ears shut... the country is being looted while the 'sevadar and chowkidar' all appear to be intoxicated with power.

"It is anarchy and jungle raj in the economic sector...," she said.After the four years of Modi government, it is clear that like the Congress, the BJP too is on the same page in the matter of looting national wealth, Mayawati alleged.Even as the storm over Indias largest known banking frauds continues to brew, India saw an action packed week of technology related news- from a packed event in Hyderabad to the Uber CEOs visit to the Capital, there was much to write about and ponder.

The IT services industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) held its annual India Leadership Forum coupled with the World Congress on Information Technology in Hyderabad this year instead of the usual Mumbai venue.

The change did result in several regulars giving the forum a miss, but the numbers that showed up werent exactly disappointing.

The Prime Minister opened the forum by addressing a packed hall through video conference on one of Indias homegrown systems provided by the National Informatics Centre (Make in India, anyone?). Modi spoke about the importance of innovation and digital skills, and announced the launch of a FutureSkills platform too.

For the next three days, that was pretty much the focus of the event, along with artificial intelligence and blockchain. Interspersed with closed door sessions on data handling and the policy issues associated with a booming data economy, interest peaked on the final day with Deepika Padukone making an entry to talk about her entrepreneurial venture.

Just around the same time, the Internet and Mobile Association of India told us that Indias internet user base is expected to reach 500 million by June, a significant milestone considering India is one of the largest growth markets for global technology and internet companies.

Which is one of the reasons why Uber, the worlds largest taxi hailing app wants to keep investing in India, according to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who was in Delhi this week too. In a candid chat with CNBC TV18s Shereen Bhan, he said he wants Uber to become the Amazon of mobility.

As the number of Internet users in India expand, so will the opportunities for corporate and governments to improve service delivery. Newer business models perfected in other parts of the world are looking at India as a huge market, and its about time Indian regulators and government give serious thought to the way this data is stored, handled and understood.

The committee on data protection working towards this goal has touched upon several important and interesting points, but if India is to become a connected, Internet society, a change is also required at a cultural level to appreciate privacy, data integrity and transfer.

The week ended with the US deciding to bring in changes to the H-1B visa scrutiny process. In a policy memorandum, the US immigration agency said third party workers applying for H-1B visas will now have to prove they are employed in a specialty profession, and employers will have to provide proof of employment.

While Nasscom downplayed the impact of the move, other industry experts expect this to increase paperwork and costs, as well as scrutiny for H-1B visa applications.

The move is part of the US administrations attempt to fix the larger issue of illegal immigration, but the targeting of lawful immigration routes such as H-1B visas, which are most commonly used for transfer of technology workers, has been a pain point for the IT industry since last year.Nissan will launch the model in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand during the next fiscal year and may introduce it in Indonesia and the Philippines. (Image: Reuters)

The public field tests of its Easy Ride service in Yokohama next month, making Nissan among the first major carmakers to test its ride-hailing software developed in-house, using its own Leaf fleet of self-driving electric cars. (Image: Reuters)

Easy Ride, is meant to feel more like a concierge service on wheels, making - for example - restaurant recommendations while the car is on the move. (Image: Reuters)

Nissan feels the technology is a "very good bridge" to attract car buyers to try electric vehicles as it gave the experience of driving an electric car, but did not require charging stations. (Image: Reuters)[UNVERIFIED CONTENT] Preparing for the daily border closing ceremony between Pakistan and India.

Pakistan today escaped from being placed on the watch-list of countries that have failed to combat terror financing and counter money laundering, state-run Pakistan Television reported.

According to the report, the development came at the conclusion of a key meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on money laundering and terrorism financing, in Paris.

Pakistan has not been placed on the so-called Grey List which includes names of the countries that have failed to take necessary action against terror financing or money laundering, the report said.

However, there has been no confirmation from the FATF, an intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets global standards for fighting illicit finance.

Earlier, several media reports suggested that a decision had been made to place Pakistan on the Grey List, prompting Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal to say that the outcome of the FATF meeting was "awaited".

The reports followed after Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said on Tuesday that Pakistan was given a three-month period to address concerns of the FATF.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE-100 index plummeted as much as 615 points by mid-day in intra-day trading after reports of placing the country on the watch list surfaced. It recovered at the end but the panic was visible.

Pakistan was listed as grey in 2012 but was removed in 2015 after strenuous efforts to address the concerns of the group.

The US spearheaded the latest efforts to place Pakistan on the Grey List and was supported by the UK, France and Germany.

According to Pakistani officials, the move was politically motivated and it was through Islamabad's friends like Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia that it was thwarted.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was set up in 1989 with a primary aim to set standards to combat money laundering, but in 2001 its mandate was expanded to include countering terror financing.

It can take action against any country by including a country in black or grey lists.The chronicle of a life split between urban Manhattan and rural Montana.Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Congressman and namesake of San Joses international airport Norman Mineta dined at a downtown Morgan Hill restaurant Wednesday night.

Mineta, 86who now lives in Marylandwas in the area visiting family and longtime colleagues. The Times caught up with him and his wife, Deni, at Ladera Grill Feb. 21. They were dining with Minetas former chief of staff and his wife, John and Michelle Flaherty, who live in Gilroy.

Mineta was born and raised in San Jose, and represented the U.S. congressional district that included San Jose and Morgan Hill during the 1980s. However, he said Wednesday its been some time since he stopped in town.

I cant get over how nice Morgan Hill looks, said Mineta, who ordered osso buco for dinner.

Minetas political career began in the late 1960s when he served on the San Jose City Council. He served one term as the citys mayor starting in 1971.

He then served 11 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

After a few years in the private sector, Mineta returned to public service as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for President Bill Clinton. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him the U.S. Secretary of Transportation. He served in that post until 2006, when he retired.

The Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport is named after the politician, who remains popular in the area.

John Flaherty was Minetas chief of staff while Mineta was in congress and in the Bush administration. Michelle Flaherty works for the City of Palo Alto.

Mineta said Feb. 21 that his health has improved after it declined somewhat in recent years, and he is eager to get back into traveling more. In addition to the Flahertys, he was also visiting family in San Jose and Redwood City.There has never been a better time to be an individual investor. Investors today have access to advice from highly sophisticated financial models on how to make the most of their savings. And yet things could be even better for investors if regulators made a few changes to help technology reach its full potential. In particular, financial technology companies have the ability to help ordinary investors understand their financial situation and the steps they need to take to achieve a secure retirement. Fintech applications can also help financial advisors get a holistic picture of their clients finances to make the best recommendations.

Often, when policymakers hear about ways they can adjust regulation to help investors, they tune out or downplay ideas because they assume investing is just for the rich. But delivering high-quality investment advice is critical for millions of ordinary workers who will rely on that advice to save effectively for retirement and turn these savings into lifetime income. Policies that support getting the best advice possible to millions of workers are critical for Americans retirement security.Miamisburg will soon be home to the first gourmet, edible cookie dough shop in the region. Entrepreneur Lyndsey Rhodus will open Spoonfull the edible cookie dough place this April at 36 South Main Street, across from the Plaza Theater and next to Grandpa Joes Candy Shop. Originally from West Alexandria, the family lives in Miamisburg and felt that the downtown area was just the perfect area for their scoop shop. This will be a first time food business, for Rhodus, a long time home cook with a self confessed addiction for desserts.

This sweet idea for a business was inspired by a road trip to Nashville, where Rhodus first tasted edible cookie dough. She says she was intrigued and started researching this trendy treat, which has proved to be a huge success for boutique bakeries from New York City to California. The eggless cookie dough is made with heat-treated flour and is meant to be eaten by the dip and not baked.

The family run shop will feature five core flavors:chocolate chip, sugar cookie, lemon, peanut butter and chocolate mint, with seasonal flavors like brownie batter making special appearances on the menu. And of course their will be topping choices like sprinkles, m&ms, Oreos, Reeces Pieces, marshmallows and more! Youll be able to order it in a cup or on a cone or for a quick treat by the spoonful, dipped in chocolate. They will even offer gift packs  making it easy to pick up and share delicious bites of dough.

Rhodus also plans to offer cookie dough sandwiches, buckeye and other sweet treats, and plenty of milk and water to wash it down with.

Anticipating an early April opening, the shop will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am  9pm. Follow them on Facebook and stay tuned for more information on the grand opening and ribbon cutting.We all know Timothys, it has been part of Daytons landscape since 1965. We all know the legends of the nightlong parties, the raucous crowd and the headache inducing the Wall signature cocktail. But, look out UD, you are about to get elevated!

On the second floor of the much-beloved Timothys, is the entrance to Daytons newest, and arguably, most beautiful ultra-lounge. Finished with California reclaimed wood, subway tile and wrought iron trestle work, the Double 18 Lounge transcends the normal UD bump and grind. This gives people an alternative to Tims downstairs. Its definitely a different vibe. says Marty Brown. Along with business partner Paul Kennell, Brown has a vision of something nicer in the building. Even the bathrooms are great up here. And they are.

Everything about the space has a certain elegance, and they have thought it through. When you enter, you will see a neon sign (which is being reconditioned in Cincinnati) that we found when we uncovered the old space. The neon blinks Double 18 Lounge, which was its original name years and years ago! Brown stated

Windows in the lounge make a huge difference, allowing amazing views of Patterson Homestead, and then theres the new deck! Yes, this balcony style deck off the back, is 1200 square feet, with a spectacular view of campus! The balcony is crazy big, and you can see the martinis and manhattans flowing on a summer nightperfect spot to chill.

We will have live music, acoustical style. You know, more like a lounge, where Tims will maintain with their DJs!

What else is different upstairs? Food.a fun combination of sliders (10 varieties) and some interesting sides from Tims Tater Tots to Fried Banana PeppersYUM!

Brown shared that the hours look to be Wednesday-Friday, opening at 4pm and Saturday, opening at noon. They are also looking into Happy Hour ideas. The opening of the lounge is set for sometime during the week of March 5th!

Since taking the reins of Timothys in 1996, Brown and Kennell have seen Brown Street boom! Everyone down here seems to be doing well. Its great to see so much business.

The renovation of Double 18 has been mastered by Moda 4 and Greater Dayton Construction Group.

From someone who went to UD, I can assure you, this place is a game changer for Brown Street. Oh, but if you are a Tims fanatic, fear notits exactly as you left it!

For more information call 937.222.7666 or follow their progress at Timothysbar.comA nationwide salmonella outbreak has been linked to kratom products, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Salmonella outbreak linked to kratom products, says CDC

FDA says no evidence kratom is safe



No deaths have been reported

Currently, 28 people have salmonella infections spanning across 20 states. Additionally, 11 people have been hospitalized due to the outbreak.

Kratom is traditionally made into tea, but the herbal drug can also be chewed, smoked, or ingested in capsules.

Historically, kratom has been used in Southeast Asia as a sedative, recreational drug, pain killer, and medicine.

However, the CDC warns that kratom should not be consumed since the source of salmonella has not been identified.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said there is no evidence that kratom is safe.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been working to ban the sale of kratom claiming it is hazardous to public safety.

So far, no deaths have been reported due to the outbreak.A woman close to the accused South Florida School Shooter warned the FBI that he was going to explode and wanted to kill people.

One caller said Nikolas Cruz was 'into ISIS', cutting animals

Called said 19-year-old Cruz had mental capacity of 12 to 14 year old

RELATED: Gov. Rick Scott announces new gun, school security measures

That warning came more than a month before the shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

The transcript of the 13-minute phone call a woman made to the FBI more than a month before the Parkland school shooting shows how she warned that something was going to happen.

Warning signs were missed in a Jan. 5, call from a woman who knows 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. The woman, who was not identified in the transcript, told the FBI Cruz had the mental capacity of a 12 to a 14 year old and he just lost his mother in November.

"If you go onto his Instagram pages, you'll see all the guns. He's so into ISIS and I'm afraid this something's going happen. Because he doesn't have the mental capacity. He is outraged if someone talks to him about certain things. And he had pulled a rifle on his mother before she passed away," she said, stated the transcript.

The woman warns Cruz threatened to kill himself, then wanted to kill others.

She told the FBI he posted photos of guns, ammunition and sliced up animals on his Instagram accounts.

"He's thrown out of all these schools because he would pick up a chair and just throw it at somebody, a teacher or a student because he didn't like the way they were talking to him. I just think about, you know, getting into a school and just shooting the place up," the woman warned.

The FBI did not act on the tip.

More than a month later, investigators say Cruz shot and killed 17 people at his former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The FBI tip was one of several missed signs for help. From 2008 to 2016, there were at least 39 911 calls for service involving Cruz.

The following is an excerpt of one of those 911 calls.

Caller: "I need somebody here because I'm afraid he comes back and he has a lot of weapons."

911: "What kind of weapon ma'am?"

Caller: "Let me ask my son. What kind of weapon did he get? That he's going to get?"

Male voice near caller: "A Remington."

Caller: "A Remington."

911: "Ok, and who did this?"

Caller: "Uh Nikolas Cruz."

Gov. Rick Scott has called for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.

In a statement released to CNN on Friday, Wray apologized that the tip was never given to the FBI's Miami field office and he called for a full investigation.

WALLINGFORD  A rapper orginally scheduled to perform at the Oakdale Theatre Saturday was arrested on gun charges in Chicago Thursday. The show has been postponed to March 24, the Oakdale announced Friday.

Rapper G Herbo, a 22-year-old legally named Herbert Wright, was charged with one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after a traffic stop, according to Chicago police. Two other men were also charged.

The Oakdale announced the postponement on its Instagram page Friday evening.

Jim Bozzi, vice president of marketing with Live Nation, which owns the Oakdale, said the decision to postpone was made by the promoter. Bozzi couldnt comment on the reasons.

The Oakdale said all tickets will be honored on March 24. Refunds are available at the point of purchase.

-- Matthew ZabierekWALLINGFORD  Police are investigating after a Sheehan High School student reportedly told classmates to take cover just before dismissal on Friday.

Sheehan Principal Rosemary Duthie notified families in an email Friday. This is the second incident police have investigated at Sheehan this week.

Immediately prior to dismissal, a student shouted a comment falsely stating that his/her classmates should take cover, Duthie said in the email. This comment was alarming and raised the anxiety of many students.

Police are also investigating an inappropriate message found written on a whiteboard at the school Wednesday. The message prompted a police presence at the school this week, including Friday.

Duthie said the comment made Friday is being taken very seriously by both the school administration and the police, who are actively investigating.

Police could not provide any further details Friday evening.

Superintendent of Schools Salvatore Menzo said in an email that the the school district is in the process of working with police on the incident.

We wanted to inform you of this unfortunate incident, Duthie said in her message Friday, and also to assure you that it is being pursued to the maximum extent allowable.

mzabierek@record-journal.com

203-317-2279

Twitter: @MatthewZabierekNauseating Whoopi Goldberg defends murderous regime North Korea, says the countrys evil leaders deserve respect

Have you ever read a story about something stupid that Joy Behar or Whoopi Goldberg said while on the set of The View and thought to yourself, how on earth is that show still on the air?

Earlier this month, Whoopi Goldberg took part of the show to criticize Vice President Mike Pence for demonstrating what she considered to be a lack of respect for North Korea by not standing up during the entrance of the countrys Olympic athletes. We have to be respectful because what we do know about politicians is they end up sitting with people that you and I say well, why are they sitting with them? So, if youre in Korea, you need to stand up. You need to stand up and show respect, Goldberg said, apparently not even considering how foolish such a statement really is. (Related: Theres a reason why Whoopi Goldberg made Natural News Celebrity Hall of Shame list back in 2015.)

The reason Whoopi Goldbergs criticism of Vice President Mike Pence was foolish is twofold. First of all, North Korea isnt exactly a friend of the United States; as a matter of fact, over the past several months, they have been making numerous threats against our country and working diligently to develop weapons that can reach U.S. soil. Why on earth would the vice president of the United States stand for a regime that wants to bring about the destruction of America? Respect is earned, and if theres one thing that North Korea has shown us as of late, its that they most certainly do not deserve our respect.

Second, did Whoopi Goldberg have anything to say about respect when the congressional Democrats sat like a bunch of whiney snowflakes during President Trumps State of the Union address? Was she as outraged over the Democrats not standing in support of President Trump as she was about Vice President Mike Pence not standing for a murderous, tyrannical regime? The answer is no, of course not. Whoopi Goldberg is a partisan hack who cares more about viciously attacking those on the right than anything else.

Astonishingly, the hosts of The View have found themselves surrounded in controversy even more recently than this. Over the past few days, ABC News has been flooded with more than 25,000 angry phone calls in response to a comment that Joy Behar made regarding Vice President Pences Christian views, in which the liberal host suggested that Pence has a mental illness for speaking with Jesus. (Related: Joy Behar of The View is an enabler of fake news after defending her colleagues and their bogus lies on so-called Russian collusion.)

The comment was so absurd that it prompted Vice President Pence to respond to it on C-Span. To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong, Pence said. It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.

With criticism pouring in from every corner of the country Joy Behar had no choice but to (sort of) apologize: I dont mean to offend people but apparently I keep doing it, Behar said. It was a joke.

We the people arent laughing, Joy, and quite frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Time and time again, The View exposes itself for what it really is: A show that consists of five women, the majority of whom are radical leftists or worse, hellbent on advancing the progressive agenda through lies and deception while trashing anyone who considers him or herself to be a conservative. How the show is still on the air after it has been surrounded by this much controversy is anyones guess.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

FoxNews.comRamananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Papering over the differences and diplomatic gaffes which strained Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus week-long state visit, Canada and India on Friday signed several agreements and released a joint statement calling for partnership for security and growth. They also agreed upon a Framework for Cooperation between India and Canada on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, which is significant given that the whole trip was vitiated by the perception that Ottawa was not doing enough to check Khalistani terrorists active on Canadian soil.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted five days after Trudeau and his family arrived in India:

I hope PM @JustinTrudeau and his family had a very enjoyable stay so far. I particularly look forward to meeting his children Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien. Here is a picture from my 2015 Canada visit, when I'd met PM Trudeau and Ella-Grace. pic.twitter.com/Ox0M8EL46x  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 22, 2018

On Friday, Trudeau and his family were welcomed with a bear hug by Modi before the ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan and the subsequent delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House.Before the talks, Trudeau had a warm, friendly and cordial meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The Canadian side was represented by Trudeau, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Navdeep Bains; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland; Minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan; Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Amarjeet Sohi; Minister of Science and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, Kirsty Duncan; and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, Bardish Chagger.

PM Narendra Modi with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, First Lady Sophie Gregorie Trudeau, daughter Ella-Grace Margaret and sons Xavier Jame and Hadrien during the ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday. (EPS | Shekhar Yadav)

Both sides downplayed the diplomatic chill that followed after Trudeaus wife Sophie was photographed with a pro-Khalistani businessman, whose invitation to an official dinner was withdrawn by the Canadian High Commission. Noting that this was the sixth meeting between the two leaders, Indian officials said there was no friction between them, and the bilateral talks were held in a frank and cordial atmosphere, where all Indian and Canadian concerns were freely discussed. The two leaders also interacted with the CEOs of Indian and Canadian companies at the India-Canada CEOs Dialogue.

This is how mature democracies work, and though we did have some initial hiccups, the talks and the agreements signed, particularly on terror, indicate that the relationship is on track, said a senior Indian official.

The joint statement said they agreed to work on investing on mutual growth, climate change, oceans, space, clean energy, gender equality and building a more peaceful and secure world.The Trudeaus will leave for Canada on Saturday evening.Karal Marx L By

Express News Service

VILLUPURAM: A day after a 10-year-old was beaten to death and his 14-year-old sister and mother left barely alive in an attack that happened in the dead of the night at their home in a Dalit settlement, the police detained five Dalits, much to the dissatisfaction of the locals.

The police were trying to implicate innocents, claimed the locals, who recounted a feud the victim family had with a caste Hindu resident of an adjacent village. While the police refuted such claims and insisted that the probe was honest, a Dalit-centric NGO backed the locals claim, adding to the accusation that the police were only trying to close the case fast.

With no senior official visiting the village even after such a heinous crime, the fears of the locals seemed to be based on solid ground.

The case of the victims is no different from that of lakhs of impoverished people in the State  a big family, with each member suffering and persevering through their life to drag the family into the middle class echelons.

ALSO READ: Attacks against Dalits on the rise in Tamil Nadu's Vellamputhur, say activists

The 45-year-old widow, Nalini (name changed) was the mother of six. The four elder children were working - three boys were labourers in Bengaluru and the girl worked in a textile mill in Tirupur. The mother stayed in Vellamputhur, in a government-built free house, looking after the school-going children.

The 14-year-old daughter (Latha, name changed) was reportedly a class VIII student at a government school at T Devanur while the eight-year-old son was a class IV student at a government primary school in Vellamputhur village.

Early on Thursday morning, the 14-year-old daughter of their neighbour reached Nalinis house. She was Lathas friend. The girl heard moans and struggled breathing, opened the front door and saw that the hall was a picture of blood and gore. The girl ran back and her mother  Suganthi (38)  had fetched help within no time.

The men had rushed in, to find the boy dead. The mother and the girl were found nearby, barely alive. The girl was found in a state of undress leading to the suspicion that she was raped. She had multiple injuries - the worst being that she needed 12 stitches to her private parts.Vijayakumar (19), the third son of the family, expressed discontent in the way the police were handling the case. While the entire settlement pointed fingers at a caste Hindu landlord, who had an ongoing land tussle with the family, the police have detained five Dalits.

ALSO READ: Dark chapter of Dalit history laid foundation for change

We, the grown men of the family, were staying far away because the other men in the settlement were there to help my mother and sister. Now, the police have detained the very men who were helping them against the landlord. The police havent even conducted inquiries with those we suspect, though we have told them in detail about the conflict, said Vijayakumar.

The siblings all recall how the issue with a caste Hindu resident of the neighbouring T Devanur began. Their father, Elumalai, owned a 14-cent plot, which lay close to the caste Hindu mans land. The man in turn owned a five-cent plot near the house where the crime occurred. Years before Elumalais death, the caste Hindu man had given him an offer - to exchange the 14-cent plot for the five-cent plot which lay close to their house. In addition, they would be given a sum of Rs 30,000.

ALSO READ: Mob attacks Dalits over celebrations in Thanjai of Tamil Nadu

As this did not measure up as an equal exchange, Elumalai refused the offer. This had led to a feud and after the fathers death, the caste Hindu man had harassed the family, saying they were encroaching his land.

The entire settlement, especially the women, has been in a state of restlessness after the incident. It is as if our pain does not matter, raged a woman. We are a minority and the residents of T Devanur are all caste Hindus. We have to go there for all our needs and the men there - even the youth - tease and berate our women, she added.Longtime reporter Jim Gillis to enter RI Journalism Hall of Fame

It's an amazing honor, Gillis said. It's not something you even think of when you enter the business."Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).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).Reporter

Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee).An international panel consisting of 30 industry experts and university lecturers has chosen Pirelli as Tire manufacturer of the year at the Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence 2018.

Pirelli was announced as the winner of this prestigious prize, inaugurated in 2008, during the Tire Technology Expo awards evening in Hannover, Germany.

Pirelli achieved this recognition for a number of different reasons, starting with the results obtained from the strategy of focussing on high-value products, which has made Pirelli the world leader in the prestige sector. On top of this, there are the number of homologations achieved (more than 2000), the 28 partnerships with academic centres of excellence all over the world, and Pirellis role as a driver of technical innovation, as demonstrated by the launch of Connesso last year: the only system currently on sale that allows the tyre to talk to the driver via data analysis through the cloud and an app. Connesso transmits information such as tyre pressure, temperature, and wear - advantaging driver safety.

The prize was collected by Marco Spinetto, Pirellis head of strategic innovation and knowledge management, government regulations and industry standards, who said: Its a great honour for Pirelli to receive this prize. The tyre industry has recognised the transformation undertaken by our company: a 145-year-old start-up that today is a pure consumer tyre firm focussed on high-value products: in other words, one that is strategically positioned in the most advanced technical areas. And technology is, of course, our key driver. Underlining this is our commitment to research and development, to which Pirelli has dedicated more than 7% of its turnover over the last three years  one of the highest proportions of any tyre manufacturer. A product of this research is the Connesso system, launched by Pirelli last year. Its the first sensor that is able to connect driver and tyre via an app. This year were going to be presenting an evolution of this system, in line with our digital focus. Our main partners, the worlds most important car manufacturers, have shown that they really appreciate our approach, and the growing number of premium and prestige homologations proves that.

Also Watch:New Delhi: Diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, who along with his nephew Nirav Modi is the main accused in the Punjab National Bank scam, has written an open letter to his employees.

In the letter, released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot, he expressed helplessness and told the employees that their salaries would not be paid in time. Choksis company, Gitanjali Gems, employs over 3,500 people.

I am facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigative agencies/ government agencies have started to create a havoc, hell bent upon stopping the operations (of Gitanjali Gems), he said in the letter, as quoted by ANI. I will face my destiny and I know I have done nothing wrong and ultimately the truth shall prevail, the letter added.

Highlighting the "situation of fear and injustice" created against him and the company, the letter suggested to employees that in view of the uncertainty looming over payment of dues, termination of office operations, and "unfair investigation", they begin scouting for alternate career options.

The letter clarified that laptops, mobile phones issued by the organisation can remain with employees until dues were cleared, adding that relieving letters and experience certificates would be issued to them when necessary.

Choksi, along with Modi, is accused in the Rs 11,400 crore PNB scam. The scam came to light after the state-run bank informed the stock exchange about the fraudulent transactions on February 14.

The alleged fraud occurred as one PNB deputy manager, with the assistance of one or more colleagues, issued more than 100 fraudulent LOUs for firms linked to Modi and Choksi. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested some half a dozen bank officials, including the two junior Mumbai officials, as well as employees of companies controlled by Modi and Choksi. Lawyers and families of the accused officials have denied any wrongdoing. Both Modi and Choksi left the country last month before the issue came to light.

On Friday, both Nirav Modi and Choksi did not appeared before Enforcement Directorate despite summons. ED has issued fresh summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). They have to appear on February 26.

Nirav Modi on Thursday made it clear that he can't appear and depose before the ED. In an emailed reply to the EDs investigating officer, he cited the temporary suspension of his passport and pending business issues as reasons for his non-appearance before the probe agency. The CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each in the case.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its inability to issue an order for recovery of outstanding dues of more than 37,000 farmers of Gujarat with a private limited company but asked the state government to make earnest efforts to help them.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra held that no order could be passed against the company for paying the money because an agreement binds the terms of the farmers' employment, engaged in production and processing of hybrid cotton seeds.

The bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, was of the opinion that the Gujarat High Court order was legally flawless in so far it desisted from issuing any order on the PIL by Sabarkantha Lok Adhikar Manchester and another Gujarat farmers' Union for recovery of around Rs 100 crore.

At the same time, the Court observed that it will give liberty to the farmers' groups to make a representation to the state government, which should provide help as much as it can, under the law.

"We grant liberty to the petitioners to submit a representation to the Secretary, Agriculture and Co-operative Department, Govt of Gujarat, who may take up the matter and if some assistance can be rendered in law, the same shall be done so that the farmers who are suffering should not think that they have to suffer in continuum," stated the order.

The bench added in its order: "If a representation is made within four weeks hence, we are sure the 1st respondent (state) shall take appropriate steps as required under law."

According to the petition, the company started defaulting in paying the farmers since 2011-12, and by the end of 2016, the outstanding was to the tune of more than Rs 100 crore.New Delhi: Battling staff crunch in various departments, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will soon start a government recognised post-graduation course to provide advanced training in the subject.

ASIs Institute of Archaeology already offers a diploma course in archaeology. However, considering over a hundred seats lying vacant, ASI and National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology, a deemed university that falls under Ministry of Culture, have decided to sign an agreement to provide a two-year programme.

This will help the culture ministry churn out well trained archaeologists to fill various posts, starting from entry level to senior supervisory level.

Despite providing a course in archaeology and training aspirants rigorously, the diploma provided by Institute of Archaeology is not recognized by any academic regulatory body. However, once the agreement is done between the government body and the university, the archaeology course will be recognized by the National Museum Institute of History of Art (NMI) and will be upgraded to a two-year post graduation programme, NMI Vice Chancellor & DG Museum BR Mani told News18.

National Institute of Archaeology will soon be established in Greater Noida to provide higher education in the subject.

While the Haryana Archaeology department started fresh excavations at a 5,000-year-old pre-Harappan site in Haryanas Fatehabad district earlier this month, the ASI is struggling to fill posts elsewhere. Often, they are forced to look for temporary solutions to keep the work going.

Since two years there has been a lack of supervisory staff (directors) at the Epigraphy Branch of the Survey. They have to depend on various consultancies for hiring.

Out of the 175 sanctioned posts for assistant archaeologists in ASI, 88 are lying vacant. Even at higher positions many posts are yet to be filled. At the position of superintendent archaeologists, 15 out of 45 seats are lying vacant.

Around 68 posts of assistant archaeologists are said to be filled through SSC recruitment. However, a government recognized professional course is not available to directly recruit professionals.

In this scenario, an institute that can grant degrees in archaeology will help create an interest in the subject and also help ASI recruit trained people. Archaeology, which also includes expertise in epigraphy, numismatics, conservation and heritage management, is important for the society interested in its past and history, said a source in ASI.New Delhi: Travelling across the country in Indian attire and hands folded in a namaste, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not miss an opportunity to display his connect with the locals and their culture.

While there were many who spoke about how he was "snubbed" by PM Narendra Modi and how his visit was not given due importance, there was not one person who was not smitten with Trudeaus kids in Indian wear or the PM's 'bhangra' moves. That probably also made the Canadians back home very happy, especially Indian natives.

The visit, as much as it ended on both countries strengthening their bilateral relationship, was also about Trudeau stamping his cooperation and inclination towards the Indians in Canada as 2019 draws near.

The Indo-Canadian constituency in Canada is widely recognized as the one that helped the Liberals come to power in 2015. There is very little doubt that the community will not play a significant role in next years elections.

Trudeau has made sure that this visit to India is seen as a personal one too. With dressing his kids in Indian attire and dancing his way into the Canadian High Commission to the sound of dhols were just the tip of the matter. He took it one step ahead when he visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar. In fact, as the PM landed in Chandigarh, he had already donned a scarf, considered holy among Sikhs, who make for a very powerful voter constituency in Canada.

The vote bank directly impacts around 4-6 ridings. Sikh votes are crucial for 2019; weve seen their strength in 2015. And Trudeau definitely needs to walk the talk with regards to Khalistan issue and distance himself, former Indian High Commissioner to Canada Vishnu Prakash told News18. And indeed, Trudeau has done everything and more to ensure he has a smooth sailing back home.

Other than his Indian dance moves and attire, he has assured the Indian government, time and again, about his commitment against extremism and his non-inclination towards those backing Khalistan.

In 2015, the Liberals won 24 ridings where the population was primarily South Asian, which included Indians and Pakistanis among others. The total number of such ridings comes to around 25, which means the Liberals made maximum gains in areas that had Indians in them. Most of these ridings were in areas like Greater Toronto and Vancouver.

Despite historical advantages with the Indo-Canadian community, the simmering issue of Khalistan and the unprecedented invite given out by the Canadian High Commission to a former extremist accused of murder may still spoilsport for Trudeau in the coming elections.

Im sure that 99% diaspora are proud Canadian citizens who know their cultural roots in India. The diaspora must be very happy that Trudeau got to experience the diversity first hand. And Sikhs love Trudeau, so quoting radicals is negative for him, said Prakash.New Delhi: The death of a loved one can leave any person devastated, but the wife of a deceased IAF officer displayed exemplary courage when she marched at the funeral ceremony in her Army uniform along with her five-day-old daughter.

In a picture that has gone viral on social media, Major Kumud Dogra can be seen attending the funeral in her full uniform along with her daughter on Wednesday.

Dogras husband, Wing Commander D Vats, was killed when a two-seater microlight aircraft crashed in Upper Assams Majuli district on February 15.

Twitterati has been sharing the moving picture and saluting the young officer for her courage.

#Major #Kumud Dogra...In her arms is her five day old baby and her feet marching towards the dead body of her husband Wng Cmdr D Vats... A rare epitome of courage... Salute you #Major #Dogra JAI HIND pic.twitter.com/NXYwuDTX1q Shweta (@ShwetaS13301723) February 22, 2018

Unable to get over these images of #MajorKumudDogra walking to her husband Wg Cdr #DushyantVatss funeral with their 5-day old baby in her arms. He saw once bt nw will never get to meet his daughter. Speechless. This is what the #IndianArmy & #IndianAirForce does for the country. pic.twitter.com/cbJiuaxgwe Rupil Dev Lamsar (@rupildev) February 24, 2018

This is for all those idiots who think army life is all about partying and enjoying! Here is Major Kumud Dogra walking towards her husband Wg Cmdr D Vatss funeral with her new-born baby. #FaujLife #MajorKumudDogra #FaujiWife #MajuliCrash pic.twitter.com/BI9DFzXvhD Aanchal Singh (@aanchalsingh731) February 23, 2018

Major #KumudDogra on her way to offer last tribute to her husband Late #WgCdr D. Vats, who lost his life in a Microlight crash in Majuli, Assam.On that fateful day their baby was only 4 days old.We SALUTE the courage, determination and dedication of this young lady officer. pic.twitter.com/hZxOLuP2yd Shivang Tiwari (@tiwari7_tiwari) February 21, 2018

Major Kumud Dogra...in her arms is her five day old baby and her feet marching towards the dead body of her husband Wng Cmdr D Vats... a rare epitome of courage... salute you Major Dogra  pic.twitter.com/YM08yTQ6Y6 Surendra Jeet Singh (@bhaukal) February 23, 2018

An IAF chopper with two pilots on board had crashed on February 15 in Assam's Majuli island, killing both. The microlight aircraft crashed near Jorhat after taking off on a routine sortie and a court of inquiry has been ordered.

The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed at a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, the official said. The crash took place at Darbar Chapori, a sand bar in the Brahmaputra, where there is no human habitation. It is suspected that the crash took place due to technical reasons, the officer added.Houston: An Indian-origin professor and his two colleagues at the University of Houston have got a USD 6,00,000 private grant for their path-breaking research to develop a new treatment for lupus.

The Target Identification in Lupus grant from the Lupus Research Alliance has been given to Chandra Mohan, endowed professor in the university's biomedical engineering department, and his research team members Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz.

Lupus is a complex autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose, treat and defeat. Only one treatment has been approved in nearly 60 years.

"Lupus nephritis (kidney disease) is one of the most serious complications of lupus. With the TIL grant support, Chandra Mohan, MD, PhD, University of Houston will build on his existing discoveries to evaluate a potential new therapeutic target for lupus nephritis," the health organisation said.

Only seven lupus researchers across the country were asked to carry out these tasks and the grant will address fundamental questions in lupus research, remove barriers to new treatments and possibly find a cure for lupus and its complications, it said.

"Lupus is quite common among African-Americans and Hispanics here in US, and also common in Asia," Mohan told PTI. "Our data suggests that measuring the levels of a molecule called ALCAM (activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule) in the urine may be useful in monitoring progression of this disease."

He said that with the grant his team proposes to investigate if lupus can be treated by blocking ALCAM using an antibody. "If this succeeds in animal models, the next step would be to examine if this might also be a good treatment target in patients with lupus," he said.

Researchers will examine ALCAM, which is also present in several kidney diseases and in the urine of patients with lupus kidney disease.

"Lupus patients may have increased ALCAM in both their immune systems and their kidneys, and this probably plays a major role in activating the immune system and causing the kidney disease in lupus patients," said Mohan.

While healthy people need ALCAM to activate their T cells to fight off foreign microbes in the body, in patients with an autoimmune disease, the activated T cells end up just fighting the patient?s own tissues, rather than a foreign body.

Mohan will continue tracking ALCAM to confirm its presence in the kidneys of lupus patients rather than just the urine, while also investigating whether the increased ALCALM is indeed driving the disease.

His research will also include treating lupus by testing an antibody that blocks ALCAM.

If the antibody does block lupus, then he could move onto translational studies and clinical trials, said Mohan, alluding to possible new drug therapies for the disease.

"We began this study looking for biomarkers and we think ALCAM is a good biomarker, meaning we may be able to track the disease by looking at the levels of ALCAM in the urine. But now we are finding that ALCAM may be a therapeutic target, too," Mohan said.Kolkata: Jammu and Kashmir is "completely" safe for visitors and tensions in the border areas have "little effect" on its tourism circuit, a senior official of the northern state said in Kolkata on Friday.

Describing the last year's attack on Amarnath yatris as an "isolated incident to scare away visitors", the director of the tourism department in Kashmir, M A Shah, asserted that such attempts will not succeed.

"Apart from last year's attack on Amarnath yatris, there has not been any instance of violence in the tourism corridor of the state, spanning Jammu, Vaishno Devi, Sonemarg, Gulmarg or Ladakh, in the last one decade," Shah, who led a delegation from the country's crown state to Kolkata, told newspersons here.

He claimed that Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country which has zero crime record against tourists. Shah also said that the state has registered one lakh foreign tourist footfall in 2017, while the number of domestic tourists crossed 1 crore.

People from Gujarat comprised 30 per cent of the domestic tourists last year, while those from West Bengal were the second highest in number at 25 per cent.

"Had it been unsafe, we would not have had so many foreign and domestic tourists visiting Kashmir," Shah said.

The state has a dedicated a tourism police force to assist travellers, especially in Sonemarg and Gulmarg areas.

"Kashmir is not just for holidaying in summer time, it is a round-the-year destination offering snowfall in the winter, blossoms in the spring, endless alpine meadows in the summer and the glory of crimson chinar trees in the autumn," he added.Williamnagar (Meghalaya): Special Force (SF-10) commandos in Meghalaya on Saturday killed in a gunfight a top Garo rebel leader wanted for his alleged involvement in several killings and bombings in the state.

Acting on a tip off, the commandos raided Sudugre area in East Garo Hills district and shot dead Sohan Dalbot Shira, the military wing chief of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), in a gun battle, a police official said.

"It is confirmed that he has been killed in a gunfight with the SF-10 commandos at 11.50 a.m. and we are waiting for further details of the entire operation," Meghalaya Police chief Swaraj Bir Singh told IANS.

However, the GNLA was yet to issue any statement confirming the death of Shira.

Singh said the gun battle began when the GNLA rebels fired at the commandos.

Shira was wanted in several cases of murder, kidnapping, bombings and extortion in Garo Hills, besides the killing of Nationalist Congress Party candidate, Jonathone Sangma on February 18.

Sangma was killed along with his bodyguard and two party workers in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion in East Garo Hills when their convoy was returning from a campaign.

Congratulating the fearless women and men of the Meghalaya Police who have led an untiring effort and commitment to eliminate enemies of the state, like Shira, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma tweeted: "Their effort has been vindicated and they have left no stone unturned in dealing effectively with criminals and anti-national elements to ensure heightened peace which is a prerequisite for growth and prosperity of our state."

"The committed endeavour of the government to strengthen our internal security apparatus with a zero tolerance policy for militancy has started showing positive results, especially with this latest incident," Sangma tweeted.

"It is now time for all the people from all walks of life to come together and unequivocally pursue the common and shared objective of ensuring the complete restoration of peace in the state and then to maintain it for the kind of development of the state we all envisage and dream of," the Chief Minister said.

The Meghalaya Police has sounded a security alert in the Garo Hills. SF-10 commandos continued their combing operations to track down other rebels.

The GNLA is fighting for a separate "Garoland" in western Meghalaya, led by police officer-turned-rogue champion R. Sangma.

It has also forged an alliance with the Bangladesh-based rebel group, A'chik Special Dragon, and operates jointly with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

Sangma is presently lodged in Shillong jail after being arrested from the India-Bangladesh border on July 30, 2012.New Delhi: Two minor girls were found smothered to death in the Moti Nagar area of west Delhi and their mother was named as the prime suspect in the case.

The bodies of Nandini (5) and Akansha (six months) were found on Tuesday morning, police added.

The autopsy report pointed at smothering as the cause of the deaths, a senior police officer said.

The mother, Suman, allegedly suffered from mental illness and claimed to have "divine visitations", he added.

"She is the prime suspect in the case and is presently undergoing counselling," the officer said.

During the investigation, it came to light that the woman had lied down on the girls during one of her so-called "divine visitations" on Monday night. The girls got smothered because of her weight on them, he said.

The father of the victims said he was asleep and found out about the incident the next morning, the officer added.Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh here for the fifth time in a month and condemned alleged firing across Line of Control by Indian forces. The Pakistan Foreign Office said Director General (SA & SAARC) Mohammad Faisal summoned Singh over "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by Indian forces on Feb 23 in Nikial sector.

Faisal said the firing killed a man in ThurtiNarr village located some 1,200 meters from the LoC and three other people were injured. The Foreign Office had earlier summoned India's deputy high commissioner on February 5, 15, 20 and 22.

"This unprecedented escalation in ceasefire violations by India is continuing from the year 2017 when Indian forces committed more than 1,970 ceasefire violations," he claimed. He said the alleged ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation.

Pakistani troops on Saturday fired mortar shells targeting villages along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, J&K police said. "Pakistani troops fired mortar shells and small arms from across the border in the Lam area of the Nowshera sector around 6.15 pm," a police official said.

He said Indian troops retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for 15 minutes. There was no casualty reported in the Pakistani firing, the official said.Chennai: Chennai: It was perhaps the first time that BJP flags were seen at an AIADMK event in the city. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the city to launch the Amma two-wheeler scheme.

A source from the AIADMK said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had sent an invite to Prime Minister Modi three days ago and got a confirmation from Modi's office in two hours. The ministers were surprised considering how the BJP top brass distanced itself from the merged faction post the RK Nagar bypoll. Contrast this with an earlier instance, when Modi turned down the invitation for unveiling a portrait of Jayalalithaa inside the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

In a telling sign, the entire stretch leading to the venue was full of Modi posters along with those that of Jayalalithaa, Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam. This has triggered speculation that the BJP and the AIADMK will form an alliance in the upcoming elections.

The event turned political when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister urged PM Modi to take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee, as directed by the Supreme Court. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, focused on listing out the Central government schemes.

J Jayalalithaa was known to be pro-women centric. Most of the schemes under AIADMK also focused on the women community. The scooter-scheme was also for working women. The scheme, with a subsidy component of 50 percent up to Rs 25,000 for working women, was launched by Modi, who handed over the keys and registration certificate copies to five women beneficiaries. He also launched 70-lakh tree sapling planting drive to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa.

Modi said: "When we empower the women in the family, we empower the entire household. And the Central government is working in this direction. All our schemes and programmes are oriented towards this aim." He also listed out the initiatives by his government which are helping the women of the country.

Palaniswami in his address thanked Modi for lauding the ancient language Tamil recently. The deputy CM Panneerselvam was not far behind when he hailed Modi for "courageously leading India."

Political observers said in the absence of a leader, Modi stole the show and became the hero of the AIADMK event.

RK Radhakrishnan, Associate Editor, Frontline, said: "Both the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister used the occasion to further their own political agenda. There was no great enthusiasm in the AIADMK towards the Prime Minister's visit, and going by what the PM said, it appears that he couldn't be bothered. The PM almost made it seem as if Centre was the only entity that mattered in Tamil Nadu. The anxiety to get the message across to the people of Tamil came out very clearly in his speech. EPS could not care less. For him, it was an opportunity to improve his stock. He got one more forum."

Political observers say the state government had given Modi a platform to woo voters on this occasion.

Karthigaichelvan S, Managing Editor, Puthiyathalaimurai, said: "He didn't speak much about Jayalalithaa. Generally at a birth anniversary event, someone will highlight achievements of that leader. Modi didnt highlight the achievements of Jayalalithaa. He is using this event as an occasion to reach out to the voters of Tamil Nadu. Speaking in Tamil and trying to connect with the local people proves that he is trying to create BJP presence in Tamil Nadu. The state has always been anti-Hindi and knowing the pulse of the people, he communicated in the regional language.

So has AIADMK lost the plot? Karthigaichelvan said AIADMK will use this to keep its flock together. He said: "Considering the uncertainty in the state, AIADMK gave him a platform by inviting him for the event. They are trying to send across a message to the party cadre that Prime Minister is with us and are making sure that MLAs remain united. It will convey a message to the party cadre as well. Its a win-win situation for both the parties."

So what is worrying the merged faction? On Friday, an AIADMK MLA jumped ship from the merged camp to the TTV Dinakaran camp. Eighteen MLAs, who sided with TTV Dinakaram, were disqualified and the order on the disqualification is reserved. So, the merged faction is still tense as an adverse order in the case may topple the government.Lucknow: A South Korean national, working for PMs Kaushal Vikas Yojana, has illegally purchased land in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district, nearly 30 km from the state capital. The expatriate has been served a notice to leave India by March 15.

An Beuyng Kil, who worked in Chennai for some time, arrived in Lucknow a few years ago. Mesmerized by the culture of the country, he decided to stay back and start his business in the North Indian state. He obtained a Business Visa and in 2012, bought a piece of land in Ghungter area of Fathepur Tehsil under Barabanki district.

The land was registered in the name of his firm, Juan Business Private Limited, which is also a registered property located in Indira Nagar area of the state capital.

According to Baranaki superintendent of police, Beuyng got the property registered in his name after allegedly faking his nationality. However, the expat said that it was not his fault and the mistake in nationality was made by officials in Fatehpur Tehsil. He said that the blunder occurred because of the language problem.

Beuyng claims that he had been running from pillar to post along with his Indian associate to rectify the error, but their efforts went in vain and he was soon served the notice.

After the registration of the property, the South Korean national had spent his entire fortune to build a school. But had to halt his plans due to certain norms of the state board. Beuyng then decided to start training courses as a part of Skill India under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Kendra and fulfill his dream of imparting knowledge in India.

The expat started training youngsters to become salesmen in retail sector, technicians for electronic home equipment and self-employed tailors. However, the error in registration began creating hurdles for him.

I am here to work for PM Modis and CM Yogis dream and I love training youngsters to make them independent. The main problem that I have faced everywhere is communication. I love India and the people here. How can anyone give me notice to leave India without knowing my side of the story? I have full faith in the Indian judiciary, and I hope to get a fair chance to present my case, Beuyng told News18.

He further said that he had met a lawyer along with his Indian associate to get the information in the papers corrected, but he did not get their work done and asked them to wait till a notice is served, following which he would initiate a case on their behalf.

It is a human error. We had been running to Fatehpur Tehsil for a long time but no one paid heed to our request. We then met a lawyer, who asked us to wait for the notice, and said that our side would reply after getting a notice. The mistake was probably made by the person who typed the registry document, said Manoj Verma, who has been working with Beuyng since 2015.

Meanwhile, the district administration has decided to nullify the registration of his property. We received an information that a Korean national was living in our area and bought a property in which he stated that he was an Indian national. After investigation, we found that the information provided by the man was false, following which the notice was served to him to leave India within 20 days, said Barabanki SP Anil Kumar Singh.

District Magistrate of Barabanki, Akhilesh Tiwari, said that a three-member team has been constituted to look into the matter. The expat is quite popular in his area and has been doing a good job by providing training to the locals. We will provide him assistance in the case and his documents will also be verified, he said.

Some local media have called Beuyng a Korean spy, which is extremely disheartening. He has been relentlessly working here and running training programmes for the Indian youth, and this is what he is getting in return, Verma said while requesting officials to help Beuyng.Lucknow: The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanth reached Mathura to celebrate the festival of Holi and visited sanctum of Shri Krishna Janam Sthan Temple along with Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, before visiting Keshav Deo Temple. The Chief Minister also reviewed the security arrangements and asked officials to increase the security and facilities at the temple.

On being asked by journalists if CM Yogi will also celebrate the festival of Eid, after celebrating Deepawali and Holi, CM Yogi said, I am a Hindu and everyone has the freedom to follow his faith, similarly even I am free to follow my faith. In last 11 months, I have not stopped anyone from celebrating Eid or Christmas. Everyone has the right to religious freedom."

The Deepotsav will be held in Ayodhya, Holi celebrations will be in Barasana, Dev Deepawali will be celebrated in Kashi, Ramayana Mela will be held in Chitrakoot and Kumbha will be held in Prayagraj. I will participate in the celebrations and I am proud of our traditions. The protection and promotion of all these are also our responsibility, he added.

After grand Deepawali celebrations in Ayodhya last year, CM Yogi Adityanath will be celebrating the Lathh Maar Holi on Saturday in Barsana along with half a dozen of his ministers. During CMs programme a helicopter will be showering flowers on the devotees and Prasad comprising of laddus and gulal will be distributed to the devotees as well.

The lane in Barsana which is famous for its Holi celebrations is known as Rangeeli Gali and CM Yogi Adityanath will be walking down the two-kilometre stretch along with his ministers to celebrate Holi.

While inaugurating Falgunotsav in Atulya Gram Lohvan in Mathura today CM Yogi Adityanath played the drums and said that the Holi celebrations of Braj will now get international exposure. He also said that people of Mathura-Vrindavan should be proud of the fact that their history here is more than 5000 years old.Pune: The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, in an examination, asked what was wrong with union minister Satyapal Singh's argument criticising Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The dean of the institute said the question was "aimed at testing the logical thinking of students".

Sanjeev Galande, Dean of Research and Development at the IISER said the question was about why the quoted argument cannot be correct and it was about the logic and not about the statement.

"We at IISER, emphasis on the pedagogical way of teaching and question papers are not summary-based. The students are supposed to think and provide logical reasoning and the question, which was posed during the exam was quite straightforward and was aimed at testing logical thinking of the students," he said.

"This is not that we are opening a debate (over the statement made by the minister) but it is theoretical exercise and to make the students do logical arguments and how they can answer in a different way," Galande said.

Singh, the Minister of State for the Human Resource Development, had last month claimed that the Darwin's theory of evolution of man was "scientifically wrong" and said it should not be part of school and college curriculum.

The IPS officer-turned politician had drawn flak for his comments from the scientific community but he stuck to his stand.

"Darwin's theory (of evolution of humans) is scientifically wrong. It needs to change in school and college curriculum. Since man is seen on Earth he has always been man. Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man," he had said.

The IISER on February 22 posed a question to undergraduate students, pursuing a course in 'evolution' during their mid-semester examination, asking what was wrong in his arguments.

"The minister of state for Human Resource Development [MHRD] in India recently claimed that the Darwinian theory of evolution is wrong because 'Nobody, including our ancestors, in writing or orally, has said they saw an ape turning into a man'. What is wrong with this argument?" read the question.

The question had a note attached to it, which read: "This question is NOT asking why biologists believe evolution to be correct. It is asking why the quoted argument cannot be correct in terms of disproving the Darwinian theory of evolution."

Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution that states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

It was developed by Charles Darwin, a 19th century English naturalist, and others.Welcome to New York, starring Diljit Dosanjh, Sonakshi Sinha and Karan Johar, isnt merely a bad film, or even a terrible one. Its depressing. Not because the plot is all over the place (it is!), not because the actors appear to be doing whatever they like (they are!), and not because it has no vision or ambition (it doesnt!)  but because its an exercise in sheer pointlessness. Really, this film has no reason to exist.

I want to know why someone thought of making this movie. I want to know how they sold the idea to a producer. And how they convinced fairly busy actors to be in it. I suspect the answer to all of those questions is the same: because there was money to be made.

Getting a fat paycheck is always a good reason to take a job. But in the case of this film, its fairly evident that money was likely the only motivation for everyone involved. They didnt even have to break a sweat, or do their job to earn the check; looks like they just had to show up.

This lazy movie piggybacks on the IIFA Awards for its premise. IIFA, as you probably know, is Bollywoods favorite paid vacation. Each year half the industry is flown to a fancy foreign destination for a weekend of schmoozing with the same people that they schmooze with the rest of the year. Oh yes, they also give out awards at the end. Theres a term for this kind of exercise  its called a circle jerk.

The film stars Diljit Dosanjh as Teji Sandhu, a chota mota goonda from Punjab with acting aspirations, and Sonakshi Sinha as Jeenal Patel, a scowling fashion designer. Theyre flown to New York to attend the IIFAs as winners of a talent contest, although the truth is that theyre both pretty talentless. Theyve been picked as part of a sabotage plan by Lara Dutta who has an ax to grind with her boss, the organizer of the event, played by Boman Irani.

Meanwhile, getting just as much screen time as the leads, if not more, is filmmaker Karan Johar whos playing  wait for it  a double role. He is both Karan and Arjun. As Karan, he plays an exaggerated version of himself; a flaky, brands-obsessed, spotlight-hungry, Bollywood insider. As Arjun, he is the pissed-off doppelganger of the famous film director, a dreaded don-like figure who hates Karan Johar, his movies, and everyone who enjoys his movies. Arjun has hatched a plan to kidnap Karan during the IIFAs in New York, which the latter is hosting.

The plot, if you can call it that, allows for all manner of cameos, and everyone from Riteish Deshmukh and Sushant Singh Rajput to Rana Dagubatti and Khan brothers Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail make walk-on appearances. But nothing  I repeat, nothing  beats the irony of Katrina Kaif dismissing someone as a bad actor, and, in another scene, Aditya Roy Kapur giving acting tips.

But these gifts  unintentional though they might be  are few and far between in a film so severely steeped in stupidity that it brings me back to question how in the world something like this got made in the first place. Did no one read the script? Was there a script at all? How much do you have to pay actors to embarrass themselves in this way?

Welcome to New York is directed by Chakri Toleti who helmed the Tamil and Telugu remakes of A Wednesday, both starring Kamal Haasan. But this film is devoid of any personality or any directorial signature. It is supposedly a comedy but the laughs can be counted on your fingertips, and can be attributed largely to the sharp timing of the films leading man Diljit Dosanjh. A scene in which the star-struck Teji runs into Karan Johar in a hotel elevator and insists on playing a round of rapid fire Q&A is terrific.

Karan Johar, for his part, shrewdly makes so many jokes at his own expense youll be hard-pressed to come up with more. A scene in which he flips out when someone accidentally stamps his limited-edition designer shoes is very funny.

Not very funny, unfortunately, is Sonakshi Sinha, who comes off exaggerated and out-of-step even in a film of such ridiculously low standards. She spends the bulk of her time on screen contorting her face like Jim Carrey, but with none of the same results.

To add insult to injury the film has been released in 3D. There is nothing in the movie that merits this technology. Neither does it have pop-out sequences, nor is it an immersive kind of story. Its just one more baffling decision in a lousy, lousy film.

Im going with one out of five for Welcome To New York. The lure of the Big Apple has never before sounded like a threat.

Rating: 1 / 5

What's your reaction

What's your reviewNew Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday appealed to bureaucrats protesting the alleged assault on the chief secretary not to obstruct Delhi government's work, even as a forum of city officials met the Cabinet Secretary and apprised him of the "difficult working conditions" they were facing.

As the standoff between the bureaucrats and the AAP government continued, Lt Governor Anil Baijal met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, two days after he submitted a preliminary report over the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence.

In the meeting, the Lt Governor briefed Singh about the incident and the prevailing situation under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, sources said.

With the governance of the Delhi government hit, the AAP sought to extend an olive branch to the officers.

"We appeal to the officers that the government work should not suffer," Saurabh Bharadwaj, chief spokesperson of the AAP's Delhi unit, said.

On Friday, Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues had also met the Lt Governor and sought his intervention in defusing tensions between the AAP government and the bureaucrats.

During its meeting with Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, the country's top bureaucrat, a joint forum of employees and officers of the Delhi government apprised him about the "difficult working conditions" prevailing under the AAP dispensation.

"The Cabinet Secretary gave a patient hearing to all officials and officers present and acknowledged that they are working in a difficult environment," the forum said in a statement.

"He assured all employees of complete administrative and moral support. However, he cautioned that citizens should not be put to inconvenience and delivery of services should go on, to which all the officers assured complete dedication," it said.

To register their protest against the alleged assault on Prakash, bureaucrats of the IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) have not been attending meetings with the AAP ministers for the last three days.

According to the officers, they would only maintain written communication until the chief minister apologises for the incident.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that there should be no place for violence in politics and administrative work.

During the last few days, the chief secretary was attacked in the presence of Kejriwal and after that in place of taking an action against the guilty MLAs, the chief minister tried to "cover up" the incident which has shocked everyone, Tiwari alleged.

On Saturday, former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran also resigned from the Delhi government's State Advisory Council For Education to express solidarity with Prakash.

In an unprecedented move, a Delhi Police team yesterday seized a hard disk containing CCTV footage from Kejriwal's residence in connection with the alleged assault.

Union minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Friday hinted that Kejriwal might be questioned by the police in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat.

"Whosoever it may be, the police will question all those in whose presence the incident took place," he had said.Bhopal: Dubbed as the semi-finals ahead of 2018 Assembly polls, voters turned out in large numbers for bypolls to the Kolaras and Mungaoli constituencies on Saturday recording 70.46 per cent and 77.05 per cent respectively.

These polls gain importance as BJP recently suffered three losses in the bypolls in Rajasthan.

The Congress has fielded Mahendra Singh Yadav from Kolaras and Brijendra Singh Yadav from Mungaoli, while the BJP has fielded Baisahab Yadav from Mungaoli and Devendra Jain from Kolaras.

Overall, 13 candidates are in the fray in Mungaoli and 22 in Kolaras. Counting of votes would take place on February 28.

The bypolls were necessitated due to the death of Congress's Mungaoli MLA Mahendra Singh Kalukheda and its Kolaras MLA Ram Singh Yadav.

Both seats are in the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Barring minor disputes at some of the polling booths, the polling by and large remained peaceful in both Kolaras and Mungaoli.

At Digod village in Kolaras, Congress leaders complained that BJP workers were distributing flags, caps, and banners with BJP symbol while at one of the polling booths in Mungaoli, Congress complained of distribution of voter slips carrying pictures and poll symbol of BJP candidate and poll officers immediately stopped the same.

EVMs, VVPAT machines developed a snag at several places and were replaced by the polling officers.

However, with the Chief Electoral Officer Salina Singh dealing the model code of conduct breaches with iron hand, both BJP and Congress expressed resentment towards the Election Commission of India.

CEO Salina Singh, while talking to the media, did not hide her emotions.

Its a crown of thorns and no one would take it, said Singh adding there was pressure from both the sides (from BJP and Congress). But I never felt any pressure and ensured free and fair elections, she said.

Congress was upset with the ECI over presence of large numbers of fake voters in voters list, while BJP was anguished over notice served to its minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia for intimidating the voters in her speech and show caused minister Maya Singh for her objectionable remarks in campaigning.

Congress state head Arun Yadav and other senior leaders accused ECI of working under influence of the BJP over voter list, misuse of government machinery and other issues.

The primary cause behind BJPs resentment was the CEOs notice to CM Shivraj served on Friday in which the commission advised the CM to practice restrain in his speeches.

BJP made mockery of by-polls by misusing money, administration and EVMs also, Congress state head Arun Yadav said.

BJP state head Nandkumar Singh Chauhan expressed gratitude towards voters for peaceful polls.Bhopal: The outcome of the by-elections for the two Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh is expected to decide the course of upcoming assembly elections in the state both within ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress.

The two constituencies of Kolaras and Mungaoli will vote on Saturday and while the results will be announced on February 28.

Even before the bypoll scheduled was announced by Election Commission for both the seats held by Congress MLAs, BJP led by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress by Jyotiraditya Scindia were already engaged in poll preparations.

Sources said that the election was important for Scindia as both Assembly seats are in his parliamentary constituency of Guna so it has become an issue of prestige for him that party win them. Apart from this, the bypoll comes at a time when the Scindia scion has been pushing his case to be the partys CM face so winning both the seats are important for his cause.

Defeats at any of these seats could seriously hamper his claim to the top post and would bolster the case of AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh, Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh and state head Arun Yadav.

For Chouhan, sources say, the by-elections have become reduced to a show of strength ahead of Assembly elections.

As a result, he has led the party into a high voltage campaign in an area known to be Scindias stronghold. He did everything which could help him win including announcing a slew of sops, inducting Gwalior-based Narayan Singh Kushwah into his cabinet, making several tours of the constituencies, having night stays in villages, promising turnaround on development front in next five months and so on.

For wooing Kirars, a dominant community in Kolaras, which he also represents, Chouhan also roped in his elder son Kartikeya to pitch for the party in one of the functions early in January, sources said.

A win will help help him reassure his authority which has been on slippery ground after farmers crisis, corruption charges on ministers, Vyapam scam and on lapses in development front, they added.

As a section of the state unit of the BJP believes that if it fails to win, it would be fourth successive loss, after defeats in Chitrakoot and Ater bypolls, and could compel the partys high command to drastic measures. Ouster of state president Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, Chouhans close aide, could well be one of the major fallouts.

Furthermore, a win would also bolster a Scindia-led Congress challenge during the Assembly polls as these victories could offer the Congress perfect platform to rejuvenate, regroup and counter the BJP with full vigour.

Stakes were high on these polls and the political drama after campaigning ended on Thursday highlighted this.

Kushwah, BJPs Bhind MLA, was gheraoed by Congress workers who accused him of carrying cash to bribe voters in Kolaras, the police intervened and lathicharged them. The Congress Alleged that their candidate was injured in the police action.

As a result, Suresh Sharma, SHO of the local police station was shunted on Friday. Congress has complained to Election Commission in New Delhi and Bhopal.

BJP too retaliated by issuing pictures of Congress candidate Brijendra Yadav giving money to voters and lodged complaint with the EC. Meanwhile, police on Friday detained BJP MLA Shailendra Jain from Mungaoli village for staying in the region after the campaigning concluded.New Delhi: The Congress is in back-channel talks with the Naga People's Front (NPF) for a post-poll pact in a bid to keep the BJP-NDPP out of power in Nagaland, sources said.

The incumbent NPF is contesting on 58 of the 60 Assembly segments in the state.

The Congress had nominated 23 contenders for the February 27 polls. However, the actual number of its candidates in the fray is 18 after five of its contenders withdrew nominations.

The Nagaland Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the BJP are contesting the election in an alliance.

The Congress could not enter into a pre-poll tie-up with the NPF. But back-channel talks are now on with the NPF for a post-poll alliance to keep the BJP-NDPP out of power, a Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

The leader said the Congress will reach out to the National People's Party (NPP) as well for the alliance "if need be" after the poll result is out on March 3.

Meanwhile, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) observer for the election, Praveen Davar, said a "secular" government would come to power in the north-eastern state and claimed the Congress would be able to win 10-12 seats.

The Congress does not have any member in the outgoing state Assembly. More than two years ago, all its eight legislators had joined the ruling NPF.

But we are going to attain double-digit figure now. We will be a decisive force in the state as people here want a secular government and there is a strong undercurrent against the BJP, he claimed.

The Congress is seeking to return to the power after a hiatus of 15 years. The NPF and BJP shared power in the state since 2003 but severed ties ahead of the upcoming polls.

The result of the election, along with that of Tripura and Meghalaya, will be declared on March 3.New Delhi: A meeting of BJP chief ministers, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah, will convene on Wednesday in Delhi to discuss the issue of One Nation, One Poll.

The agenda paper, sent for the quarterly assessment meeting, has sought views from BJP chief ministers on holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has flagged the issue on multiple occasions. President Ram Nath Kovind in his address at the beginning of the budget session of Parliament also raised the issue before lawmakers.

The ruling party and its leaders have often argued that multiple elections with the imposition of Model Code of Conduct are an impediment to governance and a drain on public exchequer.

In the February 28 review meeting, chief ministers have been asked to articulate their view on the subject. It alludes towards partys plans to mobilise public opinion by utilizing its resources at the state level, a BJP leader told News18.

The quarterly meeting of the BJP chief ministers are presided over by the Prime Minister, who reviews implementation of centrally sponsored schemes, internal coordination between BJP governments and the organisation - both at central and state level.

Debate on one nation, one election has also given rise to speculation on early Lok Sabha polls to coincide with elections to some state assemblies.

BJP leader and finance minister Arun Jaitley in an interview to News18 earlier this month had stated that government supports the idea of simultaneous polls but Lok Sabha polls would be held on schedule.

Opposition parties have however questioned practicality and constitutionality of holding simultaneous elections in a federal polity like India.Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday travel to Chennai to launch a state government scheme that will give women a Rs 25,000 crore subsidy to women to buy scooters.

The visit coincides with the 70th birth anniversary of late chief minister Jayalalithaa and is being seen as a precursor to the cementing of changing political equations in Tamil Nadu. The scooter scheme was the brainchild of the AIADMK party martriach, who had promised a 50% subsidy on two-wheelers for working women before the 2016 Assembly election.

Opposition parties in the state have already dubbed the visit as a sign that the EK Palaniswami government is being remote-controlled by the BJP.

"Prime Minister Modi is legitimising a dysfunctional, corrupt and unconstitutional government. It is badly kept secret that this ADMK party and its illegitimate government are being remote controlled by BJP. Modi's presence further strengthens people's belief and begins the countdown for both of them," DMK spokesperson Manu Sundaram said.

The Prime Ministers visit comes amid speculation that all is not well between the OPS and EPS factions of the party. Tamil Nadus deputy chief minister O Paneerselvam had revealed recently that the merger of the two factions became possible only with a nudge from Modi.

He (Modi) said that you (Panneerselvam) could join (merge the faction) to save the party. I agreed but I said I don't want a Cabinet berth and that I will take a party position. Modi said I should continue with politics. That is why I'm a minister today," he said.

RK Radhakrishnan, associate editor of Frontline, said the merged AIADMK is still in a state of utter confusion and the BJP may try to take advantage of it.

If the EPS-OPS chemistry was better, we could have assumed that this is OPS playing bad cop and EPS cozying up to Modi to handle the repercussions. Given that the EPS-OPS relationship itself is frayed, there is no coherent approach to the BJPs overtures, he said.

OPS realizes that he, as deputy chief minister, is on par with other ministers, and will have to stay behind EPS in protocol. This is another reason for his discomfort. But as long as there is no cohesive strategy on the part of the AIADMK, the BJP is in a position to take advantage and dictate terms," he said.

There are also rumours of tensions between the BJP and the AIADMK, but the latter has shot down the suggestions. When Jayalalithaa's portrait was unveiled in the state Assembly a few weeks ago, there were rumours that PM Modi was invited but had turned down the invitation. AIADMK, however, maintained that the PM was not invited in the first place.

The state government has also sought an appointment with the Modi government over the reduction in its share of Cauvery water. At an all-party meeting, the Tamil Nadu government assured that it will urge the Centre to constitute a Cauvery management board at the earliest.

Political observers, however, feel the Centre is focused on Karnataka elections, and hence, working for the benefit of Tamil Nadu farmers may be a challenge for the BJP.New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on major banking scams unearthed in the country over the last few days and termed him the "most expensive chowkidar" in the world.

Demanding a probe by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) into the alleged Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, the party demanded that the accountability of the Finance Ministry, the RBI and the management of defaulting banks must be fixed in the next 60 days.

"Modiji used to give a statement everyday against the Congress when a (2G) scam worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore was alleged during the UPA regime.

"That was a presumptive loss. Later, the court said there was no scam at all," senior party leader Kapil Sibal said at a media briefing.

Referring to the banking frauds by diamond jeweller Nirav Modi (worth Rs 11,300 crore) and others (Rotomac loan default worth over Rs 3,000 crore) as "actual" losses, he said: "Why is he (Prime Minister) silent now?"

Modi had spoken about the bank fraud for the first time on Friday at the ET Global Business Summit saying government would take "stern action" against irregulaties.

Sibal said: "The country has faced a loss of around Rs 21,000 crore and other banking frauds will also emerge in the coming days. Another Rs 390 crore OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) scam has also come out."

"He (Narendra Modi) gets a house, a plane; he is the most expensive watchman in the world," he added.

The former Union Minister said that the Prime Minister should explain why these scamsters "gained" while the nation faced losses under his watch.

"Several leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party have connections with these scamsters, who have left the country," he said, asking how Nirav Modi was allowed to escape.

Starting his briefing with a peom, Sibal said: "The banking system is adrift, core banking had escaped the SWIFT, depositors are truly miffed, Why was Nirav given this gift?"

"The time has come to explain, the nation lost, tell us who gained!," he added.

The party also demanded that the Swift communication system of all banks will be connected to their core banking system in 30 days, a check on all Swift messages in the last five years and called on the Prime Minister to assure the people on this.Lucknow: Voices of dissent have surfaced in the Congress within three days of expelled BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui joining it.

The party has sought an explanation from two of its leaders over their comments on social media opposing Siddiqui's entry.

"The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee considers as indiscipline the views in the party opposing the joining of Naseemuddin Siddiqui and others on Facebook," a party release issued in Lucknow read.

Member of the disciplinary committee Fazle Masood sought an explanation from party's organising secretary Sanjay Dixit and secretary Avdhesh Singh in this regard, it read.

Party sources said Dixit, in a series of Facebook posts, had opposed the entry of Siddiqui in the Congress.

He accused UP Congress leaders of misleading party president Rahul Gandhi in this regard, they claimed.

"Siddiqui has been synonymous with all major scams during the Mayawati government and had been her right-hand man ... How can a tainted leader like him be permitted in the party when Rahul Gandhi is advocating clean politics," Dixit wrote on Facebook.

"It appears that local Congress leaders have struck a deal with Siddiqui as they are very good at match fixing," the Facebook post read.

When contacted, Dixit said he would personally meet Congress president and apprise him of the reality.

Singh is said to have opposed Siddiqui's joining on the ground that he had made derogatory remarks against the Thakur community during a BSP agitation in Lucknow.

In July 2016 during an agitation against derogatory references made by a BJP leader against Mayawati, Siddiqui had allegedly made remarks against a 12 year-old daughter of the leader who is a Thakur.

Siddiqui had formally joined the Congress in New Delhi earlier this week.

Once considered the Muslim face of the Mayawati-led party, he was expelled last year for alleged anti-party activities.Beijing: China expressed dissatisfaction on Saturday at Interpol's decision to lift a wanted alert for an exile from its Uighur minority, a man China accuses of being a terrorist.

Uighurs are a largely Muslim people who live in the far western region of Xinjiang, where hundreds of people have died in the past few years, mostly in unrest between its 10 million Uighurs and the ethnic majority Han Chinese.

China has blamed much of the unrest on separatist Islamist militants. Rights groups and exiles say anger over tightening Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Uighurs is more to blame.

The London-based rights group Fair Trials said Interpol had confirmed it had deleted a wanted alert, known as a red notice, for Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress. A red notice is an international alert for a wanted person but is not an international arrest warrant.

"China expresses its dissatisfaction at Interpol revoking the red notice for Dolkun Isa," China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Dolkun Isa is a terrorist as determined by the Chinese government."

China had full, cast-iron proof of criminality for the issuing of the red notice by Interpol, it added, saying it would have further communication with Interpol on the matter.

In a statement to Reuters, Interpol said it did not comment on specific cases except in special circumstances and with approval of the member country concerned.

"With regard to your request in relation to this individual, we would advise you to contact the authorities which you believe had requested a red notice," it said.

Fair Trials quoted Isa, a German national since 2006, as saying the red notice should not have been issued.

"Such a serious allegation from any state must be thoroughly scrutinised to determine its legitimacy  something that was regrettably not done here," he said.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, said the accusations against Isa were purely political.

"China is unable to produce any actual evidence of its accusations against him," he said in a statement.

Isa, a former Xinjiang student activist, says he condemns all terrorism.

Diplomatic sources have previously told Reuters that China frequently asks European countries to arrest Isa, but has never provided evidence of the crimes it says he has committed.

In 2016, Interpol, the international police organisation, elected a senior Chinese public security official, Meng Hongwei, as president, prompting concern among rights groups that China could use the position to its advantage, something China and Interpol have denied.National Harbour: US President Donald Trump on Friday recited the lyrics of a song seen as anti-immigration called "The Snake" to drive home his point about restricting immigration  an inflammatory move that harkened back to his days on the campaign trail.

In a speech to conservatives at a convention outside Washington, he also bashed opposition Democrats for failing to back his proposal for putting 1.8 million so-called "Dreamer" immigrants on a pathway to citizenship in exchange for tightening border security and severely restricting legal immigration.

During his hour-long address, Trump pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read "The Snake," a ballad by Al Wilson about a reptile who repays a "tender woman" that nurses it back to health with a deadly bite.

During his campaign, as well as in a speech early in his presidency, Trump used the song, based on one of Aesop's fables, as a less-than-subtle allegory about immigrants entering the United States.

On Friday, he made no secret about the comparison he was making.

"Think of it in terms of immigration," he urged attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he launched into the song.

"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in," he said, reading the final line of the song, before returning to his speech.

"And that's what we're doing with our country, folks  we're letting people in, and it's going to be a lot of people. It's only going to be worse."

Some mainstream Republicans have recoiled at Trump's continued recitation of the lyrics.

"Trump's snake story is vicious, disgraceful, utterly racist and profoundly un-American," tweeted Steve Schmidt, a former campaign aide to president George W Bush.

DEMOCRATS 'TOTALLY UNRESPONSIVE'

In his wide-ranging speech, Trump warned that efforts to reach a deal on the status of undocumented migrants brought to the US illegally as children could fail  and blamed his opponents.

"The Democrats are being totally unresponsive. They don't want to do anything about DACA, I'm telling you," he said, referring to negotiations on Capitol Hill on replacing an expiring program that defers deportation for some undocumented migrants.

"It's very possible that DACA won't happen."

Former President Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, whose recipients were given legal permission to work, live and go to school in the United States.

Last September, Trump announced he was rescinding DACA and called on Congress to craft a solution before March 5, setting off months of bipartisan negotiations.

The Senate held votes on several DACA-related bills last week, but none of them advanced.

Many conservatives in Congress including Senator Ted Cruz have been outspoken in their opposition to any legislation that provides "amnesty" to people who are in the United States illegally.Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed on Saturday alleged that the US has made a plot against his "charities" therefore the Pakistani government is bound to act against them.

Days before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris where Islamabad avoided being placed in a terror financing watch-list, Pakistan had amended the anti-terror legislation through a presidential ordinance to include all UN-listed individuals and groups in the national listings of proscribed outfits and persons.

Saeed said the Presidential ordinance had been passed to cripple the JuD's "patriotic" work because the US and several other external forces were not happy with the JuD volunteers working for Pakistan through their educational institutions, ambulances and hospitals.

"We united the nation against America, that's why the US administration is unwilling to further tolerate the JuD's effective role in the country," Saeed said in a statement.

Saeed, who was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November, carries a USD 10 million bounty on his head.

"If Pakistan keeps surrendering to the US demands, the time is not far when such forces will force it to roll-back its nuclear programme," he said.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It was declared a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.Islamabad: Pakistan today said it had arranged a visit of defence attaches of six countries, including from four permanent members of the UN, to the Line of Control to brief them about "Indian atrocities".

A Pakistan Army spokesman said in a statement that defence attaches of the US, the UK, France, China, Turkey and Indonesia visited the LoC in Rawalakot sector. "Defence attaches were briefed about Indian atrocities along Line of Control and deliberate targeting of civilians by the Indian Army," according to the statement.

It said they also interacted with victims of ceasefire violations by India and "gained first-hand knowledge about their sufferings". Yesterday, Pakistan summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh here for the fourth time in a month to condemn "unprovoked firing" by Indian troops across the LoC.

The Pakistan Foreign Office alleged that Indian forces have carried out over 335 ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the international border in 2018, resulting in the deaths of 15 civilians and injuries to 65 others. The Foreign Office claimed that Indian forces committed more than 1,970 ceasefire violations last year.Kabul: A suicide bomber killed at least two and wounded seven in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's capital on Saturday, and at least 18 soldiers died in an attack on a checkpoint by Taliban insurgents in the country's west, authorities said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the Kabul attack took place in the Shash Darak area near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy. Danish said the initial casualty count could rise.

The Islamic State group in a statement on its website claimed responsibility.

In western Farah province, at least 18 soldiers were killed when their checkpoint came under attack by Taliban insurgents, said Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Defense Ministry. He said two other soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Bala Buluk district.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official said at least three security personnel were killed in separate suicide bombing attacks in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor in Helmand, said a car bomber early Saturday was shot by Afghan army soldiers but his vehicle managed to reach the entrance of the army base in Nad Aali district, killing two soldiers and wounding another.

In a second suicide bombing attack near another military base in Helmand's capital city Lashkar Gah, one security person was killed and seven civilians wounded, Zwak said.

Qari Yusouf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for both suicide attacks in Helmand.

The resurgent Taliban and the newer IS affiliate have been blamed for increased violence in Afghanistan after U.S. and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014 that began after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.

On Jan. 27, a Taliban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives into the heart of the city, killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235.

The Taliban claimed the ambulance attack, as well as an attack a week earlier in which militants stormed a luxury hotel in Kabul, killing 22 people, including 14 foreigners, and setting off a 13-hour battle with security forces.

The recent attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces more than 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban.

They also raise questions about President Donald Trump's strategy for winning America's longest war, which was announced in August but has changed little on the ground. That strategy was based on ramping up military pressure on the Taliban to eventually force them into peace talks with the government.Yangon: Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine's state capital Sittwe early Saturday morning, including at the home of a high ranking official, Myanmar police told AFP, adding that no deaths were reported.

It is the latest violence to hit Rakhine, which is festering with ethnic tensions and has been roiled by communal violence in the north against the Rohingya and insurgencies in other parts of the state.

Bombings in the state capital are rare, however.

"Three bombs exploded and three other unexploded bombs were found. A police officer was injured but not seriously," a senior officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The blasts took place around 4:00am (2130 GMT Friday), the officer said.

One exploded in the compound of the state government secretary's home, while the two others hit in front of an office in the city and on a road leading to a beach.

A local official from the state government also confirmed the explosions.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

"Some streets are being blocked by police already because of the bomb blasts," Zaw Zaw, a local resident of Sittwe, told AFP by phone.

In recent months unrest in Rakhine has been concentrated in the state's northern wedge, where a sweeping military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim community last August pushed nearly 700,000 refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

The state capital Sittwe lies around 100 km south of the epicentre of that conflict.

The explosions come almost exactly six months to the day since northern Rakhine was plunged into crisis on August 25 when Rohingya rebels raided police posts, killing at least a dozen officials.

Myanmar's military responded with a ruthless campaign that the UN says amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya population, who are now overwhelmingly based in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Myanmar authorities deny committing any atrocities but have blocked UN investigators from investigating the conflict zone, where thousands of Rohingya are believed to have been killed.

Sittwe was once home to a sizeable Rohingya population but most were forced to abandon their homes by deadly communal violence in 2012.

Today a small community of Rohingya are confined to a Muslim enclave in the city while more than 100,000 others are still living in squalid displacement camps outside the capital.

In a separate conflict in Rakhine state last month, seven people were killed and a dozen injured when police opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who were trying to seize a government office in the town of Mrauk U.

The violence prompted an ethnic Rakhine rebel group in the state to promise "serious" retaliation for the deaths of the protesters.

Around two weeks later the town's administrator was found murdered on the side of the road.Washington: US President Donald Trump has once again named India and China to defend his policy on climate change and reiterated that these countries and some others benefited the most from the Paris agreement while America didn't get any advantage.

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," Trump said in his address today to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

He was referring to his decision last year to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

On June last year, Trump had announced to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris Agreement, Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision Trump said, "You know, basically, it said, "You have a lot of oil and gas that we found"  you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world  we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much".

"And basically, they were saying, "Don't use it. You can't use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. It's not going to happen, I told them. It's not going to happen," he added.

"And China  their agreement didn't kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia -- they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," Trump said.

Commenting on India and other countries, he said, "Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay because they considered them a growing country.

"They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?" he said.

"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? We're developed. We can pay," Trump said.

The President asked if people understood about the Paris Accord and said that his country is in favour of his decision.

"Because it sounds so good. It's like some of the environmental regulations that I cut. They have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes, I'd say, "Look, I'm just going to close my eyes and sign this, because you know what? I'm going to get killed on this one. And I get so much thanks. The country knows what I'm doing," he said.

"We couldn't build. We couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," Trump said.Ankara: Turkey said on Saturday a decision by the United States to open an embassy in Jerusalem in May disregarded decision by the United Nations and Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and showed the United States insisted on damaging peace.

In a statement, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said the decision was "very worrying". The US State Department said on Friday it would open an embassy in Jerusalem in May to coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary.

In December, President Tayyip Erdogan hosted an OIC summit of more than 50 countries in Istanbul, where Muslim leaders condemned the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.Douma (Syria): New air strikes on the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Saturday took the civilian death toll from seven days of devastating bombardment to more than 500 after the United Nations again delayed a vote on a ceasefire.

A total of 127 children figure among the 510 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the enclave just outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitor of the war said at least 32 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, it said.

The Observatory has said the air strikes are being carried out by Syrian and Russian forces. Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia's recent actions in Syria were a "disgrace".

The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote on Friday on a resolution calling for a month-long ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians.

But the vote was postponed until 1700 GMT on Saturday as Western powers bickered with Russia over the wording.

Turkey urged the international community to end the bloodshed in Eastern Ghouta. "The world should say stop to this massacre," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said on Twitter.

Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present, and Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the jihadists or their allies.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called "hell on earth", but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.

The enclave is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

In one of the many unfolding dramas at a Douma field hospital, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings.

"She doesn't know yet that her own daughter has been killed," a nurse said.

Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets.

"I haven't eaten since the day before yesterday," said a mother in a shelter with her two children in Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main town. "They haven't stopped crying for three days."

The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded on Saturday, state media said.

Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since Sunday, according to state media, and many residents have sought temporary accommodation elsewhere for fear of a further intensification of the fighting.

At the United Nations, US ambassador Nikki Haley expressed dismay as negotiations dragged on to secure Russian approval for a ceasefire resolution.

"Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria," Haley posted on Twitter.

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to ask him to back the ceasefire.

Negotiations have stumbled over a key provision of the draft resolution that specifies when the ceasefire will begin.

Following hours of tough negotiations, an amended draft was circulated that demands a 30-day ceasefire "without delay," while stopping short of specifying the timing.

A previous draft had said the ceasefire would go into force 72 hours after the adoption, but that was dropped from the text in a bid to reach compromise with Russia.

In another concession to Russia, the draft also specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated" with the blacklisted terror groups.

The text would demand the immediate lifting of all sieges in Syria, including that on Eastern Ghouta, and order all sides to "cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival".Washington: The United States said on Friday it was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear missile program, and President Donald Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work.

In addressing the Trump administration's biggest national security challenge, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned one person, 27 companies, and 28 ships, according to a statement on the US Treasury Department's website.

The United States also proposed a list of entities to be blacklisted under separate United Nations sanctions, a move "aimed at shutting down North Korea's illicit maritime smuggling activities to obtain oil and sell coal."

North Korea has been developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged taunts that have raised fears of war.

In August, Trump threatened to go beyond sanctions by bringing "fire and fury like the world have never seen," although his administration has repeatedly said it prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Speaking at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump made an apparent reference to military options his administration has repeatedly said remain on the table.

"If the sanctions don't work, we'll have to go phase two," Trump said. "Phase two may be a very rough thing, may be very, very unfortunate for the world. But hopefully, the sanctions will work."

The sanctions' targets include a Taiwanese passport holder, as well as shipping and energy firms in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. The actions block assets held by the firms and individuals in the United States and prohibit U.S. citizens from dealing with them.

The U.S. Treasury said the sanctions were designed to disrupt North Korean shipping and trading companies and vessels and further isolate Pyongyang. They also are aimed at ships located, registered or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros.

Last month three Western European intelligence sources told Reuters that North Korea shipped coal to Russia last year and that it was then delivered to South Korea and Japan in a likely violation of U.N. sanctions.

FRUSTRATED TRUMP

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the new sanctions would help prevent North Korea from skirting restrictions on trade in coal and other fuel through "evasive maritime activities."

"The president is clearly frustrated and rightly so over the efforts that have failed in the past and also over the uptick in testing and the advances we've seen in the North Korean program," a senior administration official told reporters.

At another briefing, Mnuchin stood next to enlarged photos he said showed December 2017 images that revealed ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products destined for North Korea in an attempt to evade sanctions.

He said he could not rule out the prospect of the United States boarding and inspecting North Korean ships.

Mnuchin said virtually all shipping currently being used by North Korea was now under sanction and the U.S. government had "issued an advisory alerting the public to the significant sanctions risks to those continuing to enable shipments of goods to and from North Korea."

Mnuchin said the number of sanctions steps taken by the United States against Pyongyang since 2005 was now 450 with approximately half imposed in the last year.

Christopher Ford, assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, told reporters sanctions already had affected North Koreas weapons programs and this was shown by the lengths North Korea was going to try to evade sanctions.

Jon Schanzer of the Washington think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies said Friday's move was "the largest tranche of DPRK (North Korea) sanctions" released by the Treasury Department.

"The only thing missing here today is action against Chinese banks," he said. "We know they continue to undermine our efforts to isolate North Korea."

Tougher sanctions may jeopardize the latest detente between the two Koreas, illustrated by the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in the South, amid preparations for talks about a possible summit between North Korea's Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

'WARM CLIMATE'

North Korea last year conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. It defends the weapons programs as essential to deter U.S. aggression. It has been more than two months since North Korea's last missile test.

Kim said he wants to boost the "warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue" with South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops, after a high-level delegation, including his sister, returned from the Olympics.

In an extension of that rapprochement, the North agreed on Friday to hold working-level talks on Tuesday for the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics on the North's side of the border village of Panmunjom.

In December the United Nations approved U.S.-drafted limiting North Korea's access to refined petroleum products and crude oil, which the North Korean Foreign Ministry said amounted to an act of war. In January Washington announced a round of sanctions and urged China and Russia to expel North Koreans raising funds for the programs.

The U.N. Security Council banned North Korean exports of coal last Aug. 5 under sanctions intended to cut off an important source of the foreign currency Pyongyang needs to fund its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

The new U.S. sanctions were announced while Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, is visiting South Korea. At a dinner with Moon at Seouls presidential Blue House, Ivanka Trump said the United States wanted to "reaffirm our commitment to our maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized."

Moon said North Korea's participation in the Olympics had led to lowering of tensions on the peninsula and an improvement in inter-Korean relations" and were thanks to President Trump's strong support for inter-Korean dialogue.

Ivanka Trump's visit to South Korea coincides with that of a sanctioned North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee blamed for the 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship that killed 46 sailors. His delegation will attend the closing ceremony and also meet Moon.

The Blue House has said there are no official opportunities for U.S. and North Korean officials to meet.THE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Retired Chief Air Marshal Perrance Shiri has been taken to court by a company operating Halfway House Hotel in Hwange for turning down its application to lease the property.



Tetra Heights, through its lawyers Mutuso, Taruvinga and Mhiribidi Attorneys, filed a chamber application at the Bulawayo High Court citing Rtd Chief Air Marshal Shiri as the respondent.



The company is seeking an order directing the Minister to suspend the notice ordering it to vacate Halfway House Hotel.

Tetra Heights also wants Minister Shiri to be compelled to provide written reasons for rejecting its application to lease Halfway Hotel.





In her founding affidavit, Ms Primrose Muvango, a representative of Tetra Heights, said her company has been in occupation of the premises since August 2016 with the blessing of former Lands Minister Douglas Mombeshora.





The possession of Halfway House Hotel was through a ministerial directive since August 2016 following the eviction of former owner, Mr Rob Sterling, as part of the land reform programme.





The applicant was advised that they should possess the property until such a time that the Government of Zimbabwe would have nominated a new tenant to occupy the premises, said Ms Muvango.





When Mr Sterling was removed from the farm, his employees continued running the hotel until the Government brought Tetra Heights.

The Government flighted a tender in December last year inviting interested persons to apply to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement for a lease agreement. Tetra Heights, which was one of the applicants, was not successful.





Tetra Heights was on January 4 this year given a notice to vacate the premises. Having received the notice that the application to lease the premises was not successful, the applicant on January 12, 2018 requested reasons for the administrative decision made by the respondent in terms of section 4 of the Administrative Act.





To date respondent has failed to provide written reasons why the application to let the premises was refused, said Ms Muvango.





The applicant believes that the respondent is dragging its feet in releasing the reasons so much that Tetra Heights does not exercise its right of appeal or review before the expiry of the eviction notice.

Tetra Heights has since last year been locked in a legal wrangle with former workers, who have invaded Halfway House Hotel wanting to control the property.





Tetra Heights was allocated the farm by Dr Mombeshora, but has faced resistance from six former workers, who have seized part of the farm, including a hotel, kiosk, service station and a workers compound. ChronicleGabby Petito's Mom: The

Last Text She Sent Me Was Odd(Newser)  An employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta left work Feb. 12 because he wasn't feeling well, ABC News reports. He hasn't been seen since. According to NBC News, 35-year-old Timothy Cunningham is a US Public Health Service commander who has been part of responses to Ebola and Zika outbreaks. Cunningham's family became worried when he stopped returning texts and phone calls. They say he spoke to his sister nearly everyday, but she hasn't heard from him since the morning of Feb. 12. After extended family found Cunningham's house apparently empty but with two windows open, his parents drove from Maryland to Atlanta. They found Cunningham's phone, wallet, keys, car, and dog at his house, but there was no sign of their son. They say he would never leave his dog unattended.

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Terrell Cunningham says "there were some exchanges via phone as well as text" the day before Timothy disappeared "that alerted me to be concerned about our son." Police are searching for Cunningham with the help of friends, family, and the Morehouse College alumni network. "It's not the type of news you want to hear. Your child is missing," Terrell Cunningham tells ABC News. "Thirty-five years old, but always your child." The CDC calls Timothy Cunningham "a highly respected member of our CDC family." He has two degrees from Harvard, won the Outstanding Atlanta award in 2014, and made the Atlanta Business Chronicle's 40 under 40 list in 2017. Cunningham's friends call his disappearance "shocking." "He has this pristine service record and background," one friend tells NBC. (Read more missing person stories.)(Newser)  Facebook has apologized for featuring a virtual-reality game called Bullet Trainin which players shoot people at a train stationin its booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference, USA Today reports. Bullet Train was just one of a number of violent games featured at the Facebook booth. "In light of the recent events in Florida and out of respect for the victims and their families, we have removed them from this demo," says Huga Barra, Facebook vice president of virtual reality. "We regret that we failed to do so in the first place." According to the Guardian, Facebook faced public backlash after video of the Bullet Train demo was posted to social media Friday. "Seriously, Facebook?" reads one tweet. "You're at CPAC demonstrating a VR shooting game? A shooting game? You should be ashamed."

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But it wasn't just violent virtual-reality games. Facebook is facing criticism for participating in CPACto which it has given moneyat all. Multiple NRA representatives, including CEO Wayne LaPierre, spoke at the event, which also featured a far-right French politician. Some critics pointed out that Facebook has played a role in spreading conspiracy theories about the survivors of the Parkland shooting. Kira Lerner, a reporter at ThinkProgress, tweets that two CPAC attendees told her they saw proof on Facebook that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students were crisis actors. Facebook routinely participates in events hosted by organizations across the political spectrum, a Facebook spokesperson says. Our involvement is not an endorsement of any particular position or platform. (Read more Facebook stories.)(Newser)  Two California parents already facing dozens of charges for allegedly keeping their 13 children captive and torturing all but the youngest are now facing even more charges, CNN reports. A spokesperson for the Riverside County District Attorney announced Friday three more counts of child abuse against both Louise and David Turpin and a new felony assault charge against Louise. A lawyer for the Turpins says the couple has pleaded not guilty to the new counts. The charges were the result of continuing investigation into the Turpins. According to the Washington Post, investigators say it will be a long process for the 13 Turpin siblingsages 2 to 29 yearsto learn to trust authorities. But as that happens, the siblings could reveal details about their lives that may lead to further charges against their parents.

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Authorities say the Turpin siblings were beaten, starved, chained to their beds, only allowed to shower once a year, and more. The Turpins were arrested in January after a child escaped. Karen Spiegel, mayor of Corona, tells ABC News the siblings are being kept in two separate hospitals but communicating through Skype. She says "their minds are just being opened" and they're "starting to make plans for their future" for the first time. For some, it's their first experience owning shoes or being able to choose what they eat. Spiegel says some of the siblings "didn't really know what a toothbrush was for." More than $570,000 has been donated to the siblings' medical expenses and education. "In cases like this there are long-term needs like behavioral health, housing, scholarships, educational support, tutors, and medical needs," a hospital spokesperson says. (Read more child abuse stories.)(Newser)  Three female Nobel Peace laureates began a weeklong trip to Bangladesh on Saturday to meet Rohingya Muslim women who were tortured and raped by soldiers in Myanmar before fleeing the country. During their visit, Iran's Shirin Ebadi, Yemen's Tawakkol Karman, and Northern Ireland's Mairead Maguire will assess the violence against the Rohingya women and the refugees' overall situation, according to the Nobel Women's Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006. One irony: A key figure being blamed for the plight of the Rohingya refugees is a Nobel laureate herself, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi. About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled army-led violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since late August and are living in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

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Myanmar's security forces have been accused of atrocities against the Rohingya, including killing, rape, and arson. The United Nations and the United States have described the army crackdown as "ethnic cleansing." Sunday is the six-month anniversary of the start of the refugee crisis, Asia's worst since the Vietnam War. In an email to the AP on Saturday, Karman said that she and her colleagues were standing "in solidarity with displaced Rohingya women and calling for Rohingya women's voices to be heard." She said Rohingya women are twice victimizedfor being Rohingya and for being womenand "are affected by the ethnic cleansing and are also subject to high levels of sexual and gender-based violence."

(Read more Myanmar stories.)(Newser)  Anyone who has sat through Exorcist II: The Heretic or Exorcist: The Beginning would rightly think the world is all set on exorcists, thank you very much. The Catholic Church would disagree. USA Today reports the Vatican will be hosting a week-long international conference on exorcisms in April after demand for exorcists has apparently tripled in Italy alone. The church, it seems, is worried about what USA Today calls "the uneven skills of some of its current exorcists," as well as priests unwilling to learn how to perform exorcisms. Those worries come out of a recent four-day meeting organized by Friar Beningo Palilla in Sicily.

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Palilla tells Vatican Radio there are about half a million cases requiring an exorcist in Italy every year (though he admits not every case is an actual demonic possession). Palilla says the number of such cases is increasing because more Italians are patronizing fortune tellers and Tarot readers, which opens "the door to the devil and to possession." The Local reports a consumer organization found last year that 13 million Italians regularly visit astrologers, card readers, or fortune tellersan increase of 3 million since 2001. Worried about mistakes by self-taught exorcists, Palilla says he wants to see an improvement in exorcist training. A few years back, the Vatican offered its support to the International Association of Exorcists, which has licensed 200 or so exorcists since its founding in 1990. Palilla says the conference in April will be the world's first centered on exorcism. (Read more exorcism stories.)(Newser)  The school resource officer said to have waited outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the Feb. 14 shooting that left 17 dead may not have been alone. The Sun-Sentinel reports Coral Springs police officers say several deputies from the Broward County Sheriff's Office also waited outside the school in Parkland, Florida, during the shooting instead of going inside to confront the shooter or help injured students and teachers. Police sources tell CNN that officers arrived at the school to find three deputies with their guns drawn standing behind their vehicles. The officers then entered the school on the direction of the deputies. Sources say the officers were upset the deputies already on the scene didn't follow them inside.

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Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says the allegations from three officers were brought to him by the Coral Springs police chief. If we find out, as we did with Peterson, that our deputies made mistakes and didnt go in, Ill handle it like I always have," he tells the Sun-Sentinel. Israel suspended school resource officer Scot Peterson, who then retired, earlier this week. The sheriff's office says it will interview the officers who complained about the deputies' actions, and officials are reviewing footage to corroborate the allegations. Skip Campbell, the mayor of Coral Springs, says if the allegations are true, "it not only makes me angry, it makes me furious." (Read more Parkland school shooting stories.)Sorry!

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In a heart wrenching incident, nine students was killed and 24A injured after a vehicle rammed into a school building in Bihar's Muzaffarpur.

Beside this, three people were killed and seven injured in separate road accidents in Amethi district, police said today.A A A A A A

SHO (Munshiganj) VK Mishra said Sabhajit Mishra (40) and Suresh Pandey (38)A were killed when a truck hit their jeep near HAL Korwa Power House on the Banda-Tanda national highway.A A A A A A

The other five passengers were undergoing treatment at a hospital, he said, adding that the truck driver fled from the scene after the accident.A A

In another accident, Ajay Singh (17), a school student, was killed near Naugawan on same national highway when his bike was hit by a jeep.A A A

His companions, Sanjay and Raju, both aged 15 years, were badly injured in the accident. The jeep driver fled from the spot, the SHO said.A

More Details Awaited.

With PTI InputsNew Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came down hard on Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and demanded apology from him for his comparision of the saffron party and its ally in poll-bound Meghalaya, National Peoples Party (NPP), to a dog and its wagging tail.

Soon after Tharoors statement was telecasted on television, BJP leader Nalin Kohli said, Were shocked with the language used by Shashi Tharoor for political parties. In terms of referring to a regional party as the waggin tail of a dog and by implication referring to BJP literally as dog.

The BJP leader also did not shy away from taking jibe at the Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his pet Pidi.

Kohli said, Shashi Tharoors political master may have special affinity for certain pet dog Pidi and may also prefer spending time feeding Pidi than attending to senior political functionaries.

Also read: Book seeks to take back Hinduism from hijackers, says Shashi Tharoor



Tharoor on Friday during a press conference had said, Everywhere NPP is saying that they are independent and contesting by themselves, but in Meghalaya they are allied to BJP and attaching themselves as the tail that is wagging along whenever the dog barks.

During the press conference Tharoor had also said that the BJP is trying to change the very nature of India. For 70 year, Congress has been trying to build India. The first NDA government too did not try to tamper with the idea of India as a country of all people, said Tharoor.

He added, The BJP comes to Meghalaya and they talk about being kind to Christian. I am sorry to say - we have seen horrendous incidents involving Christians in BJP-ruled state.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Congress President Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by describing recent spate of loan default bank frauds as PMs Dhan Loot Yogna.

Rahul Gandhi from his official Twitter handle tweeted, Under Modi Ji's Jan Dhan Loot Yojana, another scam! His comment came in after another case of massive bank loan default of Rs around Rs 389 crore was unearthed involving a diamond merchant on Saturday.

The Congress president in his tweet alleged that the PM Modi led government allowed the diamond exporter Sabhya Seth escape country like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

390 Cr., involving a Delhi based jeweller. Same Modus operandi as Nirav Modi. Fake LOU's.

Predictably, like Mallya and Nirav, this promoter too has disappeared while the Govt looked the other way, Gandhis wrote on Twitter.

The Congress president during a rally also accused PM Modi

Also Read : Where is the 'Chaukidar' who says 'na khaunga, na khane dunga'?: Rahul Gandhi's salvo at PM Modi on PNB scam

On Saturday CBI registered a case against Delhi-based diamond jewellery exporter Dwarka Das Seth for an alleged fraud to the tune of Rs 389.85 crore. The case was registered on the complaint filed by the Oriental Bank of Commerce six months ago.

Earlier in the day, the Congress demanded thorough probe by RBI into the alleged Rs 11,400 crore PNB scam and said PM Modi should fix accountability for the financial frauds.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Ne:

Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Saturday hinted that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may be questioned by the police in connection to the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by AAP MLAs at his residence during a late night meeting earlier this week.

Ahir said, aThe Delhi Police will question everyone present at the time of the incident.a

The Union Ministers came in after hours Delhi Police team visited Chief Minister Kejriwalas residence to collect evidence.

He added that a delegation of IAS officers met him and detailed him about the incident.

aI have heard their grievances. I have assured them of appropriate actions and told them that Delhi Police is doing its work and will question all in connection to the incident.a

Also read: L-G assures he will take all steps to ensure work is not affected says Arvind Kejriwal



Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was allegedly slapped by two AAP MLAas in presence of Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia during a meeting.New Delhi:

Commander in Chief of GNLA Sohan D Shira has reportedly been shot dead in an encounter with the the security forces in Samanda block in East Garo hills on Saturday.

Police sources in Meghalaya have confirmed the incident. Sohan was shot dead at around 11:50 am at Dobu Achakpek during an encounter with the Garo Hills Police.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner said that there are reports and police team has been sent to the spot for further verification.

Earlier, GNLAs Commander-in-Chief, Sohan D Shira stated that they are not against India or the Indian constitution and the only thing they want is Garoland, a separate state. They will give up their arms struggle within three days of the formation of the state.

However, following this, there were many encounters where the Garo militant managed to escape but this time the militant leader could not make it and was killed in the encounter.

More details are awaited.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Mumbai:

Maharashtra minister Sadabhau Khot's car was attacked at Ridore village in Solapur district by alleged supporters of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), his former organisation, on Saturday morning, police said.

Khot, the minister of state for agriculture, was on his way to Barshi in the district to meet the supporters of his newly-floated party, Rayat Kranti Sanghatana, a police official told PTI.

His car was attacked with metal rods by some people, alleged supporters of the SSS, at Ridore, the official said, adding that windshield of the vehicle got damaged, though nobody was injured.

Police detained a person in connection with the attack and probe was on, the official said.

Khot resumed his journey in another car when some protesters showed black flags to him at Kurduwadi Bypass and some of them hurled carrots at his car, police said. Six of the protesters were detained.

Also Read: Journalist's mother, 1-yr-old daughter found dead in Nagpur

Khot had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election on the SSS ticket from Madha in the district, but he lost. While the party left the BJP-led ruling alliance in the state last year, Khot stayed in.

He was later expelled from the SSS.





For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Group and maternal uncle of the diamond czar Nirav Modi, who is also an accused in the Rs 11,300 crore PNB fraud, on Saturday released a letter to his employees in which he said that he has done nothing wrong and truth shall prevail.

aI will face my destiny and I know I have done nothing wrong and ultimately the truth shall prevail,a Choksi said in a letter released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot.

Choksi expressed his ahelplessnessa to clear the dues of his companyas 3,500 employees as investigative agencies have seized his bank accounts and other properties.

aI am facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigative agencies/ government agencies have started to create a havoc, hell bent upon stopping the operations,a he added.

He also expressed his fear of safety for himself and his family on account of the ongoing aunfair treatment, investigation, media frenzy and political statementsa, and alleged that the probe was being done to create a fear psychosis in the minds of employees.

Choksias letter comes a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigated around 144 asuspicious companies aassociated with diamond merchant and his nephew Nirav Modi.

I will face my destiny and I know I have done nothing wrong and ultimately the truth shall prevail: #MehulChoksi to his employees in a letter released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot a ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

Earlier this month, Punjab National Bank (PNB) had disclosed the involvement of Nirav Modi and Choksi in the mutli-crore scam. The companies were investigated to check if these firms laundered money through the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) method.

PNB lodged two financial fraud complaints of Rs 11,400 crore and Rs 280 crore against Nirav Modi, his family members and the owner of Gitanjali Gems.

Following which, the external affairs ministry had cancelled the passports of both the jewellers for four weeks.

Nirav Modi, a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner and Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The bank again approached the CBI within a fortnight of the first complaint giving details of more transactions which were over Rs 11,400 crore.

The question as to why the PNB did not send a complaint to the CBI and decided to give it in tranches is also under the scanner of the agency, they said.

An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

The bank has claimed in three complaints to the CBI that so far it has detected 150 LoUs which were fraudulently issued by its officials in connivance with Nirav Modi and the other accused in the case, the officials said.

The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 280 crore, they said.

In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LOUs were issued to Hong Kong based branches of Allahabad and Axis bank, they said.

The PNB has claimed in the complaint that overseas branch of banks used the funds to clear their own liabilities, the officials said.

With PTI Input

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

If you are a travel freak and want to witness a mind-boggling site in the heart of national capital then this is the right time to start packing your bags.

Yes! A 23-foot-wide replica of the Moon, which was unveiled at Mumbai's Gateway of India on February 4, is now knocking at the doors of Delhiites. The 'out of the ordinary' visual treat titled 'Museum of the Moon' is stationed at British Council building on February 24 and will be on display till March 2.

The replica is half million times smaller than the real celestial body.

British artist Luke Jerram is the gem behind such a historical creation and the replica has been created using imagery from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera.

Apart from Gateway of India, the artwork has been exhibited at City Palace, Udaipur; and Victoria Memorial, Kolkata, before its final stopover at the British Council in Delhi.

Millions of people including children gathered at Kolkata's Victoria Memorial lawns and City Palace of Udaipur to catch a glance of the same.

We're delighted to bring the moon - a symbol of love - to the beautiful city of lakes - Udaipur!

The palace will be open till 10 p.m. tonight. Don't miss it!#MuseumoftheMoon #ValentinesDay #InspiredByIndia #70years pic.twitter.com/sFdxemEmNU  British Council India (@inBritish) February 14, 2018

The British Council has brought Museum of the Moon to mark the last phase of the U.K.-India Year of Culture and to launch 70 years of the British Council in India. Alongside a unique visual spectacle, Museum of the Moon has music from award-winning British composer Dan Jones.

Also Read: NASA Lunar missions discover widespread water across Moon's surface

The principal reason behind this beautiful creation is to give audiences a feel of earths only satellite, where man first landed successfully on July 20, 1969.

#MuseumOfTheMoon arrived at the BritishCouncil in Delhi alongside facade mural by #HowardHodgkin. It will be moved to their courtyard soon. pic.twitter.com/c3JDMQfP3Y  Luke Jerram (@lukejerram) February 22, 2018

Meanwhile, the replica comes a year before the golden jubilee of the historic moon landing accomplished by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin.

"For eons, the moon has impacted society and culture, it's been worshipped as a deity, used as a timekeeper, inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians worldwide," earlier IANS Jerram.

He said before gas lamps and electricity, the moon was the only source of light at night, plus it was used for navigation, but living in cities now illuminated heavily by electricity, we have become disconnected to the moon.

"I hope this project restores a sense of wonder, inspires questions and reconnects people with the night sky," Jerram said of the project supported by the Maharashtra Government.

Also Read | Chandra Grahan 2018: India witnesses Blue Moon, is your zodiac sign affected by the lunar phenomenon?

The Museum of the Moon is also expected to feature different space-themed lectures on topics like Women in Space, Life Beyond Earth: Prospects and Possibilities, Going Back to the Moon and Landing on a Comet and many others.

Performance beneath the #MuseumOfTheMoon in Kalcutta, India at Victoria Memorial Building pic.twitter.com/2wLlxpaTFg  Luke Jerram (@lukejerram) February 17, 2018

Top British scientists including Prof. Monica Gardy, Professor of Planetary and Space Science, Open University will take part in some of those amazing lectures of the Museum.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

It's been a quite long now that scientists across the world are trying to dig out informations regarding icy waters, available on the Moon's surface.

Meanwhile, two new lunar missions, led by American space agency NASA have found more evidences about the same.

The new analysis of data from India's Chandrayaan-1 mission and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals that the lunar water is widely distributed on the Moon's surface and not just confined in a particular terrain.

However, this lunar water is not accessible easily though it appears to be present day and night.

"We find that it doesn't matter what time of day or which latitude we look at, the signal indicating water always seems to be present," said Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute in the US, and lead author of the new study.

"The presence of water doesn't appear to depend on the composition of the surface, and the water sticks around," Bandfield added.

Meanwhile, the new study, appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience contradicts some earlier studies, which had suggested that more water was detected at the Moon's polar latitudes and that the strength of the water signal waxes and wanes according to the lunar day (29.5 Earth days).

Also Read | Gate to Hell: Scientists discover mystery behind dramatic DEATHS at ancient place of Turkey

The findings could help researchers understand the origin of the Moon's water and how easy it would be to use as a resource.

If the Moon has enough water, and if it is reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe.

The new finding of widespread water suggests that it may be present primarily as OH, a more reactive relative of H2O that is made of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom.

OH, also called hydroxyl, does not stay on its own for long, preferring to attack molecules or attach itself chemically to them. Hydroxyl would therefore have to be extracted from minerals in order to be used.

For the study, the researchers analysed data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper spectrometer onboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

They came up with a new way to incorporate important temperature information, creating a detailed model from measurements made by the Diviner instrument on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.

Also Read: Moon replica stationed at Delhi's British Council building; Will be exhibited till March 2

The researchers are still discussing what the findings tell them about the source of the Moon's water.

The results point toward OH and/or H2O being created by the solar wind hitting the lunar surface, though the team did not rule out that OH and/or H2O could come from the Moon itself, slowly released from deep inside minerals where it has been locked since the Moon was formed.

(With inputs from IANS)

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.San Francisco:

Google Assistant will be available in more than 30 languages, including Hindi, by the end of this year, a top executive of the company has said.

Google Assistant is an official Google app which allows its users to turn their smartphones into a virtual assistant by clicking on the button on the smartphones' homepage or simply by saying 'OK Google' into the microphone.

As of now, it is available in eight languages -- English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese (Brazil) on Android phones.

Google's Vice President of Product Nick Fox said yesterday: "Similar to Android, where we've partnered closely with mobile carriers and device makers to build great products for people everywhere, we're taking an ecosystem approach to the Assistant on mobile".

By the end of the year, it will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 per cent of all eligible Android phones worldwide, he said.

Also Read: Google withdraws $30m prize money from Team Indus's much-awaited mission to Moon

"In the next few months, we'll bring the Assistant to Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android phones and iPhones, and we'll add more languages on more devices throughout the year," Fox said in a blog post.

"As we head into Mobile World Congress, the mobile industry's largest trade show (in Barcelona from February 26 to March 1), we're sharing more about how we're working closely with the mobile ecosystem to bring the Assistant to more people around the world.

"We're also making the Assistant multilingual later this year, so families or individuals that speak more than one language can speak naturally to the Assistant," he said.

Over the past year and a half, the Google Assistant has grown from being available on just one device in one language to across many types of devices, including speakers, phones, Android Auto and TVs, in many languages all around the world, the Vice President of Product said.

Also Read: Google parent Alphabet reports USD 3 bn loss on tax provision

"With this new feature, the Assistant will be able to understand you in multiple languages fluently. If you prefer to speak German at work, but French at home, your Assistant is right there with you. Multilingual will first be available in English, French and German, with support for more languages coming over time," Fox added.New Delhi:

A day after FATF sealed Pakistan in the grey list of terror funding countries, Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed on Saturday alleged that the United States and other external forces plotting against him and his group for their patriotic work.

"We united Pakistan against America, that is why the US administration is not willing to tolerate the JuD's effective role in the country," Saeed said in a statement.

The $ 10 billion bounty terrorist further said, If Pakistan keeps surrendering to demands of the US, in no time we will be forced to roll-back our nuclear programs.

Saeed earlier this year had announced that his organisation JuD would contest the 2018 general elections under the banner of the MML. Saeed is also the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Also read: Hafiz Saeed set to walk free, Pakistan court orders 26/11 Mumbai terror attack masterminds release



Saeed is wanted by India for masterminding the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 which killed at least 166 people and injured more than 200 persons.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.kabul:

Taliban militants stormed an Afghan army base in the western province of Farah, killing at least 18 soldiers, officials said on Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks in the war-torn country.

"Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area," defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Juba:

The witness accounts remain appalling. One South Sudanese man returned home after hiding from government soldiers to find they had blinded his mother, gouging out her eyes with spears.

She had tried to defend her 17-year-old daughter from being raped by more than a dozen soldiers and didnt succeed. Seventeen soldiers then raped her. The familys father was beheaded.

The latest report on human rights abuses in South Sudans five-year civil war, released by a United Nations commission, for the first time identifies more than 40 senior military officials, including three state governors, who may bear individual responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I did not expect to be confronted with so much ritual humiliation and degradation deliberately done for multiple reasons. The suffering and cruelty was worse than anyone could have imagined, Andrew Clapham, a commission member and international law professor, told The Associated Press.

One South Sudanese woman told the commission that her 12-year-old son was forced to have sex with his grandmother to stay alive, the report says.

The findings, with sufficient evidence against both President Salva Kiirs government forces and rebels, will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council next month. They also will be made available to judicial mechanisms such as a hybrid court for South Sudan, which long has been urged by the international community but has never appeared.

The names of alleged perpetrators, kept private to help protect witnesses, are being given to the U.N. human rights office in Geneva.

Untold tens of thousands have been killed in South Sudan since the conflict erupted in December 2013, just two years after independence from Sudan. More than two million people have fled the country, the largest refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide 24 years ago. Millions who remain at home face hunger.

The new U.N. report is an account of the gang-rapes, castrations, ethnic violence and other abuses that have left much of the impoverished East African nation in despair, while international frustration with the warring sides grows. An attempt at a cease-fire in late December was violated within hours. Disgusted, the United States announced a largely symbolic arms embargo and urged the U.N. Security Council to do the same.

South Sudans government said it was asking the U.N. commission for the names of the accused senior military officials and will investigate. We cant condone anyone committing crimes and taking the law in their own hands, spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said, though he added that such reports can sometimes be cut-and-paste and based on hearsay. Opposition spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel told the AP: The human rights body should start putting the blame directly on the regime instead of blaming both sides. The report, based on 230 witness statements and other materials, is the second since the U.N. commission was established in 2016 and the first since it was given a stronger mandate to preserve evidence and conduct investigations instead of simply monitoring and reporting.

South Sudans conflict is splintering into chaos, the new report says. What began as a power struggle between Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar has fractured into an estimated 40 armed groups across the country, with many fighting each other.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Washington:

The US on Friday said that it will open its embassy in Jerusalem in May this year, which will coincide with Israel's 70th Independence Day.

"In May, the United States plans to open a new US Embassy in Jerusalem. The opening will coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The embassy will initially be located in the Arnona neighborhood, in a modern building that now houses consular operations of US Consulate General Jerusalem. The consular operations, including American citizen and visa services, will continue at the Arnona facility without interruption, as part of the Embassy.

Consulate General of Jerusalem will continue to operate as an independent mission with an unchanged mandate, from its historic Agron Road location.

Initially, the interim Embassy in Arnona will contain office space for the Ambassador and a small staff.

"By the end of next year, we intend to open a new Embassy Jerusalem annex on the Arnona compound that will provide the Ambassador and his team with expanded interim office space," Nauert said.

"In parallel, we have started the search for a site for our permanent Embassy to Israel, the planning and construction of which will be a longer-term undertaking.

We are excited about taking this historic step, and look forward with anticipation to the May opening," State Department Spokesperson said.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.As more foreign travelers visit the historic Japanese capital of Kyoto crowded and delayed city buses have become a headache for local citizens, prompting traffic authorities to take steps to ensure smoother passenger services and encourage the use of subway lines.

For over 40 years, passengers in Kyoto have generally boarded buses through the rear door and paid the fare when getting off from the front door.

But with the city now attracting around 55 million tourists a year, Kyoto City Bus services, whose routes include popular tourist attractions, have become constantly crowded with tourists often carrying large baggage.

As some travelers also often have difficulty in paying the fare promptly with coins at bus stops, it has become difficult for the city buses to remain punctual.

According to the Nihon Bus Association, the bus industry body, the boarding system for route buses varies by region, with passengers paying fares when they get on through the front door in flat-fare zones in Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.

In the face of complaints from local citizens about delayed bus services, the Kyoto Municipal Governmentas traffic bureau conducted a practical experiment last October to switch doors for boarding and alighting, and making passengers pay the fare when they get on.

Since the test showed the change in entry and exit doors contributed to reducing the average stoppage time by 11.5 seconds, the bus operator plans to change its boarding system for the route connecting Kyoto Station and Ginkakuji Temple this fall and eventually introduce the new system on 61 routes where a flat fare system of A230 is applied.The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, has implored Nigerians to fair on passing rash judgements against them and the entire herdsmen in different parts of the country.The group which said it was scared of criminals masquerading as herdsmen to unleash terror on their host communities, noted that the herdsmen were only looking for greener pastures in the southern and middle belt regions.Speaking during the groups zonal meeting in Enugu, on Saturday, the South East zonal chairman of MACBAN, Alhaji Gidado Sadiqu told the general public to disregard rumours making the rounds that their members were planning coordinated attacks on Enugu and Anambra states.Sadiqu said they are pained that any sight of a Fulani sends shivers down the spines of community members, noting that all Nigerians should be encouraged to pursue any profession where they have competitive advantage.MACBAN hailed the accommodation of South East Governors and urged governors of other regions to eliminate their hands of fellowship and practice of conviviality, particularly the governors of Enugu and Anambra states.It warned some of its members who were in the habit of destroying farm crops in a particular state, only to relocate to another state, to desist from the act and urged its leaders in different areas to report such cases to herdsmen/farmers committees set up in different states in the zone.It also requested that any farmer who unlawfully kills a cow should be made to pay for it same as herdsmen who destroy farmlands.We also advise our members to participate actively during the coming election by obtaining PVC.This will bring them close to their host to reduce suspicion and hatred.We urge our members to be submissive to the committees that were constituted by the government to mitigate menace that is coming from the Fulanis or their hosts, said Sadiqu.Niger Delta activist and former Minister for Environment, AnnKio Briggs, has attacked Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State for inviti...

Niger Delta activist and former Minister for Environment, AnnKio Briggs, has attacked Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State for inviting former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the state.

She said Obasanjo did not pick former President Goodluck Jonathan because of his love for Ijaw and Niger Delta, but for self-interest.





Describing the former president as an enemy of the Niger Delta region, Briggs warned that anyone joining Obasanjo to fight President Muhammadu Buhari, does so at his or her own risk.





Briggs, in a statement yesterday, also vowed that the people of the region will not cast the votes for Buhari come 2019, but insisted that the advice not to do so should not come from Obasanjo.





She said, His (Obasanjo) visit confirms that Ijaw politicians are in politics for themselves and not Ijaw nation.





Obasanjo should have been taken to Odi before he leaves Bayelsa to enable those who survived the Odi massacre confer on him a traditional title.





She said the visit of the former president was dancing on the graves, adding May the over 4000 innocent Odi women, men, old and young, youths and children who were shelled, bombed, drowned, and murdered by Olusegun Obasanjo through the Nigeria Army haunt him.





He did not pick Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Vice President for the love of Ijaw or Niger Delta people, he did not support him in 2011 for love of Ijaw or Niger Delta people, but did so for his own selfish reasons, and when Jonathan did not be please him as president, he turned against him.





Reacting to Obasanjos advice to President Buhari not to run for second term, Briggs said, He is getting set to fight Buhari and he is pretending to be a friend of Ijaw and Niger Delta people.



Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, has filed a N2 billion suit against Shehu Sani, lawmaker representing Kaduna central senatorial ...

Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, has filed a N2 billion suit against Shehu Sani, lawmaker representing Kaduna central senatorial district.





The governor personally filed the suit at the Kaduna state high court on Friday.





He sought reliefs for alleged injuries suffered as a result of malicious statements made by Sani.





El-Rufai said defamed him by referring to him as a drunk, loose cannon and an embarrassment to President Muhammadu Buhari.





The governor said the derogatory remarks made against him are totally false and injurious to his person in the eyes of the public.





Speaking to reporters after filing the suit, Abdulhakeem Mustapha, counsel to el-Rufai, dismissed insinuations that the governor, by virtue of his position, does not have the constitutional right to sue any citizen.



A former minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has disclosed that former president Goodluck Jonathan begged her many times to serve a...

A former minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has disclosed that former president Goodluck Jonathan begged her many times to serve as a minister in his administration.





Mrs. Ezekwesili stated this while reacting to claims in some quarters that she became active in criticising the President Muhammadu Buhari administration because a ministerial position did not come her way.





She told The Sun that she only took up the role of criticising the Buharis administration when it started toeing the path of Jonathans.





According to her, It wasnt personal. So, not understanding that, but instead, the government became adversarial just like the Jonathan administration to the movement and then, they began to say all these exactly the same thing that the President Jonathan administration and the allies were saying, oh, you know, she is angry at the president because she is not a minister.





But President Jonathan failed to tell them how many times I was asked to be a minister in his cabinet and I refused. So, the people who speak like that speak out of ignorance and they speak out of a complete absence of fundamental values that drive me.





I am a woman driven by character and my courage of conviction. Look, having spent six and a half years in government, I have no need to prove any point.





There is no point to prove! The work that I do, supporting countries on the continent at leadership level to run better economies, that gives me the greatest joy.





At 44 for goodness sake, I had been the minister and then gone to the World Bank and been vice president. Can you imagine a situation where people even do not get analytical in their thought?



Workers in Kogi State have asked Governor Yahaya Bello to disclose where their salaries are. Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress i...

Workers in Kogi State have asked Governor Yahaya Bello to disclose where their salaries are.Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the state, Onu Edoka, spoke on behalf of the workers on Friday at an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the union in the country.Workers in Kogi were paid 60 per cent of five months salary arrears last December and had yet to be paid January salaries.Edoka, in a keynote address said, Your Excellency, workers said I should ask you where our salaries are. As obedient servants, we are dying. As people who have contributed their quota in the development of the state and have left service, we are dying.To this end, we wish to compassionately appeal to you. We are aware that allocation came to Kogi State last month and by the statement of the Commissioner for Finance, what came as allocation to the state was put at N4.3bn while local governments got N3.8bn. But up until this moment, no salary has been paid in Kogi. Let our own not drop into River Niger again (sic).Edoka equally used the forum to speak on the alleged premature retirement of some workers, proscription of labour unions and the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by medical doctors in the state.He said, You will agree with me that appointment in this government has been upside down in the sense that junior workers are placed above seniors.Medical doctors in Kogi have been on strike for over one month. Mothers, children are dying at home. For this obvious fact, we appeal to the state government to call our doctors to a meeting and bring this mater to an end.Why the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have not joined the strike is because we have come to the realisation that strike may not be the solution to our problems any more. It is all about the person who is the chief executive and his state of mind on the development and welfare of workers.The proscription of unions in Kogi is completely detrimental to the progress of democracy, unacceptable to the Nigeria Labour Congress and completely illegal, and we shall not stand by it.We will speak for the voiceless and the same voice will still speak again. We shall resist it with the last drop of our blood to see that we will not be tamed in any form or turned beggars in our state.In his response, Bello said that the ongoing fight against corruption across the country would achieve greater success if organised labour strengthened itself and worked with the government to fish out corrupt officials.Bello urged the NLC to fight for the welfare of Nigerian workers and play the role of whistle-blower to assist government in bringing corrupt officials to justice.The governor, who was represented at the occasion by his deputy, Simon Achuba, congratulated labour on its 40th anniversary and enjoined its leadership to always stand for what is good for workers and the country.In a bid to hide his alleged amorous relationship with a 25-year-old member of his church, a pastor, Chidiebere Okoroafor, has allegedly ...

In a bid to hide his alleged amorous relationship with a 25-year-old member of his church, a pastor, Chidiebere Okoroafor, has allegedly murdered three persons and an unborn child in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.The 32-year-old pastor and preacher at Altar of Solution Church based in Oyigbo area of the city was recently arrested by men of the Rivers State Police Command for the alleged crime, which also led to the death of a nine-month-old baby.Those allegedly killed by the cleric are Concilia Ezeawa and Uluoma Onweagba, who was carrying a five-month pregnancy before her death. While the cleric strangled Ezeawa in an uncompleted building, the pregnant Onweagba was killed in a bush during the serial murder that happened on December 11, 2017.The nine-month-old baby, Christabel Joseph, was strapped to the back of the pregnant Onweagba even though Ezeawa was the actual mother. It was learnt that the baby hit her head on the ground and died when the pastor allegedly pushed Onweagba to the ground.Pastor Okoroafor, who hails from Arochukwu in Abia State, was said to have committed the offence in his desperate attempt to hide the fact the he had impregnated 25-year-old Onweagba.It was gathered that the Rivers State Police Command began to suspect the pastor when it got information from one of the neighbours of the deceased that they (Ezeawa and Onweagba) had been missing since they said they were going to see him (pastor) to sort out a matter bordering on pregnancy.Speaking with journalists on Friday at the State Police Command in Port Harcourt, the Deputy State Commissioner of Police in charge of administration, Cyril Okoro, said, The case started unfolding on December 11, 2017. At about 11am, the whereabouts of Concilia Ezeawa, Christabel Joseph and Uluoma Onweagba (all female) became unknown to their families.This resulted in the lodging of a formal complaint on their disappearance at the Afam Divisional Headquarters. After a preliminary investigation by the police, coupled with a diligent search by members of the community, the decomposing body of Uluoma Onweagba and Christabel Joseph (baby) were discovered in a bush along the Afam-Igberu Road on December 13, 2017.Their corpses were immediately evacuated and deposited at the mortuary pending further investigation. On December 18, 2017, the decomposing corpse of the real mother of the baby, Concilia Ezeawa, was recovered in an uncompleted building in Izuoma community in Oyigbo Local Government Area. The corpse, which was at an advanced stage of decomposition, was evacuated and deposited at the mortuary pending further police investigation.The pastor, who was said to have been involved in amorous relationship with one of the deceased, Onweagba, was invited and interrogated about the murders of the victims.He was subsequently detained, as his explanations were not convincing, particularly compared to the information at the disposal of investigators that the deceased persons had, on December 11, 2017, informed neighbours that they were going to see the pastor over a pregnancy issue involving Onweagba.DCP Okoro said the pastor later confessed to the crime after he was confronted with overwhelming evidence linking him to the murder of the deceased persons.Okoroafor allegedly took advantage of the trust the two members of his church had in him to lure them to an uncompleted building and inside the bush before killing them.The pastor, according to Okoro, first lured Ezeawa to an uncompleted building, telling the other person (pregnant Onweagba) to wait some distance away. He added that unknown to the pregnant lady, the pastor had killed her neighbour.He said after strangling Ezeawa in the uncompleted building, he (pastor) joined Onweagba along Afam Road, where they both took a commercial tricycle to Afam Roundabout.Okoro said, They again took a commercial motorcycle to an isolated farm on Igberu Road where he took her through a track road and gruesomely murdered her in the bush, with the baby strapped to her back.She (pregnant Onweagba) was suffocated with the wrapper she used in strapping the baby to her back. The baby was also found dead.Okoro said the suspects confessional statement took detectives to the various scenes, during which he narrated how he killed the victims.The police officer also said that an autopsy had since been carried out on the victims.The murders were premeditated, callous and devoid of sympathy, Okoro said, adding that the pastor would soon be charged to court.However, when confronted with the allegations against him, the pastor told journalists that his action was not intentional. The suspect pleaded with the police to help appeal to the families of those he killed to forgive him. He also told journalists that he had a vision that he would be taken to court soon.I want the family of Uluoma and Mr. Joseph (father of the nine-month-old baby, Christabel) to forgive me. I want the police to help me to apologise to the families of those I killed. It was not intentional, he said.Meanwhile, our correspondent gathered that the Altar of Solution Church had been shut down, as members of the church who heard about the incident had since dissociated themselves from the church.The Nigeria Police Force has said it cannot arrest herdsmen who allow their cattle to stray onto and graze on airport runways in the co...

The Nigeria Police Force has said it cannot arrest herdsmen who allow their cattle to stray onto and graze on airport runways in the country.The Commissioner of Police, Airport Command, Mustapha Dandaura, stated this in an interview with our correspondent on Friday.He said herdsmen could only be arrested in states where the anti-open grazing law was effective.However, Dandaura said that all policemen and other security officials at the airports had been instructed to stay on high alert to prevent a situation whereby cows would take over airport runways.He said, Its only in states where the anti-open grazing law is in place that herdsmen can be arrested for allowing their cattle to graze on airport runways. Apart from those states, we have not been told to start arresting herdsmen.But we have already alerted our men at the airports to ensure such incident does not occur again. The state police commands have also been carried along and everyone is on the alert.We cant have a situation whereby cows would be straying onto and grazing on airport runways because it is embarrassing. Everyone is now on the alert and its going to be prevented.Last Saturday, an Air Peace flight from Lagos had been prevented from landing at the Akure Airport, Ondo State as cows took over the runway.It had taken the efforts of airport security and other aviation workers to clear the runway before the airplane landed.The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria had apologised to the airline affected and suspended the head of aviation security at the airport following the bizarre incident.A similar incident had occurred in November 2016 when a fully-loaded plane belonging to Air Peace had to abort landing at the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, Imo State when the pilot discovered that the runway had been invaded by cows.Before the Owerri episode, an Air France plane was reported to have collided with cows at the runway of the Port Harcourt International Airport.President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to make Nigeria one of the easiest, safest and attractive places to do business in the world.

President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to make Nigeria one of the easiest, safest and attractive places to do business in the world.He also promised to make Nigeria among the most safest and attractive investment destinations in the world.Buhari made the pledge on Saturday at the opening of the 39th Kaduna International Trade Fair.The President, who was represented by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Okechukwu Enelamah, said the administration is prioritising the industrial sector by focusing on rebuilding infrastructure.One of the important initiatives of our government is the Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council, which is a partnership of the government with the private sector meant to solve difficult problems militating against industrialisation.Buhari said that the government would sign the Continental Africa Free Trade Area Agreement in March, as part of efforts to prioritize trade as a significant instrument for reform in the country.According to him, the purpose of the agreement will be to promote regional trade.Right now, the intra African trade is less than 15%; other regions of the world are well over 50%, so we want to move that of intra Africa to about 30% so as to grow.The President said that, other policies being pursued will promote export by establishing special economic growth zones where Nigeria and International businesses would have the required infrastructure.He mentioned that the theme of the fair, Promoting Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for International Competitiveness was in line with the economic recovery and growth plan of the country.Mrs Iyalode Lawson, President, National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Industry, said the theme underscored the riding interest in the competitiveness of locally produced goods and services.KADCCIMA should also show its support to the efforts of both the State and Federal government towards reviving the economy, particularly investing in agriculture, manufacturing, technology and other commercial activities.Lawson hoped that the fair would increase exposure to global brands of businesses.(NAN)T he Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Edo State command has confirmed the arrest of a self-confessed Boko Haram suspect. ...

he Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Edo State command has confirmed the arrest of a self-confessed Boko Haram suspect.

According to the Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr Makinde Ayinla, the suspect who gave his name as Sani was arrested in the early hours of Saturday.





Ayinla said Our men deployed to guard the premises of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), arrested suspect after he was spotted twice loitering between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.





Nobody knew how he gained entry into the premises.





Ayinla further said that upon interrogation, Sani claimed to be a member of the Boko Haram group. He also confessed to being in a group that specialises in robbery, kidnapping, murder and selling of human parts.





The commandant said that Sani confessed that his group operate with sophisticated weapons adding that when asked if Sani can lead men of the corps to his groups hideout, he said  only God can lead any person there.







Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central district, says Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, cannot intimidate him.

Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central district, says Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, cannot intimidate him.





He said this in response to the defamation suit filed against him by the governor.





In the suit he filed at the Kaduna state high court on Friday, el-Rufai sought N2 billion as relief for alleged injuries suffered as a result of malicious statements made by Sani.





But in his reaction, the senator said that would not stop him from commenting on issues, either at the state or national level.





In a statement issued by Suleiman Ahmed, his special adviser on political matters, Sani said though he is yet to be served, his team of lawyers are ready and well prepared.





The senator wishes to assure all his supporters and well-wishers that nothing and absolutely nothing can stop him from expressing his opinion on either Kaduna state or national issues, the statement read.





The senator is a dogged fighter who has been through many courts and even prisons in his life of struggle and can never be stopped or intimidated to silence by any means.





Those who are allergic to heat should not be in the kitchen. The senator will never falter or waiver in speaking truth to power whether at local or national level.





He added that he woulf continue to beam the light n the dark and grey areas of Nigerias democracy and that those irritated by the truth simply need to get a cotton bud.





Those who voluntarily offer themselves for public service have also chosen to offer themselves for public scrutiny, he said.





Sani said that in the last two years, he overcame sponsored violence and campaign of calumny by el-Rufai, and as such, would overcome the suit.





He said the nations politics is driven by our loyalty to our principles, our faith, our conviction and our conscience and not subservient to any tin God or demi-god.





We dont worship broom, we dont bow down to broom, he said.



Hawu opened her phone and began to cry. Her sister, Aisha, was smiling at her from the photo folder. She could not smile back. It was not ...

Hawu opened her phone and began to cry. Her sister, Aisha, was smiling at her from the photo folder. She could not smile back. It was not going to be real.





Aisha A-Deri is one of the 105 girls declared missing after suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, on Monday. Its been five days now since the attack and the girls are yet to be found.





Dapchi, a once quiet, relatively safe town in Bursari local government area of Yobe state, has been thrown into mourning ever since. The families of over a hundred girls have refused to be consoled. They cannot sleep or eat. They do not want money. They do not want empty promises. Only one thing will dry their tears now  the safe return of their girls.





Though President Muhammadu Buhari has deployed troops to search and rescue the girls, that hasnt done much to ease their pain.





Kawu, the older sister of Aisha, the 13-year-old , SS1 student of the school, says in a whatsapp message soliciting help from anyone in search of her sister: We are having sleepless nights and smiles have been stolen from our faces. We the whole family are incomplete without you since your disappearance.





Her message, which aptly conveys the agony in their hearts, reads: Ummee, when will you be back to us again, to see that your smiling face, calmness, active response to messages and your love for pictures in our phones?





Or is that why you prefer to be most in the pictures in our phones knowing that you are going to be missed sometime? If that is the case, missing you is not our wish. Please come back home. May Allah bring you and the rest of your colleagues back to your respective families.





With a voice laced with regret, he says Aisha would have narrowly missed the unfortunate incident had she not been taken back to school a day earlier. TheCable called her step-mother who was too grieved to speak, but handed the phone to her step-brother, Kachalla A-Deri.With a voice laced with regret, he says Aisha would have narrowly missed the unfortunate incident had she not been taken back to school a day earlier.





She had been at home for one week because she was ill. The school told her to go and receive treatment at home. It was on that Sunday evening, at about 6pm, that we took her back to school, and the attack was on Monday evening, he says.





According to Kachalla, several of the girls who escaped ran into bushes, hid in tree trunks, but some ran into vehicles suspected to belong to the insurgents.





Fondly called Ummee, which means motherly, Aisha is the second daughter from her mother and the sixth from her father.





Her father, Kadau A-Deri, tells TheCable that it was a safe town, but they (inhabitants of Dapchi) observed that all the security posts in the town were withdrawn three weeks prior to the incident.





It is as if they (Boko Haram) are watching. Once the security is removed, they attacked the school, he says,





I am very, very sad. But I am still expecting her to come back in sha Allah. She is a child of good character. She always says she when she completes her secondary school, she will further her studies. She said she wants to be a teacher or a nurse.





But all that ambition seems to have been temporarily stolen from her now, until at least her return, which is highly anticipated, will be soon.



JERSEY CITY -- Dozens of Downtown residents protested outside City Hall today to call attention to exorbitant tax increases they could see as a result of the citywide property revaluation.

Carrying signs and protesting the new assessments that were released last month on their homes, the residents said their tax bills could double or even triple.

"You're taking our homes away from us. People who have lived here for 80 years are going to lose their homes," said Christina Szpala, 55. "The people standing around me are not millionaires. It's not our fault you've built up this city the way you have and given abatements to all these developers. We're the people you're supposed to protect and you're throwing us out."

This process, the first citywide reval since 1988, is intended to match every property's assessment -- its value on city tax rolls -- with its true market value.

The 30-year delay between revals is leading to skyrocketing projected tax hikes, especially Downtown, where property values since 1988 have risen dramatically. In other parts of the city, like Society Hill and Country Village, homeowners have been told to expect dramatic tax cuts.

One man said today his annual tax bill could jump from $7,000 to $16,000, another's from $10,000 to $30,000.

"This reval is an insult," said Alexander Caldron. "This is middle class gentrification."

The new assessments are only proposed and tax hikes are tentative until the city, county and school district adopt their 2018 budgets. Appraisal Systems, which is conducting the reval, is expected to send all new assessments to homeowners by April.

Szpala and others said local residents could get pushed out as a result. She proposed phasing in the tax increases, adding that "it shouldn't happen all at one time, say over a 5-year period."

"We're all working class people, we don't have million-dollar incomes," she said.

Mayor Steve Fulop has said a phase-in is not possible, noting to a group of homeowners at a neighborhood meeting earlier this month that phasing in tax hikes would mean asking other property owners to wait for their full tax cut.

"This is obviously a very, very imperfect situation," Fulop said then.

Fulop, in his state of the city address this week, said he plans to put a measure before the council in upcoming weeks to pave the way for a second reval in 2019, one that would readjust assessments after an expected dive in home values from the current reval.

Protestors were not thrilled over this idea -- Szpala called it "ridiculous."

"Don't tell us you're going to do another reval, fix this reval," she said.

Fulop, in a statement, said he has "pledged to remain as transparent and honest about this process as possible" and is "committed to doing a second revaluation next year in order to help balance the drastic changes residents have experienced."

Some homeowners acknowledged that other areas of the city will see tax cuts, but they said the Downtown's tax hikes would have a devastating effect on the area.

"This plan is saying that no one except multi-millionaires deserve to live in (downtown) Jersey City," said Dana Schilling, a resident since 1981. "I applaud that the reval has reduced taxes for people in some other neighborhoods because they were paying an unfair share. What I object to is claiming that people's income has increased by double or triple when it has not.

"Jersey City, don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg," she said.

Downtown residents said they plan on protesting the tax reval every Saturday until a solution is proposed.

"We understand how challenging this process has been on residents, and that they are the ones who are now paying the price for the 25 years Jersey City had gone without a revaluation... " Fulop said. "There is no easy way to go about this process, and we will be there every step of the way for those who are most affected."

This story has been updated to include a statement from Mayor Steven Fulop.

Terrence T. McDonald contributed reporting.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY -- The Hudson Vicinage will celebrate Black History Month with a panel presentation by local African-American veterans.

The presentation will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 27, and will focus on life in the military and the transition home as part of this year's national theme, "African Americans in Times of War."

Kevin Kirkland, a corporal in the U.S. Army, and Joshua Legier, a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, will speak about their experiences and answer questions. Both men are students at New Jersey City University, home to a military and veterans services program that supports those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The event, free and open to the public, will take place from noon to 2 p.m. in room 804 of the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.

Assignment Judge Peter F. Bariso Jr. will deliver opening remarks, while EEO/AA Officer Stephanie Rivera will moderate.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.Jersey City teacher Diane Mackay said it may seem on paper like she makes a healthy salary.

Mackay, 46, a second-grade teacher at School 25, has an annual salary of $106,000. Health benefits cost her $12,000, with premiums set to rise in January. Eight years ago, she paid essentially zero.

Mackay is on a leave of absence now caring for her ill husband (her plan covers them and their daughter). She worries the escalating costs of health benefits hide what teachers truly make and will discourage younger people from pursuing careers in education.

"Who's going to want to go into this profession anymore?" she said.

Mackay is one of the thousands of teachers on one side of a six-month (and counting) contract battle with the 29,000-student public-school district. The teachers have worked under an expired contract since the start of the school year and negotiations have stalled over whether teachers should pay less toward their health care expenses. The teachers call it "Chapter 78 relief."

Chapter 78 is the 2011 law that revamped how New Jersey's public workers pay for their health benefits. It required school employees to pay a portion of premiums, with amounts rising over a four-year period. In Jersey City, that period has ended, so teachers can now ask the school district to shoulder more of the cost.

The dispute has statewide implications. If the teachers union, the Jersey City Education Association, scores a victory in Jersey City, other districts could follow.

COSTS SOAR

The district's costs for employee health benefits for the 2017-18 school year is $98.9 million. The district's total budget is $682 million.

Since 2011, the amount teachers pay for their benefits has risen nearly 400 percent. For the 2010-11 school year, the amount was $4.2 million. This year, teachers pay $19.9 million. In that same time period the district's share rose from $55.6 million to $79 million.

A medical insurance plans census created by the school district and obtained by The Jersey Journal reveals a bit more about the plans teachers choose.

Of the 4,106 school employees who receive medical benefits from the district, 3,560 are enrolled in the most expensive plan, NJ Direct from Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. The total monthly costs (district- and employee-paid) range from $915 for single coverage to $2,617 for a family, the census says. For the least expensive plan, a Horizon HMO that covers four employees, costs range from $620 to $1,774.

Chapter 78 set the employee share as a percentage corresponding to their salary, ranging from 3 to 35 percent. The median city teacher's salary is about $73,000.

By comparison, the average monthly premium in 2017 for workers in the northeast region of the nation was $583 for a single plan and $1,674 for a family, according to Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Education Trust. The average employee share for a single plan is 80 percent and for a family plan, 70 percent.

State Sen. Declan J. O'Scanlon Jr., R-Monmouth, was a supporter of Chapter 78 and last month on Twitter urged Jersey City's school board not to give in to teachers' demands.

"Once that's gone it doesn't come back and if you have health benefit costs that go up disproportionally going forward, that all falls on the taxpayers," O'Scanlon told The Jersey Journal. "Everyone should very publicly be saying, we are not negotiating health benefits, not one iota, not one inch."

BOARD SPARRING

Since December, teacher protests have escalated, with daily rallies outside schools citywide before classes begin and larger protests outside school board meetings. On Thursday, the city started ticketing motorists driving by the protests who signal their support for teachers with their car horns.

Meanwhile, things are getting testy on the nine-member school board. At a special meeting today, board member Matt Schapiro said he thinks the JCEA is winning in the court of public opinion because Sudhan Thomas, the board's president, is not communicating anything from the board and has prohibited board members from doing so.

"The only information the public is currently receiving regarding these negotiations is coming from the side that is literally negotiating against the interests of that public," Schapiro said. "And they are receiving no information from us, the board, their actual, official representatives."

Thomas objected, striking his gavel and telling Schapiro he wasn't allowed to continue his statement until a later portion of the meeting.

"You can't do whatever you want," Thomas said, before Schapiro continued.

Later, Thomas said, in response to Schapiro's complaint about the board not issuing any public statements about negotiations, that the board's "actions should speak for themselves."

"There's no need for any kind of savvy media messaging campaign here," he said.

Thomas won a spot on the BOE with the JCEA's endorsement and is seen as friendly to the union. Schapiro is seen as a union foe.

Ron Greco, the JCEA president, rejected Schapiro's notion that the union is making neogitation details public and said both sides are "following the prescribed guidelines set forth by the state of New Jersey."

"Had the BOE or the JCEA done what is being suggested be done, 'educating the public on negotiations,' we'd both be guilty of violating laws established in 1968 which govern collective bargaining between public employers and employees," Greco told The Jersey Journal. "A fine or sanctions could be imposed by the Public Employment Relations Committee."

An earlier version of this story misstated the range of premiums teachers in Jersey City pay. The range is $620 to $2,617, not $1,240 to $5,234.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.NEWARK  Standing with his hands cuffed and wearing green prison garb, Waqas Ibrar said Friday was his chance to finally utter the words he's been waiting to say for more than two years.

"I am beyond regretful and sorry," an emotional Ibrar said to a packed courtroom.

Ibrar, 26, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the Nov. 2, 2015 crash that killed Tyler Sellers and Sabore Worrell. He must serve 85 percent of each six-year, consecutive term before becoming eligible for parole.

During his trial on Essex County Superior Court in November, a jury found him guilty of two counts of death by auto. He was driving more than 106 mph on Route 440 in Bayonne when he struck Sellers and Worrell.

Ibrar, a pharmacy student with a 3.94 GPA at the time of the crash, said he let "everyday stress" get the best of him on the night of the crash. He said he was rushing home to finish an assignment he forgot to submit, a decision he wishes he never made.

"For the past 844 days since the accident, I have regretted my action and wished every minute of every day it didn't happen," Ibrar said, adding he prays five times a day for both victims and their families.

Friends and family of both men shared with the court memories of the victims while asking Judge Nancy Sivili to impose the maximum 10 year sentence for each death.

Sellers' stepmother, Mary, said she'll never know if Tyler would have chosen to go to technical school or culinary school. His step-sister, Athena, recalled losing the person she trusted the most in life; and his father, Jason, said he treasures every memory of his beloved son.

"From the first breath our children take to the last breath our children take, we worry, we pray," he said. "Our children are our flesh and blood, our joy, our dreams. On Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, my life ended. My eyes were open, my heart was still beating, there was air in my lungs, but my life, my good life, was forever gone."

Worrell's mother, Yolanda, said her son was her protector. The night he died, Worrell called his mother, saying he loved her and would see her in the morning. She never did.

"It was like them putting their hands on my chest and ripping my heart out," the mother said of the moment police knocked on her door saying her soon was struck by a car.

Worrell's brother, Tyrone, said Sabore's young son will never know his father. His cousin said Worrell had plans on moving to Pennsylvania the day after the horrific crash to make a better life for him and his son.

Ibrar's attorney, Jeffrey Garrigan, argued for a lighter prison term and asked for the sentences to run concurrent, which Sivilli denied.

"I hope that the media coverage of this sentence will send a message of deterrence to all that speeding kills," Sivilli said. "And that we should not speed, and we should not speed in excess of 100 mph."

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.A Florida driver stopped by Secaucus police for erratic driving is facing more than traffic tickets after police found drugs and drug paraphernalia in his car, authorities sad.

Norguelson Vertus of Pompano, Florida, was charged on Feb. 6 with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia; and he was issued motor vehicle summonses for unsafe lane change, unlicensed driver, failure to signal turn, failure to possess a driver's license and operation of motor vehicle while in possession of drugs, Secaucus police Capt. Dennis Miller said.

Also on Feb. 6, police responded to Outback Steakhouse in Secaucus on the report of a fraudulent use of a credit card, Miller said. Police discovered the person who used the card fraudulently was a 14-year-old boy, who was issued a summons, processed and released to the custody of his parents.

On Feb. 10, 41-year-old Jose F. Morales-Marquez of New York was charged with shoplifting and possession of burglary tools in an incident at Best Buy, Miller said. Morales-Marquez was processed, served his complaint summonses and was released from custody, Miller said.

On Feb. 11, a crash in Secaucus led to a DUI arrest. Police responded at 3:16 a.m. that day and during the investigation the driver, Ida R. Chimbay, 28, of Newark, was cited for driving under the influence, Miller said.

Chimbay was also issued motor vehicle summonses for reckless driving and driving an unregistered vehicle.Honk if you want a ticket!

Motorists driving by teacher protests outside School 4 in Downtown Jersey City have been getting a little present from City Hall if they honk their car horns in support: a $54 ticket.

At least one teacher received a ticket and, according to one source, a police officer was chided by his superiors for blaring his horn while driving by a protest.

The city, which placed electronic signs in front of Schools 4 and 37 on Wednesday warning drivers not to honk, said resident complaints about the early-morning horn blares led to the tickets, which began Thursday. Residents have complained about the honking on the city's Facebook page.

The teachers union, involved in an increasingly nasty contract dispute with the public-school district, said Mayor Steve Fulop is full of baloney.

"The mayor is resorting to scare tactics rather than pick up the phone and see where he can assist," Ron Greco, president of the Jersey City Education Association, told The Jersey Journal.

A city spokeswoman said five tickets have been issued total. The JCEA says any motorists who received tickets can bring them to its office at 1600 Kennedy Blvd.

The union's roughly 4,000 teachers have worked under an expired contract since the start of the school year and have been negotiating a new pact with the school board and district administration. It is not going well, with teachers seeking to pay a smaller share of the $98.9 million the district pays for employee benefits (workers pay $19.9 million). For weeks small groups of teachers have led protests outside schools citywide before classes begin.

City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said the police are not issuing tickets for motorists who toot their horns in support of teachers, but motorists who lay on their horns will be stopped.

"The communities in the areas asked the city to stop that specific action," she said. "If someone drives by the teachers and just honks their horn in support and moves on then of course the city doesn't issue tickets."

Courts in Washington and Michigan have ruled honking can be protected free speech.

Fulop has no legal control over the school district but union officials believe he has sway over at least two board members involved in negotiations. A sign outside the JCEA's office has urged Fulop to help settle the contract dispute.

A special school board meeting was was held yesterday at 3 p.m. to discuss the issue.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd.When Gov. Phil Murphy's office announced $161 million for municipal road projects and repairs on Wednesday, the state's capitol city was conspicuously off the list.

That's because a Trenton public works employee missed the deadline for submitting a grant application for the program, which is administered by the state Department of Transportation.

It is impossible to know exactly what Trenton, the state's 10th largest municipality, might have received had it applied. However, Clifton, a city of comparable size in Passaic County, was allotted $659,935.

Adding insult to injury, the Fiscal 2018 awards from the state's Transportation Trust Fund were more than double last year's amount, boosted by the 23-cent per gallon gas tax increase.

Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson, who is not seeking re-election in May, told a television interviewer that he "extremely disappointed" by what he characterized as a "debacle."

Options for a second chance at funding are limited.

N.J. Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-15th District, said he is evaluating the possibility of seeking a supplemental appropriation from the Legislature, based in part on the argument that state employees rely on Trenton's roads.

Gusciora acknowledged that might be a tough sell, as Trenton was among 33 municipalities who failed to apply for the grants. Another 27 who did apply were not awarded any funding.

All told, 505 of N.J.'s 562 municipalities are getting something.

"I think the lesson is that towns, including Trenton, have to be proactive and ensure that grant money is properly applied for. Unfortunately, this is something that was just overlooked," said Gusciora, who is among several declared candidates in the race for mayor.

City spokesman Michael Walker said Trenton has been in contact with Murphy's administration since the grants were awarded on Wednesday, as part of the discussion about possible funding alternatives.

Murphy's spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Walker said that, while disappointing, the loss of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid would not undermine Trenton's capacity for road improvements.

"Trenton has its own capital budget to improve its roads. The money we get from the state, we combine with our own money," Walker said.

"We are about to launch a war on potholes we're paying for with our own money," Walker said.

City officials have not identified the employee responsible for missing the application deadline.

Trenton covers about 8 square miles and is home to about 84,000.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on FacebookPORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- You wouldn't have recognized the five high school students at First Data Field on Friday. They were every bit as ordinary as the rest of the crowd, donning Mets gear and sitting in the stands.

But Jordan Faber, Ethan Faber, Devin Weisenfeld, Bailey Feuerman and Sammy Feuerman are actually quite extraordinary. These five Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students know that you might see them as nothing but teenagers, so they're going to make sure that you hear what they have to say.

Every single word.

All five Parkland, Florida natives lost friends when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on the South Florida school on Valentine's Day, killing 17. And all five experienced unspeakable horrors.

They also happen to be Mets fans, but that's beside the point. They were invited to the Mets' Grapefruit League opener against the Atlanta Braves and had the honor of escorting manager Mickey Callaway to home plate as he handed the umpires his lineup card.

It was an escape of sorts for the kids. A chance to be just normal teenagers taking in a ballgame. But it's only a brief respite, because they know they will never truly be normal teenagers ever again.

"They messed with the wrong community," 17-year-old senior Jordan said. "They really did."

This particular group of kids happens to be part of the larger group of kids who are trying to get the adults to listen to them. Their message is as clear as any: Stricter gun laws.

After seeing their classmates mowed down by an AR-15, they want a ban on automatic weapons and they want universal background checks. They're not against the second amendment, they say, they're against more mass shootings and the ease at which shooters obtain weapons.

"I do believe in the second amendment, I do believe in self-defense," Jordan said. "But you can be armed with a handgun or a gun that's not meant for war, like an AR-15. That gun is meant for war. That gun is made with the intent to kill. That should not be allowed."

Sammy has slept maybe 13 hours in the last week. Maybe. That's about the same amount of pitches that Mets' starter Zack Wheeler threw in his one inning of work Friday. His younger sister Bailey recently returned from a trip to Tallahassee, where she marched alongside classmates in an effort to sway Florida lawmakers to ban assault weapons.

Kids from Stoneman Douglas and other school shootings have reported post-traumatic stress symptoms similar to those coming back from war -- the place where those types of weapons are used. It's not fair that they have to experience these things and it's even more unfair that their friends' lives were lost.

Weisenfeld talked about sitting next to one of the victims, Carmen Schentrup, in class just an hour before Cruz opened fire. Another one of his friends was shot three times. His voice cracked and the tears were visible behind his eyes as Faber draped his arm around his friend.

But Weisenfled was determined to remain strong and unemotional, just as all of the students are trying to do. They have a message they want to get out and change they want to influence.

"We should not have this (political) divide," Jordan said. "This is not a party issue -- this is an American issue. The United States of America, this is one of the best countries in the world and this needs to be fixed."

So, they plan to help fix it. They're canvassing the country to spread their message. They want to encourage everyone everywhere to participate in the "March for our Lives" event on March 24.

They're don't want people to forget about them and move on, they want change. And they think they can make that happen.

"We're the students who are going to make a difference," Bailey said.

Abbey Mastracco may be reached at amastracco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @abbeymastracco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Plainsboro got its first supermarket in more than five years Friday when a SuperFresh store opened in the same location where it shut its doors in 2013.

The 42,000-square foot market in Plainsboro Plaza will include an extensive selection of Asian groceries, including Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisine in the store's food court, the company said in a news release.

SuperFresh, a brand that Key Food Stores purchased from A&P after it went bankrupt in 2015, held a location in the same building until proliferating Route 1 food shopping options forced the store to shut its doors, the company said.

The closure left Plainsboro with only speciality grocery stores and spurred residents in July of 2014 to create a Facebook page advocating for a general-purpose supermarket to come to the township of 23,000 people.

The new SuperFresh store offers fresh and frozen seafood, an on-site butcher and produce, including Asian and Indian fruits and vegetables.

The grocery store's focus on Asian food matches the rapidly changing demographics of Plainsboro, roughly half of which is made up of Asian residents, Census data shows.

"They've combined this supermarket really to address the demographics of Plainsboro," Mayor Peter Cantu told NJ Advance Media. "It's not just simply an Asian market, but it's a market that combines the traditional American supermarket with a variety of Asian foods."

Senior citizens will receive a 5 percent discount on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and uniformed workers will get a 10 percent discount every day.

Cantu said he expects SuperFresh to draw more activity to Plainsboro Plaza, which includes roughly 40 other stores and restaurants.

"I think this will be a shot in the arm," Cantu said. "This, obviously, will bring folks into the center, which should be a positive for all the existing retailers, as well as bring others into the center."

Middlesex County has seen at least three other grocery stores -- Aldi in East Brunswick, Whole Foods in Metuchen and Trader Joe's in North Brunswick -- open in the past year.

Key Food Stores operates 11 other SuperFresh stores, all of which are in northern New Jersey or in Staten Island, New York.

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati or on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsBy Amanda Hoover | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

In the 10 days after a former student in Parkland, Florida, fatally shot 17 students and faculty members at his old high school, threats to schools and reports of fear-provoking social media posts streamed in across New Jersey, prompting worry, police investigations and criminal charges.

The incidents, none of which were shown to be a danger to safety, come in the wake of the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly brought an AR-15 to the building and opened fire.

The reality that such a tragedy could hit any school at any time has put parents, students and school officials on edge, and leaves authorities chasing any clue that a similar attack could be planned at a local school -- including those that turn out to be jokes in bad taste or unsubstantiated.

Some have resulted in arrests for making threats or causing alarm, while others have simply been dismissed as rumors or posts featuring weapons that didn't directly threaten schools or communities.

Here are the districts where such incidents have occurred:

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Gloucester County Institute of Technology in Deptford Township. (Photo courtesy GCIT)

Deptford

A shooting threat, the details of which were not divulged, was made to either Gloucester County Institute of Technology or Deptford High School late Thursday, prompting an investigation, police said.

Authorities said the source of the threat was identified, and that both schools were open Friday.

"We're making absolutely, positively sure everyone is safe," Deptford interim superintendent Charles Blachford told NJ Advance Media Friday morning. "The Deptford police have taken appropriate action and everyone is safe. The student will not return until all appropriate measures are taken."

Both schools were open Friday, as school officials said police were "dealing with the individual(s) responsible."

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West Deptford

A 15-year-old resident in West Deptford High School was arrested Friday morning after allegedly making threats over Snapchat.

The juvenile posted about plans of "shooting up West Deptford," leading school officials to contact police, authorities said.

Investigators identified the juvenile, and took him into custody, police said. Charges were pending Friday afternoon.

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Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District

Facing a second security concern in a week, authorities in Aberdeen Township, Monmouth County, said Thursday that a post about a school shooting had no merit.

The alleged Snapchat post made Thursday claimed there would be a shooting Friday at one of the schools. Police believe it referenced an incident from last weekend, and said the district and its students were not in any danger.

On Feb. 17, a student in the district was taken into police custody for allegedly making terroristic threats. Officials have declined to provide further information about the incident, but said it did not pose an active security risk.

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Anthony Rossi Intermediate School in Vineland. (Photo courtesy Vineland Public Schools)

Vineland

A 12-year-old student was arrested at Anthony Rossi Intermediate School on Wednesday for causing a false public alarm, according to Vineland police.

The boy allegedly told other students he planned to bring a gun to the school and open fire. His fellow classmates alerted administrators and police were called to the school.

The boy reportedly told officials he had been joking. No weapon was recovered.

The student was processed and released pending a court appearance, according to police.

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Irvington High School seen in 2016 on Clinton Avenue. (Google Street View)

Irvington

School officials placed students at Irvington High School on lockdown Wednesday morning after a former student allegedly posted about plans to "shoot this s--t up" in a Snapchat post.

Students at the high school saw the post and alerted faculty, believing it pertained to Irvington. They were on lockdown for several hours, police said.

It was not immediately clear if the student, who now attends Carteret High School, had been charged Friday. The Essex County Prosecutor's Office was assisting in the investigation.

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Long Branch High School on Indiana Avenue seen in 2017. (Google Street View)

Long Branch

Authorities in Long Branch were alerted to a threatening post made Wednesday by a student in the district.

"Please be assured the Long Branch Police Department was in constant contact with school officials, and the incident was fully investigated," a police statement said Wednesday. "It was termed as 'a joke,' and yes not a very good one considering recent events."

An investigation did not uncover any weapons, and officials said they did not believe the individual posed a danger to the district.

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Lacey Township

Police were investigating a number of threatening messages linked to students in Lacey Township, Captain Patrick Ganley said earlier this week.

The messages, associated with students' social media accounts, sprang up in the past week, mainly through students being tagged in widespread posts or retweeting content themselves, he said.

"We don't have anything concrete, but we're investigating all of this," Ganley said.

It was immediately clear Friday if the investigation had progressed, or if any arrests had been made.

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Bloomfield High School on Broad Street, seen in 2017. (Google Street View)

Bloomfield

Police investigated a high school student in Bloomfield this week after he allegedly posted a photo of himself holding a gun alongside a caption that "made a derogatory and inflammatory reference to the tragedy in South Florida," according to Public Safety Director Samual DeMaio.

DeMaio said the photo was taken at a hunting camp and that the rifle in the photo is currently locked in a safe at the camp.

"I will also emphasize that at no time was a threat to shoot at a school ever made," DeMaio said.

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Little Falls

Police in Little Falls were contacted last weekend after a "digital exchange between students that contained potentially concerning content," schools Superintendent Tracey Marinelli said in an email to parents on Monday.

Marinelli said there was no threat to the school or students.

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Eastern Camden County Regional School District

A student at Eastern Regional High School was facing charges after allegedly bragging about plans to "shoot up" his school.

Eighteen-year-old Jacob Finkelstein, of Voorhees Township, was arrested Feb. 15, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said. He allegedly made the threat Feb. 9, before the Parkland shooting. Officials said they did not learn of it until Thursday.

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Nutley

On Feb. 15, Nutley schools Superintendent Julie Glazer closed schools for several days after a video was reportedly posted to Instagram appearing to show local students firing a rifle and handgun. The song "Pumped Up Kicks," which mentions shooting a gun at people, was also played in the video.

Police found no credible threat stemming from the video, but the incident still prompted 16 parents to call for the posting of armed guards at all seven of Nutley's public schools.

"I understand that having guards and metal detectors are 'unappealing' and might be perceived as making our school district look unsafe," Erica Zarro, the mother of a 6-year-old in the district, who wrote a letter addressing the concerns. "But then the question becomes what is more important to us - appearances or our children?"

She said most of the parents who signed her letter plan to make an appearance at the district's next Board of Education meeting, planned for Feb. 26.

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Franklin High School in Franklin Township, Somerset County. (Photo courtesy Franklin Township Public Schools)

Franklin Township

A 14-year-old boy is facing charges for threatening Franklin High School in Somerset County, police announced Feb. 16.

The juvenile, whose name has been withheld because of his age, is charged with making terroristic threats, and was also suspended from school.

The nature of the threats is not clear, but police said students and faculty at the school were not in legitimate danger.

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Brooklawn Middle School in Parsippany, seen in 2015. (Google Street View)

Parsippany-Troy Hills

A half-hour lock down took place at Brooklawn Middle School Feb. 16 after a student found a bullet in the hallway, police said.

Police swept the building and cleared it of any threat, dismissing students at the end of the day.

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Williamstown Middle School seen in 2017 in Monroe Township, Gloucester County. (Google Street View)

Monroe, Gloucester County

Authorities announced on Feb. 16 that potential threat to the district was posted to a local Facebook group under a fake name.

The post included a video, which was allegedly made by a Williamstown Middle School student. Authorities found the poster, and was able to interview him or her and clear district of any threat.

"There is NO credible threat to Williamstown Middle School or the Monroe Township School District in Gloucester County," Monroe Township police said in a Facebook post.

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Old Bridge Township School District

Old Bridge Police became aware of a threatening post regarding Carl Sandburg Middle School on Feb. 15, school Superintendent David Cittadino said.

Parents received an email notice and Old Bridge schools were open that Friday after authorities found the threat not credible, officials said.

Police presence has increased in the district since the shooting.

"Student safety and staff safety is always my priority," Cittadino said. "We're always collaborating with Old Bridge Police Department to increase safety."

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A shooting at a Florida high school Wednesday sent students rushing out into the streets as SWAT team members swarmed in and locked down the building, and police warned that the shooter was still at large. School officials said they had received reports of multiple injuries. (The Associated Press)

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Jefferson Township

Two incidents resulted in arrests in the school district last week; one involving a 14-year-old high school student, and the other with a 13-year-old middle schooler, police said.

The 14-year-old boy was charged with disorderly conduct on Feb. 15 following an investigation into "implied threats" made against township schools and students, according to police.

The next day, the 13-year-old was charged with cyber harassment and creating a false public alarm after the teen used "electronic communications" to threaten township schools and students, police said.

In a letter posted Tuesday to the district's website, Superintendent Jeanne Howe said the school regularly trains and practices for emergency scenarios, including active shooters.

"As you are aware, we continue to hold the safety of your children first and foremost in all that we do," she wrote. "We encourage you to talk to your children regarding the importance of school safety and reinforce that if they see something, they must say something."

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Jackson

Police arrived at the home of a district student after receiving a report that the student had a list of others he intended to harm.

After an investigation, police determined that the incident was merely a rumor circulating on social media, and that there was no imminent danger to the schools.

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Read more from NJ.com

Phil Murphy joins with other Democratic governors to push gun control

6 gun-control bills Phil Murphy will likely sign into law

Florida school shooting reignites gun control debate: How your lawmakers have voted under Trump

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Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.



Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsThe Jersey City State of the City speech sounded a bit like this (to paraphrase): Good evening. I want to start by thanking ... mumbo-jumbo ... public safety ... mumbo-jumbo ... parks, parks, parks ... mumbo jumbo ... bikes ... mumbo jumbo .. firehouse ... mumbo jumbo ... annex ... mumbo jumbo ... reval, reval and reval.

With the accouterments of power in the council chambers of City Hall, the speech took about 25 minutes to utter. It was a well-paced, workmanlike performance by Mayor Steve Fulop with little by the way of earth-shattering news unless you're obsessed by the city's recently completed reval.

Then you heard him say he plans a second reval, a correction mechanism, in about a year. The particulars of the new reval were covered mightily by The Jersey Journal's Terrence McDonald.

Politically speaking the oration reflects the mindset of the administration where the new term in office involves benchmarks, projects and a cruise-control demeanor. There are no aspirations to achieve, such as a governorship. At present there are no new worlds to conquer.

ALWAYS AUDITIONING

This mayor is not driving the big bus but rather taking it to work. He and his City Hall campers have no choice but to be content at getting up every day and doing what is expected of them. It isn't like the first term where it was important that the mayor create a portfolio of progressive achievements to wow statewide voters.

Still, Fulop is aware that he is always auditioning for whatever the future holds, but it need not be at the frenetic pace of the first term. He doesn't have to jump at every out-of-city ribbon-cutting event. This is why it seems easy for him to deliver a State of the City speech. The mayor is comfortable with the job and on the way to run for and win a third term.

You don't think so? OK, quick name a possible and plausible mayoral challenger for the next municipal election? (Don't be silly, I said plausible candidate.) There are no new city political heroes.

You say the reval issue will sink him? It was an issue before the last election and he still collected almost 80 percent of the available votes. Yes, real numbers can hurt but in four years it will be in the past and the city will progress. Politically speaking I don't understand why offer the second reval because it just keeps the criticism going.

If the teachers' contract squabble had been at its height before the last election, then I would say the administration had a problem. There will eventually be a pact and the animosity ends.

What was interesting was no mention of ongoing major development in the city. Does it mean references to the waterfront skyline and new skyscrapers going up on Journal Square are over?

So what is ahead for the city? The mayor offered a picture of the immediate future in his speech and here is a quick sketch. It begins with public safety and the forever battle against crime.



As most elected officials do, Fulop announced figures that support his positive position. He said that in 2017, Jersey City saw decreases homicides, assaults, and robberies.

" Also, while this is not typically a statistic you see reported in the newspaper, it is important to share that we have continued to see the number of illegal guns recovered increase dramatically, with 23 percent more guns recovered in 2017 than were recovered in 2016. Last year, the JCPD recovered a total of 315 illegal guns off our street."

He said that the city installed 107 closed-circuit cameras over the past year and this year there will be another 40 as the entire system makes its way through the city, south to north. The mayor added that the camera system began in the mid-2000s but never worked properly. Fulop said the resurrection of the network is assisted by the community in selecting the best locations -- other than fast-food and donut shop locations.

He made reference to a recent decision to end an off-duty police job program that has led to guilty pleas by 10 people on federal fraud and conspiracy charges. A former police chief was also snared. The mayor has come under some criticism for his response and he addressed it at the State of the City.

"... I'd like you to ask yourself one simple question on the necessity of this program: why is it that our neighbors in New York City can build 100-story buildings in a more densely populated area and not require one police officer be hired as long as they have a safety plan in place, but here in Jersey City we require countless officers be hired for smaller projects?"

Fulop said Jersey City will require safety plans at construction sites. "We will also set up a program to hire trained community members and use existing crossing guards to monitor these sites ..."

When it comes to the Fire Department, the mayor announced that the city will replace the Halladay Street fire house that helps cover the Bergen-Lafayette section. Details about what happens during the new construction have yet to come.

PLANNED WILD SPACES

Then it was about what people love about living in the city - parks. Well, it's one thing anyway. Fulop said that in cooperation with the neighborhood and parks committees, there will be a master plan for Leonard Gordon Park in The Heights. Improvements are coming for Audubon Park and in particular creation of a multi-purpose community space for events. He also touted updates and renovations to other parks, including Pershing Field, Sgt. Anthony, 16th Street and the new Ogden Avenue Dog Park.

There were more infrastructure announcements. The mayor credited hometown state Sen. Sandra Cunningham and her Senate colleague and Union City Mayor Brian Stack for shepherding $2 million in state dollars to the county seat to pave streets and provide better bike lanes that are apparently here to stay.

There was quite a bit of news concerning the City Hall annex at the Hub in the heart of the city's African-American community. Fulop said they would cut the ribbon there next month.

"We completed the entire building in 18 months," the mayor crowd. "By comparison, the previous administration took thirteen years to build the West District Police Station. When we move in we will be saving over a million dollars in of rent in year one. It will also be a major change to the Ward F landscape by creating more activity and opportunity. This project is proof that we are doing more than speaking about progress, but also putting our money where our rhetoric is."

It doesn't stop with one building. Fulop said a second project, another building, will be presented to the City Council.

"We will present phase two of this project to the City Council, which includes a second building next door to the current annex that will be used by the community and city government, as well as a large parking deck to be used by the neighborhood. Our goal is to move a number of important city departments into the adjacent building, including a revamped affordable housing office ..."

Is this an annex or is it slowly becoming the new City Hall?

"Clearly, we are committed to bringing new life to the HUB, and our investment in this area has already started to attract others," the mayor said. "Last week, the JCRA helped to facilitate the closing of a building that will become the new and larger headquarters for Rising Tide Capital, which will be located directly next door to the City Hall Annex."

There were other items mentioned but you can hear about them by attending the mayor's follow up Q and A at community meetings in each of the city's wards. The first will be in Ward F on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center, 140 Martin Luther King Dr. See you there.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Agustin C. Torres' columns appear on the nj.com opinion website on Saturdays and occasionally in the print edition of The Jersey Journal. Submit letters to the editor and guest columns at jjletters@jjournal.com.This latest massacre in Florida makes us almost dare to dream that our country will actually do something about guns.



The first step is easy: Ignore the "BS," as Stoneman shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez put it. Don't listen to NRA-backed politicians on guns. Listen to the cops and the kids.



Their motives couldn't be more simple. They're not taking money from lobbyists willing to watch people die because they think an AR-15 is cool. They're just trying to save lives, their own included.

N.J. students say #neveragain, walk out in solidarity with survivors of Florida shooting



Listen to the teenagers who watched their classmates die last week, and those in New Jersey and across the country who walked out of school in solidarity, carrying signs like, "Are we next?"



Listen to the police chiefs who not only want to protect the public, but prevent their officers from being "literally outgunned," as one top cop put it.

"You're talking about the kind of firepower that can go through vehicles, through vests, and that can literally go through a house," said Captain Emanuel Gomes, who heads a department in Massachusetts.



Listen to Sheriff Scott Israel, who responded to the Stoneman shooting, and Chief Dan Oates, who headed Aurora police during the movie theater massacre, who both want to ban the AR-15 - the same assault-style rifle used to gun down 6-year-olds at Sandy Hook.



"In only one condition should you have an assault rifle," Israel said. "If you've joined the Marines."



Listen to doctors, too. Like the ER physician who described how these bullets don't just pierce the body; they utterly shred it. On a CT scan of a child shot at Stoneman, "The organ looked like an overripe melon smashed by a sledgehammer."



That's the kind of image that motivates police chiefs, especially in big cities, to push for stricter gun laws - often to no avail.



"We're advocating the safety for our police officers, but on the other side, you have the NRA and other special interest groups that say, 'If you'll do this, we'll endorse you and make you look good,'" said Ken Winter, head of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, of his efforts to lobby lawmakers. "We don't have anything to offer them other than good advice."



When Republican lawmakers in Texas wanted to block cops from so much as questioning people openly carrying guns, the head of Austin police, Art Acevedo, was incredulous. "You can't be the party of law and order and not listen to your police chiefs," he said.



And you can't be the party of "family values" without listening to grief-stricken teenagers and parents who lost kids.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.New Jersey's already-sky high residential property taxes set a new record in 2017, with the average tax bill ringing up at $8,690.

That tax bill is $141 -- or 1.6 percent -- over the $8,549 homeowners paid, on average, in 2016.

The burden falls hardest in Bergen, Essex and Union counties, where the average bill exceeded $11,000. Counties with the highest property taxes tend to be concentrated in the northern and central parts of the state.

The new figures released Friday by the Department of Community Affairs closes the books on property taxes during former Gov. Chris Christie's eight years in office.

Click to see the latest property tax numbers for your town

The average tax bill was $7,281 when Christie came into office. During the two terms of his administration they rose a total of just over 19 percent, representing a significant slowdown in the rate of property tax growth from previous governors.

The Department of Community Affairs releases town-by-town property tax data each winter, each year's average predictably setting a new record for a state with the highest property taxes in the nation.

But this year, homeowners are facing uncertainty in their property tax bills on several fronts, prompting worry that they could grow at a faster rate.

Officials from counties and municipalities warn they may be forced to raise property taxes in the aftermath of the expiration of a 2 percent cap on the raises police and firefighters can win in arbitration.

While the number of contract disputes that land in interest arbitration are few, local government officials say those raises inform contract negotiations across the state.

In the decades before the cap was installed, arbitration awards ranged from 2 percent to nearly 6 percent.

While they're still hemmed in by a 2 percent cap on annual increases in government spending, officials say higher arbitration awards would force them to cut programs or take advantage of the exceptions to the 2 percent cap for things like employee retirement benefit costs and debt service.

An analysis of the cap released this fall found it saved taxpayers $530 million on police and firefighter salaries and more broadly found the duo of caps saved taxpayers $2.9 billion.

In his final State of the State address, Christie urged lawmakers to renew the cap he signed into law, saying New Jerseyans can't afford big jumps in their bills each year.

"Seven days, I'm just another property taxpayer," he said last month. "And as another property taxpayer, I am begging you. Stand up to these interests. Pass the arbitration cap like you've done twice before. And do not return the citizens of our state to 7 percent annual property tax increases."

Gov. Phil Murphy notably has not released a specific plan to lower property taxes, but he's said he wants to put an additional $1 billion a year into education funding that could relieve the burden on local school districts to raise more revenue.

And Republicans in Washington installed a $10,000 cap on the state and local taxes that will hit hard homeowners in such high-tax states as New Jersey, where property tax bills alone can easily exceed $10,000.

The property tax break took the edge off the state's notoriously high property taxes, but the truncated version will leave New Jersey homeowners feeling every dollar of their tax bill.

Murphy announced last month he's joining with New York and Connecticut in a federal action against the GOP tax law that caps the deduction and raises taxes on wealthy blue state residents.

He's spoken in support of allowing local governments to construct support funds that would allow taxpayers to classify their property tax payments as donations that are fully deductible, and he said he's taken interest in a proposal made by Cuomo to shift from personal income taxes to payroll taxes, which can be deducted fully.

Lawmakers introduced a charitable bill fund in the Senate, which would allow municipalities, counties and school districts to offer property tax credits worth 90 percent of donations made to these accounts.

Tax experts, however, are skeptical these schemes will stand up to IRS scrutiny.

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Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Carla Astudillo may be reached at castudillo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @carla_astudi. Find her on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, of the most conservative Democrats in the New Jersey Legislature, co-sponsored legislation to restore the death penalty for certain murders and to require parents to be told if their non-adult daughters receive an abortion.

Until now.

Van Drew, D-Cape May, withdrew his name from both measures as he runs for the open 2nd Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist.

The lawmaker said he planned to introduce legislation on the same topics but the bills he decided to no longer co-sponsor had provisions he didn't support.

"I haven't changed my opinion completely," Van Drew said.

Chris Martin, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Van Drew's actions were a way for the candidate to reach out to progressive Democrats.

"Van Drew is twisting himself into a pretzel trying to pander to his far-left base," Martin said.

New Jersey abolished its death penalty in 2007 but state Sen. Steve Oroho, R-Sussex, introduced legislation to restore it for specific murder cases.

Van Drew said the death penalty should apply only in the most heinous of crimes, such as murdering police officers or burying a child alive.

"I don't believe in the death penalty except in extreme circumstances that are beyond the pale," Van Drew said. "I personally think most people would agree with that when you've done horrible things against another human being."

Oroho also was the chief sponsor of the second measure, a constitutional amendment to require parental notification before their minor child receives an abortion. If the legislature approves, the issue would be submitted to the voters.

Van Drew said there was a lot of concern with that issue, and he primarily was concerned with third-trimester abortions.

"It was a really, really hard issue," he said. "In many cases, the young girl won't tell and will try to get an illegal abortion or something that will endanger her health."

Though Republican LoBiondo represented the district for 24 years, the Cook Political Report, a Washington-based publication that tracks congressional races, rates Democrat Van Drew a slight favorite. Inside Elections just moved the contest from a slight Republican lean to a toss-up.

Besides Van Drew, Tanzie Youngblood, Sean Thom and Will Cunningham, are seeking the Democratic nomination. Two Republicans, Brian Fitzherbert and Robert Turkavage, also are running.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Van Drew to its "red to blue" program, its list of the Democratic challengers most likely to flip Republican-held House seats.

Mikie Sherrill, running for the seat now held by retiring U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghysen, R-11th Dist.; and Andy Kim, challenging U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist., also are in the program, which brings extra help for fundraising and organizational efforts.

New Jersey has more challengers on the list than any other state.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to life in state prison for robbing a Hillside car wash, authorities said.

The sentence was handed down Friday by Superior Court Judge Stuart Peim under New Jersey's "three strikes" law, where repeat offenders can get life.

Timothy Chambers, 51, of Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, had asked the manager of the Prestige Auto Wash on Liberty Avenue for $3 in change the day of incident in March 2015, according to the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

Chambers followed the manager into the car wash office and began trying to wrestle a money bag away from him, eventually hitting the manager in the head with a gun.

After grabbing the money bag, Chambers, along with an accomplice, fled.

Hillside police arrested Chambers without incident about one month later.

The accomplice has still not been located, according to authorities. He was found guilty of the robbery after a two-week trial in December.

Chambers had an extensive criminal history and because of that he qualified under the state's three strikes law for a life sentence.

Taylor Tiamoyo Harris may be reached at tharris@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ladytiamoyo.

Find NJ.com on FacebookA fight at a Phillipsburg bar Friday night ended with a 21-year-old stabbed multiple times and a suspect arrested, prosecutors said.

Justin Marion, of Alpha, was found bleeding on the sidewalk a few buildings down from Marz Bar around 11 p.m. and was rushed to a nearby hospital, the Warren County Prosecutor's Office said Saturday.

He and Brett Rodenbaugh, of Phillipsburg, got into a fight at the Sitgreaves Street bar, and the altercation eventually moved to the spot where Marion was stabbed, prosecutors said. They said it was unclear whether the fight began inside or outside the bar.

Rodenbaugh, 27, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. He is being held at the Warren County jail, prosecutors said.

Marion's condition was unknown Saturday, according to prosecutors.

A call to Marz Bar for comment was not immediately returned.

Investigators ask anyone who witnessed the alleged stabbing to call Phillipsburg police at 908-454-1121 or the prosecutor's office at 908-475-6275.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Artist Kara Walker's "Katastwof Karavan (Catastrophe Caravan)" is meant to commemorate a grim aspect of the history of the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, which was once the stopping point for arriving shiploads of slaves.

Walker is famous for illustrating historic black subjugation with genteel 19

-century-style silhouette cutouts. "Katastwof Karavan" combines a custom-made circus wagon covered with Walker's signature silhouettes with a working calliope inspired by the riverboat Natchez.

The haunting calliope music by jazz pianist Jason Moran is based on African American protest and celebration songs. Walker will present a public performance with jazz pianist Jason Moran on Saturday, (Feb. 24) at 2:30 p.m. on Algiers Point.

As previously reported, the appearance of "Katastwof Karavan" is the high point of the Prospect.4 city-wide art exhibition. Unfortunately, the compelling sculpture arrived late and will be on view through Sunday only, when Prospect.4 closes.

Doug MacCash has the best job in the world, covering art, music, and culture in New Orleans. Contact him via email at dmaccash@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash. As always, please add your point of view to the comment stream.An early morning argument in the Treme neighborhood ended in gunfire leaving two men wounded, New Orleans police said. The shooting occurred just after 3 a.m. Saturday (Feb. 24) in the 1200 block of North Claiborne Avenue. The victims, ages 36 and 43, were talking to a third, unidentified man when things got heated, according to NOPD.

It's not clear what the men were discussing, but the conversation turned into an argument. At some point, the third man pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and shot at the other men.

Both were injured. One was taken to a local hospital by ambulance. He was in stable condition, NOPD said. The other victim was driven to the hospital in a private vehicle. He was also in stable condition.

No other information was available about the shooting.

. . . . . . . .

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 877.903.7867. Tips can be texted to C-R-I-M-E-S (274637); text TELLCS then the crime information.While one Broward County Sheriff's Office deputy has resigned after it was revealed that he did not go in and confront a gunman who killed 17 people at a Florida high school, a local police department says he wasn't the only deputy to hang back, according to the Orlando Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

The Coral Springs Police Department alleges at least three other deputies waited outside instead of rushing into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. as Nickolas Cruz, 19, gunned down fellow former students and staff on Feb. 14.

Video shows that Deputy Scot Peterson, resource officer assigned to the high school, waited for about four minutes outside the building as Cruz conducted his assault, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said. Peterson should have immediately gone inside, confronted and killed the suspect, Israel said.

But Coral Springs officers who arrived at the school following reports of the shooting have said other deputies were still outside and never entered the school, according to the newspaper.

"If we find out, as we did with Peterson, that our deputies made mistakes and didn't go in, I'll handle it like I always have," Israel said. "I'll handle any violations of policy or procedures or whatever accordingly."Dozens of pastors, rabbis, imams, deacons, ushers and monks filled the pews of Greater St. Stephens Church in New Orleans East Saturday morning (Feb. 24) to learn about and prepare for potential active-shooter scenarios. The New Orleans Police Department and the Greater New Orleans Crimestoppers hosted the event in response to the proliferation of mass shootings the United States.

The idea of addressing church leaders came in the wake of the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which left 26 dead and 20 injured in 2017, NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison said.

"This is not about the absence of faith," Harrison said of the event that came about after a local pastor reached out to him for guidance. "In addition to having faith, you have to be able to act and make hard decisions that force you to do things that are uncomfortable in sanctuary spaces, like fight back or run."

Law enforcement officials addressed hundreds of faith leaders from across New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. The meeting tackled how to prevent, prepare for, survive and move on from active shooter scenarios, addressing issues such as logistics, medical care and psychological repercussions, Harrison said.

Despite the grim catalyst for the event, faith leaders seemed to respond positively. They carried the discussion from the pews to the reception room, probing officers with questions about potential scenarios.

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David Jonson, who works security at City Church of New Orleans, said it is just a necessary part of caring for congregations.

"It speaks to the reality of what is going on and where certain people's heads are at," he said. "It needs to be addressed and it is better to have a plan."

Harrison echoed his sentiments: "This is where we are in the world today and we have to prepare them for it."

While the New Orleans Police Department has been fielding an uptick in reported threats to schools in the area, Darlene Cusanza, president of Crimestoppers, said she has not noticed a similar trend at churches.

NOPD and Crimestoppers plan to hold a mock active shooter drill in a church setting so faith leaders can implement their newly learned tactics, Cusanza said. No date has been set for this event.It was the first school dance for Prairieville Primary pre-kindergartener Fynleigh Gerald, 4 -- a dance for fathers and daughters -- but Fynleigh's dad, Baton Rouge police officer Matthew Gerald, was one of the three men killed in an ambush shooting on law enforcement in 2016.

The child instead was escorted by nine members of her slain father's squad.

"It's sweet, but it's bittersweet because I know it's the first time Fynleigh is going to go to a dance and her daddy isn't here," said Gerald's widow, Dechia, told Fox 8 News.

"I wish we did not have to do it, but I am honored to do it," said Cpl. Brad Barr said, who was among those who suited up in uniform and pinned on boutonnieres to accompany the girl.

When it came time to head to the dance, a procession of officers with their lights on escorted Fynleigh to her school in Ascension Parish. With the squad, her mom, baby brother and her grandparents at her side, the child made her way into the cafeteria.A boy was injured in a shooting Friday night (Feb. 23) on the edge of the Hoffman Triangle neighborhood in Central City, according to the New Orleans Police Department. The boy's age was not immediately known.

The boy was "transported to University Medical Center by EMS suffering from a gunshot wound to the buttocks," according to an email from an NOPD spokesman.

A call reporting the shooting, which occurred near the intersection of S. Roman and Toledano streets, was received at 8:33 p.m., police said.

Police cordoned off the intersection, where several investigators used flashlights to scour a grassy lot.

A woman at the scene said she was in a nearby barber shop when she heard about four gunshots.

The barber shop remained open, with a young boy looking at the crime scene through the window as a man clipped his hair.

Investigators began placing bright green evidence cones in the intersection, setting the first near a bullet casing. Another two evidence cones were placed on the river-bound side of Toledano at the intersection of South Roman, and three more dotted South Roman Street. Still more were placed in the middle of the intersection, near what appeared to be a pile of clothing.

Additional details, including a description of a suspect or motive, were not immediately available.Police on 'poo watch' over drug suspect's loo strike

The alleged drug dealer hid the goods in his body and is still refusing to reveal them to officers - after three weeks in a cell.

Wednesday 07 February 2018Sky NewsA suspected drug dealer who hid a stash of Class A drugs inside his body when he was arrested has been in custody for three weeks because he refuses to go to the toilet, police have said.Essex Police's Operation Raptor West unit arrested the man - thought to be from a London gang - on 16 January, and charged him with two counts of intent to supply the drugs.Chelmsford Magistrates' Court granted the force permission to keep him in detention until he revealed the goods, initially for 190 hours, but officers say he refused to eat or accept that he would not be released until he went to the loo."#Howlongcanyougo," tweeted the @OpRaptorWest account, as day four approached.Once the suspect had spent a week in a cell, the force had to return to court to request further custody time."The one person preventing this from being resulted is the defendant himself," said the prosecution.Another six days went by without any sign of an update on what by then had been dubbed "#PooWatch", with the suspect also refusing to consent to a doctor removing the drugs from his body.On day 16, police were back in court to request another week of custody, which again was granted.But by day 19, officers appeared to be growing increasingly frustrated, with @OpRaptorWest tweeting: "Male doesn't seem to understand that eventually he will need/have to go."On Tuesday, with thousands of followers having waited with bated breath, they tweeted: "Day 20 is coming to an end and still no movement, sorry for the delay in updates the team are busy covering this and other ongoing investigations #opraptor #PooWatch."Police have assured the public that the man has been monitored by doctors throughout his toilet strike, and that so far he has not exhibited any health concerns.But medical advice site WebMD advises against going longer than three days, with it becoming more difficult to pass the longer you go without doing so.In 2009, D'Shean Kennedy was one of 10 Orleans Parish jurors who voted to convict Kia Stewart of murder in a pre-Katrina fatal shooting.

In 2014, Kennedy answered her door in Houston to discover Stewart was likely innocent. An Orleans Parish judge later threw out Stewart's conviction -- after Stewart had served nearly a decade worth of a life sentence, mostly in Louisiana's maximum-security prison in Angola.

"I had a sunken feeling," Kennedy says in a first-person piece titled "I Sent an Innocent Man to Prison: A juror's regret."

The piece, which centers on the New Orleans case, gives Kennedy's perspective as told to Maurice Chammah, and was posted this week by nonprofit news outlet The Marshall Project.

Stewart was convicted following a trial in which prosecutors based their case on a sole witness, a friend of victim Bryant Craig. His conviction was thrown out in April 2015 following work by The Innocence Project New Orleans and requests from Stewart's attorneys and prosecutors, all of whom said they believed Stewart had not received a fair trial and had received ineffective assistance of counsel.

According to an April 2015 report by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, multiple witnesses claimed they saw another man -- not Stewart -- kill Craig, but those other witnesses were never called on to testify. Stewart's attorneys with the Tulane University Law School Criminal Litigation Clinic said, at the time of his trial, they could not find any witnesses, many due to displacement by Hurricane Katrina.

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Last October, a judge ordered Louisiana to pay $180,000 to Stewart, who left prison at age 27, as compensation.

In her piece, Kennedy described how, during jury selection, she felt like she wanted to be part of delivering justice. She then recounts the swiftness of the trial -- and the discomfort she felt with the defense's efforts, which she described as "an embarrassment."

She describes how two jurors were lawyers, and if the prosecution had made mistakes, she thought those jurors would have pointed it out. She also described how other jurors' misgivings don't always matter in Louisiana, one of just two states where juries can convict someone of murder without a unanimous vote.

"I was overwhelmed, and sad for Kia," Kennedy says in the piece. "I'm angry, too: I've read a lot about the criminal justice system, and I can't believe our government allows such bad legal representation in such high-stakes trials. These are people's lives."

Read the full piece here.

Correction: An earlier version of this post mistakenly referred to the author using male pronouns. The author is female.State authorities arrested a Kenner woman and an Independence man accused of trying to exchange child pornography.

Ashley Ghaith, 26, of Kenner, was booked with attempted possession, promotion or production of pornography involving juveniles, video voyeurism and improper supervision of a minor, according to arrest reports.

Roy Melancon, 39, was booked with 120 counts of possession of pornography involving juveniles, according to the Louisiana Attorney General's Office.

The two were arrested Wednesday (Feb. 21) following an investigation by several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Crime Unit, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office, the Kenner Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations.

Agents determined the Melancon and Ghaith were exchanging videos and images of children being sexually abused, the attorney general's office said.

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The agency did not release any other details about the cases, but the charges suggest Ghaith is accused of producing lewd images.

Video voyeurism is defined as the use of any camera, videotape or any other image-recording device for the purpose of viewing, photographing or videotaping a person where that person has not consented to the observing and it is for a lewd or lascivious purpose.

Melancon was arrested and booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Prison, the attorney general's office said.

Ghaith was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center. She was released Wednesday on a $21,000 bond.

The attorney general's office encouraged anyone with information about Ghaith and Melancon to call the LBI at 800.256.4506. Callers do not have to give their names.A man was arrested on suspicion of murder Friday night (Feb. 23), just hours after police say he lit another man on fire, according to New Orleans police. The victim died behind a vacant store on Chef Menteur Highway, authorities said.

David Klein, 52, was booked about 6 p.m. Friday into the Orleans Justice Center jail with second-degree murder, jail records show.

Hours earlier, at 11:34 a.m., a passing motorist called 911 after seeing a man on fire in the 4600 block of Chef Menteur, in the Gentilly Woods area of New Orleans East, police said.

The victim died behind a vacant store, according to police and witnesses at the scene. Shortly afterward, the NOPD announced the death was being investigated as a homicide.

As an NOPD officer, who was flagged near the scene, approached the area, the officer "was alerted to a possible suspect walking away from the scene," according to a department spokesman.

Multiple witnesses at the scene, which was behind a building that previously housed a Winn-Dixie grocery store, said the victim had been arguing with another man. The other man then threw liquor on the victim and the victim caught on fire, witnesses said. It was not clear what ignited the fire.

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At the scene, the victim's body was visible and appeared to be badly burned. According to a news release from the New Orleans Fire Department, the man's upper body was burned to its skeleton.

The owner of a Fuel Zone gas station nearby, who did not want to be named, said the victim had visited his store earlier in the day. Later, after the fire, the gas station owner said he saw police detain another man at the scene.

At least three witnesses at the scene said the man who was detained shouted something about the man who died giving him head lice.

Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to call the NOPD's 3rd District at 504-658-6030 or call Crimestoppers anonymously at 504-822-1111 or toll free at 1-877-903-7867.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune's Hanna Krueger contributed to this report.Tulane University Police said in a campus alert Friday that the department is investigating two separate reports of off-campus sexual battery in Uptown.

Both victims were walking along Broadway around 10:30 a.m. Friday (Feb. 23) when a man riding a blue bike and wearing a blue and white shirt grabbed their buttocks from behind. In both cases, the man fled on the bike, the police department said.

Tulane University Police and the New Orleans Police Department are investigating the incidents.

Anyone with information about these crimes should call TUPD at 504-865-5381 or NOPD at 504-821-2222."Our Drowning Coast," a special report about the ecological crisis facing our vanishing coast and the people who live there, is the product of an unusual partnership between two news organizations, one local and one national.

Last year, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and The New York Times agreed to collaborate to bring attention to the impact of climate change on land loss in one of the country's most vulnerable and vital regions. The approach made sense because the future of the state's coast, which is critical to the energy, seafood and shipping sectors, should be of great concern to those who live here as well as to those who merely benefit from its bounty.

At a time of intense financial pressure on local news coverage, it was reasoned that readers of both publications would be served by joining the long expertise of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with the resources and skills of The New York Times' reporting, video, photography, graphics and design staffs.

The result is this special project of articles, photos, videos and graphic illustrations, 10 months in the making, timed to coincide with this year's tricentennial of New Orleans. The lead article tells the story of the intrepid mayor of Jean Lafitte, who is fighting to save his town from encroaching seas. Another examines the expenditure of billions of dollars to repair and improve the New Orleans levee system after Hurricane Katrina, and questions whether it is enough to protect the city through its next 100 years. A third looks at the latest threat to Louisiana's coast, an aphid-like insect that, along with nutria and feral hogs, is destroying the vegetation essential to keeping the wetlands from dissolving.

Together, they depict a losing race against time, one likely to be replicated in coastal zones around the world as sea levels rise. The report is being published simultaneously by both news organizations, online today and in print Sunday (Feb. 25).

The reporting and writing are by Mark Schleifstein, Tristan Baurick and Sara Sneath of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and Kevin Sack and John Schwartz of The New York Times. The work of the New Orleans reporters is supported in part by a grant from the Society of Environmental Journalists that was underwritten by the Walton Family Foundation. The photographs are by Ted Jackson, Brett Duke, Frankie Prijatel and David Grunfeld of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and William Widmer and Chris Carmichael for The New York Times. The graphics and video are by Tim Wallace, Guilbert Gates and Grant Gold of The New York Times.

Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

***

Read the stories:

+19 Our Drowning Coast: Left to Louisiana's tides, Jean Lafitte fights for time From a Cessna flying 4,000 feet above Louisiana's coast, what strikes you first is how much is already lost. Northward from the Gulf, slivers 

+14 New Orleans area levee system 'high risk,' and 'minimally acceptable', Corps says Two different reviews of the New Orleans area levee system by the Army Corps of Engineers raise troubling questions about the ability of much 

+21 Insects feast on Louisiana wetlands, inviting the Gulf in Louisiana's coast was already facing deadly threats: drowning from rising seas, beatings from hurricanes, poisoning from oil spills. Now it is

See the project's presentation in The New York Times.

***Buku Fest, the annual EDM extravaganza that takes place March 9 and 10 in New Orleans is expanding in 2018, adding a new stage, room for 3,000 more fans," which prompted a few questions to cross my mind.

Note: Questions is the key word here. Don't expect any answers. This is just a Saturday afternoon what-if story to be mused over while sipping the first beer of the weekend.

Buku Fest aggressively appeals to a millennial (and even younger) audience, while the New Orleans Jazz Fest books headliners familiar and beloved by an older sing-along crowd.

Jazz Fest, which, in 2018, takes place on weekends between April 27 to May 6, certainly shows no signs of losing steam, but because it has yet to make it a habit of booking EDM (dubstep, techno, trance, chillstep, and all the other designations that I don't really understand) what will happen over the next decade or so when the 20th-century rock, r&b and contemporary jazz stars that populate the Jazz Fest lineup go the way of the passenger pigeon?

(Passenger pigeons, now extinct, were once so plentiful that people just took for granted that they would always be there ... until they were all gone. Pretty good metaphor, huh?)

Buku is produced by AEG Worldwide, the folks that have co-produced the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival since 2004. So, one can argue that the relationship between the fests is symbiotic, right?

French Quarter Festival celebrates New Orleans music, with fresh faces and longtime favorites. Bayou Country Superfest appeals to country music fans and Essence celebrates black artists, so one can assume they will hold onto their demographic audience through the years.

The others have more age-oriented audiences, so, over time, one wonders will Jazz Fest evolve, and become the site of future reunions of Bassnectar and A Day To Remember fans?

Or, will Buku's audience remain Buku's audience until it goes gray, growing year by year as the generations pass until the festival extends all the way to the Huey P. Long Bridge?

And, how does Voodoo Fest, which runs Oct. 26-28 in City Park, fit into this mix? That festival is aimed at that middle age-group -- between Buku and Jazz Fest. (Is this the first time the words "middle" and "age" have ever been applied to the Voodoo crowd?) Its stages feature fresh faces, old favorite and some EDM. Will attendees age out and move on to Jazz Fest?

Will the music fests stay true to their current demographics or morph -- the way Jazz Fest has -- to bring their target audience along as it grays?

In other words, will the audiences move on to the next age-appropriate fest? Will Buku and Voodoo continue to book fresh-faced acts? Or, is it a natural progression for these music fests to keep their arms around their long-time fans as they jump on the nostalgia train?

***

Doug MacCash may just be the oldest dude at Buku Music and Art Project event and maybe Voodoo Music and Art Experience, too. He has the best job in the world, covering art, music, and culture in New Orleans. Contact him via email at dmaccash@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash. As always, please add your point of view to the comment stream.Lafayette's popular Festival International de Louisiane released its lineup Friday (Feb. 23), unveiling a list of artists set to deliver Francophone sounds springing from the wetlands of Louisiana to the steppes and mountains of Tuva.

The 2018 fest, to run April 25-29, boasts international performers representing more than 20 countries and regions, mixing homegrown South Louisiana musicians with artists spanning the globe, according to festival organizers. The five-day series of shows combines newcomers to the fest with previous crowd favorites.

Due to popular demand, organizers are bringing back Iranian act Niyaz --accompanied by a whirling dervish dancer -- as well as pop rocker Lisa LeBlanc and fiddler Dominique Dupuis, both representing New Brunswick.

Making their festival debuts this year are Latin-inspired LADAMA, the Ibibio Sound Machine of Nigeria and Gambian kora player Sona Jobarteh.

In announcing the lineup, organizers also highlighted acts like Zachary Richard, Jupiter & Okwess of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Innov Gnawa of Morocco, Sidi Toure of Mali and Mydy Rabycad of the Czech Republic.

Lisa Stafford, the festival's programming director, said the Czech Republic, along with Tuva and Gambia have rarely, if ever, been represented at Festival International, with performers from those places expected to offer a rare treat for crowds.

"The throat singing of Tuva, for example, is just mind-blowing to witness," Stafford said in a news release. "It will be very special to bring all of these cultures to south Louisiana."

The fest closes with a series of shows at Scene LUS International, including a Congres Mondial Acadien's kitchen party, a "massive collaborative" blowout featuring Richard, Lisa LeBlanc, Jacobus (of Radio Radio), Florent Vollant, Dominique Dupuis, Dans l'shed, Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, Shauit and Jeunes Chanteurs d'Acadie.

Capping the fest is a grand finale tribute to Dockside Studio and Steve and Cezanne Nails. The show, hosted by Lafayette-based indie pop group Givers, is packed with South Louisiana music-makers: Marc Broussard, Marcia Ball, Terrance Simien and the Lost Bayou Ramblers, among others.

For the full lineup, visit the Festival International website.For the first time this season, LSU got a dominant performance from its starting pitcher.

Sophomore righthander Zack Hess struck out a career-high 10 batters in the Tigers' 13-4 victory over Texas on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium in the first of a three-game series.

Hess bounced back in a big way from his disastrous opening weekend loss last Saturday to Notre Dame. He allowed two runs on five hits and retired the last eight batters he faced before he was removed after throwing 99 pitches in six innings.

One of the reasons Hess looked relaxed is LSU held a 5-0 lead after the first inning following a string of Texas fielding and throwing errors.

After Antoine Duplantis' RBI single put LSU up 1-0 in the first, the wheels fell off for Texas.

LSU's Hunter Feduccia smacked a liner to second, which should resulted in an inning-ending double play. But Longhorns' second baseman Masen Hibbeler's bobble allowed Duplantis and Feduccia to reach second and first base respectively.

Three pitches later, the Tigers' Beau Jordan hit a comebacker to Texas starting pitcher Nolan Kingham. He threw to third to force Duplantis, but Longhorn third baseman Kody Clemens was out of position.

The ball rolled toward the Longhorn dugout as Duplantis and Feduccia raced home.

It didn't get much better for Kingham, who gave up eight runs and eight hits before he was mercifully removed after three innings.

Texas managed two runs off Hess in its second on an RBI triple from Tate Shaw and a sac fly from Ryan Reynolds. LSU responded by adding three runs in the third, using an RBI single from Hal Hughes and a two-RBI double from Daniel Cabrera.

The Tigers also posted two runs in the fourth, thanks to Brandt Broussard's two-RBI single which put LSU up 10-2. Broussard went 4-for-5 and had a game-leading four RBI.

Jordan on the bags: Bryce Jordan tied an LSU record against Texas. The junior was walked four times, tying the school mark for most walks in a game, which was last set by Greg Deichmann on May 5, 2017 against Mississippi State.

Racking it up: Five different LSU players recorded multiple hits on the night vs. Texas. Broussard, a former Delgado Community College standout, led the Tigers with four. Duplantis, Daniel Cabrera, Austin Bain, and Hal Hughes all had two hits each.

Up next: Caleb Gilbert (0-1), looking to rebound after his rough Friday night start last week against Notre Dame, gets the call Saturday. First pitch vs. the Longhorns is 6:30 p.m.The people of Louisiana should know that when the Zombie apocalypse comes, Baton Rouge offers the best chance of survival in this state, according to an analysis of a report by the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.Feb 23, 2018 JB

National award winning actor Thambi Ramaiah is the latest addition to the sets of Ajiths Viswasam. The director turned actor who has not been accepting any movies in the last six months as he was busy directing his son in Ulagam Vilaikku Varudhu has agreed to be on board this Ajith-Siva film.

About this, he states, Yes, I have given my nod to this film. The team is not new to me. I have worked with Ajith sir and director Siva in Veeram and Vedalam. Though presently I am not signing any films, as I am concentrating in my own directorial venture with my son, Sivas narration of my character was awesome. Also, I share a great rapport with him. He knows what he wants and extracts the best from the artistes.

Thambi Ramaiah is one of finest actors in Tamil cinema that could fit into any character at will, be it comedy or serious roles. His inclusion is sure to add a lot of value to the team. Click the Movie button below for more info:

ViswasamThe inspector general of police (IGP), Kale Kayihura has issued a warning to police officers of all ranks against giving information to sister security agencies without authority from the force.



The warning was issued in a message signed by Kayihura on Thursday night, addressed to all unit commanders and police personnel.

Police chief Gen Kale Kayihura (L) and Security minister Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde

According to Kayihura, individual officers have been conspiring on their own or being summoned by sister security agencies like the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), Internal Security Organisations (ISO), Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and others to divulge divulge information without official authority.



"Such conduct undermines the authority of the police administration and contravenes the police code of conduct, the official oath and the oath of secrecy," reads the message in part.



It adds, "this is to warn all personnel involving themselves in such misconduct to stop forthwith. Disciplinary action shall be taken against all those involved such acts."

The warning message comes at time when the police top management is at loggerheads with ISO which operates under the ministry of Security headed by Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde. The fight seems to have incorporated the entire army. Tumukunde and Kayihura have on several occasions come out into the open to criticise each other's method of work.



Recently, the army through its judicial systems arrested and tried several police officers for crimes committed years ago which the police force had since investigated and shelved.

The investigation that ultimately led to the arrest and prosecution is believed to have been based on intelligence information.



The army also a month ago arrested members of Boda Boda 2010, an association patroned by Kayihura and headed by Abdallah Kitatta a close friend of the IGP.

This week, the minister Justice and Constitutional Affairs Kahinda Otafiire asked the security officers to stop fighting from the public. President Yoweri Museveni also promised to rein in the security officers. Museveni said the fight was by individuals and not institutions.

The two generals (Tumukunde and Kayihura) have allegedly had a long-standing rift since 2005 when Kayihura oversaw Tumukundes arrest and subsequent prosecution in the Army Court Martial for abuse of office and spreading harmful propaganda.

Tumukunde, then an army MP, had spoken out on Radio One political programme, Spectrum against the amendment of the Constitution to remove presidential term limits.

At the time, Tumukunde was cultivating a risky reputation as a regime critic from his perch as one of the 10 army MPs. The dramatic arrest was sanctioned based on a report Kayihura, who was thriving as the blue-eyed military assistant to Museveni, and chief political commissar of the UPDF, had written.

Tumukunde was sentenced to a serious reprimand, subjected to the twin humiliation of a lengthy detention at the Kololo officers mess. He was also withdrawn from the cushy position of representing the army in parliament.

That same year (2005), Kayihura was promoted to major general and appointed police chief, an office he has enthusiastically used to brutally clamp down on political opposition to Musevenis presidency.

Ten years later, Tumukunde was back in favour. In 2015, Museveni was assembling forces to counter the unusual leadership challenge presented by his long-time confidant, former prime minister Amama Mbabazi.

Museveni set Tumukunde to work, infiltrating and neutralising Mbabazis considerable networks. His long-held wish to retire from the army was also finally granted in September that year, with a promotion from brigadier to lieutenant general.

In July 2016, a new cabinet was announced in which he was named security minister, a docket that brought a rehabilitated Tumukunde into direct confrontation with the police chief.The Arthur W. Page Center presented the Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Relations on Feb. 22 to Bill George, senior fellow at Harvard Business School and former CEO of Medtronic; John Onoda, consultant at Gagen MacDonald; and the late PBS NewsHour host Gwen Ifill. The awards were handed out at a ceremony held at the Grand Hyatt - Midtown Manhattan Hotel.

(L) Gary Sheffer (sr. corp. strategist, Weber Shandwick) and (R) Lisa Davis (corp. VP, communications at Northrop Grumman Corporation), honored Gwen Ifill Honoree John Onoda (consultant at Gagen MacDonald)

The awards, which honor media professionals whose careers embody the ideals of committing to the truth and maintaining ethical practice in all aspects of their careers, are named for Larry Foster, who began his career as a journalist and went on to become the chief of public relations at Johnson & Johnson, shepherding the company through the Tylenol scandal.

Bill Nielsen, the Center's advisory board chair, said in his opening remarks that Foster's"vision was that all of us engage in communication with the public; journalist, public relations people and as business communication executives, who share their responsibilities with the truth and fact-based reporting in our work."

Nielsen also spoke about the erosion and restoration of public trust. He observed that the recently released Edelman Trust Barometer points to a sharp decline of trust in sources of information and a growing disregard for facts, data and analysis in both political and civil discourse. That problem was also the focus of a recent study released by Rand Corporation called "Truth Decay." Combatting this decline, he said, will entail many years of recovery.

Bill George was honored by Maril MacDonald, founder, and CEO of consulting firm Gagen MacDonald. George's Five Quick Principles to live by were cited:

 The truth is always going to come out, so you might as well be very transparent in telling your story.

 Tell your own story. Don't let someone else tell it for you.

 As a company, you have to transform yourself. There is probably truth in the problems and you have to correct your own problems first.

 Tell the good news every day.

 You've got to be present. Tell the deep story. Tell the story behind the story.

Ifill was honored by former vice president of communications at General Electric Gary Sheffer and Lisa Davis, a life-long friend of Ifills and VP of communications at Northrop Grumman Corporation.

(L to R) Barry Spector (creative director at Spector & Associates), Shelley Spector (president, Spector Corporate Communications/founder & director of Museum of Public Relations), Jane Landers (associate publisher, O'Dwyer's) and Dick Martin (former exec. VP, PR & brand management at At&T)

Judy Woodruff, who co-anchored the PBS NewsHour with Ifill, said her mantra was to "stick to what we know and let the audience make up their own minds about what to make of it."

Davis said, "People were simply drawn to her because they felt a closeness or kinship. On a professional level, her character expressed itself with objectivity and fairness. If she had political opinions, you could never tell, once you were on the air."

Onoda was honored by Tom Martin, executive-in-residence at the College of Charleston and former vice president of communications at ITT and FedEx. Martin compared Onoda to Yoda of in the Star Wars trilogy, saying both were "known for sage wisdom, their poetic language and unmatched ability to mentor others."

"Prove It With Action" was the Page Center principle Onoda focused on in addressing the audience. "Integrity in Public Communications is important now more than ever," he said, at a time "when skepticism and cynicism towards communication has become second nature for most listeners."

In his closing remarks, Nielsen said, "Change for the better is only achieved through effective communication with the public. We need to create awareness initially, understanding of the facts and the truth, to articulate the rationale for change and to encourage the acceptance of change."

Mark Raper

Padilla chief counsel officer and former president Mark Raper will retire this month, the agency reported.

As managing partner of Richmond, VA-based ad agency Earle Palmer Brown, Raper in 1996 led a group of employees to purchase EPBs PR operations to form Carter Ryley Thomas, where Raper was named chairman and CEO. The agency was named after the three principals young children, including Marks eldest daughter, Carter.

In 2005, Raper led CRTs acquisition of New York-based consumer PR specialist Patrice Tanaka & Co., forming CRT/tanaka. That agency was acquired in 2013 by Minneapolis-based Padilla Speer Beardsley to form PadillaCRT, where Raper was named president.

Raper began his PR career in the healthcare industry, serving as public relations director of a Charter Medical-owned hospital in Richmond and later, as a marketing and PR director for Sentara Health Systems in Norfolk.

He later held a four-year stint as PR director at Ford & Westbrook, Inc., and three years as corporate communications and marketing manager for conglomerate Figgie International. He joined EPB in 1988.

Padilla in 2016 acquired food and nutrition communications and consulting shop FoodMinds, establishing it as one of the largest independent food and beverage agencies in the country.

Last year, PadillaCRT rebranded as Padilla. Raper stepped down from the role of president and assumed a chief counsel officer position. Matt Kucharski succeeded Raper in the president role.

The agency now staffs 240 and maintains offices in Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Richmond, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Raper was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award of Excellence in Public Relations by the Richmond Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and Ernst & Youngs Regional Entrepreneur of the Year in the Business and Consulting Category.

Throughout his career, Mark has given everything of himself to the industry, his community and the company that became Padilla, Padilla CEO Lynn Casey told ODwyers. Hes earned his beach, and we wish him the best in his new journey.

Padilla is now one of the largest independently-owned PR and communications firms in the U.S. as ranked by ODwyers, accounting for more than $42.4 million in net fees in 2016.When an employee at the Oregon Department of Energy agreed to take bribes from a Seattle energy consultant in 2012, he needed a way to explain the payments and avoid paying taxes on them.

So the two plotted to make the payments look like a loan, using the consultant's elderly mother to hide their arrangement, according to court documents obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

"The agreement was, um, we're going to set this arrangement up in his mom's name, so when she dies the loan could be forgiven. Period," Joe Colello, the former Energy employee, told investigators. "So yes, I guess we were looking to defraud the government and not pay taxes. I'm sorry."

That revelation and similar details are in

of a June interview Colello gave to investigators and prosecutors, including the Oregon Department of Justice, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney's office. At the time, Colello was hoping to negotiate a better plea deal in exchange for his assistance in the case against the consultant, Martin Shain.

Now, Colello wants to withdraw his guilty plea and prosecutors are using his own words to fight the longshot effort. They filed the interview transcript, offering an unusual, behind-the-scenes look into how the two hatched their alleged scheme and how it played out over a period of nearly three years.

Colello pleaded guilty last summer to receiving nearly $300,000 in kickbacks from Shain to help arrange the sale of state energy tax credits. In addition to taking bribes, the charges included racketeering, grand theft, tax evasion and official misconduct.

Colello asked the court last month to withdraw his guilty plea. His lawyers claim they'd received thousands of pages of emails in discovery from the state since pleading guilty, including some that could exonerate him. They maintain that Colello, who was originally scheduled to be sentenced in October, couldn't have "voluntarily and intelligently" entered the plea without all the facts in hand.

The state responded last week, asking the court to deny the motion. Prosecutors maintain Colello had all the documentation necessary to show that the state could prove its case.

Colello, the state said, has not identified any exculpatory information. Moreover, he has repeatedly admitted his guilt in the kickback scheme, including in interviews with both state prosecutors and The Oregonian/OregonLive, before his plea deal. Finally, the state said, Colello knowingly agreed to and received the benefit of the plea agreement, which included a sentencing recommendation, in exchange for assistance in the case against Shain.

Prosecutors included the transcript in support of their motion to deny Colello's request. In that meeting, Colello told investigators that he got to know Shain shortly after joining the Department in 2006 as an analyst charged with reviewing applications for energy tax credits and substantiating that the underlying projects were delivering results.

Shain was a consultant to a variety of municipalities applying for tax credits, and when Colello contacted him for additional information on the projects, he said Shain was always forthcoming and cooperative, providing "whatever you needed," and that the results coming out of his projects were "phenomenal"

"We built a rapport that way...Martin was a good actor."

The state allows tax credit recipients to sell the credits to third parties for cash. According to Colello, Shain approached him in 2012 and told him that he was looking to help a variety of municipalities sell aging tax credits that they'd been unable to successfully market themselves.

As manager of the agency's pass thru program, that was Colello's day job: matching buyers and sellers of credits and helping both parties complete the deals. As such, he had a detailed knowledge of which tax credits recipients were looking to sell, as well as the list of potential buyers who had already approached the agency looking for credits.

Colello acknowledged to investigators that after hours, from his personal email, he sent spreadsheets to Shain detailing available projects and associated tax credits. According to investigators, Shain used the list to identify and market his brokerage services to specific clients.

Once the tax credit owner was under contract with Shain, Colello would then tap his list of available buyers, complete the deals, then tell Shain's clients that Shain had located the buyers.

Shain typically charged clients 2 percent of the project costs to sell the tax credit. The builder of a $1 million solar farm, then, would pay him a $20,000 commission to find a buyer or buyers for the tax credit.

Shain set up a separate company, R.C. Shain & Associates, for the brokerage transactions. The principal of the business was listed as his 85-year old mother, Roselle C. Shain, and Martin Shain's clients sent checks payable to her at her Seattle home.

Colello told investigators that he had a "verbal contract" with Shain. Shain was responsible for paying taxes on the brokerage commissions, then the two would split the remaining money 50-50.

Shain sent Colello bank checks covering his portion of the commissions delivered via FedEx and United Parcel Service, Colello said. Most of the checks were for slightly less than $5,000.

That was Shain's idea, Colello said. "We're going to keep the amount under $5,000 cause that's what the bank has to report. I believe to the IRS."

Colello said he never reported any of the income or paid his own taxes. Instead, he said, Shain set up the payments as loans and labeled the checks as "loan proceeds."

It's not clear if Shain's elderly mother was aware of the scheme. But the plan, as Colello told investigators, was to forgive the "loan" to Colello when she died.

Shain wasn't the only one who got his family involved. Some of the checks from Shain were made out to Colello's wife, and she cashed them and used some of the money, Colello told investigators. She has not been charged.

Colello said she knew he was doing business with Shain on the side, but thought it was legitimate. He could not answer prosecutors' questions as to why a legitimate business would be sending out checks to compensate him in her name.

Colello provided various explanations on where his portion of the commissions went. He said some it may have gone to pay off his wife's car loan. As much as $50,000 may have gone into a down payment on a home they bought in 2014. And other money went into a brokerage account.

Colello spent much of the interview equivocating and trying to justify his actions. He described the tax credit program as out of control, with buyers submitting fraudulent documentation misstating the purchase price of tax credits, other Energy Department officials giving preferential treatment to specific deals, and brokers ripping off tax credit recipients by charging huge commissions on deals the state could have arranged for free.

At one point, Colello even tried to suggest that he thought the moonlighting with Shain was allowed as outside consulting. But he eventually admitted he knew it was wrong. One exchange reads:

Question: You agree that you took money from Shain to help broker these energy credits. Right?

Colello: Yes.

Question: And you intentionally did so?

Coello: Yes.

Question: And it wasn't a loan?

Colello: It was not a loan.

Question: And it wasn't going to be repaid?

Colello: Uh, no. It wasn't going to be repaid.

Question: We did spend a lot of time talking about your justification and how it was on the up and up and above board. But clearly not, right?

Colello: Clearly not. You're absolutely correct.

Question: Anything else you want on the record before we go off?

Colello: I apologize for my behavior. I'm sorry I misplaced the public trust. Period. I was just...Yeah."

The court is scheduled to rule on Colello's motion to withdraw his plea next month. The state, meanwhile is also prosecuting Shain both for the bribery scheme and separate charges of forgery. His trial is scheduled for September. The two sides held a settlement conference in January.

Assistant Attorney general Elijah Michalowski emailed Shain's lawyers before that meeting, detailing the state's costs to date. That email was also included in a court filing when Shain's lawyer sought to delay the trial.

"Because the discussion is sure to not only include the length of any prison sentence, but also the restitution to be paid, I had our billings run so that we would have the amount for the cost of the investigation and prosecution available for the discussion," Michalowski wrote. "As of 1/22/18, DOJ employees have billed 3,636.7 hours at a cost of $553,074.80 and DOJ has incurred additional related cost of $1,891.64 for a total of $554,966.44."

Shain's lawyer declined to comment for this story. Colello's lawyers did not return calls.

In addition to prosecution costs, the state could seek repayment of its tax credit costs and the commissions that Shain earned. The law firm representing Shain on the forgery charges, Ball Janik, had placed $300,000 in mortgages on two of his properties in Seattle to finance his defense costs. Those have since been repaid, perhaps from the proceeds of the August sale of another $1.5 million beach house that Shain had co-owned with his business partner.

"My life has been ruined," Shain told The Oregonian/OregonLive when leaving a court hearing last June. "I lost everything."

- Ted Sickinger

503-221-8505; @tedsickingerBeth Nakamura/Staff

Coya Crespin moves her belongings from the apartment where she lives with her family. She received a no-cause eviction, forcing her to relocate with Titan, 18 months, and Saraia, 7.

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This is the first in a three-part series that examines the impact of Portland's housing crisis on children. See the project here.

By BETHANY BARNES

THE OREGONIAN | OREGONLIVE

Snow covered an unprepared Portland the day 18 families learned they would soon be forced out of their homes. At the Normandy Apartments, the final day of 2016 came not with revelry but a rent hike so high it was essentially an eviction.

City leaders were stunned to learn Rigler Elementary stood to watch 5 percent of its students vanish by April. But its a reality some educators know all too well: Children dont pay rent, but they are paying a steep price for Portlands failure to solve its housing crisis.

Students who are forced into new schools often lose their academic footing. They have to start all over building new relationships. Even their sense of self can suffer.

Like the snow, which iced roads to the point that hundreds of people abandoned their cars, the increasingly harsh rental climate has knocked that vulnerable, but often voiceless, segment of the City That Works on its heels.

In Oregons largest school district, more than 1,700 students in kindergarten through grade eight churned through at least three schools in the last five years alone, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive shows. Thats enough students to fill the districts biggest K-8 school -- twice.

Frankie Serrano, now 17, has cycled through three high schools in less than four years, after a spike in rents at his familys North Portland apartment complex forced them to double up with relatives in Milwaukie. Switching schools severed him from friends and mentors and has forced him and his little brother to wear the uncomfortable mantle of new kid multiple times.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Frankie Serrano, 17, commutes 40 minutes each way to Cleveland High School. He's willing to make the long commute to stay in his school.

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Like Frankie, James Atencio is attending his third school in a short time and hes only 11. His family was evicted from their apartment by new owners that wanted to remake the place and raise rents. A disability makes it challenging for the boy to control his behavior in school, but hed made progress and spent more and more time in a regular classroom.

When his family was uprooted and he had to switch to a new school mid-year, he lost confidence. He has had to retreat to more time in a self-contained special education class in a new school district.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

James makes himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich inside his family's Portland apartment.

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Its frustrating, said his mom, Nina Taylor. You want to see your kid succeed and you want them to have a stable foundation to succeed in, and when you are uprooted, it throws everything off balance.

Second-grader Saraia Crespin has gone to class for more than a year carrying her backpack, her school books and a looming dread that she one day might not come back to her school.

Saraias family lived in a 72-unit North Portland complex where families were hit with mass evictions at the same time that The Normandys residents were pushed out. For months, the little girl stood by her mothers side as they fought on renters behalf. Saraia held a bullhorn at marches, went on long car rides to Salem to talk to lawmakers and showed up at City Hall. Incredibly, the notice was rescinded.

But less than a year later, an eviction notice struck again.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Coya Crespin exits the apartment she is in the midst of packing up in order to move. She received a no-fault eviction notice and was forced to relocate with her two children, Titan and Saraia.

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"When you see your parent working hard and doing everything they need to do, her mother, Coya Crespin said, and yet still getting pushed out of their home, I think from a kids point of view, Its like why is this happening to us?'

The Oregonian/OregonLive spoke to parents, children, educators, activists and social service providers to better understand the acute strain felt by children. Kids are often hit the hardest, yet have the smallest voice in Portlands housing crisis, they said.

The newsroom also analyzed school district data to get a clear picture of the problem and which students and schools bear the brunt.

The analysis revealed the phenomenon has heavily impacted schools and families in some parts of town, while sparing others. That has exacerbated educational inequities in a district that already delivered sharply divergent results for students of different classes and races.

At Alameda Elementary in the Grant Park neighborhood and Duniway Elementary set amid green lawns near Reed College, theres little reason to worry about how to help students whose families are suddenly forced to relocate. Homes in those neighborhoods are extremely expensive to own or rent, and prices have risen sharply. Yet for every 100 Alameda students, only two enrolled after the school year began last year and two left early, records show.

Contrast that with the situation in North Portland and on the eastern edge of the school district, along 82nd Avenue. Schools in those neighborhoods primarily serve children of color and children from low-income families. The flow of students into and out of those neighborhoods mid-school-year has unmoored many families and the educators and social service providers that try to help them.

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Map: Portland school churn

See a map of student turnover rate at any neighborhood school in Portland Public Schools, along with the racial and economic make-up of the student body.

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One of every five students at Cesar Chavez and Harrison Park schools showed up after last school year started or left before it was done. Both serve neighborhoods where more than three-fourths of children are kids of color, Chavez in St. Johns and Harrison Park are just off Southeast 82nd.

At Rosa Parks Elementary and Lane Middle School, heavily non-white schools at the districts north and south edges, it was worse: One in four students got hit with a mid-year move. At James John Elementary, it was closer to one in three.

There have always been kids who have moved around a lot for one reason or another, but now there are way more of them and it's almost becoming a sad new norm for a certain class of people in our city, said Andrew Baron who runs the after-school program at Harrison Park. The disruption that causes both at the school level and the family level is just immense.

Baron had known Malik Logan, 12, since Malik was a shy first-grader. Baron calls him a great kid and then, with a grin, adds that Malik is one of those children who can be deeply frustrating but is deeply likeable. Baron spent years learning how Malik worked, what he needed, how to draw him out, calm him down. By last school year, Malik had made friends and built relationships with the principal, the school counselor and his teachers. Malik became a steady and eager presence in the school chess club.

But this school year Malik joined the ranks of children who disappeared.

Wheres Malik? No one knows. Just gone, Baron sighed. All of that support for that kid is probably gone and no one notices. We didnt get any call.

When a student switches to a new school district, as Malik had done, teachers and other adults who care about his well-being lose access to records showing his grades, his attendance -- even whether he is enrolled in school at all.

Baron worried whether Maliks new school would figure out what he needs. Does his new school have a chess club? he wondered.

Malik did, in fact, land at a school with chess. The trouble is, so far, hes been too nervous to participate.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Malik Logan, 12, waits at home before heading to the bus stop.

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Maliks family had been homeless, living doubled up with various friends and relatives or in hotels, for two years until they finally landed an apartment in 2015. The new place was in a different school district, David Douglas. Even so, the then 10-year-old managed to stay at Harrison Park by riding two TriMet buses to school, then home each day. But when he hit sixth grade this year, his mom decided to switch to the district where they actually live and send him to middle school.

Malik still talks about going back all the time, according to his mom. She suspects thats why he acted out during the first few months.

It was awkward going to a new school where most kids knew each other and he knew almost no one, Malik told The Oregonian/OregonLive. He didnt want to go back to how hed been in those early years at Harrison Park, when hed kept mostly to himself.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Malik Logan, 12, gets on his school bus.

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Fondly, he remembered how he grew more confident and talkative at Harrison Park. Now though, hes back to being the unsure observer.

Most new kids dont really talk to other people because they dont know them, Malik said. If you go to a lunch table and you really dont know them, and everybodys talking because they know (each other), its hard to really pick up a conversation.

When youre the new kid, everyone notices and if other students spot something wrong with you, he said, then theyll start talking about you, or, worse, theyll laugh.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Malik Logan, 12, didn't like being "the new kid" at school. He'd come out of his shell at Harrison Park School, but had to start over.

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Educators meticulously strategize about wrap-around services. They launch initiatives to curb absenteeism and spend years building close bonds with children who need help coming out of their shell  but all of that hard work is washed away in a move, Baron said.

Harrison Park sees both sides of the churn: For every student who disappears like Malik did, another arrives mid-year having been pulled from another school, district records from the past five school years show. During that period, 990 of its students made a mid-year move: 428 who left before the school year was up, 444 who arrived once the school year was underway and 118 more who did both, staying at Harrison Park for only a few months or even a few days.

Other Portland schools have similar or worse rates of disruption for students. At George Middle School in North Portland and Vestal K-8 on Northeast 82nd Avenue, for every 10 students enrolled last year, 2.7 students showed up after the school year started or left before the year was up. That matched the churn rate at Harrison Park.

At five other high-poverty, high-minority schools -- all near the citys edges, in North or far Southeast Portland -- the streams in and out were even more intense.

At Harrison Park, Baron knows one student who worried he was on the verge of moving for two years. Living with that constant instability takes a toll.

Children who transfer in mid-year can be disengaged and checked out, jaded by constant change, Baron said. It can be hard to convince those students to make an effort when their attitude is that it isnt worth it because theyll be gone again soon. The sad thing is, he said, sometimes theyre right and those children leave as quickly as they came.

Outside the cafeteria window, Baron can see a housing complex many of his students depend on. In recent years, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon intervened on behalf of 12 families there that were facing a rent hike and worked with the landlord to help them stay.

Odds are against Portland families who rent: The average rental household in Portland cant afford even a one-bedroom apartment in the city, according to an analysis last year by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. In arriving at its conclusions, the group applied the standard threshold that a family should spend no more than 30 percent of its income on rent. There just arent enough places to live that working families can afford.

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Mold was an ongoing problem in Coya Crespin's children's bedroom. Complaints to the landlord didn't work. Her children, Saraia and Titan, eventually abandoned the room, choosing instead to sleep with their mother. The family was no-cause evicted from the complex and moved in February.

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Mayor Ted Wheeler agrees that problem needs to be fixed. Half of the 1,300 apartments built or preserved using a $283 million voter-approved housing bond will have two or more bedrooms, enough for families with children, he said.

He and the rest of the City Council also plan to make permanent a requirement that landlords pay ousted tenants thousands of dollars to help them relocate. The rule doesnt apply to landlords who own only one apartment, but he and the council plan to change that, he said.

If the changes in the renter protection rule go through, Wheeler said, we can help stabilize families in their homes.

Displacement has a number of negative social consequences, he said and among the worst is that an unplanned move hurts a childs success in school.

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Beth Nakamura/Staff

Malik Logan, 12, studies reading in his first period class at Ron Russell Middle School.

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Although Wheeler and the rest of the City Council have declared affordable housing a top priority, however, they have only arranged for the citys housing bureau to complete 283 affordable apartments this year.

In the meantime, schools are called upon to shoulder demands from hundreds of families in survival-mode, reeling from a rent hike or eviction and with children bearing the effects.

Yet schools tend to be passive actors in the housing crisis. Portland Public Schools doesnt have a system to help families find new apartments in the same school attendance zone. It has no say over renters rights. It doesnt even have a formalized approach to helping teachers and counselors in one school make a helpful hand-off to their counterparts in another when one of their students moves mid-year.

All those factors impede the districts main objective: Ensuring Portland children learn.

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Its not that school employees arent moved to take action when they see students affected by Portlands high and rising rents. School staffers call housing hotlines if they learn a family is in crisis. Teachers turned out en masse at a march against The Normandy rent hikes, a showing that helped prompt the landlord to delay the price hike.

Federal funding intended to assist homeless students means district employees are trained to identify and help ensure homeless students have equal access to a public education. But no one has suggested the district create a formal strategy for schools to proactively help families dealing with rising rents.

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Alfredo Duque leads a mindfullness exercise in his first grade class at Rigler Elementary in Northeast Portland.

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Portland Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said the best the school district can do is offer students a consistent and dependable learning experience.

It's tough. I dont know what a given teacher or school principal might be able to do to influence the housing market in their surrounding community, he said. But they certainly feel it.

"Certainly we can do a lot to make sure the teaching and learning experience is powerful, but there are a lot of other factors that you can't ignore and pretend aren't there, and that is housing and medical and everything else. We take everyone who walks in the door, and the issues they bring with them are real."

On Portlands West Side and most close-in Eastside neighborhoods, there is no sweeping sense that a systemic fix is needed. Entire apartment complexes arent being emptied suddenly. Mid-year arrivals and departures are relatively rare. A student is eight times more likely to be upended mid-year at North Portlands highest churn elementary schools, Rosa Parks and James John, than a child at Alameda.

That puts extra demands on North Portland educators. It does affect attendance, our test scores, everything, said Angel Humphrey, who teaches gym at Cesar Chavez K-8 School, surrounded by apartments hit with evictions or rising rents. Youre dealing with a heartbroken kid who is just scared and I would be too, Im like, Im scared for you and I dont even know what I can do.

When the rent increase loomed at The Normandy, it was the school community that sounded the alarm.

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Bethany Barnes | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Eric Ku-Castillo, 7, a student at Rigler Elementary School, watches cartoons after school inside his family's home at The Normandy Apartments in January 2017. His family, along with several others, received a 100 percent rent increase.

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We wouldnt have even known the situation was unfolding if it werent for the teachers and administrators and the parents at Rigler reaching out to us, said Cameron Herrington, the anti-displacement coordinator with the neighborhood group Living Cully. "The whole school community was so supportive and engaged in the campaign."

Hundreds of people marched in the streets to protest. In both cases, the activism had impact.

Government officials in Portland noticed. Multnomah Countys human services department took the unusual step of offering to pay rent for Normandy families through the end of the school year.

Parents who faced a forced move went to City Hall and provided critical testimony ahead of a vote to pass a rule requiring landlords to provide relocation money if they either increase rent by at least 10 percent or issue a no-cause eviction.

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The ordinance passed unanimously, and on Wednesday, the city council will consider expanding the renter protection rule.

The families at The Normandy were some of the first to take advantage of that assistance, Herrington pointed out. In the end, he said, the landlord delayed the move-out date so the children could finish the school year. The county's money was freed up for another cause.

Still, even with all that momentum, the outcome was frustrating for many. More than half of the 26 children affected by the rent increase had to leave Rigler, where a vibrant Spanish immersion program and largely bilingual staff bolstered their language skills and made their families feel welcome. The odds that those native Spanish-speakers landed at another school with an immersion program are slim.

It was extremely discouraging that almost all the families had to move out of The Normandy, Herrington said. "We need to view education and health as part of the rationale for why access to stable affordable housing is important.

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Students heads into Rigler Elementary School in Portland.

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Daisy Fuentes mom and dad tried hard to keep her at Rigler. Her mom, Fidelina Sanchez, volunteered often at the school and loved feeling involved in her daughters education.

When the rent hike struck, she went with her neighbors to City Hall and also took the streets to protest, kids in tow. She hadnt expected the landlord to completely undo the price increase but had hoped it could be phased in gradually, giving the family time to adjust. The landlord, who had recently purchased the complex, has said the rent hike was necessary to recoup the substantial costs of renovating a run-down complex. The owner also noted that the rising rent was in line with market rates.

So the family found another apartment, this one outside the school zone. It wasn't ideal but it was workable. Daisy's dad could drive her to Rigler, where she was finishing kindergarten, on his way to his job. Her mom could take the bus to pick Daisy up from school.

But there was a problem. The apartment was on the second floor and their downstairs neighbor complained about the sound of the childrens feet. There was no way to make Daisy, 7, and her 1-year-old brother step softly all day long.

So they tried again to find an apartment that would allow them to stay at Rigler or at least near by. They scoured the Internet for apartments and cased neighborhoods, hopping out of the car and knocking on any door with a For Rent sign out front.

Nothing panned out. Instead, they moved 11 miles further south and east, to the Centennial School District. Daisys parents agonized over how to tell her she wouldnt go back to Rigler for first grade.

Her new school, Meadows Elementary, has no immersion program and almost no adults who speak Spanish. Sanchez hasnt been able to volunteer because of the language barrier and its difficult to even get information about how her daughter is doing. Before, it was easy to help Daisy with her homework. Now she struggles to even understand what an assignment asks.

At the start of the school year, Daisy begged to stay home most days. She missed her friends and her teachers and didn't like that her new school was only in English. At the end of kindergarten, Daisy had become a proficient reader, her mom said, but since the move, it feels like her progress has washed away.



"You feel a sense of grief. You feel helpless because it feels like you can't do anything," Sanchez said. "The landlords aren't the ones that have to find a new school."

 Bethany Barnes

Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com



Bilingual reporter Eder Campuzano contributed to this report

This series was produced with the support of the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and its Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism.

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This is part of The Oregonian/OregonLive's "Reading, Writing, Evicted" project. Explore the project here.

By BETHANY BARNES

THE OREGONIAN | OREGONLIVE

Adelfa Sanchez spends roughly two hours each school day driving children to and from Portland's Rigler Elementary.



Sanchez isn't a bus driver.



She's a mom who is dedicated keeping her children and two of her sons' classmates in their old neighborhood school after the landlord at their old apartment complex doubled  doubled  the rent last year.

That rent hike forced more than a dozen children out of Rigler. The move separated them not just from their Northeast Portland school, but shut them out of a Spanish immersion education.

It could have been worse. In total, 26 childrens educations were threatened by the rent hike at that one complex. But some were able to remain in the well-regarded Spanish immersion program that connects them to their native language. Three of those children managed to hang on because of one person: Sanchez.

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Adelfa Sanchez was forced out of her apartment in Northeast Portland after a 100 percent rent increase.

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Her family and two others found city-subsidized apartments where they could afford to live. But they now live miles outside the Rigler attendance zone and no school bus will come and get them.

So every day, Sanchez starts her tiny silver Nissan with the booster seat in back and drives her son and two classmates to Rigler. Then she drives back home and picks up her two middle-school-age children and drives them to Beaumont. Then, in the afternoon, she gets back in the car again.

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Adelfa Sanchez commutes to and from school with her three children, who attend two different Portland schools.

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She does this because she knows the value of bilingual education and a stable school experience -- and the pain of being in a school where parents or students feel unwelcome.

When Sanchezs daughter was younger, she attended a school without an immersion program or the welcoming atmosphere she and her children found at Rigler.

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Jorge Rivera's first grade class, part of the Spanish immersion program at Rigler Elementary School.

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The teacher didnt even say hello to me or anything, she said. They wouldnt even look at me or they looked at me with disgust.

I dont know about other mothers, but me as a mom, I always try to be involved with my kids teachers, she said. And Rigler, she says, makes that easy, since her sons bilingual teachers are eager to explain to her how her son is doing and what hes learning.

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Adelfa Sanchez in her apartment with her son, Jorge Rivera, 7, a first-grader.

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I dont feel confident in other schools. I feel like sometimes its because of the English. I can defend myself more now, but three years ago or so I didnt know hardly anything and I felt ignored in that school.

Interim Rigler Principal Jennifer Fontana said children who have to leave Rigler are unlikely to get into a similar language program.

"This is much more complex than just moving to a new apartment, she said. "Parents are really highly impacted when linguistically there is barrier to communicate with the school."

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Jorge Rivera, 7, right, a first grader, in his classroom at Rigler Elementary.

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Sanchez says its heartbreaking to see Latino children who have lost their ability to read and speak Spanish or dont know it well. She doesnt want that for her children.

If one day my kids changed schools, Id have to resign myself to that. But Ive always said that right now, while they are still young, I want them to be in that school because its of two languages, she said. Im proud of all three of them, because they speak Spanish well and speak English, too.

 Bethany Barnes

Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com

To comment on this story go to the main "Reading, Writing, Evicted" story here.



This series was produced with the support of the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and its Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism.Markus Wheaton signed with the Chicago Bears with hope of a fresh start for his career in 2017.

He'll probably be looking for another fresh start in 2018. The Bears are expected to "move on" and released the former Oregon State Beavers wide receiver before the official start of the 2018 season, according to a report.

The Bears have a very good reason to cut Wheaton. He caught just three passes for 51 yards in 11 games during an injury-plagued season in 2017. Wheaton signed a two-year, $11 million contract with the Bears and was expected to be their deep threat, but he was beset by injuries beginning in training camp.

Wheaton had an emergency appendectomy during the first week of training camp. He returned Wheaton broke the pinkie finger on his left hand just one day after he returned to practice after being out for two weeks following the surgery. Wheaton missed time with a groin tear during the regular season.

Wheaton would be due $5.75 million if he remained on the Bears roster in 2018. Considering he was a major bust in 2017 and has had durability issues throughout his career, there's little chance of the Bears retaining him.

-- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnoldThe success of Measure 101 last month, in which Oregonians approved new health care taxes to fill the state's Medicaid deficit, has emboldened the Legislature. Lawmakers are aiming to ask voters to approve a first-in-the-nation constitutional amendment that declares health care access a basic right. But they may also revive the grossly partisan ballot-titling approach employed for Measure 101 to sell Oregonians on this potential measure as well.

A proposal drafted for the House Rules Committee would bypass current election laws and give the responsibility of writing the title and summary of a health care ballot measure to a committee of six legislators - four Democrats and two Republicans - who are handpicked by Democratic legislative leaders. The proposal, which has not yet been introduced, would also give the six lawmakers authority to write the ballot language for another possible constitutional amendment measure that seeks to loosen restrictions on cities' bonding authority, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Gordon Friedman reported.

This is partisan gamesmanship at its pettiest. Voters expect impartial wording on their ballots that summarizes and explains a measure so that voters can make an informed decision. The current process gives the responsibility of writing ballot language to the independently elected attorney general and to a committee of five people - two supporters, two opponents and a fifth selected by the others - to help ensure neutrality. While the Legislature has written ballot language itself, it has largely done so in a way that gives all legislators a say in approving the language.

But all of a sudden, this process needs fixing? House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, argues that the proposal "would create an open, transparent process for a bipartisan group of legislators to explain the legislative intent behind those measures. Ultimately, legislators are asking voters to weigh in on important public policy questions through these referrals - so it makes sense for legislators to also explain their intent through the process outlined in this amendment."

She's correct that it would be helpful for Oregonians to hear the Legislature's reasons for asking voters to amend the constitution. But there's already a great way to do that that doesn't subvert current processes. She and other legislators can submit a signed statement in the portion of the Voters Pamphlet marked "Arguments in Favor." That would be true transparency, unlike disguising a massaged view of the measure as a neutral summary on Oregonians' ballots.

We've already seen what an unbalanced process yields. Democrats rammed through one-time changes last year that moved up the Measure 101 election and gave ballot-language authority to the Democrat-dominated legislative committee that it wants to reprise now. As a result, Oregonians who read the official ballot measure title and summary of Measure 101 were treated to a 400-plus word description of the new taxes without ever seeing the word "tax." While the new proposal gives the Oregon Supreme Court the power to require changes in the wording, it's important to remember that the justices evaluate ballot measure language for whether it complies with minimum statutory requirements - not whether it is the best or most neutral way of presenting information.

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.

Williamson's spokesman Aaron Fiedler argues that the proposed changes aren't outside normal procedures. He points to several instances in the past decade in which the Legislature wrote the wording for ballot measures. But he neglects to point out that the Legislature did so by passing bills that needed a majority from both chambers, not by anointing a small committee of hand-picked legislators to make the decision. In fact, in recent years, the only instances in which the Legislature empowered a smaller committee was for Measure 101 and for the controversial tax Measures 66 and 67 in 2009. Every committee was dominated by Democrats.

Having the attorney general write the ballot language doesn't guarantee nonpartisanship. But she is also an independently elected official who must answer to voters statewide, unlike individual legislators who are elected by a tiny fraction of Oregonians. It's far preferable to have someone accountable to voters across the state wield this power than a group of six lawmakers who don't need to think beyond the concerns of their narrow constituencies.

Ultimately, this is about preserving some element of neutrality amid Oregon's intensely divisive political scene. There's no shortage of places for legislators, supporters, opponents, special-interest groups and anyone else to advocate for their positions. They can run TV ads, post their feelings on Facebook and list their arguments in the Voters Pamphlet. They can hold rallies, buttonhole strangers outside grocery stores and put up yard signs.

But when Oregonians sit down to vote, they should be able to trust that the language on their ballots, from the title of a measure to the expected results of a yes or no vote, is free from partisan subterfuge.

The proposal, although drafted, has not yet moved forward. Rep. Williamson should put people's minds at ease and pledge that it never will.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial BoardAn explosion caused by an engine malfunction stalled a cargo ship en route Longview, Washington, Thursday, the Coast Guard said in a release.

Crew members aboard the Federal Iris, a 653-foot bulk vessel, called for an emergency tow 120 miles west of the Columbia River in the Pacific Ocean after a component malfunction caused the explosion in the main diesel engine. The Denise Foss, a towing vessel stationed at Neah Bay, Washington, responded Friday.

The bulk vessel is now being towed to Seattle, a journey the Coast Guard estimates will take 48 hours to complete.

There were no injuries aboard the Federal Iris, although the explosion rendered damaged the propulsion system. The ship will head to its final destination, the Port of Changzhou in China, after it's inspected in Seattle.

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.comA Lane County man stashed $1 million worth of marijuana in fake boulders and attempted to ship it from Springfield to Oklahoma City.

Curran Millian Manzer, 37, is accused of possession with intent to distribute more than 100 pounds of marijuana, according to a federal complaint signed and filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

A Springfield police officer began investigating Manzer in the fall, after the United Parcel Service discovered Manzer attempting to send multiple packages out of state that reeked of marijuana, wrote Sean Cummings, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, in a probable cause statement.

UPS, on its own and not at police direction, inspected packages in October that were addressed to Manzer and discovered mounds of cash sealed in plastic that amounted to between $40,000 and $50,000, Cummings wrote. The packages were resealed and sent on to the Springfield man's address.

On Nov. 10, Springfield Officer Eric Sorby spotted Manzer drop off six packages at the UPS store. Manzer paid for the packages to be sent the next day to Oklahoma then drove off in his company pickup truck that read "Curran's Taxidermy,'' the statement said.

The officer obtained a search warrant and opened the packages after a police dog reacted to the scent of drugs in them.

Police found large fake boulders made of a fiberglass texture inside the packages. Inside the boulders were vacuum-sealed plastic bags holding 143 pounds of marijuana, according to Cummings.

Springfield police spokesman Lt. Scott McKee heralded the discovery in a news release in November that started, "Leaving no stone unturned, police discover elaborate interstate marijuana transportation operation.''

Investigators also served a search warrant at a Walterville-area location, where they found multiple marijuana grow sites and shipping records.

Recreational and medical marijuana use is legal in Oregon, but the drug remains illegal under federal law, and shipping it across state lines is prohibited under both federal and state law. Manzer initially faced state charges but now faces federal prosecution.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianA southern Oregon woman was arrested Friday on accusations of trying to murder two elderly people -- after medical providers who evaluated the pair realized they neednt be on deaths door.

Medford police say Karin Karly Boldt, 55, also defrauded and stole more than half a million dollars from the elderly residents.

Boldt was a caregiver for the victims. Police did not name them or say how old they are.

Investigators were tipped off to alleged suspicious activity by Boldt after the victims were hospitalized in March 2017. A social worker and other medical providers realized that the victims rapidly declining health didnt seem to be related to their previously diagnosed medical conditions, police said.

Investigators say Boldt tried to place the pair in hospice. Its not clear if things actually went that far.

But police said the victims nearly died. After they were removed from Boldts care, they made a full recovery, according to police.

Boldt has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, money laundering, criminal mistreatment, aggravated theft and theft. She was booked into Jackson County Jail on Friday.

Police are asking anyone with information about this case to call detectives at 541-774-2230.

-- Aimee GreenSEATTLE (AP)  When law enforcement agencies in Washington and other states sell guns they've confiscated during criminal investigations, they're not just selling pistols and hunting rifles, they're also putting assault weapons, including AR-15s, back on the street.

Sheriff's offices and police departments across Washington state have sold dozens of AR-15s, AK47s and other assault weapons since 2010, an Associated Press investigation found.

Most states allow law enforcement agencies to decide whether to sell, trade or destroy their confiscated firearms, but a growing list of states has passed laws in recent years requiring agencies to sell all forfeited guns. Supporters say selling seized guns provides law enforcement with needed revenue, and if the practice were abandoned, people would just buy weapons somewhere else.

But Yakima Police Captain Jeff Schneider said it's "absolutely insane" that police are selling assault weapons.

"It's a bad idea to sell guns. It's a really bad idea to sell an assault rifle," said Schneider, whose agency melts down confiscated guns. "It's possible a firearm sold by a police agency could be used in a mass shooting, but since they are rare, it's more likely it could be used in a crime against police. That's a real threat."

The Washington State Patrol, which is required by law to auction or trade most of its confiscated guns, traded a Colt .223-caliber AR-15 in 2014, an SKS assault rifle in 2012 and an AK-47 Russian assault rifle in 2014. They were then sold to the public.

The State Patrol's latest trade was with a gun dealer in Knoxville, Tennessee, in December. The batch of 331 guns included five assault rifles.

"The fact that Washington state is acting as an arms dealer terrifies me," said Democratic Rep. Tana Senn of Bellevue, who has sponsored a bill that would allow the patrol to destroy seized guns. "I don't think that should be their role."

Police and sheriff's offices in other states that require law enforcement to sell guns  including Arizona, North Dakota, and Georgia  also have sold assault weapons, the AP found.

The AP did not report on the law or selling practices of police agencies in Oregon.

In Washington, more than a dozen of the guns sold by law enforcement since 2010 ended up in new crimes, the AP found, and while none was an assault rifle, many fear it's only a matter of time. Assault rifles are the weapons of choice in mass shootings.

An AR-15-style assault rifle was used in this month's deadly shooting at a Florida high school, as well as mass shootings at a Las Vegas music festival; a Texas church; an Orlando, Florida, nightclub; a San Bernardino, California, social services center; a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school; and an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater.

AR-15s and other assault-style weapons were fashioned after military rifles, but were made lighter for civilian use. They are semi-automatic weapons that shoot high-velocity ammunition, which causes significant damage. They're designed to accept high-capacity magazines that can hold up to 30 rounds.

In Washington, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office sold a DPMS Panther AR-15 in 2016. The agency sells its confiscated guns through a Post Falls, Idaho, auction house.

The Thurston County Narcotics Task Force sold two AR-15s in 2010. One went for $250, and the other for $370. Buying a new model runs between $650 and $950 online.

The Spokane Police Department, which sold three assault weapons since 2011, says it's OK with putting the rifles out there.

The department "is concerned about anyone resorting to acts of violence regardless of the weapon they use," said agency spokesman John O'Brien. "Our procedure to sell long rifles through an ATF-monitored process to a FFL (Federal Firearms License) dealer follows city and state law and upholds the Constitution."

One Michigan law enforcement official said his agency decided to destroy its confiscated guns out of fear one might be used in a mass shooting.

Platt Weinrick, with the Michigan State Police forfeited weapons unit, said about a year ago his unit was looking for a new way to deal with confiscated guns and began asking agencies across the country what they did. He heard from some who said they destroyed them "because they didn't want to have issues like the Sandy Hook shooting, and have it traced back" to their departments.

"That is the type of thing that could happen, where an agency sells a gun, makes a profit, and it gets used by a criminal," Weinrick said.

When North Dakota passed its law in 2015, it included language that neither the state nor any officers or employees would be liable for injuries or damage to property "arising from the sale or disposal of a firearm."

Washington's law requiring the State Patrol to auction or trade confiscated guns has no liability language. A bill being considered at the Washington Legislature would allow the patrol to destroy seized guns, but it's stalled in the House.

The State Patrol hadn't sold any weapons since 2014 and at one point stockpiled about 400 in the hope the Legislature would change the law and let the agency destroy them. But when lawmakers failed to act last year, the agency traded 330 weapons with a Tennessee gun dealer, who supplied the State Patrol with AR-15s.

"We have to follow the law of the land, and it would be up to state lawmakers to allow us to destroy weapons," State Patrol spokesman Kyle Moore said Wednesday.

In addition, the law doesn't differentiate between different types of weapons, he said: "We have to sell them all."

-- The Associated PressSALEM  Democrats in the Oregon Senate narrowly passed a plan Friday to respond to the federal tax overhaul, a move that would net the state budget a quarter billion dollars but left the chamber's Republicans unusually resentful.

The Democrats got their way on taxes without a single Republican vote and a "no" vote from one of their own, Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose.

Senate President Peter Courtney, a Salem Democrat, typically tries to secure at least one Republican vote on every bill he brings up for consideration by the full Senate. Following the tax vote Friday, Republican Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas told Senate Democrats they were only creating an appearance of bipartisanship.

"I'm done with the charade, Mr. president," Boquist told Courtney.

He then resigned in protest from an important committee Courtney formed last month in hopes it could formulate a bipartisan fix for the state's mediocre public education system.

The roughly hour-long debate over the Democrats' tax bill centered on a provision that would prevent Oregon from copying a new federal tax break for certain businesses into state law. Democrats were adamant that giving those businesses a double tax break would be unwise and unfair to working-class families and other regular wage earners. Republicans were just as convinced that the businesses deserve to get the same break as they won under the new federal tax law.

The 16-to-13 split on taxes followed similarly divisive votes on a tuition and financial aid bill for unauthorized immigrants Monday and a gun control bill Thursday. And it could presage another bitter fight next week when the Senate is scheduled to take up a bill to update the state's advance directives that people can use to specify the health care they want if they become incapacitated.

Boquist said he plans to sue the state over legislative leaders' decision to pass the tax bill on a simple majority vote, rather than the supermajority required for bills that raise taxes. "This is a revenue package," Boquist said.

Boquist, who played a key role last year in passing a bipartisan transportation funding plan, also publicly announced he was quitting the joint legislative committee that Courtney created to identify ways to improve Oregon's education system and secure necessary funding.

The tax measure, Senate Bill 1528, also includes a strategy to help higher income households avoid the new $10,000 federal cap on deductions for state taxes. That provision received little discussion on Friday, however. The state would allow those taxpayers to buy up to $14 million a year of new tax credits to raise money for an existing need-based scholarship program for in-state college students. Since the federal law did not cap charitable deductions, proponents believe that people who purchase the tax credits could turn around and claim that deduction on their federal returns.

The new federal tax break that Democrats want to keep out of state law is a deduction for people who earn income from so-called pass-through businesses such as partnerships and S corporations. Oregon generally follows federal tax code and if lawmakers don't take action, Oregon taxpayers who earn money from pass-through corporations would receive the same deduction on their state taxes. Democrats object, because the benefit would be layered on top of an existing state tax break for pass-through earners that lawmakers passed in 2013.

Sen. Mark Hass, a Beaverton Democrat who carried Senate Bill 1528 on the floor Friday, said he believes "nobody gets seconds until everybody gets through the line."

Nearly half the benefit of adding the tax break in Oregon would go to people with household incomes above $450,000, Hass said. "Of all the issues facing our state today, from housing to struggling schools, the fact we're on the floor debating whether to lower taxes for people making $450,000 and above is the most absurd moment of my legislative career," Hass said.

Sen. Rod Monroe, a Portland Democrat, said the bill will not result in any small business owner paying "a higher tax rate next year ... than they did this year."

"This is the most important bill before us this session," Monroe said.

If the Legislature doesn't pass the bill and the new federal tax break remains in state law, the state stands to lose roughly $120 million in the current budget. Conversely, the state budget would gain about $140 million in revenue if lawmakers act to keep the federal deduction out of state law.

Sen. Herman Baertschiger Jr., a Republican from Grants Pass, said the benefits of tax cuts for businesses trickle down to the community. He rejected Democrats' argument that Oregon schools would suffer a revenue loss if the state were to state copy the federal tax cut for pass-through businesses.

"We will fund the schools if we have a good economy, because we'll have more taxes," Baertschiger said.

-- Hillary Borrud; Twitter: @hborrud; 503-294-4034WASHINGTON -- Governors assessing the fallout from the latest school shooting said Saturday that the gun control debate has changed after the sorrow in Florida, a shift helped driven by public outrage and student activists.

But they are skeptical Congress can seize the moment, overcome its partisan divide and enact measures intended to prevent more tragedies, so governors are preparing to take the lead and have states push ahead with new gun restrictions.

The Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that claimed 17 lives is drawing much of the attention at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington. School safety and gun violence are expected to dominate the governors' discussions Monday with President Donald Trump at the White House.

"There's no question we're in a different environment," said Gov. Bill Haslam, R-Tenn. "There's a lot of folks looking like, is it common sense to rule out someone to buy a beer at 20, but we'll let him buy an assault rifle?"

Trump has not made any proposals to Congress. He spent much of the past week voicing support for strengthening federal background checks of gun buyers, banning "bump stock" type devices like the ones used in last year's Las Vegas massacre, and keeping assault weapons out of the hands of anyone under age 21.

In public discussions last week with students and teachers, state and local leaders, he mused about the need for more mental institutions and allowing some trained school personnel to carry concealed weapons. Trump said he phoned Republican congressional leaders on Friday, and White House officials said Trump is looking to begin meetings with lawmakers this coming week on considering a legislative response to the shooting.

In a tweet Saturday, he lowered expectations that he would promote on Capitol Hill the idea of putting "gun-adept" teachers and staff in schools with concealed firearms. "Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States."

Democratic governors at the conference said they had little faith that Trump, who enjoyed significant support among the National Rifle Association during his 2016 campaign, would keep his word about trying to find a legislative response or that the issue would retain his attention.

"What can you trust coming out of the president's mouth on this particular issue? Particularly when you know that the NRA invested $30 million making sure he got elected," said Gov. Dannel Malloy, D-Conn., who dealt with the aftermath of the 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown.

Governors are watching GOP Gov. Rick Scott, who announced Friday that he would seek to raise the minimum age for purchasing any firearm in Florida to 21, and strengthening rules meant to keep guns away from those with mental health issues. It would mark the strongest gun control laws in the state in decades, defying the NRA, but falling short of what gun control advocates have demanded.

"We are a strong Second Amendment state and so our focus is going to be on keeping children safe, keeping our schools safe," said Gov. Bill Walker, an independent from Alaska. "I think he's taken some very significant steps. We're going to look at that in Alaska but we're going to do it on terms that works for Alaska."

Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., accused Scott of "scrambling to try to cover up 30 years of inaction and 30 years of being under the thumb of the NRA and 30 years of putting our children at risk."

"They're making some little tiny baby steps to cover up their tracks because now they're running for other office, that's the situation in Florida," Inslee said. Scott is expected to launch a campaign for Senate in the coming months.

#ICYMI: I spoke with Rachel @maddow last night about Oregon's leadership in fighting #gunviolence and the need to pass sensible gun legislation. With a big shout out to the young students in Parkland for using their voices for change! https://t.co/ej8W8yCdFZ  Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) February 24, 2018

The Democratic governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island announced a partnership last week to address gun violence. The agreement would allow the governors to share data on suspects and gun purchasers

"Congress needs to act but we're not going to sit around and wait for them to act. We're taking action on our own to keep people safe," said Gov. Gina Raimondo, D-R.I.

Even Republican leaders fretted about the prospects for progress in Congress, which failed to pass gun control or background check legislation after the Connecticut shooting and has long ground to a halt on issues such as health care and immigration.

Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he has convened a diverse group of advisers on gun policy to help him develop new approaches. He also said he was looking to raise Ohio's minimum age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles like the one used in the Parkland shooting.

The governors acknowledged the fresh voices of young people impacted by the recent shooting, who have led school walk-outs and other protests both in Florida and across the country.

"I see these kids and I don't see them letting go," said Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello. "I see them charging through."

-- Ken Thomas and Zeke MillerToronto, Feb. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restaurants Canada is pleased to announce that the Honourable Ahmed D. Hussen, Canadas Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship will officially open RC Show 2018  the biggest event of the year for Canadas restaurant and hospitality industry.

Minister Hussen will lead RC Show 2018s ribbon cutting ceremony on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. at Restaurants Canadas main booth in Torontos Enercare Centre.

Minister Hussen is acutely aware of the importance of immigrants and refugees to our industry, which provides countless new Canadians opportunities to join our workforce and help them integrate into our society.

We have always been proud that our industry is one of the most diverse in the country and is represented by people from around the globe, who all bring something unique to contribute to our shared future said Shanna Munro. They enrich our culinary culture.

Cutting-edge technology and transformative ideas will be at the forefront of the show with this years theme, Innovation Unleashed. Focusing on the best of whats new in taste, trends and technology with content that will encapsulate everything from where and how we source ingredients to what the future of food will look like.

Celebrated for three days and spanning 250,000 square feet, the RC Show is packed with inspiring talks, eye-opening demonstrations, interactive stages, engaging competitions as well as networking events and experiential dinners.

We look forward to discussing ways we can work even more collaboratively with Canadas Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to help grow Restaurants Canada and our economy through immigration.

Restaurants Canada is a growing community of 30,000 foodservice businesses, including restaurants, bars, caterers, institutions and suppliers. We connect our members from coast to coast, through services, research and advocacy for a strong and vibrant restaurant industry. Canadas restaurant industry directly employs 1.2 million Canadians and serves 18 million customers every day.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b0d8fbc1-61d0-4e51-8b3d-ed0d0e3613b0VANCOUVER, British Columbia and JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Feb. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (TSX:PTM) (NYSE American:PLG) (Platinum Group or the Company) is pleased to announce the positive results from its Annual General Meeting held on February 23, 2018 in Vancouver, BC.

The meeting had a turnout of shareholders representing over 62% of its issued shares eligible to vote at the meeting. Shareholders strongly supported the appointment of the Board and the resolutions proposed.

R. Michael Jones, President, CEO and co-founder of Platinum Group Metals said We were pleased to see the support of shareholders. During 2017 the Company undertook some difficult decisions. The business of the Company is now focused on the palladium dominant Waterberg Project and we look forward to 2018 and the advancement of that project.

The number of directors is fixed at five and on a show of hands the shareholders at the meeting elected managements five nominees for directors. Details of the proxy voting are as follows:

MOTIONS NUMBER OF

SHARES PERCENTAGE OF

VOTES CAST FOR FOR WITHHELD/

ABSTAIN R. MICHAEL JONES 67,185,768 98.08% 1.92% FRANK R HALLAM 66,395,996 96.92% 3.08% IAIN D C MCLEAN 67,204,598 98.11% 1.89% TIMOTHY D MARLOW 67,379,465 98.36% 1.64% DIANA J WALTERS 67,436,065 98.44% 1.56%

At the Annual General Meeting the Board of Directors was reduced from seven members in the previous year to five members. Long term past directors Eric Carlson and Barry Smee are thanked for their many years of dedicated service and guidance to the Company.

Shareholders also voted 96.31% in favour of re-appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors, and to authorize the Directors to fix the auditors remuneration for the ensuing year.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors following the shareholders meeting, the current officers of the Company were ratified for the following year.

For more information on these matters, please refer to Platinum Groups information circular, available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or visit our website at www.platinumgroupmetals.net.

About Platinum Group Metals Ltd.

Platinum Group is focused on, and is the operator of, the Waterberg Project, a bulk mineable underground deposit in northern South Africa. Waterberg was discovered by the Company. Waterberg has potential to be a low cost dominantly palladium mine and Impala Platinum recently made a strategic investment in the Waterberg Project.

On behalf of the Board of

Platinum Group Metals Ltd.

R. Michael Jones

President, CEO and Director

For further information contact:

R. Michael Jones, President

or Kris Begic, VP, Corporate Development

Platinum Group Metals Ltd., Vancouver

Tel: (604) 899-5450 / Toll Free: (866) 899-5450

www.platinumgroupmetals.net



Disclosure

The Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE MKT LLC have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this news release, which has been prepared by management.

This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws and forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. securities laws (collectively forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, plans, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes any forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations and assumptions in such statements will prove to be correct. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The Company directs readers to the risk factors described in the Companys Form 20-F annual report, annual information form and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulators, which may be viewed at www.sec.gov and www.sedar.com, respectively.Toronto, Feb. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadians love for craft beer continues to grow as craft beer/microbrews is once again the hottest trend on Restaurants Canadas 2018 Chef Survey, with food smoking and pickling taking the second and third slots.

Each year, we ask chefs from across Canada to identify menu items and cooking methods at the peak of popularity. Heres whats brewing in restaurants:

Top Ten Hot Trends

Craft beer/microbrews

Food smoking

Pickling

House-made condiments/sauces

Sustainable seafood

Gluten-free/food allergy conscious

Fermenting

Dark Leafy greens (e.g., kale, Swiss chard, mustard greens, collard greens, beet greens)

Sous vide

Locally sourced foods (Locavore)

Once again, craft beer is on top of Canadas foodservice industry, says Shanna Munro, President and CEO at Restaurants Canada. Canadians thirst for locally brewed beer appears unquenchable and their desire to find rich, original and local flavours continues to gain popularity, with no signs of slowing down. The other hot trends paint a clear picture that healthy eating and fresh products are top-of-mind for Canadian consumers.

Top Ten Up and Comers

Algae (e.g., seaweed)

Filipino cuisine

Artisan/house-made ice cream

Imperfect/ugly produce

Ancient grains (e.g., kamut, spelt, amaranth, freekeh, lupin)

Drinkable desserts

Ethnic cheeses (e.g., queso fresco, paneer, lebneh, halloumi)

New cuts of meat (e.g., shoulder tender, oyster steak, Vegas Strip steak, Merlot cut)

Gourmet lemonade (e.g., made in house, freshly muddled)

Specialty iced tea (e.g., Thai-style, Southern/sweet, flavoured)

It was a welcome surprise to see algae claim this years top spot in the Up-and-Comer category, which was closely followed by Filipino cuisine and artisan/house-made ice cream.

Innovative beverages also made a strong showing, with gourmet lemonade, speciality iced tea and drinkable desserts all breaking into the top 10. This could be the beginning of a growing trend where beverages, and not solid foods, reign supreme on menus across the country this summer.

Dont forget, you can see the latest industry innovations, trends and ideas at RC Show 2018 at Torontos Enercare Centre from Feb. 25 -27.

Detailed results: Available to Restaurants Canada members only.

About the survey

More than 430 professional chefs participated in Restaurants Canadas ninth annual Canadian Chef Survey, conducted in January 2018. Members of the Canadian Culinary Federation, Terroir and Restaurants Canada participated in the survey.

Restaurants Canada (formerly the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association) is a national association comprising 30,000 businesses in every segment of the foodservice industry, including restaurants, bars, caterers, institutions and their suppliers. Through advocacy, research, and member programs and services, Restaurants Canada is dedicated to helping its members in every community grow and prosper.

Canadas restaurant industry directly employs more than 1.2 million Canadians, contributes $84 billion a year to the Canadian economy (including commercial and non-commercial foodservice), and serves more than 18 million customers every day.

Attachments:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/90e442ce-1792-41e4-b473-7fa517c72993

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/971e3825-ab15-4f95-971d-959767fd22dbFendi is best known as an old school Italian luxury house, but they are sometimes the source for some of the most exciting ready-to-wear in Milan. That was the case today at their Fall '18 show.

The new was the big square shoulder in both mini-capes and jackets. The look was super-tailored in the style of Mugler or Montana, but in a modern, business lady way.

Related | 10 Neon Looks You Need from Prada

Logos, which were big in the men's show last month, were also a highlight. There was the coated logo trench, the logo-on-logo coat and the logo leggings under coats.

We went behind-the-scenes at Fendi for a look at what goes on backstage:

Photography: Sonny VandeveldeAt 16 years old, Marteen Estevez has a sense of purpose, passion and confidence that's both far beyond his years and fully rooted in the charms of youth. The Bay Area native's first single, "Sriracha," is a playful, soulful tribute to that most beloved of hot sauces, and serves as an introduction to what's to come from the young artist. Today, Marteen's debut EP NOTHANKYOU. drops with six tracks, including "Sriracha:"



Stream NOTHANKYOU. and read our chat with the rising star, below:

When did you start making music?



I didn't actually sing until I moved to LA when I was 12, [where] I started doing Instagram covers. I was just doing it for fun, I wasn't really taking it seriously. Then I started to get hit up from labels and taking meetings, and it was super crazy to me because I'd never been in that position before. I started recording when I was 13 with my friends  people I knew that produced.

And what are you working on right now?

I have an EP out today; it's six songs  three I've already put out and I have three new ones that nobody's heard yet. I'm just working on a bunch of music at the moment  just seeing where it goes, maybe another project and getting some things ready.

That's exciting. How would you describe your sound?

I really like old school '90s R&B and soul. My music is kind of a modern version of '90s R&B but pop, and with a little Bay Area.

Who are your dream collaborators?

I really want to work with Ty Dolla $ign and PnB Rock. I've been wanting to work with T-Pain for awhile, just because he was one of my favorite artists growing up. I think he's super tight. Miguel would be super dope, I've listened to his music for a minute now. I want to work with Big Sean too, and Childish Gambino. I don't know if he's going to rap for that much longer, though...

Related | Miguel Channels Salvador Dali



And you recently toured with Dua Lipa, what was that like?



I did seven dates on her self-titled tour in November. It was really fun. I did that and then I had a performance with Khalid, and then I had a show with [my cousin] Kehlani in December.

What do you like about performing?



I love the adrenaline. Me personally, I used to get really nervous, but just from doing a bunch of shows now I've kind of gotten used to the nerves. It's more so I'm just super anxious to get on stage. Like an hour or two before a set now I just want to get out there to perform. That's just the feeling I get, seeing people rock with the music and show love.

What are some of the challenges of being a young artist? You probably have a lot of things you're trying to balance all at once.

I definitely don't get the normal kid life, which I'm okay with because I feel like I have a bigger purpose. It's just balancing everything. Not having that much time to kick it with my friends and just socialize like a regular kid. People are always like, you're going to miss prom, and I'm like, I'd rather be on tour in Africa or Japan or something wild like that.

Prom is overrated anyway.

That's what I'm saying!

Related | Beautiful People: American Dream Teen Khalid Will Never Give Up

Has your family been supportive of your music career?

Yeah they have. My parents especially. My dad was in the music industry for awhile in a bunch of different aspects so he's super supportive which I'm blessed with. And my mom pretty much supports everything I do.

Where do you see yourself going with music?



One of my dreams is to sell out arenas, stadiums  just travel the world, meet all my fans. I have a bunch of fans in Korea, I want to go over there, and Europe. I just want to experience all that, and inspire people and let people know that they can do whatever they want to do just like me, cause it all starts out with a dream. No matter how cheesy that sounds.

Photography: Fiona y Eduardo

Styling: Ella Cepeda

Grooming: Tashi Honnery

Photo Assistants: Anna Bouma and Ruth Elizabeth

Special thanks to: Dune StudiosFashion Week sometimes feels like a competition in which only the loudest spectacle can win. This season's shows in Milan have represented the ne ultra plus of that ethos, with Gucci showing dragons and decapitated heads, Prada amplifying futuristic neon, and Jeremy Scott transforming Jackie Kennedy doubles into aliens at Moschino. In the need to be noticed amidst the cacophony of color and celebrity, most everything is fair game on the runway. And then there were dogs.

Italian artisanal leather brand Tod's eschewed outrageous sets and alien cosplay for something simpler and far more effective: puppies. Supermodel Gigi Hadid strutted down the catwalk cradling an adorably forlorn French bulldog, while fellow models followed suits carrying pups of various breeds and sizes (but identical maximum-wattage cuteness):

Tod's wasn't the only brand to shoot directly at our dog-loving hearts. Gauntlett Cheng's "Happy & Healthy" show at New York Fashion Week featured models slinking about its St. Marks Church location with small pups on leashes or nestled in their arms as an off-kilter nod to the early 2000s fabulously bitchy socialite archetype:



Photo by Emily Lipson

Photo by Emily Lipson

Is it fair to play upon our heartstrings like this, just when we're weakest in the middle of the long, at times overwhelming slog through Fashion Week? Not necessarily.

But are we complaining? Not even a little bit.

We'll take one of everything.



Images via Getty



On January 10th Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Disturbingly Announces that their Chinese Partner for iCloud Services will have equal access to Chinese Customer data." The report noted that Apple was setting up its first data center in China, in partnership with a local internet services company, to comply with tougher cyber-security laws. Specifically Apple noted that "They include a clause that both Apple and a Chinese firm will have access to all data stored on iCloud."

Reuters is now reporting that "When Apple Inc begins hosting Chinese users' iCloud accounts in a new Chinese data center at the end of this month to comply with new laws there, Chinese authorities will have far easier access to text messages, email and other data stored in the cloud.

According to Apple, for the first time the company will store the keys for Chinese iCloud accounts in China itself. That means Chinese authorities will no longer have to use the U.S. courts to seek information on iCloud users and can instead use their own legal system to ask Apple to hand over iCloud data for Chinese users, legal experts said.

Human rights activists say they fear the authorities could use that power to track down dissidents, citing cases from more than a decade ago in which Yahoo Inc handed over user data that led to arrests and prison sentences for two democracy advocates. Jing Zhao, a human rights activist and Apple shareholder, said he could envisage worse human rights issues arising from Apple handing over iCloud data than occurred in the Yahoo case.

In a statement, Apple said it had to comply with recently introduced Chinese laws that require cloud services offered to Chinese citizens be operated by Chinese companies and that the data be stored in China. It said that while the company's values don't change in different parts of the world, it is subject to each country's laws.

"While we advocated against iCloud being subject to these laws, we were ultimately unsuccessful," it said. Apple said it decided it was better to offer iCloud under the new system because discontinuing it would lead to a bad user experience and actually lead to less data privacy and security for its Chinese customers.

The Apple decision highlights a difficult reality for many U.S. technology companies operating in China. If they don't accept demands to partner with Chinese companies and store data in China then they risk losing access to the lucrative Chinese market, despite fears about trade secret theft and the rights of Chinese customers. For more on this, read the full Reuters report here.

Our January report was titled correctly. It's a little disturbing that Apple will give up customer information to the Chinese Government on demand. Some in China must be in shock that Apple has betrayed their trust. But at the end of the day Apple is a business and pretending to stand on principles about protecting your data is simply a marketing exercise and no more. Don't be fooled.

It's now clear that this is the route that any foreign government could take in the future in order to break Apple's holier than thou stance on handing private data. China has shown them all the way. Pandora's Box has now been opened and other foreign governments with any clout are likely to adopt China's policy on privacy over time and that's the sad reality of the day.





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.Colonel Nikolay Pavlov, the Armed Forces Attache at the Russian Embassy in Ghana, has said Ghana would receive some up-to-date helicopters from the Russian Government.



He said the consignment was part of a wide programme to equip the Ghana National Defence Force in enhancing its capability to protect its airspace, land and territorial waters.



Col. Pavlov said this at a ceremony to mark the 100th Anniversary of Russias Motherland Defenders Day, at the residence of the Ambassador, Mr Dimitry Suslov, in Accra.



He said Russia would also broaden the operational capabilities of the Ghana Army to expand their participation in peacekeeping missions of the United Nations worldwide.



Col Pavlov said the Russian Army had totally new sets of objectives because of the new national security priorities and foreign shifts of recent years.



These objectives, he said, were aimed at deterring the military and political threats to the security or interests of the Russian Federation; and at the supporting economic and political interests of the Russian Federation.



The Russian people are proud of their Armys success in the war against terrorism, especially in Syria, he said.



After two years of actions, more than 55,000 terrorists were exterminated, with 67,000 square kilometres of territory cleared, which is more than 1000 localities liberated.



This was after 32,000 sorties and 92,000 aviation strikes were made.



As a prominent member of the UN Security Council, he said, the Russian Federation was responsible for maintaining peace and security all over the world.



The Day is marked as a public holiday in Russia every February 23, and celebrated to remember veterans and brave fallen soldiers who fought for victories in prominent wars like the World War I and II.



The celebration was graced by Ghanas Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumani Babgin, Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant-General Obed Akwa, Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Peter Faidoo, Chief of Army Staff, Major-General William Ayamdo, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, traditional leaders and Defence Attaches of the diplomatic community.

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The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. David Asante-Apeatu appealed to the general public to desist from vandalising Police Stations for the forcible release of detained relatives and friends.



He stated that the Police Service do not exercise its power of arrest irresponsibly, saying that was professionally done with a cause, in situations, where either an individual or group of people had committed crime.



The Police then would investigate the matter, prefer charges and proceed to any Court of competent jurisdiction for the prosecution of the culprit(s), the IGP explained.



IGP Asante-Apeatu made the appeal when he was addressed a durbar for the inauguration of a Police Station and a two semi-detached apartments built by a philanthropist for the people of the Aworowa community in the Techiman North District of Brong-Ahafo Region.



The durbar, organised by the chiefs and people of Aworowa in collaboration with the Techiman Divisional Police Command was part of the IGPs three-day working visit to Brong-Ahafo.



The entire project valued at GHC90, 000,00 are made up of the two semi-detached apartments, the Police Station consisting of two offices, a cell and place of convenience.



In addition, a complaint desk, furniture and a motorbike to facilitate immediate commencement of duty by Police personnel to be posted to the place were provided by the philanthropist.



IGP Asante-Apeatu advised members of the general public to refrain from taking the law into their own hands since no investor would like to invest in an area where lawlessness was prevalent.



He urged the people to assist the Police with the provision of necessary information that could lead to the arrest of criminals in their communities.



IGP Asante-Apeatu entreated Ghanaians to be law-abiding citizens to make the work of the Police easy and enable them to fight crime in a more professional way.



He emphasised that the law was not respecter of persons and anyone who acted contrary to it would be arrested and dealt with accordingly.



The philanthropist, Nana Ofosu Gyeabour recounted that he was distressed when the Police personnel were withdrawn from the place in 2016 due to the closure of the Police Station, as a result of their ejection by the landlord.



Nana Gyeabour, who is the Baamuhene of Techiman traditional area said he could simply not sit unconcerned when the Police could not operate in the community.



The philanthropist said with the support of some individuals, he gathered resources to construct the facilities, so that the Police could operate for the people to enjoy the needed protection to peacefully go about their daily activities.



Nana Yeboah Kokwa ll, the Chief of Aworowa , on behalf of the people and the Police expressed appreciation to the philanthropist and stressed the need for the Police to maintain the building properly for the benefit of even generation yet unborn.

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The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Saturday noted that Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumahs overthrow on February 24, 1966 was the bane of Ghanas underdevelopment as successive governments failed woefully to economically liberate the country.



The February 24, 1966 coup described as the dark days of Ghana and Africas liberation continue to hunt the nation, Ghana continues to struggle for economic independence 61 years after attaining political independence.



Unfortunately under the fourth Republic the quest for economic independence has been abandoned by both the alternating governments of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who have transformed governance to mere rhetoric of who is more corrupt, Professor Edmund Nminyem Delle CPP Chairman stated in an interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra.



Prof Delle who was speaking on the overthrow of the Dr Nkrumahs government by the National Liberation Council (NLC) on February 24, 1966 said the dishonourable coup truncated the Seven-year Development Plan, and set Ghanas economic liberation backward.



The CPP Leader said Ghana had failed over the last 61 years to link the nations political independence to economic independence, Ghana still runs a colonial economy, the country depends too much on the charities of others nations and institutions, the dependency syndrome must stop.



He described February 24 as day for reflection, Ghanaians must work together as a people with one destiny, trace our root and team up to chart the way forward. We cannot continue to paint every act with political colours.



Media must continue to play active role in the quest for economic liberation, expose ills of society, stand-up as the true fourth estate of the realm, defend the voiceless and hold public office holders accountable. The media should be fearless but truthful crusaders.



Prof Delle noted that over 50 years since Dr Nkrumahs overthrow, his achievements continued to distinguish him among his contemporaries on the continent, the pan-Africanism ideology, Africa liberation and self-governance earned him an enviable reputation worldwide.



He said the indelible legacy of Dr Nkrumah, had adjudged him as Africas greatest (Man of the Millennium) in 2000 and his social policies and style of leadership were still impeccable.



The CPP Leader noted that even though Dr Nkrumahs economic and social policies were undeniably the best, political opponents made every effort to discredit him. Undoubtedly, he is so far the best President Ghana and even Africa has ever had.



Prof Delle said: Dr Nkrumah exhibited patriotism and eschewed parochialism as a visionary leader. Let us draw inspiration from the achievements, ideology, and vision of the great man who led Ghana to independence from British colonial rule for the purpose of nation building.



Dr Nkrumah, was unconstitutionally ousted from office through a military and police coup detat on February 24, 1966, led by Col. E. K. Kotoka, Major A. A. Afrifa and the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr J. W. K. Harley.



The coup-makers cited Nkrumahs Preventive Detection Act, corruption, dictatorial practices, oppression and the deteriorating economy of Ghana as the principal reasons for the uprising.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The winning communities of the Open for Business Awards were announced at the Small Business BC Awards Gala on Friday, February 23, 2018 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.



There were over 30 diverse communities nominated in this years competition, a record number in the Awards history, including first time nominees, Burnaby, Clinton, Cranbrook, Dawson Creek, Elk Valley, Fort St. John, Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation, Lumby, Sicamous, Stewart, and White Rock. Small Business BC and the Province of British Columbia were thrilled to hear about the tremendous work these local governments and First Nations are doing in their communities to support small businesses.

Nominees were asked to submit a case study to outline the innovative ways they support small businesses and good jobs for British Columbians by improving services and reducing regulatory burden in their communities. These case studies were used by the Small Business Roundtable to decide on this years winners.

These winning communities have proven their undeniable support for their local small businesses by adopting business-friendly best practices in their region.

The Open for Business Awards winners are as follows:

Large Community Finalists

Campbell River

Medium Community Finalists

Kimberley

Small Community Finalists

Chetwynd

First Nations

Nisgaa Lisims

Successful, innovative small businesses are the key to creating a strong, sustainable economy in B.C., said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology. For small businesses to thrive and create good jobs for people throughout our province, all levels of government need to support a friendly environment for growth. The Open for Business Awards are important because they recognize municipalities that have created the conditions for small business success. Congratulations to all the winners and their communities.

Partnering with the provincial government to deliver the Open for Business Awards at the Small Business BC Awards Gala has given us the unique opportunity to celebrate not only our local small businesses, but the communities that allow them to grow, said George Hunter, CEO at Small Business BC. Its not often that the local governments who work to create space for small business in their area are recognized for their effort, but the Open for Business Awards are changing that. Congratulations to the well-deserved winners.

More details on the Open for Business Awards can be found at www.sbbcawards.ca/open-for-business.

Media Contact:



Leah Baker

Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Small Business BC

Direct: 604-775-5607

baker.leah@smallbusinessbc.ca

About Small Business BC

Small Business BC provides entrepreneurs with the information and guidance necessary to build a solid foundation for their business. Through a wide range of products, services, education and resources theres a piece that fits with every business. No matter what stage or what skill level, when an entrepreneur finds themselves asking How do I? Small Business BC is the one to call.

About the Small Business Roundtable

The Small Business Roundtable was established in 2005 to engage in a dialogue with small business owners to identify the key issues and opportunities facing small businesses in British Columbia, and to develop recommendations for small business and government on strategies to enhance small business growth and success.The former advisor on Governance and Corruption to ex-President John Dramani Mahama, Daniel Batidam, has chastised the Akufo-Addos government for doing nothing to fight corruption.



This follows Ghanas worse performance in the last six years in its fight against corruption, the latest corruption perception index (CPI), has revealed.



Daniel Batidam, who has worked with the global anti-corruption organization, Transparency International (TI) observed that the Akufo-Addo government, has not done much to its credit when it comes to the fight against corruption.



I am worried that after years of steady progress which took us from as low as 38percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014, we are sliding backwards againvirtually, nothing has happened in the area of fighting corruption when the NPP came into power, Mr. Batidam lamented.



His comment comes on the back of the latest Corruption Perception Index released Wednesday in which Ghana scored 40 as against last years score of 43  dropping 11 places in the latest CPI. The Ranking is Ghanas worst performance in the last six years.



Mr. Batidam, who is on the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption, bemoaned the countrys steady progress in fighting corruption which is now sliding backwards again.



From what I am seeing now, I can say that in Ghana now, the perception of corruption is a realitythis govt has not done much to its credit when it comes to the fight against corruption. President Nana Akufo-Addo will have to sit uphis government is doing nothing to fight corruption, he told Francis Abban on Morning Starr.



Some of the governments appointees are alleged to have engaged in corruption in their line of duties.



Ghana, dropped three points from its 2016 score of 43 to 40 in 2017 and ranked 81 out of the total of 180 countries.



Cumulatively, Ghana has dropped eight points since 2016, the CPI, was released on Wednesday, February 21 by Transparency International.



The CPI score, indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (being highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).



Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Linda Ofori- Kwafo, said Ghanas poor score in 2017 was a reflection of inadequate investigations, prosecutions and sanctioning of corrupt officials.



Presenting the report, she said Ghana performed not too good adding since the CPI became comparable from the period 2012 to now, this is the worst performance that Ghana has had. This year, 2017 CPI, we are saying Ghanas performance from 2012 is the worst so far.



She was, however, optimistic the situation could improve in the next three years by which time the various government interventions put in place to check corruption in the public sector would have started yielding results.



The newly created Office of the Special Prosecutor, the paperless port system and the Ghana Post digital addressing system, were some of the initiatives she observed could help Ghana shore up its ranking



When we are able to get the gains of the new initiatives; the paperless port, the digital addressing system and the powers of the Auditor General to do the disallowance and surcharging and then office of the special prosecutor that has come on boardif all these initiatives work very well for us, were hoping that in a year, two years, three years to come, we should see a rise in Ghanas CPI, she expressed.



Generally, the 2017 CPI, showed majority of countries were making little or no progress in ending corruption.



It also showed journalists and activists in corrupt countries were risking their lives daily in an effort to speak out against corruption.



New Zealand and Denmark, ranked highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively while Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively.



Western Europe was identified as the best performing region with an average score of 66 with the worst performing regions being Sub-Saharan Africa (with an average score of 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (with an average score of 34).

Source: The Herald









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Featured VideoThe US budget proposal for 2018 has winners and losers. Most notably, foreign aid is being slashed once again  as it was for the 2017 proposal  with a newly outlined spoils system in which friends to the US receive the most funding based on favorable votes cast in the UN. While this has historically been the case  loosely, at least  Nikki Haley openly outlined this process as the way forward in a UN address in December, as the US voted to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israels capital.

This system of rewarding those countries most loyal to US interests is nothing new. But it has always been a loose association, with past administrations leery of seeming too outwardly hospitable to allies and friends. After all, many of the countries with the greatest humanitarian crises will bear the brunt of these budget cuts, and it is likely thousands will die without US aid.

Foreign Aid

The US has traditionally led the world in foreign aid contributions. In 2015, for instance, the US contributed $31.08 billion in international aid, with the United Kingdom lagging behind at $18.70 billion. The 2019 budget calls for a $9 billion decrease from 2018, culling over a quarter of the current budget. The listed goal, as outlined by Haley last year, is to prioritize contributions to partner countries. The budget will return US contribution levels to those last seen in the 90s.

The biggest losers in the budget are some of the countries most in need of humanitarian aid. Yemen, for example, historically votes against US interests and has lost necessary support in doing so. For instance, during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Yemen refused to vote for the US-led call for the cessation of Iraqi aggression. Directly following the vote  which passed regardless  the US dropped almost all funding to Yemen. According to the new budget, this will now be the status quo.

Opposition

The budget proposal has garnered criticism from both foreign and domestic audiences. In the Bill and Melinda Gates foundations annual letter, Bill Gates opposed the basic premise of the budget cuts. He cited, in particular, the need for foreign investment and aid to countries in need: [Funding efforts] make Americans more secure by making poor countries more stable and stopping disease outbreaks before they become pandemics. The world is not a safer place when more people are sick or hungry.

Other critics have pointed to the significant boost in military funding the 2019 budget will include, providing increased funding, even as the military budget dwarfs every other US institution. This change is a marked shift in priorities from Obama-era spending, which prioritized foreign diplomacy and aid and sought to cut back on military spending. Opponents of the proposed budget claim that additional aid and diplomacy funding will prevent future military confrontations, negating the need for a stronger military.

Though American perception is somewhat skewed, the truth is that US foreign aid counts for about one percent of the overall US budget. The roughly $40 billion spent pales in comparison to other US institutions, including economic bailouts and the military budget. Cutting US foreign aid by 26 percent will be utterly negated by the military budget increases  which are estimated to hit $67 billion over the 2017 total. In fact, this number eclipses the total of the current US foreign aid budget by nearly double.

Repercussions

Some of the countries likely to be hit the hardest by these budget slashes are already in the midst of struggles. Aid recipients include Afghanistan, Jordan, Pakistan and Syria, many of whom are naturally at odds with US interests in the region, particularly when it comes to votes recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. If US foreign aid is directly contingent on votes such as these, it is entirely likely many of these countries will lose their funding.

With a loss of funding and aid programs, thousands will be without food and shelter, especially in areas of civil conflict such as Syria and Afghanistan. In some particularly dire situations, the US military will step in and deliver aid to these areas. Perhaps with an increased military budget, this will be the case. However, it seems just as likely the money will go toward buying new stealth jets.

Peacock Panache readers:

Kate Harveston is a political writer with an interest in social justice and progressive change. She has a background in journalism and Criminal Justice, so she enjoys anything related to law, politics, culture and the written word. In her spare time, her favorite activity is reading dystopian fiction. If you like her work, you can subscribe to her blog, So Well, So Woman, or follow her on Twitter for updates!

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Flu in Pennsylvania

It's impossible to know how many people got sick -- most people who get the flu don't even go to the doctor. Still, the Pennsylvania Department of Health monitors the flu, to see what areas are getting hit hard. This allows precautions to be taken at places such as nursing homes. The monitoring is done by way of health care providers in every county who send samples from people they treat to a state lab for testing. So while the cases represent only a fraction of the total, they give an idea of the intensity of the flu in each county. For perspective, the population for each county is listed in addition to the total flu cases as of Feb. 24, 2018.

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Beaver County

Flu cases: 1,457

Population: 170,539

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Greene County

Flu cases: 215

Population :38,686

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Fulton County

Flu cases: 153

Population: 14,845

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Bedford County

Flu cases: 326

Population: 49,762

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Berks County

Flu cases: 2,675

Population: 411,422

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Clearfield County

Flu cases: 926

Population: 81,642

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Bradford County

Flu cases: 658

Population: 62,622

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Blair County

Flu cases: 1,640

Population: 127,089

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Mifflin County

Flu cases: 557

Population: 46,682

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Bucks County

Flu cases: 2,812

Population: 625,249

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Lycoming County

Flu cases: 622

Population: 116,111

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Adams County

Flu cases: 773

Population: 102,295

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Chester County

Flu cases: 2,276

Population: 498,886

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Mercer County

Flu cases: 458

Population: 116,638

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Centre County

Flu cases: 1,707

Population: 153,990

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Columbia County

Flu cases: 303

Population: 67,295

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Carbon County

Flu cases: 301

Population: 65,249

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Dauphin County

Flu cases: 2,047

Population: 268,100

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Cumberland County

Flu cases: 2,103

Population: 235,406

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Juniata County

Flu cases: 192

Population: 24,636

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Fayette County

Flu cases: 1,011

Population: 136,606

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Indiana County

Flu cases: 1,170

Population: 88,880

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Clarion County

Flu cases: 197

Population: 39,998

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Lehigh County

Flu cases: 2,713

Population: 349,497

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Lawrence County

Flu cases: 612

Population: 91,108

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McKean County

Flu cases: 284

Population: 43,450

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Lancaster County

Flu cases: 3,672

Population: 519,445

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Lackawanna County

Flu cases: 1,332

Population: 214,437

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Franklin County

Flu cases: 1,154

Population: 149,681

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Huntingdon County

Flu cases: 623

Population: 45,913

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Cameron County

Flu cases: 71 cases

Population: 5,085

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Jefferson County

Flu cases: 627

Population: 45,200

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Elk County

Flu cases: 426

Population: 31,946

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Butler County

Flu cases: 1,065

Population: 183,862

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Montour County

Flu cases: 182

Population: 18,267

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Cambria County

Flu cases: 1,055

Population: 143,679

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Crawford County

Flu cases: 1,235

Population: 88,765

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Lebanon County

Flu cases: 1,053

Population: 133,568

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Armstrong County

Flu cases: 283

Population: 68,941

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Luzerne County

Flu cases: 2,748

Population: 320,918

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Monroe County

Flu cases: 535

Population: 169,842

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Clinton County

Flu cases: 134

Population: 39,238

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Forest County

Flu cases: 28

Population: 7,716

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Delaware County

Flu cases: 3,740

Population: 558,979

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Allegheny County

Flu cases: 9,346

Population: 1.2 million

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Erie County

Flu cases: 2,256

Population: 280,566

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York County

Flu cases: 3,187

Population: 434,972

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Northampton County

Flu cases: 4,046

Population: 297,735

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Northumberland County

Flu cases: 434

Population: 94,528

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Venango County

Flu cases: 173

Population: 54,984

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Perry County

Flu cases: 372

Population: 45,969

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Philadelphia County

Flu cases: 3,307

Population: 1.5 million

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Wyoming County

Flu cases: 120

Population: 28,276

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Tioga County

Flu cases: 167

Population: 41,981

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Montgomery County

Flu cases: 4,474

Population: 799,874

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Union County

Flu cases: 541

Population: 44,947

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Pike County

Flu cases: 122

Population: 57,369

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Potter County

Flu cases: 314

Population: 17,457

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Schuylkill County

Flu cases: 804

Population: 148,289

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Somerset County

Flu cases: 446

Population: 77,742

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Westmoreland County

Flu cases: 2,670

Population: 365,169

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Wayne County

Flu cases: 684

Population: 52,822

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Snyder County

Flu cases: 296

Population: 39,702

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Washington County

Flu cases: 1,957

Population: 207,280

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Susquehanna County

Flu cases: 134

Population: 43,356

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Warren County

Flu cases: 305

Population: 41,815

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Flu cases: 11

Population: 6,428A state Superior Court panel refused Friday to overturn the first-degree murder conviction and life prison term for a Harrisburg man convicted of gunning down the nephew of city Police Chief Thomas Carter.

In an opinion by Judge Anne E. Lazarus, the state judges rejected claims by Glenn Grady Walker III that there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict him for the March 2016 slaying of John Carter.

Investigators said Walker shot 36-year-old John Carter in the back as Carter fled following a fistfight in the 2200 block of Green Street. Part of the confrontation, although not the actual shooting, was caught on video from a nearby home security camera.

Walker, now 21, claimed on appeal that witness testimony during his January 2017 trial was too contradictory to justify his first-degree murder conviction.

Lazarus found the Dauphin County jury ably sorted that out. "It was well within the purview of the jury to find Walker guilty of first-degree murder where the evidence showed he used a deadly weapon to shoot Carter in the torso," she wrote.

She found "meritless" Walker's argument that he should have been convicted of no more than voluntary manslaughter because he thought he was acting in self-defense.

Walker's contention that the prosecution shouldn't have been allowed to show the jury another surveillance video of him firing a gun outside a Harrisburg bar 3 1/2 months before John Carter was killed also failed to sway the state judges.

That video was legitimate evidence that Walker possessed a gun, Lazarus found. She likewise rejected Walker's challenge to a state police firearm's expert's testimony that shell casings recovered from the bar shooting matched casings found at the scene of Carter's slaying.

Walker is one of two city men serving life prison terms for John Carter's murder. His co-defendant, Shawn Jones, was convicted in a separate trial last May.A group of friends, family, and colleagues gathered in song and prayer Saturday to celebrate the life of former city police chief Alexander Whitlock.

Whitlock, 78, died Feb. 11 after a battle with cancer at his home in Michigan.

A memorial service was held Saturday at the Goodwin Memorial Baptist Church. Amid the song and prayer, Whitlock's daughter Sebrenna read his favorite passage of scripture -- Psalm 23.

"On the night that he passed, I read this to him over and over," she said.

Other family members remembered Whitlock as a mentor, contributing member of the community, and a "social justice advocate."

Whitlock served the city as a police officer for 23 years, including a two-year stint in the top job starting in 1988. He later moved back to his hometown of Michigan to take care of his ailing mother.

As chief, he helped the department earn national accreditation for the first time by establishing a set of written policies and procedures for officers. While some officers liked the idea of not being tied to printed rules, Whitlock believed it enhanced accountability and credibility.

Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter said Whitlock talked him into joining the department in the 1980s.

Former chief Richard Vajda also spoke highly of Whitlock. As he began to speak during his special remarks, he looked over at some photos of Whitlock that were on display.

"He was my friend," Vajda said. "Look at that smile.

Vajda recalled a time during his tenure when he had to visit his brother in California, and left Whitlock as acting chief.

When he returned work, he joked Whitlock seemed to avoid him for a few days. When they finally spoke, Vajda knew Whitlock would be chief someday.

"He just laughed at me and smiled, and he said 'I did your job,'" Vajda said. "Right there and then, I knew I made the right decision, and I recommended that man for this position that he has."

Whitlock will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. There is a four-week waiting list for burials at the veterans cemetery.Jim Piazza can't look at photos of his son Tim, who died more than a year ago from injuries suffered during a Penn State fraternity pledge party.

He can't go into Tim's room. His wife Evelyn can't bring herself to wash Tim's clothes piled in his hamper.

The loss of Tim still is too painful.

On Friday, the Piazzas met with parents of 16 other college students who died in tragically similar circumstances across the country. Also attending was Rich Braham, whose son Marquise Braham died by suicide in 2014 after enduring horrific hazing.

The groundbreaking conference in Greenville, South Carolina represents the first time a large group of parents have banded together to develop an action plan against hazing. The conference at a Hampton Inn will continue through Saturday.

A memorial wall at the parents' conference in South Carolina.

"That was a very powerful feeling to be with other parents who have gone through the same thing," Jim Piazza told PennLive after the first day of the event. "Almost all of the stories sounded very similar. When people talked about their children, they were all very similar in personality.

"Our kids were really good kids and they just trusted people," Piazza said. They trusted people a bit too much. They thought other individuals had their back and they didn't."

Tim Piazza, 19, died Feb 4, 2017, two days after he fell down the stairs inside the Beta Theta Pi house after being served 18 drinks in 82 minutes. No one called for help for nearly 12 hours. Fraternity brothers then deleted potentially incriminating group text messages, according to prosecutors, and shared concerns about not wanting to get in trouble.

The situation bore eerie similarities to the Nov. 3 death of Andrew Coffey after attending a pledge party for Pi Kappa Phi at Florida State University. He was reportedly given a bottle of bourbon by his "big brother," which he consumed before passing out on a couch while others continued to play pool.

The next morning, Coffey had no pulse. A fellow pledge called and sent text messages to five fraternity members before calling 911, according to a grand jury presentment.

The 20-year-old Coffey had a blood alcohol level of .447 at the time of his autopsy.

More than half of the fraternity members later refused to be interviewed by police, including seven out of nine members of the executive council, according to the Sun Sentinel.

The fact that many hazing deaths include the same disturbing elements is not lost on Jim Piazza. Many cases involve delays in seeking medical attention and a focus not on the victim, but instead, on self-preservation.

"There is a common pattern in criminal behavior," Piazza said. "You can take just about any crime and they're worried about being caught, there's some sort of cover-up. I don't think there's anything unique with what you're seeing related to hazing."

That's why many parents of victims believe there needs to be stiffer penalties against hazing, which in many states including Pennsylvania is considered a misdemeanor.

Then prosecutors, judges and juries need to use those stiffer penalties, Piazza said.

"If we see that, we'll see changes," he said.

The parents focused mostly on introductions and bonding Friday, the first day of the conference. They also shared individual efforts they had tried so far in their fight to stop hazing.

Some parents created anti-hazing videos or offered educational classes at universities. Piazza said he set up a meeting with the head of the North American Interfraternity Conference on March 15 to jumpstart introductions to officials who run the national fraternities.

As part of their strategy, Piazza and other parents plan to take their case for changing Greek culture directly to the national fraternities with the worst hazing records and to the country's largest universities

The parents will offer to help them develop better policies, procedures, rules and enforcement, Piazza said.

Parents also want to bring anti-hazing education into secondary schools, to start educating kids at younger ages about resisting dangerous peer pressure.

Hank Nuwer, an author and anti-hazing activist who created the first clearinghouse to track hazing deaths, said parents in the "Parents United to Stop Hazing" organization are determined to make PUSH as powerful against hazing as the group Mothers Against Drunk Drivers was against driving while intoxicated.

"These parents, when they lose a child, are manipulated by schools, fraternities, administrators and even law enforcement," Nuwer said. "No longer can they be manipulated. They asserted power and they feel empowered."

Piazza said the effort against hazing has reached a tipping point.

"My hope is collectively, as a group, we can start chipping away," he said. "This is a complex problem that's not going to be fixed overnight. But we believe it can be fixed."Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania who lost a gerrymandering case before the state's Supreme Court are now calling for justices who issued the ruling to be impeached.

The court ruled this year that the congressional map drawn by Republican legislators in 2011 was a partisan gerrymander that "clearly, plainly, and palpably" violated the state constitution, and the justices ordered the state's legislature and governor to draw a new map.

Shortly thereafter, Republican state Rep. Cris Dush circulated a letter to his colleagues saying the court's majority "engaged in misbehavior in office" because the ruling "overrides the express legislative and executive authority" to create laws.

"Wherefore," Dush concluded, "each is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office and disqualification to hold any office or trust or profit under this Commonwealth."

For several weeks, Dush was the only lawmaker openly advocating this idea. Then, after Pennsylvania's Republican legislative leaders and Democratic governor were unable to agree on a new map, the court stepped in and drew one of its own with the help of an independent redistricting expert from Stanford University.

The court's new map largely undid the Republican gerrymander, creating 10 Republican-leaning and eight Democratic-leaning House seats, as estimated using 2016 presidential election returns. Outside redistricting experts who were not involved with the case praised the new map, calling it "fairer" and "much more competitive" than the old one.

The new map is a better reflection both of the composition of the state's electorate, which tends to be divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and of the traditional redistricting criteria used to draw maps in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

But because the 2011 Republican-drawn map was skewed so strongly toward the GOP, the net result is that Republicans are likely to lose three or more seats in the state's House delegation. And now, the calls for judicial impeachment are growing louder.

Republican congressman Chris Costello, who is facing a very real possibility of losing his seat as a result of the redistricting, called the court's independent redistricting plan "politically corrupt." He said, "I think the court did enough in the way of judicial activism to be impeached."

Republican U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey weighed in this week as well, saying that the court's ruling was a "blatant, unconstitutional, partisan power grab that undermines our electoral process" and that the question of whether it rises to the level of impeachment is "a conversation that needs to happen."

Judicial impeachment in Pennsylvania requires the support of a majority of House members and two-thirds of the Senate. Republicans currently hold enough seats in both chambers to carry out an impeachment without any Democratic support.

Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati have been sharply critical of the court, saying that it "conspicuously seized the redistricting process." But they have not weighed in on the question of impeachment.

Legal experts say the comments from other Republican lawmakers are alarming.

"Using impeachment - even talking about impeachment in a serious fashion - as a means to express disagreement with one particular substantive decision is a very dangerous approach to both the structure of government and the rule of law, and a serious threat to the independence of the judiciary," said Justin Levitt of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Levitt said there are a number of reasonable objections to make to the court's ruling, including its definition of gerrymandering and the time frame in which it required new maps to be drawn. But, he said, "that's a standard-issue fight over substance and procedure, not about whether the Justices were defaulting on their obligations to act as Justices."

Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California at Irvine, similarly said that "it undermines rule of law to impeach judges because you disagree with their decisions." He suggested that lawmakers concerned about partisanship on the court should consider a "more worthy reform," such as allowing the state's Supreme Court justices to be appointed by lawmakers. Right now, they're elected by voters in "partisan elections."

And Michael Li, redistricting and voting counsel at New York University's Brennan Center, said that Pennsylvania Republicans could take partisanship out of redistricting completely by putting the process in the hands of an independent commission. "If Rs really believe this is a bad state supreme court," he wrote on Twitter, "they should pass the great bipartisan redistricting reform amendment currently before them."

So far, however, Republican leadership has refused to take the first step of scheduling a hearing on that bill. This week, the leaders filed an application to the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the redistricting decision. But the Supreme Court has already turned down one request to intervene in the case, and experts say this request is likely to be denied as well.

"In our system, judges aren't supposed to always act in a way that legislators like," Levitt said.

(c) 2018, The Washington Post * Christopher IngrahamBy Mark D. DiRocco, Paul M. Healey, Nathan G. Mains and Dolores McCracken

The awful reality of the Stoneman Douglas High School slayings - 17 dead, 15 injured - has left the nation reeling.

Our goal now should be to do whatever we can to keep our schools safe. Of course, people of goodwill can disagree about how to prevent more of these unspeakable killings.

But it's very clear to us that putting more guns in schools isn't the answer.

We represent the teachers, support professionals, principals, and school administrators who work in schools every day, and the school boards who support them and are responsible for their safety. That means we are, literally, on the front lines.

Teachers, support professionals, and administrators here in Pennsylvania and across the nation are highly trained and highly qualified for the jobs they are there to do.

But educators are not highly trained police officers.

We recognize that many educators are responsible, law-abiding gun owners. But there is a clear difference between knowing how to use and care for a firearm and knowing how to use it like a first responder or a soldier in an active shooting crisis.

To expect that school staff members would ever be adequately trained, prepared, and available to respond like police officers is simply not realistic. In fact, it's dangerous. It would give some people an illusion of safety. In reality, it would make our schools less safe.

School employees bringing their own guns into schools on any given day poses a litany of serious safety problems. If not properly secured, a personal handgun could fall into the hands of children - this actually happened in 2016 in a Franklin County-based private school. Accidental discharges of weapons can injure teachers or students - this actually happened in classrooms in Utah and Idaho.

In a quickly developing active shooter situation, those backing this idea imagine that we could instantly know where a shooter is in a building and where the other armed staff are.

Then we would have to advance upon a heavily armed perpetrator, firing and hitting the intended target without accidentally shooting a student or faculty member - all in a fog of the almost unimaginable chaos and confusion that exists when an armed person starts shooting in a school building.

And this all assumes that, in the chaos, school staff members are well-coordinated and nothing goes wrong. If a one-on-one faceoff occurs, the chances of a school employee with a handgun prevailing over an AR-15-carrying shooter with Kevlar and protective headgear are slim and none.

Meanwhile, all of this creates danger and delay for first responders arriving on the scene who are trying to quickly identify a perpetrator and subdue him but who would now need to account for an unknown number of armed people in the building.

How many school employees would be armed? Some proponents say it should be between 20 and 40 percent of the faculty and staff. Depending on how you calculate, that's between 750,000 and 1.5 million U.S. teachers.

Those backing this idea say those school employees would all need training, of course. That makes sense, given that law enforcement officials say training for an active shooter situation must be extensive and ongoing, and more than most police ever receive.

When a bill to arm school staff members was debated in the state Senate in June, 16 educators who survived the mass shooting at Sandy Hook sent a note to senators before they cast their votes. Among other things, their poignant email said this.

"We are educators who survived that fateful day on December 14, 2012. We would like to make something clear: We would NOT have wanted that option, nor would it have made us or our students any safer. In fact, it might have made things even worse."

American public schools should be places where students feel safest. The recent tragedies in our nation's schools have shown that we must call attention to policies and practices that can prevent such catastrophes from ever happening again.

Our organizations are committed to working with Gov. Tom Wolf, lawmakers of both parties, and any other person in our society who wants to find ways to ensure that these tragedies never happen again, anywhere.

But we are certain that arming school employees would make our kids less safe, and is not the answer. We strongly support focusing efforts and resources on more effective and safe ways to protect our schools.

Mark D. DiRocco is the executive director, Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. Paul M. Healey is the executive Director of the Pennsylvania Principals Association. Nathan G. Mains is the chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. Dolores McCracken is President of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.By Mike Turzai

Sen. Joe Scarnati, as the Pennsylvania Senate Pro Tempore, and I, as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House, filed an Emergency Application for a Stay with the United States Supreme Court this week.

Pa. House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny. (PennLive file)

Our application makes clear that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not have the power to invalidate the constitutional, democratically passed congressional map.

In allowing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to invalidate federal congressional lines and to draw lines of their own, the U.S. Supreme Court will allow chaos to ensue throughout the United States in the coming years where politically connected litigants can go running into state Supreme Courts to invalidate congressional maps.

These litigants will do so to stop legislative agendas with which they do not agree.

Please note that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the 2011 Pennsylvania congressional map by a vote of 136-61, with 100 Republicans voting "yes" and 36 Democrats voting "yes."

Passing the bill requires 102 votes. This map was the result of bipartisan work between representatives elected by their constituents.

We have now used the existing maps for three straight elections. It wasn't until President Donald Trump was elected that a flurry of liberal activists began challenging congressional maps across the country, including Pennsylvania.

Keep in mind that a three-judge federal court panel in the Agre case upheld the 2011 Pennsylvania congressional map as constitutional with respect to the U.S. Constitution on Jan. 10.

Less than two weeks later, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated the 2011 Pennsylvania congressional map on the basis of the state constitution - which has no explicit language addressing the drawing of congressional district lines. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did this on a partisan 5-2 Democrat-to-Republican split. One of the justices actually campaigned on invalidating the Pennsylvania congressional map before being elected to the bench.

In the Feb. 21 edition of The Wall Street Journal, the editors opined in a piece entitled "Pennsylvania's Redistricting Coup."

The editorial concludes: "Republicans plan to ask federal courts to enjoin the map, as they should. The U.S. High Court last month declined a request to intervene, perhaps giving deference to state judges' interpretation of state law. But the judge-drawn map violates the U.S. Constitution's Elections Clause, which provides that "[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.

"State judges can't usurp the legislature's authority over redistricting willy-nilly. The Supreme Court ought to block this judicial coup d'etat, but be warned. Pennsylvania will be the future in every state if the Justices decide that judges should be redistricting kings."

State Rep. Mike Turzai, an Allegheny County Republican, is Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He writes from Harrisburg.FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2017 file photo, comedian John Oliver performs at the 11th Annual Stand Up for Heroes benefit in New York. A West Virginia judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against HBO host John Oliver brought by coal company Murray Energy. A segment of OliverAos show AuLast Week TonightAu in June poked fun at Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who blames regulatory efforts by the Obama administration for damaging the coal industry. Oliver said the 77-year-old looked like a "geriatric Dr. Evil." A Circuit Court judge in Marshall County, W. Va., ruled on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 that MurrayAos company failed to state a claim. (Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP, File)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FILE- In this Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, file photo, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), at National Harbor, Md. LaPierre said at the conference that those advocating for stricter gun control are exploiting the Florida shooting which killed over a dozen people, mostly high-school students. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)FILe - In this file photo dated Friday, Nov. 14, 2008, Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, talks during a news conference in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Serhiy Leshchenko, who helped uncover off-the-books payments to President Donald TrumpAos former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, said Saturday Feb. 24, 2018, that Gusenbauer had lobbied for Ukraine when Yanukovych was in power, although Gusenbauer told the Austrian national news agency APA that he never acted on YanukovychAos behalf. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova, FILE)Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus rises in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Wednesday, January 31, 2018. A Conservative bid for an emergency meeting on the Jaspal Atwal affair has fizzled. The party's public safety critic, Paul-Hus, wanted the House of Commons committee on national security to meet urgently after Atwal - a B.C. man convicted of attempted murder - wound up at a prime ministerial event in India.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldThe upcoming federal budget will include a five-week, use-it-or-lose-it incentive for new dads to take parental leave and share the responsibilities of raising their young child, The Canadian Press has learned. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to a question as he takes part in the Young Changemakers Conclave 2018 in New Delhi, India on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickParti Quebecois MNA Francois Gendron, walks back to his seat as members of the National Assembly applaud for being an elected member for the last 40 years in Quebec City on Tuesday, November 15, 2016. The longest-serving member of Quebec's legislature is retiring. Gendron announced on Saturday that he won't be running for re-election this fall.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Mexicos Drug War Is No Closer to an End



By Jacob L. Shapiro





When Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto came to office in 2012, he brought a list with him. It contained the names of 122 drug cartel leaders whom Pena Nieto wanted neutralized by the end of his time in office. The conclusion of Pena Nietos presidency is now fast approaching, with elections scheduled for July, and he is close to reaching his goal. After the arrest of Los Zetas leader Jose Maria Guizar Valencia in Mexico City this past weekend, just 14 cartel leaders are left from the original list. An 89 percent success rate sounds impressive, but its a Pyrrhic victory for the outgoing president of Mexico, where violence reached record highs in 2017.

To be fair, Mexicos spike in violence  the result of a countrywide turf war between a fractured and competitive assortment of drug-trafficking organizations  is not Pena Nietos fault, nor was there much he could have done about it when he came into office. Like Mexico itself, Pena Nieto came face to face with forces beyond his control. His policies represented his best efforts to fight them.

Insatiable Demand

The story of the rise of Mexicos drug-trafficking organizations, or DTOs, begins not with Pena Nietos list but in the 1980s, when the U.S. government became alarmed with the amount of cocaine entering the U.S. from Colombia via South Florida. The U.S. stepped up its interdiction efforts, forcing Colombian cartels to find alternatives to their Caribbean routes. Mexico became the most important of the new routes.

By the late 1990s, between 75 and 85 percent of cocaine consumed in the United States came through Mexico. This was a boon for Mexican organized crime syndicates. Even the most conservative analysis by U.S. officials in 1995 estimated that the cocaine trade generated more annual income ($10 billion) in Mexico than Mexicos most valuable export, oil ($7.4 billion). Mexican government estimates were much higher.

Mexicos poverty magnified the impact of this sudden influx of capital. World Bank data on poverty unfortunately doesnt go back as far as 1995, but in 2016, 50 percent of Mexicans lived below the national poverty line  and theres no reason to think that number was much lower 21 years ago. If anything, it was probably higher.

It was the combination of Mexicos poverty and proximity to the U.S.  both a result of the countrys geography  that led to the impossible challenge Pena Nieto faced when he came to office. Mexico, despite being a wealthy country in absolute terms (it was 16th in global gross domestic product in 1990 and is 15th today), is a country of vast and desolate border regions where poverty has run rampant for generations because of a lack of economic opportunities. For better or worse, much of Mexicos 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border with the U.S. runs through that territory  and U.S. demand for cocaine was so intense and so lucrative in the 1980s and 1990s that it created incredible economic opportunities in these far-flung places that have always been outside the writ of Mexican authorities.

A Disturbing Trend

Even if they didnt have lists like Pena Nietos, successive Mexican administrations sought to attack this problem head-on. Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000), Vicente Fox (2000-06) and Felipe Calderon (2006-12) all deployed the Mexican military in various attempts to rein in the newly rich and powerful DTOs. But the military was not immune to the seduction of wealth. Corruption was already rampant throughout the system, and at the same time that Mexican presidents were asking the military to deepen its role in the fight against the DTOs, Mexican prosecutors were arresting Mexican generals for being complicit in DTO activities. The Los Zetas group was formed in the late 1990s by former Mexican special operations soldiers who had taken over protection and enforcement duties for the then-powerful Gulf cartel.

Even so, successive Mexican governments were undeterred. They had little choice  cooperating with the DTOs would have meant their further entrenchment, and the fight couldnt be ignored, however hopeless it seemed. Calderon famously began his term promising a war on organized crime, and he was a man of his word. Pena Nieto came in with his list, and he has been slowly crossing names off it. These efforts have not been ineffectual. In 2000, there were four main cartels: the Sinaloa, Juarez, Tijuana and Gulf cartels. By 2013, under the weight of government pressure, the cartels had splintered to such an extent that it was impossible to analyze them by focusing on just the major players. By the Drug Enforcement Administrations count, there are nine major DTOs and 45 smaller organized crime groups in Mexico today.

Unfortunately for Mexico, the byproduct of the governments efforts has not been a reduction in violence. On the contrary, violence has increased, in large measure because of the fracture and proliferation of smaller cartels as hostile to one another (if not more so) as they are to Mexican authorities or the local populations. On the one hand, this means that the power of individual cartels has been curbed. On the other hand, cartels continue to wield significant power in the areas they control and have diversified the sources of their income far beyond the drug  cocaine  that got them rich. One of the most violent areas in Mexico today is Tierra Caliente, a desert-like region encompassing parts of Michoacan, Guerrero and Mexico state, where fentanyl, methamphetamine and opiates have become the predominant moneymakers.

This is indicative of a disturbing trend. In a vacuum, the breakup of large DTOs into smaller ones could be considered a success, as it might be easier to take out smaller, less powerful DTOs than to go up against one large one. Defeating the cartels was never going to happen bloodlessly. But it does not look like the cartels are being defeated. In southern Mexico, a group known as the Jalisco New Generation cartel has become much more powerful and aggressive in the past year. This is particularly disturbing because this area is not in the vast, desert border area with the United States  but is relatively close to the main seat of power itself in Mexico City. Geopolitical studies of Mexico often blithely point out that because northern Mexico is defined by mountains and deserts, the countrys geography lends itself to cartel activity. But cartel activity is not limited to these lawless and historically hard-to-control regions of Mexico. It is endemic to the entire country, and the weakening of individual cartels  or the assassination of the leaders  has not stemmed the tide.

The Same Problems, Only Worse

This has grave implications for the next Mexican government. Pena Nietos successor will face the same predicament as previous Mexican presidents and will have the same array of ineffective solutions. But the incoming president will differ from Pena Nieto in that he or she will come to power with indicators like homicides, extortion and kidnappings at or near all-time highs, and with the drug trade continuing to flourish on the strength of U.S. demand. The incoming president will also come to power as internal migration within Mexico is increasing, the result of Mexicans seeking to escape the collateral damage of the cartel wars, and as more refugees from Central America, beset with its own political and social problems, attempt to make their way across Mexico to the United States.

There are no up-to-date statistics on Mexican emigration figures  2015 is as far back as the data goes. But if violence in Mexico is increasing as much as anecdotal and statistical evidence suggest, it is not unreasonable to expect that there will also be an increase in the number of Mexican nationals looking to escape violence at home. Despite the political climate in the United States and despite U.S. efforts to harden its border, the U.S. remains the destination of choice for Mexicans seeking safety and new opportunities. Since 2005, Mexico has been able to respond to U.S. pressure on immigration by pointing out that more Mexicans are returning home than going to the United States each year. If that were to change, it would have serious ramifications for U.S.-Mexico relations, already strained because of NAFTA negotiations and the Trump administrations stance on immigration.American Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, center, confers with members of the United Nations Security Council just outside the chamber before a scheduled vote on a resolution Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, demanding a 30-day humanitarian cease-fire across Syria. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)This combination of two satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe, Dec. 20, 2017, left; and Feb. 13, 2018, right; displaying the village of Myin Hlut, 25 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of Maungdaw, Rakhine state, Myanmar shows that predominantly Rohingya village and hamlets have been completely leveled by authorities in recent weeks, far more than previously reported. While Myanmar's government claims it's simply trying to rebuild a devastated region, the operation has raised deep concern among human rights advocates, who say the government is destroying what amounts to scores of crime scenes before any credible investigation takes place. (DigitalGlobe via AP)A soldier walks through destroyed vehicles and debris following a twin car bomb attack in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Two car bomb blasts rocked Somalia's capital Friday evening, followed by gunfire, police said, and an ambulance service said more than a dozen had been killed. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 file photo, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, left, serves food to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, center, during dinner at Prigozhin's restaurant outside Moscow, Russia. Ten years ago, he served plates to President Vladimir Putin. These days, St. Petersburg-based businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin funds Kremlin trolls and sends mercenaries to help Russia's military operation in Syria _ all with one aim: to do the president favors that would be too risky for other Russian moguls to undertake. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, Pool, File)FILE--In this file photo taken Oct. 20, 2017, sales clerk Tom Wallitner holds up a Mossberg 715T .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle during an auction at Johnny's Auction House in Rochester, Wash. When selling weapons, sheriff's offices and police departments have also sold AR-15s, AK47s and other assault weapons, a practice criticized by some law enforcement officials. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, file)Im fine with it, we need the revenue and it will encourage cycling/public transit

Hate it, its too tough on local business/too confusing

I dont like it, but its probably necessary

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Phantoms & Monsters: Strange Encounters



January 25TH - January 27th

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Mothman Dynasty: Chicago's Winged Humanoids

This is the first time I have ever heard reports of these (gargoyles). I saw one back around 2005. I was walking on my grandmothers ranch in rural Nevada. We had no security lights on the property, so I carried a high powered flashlight with me. I felt a sudden compulsion to turn my head to my front right. In the beam from the flashlight, in front of my grandmother's chicken coop, about 15 feet from me, was an entity, about 7 feet tall. It had it's back to me, it halfway turned and looked over it's left shoulder at me. Turned enough that I could see it was DEFINITELY male. He had a rather long bulbous nose, large wings down to his mid calves, skin and wings that looked leathery, and was a taupe or pinkish color, no hair that I could see. He also was very thin, almost skeletal in appearance, with some sort of bony protrusions extending from the shoulders. I'll never forget it. Scared the crap out of me! I didn't notice any dead animals in the area, afterward, if there were any.**********United States Navy, during Desert Storm I was aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower attached to VF-142. I was in ordnance so I worked on the flight deck. There was no flight opps going on at the time of event. We were doing general maintenance when all of a sudden people noticed a reddish-orange object in the horizon on the port side. Everyone on the flight deck was watching it. All of a sudden the call came across to launch our Alert 7 aircraft, which are F14 Tomcats. The ufo was just hovering, never moved a bit until the two fighter jets made the left turn to intercept, it went horizontal then vertical in a second. It happened so fast I can't even explain how fast it was. It went horizontal to vertical on a dime. That was that and we were given no explanation but act like nothing happened. I will say this, nothing gets that close to an aircraft carrier without us knowing it or allowing to come in our space. Sorry but there were no spots on the question part for water or ocean -**********The Vatican hopes to step up its game against demon possessions with a week-long international conference in April to address a threefold increase in demand in Italy alone for the services of exorcists.The church is particularly alarmed over the uneven skills of some of its current exorcists and worried about priests who are no longer willing to learn the techniques.The assessment is a major finding of a four-day meeting in Sicily that included testimony on sects and Satanism, according to Vatican Radio.One of the organizers of the Sicily gathering, Friar Beningo Palilla, told Vatican Radio there are some 500,000 cases requiring exorcism in Italy each year.****************************************

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 2005-2018 Phantoms and Monsters / PM Media - All Rights ReservedHealth Partners Plans, Philadelphia Fight, and Broad Street Ministry announced a collaboration to help improve health care for homeless individuals.

Under the arrangement, Health Partners Plans, a Philadelphia provider of managed Medicaid and Medicare insurance plans, will pay for a full-time social worker at a Philadelphia Fight clinic at Broad Street Ministry, which supplies meals and other services to the homeless and other at-risk individuals in Center City.

The social worker will help patients at the Philadelphia Fight clinic obtain additional health care, public benefits, and legal assistance. Philadelphia Fight, founded in 1990, started as an organization dedicated to serving low-income people with HIV/Aids and now provides what it calls "competent, comprehensive primary care" at several clinics.Former Comcast Corp. employee Rylinda Rhodes has launched a petition on coworker.org, claiming a culture of sexual harassment at the cable company's call centers. Read more

A former Comcast Corp. call-center employee who filed a lawsuit claiming a sexually hostile workplace has launched a petition on the activist site coworker.org that, by Friday, had garnered more than 4,000 signatures, according to the group's website.

Rylinda Rhodes, who worked at Comcast call centers in Washington and Maryland between 2007 and 2012, claimed in her 2014 federal lawsuit that her male coworkers directed lewd sexual language toward her and there were incidents of being touched on her breasts. When she brought the behavior to the attention of human resources, she felt that the company's managers retaliated against her.

This is just the latest #metoo moment for the Philadelphia cable and entertainment conglomerate.

Jezebel, an online fashion and women's issues publication, reported Thursday on the petition and an five additional women in Colorado, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, and Virginia who also claimed inappropriate sex-related behavior such as male coworkers making them uncomfortable hugging them, commenting on their bodies, discussing sex lives, and one supervisor asking an female employee for her lingerie size.

"The culture of sexual harassment at the Comcast call centers I worked at was pervasive and difficult to escape. I felt constant fear and anxiety around certain male colleagues, and would try to avoid and limit contact if possible," Rhodes said in her petition. She was not available for comment by email and her attorney did not return a call. Rhodes, who earned $32,000 a year, is seeking $2 million, according to court documents.

Comcast could not comment on Rhodes because the case is being litigated.

The company says it investigates all sexual harassment complaints and that its employees participated in antiharassment training in 2017. They will have refresher courses on the topic this year. Some of the allegations in Jezebel article dated back a decade and the complaints could not be found. Another incident was not reported to Comcast. In the Tennessee incident, Comcast investigated the claim and dismissed the supervisor.

Comcast employees can report harassment complaints anonymously on the "Comcast Listens" hotline and portal, the company says.

"Sexual harassment, or harassment of any kind, is not tolerated at Comcast," spokeswoman Jennifer Moyer said. "The company was founded on a foundation of respect, integrity, and trust. We have strong policies against sexual and other forms of harassment and encourage employees to report any harassing behavior. Any allegation of harassment is taken very seriously."

There has been heightened awareness of sexual harassment after the publication of stories in 2017 on movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual misconduct with movie actresses, with the #metoo movement toppling powerful media, Hollywood and political figures. Comcast-owned NBC fired Today anchor Matt Lauer after several woman last year came forward claiming sexual misconduct by the high-profile TV personality.Tyisha Timmons, right, with a niece. Timmons, 23, was shot dead while driving a van full of family members  including her twin sister and three young children  on Broad Street on Feb. 21, 2018. Read more

The calls kept coming, one after the other.

From the undertaker, the morgue, the police.

Lisa Timmons hadn't slept in two days, but she kept answering the phone Friday morning. Each call was helping her deal with the fallout from her daughter's killing. Each got Timmons closer to laying her 23-year-old girl, Tyisha, to rest.

"It's emptiness," Timmons, 51, said of her life now. "A weight I can't fill."

Tyisha Timmons was gunned down Wednesday night on Broad Street in Fern Rock, struck in the head by a bullet while driving northbound in a van filled with at least six other family members  including her twin sister, Myisha, and three young children.

In an interview Friday, Myisha said the group was out shopping for clothes to wear to a surprise birthday party her sister wanted to throw for their mother this weekend. Before they could make it home, the van was sprayed with up to five bullets.

Police have said Timmons and the other occupants appeared to be innocent victims, and investigators were still searching Friday for suspects and a possible motive. The van crashed into a business after Timmons was shot, but the other occupants survived.

The description of suspects was vague  two men wearing gray hoodies  and police were still gathering evidence Friday and trying to piece the case together.

Homicide Capt. John Ryan said Friday that investigators believe that the van may have inadvertently traveled through another gun battle blocks away and minutes earlier, but that it was unclear whether that shooting had anything to do with the one that killed Timmons.

Myisha said they did drive past another shooting, but she did not want to go into detail about either because she was speaking with her young daughter nearby and did not want to make her relive the experience.

Ryan emphasized that the van's occupants did not appear to be connected to the shooters in either incident  that Tyisha Timmons and her family members in the car were "not involved in anything to bring this on their doorstep."

"It's terrible what happened," Ryan said. "It's also a miracle that no one else [in the car] was hit."

Meanwhile, Lisa Timmons fought back tears in the living room of her two-story Ogontz rowhouse, battling the need to plan the burial with the mix of sadness, rage, and disbelief.

Words "don't measure the pain," she said.

Tyisha was one of eight children, her mother said, a bright girl with a pretty smile and a warm personality.

She worked two jobs, said her father, James Buckman, and her diploma from Arise Academy high school was on display on a windowsill near photos of her siblings and their children.

Tyisha had no children, her family said, but was a caring aunt to her nieces and nephews. She had talked about becoming a fashion designer and of someday maybe having twins of her own. In addition to having a twin sister, her mother said, she also had older twin brothers.

Myisha Timmons said her sister was her best friend  born 3 minutes before her, which she never let Myisha live down. They used to jump rope double Dutch in the street outside their home growing up, Myisha said, and Tyisha loved to shop for her nieces.

"She was just always about making sure that [we were] good in each and every way," Myisha said.

Lisa Timmons was at work when she heard that her daughter had been in a car accident  and she did not learn about the shooting until she arrived at the scene.

Buckman said he received a call about the crime and at first did not believe what he was told.

"It was scary, man," he recalled.

The family has set up a memorial at the site of the accident, and they were busy preparing Friday for Tyisha's burial.

Much remained unknown, but one thing was certain: Lisa Timmons said she wanted to be a pallbearer  to carry her daughter to the grave.A Working People's Day of Action rally attendee holds up a sign that reads "Protect Workers' Rights" in Thomas Paine Plaza on Saturday morning, February 24, 2018. SYDNEY SCHAEFER / Staff Photographer Read more

On the cusp of a U.S. Supreme Court showdown in a case being watched closely by workers' unions across the country, more than 1,000 people gathered in Philadelphia Saturday morning to rally in support of organized labor.

Mayor Kenney was among the officials at the "Working People's Day of Action," telling the crowd at Thomas Paine Plaza that he was a "proud supporter of unions."

"Whenever the rights of unions are threatened we need to fight back," Kenney said. "And we will."

Similar rallies were held in cities across the country, including Detroit, San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio.

The event came just days before the nation's high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on whether public sector employees should be compelled to pay fees to unions even if they don't want to join them. The plaintiff in the case, Illinois resident Mark Janus, has argued that such fees  called "fair share" payments, which are generally less than member dues  violate his First Amendment rights because they force him to support organized labor.

Labor supporters have argued that the fees prevent nonmembers from enjoying the benefits of collective bargaining without having to pay. Eliminating the fees could also have a crippling financial impact on workers' unions across the country, which for years already have been battling decreasing membership rolls.

Last year the court was deadlocked, 4-4, when deciding the case, referred to as Janus v. AFSCME. President Trump has since appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch to the bench, widely considered a conservative and thus a threat to tip the scales toward an anti-union verdict.

Speakers and attendees at Saturday's rally  including labor leaders, union members, and clergy  regularly referenced the case, which has been considered one of the most consequential facing organized labor in decades.

Keenan Fields, 48, of Sharon Hill, a shop steward and member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776, said organized workers "absolutely" felt worried about the Janus case and other potential legislation threatening unions.

"We just want a piece of the pie," he said. "Give us our piece and let us be happy."The Broward County Sheriff's Office received a call in November with an ominous warning: Nikolas Cruz, a troubled 19-year-old, was collecting guns and knives and "could be a school shooter in the making."

It was one of at least four times local or federal authorities were contacted about such a threat linked to Cruz, including a tip the FBI received in January warning that he would "get into a school and just shoot the place up," according to a transcript of the call obtained by the Washington Post on Friday. Another tip to the sheriff's office in 2016 warned that Cruz "planned to shoot up the school."

In the era of "see something, say something," members of the public did just that. But what happened after the November call fit a disturbing pattern in the lead-up to the Parkland, Fla., massacre: No report was filed, and there is no evidence the threat was ever investigated.

Less than three months later, police say, Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and gunned down 17 students and faculty members. As the rampage has supercharged the country's debate over gun control and school safety, it also has cast a spotlight on the systems set up to protect Americans nationwide.

The FBI's acting deputy director, David Bowdich, said this week that the agency made mistakes in its handling of warnings about Cruz. The FBI on Friday briefed congressional staff on the tip and the agency's failure to properly follow up.

Investigations into mass shootings often reveal warning signs that seem blindingly clear with the benefit of hindsight. But the Parkland shooting has stood out for the sheer number of alarms sounded before the Feb. 14 rampage.

Rather than flying under the radar, Cruz was a known troublemaker who repeatedly drew scrutiny from local, state and federal authorities as well as school officials, social services investigators and mental-health counselors. Yet time and time again, the alarms would go unheeded.

This account is based on interviews, police records, state documents, public statements, and 911 recordings dealing with the shooting. Cruz is behind bars, charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, and likely to face a possible death sentence.

Police say they never had cause to arrest Cruz, leaving him with a clean criminal record and able to pass background checks. Only five states have "red flag laws" allowing them to seize guns before people can commit acts of violence, and Florida is not among them.

"We take guns from people when we run into them engaged in aberrant, troubling behavior," said Daniel Oates, the Miami Beach police chief who had the same role in Aurora, Colo., when a gunman killed 12 at a movie theater there in 2012. But under Florida law, he said, "there's a strong presumption that the person is entitled to the gun back."

Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County public defender representing Cruz, said he should have been involuntarily hospitalized under the state's Baker Act.

"There is no explaining how every single agency in every regard missed every signal," said Finkelstein. "It's very overwhelming in its sadness and scariness. Because there are people in this county, and I imagine counties all over America, who want to know: Are my children safe?"

People who knew Cruz growing up said he would attack animals and pick fights, while educators repeatedly referred him to counseling. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) investigated his home life in 2016 after receiving allegations he was being mistreated, but officials said his risk level was low because he lived with his mother, attended school, and received counseling. The probe was closed.

In November, his mother died.

He had been removed from Stoneman Douglas earlier that year for disciplinary reasons. The same month he left Stoneman Douglas, Cruz purchased the AR-15 he would use in the rampage, police said.

By the time of the shooting, Cruz had legally purchased at least 10 rifles and shotguns, including an AK-47 variant, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

Law enforcement officials have drawn intense criticism for lapses involving Cruz. The FBI said it failed to investigate the January warning about concerns that he wanted to kill people, owned guns, and could carry out a school shooting.

This person told the FBI that she worried Cruz was "going to explode," a federal law enforcement official said Friday. Details of her call were first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which reviewed a transcript of the call. A federal law enforcement official confirmed the information to the Washington Post.

The caller, who seemed to have detailed knowledge of Cruz's behavior, said Cruz had commented on social media about killing himself  something passed to local police, she said  and that his more recent posts suggested violence against others.

"Something is going to happen," the caller said.

The FBI representative inquired about the caller's assertion that Cruz was "into ISIS" and requested contact information for the people with whom Cruz was said to be staying.

That tip came months after the FBI was alerted to a YouTube comment in which someone with the screen name "nikolas cruz" wrote "Im going to be a professional school shooter."The agency said it was unable to determine who posted the message at the time, but now believes it was Cruz.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that it received 23 calls relating to Cruz or his family dating to 2008, when he was 9 years old.

In one 911 call to that office, a woman said that her son and another young man  apparently Cruz  got into a fight, and she was "afraid he's coming back and he has a lot of weapons." She also said that Cruz had aimed a gun at people's heads before. In another 911 call, Cruz called authorities and, sounding distressed, said he was attacked.

In Broward County, the sheriff's office said it has launched internal investigations into how two calls about Cruz were handled. The February 2016 call cited Instagram in saying Cruz wanted to shoot up a school; a deputy spoke to the caller and determined that Cruz had knives and a BB gun, the sheriff's office said.

Information about that call was sent to Scot Peterson, the Stoneman Douglas school resource officer who failed to enter the building during the shooting, but it was unclear what he did with the tip. Peterson has retired and the deputy has been placed on restricted administrative duty as part of the investigation.

In November, a caller alerted the Broward County Sheriff's Office that Cruz was collecting guns and knives, wanted to join the Army, may commit suicide, and could be a school shooter. Authorities have not identified the caller, except to say the call came from Massachusetts.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said this week that no report was filed on that call. After the Stoneman Douglas shooting, a deputy said he referred the caller to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, but a spokeswoman for that office said it never received that threat. The Broward County Sheriff's Office said it launched an internal investigation into the call but declined to provide further details about what happened afterward, citing the ongoing internal affairs investigation.

Robert Bonczek, 17, a Stoneman Douglas senior who plans to join the Marine Corps, said that students are angry with law enforcement officials and that civilians and authorities alike don't take threats as seriously as they should.

"We're desensitized to any threat," he said. "So when they see something on the Internet they think, 'eh, whatever.' No one ever thinks it will happen to you."

Bonczek said most students are focusing not on blame, but on channeling their anger to press for changes to laws regulating guns.

"The FBI didn't do their job, but it's hard to do anything about that," he said. "But with Congress, we can specifically make calls for change."In this Feb. 15, 2018, file image made from video, David Hogg talks about his experiences at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High when a gunman opened fire and killed 17 students and faculty in Parkland, Fla. Read more

The internet has been rife with rumors about the school shooting that left 17 dead in Florida on Feb. 14. We've debunked several of them.

Initially, the rumors focused on the alleged shooter himself, Nikolas Cruz. But, as students who survived the shooting started advocating stricter gun controls, new rumors focused on the most vocal among them. Those falsehoods grew into full-fledged conspiracy theories, one of which briefly topped the list of trending videos on YouTube.

That one claimed that David Hogg, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was actually a "crisis actor." Similar theories claiming that many of the teens are "crisis actors" popped up on Facebook along with claims that they are part of a "deep state" conspiracy involving CNN and the FBI. These rumors got extra exposure when they were highlighted by public figures and amplified on social media with the help of Russian bots.

The fact is Hogg is a student at Stoneman Douglas High School. He's a member of the school's television news show and was pictured in the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in 2015 running in a cross-country race for Stoneman Douglas.

For more, see our Feb. 22 story, "No 'Crisis Actors' in Parkland, Florida."

Another rumor, one of the first to show up online, claimed that Cruz is a registered Democrat.

He is not. According to records from the Florida Department of State, he is not a registered voter.

That claim originated on a conservative website called Gateway Pundit with the headline: "BREAKING: Don't Let The MAGA Hat Fool You, Hispanic Shooter 'Nicolas de Jesus Cruz' Was A Registered Democrat."

Although that site later changed its headline to say that Cruz was not, in fact, a registered Democrat, it was too late. Other websites had already copied the inaccurate version and promoted it on Facebook, contributing to an unsupported narrative that mass shooters are often Democrats. Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York later continued spreading that narrative, telling a radio show host: "It's interesting that so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats. But the media doesn't talk about that."

She offered no support for her statement.

For more on the claim about Cruz, see our Feb. 20 story "Florida Shooter Not Registered Dem."

Another early rumor with a political bent claimed that former first lady Michelle Obama had blamed President Trump for the shooting.

She didn't. At the time that claim was made  based on a fabricated quote  the only statement she had made publicly was a retweet from Barack Obama's account expressing grief.

She has since tweeted about her support for the students who are advocating changes to gun laws. Still no mention of Trump.

For more, see our Feb. 21 story "Made-up Michelle Obama Quote."Yvonne Cech (left) was the librarian at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut when a gunman killed 26 people in 2012. Her friend of more than 30 years, Diana Perri Haneski (right), is the library media specialist at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. She and her staff ushered about 50 students into a room during last weeks shooting. Read more

Yvonne Cech and Diana Perri Haneski met 36 years ago while working at a Connecticut radio station. They married men they met at the station and moved hundreds of miles apart, but their lives appeared to continue in sync. They twice gave birth within weeks of one another. They each earned a master's degree from the same university.

Cech became a librarian at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Haneski became a librarian at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

And now, each has survived a mass shooting at her school. Last week in Florida, Haneski used lessons she had learned from Cech's experience in 2012.

"The kinds of conversations we had after Sandy Hook were about looking at your surroundings differently, security . . . how you would shelter children and how you would be able to escape," Cech said. "Fortunately, Diana is very smart and she was retaining all of that information. And very, very unfortunately, she ended up having to use it."

People in this world divide their lives into "before" and "after": before they survived carnage, or lost a loved one, and everything after. They call themselves the "club no one wants to join," but it is a group that keeps getting bigger.

With the growing list of mass shootings in America, survivors have taken it upon themselves to connect. They offer support that only someone who has huddled in a closet while a gunman lurked outside, or buried a murdered child, can provide. They find one another via formal and informal networks, social media and, as their ranks grow, by unlucky coincidence, such as Cech and Haneski's friendship.

When a lone gunman attacked Sandy Hook, killing 20 students and six teachers, Cech and her staff shepherded 18 fourth graders into a closet, barricading it with a filing cabinet.

Haneski was among the first people Cech spoke with in the days after the shooting, and the two would talk about it during annual trips with friends from the radio station. Haneski internalized what Cech told her and built it into her daily routine. She was never without her cellphone or school keys; if an outfit didn't have pockets, she would keep them in a pouch. She was more aware of her surroundings and security.

"I didn't think I was getting ready for the same thing that happened to her," Haneski said.

On Feb. 14, about 2:20 p.m., the fire alarm went off at Haneski's school in Parkland. Haneski thought the culinary department had burned something. She shuttled children out of the media center. But she had a school radio on her. "Code red, lockdown," someone said. The voices made it clear that this was not a drill.

She opened a door to a hallway and told the students to come back inside the media center. She ushered children into a large equipment room on one side of the library; another staffer did the same, getting dozens of children into another room on the other side.

Haneski and about 50 students crouched behind media and computer carts and paper boxes. A clerk covered the windows with paper and turned off the lights. Haneski texted her husband and told the students to message only their parents and not to look at the news or social media.

Haneski immediately thought about Cech.

She remembered she had barricaded her students in the closet with a filing cabinet and put media carts in front of the door. About 90 minutes after the shooting in the Florida high school started, the SWAT team came to rescue the group. Haneski again remembered what Cech told her: Make the officers push their identification under the door. Police ended up breaking the door down because Haneski did not want to open it.

Cech was in a meeting in Connecticut that day. She looked at her phone and saw many missed calls from another friend from the radio station. She slipped away and called the friend, who told her that there was a shooting at Stoneman Douglas.

"I kept thinking, 'That can't be. That just can't be,' " Cech said. "I immediately felt like I had to come and be with her because I remembered how helpful it was for me when people who had been through the same thing offered support."

After Newtown, Cech and others who worked at Sandy Hook met with teachers from Colorado's Columbine High School, where a 1999 shooting that killed 13 students ushered in the modern era of mass school shootings and security lockdowns. A group from an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., where a gunman killed five people in 2006, took a bus to Newtown to meet with survivors.

"It's hard to imagine for anyone who hasn't been through it what it feels like and what you're going through," Cech said. "I felt like I had a real need to talk with them, just because it was people who would understand it in a way that no one else could. And I found it very helpful."

After Caren Teves's oldest son, Alex, was murdered in a 2012 shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater while shielding his girlfriend from gunfire, Teves and her husband returned home to Arizona, "alone in our tragedy." Soon after, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) was hosting a town hall meeting. Teves wanted to go, but didn't think she could do it alone.

She reached out for support to the Everytown Survivor Network, survivors of gun violence and their loved ones run by the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. They connected her to Pat Maisch, who survived a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson. She drove two hours to accompany Teves to the town hall.

She and Maisch now call one another sisters. There are days when Teves doesn't think she can get out of bed. She calls Masich.

"We help each other incorporate our tragedy into our lives," Masich said. "There are thousands and thousands like me. And that's what kills me. When I hear about another mass shooting, my first thought is, 'My God, people are going to have to go through this.' "

The women have turned their grief into action, lobbying legislators, testifying before Congress and speaking about guns and life after a mass shooting.

Teves and her husband started an organization called No Notoriety, urging the media not to publish the names of mass shooters.

In the days after nine people were killed in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., Lucy McBath went on Facebook to find survivors and the families of those who died to let them know she was praying for them. McBath's son, Jordan Davis, was killed in an argument over loud music at a Jacksonville, Fla., gas station in 2012.

McBath mailed handwritten letters to Charleston.

The Rev. Sharon Risher, whose mother and two cousins were killed, spotted one with her name written on the side. Risher felt compelled to open it, and she immediately felt as if McBath was someone she could confide in without having to be careful about what she said.

The two found common ground in their devout faith, and they hugged and sobbed when they first met face-to-face in what McBath called a "painful" meeting. Having lost her son, McBath said, she could not imagine the "emotional, spiritual burden" that came with losing three loved ones.

Risher worked as a trauma chaplain at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, helping countless people through their grief. But she could not process her own.

"My brain just couldn't compute that type of devastation even though I had helped other people," Risher said. "Lucy gave me this love. She gave me that encouragement."

Zach Elmore's sister, Alicia Johnston, was wounded during the October 2017 mass shooting at a concert on the Las Vegas Strip that left 58 people dead and more than 500 injured. He said that once the shooting fades from public view, people forget that there are families who are torn apart and survivors who will never be the same. He and his sister have both been in touch with people who survived or whose loved ones were killed in a mass shooting.

"There are a lot of people who are out there who have been through those kinds of things and they are very willing to have those conversations," he said. "Unfortunately, that community has grown exponentially."

On Saturday, more than 100 teachers and local school officials packed into a room of the Broward Teachers Union, miles from Stoneman Douglas in Florida. The meeting was a way for teachers to grieve with one another, and to meet educators and students who survived Columbine and Newtown.

"We are all family . . . you do not journey this alone," said Crystal Miller, who survived Columbine as a 16-year-old. "Eighteen years ago we stood exactly where you are now. . . . It should have never happened again. You should not be sitting here, it is not OK, it is not all right."

Cech arrived in Florida on Friday and went right to Haneski's house.

The women greeted one another with a long embrace. Haneski was simultaneously grieving and ready for action. The first words she said to Cech after the shooting: "How can we make this the last one?"

Cech went to a student's memorial service with Haneski and spoke with school board members. For years, the women had talked about doing something together, maybe writing a book. Now they have found their cause  ending gun violence.

"People might think this is unusual or atypical. This is going to happen more and more and more unless we do something to change it," Cech said, noting that she wishes Haneski never had to use the knowledge gained from Sandy Hook. "While I'm glad that Diana had that information in her mind and it's useful to her, I'm angry as hell she had to use that information."

The Washington Post's Renae Merle contributed to this article.Dreamer Evelyn Marquez Auza becomes emotional while sharing her story during a listening session with fellow Dreamers and Bishop Dennis Sullivan at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden office. Read more

One young woman was heartbroken when she discovered that some view her and other undocumented immigrants as unwelcome outsiders, devoid of feelings and ambitions.

Another spent all her earnings and paid cash to attend college but now may have to forfeit her education and dreams to return to a land she doesn't remember.

A young man recalled a harrowing, 30-day stint in a New Jersey detention center after agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement stopped his car a few days after they arrested three of his uncles and began deporting them.

These were among the voices of a group of so-called Dreamers  the nearly 1.8 million young people who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children  who were invited to meet with Camden Bishop Dennis Sullivan on Friday to share their stories.

Sullivan wanted to make the public aware of their plight as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops prepares to launch an initiative Monday to stop the deportation of the Dreamers. After meeting with 14 Dreamers at a round-table at diocesan headquarters in Camden, Sullivan said he was deeply touched and "felt shame that our country is involved in this, what this great nation is doing to these people."

He and other bishops are calling on parishioners to call Congress on Monday to ask their representatives to reach a deal to protect the Dreamers and provide them with a path to citizenship.

In September, President Trump announced that he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which afforded 700,000 Dreamers temporary relief from deportation and legal permission to work. Trump gave Congress until March 5 to find a solution before the program ends.

But Congress and the White House have repeatedly failed to agree on a plan, leaving the Dreamers' future in limbo.

Sullivan said he felt compelled to reach out to these young people to tell them the church supports them and to listen to them. As a priest in New York, he had worked with undocumented immigrants. "I heard their pain, but never heard it told so forcefully" he said Friday after listening to the Dreamers who gathered to talk to him.

"Now I'm always scared," said Magali Rodriguez, 26, of Gloucester City, who was 3 when she came here from Mexico. "You don't know you're undocumented until you're in high school, and when I was asked if I was going to college, I had to lie. I was so ashamed of not having a piece of paper that says you are part of the U.S."

The Dreamers who met with the bishop all came from Mexico, brought to the U.S. between ages 1 and 10. They are now between 17 and 28 years old. Most work or attend school and struggle to make ends meet.

If Congress doesn't act, the deportations could be delayed while federal judges in New York and California hear legal challenges to Trump's action. The U.S. Supreme Court is also considering intervening.

The Dreamers say the uncertainty is taking a toll.

Abrile Revueltas, 23, of Stratford said that when "Trump canceled DACA, my work said 'We can't have you here. We can't risk it, and you might be deported,' " she said, her voice quivering. She had wanted to go to college, she said, but her high school principal told her she couldn't because she didn't have "papers."

Pedro Garcia, 21, of Bridgeton, was shocked when ICE agents arrested him last fall. He had not been in trouble, but was told his DACA application had expired. "I love America. I've never suffered here and have always worked on my own and and gotten what I need," he said, adding he has his own construction company.

He couldn't believe ICE came to his house and deported three of his uncles, shortly before he himself was detained. He paused to regain his composure and swallowed hard. "I never knew I could be deported," he said.Law-enforcement officials on Friday were investigating online threats made against several schools in Gloucester County.

It was not immediately clear whether they were connected or made by the same person. Schools in the Philadelphia region have been on heightened alert following the the shooting rampage at a Parkland, Fla., high school that left 17 dead.

West Deptford police said it was notified about 10 a.m. Friday by West Deptford High School officials that a message had been posted on Snapchat that included threats of "shooting up West Deptford."

A 15-year-old West Deptford resident who allegedly made the threats was identified, the police said. "The juvenile was taken into custody and will be charged accordingly," the West Deptford police posted on its Facebook account.

Also on Friday, Lynn DiPietropolo, superintendent of Woodbury City Public Schools, reported that threats were made on Snapchat against Woodbury High School by a West Deptford student.

"The Woodbury City Police Department have confirmed there was a Snapchat with the assistance from the West Deptford Police Department," DiPietropolo wrote. "The student has been identified and the police are handling the situation."

Deptford Township High School officials reported on Friday that they were made aware late Thursday about a week-old threat against the high school.

Deptford police were notified and quickly identified the "student" who made the threat.

"In all cases such as this, the Deptford Police Department has notified all police agencies, the County Prosecutor's Office, the County Sheriff, and the FBI," the school posted on its website. "There will be ongoing investigations with students and other agencies."

Officials at the Gloucester County Institute of Technology reported Friday that they had been made aware of "a threatening text/snap chat message being disseminated throughout social media."

Superintendent of the Gloucester County Special Services School District Michael C. Dicken and GCIT Principal James H. Dundee Jr. reported that the threat involved a student and law enforcement "are currently dealing with the individual."

There was increased security at Gloucester County Institute of Technology on Friday and the school "will continue to have additional police presence in the days to come," Dicken and Dundee wrote on the school's website.The new congressional districts in southeastern Pennsylvania under the map imposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Read more

HARRISBURG  Republican efforts to block Pennsylvania's new map of congressional districts suffered a setback Friday, as a federal three-judge panel declined to issue an emergency order to prevent it from taking effect.

Instead, they scheduled a hearing for March 9 here to consider arguments on whether they should block the maps from being used in the looming primary and general elections.

The judges, in a three-page filing issued late Friday, said they favored "an opportunity for all parties to be heard" and intend to "proceed on an expedited basis."

The case was filed Thursday by two state senators and eight congressmen from Pennsylvania, all of whom are Republicans. Together, they argued that the Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court, when it ruled the prior map unconstitutional and imposed a new one, violated the elections clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives power to state legislatures to run elections for U.S. House.

On the panel are Kent Jordan, who serves on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; Christopher Conner, chief judge in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania; and Jerome Simandle, a semi-retired federal judge based in New Jersey. All three were appointed by Republican presidents.

The claims by the GOP plaintiffs were "not so exigent as to justify" immediately blocking the maps, the judges wrote.

A similar legal challenge, filed by two other prominent Republicans in the state legislature, is pending in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, state officials are continuing to plan for the May 15 congressional primary using the new map imposed Monday by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Candidates for U.S. House can begin circulating nominating petitions next week, and they are due March 20  unless a court orders otherwise.Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block a new Pennsylvania map of congressional districts imposed last week by the state Supreme Court to correct gerrymandering. The state high court is controlled by elected Democrats. Read more

In politics, big changes sometimes build over a long time  and then arrive all at once.

Pennsylvania Republicans have dominated the state's congressional delegation for nearly a decade, aided by favorable district boundaries drawn by legislators in their party.

But that grip was thrown into serious doubt this past week when the state Supreme Court imposed a new congressional map that has scrambled politics in the state, increased the odds of a national political shift, and left insiders' heads spinning.

And the dust hasn't settled. Challenging the legitimacy of the state high court's rewrite, Republicans asked the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal district court in Harrisburg in separate complaints to block the new map from use, even as congressional candidates are preparing to get on the ballot for the May primaries. The short term outlook: uncertainty.

"We're blazing new ground here," said Drew Crompton, the top lawyer for the GOP-led state Senate.

He and other political professionals were still trying to wrap their minds around all that has unfolded since the state Supreme Court decided in late January that the previous map, drawn by legislative Republicans and enacted in 2011, was so skewed that it violated the Pennsylvania constitution.

And the upheaval arrives just as Democrats seem poised to go on the offensive, less than nine months before a midterm election that will serve as a referendum on President Trump.

The president weighed in on the matter Saturday via Twitter, calling the new map "very unfair to Republicans and to our country as a whole. Must be appealed to the United States Supreme Court ASAP!"

Suddenly, most analysts are not asking whether Democrats will make gains in Pennsylvania as they try to take control of the U.S. House. The question is how many seats they will gain  and if the Keystone State could tip the balance of power.

Stuck with five of 18 Congressional seats since 2011, Democrats now have a shot at potentially doubling that count if the national political atmosphere shapes up in their favor.

"If the Democrats do win the House by just a few seats in November, it's possible that the new Pennsylvania map will have made the difference," wrote election handicappers at Sabato's Crystal Ball, a University of Virginia political website.

Democrats, they noted, were already in position to add seats before the new map was unveiled, given Trump's poor approval ratings in the Philadelphia suburbs, the traditional midterm backlash against the party holding the White House and GOP retirements.

But the new district lines, imposed by a Democratic-controlled state Supreme Court, have erased GOP advantages in key races. They turned decent chances for Democrats into great ones, and a few long shots into possibilities. The map landed just as Republicans were starting to see an uptick in some polling, including surveys that showed increasing approval of their signature tax cuts.

Independent analysts looking at Pennsylvania now see strong opportunities for Democrats to gain at least three of the 24 seats they need for a House majority and a foothold on power in Washington.

Incumbents suddenly face new electorates. Some challengers now live in new districts. Some have seen political opportunities wiped out. Others have seen new chances suddenly arise.

A potentially expensive and competitive Delaware County-based race now looks like a near-certain Democratic gain. Tough contests based in Chester County and the Lehigh Valley have moved in Democrats' favor. A tight Bucks County district also edged slightly their way. And once-safe Republican districts centered on York County and in Western Pennsylvania could shape up as competitive battles, if a Democratic wave emerges. They weren't even on the radar a week ago.

"It takes six existing Democratic opportunities to pick up seats and makes them stronger," said Dave Wasserman, of the Cook Political Report. "The net difference between the new and old map is probably around two seats."

Consider next month's hotly contested special election in Western Pennsylvania: No matter who wins, neither candidate  Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican State Rep. Rick Saccone  will live in the district if the new boundaries stand as expected.

Whatever the outcome, insiders expect Lamb to make a run in a newly competitive district next door, which includes Lamb's home in Mt. Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb. That district is currently represented by GOP Rep. Keith Rothfus, and many expect it will host a competitive Democratic primary.

Republicans were pressing ahead with a U.S. Supreme Court challenge that could end the speculation and send everyone scrambling again. The GOP argues that the new map is an example of judicial overreach, in which a state high court led by a Democratic majority stole legislative power to drawn lines that favor its party.

Democrats have defended the map as more logical and reflective of a swing state that typically splits its votes fairly evenly. Though some districts have moved left, analysts say the statewide picture is generally competitive, particularly in election years less inherently favorable to Democrats than this one.

If the court-drawn districts remain, incumbents may be unfamiliar to many voters they face.

Rep. Ryan Costello (R., Pa.) already faced one of the toughest races in the state, and is now set to run in a Chester County-based district where half his electorate will be new.

He has lashed out at the decision, blasting it as "corrupt" and "racist" and called to impeach the state Supreme Court judges.

In a federal lawsuit filed with other Republican congressmen from Pennsylvania and two state senators, he argued that the new map "has destroyed any incumbency advantage that Congressman Costello may have once held." It noted that of the $450,000 he has spent on his reelection, more than $220,000 was directed at voters he would no longer represent. (That challenge suffered its first setback late Friday, when judges refused to immediately issue an injunction halting the redistricting, but agreed to hold hearings next month.)

In a reflection of the spreading uncertainty, some political insiders speculated that Costello would be better off running in a deeply conservative district that borders his redrawn one.

"Incumbents do have an advantage most of the time in part because people know who they are, they recognize their name when they go into the voting booth," said Dave Hopkins, a political scientist at Boston College. "So incumbents never like to lose the territory that they've spent a long time cultivating."

On the other hand, two well-regarded Democratic challengers in Lancaster County, Christina Hartman and Jess King, now face a near-impossible climb in a district that is much more Republican.

"In some cases there's candidates who have filed in one seat and have been running in that seat, to find out they're not in that seat anymore," said John Brabender, a Republican consultant.

A handful of Democrats who had announced campaigns to succeed outgoing U.S. Rep. Bob Brady have suddenly found a much different prospect: His district has essentially disappeared, and there are now two Philadelphia-based districts instead of three. (A third seat tied to Philly is now in a district made up mostly of Delaware County).

On the other hand, Montgomery County will be home to a new, and open, congressional district. State Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat, quickly dropped her lieutenant governor campaign and announced she would seek that U.S. House seat.

Similarly, the Democratic state auditor, Eugene DePasquale, is considering running in a York County-based district that is suddenly looking more competitive.

The turmoil arrived after years of GOP-imposed stability.

Republicans' well-timed wave victories of 2010 gave them control of both competitive congressional seats and the Pennsylvania state legislature, just in time for the decennial redrawing of congressional boundaries.

They made a map that linked battleground suburbs with more conservative counties, giving Republicans valuable cushions in competitive districts. Even in years such as 2012, when Democrats won 51 percent of the congressional votes statewide, Republicans held onto the same 13-5 advantage in U.S. House seats.

The map, normally an arcane topic of interest only to political insiders, became an object of fury for everyday Democrats who bemoaned the weaving lines and bizarre shapes that aided GOP incumbents. National experts held up Pennsylvania as a poster child of gerrymandering.

When Democrats won a state Supreme Court majority in 2015, it opened a door to change. A January court ruling threw out the old districts as unfair and partisan, and when Gov. Wolf and GOP legislative leaders failed to reach a deal on a new plan, the court imposed its own vision, with the help of a Stanford expert.

The new map has none of the contorted shapes of the previous one. It is compact and orderly.

The election landscape, much less so.

Staff writers Jonathan Lai, Liz Navratil, and Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.Towns across the country that want to promote development and generally make life better for businesses and homeowners have long battled the enemy within  bureaucracy.

Now they are looking at common sense steps to get out of their own way.

Take the case of solar energy, where bureaucracy has cast a shadow over efforts to promote its use as a renewable alternative to traditional, polluting energy sources. Some officials say experiences with solar might even provide a road map for promoting efficiencies in local government.

Municipalities in the region and across the country have simplified the permitting and zoning processes with standardized procedures, an online checklist of requirements and assessments to identify unnecessary barriers to remove.

It's too soon to say if clearing some of the red-tape obstacles will translate into a steady surge of new solar energy consumption. But some of the early signs are, well, bright.

A national program launched in 2016 called SolSmart uses U.S. Department of Energy funds to spur the removal of solar roadblocks at the local level.

More than 180 municipalities across the country have committed to simplify solar permitting, including Philadelphia; Pottstown Borough, Montgomery County; the city of Chester, Delaware County; and Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County.

New Jersey has been a solar pioneer and is well ahead of Pennsylvania in the solar market.

LeAnne Harvey, a spokeswoman in Philadelphia's Office of Sustainability, acknowledged getting a permit "can be such a hassle," especially for families and small solar panel installers, so the city streamlined the steps.

"Generally speaking, shorter is cheaper," said Sean Gallagher, vice president of state affairs for the national trade group Solar Energy Industries Association, which estimates that solar could account for 5 percent of all electrical generation by 2022.

Both developers and towns see the savings.

The online checklist that lays out exactly what applicants need to submit saves local officials money, because it saves time, said Art Noel, assistant director of building and planning for Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County.

"There's less time spent on our part having to call an applicant saying, 'You're lacking this. Go get an engineer to certify this. You don't have a plan that shows what portion of the roof (solar panels are) going on,'" Noel said.

Complex local processes can add up to $700 to the cost of a typical residential solar installation, while streamlining local regulations can reduce the cost by $2,500, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Installation costs can run past $10,000.

In Philadelphia, "it used to be we would have to go physically there, drop a permit off and wait and not have any idea what the process was or when we'd get a response," said Skyler Willman-Cole, chief operations officer of Solar States, a Philadelphia-based solar installation company. "It was a very difficult process. Not to say that it's perfect, but it's a lot better than it was."

And it will get better when permitting moves online later this year. Already, simple residential projects, such as solar panels for single-family homes, typically get responses from the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections in five days. The city used to require both building and electrical permits for solar projects. In 2016, it dropped the building permit requirement.

Philadelphia has "seen a significant uptick" in solar applications, especially in the last year, as solar costs drop, according to the sustainability office. The trend is nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Energy gave Philadelphia a grant a decade ago to encourage solar development in the city, some of which the city used to improve the permitting process, write guidebooks for solar projects and make solar development a right instead of a special exception in the zoning code. In 2012, City Council passed a bill to reduce permit costs by excluding the cost of solar panels and certain other equipment.

Outside the city, municipal practices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey vary. Some require solar developers and homeowners to mail certified letters to neighbors and testify at a zoning hearing. Some ask them to mail in their applications and wait for mailed responses. Some require applicants to drop off paperwork in person and come back for an answer with a check. Each generally has their own permitting process solar developers have to learn as they move from municipality to municipality.

Fees also vary. In Solar States' experience, a permit in Philadelphia can cost a couple hundred dollars while a permit outside the city recently cost $900.

Standardization eases the burden on homeowners, developers and local governments.

Lower Merion set its standard permit fee for a home's roof installation at $400. That's down from the $1,500 range the township charged when it based fees off installation costs. Employees can turn around solar permit applications in three business days now instead of the 15 days Pennsylvania code allows.

Before the changes, the township issued about 80 building permits for solar installations over a decade. It has issued 13 in the last eight months.

"We're a progressive community," said Noel, explaining Lower Merion's interest in the solar program. "We're not married to the way we've always done things."Unlike those in every other school district in the state, and in almost every district in the nation, we the people of Philadelphia continue to be disenfranchised in the governance of our public schools. To make matters worse, the return to local control, after the 17-year reign of the state-imposed School Reform Commission, will devolve into one-person control unless our elected officials take steps to guarantee the independence of the new school board.

Following the mandates of the current City Charter, Mayor Kenney appointed a 13-member nominating panel, which is scheduled to hold a public meeting Monday and vote on a list of names that Kenney will draw from to select a nine-person school board. The mayor had directed the panel to hold previous meetings in executive session, effectively barring members of the public from witnessing or taking part in the process in any way.

This absolute control by the mayor can be mitigated in several ways. First, the nominating panel, under the leadership of Chair Wendell Pritchett, should have opened all of its meetings to the public. As city officials, members of the panel are obligated to obey all laws, including the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, which codifies the right of the people to witness the actions of all government officials, whether elected or appointed.

Checks and balances must be instituted. City Council has proposed an amendment to the charter which, if approved by the voters in a referendum on the May ballot, will provide for Council confirmation of all future nominees. In addition, Council President Darrell Clarke has proposed language in the referendum to stipulate that members of the board of education can only be removed "for cause." That is an essential provision to protect the independence and integrity of the board and should be adopted.

Kenney has voiced his opposition to the for-cause provision and wants board members to serve at the pleasure of the mayor. That is inconsistent with the principles of democracy that underpin the governance of our public school system.

Clarke explained in a response letter to Kenney that the board of education, under the Educational Home Rule Supplement to the City Charter, is a "separate and independent body" from the office of the mayor. State law makes school districts separate and distinct local educational agencies.

Clarke is correct when he says, "The key idea here is independence: the for-cause requirement will provide some assurance that the members of the Board of Education can make independent decisions that they believe are in the best interests of our City's children  even if the Mayor or Council disagree." The for-cause provision protects school board members from being removed for political reasons or for speaking out in opposition to the Mayor or City Council.

Council should scrutinize every aspect of the appointment process and make every amendment necessary to protect the integrity of the democratic process. That includes the present lack of transparency and secrecy of the mayor's nominating panel and its violations of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act.

These are all constitutional issues as well as legislative issues. The right to procedural due process is guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Democracy matters and our state and federal constitutions cannot be nullified at the schoolhouse door.

Rich Migliore, Esq. is a former Philadelphia teacher and administrator and the author of "Whose School Is It: the Democratic Imperative for Our Schools."

Karel Kilimnik is a retired Philadelphia early childhood educator and co-founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools. Email: philaapps@gmail.comProsecutors say former DC transit police officer Nicholas Young believed in radical Islam and also white supremacy. This photo of Young in an SS uniform was seized from his home and filed in federal court. (Photo: U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia)

A former police officer with the D.C. Metro transit system will spend 15 years in prison after getting caught in a terrorism sting operation, even as he continues to argue that he is not an Islamic State supporter but a misunderstood patriot.

Nicholas Young, 38, was found guilty at trial last year, after failing to convince a jury in Alexandria federal court that he was lured by law enforcement into lying for and giving financial support to a supposed Islamic State recruit. The recruit was actually an FBI informant, identified in court only as Mohammed.

Im sorry for letting my friends down, letting my family down, Young, the first member of law enforcement to ever face terrorism charges in the United States, said in court Friday. Those people in my life deserved better from me.

Young, who converted to Islam in 2006, was under FBI surveillance for years before his 2016 arrest. Twice he traveled to Libya to fight with anti-government rebels there. His attorneys say they believe the investigation began with a dispute between Young and his superiors at the Washington Metro Transit Authority over the length of his beard and his workspace, where he kept a Koran. Young had also come into contact with undercover agents who were tracking other terrorism suspects in his circle.

At trial, prosecutors presented violent videos Young had watched and comments he had made about killing FBI agents and attacking federal buildings. In emails with Mohammed and conversations online, Young joked about terrorist attacks and suggested they were often justifiable. He described the rebels he fought with in Libya as like-minded with the Islamic State, the Washington Post reports.

Prosecutors also highlighted Youngs interest in Nazism, alleging he was a believer in an alliance between Islamist and white supremacist terrorism. He had dressed up as a Nazi officer in war reenactments and had a tattoo of an S.S. logo on his arm. He gave a neo-Nazi novel to a friend for his birthday.New York should fund at least one armed school resource officer in every school in the state, the state Sheriffs' Association said Thursday.

The Sheriffs' Association said the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo should fund one armed officer in every school as part of the state budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1, the Democrat & Chronicle reports.

This will be an expensive undertaking, Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, the group's president, said in a statement. "But we owe it to our children, and their parents, to provide a safe place for education to take place.Tennessee corrections officer Daniel Vernon Tolar was arrested on weapons charges. Authorities believe he was planning to attack a church. (Photo: Wayne County Jail)

Tennessee law enforcement agencies say they thwarted an apparent plan by a Tennessee prison guard to shoot parishioners at a church when he was found to have an AR-15 and up to 1,500 rounds of ammunition on Sunday.

Daniel Vernon Tolar, 35, was incarcerated in the Wayne County Jail on weapons charges related to the incident.

District Attorney Brent Cooper told FOX 17 News Tolar was intercepted by Clifton Police who were acting on a tip.

Police approached Tolar at work and say he was found to have an AR-15 and 1,500 rounds of ammo in his vehicle. He was subsequently arrested.

Henderson County investigators said Tolar was apparently going through a divorce and his wife attended the church.As Hung Le moves about the city of Rochester, he notices something that the people around him might overlook.

He sees it at a McDonalds restaurant on West Circle Drive. He sees it at Costco and at Walmart and at Aldi, too. And while others might not see it, Le knows what these businesses can offer.

He has a keen memory for what these businesses pay their workers and what qualifications job candidates must have. Le keeps this mental log up-to-date with frequent inquiries. He does this because he knows what these places, these jobs, can provide: opportunity.

"Sometimes that knowledge can help somebody. Thats my hobby," Le said. "And I have helped a fair number of people in the community find a job.  Sometimes those little things you can do, it doesnt cost you anything. But it can change peoples lives."

Home sweet home

Opportunity is the reason Le is in Rochester, and the reason hes made it his home for 27 years.

Le arrived in Rochester in 1990, and the opportunities he spots so easily now were not so easy to see then. He came to Rochester from Vietnam, with his father and mother. The family were political refugees. Le was 17 years old. Neither he nor his parents spoke or read English.

In Vietnam, Le was the son of a political dissident. His father had been jailed as a result of his politics, and in a communist Vietnam in the post-1975 era, this placed a black mark on the family. Many doors would have been closed to Le. He would not have been allowed to pursue an advanced education, such as in medicine, or to hold a job with the many government-connected companies. There was a cap on his future, and his family knew it.

The U.S. had installed a program that allowed political refugees an opportunity to immigrate, and Les family qualified. They made the move in 1990 with the help of a Christian organization that worked through churches to match willing hosts with immigrant families.

The transition was not easy. Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. must adapt to an unfamiliar culture and learn a vastly different language.

The family lived modestly and pursued work aggressively  a product of both necessity and a strong business background. Les parents landed jobs, but communication issues saw them quickly dismissed. They found new jobs and continued to improve their English. Le, too, pursued work while also attending high school.

Advancing by degrees

Over the course of the next decade, Le continued to work and advance his education, taking courses in business and computer science. He completed a bachelor of science degree in computer science and followed that with a master of business administration degree.

Hes now held a dozen or more jobs in the information technology field during his time in Rochester, at companies large and small  IBM, Mayo Clinic and Kingland Systems, among others.

While he studied and worked, Le also found a passion for connecting with others in the community who shared his experience. Within a few years of arriving, Le had a wealth of job experiences. He shared those experiences eagerly with others who were new to the community.

One of those was Louis Ha. Le would pick up Has family and drive them to the grocery store, to the doctor, and do what he could to help them establish a home and jobs, Ha said. And over the 24 years of their friendship, Ha has seen Le continue to work for others in the community, too.

"He will try to help as much as he can, even though hes a very busy person. I think he feels strongly about it. Its his personality, helping (others)," Ha said.

Giving back

Les involvement in the community has taken on more formal roles, too. He has been a member of the Rochester Diversity Council Board of Directors, as well as a member of the Intercultural Mutual Assistance Association.

He continues to take an interest in business and works to improve his business acumen. He currently is employed at the Rochester Post Bulletin as the IT application development manager.

Le has started a family of his own. His oldest child is in college, and he and his wife Tuyen have two younger children at home, ages 4 and 7. Even with the younger children, Le knows his experience as a refugee will be imparted on them.

"Im teaching them to not take anything for granted. Save money, live responsibly, and try to help people when theres a chance," Le said.

The children have picked up a few of his traits already  the younger two will turn out the lights in hallways and empty rooms as they go about the house.

Twenty-seven years ago, Hung Le sat buckled into an airplane seat next to his father and mother as the distance between himself and everything he knew grew longer and longer.

As Hung and his parents sat in silence on the airplane, he turned a thought over and over in his mind: Who would be there for them when the plane landed?

Today, Le is here when others arrive. He knows the challenges they face and the opportunities that can shape their future. And hes ready to help others find those opportunities.

"Im fortunate that I was allowed to come here, with so many opportunities," Le said. "This is a dream land for people who work hard. If you work hard, you can achieve a lot. You can maximize your potential."I think that I am like most American men in, every five or ten years, directing my reading deep into the Revolution and the Founding generation. It is impossible to resist the magnetic attraction of this period. It is not that the Founding Fathers were geniuses (though some were) or gods (though one was close). Instead there seems to be something about the vacuum of the founding moment and the men who filled it that gave rise to a decades-long period of writing, speechmaking, and statecraft that was benevolent, intelligent, honest, and crafted to secure a true durability. Therefore these men, whose brains werent of course any better than the brains today, were so much less molested by self-deceptions, pieties, lore, and loyalties that they produced world-changing thought transcending everything else then existing.

It is a worthy subject for a later time why the American founding moment was so exceptional in human history. To be sure there have been many founding moments since, from Africa to Italy and many places otherwise. Mostly their results have been very sad. I wonder if it had something to do with the generalist liberal arts education received by most of the participants at the Continental Congresses, the Constitutional Convention, and the later House of Burgesses. There were lawyers, of course, and at least a few doctors (Benjamin Rush and Josiah Bartlett. Anyone else?). But by and large they were well-read non-experts and family men. I imagine that, today, Harvards John F. Kennedy School would be happy to supply your fledgling country with all manner Experts bearing Ph. D.s., each without the annoying encumbrance of a traditional family life or the cruft of knowing, say, Plato.

Anyway, here is something that John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on September 4, 1785. Adams was in London and Jefferson was in Paris. It comes from American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis, who prefaces the lines I wanted to share.

In addition to their mutual animosities toward England and their common sense of indignation at the insufferable arrogance of the king, the friendship worked because Jefferson deferred to Adams. After all, Adams was his senior and had been negotiating with the French and English for five years. Jeffersons deferential pattern began as soon as he arrived in France: What would you think of the enclosed Draught to be proposed to the courts of London and Versailles? Jefferson inquired. I know it goes beyond our powers; and beyond the powers of Congress too. But it is so evidently for the good of the states that I should not be afraid to risk myself on it if you are of the same opinion. The proposal envisioned reciprocal rights for citizens of all nations, complete freedom of trade and a reformed system of international law. Yes, Adams replied, it was a beau ideal proposal, but unfortunately it was also completely irrelevant to the current, and cutthroat, European context: We must not, my Friend, be the Bubbles of our own Liberal Sentiments. If we cannot obtain reciprocal Liberality, We must adopt reciprocal Prohibitions, Exclusions, Monopolies, and Imposts. Our offers have been fair, more than fair. If they are rejected, we must not be Dupes.

I read that highlighted quotation from Adams and thought: only one modern politician would say something like that, and he is Donald Trump.

By the way, I returned to my books on the Founding this time because of the Broadway show Hamilton, which we have had the good fortune to see twice. Its truly a wonderful work. (For a glimpse of why, here are five random American teenagers reenacting the Act I song Non-Stop.)Barack Obama installed Susan Rice as his National Security Advisor in recognition of her service to him as knave and fool in the matter of Benghazi. As National Security Advisor she sent an email on Obamas last day in office shortly before President Trump inauguration. Released in redacted form on February 12, the email is one of the most intriguing bits of evidence to have emerged in the alleged Russian collusion scandal. The email purports to memorialize a January 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting including President Obama, Comey, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Vice President Biden and Rice herself regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. What a crew.

Rice wrote:

President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities by the book. The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.

As part of their oversight efforts, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley and subcommittee chairman Graham obtained the email from the National Archives in response to their request for records of meetings between President Obama and Comey in the collusion investigation. Rice sent the email to herself with a copy to Curtis Ried (Twitter feed here) on January 20, 2017. Grassley and Graham were struck by the context and timing of this email and sent a follow up letter to Rice. The letter reads in part:

It strikes us as odd that, among your activities in the final moments on the final day of the Obama administration, you would feel the need to send yourself such an unusual email purporting to document a conversation involving President Obama and his interactions with the FBI regarding the Trump/Russia investigation. In addition, despite your claim that President Obama repeatedly told Mr. Comey to proceed by the book, substantial questions have arisen about whether officials at the FBI, as well as at the Justice Department and the State Department, actually did proceed by the book.

According to the email, the meeting further took up the question whether Trump could be trusted with information fully as it relates to Russia. Andrew McCarthy authoritatively explicated Rices email in the NR column What Did Comey Tell President Trump about the Steele Dossier?

Susan Rice has now responded to Senators Grassley and Graham through attorney Kathryn Ruemmler. Ruemmler is the global co-chairman of the Latham & Watkins white collar criminal defense practice. She formerly served as White House Counsel to Obama.

Ruemmlers letter on behalf of Rice asserts that denies that there was anything unusual about Rices email purporting to memorialize a crucial meeting two weeks after the meeting had occurred, on her way out the door. Ruemmlers letter on behalf of Rice states:

The memorandum to file drafted by Ambassador Rice memorialized an important national security discussion between President Obama and the FBI Director and the Deputy Attorney General. President Obama and his national security team were justifiably concerned about potential risks to the Nations security from sharing highly classified information about Russia with certain members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. In light of concerning communications between members of the Trump team and Russian officials, before and after the election, President Obama, on behalf of his national security team, appropriately sought the FBI and the Department of Justices guidance on this subject. In the conversation Ambassador Rice documented, there was no discussion of Christopher Steele or the Steele dossier, contrary to the suggestion in your letter. Given the importance and sensitivity of the subject matter, and upon the advice of the White House Counsels Office, Ambassador Rice created a permanent record of the discussion. Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion on January 20, because that was the first opportunity she had to do so, given the particularly intense responsibilities of the National Security Advisor during the remaining days of the Administration and transition. Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion in an email sent to herself during the morning of January 20, 2017. The time stamp reflected on the email is not accurate, as Ambassador Rice departed the White House shortly before noon on January 20. While serving as National Security Advisor, Ambassador Rice was not briefed on the existence of any FBI investigation into allegations of collusion between Mr. Trumps associates and Russia, and she later learned of the fact of this investigation from Director Comeys subsequent public testimony. Ambassador Rice was not informed of any FISA applications sought by the FBI in its investigation, and she only learned of them from press reports after leaving office.

Ruemmlers statement goes on offense about concerning discussions intercepted by Rices colleagues at the NSA along with the distraction routine practiced by lying Democratic liars. Ruemmler serves up a lame excuse for the tardiness of Rices email and slyly inserts a reference to advice of White House Counsel. In substance, however, Ruemmlers statement cries nobody here but us chickens, just as Rices email itself did. There seems to be a postmodern echo in here.

The Grassley/Graham letter posed 12 numbered questions to Rice. I posted the Grassley/Graham letter and the appended Rice email via Scribd in Susan Rice papers the record. Ruemmlers letter to Senators Grassley et al. is embedded below. By my reckoning, Ruemmlers letter answers question 1, part of question 4, and narrowly responds to one or two others with a dollop of the Obama defense (she learned about it in the newspapers). For some reason or other  no excuse is offered on this score  Ruemmlers letter declines to answer the rest of the questions submitted to Rice.

Susan Rice Response to Grassley-Graham by sonamsheth on ScribdI dont know how he got the debit card, but he did, she said. And he took it, and he bought all these rifles and ammunition and he posted pictures of them on the Instagram.

Another of the womans stunning revelations: Cruz was obsessed with ISIS.

Hes so into ISIS and, um, Im afraid this is so somethings gonna happen, she said, describing how Cruz would post pictures of himself dressed up as an Islamic terrorist. She also recounted how Cruz would frequently post pictures of himself donning a Make America Great Again cap.

The caller provided the agent with usernames for two of Cruzs social media accounts, encouraging the FBI to comb through the pages.

Its alarming to see these pictures and to know what hes capable of doing and what could happen, she said. Hes [been] thrown out of all these schools because he would pick up a chair and just throw it at somebody, a teacher or a student, because he didnt like the way they were talking to him.

The woman said she phoned in because she wanted a clear conscience if he takes off and, and just starts shooting places up.Her Excellency

Ms Kersti Kaljulaid

President of the Republic of Estonia

Dear Madam President,

Acting on behalf of all Polish people and on my own behalf, I wish to extend to you, Madam President, and to all citizens of Estonia, our warmest congratulations on the jubilee 100th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Estonia.

The developments which unfolded 100 years ago remind us of the exceptional dedication and determination shown in your pursuit of the great aspiration to have ones own independent state.

Recalling vibrant histories of our respective Nations, we nowadays keep working to safeguard our shared interests in the Euro-Atlantic area. Our priorities remain as they were: stable European Union on a good track of development, the North Atlantic Alliance which guarantees our security, and enhanced regional cooperation.

I am very happy to recall the visit that you have paid in Poland, Madam President, soon after assuming your office. For Poland, also your personal engagement in the Three Seas Initiative and in the Bucharest Nine is essential. I am confident that we will be able to fully tap the potential offered by the events scheduled for the two forums this year: the meeting of Presidents of the Bucharest Group in Warsaw, and the Third Summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Bucharest.

Once again, let me reiterate our very best wishes on the unique occasion of the Centenary of Independence of the Republic of Estonia.

With the assurances of my highest consideration,

Andrzej Duda,

President of the Republic of PolandThe College of Management at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield has earned accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Founded in 1916, AACSB is the longest serving global accrediting body for business schools. Only 5 percent of the worlds 16,000 institutions of higher learning offering business degrees have earned its accreditation.

AACSB accreditation recognizes institutions that have demonstrated a focus on excellence in all areas, including teaching, research, curricula development, and student learning, said Stephanie Bryant, executive vice president and chief accreditation officer of AACSB International. We congratulate Lawrence Technological University and Dean Bahman Mirshab on earning accreditation, and applaud the entire College of Management team  including the administration, faculty, directors, staff, and students  for their roles in earning this respected honor.

AACSB accreditation provides a framework of 15 international standards against which business schools around the world assess the quality of their educational services.

READ MORE: Lawrence Tech to implement stricter ban on smoking on campus

TRENDING: Standoff with barricaded gunman ends with no injuries in TroyNews

56-km water line completed in Sharjah

The Water Department of the Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority completed the installation of a strategic water line extending for 56km from Hamda area to Al Badea area with a diameter of 800mm at a total cost of Dhs96 million, excluding the value of materials. The project aims at enhancing the diversity of water sources in the city of Sharjah and guaranteeing the continuity of service.

MUMBAI, February 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Today, an innovative initiative 'ImpactFirst - Prioritizing Lives in Philanthropy' was launched by Dasra, a strategic philanthropy organization, to enable adoption of a mindset that puts actual lives at the forefront of philanthropic work. The launch was during Dasra Philanthropy Week 2018 that brought together Philanthropists, NGOs, Government, Foundations, Corporates, and Development Sector Experts. Some of the key thought-leaders present in the room were Peggy Dulany (Synergos Institute), Kaku Nakhate (Bank of America Merrill Lynch), Amit Chandra (Bain Capital), Roopa Kudva (Omidyar Network), Ananth Padmanabhan (Azim Premji Philanthropic Institute), among others.

Through ImpactFirst, Dasra aims to inspire accountability and foster convergence between key stakeholders, towards achieving measurable outcomes such as the Sustainable Development Goals.

"India is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. While we are moving in the right direction, the magnitude of India's problems call for all of us - funders, NGOs, experts and the Government- to urgently collaborate and jointly invest in solutions that work," said Neera Nundy, Co-founder, Dasra.

Why ImpactFirst? Why Now?

- India ranks #1 in adolescent pregnancies worldwide; delaying adolescent pregnancy could add 12% or USD 400 billion to India's GDP

- Only 47% of girls are enrolled in secondary school; each additional year of schooling for girls reduces infant mortality for their offspring by up to 10%

- Workforce participation rate for Indian women is at 29%, which is far less than that of comparable economies such as China (70%), the US (66%), or Brazil (65%); USD 56 billion can be added each year to India's economy by bringing girls into the workforce

- 38% of under-fives (approx. 48m children) are stunted in India. Moving away from malnutrition, will add USD 12 billion a year to India's economy in terms of productivity and lower healthcare expenditure

- Good news is that 95% children are now attending primary school, 88% are attending secondary school and 63% are attending senior secondary school. The numbers only increase as each year passes. However, there is a fair amount of deficit in learning outcomes

Considering its size and population, India has a critical role to play in achieving the SDGs. If India does not achieve these, the world will also be unable to do so. However, despite the billions of dollars that have been invested in the development sector so far, India has a long way to go for better health, education and nutrition in the country. The seriousness, scale and complexity of India's problems - from rising inequality to climate change - call for collaborative action and to invest in outcome-led solutions to transform lives.

"For us, ImpactFirst encompasses putting the interest of society as a whole in front of your own personal aspirations. Whether you are an NGO, funder, or the government - push the conversation, push the agenda, and push for us to be able to hold ourselves accountable. Keep asking yourself - how much am I actually changing lives?" said Deval Sanghavi, Co-founder, Dasra.

What does it mean to be ImpactFirst?

- Putting actual lives at the forefront of conversations, strategy, planning, action and collaboration

- Being problem solvers, data analysts and agents of change

- Defining exactly what problem one wants to solve, and mapping out how one will go about solving it

- Willingness to be a first mover in areas that may be considered risky or challenging and looking for new approaches to old problems

- Holding oneself accountable to high standards of measuring effectiveness and success

- Realizing that changing lives is a long-term investment

- It implies urgency to be catalytic in one's approach to funding, programming and strategy

Although the nature and scale of the commitment may differ greatly for each stakeholder, they share the same mindset. They dream of an India where every individual has the opportunity to realize their potential. It is the empathy and powerful intent of each of the stakeholders that will together drive to transform lives.

To reinforce Dasra's ImpactFirst approach, four knowledge products have been launched during the Dasra Philanthropy Week 2018.

India Philanthropy Report 2018

On this day, eighth edition of Bain India Philanthropy Report 2018 was released. The report explores how philanthropists can give more effectively to optimize the impact of their giving. What's worth noting is that philanthropists profiled in this report are relatively newer to philanthropy than those showcased in the 2017 report. The report features in-depth interviews with more than 30 philanthropists, and reveals four key mindsets, which if embraced, can help givers realize their full philanthropic potential. The report marks an inspiring stage for philanthropy in India, where an increasing number of philanthropists are joining the cadre of structured and strategic philanthropy, irrespective of their quantum of giving.

Read the report here: http://bit.ly/2CEIjNN

Collaborative Force: Empowering 10 to 19

The white paper, titled Collaborative Force: Empowering 10 to 19, urges for adaptation of collaborative models to address India's large-scale development challenges. It highlights the significance of the collaborative approach to tackling serious problems surrounding India's adolescents.

The white paper documents learnings from India's first-outcome led collaborative, 10to19: Dasra Adolescents Collaborative. It shares actionable insights on designing and facilitating a large-scale multi-stakeholder collaborative effort. It outlines the building blocks and key steps that should be considered during the formative stages of any collaborative and highlights what it takes to effectively set up, facilitate, and participate in such a model to advance India's development.

Read the report here: http://bit.ly/2ELUxdB

A Generation Ahead - Helping India's Next Generation Philanthropists Succeed - Report

India has the third highest number of family-owned businesses. In the coming years, many of these multi-generational philanthropic families in India will transition wealth, responsibility and decision-making power from one generation to another. This is expected to create a deep impact on the landscape of philanthropy. 'Next Generation Philanthropists' (NGPs), as they have been called, are defined as individuals who inherit both wealth and a legacy of giving from their families.

Many NGPs are moving in decision-making roles and will guide the future of philanthropy in India. Through this research, Dasra illustrates the motivations and challenges of a subset of NGPs in India and showcases examples of how this group has mitigated some of these challenges.

Read the report here: http://bit.ly/2EMuVci

Tipping the scales: strengthening systems of access to Justice in India

'Dasra's flagship report, Tipping the Scales' delves into the conditions necessary to ensure India's justice system protects the most marginalized, and the role that different stakeholders can play in creating universal access to justice. Dasra has identified four strategic cornerstones that can catalyze significant improvements in how India seeks and delivers justice. The four cornerstones that can make a fundamental difference to the experience of seeking and delivering justice in India are: making laws accessible and comprehensible for legal empowerment; ensuring high-quality, affordable legal aid; streamlining case management processes in courts; and, driving accountability and supporting reforms in police and prison systems.

Read the report here: http://bit.ly/2CezEpx

About Dasra

Dasra meaning 'enlightened giving' in Sanskrit is a pioneering strategic philanthropic organization that aims to transform India where a billion thrive with dignity and equity. Since its inception in 1999, Dasra has accelerated social change by driving collaborative action through powerful partnerships among a trust-based network of stakeholders (corporates, foundations, families, nonprofits, social businesses, government and media). Over the years, Dasra has deepened social impact in focused fields that include adolescents, urban sanitation and governance and has built social capital by leading a strategic philanthropy movement in the country.

For more information, visit http://www.dasra.org



Press Queries:

Gurpriya Singh

Dasra

[email protected]



SOURCE DasraSecondly, the brand new Z17miniS will make its much-awaited debut. It packs top-notch specs, including front & back dual-lens cameras + AI-powered NeoVision7.0, new camera features such as AI Portrait 2.0, light-painting, macro-camera and clone-camera. Its design features four-sided curved glass with glare glass magical optical reaction. It's a mini marvel, not to be missed.

Lastly, nubia will showcase a range of new models which solve the full-screen/short battery-life design conundrum. The new full-screen, long battery-life N/V Series have arrived, which come equipped with Qualcomm processors and a whole lot of RAM, so mobile gamers better get their fingers ready.

More surprises await at MWC, where nubia will feature deluxe smartphone accessories and loT products & solutions. There's sure to be rumblings of when nubia's own 5G prototypes will make their appearances in 2018, as official nubia 5G models are set to launch in 2019.

Last year, nubia expanded its presence in the US, India, Germany, Spain, Indonesia and Thailand while embarking on fruitful partnerships with Amazon, Mediamax and Phone House. nubia also had a string of successful product releases including the Z, M and N Series - all of which means nubia's booth at MWC '18 is not to be missed.

About nubia

Founded in 2012, nubia brings premium, innovative smartphones to users looking to get an edge with their mobile device. Inspiring the world to "Be Yourself," nubia continues to elevate lifestyles with better handheld tech. Headquartered in China, nubia has operations globally, including North America, Europe, and Southeast-Asia. The brand is well known for its innovative smartphone features and professional mobile photography functions.

More nubia info can be found on the official website: www.nubia.com/en. Follow @nubiasmartphone on Twitter, @nubiasmartphone on Instagram or www.facebook.com/ nubiasmartphone for the latest news.

SOURCE nubiaCHENNAI, India, February 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The teaser of Superstar Rajinikanth's Kaala is all set to be released on March 1 2018. The announcement was made by actor Dhanush, who is also the producer of the film under his banner Wunderbar Films. The teaser would be released by Wunderbar Studios, the record label and online video channel of Wunderbar films, in association with their digital partner Divo.

Kaala a multilingual film being released worldwide on April 27 2017 is directed by Pa. Ranjith, who was also the director of Rajinikanth's previous blockbuster release Kabali. The movie has a multistar cast which includes Nana Paterkar, Huma Qureshi, Samuthirakani, Anjali Patil, Sayaji Shinde. Music is by Santhosh Narayanan and more updates about the audio release will be expected after the teaser release.

Speaking on the association, Shahir Muneer, director of Divo, said that its the 8th project Wunderbar Studios and Divo are working together since their first collaboration started in 2014. Dhanush's Wunderbar Films is a trendsetter in setting a new industry model especially in regional cinema, where as the producer he has been consistely monetizing the audio, online video rights without needing to sell the copyright/IP with help of distribution and digital partner Divo. This has resulted in Wunderbar realising one of the highest subscribers, followers and reach on online and social media. Shahir further commented that the digital assets of Wunderbar in 2017 had a combined viewrship of 500 million plus which is among the highest in India for a regional film producer.

Divo is a digital media company based in Chennai, India. Divo is one of the leading online video network working with content producers & creators across South India. Also a leading music distributor and publisher, Divo has released the soundtracks of multiple blockbusters and award winning albums in South India. The company started in 2014, is one of the leading names for all digital and music services for South Indian content, with 500 million digital streams being served currenly on monthly basis.

SOURCE Divo TV Private Limited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New Delhi, Feb 22 : The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is actively wooing Indian investors -- especially software firms and airlines -- pitching itself as the gateway to the markets of mainland China, northeast and southeast Asia.

"There are a number of fundamentals about Hong Kong that are very attractive," Stephen Phillips, Director General of Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) who was on a visit to India this month, told IANS in an exclusive interview.

Stating that it is a very vibrant international city, Phillips said it is a "fantastic financial and professional services centre with a depth of talent and expertise to structure finance and business ventures across the region".

"It is a great location with a lot of talent that can help Indian businesses tackle not only the Hong Kong market but China, northeast Asia and Southeast Asia," he said.

InvestHK is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for attracting businesses and entrepreneurs to set up a business and facilitating foreign direct investment into the city.

It offers free advice and services to support overseas companies from the planning stage right through to the launch and expansion of their business.

Pointing to the centrality of Hong Kong's location, Phillips said that almost all major cities within Northeast and Southeast Asia, home to around half of the world's population, are within four hours flying distance.

Stating that the city's business environment is very conducive for companies, he said that Hong Kong has a very simple tax regime.

"The standard profits tax for companies is 16.5 per cent and there are plans to reduce that to 8.25 per cent after crossing HK$2,000,000 (HK$1=approximately Rs 8)," the InvestHK chief said.

"There will also be legislation put in place to encourage R&D investment in Hong Kong with a super deduction for R&D expenditure of about 300 per cent after HK$2,000,000 and 200 per cent thereafter. So, it enables businesses to do R&D and develop and rise in the heart of Asia in proximity to the mainland markets, to scale up manufacturing in mainland China."

There are over 8,000 foreign companies registered in Hong Kong, out of which over 4,000 have their regional headquarters there.

At a cost of about HK$5,000 and no minimum capital requirements, one can set up a company in Hong Kong within four working days.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has double taxation avoidance agreements with 37 jurisdictions globally, while negotiations with 13 jurisdictions are in progress.

Hong Kong is a free port with no import and export duties and visitors from over 170 countries enjoy visa-free entry into the city.

During his stay in India, Phillips visited New Delhi, Surat, Mumbai and Hyderabad and met representatives of over 20 companies.

So, what kind of companies are being targeted in India?

"We are seeing some strong ICT, software companies," he said. "We are also seeing some aircraft, airlines companies as Hong Kong has a very attractive regime for aircraft leasing. So, we are talking to some of the airlines about how they might use Hong Kong."

With Hong Kong being home to a vibrant Indian diamond trading community, Phillips also met with diamond companies during the course of his visit.

"We are also seeing a couple of companies in professional services. So, it is across the economy," he said.

Stating that the existing Indian investment in Hong Kong is already quite broad-based, he added: "There are opportunities, whether it is in consumer sector or business sector or, increasingly, in real innovation-led sectors. So, I think some of the very exciting areas around AI, or artificial intelligence, around fintech where we know there are some very strong companies here in India, around smart cities."

(Aroonim Bhuyan can be contacted at aroonim.b@ians.in)Chennai, Feb 22 : A meeting of Tamil Nadu political party leaders and representatives of farmers associations on Thursday unanimously decided to send an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon and urge him to set up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee as per Supreme Court orders.

The delegation would be headed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minsiter K.Palaniswami, as per the resolution adopted at the meeting of all parties held at the state secretariat.

According to the resolution, the all party delegation would consist of party leaders, MPs and farmers' representatives.

The meeting chaired by Palaniswami on Thursday also resolved that the state government would hold discussions with the legal experts and take appropriate action on the reduction of Cauvery water allocation to Tamil Nadu as per the apex court order.

The Supreme Court on February 16, reduced Tamil Nadu's share of the Cauvery river water to 177.25 TMC, down from 192 TMC allocated by a tribunal in 2007.

The all-party meeting was called to discuss the issue and also the legal ways to be explored to secure the state's rights.Bhubaneswar, Feb 22 : The high-pitched campaigning for the February 24 bypoll for the Bijepur Assembly seat in Odisha's Bargarh district came to an end on Thursday with all political parties making last-ditch efforts to woo the voters.

The counting of votes will be held on February 28.

As per the Election Commission guidelines, all political leaders, functionaries and party workers who are not registered voters in the constituency will have to leave ahead of the polling.

Leaders and workers of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress conducted door-to-door campaigning on the last day of canvassing.

BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, several Union Ministers and BJP leaders, including Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Jual Oram, and senior Congress leaders extensively canvassed for votes for their respective candidates during the campaigning.

The death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August last year necessitated the bypoll.

While Subal's wife Rita Sahu is the BJD candidate, the Congress has fielded Pranaya Sahu. The BJP has put up Ashok Panigrahi.

Security was beefed up ahead of the polling day.

"We are taking all steps to hold peaceful and free byelection. We will make sure all critical booths are equipped with webcast facility. Micro observers will be deployed and we are trying to source additional Executive Magistrates from nearby districts for poll duty," state Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar said.New Delhi, Feb 23 : More certainty, predictability and clarity regarding retrospective taxation would help companies from the UK to invest more in India, Richard McCallum, Managing Director, UK India Business Council said here on Friday.

"I think that if there was more clarity, certainty, predictability around retrospective taxation and (resolving) the Vodafone issue that would help the UK companies make their investment decisions in India," McCallum told IANS over a telephonic interaction.

He, however added: "...the ease of doing business, operating environment in India as we know is significantly improving...and the UK companies are making the most out of it."

Vodafone Plc last year said an international arbitration tribunal would begin trial on Vodafone's challenge to India's retrospective legislation to seek Rs 22,100 crore in taxes.

On the issue of reported immigration problems faced by Indian proffessionals in the UK, McCallum said, the British High Commission in India has the largest visa issuing network in the world.

"Despite what you might read in the press... number of students enrolling in higher education courses (in UK) is increasing now," he added.

Regarding trade prospects between the two countries after Brexit, McCallum said: "I think Brexit presents opportunities, in regard to future trade agreements and addressing of non-tarriff barriers and so on."

India and the UK have a strong relationship and it will continue to be very strong after Brexit, he added.

McCallum is currently in India to promote the International Business Festival 2018 to be held in June. He is accompanied by Ian McCarthy, Director, International Business Festival and Christine Vaudrey, Head of International for the festival.

On participation of Indian companies in the the upcoming event to be held in Liverpool, Britain, Ian McCarthy said: "We think that 20 delegates will come from India to the the festival."

The festival begins on the June 12 and the delegations would focus on some of the specific sectors that the festival is promoting like, manufacturing, health, urbanisation among others, he said.

This would be the third edition of the business festival, and is held every two years in Liverpool, Christine Vaudrey, Head of International, International Business Festival said.Washington, Feb 24 : An armed officer who stood outside a Florida school where a gunman killed 17 people last week "certainly did a poor job", US President Donald Trump has said.

Deputy Scot Peterson resigned after an investigation found he failed to confront the suspect.

Trump on Friday said Peterson might be a "coward" who "didn't react properly under pressure", BBC reported.

Florida's governor meanwhile called for law enforcement officers to be placed in every public school in the state.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, President Trump criticised the police officer who did not confront the perpetrator of the February 14 massacre in Parkland, Florida.

"He trained his whole life but when it came time to do something he didn't have the courage," he said.

"He certainly did a poor job."

"But that's a case where somebody was outside, they're trained, they didn't react properly under pressure or they were coward," he added.

The Republican president later touted his love for gun rights on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) in Maryland.

He again proposed arming teachers as a solution to school safety, a method long championed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel revealed on Thursday that Peterson, the 54-year-old school resource officer, stood outside while the alleged gunman shot students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

He said video footage showed Peterson arriving at the building where the shooting broke out about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired, and that he remained outside for about four minutes. The attack lasted six minutes, Sheriff Israel said.

"I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in," Sheriff Israel said.

Asked what Peterson should have done, Sheriff Israel said: "Went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer."

Peterson is yet to publicly comment on what happened. Officers are reportedly guarding his home. It is unclear if he will face charges.

The suspect used a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, police say, and escaped the scene before being captured later.

School resource officers are sworn law enforcement officers who are responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools, although their exact roles differ from school to school and authority to authority.

Employed by the local police or sheriff's office, they document incidents and can make arrests, as well as working on areas such as mentoring and education.

There are between 14,000 and 20,000 such officers in the US, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Peterson had been in his position at the school since 2009.Washington, Feb 24 : Rick Gates, a former official in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, has pleaded guilty to charges of federal conspiracy and false statements in the ongoing Trump-Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Muller.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, appeared at the federal courthouse in Washington for a plea agreement hearing on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to a court filing revealed earlier in the day, Gates pleaded to charges of conspiracy against the US and making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigators (FBI) investigators.

Gates' plea comes a day after he and his longtime business associate, Paul Manafort, were indicted in Virginia on new charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort was the former Trump campaign chief, and Gates was a former campaign aide.

The pair were accused of laundering $30 million, failing to pay taxes for nearly 10 years and using their real estate to fraudulently secure millions of dollars in loans, according to a 32-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday.

Thursday's indictment was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were among the first to be charged, as part of a Mueller-led investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

They were charged last October with money laundering, conspiracy and other offences in a federal court in Washington. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

In a statement following Gates' decision, Manafort said that he continues to maintain his "innocence" and Gates' plea would not alter his commitment to defend himself against "the untrue piled up charges."Moscow, Feb 24 : Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to the Russian military at a ceremony for presenting national awards on the occasion of the Defender of the Fatherland Day, the Kremlin has said.

"We honour those for whom military service became a mission and the meaning of life - true patriots, who reliably guard the sovereignty and security of Russia, and secure the peace of our citizens," Putin said at the award ceremony held at the Kremlin Palace on Friday, Xinhua reported.

The national awards were presented "to soldiers who have committed a heroic deed in the name of the Fatherland and to the best units and formations of the Army and the Navy", according to the Kremlin.

Defender of the Fatherland Day is a holiday observed in Russia, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. It is celebrated on February 23, except in Kazakhstan, where it is celebrated on May 7.

Putin presented a Gold Star medal of the Hero of Russia to the family of Major Roman Filipov, a military pilot who died heroically fighting terrorists in Syria on February 3.

He also awarded the Order of Suvorov to the Red Banner South Military District, the Order of Ushakov to the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, and the Order of Nakhimov to the Guard missile cruiser Varyag, according to the Kremlin.

The President thanked Russian servicemen who took part in the anti-terrorism operations in Syria, which "displayed heroism, staunchness and bravery."

"Our soldiers demonstrated their readiness to solve the most complicated tasks in Syria: they act bravely, decisively and courageously. They helped the Syrian army shatter large, well-equipped terrorist groups," Putin said.

Russia started participating in the military operation in Syria in September 2015 at the invitation of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Barcelona, Feb 24 : The 2018 edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), to be held from February 26-March 1, will focus on the continued progress of 5G technology.

Around 170 international delegations will also attend an event which will present new products and discuss the future of the mobile communications industry, creating 13,000 temporary jobs with an estimated economic impact of around 471 million euros ($579 million), Xinhua reported.

As always, the MWC will see many companies presenting new devices, with Samsung expected to debut its Galaxy S9 and S9+ models, while launches are also anticipated from Asus, Sony, HMD (Nokia), Lenovo/Moto and TCL Communications.

Some experts are predicting that the progress being made in 5G could prove to be a setback for devices and many potential buyers could be tempted to postpone purchase of a new smartphone until 2019 when it is expected 5G devices will hit the high-street.

Topics such as artificial intelligence and the ethical issues surrounding its application will be debated in the host of keynote speeches, presentations and panel discussions to be held over four days in Barcelona.San Francisco, Feb 24 : To make further inroads in China, Google has partnered with three Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to bring its Augmented Reality (AR) service to the country.

Company's AR SDK for Android "ARCore" was launched in full in China following its announcement in November, Tech Crunch reported late Friday.

According to Google, there are 100 million devices that support ARCore right now in the market.

Most Google services in China do not work due to the censorship, but Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung have all signed on to release devices that will include ARCore support over the coming months, the report added.

These devices would be "higher-end" smartphones. The software side is "trickier since the Google Play Store is not available in the country and the third-party app store is fragmented", Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung would release ARCore apps through their own app stores.

As ARCore itself works on device -- without the Cloud -- once apps are downloaded to a phone, there is nothing that China's internet censors can do to disrupt them.

Last year, the company launched Google Translate app, which was also offered via a number of third-party Android stores and a direct download.

Recently, Google partnered with Tencent, invested in China-based startups and announced an AI lab in Beijing.

Google also gained a large tech presence in Taiwan via the completion of its acquisition of a chunk of HTC and it opened a presence in Shenzhen.Panaji, Feb 24 : Special prayers were held at Panaji's Immaculate Conception Church on Saturday for the health of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is suffering from a pancreas-related ailment.

Speaking to reporters after conducting the special religious service, Fr. Cleto Pereira said that prayers were made for Parrikar's health and his quick return to office.

"God has given him (Parrikar) wisdom which he uses to improve the lot of Goa and, therefore, today the people from Panaji decided to have special prayers for him," Pereira said.

"God rules the world through his chosen instruments and even in Goa, we have got the rulers chosen by the people, but everything works on account of God's power and God's will... and we are very sad that our Chief Minister is sick," the Catholic priest said.

Nearly a quarter of the state's 1.5 million population is Catholic.

Parrikar was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai last week, where, according to the Chief Minister's Office, he was diagnosed with a pancreas-related ailment.

Amid speculation about the severity of his health, Parrikar returned to Goa on Thursday and presented a truncated budget, but did not reveal the nature of his affliction.

Multi-religious services are also being conducted in the state for the Chief Minister's recovery, including the Church service at the Immaculate Conception Church in Panaji.

"Although we pray every day, this was a special occasion and lot of people turned up. It shows that he is a loved Chief Minister of Goa. So we will keep praying for his good health," Pereira said.New Delhi, Feb 24 : The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, might have caught some cold vibes from the Indian government at the beginning of his week-long visit, but Indian millenials were all there to treat him as a celebrity. Of course, an immigration visa to Canada was also on top of mind of many who came to give him "all our love."

Standing behind heavy barricading with security officials hovering around them, the young had much to ask and tell Trudeau at the Youth Changemakers Conclave held on Saturday morning at the Indira Gandhi National Stadium. The extravaganza attracted school students, college goers and young adults who had just started working, from across the state. The school students were often accompanied by their teachers.

A group of girls who did not want to reveal the name of their college told IANS: " We are here only for Justin. He is so charismatic. I hope I get my visa and have him as my PM".

Many were in the queue for over two hours to get in, but all of them showed excitement to just see and hear Trudeau give his key note address, although there were other speakers like Actress Dia Mirza and human rights transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi.

A student, with a touch of cynicism said politicians everywhere were more or less the same. "The only way we can distinguish the slightly better ones from the not-so-good ones are by how they conduct themselves in public. Trudeau does a good enough job of that," she added.

A group of boys and girls who were dressed in formals so that if "Trudeau sees us he doesn't think we are here for time-pass".

Talking about the invitation -- later rescinded -- to a Khalistani separatist, Jaspal Atwal, for a reception that was hosted in honour of Trudeau, one of the youths said it was wrong on their part to have extended invitation, though it was not right for India to "snub" Trudeau for it. "We need to look at the situation more maturely from both sides," another youth said.

One of the college students had a question for the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "Whatever happened to 'atithi devo bhave'? Whatever you may feel, how can you be so rude as not to welcome a prime minister of Canada? Even if you don't like some gesture of his or some factor, will a warm hug and receiving him at the airport make you a smaller person? You are setting an example for the youth of this country, dear prime minister."

Just after this student spoke, one of his friends asked him to keep quiet because "today you are dead if you speak against anybody in the ruling party," requesting IANS not to disclose their identities.

One of the student could not suppress her excitement. "He (Trudeau) comes across as a gentleman, and I hope I get to finish my education in his country".

Asked why they wanted to go to Canada, she said: "That country is clean and devoid of the kind of corruption that we have in India. People don't get raped there on a daily basis as if it's just another normal thing. Also, look at the medical facilities that my parents would get. In this country a kidney can go missing if we go for a lung operation," she added.

(Kishori Sud can be reached at kishori.s@ians.inNew Delhi, Feb 24 : In the ongoing war of words agitating the telecom sector, the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) on Saturday asserted that its differences were with the telecom regulator and not with any operator in particular.

Responding to Reliance Jio's 48-hour ultimatum for a public apology for its "defamatory statements" wherein COAI had said it is likely to drag the telecom regulator to the court following its recent Telecom Tariff Order (TTO), COAI maintained that "Our differences are with the orders of the Regulator and not with any specific operator. Our intention is not to aggrieve any particular operator".

"Individual operators are free to pursue the interests of their own company vigorously under the framework of the laws of the land. However, the regulator's role is to ensure the competing claims of companies are appropriately handled in the interest of the entire industry," said COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews in an apparent response to Jio's ultimatum.

"This is the mandate of the TRAI Act, which specifically tasks it with ensuring the orderly growth of the industry. When we perceive this to not be the case, we raise our concerns, as any relevant industry association should, for the growth & development of the sector & in the interest of the nation," he said.

"We'd also like to put on record that, all our other member operators are unanimous in their support of our position, with absolutely no exceptions. Our endeavour is to work towards actualising the PM's vision of a fully connected and empowered Digital India," Mathews added.

Reliance had earlier termed COAI's comments "defamatory" and in a letter to COAI on February 22 said: "COAI and Rajan Mathews (Director General, COAI) are hereby called upon to issue a public apology and issue appropriate clarification expressly regretting their callous and defamatory statements through a separate press release issued no later than 48 hours from receipt of this notice."

Condemning COAI's statement, Jio had said: "Reliance Jio condemns and highly regrets COAI's reckless, wilful and flagrant act of making slanderous and libellous accusations patently against Reliance Jio in the press release, which are ex-facie defamatory and veiled under the garb of criticising the orders of the sectoral regulator."New Delhi, Feb 24 : Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said investment for setting up infrastructure was not a constraint for the government and the capital expenditure has tripled in the last five years.

The NDA government had increased outlays on railways modernisation, safety and amenities, Goyal said while speaking on sustainable future for infrastructure growth at ET Global Business Summit here.

"Our government has focused on providing a better future, a better tomorrow, rather than worrying about the way things were done in the past....

"Investment is not a constraint when setting the infrastructure," a release quoted him as saying.

"The capex has tripled than what it was five years ago. Looking at the capex of $22-23 billion of the railways annually."

The Minister was of the view that the 100-year-old signal system in the Indian Railways caused the maximum accidents.

"When this government decided to change that, we chose to go for the best and latest system available in the world and it's implemented across India," he said.

He also said that 800 million LED bulbs were sold in India in three years, which enabled consumers to save $6 billion every year in energy bills.Williamnagar (Meghalaya), Feb 24 : Special Force (SF-10) commandos in Meghalaya on Saturday killed in a gunfight a top Garo rebel leader wanted for his alleged involvement in several killings and bombings in the state.

Acting on a tip off, the commandos raided Sudugre area in East Garo Hills district and shot dead Sohan Dalbot Shira, the military wing chief of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), in a gun battle, a police official said.

"It is confirmed that he has been killed in a gunfight with the SF-10 commandos at 11.50 a.m. and we are waiting for further details of the entire operation," Meghalaya Police chief Swaraj Bir Singh told IANS.

However, the GNLA was yet to issue any statement confirming the death of Shira.

Singh said the gun battle began when the GNLA rebels fired at the commandos.

Shira was wanted in several cases of murder, kidnapping, bombings and extortion in Garo Hills, besides the killing of Nationalist Congress Party candidate, Jonathone Sangma on February 18.

Sangma was killed along with his bodyguard and two party workers in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion in East Garo Hills when their convoy was returning from a campaign.

Congratulating the fearless women and men of the Meghalaya Police who have led an untiring effort and commitment to eliminate enemies of the state, like Shira, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma tweeted: "Their effort has been vindicated and they have left no stone unturned in dealing effectively with criminals and anti-national elements to ensure heightened peace which is a prerequisite for growth and prosperity of our state."

"The committed endeavour of the government to strengthen our internal security apparatus with a zero tolerance policy for militancy has started showing positive results, especially with this latest incident," Sangma tweeted.

"It is now time for all the people from all walks of life to come together and unequivocally pursue the common and shared objective of ensuring the complete restoration of peace in the state and then to maintain it for the kind of development of the state we all envisage and dream of," the Chief Minister said.

The Meghalaya Police has sounded a security alert in the Garo Hills. SF-10 commandos continued their combing operations to track down other rebels.

The GNLA is fighting for a separate "Garoland" in western Meghalaya, led by police officer-turned-rogue champion R. Sangma.

It has also forged an alliance with the Bangladesh-based rebel group, A'chik Special Dragon, and operates jointly with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

Sangma is presently lodged in Shillong jail after being arrested from the India-Bangladesh border on July 30, 2012.Srinagar, Feb 24 : The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday foiled a scheduled executive body meeting of the separatist Hurriyat group called here by its senior leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Geelani, who is the chairman of the separatist group, had called the meeting at his uptown Hyderpora residence in the city.

A police contingent posted outside Geelani's residence did not allow anybody, including media persons, to enter the octogenarian's house.

Geelani has been under house arrest for over one year.Bhopal, Feb 24 : Brisk polling was witnessed in bypolls for Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday with poll percentage of 69 per cent and 58.90 per cent, respectively, recorded by 3 p.m. in the contests seen as a battle royale between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

The by and large peaceful polls were marred by sporadic clashes -- especially one in Digoda village in Shivpuri's Kolaras -- between the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party workers, a poll official said.

Police station in-charge in Mungaoli, Kushal Singh Bhadoria, was removed from his post, the official said, adding that Risheshwar Singh has replaced Bhadoria.

Chief Election Officer Saleena Singh has appealed to voters to remain calm and exercise their right to vote without fear. There is a public holiday in both places in view of the poll process.

A total of 22 candidates from Mungaoli in Ashoknagar and 13 from Kolaras are in the fray.

As many as 2,44,457 electors from Kolaras and 1,91,009 from Mungaoli were eligible to vote between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Some 3,000 poll officials are conducting the process at 575 polling stations, the EC official said.

The assembly seats fell vacant following the death of sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

These bypolls are being seen as a prestige battle for Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is in his third term as Chief Minister, and his arch-rival Jyotiraditya Scindia of the Congress.

The two assembly segments are part of Scindia's Guna Lok Sabha constituency.

The votes will be counted on February 28 and the results will be declared the same day, the EC said.

Electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines are being used at all polling booths. Some 15 and 17 machines were replaced in Kolaras and Mungaoli, respectively.Patna, Feb 24 : Nine school children were killed and 20 injured when they were run over by a speeding vehicle in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district on Saturday afternoon, police said.

According to district police officials, the incident took place near a school under Minapur block.

Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police Vivek Kumar said the speeding vehicle mowed down the children when they were crossing the road.

All the injured children were admitted to a hospital in Muzaffarpur.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed sorrow and grief over the incident.

The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of each victim.Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 24 : In an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday slammed him for saying that "evacuation of 46 nurses from war-torn Iraq in 2014 was done because they were Christians".

"You made this statement to target the majority Christian vote base in Meghalaya. The uniqueness of our nation is our diversity.

"Patriotism unites Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and (people from) all other religions in troubled times and in celebrations, inspite of the religious differences. You could have at least thought about our Constitution before making such remarks," Chandy said in the open letter.

The senior Congress leader was reacting to Modi's election speech in poll-bound Meghalaya on Thursday, where he said: "It was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government which rescued nurses from Iraq and brought them safe to Kerala. They all were Christians."

"As the PM of world's greatest secular democratic nation, your words are highly outrageous. The 46 Malayalee nurses were able to return because of joint efforts by the then state government and the BJP-led central government. The Malayalee community in Middle East also supported the rescue operations," he wrote.

"As one who witnessed the pain and anguish of their families... All of us had been a part of that, not because they were Christians, but what held us on was that they are Indians and they were in deep trouble.

"I am sure Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will vouch for me on this," stated Chandy.

Chandy was Chief Minister when the nurses were rescued from Iraq and last week spent a few days campaigning for the Congress party in Meghalaya.New Delhi, Feb 24 : Without mentioning the Rs 11,300 crore fraud on state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) involving diamantaire Nirav Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said Indian law will be suitably amended to bring to bear the full weight of justice on fraudsters.

Making his first public comments on the PNB scam that has rocked the banking system, Jaitley had earlier this week said that the state is duty-bound to ensure that those cheating the system are brought to justice.

"Indian business has to learn to do ethical business. Those who deviate from this will face the consequences not only in terms of business and civil law, but the criminal law too will be transformed to allow extreme action against such delinquents," Jaitley said at the ET Global Business Summit here on Saturday.

He also said that the Indian industry now needs to seriously introspect about its responsibility to be ethical while doing business.

"Rather than always have a close look at what governments are doing, Indian industry needs to look inwards and to a fair bit of introspecting," the Finance Minister said, adding that the industry, in collusion with chartered accountants, had for years been employing various ways like creating shell companies to "round trip" money and avoid paying taxes.

At an event here on Tuesday, he had said: "It is incumbent on us as a state, till its last legitimate capacity, to chase these people to the last possible conclusion to make sure that the country is not cheated."

In connection with the PNB case, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Court in Mumbai has remanded to police custody till March 3 three accused persons in the case -- PNB Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat and an authorised signatory of prime accused Nirav Modi's group companies.

Besides them, the CBI has also named 10 other directors and officials as accused in the scam.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday said it has attached diamond trader Nirav Modi's 21 immovable properties worth Rs 523.72 crore in connection with an ongoing probe into the Rs 11,300-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The assets include a farm house in Alibaug (Rs 42.70 crore) near Mumbai seashore, a solar power plant spread over 53 acre of land in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra (Rs 70 crore) and another 135 acre land in Ahmednagar (Rs 2.20 crore), along with other residential and office properties worth Rs 408.82 crore in Mumbai and Pune.

On Friday, the ED said it has frozen Nirav Modi's bank account and shares worth Rs 43 crore. It had earlier seized bank deposits, shares and luxury cars worth over Rs 100 crore belonging to the businessman and his group.

The agency has also frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 7.80 crore of Nirav Modi and Rs 86.72 crore belonging to his uncle Mehul Choksi of the Gitanjali Group.

Both central agencies had conducted multiple raids at the residential and office premises and showrooms of the accused traders ever since the CBI filed two FIRs on February 14-15 against Nirav Modi and the Gitanjali Group of companies.Chandigarh, Feb 24 : The Chief Ministers of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on Saturday decided to work together to improve the law and order situation in both the states by taking steps to check illegal mining and resolving common issues affecting the people of the two neighbouring states.

The decision was taken at a meeting between Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Mathura, a Haryana government spokesman said here.

"It has been decided that Directors General of Police from both the states would meet every three months on a regular basis. Senior officers of Delhi Police would also attend the meeting. Yogi Adityanath said both the states would work together on common issues to facilitate people," he said.

The Chief Secretaries of both states would meet soon to ensure availability of adequate amount of irrigation water in Agra Canal.

The two states would also work together for the construction of a bridge on the Yamuna river near Hasanpur in Palwal district of Haryana, the spokesman said.

"To solve excise related issues, a meeting of senior officers of both states would be held along with officers from Rajasthan, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh. Both states would jointly work to put a check on illegal mining," he added.

The two states also agreed to exchange cultural activities on a regular basis.

Khattar said that the '84 Kos Parikrama' falling in Braj area of Haryana would be renovated. Besides, renovation work of some religious and pilgrimage places in Braj area will also be undertaken, he announced.Washington, Feb 24 : US President Donald Trump has once again blamed India and China for his decision to pull out of the Paris climate deal last year, saying that the "unfair" accord would have imposed "draconian financial and economic burdens" on the US, as it would have made Washington pay for nations which benefitted the most from the deal.

Trump had announced the withdrawal from the landmark climate pact in June, stating that it would have imposed "wildly unfair environmental standards on American businesses and workers".

He said the Paris deal would have cost his country trillions of dollars, killed jobs, hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries. However, he had also said that he was "open to negotiate a better deal for the US or re-enter the accord on improved terms".

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. Would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," the US President said at Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

He targeted India and China, saying both these nations were benefiting most from the Paris deal, which was "unfair" to the US.

"You know, basically, it (the Paris accord) said, you have a lot of oil and gas that we found -- you know, technology has been amazing -- and we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world -- we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much.

And basically, they were saying, don't use it, you can't use it," Trump said, expressing his displeasure with the pact which was agreed by nearly 200 nations over the period of years.

"So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. I told them, it's not going to happen."

"And China, their agreement didn't kick in until 2030... Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia, they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," he said.

Talking about India and other nations, Trump said: "Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country.

"What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?," he said.

"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the US? We're developed. We can pay," Trump said.

"The country knows what I'm doing... We couldn't build. We couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmentals. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," Trump said.

The US President had earlier also singled out India saying that "India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions of dollars in foreign aid".

Many scientists and environmentalists said the planet will reach more dangerous levels of warming sooner because of Trump's decision as America contributes hugely to carbon dioxide and global rising temperatures.: Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses at the launch of Amma Two Wheeler Scheme at Kalaivanar Arangam in Chennai on Feb 24, 2018. (Photo: IANS/PIB). Image Source: IANS

Chennai, Feb 24 : Wooing the people of Tamil Nadu particularly women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the state got higher funds allocations and projects with huge investments under his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

However in his about 15 minute speech, he avoided any reference to the strong demand from state parties for setting up of a Cauvery Management Board, as directed by the Supreme Court to which Chief Minister K. Palaniswami made a reference in his welcome address at a function here.

Stressing on the achievements of his government, Modi said the focus is on improving "Ease of Living" for the common citizen.

"All our schemes and programmes have been oriented towards this aim. Be it financial inclusion, easy availability of credit for farmers and small business, healthcare or sanitation, this is the basic mantra, with which the NDA Government at the Centre is working," he said.

Modi was here to launch the Tamil Nadu government's subsidised scooter scheme called 'Amma Two Wheeler Scheme' for working women as a part of 70th birth anniversary of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

He also planted a tree sapling and inaugurated the plan to plant 70 lakh tree saplings as a part of Jayalalithaa birth anniversary celebrations in the state.

Beginning his speech in Tamil saying that he is proud to stand on the soil of great poet and freedom fighter Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi, Modi said he bows his head to Tamil culture and language.

Noting that around 9.5 lakh women in Tamil Nadu benefitted out of the Central government's free cooking gas scheme, he said that over Rs 24,000 crore worth of projects are implemented by the central government in Tamil Nadu after BJP came to power at the centre.

The Central government has sanctioned Rs 3,700 crore for the Chennai Metro Rail project, he said.

Taking a dig at the earlier Congress-led government at the centre, Modi said under the previous regime, Tamil Nadu got just Rs 81,000 crore under the 13th Finance Commission whereas under NDA regime, the state got around Rs 180,000 crore under the 14th Finance Commission allocation.

According to him, Tamil Nadu got Rs 700 crore during 2016-17 and Rs 200 crore during 2017-18 under the rural housing scheme, while for urban housing, over Rs 6,000 crore has been given to the state.

He also added that around Rs 2,600 crore has been given under the crop insurance scheme.

Referring to the long coastline, Modi said the central government has given Rs 100 crore to Tamil Nadu for converting 750 fishing boats to long-liners for deep sea fishing.

Underlining the importance of woman in a family and society, he said empowering a woman is empowering a whole family.

Over 11 crore loanshave been sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana. An amount of Rs 460,000 crore has been given to people without any bank guarantee.

And most importantly, 70 per cent of the beneficiaries are women, he added.

The Jan Dhan Yojana has also benefited women in a big way. Out of 31 crore Jan Dhan Bank Accounts,16 crore are of women, Modi said, adding that the percentage of total bank accounts held by women has gone up from 28 percent in 2014 to 40 percent now.

Modi said the women of India are coming out of their age old shackles and seeking self- employment.

The subsidised two wheeler scheme is part of AIADMK's 2016 poll promise.

Under the scheme, the government would provide 50 per cent subsidy subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000 for the purchase of two wheelers by working women.

Palaniswami utilised the presence of Modi on the dais and requested him to take necessary steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee as per the apex court's order in the Cauvery river water dispute case.

Welcoming the gathering, Deputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam said the state government continues to follow the footsteps of Jayalalithaa.

Earlier Modi was received at the Chennai airport by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam.

From the airport he went to naval base INS Adyar by a helicopter and from there he went by road to Kalaivanar Arangam where the function was held.

A large number of people had gathered on the pavement along Modi's route to Kalaivanar Arangam and greeted him.Chandigarh, Feb 24 : The Chandigarh International Airport will re-open for air traffic on Tuesday (Feb 27), airport officials said on Saturday.

The airport, which was closed from February 12 to 26 to carry out runway expansion and repairs, will have regular flights, including international ones, re-starting on Tuesday.

President Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit the city on Tuesday in connection with the Golden Jubilee of a leading girls' college, will also land at the airport on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

The airport is likely to remain closed again in May this year to complete the runway expansion and repair work.

The expansion will allow the airport to cater to wide-bodied and bigger aircraft, particularly to and from international destinations, in future.

The 15-day closure of the airport, from February 12 to 26, roughly affected over 60,000 passengers.

Airport CEO Sunil Dutt said the runway was being upgraded to increase its length from 9,000 feet to 10,400 feet to enable operation of wide-bodied aircraft. This would better enable air carriers to connect the city with destinations in Europe, the US and Australia in the future.

The airport is a defence facility and is controlled by the Indian Air Force which operates a transport squadron here. Commercial flights use the same runway at this airport, which handles nearly 30 commercial flights daily, including international flights to Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok.

The city is linked to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Jaipur and a few other cities in the domestic circuit.The nearest civilian airports to Chandigarh are Delhi and Amritsar - both around 250 km away.New Delhi, Feb 24 : Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday slammed the BJP-led Central government over the recent banking scams, saying that the big industrialists were running a campaign to "loot and run" under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The party also raised the issue of people losing faith in the country's banking system.

"Which organisation should the common people, who have their money deposited in banks trust to deal with frauds done by big industrialists. There is an ongoing campaign of 'plunder and leave the country' under Modiji's rule," senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh told a media conference.

He further said that the Prime Minister failed in fulfilling his promise of bringing back black money.

"The one, who used to talk about bringing black money back, is giving chance to some to run away with huge amount of public money."

"After Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, now a fresh case has come to light," Singh said referring to a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Delhi-based diamond jewellery exporting firm Dwarka Das Seth International for an alleged bank loan fraud of Rs 389.85 crore involving the Oriental Bank of Commerce.

"How will the people now have faith in keeping their money in banks? That money doesn't belong to (Narendra) Modiji, (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley, or others in the NDA government but to the common man," he said, adding that if people's money is not safe in banks, then banks will lose their credibility.

"If Centre doesn't take a big decision against it, then the industrialists will finish the nation and take citizenship of other countries," he added.

AAP leader Ashutosh said that his party MLAs and "large number" of party workers will hold a protest outside Prime Minister's residence against sealing on Sunday.

"They will do a katora (bowl) protest to show that the businessmen have been troubled by demonetisation, GST, sealing has landed them to this (begging)," he said.

The sealing drive going on in the capital is against businesses using residential areas for commercial purposes without paying conversion charges.

It is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee and implemented by the BJP-led three municipal corporations (MCDs).New Delhi, Feb 24 : The CBI on Saturday questioned Punjab National Bank (PNB) Managing Director-cum-CEO Sunil Mehta and Executive Director K.V. Brahmaji Rao in connection with the Rs 11,300 crore/$1.8 billion bank fraud case, while the ED kept on its seizure of fraud accused diamantire Nirav Modi's assets.

Both the bank officials were called at the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) Mumbai branch and were questioned for over eight hours.

Mehta and Rao were questioned first time even since the CBI filed the first FIR in the multi-crore scam on February 14 against Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal, uncle Mehul Choksi and his firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond.

Nirav Modi, his family and Choksi have left the country earlier in early January. The FIR mentions fraud of around Rs 6,400 crore.

The CBI also filed second FIR in the case on February 15 for Rs 4,886.72 crore fraud against the Gitanjali group headed by Choksi.

Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit were used to raise and rollover the amount over several years before the fraud came to light following PNB's complaint.

CBI sources said the PNB MD and the Executive Director were questioned over several issues, including if they had any clue of the whole scam.

Questioning of 12 arrested accused persons continued on Saturday, said a CBI official, adding all of them were were also confronted during examinations.

On Friday, the CBI also questioned two General Managers and Deputy General Managers of the Mumbai-based PNB's Brady House branch-- the only branch involved in the criminality-- and raided Nirav Modi's Kamala Mills firm leading to the seizure of some documents.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is also probing the financial angle in the case, on Saturday said it has attached Nirav Modi's 21 immovable properties worth Rs 523.72 crore.

The assets include a farm house in Alibaug (Rs 42.70 crore) near Mumbai seashore, a solar power plant spread over 53 acre of land in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar (Rs 70 crore) and another 135 acre land in Ahmednagar (Rs 2.20 crore), along with other residential and office properties worth Rs 408.82 crore in Mumbai and Pune.

The ED on Friday said to have frozen Nirav Modi's bank account and shares worth Rs 43 crore. The ED had earlier seized bank deposits, shares and luxury cars worth over Rs 100 crore belonging to the businessman and his group.

The agency has also frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 7.80 crore of Nirav Modi and Rs 86.72 crore belonging to his uncle Choksi.

Its action comes in the wake of its ongoing probe -- along with the CBI -- against the two and many others including directors of their companies and bank officials into the alleged bank fraud.New Delhi, Feb 24 : The decision taken by the previous UPA government to tax British telecom multinational Vodafone Group retrospectively was an "erroneous" one, the likes of which the ruling NDA would be loath to repeat, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.

He was responding to a question from the audience here on the issue at the ET Global Business Summit here.

"I always felt Vodafone tax decision was an erroneous decision. This government decided it will not be taking any retrospective decision," Jaitley said.

It was precisely for this reason that the Long Term Capital Gains Tax reintroduced in the Budget earlier this month had been exempted for investments made up to January 31, 2018, he added.

The Budget 2018-19 has proposed to tax long-term capital gains on equities exceeding Rs 1 lakh at 10 per cent, which is expected to bring in revenue of Rs 20,000 crore.

However, capital gains made on shares until January 31, 2018, will be "grandfathered", Jaitley said while presenting the budget, adding "we have protected all investments coming in before February 1".

Vodafone is facing tax claims and interest totalling more than Rs 22,000 crore in India, which includes Rs 14,200 crore for acquiring Hutchison's stake in 2007.

The UPA government had said that the Hutchison-Vodafone deal was liable for tax deduction at source (TDS) under the Income Tax (IT) Act. While the Supreme Court subsequently quashed the demand in January 2012, the government amended the IT Act retrospectively, putting the liability back on Vodafone Group.

The company last year said an international arbitration tribunal would begin trial on Vodafone's challenge to India's retrospective legislation to seek Rs 22,100 crore in taxes.

In this connection, the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) has said thatb predictability and clarity regarding retrospective taxation would help British companies to invest more in India.

"I think that if there was more clarity, certainty, predictability around retrospective taxation and (resolving) the Vodafone issue that would help the UK companies make their investment decisions in India," UKIBC Managing Director Richard McCallum told IANS over a telephonic interaction on Friday.Athani (Karnataka), Feb 24 : Invoking the teachings of 12th century social reformer Basavanna, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday claimed that his party's government in Karnataka gave a clean administration in the last five years.

"Following the teachings of Basavanna, our party has given a clean administration over the last five years in Karnataka. We have developed rapidly and did not make any fake promises," said Gandhi at a public rally here in Belagavi district.

Gandhi, who is on a three-day visit to the state's erstwhile Bombay-Karnataka region, said the Congress government in the southern state had truly imbibed the philosophy of Basavanna's teachings -- follow what you preach.

"Basavanna said: 'Do not harm'. But under the Modi government, atrocities against Dalits, Adivasis and minorities have been on the rise. We started celebrating Akka Mahadevi Jayanti and Kittur Rani Chennamma Jayanti. The BJP only talks, it didn't do anything when it was in power in the state earlier (2008-13)," asserted Gandhi.

Noting that women's empowerment is an integral goal of the state's development, Gandhi said the Congress government had implemented many schemes, which helped the women improve their life and unlock their potential.

"For the benefit of women, our government has launched 'Anila Bhagya' scheme to provide free cooking gas connection and stove to about 30 lakh families. 'Mathrupoorna' scheme meets the nutritional needs of pregnant women," reiterated Gandhi.

Participating in the "Jana Ashirwade Yatra" (seeking people's blessings) to return to power in the ensuing assembly election, the party chief repeatedly quoted Basavanna.

"Basavanna had said five things -- don't indulge in theft, don't indulge in violence, do not lie, do not boast about yourself and don't spread anger," recalled Gandhi in a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

"Basavanna's first sermon is 'don't indulge in theft'. Modi says the Congress government in Karnataka is corrupt. When he says it, on his right side is his chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa who had gone to jail, on the other side, four more ministers who too had gone to jail," pointed out Gandhi.

"He (Modi) banned high currency notes, implemented GST (Gabbar Singh Tax) and destroyed lakhs of businesses, but Jay Shah's (BJP President Amit Shah's son) business turned into Rs 80 crore from Rs 50,000 within three months. But Modi does not speak about it," recalled Gandhi.

Quoting Basavanna's other sermon -- don't indulge in violence, Gandhi accused the Modi government of dividing society on communal lines.

Interacting with hundreds of women at Tikota in the neighbouring Vijayapura district, Gandhi said Karnataka was the first state in the country to have an industrial park for women entrepreneurs.

"Karnataka is ahead of most states in empowering women. We believe that everyone should have equal opportunities," added Gandhi.

State Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, party's state unit president G. Parameshwara, other state leaders and cabinet ministers from the state's northwest region accompanied Gandhi on his day-long visit to the districts of Belagavi, Vijayapura and Chikkodi.Visakhapatnam, Feb 24 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday invited investors to invest in the sunrise state, promising to bring down the energy cost and assuring them that he is only a call away to address any problem.

At the inaugural session of CII Partnership Summit, he told the investors that water, land and electricity will not be a problem while they will get all clearances for setting up an industry within 21 days.

Pitching Andhra Pradesh as a preferred investment destination, he said the state had potential with skilled labour, 1,000 km sea coast, and well developed infrastructure including ports and airports.

Recalling that he undertook first generation reforms in power sector when he was the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Naidu said he had now launched second generation reforms to bring down the energy cost with generation of solar and wind energy.

"I am only a call away. If you have any problems in getting clearances, call me," he told the investors.

Over 2,500 delegates including 230 delegates from 60 countries and ministers from 14 countries are participating in the three-day Summit, being held in the truncated state for the third year in a row.

The Summit is expected to see signing of at least 281 MoUs, envisaging investments of over Rs 2.56 lakh crore with a potential to create employment for 4.25 lakh people.

The Chief Minister claimed that during the last three years, as many as 1946 MoUs were signed involving a commitment of Rs 13.54 lakh crore investments and 31 lakh jobs.

"Out of theme, 1,153 projects with committed investment of Rs 5.69 lakh crore and committed employment of 11.1 lakh have either gone to production or in advanced stage. This conversion rate of 59 percent is highest in the country," he said.

Naidu said the state had set a target of Rs 10 lakh crore investment and 20 lakh jobs in five years.

"Our goal is to become number one state in the country by 2029 in terms of per capita income and growth. As of now, ours is the only state in the country which has clocked double digit growth consistently for the last three years," he said.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu lauded the progress achieved by Andhra Pradesh in the last three years despite facing the challenges of bifurcation and how the state had the potential to grow into an automobile hub, besides in jewellery, agro-industries sector and leather industries.Chandigarh, Feb 24 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana is all set to make students in government schools of Haryana recite the "Gayatri Mantra" during morning prayers.

Haryana's Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma said on Saturday that the state government is going to make recitation of Gayatri Mantra mandatory in morning prayers in schools.

"Haryana is the land of 'Bhagwad Gita' and the cow. Reciting the Gayatri Mantra will inculcate values among students," Sharma told the media here.

The BJP government in Haryana led by former RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) ideologue, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, had in 2015 announced that lessons from Hindu holy book Bhagwad Gita would be part of the school curriculum. This was introduced in 2016.

Opposition parties in Haryana have accused the BJP government of "saffronising the education system".

The state has a BJP government since October 2014.Bhubaneswar/New Delhi, Feb 24 : President Ram Nath Kovind will visit Odisha to dedicate Anand Bhawan Museum and Learning Centre to the people of the state, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on Saturday.

The Chief Minister, who paid a courtesy call on the President of India in New Delhi on Saturday, said the President will visit the state on March 17 or 18.

"President has agreed to inaugurate the Anand Bhawan in Cuttack either on March 17 or 18. It will be a museum-cum-learning centre in the memory of Biju Babu," Naveen told reporters.

He mentioned that national and international tourists would get an opportunity to visit the heritage building which is witness to innumerable patriotic acts during the struggle of Independence.

Anand Bhawan, the ancestral house of the legendary leader Biju Patnaik, has been donated by his children including the Chief Minister as a tribute to the people of Odisha for their love and affection.

The state government recently converted it into a museum and learning centre, housing various personal belongings of Biju Patnaik, his childhood photographs, memorabilia, other rare personal articles and books, narrating his role in the freedom struggle of India and Indonesia.

The Chief Minister also presented a book "The Tall Man Biju Patnaik" to the President. The book authored by Sundar Ganesan is a monumental work on the legendary leader.

The President thanked Patnaik for his unique gesture and accepted the invitation to dedicate Anand Bhawan to the people of Odisha.New Delhi, Feb 24 : Saudi state-run oil giant Aramco is looking to buy stake in existing Indian refineries and in their capacity expansion, as well as in the proposed petrochemicals refinery on India's west coast, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid bin Abdulaziz al-Falih said on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters here during his ongoing official visit to India, Al-Falih said Aramco had already signed an agreement to initiate talks for acquiring stake in the proposed Rs 1.8 lakh crore refinery in Maharashtra.

"Aramco is also looking at other opportunities to buy into existing refineries in India as well as upgrades of existing refineries. So, there are at least three different tracks which I cannot reveal more specifics," said the Saudi Minister, who also looks after the industry and mineral resources portfolios.

"Agreements have been already signed that allows discussions to start on the configuration of the (west coast) refinery, on design basis and pre-feasibility studies," he said.

"One is the greenfield west coast refinery, which is already public, but there are discussions with expansions as well as buying stake into major existing refinery assets. All of these are illustrated commitments by the Kingdom and the company to be not only a supplier, but an investor in India at an unmatched scale," he added.

According to Al-Falih, "India is open for partnership, open for business, we welcome that, we welcome Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi's pro-business environment, we believe in it, we believe its here to stay and have told Aramco team to assign zero political and regulatory risk to India and treat it as part of Saudi Arabia."

"The projects will have risks, the markets will have risk, but India has no risk. And we are here to invest, we are here to grow, we are here to be part of India's landscape. We will be received with open arms and we don't take that for granted. We will match that with commitment, with action and with unmatched flow of FDI," he added.

Regarding at the quantum of stake in the west coast refinery proposed to be bought by Aramco, the Minister said: "The more the better. But certainly we are not constrained by capital, and we are not constrained by feed stock, and we are not constrained by size."

Queried on Aramco's interest in fuel retailing in India, Al-Falih said the company is agreeable "in principle".

"But I will leave that to Aramco downstream organisations to look at. I'm not used to the complexities," he added.

Following a meeting here on Friday with the Saudi Minister, Indian Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said that both the west coast refinery and the planned Rs 33,000 crore petrochemical complex in Andhra Pradesh had figured in the discussions.

During the meeting, Pradhan mentioned Saudi Arabia's eminence as a leading import source for crude and LPG to India, an Indian Petroleum Ministry release said here.

"Both sides agreed to conclude discussions regarding concrete investment proposals in a time-bound manner," it said.

Earlier this month, Modi's second visit to the UAE had resulted in an Indian consortium gaining stake for the first time in oil resources in the Middle East.

An MoU was signed in Abu Dhabi between an Indian consortium comprising state-run explorer ONGC Videsh, Bharat PetroResources, Indian Oil and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) for acquisition of 10 per cent participating interest in the latter's offshore Lower Zakum Concession.

Adnoc also signed an agreement with the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd to implement the strategic crude oil storage facility on India's western coast in Mangaluru (Karnataka) for the storage of 5.86 million barrels of Adnoc crude in underground facilities.

Abu Dhabi is a constituent of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes Saudi Arabia.Patna, Feb 24 : Opposition RJD on Saturday said the speeding vehicle that killed nine school students in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district belongs to a ruling BJP leader and demanded stern against those responsible for the death of innocent children.

According to district police officials, speeding vehicle, a Bolero that hit and killed nine school children, belongs to Manoj Baitha, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Sitamarhi district.

Baitha was reportedly present in the vehicle at the time of accident, but he along with the driver fled and reportedly went underground after the incident.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, after visiting the injured, said that the families of the victims told him that the killer vehicle belonged to the BJP leader and no arrest had been made so far.

"The vehicle has a BJP board attached to it and the driver was drunk at the time of incident. BJP leaders are totally drunk in power," he said.

The incident took place near a school on NH 77 under Minapur block of the district. Angry over the death of school children, local residents vandalised the school, beat up teachers and set ablaze chairs and benches there.

Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police Vivek Kumar said the speeding vehicle run over the children when they were crossing the road, and all the injured children were admitted to a hospital in the city.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed grief and sorrow over the incident.

The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of each child killed in the accident.Beijing, Feb 25 : China has called on the US to immediately cease the wrong practice of imposing sanctions against Chinese entities and individuals, referring to the move as "long-arm jurisdiction".

The US on Friday slapped heavy sanctions on the North Korea, targeting 56 vessels, shipping companies, and trade businesses, of which Chinese firms and personnel are involved.

"China is strongly opposed to the United States' long-arm jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions on Chinese entities and individuals based on its domestic laws," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

China has been fully and completely implementing relevant UN resolutions on North Korea, fulfilling its due responsibilities, and never allowed Chinese people and companies to engage in any activities violating UN resolutions, Geng said, adding that any violations would be dealt with seriously.

"We have lodged solemn representations to the United States and asked the US to immediately cease the wrong practice so as to avoid undermining relevant cooperation between the two sides," Geng said.United Nations, Feb 25 : The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

The 15-member council on Saturday voted to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, BBC reported.

It follows a week of intense bombardment of the Eastern Ghouta rebel enclave, near Damascus, by government forces. But after the vote, activists said air strikes were continuing.

The vote had been delayed several times since Thursday as members struggled to come to an agreement.

Russia, an ally of Syria's government, wanted changes. Western diplomats accused Moscow of stalling for time.

The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, called for the ceasefire to be implemented immediately, but said she was sceptical that Syria would comply.

Russia's UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said the ceasefire would not be possible without agreements between warring factions.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said warplanes struck the Eastern Ghouta minutes after the council adopted the resolution.

Earlier the observatory said 500 people had been killed in the enclave since last Sunday.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said the situation in the Eastern Ghouta was like "hell on Earth".

The draft said the ceasefire would not apply to operations against the Islamic State group, and the Nusra Front -- a former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

Russia wanted it to go further to include other groups "co-operating with them".

The final text specified that operations could continue against "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities" associated with the terror groups.

Haley blamed Russia for having "dragged out the negotiations". She said: "In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling?"

France's UN representative also said the action was very "belated". On Friday he said failure to act could spell the end of the UN itself.

On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory said at least 29 civilians were killed, including 17 in the main town, Douma -- bringing the total to over 500 for the week.

The group said the strikes were being carried out by both Syrian and Russian planes - although Russia denies direct involvement.

Barrel bombs and shell fire have been dropped on the area, where some 393,000 people remain trapped.

Aid groups report several hospitals being put out of action since last Sunday.

The Syrian government has denied targeting civilians and said it is trying to liberate the Eastern Ghouta from "terrorists" - a term it has used to describe both the jihadist militants and the mainstream rebel groups that hold the enclave.Having a team of experts behind you is one of the easiest ways to make sure your facility is using state-of-the-art equipment and encouraging current best practices.

Facility managers are always concerned with the well-being of employees and guests, but snow and winter conditions can cause additional concerns. Ensuring safe and easy access to the building and preventing damage are integral parts of facility management. Considerations as these often require extra work after a snowfall.

Its impossible to be an expert in all things at all times, said Bill Schaphorst, MaintenXs VP of Business Development. Having a team of experts behind you is one of the easiest ways to make sure your facility is using state-of-the-art equipment and encouraging current best practices.

For more than 35 years, MaintenX International has been helping facility managers safely remove ice and snow from their properties. Here are some helpful tips to make it through the snowy months with ease:



Plan Ahead: It's important to have a plan in place before severe weather arrives. If you wait until weather predictions are released, itll be too late to properly protect roofs and pipes. Conduct yearly inspections of your roof and check pipe insulation to help prevent large repairs. Also, it's a good practice to have a snow removal service provider in place before the storm. The providers become overbooked once the snow starts coming down.

Get Salty - Safely: Most facility managers know that salt can reduce ice accumulation in parking lots and on sidewalks. However, its important to consider the environmental impact of salting, particularly if your facility is near a stream, lake, or groundwater reservoir. Scientists are continuously creating "green" salting practices, like spraying salt brine, which uses less salt and works more quickly, to replace traditional salt crystal spreading.

Prevent Accidents: Snow and ice removal can be dangerous. OSHA recommends that employers avoid having employees get on the roof, and if they do, properly accounting for weight loads and hidden dangers like skylights, as well as requiring fall protection. Snow removal is taxing on the body, so facility managers should be careful to prevent overexertion and muscle strain for employees tasked with removing snow.

Bring in a Professional: With the complex, and sometimes dangerous, nature of snow and ice removal, you may decide to bring in the professionals. A facility maintenance professional, like the technicians at MaintenX, can help salt or safely remove snow from sidewalks and roofs. They are equipped with the proper roof access and safety tools and the experience to get the job done right.

For more information about MaintenX, visit http://www.maintenx.com.

ABOUT MAINTENX INTERNATIONAL:

MaintenX International is a fully-licensed, facilities repair company. They are one of the largest national self-performing facility maintenance and repair companies in the U.S. MaintenX has created a network of knowledgeable and professional technicians throughout the country. With their team of well-trained technicians, MaintenX self-performs and manages facility maintenance for clients. In the event there is not a MaintenX technician in the area, the company has fostered a network of preferred vendor partners throughout the country to provide superior service for their clients. For more than 35 years, MaintenX has been expertly serving multi-location retail stores, restaurant chains, and Fortune 500 companies nationwide.If the area had secured a few million for flood control before Harvey, this would not have happened. Now Congress is spending billions on FEMA relief. That doesnt make sense.

In a television campaign launched before early voting in the Texas Primary, the James Cargas for Congress Campaign is once again putting a spotlight on the critical need for funding of flood control measures and repairs to Addicks and Bakers Dams. The 30 second spot utilizes footage from James Cargas' 2016 ad campaign which called out the incumbent for the lack of funding for flood control after the 2015 Memorial Day flood and the 2016 Tax Day flood. Standing in the home of a constituent devastated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Cargas once again points out the tragic consequences of Congressional inaction.

In the ad, Cargas says, "If the area had secured a few million for flood control before Harvey, this would not have happened. Now Congress is spending billions on FEMA relief. That doesnt make sense."

During the unveiling of the ad to a group of supporters, Cargas provided an update on recent legislation in Washington. "Congress may have just authorized $17.4 billion for the U.S. Corps of Engineers to consider projects in areas across our Nation impacted by floods, fires and hurricanes in 2017, but it also failed to pass H.R. 5025 in 2016 which would have targeted $311 million for flood control in Harris County before Harvey flooded the Houston area. The people of Harris County have suffered and tax payers are spending more because Congress did not take action sooner."

The ad was filmed and produced locally by Jorge Bernal of Star Stuff LLC and Meredyth Hayes.

The 30 second ad can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxjWQClG2ng

The previous 2016 ad can be viewed in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6kqBzEGR4&feature=youtu.beAttorney Steven M. Sweat So glad to receive this honor for the last seven straight years. I think it demonstrates my commitment to providing quality legal representation to accident victims and their families

Los Angeles personal injury attorney, Steven Sweat, principal founding member of Steven M. Sweat, a Professional Corporation, has been named a "Super Lawyer" by Thomson Reuters News Service and Los Angeles Magazine. This is seventh straight year that Mr. Sweat has received this recognition of excellence in the legal profession.

Super Lawyers is a nationally recognized program which has developed a patented process involving peer nominations and independent research to recognize lawyers who have distinguished themselves in providing quality legal counsel. It is meant to provide a database of lawyers for whom other attorneys and consumers can recommend or retain based upon independent and verified criteria of outstanding service. It is an honor bestowed upon less than five percent of attorneys in the United States.

Steven is recognized in Los Angeles and throughout California as one of the top personal injury attorneys. His accolades include not only being a "Super Lawyer" but, having obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements over a 20 plus year career.

"When I was first named a personal injury Super Lawyer back in 2012, I was humbled to receive it." "I have always prided myself on trying to help people in tough situations obtain the best result possible to improve their lives after an auto accident or other type of personal injury mishap," said Steven.During WoWEbonys Atlanta press week (February 2018), they sponsored a private dinner inviting 10 of Atlantas leading editors, journalists, and beauty bloggers. WoWEbony held its Atlanta Press dinner at STK Atlanta. WoWEbony is collaborating with local editors and publications as part of its efforts to expand its reach and visibility in America. The brand understands the importance of having a strong presence in Atlanta, Georgia, which is considered by many to be the Hair Capital of the nation.

The press week and dinner coincided with the 71st annual Bronnor Bros. International Beauty Show. The Bronnor Bros. International Beauty Show is the largest multicultural trade show in the world. Atlanta is also home to various publications that highlight black beauty and lifestyle ventures, so it was a perfect fit.

This dinner allowed WoWEbony brand representatives as well as WoWEbony Brand Ambassador, Tara Wallace, to have one-on-one interactions with the editors in an intimate environment. They were able to discuss hot, new styles as well as the evolution of lace wigs in the hair and beauty industry.

The editors also shared their editorial calendars for the upcoming year, which highlighted the focus of hair for each season and celebration. A celebrity hair stylist, who works on several reality television shows filmed and produced in Atlanta, stopped by to have a conversation with the editors about the quality of WoWEbonys lace wigs. He shared his insight on the hairstyles celebrities were already asking about for the next season and the role WoWEbonys vast selection of textures, lengths and full customization could play in fulfilling those needs. They also discussed how the publications, hair stylists and production teams working together was integral in brand-building.

The editors expressed gratitude for the private conversation with Tara since they normally did not get time to talk outside the confines of a structured interview setting. They appreciated how open Tara was with them as she discussed details of her partnership with WoWEbony. Tara also shared how wearing WoWEbony wigs has benefited her lifestyle due to the busy nature of her schedule and also allowed her to switch up her looks easily and seamlessly while still achieving flawless looks.

WoWEbonys goal for their Atlanta press dinner was to make great connections while getting a look behind the scenes of editorial planning and production. They were also able to get a good idea of the direction of hair for the future, which is important for marketing efforts. The celebrity hairstylist having a one-on-one with the editors provided invaluable information in order for WoWEbony to not only stay on trend but to continue evolving with the wants and needs of their end consumers.

WoWEbony.com is committed to setting itself apart by offering the finest full lace wigs, 360 lace wigs, lace front wigs, hair extensions and human hair wigs at a reasonable price. If youre looking for a quick way to elevate your style without breaking the bank, check out WoWEbony.com.Young women continue to battle self-esteem issues. We need to teach girls from a young age that their sense of worth is not tied into their looks or their accomplishments.

Although few women are likely to welcome the aging process, getting older does have its benefits. With experience comes wisdom, and this is particularly true when it comes to self-esteem.

While self-esteem can be rather fragile in youth, as women age they are more likely to understand the importance of self-respect, of asserting themselves, of knowing the difference between destructive and constructive criticism and how to put it to use. They also know not to put much stock in glossy magazines displaying seemingly perfect bodies, or to allow the media to dictate how they should feel about themselves. For younger women, however, these are lessons that still need to be learned.

In their analysis of the 7,287 women who took their Emotional Intelligence Test, researchers at PsychTests discovered a distinct disparity in how younger and older women feel about themselves. Self-esteem, a major facet of emotional intelligence, appeared to play a major role in how the women coped with decisions, challenges, and their own identity. According to PsychTests study:



13% of women under the age of 40 dont believe there is anything that makes them special (compared to 8% of women over 40).

22% of women under the age of 40 harshly criticize and/or insult themselves when they make a mistake or fail (compared to 11% of women over 40).

23% of women under the age of 40 dont feel confident about a decision unless others approve of it; 18% would rather have someone else make their decisions (compared to 11% and 6% of women over 40, respectively).

43% of women under the age of 40 are not comfortable asking for want they want, like a raise, time off, etc. (compared to 32% of women over 40).

21% of women under the age of 40 feel threatened when dealing with someone who is very assertive (compared to 15% of women over 40).

19% of women under the age of 40 change their attitude, behavior, or appearance in order to please others (compared to 10% of women over 40).

35% of women under the age of 40 have a hard time recognizing their strengths (compared to 18% of women over 40).

30% of women under the age of 40 constantly doubt themselves (compared to 17% of women over 40).

32% of women under the age of 40 panic when assigned a task that is even just slightly above their capabilities (compared to 16% of women over 40).

33% of women under the age of 40 suffer from imposter syndrome (the belief that they dont deserve success/did not earn their accomplishments) and worry that others will see them as a fraud (compared to 18% of women over 40).

15% of women under the age of 40 are not satisfied with their work unless someone else praises it (compared to 6% of women over 40).

We need to teach girls from a young age that their sense of worth is not tied into their looks or their accomplishments, explains Dr. Jerabek, president of PsychTests. It comes from a recognition that they are special simply for being who they are, for having the courage to be themselves. Self-esteem must be established at a very young age, as this particular trait can determine everything from the way a woman dresses to who she dates and the career path she chooses. Self-esteem is really the core of who we are, and is the basis from which we make every decision.

Part of the reason why young women still struggle with their self-esteem may have a lot to do with the media. Every decade, the concept of beauty changes, and women, particularly younger ones, desperately try to adapt. What ends up happening is that women who dont fit the ideal  and even those who do, but dont recognize it  are left feeling like theyre not good enough. This results in a highly fragile and highly volatile self-esteem. But self-esteem goes beyond self-image, so it spreads into other aspects of our life. Its a representation of how we feel about ourselves as a whole, and a weak self-esteem is a major impediment. Fortunately, this is a trait that can be developed and nurtured. Its also important to note that self-esteem is often inextricably tied in with emotional intelligence  if you work on one, youll likely see improvement in the other, concludes Dr. Jerabek.

Want to assess your emotional IQ? Check out https://testyourself.psychtests.com/testid/3979

Professional users of this test can download a sample report for the MEIQ - R9 (Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Quotient - 9th Revision) or request a free demo for any assessment from ARCH Profiles extensive battery: http://hrtests.archprofile.com/testdrive_gen_1

To learn more about psychological testing, download this free eBook: Spotting Diamonds in the Rough. (http://hrtests.archprofile.com/personality-tests-in-hr)

About PsychTests AIM Inc.

PsychTests AIM Inc. originally appeared on the internet scene in 1996. Since its inception, it has become a pre-eminent provider of psychological assessment products and services to human resource personnel, therapists, academics, researchers and a host of other professionals around the world. PsychTests AIM Inc. staff is comprised of a dedicated team of psychologists, test developers, researchers, statisticians, writers, and artificial intelligence experts (see ARCHProfile.com). The companys research division, Plumeus Inc., is supported in part by Research and Development Tax Credit awarded by Industry Canada.RAVPower

Popular charging brand RAVPower has officially launched HyperAir - their exclusive charging technology. Setting a new standard for all wireless chargers, HyperAir offers the fastest wireless charging speeds available for iOS and Android users with speeds of up to 7.5W and 10W respectively.

The launch of the latest iPhones brought a lot of attention to wireless chargers as Apple finally embraced the technology. However as manufacturers scrambled for a market position, the market was flooded with cheap wireless chargers that perform poorly letting down mobile users, said RAVPower co-founder, Allen Fung. Our HyperAir technology corrects this by offering the fastest charging speeds available as well as unparalleled usability.

While RAVPower is no stranger to the world of wireless charging, HyperAir extends the possibilities of all wireless chargers. In addition to 7.5W for Apple devices and 10W for Android, HyperAir also features temperature control, instantaneous device detection, and a higher heat dissipation structure. Know more.



Fastest speeds on contact for iOS and Android devices (7.5W and 10W respectively)

Intelligent chip monitors and adjusts charging temperature to prevent charging speed from slowing down

Same fixed frequency program as iPhones for 50% faster detection

Engineered to disperse heat 15% faster and more effectively

HyperAir technology can be found in the RAVPower RP-PC066 Fast Wireless Charger. Currently on sale on Amazon for $35.99.

About RAVPower

Founded in 2011, RAVPower has grown to become the one-stop power charging solution for millions of customers from around the world. RAVPower's wide variety of portable chargers ranges from high-capacity external battery packs to travel-friendly multiport USB chargers to high-tech offerings that utilize Qualcomm's Quick Charge technology.

https://www.ravpower.com/hyperair.html

About Sunvalleytek

Founded in 2007, Sunvalleytek has grown to become a leading eCommerce company that is home to seven major international consumer brands: RAVPower, TaoTronics, VAVA, Anjou, and Sable. From energy-saving LED desk lamps to next-generation portable chargers to 100% pure essential oil, the Sunvalleytek's brands have regularly become top-sellers in many leading eCommerce platforms across the world.

https://www.sunvalley-group.com/en/index.html

Media Contact:

Allen Fung

General Manager of RAVPower

1-510-260-5089

allen.fung(at)sunvalleytek.com

Sunvalleytek International Inc.

46724 Lakeview Blvd, Fremont, CA 94538, USA

http://www.sunvalleytek.comToppers Pizza was founded on two basic values of a strong love of pizza and a passion for helping others. The leading better pizza chain is implementing these principles system-wide by hosting a one-day Hunger-Relief Event at all of its locations to provide guests with the opportunity to enjoy the brand's bold and flavorful pizza while giving back to food banks and organizations right in their own backyards. The company is aiming to donate 150,000 meals as a result of the one-day event. Since 2011, Toppers Pizza has donated more than one million meals through similar fundraising efforts.

On Monday, February 26 between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., Toppers Pizza will offer a $4.99 carry-out only special for medium, one-topping pizzas where $2 will be donated to local food banks in that store's community. For every dollar donated to local food banks, three meals can be provided to those in need. So, the initiative aims to help local organizations in their efforts to fight hunger right in the communities where Toppers Pizza serves with each purchase generating six meals locally. Donations will go to help the following organizations in their respective Toppers Pizza markets:



Arkansas Foodbank

Capital Area Food Bank

Channel One Regional Food Bank

Community Food Share

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin

Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank

Feeding South Dakota

Food Bank for the Heartland

Food Bank for Larimer County

Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina

Food Bank of Lincoln

Food Bank of the Rockies

Freestore Foodbank

Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc.

Harvesters - The Community Food Network

Houston Food Bank

Inter-Faith Food Shuttle

Northern Illinois Food Bank

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina

Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin

Second Harvest Heartland

Tarrant Area Food Bank

Weld Food Bank

"It is our privilege to have served many of our communities for more than two decades and we consider it our responsibility to find ways to give back each year. While many of us are lucky to know that we'll eat every day, there are millions across the country who don't know when their next meal is coming," said Toppers Pizza Founder and CEO Scott Gittrich. "With our Hunger-Relief Event, we are providing more food and meals to families and individuals in the United States struggling to find the resources to survive. We have the potential to feed thousands of people through this donation event taking place at our more than 80 locations across 17 states."

Toppers Pizza franchise owners continue to prioritize partnerships with local food banks at their individual locations, from hosting Topperstix eating contests to developing various menu promotions to create long-standing relationships with these nonprofit organizations. As the pizza chain continues to grow throughout the country, Gittrich believes Toppers will be able to expand on its fundraising efforts and reach a greater number of families affected by hunger in the near future.

"By partnering with local food banks throughout the country through our franchise and corporate-owned units, we as a brand are able to make a lasting impact on families and individuals facing a cause that our entire system feels passionately about," Gittrich said. "Giving back to the local communities in which we live and work has always been ingrained in Toppers' core values, and it's been an honor for our brand to work together at all levels to help those in need."

ABOUT TOPPERS PIZZA

Capitalizing on the booming better pizza category and fueled by the passion of Founder & President Scott Gittrich and a team of experienced industry veterans, Toppers Pizza has formulated the perfect recipe to appeal to both pizza enthusiasts and savvy investors. Headquartered in Wisconsin, Toppers is one of the fastest growing better-pizza chains in the United States. The brand has doubled in size over the last three years and completely sold out three states based on growth spurred by both existing franchisees and established multi-unit operators. Now with restaurants in 16 states and with territories immediately available across the country, Toppers is on its way to becoming a nationwide brand. Toppers is committed to quality and consistency throughout the system, and plans to maintain corporate ownership of 25 percent of all locations while the brand expands to continuously improve on best practices and product development. Toppers fanatics love the brand's fresh, handmade and customizable pizza baked in about 360 seconds and delivered extremely fast, with more than a million combinations of fresh, high quality toppings, and the brand's signature line of flavored Topperstix and baked Buffalo wings. In 2017, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked Toppers as one of the top 500 franchises in the U.S for the third year in a row and in 2016, QSR Magazine listed the company as one of the year's Best Franchise Deals. For more information on how to join the rapidly growing Toppers family and for a sneak peek into the Toppers experience, visit http://www.toppersfranchise.com/.

###Welcome Guest! You Are Here:Welcome Guest! You Are Here:

Home Regional News EastSign up for the latest Russia investigation updates.

The attorney representing former national security adviser Susan Rice said Friday that Rice memorialized a January 2017 meeting between herself and senior Obama administration and law enforcement officials because they were "justifiably concerned" about the risks that could come with sharing classified intelligence with President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration.

Rice's attorney, Kathryn Ruemmler, made the assertion in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee explaining why Rice documented the meeting, which took place on January 5, 2017. Rice contemporaneously memorialized the discussion fifteen days later, on January 20.

During the meeting, Rice's memo said, then-President Barack Obama suggested intelligence officials be cautious about sharing information about the Russia investigation with the Trump transition team, "particularly" incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Rice memorialized the discussion on January 20, 2017 upon the advice of the White House counsel's office, Ruemmler's letter said. Two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to Business Insider that Rice did not approach the White House counsel's office to seek advice about creating a memo following the meeting. Rather, they said, the White House counsel's office approached her and directed her to document the meeting, which Rice subsequently did.

That Rice acted on the White House counsel's advice was a key indication of how concerned the Obama administration was about the potential national-security risks brought by members of the new administration, legal experts said Friday.

The letter added, contrary to Senate Republicans' claims, that the January 5 meeting did not include any discussion of former British spy Christopher Steele or the Steele dossier, an explosive collection of memos alleging Trump-Russia collusion that the FBI is using as a roadmap in its investigation.

Rice was not aware of the Russia investigation at the time of the meeting, according to Ruemmler's letter. She first learned of the investigation when then FBI director James Comey publicly confirmed its existence in March 2017. She was also "not informed of any FISA applications sought by the FBI in its investigation, and she only learned of them from press reports after leaving office," the letter said, responding to questions about whether Rice had knowledge of the FBI's application to surveil former Trump adviser Carter Page.The source however refused to give details of what is causing the sudden end of a beautiful working relationship but the grand signing of Shatta Wale by the label could be one of the many factors despite Zylofon Media apologising for the occurrence.

We apologise to fans of Stonebwoy for that. Nobody intends to give prominence to one over other artiste.  Sammy Baah, spokesperson for Zylofon Media told Abusuah FM that all artist are their priority and not only Shatta Wale.Wisa was giving his evidence in chief in a matter in which he has been accused of displaying his manhood on stage during a performance.

He said a member of his management team knew of this scheme to show off this fake penis.

He said it was after the event that he heard the news that he brought his penis to show it to the public and it was all over the internet which led the police to invite him for interrogation.

Wisa said he went to radio and television stations to apologise to the public because of the perception people were having at that moment including members of his family and his management so that all concerned would forgive and forget.

The case was adjourned to March 1st for continuation. The Court Presided over by Mrs Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku, at the last sitting on February 5, ordered Wisa to get ready to open his defence on February 21, however when the matter was called, Wisa was without his counsel.

Wisa informed the court that his lawyer Jerry Avernorgbor had called him saying that he was caught up at a Police Station hence could not attend court. According to Wisa, his lawyer was therefore praying for a short adjournment. The court, thereafter ordered Wisa to open his defence on Thursday with or without counsel.

Wisa, of the Ekikimi fame, was arrested for allegedly exposing his penis while performing at the Accra International Conference Centre on December 24, 2015.

He has, however, denied a charge of gross indecent exposure and is on a GH8,000.00 bail with one surety.

According to GNA files, on December 25, 2015, the Accra Regional Police was alerted over a nude video posted on the Internet from an unknown source, in which Wisa intentionally exposed his penis, while performing live on stage.

According to the Prosecutor, Detective Inspector Judith B. Asante said the Police contacted the managers of Artiste to produce him at the Regional Police Headquarters for investigations, which they did.

The prosecution said investigations into the matter disclosed that on December 24, Airtel Communications Company and Citi FM, an Accra-based radio station, organised an event dubbed: December to Remember, which included the accused as a guest artiste.

In the course of the show, the accused, while dancing with a female dancer identified as Monica Kumadeh, suddenly removed his penis out of his pair of jeans and began to caress the buttocks of the dancer.Mr Kweku Pentsil told Accra-based Class FM that the prosecution hid vital evidence from the defence team which could have set his client free.

He also claimed that the trial judge, Justice Afia Asare-Botwe, did not avert her mind to the facts of the case while accusing the prosecution of changing the charges against Mr Assibit on multiple occasion during the trial.

Anytime next week the appeal will come out and I can also assure you it will be coupled with an application for bail pending the determination of the substantive appeal that much I can tell you, he said.

Mr Assibit, a representative of the Goodwill International Group (GIG), was convicted on Friday along with the former Coordinator of Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Abuga Pele.

Mr Pele, a former Member of Parliament for Chiana-Paga, was convicted on 2 counts of abetted crime of defrauding by false pretence and was sentenced to six years in prison.

He was alleged to have recommended payment of the said amount to Assibit, CEO of Goodwill International Group when Assibit had not performed any work to merit payment.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges.Mr Mahama, speaking at Somanya in the Eastern Region on Saturday, said the implementation of the free SHS is absolving all the fiscal space of the government.

Due to that, he said the government was unable to pay money owed the District Assembly Common Fund, NHIS, Getfund and salaries of public workers.

He said: "And the point is we must adopt a system were those who can afford to pay are able to pay. I can afford to pay my son's fees, why should you give me free senior high school?

"Identify those who need it, who cannot afford to pay and give them bursaries so that they can pay those fees and those who can afford to pay, let them go ahead and pay.

"The problem this government is facing, and it is in their own interest, is that free senior high school is absolving all the fiscal space they have. And so every money you have, you are having to put it into free senior high school. So you can't pay district assemblies common fund, you can't pay NHIS, you can't pay Getfund, you can't pay other salaries and things because all your money is going into free senior high school. And the problem is that, this is only first year. "

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the introduction of the free Senior High School has given opportunity to over 90,000 children to be enrolled in 2016.READ MORE: Truck driver survives death in accident at Taifa Junction

The accident occurred on the Tamale-Zabzugu road whiles they were reportedly travelling to a funeral in the constituency.

Mr. Obaako was travelling alongside former District Chief Executive for Zabzugu, Iddrisu Alidu Laabandoo, and his personal driver.

The MP is reported to have broken his arm as a result of the accident, whiles the former DCE and the driver also sustained some minor injuries.

All three men have subsequently been rushed to the Tamale Teaching Hospital, where they are currently receiving treatment.

Deputy Secretary of the National Democratic Congress [NDC] for Zabzugu constituency, Mohammed Adam explained how the accident occurred in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM.

According to him, the vehicle somersaulted about three times and finally landed.

READ MORE: 4 cars burnt as fire guts mechanic shop at Sofoline

He, however, stated that all three men are out of danger and are recuperating well from injuries sustained during the car crash.These news releases make for some of the most entertaining reading available from public affairs offices.

I read a lot of government news releases, so trust me on this.

In the latest batch, the IRS tells us that many swindles begin with a threatening phone call from the agency. Or, rather, a call thats supposed to be from the IRS.

This should be your first clue, however, that something is wrong: The IRS doesnt call you. It just doesnt reach out to people that way. The agency is kind of like that Jimmy Buffett song, If the phone doesnt ring, its me.

The IRS reaches out, almost always, through the mail. After all, somebodys got to keep the U.S. Postal Service in business. In the rare instances when the IRS might call about an overdue tax return, the agency wants you to know, you will have received letters first.

Lets review. Someone has just called you on the phone and claims to be from the IRS. What do you do?

You have the agencys permission to say something rude and hang up. (Im inferring that  IRS news releases arent quite that entertaining.) Because once a conversation starts, people can find themselves doing strange things.

Take Michelle Albitz, a Pennsylvania woman who lost more than $10,000 to an ersatz IRS caller. According to the account in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a gentleman on the phone said she would be arrested if she didnt pay her back taxes. She withdrew the money from her local bank and, following the instructions from her caller, went to retail stores and bought gift cards. She then read the card information to the swindler over the phone.

Who knew the IRS worked this way? With gift cards?

Oh, thats right. It doesnt.

Those IRS people arent like that. They dont call, they dont send email, they dont demand money from you in Instagram posts. And while David Kautter, the acting commissioner of the IRS, is surely somewhat hunky in his own nerd-eriffic way, he will not contact you on Tinder and tell you that you have beautiful eyes and that you need to pay some back taxes. Not even with gift cards.

The gift card caper that snared Albitz was unusual, but scammers trying to extract fake tax payments arent a new thing. Thats why it is refreshing, in a perverse way, to see crooks coming up with something a little more inventive lately, like this twist on another old fraud.

The perpetrators fill out fake tax returns in your name, using your actual information. Then they have the IRS deposit the money in your own bank account. After that, the scammers call you up and say that there has been a mistake, and you got a refund you shouldnt have, and theyre from a collection agency. Would you mind just sending the money to it?

The IRS has its own official procedures for turning in erroneous refunds, and  have I mentioned this?  they dont involve agents calling you.

Not only will tax agents not call you, the IRS makes it painfully clear that it would rather you not call the agency, either. The signals arent even subtle. In a recent news release about early filing season myths, a number of the purported myths come down to: Dont call us. Not as in Dont call us, well call you, but Dont call. We mean it.

Take myth No.4, which is about whether calling the IRS will get you a better refund date. Answer: No. Or No.5: Calling the IRS Is the Most Convenient Way to Get Answers to Tax or Refund Questions. Again, nope, nope, nope. Because baby, theyre just not that into you.

I like the agencys honesty but object to the folks at the IRS calling these things myths. Myths are things people actually believe. Heres a real myth: that anyone wants to call the IRS.

Normal people dread having contact with the agency, aside from sending in their tax return, and, if they are fortunate, getting a refund.

If youve ever been in actual conversation with this agency, it probably means something bad has happened, such as getting a letter about a problem with your taxes, and youve had to follow up. That situation is likely to get worse: Once you start calling the IRS to clear things up, well, it can be an endless cycle of fix-it calls followed by dunning IRS notices demanding that you fix the thing you just fixed, with more calls to clear things up.

Frankly, dear reader, those IRS myths didnt sound much like myths to me. For example, the title of one listed by the agency was this: Ordering a tax transcript a secret way to get a refund date. That does not sound like anything anyone has said to me ever, even if you interpret the sentence to mean that people use their refunds to go out on a date and the agency will help hook you up. (Theres that Tinder issue again!) By the way, Kautter, may I say youre looking very good today?

No, if youre going to promise myths, my IRS friends, go large. Try myths people might actually believe, for example, the claim that bitcoins are untraceable. (Its complicated but, in fact, they are traceable.)

Then theres the old saying that nothing is certain but death and taxes. I always thought it was true, but it has clearly moved into myth territory: Death is still pretty certain, sure. But taxes? With all the revisions to the tax code, a lot of people are very uncertain. And, above a certain income level, you can bet that they wont be paying much, if any, tax at all.

The truly rich, of course, know they dont need to call the IRS. They just call their favorite members of Congress. Or, more likely, they have their people do it.

And those calls get taken.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.The list included several notable names, including a former top aide to the governor, Percocos wife and two of the defendants themselves.

But by the time the defense lawyers actually began their case, it seemed to have been scaled back significantly. Only a few brief witnesses, mostly state employees who testified largely to paperwork and procedural questions, took the stand Friday. Because of scheduling issues with other witnesses, the jury was sent home before lunch.

The judge said Mondays proceedings would likely be abbreviated, too. Closing arguments, she said, might begin the next day  several days earlier than defense lawyers had originally predicted.

All in all, it was an anticlimactic start to what had seemed, for a time, to be a potentially revealing and explosive string of witnesses. But legal experts not involved with the trial said that what the defense lawyers did not say, and who they did not call, may reveal just as much about their approach as what and who they did.

If the governments case is in shambles, as it may very well be in this case, its not surprising that you either scale back the defense case or you simply rest, said Benjamin Brafman, a defense lawyer who has represented clients including Martin Shkreli, Harvey Weinstein and Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The betting money would be that you dont push the envelope and let it fall off the table, when you may well be in a good position right now.

Gerald Shargel, another veteran lawyer best known for winning the acquittal of the Mafia boss John Gotti, summed up his own philosophy: Quit while youre ahead.

The potential weakness in the governments case to which Brafman and Shargel were referring was the stunning midtrial arrest of Todd R. Howe, the governments star witness. Howe, a disgraced former Albany lobbyist, was cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to eight felonies, and said that he had facilitated the bribes between Percoco and his co-defendants.

Howe was arrested after admitting under cross-examination that he had tried to defraud his credit card company after he signed his cooperation agreement with the government.

But defense lawyers had also indicated other reasons for pulling back on their witness lists.

Earlier in the week, they had suggested that two of the defendants, Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, executives of a Syracuse-area development company, might take the stand. But if they did, lawyers for Aiello and Gerardi insisted, prosecutors should not be allowed to cross-examine them on their involvement with the Buffalo Billion, itself the subject of an upcoming corruption trial.

The Buffalo Billion refers to the infusion of $1 billion by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos administration into his signature upstate development project. But federal prosecutors have accused Alain E. Kaloyeros, former president of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, and Howe of rigging bids and doling out favorable treatment to certain contractors.

Milton J. Williams, a lawyer for Gerardi, said allowing questioning on that topic would get into a whole mini-trial that would unfairly prejudice the jury.

But prosecutors said defense lawyers had already opened the door to that line of inquiry by arguing that Aiello and Gerardi had been innocent victims of, rather than active collaborators with, Howe, when they allegedly bribed Percoco. They said they had the right to question the executives on the Buffalo Billion to show that they had been involved in sordid dealings with Howe before.

Judge Valerie E. Caproni of U.S. District Court in Manhattan seemed to agree. Why isnt it a fair response to your argument that your clients were duped to show that, far from being duped, your clients engaged in a different scam with Todd Howe? she asked the lawyers.

Aiello and Gerardi did not take the stand.

Neither did Lisa Toscano-Percoco, Percocos wife. According to prosecutors, much of the more than $300,000 Percoco received in bribes was funneled through payments to his wife through a low-show job with Competitive Power Ventures, orchestrated by a former company executive, Peter Galbraith Kelly, who is also a defendant in the trial. And Howard Glaser, Cuomos former director of state operations, did not appear either.

Defense lawyers have also been cognizant of the trials length. Caproni has already chastised them several times for what she called repetitive questioning, and she warned them that they were trying jurors patience. On Wednesday, a juror sent the judge a note asking how much longer the trial would take.

Caproni turned the question on the defense lawyers. They objected, worrying that jurors eager to get home would become frustrated with them, and by extension their clients.

Essentially, the effect is to blame defense counsel as a whole for the number of the days that we have left, Daniel M. Gitner, Kellys lawyer, told the judge. That is just not fair.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.These wildlife discoveries were made in the Gashaka Gumti National Park, Taraba state, Nigeria, and the world was shocked that such wildlife secrets exist in the country.

The park is regarded as a national treasure and noted for being habitat for many wildlife creatures.

Mr Stuart Nixon, theAfrica Field Programme Co-ordinator at Chester Zoo, said the location of this discovery is very important.

Gashaka's been regarded for many years as having the biggest population of this Nigeria-Cameroon chimp, which is the rarest chimp subspecies, he said.

We consider it the most important population - that's really why we need to count it and see what the status of the chimp is right now - that will ultimately affect what we know about this subspecies elsewhere.

How the discoveries were made by Chester Zoo

Nixon explained that about 50,000 images of the park's wildlife were captured between 2015 and the end of 2017.

A giant pangolin was also seen for the first time in Nigeria, and it is one of the six rare animal species found in this park.

"It's an incredible tool to use these camera traps and to reveal that this park - which is a forgotten wilderness, really, for Nigeria - still has a really important reservoir of important species for Nigeria and Africa in general," said Nixon.

"No-one's seen a giant pangolin - no-one even knew that they were there. It's the first record for Nigeria as well - that highlights how rare, how elusive and how difficult they are to find and study."According to the latest research report by from Counterpoints Market Monitor service, the Nigerian handset market grew by a modest 6% in CY 2017. More so, the statistics of smartphone shipment into the country show that majority of the market volume capture by specific brands in Nigeria.

On this, Anshika Jain, Research Analyst with Counterpoints Market Monitor said: The top 2 OEMs  Samsung and Transsion Group (its brands include Tecno, Itel and Infinix) captured two-thirds of the total smartphone market. Samsung still retains the top position with more than one-third share in the total smartphone market. While in the feature phone segment, the market is dominated by a single OEM with 76% share. This highlights the dominance of Chinese players in the feature phone market.

Here are the top 5 smartphone brands in Nigeria.

5. Nokia HMD

Nokia HMD is currently in the five position in just one year of entering the Nigerian smartphone market. In 2017, the brand gained 6% market share due to the strong performance of Nokia 105 - an android phone modelled after the famous Nokia 3310.

4. Infinix

Infinix is a brand of smartphone from the Transsion Holdings and holds 6% market share in Nigeria. This puts the company at fourth position in the market.

Just like the other brands from the company, affordability is the major traction for Infinix.

3. Itel

Itel is also a brand from the maker of Tecno, the Transsion Holdings China. The brand maintained a third position in the smartphone market with 10% of the market share. The most important factor that attracted consumer to this brand is affordability.

2. Tecno

In Nigerian smartphone, Tecno is in the second position with 16% market share. The introduction of new models of a device such as Spark Series and upgraded its existing Camon Series give more market power to the brand.

1. SamsungThe shocking incident reportedly took place in Asaba, Delta state.

Instablog9ja reports that the victim, Evangelist Promise, is currently in critical condition at the ICU of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba.

The Public Relations Officer of Delta State Police Command, DSP Andrew Aniamaka, while confirming the incident, said the couple was found in a pool of blood at their home along Ibusa Road, Asaba.

Aniamaka also added that the couple was rushed to FMC Asaba, but Lazarus died shortly afterwards.

According to the reports, the incident occurred on Monday evening after Promise returned from a journey and her husband reportedly attacked her with a sharp cutlass for reasons that remain unclear.

The couple's son is reported to have alerted the neighbours who in turn call police officers who were on patrol.

May the soul of the deceased rest in peace.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence has been a menace in our community for decades and was either accepted to kept a secret.

ALSO READ: A black eye on the Nigerian entertainment industry

However, in recent times, people have become vocal about any form of abuse they have or may be suffering.

The cases of domestic violence have become so common that there have been campaigns and movements against domestic violence in major cities all over the world but most recently, in Africa.

In South Africa, a dangerous trend has taken root so deep that the countrys law enforcement agencies have informed women, the victims, to be wary and protect themselves.

The distasteful trend is a wave of violence against women by South African men, mostly the lovers of these women who are abused.

These crimes have taken two forms. On one hand, there is sexual violence; on the other, women in relationships are also suffering domestic violence at the hands of their lovers and spouses.

The latest South Africa Police statistics claim that between April and December 2017, there were 37,630 sexual offences, of that figure, there were 30,069 rapes. That does not include the number of unreported rapes.

ALSO READ: 5 ways to handle an abusive partner

According to figures from the SA Medical Research Council (MRC), 40% of South African men assault their partners daily  three women in South Africa are killed by their intimate partner every day.

The message remains that we should avoid being blackmailed into staying in abusive, violent and demeaning relationships.

What do you mean by 'violence against women'?

Sexual violence is defined, in its simplest terms, as any sexual act or attempt to get sexual pleasure from a person with force, intimidation or coercion without any regard for the victims wishes.The Rivers State, deputy commissioner of police, Cyril Okoro, said the pastor has been arrested in connection with the murder of three persons  two women and a nine-month-old girl.

In a report by TheCable, Okoro, in Port Harcourt on Friday, February 23, 2018, alleged that the pastor murdered the three persons on December 13, 2017.

The police chief also said the suspect had confessed to the crime following overwhelming evidence, and would soon be arraigned court.

The victims

The victims of the pastor were identified as 25-year-old Uluoma Onweagbo and her nine-month-old baby, Christabel Joseph and Ada Ezeawa.

The victims were members of the pastor's church in Afam, Rivers State.

Pastor's confession according to the police

The pastor in a most bizarre manner gruesomely murdered three of his own flock, including an unborn child.

"The pastor had a sexual relationship with Onweagbo, which resulted in a pregnancy.

"On December 11, 2017, Ada Ezeawa and Onweagbo, along with her baby strapped to her back, set out to confront the pastor over the pregnancy.

"He ingeniously separated his accusers, by luring Ada Ezeawa to an uncompleted building, while he told Onweagbo to stay three poles away.

"The pastor strangled Ezeawa in the uncompleted building. Moments after, the suspect rejoined Onweagbo and left with her and the baby on a tricycle (keke) to Afam Roundabout.

"From the roundabout, they took a motorbike to an isolated bush on Igberu Road where he murdered his second victim in the isolated bush, using the wrapper with which she strapped her baby to the back to suffocate her.

The baby was equally discovered dead, Okoro said.

ALSO READ: Man hires assassin to murder rich family in order to inherit wealth

Pastor apologises for his alleged crime

The suspect has apologised to the family of the victims, claiming the killing was the handiwork of the devil.The gang had killed two policemen and injured one during the robbery.

The suspect identified as Chinonso Gift Onwuegbuchulam, popularly known as Ogolo, is the last member of the gang to be nabbed.

One of the robbers was shot dead during the operation.

The state Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, paraded Ogolo in Owerri on Friday, February 23, 2018.

He said, "I am delighted to announce to you that the remaining member of the gang, one Chinonso Gift Onwuegbuchulam, aka, Ogolo, male, 29 of age, hails from Obazu Mbieri in the Mbaitoli LGA of Imo State, was arrested on February 21, 2018.

"The suspect, who claimed to hold a Bachelor of Science honours degree in Government and Public Administration from Imo State University in 2008, was arrested in his hideout at Close 7, Mgbuakara Eleparawan, Port Harcourt, Rivers State."

ALSO READ: Police immortalize officers who died in Zenith bank raid

Ezike said the suspect confessed to the crime and revealed that out of the N2.8 million his gang stole from their target, he got a share of N400,000.

In June 2017, a video of the robbery had gone viral, particularly because of one the late policemen who displayed rare gallantry by confronting the robbers in a fierce gun battle.

The brave cop later died from the gunshot injuries he sustained.We begin to mull over and prepare for our death from the day we become aware of the life that courses through us.

If nothing, we quickly learn that one can lose his lease on life, slowly after decades of living, or abruptly, at the end of a bullet or by accident.

From Nigeria to Nepal, when a life ends, cultures prescribe various rites to carry out.

There are many similarities across the board: the body is cleaned and treated with substances that delay the process of decay and decomposure. Then it is buried after necessary rites and ceremonies.

ALSO READ:

The challenge usually comes where theres no body to direct this care and goodwill towards.

Situations like these are why we have memorials.

After hundreds died in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, a center of peace was erected in memory of the victim and as a tribute to encourage peace between the religious and political ideologies that influenced the attack.

Till today, many of those victims have had centers, foundations and scholarships created in their names.

America is not an elite older brother in this regard; memorials abound, even in Nigeria.

One thing is certain though; if you die in Nigeria, it doesn't really depend on whether your body can be found. Except you have unlocked the higher levels of wealth and influence, nobody will remember your name.

Take the 73 people killed by suspected Fulani Herdsmen in Benue in two local government areas in the space of one day.

"Suspected Fulani Herdsmen"

Violence meted by gun-wielding bandits reported to be Fulani Herdsmen has ravaged much of Nigerias middle belt for decades.

However, in recent months, it has escalated.

Shortly after dealing with the floods in his state, Governor Ortom has been tasked with finding a solution to a nomadic army that enters into farm lands and leads its cattle to graze as they like.

These bandits have dominated the news for months for carrying guns and commiting acts of murder that the FG fails to address or even acknowledge.

Perhaps it is why when these unfortunate souls were buried; they were sent to the afterlife with not so much as headstones.

Weeks after the massacre, local news media had demanded for details of the victims. None was forthcoming.

It is a running theme through numerous instances.

Who is in the unmarked coffins?

When Nigerians die, they can be buried in a Ikoyi cemetary with marble headstones that carry their names: but if youre a poor Benue farmer, your name will be forgotten as if it has never mattered.

We should and must point out this is the province of a government that doesnt care about things that have no direct influence on the coming election year.

When disasters like the Benue massacre occur, the government assumes a tone that implies that it would rather get these out of the way than address the issue at its root, or consider the Nigerian lives lost.

On the other hand, we have created a culture that places to much emphasis on the now than anything else.

It shows in the need for instant gratification, how a septuagenerian and former dictator can don an agbada and sell us change and freedom so well that we vote him in enmasse.

The sad implication is that when the present ends as it always does, the past and future come haunting and we have nothing to refer to.

Death is intriguing.

It is common to hear people say, the dead have no needs so lets focus on the living and when you think about it, it is hard to argue with the sense of such a statement.

Yet this has little to do with disregarding the identity of an entire group of people because they cannot protest being bundles with no reference to the identity they enjoyed their whole lives.

This attitude shows beyond unmarked coffins to how we treat our heroes and the individuals who shaped our very existence as a nation.

There's no incentive for being a Nigerian

The allure of doing something great for your country may be strong: but if youre Nigeria, dont die here, at least not in these conditions, because noone who would remember your name.

Our way back to a respect for human beings is not as long as it seems.

The first step is teaching young people about those people who at one point or the other, left a footprint on Nigerias history. Doing this will immortalise them in a generations memory.

It will also help us understand the beauty of humanity that beyond the stories that bring them to prominence, everyone has a story that entitles them to be remembered for who they are.

One thing is very certain.

Ther's little incentive right now for being a Nigrian.

And even when you muster up the courage (or are restricted by the contraints of opportunity) to stay here and make something of the harshest of circumstances, whether you admit or not, you have to come to terms with the fact that you're only important when you're here; it all ends when you die.

That your value only lasts for as long as you are active and you will be made to understand this. Because, like the 73 who were killed in Benue, whether you are part of the nation's most importatnt arming communities,A biohacker injected himself with an experimental herpes treatment in front of a live audience in Austin, Texas, on Monday.

28-year-old Aaron Traywick, who leads Ascendance Biomedical  the biotech firm behind the drug  injected a treatment that has not undergone any clinical trials for safety, much less gone through the FDA's drug approval process. It happened in front of a live audience, but a video of the event was also posted online.

Traywick told Men's Health that the purpose of the display was to "engage and inspire the public in a novel and wholly transparent presentation of a therapy our researchers have been developing for nearly a year." He said he hoped the experiment would "catalyze [the public's] engagement with similar self-experimentation using gene therapy."

According to The Verge, this bold move by Traywick isn't the first of its kind. As a biohacker, Traywick reportedly has a history of encouraging self-experimentation. Last year, his biotech firm live-streamed a man injecting himself with a similarly untested HIV treatment.

We prefer to do everything before a live audience so you can hold us accountable in the days to come as we collect the data to prove whether or not this works, he said prior to the injection. If we succeed with herpes in even the most minor ways, we can move forward immediately with cancer.

Ascendence, specifically, is focused on producing gene therapies to do things like reverse menopause, develop a drug that increases muscle mass and decreases fat mass, and, as Traywick demonstrated, cure herpes. Some biotech companies, including Ascendance, believe the current FDA approval process for drugs is too slow, so they turn to biohackers to both research and experiment with the drugs themselves.

This, however, isn't necessarily true, says Arthur L. Caplan, PhD and founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Health. "The FDA process is not slow," Caplan told Men's Health. "If they get positive results they can move fast. Plus, the FDA permits expanded access if something looks safe and promising." This means that if a treatment for say, cancer, looked like it held serious promise, the FDA would expedite the process to make that available to those who need it as soon as possible.

Besides this, Caplan says, there's a rather large conflict of interest pertaining to this particular experiment  money. Traywick is administering a treatment on himself that his own company created. "If they [Ascendance] own the vaccine, then their conflict of interest undermines the claim of a result," he said. This also directly impacts the outcome in the scenario that the drug actually works. "Without objective independent controlled trials, few will believe their claims given their financial interest," Caplan said.

When asked if he believes there's indeed a conflict of interest, Traywick said, "No. We believe that the level of public spotlight and scrutiny placed upon myself and the other members of our team will actually do the opposite."

He thinks that being so public "require[s] us to maintain a level of public transparency rarely  if ever  seen in the context of modern-day research."

While the self-administration of unapproved drugs is on the rise, it's important to remember that there was a reason the FDA was created in the first place. Like any other business, biotech companies ultimately are looking to make money. Caplan thinks moves like Traywick's live self-injection are less about the science and more about getting publicity.

"There is a lot of interest in herpes vaccine, but its tough to crack with fringe science by someone trying to make a profit and who lacks independent verification for any claims of a cure," he said, "It looks more like showboating to hype something rather than seriously testing a vaccine."In an interview with The Nation, Amina described her escape as miraculous, ascribing the escape to the grace of God.

Narrating how she escaped, Amina said, When Boko Haram came to our school, we thought they were soldiers because they dressed like soldiers.

We ran, and then one of them called us. One of them asked me to come to the car.

I got close to the car, and then one of them started laughing at me.

I moved closer to them, thinking they were soldiers.

I soon realized that they were not soldiers. As I made to run away, one of them tried to grab me. I dodged him but he got my hijab. I quickly removed my hijab and left him with it and ran away. I thought I was dead.

They entered our hostel again, but some of us ran into the bush. I ran up to five kilometres and hid in one Fulani settlement called Miligia.

Boko Haram abducts over 100 female students in Yobe school

On Monday, February 19, 2018, the men of the Boko Haram sect invaded a part of Yobe State including the Government Girls Secondary School in Dapchi kidnapping several students and reigning terror on the school and the village.

According to a forum of parents of missing students, the number of girls in captivity have been given as 105.

ALSO READ: Dapchi residents attack Yobe Governor for lying about girls' rescue

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the girls kidnap saying it's a national disaster.

US condemns kidnap of school girls in Yobe

The United States of America condemned the abduction of over 90 school girls from Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state.

The Spokesperson of the US Department of State, Ms Heather Nauert, at a press briefing on Thursday, said We are still trying to get all the details about that but we wanted to mention that we condemn in the strongest possible terms the terror attack on a school earlier this week in north-eastern Nigeria.

The choice of targets including schools, markets and places of worship reflect the brutality of terror organisations.

The victims in the attacks were girls who were simply seeking an education.

We continue to support Nigerias efforts to counter the terror group.

ALSO READ: Schoolgirl narrates how Boko Haram kidnapped students in Yobe

We also support Nigerias efforts to enable more than two million displaced in the Lake Chad region to return home safely.

United States continues to provide humanitarian assistance to those who were affected by the violence, Nauert added.

111 Yobe school girls unaccounted for

The Police Commissioner in Yobe, Abdulmaliki Sumonu, on Wednesday, confirmed that 111 girls were still unaccounted for following Mondays attack by Boko Haram insurgents.Al-Makura, while presenting the vehicles in Lafia, said that the gesture was part of his governments commitment to boost the security architecture of the state in view of the incessant skirmishes.

He explained that 22 of the vehicles would be allocated to the police.

The governor said that the Nigeria Army, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Department of State Security Service (DSS) would get two vehicles each.

He said that the Nigeria Air Force and the Prison Services would get one vehicle each.

The governor said that the vehicles were meant for the mainstream security outfits working round the clock toward ensuring peace in the various communities.

Al-Makura said that other security agencies would be considered in due course.

The distribution of the vehicles is another milestone in our collective efforts to contribute toward the protection of lives and property of the citizens.

I believe that the gesture will go a long way in supporting the security agencies toward the maintenance of law and order in the state, Al-Makura said.

He said that his administration had donated a befitting state headquarters for the Nigeria Police as part of the support to security agencies in the state

The governor added that his administration also donated land and N300 million for the construction of the 177 Guards Battalion Barracks in Doma Local Government Area.

Al-Makura listed other state interventions to include the ongoing construction of the state headquarter of the NSCDC, provision of land for the construction of Air Force base in Lafia, among others.

He lauded the Federal Government for its spontaneous response with the deployment of security forces to checkmate the recent challenges in the state, especially along the border communities with Benue.

The governor said that his administration would continue to provide logistics support to security agencies to enhance their operations, thereby guaranteeing the security of lives and property of citizens.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Bello Ahmed, on behalf of other security agencies, thanked the state government for the gesture.Abubakar, who is in detention at a military facility, was arrested at Buni Yadi when he allegedly went on an espionage mission ahead of the insurgents plot to attack the commander of the Special Force Training School.

TheCable reports that Abubakar confessed to being one of the brains behind the kidnap of over 200 girls at a girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno state as well as the Buni Yadi massacre of secondary school students.

Abdulkadir Abubakar's confession

Abubakar claims to have repented saying since he had sought forgiveness from God, he believes his sins and atrocities will be forgiven.

Narrating some of his crimes, Abubakar said, Myself and two other Boko Haram commanders, Abu Fatima and Paper, led most of the attacks on schools in Yobe between 2013 and 2014.

"We were also the ones behind the abduction of students at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok. We also carried out attacks on schools in Potiskum, Mamudo, Damagun, Wagir and Ngarzarma, all in Yobe state.

ALSO READ: Suspected terrorists attack University of Maiduguri

I wholeheartedly regret my actions and hope the Almighty Allah will forgive me. Allah said he will forgive whoever repents and asks him for forgiveness. I have repented and seek forgiveness.The Guardian reports that the British army led by Major Ian Robertson, the general advisor, British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) in Nigeria, recently made this known.

Condemning the attack and kidnapping of the school girls from Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Dapchi, Robertson lamented the fact that girls schools have become soft targets for insurgents.

In his words: Having heard about this particular issue recently, I am still trying to get more information about what is going on, but it is clearly very disappointing that something like this has happened, that the girls have been taken.

But let me reassure you, from the British military perspective, that we are monitoring the event quite closely and we are cooperating with the armed forces of Nigeria to see how we can assist.

On Monday, February 19, 2018, the men of the Boko Haram sect invaded a part of Yobe State including the Government Girls Secondary School in Dapchi kidnapping several students and reigning terror on the school and the village.

According to a forum of parents of missing students, the number of girls in captivity have been given as 105.

ALSO READ: Dapchi residents attack Yobe Governor for lying about girls' rescue

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the girls kidnap saying it's a national disaster.

US condemns kidnap of school girls in Yobe

The United States of America condemned the abduction of over 90 school girls from Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state.

The Spokesperson of the US Department of State, Ms Heather Nauert, at a press briefing on Thursday, said We are still trying to get all the details about that but we wanted to mention that we condemn in the strongest possible terms the terror attack on a school earlier this week in north-eastern Nigeria.

The choice of targets including schools, markets and places of worship reflect the brutality of terror organisations.

The victims in the attacks were girls who were simply seeking an education.

We continue to support Nigerias efforts to counter the terror group.

ALSO READ: Schoolgirl narrates how Boko Haram kidnapped students in Yobe

We also support Nigerias efforts to enable more than two million displaced in the Lake Chad region to return home safely.

United States continues to provide humanitarian assistance to those who were affected by the violence, Nauert added.

111 Yobe school girls unaccounted for

The Police Commissioner in Yobe, Abdulmaliki Sumonu, on Wednesday, confirmed that 111 girls were still unaccounted for following Mondays attack by Boko Haram insurgents.According to Punch, the President said this while receiving the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Ikenwoli and his delegation at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

This was made known to newsmen by Buharis Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.

According to Adesina, The President told the delegation led by the Olu of Warri that developing the region remained a priority for his administration, adding that under his watch, every region in the country would witness increased investments in critical infrastructure.

ALSO READ:Niger Delta youths condemn killings in Benue state

The President appealed to the people of Niger Delta to complement ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to bring more development to the region by maintaining peace, security and harmony.

NDDC, Innoson partner to train Niger Delta youths

On Friday, Feb 23 2018,the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Chairman, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba revealed plans to partner with Innoson Kiara Academy to train youths in the Niger Delta.The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that, Maj.-Gen. David Ahmadu, Chief of Training and Operations, Army headquarters who represented Buratai, said the Nigerian Army would continue to accord priority attention in providing atmosphere conductive for its officers to operate optimally.

He said the present leadership quest of having a professional and responsive Army in the discharge of its primary responsibilities was a task that must be accomplished.

He said that the Army headquarters would continue to provide modern working facilities for its troops deployed across the country to perform optimally.

Buratai lauded the efforts of various troops deployed across the country, especially in the north east.

He said that the Nigerian Army would continue to support its troops with modern working facilities to crush insurgents once and for all.

 We will continue to accord priority attention to all needs of the Nigeria Army Training centre to prepare ground for our young soldiers to deal decisively with insurgents once and for all.

Similarly the chief of army staff also inaugurated intervention projects at the Nigerian Army Training Centre ( NATRAC) in Kontagora.

The projects inaugurated included NATRAC 300-man capacity hostel including conveniences; 200 capacity female hostel and 500-capacity training complex with landscaping.

Others were six Toyota Hilux pickup vans, six land Rover jeeps and two Hiace 28-seater buses one of which was converted into ambulance.

Earlier, Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Garba, Commander, Corps of Artillery, lauded the effort of the chief of army staff for the prompt release of funds for the completion of the projects.

 We now have a befitting headquarters and enough office spaces which provide for a conducive working environment for our officers. 

He also commended the headquarters for the repairs of broken down gun platforms, vehicles and several other projects currently ongoing.

He said that the corps would not relent in its effort in seeing to the achievement of the vision for the Nigerian Army.

Also during the commissioning, Maj.-Gen. Babatunde Oyefolu,Commander of Nigeria Army Training Centre, commended Buratai for providing working facilities for the retraining of several soldiers.Daily Trust reports that AbdulHakeem Mustapha, the counsel to El-Rufai, made this known to journalists on Friday, February 23, 2018.

The governor's case was filed at the State High Court in Kaduna.

El-Rufai is claiming N500million damages on each of four action suits from the Senator representing Kaduna central zone.

The governor said he was seeking compensation for the injury he suffered as a result of what he called malicious statements made by Senator Sani through the mass media to humiliate him and defame his character by calling him a drunk, loose cannon and an embarrassment to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The governor is also seeking a declaration that the remarks made against him by Senator Sani are totally false and injurious to his person in the eyes of the public.

Shehu Sanni Attacks Gov El-Rufai

Senator Shehu Sani had accused Governor Nasir El-Rufai of exhibiting same qualities as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Nebuchadnezzar.

Senator Sani stated this on Tuesday, February 20, 2018, while reacting to the demolition of the factional All Progressives Congress (APC) secretariat in Kaduna state.

The APC faction had suspended Governor El-Rufai for six months.Fayose reacted to the purported statement quoting him as saying he regrets everything he said about President Muhammadu Buhari via his Twitter handle.

He said: Disregard statement quoting me as saying that I regretted everything that I said about President Buhari.

I did not make such statement. It is the handiwork of haters of the truth.

I stand by everything that I have said concerning the President and his govt.

Backing Fayose, ex-minister, Femi Fani-Kayode said he need not speak to the Ekiti state governor to know that the said statement was fake.

ALSO READ: Fayose shakes Buhari at Council Meeting

"The story that my friend and brother said that he regretted all he said about is FAKE. I do not even need to speak to him to know that. Lions do not do u-turns and Spirit-filled warriors have no fear. People like Fayose are made of steel.

"Hell will freeze over before Peter the Rock compromises and bows at Buhari's satanic alter. I can vouch for him. Oshokomole is as constant as the northern star, I hold him in high esteem and he has my respect. Few have his sense of loyalty, vision, strength and courage!"

Fayose, Buhari share a joke

President Muhammadu Buhari was all smiles at the Presidential Villa when he met with some of his biggest critics, former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, during the National Council of State meeting on Thursday, February 22, 2018.In a statement issued by his spokesman, Lere Olayinka, the governor said the abduction of 105 pupils of Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state and Nigerias regression in Transparency Internationals perception of corruption report were further proof that the president needs to take a bow.

He said: President Buhari promised Nigerians that he will bring back the missing Chibok Girls and defeat Boko Haram within three months. After more than 32 months in office, Boko Haram is still killing Nigerians, with herdsmen also on killing spree.

Painfully, the same Boko Haram they claimed to have defeated suddenly became strong enough to kidnap over 100 students. Now, Nigeria is not only looking for the remaining Chibok Girls, another over 100 innocent students have joined, this is unacceptable.

Funny enough, a few days ago, the President called on all Nigerians to be prepared to pay the ultimate price for the progress and unity of the nation and I wish to ask him what other price he wants Nigerians to pay.

Already, Nigerians are sacrificing their lives by getting killed while seeking what to eat. Some have even committed suicide. Yet, the same President who is enjoying all the benefits of his office is calling on Nigerians to forego personal pleasures and pay the ultimate price.

Buhari lacks achievement to campaign for a second term

Fayose also said the president has nothing to campaign with ahead of the 2019 elections.

The governor said: When President Buhari mounts the campaign podium, what will he tell Nigerians? Will he tell Nigerians that corruption and insecurity has not worsened than it was in 2015? Will the President say that Nigerians deserve to be buying petrol that they were buying at N86 per litre in 2015 at N180 now?

Is President Buhari going to justify that within 30 months, Nigerias debt that was N12.06 trillion in 2015 increased by over N10 trillion?Alhaji Ahmed Zungeru, the Sarkin Hausawa of Ibadan land, made the pledge at a ceremony held at the Ibadan Recreation Club open field.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event also coincided with Zungerus 25 anniversary as the Sarkin Hausawa of Ibadan land.

Zungeru said his community was desirous of living in a united Nigeria where every citizen enjoyed equal rights and privileges irrespective of tribe, religion and political belief.

It is on record that the leadership of Hausa and Arewa communities in Ibadan stands for peace and unity of this country. We regard Ibadan and the South-West as our second home, he said.

He called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to assist where necessary in putting an end to the incessant demand of restructuring by majority of the populace.

The Sarkin Hausawa of Ibadan land noted that the call for restructuring was not needed at a time the nation was still grappling to be one.

He called for concerted efforts to ensure a successful and crime-free 2019 general elections.

On the establishment of state police, Zungeru said that the nation had since 1993 agitated for the creation of state police, and described the call as timely.

We are calling on the state governments across Nigeria to encourage the establishment of state and local government leadership committee where the major tribes should have a say.

The effort is for us to arrest unforeseen conflicts. This would assist government rather than the use of force in the maintenance of law and order wherever there is ethic squabbles, he said.

He said the Sarikin Hausawa of Ibadan land had since Dec. 21, 1951 been officially recognised as head of the Sarakunan Hausawa (Political Head of the Hausa Community) of different towns in Yoruba land.

We appreciate the Oyo State Government and the Olubadan of Ibadan land, Oba Saliu Adetunji for treating us as sons and daughters of Ibadan land.

We appreciate the traditional rulers in Oyo State as well as the south west region for their hospitality toward non-indigenes. We pledge our support and cooperation to you all.

Our fore-fathers were born in Ibadan and have always applied wisdom in dealing with us and other ethnic minority groups without inter-tribal disagreement or crisis, he said.

He, particularly appreciated the Olubadan for recognising him and his subjects as part of Ibadan, pledging to further strengthen the relationship.

According to him, I always put myself in a very quiet and uneasy condition anytime I hear about the intermittent menace of herdsmen and farmers crisis, especially in the south-west.

My thinking is that the various state governments in the southern part of the country give total recognition to most of the herdsmen leadership without finding out their backgrounds.

Zungeru urged government not to relent in its efforts toward proffering lasting solution to the crisis.

NAN reports that among the dignitaries honoured with various titles at the event were the Governor of Katsina State Alhaji Aminu Masari.

Also honoured were former Inspector-General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro, the present Chairman, Police Service Commission, Col Kabir Gambo (rtd), Prof. Kyauta Ibahim and Alhaji Yahya Baba-Ahmed among others.

The event was attended by Justice Mamman Nasir (rtd), a former President, Court of Appeal and Sarkin Shasha, Alhaji Maiyasin Katsina, the Chairman, Arewa Traditional rulers in 17 southern states.Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology in the state gave the warning at a meeting with principals of affected schools on Friday in Lokoja.

According to her, stiff penalties as prescribed by law will be used to curb the menace of examination malpractice in the state.

She said the 108 schools, which comprise of 84 public and 24 private secondary schools were seriously warned by West African Examination Council (WAEC) for engaging in one form of exam malpractice or the other.

Osikoya noted that 30 schools were being perpetual offenders for three consecutive years, which needed urgent attention, adding that 47 schools were recently de-recognised by WAEC due to various exam malpractices.

We are sounding serious warning to all the affected schools to have a change of attitude.

 Let us be law abiding citizens, let us tell our people that it is no longer acceptable to engage in exam malpractice in Kogi.

Gov. Yahaya Bello, says no to corruption, let us together raise a generation that is free of corruption, and build a great nation.

Every parent also has a responsibility to ensure that their children do not engage in any form of exam malpractice; stop giving money to your children to bribe officials to aid exam malpractice, the commissioner warned.

Earlier, , Mr Oyeniran Akanni, Head of Exams, WAEC, said the Council had zero tolerance for exam malpractice, and would not condone any of such act, stressing that everything would be done to curtail the menace.

We urge all stakeholders to join hands with us and stamped out this menace that has penetrated into the fabric of our education sector.

 I charge you to go back to your various schools and do the needful, Akanni said.

On his part, Mr Afolabi Raji, the Chairman, Teaching Service Commission (TSC), said that it was unfortunate that it was coming in a quick succession after 47 schools in the state were recently de-recognised by WAEC.

It is a disservice to our state and we must tackle the monster. We need to seriously address the menace so that going forward, such will not happen again.

Dr Ibrahim Muftau, the State President of Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), who spoke on behalf of the principals, promised that they would go back home and do the needful.

We will work assiduously to sensitise our immediate environment to have a change of attitude. We pledged our loyalty to uphold the ethics of the teaching profession free of exam malpractice, Muftau said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 47 secondary schools in Kogi were recently de-recognised by WAEC, and directed to pay N250,000 each as fine,.Mr Yusuf Adebayo, the NAHCONs Commissioner in charge of Policy, Personnel Management and Finance, made the call at a stakeholders meeting on the 2018 Hajj in Lagos.

Most of the challenges we usually face are due to late preparation and the Saudi Authorities have taken stringent steps to ensure that they do not recur in 2018.

This informs why a deadline of March 31 has been fixed for all hajj payments, because all payments are expected to get to Saudi Arabia by April, he said.

Adebayo urged the pilgrims to always adhere strictly to the regulations guarding hajj exercise so as to enjoy full spiritual benefits of the exercise.

We have also observed that some Nigerians do not know the importance of hajj; when they get to Mecca they engage in unwholesome activities that have no spiritual benefit.

Saudi Authorities have recommended that intending pilgrims should be tutored on the importance of hajj before they embark on the pilgrimage.

We implore all states Pilgrims Boards to rise up to the challenge, he said.

Adebayo also advised the pilgrims to stop the idea of absconding after pilgrimage, saying that Saudi Authorities would always find them out, saying there is no hiding place in Mecca.

He regretted that 900 Nigerians absconded after the 2017 hajj.

We have also observed that some Nigerians do not return with their state contingents after the pilgrimage; some do not even perform the hajj rites before absconding, Adebayo said.

Also, Mr Muftau Okoya, the Executive Secretary, Lagos State Muslims Pilgrim Board, assured NAHCON of his boards cooperation in all areas of preparation for the hajj.

Okoya urged intending pilgrims from the state to take advantage of the little time left to conclude their payments for the 2018 Hajj.

I thank NAHCON for bringing this stakeholders meeting to Lagos.

I assure the commission that we shall always cooperate with them.

It is barely one month to the deadline, and I urge intending pilgrims from Lagos State to take advantage of the little time left to conclude their processes, he said.Major Gen. David Ahmadu, Chief of Training and operations Army headquarters disclosed this while addressing news men shortly after inaugurating some infrastructures at the Nigeria Army Corps Artillery Kontagora.

He said that such working relation was imperative to ensure the successful implementation of the campaign and restoration of peace in some part of the country .

He explained that is high time for the mass media to come out with more educative programmes that would sensitise rural communities come forward with require intelligence information on bad elements in their midst.

He urged the media while reporting to put the nation interest at first while discharging their constitutional responsibilities.

He said that the Nigeria Army would continue to introduced security measures that would crush the insurgency once and for all.

He also tasks the media to create more awareness on the ills of the Boko Haram ideologies and fast track de-radicalisation process.

 We will vigorously pursuit the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists wherever they might be in enhancing peaceful coexistence among Nigerians 

He also called on Nigerians to be vigilant and cooperate with the military to enable them to win the war against insurgency.

On the rescued efforts of some of the girls missing from the Government Girls Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe State, by Boko Haram fighters said troops will do every thing humanly possible to rescue the school girls.

He called on members of the general public to come forwards with information that will assist troops in the rescue mission.Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, made this position known in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.

According to Shehu, the government is still wondering the criteria or facts used by the anti-corruption watchdog to arrive at its very misleading and unfair conclusions in its assessment of the governments efforts in the anti-corruption campaign.

He said: The Presidency notes that, while it welcomes constructive criticisms from the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), the organization has a responsibility to reflect the larger picture of the concrete and verifiable achievements of the Buhari administration since it came into office in May 2015.

The presidential aide observed that it was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the big men for corruption in Nigeria but President Buhari had ended impunity for corruption.

Political will is the first major component of fighting corruption in any country and President Buhari has made a huge difference by demonstrating not only the political will but also the extraordinary courage to go after high profile looters, including former military service chiefs and judges.

He noted that the Buhari administration had made accountability the bedrock of governance and corruption is no longer fashionable because it attracts consequences.

Blocking leakages for corruption through the rigid enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) had made life tougher for corrupt officials.

He regretted that these efforts were not acknowledged by the corruption watchdog.

According to him, the efforts of the federal governments anti-graft agencies in the recovery of stolen funds, in both local and international currencies, deserved commendation by the TI.

Shehu revealed that the figures published by the EFCC, the anti-corruption agency, had indicated that N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of the Buhari administration.

He added that, this impressive and unprecedented record is worthy of mention and acknowledgement by anybody genuinely looking at the larger picture of the countrys progress in the war against corruption.

During the 7th session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, the Chairman of the Agency Ibrahim Magu noted that the figure represents 2.9 billion dollars.

He further noted that in addition to the recoveries of looted funds, the EFCC had recorded more than 140 successful prosecutions.

Shehu stated that the Federal government had also signed international agreements to recover the proceeds of corruption and to block the laundering of stolen assets abroad by public officials.

ALSO READ: Corruption worse under President according to Transparency index

According to the presidential aide, anybody who knows where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.

We wonder where they got their facts from. At a time, they are alleging increase in the incidence of corruption under this government, the whole of Africa is applauding by choosing President Buhari as the continental champion to lead the fight against it.

Nothing can be more eloquent than this.

In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TIs patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration.The resolve to collaborate was reached on Thursday, February 22, at a meeting held between officials of the Lagos State Government, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions and Waste Collection Operators (WCOs), also known as Private Sector Participant (PSP) Operators.

Speaking at the meeting, the State's Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti said that government is interested in easing challenges being experienced in Waste Management at present by creating synergy between Visionscape and the WCOs in their spheres of operation, stressing that resolving the challenge in a mutually beneficial manner is the best approach.

"Government more than ever believes in this partnership and that is why it has not only provided a facility of up to N2.5 billion with State Government guarantee, which PSP Operators could access to upscale their operations, but has also opened another channel through the Employment Trust Fund for loan facilities at reasonable interest of not more than 12% per annum", he said.

The Commissioner stated that the State Government is determined to remove all bottlenecks hindering seamless waste disposal operations, adding that it is making the bold move of targeting a turn-around time of thirty minutes at the dumpsites by encouraging concerned stakeholders to create additional platform at the sites.

He emphasized that no efforts would be spared to return the dump sites to sanity by reducing the menace of indiscriminately parked trucks and scavengers, both of which add to the loss of time at the dump sites.

On his part, Visionscape's Chief Executive Officer, John Irvine, applauded the new found understanding between his company and the Waste Collection Operators and stated that challenges being experienced in domestic waste management in Lagos State has to do with the fact that the domestic waste operator was just in its first cycle of operation, meaning that it must contend with some teething problems.

He said, "It is not unusual to face this kind of problems especially in the first cycle of operations. It takes some time to build the superstructures and to ameliorate the present hiccups; we are buying locally and taking steps to have waste container bins manufactured locally."

ALSO READ: Ambode launches new board of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation CorpsSpeaking on behalf of the WCOs, Kasumu Afis Olasehinde reiterated their commitment to the success of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative and pledged to roll out more trucks to rid Lagos of Wastes' black spots."To show our total commitment to a cleaner, healthier and safer Lagos, we have not only resolved to work with the Government of Lagos State and the domestic waste operators as partners, we have also resolved to commence free Operations every Thursdays to mop up black spots in our respective areas", he said.It was agreed at the meeting that a seamless process should be put in place on how Visionscape and the PSPs will partner on the door-to-door collection of waste from March 1.Tinubu, in a letter which he copied to President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara, said that Oyegun was frustrating his task.

The APC National Leader was asked by Buhari to head a reconciliatory teamthat will unify all aggrieved members of the party ahead of the 2019 elections.

According to Daily Post, Bello said that all the Governors in the APC are solidly behind Oyegun.

He said We the governors and the majority of APC members have confidence in our national chairman, Chief John Oyegun.

We also believe in the president by appointing Bola Tinubu, our leader to reconcile some aggrieved members of our party. However, one size fits all will not work in all the states where some erring members need to be disciplined.

Oyegun replies Tinubu

The APC chairman, in a letter, assured Bola Tinubu of his support as he carries out the task of unifying the party.

His words: "I thank you for your letter dated February 21, 2018, for your prayers and good wishes for my health. I wish you the same and pray that our good God keeps you strong and grants you His peace.

"Let me once again formally congratulate you on the peacemaking assignment Mr. President has entrusted you with.

"It is most challenging but I believe you will ultimately justify the confidence reposed in you by Mr President. In this, you have my fullest support"Tinubu had accused Oyegun of sabotaging his assignment to reconcile the aggrieved members of the party.

The former Lagos state governor reportedly copied President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara in his letter.

Buhari had given Tinubu the task of unifying the fractured ruling party ahead of the 2019 elections.

But the national leader said Oyegun is frustrating the assignment.

"Disappointment greeted me when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC", Tinubu wrote.

In his response on Friday, February 23, Oyegun said Tinubu has his full support.

He wrote, "I thank you for your letter dated February 21, 2018, for your prayers and good wishes for my health. I wish you the same and pray that our good God keeps you strong and grants you His peace.

"Let me once again formally congratulate you on the peacemaking assignment Mr. President has entrusted you with.

"It is most challenging but I believe you will ultimately justify the confidence reposed in you by Mr President. In this, you have my fullest support"Since 2016, the politicians have not been enjoying best relationship politically as the party chairman had consistently wielded his power as the honcho-head of the ruling party.

Recently, Tinubu had accused Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts in reconciling the APC and unifying a fractured governing party as he was directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The politician in Oyegun

The politician, who was the Executive Governor of Edo State between 1992 and 1993, kicked off his political years before emerging as a governor.

Oyegun had worked as a civil servant and a major Permanent Secretary in many ministries before his retirement and active involvement in politics.

He became a prominent politician in Edo state after his emergence as the state governor in the aborted third republic and has remained in the political sphere.

After his removal from office by late General Sani Abacha, he had joined forces with other politicians and activists in the struggle that bore National Democratic Coalition, NADECO. In the same struggle was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was elected as a Senator representing Lagos West Constituency.

Following the arrival of democracy, Oyegun had remained a politician but was yet to strike till he emerged the chairman of the Technical Working Committee of the Coalition Of Democrats for Electoral Reforms in 2009.

After his tenure, his confidence in politics was further boosted and found his feet in the ANPP.

While in ANPP, Oyegun had become a power force and one of the leaders of the party that had the ears of President Muhammadu Buhari, who was the party's presidential candidate.

The merger of Action Congress, All Nigeria Peoples Party and Democratic Peoples Party in 2011, provided Oyegun the opportunity to regain political prominence haven pitched his tent with Asiwaju Tinubu in the newly formed All Progressive Congress that defeated PDP's 16 years rule.

ALSO READ: Tinubu insults Oyegun over reconciliatory mission

On June 13, 2014 Odigie-Oyegun was elected as national chairman of the APC after Bisi Akande had controlled the party as the interim chairman.

In many climes, APC national leader, Tinubu, is thought to have played an important role in the election that brought Oyegun in as the party's national chairman.

The choice of Oyegun, from the mostly Christian south of the country, is calculated to win both Christian and Muslim voters in the challenge to PDP.

7 Quick facts about Oyegun

Oyegun was elected governor of Edo State in 1992 under SDP.

Oyegun spent 20 months in office, served from January 1992 to November 1993.

Oyegun is the first National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress. He was preceded by Bisi Akande, who served as interim chairman of the ruling party.

Oyegun was a power broker and a leader of the ANPP.

Oyegun is a graduate of Economics from the University of Ibadan.

Oyegun has one wife and 12 children.

Oyegun was born on August 12, 1939 to an Edo father and a Delta mum.

The rift with Tinubu

Months after the APC had won the presidential election, cracks in the party started becoming visible with top politicians battling to get juicy positions in the newly formed government.

As the cracks grew wider, leaders of the party began aligning with their favourites and more camps in the party were born.

The leadership of the National Assembly was the first salvo that irked disunity chord as leaders of the APC failed to agree on the candidates. This was perceived an insult to Asiwaju, who had allegedly worked out individuals to lead the NASS.

President Buhari had further fuelled the anger amongst leaders when his relationship with Asiwaju seemed strained while he enjoys a good relationship with Oyegun.

Though both Tinubu and Oyegun had denied having issues claiming all is well, the 2016 Ondo governorship election revealed the real cracks in their relationship.

Tinubu fell out with Oyegun when the party Chairman backed Rotimi Akeredolu for the Ondo governorship seat against Segun Abraham who was Tinubus handpicked candidate.

Akeredolu would go on to win the primary and the general election in that Southwest State.

In September 2016, Tinubu had said he had lost confidence in the national Chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun.

Tinubu on Sunday, September 24, 2016 asked Oyegun to resign, accusing him of sabotaging the will of democracy in the APC governorship primary in Ondo State.

Subsequently, Tinubu called for the resignation of Oyegun saying he has not only breached the good pledges of the party in a most overt and brazen display but has also dealt a heavy blow to the very party he professes to lead.

Though Tinubu has recoiled to his shell to re-plan and re-strategize, he was not quick to forget how Oyegun dealt him a heavy blow in 2016.

On February 6, 2018, the Presidency announced the appointment of Tinubu to lead the reconciliation process of the APC ahead of the 2019 general elections.

ALSO READ: Oyegun replies Tinubu, promises to back him up

And merely three weeks after the appointment, Tinubu has accused Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts at reconciliation.

Tinubu even alleged that Oyegun has inaugurated officials across the States parallel to the officials already heading the State chapter of the party.

Tinubu wins this round

Following Tinubu's outburst, Oyegun had met with President Buhari on Friday, February 23, 2018 and announced that he is willing to back Tinubu's reconciliatory moves.

Oyegun had officially written to Tinubu congratulating him of his appointment as well as promising to back all efforts made in reconciling the ruling party.

He wrote: "Let me once again formally congratulate you on the peacemaking assignment Mr. President has entrusted you with.

"It is most challenging but I believe you will ultimately justify the confidence reposed in you by Mr President. In this, you have my fullest support."

Tinubucopied President Buhari, Vice President Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara in his letter.

Oyegun also sent copies of the letter to President Buhari, Osinbajo, Saraki and Dogara in his reply.Mainstream opposition parties say they are boycotting the April 22 poll because they have no guarantees they would be free and fair.

A ballot wasn't due until December but the Constituent Assembly, an all-powerful legislature stacked with Maduro loyalists, announced in January that the date was being brought forward.

Venezuela's Supreme Court issued a ruling that excludes the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable from running and banned several prominent opposition figures from participating.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Maduro and his officials, with Washington calling him a "dictator."

Bertucci scoffs at assertions from the opposition that he is merely a political stooge to legitimize Maduro's election.

Other would-be candidates have only a few more days to register.

Analysts believe Henri Falcon, a polarizing figure in the opposition, will eventually emerge as Maduro's main challenger.

Bertucci, 48, says Maduro is "beatable" in the ballot and criticized the opposition for effectively giving him a clear run to a second six-year term.

"It's a mistake to leave the way clear (for Maduro) and continue with talk that everyone is cheating," he said after preaching to a packed congregation at his church.

The government "continue to take all the space. They have always had the advantage, but more than 50 percent of the electorate wants to vote. Why deny them that right?"

-- Fervent following --

There seems little doubt that the few thousand fervent followers who packed a hall to hear him preach this week would vote for him.

People in the congregation, young and old, held their arms up in supplication, tears streaming down their faces, as a suited Bertucci murmured into a microphone on a stage over a soundtrack of motivational music.

But it's a stretch to believe Bertucci can make more than a tiny dent in the national vote. Most will say he hasn't a prayer.

Still, he says his fusion of politics and religious faith is what the country needs to overcome its deep economic crisis, which has made food and medicine shortages the norm.

Evangelical movements, like Bertucci's Maranatha Church, have gained ground against traditional churches in Venezuela and across Latin America in recent years.

Bertucci believes he can emulate anti-gay marriage pastor Fabricio Alvarado, who will contest a run-off vote for the presidency of Costa Rica on April 1.

"If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't be here. I can be the next president of this country," he said.

"People want change, a leader with values, because politics in our countries has fallen very low."

Bertucci added: "I don't know what Nicolas Maduro communicates, but clearly I represent the good and the light," bringing Christian values to the country.

"If I am the light someone must be the darkness, or evil."

While Bertucci insists he has no political past, his name was mentioned in the Panama Papers scandal over tax evasion, but he denies wrongdoing.

"I met with a well-known importer and I asked him if we could import meat which would be financed with money from many volunteers," in his church. But negotiations broke down, he said, "and nothing happened."

Like Alvarado, his fellow preacher in Costa Rica, Bertucci makes no bones about rejecting the idea of gay marriage as a "social distortion".

"I respect the sexual orientation of each individual, but I will never support a law of this kind."The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the party chairman, who met behind closed door with the president in the State House after the Friday prayers, declined comment on the outcome of the meeting.

NAN reliably gathered that the duo deliberated on the protest letter submitted to the President by former Lagos governor Ahmed Tinubu, accusing Odigie-Oyegun of frustrating the activities of the party reconciliation committee.

Buhari had, on Feb. 6, appointed Tinubu to lead an APC consultation, reconciliation and confidence building team toward improving cohesion in the party ahead of the general elections in 2019.

Tinubu, in a letter of complaint to Odigie-Oyegun and copied to President Buhari, had accused the party chairman of sabotaging his reconciliation efforts in the party.

ALSO READ:APC not involved in appointment of dead board members

The letter, titled: Actions and conduct weakening the party from within, was also copied to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Tinubu accused the APC Chairman of compounding the challenge of reconciliation by taking improper unilateral decisions on issues affecting national and state chapters.A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The NDS compound is located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

"I was driving nearby when I heard a big explosion, the windows of my car were smashed. I saw several wounded people on the street near me," a witness told Tolonews TV adding that security forces swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the attack site.

In December, a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near the same compound, killing at least six civilians.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in Kabul, which in recent months has become one of the deadliest places in Afghanistan for civilians.

Since mid-January, militants have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in the capital, killing more than 130 people as the city remains on high alert fearing further violence.

In separate attacks on Saturday in volatile southern Helmand province, two suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

In the first incident, militants used a Humvee to attack an army base in Nad Ali district but the vehicle was destroyed when soldiers identified it and hit it with a rocket propelled grenade, provincial spokesman Omar Zawak told AFP.

"Unfortunately, two soldiers were killed in the attack and seven wounded," he said.

The Nad Ali attack was followed by a second suicide car bombing in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah that wounded seven people.

The attack was against an NDS compound and near a police headquarters in the city, Helmand police spokesman Salaam Afghan told AFP.

The Taliban claimed both attacks in Helmand.

Militants including the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks on beleaguered Afghan troops and police in recent months, sapping morale already hit by desertions and corruption."I told Mr Morowiecki that the situation is very serious, it directly affects Polish interests, the reputation of Poland and Poland's standing in the world," Tusk said when a Polish journalist asked him about tensions with the EU.

Tusk said there was a "wave that must be stopped... of very unjudicious anti-semitic excesses in statements being made in Poland."

Poland's right-wing government has faced an international row over a law making it illegal to attribute Nazi crimes to the Polish state.

Morawiecki then fanned the flames by saying there were "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones in the Holocaust.

Brussels has also taken Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) government to task in recent years over controversial justice reforms, breaches of environmental law and its failure to take in refugees.

Speaking in Polish through an interpreter, Tusk told Warsaw to "stop the wave of bad opinions about Poland... This wave is taking on the proportion of a tsunami."Nigeria's government has been scrambling to contain a growing crisis that has revived memories of the 2014 mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok that shocked the world.

The attack has also raised questions about the military's repeated claims that the Islamist militants are on the verge of defeat, after nearly nine years of bitter fighting.

Terrified pupils fled the boarding school on Monday night when heavily armed fighters in military fatigues and turbans stormed the town, shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest").

The authorities initially denied that any student had been kidnapped but fears have grown all week that they may have been seized, as dozens of girls failed to return home.

Bashir Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter, Fatima, is among the missing, said parents had set up their own support group to push for answers -- and secure the release of their children.

"Our first step was to compile a comprehensive list of all the missing girls. So far, we have compiled the names of 105," he told AFP.

Hopes were raised on Wednesday evening, when the spokesman for Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam appeared to confirm the abduction and said "some" of the girls had been rescued.

But Gaidam on Thursday questioned whether there had been an abduction at all, while his spokesman apologised and said they had been "misled" with inaccurate information.

'National disaster'

Former military ruler Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to defeat Boko Haram, after the jihadists grew in strength under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.

Jonathan was lambasted for his tardy response to the Chibok abduction, which saw 276 girls from the town in Borno state taken in the dead of night.

In his first expanded comments on Dapchi, Buhari said: "This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened.

"We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.

"Our government is sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found."

A teacher at the school, Amsani Alilawan, said there were soldiers in Dapchi until last month but they were then redeployed.

"One month back, they carry (take away) all soldiers, they transferred them to another side, they leave us without security," he said.

When the attack happened "there was no soldier in the town", he added. "We had policemen but they ran to the bush."

Mohammed Adam, whose two younger sisters are missing, said before Monday's attack "there was almost no security inside Dapchi because there have been no other incidents.

"No soldiers were in the town for over one month," he added.

"The town is now in a very crazy condition because most of the parents are still going back to the school and crying for their loved ones."

Schools targeted

The attack in Dapchi has again raised questions about Nigeria's ability to secure hard-to-reach rural areas and its grip on security in the unforgiving, semi-desert region.

Nigeria's defence spokesman John Agim denied that troops were withdrawn from the town.

"The location where the soldiers are stationed is between 30 to 40 kilometres (19-25 miles) from the school," he said.

"When they heard about it, by the time they moved in, this thing had already happened."

Schools, particularly those with a secular curriculum, have been targeted by Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates from Hausa as "Western education is forbidden".

But Agim said troops cannot protect every school in the northeast.

"It is not possible that we can man schools. The other security apparatus can do that," he said.

Boko Haram's quest to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has left at least 20,000 dead and made more than 2.6 million others homeless since 2009.A total of 16 people were killed when a van drove into crowds on the popular Las Ramblas boulevard in the heart of Barcelona and in a knife attack in the nearby resort of Cambrils last August.

The source said investigations would determine the nature of links the suspect had with Oukabir, who was arrested shortly after attacks which were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Two other two men who were detained in France on Tuesday have been released for lack of evidence, the source said.

The arrests were made during a joint operation with French and Spanish police in the south and southwest of France.The 64-year-old was still directing the Oscar-nominated documentary -- his 15th feature-length release -- when he began work on "The Young Karl Marx," a dramatization of Marx's early years that hits US theaters on Friday.

A cerebral retelling of the birth of communism, it also works as a high-minded bromance between Marx and radicalized manufacturing heir Friedrich Engels that flourishes in the pubs and cafes of 1840s Paris.

"The Young Karl Marx," says Peck, aims at a realistic worldview in which complex problems require rigorous solutions rather than the short-term thinking the director sees in US President Donald Trump.

"Any problem you can throw at him, it's an easy problem. It's either the fault of certain people or a certain person and you can get rid of the person and the problem goes away," Peck told AFP.

"No, it doesn't work that way. That's why we are in a time of populism, of simplification, of very individualistic reactions. It's because we've lost the big picture."

Before they were 30, Marx and Engles had helped alter society with the publication of their clarion call to the working class, The Communist Manifesto, one of the most widely-read and influential texts of all time.

Rabble-rousing

Played by German actor August Diehl ("Inglourious Basterds"), Marx is introduced as a rabble-rousing Young Turk in his mid-20s, recently married to the aristocratic Jenny von Westphalen, portrayed by Vicky Krieps ("Phantom Thread").

In 1844 Paris they meet the dandyish Engels (Stefan Konarske), son of a wealthy German mill owner with factories in Manchester, who rebels against his father's mistreatment of his workers.

Amid censorship, police raids and political upheavals, they preside over the development of the makeshift, disorganized labor movement into the most coherent revolution in political thinking since the Renaissance.

Peck, who co-wrote with veteran French screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer, is the first director to helm a film about the early years of a man known mostly through the iconic image of the elder statesman with the wild, gray beard.

Peck says the last thing he wanted was to make a film about a "somewhat surly but somewhat kindly, tired-looking Marx, speaking in English through his bushy beard in a vague political context while shedding a few tears at the successive deaths of his children, and cheating on his wife."

Rather than relying on the glut of biographies and academic texts out there, Peck and Bonitzer researched their story by going straight to the horses' mouths, via their characters' mutual correspondence.

"Those letters are very vivid, very alive. They have humor, they are funny," Peck told AFP.

"They of course speak about theory and history, but also about their friends, their next voyage, the difficulties of finding a home, organizing et cetera."

Legacy

Born in Haiti, Peck was raised in the Congo, the US and France, serving as Haiti's minister of culture in 1996 and 1997.

In 2001, Human Rights Watch gave him a lifetime achievement award for his work, most notably Lumumba (2000), which dramatized the rise and assassination of the Congo's first democratically elected leader.

The realities of inequality -- whether between white and black America or the proletariat and the bourgeoisie of 19th century Europe -- has been a preoccupation of much of Peck's work.

"People know today -- even people from the right will admit -- that if you are born in a poor family there is a very big chance that your life is going to be miserable," Peck says.

"Even though they will say, 'But if you work hard you will make it,' take any statistic and you will see that it's not true."

Peck's political awakening came as he was studying economic engineering at the Technical University of Berlin, where he became acquainted with Marx's three-volume tome Das Kapital.

His first narrative feature since 2014's "Murder in Pacot," "The Young Karl Marx" takes little interest in Marxism's regression into Soviet and Chinese-style communism, or the extent to which Marx's doctrinal naivete can be blamed.

Asked if he believes Marx and Engels left a better world than the one they were born into, the filmmaker asserts simply that they "did their job" and that it is up to us to ensure their legacy.

"We can't put the rest on their shoulders. They created the instruments for us to analyze the situation and, by the way, I profited from that," Peck says.Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!The plea deal could be a significant development in the investigation  a sign that Gates plans to offer incriminating information against his longtime associate and the former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and possibly other members of the campaign in exchange for a lighter punishment. He faces up to nearly six years in prison.

The deal came as the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has been raising pressure on Gates and Manafort with dozens of new charges of money laundering and bank fraud unsealed Thursday. Both men were first indicted in October and pleaded not guilty. The plea agreement was part of a flurry of recent activity by the special counsels team. Last week, 13 Russians were indicted on charges relating to a carefully planned scheme to incite political discord in the United States in the months before the 2016 election.

Gates changed his plea on Friday during an appearance in a Washington courtroom, his eyes cast down as the government outlined the charges against him. A man who had made millions of dollars lobbying in Ukraine accepted the fate that may await him: a prison sentence for carrying out a financial conspiracy to hide the money he earned there.

He also admitted that he lied to investigators this month  while under indictment and negotiating with prosecutors  about the details of a 2013 meeting about Ukraine that Manafort had with a pro-Russian member of Congress.

What the dramatic courtroom scene might mean for Trump depends on what Gates has to offer the special counsel, though at the least, the plea agreement is further evidence that the Trump campaign attracted a cast of advisers who overstepped legal and ethical boundaries. The indictments so far have not indicated that either Gates or Manafort had information about the central question of Muellers investigation  whether Trump or his aides coordinated with the Russian governments efforts to disrupt the 2016 election.

But Gates was present for the most significant periods of the campaign, as Trump began forging policy positions and his digital campaign operation engaged with millions of voters on social media platforms such as Facebook. Even after Manafort was fired by Trump in August 2016, Gates remained with the campaign at the request of Steve Bannon, who took over as head of the campaign.

From there, Gates assumed a different role  as a liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee  and traveled aboard the Trump plane through Election Day.

In addition to offering visibility into the Trump campaign, Gates might be able to provide prosecutors with glimpses into decision-making in the months after Trumps election victory. Gates was a consultant on the transition team, and in the months after the inauguration, he worked with America First Policies, the main outside group supporting the Trump presidency.

Besides the agreement with Gates, the special counsels team has already secured guilty pleas from two of Trumps advisers. Michael T. Flynn, the presidents first national security adviser, and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the campaign, have both pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with the inquiry.

Gates plea deal came together over the past few days, according to people familiar with the process. In a letter to friends and family, Gates said there had been false news stories about an impending plea deal over the past two weeks.

But, he added, Despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, I have had a change of heart. The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circuslike atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process.

Testimony from Gates could give Muellers team a first-person account of the criminal conduct that is claimed in the indictments  a potential blow to Manaforts defense strategy. On Friday, Manafort pledged to continue the fight.

Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pleaded today, I continue to maintain my innocence, he said in a statement. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.

After Gates plea hearing, prosecutors filed a new indictment against Manafort. That indictment did not allege new charges against him, but was done for procedural purposes as prosecutors pursue separate cases in Washington and Northern Virginia.

The court papers give few specifics about how Gates came to be charged with lying to the FBI. On Feb. 1, as he was negotiating with prosecutors about a possible deal, Gates misled investigators about a conversation he had with Manafort in March 2013, after Manafort had met with the congressman to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The documents do not name the lawmaker, but news accounts have identified him as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., long known for his pro-Russia views.

Gates falsely told investigators that Manafort had told him that the subject of Ukraine had not come up at the meeting, even though Gates had helped draft a report to Ukraine's leadership after the meeting about what had transpired, according to the court papers.

Court records detail a byzantine scheme he and Manafort employed from about 2006 to 2015 in which they funneled millions of dollars they earned from their work as political consultants in Ukraine into shell companies and foreign bank accounts. The men worked in various capacities with Viktor F. Yanukovych, the onetime president of Ukraine and a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

They then hid the existence of the companies and accounts  set up in Cyprus, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles  from American tax authorities.

Gates helped maintain these accounts and arranged substantial transfers from the accounts to both Manafort and himself, prosecutors argued in the charges against Gates made public on Friday. Acting on Manaforts instructions, Gates classified the overseas payments as loans to avoid having to pay income taxes.

Muellers team found that more than $75 million passed through offshore accounts, and that Manafort laundered more than $18 million to furnish a lavish, largely tax-free lifestyle. Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts, court documents show.

Manafort purchased multimillion-dollar homes, expensive clothing, antiques and a Range Rover. Gates used the money to pay his mortgage and school tuitions, and for the interior decorating of his home in Virginia.

The work the two men did for their firm, Davis Manafort, connected them to numerous people with ties to the Kremlin. One was Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and an ally of Putins. Deripaska has been denied a visa to travel to the United States because of allegations that he is linked to organized crime operations, claims he has denied.

Court records unsealed Friday revealed other lobbying schemes, including how Manafort used offshore accounts to wire more than 2 million euros to pay a group of former senior European politicians to take pro-Ukraine positions and lobby in the United States.

In an Eyes Only memo that Manafort wrote in 2012, the purpose of the Super VIP effort was to assemble a group of politically credible friends who can act informally and without any visible relationship with the Government of Ukraine.

After their Ukraine work was disclosed in news reports in August 2016, when Manafort and Gates were working for the Trump campaign, they developed a false and misleading cover story to distance themselves from Ukraine, according Muellers prosecutors.

Then, they covered their tracks when reporting their income to the IRS. Two months after Manafort left the campaign, according to the court documents, his accountant emailed him a question about whether he had any foreign bank accounts.

None, he replied.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.In one attack, the insurgents detonated explosives packed into a U.S.-made Humvee that had been captured from the Afghan army. And in another, they made off with a Humvee, replenishing their supply.

In the most lethal strike, insurgents overran a checkpoint in Farah province around 3 a.m. Saturday. An Afghan army spokesman said that 18 government soldiers were killed and two others wounded, and that a firefight with the attackers had continued even after reinforcements arrived.

A member of the provincial council in Farah, Dadullah Qani, said that more than 20 soldiers had been killed and that the Taliban had captured the Humvee and burned an army truck.

The fighting between the Taliban and the army continued for more than two hours, he said.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, offered a slightly different account in a statement delivered on the messaging service WhatsApp. He said the insurgents had overrun the checkpoint, killing 25 soldiers, capturing two alive and making off with both a Humvee and a truck.

A lot of heavy and light weapons were also captured, Mujahid said.

The Taliban also staged two suicide strikes in Helmand province, including the one involving the explosive-laden Humvee, which are armored and are sometimes able to drive through defensive fire.

Those attacks killed two soldiers and wounded about a dozen civilians, including women and children, according to regional and hospital officials.

Also Saturday, a suicide attacker detonated explosives at a checkpoint in Kabul on the edge of the Green Zone, a heavily guarded district of embassies, Afghan government offices and the presidential palace.

The attacker detonated the bomb after soldiers and intelligence officers stopped him at a checkpoint, said Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The blast killed at least three people and wounded a half-dozen others, he said.

An official with the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistans domestic intelligence agency, said that an officer with the agency who was killed had hugged the attacker after discovering the bomb, shielding his colleagues from the blast.

The headquarters of the U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan was briefly locked down after that attack, but opened soon after for a briefing by members of the NATO delegation, led by Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the supreme allied commander in Europe.

I believe we made substantial progress, Scaparrotti said of his impressions from the visit.

The delegation met with Afghan officials before a multilateral peace conference in Kabul scheduled to start Tuesday.

Last month, President Donald Trump seemed to dismiss negotiations with the Taliban, though talks between the U.S.-backed Afghan government and insurgents are the stated U.S. plan for ending the war.

We dont want to talk with the Taliban, Trump said at a meeting with U.N. officials. There may be a time, but its going to be a long time.

In Kabul, Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. representative to NATO, clarified that Trump had spoken in the aftermath of several deadly attacks in the capital.

I think after that, however, going forward, he absolutely supports a peace in Afghanistan, she said.

Little progress has been made. There have to be certain agreed areas of conversation that both sides would be willing to put on the table, Hutchison said. So, talks about beginning talks are certainly in the works, in different forms.

Dont think that nothing is happening, she added. There is a lot that is happening in the very beginning stage of a beginning stage of a way forward.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.The Chinese billionaire who came forward to bankroll the project is Wang Jing, through his HKND (HK Nicaragua Canal Development) Group.

Five years ago, he won the contract given by the government of President Daniel Ortega to build and run a 276-kilometer (171-mile) canal that would slice across the country, linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The deal made world headlines, both for its sheer scale but also as a sign of growing Chinese involvement in a region once considered the United States' backyard.

If seen through, it has the potential to change the fortunes of Nicaragua, one of the poorest nations in Latin America.

Panama earns nearly $2 billion a year in tolls from ships using its waterway, built by France and the US and opened a century ago.

Wang said in 2014, as he inaugurated the start of the project, that he wanted to see Nicaragua become one of the richest countries in the region.

Stalled work

But a year later, the Chinese telecoms tycoon lost a big chunk of his fortune, which was estimated at $10 billion by the financial news agency Bloomberg. Since then, he has cut a low profile.

"He's a ghost. We haven't seen him since," said Monica Lopez, a lawyer specialized in the environment who wrote a book on the proposed canal.

Feasibility studies have been carried out but never published. Other countries interested in the project, such as Iran, no longer talk about it. Excavations started in 2016 have stopped, as has construction of freeways giving access to the canal.

When contacted by AFP, Nicaragua's Canal Authority denied work had halted.

"It's true there have been delays, but this company (HKND) is still working on it. It's a very big project. It's going ahead slowly but normally," the authority's chief, Manuel Coronel Kautz, said.

Observers are skeptical.

The canal "lost its interest once the Chinese investor got weaker, and the Nicaraguan government doesn't have the capacity to move the project along by itself," said Victor Campos, director of the environmental Humboldt Center.

There's another factor posing a challenge: Panama dropping relations with Taiwan to establish diplomatic ties with China last June.

"China is going to invest $25 billion (per year) in different Latin American countries, but Nicaragua isn't on its radar," said a former diplomat, Mauricio Diaz.

Expropriation anxiety

Monica Lopez said there was always suspicion that the Chinese government was behind Wang's investment. "But the 19 trade accords China signed last year with Panama show that its interest is focused" on Panama, a wealthier nation with an already functioning canal, she said.

Eliseo Nunez noted that Wang's investment was described as a private initiative.

"I'm not sure that China was behind the canal. It seems that Wang was acting alone" and "Nicaragua fell into a sort of international scam," he said, highlighting legal uncertainties that have dogged the project.

If the project ends up being scrapped, it would remove "a sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of thousands of poor rural landowners across Nicaragua at risk of having their properties expropriated to make way for the canal, said Violeta Granera, an opposition leader.Published on:

23 February 2018





Health Minister Lord OShaughnessy, George Freeman MP and Derek Thomas MP, took part in a tour of the state-of-the-art laboratories in East London, organised by the charity Brain Tumour Research.

Professor Silvia Marino, Director of the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary, presented an overview of her groups research and their focus on glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and most aggressive adult malignant brain tumour.

The politicians and Professor Marino discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the UK and global research community, which was followed by a tour of the laboratory, where Dr Gabriel Rosser and James Boot from Professor Marinos team gave an overview of their individual research projects.

45m of brain tumour research funding

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that 45 million in funding would be made available for brain tumour researchers by the National Institute for Health Research and Cancer Research UK.

Professor Silvia Marino from Queen Marys Blizard Institute said: This funding will play a key role in accelerating the translation of basic discoveries in brain tumour biology for patient benefit, particularly as it emphasises the global and collaborative approach the research community must take to succeed.

Glioblastoma is a relatively rare form of cancer, meaning that global collaboration is essential. Of course, there will be challenges, but the announcement is a step in the right direction and we now need policymakers and health care professionals, the world over, to work together to accelerate the discovery of powerful new treatments.

Brain Cancer Initiative Roundtable

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt and Baroness Tessa Jowell also chaired a roundtable with cancer charities, leading academics, including Professor Marino, and pharmaceutical companies, to discuss how to improve brain cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The Roundtable was convened following Baroness Tessa Jowells speech to the House of Lords last month, when she shared how she had been diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of GBM  which typically has a prognosis of just 9-18 months.

Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: While survival rates for most cancers are at record levels, the prognosis for people with brain tumours has scarcely improved in over a generation. I am grateful to Baroness Jowell and other MPs who have campaigned with great dignity and courage to raise awareness of this issue.

Our ambition is to deliver a big uplift in the funding of brain cancer research, while galvanising the clinical and scientific communities to explore new avenues for diagnosis and treatment in the future  it is a chance to create a genuine, step change in survival rates for one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

More informationOpinion

Ryan Bridge: The Govt's COVID-19 messaging is all over the shop - do lockdowns stop when enough Kiwis are vaccinated?AUSTRIA: Plans to convert the 760 mm gauge Zillertalbahn which links Jenbach with Mayrhofen from diesel to hydrogen fuel were announced by operator ZVB in February. The cost is estimated at 80m, with revenue hydrogen operations envisaged for 2022.Property details:

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Nearby timberland cabin or rv siteReality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!The roads were repaired, a fresh coat of paints put on footpaths and sidewalks, almost 1,25,000 flower pots kept at major intersections, illuminated wraparounds put on lamp posts along the route from the airport to the Summit venue. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.

The 'makeup' of Lucknow to host the mega Uttar Pradesh Investors Summit 2018, that concluded on Friday after witnessing the signing of Memorandums of Understanding worth almost Rs 4.30 trillion, has cost the Yogi Adityanath government over Rs 65 crore.

In run up to the Summit, different government department and agencies were pressed into service to upgrade the infrastructure in the 'City of Nawabs' to charm the visiting national and international industrialists and delegates, and showcase the alacrity of the state dispensation.

The two-day Summit, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, saw the participation of over Rs 5,000 delegates.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani in his address on the inaugural day noted he had never seen any city decked up so strikingly as Lucknow.

Mahindra Group promoter Anand Mahindra had also tweeted positively about a cleaner and tidier Lucknow.

The Lucknow roads were repaired, a fresh coat of paints put on footpaths and sidewalks, almost 1,25,000 flower pots kept at major intersections, illuminated wraparounds put on lamp posts along the route from the airport to the Summit venue of Indira Gandhi Pratisthan.

Besides, professional artists from Delhi were hired for wall paintings and murals along the sidewalls of over-bridges.

The prominent agencies and departments deployed as nodal agencies for sprucing up the city infrastructure, included Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC), Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), Public Works Department (PWD) etc.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was also involved in some of the total 105 such beautification projects.

According to Lucknow District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma, who was the nodal officer coordinating the works between various departments and agencies, the total cost of preparing for the Summit was a little over Rs 650 million.

As per the breakup of costs, LMC accounted for the maximum cost outlay of Rs 24.2 crore and handled five such projects, followed by LDA with over Rs 13 crore and 30 projects respectively. PWD chipped in with 33 projects and about Rs 12.5 crore.

However, the expenditure of Rs 65 crore does not include the cost incurred in the publicity and organising roadshows in six metros for the summit, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Besides, separate teams of ministers and officials had visited these cities, including Ahmedabad for meeting industrialists and studying their Summit formats.

Although, the state government has not shared any details in this regard, yet the total cost of preparing for the Summit, including publicity and transportation, is likely to come to almost Rs 100 crore.

On condition of anonymity, a retired top UP bureaucrat told Business Standard the state government expends on wide publicity for such mega events, seeking the higher participation of investors, generating hype and striving for maximum number and value of MoUs.

He said together with the budget of over Rs 65 crore, the total expenditure for such high ticket event would easily inflate between Rs 90 crore to Rs 100 crore.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath and Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik, during the inaguration of Investors Summit 2018 in Lucknow. Photograph: Press Information Bureau of India'We want the government to provide job security for all these workers,' says E S N Reddy, district general secretary of CITU.

It took a week for the voices of 1,200 Hyderabad Gems SEZ workers from Raviryal village, just about 30 km from Hyderabad, to reach the city.

The livelihoods of these workers -- 700 of them differently-abled and mostly women -- was disrupted last week when search and seizure operations were conducted by the Enforcement Directorate on the premises of the 89-hectare Hyderabad Gems SEZ, owned by the Gitanjali group.

First, the cutting and polishing work disappeared as there were no raw diamonds to work on. Then, the free transport provided by the company stopped.

Nobody offered any solution when we started protests at the office premises after we lost our work over a week ago. Then, our MLA visited us and offered support, but we still dont know if someone will be able to get our jobs back, said 33-year-old Sultana, a differently-abled, single woman.

Started in 2006, the diamond polish units at Hyderabad Gems SEZ largely engaged people from neighbouring villages. Many like Sultana, who began working at the site about 12 years ago, started with a meagre salary of Rs 700 per month. Now, they get around Rs 14,000 per month. A salary of Rs 3,500 per month was given to more recent workers.

Samrajyam, a differently-abled, single woman who joined more than 10 years ago, comes to work from the far off district Khammam. Most of these workers know nothing except diamond polishing. Some had purchased scooters to reach the site and have to pay monthly installments of as much as Rs 2,500. With their jobs gone, they are unsure how they would repay the loans.

Taking up their cause on Friday, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions and other workers unions held a round table meeting. We want the government to provide job security for all these workers, said E S N Reddy, district general secretary of CITU.

Gopi Jagannadham, deputy development commissioner of the SEZ Development Commissioner office in Hyderabad, told Business Standard: We would have certainly tried to accommodate these workers had there been any other diamond polishing unit around here. A small company named Sri Krishna started a diamond polishing unit with 60-100 workers in October last year. I dont think they will be able to do anything to help. We have alerted our higher authorities.

A state labour department official said the matter was under the jurisdiction of the SEZ development commissioner and it is for them to find a solution.

Photograph: Arko Datta/Reuters.Laid to Rest: The controversy over Subhas Chandra Bose's death, a book by Bose's great nephew Ashis Ray, reveals how we've always known the truth, notes Karan Thapar.



Photograph: PTI Photo

If there was a prize for the most pointless controversy, India would get it for sure although the United States would run us a close second.

The least explicable if not most baffling, is the refusal to accept Subhas Chandra Bose died in a plane crash on August 18, 1945.

That some actually maintain he spent years incarcerated in a Soviet Gulag camp or hiding in Manchuria or disguised as Gumnami Baba is simply unbelievable.

Yet some people do.

A book published by Bose's great nephew, the London-based journalist Ashis Ray, called Laid to Rest: The controversy over Subhas Chandra Bose's death, reveals how we've always known the truth.

Based on 30 years of meticulous research it proves that as early as September 15, 1945, that is, just four weeks after his death, the Japanese government confirmed this fact and how it happened.

As Ray puts it, in all 'a staggering 11 inquiries, official and unofficial, have been undertaken -- three by the Japanese, as many by the British, four by Indians and one by the Taiwanese -- (with) each and every one unambiguously arriving at the same conclusion'.

They tell the same story of how Bose died.

'Yet,' to quote Ray, 'New Delhi has pandered to a motley section of Indians who have irrationally been in denial and opposed the truth for political reasons or worse -- for financial benefit by perpetrating outright fraud'.

Part of the book's explanation pins the blame on Bose's followers.

'They haven't come to terms with him not emerging as the leader of free India and tend to assign this to illusory skullduggery against him,' the book says.

It also blames Bose's extended family who have 'found it impossible to accept the truth'.

Yet the truth is simple and straightforward.

Ray's research shows Bose was in Malaya when he heard the Japanese had offered to surrender.

That was on August 12, 1945.

He then returned to Singapore where he learnt the Japanese were prepared to give him shelter.

On August 16, he began the journey that was intended to take him to Tokyo.

In the first stage he got to Bangkok.

There he decided that although he would go to Tokyo to thank the Japanese government for all the assistance they had given him, he would, thereafter, proceed to Russia via Manchuria.

Unfortunately, things worked out differently.

On August 17, Bose left Bangkok reaching Saigon by midday.

That evening he took off for Taipei, but because darkness was falling the pilot made an unscheduled night-stop at Tourane on the Indo-China coast.

On the 18th -- the day he died -- Bose took off from Tourane for Tokyo via Taipei, where concerns arose about one of the plane's engines.

Although the engineers satisfied themselves, the problem was clearly not resolved.

Shortly after the plane left Taipei for Tokyo a loud explosion was heard.

The plane tilted to its left and one of its propellers fell off.

It crashed 100 metres beyond the runaway and caught fire.

Colonel Rahman, Bose's ADC, who was with him, has graphically described his injuries and the last message he left for the Indian people.

At least three others, who attended to Bose at the Nanmon military hospital where he was taken, have given an account of his last hours.

They are Captain Yoshimi, the medical officer in charge of the hospital, Dr Tsuruta, a Japanese doctor, and a Taiwanese nurse.

Ashis Ray comes to the following conclusion: 'There is overwhelming, irrefutable, hard documentary evidence to reconfirm that Subhas Bose unquestionably met with a plane crash at Taipei on 18th August 1945.'

He died hours later. Bose's daughter, Anita Pfaff, accepts this.

Is it just their fondness for conspiracy theories that prevents others from agreeing?

Anita Pfaff has suggested a DNA test be done on the remains which are said to be her father's at the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo.

It's an eminently sensible idea.

But the problem is what happens if they turn out not to be Bose's ashes?

Does that mean he didn't die in the air crash? And that he's still alive somewhere?

For those who don't want to accept, there will always be some reason not to believe.Would it serve India's interest to go to war with China over the Maldives, asks Aditi Phadnis.



IMAGE: Maldives President Abdulla Yameen greets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, December 7, 2017. Photograph: Fred Dufour/Pool/Reuters

The Opposition alliance led by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) swept the election and all observers saw this as the forerunner of the presidential election due later in 2018.

This would have been just another election, but it was fiercely contested and postponed four times since it became due in January 2017, by the ruling alliance led by President Abdulla Yameen of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

For the ruling alliance the defeat was both a surprise and a shock -- because Fathimath Ibrahim, Abdulla's wife, was looking at a victory in the local election to launch herself as the presidential candidate in the elections due November 2018.

Most observers predicted in June, a more comprehensive crackdown on the Opposition, the press and bribery by the ruling alliance to win over members of the Opposition.

Worse, an even more fragile government structure with President Yameen needing foreign powers to help shore up his regime. Many of those predictions have come true.

The Maldives was a single-party State till 2008. The executive was in charge of the civil service, the security forces, the judiciary and had control over parliament through a 'constitutionally appointed' group of MPs.

The country was ruled for 30 years by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

This was challenged by Mohamed Nasheed who became president of the Maldives in 2008 after forming his Maldivian Democratic Party in exile, contesting the 2008 presidential elections and winning 54 per cent of the votes.

A new constitution was formulated, but in 2012, Nasheed was overthrown with the help of security forces and put under home detention.

In 2013, fresh presidential elections were held and Gayoom's half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, became president through what Nasheed supporters say was a rigged election, because he managed to break several of Nasheed's alliance partners with offers of office and concessions.

What added edge to the drama was that for several hours after, Nasheed sought 'refuge' in the Indian high commission, making India a factor in the internal politics of the Maldives.

He was in prison for nine months, was tried and found guilty of terrorism and given a 13-year jail sentence. He then sought to go to the UK for surgery where he sought and got the status of a refugee.

He is currently operating out of Sri Lanka. If he returns to Male he will be arrested to serve the rest of his sentence.

Not surprisingly, this caused a vacuum in the MDP's top leadership. Meanwhile Yameen continued to consolidate his gains, putting behind bars, many political rivals and neutralising others.

For instance, former vice-president Ahmed Adeeb, was convicted in June 2016, of plotting to kill the president by planting a bomb on his yacht.

Yameen simultaneously attempted to broad-base the foreign policy of the Maldives, hoping foreign powers would help secure his own position.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's September 2014 visit to the Maldives was his first visit to South Asia, indicating to the balance of power dimension with India.

Xi was accompanied by a 100-member business delegation and mooted idea of a Maritime Silk Road connectivity between China and the Maldives.

As this required land, the Maldives constitution, (which previously prohibited foreign ownership of any part of Maldivian territory, but allowed leasing of land for up to 99 years) was amended to allow foreigners who invest more than $1 billion, to purchase land within the project site -- with the only condition that at least 70 per cent of the area of the completed project must be reclaimed land.

The number of Chinese tourists to the Maldives has increased from about from 120,000 Chinese tourists in 2010 to 359,000 in 2015.

Maldives Tourist Promotion Board says 'about half a million' tourists from China visited the country in 2016 alone.

Other agreements signed between the Maldives and China have seriously worried India.

The latest is the Maldivian offer to China to develop its main airport as part of its iHaven project. This is a key scheme in Yameen's economic programme.

It has six main goals, including developing an airport, a harbor, bunkering services, real estate, shopping malls, and resorts.

Yameen's visit to India in 2016 saw New Delhi endorsing him, rectifying its pro-Nasheed tilt. Prime Minister Narendra D Modi and Yameen signed a defence agreement.

Barely a year previously, India had almost openly sided with the Nasheed administration, going so far as to lobby with the Commonwealth Ministerial Group to sanction the Maldives for overthrowing Nasheed in a 'coup'. (Yameen responded by quitting the Commonwealth altogether).

What happens now?

India has frozen the Maldives out after reminding it of its India First commitment. But it has not acted on Nasheed's desperate plea of military intervention either.

Amid a groundswell of demands from the chatterati for military intervention, all Indians must ask themselves whether it would serve national interest to go to war with China over the Maldives.Dismissing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that strict action would be taken in the Punjab National Bank fraud case, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked him to first explain how the money was taken away from the bank under his nose.

"A scam of Rs 22,000 crore happens, Nirav Modi runs away with Rs 22,000 crore from Indian Banks and Modiji (Prime Minister) says action will be taken," Gandhi said addressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka.

"Action will be taken? You first make us understand how did Nirav Modi take Rs 22,000 crore from Indian banks under the nose of Narendra Modi's government," he said,

He demanded to know why the finance minister and Modi 'allowed this to happen'.

As yet another bank fraud came to light on Saturday, Rahul hit out at the Modi government alleging that the Delhi-based diamond jeweller involved in the scam 'disappeared' like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya while the government looked the other way.

He said the promoter of Dwarka Das Seth International, who was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation for an alleged fraud of Rs 389.85 crore towards Oriental Bank of Commerce, operated with the same modus operandi of fake LoUs as Nirav Modi.

'Under Modi Ji's 'Jan Dhan Loot Yojana', another scam!

'390 Crore, involving a Delhi based jeweller. Same Modus operandi as Nirav Modi. Fake LOU's.

'Predictably, like Mallya and Nirav, this promoter too has disappeared while the Government looked the other way,' Rahul said in series of tweets.

Breaking his silence over the Rs 11,400-crore fraud at India's second-biggest PSU bank, Modi had on Friday warned of strict action against those involved in financial irregularities and said loot of public money would not be tolerated.

Rahul Gandhi has, however, been claiming that the size of the fraud is Rs 22,000 crore.

The Congress chief is touring parts of north Karnataka as part of his second leg of campaign in Karnataka, where elections are expected in April-May.

During his speech, Rahul on Saturday repeatedly quoted 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara from Karnataka, revered by dominant Lingayat/Veerashiva community which is predominantly present in northern parts of the state, to attack the prime minister.

He said Basaveshwara had said five things -- 'don't indulge in theft, don't indulge in violence, do not lie, do not boast about yourself and don't spread anger'.

"First one was don't indulge in theft. Narendra Modi says that the Congress party government in Karnataka is corrupt. When he says it, on his right side is his chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa who had gone to jail, on the other side four more ministers who had gone to jail," Gandhi said.

The Congress president said that Modi, who gives 'long speeches', was quiet on the Rafael fighter jet deal.

"He (Modi) banned the notes, implemented Gabbar Singh Tax and destroyed lakhs of businesses, but Jay Shah's (BJP President Amit Shah's son) business within three months converts from Rs 50,000 into Rs 80 crore. On this Narendra Modi does not speak anything."

Pointing out that Basaveshwara also said don't indulge in violence, Gandhi hit out at the Modi government,accusing it of dividing society and indulging in atrocities against Dalits and minorities.

Referring to Basaveshwara's preachings against lying, Gandhi said Modi made 'promises in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, including that Rs 15 lakh will be deposited into bank accounts of every Indian, jobs to two crore youth and making India corruption free'.

"Has he worked on this and shown to you? Wasn't the Rs 15 lakh promise a lie...?" he asked.

Gandhi also accused the prime minister of claiming credit for every achievement of the country.

"You say nothing happened in 70 years and whatever is happening, whether it is in your party or in the country, it is only because of Narendra Modi."

"Whether it is a rocket launch or the Army personnel that fight and are martyred on the border, Modiji says see I did it," he said.

"Sushma Swaraj (external affairs minister), Nitin Gadkari (transport minister) and Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) do not have any work in the government and only one man works, that is Narendra Modi.

"Modiji when you bow before Basawaji, remember what he said- do not boast about yourself, this is the truth," Gandhi said.

Rahul has been using the hashtag 'ModiRobsIndia' to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over the cases of bank frauds.

The CBI on Friday booked Dwarka Das Seth International Pvt Ltd for an alleged bank loan fraud of Rs 389.85 crore towards Oriental Bank of Commerce.

Six months after the public sector bank filed a complaint with the CBI, the agency booked the company, and Sabhya Seth, Reeta Seth, Krishna Kumar Singh, Ravi Singh -- all directors of the firm -- and another company named Dwarka Das Seth SEZ Incorporation.

The company has availed various credit facilities from OBC between 2007-12, which swelled to Rs 389 crore during the period.

The string of frauds came as an embarrassment for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, which had come to power on an anti-graft plank and had often listed corruption-free administration as one of its main achievements.

IMAGE: Congress president Rahul Gandhi with Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and other party leaders at a tea stall in Vijayapura on Saturday. Photograph: PTI PhotoSecurity forces on Saturday shot dead Meghalaya's most-wanted terrorist and self-styled chief of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army in an encounter in East Garo Hills district, the police said.

The encounter of Sohan D Shira, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, came after Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED attack, suspected to be carried out by the GNLA in the same district on February 18.

Following Sangma's death, counter-insurgency operations had been stepped up in poll-bound South and East Garo Hills districts.

Acting on inputs regarding probable movement of some armed GNLA cadre in Dobu area, counter-insurgency forces were pressed into service, a senior police officer involved in the operations told PTI.

He said the encounter took place around 11 am in Achakpek village near Dobu, in which Sohan was killed.

"He (Sohan) is dead after a challenging encounter. Our team is on a manhunt to trace his bodyguards," Deputy IGP (Western Range) O Passi told PTI from Tura.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar said inquest on the body of the gunned down terrorist was on and necessary formalities would follow.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, in a series of tweets, said: 'I wholeheartedly congratulate the fearless women and men of the Meghalaya Police organisation that has led an untiring effort and commitment to eliminate enemies of the state like Sohan D Shira.'

Earlier this week, Meghalaya Director General of Police S B Singh had said, "There are credible leads that are being obtained about the involvement of the group (GNLA) in Sunday night's carnage (Sangma's killing)."

NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma and three others were killed in an IED blast triggered by terrorists in the Samanda area of East Garo Hills district around 8 pm on February 18.

Image only for representation.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the subsidised scooter scheme for working women on the occasion of the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late leader Jayalalithaa.

It was launched in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam, among others.

The scheme, with a subsidy component of 50 per cent up to Rs 25,000 for working women, was launched by Modi, who handed over the keys and registration certificate copies to five women beneficiaries.

He also launched 70-lakh tree sapling planting drive to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa.

The beneficiaries included women who worked in the private sector, an accountant, a salesperson and an assistant in a private store.

A smiling Modi exchanged a few words with the beneficiaries while handing over the keys.

Palaniswami in his address urged Modi to take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee, as directed by the Supreme Court.

He said 70 lakh saplings would be planted through out the year and also thanked the prime minister for lauding the ancient language Tamil recently.

The Chief Minister also recalled a slew of welfare initiatives and freebie schemes launched by Jayalalithaa.

These included thalikku thangam (gold for mangalsutra) for women beneficiaries,free milch cow and goats,free of cost computers for students and new colleges for the uplift of rural students.

Hailing Modi, Panneerselvam said the Prime Minister was 'courageously leading India'.

Stating that Amma had implemented several schemes for the safety and well being of women, right from their birth to old age, Panneerselvam said this scheme too envisioned by the late leader, was for people's welfare and development.

He said this scheme too would be the forerunner for other state governments, like other previous initiatives.

So far 3,36,103 women have applied under the scheme and scrutiny of such applications were under process, according to the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Palaniswami had announced in December last that scooters would be distributed to one lakh women at a subsidised rate on the occasion of Jayalalithaa's 70th birth anniversary.

Earlier, Modi was welcomed by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and top State officials at Chennai airport.

From there, he flew to INS Adyar Naval base near Marina beach, from where he reached the function venue by road.

Cadres of the Bharatiya Janata Party, ruling AIADMK holding their party flags and the general public lined up both sides of the road welcoming Modi to the venue, 'Kalaivanar Arangam.'

The prime minister, who planted a sapling to mark the event, is scheduled to stay at Raj Bhavan in Chennai later on Saturday night and leave for neighbouring Puducherry on Sunday.

The subsidised scooter scheme for working women is an electoral promise of late Jayalalithaa.

During the 2016 assembly election, she had promised 50 per cent subsidy for women to purchase two-wheelers.

Last month, the state government increased the subsidy component under the scheme from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.

Earlier in the event, Palaniswami presented a memento, Panneerselvam a shawl welcoming Modi.

Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, Tamil Nadu Ministers, MLAs were among the participants.

IMAGE: Prime minister Narendra Modi launching the Tamil Nadu government's Amma scooter scheme for working women by handing over a vehicle to a beneficiary in Chennai on Saturday. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Governor Banwarilal Purohit and AIADMK MP M Thambidurai are also seen. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI PhotoAt least 20 Afghan National Army soldiers have been killed in a Taliban attack on a military base in the western Farah province of Afghanistan.

According to Farah provincial council official Dadullah Qani, the attack started at around 2 am in Shakh-i-Bala Kansk area of Bala Block district and at least 20 soldiers were killed, reports Afghan's TOLONews.

12 Taliban terrorists were also killed during the clashes.

Qani said shortly before the incident occurred, a clash broke out in Sore Shamal area, capital of Farah province, and while security forces were busy fighting the insurgents the Taliban attacked the base in Bala Block district.

According to the report, the Taliban stole a large amount of weapons as well.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

IMAGE: Afghan security forces keep watch at a check point near the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, on Saturday. Photograph: Mohammad Ismail/Reuters'More so, if it is their daughters wanting to marry someone of their own choosing.'

'Children are seen as property. That's why the problem is so messy.'

For young Indians wanting to marry outside their religion, expressing their right to love and live as they choose is becoming increasingly hazardous.

Amrita Singh reports.

Illustrations: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Shruthi Meledath tiptoes through life, leaving as little evidence of her existence as possible: No Facebook, Twitter or Instagram profile, not even LinkedIn.

The only place she is visible is in the display picture of her husband's WhatsApp account  a flash of kohl-rimmed brown eyes framed by perfectly arched eyebrows.

Meledath, a Hindu from Kerala's Kannur, is married to Anees Hameed, a Muslim from the same place.

So, what happens in India today when a Hindu woman falls in love with a Muslim man?

Meledath, a 24-year-old physics post-graduate, is on the run from prying eyes. Her romance with Hameed has made national news and forced the police and courts to intervene.

Flush with love, Meledath prepared to go about her day one June morning at her home in Haryana's Sonepat, where Hameed worked as a marketing executive with an export house. Then, her quiet life ended with a knock on the door.

Eight policemen in plainclothes stood outside. They were acting on a complaint filed by her parents in a lower court in Kerala against her husband.

They alleged that Hameed was an ISIS sympathiser who had married their daughter with the intention of converting her to Islam and taking her with him to fight the jihad in Afghanistan.

Meledath had indeed left her parents' home surreptitiously a month earlier, on the pretext of going to write an entrance exam in Delhi, after she had failed to convince them about Hameed.

A few days later, via a phone call, she told her parents that she had married Hameed under the Special Marriages Act.

"We thought we would live happily ever after," says Hameed, 26. Instead, chaos was to follow.

Meledath and Hameed had met in college and fallen in love, but kept their relationship secret from their parents.

Early on, the couple set the guardrails for their future path together. "You should continue to be a Hindu, and I will continue to be a Muslim," Hameed told her.

But when Meledath's father, a retired army man, found out, he went berserk. Hameed's family of Kannur-based rubber planters was more accommodating.

The lower court would later order that Meledath's 'custody' -- although she was 24 when she had married -- be given to her parents.

They, in turn, packed her off to a 'ghar wapsi' centre in Kerala that specialised in making Hindu girls forget about the non-Hindu boys -- Christian or Muslim -- they had fallen in love with.

As she tells it, Meledath was cut off from the outside world: No television, cell phone or newspapers.

Operating under the guise of a yoga institute, the conversion centre was a boot-camp run by former 'converts' themselves: Hindu men and women who took pride in having successfully weaned themselves off the insidious influence of their non-Hindu partners.

The view of the yoga centre, which functioned from a single-storey yellow building set in the centre of a sprawling walled complex on the outskirts of Kochi, was obscured by tall trees and few in the neighbourhood knew what happened inside.

CCTV cameras, metal detectors and sharp-eyed guards ensured no one escaped.

Inside, more than 40 women remained incarcerated in one room with limited resources. Of the three rooms in the building, one accommodated the men, another the women and the third doubled up as a reception-cum-counselling centre where new 'students' and their parents were received.

Often, the women would be woken up at 4 am with a bucket of water splashed across their faces, and the rest of the day would be spent cooking, cleaning bathrooms, yoga sessions and listening to lectures on Hinduism.

They were kicked and thrashed if they refused to comply or argued with caretakers about their views on religion, says Meledath.

Privacy was non-existent. "The latches were removed from the washrooms and someone knocked on the door or peeped through it to check on us every five minutes to ensure we didn't kill or hurt ourselves,"recalls Meledath.

Every day, the inmates had to spend hours being 'counselled'. "They would underline texts from the Bible or the Koran and misinterpret them to show how fallen their lot was," says Swetha Haridas, a doctor who was forced to spend a week at the centre after she fell in love with and married Rinto Thomas, a photographer, whom she had met while interning at a hospital in Kannur.

Whenever the women expressed a desire to go back to their husbands, they were kicked and slapped.

"'He will sell you to jihadis in Pakistan,' they would tell me," says Meledath.

Most of these women unwittingly followed their parents to the so-called yoga centre and then found themselves trapped once they reached there.

Haridas, 28, landed up at the centre at the end of an outing to a mall with her parents and her sister.

"My father said he wanted to check out a yoga centre nearby. But once we reached, we were made to sit in a large room with a group of people who began to talk to me about leaving my husband," she recalls.

"As they talked, my family members slipped out of the room one by one. When I said I wanted to leave as well, they told me I wasn't allowed to. When I started to shout for help, they cranked up the music, tied my hands and legs and began to thrash me."

After a few days of suffering, Haridas realised that the only way she could escape was by feigning agreement with the counsellors. (Meledath spent 48 days at the centre; she was released only after her husband secured a court order.)

"I promised to get Rinto into the fold of Hinduism if they let me leave, and they agreed," says Haridas.

Upon her release, the couple decided to approach the police. "My husband gave me the courage to file an FIR against the owner of the centre. Although I'm scared for my life, I want to protect others from undergoing the same torture that I underwent," she says.

While the police are investigating the case, the yoga centre has since been shut down following a Kerala high court order.

The stories of Meledath and Haridas bear resemblance to that of many others across the country.

Operating from secret locations in and around Delhi, the 12 helpline numbers of Love Commandos, a not-for-profit organisation that helps couples fight off pressure and intimidation from families, ring non-stop.

Sanjoy Sachdeva, chairman and founder of the NGO, interrupts a conversation midway. "This is a distress call," he says.

The caller is another woman, an income tax officer from Uttar Pradesh posted in South India. She says her family has held her hostage because she is in love with a fellow officer from a lower caste.

She has reached out to Sachdeva because her parents are not letting her leave the house and are trying to get her to quit her job.

Sachdeva feels he needs to send one of his volunteers to check on her and rope in the police, if necessary.

Couples of various combinations flood the Love Commandos' helpline year round. Some are on the run from their families and the police while awaiting legal help at one of the 400 shelters the NGO has across the country.

But nothing baffles Sachdeva more than what's come to be called 'love jihad'.

"Indians have a problem with love. Period," he declares, "More so, if it is their daughters wanting to marry someone of their own choosing."

"Children are seen as property. That's why the problem is so messy," he says.

Although the provision for guardianship in marriage was omitted by the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976, the mindset hasn't changed.

"Take invitation cards. Instead of the bride and the groom inviting you to their wedding, it is usually parents who invite you to their son's or daughter's weddings in India," says Sachdeva.

Haridas, who now lives with her husband in Thrissur, cannot agree more.

"Everyone says if my parents had agreed to my marriage, none of these problems would have surfaced," she says.

Then she adds listlessly, "They do not want to keep in touch with me anymore."

The rules of love are becoming ever more complicated for men, too.

In September, a Muslim man in Aligarh was yanked out of a restaurant and accused of 'love jihad' after he was found having tea with a Hindu woman.

Elsewhere, what should have been a routine rite of passage for young adults is being debated in courts.

The Web site of Dhanak, another Delhi-based NGO that helps couples navigate the choppy waters of interfaith marriages, is filled with pleas for help from Muslim men living in UP and beyond.

In love with a Hindu girl, Saqib, who is studying to become a dentist, has poured his heart out on the portal, hoping someone would be sympathetic to his cause.

'We are both in UP, but we can't do anything in this state,' he writes.

Adding to the charged atmosphere are right-wing propaganda Websites such as the 'Struggle for Hindu Existence'.

The editor of the online portal, Upananda Brahmachari, has dedicated his life to fighting 'love jihad'.

To his mind, the threat is real. "We rescue about 500 girls every month, but thrice that number goes unnoticed," he says.

He makes his case through a curated list of newspaper clippings screaming torture by Muslim men of their Hindu wives.

"There is a well-oiled nexus to trap innocent Hindu girls into marriage and then kill or torture them if they refuse to embrace Islam," claims Brahmachari.

Struggle for Hindu Existence, too, has a team of volunteers that provides legal support to parents once a case of 'love jihad' comes to light.

Most of the time, he says, he gets to know about these cases through his volunteers or through someone in the girl's family.

Like the Love Commandos, this organisation has shelters across the country where 'rescued' women are sent if they perceive that their lives are in danger.

"There has never been a good time for love in India," says senior advocate Vrinda Grover. "But today hate has many more proponents."

Love Commandos' Sachdeva and his team have come to the aid of some 43,000 couples since 2010. But now, he says, his task has become more difficult amid conspiracy theories about Muslim men trying to entice Hindu women.

The fear psychosis surrounding 'love jihad' has coloured everyone's judgement, including the police's.

"Even when a woman has recorded her statement, their first instinct is to send her to her parents," Sachdeva says.

Brahmachari has his own dissatisfactions with police action. He says, "In non-BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-ruled states such as West Bengal, the police are reluctant to file a case of love jihad, making it difficult for us to rescue the girls."

With love and marriage becoming increasingly politicised, it is becoming ever more difficult for inter-faith couples to get the support of their families.

"There is a sharp polarisation and vested political interest in reinforcing polarisation. As a result, it is difficult to get societal support for inter-religious marriages. It affects the working of the police and other law-enforcing agencies involved," says Grover.

One of the 'love jihad' stories currently playing out in the Supreme Court and the outcome of which could have a bearing on a woman's right to marry someone of her own choosing is that of Hadiya and Shafin Jahan.

Last May, in a habeas corpus verdict, a Kerala court annulled Hadiya's five-month-old marriage, on the grounds that the Hindu-born woman who converted to Islam had disobeyed her parents.

Hadiya's husband Shafin has challenged the divorce ruling in the Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court allowed Hadiya to return to college in November, it is still to rule on her marriage.

"We are accustomed to looking at women as being looked after," Grover says. "The idea of the right of women to decide for themselves has yet to be taken seriously by the jurisprudence of this country."

As the country comes to grips with its many ideas of love and marriage, the Kerala high court in October, in a habeas corpus plea filed by Hameed, ruled in favour of Meledath and reunited her with her husband. But her problems are far from over.

The allegations of 'love jihad' and ISIS links have spooked Hameed's employers and they are not keen to have him back.

"My savings are running out; I need a job soon," he says.A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.(Agencia CMA Latam) - Merval, the main index of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, fell 1.05% Friday to 32,774.83 points but still managed to eke out a 1% weekly gain.

Autopistas del Sol (+0.25%) reported that it extended its contracts with the oil company Axion Energy Argentina for two areas of fuel sales services in the General Paz Avenue.

Meanwhile, the Argentinean state-owned oil company YPF (-1.07%) acknowledged that it had hired Citibank "to explore strategic options" regarding its stake in gas distributor Metrogas.

The locally traded U.S. dollar rose 0.15%, closing at 19.98 Argentinean pesos, the highest price of the month.

"In the final half hour the market was quite balanced, after having increased demand and operated again at 20 pesos per dollar, although the rise lasted little and with a volume less than the previous days," said Fernando Izzo, an analyst at ABC Mercado de Cambios.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.Re: Security Council and Syria

Syrian government forces are fighting to reclaim territory from the rebels/terrorists the U.S. sent in there to destabilize the country with a view to regime change and a leadership more amenable to American geopolitical designs on the region.

The U.S.-backed rebels/terrorists are predictably holed up with a civilian population held hostage.

The idea Syria and Russia are deliberately bombing civilians is childish waffle. But you dont liberate a city by waltzing in and throwing daisies in the air.

The U.S. has been unable to liberate Afghanistan or Iraq from terrorists after more than a decade of warfare - and has basically abandoned Libya.

Meanwhile, America and Turkey - NATO members - have occupied northern Syria without authority.

The death toll in Afrin is actually higher than Ghouta but is receiving not one fraction as much attention from the Western media.

Quentin PoulsenThe Seventh Day Adventist Primary and Secondary school students have a lot to be thankful for.

On Wednesday, the school held a special assembly to acknowledge the assistance with their new bathroom facilities.

The new toilet block caters for the primary school students, while the renovated one is for the secondary school students.

According to Sua Hellene Wallwork-Lamb, who was involved in funding the project, the request from the Ministry of Health last year prompted the project.

The Ministry of Health visited the school last year and advised the principal that the school didnt have enough toilets to cater for the increase in the school roll, she told the Weekend Observer.

At that time, the school had 12 toilets.

We have now added 12 new toilets by building a new toilet block for the primary school and totally renovating the existing toilet block for the high school.

The project cost $33,000.

Suas husband, Travis Lamb, acknowledged their overseas partners for lending a hand in the project.

We thank the Chairperson and President of the S.D.A. Church Mission for Samoa and Tokelau, Pastor Kenneth Fuliese, for his leadership and for the church contribution in developing this school, he said.

We are very proud of the Lalovaea S.D.A. School with the excellent results achieved by the students in the 2017 National Exams. The Year 12 and Year 13 classes had a 100 percent pass rate in 2017.

This is a fantastic result and it is a credit to the principal Eteuati Koria and all the teachers at the school.

He added he and his wife are pleased to assist with the project.

But we didnt do this by ourselves. We also received generous donations from the kind people at Ray White Remuera Real Estate in Auckland, New Zealand, Megan Jaffe, Ryan Dixon and Steen Neilson.

Megan Jaffe is the owner of Ray White Remuera Real and is the wife of prominent New Zealand Heart Surgeon Dr. Warwick Jaffe, who has been conducting pro bono health services to Samoa for the past 10 years.

We were fortunate that my brother in Auckland, Paul Lamb, helped in arranging the funding programme and promoting our school project to Ray White Remuera Real Estate.

Our builder, Taua Tautasi Neueli and his team also deserve special mention for their commitment to our project and working through the rainy season to get it completed before school started this year.

Schools Principal, Eteuati Koria, acknowledged the support from their partners.The Samoa Airport Authority (S.A.A.) is preparing for major airport pavement and drainage improvement works to key aeronautical infrastructure assets in the coming months.

With the terminal construction work coming to an end soon, the focus will now move to the pavement of the multi-million-tala facility.

The first part is a US$31,400,750 (T$75m) contract with Downer NZ Ltd. to undertake the design and construction of pavement surfacing and infrastructure upgrade.

The goal is to achieve the required design standards, a statement Cabinet said. Airfield drainage improvements are also a necessary requirement under the contract to ensure climate resilience to protect airport assets.

Downers 18-month contract is separated into two parts; apron works and taxiway pavements as first priority, and runway works to follow later.

The apron expansion and fuel hydrant works will commence construction in May 2018, with a planned completion in November 2018.

The runway rehabilitation is scheduled to begin in February 2019 and planned completion by July 2019.

Downer New Zealand Limited offers a wide range of experience in the construction and maintenance of various infrastructure in transportation, mining, energy and industrial engineering, utilities, communications, and facilities markets primarily in Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the Pacific.

A separate supervisory contract has also been signed between S.A.A. and Lyon Associates Inc., to provide Technical Advisory Services for the Faleolo International Airport works.

The total contract ceiling for this 42-month contract is US$1,023,286.28 (T$2.4m).

Lyon, a Hawaiian (U.S.A.) based company, is a multi-disciplinary organization providing expertise in engineering, planning and construction management, with successful projects completed in the Pacific.

These contracts are major activities under the Samoa Aviation Investment Project (S.A.I.P.), whose development objective is to improve operational safety and oversight of international air transport and associated infrastructure.

The project is funded by the World Bank Group through a partial grant and credit, with the Government of Samoa providing counterpart financing through the payment of indirect taxes.After half a day of heavy downpours, the areas in the Apia Township that are vulnerable to flooding are under water once more.

Starting from Pesega, if you are heading to town, roads have been flooded and families living nearby rivers and streams are urged to be prepared.

The flooding comes as a heavy rain warning has been put in place for Samoas low lying and vulnerable areas.

A convergence zone lies within the vicinity of Samoa, an update from Samoa Met Office says.

Expect occasional rain with heavy downpours at times. Gusty winds during showers.

The aforementioned convergence zone will remain within our vicinity till Sunday, itll then migrate South-westwards as the ridge of high pressure will bring improving weather conditions as of Monday of the new week.The Executive Director of the Samoa Law Reform Commission (S.L.R.C.), Teleiai Dr. Lalotoa Mulitalo Seumanutafa, is absolutely steadfast.

She is adamant that the much maligned Lands and Titles Registration Act (L.T.R.A.) 2008 is "incapable of alienating" Samoas customary lands.

Teleiai made the point when she spoke at the Pacific Law, Custom and Constitutionalism Conference in Wellington last week where the issue of alienation of customary lands was on the agenda (read her paper on page 10 and 11).

Governments seek the best way forward for the development of their own countries, she said. Samoa has taken a leap of faith through the leasing and mortgaging of customary land leases.

Samoa has done so with the utmost respect and ultimate caution to its existing laws and the supreme law, the Constitution of the Independent State of Samoa.

As customary land is a measina Samoa; such a move requires boldness in leadership, governance with a clear vision, and faith in the populations that one day, the populations will see to it that All laws are made for the benefit of the people they are to regulate.

Teleiai highlighted five points in her presentation to validate her claim that L.T.R.A. 2008 will not alienate customary lands. They include:

 Nothing in the Act allows the alienation of customary land;

 The Act expressly says alienation of customary land is prohibited

 The very limited reason the term customary land is used in this Act is that it is only due to the operation of other existing laws

 Other related laws that allow customary leases for public purposes have more influence on customary land than this Act

 Since enactment in 2008, no court proceedings have ever challenged the provisions of the L.T.R. Act on any allegation of customary land being alienated

Before the Land Titles Registration Act was enacted by the Parliament of Samoa in 2008, in its place was the Land Registration Act 1992/1993, she said.

As its Long Titles stated, this 1991/1993 Act was an Act to regulate the law relating to the registration of deeds affecting land. The Land Titles Registration Act 2008, at section 94 repealed the Land Registration Act 1992/1993.

The Land Registration Act 1992/1993 was a deed system of registration, and the Land Titles Registration Act 2008 introduced the Torrens system of land registration in Samoa. As is referenced in a number of court cases in Samoa, the following are some basic differences between the Deed system and the Torrens system (under the 1992/1993.)

She noted that prior to 2008, a series of consultations were undertaken on the Land Titles Registration Bill 2006, 2007 until 2008 and enactment.

The consultation was led by a Cabinet appointed Commission headed by late Rev. Oka Fauolo. They were carried out with the Samoa Law Society, the Judiciary, the relevant Government Ministries, the private sector and the public.

In interpreting laws, the first point of reference for the courts and any user of any law, is the law itself. What does it say, or not say (silent) on the issue? The issue is  is there likelihood customary land law would be alienated by the provisions of the LTR Act?

An analysis of the provisions of the Act shows no provision of this Act allows this. In fact, the provisions of the Act prohibit this.

The provisions say that No provision of this Act may be construed or applied to: (a) Permit or imply the alienation of customary land in a manner prohibited by Article 102 of the Constitution; or

(b) Permit or deem ownership in any customary land to vest in a person otherwise than as determined under any law dealing with the determination of title to customary land.

Where in any Act, there is such a provision, it means exactly that. No provision allows the alienation of customary land. So for the Land Titles Act 2008, it has 98 sections, this means none of the 98 sections permit or is implied to permit the alienation of customary land.

Teleiais assurance follow that by the Attorney General, Lemalu Hermann Retzlaff, who has also assured that customary lands are not under any legal threat.

I respectfully pose this question: what customary land has been legally converted to freehold land and/or 'sold off', since the enactment of the Lands Title Registration Act 2008? (L.T.R.A.). The answer is none, Lemalu said recently.

That is because it is a legal impossibility.

Lemalu pointed out that the Act deals only with freehold land. It can never be utilised to interfere at all with customary land rights that are protected in the Constitution.

According to Lemalu, the L.T.R.A. was introduced to help protect and increase clarity for transaction for freehold land only.

I emphasise that it actually therefore states in its own body in section 9 as follows: Section 9(4) and (5) of the LTRA:

(4) No provision of this Act may be construed or applied to:

i) permit or imply the alienation of customary land in a manner prohibited by Article 102 of the Constitution; or

ii) permit or deem ownership in any customary land to vest in a person otherwise than as determined under any law dealing with the determination of title to customary land.

(5) Nothing in this Act permits the exercise of any power or affects any interest in customary land that could have been applied by law prior to the commencement of this Act.

Lemalu says the Acts legal intent is crystal clear. He then points to Article 102 of the Constitution mentioned in s9 which states that:

No alienation of customary land- It shall not be lawful or competent for any person to make any alienation or disposition of customary land or of any interest in customary land, whether by way of sale, mortgage or otherwise howsoever, nor shall customary land or any interest therein be capable of being taken in execution or be assets for the payment of the debts of any person on his decease or insolvency:

Further, the Laws that protect families with interest in any customary land, mean that where any land is leased without proper consultation with all members of a family that have connection or claim to such land, those not consulted can object against the lease or license.

The objection is then determined by the Land and Titles Court (see section 8 and 9 of the C.L.A 1965).

The Judiciary have upheld such objections to protect the rights of those disaffected in such a manner and therein protecting rights to customary land,.

He also points out that in a case that customary land is leased by mutual agreement then the beneficiary family that owns the customary land has rights under the lease and like all lessees can seek to enforce them when required including revoking the lease.

The government via Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.) must oversee the compliance as a trustee assisting our families, and further assisted by the Attorney Generals office where required.

The balance the law aims to achieve, is to protect the land while allowing for economic developments that create jobs and income both for the owners of the land and the community at large.

But in all that the status of the land remains as customary and all legal protection therefore apply.

It can never be legally turned into freehold land.By letter of 13 November 2017, Teleiai Lagipoiva Dr. Lalotoa Mulitalo Seumanutafa was invited to be an expert panellist at the Conference Pacific Law, Custom and Constitutionalism: A Three Part Series: Conference 1: Aotearoa NZ and Samoa in Dialogue: Law Reforms in Customary Land Tenure, Religious Rights and Traditional Leadership Faculty of Law, University of Auckland, 12-14 February 2018.

Dr. Mulitalo was originally invited to speak as a panellist on the topic Implications for Legal practice, Legislative Drafting & Constitutional Law Reform given her background as a law draftsperson for Samoa and the Pacific.

Dr. Mulitalo however was later asked to give the second keynote address on the topic Customary Land Tenure. Dr. Mulitalo speaking on Customary Land Law was to provide a much needed perspective on that theme and to bring balance to the perspectives of Maori Land Law Expert Judge Caren Fox and Afioga Fiu Mataese Elisara Laulu. As it panned out, unfortunately for the Conference, the Maori Land Law Expert did not make it to the Conference.

At the Conference, given the overall theme, Dr Mulitalos topic was entitled: Law, Custom, and Constitutionalism: Customary Land Tenure, Samoa.

For the first part, her presentation focused on the fabric of the laws in Samoa, how much custom is evident in that fabric of Samoas laws and the Constitutionalism of those laws.

The second part was on Customary Land Tenure in Samoa, and the Laws pertaining to those, Parliament laws and the Constitutionalism in those Parliament laws, relating to customary land in Samoa. This is the part where much interest was evident at the Conference, and it is now put together and more appropriately entitled: WHY THE LAND TITLES REGISTRATION ACT 2008 IS INCAPABLE OF ALIENATING CUSTOMARY LAND. Given the significant interest on this topic, it is now released for the publics information:

What the Constitution of Samoa says about customary land  3 Types of Land

Article 101 of the Constitution of the independent State of Samoa says there are three (3) types of land in Samoa, Customary land which is land held in accordance with Samoan custom and usage and with the law relating to Samoan custom and usage; Freehold land which is land held for an estate in fee simple; and Public land, which is land vested in Samoa being land that is free from customary title and from any estate in fee simple. In essence, as it is commonly appreciated, customary land accounts for 81% of the land in Samoa; public land accounts for 15% and freehold 4%.

Article 102 of the Constitution then prohibits the alienation of customary land; except where an Act of Parliament authorizes such which is only in two modes: (a) the granting of a lease or licence of any customary land or of any interest therein; and (b) the taking of any customary land or any interest therein for public purposes. The two Acts of Parliament these have resulted in are (a) The Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965 (53 years old now); and the Taking of Land Act 1964 (54 years old now). While the former law allows customary land to be leased for the benefit of customary landowners as is statutorily required, the latter allows the government to build public hospitals, schools, roads, bridges for public use.

The Current Fabric of Laws of Samoa and Laws Relating to Customary Land

According to the Consolidation of Samoas Laws Project carried out annually by the Office of the Attorney General, as of December 2017, Samoas law count (Acts of Parliament) totalled 291 laws. From this 291, inclusive of the Constitution, some 20 laws relate to land (the 3 types in the Constitution). In the order of years they were enacted, these are as follows:

(1) 1960 Constitution of Samoa;

(2) 1952 Property Law Act (NZ):

(3) 1964 Taking of Land Act;

(4) 1965 Alienation of Customary Land Act;

(5) 1966 Land Titles Investigation Act;

(6) 1972 Alienation of Freehold Land Act;

(7) 1977 Samoa Trust Estates Corporation Act;

(8) 1981 Land and Titles Act;

(9) 1989 Lands, Survey and Environment Act;

(10) 1990 Samoa Trust Estates Corporation Reconstruction Act;

(11) 1990 Village Fono Act;

(12) 1993 Land for Foreign Purposes Act;

(13) 2004 Planning and Urban Management Act;

(14) 2007 Land Transport Authority Act;

(15) 2008 Land Titles Registration Act;

(16) 2009 Unit Titles Act;

(17) 2010 Survey Act;

(18) 2010 Land Valuation Act;

(19) 2010 Spatial Information Agency Act;

(20) 2013 Customary Land Advisory Commission.

There are other laws which have some (lesser) relation to customary land as discussed further below but from the above 20 laws, 5 impact directly on customary land. Again, in the order of years they were enacted, these are as follows. (1) 1964 Taking of Lands Act; (2) 1965 Alienation of Customary Land Act; (3) 1981 Land and Titles Act; (3) 1990 Village Fono Act; (5) 2013 Customary Land Advisory Commission Act.

As the reader will note, in the analysis of laws relating to land (x 20) and the laws directly impacting on customary land (x5), the Land Titles Registration Act 2008 is listed in the 20 above but not in the 5 below, the 5 that directly impact on customary land. And this brings us to the question of why this law, the LAND TITLES REGISTRATION ACT 2008, is indeed incapable of alienating customary land. In summary, the 5 reasons in statutory interpretation and in case law analysis that support this position are as follows: (1) Nothing in the Act allows the alienation of customary land; (2) The Act expressly says alienation of customary land is prohibited; (3) the very limited reason the term customary land is used in this Act is that it is only due to the operation of other existing laws; (4) other related laws that allow customary leases for public purposes have more influence on customary land than this Act; (5) since enactment in 2008, no court proceedings has ever challenged the provisions of the LTR Act on any allegation of customary land being alienated.

c) Some Background to the LTR Act 2008

Before the Land Titles Registration Act was enacted by the Parliament of Samoa in 2008, in its place was the Land Registration Act 1992/1993. As its Long Titles stated, this 1991/1993 Act was an Act to regulate the law relating to the registration of deeds affecting land. The Land Titles Registration Act 2008, at section 94 repealed the Land Registration Act 1992/1993. The Land Registration Act 1992/1993 was a deed system of registration, and the Land Titles Registration Act 2008 introduced the Torrens system of land registration in Samoa.

Prior to 2008, a series of consultations were undertaken on the Land Titles Registration Bill 2006, 2007 until 2008 and enactment. These were carried out with the Samoa Law Society, the Judiciary, the relevant Government Ministries, the private sector and the public. A Fugalei matter which eventuated in the 2002 and for which proceedings reached the courts in 2005 (Civil claim against the Ministry responsible for Lands/Government, and 2012 Judicial Review against the Ministry responsible for Lands/Government) made the Torrens system of land registration more preferential at the time.

In this Fugalei matter, the applicant lost some $480,000 for the purported purchase of a piece of land at Fugalei near Apia containing an area of about four acres in 2002. This resulted in a court case, a civil claim against the government claiming loss. Although the price of $480,000 was paid by the plaintiff purchaser, the Registrar cancelled the registration of the deed of conveyance because prior to the registration of the deed, parcel 627 shown in the legal description was not recorded on the land register and in particular was not recorded on the land register as owned by Ms McCarthy. There was therefore no such parcel of land known as parcel 627 which Ms McCarthy could have conveyed to the applicant. (Chang Tung v Attorney General [2005] WSSC 24 (31 October 2005)) The applicant also lost any hope for any remedy from the government or any party in the judicial review proceedings. Chan Tung v Attorney General [2012] WSSC 42 (12 October 2012)

In those proceedings, the material differences between the Deeds system of registration and the Torrens system of registration as referred to by His Honour Chief Justice Sapolu is taken from Land Law in New Zealand (2003) by Hinde McMorland & Sim vol 1, para 8.009:

(1) The Deeds system is nothing more than a method of registering instruments which affect the title to land. Under the Torrens system it is the title itself that is required by registration.

(2) Under the Deeds system, the legal estate in the land passes on the execution and delivery of the deed. Under the Torrens system, the registered estate (which for many purposes may be regarded as equivalent to the legal estate) does not pass until the instrument is registered. Under the Deeds system, the legal estate passes by an act of the parties; under the Torrens system, it passes by an act of the State.

(3) Except in so far as registration under the Deeds system affected priorities, a deed did not acquire any additional effectiveness or validity when it was registered.

The title to the land depended upon the deeds themselves, not upon registration. Thus the registration of a void deed had no effect on the title. Under the New Zealand Torrens statute (the Land Transfer Act 1952), however, the registration without fraud of a void instrument is effective to vest and to divest title and to protect the registered proprietor against adverse claims.

The adoption of the Torrens system of registration of land was a modern step for Samoa, and brought about great faith and hope for the registration of freehold land and public land, for government to be liable for any further mishaps to the bona fide purchaser of freehold land, and was not intended to affect or alienate Samoas customary land.

At this point, we return to the responses to why the Land Titles Registration act 2008 is incapable of alienating customary land.

d) WHY THE LAND TITLES REGISTRATION ACT 2008 IS INCAPABLE

OF ALIENATING CUSTOMARY LAND.

Reason 1 - Nothing in the Act allows alienation

In interpreting laws, the first point of reference for the courts and any user of any law, is the law itself. What does it say, or not say (silent) on the issue? The issue is  is there a likelihood customary land law would be alienated by the provisions of the LTR Act? An analysis of the provisions of the Act shows no provision of this Act allows this. In fact, the provisions of the Act prohibit this.

Reason 2  The Act itself expressly prohibits the alienation of customary land

Again, the first point of reference for the interpretation of any law is the law itself. Section 9(4) is very clear on this. The provisions says that No provision of this Act may be construed or applied to: (a) permit or imply the alienation of customary land in a manner prohibited by Article 102 of the Constitution; or (b) permit or deem ownership in any customary land to vest in a person otherwise than as determined under any law dealing with the determination of title to customary land.

Where in any Act, there is such a provision, it means exactly that. No provision allows the alienation of customary land. So for the Land Titles Act 2008, it has 98 section, this means none of its 98 sections permit or is implied to permit the alienation of customary land.

In addition the definitions of certain words in section 2 (Interpretation) clearly further prohibit the alienation of customary land under this Act. For example the words - land includes all estates and interests, whether freehold or chattel, in real property but does not include customary land for the purpose of registration of land under this Act (other than registration of licences or leases of customary land); record of customary land means a record of customary land maintained under section 5(1)(l) but does not include registration of licences or leases of customary land; Register means the Land Register required to be maintained under section 8 but does not include a record of customary land; registration means the administrative process which, under this Act, affects, confers, confirms or terminates interests by means of entries in the Register but does not include record of customary land. Section 2(3) states further that reference to any folio under this Act does not include record of customary land as part of the folio. It is evident from these additional prohibitory provisions that the Act is made incapable of alienating customary land. The drafting may be accused of being repetitious, but in some laws in commonwealth countries, these are accepted to ensure there is no room to permit, expressly or impliedly, the prohibition.

Reason 3 - The very limited purpose the term customary land is used in the Act i.e. due to the operation of other existing laws

Some law drafters may argue this is the strongest ground on the position that the LTR Act does not alienate customary land. The question is - If we are saying customary land is not alienated nor negatively affected under this Act which registers land in Samoa, why are the words customary land in this Act?

It is crucial to note that this Act only registers freehold land and customary land, and also registers customary land leases, but not customary land. It is the lease of the customary land that is registered and not the customary land. The only reason the words customary land are in the LTR Act 2008 is due to the operation of other existing laws, i.e. the Land and Titles Act 1981, and the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965.

The Land and Titles Act 1981, sections 11 and 12 requires the Register (CEO) of Courts to transmit judgments of the Land and Titles Court to the Land Registrar (MNRE), and the Land Registrar is to enter in the record of customary land such judgment, order or declaration. The Land Registrar is the Land Registrar defined in section 2 of the Land Titles Registration Act.

The Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965, under section 10(1)(c) requires an applicant for a customary land lease or licence (customary landowners) to register that lease or licence with the Registrar of Lands. This is the Registrar of Lands in the Ministry responsible for lands i.e. the CEO of MNRE.

This is how laws are drafted, and interpreted. At the time of drafting, they are not drafted in a vacuum, a drafter surveys the laws existing at that time and drafts accordingly.

The drafter must take account and make references to existing laws. Thus, when the Act is enacted and later used and interpreted, a provision is not to be interpreted on its own lest its true meaning is misinterpreted and taken out of context.

A law provision (section) must be read with the sections before and after that section, and other existing laws, in order to achieve the correct interpretation of a single provision. These are the basic principles of statutory interpretation. A section must be interpreted in context, lest it is misinterpreted and defeats its purpose in the legal framework an Act purports to put forward.

It must also be noted that these provisions of the Land and Titles Act 1981 (sections 11 & 12) and the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965 (section 10(1)(c) are brought forward from the Land Registration Act 1992/1993 (referred to above) which was repealed by the Land Titles Act 2008. Thus this is a continuation of provisions that existed since 1992/1993 to give effect to a 1965 and a 1981 laws, and are not brand new provisions instigated by the Land Titles Registration Act 2008.

These positions immediately above are further supported by the following: the restrictive use of the term customary land in the LTR Act 2008. The Land Titles Registration Act is made up of 98 sections, 16 Parts, 4 Schedules. From the beginning to the end of the Act, out of 98 sections, the reference to customary land is in 3 sections only, 2, 5, 9. These are the Interpretation section (s2); the section on the powers of the Registrar (s5) and the section on the inclusion of land (s9). The Revision Notes to the Act mentions customary land 4 times, but is not counted as revisions notes do not form the substance of the Act. Thus clearly, the sparse and few sections (x3) with the term customary land shows the use of the term customary land is only for a very limited purposes, i.e. to permit the operation of other existing laws in Samoa.

Reason 4 - Related laws to customary leases

While we are on the laws relating to customary land - it is worthwhile to note other laws that are not solely about customary land but make reference to customary land. For example the laws that require certain persons and authorities to take account of the lawful use or access of customary land. These are for example, laws regulating the work of authorities servicing public utilities. Such laws are the Samoa Water Authority Act 2003; Forestry Management Act 2011; Broadcasting Act 2010; and the Telecommunications Act 2005. Under these Acts, if entrance or access to the customary land is required, the Authority/authorised persons are required to enter into discussion with all persons having title to such land, with a view to obtaining agreement as to the manner in which the Authority may exercise such rights and powers.

In certain cases, customary land need to be leased under the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965. The process of leasing customary land under that Act must be adhered to.

A look at the Customary Land Lease Registry shows this. Out of the 81 % of the customary land of Samoa, some 1.5% only are under customary land lease. It is therefore a very small portion of customary land that is currently being leased, under the provisions of a 53 year old Act i.e. the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965. This means some 79.5% of customary land of Samoa is untouched by any customary lease. On this 1.5% of customary land under customary land lease, a total of 308 customary land leases are registered. Of this number, some 31 are hotels and businesses whereas some 277 are other leases e.g. customary land leased for the LDS Church, Education, Digicel, Samoa Tel, SWA, Police, Other churches. The operation of the above mentioned laws/Acts come into play. Relevant authorities must comply with relevant laws for the purposes of servicing the public through public utilities- at the same time ensure compliance with the rule on the non-alienation of customary land.

The customary landowners are enjoying the benefits from the customary land lease payments made under these leases, without the fear of customary land being alienated. They cannot be alienated as this is fiercely protected not only by the Land Titles Registration Act; the Alienation of Customary Land Act, but also by the supreme law, the Constitution in Article 102. Where any Act breaches the Constitution, it is subject to being declared by the courts as unconstitutional and void ab inito i.e. void from the beginning. This brings us to an analysis of the relevant court judgments to date.

Reason 5 - Case Law /Court Decisions  The Land Titles Registration Act 2008 and Alienation of Customary Land Act in the Courts of Samoa

The Land Titles Registration Act 2008

Although the databases immediately available for research may be inconclusive on the number of cases recorded (paclii.org; samlii.org), an analysis of the available case law in those databases are still useful to draw from. In the courts of Samoa (Court of Appeal and Supreme Court), some 11 cases are found to have discussed the Land and Titles Registration Act 2008. These are namely Betham v Skelton [2017] WSSC 117 (18 July 2017); Fesolai v Boon [2016] WSSC 206 (22 December 2016); Pune v Drake [2015] WSSC 33 (4 February 2015); Faataualofa v Faataualofa [2012] WSSC 37 (14 June 2012); Chan Tung v Attorney General [2012] WSSC 42 (12 October 2012) ; AG v Namulauulu [2013] WSSC 72 (12 September 2013); Seabee Ah Yeung v Moe Jay To [2010] WSSC 49 (26 May 2010); Pune v Drake [2016] WSCA 8 (14 March 2016); Boon v Registrar of Lands (MNRE) [2017] WSSC 149 (14 December 2017); Police v Toluono [2012] WSSC 12 (22 March 2012); Carter v Ioane [2010] WSSC 14 (12 April 2010). In none of these 11 court decisions have any allegation on the alienation or attempts to alienate customary land been brought to court. All these 11 cases are mainly on disputes and claims made on freehold land and public land, 2 of the 3 types of land in Article 101 of the Constitution.

Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965

On a further search, some 7 court decisions to date discuss some provisions of the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965. These are: ET Oldehaver & Company Ltd v Attorney-General [1977] SamoaLawRp 1; [1970-1979] WSLR 159 (27 October 1977); Vaosa v Attorney-General [2000] WSSC 23 (4 August 2000); Attorney General v Alaivaa [2003] WSSC 46 (27 January 2003); Ott v Leuluniu [2005] WSSC 41 (21 January 2005); Faalavaau Tavita v AG, WSSC, 2003; Liaga v Taleni [2010] WSSC 166; CP 160 of 2009 (13 December 2010); Kalevini v Tausaga [2017] WSSC 90 (16 June 2017). An analysis of these 7 court decisions show that none of these contain or claim or allege the attempted taking of customary land unlawfully under the provisions of the Alienation of Customary Land Act 1965.

These proceedings relate mostly to the preliminaries and the circumstances to the development or continuation of a customary land lease agreement e.g. the renewal clause; the validity of a lease agreement; claims against the government for not carrying out administrative and statutory duties under the Act.

e) CONCLUSIONS

Given the discussions above, the Land Titles Registration Act 2008 is incapable of alienating customary land.

FINAL WORDS

It is important to note that whether a law is initiated or instigated by government or by the public sector, where such a law contravenes the Constitution, it is subject to being declared unconstitutional and void, notwithstanding its origins.

Governments seek the best way forward for the development of their own countries. Samoa has taken a leap of faith through the leasing and mortgaging of customary land leases. Samoa has done so with the utmost respect and ultimate caution to its existing laws and the supreme law, the Constitution of the Independent State of Samoa.

As customary land is a measina Samoa; such a move requires boldness in leadership, governance with a clear vision, and faith in the populations that one day, the populations will see to it that All laws are made for the benefit of the people they are to regulate.

This is a basic principle of law making and a rule of thumb for legislative drafters. So when courts interpret legislation, it is towards the positive; and the most favourable interpretation is such that will make a law work.

Ultimately, it is presumed that it (a law) has been made on such basis- for the benefit of the people it is to regulate. FAAMANUIA TELE LE ATUA IA SAMOA!!!



The life of a prominent businessman who has made a huge difference in Samoa, Robert Geoffrey Marfleet, was celebrated during a special gathering at Taumeasina Island Resort last night.

Mr. Marfleet passed away peacefully on Friday 16 February 2018 at North Shore Hospital, in Auckland New Zealand.

He was 84.

Last night, his wife Malia Tammi Marfleet, their 10 children and 17 grandchildren, relatives and friends paid tribute to a loving husband, father and a hard working man who will be sorely missed.

Speaking during the gathering, Mrs. Marfleet remembered a man who lived an exemplary life.

He was diagnosed with cancer and the doctor said he has only weeks to live, she said. So as soon we were told, we talked and cried, talked and cried some more.

His last words to me before he slipped into a coma were where is my little girl - which is Luisa. Then he turned, looked at me and said Im sorry I have tried. Obviously he was trying to stay alive for us.

Mrs. Marfleet said it was a difficult time for her and her family.

I whispered into his ear, just let go we love you, I have accepted the fact that you will not be here however youll be pain free and youre at peace, she said.

That was when he slowly went into a coma and the second day, after his son gave him a shave, he took his last breath.

I was at peace with the fact that he is not in pain anymore, it is time for him to meet his master and like it or not, this is life.

She also had a message for everyone.

Mrs. Marfleet said not to your loved ones for granted.

Spend more time with you parents, wives, husbands and children because we dont know how much more time we have on this earth, she said.

We were blessed to have been given one week to say our goodbyes.

Mrs. Marfleet said she would miss her beloved husband.

She told the audience about the time when they first got married. She said their age difference of 26 years raised a lot of eyebrows.

But thirty seven years later, age is nothing but a number, she said.

Its not about age its about how you love and respect one another. At the Office he was the boss, I was the Secretary, but at home I am the boss.

Another aspect of Mr. Marfleets life that his wife would find hard to forget is his witty sense of humour.

On his death bed when the nurse was putting on his I.V., he told the nurse, please can you inject some whiskey in there. That is how he is remembered, his sense of humour.

He also requested the doctor if he could have a beer and he did.

Mrs. Marfleet said her husband would be dearly missed for many reasons.

He loved his work, she said. Hes a peoples man and a person who did not differentiate whether youre old or young, he always had something to say to anyone he meets.

(Read the Samoa Observers tribute to Mr. Marfleet on page 13)Assault charges have been filed against the step father of the seven-year-old girl who went missing for two nights in Falelauniu.

Vaaiga Amosa, who had been missing since Wednesday, has been found but in an interesting twist, her step father faces allegations to assault and abuse.

This was confirmed by Police Superintendent and Media Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo, in response to questions from the Sunday Samoan.

The step father has been charged and will appear in Court next month, he said.

Auapaau declined to discuss the details of the matter.

However Police sources say this was the fourth time the seven-year-old left their home.

When she was found, there were bruises on her body and thats when it was uncovered the stepfather had assaulted the seven-year-old, said one Officer who did not wish to be named. On Thursday, the Police issued the alert on the missing girl.

She was found on Friday.

The S.P.S. would like to acknowledge the family who looked after the young girl in the past couple of days, the statement said.

As a precautionary measure, she has now been taken for a medical check to ensure she is fine.

Police are investigating the reason she left her family.I need peace. With this simple admission, Lepisi Lesatele echoed the sentiments of the other 44 residents living at the Mapuifagalele home for the elderly.

And in the quiet sweet serenity of Mapuifagalele grounds, the rest home is a healing sanctuary for our ailing elderly.

Sixty-six-year-old resident, Lepisi Lesatele, is originally from Sataua and she worked at the Motootua Hospital until she retired.

Last year she became a resident of Mapuifagalele rest home even though initially she met some resistance from her children about her decision.

I came last year, my children tried to stop me but I need peace, Lepisi whispered. Every day I attend mass in the morning, I pray to Jesus to show me a way to find happiness.

Im so happy here and even though I have Parkinsons disease in my body, Jesus guides me, cares for me and looks after me.

Lepisis story is not uncommon in our country.

The Home only takes in elderly residents from poor families who are in dire need and have no immediate family members to take care of their needs.

Yet, Sister Lucy says it is not easy for Samoan families to let go of their elderly even if they do not have the means to take care of them.

I can see in this country, even though people look after their elderly that is true, they have love and respect for them, said Sister Lucy.

However, some of those families are very poor, they have a lot of children and the parents have to go to work or go to the plantation and the elderly parents are not looked after properly because they are left alone.

Sister Lucy has noticed that it is becoming more common to see that the elderly are becoming handicapped very early on as poorer families struggle to take care of their aging sick parents.

At Mapuifagalele, out of 45 residents, there are only two who can walk and the rest are in wheelchairs.

They are not that old compared to the elders in New Zealand and Australia even if they get to a hundred years they can still walk, said Sister Lucy. Here you see people when they get to 50 most of them have had a stroke, they have diabetes and they are not being looked after properly by the families so they become handicapped and the families dont have the means to help the parents.

They need to be showered, changed, fed and their hair and skin needs attention, there are so many necessary things that they cant provide but we can see them when they bring their parents here, they want them to be looked after properly and to be happy.

Sister Sarah became a nun of the order in 1979 and she said that when she first started to visit the villages to care for the sick elderly, it opened her eyes to the great need by our elderly for be cared for. Through her observations, she realized that it wasnt just physical illnesses that the elderly suffered from, they also endured loneliness because they were left on their own, which distressed them.

There is a big change in the mentality of the Samoans now, you need to work and take care of the family and sometimes the elderly are left with the grandkids which is not very ideal, said Sister Sarah.

Some of the elderly get confused; its from loneliness because theres no one to talk to at home. Everyone is gone and he or she has to fend for themselves during the day while the grandkids are running around. The stress from that as well as the faalavelaves of the aiga that they listen to, it causes our elderly to stress out for their families if they know there is not enough money to meet those commitments.

Traditionally it has been our custom to take care of our elderly and the concept of a rest home can still seem like an anomaly in Samoa. However, since the migration of our people to New Zealand and other countries it became more apparent with every passing generation that an alternative solution was needed to care for the elderly left behind at home.

Instigated by Cardinal Pio Taaofinuu, who became concerned with the welfare of his ailing and aging catechists, the Bishop saw that there was a great need for the Little Sisters of the Poor and their foundation in Samoa.

In 1971, the sisters arrived and for four years began going out to the villages to care for the sick and disabled elderly while the Home was being constructed and it was during that time that people began to see how valuable their presence was.

The Little Sisters of the Poor and Mapuifagalele rest home relies solely on donations and charity for its maintenance and management.

The sisters believe, like their foundress Saint Jeanne Jugan, that it is beautiful to be poor and depend on God for everything. Even the construction of the rest home in the 1970s relied on Gods providence, according to Sister Lucy.

This home is a miracle, said Sister Lucy. We are completely dependent on God, money comes and goes  today it will be here and tomorrow it will not be there, Sister Lucy says. We live daily; we use whatever income and make use of today. If you dont have anything, ask God he will surely give because this is his work, we never get worried.

If you dont believe, you must experience. I didnt believe in this before I came into the congregation, I didnt know about the power of depending on God. I have seen with my eyes, whatever we ask of him, somebody will come to help us.

God sends help through the people or through some events; somebody comes to our rescue so sometimes we are in tears because still to this day we never struggle to continue the work. This is how we know that God is our father because we are taken care of and till today we can see a miracle keeps happening. It is beautiful.

Sister Lucy said to the Sunday Samoan that they never felt worried and that in her time she has witnessed the miracle of Gods providence many times over to know that they will always be taken care of.

The Sisters go out into the community three days a week to collect and in the 45 years that the Home has been in Samoa, Sister Lucy says that in her experience, they have never come across anyone here who has refused them and it is something that is unique about Samoan culture.

Thanks to the people only we are able to look after this house and maintain it. The people are so good in Samoa, where ever we go, the people open up their purses and they give something. If they dont have money they give us whatever they have, rice and noodles or whatever.

They can understand and they know its a must and the Samoans never say no. They never say they dont have anything; they always open their purse and give to us. I can see that they are very generous and very loving people and you dont see that often in many other countries.

A lot of different shops and businesses give us donations so that helps us to maintain the Home and pay the employees, so for that we are very grateful to the people of Samoa helping out the Home.

Sister Lucy is also thankful to the families of the residents who come to visit their elders in the home and contribute what they can in providing for their loved ones whether it be money, food or volunteering their time.

Today, the Little Sisters of the Poor continue to go out to the villages to visit and do what they can to provide assistance for the elderly and Sister Lucy admits it is hard for them to see some of the elders suffering and living in poor conditions.

According to Sister Sarah, it is their hope and mission that they are able to provide care as well as an environment where our elders may live out their final years with the dignity and peace that they deserve.

Our Home is open to all the elderly of any denominations who needs the care and we take care of them until the Lord calls them. Our Home is called the haven of peace; they have their peace in here.Several major companies - Enterprise Holdings, First National Bank of Omaha, Symantec, Hertz and Avis - have ended co-branding partnerships with the National Rifle Association as a #BoycottNRA social media movement picks up steam.

Enterprise - the parent company of car-rental brands Enterprise, Alamo and National - cut ties on Thursday, when it discontinued an arrangement that offered discounts to NRA members.

First National Bank of Omaha, one of the countrys largest privately held banks, also announced Thursday the end of a credit-card co-branding deal with the NRA. The bank had issued what its ads described as the Official Credit Card of the NRA, according to the Omaha World-Herald; the Visa card offered 5 percent back on gas and sporting goods store purchases and a $40 bonus card.

On Friday, Symantec announced in a terse statement on Twitter that it had also ended its discount program with the gun-rights organization. The company, which provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide, had been offering discounts on Norton anti-virus and malware protection, cutting prices on its premium package from $110 to $48 for NRA members.

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Another car-rental company, Hertz, soon followed suit.

Separately, insurance company Chubb Limited said Friday that it will stop underwriting NRA Carry Guard, a policy marketed to NRA members who face legal or civil lawsuits after they shoot someone. A spokesman for Chubb told Reuters that the company informed the NRA of the decision three months ago; the policy has faced criticism from gun-control groups who called it murder insurance.

The decisions came as the names of companies with NRA associations began circulating widely on the Internet and social media under the #BoycottNRA hashtag after the deadly Valentines Day attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

A gunman wielding an AR-15 rifle killed 17 people and wounded at least 14 others, drawing anguished calls for a ban on assault weapons from students and families.

The mass killing focused renewed attention on the NRA, which is credited with blocking gun-control measures for years through millions of dollars in political campaign contributions and pressure from its large membership base.

American businesses have become increasingly politically aware and have participated in boycotts over the past few years against states over LGBT rights. But the NRA is a well-funded membership operation devoted to a single cause - guns - and unlikely to be moved by the actions of companies with which it has such loose and peripheral ties.

Like many other organizations, the NRA has benefit deals with companies designed to make membership more appealing. The NRA member benefits page offers savings on a credit card, hearing aids, car rentals, travel, car purchases and prescription drugs.

FedEx, for example, gives NRA Business Alliance members up to a 26 percent discount on shipping expenses.

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FedEx has not said anything publicly about its NRA association in recent days; when reached around 4:30 ET on Friday afternoon, a company spokesperson said he had no information to provide.

Hashtags urging boycotts of specific companies involved in the deals have sprouted up across social media over the past several days. People then started posting comments on the social media platforms of many of the companies urging them to take action.

The Omaha bank appears to have been the first to respond publicly.

Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA, the bank said in a statement posted on Twitter. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.

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Enterprise followed a few hours later on Thursday. All three of our brands have ended the discount for NRA members, said a tweet on the Enterprise Rent-A-Car account.

By Friday morning, Symantec had made a similar announcement.

Then came Hertz. On Friday evening, Alice Pereira, a spokeswoman for Avis Budget Group - the company mark for Avis, Budget and Zipcar brands - confirmed that it will no longer provide the NRA member discount as of March 26.

Movers North American Van Lines and Allied Van Lines also disassociated their companies from the NRA.

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The NRA has not commented on the announcements.

However, the World-Herald quoted Rod Moeller, director of government affairs for the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association, saying that the group will be giving strong consideration to moving their accounts to a bank that hasnt bowed to political pressure.

Boycott movements have become increasingly effective political tools over the past few years. Indiana got hit hard by threatened boycotts in 2015 when then-Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation allowing businesses and individuals to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The Indiana legislature and Pence reversed the measure within two weeks.

In 2016, North Carolina was the target of a business boycott after it enacted a bathroom bill requiring transgender people to use bathrooms based on their assigned gender at birth. After the NCAA canceled tournaments in the state and PayPal decided not to build a new facility in the state, the legislation was partially repealed.

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The NRA claims 5 million members and corporate allies in the gun industry that provide the organization with tens of millions of dollars per year. The group devotes massive resources to fighting gun regulations in the name of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which protects the right to bear arms.

The Washington Posts T.J. Ortenzi and Keith McMillan contributed to this report, which has been updated.For the 38th consecutive year, the city of La Mesa has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation.

La Mesa is one of seven communities in San Diego County to be awarded the title, joined by East County neighbors El Cajon and Santee. All will be recognized later this year. There are 142 Tree City USA jurisdictions in California.

La Mesans love our trees, said City Councilman Colin Parent. Not only are they attractive, and create shade for people who walk, theyre also a part of our proposed Climate Action Plan because the urban tree canopy can filter and sequester carbon.

The designation is given to cities, towns and military bases around the country that are committed to urban forestry.

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To be considered, four requirements must be met:

A community must have a tree board or department (La Mesa has an Environmental Sustainability Commission);

It must have established a community ordinance for tree care;

It must have a community forestry program;

And it must have an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.

The Tree City USA program includes more than 3,460 towns, cities and military bases in the U.S. Ohio leads the nation with 243 jurisdictions.

La Mesa Assistant City Manager Greg Humora said La Mesa has 9,959 trees. The most popular tree in the city is the Queen Palm  1,259 in total.

Every tree has an estimated value based on species, size and age, Humora said, with the total value of all the trees at $21.7 million.

Santee will have 16 years as a Tree City USA when it is honored this year. Santee has about 9,000 trees inventoried and maintained in parks, rights-of-ways and landscape districts.

Bill Maertz, director of community services, said Santee also has 1,000 acres of riparian habitat, which averages between 100 and 150 trees per acre, along the San Diego River.

El Cajon will celebrate 21 years as a Tree City USA at its annual Arbor Day ceremony on March 24. City spokeswoman Monica Zech said the city owns more than 6,500 trees.

The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization whose mission is to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. The Tree City USA program is co-sponsored by the National Association of State Foresters and the USDA Forest Service.

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karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.comLess than a week after 17 students and teachers were killed at a Florida high school, photos of a boy brandishing a gun appeared in the social media accounts of San Marcos High School students Monday, raising alarms at the North County campus.

A day later, a 14-year-old freshman was arrested and suspended from Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, accused of making verbal and written threats.

By Friday evening, there were reports of menacing messages targeting five other San Diego campuses and one in Ramona.

In the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14, local schools are confronting a wave of violent images or messages, some shared online, some scrawled on school property.

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In each of the instances  except for the one at Torrey Pines  school and police officials concluded that the threats were not credible and warranted no arrests, but authorities quickly alerted families anyway and increased security on some campuses.

One hundred percent of the time were going to take it seriously, you have to, said Anthony Barela, principal of Vista High School, which received social media reports of a written threat left on campus Wednesday.

Schools are also taking a more active stance on potential emergencies, replacing traditional lockdown procedures with a new approach developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security known as run, hide, fight.

The strategy trains teachers, staff and students to choose the safest way off campus, or into shelter, in the event of a school shooting. And it equips them with tactics to defend themselves in the worst-case scenario, if they come fact to face with someone armed with a gun or other weapon.

Sometimes locking down isnt the best option, said Bob Mueller, executive director for student services and programs at the San Diego County Office of Education. If the assailant is on the other side of campus it may be better for me to get my kids, get out of that room and get as far away as possible.

Records from the state Department of Education for the 2016-17 academic year show the number of students disciplined for weapons possession at San Diego County schools. At the top of the list is Escondido High School, with five students suspended or expelled that year for having weapons on campus. West Hills High, Grossmont High and Monte Vista High, all in Grossmont Union High School District, each had three.

The numbers reflect not only the gravity of the issue, but the attention that educators pay it, officials said.

At Escondido we are always fairly aggressive and wanted to err on the side of caution, to keep the students safe as well as those around them said Rich Watkins, director of Pupil Services and Interventions for Escondido Union High School District and the former principal of Escondido High. Our discipline policy is more strict.

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No guns were found at Escondido High School, Watkins said. Most of the incidents involved knives, and in most cases the students didnt brandish or threaten anyone with them.

The mere fact that the students had the items was cause for discipline, regardless of intent, he said.

A knife is probably the most common, Watkins said. Some kids who got caught with them work with family members and had the knife for work, or were fishing at Lake Dixon and had a fishing knife.

The incidents reported this week didnt involve weapons, but menacing images or written messages. The first local school affected was San Marcos High School, where students reported a photo on the social media site Snapchat, showing a boy in a ski mask, with his face blurred and a gun in hand, and the text Round 2 of Florida tomorrow printed over the image.

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Police and school officials notified families and identified the person in the widely-shared image as a South Carolina student. The posts reported by San Marcos High students didnt mention the school specifically, and officials determined that it wasnt directed at the campus. But they assigned sheriffs deputies to patrol the school Tuesday as a precaution, and many parents kept their kids at home.

Attendance was about 60 percent of normal that day, Principal Adam Dawson said.

We really work closely with law enforcement, and take all of the information we receive, Superintendent Melissa Hunt said. You drill down to get the best evidence you can . We investigate, but were also prepared.

Two days later, a host of other threats cropped up at high schools around the county. The San Diego Unified School District Police Department assigned extra security at three campuses  Madison High School, Innovation Middle School and the districts Creative Performing Media Arts school  after someone reported seeing a threat on Twitter, said Jennifer Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the district.

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Another threat, deemed not to be credible, was made against San Diego High School this week.

Police officials identified a seventh-grade student who they suspect posted the message, according to a statement from the district. The Twitter post warned: Biggest shooting in history on its way. San Diegos on its way to join the trend. Be ready ha!

School police interviewed the student and determined that the threats werent credible, according to the district.

Vista High School officials launched an investigation Wednesday after students reported finding a written threat on campus about a shooting. Officials said the threat was unsubstantiated, but they took extra security precautions to be sure. On Thursday, a Vista Sheriffs patrol vehicle was parked on site, and attendance was down by about half, Barela said.

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Students who showed up said they were wary, but didnt want to miss any classes.

Elias Perez, 14, said he and his parents were scared by the threat, but he decided to go to school to avoid the absence and having to make up work.

They were a little worried, he said. They said we should pray before we go to school.

Charlie Cunningham, 17, said he didnt feel like he was in real danger because of the threat, but said hed feel safer if lawmakers enacted stricter gun regulations.

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I think we should look at other countries, and the way they regulate guns, he said. We need to start new laws, because the ones we have are too loose.

Anayetzy Nava, 17, said she saw the message as an opportunistic prank.

I think it was just a joke that they were trying to make happen so we could get a day off, she said.

On Friday, the Sheriffs Department investigated a threatening message at Steam Academy at La Presa in Spring Valley. The message, written on a bathroom wall, said there would be a school shooting that day.

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Later, deputies in Ramona reported that a student warned classmates not to come to school because there would be a shooting. Deputies interviewed the student, who said it was a hoax.

While all violent threats require attention, anonymous or generic messages are less likely to signal actual danger, said Mueller, from the county Office of Education.

When threats are very vague, theyre usually not very credible, he said. So in a general way, one of the things theyre looking at are how many specifics are there.

Details on plans, targets and victims signal more imminent danger, he said. Mass shooters typically follow a pattern of escalating behavior, starting with a real or perceived grievance, that builds into a revenge fantasy.

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The next phase would be planning, Mueller said. The revenge fantasy slowly morphs into a plan, and the assailant gets serious about what I would do, where I would do it, how I would do it? They start to research, acquire weapons, write things out. The final stage would be acting on it.

The District Attorneys Office set up a special team in 2014 that investigates and prosecutes school threat cases, and works to better understand the threats and the people who make them.

They also established a protocol that encourages schools to report threats to the District Attorneys Office in addition to law enforcement agencies. The goal is three-fold: to identify the person who made the threat, to determine whether that person has the ability and intent to carry out an attack, and to manage the threat posed by the individual.

District Attorney Summer Stephan, who prosecuted an adult gunman who wounded two second-grade girls during a 2010 shooting at Kelly Elementary in Carlsbad, said the response depends on the individual situation.

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Sometimes prosecuting a juvenile for threats is appropriate. Sometimes other tactics, including restorative justice, are more effective. Through dialogue with other kids, students may better understand how their actions affected those around them, Stephan said.

Over the past few years, the team within the District Attorneys Office has looked at about 45 cases, 25 of which resulted in the filing of felony charges. Others were resolved through other means, including restorative practices and informal monitoring.

About seven were rejected or dismissed.

In at least two of the 45 cases, Stephan said she believes intervention likely averted disastrous consequences.

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We feel thats worth it, she said. If in two of 45 cases weve helped save lives, its well-worth the effort.

Staff writer Lauryn Schroeder contributed to this report.

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deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennanA new CEO is taking the helm at North County Health Services, a nonprofit community health care provider headquartered in San Marcos with more than a dozen clinics from Ramona to Encinitas to Perris.

The nonprofits current president and CEO, Irma Cota, is retiring and handing over the reigns to Barbara (Dember) Kennedy, who starts Feb. 26.

Kennedy served as president and CEO of Northern Arizona Healthcare Verde Valley Medical Center in Arizona for nearly three years until 2015. The nonprofit Northern Arizona Healthcare system serves 700,000 patients across the northern area of Arizona and has a staff of 3,000 doctors, nurses and healthcare experts.

Kennedy has more than 20 years experience in leadership roles in the health care industry, including most recently as president and CEO of Dember Health Strategies and Consulting, where she did strategic and operational planning for hospital and health system clients.

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Kennedy is known for her commitment to improving the health of diverse communities with an emphasis on providing an outstanding patient care experience.

She prides herself on taking an innovative approach to clinical care, patient services and business operations, according to a statement from North County Health Services.

I am truly honored to be leading such an amazing organization which provides high-quality and much-needed health care services to the communities we serve, Kennedy said in a statement. I am excited to join the NCHS family and to continue to support the existing and important mission and vision of the organization while embarking upon and pursing new and innovative ways to enhance and increase our presence in North County and the Riverside area as its premier health care provider.

Cota led the nonprofit for more than two decades and spearheaded growth to 13 clinics and a workforce of more than 700 staff. The projected annual budget for 2018 is nearly $80 million, compared to $12 million when Cota started.

The nonprofit serves over 65,000 patients annually at community health centers from Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista to Escondido, Valley Center and Borrego Springs along with two mobile clinics. The 47-year-old nonprofit provides affordable health care for uninsured and underinsured community members, including transportation to clinics.

Barbara has the background and skills to ensure that NCHS remains a thriving organization, Cota said.

Visit nchs-health.orgAfter more than 30 years of churning out gourmet sausages from around the world, T&H Prime Meats and Sausage will be closing its doors on East Mission Road on Saturday. But its owner vows to return.

Dave Krohn, who bought the business in 2014, said his lease on the property expired in November but the landlord gave him a few extra months to find a new location. Unfortunately, finding a commercial kitchen that meets his needs has been harder than expected and he ultimately ran out of time.

Ive probably looked at 50 places over the past eight months and couldnt find anything that met the zoning and special requirements placed on us by the state, county and city, Krohn said. Im negotiating for a place right now but even if were able to move there it will be six months at least before we can get it open.

Krohn said that the old-fashioned, white-walled butcher shop has operated in the lot at 735 E. Mission Road for 40 years. It started out as a grocery store, then was renamed TLC Meats, and eventually T&H Meats.

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Over the years, the aging, red-roofed structure across the street from Mission Hills High School hadnt kept up with code and zoning requirements. Krohn said his landlord may need to bulldoze the building if it proves too expensive to repair.

T&H Prime Meats and Sausage employee Nick Rodrigues prepares Moroccan lamb sausages at the butcher shop in San Marcos in 2015. (Don Boomer / U-T File )

Krohn said hes been telling his customers about the impending closure and is planning to update progress on a new store via email and the stores Facebook page (facebook.com/tandhsausage/). Hes negotiating for space in a building at 1355 Grand Ave. in San Marcos, but isnt certain that it will meet the strict code and zoning requirements for working with raw meat.

Because of the uncertainty about the future, Krohn said he will have to let go his longtime staff to seek jobs elsewhere. But all of them  including butcher Armando Salazar, who has been at the shop for 40 years  have promised to return when T&H reopens.

On Friday morning, the shops meat case and freezers were still chock full of the one-of-a-kind products that have brought T&H more than 50 awards over the years. A 25 percent off sale, and buy-one-get-one-sausage deal is under way through 5 p.m. Saturday to clear out the existing inventory.

Shopper Dorothy Young of Vista was shocked on Friday morning to learn about the impending closure when she showed up at 9:30 a.m. to buy her favorite product, the Moroccan spiced lamb sausage she uses in her homemade lentil soup. She stocked up on the product to tide her over until the business finds a new home.

I really like their sausage. Its not like the packaged sausage you see at other stores. Its really hard to find lamb and theirs is very good quality and so flavorful, she said.

The Moroccan lamb sausage is one of more than 40 sausage varieties sold at the store. Other top sellers include the cherry bomb, chicken pesto, hot Italian, Swedish potato, pork apple, bratwurst, turkey apricot, spicy Cajun and sweet onion.

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The sausages were the creation of the shops former owner, Jacob Kappeler, who ran the shop for 20-plus years before selling it to Krohn in 2014 so he could retire to Washington state.

Born in Switzerland, Kappeler studied meat and sausage-making in Europe. When he emigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s, he brought along dozens of old-world sausage recipes, including one that dates to the 1600s.

Krohn is a former Camp Pendleton Marine who served two tours in Iraq, including time in Fallujah in 2004. He was a culinary school graduate working at a high-end D.C. restaurant when the Pentagon was hit on 9/11. After four years in the Marine Corps, Krohn returned to the culinary world.

He said hes heartbroken to close the store but hopes his customers will come back when he reopens.

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Its been a really hard time but we will be back, he said. Its just going to take a while.

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pam.kragen@sduniontribune.comNational City Councilwoman Alejandra Sotelo-Solis officially kicked off her campaign for mayor Thursday, pledging to fight hard for the community.

Speaking to dozens of supporters at the Downtown Abbey Club, a venue across City Hall, she touched on issues she champions, including public safety, environmental justice and small businesses.

This is what its all about: Making sure that our future is taken care of, she said, surrounded by her husband and three young daughters.

Sotelo-Solis, a Democrat who has served on the City Council since 2008, is the first candidate to emerge in the race to replace Mayor Ron Morrison.

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Elected in 2006 after serving 14 years as a councilman, Morrison is not eligible to seek re-election because he has reached his term limit.

But that could change. A proposed initiative would undo a 2004 voter-approved measure that limits the mayor to three four-year terms. The San Diego CountyRegistrar of Voters is expected to finish reviewing the petition by the end of next week. If it collected the 2,200 signatures needed, the City Council then would choose whether to place the measure on the June or November ballot.

If the measure appears on the June ballot and passes, Morrison would be able to seek a fourth consecutive term in November.

Sotelo-Solis, who has been public about her intentions to run for mayor since last year, was endorsed during her campaign kick-off event by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, state Treasurer John Chiang and the National City Firefighters Association.

Shes always on the right side (of issues), said Gonzalez Fletcher. Shes always a progressive warrior.

Rendon, who represents southeastern Los Angeles County, said he met Sotelo-Solis before she became a mother and councilwoman.

Whats always been consistent about her is her commitment to the community, he said.

A political science graduate of UC San Diego, Sotelo-Solis is the director of the universitys Community Law Project, a student organization that focuses on law, public policy and advocacy.

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The third-generation National City resident serves as a liturgical minister at St. Anthony Catholic Church in National City.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandezFor Sonja Robinson, its important to share the socially conscious work that shes passionate about with the next generation. Her son occasionally joins her at community outreach events, and its important to her to help inform people about choices that could improve their quality of life.

The way of the creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony, she says, quoting Alexander Pope on why she wanted to work with Greenpower and the San Diego Community Choice Alliance. I want to help bring the highest good for all people in our community.

As a clean energy organizer with Greenpower, a non-profit thats one of a number of members of the alliance, she works on strategies to increase awareness about community choice energy programs that offer publicly run energy alternatives to existing utility providers.

Robinson, whos in her 40s and lives in Mission Valley, took some time to talk about her work and her passion for the environment and helping inform others.

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Q: Tell us about the San Diego Community Choice Alliance.

A: The San Diego Community Choice Alliance was first formed by local non-profits and businesses gathering support for community choice energy (CCE) in San Diego, groups like SD350, Climate Action Campaign, Business for Good and Sullivan Solar. My organization, Greenpower, joined in the fall of 2017. Faced with some of the highest electricity rates in the state and the country, weve now grown the alliance to include several member organizations and a long list of supporters. All members of the alliance work every day with the knowledge that adopting community choice energy in 2018 can accelerate our transition to a local, clean energy economy that drives innovation, creates jobs and benefits businesses and families. Our purpose is to enact CCE as soon as possible and propel San Diego toward its Climate Action Plan-mandated, 100 percent-renewable goal and its clean energy future.

Q: What is your role with the organization?

A: I work for one of the core members in the alliance, Greenpower, which is part of a larger non-profit called the Romero Institute, an interfaith law and policy center located in Santa Cruz. Greenpower was created to combat what we see as the human familys biggest existential threat: climate change. For the past two years, we have worked to educate and advocate for community choice energy programs throughout California, and we led public education and outreach for Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP) up north, helping double the number of cities for its launch. Greenpower is working diligently with the San Diego alliance to educate and organize with faith communities and in southeast San Diego, where we believe community choice energy can have the biggest and most positive impact.

Q: What are your responsibilities in this role?

A: I help Greenpower and the alliance to develop and implement strategic plans to increase the level of awareness and support for community choice energy throughout communities in our city. This is expressed through educating the public, which includes our community members and elected officials through presentations, all for the purpose of gaining support for these programs.  My job is really to educate people in San Diego about CCE, how it works and what it can do for our city. And I help build the political will to make sure it gets done.

What I love about Mission Valley ...

The feeling of community and regular communal gathering celebrations via festivals, etc. I enjoy the walkability of my area with the terrain and scenery. I often walk rather than drive to take care of errands. Walking is beneficial for our environment and its good exercise.

Q: Why was this a position you were interested in?

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A: I wanted to be a part of a great group of people helping the city to reach its Climate Action Plan renewable energy goal of 100 percent by 2035. For me, helping to provide and being able to serve this community by addressing its specific needs gives me purpose.

Q: What, exactly, is community choice energy?

A: It gives residents and businesses a choice in who provides our electricity with publicly run alternatives to the existing utility company. It can provide cleaner energy at more affordable rates. More than 100 communities throughout California have formed or joined community choice energy programs.

Q: How does this function?

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A: Once the city launches its program, every electricity customer can choose to get his or her energy from the CCE or stay with the existing utility company, which will continue to maintain the grid, deliver the energy and service customers as normal either way.

Q: Why is this kind of work important to you?

A: I am motivated to help enact benefits for the greater good. This helps to bring me in harmony with my moral order and purpose.

Q: Where did your passion for the environment come from?

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A: Ive always appreciated and felt a connection with the environment and nature. Approximately 10 years ago, I was encouraged by a senior manager to join the Green Team at the local firm office where I was then employed. I became the editor-in-chief for our local office Green Team newsletter. Writing articles on environmental sustainability made me aware of my impact on our planet and motivated me to make some changes and be my best self.

Q: Whats been challenging about your work over the years?

A: Ive noticed a cognitive dissonance from others who express a desire to find solutions to problems, yet show resistance and, at times, even attempt to sabotage the best solutions that can benefit themselves and others.

Q: Whats been rewarding about your work?

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A: I love contributing to the possibility of improving at least once aspect of the quality of life for San Diegans through energy democracy. Revolutionizing how San Diego generates electricity is a movement of importance and, if youll forgive the word play, power. I also love working with a team with the alliance, community leaders and others around our city that bring their A-game to make a difference for others.

Q: What has it taught you about yourself?

A: Helping others is a part of my DNA. Through the expression of helping others, Im living congruent to my truest self.

Q: What is the best advice youve ever received?

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A: My dad always told me that, One choice is no choice; you always have a choice in everything you do.

Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?

A: Im often described as bubbly, optimistic and outgoing, which are all characteristics of an extrovert. As much as I am a people person, I would say I have a pronounced introverted side. Ive always been a dedicated subscriber to my me time for as long as I can remember, and the frequency of that kind of time seems to have increased. I guess I balance my duties as an organizer with being a bit more introverted than others might guess.

Q: Describe your ideal San Diego weekend.

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A: This is somewhat difficult for me to answer because theres so much to experience in San Diego. What would make an ideal weekend? Ill go with spending countless hours at the beach, just admiring the ocean in a meditative way, like a beach bum. That usually seems to hit the spot.

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Email: lisa.deaderick@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @lisadeaderickA military court has upbraided a Marine two-star general at Camp Pendleton for unlawfully meddling in a court-martial case against a non-commissioned officer accused of abusing his troops.

In a ruling issued last week overturning the court-martial conviction of Sgt. Jaime Ortiz of 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington, D.C., found that Maj. Gen. Eric M. Smith went too far in his crackdown against hazing throughout 1st Marine Division by committing unlawful command influence.

Called the mortal enemy of military justice, unlawful command influence occurs when senior leaders coerce parties in a court-martial case, jeopardize the appellate process or undermine the morale, respect and public confidence in the armed forces by appearing to pressure others to tip the scales of justice.

Prosecutors had alleged that Ortiz conspired with fellow noncommissioned officers to haze five junior Marines by forcing them to get special haircuts and pressing their metal rank insignia into their chests. Marines also were ordered to perform unauthorized physical punishment and Ortiz was accused of punching two of them in the chest, according to court filings.

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The Marines have tried to eradicate hazing for five years. In 2013, former Marine commandant Gen. James Amos issued an anti-hazing order that was designed to track and stamp out abuse throughout the Corps.

Two years earlier, a lance corporal committed suicide after fellow Marines beat him for falling asleep on watch, an incident authorities concluded was a form of hazing.

On Nov. 11  Veterans Day  Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, a Parris Island drill instructor, was convicted of abusing recruits, especially Muslim volunteers. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and will exit the service as a private with a dishonorable discharge.

Smith took command of 1st Marine Division on June 22. Echoing Amos, one of his first acts was issuing his Commanding Generals Policy Statement on Hazing. It called on his commanders to involuntarily discharge anyone found to have abused lower ranking troops.

That order has so far triggered 18 administrative separations, according to 1st Marine Division spokesman Capt. Paul M. Gainey.

On July 11 and 12, Smith sent a series of emails to commanders, their senior enlisted leaders and his military legal team to urge them to take immediate actions to curtail hazing, adding that abusing the troops was a sign of disrespect to their commandant and fellow Marines who were fighting and dying overseas.

Comparing all Marines and sailors in his command to his sons and daughters, Smith told them that hed reviewed five hazing allegations during the week, a sum that was a red star cluster for me. He termed the abuse THE single biggest issue I have, and that word does not seem to be getting down to all hands.

Smith wrote that he was huddling up with his division leadership to determine how to tamp this brush fire down before it takes off into a full fledged forest fire. That said, each of these events allegedly happened in our battalion areas. That tells me we are not providing the supervision required and those who would haze have no fear of reprisal or being caught. That stops today.

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Even if Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents were still probing the allegations, Smith urged his commanders to never wait and instead take action.

(T)he Marine Corps owns the barracks, not a few salty (lance corporals) who probably cant fight their way out of a wet paper sack. Were the (1st Marine Division), victors at Guadalcanal, and were reduced to dealing with jackassery from a few (lance corporals) who think they are in charge. That will be proven wrong ASAP, he wrote.

Ortiz was arrested on July 13 and placed into pretrial confinement alongside 20 other Marines.

He was charged on Aug. 7. Eight days later, Smith convened a court-martial against him and Ortizs attorneys immediately filed a motion to quash the case, arguing that the general had strayed from unbiased justice to become a direct accuser.

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Under military law, generals are barred from convening trials against Marines if they have a direct, personal stake in the case.

The trial judge agreed with the defense attorneys and moved to to vacate Ortizs case without prejudice, which means that military prosecutors can try him again.

The judge also disqualified Smith from any future role in Ortizs case, meaning another general in a different command would need to start the entire process over if they still wanted to go after the sergeant.

Prosecutors appealed the decision on Nov. 7.

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Writing for the appellate tribunal, Judge Col. K. Scott Woodard said that some things Smith did during his anti-hazing crackdown were lawful, like expressing disdain for abuse and noting its cancerous effects on operational readiness, good order and discipline within the Corps.

But Woodard also pointed to everything else Smith did to compromise the case: So irked by the alleged abusers, Smith sought to show them who was the boss, even if investigators had not finished their probes. He transformed their alleged misconduct into personal rebukes of him, the commandant and Marines who had recently died on duty. He threatened to shut down all training in the division in order to address hazing.

And most troubling, he let everyone know that he was personally offended by those who were accused of hazing, because they had just . . . flipped (him) the bird and he was headed their way to show them how unwise that decision and action was within his command, Woodard wrote.

Smith declined an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, but his spokesman Gainey reiterated that his division would continue to go after Marines alleged to have abused their troops.

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Hazing is contrary to our core values and is prejudicial to good order and discipline, he said in an email to the newspaper. It threatens the strength of our small units and directly impacts our combat readiness. Hazing is not acceptable in the 1st Marine Division. Any hazing will be investigated and adjudicated appropriately.

He pointed to Smiths Supplemental Guidance on Hazing issued to the division on Aug. 30, shortly after defense attorneys filed a motion warning him that hed gone too far.

I have a strong personality and am in a position of authority, so I am obligated to ensure that none of you interpret my message against hazing as directing any specific outcome for any particular case, Smith wrote. More important than my desire to stamp out hazing is our collective requirement to adhere to our constitution and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I would never attempt to influence anyones decisions regarding a specific case, and if anyone were to perceive that I was doing so, that person is obligated to ignore that influence and do what is right. I do not require or expect a specific disposition, outcome, or sentence in any administrative or military justice case. 

A Texan, Smith joined the Marines in 1987. He fought in the 1991 war against Iraq and conducted rescue operations in Liberia. He served on two combat deployments to Iraq between 2003 and 2006 and another to Afghanistan in 2012.

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Military prosecutors have not determined whether they will continue their case against Ortiz.

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cprine@sduniontribune.comIn an awkward onstage appearance this week, Gov. Bruce Rauner drank a glass of chocolate milk to demonstrate his belief in diversity.

Its really, really good, Rauner said after taking a sip of the sugary drink. Diversity!

The clunky corporate metaphor was the brainchild of Hyatt Hotels diversity and inclusion executive Tyronne Stoudemire, who appeared alongside Rauner on Wednesday at the downtown Chicago Thompson Center to discuss workplace diversity at a Black History Month event.

Enlisting Rauner as his lanky magicians assistant, Stoudemire, who is black, poured a glass of milk to represent the white men who lead most organizations (including, um, the state of Illinois).

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This chocolate syrup represents diversity, Stoudemire said, before squirting a healthy dash of brown syrup that immediately sank to the bottom of the glass.

When you look at most organizations, diversity sits at the bottom of the organization, Stoudemire continued. You dont get inclusion until you actually stir it up.

Rauner then stirred the syrup into the milk, turning it brown, and he took a sip and pronounced it good.

Diversity is the mix, and inclusion is making the mix work, Stoudemire said, concluding his analogy.

Stoudemire told Chicago Inc. hes been using the chocolate milk stunt for 16 years as a simple way to illustrate the lack of diversity at the top of Fortune 500 companies. He typically picks on the most powerful person in the room to be his assistant, he said, adding that Rauner didnt know what he was getting into.

He declined to comment on Rauners efforts to improve diversity in Illinois government, but said, I give him credit for his willingness to step up and put himself out there  he could have said, No. 

Rauners spokeswoman Rachel Bold did not respond directly when asked whether Rauner was embarrassed by the stunt, but wrote in a statement, This was the event moderators example of diversity that an audience of all ages could see and understand. It was one of two demonstrations at the event, both of which received ovations from the crowd.

I swear to god I just witnessed Illinois Gov. Rauner stir Hershey's syrup into milk, and take a big sip to symbolize his commitment to diversity. pic.twitter.com/E3rOFZ6wuC  Adrian (@blagojevism) February 21, 2018

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kjanssen@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @kimjnews

RELATED

Johnson: After Gov. Rauners chocolate milk incident, a handy guide to beverage politics 

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Rauner budget proposal at odds with re-election rhetoric 

Rauner wants lawmakers help to cut state workers health insurance by $470 million 

Rauner re-evaluating whether to move veterans out of Quincy home after more Legionnaires cases It was the homeless with hepatitis A and older people with the flu. Now, the next public health threat has newborns in its crosshairs.

Fresh from the fight against two deadly vaccine-preventable outbreaks, San Diegos public health leaders arent taking any chances with whooping cough, also known as pertussis.

They are warning that, if historical patterns hold, 2018 could see epidemic levels of the highly contagious respiratory disease that is particularly deadly for the youngest among us.

However, just as is the case with hepatitis and the flu, there is plenty that can be done to safeguard the most vulnerable.

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While more widespread vaccination against the two recent threats would surely have slowed or even prevented many cases and deaths, preventing whooping cough in the very young is a little different.

Babies dont get their first dose of DTaP, the vaccine that prevents pertussis infection, until theyre two months old, and it takes three more shots  delivered at four months, six months and 15 to 18 months of age  for immunity to reach a peak of 70 to 90 percent.

Because protection isnt fully established until the second year of life, the strategy is to start building their defenses before birth, explained Dr. Mark Sawyer, an infectious disease specialist at Rady Childrens Hospital.

The evidence is good that when you vaccinate the mother in the third trimester of her pregnancy, she builds up antibodies that are then transferred to the baby through the placenta, Sawyer said. Its the best way to give young babies a better chance in that period of time before they can get on the regular vaccination schedule, and thats why we recommend it so much.

But thats not always happening.

A state report from the California Department of Public Health interviewed 66 mothers in 2016 whose babies contracted whooping cough infections within the first four months of life. Thirty-nine of those  59 percent  were not vaccinated between 27 weeks and 36 weeks gestation, the traditional third trimester definition.

While the surveyors were not able to get full information on why each of those mothers wasnt vaccinated, nine declined and six had medical reasons why they shouldnt be vaccinated, ranging from receiving the vaccine during her last pregnancy to being sick during the doctors visit where the vaccine would have been administered.

These trends are getting extra attention this year from the county Health and Human Services Agency, which predicts that there is a good chance of a whooping cough epidemic this year.

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The states last two whooping cough epidemics occurred in in 2010 and 2014, with 9,000 11,000 cases, respectively. Though researchers dont know exactly why, whooping cough infection is cyclical with surges of new cases occurring every three to five years. That means, county officials warned, an epidemic is due in 2018 or 2019.

Epidemic concerns have driven local public health officials to meet with local pediatricians and obstetricians recently to urge vaccination in the final trimester of pregnancy, and the county is launching a media campaign to try and bring attention to the issue.

Given what is known about the overall low whooping cough vaccination rate among pregnant women, its clear that addressing the issue now can save lives, said Dr. Eric McDonald, chief of the countys Epidemiology and Immunization Services Branch.

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The number of mothers who got pertussis vaccinations when they were supposed to is lower than it should be, and were working to change that, McDonald said.

Whooping cough starts out as a runny nose and, usually, a low-grade fever. After one to two weeks, a severe cough develops and lasts for up to 10 weeks. Coughing bouts can be so severe that a person runs out of breath, eventually sucking in air so forcefully that they cause the distinctive whoop that gave pertussis its common name. Though people sometimes break ribs from severe coughing, the most common cause of death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a secondary bacterial infection of the lungs, usually pneumonia.

The data shows clearly that infants come down with whooping cough at much higher rates than adults and elementary school-aged kids.

In 2017, California saw a whooping cough infection rate of 97 cases per 100,000 residents for babies age four months and younger compared to only 1.5 cases per 100,000 for adults age 18 to 64, according to the California Department of Public Health.

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The difference was even more pronounced last year in San Diego County where there were 243 cases per 100,000 among kids age six months and younger compared to 5 cases per 100,000 adults.

Severe illness is also more common for the youngest.

According to the CDPH report, 75 percent of whooping cough intensive-care unit cases last year were age four months or younger. Though no children died from pertussis infection in San Diego County last year, whooping cough killed three-week-old Jaxon Rodgers of San Diego on July 15, 2016.

The babys father told ABC News in 2016 that the boys mother received the vaccine only one week before his birth. But it takes at least two weeks for a vaccine to significantly boost a mothers immune system enough to have a protective effect on her unborn child.

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San Diego County is something of a hotbed for whooping cough.

According to the states report, the 1,011 cases that San Diego County reported to the state last year were 2.5 times more than the 390 San Diego County cases reported in 2016 and the most of any county in the state for 2017. As of last week, 56 pertussis cases had already been confirmed across the region for 2018, four more than the same period last year.

Going back to 2011, its clear that San Diego has consistently had higher whooping cough numbers than the state as a whole.

Why is this the case?

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McDonald said that San Diegos data collection apparatus is probably better than it is in many other places. The epidemics of 2010 and 2014, he said, taught pediatricians to be good at spotting whooping cough infections. But, even with differences in detection methods and overall thoroughness of the medical community, McDonald said local whooping cough rates still look quite high.

I think things just happen to be worse here, McDonald said. The true measure of that is that our rate of infection for children under four months is so much higher here than the rest of the state.

San Diego County is also known to have pockets of low childhood vaccination uptake, especially in schools with highly-educated parents who may be suspicious of possible vaccine side effects.

It was not clear whether high school-age vaccination exemption rates correlates with higher-than-average rates of pregnant women declining vaccination in their third trimesters.

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McDonald said that the countys electronic vaccination record does not document whether a pregnant woman declined vaccination, so its not clear, beyond the states more narrow study of women whose young babies were infected, what the true rate of third-trimester vaccination is.

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paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsissonA rumor of a planned shooting Friday at a Ramona school turned out to be a hoax, authorities said, after deputies tracked the rumor back to a student who admitted it was a fabrication.

News of the unsettling rumor came as schools across the country grapple with fears of school shootings, a fear heightened after 17 people were shot and killed in a Florida high school last week. Closer to home, San Diego police arrested a 14-year-old Torrey Pines freshman on Thursday, two days after he was suspended for making threats.

On Friday, sheriffs officials said they learned of possible threatened shooting at Ramona High School.

Lt. Jerry Hartman said in a news release that deputies and school staffers interview several students about the rumor, and learned that one student had told several others not attend school Friday because there was going to be a shooting.

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That student cooperated with deputies and said that the threat was a hoax, Hartman said.

Authorities urge anyone with information about potential threats to notify the Sheriffs Department immediately. Anonymous tips can be left by calling Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477, or send by email or text via www.sdcrimestoppers.org.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTPolice with San Diego Unified suspect threats made against four schools on social media this week were made by a seventh grade student in the district.

No arrest has been made, and the district is investigating whether to recommend formal charges and other disciplinary action.

Although the threats were quickly determined to be non-credible, they followed a mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left many people on edge, and the district sent additional officers to the schools named in the threats this week.

The suspected student was identified two days after Facebook and Snapchat messages were posted about a potential shooting at Creative Performing Media Arts Middle School, Madison High School, San Diego High School and the School of Creative and Performing Arts.

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The district first became aware of an anonymous social media threat made against Madison High School and Creative Performing Media Arts Middle School on Wednesday.

A similar message was posted the next day against San Diego High School and the School of Creative and Performing Arts.

The post stated, in part: Biggest shooting in history on its way. San Diegos on its way to join the trend. Be ready ha!

School police determined that the threats were non-credible after interviewing the student.

These types of comments are no joking matter, and they come with consequences, said Michael Marquez, district police chief. There are consequences in terms of student discipline, and there are consequences in terms of unnecessarily increasing anxiety and fear in the community,

The student was apparently inspired by similar false threats of school violence posted and re-posted on social media nationwide in recent days.

Superintendent Cindy Marten commended school police for their commitment to keep schools safe and secure for students and staff.

The safety and security of our students is the districts top priority, Marten said. Our school police work with educators every day to ensure that they have a safe learning environment.

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School safety begins at home with establishing a foundation of communication with your children, she continued. Talk to your children, monitor their social media and engage in dialogue about the consequences of their words and actions.

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Homeless Playlist  On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939Richard W. Gates III, who helped manage Donald Trumps presidential campaign after making millions of dollars advising Ukraines pro-Kremlin government, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal agents, becoming the latest former Trump aide to cooperate with prosecutors in the sprawling Russia investigation.

The guilty plea is unusual because court papers reveal that Gates lied to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the FBI as recently as Feb. 1, when he already was negotiating with prosecutors about the raft of criminal charges he was facing.

Gates original three lawyers applied to withdraw from the case the same day, a hint of a behind-the-scenes personal drama that preceded Fridays denouement. Gates, 45, looked haggard, with dark circles under his eyes, when he appeared in court before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Gates is the fifth person to plead guilty to charges stemming from the Mueller probe, and the first to confess to more than one criminal charge. While Gates could face more than five years in prison on the two charges, he is expected to be sentenced to about 18 months, according to a person familiar with the plea negotiations.

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Mueller has proven adept at securing cooperation from Trumps former associates as he investigates Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and whether anyone in the Trump campaign assisted in that operation or committed other potential crimes, including obstruction of justice while in the White House.

Gates plea poses the biggest immediate risk to Paul Manafort, who was Trumps campaign manager and Gates longtime business partner.

Prosecutors had filed several dozen charges against Manafort and Gates, including tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiracy, mostly stemming from their alleged attempts to hide more than $30 million from their consulting and lobbying work for the Kremlin-backed government in Ukraine.

They both pleaded not guilty when the first indictment was unveiled on Oct. 30. Gates now is expected to testify against Manafort, who said Friday that he is innocent of the charges.

Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence, Manafort said in a statement. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.

Several hours later, the special counsels office unveiled a superseding indictment against Manafort that also accused him of secretly paying former European politicians to advocate for Ukraine, part of an undisclosed effort to lobby members of Congress and the Obama administration.

None of the charges against Gates and Manafort cite Russian meddling in the presidential election, which was the impetus for Muellers investigation. But the allegations extended through 2017 and thus overlapped with the pairs work in the top ranks of the Trump campaign, according to court documents.

Its unknown whether Gates has more to offer beyond testimony against Manafort. He served as a senior advisor to the Trump campaign after Manafort stepped down as campaign manager in August 2016, helped organize Trumps inauguration in January 2017, and had access to the White House as an outside advisor in the early weeks of the administration.

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Gates guilty plea marks an emphatic fall for the married father of four. The son of a career Army officer, Gates had maintained an appearance of wealthy prestige while living in an upscale neighborhood of Richmond, Va.

After breaking with his original three lawyers, Gates was represented by Thomas C. Green, who negotiated the plea deal with two prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann and Greg D. Andres, from Muellers team. The Times first reported an expected deal on Sunday.

Gates is scheduled to return to court on May 14 for a status hearing.

Gates guilty plea for lying to investigators stems from his account of a dinner discussion on March 19, 2013, between Manafort and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), who has been a strong advocate for better U.S. relations with Russia.

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Three weeks ago, as he was negotiating his plea deal, Gates told the FBI that Manafort and an unnamed lobbyist had told him they didnt talk to Rohrabacher about Ukraine.

But, according to a court filing Friday, Gates had helped Manafort prepare a report that memorialized for Ukraine leadership the pertinent Ukraine discussions that Manafort represented had taken place at the meeting.

Last year, Manafort and Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and a partner in the Mercury Public Affairs firm in Washington, filed belated reports to the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, listing the Rohrabacher meeting as part of their lobbying work on behalf of Ukraine government interests.

Rohrabacher acknowledged to The Times in an interview last year that he had discussed Russian and regional issues at what he called a nice little dinner at the Capitol Hill Club. Three days after the meeting, Manafort contributed $1,000 to Rohrabachers reelection campaign.

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Rohrabacher declined to comment when contacted by a reporter on Friday, saying, I cant do any interviews off the cuff before hanging up.

Weber did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A statement from Mercury said Gates lied to the firm about the Ukraine effort, adding that its cooperating with prosecutors and confident [they] have acted appropriately throughout.

Rohrabacher spokesman Ken Grubbs said Friday that Ukraine only came up in passing because the men reminisced and talked mostly about politics.

As the congressman has acknowledged before, the meeting was a dinner with two longtime acquaintances  Manafort and Weber  from back in his White House and early congressional days, Grubbs said in an email. It is no secret that Manafort represented [then-Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovychs interests, but as chairman of the relevant European subcommittee, the congressman has listened to all points of view on Ukraine. We may only speculate that Manafort needed to report back to his client that Ukraine was discussed.

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The Podesta Group, a firm with high-level Democratic connections, also last year reported doing lobbying work for the Ukraine interests under Manaforts direction. Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta was the chairman of Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign, left the firm after the initial indictment of Manafort and Gates last year. The firm disbanded soon after. A spokesman for Tony Podesta declined to comment.

Follow live coverage of the Trump administration on Essential Washington 

In two major indictments, prosecutors painted a detailed picture of how Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts to illegally funnel tens of millions of dollars into the United States to purchase real estate and finance luxury lifestyles.

Their income dried up after political unrest forced Yanukovych to flee to Russia in 2014, and the indictment says they turned to fraud to obtain more than $20 million in loans.

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Mueller was appointed last May and has already scored several notable successes.

Former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on Dec. 1 to lying to investigators about his communications with a Russian diplomat during the presidential transition. He admitted to discussing sanctions that former President Obama had implemented to punish Moscow for meddling in the campaign.

George Papadopoulos, a former campaign foreign policy advisor, also pleaded guilty to lying last year. He had falsely denied contacts with Russians who claimed to have thousands of emails on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Alex van der Zwaan, a former attorney at a prominent U.S. law firm who worked on a report on behalf of Ukraines pro-Russia government, pleaded guilty on Tuesday. He had lied to investigators about his communications with Gates.

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A separate indictment from Muellers team last week charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies with illegally using social media, stolen IDs and other tactics in an effort to sway U.S. voters to support Trump and vote against Clinton.

Richard Pinedo, a California resident, pleaded guilty to identity theft as part of that investigation.

Times correspondent Sarah D. Wire contributed to this report.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

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Twitter: @chrismegerian

david.willman@latimes.com

Twitter: @DWillmanNews

joseph.tanfani@latimes.com

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Twitter: @jtanfani

ALSO

For Trumps national security team, addressing the threats means ignoring the tweets

Russia investigation leads to guilty plea for lawyer linked to Trumps former campaign aides

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UPDATES:

4:30 p.m.: This article was updated with details from the court hearing.

1:35 p.m.: This article was updated with details about Gates lying to the FBI.

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12:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Manafort.

11:45 a.m.: This article was updated with Gates pleading guilty.

This article was originally published at 9:35 a.m.Californias cities  big and small  have a huge homeless crisis. The problems go far beyond San Diego and its recent deadly hepatitis A outbreak.

Nevertheless, there are two strong reasons for Gov. Jerry Brown to reject out of hand a bipartisan bill that calls for the state to provide $1.5 billion of its budget surplus to 11 cities, including San Diego, that would be required to match the funds to address homelessness, a situation that now affects more than 134,000 Californians by the 2017 federal count.

One reason is the urgent need to pump up the states rainy-day fund as much as possible. If the Legislative Analysts Office forecast is correct, the state can expect $7.5 billion in additional revenue this fiscal year. But as Brown has repeatedly said, state revenue goes up and down like a roller coaster because of the states overdependence on income and capital-gains taxes. The last downturn in 2008-09, revenue fell 19 percent, from $103 billion to $83 billion, leading to huge cuts in public schools and many services. That painful memory is why the Legislature heeded Browns push to boost the rainy-day fund  and why his sagacity will be missed.

The second reason is the possibility that a lot of the $1.5 billion would be wasted. There is little evidence that cities have adopted best practices to deal with homelessness, building on successes seen in Houston and Utah. No matter how big a problem it is, state lawmakers should be loath to throw money at the issue unless they have confidence public funds would be well-spent. The bill speaks vaguely of innovative solutions. Lets see them first.

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Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionEvery Californian should welcome the collapse of attempts to recall Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for his sin of shelving Senate Bill 562. That bill would have committed the state to adopting single-payer health care without explaining how the vast cost would be covered, how state constitutional obstacles would be overcome and how necessary federal waivers would be obtained from a Trump administration that is hostile to the Golden State.

Yet one Californian who still ardently supports Senate Bill 562 is Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the governors race in several opinion polls. At a Thursday night debate in San Diego among four Democratic gubernatorial candidates here for a state party convention, Newsom embraced a state switch to a single-payer system and ripped defeatist Democrats, such as rivals Antonio Villaraigosa and John Chiang, who are more circumspect about the plans details and financing.

Newsom may think his glib applause line gives him the moral high ground, but it doesnt. Asked how hed fund it Thursday, he raved about the prospect without answering the question. An analysis released last April that estimated a single-payer system would cost $400 billion a year  more than triple the states general-fund budget  should have led all proponents to explain how this immense tab would be covered and by whom. Its detail No. 1.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionDont be fooled by the cute-looking ball of fur with dark button eyes  the nutria is a menace to be reckoned with, according to the state of California.

The states Department of Fish and Wildlife earlier this month declared war on the invasive rodent species formally known by its scientific name, Myocastor coypus. The agencys goal: to eradicate it from the state. Completely.

But how, you may ask, could such a cute-looking creature be a menace worthy of the states bureaucratic powers? Heres what you should know about the nutria.

How the nutria is different from a beaver and a muskrat. Courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife

What is nutria and where does it come from?

The nutria is a semi-aquatic rodent that can be found in wetlands, rivers, canals and other freshwater habitats, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife says.

The animal resembles a beaver or a muskrat, but it is distinguishable by a short, bald tail. They can grow to be as long as 2.5 feet and weigh as much as 20 pounds. It is native to South America.

What the agency would also like you to know is that this is not a rat and it is illegal to adopt one. And no, this is not the rodent known on the internet as shower rat.

Why is the nutria a threat to California?

The agency says that, if allowed to spread and breed in the state, the nutria will severely impact Californias resources, causing the loss of wetlands, severe soil erosion, damage to agricultural crops and levees and reduced stability of banks, dikes and roadbeds.

In short, they chew their way through wetlands and irrigation canals. Additionally, the nutria damage water quality, contaminating it with parasites and diseases that can sicken humans, livestock and pets.

Are the nutria invading only California?

State officials told NPR they have no idea how the rodents got re-introduced in California. The state eradicated them back in 1965, but somehow theyve re-emerged, a spokesman told NPR.

The rodents have also invaded other states in the Pacific Northwest and in Louisiana, where officials say they have given up on eradicating them.

What do you do if you see one?

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has set up a hotline for Californians to report the creatures. The agency encourages people to photograph and report the rodents immediately.

An agency spokesman told NPR the state doesnt want people to kill them, which is a far cry from what Louisiana state officials encourage their citizens to do: catch em, kill em and cook em. You read that correctly  the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries even has a page with recipes for cooking nutria.

Only question remaining: is the nutria nutritious?

Have some thoughts to share?

Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.After being delayed by a rare and intense July storm, the process of launching the replica Spanish galleon San Salvador began early Wednesday as the ship was lifted onto a barge that carried it out into the San Diego Bay.

The handcrafted ship, a replica of explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillos Spanish flagship, will eventually join the Star of India and other historic ships at the Maritime Museum on the San Diego waterfront.

Hoots of Hip-hip-hooray could be heard as the San Salvador was moved off the land on a warm, cloudy morning. A small group of spectators surrounded Spanish Landing, the bayside park near the airport where the ship has been under construction since 2011.

 On Wednesday July 22nd, 2015. The handcrafted ship, a replica of explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillos Spanish flagship, will eventually join the Star of India and other historic ships at the Maritime Museum on the San Diego waterfront

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Among them was Paul Skoczelas of Rancho Penasquitos, there on his third time trying to witness the move of the San Salvador, now with his daughter and two grandchildren. His three-year-old grandsons eyes were glued to the ship.

The little guy loves watching the crane and he didnt want to leave until the boat left the corner, he said. Its just a fun thing for the city.

 After years of planning and preparation, a six and a half million dollar replica of the San Salvador finally Spanish Landing on July 22, 2015.

Before the galleon could be launched, it had to be moved to deeper waters  no small feat for a vessel that weighs nearly 200 tons.

Last week, crews at the Spanish Landing construction site began the careful and deliberate process of lifting the San Salvador and turning it 90 degrees. The plan was to have it transferred onto the barge to carry it to a south bay boatyard on Sunday evening, but tropical storm Dolores pummeled San Diego with record-breaking rainfall and high temperatures, which slowed down the crews progress and postponed the launch.

We are keenly aware that delays in the launch of the San Salvador are unfortunate, but only increase our anticipation for the day she finally meets the Pacific Ocean, museum CEO Ray Ashley said in a statement Sunday morning.

That day is now a lot closer.

Sunday wasnt the first time the full-sized replica was scheduled to be moved from the shallow waters surrounding Spanish Landing. (Full size means 92-foot long and 24-feet wide. Its made of dense, wood drawn from three continents, with 18 tons of lead in its keel.)

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The Museum had planned for the ship to open as a paid attraction in 2012. But building it took years longer than estimated, and a handful of previous launch attempts presented logistic nightmares for museum staffers, who had to find dates and times favorable for the required low-tide that coincided with times when no cruise ships were in port.

Last April, unanticipated technical complications canceled the museums plans to move the vessel by truck to a launch site near Harbor Drive. Museum vice president and San Salvador project manager Mark Montijo explained that the vessels weight was underestimated by 20 tons and it was found to be too heavy to be lifted by crane.

1 / 20 Surrounded by scaffolding to access the ship, the Maritime Museum of San Diegos project to recreate the Spanish galleon San Salvador is making steady progress on the shore of San Diego bay across from the airport. The complex wooden ship is being funded with donations and a small staff and lots of volunteers. (John Gibbins) 2 / 20 L-r, Mike Riley and Patrick Osborne, staff carpenters on the San Salvador project, aligned top timbers on the after castle of the ship. (John Gibbins) 3 / 20 Surrounded by scaffolding to access the ship, the Maritime Museum of San Diegos project to recreate the Spanish galleon San Salvador is making steady progress on the shore of San Diego bay across from the airport. The complex wooden ship is being funded with donations and a small staff and lots of volunteers. (John Gibbins) 4 / 20 Boatbuilders working on the Spanish Galleon El Salvador which is being built by the Maritime Museum of San Diego at Spanish Landing park across from the airport, lifted the last set of full ribs on to the ship on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 . (John Gibbins) 5 / 20 Don Davis pounded a trunnel, or tree nail in to a section of the last full rib, to go in to the ship. Volunteer John Kerley, rear, looked on. (John Gibbins) 6 / 20 Boatbuilders working on the Spanish Galleon El Salvador which is being built by the Maritime Museum of San Diego at Spanish Landing park across from the airport, placed the last set of full ribs on to the ship on Wednesday, February 15, 2012. (John Gibbins) 7 / 20 Boatbuilder Steve Kessler, from Portland Oregon, applied tar before laminating on a large piece of deadwood which helps round out the shape of the keel at the back of the ship. (John Gibbins) 8 / 20 Work is moving ahead on the Maritime Museum of San Diegos project to build a replica of the Spanish Galleon San Salvador at the build site across from Lindbergh Field. Vince Sardina, one of the master ship carpenters working on the ship, did some work with a router on the stern of the ship and was photographed from the inside looking through the stern windows. (John Gibbins) 9 / 20 Two tops, commonly referred to as crows nests are done and waiting to join the ship. (John Gibbins) 10 / 20 Don Davis and Mark Bracker lifted in to place the last and largest wooden piece on the outside of the ship, a vertical wale. (John Gibbins) 11 / 20 Blacksmith James Thayer worked at the onsite forge and blacksmith shop at the San Salvador build site across from Lindbergh Field. (John Gibbins) 12 / 20 Vince Sardina and Jim Winn worked from a scissor lift on the back windows of the ship. (John Gibbins) 13 / 20 Staff members and volunteers were working as usual at the San Salvador build site on Tuesday, after it was officially announced that there would be a delay in the launching of the ship due to technical and logistical issues with the plan that they had been working with. Volunteer Kate Shanahan used a combination of beeswax and tallow to fill checks in one of the the wooden masts of the ship. (John Gibbins) 14 / 20 The foremast was readied to be hoisted in to place. (John Gibbins) 15 / 20 One of the last major milestones in the construction of the replica Spanish Galleon San Salvador happened Wednesday when the three masts were hoisted and fastened in to place. Coins were placed underneath of the three masts as is tradition with sailing ships. (John Gibbins) 16 / 20 L-r, Bob Wilson and Mike McDermott moved in to position to release the rigging from the crane that was used to place the foremast in the ship. (John Gibbins) 17 / 20 L-r, Don Davis and John McClure pulled on a line that was hoisting a crew member aloft to work on the rigging. (John Gibbins) 18 / 20 One of the last major milestones in the construction of the replica Spanish Galleon San Salvador happened Wednesday when the three masts were hoisted and fastened in to place. Coins were placed underneath of the three masts as is tradition with sailing ships. (John Gibbins) 19 / 20 The ship started the weekend in an east-west orientation that it was built at, waiting to be rotated 90 degrees to the south in what turned ut to be a days-long process due to the delicacy of the work and the inclement July weather. (John Gibbins) 20 / 20 With an excavator pushing and a winch truck pulling the ship was moved in its rotation towards the water. (John Gibbins)

This time, a company that specializes in structural moving  El Cajon-based Whillock Contracting Inc., the company that moved the historic, 2.5 million-pound Showley Candy Factory building one block east in 2003 to make it part of Petco Park  was brought in to turn and lift the huge galleon.

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The San Salvador was lifted onto a multimillion dollar boat trailer loaned by Marine Group Boat Works, and then onto a barge, which was to carry it down to Marine Groups Chula Vista boatyard. It is to stay there for a couple of days, and then to be lowered into the bay for its official launch.

In 2007, when the Maritime Museum first announced it would add another full-sized replica vessel to expand the museums collection of historic ships, which includes the Star of India and HMS Surprise, it was estimated that the San Salvador project would cost $5 million.

California Coastal Conservancy, a state agency that preserves and protects the coast, chipped in $1.25 million in grant funds. But by April 2015, costs had soared to $6.5 million. In early 2015, the museum started an online fundraiser to raise $15,000 for the ships launch. By April the nonprofit had raised half that amount.

If you include the cost of rental of the work yard at the Port, contributed materials and volunteer labor, museum officials said, the total cost of the ship nearly doubles, to $12 million.

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The San Salvador was the flagship of Portuguese explorer Cabrillo, the first European to navigate the coast of present-day California. In June of 1542, Cabrillo set out from Navidad, Mexico with three ships: the 200-ton San Salvador galleon, the smaller La Victoria and San Miguel. On September 28, he landed in San Diego Bay and named it San Miguel.

 San Salvadors voyage before her voyage

You can see the dedication in every bit of the San Salvador, from the keel to the deck, said San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer. We are thankful to the Maritime Museum for their resolve in building such a fine ship and offering it to the region as an educational opportunity for not only our children, but every San Diegan and visitor interested in exploring our origin story.

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The San Salvador is to make its public debut at the 2015 Festival of Sail on the Labor Day weekend. There will also be a ceremony once the ship becomes Coast Guard certified as a passenger carrying vessel, likely to occur by Thanksgiving.

Museum officials say the San Salvador will be an educational exhibit highlighting the arrival of Europeans in what was Native American Kumeyaay land. The historic replica will also help the museum compete for visitors in one of the countrys busiest tourist destinations.

The San Salvador amassed a loyal crew made up of a few paid staff members and hundreds of volunteers, like Nancy Hupp of Point Loma.

Before her work on the San Salvador, the only power tool the 54-year-old had ever used was a drill.

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When I was in school girls didnt take shop classes, she wrote as a first-person account of her experience volunteering at the San Salvador shipyard.

Building the ship has been my first opportunity to learn metal and wood working.

Her evolution from novice driller to skilled craftswoman was swift. It began on a summer day in 2012 when she walked by the Spanish Landing build site. As she peered through a fence an employee noticed and suggested she volunteer.

Lacking any shipbuilding skills I thought I could maybe paint and sweep sawdust, Hupp wrote. Nearly three years later, Hupp can now put threads on a bolt, secure lead ballast, caulk seams, tie knots and shes a licensed forklift driver.

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I feel that my work has been valuable, she wrote. I marvel at how much Ive learned.

As the San Salvador prepared to leave north San Diego Bay, Hupp expressed mixed emotions.

It will be great to see if the ship actually floats, she wrote. But Ill miss the camaraderie.

1 / 9 At 5am Wednesday, the ship sat waiting to finally be loaded on to the barge as the sun came up. (John Gibbins) 2 / 9 A San Diego Harbor Police boat cruised by the ship as it was being readied to leave the site. (John Gibbins) 3 / 9 Calm waters and little wind let the ships reflection mirror on the water. (John Gibbins) 4 / 9 The ship, barge and tug rounded the end of Harbor Island en-route to the ship yard. (John Gibbins) 5 / 9 The ship and its transporters crossed the San Diego skyline. (John Gibbins) 6 / 9 The ship came under the Coronado bridge. (John Gibbins) 7 / 9 As the ship was eased under the lift at Marine Group Boat Works in Chula Vista, passengers on the Pilot, another museum craft, took photos of the moment. (John Gibbins) 8 / 9 The ship sat on the barge at the Marine Works dock ready to be lifted off. (John Gibbins) 9 / 9 The 190 ton ship sat on the barge at the Marine Works dock ready to be lifted off. (John Gibbins)

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So will volunteer Greg Cobb of Scripps Ranch, a retired business executive. He said he enjoyed the contrast of physical labor the San Salvador project provided for him.

The volunteers have waited years for this to happen, he said. Its a double-edged sword. Were excited to have it go into the water but its kind of the end of all these relationships that weve built up over the last three or four years.

Cobb was part of the Tuesday and Thursday weekly volunteer crew, as was David Shortt of La Jolla, who owned a local manufacturing company for 30 years. He began volunteering at the ship in early 2014. He said the experience has been more fun than Ive had in 20 years.

Milestones like the celebration of the whiskey plank  tradition dictates a shot of whiskey is taken when the last plank is placed in a ships hull  left fond memories for the volunteer shipwrights.

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I told my wife I want to do something that I can point to 30 years from now, or my grandkids can point to, and say I built that or my grandfather built that, Cobb said. In a business career, its hard to do that sometimes. Down here you have something tangible that you can actually touch and feel, and you can show it to people years from now.

PreviousPeople living in a Gyumri dormitory that partially collapsed last night are demanding that the government demolish the structure and build a new apartment building for them.

The third and fourth floors of the dorm, once owned by a local textile factory, collapsed, and eleven residents were temporarily housed at a nearby hotel. They returned to the apartments earlier today. Eights families are not registered as homeless, and thus cannot avail themselves of state housing assistance.

Ever since the 1988 Spitak Earthquake, the dormitory has experienced partial collapses, but continued to house those left homeless by the earthquake and those never employed by the textile factory.

The demand of residents, that the building be demolished, is unlikely to happen since someone owns it. That person hasnt made improvements to the building during the past thirty years. Late last year, the government issued a fourteen-month deadline to the owner to demolish and clear those sections of the building that had collapsed and to clean the land site.

Shirak Provincial Governor Artur Khachatryan visited the site this morning, telling residents that the best option would be to issue them vouchers to purchase apartments on the open market. Residents told Khachatryan that they intended to stay since they arent financially able to invest in buying an apartment, even with partial state aid.

Khachatryan said that out of the 118 building in the province registered as dangerous, 88 are in Gyumri, adding that the governments approach would no longer be to reinforce these structures but to offer residents compensation.

He said his office will examine this new approach with the national government and believes it will be approved.

This building is definitely subject to demolishing. Its just that we havent been able to reach an overall agreement with residents, Khachatryan said.

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.Worker safety incidents at Los Alamos in the past year

 A worker suffered second-degree burns after opening an unlabeled canister that contained lanthanum nickel hydride, which combusted, causing a small fire and pausing work at the labs plutonium facility.

 The lab improperly shipped plutonium to South Carolina and California by aircraft, rather than cargo truck, a violation of federal regulations that launched a federal investigation and cost the lab more than $3 million in award fees for fiscal year 2017.

 A contract worker was sent to the medical center after cutting a live electrical line. The lab said the worker was uninjured, but electrical work paused for several days.

 Soon after, workers violated nuclear criticality safety rules by placing an excess of plutonium metals in the same room and failed to discover the violation for several days. Limits are set on the amount of nuclear materials allowed in the same place to prevent a runaway chain reaction.

 Within four weeks in the fall, roughly a dozen workers clothing, hands and faces were exposed to alpha contamination while working at the plutonium facility.

 A worker entered a room with deficient oxygen, classified as a near-miss to a fatality incident, prompting the second federal investigation.

 In October, an independent federal safety board said the lab was unable to handle an emergency, and it found recurring flaws in emergency preparedness dating back to 2011.

 Workers potentially violated material-at-risk limits for plutonium in January 2018.Press Release

February 24, 2018 De Lima marks first year in unjust detention Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima today marks her first year of illegal arrest and unjust detention which she and several political pundits labelled as an obvious form of political persecution by no less than President Duterte and his minions. De Lima, the fiercest critic of the Duterte administration's war on drugs, welcomed the day by hearing Holy Mass inside her detention with her family, friends, colleagues and supporters who expressed their solidarity to her. The Senator from Bicol remains detained inside the national police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City since Feb. 24, 2017 on trumped-up drug charges filed against her by the government without any material evidence. Yet even from behind bars, she continues to receive awards and recognitions from different international bodies for her unwavering commitment to uphold democratic principles and promote justice, human rights and the rule of law. Her recent inclusion in Foreign Policy's "50 Leading Global Thinkers of 2017" last December 2017 and her prestigious "Prize for Freedom" Award by Liberal International (LI) announced last October 2017 are just among the awards and recognitions under her belt as a politically-persecuted senator. Amid the Duterte administration's persistent denial of any political vendetta against De Lima, a number of international organizations, human rights groups and personalities have also joined the calls condemning her illegal detention and demanding for her immediate release. Among them were the members of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), LI, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Senator Edward J. Markey, and other minority senators at the Senate. Without access to any electronic gadget and communication device since her illegal arrest, De Lima simply makes use of her pen and paper to regularly write and issue dispatches and share her views and stands on social, economic and political issues, including her reflections about the political persecution in the hands of the Duterte administration. As of this writing, she has issued 246 dispatches. Notably, more than 100 of these handwritten statements from her detention have been included in her recently-launched electronic book entitled "Dispatches from Crame I." De Lima personally designed the artwork -a bird called "pipit"--on "Dispatches from Crame I." She also chose notable dispatches that were included in the book such as "Dear loved ones," "Dear dad," "I'm not the only one suffering, fighting," "I cannot be silenced," "No Regrets," among many others. Despite the legal battle she is facing for obviously trumped-up illegal drug charges, the former justice secretary continues to fulfill her electoral mandate as a Senator having filed 41 bills and 58 resolutions in the Senate, to date.Press Release

February 24, 2018 Former President Aquino, colleagues express solidarity to De Lima as she marks first year in detention As she marks her first year of unjust detention today, Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima's family, friends, fellow senators and former colleagues from the Aquino Cabinet including former President Benigno Aquino III have gathered insider her detention cell in the PNP headquarters to express their solidarity to her. De Lima, along with her visitors, attended a Holy Mass officiated by Archbishop Socrates Villegas. Aquino, who said he prays for De Lima's freedom every night, expressed her admiration for the Senator's unbreakable spirit, which is not weakened despite her detractors' effort to pin her down. "I admire Leila's strength to withstand all these challenges for the service of her countrymen," he said. "It's normal to think and ask myself 'until when will this [detention] continue?' knowing the fact that there are a lot of people who believe in Leila's innocence. But at the end of the day, I believe that God won't give us a problem we can't handle. I know that God has a perfect plan for all of us, for Leila," he said. The former President further likened De Lima's unjust detention to that of his father's, democracy icon and late former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr, saying "I can visualize how difficult it is to be confined in a small cell." Former senator and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, on his part, vouched for De Lima's "good character" and innocence. "Pinaparating ko ang aking pakikiisa kay Leila. Patuloy akong naniniwala sa kanyang mabuting character and innocence sa lahat ng mga gawa-gawang charges na inihain laban sa kanya," he said. Aside from the gathering inside the PNP headquarters, there were a series of events that took place to mark De Lima's first year of unjust detention. A motorcade bearing 365 roses, (symbolizing each day of Sen. De Lima's illegal detention) preceded the day's activities. From the Quirino Grandstand at 8 a.m., motorcycle riders passed on the flowers to five runners, including Vicente De Lima II (De Lima's younger brother), who then delivered them in Camp Crame. Other notable personalities who visited De Lima in her detention include Senators Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV, Franklin Drilon, Kiko Pangilinan, Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman and former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Ging Deles, Congressmen Tom Villarin and Teddy Baguilat among others.Press Release

February 24, 2018 Gatchalian: Free tuition "Opt-out" is voluntary, should not be forced During the Rise for Education Alliance's Gathering for Education Forum earlier this week, Senator Win Gatchalian clarified that the "opt-out" provision of RA 10931, otherwise known as the Universal Access to Tertiary Education Act, is purely voluntarily, and that students should not be forced to opt-out of the full tuition and other fees subsidy for any reason. Section 4 of RA 10931 states: "All [state and local universities and colleges] shall create a mechanism to enable students with the financial capacity to pay for their education in the SUCs and LUCs to voluntarily opt out of the tuition and other school fees subsidy or make a contribution to the school." Gatchalian explained that the data show that approximately 90 percent of students enrolled in SUCs are considered poor or near poor, while only 10% of students belong to the middle and upper classes. In order to identify and validate the 10%, the government would have to conduct a survey which will incur big administrative costs. "The administrative costs to look for the 10% would be greater than the cost of the subsidy provided to the 10% of students from SUCs who hail from the middle and upper classes. That's why we added the opt-out clause, to allow the students who really have the capacity to pay to voluntarily forgo the free tuition benefits if they so choose," said Gatchalian, the vice-chair of the Senate Education Committee. Despite this, student leaders from the University of the Philippines Diliman present at the forum reported that students in one of their colleges were allegedly being forced to opt-out from the free tuition scheme due to their economic status. "No one has the right to force, bully, or harass any student in any SUC into opting-out. Those are considered unlawful actions and must not be tolerated," Gatchalian said. The Senator also called on students to be vigilant regarding other issues surrounding the implementation of the RA 10931. "Let's be vigilante in the execution of the Free Higher Education Law, so we can be assured that the law is being implemented equally across all SUCs, LUCs, and technical-vocational institutions, and to make sure there is no corruption and misinterpretation in the process." Gatchalian said.Press Release

February 24, 2018 HONTIVEROS TO DUTERTE: LEARN FROM EDSA, ABANDON AUTHORITARIANISM Saying that the spirit of Edsa is the "ideological opposite of authoritarianism," Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Saturday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to abandon his dictatorial ambitions and go back to the ways of democracy. Hontiveros said that Duterte should learn from the lessons of Edsa and accept that authoritarianism is an unsustainable framework of governance. The Senator issued the statement a day before the country observes the 32nd anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution. "President Duterte should read the writing on the wall and learn from our history. It's not possible to have a sustainable dictatorship, not even his so-called 'Dutertismo.' Sooner or later, it will collapse beneath the weight of its own contradictions. That is the fate of all dictatorships. This is what Edsa taught us. Democracy always pushes back. No would-be dictator can outlast democracy," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros pointed to the 1986 and 2001 EDSA people power uprisings as proof of the Filipino people's democratic tradition. "In just the span of 15 years, the country had two popular uprisings that toppled a dictatorship and an abusive and corrupt government. That is no small feat. It is a testament to the Filipino people's strong democratic instinct," Hontiveros said. "We may falter along the way and be seduced by authoritarian shortcuts and false promises, but in the end, we always find our way back to the revolutionary and democratic ideals of Edsa," Hontiveros concluded. In 1986, a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines toppled the dictatorship of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. Fifteen years later, a four-day political protest peacefully ended the government of then President Joseph Estrada. On both occasions, people flocked to Edsa. EDSA is the acronym derived from Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, the major thoroughfare connecting five cities in Metro Manila.Denying relief to the legislators, Metropolitan Magistrate Shefali Barnala Tondon also observed that the matter cannot be treated in "a casual and routine manner", considering they were "history-sheeters".

: A city court on Friday refused to grant bail to two AAP MLAs, Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal in the case of assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, observing that the circumstances prima facie point to a "premeditated criminal conspiracy".

The magistrate, who pronounced the order in a packed court room amidst tight security, also dismissed the plea of the police seeking custodial interrogation of the accused, who are now in judicial custody, saying there was no new ground necessitating their remand which has already been denied by the court once.

The court said the allegations in the matter were "very serious", as it was alleged that the Chief Secretary (CS) was called for a meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence at an odd hour, despite his reluctance.

Noting the allegations levelled against the two MLAs, the court said in its order that during the meeting which the CS attended in the course of his official duty, he was "assaulted, abused, manhandled and criminally intimidated" by the accused persons, who are sitting MLAs.

"The circumstances if looked overall, prima facie point towards premeditated criminal conspiracy. Though bail is the rule and jail is an exception, however the applications of present applicants cannot be considered in a routine and casual manner, they being history-sheeters,? the magistrate said.

The court said the investigation was at an initial and premature stage and there was a possibility that the accused, if enlarged on bail, could influence witnesses.

"The submission of prosecution that if enlarged on bail, the accused persons shall influence witnesses vital to the prosecution case and shall hamper the investigation, being in power, cannot be overlooked and judicial discretion must ensure public order.

?With this background, the bail applications of both accused persons, namely Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, are hereby dismissed," it said.

While dealing with the application of the police for custodial interrogation, the court said their statements "can be recorded during investigation otherwise also, than in police remand. Further, no such other new grounds have been stated in the present application which necessitate the PC (police custody) remand of accused persons, which has already been declined by the court."

The court said the only new fact which has emerged as per the prosecution was that Kejriwals adviser V K Jain has stated in his statement recorded under section 164 CrPC that he had received the complainant at the CM?s residence at midnight and witnessed the incident of assault. Therefore, he has to be confronted with accused persons with respect to the timings and identifying remaining MLAs, it said.

The court, in its detailed order, also observed that the "version of the complainant (CS) is corroborated by statement of VK Jain recorded on oath under section 164 CrPC and the MLC of the complainant. Hence, at this stage it cannot be looked with suspicion without any cogent reason or evidence to the contrary."

It also took into consideration the list of 11 MLAs submitted by the defence counsel and the seven names given by Jain and said the remaining legislators can be identified by showing their photographs to the CS as they were "sitting MLAS and not unknown people?.

Khan and Jarwal were yesterday sent to 14-day judicial custody by the court which termed the case as "highly sensitive".

They were arrested in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat during a meeting at Kejriwals residence on the night of February 19. While Jarwal, an MLA from Deoli, was arrested on Tuesday night, Khan, an MLA from Okhla, was taken into custody the next day.

While seeking custodial interrogation of the accused, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava had said there were numerous criminal cases pending against both the MLAs since 1995. ?He (Khan) had started with slapping a junior engineer and today he has assaulted a chief secretary,? he said.

Advocate B S Joon, who had appeared for the MLAs, had opposed the polices plea for custody and said the police was relying on old arguments.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD's 120th Precinct will be holding a neighborhood safety meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Saint Mary's Episcopal Church in West Brighton.

The meeting will serve as an open forum to address and discuss any concerns within the neighborhoods of the precinct.

The Neighborhood Coordination Officers will also be discussing crime statistics within the precinct.

Doors for the event will open at 6:30 p.m., and the meeting will begin promptly at 7 p.m.

The church is located at 347 Davis Ave.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The landscape of Staten Island is shifting -- quite literally -- from the development of St. George to new businesses and housing on the South Shore.

Local community boards give residents an opportunity to offer input in the decision-making process for many of these long-term projects.

Community Board meetings are open to the public and afford a great way to learn more about what's going on in your neighborhood and to get involved.

If you have something you would like to speak out about, all you need to do is sign up -- before the meeting is called to order -- to speak in the public session.

The following meetings are scheduled for the week of Feb. 26 to March 2.

COMMUNITY BOARD 1

Arlington - Castleton Corners - Clifton - Concord - Elm Park - Fort Wadsworth - Graniteville - Grymes Hill - Livingston - Mariners Harbor - New Brighton - Port Richmond - Randall Manor - Rosebank - St. George - Shore Acres - Silver Lake - Stapleton - Sunnyside - Tompkinsville - West Brighton - Westerleigh

There will be a Parks Committee Meeting on Thursday, March 1, at 7 p.m. at the Community Board 1 office. On the agenda:

Discussing ideas for Habitat Restoration and Green Infrastructure Planning for Staten Island's North Shore Waterfront Parks Properties.

The board office is located at 1 Edgewater Plaza, Suite 217, Stapleton. The office phone number is 718-981-6900. The board chairman is Nicholas Siclari; the district manager is Joseph Carroll.

COMMUNITY BOARD 2

Arrochar - Bloomfield - Bulls Heads - Chelsea - Dongan Hills - Egbertville - Emerson Hill - Grant City - Grasmere - High Rock - Lighthouse Hill - Midland Beach - New Dorp - New Springville - Oakwood - Ocean Breeze - Old Town - Richmond - South Beach - Todt Hill - Travis

There are no Community Board 2 meetings scheduled for the week of Feb. 26.

All committee and full board meetings are in the board office, which is located in the Lou Caravone Community Service Building on the campus of Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Center and Home, 460 Brielle Ave., Sea View. The office phone number is 718-317-3235. The chairman of the CB 2 board is Dana T. Magee; the district manager is Debra A. Derrico.

COMMUNITY BOARD 3

Annadale - Arden Heights - Bay Terrace - Charleston - Eltingville - Great Kills - Greenridge - Huguenot - New Dorp - Oakwood - Pleasant Plains - Prince's Bay - Richmond Valley - Richmond - Rossville - Tottenville - Woodrow

There will be a General Board Meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in Woodrow Methodist Church Hall, 1075 Woodrow Road.

All committee meetings take place at the Community Board 3 office, located on the second floor of 1243 Woodrow Rd. All general board meetings take place at the Woodrow Methodist Church Hall located at 1075 Woodrow Rd. The office phone number is 718-356-7900. The CB 3 board chairman is Frank Morano; the district manager is Charlene Wagner.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nicole Bass -- a student and single mother of two sons -- was distraught when her father had a heart attack just two days after Father's Day last June.

"I completely lost it when I heard my father, my best friend, needed open heart surgery. ...Literally, in the blink of an eye, I didn't know if he'd get to see his grandchildren grow up," she said.

She remembers the stress she felt and tears she shed while waiting with her brother, Matthew, in Staten Island University Hospital's waiting room to see if her father, Rob Bass, would make it through the quadruple bypass surgery.

"This rocked my whole my family; he was a seemingly healthy man with no prior health issues so his severe heart disease was hard for us to process," said Bass, who is enrolled in the medical assistant program at St. Paul's School of Nursing in Bloomfield.

THE 'WORST TIME'

Her father's heart attack couldn't come at a "worst time," she said.

"It was just three days before the closing on his house, and seven days before my brother would graduate high school," she recalled.

"My father's surgeon truly saved his life and was sensitive to our feelings, concerns and fears; he walked us through the process step-by-step," said Bass.

"The whole nursing team, and everyone on the third floor cardiac unit at the heart institute truly were nothing short of amazing," she added.

Once her father recovered, the pair got matching heart beat tattoos.

A CAMPAIGN

Because she is so thankful her father has recovered, Bass wants to help others do the same. She launched a campaign this month -- Heart Disease Awareness Month -- to raise money through St. Paul's School of Nursing that will be donated to Staten Island University Hospital's Heart Institute.

Her fundraising efforts started with a bake sale in St. Paul's lobby and has now caught the attention of The Nicotra Group, who operates Corporate Commons Cafe in the Teleport, near St. Paul's Nursing School.

"Nicole is coordinating a community day at the COMMONS Cafe [on March 1] where 100 percent of the profits from that event will be gifted to Heart Institute at Northwell," said Kristine Garlisi, chief of staff for The Nicotra Group.

"Lois and Richard Nicotra welcome Staten Island nonprofits to host Community Days to benefit their group's mission," she added.

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTERSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance released tips that will help residents file their taxes.

"These resources--designed to accommodate a range of taxpayer needs--drive efficiency, saving the public time and money," said Nonie Manion Tax Department acting commissioner. "Our aim is to ease the filing process and ensure error-free returns, allowing us to quickly issue any refunds due."

Here are 10 resources cited by the Tax Department to make the tax filing experience better:

Taxpayers can always access the Tax Department's "check your refund status page," or sign up for email alerts, to receive the same information available form their call center, without the wait.

The Tax Department provides access to free tax preparation and e-filing software at their website(

The Tax Department also offers free tax assistance sites for those with adjusted gross household income of $66,000 or less in 2017. The sites provide free resources so those eligible, who can electronically prepare and file both their state and federal tax returns. Tax employees are on hand to guide taxpayers through the tax software.

Verify the credentials of your tax preparer, and review Consumer Bill of Rights Regarding Tax Preparers.

If you received a NYS income tax refund last year, it's best to view

If you don't pay by making an electronic fund withdrawal when e-filing, you can use the NYS Tax Departments'

If you recive a bill after filing a return, you can pay directly from a bank account using the Department's Quick Pay tool, without having an Online Services account.

For those who decide to appoint an individual or individuals to represent them before the Tax Department, they should file a

When the NYS Tax Department needs more information to process the return, the easiest way for taxpayers to provide the information is by using a "Respond to Department Notice." There, one can provide explanations, attach documentation, and receive instant confirmation that their response was received.

If you decide to fill-in tax forms, despite the many e-filing benefits, the Tax Department's enhanced fill-in forms will help reduce filing errors and speed

If you can't file by April 17, the NYS Tax Department has a selection on their website where you can apply for an extension of time to file.

An extension does no provide more time to pay taxes owed; one must still pay the proper estimated tax owed by the original due date on the return.CITY HALL -- Ahead of nationwide walkouts planned at high schools around the country next month, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that the city's schools will provide students with a series of lesson plans on civic engagement leading up to the protests.

On March 14, students across the country are set to take part in a national school walkout to call on Congress to pass gun control legislation. The walkouts will take place at 10 a.m. and students plan to walk out of school for 17 minutes to honor the 17 people killed at last week's mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

"We're going to do lesson plans around this issue leading up to that day," the mayor said on the Brian Lehrer Show Friday. "We're going to make sure that there's a real educational impact. We're going to make sure that whatever happens is done in a safe and orderly fashion."

The mayor called the walkouts a "teachable moment on top of a moment for potentially profound social change."

When pressed by Lehrer about how the city would ensure the lesson plans would be apolitical, the mayor said he did not want an individual's viewpoint leading those discussions and wanted them to be objective.

But neither he nor the Department of Education provided specifics on how those discussions would remain apolitical and what exactly they would entail.

"Here is an unprecedented national moment, you literally could see these walkouts in 50 states," the mayor said. "And we need to recognize the power of the moment and let young people participate, but the discussion around it educationally, needs to be an objective one."

'RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE'

The DOE told the Advance in an email that they would provide "guidance on facilitating thoughtful conversations about civics and current events, and providing students with an opportunity to have a respectful dialogue."

When asked about how the DOE would ensure the lessons would be apolitical and unbiased and what exactly they would teach students, the department said it was still finalizing guidance details for schools to provide ahead of the walkouts.

DOE spokeswomen Toya Holness, said similar to everyday social studies classes and civic lessons, the DOE provides schools with guidance on ways to "facilitate conversation" so that students can "share their opinions in respectful ways and have a thoughtful dialogue."

She also pointed the Advance in the direction of the DOE's website about its social studies curriculum that includes lessons on civics and other current events.

Following the mayor's announcement, Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) took to social media to voice his concerns about the potential for bias in the lesson plans.

"Will there be counseling and provisions made for students who are upset to hear the view that their gun owning parents are part of a problem that resulted in mass murder?" Borelli wrote. "Will there be any pro [Second Amendment] speakers/teaches invited to discuss? [sic] How do we know teachers own views?"

NO DISCIPLINARY ACTION FOR STUDENTS

The DOE said high school students will not be disciplined for participating in the walkouts if their parents or guardians notify the school ahead of time about their child's decision to participate.

The department also said absences and early departures would be recorded but not counted against students.

For middle school and elementary school students, the DOE said they would only be allowed to leave school grounds if a parent or guardian signed them out of school.

The mayor said the way he wanted middle and elementary school students to participate in the protests was to remain in the school buildings and gather for a memorial. He said the city was still working on a plan.

LOCKDOWNS, SCREENINGS

The mayor's latest announcement comes after he announced Thursday that starting next month, all of the city's public schools will hold shelter-in-place lockdown drills and every middle and high school in will undergo random metal detector screenings.

The mayor said the screenings will be unannounced and take place at schools all over the city on an "individualized basis" at some point in the year for at least a day. He said other schools would have the screenings on an ongoing basis.

He also said the lockdown drills were part of a citywide mandate the city had recently "amplified" that would be part of an ongoing series of drills.

Ultimately, de Blasio said the NYPD would be responsible for determining whether a school "needs something more."

But the president of Staten Island's Community Education Council 31, Michael Reilly, a retired New York City Police Department officer, called the mayor's additional safety measures a "disservice" to city students.

Reilly and Island politicians including Borelli, Steven Matteo (R-Mid Island) and Borough President James Oddo have called on the mayor to enact tougher security measures at schools to keep students safe.

More than a week after the student walkouts, a "March for Our Lives" protest will take place on March 24 where students and activists plan to march on Washington, D.C. and other cities to call on Congress to put an end the mass school shootings

De Blasio said he did not yet know whether any organizers had reached out to the city about holding a March for Our Lives edition in New York City, but assured that the city would work with march organizers.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Authorities say a reputed Staten Island mobster nicknamed "Porky" broke bail to break bread at borough eateries.

John (Porky) Zancocchio, 60, an alleged made member and consigliere in the Bonanno crime family, was recently allowed off house arrest to only attend his aunt's funeral, but was also spotted at three Staten Island restaurants, authorities allege.

Last month, Zancocchio was arrested for racketeering conspiracy and was later released on $1 million bail package that included home detention, according to federal court records.

Prosecutors said the court granted the defendant permission to attend his aunt's funeral on the weekend of Feb. 9, but the alleged mobster was seen at Bella Mama Rose in Elm Park, Denino's pizzeria in Port Richmond and another unnamed bakery on Staten Island.

Zancocchio owns Bella Mama Rose with Gambino captain Frank Camuso, and was seen behind and in front of the bar speaking to customers on the night of Feb. 11, authorities allege.

On Feb. 12, instead of going straight home after the cemetery, the wiseguy was allegedly at Denino's for a couple of hours, said the court papers.

While walking home, prosecutors said Zancocchio stopped at a nearby bakery to greet some people before going home.

"Mr. Zancocchio ate at his daughter's own restaurant (Bella Mama Rose), which was within walking distance from the funeral home and where he had previously worked prior to his arrest," defense lawyer John Meringolo said in court filings. "Likewise, Mr. Zancocchio attended a prayer service lunch after the burial on February 12th."

He continued: "This restaurant is also family-owned and was originally opened by Mr. Zancocchio's grandfather (the father of his deceased aunt) and is currently owned by his cousin. The restaurant is around the corner from his home. After the gathering there, he then returned home within the confines of his release conditions."

Zancocchio was put back behind bars, court records show.

The defendant was one of eight alleged Bonanno members, including Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano, Jr., charged with racketeering conspiracy involving a wide range of crimes, including extortion, loansharking, wire and mail fraud, narcotics distribution and conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said.

Cammarano is a captain and the acting boss of the Bonanno family, officials allege.

Raids on Staten Island, including one at Xcess Gentlemen's Club in Charleston, led to the arrests, according to a report by NBC 4 New York.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Thousands of New Yorkers and union member advocates gathered in Manhattan's Foley Square on Saturday to rally for workers' rights.

The rally is one of about 27 occurring across the country to fight for the rights of working people, including paid family leave, and benefits for all workers.

"While labor is under attack all across this country. ...in New York it's a different story," said Gov. Andrew Cuomo at The Working People's Day of Action Rally, which kicked off at 11 a.m. at 111 Worth St.

"In New York you see labor going forward. We want more fairness and more justice," he added.

The Day of Action, organized by The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Jobs with Justice, is a rally for social and economic justice, including the right to "fair bargaining and union representation," the groups say.

PREVENTING ON THE JOB INJURIES

The event also marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, which was sparked by the tragic deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker on Feb. 1, who were sheltering from a storm inside their truck when it malfunctioned, and crushed them. On February 12, 1968 the black sanitation workers went on strike to demand that their dignity, their humanity and their union be recognized.

Today, workers are still fighting for the same issues.

"Too many people are killed or injured on the job. The right of workers to come together and have a voice in their workplace is being fought by groups like the National Right to Work Committee," said the American Postal Workers Union on its website.

U.S. SUPREME COURT CASE

The rally comes two days before the U.S. Supreme Court is to hear a case that could have a big impact on workers' unions and the organizations' ability to raise money.

The case, Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, will decide if public sector labor unions are permitted to charge mandatory fees to workers in their organizations.

Covering Working Peoples Day of Action rally in NYC. Organizers call U.S. Supreme Court case an attack on all union workers. @AP @APEastRegion https://t.co/QfhJ94xnsl pic.twitter.com/ht0QpegnGN  Julie Walker (@jwalkreporter) February 24, 2018

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTERLynne Davies is among four female cleaners aged in their 50s who will be sacked this week without any redundancy pay and offered job opportunities as far away as New Zealand.

The closest job vacancy listed by cleaning company Spotless, which will sack the women on Wednesday, is a casual position in Nowra, an hour's drive away from where they live in Wollongong. The women who have full-time jobs said the Nowra job offered too few hours, negating the travel time and cost.

Most of the job vacancies Spotless listed are in New Zealand and in fields unrelated to cleaning.

Helen Hammond, Svetlana Vicoroska, Lynne Davies and Panayota Tzolakidis, who were not offered redundancy after their cleaning jobs were terminated Credit:Sylvia Liber

Ms Davies, 58, who has worked for Spotless for 14 years said she loved her job and was "disgusted" with the way the company had terminated her job without providing any redundancy pay. She was too young to retire and said she would find it "tough" to get another job.Then, apparently for no good reason, he was remeasured - and this time told to stand as tall as possible. I stood on my tiptoes and just passed. Why the second chance? Perhaps his uncle, the chief magistrate Kevin OConnor, had something to do with it, but regardless of whether strings were pulled, an outstanding career was saved. Mouse was sent to Fitzroy, then still a gangster hub. When I walked into the station they all just laughed. I was from the quiet southern suburbs. I thought 'what planet have I landed on?' On the street he learned the hard way, and after being decked several times a veteran policeman told him he had to learn to get in first. He took the advice literally and was dubbed Mighty Mouse, soon shortened to Mouse. Mouse developed a reputation as a first-class crook catcher and was the only detective to lock up the notorious Graham The Munster Kinniburgh, not once but twice. The first time an eagle-eyed parking officer noticed a handgun poking out from under a car seat (why are crooks to bad at hiding stuff?) and called police.

Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh: Smart crook but not smart enough to quit when he was ahead. Mouse broke into the car in Victoria Street, Prahran, and seized the .357 magnum. So as not to be rumbled as a waiting cop, Mouse - then a long-haired scuff - grabbed his skateboard and rode up and down the street until the Munster arrived. When he saw the two of us running at him he thought, Im off here (about to be killed) and went for his gun that wasnt there. We dragged him down and it was only when he realised he hadnt been shot [that] he knew it was the cops. Kinniburgh successfully argued in court that he needed the gun for self-defence as he was a target during an underworld war that was raging in the early 1980s. He was right, although he had the wrong gangland feud. Two gunmen murdered The Munster in 2003 as part of the Underbelly War (he was carrying a gun but it did him no good).

The second time Mouse pounced was when they raided The Munster and found items stolen from Lindsay Foxs house and a gun hidden in the stormwater drain. The key to the police case was that one of the rings seized was a one-off owned by the Foxes. At an early court date the defence was granted permission to photograph the exhibits and come the trial Kinniburgh produced a perfect replica (allegedly made by a crooked Melbourne jeweller) that harpooned the prosecution.

Kinniburgh was acquitted, although he went down for attempting to bribe police. Some crooks are always mobile while others are surprisingly sedentary, like the agoraphobic who dealt drugs out of his mothers Preston flat for seven years. While many dealers wore flash suits or imported leather jackets he only wore boxers and a singlet and sold out the window (which may have saved on parking but made him a sitting duck). When they finally arrested him he said that if he left the flat hed die. So Mouse made him a deal - make a full taped confession and they would bail him without going to the station. During one fracas in a Preston pub where the clientele had criminal records as long as their tattooed arms, OConnor found someone had burned the back of his suit jacket. As a result Mouse returned again and again to arrest any crook he saw. When a local gangster who became a major drug dealer ask why there was a one-man blitz on the pub, Mouse showed him the burn. Why didnt you tell me?'' the gangster said. ''I would have bought you a whole f---ing wardrobe. But it was never about fashion. Think of every major crime in Victoria and if there wasnt a quick arrest then The Dogs were called in. Every crook is catchable. You just have to bide your time and be patient. The people you are working on think they are so smart, so it is satisfying to beat them at their own game.

'A dumbarse': Carl Williams, the self-styled premier of Victoria, is arrested after being under surveillance. Credit:Angela Wylie Drug dealer-turned-killer Carl Williams (killed in 2010) was rat cunning but a dumbarse, the Moran crime family always thought they were being followed while a member of the famous Kangaroo (international stealing) Gang asked Mouse, why wont you leave me alone?. I said it was nothing personal, it was just his turn. Lewis Moran and Jason Moran leave the Coroners Court. They always thought they were being followed. Sometimes they were right. Credit:Matthew Bouwmeester, Andrew De La Rue Most times crims were not aware they were under surveillance (although one knocked on the undercover car window and said if they wanted to watch him they should just come inside for a beer), but sometimes Mouse would go hands-on. Such as when the armed robbery squad couldnt find a bandit hiding in an Ashburton home. "We went in and there was no one there. Mouse just said to keep looking, he had to be somewhere," said one of the investigators, Brian Rix.

The offender had slipped under the house through a specially built trapdoor in the bedroom. When Rix went under the house the suspect pulled a gun and a fracas ensued. As they struggled the unarmed Mouse arrived raining blows on the suspect until he saw the error of his ways. There were perks - he spent six weeks in Queensland on one case where the target was staying in a caravan park. He used the park telephone, so we deputised someone in the camp to tell us what was going on. They spent the rest of the time surfing and working on their tans. They didnt catch the crook but they caught plenty of waves. Now he says most of the targets are connected with drugs and just about everyone you work on carries a gun. For Mouse, it is not the drug dealers or the hitmen that left their mark but a suburban father who turned into a cold-blooded killer. His eyes glisten when he talks of John Sharpe, who in 2004 used a spear gun to kill his wife, Anna, who was five months pregnant and then, days later, their 20-month-old daughter, Gracie.A large water buyback by the Turnbull government when Barnaby Joyce was agriculture minister raises "serious questions" and should be examined by the South Australian Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling Basin, says Rex Patrick, a Nick Xenophon Team senator.

Details of the $17 million purchase in March 2017 from the Tulla Pastoral Company at $1600 per megalitre in the Warrego River in southern Queensland were obtained by Senator Patrick in a Senate order for documents.

However, unlike another big buyback also signed last March - which delivered a $37 million windfall for ASX-listed Webster Ltd headed by Chris Corrigan for its Tandou property water rights - the government this time redacted the independent valuer's recommendation.

"Barnaby Joyce has some serious questions to answer," Senator Patrick told Fairfax Media. "He has authorised a water buyback at what appears to be more than twice the market price."Craig Emerson with his parents. Schooled by the local sisters of St Joseph's, the young Emerson was a fervent Catholic, frequently praying at the makeshift shrine in his bedroom. The "shrine" was not much more than a large picture of the Virgin Mary and a broken plastic crucifix glued back together with Araldite. "I embraced my religion with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all my mind," Emerson writes in the book. "Catholicism helped me make sense of Mum's volatile behaviour where there was no sense to be made of it." Emerson's mother, Marge, would beat him and his older brother Lance for no reason, order them to redo chores they'd spent hours trying to carry out to perfection, instruct them on one occasion to eat dirt, and many times retreat to her bedroom threatening self-harm. Craig Emerson with the then prime minister Bob Hawke at the Randwick races in 1988. Besides politics, Emerson was also close to Hawke personally, often seen as a surrogate son. Credit:David Porter; Elizabeth Dobbie; Ben Rushton/Fairfax Media Somehow through all this, Emerson never lost a sense that she loved him. His father, Ern, comes across as a gentle man, loving of his sons, but broken by life and without the will to stand up to his wife. But his father also knew how to laugh, Emerson says.

"My dad had a lovely laugh ... I can remember times when tears were streaming down his cheeks he thought something was so funny." Federal MPs Craig Emerson and Bob McMullan in 2005. Emerson says he has no 'great remorse or regrets about never achieving the leadership' of the Labor party. Credit:Marina Neil the sad little boy lives within me still Craig Emerson, former Minister for Trade And when the boys could escape the house, there was boundless physical freedom: the back paddock a perfect arena for manure fights with the neighbour's children, the three-storey treehouse down by the creek, the potshots at top-knot pigeons in the hope of bringing one down for dinner. "It was pretty wild, by today's standards," he says. Emerson has broken his silence about his traumatic childhood because he wants others to learn that such a start to life can be transcended.

Craig Emerson with former prime minister Bob Hawke. When he left the PM's office for a job in Queensland, Hawke paid tribute to the "particular bond and affection" between the two men. "I wanted to suggest to young people from any circumstances that they can succeed," Emerson says. "It's a book of empowerment. You grow up thinking there are all these clever people out there ... [but] in the end, particularly as you go around the world as I did as minister for trade, you meet world leaders and you come to this very humbling conclusion that they are just people. There will be so many kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, who will assume that other people are born to run the country, or run the world. But they are, too." Emerson and his brother both became dux of their local high school, but Lance carried the heavier burden from their childhood abuse, dying in his early 60s. Lance's only child succumbed to cot death. Lance later confessed to Emerson that perhaps it had been for the best, as he feared he would have been a violent father. Emerson has found the opposite: that the birth of his three children has allowed him to discover unconditional love. But he confesses that for years the emotional scars of his upbringing made it hard for him to open himself to the women he became romantically involved with. Among them was a then up-and-coming Labor MP Julia Gillard, who became Emerson's partner soon after they were both promoted to Simon Crean's front bench in late 2001. It marked the end of Emerson's marriage to his second wife Cathy, the mother of his children. Hawke had encouraged Emerson into politics and saw him as a future Labor leader. So, it appears, did Kim Beazley, who (on Emerson's account), once floated the prospect of handing over to Emerson in a second term had Beazley won the 2001 election. But the relationship with Gillard ended that talk.

Emerson writes that Hawke warned him the relationship would damage his prospects. Beazley was horrified. "If ever I had legitimate claims to the leadership  and many dispute that I did  they quickly dissolved," writes Emerson. "Voters would never accept as leader a man who had walked out on his wife, leaving her alone to raise his children. It didn't matter that, in fact, we continued to raise our children as loving parents." Does he look back now with regret? "Look, it's not making excuses, it is what it is," he says. "I think its appalling for politicians to say 'I woz robbed'; there were probably two or three contributing factors [to his loss of momentum up the parliamentary ranks] but I don't have any great remorse or regrets about never achieving the leadership." It is impossible not to draw some comparison with the self-inflicted plight of former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who on Friday stepped down after leaving his wife and four children for a former staff member. . But Emerson won't be drawn on parallels. "I don't want to go there," he says, when asked about the Joyce saga. Emerson's rise from his small country town came by way of a small bursary to St Patrick's College in Strathfield and then a Commonwealth scholarship to study economics at university. He eventually earned a PhD, worked briefly for the UN in Bangkok, became a ministerial adviser for then energy minister Peter Walsh and eventually found his way into prime minister Hawke's office under the mentorship of one of the outstanding economic advisers of the era, Ross Garnaut. Emerson began working for Hawke as an adviser on microeconomic reform. But he soon found himself  almost by accident  working as the environmental adviser as well. One day, Bob Brown, then a Tasmanian MP (later head of the federal Greens), appeared in Hawke's office with Graham Richardson for a meeting on Tasmania's forests, then under threat from the logging industry.

"Who's going into the meeting?" Hawke's key aide Bob Hogg shouted. Emerson put his hand up. From that impromptu start, he developed an intense engagement with the environmental movement which  backed by Hawke, Paul Keating, the political smarts of Richardson, and a network of influential contacts in other ministerial offices  helped deliver Labor victory in both the 1987 and 1990 elections. It didn't hurt that Emerson  "The Kid" as Hawke sometimes called him  was close to Hawke personally, often seen as a surrogate son. The two played together as hard as they worked. Emerson became expert at marking up the racing guides for Hawke. When he finally left the PM's office for a job in Queensland, Hawke paid tribute to the "particular bond and affection" between the two men. Emerson is proud of the part he played in saving the southern Tasmanian forests, the Daintree in Queensland, extending Kakadu National Park, and preserving Shelburne Bay in Cape York from sandmining. Most far-reaching of all was helping Hawke achieve a ban on mining in the Antarctic. "Imagine a government trying to take on all that these days," he says. He's already working on his next book. It has the working title For A Beautiful World. The economist is venturing into philosophy. He and his childhood mate shot a roo once, he says; it sickened them both. "Just as there is a saying that the measure of a great society is how well it looks after its most vulnerable, I hope in time we will add the natural world to that," he tells me. "I think that cruelty to animals is not compatible with a great advanced civilisation. It might take another 30-40 years but you are seeing it now, the debates around caged eggs. People will pay more for types of food that involve less cruelty."Nationals MP George Christensen has called for the end of the Coalition, after the scandal engulfing former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce threatened to tear the partnership apart.

The maverick MP, who has a habit of making provocative comments and threatening to leave the government, said he wanted to see a National Party in coalition with regional Australia "rather than wedded to a Liberal Party lurching further away from the values we still hold".

Putting an end to the Coalition would risk the collapse of the Turnbull government and the century-old agreement between the two parties, leaving the Liberal Party reliant on the Nationals to guarantee supply and confidence.

In December, Mr Christensen reneged on his threat to desert the Coalition if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was still in power by Christmas, after repeatedly threatening to cross the floor over the banking royal commission.Washington DC: Malcolm Turnbull has told the governors of more than 40 US states that America's leadership in the world is in the interest of both nations.

The prime minister gave the keynote address at the National Governors Association gathering in Washington DC on Saturday, a day after meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Mr Turnbull talked up the need for infrastructure investment in the South Pacific, the importance of America's role in securing the region, and the benefits Australia expects from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership that Mr Trump pulled the US out of last year.

"We do not expect the US to return to the TPP anytime soon," Mr Turnbull said.Faith, as a system of explanation and providing meaning, purpose and values, comes in many forms which are by no means necessarily religious.

As Christianitys certainties came under attack in the 19th century, four great secular faiths arose, each of which still exists but each of which is at least as tarnished as the great religions are  which only demonstrates that their failures are the usual human ones.

Those faiths were science, culture, nationalism and socialism, each presumed by its adherents to render (supernatural) religion redundant.

Of course the separation was not always quite so neat: Hitler preached national socialism, held that science proved Aryans to be the master race, and believed that German culture was uniquely important. Americans blend Christianity and nationalism so much that it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other starts.

Science  or perhaps I should say scientism, the belief that only science provides ultimate answers  cannot recapture its 19th century innocence after such facts as eugenics, biological weapons, Josef Mengele and deliberately distorted research projects to advance commercial interests.

For a century or so, many educated people preferred Culture (yes, with capital C) to religion, teaching that great art could unite people and the numinous, and venerating Beethoven and Goethe as the greatest apostles. Postmodernism has knocked the stuffing out of that. Its easy to forget that nationalism is a relatively recent invention (with the nation-state), but its negative side has been amply demonstrated in the past 150 years.

Soviet and fascist socialism persecuted religion and set up alternative rituals, explicitlyaiming to replace Christianity, which they saw as their great internal rival.

These days the anti-religion argument tends to hinge on reason. Atheists whom I have read or engaged, tend to claim ownership, taking it on faith that reason is better developed in them than believers such as myself, rendering them clear-eyed and neutral against my blindness and bias.

In my experience, few people are so unreasonable as those who say they are guided entirely and only by reason. They have usually done little or no philosophy, and do not understand how value-laden and structured reason is, or how much evidence requires interpretation.

The great Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume taught that reason is always the slave of the passions, largely supported by modern psychology. When it comes to values and morals, we often use reason to rationalise and justify positions we have reached through our emotions. We all operate by faith to a large extent, inevitably and properly, yet here as much as in reasoning we are flawed by our human failings. Such is life.

Barney Zwartz is a senior fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity.A man has died shortly after he was placed in handcuffs on Saturday afternoon in Sydney's south-west.

Emergency services were called to a petrol station on the Cumberland Highway at Canley Vale at 3pm, after reports of concern about the man's behaviour.

Police allege the man assaulted the attending paramedics, and police were called.

Officers from Fairfield City Police Area Command restrained the man using handcuffs, before paramedics took him in an ambulance to Liverpool Hospital for assessment.

However, the man died at the hospital at 3.45pm.15/21

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is welcomed by Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, during an official welcome at the Pentagon. Credit:Alex EllinghausenWith Disney's Aladdin in the midst of its opening weekend in Brisbane, a local veteran was given the responsibility of designing and maintaining the vibrant Arabian costumes, some of which consist of as many as 20,000 crystals.

The Australian production of the 1992 Academy Award-winning animation includes 337 glittering costumes and features 1225 fabrics, 712 styles of beads and more than 500,000 crystals.

Aladdin promises to be a visual spectacular with vibrant costumes, extravagant sets and fireworks.

Brisbane designer Janet Hine has worked on World Expo 88, 2000 Sydney Paralympics, 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, 2006 Asian Games Doha, 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and her designs will also feature at the upcoming 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

In addition, the local talent boasts an impressive theatrical portfolio including Hairspray, Saturday Night Fever, Chicago as well as Hot Shoe Shuffle and also worked on the first four seasons of television show So You Think You Can Dance.A piece of Brisbane's history could end up in one of the world's most prestigious museums, with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk due to visit the Smithsonian Institute in the US with a special offering.

As part of a trade mission to the US, Ms Palaszczuk will visit the Smithsonian on Saturday morning (AEST) to offer them some of the Edison tubes dug up earlier this month as part of the Queen's Wharf project.

Tourism Industry minister Kate Jones with Destination Brisbane project director Simon Crooks (right) at the unearthing of the 134-year-old electrical cables. Credit:Tony Moore

The tubes were some of the earliest forms of conducting electricity on a large scale and Brisbane was behind only London and New York in installing the technology in the 1880s.

Several other international museums have expressed interest in Brisbane's Edison tubes.The decades-old tradition of showgirls at Queensland's country shows may be on their way out, as more towns choose not to take part.

And men are now even being invited to participate in some shows.

Queensland Country Life showgirls Mkarla James, Michelle Mesner and Rikki Frazer at the Ekka in 2015. Credit:Michelle Smith

Gold Coast Show chief executive Lavinia Rampino said the Gold Coast would no longer be participating in Miss Showgirl, an annual award.

The Queensland Country Life Miss Showgirl Awards runs across the state, but some shows, such as the Gold Coast, run unrelated individual competitions.An elderly man in Melbourne's south-east had a rude awakening in the early hours of Saturday morning when a luxury vehicle ploughed through his brick fence and into his home.

Channel 9 reports the silver BMW damaged at least four vehicles when its driver lost control of the car on Audrey Street, Springvale, just before 12.30am.

The BMW ploughed through a brick fence after failing to stop for police. Credit:Channel Nine

Victoria Police said the male driver initially fled the scene but was arrested a short time later on Davidson Street.

No one was injured.A Perth man has been run over by a car he was trying to drive away in.

The 40-year-old tried to take the vehicle while another man was unloading it at St James on Friday afternoon, police say.

A man is in hospital after being run over by a car he was trying to take. Credit:Heather McNeill

But when he was challenged, the man jumped out of the car, fell and was run over.

He then fled the scene before being taken to the Royal Perth Hospital.A Perth man who has been convicted of squeezing or patting the buttocks of seven young girls in the past eight years has avoided jail for a third time.

Peter Malca-Obando was sentenced in the Perth District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to touching an 11-year-old girl on the buttocks in front of her family as she was walking to catch a train in Maylands.

The Perth man has avoided jail after being convicted of touching a seventh girl inappropriately.

It is the third time the 37-year-old has faced sentencing for indecently touching girls under the age of 13.

In 2004, Malca-Obando was sentenced to an 18-month community based order for squeezing the buttocks of a nine-year-old and 10-year-old girl as they shopped separately with their parents at Morley Galleria, and pinching a seven-year-old girl's buttocks as she walked along a bush track.Dapchi, Nigeria: Parents of schoolgirls newly abducted in northeastern Nigeria plan to join the Bring Back Our Girls movement that gained global prominence in a bid to win freedom for their girls, a community leader said on Friday.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is suspected to have kidnapped scores of girls on Monday from a school in Dapchi village, Yobe state. Most are thought to be teenagers.

It would be the largest mass abduction since Boko Haram took more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014, sparking an online campaign that went viral and spurring several governments into action to try and find them.

Children displaced by Boko Haram during an attack on their villages receive lectures in a school in Maiduguri, Nigeria in 2015. More young women have gone missing. Credit:AP

Many of those girls remain in captivity, though some have escaped or been ransomed.Aden: At least 14 people were killed and 40 wounded when Islamist car suicide bombers and gunmen tried to storm the headquarters of a counter-terrorism unit in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, security and medical sources said.

Islamic State, in a statement carried by its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for what it described as two "martyrdom operations" targeting the camp in Tawahi district in south-western Aden.

The agency provided no immediate evidence for the claim.

Security sources said two suicide bombers detonated two cars laden with explosives at the camp's entrance while six gunmen tried to storm the facility.

They were all killed by guards and their bodies taken to a military hospital, a medical source told Reuters.Hours before meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his journey hit a dead end when the Canadian high commissioner invited a Sikh extremist named Jaspal Atwal (who has been convicted of attempted murder and was previously affiliated with a terrorist group) to a dinner to honour Trudeau in Delhi. Atwal was found guilty of trying to kill an Indian minister in 1986; he was also blamed for an assault on Ujjal Dosanjh, the former premier of British Columbia.

How did Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the world's favorite liberal mascot - a feminist man, with movie-star good looks, a 50 percent female cabinet and a political lexicon that has replaced "mankind" with "peoplekind" (making millions swoon) - end up looking silly, diminished and desperate on his trip to India this week?

By the time Atwal's invitation was rescinded - Trudeau called it "unfortunate" - Atwal had already posed for photographs with Trudeau's wife, Sophie, in Mumbai, as well as with other members of his entourage.

"It's a disaster," Vishnu Prakash, former Indian high commissioner to Canada, told me. "I am convinced Trudeau was blindsided. Whoever drew up the list screwed up and dealt him a fait accompli. But it is also symbolic of how Khalistanis have penetrated the system."

Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, in India earlier this week. Credit:AP

Since Trudeau won the election in 2015, the 1980s have returned to haunt Indo-Canada ties. Sikh secessionists who supported a separate country (Khalistan) unleashed a bloodbath in the state of Punjab in the '80s. Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, sent the army to purge the Golden Temple (the holiest place of worship for Sikhs) of militants who were hiding inside. She was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards, followed by anti-Sikh riots in which more than 3,000 were killed. In 1985, the Air India jumbo jet "Kanishka" flying from Montreal to Delhi was blown up by Sikh terrorists, leaving 329 people dead.

Knowing all of this, Trudeau still attended a Khalsa parade in May, where many of these militants were feted. So, his India trip was already mired in tensions when the Atwal snafu broke. Then, Canadian media released more photographs showing an apparent familiarity between Atwal and Trudeau back home. Nearly half a million Sikhs live in Canada and account for 1.4 percent of the population. Trudeau was such a favourite among them that he is jokingly called Justin Singh. Now he has competition. Jagmeet Singh, who recently took over the reins of Canada's New Democratic Party, is considered left of Trudeau's left. He even refused to condemn the terrorist who blew up the Air India plane.Strikes pound Syria's Eastern Ghouta as world fumbles for response



Douma, Syria, Feb 23 (AFP) Feb 23, 2018



Syrian regime air strikes and artillery fire hit the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta for a sixth straight day Friday killing 38 civilians, as world powers struggled to reach a UN deal to stop the carnage.

More than 460 civilians, including over 100 children, have been killed in nearly a week of bombardment that has been one of the seven-year conflict's bloodiest episodes.

Frantic diplomatic haggling delayed a vote at the United Nations Security Council on a 30-day truce as the leaders of France and Germany pleaded with Russian President Vladimir Putin not to veto the draft resolution.

Regime-backer Moscow has demanded "guarantees" that the truce would be respected by rebel fighters, and Kuwait's Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi, who holds the council presidency this month, insisted diplomats "are very close".

After delaying the vote twice on Friday, the Security Council scheduled a vote for Saturday at noon (1700 GMT).

Amid the wrangling US President Donald Trump slammed the actions of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian supporters as a "humanitarian disgrace".

Few of Eastern Ghouta's nearly 400,000 residents -- mostly living in a scattering of towns across the semi-rural area east of the capital -- ventured out on Friday.

An AFP correspondent in Douma, the enclave's main town, saw a handful of people stealthily crossing rubble-strewn streets to assess damage to their property or look for food and water.

He said rescuers carried a young boy wounded in the eye, blood trickling down his face, to one of the town's hospitals. "Will I see again?" he asked a doctor.

The bombing has been relentless since government and allied forces intensified their campaign on Sunday and rocket fire soon forced everybody to run for cover.

Exhausted and famished families cowered in cramped and damp basements, exchanging information on the latest casualties of the government's blitz.

Some of the only people braving the threat of more bombardment were medical staff in hospitals still standing and rescuers sifting through the wreckage of levelled buildings.



- Trapped bodies -



Fresh strikes on Friday, by the Syria regime and its Russian ally, killed at least 38 civilians, including 11 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes targeted different areas of Eastern Ghouta.

The latest deaths brought to 468 the number of people killed -- including 108 children -- since the escalation of the bombardment of the besieged area on February 18.

More than 2,000 people have been wounded.

Rebels have been firing back into the capital Damascus, where on Friday a hospital was hit, the official Syrian news agency SANA said.

At the UN, US Ambassador Nikki Haley expressed dismay as negotiations dragged on to secure Russian approval on a draft resolution calling for a 30-day truce to allow for humanitarian aid and medical evacuations.

"Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria," Haley posted on Twitter.

"How many more people will die before the Security Council agrees to take up this vote? Let's do this tonight. The Syrian people can't wait."

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions on Syria to block action that targeted its ally in Damascus. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Putin to ask him to back the ceasefire.

The draft resolution would demand the 30-day ceasefire with humanitarian aid convoys and medical evacuations to begin as soon as the truce starts.

It also specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated" with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. A previous version simply mentioned the two groups.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called "hell on earth", but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.

"The UN says it is concerned and calls for a ceasefire, France condemns, but they have given us nothing," said Abu Mustafa, one of the few civilians on the streets of Douma Friday morning.

"Every day we have strikes, destruction. This would draw tears from a rock," said the 50-year-old, who was escorting a wounded person to hospital.



- Toothless response -



The enclave has been controlled by Islamist and jihadist groups since 2012.

The main rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta rejected in a statement released Friday any deal that would see them or other residents relocated.

"We categorically reject any initiative providing for inhabitants to leave their homes and be transferred towards any other location," they said in a letter addressed to Guterres.

The area is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

The dire images of civilian victims bleeding to death in understaffed hospitals and the scope of the urban destruction have shocked the world and drawn comparisons with the devastating 2016 battle for Aleppo.

The aid community has voiced its frustration at being prevented from assisting civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which has been under government siege since 2013.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions driven from the homes in Syria's war, which next month enters its eighth year with no end in sight.

bur-rh-jmm-cml/acbStrikes pound Syria's Eastern Ghouta as world fumbles for response



Douma, Syria, Feb 24 (AFP) Feb 24, 2018



Syrian regime air strikes and artillery fire hit the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta for a sixth straight day Friday killing 38 civilians, as world powers struggled to reach a UN deal to stop the carnage.

More than 460 civilians, including over 100 children, have been killed in nearly a week of bombardment that has been one of the seven-year conflict's bloodiest episodes.

Diplomatic haggling delayed a vote at the United Nations Security Council on a 30-day truce, with Kuwait's Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi, who holds the council presidency, saying "we are very close" to agreement with Russia, Syria's ally.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet at noon (1700 GMT) Saturday to vote on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire, but it remained unclear whether Russia will veto the proposed measure.

Amid the wrangling, US President Donald Trump slammed the actions of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian supporters as a "humanitarian disgrace."

Few of Eastern Ghouta's nearly 400,000 residents -- mostly living in a scattering of towns across the semi-rural area east of the capital -- ventured out on Friday.

An AFP correspondent in Douma, the enclave's main town, saw a handful of people stealthily crossing rubble-strewn streets to assess damage to their property or look for food and water.

The bombing has been relentless since government and allied forces intensified their campaign on Sunday and rocket fire soon forced everybody to run for cover.

Exhausted and famished families cowered in cramped and damp basements, exchanging information on the latest casualties of the government's blitz.



- Trapped bodies -



Fresh strikes by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally, killed at least 38 civilians, including 11 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The latest deaths brought to 468 the number of people killed -- among them 108 children -- since the escalation of the bombardment of the besieged area on February 18.

More than 2,000 people have been wounded.

Rebels have been firing back into the capital Damascus, where a hospital was hit, the official Syrian news agency SANA said.

At the UN, US Ambassador Nikki Haley expressed dismay as negotiations dragged on to secure Russian approval for the ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aide deliveries and medical evacuations.

"Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria," Haley posted on Twitter.

"How many more people will die before the Security Council agrees to take up this vote? Let's do this tonight. The Syrian people can't wait."

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions on Syria to block action that targeted its ally in Damascus. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Putin to ask him to back the ceasefire.

Negotiations have stumbled over a key provision of the draft resolution that specifies when the ceasefire will begin.

Following hours of tough negotiations, an amended draft resolution was circulated that demands a 30-day ceasefire "without delay," while stopping short of specifying the timing.

A previous draft had said the ceasefire would go into force 72 hours after the adoption, but that was dropped from the text in a bid to reach compromise with Russia.

In another concession to Russia, the draft also specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated" with the terror groups.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called "hell on earth", but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.

"The UN says it is concerned and calls for a ceasefire, France condemns, but they have given us nothing," said Abu Mustafa, one of the few civilians on the streets of Douma Friday morning.

"Every day we have strikes, destruction. This would draw tears from a rock," said the 50-year-old, who was escorting a wounded person to hospital.

The enclave has been controlled by Islamist and jihadist groups since 2012.

The main rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta rejected any deal that would see them or other residents relocated.

"We categorically reject any initiative providing for inhabitants to leave their homes and be transferred towards any other location," they said in a letter addressed to Guterres.

The area is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions driven from the homes in Syria's war, which next month enters its eighth year with no end in sight.Death toll in Syria enclave tops 500 after UN delays truce vote



Douma, Syria, Feb 24 (AFP) Feb 24, 2018



New air strikes on the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Saturday took the civilian death toll from seven days of devastating bombardment to more than 500 after the United Nations again delayed a vote on a ceasefire.

A total of 127 children figure among the 510 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on the enclave just outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitor of the war said at least 32 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, it said.

The Observatory has said the air strikes are being carried out by Syrian and Russian forces. Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its Damascus ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

US President Donald Trump on Friday said Russia's recent actions in Syria were a "disgrace".

The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote on Friday on a resolution calling for a month-long ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians.

But the vote was postponed until 1700 GMT on Saturday as Western powers bickered with Russia over the wording.

Turkey urged the international community to end the bloodshed in Eastern Ghouta. "The world should say stop to this massacre," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said on Twitter.



- Rebel fire on Damascus -



Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present, and Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the jihadists or their allies.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, which UN chief Antonio Guterres called "hell on earth", but have so far been powerless to halt the bloodshed.

The enclave is completely surrounded by government-controlled territory and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

In one of the many unfolding dramas at a Douma field hospital, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings.

"She doesn't know yet that her own daughter has been killed," a nurse said.

Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets.

"I haven't eaten since the day before yesterday," said a mother in a shelter with her two children in Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main town. "They haven't stopped crying for three days."

The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded on Saturday, state media said.

Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since Sunday, according to state media, and many residents have sought temporary accommodation elsewhere for fear of a further intensification of the fighting.



- 'Unbelievable' -



At the United Nations, US ambassador Nikki Haley expressed dismay as negotiations dragged on to secure Russian approval for a ceasefire resolution.

"Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria," Haley posted on Twitter.

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to ask him to back the ceasefire.

Negotiations have stumbled over a key provision of the draft resolution that specifies when the ceasefire will begin.

Following hours of tough negotiations, an amended draft was circulated that demands a 30-day ceasefire "without delay," while stopping short of specifying the timing.

A previous draft had said the ceasefire would go into force 72 hours after the adoption, but that was dropped from the text in a bid to reach compromise with Russia.

In another concession to Russia, the draft also specifies that the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated" with the blacklisted terror groups.

The text would demand the immediate lifting of all sieges in Syria, including that on Eastern Ghouta, and order all sides to "cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival".UN backs Syria ceasefire as death toll in rebel enclave tops 500



United Nations, United States, Feb 24 (AFP) Feb 24, 2018



The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously demanded a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, as new air strikes on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta took the civilian death toll from seven days of bombing to more than 500.

With support from Russia, the Security Council approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire "without delay" to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

At least 127 children are among the 513 dead in the bombing campaign that the regime launched last Sunday on Eastern Ghouta, just outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitor of the war said at least 35 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, it said.

The Observatory has said the air strikes are being carried out by Syrian and Russian forces.

Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

"Every minute the council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew," the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told the Security Council, accusing Russia of stalling.

"As they dragged out the negotiations, the bombs from Assad's fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shelling?"

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia rejected accusations of foot-dragging, saying that negotiations were needed to arrive at a demand for a ceasefire that was "feasible."



- 'Late' responding to crisis -



UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has described Eastern Ghouta as "hell on earth," is to report to the council in 15 days on the ceasefire, diplomats said.

To win Russia's approval, language specifying that the ceasefire would start 72 hours after the adoption of the draft was scrapped, replaced by "without delay," and the term "immediate" was also dropped in reference to the aid deliveries and evacuations.

In another concession to Moscow, the resolution said the ceasefire will not apply to operations against the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, along with "individuals, groups, undertakings and entities" associated with the terror groups.

That would allow the Syrian government offensive to continue against Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in Idlib, the last province in Syria outside the control of Damascus.

Russia has vetoed 11 draft resolutions throughout the Syrian conflict to block action that targeted its ally. In November, it used its veto to end a UN-led investigation of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.



- Rebel fire on Damascus -



Control of Eastern Ghouta is shared between two main Islamist factions, while Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate is also present. Russia insists there can be no ceasefire with the jihadists or their allies.

Russia has been pressing for a negotiated withdrawal of rebel fighters and their families like the one that saw the government retake full control of second city Aleppo in December 2016.

But all three rebel groups have refused.

World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in Eastern Ghouta.

The enclave is surrounded by government-controlled territory, and its 400,000 residents are unwilling or unable to flee the deadly siege.

In one of the many unfolding dramas at a field hospital in Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main town, a young woman amputated from the knee breastfed a 40-day-old infant who had lost his entire family in the bombings.

"She doesn't know yet that her own daughter has been killed," a nurse said.

Food supplies have been running dry, with bread no longer available on local markets.

"I haven't eaten since the day before yesterday," said a mother in a shelter with her two children in Douma. "They haven't stopped crying for three days."

The cornered rebels in Eastern Ghouta have been firing back into Damascus, where six civilians were wounded on Saturday, state media said.

Around 20 people have been killed in eastern districts of the capital since last Sunday, according to state media, and many residents have sought temporary accommodation elsewhere for fear of a further intensification of the fighting.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia's recent actions in Syria were a "disgrace."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday to ask him to back the ceasefire.IS kills two policeman in attack on Iraq oilfield



Kirkuk, Iraq, Feb 24 (AFP) Feb 24, 2018



The Islamic State group on Saturday killed two policemen guarding a northern Iraqi oil field, in a first attack on energy facilities since jihadists were driven from the region's towns, a security source said.

"A large number of IS terrorists attacked a post of the oil police force near well 43 in the Khabbaz oilfield, killing two and wounding a third," the source told AFP.

Iraqi forces announced the total defeat of IS in the country in December after a punishing campaign to oust the group from territory it seized in 2014.

But cells of jihadists remain behind and have continued to carry out bloody attacks, including killing 27 pro-government fighters in an ambush in the Hawija region last week.

Iraq's central government retook the vital oil fields around Kirkuk from the autonomous Kurdistan region last year after it held a disputed vote on independence.

The income from oil is vital for Iraq, OPEC's second biggest producer, as the country needs tens of billions of dollar to rebuild after the devastating fight against IS.Intermountain Healthcare to merge with SCL Health by 2022

SALT LAKE CITY  Intermountain Healthcare and SCL Health have signed a letter of intent to merge. The announcement came during a press conference on Thursday. The merger, expected to close in early 2022, will provide high-quality, accessible and affordable health care to more communities and patients in six states, including Utah, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Kansas and Colorado, said Dr. Marc Harrison, Intermountain's president and CEO. Together, the two organizations with no geographic overlap, will operate 33 hospitals, employ 58,000 caregivers, run 385 clinics and provide health ...Land like no other in a trance View(s):

It was as if Kussi Amma Sera had gone into a trance. She kept on mumbling, Ehe yanawa, mehe yanawa  ehe yanawa, mehe yanawa (Going here, going there), while preparing the morning tea in a smoke-filled kitchen.

Puzzled at first and about to ask what she meant, I recalled a friend saying that the struggle by ruling politicians to form a new government and Cabinet was like the back-and-forth swing of a pendulum in an old grandfathers clock.

Apey desapalagnayin ratata-nung adare neha (Our politicians have no love for our country), she said in resignation, bringing the morning tea as I prepared my weekly writing sojourn into cuckoo-land (trying to make Sri Lanka a perfect place to live but alas an impossible dream just like Frank Sinatras classic The impossible dream).

Leaving Kussi Amma Sera to her thoughts and another day of juicy gossip with her comrade-in-arms Serapina on the, this-way-that-way, political turbulence, I was more interested in the latest economic data released by the Central Bank (CB) on Thursday.

The CBs economic numbers for the whole of 2017 culminating with the December statistics were released coincidentally against the backdrop of alarm bells from its Governor Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy that political instability will endanger the economic reforms programme. And, as if rubbing salt into the wound (of an economy trying hard to cut spending as part of debt management)), the back-to-the-wall government  desperately seeking to woo back waning public support  offers concessionary vehicles to public servants!

In a February 16 order, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera gazetted regulations offering public servants a tax deduction of Rs. 5 million (per vehicle) under the concessionary duty permit. Tax revenue down the drain!

In another obvious sop, Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake has said the government will deposit cash for the full market value of fertiliser in the bank accounts of farmers, starting from the next cultivation season in addition to providing them free agriculture insurance cover of Rs. 40,000 per acre.

How many more hand-outs will be doled out in the coming days is anybodys guess and add further headaches to the Central Bank and the Treasury, inevitably putting the brakes on tight fiscal management policies. The Government seems to left with no choice just like one respondent, in a Business Times (BT) opinion on the shaky administration, pointed out: Sustainability (of the government) will depend entirely on the performance of the new administration. If they continue the same way that they did for the last three years, they are doomed.

Many people, as the BT poll reveals, are unclear about the state of play in a government where the ruling politicians dont know whether they are coming or going!

These unexpected changes in the economic landscape with more concessions to farmers, fishermen and others who matter in the voting population just as the economy had shown some progress and belt-tightening measures were to continue in 2018, are similar to the political uncertainty in the Maldives.

There, just as tourism was recovering after a bad year in 2016 and for three quarters of 2017, a political crisis triggered by a Supreme Court decision to free political prisoners led to the imposition of a state of emergency resulting in a wave of travel warnings from key tourism markets like China, the UK and Germany. Hundreds of cancellations were reported, millions of dollars in revenue lost and industry bodies are pleading with the authorities to lift emergency rule.

In Sri Lanka, while the projected economic numbers were looking good for 2018  after a reasonable 2017  the pendulum could be swinging the other way if spending on unproductive items rises.

Back to the numbers game and economic data (not lies, damned lies and statistics, as the saying goes), the top three foreign exchange earners in 2017 were remittances from migrant workers at US$7.2 billion (a drop of 1.1 per cent from 2016, a trend seen across 2017), textiles and garments $5 billion (up by 3 per cent) and tourism, up by 3.2 per cent to $3.6 billion.

While known in economic and academic circles but not clearly explained in the common public space, both garments exports and tourism revenue have an imported component. In the CB data, under the import category of intermediate goods (which is imported inputs), textiles and textile articles cost $2.7 billion (more than half the value of exports). So if you subtract this figure from $5 billion, the net foreign earnings for garments is $2.3 billion.

The same equation applies to tourism, though to what extent cannot be quantified since the tourism input component comes under the general import categories of food and beverages, etc.

Just at this moment, Kussi Amma Sera comes running with my mobile phone, shouting, Sir  call  call  apey Mahattaya line-ekay. (Our Sir is on the line).

It was Pedris Appo, a retired agriculture expert who does a little farming, whom I have occasional chats with and who likes to be called Appo, short for Appuhamy.

Machan, now the fellows are blaming the farmer for their defeat. Politicians use the farmer to win an election and (also) blame the farmer when they lose.

Ah  what , I asked.

Agriculture can do well and we can export high quality surplus if only the policies were right. The politicians bring people from abroad with theories (in every economic sphere including agriculture) to tell us what we already know, even better. (At this instance, I remembered reading a comment by economist Prof. Razeen Sally that Sri Lanka unfortunately loves the white fellow at the expense of a greater depth and quality of local expertise).

But if the farmer becomes rich and powerful like the Colombo resident, politicians wont be able to win elections? Farmers are deliberately kept poor and needy so that politicians can give handouts and win votes, I counter.

Yep youre right. Sadly, only D.S. Senanayake had a vision for agriculture in the country and no one can beat that vision or even come near it. Here, we are heralding sectors like garments and tourism with tax breaks, concessions and deshamanayas when agriculture doesnt get the same prominence except at an election. I am not against these sectors and not asking for tax breaks or special treatment, but equality, Appo notes, rather sadly reflecting on the rich sources that the country has but not utilising its potential in a sustainable way.

Sri Lankas agriculture and its value-added products are still a mainstay in the export economy and can do much better with the right policies. For the record, tea revenue rose by 20.5 per cent to $1.5 billion, rubber products rose by 8.8 per cent to $835.4 million. Spices with a revenue rise of 28 per cent to $406 million beat coconut (earlier the third largest agriculture export) which saw negative growth of 4.9 per cent to $348 million.

Seafood also showed some strong numbers, with revenue rising by 42 per cent to $240.6 million. If only Sri Lanka is able to maximise fish production being surrounded by sea, local fish prices will come down and reciprocally reduce the cost of living.

Sound agriculture policies, as pointed out by Appo without leaning on foreign expertise, will ensure more crops, more productivity and drastically cut the high cost of production. The private sector is driving agriculture growth in the country with companies like Cargills, CIC, Renuka, Nestle, Pelawatte and many others showing the way; they need to be recognised even more than garments and tourism barons.

Simple, down to earth economics will help increase yields in farms and help reduce prices and export the surplus. As Kussi Amma Sera often says, Apita baara dunnoth, api hariyata karanawa. (Hand it over to us and well do it well.Life is not just a beach for some as Port City emerges By Alvin Sallay View(s): View(s):

At 87, Professor B.L. Panditharatne is quite frail and his one-hour long analysis on the Proposed Development of Colombo Metropolis, Western Province and the Colombo Port City this week was understandably studded with personal reflections which while interesting, wasnt really newsworthy.

For instance: When I did my doctorate there was only one building in Colombo which was more than 100 feet, Akasa Kade. All the large Walauwas have given way to storeyed buildings changing the residential land-scape. A middle-class person cannot afford to live in Colombo as they will need three to four lakhs a month for housing.

Indeed. Or what about: The Beira Lake today is little more than a third of what it was, most of it has been reclaimed. Not exactly breaking news. But the word reclaimed sparked an animated debate among the small audience at the SLAAS auditorium once the good professor had finished his discourse.

It began with my neighbours Aruna Fernando and Feisal Mansoor leading the way. Aruna is the president of the All Ceylon Fisher Folk Trade Union. He had a number of gripes, old and new. Old being the continued sand mining undertaken for the Colombo Port City being reclaimed from the Indian Ocean. His latest bellyache was over Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweeras budget proposal to bar fishermen from fishing in small boats but instead trawl in 55-feet boats.

Lets look at the contentious sand-mining saga first which has been well-documented mainly due to the marine ecology and related environmental aspects that the fisher folk from Negombo had raised ever since the Port City got its new lease of life under the coalition government.

Removing sand

According to Aruna, 60,000 acres offshore from Negombo has been mined for sand by the three Chinese dredgers operating day and night to fill the 269 hectares site which will make up the Port City.

The extensive sand mining is affecting the fish breeding areas. We will not feel it now but future yields will be depleted. For 30 years (during the war) we were not allowed to fish in these waters because it was a high security zone. Today that has been given to the Chinese to mine for sand, Aruna points out.

As a fisherman we are not allowed to take a bucket of sand from the sea. We will be arrested if we do that. But look at what the Chinese are doing. And the sand for the reclamation is only a small amount for the entire project. They will need 65 million tonnes of sand for the landfill but that is only two per cent of the overall needs for the entire project. What about the sand they will need for all the buildings to come up at Port City? Aruna asks.

Feisal is a member of the Peoples Movement Against the Port City, a vociferous body which has been backing the 60,000 fishing families that live from Negombo to Kerawalapitiya along the Western coast.

The fisher folk are willing to make a sacrifice for the sake of the country and live with the Port City. But our point is if the government is in so much of debt, then why dont they sell the sand to the Chinese at US$200 a tonne? If they need 65 million tonnes for the landfill then that will come to US$13 billion, Feisal sums up.

We can sort our national debt with this money. But instead of doing this what has happened is the government will get a tract of land at the Port City which is estimated to be worth US$6 billion. How is this an equitable deal? China is the winner, Feisal adds.

This was the unanimous feeling among the audience. Professor Panditharatne had warned earlier that the urbanisation of the Western Province had to be sustainable but was worried that too many hands in the pie  the government having to deal with so many local bodies and departments  would make it a difficult goal to attain.

The implementation of acquiring land for development is not an easy process. There are a lot of vested interests and you will need to get the cooperation of everyone to achieve the final target, says Professor Panditharatne.

Is urbanisation good? Not according to Feisal. They are gentrifying Colombo not by uplifting the poor but by chasing the poor out. What will happen is one day we will have an antiseptic city like Singapore.

Livelihoods affected

But that is for the future. For Aruna, his headaches are today. It was made worse by the last budget where the government has proposed that all fishing craft should be of a minimum 55-foot length so as to enable deep sea fishing with the catch being refrigerated.

The government has banned the smaller 30-foot boats which we have traditionally used. They say the bigger boats will help us go out further. All good but the only problem is the cost. It costs Rs. 15 million for one of the new boats and the government has said they would bear half the cost. But where are we to find the balance money. We cant even afford Rs.50,000 but they are forcing us to change boats, Aruna explained.

What will happen is that a few powerful people, including ministers, will operate the new boats and all the fishermen like Aruna will end up working for them. They will become labourers, instead of being able to stand on their own feet, Feisal predicted.

No fish, no boats. The fishing community in Negombo have their hands full. And with looming worries that the reef which harbours their precious lagoon is not affected by all the sand mining, it is not happy days even though the government has tried to buy them off by offering a Rs.500 million livelihood support programme.

This has created division among the Negombo and other fishing communities in the area. There are 10 associations, and apparently only one has received a sum of Rs.4.2 million. Is it a case of divide and rule by the government as they try to appease the Chinese and build the Port City?

Before coming to power, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said he would stop the Port City project. But he couldnt do it (as probably it was too far down the road). But surely there are better ways to go about this, like selling the sand to the Chinese, says Feisal.Minister Arjunas Natural Gas Company plan goes for a six By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

An ambitious plan to establish the Sri Lanka Natural Gas Company (SLNGC) Ltd under the Petroleum Resources Development Ministry to handle operations of natural gas industry in Sri Lanka has been shot down on the directions of President Maithripala Sirisena recently.

Minister Arjuna Ranatunga has submitted a cabinet proposal to set up this company to promote and facilitate the use of natural gas as a source of energy in power, transport, industries, commercial, domestic and other sectors.

The main aim of this limited liability company was to regulate the industry through the authorisation of eligible parties to engage in business as importers, exporters, sellers, suppliers, or distributors of natural gas and introduce a scheme of granting licences to eligible persons for attending to installation, maintenance and repair of LNG distribution systems.

According to the plan of the ministry, this company was to serve as a credible entity to participate in the activities of the joint venture on LNG between Sri Lanka, India and Japan.

Submitting his observations in writing relating to this cabinet memorandum, the President indicated that the main activity of the proposed company will be to import natural gas and supply it to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

However, he pointed out that the CEB should be able to establish a mechanism for obtaining natural gas for its operations.

The President noted that there was no need for establishing a separate company for handling natural gas operations.

Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera in his observations to the cabinet noted that he is also not agreeable to the proposal stating that even though the companies for gas distribution and associated services had been formed in the past, they have been privatised subsequently.

He pointed out that the government policy for the usage of gas for power generation and the other sectors has not yet been finalised.

The future energy plans for the Power and Renewable Energy Ministry and the operations needs of the CEB are to be considered in formulating a national strategy on natural gas operations on the directions of the President, Presidential Secretariat sources said.New model for bank finance for rice production By A.I. Marikar View(s): View(s):

There are many compelling reasons for banks in Sri Lanka which are the biggest providers of finance to the private sector to assume a major role in providing finance for paddy cultivation.

According to the Central Bank 2016 annual report, total loans and advances given by all commercial banks in Sri Lanka as at December 2016 was Rs.4.715 trillion. Of this amount a sum amounting to Rs. 425 billion or 9 per cent of total advances was given for agriculture and fishing. This includes all loans and advances to the tea, rubber, coconut and fisheries industries and all agriculture related activities. The amount given for cultivation of paddy is not separately shown and one can assume that the amount involved is less than one per cent of total loans. Most paddy related loans given by the two state banks are mainly for post-production paddy marketing rather than for paddy cultivation.

Considering the fact that Sri Lanka needs to strengthen its rice production capability so that the country can achieve and maintain self-sufficiency in food production, and considering the fact that paddy cultivation employs about 60 per cent of rural labour, the paddy production sector is of significant strategic importance to the economy of the country.

It is most unfortunate however that banks have chosen to remain uninspired in lending support for paddy cultivation and have further chosen to treat this very vital sector of the economy, the way wealthy urban folk view their poor country cousins; with disdain and whose existence they do not want even to see.

Let us examine dispassionately some of the issues involved in paddy cultivation:

1. Sri Lanka is a naturally gifted country for agricultural development. Its reliable rainfall patterns and the immense potential its topography provides for water storage in irrigation tanks and reservoirs and the ability of stored water to be distributed over long distances via gravity based irrigation channels, makes the country an ideal model for extensive development in agriculture. Much of the land mass is arable and cultivation of food crops has been a forte of the local farming community from very ancient times.

2. The population density of the island is very high and the need to feed its people is therefore a major responsibility of the state. A stated goal of the country is to achieve food security and this has come very close to being achieved as a result of all stakeholders working in unison to realise this goal. The weak link in the chain however are banks who have so far chosen, sadly, to watch all the unfolding events from the pavilion.

Risks in financing paddy cultivation

Banks tend to treat agriculture finance as high risk lending stemming from the assumption they make that the entire cultivation process is very weather dependent.

Actual events on the ground however have clearly shown that this fear psychosis is impulsive and factually incorrect. An analysis of real events in food production, both locally and globally and empirical evidence worldwide proves a food production pattern of steady growth. The probability of crop failure in agriculture, in managed irrigation areas, is perhaps not any higher than the average incidence of business failure in non-agricultural sectors.

The assertion that paddy cultivation is heavily rain dependent in this country is a fallacy. The country has made huge strides in water management techniques for paddy cultivation with irrigation engineering commissioning several mega reservoirs throughout the country for large scale water storage.

In the 1950s Sri Lanka had a population of around eight million people and the country did not produce sufficient food to feed the people. The country was heavily dependent on imported rice especially from China under the Rubber Rice pact and we were also heavily dependent on imported wheat flour given to us as US Aid under the PL 480 programme. The population today has increased to around 20 million plus and fortunately and very surprisingly the country is now on the threshold of self-sufficiency in food.

This proves one thing for sure and beyond any doubt; our island nation given the necessary support, has the potential not only to achieve food security but can also become a major rice producer in the region with strong export potential.

An alternate approach: Forward purchase agreements

From the banks perspective, the risk perception of loans for paddy cultivation can be significantly modified if the modality of giving money to cultivators is redefined. In the popularly understood and practiced model, loans are given for cultivation to the farmer which results in the bank also buying into all the glorious uncertainties of paddy cultivation.

What is perhaps required is a fresh approach and a new business model: A model defining a different role for banks.

In the model proposed here, banks would enter into a trading relationship with the cultivator and purchase in advance, an agreed quantity of paddy and pay the full purchase price in advance. This forward purchase agreement (FPA) introduces two noteworthy changes to the process of providing finance to the farmer.

Firstly, the banks credit assessment will focus on the ability of the farmer cum seller to fulfil his delivery obligation under a contract of sale.

Secondly, the farmer as a seller of paddy is obliged to deliver the contracted amount of paddy either from his field or from any other source on the contracted delivery date regardless of any uncertainties in the cultivation process. This business model for agriculture finance is not new. It is as old as the hills. The people in the Arabian peninsula practised this system for thousands of years and continue to use it even today.

They called this mode of finance SALAM and developed in parallel a whole body of law specifying the rights and obligations of the two parties to the forward sale contract.

The objective of the forward purchase model is to provide working capital to cultivators in advance, to help pay for all cultivation and pre-harvest expenses.

What is important to remember is that the financier is not dependent on the seller for the production of the contracted goods, but is dependent on his ability to deliver goods as specified in the sale agreement. If the seller is unable to produce the quantity required for delivery, he is contractually obliged either to procure the goods in the open market and effect delivery or repay the money taken on the contract of forward sale if he is unable to fulfill his delivery obligations.

Comfort zone

A financing arrangement on a forward purchase platform has many attractive features to paddy farmers. Traditional paddy production is usually full of uncertainties. Unpredictable weather conditions, price uncertainty at the time of harvest or disposal of the harvested paddy at the end of the cultivation cycle at a reasonable price, etc can cause a lot of anxiety to heavily indebted and impoverished farming communities.

In the proposed model, price and delivery uncertainties are totally non-existent. The cultivator is now in a very privileged position of knowing the selling price of his harvest, prior to the commencement of the cultivation process and also receiving the entire sale proceeds in advance.

Delivery arrangements are also pre-agreed. The quality, quantity of goods sold forward, the mode and place of delivery are also contractually agreed in the forward sale contract. From a cultivators perspective, this arrangement is indeed a source of great comfort.

Banks and paddy trading

Banks are in the business of dealing in money. Commodity trading, especially paddy, is a speciality in which banks are unlikely to have all the required expertise.

It would be prudent for banks who wish to use this business model to enter into a strategic partnership with reliable and experienced paddy merchants/millers. The miller/merchant would be the active third player in the proposed business model. They will be the party who will purchase forward from the bank on deferred payment terms, the consignment of paddy that the farmer will deliver to the bank under the first forward sale contract. The two contracts need to be stitched up end to end so that the bank can confine itself to its primary role of financier. The miller/merchant must also play an advisory role for the bank when the forward purchase contract is being negotiated and concluded with the farmer, especially on determining the forward purchase price.

The cost of funds in this model is factored into the price. The two contracts, the first between the bank and the farmer, and the second between the bank and the miller would be signed simultaneously.

Banks have a social contract with people and country. Under this contract banks have been accorded a very privileged position of being the custodians of the wealth of the citizens of this land. They also enjoy oligopoly privileges of garnering deposit funds from the public which is a favour they alone enjoy.

The flip side of this contract obliges banks to extend financial support to development initiatives which profoundly affect the quality of life of the people. The nations food security ranks as the single most important initiative affecting the peoples quality of life. Security from food shortages, malnutrition and famine is a fundamental right of every human being. Banks must discharge this contractual obligation as a matter of utmost national importance. Under the social contract, people have entrusted their wealth to banks not to be used only for the narrow purpose of maximising profits by lending only to trade and industry. Banks are also obliged to help to maximise cereal production from the limited arable land that our country has at its disposal.

Banks must not perceive food production as just another hunting ground for amassing profits. They must instead treat agriculture finance as a major expression of social responsibility arising from the social contract they have with the people and country.

( The writer is a Commerce Graduate of the University of Ceylon, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London with over 40 years experience in senior banking positions in Sri Lanka and abroad)SL business confidence in negative territory View(s):

Business confidence is seen in negative territory while achieving targets set this year for economic growth, foreign investment and tax revenue would be challenging, a Business Times (BT) poll this week has revealed.

The poll conducted on email and reaching out to a cross-section of Sri Lankas business community, academics and professionals saw mixed views being expressed on the sustainability of a new cabinet/government.

Three questions were posed in the survey. Asked whether business sentiment would improve after a new administration/new cabinet is installed, 49.3 per cent of the respondents said No while 23.3 per cent were Undecided.

To the question, Will the formation of a new administration/new cabinet be sustainable for the next two years till elections in end 2019, 41 per cent said No while 36 per cent said Yes.

On whether the government would be able to maintain its revenue, economic growth and FDI targets in 2018 as planned, an overwhelming 64.4 per cent responded with No while only 16.4 per cent said Yes.

Most the comments received with the responses had identical concerns with one commentator saying that sustainability (of the government) will depend entirely on the performance of the new administration. If they continue the same way that they did for the last three years, they are doomed. As at Friday, two weeks after the poll the planned cabinet changes were yet to be announced.

Another said that uncertainty has created a fear psychosis amongst the investors and the business community. The last 10 days (as at Tuesday February 20) proved that there is no decision making power within this administration. That would negatively impact on economic growth throughout the year.

Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, over the past few days in at least two public forums, has warned that political instability is not good for economic management.

The foreign exchange markets have been turbulent with the rupee depreciating sharply against the US dollar as exporters held onto their overseas proceeds, importers booked dollars and foreigners were selling treasury bonds and shares in the stock market. Political uncertainty often triggers these developments, one money broker said.

Another respondent in the poll said the government would be compelled to change policies. Clearly the people are not with them. The local government elections were an eye opener, its a learning curve for them, he added.

Other comments:

If the PMs economic committee continues to stall projects until the relevant power bases of the government engage in horse-trading, nothing much will happen.

The business community usually prefers a UNP government.

They may be able to get taxes. But spending is the question.

The Presidents party commands less than 13 per cent support from the people. The UNP/PM has 35 per cent while a budding new party has about 44 per cent. The President does not have the moral authority to intervene and should allow the main party (largest group in parliament) to run the Government till he can call a general election as laid out in the constitution.Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA heads in the right direction By Jayampathy Jayasinghe View(s): View(s):

The conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement between Sri Lanka and Singapore is an indication of a positive signal that Sri Lanka was ready to open up to the outside world and engage with them, said Chief Negotiator of the National Negotiating Team of Sri Lanka, K.J. Weerasinghe.

He was speaking at a seminar held at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce auditorium in Colombo held recently under the theme Expand Your Business Opportunities Through Sri Lanka -Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

He said the Singapore-Sri Lanka FTA was signed on January 23 after a lapse of 10 years. Prior to this a bilateral agreement was signed with Pakistan in 2004.

Meanwhile the government has approved the setting up of a National Trade policy Committee that enables them to enter into free trade and bilateral agreements with selected countries. Mr. Weerasinghe said that Sri Lanka has to now look at emerging markets in Asia and in the Far East Asia such as the ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

The next agreement that we want to look at is with Thailand. We also want to negotiate with India and China as well.

He said the agreement signed with Singapore was of a high quality and a comprehensive one relating to goods. We are also looking at attracting investments, services and manufacturers that are all linked up together.

Meanwhile a number of agreements are in the pipe line. A number of countries such as Bangladesh and Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand want to sign FTAs with Sri Lanka.

Our main idea is to prioritise such agreements, he said. The Singapore FTA has several chapters such as Telecommunication, E-Commerce, Information Technology, Financial Services, Legal Affairs, Property Rights, etc. The Attorney Generals Department too has provided legal advice on the FTA while the National Negotiating team had looked into the overall agreement of the FTA.

Singapore has 99 per cent zero tariff except for alcohol and spirits. As Singapore is not bound by the WTO Agreement it can impose tariff with regard to goods in the future. Secretary General and the CEO of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Dhara Wijayatilake said following the signing of the FTA between Sri Lanka and Singapore many were anxiously waiting to see how it was going to benefit Sri Lanka.

Our belief is that the FTA is going to open foreign markets that will provide transparency in foreign investments and in other areas that will provide our business community with knowledge.

Ms. Jayani Ratnayake, Economist, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, said that Singapore was Sri Lankas 20th largest export destination and the 8th largest investor.

The Sri Lanka  Singapore FTA is a comprehensive and a modern trade agreement as it covers many areas and noted that the agreement is a unique one not found in other agreements. This is the first time that we are having a chapter on trading agreement in a FTA. Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, Deshal De Mel; Dr. Nihal Samarappuli , Member of the National Negotiation Team and Sub -Committee  Chairman of the Investment Chapter; Ms. Subashini Abeysinghe, Research Director  Verite Research; Nirmal Peris, Chief Operating Oficer, EW Information Systems Ltd, and K.A. Vimalenthirarajah, D.G. Fiscal Policy, Ministry of Finance also spoke. Chief Economist Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Shiran Fernando moderated the discussion.Sri Lankas printing industry moves into new era of globalisation By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankas printing industry has been moving into a new era with many local printers acquiring combined offset/digital facilities to go global.

The industry is now opening its doors to transform the country as a global printing hub that would create more business avenues and much needed foreign revenue, a frontline office bearer of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers (SLAP) disclosed.

Print marketing and novel advertising methods are becoming popular as a preferred, approach to interaction with customers, Assistant Secretary of SLAP and Managing Director Lak Foil (Pvt ) Ltd, Delan Silva said.

Local printers will be made aware of the opportunities in the printing industry and they will be empowered to harness huge potential in printing by inculcating them with out-of-the-box thinking, he said adding that SLAP will assist them in enhancing their business.

Sri Lankas printing primarily caters to export markets such as Singapore, India, UAE, UK, Germany, Venezuela and the Maldives.

It provides a wide range of products to the export market ranging from commercial printing to quality packaging materials such as tea cartons, garment tags, and labels which provide a supporting service to major export sectors.

Sri Lanka is yet to tap its printing market share fully and the association will assist printers to change their attitudes towards the mission of going global, he pointed out.

The countrys printing industry has an opportunity to cater to especially the Asian region due to its strategic location, he added.

With this main aim, SLAP will hold its biennial Print Conference on March 15 at Waters Edge, Battaramulla from 8.30 am to 5 pm.

The Print 2008 conference will gather all stakeholders in and from the printing industry to a single platform, for far reaching discussion, debate and sharing knowledge on the theme Going Global.

The Global Challenge for Sustainability of Packaging, Competition to the Print Industry, the Business of Printing Human Potential Management for Sustainable Business Enterprise and Commitment for Compliance to Environment would be key areas of discussion of the panel of speakers at the conference.

Elaborating on the objectives of Sri Lanka Print 2018 exhibition to be held on March 16-18, Mr. Silva noted that it will showcase the availability of new technology, and pricing structures while providing prospects for exhibitors, customers and visitors.

One of the main focus of this years exhibition will be the introduction of printing as a career path for young school leavers and guide them to take advantage of the many opportunities offered and available in this field, he revealed.

Every possible step will be taken to make this a meeting place for suppliers to the printing industry and the printers and expose them to new products, processes and modern efficient technologies as well as to establish contacts and get to know each other, he said.US tech CEO, business leader Murtaza Esufally invest in Takas.lk View(s):

New investors have come into Takas Pvt Ltd in the form of US-based Velan Thillairajah, Founder/Chief Executive Innovator of EAI Technologies and Murtaza Esufally, board director at the Hemas Group.

Mr. Thillairajah will be also joining the Takas Advisory Board, according to Lahiru Pathmalal, CEO/Co-founder , Takas Pvt Ltd. We are thrilled to have Velan on board. He has led EAI to serve as a collaborative partner with clients like Verizon, Cardinal Health, Neustar, VeriSign, and Capital One in bringing concepts to reality and developing powerful enterprise and consumer engaging applications covering Cyber Security, Supply Chain/Logistics, online ad targeting, merchant payment services. We can essentially gain from his wealth of US and Europe experience and exposure on building custom technology solutions. This is exactly the type of investor we need to leverage Takas fulfillment and technology platform, Mr. Pathmalal told the Business Times.

Mr. Thillairajah said: I was blown away by the efficiency created within the traditional disparate order fulfillment process through the smart underlying software covering online retailing, CRM, order processing and customer support. I expect Takas to be referred to as the Amazon of Sri Lanka!

Commenting on his involvement, Mr. Esufally explained how he has seen how young people use the online window shopping as their first choice. It is inevitable that e-commerce will grow for consumer goods and electronics. The shift will be sudden and shake traditional retail. I believe Takas will make the customer experience smoother and better.

Meanwhile Takas.lk is the first e-Commerce company to launch Progressive Web Apps (PWA) in Sri Lanka. Takas said it decided to put the customer first by making an investment in developing PWA to enhance the consumer experience on both Web and Mobile platforms.

The PWA uses modern web browser capabilities to deliver an app-like user experience without the user needing to install a conventional application or plug-ins.

Its fast and responds quickly to user interactions with silky smooth animations and minimal scrolling. Mr. Pathmalal said. According to statistical data in Sri Lanka more than 43 per cent of consumers now use a smart phone device to surf the web and we want to give them the best possible experience possible, he added.Duplicitous Brits and diplomatic fallout View(s):

When Sri Lankas defence attache in London made a gesture running a finger across his throat some of Britains MPs with little to do ran to their computers to dash off letters calling for the military officers recall.

Not to be outdone by politicians who have a symbiotic existence with refugees and former combatants and supporters of an organisation which Britain itself declared as a terrorist group, the striped-pants brigade down Whitehall which calls themselves diplomats rushed to send off confidential messages to the British outpost in Colombo to make demands of the Sri Lanka Government.

Three gestures with a finger running across his own throat by Brigadier Priyanka Fernando standing in the porch of our high commission premises and facing a motley crowd of protestors desecrating Sri Lankas national flag and waving what seemed to be the LTTEs own, was sufficient provocation for a tested military officer to react.

The problem is that the Brigadiers gesture could mean many things to many people. In fact when some of the LTTE- supporting demonstrators shouted that Prabhakaran was their leader the military officers gesture was a reply to those who claimed VP as their leader. The brigadiers response was to remind them that Prabhakaran had departed this world almost 10 years earlier.

But the protestors and their political lackeys who wish to cling onto their seats in parliament by supporting any morally reprehensible cause that brings them even a fistful of votes chose to select the least likely but the most inflammable interpretation of the brigadiers gesture.

So Joan Ryan and Siobhain McDonagh, two unfailing props of a crumbling terrorist (as defined by British law) edifice clung on to this independence day episode to work their pretentious anger now that their Labour Party appears to be running into all manner of troubles, even on Brexit.

To vent their public anger but private insouciance they sent a letter of protest to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who should have been paying more attention to the use of British weaponry to kill innocent Yemeni and Iraqi civilians than some Sri Lankans whose side lost the war but still live in a fantasy world.

The striped pants set at the South Asia desk of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) now supposedly in high dudgeon sent a missive to their man in Westminster House in Wijerama Mawatha to go and make a nuisance of himself at Republic Square where our own diplomutts were trying to rustle up their meager knowledge of the Queens English before confronting Dauris the Daring armed with his own excaliber.

The trouble was that poor Dauris did not know that our own King Arthur also known as Maithri the Mighty suffering these days with Hamletian doubts was also armed with a sword presented to him by Putin the Pernicious, had also threatened to smite anyone causing him vexatious moments.

To cut a long story short, as it were, everybody and their grandmothers know that the British are an unreliable and untrustworthy friend. Some might well remember that old tale about Britannia ruling the waves and waiving the rules. The worst of them was to be seen in the centuries of empire. That is not to say that today they have converted themselves to be leading guardians of international morality.

Today they preach their new gospel on human rights, war crimes, and international humanitarian law while their unsavoury acts committed during centuries of colonialism and even now are interred not with their bones as Anthony said of Caesar but with their inglorious history.

To relate Britains historical crimes which did not end with colonialism and the absolutely disgraceful manner in which their subjects were treated would require much more than a newspaper column.

Having lived and worked in Hong Kong for 10 years and written extensively about the 150 years of British rule one cannot easily forget the atrocities and atrocious manner in which the ordinary Chinese were maltreated while the rich Chinese entrepreneurial class was embraced and used much to the delight of the Hong Kongs filthy rich upper class.

When the British were up to their old tricks and shenanigans there were no international humanitarian laws, conventions on human rights, no political and civil rights and of course no UN Human Rights Council.

But as one British writer pointed out, there was indeed a European Human Rights Convention when the British occupiers were killing opponents of their rule in Kenya in the 1950-60s.

Ten years or so later the British seemed to have had no compunction in killing unarmed civilian protestors in Northern Ireland. Today the great British MPS like the Ryans and McDonaghs demand that the brigadier be sent packing for his gesture but not a word from these preachers of morality on British violations of human rights laws and abuses including the illegal invasion of Iraq which their party leader Phony Tony Blair led the country into war.

A recital of the British treatment of the soldiers in the British Gurkha regiment, the people of Diego Garcia who were uprooted from their homes and unceremoniously dumped in Mauritius and some in Seychelles and the killings of Kenyan civilians whose next of kin filed action in British courts for redress have clearly documented but would have to await a later date for an airing.

Of those vote seeking politicians only some are entitled to human rights and should be protected  even if they have been guilty of terrorist acts  and others are less than human and so have no rights.

So when the British High Commissioner went to Republic Square breathing fire our functionaries called diplomats from what some call the messed-up ministry, capitulated like a pricked balloon and agreed to act stern against the brigadier. All that the ministry apparently forgot was to greet the Dashing Dauris with a ehey hamuduruwaney.

With faxes going to and fro and the decorated military officer preparing to be hanged on the closest apple tree in the absence of a cadju poolang tree and the brigadier not knowing whether to report for work or stretch out at home on the hansiputuwa waiting for the executioner, the messy ministrys plans went awry.

It is scant wonder this should happen when it is infested with pro-western pandang karayas who will serve the white man with the same obsequiousness that the Indian domestic cleaners reserved for the conquering Raj in khaki shorts.

But what has followed since that February 4th incident from the time the foreign ministry kow-towed to our colonial masters like the white man grudgingly did so to the Chinese emperors, makes an entertaining soap opera.

On instructions from Colombo our High Commissioner in London asked Brigadier Fernando for an explanation and also sent her own explanation. It is worthwhile reading that exchange for it reflects not so much on the high commissioner but the person who wrote the letters.

It is known in London that these official communications are written by career diplomats who are described as political officers irrespective of how much politics they know. One officer has returned to Colombo after a long stint and another has now replaced him.

It is true that as High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene signs them but the construction is in the hands of the career officers. Writing to Brigadier Fernando seeking his explanation, the high commissioners letter says I have been informed that after your gesture was exposed it contributed to provocating the protestors and they moved very close to the High Commission aggressively to show their anger.

Having provocated (if I might resort to the same unaccustomed lingo) the Brigadier to take offensive action, the High Commissioner them replied to the fax by the foreign secretary saying As per instructions given by you, I have served him an explanation on the above, the high commissioner wrote to the foreign secretary  I wish to place my explanation on the Tamil Guardian report and the video footage..

In her confidential reply to the foreign secretary, the high commission goes on to say that since she assumed duties in London I have been trying my level best to integrate the different spectrum of the Sri Lanka diaspora community by continuous engagement to accomplish the vision of HE the President and the Hon Prime Minister to build a unified Sri Lanka with rule of law, good governance and democratic values and principles.

There are more linguistic howlers but to quote them all would only take more space which is really short now that High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene has decided to quit.

There is no doubt who the authors of these letters and previous ones were  career officials purporting to be diplomats posted here. The question is whether other letters with English howlers have been sent to the various ministries and government departments and diplomatic missions with which the high commissioner is said to have interacted.

One can understand former subjects of the colonial power wanting to get back at those who colonised them. One way to do so would be to write better English than they do. But to commit regicide in the capital of Royal Britain is a bit much.

Surely the ministry has persons with linguistic skills without dumping any old left over in this place. The last one clung on for five years.

Even crazier is the foreign ministrys linguistic struggle to explain the high commissioners sudden desire to quit. If her contract would end on March 31 then those at the high commission and her associates in London would have known that she intended to finish up as high commissioner. There are many formalities that have to be attended to.

The fact that nobody has talked about it seems like a well- kept secret. The foreign ministrys convoluted way of trying to explain makes it even more confusing. The ministry statement says that the high commissioner will conclude her contract on her own volition by 31st March.

What the ministry avoids saying is whether her contract, which I believe is for two years like non-career appointments, ends on 31st March. As she says in her letter to the foreign secretary, she assumed duties as high commissioner on August 10, 2016. As far as I am aware the contract then ends on August 9, 2018. If that is correct  and I leave it to the ministry to deny it and say precisely when it ends  then the contract is still valid.

It seems to me that if she terminates her assignment before the expiry of the contract period then she has to inform the Foreign Ministry that she would cease to function as high commissioner, whether it is on her own volition or somebody elses.

So let the ministry clarify when the contract became operative and when it will cease. If she wishes to leave before the expiry date it indicates she is resigning, the why and wherefore does not matter right now.The Crucifixion and the Resurrection Why SLPP cant demand Unity Govts resignation View(s): View(s):

Its what you might call the near death experience. The crucifixion of the coalition government on the cross of a peoples verdict two weeks ago. Its interment thereafter and its resurrection this Wednesday.

For eleven excruciating days Sri Lanka had no government. As the results of the local government elections trickled in that February 10th night showing a swing to the Peiris party of Rajapaksas lotus hopes and turned into a flood by Sunday morning confirming that the Pohottuwa Party had excelled beyond expectations and had won the majority of the Pradeshiya Sabhas, the nerdy reaction of the Unity Government was to go into a tailspin and leave the nation leaderless.

The ship of government, having floundered on the rocks and sprung a leak, was also left rudderless, with the captain bickering with his first mate on the ships bridge demanding he walk the plank, along with the majority of the crew, as if that would have enabled the leaking vessel to limp safe home to port.

True the final result showed the Pohottuwa Party had, to its credit, won the great majority of local government councils. But did that justify the ruling government to get its pants in a twist? Why the mad rush to press the panic button and send Save Our Souls signals? Even as it did not call for complacency, it did not raise the need for undue alarm either.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna had won 44 per cent of the popular vote. Of course, it is an admirable feat and congratulations are in order. Especially for a party recently born out of political expediency with no political philosophy of its own other than that inherited from the mother ship, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to boast about. What was clear about the SLPP victory was that the triumph was solely based on a personality cult: The Mahinda Rajapaksa factor. Like moths drawn to a flame, the votes gathered around his charismatic frame in the manner pins stick to an electro magnet. Once the power fails, the pins fall, once the flame extinguishes, the moths flee.

At this election, it was the SLPPs greatest strength. But if the lotus intends to blossom in full bloom in the years to come, it can also be its greatest weakness. For personality cults can rise, fall and fade like the lotus which rises from the mud to bloom in the sun only to wilt and droop and return to the mire at sunset.

For the United National Party, for the United Peoples Freedom Alliance and its main component, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the February 10 election disaster was indeed a crushing, mind debilitating blow. A chilling wake-up call from the grasslands of Lanka. It was, no doubt, an anti-government protest vote that enabled the SLPP to pip the post and emerge as the winner in its maiden outing at this third league Newbury trials before graduating to compete at the Royal Ascot. And the people had much to protest about.

The anger stemmed from broken promises. In that rainbow dawn of January 8, 2015, the Maithri-Ranil combo had promised them on election platforms in the run-up to the polls that they would bring the mega Rajapaksa regimes rouges to justice no sooner they came to power. Three years have passed and it had been water under the bridge. The lame duck excuse of the laws delay has been forwarded to justify its shame.

Dilrukshi Wickremesinghe, appointed in that rainbow morn to be the Bribery Commissioner, did a splendid job but was summarily sacked  sorry, was forced to resign  on the charge she overstepped her boundaries. Today the Bribery Commission is confined in the main to filing action against school principals for accepting Rs 25,000 bribes to admit a child to school. The FCIDs swank office at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall was turned to auditioning couches where stars of infamy turned up for casting sessions and left with a voice cut to the waiting media on the BMICH steps. In recent times even that has come to a stop and the masses are denied their regular TV series of Meet the Crooks.

And while the dossiers the FCID team managed to compile from their arduous investigations gather dust at the Attorney Generals Office, the Attorney General has been elevated to the status of the nations supreme arbiter to decide on whom to prosecute and whom not to. His lawful excuse: not enough evidence. If there was selective law enforcement during the Rajapaksa era, the AGs office has become the centre point for selective justice during the Sirisena regime. Justified, of course, on the presumed lack of evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused.

But does not that stance serve to usurp the role of the judge and jury? Isnt it for the courts to decide whether the evidence suffices? If there is a prima facie case against anyone, shouldnt the AGs office prosecute? Or has that office to play the role of judge and jury and determine the guilt of an accused beyond reasonable doubt before they venture forth to place it upon a judges table to get it rubber stamped?

The President himself announced last month that no top political figure should be arrested unless there is a watertight case that will ensure a sure fire conviction in court. But can even the Attorney General second guess what evidence is required to guarantee a conviction. If that is to be the yardstick for filing action against suspected criminals, then not even a suspected robber or murderer can be brought to court.

Guilt can only be determined in a court of law and not at the AGs office. No Attorney General can give any assurance that the evidence he possesses is hundred percent solid unless he is appearing before a kangaroo court with judgment pre-decided.

A series of different signals as to the governments commitment served to waylay the cause of justice. As a result the mega rogues whom the Unity Government promised the nation would be brought to justice are free today to roam not only the broad acres of the land but also to fly abroad and see the world.

Then also there was the promise to develop the economy and bring down the cost of living. On the development side there was nothing much the coalition government could do to impress the masses. The Rajapaksa regime had robbed them of that privilege. Apart from the Prime Minister promising to turn the nation into the miracle of Asia  another Rajapaksa boast  to create free trades zones of development, the dream is yet to materialise. All that the Government had done was to continue with road and infrastructure the former regime had initiated with the help of massive Chinese investment. And whilst the Government continued these projects, including the Colombo Port City, the credit belonged to the Rajapaksas: to the present Government the flak.

The previous regimes development was visible to the masses and thus caught the public imagination. The Unity Governments plans to reduce the international debt as a result of these ambitious projects caused it to heap burdens on the public. It was a case of one inheriting the sins of his forefathers. Its plans were more in the abstract but its results plainly visible to the masses in terms of hardship. It ignored the masses plight but did not fail to expend its largesse to parliamentary MPs and give them luxurious vehicles costing billions of rupees in total. While the poor were asked to tighten their belts and pay penance because the Government had to service the international debt, the rich, the elite, the MPs could loosen it and dine in style and eat to their hearts content.

And as far as the cost of living, the less said the better. Whilst the cost of eating sambol and rice rose to equal the price of a single egg hopper at restaurants where the city elite dines, with the coconut sarcastically described as gold by the insensitive Minister John Amaratunga due to its rising price. There may have been many other grounds for the anti-Government vote that made the bud bloom.

But above all it was also a vote for instability.

Perhaps the masses did not realise the gravity of playing marbles with their ballots. And even as the people voted at this poll to elect the bottom rung of peoples representatives, may they be forgiven for this dereliction for they did not understand what they were voting for. Not for a party but for the nations political stability without which no economic gain will accrue to this country. On the one hand the people vote for change in midterm out of whim, on the other hand they demand stability that is indispensable to further their fortunes.

But they were not alone in their folly. They were keeping exalted company with the President at the high table of collective ignorance. From the top most echelons of power right down to the grassroots, none realised the folly born of ignorance. That one cannot ask for a slice of cake baked on a heat fluctuating temperamental oven. That political stability is vital for economic growth; and without it no amen can be said in thanksgiving prayer for delivering the nation its daily bread, let alone a piece of Rose Blanc cake.

It took the Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy last Friday to give the nation his sagacious advice on the importance of political stability to investor confidence. He said: For the country to have a better outcome Sri Lanka needs political stability as quickly as possible. We have not really considered the political situation when making this decision on policy rates. How politics could affect is on sentiment, which leads to a reduction in investment and growth. Clearly one would need to loosen policy, then to support growth, but you also have to look at what happens to fiscal policy. If the political situation leads to a loosening of fiscal policy, the Central Bank would have to lean against that and tighten monetary policy.

The greater economy would benefit significantly from political stability and would be able to build on the macro stabilization that had emerged in the last few months of 2017. Political instability could also adversely impact the debt servicing dynamics given Sri Lanka will have to repay about $ 3.6 billion each year from 2019 to 2022.

Pity the CB Governors words of warning of the importance of political stability and how its absence would cause the nation dearly came too late in the day. For earlier that week, a shell shocked President Sirisena whose own SLFP had only garnered an embarrassing 4.44 per cent of the local government poll began, perhaps on the advice of those in his new inner circle, to court the friendship and form an alliance with the very men he had sworn to bring to justice three years ago. And to do so by kicking out the party  the UNP  that had made him president and with whom he had shared a partnership of just governance. And that, if not for the 106 UNP seats in parliament being the ventilator, Sirisenas SLFP would have been condemned brain dead long time ago.

Was Yahapalanaya to be betrayed on the basis of a local government result? Was the five year mandate given to him by the people in 2015 to be sacrificed on the shifting sands of public opinion expressed only to signal their discontent with his governments performance, the red card raised as a warning during play to clean up the act or that serious consequences will follow, including the punishment to be sent off the field, perhaps in Sirisenas case, permanently.

In the aftermath of the election result, his actions only served to undermine his own position, to show him as a seven stone weakling on a beach for heavyweights to kick sand on his face with contempt. The knee jerk reaction was not only to remain cowed downed but to surrender all to those who had bamboozled and bulldozed their way to regain the Paradise it had lost in January 2015.

Whilst the Rajapaksa faction gloated over their seeming triumph and demanded the coalition government to resign forthwith, the unity government went on the defensive. Nay, worse, it became absorbed in an internecine war. Sirisenas focus turned on demanding the Prime Ministers resignation which made the countrys confusion more confounded.

But was there any need for such paranoia?

Lets consider the joint oppositions demands after its party vehicle the SLPP had won 44 per cent of the popular vote.

Their first demand was for the Government to resign, claiming the Unity Government had lost the peoples mandate. But had it?

In the first place, the coalition government was elected to Parliament for five years. Local government elections are held to elect members to local councils, the third tier of the political set up. In fact, it lies at its very bottom. Whilst its election results may indeed serve as a useful barometer of public opinion and may be useful in gauging trends, no one can credibly claim that when a person uses his ballot at the polling booth he or she is doing so to change the government. They are using it only to decide which political party will remove their garbage from their door step.

If anyone thinks otherwise they are much mistaken. Changing governments is reserved for general elections. And for the Rajapaksa faction headed by the nerdy Peiris, a professor of law no less and author of many a legal tome to now squeak otherwise, to claim that the results of a local government election is a determining factor of the central governments existence and its constitutional right to rule for the period the people mandated it to rule, is a travesty of law and an affront to common sense.

It is true that the SLPP won 231councils out of 340; The UNP won 34, the SLFP 7, UPFA 2, Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchithe 41 and the JVP zero. But out of the 231 the SLPP won, over 160 councils remain deadlocked and whether the SLPP will get the right to dominate is in the hands of the other parties for it was a tight result.

So much for the election results and the councils each party has won. But can the SLPP ask for the Unity Governments resignation on the basis of the number of local councils won? The number of councils won or lost or the number of councilors who will take their seats come March 2, will not change the composition of the parliament by one jot. As the Hon. Speaker will tell you members of Parliament were elected in 2015 to serve for five years and no petty local election can alter that.

Furthermore, if the life of Parliament was subject to the changing whims and fancies of a fickle populace who base their choice on different norms when voting at different elections, then this nation will have a surfeit of elections and playing the polls will replace volleyball as the countrys official national sport.

Having no legal basis to call for the resignation of the coalition government, has Peiris, the onetime respected law professor turned Rajapaksa porter now turned Rajapaksa chauffeur of the Rajapaksa vehicle the SLPP have any other right to demand the coalition government to resign on the basis of the local government election result?

Of course not. And the arithmetic will show why. The SLPP obtained 44.65 percent of the popular vote. But what did the coalition government, whose resignation the SLPP now demands, get at this same election?

The coalition government is made up of the UNP and the UPFA of which the main component is the SLFP. If one is demanding the resignation of the coalition government then one must consider the amount the coalition, though its constituents for political reasons of their own contested on separate tickets, won at this local government election.

The final result as confirmed by the Election Commissioner is thus; The UNP received 32.63 per cent of the nations vote. The UPFA got 8.94 per cent and the SLFP recorded 4.44 percent of the vote. And the grand total of the parties that constitute the present coalition government is 46.01 percent. Seen in that sober light, on what grounds can the SLPP which received 44 percent of the vote demand the resignation of the Unity Government which gained 46 percent of the national vote? Can the loser ask for the crown from the victor?

Secondly, the SLPP has held this local election as a national referendum. But on what basis have they done so? Is it on any legal basis or as a figment of their imagination? Have they announced it prior to the election? Nay, only after the event. But lets for childs play and amusement, consider the election to have been a national referendum. And what does the result show. That 55.35 percent of the countrys voting populace have voted against the SLPP.

Lotus bud SLPP stalwarts refer to David Camerons resignation after the British public voted 50.89 in favour of leaving the European Union. Cameron resigned  though he really need not have done so  not only because he was a gentlemen abiding by the age old traditions of the country but also because he had on his own determined to solicit the opinion of the British people; and when he, the prime mover in the campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union, found that 51 per cent of the citizenry held otherwise, even though it was by a thin margin, he did the gentlemanly thing and left.

But by no stretch of imagination can the British national referendum on the EU be compared to a Gam Sabha election in Lanka. Simply put, the LG elections were not a national referendum. And if one imagined it was, then the reality is that the SLPP lost it.

Thirdly the SLPP has now deemed it fit to question the legitimacy of the coalition government by demanding to see the marriage certificate. According to the SLPP the Memorandum of Understanding has lapsed. This week it called for the production of a new one in writing.

But dont the dullards realise that an MOU is merely an agreement written down for mutual comfort. That it has no legal force but serves only as evidence to show intention exist. And that even in its absence, oral agreement is sufficient. That only in any matters connected to land that the law requires the agreement not only to be put down in writing but demands attestation by a notary and two witnesses.

And thus when Ranil Wicremesinghe rose from his seat in Parliament this week and reaffirmed the resurrection of the coalition government and the UPFA Secretary Amaraweera rose from his seat to confirm the agreement, no further action, no papyrus written with a quill recording the mutual understanding and agreement was necessary to prove to the House and the nation that the coalition government had been resurrected once again.

The only question is whether after all the procrastination, the crucifixion and the resurrection this week, whether there will be a second coming for either of the coalition partners if they continue to be the spendthrifts of the nations goodwill and trust?Udayanga missing: Second team also returns without suspect View(s):

A two-member team that flew to Dubai  armed with an Interpol Red Notice from its headquarters in Lyon, France  to seek the arrest of wanted former Sri Lankan ambassador to Russia, Udayanga Weeratunga, also returned empty handed on Friday.

The team comprised Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda and Senior Superintendent P.K.D. Priyantha, Director of the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID). Earlier, moves for Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana to join them in Dubai on the same mission were called off. Mr Weeratunga is wanted by the FCID in its probe into the procurement of MiG-27 fighter jets from Ukraine for the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) in 2006. The Fort Magistrate had issued a warrant for his arrest.

The two-member team had met several senior officials including those in the Prosecutors Office and the Dubai Police. They have been told that authorities in Dubai could not trace the whereabouts of Mr Weeratunga. They had checked on an address which he had given as his residence but they found no trace of him there.

A seven-member Government delegation that went to Dubai soon after reports emerged that Dubai Immigration had detained him briefly was also unable to secure the custody of Mr Weeratunga. The Dubai Branch of the Interpol had interrogated the former ambassador and released him before the seven-member Sri Lanka team arrived in Dubai.

The seven-member Government delegations departure from Colombo was delayed on three occasions forcing them to cancel booked flights. This was because their visas were delayed in Colombo. Mr. Weeratunga had been released by the Dubai Police on the basis that there was only a Blue Notice issued by Interpol, which did not warrant an arrest unlike a Red Notice.

In another drama that played out, the official representing the Foreign Ministry in that seven-member delegation returned to Colombo suddenly without informing the other members. A senior official in the Ministry had sought an explanation over his conduct. However, the move was over-ruled at a political level.

It turned out that the MFA official who returned to Sri Lanka leaving the others behind had received a string of threatening telephone calls. This has compelled him to leave Dubai hurriedly even without a complaint to the authorities there. He had feared that his life was in danger. The Interpol Red Notice is a request to Interpol member countries to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition.

9,000 houses left dark and dry

The Megapolis and Western Development Ministry is in a dilemma  what to do with 9,000 houses built eight months ago in Kolonnawa and Colombo North at a cost of billions of rupees.

The reason  there is no water or electricity. The state agencies responsible to provide the utilities have been sitting on the Ministrys request. This is whilst thousands wait without housing.

Bond scam: Secret cheques given to several people

Detectives probing the Central Bank bond scam have come across a bank account from which cash cheques have been issued to several people, including officials, politicians and even journalists.

They are now tracing different cheques to unravel the long list of those who received payments. The account had been operated by two persons, detectives say.

Brig. Fernandos case: Lanka capitulates to Britain

Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, the Defence Attache at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London was summoned back on the order of the Government to face an inquiry into his conduct during a pro-LTTE demonstration in London on Independence Day.

According to sources at the Foreign Ministry, this was done to avoid the brigadier being declared PNG (Persona Non Grata) by the British Government. His offence being that of displaying a throat-slitting gesture and showing his shoulder flash of the national flag while the protestors were trampling the Sri Lankan national flag opposite the mission.

In normal circumstances, one would have expected the Sri Lankan Government not to take things lying down. The President initially suspended the officers recall, but that was before the local government elections. He has succumbed to British Government pressure, it appears. Forcing the British Government to declare the Sri Lankan Defence Attache PNG and reciprocating by declaring the British Defence Attache in Colombo PNG is normal diplomatic practice. But clearly Colombo did not have the stomach for this course of action.

On the flight back home last Wednesday, Brig. Fernando is said to have got a heros reception on the aircraft with passengers queueing up to take selfies with the officer. In the meantime, the Sri Lankan Diaspora that lobbied successfully for Brig. Fernandos expulsion have not stopped there. They want the Brigadiers family also sent home.

The wife and children of Brigadier Fernando must have been granted leave to enter the UK as the dependants of the principal who had been granted a diplomatic visa to enter/remain in the UK. They have not been granted leave to enter the UK in their own right. Therefore, their visas in effect stand and fall with Brigadier Fernando. In the circumstances, we respectfully ask you to curtail their visas and return them back to Sri Lanka, they ask from the British Government.

The British Government has capitulated to the Diaspora lobby, and the Sri Lanka Government to the UK Government. One up for the Diaspora lobby.

Meanwhile, in what appears to be a separate but coincidental event, High Commissioner Amari Wijewardene has thrown in the towel and quits her job with effect from March 31, only days before President Maithripala Sirisena is expected in London for the next CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting). Her battles with sections of her staff were an open secret.

Womens quota: Confusion confounded

As the newly introduced womens quota has created headaches in formulating local councils after the February 10 polls, one of the proposals was to call for amendments to the Local Authorities Elections (Amendment) Act to allow councils to be established even without the mandatory 25 per cent quota under special circumstances.

Elections Commission (EC) chief Mahinda Deshapriya who has done a somersault on taking credit for the introduction of the Womens quota, vigorously defended himself at a media briefing this week, saying the establishment of councils without the 25 percent female representation would not be possible in only about 10 local councils.

He, however, observed that under existing laws, a political party or independent group polling less than 20 percent of the vote in a local council or winning less than three seats, cannot be compelled to nominate female representatives to LG bodies from their lists to meet the 25 percent quota.

However, the EC can only recommend that they do so, he declared. Nevertheless, given that it would not be possible under existing law to set up local councils without meeting the 25 percent womens quota, the EC chairman expressed hope that parties would indeed nominate the number of female representatives recommended.

A scribe pointed out that there are indications that even in local councils where the 25 percent quota is possible, some parties are considering nominating fewer female representatives from their lists in favour of men who have been in politics for many years and who consider it their right to continue.

He asked if the EC would gazette such a list even without the recommended number of females. The normally straight-shooting EC Chairman however chose to duck the question, noting that it was a hypothetical one. You are asking an if question. My answer to that question is also an if. If it actually happens, well see then.

In an ironic twist, Mr Deshapriya had earlier warned those at the Attorney Generals Department that the 25 percent quota may not be achievable under the new electoral system, when the new laws were being formulated. At the time, however, the learned lawyers at the AGs Department had scoffed at his warnings, stating that he was talking of extremes. Now the extremes he foresaw threatens the very existence of certain local councils.

However, it is clear that some of the concerns which should have been addressed while preparing and passing the law had been ignored making confusion worst confounded.

Maldives UN mission website hacked

The website of the Maldives Mission to the UN in New York has been hacked. However, the hacking does not seem to be motivated by the ongoing turmoil in the island nation as it does not have a political message.

It appears that whoever gained control of the site was trying to plant malware or a virus on the computers of the visitors.The page shows a survey on Chrome browser usage with an offer to get a chance to get a $1,000 Amazon gift card.

However, the URL or website address changes to what looks like a piece of computer code that would be activated when a user clicks on OK to start the survey.Will this coalition government ever learn? View(s):

In the aftermath of Sri Lankas local government elections, a weary sense of resignation weighs heavier in the scales than lingering (if not hopeless) optimism. As President Maithripala Sirisena dons white and is back again to his accustomed role of preaching morality and the virtues of good living to the restive populace, the fire breathing persona in blue promising to spearhead a new corruption fight on the election platforms a month ago appears to have disappeared not with a bang but with the proverbial whimper.

Extraordinary failure of political competency

On their part, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his band of now not-so-merry men protest that the warnings given by the electorate earlier this month will be taken to heart. A senior ministerial committee of the United National Party will present recommendations for policy reforms which will be discussed with its coalition partner to ensure unanimity and then swiftly implemented.

These are mind numbingly familiar terms emanating from the lips of the Prime Minister, committees, policy reforms, so on and so forth. When these words are heard in the public mainstream, sardonic chuckles ensue. It is this palpable absence of public faith that the coalition Government must overcome. Both the President and the Prime Minister are put to the stern test in terms of delivering more than the endless stream of political rhetoric, now hinged apparently on the musical chair games of changing the Cabinet. Who in this Cabinet actually commands public confidence? What is the point of changing portfolios when the same discredited faces circulate in nauseatingly slow motion rather like that dreaded nightmare from which one wakes up in a petrified state?

From the cosy corners of Colombo, there is no point preaching good governance and the Rule of Law to a potato farmer in the Uva province whose family is starving or to desperate paddy cultivators in the North Central province stricken by drought. The utterly inept handling of the portfolio of Agriculture by President Sirisenas protege in the Cabinet says a lot for the determination (or the absence thereof) of both to redress the plight of their own constituencies. It was an extraordinary failure of political competency, more so given that public anger had been visible for months previously. So there must be concrete change in the way that the Government is run. But none of that is discernible so far. This is why the public await future action with resignation uppermost in its collective mindset and the Rajapaksa lobby salivates in the wings.

The return of the Rajapaksas

A good friend of mine who disagreed vociferously regarding the strong critiques featured in these columns after the yahapalanaya victory was secured in 2015, based his fears on the possibility that Mahinda may come back, if public scrutiny of the coalition government was too harsh at the inception. My counter to that was that, if constant vigilance over the Government was not maintained, that would lead to precisely that same result. Three years later, that possibility if not probability has now reared its head in a ferocious show of defiance, surprising only the supremely naive. And let us not forget that it was precisely in the honeymoon period of the inception that the first bond fraud occurred at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). It says much for the manipulations of those in power that this fraud was engineered scarce before the bloom had faded from the promises held out at Independence Square that Sri Lanka will take genuine steps towards ridding itself of the horrors of a murderous, corrupt past.

Cynical power games continued, aided and abetted by once strident critics of the Rajapaksas who suddenly turned to purring cheerleaders of the coalition Government despite the fact that many points of controversy had uncanny similarities. One example was the Governments effort to bring in a new counter-terror law which was worse than the existing public security and prevention of terrorism statutes. Even now, there is apparently a new draft that has been finalized but the public is kept in the dark while in all likelihood, this has already been shared with western missions. Is this how governance is conducted? Will this Government never learn?

A grotesque subversion of the right to vote

And this allegation of a lack of accountability in governance swings both ways. There are many who are of the view that the commonly known Commission of Inquiry into the Treasury Bond issuance at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) should never have been appointed and that in doing so, the President focused public attention on the UNP for which the coalition paid a high electoral price. But that is a misapprehension of the most serious kind. The logic therein is indeed akin to saying (absurdly) that an investigation should not take place in regard to a serious crime given the danger that the robber could be identified.

However the allegation leveled against the President that he took action in respect of this scandal only at a point that it became politically expedient for him to do so and that the act of appointing the Commission was part of a deliberate scheme to gain political capital out of the fiasco remains to be answered. In any event, the result of the February elections was an unequivocal reprimand to both parties that the public is not impressed by these political games. But how many electoral lessons are to be meted out to Sri Lankas irrepressible politicians, which they never seem to quite grasp?

In a grotesque subversion of the right to vote, the only thing that elections seem to accomplish these days is to allow the country to get handed over from one group of crooks to yet another, both of whom take turns at robbing the public coffers but get off scot free as they are safeguarded by each other. Each so-called victory that is seemingly won at these elections is ephemeral. In January 2015, the rainbow revolution petered out into dismal quarrels though some strides in the improvement of the Rule of Law were evidenced. In February 2018, the strong showing of the Rajapaksas can only thrill those with lamentably short memories of what happened during that decade of darkness.

Where redemption lies

Right now, effective action based on the Commission of Inquiry report in to the CBSL Treasury Bond issuance is high on the list of imperatives for this Government. Two scapegoats disappearing into the murky depths of Sri Lankas criminal justice system does not suffice to meet the public call for justice. It is on this along with a range of other factors, that the yahapalayana Government was rightly judged.

And it is on these legitimate points of concern that it must redeem itself, if redemption is yet achievable in the public domain.Populist measures or economic stability View(s):

As the President and the Prime Minister dilly-dallied over appointing a new Cabinet of Ministers, it does not mean that the country was exactly waiting with bated breath for the outcome. It only means that there is a serious power struggle within the Government of 2015, and with two more years to go, the country is not going to see much good come out of the political chicanery at the highest levels.

While the hard bargaining was going on all of the past fortnight in the immediate aftermath of the February 10 local council election results that floored the two leaders, the Rupee has taken a slide. Not that it needs political instability to grease its downward trend, but those dealers in the money market confirmed that the on-going political uncertainty triggered jitters among investors, including foreigners owning bonds and shares in the Stock Exchange, and exporters and importers who play around with their sales and purchases.

The Central Bank is averse to intervening in such matters and the Governor can only make an appeal to the warring political factions to bring about some stability asap. With the Rupees slide, the Government will end up paying more for its imports, especially fuel, and then how much longer can it keep prices at present levels is the question. As it bites the citizen, the citizen can only bite back by rejecting the Government at the next election that comes around.

As our Economic Analyst said in his column last week with reference to the ongoing uncertainty at the helm of affairs; These would deter investment, weaken the capacity of the Government to take bold and essential decisions needed for economic stability and growth. The Oppositions obstructionist activities may escalate and cripple the economy. The emerging political developments will have far reaching economic consequences.

The local government elections seem to have completely derailed the Government, sending it into a spin. Not that the Government was on the fast-track anyway. It was like a train with the two engine drivers arguing with each other as they were proceeding and then a sudden earthslip caused the train to jump track and come to a halt  on the edge of a precipice. And the senior driver is blaming his second in command and wants him sacked.

In reality, both engine drivers are to blame jointly and severally. As we said last week in this space, the President, upon his election in January 2015 quickly forgot that he sat on the executive throne by virtue of being a common candidate of the Opposition and then tried to wrest control of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) whose loyal faithful felt he had betrayed the party for his personal aggrandizement. The Prime Minister forgot there was an Executive President and ran the Government as if such an office did not exist.

As the years rolled on, people; bureaucrats, political appointees, even ministers started playing one (President) against the other (PM) building up mutual mistrust and resentment between the two. Messages were sent from the Presidential Secretariat to Temple Trees not to be unmindful as to who the numero uno was, and to treat him with due courtesy. Whether these early messages were in fact communicated is not known, but if they were, they seem to have been dismissed somewhat contemptuously. Meanwhile, the ministerial cabal around the President kept harping on a break with the PMs party. Policy-wise, too the two parties remained like chalk and cheese.

The question now is whether this weeks announcement that the National Government still exists is a mere facade for self-preservation. The President, having tried  and tried, to sack his Prime Minister has resigned himself to his fate best described in a pithy double-meaning local idiom; banda bere gahanna wei, or he who ties the drum round his waist will have to play it himself.

The two main parties in the National Government stuck firmly to their confirmed economic policies. The President is still in the mode of the Socialist-style centralised economy where the commanding heights, as they say, are in the hands of the state. On the other hand, the PMs lot want to dismantle the public sector apparatus, which, not entirely wrongly, they feel is too obese and are for a liberalised slim-fit private sector driven economy. The PPP (Public-Private Partnership) initiative, if it was meant to be that common ground between the two ruling parties in what earlier was referred to as a mixed-economy, is still not to be seen.

The February 10 local election results have caused a rupture that was waiting to happen within the National Government at the Centre even though the eventual winners from that poll are still to be named in the bigger councils, 14 days after. It has, no doubt, been a wake-up call for both parties in the coalition. The backbenchers are the most vociferous. They say they left economic policy to those in the corridors of power in Colombo, a small group and now face the consequences.

It was said somewhat sarcastically, that the cabal that ran the economic policies of the previous Administration knew nothing of economic management. The cabal that runs the economic policies of this Administration knew everything. Whether it is mega projects and negotiations on FTAs, or how to control the price of a buth packet (rice pack), they know it all.

The backbencher MPs now want a voice in directing the economic policies of the nation. They want a course correction by the Government. Their priorities are not the hitherto policies of stabilizing the external debt, largely though not entirely, created by the previous Administration, nor chasing Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), but the that the focus must shift to the economic necessities of the common man and woman. Essentially, this means more handouts. Who picks the tab is anyones guess.

This approach will therefore, be looking at the future of the country through an electoral prism and for short-term benefits. The aim, objective and target will be winning the 2020 elections and thus pushing further back, good economic order. Populist sentiment will prevail over sound economics. Indebtedness will be of academic interest as practicality for a win-at-any-cost in 2020 will be on the political agenda.

A remark by the President this week quoted by our Political Editor today says it all. At the high-level meeting of the NEC (National Economic Council) which he presides over, he said he was not worried about international finance  only about the buth packet.

The President has also asked his ministers, meaning the SLFP ministers to bear with him for just another month in the National Government. What does he mean by this? We know he is still trying to reach out to his breakaway faction which did him in, after he did them in. My enemys enemy is my friend, seems to be his approach. So, does the political uncertainty continue for another month? Presumably, the political leaders get their kicks from keeping the nation guessing, whatever the cost may be.Royal visit to Deaf and Blind School, Ratmalana Guiding Light View(s): View(s):

Their Royal Highnesses the Earl and Countess of Wessex paid a visit to the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind, Ratmalana during their visit to

Sri Lanka. During this ceremony the royal couple met children from the Rehabilitation Centre for the Communication Impaired (RCCI) and differently-abled girls from the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association (SLGGA) who were part of The Duke of Edinburghs International Award Scheme.

During their tour,

Their Royal Highnesses spoke to the children and observed the arts and crafts they had learned through the Duke of Edinburghs Award programme. One special feature of this event was when the Countess joined the Girl Guides to make rotti while the Earl took part in a painting session with the students.

The Countess was then presented with the SLGGA Friendship Badge followed by the Centenary Badge.

The programme was followed by a concert where the students at the school showcased their percussion and dancing skills.The sudden death of the Dutch Commander-in-Chief This article is part of a continuing series on Sri Lankan history View(s): View(s):

King Rajasinghe was keen to meet the Dutch Commander Gerard Hulft. He left Kandy and was nearing Colombo. Yet, he could not meet the Commander. He fell ill and the meeting was postponed. Later on, on April 8, 1656, both of them met.



Here Hulft promised the king that he will not besiege the city without informing the king. But the very next day on April 9, Hulft was inspecting the arrangements made to besiege the city. All of a sudden he got shot and died, then and there.



Thereafter, Adrian Van de Medan was appointed to take his place. Meanwhile, to the sheer misfortune of the Portuguese, the Viceroy of India died. There was a delay in appointing someone to take over. A letter came from Portugal asking the officers here to appoint someone temporarily.

Manuel Mascarenhas Homem was the person selected. He was a person who had once served as the General in Colombo. When he was serving as the General, the soldiers and the people in the city, were all against him. He was chased away from his post. Later, he had to return to Goa.



This temporary Viceroy had taken steps to delay the supplementary armies to be brought to Colombo. This had been done as an act of revenge. He had done it in a very secret manner, thinking that the people would revolt if they were to know.

By Halaliye Karunathilake

Edited and translated by Kamala Silva

Illustrated by Saman KalubowilaDeath Wish, Tale of a Doctor turned vigilante View(s):

Death Wish, Hollywood action thriller, a remake of the 1974 film of the same name will be released here in line with the worldwide release on March 2.

Based on on the 1972 novel written by Brian Garfield, the film depicts how a family man becomes a vigilante killing machine when his family is violently attacked by robbers.

The new version stars Bruce Willis, Vincent DOnofrio and Elisabeth Shue in the main roles.

Dr. Paul Kersey (Bruce Willis) is a surgeon who only sees the aftermath of his citys violence as its rushed into his ER -until his wife (Elisabeth Shue) and college-age daughter (Camila Morrone) are viciously attacked in their suburban home. With the police overloaded with crimes, Paul, burning for revenge, hunts for his familys assailants to deliver justice. As the anonymous slayings of criminals grabs the medias attention, the city wonders if this deadly avenger is a guardian angelor a grim reaper. Fury and fate collide in the intense action-thriller Death Wish.

The film will be released at MC  Colombo, Empire Arcade, Liberty Lite Collpetty, City Cinema Mt. Lavinia and Vista Lite and host of other theatres around the country. CEL is the distributor of Death Wish here.New spot for a guilt-free brunch or lunch Superfood Cafe Colombo View(s): View(s):

Over the last few years, weve seen Colombo attempt to embrace a healthier lifestyle. This has also meant that the concept of clean eating is no longer just a mantra followed by fitness enthusiasts or health gurus. Embodying this mantra is the newest addition to Colombos healthy food scene, Superfood Cafe.

Though located in the heart of Bambalapitiya, the cafe isnt easy to spot as its tucked away in the courtyard of the boutique hotel, Villa Raha. However despite this lack of visibility, the chic and trendy cafe that opened up in November last year has become quite popular among Colombos youth. This is mostly due to images of their decor and colourful presentation flooding Instagram.

Co-owned by Amande Panditaratne (32) and his Lithuanian fiance Ruta Balciunaite (30), the cafe presents local superfoods in an European-Asian fusion style.

In Europe people pay a fortune for whats freely available in Sri Lanka, says Amande, alluding to foods such as jakfruit and moringa (murunga). Were just changing the way we eat them, he adds.

They were in the country working on another fitness and health project when the idea for the cafe came about. For Ruta, a Lithuanian, it was a struggle to find food she could eat daily once in the island. I like rice and curry, but cant eat it every day, she says. At the same time Amande was getting into clean eating the more he pursued fitness. The result was a partnership with Villa Raha for a health food cafe.

This isnt the couples first food venture. The two, who met while studying abroad, previously ran a Sri Lankan street food pop-up back in Lithuania that became widely popular garnering attention from Lithuanian media as well. Ruta comes from a food industry background as her family owns a seed oil business back in Europe which gives her an indepth knowledge of the nutrition and quality of produce, that they use in turn when curating the Cafes menu .

Impeccably decorated by the owner of Villa Raha, Imrah Raiyez, the ambiance of the cafe is a mix of relaxed and luxe. The seating consists of an eclectic array of wooden tables and chairs, cement benches and plush green velvet chairs as well as a swing bench, making your lunch date that much more fun.

We decided to be brave and try out the beet it, an apple, grape and tomato slow juice combination. Not being fans of bloody Marys there was trepidation on our part as to how it would taste. Surprisingly it wasnt that savoury a concoction but rather sweet thanks to the mix of apples and grapes. The tomato taste was just lightly so present like in a salad, instead of a thick puree. Overall it was refreshing with a touch of sweetness. At Rs 300+ its a little less than the typical price you expect for slow pressed juices.

For our mains we tried the Prawn lunch bowl. The lunch bowls, are essentially a bowl of veggies, greens, proteins and grains presented in a vibrant arrangement.

Think of it as a fancier, healthier rice bowl except instead of curries you have pan seared proteins and salads, served with quinoa. Their bowls come in two portion sizes, small and big. The small is more than filling for the average consumer, whereas the bigger size is targeted at their fitness enthusiast clientele. Our lunch bowl contained grilled prawns, a chickpea paste, sprouting mung beans, avocado slices, chopped tomato and bell pepper on a bed of greens, including basil, red and green salad leaves and rocket. Presentation wise, it was done so beautifully, that it pained us to have to mix it all up before eating it. The chickpea paste certainly had a kick to it and the prawns were succulent and well cooked. It was an interesting mix of flavours, and managed to taste fresh as well as creamy. At Rs 890+ , this filling and delicious dish seems the perfect healthy alternative to rice and curry.

We also tried the tropical smoothie bowl off their all day breakfast menu. Made using seasonal fruits and coconut milk, this vegan dish (Rs. 790 + ) doubles as dessert.

To finish things off we tried the Kombucha, a non-alcoholic tea based drink that tastes like cider or a light beer, a perfect wrap up to the meal.

Overall, the food is well worth the price being visually appealing, delicious and healthy. Their menu is small but has a lot of vegan options and offers all day breakfast.

But by having a simple and small menu, theyve let quality triumph over quantity. Currently theyre open only during the day and so dinner is not an option. Also they only offer in-house dining and not delivery or takeaway. Despite these limitations we definitely recommend a visit to Superfood Cafe for a healthy lunch, a guilt-free brunch or a casual meet up.

Address : No. 33, Macleod Road, Colombo 5 (Villa Raha)

Operating Hours : 9 a.m.  3 p.m. (Tuesday  Friday) 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. (Weekends)

Price range : Rs. 1000-2000

Contact no : 077 777 9034

Follow them on:

Instagram: @superfoodcafecolombo

Facebook: @superfoodcafecolomboAir Force seeks runway access and land at Mattala View(s):

The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) is seeking access to a runway at the Mattala International Airport to be used in case of emergency and for national security purposes, a senior official said. The SLAF is also seeking a block of airport land to be used by the military in case a need arises, the official said.

Civil Aviation Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri also confirmed that the SLAF had sought runway access and land at the Mattala airport and the request was being considered in the national security interest. Mr. Nimalsiri said the SLAF by law had access to all of Sri Lankas airstrips.

The SLAF comes amid moves to hand over the 800-hectare Mattala Airport to the Airport and Aviation Authority to be operated as a joint venture with India. Of this extent of land, three hectares will be given to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) for storing of jet fuel and the SLAF is seeking 90 hectares for national security purposes.

The senior official said the SLAF request would not affect the joint venture with India. The security of the country has to be ensured and hence it is logical to hand over a section of the land to the SLAF, he added. The official said the SLAFs access to the runway would not affect civil airline opertaion as the strip to be allocated to the SLAF will be from another direction like in Katunayaka.

The proposed joint venture with India is valued at US$ 2.03 billion for 40 years, with the option to extend it. In terms of the deal, the Indian Aviation will have 70 percent stake of the airport company and Sri Lanka Aviation 30 percent.

He said amendments to the Aviation Act would have to be made to implement the project, though the first stage of negotiations with India had been concluded.Govt. fast tracks OMP operation before UNHRC sessions View(s):

Ahead of United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) sessions scheduled to begin next week, the Government has decided to fast track some of the key commitments it made to the international community. These include bringing into full operation the work of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and introducing legislation to make enforced disappearances a criminal offence.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya told the Sunday Times yesterday that the Constitutional Council (CC) had recommended the names of OMP commissioners and these were approved by the President Friday, but the names had not been announced yet.The law to set up the OMP was passed by Parliament more than one year ago, but its operations were delayed due to disagreements over the appointment of commissioners to the office.

After applications were called by the CC, it recommended at least eight persons for the Presidents approval. Mano Tittawella, Director General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms (SCRM), told the Sunday Times that much delayed OMP would come into operation, once the President approved the names of the commissioners.

Mr Tittawella, whose office is tasked with the implementation of various transitional justice mechanisms, said that consultations were also underway with various stakeholders for the setting up of an Office of Reparations. A two-day international conference organised by the SCRM, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Migration Agency on reparations was held this week in Colombo.

With ground work now ready for the setting up of the OMP, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also has come forward to provide expert and technical advice to support the implementation process. This would be on the basis that the best interest of the families and the humanitarian mandate were safeguarded by the OMP, an ICRC spokesman said.

The ICRC is, however, not in a position to confirm at this stage on the exact nature and level of support it will extend to the Office, since the OMP Commissioners who are meant to run the office have not been nominated yet, the spokesman said. While underlining the need to operationalise the OMP as soon as possible, the ICRC said all transitional justice mechanisms should be made known to the families at every stage of the process.The information should include what the OMP was going to do, the time frame, and how it intended to use and follow-up on the information collected and the results of the investigations.

According to official data, more than 20,000 people have reported to have gone missing during the ethnic conflict which came to an end in 2009 and during the youth insurrections in the 1970s to 1980s. The OMP is mandated to find the whereabouts of these people.In the North, the missing persons relatives have been protesting for more than one year in Kilinochchi alleging that the government has failed to take tangible steps to find the whereabouts of their kith and kin. Many of them complained that they had handed over their children to the military during the war period but their fate was still unknown.

As part of the initial phase of cooperation between the OMP and the ICRC, the international organistation would re-contact missing personss families, informing them of the possibility of sharing their basic information with the OMP. In this regard, families are given the option to accept or object to the potential sharing of information and are given our contact details if they change their minds. Nonetheless, strict conditions need to be met for the ICRC to consider a possible sharing of basic information of families who have given their informed consent: the OMP should be operational, carrying out its functions and powers according to its humanitarian mandate; confidentiality of information should be ensured and respected and proper regulations on the protection of personal data should be enforced, the ICRC spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has issued a report titled Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. The report to be tabled during the HRC sessions nex month notes that the fulfilment of the transitional justice commitments made under Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 has been virtually stalled for more than a year.

Progress with some confidence-building measures has often been insufficient and inconclusive, and the structures set up to coordinate implementation have not been consolidated enough or did not receive sufficient political support to move things forward, the report said.

In his recommendations, the High Commissioner also urged the Human Rights Council to continue to play a critical role in encouraging progress in accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka while calling on member States to explore other avenues, including the application of universal jurisdiction, that could foster accountability.New brooms in CMC gung ho on sweeping clean By Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s):

After a lapse of more than two years, elected representatives will be back in charge of managing the Citys affairs, once the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) conducts its inaugural session in a few weeks. With 119 members, the CMC is the countrys largest Local Government (LG) body. The increase of members from 55 under the old electoral system, to the current number under the new system, means the CMCs inaugural session and Council meetings will, temporarily, be held at the BMICH. While this may not be the most auspicious of beginnings, those who are looking forward to taking their seats in the Council say, they are eager to get to work on resolving issues that are foremost in the minds of those in the city.

The United National Party (UNP) won the CMC handsomely, with 60 members elected, giving the party an outright majority in the Council. Eight of the 60 members elected are women. The number of female members within the CMC is set to rise further, once other parties nominate members to make up the 25% female quota mandated by law. Rosy Senanayake, Colombos first female Mayor-to-be, said she is looking forward to working with such a large percentage of women members for the first time in Sri Lankas history, and believes the women will prove they can take the Council to a new level of efficiency.

Mrs Senanayake, meanwhile, has identified several areas in the City, which need immediate attention. Controlling the spread of dengue is one. More efficient and practical solutions to the disposal of garbage is another, she told the Sunday Times in an email interview.

There is an urgent need for clean and well maintained public toilets, both for the under-served communities and for those who visit the City daily, she further stressed. Mrs Senanayake also plans to develop community centres to provide career counselling, guidance and assistance for self-employment, activities for street kids, the elderly and the disabled, library and internet facilities, and a host of other services.

Parks, playgrounds and public markets etc. maintained by the CMC will be spruced up. Our plan is for a fully digitized MC, for effective and efficient service delivery. To this end, we will be looking at the current e-services offered to ensure user-friendliness and improve or introduce new systems as necessary, she added.

Mrs Senanayake believes achieving these goals will not be difficult. Having had the opportunity to work with some of the CMC staff in her capacity as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, she said she found them to be highly qualified and very keen to make changes. This is the first time since 2002 that the UNP has a majority in the CMC, but she said she intends to work as a team with all Councillors.

While it is not ideal, the newly elected Mayor said they had no option under the circumstances, other than to hold the monthly Council meetings in the Committee rooms of the BMICH. Plans are afoot to create space within the CMC premises and am hopeful we can have our Council meetings in our own premises, before the end of the year.

Sujith Prasanna Perera, also from the UNP, emerged victorious from the Kirula Ward in Narahenpita (Colombo 5). A first time Councillor, Mr Perera is hoping to resolve pressing issues native to his area as a priority. There are some poorer neighbourhoods here, where many houses are stacked close together, and the drainage system has been in a terrible state for quite some time, he remarked. This has made such areas a veritable health hazard, according to Mr Perera. Frankly speaking, the children play in filth.

The CMC member firmly believes that such problems can be resolved. The people waited more than 2 years to elect representatives to address such issues, he pointed out. We are very much looking forward to getting down to work. Milinda Rajapakshe from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), a contestant hoping to be appointed a member, told the Sunday Times, that the CMC has been largely inactive for nearly 3 years now, and plagued by corruption. We will have to make it active again and this requires a proper programme with the active participation of all, both Council members and employees.

Mr Rajapakshe said, as professionals, they do not intend to accept salaries or other benefits from the Council, adding that, just because the SLPP members would be in the opposition, it did not mean they intended to oppose every decision the UNP-led Council takes. However, we will not allow anyone to rob a single rupee from the Council.

Sinnathambi Baskara elected to the Pamankada West ward for the second time, from the Democratic Peoples Front (DPF), stated that, one of his top priorities would be ensuring implementation of the countrys bilingual policy in government offices and noticeboards within the CMC. During the previous Council, we developed many initiatives for the implementation of the bilingual policy, but could not complete it. Im hoping to continue that process from where we left off, he added.

Mr Baskara further highlighted that, the increasing number of condominiums without deeds has become a major issue in Colombo, where occupants are not provided with deeds by construction companies citing various reasons. We have to take a definite stand on this issue, as owners are facing many difficulties without documentation, when they want to sell or transfer their apartments to third parties.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has already mapped out certain issues the party wants to look into regarding Colombo, its CMC Group Leader Dr Ranil Jayasena stated. Dr Jayasena, though, refused to divulge what those issues were. We would first like to address them before speaking about them to the media, he stressed. Dr Jayasena also ruled out the JVP forming any alliances with other parties within the CMC. We will work independently to serve the people. We are asking them to support us.

He further expressed dissatisfaction regarding the move to hold Council sessions at the BMICH, due to lack of space at the CMC. While it was understandable that alternative arrangements should be found for the time being, Dr Jayasena, nevertheless, insisted that a far less expensive venue should be found, so that the burden on the taxpayer is lessened.Our vanishing zebra-crossings View(s):

In December, 2016, the Road Development Authority (RDA) commenced an ambitious programme to change the colour of all zebra-crossings country-wide from yellow to white.

The project was scheduled to commence in Colombo and later move to other areas. Over a year later, the project has ended up another abysmal failure.

Whats worse, is that the yellow colouring on many of the existing zebra-crossings in the city have faded, putting the lives of pedestrians in danger on a daily basis.

In some places, the markings indicating a pedestrian crossing have faded. Making the situation worse is that in other places including in front of certain schools, the colour of the zebra-crossing has been completely obliterated.

However, pedestrians continue using the crossings, but are in danger of being run-over by motorists who fail to spot the zebra-crossings.

Large numbers of fatal accidents occur on our roads daily. Arent the authorities in fact contributing to more deaths on our roads through their negligence?Police nab law breakers in dawn exercise View(s):

Police arrested 2,564 persons islandwide during a special police operation carried in the early hours of Saturday, police said. The operation took place between 2 and 6 in the morning with the participation of 16,256 police personnel.

During the operation, which was ordered by the Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundra, drunk drivers, wanted criminals, suspects, drug pedlars and illegal sand miners, as well as people who held firearms without a license were arrested.

Among the arrested were 741 suspects wanted in regard with police complaints, 720 wanted criminals, 524 drug peddlers and 504 drunk drivers. In addition 4,735 court cases were filed for various traffic offences.Power Ministry to set up artificial rain department By Shaadya Ismail View(s): View(s):

A separate department specialising in producing artificial rain is to be set up at the Ministry of Power and Energy, Deputy Minister Ajith Perera said.

He said the purpose of setting up this unit was to maintain the water level in hydropower reservoirs and to provide relief to the agriculture sector during droughts.

The deputy minister said officials from the Sri Lanka Air Force, the Meteorological Department, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Water Management Authority and the Irrigation Department would be sent to Thailand for training next month at that countrys Royal Rain Making Agricultural Aviation Department which had come forward to offer assistance.

Director and CEB spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardena said the past two years had been the worst for the country, with many catchment areas not receiving adequate rain to generate the anticipated amount off hydro power. Most of the hydropower reservoirs are only filled upto little more than fifty per cent of their capacities.

The reason to explore the possibility of making artificial rain is largely because the annual average rainfall of 2000 mm was insufficient for hydro power generation. We need more rain, he said.

When the hydropower generation drops, the CEB is compelled to go for the costly thermal power generation and buy more thermal power from private companies. Since this is expensive, the ministry has sought the assistance of Thailand with regard to the rain making process, he said.

Mr. Jayawardene said diesel and heavy fuel used by Thermal power plants cost around Rs. 25 per unit whereas hydropower costs Rs. 2 per unit.

Thai experts who arrived in Sri Lanka on Monday said it was possible to generate artificial rain in Sri Lanka, provided certain standard environmental conditions were found.

CEB Chief Engineer Kapila Jayasinghe told the Sunday Times that the process required 60 percent humidity in the air in the sky with the wind speed being less than 20 knots. If these conditions were found, Sodium Chloride and urea would be sprinkled on the clouds to turn them into rain clouds.

When asked about any long term side effects, Mr. Jayasinghe answered in the negative. He pointed out that Sri Lanka had first tried out an artificial rain making process in the 1980s and it was a success.

The initial stages of the feasibility studies have ended and the next step is to initiate the project on the National level and appoint a committee to carry out the plan, he said.

Close to 300,000 affected by lack of potable water in drought-hit areas

Drinking water shortage has hit close to 300,000 people of five drought-stricken districts in the country, with Puttalam the worst affected, the Disaster Management Center (DMC) said. According to DMC statistics as of Thursday (February 22), 92,008 families comprising 295,468 people have been affected by potable water shortage.

In the Puttlam district, 66,436 families or 216,018 people have been affected. Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Mannar and Vavunia districts have also been hit by the drought and residents are struggling to find water for everyday needs.

People have been forced to walk miles to find water or buy drinking water. Water in some of the areas are currently being sold between Rs 2 to Rs 2.50 a liter. Meanwhile DMC Deputy Director and Media Spokesman Pradeep Kodippili said they were installing water tanks in these areas as well as distributing water by bowsers. In any case people can contact us by calling our 24-hour hotline 117, he said. An Irrigation Department official said that the water levels in the tanks in the affected areas were very low, adding that some areas hadnt received rain since last year.Ranil to continue as PM, Cabinet reshuffle today View(s):

The two-week long tug of war between partners in the coalition Government is set to end today when President Maithripala Sirisena swears in a new Cabinet with Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister. The new ministers have been informed to be present at the Presidential Secretariat at 11 a.m. today for the swearing in ceremony.

This is the result of President Maithripala Sirisena ironing out most of the differences between his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party. The issues were triggered after the results of the local government elections of February 10 when both parties suffered defeat. Earlier President Sirisena urged Premier Wickremesinghe to step down blaming his Governments policies for the defeat. However, the Premier told a news conference he would not step down nor could he be removed except by Parliament.

Government sources said yesterday that there would be 36 ministers in keeping with provisions of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and that the coalition would continue.Rice imports continue despite bumper harvest By Kasun Warakapitiya Agriculture Dept protests against moves by Commerce Ministry View(s): View(s):

A glut of rice, the result of a bumper harvest, has not prevented the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to go ahead with more imports.

The move has caused concerns for the Department of Agriculture, which has made recommendations to the Agriculture Ministry on the situation and sought its intervention.

Agriculture Department Acting Director General Sisira Kumara confirmed that he has recommended that rice importation should be stopped in view of ongoing paddy harvesting. Despite the drought conditions the expected paddy production of the current Maha season would be sufficient to feed the nation for seven months, Mr Kumara said.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce said it was going ahead with its plans to permit the import of rice on the grounds that it was anticipating a drop in the paddy harvest. The Sunday Times learns that the decision of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has been taken without a review of the ground situation where the paddy harvesting has begun in several districts including Ampara, Trincomalee, Hambantota, Kilinochchi and Vavuniya. Harvesting is due to begin in other districts soon.

According to projections based on the reported cultivated extent as at end of December 2017, a harvest of 2,316 million metric tonnes was expected  a 16 per cent drop compared with a normal seasons production. Mr Kumara explained that they informed the ministry to take necessary action and cancel the permits given for private importers during the harvest.

Our Department encourages farmers to grow and instructs them about ways to maximise their yield. The farmers followed the advice and made a good harvest, but they are unable to sell their produce at a reasonable price because of the imports, he said.He said that businessmen and middle men made profit by forcing farmers to sell their produce on their terms.

This trend will be stopped, since we are introducing a database where we enter the required amount of crop harvest we need, the amount of harvest the country requires and amount of produce remaining from last harvest, he said. The Agriculture Department in its recommendations also says the cultivation progress reported from the Western, Southern, Northern, Eastern and Mahaweli areas are fairly good while the cultivation of the Uva, North Central and Northwestern provinces are below targets.

Industry and Commerce Ministry Director Indika Ranatunga said that since they were expecting a drop of paddy harvest due to the drought they had allowed private importers and millers to import rice till march 31. She said that in the previous year, both private millers and state enterprises had imported 800,000 metric tonnes of rice from various countries, including India and Pakistan.

Ms Ranatunga said people consumed around 200,000 metric tonnes of rice a month and, therefore, were expecting a 6 month lasting harvest from the Maha season. However All Island Farmers Federation (AIFF) National Organiser Namal Karunaratne said that importers and millers use foreign rice only to glut the market and thereby bring the prices down so that they could buy the farmers produce at a lower price.The millers tell the farmers we have enough and more rice at our mills, if you want to sell your paddy to us you can sell it at the price given by us or keep your produce at home, he said.

Mr. Karunaratne said that after the harvest purchasing ended, the millers ether mix the imported rice with the local rice and sell it at high prices or as animal feed. Meanwhile over the past week lorries belonging to main paddy millers were seen in areas awaiting to purchase the harvest at a low price.A rare jazz treat for free View(s):

Celebrating 70 years of U.S  Sri Lankan partnership (#USASL70), American jazz sensation Wycliffe Gordon, the renowned musician, composer, conductor, and arranger is in Sri Lanka for a series of free performances. Wycliffe Gordon and His International All Stars are touring Sri Lanka from February 24 to 28, staging performances and master classes in Colombo, Galle, and Matara, bringing this truly American music genre from across the sea.

Wycliffe Gordon is a veteran member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and an original member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The Wall Street Journal named his show Jazz a la Carte one of the five best moments in jazz history.

He is currently an Artist in Residence at Georgia Regents University in Augusta, Georgia.

Join the Wycliffe #USASL70 celebrations at any of the free public performances below:

February 26:

12:30 p.m.  Dutch Hospital, opposite World Trade Center, Colombo

4 p.m- Wekanda Road, Colombo 2

February 27:

5 p.m.- Galle FortBringing to life our history By Udumbara Udugama With a successful career overseas in jewellery for over 30 years, Avanti Karunaratna turned to two of her lifes passions, art and history on her return to Sri Lanka View(s): View(s):

She has a long name and a long and successful career dealing in many areas of human interest. A master gemmologist, geologist, jewellery designer, scientist, and publisher Avanti Jasmine Germani Sri Nissanka Karunaratna put all that aside to pursue a career in art.

Having lived and worked in Australia, the USA, France, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, Italy, South America, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Malaysia, she had her own successful business for over 35 years with an extensive network in gems and jewellery design, art, fashion, media and marketing. Her core interest was to promote and be a brand ambassador for gem stones, fine jewellery and fine art.

The book titled Real Womens Stories 2018 published in November 2017 by Beth Kallman Werner (NY) has a spread on Avanti  The Historical Artist Goes Home.

Her interest in art led her to enrol at the Michelangelo Fine Art Academy, Florence, Italy, despite her busy schedule as wife, mother and business woman. Long before that she remembers her art class in Mahamaya Girls College Kandy. Our art teacher asked us to draw a coconut tree. I did  in blue! The teacher was horrified and asked me whether I cannot see that it was green. No! it is blue, I insisted.She gave up on me and my ability to paint. I got only two marks out of ten.

Another teacher Ms. Niyangoda taught her to draw faces. Portrait painting has now become her forte but she is also adept at painting wildlife and scenery.

When a friend commissioned her to paint Sri Wickrema Rajasinha, the last king of Kandy to be placed in his Hotel Sandriana in Kandy, she painted the king with Udawattakele in the background, imagining the thick forest cover just above the Kings Palace with leopards roaming about. She has also painted a huge canvas depicting Kandyan dancers and drummers, for the same hotel.

My passion is painting and I want to bring out the history of our country through the medium of art, she says.

A few months ago, she joined her brother Professor Randhir Karunaratna at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society in Colombo where a member Senaka Weeraratne introduced her to D.D.M. Waidyasekera, author of the book Great Royal Artificer of the Kandyan Kingdom Devendra Mulachari. Mulachari designed the iconic Octagon, the Pattirippuwa of the Sri Dalada Maligawa. Mr. Waidayasekera said that he would be presenting the book to the Most Ven. Mahanayaka Thera of the Malwatte Viharaya and requested her to paint the story of the Pattiruppuwa.

After reading the book, Avanti said she created the painting the way Devendra Mulachari had described a Palace of Kuvera in the clouds, to the King. The Great Artificer had observed the clouds floating in the sky when he went to inspect the area where the king wanted the Pattirippuwa built.This inspired him to create the Walakulu Bemma around the moat and the lake. The Magul-maduwa,Ulpange, the Kirimuhuda, the island in the centre of the lake and the draw bridge are all creations of Devendra Mulachari.

Avanti lives in a house just overlooking the Kandy lake and across the Sri Dalada Maligawa and wakes up daily to the sound of the Hewisi (drumming).This is the signal for the performance of the Sri Dalala Maligawa Thevava,the first ritual for the day. Seeing the Dalada Maligawa daily and hearing the echo of the drumming it is all etched in my heart. I was elated and happy to paint the Pattiruppuwa, which I felt, was the most natural thing for me to do. This assignment has inspired her to study the connection between Buddhism and the Sinhala and Nayakkar kings of Kandy.

Currently she is painting Monarawila Keppetipola Disave. We should remember the great warriors who fought and sacrificed their lives in the first battle for freedom, for an independent Sri Lanka, says Avanti adding that she was interested in history from her schooldays. She is thankful to her teacher Sumana Wanasekara who inspired her. She taught us so well and it was an absorbing subject for me. Avantis father Dr. Gemunu Karunaratna was a wonderful historian from whom she also learnt a lot about the countrys history.

Avantis next project is to paint Sri Wickrema Rajasinhas Queen. She has already gathered information and is in the process of sketching her portrait.

Making a glittering mark Known as Jasmine Germani or at times Yasmin by the international community, Avanti used this name for her overseas book publications and jewellery business.Among her many professional achievements, Avanti worked as a successful publisher with Amazon, Barnes, Ingram and Noble etc, managing book promotions, publicity and distribution, arranging US book tours for authors, seminars and exhibitions. She also worked with radio, TV channels in the USA and the BBC, Bloomburg(UK), CNN and Fox TV, newspapers, magazines, libraries and universities. A Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, she has a degree in Geology, G.G. and Jewellery Design (GIA) in the USA, a degree in Geology from Canterbury University, New Zealand, and a degree in Med Science from the University of Adelaide, S. Australia. These disciplines have helped her in her jewellery business as well as her book publications. Her Germani jewellery shops are headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the Middle East and Japan . Some of her pieces were created for the late Princess Diana, the Sultan of Brunei, the Duke and Duchess of Wellington, the Saudi Royal Family and for Hollywood legend, the late Elizabeth Taylor. Avanti proudly mentioned that a piece of Germani jewellery had received the prestigious DeBeers Diamond Award.Mental illness: Blaming it all on the stars By Kumudini Hettiarachchi In a groundbreaking scientific study a medical team examines a particular Sri Lankan cultural phenomenon where people seek redress in astrology for psychiatric problems View(s): View(s):

The so-called effect of the stars, whether beneficent or maleficent, on mortals has been a fascination as well as a morbid fear that has gripped humankind from time immemorial.

The ancients be it the Egyptians, the Greeks or the Romans fell prey to these beliefs and even the Bard, William Shakespeare, has opined on these beliefs in Julius Caesar when he says: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars; But in ourselves.

It is in the light of superstitions, astrological predictions and remedies galore to ward off these so-called ill-effects that a medical team from the tertiary-care Colombo North (Ragama) Teaching Hospital led by Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Dr. Asiri Rodrigo, set about studying this phenomenon among a group of patients beset by depression.

In this first-ever such study conducted in Sri Lanka titled Astrological cognitive bias among Sri Lankans, the results of which are to be published shortly in the international journal, Transcultural Psychiatry, there had been 143 randomly-selected patients with depression and 150 non-depressed people. Both groups had been age and gender matched, with the researchers administering a specially-designed self-administered questionnaire to gather information.

This phenomenon has not been studied elsewhere in the world too, it is learnt.

Explaining that Depressive Disorder is a serious, recurrent mental illness associated with diminished role-functioning (not being able to get about ones usual work), quality of life and increased mortality (death), Dr. Rodrigo cites many earlier studies which not only point to depression being highly prevalent among Sri Lankans but also being linked to important social and health issues such as poverty, suicide, substance misuse and non-communicable medical problems.

The role of cognitive biases in the development, maintenance, relapse and recurrence of depression has been established while people with depression or a history of depression have attention, interpretation and memory biases for negative information. They also veer more towards interpreting information in a negative manner and have a tendency to recall negative information when compared to non-depressed people. Culture plays an important role in shaping cognitive biases, he says, quoting more studies.

Next Dr. Rodrigo turns to the insights of Swiss Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung considered a forefather of western psychotherapy who had stated that astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity. Then he turns the spotlight on Sri Lanka where Englishman Dr. John Davy who served the Ceylon Medical Service from 1816-20 and travelled extensively within the country had noted that for a Sri Lankan to be a scientific physician, he should also be an astrologer, in order for him to know what concern the stars had in producing the disease.

With a backdrop in which many Sri Lankans believe in fatalism and hold the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable as a superior force controls destiny, Dr. Rodrigo points out that there is stoic resignation about ones future rather than free-will. Fatalism runs parallel to astrology and could very well partly explain its historical popularity in the country. This is why they proposed that astrological explanations for adversities including ill-health followed up with remedies are a key cultural construct in cognitive bias and mood congruent memories.

Citing anecdotal evidence, he says that there may be an under-estimation of the population which believes in astrology, when considering the almost universal matching of horoscopes before a marriage, seeking auspicious times for weddings and opening of new ventures, getting doctors to perform elective Caesarean sections at auspicious times to give a good start in life and calling elections at auspicious times to ensure victory, well before the completion of a term of office.

Meanwhile, with much stigma surrounding mental illness, Dr. Rodrigo says that many Sri Lankans seem to be looking for alternative explanations for their experiences with mental illness. The common explanations for adversities include astrology and karma.

Depression may be preceded by significant negative life events. Sri Lankans cast their horoscopes to seek astrological explanations for mental health symptoms and adversities in life and a quarter of our cases did so in the last 12 months, he says, adding that previous studies suggest that patients with mental illnesses rarely restrict themselves to one type of treatment. Most not only consulted a western medical doctor but also an ayurvedic practitioner, as well as an astrologer or an exorcist. An explanation may be that cultural relevance and less stigma are linked to traditional systems such as astrology.

Obtaining ethics approval for the study from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama, the researchers set out to better understand the vulnerability and maintaining factors of depression, as it would be vital in improving current treatment options and to prevent depression.

Astrology being an integral part of Sri Lankan culture, we compared cognitive bias pertaining to astrological beliefs in patients with depression and non-depressed individuals, says Dr. Rodrigo, adding that while they randomly selected adult patients who received outpatient treatment for Depressive Disorder at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital, they found age and sex matched controls without a history of mental illness who lived in the hospitals catchment area.

The study method included a self-administered questionnaire for all participants on demographic details, beliefs about astrology and its connection with difficulties in life. There were additional questions about their illness for those in the cases group.

The questionnaire had been developed after discussions with relevant parties including psychiatrists, patients and carers and then pilot tested among 10 people with and without depression.

Conceding that the study method could have been improved further with more in-depth interviews exploring the participants perception and beliefs about astrology, he says that this would have allowed the exploration of emergent themes which they were not able to cover through a structured questionnaire.

With regard to limitations, he says that it would have been interesting to compare the patients with depression and non-depressed yet distressed individuals due to social problems. This may have clarified whether these phenomena were related to depression or other concerns.

Explaining that Buddhists and Hindus generally tend to believe in astrology whereas those following Islam and Christianity are less likely to do so, Dr. Rodrigo adds that therefore the study results should be interpreted along ethno-religious lines, as the study-participants were predominantly Buddhist.

Some of the findings The study has found that cognitive bias regarding astrological beliefs is common among Sri Lankans with depression and may play a significant role in maintaining depression. Therefore, exploring and addressing such beliefs may be important in the treatment of depression. A closer look at the study on astrology and mental illness and the interesting findings are: In both groups of cases and controls, a majority of the participants were females  57% and 54% respectively. They were in the age-group 41-47 years.

Less than 1/4th of the participants in both groups had studied only up to Grade 10, while about 1/3rd of the participants had tertiary education.

86.7% of the cases and 73.3% of the controls were Buddhists

There was no significant difference in the socio-demographic details between the two groups.

A majority in both groups  68% of the cases and 61% of the controls  believed in the overall concept of astrology. There was no significant difference between the groups.

A majority with depression, 60.1%, readily recalled negative astrological predictions. Of them 54.6% believed they were having a bad astrological period, while 51.7% felt helpless due to astrological effects being the causation for their bad period. However, only a significant minority without a history of depression shared the same memories or beliefs and these differences were statistically significant.

Significantly more people with depression sought astrological remedies and believed that those were helpful. The remedies included wearing specified gem stones, making offerings to the temple and to poor people, waking up early in the morning to do certain rituals such as cleaning and going to the temple regularly.

More people (25%) who were depressed cast their horoscopes last year than the others (6%).

More people (60%) who were depressed recalled negative astrological predictions than the others (16%).

More people (47%) who were depressed sought astrological remedies than the others (6%).

More people (28%) who were depressed believed those remedies were helpful than the others (3%).

Thirty-one depressed participants (22%) believed that their inauspicious period was an obstacle to getting better.

More than 1/3rd and 1/5th of patients with depression believed that astrological beliefs should be addressed during psychiatric treatment and being in an inauspicious period was an obstacle to getting better.South African adventure brought closer to home By Joshua Surendraraj View(s): View(s):

At some point in our lives many of us dream of grabbing a backpack, getting on an airplane and setting off on an adventure. And what better place to go do that, than in South Africa, which was selected as the No. 1 adventure destination of the year in the VirtusoLuxe Report 2018. From whale watching, hot air balloon rides, to shark cage and croc cage diving, trekking in the forest and much more, this was the world that we were introduced to at the South African Tourism Road Show 2018.

The event was put together by the South African High Commission, on February 9 with representatives of 30 South African tourist companies. Its main focus was to learn how different packages could be designed to fit the needs of Sri Lankan tourists. Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager of Tourism South Africa explains that the aim of South African Tourism is to provide their visitors with the best possible packages, in the easiest manner  the website www.southafrica.net has been set up for this purpose.

There are 60,000 registered products in South Africa and over 3000 activities, which means it doesnt matter what your client wants to do or what his/ her budget is, we can help.

The interactive website shows the best way to plan a trip and get the maximum return out of it. It would then match up the client with the perfect provider. According to Hanneli, these quality providers (tourist operators) are all members of South Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), selected following a careful screening process. In other words if theyre a member of SATSA you can comfortably do business with them.

The website also directs you to the different ways in which one could explore the country, which could be by car, train or air etc.

How badly do you want me to scare him? Tracy Weeks from TTQ Leisure Group asks Hannali, with a mischievous grin, to which the answer was give it your best shot.

Tracy explains that she had selected products to fit the desires of Sri Lankans, according to whats available in South Africa. Its all about letting that person take that extra step forward, she tells us.

Her company features a vet safari where you work on Tracys game reserve and conduct actual procedures on an animal, under professional guidance. If were working on a lion, you would come and work with me and youll be in charge of taking its temperature, as opposed to just being on safari, she tells us.

Tracys company also offers sand boarding and shark cage diving and if you wanted, you could even swim without the cage, she explains. For this one would have to undergo a special diving course.

Sri Lanka is one of those few countries where people travel with many generations, Tracy observes, adding that her company strives to ensure that everyone in the family gets to do what they want.

For me its not the budget, but its to ensure that everyone travelling, experiences something that makes their heart beat just a little bit faster.

Bill Harrop is the operator of hot air balloon safaris and has a fleet of six balloons that can give you an exciting aerial view of the beautiful countryside bordering Gauteng and the North West province of South Africa.

But if youre looking for something more, he also offers other exciting packages, such as special game viewing balloon safaris etc. The balloons fly every day, weather permitting. An average trip would last you about an hour. For more information on packaging and pricing log on towww.balloon.co.za.

We were also introduced to the Cango Wildlife Ranch located in Oudtshoorn, South Africa, which is also the ostrich capital of the world.

The Ranch houses over 90 species of animals, which are mostly endangered or threatened. Their primary focus is to connect people with nature and help them understand what these animals face and what can be done to rectify it. They offer a variety of exciting activities and all the funds generated from this go towards their cheetah preservation foundation.

The ranch is also home to the worlds first crocodile cage diving, which altogether promises a different experience. Check them out on www.cangowildlife.com

Finally we speak to Evelyn Pepler, the owner of Ocean Odyssey, a company that offers an unforgettable marine adventure in the beautiful seaside town of Knysna.

She tells us their activities include a close encounter whale watching operation and also other eco-based boating activities.

During the winter whale migration season, we take our guests on excursions out through the Knysna Head in search of migrating whales and other marine life, she explains. During the summer their marine eco-tours follow a similar route and this time one could observe a variety of marine life which includes the Indo-pacific Humpback dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins and pelagic birds etc.

Their latest exciting addition to the company features twelve Go-Now electric bicycles, which Evelyn guarantees, makes exploring Knysna fun and exhilarating.

So if youre planning on ticking it off your bucket list, South African Tourism offers a seamless process to plan your trip according to your budget and get the best value for money.

Useful travel tidbits VisaIt takes around five to eight days to obtain a South African visa. As long as you can prove that you have a flight ticket, a reservation and show that you have the means to take care of yourself whilst in South Africa, theres no reason why your visa will be declined.Some guidelines from

Hanneli Slabber*Road travel is encouraged. Its very easy to drive in South Africa and Sri Lankan drivers licences are allowed as long as it says in English that it is a drivers licence and it must have a photograph and an expiry date.The biggest problems the authorities have encountered with Sri Lankan drivers in South Africa is speeding. The speed limit is at 120 km per hour in the outskirts and 60 kmph in the city. And most drivers dont seem to realize that you can get to 120 kmph very quickly.*Seat belts are compulsory in both front and back seats.*The law in South Africa is that if you rent a car, they have to give you 24 hour assistance. Furthermore the car rental place would programme your GPS for you. The lady in the GPS is referred to as the Lovely Veronica.*If you decide to travel by air, youd find both Domestic and International flights in the airports, so theres no need to move from airport to airport.*A sim card costs less than a rupee in South Africa. But you wont have coverage in:A) high profile restaurants, because a lot of them have blockers. When youd come in theyd ask, if youre expecting a phone call, you say yes and hand them your phone. When it rings a staff member would answer it and inform you that theres a phone call at the lounge for you.B) Game parks: Were protecting the rhino, so we dont want you to upload pictures of the rhino, because that will disclose its location.South Africa is also following the global shift of becoming more responsible citizens of the earth. We are striving to be more responsible and sustainable in everyday life. Bottled water for instance incurs a charge as opposed to tap water which is free.*Finally pick out a graded hotel because a grade guarantees that the premises are clean, secure and the staff are well trained. For more information log on to www.southafrica.netThe little known historical role played by Dona Catherina By Rajitha Weerakoon View(s): View(s):

The Indian poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi chose the ravishing beauty of princess Padmavathi and the political chaos it caused to compose his epic poem Padmavathi in 1540CE. Just fifty years later, in Sri Lanka, there appeared Dona Catherina, a real princess, whose life was crucial in Lankan history but who has been largely ignored in our main historical documentations and unlike Padmavathi, failed to inspire poets.

A protege of the Portuguese  then a world power and coveted as a bride for the Portuguese General, she found herself at the centre of the thick of fighting in the worst military disaster of the Portuguese when her guardians lost the opportunity to instal her as the Queen of Kandy.

Of royal birth, Kusumasana Devi, later Dona Catherina grew up in the Portuguese Fort of Mannar, even being sent to the Portuguese Fort of Goa for advanced studies. She was to be installed as Queen in the Kandyan Kingdom! Completely ignored by the main chronicle Culavamsa however, she found a place in the Rajavaliya (Line of Kings)  a narrative of rulers of the island chronicled up to the reign of Vimaladharmasuriya 11 of which a critical English translation had been done by the late Dr. A.V. Suraweera. Rajavaliya, tracing her ancestry referred to Dona Catherina as the Mannarame un biso adahasin (the respected queen who was at Mannarama) or e bisava kanyavi (that queen, the virgin.) It states that Kusumasana Devi or Dona Catherina belonged to the dynasty of the hill country and when King Rajasinghe of Sitavaka attacked the Hill Country, her parents who were ruling Udarate with their retinue fled to the North. When they were attacked by the Damila king of Yapa Patuna, they sought the help of King Dharmapala of Kotte, who with his army and those of the Portuguese (Pratikal) rescued them. Arrangements thereafter were made for them to stay at Mannarama. The King and the Queen died later and the princess continued to live in the Portugese Fort.

She came into the limelight when the Portuguese entertained lofty ambitions of capturing the Hill Country. Historian K.M. de Silva in A History of Sri Lanka stated As legatees of the Kotte kings, the Portuguese sought to reassert Kottes overlordship over the Udarata. Besides, through conversion to Roman Catholicism, the Portuguese had a pliant protegee whose claims to the Kandyan throne were as good as, if not better than those of any other aspirant. These claims they now advanced in support of an extension of Portuguese power to the Udarata. In 1594, Pedro Lopez Souza led Portuguese troops for this purpose taking with them the Sinhala princess Kusumasana Devi or Dona Catherina as the Portuguese named her with the baptismal. The motive was to install her in the Kandyan throne in the Portuguese interest.

State Literary Award winner C. Gaston Perera in his Kandy Fights the Portuguese, delving deep into the Portuguese expeditions had gone beyond Rajavaliya, even turning to Portuguese as well as Dutch sources and accounts of contemporary Sinhala and English writers which had brought out the historical importance of Dona Catherina. The grand strategy of the Portuguese or their war policy or policy objective towards their presence in Ceylon, evolved slowly from trading to one of complete conquest of the whole island by the subjugation of Kandy.

And he wrote: Kandy which was under Sitavaka domination for ten years had been restive and had asserted its independence two years ago with the death of its king Rajasinghe. The Portuguese, seizing the opportunity, had sent a force to take over Kandy under the former Peradeniya chieftain, Konnappu Bandara. He had served the Portuguese and was baptized as Dom Joao after he fled to them when his father was killed by Rajasinghe. His task was to instal Dom Phelipe alias Yamasinghe Bandara, nephew of the former Kandyan king Karalliyadde Bandara on the throne as a Portuguese puppet. Instead, Konnappu Bandara, on arriving in Kandy, abandoned the Portuguese and Christianity and installed himself as Vimaladharmasuriya 1.

By 1594, with the death of Rajasinghe, the Portuguese took over Sitavaka. Having subjugated Jaffna, they only had the Udarata to capture. The vital expedition to capture Kandy under Pedro Lopez de Souza therefore, received high priority in the Portuguese camp. Arriving from Goa, he headed it under a new title bestowed on him as General Conquistador, the First in Ceylon. Consisting of Portuguese soldiers recruited from Goa, reinforced by lascorins (Ceylonese soldiers) and led by renegade Jayavira, they set off. The pretext was to overthrow the usurper Vimaladha-rmasuriya, instal the rightful heir and restore the last relict of Kandy royalty to the throne.

The key element in this grand plan was the child, Dona Catherina. According to Tikiri Abeysinghe, author of several books on the Portuguese Era, she was ten or twelve years at the time. She was the last surviving relict of the Kandyan royal line. She was to be married according to Portuguese writer Joao Ribeiro to Portugese General Lopez de Souza. According to Fr. Fernode Queyroz SJ, the marriage was to be with the Captain of Mannar Fort, Francisco da Silva. The consequences of such an eventuality as explained by Tikiri Abeysinghe is thus quoted in Kandy Fights the Portuguese. They would have established a child queen on the throne of Kandy, married her off to a Portuguese Fidelio and the kingdom would have been an apanage of theirs.

From the ascent of the Balana pass, the troops advanced and they completed the most arduous and perilous part of any invasion surprisingly void of enemy resistance. They reached the banks of Mahaveli (probably in Gannoruwa) and encamped there. The author says that the ease of their military success seemed mystifying. Was it because the Kandyans were reluctant to fight and oppose a force bringing back to them the last relict of their royal line or, was it a military strategy adopted by Vimaladharmasuriya?

Queyroz however explained, on entering Kandy the Kandyans could not see Dona Catherina and could not prostrate themselves before her and demonstrate their loyalty as access to her was denied. The General kept her cut off and carefully guarded her. Gradually, the Kandyan chieftains were alienated when they began to suspect a deception. They began leaving the Portuguese camp and joining Vimaladharmasuriya. Queyroz admitted they concluded that the war was not being in her name as was given out as they believed in the beginning. Besides the troops were ravishing their wives, killing their children and setting their houses on fire.

Vimaladharmasuriya in the meantime devised a plan which led the Portuguese to kill Jayavira which resulted in the lascorins to cross over. Food was cut off and it came to a point when the Portuguese decided to retreat. They proceeded along the river bank and reached Balana with troops ahead and the vanguard following. At the centre was the elephant with Dona Catherina. On the third day the enemies who defected together with the rebels surrounded the retreating troops when fierce fighting broke out. According to the Rajavaliya, Vimaladharmasuriya and the armies of the five principalities of Udarata, surrounded the Pratikil men and apprehended them in the paddyfields of Danture. When the Sinhala forces and the respectful queen who (at the time) lived in Mannarama, were fleeing, Ekanayake Mudali of Balana and the army kept guard. They captured her and handed her over to Vimaladharmasuriya. He made the virgin princess his chief queen.

The Portuguese surrendered. The dying General was nursed and well treated at Dona Catherinas request. And later, his son was set free. Queyroz wrote that the General could have used Dona Catherinas emotional appeal to keep the Kandyans from fighting. However, he writes misfortunes dogged their footsteps. When the General set off from Goa, part of his fleet was shipwrecked. At the Kolomba Fort, he found that its Captain was uncooperative at being superseded. When Dona Catherina set out, the pole of the palanquin had snapped. And the troops had to wait halfway as they had set out during the monsoon season. The General above all was ignorant of local conditions and refused to accept advice of others.

According to Kandy Fights the Portuguese, the battle at Danture formed a watershed in the history of the Portugese encounter in the island. It saved Kandy from subjugation by the Portugese at a time when it had already imposed its hegemony on the rest of the island.

Vimaladharmasuriya in the meantime, had no legitimate claim to the Kandyan throne which could give rise to rival claimants. Therefore, when Dona Catherina was taken to Vimaladharmasuriya, he married her straightaway, on the battlefront.

Kandy Fights the Portuguese states that by an ironic twist  the elephant she was being carried on, had wandered away from the battlefield when her Portuguese vanguard was attacked. While she was separated from them and straying in the countryside, she had been captured by the Kandyans and taken to Vimaladharmasuriya. Instant nuptials for Vimaladharmasuriya was the safest way to secure himself of the fidelity of his subjects. It legitimized his right to rule and the new dynasty they founded ruled the Kandyan kingdom for 225 years, until the fall in 1815.

Dona Catherina gave birth to four children. Vimaladharmasuriya before his death, entrusted them in the care of his sisters son Senarath  an ex Buddhist priest, until his eldest son was old enough to assume the throne. But on his death in 1604CE, Senarat installed himself as the king (1604-1635CE) and he took the hand of Dona Catherina  the widow of the deceased king and more crucially, the fount of legitimacy to whoever contended to rule Kandy. Dona Catherina gave birth to a son by Senarat who was named Devirajasinghe. Senarat later eliminated the rightful son of Vimaladharmasuriya and ensured the succession to his son. Devirajasinghe as Rajasinghe the Second who ruled the Kandyan Kingdom from 1635-1687.Uni students as agents of change By Kumudini Hettiarachchi Kelaniya University becomes the venue for a three-day workshop on gender issues and ragging, as part of an ongoing programme conducted by the University Grants Commission in State Universities View(s): View(s):

Not mere platitudes or lip service but concrete action is what the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been dishing out along with its academic content to all of the 15 state universities spread across the country.

With a sharp spotlight on gender equity and equality and ragging, the zero-tolerance policy against ragging and sexual and gender-based violence within the universities, both among students and staff, is being strengthened.

A 24-hour Call Centre with the hotline: 011-2123700 has been set up at the UGC and an Online Complaints Mechanism launched for incidents of ragging, harassment, intimidation and bullying, with the assurance of utmost confidentiality and prompt investigation.

Using modern technology to the maximum, an Emergency Safety Mobile App is to be introduced shortly for students and teachers. Developed by the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) in collaboration with the UGC, this App is being piloted at the Uva-Wellassa University. It will allow a student or a teacher at the press of a button to alert certain specified personnel of their university of an emergency situation with a map indicating the location of distress.

What has been going on within the universities since 2015 under the dynamic guidance of the UGC headed by Prof. Mohan de Silva and through its Centre for Gender Equity and Equality (CGEE) whose Director is Emeritus Prof. Uma Coomaraswamy is demonstrated at the three-day Journey Towards Gender Equity/Equality: An Inter-University Festival at Kelaniya which was concluded on Thursday.

Different halls in different blocks on the sprawling campus that is the University of Kelaniya were buzzing when we arrived there on Wednesday morning with enthusiastic volunteers pointing the way. Student groups from 14 universities have converged on Kelaniya to share the warm hospitality of this university.

Vocal and vibrant is the discussion in all three languages of English, Sinhala and Tamil on the Introduction to Gender by Prof. Kamala Liyanage and Ms. Vasuki Jeyasankar in one hall attended by a large number of students.

Ranging from stereotypical roles assigned to men and women as breadwinners and home-makers, the topics covered were wide and varied.how women themselves will serve pieces of fish to their husbands and sons, leaving only the hodi (gravy) to their daughters and themselves; how mothers-in-law keep their sons on a pedestal, putting down their daughters-in-law; how mothers insist on the daughters seeking permission for something or another from their fathers and bowing to those decisions even if they disagree; how female university students have curfews and gate-passes in their hostels but not male students; why it is mostly women who are sexually harassed or face unspeakable crimes such as rape.

Thrown open for discussion was whether child-bearing is just a womans responsibility and duty or a national responsibility and duty and what happens if women marry but decide not to have children. Stemming from an example cited by an IT student of a workplace asking whether an interviewee has plans of marriage and starting a family in the next five years which would seal her fate whether she gets the job or not, it was made clear by the moderators that child-bearing is a national responsibility, that is why maternity leave and work adjustments for breast-feeding are national decisions. If women decide not to bear children, the countrys structures would collapse  there would be no people in all spheres be it farming, fishing, medicine, engineering etc to take the country forward.

The hostel curfew for girls was discussed at length. This was because there are chain-snatchings, grabbings and other stuff happening to girls. A visiting American professor had asked a very relevant question: Who does this? Girls or boys? When the answer was that boys are doing this to girls, her follow-up question had been: Then why not gate the boys and place them under curfew?

Experiences were related of how even university lecturers would bring their 12 or 13-year-old sons as chaperones when attending parties at night because in patriarchal Sri Lanka, men are supposed to be the protectors.

Going from thoughts that not only men but also women should be able to propose marriage to someone they love, the discussions covered uncomfortable dress codes of Muslim women and how even as little children, girls are not allowed to whistle or climb trees in villages which, however, seems to be changing in current society. Debate they also did why no women or non-Buddhists can serve as high-level public servants in the specific Kandy areas where the Perahera is held even though it was a woman who brought Lord Buddhas Tooth Relic hidden in her hair to Sri Lanka.

The issues faced by single women at whom society looks at with a vapara (squint) eye and men think are easy to get, the white cloth symbolizing the virginity test still practised by many, dowries, why children should take only the wasagama (surname) of the father and not the mother, why the chief householder is always supposed to be a man and women being powerless in politics were also discussed extensively.

The focus turned on sexual exploitation at universities with all types of temporary love blooming  assignment love where the girl is expected to write up the assignments of the boy, buth love where the girl prepares a packet of rice for the boy daily, but never the other way round and sira love (serious love).

In a different hall, meanwhile, Emeritus Prof. Uma Coomaraswamy brought the staff and focal points of the universities up to date on what the UGCs CGEE has been doing. Giving the background, she says that in 2015, the UGC Standing Committee for Gender Equity and Equality was set up with the goal of promoting gender equity/equality in Sri Lankan universities by giving policy direction to establish gender-sensitive university cultures and university environments which allow students and staff inclusive of academic, administrative and support, to pursue their work without oppression and discrimination.

The CGEE established last year is the operational unit. Already a Grievance Redress Mechanism including the hotline and portal for complaints has been set up along with a robust Investigation Mechanism; encouraging universities to develop their own measures to prevent ragging and gender-based violence and provide prompt redress; and ensuring that the UGC functions as a Preventive, Oversight and Appeals Body for ragging and gender-based violence.

In November last year, a high-powered, multi-level Task Force to Prevent and Eliminate Ragging in Universities was also established.

As we leave Kelaniya it is obvious that the programmes are providing much food for thought for this crucial set of people as they get back to their universities, homes and communities. As the Director of the Centre for Gender Studies, Kelaniya, University, Dr. Anusha Edirisinghe, underscores these are katha nokarana, namuth katha kalauthu deval. (These are topics not discussed but which need to be discussed.)

The hope is that as these university students and staff step out into Sri Lankan society, they will be the agents of change the country sorely needs in ensuring equity, equality, justice and fairplay for all, where everyone can live in safety and with dignity.

Mapping out the Journey Towards Gender Equity/Equality: An Inter-University Festival Journey Towards Gender Equity/Equality: An Inter-University Festival was launched last year (2017) with the objective of initiating spaces for the empowerment of the university community on the issue of gender and spaces that could provide learning opportunities on various aspects of gender equality as well as to express voices for change through creative activities, says the Director of the Centre for Gender Studies, Kelaniya University, Dr. Anusha Edirisinghe. While Phase 1 held in May last year at the Eastern University empowered university students and staff on gender concepts and issues; Phase 2 in November at the Peradeniya University covered the training of student-teams from all 15 universities through arts and the performing arts on themes identified by them related to gender issues. This week as Phase 3 saw hectic activity of workshops, a film screening and panel discussion chaired by filmmaker Anomaa Rajakaruna and rehearsals, the culmination on Thursday was students using their creative skills in drama, dance, song, short-films, posters and more to promote the concepts of gender and gender-based issues, firstly for schoolchildren in the morning and then for a distinguished audience in the evening. The audience included UGC Chairman Prof. Mohan de Silva; UGCs Gender Standing Committee Co-Chair Prof. Kumudu Wijewardene; UGCs CGEE Director Prof. Uma Coomaraswamy and Kelaniya University Vice Chancellor Prof. D.M. Semasinghe and Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Lakshman Senevirathne. Calling the events significant, Dr. Edirisinghe paid tribute to the students who had shown their prowess in dealing with gender issues in a creative manner. Touching on the Kelaniya Universitys Centre for Gender Studies, she said that it was founded on the simultaneous conceptualization of gender equity/equality. This means that both the similarities of mens and womens life experiences as well as the differences in their life experiences are taken into account in conceptualizations and discussions about gender. Since its inception in 2011, the centre has been able to create a platform for engagement on issues pertaining to gender equity and equality inside and outside the university space, said Dr. Edirisinghe, adding that a clear pathway was paved by its Founding Director Prof. Maithree Wickramasinghe and the next Director Dr. Sagarika Kannangara. Students and teachers from Kelaniya, Colombo, Moratuwa, Sri Jayewardenepura, Peradeniya, Jaffna, Rajarata, Ruhuna, Sabaragamuwa, Eastern, Southeastern, Uva-Wellassa, Wayamba, Visual and Performing Arts and Open Universities and also the Institute of Swami Vipulanand and Sripalee College took part in the festival.Diplomat by day, guitarist by night View(s):

UNITED NATIONS  Madhuka Wickramarachchi, Minister Counsellor at Sri Lankas Permanent Mission to the United Nations, is successfully juggling two jobs simultaneously: a diplomat by day and an amateur guitarist and vocalist by night.

The manager of a new musical group called Red Lines, he is leading a band of junior UN diplomats from Europe, Asia and Latin America. The group, which is performing pro-bono, is being viewed as a much-needed musical break from hours of long-winded speeches and delicate negotiations behind closed doors.

Although only three months old, the group has already made a name for itself in diplomatic circles and performed at various events, including a Christmas Eve concert at the UN, the Valentines Day concert on February 14 (sponsored by Indonesia and Belgium) and Thai Break (sponsored by Thailand and Denmark).

The multi-national band includes Gio Mikeladze Prusecki (Georgia-Electric Guitar), Purna Cita (Indonesia- Drums/Vocal), Erma Rheindrayani Siswowaluyo (Indonesia- Vocal), Nawin Chirapant (Thailand  Piano) Madhuka Wickramarachchi (Sri Lanka  Acoustic Guitar/Vocal/Manager), Angie Jenie (Indonesia  Vocal), Juan Camilo Diaz (Columbia/Conga and Cajon), Tina Breiner (Denmark/Vocal) and Leonetto Matilo (East Timor/Bass Guitar).

The next big event will be held in May by the Portuguese-speaking countries at the UN. The band has been invited by the Maldives and Latvia to perform at receptions in March. One of these events will be at the UNs Express Bar, where the group is expected to play some Jazz.

As for non-UN events, Madhuka said the band is planning to play this summer at the New York band fest which will be held in the borough of Brooklyn.In 1917 Pablo Ruiz Picasso set up his studio at number 110 Via Margutta in Rome to paint the sets for the ballet Parade. Half a century later Federico Fellini moved into the same house. The coincidence could well be a metaphor for the relationship between artist and filmmaker: they never met but their paths crossed on several occasions, mainly in the dreams of the Italian director. Four times, he said, he dreamed of the Malaga-born artist, an appearance that sparked the latest exhibition at the city's Picasso Museum (MPM): And Fellini Dreamed of Picasso, which opened on Tuesday.

THE EXHIBITION Title. And Fellini Dreamed of Picasso. Venue. Malaga Picasso Museum. Dates. Until 13 May.

The idea of the pair's paths crossing without them ever actually meeting is continued in the staging of the exhibition where the work of both creators is positioned so they can look, but not touch.

The aim, said the MPM's artistic director Jose Lebrero, is to create iconographic juxtaposition between the works of Picasso and the sequences of Fellini. In other words the visitor is not spoon-fed but left to ponder the common threads that go through both artists' work: the world of the circus, the female form and a passion for classical antiquity.

Fellini and Picasso are two different characters, but their work can be compared in different ways. [...] This imaginary dialogue that starts in dreams takes shape in the museum. [...] Their works continue the conversation, said the curator Audrey Norcia of the project inspired by Fellini's experiences described in his own Book of Dreams.

The filmmaker's works in the show include three sketches (he earned a living as a cartoonist before revolutionising the world of film) in which he drew Picasso as he appeared in his dreams. In the section devoted to women the exhibition displays how each artist, in his own way, depicted voluptuous, lascivious and almost grotesque figures and the circus link comes in a series of photographs of the artists in fancy dress, playing instruments or striking comical poses. The exhibition is accompanied by a documentary about the pair by Isaki Lacuesta.The story reads like something out of an elaborate Holywood hoax, but the shock and fear of a German woman resident in Marbella was only too real when two Guardia Civil officers turned up on her doorstep with photos of her apparently dead ex-partner, saying they had proof that she was behind the killing. They demanded one million euros to keep quiet or she would face a 21-year prison sentence.

But the ex-husband wasn't dead and the set of photos, that included ones in a mortuary, were fake. A Malaga provincial court has recently sentenced a former Guardia Civil officer, a photographer, a lawyer, an IT worker and a dentist to 21 months each for organising the complex fraud that saw the woman convinced for a time and hand over as much as 60,000 euros in early 2014.

According to court documents, the incident began when the former Guardia Civil member and the photographer posed as the police officers, handing the woman the same t-shirt from the photographs, with a small Tarifa logo and fake blood on, as proof of the crime.

In turn two friends of the woman, the dentist and IT professional, were used to spy on her so she would feel she was being watched. However these two accomplices, in an attempt to gain control of the money the woman had started to hand over, then involved a lawyer to collect the money for the conspirators.

The woman's ex-partner, who was in the photographs, was not arrested and still hasn't been found.There are several crucial milestones in the development of any project, and for the Centre Pompidou in Malaga one was reached this week; the famous French museum will retain its presence in the city for a further five years after an agreement to prolong the existing deal until the end of 2025 was formalised.

The agreement was signed on Tuesday by the president of the Paris-based Centre Pompidou, Serge Lasvignes, and the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre. The words of his majesty the king touched me deeply, Lasvignes said in a speech, referring to King Felipe's praise for the collection's presence in Malaga on an official visit earlier this month.

He president continued: With the agreement signed today, we can work towards improving and better understanding the cultural scene of Malaga, and at the same time better work with other museums to create a circle, a shared channel of communication.

The new, extended agreement replicated the conditions of the first. Malaga council will pay the Pompidou 2.07 million euros per year, one million for the use of its collections and brand, and the rest for insurance, transportation and specialist consultation.

Lasvignes also spoke of the need to cater to two different demographics. The Centre Pompidou estimates that 60 per cent of its visitors are Spanish, with the other 40 per cent foreign tourists. We'd also like to diversify the artwork that we show to better include the many artists operating in and around Malaga, he said.

The museum, which welcomed 168,143 visitors in 2017, is hoping to reach its target of 250,000 visitors this year.The new American ambassador to Spain, Richard Duke Buchan III, has used his first public speech since taking over the vacant post to highlight the partnership and friendship between the two countries. In particular he drew attention to the importance of the continued use of two military bases in Andalucia, at Rota and Moron de la Frontera, by US troops, reminding his audience that this year marks the 30th anniversary of a defensive agreement between his country and Spain.

Buchan was taking part in a forum in Madrid entitled 'United States-Spain: Shared Visions. Security, Defence and the Future International Order', organised by the Real Instituto Elcano.

He went on to talk about the many shared interests between the two countries, especially in combating threats in the twenty-first century, such as so-called fake news.

Other US embassy bosses also explained how the two bases used are a key part of defending Europe. Some 4,000 US military personnel are based at the port of Rota, near Cadiz, and Moron de la Frontera, near Seville.

Buchan, 54, was appointed by President Trump and arrived in Spain in January.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The man accused of drunk driving and fleeing from a crash scene that left three people dead is out on bond, according to an online victim notification service.

Anthony Saccone, 30, was being held at the county jail on a $100,000 bond or bail after his arrest yesterday. He's being charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident and drunk driving, though his charges are "likely" to be upgraded, prosecutors said.

The crash happened at 3:40 a.m. on Friday, police said. Saccone is accused of T-boning a car carrying Baylie Rose, 19, Michael Walker, 18, and Samra Osmanovic, 20, and then running from the accident without reporting it, according to police.

The crash killed all three.

Saccone was released from jail around 11:35 p.m. last night, according to the victim identification service.

He's next due in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 28.

While the suspect is out of jail, family members of the victims continued to grieve. Rose and Walker were in a relationship, and the families gathered Saturday at Walker's home to mourn together, according to a family friend.

The Osmanovics immigrated from Bosnia in 1997 when Samra was in her mother's womb. Members of the local Bosnian community gathered at the Osmanovic home on Friday evening in grief. The Osmanovics were already mourning the loss of Samra's mother less than two weeks ago.WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. John Katko, a longtime gun rights supporter, said Friday he will consider supporting changes in federal gun laws that would raise the minimum age to buy a firearm and require universal background checks for all gun sales.

Katko's support of either measure would be in defiance of the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobby which has given the second-term Republican a top "A" rating and contributed $11,900 to his campaigns.

Katko, R-Camillus, said in an interview that he will now consider the changes as part of a multi-pronged response to a series of mass shootings, including last week's attack that left 17 dead at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

"I understand I'm going to get a lot of people mad at me, but I'm going to do what I think is right," Katko told syracuse.com when asked about openly breaking with long-held NRA positions.

"None of this is designed to take away anybody's constitutional rights," Katko said. "I'm a major-league Second Amendment rights guy, but I think we have to take a look at these things. We can get creative here."

Katko said he has already decided to support two other initiatives: A federal ban on bump stocks, devices that enable a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster; and a bill in Congress aimed at strengthening the National Instant Background Check System, or NICS.

The proposed ban on bump stocks now has wide bipartisan support, including from President Donald Trump. The White House also signaled its support this week for a bipartisan bill authored by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that would strengthen NICS.

Katko said he signed a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday, urging him to allow consideration of a similar bill in the House.

But the other two measures -- raising the federal minimum age for firearms sales from 18 to 21, and requiring universal background checks on all firearm sales -- are more controversial.

The NRA said Friday it will not support efforts to raise the age limit. NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch told CNN, "Raising the age is not going to solve psychosis."

Florida took the lead Friday in pushing for such a change when Republican Gov. Rick Scott and top state lawmakers proposed raising the minimum age to buy assault-style rifles in their state to 21.

Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused in the Parkland, Fla. mass shooting, legally purchased an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at age 18, authorities said.

Scott and GOP lawmakers in Florida split Friday with the NRA on the issue, which some called the most significant move toward gun control in Florida in decades.

Katko said he also may break with the NRA by supporting efforts to require universal background checks on all gun sales, closing what gun control advocates have called a dangerous loophole in existing law.

Federal law now requires licensed firearms dealers to conduct background checks on those who want to buy a gun. But the background checks are not required when firearms sales are made by unlicensed sellers, usually through private sales or transfers.

Advocates for universal background checks say the change is needed because about 42 percent of existing firearm owners bought their weapon without a background check, according to a 2017 study.

The internet has also made it easier for illegal buyers to obtain firearms without criminal background checks, the advocates say.

Katko said it's worth considering an expansion of the law. "I think this whole idea of universal background checks is not a terrible thing," he said.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said this week that universal background checks would be the top initiative for Democrats.

"Our No. 1 priority is going to be universal background checks, which is supported by about 80 percent of the American people, and closing the gun show loophole and all the other ways that people get around the background checks," Schumer told reporters.

The NRA says the expanded checks are not necessary because federal laws are already strong enough, banning possession of firearms to prospective purchasers who fall into nine different categories.

Katko said he will also push for stricter enforcement of existing federal laws, and examining whether it makes sense to add school resource officers to protect against gun violence. He had previously announced his support for expanding mental health resources to help keep at-risk people from harming themselves or others through gun violence.

Katko, a former federal organized crime prosecutor, said he would also like to see a federal program known as "Project Safe Neighborhoods" reinvigorated to help reduce gun violence.

The project, launched in 2001, once had a prosecutor in each U.S. Attorney's office in the nation assigned to the program, Katko said. But the program was reduced in recent years because of federal budget cuts.

"All of this stuff I'm talking about is not to take away anyone's Second Amendment rights," Katko said. "This is to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people."

Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751The late husband and wife duo whose estate was allegedly plundered by Town of Guilderland Judge Richard Sherwood and attorney Thomas Lagan were well-regarded in the Capital Region both for their business acumen and their diverse and widespread philanthropy.

Warren and Pauline Bruggeman, of Niskayuna, were in their 80s when they died in 2009 and 2011, respectively, leaving behind millions of dollars in trusts for Pauline's siblings. On Friday, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accused Sherwood and Lagan, who provided estate planning and other financial services to the Bruggemans, of stealing more than $4 million from those trusts in recent years.

Warren Bruggeman is most known for his tenure at General Electric, where he served as vice president of the nuclear energy business and restructured a financially ailing nuclear program into something commercially profitable.

Born in Queens in 1925, he earned a bachelor's and master's degree in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, and was a graduate of the Columbia University Executive Management Program.

After serving as a naval officer during World War II, Bruggeman began his GE career at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in Schenectady, and went on to become general manager of Gas Turbine Engineering and Manufacturing. He left the area in 1979 to become vice president of GE's nuclear energy business, headquartered in San Jose, Calif.

He and his wife, Pauline, were married in 1947. She was a native of Watervliet, a graduate of the Troy Business College and Sage Junior College, and worked as a secretary at Behr-Manning Corporation before her marriage.

Warren and Pauline Bruggeman, of Niskayuna, were in their 80s when they died in 2009 and 2011, respectively, leaving behind millions of dollars in trusts for Pauline's siblings. Posted by Albany Times Union on Friday, February 23, 2018

After his retirement, Bruggeman returned to the Capital Region and quickly became involved in the community and with various philanthropic causes.

Much of his attention turned to his alma mater. He served on the RPI board of trustees from 1989 through 2000, and the presidential search committee that brought Shirley Ann Jackson to town.

The couple donated frequently to the engineering school, creating the Warren H. Bruggeman '46 and Pauline Urban Bruggeman Distinguished Professorship and earning a name on a conference center inside the institute's new biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies center.

"Mr. Bruggeman was an innovative thinker and an inspirational leader, and his wisdom and generosity have left an indelible mark on Rensselaer," Jackson said after his death. "We shall dearly miss him."

He also chaired the Rensselaer Technology Park Committee, and was instrumental in growing the park. He served as an advisor and board member to MapInfo, a mapping analytics company founded by RPI students and based in the park. It eventually grew to employ 400 people at the park, and was sold to Pitney Bowes.

The Bruggemans were also big supporters of Ukraine's business community.

According to the couple's philanthropy website, Bruggeman had made a pledge to his wife's parents to assist Ukraine should it achieve independence from the Soviet Union. This eventually led to the couple's sponsorship of the first-ever business incubator in Ukraine, seeding other incubators and startups around the Eastern European country.

Between the two of them, the Bruggemans volunteered with or served on the boards at a number of other area organizations including: Ellis Hospital, the Visiting Nurse Service Association of Schenectady, the Capital District YMCA, the Troy YWCA, Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady, RPI's Center for New Technologies, the Capital Region Technology Development Council and the Center for Economic Growth.

- By Bethany Bump, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.Police have arrested Abigail Hernandez, a student in the Rochester City School District, after she allegedly made a threat to East High School.

Rochester Deputy Mayor Cedric Alexander and Deputy Chief La'Ron Singletary announced the arrest Friday.

According to police, an alleged threat was posted on Feb. 15 to the East High School Facebook page saying "I'm coming tomorrow morning and I'm going to shoot all you bi-----."

On Feb. 20, police arrested 21-year-old Hernandez at home and found a shotgun inside the home. Police did not say if the shotgun was registered to Hernandez or someone else living at the home.

Press Conference with Deputy Mayor Alexander and Deputy Chief Singletary regarding a terroristic threat made at East High School. An arrest was made! Excellent job by all involved! Posted by Rochester NY Police Department on Friday, February 23, 2018

It took investigators time to track down the Hernandez because it came from an anonymous Facebook account, according to police. Alexander said the alleged threat referenced a shooting and sympathy with the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

Hernandez has been charged with a felony of making a terroristic threat. She has no prior arrests. Hernandez is a student in the Rochester City School District, but she is not a student at East.

During the investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents determined Hernandez was an undocumented immigrant who was in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

DACA is a program that allows young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children to stay in the country. However, applicants cannot have a criminal record in order to live and work legally in the U.S. for renewable two-year periods.

Hernandez has been transferred to federal custody. She is being held at an ICE detention center in Batavia.ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Authorities say a suburban Albany town justice and a lawyer have been charged with stealing more than $4 million from the family trusts of three sisters.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says 57-year-old Richard Sherwood and 59-year-old Thomas Lagan were arrested Friday on charges including grand larceny and scheme to defraud.

A Guilderland town justice arrested https://t.co/isIZxKEFMD via @TimesUnion  Mark Juda (@markjudalaw) February 23, 2018

Authorities say the men were business associates who devised a scheme to steal from trusts set up by local philanthropists Warren and Pauline Bruggeman. Schneiderman says the thefts also targeted trusts for Pauline Bruggeman's two sisters.

Sherwood is a former Guilderland town attorney who has served as town justice since 2013. Lagan is a lawyer and financial adviser.

Sherwood pleaded not guilty and was released. His lawyer isn't commenting on the charges. A message left with Lagan's lawyer wasn't returned.Slated to be announced at Mobile World Congress, which will start on Monday - February 26, 2018 - in Barcelona, Spain, Energizer Powermax P16K has an unbelievable 16,000 mAh battery capacity, which is more than five times the battery size of most smartphones these days and easily bigger than a lot of powerbanks that are flooding the market!

Talk about having total peace of mind when you take this smartphone out with you on trip to another town or country and realize you forgot to bring your charger or powerbank.

But here's something that makes this even sweeter:

I just hope that the price tag won't be as hefty as the battery.

But I think the one thing that greatly dictates how long a handset stays on after a full charge is the battery capacity; The larger it is, the more hours you can enjoy using the smartphone before having to plug it to an electrical outlet or powerbank.'s Li-Ion battery has 2,716 mAh capacity. On the other hand,is powered by a 3,300 mAh pack. From 100% charge, both of these smartphones can deliver more or less a whole day of uptime with regular use.I think this one can easily give you at least five days of straight regular use on a full charge!Well, Powermax P16K is expected to sport a 5.99-inch FullHD+ 2160 x 1080 pixels IPS display with 18:9 aspect ratio, 13MP + 5MP Dual Rear Camera module, 8 MegaPixel selfie shooter in front, 2.5 GHz Octa Core MediaTek Helio P25 processor, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of onboard storage.There's actually an official distributor of Energizer smartphones in our country. So yes, there's a chance. However, I'm not sure exactly how big a chance it is. Right now, we can only hope for the best. Personally, I'm very interested in this model since I move around a lot for work and play.The dating results of the ancient cave art in three Spanish caves revealed a significantly earlier date of creation than previously thought. This suggests that the cave art was made by Neanderthals and not by the early modern humans. What could this mean for the understanding of humans' ancient cousins?

The Oldest Dated Cave Paintings In The World

In the past, symbolic culture has been largely attributed to early modern humans. In fact, it has been seen as one of the basic foundations of the development of humanity as it is today. However, a new study shows that perhaps the homo sapiens aren't the only ones to engage in art and symbolic culture, as researchers found that the cave art in Spain was likely made by Neanderthals.

In a study published in the journal Science, researchers detailed the meticulous method in which they gathered data to accurately date the cave art in three Iberian sites. Instead of using the traditional radiocarbon dating, the team used uranium-thorium (U-Th) dating to determine the age of the cave art while still keeping the art intact.

What they found was that the paintings are actually over 64,000 years old, which is significantly older than they previously believed. In fact, it is the oldest known cave art to date. Interestingly, the art now predates the arrival of modern humans into Europe by about 20,000 years, suggesting that it must have been the Neanderthals who made them.

Symbolic Thinking Among Neanderthals

In a second study published in Science Advances, the researchers explored the possible implications of their findings in regard to the understanding of Neanderthal thinking and behavior. As it happens, they also found perforated marine shells and shell containers with complex pigmentation at the Cueva de los Aviones site, suggesting symbolic thinking and behavior. When subject to dating, they were found to be about 115,000 to 120,000 years old, 20,000 years older than comparable symbolic behavior in modern humans in South Africa.

The results of the studies show that contrary to previous beliefs wherein Neanderthals were seen as devoid of symbolic behavior and thinking, they were perhaps more complex in thought and behavior. In fact, this essentially debunks the previous attribution of practically all cave art to modern humans and more importantly, the view of Neanderthals as an uncultured and brutish group.

The Human Family Tree

Humans are still in the process of trying to understand mankind's origins. The results of the study add to the understanding of the similarities and differences between the early modern humans and their relatives. In fact, researchers believe that because of their findings, the possible root of symbolic material culture may have been a common ancestor of the Neanderthals and modern humans, whereas in the past, the behavior was solely attributed to modern humans.

"According to our new data Neanderthals and modern humans shared symbolic thinking and must have been cognitively indistinguishable," said Joao Zilhao of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, coauthor of both studies.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Last week, it was reported that Samsung suddenly halted its Android Oreo rollout for Galaxy S8 devices because of an unexpected reboot problem found within the software. Everything has now been ironed out, it seems, as Samsung has just resumed the rollout.

As SamMobile reports, the company is beginning to release firmware versions G950FXXU1CRB7 and G955XXU1CRB7  for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, respectively. The update is just over 530 MB for those who already have Android Oreo installed on their Galaxy S8 flagships.

Samsung Resumes Android Oreo Rollout For Galaxy S8

The report says the rollout has resumed only in Germany thus far, but it's perhaps just a matter of time before the new software makes it to other markets outside of Europe. The update comes as an over-the-air download. Check back with Tech Times to get updated as soon as it launches in other countries.

Thankfully, the botched release didn't affect too many devices in the wild, as it was only pushed to select users from Europe, India, and the Middle East. That was a smart move and likely indicative that Samsung had anticipated that something could have gone wrong. Had the firmware been released widely, Samsung would have had a much larger problem in its hands.

It remains to be determined, however, what other problems this new firmware might have. It might not cause the mysterious rebooting glitch but it may contain other performance snags. If so, Samsung will most certainly address the issue in a speedy manner, just like how it handled this minor fiasco.

Samsung Galaxy S9

Samsung is also preparing for the release of the Galaxy S9, the much-anticipated sequel to its Galaxy S8 line of flagships. Evan Blass has published alleged renders of both the S9 and the S9 Plus, and he's often right on the money. The phones will reportedly be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and sport a camera with a variable aperture system. Only the larger model will have a dual camera setup, though, perhaps as a way to give the Plus variant a unique selling proposition.

These are merely rumors, of course. It's best if you tune in to Samsung's official Galaxy S9 Unpacked event on Feb. 25 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Do you have a Galaxy S8? Have you received the updated Android Oreo firmware yet? How's the experience so far? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A Nokia flagship smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor is reportedly in the works, and its retail name will be the Nokia 8 Pro.

With the Mobile World Congress 2018 rapidly approaching, leaks and rumors about upcoming smartphones and gadgets have been intensifying. The purported Nokia 8 Pro, however, is reportedly at least six months away from release.

Nokia 8 Pro Flagship

HMD Global, the company who now owns the rights to launch Nokia-branded devices, is reportedly planning to launch the Nokia 8 Pro later this year, most likely in August or September.

According to a new report from Nokia Power User, the Nokia 8 Pro will be one of the company's 2018 flagships. Previous rumors hinted at a Nokia smartphone with penta-lens and Carl Zeiss optics for this year, and the rumored name was Nokia 10. NPU now says that a Nokia 10 might not be in the cards and that the previously rumored handset might, in fact, be this Nokia 8 Pro.

Nokia 8 Pro With 5 Cameras?

Penta-lens would translate to five camera sensors, which sounds a bit crazy. Modern flagships are just gearing up to pack a dual rear camera setup, so five cameras on a smartphone would be a first.

Nevertheless, NPU says that if the tip it received turns out to be accurate, the Nokia 8 Pro will have a penta-lens camera module, as well as the rotating zoom camera technology Zeiss patented last year.

Nokia 8 Pro With Snapdragon 845

The latest leak also claims that the upcoming Nokia 8 Pro will be one of the flagships that will pack the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor this year.

Other flagships expected to come with the Snapdragon 845 include the Google Pixel 3, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, and the LG G7.

The Nokia 8 Pro is further expected to sport an 18:9 aspect ratio and a 3D glass design both on its front and back. These same features are similar to Nokia 9. The handset will reportedly have a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, located just below the camera module, at least according to a leaked sketch.

NPU notes that it received the latest information from a trusted source. However, this is still not a guarantee that Nokia's next flagship will actually hit the market as the Nokia 8 Pro and sport these specifications. A lot can change until the company is ready to make an official announcement. So, in the meantime, take everything with a grain of salt.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.NASA's Juno spacecraft took a sequence of time-lapse photos of Jupiter, but the pictures were taken at an angle that shows a rarely seen side of the biggest planet in the Solar System.

Juno, which may see its two-year mission of observing Jupiter extended, reminded the world that the south pole of Jupiter is blue, which is very different from the colors usually associated with the planet.

Juno Takes Pictures Of Jupiter's Blue South Pole

The Juno spacecraft took a series of images capturing the cloud patterns in the south pole of Jupiter, which many may not know is colored blue.

Jupiter is remembered as a planet with colors mostly made up of a mixture of brown, red, and off-white. These colors are often seen in images taken of the planet, alongside its iconic Great Red Spot. Pictures of Jupiter's south pole, however, are comparably too few, which is probably why it is not well known that the planet also has the color blue somewhere on its surface.

The time-lapse photos were taken during Juno's 11th close flyby of the planet on Feb. 7, when the spacecraft was about 85,000 to 125,000 miles from the tops of the clouds of Jupiter.

NASA noted that Gerald Eichstadt, a citizen scientist, processed the images from data in the JunoCam imager, which allows anybody to access the raw images taken by the Juno spacecraft.

Juno's Mission May Be Extended

NASA launched the Juno spacecraft back in 2011, but it only reached Jupiter in July 2016. It started its two-year mission of observing Jupiter immediately.

In a few months, NASA will have to decide whether to end Juno's mission or extend it with new goals. All signs point to the latter, as the spacecraft was not even expected to last beyond February 2018 due to expected radiation exposure. The radiation was found to be at lower levels than expected.

"The Juno spacecraft and instruments are continuing to operate in orbit around Jupiter and are providing us with fascinating science data and images. We have learned that Jupiter is more complex than we anticipated and have been genuinely surprised by some of our findings," NASA said, possibly hinting that the decision to extend Juno's mission on Jupiter will not yet come to an end soon.

Juno has sent back massive amounts of data regarding Jupiter that has allowed scientists on Earth to learn more about the planet's composition. It will be a shame to pull the plug on Juno after just two years around the planet, and it appears that NASA is now thinking the same thing.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Politics as usual for Louisiana more often than not means seeing the unusual from the state's lawmakers. Below  listed in chronological orderPurchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionGONZALES  A Baton Rouge man accused of killing an 18-year-old more than two years ago after crashing his pickup into a stalled SUV in Ascension Parish pleaded guilty Thursday to vehicular homicide in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Thomas Bowers, 44, 26232 Kendalwood Road, entered the plea moments before jury selection was set to begin in his trial for the 2015 crash on La. 42 that killed Richard Billingsley II of Prairieville, Ascension Parish prosecutors said Friday.

Under the plea deal, Assistant District Attorneys Steven Tureau and Kenneth Dupaty also agreed to drop a charge of negligent injuring that Bowers also would have faced at trial, court minutes say.

Prosecutors also on Thursday dropped related, lesser charges from the crash.

At the time of the crash, Bowers had a blood alcohol content of 0.143 percent, the 23rd Judicial District Attorneys Office said in a statement. In the plea agreement filed into court Friday, Bowers admitted to being intoxicated while driving after drinking at a bar the night of Aug. 4, 2015.

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Prosecutors said that shortly before 11:30 p.m., Bowers was driving his Chevrolet Silverado east on La. 42, just west of La. 44 in Prairieville, when he ran into a stalled Mazda Tribute.

Billingsley, who had recently graduated from St. Amant High School with honors and was preparing to start at LSU, was pushing the rear of the stalled SUV in an attempt to get it out of the eastbound lane when he was struck by the Silverado, according to prosecutors. The hazard lights were on.

The Ascension Parish Coroners Office pronounced Billingsley dead at the scene.

Arriving State Police troopers saw that Bowers had obvious signs of impairment and smelled of an alcoholic beverage but he refused to take a field sobriety test, prosecutors said. Troopers took a blood sample that was later used to determine Bowers' blood-alcohol level and as a basis for his arrest, prosecutors said.

After the plea Thursday at the Ascension Parish Courthouse Annex in Gonzales, Judge Alvin Turner Jr. of the 23rd Judicial District Court deferred the sentence, pending a pre-sentence investigation.

Under state law, Bowers faces between five and 30 years in state prison with a vehicular homicide conviction. At least three years of that sentence must be without the benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.Former prison warden Nate Cain and his ex-wife are asking a federal judge to throw out information key to their indictments for making fraudulFormer prison warden Nate Cain and his ex-wife are asking a federal judge to throw out information key to their indictments for making fraudulent purchases on the Avoyelles prison's dime, arguing that the evidence was illegally obtained.

+2 Nate Cain, estranged wife indicted on federal charges in alleged ripoff of Avoyelles prison Former prison warden Nate Cain, the eldest son of the legendary retired Louisiana jailer Burl Cain, is facing 18 federal fraud charges over pu

The attorney representing the Cains alleges the Office of the Inspector General  the agency charged with investigating fraud and corruption at state agencies  does not have legal authority to obtain search warrants, an action essential to the 18 federal fraud charges against the now-estranged couple.

Nate Cain, the eldest son of legendary retired Louisiana jailer Burl Cain, and his ex-wife have asked that evidence obtained from the inspector general's search warrant be suppressed. The ex-wife, Tonia Cain, has reverted to her maiden name, Tonia Bandy.

Tonia Cain, wife of former prison warden Nate Cain, indicted on theft, malfeasance charges A grand jury on Thursday indicted Tonia Cain, the wife of former prison warden Nate Cain, on charges of theft of $25,000 or more, malfeasance 

The Inspector General's Office "exceeded their statutory authority in executing a search warrant and seizing certain evidence," the Cains argue in a motion filed earlier this month in the U.S. Western District of Louisiana. "Nothing in the statute authorizes the OIG to obtain a search warrant to carry out these investigations."

However, federal prosecutors disputed those claims in a response to the motion filed Feb. 16, citing Louisiana law that designated the Inspector General Office as a "law enforcement agency and conferred all investigative power an privileges."

While the statute governing the Inspector General calls the office a law enforcement agency with investigative powers, it restricts its investigators from making arrests. It does give the IG's Office power to subpoena and gain access to computer systems and information maintained by law enforcement but makes no mention of authority to issue search warrants.

Greg Phares, a former chief investigator for the IG, said he filed search warrants for the Inspector General's Office in the past but added that the law is not clear.

"The statute is contradictory and it's given rise to a lot of litigation," said Phares, now chief deputy at the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office. "It should have been cleaned up long ago."

Attorney argues the state had no authority to investigate Corey delaHoussaye in Livingston Parish Hurricane Gustav fraud case LIVINGSTON  A state court judge said she will decide next week whether to throw out the criminal charges or suppress evidence against former 

In this case, Nate Cain and his ex-wifeboth face one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 17 counts of wire fraud over purchases allegedly made with state credit cards during their tenure at Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, now known as the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center.

Nate Cain resigned as warden in May 2016 amid multiple investigations and newspaper articles exploring nepotism and possible misconduct, some of a potentially criminal nature.

His father was forced out as warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola months earlier over questions about his business dealings with relatives and friends of inmates.

The Cains' attorney, John McLindon, said the judicial system has not yet expressly ruled on the legality of search warrants filed by the Inspector General.

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He filed a similar motion in 2015 in state court during the trial for Livingston Parish contractor Corey delaHoussaye, who was accused of overbilling after Hurricane Gustav  following an IG investigation  but had charges later dropped. A state judge initially ruled that Louisiana law does not grant the IG authority to obtain search warrants, but a circuit court later overruled that on a constitutionality issue, without addressing search warrants.

+2 Contractor's suit against state inspector general's office back on Three months after a Baton Rouge judge dismissed a former Livingston Parish contractor's defamation and malicious prosecution lawsuit against 

"I think a court needs to address it," McLindon said.

If the Cains' motion to suppress the evidence from the search warrant is granted  meaning the federal judge rules the IG does not have the legal authority to execute search warrants  it could also affect other cases, McLindon said.

"It's possible that other defendants who were investigated by the Inspector General would go back and take a look at their case and maybe even ask a judge to reopen it," McLindon said.

Federral attorneys argued in their response that legislators who wrote the law establishing the IG's Office"expressly withheld the arrest power" but otherwise fully granted the office powers as law enforcement officers.

They argue the power to subpoena is listed in the law not because it is one of the few powers the IG officers have, but because it is an "additional grant of authority." Not all law enforcement agencies can grant subpoenas, federal proscutrs argue.

"If the Legislature intended to withhold search warrant power from the Inspector General  a power conferred to law enforcement officers in Louisiana  it would have stated as much like it did for the arrest power," federal attorneys wrote in their response. "Nowhere in the Inspector General's enabling statutes is there any prohibition on the authority to obtain search warrants."

Inspector General Stephen Street declined to comment on the filings because the litigation is ongoing.

Agents from the states Office of Inspector General raided the Cains' home at the Cottonport prison in June 2016 after obtaining a search warrant, seizing 52 items, about half of which were related to firearms or gun parts. It's not clear how many of those items are relevant into the charges against them in this case.

The Cains have requested a hearing on the search warrant issue, but the federal government argued that would be unnecessary.

Nate Cain also faces a charge of obstruction of justice in a case where a 2016 administration probe found the former warden helped cover up an investigation in alleged sexual relationship between an inmate and a guard at prison he oversawA Baton Rouge man was convicted Friday of fatally shooting a 29-year-old man and wounding his wife while the couple sat in a car in the driveway of an Evangeline Street home in 2013.

The Glock 22 .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun that Jermaine Ruffen used to kill Anthony Jerard Jones and wound Sherika Ellis on June 20, 2013, was stolen in 2011 from an off-duty New Orleans police officer's car in Baton Rouge.

BR man on trial in 2013 killing involving gun stolen from off-duty New Orleans police officer A Baton Rouge woman who survived being shot 13 times in a 2013 shooting that claimed her husband's life testified Wednesday that Jermaine Ruff

Sixteen shell casings were found at the shooting scene. Ellis testified that Jones was shot 9 times, and she 13 times.

Another man, Andre Scott, 27, of Baton Rouge, pleaded guilty in 2012 to stealing the New Orleans Police Department-issued gun and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Ruffen, 34, faces a mandatory term of life in prison on the second-degree murder conviction. He also was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder.

State District Judge Richard Anderson will sentence him March 23.

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The jury vote was 10-2 on both counts. The panel, which deliberated for about three hours, was not told the gun was previously stolen.

Ellis testified Wednesday that Ruffen is the man she saw pumping bullets into their car that night.

Baton Rouge police officer Wallace Britton, who was in the area of the killing when he heard the barrage of gunfire, testified he encountered Ruffen moments later "hastily walking" near the intersection of McClelland Drive and Byron Street. But Ruffen ran when he tried to question him, the officer said.

Britton testified Ruffen dropped an object to the ground while he chased Ruffen. The gun was found a short time later where the object was discarded, and it was determined that the shell casings were fired from that weapon.

Prosecutors said cocaine and $15,000 in cash were found in the car in which Jones was killed and Ellis was wounded. Ellis said she had saved that money so the couple could move to Texas, but the shooting ended that plan.

Ellis was booked on a cocaine possession charge after her release from the hospital, but the charge was dismissed last year.Eugene Thomas Jr. shot and killed a man in 2002, later telling police he pulled the trigger because the victim was wearing his shorts. Thomas was charged with murder but found not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered to be treated at a state psychiatric hospital.

He spent about five years at the Feliciana Forensic Facility in Jackson before his release into a halfway house. While on a home visit in 2009, authorities found Thomas with a gun and arrested him on felon in possession of a firearm  though he was never charged because he was not a convicted felon.

Thomas was released from the halfway house on probation in 2011 but sent back multiple times over the next several years. Seven times since 2016, relatives had him forcibly taken to the hospital for emergency mental health treatment because they considered him "a danger to himself or others."

In July 2017  while still on probation  he was under investigation in connection with a shooting but investigators ultimately found insufficient evidence to arrest him.

Then in October, a Baton Rouge judge terminated his probation and Thomas was released completely from state supervision for the first time since his 2002 arrest. But his mental health problems continued, with family members saying they repeatedly sought commitments for him in the months after his supervision ended.

Two weeks ago, Thomas pulled out a stolen handgun and shot at his family, Baton Rouge police say. He is accused of also targeting the officers who arrived to help. Baton Rouge Police Officer Shane Totty was severely injured  although his life fortunately spared  when police say Thomas again fired the gun, leaving three bullet holes in the windshield of the officer's car.

While acknowledging the presence of some warning signs within Thomas' legal and mental health history, experts and East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III said authorities followed the law in releasing Thomas from supervised probation last year. But Moore added that the case could point to the need for some changes in how Louisiana's legal system handles severely mentally ill people who commit serious crimes.

"I think everyone did what they were supposed to do, and despite that the law does not allow for continued supervision of someone once they're restored to sanity. And then how do you make sure that person is taking their medicine?" Moore said. "I think this case pushes the limits and begs the question as to whether or not the law that we have is sufficient. But I do think the law should favor public safety in a situation like this."

Insanity defense

Thomas, 34, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and depression many years ago, his relatives said. He had his first psychotic "episode" at age 16 when he went missing and was later found naked in a pool, his sister Doris Hammond said. He was then arrested and charged with obscenity in 2001 after inappropriately exposing himself to deputies following a traffic stop.

At 18, Thomas fatally shot Brian Williams, 23, in front of Polk Street Elementary School  the same block where he fired at his family on Feb. 11. He told police in 2002 that the victim was wearing his shorts, which authorities described as an irrational explanation.

According to state law, a defendant may be found not guilty by reason of insanity if deemed "unable to distinguish right from wrong" at the time of the offense due to mental illness. In order to make that determination the court appoints a sanity commission  a small team of licensed doctors  to evaluate the defendant and report their findings.

Forensic psychologists said that clinically insane defendants can usually recall details about their crimes but will describe them in the context of delusions or hallucinations they were experiencing simultaneously.

The district attorney's office can challenge the sanity commission's findings, but in Thomas' case prosecutors accepted his not guilty by reason of insanity plea. Moore said the two doctors who evaluated Thomas reached an unusual amount of agreement in declaring him insane.

The insanity defense itself is very rare. Defendants plead not guilty by reason of insanity in only about 1 percent of cases nationwide, and only about 25 percent of those result in acquittal, according to data from multiple studies.

After the state accepted his plea in 2004, Thomas was found to be a "danger to himself and others" and was ordered to remain in a mental health facility, according to court records. He stayed at the Feliciana Forensic Facility until doctors declared him safe to leave inpatient treatment in 2007. He later moved to outpatient care at the Harmony House group home in Baton Rouge under supervised probation.

State Judge Tony Marabella initially sentenced Thomas to five years probation with the option of extending that sentence one year at a time after the initial term, which follows guidelines included in state law.

While on a home visit in February 2009, Thomas was arrested on one count of felon in possession of a firearm after officers found a gun underneath the passenger seat of the car in which he was riding, according to police reports. The charge was later dismissed because Thomas is not a convicted felon.

Moore said prosecutors were left without any other possible charges to pursue in that case. While Thomas' mental health condition would prevent him from buying a gun under federal law, that would not legally prevent him from having one in his possession.

+5 Assailant who shot Baton Rouge officer Sunday used a stolen gun, police say The mentally ill man accused of shooting into a marked police unit Sunday, and severely injuring a Baton Rouge police officer, had used a stol

Moore added that the law does not hold anyone accountable in situations where a mentally ill person gets access to firearms without purchasing them. For example, police said the weapon Thomas used in the 2002 murder case belonged to one of his relatives. Police have said the gun from the shooting that injured Officer Totty was stolen but have not provided additional information on how Thomas obtained it.

After the 2009 gun arrest, Marabella continued Thomas' probation and put stricter conditions on his residency in Harmony House, including no home visits without a court hearing. Thomas remained there the following year and obtained both his GED and pipe fitting certificate. He worked as a pipe fitter for years before a motorcycle accident in 2014 left him disabled, according to his relatives.

In 2011 the judge allowed him to move into his mother's home on Thomas H. Delpit Drive, though Thomas would return to the group home at least two more times. Family members said he spent the next several years consistently taking his medications and meeting with doctors regularly as required under his probation  though not without some hiccups.

The motorcycle accident left him seriously injured, and Thomas underwent eight surgeries to reconstruct parts of his leg, which family members said reduced the effectiveness of his psychiatric medications and disrupted his mental state. Relatives had him involuntarily transported to the hospital for mental health evaluations seven times since 2016, according to the East Baton Rouge coroner's office.

The judge declared in August 2017 that Thomas was "presently at risk of harm and  the subject of a criminal investigation" and committed him again to Harmony House. His family said that decision stemmed from threats Thomas had recently received from people in his neighborhood, not from his own behavior. Moore said authorities were also in the process of investigating Thomas in connection with a shooting around that time but found insufficient evidence to arrest him.

But then in October, Marabella reversed course, releasing Thomas from probation completely and encouraging him to pursue his plans to move to Atlanta and live with his father there.

Thomas did move to Atlanta as promised, but soon encountered problems with his health insurance that interfered with his prescriptions, his sister said. He returned home and was promptly admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment  one of three times he was involuntarily transported since being released from probation in October.

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Hammond said Thomas would be admitted to the hospital and then into a mental health facility each time for between one and four weeks. She said those visits seemed to address his immediate needs without providing longer-term solutions.

In the weeks leading up to firing a gun at his relatives and police, Thomas had fallen into a downward spiral of sleepless nights, frequently delusional behavior and extended disappearances, according to his family. Only a few days before the incident, he took his sister's car and drove to Atlanta before almost immediately turning around and driving back home. He had just arrived outside his mother's house when the first shooting occurred.

Thomas was charged Thursday with four counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer. Chief Public Defender Michael Mitchell, whose office is representing Thomas, declined to comment specifically on the case. A sanity commission has been appointed to evaluate him.

'Interest of justice'

Before announcing his decision to terminate Thomas' probation during an October hearing, Marabella noted Thomas' long history of supervision by the court and that experts had recommended "on a number of occasions" that the judge release him.

Marabella asked some questions about Thomas' plans once released, particularly moving to Atlanta and living with his father. He then announced his decision. In the end, Marabella said he believed "it is in the best interest of justice" to end Thomas' supervision.

"And I will do so today with the recommendation that he, as everyone has suggested, sort of get a new start, get out of town, get some new people  So good luck to you, sir," the judge said. Through an office spokesperson, Marabella declined to comment on the case.

Assistant District Attorney Kory Tauzin noted the recent criminal investigation during the October hearing and acknowledged that since investigators found insufficient evidence against Thomas, prosecutors also were "not opposed to terminating the probation."

The sanity commission reports in Thomas' case are medical records and not available under public records laws. But a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Public Safety, which supervised Thomas while he was on probation, said that the indications were he was "ready for the transition."

"It's a challenge and a delicate balance working with individuals who have mental illnesses," said DOC spokesman Ken Pastorick.

Ken Levy, a professor at LSU's law school who has studied criminal psychology, said that "for the most part, the system works. But occasionally somebody falls through the cracks.  Unfortunately for some reason, it seems that happened in this case."

If Thomas' lawyers again argue he is not guilty by reason of insanity, Moore said that prosecutors would look closely at any sanity commission findings they receive. He also said he would anticipate advocating for lifetime supervision of some sort.

Moore said the warning signs Thomas displayed over the years suggested that "obviously something was going wrong." But doctors in 2017 agreed he was ready to be released from probation, he said.

While prosecutors could have challenged the doctors' recommendations by hiring another expert to evaluate Thomas, Moore emphasized that his office relies "on those doctors because they're independent and neutral.  How do we  lawyers  know whether the doctors are wrong?"

'Judgment call'

Statistics show that recidivism rates for people found not guilty by reason of insanity are lower than rates for offenders coming out of prison systems. According to a 2016 national study, only about 4 percent of people found not guilty by reason of insanity end up reoffending within 3.5 years after their release from inpatient care, and about 20 percent reoffend within 6.5 years.

Dr. Neil Gowensmith, a forensic psychologist and assistant clinical professor at the University of Denver, said some states have conditional release programs that monitor offenders on a longer-term basis with no specified end date, though that itself can be controversial.

"But do you keep someone under supervision forever even if they're showing signs that they don't need it?" he said. "Where is that line?"

Dr. Gina Manguno-Mire, associate professor at Tulane University and director of psychology at Feliciana Forensic Facility, said that in her experience the system generally works well because it relies heavily on risk assessments conducted by forensic experts to determine if and when a defendant should be released completely from state supervision. She said in some extreme cases the judge will continue extending conditional release  which typically includes probation  for a decade or more, but that happens rarely.

Experts must determine whether the defendant could be a danger to himself or others "at this moment or in the foreseeable future," Manguno-Mire said. They would absolutely consider recent lapses in compliance with medication, need for emergency treatment and arrests or other criminal proceedings when making that determination, but ultimately it "comes down to a judgment call."

State law eventually allows most mentally ill offenders to regain control over their lives, even if maintaining their sanity requires staying medicated. When that happens, the transition away from supervision often involves losing some existing support mechanisms such as mandated regular meetings with doctors and parole officers.

Dr. Darrel Turner, a forensic psychologist based in Lake Charles who has served on sanity commissions in Louisiana, said that the process of transitioning out of supervision sometimes poses a challenge for offenders and places a significant burden on families.

"It's so hard, so trying  taking care of that person becomes your whole life and it can get worse or better at the whim of the disease," he said. "Medication compliance is also complicated because sometimes the delusions are so real" that people have trouble choosing reality over the world inside their minds.

Thomas' family said a lack of mental health resources contributed to their struggles.

Stephanie Hardnett, his mother, said the 2002 murder "destroyed him" because of the guilt and trauma he experienced. She believes that more comprehensive outpatient mental health care could have helped her son recover, especially having watched him become more withdrawn, more worried and less stable over the past several weeks.

Family members see Thomas not as recent news reports have shown him but as someone with not "a mean bone in his body"  a man who has never stopped hoping for a normal life free from the confines of his mental illness. Hardnett described her son's bright smile and sometimes goofy personality, his penchant for cracking jokes and tendency to help out around the house.

"When he's fine, he's so fine," his sister said. "If you saw him in his right mind, you just would never know this was the same person."The East Baton Rouge District Attorneys Office is reviewing the cases of three Baton Rouge police officers to determine whether criminal charges on payroll fraud should be filed against them, District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Thursday.

The officers, Patrick Martinez Jr., Jaime Strahan and Larry Ned, were all placed on administrative leave Nov. 1 following allegations of payroll fraud, according to Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely.

The ensuing Baton Rouge police internal affairs investigation found that during two weeks in August, Martinez and Strahan logged hours for pay that they did not actually spend on the job, and instead, were at home, according to internal police documents. Following the investigation, they were both demoted from the rank of sergeant to officer and were each suspended at least 80 days without pay, disciplinary documents show.

Two BR officers serving suspensions for logging hours when GPS showed them at home, documents show Two Baton Rouge police officers have been demoted and are serving suspensions after an internal investigation found they logged hours for pay 

Ned has not been disciplined because, McKneely said, the officer has been on medical leave since the end of the investigation. He remained on medical leave as of Friday afternoon, McKneely said.

It has been protocol for the Baton Rouge Police Department to delay internal disciplinary actions until after a decision has been made on whether the District Attorney's Office is going to seek criminal charges against the officer. However, McKneely said in this case, the internal affairs investigations were completed and then the District Attorney's office decided to review them. McKneely said the criminal review will not impact the suspensions.

Moore said his office began looking at the three payroll fraud cases a few weeks ago and they remain in the initial review stage.

The internal investigations found that Martinez and Strahan were paid in full for two 40-hour work weeks in which the GPS coordinates on their police vehicles showed them at home during large portions of those work days. Their disciplinary letters note that both their residences, in Prairieville and Walker respectively, are "miles away in another parish."

Three Baton Rouge police officers under investigation for payroll fraud, final actions still pending Three Baton Rouge police sergeants have been under investigation for payroll fraud since November, said police spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely.

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At the time, Martinez and Strahan both were working as uniform patrol officers during the day shift from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the department's District 4, which encompasses the Scotlandville area.

The Municipal Fire and Civil Service Board released Martinez and Strahan's disciplinary letters in late January to the Advocate following a public records request. Because Ned had not been disciplined at that time, no information on his investigation was available at the time.

The Advocate request to the Baton Rouge Police Department for the investigative files of all three officers has been denied pending possible criminal cases, Baton Rouge police attorney Kim Brooks said Thursday.

According to the letters, Martinez was only at work 11 of the 30 hours he logged for pay on Aug. 23, 24 and 25, his disciplinary letter from then-interim Police Chief Jonny Dunnam says. He was suspend 90 days, starting Jan. 6.

The investigation into Strahan found that she was only at work 46.5 of the 80 hours she claimed to have worked, Dunnam wrote in her disciplinary letter. She was suspended for 80 days, which McKneely said she will serve beginning in March. Her suspension was delayed from its initial start date of Jan. 6 so she would not miss mandatory training.

Despite disciplinary letter, suspension delayed for one officer sanctioned for payroll fraud Despite the disciplinary letter that said a Baton Rouge police officer's 80-day suspension would start in January after an internal investigat

Dunnam disciplined Martinez and Strahan for violating department policies about shirking duties, conduct unbecoming an officer, carrying out orders and falsification of documents. Martinez was also disciplined for violating a policy on truthfulness.

Attorney Chris Sonnier, who filed the appeals for both Martinez and Strahan with the civil service board, did not return call for comment Friday. The officers also could not be reached.

Strahan is a 19-year veteran of the department, while Martinez and Ned have been with the department for 21 years, Coppola said.During the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louis Gurvich worked as a gofer for the state party, verifying that entrants to the Louisiana Superdome were properly credentialed and keeping delegates supplied with bottled water and soft drinks.

It was a piddling job, Gurvich recalled.

Now hes the top man in the Louisiana Republican Party after party activists elected him to that position on Saturday in Baton Rouge.

Gurvich, who owns New Orleans Private Patrol, a security firm, won 97 of the 177 votes in a first-round victory over three others: Baton Rouge-based political consultant Scott Wilfong, state Rep. Julie Emerson of Carencro and Charlie Buckels, a businessman in Lafayette.

The chairman raises money for the party, recruits candidates to run for office, serves as the party spokesman and serves as the state's liaison with the Republican National Committee. Gurvich will receive no salary for the position, which is for a two-year term.

Intimidating, Gurvich said in describing his new responsibilities.

Gurvich replaces Roger Villere, owner of Villeres Florist in Metairie, who chose not to seek re-election after 14 years in the position. During his tenure, the longest in state party history, the florist played a key role in helping a blue state turn red. Universally liked for his easy-going manner, Villere has been a strong proponent of conservative social issues. He is pro-life, pro-guns and anti-gay marriage, as well as anti-tax.

We certainly will remember you as taking our Louisiana Republican Party to a new level, and for that we cannot thank you enough, state House Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, told Villere in remarks that soon prompted a standing ovation from the state central committee members crowded into the House chamber in the Old State Capitol.

Republicans now hold five of six statewide elected offices and seven of the eight congressional seats, and they hold a 61-41 advantage in the state House and a 25-14 advantage in the Senate. They also hold majorities today on the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which sets policy for K-12 schools.

Republicans have even gained strength in Louisiana since John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, won a surprise victory in the 2015 governors race.

Democrats have 1 of their own in governor's office, but they're still losing ground in Louisiana Big Democratic victories in Virginia and Alabama in the fall prompted the leader of the Louisiana Democratic Party to proclaim this month, We

Since Edwards took office in January 2016, Democrats have lost one seat in the state House, John Kennedy, a Republican was elected to the U.S. Senate, state Rep. John Schroder, a Republican, was elected to replace Kennedy as treasurer and Republicans have gained 76,000 registered voters, while Democrats have lost 28,000.

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Weve changed the entire direction of the state, we have a lot to celebrate today, Rhett Davis, a long-time party strategist, told the crowd.

The Louisiana Republican Party does face challenges. Wilfong, in making his pitch for Villeres job, said the state party is nearly $100,000 in debt and called for the party to be more transparent in its actions.

And then theres the matter of who occupies the Governors Mansion.

Our new chairmans main priority will be rallying the Republican Party as we approach the 2019 gubernatorial election to support a strong conservative candidate for governor, Ryan Cross, a party activist, said in an interview.

Gurvich will face a dicey decision soon on how the party should respond to a lawsuit filed Thursday against Secretary of State Tom Schedler, a Republican. It claims he repeatedly propositioned an employee over a decade and retaliated against her after she rejected his advances.

+2 Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler says he had consensual sex in past with harassment accuser Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler is accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed Thursday that claims he repeatedly propositioned 

Schedler denies the accusations and has said that he and the woman engaged in consensual sex.

I dont want to comment on the situation regarding Secretary Schedler until we have all the facts, Gurvich said in an interview, adding that in the coming week he will examine what happened. Obviously, we will not stand for any form of sexual harassment.

Gurvich, 65, said he is a third-generation Republican in Louisiana, which makes him a rare breed for a party that, two generations ago, could hold its meetings in a telephone booth, as party officials like to joke today.

Gurvich is an attorney who bought New Orleans Private Patrol in 2003. It has about 300 employees, he said.

Gurvich has spent the past two years as the partys secretary, a job he described as tedious. He kept the minutes and oversaw internal elections.

Gurvich is still getting the hang of being the guy out front.

After his election, well-wishers swarmed him for photos. I gotta smile, he said aloud at one point.Updated

The GOP was on the rise in Louisiana when Roger Villere was elected to chair the state Republican Party in 2004.

Stalled: Medicaid bills, seen as Louisiana GOP priorities of special session, falter in committee The Louisiana House appeared to teeter on the edge of meltdown as the fourth day of the special session began with a rejection of a series of 

But it wasnt all champagne and roses. So-called countryclub Republicans, the business types who had held sway for years, were clashing with the religious conservatives who had grabbed the reins of power. Shouting matches between the two sides sometimes marred party meetings.

Villere, the owner of a florist shop in Metairie that he founded in 1969 with his wife Donna, set out to smooth relations and oversee the partys continued ascension. He succeeded  big-time.

During Villeres 14-year tenure, which ended Saturday, Republicans took nearly all of Louisianas statewide elected offices and congressional seats, and they assumed control of the state Legislature for the first time since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.

Weve turned a blue state pretty solid red, Villere said. We went from a solid Democrat to a majority Republican. Weve come a long way.

At 68, and holding the distinction of being the longest-serving GOP chair in state history, Villere chose not to seek an eighth two-year term this year for the volunteer position. The members of the partys state central committee elected Louis Gurvich, who owns New Orleans Private Patrol, a security firm, to be his successor, at the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge.

A college dropout who grew up in a modest family in New Orleans, Villere comes from the religious-right wing of the party. Along with his pro-business and anti-tax views, hes pro-life and opposes gay marriage.

Hes not afraid to talk about his relationship with Jesus Christ and be a Bible student, said Ross Little Jr., who serves as one of the state partys two national committee members.

But Villere, genial and unpretentious, has been able to work with all factions within the party, and he brings a similar spirit to his business. Despite his sharply conservative views, he employs gay people and welcomes all customers to his flower shop.

Why Louisiana lawmakers are struggling with critical tax proposal in stalled special session With an increasingly narrow window for approving revenue-raising measures ahead of a looming budget gap, the Louisiana Legislature's efforts h

Were all Gods children, Villere said in an interview at the florist shop. I dont jam it down peoples throat. I have friends who are Muslim and Jewish. I dont worry about what religion people are. What matters is in their heart. Some of my best friends are black and Hispanic.

When party leaders elected him chairman in 2004, Democrats held five of the six statewide elected offices and five of the nine congressional seats. Democrats held a 67-37 advantage in the state House and a 25-14 advantage in the Senate.

In 2004, more than twice as many registered voters were Democrats, 57.6 percent, as Republicans, 23.5 percent.

More voters continue to be registered as Democrats, but Republicans have shrunk that advantage to 43.8 percent to 30.2 percent.

Republicans now hold five of six statewide elected offices and seven of the eight congressional seats, and they hold a 61-41 advantage in the state House and a 25-14 advantage in the Senate. They also hold majorities today on the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which sets policy for K-12 schools.

Roger, being a big-hearted, kind person, is what we needed during that time of growth, said Timmy Teepell, who worked closely with Villere as the chief political strategist for Bobby Jindal when he served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor.

I would hear stories in other states about how Republican governors werent able to work with their state parties. Im just thankful that during the years I was active in government, Roger was a good partner.

How much credit Villere deserves for the dominance of the state GOP is debatable. To be sure, larger political forces played a major role in the Republican rise in Louisiana and indeed throughout the South, beginning with President Lyndon Johnsons decision to push Congress to approve civil-rights legislation in the 1960s and President Richard Nixons strategy to harness the resentment of Southern whites.

Louisiana tipped Republican right at about the same time as Mississippi. Thats not an accident, said Michael Henderson, an assistant professor at LSUs Manship School.

Still, Henderson added, Anybody involved in the management of political organizations on the ground deserves some credit.

Villere said he focused on recruiting candidates and raising money. He said he makes three to five calls a day, six days a week, to raise the $1,000 or so a day needed to finance the partys activities.

We developed strategies to identify issues that the majority of people felt strongly about  the Second Amendment, traditional marriage, smaller government, pro-life, Villere said. We found candidates to run in races to run with vulnerable Democrats or open seats. We tried to recruit people we knew who had been involved at the local level for the Republican Party. We didnt just wait for them to come to us.

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Rodney Alexander telephoned Villere during Alexander's first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, as he mulled whether to become a Republican.

I wanted the assurance that everyone would be welcome in the party, Alexander said. Roger was always willing to make me feel comfortable. Rogers words were very important. I felt like what he was saying was genuine.

Reince Priebus, who chaired the Republican National Committee, said he valued working with Villere.

He understood what party committees are all about the ground game, data, voter identification and turnout, Priebus said. Its a lot of hard, thankless work. Its something that Roger did for many years.

"Roger was one of my best chairmen in the entire country. I wish we had 50 Roger Villeres."

Jindal and former U.S. Sen. David Vitter also played important roles in building the Republican Party, along with former state Rep. Jim Tucker, who served as speaker of the House during Jindals first term, 2008-12.

Both Jindal and Vitter left office with damaged brands, but Villere has mostly positive memories of both.

Jindal inherited a $1 billion surplus in 2008 and bequeathed a $2 billion deficit in 2016 to Gov. John Bel Edwards.

I think he (Jindal) really helped the state move forward by allowing businesses to grow, Villere said. Asked about the financial mess, he said about Jindal, He might have been a little distracted running for president.

Edwards, who had been an obscure state House member, handily defeated Vitter in the 2015 gubernatorial election.

About Vitter, Villere said, I liked the way David voted. Asked about Vitters problems that led to his surprise loss in the race for the states top office, Villere said, I would just say that David had a different way of  well, he wasnt warm and fuzzy. Lets just leave it at that.

Big question as special session begins: Can Speaker Taylor Barras unite House GOP caucus? The 144 members of Louisianas Legislature will convene Monday in a special session that will mark their fifth attempt in two years to solve t

In 2007, Villere backed Vitter after the senator admitted to having committed a very serious sin in the face of records showing he had made phone calls to the so-called Washington, D.C., Madam, who ran a notorious escort service.

But in 2014, Villere called for the resignation of Vance McAllister, then a freshman Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, after an office video camera captured McAllister in an amorous embrace with a staffer.

Critics pounced on Villeres disparate reactions.

It was a completely different situation, Villere said. Lets just say there was a lot more to Vance McAllister than came out. (McAllister didnt return phone calls from The Advocate seeking a response.)

Though he was repeatedly elected party chair, Villere did not find success as a traditional political candidate. He finished fifth in a 1989 state House primary in a race won by David Duke, and he finished fifth in a 2010 primary for lieutenant governor in a race won by Jay Dardenne.

Dardenne, a Republican who now serves as the top budget officer for Gov. Edwards, said he thought Villere should have resigned as party chairman to run. But he added that he and Villere made up after the race.

He deserves a great deal of credit for the growth of the party, Dardenne said.

Edwards is the only Democrat who holds statewide office, but Villere said he has no desire to see him switch parties.

I dont think his core values are our core values, Villere said. He believes in higher taxes.

As party chairman, Villere said he has worked 20 to 25 hours per week at the flower shop and 30 to 40 hours per week on party business. I sleep only three to four hours per night, he said.

Villere is forming a political consulting firm to elect Republicans, along with former Kenner Mayor Phil Capitano and insurance executive Danny Riehm. Their first client will be an African-American who in 2018 will challenge U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.

I think Im helping out my state and country. I really do, Villere said of his work for the Republican Party over the years. Im worried about the future of my country. Im worried about the free enterprise system. Most Democrats believe in socialism or Communism.Ideally, secretaries of state are best seen and not heard. As the overseers of elections in each state, these officials are supposed to protecPlanned Parenthood Gulf Coast sued Gov. John Bel Edwards administration on Friday over the group's longstanding request for permission to perform abortions in New Orleans, saying the state Health Department has violated its constitutional rights by ignoring its application for more than a year.

The nonprofit group asked the department in September 2016 to grant an abortion permit for its new facility on South Claiborne Avenue, the only such application the Edwards administration has received.

But nothing has been done since then, the lawsuit claims, even though the total number of abortion clinics in Louisiana has dwindled from seven in 2010 to three, in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport.

Planned Parenthood says the state sent it a letter in June 2017, nearly nine months after its application was filed, claiming that it was unable to move forward with the application because the state needs to conduct an investigation into Planned Parenthood to determine if it has violated any laws.

"In fact, the 'investigation' referenced  is a sham," attorneys for Planned Parenthood wrote in a federal lawsuit filed in Baton Rouge.

They said the Health Department "has been conducting politically motivated 'investigations' of (Planned Parenthood) for years, each time without finding any legitimate evidence of wrongdoing, never mind evidence that would justify the denial of (Planned Parenthood's) license to operate an abortion facility in New Orleans."

Planned Parenthood has not received any communications from the state since the June 2017 letter, according to the lawsuit.

Health Department Executive Counsel Stephen Russo declined to comment on the claims Friday, citing the pending litigation.

Edwards, who is Catholic, has not been shy about his pro-life stance. Though he is a Democrat, Edwards as a state representative had a strong pro-life voting record.

Since taking office, he has signed legislation that would bar the state from giving any financial support to Planned Parenthood if it begins performing abortions at its New Orleans clinic.

Edwards has also signed legislation that requires women to wait three days before they can get an abortion in Louisiana, as well as a new law requiring doctors who perform abortions to be either board-certified or certifiable in either obstetrics and gynecology or family medicine.

Louisiana abortion providers were already facing challenges before Edwards took office. Under former Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Legislature passed new restrictions on abortion clinics, prompting legal battles.

One of them, requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, forced the closure of some clinics before it was struck down in April by a federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a similar Texas law in 2016.

The application at issue now is Planned Parenthood's second for the South Claiborne Avenue facility. Its first, filed in 2014 under the Jindal administration, was denied after the Health Department applied a regulation typically used for residential health care centers to abortion clinics. That regulation requires such clinics to prove there is a dire need for their services.

Planned Parenthood appealed, and the department reversed course, lifting that denial and clearing the way for a new application to be submitted.

The nonprofit filed its revised application in September 2016, in a process its officials said appeared to be straightforward.

But nothing has been done in a year and a half, which is "more than an adequate period of time for (the Health Department) to review and respond, said Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood has followed the administrative process, and yet the state has not provided a response to the application, she said.

While the department did not directly respond to Planned Parenthood's claims, spokesman Robert Johannessen did note before the new lawsuit was filed that the regulation used to reject the original application had been repealed.

He also answered general questions about the process, noting that a clinic must fill out an application, pay a $600 fee and pass standard fire marshal and public health inspections to be considered. Clinics must also submit details about their governance and key administrative personnel, he said.

Edwards' administration is likely to face pressure against granting any new permits. In a statement this week, Ben Clapper of Louisiana Right to Life decried the Planned Parenthood application.

From their own documents, Planned Parenthood plans to sell 2,844 abortions each year at this facility, Clapper said, referring to Planned Parenthood's 2014 estimate of the unmet need for abortions in the New Orleans area.

We are concerned that this abortion license will lead to the expansion of an abortion industry that focuses on profit over the real needs of women, thereby dramatically increasing the number of abortions in our state, he said.

Tafolla said that, to the contrary, the application would ensure that her organization is offering comprehensive health care to area residents.

I think its important that people see this is not a service to be pushed away from all other reproductive health care, she said. Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures that a person can have, and it needs to be safe, legal and accessible.A judge on Friday denied a request from the office of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to recuse the entire Orleans Parish Criminal District Court bench from considering a subpoena for Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrells personal financial records.

Ad hoc Judge Freddie Pitcher Jr., who was appointed by the state Supreme Court to hear the motion, said the controversial subpoena issue should remain before Criminal District Court Judge Laurie White.

Pitcher did not issue a written ruling on Friday, but he is expected to do so in the next few days.

Prosecutors are seeking to obtain Cantrell's bank records, but her attorney is seeking to quash their subpoena as a harassing intrusion into her personal life.

Why cases, like one Jeff Landry possibly building vs. LaToya Cantrell, can be tough to prosecute The face-off between state Attorney General Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell over Cantrells possible abuse of a city c

Landry's office had argued that all the New Orleans judges are too dependent on city funding to fairly consider whether subpoenas should go out for the mayor-elects bank records. They also said the judges could be influenced by the fact that Cantrells father-in-law is Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell.

White and LaToya Cantrells lawyers said there was no reason for the local judge to recuse herself. In December, White rejected the attorney generals request to have the Criminal District Court bench recused. She pointed out that state prosecutors brought their subpoena request to Criminal District Court in the first place, before Cantrell challenged the subpoena.

If Pitcher's ruling stands, White will rule at an undetermined date on whether the subpoena can go out. That hearing could be a high-stakes affair that helps determine the course of the attorney generals investigation.

In the meantime, White has issued a stay on the subpoena, which means the Attorney Generals Office cannot collect the information it is seeking.

Landrys office began probing Cantrells finances after a November report that she repaid thousands of dollars in charges to her City Council credit card just before she qualified to run for mayor.

Although the full extent of the probe is unclear, court filings have confirmed that the attorney general is seeking not just Cantrells city credit card records but also her personal bank records.

Cantrell takes office in May.

Landry's office declined to say whether it will appeal Pitcher's ruling.

"Our goal was to have a neutral and detached magistrate hear this motion to recuse. The Supreme Court agreed and today we had our day in court. The court has decided that Judge White can hear the defense's motion to quash the subpoenas. We look forward to having that matter heard and moving forward," said Ruth Wisher, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.

An attorney for Cantrell praised Pitchers ruling.

Were pleased, said lawyer Billy Gibbens.Several parents at Helen Cox High School in Harvey could be seen picking children up from school Thursday morning, but the threat in question has already been debunked, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

The "threat" in question was made against Helen Cox High School two days ago, JPSO Lt. Jason Rivarde said Thursday morning, and another tip about the same incident was made to Crimestoppers on Wednesday.

Initial reports indicated the school was on lockdown, but that was not the case, officials said. Concerned parents were permitted to pick up their students, and staff was at the school to discuss the situation with students.

JPSO released a statement that information regarding a "threatening gesture" toward another student and possibly the school was relayed to a school resource officer on Tuesday. The student who made the gesture was interviewed, and the threat was not deemed credible, JPSO said.

The student was charged with a juvenile status offense and released to his parents; no criminal charges were filed.

An additional tip about what was believed to be the same threat prompted JPSO to send investigators to the school Thursday morning "to ensure there was no threat and that all possible leads had been investigated," according to the release.

"We take any threat against our schools seriously, and will investigate all to the fullest," JPSO said.

Can't see video below? Click here.

Parents picking up kids at Helen Cox High School after they say the school was on lockdown. Parents say One student threatened the school. @WWLTV pic.twitter.com/Gy0ah35e2J  Duke Carter II (@dcarterII) February 22, 2018

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Video from outside the school showed several cars leaving with parents picking up their children.

School security has been under intense scrutiny in the days following a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last week.

Multiple arrests have been made across Louisiana in connection with school threats, including an 18-year-old man who was arrested following alleged Instagram threats against Martin Luther King Jr. High School in New Orleans.

Slidell Police also posted to social media Wednesday evening to allay concerns over a viral social media post that threatened "SHS." The post originated in Ohio, and concerned schools and districts with those initials as it was shared around the nation.

Slidell, New Orleans police say 'no credible threat' to schools after Facebook post stokes concern A since-deleted Facebook post threatening a school led to concern in Slidell and New Orleans, but police have said there's no threat to either area.

Check back for updates.One student in Jefferson Parish allegedly turned up in a picture on social media next to the caption, future school shooter.

In New Orleans, officials said, a teenager made threatening statements on Instagram about students and staff at Dr. King Charter School.

Whether it is a coincidental uptick or the result of heightened vigilance on the part of residents and law enforcement in the wake of last week's deadly mass shooting in Florida, at least four young men have been arrested in the New Orleans metro area this week on allegations of making school-related threats. At least two other teens were cited for non-criminal offenses following similar allegations.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said his agency's policies on when to act in the case of social media posts or other threats haven't changed since the Florida shooting. But he acknowledged that the number of recent complaints has been extreme.

Generally speaking, we get complaints once, twice a month, he said. Today, we had four different instances. I believe the Florida school shooting had a lot to do with that because for the last 72 hours, thats what everybody sees.

NOPD jails 18-year-old with terrorizing in case involving Warren Easton High School New Orleans police have arrested an 18-year-old man accused of making "a possible school shooting threat" at Warren Easton High School in Mid-

Still, it is no surprise that local law enforcement officials are taking online threats seriously.

The FBI is facing intense criticism for taking no action after it received tips indicating that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz could be a threat before he attacked students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.

Someone had posted a YouTube comment under Cruz's name saying, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter," and the FBI also received a call to a public tip line warning that Cruz had made disturbing social media posts and there was concern he could commit a school shooting.

Caroline Roemer, executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools, said authorities were right to intervene swiftly in the local cases.

But Roemer also said it would be important to follow up with more than punitive measures for the students involved, especially if any of them need serious mental health treatment that they aren't receiving.

As a mom, I want to know that my child is in a school community in which he's safe in the classroom, said Roemer, whose own son is in the fourth grade. But that shouldnt always mean  that a student should simply be put out of school or the classroom for long periods of time.

Two of the recent cases were reported in New Orleans, where the students accused of making the threats were booked as adults because they are 18.

Police said they arrested Janero Copelin on Wednesday after learning that he allegedly posted content on Instagram that threatened the staff and student body at Dr. King School, in the Lower 9th Ward. Officials said Copelin told investigators he meant to intimidate a specific person attending the school.

Helen Cox not under lockdown, threat against school debunked days ago, JPSO says Several parents at Helen Cox High School in Harvey could be seen picking children up from school Thursday morning, but the threat in question 

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A day later, police said they arrested Noah Berry after they were told he made a possible shooting threat toward Warren Easton High School in Mid-City, which he attends.

Berry and Copelin face counts of terrorizing, or making the public believe a violent crime is imminent so as to instill fear. In Louisiana, that can carry up to 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile, in Jefferson, deputies accused four minors of similar behavior.

Two boys who attend Grace King High School in Metairie were arrested Thursday after a photograph surfaced on social media depicting one of them in front of a drawing captioned, future school shooter, the Sheriffs Office said. Both denied they intended to follow through with any violence, but they were booked on the juvenile equivalent of terrorizing, officials said.

Deputies on Thursday also gave a non-criminal citation to a student at John Martyn Alternative School in Jefferson who was accused of telling a bus driver that he wanted to grow up to be a school shooter.

Two days earlier, a boy at Helen Cox High School in Harvey received a similar citation after reports of a "threatening gesture" toward another student and possibly the school.

Crimestoppers received another tip about the same incident on Wednesday, leading to incorrect reports on Thursday that Cox was on lockdown while it dealt with a threat, officials said.

Ricky Johnson, a Jefferson Parish School Board member whose district includes Helen Cox and whose daughter attends the school, said people there were on edge. A number of parents took their kids out of the school Thursday morning, and Johnson said he was relieved to learn reports of a lockdown were wrong.

Everybodys trying to figure out whats going on with kids these days, he said. Im trying to think about why kids would say anything like that, or put it out.

Adding to the jitters, a threatening social media post originating in Ohio prompted police in New Orleans and Slidell to say there were no credible threats at local schools that had identical or similar initials to ones mentioned in the post.

Slidell Police Chief Randy Fandal said it is important to report concerns of violence to the right officials rather than to share information on social media, which often fuels anxiety.

He said his department was considering assigning so-called school resource officers to guard elementary school campuses in Slidell.

Other officials, though, have said that isn't a cure-all, noting that the school in Parkland had two such officers.

Staff writer Sara Pagones contributed to this report.if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi...If everything continues in this way, then the cities of Europe will clearly have majority Muslim populations, our identity and our nations as we know them will cease to exist, our worst nightmares will have become reality. The West will fall.

Editors Note: The following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Orbans State of the Nation Address, delivered on February 18, 2018.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The fact that we come to mind when people in Hungary and abroad think of Hungarian politics is not something that has come without cost. Fidesz was formed thirty years ago. This has been a long road: fierce struggles, perseverance, loyalty, camaraderie; loyalty and service to Hungary, unity and camaraderie to one another. Every Hungarian knows us, and has even got to know us well. They know that we mean what we say, and were not in thrall to the temptation to exaggerate. We seriously mean what we say. If we commit to something we throw ourselves into it. This is why we work hard for it, and in the end we complete the task and usually achieve our goal. If the slogan had not already been used, I would say that we are the force of calm. We are ourselves, and we dont try to pull the wool over anyones eyes. We are anti-communists and patriots. We passionately love Hungary, and are ready to do everything we can for it. This is what sets us apart from the other political parties.

Its not my job to focus on other parties, but forty-nine days before a general election this is hardly avoidable. I look at the state of the other parties, and I cannot always believe my eyes. And I have to tell you I dont even understand how such people and parties in their present state can ask the people for their trust, and indeed can stand as candidates for government. Theres a party which has asked a player from another team to lead its list. He calls himself a prime-ministerial candidate  even though everyone can see that hes only a bankruptcy receiver, who has been handed the historic task of leading the MSZP out of Parliament. Another left-wing party is discovering its old roots, and under the leadership of a former prime minister is morphing back into an archetypal communist party, threatening people with prison, nationalisation and a new change of system. All it can say as far as spiritual issues are concerned is that the churches should just keep their mouths shut, and had better keep a low profile. Einstein, who not only observed physical phenomena but also the human mind, said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Theres another party, we have another party, which has nothing else to say about the world except that it can be different. A brilliant insight, but it is all but impossible to find out from them what that world would be like, because they themselves are so different that we dont know if they are right- or left-wing, nationalists or internationalists. And theres so much coming and going that we dont know whos in the party and whos outside it. We cant even remember the names of the parties formed by those whove left, because theyre struggling to remain visible and are so short-lived. But most absurd of all is that in these dangerous, migrant-battered times there is a national party which has seen better days, and which has now come up with the idea that Islam is the last hope for humanity. Well, ones jaw drops, because one cant believe ones ears. Someone should pinch us quickly, so we wake up. But its no use: this really is the situation in Hungary today; these are the options, these are the other candidates for government.

All I can say, politely but firmly, is that Hungary deserves better than this. So its no wonder that in the country now the mood is not for a change of government, but for a change of opposition. But for a moment lets take them seriously and make it clear that we are people who think that the last hope for Europe is Christianity. Today when European people talk about Christianity  and this distinction is important  they are primarily thinking of its culture and their way of life. This is why, according to opinion polls and analyses, 78 per cent of people in Hungary want us to preserve our Christian culture and our Christian traditions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When we think about the future and the stakes in the election ahead of us, we would do well to observe the increase in the number of pessimistic analyses, forecasts and projections concerning the future of Europe. Commentators claim that there are dark clouds gathering over Europe, due to immigration. There have always been dark prophecies. This is the familiar background music to European politics. Whats worrying these days is that in essence they are mathematical in nature: even though they are estimates, they are about numbers and quantifiable changes; and numbers always carry a great deal of weight. According to estimates, in European countries to the west of us the percentage of immigrants will grow at an ever faster pace. Id rather not say anything now about France or the Netherlands, but for instance the percentage of German-born citizens in large cities is in decline, as immigrants always occupy the larger cities first of all. For instance, in Bavaria now more money is being spent on asylum, immigration and integration than on the combined state budget for the economy, the environment and health care. Visiting Vienna I heard that this years school enrolment data took everyone very much by surprise: the percentage of Muslim children among those starting school has soared. This is the future that over there is already the present. According to NATO reports  it seems that soldiers dont yet allow themselves to be censored  by 2020, sixty million people will have set off for Europe. Theres also consensus that Africa will be more powerful than any previous expectations had envisaged. By 2050 its population will have doubled, to 2.5 billion. There will be ten times more young Africans than young Europeans. Africa faces two potential futures. In one future it would be able to repeat the spectacular achievements of Asia, where China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, for example, have amazed the world. Each of these  in their own way, but all at lightning speed  have dragged themselves out of poverty, set their economies on a path of growth, and will soon take over the leading role in the world economy. Their success reminds us that rather than history shaping demography, demography shapes history. And like school children who have to repeat a year, we Hungarians could say a lot on that subject. The other possible future would it be if Africa is unable to follow the path of Asian development and is unable to create decent conditions fit for its young generations to live in. If this mass of several hundred million young people is allowed to travel north, then Europe will soon come under horrendous pressure. Furthermore, the majority of immigrants will arrive from the Islamic world. If everything continues in this way, then the cities of Europe will clearly have majority Muslim populations  and London will not be an outlier, but a pioneer. If things continue like this, our culture, our identity and our nations as we know them will cease to exist. Our worst nightmares will have become reality. The West will fall, as Europe is occupied without realising it. Will this be a vindication of the views of those who think that civilisations are not killed, but commit suicide? Many believe that even if all this does take place, it will all take a long time. I think that those who believe this are mistaken. Analyses look ahead as far as 2050, and people of my age will reach their eighties at around that time. In other words, we  not to mention our children and grandchildren  may be able to see with our own eyes what direction the future of our Western world has taken.

And at this point, Dear Friends, I must also say a few words about the dispute between Western and Central Europe. It seems that the courses of development of these two parts of Europe have diverged. Naturally democracy, the rule of law and the market economy remain in common. But the foundations on which these rest today will become increasingly divergent. Politicians do not yet talk about this openly, but everyone can already see it. The great old European nations in Western Europe have become immigrant countries. Day by day their cultural foundations are being transformed, the population raised in a Christian culture is declining, and the major cities are undergoing Islamisation. And I have to say that I cannot see the political forces with the will and ability to stop these processes  let alone, horribile dictu, reverse them. In terms of my message it is now irrelevant whether this is the consequence of the weakness of liberal democracies, the repercussions of an earlier colonial and slave-trading past, or the greedy, subversive actions of a George Soros-style empire; the facts remain. Whatever the reason, Western Europe has become an immigrant zone and a world of mixed populations; and, unlike central Europe, it is heading in the direction of a completely new development future. This is bad news for us. This means that Islamic civilisation  which has always seen its mission as the conversion of Europe to what it calls the true faith  will knock on Central Europes door not only from the South, but also from the West. We have successfully defended our southern borders with the building of the fence, the legal and physical border defences, the exemplary steadfastness of our police and the leadership of Sandor Pinter. We have prevented the Muslim world from inundating us from the south. Facing that direction we are the last country in Latin  or Western  Christianity. We are standing firm. Our defence lines are sufficient to hold back the largest flows. Furthermore, Orthodox Christianity is courageously and resolutely fighting ahead of us. We acknowledge Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.

However absurd it seems, the situation is that now the danger is threatening us from the West. This danger to us comes from politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. They want us to adopt their policies: the policies that made them immigrant countries and that opened the way for the decline of Christian culture and the expansion of Islam. They want us to also accept migrants and to also become countries with mixed populations. Earlier they said that they expect this from us because what is alien is beautiful, a mixed population is better, and because the true European does not defend such obsolete mediaeval concepts as homeland and religion. Today these voices are perhaps quieter. Now the fashionable mantra is that we must become like them because this expresses solidarity. We must clearly state that we stand in solidarity with those Western Europeans and leaders who want to save their homelands and Christian culture, and we have no solidarity with those who want to abandon those things. We shall never express solidarity with those European leaders who want to take Europe into a post-Christian and post-national era.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We must clearly and forthrightly state that we do not see the battle that were fighting as a hopeless one; in fact as we see it, we now stand on the brink of victory. The countries of the Visegrad Four are unwavering. The Orthodox world stands firm, and it seems that Croatia has come to its senses. Austria has now turned in the direction of patriotism and Christianity. In Bavaria a spiritual and political resistance has developed under the leadership of the CSU. Perhaps it is not too late. And we await, we keenly anticipate, the result of the Italian election, and with it the turning-point which will see the return to government of common sense, Italian national and cultural identity  and Silvio Berlusconi. Forza Italia!

And let us now remember those European politicians, our counterparts, who in recent years have sunk their teeth into us  and in the end have broken their teeth on us. A brief roll call: Austrian chancellors Faymann and Kern; Italian prime minister Renzi; the inglorious Croatian prime minister Milanovic; and, of course, Martin Schulz  who had a manic desire to be everything, and in the end has become nothing. I see that the list is unfinished, and there are a few vacant places on it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

All this gives us hope. In the end it is good to see that one has not worked in vain. But the situation gives us no reason to be self-satisfied. The forces opposing us, George Soross network and the international bureaucrats he has bought, have in no way given up. There are those who still smell money. They look at Europe and see the business opportunities inherent in the weakening of the euro. There are those who do not want to lose the jobs and infantry wages they have received from the globalist elite. And theres also the type of European ideological intellectual who continually experiments with the transformation of Europe. A well-developed example of the latter is a Hungarian activist from a Soros organisation, who was able to say the following, and I quote: From almost wherever they come, those arriving here are better than our native population. I didnt understand this for a while. I didnt understand why someone would talk such obvious claptrap. After all, its clear that, compared with migrants, we Hungarians are better-trained, better-educated and more employable. This is clear. Then one of the Soros networks chief ideologues, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, recently let slip that some years ago they secretly launched a programme to breed a Soros-like human race, or, as they modestly put it  if I can pronounce the term  Homo sorosensus. This means Soros man. And I realised that from their point of view, from the viewpoint of the Soros types, we indigenous people who have our own countries, our own culture and our own religion  things for which we will fight tooth and nail  are individuals beyond redemption, who cannot be transformed. From their viewpoint, migrants are indeed better raw material to work with. And it is a clear testament to the Hungarian peoples generosity and deep tolerance that the people who are scheming to implement this plan can safely and cheerfully live their lives among us.

Now of course we shall not look on impassively; we are not sheep, who quietly stand around waiting for their fate to be visited upon them. Naturally we shall fight, and if needs be we shall deploy an ever more powerful legal arsenal. Here, for a start, we have the Stop Soros legislative proposal. We are linking any activities related to migration and migrants to a national security licence, and we shall divert a proportion of the foreign funding intended for pro-migrant NGOs, or pseudo-civil society organisations, to the border protection budget. We shall order a complete financial transparency screening, and if somebody does not refrain from their dangerous plans we shall simply expel them  however powerful or rich they may be. And we shall fight in the international arena as well. Tomorrow I shall hand over to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria  which currently holds the presidency of the European Union  the European legislative proposal which can provide for the complete protection of Europes borders. This is the important thing, the protection of the borders  not mandatory migrant quotas. If we secure the borders, no one can enter without permission, and then there will be no one to distribute. And those who allow migrants to enter their countries should keep them and look after them. And there can be no question at all of them selecting the best and sending us the rest.

So I should also draw your attention to the fact that in the meantime another area for debate has opened up. The United Nations, the UN, has taken it upon itself to finalise an international compact on migration by the end of the year. The draft has been released for debate. The United States has already left the negotiating table, because in its view the proposal is hopelessly pro-migration and anti-border security. Our self-confidence is in a better state, and we have therefore decided to stay at the negotiating table for the time being, and change the wording of the compact being prepared. What does the UN want? This will be a fine task for our friend Peter Szijjarto. What does the UN want? The UN wants everyone to accept that immigration and its facilitation make a positive contribution to economic growth and prosperity. This is a quote from the document. From a European point of view, this is obviously idiocy; its like saying that a flu epidemic is a good thing, because it makes a positive contribution to peoples health and well-being. The UN asserts that safe and regulated immigration routes must be created in Europe. The UN asserts that it is every Europeans duty to help the immigrants coming to their countries to settle and find jobs.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We understand that some 80 per cent of the UNs Member States are source countries for migrants. But we didnt establish the United Nations in order for it to turn against us and force something on us that will ruin us. The United Nations also asserts that the legal and physical barriers obstructing immigrants paths across borders must be removed. We can stand up straight and hold our heads high: this is about the fence, and this is directly aimed at us. Interestingly, proposals of this kind mostly originate from people who are protected by bodyguards, who travel in armoured limousines, whose houses are surrounded by high walls and fences, and who are protected by security systems around the clock. We suggest instead that they first dismantle their gates, take down their fences and dismiss their guards. We suggest that we continue the talks if this experiment has succeeded  and theyre still alive. Should the experiment fail, well happily grant them asylum in Hungary.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This is obviously utter nonsense. Its incomprehensible why they would think us to be such raving lunatics as to accept this and then implement it. We must bluntly state that Hungary is not a country of deranged people. We understand that George Soross organisations have not only installed themselves in Brussels and Budapest, but also in New York, at the UN. We understand that they are spending incalculable sums of money on pushing through acceptance for migration at a global level. We understand that Soros has picked a fight not only with us, but also with the British, President Trump and the Israelis. And everywhere the topic is the same: forcing acceptance for immigration and migration. But they wont succeed. Were not alone, and we shall fight together to contain  and then to stop  Soross plan as presented in Brussels and in the UN. And if we have enough allies  and we can have enough allies  Im sure that we shall succeed in the end.

Read the full address here.

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

The featured image is from the Office of the President of Russia and is in the public domain.Other than making you look more elegant, batik tulis (hand-drawn batik) can also serve as a good investment as the price may increase over time, according to a batik gallery owner.

"Batik can serve as an investment. If we purchase one today for Rp 10 million [US$735], in five to 10 years the value can increase much more," said Galeri Buana Alit owner Dwita Herman in Jakarta on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Dwita said one of the fabrics she owned, made by Pekalongan legendary batik brand Oey Soe Tjoen, could reach Rp 35 million to Rp 40 million in value. She bought it for only around Rp 6 million just a few years ago.

Read also: Three ways to identify quality batik

Today, Dwita said Oey Soe Tjoen batik is usually priced around Rp 20 million, and it can take a few years to receive after ordering it.

She said the price of batik tulis is varied, as it depends on the motifs and the density of the dots. For instance, she said a Dutch-influenced fabric from Cirebon is known for its bird and smooth line patterns; the latter was difficult to make since the artisans needed to hold their breath when doing it. Breathing while making the patterns could cause imperfections with the lines, meaning the artisans had to hold their breath for long periods of time.

Dwita advised customers to be cautious and pay attention when deciding to buy batik to ensure the fabric they buy is original and high quality.

"We should at least have one or two high-quality batik that we can pass on to our children," she added. (kes)Four acclaimed Indonesian painters have museums built in their names. Ranging from former residences to buildings specifically constructed to accommodate extensive collections, these museums offer a glimpse of the fascinating works of masters that have made compelling contributions to Indonesian art.

Kompas Travel has compiled a list of those museums:

1. S. Sudjojono Center

A post shared by S. Sudjojono Center (SSC) (@sscenter) on Jul 3, 2014 at 5:17am PDT

Located on Jl. Raya Pasar Minggu, Km 18, South Jakarta, this museum was formerly Sudjojonos residence as well as studio. It also became a place for piano and singing lessons offered by his wife, Rose Pandanwangi.

After he passed away, it was turned into a museum in 1989 and changed its name from S. Sudjojono Museum to S. Sudjojono Center. It houses his paintings and sketches.

Sudjojono has produced paintings, sketches, drawings, reliefs and ceramic works. He insisted on portraying Indonesians in everyday life activities, known as realism, while he was also actively involved in establishing Persagi (Union of Indonesian Painters, 1938) and the SIM (Young Indonesian Artists, 1946), which led to his close association with other leading Indonesian artists, such as Affandi and Hendra Gunawan.

With his extensive knowledge in art, Sudjono, who is referred to as the Father of Modern Indonesian Painting, was also known as a revered art critic in Indonesia.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. but closed on Mondays and on national holidays.

Read also: Seven interesting facts about Maritime Museum in Jakarta

2. Ciputra Art Museum Hendra Gunawan

A post shared by Ciputra Artpreneur (@artpreneur) on Oct 4, 2017 at 4:11am PDT

Built by property tycoon Ciputra as part of Ciputra Artpreneur in Ciputra World in South Jakarta, this museum exhibits his large art collection.

According to its official website, the museum provides information and perspectives on the development of Indonesian art from the period of modernism until today, especially relating to Hendra Gunawan, who started in realism, then shifted to expressionism.

In an interview, Ciputra said he had built the museum to share the joy and happiness of Hendras art. I feel a sense of responsibility to pay homage to the heritage of Hendra's art. That's the reason why I decided to develop a shopping mall with an art program, to create opportunities for intersecting experiences in public spaces.

The museum is open every day from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are Rp 30,000 for the Indonesian public, Rp 50,000 for foreign tourists and Rp 15,000 for students.

The museums official website offers a sneak peek of its collection through a virtual tour.

Read also: Works of realism maestro Basoeki Abdullah on display at Jakarta museum

3. Basoeki Abdullah Museum

A post shared by MUSEUM BASOEKI ABDULLAH (@musbadul) on Nov 21, 2017 at 12:37am PST

Filled with paintings and other works of the painter, such as statues, masks, shadow puppets and weaponry, the Basoeki Abdullah Museum is located on Jl. Keuangan Raya No. 19 in West Cilandak, South Jakarta.

Built in 2014, it is situated right beside the painters former residence and museum in his name. The painters works in realism, which have not been exhibited, can finally be shown to the public, along with paintings from Basoeki Abdullah Art Award winners.

One of his most phenomenal paintings residing in the museum is a replica of a painting of the accession of Dutch Queen Juliana.

Located right in the heart of a residential area, Ministry of Education and Culture Director General of Culture Hilmar Farid insisted that the museum must include activities of art appreciation.

The museums website also offers thorough information.

4. Affandi Kusuma Museum

A post shared by Dhanang DhaVe (@dhavers) on Sep 8, 2017 at 5:24am PDT

One of the most popular art museums in Indonesia, the Affandi Museum, is located on Jl. Laksda Adisucipto No. 167 in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

Three hundred paintings by Affandi, a master of expressionism, are displayed at the museum, as well as around 700 paintings from fellow painters, including Popo Iskandar, Barli, Hendra Gunawan and Muchtar Apin.

The museum has four galleries and a cafe. Two galleries house paintings, while the other two are used for painting lessons for children and a painting exhibition of Affandis grandson, Didit.

Visitors can see Affandis personal items, such as cars, communication devices, bikes and pipes. The museum is open Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with tickets costing Rp 20,000. (wen)Apple Inc., seeking to bolster its wearables business, is working on upgrades to its wireless AirPods headphones, according to people familiar with the matter.

Like with its mobile devices -- the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch -- Apple intends to frequently update the AirPods with new hardware features. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is working on a new version for release as soon as this year with an upgraded wireless chip, the people said. A subsequent model for as early as next year is planned to be water resistant, they added, asking not to be identified discussing private product plans.

The model coming as early as this year will let people summon Apples Siri digital assistant without physically tapping the headphones by saying "Hey Siri." The function will work similarly to how a user activates Siri on an iPhone or a HomePod speaker hands-free. The headphones, internally known as B288, will include an upgraded Apple-designed wireless chip for managing Bluetooth connections. The first AirPods include a chip known as the W1, and Apple released the W2 with the Apple Watch last year.

The idea for the water-resistant model is for the headphones to survive splashes of water and rain, the people said. They likely wont be designed to be submerged in water. The latest iPhones can survive splashes, while the Apple Watch is considered "swim-proof." Apples plans could change or be delayed, the people said. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

The AirPods are designed by the same department that produced the HomePod speaker, Bloomberg News reported last year. Apple introduced the first AirPods in 2016 alongside the iPhone 7 as a way to replace the traditional wired headphone jack. Since launch, AirPods have been considered one of the top-performing Apple products and have resonated with both reviewers and consumers.

Read also: Fashion brand 'Steve Jobs' wins lawsuit against Apple

The product helped take wireless headphones mainstream. It was one of the first models to be fully wireless and come in a case that charges the headset. Similar products followed from Google, Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Motorola and Bose. AirPods accounted for 85 percent of the money spent in the U.S. on wireless headphones since they debuted, research firm NPD Group estimated last year.

Apples Other Products segment, which includes AirPods, Beats headphones, the Watch, Apple TV and accessories, generated more than $5 billion in revenue for the first time in the companys fiscal first quarter, representing 36 percent year-over-year growth.

"Wearables were the second-largest contributor to revenue growth after iPhone, which is impressive," Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said during a conference call with analysts earlier this month, adding that sales jumped almost 70 percent last year.

The category may continue to grow. Apple has said it is releasing an upgraded AirPods case this year that allows the headphones to be recharged wirelessly, like the iPhone X. The company is also working on an augmented-reality headset that would launch in 2020 at the earliest, Bloomberg News has reported.Google said Friday its digital assistant software would be available in more than 30 languages by the end of the years as it steps up its artificial intelligence efforts against Amazon and others.

Google Assistant, the artificial intelligence software which is available on its connected speakers, Android smartphones and other devices, will also include multilingual capacity "so families or individuals that speak more than one language can speak naturally" to the program, according to a Google blog post.

The move aims to help Google, which has been lagging in the market for connected devices against Amazon's Alexa-powered hardware, ramp up competition in new markets.

While Alexa currently operates only in English, Google Assistant works in eight languages and the new initiative expands that.

Read also: Google Assistant now available in Indonesian

"By the end of the year (Google Assistant) will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 precent of all eligible Android phones worldwide," Google vice president Nick Fox said in the blog post.

"In the next few months, we'll bring the Assistant to Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android phones and iPhones, and we'll add more languages on more devices throughout the year."

The multilingual option will first be available in English, French and German, with support for more languages coming "over time," Fox wrote.

The move comes amid intense competition for artificial intelligence software on smartphones and other devices by Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and others.

Amazon took the early lead with its Alexa-powered speakers and is believed to hold the lion's share of that market, with Google Home devices a distant second.

Apple got a late start in the speaker segment with its HomePod, which went on sale this month in the US, Britain and Australia.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 24, 2018 07:30 1301 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c70f166 1 City odd-even-license-traffic-policy,Bekasi,traffic-jam Free

Transportation authorities plan to apply an odd-even license plate number policy to limit the numbers of cars entering Jakarta from Bekasi is predicted to worsen traffic congestion on the alternative road of Jl. Kalimalang.

Bekasi Transportation Agency traffic unit head Johan Budi Gunawan said the policy, which was planned to be applied at the entrances of Bekasi toll roads, would cause more motorists to use Jl. Kalimalang nontoll access to the capital city.

Jl. Kalimalang will not be able to accommodate more cars heading to Jakarta or vice versa, Johan said on Friday.

The Becakayu toll road is the only hope to reduce the congestion. The government should cut its fare to attract more people to use the toll road, he told kompas.com on Thursday, referring to the newly inaugurated Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu toll road connecting Bekasi and East Jakarta.

The policy, Johan added, would also cause more gridlock in Bekasi city.

Its good that the government is attempting to make people switch from using personal vehicles to public transportation modes through the odd-even policy. Unfortunately, there are still more people who prefer to commute with their own cars, he explained. (vla)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Leila Macor with Chris Lefkow (Agence France-Presse) Florida and Washington  Sat, February 24, 2018 10:45 1301 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c71ca24 2 World Florida,school-attack,shooting,gun-control Free

A police officer will be stationed at every public school in Florida, the state's governor announced Friday as part of a plan to improve security following last week's deadly high school shooting.

President Donald Trump repeated his call, meanwhile, for arming some of America's teachers and claimed the controversial proposal was increasingly drawing support.

The push to make schools safer came as the local sheriff's office released details of nearly two dozen visits to the residences of Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old behind the assault at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida.

Speaking at a news conference in the state capital Tallahassee, Republican Governor Rick Scott unveiled a $450 million security plan in response to the Valentine's Day rampage.

"There is nothing more important than the safety of our children," Scott said. "We must take care of our kids."

"I am proposing at least one law enforcement officer for every 1,000 students," Scott said of putting police in public schools.

Asked about Trump's proposal that teachers carry concealed weapons, Scott replied: "My focus is on providing more law enforcement officers, not on arming the teachers."

Scott proposed a ban on "bump stocks" -- an accessory which turns a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one -- and making it easier for courts "to prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm."

Scott also said the age for gun buyers in the state would be raised from 18 to 21 -- a move opposed by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby.

The governor stopped short, however, of endorsing a ban on assault weapons -- a demand of many of the teenagers who survived the shooting at Stoneman Douglas that left 14 of their classmates and three staff dead.

"I know there are some who are advocating a mass takeaway of Second Amendment rights for all Americans," Scott said -- referring to America's constitutional right to bear arms. "That is not the answer."

"Keeping guns away from dangerous people and people with mental issues is what we need to do," he said.

Trump also does not support a ban on semi-automatic weapons and in a speech to a conservative gathering near Washington, he returned again to his idea of arming teachers.

- 'Shot the hell out of him' -

Speaking to a receptive crowd of thousands of fellow Republicans at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump said "well-trained" teachers could help stop school shootings.

"Maybe 10 percent or 20 percent of the population of teachers," he said. "Not all of them, but you would have a lot.

"And the beauty is it's concealed," Trump said.

Referring to Cruz, the Stoneman Douglas assailant, Trump said "a teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened."

Trump claimed his proposal to arm teachers, which has been strongly criticized by the nation's largest teachers' unions, was drawing support.

"Since I started this two days ago, a lot of people that were totally opposed to it are now agreeing," he said. "They don't want their students to be killed or to be hurt."

Trump proposed measures preventing the mentally ill from obtaining weapons and to "really strengthen up background checks" for gun buyers.

"And I really believe that Congress is going to get it through this time," he said.

Lawmakers in Washington have been deadlocked on the gun debate, accomplishing nothing despite a spate of mass shootings and polls showing Americans support stricter gun laws by a two-to-one margin.

- 'Coward' -

Trump also criticized by name the sheriff's deputy who allegedly failed to take action against Cruz during the shooting spree, saying he had been a "coward."

Scot Peterson has resigned after being suspended without pay.

Three other Broward Country Sheriff's deputies also stayed outside the school and did not enter as the crisis unfolded, US media reported.

The Wall Street Journal obtained a transcript of a call from a tipster to the FBI more than one month before the massacre, in which she expressed concern Cruz would "get into a school and just shoot the place up."

The FBI has said it received such a call, which did not lead to any law enforcement followup, from a person close to Cruz, but it was the first time the details were made public.

The 19-year-old had amassed multiple guns following his mother's death in November, and had posted on social media that "he wants to kill people," the caller said, describing a history of disruptive and violent behavior.

"I know he's -- he's going to explode," she warned.

The sheriff's office also released details of 23 calls to the various homes where Cruz lived over the past nine years.

The earliest call dates from November 2008 when Cruz, then nine years old, threw a rock at another boy who had thrown a rock at him.

Other calls to the police were from Cruz's late mother, Linda, after she was involved in altercations with her son or he was fighting with his brother.

Two of the most disturbing calls -- in February 2016 and November 2017 -- were tips that Cruz was armed and may be planning to attack a school.

The sheriff's office said an internal investigation was underway into how those calls were handled.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Emal HAIDARY (Agence France-Presse) Kabul  Sat, February 24, 2018 19:13 1300 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c72be51 2 World Afghanistan,war Free

At least 23 people, mostly soldiers, were killed and more than a dozen wounded in a series of attacks and suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest assaults on the war-torn country's beleaguered security forces.

In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers.

"Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area," defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Deputy provincial governor Younus Rasooli said the authorities had sent a fact-finding delegation to Bala Buluk to investigate the assault.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the diplomatic area of Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing at least three people and wounding five others, deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

"At around 8:30 am, a suicide bomber on foot, well-dressed with a necktie on, was identified at a checkpoint. He blew up his explosives, killing three and wounding five others," he said, updating an earlier toll.

A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The NDS compound is located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

"I was driving nearby when I heard a big explosion, the windows of my car were smashed. I saw several wounded people on the street near me," a witness told Tolonews TV adding that security forces had since swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the attack site.

The Islamic State group, which is trying to make inroads in Afghanistan, claimed the responsibility for the Kabul attack.

In December, a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near the same compound, killing at least six civilians.

Kabul has recently seen an increase in attacks by both Taliban and the IS group.

Since mid-January, militants have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in the capital, killing more than 130 people as the city remains on high alert fearing further violence.

- Car bombings -

In two other attacks on Saturday in volatile southern Helmand province, suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

In the first incident, militants used a Humvee to attack an army base in Nad Ali district but the vehicle was destroyed when soldiers identified it and hit it with a rocket propelled grenade, provincial spokesman Omar Zawak told AFP.

"Unfortunately, two soldiers were killed in the attack and seven wounded," he said.

The Nad Ali attack was followed by a second suicide car bombing in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah that wounded seven people.

The attack was against an NDS compound and near a police headquarters in the city, Helmand police spokesman Salaam Afghan told AFP.

The Taliban claimed both attacks in Helmand.

Militants including the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks on Afghan troops and police in recent months, sapping morale already hit by desertions and corruption.

Afghan soldiers have taken what the UN describes as "shocking" casualties since international forces ended their combat role at the end of 2014, though troop casualty figures are no longer released.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 24, 2018 12:59 1301 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c726ab2 1 City #Police,#CentralJakarta,#Construction,#headquarters Free

Construction of the new headquarters of the Central Jakarta Police on Jl. Kemayoran Gempol and Jl. Garuda in Central Jakarta is slated to begin in April.

Central Jakarta Mayor Mangara Pardede said recently during a coordination meeting attended by officials from the Central Jakarta administration and the Central Jakarta Police that the city would fully support the plans.

We support the construction of the new building as the existing buildings condition is no longer adequate, said Mangara, as quoted by pusat.jakarta.go.id. He added that street vendors near the current building would be relocated.

Central Jakarta Police chief Comr. Roma Hutajulu said that the construction would utilize funds from the National Police logistics budget, booked at Rp 152 billion ($11.1 million).

The plans will enter the bidding process soon. The grounds must be cleared out by March, so construction can start in early April and finish by the end of the year, said Roma, adding that the building would have six floors with 10,000 square meters of space. (jlm)Personnel of the Armys Strategic Reserves Commands (Kostrad) Quick Reaction Strike Force (PPRC) celebrate after they attended the command and control handover ceremony in the taxiway of the Air Forces 32nd Air Squadron at the Abdul Rachman Saleh Air Force Base in Malang, East Java, on Friday. Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto served as the inspector of the ceremony, which marked the command handover from Kostrads 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Ainurrahman to Kostrads 2nd Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Agus Suhardi.(JP/Nedi Putra AW)(Kostrad) Quick Reaction Strike Force (PPRC) celebrate after they attended the command and control handover ceremony in the taxiway of the Air Forces 32nd Air Squadron at the Abdul Rachman Saleh Air Force Base in Malang, East Java, on Friday. Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto served as the inspector of the ceremony, which marked the command handover from Kostrads 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Ainurrahman to Kostrads 2nd Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Agus Suhardi.(JP/Nedi Putra AW)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Katarina Subasic (Agence France-Presse) Belgrade, Serbia  Sat, February 24, 2018 09:46 1301 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c718fc3 2 World European-Union Free

The European Union has offered some of the six Balkan states who hope to join the bloc the prospect of becoming new members by 2025, but warned them they still have many obstacles to overcome.

The European Commission's roadmap for the region unveiled earlier this month said the countries must root out problems with corruption and the rule of law, and, especially, settle a series of simmering territorial disputes.

"The EU door is open to further accessions when, and only when, the individual countries have met the criteria," the plan said.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker will start a tour of the region on Sunday to discuss the new strategy, which stresses "implementing fundamental reforms and good neighbourly relations".

Montenegro and Serbia are the frontrunners to join, with Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia lagging behind, but all are getting impatient after the EU put expansion on hold four years ago.

The EU has been wary of admitting new members before they settle their differences, and the border rows will be a particular point of contention in a region still bedevilled by the aftermath of the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the chance to join by 2025 was "very important as an incentive for Serbian citizens".

But he warned that it would take some "difficult decisions" to solve the country's outstanding issues -- first and foremost, Serbia's dispute with Kosovo.

Serbia has refused to recognise its former breakaway province since it declared independence a decade ago.

- 'Ball in our court' -

Montenegro has reason to be satisfied with the EU's strategy, according to Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, but the European Movement Montenegro found it was "discouraging" that the plan considered 2025 to be an "extremely ambitious" prospect.

Juncker has warned Serbia and Montenegro against too much "excitement", saying that 2025 "is an indicative date, an encouragement date so that the people concerned can consistently set out on their way".

The deadline for the other Balkan nations is less clear.

Albania, a candidate since 2014, hopes to open talks with Brussels this year and is willing to speed up reforms to catch up with the others, according to Prime Minister Edi Rama.

"We want to make progress faster and, why not, join EU at the same time" as Serbia, Rama said.

But Albanian political analyst Lutfi Dervishi warned that joining the EU "is a national desire but it is not a lottery".

"The ball is in our court," Dervishi told AFP, referring to the pace of reform, particularly in the fight against organised crime and corruption, seen by the EU as a priority for Albania.

- 'Locked in the waiting room' -

Macedonia, an EU candidate since 2005, will have to resolve a festering 25-year row with Greece over its name.

Athens, which can block Macedonia's EU membership, argues its neighbour's use of the name suggests Skopje has territorial claims to Greece's historic northern region.

But Macedonia has made significant progress recently and the EU said it is "very confident" the dispute will be settled before July.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has praised the EU's new plan, saying that "according to this strategy Macedonia is on the right track".

He added it would provide motivation "to work and catch up with Serbia and Montenegro, who already negotiate" with the EU.

But Macedonia's Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov said earlier this month that it was difficult for countries to keep moving in the right direction if they are "locked in the waiting room".

In Bosnia, which applied for membership in 2016, Muslim leader Bakir Izetbegovic said he was confident "we can catch up with those currently ahead us on the path towards the EU".

But the country will have to tackle ongoing tension with Bosnian Serbs, including their leader Milorad Dodik, who regularly threatens secession.

Kosovo was the most disappointed with the EU's strategy.

Media in the capital Pristina pointed out that rather than employing terms like "accession" and "candidate status" used for other countries, the document said Kosovo could "advance on its European path" once "circumstances allow".

Five of the EU's 28 member states still do not recognise Kosovo's independence, and President Hashim Thaci has blamed them "for the lack of a unique stand for Kosovo" in the new plan.

"But Kosovo will not sink into despair," Thaci said.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Bekasi  Sat, February 24 2018

Police in Bekasi, West Java, have arrested a suspect for spreading fake news about an attack on an ustadz (Muslim teacher) by people connected to the defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in North Tambun.



Were questioning one alleged hoax spreader who caused public uproar, said the police chief Sr. Comr. Candra Sukma Kumara, as quoted by kompas.com on Friday



He added that the man reportedly spread the news in the WhatsApp group chat of his community unit (RW), describing it as a bloody attack using sharp weapons and also linking it to the PKI.



Candra stressed that the news was not true. Two men had indeed visited the ustadz but no sharp weapons were carried by the visitors. According to the police the so-called attackers were beggars who moved from one mosque to another. They were angry at the ustadz because he refused to give them money.

...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 24 2018

A victim of the 2016 Thamrin terrorist attack, Second Insp. Denny Mahieu, took the witness stand on Friday to testify against the alleged mastermind behind the attack, Aman Abdurrahman.



Denny said he had been inspecting a traffic police post when the first of several explosions rocked the Central Jakarta area on Jan. 14, 2016. The attack on Jl. MH Thamrin, which also included a shoot-out between the assailants and police, left eight people dead and some 20 others injured, including Denny.



Five of the eight fatalities were terrorists.



Denny told the South Jakarta District Court that he had been patrolling the area on his motorcycle when he noticed the door to the traffic police post was open and stopped to investigate.



I decided to check [the post] and I found a bag, two pieces of cake, two boxes and two bottles of water, Denny said during the hearing,...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Yangon, Myanmar  Sat, February 24, 2018 10:02 1301 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c719e51 2 SE Asia bomb-blast,Myanmar,Rakhine-state Free

Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine's state capital Sittwe early Saturday morning, including the home of a high ranking official, Myanmar police told AFP, adding that no deaths were reported.

"Three bombs exploded and three other unexploded bombs were found. A police officer was injured but not seriously," a senior officer said on condition of anonymity.

The blasts took place around 4:00am (2130 GMT Friday), the officer said.

One exploded in the compound of the state government secretary's home, while the two others hit in front of an office in the city and on a road leading to a beach.

A local official from the state government also confirmed the explosions.

The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

"Some streets are being blocked by police already because of the bomb blasts," Zaw Zaw, a local resident of Sittwe, told AFP by phone.

Although bombings in the state capital are rare, restive Rakhine state has been roiled by bouts of of communal violence and insurgencies in other parts of the state.

Last August, its northern wedge was plunged into crisis after a sweeping military crackdown on Rohingya rebels sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority across the border to Bangladesh.

In January, seven people were killed and a dozen injured when police opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who were trying to seize a government office in the town of Mrauk U.

The violence prompted an ethnic Rakhine rebel group in the state to promise "serious" retaliation for the deaths of the protesters.An English map introducing some 100 sake breweries in western Japan has been distributed to foreign tourists, with the aim of eventually boosting exports of the alcoholic beverage.

The 24-page colored guidebook listing sake breweries in Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama prefectures has been given for free at a tourist information center at JR Kyoto Station and other locations.

Renowned brewery areas of Nada-Gogo in the Hyogo cities of Kobe and Nishinomiya as well as Fushimi in the southern part of Kyoto city are among the spots introduced in the booklet. Each of some 100 sake makers produces different brands such as Kikumasamune and Kizakura.

Read also: Japan makes sake tax-free for tourists

Accompanied with a QR code that links to a Google map of each brewery, the guidebook also notes languages available on visits, including English and Chinese, as well as the nearest train stations.

The booklet introduces readers to types of sake, such as "junmai-shu" made only from rice and koji, a species of mold on rice, that has a "rich taste and flavor" and "ginjyo-shu," specially refined sake made from highly polished rice that has a "mild taste with fruity flavors."

It also gives an explanation on how to read bottle labels, offering insights into how to enjoy sake.

"We hope the guidebook will get foreigners interested in Japanese sake and promote sake exports in the future," said an official of the Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau, which made the map.Edward Ademolu, University of Manchester

Watching Marvels highly anticipated comic-book film adaptation, Black Panther, was no ordinary tried and tested cinematic experience.

Much like the unapologetic showmanship, flamboyance and atmospheric idiosyncrasies of Sunday service black congregational worship, the cinema metamorphosised beyond its remnants of unswept popcorn kernels and sticky milkshake residue into an augmented space. It became a mega-church sanctuary of spiritual catharsis with all the impassioned and melodic trimmings of Afro-Pentecostalism.

Marvel Studios' BLACK PANTHER

But, make no mistake, this was not the time nor place for solemn contemplation or confessing past transgressions  but an opportunity for continental Africans and diaspora to offload socially sanctioned climactic expressions of individual and collective excitement and expectations, as well as lip-bitten anxieties about a fictionalised Africa.

If this was an Afro-baptism in filmic spirit, I sought  and submitted to  full-bodied immersion.

Lets be clear, the fervour over Black Panther among the Ankra-wearing, close-cropped Afro-crowned cinemagoers is incredibly warranted for several reasons. Not least for its reimagining, its re-presentation of Africa and communities therein  with magical realism  that makes it an intriguing anomaly among the slew of other questionable Western cinematic attempts to deliver Africa on screen.

Die-hard Marvel fans and those newly christened have waited with baited breath to secure a one-way ticket to Wakanda  the wondrous Afro-futuristic utopia and homeland of the titular character Black Panther (played by Chadwick Boseman). But this is by no means Hollywoods first foray into fictionalised African kingdoms. Before Wakanda, there was the similarly named and seemingly African-sounding Zumunda in Eddie Murphys 1998 blockbuster Coming to America

But Zumunda presented as nothing more than a visual repository of African cliches and normative assumptions, where wild animals, as domesticated pets, cohabit as they do nonchalantly with humans. So too, where royalty enrobe in lions fur. As the Nigerian literary darling Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie put it:

If all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, animals and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and Aids, unable to speak for themselves.

Africas burden

Those cinematic offerings were the colonial-era mythmakers and extenders whose white lensed romanticisms have determined the space within which Africa is defined and knowable. It is also within this space that the complexities and pluralities of African representation have been lost in simplification and concealment.

Surely these films must have affixed the Afro in the unmistaken and riotous Afro-futurism of Black Panther. But its the futurism aspect that makes Black Panther stand head and shoulders above the rest. Showcasing an iteration of Africa that is more imaginatively radical than merely culturally palatable for audiences who are used to being spoon-fed  better yet, force-fed  microwavable doses of an Africa that is melancholic, benighted and savage, to satisfy their visually myopic cravings.

Unlike its predecessors, Black Panthers Afro-futuristic elements challenge stereotypes by readjusting the barometer of African imagination. Where Africa and black-Africanness is equated with discourses of futurism, cybernetics, sci-fi fantasy and mysticism.

New African century

This is a far cry from previous film interpretations of Africa, and especially of Africas future  or lack thereof. It has too often been represented as provisional and ephemeral  or arbitrated by the technocratic and philanthropic efforts of white do-gooders. Instead, Black Panther provides a prophetic reimagining of Africa with its postmodern gravity-defying vehicles and supersonic technology that far exceed human comprehension.

This has important implications for how we see Africa, through films which have long anchored it in a forever-more state that is seemingly unenlightened, backward-leaning and perceived as a prolongation of the past.

So, too, the film speaks volumes about how young and old black African selves can infiltrate otherworldly spheres. Its Afro-futurism allows black folk to apply self-iterations and augment alternate realities that transcend the limitations of the here and now towards the what ifs and could bes, through their own melanin-infused, ethno-cultural lens.

Equally, with its vestiges of the past and nods to the future, Black Panther presents a certain contemporary ordinariness within Africa that is discernible in all its parts. Where streets of African cities, for example, are littered with mother-tongue speaking, iPhone-clutching youth, dressed in dashiki-patterned bomber jackets, skinny jeans and with basket-woven braided hairstyles.

Moreover, the portrayal of Wakanda as resource-rich, unsoiled by European colonialism and the paraphernalia of international development, challenges cinematic presumptions of an Africa that is deficient, agentless and lacking internal diplomacies for sovereignty.

Africa upgraded

This is further reinforced by the central staging and representation of steely-eyed, intelligent African women  as Beyonce avows in her feminist-imbued record Upgrade U , if the men are the block the women are the lights that the keep streets on. We see this in the female Wakandans, the unyielding pillars of the film, who demystify allusions and illusions of Africa  through its female proxies  as infantilised, subordinate and devoid of individual articulation of unique intent.Andrew Gunn, University of Leeds and Helen Carasso, University of Oxford

The long awaited review of funding across the whole of English higher and further education has been announced by Theresa May  signalling changes to undergraduate fees and loans (again).

shutterstock England has one of the most expensive systems of university tuition in the world.

The review fulfils a commitment made in the 2017 Conservative manifeso and can be seen as a move by the prime minister to assert her authority over education policy now her new team is in place following the recent reshuffle

The government is frustrated nearly all university courses now cost 9,250 a year and wants to encourage some sort of variation in fees. Interviewed in the Sunday Times , the new education secretary, Damian Hinds, said the fees for a degree course should reflect:

A combination of three things: the cost (to the university) to put it on, the benefit to the student and the benefit to our country and our economy.

This approach would produce variable fees , with arts and social science courses being cheaper. Australia already has fee bands  with law, medicine, accounting and economics subjects in the highest fee band, and nursing and humanities among the lowest. National priority subjects  such as mathematics and sciences  have been charged at an ever lower, subsidised rate.

While there may be some logic to varying fees for different subjects, a model along these lines would create endless disputes. Similarly, a model based on graduate earnings would only serve to reinforce the idea that the only benefits of a degree (to the graduate and to the country) are economic.

Why do we need a review?

The review is unlikely to develop new funding models, rather it will help the government choose which they think is best. There are various ways of funding undergraduate education  and many have already been tried or proposed.

Under the current system , students can take out loans to cover their fees and living costs. Repayments of 9% of their salary start when they earn 21,000 (rising to 25,000 from April).

Advocates of this model, such Lord David Willets , argue that a graduate only pays for their education when they are benefiting from higher earnings  so fees should not put anyone off going to university. But some groups, such as mature students , are discouraged from applying by the current price tag.

Before this system, a means-tested fee model operated in England between 1998 and 2005. This meant a students fee level was based on their parents income. The fees were capped at 1,000 but there were no student loans available for fees. At the time, although a third of students paid nothing, this was perceived as the abolition of free education . But university fees werent actually new . From 1962, students from wealthier families paid fees as part of the then new students grants system

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has endorsed the option to replace fees with a graduate tax. Advocates of this idea argue it would reduce the amount younger people pay, double the amount of money currently raised for the treasury and end inter-generational unfairness

The current Labour policy is to abolish undergraduate fees completely. But this option has already been ruled out by the Conservatives.

What about universities?

There are no guarantees universities will be fully compensated for the money lost through a reduction or abolition of fees.

This is because when higher education is funded through general public spending, it typically loses out to compulsory education. This has been true in the UK historically, and is the case in Australia

Universities cannot be sure that all the money raised through a graduate tax will find its way to them either. So university leaders are worried about a return to the previous situation where higher education was not as well funded at it is today.

Reforming the system

Perhaps the problem then isnt the current system, but how it has been implemented. But it could easily be modified  a simple move would be to reduce the headline fee. London Economics looked into the reduction of fees to 6,000 and found it would cost the government 1.169 billion  assuming universities received the same funding after the cut.

But the previous education secretary, Justine Greening, has cautioned against cutting fees , arguing it could harm social mobility.

The current system would also be viewed more favourably if the interest charged on the loans was reduced  something recommended by the Treasury Committee of MPs . The system would also receive a boost in popularity if maintenance grants were reintroduced  this would prevent poorer students graduating with the largest debts.

The vocational option

The strong emphasis on technical and vocational education in the prime ministers speech may also lead to more employer sponsored routes. This could be based on the Apprenticeship Levy , and might help reduce the funding gap universities fear. And it has been argued that because employers benefit from the knowledge and skills graduates bring, they should contribute to the cost of their studies.Identity theft criminals targeted two Trenton residents recently.

A woman came to the Trenton Police Department Feb. 12 and reported fraudulent charges on her credit card.

According to a police report, the woman received a letter from MasterCard showing that someone had fraudulently used her Sams Club MasterCard in New York.

The report said the culprit charged more than $1,224.

Most of the money was charged at a Shell gas station in New York.

The woman told police she had not been to New York and no one was given permission to use her card.

That card has since been canceled and a fraud alert has been placed on her account.

The charges began Jan. 26 and ended on Feb. 3.

In another case, a woman came to the department Feb. 14 and told officers someone filed for unemployment in her name.

According to that police report, the woman received a notice in the mail on Feb. 9 informing her that her application was processed for unemployment and verification of her identity was needed.

The woman told police she did not file for unemployment and does not know who would do that in her name.

According to the report, the application was filed under the womans maiden name.

The woman notified her place of employment and she was given information on how to safeguard her personal information moving forward.Cllr. James Verdier, Chairman of LACC

President George Manneh Weah said in his widely-monitored inaugural address on January 22, 2018 Those who do not refrain from enriching themselves at the expense of the people  the law will take its course. I say today that you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Instead of leading a robust crusade against CORRUPTION in Liberia, LACC has become a hub of financial improprieties and dishonesty. What institution then can Liberians depend on to combat corruption? No wonder why this public nemesis (corruption) remains deeply entrenched at almost every stratum of public service. Those who we have entrusted with the anti-corruption batons have abandoned them and become even more CORRUPT!

Browsing through dossier of internally leaked emails from commissioner J. Augustine Toe of Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission pertinent to financial improprieties levied against LACC chairman James Verdier, I was overly provoked as a youth activist whose ultimate interest has always been to promote public accountability, transparency, integrity and openness. Is LACC celebrating corruption or bathing in corruption?

These leaked e-mail exchanges between Executive Chairman James Verdier and Vice Chairman J. Augustine Toe recently published by FrontPage Africa are not only damaging and deleterious, but they have brought the integrity and impeccability of Liberias premier anti-corruption watchdog (LACC) into question. The grave allegation made by Cllr. Toe against his boss demands a full-scale and an independent investigation through forensic audit. We call on President Weah and the Legislature to act now!

According to Part V Section 5.1 of 2008 LACC Act, Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission was established with the broad mandate to implement appropriate measures and undertake programs geared toward investigating, prosecuting and preventing acts of corruption, including educating the public about ills of corruption and the benefits of its eradication.

The mandate of LACC as enshrined in its 24-page Act is being grossly undermined by ruinous accusations of corruption and financial indiscipline that have bedeviled the highest office of this anti-graft and autonomous commission. The trust of the public has significantly dwindled in the Verdiers Commission to aggressively undress CORRUPTION in public service.

As it stands, the Verdiers Commission has no integrity and moral uprightness to question any institution or individual for corruption especially when its Executive Chairman is being hooked for financial improprieties. Who then can Cllr. James Verdier question when his character is being mutilated by another high-ranking commissioner, Cllr. J. Augustine Toe who is the Vice Chairman of the LACC. This is why President Weah and our National Legislature must act to redeem the image of the LACC.

Beyond Cllr. Toes allegation which has a speck of authenticity and reliability as a result of leaked e-mails, there have been a lot of allegations against Cllr. James Verdier since 2017. Even some staffers of LACC have accused Cllr. Verdier of CORRUPTION, wasteful spending, and financial malpractices. The continuous smell of CORRUPTION from Verdiers office has stained the untarnished record of Liberias leading anti-corruption whistleblower.

Is LACC under Verdiers watch an anti-corruption whistle-blower or a pro-corruption watchdog? Is Chairman James Verdier an anti-corruption crusader or a corruption Kingkong? Only a full-scale and forensic financial investigation will unstitch the real answer to these critical questions.

Furthermore, it has been brought to the attention of the public that staffers at LACC who do not play to the tone of Verdiers music are usually intimidated and dismissed without any genuine reason(s). Daniel Tipayson (former Executive Director of LACC), Aaron Aboah (former Program Manager for enforcement) and Blamo Kofa (former chief of investigation, MoFDP) are all victims of Verdiers claws. We hope justice prevails in their case!

I am one of those who believe that Cllr. James Verdier needs to recuse himself or resign as chairman of LACC and face investigation for allegations against him. If he refuses to willingly resign or recuse himself, President Weah and the Legislature must act to rescue LACC from ruining. Anything less than, the future of this anti-graft watchdog is doomed. The need to restructure LACC under this pro-poor government cannot be overemphasized.

Having thoroughly investigated and gathered reliable information from inside sources, these are scrupulous counts which further justify our call for Verdier to recuse himself or resign in order to face investigation with immediate effect:

1. The amount of US$20,000 out of US$30,000 recently given as operational fund by GoL to LACC cannot be accounted for. Out of balance US$10,000, Verdier gave each commissioner 25 gallons of gas while the remaining amount went to the Comptroller, Chief Accountant, Internal Auditor and Executive Director respectively. The action of Verdier necessitated the exchange of e-mails between him and the Vice Chairman, Cllr. J. Augustine Toe.

2. Chairman James Verdier diverted US$12,000 from LACCs funding under the pretext of elevating the fence at his residence based on the outcome of a so-called EPS security assessment done at his home and a Boards resolution.

3. Chairman Verdier is yet to account for US$12,500 that was seized from Representative Adolph Lawrence by the Investigation Unit. Cllr. Verdier requested for this money after it was scanned and photocopied by LACCs Investigation Unit.

4. Cllr. Verdier has intentionally placed the UNDP  STOAP Project under his office which should be controlled by a Project Officer recruited through a transparent vetting process. Unfortunately, this project is now controlled by his Executive Assistant, Atty. Mohammed Fahnbulleh. In fact, Cllr. Verdier unjustifiably terminated the contract of the former Project Officer (Mr. Saa Kanda). Up-to-date, no commissioner or program manager is aware about the actual fund being given by UNDP for this project (UNDP  STOAP). Scratch cards and gasoline from UNDP  STOAP Project are not properly distributed and accounted for.

5. An extra of US$500,000 to support programs designed by the Enforcement Unit of LACC was allotted by former Minister Amara Konnehs leadership. Out of this amount, Cllr. Verdier bought 2 luxurious jeeps costing US$140,000. Cllr. Verdier also expended US$60,000 to purchase ICT equipment which cannot even be seen. When Cllr. Verdier was queried by the Investigation Unit through an inter-office memo about the balance US$300,000, he verbally said that said amount was returned to the Ministry of Finance even though there is no financial document(s) to prove his claim.

6. Chairman Verdier has been widely accused of demanding money from government officials accused of corruption. He allegedly demanded US$80,000 from former Port Manager, Madam Matilda Parker.

7. Cllr. Verdier habitually withdraws cases of corruption from Ministry of Justice and issues clearances to the accused in exchange of personal gains. Cases he has withdrawn for personal gains are: The missing civil servant checks involving Comptroller James Boker, LMA case, Duncan case, and the Deputy Foreign Minister Elias Shoniyons case.

8. Cllr. Verdier usually receives US$2,000 on a monthly basis for Intelligence gathering. However, not a dime has ever been received by the Intelligence Unit of LACC.

9. Since Verdiers ascendancy in 2013, a single case has not been won by LACC at the lower court which doesnt even bother him.

10. Chairman Verdier has been deducting money from remittances intended for staff whose income taxes were overly charged. Of the second payment of US$75,000 from the government, he personally deducted US$30,000 under the pretext of buying generator for the Commission. It was later realized that the generator was purchased from the regular LACC budgetary allotment. From the third payment of US$77,000 as staff remittance, he deducted US$26,500. Out of this amount, he shared US$11,500 among his commissioners while benefiting from US$18,000.

11. Cllr. Verdier is in the habit of arbitrarily suspending and dismissing staff with salary deductions made. He has also targeted staffers who have challenged his leadership and deducted money from staff for lateness. There is no evidence to show that these amounts deducted from staff were deposited into governments revenue as required by law.

12. The recruitment process under Verdiers leadership has not been transparent and has lacked integrity. He usually interferes with this process by overruling the decision of the vetting committee and imposing his preferred candidate(s). Training programs intended to build the capacity of the staff are often attended by Cllr. Verdier who usually travels Business Class, and not Economy Class.

13. Cllr. Verdier through Commissioner Charles Gibson and his then Executive Assistant Mohammed Fahnbulleh has been compelling staffers to shoulder the cost of celebrating chairman Verdiers birthday in the following categories: Driver and other support staff (US$10), Sectorial Head (US$50), Manager (US$100), and Commissioner (US$300).

These counts and many others against Verdier must be investigated now before it is too late. Rebranding LACC and giving it a new look of integrity would guarantee public trust and confidence. As it stands, LACC is gradually drowning and needs life-support.

This is why it would be legally prudent and expediently rational to not only investigate the Verdiers commission but to holistically restructure and overhaul the Liberia Anti-Corruption Corruption (LACC) in order for this leading anti-graft institution to meet up with its mandate and public expectation.

: Martin K. N. Kollie is a youth activist, a columnist and student of the University of Liberia studying Economics. He can be reached via martinkerkula1989@yahoo.com

What is your take? Please post your comments below:

Paul Wolfowitz

Former World Bank President

Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, former President of the World Bank, might be grunting if he thought that his hard work would help President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to succeed in Liberia, making this success the first success story of the World Bank. Mr. Wolfowitz visited Liberia on several missions when the country was without electricity; he helped in encouraging creditors to cancel Liberias US $4.5 billion debt; won over reluctant financial donors towards Liberia, and he provided promotional praises for President Sirleaf. But, instead of a success story, Mr. Wolfowitz might learn that many Liberians think that the World Bank is not a philanthropic institution created to fight poverty.

Yes, the claim to reduce poverty might have been propaganda, but surely, the architects knew that the World Bank, along with its sister International Institutions, could use the movement of money to weaken countries as well as poor people. Since its inception in 1943, many people have begun to reject the false story of the Bank. For instance, three different speakers, speaking in the month of December 2017, added their voices to many others who have exposed the Bank as the source of Africas problems. On December 11, 2017, Dr. Thomas Jaye, the Director of Policy Support and Consultancy Services at the Kofi Annan International Peace Training Center, speaking at the Commencement Convocation at Liberias College of the University of Liberia, stated that the World Bank and Others are barriers to development in Africa. They use the arrangement of money to impose inimical policies on African countries, he added.



In less than three days, the World Bank, again, came under fire from the most powerful Ghanaian, President Nana Akufo-AddoAdo. Addressing the 98th Commencement Exercises of the University of Liberia in Monrovia on December 13, 2017, President Akufo-Addo stated that the economic theory of the World Bank coerced Africans to produce and export raw materials. Africans must transform the structure of African economies to better serve the needs of the African people, he stated.

On December 15, 2017, the exposure of the World Bank continued at the Governance Commission Seminar organized to provide the current monetary position of the country and the way forward to the leaders of the two political parties preparing for the 2017 Liberian Presidential runoff. Mr. J. Yanqui Zaza, serving as the lead panelist, wondered if the World Bank knew or care not to know when its client (i.e., Liberia) and big business (i.e., de facto parent) signed 62 fraudulent concessionary agreements during the administration of President Sirleaf, one of the darling Presidents of big business?

Mr. Zaza asked if it were possible for a profit-making entity to become a true arbiter; especially so if it is responsible to judge issues between its poor client (i.e., Liberia) and its rich creditor (i.e., Bridgestone or Mittal Steel)? For example, how could the Bank be honest since its profit is made from money borrowed from big businesses and lent to Liberia? Could the Bank not be involved in bad business practices since it owns behemoth/powerful non-governmental agencies? The former chief executive of the Liberian National Oil Company, Mr. Robert Sirleaf, son of the former Liberian President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, stated that he was not the person who wrote the Liberian new petroleum law. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmGJQo419Y) It was the World Banks consultant that wrote the new Petroleum Law. They are not there to operate in Liberias interest; they are going to operate in their business interest. That is what they were hired to do...

Mr. Zaza did not end his inquiry of the World Bank. For instance, he asked how come the World Bank sees no corruption on Wall Street or why it advises poor countries to pay excessive salary to a few privileged government officials, a source of corruption, but at the same time calls on bureaucrats to downsize poor employees?

More so, the World Bank has developed a new borrowing scheme that encourages poor countries to increase their debts, an arrangement that generates huge profit for the Bank at the expense of society. This borrowing scheme is the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), which privilege is similar to credit card privilege or a bank overdraft privilege. However, unlike a credit card or bank overdraft, where the beneficiary does not increase his/her assets, the Guidelines of the World Bank permit a borrowing country to overstate its assets by including SDRs.

This method is used to determine a countrys Net International Exchange Reserves Position, which usually misleads stakeholders into believing that a country has a positive cash balance, hence, it could afford to borrow more money. Mr. George Will, a columnist for the Newsweek, explains the philosophy behind this arrangement of money. In his book called The Leveling Wind. He said since an activist government will reduce wealth for profiteers, therefore, businesses would use the movement of money to weaken government from becoming an impartial arbiter.



Subsequent to Mr. Zazas presentation, Mr. Emmanuel Feuderthal and Alloycious David, in a December 17 2017 article, identified the World Bank as a greedy investor, according to Reuters. The authors stated that New Liberty Gold has the backing of the World Banks International Finance Corporation, which since 2014 invested $19 million and became a key shareholder. New Liberty also invested $3.9 million in Kinjor, the Liberian gold mining company in Kinjor, Cape Mount County. Kinjor, the mining Company, is not only polluting the environment, but it is displacing residents.

In fact, the President of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim in 2015, has acknowledged that the World Bank has displaced more than three million people between 2004 and 2013 in 124 countries, according to data published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. And in March 2016 an accident at New Liberty Gold mine released cyanide and arsenic, byproducts of the mining process, into a nearby river that serves villages downstream. In Jikando, where people use its water to fish, bathe and wash clothes, they began to see dead fish floating. Soon, they started developing skin rashes themselves, they added.

What is your take? Please post your comments below:

President George Manneh Weah

President George Manneh Weah meant his words when he promised to implement a vigorous pro-poor Change for Hope agenda in providing equitable distribution of power and wealth to all Liberians and projecting the country on a middle-income pedestal as many of its counterparts in Africa and around the world. He couldn't have proposed anything contrary when his government reflects in its truest sense the capturing of power by a wretched masses of people from their long-time oppressors, hence possessing a popular character.



The president has not even gone anywhere far into constructing his popular government to begin effective implementation of his vision for change when his critics, out of mad frustration over their not having the political power to keep the people in backwardness, have started to bombard he and his government with lies and deceits. They have started to take the inherited burdens of the past regime to question the ongoing pro-poor governance construction gear toward facilitating a parallel in the economic management of the state.



Whatever issue they can find to be questionable, whether its questioning is senseless for one or several reasons, they would still criticize. Everything they do now is to unwarrantably question the pro-poor government which is still under construction and hasn't completed 20 percent.



Unfortunately for these critics, the president understood their plans long beforehand. He knew that there will be distractors who would expect him to perform miracles, especially to turn water into wine.

But Liberia isn't the rebirth of Biblical Cana and president George Weah is not Jesus Christ attending its famous wedding feast. He will not fill water jars with water and order their distribution to everyone only for each jar of water to taste as the best of wine ever.



The truth is that President Weah promised to give the best wine to every Liberian through his pro-poor agenda. But this cannot happen in an instant. That's why he admonished everyone in his inaugural address to "learn the virtue of patience, and learn to lower our expectations, for I do not promise you quick fixes or miracles.



The feast of the people's victory is not an event but a process. And the president hit this cord well when he said his greatest contribution to Liberia will be in the "quality of the decisions that I will make over the next six years to advance the lives of poor Liberians."



Clearly, president Weah didn't promise to distribute miracle wine to every Liberia immediately he takes office as critics want things to proceed in their evil utopian mindset. He promised that his government will make steady progress toward delivering on the hopes which every Liberian cherishes.



At present, the national storehouses are short of sufficient wine for everyone to merrymake accordingly as he or she desires. The government- the winepress-needs a thorough reconstruction to facilitate the needed economic productivity or wine production to meet national demands.



The president is undertaking the reconstruction of great winepress and planting of large vineyards of a variety of wine-producing fruits. When both are completed, everyone will harvest the fruits and take them to the winepress for winemaking. After harvesting and production, the distribution will follow suit and everyone will be served equitably not for a day but for as long as this government exists. Even posterity will have much in store, to begin with.



Until his government is well constructed and a vibrant economy is created, things will not be at the best. However, the signs of progress of great merrymaking at the soonest possible time are glaring. The president is living up to his commitment to do more than his fair share of this process. And Liberians, including critics, have a part to play as he said: mine is an expectation that, fellow citizens will, rise up and take responsibility for your destiny.



Socioeconomic merrymaking is underway. However, all the stages leading to its fulfillment must be exhausted and this will require every patriotic Liberian working together alongside the president to make it possible.

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The President of the Republic of Liberia, George Manneh Weah, on Wednesday, February 14, 2018, formed a nine-member committee and Mandated it to review and ensure that all contracts entered into by the Government of Liberia and Concessionaires are executed according to agreed principles in accordance with the Laws of Liberia. (Liberias Executive Mansion Website). Atty. Archie Bernard (Legal Advisor to the President) is the Chairman of the committee, while Cllr. T. Negbalee Warner Co-chairs the committee. Other members of the committee include Mr. Charles Bright (Liberias economic advisor), Cllr. Necular Y. Edwards, Cllr. Bendu E. Clark, Ms. Juah Nancy Cassell, Cllr. Jallah Barbu, Cllr. Teplah Reeves, and Cllr. David A. B. Jallah.



The Executive Mansions release also stated that the President not only Further mandated the committee to ascertain and ensure that all contracts meet the legal requirements of the laws of Liberia and are fully implemented, the Liberian leader also instructed the committee to ensure that during its investigation, the Concessionaires and the Republic of Liberia are in good standing with all current performance under the Terms and Conditions of the concession, management, and other agreements/contracts signed. The release also added that President Weah then mandated the committee to recommend where there are issues.



It is a commonplace fact that the regime of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf enacted into laws concession agreements that are not only in violation of Liberian laws and further inequality but also at the disadvantage of the majority poor mass of Liberians. Consequently, the state has failed to adequately mobilize capital to improve or develop other aspects of social development in the West African republic. Amidst this sad reality, concessionaires earned tens of millions from the illegal concession agreements, while education, health, infrastructure and etc. in Liberia remained deplorable under the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf-led government. According to the British based newspaper, the Guardian (May 8, 2013 Edition), In 2013, the London-based accounting firm Moore Stephens, after an audit, concluded that out of US$ 8billion worth of sixty-eight (68) concessions granted in the agriculture, forestry, mining and oil sectors, only two were in accordance with Liberian laws while sixty-six (66) were flawed.



In 2012, surging news about corruption and fraud in Liberias US$ 100million timber sector led the Liberian government under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to suspend large logging operations in the country for a short period of time. Furthermore, the Guardian also carried a news story in its May 8, 2013 edition, that in 2012, A deal with ExxonMobil and its partner Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited over an oil field known as Block 13 did not conform to the dictates of Liberian law, which requires 10% in royalties for the republic. The deal only generated 5% in royalties for Liberia. So, it has been the fervent hope of not only this writer, but also many Liberians who are the victims of these bad agreements that mortgaged the countrys mineral and natural resources to predominantly multinational foreign monopoly capital, to have a government, driven by national consciousness, which will overhauls these agreements and ensure they reflect the socio-economic interest of the republic.



This writer is even on record for writing an opened letter to the then President-elect George Manneh Weah before his (President Weah) induction on January 22, 2018. In the opened communication to the President, this writer, as part of four recommendations to the President, included the full scale review of all concession agreements which should not only overturn all the deliberate frauds in those agreements but also ensure that the government has not less than 30percent shares in all corporations that operate in the countrys mining, agriculture, forestry, and oil sectors. Such approach will curb the overreliance of the government on taxes, royalties, grants, loans and goodwill as sources of revenue.



It will also lead to the working class to have a decent living wage as it is one of the fundamental responsibility of any government to ensure that the working class is not subjected to wage slavery. Furthermore, it will then provide to the government a more sustainable and huge source of revenue, as the government will now have shares in the surplus profits of those foreign national corporations that are making millions out of the countrys mineral and natural resources but are doing nothing to reinvest their dividends in the secondary sector (Industrial) of the countrys economy.



The net effect of such approach will increase the revenue envelope of the government; ensure that it has a reliable source of foreign currency earnings, and some of such funds will be invested in capital expenditure geared at diversifying the economy and providing jobs for the vast majority of the citizens who are unemployed. Some of the funds generated from the governments shares in those multinational corporations can also be directed at massive public investment in education, health, and other social utilities.



So, President George M. Weahs decision to form a committee with the mandate to review all contracts between the Liberian government and concessionaires is welcoming but with a strong reservation. There is a fundamental flaw in the Presidents mandate that says:  contracts entered into by the Government of Liberia and Concessionaires are executed according to agreed principles in accordance with the Laws of Liberia. According to Liberias National Investment Commission, laws that spelled out ways in which our mineral and natural resources can be given to multinational corporations are found in the Acts that established the National Bureau of Concession, the Public Procurement & Concessions Commission (PPCC), and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

If the contracts are reviewed according to agreed principles in accordance with the above Laws of Liberia which this writer thinks are tools for empowering the ruling class at the expense of the Liberian working class, poor slum dwellers and the peasant masses, the structural imbalances that are impeding Liberians from being direct beneficiaries of the countrys productive forces will not be tackled in the interest of Liberians.



For example, Part VI, Article 73.1 of the Liberia Public Procurement and Concession Act of 2010 defines Concession as: The grant of an interest in a public asset by the Government or its agency to a private sector entity for a specified period during which the asset may be operated, managed, utilized or improved by the private sector entity which pays fees or royalties under the condition that the Government retains its overall interest in the asset and that the asset will revert to the Government or agency at a determined time.



Liberians are poor. According to an IMFs 2016 Report, Liberians are the fourth poorest people in the world. Therefore, they do not have the capital to express interest in public assets (especially mineral and natural resources) owned by the Government. Therefore, this clause in the Liberias Public Procurement and Concession Act of 2010 is bait for foreign monopoly capital from industrialized countries to have undue access to Liberias mineral and natural resources which are explored and exploited in exchange for paltry sum in royalties and taxes, at most times, taxes are negated under veil of investment incentives.



Although Article 74.1(a) of the Public Procurement and Concession Act asserts that one of the objectives of concession is to increase the revenue of government, a cursorily look at development statistics on Liberia says such strategy has not met the anticipated result and have decimated the Liberian people on a grand scale. With over 16billion worth of Foreign Direct Investment in Liberia, significant portion of which comes from concessions in the mineral and natural resource sectors, the government of Liberia has not mobilized sufficient revenue from such venture, which could in turn be used to roll out social programs in health, education, infrastructure, security and etc. for its impoverished people.



While these concessions subject the working class to wage slavery, expose host communities to an environmental hazard, they, however, export to developed countries their millions in surplus profits. According to a LEITIs Report, from a dollar earned from the exportation of Iron ore, US$ 0.80 is exported through shareholders dividends and expatriates salaries, US$ 0.07 is given to the government in taxes and US$ 0.13 is given as Liberian workers wages. In this setup, the Liberian government then remains a victim of consistent budget deficit and shortfall because of its gross limitation of revenue sources. According to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, over the past three years, the average budget deficit has been 6.0percent of the countrys average Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2015 and 2016, the government of Liberia experienced 47million and 70million shortfall in its budget respectively.



To finance the deficit, the Liberian government goes with a begging bowl to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international for loans that come with harsh terms and conditions; thus, the republic becomes a heavily indebted poor country (HIPC). Liberia reached the HIPC conclusion in 2010 but now has a public debt record of 44.8percent of GDP according to the Heritage 2018 Economic Index. To tackle the shortfall and service her debt, the Bretton Woods intuitions will command the Liberian government to slice funds for social programs such as education, health, infrastructure and etc. And others wonder why the people of Liberia have been subjected to extreme agony and misery throughout their existence, despite the country being blessed with enormous mineral and natural resources.



The truth of the matter is the laws of Liberia including the PPCC Act of 2009, NBC Act and LEITI Act of 2009 that grant the rights of ownership of the countrys mineral and natural resources are tools of the possessing class which have been used against the non-possessing class in Liberia. And until these tools (Laws) can be revisited to reflect the economic interest of the suffering people of Liberia, the development of underdevelopment will persist in the West African Republic.



This is why this writer disagrees with the President regarding his assertion that the current concession agreements be reviewed within the present limitations of Liberian laws. The laws that spelled out ways in which our mineral and natural resources are given out to multinational corporations are not only flawed but anti-people from beginning to end. These laws, like in the case of any capitalist society, have positioned the state to be a weapon of the ruling class in the class struggle that exists between the bourgeoisie (the possessors of wealth) and the working class (the creators of wealth), poor slum dwellers as well as the poor peasant masses who languish in despair in the rural areas. Instead of these laws being crafted to serve as suppressing tools for the majority poor against the minority rich, it is the reverse.

Therefore, this writer is calling for not only the revision of concession agreements but also the altering of laws that grant ownership rights of Liberias mineral and natural resources to foreign monopoly capital in exchange for an insignificant sum in royalties and taxes. The law must now reflect how the state, with the popular involvement of the people especially the working class, can manage its mineral and natural resources to enable it to mobilize sufficient capital through exploration and exploitation in order to tackle wage slavery and seek the overall welfare of the mass of Liberians. That is, at the expense of their countrys resources, education, healthcare, infrastructure, security and etc. can be improved to reflect a favorable social existence of the Liberian people.



Moses Uneh Yahmia is a student of the University of Liberia. He studies Political Science major and Economics Minor. He can be reached via moseswyalc@gmail.com/+233209326013.

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Liberia should be spearheading the inclusion of women in governance and politics. Liberia gave birth to two Nobel Peace Laureates, activists Leymah Gbowee and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The election of Liberias first female Vice President came immediately at the end of the African continents first female presidents tenure.

However according to the Institute for Security Studies, in Liberia, less than 10% of people participating in politics are women.

Before the end of her presidency, President Johnson Sirleaf, courageously signed the original Domestic Violence Bill (DVB) which included a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) after it had been killed by the male-dominated Senate in the 52nd and 53rd legislatures, illustrating the extent and limits of power of the female executive.

This Executive Order although courageous amid the cultural pushback from some proponents of rural tradition, was still a bitter-sweet pill for some female activists as it is to only last for a year.

With currently only two female senators, Madam Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence of Grand Bassa and Madam Geraldine Doe-Sheriff of Montserrado, out of the 30 that represent Liberias 15 counties, the Domestic Violence Bill (DVB) may see the same fate it found in both the 52nd and 53rdlegislature ---- unless the power of the female executive wills itself through Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, known for her strong vocal advocacy for women.

As Senator, Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor pushed for both the DV Bill and Gender Parity to be passed into law and has sworn to adamantly protect the rights of the women of Liberia. Yet should the women of Liberia once again be made to depend on a single iron woman to secure the many rights protected and granted by these bills? This a better Liberia does not make.

The Domestic Violence Bill (DVB) illustrates the need for more female inclusion in government and politics at every level in Liberia.

Weahs administration has so far appointed one woman to his cabinet Hon. Williametta Piso Saydee Tarr, as the Minister of Gender and Social Protection, a position also held by a woman in Sirleafs government, whilst maintaining heavyweights such as Mary Broh Director General of GSA and Florence Brandy as superintendent of Montserrado. This hopefully is the beginning of a pattern, as several deputy and assistant positions have also been filled by women.

This election cycle of the 1,026 approved candidates, only 163 were women. The Bong County and Montserrado County Senate seats left open by the President and Vice President provide an opportunity for another two female senators to join the chorus of women on Capitol Hill, a win which more than likely will depend on support from either of them.

However, Liberians must also look further than elections and government appointments to remedy Liberias lack of female decision makers. The lack of female political inclusion is a just a symptom of Liberias many other issues: In Liberia, 32.8% of females compared to 62.4% males are literate, and 48% of Liberian girls fall pregnant before the age 18. No matter what other initiatives and policies are put forth there can be no equality in politics as these kinds of disparities continue to exist.

The new administration can and must engage civil society groups who understand the issues affecting Liberian women, who can help develop policies and solutions to issues while maintaining a dialogue with the communities they serve. Pro-poor politics should mostly embrace women issues because they are at the core of poverty.

The numerous new female grassroots groups that came to existence during the electoral campaign, older organizations such as the Women in Peacebuilding Network, or the pro-female advocacy group New Narratives which held a roundtable dialogue on gender inequality in politics and government in Liberia just last week, are looking to be engaged and apart of Liberias political discourse and decision making.

Issues of gender must be combated at the local level, at the grassroots level, in a community where empowerment tackles the root causes of female poverty because as Liberia has seen, just having one powerful female in the executive office is simply not enough.



Aisha M. Dukule is Liberian writer and communications professional. Aisha was the National Presidential Campaign Communications Coordinator for Mr. Alexander B. Cummings, and the Communications Manager at the Center for Liberias Future which conducts research on at-risk populations in the Mano River Union. Ms. Dukule can be reached at aishadukule@yahoo.com.

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President George Manneh Weah

Amongst the many recommendations forwarded to our President, Mr. George Manneh Weah, I have yet to see any proposal as to how best Liberia can generate the necessary revenue to finance the needed programs. Currently, Liberias reliance on users tax (i.e., such as import tax, which constitutes 50% of government revenue) is inadequate to fund the current budgetary allotment, not to mention additional programs.



However, an appropriate alternative for generating adequate revenue would require a World Banks approval since the World Bank (WB), Liberias economic adviser and creditor, generates a significant portion of its revenue from money lent to countries to replace LOST REVENUE. For example, the WBs June 30, 2015, Audited Financial Statements show that the WB earned $1.1 trillion interest income from loans, but paid $392 million interest expense to borrow the same amount lent to financially cash-strapped countries. Predictably, cognizant of the profit motives of the WB, Botswana abandoned the WBs policy and began to share in the management of its natural resources. Subsequently, revenue from diamond contributes about 50% to the countrys national budget. This is because Botswana adds values to its diamonds before export, reduces royalty fees and management fees paid to foreign parents, and demands a market price for its exports, not the low prices dictated by foreign parents.



The million dollar question is will President Weah follow Botswanas path or accept the lopsided theory propagated by the WB and profiteers that government bureaucrats are more corrupt than chief executives, therefore, government should limit its activities and should allow profiteers to own and, or manage the resources and profits will trickle down to the masses. Undoubtedly, public records indicate that chief executives on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley are corrupt, and are responsible for the financial crisis such as the 2008 Wall Street Financial Meltdown. Additionally, International Transparency and, or the African Union Committee, headed by the former President of South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, relying on investigative Reports, stated that multinational corporations do not only initiate bribes offering but are responsible for ninety-five percent (95%) of the $60 billion that is siphoned out of Africa every year.

Let us review the records of June 30, 2015, Audited Financial Statements of the World Bank (WB), founded in 1934 to reduce poverty and ignorance, and determine whether it can accept and promote the pro-people's Policy of President George Manneh Weah.

Big business (de facto owner) owns $293,304,000,000 of WBs total assets of $343,225,000,000.



The legal owners, 180 countries, own $38,637,000,000 as Total Equity; WB paid $150,000 per year for each of the 6000 special employees, according to Reem Heakai of (Inestopedia.com).



Interest Income- $1,170,000,000. Interest Expense: $392,000,000 in 2015. Interest Income: $1,179,000,000, Interest Expense- $387,000,000 in 2014. Interest Income-$1,427,000,000, Interest Expense-$615,000,000 2013.



WB owns and, or manages Non-governmental Agencies (NGOs). And half of WBs lending projects had provisions for NGOs, according to the Director of Global Policy Forum, Mr. James A. Paul.

In addition to the figures of the audited Financial Statements, does the WB encourage countries to build gigantic projects (i.e., Hotel Africa in Liberia, Akosombo Dam in Ghana, Aswan in Egypt, etc.,) in order to lend loan?



Does the WB encourage poor countries to pay excessive allowances to advisers, thereby, creating the need to borrow money to replace the LOST REVENUE? In the case of Liberia, the payment of excessive allowances did not only create the need to borrow money, but it encouraged others officials to argument their salary. In fact, Liberian Lawmakers demanded and began to receive excessive compensations, an additional LOSS OF REVENUE.



Does the WB encourage Central Banks of poor countries to use Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) (i.e., a privilege to borrow) to increase the Banks assets in order to persuade stakeholders that the Bank is financially strong to borrow money? In the case of Liberia, the Central Bank of Liberia did not only used SRSs but also included long-term accounts receivable as cash equivalents assets.

Does the WB, deceptively, encourage poor countries to become members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in order to discourage poor countries from amending concessionary agreements. This is because the arbitration within the WTO is at most times where arbiters give a final judgment on issues, including concessionary agreements. In the case of Liberia, can President Weah convince members of the WTO that its local judges within Liberian Courts should remain the final arbiters?



Did the WB play any role in the design, discussion, and conclusion of the 62 fraudulent concessionary agreements that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf government negotiated and signed? The London-based Certified Public Accounting Firm reported that 62 of the 68 concessionary agreements were fraudulent.



Does the WB discourage poor countries from becoming self-sufficient in food production in order to rely on importation, which must be subsidized by governments revenue, thereby increasing the need to borrow money to replace the LOST REVENUE?



Does the WB support the idea that non-governmental agencies are less corrupt than government officials, primarily because the WB owns and manages NGOs?

Does the WB encourage local profit-making investors to own and, or manage lucrative assets such as Real Estate, Gold, Diamond, Timber, etc. in order to compel the country to use money borrowed to replace the LOST REVENUE that would have been generated if government bureaucrats had manage these lucrative assets?



The WB and its sisterly institutions are like any profit-making entity, which focuses on making profits rather than focusing on the plight of the poor. In fact, to increase profits, lending institutions or credit card companies will lure borrowers to undertake risky loans; including borrowing more money than the borrowers can afford to pay. This is because bankrupt borrowers or defunct institutions usually end up paying the higher cost of borrowing than borrowers that are solvent.



Jyanqui@aol.com

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President Donald Trump

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu

The following is a satirical would-be conversation between Prime Minister Netanyahu (Bibi) and President Trump (Donald) during Netanyahus upcoming visit to the White House on March 5th.

[White House, exterior. BIBI exits his motorcade, waving to the few dignitaries that were invited for the occasion.]

BIBI: (to himself) Will this be my last visit to the White House? (a pause) Oh well, I have weathered many storms before, I will still outfox everybody else, God willing.

[DONALD comes to the entrance to greet BIBI]

DONALD: Hello my friend, how are you?

BIBI: I feel great! (embraces DONALD)

DONALD: And howve you been, my friend?

BIBI: Well, considering everything thats going on, I am sure you know how I feel.

DONALD: We have plenty to talk about.

[As they approach the Oval Office, DONALD dismisses his aids, along with VP Pence. DONALD and BIBI enter the office and close the door.]

DONALD: So tell me, whats really going on with you. We are buddies, after all.

BIBI: What can I tell you, things will be better if only some of these schmucks leave me alone.

DONALD: I know exactly what you mean, Bibi. I have been saying that all along about many of these morons who are out to get me.

BIBI: I dont understand why. I have served my country all my life, and look how they are treating me!

DONALD: Me too. I worked all my life building my business, provided so many jobs I even opened a university to provide a quality education to those who wanted to learn firsthand how to make money. So, I made a fortune, you know, you cut corners here and thereand when I was short on money, I declared bankruptcy a couple of times. Whats the big deal? You know its legal, believe me.

BIBI: I wish I could say the same. In my country, if you are the prime minister, you can starve to death on this meager salary we get. I could never afford a decent cigar on my salary.

DONALD: I can afford anything. Call it greed, but I dont want to stop making more and more money, especially now that I am president. My sons know how to take advantage of my position, and hey, why not? With money you can buy anything, if you know what I mean.

BIBI: Yes, I do know, but with my wife Sara around, forget it. She will kill me.

DONALD: I tell you Bibi, just between us, with some of these chicks around its worth dying for.

BIBI: I never said this to anyone before, but you are my friend Donald, and I trust you. Looking at my wife every morning, I would do anything to lay my hand on one of those babes like the ones you had affairs with. My problem is, Im always surrounded by my security detail; I cant even look at a pretty face. Boy, I envy you.

DONALD: You are not alone, my dear friend, everybody envies me. But I do anything I want, and even now they cant catch up with me.

BIBI: So, what do you think is going to happen?

DONALD: About what? You mean this Russian crap? Yeah, I worry once in a while. But you know, if you keep denying and go on the offensive and keep blaming the press for spreading fake news, some people start to believe you.

BIBI: I have been doing the same, but they are still after me. What can we do?

DONALD: You see Bibi, I am in a different category. I keep lying, and I keep tweeting, and this way I occupy the mediaI mean this fake media. You know, its really not all that fake. But this way you keep them busy 24/7, keep them talking about what I just said, and then I say something different, and so on. I am always in the news. Good or bad, it doesnt really matter as long as theyre talking about me. I really enjoy that.

BIBI: But my understanding is that the special counselor is closing in on you. Arent you worried?

DONALD: Yeah, but you know, as long as I keep my base happy and make sure that the House and the Senate continue to support me, I really dont lose much sleep over it. I still have my cheeseburger while I watch my favorite program on Fox News. They are doing an excellent job to counter this witch hunt.

BIBI: You said it, it is a witch hunt! I have been saying that for months and months now, but I am afraid that I may be in some real trouble.

DONALD: Trust me, my problems are much more serious than yours. If this, whats his name, Mueller, manages to link my political campaign to Russia and prove that there was collusionwhich there was, you knowthat will really be a serious problem. But somehow, I will manage to come out clean, youll see.

BIBI: In my case, you see, once I am indicted, there is no way I can come out of this clean. Between us, I took bribes, I swam in the most expensive champagne; and Cuban cigars! Forget it. You should try it sometime, especially with one of those blonde chicks.

DONALD: Youre right, together its unbelievable.

BIBI: I hope you dont mind me asking you, whats going on between you and Putin? How come you never criticize him?

DONALD: Well, it was one of those crazy things. When I sponsored the beauty pageant in Moscow, I ended up in my suite with five, you know, really gorgeous girls, and one thing led to another I dont have to tell you the rest. Anyway, Putin has the whole damn thing on video; what he can do with that, I cant even imagine.

BIBI: Thats really something.

DONALD: You said it. So what choice do I have?

BIBI: I understand you. By the way, how is Melania taking all thats going on?

DONALD: Oh well, shes used to it. Sometimes she goes crazy, especially when all these beauties reveal my shenanigans. Well, thats me, what can I say. She barely talks with me about anythingactually, we barely have any real relations. You know, we sleep in different bedrooms, actually. I prefer that. This way I dont have to explain anything to her. Tell me, whats going on with your wife Sara?

BIBI: Like I said, she is a pain in the neck, she wants to know everything. To tell you the truth, I hate having to consult her, but in the end, I always do exactly what she says. Shes gotten me into so much trouble; with everything she has, she still wants more.

DONALD: Oh no, I couldnt take that. Youve got to do something about it.

BIBI: Are you kidding?! I am trapped, period.

DONALD: I really feel sorry for you.

BIBI: Not as much as I feel sorry for myself. I cant believe it. After all these years, I find myself in a such shit hole.

DONALD: Well, it can be worse.

BIBI: How can it get any worse?

DONALD: Look, you are the Prime Minister, you can still pull some strings. You need to do whatever it takes. You can cheat, bribe, lie, intimidate, threatenlook, I do all of that and then some. And look at me, Im still here and Im already planning for my run in 2020, believe me.

BIBI: I wish I had the same confidence as you do.

DONALD: Well you know, I am a master manipulator. People laughed when I said I am a genius and very stable, how else would I have been able to get away with everything Ive done?

BIBI: Well, well see. I just hope that this will not be our last meeting as president and prime minster. I cant tell you how much I and my country appreciate your incredible supportespecially your recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

DONALD: No problem. You know, I dont care about the Muslims, and if I could help it, I wouldnt want to do anything with them, except sell them condominiums and take tons of their money. When I decided to recognize Jerusalem, I said to myself, well, this is one way I can stick it to them. After all, I am the most powerful man on earth, everybody says that, right? And between you and me, I really hate those blacks and Hispanics too. Theyre invading like locusts, and before you know it, theyll rule the whole country.

BIBI: Look Donald, I am with you on that. We have a similar problem with the Palestinians and Ethiopians. But theres this thing about Iran. Before we get sacked, maybe we should do something about Iran.

DONALD: Iran is a bad, really bad case, terrible, believe me.

BIBI: Youre telling me? I think you should walk away from the deal and impose new sanctions and let us show them; otherwise, they will never stop threatening us and exporting terror and destabilizing the whole region. We need to put a stop to this.

DONALD: I agree, we have problems with our so-called allies. They dont want me to get rid of the accord; theyre afraid that this could further destabilize the Middle East and may even instigate the proliferation of nuclear weapons, whatever that means.

BIBI: Of course, thats what they keep saying, but you and I know this is a bad deal, and we cannot allow the Iranians to end up with nuclear weapons. Certainly not under my watch.

DONALD: Well I am going to withdraw from the deal, and probably neither you nor I will be around to deal with the consequences. Frankly, we may not be able to get out from under these ridiculous accusationsespecially because they are all truebut we can at least leave behind something that everyone will remember. You know, sometimes you have to create chaos to get what you want.

BIBI: I always knew I could count on you. You are a real mensch, my friend.

DONALD: Time for dinner! You know, it just occurred to me that once we are both out of office, whenever that happens, you should come and visit me at Mar-a-Largo. Leave Sara at home, and Ill do the same.

BIBI: I am with you, my friend. Oh, by the way, I brought with me a couple of those bottles of champagne, and a box of Cuban cigars that I got as gifts. This is my gift to you. Silly, they call that a bribe, but I am sharing it with the President of the United States! Come on, lets have some fun while it lasts.

About the Author: Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

alon@alonben-meir.com Web: www.alonben-meir.com

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It should come as no surprise that Oklahoma oil man, Harold Hamm, is set to be national finance campaign chair for Republican Kevin Cramers bid for the US Senate. After all, thanks to Republican-led tax cuts for out-of-state corporations over the past several ND legislative sessions, and oil tax cuts in the waning days of the 2015 session, Hamm, through his company Continental Resources, has extracted enough money from North Dakota taxpayers to finance Cramers campaign on his own.

Hamm has never shied away from the limelight here in North Dakota, frequently sharing the stage and seeking the spotlight with political celebrities. A few years back he even wrote an open letter to North Dakotans, explaining how fortunate we were to have companies like Continental Resources active in our business-friendly (as in low taxes and few regulations) state. Maybe theres something to that saying going around Oklahoma has the best legislature money can buyright here in North Dakota!

Meanwhile, back in Hamms home state of Oklahoma, things arent going so well. Oklahoma is in a budget crisis. A February 9th, 2018 NPR news story reports, Around 20% of Oklahoma schools now hold classes just four days a week. Last year Highway Patrol officers were given a mileage limit because the state couldnt afford to put gas in their tanks. Medicaid provider rates have been cut to the point that rural nursing homes and hospitals are closing, and the prisons are so full that the director of corrections says they are on the brink of a crisis. Apparently the oil money North Dakota is losing out on isnt doing much good in Oklahoma either. So where is all the money? In the pockets of the billionaires who seek more of it and the power that goes with that wealth. And of course theyll spend as much as they think is necessary to put into office those who they think can best serve their personal interests.

So what is it North Dakotans? Who runs our state? Who calls the shots? Who elects the politicians that represent us at the state and national levels? Whose government do you believe in? The government that billionaires bankroll, or Abraham Lincolns government of the people, by the people and for the people? You know the answer. Have the courage to act on that knowledge.

Merrill Piepkorn

State Senator

Fargo, District 44

(Submitted via the ND Newspaper Association)Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 86F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.592 public comments so far for DOE ahead of South Dakota's social studies hearing

The majority of comments are in opposition to the proposed standards, in which the DOE removed more than a dozen references to the Oceti Sakowin.Posted Tuesday, February 20, 2018 6:38 am

Earlier this month the U.S. Forest Service announced its long awaited decision to approve a request for a prospective mining permit near Mount St. Helens. The decision came after years of roiling debate on the proposal, so naturally a pyroclastic flow of disapproval followed in the aftermath of the explosive decision.

Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was one of the first to offer her dissenting opinion to the USFS decision to allow a Canadian company, Ascott Resources, to conduct exploratory drilling for gold, copper and other minerals next to the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Despite Forest Service assertions to the contrary, Cantwell believes the permit paves the way for the establishment of a working mine within an ecologically sensitive section of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Opening the door to drilling at the edge of Mount St. Helens is a short-sighted decision that undervalues the important benefits these public spaces offer both to our booming recreation economy and to families who come from near and far to enjoy their beauty, said Cantwell in a press release. This mountain should be managed for current and future generations to enjoy, and I hope the Trump administration will cease their efforts to jeopardize that by allowing it to be explored for drilling."

This was not her first time speaking out against the plan to mine near Mount St. Helens. In 2016, Senator Cantwell sent a letter to U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell that expressed her opposition to the plan. In that letter, Cantwell wrote, Given the incompatibility of this project with the primary purposes for which the lands were acquired and the broader negative LWCF implications, I respectfully request that you refrain from providing consent for prospecting permits for the Goat Mountain Project.

Soon after, a coalition of more than 20 conservation groups released a press release detailing their ongoing opposition to the approval of the drilling permits. Their deep well of concerns included negative impacts to fish and recreation and degraded water quality in the Green River system.

Tens of thousands of people have expressed opposition to this proposal due to its impacts on recreation, clean water and native fish in and around one of our most treasured National Monuments. Yet the agencies continue to advance this dangerous proposal, said Matt Little, executive director of the Cascade Forest Conservancy, in a press release. Allowing mining activities in a pristine river valley alongside an active volcano is simply ludicrous. We will do all we can to stop it.

The drilling permits, which were requested by the Bureau of Land Management on behalf of Ascot Resources, will allow the company to drill 63 holes from 21 drill pads in order to evaluate available deposits. The permits allow operations on 900 acres of public lands in the Green River Valley, including the reconstruction of 1.69 miles of decommissioned roads. Cascade Forest Conservancy claims that the activity will lead to mining operations around the clock through summer months, including the pumping of up to 5,000 gallons of ground water per day.

Mount St. Helens is no place for a mine, said Tom Uniack, executive director for Washington Wild, in the release. The greater economic and social value of this incredible area lies with the equestrian, mountain biking and other world-class recreational opportunities accessible to local residents and visitors alike.

Other groups note that lands impacted by the mining operations were acquired through the Land and Water Conservation Act Fund in order to promote recreation and conservation. They contend that the presence of mining operations will compromise the ability for the public to appreciate those areas. Previously, a federal judge invalidated Ascots drilling permits after the Cascade Forest Conservancy, then known as the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, filed a lawsuit. An update to the Environmental Assessment of the project in 2017 paved the way for the new permits to be approved.

This project would severely impact recreation opportunities due to noise, dust, exhaust fumes, lights, vehicle traffic, the presence of drill equipment, and project area closures, said Tom Buchele, Managing Attorney of the Earthrise Law Center, in the release. I cannot fathom how the Forest Service could legally conclude that drilling would not interfere with recreation without violating the LWFCA.

The proximity of the Green River to the Goat Mountain drilling site is another common concern. That river, which is designated as Natural Scenic River as well as a Wild Steelhead Gene Bank, flows through the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and into the North Fork Toutle River before emptying into the Cowlitz River. The Green River and North Fork Toutle have both been established as wild steelhead gene banks by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in order to help the recovery of native steelhead stocks.

This prospecting is a threat to wild steelhead in the Green River and the rest of the Toutle and Cowlitz River system, said Steve Jones, director of Clark-Skamania Flyfishers, in the release. Washington fisheries managers made the upper Green River a Wild Steelhead Gene Bank in 2014 because this habitat offered the best hope for sustaining wild fish in that system. This river drainage needs to be conserved, not exploited.

Additionally, the Cowlitz River provides drinking water to thousands of downstream residents, including serving as the primary source of drinking water for residents of Kelso. The city of Kelso recently passed a resolution against the mine due to concerns about leaching mine effluent and the possibility of failing toxic tailing ponds due to mineral mining operations in an active volcanic zone.

With outstanding recreation, as a wild steelhead sanctuary, and as a source of clean drinking water for downstream communities, the Green River, a candidate Wild and Scenic River is the last place for a mine, said David Moryc, director for Wild and Scenic Rivers for American Rivers, in the release. The Forest Service should not be green-lighting mining on our public lands that were purchased explicitly for conservation and recreation purposes,Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 27C. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Rain showers early becoming a steady light rain overnight. Low 19C. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.Mohammed Haris Nalapada Youth Congress leader and son of a Congress MLA from Bengalurus posh Shanthinagar assembly segmentwent out to dine with his friends at a high-end eatery in UB City. (For the uninitiated, UB city is Bangalores pride and joy. It has luxury stores below, luxury residences and offices on top, and in the middle, a strip of restaurants that are uber tony. We show it off to out-of-towners with the pathetically eager pride of tier-3 town yokels showing off their brand new McDonalds or Cafe Coffee Day.)

The staff was a trifle tardy with his order. Meanwhile, at another table, a gent named Vidvat seemed to be getting better service. This Vidvat, also had the temerity to stick one foot out into the aisle, at an angle that was offensive to Mohammad Haris Nalapad. So, Haris told him to sit properly. The other stated that he couldnthis foot was hurt, he was recovering from a fracture. This infuriated Haris so much that he and his friends attacked Vidvat with glass bottles, cracking them open on his head, face and shoulders, breaking his nose and rendering him unconscious.

To me, the incident seemed eerily reminiscent of the Jessica Lal shootingwhich happened in a similarly tony setting of Delhis Qutub Colonnade in 1999where a young female bartender refused to serve a drink to the son of a Congress minister as the bar was closed. He tried to bribe her, and then, he pulled out a gun. A woman standing behind him giggled to her friend that it was fake (Margaret Atwoods words are relevant here: Men fear that women will laugh at them, women fear that men will kill them) and, so, he shot the bartender in the head.

It had the same combination of entitlement, hubris and toxic machismo; the same insecurity-fuelled fury at being shown-up or insulted in a high-society setting. It was the behaviour of one who thinks he is above the law, and the fact that it happened in full view of CCTV cameras and, at a time when state elections are around the cornerwhen everybody should be on their best behaviour lest they hand the opposition party an election issue on a platterit goes to show how totally drunk on power and entitlement this Mohammad Haris Nalapad was.

Nalapad has been suspended from his party for six years and has surrendered to the police. Hopefully, he will not wriggle out when the scandal dies down, but serve his time.

But, what of the larger picture? Because, unfortunately, this is a culture that has gone pan-Indian. There is an unspoken understanding amongst us that only people like Haris are suited to the hurly burly of politics. We, at some level, expect such thugs, we accept them, we even admire them. See how aggressive they are, we say, see how scared the police and the babus are of them. You dont want to cross a guy like that, we say with pursed lips, thats the sort of guy you want on your team, he will keep you safe!

Illustration: Bhaskaran

We have taught our children that if you get into a car accident, you must come out yelling and cursing and blaming the other person, otherwise you will be taken advantage of. We have internalised that a strong person is one who brutally crushes all opposition, all difference of thought, or opinion, who denies everything and admits nothing. Because, if we come across as weak or conciliatory, women will laugh at us, people will lose all respect for us and we will be eaten alive.

And so, the country with Gandhis face on its increasingly luridly coloured currency has imbibed the lesson that only obnoxious, bossy, and violent people who aggressively thrust their boot into other peoples faces are strong people. Everybody else is weak.

Chauhan is an author and advertising professional.Recently the India Art Fair, which was launched in 2008 by Neha Kirpal, concluded its 10th edition.

Last year, the MCH Group, the Swiss fairs, and behemoth events, invested in the India Art Fair. While such a fair provides a much-needed aesthetic acupuncture to a city like Delhi, it also helps instigate and inspire the lives of culturally conscious minds while creating a healthy business. So, the move by MCH is a smart one. The India Art Fair had the aesthetic imprints of the new director Jagdip Jagpal and her team, including artist UBIK and VIP relations director Noel Kaddar. The expertise of MCH, also the owner of the preeminent Art Basel (Basel, Miami and Hong Kong) in fair production, was conspicuous at the NSIC grounds, the location of the annual event. This year, I saw many new faces from the art world, new collectors, young curators and writers. Of course, one would not miss the BMW art car by celebrated artist Jeff Koons.

Jagdip Jagpals arrival on the scene has brought in a breath of fresh air. The London-born Indian-origin director, now living in Delhi, has had to quickly absorb the nuances of the Indian art scene. Jagpal, who has great faith in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, provided space for the same at the art fair. Anita Dube, Jitish Kallat, Riyas Komu and myself were invited to an opening-day panel discussion moderated by curator Michelle Lun from the Asia Society, New York. The Asia Society awarded the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) its prestigious Game Changer Award, which was accepted by Riyas Komu and me on behalf of the foundation. It was a proud moment of recognition for us, our entire team and trustees, as well as our sponsors and patrons, and, the people of Kochi who supported the dream of a biennale in India.

As at most art events, we had to come to terms with the fact that we cannot see everything in a week. There were too many parallel exhibitions, talks and tours. Some of my personal highlights of the week included seeing Pooja Soods Khoj International studios that has an exhibition of small-scale artworks by young artists, Shalini Passi's great collection of art works and Tarana Sawhney hosting on behalf of the Tate museum.

The energetic Feroze and Mohit Gujrals Gujral Foundation organised a brilliantly curated exhibition at their project space, 124 Jor Bagh, an old building that has been transformed for special exhibitions. This year, the space was dedicated to photography. A trustee of the KBF, and design legend V. Sunil hosted a Motherland magazine party at his Dhan Mills office, and Manish Arora held a mini-retrospective of his greatest pieces from the catwalks in an adjoining ex-warehouse building. Dhan Mills Compound is quickly turning into a must-visit place in the capital.

Another highlight was Riyas Komus Holy Shiver at Vadehra Gallery. In my knowledge, Komu is one of the finest artistic minds in India and his works are an acerbic look at contemporary social issues, much needed in the fractured political climes that we live in. His works confront you with questions on religion, Constitution, nationalism and concerns of the minority. Artist friend Anju Dodiya created visceral drawings, paintings and sculptural paintings on textiles collected from Germany and India. Her creations are on show at the Bikaner House. The exhibition is Dodiya at her best, and it lingers in my thoughts.

Young at art: A snapshot from the India Art Fair | Sanjay Ahlawat

Another must-see event was 50 years of Vivan Sundarams work in a poignant retrospective, curated by Roobina Karode at the Kiran Nadar Museum. Kiran Nadarpatron, collector and an astounding mind that leads with tremendous visionand her better half, Shiv Nadar, are a great asset to the country. We need more of such patronage of arts and a strong private and public partnership to build the necessary arts infrastructure, especially in our nations capital.

The India Art Fair is a good reason to think on those lines. When such events are held, one must also think of making them more accessible to the common man and not confine it to a cocoon within the city.

editor@theweek.inIf anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...The rationale used by the court to confirm these artworks were of merit was crucial. To be considered such, works of art dont need to be mentioned in academic publications or be considered masterpieces, as the expert for the property owner had argued.

It was enough, the judge said, for the 5Pointz artists to show their professional achievements in terms of residences, teaching positions, fellowships, public and private commissions as well as media coverage and social media presence.

Judge Block also carefully examined Wolkoffs behaviour. The artworkseven those that could be easily removed as they had been placed on plywood panelswere whitewashed prior to demolition without giving artists the 90-day notice required by VARA. And the owner did so, the judge stressed, while conscious of the fact the artists were pursuing a VARA-based legal action. Such behaviour, the judge concluded, was not acceptable.

Such blatant disregard for an important legal provision pushed the judge to award the artists the maximum amount of damages allowable under the law. And although he did not grant the injunction requested by the artists in 2013, the judge had warned Wolkoff that he would be exposed to potentially high damages if the artworks were finally considered of recognised stature, as they were by the February 12 ruling.

The court also took into account that 5Pointz had become an attraction for visitors to New York, with busloads of tourists, schoolchildren and even weddings heading to the site. Also thanks to Meres Ones savvy stewardship for more than a decade, not only was the complex painted regularly by talented graffiti artists from all over the world, 5Pointz also attracted movie producers, advertising companies and bands, and was used as a location for the climax for the 2013 film Now You See Me.

The judge did not attach much importance to the fact that several artworks at 5Pointz were not meant to be permanent, an argument that had also been relied on by Wolkoff to claim that the pieces could not be protected. But the court reminded him that VARA protects both permanent and temporary art. This is an important provision of the law, especially when all that makes a work transient is the site owners expressed intention to remove it.

Art v property

This ruling may well embolden other graffiti artists to sue property owners who destroy artworks without following the correct procedure, even beyond the US. It may also make owners of buildings whose walls host graffiti more careful. Most important, the huge amount of damages awarded in this case will convince many that ignoring legal provisions and disregarding legitimate graffiti art is not a good idea. Judge Block made clear he awarded the maximum penalty allowable to deter other building owners from behaving in the same disrespectful way as Wolkoff.

Finally, the decision clearly marks the evolution of graffiti and street art, long considered to be temporary or transient artforms. It is now clear that artistic movements such as these aim to become more permanent forms of art, and that they have achieved a status similar to the one traditionally held by works of fine art.

So the gap between street art and fine art is narrowing. As 5Pointz curator Meres One put it: This case will probably change the way art is perceived for generations to come.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Many consumers have raised concerns over automatic deduction of money from payment cards by international merchants, as per a survey conducted by social engagement platform LocalCircles.

About 94 per cent of the 9,690 people surveyed have asked for mandatory SMS or email OTP-based approval before any transaction on all credit and debit cards issued in India, it said.

The use of credit and debit cards with international merchants has fast become common as more and more Indian consumers purchase mobile apps, games and computer software.

Consumers in India frequently buy subscriptions at Playstore and Apple store, or software subscriptions like MS Office or Adobe Photoshop trial offers, it said.

"What many consumers have reported struggling with are the automatic charges that keep hitting them every month without any pre-charge notification or approval.

"In many cases, what has been reported is that an amount is charged on their credit card, followed by a SMS/email from the bank stating the amount that has been charged," it said in a release.

Most consumers have asked for a request for approval through SMS or email OTP before they are charged by the merchants.

These consumers have also sought the two-factor authentication process like that with India-based merchants for international merchants as well, it said.

LocalCircles said if the information of an Indian bank-issued credit card is compromised, it can be used on international websites easily; thus making OTP mandatory for all transactions could minimise the risk greatly.

The platform said it is going to petition the government for corrective action.UAE-based Lulu Group will construct an international convention centre, hotel and shopping mall in this coastal city of Andhra Pradesh with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

The integrated project coming up at RK Beach is expected to create employment for 10,000 people.

The foundation stone for the project was laid by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu during the inaugural session of CII Partnership Summit on Saturday.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, central ministers Suresh Prabhu, Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Lulu Group chairman M. A. Yusuff Ali were present.

Yusuff Ali said the project will be completed in three years. He said the project will provide 5,000 direct jobs and many indirect jobs.

While he did not reveal the investment figure in his speech, according to a statement from the Chief Minister's office, the project will come up at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore. The statement also said the project will provide employment to 10,000 people.

Yusuff Ali said the facility would bring international conventions and tourists to the Visakhapatnam.

Chandrababu Naidu said this would be prestigious project for the coastal city. He urged Lulu Group to complete the project in 30 months.

He hoped that the convention centre would be ready next year to host next Partnership Summit.

Calling on Lulu Group to ensure that the Vizag project is better than their mall in Kochi, he said he visited the Lulu mall in Kochi recently and pointed out that it has daily footfall of 80,000.Diamond baron Nirav Modi's Surat connection is not known much in the public domain, except for the fact that his company has a manufacturing unit in the SEZ in Sachin, about 14 kilometers away from Surat.

In fact, there are several diamond traders in the southern Gujarat city, who got to know about Modi's Surat connection after the scam broke out. The ED has had undertaken search operations in Nirav Modi's manufacturing unit in Sachin.

According to Dinesh Navadia, former president of Surat Diamond Association (SDA), Modi had limited contacts with Surat. The scam, he said, has come as a jolt for Surat.

Modi's may not be the only case of fraud or defaulting, other scams could be on a lower scale. Navadia said that in 2013-14, when a diamond firm had defaulted in about Rs 5 crore, he had filed a RTI asking on what basis the loan was given. Through the RBI, I got a reply that they did not have the details, said Navadia.

A leading diamond merchant from Surat, Kirti Shah, said that now with this scam, the banks would become cautious in giving loans to those in diamond business. Shah said that about three to four years ago, he faced lot of difficulty in getting a loan of about Rs 3.5 crore as the banks said that they would not lend to the diamond industry. I was told that the diamond industry has been put in red zone, he said.

A former president of SDA, Pravin Nanavati, said that there can be no diamond businessman who does not have contact with Surat. According to him, out of the 6,000 small, medium and large diamond cutting and polishing units in the city, Modi would probably had trade relations with at least 200 to 250.

However, none would speak up, said Nanavati. He had known Modi and his uncle Choksi, personally. According to Nanavati, both Modi and Choksi appeared to be proudy and did not have a practical approach. They would behave in the manner they would want to, observed Nanavati.

Like Modi, Choksi too had some manufacturing units in Surat, said Nanavati. According to Nanavati, they started winding up the units after issues related to payments of consignments of polished diamonds taken from the market arose.

Kirti Shah warns that financial fraud is not the only thing that is a cause of concern for the diamond industry. While it directly affects the industry when the players seek loans from the banks, the fact is that what is the guarantee that natural and synthetic diamonds were not mixed, he pointed out.

Sources in Surat's diamond industry said that as compared to synthetic diamonds, the price of real diamonds is about three times more.

There is also a question mark over the type of diamonds (real or synthetic) recovered by the investigating agencies, sources said, adding that it also needs to be ascertained whether people have been sold real or synthetic diamonds.

Both Shah and Nanavati advocate the need for strict norms for certification of diamonds.Ride hailing firm Uber today said it will continue to invest in India as it looks to grow business in the "incredibly important and core market" by up to 10 times in a decade.

On his maiden trip to India, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi indicated that he would not go by the advice of investors like SoftBank, who want the US-based firm to scale back to countries where it already has a strong market position.

Refusing to disclose how much Uber has invested in India, he said, "it is a lot and that investment is going to continue."

For Uber, India is a loss-making proposition but it will continue to invest in the market because it believes in it, he said at a media round table at the start of his two-day visit during which he is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders.

Asked if SoftBank, which is also an investor in rival and India's market leader Ola, has asked Uber to focus on the profitable market, Khosrowshahi said the company's strategies are decided by the board.

"While SoftBank may have an opinion, their's is not the only opinion in the room," he said. "And it is my belief that we as a company need to have a balanced profile in terms of growth and investment."

Developed markets like the US will continue to get investments and will be profitable but Uber should "actively" invest in markets like India and Latin America because of their sheer size, he said. These markets have "huge growth ahead" for Uber, he said.

Uber has some 3 lakh driver partners in 29 cities in India, he said. "We think we can increase by 5x, 10x over the next 10 years. That will require investment," he said. "In India at this point my firm belief is that the greatest value that we can create is to continue to invest and grow our product."

SoftBank Vision Fund, which recently became Uber's largest shareholder with the formal closing of a $9.3 billion investment giving it 15 per cent stake, has reportedly stated that Uber should focus on recovering its market share in the US and growing in key European markets, to have a faster path to profitability.

While India remains Uber's largest market outside of the US, it is also the biggest cost for the company.

Asked if Uber was subsidising rides in the country to capture the market, Khosrowshahi said, "anytime you are creating a market, you actually have to pay to build up liquidity."

For instance, Uber Pool, the ride-sharing platform where two more passengers share a car to travel to same or different destinations, is a losing proposition but the company believes in the product as it will help solve traffic as well as road congestion problems, he said.

"We are investing in Indian market because we believe in the long-term viability of this market... we consider it incredibly important market for us, the core market for us," he said.

The Indian market, Khosrowshahi said, is demanding in terms of pricing and if Uber was to succeed here, it can shape products globally. "India can essentially be a laboratory for us."

Uber, he said, accounts for less than 1 per cent of miles driven in the world, and is an alternative to taxis.

"What we really want is to be alternate to car ownership," he said adding problems of traffic and pollution that India faces can be solved with its pioneering share rides. He said operations in India are not profitable but India accounts for more than 10 per cent of Uber's trips globally.

"I expect (India) to account for higher and higher trips going forward," he said. Uber accounts for less than 1 per cent of the $5 trillion transportation industry globally and capturing higher share "requires investments in big markets with population, that have lot of growth ahead of them."

Uber CEO pledged to continue investing aggressively in Southeast Asia. "We expect to lose money in Southeast Asia and expect to invest aggressively in terms of marketing, subsidies etc," Khosrowshahi said. "From a competitive standpoint we think we can improve...We are cautiously optimistic and are leaning forward to invest," he said.

Khosrowshahi, who took the helm in August after former CEO Travis Kalanick was asked to step down amid a litany of regulatory problems, driver and consumer scandals and court cases, said a new work ethics code has been implemented in the company that has just one norm  "we do the right thing. Period."An invitation to President Ram Nath Kovind for the 65th annual convocation ceremony of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has ruffled some feathers among the student union in the institution, which has warned against the attendance of any member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the event.

The student union secretary, Mohammad Fahad, has written to the AMU administration regarding the issue with inviting the president, and warned that "no sanghi (RSS member) politician would be allowed to enter the university premises and the students would stage a protest" if this happens.

"We are not opposing the president; we oppose the sanghi mindset. Our president had given a statement about Muslims and Christians in 2010, saying 'Muslims and Christians are alien to this nation', Fahad told reporters.

So, I would like to remind him that the statement sill stings the students of Aligarh MU, but we respect him as the president and welcome him, but at the same time, we also warn him that no sanghi person accompanying him would be allowed inside the university premises. Those coming as per protocol can come."

The convocation ceremony will be held on March 7.Describing the situation in the country as 'worse than undeclared emergency', former Union minister and Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari on Friday called for a grand alliance to save the 'founding vision of India.'

At the same time, he also said that Rahul Gandhi was 'uniquely poised' to lead such an effort.

Speaking at the launch of his book, Tidings of Troubled Times, Tewari said the Congress cannot fight alone without the support of right-thinking people.

"The grand alliance is needed not for electoral reasons but to save the founding vision of India," he said.

"We have to win 2019 (Lok Sabha elections) to change the situation. Where we are strong, we have to fight to the last and where we are not strong, put right alliances in place," he said.

"We need to walk the extra mile, and the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi) is uniquely poised to lead this effort," he said.

"This is not an electoral challenge. Rahul Gandhi's politics is not a quest for power. He believes in larger causes and the protection of the fundamental vision of India is one of them," Tewari said.

In the current atmosphere, there is no room for dialogue and no moderation in the discourse, he added.

"The pushback to (Donald) Trump in the US is intense and well-thought of. This is not happening in India. Corporate ownership of media is not a new phenomenon. They have stood up to Emergency. It is not happening now. This is worse than undeclared emergency," the Congress leader said.

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had set up a committee to review the Constitution, Tewari recalled.

"But Vajpayee was leading a coalition government. Now this is a majority government, and it is reflected from the way they treat their allies. This is a majority government with majoritarian ethos, which believes some Constitutional provisions are not to their liking and need to go," he said.Independent judiciary and independent media are the heart and soul of constitutional democracy, and when these two pillars are strong, the citizens feel empowered and their rights secured, said former chief justice R.M. Lodha.

It is the press ''which acts as a bridge between the government and the governed, exposing unethical, immoral and illegal behaviour by government officials, politicians, institutions and private individuals,'' said Justice Lodha at a function where he gave away the International Press Institute-India Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2017 to Ritu Sarin of The Indian Express.

''It has been rightly said that sometimes, journalists must be beyond their watchdog roles and for the sake of public interest or the public right to know, act as attack dogs to fish out from their hideouts, unscrupulous public servants, institutions and private individuals who circumvent morality for their selfish interest,'' said he.

Ritu Sarin was awarded for her outstanding revelations of Indian beneficiaries of offshore companies in the form of the Panama papers and for her long-standing contribution to investigative journalism. The award comprises a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh, a trophy and a citation.

Justice Lodha said that the Panama papers gave the story National and International reach and is claimed to be the biggest global information leak and largest collaborative investigations in journalism history.

Hostility, threats and harassment on food choices, inter-religious marriages, creative art in the form of films and songs, transportation of cows of late have infected out country badly. They tend to crush the spirit of our constitutional freedoms. The growing tendency of criminalising the freedoms and unwarranted invocation of sedition and criminal defamation laws are not only disturbing, but they also destroy democratic credential of India as a nation. In many states, sedition charges are slapped at the drop of a hat despite clear guidelines laid down by the honourable Supreme Court, said Justice Lodha.

Former Attorney General of India , Soli J. Sorabjee, who chaired the jury that selected the awardee, buttressed the point about freedom of press. ''In several decisions of the Supreme Court, freedom of press has been held to be implicit in the guarantee of freedom of speech and expression and has thus acquired the status of a fundamental right by judicial interpretation.''

However, he cautioned that no fundamental right, including freedom of the press, is absolute. ''It can be restricted provided the restriction is not excessive or arbitrary,'' he said. ''The question whether the restriction imposed is unreasonable, excessive or disproportionate has to be determined by an independent judiciary exercising the powers of judicial review,'' he added.

Sorabjee said that the press should incessantly preach the message that no group or body has the monopoly of truth and wisdom and that we must respect the point of view of the ''other minded''. ''The press must unequivocally condemn instances of intolerance without fear of adverse consequences,'' he said.

The IPI instituted the annual award in 2003 to recognise and honour the best work done by an Indian media organisation or journalist working in print, radio, television and internet mediums in furtherance of public interest including safeguarding of freedom of the press and other freedoms.

The Indian chapter of IPI is an active forum of editors, publishers and senior executives of newspapers, magazine and news agencies.

Philip Mathew, Fellow of the International Press Institute and editor of The Week, who welcomed the dignitaries said press freedom was in peril when the IPI was instituted seven decades ago and even today. Governments in various parts of the world continue to display a love for restricting human freedoms and silencing journalists.

Pointing to the rising intolerance of dissent in the country, N. Ravi, chairman of IPI-India, said that religious, caste and linguistic groups taking offence at some perceived slight and resorting to legal action or, worse, to violent protests and attacks is not a new phenomenon. But in recent times this tendency has taken on menacing proportions, with a proliferation of intolerant groups targeting journalists, writers, film makers, actors, artistes and ordinary people who have now been empowered by the Internet to voice their views. Both the scale of such targeting and the intensity of protests and violence have increased, with open and direct threats to lives being made with impunity.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has no moral right to take Basavanna's name as he does not follow his ideals, charged AICC chief Rahul Gandhi, who launched the second leg of the Janaashirvada Yatre (election rally) in Belagavi, the Lingayat heartland, in Karnataka on Saturday.

Hailing the regional icons and quoting the 12th century social reformer and Lingayat icon Basavanna, Gandhi said, Basava ji said Eva nammava Eva nammava meaning we are one and god resides in each one of us. The Congress shares this belief. We are a party which follows the ideals of Basavanna. Basavanna said Nudidanthe nade...(Walk the talk) and our government in Karnataka has delivered all the promises made to the people. The BJP, too, speaks of Basavanna and Modi bows to Basavanna. But he follows none of his ideals.

Modi had promised to credit Rs 15 lakh each into your accounts, provide two crore jobs and vowed not to allow corruption. But he failed on all fronts. We believe in Nudidante nade.. We had promised farmers we will stand by them. When Modi did not heed to our plea to waive off farm loans, Siddaramaiah responded to my request and waived off Rs 8,000 crore. Modi allocated only Rs 55,000 crore for SC/ST development for whole of India. But Siddaramaiah gave Rs 27,000 crore for SC/STs in Karnataka alone. He gave free rice to the poor. Modi has no right to take Basavanna's name, said Rahul.

Rahul Gandhi stated that his last trip (during the first leg of Janashrivada rally in Hyderabad-Karnataka region) was special as he got to meet and learn a lot from the people. Of all my previous visits, my last trip to Karnataka was the best as I got to know the soul of the state and your thoughts. Politicians give speech, but when we tour, we get to learn from people, party workers, farmers... Last time, when I went to Basava ji's parliament, I got a glimpse into the state's legacy. Icons like Gangambike, Akka Mahadevi and Shishunala Shariefa worked to unite people. And in the music world people like Bhimsen Joshi and Mallukarjuna Mansur built harmony, said Gandhi.

Recalling another of Basavanna's vachanas (couplets), Gandhi said there were five principles that Basavanna preached which were being followed by the Congress but was being violated by the BJP.

Basavanna said don't steal, don't harm others, don't lie, don't get angry. But Modi shares dais with a corrupt Yeddyurappa and four former ministers who were in jail over corruption. Modi who quietly imposed demonestisation and GST is silent over Rafele, Jay Shah's business and Nirav Modi's sacm worth Rs 12,000 crore. Modiji, how did Nirav commit such a huge fraud right under your nose? Talk of violence, your record is before the world. In BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and UP, minorities, dalits and tribals are being attacked. Your party spreads enmity. You lied about bringing back black money,

Mocking at Modi's recent attacks on the Congress party, Gandhi said, Wherever you go, you say no development happened before you came to power. Now, it is only you (Modi) who is working hard. Even Gadkari and Sishma ji have become jobless.

Hailing Siddaramaiah government, Gandhi said, Last five years, the Siddaramaiah government has given corruption free governance. He added: If you (people) want to listen to lies or Mann ki Baat go to Modi rally. And if you want to listen to Kaam ki Baat or the truth, come to us. Support a government that promotes brotherhood and love.

Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dubbed Modi as great facilitator of corruption.

Till recently people used to shout Modi, Modi, but now, they scream Nirav Modi, Nirav Modi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a great facilitator of corruption.

I said the same in assembly; the BJP staged a walkout as they can't digest it. Modi should look around; there is Yeddyurappa, Katta Subramanya and Janardhana Reddy. How can you declare a jail bird as the future CM of your party? Are you not ashamed? Then you have Amit Shah, who had been to jail too. Did you not allow Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi to escape? I am proud to say my government is corruption free and we have walked the talk, said Siddaramaiah, adding that the huge turnout of youths to Rahul's rally was a good development.

A large number of youths are turning up to see and listen to Gandhi. It is a sign of a pro-Congress wave. Both Modi and Shah are coming to the state but they don't mention anything about development but make most irresponsible allegations of corruption sans any evidence. I dared them to prove their charges. They have IB, Intelligence and CBI with them. India ranks 86th ranking in corruption since 2015, as per an international report. Centre is a 90 per cent Commission sarkar, alleged Siddaramaiah.

Taking credit for the ongoing Masthakabhisheka, Siddaramaiah said, I wrote to Modi to give funds for the Jain festival. But he did not give a penny. I gave Rs 200 crore. Today, our government is the only one committed to inclusive development, under Rahul's leadership. Sabka Saat Sabka Vikas is a BJP farce. They don't believe in social justice or democracy. If they come to power they will divide the society as they instigate communities against each other.On a day when the expectations in the political circles in Tamil Nadu were high, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Tamil Nadu was nothing beyond business. For the ruling AIADMK, who expected him to hail the present dispensation, the prime minister's was a straight talk, entirely on what the central government has done for the state since 2014.

Modis visit to Tamil Nadu and both the chief minister and the deputy chief minister being part of the Amma Scooter scheme launch event in Chennai, had raised doubts on the politics behind the visit.

Apparently, Modi visits Chennai after a gap of three months. He was in the city in November 2017 to attend a Daily Thanthi newspaper event. Though he had called on ailing DMK leader M. Karunanidhi, the prime minister had flown back to Delhi the same day with out meeting the ruling party leaders.

Months later, this is the first time the prime minister has chosen to stay back in Chennai at the Raj Bhavan. While speculations were rife that a meeting with the ruling party leaders is possible, sources in Raj Bhavan and the AIADMK made it clear that there was no appointment for anyone.

There is not even a courtesy meet. Do you think the prime minister should call us here to know what is happening in Tamil Nadu? asked a senior AIADMK leader who had once expressed displeasure after the merger.

The differences between the EPS and OPS factions after their merger have touched a new high after Panneerselvam opened up on the merger at a party office-bearers meeting at Theni on February 16. With a tone of regret and discomfort, the deputy chief minister had said that it was on the behest of Prime Minister Modi that he had merged his faction with that of Palanisamy.

He (Modi) said that you could join to save the party. the deputy chief minister had said, without specifying exactly when the conversation took place.

Apparently, a courtesy call on the prime minister by both EPS and OPS on Saturday was highly expected in the political circles.

Panneerselvam, in his speech, hailed both Modi and his late leader Jayalalithaa. Palaniswami, while praising Modi, urged him to set up the Cauvery management board. The chief minister is all set to lead a delegation of farmers and all party leaders to Delhi to urge Modi to constitute the Cauvery Management Board within six weeks, as directed by the Supreme Court. The delegation is expected to visit New Delhi next week.

But Modi chose to stay away from all these politics. He neither touched upon the political instability in the state nor spoke on the various schemes rolled out by the Tamil Nadu government. Rather he chose to list out the various central government schemes to Tamil Nadu. He highlighted the programmes rolled out by his government in the last four years for the welfare of women, including the maternity leave scheme which was extended from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. He also touched upon the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana scheme which benefited 31 crore people in the country.

Talking about the Centres interest in the state, Modi said that projects worth Rs 24,000 crore had been implemented in the state. All have begun after the NDA came to power  solar power panels, rural pipelines and national highways. More than Rs 3,700 crore was sanctioned for Chennai Metro Rail, he said.

Modis speech was a disappointment to the AIADMK camp. But hours after the meeting, to everyones surprise, one of the key persons of the cabinet, Minister of Electricity P. Thangamani, reportedly called on the prime minister at Raj Bhavan. Thangamani, is seen close to the EPS camp. While sources said that it was just a courtesy meet, Thangamanis meeting has opened the Pandoras Box in the already confused AIADMK camp.The arrest of five CPI(M) workers in connection with the murder of Youth Congress worker, S.P. Shuhaib, 30, in Kannur, Kerala, has further dented the image of the party in the state.

Kerala has seen a rise in political killings after the Left Democratic Front government came to power in 2016. Nineteen party workersof the BJP, the Indian Union Muslim League, the Social Democratic Party of India and the CPI(M)have been killed in the state since 2016, of which eight were killed in Kannur. From 1969 to 2017, close to 230 people have been killed by political rivals in Kannur, of which, close to hundred were CPI(M) workers.

Though the Congress and the CPI(M) have been at loggerheads in the state, killings have been rare in the recent past though scuffles were quite regular. The only time the Congress encouraged political violence in the state was during Emergency when its men were accused of killing CPI(M) workers. In the recent years, the fight has been mostly between the BJP-RSS and the CPI(M).

Said poet-activist Sugathakumari to THE WEEK, With so many killings happening in my state, I feel ashamed to be a Malayali. Political violence in Kerala has been happening frequently, more so in the last 20 to 25 years. How I wish the leaders were sincere. If only the leaders were sincere, such violence would stop. Leaders want killings to continue as it helps them. They are selfish.

And it is not just the outsiders who are affected by the political violence. At the state conference of the CPI(M) in Thrissur, the Kannur leadership of the party was reviled by delegates during a discussion on the organisational report. Many leaders felt that the murder was badly timed and will benefit the Congress and the BJP at a time when the CPI(M) and the LDF have started preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

At the state conference, general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, Physically attacking political opponents is not the policy of the CPI(M). I assure that there will be strong action if there is any aberration. Under pressure from Yechury's comments, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan conveyed his annoyance to Kannur district party secretary P. Jayarajan. He was asked to suspend all party workers named by the police as accused in the murder case. Jayarajan was himself arrested more than once in connection with the killings of rival party workers.

The Congress leaders have said that they will continue to agitate till the government hands over the case to the CBI. Shuhaibs parents said they were not satisfied with the police investigation. If the government does not agree, the Congress will approach the High Court with a petition to seek a CBI probe into the case.

Said K.T. Jaleel, local self-government minister, to THE WEEK, In my opinion all political killings should stop. Jaleel fought the 2016 assembly elections as an LDF-backed independent. He assured that as a minister he will do everything possible to prevent political killings from happening in the state. I dont belong to the CPI(M). But I am sure I will be able to persuade the CPI(M) members to initiate talks so as to end political violence once and for all in the state, he said.

M.M. Hassan, state president of the Congress, told THE WEEK, The CPI(M) is targeting innocent Muslims in Kerala. If this is how it goes, the CPI(M) will lose the support of minority communities in the state soon. Muslims in Kerala are feeling insecure under the government.

CPI(M) MP M.B. Rajesh said that even his partymen are being killed frequently in the state. We will put an end to it. We need the support of other parties. If any member of the CPI(M) is involved in the killing of the Youth Congress worker, strict action will be taken against them. Our party will never approve of violence, said Rajesh to THE WEEK.

"We will not retaliate," said K.C. Venugopal, Congress MP to THE WEEK. We will follow the Gandhian principle of non-violence. He said he finds it baffling to see the CPI(M) talking passionately about atrocities happening in other parts of the country and then turning a blind eye to the mindless killings in the state. Our workers have been constantly targeted. In Kannur district itself, we have lost 50 workers. But it is mostly the CPI(M)-BJP violence that hogs the limelight.

The CPI(M) members are known to kill anyone who stands against their ideology, said P.K. Kunhalikutty, MP, Muslim League, to THE WEEK. It is a very dangerous situation prevalent in the state, he added.

The post-mortem report of Shuhaib lists 41 hack wounds. Shuhaib, in fact, was a CPI(M) sympathiser till a few years ago. He was the lone breadwinner of his family and has three sisters. The fact that Shuhaib was from a minority community has also come as a setback to the ruling party at a time when it is trying to woo minorities in the state to counter the BJP.

Sumayya, 23, the sister of Shuhaib, has written a letter to the chief minister, seeking his intervention to end political violence in Kannur. She wrote, No one should die like this in future. Let my brother be the last name in the account book of political killings. Let none be killed like this anymore.The picturesque harbour park, with Bay of Bengal forming the backdrop, became the venue for dozens of MoUs and cold vibes between politicos. The three-day CII Partnership Summit 2018 began on Saturday in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh in which 2,500 Indian and foreign delegates were expected to attend.

At the inaugural session, AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu shared the dais with Union Minister for Commerce Suresh Prabhu and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. Amidst growing friction between the NDA allies on the demand for special status to AP, the TDP and BJP leaders' statements showed contrasting approach.

In his keynote address, Suresh Prabhu praised Chandrababu Naidu for making AP the fastest growing state in the country despite serious challenges in its path of progress.

He said that the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Naidu were similar as both wanted to make the country vibrant and foster development.

We stand to support AP, he said.

The central ministers friendly words did not make much difference to the TDP leaders who were in no mood to enjoy the camaraderie.

The chief minister spoke at length about his governments performance and vision. In his 15-minute speech, Naidu made no reference to Modi and refrained from talking about the NDA government.

On the other hand, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu mentioned the CM and PM in one breath and spoke about cooperation between state and the Centre.

Outside the hall, Rajya Sabha MP of TDP, C.M. Ramesh was surrounded by media persons to talk about their differences with the BJP.

He squarely blamed the BJP for ignoring the needs of the state. He said that though they are trying their best to develop the state, they are not getting the required support from the BJP.

They have absolute majority. What will happen even if we resign, said the MP.

On day one, AP government signed 77 MoUs worth Rs 31, 546 crores which can create 98,291 jobs. Among them was an MoU with Google to setup wifi spots to provide internet connectivity to rural areas of the state.

A project to build a convention centre and a shopping mall by Lulu group in Vizag was also launched on this occasion.Voting began for bypolls in a total of three Assembly seats in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, with the elections being seen as a 'semifinal' ahead of Assembly polls in both states. Counting of votes in all three constituencies will be held on February 28.

Madhya Pradesh

Voting for bypolls in the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats began at 8am. The two constituencies fall in the Guna Parliamentary constituency of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. The bypolls were necessitated by the death of Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

An error was reported at an EVM in a booth in Kolaras, which briefly disrupted polling.

The two bypolls are seen as a prestige contest for Jyotiraditya as he positions himself to be the candidate to lead the Congress' campaign in the coming Assembly polls.

His aunt, Yashodara Raje Scindia, a minister with the BJP government in the state, has also been campaigning in the two constituencies and was recently in the news for allegedly threatening voters to stop choosing the Congress.

Odisha

As many as 155 of the 281 voting booths in Bijepur Assembly constituency have been declared as 'critical', with 36 platoons of state police forces and CRPF deployed. The brother of Sushant Singh, state labour minister, and three of his companions were injured when they were shot at by unidentified men on Thursday night in the area.

The BJP deployed Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram to the constituency while Smriti Irani addressed three rallies, highlighting the importance the saffron party is giving to the bypoll.

(With agency inputs)The plenary meeting of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), a global body that monitors money-laundering, that concluded in Paris on February 23 elicited considerable interest, since it was widely expected that Pakistan would be placed on the grey list againafter a gap of three years.

Predictably TV discussions in India ran ahead of the final outcome and presumed that Pakistan had indeed been listed. However, in the end Pakistan escaped, but in a rather complex and convoluted manner. The consensus at the Paris meeting does point to Pakistan being quarantined in its tenacious support to terror groups operating against India and Afghanistan.

The final statement from the FATF meeting in Paris did not refer to Pakistan and its transgressions but reliable sources indicated that this listing would be formally announced in June if Islamabad is unable to persuasively convince the global community of its commitment to the spirit of the FATF and related UN resolutions apropos terror funding.

It may be recalled that Pakistan was placed on the watch-list of the FATF for non-compliance in February 2012 and subsequently taken off three years later in February 2015 after it had made some effort to convey compliance by introducing appropriate regulations to deter funding support to terror groups.

The ambivalence of the US and the western alliance in censuring Pakistan for its duplicity was evident over the years, for Rawalpindi, the HQ of the Pakistan army was able to skillfully exploit the American dependence on its major non-NATO ally, for access to Afghanistan. This anxiety and vulnerability has been milked by the Pakistan military which adopted the sly-supplicant and victim-of-terror card very successfully till the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House in January 2017.

The last year has been turbulent for Pakistan and it has not been business as usual, wherein the earlier run with the hares and hunt with the hounds policy, honed to near perfection by the wily General Pervez Musharraf , has now been rudely reviewed by the Trump team. In summary, the US has signaled that it will no longer accept the elaborate charade that Rawalpindi was engaged in.

The FATF listing is part of this new tough love approach and it is instructive to note that the inclusion of Pakistan was at the behest of the US and UK, supported by Germany and France. Officials who attended the Paris meeting revealed that despite last minute lobbying by Pakistan with its support cluster (China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, GCC nations and Turkey), the final consensus on February 23 was to defer the listing in the current meeting but to do so in June. The caveat is, if there is inadequate compliance by Pakistan by way of imposing effective, transparent, permanent and irreversible policy measures to curb terror funding, the inclusion in the FATF grey list will follow.

The Pakistan foreign office is maintaining a studious silence on the matter but local media in Pakistan is projecting the Paris meeting as a victory and the more jingoistic have dubbed this a defeat for the US and India.

The truth is more grey and some preliminary inferences follow. The US, it is evident, will keep its foot on the FATF pedal to list Pakistan and use this as a leverage, even while highlighting that a window is open if Rawalpindi reforms. This may not happen any time soon, given the current eco-system that has been spawned in Pakistan in support of terror group funding.

The posture adopted by China wherein it has cut loose from its uncritical-unwavering support to all transgressions by Pakistan is instructive. It may be inferred that Beijing does not want to soil its profile in the global financial domain and therefore went along with the US led consensus in tacitly conveying the quarantine signal to Pakistan.

Support to Islamic terror groups has a muddy and opaque past and the global community is aware of this murky pattern. It may be recalled that during the Cold War (1980 onwards), to eject the former USSR from Afghanistan, the US had co-opted the western alliance and was supported actively by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and even Israel. The modern mujahidin with a Kalashnikov in one hand and the Koran in the other was born from that crucible, and later morphed into the al-Qaida and the Islamic state and other variants.

The terror genie born from this cocktail cannot be put back into the bottle swiftly but the various support structures can be weakened. This is where the FATF has a critical role. Pakistan itself and its more discerning citizens are aware of the dire long term implications of continuing down the path the GHQ in Rawalpindi has chosen.

The global community is signaling that the window to FATF compliance is still opentill June. The choice has to be made by the deep state.Pakistan on Friday escaped from being placed on the watch-list of countries that have failed to combat terror financing and counter money laundering, state-run Pakistan Television reported.

According to the report, the development came at the conclusion of a key meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog on money laundering and terrorism financing, in Paris.

Pakistan has not been placed on the so-called Grey List which includes names of the countries that have failed to take necessary action against terror financing or money laundering, the report said.

However, there has been no confirmation from from the FATF, an intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets global standards for fighting illicit finance.

Earlier, several media reports suggested that a decision had been made to place Pakistan on the Grey List, prompting Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal to say that the outcome of the FATF meeting was "awaited".

The reports followed after Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said on Tuesday that Pakistan was given a three-month period to address concerns of the FATF.

Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE-100 index plummeted as much as 615 points by mid-day in intra-day trading after reports of placing the country on the watch list surfaced. It recovered at the end but the panic was visible.

Pakistan was listed as grey in 2012 but was removed in 2015 after strenuous efforts to address the concerns of the group.

The US spearheaded the latest efforts to place Pakistan on the Grey List and was supported by the UK, France and Germany.

According to Pakistani officials, the move was politically motivated and it was through Islamabad's friends like Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia that it was thwarted.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was set up in 1989 with a primary aim to set standards to combat money laundering, but in 2001 its mandate was expanded to include countering terror financing.

It can take action against any country by including a country in black or grey lists.An uncomfortable statement and two painful questionsRaped While Dying, And Still No Arrests?, How Come, Chief Willoughby?written on Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is an innovative form of agitation. Clear, loud and painted in large letters, the statements are powerful enough to unsettle anyone who passes by the road. They are also commanding enough to disconcert a cine-goer unlike a dialogue, or the very act of that particular crime itself.

Directed by Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a compelling story of rebellion, vengeance and forgiveness. It is also an attempt to explore the complexities of grief, loss and redemption, while retaining a bleak sense of humour that is characteristic of McDonagh flicks.

Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) decides to take matters into her hands when she realises that little progress has been made by the police in the probe into the rape and murder of her daughter, seven months ago. Her unorthodox method to arrest the attention of the police departmentby renting three billboardsdoesn't go down well with the people in her sleepy town. The investigating officer, Sheriff Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), and his cantankerous deputy, Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell), and almost everyone in town, want her to do away with the billboards.

Willoughby and Dixon have their own personal demons to battle and Mildred's decision have made their lives a lot harder. But Mildred is a unswerving woman; she won't bow down to any demand until justice is served. Three Billboards focuses on how the one-woman army of Mildred stands up against the town despite realising that her chances of getting justice are scarce, while throwing up a slew of surprisessome fairly pleasant, others disturbing.

You are, for the want of a better word, a gangand if you are upstairs, smoking a pipe and reading a bible when while one of your gang members is downstairs, fucking an alter boy, thenyou are culpable, cos you joined the gang, man. I dont care if you never did shit, never saw shit or never heard shit. You joined the gang, man. You are culpable, Mildreds angry rant to a priest who comes to her house to request her to have the billboards removed is her outlash, not just against the church, but against a society that is less sympathetic to her plight for justice. She is up against the criminal justice system, the people who see her act of defiance as a disgrace to the whole town, and especially to the well-respected Willoughby.

But, behind that tough, staid countenance of Mildred is an affectionate person, and you get to see it only a few moments in the film. Thats telling a lot about the person that Mildred was, and how the tragedies in her life shaped her to be the woman that you see on screen. McDormand embodies Mildred, inhabits her world and thoughts in ways only a few actors can, to offer one of the strongest female characters portrayed on screen in recent times. A bandana almost always in place and mostly seen in a mechanic's uniform, Mildred is foul-mouthed, unpredictable and may at times come across as a heartless, insensitive bully. A well-shaped character with enough unrefined edges, Mildred is indeed an instance of fine characterisation.

Rockwell's Dixon, a racist cop who tends to fly off the handle too often for his own good, is another remarkable character study Three Billboards presents. Dixon, as Willoughby acknowledges, is a good cop with a gut instinct, as evidenced by a rather comic scene in the later part of the film. But the man is violent, careless, and brazenly insensitive. McDonagh, however, doesn't leave Dixon where he is when you see him first, but offers him a redemption that you will hardly see coming.

Rockwell has already won a few awards for Dixon, and come Academy Awards, he is likely to grab the best support cast award.

At the receiving end of Mildred's rage is Harrelson's Willoughby. A loving father and a sensitive cop, Willoughby is almost the sensible voice in the film, until his unpredictable decision that will leave you stunned. Harrelson, as always, brings out the many shades and sides of a man who has only a few days left to live and who is constantly troubled by the Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, addressed to him.

The rest of the supporting cast, including Peter Dinklage, Lucas Hedges, Clarke Peters (ah, the irony of casting Clarke 'Lester' Peters as a cop who upholds the law), are impressive as well.

McDormand keeps his characters as earthy as they could be. They curse, seldom care for political correctness; they are loud and uninhibited. They also have uncanny, bleak sense of humour, and at times, when most uncalled for. They are unpredictable, not quite unlike the plot which comes with surprises aplenty.

Even people in Mildreds town are not exactly vicious. In fact, they sympathise with Willoughby. They may have been considerate and comforting when Mildred lost her daughter. But public memory is woefully short, especially when it comes to tragedies that happened to someone else. Their resentment to Mildreds unconventional method to get justice springs from the fact they do want to forget an unpleasant episode and move on with their lives. The billboards are a stark reminder of an unpleasant incident and a telling testament of shallow public sentiments.

Three Billboards has won several awards and is poised to win more at the Academy Awards.

Movie: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Director: Martin McDonagh

Starring: Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Peter Dinklage

Rating: 4/5When world stock markets fell sharply earlier this month, it was the US that led the way. Yet, while US equity values have since bounced back, the same cannot be said of the UK.

The difference in fortunes is reflected in the recent performance of two popular funds, investing respectively in US and UK shares: Old Mutual North American Equity and Franklin Templeton UK Equity Income.

While the Old Mutual fund, managed by Ian Heslop, has seen its assets fall in value by 3.2 per cent over the last month, the Franklin fund has fallen by 5.9 per cent.

Investing strategy: The 'defensive' Ian Heslop of Old Mutual (left) and the 'optimist' Colin Morton of Franklin (right)

Colin Morton, manager of Franklin UK Equity Income, is somewhat perplexed. He says: The sneeze in world stock markets was caused by events in the United States, yet it is the UK market that has caught more of a cold.

Morton says a possible explanation for the divergence lies in the political and economic uncertainty that still grips the UK.

This is in contrast to the United States where despite President Trumps antics, the corporate world has been boosted by recent tax cuts.

At any time it looks as if Theresa May could be replaced as Prime Minister, says Morton.

If it happens, it could spark a General Election and then we have the prospect of a Corbyn-led government with its anti-market agenda.

There is also Brexit. Four months ago, it looked as if May had a momentum with regards to grappling with this thorn. But now, there seems to be a fallout between the UK and Europe.

Given these two key issues, it is no wonder that big international investors are nervous about the UK stock market and are looking elsewhere to put their money.

Old Mutuals Heslop has yet to make up his mind as to whether recent volatility in US equity prices is short term or indicative of a longer term sea change. If volatility has increased permanently, he will respond by altering the funds portfolio. He says: Our view is to take a step back, see if market conditions have changed and then make portfolio adjustments.

Heslops fund is already in defensive mode. It has more than 200 individual holdings with only three companies  Exxon, Alphabet and Apple  representing more than two per cent of the portfolio.

This contrasts with Mortons fund which only has 50 holdings with the largest  Royal Dutch Shell  representing 4.7 per cent of total assets.

If Heslop believes US equities are due a rough ride in the coming months, he will diversify the fund even more.

He says: Reducing individual stakes and exposure to specific sectors is the best way to take risk out of a portfolio.

He says the fund is more defensively set up than it has been since the beginning of last year.

Irrespective of the May and Brexit factors, Morton will not veer from his modus operandi, which is for all holdings to range between 1 and 5 per cent of the fund. Every stock, he says, must contribute to the funds overall performance.

Of the two hugely respected fund managers, Morton is more openly optimistic  Heslop keeps his cards close to his chest.

Morton is comforted by the 4 per cent plus yield on his fund which he says provides investors with a comfort factor.

He also sees great value in holdings such as Aviva, Legal & General and Land Securities which he says are all underpinned by attractive yields. The UK market looks good value, he adds. Ever the optimist.Man accused in August police chase waives all charges to court

Timothy McGarvie allegedly stole vehicle, gun, leading police on rural chase, before being shot by state trooper in city homeAfter months of evaluation by University of Pittsburgh officials, the Titusville campus received the green light to evolve into the Education and Training Campus Hub, a facility with multiple partners educating students of all ages on traditional paths and career training.2018 South Korea Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 South Korea Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes the South Korea telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behaviour, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

South Korea telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the report Further, emerging business environment in South Korea together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries are included, to assess the country's prominence on regional front.







On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of South Korea that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary South Korea Telecom (News - Alert) Market - Strategic Analysis South Korea Telecom Market Outlook South Korea Telecom Competitive Environment South Korea Telecom Industry Benchmarking South Korea Economic Outlook to 2025 South Korea Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bzs4gs/2018_south_korea?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005820/en/Philippines Telecoms Market 2018: Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 Philippines Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes Philippines telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behaviour, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

Philippines telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the report. urther, emerging business environment in Philippines together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries are included, to assess the country's prominence on regional front.







On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of Philippines that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary Philippines Telecom Market - Strategic Analysis Philippines Telecom Market Outlook Philippines Telecom Competitive Environment Philippines Telecom Industry Benchmarking Philippines Economic Outlook to 2025 Philippines Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fmjvfp/philippines?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005836/en/[February 23, 2018] Swish Verified as Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small-Business (SDVOSB)

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Swish (www.swishdata.com), a trusted veteran-owned provider of IT solutions and services to the U.S. Federal Government, announced today that it has been verified as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, and has been added to the Veteran business database at www.vip.vetbiz.gov by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Center for Veterans Enterprise. Completion of this rigorous verification program demonstrates the accountability, trust and dedication that are the hallmarks of Swish services and solutions. It also provides for increased contract and subcontract opportunities in accordance with the Veterans Benefits Act including sole-source and set-aside eligibility for certain government acquisitions. The SDVOSB designation serves to establish a strong Veteran's movement in government procurement, and is an important step in the continued growth of Swish.>



Monty Deel , President and CEO of Swish. "It will also serve to reassure procurement officials from other federal agencies that Swish is a validated SDVOSB provider." About Swish:

Swish is a customer-centric, specialized integrator with an engineering first culture. Headquartered in Northern Virginia, the company has active services engagements coast to coast and around the world. We are structured as a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB). The company began in 2005 by offering data center consulting and related technology products to its federal government clients. Over the last decade, technology has changed, as has the operations of our clients, and so has Swish. Media Contact:

Kevin Gordon

Phone: 703-980-9744

Email: kgordon@swishdata.com Related Links Company Website Veteran Business Database View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/swish-verified-as-service-disabled-veteran-owned-small-business-sdvosb-300603629.html SOURCE Swish

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]2018 Egypt Telecoms Market Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 Egypt Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes Egypt telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behaviour, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

Egypt telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the repot. Further, emerging business environment in Egypt together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries are included, to assess the country's prominence on regional front.







On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of Egypt that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary Egypt Telecom Market - Strategic Analysis Egypt Telecom Market Outlook Egypt Telecom Competitive Environment Egypt Telecom Industry Benchmarking Egypt Economic Outlook to 2025 Egypt Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/w72msc/2018_egypt?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005837/en/2 killed in Jhapa wild elephant attack

Two elderly men died in a wild elephant attack at Sundar Nitajhoda Community Forest in Biratamod Municipality-7 of Jhapa district on Saturday afternoon.2018 Canada Telecoms Market Analysis and Outlook Report (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 Canada Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes Canada telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behaviour, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

Canada telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the repor. Further, emerging business environment in Canada, together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries, are included to assess the country's prominence on regional front.







On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of Canada that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary Canada Telecom Market - Strategic Analysis Canada Telecom Market Outlook Canada Telecom Competitive Environment Canada Telecom Industry Benchmarking Canada Economic Outlook to 2025 Canada Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jdzsmz/2018_canada?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005838/en/Finland Telecoms Market Report 2018: Analysis and Outlook (2005-2025) - Trends, Drivers and Challenges - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "2018 Finland Telecom Market Analysis and Outlook Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The research work strategically analyzes Finland telecommunications market, examining the recent trends, drivers and challenges across diverse dimensions such as growth, demand, pricing, competition, consumer behaviour, infrastructure, policies and others.

The study also provides in-depth analysis of segment wise telecommunications including mobile, fixed line and fixed broadband services. The number of subscribers and penetration rates are forecast for each of the sub-segment including mobile, fixed landline and broadband segments from 2005 to 2025.

Finland telecommunication revenues, investment and infrastructure details are also covered in the report Further, emerging business environment in Finland, together with comparison to five competitive benchmark countries, are included to assess the country's prominence on regional front.







On the competitive analysis front, leading companies along with their market shares are identified. Further, key business strategies of market leaders, their tariffs and SWOT profiles are included. In addition, the research work forecasts the demographic and economic drivers of Finland that enable strategy planners to formulate their pricing and branding strategies.

The report also includes latest telecommunication market developments, mergers, acquisitions and launches, spectrum availability, tenders and other aspects are analyzed.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary Finland Telecom Market - Strategic Analysis Finland Telecom Market Outlook Finland Telecom Competitive Environment Finland Telecom Industry Benchmarking Finland Economic Outlook to 2025 Finland Demographic Outlook to 2025 Competitor Analysis Recent Industry Developments

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6m3lbf/finland_telecoms?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005843/en/[February 23, 2018] Therap Announces 2019 National Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a successful 2018 National Conference in Omaha, Nebraska with over 500 in attendance, Therap has announced the dates and location for its upcoming 2019 National Conference. Therap's annual event returns to the Southeast region as Charlotte, North Carolina will host from January 29 -January 31st. The conference brings together system administrators, nurses, clinicians, and attendees from across the nation in a forum to share their knowledge and experiences using Therap's LTSS and Disability software with peers from around the country. The conference highlights new and coming innovations to the platform and focuses on national initiatives and the regulatory impact of legislation and changes to Medicaid guidelines affecting the intellectual and developmental disability field. Recent topics included the impact and Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) features incorporated in response to the 21st Century Cures Act, and how Therap's comprehensive incident reporting system fits as model practice per recommendations in the 2018 Joint Report issued by theOffice of the Inspector General, Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human Services, and Administration on Community Living.



Conference sessions include numerous How-To sessions for Therap modules with simultaneous tracks for different skill levels. Other sessions focus on group discussion or brainstorming with focus on functionality, system user insight, and proposed solutions to common issues, state regulations hot-button issues in the intellectual and developmental disability, LTSS and adjacent human services fields. The national conference showcases user presentations, with provider agencies presenting on topics including their experiences implementing Therap, quality assurance practices, reporting, and staff training. Presentations include in-system demonstrations, cost and case studies, recommendations and more. Tracks on designated topics such as community-based employment, aging in the I/DD community, family member and self advocate access to health records, managed care and health information exchanges, mobile applications and policies on personal device usage, and using data and business intelligence to drive agency decision-making all feature at the conference.

Therap looks forward to welcoming attendees to the Queen City in 2019. About Therap Therap Services provides secure, web-based documentation, communication and electronic billing services to over 4000 intellectual disability providers, LTSS and other human service providers across the United States. Learn more at www.TherapServices.net. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/therap-announces-2019-national-conference-in-charlotte-north-carolina-300603659.html SOURCE Therap Services

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 23, 2018] Huawei, NYP to set up first Huawei ICT academy in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Feb. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei, a global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, and Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) agreed to set up the first ICT Academy in Singapore as part of Huawei's global initiative to support ICT skills development. The partnership places a strong emphasis on addressing the shortage of ICT professionals in Singapore by joint research, education and training programmes. It will also see the two parties set up a platform for technical collaborations between industry and government partners. Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the not-for-profit academy, titled Huawei Authorised Information Network Academy (HAINA), allows NYP to deliver Huawei Certification training to their students. This partnership creates a bridge between academia and industry to nurture ICT talent, equip students with ICT skills necessary for employment and cultivate a future workforce to fill the global ICT skills gap. It is expected to benefit about 300 students at NYP's School of Engineering and School of Information Technology in the initial term of two years. Mr Aaron Wang Shaotong, Managing Director of Huawei's Enterprise Business Group in Singapore, and Mr Lee Youn Kay, Director of NYP's School of Engineering signed the agreement in Huawei's OpenLab today (Feb 23), witnessed by Mr Edward Ho, NYP's Deputy Principal (Development). The academy will let NYP students gain practical hands-on experience and get industry certification in networking technologies, security, cloud computing technologies, IT storage systems and big data. Students will also be able to download a personal copy of Huawei's eNSP (Enterprise Network Simulation Platform) networking simulator, an essenial learning tool that helps enhance their professional skills and lets them experience Huawei's enterprise network equipment.



Mr Zhou Danjin, President of Southern Pacific Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, said: "Huawei has a strong focus on helping the next generation develop the skills needed to drive innovations in technology. Huawei's HAINA programme is part of our wider commitment to STEM education as well as research and development. We are confident that our partnership with Nanyang Polytechnic will give students the opportunity to learn new and relevant industry skills, enabling them to fulfil their ambitions in science and technology and contribute to Singapore's digital economy." Mr. Lee Youn Kay, Director of NYP's School of Engineering, said: "We believe this collaboration will allow our students to be better equipped with industry relevant ICT skills to meet the industry's strong demand for trained expertise. With this edge, they are well-poised to help transform the industry and work towards our vision of a Smart Nation."

Huawei is currently cooperating with over 350 universities to open Huawei ICT academies around the world, with about 200 in China. Last year, the Academy trained over 12,500 students globally. Among them, 4000 students received certifications for their skills. Under the HAINA programme, Huawei also runs a global annual 'Skills Competition' for students, giving local country winners the opportunity to visit China for the finals and compete with students from across the globe. About Huawei Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Our aim is to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei's 180,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world's population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees. For more information, please visit Huawei online at www.huawei.com or follow us on: http://www.linkedin.com/company/Huawei

http://www.twitter.com/Huawei

http://www.facebook.com/Huawei

http://www.google.com/+Huawei

http://www.youtube.com/Huawei About Nanyang Polytechnic Established as an institution of higher learning in 1992, Nanyang Polytechnic's (NYP) seven academic schools offer quality education and training through more than 40 full-time diploma courses. NYP also has a full suite of continuing education (CET) options for lifelong learning, ranging from specialist and advanced diplomas, to SkillsFuture modules and courses. NYP's Asian Culinary Institute and the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies are CET institutes set up in partnership with SkillsFuture Singapore to champion and transform Singapore's F&B and retail sectors respectively. Through its strong network of industry connections, NYP empowers learners for work and life through relevant curricula and deep capabilities. NYP strives to be the innovative polytechnic, creating a nexus of future-ready learners, ready to take on new challenges and contribute to growth and sustainability. Nanyang Polytechnic is a recipient of Singapore's top organisational and business excellence awards: the Singapore Quality Award, the Innovation Excellence Award and the People Excellence Award. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180223/2064140-1 SOURCE Huawei

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 23, 2018] TREEHOUSE INVESTIGATION INITIATED by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. - THS

Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS). Beginning in early 2016 and throughout the year, the Company repeatedly touted many aspects of its performance pertaining to its private label business, recent acquisitions and overall financial condition. Then, on November 3, 2016, the Company disclosed a litany of negative information, including that its private brands business had failed to meet expectations; its 2016 guidance was excessive and would be lowered; its integration strategy had proven to be inadequate; it was closing its British Columbia facility; and its President had resigned. Thereafter, the Company and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. Recently, the court presiding over that case denied the Company's motion to dismiss, llowing the case to move forward.



KSF's investigation is focusing on whether TreeHouse's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to TreeHouse's shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws. If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of TreeHouse shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-ths/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180223005814/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Bangladesh Expo opens its door to visitors

The 4th edition of Bangladesh Expo kicked off at Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu on Friday. The five-day single-country expo showcases various products, services and arts from Bangladesh. There are also a handful of stalls representing Nepali products.WITH MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND PLEDGING TO MARCH ON THE PLAZA AND 7K SHOWING SIGNS OF INTEREST . . . THE UPCOMING 'MARCH FOR OUR LIVES' MIGHT BE THE FIRST MAJOR ANTI-GUN RALLY OF 2018!!!

"A march to say "Enough!" We must protect Americans, American lives. Weapons are not more important than people.





"We are gathering at Mill Creek Park in Kansas City on Saturday, March 24 from noon to 4 pm as part of the nationwide effort to advocate for weapons reform. It is past time elected officials put the lives of Americans above the donations from the NRA and above profits for weapons manufacturers..





"Let's join together to make a change for our future!"

Like it or not, across the metro there's a growing outcry for gun control as the #NeverAgain movement prepares to rally in the Spring.To wit . . .for March 24th @ Mill Creek Park . . .Description:Developing . . ."Nick Haines, Barbara Shelly, Mark Alford, Dave Helling and Micheal Mahoney discuss the Eric Greitens indictment, what Kansas and Missouri are doing to address gun control and mental illness, the dash cam footage of the police shooting of an Overland Park teen, the race to become the governor of Kansas, the implications of Plaza III Steakhouse closing and KC's reputation as a jazz town."

Check local journalists talking the biggest stories this week in a show theoffers a nice balance in programming that actually influences KC denizens.Take a look . . .You decide . . .Ranking Kansas City Beef

Food Critics: The Best Burgers In Kansas City In 2018 Burgers are a classic KC menu item. "As a steak town, Kansas City has always had a lot of good burgers, too," Charles Ferruzza told host Gina Kaufmann on KCUR's Central Standard. Whether diners prefer a thin or thick patty - or something meatless - local menus have plenty of options.

Bedroom Community Building Up

Work continues on Brookside 51 complex KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Developer VanTrust broke ground on the new Brookside 51 complex near 51st and Oak back in 2015. Now, almost 3 years later, construction continues. The complex will include a Whole Foods grocery store, a 170 unit apartment structure, a student health center and a parking garage.

Local Ad Game Winning

Andrews McMeel Universal is a product of its Kansas City roots - Kansas City Business Journal When John Andrews proposed basing Universal Press Syndicate in Kansas City, his co-founder, John McMeel, was skeptical. At the time, McMeel worked in New York, the hotbed of publishing. "I said New York is the place to go because it's where all the action is, but he convinced me that, 'Hey, we'll get our action.'

Get A KCMO Grocery Job!!!

New grocery store on Prospect looking to hire dozens of employees during weekend job fair KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A new grocery store on Prospect Avenue expects to hire dozens of workers Saturday from the surrounding neighborhood. Neighbors on the east side are getting their first look inside the new Sunfresh store at the Linwood Shopping Center. There hasn't been a grocery store operating at the center in more than ten years.

Kansas Outsiders Join Pranksters In Political Gambit Joking Guv Contest

2 men from Oregon say they plan to run for Kansas office Breaking News TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The arts editor and theater critic at an Oregon weekly paper say they plan to run for governor and lieutenant governor of Kansas. Editor Bob Keefer and critic Rick Levin of the Eugene Weekly say they mailed a notarized affidavit of candidacy to the state on Feb.

Show-Me Last Picture Show

Why aren't big-budget movies filmed in Missouri anymore? Money. "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" is shaping up as the film to beat at this year's Academy Awards. The comedy-drama written and directed by Martin McDonagh and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures is nominated for seven Oscars and has scored big in competitions leading up to Hollywood's big night March 4.

Lifestyle Mag Talks With EPIC Crooner

Then Along Comes Cetera Peter Cetera It's a world of homogenous singing voices in today's pop music. But Peter Cetera has one of the most distinctive voices in rock history in an era that was full of them. From 1969 to 1985, Cetera played bass and was one of the three lead vocalists for Chicago, which was deservedly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

Right now we celebratealong withand closer to home we check these Kansas City MSM news links tonight.Take a peek:And this is thefor right now . . .Bigger Cabinet likely tomorrow

Communist allies CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) have entrusted party leader KP Sharma Oli and a three-member team led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal with picking leaders for appointment as ministers. Prime Minister Oli is expected to expand his Cabinet on Sunday.Greitens has called lobbyists "snakes", now his lawyer hires one KANSAS CITY, Mo. - "Snakes, liars and cowards." Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has referred to lobbyists and consultants that way but now he has one working for him as he defends himself from an invasion of privacy charge.

Call this another broken promise AND/OR and important crisis communication contract . . . Either way, hope to keep all consultants busy leaving bittersweet and hopefully interesting comments in the near future.Checkit:In Kansas City, Pirate's Bone Serves Vegan Riffs on Latin-Inspired Coffee Drinks Mexico City native Zaid Consuegra recently celebrated the third anniversary of Pirate's Bone, his vegan coffee shop and restaurant located off the beaten path near East Brookside in Kansas City. He started Pirate's Bone with just $2,000 and a coffee maker he bought at a local garage sale, but Consuegra's business quickly grew.

Coffee news and new local hipster cuisine for more adventurous souls according to the top foodie mag in the state . . . Checkit:Kansas City 2nd Best For Ladies

Ranking: KC defies gender pay gap, again earns No. 2 for Women in Tech Second only to Washington, D.C., in a new national ranking, Kansas City boasts a noteworthy statistic: Women in tech jobs are paid, on average, 2 percent more than their male counterparts. It's the fourth consecutive year Kansas City has earned a No. 2 on the list of the Best Cities for Women in Tech.

Local Tragedy Testimony

Father of children in deadly 435 crash speaks out, thanks community for support KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Amid heartbreak and devastation, Salomon Vazquez wants to thank the community for supporting his family during the hardest time in their lives. Not even a week after his wife, Angelica Hernandez-Valentin, and their children were involved in a bad crash on 435, Vazquez sat down with 41 Action News to provide an update.

Biz Community Best Practices Revealed

Kansas City Business Journal entrepreneur panel talks funding, growth and inclusion - Kansas City Business Journal "Everybody has an easy button, but we need to be deliberate." Those were words of wisdom Davyeon Ross shared for entrepreneurs who miss out on opportunities to add more diversity to their teams. Ross, co-founder and COO of ShotTracker LLC, joined Brad Shyver, CEO of Royal Services Inc., and Lesa Mitchell, managing director of Techstars Kansas City, to offer advice from their entrepreneurial experiences Thursday night at the Kansas City Business Journal's annual entrepreneur panel.

KC Suspect Search Cont'd

Police searching for serial shoplifter as more KC business owners catch woman stealing KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City police are looking for a serial shoplifter after multiple businesses say the same woman is stealing from them. The business owners are fed up and want this woman caught and prosecuted. "She was so brazen about it," said Jeff Netzer, the president of State Beauty Supply.

Home Town Heartfelt Moment

Kansas City Royals: Bury Who a Royal? In recent days, the outlook of many Royals fans has change d due to a pretty substantial roster turnover. Danny Duffy coined the phrase "Bury Me A Royal," but can we expect that of any player anymore?

Sunflower State Small Town Distinction

Kansas Has 4 Of 10 Most 'Middle Of Nowhere' Towns In U.S., Says Big East Coast Paper This is just not the kind of news Kansans want to hear, but: Four of the ten most isolated towns in all of the United States are in Kansas. The Washington Post, using data from something called the Malaria Atlas Project, wanted to know what the middle of nowhere looks like.

Starstruck Kansas City

Leading the way on Instagramhas been a leading voice for body acceptance and the inspiration for our Saturday morning news link compilation.Take a look:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .JACKSON COUNTY INSIDERS WARN THAT QUITE A FEW PRIMARIES THREATEN INCUMBENT POLITICOS AFTER A TUMULTUOUS YEAR FOR COURTHOUSE POLITICS!!!

"Get ready for some exciting races in this county for the first time in a long time. There will be hard fought Democratic primaries and November elections that will be a lot of fun to watch."

This morning the Examiner reminds us thatbut that's just half of the story . . .Here's the word . . .Already we've seen Jackson County Lady Crystal panic in open session about the prospect of competition . . . And there's also a bit of ongoing gossip that Exec Frank White will back candidates to compete against some of his fiercest critics . . . To be fair, he denies the talk but the coming week will reveal if he kept his word.Developing . . .NATIONAL MAINSTREAM MEDIA DESPERATELY SEARCHES FOR A PHOTO OF THE MISSOURI GUV IN CUSTODY FLANKED BY THE STL SHERIFF AND HAS OFFERED $5,000 TO NEWSIES AND MOBILE PHONE PHOTOGS WHO CAN ANTE UP!!!

NOBODY BUT AWESOME TKC TIPSTERS NOTICED AN EXTRA "WITNESS" IN THE INDICTMENT AMID GOP FEAR THAT ANOTHER PLAYER MIGHT SOON SPEAK UP!!!

The call for Guv Grietens to resign is not only about the felony charge he's facing but also questions his ability to govern in the midst of a historic crisis. The Guv is innocent until proven guilty but there is no question that investigation and impeachment proceedings along with more revelations to come will distract the Legislature from far more important work on behalf of voters. Governor Eric Greitens promised to clean up Missouri politics and instead he threatens to drag the entire state through the mud of a revenge porn investigation in order to determine his personal responsibility while policy issues remain at a standstill and overshadowed by his admitted past behavior.

















STL Public Radio: Five legal issues from the Greitens indictment

































The embattled Guv has become a partisan punching bag over the past few days as word of his arrest and indictment serves as red meat for both Progressives and Conservatives.However, our KICK-ASS blog community wants to contribute a few interesting items that MSM has seemingly overlooked or that have just been buried under the avalanche of coverage.First and foremost . . .STL Post-Dispatch reporter Robert Patrick was apparentlyamong national media looking for the money shot.One more . . .One more . . . The best and brightest of our blog community noticed Guv Greitens can travel wherever he wants inside the country but there's nothing specific noted about his international travel.Finally because pundits are missing this one . . .And so we patiently wait for this sordid drama to unfold as we round-up the story with this collection of all the important headlines so far . . .Developing . . .The recovery of Greece's stricken economy is critical for strengthening the tourist industry

Greek government bonds are in demand on Thursday, with yields dropping following after Moodys move overnight to upgrade Greece two notches from Caa2 to B3 and maintain its positive outlook, Reuters notes in the following report:

The agency stressed it believed Greece will return to self-sufficiency and market-based funding.

Greece has also been upgraded by S&P Global and Fitch recently, yet Moodys was not due to review Greeces rating until later.

It came as a surprise in terms of the timing  but the overall rating story and economic story on Greece is on track, noted DZ Bank analyst Sebastian Fellechner.

The yield on Greeces 10-year government bond was 9 basis points lower at 4.34%. Shorter-dated Greek 5-year government bond yields dropped as much as 19 basis points to 3.48%.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Source: ekathimerini.comEver since 2010 ITB Berlin has been organising the ITB Grand Finale in cooperation with the International Delphic Council (IDC), a global cultural organisation

Nordic music and exotic dance performances await visitors to the Grand Finale of the Worlds Largest Travel Trade Show  admission is free for holders of a visitors ticket on the Sunday of ITB

A spectacular conclusion to the Worlds Largest Travel Trade Show: the ITB Grand Finale on Sunday, 11 March 2018 will be the official final event of ITB Berlin, featuring dance performances from Zambia, Malaysia and the Dominican Republic. From 3.30 to 5 p.m., together with a host of different cultures, exhibitors, guests and visitors will be celebrating a spectacular ending to the 52nd ITB Berlin. Mary Amiri, the award-winning event and television presenter, will moderate the colourful programme of events which is traditionally organised by exhibitors. Admission is free for holders of a visitors ticket on the Sunday of the show.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, this years partner country of ITB Berlin, will bring events to a close in a maritime atmosphere with the all-male shanty choir Plauer See. Visitors are expressly invited to sing and join in. The tiny nation of Estonia will be represented with Nordic music. The eight-member female group Naized, founded in 2006, will sing a selection of traditional Estonian folk songs.

As well as to Nordic regions, the Grand Finale will also be taking visitors on a trip to exotic countries, for example Zambia, this years Culture & Convention Partner of ITB Berlin. The flowing movements of its traditional dance performances reflect the many different cultures of this African nation. The Kecak, a traditional dance from Indonesia, will have visitors longing for faraway destinations. It is one of Balis most famous artistic creations, and with its delicate hand movements the dance is also an expression of Hindu mythology.

Towards the end of the Grand Finale 2018 visitors can look forward to the ceremonial passing of the baton from one partner country, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, to another, Malaysia, the partner country of ITB Berlin 2019. This country in southeastern Asia will be whetting visitors appetites with traditional music and dance performances for next years visit to the Worlds Largest Travel Trade Show.

The Delphic Games: a global stage for art and cultures

Ever since 2010 ITB Berlin has been organising the ITB Grand Finale in cooperation with the International Delphic Council (IDC), a global cultural organisation. The Delphic Games, which it organises, are literally the sister event of the Olympics. Just as fire stands for the Olympic Games, so their defining symbol is water. In ancient Greece the Delphic Games took place regularly for almost 1,000 years, always in the year preceding the Olympic Games. Nowadays, different venues host the Delphic Games and Delphic Youth Games every four years.

For more information on the Grand Finale at ITB Berlin please visit:

www.itb-berlin.de/de/Besucher/Privatbesucher/DasITBFinale.

Reduced-rate tickets are available online, from BVG and S-Bahn Berlin

Visitors can purchase ITB tickets to the open days for the public on Saturday, 10 and Sunday, 11 March 2018 at the reduced rate of 12 euros instead of 15 euros by visiting www.itb-berlin.de/en/Visitors/Tickets/ After printing out their own tickets members of the public can gain easy access to the display halls without waiting in line. Alternatively, they can buy admission vouchers for ITB Berlin from one of the many ticket machines at the customer service centres of the BVG and S-Bahn, where up until 12 midday on 11 March vouchers for day tickets will also be available at the reduced rate of 12 euros instead of 15 euros. Children up to the age of 14 accompanied by an adult are admitted free of charge. Schoolchildren and students can purchase tickets at the reduced rate of 8 euros. Last-minute tickets for admission on 11 March as of 2 p.m. are available from the ticket offices at 8 euros.

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

ITB Berlin 2018 will take place from Wednesday to Sunday, 7 to 11 March. From Wednesday to Friday ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only. ITB Berlin is the Worlds Leading Travel Trade Show. In 2017 a total of 10,000 companies and organizations from 184 countries exhibited their products and services to around 169,000 visitors, who included 109,000 trade visitors. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held from Wednesday, 7 to Saturday, 10 March 2018. Admission to the ITB Berlin Convention is free for trade visitors and exhibitors. More details are available at www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com and at ITB Social Media Newsroom.

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Visitors will witness the many ways in which Hellenic culture influenced the use, production and design of coins

A new exhibition at the National Hellenic Museum which will open March 4, will feature the story of coins from early use in ancient Greece to modern times.

Titled Change: The Story of Coins, the exhibition will include an interactive display which will showcase how coins are important financial, cultural and political tools.

Visitors will witness the many ways in which Hellenic culture influenced the use, production and design of coins. Themes of mythology, trade of goods, power, imagery and value will be examined across this hands-on exhibit.

Coins are some of our best records of political, social and economic change. The coins in this exhibition demonstrate the vast reach of the Hellenic world in antiquity, noted Katherine Kelaidis, Ph.D., Resident Scholar of the National Hellenic Museum.

The exhibition will include 29 coins, which date from the Hellenistic Period to the early Roman period (336 BCE-55 CE). Accompanying these coins will be a section focusing on Alexander the Greats impact on the spread Hellenism.

These coins represent a key moment in world history  the period in which Greek customs spread out of the Eastern Mediterranean and become the shared culture of educated people, Kelaidis added.

The National Hellenic Museum will celebrate the opening of the exhibition with a reception, 2-4 p.m.on March 4th and the show will be on view through February 2019.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Greek Museum License: CC-BY-SA

Source: greekreporter.comIt is estimated that 2,000-3,000 Greeks are involved in truffle hunting and production, with Greek truffles now being exported as far away as the United States.

According to an Athens Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) report, truffle wholesale prices in the European market are 3,000 ($3,700) per kilogram but substantially higher in the United States.

The Tuber magnatum variety grows very well in Greece. The Greek Alba truffle has made it to fine restaurants in the U.S. thanks to Greek export company Eklekto, says a Bloomberg report.

According to the report, Italian truffles go through many hands before they reach American restaurants, and some times counterfeit products arrive at the final destination.

However, Eklekto partners Peter Weltman and George Athanas say they work only with a small group of Greek foragers and know exactly where the product is from.

Apart from the trusted forager working with his trusty dog, Weltman and Athanas are the only people that touch the truffles before they are packed in the box to be exported, the company notes.

With Alba wholesale prices climbing due to drought, it was easy for the Greek truffles to enter the American market. Last year, Italian truffles jumped to $3,500 a pound. Greek truffles were slightly cheaper, going for $3,150 a pound, Bloomberg added.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: License: CC-BY-SA

Source: greekreporter.comBook rush

Almost half a century before the publication of Bhanubhakta Acharyas translation of Ramayanaconsidered widely as the first Nepali bestsellerthe Bible had been translated and published in Nepali in 1821 CE.Bahrain International Property Exhibition (Bipex) will be back this year with its industry forum series which will see real estate insiders discuss, debate and explore topics of interest to the property sector.



The 2018 Bipex Forums, will centre around the theme of Building Communities, Developing Bahrain" and focus on the key sectors that empower the creation of a community under the themes of education, healthcare, housing and transport.



The first event will focus on the components and role of good transportation links in developing a community, said the event organisers, Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE), a premier body representing engineering professionals in the kingdom.



Bipex Forum is being presented in association with Trowers & Hamlins, a leading international law firm, which has over 130 partners and 800 staff members.



A regional specialist, Trowers & Hamlins has some of the largest and most experienced teams of lawyers in the Middle East.



The keynote address will be given by Mariam Jumaan, the undersecretary at Land Transportation and Post at the Bahrain Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, said the BSE in its statement.



She has played a pivotal role in developing Bahrain's infrastructure at the Electricity and Water Authority, the Economic Development Board and the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications.



In her latest role, the focus continues to be on turning public transport into a viable alternative for everyone in Bahrain. In her key-note address, Jumaan will discuss the progress made by the Ministry in developing Bahrains public transportation in order to achieve Bahrain Vision 2030; to provide a better life for all citizens and residents; and to enhance and regulate all the relevant aspects of land transportation in the kingdom, said the statement.



She is leading the efforts of the Ministry to develop bus, rail and light rail transportation links across Bahrain, as well as the second causeway to Saudi Arabia, it added.



The Address will be followed by a Panel Discussion that will include Oliver Morgan, the director in the Real Estate and Construction at Deloitte; and Alsharif Faisal Alown, the director of Projects & Investment, Urban Planning and Development Authority, Bahrain along with Jumaan. event will be moderated by Peter Greatrex, a partner at Trowers & Hamlins, they stated.



The Bipex Forums act as a channel to facilitate interactive dialogue amongst all stakeholders of the real estate industry in Bahrain, and will enable them to elaborate on the recent macro-economic global developments, and industry trends to provide a better understanding of its impact on future and ongoing developments projects.



Bipex is being managed by a board chaired by Mohammed Khalil Al Sayed, a real-estate industry professional and a past president of BSE.-TradeArabia News ServiceBahrain-based Sinnad, a subsidiary of The Benefit Company, said it has received its Mastercard licence, which will support its vision to expand into the kingdom as a payments service provider.



"Receiving the licence from Mastercard is a major milestone in Sinnads strategic expansion plan. Mastercard is one of Sinnads main offerings, and we have always aimed to diversify our services by adopting international schemes," said Rana Almaeeli, the general manager of Sinnad.



The Mastercard Licence will grant Sinnad an opportunity to better cater to our banks needs through a wide variety of services. We look forward to utilising this licence to its full capacity," he added.



Based on the terms of the licence, Sinnad will not only be able to support local banks to process Mastercard cards, but we will also be able to issue Mastercard cards under our programs, added Almaeeli.



Sinnad provides state-of-the-art solutions in cards processing to banks across the MEA region and will continue offering high-quality deliverables that cater to the needs of the business community.



Mastercard is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories.-TradeArabia News ServiceGrundfos Egypt, a leading manufacturer of pumps and water application systems, has officially opened a new branch in Alexandria, as part of its efforts to expand its distributor network and service facilities across Egypt.



Ehab Eshaq, general manager for Grundfos Egypt, said that opening the Alexandria branch is aimed at serving the company's customers in the West Coast, Alexandria and the Delta area; ultimately reducing the burden of transporting pumps to Cairo for maintenance.



Eshaq said: The opening of the Alexandria branch is part of the companys coordinated expansion plan that is expected to include branches and maintenance centres in other governorates in the upcoming period according to need.



He praised customers support to date, which has already led to large contracts for the company in several mega projects including the one-and-a-half-million Feddan project, the administrative capital and the highland plateau, as well as private projects in the commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors.



Eshaq continued: The company aims to increase sales by 10 to 15 per cent to GBP400 million ($556.8 million) by the end of this year, as the company won the supply of pumps for major national projects carried out by the government in the administrative capital.



The Egyptian market is a promising market that the company is keen to address strongly, said Okay Barutcu, regional managing director for Eastern Europe, Asia, Middle East and North Africa at Grundfos International.



Delayed by unfavourable winds during the past few years and the strict measures enforced by the Egyptian government, the Egyptian economy is now starting to look up, showing signs of recovery, with a faint rebound in foreign investment, he said.



The company manufactures about 17 million pumps in different sizes and types annually. It also spends approximately 5 per cent of its annual sales on scientific research and development, in an effort to modernise its products and offer unconventional solutions he added.



Barutcu explained that Grundfos is already dominant in a number of key markets across Egypt, and setting up a factory for the company's products in Egypt, which is an export base for the countries of origin, will position the company for further growth.



Mohamed Yehia, maintenance manager at Grundfos Egypt, noted that the company provides maintenance and after sales service for its wide customer base, with unbeatable professional industry and application know-how.



Yehia said: Our teams of highly skilled repair and maintenance service technicians provide fast and efficient repair work, which means minimized downtime, keeping disruptions and therefore expenditure to a minimum.



It also provides engineers with the opportunity to participate in training courses focused on all types of maintenance and repair, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceBuddha Air to set course for the wild sky yonder

After buzzing the skies above Nepal for 20 years, Buddha Air has planned to spread its wings and set course for exotic foreign destinations. The carrier has announced powering itself from one-hour to three-hour or beyond flights, and entering the long-haul international market.editorial@tribune.com

Bathinda, February 24

Sanitation workers of the civic body today suspended their work and staged a protest outside the MC office over the non-fulfillment of their long-pending demands.

The sanitation workers gathered outside the MC office and raised slogans against the MC Commissioner. Due to the strike by the sanitation workers, heaps of garbage could be spotted at various places in the city.

Vinod Mali, president, MCB Sanitation Workers Union, said the state government and MC were deliberately not fulfilling their long-pending genuine demands. He said it clearly indicated that the MC was not serious about their demands and the sanitation condition.

He added that the MC officials did not take their demands and ultimatum seriously so they were left with no option but to go on a strike. Mali also announced that the union members would go on an indefinite strike on Monday. They are demanding the recruitment of 1,500 employees. TNSC-ASBA allows investors to buy shares online

The Centralised Application Supported by Blocked Amount (C-ASBA), which allows investors to buy primary and rights shares online, officially launched on Friday.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 24

The Rs 11,400 crore fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) has said that Indian skipper Virat Kohli continues to be its brand ambassador.

There are reports in the media that Virat Kohli, Banks brand ambassador is going to discontinue his endorsement with Punjab National Bank. The same is again totally false and incorrect. Virat Kohli is our brand ambassador, the bank clarified through a public notice.

The notice further clarified: There are media reports that the bank has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to conduct an investigation into the alleged fraud and PwC has been asked to gather evidence that can be used against Nirav Modi and his associates in the court. The news is totally incorrect. It also said that media reports saying Reserve Bank of India and government asking PNB to make payment of the fraudulent amount to other banks is also incorrect.

The bank reiterated that the bank has the capacity and capability to handle the situation and protect the interest of the institution, customers and stakeholders.  IANSvermaajay1968@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 23

The general body meeting of the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) under president Rajesh Gill today condemned the "suppression of voice of dissent" by the PU authorities.

The PUTA passed a resolution for withdrawing the Syndicate item which is about taking action against eight teachers for complaining directly to the Vice-President, who is Chancellor of the PU also.

Among eight teachers, there is a woman professor also who had leveled sexual harassment allegations against PU VC Arun Kumar Grover.

Prof Akshaya Kumar, former PUTA president, raised the issue of central status of the varsity and said neither we wanted Haryana nor Punjab. "We want the PU to be converted into a central university," he said.

PUTA resolved that the issue of PhD increments due to university teachers must be pursued by the authorities in the same manner and with same zeal in which the personal issues of the authorities are pursued like "the case of Pay Fixation of Registrar, which was got approved despite having been vehemently rejected by the UGC, and for which even the arrears have been released to him".

It also passed that roster system to be implemented immediately, against "Pick and Choose Policy", for appointments to "Inspection and Selection Committees, as Subject Experts and VC Nominees".

The PUTA also approved the resolution of its executive condemning Registrar's misbehaviour against PUTA president Prof Rajesh Gill and called for his apology.editorial@tribune.com

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 24

Even as the local Municipal Corporation is issuing property tax notices to residents, the ruling BJP has failed to pay its tax dues while the Congress has cleared its outstanding property tax.

Both national parties were served final notices to clear their property tax dues.

According to MC officials, local Congress paid Rs 2.78 lakh a few days ago as four-year property tax dues pertaining to its office in Sector 35. While the Sector 33-based Chandigarh BJP office, which was served a Rs 7.11 lakh tax notice, is yet to make a move.

A notice of Rs 16.12 lakh was served separately to the BJP Punjab office in Sector 37, but it too did not bother to clear the dues. Punjab Congress office in Sector 15 was earlier asked to clear the pending payment of Rs 11.34 lakh. MC officials said they have paid some amount.

The BJP has been served the final notice for March 15, following which the process to seal the property will start.

MC Additional Commissioner Anil Kumar Garg said they had served the final notice to the party and in case of default, further action would be taken against it.

Chandigarh Congress president Pradeep Chhabra said, We have paid the pending tax. Our ex-MP Pawan Kumar Bansal had released money from the party fund for the purpose. Though I think we must have paid the bills for certain years, we did not have receipts.

Chandigarh BJP general secretary Chander Shekher said, The partys city unit president and we have been busy with several events. We are yet to discuss the property tax dues issue.

The political parties were first served notices among other 2,100 government and commercial tax defaulters on October 12.

Interestingly, it was the MC councillors of the two national parties, who had during a General House meeting criticised the corporation officials for failing to recover tax pertaining to various properties in the city. Later, the MC had compiled a list of all defaulters since 2004-05 and served notices on them.editorial@tribune.com

Chandigarh, February 24

The Chandigarh bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has issued contempt notice to the Director Principal, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, BS Chavan, for non-compliance of its orders.

The contempt petition was moved by Kiran Bala who works as an officiating nursing superintendent at the hospital. The petitioner sought directions to the respondent to consider her for promotion to the post of nursing superintendent from the date she became eligible.

It was mentioned that the petitioner was initially appointed as staff nurse on July 12, 1996. She was kept on two-year probation, which ended on April 24, 1999.

Meanwhile, an advertisement was issued for filling the posts of nursing sisters for which the petitioner had also applied and was selected. She was appointed as nursing sister on April 25, 1997. She was promoted as assistant nursing superintendent on March 3, 2005. It was also mentioned that the position above hers is of nursing superintendent, on which appointment is made by way of promotion from amongst the matrons (assistant nursing superintendents) and sister tutors or by direct appointment.

It was pointed out that the post of nursing superintendent is vacant since August 31, 2008, and since the Chandigarh Administration has no specific rules applicable to the petitioner, the rules of Punjab should be followed.

It was stated that since the petitioner was eligible for the post, she was given an additional charge of the said post on April 10, 2012, with an assurance that she would be promoted shortly. However, the authorities failed to consider her for promotion. She submitted a representation on June 26, 2013, for promotion but to no avail. This was followed by multiple representations.

On March 2, 2016, instead of promoting her on regular basis, she was given the officiating charge. She pointed out that she would retire in February 2018. She moved the tribunal, which ordered the authorities on January 11 this year to complete the requisite proceedings for convening the DPC for promotion of the petitioner to the post of nursing superintendent within a month.

As the authorities failed to do so, the applicant moved a contempt petition.

The CAT has issued a notice to the authorities to file their reply by April 18.editorial@tribune.com

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, February 24

The district administration heaved a sigh of relief after hundreds of farmers from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, who were staying here for the past two days, suspended their agitation this noon and began to return home. The farmers, who were on their way to Delhi to hold a protest in support of their demands, were stopped by the police on Thursday and put up in the grain market of Sector 16 here.

We have decided to return home, as the government has decided to use force and undemocratic means to crush our protest, said Shiv Kumar Kakka, president of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), under the banner of which the protesters had begun a march from Bhopal.

However, he said the decision to suspend the agitation did not mean that the stir has died. Farmers have gained strength from it and will continue their fight for justice denied for long, he added.

Kakka criticised the government authorities for holding farmers captive and not allowing them to hold a protest in the national capital. I will attend the Kisan Mahapanchayat to be held in Jind on February 26, he said. The visit of INLD leader Abhay Chautala today and the support of Congress leaders and local residents have strengthened their resolve, he added.

The government failure to implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission for agriculture and provide any relief to debt-ridden farmers, as promised earlier, provoked a large number of farmers to join the movement, said Krishan Kumar, a social activist.

Several farmers had got their heads shaved on Friday in protest against the move to stop them from proceeding towards Delhi. A large number of policemen were posted here to keep a watch on the movement of farmers.editorial@tribune.com

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, February 24

The Central University of Haryana (CUH) has withdrawn the additional charge of Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) from Dr Rajeev Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor (Political Science), two days after he lodged a written complaint of misconduct against an Assistant Registrar and sought action against him.

The move has angered 37 faculty members of various departments of the university. The Teacher Association of Central University of Haryana (TACUH) has decried the action stating that it reflects the bias of the university authorities towards teachers who would be discouraged from taking any additional charge.

Rajeev Kumar Singh has been relieved of duty just to help a student photocopy some application forms for the upcoming conference of his department by using the CPIO office xerox machine. This is not the first time that the university authorities have behaved irresponsibly. Several teachers have earlier been relieved of various charges in a demeaning manner, alleged Rakesh Meena, secretary of the TACUH.

Sources said the university authorities on Thursday appointed Prof Chanchal Kumar Sharma as CPIO in place of Rajeev Singh with immediate effect.

I lodged a written complaint against an Assistant Registrar, who not only misbehaved with my student at the CPIO office without any reason but also barged into the office in my absence on February 20, Rajeev Singh told The Tribune.

He said, Instead of taking action against the Assistant Registrar, the authorities relieved me of the CPIO charge after two days. The withdrawal of the responsibility is not an issue but the authorities should have taken appropriate action against the Assistant Registrar.

Meanwhile, 37 faculty members in a letter to the Registrar have said the humiliation of a responsible faculty member of the university has shocked them and instilled sense of insecurity among them.

Meanwhile, Ram Dutt, Registrar of the university, refused to comment on the issue.editorial@tribune.com

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 24

After a gap of 15 years, when India and Pakistan inked a ceasefire agreement, the troops on both sides today exchanged artillery shells across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Uri sector, triggering panic in the area as more residents were evacuated to safer places.

As the ceasefire violation along the LoC has now almost become daily, the use of artillery by the two armies has effectively put the 2003 agreement in tatters. The artillery shells were fired despite bad weather in the area.

From Monday, the firing in Hajipir, Uri sector, over 120 km from Srinagar, was restricted to mortar shelling and small arms fire but things escalated on Saturday morning as heavy artillery was exchanged. There were, however, no reports of casualities even as seven villages, having a population of 8,000, were affected.

We responded to their artillery shelling and targeted their posts, defence sources said.

Uri Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sagar D Doifode said in the wake of artillery exchange, a high alert had been sounded in Uri.

We are taking all precautions and have evacuated residents from the shelling-prone area, Doifode told The Tribune.

Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said Pakistan violated ceasefire around noon in the Uri sector.

The unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan in the Uri sector since 11.50 am. Our troops retaliated, said the spokesman.

There were reports earlier this week that Indian troops had damaged a Pakistani bunker in the Hajipir sector.

Pakistani troops today targeted many areas and Indian posts along the LoC in Churanda, Silikote, Balakote and Tilawari villages. Two houses were damaged in the Pak shelling in Silikote area and many residents were evacuated.

A villager said announcements were made by the Pakistan army from mosques across the LoC since the morning, asking residents on this side to vacate houses.

These announcements, followed by intense shelling, created a panic in the village, he said.

The local administration has pressed into service scores of vehicles, including ambulances, to evacuate civilian population.

A high alert has been sounded in Uri and even NHPC officials have been told to alert their men as they have two power houses here, the SDM said.

The latest flare-up began on Monday when Pakistan violated the ceasefire in the Uri sector, injuring three civilians. A day later BSF Constable Sunil Murmu was killed in the Tangdhar sector in Kupwara district. On Wednesday, two Pakistani soldiers were killed when a counter-assault was launched by the Indian Army and BSF in Tangdhar. On Thursday, a fresh ceasefire violation took place in the Uri sector and around 500 villagers were shifted to a rehabilitation centre. On Friday, the Army claimed to have foiled a Border Action Team attack in the Tangdhar sector.editorial@tribune.com

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 24

Some miscreants on Thursday threw stones on post no.12 of the Sunjuwan military station here. The post is adjacent to the area which was the suspected entry point of the militants who attacked the station on February 10.

The incident took place after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case in the attack and started investigation.

Following stone-throwing, the Army lodged an FIR at the Trikuta Nagar police station under Section 336. The police have conducted checks in the area and have questioned some suspects. No arrests have been made so far, said a source.

This is for the first time that a military station in Jammu has been attacked with stones, putting a question mark on the safety of the high security zones. Such incidents are common in Kashmir valley, but not in Jammu.

Since the February 10 fidayeen attack, the Army has been given a free hand to fire at any suspected movement observed around any installation. Today, however, the Army exhibited restraint.

The police said a case had been registered and investigation had started.

We are on the job and trying to ascertain what happened. Houses are constructed at the site from where the Army said stones were thrown, said Arun Jamwal, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Jammu south.

During the February 10 attack, which lasted 54 hours, six soldiers and a civilian were killed and 10 were injured. Three fidayeen militants were also neutralised in the operation.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 24

The Army has provided financial assistance to a girl who was injured in a ceasefire violation on Wednesday.

An Army spokesman said Nasreena Bano of Madiya village in Uri had suffered a splinter injury during a ceasefire violation by Pakistan which resulted in loss of two-thirds of her upper lip and one-third of the lower lip.

Immediate medical and financial assistance was provided by the Army as an interim relief for basic medical treatment. However, more finances were required for the reconstruction surgery. That is where the Dagger Division stepped in and General Officer Commanding, Dagger Division, Maj Gen GS Rawat gave an amount of Rs 1,04,000 to the girl which would help her undergo the reconstruction surgery, the spokesman said.editorial@tribune.com

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 24

Director General of Police (DGP) SP Vaid has written a strongly worded letter to Inspector General of Police (Traffic) Basant Rath, who is making news on the social media for varied reasons, warning him to behave like a police officer.

The state police chief has told the IG that his conduct was unbecoming of a police officer and the continuation of such behaviour may lead to initiation of an action under law.

Pointing out the odd things that the videos have captured, like Rath roaming on roads in civvies and snatching of mobile phones and helmets while checking vehicles, the DGP has advised him to not violate the rules according to which an officer must be in uniform while checking vehicles.

This communique, which has gone viral on the social media, says, These acts are not only illegal but also unbecoming of a police officer under service rules.

The letter said Rath should be aware of the J&K Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, that clearly say that no officer shall do any checking of any vehicle without proper uniform.

You are hereby advised and warned to refrain from such acts in future. You shall always remain in proper uniform while discharging official duties as mandated in law and police rules, the letter read.

The letter warned the IG (Traffic), Any violation of these directions shall be viewed seriously and action under law shall be initiated against you.Deuba faces steep pressure to resign

Some Nepali Congress veterans and youth leaders believe it is time for Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba to hand over the leadership to the new generation.uttara@tribuneindia.com

Suresh Dharur

Tribune News Service

Visakhapatnam (AP), February 24

Adani Group has announced investment of over Rs 9,000 crore in across several sectors in Andhra Pradesh over the next five years.

Making the announcement at inaugural session of the three-day CII Partnership Summit in the coastal Andhra city of Visakhapatnam on Saturday, Group chairman Gautam Adani said: We intend to commit investments in the areas of port development, wind and solar energy.

The group signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Andhra Pradesh government on the first day of the Partnership Summit. The Group would develop a greenfield seaport at Bhavanapadu in Srikakulam district.

Adani also announced plans to set up a 1,000 MW renewable energy project and battery storage facility in the state.

On the first day of the event, being attended by 2500 delegates from 60 countries, over 15 industrial houses have signed MoUs worth Rs 15,224 crore investments to set up automobile units in the state providing employment to 57,368 skilled and unskilled workers.

Representatives from Bangladesh have evinced interest in importing pollution free electrical and solar powered automobiles from India. Andhra Pradesh, which has roped in Isuzu and Kia to set up plants in Chhittor and Anantapur, is hoping to make use of its vast coastline, ports and wide road network to attract investments in the automobile sector.

Both the Centre and AP government have drawn up plans to develop the countrys east coast as a hub for manufacture of automotive components. In a few years, every car driven in the country will have a component made in AP. This will create tremendous employment opportunities, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu said.uttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, February 24

The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday appealed to bureaucrats protesting the alleged assault on the chief secretary not to obstruct Delhi government's work, even as a forum of city officials met the Cabinet Secretary and apprised him of the "difficult working conditions" they were facing.

As the standoff between the bureaucrats and the AAP government continued, Lt Governor Anil Baijal met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, two days after he submitted a preliminary report over the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence.

In the meeting, the Lt Governor briefed Singh about the incident and the prevailing situation under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, sources said.

With the governance of the Delhi government hit, the AAP sought to extend an olive branch to the officers.

"We appeal to the officers that the government work should not suffer," Saurabh Bharadwaj, chief spokesperson of the AAP's Delhi unit, said.

On Saturday, Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues had also met the Lt Governor and sought his intervention in defusing tensions between the AAP government and the bureaucrats.

During its meeting with Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, the country's top bureaucrat, a joint forum of employees and officers of the Delhi government apprised him about the "difficult working conditions" prevailing under the AAP dispensation.

"The Cabinet Secretary gave a patient hearing to all officials and officers present and acknowledged that they are working in a difficult environment," the forum said in a statement.

He assured all employees of complete administrative and moral support. However, he cautioned that citizens should not be put to inconvenience and delivery of services should go on, to which all the officers assured complete dedication," it said.

To register their protest against the alleged assault on Prakash, bureaucrats of the IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) have not been attending meetings with the AAP ministers for the last three days.

According to the officers, they would only maintain written communication until the chief minister apologises for the incident.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that there should be no place for violence in politics and administrative work.

During the last few days, the chief secretary was attacked in the presence of Kejriwal and after that in place of taking an action against the guilty MLAs, the chief minister tried to "cover up" the incident that has shocked everyone, Tiwari alleged.

Former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran resigned from the Delhi government's State Advisory Council For Education on Friday to express solidarity with Prakash.

Also on Friday, in an unprecedented move, a Delhi Police team seized a hard disk containing CCTV footage from Kejriwal's residence in connection with the alleged assault.

Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Friday hinted that Kejriwal might be questioned by the police in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat.

Police would question all those present when the incident took place, regardless of who it was, he had said.editorial@tribune.com

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23

The Congress is contemplating mass public outreach on the unfolding of PNB scam and hopes the anti-scam sentiment will take the shape of mass action.

Top Congress leaders will meet soon to devise a formal strategy on the response to the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi-led bank fraud.

The party insists it has not yet decided whether to press for joint parliamentary committee to probe the issue, though the matter is serious enough to warrant an aggressive national offensive against the government.

We have not yet taken an internal call on what our parliament strategy on the issue will be. We will meet soon to discuss that and only then will we talk to the other opposition parties. All talk about the Congress demanding a JPC probe into the matter is, as of today, speculation. The issue warrants mass action across India. Like demonetisation, this bank fraud has the potential to wreck peoples lives, a top Congress leader told The Tribune today.

The party is convinced the PNB scam will find a resonance among people, becoming a centre point of anti-BJP campaign going forward.

Unlike the past when scams did not seem to stick to the BJP, this one is sticking which is why the government is so edgy, said Gujarat Congress leader Shakti Sinh Gohil who has dug out several papers on the matter. The Congress previously unsuccessfully tried to corner PM Narendra Modi-led BJP government on scams like Vyapam, alleged connections Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had with the absconding ex-IPL boss Lalit Modi; Panama Papers allegations against Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singhs son, Gujarat Petroleum Corporation scam and most recently the Rafale deal.

Meanwhile, the party today alleged hundreds of people in Gujarat had filed complaints starting 2015 against Gitanjali Gems for cheating them of money in a chit fund scam.

Gohil presented papers to show that despite standing complaints against Choksis firm, the wife of Maharashtra CM and the daughter of then Gujarat CM appeared in events hosted by Choksi.

Gohil also spoke of how in January 2017 the Vibrant Gujarat summit projected Gitanjali Gems as a potential collaborator for investors despite standing police complaints against Choksi.

PeeCee terminates contract

Priyanka Chopra, who featured in one of the advertisement campaigns for Nirav Modi, has terminated her contract with the brand in light of allegations of fraud against billionaire jewellery designer, the actor's spokesperson said on Friday

The actor had appeared in a TV commercial for the brand along with Sidharth Malhotra. Sidharth had earlier said that since his contract with the brand was already over, he would not seek any legal action PTI

ED summons Niravs wifeharinder@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 23

A Delhi Police team today swooped down on the residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and seized a hard disk containing CCTV footage in connection with the Chief Secretary assault case, even as the CM knocked at the Lt Governors door to ensure that the government work was not hit due to a boycott by bureaucrats.

In all, 21 CCTV cameras and a hard disk were examined by the police. The possibility of tampering with the hard disk could be ascertained only after forensic examination, Additional DCP (North) Harendra Singh said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

A city court, meanwhile, refused to grant bail to AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal in the assault case, observing that the circumstances prima facie pointed to a premeditated criminal conspiracy.

Miffed by police raids, Kejriwal hit out at the Central Government daring it if a similar raid would be conducted at BJP president Amit Shahs house in Judge BH Loyas death case

The AAP accused the Delhi Police of acting like a bully at the behest of the Centre by entering the CMs house illegally and said the action was aimed at insulting and humiliating him.

Without taking the name of BJP and its leaders, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said it is unfortunate that some dictators and people with a mentality of hooligans have captured power, be it Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh.

The dadagiri by the Delhi Police at Kejriwals residence is being done at the behest of the BJP. The Delhi Police are a mere puppet, he said.

The police claimed its action (of dispatching a posse to Kejriwals house to collect evidence) came after its request for CCTV footage from the CMs residence was not met. CM Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia met Anil Baijal and said the Lt Governor assured them that he would take all steps to ensure officers start functioning normally.

Bureaucrats of the Delhi Government had earlier decided to boycott all meetings called by ministers. Officers not attending meetings for last three days. Governance suffering. I m v concerned. LG assured he will take all steps to ensure officers started functioning normally. Council of ministers assured him all cooperation (sic), Kejriwal tweeted.

However, the L-G sent out a strong statement after the meeting. The Lt Governor strongly condemned the incidents and termed them as most unfortunate. The Lt Governor noted that no government can fulfil its promises to the people if the employees feel demoralised and insecure.  PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Beijing, February 24

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale visited Beijing on Friday and held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed a range of issues amidst continuing tensions in bilateral ties.

The visit of Gokhale, who was also the former Indian envoy to China, was announced on Saturday by the Indian Embassy here through a tweet.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is visiting China to discuss the bilateral agenda, exchange plans and visits for 2018. He met with FM Wang Yi on February 23, the tweet said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement late last night on Gokhales talks with Wang.

Wang said that the two sides should enhance strategic mutual trust and accelerate common development in line with the political consensus of the leaders of the two countries, according to the statement.

We hope that the Indian side will handle sensitive issues prudently and work with China to promote the sound development of China-India relations, Wang said, apparently referring to a host of sensitive issues between India and China, including the current political crisis in the Maldives.

China and India are both representatives of emerging markets and big developing countries, Wang said, adding that commonality cannot be replaced.

According to the press release, Gokhale said he was pleased to visit China at the very beginning of his term. Gokhale succeeded S Jaishankar as foreign secretary last month.

He said India attached great importance to its relations with China and was willing to work with it to implement the consensus of leaders, strengthen strategic communications, take care of each others core concerns and create a good atmosphere for the sustained and steady development of bilateral relations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit China in June this year to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held at Qingdao city.

The visit of Gokhale, who reportedly held the key negotiations to resolve the 73-day standoff at Dokalam, came in the backdrop of difficult bilateral and trilateral issues being dealt with by the two countries.

The Dokalam standoff ended on August 28 after the Chinese military stopped road building close to the strategic Chicken Neck corridor in an area claimed by Bhutan.

Besides the tensions along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the two countries faced a range of issues, including Indias objection to the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China blocking efforts at the UN to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist as well as Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The current political crisis in the Maldives also emerged as an irritant in bilateral ties.

The Maldives was plunged into a crisis when President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day emergency on February 5 and ordered the arrest of the Chief Justice and a former head of state after the Supreme Court termed unconstitutional the imprisonment of nine MPs and former President Mohammed Nasheed.

China which has made large scale investments in the Maldives, called for the crisis to be resolved by relevant parties internally and opposed any external intervention. Beijing also opposed to even UN mediation to resolve the crisis.

Former president Nasheed, who is currently in exile in Sri Lanka, however had called for the Indian intervention to resolve the crisis. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 24

Amid continued Sino-India discord over a host of issues, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale has made a surprise visit to Beijing and held talks with top Chinese officials on bilateral ties and topics related to regional and international importance.

Gokhale's visit, which was kept under wraps was announced through a tweet by Indian Embassy early today.

"During the consultations, the two sides reviewed recent developments in bilateral relations, including high level exchanges, and discussed the agenda for bilateral engagement in the coming months," a statement by the Indian Embassy here said.

Gokhale who was India's envoy to China before he succeeded S Jaishankar as the Foreign Secretary last month, held talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, and called on Foreign Minister Wang Yi and state councillor Yang Jiechi,the statement said.

In Chinese hierarchy, Yang who is the State Councillor besides Special Representative of India-China border talks, is placed higher than the Foreign Minister.

Both Wang and Yang visited New Delhi to kick start the bilateral dialogue, the first after the 73-day standoff at Dokalam, which strained ties.

"Both sides agreed upon the need to expedite various dialogue mechanisms in order to promote multifaceted cooperation across diverse fields of India-China engagement," the statement said.

They noted the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's concerns, interests and aspirations, the statement said.

"Both sides underlined that as two major countries, sound development of relations between India and China is a factor of stability in the world today. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest," it said.

Late last night, the Chinese Foreign Ministry posted a statement on its website.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry in its statement said that Wang told Gokhale that the two sides should enhance strategic mutual trust and accelerate common development in line with the political consensus of the leaders of the two countries.

"We hope that the Indian side will handle sensitive issues prudently and work with China to promote the sound development of China-India relations," Wang said in an apparent reference to host of sensitive issues, including the current political crisis in Maldives being faced by the two countries.

China and India are both representatives of emerging markets and big developing countries, Wang said, adding that "commonality" cannot be replaced.

Gokhale, meanwhile, said India attaches great importance to its relations with China and is willing to work with it to implement the consensus of leaders, strengthen strategic communications, take care of each other's core concerns and create a good atmosphere and conditions for the sustained and steady development of bilateral relations.

The visit of Gokhale, who reportedly held the key negotiations to resolve the 73-day standoff at Dokalam, came in the backdrop of difficult bilateral and trilateral issues being dealt with by the two countries.

The Dokalam standoff ended on August 28 after the Chinese military stopped road building close to the strategic Chicken Neck corridor in an area claimed by Bhutan.

Besides the tensions along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the two countries faced a range of issues, including India's objection to the US$ 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China blocking efforts at the UN to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist as well as India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The current political crisis in the Maldives also emerged as an irritant in bilateral ties.

The Maldives was plunged into a crisis when President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day emergency on February 5 and ordered the arrest of the Chief Justice and a former head of state after the Supreme Court termed "unconstitutional" the imprisonment of nine MPs and former President Mohammed Nasheed.

China, which has made large scale investments in the Maldives, called for the crisis to be resolved by relevant parties internally and opposed any external intervention. Beijing also opposed to even UN mediation to resolve the crisis.

Former president Nasheed, who is currently in exile in Sri Lanka, however had called for the Indian intervention to resolve the crisis. PTIsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 24

After a frosty year in Sino-India ties overshadowed by the Doklam tense standoff, efforts are on to reset relations. After taking over as Foreign Secretary, Vijay Gokhale is on his first visit to Beijing for diplomatic consultations with senior Chinese officials.

From February 23 to 24, Gokhale held talks with Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou. He called on Foreign Minister Wang Yi and State Councillor Yang Jiechi, who is also the special representative on boundary talks with the Indian National Security Adviser.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Gokhale served as Ambassador to China during the 73-day Doklam crisis and during Prime Minister Modis visit to Xiamen for the BRICS summit soon after the mutual disengagement at the tri-junction with Bhutan last October.

The Foreign Secretary  on his current Beijing visit  discussed the agenda for bilateral engagement in the coming months and the scope of various dialogue mechanisms.

They noted the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each others concerns, interests and aspirations. Both sides underlined that as two major countries, sound development of relations between India and China is a factor of stability in the world today, said an official Ministry of External Affairs statement.

Interestingly, the Foreign Secretary was in Beijing just as the global watchdog FATF (Financial Action Task Force), in its plenary meet in Paris, arrived at a consensus to grey-list Pakistan for financing terror.

The consensus was arrived at after last-minute hectic parleys in Delhi, Beijing and Moscow by Indians and American diplomats. It helped win the approval of China, Saudi and Turkey for action against Pakistan.

However, One Belt One Road, Indias membership to NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group), Chinese veto support to Pakistani terror masterminds at the Security Council and Tibetan spiritual guru Dalai Lama are among the major sticking points in the ties. As reported by The Tribune earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping is hoping to meet PM Narendra Modi in informal settings this year for frank talks.harinder@tribunemail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23

On the last leg of his first state visit to India, Justin Trudeau held formal talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. The Canadian PM was received by Modi with a hug and accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier.

Talks between the two focused on security partnership, economic cooperation and regional and international situations  Afghanistan, North Korea, Myanmar and the Maldives included.

Edit: Sorry finale to Trudeau visit

Amid growing Indian concerns on Trudeau and his government sympathising with Khalistani supporters, terrorism and violent extremism formed an important subject during the formal discussions. There should not be space for those who misuse religion for political motives and promote separatism. We will not tolerate those who challenge the unity and integrity of our countries, said Narendra Modi, with Trudeau standing next to him.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The two sides agreed on a Framework for Cooperation on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism pursuant to talks between the National Security Advisers (NSAs). The leaders agreed to institutionalise NSA-level dialogue and to regularly convene a Foreign Minister-level strategic dialogue.

Naming terror groups, including the Babbar Khalsa, the document reads: They committed to work together to neutralise the threats emanating from terrorist groups such as Al Qaida, ISIS, the Haqqani Network, LeT, JeM, Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation.

They recognised the urgent imperative to disrupt recruitment, terrorist movements and the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, address the threat posed by cross-border and state-sponsored terrorism, stop sources of terrorist financing, dismantle terrorist infrastructure and prevent supply of arms to terrorists and counter violent extremism and radicalisation to violence.

However, Trudeaus press statement did not mention terrorism. Instead, he focused on trade and diaspora ties, calling India a natural partner and trusted friend in commercial cooperation. The joint statement issued after the talks seeks to step up negotiations to finalise a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and a Bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. The countries will work closely together to finalise an arrangement within this year to enable the export of Canadian pulses to India free from pests of quarantine importance, with mutually acceptable technological protocols.

Alluding to China, the joint statement calls for responsible debt financing practices while ensuring respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity in the Indo-Pacific.

Six cooperation agreements and MoUs, including in areas of civil-nuclear science, higher education, and intellectual property, were exchanged.

Special exception for Trudeau kids

A special exception was made for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus children  Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien  to be at the ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday, senior officials said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Thursday said he was looking forward to meeting Trudeaus children and had posted a picture from his 2015 Canada visit, when he had met Trudeau and Ella-Grace. There was a special exception made for the visiting leaders children to be at the ceremonial reception, a senior official said. After the ceremonial reception, Modi tweeted, Glad that I had the opportunity to meet his family as well. Modi also posted his picture with Trudeau and his family at the ceremonial reception. PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Our Correspondent

Jaipur, February 24

Ahead of his March 23 agitation in Delhi, social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday termed the Narendra Modi government at the Centre as anti-farmer saying it is taking much care of industrialists and has dumped pro-farmer policies.

Farmers are not getting due MSP for their produce and they are being deprived of electricity concessions. The Modi government has failed to work for the interests of farmers, even as it had come to power by making lofty promises, Hazare on his tour to parts of Rajasthan told a press conference here.

On PM's meeting on Lokpal in March, he said whether it is the previous UPA government or the present BJP-led NDA dispensation, everyone has weakened the provisions of Lokpal Bill. If the Modi government wants to bring Janlokpal adhiniyam, it should not have weakened it, Hazare added.

When reminded of the PMs slogan Na khaunga, na khane dunga, Hazare reacted that how come then bank scams are being exposed every other day. Unless the Lokpal Bill is brought, corruption would prevail, he warned.

On the tussle between the Chief Secretary and MLAs in Delhi, he said, Violence has no place in democracy and these kind of incidents should not happen. Neither Delhi CM Arvind Kejariwal nor PM Narendra Modi would do any welfare of the country and both are obstacles in development process, he alleged.

Hazare said his protest march to Delhi is to press for appointment of a 'competent Lokpal' and to highlights farmers' grievances. It is time again for the public to wake up and they must democratically elect the government that can work for the interest of public in general, he appealed.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 24

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today ruled out privatisation of public sector banks as a response to the Rs 11,400-crore fraud hitting Punjab National Bank, saying the move may not be politically acceptable.

At an event here, he said a lot of people have started talking of privatisation in the aftermath of the PNB fraud. This involves a large political consensus. Also, that involves an amendment to the law (Banking Regulation Act). My impression is that Indian political opinion may not find favour with this idea itself. Its a very challenging decision, he said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

On Friday, FICCI president Rashesh Shah said he had asked the FM to begin the process of bank privatisation in a phased manner, leaving just two-three lenders in the public sector. Industry body Assocham has also urged the government to reduce its stake in public sector banks to less than 50 per cent so that they can work with the sense of accountability.  PTIEducation in the federation of Nepal

A robust discussion concerning the future state of education under a federal setup in Nepal has kicked off at a two-day international conference, organised by the Higher Institutions and Secondary Schools Association Nepal (Hissan).harinder@tribunemail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23

In a significant move, Pakistan will be placed on the grey list by the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) plenary. The six-day meeting in Paris ended today with consensus on the motion nominated by the US, the UK, Germany and France. Sources said as per the procedures, a formal announcement will be made at the next plenary in June with the compliance action plan prepared by then.

This will place Pakistan and its State Bank under immense scrutiny of the global watchdog that sets regulatory and legal mechanisms to counter terror-financing. Sources said the consensus at the plenary was arrived at after a long set of interventions by multiple countries that supported the nomination. The Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering plenary meets every 90 days.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Eventually, all countries kept silent when the Argentinian President asked if there were any objections to the nomination, said a source privy to the negotiations. This included China, which had backed Pakistan at the last plenary at Buenos Aires. At the ICRG (International Cooperation Review Group) deliberations earlier in the week, China was joined by Saudi Arabia and Turkey in defending Pakistan.

Based on ICRG discussions Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif took to Twitter to announce his country had been provided reprieve, even before the plenary meet began.

A senior Russian diplomat told The Tribune that at the ICRG, Moscow advised against punishing Pakistan 'prematurely' when some efforts were on by 'reasonable sections' in Islamabad to crack down on terror havens. However Russia did not want to go against the general consensus. "All countries supported Pakistan's recent efforts to seize assets of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamat-ud-Dawah and Falah-e-Insaniyat. But members lamented that this process should have occurred much earlier," said a source.

Once implemented in June, Pakistan stands a risk downgrade by multilateral lenders like the IMF, World Bank, and ADB that would make borrowing of funds difficult and impact its foreign reserves. Also, a reduction in its risk-rating could impact its stock markets significantly. Pakistan was on the grey list for three years till February 2015 till it completed the action plan on implementing FATF standards.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Daman, February 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched development schemes worth Rs 1,000 crore for Daman and Diu, and also inaugurated a flight connecting Ahmedabad to coastal town of Diu.

The Prime Minister, who inaugurated Air Odishas flight connecting Ahmedabad with Diu under the Centres regional connectivity scheme UDAN, said air connectivity will boost tourism in the region.

He also launched a helicopter service connecting Daman and Diu at an event here.

The air connectivity will boost tourism as tourists who want to visit the Somnath temple, Gir forest (in Gujarat) can now go (there) from Diu, Modi said.

Somnath temple and Gir forest are located around 80 kilometres from Diu. Ahmedabad to Diu road journey takes 12 hours and the air connectivity reduces the travel time to just an hour.

Modi also laid the foundation stones for a slew of projects, including a water treatment plant, a gas pipeline, an electric sub-station, a municipal market and a foot-bridge for the union territory.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated anganwadis (child care centres) and schools constructed under corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

On the occasion, he distributed e-rickshaws to women and scooters to differently-abled beneficiaries.

Modi said his government has launched schemes worth around Rs 1,000 crore today for development of Daman and Diu.

Earlier in the day, Modi arrived at the Surat airport where he was accorded a grand welcome.

People gathered in large numbers to greet him on both sides of the road in Daman. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Chennai, February 24

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the subsidised scooter scheme for working women on the occasion of the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late leader Jayalalithaa.

It was launched in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam among others.

The scheme, with a subsidy component of 50 per cent (up to Rs 25,000) for working women, was launched by Modi, who handed over keys and registration certificates to five women beneficiaries.

He also launched 70-lakh tree sapling planting drive to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa. The beneficiaries included women who worked in private sector, an accountant, a salesperson and an assistant in a private store. A smiling Modi exchanged a few words with the beneficiaries while handing over the keys.

Palaniswami in his address urged Modi to take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulatory Committee, as directed by the Supreme Court. The Chief Minister also recalled a slew of welfare initiatives and freebie schemes launched by Jayalalithaa.

Hailing Modi, Panneerselvam said the PM was courageously leading India.

Stating that Amma had implemented several schemes for the safety and well being of women, right from their birth to old age, Panneerselvam said this scheme, also envisioned by the late leader, was for peoples welfare and development.

He said this scheme too would be the forerunner for other state governments, like other previous initiatives. So far 3,36,103 women have applied under the scheme and scrutiny of such applications were under process, according to the ruling AIADMK.

Earlier the Prime Minister Modi was welcomed by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and top state officials at the Chennai airport.

From there, he flew to INS Adyar Naval base near Marina beach, from where he reached the function venue by road.  PTI

Rs 1,000-cr plans for Daman & Diu

PM Modi on Saturday launched development schemes worth Rs 1,000 crore for Daman and Diu, and also inaugurated a flight connecting Ahmedabad to coastal town of Diu

The PM also launched a helicopter service connecting Daman and Diu, laid foundation stones for a slew of projects, including a water treatment plant, a gas pipeline, an electric sub-station, a municipal market and a foot-bridge for the UT

Modi, who inaugurated Air Odisha's flight connecting Ahmedabad with Diu under the Centre's regional connectivity scheme UDAN, said air connectivity would boost tourism in the region

Jayas statue unveiled on 70th birth anniveditorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, February 23

A CBI court on Friday sent Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul to one-day transit remand while the Income Tax Department froze 12 bank accounts of the group and issued six prosecution against the businessman in connection with the Rs3,695 crore loan default.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal at the Patiala House Courts passed an order for a day's remand after the CBI sought a two-day remand to take the father and son to Lucknow.

The duo will be produced before the court concerned in Lucknow on Saturday.

Kothari and his son were arrested on Thursday for alleged default on loan repayment after their four-day consecutive questioning since the CBI filed the case against them and raided their residential and office premises in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur.

Defence advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey had raised objections to the jurisdiction of the court, saying the accused should be produced before a sessions court and not before a magisterial court. The court then reserved its order till 2 pm.

Meanwhile, an Income Tax official said over 12 more bank accounts of the Rotomac Group Pvt Ltd have been attached in addition to the 14 bank accounts attached earlier and that six prosecutions have been sanctioned against Kothari.

The agency filed the FIR on Sunday after getting a complaint against Kothari, his wife Sadhana and son Rahul, from the Bank of Baroda. Kothari is the Chairman and Managing Director of Rotomac while his wife and son are Directors.

A consortium of seven banks had extended loans worth Rs2,919 crore to Rotomac Global Pvt Limited 2008 onwards, according to a CBI FIR. The principal exposure of the banks regarding the loan is Bank of India Rs754.77 crore, Bank of Baroda Rs456.63 crore, Overseas Bank of India Rs771.07 crore, Union Bank of India Rs458.95 crore, Allahabad Bank Rs330.68 crore, Bank of Maharashtra Rs49.82 crore and Oriental Bank of Commerce Rs97.47 crore, the agency has said, the FIR said.  IANSpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Thiruvananthapuram, February 24

The Centre on Saturday sought a report from the Kerala Government over lynching to death of a tribal man for allegedly stealing articles from some shops at Agali in Palakkad district.

Union Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram said a report has been sought from the state Chief Secretary over the death of the man, hailing from Attappady, one of the most backward tribal settlements in the state, on Thursday.

Our ministry has sought a report from the chief secretary about the incident and the action taken by the state government, the minister told a television channel.

The state government decided to provide a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the tribal man, Madhu, who was beaten to death by a group of persons for allegedly stealing food articles from some shops in the forest-fringe Agali town.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today directed the Chief Secretary to hand over the amount to Madhus family at the earliest.

Madhu, who was said to be mentally unsound, was living in a cave in the forest for the past several months, his family said.

His mother, Mallika and sister Chandrika told television channels that a group of nearly 10-15 persons went to the forest and thrashed him.

After being beaten up, Madhu was made to walk over four km with a heavy sack on his back, they alleged.

When he asked for water, he was mocked at, they alleged, quoting eye-witnesses.

They also alleged that some forest officials had allowed the local people to go to the area and attack the tribal.

The Opposition Congress and BJP are observing a hartal at Mannarcaud taluk, under which Attappady falls.

The hartal has so far been peaceful. The shops have downed shutters, while vehicles are plying.

Tribal activists staged a protest this morning, blocking traffic in Attapady.

Activists of various tribal outfits staged a protest on Friday, demanding the arrest of all the culprits. PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Ravi S. Singh

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 24

The Punjab government has set eyes on boosting states economy through the means of its rich vein of history and culture which will be on global display during the proposed two-day Punjab Panorama to be hosted at the historic Qila Mubarak fort in Patiala from March 3.

Exuding optimism, Punjabs Tourism and Culture Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu termed the proposed event as landmark. It will help unlock huge untapped tourism potential of the Punjab -- the land of Sikh Gurus -- and present Brand Punjab to the world, he said.

This is the first time that the historic fort will be presented to history and culture aficionados on an international scale and through it, among others, the glorious history of the state -- the land of Sikh Gurus.

He said the dilapidated fort, constructed in 1763 by Baba Ala Singh, is being refurbished at a cost of Rs 25 crore. Baba Ala Singh is the founder of Phulkian royalty, to which CM Capt Amarinder Singh belongs.

To paraphrase, Punjab Panorama is the first international contemporary arts forum. It will be inaugurated by Capt Amarinder. It will be attended, among others, by Greek Ambassador and the Consul General Canada.

Sidhu said the event, supported by Punjab government, will provide a platform to provide an opportunity to market the states art, history and culture internationally.

The Minister said the landmark historical places are being given a facelift.

The states defining cultural ethos is universal brotherhood humanistic matrix accreted and flowing from the cumulative teachings of the Sikh gurus will also be propagated internationally vide the event.

Born in Patiala to the Royal family, and founder and Director of Punjab Panorma, Sara Singh, accompanying Sidhu, said the major highlights of the event will be curated exhibition of international film work by female artistes from around the world.

The event,organised in collaboration with several embassies, will bring together internationally reputed cultural representatives. Among the participants are Greece, Canada, Swiss Arts Council, Goethe Instut (having headquarters at Munich, Germany) and Asia Society.

As many as five major world museums  from Denmark, Greece, UK, USA and Canada  will take part in it.harinder@tribunemail.com

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 23

With Nabha jailbreak mastermind Ramanjit Singh Romi, 29, being arrested in Hong Kong for his role in a robbery, the Punjab Government will send a formal request for his deportation through diplomatic channels.

The international criminal, who allegedly raised an empire in Hong Kong through nefarious activities, already faces a Red Corner Notice. Punjab Police were informed about his arrest by the Interpol. Hailing from Bathindas Bangi Kalan village, he had been residing at Kowloon, Hong Kong.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Romi, it is believed, was the point man for coordination between Punjab gangsters and terrorists. After gangsters Vicky Gounder and Prema Lahoria were killed in an encounter recently, Punjab DGP Suresh Arora had said that Romi had helped Gounder procure an assault rifle and that he had masterminded the Nabha jailbreak by funding gangsters active in Punjab's Majha, Malwa and Doaba regions.

Senior officials said Romi was the communication link between Punjab gangsters and ISI-backed Pakistan-based terrorists. He was working through WhatsApp and VoIP platforms. Romi had acted as a mediator between gangsters Dharmender Singh Gugni and Gounder, who were at loggerheads, transferred funds for terror activities and had a hand in targeted killings and kidnappings.

He may have been a conduit for Pakistans drug smugglers, said sources.

Gurmeet Chauhan, AIG, Organised Crime Control Unit, said Romis name had figured in the killing of RSS, Shiv Sena and Dera Sirsa men. He had close links with Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence and was coordinating between terror groups and Punjab gangsters, he claimed.

A senior police official said Romi came in touch with Jagtar Singh Johal alias Jaggi, a UK national and a key conspirator in the terror module that carried out targeted killings of Hindu leaders (in 2016-2017), including that of Brig Jagdish Gagneja in August 2016, through Harmeet Singh alias PHD, a KLF terrorist based in Pakistan.

PHD had told Jagtar Singh that Dharminder Singh Gugni, a gangster lodged in Nabha jail, had arranged weapons for Ramandeep Rathore, one of the two motorcycle-borne assailants who carried out the killings. Jagtar spoke to Romi at least thrice between May-July 2017, he added.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana/Chandigarh, February 24

Amid reports of clashes, firing incidents and complaints of booth capturing, polling for 95 wards of states biggest Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana was held on Saturday.

The overall poll percetage in Ludhiana was was 59.14.

Two persons were reportedly injured in a clash between Akali and Congress workers outside DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, in ward no. 75. It is learnt that firing took place during the clash at around 3.55 pm, minutes before the end of polling.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The candidates of SAD-BJP and AAP-LIP accused the Congressmen of booth capturing and misusing government machinery during the elections in various wards of MC.

Voters started queuing up before 8 am, when the voting officially started.

A total of 494 candidates are contesting for the 95 municipal wards. Results will be announced on February 27.

The main fight is between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party-Lok Insaf Party alliance.

There are over 10.5 lakh voters in Ludhiana. As many as 1,153 polling stations have been set up.

Civic issues like water supply, lack of cleanliness, pollution, bad roads and infrastructure and poor sewerage are the main issues for common people in the election.

Tight security arrangements were in place on Saturday for the smooth conduct of the polling process.

The Congress, which runs the government in Punjab since March 2017, had won the municipal elections in the municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in December.

The Congress party had also emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.With IANS inputseditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 24

An accused wanted in Ludhiana Shingar Cinema blast case and another accused of funding the recent target killings of politico-religious leaders feature prominently on the list of nine Canada-based alleged Khalistan sympathisers, which was submitted to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau by Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

The Punjab Police have shared only about half of the names with the media claiming that the rest of the names were included on the basis of intelligence inputs on their anti-India activities.

The names include six alleged members of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) and three belonging to the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) or the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).

The alleged mushrooming of Khalistan sympathisers in Canada has been an issue of serious concern between Indian and Canadian governments. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also raised the issue yesterday besides the Punjab government, which had gone to the extent of denying meeting with some alleged Khalistan sympathising ministers in the Trudeau government.

Police sources have shared six names. There persons have been booked in several cases. They are Gurjeet Singh Cheema, Gurpreet Singh Peet, Gurjinder Singh Pannu, Hardeep Singh Nijjar and Malkit Singh. Other names cannot be disclosed as it can compromise ongoing investigation against them.

Malkit Singh, based in Surrey, is accused of supplying weapons to a terror module. Another Surrey resident, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, belonging to the Khalistan Tiger Force, is wanted in Ludhianas Shingar Cinema blast. He is accused of supplying money to different terror modules.editorial@tribune.com

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 24

Violence and complaints of booth-capturing were the highlights of the polling for 95 wards of the local municipal corporation held here today. The city registered 59.14 per cent turnout.

Candidates of the SAD-BJP and AAP accused the ruling party of capturing booths and misusing the government machinery in various wards.

Two persons were reportedly injured in a clash between Akali and Congress workers outside DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, Ward No. 75. It is learnt that firing took place during the clash around 3:55 pm, just five minutes before the polling time ended.

Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu alleged that a SAD candidate's husband, Bhupinder Singh Bhinda, and his aides attacked Congressmen and damaged their two vehicles. He also blamed the SAD workers for firing on Congress supporters.

Denying the allegations, Akali MLA from Sahnewal Sharanjit Singh Dhillon accused the Congress of attacking Bhinda. "Bhinda is innocent. We will meet the police commissioner," he said.

ACP Gurpreet Singh said the Congressmen had complained about the attack. "We have arrested a man, but there is no confirmation about the firing. The injured, said to be Congress supporters, have been admitted to Dayanand Medical College and Hospital," he said. Candidates of the SAD-BJP, LIP and an Independent accused Congress MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid, whose son is a candidate, of entering into a polling station and threatening the poll staff. Akali candidate Meetpal Singh Dugri blamed the Congress for booth-capturing. Several residents, too, complained that their votes were cast by other persons.

BJP leaders accused MLA Surinder Dawar and his kin of entering the booths to influence voters and indulging in bogus voting at Ward Nos. 56 and 59. SAD candidate of Ward No. 67 Upinderjit Kaur accused the Congress of casting bogus votes at Malwa Khalsa School, Ludhiana. AAP leaders also levelled similar accusations in Ward Nos. 72 and 15.

SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema accused Bittu and Bhushan of leading mobs into booths to drive out Akali polling agents and to rig polls.

Lok Insaaf Party chief Simarjit Singh Bains accused the police and the administration of favouring the ruling party. He said: "It is the murder of democracy."

Denying the allegations, Ashu claimed that the Opposition was trying to defame them as "no booth was captured". In fact, Akali workers armed with weapons attacked Congressmen, he alleged.Project progress slow but steady

The much-delayed international airport project in Bhairahawa has achieved a measly 10 percent physical progress in 2017, and if it continues at the same rate, it would take another 8 years to finish, the project financer Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Friday.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune reporters

Bathinda, February 24

Amid scuffles, Congress candidate Teerth Singh Sweety won the municipal byelection from Budhladas Ward No. 2. He was polled 877 votes against 607 by SADs Mukhwinder Singh Subhash.

While the SAD accused the ruling party of misusing the government machinery, its women wing members clashed with policewomen at a booth. Constables Amritpal Kaur and Sarabjeet Kaur were injured and admitted to hospital.

City police station incharge Balwinder Singh said the injured constables were undergoing treatment at the Civil Hospital. Appropriate action will be taken on the basis of victims statements, he said.

SAD candidate Mukhwinder Singh and Nagar Council president Harwinder Singh Bunty were also allegedly attacked. They alleged that policemen at the spot failed to act.

Fazilka: The Congress on Saturday won the local municipal council byelection from Ward No. 7 amid allegation of booth-capturing by the BJP. Congress candidate Bimla Rani defeated her rival BJPs Sangeeta Rani by a margin of 178 votes. Sources said of the total 1,313 votes polled, Bimla Rani got 735 and Sangeeta Rani 557.

The election was necessitated following the death of BJP councillor Kanta Rani some time ago. The BJP alleged that the Congress had captured both booths at Guru Nanak Sikh Kanya Pathshalla, where the polling took place. A number of BJP activists, led by former minister Surjit Kumar Jyani, staged a protest outside the school and blocked the Fazilka-Abohar highway.

Muktsar: Nar Singh Rinku, Congress candidate, won the byelection from municipal Ward No. 15 in Malout. Rinku got 1,188 votes, while Rajpal Singh of the SAD got 376 and BJPs Sheela Devi 145. Of the total 2,113 votes, 1,722 were polled. Though Akalis accused the police of favouring the ruling party, the BJP remained silent.

Fatehgarh Sahib: Congress candidate Gurpreet Singh Lalli, a confidant of MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra, on Saturday won the bypoll from Ward No. 10 of the Sirhind-Fatehgarh Sahib Municipal Council. He defeated his nearest rival Sonia Markan of the SAD by a margin of 628 votes. Lalli got 1,002 votes and Markan 374 out of the total 1,389 votes polled.

Moga: Congress candidate Gurpreet Kaur defeated her nearest rival Gurwinder Kaur of the SAD by a 139 votes in the byelection from Ward No. 25 here. This seat fell vacant after the death of SAD councillor Gurdev Kaur a couple of months ago.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 24

The historic Qila Mubarak is all set to host a two-day Punjab Panorama, an international contemporary arts forum on March 3 and 4.

The event will bring together international artists, museum directors, musicians, historians and curators. It is being organised in collaboration with several embassies and is supported by the Punjab Government. The participants will be from Greece, Canada, Swiss Arts Council, Goethe Instut, Asia Society etc.

State Tourism and Culture Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, at a press conference in Delhi today, said the programme would be marked by panel discussions and presentations that explore Punjabs culture and history through artifacts, films and architecture, in the framework of Punjab as Protagonist and Hybrid Aesthetics. It will see the representation of five major world museums (in the UK, the US, Denmark, Greece, Canada), 11 international film artistes, three international performance artistes and three Indian performance artistes. The event will help unlock the huge untapped tourism potential of Punjab to the world, said Sidhu. He said the dilapidated fort, constructed in 1763 by Baba Ala Singh, was being refurbished at a cost of Rs 25 crore.

Sarah Singh, founder-director of Panorama Punjab and noted artiste herself, said a major highlight of the programme would be a curated exhibition of international film work by female artistes from around the world.

Mirjam Gelfer, former Deputy Director of Design Museum Denmark, will make a presentation on Japanese influence on Danish design. Susan Stronge, senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, will give a presentation on Arts of Punjab. Dr Elisavet Tsigarida, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Pella Museum in Greece, will make a presentation on When the Greeks Met the Indians which traces the cultural impact and legacy of Alexander.

The event, which is open to all, will conclude on Saturday with a bossa nova zazz concert by a trio from Belgium  the Bossa Brothers. Sunday evening will conclude with classical music that explores the musical connections from Iran to Afghanistan via Punjab and Kashmir.

Badals brought state to ruins

New Delhi: Reacting to SAD chief Sukhbir Badals charges against the Congress government, the PPCC on Saturday lambasted the Akalis for allegedly looting every single resource they could lay their hands on during their decade-long misrule of the state. Sidhu described the Badals as the most-corrupt family in the country, who had led Punjabs people into an abyss of ruin. PPCC president Sunil Jakhar also alleged that the SAD had become the most corrupt party in the country under the Badals, who had been only interested in filling up their own coffers. tnsAman Sood in Patiala

Aman Sood in Patiala

Every winter farmers from the Kandi belt around Jalandhar and Ropar rush to Patiala and adjoining areas to request a few hunters to save them from marauding wild boars and blue bulls that destroy more than they eat.

The hunters work with limited resources; there are risks of traveling with guns and then waiting in the farmlands for the wild animals. The process for getting a legal permit to shoot these animals is very lengthy and cumbersome. By the time a farmer gets a permit, his crop is already destroyed, says Balraj Ghuman, now into big-time hunting.

Ghuman says farmers approach him. I was off hunting for 25 years. But farmers kept approaching me since I come from a farmer family. So, I decided to pick up the gun again, he says. I have to go as far as Nawanshahr, Ropar, Chamkaur Sahib, Machhiwara and even Ferozepur to help the desperate farmers.

Farmer unions have repeatedly demanded adequate and timely compensation. The unions say the cases of crop destruction are usually ignored. According to the Punjab wildlife department, in the last two years, 72 such cases were reported in various areas. These involved 31 cases of loss to property caused by wild animals. The total compensation in the same period was only Rs 1.25 lakh for the crop damage and Rs 2.75 lakh for damage to properties.

The conflict

Rapid urbanization has squeezed up space for wild animals who rush to places where food is easily available, bringing them in conflict with farmers. The culling, legally or otherwise, reinforces the lack of a mechanism to address the issue.

Culling is illogical. But we have to think about farmers who have no option, says Gurdeep Bedi, an animal rights activist. There have been no scientific studies in Punjab on the population of wild animals or on the scale to which these animals affect human life. Farmers have been using barbed electric fences to kill these animals or use deadly iron traps, all of which are barbaric means, he says. The absence of buffer zones around forest cover is a major reason for these animals to venture out in the agricultural land.

Blue bulls and wild boars have caused the maximum damage in Punjab as they move in herds and destroy acres of crops in a day. Earlier last year the Punjab government allowed culling of blue bulls in addition to wild boars which were already declared a vermin almost a decade back. The vermin can be killed and used for consumption only after legal permits from the wildlife department.

Ghuman and farmer-hunter Sikandar Singh say their task is not easy. We travel over 200 km by a petrol vehicle to shoot a wild boar or a blue bull. The only thing we get in return is the meat for self-consumption. We are on our own to help the needy farmers, they say.

Punjabs forest cover

Though its forest cover is among the lowest in the country, Punjab has something to cheer about. The 2017 Forest Survey of India (FSI) assessment has shown an average 66 sq km increase in the states forest cover. The forest area, which is even less than the desert state of Rajasthan, has increased marginally owing to governments sapling distribution scheme.

Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur have emerged as top districts with the increased cover, while Moga, Muktsar and Rupnagar witnesses a decline. Hoshiarpur saw an increase of 34 sq km in the forest cover, followed by Gurdaspur 24 sq km and SBS Nagar 7 sq km. Other districts which saw a marginal increase in the forest area are Jalandhar, Patiala, Sangrur, SAS Nagar, Tarn Taran, Bathinda and Mansa.

In all, Punjab has only 3.65% of its 50,362 sq km area under forest cover, the lowest in the country. This clearly shows that wild animals have few areas to limit themselves. So, they have to come out to look for food, says hunter-turned-wildlife photographer Jaskaran Sandhu.

Shooting permit

In 2017, the state government was flooded with SOS requests from farmers in the Kandi belt. It decided to simplify the procedure for sanctioning 45-day permit for shooting the wild animals damaging crops. The permit process was made online and on WhatsApp digital platform to ensure ease of procedure. These permits for limited hunting are confined to privately owned land and are meant only for animals that damage crops. Maximum permits are issued against wild boars, which are a threat to crops and also to lives of farmers, says principal conservator of forests (wildlife) Kuldip Kumar.Sanjeev Sharma in New Delhi

Sanjeev Sharma in New Delhi

If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, thats the banks problem, said American oil tycoon, J Paul Getty. The Rs 11,400-crore fraud in Punjab National Bank (PNB), the countrys second largest, has shaken the insipid economy, the stress-prone PSU banking system and the faith of customers, leading to national outrage. Key perpetrators, diamond jewelers, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, are absconding. And as if it was nothing, the Rotomac fraud erupted leading to the arrest of owner Vikram Kothari.

The indignation of the common man stems from the myriad checks imposed by banks, ranging from frequent Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to Aadhaar linking and multiple document supervision. The common customer knows very well how s/he is hounded by banks on missing even a single EMIs or a credit card payment. The customer also knows how the rich fraudsters have time and again looted public money and fled the country.

My experience as a retail borrower prompts me to think that big borrowers are favoured by banks, says tax and investment expert, Balwant Jain. For personal loans or credit card dues, the banks send collection agents to your house to pressure you for repayment. But nothing of that sort happens with big borrowers, he said.

Even when one has to get a bank guarantee, he is asked to make a fixed deposit as collateral of higher value. How can the PNB issue not only one but so many LOUs (Letters of Undertaking) without obtaining any collateral, Jain said.

The basic flaw

Experts say these incidents stem from systemic issues. Says Amol Kulkarni, Fellow, CUTS International: We believe it would be a fallacy to view the PNB (and Rotomac) cases in isolation and detach them from systemic concerns affecting broader financial sector. The government and regulators misplaced priorities and short-term approach have taken a toll on consumer trust.

Vulnerable consumers, he says, are expected to comply with stringent regulatory requirements to access formal financial services and make do with inefficient grievance redress mechanisms. The misplaced priorities of the government are equally responsible, he said.

At a time when banks are reeling under the burden of unprecedented non-performing assets (NPAs), the banks are levying unreasonable charges on ordinary transactions. Grievance redress mechanisms are pathetic. The regulatory focus should have been on modernizing and professionalizing banks management, promoting transparency and accountability, and moving from consumer beware to seller beware standards, said Kulkarni. Several expert committees have made recommendations, but the government remains indecisive, he said.

RBI, LoUs & SWIFT

In the case of the Nirav Modi fraud, letters of undertakings (LoUs) were fraudulently issued on the SWIFT system which was never linked to the core banking system (CBS) of the bank. It is astounding no red flags went up and none of the numerous audits detected the scam.

The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has demanded a parliamentary probe to get banks rid of NIMOnia ailments in future. AIBEA general secretary CH Venkatachalam says the fraud has raised questions on technology issues, supervision, audit and internal controls, besides the RBI role.

The AIBEA has posed some questions to RBI. How is it that the RBI, which carries out a regular audit of the banks, did not even detect the fraud, despite the volume of money involved? Was the software SWIFT that was used for the fraud approved by the RBI for the banking sector? If not, why did the RBI not examine this thoroughly and evaluate the risk?

The RBI has clarified its position, saying it had alerted the banks at least thrice since August 2016 in a confidential manner on the possibility of SWIFT misuse. The RBI said in a statement that the risks arising from the potential malicious use of the SWIFT infrastructure, created by banks for their genuine business needs, has always been a component of their operational risk profile.

Calls for privatization

People familiar with the regulatory landscape in the banking sector say that over the years, RBIs focus is skewed much more towards monetary policy. It has ignored the core function of inspections for ensuring the financial health of the system. The central bank was earlier appointing auditors for the banks. Over time, the banks get to choose their own auditors, leading to conflict of interest.

Also, diamonds are not bankers best friend. Sources point out that valuing diamonds and giving credit against the value of the asset has always been a tricky issue. The repeated frauds in public sector banks have led to calls for privatization. Industry body, Assocham has said that the PSU banks, ironically, are slipping from one crisis to another. There is a limit of the government bailing them out at the cost of taxpayers money. The Ficci has recommended privatization of public sector banks.

The PNB fraud may impact sentiment just after the government had a massive Rs 88,139 crore public sector bank recapitalization package with a potential to boost credit offtake. The government has linked it to a reforms package that includes curbing imprudent lending to the corporate sector.Sushil Manav in Chandigarh

Sushil Manav in Chandigarh

Here is the top comment: Sarkaaren khoda karti hain, paata nahi karti (governments dig up, they dont fill up). This comes from former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the BJP governments decision to scrap the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project.

In the history of Independent India, only two chief ministers have done the reprehensible task of burying canals: (former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal who buried the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana, says Hooda.

He says the project had nothing to do with the SYL waters or direct irrigation of the areas coming under this canal. Its main objective was to facilitate recharging the groundwater in the areas falling in its vicinity.

Hooda says the water table in the area has gone down to 350-400 feet. If the project is scrapped, it will fall further making it difficult for farmers to get water for their fields. He alleges that the main problem with the Khattar-led BJP government is that it is not development-oriented.

This is not for the first time for the BJP government. Nearly 3,600 acres were acquired for setting up a logistics hub at Bawal in Rewari. But after the announcement of award and after the government took possession of the land, the project was scrapped and land returned to the farmers. That was because the government did not want to pay the enhanced compensation. I have not heard of a case where a land is returned after the compensation has been announced, says Hooda.

Leader of the Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala alleges that farmers of three districts  Yamunanagar, Ambala and Kurukshetra  will have to suffer if the project is completely scrapped. The governments contention that the project is unfruitful is not true. The canal receives floodwater from the Yamuna during the rainy season. Once the Renuka dam across the river in Yamunanagar is completed, the canal would start receiving water throughout the year. The only reason why the state government scrapped the project is that it did not want to pay enhanced compensation to farmers, says Chautala.

The INLD leader counts wastages by the BJP government. The government spent Rs 100 crore on deployment of central forces on its party chief Amit Shahs rally. It splurged another Rs 1,700 crore on Happening Haryana, which did not bring any industry to the state. It shelled out Rs 140 crore per annum on petty grants of ministers. Yet it cannot spend a few more crores on compensation to poor farmers.

He says over 6 lakh acres of agricultural lands would have received irrigation water from the project. When our party delegation met Union minister Nitin Gadkari recently on the SYL controversy, I took up Dadupur-Nalvi project with him. The minister was convinced with our argument and said if money was a constraint, the Centre was willing to step in to foot a part of the compensation amount. But the Khattar government is not ready with any such proposal, said Abhay Singh.

Rajiv Jain, media in-charge of the BJP government in Haryana, rubbishes the allegations and counter-charges that both the Congress and the INLD had wasted peoples money on unviable projects. Even the CAG has said in its report that the project was ill-conceived and an amount of Rs 304 crore has been wasted without any fruitful result, says Jain.

Jain questions that if Hooda was so concerned about the project, why he did not go ahead with the acquisition of land for constructing minors and distributaries during his tenure.

The opposition parties know well that Dadupur Nalvi was a canal that could not supply any irrigation water to farmers in the absence of minors and distributories. They are opposing the state governments decision for political reasons, he says.

Jain alleged that Hooda has a record of squandering public money on unviable project and Hansi-Butana canal is the best example where the Congress government led by him spent crores of rupees on the canal without first verifying from where the water is to come.

Jain maintains that the BJP government is custodian of peoples money and cannot waste it on unfruitful projects like Dadupur Nalvi.harinder@tribunemail.com

Dehradun, February 24

The Uttarakhand Transport Corporation will soon start a bus service to Nepal under the Indo-Nepal Friendship Bus Service. An agreement was reached during a meeting in Kathmandu.

The bus service being contemplated will commence between Mahendra Nagar to New Delhi via Banbasa (Kumaon) and Dehradun to Mahendra Nagar and finally between Haridwar and Nepal Ganj.

An agreement has been reached with Nepal but the details such as the routes, type of buses, etc are still to be worked out, said B Kumar Sant, MD of the corporation, who participated at the meeting. He said the service would not only usher in road connectivity between the two countries, but also provide facilities for residents who have relatives in Nepal.  TNSsinghking99@yahoo.com

Kabul, February 24

At least 23 persons were killed and more than a dozen wounded in multiple suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan today, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults in the war-torn country.

In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers.

Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area, defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the diplomatic area of Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing at least three people and wounding five others, deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.

A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The NDS compound is located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in Kabul, which in recent months has become one of the deadliest places in Afghanistan for civilians.

In two other attacks today in volatile southern Helmand province, suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said. The Taliban claimed both attacks in Helmand.  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Melbourne, February 24

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declined to offer U.S. President Donald Trump any advice on gun control days after the latest mass shooting at a U.S. school, despite Australias success in cutting gun violence.

Australia has some of the worlds toughest gun control laws, introduced after its worst mass murder, when a gunman killed 35 people at Port Arthur in the island state of Tasmania in 1996.

Australia has had no mass shootings since then.

But Turnbull, who met Trump for talks in Washington on Friday, said he was not going to offer the United States any advice on the issue, which is dividing Americans.

Its a completely different context historically, legally and so forth, Turnbull told a news conference following talks in the White House, adding that he was satisfied with Australias gun control.

We certainly dont presume to provide policy or political advice on that matter here, Turnbull said, according to a transcript of the news conference released by the prime ministers office.

The issue of gun control in the United States became the focus of renewed debate on Feb. 14, when a former student killed 17 people at school in Florida with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle he had bought legally.

Australia has banned all semi-automatic rifles and all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, and has a restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls.

Australias system has been held up by many as an example of how gun controls in the United States should be tightened.

Trump has suggested arming teachers as a way of curbing gun violence in schools.

On bilateral relations, Turnbull said his meeting with Trump had deepened the relationship between the allies.

The two leaders discussed North Korea, with Turnbull expressing supported for U.S. sanctions and economic ties.

Turnbull praised Trumps recent tax cuts for businesses, something he is trying to replicate in Australia although he is struggling to gain the support needed from opposition parties.

Relations between the two got off to a rocky start in February 2017 when Trump berated Turnbull over a bilateral refugee agreement, before abruptly ending their telephone conversation, according to a leaked transcript of the call. Reutersmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

PYEONGCHANG, February 24

Canadian skier David Duncan was arrested on charges of stealing a car in South Korea, where he was competing at the Winter Olympics, Canadian media reported on Saturday.

Duncan's wife, Maja, and manager, Willy Raine, also were arrested, CBC News and the Canadian Press reported. Raine was charged with impaired driving, they reported.

The three were released on Saturday but restricted from leaving Canada, CBC reported.

Reuters was unable to confirm the identity of the three suspects.

A police official in charge of international crime at Gangwon Provincial Police Agency told Reuters on Saturday that a Canadian athlete, his wife and manager had gotten into a car in Pyeongchang that had been left unlocked and unoccupied with the engine running.

The official, who did not identify the suspects by name, said the manager drove off with the car before it was stopped by police. The manager has been charged with drunken driving, the official said.

Once the investigation is complete the results will be sent to the prosecution, the official said, adding that unless the alleged offence was deemed a serious crime, they would be able to leave the country after paying a fine.

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO Chris Overholt said at a news conference on Saturday that he was aware of the situation but declined to identify the suspects.

"We can confirm that an incident occurred involving the police around midnight Friday or early morning Saturday," Overholt said.

"We have confirmation that individuals attached to our team are involved in the investigation and are cooperating. We take this matter very seriously.

"However, until we know the results of the investigation we're not really in a position to comment further." Reuterspardeepdhull@gmail.com

Ramallah, February 24

The US State Departments announcement to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May has triggered wide condemnation and protest in the Arab and Muslim world.

After the White House decision came out on Friday, clashes broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. At least 32 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

Thousands of Palestinians protested in the afternoon in 14 different locations across the West Bank. Hundreds also demonstrated near Israels border with the Gaza Strip, Haaretz daily reported.

The embassy will initially be located in the Arnona neighbourhood in a building that now houses consular operations of US Consulate General in Jerusalem, said the State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert.

A new embassy annexe on the Arnona compound is expected to open by the end of 2019, Nauert added.

Although Israeli Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz tweeted on Friday to congratulate US President Donald Trump on his decision, the voice was outnumbered by the overwhelming majority of critics, especially in the Arab and Muslim world.

This is an unacceptable step. Any unilateral move will not give legitimacy to anyone and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region, said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Additionally, in Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim world, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat slammed the Trump administrations plan, saying that the White House showed its determination to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people.

Mass protests and demonstrations have been going on every Friday in Gaza and the West Bank since Trump announced his intention to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December.  IANSProvince 6 named Karnali, capital Surkhet

Province number 6 became the first province to get a name as a provincial assembly meeting renamed it Karnali on Saturdaysanjiv@tribunemail.com

Serkhetabat (Turkmenistan), Feb 23

Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India today ceremonially broke ground on the Afghan section of an ambitious, multi-billion dollar gas pipeline expected to help ease energy deficits in South Asia.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov joined Pakistani premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Indias External Affairs Minister Shri MJ Akbar for the ceremony at gas-rich Turkmenistans border with Afghanistan.

Dignitaries including diplomats from the foreign missions in Turkmenistan were greeted by Turkmen national songs and traditional nomadic tents serving up food on an overcast day at the border post of Serkhetabat, once the southernmost tip of the Soviet Union.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ghani said the pipeline would unite (the) countries in quotes translated into Russian for reporters at the ceremony.

There were pessimistic voices, but now we are witnessing the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline, said Ghani, using the acronym for the conduit which takes its name from the four countries. The quartet aims to complete the 1,840-km pipeline and begin pumping natural gas from Turkmenistans giant Galkynysh gas field by the beginning of 2020.

While the pipeline will traverse war-wracked Afghanistan, raising security concerns, the bulk of the 33 billion cubic metres of gas to be pumped annually through the conduit will be purchased by South Asian rivals Pakistan and India.

Turkmen strongman Berdymukhamedov, whose country currently depends heavily on China as a market for its natural gas exports, called diversification of gas deliveries an important part of the politics of the isolated Central Asian country.

And he said work on the Turkmen section of the pipeline was still ongoing. Indias commitment to the pipeline has previously been questioned over its relationship with Pakistan and easy-access to liquified natural gas markets seen as potential stumbling blocks.

But Indias minister of state for external affairs M J Akbar hailed the project as a symbol of our goals and a new page in cooperation between the four countries in a speech at the ceremony today.

The overall funding picture for the mammoth gas pipeline remains unclear, with commercial energy giants such as Frances Total failing to follow up on reported interest in the project.

Turkmenistan sits on the worlds fourth-largest gas reserves but lost a major buyer in Russia after Russian energy giant Gazprom wound down imports of Turkmen gas and then ceased purchases completely in 2016.

Heavy security will guard the pipeline construction through war-weary Afghanistan, AP quoted Jelani Farhad, spokesman for the Herat provincial governors office as saying.  AFPuttara@tribuneindia.com

Lahore, February 24

Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed on Saturday accused US of trying to cripple the organisation, and claimed Pakistan Government had against its charities because of a US plot.

Days before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris where Islamabad avoided being placed in a terror financing watch-list, Pakistan had amended the anti-terror legislation through a presidential ordinance to include all UN-listed individuals and groups in the national listings of proscribed outfits and persons.

Saeed claimed the Presidential ordinance had been passed to cripple the JuD's "patriotic" work because the US and several other external forces were not happy with the JuD volunteers working for Pakistan through their educational institutions, ambulances and hospitals.

"We united the nation against America, that's why the US administration is unwilling to further tolerate the JuD's effective role in the country," Saeed said in a statement.

Saeed, who was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November, carries a $10 million bounty on his head.

"If Pakistan keeps surrendering to the US demands, the time is not far when such forces will force it to roll-back its nuclear programme," he said.

The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT, which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It was declared a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014. PTIsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Washington, February 23

The nation should keep assault rifles out of the hands of anyone under 21, President Donald Trump says, defying his loyal supporters in the National Rifle Association amid Americas public reckoning over gun violence. He also pushed hard for arming security guards and many teachers in US schools.

Theres nothing more important than protecting our children, Trump said, adding that hed spoken with many members of Congress and NRA officials and insisting they would go along with his plans in the wake of last weeks school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 persons dead.

But there were no words of support from the NRA for his minimum-age proposal and outright opposition from organizations of teachers and school security guards for the idea of arming schools to deal with intruders.

The NRA will back it and so will Congress, Trump contended as he called for raising the legal age of purchase for all guns from 18 to 21. A spokesman later said Trump was speaking specifically about semi-automatic weapons. The presidents proposal came just hours after the NRA affirmed its opposition, calling such a restriction an infringement on gun owners rights.

Trump has spent the past two days listening to ideas about how to stem gun violence at schools after last weeks shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. On Wednesday, he heard from students and family members of those killed in recent shootings and on Thursday from local and state officials.

In Florida, meanwhile, funerals continued. And a sheriffs deputy who had been on duty at the school but never went inside to confront the shooter resigned after being suspended without pay.

Trump has been proposing a growing list of ideas, including more stringent background checks for gun buyers, reopening some mental institutions to hold potential killers and banning bump stock devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic machine guns.

He said Thursday that many teachers have military experience and suggested they be paid bonuses for the added responsibility of carrying weapons. He also appeared open to other proposals to harden schools, such as fortifying walls and limiting entry points.

One idea he didnt like: the active shooter drills that some schools hold. He called that a very negative thing and said he wouldnt want his own son participating.  APsinghking99@yahoo.com

Washington, February 24

President Donald Trump has again blamed India and China for his decision last year to withdraw from the historic Paris climate accord, saying the agreement was unfair as it would have made the US pay for nations which benefited the most from the deal.

Trump in June last year announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris deal, saying the accord would have cost America trillions of dollars, killed jobs, and hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries.

But he also, at the time, said he would be open to renegotiating the deal, which was agreed by nearly 200 nations over the course of years.

We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country, Trump said in his address to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris agreement, Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision Trump said: You have a lot of oil and gas that we foundyou know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massivejust about the top in the worldwe have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much.

And basically, they were saying, Dont use it. You cant use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. Its not going to happen, I told them. Its not going to happen, he added.

And Chinatheir agreement didnt kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russiatheyre allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time, Trump said.

Commenting on India and other countries, he said, Other countries, big countriesIndia and otherswe had to pay, because they considered them a growing country. They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?, he said.

They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? Were developed. We can pay, Trump said. The President asked if people understood about the Paris accord and amd related liabilities.  PTI

It makes us uncompetitive

You have a lot of oil and gas that we found and the technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive  just about the top in the world  we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much. And basically, they were saying, Dont use it. You cant use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. Its not going to happen, I told them. Its not going to happen. Donald Trump, us presidentpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, February 24

US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned that he will go with phase two sanctions on North Korea if the first one wont work, which will be very unfortunate for the world.

Earlier, he had imposed the heaviest-ever sanctions on North Koreas shipping companies in a bid to prevent the reclusive nation from acquiring nuclear weapons and developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

If the sanctions dont work, well have to go phase two. And phase two may be a very rough thing. May be very, very unfortunate for the world, Trump told reporters at a joint news conference with the visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

However, he hoped that the sanctions will work.

We have tremendous support all around the world for what were doing. It really is a rogue nation, he said.

If we can make a deal, itll be a great thing. If we cant, something will have to happen. So well see, the US President said responding to a question on North Korea.

Earlier, the Trump Administration announced a series of sanctions  the largest so far  against the authoritarian North Korean regime.

North Koreawe imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before, Trump said in his remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Frankly, hopefully something positive can happen. We will see, he hoped.

This action targets the deceptive shipping practices that have enabled the Kim regime to fund its dangerous weapons programmes, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters at a White House news conference.

The latest American actions target shipping and trade companies, vessels and individuals across the world who are working on North Koreas behalf, he said as he announced imposing sanctions against 27 entities, 28 vessels, and one individual.

All of them are involved in sanctions evasion schemes, he said.

These shipping and trade companies, vessels and one individual, totaling 56 designations are located, registered or flagged in countries all over the world, including North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros.

Todays actions will significantly hinder North Koreas ability to conduct evasive maritime activities that facilitate illicit coal and fuel transports, and limit the regimes ability to ship goods through international waters, Mnuchin said.

The American actions are part of the ongoing maximum-economic-pressure campaign to cut off sources of revenue that this regime derives from UN- and US-prohibited trade to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, he added.

The US is also issuing a global shipping advisory, in conjunction with the Coast Guard and the State Department, to put everyone on notice of North Koreas illicit maritime tactics, and underscore the significant sanctions risk of engaging in maritime business with North Korea, Mnuchin said.

We are releasing new imagery of the deceptive shipping practices used by those who aid and profit from illicit trade with North Korea. These images from December 2017 reveal ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products destined for North Korea in an attempt to evade sanctions, he said.

They shine a spotlight on the practices employed by the government of North Korea to falsify identifying information on ships, and conceal illicit cargo, Mnuchin said.

These sanctions evasion tactics are prohibited by UN Security Council resolutions, and we are fully committed to shutting down those who engage in trade with them, he asserted.

Through todays actions, we are putting companies and countries across the world on notice that this administration views compliance with US and UN sanctions as a national security imperative. Those who trade with North Korea do so at their own peril, Mnuchin said.

The Treasury Secretary warned that the countries who do business with North Korea will not be able to do business with the US.

A senior administration official told reporters that these designations are a critical part of our maximum-pressure campaign to diplomatically and economically isolate North Korea.

These actions represent the latest development in the coordinated, whole-of-government US effort to disrupt, deter and dismantle North Koreas illicit maritime shipping activities that Pyongyang uses to skirt UN sanctions, and to fund its WMD (programs and delivery systems, the official said. PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Washington, February 23

In a move that is likely to hit Indian IT firms and their employees, the Trump administration has announced a new measure that makes it tougher to issue H-1B visas to those to be employed at one or more third-party worksites.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a policy memorandum on Thursday saying it may request detailed documentation to ensure that a legitimate employer-employee relationship is maintained while an employee is working at a third-party worksite.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortage of qualified American workers.

Indians get most of the H1-B visas, although there are no national quotas for the facility nor is it specifically designed for Indians.

Under the new policy, the USCIS says the employers must provide contracts and itineraries for employees who will work at a third-party location. According to the guidance, in order for an H-1B petition involving a third-party work site to be approved, the petitioner must show by a preponderance of evidence that the beneficiary will be employed in a speciality occupation and the employer will maintain an employer-employee relationship with the beneficiary for the duration of the requested validity period.  IANS

Indian cos to be hitRukumkot stir over HQ switch shows no sign of relenting

Protest against the governments decision to shift the district headquarters of Rukum (East) from Rukumkot to Golkhara has continued unabated for nearly a month now with no response from the government side.Swedish MPs hail Nepals progress in recent years

A delegation of Swedish parliamentarians concluded a four-day visit to Nepal on Thursday, commending the country for its progress on promoting inclusion and gender equality as well as building resilience, improving livelihoods and the work on post-earthquake recovery.The domain turkeytelegraph.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquireAhmed Tarzalakis and his wife Jasmin stand on the balcony of their apartment with their daughter Fatima in Chania, north-west Crete.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

CHANIA, Crete  Syrian refugee Ahmed Tarzalakis has been in Crete for just a few months but he feels right at home in the Mediterranean island known for its rugged landscape, cuisine and hospitality.

At first residents joked aloud that Ahmed, with his bushy moustache, wiry frame and gaunt face could pass for a native of the Greek island. They were stunned when he answered back in the Cretan dialect that he had learned from his parents and grandparents in the Syrian enclave of Al-Hamidiyah, set up for Muslim refugees from Crete about 120 years ago near the border with Lebanon.

Ahmed, 42, grew up speaking Greek and Arabic, but he can neither read nor write Arabic, the main language in Syria. Now he has set foot for the first time in a land he knew from stories and songs shared by his elders at family gatherings. This is the land of our ancestors, he says, although he still feels nostalgia for pre-war Syria.

A stonemason by trade, he fled to Greece with his family to escape the approaching conflict. They made their way by boat to the island of Lesvos and then to Cretes second largest town, Chania.

Ahmed suffers from a back problem and chronic epilepsy, which affect his chances of working. Ahmed, his wife Jasmin, 33, and their four young children moved into an apartment in Chania and receive monthly cash assistance under the European Union-funded ESTIA (Home) programme, which is run by UNHCR and has benefitted thousands of asylum-seekers and refugees in Greece. With help from UNHCRs local partner, he also receives hospital treatment for his health problems.

They are a link to the past in Crete.

This aid is helping the family to start a new life and they already have an advantage because of their historic connection to Crete. Ahmed was born in Al-Hamidiyah, where his family had been living since the end of the 19th Century.

The small town was built by the Ottoman Empire as a refuge for Greek-speaking Muslims on Crete who fled to Syria during the 1897-98 war between Greece and Turkey.

Ahmed Tarzalakis and his wife Jasmin in the kitchen of their apartment in Chania.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

Ahmed shops for food with two of his children in the city of Chania, north-west Crete.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

Ahmed buys groceries in the market in Chania, north-west Crete. Cash assistance allows asylum-seekers to meet basic needs while contributing to the local economy.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

Ahmed and Jasmin have started a new life in Crete where they already have an advantage because of their historic connection to the island.  UNHCR/Christos Tolis

This closely knit small community of farmers, fishermen and traders held on to its Greek roots, especially with regards to language, says Dimitra Kampeli, who manages the accommodation programme in Crete on behalf of the Heraklion Development Agency. They are a link to the past in Crete.

There is little trace of the Ottoman and Muslim presence apart from a handful of monuments in the islands main towns.

Some of them are now returning, driven back by the war in Syria. In Al-Hamidiyah, it was increasingly difficult for Ahmed to provide for his family when the trade routes into Lebanon were cut off. He decided to sell what he could and risk the sea crossing to Greece with smugglers. In Crete, they found themselves in a place that seemed eerily like home.

We probably belong here more than anywhere.

They have settled in well. The people here have treated us with kindness and respect, says Ahmed. The family live in a modest apartment in central Chania and have reunited with relatives, including three sisters who had been there for almost two years. They have helped him, Jasmin and the children, who have been enrolled in Greek schools.

They face many challenges, including health problems and finding employment. Ahmed is optimistic about the future. I know we can prosper and be happy here, he says. After all, this is the land of our ancestors. We probably belong here more than anywhere in the world.

UNHCR, working with the government and local authorities through the Heraklion Development Agency, provides places for more than 600 people and plans to eventually provide housing for about 750 people in 134 apartments on the island.

These people have been looking for a place to settle, where one can live peacefully and prosper, says Kampeli. May they find in Crete the safe harbour they are looking for.Syabrubesi road upgrade slated to start in Oct

The upgradation of the Syabrubesi-Rasuwagadhi road is slated to begin in October. The road is part of the Galchhi-Trishuli-Rasuwagadhi highway, a major north-south trade route linking China.Estonia to allow people with Russian Sputnik V vaccine: Embassy 17 Sep 2021 | 2:28 PM Moscow, Sep 17 (UNI/SPUTNIK) Individuals inoculated with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 are now allowed to enter Estonia, the Estonian Embassy in Moscow told Sputnik on Friday. see more..

Afghanistan developments highlight challenges posed by growing radicalisation: PM Modi at SCO summit 17 Sep 2021 | 2:28 PM New Delhi/Dushanbe, Sep 17 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the recent developments in Afghanistan have highlighted the challenges posed by growing radicalisation and said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) must develop a template to fight radicalisation and extremism. see more..

Russia confirms 19,905 new COVID-19 cases over past 24 hours 17 Sep 2021 | 2:22 PM Moscow, Sep 17 (UNI/SPUTNIK) Russia recorded 19,905 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, up from 19,594 the day before, bringing the cumulative total to 7,234,425, the federal response center said on Friday. see more..

Awami League govt continues to oppress BNP in Bangladesh : Fakhrul 17 Sep 2021 | 2:16 PM Dhaka, Sep 17 (UNI) BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the government has continued to persecute opposition leaders and activists, including the BNP, to keep the people of the country intimidated as part of an attempt to perpetuate state power. see more..New Delhi, Feb 24 (UNI) If you want to take a selfie with the moon and that too friends and family, dont let this opportunity miss out.

A 23-feet wide replica of the moon titled Museum of the Moon is made by British artist Luke Jerram and stationed at British Council building till March 1.

The replica, using imagery from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera and created with the UK Space Agency, will conclude the India tour on Holi.

The artwork has been travelling across the length and breadth of the country exhibited at celebrated locations including NGMA, Bangalore; Gateway of India, Mumbai; City Palace, Udaipur; Victoria Memorial, Kolkata to the final stop at British Council, Delhi, the release stated on Saturday.

The British Council has brought Museum of the Moon to mark the last phase of the UK-India Year of Culture and to launch 70 years of the British Council in India.

Museum of the Moon is half a million times smaller than the real moon  meaning one centimeter of it represents 5 kilometers of lunar surface. Alongside a unique visual spectacle, Museum of the Moon has music from award-winning British composer, Dan Jones. The opening event in Bangalore was timed to coincide with the first Super Blood Blue Moon and Lunar Eclipse in over 150 years, it added.

British artist Jerram says, For eons the moon has impacted society and culture; its been worshipped as a deity, used as a timekeeper, and has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians worldwide.

Before gas lamps and electricity the moon was the only night-time source of light. It a vital light source for navigation and to work by. Living in cities, illuminated by electricity, we have in many ways become disconnected to the moon. I hope this project restores a sense of wonder, inspires questions and reconnects people with the night sky.

Alan Gemmell OBE , Director India, British Council said, 2018 marks 70 years of the British Council in India and the end of the UK-India Year of Culture. Weve been inspired every day of the last 70 years by the artists, students, scientists and policy makers weve worked with across India. This year, we want to share the stories of the great things weve done together, tell new stories, and inspire millions of young people to develop connections for the next 70 years. We hope our own moon landing at our home on Kasturba Gandhi Marg will be talked about for years to come.

Best viewing hours for the Museum of The Moon would be from 6.30 AM - 7 AM and 6 PM  10 PM.



UNI DJK SHK 1800Thousands of Nepalis accept Kuwait amnesty

Thousands of migrant Nepali workers have used Kuwait governments full amnesty offered to expatriates living without valid permits, according to Nepal embassy in Kuwait.Trump hails Olis election

US President Donald Trump has sent a congratulatory message to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on his election to the high office.Wakanda forever

Exactly a decade after the Marvel Cinematic Universe had kicked off with Iron Man, Marvel and Disney have finally seen fit to offer us the very first black superhero in the series, in the form of the Black Panther, the latestnot to mention, very lateaddition to the gang.Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun

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We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againSirikit is the queen mother of Thailand. She was the queen consort of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (or Rama IX) and is the mother of King Vajiralongkorn (or Rama X). She met Bhumibol in Paris, where her father was Thai ambassador. They married in 1950, shortly before Bhumibol's coronation.Sirikit was appointed queen regent in 1956, when the king entered the Buddhist monkhood for a period of time. Sirikit has one son and three daughters with the king. Consort of the monarch who was the world's longest-reigning head of state, she was also the world's longest-serving consort. Sirikit suffered a stroke on 21 July 2012 and has since refrained from public appearances.What is probably less known about Sirikit is that by the time she and King Bhumibol undertook their first world tour (which was to last six months) in 1960 she had been voted one of the world's 10 best-dressed women. She obviously had an eye for fashion as on their royal tour to England in 1960, Queen Sirikit took 150 outfits which included 80 pairs of shoes, 12 suites of matching diamond bracelets, necklaces and earrings.During her visit to Australia in 1962 with King Bhumibol, Thai tradition was said to influence her dress choice. Therefore, by following the traditional "Thai color chart" for each day of the week, red was the color to be worn on Sunday's, yellow on Mondays, pink on Tuesdays, green on Wednesdays, orange on Thursdays, blue for Fridays and purple on Saturdays.Here, below is a collection of 40 fascinating color photographs of a young Sirikit in the 1950s and 1960s.Hassana Mohammed, 13, seen outside her Dapchi home, scaled a fence to escape an alleged Boko Haram attack on her technical college which left more than 100 girls reported missing. (Photo: AFP/Aminu Abubakar)

But locals in the remote town of Dapchi, in Yobe state, said they had been left vulnerable to attack because soldiers had been withdrawn in the last few weeks.

Nigeria's government has been scrambling to contain a growing crisis that has revived memories of the 2014 mass abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok that shocked the world.

The attack has also raised questions about the military's repeated claims that the Islamist militants are on the verge of defeat, after nearly nine years of bitter fighting.

Terrified pupils fled the boarding school on Monday night when heavily armed fighters in military fatigues and turbans stormed the town, shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest").

The authorities initially denied that any student had been kidnapped but fears have grown all week that they may have been seized, as dozens of girls failed to return home.

Bashir Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter, Fatima, is among the missing, said parents had set up their own support group to push for answers - and secure the release of their children.

"Our first step was to compile a comprehensive list of all the missing girls. So far, we have compiled the names of 105," he told AFP.

Hopes were raised on Wednesday evening, when the spokesman for Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam appeared to confirm the abduction and said "some" of the girls had been rescued.

But Gaidam on Thursday questioned whether there had been an abduction at all, while his spokesman apologised and said they had been "misled" with inaccurate information.

'NATURAL DISASTER'

Former military ruler Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to defeat Boko Haram, after the militants grew in strength under his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.

Jonathan was lambasted for his tardy response to the Chibok abduction, which saw 276 girls from the town in Borno state taken in the dead of night.

In his first expanded comments on Dapchi, Buhari said: "This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened.

"We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.

"Our government is sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found."

A teacher at the school, Amsani Alilawan, said there were soldiers in Dapchi until last month but they were then redeployed.

"One month back, they carry (take away) all soldiers, they transferred them to another side, they leave us without security," he said.

When the attack happened "there was no soldier in the town", he added. "We had policemen but they ran to the bush."

Mohammed Adam, whose two younger sisters are missing, said before Monday's attack "there was almost no security inside Dapchi because there have been no other incidents.

"No soldiers were in the town for over one month," he added.

"The town is now in a very crazy condition because most of the parents are still going back to the school and crying for their loved ones."

SCHOOLS TARGETED

The attack in Dapchi has again raised questions about Nigeria's ability to secure hard-to-reach rural areas and its grip on security in the unforgiving, semi-desert region.

Nigeria's defence spokesman John Agim denied that troops were withdrawn from the town.

"The location where the soldiers are stationed is between 30 to 40 kilometres (19-25 miles) from the school," he said.

"When they heard about it, by the time they moved in, this thing had already happened."

Schools, particularly those with a secular curriculum, have been targeted by Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates from Hausa as "Western education is forbidden".

But Agim said troops cannot protect every school in the northeast.

"It is not possible that we can man schools. The other security apparatus can do that," he said.

Boko Haram's quest to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has left at least 20,000 dead and made more than 2.6 million others homeless since 2009.

The militants have increasingly turned to kidnapping for ransom as a way to finance their operations and win back key commanders in prisoner swaps with the Nigerian government.Real estate continues to record strong growth

Truong Van Phuoc - Acting chairman, National Financial Supervision Council

According to the latest figures from the General Statistics Office, the real estate sector grew by 4.07 per cent in 2017, contributing 0.21 per cent to Vietnams GDP expansion last year. The number of transactions showed a remarkable increase with 68,000 units changing hands. The market consumed 79 per cent of the available products, which was a good sign.

Thanks to vibrant transactions, inventories continued to decline in 2017, reducing by 17 per cent compared to 2016. The value of inventories stood at VND25.7 trillion ($1.1 billion). Market prices remained stable with a slight hike in the mid- and high-end segments. Discrepancies between supply and demand have been narrowed and developers switched focus to affordable products instead of luxurious buildings or premium resorts.

The real estate sector recorded good signs of recovery and attracted a significant amount of capital, especially from foreign investors. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the total value of registered foreign direct investment (FDI) in real estate was $3.05 billion in 2017, taking up the third place among all industries and accounting for 8.5 per cent of all inbound capital to Vietnam. At the same time, about 22 per cent of inbound remittances flew to the real estate sector, equivalent to $2.5 billion every year.

Bank credit comes to the rescue

It is evident that strong signs of recovery have convinced many investors to pour capital into the real estate sector. However, the role of bank credit cannot be underestimated, as commercial lenders have provided the real estate sector with the largest amount of funding.

If we take a look at the property sector between 2015 and 2017, it is easy to see that commercial banks provide credit not only for developers (the supply side), but also homebuyers and investors (the demand side).

Credit growth in 2017 stood at 19 per cent, in which the expansion of real estate credit was 13 per cent. Real estate took up 15.8 per cent of the total outstanding credit, a slight decrease from 2016. The majority of credit flows to investments in industrial zones, manufacturing plants, tourism sites, hotels, and private homes.

When official credit into real estate was being squeezed, indirect capital still managed to find its way to this sector. It is easy to see that consumer credit is growing strong, a large percentage of which goes to individuals to buy new homes or refurbish their current ones.

In particular, consumer credit experienced a sudden burst of growth, increasing by 65 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016. The same happened in 2016, when consumer credit boomed by 50 per cent from 2015. By the end of 2017, consumer loans took up 18 per cent of total outstanding credit, half of which was for home purchases or refurbishments.

This trend is gaining a foothold around the world in recent years. Vietnam is still at the early stages of growth in terms of financial developmentwhich explains why consumer credit only ballooned in the past two years.

All in all, we can see that although governmental policies may limit credit flows into real estate, capital will still find its way to this sector in one way or another, directly or indirectly. However, at the end of the day, banks remain the biggest providers of funding for the property sector.

Bank credit remains the main source of funding for real estate projects

A bright outlook

On the other hand, the recovery of the real estate sector also exerted a positive impact on the chronic bad debt problem in Vietnam. Most of the loans in Vietnam are secured by some sort of properties, which is why a robust real estate sector is important to solve the issue of non-performing loans.

Last August, the National Assembly passed Resolution No.42/2017/QH14 which paved the way for commercial banks to foreclose collaterals when bad debt arises. Right after the bill took effect, Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) seized Saigon One Tower in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. This project, which began construction in 2011, is now on sale to new investors. This move is the latest positive sign that banks can foreclose more collaterals when the debtor defaults on his payments. It is important to remember that most of the collaterals are real estate products located in prime locations at major cities.

As the land bank at major cities is getting smaller, this is a huge opportunity for real estate developers to carry out new projects. Mergers and acquisitions, project transfers, and other forms of collaborations will be more vibrant, partly thanks to Resolution 42. It is forecast that between 2018 and 2020, following Resolution 42, Vietnams credit institutions will manage to solve VND600 trillion ($26.5 billion) of bad debts, 70 per cent of which are secured by real estate. As a result, in the next three years, the real estate sector can welcome new opportunities from the foreclosure of these projects.

VAMC has seized Saigon One Tower as part of its foreclosure process, paving the way for solving bad debts

2017 economic figures show that Vietnam is embarking on a new cycle of growth in 2018. Stable developments in the real estate and securities markets are crucial to attract long-term investments, both from Vietnamese and overseas investors alike.

In general, the outlook for the real estate sector is quite positive in the coming years, but the challenge remains the same: the market has to offer diversified products and services, ensure that capital flows into the right place and prevent another speculation bubble. The market has to draw lessons from the overheating ten years ago, which resulted in a crash with effects lingering to this day. Credit into real estate has to be steered in the right way and policymakers have to maintain a close check on this sector.

As we welcome 2018 with positive signs for Vietnams macroeconomics, financial and banking sector, and so on, we can reasonably expect good spillover effects in other sectors, most particularly real estate.After BSR's recent record-breaking IPO, the market expects big competition for the shares

The first transaction day will be on March 1, with the reference price of VND22,400 ($0.98), according to information published by the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

Previously, BSR reported a successful initial public offering (IPO) with a complete take-up of the offered shares and the record selling unit price of VND14.8 million ($651.69).

On January 17, BSR conducted its IPO to sell 242 million shares, equalling 7.79 per cent of its charter capital at the initial price of VND14,600 ($0.64) apiece. As a result, 623 investors among the 4,079 registered investors won the auction, including 62 organisations and 561 individuals. 147.83 million shares, equalling 61.2 per cent of the offered share volume, were bought by foreign investors.

The average selling price was VND23,043 ($1.01), 57.8 per cent higher than the initial price. The lowest selling price was VND20,800 ($0.92). Of particular note, an individual investor succeeded in buying 10,000 shares at the record price of VND14.8 million ($651.69) apiece.

Of particular note, an individual investor succeeded in buying 10,000 shares at the record price of VND14.8 million ($651.69) apiece.

After the IPO, BSR earned VND5.57 trillion ($245.26 million) in proceeds, 1.5 times more than it expected.

BSRs IPO posted a record in the number of investors registering to join an auction with over 4,000 investors as well as in the registered shares as over 651.78 million shares were registered, 2.7 times higher than the offered volume.

After the IPO, PetroVietnam will retain 43 per cent of BSRs charter capital, while a maximum of 49 per cent will be sold to strategic investors in the three months after the IPO. About 0.21 per cent of the shares will be offered to the companys employees.

In 2017, BSR produced 6.1 million tonnes of petroleum, meeting 30 per cent of the domestic demand. Besides, BSR reported VND82.03 trillion ($3.61 billion) of revenue and after-tax profit of VND8.66 trillion ($380.84 million).Kylie Jenner arrives for the Costume Institute Benefit on May 1, 2017, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (Photo: AFP/Angela Weiss)

"sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad," Jenner tweeted.

She later followed up with "still love you tho snap ... my first love," but the damage may already have been done.

Snap Inc's shares fell by more than six per cent in Thursday trading, a loss of about $1.3 billion in market capitalisation.

Jenner has huge followings on various social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram.

She gave birth to a daughter this month, and her Instagram post announcing the pregnancy quickly became one of the most liked posts of all time on the social media platform.Vietnams property cycles

Cameron Joyce Manager, Research Department, Viet Capital Securities

Vietnam last had a property downturn in the 2008-2013 period which was primarily driven by a market that overheated on speculative buying amid a limited primary supply of condos. In the aftermath of the crisis, the government took several measures aimed at preventing a repeat of the situation in the future. Along with encouraging developers to provide residential units more suited to genuine demand from homebuyers, an important change was to hike the risk weighting of real estate loans in the banking system to 250 per cent.

In Vietnams pre-Basel II environment, banks are required to hold Tier I and Tier II capital equal to at least 9 per cent of their risk weighted assets. Increasing the risk weighting of real estate loans to 250 per cent means that for every new real estate loan extended, risk weighted assets increases by 2.5x the amount of the loan. This significantly disincentivised banks from providing new loans to the real estate market and helped to take some of the heat out of the sector.

With the mortgage market being practically non-existent in the previous real estate cycle, credit growth to the sector was focused on the developers who would in turn sell property to buyers for cash. One particularly unhealthy activity was the procurement of loans by developers to simply buy land as a form of speculation. Once the property market corrected, this led to the formation of a number of non-preforming loans (NPL) which continued to burden the banking system for a number of years. Government measures have since focused on reducing this form of activity whilst allowing the sector to develop in a sustainable way. Going forward, the development of the mortgage market has been preferred rather than allowing the majority of credit to flow to developers as happened in the past.

Concerns that rising credit growth may ignite another property bubble

Since 2012 the banking system has gradually recovered from the real estate crash in 2011 and has gradually become able to increase loan growth as a result. While the system was slow to resolve NPL issues, the sector as a whole was effectively able to grow out of the problem given that high growth rates of new credit meant that problem assets became a lower percentage of the overall system. Some market commentators have raised concerns that credit growth is once again outstripping nominal GDP growth, with the excess potentially finding a home in less productive sectors such as real estate.

Stable real estate market

Despite the high levels of credit growth, we have yet to see any obvious signs of overheating in the property sector. Speculation appears limited as the composition of buyers in the primary condo market appears healthy with only 14 per cent deemed to be speculators in the first half of 2017. Buyers who intend to live in the property make up 51 per cent of the total demand, suggesting meaningful end-user demand. Absorption rates also remain comparatively high at around 50 per cent, suggesting that a supply glut is not on the horizon. Meanwhile price gains of condos in Ho Chi Minh City remain moderate, suggesting that the market is in overall balance and does not display signs of excess as with the previous real estate cycle.

Recent macro-prudential measures

Following the wake of the previous property market crash, Circular No.36/2014/TT-NHNN was issued in 2014 and reduced the risk weighting of real estate loans from 250 to 150 per cent.

However, more recently, the government deemed it prudent to raise the figure once more to 200 per cent through the provisions of Circular No.06/2016/TT-NHNN. The implementation date was at the start of 2017.

Additionally, as of December 28, 2017, State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular No.19/2017/TT-NHNN on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular 36 on tightening credit for the real estate sector. Specifically, the proportion of short-term capital to be used for medium- and long-term lending by banks in 2018 will be 45 per cent instead of the 50 per cent stated in Circular 06, and this ratio will be further reduced to 40 per cent in 2019.

While disclosure is sporadic, we estimate that the banking system used less than 35 per cent of short-term funds for longer-term lending in 2016. Since then the figure has edged down even more. Therefore, the cap that is applicable in 2018 should not be a constraint for the system as a whole.

We view these changes as proactive macro-prudential measures which should help dampen the potential extremes of the current real estate cycle whilst reducing the probability of another crisis. While it is extremely difficult to isolate the impact of these measures, they will certainly have some moderate cooling effect on the real estate market. Even though the real estate market continues in an uptrend with moderate price gains in the affordable and mid-range segments, transaction volume remains stable. In the event of a cyclical slowdown, it also means that the government has some dry powder available should they wish to provide some support to the sector.

Source: CBRE Vietnam, Savills Vietnam, and Viet Capital Securities Note: Price CAGR for three years from Q3/2014-Q3/2017; Prices are in USD/sq.m and exclude VAT and maintenance fees, based on net selling area (NSA) and fully-fitted handover condition

Lack of NPL resolution a longer-term structural threat to real estate lending

A pressing structural concern is the lack of an effective mechanism that resolves bad debts within the system. Until now, it has been challenging for banks to go through the process of writing off loans, seizing and selling the real estate collateral backing them. As a result, banks were left with burdensome and lingering NPL problems after the last cycle. This is in part down to a hazy legal structure that tends to undermine this process.

In 2017 the National Assembly issued Resolution No.42/2017/QH14 which aims to address this problem and we have since seen some anecdotal signs of improvement, including the high-profile example of the sale of Saigon One Tower in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. However, we remain skeptical that enough progress has been made to make a material impact.

Protecting a nascent industry

During the last property cycle, property transactions were completed with cash and even gold, while mortgage financing was unheard of. It was only more recently that mortgage products have started to emerge and outstanding mortgage debt still only accounts for a relatively small portion of the GDP. As with all early stage markets, growth tends to be very strong given the low base which can lead to difficulties given that the market infrastructure will most likely be lacking in the initial stages. This is therefore another reason why the government has acted to cool the growth rate at this stage in the cycle.

Improving asset allocation across the economy

Overall, Vietnam has a healthy level of investment in relation to the GDP, with the figure coming in at 33 per cent in 2017. Having said this, investment has been higher and peaked at 42.7 per cent of the GDP in 2007 before gradually declining until 2013 and settling at the current level. Meanwhile the effectiveness of investment, as measured by the Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR), has averaged around 6. This means that for every six units of investment, only one unit of output is generated.

Real estate is a comparatively non-productive asset in relation to other sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and infrastructure. However, economies that generate excess credit growth tend to see it flow into real estate assets, given that it can act as the path of least resistance. Therefore, by disincentivising real-estate lending, this may improve the allocation of scarce resources in the overall economy.

Has real estate lending been affected?

We currently see no noticeable impact on the availability of lending to the real estate sector. Furthermore, we believe that the measures contained within Circular 6 as well as Circular 19 provide the government with breathing space should they wish to stimulate a lagging real estate market in the future by reducing the risk weighting back to 150 or even 100 per cent. However, we do note that capital buffers are comparatively low in the Vietnamese banking industry, especially when considering Basel II requirements. Further capitalisation is required and if this fails to materialise, then the ability of banks to extend credit may be affected. In the event, cutting back on real estate loans first would make sense. In other words, credit availability to the real estate market will act as the canary in the coal mine when it comes to a potential contraction in system-wide credit availability.

Conclusions

We believe that the Vietnamese government has learnt from the lessons of the past and has taken a number of proactive measures to keep a reasonable pace of growth in the real estate market. In the event of future stress this allows for lending conditions to be eased when necessary. With little to no anecdotal evidence of restrictions on real estate lending, we believe the property market will continue to develop in a measured and more controlled way.Dinh La Thang at the first court last month

The Hanoi Peoples Court will open the first instance hearing on March 19-29.

The seven defendants are:

Dinh La Thang, former chairman of PetroVietnam; Ninh Van Quynh, former chief of accountant and auditor; Nguyen Xuan Son, former deputy general director; Vu Khanh Truong, former member of the Board of Directors; Nguyen Xuan Thang, former member of the Board of Directors; Nguyen Thanh Liem, former member of the Board of Directors; Phan Dinh Duc, former member of the Board of Directors.

Dinh La Thang and five other defendants are charged with intentionally violating state regulations on economic management and causing serious consequences (Article 165 of the Criminal Code). Additionally, Ninh Van Quynh is charged with Article 165 and abusing positions and powers to appropriate property (Article 280 of the Criminal Code).

According to the proposal of the court, while being the chairman of PetroVietnam, Dinh La Thang signed co-operation arrangement No.6934 dated September 18, 2008 to contribute capital to Ocean Commercial One Member Limited Liability Bank (OceanBank) chaired by Ha Van Tham.

Thang made this decision knowing full well that OceanBank was in a weak position. He signed the resolutions to conduct the capital contribution without the approval of the prime minister, which was not in line with the regulations of the Ministry of Finance.

According to the procuracy, this caused VND800 billion ($35.3 million) in damages to PetroVietnam when OceanBanks business turned to red, lost ownership capital, and the State Bank of Vietnam had to buy it out for VND0.

The court confirmed that Dinh La Thang is charged as bearing the highest responsibility in this case.

Earlier, on January 22, after 14 days of trial and deliberation of the case related to PetroVietnam and PetroVietnam Construction Corporation (PVC), Dinh La Thang was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment for intentionally violating state regulations on economic management and causing serious consequences.

Trial of Trinh Xuan Thanh and Dinh La Thangs brother to start today Today, the Hanoi Peoples Court opens the first instance hearing of the trial of Trinh Xuan Thanh, Dinh Manh Thang, and six other defendants charged ...

Procuracy finds group benefits in Dinh La Thang case The Peoples Procuracy of Hanoi has held that Dinh La Thang appointed a bidding for PVC (PetroVietnam Construction JSC) due to group benefits at the $1.7-billion Thai ...

Trial of Dinh La Thang and 21 others to start on January 8 On January 8, 2018, the Hanoi Peoples Court will open the first instance hearing of the trial of Dinh La Thang and 21 other defendants ...The US Embassy in Hanoi recently opened the new office of the US Department of Agricultures (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in the capital.

With this office, which is considered an important step toward boosting US-Vietnamese agricultural co-operation, Vietnamese exporters and authorised US agencies will be able to save lots of time and costs when conducting sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) inspections to protect against potential plant pest risks from Vietnamese agricultural products exported to the US.

APHIS' Hanoi office will help boost Vietnam's farm produce exports to the US

In the past, in order to export fruit to the US, the produce first had to undergo an SPS examination in the US.

The APHIS Hanoi office maintains technical working relations with its Vietnamese counterparts to resolve SPS issues whenever they arise, said the embassys statement on the establishment of the office. The regulatory mission of APHIS allows for a flow of agricultural trade that meets international animal and plant health standards. This aspect of APHIS mission has helped Vietnam export several varieties of fruit, including star-apples, which are now available to the American public.

After analysing the potential plant pest risks, APHIS scientists will determine under whether imported products, including those from Vietnam, can be safely imported under a systems approach. The systems approach is a raft of solutions taken by growers, packers, and shippers that, in combination, minimises pest risks before importation into the US. The systems approach for Vietnamese products includes orchard or packing house requirements, irradiation treatment, and port of entry inspection, to protect against the introduction of plant pests and diseases.

Two months ago, the first Vietnamese star-apples began to be exported to the US, after months of examination by APHIS in the US. Vietnam is the first nation to get permission from the US to export this type of fruit to its market.

Recently, APHIS also allowed for the importation of mango from Vietnam, effective from December 29, 2017.

A rise in fruit exports to the US is very important to Vietnams global agricultural product image and will benefit hundreds of thousands of farmers.

With this, Vietnam was able to raise the number of fruits exported to the US to six, in addition to the existing dragon fruit, rambutan, lychee, longan, and star-apples.

Vietnam has also registered more than 10 additional types of fruit at APHIS for exporting to the US.

According to an expert from the Department of Crop Production under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, a rise in fruit exports to the US is very important to Vietnams global agricultural product image and will benefit hundreds of thousands of farmers.

It will make it much easier for Vietnam to boost its agricultural products worldwide, because if we meet strict requirements from the US, we can meet requirements from many other foreign markets, the expert said.

APHIS is a multifaceted agency with a broad mission area that includes protecting and promoting US agricultural health, regulating genetically-engineered organisms, administering the Animal Welfare Act, and carrying out wildlife damage management activities. These efforts support the overall mission of USDA, which is to protect and promote food, agriculture, and natural resources.A little girl saw an emotional-support dog on a plane. It went for her face.Federal lawsuit says some TPS holders should be able to seek green cardsMan's toddler was keeping him up, so he nearly decapitated the child, police say

Subtle v hard-edged - the two designers present shows full of big ideas in very different ways



Indigital



Chalayan: Subtle tailoring with thoughtful words

Hussein Chalayan and Gareth Pugh always have a message with their collections. While both have developed a personal vision - and each built successful businesses - there is always a feeling that they have some urgent ideas beyond the clothes.

Chalayan Autumn/Winter 2018

Indigital

This applies especially to Chalayan who, as he said backstage, had something to say".

That was a story of what was behind the horrors that hit Paris, which, in the designers view, was "a direct result of unintegrated immigration".

Chalayan Autumn/Winter 2018

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As a British resident from a Cypriot Turkish family, Hussein found it necessary to remove his Muslim-sounding first name. He has previously touched on delicate subjects in his shows, such as Muslim women covering their heads.

But these political inspirations have always been done with sensitivity. And so it was for Autumn/Winter 2018, when he called the show Peripherique, referring to the Paris outer ring road that physically sets immigrants apart from the grandeur of the historic centre.

Chalayan Autumn/Winter 2018

Indigital

Hussein told the story in words, saying in his show notes: "We need to go beyond tolerating these new arrivals and embracing integration in north-west Europe, just as we did with the holocaust survivors of WW2."

Tough words - balanced by a sweet and gentle collection that took smart camel coats and turned them into more protective gear, and pieces where blood-orange colour, from scarves to boots, broke up Parisian black style.

Chalayan Autumn/Winter 2018

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Sleeves would have a slit in the sides or a grey dress interrupted with torn strips of leopard, as though African influences were penetrating French chic. But this was all so subtle, it looked as though the clothes were an ode to integration, shown in the most delicate and wearable way.

Chalayan Autumn/Winter 2018

Indigital

For at the core of the story is that Chalayan is a powerful tailor, and the gentle way he shadows the female body, never at all sexy or vulgar, is why he has been on fashions radar for so long. And it was for his fashion and his intelligence, he received a round of applause.

Gareth Pugh: Demolition dressing

"A demolition silhouette" was what designer Gareth Pugh called hefty, rigid shoulders softening downwards into drapes before collapsing into a bulge of big - even vast - boots. He extended that definition by describing his vision as "industrial totems, razed to the ground".

Gareth Pugh Autumn/Winter 2018

Indigital

But on the runway, this definition seemed like his familiar geometric silhouette - wide-shoulders and high waists with body-conscious clothes draped below. The big, soft collapsed boots were just a diversion from the rest.

Gareth Pugh Autumn/Winter 2018

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Seeing Daphne Guinness sitting opposite me in a scarlet body-con outfit from head to heel-less platform soles, was to realise that there are people out there who can make rigidity sexy.

Daphne Guinness front row at Gareth Pugh

Natasha Cowan

And big shoulders are definitely back in a revival of the Eighties. At the Central Saint Martins show earlier this week, there was nothing but these coat hanger clothes. So it cannot be said that Pugh is totally out-of-sync with fashion.

Gareth Pugh Autumn/Winter 2018

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Yet the message was tense, hard, uncomfortable, with what looked like bruises on the faces of the models (but may have been meant to express the sweaty side of construction). Leather trench coats were sharply cut and zippered. Silvered decoration was as tough and metallic as it gets.

Gareth Pugh Autumn/Winter 2018

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But hasnt Pugh walked this road before? Or even driven down it with the many car references that were, again to quote the designer, "hyperreal looks rendered in glossy sheets of metal as though sports cars were in mid-collision".

Gareth Pugh Autumn/Winter 2018

Indigital

This designer talks the talk - just as he expressed his hard-edge spirit last season entirely by film. But in this show, and at a time when strong women are a constant subject, emotion seemed to be lacking. Maybe that is how it feels, again in his words, when you take "this pristine object, crushing it, and then handing it back as a different thing". Ouch!Emma Chambers, whos perhaps best known for her role in the beloved 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill, has died at the age of 53. Deadline reports that her agent confirmed the news, saying her death was due to natural causes. In addition to her supporting role in Notting Hill  in which she played Hugh Grants zany younger sister, Honey  Chambers is also known for her long-time recurring role in The Vicar of Dibley, acting alongside Dawn French as a verger in the sitcom, as well as the series How Do You Want Me? Shes survived by her husband, the actor Ian Dunn.Photo: AFP Contributor/AFP/Getty Images

If somebody randomly asks you what curling and The Sopranos have in common, were pleased to say you no longer have to gulp and respond with snazzy tracksuits for men! Thats because the mens curling team from America, considered underdogs in this Winter Olympics, ended up winning gold in their final against Sweden this weekend  in a truly exhilarating final that included wild moments like this.

But perhaps even better, the gents  Joe Polo, John Landsteiner, Matt Hamilton, Tyler George, and John Shuster  chose to celebrate their win on national television, belting out Journeys Dont Stop Believin in an impromptu karaoke setting. And it is wonderful.

And you dont even have to worry about any of them getting potentially murdered in a diner!You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close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.

Vote

View ResultsTwo crew members aged in their 60s and 70s have died off the coast of Mandurah after a yacht they were sailing in an open water race overturned 11 nautical miles off-shore about midnight on Saturday.

Six crew members were aboard the 15-metre yacht Finistere competing in the 70th Bunbury and Return Ocean Race when it overturned.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority detected a distress beacon from the vessel at 11.45pm on Friday night but attempts to contact the crew on board were unsuccessful and the yacht's tracker failed to update at midnight.

Two other yachts competing in the race - Huckleberry and Fourth Dimension - and the RAC Rescue helicopter arrived at the scene about 12.30am and rescued five of the six crew members from the water.An influential Tory MP says Australia and the UK must lead global efforts to combat Russian and Chinese interference in western democracies because the investigation into Russian meddling has neutered the Trump White House's ability to lead on the issue.

Conservative MP Bob Seely raised the matter with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in London this week.

Writing exclusively for Fairfax Media, Mr Seely, who has just been elected to the British parliament's prestigious foreign affairs committee, said the Mueller investigation would only get worse for Mr Trump, diverting the US' ability to deal with threat of foreign interference.

"Things will soon worsen for the US president: watch this space. The battle to save his presidency will become all-consuming.

"The fallout will undermine the bipartisan approach," he said.Phillies win wild one on passed ball in 9th; top Cubs 6-5By Jina Belcher Ground zero for federal efforts to boost communities reeling from the downturn[Read More]The rain and winter weather conditions are affecting local blood supply, forcing the Arkansas Blood Institute to implement an emergency appeal for all types of blood donors.

The blood institute typically performs about 100 procedures per day to keep up with the blood supply demand at nearby hospitals, but that number has decreased drastically.

"It`s been hard to get the amount of people to come in to donate blood," Donor Recruitment Manager Danny Cervantes with the Arkansas Blood Institute said.

The shortage has forced about 800 donations in Arkansas and Oklahoma to be cancelled.

Also an issue for the blood bank is flu season.

"If you have the flu or any kind of antibiotics, you can`t give blood," Cervantes said. "There`s also people taking certain preventative medications and there`s certain preventative medications that you`re deferred for about seven days and that`s hurting us, as well."

Mark Oberste comes to donate blood every three to four months, but after learning about the shortage, he decided to fight the rain to give back sooner.

"I know that there`s a need for it," Oberste said. "It just makes me feel better after I do it. I feel like I`m giving something back."

Oberste said donating blood is actually easier than most think.

"The people here are super quick, they`ll get you in and out," Oberste said. "It`s easy, it`s practically painless, you`ll feel really good about it afterwards for sure."

The hours at the Arkansas Blood Institute have also been extended in Fort Smith so more people can find time to come in.

It will be open Saturday, Feb. 24 from 9:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m., and Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.

There will also be a blood drive at the Neighborhood Walmart in Fort Smith on Hwy. 71 from 11:00 a.m.-3:45 p.m.

Those with the Arkansas Blood Institute said they take care of blood supply locally, then help the institutes in Oklahoma and Texas, as well.SOUTH NYACK, N.Y. (AP) - New York State Police say actor and comedian Chevy Chase was kicked in the shoulder during an altercation with another driver.

Police say the 74-year-old Chase was driving in South Nyack on Feb. 9 when he was cut off in traffic by a 22-year-old Long Island man. Authorities say the former "Saturday Night Live" star chased the other driver across the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, before both pulled over.

Authorities say the driver and Chase got into a verbal argument, which led to a passenger in the car cursing at Chase and kicking him in the shoulder. The driver contends the kick was self-defense because Chase threw a punch first.

The passenger faces harassment charges.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)State Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, who will be challenging Congresswoman Claudia Tenney in the 22nd Congressional District Race this fall, joined NewsTalk this evening to discuss a recent radio interview in which Tenney said, so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats.

The Albany radio interview gained national attention, and on Friday evening Tenney joined WKTV in studio to discuss the interview. While she doesnt regret the words she used, she said she would add in the words left-leaning, as she said some of the shooters may be left-leaning but may not be registered Democrats.

When asked about the tone of the Congressional campaign thus far, and whether or not hes worried about it, Brindisi said, I think the tone of the campaign  I hope its going to stay positive. I think these comments that were made by her are very regretful, I think she should apologize for them. The statement that she made has been proven to be untrue by independent sources, and this is a point in time where this kind of rhetoric is just going to poison the culture out there.

Brindisi said that as people are coming together in the wake of the shooting that left 17 people dead at a high school in Florida, its very hurtful to hear leaders in Washington make statements like Tenneys.

I think what we have to do is we have to first start  and theres not one simple solution that will solve this issue  but youve got to start somewhere," Brindisi said. "Why not start where greater than 90 percent of Democrats and Republicans agree, and that is on something like universal background checks. Theres no reason why these kinds of firearms should be getting into the hands of people who are criminals, people who are violently, mentally ill, people who commit domestic abuse. So lets start there.

For the full interview with Brindisi, and what else he believes should be done to help prevent these shootings from happening, watch the video above.

To watch Tenney's interview from Friday evening, click here.ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities say a western New York couple who sold satellite television contracts to state prisons illegally pocketed $375,000 that should have gone to DirecTV.

New York state Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott announced Friday that Richard and Christine Wertman of Lockport in Niagara County have pleaded guilty to grand larceny in connection with the scheme.

Investigators say the couple signed contracts to provide DirecTV service to three state prisons and then used their technical skills to provide the service. But the couple never notified DirecTV or passed along the company's cut of the proceeds.

Scott said the couple's actions showed "stunning gall."

As part of a plea deal, the Wertmans agreed to repay the $375,000. Reached by phone Friday, Christine Wertman declined to comment.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's governor is blasting a proposal from the White House that he says would devastate funding for food assistance.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that President Donald Trump's plan would reduce Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits for an estimated 2.3 million New Yorkers.

Among other changes, the Republican president has proposed replacing a portion of the assistance with a box of food to be called a "harvest box."

Cuomo is calling on Congress to reject Trump's proposal and protect funding for the program.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House was on lockdown for about an hour Friday after a passenger vehicle struck a security barrier.

The U.S. Secret Service tweeted that the vehicle "did not breach the security barrier of the White House complex." No shots were fired during the incident, the Secret Service said.

The agency added that the 35-year-old female driver was "immediately apprehended" after the incident on the southeast side of the complex, near the Old Executive Office Building. The driver was identified as a resident of La Vergne, Tennessee, and as someone the Secret Service has had previous encounters with near the White House, "resulting in numerous arrests for a variety of criminal violations."

The agency said the woman was charged Friday with numerous, unspecified criminal violations and turned over to the District of Columbia police department.

Witnesses saw a commotion on the White House grounds as security officers responded.

President Donald Trump had been hosting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House. Turnbull remained at the White House as the incident was being investigated.

The Secret Service said no law enforcement personnel were injured in the incident.

Trump praised the agency's handling of the situation in a tweet Friday afternoon: "Thank you to the great men and women of the United States @SecretService for a job well done!"

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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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Wednesdays move by the Trump administration to end net neutrality marks a milestone in the offensive by the US government and major corporations to put an end to the free and open internet, paving the way for widespread government censorship of oppositional news and analysis.

Under the current law, upheld by numerous court decisions and reaffirmed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2015, companies that provide internet access to users, known as internet service providers (ISPs), cannot block or impede their users access to any website or service.

But the draft proposal published by FCC chairman Ajit Pai Wednesday, and expected to sail through the approval process next month, would put an end to the decades-long treatment of internet services as a public utility, allowing the internet monopolies Comcast, Charter, AT&T and Verizon full ability to block, throttle and promote internet traffic at will.

This will allow them to block or limit access to websites, such as the World Socialist Web Site, WikiLeaks and other sources of politically critical news, entirely at their discretion, as well as peer-to-peer file sharing networks, which were used by news outlets to bypass censorship in the past.

The ending of net neutrality will also have a substantial economic impact. By scrapping most government regulation of the internet giants, the ISPs will be able to use their monopoly power to jack up prices for consumers. While most people will be relegated to a slow and largely censored internet, the ability to communicate information freely will be reserved for those who can pay exorbitant premium rates.

Moreover, by forcing content providers to pay for premium access, the ending of net neutrality threatens to massively entrench existing communications monopolies, while restricting access to smaller businesses and user-supported sites and services, which will not have the financial resources to compete with the technology and media giants. ISPs will be free to increase costs for smaller sites and services, potentially driving them out of business.

Major media outlets, which have for years been inveighing against the independent blogs, websites and other news outlets that gained readership at their expense, will no doubt seek to use the ruling to bring to bear their economic leverage to regain their former control over the political discourse.

The power that is being handed to a few corporations is staggering. The four largest telecommunications companies control more than 75 percent of high-speed internet service. More than half of American households have only one ISP to chose from, and most other households have only two providers to choose from.

Now, these giant monopolies, which have already demonstrated that they act as proxies for the government by collaborating in the NSAs illegal mass surveillance programs, will be able to block access to entire websites.

While the major social media and content distribution companies, including Facebook and Google, have claimed to oppose the move, they do so entirely from the standpoint that ending net neutrality will give internet service providers greater power to compete with their businesses.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google, which owns YouTube, have made clear that they fully support internet censorship, which is the essential content of the ending of net neutrality.

This week, Facebook announced that it would notify users when they read content from accounts accused by US intelligence agencies of spreading Russian propaganda, creating a backlist of outlets presenting critical sources of news and analysis.

This followed the announcement by Google executive Eric Schmidt that the company would de-rank RT, Sputnik and what it called those kinds of sites, in its search and news products. This is an open-ended statement of intent to censor not just Russia-connected news sites, but effectively all political opposition. Schmidts comments were a confirmation of statements by the World Socialist Web Site that Google is seeking to limit access to sites based on political criteria.

Googles YouTube, meanwhile, has gone on a censorship spree, taking down videos and banning and demonetizing channels it claims are spreading extremist views.

The ending of net neutrality plays a key role in this censorship drive. Under conditions that existed prior to the ending of net neutrality, users were able to bypass these forms of heavy-handed censorship by turning to smaller and more open platforms to find and share information.

But with the ending of net neutrality, the social media and streaming monopolies will be able, by cutting deals with the ISPs, to strangle their upstart competitors, keeping users locked into platforms that increasingly serve as little more than distribution networks for state-approved propaganda.

Billions of people all over the world have embraced the internet precisely because it promised a free and unimpeded way to access and share information. Oppositional and socialist organizations, excluded for decades from the public discourse by the effective monopoly exercised by major newspapers, TV, and radio stations, found an audience hungry for information suppressed by the increasingly discredited establishment media.

The governments liesfrom the weapons of mass destruction that justified the invasion of Iraq, to government complicity with Islamist organizations it was supposedly fighting in the war on terror, to mass surveillance and the corrupt and oligarchic nature of American politicshave been exposed by internet publications.

Now, under conditions of a mounting war threat and soaring social inequality, public access to alternative sources of information is seen as an intolerable threat, to be shut off and suppressed.

Internet communications are not a luxury, but a vital social need and should be treated as a public utility. However, under conditions in which three billionaires control as much wealth as half the US population, and all of social and economic life is controlled by a shrinking number of powerful corporations, all social rights, from communications to the most basic necessities of public infrastructure, are treated as privileges available only to the increasingly small sliver of the population that is able to pay for them.

The demand for the most basic social rights, including the freedom of the press and the freedom of speech, comes into conflict with the capitalist system.

The defense of a free and open internet is inseparably bound up with the struggle against capitalism, based on the independent and international mobilization of the working class around a socialist program.

The massive and bloated technology monopolies, who now see their primary function as being the blocking, not the dissemination, of information, must be seized and turned into publicly owned utilities, with the aim of providing the entire worlds combined knowledge to the whole global population.In a major escalation of the political warfare in Washington, Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday secured a plea deal from Rick Gates, a longtime associate of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and himself a deputy campaign manager during the 2016 campaign and consultant on the Trump transition team after the election.

Gates pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering, tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to the FBI. The charges were laid out in an indictment unsealed Thursday in Alexandria, Virginia. He also pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, failure to register as an agent of a foreign entity and making false statements to investigators, which were contained in a previous indictment unveiled last October.

Manafort is similarly charged in the two sets of indictments, but has thus far refused to enter into a plea agreement and maintains his innocence.

As part of his plea deal, Gates agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and possible collusion by the campaign of President Donald Trump. There are many indications that Muellers team is also building a case of obstruction of justice against the Trump White House.

With his guilty plea, Gates becomes the third Trump aide to enter into a plea agreement with Mueller, the former long-time director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and agree to cooperate with his investigation. The other two are Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor, and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the election campaign.

The indictment unveiled Thursday underscored the ruthlessness with which Mueller is proceeding. It had been widely reported that he was ratcheting up the pressure on Gates to turn states evidence against his long-time business associate Manafort, and earlier this week media reports were circulating that Gates was about to enter a guilty plea. Evidently, however, Gates continued to resist and Mueller responded by unsealing the new set of charges, threatening Gates with up to six years in prison if he refused to change his plea.

This follows a political counteroffensive by Trump and congressional Republicans in recent weeks, including the release of a memo drafted by staffers for the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, documenting the fact that the FBI illegally obtained a warrant from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap a former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page, by failing to inform the court that information it used to secure the warrant was paid for by the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton election campaign.

The Nunes memo exposed the politically motivated and fraudulent character of the entire anti-Russia campaign mounted by dominant factions of the intelligence and military establishment in alliance with the Democratic Party and major media outlets, led by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Trump and leading Republicans used the Nunes revelations to attack the FBI as waging a political vendetta, while Democrats and most of the media sprung to the defense of the FBI and the intelligence establishment, implying that criticism of the police and spy agencies was tantamount to giving treasonous aid and comfort to the enemyMoscow.

In the infighting between two reactionary factions of the ruling class, the Democrats are leading the campaign, in the name of defending American democracy from Russian subversion, to whip up a war fever and prepare for a military conflict between the worlds two biggest nuclear powers, and simultaneously crack down on free speech and political opposition on the Internet in the name of combating Russian-inspired fake news.

The Mueller investigation is the spearhead of a furious struggle within the ruling class and the state, primarily over US imperialist foreign policy. The Democrats, who fiercely defend the Mueller probe, speak for predominant sections of the intelligence/military apparatus that consider Trump to be insufficiently aggressive in continuing and escalating the anti-Russian policy carried out by the Obama administration. They view Russia as a key obstacle to imposing US domination over the Middle East and preparing to confront and defeat China.

In recent weeks, the Democrats and news media such as the Times, the Post and broadcast outlets like CNN and NBC have fumed over Trumps failure to impose new sanctions on Russia passed months ago by overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. They have also agitated for a more aggressive military escalation against the Russian-backed regime in Syria and Russian military forces supporting it against US-backed proxy fighters.

It is believed that Gates surrender to Mueller may badly undermine Manaforts legal defense and provide information damaging to the White House inner circle, including Trump.

Neither of the two sets of indictments against Manafort and Gates concerns alleged crimes that occurred during the 2016 election campaign. However, the second set released Thursday centers on activities by the two accused in support of the Russian-backed government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was driven from office in 2014 in a fascist-led coup directed and financed by Washington.

The latest indictments assert that Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts to conceal tens of millions of dollars they received as consultants to Yanukovych, and then laundered the funds to evade US taxes. It alleges that one of their firms had close ties to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gates plea deal comes in the midst of an increasingly hysterical campaign in the media against Russia. Just weeks ago, the US government released new national security and defense documents declaring that the preparation for great power conflict had supplanted the war on terror as the focus of Pentagon defense policy, and identifying Russia and China as the chief threats.

On February 3, a Russian fighter jet was shot down in Syria by al-Nusra Front fighters indirectly allied with the US in Washingtons proxy war against the Assad regime. Days later, the US killed perhaps dozens of Russian military contractors in an air and artillery barrage in Syrias Deir Ezzor province.

The following week, the top US intelligence chiefs testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a neo-McCarthyite exercise in anti-Russian propaganda. The intelligence officials, egged on particularly by committee Democrats, claimed in unison that Russia was responsible for the growth of social and political discord in the US.

Last Friday, the Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury commissioned by Mueller had returned criminal indictments against 13 Russian citizens and three Russian companies in connection with the 2016 US presidential election. This was seized on by the media to launch a new barrage of war propaganda, including a front-page lead article in the New York Times declaring that Russia is engaged in a virtual war against the United States, and denouncing Trump for failing to fulfill his duties as commander in chief.On Friday evening, the teachers unions in West Virginia announced that the two-day strike would be extended to a third day on Monday. The announcement reflected concern by the unions that the immediate shutdown of the strike could result in the struggle of teachers erupting outside of union control.

A World Socialist Web Site reporting team spoke with teachers protesting outside the state capitol in Charleston on Friday.

Mark Wilson and Joshua Blair are young teachers. Mark teaches special education at Sissonville High School in Kanawha County.

Mark said he thought the governor and state legislature were stalling in order to wear down the teachers and force them back to work. Its pretty clear that they dont care, he said. Their strategy is to wear us down. They promised, but its clear they do not want to fund PEIA.

One thing that is clear, I dont believe there is no money. All the money is going to the corporations. And young teachers like myself are really being hit hard.

Mark said he makes $42,000 a year and has a total of $68,000 in student loans for his bachelors and masters degrees. Because the pay is so low, I cant afford to pay my loans. I have been teaching for seven years, and at this point Im still paying the interest. Its just crushing.

The strike has won wide support from workers across the state. Large numbers of workers and students joined teachers on the picket lines and at protests.

Larry Gray, and his wife who is a teacher spoke to the WSWS. Larry, a former union miner, was involved in many strikes in the 80s and 90s.

Recalling the earlier militant struggles, Larry said, I was a member of the United Mineworkers [UMWA], and when we went out we stayed out until we got what we needed. We even defied a court injunction. When one mine went out all of the mines went out.

[Former UMWA President Richard] Trumka messed things up. He started calling selective strikes rather than everyone going out. After that the company began picking off the workers and closing mines. Many of the plants now are nonunion.

But my advice to the teachers is to stay out until they get the PEIA fixed. Otherwise they will chip away at the working man. More and more, its the rich and the poor. Soon there wont be a middle class.

This talk about there not being money is nonsense. They have all of this fracking and natural gas coming out, but they dont want to tax it.

Rikki and Ken are state workers who took a day off to join the teachers protest.

I feel their pain, said Rikki. I stand with them all the way. We dont have a union so we cant strike, but we face the same issues they are dealing with. We get the same PEIA that they get.

I only make $11.40 an hour, continued Rikki. Thats not enough to live on. I not only work this job, Im also a waitress at a restaurant.

Many workers noted the fact that while the state was rich in mineral resources, Democratic and Republican politicians refused to levy any substantial taxes on the giant energy companies. Both the AFT-WV and the WVEA have supported a series of Democratic politicians who have done nothing for teachers, including billionaire West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Democrat turned Republican.

Ken said, We are sitting on an underground gas field that is worth trillions. And yet they say they cant tax it. That money could be used to pay teachers a decent wage and the same for state workers.

It doesnt matter if it is a Democrat or Republican. All the people in that building are for the big money people. In fact, the governor himself is the owner of one of the largest mines in the state, he said referring to Justice.

I think people are more and more going to stand up against these things, Ken continued. They say they cant afford the benefits but there is all of this wealth beneath our feet.

We need an uprising of the people to put a stop to this.

Holly Norman is a first-year teacher who works with behaviorally challenged kids. We are here for the kids, and I love my kids, but we also must take care of ourselves.

Holly said she only makes $35,000 a year and has a total of $100,000 in student loans. I cant miss a single payment on my loans for 10 years, otherwise I lose my loan forgiveness.

One of the things they dont address is what is happening in the classrooms. Classroom sizes are increasing. In one class it went from 18 students to 27. I have 7 kids, but it is a challenge. I have had kids bite me, punch me in the face, hit me. Ill bet not one of the people in the government have had to deal with that. This is what we deal with on a daily basis.

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West Virginia teachers take a stand

[24 February 2018]

Walkout by West Virginia teachers to continue through Monday

[24 February 2018]Several hundred students attended a rally in support of their lecturers outside the University of Sheffields Firth Court building on Friday, during the second day of a national strike by UK lecturers.

Students with homemade banners at the University of Sheffield rally

Robyn Orfitelli, an academic from the universitys Department of Linguistics, addressed the rally. She came to Sheffield from the US four years ago:

In those four years our pay hasnt even kept up with the rising cost of living. We make less now than we did when I moved here, and our salaries are already a fraction of what they are in other parts of Europe and in North America. Ive seen your tuition fees rise and Ive seen them cut the scholarships available to you, making it harder for you to have access to an education.

Robyn Orfitelli

This is supposed to be a research-based university and yet our classroom sizes are increasing. More and more theyre pressuring us, as admissions tutors, to treat this as some kind of sausage factory.

At the same time, the message is going out to you that your lecturers dont care, and that were not willing to spend time with you. When really, what everyone is just trying to do is to get back to the fundamental goal of the university system: staff and students working together; doing research that teaches us more about this world and then using this to improve the education that you guys are getting.

Speaking on behalf of the University and College Union was Sam Morecroft, the unions anti-casualisation officer, and a member of the Socialist Party. His speech urged students to back the UCUs call for negotiations and focused on attempts to sow illusions that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are leading a fight to roll back the attacks on education carried out by the Conservatives.

Sam Morecroft

Weve had support from Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell of the Labour Party and thats fantastic, he said. Just a few years ago we would have got no support from the Labour Party.

The WSWS spoke with lecturers and students at the rally. Craig Brandist has been a lecturer at the University of Sheffield for 21 years. He said, This is all part of the marketisation process as they want to individualise pensions. That is what they want to do with students too, so instead of going to university being a collective societal good, its being treated as a commodity. And were being treated as people who produce a commodity that is called education.

Craig Brandist

I believe education is the second most casualised industry after catering now. To get a job is difficult and when you are in it, the staff-student ratio is much worse than it used to be. The proportion of university expenditure on staffing has gone down from over 60 percent 10 years ago to under 50 percent now.

Mayeda has been a student at Sheffield for four years. She said, I am striking today because my lecturers have put so much effort into my education. They deserve to get their pensions. Once I do my PhD I want to go into lecturing, so this is my future as well.

I am paying 16,000 a year for my course because Im an international student. Every child in the world should have the right to education and I dont understand why the price is so high. I am lucky that my parents can sacrifice this for me, but so many families cannot afford it.

Mayeda

Its all about money and profit. That is very wrong because education is not a place to make money. Education is a fundamental right for every human being. When it comes to education, health and housing, you cant make that a business!

Staff also struck at University of Southampton. Student nurses signed a petition in support of the lecturers and academic staff. One explained, It is disgraceful. When we want to have a pension, there wont be one. Pensions should be totally protected. They are systematically dismantling the health service.

Another student nurse said, They are going after the public services because they are an easy target. They go after the people who are paid by the state unless they fight back.

Dan

Dozens of students took part in the picket lines in solidarity with lecturers. Dan, who studies at the Language Faculty, said, This is part of a wider attack on the education system. The number of lecturers has been cut and their wages have been cut even further. This is having an impact on students and is going to have an impact on the wider community and the working class.

Ivan Walton, an IT worker, said, They are gutting our pay and now they are coming for our pensions. This can be the last straw for a lot of people. Why should I work in the university sector in the UK? The way university management seems to think these days is that we are units of production and we are the costs they need to reduce.

Ivon Walton

Jonathan works in the medicine department. He said, There is a review in the university. I believe they are going to merge the facultiesfrom eight to fiveand some departments. People are potentially losing their jobs and having their pensions put at risk at a time when senior management are being given quite high salaries.

What is happening in the universities is slightly different to what happened to junior doctors. Nonetheless, it is part of an increased marketization of public services and gradual erosion of rights and benefits of workers. It is part of a wider dismantling of public services.

Vincent O'Conner

Professor Vincent OConnor has been working in the school of biological sciences for more than 16 years. He said, We are dedicated to our research and teaching and came into the profession with the expectation of a half decent pension when we retired. There have been 15 years of change in higher education and tertiary education. There is a wider undercurrent going on.

Look at the news last week where government suggested that students were paying too much money for their education and they werent getting value for money. My experience is that students are being taught by experts with 10,000 hours of expertise, who are dedicated, who arent driven by monetary gain but want to educate and to do excellent research.

British universities are a beacon, with a culture of 450-500 years of excellence, of insight and of contribution which is now being undone.

Isobel Stark

Isobel Stark is a librarian. She explained, Our pension scheme is being changed from a defined benefit scheme to a defined contribution scheme. We have already moved to career average from final salary pension and this is another way of employers trying to cut our pensions.

Some universities started to think of themselves more as businesses and the government is treating them as businesses. I have been a member of this scheme for 23 years. Academics salaries have been consistently falling behind equivalent salaries since the 1970s. We are not well-off people.

We have some very low-paid staff at the university. We have far too many people in zero-hour contracts and short-term contracts. Introducing tuition fees and removal of maintenance grants was disastrous for bright working class kids. They are all part and parcel of turning universities into businesses, which we are not.Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, the leader of the rural-based National Party, was forced to resign yesterday, just hours after Murdoch tabloids ran sensational headlines about an untested complaint of sexual harassment by a Western Australian agricultural industry spokeswoman.

Joyce is a reactionary right-wing populist. But the anti-democratic methodnow the modus operandi of the #MeToo sexual misconduct witch huntused by the media and political establishment to politically assassinate him, points to underlying calculations that have nothing to do with personal morality. It demonstrates, once again, how unsubstantiated accusations can be deployed against anyone, in pursuit of a political agenda.

The unprecedented removal of such a pivotal figure in the Liberal-National Coalition government also throws into further doubt the future of the already fragile and deeply unpopular government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Over the last eighteen months, Joyce has played a key role in shoring up the governments rural and regional base, amid rising social and economic discontent.

During the past decade, not a single Australian federal government has lasted a full three-year term. The ousting of Joyce is yet another symptom of the degeneration and decay of bourgeois parliamentary rule, and of the century-old Coalition itself.

Until Thursday, Joyce had continued to insist that he would not quit, despite the relentless publicity surrounding his relationship with a former staff member, who is now expecting his child. Then, suddenly, he called a media conference yesterday to quit his political posts. The Western Australian complaint, he declared, was the straw that broke the camels back.

Liberal Party Senate leader Matthias Cormann, who is acting prime minister this week, while Turnbull visits Washington, immediately welcomed Joyces departure. The harassment complaint had added a whole new dimension, he said, to the controversies surrounding Joyce.

It then emerged that the woman who had made the allegation, now identified as Catherine Marriott, was furious that it had been made public. Her intention, she insisted, had been to make a complaint to the National Partys national executive, in the hope that it would be dealt with internally. Making the complaint public was the last thing my client wanted, her lawyer told the media.

However, the National Party establishment, led by party president Larry Anthony, a former Howard government minister, had relayed news of the serious complaint to the Murdoch newspapers. These publications have led the campaign against Joyce since February 7, when they published front-page photos of his pregnant partner.

In announcing his decision to resign from the leadership, while remaining in parliament, Joyce sent a barbed message to Turnbull. He noted that the government, which is clinging to office with a one-seat majority, would not have survived the mid-2016 election if the Nationals, under his leadership, had not picked up an extra seat.

One of Joyces supporters, National Party Senator Matt Canavan, acidly lamented his departure, saying Joyce had helped pull the Nationals back from the grave. This was a reference to Joyces role in saving the Nationals from decimation, at the hands of Pauline Hansons One Nation, which exploits rural and regional poverty to peddle a racist and protectionist platform.

Joyce was installed as National Party leader in February 2016, on the back of his reputation as a rebel, prepared to cross the parliamentary floor against the Liberals to stand up for rural interests. In his resignation media conference, he claimed to have fought for the people in weatherboard and irona metaphor for poor Australian rural towns. He retains a degree of popularity in the bush, and his ousting by the partys National Executive, despite the ongoing support from his parliamentary colleagues, will likely set the stage for conflict between the partys membership base and its national leadership.

The financial elite views Joyces populist wing of the National Party as central to the governments failure to impose its full agenda, including massive corporate tax cuts and further severe cuts to social spending. In recent weeks, big business commentators have reignited complaints that Joyce remains a self-styled agrarian socialist, committed to featherbedding rural and regional electorates.

Joyce forced the government to agree to build, for example, a $10 billion inland rail route from Brisbane to Melbourne, derided by the financial media as a white elephant. Moreover, his fellow Nationals threatened to vote against the government, unless it convened a royal commission into the rapacious activities of the big banks.

While Joyce has a substantial political profile, those National Party politicians lining up to replace him, including junior minister Michael McCormackthe apparent frontrunnerare virtually unknown outside their individual rural electorates.

His departure will deepen the fissures wracking both the Nationals and the Liberals. Turnbulls government not only has the smallest possible parliamentary majority, an expression of the hostility and contempt in which it is now held by millions of ordinary people. His Liberal Party is also riven by a conflict with its social conservative wing, led by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has never accepted his dislodgement at Turnbulls hands

Moreover, Washington is placing ever greater pressure on the government to increase its already multi-billion-dollar commitment to preparations for catastrophic wars against North Korea and, ultimately, China, Australias largest export market.

In the course of Turnbulls current visit to the White House, he has been publicly urged to organise provocative freedom of navigation military exercises, directed against China in the South China Sea, and to join a Quadrilateral anti-China alliance with the US, Japan and India.

On February 9, Trump announced the appointment of Admiral Harry Harris as the next US ambassador to Australia. Harris, about to retire as commander of the US Pacific Command, is one of the most hawkish and ruthless advocates for war against China. His assignment will be to quash any reservations about, or opposition to, this agendain parliament, or from millions of ordinary workers and youthby whatever means necessary.

While Joyce and the Nationals support the US military and strategic alliance, they are regarded as unreliable in relation to a war on China. Their key constituency consists of mining and agricultural companies that depend heavily on Chinese markets.

The acrimony between Joyce and Turnbull is intense, after Turnbull last week publicly castigated the Nationals leader and urged him to quit. In response, Joyce failed to inform Turnbull of his resignation.

In his own media statement, Turnbull praised Joyce for departing, while optimistically claiming, The Coalition between the Liberals and the Nationals is Australias most successful political partnership, having endured for more than 95 years.

Somewhat more realistically, Paul Kelly, the Australians veteran editor-at-large, declared today: The Joyce crisis has probably killed off Turnbulls recovery hopes. The Murdoch flagships editorial warned: [I]t is self-evident the government needs Barnabys regional battlers to survive. His successor will face a daunting task to till that fertile ground.

Accordingly, the Australian and the other main financial newspaper, the Australian Financial Review, have begun highlighting the opposition Labor Partys preparations to return to office, on the basis of a thoroughly pro-business program. Both publications ran lengthy feature interviews with Labors shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, promoting his vows to revive the Hawke-Keating Labor governments reform agenda, responsible for restructuring Australian capitalism, at the direct expense of the working class, from 1983 to 1996.

This must sound a warning: as Turnbulls government implodes, plans are already afoot to bring to power a Labor government, headed by Bill Shorten, which will be the most right-wing ever, including in its fulsome support for the US alliance and its war agenda.Asia

Child-care workers strike in India

About 500 anganwadi (childcare) workers from Gurgaon, in the central Indian state of Haryana, walked out on strike on February 19 to demand their monthly salaries be increased to 18,000 rupees ($US278), better working conditions and the same conditions and benefits as other government workers.

The workers held a meeting at Kamala Nehru Park and resolved to remain on strike until February 26. They have threatened a state-wide indefinite walkout in the future if their demands are not met. We work around the year every day without any leave and we dont have access to basic benefits given to other government employees such as pension and health benefits. And the government has not acted on our repeated demands, one demonstrating anganwadi worker told the media.

The next day the childcare workers demonstrated outside Haryana Public Works Department Minister Rao Narbir Singh's residence and burnt an effigy of Kavita Jain, minister of urban local bodies.

Bathinda sanitation workers threaten strike over jobs

Sanitation workers in Bathinda in Indias Punjab province met on February 21 and presented a memorandum of claims to the citys municipal council. The workers have been long demanding the council increase wages in line the Seventh Pay Commission. They also want 1,500 sanitation workers hired, and current contract workers and fully trained employees given permanent jobs. The meeting gave the council 72 hours to grant these claims or face immediate strike action.

Striking bus workers in Nagpur, India defy state government

Over two thousand transport workers in Nagpur, the third-largest city in the Indian state of Maharashtra, walked out on strike February 20 to demand the minimum wage and permanent jobs for workers hired from a former city bus operator. The strike grounded all 375 buses and 123 routes in the city with workers stopping management attempts to use strike-breakers.

The Bharatiya Kamgar Sena Nagpur Union called off all industrial action soon after the state government invoked the repressive Essential Services and Maintenance Act and the industrial court declared the strike illegal.

Pakistan: Visually impaired government workers protest

Visually impaired workers from Pakistan government departments in Lahore, Punjab demonstrated in The Mall, the citys main thoroughfare, on Monday.

The protest, which involved about 50 people, was the latest in the workers long-running struggle for implementation of a three percent job quota within the government service, permanent jobs for all visually impaired workers and other demands. An estimated one in ten people are visually impaired in Pakistan with more than two million people blind in both eyes.

The protest continued the following day, blocking city traffic and the road leading to the office of the chief minister of the provincial government. Many workers refused to negotiate with the police and other government officials who attempted to disperse the protest with a series of empty promises. Demonstrators accused the government of offering the same false promises it had made over the last several years.

Bangladesh power workers demand union rights

Hundreds of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) workers demonstrated outside the companys head office at Nikunja in Dhaka on Sunday to demand trade union rights and promotions.

DESCO, which was established in 1996, distributes electricity to the northern parts of Dhaka City and Tongi Town in Gazipur District. It was created in 1996 under the Companies Act 1994 as a Public Limited Company.

South Korean university cleaners continue strike action

Dongguk University cleaners from the facilities management division remain on strike over the universitys refusal to employ regular workers to fill positions left by eight retiring workers.

Dongguk and other universities are attempting to slash operating costs by hiring students on a casual basis and on two-hour shifts each morning. Yonsaid University eliminated 31 full-time cleaning jobs early this year.

Industrial action by the Dongguk university cleaners began in the second week of January with protests on an almost daily basis. Students have also joined the protests. Several demonstrators were injured by security guards when they attempted to enter the university presidents office in late January.

Philippines Coca-Cola workers protest job cuts

Coca-Cola workers demonstrated in the Philippines on Tuesday after the multi-national corporation announced that it was restructuring its operations and would sack over 600 workers on March 2.

The company claimed the cuts were partly in response the governments tax reform law, which has increased the tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines is the companys largest bottling operation in the world. It has over 15,300 employees, 19 plants and 52 distribution centres.

IBM-KMU union leaders rejected the claim that the new tax was the basis for the sackings and said there would be more protests involving Cola-Cola and other workers. The union says that 23 of those being fired were union officials, including four union presidents.

According to the Philippines Labor and Employment Department, a total of 6,644 jobs were axed from 424 companies in the Metro Manila area in January this year.

Philippines teachers and government workers demand higher wages

Teachers and government workers marched to Mendiola area in Metro Manila on February 21 to demand a minimum monthly wage of 16,000 pesos ($US308) for government workers and a 10,000-peso increase for teachers and nurses.

The marchers also demanded an end to contractualisationthe practice of laying off workers after five months, one month before the requirement of regularising them. This means making them eligible for permanent jobs and additional payments or benefits. Nurses have been among the victims of this scam.

During his election campaign President Rodrigo Duterte promised to eliminate the practice but the Labor Department says it does not have the number of inspectors to stop it.

Australia and the Pacific

Coal terminal workers locked out again

Port Kembla Coal Terminal (PKCT) in the Illawarra region in New South Wales locked out around 60 workers last week in an ongoing dispute over a new enterprise work agreement. The company is trying to push through major cuts to wages and conditions. Management previously locked out the workers for four days last month.

PKCT is refusing to negotiate with the Construction Forestry and Mining Union (CFMEU), which covers the terminal workers, and has applied to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to have the current enterprise agreement terminated. If successful, the workers would be pushed back onto the basic award with inferior pay and conditions.

The previous agreement expired in 2015. Over the past 12 months the union has confined opposition to the companys demands to sporadic and isolated strike action. It has also offered to provide PKCT with a number of concessions while making pleas to the company to negotiate.

The CFMEU organised a protest outside the terminal in response to the latest lockout and plans a demonstration outside the FWC offices in Sydney next Wednesday.

Aged care workers accept new enterprise agreement

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) this week struck a new enterprise agreement (EA) covering more than 1,000 aged care nurses and carers employed at 26 nursing homes in Victoria operated by the Bupa international healthcare group.

Last year, the workers took unprecedented industrial action over 37 days after earlier rejecting a company offer containing annual pay increases of just 2.1 percent. Negotiations for a new agreement have dragged on for more than 14 months.

ANMF acting secretary Paul Gilbert hailed the new deal as a victory. However, it provides for a pay increase of just 11.25 percent over three years, or 3.75 annually, barely meeting parity with other workers in the sector.

The new agreement does not address the concerns of workers over chronic understaffing across the companys aged care facilities. There is no mandatory minimum staff-to-patient ratio. Federal legislation states only that aged care facilities must have an appropriate level of staff and care.

New Zealand: Strike announced for Lyttleton Port workers

The Rail and Maritime Union (RMTU) have announced a 24-hour strike scheduled for March 8. On February 15, 200 waterfront workers voted unanimously in favour of a complete withdrawal of labour for up to three weeks. Workers also endorsed over-time bans which would begin on March 5.

The dispute is over plans to run the port on a 24/7 basis. The union has not posed any fundamental opposition to this plan. In fact, RMTU South Island organiser John Kerr told media, We have no problem with that.

The strike was confirmed after the RMTUs 22nd meeting with the company.

The lengthy negotiations and the limited 24-hour strike are indicators of the RMTUs determination to accommodate to managements demands.

The RMTU restricted strike action last year by rail workers fighting for wages, jobs and conditions in Wellington and Auckland to 24 hours. The union has still not released the results of a ballot to strike by Auckland rail workers. The vote concluded on February 9.Public transportation in the Boston area is increasingly unsafe for both its workers and riders. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates under an unelected Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) whose highest priority is privatization and a funding structure that sucks more than $400 million of debt service per year out of its operating budget.

The record snowfall of February 2015 shut down the entire MBTA multiple times. Three years later the system is still in crisis, not because of weatherwhich in fact has been relatively dry and unseasonably warmbut because of inadequate infrastructure funding in a state that has 34 billionaires.

On Wednesday morning the last car of a six-car Red Line subway train derailed underground when its motor failed. Andrew Station filled with smoke, and a rider on the train described the experience to the Boston Globe: [T]he train hit what felt like a bump, then it kept bucking off the tracks, like flying up then slamming back down. Sparks were flying outside the window. Then the window started imploding. It happened in pulses, shooting shards of glass into the train right where I was sitting.

While no injuries were reported, service between the Broadway and JFK/UMass stations was not restored for eight hours, and commutes were delayed by as much as 90 minutes as hundreds of riders had to wait outside in the streets for shuttle buses.

The subway cars were at least 30 years old. Fifty-eight of the UTDC 1700 series cars on the Red Line were built in the late 1980s. Seventy Pullman-Standard 1500 and 1600 cars, built in the late 1960s, are still in use on the line. New Red Line cars are currently on order, but will not be fully deployed until 2022. In the meantime, the FMCB has allocated only $30 million for all of calendar years 2017 and 2018 toward maintenance of the existing heavy rail fleet. On average, this amount is only 3 percent of the debt service paid to predatory bondholders every year.

Less than a week before the nightmare ride that ended in Andrew Station, the doors of another Red Line train were stuck shut for four stops as it went outbound toward Alewife Station during the morning commute, with riders trapped inside. The emergency intercom did not workfrightened passengers had to call the Transit Police on a cellphoneand two people were needed to pull the emergency brake after it, too, stuck.

The Green Line, which is classified as light rather than heavy rail, is also in dangerous disrepair. At the end of November, Protran Technology released a report, commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities Transportation Oversight Division, on the condition of Green Line tracks, which total nearly 46 miles. Protran found that by having only the minimal amount of resources available, Track Management is not able to address problems until they reach red level. More than 2,000 defects in track geometry existed as of February 2017, and the inspectors found rotten ties, corroded or cracked rails, and shelves worn into the rails by trolley wheels. Surface deviations in the track were as deep as 2.5 inches in places.

Even when infrastructure failures are less severe, they worsen the commutes of the hundreds of thousands of riders who take the T to work. The Boston Herald has found that in the less than two months since the beginning of the year, the MBTA has sent out at least 275 tweets about delays caused by issues with trains, signals or switches.

The Green Line Maintenance of Way (MOW) Division is given an operating budget of only $22 million and a capital budget of less than $20 million per year. Only three crews per night and two per day are assigned to the track maintenance. Maintenance workers are diligent and, according to Protrans report, the MBTA staff is making a considerable effort to try to up-grade the system and to maintain the system to at least a restricted operational level but their resources are stretched to the limit.

Nevertheless, the FMCB and its supporters in the local media continue to attack workers. The MBTA has once again released its yearly payroll, with the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald braying about workers who take home more than $100,000 including overtime. However, The average T worker makes only $86,180 in one of the most expensive cities in the country.

Moreover, the data show that 40 of the 210 MBTA employees who made more than $150,000 last year were either upper management or members of the Transit Police. Five police sergeants and two lieutenants are currently making more than $200,000.

Approximately 450 bus maintenance mechanics are not nearly so fortunate. Under threat of privatization, Machinists Local 264 accepted a concessions contract at the beginning of the month that gives an insulting 1.5 percent raise for each of the next two years and drastically cuts the starting pay of new workers.

Under the previous contract a worker started off at 75 percent of the top wage and could move up to 80 percent after 3-6 months. He or she could expect to reach the top step within two years. Now Step 1 will start at only 61 percent of the top wage, move to 65 percent after six months, and to 72 percent six months after that. Managements report to the FMCB boasted that only 10-20 percent of workers hired under the new contract will be able to reach the top wage at all.

In order to wring these cuts from workers, management promised that it will not privatize the maintenance of the systems existing 955 buses. If the size of the fleet increases, however, this arrangement will erode. The humiliation written into this contract can be seen in the fact that it will cut costs next year by only $4 million, out of a total operating budget of nearly $2 billion.

Despite the grandstanding of politicians like Representative Joe Kennedy, the Democrats and the unions are on board with the MBTAs attacks on workers. FMCB member Brian Lang is the President of hotel and food service union UNITE HERE Local 26.In the latest step in the drive by the US ruling class to censor the Internet, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) on Thursday published its order abolishing Internet neutrality in the governmental Federal Register, initiating a 60-day countdown for the law to come into force.

The FCCs ruling represents a far-reaching attack on the democratic rights of the entire population and public access to the Internet. Beginning April 23, multibillion-dollar corporate behemoths, such as Verizon and AT&T, will be free to restrict access to or completely censor Internet sites as they see fit.

On December 14, the FCC voted by a 3-2 margin to overturn the previous characterization of Internet broadband as a public utility under the 1934 Communications Act. This definition required that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide customers with the same level of Internet access, regardless of what they were connecting to. Moreover, ISPs could not selectively block or reduce speeds for specific sites or services, and could not create a multi-tiered system by charging users or content providers for higher traffic speeds.

Since the ISPs will not be forced to treat all content the same, they will be able to block web sites and services at their discretion. The claim, promoted by the FCC and its chairman Ajit Pai, that competition between ISPs for market share will prevent such actions ignores the fact that the telecommunications infrastructure is largely monopolized, with four companies controlling 75 percent of all high-speed Internet service. Over half of American households have only one ISP to choose from. These corporations are now being handed an incredible power over global communications.

The ISPs will also be able to establish a class-based system of Internet access, including by offering packages of Internet content. They may, for example, introduce a premium Wikipedia package, charging customers to access Wikipedia, a repository of humanitys collective knowledge currently accessed by over 400 million people each day, just as cable television networks charge for news and sports.

The FCCs order, which it first released on January 4, announces this attack on the freedom of expression with the Orwellian title of Restoring Internet Freedom. It declares that it is returning to the light-touch regulatory scheme that enabled the Internet to develop and thrive for nearly two decades. In fact, the principle of net neutrality had been in de facto operation ever since the public Internet first emerged in the 1990s, and was formally codified by the FCC in 2015 in the face of lobbying by the private ISPs.

The opening of a 60-day window allows for legal challenges against the change. Among the many suits that have already been announced, the private video hosting provider Vimeo and software maker Mozilla yesterday filed a suit against the FCC. Technology giants Google and Facebook announced last month that they would be supporting a legal challenge.

These corporations have opposed the ruling because it threatens their own business interests. Their concern is that the ISPs will be empowered to prioritize their own content with faster Internet speeds, giving them a business advantage over Facebook, Google, Twitter, Netflix and other content providers.

Some Democratic politicians have similarly joined these companies in opposing the ending of net neutrality. Fifty Senate Democrats supported a resolution to overturn the FCC decision that has little chance of passing Congress. Twenty-two state attorneys general have also joined a lawsuit against the FCC by New York Attorney General and Democrat Eric Schneiderman.

Despite the Democrats posturing as defenders of net neutrality, the current chair of the FCC, Ajit Pai, who has led the push for ending net neutrality for years, was appointed by Barack Obama to the commission in 2012, and later promoted by Donald Trump in 2017.

In fact, the Democrats, working with the major technology companies and US intelligence agencies, have been at the forefront of the drive to censor the Internet in the name of fighting Russian meddling and fake news.

On January 12, Facebook announced changes to its news feed that will deprioritize news content for its more than 2 billion users in favour of personal moments. It announced on January 19 and January 29 that it is promoting local news and content published by authoritative sources, meaning pro-government propaganda outlets like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as opposed to alternative and independent publications. In April 2017, Google implemented changes to its search ranking algorithms in order to prioritize authoritative websites and blacklists left-wing, antiwar and progressive publications, including the World Socialist Web Site .

The New York Times, which has been at the forefront of the Democrats campaign to censor the Internet, made clear the aims of this campaign in its editorial published February 22, Why Americans could believe the worst from Russian trolls. Developing the Democrats unsubstantiated claims that Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 elections, the article argued that the Kremlin was successful because it was able to exploit homegrown sources of political opposition and dissent.

The inescapable conclusion flowing from this argument is that political opposition is essentially treasonous, and must be censored and suppressed.President Donald Trump is leading the charge to flood schools across the country with armed teachers and staff as the supposed solution to the epidemic of deadly school shootings in the US, a week after a shooting by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz killed 17 and injured 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The presidents draconian proposals to further militarize schools come amid a growing wave of popular protests and student walkouts across the country, led by survivors of the Parkland shooting who are demanding stricter gun control laws and an end to school shootings. Nationally coordinated student walkouts and demonstrations are planned for March 14 and 24.

Walkouts were reported across the country Friday, including at schools in Austin, Texas, Greensboro, North Carolina and Palm Beach, Florida. Lawyers in Wisconsin have offered free legal assistance to any students in the state who are punished by school administrators for walking out of class.

Stoneman Douglas High survivors have confronted legislators, primarily Republicans, over their opposition to gun control measures and for receiving funding from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a far-right run political lobbying organization which has immense sway within the US political system, among Republicans as well as Democrats.

Speaking Thursday at the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump repeated his call for the elimination of the federal gun-free zone law which makes it a crime for anyone who does not have explicit authorization to carry guns into schools or other public buildings.

It is time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers, Trump declared. We dont want them in our schools. We dont want them. When we declare our schools to be Gun Free Zones, it just puts our students in far more danger. Far more danger.

Trump argued that allowing teachers and staff, in particular those who are military veterans, to carry concealed weapons with them in the classroom would deter potential school shooters and protect students. You do a conceal carry permit. And this would be a major deterrent, because these people are inherently cowards. If they thought like if this guy thought that other people would be shooting bullets back at him, he wouldnt have gone to that school. Trump suggested that teachers should be offered a bonus to induce them to take up arms.

Trump cited reports that sheriffs deputy Scot Peterson, who was on duty at Stoneman Douglas High at the time of the shooting, did not run into the school to try to stop the attack, to justify arming teachers. I would rather have somebody that loves their students and wants to protect their students than somebody standing outside that doesnt know anybody and doesnt know the students, Trump declared.

He also called for schools to be fortified in order to foil potential killers, stating, we need a hardened site. Has to be hardened. Cant be soft. Theyll sneak in through a window, some way, and you are standing there, totally unprotected.

Later Thursday, in a roundtable discussion at the White House with state and local law enforcement officials about school safety, Trump declared that the percentage of teachers in a school who are armed might have to be as high as 40 percent to deter shooters. He insisted that gun-free zones were as enticing as ice cream for prospective school shooters. Trump also promised to strengthen background checks, increase the legal age for purchasing long guns from 18 to 21, and eliminate bump-stocks, which turn semi-automatic rifles into rapid-fire weapons.

Trumps proposal for arming teachers drew a quick response of horror and opposition amongst educators. The day they ask me to carry a gun in the classroom is the last day I teach, Kristen Frazier, eighth grade teacher in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe. Period. End of story.

Teachers Olivia Bertels and Brittany Wheaton responded to Trumps proposal with the hashtag #ArmMeWith on social media, demanding teachers be given much needed books, school supplies and time needed to address students emotional needs, instead of guns. Bertels told USA Today they felt it was necessary to counter the absurd notion being espoused by largely NRA-funded politicians that schools would be safer with armed teachers.

The proposals which Trump are now touting as his own ideas were first outlined by the fascistic Executive Vice President of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, when he offered to provide armed guards to every school in America in the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. An NRA task force later tempered this offer, instead recommending that every school have at least one staff member volunteer who is armed.

In fact, Trumps remarks at CPAC were preceded by LaPierre, in his first public remarks since the Parkland shooting, who frothed at the mouth against socialists who were plotting to take away Americans gun rights in order to eradicate all individual freedoms. LaPierre concluded by reiterating his demand for the deployment of armed guards to immediately harden our schools, the key demand which has been taken up by Trump.

Floridas Republican governor, Rick Scott, who has been endorsed by the NRA, released a plan on Friday that would mandate the presence of one police officer in every one of the states public schools, and one additional officer at large schools for every 1,000 students. The plan also follows Trumps proposal for raising the legal age for purchasing guns to 21, with exceptions for members of the military and police, and outlawing bump stocks. A competing proposal put forward by Republicans in the state legislature would allow teachers with law enforcement training to carry guns with them in school.

Scotts proposal, which is estimated to cost $500 million, would also establish a violent threat restraining order, which could be used to block someone who is determined to be mentally ill from buying or possessing a firearm or other weapons. A mere $50 million of the proposed funding would be dedicated to establishing mental health initiatives.

Meanwhile the Democrats have maintained their exclusive focus on gun control. Florida State Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon rejected the Republicans proposals, saying that they did not go far enough. Unfortunately, both plans omit a third, critically important piece of legislation Democrats have been and continue to push for: a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines, Braynon declared. While such measures would possibly limit casualties when school shootings and other murderous rampages occur, they will do nothing to address the social crisis which is the fundamental causes of such violence.

While there has been much fervor over the issue of gun control and the arming of teachers, little has been said about Nikolas Cruzs involvement in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp at Stoneman Douglas High, where he was a member of a marksmanship team that trained in shooting air-rifles. Cruz was wearing a JROTC t-shirt when he was apprehended by the police.

According to the New York Times, Cruzs fellow cadets gave him the nickname Wolf. The marksmanship program was made possible with more than $10,000 in funding from the NRA Foundation in 2016, the last year that Cruz was a member.

There are approximately 1,700 high school-based JROTC programs nationwide, which receive funding from the US military and in which students wear military outfits and are drilled by retired military officers. The NRA Foundation provided $2.2 million in 2016 to schools in 30 states for a variety of gun-related programs, including underwriting air rifle teams.Aggressive moves by the Trump administration in pursuit of its economic nationalist America First agenda are bringing the world close to trade wara conflict with significant military implications.

Two major initiatives by the US administration over the past month have ratcheted up global tensions, bringing the threat of retaliatory actions from the European Union and China.

In late January, the US slapped major tariffs on the imports of solar panels and washing machines directed against China and also South Korea.

This was followed by the recommendation earlier this month from commerce secretary Wilbur Ross that tariffs and other restrictive measures be introduced against the imports of steel and aluminium. The Ross recommendation was the outcome of a lengthy investigation conducted under section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act which allows restrictions on imports to be imposed by the president on the grounds of national security, a provision sometimes described as the nuclear option in trade relations.

The report said the increase in the imports of both metals in recent years threaten to impair our national security and Ross has sent the report to Trump with a range of options for restrictions, including a 24 percent global tariff on steel and a 7.7 percent tariff on aluminium, for action by April.

The militaristic overtones of the trade measures were underscored by Trump in his remarks to members of Congress last week when he said that while he wanted to keep prices down, steel and aluminium were needed for national defence and if we ever have a conflict I dont want to the buying steel [from] a country we are fighting.

The move against solar panels and washing machines brought an immediate response from China. Bloomberg reported that within days the Chinese government was studying the impact of restricting imports of soybeans, for which China is Americas biggest export market. China has also launched an anti-dumping investigation against US exports of grain sorghum.

The invocation of section 232 against steel and aluminium has brought an immediate reaction from both China and Europe. A spokesman for the Chinese government warned that if other countries followed the US move it would have serious ramifications for the international trading order and that if the US hurt Chinas interests we will certainly take necessary measures to protect our legitimate rights.

Germanys Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported this week that European Union officials were preparing a swift response to any US measures on steel and aluminium, possibly targeting agricultural products as well as Harley-Davidson motor cycles.

While EU officials have refused to comment on the report, European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas has said Brussels would be deeply concerned by any measures hitting European businesses. We would be taking appropriate action to defend EU industry, and we stand ready to react swiftly and appropriately in case our exports are affected by any restrictive trade measures from the United States, he told a press briefing.

While Schinas said that we are not in a trade war, a longer-term perspective was provided by the leading German business paper Handelsblatt. It commented that historians had often compared the period leading up to World War I to the stumbling of sleepwalkers. It is no different with trade wars. The verbal rearmament that is currently taking place between the US, Europe and China also runs the risks of escalating the conflicts over cheap steel and aluminium exports into an open trade war.

In another sign of rising global economic conflicts, the minutes of the European Central Bank meeting held on January 24-25 revealed concerns over statements by US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin that a weak dollar was good for the American economy. In his press conference at the time, ECB president Mario Draghi criticised the remarks in unusually strong terms for going against agreements at International Monetary Fund meetings that countries would not deliberately devalue their currencies to try to gain competitive advantage.

According to the minutes, concerns were expressed in the meeting about recent statements in the international arena about exchange rate developments and, more broadly, the overall state of international relations. The latter reference pointed to the recognition that the system of geo-political and geo-economic relations set in place after World War II is visibly disintegrating.

While the ever-increasing threat of global trade war and the breakdown of the post-war economic order have been sparked by the actions of the Trump administration, its origins do not lie there.

Rather, they are rooted in deep-seated contradictions of the global capitalist economy that are now bursting to the surface in the form of trade war, great power rivalry and the threat of world war.

Reviewing the catastrophe of the Great Depression and its consequences, members of the Roosevelt administration correctly drew the conclusion that one of the principal factors which propelled World War II was the trade war conflicts that had engulfed the world in the 1930s.

Consequently, the US worked to establish a post-war economic order based on promoting ever-freer trade and banning trade war measures. This system, enshrined in the Bretton Woods monetary agreements of 1944 and the establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947, rested, in the final analysis, on the economic strength of the United States.

But the very economic growth the US promoted contained a profound contradiction. The reconstruction of the global capitalist economy, and the revival of Germany and Japan in particular, undermined first the absolute and then the relative economic supremacy of US capitalism on which the international system was based.

The first cracks appeared in 1971 when the Nixon administration unilaterally scrapped the system of fixed currency relations established at Bretton Woods by removing the gold backing from the US dollar.

The near-half century since then has been characterised by ongoing financial and economic turbulence and the continuing decline in the position of the United States. Today, it is confronted not only by its old rivalsGermany and Japan against which it went to warbut by new ones, in particular China.

The global financial crisis of 2008, the most serious economic breakdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s, has intensified these trends, to which the US has responded. It now finds that the post-war economic arrangements, which it established, work against its interests and has sought to overturn them and maintain its global hegemony through increasing bellicosity both economically and militarily.

This did not begin with Trump. It formed the heart of the economic policies of the Obama administration and its attempts to establish a new economic order in Asia, centred on the US through its Trans-Pacific Partnership, specifically excluding China, and the corresponding Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership aimed at Europe.

These specific policies have been scrapped by the Trump administration, but the essential agenda of seeking to maintain the global dominance of the US against its rivals has continued. This drive is being intensified by the fact that since the financial crisis of 2008 the world economy has failed to recover to its previous levels under conditions where the massive growth of financial speculation over the past decade threatens to set off an even more severe financial crisis.

Markets in a vast range of commoditiesfrom basic metals such as aluminium and steel, to agricultural goods, textiles and hi-tech goods, to name just some examplesare now characterised by so-called over-production and a dog-eat-dog struggle for profits.

In this, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, the extreme relevance of the analysis he developed, as far back as the Communist Manifesto 170 years ago, should be recalled.

Even at the beginning of industrial capitalism, he pointed to the essential meaning of its crises. In these crises he wrote, there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs would have seemed an absurditythe epidemic of over-production leading to a universal war of devastation in which the productive forces have to be destroyed because there is too much civilisation, too much industry, too much commerce.

The bourgeois politicians, scribes, pundits and global think tanks all know from historical experience that the growth of trade war and world war, to which it is inextricably linked, is insanity. But they are powerless to prevent it because this madness springs not from the minds of politicians or the mistaken policies of this or that government but from the irresolvable contradictions of the capitalist mode of productionas Marx so clearly identifiedabove all, that between the global character of production and the nation-state system in which the profit system is rooted.

The only solution to these contradictions is, as Marx also made clear, the taking of political power by the international working class and the reconstruction of society on socialist foundations. The intensifying drive to trade warwith even more devastating consequences than that of the 1930sunderscores the historical urgency of this task.Antonio Castro lives just outside San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, on the far east side of the island. Since Hurricane Maria made landfall on the US territory in late September last year, conditions have been difficult for Antonio and his family. Like hundreds of thousands of other workers and youth on the island, Antonio continues to struggle without the basic amenities of modern life, including electricity and running water.

The following is the third in a running series of reports on conditions in Puerto Rico from Antonio. Read parts one and two.

More than five months since the passing of Hurricane Maria and still many continue to live without power and running water, but also without a roof and a safe home. Just stepping outside my balcony, I can count 16 houses in which still the roof is just the blue tarp provided by FEMA or by the inhabitants of the house themselves. In extreme cases, which are numerous, many are living with relatives or are refugees in hotels back in mainland US.

A house that had its roof blown away means that everything was inevitably damaged by rain and wind. In other cases, the roof stayed in place but windows and doors imploded due to strong winds, flooding the house. In some regions houses were completely inundated, some up to the second floor or beyond, due to flooding from rivers and coastal tide. These people saved what they could and the rest had to be thrown away, including furniture, clothes, appliances and other household items.

After the storm, many banks were supposedly granting a three-month moratorium on housing mortgage to homeowners who were mostly out of work or have enormous expenses in gasoline and repairs. This was advertised all around the island as an act of generosity from 10 banks. However, most moratoriums expired in December and January, meaning that all payments due are going to be collected by the banks, no matter the current economic state of the homeowners. Due to these measures, the number of foreclosures is expected to see an explosive growth as workers face the reality that they cannot pay their mortgages.

Repair costs for home damage can quickly amount to sums of money that most workers cannot afford. For people who lost their home entirely, and many their jobs, the cost of a new place to live is well beyond their means. Aid provided by FEMA has been criminally scarce since the beginning of the crisis.

To help affected residents repair their homes a program called Tu hogar renace (Your Home Reborn) is being promoted by FEMA and the local Department of Housing. This program, however, is only available for residents who qualify and the most important requirement is to have a property title for the house. In rural areas, where the majority of the damaged homes are located, most residents dont have such document, since these structures were mostly built by older generations of the family, and the process for obtaining a property title is both time consuming and expensive. Residents who confront this situation have no other option than to continue living in their damaged homes and doing repairs by themselves, if there is still a home left to repair.

If the goal is to help people rebuild their homes, to have their houses be reborn as the name suggest, then why place obstacles that make it impossible to get the much-needed aid to these families? As of January of this year, the estimated number of damaged homes on the island was 300,000, according to the Department of Housing. Most of these damaged homes are located in rural areas where still many homes are built out of wood.

Despite the high estimate number, Tu hogar renace only has a budget to cover 75,000 homes, for $150,000 each. This limited budget explains the requirement of property titles. If the program is carried out to completion, 225,000 houses will not receive the needed aid. This can be translated into 225,000 families who will have to cover all repair expenses themselves with what little they currently have.

These families will continue to live under the blue tarps of their homes with the hopes that at last some help will come their way. These measures mark the continuation of the pillaging of Puerto Rico. The local and federal government, aligned with the banks and Wall Street, are conspiring to privatize the schools, privatize the electrical utility, starve social services, and now, to take peoples homes.Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has promised the families of girls missing after an attack on their school in the country's northeast that they'll be found and their attackers brought to justice.

Buhari called the situation a "national disaster" and said more troops and surveillance aircraft had been deployed to search the entire territory for the unknown number of missing students.

"We are sorry that it happened; we share your pain. Let me assure that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return all the missing girls," Buhari said in a Twitter statement.

The girls have been missing since suspected Boko Haram militants raided the Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe, Monday night.

The local Yobe government released a statement Wednesday announcing the girls had been found, but later apologized for the "erroneous" statement that it said was based on inaccurate information.

It is unclear how many girls are missing from Monday's attack and where they may be. Government agencies have given contradictory information on the situation.

Earlier, the governor's aide released a statement saying 50 students were still unaccounted for after armed militants approached the school under the cover of darkness Monday night. The statement also said it was unclear whether the students were abducted by the militants.

"The Yobe state government has no credible information yet as to whether any of the schoolgirls was taken hostage by the terrorists," said Abdullahi Bego, an aide to Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam, in a statement.

Witnesses told CNN that terrified residents of the town fled on Monday when they saw trucks and motorcycles carrying armed men shooting at people randomly.

Freed Chibok girls reunite with families

Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls from a school in Chibok in April 2014, setting off global outrage. Many of the Chibok girls were freed after negotiations, but more than 100 remain in captivity, their whereabouts unknown.The International Committee of the Red Cross said 21 staff members have been dismissed or resigned for "paying for sexual services" since 2015.

An additional two staff members suspected of sexual misconduct didn't have their contracts renewed, Yves Daccord, the ICRC's director-general, said in a statement Friday.

"This behavior is a betrayal of the people and the communities we are there to serve. It is against human dignity and we should have been more vigilant in preventing this," Daccord said.

The revelation comes as other aid organizations have been hit by allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation by aid workers.

Haiti on Thursday suspended Oxfam Great Britain from operating in the Caribbean country after reports of sexual misconduct by some of the aid group's employees. Save the Children on Tuesday apologized for inappropriate behavior by a former chief executive toward female staff, promising a fresh review into the charity's "organizational culture."

Daccord said staffers are "contractually bound by the ICRC's code of conduct" that bans the purchase of sexual services.

"This ban, in place since 2006, applies worldwide and at all times, including in locations where prostitution is legal, as the ICRC believes that staff paying for sex is incompatible with the values and mission of the organization."

The ICRC -- which has more than 17,000 staff members worldwide -- is concerned that some incidents have gone unreported while others have been reported but not dealt with correctly.

Daccord said he has "contacted other humanitarian organizations with the aim of addressing issues that require a collective effort," including stopping offenders from transferring from one agency to another.

"I am committed to fostering an ICRC culture that encourages staff to prevent, detect and report misconduct. All allegations are investigated. People must feel safe and empowered to raise concerns, and we have encouraged staff to make use of a dedicated, confidential email address to do so," he said.

"It is so important that the silence that has surrounded this issue has been shattered. This is a watershed moment for the humanitarian sector as a whole. We owe it to the people we serve to behave with absolute integrity."

'It's a large-scale problem'

British lawmakers this week heard details about sexual exploitation and abuse across the international aid sector. They met in special session to discuss the Oxfam scandal.

Kevin Watkins, chief executive of Save the Children, said the scandal surrounding Oxfam's operations in Haiti, where senior staff were found to have used prostitutes, isn't something that has just happened once.

"We have to recognize that this is not the occasional bad apple but a structural sectorwide problem," Watkins told the House of Commons International Development Committee. "This is a real problem; it is systemic, it's a large-scale problem, and we have to fix it."

The United Nations had been hit with allegations of abuse. In 2016, the global organization said it had received 145 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse -- 80 of which were associated with uniformed peacekeepers and 65 with civilian personnel.

A 2017 UN report on the issue said sexual exploitation has been a problem for years, compounded by weakly enforced hiring standards and lack of a screening system of candidates for a prior history of related misconduct.

Register for aid workers urged

Oxfam's embattled chief executive, Mark Goldring, apologized to British lawmakers for his organization's conduct in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

He said Tuesday that about 7,000 people have stopped making regular donations to Oxfam since the Times of London newspaper first reported on the allegations. Goldring also said the charity has received around 26 fresh accusations of sexual abuse and exploitation since the scandal broke.

"It was common knowledge that this was going on across the sector, and no one knew how to deal with it," said Pauline Latham, a Conservative member of Parliament.

"I'm sure this is happening in Rohingya aid camps, I am sure it is happening round the world," she said, referring to the Muslim refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar.

Latham urged the establishment of an international register for aid workers.

An internal Oxfam investigation from 2011 published this week confirmed seven of the charity's staff members were accused of using prostitutes at a residence in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Four were fired for gross misconduct, and three others were allowed to resign.

Haiti, which has criticized the UK charity for not notifying it of the findings, is now conducting its own investigation.

Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam International's executive director, said that women often end up being punished in countries such as Haiti where prostitution is illegal if authorities are notified.VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is pushing into the future.

The college launched its Aspire Higher campaign on Friday. It's a $22 million campaign.

The money supports the college's strategic plan which includes campus infrastructure improvements, and enrollment growth.

A major project is renovating the residence hall which is where Fridays special announcement happened

Some improvements have already started inside the building. The hope is that these change will support students academically, socially and spiritually.

This is their home and they think of this building as their home, explained President Dottie King, Ph.D. So everything from the common spaces they share and study and spend time together, socializing, to their rooms.

There are also some improvements outside that includes new crosses on campus that were made by local artist, Bill Wolfe.VERMILLION COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A student from South Vermillion High School was arrested Friday in connection to a threat made with a pocket knife.

Vermillion County Sheriffs Office reports Joseph M Philhower, 18 of Clinton, made a threat in a classroom towards students and a teacher. Officials report this was done with a pocket knife.

Philhower was taken to the Vermillion County Jail for a felony charge of intimidation. His bond was set at $10,000.

Quick response by staff and School Resource Officers are credited with preventing this event from escalating, Vermillion County Sheriff Phelps reported.VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - You can never be too prepared for an emergency that's why Union Hospital in Terre Haute held a class.



It's for Hoosier healthcare professionals and is called the FEMA Healthcare Sector Emergency Preparedness class.

The program gives health providers the opportunity to develop emergency plans. They're also able to test out those plans and assess risks.

Organizers say this is just one of the many ways they are trying to keep you safe.

"Our goal here is for this community is to be as prepared as we possibly can if something is to go wrong, explained Barry Nicoson, EMS, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator. Union Hospital, Regional Hospital is represented here. As a community we will work really well together. We have to be prepared. This is the first step of many steps that we've been doing to prepare for."

Around 80 health care providers from around the Hoosier state attended today's class.Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, introducing himself to local party leaders and voters in this critical presidential primary state this week, said the Democratic Party could no longer "paint states one color" and vowed to help discouraged Democratic voters here "start winning again."

He also asked South Carolina voters to look past the Los Angeles stereotype, telling predominantly black voters at a town-hall-style session in lower Richland County on Wednesday, "Yes, it's true, I come from Los Angeles, and we have a few more Kardashians than you do, but we are mostly not Kardashians."

The 47-year-old Democratic mayor - a Jewish Mexican-American and the youngest mayor in LA's history - traveled more than 2,000 miles cross-country to the Palmetto State officially as part of the job policy work that he is doing with the nonprofit group that he chairs, Accelerator for America.

But at events in the state Wednesday and Thursday, Garcetti, who has acknowledged he is considering 2020 White House bid, also appeared to be testing out a national message in a state which will help choose the Democratic Party's next presidential nominee.

State Democratic lawmakers here point out that President Barack Obama did very little to help build up the apparatus of state parties across the country, despite his fundraising prowess. At an intimate lunchtime gathering of party activists in Greenville on Thursday, Garcetti vowed to help rebuild the Democratic Party infrastructure from the ground up, particularly in red states like South Carolina.

Garcetti also headlined a closed-door Democratic fundraiser Wednesday night with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. The event built goodwill with local party officials, who have seen their coffers dip into the hundreds of dollars, according to filings with the State Ethics Commission.

"When you have someone who takes the time, and brings their gravitas and star power in, it's huge," said Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state representative and CNN political analyst.

At the town hall event Wednesday evening, Garcetti cast himself as the mayor of a working class city.

"We are mostly nurses, and firefighters, and factory workers, and janitors, and people who have dreams and hopes and are as frustrated as you are about the direction of this country," he said.

And on Thursday, Garcetti positioned himself as a Washington outsider, offering his own analysis of the divisions in the country.

"Some people, if you read the news, would say that we live in two Americas. There's the coasts and the heartland; there's the East Coast and the West Coast; there's rural and urban areas," Garcetti said in Greenville. "I don't think that's the division in our country at all. There are two Americas: but there's Washington and the rest of us."

Before Garcetti's visit this week, a number of South Carolina party operatives expressed skepticism about the political appeal of a West Coast mayor from one of the most liberal cities in America to the culturally conservative voters of South Carolina.

Dick Harpootlian, the former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party and a backer of former Vice President Joe Biden, said he believes the 2020 race for his party's nomination is wide open. But he says he finds it difficult to imagine Garcetti or his fellow high-profile mayors - Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans or Pete Buttigieg of South Bend - making that jump to the White House.

"If Joe (Biden) were not to run again, do we really need a guy from California?" Harpootlian said in an interview in Columbia this week. "The last president from California was Richard Nixon. Leaping from Mayor to President, I can't think of the last one that did that. ... Cities have huge problems" that could create vulnerabilities, he said.

South Carolina voters, Harpootlian noted, are far more conservative on issues like abortion, the death penalty, gay rights and guns, than either Garcetti or California US Sen. Kamala Harris, another charismatic star of her party.

"When I say ultra-liberal -- compared to the average Democrat here, they are way to the left, and that's not what we need for 2020," he said. "We need somebody representing -- not the Trump voter -- but the blue-collar Democrat who did not vote in 2016 for Hillary Clinton, because they did not like her."

At the Wednesday town hall event, Garcetti focused on the loss of manufacturing and middle-class jobs in Southern California and highlighted how he is attempting to create jobs through major infrastructure projects in Los Angeles.

He also seemed cognizant of the cultural sensitivities on issues like gun control here in a state that deeply values Second Amendment rights.

Fielding questions from voters about what actions he would take after the recent massacre at a high school in Florida, he struck a pragmatic tone on gun rights, an issue that dogged both Obama and Clinton in the South.

In addition to new gun control measures like protections to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, Garcetti said, "It is isn't about legislation, it's personal responsibility."

"And that's where the civics piece comes in," he continued. "What are we teaching our young people? How to be Americans. How to respect history but also to take care of themselves."

He said that before his 6-year-old daughter Maya goes to a friend's house to play in Los Angeles, he and his wife, Amy Wakeland, have begun asking the friend's parents if there's a gun in the house and whether it is locked up.

Garcetti also spoke in depth about the bravery and eloquence of the Florida students who advocated for gun control after the mass shooting at their school, citing them as an example of a new generation of political activists.

Garcetti gestured to a woman who had told him about her activism during the civil rights movement earlier in the town hall: "Just as you were a 19-year-old who made history, there are 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds making history right now," Garcetti said. "They didn't wait for anyone else to organize them; they had a die-in in front of the White House the next day. And, lo and behold, President Trump is now going back on the bump stock stuff, which he should have done after Las Vegas. But it was them that changed him."

"As a leader," he said, referencing the young Parkland activists Wednesday night. "I get out of the way."Tran Thi Duoc was 16 when the soldiers came to her village.

They wore camouflaged uniforms and helmets and carried long, black rifles. Behind them, in a neighboring hamlet to the northwest, she and other villagers could see smoke from burning houses rising into the bright, midday sky.

The soldiers, who were Asian but spoke a language the villagers could not understand, ordered them to leave their houses and gather around a well in the village's center.

Then the shooting started.

As Tran later told US military investigators, she fell to the ground and tried to play dead, but a soldier saw her and pulled her back up.

"I joined my two hands in front of my breast, knelt before him and begged for my life," she said. "But he shot at me."

The bullets broke her fingers and tore into her arms and upper body, but did not kill her. Tran passed out. When she woke up, she discovered her parents and two brothers dead, and her three-month-old sister wounded.

In total, 69 people were killed in Phong Nhi and neighboring Phong Nhat that day in February 1968, according to a US investigation that was kept secret for decades.

It was one of many alleged Vietnam War atrocities committed against defenseless civilians that would come to be overshadowed by the My Lai massacre a month later.

Unlike My Lai, which became public the year after it happened, the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat killings remained largely unknown until the 21st century.

They were also allegedly carried out not by US troops, but by South Korean soldiers, part of a pattern of brutal behavior documented in now declassified US government cables and reports, and the testimonies of survivors and veterans.

The revelations about South Korean atrocities during the Vietnam War, which began in the early 2000s, sparked a debate about the country's culpability for the US-led conflict. This reckoning, which jarred with South Korea's own history of abuse by foreign powers and mass killings, is still going on today and remains a deeply sensitive subject.

South Korea's 'crucial' role

In September 1965, President Park Chung-hee, a former army general who had seized power in a coup four years earlier, ordered thousands of South Korean combat troops to pour into Vietnam.

They formed the bulk of of the Free World Military Assistance Forces, an unlikely grouping of troops from South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Spain and Taiwan.

According to a 2016 report by the US School of Advanced Military Studies, "the ROK (Republic of Korea) Army played a crucial role in the US Army's operations ... and by 1972, outnumbered their American partners."

Around 320,000 South Korean soldiers would rotate through Vietnam during the war, with more than 50,000 in the country at the height of their deployment, according to the SAMS report. Despite this, South Korea's role in the conflict is little known in the West, where the Vietnam War is near universally depicted in popular culture as being fought by US troops, with other nations reduced to minor supporting roles.

The deployment was a political masterstroke by Park, according to historian Kil J Yi, as it made the president essential to a US government that was balking at the cost of propping up a South Korean administration moving further from, not toward, democracy.

"South Korea was under enormous pressure to secure US economic and military assistance," Yi told CNN. "The Vietnam War was the catalyst for Washington deciding to continue to pour massive aid into the Korean government."

"South Korea's participation changed how Washington perceived South Korea and (ROK) military forces," Yi said, adding that in the wake of the war South Korea "became a model client state."

Tet Offensive and brutal retaliation

South Korean assistance ramped up throughout the mid to late 1960s, but it did little to turn the tide of the war, and in early 1968, the North Vietnamese and their revolutionary allies in the South, dubbed the "Viet Cong" by the US, launched the devastating Tet Offensive, a massive surprise attack against 36 cities in South Vietnam, including the capital, Saigon.

In response, US, Free World, and South Vietnamese forces launched a brutal counteroffensive, one that was viscerally brought home to the US public when an AP photographer snapped Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executing an unarmed Viet Cong prisoner on the streets of Saigon.

According to Nick Turse, author of "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam," the response to the Tet Offensive "quickly turned into an orgy of massacres." Within months, the My Lai massacre would take place.

It was also at this time when a force of South Korean marines patrolling near the village of Phong Nhat (sometimes spelled Phong Nhut) came under sporadic sniper fire.

According to a US military investigation, the South Koreans responded by shelling the village with mortars, before moving in to clear it. They then headed into nearby Phong Nhi, where they allegedly massacred dozens of villagers.

US troops entered the village after the South Koreans had left. "The villagers had apparently been rounded up into three groups and shot," a report prepared by the US Embassy to South Vietnam said.

"A number of victims had been stabbed, and one young woman had her breast cut off ... sixty-nine civilians were killed, mostly women and children."

Lt. JR Sylvia watched the massacre taking place from a position opposite the village with a force of US marines and South Vietnamese troops. "The (Koreans) refused us permission to go into Phong Nhi," he told investigators. "Thus we could only wait until it had ended."

When they eventually entered the village, "the patrol found two old people buried under the debris of a burned house, a large number of bodies were found in a nearby ditch all covered with grass, several other corpses were recovered from the debris -- all too badly burned to identify or determine their sex."

"Further down the trail another large group of bodies were found along with ... two wounded women," Sylvia said. "One woman held out her ID card the entire time for fear that the patrol would kill her."

Photos taken by the US troops, contained within the investigators' report, show women and children shot at close range and mutilated, and their homes burned.

A US Marine Corps history of the period suggests such behavior was common: Maj. Gen. Rathvon Tompkins told the authors whenever the Korean marines received fire "or think (they got) fired on from a village ... they'd divert from their march and go over and completely level the village ... it would be a lesson to (the Vietnamese)."

Marine commander Gen. Robert Cushman added, "we had a big problem with atrocities attributed to them, which I sent on down to Saigon."

Campaigning for the truth

Two months after the Phong Nhi massacre took place, the commander of US forces in Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland, sent a preliminary copy of the investigation to his South Korean counterpart, Lt. Gen. Chae Myung-shin, asking for an urgent response, according to declassified US documents.

Chae assured Westmoreland that ROK troops were not responsible, instead laying the blame at the foot of the Viet Cong communist revolutionaries.

"Viet Cong, at numerous occasions, had operated in the area, disguised in camouflaged uniforms similar to those normally worn by ROK Marine troops," Chae said in a declassified cable. "(We) conclude that the massacre was an act conspired and mercilessly (carried out) by the communists."

The case stopped there. Faced with an abject South Korean denial, there was little US investigators could do despite describing Chae's account as "at odds" with evidence from US Marines, Vietnamese troops and civilians.

As Turse has documented, drawing on dozens of declassified documents, courts martial hearings, and war crimes probes, most alleged atrocities by US and allied troops were not investigated and went unpunished, despite mass killings of civilians being "unbearably commonplace throughout the conflict."

My Lai was the rare exception, both in that it became front page news around the world, and that someone was held accountable for it: US Army Lt. William Calley. He was court-martialed and sentenced to life in prison, but released in 1974 after serving only three years of house arrest. None of his superiors were punished.

The horror of My Lai also served to overshadow other alleged atrocities, which, as Turse writes, "have essentially vanished from popular memory."

This was despite a years-long effort by Vietnamese civilians, peace campaigners, journalists and US veterans to bring attention to the horror of the war. As future Secretary of State John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971, "war crimes committed in Southeast Asia (were) not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

In the "Winter Soldier" hearings organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a transcript of which was later entered into the Congressional Record by Sen. Mark Hatfield, soldiers testified, in Kerry's words, to how "they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."

They also testified about the conduct of their allies. One witness told the "Winter Soldier" hearings how they handed over four captured female North Vietnamese army nurses to ROK Marines.

"They tied their hands to the ground, they spread-eagled them: they raped all four," he said, going on to describe how the Korean troops mutilated and murdered the women.

Reckoning with history

In the US, public opinion around the Vietnam War plummeted as it dragged on and evidence of civilian massacres began to come out, ending in the publication of the Pentagon Papers exposing the "systematic" nature in which multiple presidential administrations lied to the public about the war.

However, Ku Seu-jeong, executive director of the Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation, says "despite the fact that the Vietnam War was the first and largest overseas (combat) deployment in the history of South Korea, and had great influence on the country's economic growth, it was (still) a 'forgotten war'."

"It was forbidden to discuss ... why South Korea engaged in the war, and what it did," she said.

Beginning in 1999, Ku helped bring evidence of alleged South Korean massacres to light as a Vietnam-based correspondent for the weekly news magazine Hankyoreh 21.

In 2001, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung told visiting Vietnamese leaders he was sorry "we took part in an unfortunate war and unintentionally created pain for the people of Vietnam."

Conservatives were outraged, and Park Geun-hye, daughter of Park Chung-hee and a future South Korean President, accused Kim of driving "a stake through the honor of South Korea," according to local media.

The massive amounts of US aid which came with the war helped kick start an economic boom which eventually saw South Korea become one of the leading Asian economies, and acknowledging the source of that growth remains a sensitive subject, said Yi, the historian.

"South Koreans in the 1980s and 1990s were encouraged to believe that their economic transformation was a miracle of the Han River, not the blood shed in Indochina," he said.

"To argue that one of the contributing factors was sending 300,000 soldiers to Vietnam, some of whom acted very, very violently, doesn't fit very well with the modern history."

To this day, Yi said, "there's an element of self-censorship to seriously looking into the bloody and darker side of South Korea's intervention in the Vietnam War."

Discussion of the war remains a sensitive issue for South Korean-Vietnamese relations as well, with Seoul and Hanoi -- now some of the closest allies in East Asia -- generally avoiding the topic.

Last year, President Moon Jae-in earned a rare rebuke from Hanoi when, in a Memorial Day address, he praised the "dedication and sacrifice of the Korean Vietnamese War veterans," who "carried out their missions silently, prevailing over hardships in sweltering heat waves and jungles."

In a statement, Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Seoul to avoid future actions that might "negatively affect the cooperative relationship between the two countries."

Seeking apology

According to Ku, "calls for the recognition of the truth about the massacre of South Vietnamese civilians" have been growing in the past two decades.

Sensitivity over how and how much to apologize for South Korea's role in Vietnam is particularly poignant given the country's own experience under Japanese occupation and ongoing disputes over so-called "comfort women" forcibly enlisted by Japan for its troops in World War II, accounts of which Japan strongly disputes.

Many of those active in pushing for a full reckoning with the Vietnam War legacy are also campaigners for the "comfort women," including artists Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung, who designed an iconic statue of a "comfort woman," versions of which have been erected in protest outside several Japanese consulates in South Korea.

Last year, the Kims unveiled a statue memorializing the victims of the Vietnam War on the South Korean island of Jeju, sponsored by the Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation.

Ku said the statue, called the "Vietnam Pieta" and modeled on the traditional depiction of the Virgin Mary cradling post-crucifixion Jesus, was "intended as an apology for the Vietnam War."

Kim Seo-kyung said she and her husband were inspired by seeing Japanese people coming to rallies to apologize for that country's treatment of Korea during World War II, and designed the statue "to apologize in our way" for the Vietnam War.

She said the plan had been to unveil statues in Vietnam and South Korea at the same time, but this fell through.

In April, the two-day People's Tribunal on War Crimes by South Korean Troops During the Vietnam War will open in Seoul, focusing on the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacres, and the killings in Ha My. Organizers said they plan to use the material gathered in the unofficial hearing to help bring a damages lawsuit against the South Korean government later in the year.

The tribunal will also be used to pressure President Moon, who disappointed campaigners by failing to go further than previous leaders in a November trip to Vietnam, saying only that South Korea "has a debt of heart" to the country. The South Korean government did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

"We think it is time to hold the Korean government officially accountable and accept our (country's) responsibility during the Vietnam War," said Boram Jang, a lawyer and one of the tribunal's organizers.

She said given South Korea's continued lobbying of Japan over "comfort women" and other World War II abuses, "we should also officially apologize to victims of the Vietnam War."

"Our principle for this tribunal is not to judge or punish those Korean soldiers who participated, we want to hear their stories, not just condemn," she said. "Maybe those veterans could be victims too."CORINTH, Miss. (WTVA) -- An Alcorn County fugitive returns to Mississippi to face his crimes.

Shane Michael Casabella, 39, sits inside the Alcorn County Correctional facility.

He returned from Fort Bend County, Texas this week following his capture by the U.S. Marshals on February 14.

The former North Corinth Christian Academy principal is accused of committing sex crimes against children.

Officials say Casabella failed to show up for a court hearing on January 29 leading to a bench warrant for his arrest.

He is accused of fondling, sexual battery and exploitation of a child.

The charges involves two victims. One is under the age of 16, and the other is under the age of 18.

Casabella is accused of inappropriately touching the girl younger than 16 years old at three locations: the Corinth Sportsplex, the child's home, and at North Corinth Christian Academy.

He was the principal of North Corinth Christian Academy between January 2013 and June 2015.

No word on his next court date.TIFTON, Ga. (WTXL) - A drug dealer is going to federal prison for 12 years after selling heroin to a woman who was later found dead in his room.

Charles E. Peeler, a U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced the sentencing of Bobby Earl Grantham Jr., 49, on Thursday.

Grantham was sentenced to 150 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.

He pled guilty to the offense in March 2017.

Investigators said the drug ring lasted from Oct. 2016 to August 2015 and involved a total of 21, all of whom have been convicted.

They say that on July 16, 2915, Tift County 911 received a call to the home of Jimmy Barrentine, who they say lived together with Grantham and sold heroin with him as well.

When authorities arrived, they found Sonya Tolar dead inside Grantham's bedroom. An autospy revealed that Tolar had died from a heroin overdose.

After looking through Tolar's phone, they discovered that Grantham had texted her a picture of heroin to entice her to visit him. Shortly after getting the text, she went over to the men's house, where she died.

Officials say Grantham's sentence was enhanced due to him obstructing evidence from authorities.

They say court evidence revealed that after Grantham discovered that Tolar had overdosed, he waited over 30 minutes to call 911. Evidence shows he and others spent the time removing evidence from the scene before authorities could discover it.

"Federal law carries stiff penalties for those who distribute drugs where death or serious bodily injury occurs," said U.S. attorney Peeler. "I hope that this sentence makes it clear that we do not tolerate the harm that this behavior causes in this district and that we are committed to doing all within our power to address and combat this epidemic."TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - As the nation grapples with how to move forward from last week's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, we are learning new details about an armed deputy who was on campus during the shooting, yet failed to act.

For the first time, teachers are returning to Stoneman Douglas high school and First Responders are sharing heartbreaking moments from last week's school shooting.

This, as well as new details from that day, are raising red flags.

When the shooting broke out, an armed student resource officer was on campus, in uniform. The sheriff says the deputy arrived as the shooting was occurring and stood outside for four minutes.

"What I saw was a deputy arrive at the West side of building 12, take up a position and he never went in," the sheriff said.

The president also weighed in Friday morning, bashing the deputy, but also doubling down on his call to arm trained teachers. Saying schools need to have some form of protection and cannot be gun free zones.COLQUITT COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL)- A 7th grade student in Colquitt County is facing charges Friday after deputies say the student made a threat to a school.

Deputies say the threat was written as a book by a 7th grade student and the student admitted to writing it. School resource officers say they have to take everything seriously and investigate it to the fullest.

The incident happened Thursday at Willie J. Williams Middle School. The 7th grade student was arrested after the investigation was complete.

There are currently eight school resource officers in the county school system and all of them have the same goal to keep the students safe.

Superintendent Doug Howell released this statement to WALB Friday.

Part of it reads:

"The student confessed to the writing in the book. There were no weapons involved or found at the school. The student was arrested by the authorities, charges were pressed. The student was also suspended 10 days to a disciplinary hearing. He is not at school."TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)- Florida State University board members came together again Friday for another Board of Trustees meeting.

Members met to discuss topics relating from student GPA's to new developments on campus to the Greek life ban.

FSU President, John Thrasher, opened talking about the Stoneman Douglas shooting and welcoming those students here in Tallahassee.

Reports presented show that the overall GPA on campus is high and application submissions always grow. President Thrasher also took the moment to address the latest efforts in the remaining greek life partial ban on campus.

"I think it highlights, again, the seriousness of these issues and why I believe these actions we have taken, or are beginning to take are important," Thrasher said.

The Student Affairs office is still determining when the ban will be fully lifted.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Keeping students safe is a top priority, and Governor Rick Scott's $500 million proposal wants to strengthen school safety plans across the state.

Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna says he is optimistic about Scott's plan and says keeping school kids safe needs to be a main focus following the tragedy in Parkland.

Scott's plan dedicates $450 million to upgrading school safety plans. Some of the money will be used to harden schools with metal detectors, bullet-proof glass and stronger locks.

The plan calls for law enforcement officers to be present during school hours in all public schools. It will also give faculty and staff tools to recognize potential threats and have an emergency plan ready.

"Teachers are trained educators, they are not trained law enforcement officers," said Hanna. "If we want to have additional law enforcement officers on our campus, I'm all for it, but if you're going to have a gun, you're going to have a badge."

Each school year, faculty will be required to take crisis intervention training. A threat assessment team of an officer, teacher and principal will meet monthly to talk about any potential threats to students and staff.

All school safety plans must be submitted and approved by the local sheriff's office before July 1 each year to receive state funds.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man has been arrested after being caught on camera assaulting a nurse at the Apalachee Center.

Lee Pittman, 30, was arrested by the Leon County Sheriff's Office for battery on a nurse.

On Thursday around 4:15 p.m. LCSO responded to the Apalachee Center in response to a reported battery. While at the Apalachee Center, LCSO talked to the victim, who told deputies she was attacked by Lee inside the admissions office.

The victim says Pittman did not meet the criteria for admission into the facility. Becoming angry, Pittman pushed his way into the admissions office and started hitting the victim in the head with his fists.

There was also video of the incident, clearly showing Pittman attacking the victim, according to deputies.

Deputies say there were several other staff members in the room when the incident occurred who broke up the fight.

Pittman was transported to the Leon County Jail on Thursday.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Ninety-six people have been executed in the Sunshine State since Florida started the death penalty in 1979. The latest happened Thursday night.

Eric Branch was executed by the state of Florida 25 years after the rape and murder of Susan Morris. She was a college student and her body was found naked and left in the woods.

Friday afternoon, a group of residents remembered the lives of both people.

They call themselves the Tallahassee Citizens Against The Death Penalty. Around 20 people gathered inside the capitol to reflect on the states most recent execution.

Florida changed the rules for a death penalty sentence in 2016. A unanimous jury is now required. Branchs jury wasnt, but the new rules exclude those who were sentenced before 2002.

The group says it doesnt condone what happened to Susan Morris, but it cant support the capital punishment system here.

"Leaving aside the question of whether it is ever right to deliberately take the life of another person when we don't have to do that," said Walter Moore, a member of the Tallahassee Citizens Against the Death Penalty. "We can keep society safe by locking a person away if that is what is called for."

The group hopes Florida abolishes the death penalty as other states have done in recent years. Members say there have been more executions during Rick Scotts time in office than any other governor in Floridas history.

They say there have been too many cases of wrongful convictions and that they favor life in prison over execution. The group said its actually more expensive to keep the death penalty than to abolish it.

Tallahassee Citizens Against The Death Penalty was created in the late seventies.

The group held a vigil outside the governors mansion last night, at the same time Eric Branch was being executed.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Two men have been arrested in connection with the shooting at The Commons apartment complex Thursday evening.

Roddrick Edison, 18, and La'Darius Boston, 19, were arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and carrying a unlicensed, concealed firearm.

The Tallahassee Police Department says the call came in about the incident at 1325 West Tharpe Street around 5:50 p.m.

When officers arrived on scene, they found two vehicles that had been hit by gunfire. The victims told them that their car was shot at as they were driving through the complex.

One of the victims was a Lyft driver who told police he was scheduled to pick someone up in the complex but didn't have a specific address.

Because of this, the victim drove through the complex looking for the client and while looking, saw Boston and Edison standing there. The driver slowed down to see if one of them was the client and as he did so, he saw the teens were armed.

As the victim started to drive out of the complex, both began shooting at his car. Police say the other victims gave a similar account as the Lyft driver.

According to TPD, witnesses told them that the armed suspects retreated into a nearby apartment after the shooting.

Officers responded to the apartment and arrested both Edison and Boston.

When they searched the apartment, they found two handguns and a stolen AR-15 rifle. Later on, officers learned that both men were involved in multiple shooting incidents in Lee County.

Edison and Boston were later taken to the Leon County Detention Facility.WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Charges have been dropped against the 18-year-old who admitted to posting a Snapchat video threatening Wakulla County Schools with an assault rifle.

On Friday, Wakulla resident, Kane Watson, made his first appearance in court following his arrest on Feb. 19 for intent to use a firearm in a violent manner and written threats to kill or cause harm.

Watson sent a video to his friends on Snapchat of him loading an assault rifle with the caption saying "Don't go to school."

Law enforcement was swift in arresting Watson because the rifle in the video was similar to the one the Parkland shooting suspect used. The State Attorneys Office was not able to build a case against him.

"If someone has made a false report concerning the use of firearms, that either has already occurred or is currently occurring," said Brian Miller, Assistant State Attorney. "The statute does not cover someone making a false report concerning the use of firearms in the future."

Meaning, Watson never threatened or said he intended to use the firearm against any person.

Under Florida statues, all charged for the use of a firearm in a violent manner against another person were dropped against Watson. He has since been released from jail.Updated : 2018-02-24

(chinadaily.com.cn)

The annual Taibo Temple Fair opened in Meili town, Xinwu district, Wuxi on Feb 23 this year. [Photo/WeChat account: meicunrizhi]

The annual Taibo Temple Fair opened in Meili town, Xinwu district, Wuxi on Feb 23 this year, making it Wuxi's first temple fair in the Year of Dog.

The temple fair commemorates Wu Taibo, the founder of Wu culture, who is praised for his nobility and humility in giving away his crown to his younger brother. Wu culture is immensely popular in Wuxi and throughout Jiangsu province.

Taibo Temple is located near the entrance of the ancient town. It is now Wuxis largest and best-preserved architectural complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

A ceremony to worship ancestors and Wu Taibo at Taibo Temple, Meili town, Xinwu district, Wuxi, Feb 23. [Photo/WeChat account: meicunrizhi]

Every January 9 of the Chinese lunar calendar, hundreds of thousands of Wuxi residents go to the local Taibo Temple in Meili town to worship their ancestors and take part in various activities. The temple fair is one of the most significant events in the city and in all of Jiangsu province.

In July 2007, the Taibo Temple Fair was approved as one of Wuxi's first Intangible Cultural Heritages. It was listed as a Jiangsu Intangible Cultural Heritage in July 2009, and was named a National Intangible Heritage for the fourth time in December 2014.

The fair will run for 8 days, and will feature 18 troupes performing the lion dance, waist drum, stilt walking, and other local folk acts.

The organizer offered hand-drawn maps that mark all the events clearly, including the schedule, lists of intangible cultural heritages, and special local food. This added some extra flavor to the traditional temple fair.MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces in crackdown against Taliban outfit have killed seven militants and injured six others, said a statement of Shaheen Corps released here on Friday.

The security forces, according to the statement raided the militants' hideout in Nawshahr-e-Alizai area in Chamtal district late last night killing seven insurgents on the spot and injuring six others.

It also added that the security forces during the operations captured five more militants including a group commander Mullah Akhtar.

Taliban militants haven't commented on the report.MAPUTO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said Friday the government has been doing everything to restore the basic living conditions for families affected by Monday's garbage dump collapse that claimed 16 lives, including five children.

"We regret the loss of human life," said the president on his visit to an accommodation center for those affected. "We also regret the situation in which our fellow citizens are living in. We know that they have lost a lot."

Before his visit to the accommodation center, Nyusi went to the Hulene area, which has the largest open-air landfill in the country.

Flanked by local municipal officers, the president promised that the Mozambican government will "provide all necessary support to restore the basic conditions for our brothers affected by the tragedy."

The government is looking for "an optimal place" to accommodate those affected, which should include schools, health centers and markets, Nyusi said.

A number of people were also injured in the collapse of part of the Hulene garbage dump, which was triggered by rainfall and buried five shacks.HOUSTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Two people were shot injured on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University at Hammond, about 70 km east of Baton Rouge in the U.S. state of Louisiana, according to the university Friday.

An incident involving several people on the North Campus led to the shooting, and the two injured people were in a stable condition, according to a tweet sent out on the school's official Twitter account Friday morning.

The University Police Department (UPD) sent out an alert early Friday morning that read "The University Police Department is investigating a report of gunshots near the University Center. There is no immediate threat at this time."

No classes are canceled and all should proceed with normal activities, according to UPD.

There have been at least nine school shootings reported this year.

Last Wednesday, a mass shooting in a Florida high school killed 17 people. The shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, just north of Miami.

The shooter was identified as Nikolaus Cruz, an expelled 19-year-old from the school. He was apprehended shortly after the shooting. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

The incident took place at Parkland, which was recently listed as one of the ten safest cities in Florida.GENEVA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- UN refugee agency UNHCR on Friday said it is "shocked and disturbed" after protests led to the deaths of at least five refugees and injuries to many others including police forces members in Rwanda.

Spokesperson Cecile Pouilly said at a UN briefing here that UNHCR is urging authorities in Rwanda to ensure safety and protection for refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DR Congo) after protests about food rations on Thursday led to the deaths.

She said around 700 Congolese refugees from Kiziba refugee camp had been demonstrating outside the UNHCR field office in Karongi, western Rwanda.

"The protests, ongoing since Feb. 20, were related to food ration cuts that have added to the refugees' sense of despair and lack of long-term prospective," said Pouilly.

Police were reported to have used teargas to disperse the protesters, after attempts to resolve the situation had failed and clashes were reported.

"We regret that our continued appeals for maintaining calm and restraint were not considered. This tragedy should have been avoided and disproportionate use of force against desperate refugees is not acceptable," said Pouilly.

UNHCR is calling on authorities to refrain from further use of force and to investigate the circumstances of this tragic incident.

Pouilly noted that underfunding has severely affected humanitarian operations in Rwanda, now with deadly consequences. UNHCR's 2018 appeal for 98.8 million U.S. dollars to support refugees in Rwanda is only 2 percent funded.

Over 173,000 refugees live in six camps in Rwanda. Kiziba refugee camp hosts over 17,000 refugees from DR Congo.MADRID, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Queen Sofia, accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to Madrid Lyu Fan, on Friday presided over a symbolic signature of an extension agreement between Spain and China over the loan and conservation project of the giant pandas.

With the agreement, the three giant pandas, which have been kept in Zoo Aquarium in Madrid, will stay in the zoo for another five years until 2023.

Two giant pandas -- Bing Xing and Hua Zui Ba -- arrived at Madrid's Zoo Aquarium in September of 2007, thanks to a 10-year cooperation agreement between the two nations. Their daughter, Chulina, was born on Aug. 30, 2016.

Lyu Fan highlighted the role which the pandas have played to bring closer people of the two countries.

"Pandas are considered the national treasure of China and they represent good friendship and the high-level cultural exchange between China and Spain," the ambassador said.

The extension of the agreement and the attendance of Queen Sofia highlighted Sino-Spanish friendship on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties, Lyu said.

He expected the friendship between Spain and China to "grow tall like bamboos and to be everlasting".

Jesus Fernandez, representative of Madrid-based Parques Reunidos which operates the Zoo, said conservation projects and collaboration among zoos globally have managed to change the panda's conservation status from endangered to venerable.

He also expressed gratitude to Queen Sofia for "the support, the affection and concern to the animals over the last four decades".

This year also marked the 40th anniversary of the first arrival of the giant pandas to Spain.

Zoo Aquarium in Madrid received the first pair of giant pandas from China in 1978. In 1982, a baby panda, named Chulin, was born, which was the first of its species that was born by artificial insemination in Western countries.LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's leading high-tech company BYD was honored by the Fast Company as one of its Top 10 Most Innovative Companies for Energy.

BYD ranked No. 2 for "introducing the first electric trucks," while U.S. company Green Mountain Power tops the list for energy "for helping customers go off the grid," according to the rankings compiled by the Fast Company, a monthly American business magazine.

"The biggest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world isn't Tesla, but the Chinese company BYD (or "Build Your Dreams"). The company began as a battery manufacturer -- and that expertise led it to electric cars and trucks, which depend on battery cost and performance," the comments of the list read.

"This year's list is an inspiring and insightful window into how many companies have embraced innovation and are working to make meaningful change," said Fast Company Deputy Editor David Lidsky, who oversaw the issue with Senior Editor Amy Farley.

"At BYD, we never stop working to transform the world. We strive to create innovative ways to power and move the world with safe and sustainable technology," Stella Li, President of BYD North America, told Xinhua Friday.

"We are honored to be recognized for our contribution worldwide," she said.

BYD, the world's largest manufacturer of battery-electric vehicles for the third year in a row, is also the largest manufacturer of battery-electric buses in North America.

In October, BYD unveiled its expanded battery-electric bus manufacturing facility, North America's largest, in the U.S. city of Lancaster in southern California. This growth will allow BYD to build up to 1,500 battery-electric buses annually.

The Top 10 Most Innovative Companies list, Fast Company's signature franchise, spans 36 separate categories from artificial intelligence to wellness.File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a National African American History Month reception at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States would launch the heaviest set of sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before," Trump said in an address to a conservative activist group in the state of Maryland.

Photo provided by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 1, 2017 shows top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un (Front) guiding the Korean People's Army Tank Crews' Competition-2017. (Xinhua/KCNA)

The new sanctions, the "largest-ever" package on the DPRK, will target 56 vessels, shipping companies, and trade businesses, said senior Trump administration officials at a background briefing earlier in the day.

The penalty, which is part of the U.S. maximum pressure campaign on Pyongyang, will designate 27 companies, 28 ships and one person, according to a statement released by the U.S. Treasury.

The move came amid the recent positive momentum on the Korean Peninsula as Pyongyang and Seoul have embarked on an apparent rapprochement with the PyeongChang Winter Olympics over the past month.

Flag bearer of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Hwang Chung-gum (L) and flag bearer of South Korea Won Yun-jong march together under a unified Korean flag during the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games at PyeongChang Olympic Stadium in PyeongChang, South Korea, Feb. 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

However, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence threatened earlier this month to slap the "toughest and most aggressive" sanctions on the already weakened DPRK.

Some experts saw his harsh rhetoric as the main reason that led the DPRK to call off a scheduled Feb. 10 meeting with Pence at the winter games.People visit an exhibition at Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco in San Francisco, the United States, on Feb. 22, 2018. Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco celebrated Chinese New Year of the Dog with a dog-themed artwork exhibition. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese New Year of the Dog has left a mark on San Francisco's art scene with a group of artists and designers on the U.S. West Coast coming up with an innovative and amusing dog-themed exhibition.

Titled "Dogs, Dogs, Dogs! A Lunar New Year Art Pop-Up", the exhibition opened Thursday at the Chinese Culture Center (CCC) in downtown Chinatown and will run through March 17, providing a fresh take on dogs and dog-themed art.

A man visits an exhibition at Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco in San Francisco, the United States, on Feb. 22, 2018. Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco celebrated Chinese New Year of the Dog with a dog-themed artwork exhibition. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

The pop-up show featuring more than 100 pieces of artwork has been curated by the local Sketchpad Gallery, and two artists -- Leon Sun of Chinese origin and Pamela Ybanez, a Filipino-American.

The exhibition is part of the annual events hosted by the CCC during the Spring Festival, Jenny Leung, director of communications at the CCC, told Xinhua.

"The pop-ups have a fresh take on Chinese tradition because a lot of our work is about engaging the next generation, who are interested in art and Chinese cultural heritage," she said.

A man visits an exhibition at Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco in San Francisco, the United States, on Feb. 22, 2018. Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco celebrated Chinese New Year of the Dog with a dog-themed artwork exhibition. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

Tamiko Wong, the program director, said the exhibits are from both professional and amateur artists, all of whom are interested in the theme.

"The exhibition coincides with the Year of the Dog, but I was sort of thinking about the dedication dogs have and the connection between humans and the animal," Ybanez said. "Dogs are friends of humans, and they are almost like children."

Sun, who came to the United States as a child, has a painting of his own dog sitting silently beside a man. He said it is meant to reflect the bond between human beings and dogs.

He said dogs were also a kind of teacher. "Dogs only know the present moment, and that enlightens me and I learn from it that we should seize the moment and live in the present," Sun said.

The exhibition will help people learn about the traditional heritage of China, he added.NAIROBI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police on Friday launched a major manhunt for an al-Shabaab commander and five other key terror suspects behind a series of attacks in northeastern Kenya.

The police have offered 20,000 U.S. dollars each for any information that could lead to the arrest of the six suspected al-Shabaab militants believed to be planning terror attacks in the east African nation

Authorities have circulated a photo of a woman and five men, including Issack Alio Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Shabaab commander and an improvised explosive device (IED) expert.

Other terror suspects being sought by the police include Abdiwhab Osman, Hareth Hillow, Kusow Yarrow and Mumina Erobe.

Alio, an al-Shabaab operative who hails from Mandera County in northeast Kenya, is believed to be behind a series of attacks along the Somalia border.

His main targets have been security personnel and telecom cell towers in Kenya's northeast and coastal regions.

The police called on the public to be vigilant and report the whereabouts of the suspects.

Kenya faces insecurity as bomb attacks using IEDs and grenades have become more frequent in the northeastern and coastal regions since its soldiers entered Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabaab and secure the shared border.Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a national awards ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on February 23, 2018. (KREMLIN PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to the Russian military at a ceremony for presenting national awards on the occasion of the Defender of the Fatherland Day, the Kremlin press service said Friday.

"We honor those for whom military service became a mission and the meaning of life - true patriots, who reliably guard the sovereignty and security of Russia, and secure the peace of our citizens," Putin said at the award ceremony held at the Kremlin Palace.

The national awards were presented "to soldiers who have committed a heroic deed in the name of the Fatherland and to the best units and formations of the Army and the Navy", according to the Kremlin.

Putin presented a Gold Star medal of the Hero of Russia to the family of Major Roman Filipov, a military pilot who died heroically fighting terrorists in Syria on February 3.

He also awarded the Order of Suvorov to the Red Banner South Military District, the Order of Ushakov to the Admiral Kuznetsov heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, and the Order of Nakhimov to the Guard missile cruiser Varyag, according to the Kremlin.

In particular, the president thanked Russian servicemen who took part in the anti-terrorism operations in Syria, which "displayed heroism, staunchness and bravery."

"Our soldiers demonstrated their readiness to solve the most complicated tasks in Syria: they act bravely, decisively and courageously. They helped the Syrian army shatter large, well-equipped terrorist groups," Putin said.

Russia started participating in the military operation in Syria in September 2015 at the invitation of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (Xinhua photo)

MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to vote for a resolution by the United Nations Security Council on humanitarian ceasefire in Syria's eastern Ghouta, but only on the condition of guarantees from all sides, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"In order for the resolution to be effective, and we are ready to agree on such a text, we propose a principle that will make the ceasefire real and based on guarantees of all those inside and outside Eastern Ghouta," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the media following a meeting with his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov, according to a ministry transcript.

On Thursday, the Security Council discussed the situation in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta, but failed to reach an agreement on the draft as members were divided over the text. Russia proposed to amend the text for "it to be realistic."

Lavrov underscored that the ceasefire resolution debated at the UN Security Council gave no guarantees that the militants would adhere to it.

"The guarantees, of course, should be backed by guarantees of external players, primarily those who have influence on extremist groups that have settled in this suburb of Damascus," he added.

According to Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, Russia prepared amendments to the ceasefire resolution and offered to the members of the Security Council on Thursday.WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pleaded guilty to charges of federal conspiracy and false statements on Friday in the ongoing Trump-Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Muller.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, appeared at the federal courthouse in Washington for a plea agreement hearing Friday afternoon.

According to a court filing revealed earlier in the day, Gates pleaded to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to FBI investigators.

Gates' plea comes a day after he and his longtime business associate, Paul Manafort, were indicted in Virginia on new charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort was the former Trump campaign chief, and Gates was a former campaign aide.

The pair were accused of laundering 30 million U.S. dollars, failing to pay taxes for nearly 10 years and using their real estate to fraudulently secure millions of dollars in loans, according to a 32-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday.

Thursday's indictment was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were among the first to be charged, as part of a Mueller-led investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

They were charged last October with money laundering, conspiracy and other offenses in a federal court in Washington. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

In a statement following Gates' decision, Manafort said that he continues to maintain his "innocence" and Gates' plea would not alter his commitment to defend himself against "the untrue piled up charges."PARIS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday in a joint press release condemned the attacks on civilians and the Russian Embassy in Damascus, capital of Syria.

Macron and Merkel have turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday with a joint letter calling for Russian support for the UN Security Council resolution currently being discussed, according to the press release.

France and Germany called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the implementation of a humanitarian truce to allow aids to be provided to civilian populations and emergency medical evacuations to take place, as has been requested by the United Nations, the press release said.

Russia is ready to vote for a resolution by the United Nations Security Council on humanitarian ceasefire in Syria's eastern Ghouta, but only on the condition of guarantees from all sides, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

On Thursday, the Security Council discussed the situation in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta, but failed to reach an agreement on the draft as members were divided over the text. Russia proposed amending the text for "it to be realistic."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 05:17:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's President Michel Temer denied on Friday that he had any plans to run in the upcoming presidential elections in October.

In a radio interview, Temer denied that the federal takeover of Rio de Janeiro's public security operations was a move aimed at increasing his popularity so that he could run again.

Temer is a former vice-president who took over in 2016 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Over the past week, it has been widely speculated that Temer might run again as the intervention in Rio was conveniently timed, especially as he could use its worsening security to try and boost his approval.

"The intervention is a master move, but it has no electoral motive," Temer said. "I will not be a candidate."

The second speculated motive for the intervention was the voting of a constitutional amendment on social security reform, which was due to take place on Feb. 19, after months of government efforts.

However, Temer decreed the intervention three days before the vote, which the government looked likely to lose. Under Brazilian law, any constitutional changes are suspended when a federal intervention is declared, giving Temer more time to try and garner more votes.

In the same interview, Temer also denied he will create a new tax to finance public security efforts.A picture taken on February 20, 2018 shows smoke plumes rising following a reported regime air strike in the rebel-held town of Hamouria, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. (AFP photo)

DAMASCUS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Just as people in Damascus thought the situation was becoming better and life was regaining its lost glamor in this oldest inhabited capital, the war persisted with another round of violence, pushing everyone over the edge.

The rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, once a holiday destination for Damascenes ahead of the war, has turned into a war-torn place where several rebel groups are entrenching and firing shells on Damascus.

Located a few kilometers east of Damascus, Eastern Ghouta is now the last major threat to the Syrian capital.

A couple of months ago, the rebels, mainly the al-Qaida-linked ones, launched a major offensive on a key military base in Harasta city in Eastern Ghouta, prompting the Syrian forces to launch a counter-offensive to push back the rebels.

However, the rebels renewed their mortar shelling on the capital, bombarding residential areas and sending the civilians into the fear of death or disability.

A young man rides bicycle near damaged houses in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syria February 20, 2018. (Reuters photo)

The attack has apparently raised the ire of the government, as Eastern Ghouta was supposed to be a de-escalation zone as part of a deal mediated by Russia, Turkey, and Iran.

In recent days, unprecedented military reinforcements started gathering on the outskirts of Eastern Ghouta, with heavy firing at the rebel positions in the area as a prelude to the ground offensive.

Meanwhile, the rebels also intensified mortar shelling on the capital, killing dozens of people and wounding many others.

The pro-rebel London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 400 people have been killed by the heavy bombardment on Eastern Ghouta since Sunday.

In addition, pro-government Sham Fm documented 338 mortar blasts in Damascus since January and the killing of 79 people, including 17 children.

A child walks near damaged buildings in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syria February 20, 2018. (Reuters photo)

Fear has become the shared feeling of Damascenes and the people in Eastern Ghouta, as the UN is urging the cessation of hostilities to allow aid to reach the 400,000 people estimated to being living in the rebel-held area.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, described the situation of civilians in Eastern Ghouta as "appalling."

On Thursday, the Syrian helicopters dropped leaflets over Eastern Ghouta, urging the civilians to leave the area and not to cooperate with the rebels.

Life in Damascus, mainly in the eastern part close to Eastern Ghouta, has also been largely paralyzed, with people either cowering in their homes or checking temporarily in hotels in the safe western suburbs.

Kuwait and Sweden proposed a draft resolution to reach a one-month cease-fire in Eastern Damascus to allow aid to the needed.

However, Russia called the draft resolution "unrealistic," and proposed amendments to it.

Voting on the draft resolution will take place on Friday, and the result will determine what will happen in the next few days.

Manhal, a restaurant owner in the old Damascus area, said he had lost his customers there as a result of shelling.

"I am prepared to spend a few days in a hotel in the western suburbs of Damascus until the situation becomes clear," he added.

Fadi and his wife Amal, who moved from his house in Halab Street to the nearby Tijara, said they are feverishly waiting to see the result of the UN Security Council vote.

"I hope they reach a deal in the UN Security Council to avert more violence in the capital so that we can return home quickly," Amal told Xinhua over the phone.

"We want peace, peace, peace in Damascus because we are tired," she said in an excited tone.

Maher, a 29-year-old university student, said he is having mixed feelings at this point.

"I have a mixed feeling of fear, tiredness and boredom. All of those have accumulated over the past seven years. I cannot hide my fear and hope at the same time about tomorrow," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 06:18:16|Editor: ZD

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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addresses a press conference after a summit of the 27 EU leaders excluding British prime minister in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 23, 2018. Juncker on Friday urged leaders of European Union member states to speed up their work on agreeing post-Brexit multiannual budget in order to avoid losses on money and jobs. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

BRUSSELS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday urged leaders of European Union member states to speed up their work on agreeing post-Brexit multiannual budget in order to avoid losses on money and jobs.

"Time is money. Delays in agreeing EU budget would cost 5000 research jobs for every single month that we do not agree and up to 600,000 Erasmus places in 2021 alone. And would jeopardise crucial infrastructure projects," Juncker told a press conference after a summit meeting of 27 EU leaders excluding Britain's prime minister.

European Council President Donald Tusk said at the same news conference that the EU leaders are unlikely to agree on a new multiannual budget this year. "We agreed that we should aim at speeding up the work, as compared with the previous negotiations. But finding an agreement in the European Council already this year seems really difficult," Tusk said.

It is estimated that Britain, as a net contributor to the EU budget, will after its exit leave a shortfall of more than 12 billion euros (14.7 billion U.S. dollars) per year in the budget.

With its current seven-year budget period ending in 2020, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, plans to present the blueprint of the next multi-year budget in May.

Juncker also called for increasing the size of the EU budget.

A fairly large number of countries said they were willing to pay more into the EU budget -- 14 or 15 countries, Juncker said.

"Those who want to restrict the EU budget to 1 percent of Gross National Income of the 27 countries instead of the current 1.13 percent should know that such a cut would mean cutting cohesion and agriculture funds by 15 percent or else to reduce other policies by 45 percent," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 06:33:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Tear gas exposure may have caused the death of the Palestinan "assailant" in West Bank city Jericho, according to a statement issued by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday.

On Thursday, the Israeli army said that the "assailant" tried to attack soldiers during clashes and soldiers then "fired towards" the suspect, adding that they also "confronted him from close range" before they caught and arrested him.

Friday's statement said that an initial inquiry regarding the IDF activity in Jericho suggested that during the IDF activity a riot was instigated as approximately 50 Palestinians threw firebombs and rocks and rolled burning tires at IDF troops.

During the riot, a Palestinian holding an iron rod ran towards and assaulted the soldiers. In response to the threat, soldiers fired towards him but he was "most likely not hit," according to the Israeli army in the statement.

The soldiers used force in order to subdue the suspect. In addition, the suspect attempted to grab a soldier's weapon. The soldiers arrested the Palestinian and an IDF medic declared his medical condition normal, added the IDF.

The soldiers continued to use riot dispersal means adjacent to the area where the suspect was held, said the army, adding that his medical condition deteriorated and he was evacuated for further medical treatment by IDF troops who subsequently declared his death.

After searching the Palestinian, a knife was found on him, said the Israeli army.

Because the Palestinian died while in IDF custody, the IDF opened a Military Police investigation, during which the suspect's cause of death will investigated and an autopsy will be performed, noted the Israeli army in the statement.

However, the Palestinian sources said Friday that Yassin al-Saradeeh, a 33-year-old resident of Jericho, "was killed by a bullet fired from point-blank range that struck him in the lower abdomen, causing internal bleeding, and that the bullet exited through his back."CHICAGO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The governor of U.S. Missouri State Eric Greitens is facing increasing pressure to resign following his invasion of privacy charges in connection with an extramarital affair.

The first-degree felony invasion of privacy indictment filed by a grand jury on Thursday was related to an affair the Republican governor admitted to having in 2015, in which he allegedly took a picture of a bound and partially nude woman and threatened to blackmail her if she made the affair public, according to local media.

State senator Jamilah Nasheed, a Democrat, has called Greitens to resign and if not, the state legislature should immediately begin impeachment proceedings.

"Greitens has to go," she was quoted on Friday as saying. "Missourians thought they voted for a person of character and integrity, and instead they got a liar and alleged criminal. "

Eric Greitens, who took office in 2017, was taken into brief custody and bonded out on Thursday afternoon. His lawyer claimed that Greitens is "absolutely innocent" and will file a motion to dismiss the felony charge.

Even several fellow Republican lawmakers started to question if Greitens should remain as governor, whose actions they believe damaged the reputation of the governor's office.

Greitens, 43, was a U.S. Navy SEAL commando before becoming Missouri governor. On the accusations, he argued that he made a "mistake" but did not commit any "crime."DETROIT, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. continues to expand its global automotive holdings by acquiring a 9.7-percent stake in Daimler AG for 9.2 billion dollars.

The purchase, which was revealed in a regulatory filing by Daimler AG Friday, makes Geely chairman, Li Shufu, Daimler's largest single shareholder ahead of the Kuwait Investment Authority, which holds 6.8 percent. Nearly 71 percent of Daimler shares are held by institutional holders.

The purchase by Geely was not the company's first attempt to gain a stake in Daimler AG, which produces Mercedes-Benz cars and a variety of other vehicles.

According to Bild am Sonntag, a German newspaper, Geely made an offer of 4.5 billion dollars for a 5-percent stake in Daimler but was rebuffed because the company wanted a discount rate on the stock. Daimler allegedly told Shufu and Geely they could buy the shares in the open market.

The German newspaper suggested the acquisition was designed to form an alliance against Apple, Google and Amazon on autonomous and connected vehicles.

They're going to have to hurry as Waymo received approval to run a fleet of "robo-cabs" in a Phoenix, Arizona, suburb without backup drivers. Prior to the approval, which it received earlier this month, the company had to employ emergency drivers to take control of the vehicle in the event a problem arose.

Geely, which owns Volvo and a controlling stake in Lotus, is currently developing a brand of electric vehicles and hybrids for the Chinese market through Lynk & Co., using Volvo components and technology.

The vehicles will feature dramatically different exteriors and will be offered as part of a car-sharing arrangement to be announced.

Geely, which has long attempted to bring a Chinese-branded vehicle to the U.S., is best-known for reviving the Volvo brand. The Swedish-Chinese brand has enjoyed a renaissance since Geely acquired the brand several years ago.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 06:58:26|Editor: ZD

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MONTEVIDEO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Paraguay's ministry of public health issued a health alert on dengue Friday following two more deaths due to the disease.

"We declare an alert...to fight against this disease," said the health minister, Carlos Morinigo, in a meeting with the heads of medical institutions in Asuncion.

Morinigo called on the population to assist in the destruction of breeding grounds of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. He also expressed concern about the "larval infestation" that can facilitate the transmission and propagation of dengue.

The increase in dengue cases was found to be due to outbreaks in neighborhoods near Asuncion and the nearby Central department, where 83 percent of cases have been detected.

The countries' latest data show five confirmed deaths and 1,167 confirmed cases of dengue by Feb. 10.

In 2017, Paraguay saw no deaths despite registering 616 cases. The last major outbreak in the country killed 70 people in 2012 and 252 people in 2013.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 06:58:26|Editor: ZD

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The impending cyclone season is bearing down not only on the more than one-half million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh refugee camps but also on an estimated 185,000 Rohingya children still in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the chief UN spokesman said on Friday.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, spotlighted the refugees' plight at a daily briefing for reporters at UN Headquarters, quoting reports from the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF).

The agency marked six months since the latest surge of Rohingya refugees into southern Bangladesh began at the end of August 2017, saying floods from the coming cyclones "are likely to engulf the fragile and unsanitary camps where most of the refugees are living, raising the likelihood of waterborne disease outbreaks and forcing clinics, learning centers and other facilities for children to close."

According to UNICEF, an estimated 185,000 Rohingya children also remain in Myanmar's Rakhine State, fearful of violence that drove so many of their relatives and neighbors to flee.

The exodus started after alleged deadly Rohingya rebel attacks on Myanmar security posts triggered violent retaliations from vigilantes and militias leading to the flight of about 650,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

UN agencies estimate there are around 534,000 Rohingya refugee children from last year and previous influxes to Bangladesh. In all it is estimated there are more than 800,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Asked about the return of refugees to Myanmar, Dujarric said they only should return to the sites of their former homes voluntarily, when they feel safe. "No one should be forced," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 07:13:30|Editor: Jiaxin

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian army and the Rio de Janeiro police launched a vast anti-narcotics operation in the west of the city on Friday, Army spokesperson Colonel Roberto Itamar announced.

The operation took place in the favelas (shantytowns) of Vila Alianca, Coreia and Vila Kennedy, where an army sergeant and a military police commander were killed this week.

3,200 elements from the police and army participated in the mobilization in the early hours of the morning, blocking off all access points to the favelas, backed up by armored vehicles and helicopters.

Itamar said that this operation had been planned before the federal intervention signed by President Michel Temer on Feb. 16 to take over public security in the city.

Vila Kennedy is one of the first social housing projects in Latin America. It is one of the neighborhood in Rio with the highest number of shootouts, having seen at least 13 clashes between police and drug traffickers in January.

Armed forces have carried out at least three large-scale military operations in Rio since last week.

General Walter Braga Neto was named by Temer to oversee all police and army forces in the city. The intent is to reduce the crime wave in Rio, which saw over 5,000 shootouts and close to 7,000 murders last year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 07:38:34|Editor: Jiaxin

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council has postponed a vote on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, till 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on Saturday, said Kuwaiti ambassador to the United Nations Mansour Al-Otaibi.

Al-Otaibi, who is president of the Security Council for the month of February, said the council members failed to reach consensus on Friday after rounds of closed-door consultations.

He said the council members were "very close" to consensus but failed to close all the gaps.

"We are working to have a consensual draft resolution and hopefully the council will be united and all of them -- the 15 -- will vote in favor," he told reporters.

The resolution, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden, demands a 30-day ceasefire across Syria so that humanitarian aid can be through and those critically ill can be evacuated from besieged areas. A vote on the text was originally scheduled for 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) Friday.

Swedish UN ambassador Olof Skoog said he was "extremely frustrated" by the impasse on Friday.

"I am extremely frustrated with the fact that the Security Council has not been able to adopt the resolution to try to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people."

He said the text will be voted on Saturday one way or the other. "We are not going to give up because the situation on the ground calls for a Security Council resolution that demands a cease-fire," said Skoog, referring to the recent escalation of violence.

"I hope we will adopt something forceful, meaningful and impactful tomorrow," he told reporters.

Skoog said the council members were "very very close" to consensus on Friday but they were not able to close the gap completely.

He indicated that the main difference was over the timetable for ceasefire. "I think we all agree that there needs to be a ceasefire that has to be urgent immediately. There are still some discussions on exactly how to define that."

An earlier text provides for the start of cease-fire 72 hours after the adoption of the resolution.

In response to calls by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and other UN representatives in Syria for a cessation of hostilities of at least one month to improve the humanitarian situation, Kuwait and Sweden circulated a draft resolution on Feb. 9. However, consultations dragged on for two weeks without consensus. Russia, which has veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council, demanded amendments.HELSINKI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A Finnish high court has ruled that no one can be sentenced for refusing to serve in the military, overturning the sentence handed by a lower court to a conscientious objector, national news agency STT reported on Friday.

The court repealed the sentence of half a year given by a lower court verdict last February to a young citizen for his refusal to national service. The man had given "serious conscientious objections" as the reason.

In Finland, either a military or civilian national service is compulsory to all males, unless disqualified for medical reasons. A 176-day prison sentence is mandatory if one refuses to serve. The only exception is that members of religious group "Jehovah's Witnesses", who are exempted from the national service, according to a law amendment that took effect in 1987, local media reported.

STT reported on Friday that the Helsinki court of appeals had determined by a 4-3 vote that "all convictions must be equal" and therefore special pardon for members of "Jehovah's Witnesses" makes any sentence on basis of other conscientious grounds unlawful.

Kirsi Pimia, the Finnish national equality ombudsman, told STT on Friday the cabinet should now take steps to review the legislation.

The Finnish association of conscientious objectors, an interest organization promoting the rights of people uneasy with national service, put the number of total refusers in Finland in recent years as 30 to 35 per year.WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pleaded guilty to charges of federal conspiracy and false statements on Friday in the ongoing Trump-Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, appeared at the federal courthouse in Washington for a plea agreement hearing Friday afternoon.

According to a court filing revealed earlier in the day, Gates pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigators.

Gates' plea comes a day after he and his longtime business associate, Paul Manafort, were indicted in Virginia on new charges of tax evasion and bank fraud. Manafort was the former Trump campaign chief, and Gates was a former campaign aide.

The pair were accused of laundering 30 million U.S. dollars, failing to pay taxes for nearly 10 years and using their real estate to fraudulently secure millions of dollars in loans, according to a 32-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday.

Thursday's indictment was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were among the first to be charged, as part of a Mueller-led investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

They were charged last October with money laundering, conspiracy and other offenses in a federal court in Washington. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

In a statement following Gates' decision, Manafort said that he continues to maintain his "innocence" and Gates' plea would not alter his commitment to defend himself against "the untrue piled up charges."

Gates' plea marked the fifth known to the public in Mueller's investigation and came a week after a federal grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Analysts said that Gates' plea could be a signal that he's willing to cooperate with the special counsel and could provide insight into the inner workings of the Trump campaign and transition at moments crucial to Mueller's investigation.

However, neither the October indictment against Gates and Manafort nor the additional charges included allegations of collusion with Russia as part of the Trump campaign. Those charges are related to money from their lobbying work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin while describing the Russia probe as a "hoax" and a "witch hunt."

He has also argued that the charges against Gates and Manafort were related to events that took place long before they joined his campaign.

Russia has denied meddling in the U.S. presidential election.TRIPOLI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Friday said Libya's southern rival tribes Tebu and Zway have reached a UN-sponsored reconciliation agreement.

"Representatives from the Tebu and Zway tribes of Kufra District signed a Reconciliation Agreement after a two-day meeting in Tunis, organized by UNSMIL with the support of UNDP (United Nations Development Program)," the Mission said in a statement.

"The agreement sets out key principles for reconciliation that include freedom of movement, individual accountability for crimes, and equal access to services without discrimination," the Mission said, adding that the two tribes have agreed to form a high commission for peace and reconciliation in Kufra within a month.

"Moreover, the participants called for the establishment of a neutral security force in Kufra to safeguard institutions. They also demanded social services and development projects in the area," the statement said.

In February 2012, armed clashes erupted between the two tribes, killing more than 100 people and displacing almost half of the residents in Kufra, an oasis in southern Libya with a population of 40,000 people.WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A 35-year-old female driver has been arrested for intentionally driving her van into a security barrier near the White House, the U.S. Secret Service said Friday.

The agency said in a statement that it has had "previous encounters with the female in the vicinity of the White House resulting in numerous arrests for a variety of criminal violations."

The driver, said to be from the U.S. southern state of Tennessee, was charged Friday with numerous criminal violations and was transported to the Metropolitan Police Department, the statement said, adding that "The White House complex has returned to normal operations."

In a series of tweets, the agency said that the vehicle did not breach the security barrier at the 17th and E streets near the South Lawn of the White House, and the female driver was immediately apprehended.

Pictures and videos posted on social media showed that the back window of the vehicle was broken but it's unclear how that happened. No law enforcement personnel was injured and no shots were fired during the incident, authorities said.

U.S. President Donald Trump was hosting visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the time but neither was in danger. Trump later tweeted his thanks to the Secret Service for "a job well done!"TRIPOLI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Libya's oil production lost 70,000 barrels per day, as the Al-Fil oil field was closed Friday night after all guards securing the field withdrew as part of a protest.

"After failure of mediation efforts of some members of the oil installations guards, and after the withdrawal of a group of the guards yesterday and withdrawal of the rest of them today, the company was forced to stop the production operations in Al-Fil oil field," Mellitah Oil and Gas Company, which is operating the field, said in a statement.

"Thus, Libya loses 70,000 barrels (of crude oil) per day the field used to produce," said the joint venture company owned equally by Italian energy group ENI and Libya's state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC).

"A team of senior negotiators and officials of the (National Oil) Corporation asked the protesters to stay in their positions pending a final agreement, but the protesters refused," it added.

Mellitah said that the field was scheduled to be closed for maintenance in March for a week, but it was closed now due to security conditions.

The oil installations guards in southern Libya were demanding the government pay their outstanding salaries of three months.

The Al-Fil oil field is located some 900 km south of Tripoli, capital of Libya. It is one of the most important fields of ENI, which operates it with the NOC.

Libya, which has Africa's largest oil reserves, used to produce about 1.6 million barrels per day before the 2011 armed uprising that toppled and killed former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's daily production of crude oil has returned to over one million barrels a day since the end of 2017, after production operations of all southern and eastern oil fields were resumed.

However, sudden closures of oil fields due to labor protests have caused Libya's oil production to fluctuate.YANGON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A series of four bomb explosions hit Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's western Rakhine state, early Saturday, injuring two people including a policeman, the President Office said.

The blast occurred at about 5:47 a.m. local time (2317 GMT Friday).

The four places where the blast took place included a court, residential compound of secretary of township administration department, district land records department office and on Strand road, U Zaw Htay, director-general of the Presidential Office, told Xinhua.

Three other unexploded bombs were also detected in the area.

Damage was left due to the series of explosions, a local police official told Xinhua.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 11:19:07|Editor: Zhou Xin

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U.S. President Donald Trump (2nd L) and First Lady Melania Trump (1st L) pose for a photo with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (2nd R) and his wife Lucy Turnbull at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 23, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday met with visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull here on closer economic and security relations between the two countries. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday met with visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull here on closer economic and security relations between the two countries.

In a joint press conference, Trump applauded a century-long bilateral relationship between the two allies, including cooperation in counter-terrorism, trade and immigration.

Turnbull said the meeting will help generate jobs for both sides.

He said Australian and U.S. companies are working together on energy production and infrastructure development.

Along with Turnbull came a large group of company heads. During the meeting at the White House, Turnbull expressed interest in investing Australia's public pension funds in U.S. infrastructure, according to a White House statement.

Defense cooperation was another focus of the two leaders' talks, said the White House, citing Australia as being among the top 10 purchasers of U.S.-sourced defense equipment.

Trump and Turnbull also discussed further anti-terrorism cooperation in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

The two leaders haven't always seen eye to eye since Trump took office last year. Trump reportedly engaged in a combative call with Turnbull over refugee issues one week after his inauguration, pressing the latter to make concessions on receiving refugees.

Turnbull insisted that both countries should abide by their agreement, making Trump snap toward the end of the call.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 12:34:16|Editor: ZD

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KABUL, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least one people was killed and six others wounded after a suicide bombing rocked a diplomatic district in central Kabul Saturday morning, a spokesman of the Interior Ministry said.

The attacker also died on the spot and two of the wounded were in critical condition, spokesman Najib Danish told local Tolo News TV.NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A job application filled out by the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will go up for auction in March, and is expected to fetch more than 50,000 U.S. dollars.

Dating back to 1973, the application was filled out with a handful of simple phrases containing spelling errors. Yet it gives a glimpse into the interests and aspirations of young Jobs before he broke into the tech industry.

In the form, Jobs listed his special abilities as "electronics tech or design engineer," and wrote "yes" next to computer skills.

He responded "yes" to the question of whether the applicant had a driver's license but when asked if he had access to a car, he wrote "possible but not probable."

The inventor of the iPhone wrote "none" next to the column "Phone."

It is not known what position Jobs was applying for, or whether he got that job.

Jobs worked as a technician for game publisher Atari before he founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976.

During his tenure at Apple, the tech giant created some of the world's most well-known products, including the iPhone, the Mac computer and iTunes.

The application will be up for auction from March 8 to 15 at the auction house RR Auction in Boston, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.TOKYO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese Ministry of Health approved a new drug on Friday that allegedly kills the flu virus in just 24 hours, which would be a major breakthrough in combating influenza.

The tablet, which is called Xofluza, could soon prove to be a significant competitor to Swiss drug giant Roche's Tamiflu, one of the most common drugs used to treat the flu.

According to the Japanese drug maker Shionogi, Xofluza requires far fewer doses than Tamiflu. Patients only need to take just a single pill instead of two doses per day for five days.p Shionogi also says that Xofluza can kill the flu virus within 24 hours as it stops virus replication in its tracks by inhibiting an enzyme that the flu virus needs to multiply.

China announced the research and development of a vaccine to protect people against four subtypes of seasonal influenza viruses last week. It is expected to be available on the Chinese market in the second half of 2018, a Chinese health official said.

The World Health Organization says seasonal flu is an acute respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses which circulate in all parts of the world. Annual epidemics of influenza are estimated to result in 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness and 290,000 to 650,000 deaths worldwide.

The ongoing flu season has strongly affected several countries with at least 129 deaths having been reported in total in January.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 12:59:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

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An Afghan policeman stands guard at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2018. At least one people was killed and six others wounded after a suicide bombing rocked a diplomatic district in central Kabul Saturday morning, a spokesman of the Interior Ministry said. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)

KABUL, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least one people was killed and six others wounded after a suicide bombing rocked a diplomatic district in central Kabul Saturday morning, a spokesman of the Interior Ministry said.

The attacker also died on the spot after the attack which occurred around 8:20 a.m. local time (0350 GMT) in Shash Darak locality, and two of the wounded were in critical condition, spokesman Najib Danish told local Tolo News TV.

Sirens could be heard after the blast in the fortified area where the U.S. embassy, NATO-led coalition forces' headquarters, government office buildings and scores of apartment buildings are located, witnesses said.

The target of the blast remained unknown.

The security forces have cordoned off the area as precautionary measures.

"More details would be made public later as an investigation is underway to find more facts about the incident," Danish added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The capital city with a population of nearly 5 million has been hit by series of terror attacks over the past couple of years.

On Dec. 25, eight people, including five civilians, were killed and two others wounded after an Islamic State (IS)-claimed suicide bombing struck the same area.

More than 3,430 civilians were killed and over 7,000 others injured in conflict-related incidents in 2017, according to figures released by the United Nations mission in the country.YANGON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A series of four bomb explosions hit Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's western Rakhine state, early Saturday, injuring two people including a policeman, the Presidential Office said.

The blasts occurred at about 5:47 a.m. local time (2317 GMT Friday).

The four places where the blasts took place included a court, residential compound of secretary of township administration department, district land records department office and on Strand road, U Zaw Htay, director-general of the Presidential Office, told Xinhua.

Three other unexploded bombs were also detected in the area.

Damage was left due to the series of explosions, a local police official told Xinhua.

The attacks came after an explosion killed two women and injured 11 others in Lashio, Myanmar's northern Shan state on Wednesday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 13:14:25|Editor: Xiang Bo

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HOUSTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Natural gas consumption in China will continue to increase, driven by government policies designed to reduce air pollution, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Friday.

The EIA also expected China's imports of natural gas by pipeline to increase, especially as the Power of Siberia pipeline from Russia is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, the EIA quoted IHS Markit, a global marketing information company, as reporting that China surpassed South Korea to become the world's second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2017.

China's imports of LNG averaged 5 billion cubic feet per day in 2017, only after Japanese imports of 11 billion cubic feet per day, according to the EIA.

Imports of LNG by China rose by 1.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2017, with imports reaching 7.8 billion cubic feet per day in December.

China's imports of natural gas have grown to meet increasing domestic natural gas consumption, which has been primarily driven by environmental policies to replace coal-fired electricity generation.

The Chinese government has also implemented policies to encourage several million households in China's northern provinces, which traditionally rely on coal for heating in the winter, to use natural gas-fired boilers instead.

U.S. LNG exports to China increased significantly last year, from 17.2 billion cubic feet in 2016 to 103 billion cubic feet in 2017. China accounted for nearly 15 percent of U.S. LNG exports in 2017, behind only Mexico and South Korea.

In November, the United States and China signed several preliminary agreements for U.S. LNG exports to China, including exports from the Sabine Pass on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana.

Furthermore, Houston-based Cheniere Energy and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in February signed two long-term contracts for LNG from Sabine Pass and a new LNG facility under construction near Corpus Christi, a port city of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico.LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A suicide car bombing ripped through a main road in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah on Saturday morning, local police said.

The blast occurred roughly at 9:05 a.m. local time (0435 GMT), causing casualties and destruction in the city, capital of southern Helmand province, a police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 13:29:28|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The property market remained largely stable across China in January, with home prices edging down slightly in major cities, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Saturday.

New residential housing prices in first-tier cities declined last month in comparison to December, and the growth of the second-hand home prices also went down 0.5 percentage point.

The property market in smaller cities is showing signs of slower growth, with the growth of new residential housing prices sliding 0.3 percentage point from a month earlier.

New residential home prices went down on a yearly basis in 11 of the 15 major cities considered the "hottest markets." On a month-on-month basis, new residential prices fell in 7 of the 15 cities, while Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Fuzhou saw prices flat with December.

NBS statistician Liu Jianwei said that prices were generally stable as market controls continued to take effect.

At the beginning of last year prices soared in some major cities, but governments measures ended the year on a more sober note. Beijing implemented over 30 cooling policies, according to Centaline Property.

Relatively tightened liquidity to contain leverage and financial risks also helped to rein in prices. Authorities have constantly reiterated that "houses are for living in, not speculation."

A statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference in December said that China will maintain policy continuity while adopting new policies in 2018.

Investment in real estate development grew 7 percent last year, 0.1 percentage point faster than a year earlier to reach nearly 11 trillion yuan (about 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars).Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 13:44:30|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The total number of trips by rail since the start of the Spring Festival travel rush on Feb. 1 had reached 208 million by Friday, up 5 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Railway Corporation (CRC).

Travelers made 11.9 million railway trips on Friday, with an additional 1,150 trains scheduled, the CRC said.

On Saturday, 11.5 million trips and 1,024 additional trains are expected.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese went back to their hometowns to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year with their families.

The annual travel rush around the festival, known as "chunyun," often puts the transportation system to the test.

About 2.98 billion trips were expected to be made between Feb. 1 and March 12, basically the same figure as last year, according to earlier estimates by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner.CANBERRA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Toddlers in the Australian state of Victoria will be offered free influenza vaccinations following a severe 2017 flu season.

Jill Hennessy, Victoria's minister for health, announced that the shots will be available for children aged between six months and five years from May onwards.

More than 3,941 children younger than five years old were hospitalized in Victoria alone during the 2017 flu season, up from 871 the previous year.

Eight-year-old Rosie Anderson died from the flu in September just a week after contracting the virus.

More than 385,000 are expected to receive the free vaccinations, costing the state 2.74 million U.S. dollars.

While the number of children who caught the flu more than quadrupled, cases in the general population also rose to more than 13,000 compared to around 7,000 the previous year.

Hennessy on Saturday called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to expand the National Immunization Program (NIP) to include children.

"We're ensuring kids aged under five can access a free flu vaccination before another deadly flu season starts - and we'll keep pressuring Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals to protect Victorian kids permanently," she said in a media release on Saturday.

"Victorians were hit hard by last year's flu season, and kids weren't immune. If Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals won't protect our kids from the threat of the flu, we will."

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt returned fire, accusing the state government of "deliberately and irresponsibly politicising the NIP."

In a statement, Hunt said he "utterly rejected" the accusation that he had refused to expand the program, instead laying blame at the feet of the Victorian government.

"By law, for a vaccine to be listed on the National Immunization Program, it must be registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and recommended by an independent panel of medical experts, which make up the PBAC," he said.

"The Victorian Government has failed to make this application despite being urged to do so for over a year."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 13:59:31|Editor: Xiang Bo

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CHONGQING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Restaurants at expressway rest stops in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality are different from others across China -- there are no humans waiting on tables.

The first robot servers went to work at Wulong and Dalu expressway rest stops in Chongqing in the middle of the month, the local traffic committee announced Saturday.

Customers order food via a terminal and pay their bill online. Robots bring the food to their tables.

Zheng Yi, operations manager with the Wulong rest stop, said robotic staff slashed operating cost.

"If their performance is good, the robots will find work in more restaurants along the city's expressways," Zheng said.

The trend of smart tech in service has grown in recent years. In addition to attracting curious customers, they have proven to be efficient and helped tackle rising labor costs.

Service robots are already used in package delivery, elderly care and hotel reception.

During the Spring Festival travel rush, some 20 robot policemen are even patrolling a railway station in Shenzhen.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 14:39:36|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Afghan security force members inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2018. At least five people, including two assailants, were killed and 11 others wounded in two separate suicide car bombings in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand on Saturday morning, provincial officials said. (Xinhua/Abdul Aziz Safdari)

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least five people, including two assailants, were killed and 11 others wounded in two separate suicide car bombings in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand on Saturday morning, provincial officials said.

One person was killed and 10 others wounded after a Taliban fighter rammed a car bomb into a provincial intelligence agency's office in the principal capital of Lashkar Gah city.

"The blast occurred roughly at 9:05 a.m. local time (0435 GMT), leaving one security force member killed and 10 people, mostly civilians injured," a police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua.

The massive explosion also damaged several nearby houses and shops.

Earlier in the day, a Taliban fighter detonated an explosive-laden hijacked military armored vehicle near an army camp in Nad Ali district, west of Lashkar Gah, killing two soldiers and injuring another one, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told local Tolo News TV.

The Taliban militant group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Helmand province which is notorious for growing poppy and militancy.

Earlier on Saturday, one person was killed and six others injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up in central part of the country's national capital of Kabul.

The attacks came one day after the country started construction of a major gas project in western Herat province to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to neighbouring Pakistan and India.MOSCOW, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the U.S.-led coalition in Syria of failing to fight the Nusra Front terrorists that Russia deems as the major obstacle to reaching a cease-fire in the Mideast country.

"The Nusra Front is not being targeted. We still have no evidence that the U.S.-led coalition considers the Nusra Front as a target for its military campaign," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russia's Sputnik news agency.

The Nusra Front terrorist group in the besieged Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Syria's capital Damascus used civilians as human shields during fighting in order to put the blame for civilian casualties on the Syrian government and its allies, Lavrov told a news conference after a meeting with his Uzbek counterpart, Abdulaziz Kamilov.

The Russian foreign minister made the remarks when reports of heavy civilian casualties and hospital attacks in the latest escalation of violence in Eastern Ghouta have prompted calls from countries for a 30-day humanitarian cease-fire across Syria to enable medical aid and evacuations.

The United Nations Security Council began Thursday to consider a resolution demanding such a cease-fire, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden.

On the worsening situation in the last rebel enclave near Damascus, Russia said Nusra Front terrorists have repeatedly launched attacks on Damascus, provoking mounting retaliations from the Syrian government side, especially intensive airstrikes and shellings in recent days.

Stressing a guarantee was needed for the terrorists to lay down their weapons, Lavrov said Russia is ready to back an amended cease-fire proposal.

"In order to make this resolution effective -- and we are ready to agree on a document that will do so -- we propose a formula that will make the cease-fire real and based on the guarantees of the parties that are currently residing in East Ghouta," he said.

"The guarantees should be backed by the external powers," he added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 14:54:40|Editor: Lu Hui

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File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a National African American History Month reception at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Conservative media has generally not been critical toward U.S. President Donald Trump. But things may change after a top Fox News anchor blasted the president for his silence over Moscow's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential elections.

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith earlier this week lambasted Trump for refusing to condemn Russia for its alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential elections, amid an ongoing investigation into the matter. The move was unusual since Fox is generally supportive of the president.

It remains unknown whether the network will continue this way, but analysts said conservative media are concerned over the allegations of coziness with Russia, a country that conservatives and conservative media have always been criticizing.

"We are likely to see conservative media criticizing Trump over Russia because that is a hot button issue for them," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"They long have loathed Russia and felt it was harming U.S. interests and they worry about the president's cozy relationship with Russians," West said.

Indeed, the White House has for a year been battling suspicions that Trump had colluded with Russia in a bid to clinch the presidential elections. An investigation is ongoing, and critics wonder why the Trump administration has been silent on the issue.

"They wonder if there are things beneath the surface that stop Trump from condemning Russia," West said.

Most other Republicans at one point or another have criticized what they view as Russian aggression in foreign policy and authoritarianism at home. But Trump's silence on these matters, say critics, is deafening.

"As more information comes to light regarding the Russia relationship, it could become even more difficult for Trump to maintain his silence," West said.

"The president spent the weekend defending himself, misrepresenting the truth and attacking others from his phone in Florida," the anchor said earlier this week on Shepard Smith Reporting.

"He did not attack (Russian President) Vladimir Putin or Russia, nor did he express concern that the Russians attacked the United States. Nor did he pledge in any way to put measures in place to stop future attacks," Smith said.

The Fox News host also underscored Trump's post on the social media platform Twitter, which claimed that he "never said Russia did not meddle in the election."

"The president has questioned the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election over and over, and over again," Smith said.

Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua that Smith has been an outlier among the Fox News talent.

The rest of their line up and conservative media have continued to follow a narrative that downplays the nature of the interference -- lest it be seen as a way to lessen the impact of President Trump's victory, Mahaffee said.

"For much of the same reason, President Trump fails to address the issue and use the powers given to him by Congress to tighten sanctions on Putin's inner circle," Mahaffee added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 15:24:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

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RAMALLAH, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department said on Friday that the United States is planning to open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May, a move that has triggered wide condemnation and protest in the Arab and Muslim world.

The embassy will initially be located in the Arnona neighborhood in a building that now houses consular operations of U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, said the State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert in a statement.

A new embassy annex on the Arnona compound is expected to open by the end of 2019, Nauert added.

Although Israeli Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz tweeted on Friday to congratulate U.S. President Donald Trump on his decision to transfer the U.S. embassy, the voice was outnumbered by the overwhelming majority of critics, especially in the Arab and Muslim world.

"This is an unacceptable step. Any unilateral move will not give legitimacy to anyone and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Additionally, in Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim world, according to reports of the Jerusalem Post on Friday.

Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat slammed the Trump administration's plan to move its embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May, a sensitive date designed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Israel.

Erekat also said in a statement that the White House has shown its determination "to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people."

After the White House decision came out on Friday, clashes broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian demonstrators in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. About 32 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

The clashes took place on Friday amid hundreds of Palestinian prayers demonstrating in Gaza City against the United States and Israel in the region, following the calls of Abbas' Fatah Party and the Hamas.

Mass protests and demonstrations have been going on every Friday in Gaza and the West Bank since Trump announced his intention to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 15:40:38|Editor: pengying

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Tourists light butter lamps during a butter lamp lighting service for blessing at Guangren temple in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Feb. 23, 2018. Citizens and tourists light butter lamps here on Friday to express good wishes.(Xinhua/Liu Xiao)NEW YORK, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Man's best friend is poised to steal the limelight at the Lunar New Year Festival celebration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in Manhattan, New York, on Saturday.

As part of the Met's celebration of the Year of the Dog, which takes place on Saturday, the Guide Dog Foundation, America's Vet Dogs, and Guiding Eyes for the Blind will bring in working service dogs and puppies in training, with an aim to help people understand the important work guide dogs perform for people with various disabilities.

Meanwhile, a special exhibition "Celebrating the Year of the Dog" on view Jan. 19-July 4 demonstrates the importance of dogs in daily Chinese life over the centuries.

According to the exhibition, archaeological evidence indicates that dogs were buried to accompany the deceased as early as in China's Shang dynasty (ca. 1600-1046 B.C.). By the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), dogs were frequently represented in painting and metalwork, as well as in pottery tomb figures, and they remained a popular motif across all media for two millennia.

This is the ninth consecutive year for the Met to hold celebratory events for the Chinese New Year. Saturday's event will also include a parade, musical performances, art-making activities, a hand-pulled noodle demonstration, and storytelling.

The Met has seen an increase in visitors from China in recent years. In the 2017 fiscal year, 37 percent of visitors were international. Chinese visitors made up 15 percent of that total, up 2 percent from the previous year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 15:54:52|Editor: Lu Hui

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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. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Franklin Institute, a museum in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, pledged on Friday to protect a set of China's terracotta warrior statues with the "utmost care and reverence," after a man stole a statue's thumb.

"The Franklin Institute has the utmost respect for the Terracotta Warriors and the rich Chinese cultural heritage they embody," the museum said in a statement obtained by Xinhua.

The statement came a week after authorities revealed that on Dec. 21, a man stole a thumb of a Chinese terracotta warrior statue exhibited at the institute.

The thumb was retrieved by the FBI and the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Michael Rohana from state of Delaware, was arrested and released on bail. He faces charges of theft of a major artwork from a museum and other offenses.

The 10 terracotta warrior statues at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia were on loan from China for a special exhibition that began in September 2017 and will run until March 4.

The statues date back to at least 209 B.C. For more than 2,000 years, the life-size statues guarded the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang, which covers an area of 56 sq km in Shaanxi Province in northwestern China.

While describing the theft as a "deplorable act," the institute said that it has been working with the FBI and other authorities to ensure that "justice for the individual responsible is served."

"We will continue to cooperate fully with our partners in China to maintain and protect the warriors with the utmost care and reverence," the statement said.

According to an arrest affidavit filed last week, Rohana 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.

He 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.

The Franklin Institute said on that night standard closing procedures were not followed by its external security contractor. It has reviewed its security protocol and procedures and taken appropriate action where needed.

"The Franklin Institute has multiple levels of security in place to ensure the safety of our artifacts, everything from personnel to technology that meets and exceeds museum industry standards," the museum said.

The incident has attracted great attention from both China and the United States amid calls for better protection of Chinese cultural artifacts on loan to other countries.

The cultural relics authority of China's Shaanxi Province said earlier this week that it will send two experts to repair the terracotta warrior statue.

The provincial cultural heritage department said that related U.S. departments should be held responsible for the damage, and guarantee the safety of the relics on display.

The Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center has organized over 260 overseas exhibitions over the past 40 years, and has never come across a situation like this, said an official with the center.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 16:09:55|Editor: pengying

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LONDON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's telecommunications giant Huawei, which has been enhancing cooperation with big telecom operators across Europe and Asia, is on its way to occupying "a prime position" to lead the next-generation 5G networks global race, Reuters reported.

Huawei has been competing with rivals including Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia in several European countries, some of which are longtime U.S. allies, the report said.

In Europe, Huawei has signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to try out 5G equipment with Britain's BT, Bell Canada, France's Orange, Germany's Deutsche Telekom and British multinational network provider Vodafone, among others, the report noted.

Earlier this week, Huawei and Vodafone announced they had completed the first 5G call in the world. In a press communique, Huawei confirmed the call was made using a dual "4G to 5G connection" at speeds which are eight times faster than the current 4G standard.

These MoUs agreements indicate that many countries allied to the United States do not share Washington's security concerns, the Reuters report noted, citing the Senate bill earlier this month that would ban equipment from Huawei from any U.S. government networks.

Aside from MoUs agreements, Huawei's existing partnerships with operators could give the company "an extra edge" in 5G era, the Reuters report noted, saying it had supplied more than half of the 4G networks and 4.5G networks globally as of 2016.FARAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 22 Afghan army soldiers were killed in a massive Taliban attack on an army camp in western Farah province overnight, a local official said Saturday.

"Militants numbered hundreds attacked an army camp in Kanesk area of Bala Buluk district Friday night. The army soldiers fought back the attackers but some 22 soldiers lost their lives after the fighting," Naser Mehri, spokesman of the provincial government, told Xinhua.

Several militants were also killed and wounded during the gun battle, but their number could not be exactly specified as the militants evacuated their casualties, he said.

Additional forces were dispatched to the district after the clashes, he added.

Afghan army and police have repulsed Taliban multi-pronged attacks against the provincial capital Farah within the past months as the militants have been trying to capture the full control of the city and outer parts.

Violence has been on the rise as the Afghan security forces struggle against a surge in attacks by anti-government fighters since the drawdown of foreign forces within the past three years.

The Taliban militants have not made any comment about the report so far.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 17:25:11|Editor: pengying

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DOHA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi has informed the ambassadors in Qatar with the latest developments of the Gulf crisis, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

During the three meetings, Muraikhi met separately with ambassadors of African, European and Asian countries, the first of its kind since Qatar was blocked by its Gulf allies, QNA said on Friday.

The meetings were also attended by Qatar's Foreign Ministry's Secretary-General Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi.

Last June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic relations with the tiny but wealthy Gulf Arab state, accusing it of meddling in their domestic affairs and supporting terrorist groups. But Doha vehemently denies all charges.

Earlier, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad said that countries in the Middle East should put their differences aside and forge a security pact similar to that of the EU.9 students killed, many injured after vehicle hits them in India Source: Xinhua 2018-02-24 17:35:12 NEW DELHI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least nine students were killed and many others injured, some of them critically, Saturday, after an over-speeding vehicle ran them down in India's eastern state of Bihar, police said. Editor: pengyingSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 18:15:22|Editor: pengying

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DOHA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) announced huge financial aid to support the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, Qatar News Agency(QNA) reported Saturday.

According to QNA report, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) is currently cooperating with local partners to secure medical supplies, in addition to distribute 34,500 food meals over 17 days in the distressed area.

Over the last few days, the military operations took place in eastern Ghouta, a militant-controlled suburb of Damascus, which resulted in 403 dead and more than 2,116 wounded.

UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura pleaded for a truce to halt one of the fiercest air assaults of the seven-year civil war and prevent a "massacre" in the besieged Eastern Ghouta.

Earlier on Thursday, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar called on the Syrian government to halt the bombing of eastern Ghouta.

The leaders of the three Gulf countries will meet with the U.S. President Donald Trump in March and May to resolve the Gulf dispute which began on June 6 by boycotting Qatar, and discuss the Middle East peace and security.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 18:15:22|Editor: pengying

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's Xiaomi Corporation and Microsoft Corporation Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further deepen the partnership between the two companies.

According to the strategic MoU, Xiaomi and Microsoft's cooperation will focus on Cloud support, Laptop-type devices, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) services.

Harry Shum, executive vice president of Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence and Research Group, said: "Xiaomi is one of the most innovative companies in China, and it is becoming increasingly popular in various markets around the world."

"Microsoft's unique strengths and experience in AI, as well as our products like Azure, will enable Xiaomi to develop more cutting-edge technology for everyone around the world," he added.

Wang Xiang, global senior vice president of Xiaomi, said that by collaborating with Microsoft on multiple technology areas, Xiaomi will accelerate its pace to bring more exciting products and services to its users.

"At the same time, this partnership would allow Microsoft to reach more users around the world who are using Xiaomi products," said Wang.

Founded in 2010, Xiaomi has a fast-expanding product line including smartphones, smart TVs, and a range of smart home products.

In June 2016, Xiaomi and Microsoft reached a global-scale partnership. Since then, Xiaomi began to pre-install Microsoft Office and Skype apps on its Android-based smartphones and tablets.SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Schoolchildren from 15 U.S. public and private schools will have an opportunity this year to experience China's profound culture through the works of Chinese artists, said the organizer of an education group.

At the opening ceremony of the Chinese New Year in Schools Program, Luo Ping, founder of the local education group in the United States, the Able2Shine Foundation, told an audience that the event will connect Chinese artists more closely with American teachers and students for deeper exchanges of Chinese culture and sow a seed of friendship in the heart of the next generation of American young people.

"We wish to raise a generation of citizens who not only are culturally aware, but also appreciate the diversity found in America," she said.

"We help the kids to build up confidence and the leadership and we have the family to grow together and have fun together. We also grow to help the community to engage cross-exchanges and seek mutual understanding," Luo told Xinhua.

She said the event is an important part of the celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which started on Feb. 16., in the northern California region.

Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Luo Linquan said the Chinese New Year in Schools Program is not only "celebrating our traditional culture but also sharing our best wishes and happiness with the people around us."

"That is why the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco supports the Chinese art group to go into the schools in the Bay Area to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our young friends," he said.

"To some of you, China is a place where your parents or grandparents come from, to others, China is a far-away place where pandas live," he added.

He said the program will allow the audience to experience the fascinating skills of Chinese craftsmanship.

Artists from Beijing Intangible Cultural Heritage Group and Heilongjiang Art Troupe of China put on a magic show and shadow puppet performance featuring a frolic play between a turtle and a white crane at the opening ceremony.

Six kids from the Able2Shine Foundation, aged from six to 10, went onto the stage one after another to share their stories of making facial masks for Peking Opera, woodblock printing and tying a Chinese knot.

A group of the foundation's nine boys and girls sang and danced to the popular song Green Apple Paradise that swept China in the 1990s.

The ongoing program is a second follow-up to a similar Spring Festival event held last year, when 12 American schools took part in activities aimed at bringing Chinese culture and traditions closer to U.S. students.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 18:40:28|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Afghan security force members inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 24, 2018. At least nine people, including three assailants, were killed and 22 others wounded in three separate suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, authorities said. (Xinhua/Abdul Aziz Safdari)

KABUL, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least nine people, including three assailants, were killed and 22 others wounded in three separate suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, authorities said.

In one attack, one intelligence agency officer was killed and 16 civilians injured after a terrorist detonated a truck bombing in front of a provincial intelligence office in Lashkar Gah city, capital of southern Helmand province.

Those among the injured were 13 children and two women in the blast which occurred around 09:00 a.m. local time and also damaged several nearby buildings.

The deadly explosion followed an blast in national capital of Kabul during which one civilian and two security forces died and five people injured.

The bombing came when a man wearing a suit tried to enter the Green Zone but detonated his explosive jacket after being identified by security forces in a security checkpoint in Shash Darak, a diplomatic district in central Kabul, an Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told local Tolo News TV.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group reportedly claimed responsibility for Kabul attack.

Earlier on Saturday morning, a militant detonated an explosive-laden hijacked military armored vehicle at an army camp in Nad Ali district, west of Lashkar Gah, killing two soldiers and injuring another one, according to Rahimi.

Taliban militant group has claimed responsibility for attacks in Helmand province which is notorious for growing poppy and militancy.

The attacks came one day after the country started construction of a major gas project in western Herat province to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to neighboring Pakistan and India.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 18:45:29|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's banking regulator has cut red tape for foreign banks.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission has revised rules for foreign banks, scrapping approval procedures for four items including overseas wealth management products and portfolio investment funds. Banks only need to report their services to authorities rather than obtaining approval in advance.

Procedures were also simplified for foreign lenders to set up new branches, appoint executives and issue bonds.

The new policies became effective on Feb. 13.NEW DELHI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least nine students were killed and two dozen others injured Saturday after an over-speeding vehicle ran into students and knocked them down in India's eastern state of Bihar, police said.

The accident took place outside a middle school in village Dharampur of Muzaffarpur district, 95 km north of Patna, the capital city of Bihar.

"Today in a horrifying incident here, a rashly driven vehicle ran into students knocking them down, killing nine and leaving over 24 others injured," a police official posted in Muzaffarpur told Xinhua. " The students were coming out of the school after finishing their day."

The injured students, some of them stated to be critical, were admitted in different hospitals.

"We took the injured students to a nearest medical facility and from them they were referred to different hospitals," the police official said.

Reports said driver of the vehicle fled the spot. However, police said they were trying to ascertain his details and would arrest him soon.

Eyewitnesses said following the accident shrieks and cries of injured students triggered a chaos in the locality.

Police have registered a case and ordered investigations to ascertain actual reason behind the accident.

Meanwhile, local government has announced a monetary relief of 6,164 U.S. dollars to each family that lost a member in the accident.

Deadly road accidents are common in India often caused due to overloading, bad condition of roads and reckless driving.

According to an official report released recently, on an average India witnessed over 400 deaths in road accidents every day during 2016.TOKYO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Saturday said the government would sincerely consider a request for compensation from local fishermen whose businesses were adversely affected by the dumping of two fuel tanks into a lake by a U.S. jet fighter.

"We take very seriously that the fishermen have been forced to halt operations. We will deal sincerely and appropriately with compensation," Onodera was quoted as saying in a meeting with Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura in Misawa.

"We have caused trouble to people in the town of Tohoku and Aomori Prefecture," Onodera also said.

Following the talks, Mimura, for his part, told a press briefing on the matter that, "The defense minister promised compensation faithfully. Now we want the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) to make sure they remove the tanks."

The incident occurred on Tuesday and involved an F-16 fighter jet based at the Misawa Air Base in the northeastern prefecture of Aomori jettisoning both of its external fuel tanks into nearby Lake Ogawara after the jet experienced an engine fire upon taking off.

As a result of the tanks being dumped, the Lake Ogawara fishery association decided to completely halt fishing in the lake until the fuel oil is retrieved. There were around 10 fishing vessels in the vicinity when the jet dumped its tanks, the government and local officials said.

According to Japan's public broadcaster NHK, the Lake Ogawara fishery association has estimated that the fishermen are losing around 28,000 U.S. dollar a day, due to the incident.

Along with freshwater clams, the lake is rich in smelt, and whitebait are in season at this time of year, the association said.

Masataka Hamada, the head of the association, described the situation as being extremely "regrettable," and said that the local fishermen will seek compensation through discussions with local authorities.

Parts of the tanks have been recovered by an MSDF unit on Saturday and removed from the bottom of the lake from a depth of around 10 meters, local media reported.

Tensions have been growing in Japan recently, particularly in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa due to a series of U.S. military aircraft-linked accidents and mishaps, causing anti-U.S. sentiment to rise.

In January alone, three helicopters based at the controversial U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa made emergency "off base" landings, sparking local and national indignation and fear.

A month earlier, a window fell off a CH-53E large transport helicopter and fell on the grounds of an elementary school just meters from where more than 50 children were taking physical education classes.

Following his inspection of the lake on Saturday, Onodera attended a ceremony at the Misawa base to mark the first deployment by Japan of an F-35 stealth fighter jet.

In a speech to mark the jet's deployment, the defense minister said the jet was highly capable.

"The F35A has a high stealth capability and is capable of performing various missions such as information gathering and warning and surveillance activity," Onodera said.

Japan's Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) will deploy an additional nine F-35As at the base in fiscal 2018 from April, ministry sources said.

Some military and constitutional analysts have, however, highlighted the fact that the F35A, The Pentagon's most expensive weapons system in history, being deployed here raises questions about the constitutionality of Japan maintaining such "offensive" weapons systems.

This is as Japan's "defense only" supreme law decrees that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 18:55:31|Editor: Lu Hui

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SHENZHEN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Shenzhen, a city emerging as China's leading innovation hub, saw the arrival of many new overseas-funded companies last year, local authorities said on Saturday.

More than 11,000 such firms, including many with investment from Hong Kong, were registered in Shenzhen last year, nearly twice the number in 2016, according to Shenzhen enterprise registration bureau.

Shenzhen in Guangdong Province has transformed from a tiny fishing enclave in the 1970s to one of China's most flourishing cities filled with successful tech companies and startups.

The growth of overseas investment is partly the result of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which is not yet in operation. The bridge will link cities in the Pearl River Delta, including Shenzhen, when it opens.

The number of new firms in Shenzhen surpassed 362,000 in 2017, around 1,000 new firms each day.

Around 92 percent of them are in tertiary industries, such as wholesale and retail, leasing and information transmission.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 19:05:34|Editor: Zhou Xin

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RAMALLAH, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) said Saturday that the U.S. decision to move embassy to Jerusalem on eve of Nakba Day has end Palestinians' trust in the United States in sponsoring the peace deal.

"If there is any illusion by Palestinians that the United States would play any practical role in the peace process, then the U.S. declaration has ended this illusion," said Elias Zananiri, vice chairperson of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) committee for interaction with the Israeli society.

On Friday, two U.S. state departments said that its embassy will move to Jerusalem in mid May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's Independence Day.

Zananiri said the choice of date of relocation coincides with the eve of Palestinian Nakba day and the 70th anniversary for the establishment of state of Israel, which is clearly a defiance to Palestinians both politically and emotionally.

Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the PLO, said Friday night that this decision "disqualified the United States from being part of the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians."

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' spokesperson, stressed Friday that any unilateral steps do not contribute to peace and does not give legitimacy to anyone.

Reiterating the Palestinian commitment to the two-state solution, Rudeinah warned that "any steps inconsistent with international legality would impede the efforts to achieve settlement in the region and would create negative and harmful climates."

Palestinian People's Party (PPP) condemned earlier in an emailed statement the U.S. declaration on Friday and described it as a "flagrant provocation to the sentiments of the Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic worlds as well as all free men in the world."

The PPP also affirmed its rejection to U.S. sponsorship of the peace deal.

Secretary General of the Palestinian Initiative Party Mustafa Barghouti denounced the announcement and urged the "PLO and Palestinian Authority (PA) to respond to this decision immediately by implementing the Palestinian Central Council decision."

Islamic Hamas movement spokesperson Abdellatif Al-Qanou's said that "the U.S. step would blast the region in Israel's face and will not give it any legitimacy."

Al-Qanou's considered the U.S. decision a breach of international law and said that it defies all international resolutions concerning Jerusalem."

The latest round of U.S.-sponsored negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel was after nine months of talks without achieving any breakthrough.

On Dec. 6, 2017, almost one year after Trump took office, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordered the U.S. state department to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

As a result, Palestinians disqualified the United States from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations with Israel and called for a multilateral peace mechanism.

On Feb. 20, Abbas presented a peace initiative in a speech before the UN Security Council, proposing to hold an International peace conference in mid-2018 to jumpstart final status negotiation based on two-state solution and international legitimacy resolutions.JAKARTA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Landslides and floods striking Central Java province of western Indonesia have left 16 people dead and 20 injured, disaster agency said on Saturday.

The natural disasters have taken place in the districts of Brebes and Purbalingga since days ago, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

In Pasir Panjang village of Brebes district, search and rescue operation resumed on Saturday, nine corpses have been discovered as the landslides injured 14 farmers, the spokesman revealed.

Floods also hit several villages in the district, leaving three people dead, said Sutopo.

In another district of Purbalingga, landslides killed four people and injured six others, he said.

"People are warned to be alert as heavy downpours are forecast to persist," the spokesman told Xinhua in a text message.

Some areas in nearby West Java province have also suffered from floods, but there is no immediate report of casualty or damages.

President Joko Widodo has ordered to undertake operation to handle the natural disaster and emergency relief efforts as quickly as possible, according to the chairman of the national disaster management agency Willem Rampangilei.

Indonesia has been frequently stricken by floods and landslides during heavy rains.Photo taken on Feb. 17, 2018 shows cups of coffee during the 2018 Ethiopian Coffee Expo in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Asian continent has remained as the largest destination for Ethiopian export commodities, Ethiopian Ministry of Trade said on Friday.

Asian countries, importing 42 percent of the total volume of commodities exported from the east African country, stood first, followed by Europe and Africa during the past six months, state news agency ENA said, quoting an Ethiopian Ministry of Trade report.

Wondimu Filate, head of Public Relations and Communication Affairs Office at the Ethiopia Ministry of Trade, told Xinhua recently that China is Ethiopia's top export destination, buying 144.5 million U.S. dollars of goods and services from Ethiopia in the first six months of the Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2017-18, which started July 9.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 19:20:38|Editor: Yurou

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese actor Ge You has won a lawsuit against a travel company that used his image without permission.

The image used by the company was taken from the sitcom "I love my family," and shows Ge lazing on a couch.

The photograph has also become a Chinese Internet meme known as "Ge You-esque slouching" and is used by netizens to express their laziness.

Beijing-based travel company eLong was found to use the photo and other Ge portraits for advertising a garment brand on a company social network account in July 2016, according to a statement by the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court on Saturday.

The company mentioned Ge's name several times by saying "Ge You-esque slouching" in photo captions, according to the statement.

After a complaint by the actor, eLong deleted the photos in August 2016 and issued an open letter of apology in December of the same year.

Ge believed the apology was another form of commercial promotion, and filed a lawsuit against the company at the Haidian District People's Court.

In the first instance, the Haidian court ruled that eLong must pay compensation of 75,000 yuan (11,842 U.S. dollars) and apologize to Ge for infringement of image rights.

The municipal court accepted eLong's appeal in January, but ultimately backed the Haidian court ruling.

Ge You is a household name in China. His films include "If you are the one," "Sacrifice" and "Be there or be square."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 19:35:40|Editor: pengying

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HANGZHOU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A woman in east China's Zhejiang Province has lodged an appeal against a death sentence for starting a fire that killed four members of the same family in 2017, court authorities said Saturday.

Zhejiang Provincial Higher People's Court will hear the appeal of Mo Huanjing, former nanny of the family of Lin Shengbin. According to the Hangzhou City Intermediate People's Court, Mo was found to have set fire to Lin's apartment in Hangzhou City on June 21, 2017, killing Lin's wife Zhu Xiaozhen and their three children. She was sentenced to death earlier this month.

Mo started the fire in the early morning after she had researched "arson" online, according to the court.

According to the verdict, Mo is a gambling addict and has long been in debt. She went to work for Lin in September 2016. From March 2017 to June 2017, she stole jewelry and watches from the family worth more than 180,000 yuan. She also borrowed 114,000 yuan from Zhu to "purchase a house." The money was all gambled away.

On June 21, 2017, Mo decided to further gain the trust of Zhu by lighting a fire and then putting it out. However the fire spread fast and Zhu and her three children died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The fire also caused economic losses of more than 2.6 million yuan (410,000 U.S. dollars).

Mo escaped from the apartment and called the police.

She was also convicted of theft, sentenced to five years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan.by Olatunji Saliu

ABUJA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- There might be up to 105 schoolgirls taken away by terror group Boko Haram after an all-girl college was attacked Monday in Nigeria's northeastern state of Yobe, parents of the missing students alleged Saturday, citing an evidence.

Bashir Manzo, a parent whose child is among the missing, told local media that he personally submitted a compiled list of 105 missing students to authorities of the Government Girls Technical College in Dapchi area of Yobe on Friday.

Manzo, who heads the newly formed Forum of Parents of the Missing Dapchi Girls, said the list contained the name of each missing student, her local government area and telephone numbers of her parents.

"The list we have here is from the parents that came themselves and reported that they had not seen their children up till this moment," he told local newspaper The Nation.

According to Manzo, each parent personally gave his name, the name of his child, his town, local government area and his phone number.

"We are not collating these names by any phone call or text message. You have to come yourself and give your name and the name of your daughter that is missing, otherwise, we will not accept anything short of that," he explained, adding "the list we have got now is 105 students that have not been found up till today."

Manzo said local residents were alarmed when Boko Haram stormed the community late Monday as it was clear from the behavior of the invaders that their mission was mainly to abduct the students.

"They rounded up as many girls as they could lay their hands on and packed them into their vehicles. They then escaped," he added.

On Thursday, the Nigerian government said it was not yet sure of the number of the missing girls and pleaded for more time to assess the situation.

In a statement on Friday, Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari described the incident as a "national disaster," saying "the entire country stands as one with the girls' families."

The tragedy of the missing girls has brought back memories of a similar occurrence four years ago in Africa's most populous country when more than 200 schoolgirls, also from an all-girl college, were abducted by Boko Haram in the northeastern town of Chibok.

Buhari said he will be sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to search for the schoolgirls.

He assured the families of the missing students that no effort will be spared to bring succor to them, as troops will be mandated to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found.

Local officials said at least 46 students are still unaccounted for following the Monday night's attack. Other reports put the figure at 13.

Over 94 students were said to be missing at first. But the state government said 28 returned late Tuesday and 20 more came back early Wednesday.

The police and local officials said there was no evidence that the girls had been abducted but the Yobe government agreed with parents that some of the students are in Boko Haram's captivity.

A local teacher said as Boko Haram outlaws went into students' dormitories, many of the girls jumped over the fence and escaped into the bushes.

Some of the girls who had returned told the school authorities that they were rescued by villagers from the bushes.

The outlawed Boko Haram group has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria. They have killed some 20,000 people and displaced millions of others.File photo shows rescued Chibok schoolgirls at a government facility, in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, May 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Olatunji Obasa)

by Olatunji Saliu

ABUJA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- There might be up to 105 schoolgirls taken away by terror group Boko Haram after an all-girl college was attacked Monday in Nigeria's northeastern state of Yobe, parents of the missing students alleged Saturday, citing an evidence.

Bashir Manzo, a parent whose child is among the missing, told local media that he personally submitted a compiled list of 105 missing students to authorities of the Government Girls Technical College in Dapchi area of Yobe on Friday.

Manzo, who heads the newly formed Forum of Parents of the Missing Dapchi Girls, said the list contained the name of each missing student, her local government area and telephone numbers of her parents.

"The list we have here is from the parents that came themselves and reported that they had not seen their children up till this moment," he told local newspaper The Nation.

According to Manzo, each parent personally gave his name, the name of his child, his town, local government area and his phone number.

"We are not collating these names by any phone call or text message. You have to come yourself and give your name and the name of your daughter that is missing, otherwise, we will not accept anything short of that," he explained, adding "the list we have got now is 105 students that have not been found up till today."

Manzo said local residents were alarmed when Boko Haram stormed the community late Monday as it was clear from the behavior of the invaders that their mission was mainly to abduct the students.

"They rounded up as many girls as they could lay their hands on and packed them into their vehicles. They then escaped," he added.

On Thursday, the Nigerian government said it was not yet sure of the number of the missing girls and pleaded for more time to assess the situation.

In a statement on Friday, Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari described the incident as a "national disaster," saying "the entire country stands as one with the girls' families."

The tragedy of the missing girls has brought back memories of a similar occurrence four years ago in Africa's most populous country when more than 200 schoolgirls, also from an all-girl college, were abducted by Boko Haram in the northeastern town of Chibok.

Buhari said he will be sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to search for the schoolgirls.

He assured the families of the missing students that no effort will be spared to bring succor to them, as troops will be mandated to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found.

Local officials said at least 46 students are still unaccounted for following the Monday night's attack. Other reports put the figure at 13.

Over 94 students were said to be missing at first. But the state government said 28 returned late Tuesday and 20 more came back early Wednesday.

The police and local officials said there was no evidence that the girls had been abducted but the Yobe government agreed with parents that some of the students are in Boko Haram's captivity.

A local teacher said as Boko Haram outlaws went into students' dormitories, many of the girls jumped over the fence and escaped into the bushes.

Some of the girls who had returned told the school authorities that they were rescued by villagers from the bushes.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 20:10:46|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's banking regulator has cut red tape for foreign banks.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission has revised rules for foreign banks, scrapping approval procedures for four items including overseas wealth management products and portfolio investment funds. Banks only need to report their services to authorities rather than obtaining approval in advance.

Procedures were also simplified for foreign lenders to set up new branches, appoint executives and issue bonds.

The new policies became effective on Feb. 13.

The revision also clarified procedures and application materials for foreign-funded banks to invest in domestic banking institutions.

"The document provides clear legal ground for foreign-funded banks to make equity investment," the commission said in a statement.

China has been gradually opening up its financial sector, with authorities pledging to ease caps on foreign ownership in Chinese banks and financial asset management companies.

"We will briskly push forward revisions in laws and regulations to propel the opening up of banking sector," the commission said.

The commission said it would continue to support foreign banks to enter the Chinese market, promising a fair and transparent policy environment.

The banking regulator said earlier it would broaden the business scope of foreign banks, including measures to ease restrictions on renminbi retail banking.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 20:15:46|Editor: pengying

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GUANGZHOU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Wu Jianchong, 25, hoped to find a job in Shenzhen, 200 km from his hometown, and he could not wait for Spring Festival to end and his job hunt to begin.

"I want a stable, nine-to-five job," he said.

From Jieshi Township, notorious for illegal trade in old clothes smuggled from overseas, from his high school days, Wu helped his parents collect, clean and sell such clothes.

In July, the government banned imports of 24 categories of waste, including textiles. Jieshi bore the brunt of the crackdowns on smuggling that followed.

Now, like Wu, many villagers who were involved in the trade have switched or plan to switch to other jobs.

CAST-OFF HEAVEN

With a population of 260,000, Jieshi had over 5,000 clothing shops, with up to 50,000 people involved.

The business began shortly after reform and opening up, as Jieshi locals working in Hong Kong and Macao brought cast-off garments back to their hometown.

For more than 30 years, used clothes were smuggled to Jieshi, welcomed by locals, since the business required little capital or technology.

Wu Zhijian made more than 200 yuan (31.5 U.S. dollars) a day, with each garment priced at two or three yuan, but the days of villages brimming with second-hand clothing wholesalers are a thing of the past.

In 2017, 3,279 shops and 3,017 sorting site were closed, and more than 9,000 tonnes of textiles seized, according to Chen Qinghe, an official in Lufeng City, which administers Jieshi.

Customs officers claimed that, from unknown sources and without proper disinfection or quarantine, the old clothes are pollutants and a health hazard health.

"Villagers handling the waste clothing are vulnerable to respiratory diseases," said Lin Kunlian, head of Jieshi government. "We must end the business."

NEW JOBS FOR OLD

As the old moneymaker crumbled, the local government offered help, organizing three job fairs for villagers. Participating companies, including the leading new energy vehicle maker BYD, have recruited more than 600 people and shown interest in more than 1,900 others.

The government plans to building a food mall and a hardware industrial park, according to Xu Weiming, mayor of Lufeng.

In addition, a local middle school will be transformed into a vocational school to prepare job seekers.

Now, Wu Zhijian works as a carpenter. He and his wife, a supermarket employee, can earn more than 4,000 yuan a month.

"Sure, there is dust when I work with wood, but it is not as choking as the dust I breathed when unfolding the waste clothes," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 20:20:48|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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People visit the 55th Paris International Agricultural Show in Paris, France, Feb. 24, 2018. The 55th Paris International Agricultural Show opened here Saturday amidst French farmers expressing fears that free trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and a South American bloc would affect them adversely. (Xinhua/Zhang Xuefei)

PARIS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The 55th Paris International Agricultural Show opened here Saturday amidst French farmers expressing fears that free trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and a South American bloc would affect them adversely.

President Emmanuel Macron held a closed-door breakfast meeting Saturday with the unions and main institutional actors of the show, that this year is themed "Agriculture as a collective adventure".

"We have a lot to do," Macron said.

French cattle farmers are worried that negotiations between the EU and Mercosur countries, namely Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, could lead to the import of nearly 70,000 tonnes of meat from South America at a cheaper price.

"We will ask Macron to refuse the Mercosur agreement that will be totally harmful to French agriculture," Jerome Despey, general secretary of FNSEA, the most influential general farm organization in France, said.

The show will continue till March 4.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 20:52:34|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Important documents for the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), scheduled to convene on March 5, were adopted Saturday.

Members of the 12th NPC Standing Committee adopted the committee's work report, the agenda of the first session of the 13th NPC, the presidium and secretary-general name list, and a name list of non-voting delegates for the upcoming session.

The work report of the 12th NPC Standing Committee will be submitted to the session in March after further revisions, while the agenda and the presidium and secretary-general name list will be submitted to a preparatory meeting before the session.

Lawmakers also confirmed the validity of all 2,980 deputies to the 13th NPC.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the 12th NPC Standing Committee, presided over Saturday's closing meeting of the last regular session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee.

Lawmakers also adopted an amendment to a 2015 decision on pledging allegiance to the Constitution and a decision to extend the adjustment to certain provisions of the securities law to allow reforms that will change the listing system of the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses from approval-based to registration-based.

The other documents adopted were a report on the qualifications of some NPC deputies and a motion to add a new member to the military's election committee, in addition to appointments and dismissals.by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, Feb. 24 ((Xinhua) -- A group of inmates at Greece's Korydallos Prison, which is housing maximum security inmates, held a sit-in on Saturday to protest against the transfer of an inmate to another prison complex, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

A representative of the Justice Ministry, who is in talks with the protestors, confirmed that there is "an issue" at Korydallos Prison in suburb of Piraeus port, but failed to elaborate.

The ministry underlined that all the keys of the cells are in the guards' possession.

In a post on an anarchist website, a group of self-claimed "political prisoners" including Dimitris Koufontinas, a leading "November 17" terrorist group member who is serving 11 life sentences for murder, demanded the stay of the anarchist prisoner to end the turmoil.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 21:16:26|Editor: pengying

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People of Tibetan ethnic group perform a lion dance during the Shangjiu Festival in the Tibetan Township of Qiaoqi of Baoxing County in Ya'an City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 24, 2018. The Shangjiu Festival, a traditional festival of the Tibetan people, is celebrated on the ninth day of the first lunar month to pray for a good harvest. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 21:17:47|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's national legislature on Saturday dismissed Yang Jing from his state councilor post after he was investigated for severe disciplinary violations.

At its bimonthly session, the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress also voted to remove Yang from the post of secretary-general of the State Council.

It came as the ruling party's disciplinary watchdog announced Yang's investigation.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said Yang was found to have severely violated political discipline and rules and had long-term improper association with illegal business owners and social personnel.

Yang confessed to his wrongdoing and expressed remorse, it said, meting out punishments including one year probation within the Party, removal from his current administrative post and demotion to ministerial level.

The disciplinary watchdog said the punishment, approved at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, would be implemented with due process.

Yang, an ethnic Mongolian, was born in 1953. He worked a long political career in Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.

In 2013, Yang was appointed state councilor and secretary-general of the State Council.

He was also a member of the 18th CPC Central Committee Secretariat.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 21:40:22|Editor: pengying

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Staff members hang lanterns to greet the upcoming Lantern Festival in Xuan'en County, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 24, 2018. The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, or March 2 this year. (Xinhua/Song Wen)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 21:52:55|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's television and film watchdog has held talks with six news, social media and livestreaming websites to crack down on unapproved online audio and video programs.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television accused the websites of not obtaining licenses required for broadcasting online.

The bureau also said the sites broadcast uncensored audio and video programs, and peddled "vulgarity."

The six websites included Sina Weibo, China's top microblogging site, iFeng, a news website, and Miaopai.com, a popular video sharing website.

These sites were asked to remove video accounts from outlets that lack a license and tighten controls over content streamed the sites.

The Beijing Integrated Law Enforcement on Cultural Market said it had launched investigations into all six websites.PYONGYANG, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Saturday accused the United States of secretly making preparations to wage a large-scale cyberwar on Pyongyang prior to a real military attack.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and official daily Rodong Sinmun said the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy has disclosed in its Feb. 15 issue that Washington is ramping up its intelligence capabilities to focus on the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency have been on standby for the attack for half a year with billions of U.S. dollars invested in the plan and many experts trained for it, they said.

U.S. media outlets like the NBC, Bloomberg News and the Washington Post have been reporting about "cyber terrorism" and "threats" from the DPRK, which means U.S. war moves against Pyongyang have reached the phase of practical implementation, they said.

The U.S. is sending a large number of cyber warfare experts to the war drills with South Korea, the KCNA said.MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's law on the reintegration of the volatile Donbas region could lead to serious escalation of the conflict in the country's southeast, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The controversial law on the return of the conflict-hit region under Ukraine's sovereignty shows that Kiev wants to settle the situation only by force, the ministry said.

As the law came into force on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement, "Kiev has finally confirmed its commitment to a military solution to the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine."

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law, which was passed last month by parliament, defining the areas controlled by pro-independence rebels as "temporarily occupied territories".

Despite Kiev's claim that the law does not violate its international obligations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the Ukrainian president has practically abandoned the Minsk agreements and untied the hands of the "war party" by signing the law.

"There is no direct dialogue with the authorities of the unrecognized republics, de-escalation of the confrontation, and search for a peaceful political settlement," the ministry said.

"On the contrary, the document creates conditions for the forcible seizure of non-controlled territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by Kiev," it added.

The Minsk agreements, designed to end the conflict in Donbas peacefully,

were reached in September 2014 and February 2015.

The conflict in the eastern Donbas region started in April 2014, after government forces launched offensives to regain control of the cities and towns seized by armed groups which declared independence from Kiev.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 22:38:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GAZA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The traditional soap making factories that once flourished in West Bank's Nablus over a hundred years ago are now fighting for surviving against vanishing.

In 1980, the handcraft of soap making was active with 40 factories, but now in 2018, only two are operational.

Owner of an ancient soap factory in Nablus Maher Shak'aa told Xinhua he refuses to change his profession, which he inherited from his grandparents over 120 years ago.

Shak'aa uses his traditional tools to produce the soap, in spite of the retract in this profession due to the usage of modern tools and chemicals in production to replace organic olive oil.

He explained that this profession "is no longer feasible as a business, but we maintain it because of its history and heritage that was passed down to us from our grandparents, and we won't change the original way it is made."

Shak'aa and his team still use every component in the historic way of soap production, except for the gasoline that is replaced with diesel due to its scarcity.

Soap making professionals say that the main reason behind the retraction of the business is the Israeli imposed closures and movement restrictions in the West Bank, besides the Palestinain Authority (PA) adoption of free trade that allowed foreign products to compete with local products in the market, and the high cost of olive oil.

Local hand made soap is relatively expensive compared to imported soap, reaching a cost of 1.5 U.S. dollars, while five pieces of imported soaps are sold for two dollars.

The history of Nablus' infamous soap making goes back to over 1,000 years ago, citing writings and scripts by old historians and explorers.

The former abundance of olive oil was a main reason behind the flourish of soap making in the region, hand in hand with the spread of Turkish baths.

Traditionally, workers would buy their own soap at the end of a working day and go to wash at a local Turkish Bath.

Some of Shak'aa relatives believe it is time to move on towards a modern way in soap making in order to increase chances of competition in the market.

Majed Shak'aa, a relative of the soap making factory, said "I've tried to convince the family to change its tools, but they refused," which lead him to find his own way away from the family business.

He elaborate that a new production line was opened including the making of liquid soap and adding natural fragrances "in order to compete in the market against the imported soaps."

Stages of soap making take days, including heating the oil, adding sweetened water and cooking it to maturity before spreading it on the ground.

Then, the cooked soap is poured in special containers of five or six cm in height, and stamp it before cutting them and placing them on a tower like structure allowing internal air circulation to dry it out completely.

At the final stage, the soap is wrapped and made ready for distribution.

Shak'aa said that although the production is much less now, there are clients who are still committed to the organic soap he is making.

The Israeli restraints on Palestinian imports and exports, say the workers at the soap factory.

Mujtabi Tbeileh, an owner of detergents shop in Nablus told Xinhua that the many of the Nablus soap factories shut down due to their inability to compete with the imported soaps.

He went on explained that in the early 1980s, there were dozens of soap factories, but the political complications have caused this profession to retract.

After the second Palestinian intifada broke out in 2000, many economic establishments, particularly in the old city of Nablus, where most soap factories were located, due to the Israeli raids.

Tbeileh produces over 200 types of soaps and detergents, currently, after the the traditional soap making profession was largely set back.

In the same context, head of Palestinian chemical industries federation Ali Barham told Xinhua that the reason behind the set back in soap production is the inability to compete with imported soaps that are sold cheaper.

International and regional brands are imported into the Palestinian market, and for less prices than the traditional organic local soap, said Barham.

In addition, the Israeli authorities ban some of the raw materials used in the traditional soap making.

Barham stresses that the remaining operational traditional soap factories are surviving based on personal initiative to preserve family heritage and a form of "national belonging."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 22:43:08|Editor: Chengcheng

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People from different Bruneian communities take part in the 34th National Day celebration in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei, Feb. 24, 2018. Brunei held a massive parade and performances with about 30,000 participants in the capital on Saturday to mark its 34th National Day. (Xinhua/Jeffrey Wong)

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Brunei held a massive parade and performances with about 30,000 participants in the capital on Saturday to mark its 34th National Day.

Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, together with members of the royal family attended the celebration at Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien and inspected the guard of honor.

A total of about 30,000 participants comprising 138 contingents, ranging from various sectors of the armed forces, government civil servants, higher education institutions, schools, civil associations, public organizations and foreign associations took part in this year's national day celebrations. Tens of thousands of Bruneians and tourists crowded the streets and witnessed the national day celebration.

With Achieving the National Vision' as the theme for this year, it emphasizes that every sector involved in the development of the country has their own responsibility in making the Brunei Vision 2035 a success.

Brunei declared its independence in 1984 with about 420,000 total population in 2016.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 22:48:10|Editor: Chengcheng

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Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas (Front) lays a wreath at the Memorial to the War of Independence in Tallinn, Estonia, on Feb. 24, 2018. Celebrations were held here on Saturday to mark the centennial day of the Estonian independence. Estonia officially declared its independence on Feb. 24, 1918. (Xinhua/Guo Chunju)

TALLINN, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas on Sataurday expressed his confidence on Estonia's security during an event for the centennial day of the Estonian independence.

At the wreath laying ceremony at the Memorial to the War of Independence at the Freedom (Vabaduse) Square, Ratas said, "Today, Estonia's security is strong".

"As our success in the War of Independence, so does our current security rely on our determination, our daily commitment, and our friends and allies," Ratas was quoted as saying in a press release.

"Our own will to defend our country and defence capabilities with the support of NATO and EU membership allow us to move confidently towards the next hundred years," he noted.

However, Ratas admitted that there is still no consensus in the world, adding that "over the years, we have also contributed to the joint battle against common threats. Armed conflicts, terror, and ill intentions have not disappeared from the world, nor have they left us untouched."

Earlier at the ceremony of hoisting the national flag, Eiki Nestor, President of the Estonian parliament Riigikogu, said, "The independence of Estonia is now protected better than ever before because we have friends and allies."

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, who also attended the wreath laying ceremony, inspected the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) forces.

The foreign mission envoys to Estonia were also present at the the wreath laying ceremony and the EDF parade ceremony, along with thousands of local audience.

Over 1,100 participants including allied or partner nations troops are in the parade, which also involved about 100 units of equipment and aircraft for a fly-by.

Starting from Feb. 19, the 100th anniversary celebration lasts a week in major cities across Estonia including Narva, Tartu and Parnu besides the capital of the country.

Estonia officially declared its independence on Feb. 24, 1918.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 22:58:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A total of five civilians were kidnapped Saturday in Iraq's central province of Salahudin by armed men who were believed to be Islamic State (IS) militants, a provincial police source said.

The incident took place in the morning when the five civilians were on a trip in Sdeirah area in the east of the city of Shirqat, some 280 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Colonel Mohammed Khalaf from Salahudin provincial police told Xinhua.

A friend of one of the kidnapped men told the police that he had received a phone call from an unknown person on the number of his friend, who appeared to be one of the kidnappers, informing him about the abduction before disconnecting the line, Khalaf said without giving further details.

The security forces in the areas launched an investigation into the incident and started a search operation in Sdeirah area, Khalaf added.

During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former bases in the predominately Sunni Arab province of Salahudin, Hawijah area in west of Kirkuk, after the Iraqi forces drove out the extremist militants from these areas during anti-IS offensives in the past few months.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.

However, small groups and individuals of IS militants melted in urban areas or resorted to deserts and rugged areas looking for safe havens. They are still capable of carrying out attacks from time to time against the security forces and civilians.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 22:58:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), presides over the closing meeting of the 33rd session of the 12th NPC Standing Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Important documents for the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), scheduled to convene on March 5, were adopted Saturday.

Members of the 12th NPC Standing Committee adopted the committee's work report, the agenda of the first session of the 13th NPC, the presidium and secretary-general name list, and a name list of non-voting delegates for the upcoming session.

The work report of the 12th NPC Standing Committee will be submitted to the session in March after revisions, while the agenda and the presidium and secretary-general name list will be submitted to a preparatory meeting before the session.

Lawmakers also confirmed the validity of all 2,980 deputies to the 13th NPC.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the 12th NPC Standing Committee, presided over Saturday's closing meeting of the committee's last regular session.

He said the March session was of great significance to the implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"It is also vital for realizing targets set by the CPC Central Committee," he said. "We should ensure a successful beginning and fruitful outcome of the first session of the 13th NPC."

Zhang acknowledged the performance of the deputies to the 12th NPC, members and staff of its standing committee over the past five years, and highlighted new progress made in theoretical and practical innovations to the system of people's congresses, and in building socialist democracy and rule of law.

Lawmakers on Saturday adopted an amendment to a 2015 decision on pledging allegiance to the Constitution and a decision to extend the adjustment to certain provisions of the securities law to allow reforms that will change the listing system of the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses from approval-based to registration-based.

The other documents adopted included a report on supervising the enforcement of the Seed Law, a report on the qualifications of some NPC deputies and a motion to add a new member to the military's election committee, in addition to appointments and dismissals.

In particular, lawmakers voted to dismiss Yang Jing from his posts as state councilor and secretary-general of the State Council, after he was investigated by the Party for severe disciplinary violations.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced Yang's punishment, which included one year probation within the Party, removal from his current administrative post and demotion to ministerial level.

Zhang said the punishment showed the Party central authority's resolve to strictly govern the Party and the NPC was in full support. He said the NPC decision on Yang's removal was in line with the Constitutional spirit.

The chairman and vice chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee met before the closing meeting of the session.Ukrainian Army combat engineers prepare foucade bombs for the destruction at Donbas region, Ukraine, on June 12, 2014. (Xinhua/SIPA)

MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's law on the reintegration of the volatile Donbas region could lead to serious escalation of the conflict in the country's southeast, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The controversial law on the return of the conflict-hit region under Ukraine's sovereignty shows that Kiev wants to settle the situation only by force, the ministry said.

As the law came into force on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement, "Kiev has finally confirmed its commitment to a military solution to the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine."

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law, which was passed last month by parliament, defining the areas controlled by pro-independence rebels as "temporarily occupied territories".

Despite Kiev's claim that the law does not violate its international obligations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the Ukrainian president has practically abandoned the Minsk agreements and untied the hands of the "war party" by signing the law.

"There is no direct dialogue with the authorities of the unrecognized republics, de-escalation of the confrontation, and search for a peaceful political settlement," the ministry said.

"On the contrary, the document creates conditions for the forcible seizure of non-controlled territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by Kiev," it added.

The Minsk agreements, designed to end the conflict in Donbas peacefully,

were reached in September 2014 and February 2015.

The conflict in the eastern Donbas region started in April 2014, after government forces launched offensives to regain control of the cities and towns seized by armed groups which declared independence from Kiev.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-24 23:03:17|Editor: huaxia

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PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Japan claimed a bronze medal after beating Britain 5-3 in women's curling here Saturday at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

It was also Japan's first Olympic medal in curling since the game was officially introduced into Olympic competitions in 1998.

The two sides played a see-saw game in the first seven ends and got tied 3-3, before Japan stole one point against the hammer in the eighth end to take the lead for the first time.

The last end saw the British women struggling to turn the tide but a failed last shot of British skip Eve Muirhead let Japan seal the victory 5-3.

"Curling comes down to inches. If that had curled another centimeter, we'd have had the bronze medal around our necks," said Muirhead after the match.

"I'm absolutely gutted. As a team we gave it absolutely everything...It just wasn't to be today," she added.

On Sunday, Sweden and South Korea will fight for the gold. EnditemTRIPOLI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared on Saturday force majeure in the southeastern oil field Al-Fil, which produces 70,000 barrels of crude oil per day, after all secure guards of the field withdrew as a protest.

"The National Oil Corporation declares the state of force majeure in the Al-Fil oil field, after the oil guards threatened workers, fired gun in the air, entered the administrative offices in the field, and tampered with official documents," the Corporation said in a statement.

"The safety and security of our workers is our priority and is more important than oil production," said Mustafa San'alla, head of the Corporation, adding that the oil installation guards are affiliated to the Ministry of Defense, the authority to meet their demands, not the Corporation.

Libya's oil production lost 70,000 barrels per day, as the Al-Fil oil field was closed Friday night due to withdrawal of the guards.

The oil installations guards in southern Libya were demanding the government to pay their outstanding salaries of three months.

The Al-Fil oil field is located some 900 km south of Tripoli, capital of Libya. It is one of the most important fields of ENI, which operates it with the NOC.

Libya, which has Africa's largest oil reserves, used to produce about 1.6 million barrels per day before the 2011 armed uprising that toppled and killed former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's daily production of crude oil has returned to over one million barrels a day since the end of 2017, after production operations of all southern and eastern oil fields were resumed.

However, sudden closures of oil fields due to labor protests have caused Libya's oil production to fluctuate.KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday that his government would further strengthen ties with China as the relations has benefited not only the Chinese community in Malaysia but the country as a whole.

Speaking at a lunar new year celebration event with the Malaysian Chinese community, Najib said the relations between Malaysia and China are in the right direction and have been flourishing in all sectors.

The decision by his father, Malaysia's second Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein to establish diplomatic ties with China in 1974, has brought mutual benefit, Najib said.

The relations was strengthened by a series of cooperation with China on the development of project in recent years like the East Coast Rail Line and the Digital Free Trade Zone, said the prime minister, adding that the bilateral relations would continue to be further strengthened under his leadership.

Speaking at another lunar new year celebrating event in the evening, the Malaysian prime minister mentioned that he was impressed by the speed by the Chinese government when the two countries was cooperating on the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in Guangxi, China.

This inspired him in leading Malaysia to deliver its own "Malaysian Speed," which has facilitated the building of the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park, Xiamen University Malaysian Campus as well as the Digital Free Trade Zone in cooperation with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba.CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- As a part of Sino-Egyptian celebrations of Chinese New Year, dozens of Egyptians and Chinese gathered on Saturday at Royal Mohamed Ali Club in Giza province, near Cairo, to watch dragon boats racing on the Nile River.

The event was organized by Egyptian Friendship Association - Hong Kong, China-Egypt Friendship Association and the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo.

In addition to dragon boat racing, the event also featured dragon dance, delicious Chinese food and other fun activities for children.

"Such events provide both Chinese and Egyptians with a way to deepen our mutual understanding and strengthen our friendship," Chinese Ambassador to Cairo, Song Aiguo, told Xinhua during the event.

The ambassador said China is keen to introduce Spring Festival culture to the world, adding that Chinese Dragon Boat Festival will be held again in June.

"By this event we will conclude this year's 'Happy Chinese New Year' series celebration events, but I see this as just a new beginning of cultural communication," he explained.

Meanwhile, Ehab Gouda, co-founder of the Egyptian Dragon Boat Academy and one of the event organizers, said that he joins this celebration every year to share new year festival with his Chinese friends.

"This is very important not only to spread the Chinese culture in Egypt, but also to introduce our culture to the friendly Chinese people," he said.

As the race started, guests were encouraged to cheer on the teams, which paddled on excitedly in search for victory.

"It is very interesting event...I have attended many Chinese-related events in Egypt, but dragon boat contests are always the best for me," Hend Hassan, Project Development Consultant, told Xinhua as she encouraged an Egyptian team.

She said that these events bring happiness to the hearts of the Egyptians who have started to pay special attention to Chinese celebrations in Egypt in the past few years.

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 cultural moves, 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.TRIPOLI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Clashes erupted on Saturday at a military checkpoint near the southern Libyan city of Murzuk between an army unit and militants, killing two soldiers and one militant, according to a military official.

"An exchange of fire took place between our troops and gunmen at a military checkpoint in Umm Al-Araneb area on the outskirts of the city, killing two members and one militant, and three other militants were arrested," Rajab Mehdi, a member of the army and police joint operations chamber in Murzuk, told Xinhua.

The militants are of foreign nationalities, he noted.

According to the military official, four armed militants driving a 4x4 vehicle launched the attack on the military checkpoint in the early morning.

"We very much expect that the militants have close links with Islamic State (IS). The investigations with the arrested militants will reveal the full details and motives behind the attack," Mehdi said.

Cities in southern Libya have recently witnessed escalating activity from IS remnants, who fled the city of Sirte following its liberation by the government forces late in 2016.

On Thursday, the IS in Libya claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a checkpoint of the eastern-based army that took place on Saturday in the city of Jufra, 650 km southeast of the capital Tripoli, which killed and injured several army soldiers.

On the other hand, two army soldiers in the eastern city of Benghazi were killed in an explosion of tank ammunition inside a military camp, military sources said on Saturday.by Xinhua writer Zhu Dongyang

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Washington's latest troupe of sanctions on Pyongyang would serve as a indisputably undesirable gesture and risk undercutting the current international effort to lower the temperature on the Korean Peninsula.

The sanctions, the "largest" and "heaviest" ones rolled out by the Trump administration to punish those who Washington believed were relevant to funding Pyongyang's nuclear program, came together with his threat to push the United States for "very unfortunate" military option, when the prospect for inter-Korean talks is on the rise.

It is not hard to smell Washington's disappointment after a year of its "maximum pressure" strategy failed to get the Democratic People's Republish of Korea (DPRK) to cave in and return to the negotiating table.

Whatever the DPRK's response would be, the Trump administration's bigoted favor for the "stick" still sends a disturbingly ominous message to the world that the chance for peace through Olympics is brittle.

There is quite a large odd that these gestures may turn out to be another doomed attempt.

Despite its pledge of not seeking "regime change" in Pyongyang, the U.S. persistent pursuit of aggressive rhetoric and military drills proved to have fortified the DPRK's sense of insecurity, rather than mollify it.

The latest round of sanctions and joint military exercises to be held possibly right after the end of the Winter Olympics, go against the spirit of relevant UN Security Resolutions that call for talks, and would do little to narrow the trust gap between Washington and Pyongyang.

Also, these moves run counter to the U.S. claimed commitment to dialogue without conditions.

The U.S.-DPRK direct engagement urges constructive involvement of both sides. Nothing can be more inopportune and counterproductive than backpedaling against the international mediating efforts and rejecting the chance for dialogue.

The only possible way to reduce tensions on the Peninsula is through talks. At such a key moment, all related sides should showcase their sincerity to maintain the current positive momentum on the Peninsula and to make substantial contribution to reopening these much-needed dialogues.

For Washington, there is no better alternative to showcase its sincerity to help make peace in the region than stop saber-rattling and muscle-flexing.

The fragile balance of power and chance of peace in the Peninsula cannot afford bellicosity and the vicious circle it creates anymore.A United States flag flies over a complex belonging to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem February 24, 2018. (Reuters photo)

CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) strongly condemned on Saturday the recent decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to move Washington's capital in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the eve of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) Day in mid-May.

Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular refer to their defeat in the 1948 war, which led to the displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians and the Western-backed creation of Israel 70 years ago, as Nakba Day. Israelis, in turn, refer to it as Independence Day.

"The U.S. decision is a new and dangerous episode of the series of provocation and wrong decisions that have been made by the U.S. administration since last December," said AL Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit in a statement Saturday.

The U.S. Department of State announced on Friday the decision to relocate in May Washington's capital in Israel to the debatable holy city of Jerusalem, which Trump recognized as the capital of Israel last December amid regional and international uproar.

"The decision is about to end the last hope for peace and coexistence between the Palestinians and the Israelis," said the AL chief.

Aboul-Gheit continued that the decision to move the U.S. embassy on the eve of Nakba Day shows "U.S complete bias to the Israeli side."

"Relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem does not have any legal effect or reflection on the status of the city as an occupied territory," he added, noting that it violates international legitimacy and the relevant UN Security Council's resolutions.

"The Arab states are determined to face all the negative repercussions of this decision and work to guarantee that it will not be repeated by any other state in the future, so that the U.S. move remains isolated and ineffective," the head of the pan-Arab body stressed.

On Dec. 21, two weeks after Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution affirming that any decisions and actions to alter the character, status or demographic composition of Jerusalem are "null and void" and "have no legal effect."

Israel occupied Jerusalem in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and declared it as its eternal capital in 1980.

The UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967 demands Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967 including Jerusalem, while Resolution 478 of 1980 rejects Israel's attempted annexation of Jerusalem as well as its declaring the city as Israel's capital.

Israel is blamed by the international community for the deadlock of the peace process with the Palestinians due to its settlement expansion policy on Palestinian occupied territories.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the light of the UN-proposed two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.MOGADISHU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Three international aid agencies on Saturday expressed concern over a recent ruling by the government of Somaliland in Somalia that encourages female genital mutilation (FGM).

In a joint statement, Save the Children, CARE International, and International Rescue Committee (IRC), said the Feb. 6 ruling goes against the commitment to abandon female cutting and eliminate all harmful practices.

"Female genital mutilation is a harmful procedure regardless the level of mutilation. It must be discouraged at all levels," said Timothy Bishop of Save the Children Somalia/Somaliland on behalf of the other organizations.

However, the organizations welcomed the banning of extreme forms of FGM but insisted that the decision should apply to all forms of FGM.

On Feb. 6, Somaliland announced a new fatwa, or religious edict, banning two of the three types of female cutting.

The edict by the Ministry of Religious Affairs allows FGM victims to receive compensation but it does not say whether the compensation will be paid by the government or by violators of the ban.

According to the organizations, the ruling made a certain type of FGM/C "mandatory" for every girl in Somaliland and at the same time banning the most extreme forms.

The religious edict came barely a month after Somaliland's parliament approved a bill criminalizing rape and requiring prison terms for those who are convicted.

Female cutting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is also often performed on girls under the age of 15, resulting in complications that range from bleeding and infection to problems with urination and complications with childbearing.

Somalia is among countries in which FGM is most prevalent. An estimated 98 percent of Somali females ages 15 to 49 have undergone the procedure.

The aid agencies said the decision to encourage FGM will erode decades of investments made in ending FGM in Somalia/Somaliland and undermines the mobilization, awareness-raising and prevention work undertaken by communities, national and international organizations and the government aiming at total abandonment of FGM/C in Somalia/Somaliland.

The organizations said they will continue to engage with the government of Somaliland to explore ways in which decisions made will be for the best interest of a child in Somaliland.FRANKFURT, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- While confirming that Chinese entrepreneur Li Shufu, Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has acquired 9.69 percent of the Daimler AG shares, the German automotive manufacturer said in a press information sent to Xinhua on Saturday that it welcomes the new long-term shareholder.

"Daimler is pleased to announce that with Li Shufu it could win another long-term orientated shareholder," said the German automaker giant.

The Stuttgart-based carmaker appreciated Li Shufu as "an especially knowledgeable Chinese entrepreneur with clear vision for the future, with whom one could constructive discuss the change in the industry."

With the purchase of the nearly 9.7 percent of shares, Geely has become the largest single shareholder of Daimler AG.

Last year, Daimler achieved significant sales growth of Mercedes-Benz cars in China and also increased the share of locally produced.

The German automaker said in the press release that it had got "a broad-based portfolio and footprint in China, and with Beijing Automotive Industry Holding (BAIC) a strong partner on site."

Geely, a Chinese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in east China's Hangzhou city, has owned Swedish passenger carmaker Volvo Cars since 2010.

At the end of last year, Geely also became the largest shareholder of the commercial vehicle manufacturer Volvo Trucks.MOGADISHU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Suspected Somali pirates attacked a Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker early Saturday but were repulsed by guards on board, the European Union naval force said.

A statement from EU Navfor Somalia (EU NAVFOR) said on Saturday that the Motor Tanker Leopard Sun was attacked by two skiffs, about 160 nautical miles (about 300km) off the coast of Somalia.

"The skiffs approached the MT Leopard Sun from the stern and fired upon her, after which the on-board private armed security team returned fire with warning shots," the naval force said.

The EU naval force, which have been patrolling the Indian Ocean waters, said the incident lasted about 20 minutes before the skiffs turned away.

"EU NAVFOR can confirm the vessel and crew are now safe," it said.

The 50,000-metric-tonne chemical tanker was en route from Sohar, Sultanate of Oman, to Cape Town, South Africa when the incident occurred.

EU NAVFOR said the attack, likely to be piracy-related, was the first of its kind in the area since November 2017.

The naval force said it has issued navigation warnings and alerts to inform both mariners and merchant vessels in the "High Risk Area" and the wider shipping industry of the attack.

Maritime experts have warned that Somali pirates tend to be armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades and sometimes use skiffs launched from mother vessels, which may be hijacked fishing vessels or dhows, to conduct attacks far from the Somali coast.NICOSIA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A spokesman with the Cypriot government said on Saturday that Cyprus is fully satisfied with a European Union (EU) Summit decision on denouncing Turkey's actions to prevent a drillship from exploring natural gas off Cyprus as illegal.

"There has been a clear-cut, collective and decisive reaction by (EU) member-states over the illegal and piratical actions by Turkey in both the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and in the Aegean," Victor Papadopoulos told state radio.

While addressing journalists on Friday night after a two-day unofficial summit in Brussels, EU Council President Donald Tusk accused Ankara of being in "illegal violations" by preventing drilling on behalf of Italian ENI, and called on Turkey to "terminate these activities".

"I reiterate our support for the sovereign right of the Republic of Cyprus to explore and exploit its natural resources, in accordance with EU and international law," Tusk said.

Cyprus confirmed on Friday that Italian ENI energy company has postponed a planned drilling for natural gas after a Turkish warship prevented its drillship from proceeding to its target twice in two weeks.

Cyprus said it possessed video and sound evidence showing a standoff on Friday morning between the drillship "Saipem" and a Turkish warship.

Cyprus has protested the Turkish violation to its sovereign rights to the United Nations Secretary General after the incidents.

Turkey, however said that it was defending the interests of Turkish Cypriots, who are co-owners of Cyprus' natural resources.

But Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades argued that the rights of Turkish Cypriots are fully safeguarded under an agreement reached years ago.

He said the wealth from natural gas will be managed by a future federal Cyprus government in which Turkish Cypriots will share power, and will be divided in an equitable way between the two communities.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he awaits a joint approach by the two communities to restart the negotiations after their collapse last July.RIGA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's troubled ABLV Bank, which U.S. authorities accused of involvement in money laundering schemes and bribery, is likely to be liquidated as the European Central Bank has determined that the bank is failing or likely to fail, the Baltic country's financial regulator said Saturday.

"On 23 February, the European Central Bank (ECB) determined that ABLV Bank was failing or likely to fail in accordance with the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation. The ECB also determined ABLV Bank Luxembourg, a subsidiary of the Latvian bank, failing or likely to fail," the ECB said in a statement.

The ECB explained that since ABLV Ban's liquidity has significantly deteriorated over the past week the bank is unlikely to be able to pay its debts or other liabilities.

"As a consequence, the winding up of the banks will take place under the law of Latvia and Luxembourg, respectively," the ECB said.

Speaking at a news conference in Riga on Saturday, Latvian Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola said that the winding up of ABLV was only one of the options.

The ECB, which is ABLV Bank's direct supervisor, does not say the Latvian bank has to be shut down but just points to its inability to meet its liabilities. The ECB has yet to take further decisions, the minister said.

Reizniece-Ozola said that ABLV Bank ran into trouble because of reputation issues, not liquidity problems.

She also denied a crisis in the whole Latvian banking sector, saying that no other bank is facing similar problems at the moment.

Late Friday night, Latvia's financial regulator the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) adopted a decision on the occurrence of unavailability of deposits at ABLV Bank because the ECB had not told to lift the payment restrictions imposed on ABLV Bank on 18 February.

In a report released last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said that the ABLV management "used bribery to influence Latvian officials when challenging enforcement actions and perceived threats to their high-risk business".

FinCEN has proposed sanctioning ABLV for its money laundering schemes by banning the bank from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts in the U.S. or altogether blocking the bank from the U.S. financial system.

When the news of the U.S. report broke last Wednesday, clients rushed to withdraw their money from ABLV Bank. To curb the outflow of funds and in compliance with the ECB's instructions, the Latvian banking regulator suspended ABLV Bank's client payments in all currencies on Feb. 18. By that time, clients had withdrawn around 600 million euros (738 million U.S. dollars) from the bank.

ABLV is the third largest bank in Latvia by assets.RABAT, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Spain consolidated its place as Morocco's top trading partner as the trade turnover between the two countries hit 17.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, according to the lastest statistics from Eurostat.

In 2017, Morocco's exports to Spain, which represent 41.4 percent of its total exports to the EU, rose 11.2 percent.

Spain is also Morocco's top supplier in the EU, accounting for 35.6 percent of the North African kingdom's imports from the bloc, followed by France (19.1 percent) and Germany (9.3 percent).

Meanwhile, Morocco's exports to the EU grew 9.5 percent in 2017 while its imports increased 7 percent.

Spain has been Morocco's largest trading partner since 2012.ROME, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Italian police on Saturday arrested three Tunisian men accused of associating for purposes of international terrorism, local media reported.

The warrants were issued following an investigation coordinated by prosecutors in the northern city of Turin.

The three suspects named as Nafaa Afli, 27, Bilel Mejri, 26, and Marwen Ben Saad, 31, were arrested following an investigation code-named "Taliban", Turin-based La Stampa newspaper reported.

The men arrived in Turin in 2015. They requested study visas, enrolled in the public university, and obtained scholarships based on false statements, according to the report.

Instead of attending classes, they became drug traffickers, praised the so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorist group on their Facebook profiles, and "shared jihadi propaganda material on the internet", La Stampa wrote.

As well, the three allegedly attended a meeting in the Tunisian capital held by a terrorist group affiliated with IS, according to the report.

The paper also published a police video with surveillance photos of the three suspects, along with pro-IS propaganda found on their social media profiles.MOGADISHU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 32 people have been confirmed dead in Friday's twin bombing attacks in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, with most of the casualties being beach-goers.

A police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua on Saturday that the death toll had risen as several beach-goers succumbed to their injuries in various hospitals in the city.

"I can say so far we know 32 people have died in the Friday attacks in Mogadishu," the officer said. "The casualties increased since most of those injured, mainly young people who were from the Lido beach, died of injuries."

Al-Shabaab militants have claimed responsibility for the double car bombing attacks, one targeting the presidential palace and the other went off near the intelligence headquarters.

Somali security forces killed all five militants at the entrance of Villa Somalia, the presidential palace. One presidential guard was killed.

The militants were dressed in police uniform and drove vehicles painted in police colors, evading several checkpoints before arriving at their targets.

Mogadishu mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman said on Saturday that most of those killed were teenagers going home from Lido beach, which is near the intelligence headquarters.

On Oct. 14 last year, a truck bomb hit Mogadishu, killing more than 500 people. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Somali government had laid blame on the al-Shabaab terror group.ATHENS, Feb. 24 ((Xinhua) -- A protest held by a group of inmates at Greece's Korydallos Prison, which is housing maximum security inmates, ended on Saturday with no injuries, according to Greek national news agency AMNA.

The turmoil had started earlier on Saturday in protest at the transfer of anarchist inmate Konstantinos Yantzoglou to another prison complex.

In a post on an anarchist website, a group of self-claimed "political prisoners" including Dimitris Koufontinas, a leading "November 17" terrorist group member who is serving 11 life sentences for murder, had demanded the stay of the prisoner to end the turmoil.

Yantzoglou who was arrested in October for the terror attack against former Premier Lucas Papademos last May, was transferred to a prison in central Greece.

Papademos who had served as an interim Prime Minister from November 2011 to May 2012, was injured when a letter bomb exploded inside his car in the center of Athens.ABUJA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian army on Saturday said five Boko Haram fighters were killed as troops intensify efforts to clear the remnants of the terror group in the country's northeast region.

Onyema Nwachukwu, an army spokesman in Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno, said the five Boko Haram fighters were shot dead at a hideout in Parisu, near the Sambisa Forest, on Friday.

The troops also rescued three civilians from Boko Haram captivity during the operation, the army spokesman said.

According to Nwachukwu, the troops had been engaging the Boko Haram fighters since late Thursday.

Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria, killing some 20,000 people and displacing millions of others.Chinese dragon boat race was held at Royal Mohamed Ali Club in Giza province, near Cairo, on February 24, 2018. (Xinhua/ Zhao Dingzhe)

CAIRO, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- As a part of Sino-Egyptian celebrations of Chinese New Year, dozens of Egyptians and Chinese gathered on Saturday at Royal Mohamed Ali Club in Giza province, near Cairo, to watch dragon boats racing on the Nile River.

The event was organized by Egyptian Friendship Association - Hong Kong, China-Egypt Friendship Association and the Chinese Cultural Center in Cairo.

In addition to dragon boat racing, the event also featured dragon dance, delicious Chinese food and other fun activities for children.

"Such events provide both Chinese and Egyptians with a way to deepen our mutual understanding and strengthen our friendship," Chinese Ambassador to Cairo, Song Aiguo, told Xinhua during the event.

The ambassador said China is keen to introduce Spring Festival culture to the world, adding that Chinese Dragon Boat Festival will be held again in June.

"By this event we will conclude this year's 'Happy Chinese New Year' series celebration events, but I see this as just a new beginning of cultural communication," he explained.

Chinese dragon boat race was held at Royal Mohamed Ali Club in Giza province, near Cairo, on February 24, 2018. (Xinhua/ Zhao Dingzhe)

Meanwhile, Ehab Gouda, co-founder of the Egyptian Dragon Boat Academy and one of the event organizers, said that he joins this celebration every year to share new year festival with his Chinese friends.

"This is very important not only to spread the Chinese culture in Egypt, but also to introduce our culture to the friendly Chinese people," he said.

As the race started, guests were encouraged to cheer on the teams, which paddled on excitedly in search for victory.

"It is very interesting event...I have attended many Chinese-related events in Egypt, but dragon boat contests are always the best for me," Hend Hassan, Project Development Consultant, told Xinhua as she encouraged an Egyptian team.

She said that these events bring happiness to the hearts of the Egyptians who have started to pay special attention to Chinese celebrations in Egypt in the past few years.

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 cultural moves, 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.RABAT, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan Royal Marine forces rescued 9 illegal immigrants from North Africa off the coast of the northern city of Tangier, local media reported Saturday.

Citing security sources, the Moroccan news site Hespress.com said the immigrants were heading to the Spanish coast through Gibraltar.

In recent months, Morocco's coast guards have witnessed an increase in the number of illegal immigrants attempting to reach Europe from the North African kingdom.

According to EU's border agency Frontex, the number of migrants arriving in Spain in 2017 hit a record high of nearly 22,900.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-25 04:04:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi President Fuad Masoum said on Saturday that Iraq will not involve itself in any regional conflict, but will take an active role in resolving differences.

"We are against any external interference in the affairs of the countries in the (Middle East) region," Iraqi NINA news agency quoted Masoum as saying.

"Iraq can contribute to bridging views in the conflicts between the countries of the region through its policy of non-intervention," he added.

Masoum made the comments during the visit of a Saudi Arabian delegation to Iraq, the first of its kind in 28 years due to the deterioration of relations between the two countries after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 under Saddam Hussein regime.

In a statement by his office, the Iraqi president highlighted "the importance of strengthening Iraq's relations with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region on the basis of the need to consolidate the principles of understanding and good co-existence."

"Promoting common interests and the will of security, peace and progress are the guarantors to overcome all the problems experienced by the region under these critical circumstances," he noted.

Earlier in the day, Muayad al-Lami, the head of the Syndicate of Iraqi Journalists, hailed the visit of the Saudi media delegation as "a turning point in deepening the brotherly ties between the two countries."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-25 04:50:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KIRKUK, Iraq, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two policemen were killed Saturday and three wounded in an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants on an oil well in Iraq's oil-rich province of Kirkuk, a police source said.

Ten to 15 IS militants carried out an attack in the evening on an oil well in Khubbaz oilfield, some 35 km southwest of the city of Kirkuk, the source from a police force tasked with protection of oil installations told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A fierce clash erupted between the attackers and the police force resulted in the killing of two policemen and the wounding of three others, the source said.

The attackers fled the area after reinforcement troops arrived to the scene, the source added.

During the past few months, dozens of IS militants fled their former bases in Salahudin province and Hawijah area in the west of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces cleared these areas during major anti-IS offensives.

However, remnants of IS militants resorted to hideouts in rugged areas near the rivers of Tigris and Zab, as well as Himreen mountainous areas to continue their almost daily attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.

Nevertheless, small groups and individuals of IS militants are still capable of carrying out attacks against the security forces and civilians despite operations from time to time to hunt them down.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-25 05:10:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday strongly condemned Friday's attacks in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, which claimed the lives of many civilians, his spokesman said.

Guterres extended his profound condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and government of Somalia, and commended the response of the Somali security forces and the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, spokesman Stephne Dujarric said in a statement.

The secretary-general reiterated the full support of the United Nations to the Somali authorities in their fight against terrorism and their pursuit of a peaceful and stable Somalia, said the statement.

Two suicide car bomb blasts in Mogadishu on Friday have left at least 38 people dead and dozens others injured.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-25 05:40:10|Editor: Chengcheng

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Photo taken on Feb. 24, 2018 shows the United Nations Security Council voting on a resolution demanding ceasefire in Syria at the UN headquarters in New York. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding ceasefire in Syria on Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a cease-fire of at least 30 days across Syria that would allow humanitarian access and urgent medical evacuations.

Resolution 2401 demands an immediate cease-fire for "a durable humanitarian pause for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria" to enable the safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services and medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded.

It demands all parties engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation of the humanitarian pause.

According to the resolution, the cease-fire does not apply to military operations against the Islamic State, al-Qaida and Al Nusra Front and their associates, and other terrorist groups as designated by the Security Council.

The resolution demands that, immediately after the start of the cease-fire, all parties shall allow safe, unimpeded and sustained access each week for UN and partners' humanitarian convoys, including medical and surgical supplies, to all people in need in all parts of Syria, in particular to hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

It further demands that, immediately after the start of the cease-fire, all parties shall allow the United Nations and its implementing partners to undertake safe, unconditional medical evacuations, based on medical need and urgency.

The resolution also demands the immediate lifting of sieges on populated areas, including Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel stronghold, which has seen heavy bombardment in the past week.

"(It) calls upon all parties to immediately lift the sieges of populated areas, including in Eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Foua and Kefraya, and demands that all parties allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance, including medical assistance, cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival, and enable the rapid, safe and unhindered evacuation of all civilians who wish to leave," reads the resolution.

It warns that starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited by international humanitarian law.

The resolution reiterates its demand that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international law and international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and ensuring the respect and protection of all medical personnel and humanitarian personnel, as well as hospitals and other medical facilities.

The resolution was adopted after two weeks of tough consultations with twists and turns at the last minute.TRIPOLI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A number of Libyan experts on Saturday discussed the challenges of Libya's ratification of UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

During a workshop on UNESCO in the capital Tripoli, the experts reviewed previous attempts to accede to the international convention of UNESCO, as well as the urgent safeguarding list and the national list of the intangible heritage.

"The number of countries ratifying the convention in 2014 is 168 out of 193 UNESCO members. Libya, until now, did not vote as a result of the political situation, after it was so close to do so in 2010," Abdullah Al-Maqtouf, in-charge coordinator of the UNESCO division of the Libyan national commission for education, culture and science, told Xinhua after workshop.

"Technically, we are well prepared. We only need to put all ideas and proposals for the intangible heritage in an integrated project and submit it to the legal and legislative bodies to issue a law that would vote on Libya's approval to join this important convention," Al-Maqtouf added.

"Today, we discussed with a number of important experts the significance of the convention in protecting the intangible heritage, such as the local distinctive Libyan cultures, as well as folk dances and cuisine, dialects, poetry and old songs," Al-Maqtouf explained.

Al-Maqtouf pointed out that the countries of the world compete for inclusion of their intangible heritage in UNESCO, "which reflects the rising level of interest in the intangible heritage of the peoples."

The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO in 2003 to protect the intangible cultural heritage from disappearance due to globalization and accelerated technological progress.

According to the convention, the intangible cultural heritage includes oral traditions and expressions, performing arts, social practices and ceremonies, knowledge and practices relating to nature and the universe, and craft arts skills.Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu (C, front) addresses after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire in Syria, at the UN headquarters in New York, Feb. 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu on Saturday called for the full implementation of the just adopted UN Security Council resolution that demands a 30-day cease-fire in Syria.

"Going forward, the international community should work together to ensure the full implementation of the just adopted Resolution 2401 so that it can play a positive role in improving the humanitarian situation in Syria," Ma told the Security Council after the vote.

He said China is keen for this council to remain united and forge consensus on the Syrian issue, push the Syrian parties to consolidate the momentum for cease-fire, strengthen cooperation on combating terrorist groups, advance the process of political settlement and play a constructive role in maintaining peace and security in Syria and across the region.

A political settlement is the only way out, he stressed. "The international community should support the Syrian parties in seeking a swift solution that is acceptable to all parties under UN mediation through a Syrian-owned and Syrian-led political process to end the suffering of the Syrian people as early as possible."

Resolution 2401 demands an immediate cessation of hostilities for "a durable humanitarian pause for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria" to enable the safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services and medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded.By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood  The three victims who died in Wednesdays fire in downtown Ironwood have been identified.

Mark Arnold Verrete, 57; Patrick James Somerville, 51, and Levi Dean Watkins, 27, all of Ironwood, lost their lives in the fire, Ironwood Public Safety Department Director Gregory Klecker said in a news release Friday afternoon.

The Ironwood Public Safety Department extends our sincere condolences and sympathies to the surviving family members for their losses in this tragic incident, Klecker said.

The release of the names comes after an earlier announcement a third body had been removed from the scene Thursday.

There are no more remaining persons unaccounted for that we know of, Klecker said.

The fire began in 102 E. Aurora St.  the home of Chelsis Corner boutique and a number of apartments on the upper floors  early Wednesday morning, with the department responding to reports of the fire at 3:49 a.m.

Ironwood and Hurley fire departments battled the flames through much of Wednesday, eventually containing the fire to 102 E. Aurora and the adjoining storefront at 104 E. Aurora, and preventing it from spreading further down the block. Numerous other agencies and groups assisted the effort in various ways.

Three people were rescued from second and third floor windows during the fire and taken to Aspirus Ironwood Hospital.

Klecker said Thursday he didnt have their medical information, but he understood they were in good condition.

The first confirmed death from the fire was announced Wednesday as someone pulled from the scene was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The recovery of the second body was announced Thursday.

Klecker said the fire remains suspicious until the investigation determines whether criminal charges are merited.

Weve got a fire. We dont know how it started, who was involved, was it arson, was it an accident  any of these (questions) makes it a suspicious thing, Klecker said Thursday, adding the department is taking steps to preserve any necessary evidence until the investigation is finished.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - Kweiman Yang, Professor of Mathematics at Arizona Western College, will visit the Foothills Library in March 2018 to discuss Chinese Language and Culture. Her sessions are designed to introduce various aspects of Chinese culture.

There is no charge to attend.



Friday, March 9th @ 3:00 p.m.

Dragon Festival

Learn about the Taiwanese Dragon Festival with a story, and make some creative art.



Friday, March 23rd @ 3:00 p.m.

Chinese Paper Cutting

Read and write some Chinese texts and create Chinese characters out of paper.



The Foothills Library is located at 13226 E. South Frontage Road. For more information, call (928) 342-1640.Premiera istorica in Albania - Primul guvern dominat de femei

Parlamentul Albaniei a votat vineri primul sau guvern dominat de femei de cand sistemul multipartit a fost introdus in aceasta tara, cu 30 de ani in urma, informeaza Reuters, potrivit Agerpres. Dupa o sesiune parlamentara care a durat mai mult de 20 de ore, Edi Rama a fost [citeste mai departe]PATNA: At least nine people were killed and 20 were injured after they were run over by a speeding vehicle in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. The incident took place on Saturday afternoon.

The car lost control and ploughed through them outside Dharmpur Government School building.

The children were returning from the school located in Meenpur police station area when the accident happened. Their age is said to be between eight to 10 years.

Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police Vivek Kumar said the speeding vehicle mowed down the children when they were crossing the road.

"The incident took place at Ahiyapur-Jhapaha in Minapur police station area of the district where a Bolero ran over the children who were returning to their homes after the school was over," said Vivek Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur.

All the injured children have, meanwhile, been admitted to SKMCH Hospital in Muzaffarpur.

He said "all the injured, said to be around 20 in number, have been rushed to the Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital for treatment. The condition of some of them was stated to be critical".

The speeding car reportedly belongs to Manoj Baitha, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Sitamarhi district.

Angry over the death of school children, local residents vandalised the school, beat up teachers and set ablaze chairs and benches there.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has expressed sorrow and grief over the incident. The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of each victim.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav visited the hospital to meet the injured and the families of the deceased.

Bihar: Tejashwi Yadav arrived at Shri Krishna Medical College And Hospital in Muzaffarpur to meet the injured & families of the deceased of the incident where a vehicle rammed into a school building leaving 9 students dead & 24 injured. pic.twitter.com/3VBza0uA2m  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

"It's unfortunate. We are being told that the vehicle belongs to a BJP General Secretary. The driver is absconding and the administration has not been able to arrest him so far. Relatives of the deceased are saying that the vehicle has a BJP Board attached to it and people in it were intoxicated," said the RJD leader.

Hitting out at the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Tejashwi further said, "CM and Sushil Modi Ji are nowhere to be seen. Both of them are trying to shield the culprit. Where did the driver get the liquor from when there is a ban on liquor in the state."

(With inputs from agencies)New Delhi: Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer 'Brahmastra' shoot begins today! The movie will be helmed by Ayan Mukerji who has also directed coming-of-age movies such as, Wake Up Sid and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

The movie is backed by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.

Noted film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh took to Twitter and shared the news that the film's shooting begins today.

He wrote- #Brahmastra shooting begins today... Stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

#Brahmastra shooting begins today... Stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. pic.twitter.com/lgAGGgIJy5  taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) February 24, 2018

Namit Malhotra, co-producer of the film was earlier quoted as saying, We aspire to create something homegrown that can match Hollywood standards. We can't be penny-pinching with the scale. Hollywood has moved from dramas and rom-coms to big scale films, which makes more money eventually. India too is getting there. We will shoot it the regular way and then convert it into 3D. The visual effects and conversion quality will be superlative.

He added, The films will progress from establishing the characters to the protagonist achieving his goal. Ayan's vision will strike a chord with everyone, from the ages of six to 60. In terms of concept, it doesn't share any similarities with other Bollywood superhero films, like Krrish (2006). The title itself conveys that the story is rooted in our cultural heritage.New Delhi: Actor Varun Dhawan, who delivered hits like 'Judwaa 2' and 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania' last year and is currently looking forward to the release of 'October', has reportedly slashed his fees by 50 percent for the film.

According to TOI, when director Shoojit Sircar approached Varun for the project, he made it very clear that the film is a small budgeted. By that time, Varun was already taken up by the story and showed his interest to do the movie.

Hence, he agreed to the filmmaker's expectation and decided to slash his fee, by almost 50 percent, for the project.

Reportedly, 'October' is being made at a budget of Rs 20 crore. Shot in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, the shooting of the film wrapped up in only 38 days, much ahead of schedule.

Apart from Varun in the key role, the film also features and newbie Banita Sandhu is a romantic film and is slated to release on April 13.

Earlier, this is how Varun introduced his 'October girl':

Sircar is collaborating with Varun for the first time. During an interaction with NDTV, he said, "I think Varun is very bright. He is trying to open up to different genres. Actors should keep exploring different genres, stories and directors. At the end of the day, you have to challenge yourself and Varun does just that."



Coming to Banita Sandhu, she would be making her debut with the movie. She is an NRI model from Wales, UK, who has been acting in commercials and more since she was 12. She is also well known for the Vodafone TVC and has previously worked with Shoojit on a commercial too.CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu's ruling party AIADMK on Saturday unveiled a full-size statue of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa at its headquarters here, marking the 70th birth anniversary of the late iconic leader.

According to ANI, the life-size statue of Jayalalithaa was unveiled by Chief Minister E Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu CM E Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam unveiled statue of former TN CM #Jayalalithaa at AIADMK office on her birth anniversary. pic.twitter.com/33NMG8cpbR  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

Jayalalithaa's statue has been installed near the bust of the late leader's mentor MG Ramachandran in the lawns of the party headquarters.

According to reports, a newspaper will also be launched in the memory of the late AIADMK leader.

The unveiling of the statue formally marks the beginning of Jayalalithaa's 70th year birth anniversary celebrations across the state.

The bronze statue of 'Amma', which was sculpted in Nellore, was to be installed last year, however, the plan was shelved after VK Sasikala, the then AIADMK interim general secretary, was jailed in the disproportionate assets (DA) case.

After unveiling the statue, the two leaders will launch Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma - the party's new mouthpiece.

Namadhu MGR, which was launched by J Jayalalithaa to air her views following the death of her mentor MG Ramachandran in the late 1980s, went on to become the official propaganda arm of the AIADMK till her death in 2016.

Jaya TV, launched in 1999, was also an integral part of Tamil Nadu's late iconic leader's publicity arm.

A bitter power struggle after Jayalaithaa's death led the AIADMK to split into two factions - one led by EPS-OPS and the other led by TT V Dhinakaran - leaving the party bereft of any mouthpiece.

Sasikala also eventually took control of the two propaganda organisation of her predecessor.

Interestingly, the soon-to-be-launched newspaper will be edited by party spokesperson Marudhu Azhaguraj, who was removed as editor of Namadhu MGR by Sasikala last year.

The newspaper will hit the stands today.

Unlike Namadhu MGR, Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma will be published from major cities in the state.

(With Agency inputs)New Delhi: India's apex bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set an April 30 deadline for all lenders to link the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) with their core banking solution (CBS), and to alter a range of other protocols with immediate effect, as fallout from an alleged Rs 11,400 crore fraud at state-run lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) continues to swell.

Indian Banks Association (IBA) Chairperson Usha Ananthasubramanian said that there is an urgency to fast-track SWIFT-CBS linkage.

In what has been dubbed the biggest loan fraud in Indias history, this came after the country's second-largest public sector lender PNB had detected a Rs 11,400-crore fraudulent transactions at one of its branches in Mumbai.

The firms of diamond jewellers Nirav Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoU) from PNB's Brady House branch in South Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

The LoUs were not recorded in the PSU lender's books and therefore were undetected for a long time.

Asked about the April 30 deadline, Ananthasubramanian said, "Correct. That could be a deadline, but it is an outer limit. Today, the urgency is such that everyone wants this (linkage of SWIFT to CBS) project to be on fast-track". CBS is a software used to support most common transactions of a bank.

In a statement issued earlier this week, the RBI said it had alerted banks three times since August 2016 for a possible misuse of the SWIFT infrastructure.

"The risks arising from the potential malicious use of the SWIFT infrastructure, created by banks for their genuine business needs, has always been a component of their operational risk profile.

"The RBI had, therefore, confidentially cautioned and alerted banks of such possible misuse, at least on three occasions since August 2016, advising them to implement the safeguards detailed in the RBI's communications, for pre-empting such occurrences," the statement said.

Ananthasubramanian, who is currently managing director and chief executive officer of Allahabad Bank, said that at her bank SWIFT and CBS is not linked. The bank has sent all its branches memos to take precautionary measures.

She said there is an urgent need for all banks to revisit their risk management system to plug any loophole.

"Banks are reviewing and revisiting the systems to ensure drawbacks/loopholes, if any, are addressed so that the system becomes robust. SWIFT linkage to CBS is being fast-tracked by banks".

However, asked about Allahabad Bank's loan exposure to Nirav Modi's firms, she refused to divulge any information.

Last week, in a regulatory filing, Allahabad Bank had said that it has an exposure of nearly $366.87 million in the form LoUs issued by PNB.

"The bank, through its overseas branch at Hong Kong, has been taking an exposure with PNB as a country party under various LoUs issued through authenticated SWIFT message," Allahabad Bank had said in a filing.

(With agency inputs)New Delhi: Rotomac Pens owner Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul Kothari on Saturday sent to 11 days Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remand by a special CBI court in Lucknow with alleged loan default to the tune of Rs 3,695 crore, news agency ANI has reported.

The CBI produced the Kotharis in the court of special judge M P Chaudhari after bringing them here on transit remand from Delhi. The judge first took them in judicial custody and later remanded them in CBI custody for 11 days.

Both Vikram Kothari and his son have been booked for cheating a consortium of seven nationalised banks. Vikram Kothari's wife Sadhna Kothari is also accused in the case.

The CBI arrested the father-son duo on Thursday in Delhi after the agency alleged the accused were not cooperating with the probe.

On a complaint of Bank of Baroda, the CBI had registered an FIR against the Kotharis for allegedly defaulting on loans taken by Rotomac Global Private Ltd. From the consortium of banks from 2008 onwards.

The banks had extended loans worth Rs 2,919 crore to the company and the amount swelled to Rs 3,695 crore, including the accrued interest, because of repeated defaults on payment by the company, the agency has claimed.

The CBI initiated the action on the complaint of Bank of Baroda, a member of the consortium led by Bank of India, which had approached the agency fearing that Vikram Kothari might flee India after billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and owner of Gitanjali Gems Mehul Choksi reportedly left India before the registration of a case against them.

Modi and Choksi are the two main accused in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank scam.

In the Rotomac case, the principal exposure of the banks regarding the loan is Bank of India Rs 754.77 crore, Bank of Baroda Rs 456.63 crore, Overseas Bank of India Rs 771.07 crore, Union Bank of India Rs 458.95 crore, Allahabad Bank Rs 330.68 crore, Bank of Maharashtra 49.82 crore and Oriental Bank of Commerce Rs 97.47 crore, the agency has said.

Yesterday, a Delhi court allowed one-day transit remand to the CBI to take Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul to Lucknow to produce them before a court there in connection with the case, saying their presence in Uttar Pradesh was required to recover the alleged siphoned-off money.

While seeking their transit remand, the CBI had claimed that it needed to recover the crime proceeds and unearth the larger conspiracy. The agency sought the remand "to produce the accused before the competent court of M P Chaudhary, special judge, Lucknow, in the interest of justice".

Advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey, appearing for the Kotharis, had opposed the CBI plea, saying the accused were "illegally detained".

(With agency inputs)New York: Warren Buffett on Saturday lamented his inability to find big companies to buy, and said his goal is to make "one or more huge acquisitions" of non-insurance businesses to bolster results at his conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

In his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett admitted that finding things to buy at a "sensible purchase price" has become a challenge, and is a major reason Berkshire is awash with $116 billion of low-yielding cash and government bonds.

Buffett said a "purchasing frenzy" binge by deal-hungry chief executives employing cheap debt has made that task difficult. Berkshire typically pays all cash for acquisitions.

"Our smiles will broaden when we have redeployed Berkshire's excess funds into more productive assets," Buffett wrote. "Berkshire's goal is to substantially increase the earnings of its non-insurance group. For that to happen, we will need to make one or more huge acquisitions."

It has been more than two years since Berkshire made a major purchase, the $32.1 billion takeover of aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts Corp.

Last month, Buffett gave greater oversight of Berkshire`s non-insurance businesses such as the BNSF railroad, Precision Castparts and Dairy Queen ice cream to energy executive Gregory Abel, while insurance specialist Ajit Jain added supervision of insurance operations such as the Geico auto insurer.

Both are considered candidates to eventually replace Buffett, 87, as Berkshire`s chief executive. Many investors consider Abel, who is a decade younger than Jain, the frontrunner.

Berkshire on Saturday reported a record quarterly and annual profit, both of which received a $29.1 billion boost from the recent lowering of the US corporate income tax rate, which reduced its deferred tax liabilities.

Fourth-quarter net income increased roughly fivefold to $32.55 billion, or $19,790 per Class A share, from $6.29 billion, or $3,823 per share, a year earlier, while annual profit rose 87 percent to $44.94 billion.

Those increases, however, masked declines in operating profit, which Buffett considers a better gauge of overall performance, and which fell 18 percent last year to $14.46 billion.

A major reason for that decline was a $2.22 billion loss from insurance underwriting, Berkshire's first full-year deficit since 2002, hurt by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and wildfires in California.

The lower tax rate also contributed to a 23 percent full-year boost in Berkshire's book value, which measures assets minus liabilities and Buffett considers a good indicator of Berkshire's net worth, to $211,750 per Class A share.

Meanwhile, insurance float, or premiums collected before claims are paid, and which gives Buffett more money to invest, was about $114 billion at year-end.

New Delhi: Vadgam MLA and Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani has alleged that his life is under threat and has accused the Gujarat Police of planning to kill him in an encounter. The Gujarat Dalit leader made the allegation on Twitter after a discussion on a WhatsApp group called 'ADR Police & Media went viral on Friday.

He tweeted, "Jignesh Mevanis encounter? Here is the link to a web portal which exposes a Whatsapp communication where two top cops are discussing how I could be killed in an encounter. Can you believe this?" Mevani tweeted.

Jignesh mevani's encounter?

Here is the link of gujarati web portal which exposes a WhatsApp communication where two top cops are discussing how I could be killed in an encounter. Can you believe this ?https://t.co/qdS8e4iHCe  Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) February 23, 2018

Mevani is also reportedly going to file a complaint to the Gujarat DGP, the state's Home Minister and the Home Secretary.

The 'ADR Police & Media WhatsApp group has several members from the Gujarat Police and media. Two videos were recently posted on the WhatsApp group. In one of the videos, a group of policemen were seen allegedly thrashing a person dressed up like a politician and the other was an interview of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in which he is defending the state police in connection with the recent encounters carried out in UP.

The two videos follow a message by RB Devdha, the DySP of Ahmedabad (rural), which reads: Those who want to be the 'baap' of police and call the police as lakhota (marbles) and those who take videos of police should remember that with people like you, the police will be like this. Scores will be settled.  Gujarat Police.

Devdha, however, later clarified to a leading daily that he has been misinterpreted and said that he had only copied and pasted a forwarded message.

On February 18, a video showing Mevani arguing with the police after he was detained just before he was to start Ahmedabad bandh went viral. The bandh was called in protest of the death of Dalit activist Bhanu Vankar.

Mevani had recently said that he will campaign in Karnataka, which will go to polls this year.

According to IANS, Mevani said that he will campaign along with the 'like-minded' parties against the BJP in April.

''In April, I'll be in Karnataka for two weeks. I will urge 20% of Dalits in the state that not even their 20 votes should go to them (BJP),'' Mevani had said while speaking at an event held to commemorate the 55th birth anniversary of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh.

During his speech, the Gujarat Dalit icon said that all mainstream political parties from Karnataka should form an alliance to defeat the BJP.After introducing Gita shlokas or verses in textbooks, Haryana education department now wants to introduce Gayatri Mantra during morning prayers.

Speaking on the move, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, Shiksha ka star kaise ooncha ho, shiksha mein naitikta kaise aaye, sanskar kaise usme daale jaayen, uss naate se bahut se vishyon pe shiksha vibhag ne vichar kiya, uss mein ye sab baaten shaamil hain. (While pondering on how to improve current education standards, introduce ethics and culture, the Education Department brainstormed on several ideas and this (Gayatri Mantra) was a part that discussion).

Confirming the move, Haryana's Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma informed that Gayatri Mantra will henceforth be part of the morning prayers conducted in the schools.

"We've had meetings with senior officials of education dept over this. Gayatri Mantra is a gift by our saints and sages to the world. We'll issue a notification on it by Tuesday," said Sharma.

"Now, we are going to add Gayatri Mantra in the prayer meetings of schools so that the children can understand its meaning," he added.

In 2015, the Khattar government decided to introduce lessons from 'Gita' and other holy books would in school syllabus of schools. After facing opposition from several counters, it was finaly introduced in syllabus in June, 2016.

Sharma said that including Gita shlokas in the school syllabus soon after the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Haryana yielded positive results.New Delhi: Accusing India of making provocative remarks, Chinese observers warned of another Doklam-like standoff showdown soon. The statement comes days after former National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said that China's political goal was to 'split' India and Bhutan over the Doklam standoff.

Indian officials' recent provocative remarks, as well as a surreptitious visit to controversial border regions, are likely to plunge their country into another showdown with China like last year's Doklam standoff, Chinese observers warned on Thursday, said a report in state-run Chinese tabloid - The Global Times.

The article claims, India has been sending provocative signals to China since the Doklam standoff of summer 2017, which makes the already soured Sino-Indian relationship more fragile.

Earlier this month, China vehemently opposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims is a part of South Tibet.

"The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency in response to PM Modis visit to Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.

In the latest write-up, Beijing accuses India of deliberate provocation.

There is a strong possibility of conflict between China and India breaking out again this year, as India persists in pushing the bilateral relationship in a negative direction, and both sides are enhancing their preparations for a possible ramped up confrontation in the border region. This includes building roads and reinforcing troop numbers, Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Meanwhile, a report in the Sputnik News claimed that China's Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has boosted its high-altitude capacities along the country's southwestern borders by sending more top-of-the-line jet fighters. The move could trigger a fresh showdown with New Delhi.BEIJING: China's plan to deploy advanced fighter jets on the borders with India is likely to trigger a fresh showdown with New Delhi, according to a report in Sputnik.

The report claims that China's Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has boosted its high-altitude capacities along the country's southwestern borders by sending more top-of-the-line jet fighters to the area.

Earlier this month, PLAAF had published photos of Chengdu J-10 Vigorous Dragon multirole fighters and Shenyang J-11 (a modified version of the famous Soviet Sukhoi Su-27) air superiority fighters participating in combat training exercises in western China.

A PLA expert Song Zhongping had told the state-owned Global Times that the purpose of deploying additional fighter jets is to boost Chinese military strength in case of conflict against India.

Zhongping further stated that China's military build-up is in line with India's military preparations.

''Since India is gearing up already, it's necessary for China to prepare for a possible military confrontation. And in these mountainous areas, superiority in the air is of utmost importance," the PLA expert added.

China's plan to deploy its top-of-the-line fighters comes in the wake of reports that India has been bolstering its military presence along the Chinese border.

The Chinese are fully aware that India has recently deployed Su-30 MKI long-range fighters, which are the Indian modification of the Soviet Sukhoi Su-30, to the India-China border.

However, when quizzed about the move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang downplayed it.

"I am not aware of the information mentioned by you. I may refer you to the military," he said in a statement.

"We hope the Indian side can work with China to uphold the peace and tranquillity of the border areas because this is in common interests of both sides," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman added.

It is to be noted the ties between India and China were severely hit when the two sides deployed military force to the Doklam Plateau, a remote mountain range that is disputed between China and India's close ally Bhutan.

The stand-off between India and China ended only after both nations pulled their troops back on August 28 following quiet negotiations between the two powers and the road-building came to an end.

However, several weeks after the resolution of the Doklam stand-off, reports surfaced in October that China is again boosting its military presence near the disputed region.

A satellite image obtained in January further confirmed that the PLA was settling into permanent military encampments a few miles back from the site of the stand-off.

Moreover, the two sides have crisscrossed over India state Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims to be part of South Tibet.

Beijing has also made objections to Prime Minister Narendra Modi past visits to Arunachal Pradesh.New Delhi: A Chinese national was arrested by the customs officials carrying gold worth Rs 91.88 lakhs upon his arrival at the Delhi airport recently.

According to a press release by the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), the man was arrested on February 21.

The man had arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong via Air India flight no AI 317.

The Chinese national was intercepted by the customs officials while he was crossing the Green Channel.

During the search, it was found that the man in question had illegally concealed three gold bars weighing 3000 grams inside the specially-designed pockets of the jeans which he was wearing.

The market value of the gold bar seized from him is estimated to be around Rs 91.88 lakhs in the international markets.

The man was later booked under various sections of the Customs Act, 1962.United States President Donald Trump has once again criticised India and China for unfairly benefiting from the 2015 Paris climate accord. The US government had knocked out the Paris Accord, Trump told a gathering at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

The US President said that the "unfair" accord would have imposed "draconian financial and economic burdens" on the US, as it would have made Washington pay for nations which benefitted the most from the deal.

He targeted India and China, saying both these nations were benefiting most from the Paris deal, which was "unfair" to the US.

We had to pay, because they [Paris deal signatories] considered them [Indian and China] a growing country, Trump said. They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow too? They called India a developing nation. They called China a developing nation. But the United States, we are developed  we can pay.

Trump had announced the withdrawal from the landmark climate accord in June, stating that it would have imposed "wildly unfair environmental standards on American businesses and workers".

He said the Paris deal would have cost his country trillions of dollars, killed jobs, hindered the oil, gas, coal and manufacturing industries. However, he had also said that he was "open to negotiate a better deal for the US or re-enter the accord on improved terms".

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. Would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," the US President said at Conservative Political Action Conference.

After years of rebuilding OTHER nations, we are finally rebuilding OUR nation - and we are restoring our confidence and our pride! #CPAC2018 pic.twitter.com/rD9oTU8iex  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 23, 2018

"You know, basically, it (the Paris accord) said, you have a lot of oil and gas that we found  you know, technology has been amazing  and we found things that we never knew. But we have massive  just about the top in the world  we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much.

And basically, they were saying, don't use it, you can't use it," Trump said, expressing his displeasure with the pact which was agreed by nearly 200 nations over the period of years.

"So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. I told them, it's not going to happen."

"And China, their agreement didn't kick in until 2030... Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia, they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," he said.

"The country knows what I`m doing... We couldn`t build. We couldn`t farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," Trump said.

Earlier, the US President had also singled out India saying that "India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions of dollars in foreign aid".

Many scientists and environmentalists said the planet will reach more dangerous levels of warming sooner because of Trump's decision as America contributes hugely to carbon dioxide and global rising temperatures.

(With agency inputs)NEW DELHI: In a stern warning for Pakistan, Army chief General Bipin Rawat said that the neighbour will have to pay for the attack on Sunjuwan military camp in Jammu, sooner or later. The Army chief said that they have many options on how to retaliate, including a surgical strike.

"Pakistan thinks it is fighting a war that is paying them dividends but we have several options, including surgical strikes," the Army chief said in an interview to Hindustan Times. However, he did not disclose the details of the options that the forces may adopt.

On February 10, six soldiers and one civilian were killed, and 10 others injured when Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists stormed the 36 Brigade headquarters of the Army at Sunjwan in Jammu region. Four terrorists were neutralised in the retaliatory attack by the Army.

Amid a rise in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC), General Rawat also said India will order a ceasefire when Pakistan stops sending terrorists to India. "The Indian Army will honour the ceasefire and de-escalate tensions the day Pakistan stops sending terrorists across the line of control," General Rawat said.

There have been over 800 ceasefire violations in 2017 from either side, as compared to 271 the previous year.

Earlier, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also hit out at Pakistan over the Sunjuwan attack saying that they have will have to pay for its "misadventure". She had said that the Army had enough evidence to prove that the attack originated from Pakistan. "Intelligence inputs indicate that these terrorists were being controlled by their handlers from across the border," the Defence Minister had said. "Pakistan is expanding the arc of terror, resorting to ceasefire violations to assist infiltration. It will pay for this misadventure," she had said.New Delhi: Polling for the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections, which witnessed clashes between contesting party workers while campaigning, began Saturday morning, where 59.08 percent turnout recorded as voting concludes, reported The Indian Express.

The total turnout was 59.08 percent as voting concluded on Saturday evening. While the female turnout was 57.66 percent, the male turnout was 59.70 percent, and, the third gender turnout was recorded at 4.17 percent, the English daily has reported.

According to election commission officials, voters started queuing up before 8 am, when the voting officially started, and the voting will continue till 4 pm.

A total of 494 candidates are in fray and there are 10.50 lakh voters. Of the 95 wards going to polls, 56 have been reserved and 39 are in the general category. 40 are reserved for women, seven for SCs, another seven for SC women and two for Other Backward Class (OBC). The results will be declared on February 27.

Meanwhile, there were reports of fresh clashes on the eve of polling. Keeping this in mind, Election Commission officials declared 284 out of 1,153 polling station as sensitive and heightened security in these areas.

Ludhiana is witnessing a triangular contest for the first time with Lok Insaaf Party-AAP alliance, SAD-BJP alliance and Congress in competition. MLA Simarjit Bains Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) will contest for the first time as an Independent front in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)

Civic issues like water supply, lack of cleanliness, pollution, bad roads and infrastructure and poor sewerage are the main issues for common people in the election.

The Congress, which runs the government in Punjab since March 2017, had won the municipal elections in the municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in December.

The Congress party had also emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.

(With agency inputs)New Delhi: In a major blow to hundreds of aspirants from both the general and reserved category, the Supreme Court has rejected a plea for scrapping upper age limit for candidates appearing in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test of 2018.

According to reports, the top court had on Friday refused to intervene in a batch of petitions seeking to quash a notification fixing the age limit of 30 years for candidates belonging to the reserved category appearing in the NEET Entrance Test of 2018.

The ruling implies that the general category candidates older than 25 years, and those from the reserved category above 30 will not be able to appear in NEET entrance test this year.

The order was passed by the apex court bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao.

The bench, however, gave the petitioners liberty to approach the High Courts concerned.

While responding to the matter, the bench refused to interfere with the CBSE's decision to fix the upper age limit for the entrance test for admission to undergraduate medical and dental courses.

The CBSE had imposed the age limit on the basis of a notification issued by the Medical Council of India on January 22, 2018, amending its Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997.

The last date for applying for NEET is March 9, 2018.

Advocate Mukund P Unny, appearing on behalf of a student from Kerala named, Jasna Shayla, however, submitted that students come from various States and it would be difficult to move the High Courts on time and before March 9.

In her petition, Jasna had argued that the age regulation directly affects her as her age will go beyond the prescribed limit.

The petition said the notification imposing the age limit on candidates violated the Constitution which guarantees the right to equality before the law to every person.Here are the top headlines of the day:

1. China boosts its offensive capabilities, deploys advanced fighter jets on border with India: Reports

China has reportedly deployed advanced fighter jets on the Indian border. Read More

2. BJP MLA Vikram Saini tells his wife to keep producing more children until a law comes into force

Vikram Saini, a BJP legislator from Muzaffarnagar, has urged Hindus to produce more children until a law for population control comes into existence. Read more



3. Steve Jobs' 4-decade old handwritten job application could fetch $50,000

This 'Steve Jobs Signed Job Application' will be put on auction in March 2018. Read more



4. Priyanka Chopra expresses frustration over 'bad day', breaks a glass of wine on her headWatch video

Bollywood's 'Desi Girl' Priyanka Chopra has her own way of dealing with work pressure! Read more



5. Rahul Gandhi not my leader, waiting for Priyanka Gandhi: Hardik Patel

Patel went on to admit that he had a girlfriend and that he would be marrying her. Read more



6. MP bypolls: Voting underway in Mungaoli, Kolaras; BJP, Congress in close contest

Voting is currently underway in two key assembly constituencies  Mungaoli and Kolaras - in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Read more



7. NEET 2018: Supreme Courts rejects plea for scrapping upper age limit

The move has come as a major blow to hundreds of aspirants from both the general and reserved category. Read more

8. Ludhiana civic polls underway: 10.50 lakh voters to decide fate of 494 candidates

The chief contest is between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party-Lok Insaf Party (AAP-LIP) alliance. Read more

9. Rahul to campaign in Karnataka from today, will visit temples and dargahs too

Rahul Gandhi will tour Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Dharwad districts in the state's northwest during the second leg of his 3-day visit to Karnataka. Read more

10. Salman Khan cites hilarious reason for not getting married

Wherever Salman goes, one question keeps chasing him like crazy  When will you get married? Read moreMUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday is questioning two top officials of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in connection with the alleged multi-million fraud involving celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi and his family.

The Chief Managing Director (CMD) Sunil Mehta and the Executive Director KV Bramhaji Rao are being questioned. The interrogation is being done at the CBI's Mumbai office.

In a related development, the government today revoked the passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who are at the forefront of the alleged multi-million Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

Last week, the passport issuing authority in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had suspended the validity of passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks. Their passports were suspended on the advice of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The ED had also issued summons for appearance to the billionaire diamond merchant and Choksi in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rs 11,400 crore fraud in PNB.

Both Modi and Choksi were summoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and asked to depose within a week's time. The ED has registered a PMLA case against them and others based on a CBI FIR which was the result of a PNB complaint.

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.THRISSUR: Kerala Police is cracking down heavily on those accused in the death of 27-year-old "mentally unfit" tribal man, who was attacked in the forest near Palakkad for alleged theft. The police arrested nine more people on Saturday, taking the number of those held to eleven.

"Apart from these, four more are to be arrested," Inspector General of Police MR Ajithkumar said.

Eight of the 11 persons named in the attack that took place on Thursday have been charged for murder.

Ajithkumar, who is leading the probe, said that the post-mortem confirms the cause of death to be the injuries. "The reason for the death is injury caused to the head," Ajithkumar said. The perpetrators have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal code and the Forest Act, including murder and illegal confinement, the police officer said.

The autopsy report shows that Madhu died of severe internal bleeding. He was attacked by the mob in the forest near Palakkad on Thursday evening for alleged theft. He was handed over to the police in an injured state but died on his way to the government hospital. He suffered severe injuries to his head, ribs and chest.

Following the autopsy, the body was taken to his home near Agali in Palakkad district on Saturday. Madhu's sister Chandrika has accused the Forest Department officials of failing to do their duty. "Madhu lived in the forest in a cave and access to this place is only to those who have the right. We are surprised how this group of people managed to go into the forest and beat him up," Chandrika said.

"Moreover, after he was beaten up, he was made to walk from inside the forest to the police station. He was hardly able to walk," Chandrika said describing the attack.

"When Madhu asked for water, he was teased and after giving a few drops they dropped the rest of the water on the ground to mock him," she added. She also claimed that while his injured brother struggled to walk, a forest department jeep followed him.

State Forest Minister P Raju has assured that he will look into the allegations of Chandrika, and will take appropriate action against the offenders.

Madhu was beaten to death after his hands were tied using his dhoti by a group of people who accused him of theft. The entire episode was filmed on a mobile phone and posted on social media.

The incident took social media and the ruling Pinarayi Vijayan government by storm.LUCKNOW: Noted social activist Anna Hazare will visit Lucknow on Monday to mobilise support for the Lokpal and Lokayukta, one of his aides said on Saturday.

"The visit will be an attempt to mobilise public support for the Lokpal at the national level and Lokayukta at the state level," Hazare`s close associate Sunil Lal informed IANS.

"Following the forthcoming March 23 Satyagraha at Delhi, Anna Hazare would be in Uttar Pradesh for two days," he added.

The legislation to have an effective Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in all the states -- despite having been passed by Parliament in December 2013 -- has made little headway.

In fact, it was further diluted when in July 2017 it extended for the fifth time the deadline for filing of asset declarations by the nearly 50 lakh central government employees and their spouses, and NGOs receiving government funds, organisers of the Hazare visit said.

Anna Hazare will be in Lucknow on Monday and will spend the next day in Sitapur before leaving for Pune on Wednesday.MUMBAI: The abduction of a little girl, playing outside a shop in Mumbai's Saki Naka area on Friday, was captured on closed-circuit television (CCTV).

In the footage, the 2.5-year-old Shireen Fatima is seen stepping out of the shop. A man  dressed in dark shirt and trousers  stumbles with the child and lifts her up casually. The abductor then walks away with the girl in his arms.

#WATCH: 2.5-year-old girl abducted from outside a shop in #Mumbai's Saki Naka area, was rescued by Police after 6 hours. Accused has been nabbed.(Source: CCTV, 23 February) pic.twitter.com/qu9BEJsTLY  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

After the child disappeared from sight, the family immediately contacted authorities.

"Fatima was playing outside, but when we came outside to call her she was not there," said the father of the child.

The police started an immediate investigation and checked the CCTV cameras installed in the area.

Based on CCTV footage, authorities then arrested the kidnapper within six hours of the incident.

The kidnapper was later identified as 28-year-old Sandeep Parab. The motive behind the kidnapping is still not known.

With ANI inputsSHILLONG: Meghalaya's most-wanted terrorist was on Saturday shot dead by security forces in an encounter in East Garo Hills district. The self-styled chief of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) Sohan D Shira carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

The encounter took place after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED attack on February 18. The bomb blast was suspected to have been done at the behest of the GNLA in the same district.

The encounter took place around 11 am in Achakpek village near Dobu.

After Sangma's death, the security forces had launched counter-insurgency operations in the poll-bound South and East Garo Hills districts. It was on receving inputs regarding probable movement of some armed GNLA cadre in Dobu area that counter-insurgency forces were pressed into service, a senior police officer involved in the operations told news agency press trust of India.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar said inquest on the body of the slain terrorist was underway and necessary formalities will follow.

Meghalaya Police had earlier in the week said that a probe was underway to nab those accuse of the death of Sangma. "There are credible leads that are being obtained about the involvement of the group (GNLA) in Sunday night's carnage (Sangma's killing)," Meghalaya Director General of Police S B Singh had said.

NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma and three others were killed in a bomb blast triggered by terrorists in the Samanda area of East Garo Hills district around 8 pm on February 18.

(With PTI inputs)There are 53 MLAs who contested in 2013 and are trying their luck again in Nagaland assembly polls in 2018. While in 2013, the average assets of those who recontested were Rs 3.06 crores, in 2018, the average assets of MLAs who are recontesting is Rs 4.31 crores.

There has been a growth in the average assets of re-contesting MLAs by 41 per cent or Rs 1.24 crore, as per the affidavits analysed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Of the 41 leaders who are recontesting in 2018, Naga People's Front (NPF) has the biggest share with 28 MLAs. It is followed by Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) with 12 recontesting MLAs, nine are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), three from National Peoples Party (NPP) and one from the Janata Dal United (JDU).

Yitachu from NPF held assets worth 6 crore in 2013 but in 2018, he had had a 161 per cent jump and now holds assets worth over Rs 17 crore. G Kaito Aye, who fought in 2013 on an NPF ticket, is now with the JDU and hold assets worth over Rs 14 crore, a whopping 305 per cent increase as compared to the last elections when he had assets worth Rs 3 crore.

The Polling on all 60 seats in Nagaland will be held on February 27 while the counting of votes will be done on March 3.

On January 18, the Election Commission of India had announced the polling dates for Assembly elections 2018 in the northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

As for the Nagaland state assembly, the Naga People's Front is currently dominating the House.

Various Naga groups had called for deferring the upcoming assembly elections in order to facilitate a solution to the seven-decade-old Naga insurgency.

Nagaland-based civil society groups have demanded the signing of a final peace accord with the insurgent group NSCN-IM before the assembly elections in the state.NEW DELHI: A woman, who has accused Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu of raping her in 2008, on Saturday said she will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind to seek justice.

The Arunachal Pradesh woman has taken the decision to write to Modi and Kovind after her appeal to the National Commission of Women (NCW) for its intervention in the case was dismissed by it on February 20, she told reporters here.

She also rejected the charge made by Khandu earlier this week that her accusation is "politically motivated" and "false" saying her fight is not against any political party but a person.

"I had filed the case against him (Khandu) in 2015 when he was in Congress party... I am not fighting against any political party but against a man," she said.

Khandu, who is in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2016, was earlier in Congress.

She said she fears for her and her husband`s safety back home and will stay in Delhi for some time.

Dismayed by the rejection of her plea by the NCW, the woman accused the organisation of "working on behalf of Khandu" and contended that a copy conveying the rejection of the plea to her was also sent to the Chief Minister, which was put on Facebook by a party worker.

"NCW gave us hope... (NCW Chairperson) Rekha Sharma spoke to us very well. But it changed colours during those five days between our filing the plea and the reply made by it," she said.

The victim had filed the plea with the Commission on February 15. Earlier her case was rejected by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in 2016 in Yupia, which dismissed the case as "devoid of any merit". But the victim has claimed that the case was dismissed without hearing her deposition and without any inquiry.

The Arunachal Civil Society-- an NGO which is helping her in her fight -- has decided to approach a superior court as the matter was dismissed by the Yupia court stating that it was not under its jurisdiction.

"In Tawang, the case is not being pursued by police or judiciary due to the influence of Khandu. So we will approach the superior court and urge that the case be heard outside the state," said Arunachal Civil Society Chairman Patey Tayum.Mumbai: Having done serious roles during his theatre days, Varun Sharma found his calling with comedy in Bollywood films and the actor says he will never turn his back to the genre which has given him fame.

Varun made his debut with 'Fukrey' and has since starred in films such as 'Dilwale', 'Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon', 'Dolly Ki Doli' and the latest, 'Fukrey Returns.'

"I don't think I'll ever get bored of comedy. I love the genre. In fact, it is one genre I never explored during the course of my theatre or audition days. I used to do only serious stuff. Only after 'Fukrey' I found an acceptance in the genre," Varun told PTI.

"I do want to explore myself as an actor and try different stuff but I won't leave comedy. It's one genre which has given me acceptance, love and the name I've today. Of course,

I've to come up with new style of comedy, but it'll be wrong to neglect the genre altogether," he added.

The actor is currently shooting for 'Arjun Patiala' which stars Diljit Dosanjh and Kriti Sanon.

Varun, 28, described the film as an 'interesting buddy-cop drama' and was all praise for Diljit, with whom he sharing the screen space for the first time.

"With Diljit, it'll be a maddening ride. We both are (from) Punjab so we have a 'north' connection. He is really an amazing actor. The kind of performances he has given, whether in 'Udta Punjab' or 'Jatt & Juliet', he is a versatile actor. He has a great comic timing and excels in the genre," he said.

'Arjun Patiala' comes after the massive success of his last, 'Fukrey Returns'.

While Varun says nothing individually has changed in him post the success but more interesting projects are coming his way.

"The flow of offers has also increased but it then gets tougher which one to choose, though I am not complaining. I think I'm blessed that I've made a lot of relationships in the industry in the past few years," he said.

Apart from 'Arjun Patiala', he will also be seen in 'FryDay', starring Govinda.

"Govinda is a legend. We all grew up watching his films and dancing to his songs. He can express so many different emotions in just one scene and that was such a learning experience. What was more amazing was to dance with him!?

"That's every kid's dream. It was so amazing and beautiful. To be dancing with him on the same tune and in the frame, I was in awe of him. You've to see him in the film. He's really funny," Varun said.Los Angeles: Actor Jennifer Lawrence has said that she had dropped out of school when she was 14 to pursue acting.

In an interview with to Bill Whitaker, a sneak peak of which was released recently, the 'Hunger Games' actor said she was not a "very smart" student during her school days and never fit in back home in Louisville, Kentucky.

"I struggled through school. I never felt very smart. And when I'm reading this script, and I feel like I know exactly what it would look like if somebody felt that way. That was a whole part of my brain that I didn't even know existed - something that I could be confident in, and I didn't want to let it go," Lawrence said.

"I dropped out of middle school. I don't technically have a GED or a diploma. I am self-educated," Lawrence said.

The 27-year-old actor next plays a Russian intelligence officer who makes heartbreaking sacrifices at a young age in the new spy thriller Red Sparrow.

Asked whether she regrets her decision, Lawrence said, "No. I really don't. I wanted to forge my own path. I found what I wanted to do and I didn't want anything getting in the way of it. Even friends, for many years, were not as important to me as my career."New Delhi: If you are sulking on a Saturday, just remember there is Taimur Ali Khan trying hard to get mommy Kareena Kapoor hold him in her arms. Don't believe us? Well, see the recent pictures.

Here are the pictures shared by a fan:

A post shared by Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi (@thetaimuralikhan) on Feb 24, 2018 at 3:32am PST

A post shared by Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi (@thetaimuralikhan) on Feb 24, 2018 at 3:32am PST

Just yesterday, the netizens were going gaga over Soha Ali Khan's Instagram update. She happens to silence the desire of the fans who have been wanting to see Inaya Khemu and Taimur Ali Khan together. In the picture shared by Soha, both Taimur and Inaya are seen sitting in a toy car or "carpooling" as Soha titles it.

A post shared by Soha (@sakpataudi) on Feb 23, 2018 at 7:04am PST

And today again, the little munchkin was spotted at the airport with his mommy Kareena. Taimur, who is otherwise paparazzi's favourite didn't seem too pleased today, as he wanted mommy Kareena, who was busing posing for the shutterbugs, to hold him in her arms. Taimur was donning a kurta pyjama just like his daddy Saif Ali Khan while Kareena was seen in a white camisole with denim flared pants and black jacket. Both the mother and son nailed the airport look completely.

Earlier, Kareena Kapoor's father and veteran actor Randhir Kapoor was heard complaining about the media frenzy around his grandson, Taimur Ali Khan. On being asked if too much media attention hampers the childhood of star kids, Randhir was quoted as saying, "Certainly, it has been robbed. Every day, I get up in the morning and I see a picture of my grandson in newspapers. Now everyone recognises his maid also! That's because of the paparazzi."Ludhiana: Voting for Ludhiana Municipal Corporation is currently underway at 95 wards. Nearly 10.50 lakh voters will decide the fate of 494 contesting candidates. The chief contest is between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party-Lok Insaf Party (AAP-LIP) alliance.

#Punjab: Voting underway for Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections in 95 wards. pic.twitter.com/qm676uvPi1  ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

Over 4,500 cops of civil administration have been deployed for the civic polls. About 5,400 employees of civil administration will be on duty during the polls.

By-polls of two wards in Payal and Jagraon Municipal Councils will be held on Sunday.

The counting of votes for Ludhiana, Payal and Jagraon Municipal Councils will be held on Tuesday, February 27.

Meanwhile, dry days will be observed in the Ludhiana, Jagraon, and Payal on the polling day (Saturday) and the counting day (Tuesday).

A total of 284 polling stations out of a total of 1,153 stations have been identified as sensitive where videography would be done.

The 10.50 lakh voters included 5.67 lakh males, 4.82 lakh females, and 23 transgenders.

District Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal informed that nine strong rooms would be set up at as many places where the electronic voting machine would be kept until the counting day.

CCTV cameras would be installed for the round-the-clock supervision of the strong rooms. These cameras would be Wi-Fi enabled and any candidate can oversee the strong room by just entering a password which would be issued by the returning officer.

The Punjab Government has declared a holiday on Saturday in all government offices, corporations, boards, and educational institutions in all concerned election areas here.

With agency inputsNew Delhi: UFO and alien-related findings are a hot topic among people across the world and the latest ones to do the rounds come from the highest peak in the world  Mount Everest  and Norway.

According to the Mirror, the Mount Everest spotting is an image  one of 477  put together by mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears as a part of an amazing two-billion-pixel photograph.

While the mosaic image was created in 2012 with the intention to show the peak in all its glory, the identity of the object still remains a mystery.

(Image courtesy: Youtube)

As per UFO hunters, the spooky object seen in the image causes a silhouette and its height means it can't be a drone or helicopter.

UFO Today, in its coverage, said that there have long since been speculations of secret underground bases similar to 'Area 51' in the area, especially in the virtually inaccessible Ladakh border area between India and China.

In 2017, seven UFO sightings were revealed by declassified CIA files spotted in the skies above Nepal and neighboring India and Bhutan in 1968.

Meanwhile, in a remote part of northern Norway, a bright, white UFO was spotted in the skies by stunned onlookers on Thursday afternoon.

Locals who were actually waiting for the Northern Lights instead got to witness the unusual sighting.

(Image courtesy: Daily Mail)

The object was spotted in Bardufoss and later seen again 80 miles away in Troms.

Eye-witnesses recall seeing the object till after sunset before it exploded neatly into two parts and disappeared.

Photographs and videos of the structure were shared by the baffled onlookers. One of them told the Daily Mail that the explosion was very uniform and symmetrical like two butterfly explosions either side of the light.

According to the Daily Mail, so far the only explanation for the sighting is that it could have been Paz, a radar imaging satellite which was launched on Thursday from Elon Musk's Falcon 9.

The satellite was launched in California on Thursday along with two Musk's StarLink, two prototype satellites whose later versions will beam broadband internet anywhere in the world.

While there have been many UFO sightings in the recent past, there has been little or no explanation justifying their presence or identity.CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Chennai on Saturday to launch the state government's scheme for a Rs 25,000 subsidy for women to buy two wheelers.

The launch of the scheme - Amma Two-wheeler Scheme - has been timed to coincide with the birth anniversary of AIADMK matriarch J Jayalalithaa who had first promised the 50 percent subsidy scheme in the run-up to the 2016 assembly elections.

PM Modi's Chennai visit comes days after Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam triggered speculation by saying that the BJP's top leadership, particularly the PM, had a role to play in the merger of the AIADMK's two factions; one led by him and another by Chief Minister E Palaniswami.

Panneerselvam, who is also popularly known as OPS, had said last week it was the nudge from PM Modi that led him to agree to the merger of the two factions created after J Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016.

"He (PM Modi) said that you (Panneerselvam) could join (merge the faction) to save the party and under the present circumstances, the two [factions] should merge to save the party," Panneerselvam had said.

The PM had met with the leaders of both factions ahead of the merger, telegraphing the BJP's desire to end divisions within the regional party it believes can help it gain some ground in Tamil Nadu and also in the Rajya Sabha, where it is in a minority.New Delhi: Bigg Boss season 11 was one of the most controversial seasons yet the most entertaining one. 'Bhabhi Ji Ghar Pe Hai' actress Shilpa Shinde walked away with the trophy while another TV actress Hina Khan came second and producer Vikas Gupta grabbed the third spot.

While all the contestants got busy with something or the other, winner Shilpa Shinde is treating her fans with a new picture every day and needless to say, the pictures are nothing we have seen before.

In a recent picture shared by a celebrity photographer, Shilpa is seen wearing a black dress and the red lipstick just adds more glamour to her bold and beautiful avatar.

Here is the picture:

Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.beautiful @ShindeShilpaS pic.twitter.com/5x0FOXkjDg  Maya singh (@MayaFashionPho1) February 23, 2018

Shilpa Shinde who has been in the industry for over 15 years, was hugely praised for her role as Angoori Bhabhi in 'Bhabiji Ghar Par Hai' but it was her ouster from the show that gave her one of the reasons to be a part of Bigg Boss and prove her haters wrong.

Shilpa's love-hate relationship with fellow contestant Vikas Gupta was one of the high points of the Bigg Boss season 11. She even promised about working with Vikas again and since then the fans are desperately waiting to see them collaborate on a project again.Muzaffarnagar: While the country's burgeoning population remains a major concern for the policymakers, a BJP lawmaker wants people to have more children.

Vikram Saini, a BJP legislator from Muzaffarnagar, has urged Hindus to produce more children until a law for population control comes into existence.

Saini, who represents Khatauli constituency in Muzaffarnagar district, made these remarks while addressing a population control campaign program.

"Until a law on population control comes into existence, I have told my wife to keep producing children, even though she told me that two were enough," Saini said.

A video of the BJP MLA urging his Hindu supporter to have more children also surfaced on the social media.

#WATCH Muzaffarnagar: BJP MLA Vikram Saini says, 'jab tak kaanoon nahi banta (on population control) Hindu bhaiyon apko chhoot hai rukna mat.' (23.02.2018) pic.twitter.com/b3TqjNHh3M  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 24, 2018

On the need to adopt a two-child policy, the BJP leader said that only Hindus have accepted the policy, while others have not.

"The law should be equal for everyone. When we had two children, my wife said we did not need a third one, but I said we should have four to five," he added.

Saini is known for making controversial statements.

Earlier in January, he had said that "Hindustan is for Hindus" while asking Muslims to go to Pakistan.

Saini's controversial remarks have come at a time when a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Union government to adopt 'two-child policy' across the country.

The PIL also urged the top court to implement the two-child policy norms throughout the country.

The petition also urged the government to promote family planning and motivate the countrymen to follow the two-child policy.

The petitioner claimed that the current state of increase in population is putting natural resources under immense pressure and is also leading to environmental pollution.

In order to contain its burgeoning population, China had introduced the 'one-child policy' as a part of its family planning policy in the year 1979.

According to reports, the number of births in China fell by 630,000 in 2017, a year after the government repealed its one-child policy.

In India, apart from national level promoting of family planning, the two child norm is effective in certain states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.

What is the two-child policy

The two-child norm is one of India's target-oriented, family-size control policies, which encourages parents to limit their families to two children and creates disadvantages for couples with more than two children.

Disadvantages include disqualification from panchayat council positions; denial of certain public services and government welfare programs, including maternal and child health programs.

(With ANI inputs)Lucknow: President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to attend Aligarh Muslim University's (AMU) convocation ceremony on March 7 but a controversy has now erupted over the same.

According to ANI, the student union of the prestigious university has said that President is most welcome to the even, but no person with Sanghi mindset will be allowed to enter.

''We are not opposing the President, but we oppose the 'Sanghi' mindset. In 2010, the President had said Muslims and Christians are alien to country that bothers us till date but we welcome him,'' the AMU Student Union Secretary was quoted as saying by ANI.

Not opposing Pres, we oppose 'sanghi' mindset. In 2010 Pres said Muslims & Christians are alien to country, that bothers us till date but we welcome Pres. No other person with 'sanghi' mindset will be allowed to enter, those coming as per protocol can come: AMU Student Union Secy pic.twitter.com/8nCs3INxIs  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 24, 2018

''No other person with 'Sanghi' mindset will be allowed to enter, those coming as per protocol can come,'' the AMU student union leader warned.

President Ram Nath Kovind will be the chief-guest of Aligarh Muslim Universitys (AMU) 65th annual convocation scheduled to held on March 7.

President Kovind has accepted the invitation extended to him by AMU Vice Chancellor, Professor Tariq Mansoor.

No Indian President has attended the AMU convocation ceremony in the past 32 years.

Former President Giani Zail Singh had attended the 1986 AMU convocation.

Prior to him, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad had attended the event in 1976. Dr S Radha Krishnan was the chief-guest in 1966 and Dr Rajendra Prasad attended the 1951 convocation of AMU, according to media reports.

Fresh controversy comes several weeks after the CBI booked former Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University Naseem Ahmad for alleged irregularities and cheating in the appointment of a university official in 2005.

Ahmad joined the university as V-C in 2002 and resigned in 2007.

The case relates to the appointment of Shakaib Arsalan as Assistant Finance Officer (AFO) in 2005 in alleged violation of the AMU Act and rules, CBI sources said.

The CBI has registered a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act against Arsalan (now Joint Finance Officer), Yasmin Jalal Beg (now Finance Officer) and Ahmad, they said.

(With Agency inputs)Washington: US President Donald Trump has once again named India and China to defend his policy on climate change and reiterated that these countries and some others benefited the most from the Paris agreement while America didn't get any advantage.

"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," Trump said in his address today to the Conservative Political Action Committee.

He was referring to his decision last year to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

On June last year, Trump had announced to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.

Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris Agreement, Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision Trump said, "You know, basically, it said, "You have a lot of oil and gas that we found" -- you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world -- we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much".

"And basically, they were saying, "Don't use it. You can't use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. It's not going to happen, I told them. It's not going to happen," he added.

"And China -- their agreement didn't kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia -- they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," Trump said.

Commenting on India and other countries, he said, "Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country.

"They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?," he said.

"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? We're developed. We can pay," Trump said.

The President asked, if people understood about the Paris Accord and said that his country is in favour of his decision.

"Because it sounds so good. It's like some of the environmental regulations that I cut. They have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes, I'd say, "Look, I'm just going to close my eyes and sign this, because you know what? I'm going to get killed on this one. And I get so much thanks. The country knows what I'm doing," he said.

"We couldn't build. We couldn't farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy," Trump said.MARYLAND: US President Donald Trump on Friday recited the lyrics of a song seen as anti-immigration called "The Snake" to drive home his point about restricting immigration -- an inflammatory move that harkened back to his days on the campaign trail.

In a speech to conservatives at a convention outside Washington, he also bashed opposition Democrats for failing to back his proposal for putting 1.8 million so-called "Dreamer" immigrants on a pathway to citizenship in exchange for tightening border security and severely restricting legal immigration.

During his hour-long address, Trump pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read "The Snake," a ballad by Al Wilson about a reptile who repays a "tender woman" that nurses it back to health with a deadly bite.

During his campaign, as well as in a speech early in his presidency, Trump used the song, based on one of Aesop`s fables, as a less-than-subtle allegory about immigrants entering the United States.

On Friday, he made no secret about the comparison he was making.

"Think of it in terms of immigration," he urged attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he launched into the song.

"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in," he said, reading the final line of the song, before returning to his speech.

"And that`s what we`re doing with our country, folks -- were letting people in, and it`s going to be a lot of people. It`s only going to be worse."

Some mainstream Republicans have recoiled at Trump`s continued recitation of the lyrics.

"Trump`s snake story is vicious, disgraceful, utterly racist and profoundly un-American," tweeted Steve Schmidt, a former campaign aide to president George W Bush.In his wide-ranging speech, Trump warned that efforts to reach a deal on the status of undocumented migrants brought to the US illegally as children could fail -- and blamed his opponents.

"The Democrats are being totally unresponsive.

They don`t want to do anything about DACA, I`m telling you," he said, referring to negotiations on Capitol Hill on replacing an expiring program that defers deportation for some undocumented migrants.

"It`s very possible that DACA won`t happen."

Former President Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, whose recipients were given legal permission to work, live and go to school in the United States.

Last September, Trump announced he was rescinding DACA and called on Congress to craft a solution before March 5, setting off months of bipartisan negotiations.

The Senate held votes on several DACA-related bills last week, but none of them advanced.

Many conservatives in Congress including Senator Ted Cruz have been outspoken in their opposition to any legislation that provides "amnesty" to people who are in the United States illegally.A job application document, handwritten by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, full of errors, is likely to fetch $50,000 (35,700) at an auction in March.

The form dates back to 1973, when 18-year-old Jobs who had dropped out of Reeds College, was seeking employment as an "electronics tech or design engineer."

This 'Steve Jobs Signed Job Application' will be put on auction by RR Auction.

This remarkable employment questionnaire reveals Jobs's early aspiration to work in the fledgling tech industry, which he would soon revolutionise forever," the listing on official website reads.

In its description, the auction house writes, Incredible job application questionnaire filled out and signed by Steve Jobs, one page, 8.5 x 11, annotated 1973 in another hand. Jobs fills out the document with his name, 'Steven jobs'; address, 'reed college'; phone, 'none'; and major, 'english lit.' In the middle section, he writes 'yes' in response to 'Driver's License?' and 'possible, but not probable,' in reply to 'Access to transportation?' With regard to his skills, next to 'Computer' and 'Calculator,' he writes, 'yes (design, tech).' At the bottom, he describes his 'Special Abilities' as 'electronics tech or design engineer. digital.from Bay near Hewitt-Packard [sic].' In very good condition, with intersecting folds, overall creasing, light staining, and some old clear tape to the top edge. Accompanied by full letters of authenticity from PSA/DNA and Beckett Authentication Services.

The auction house further adds that the American entrepreneur had enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon for the fall semester in 1972, but dropped out after just six months to preserve his parents meager funds.

However, he hung around campus for a year and a half to audit creative courses, including classes on Shakespeare, dance, and calligraphythese would help to shape his artistic worldview that influenced the innovation of the Macintosh computer, the note states.

On auction, is also a newspaper excerpt signed by Jobs covering the announcement of the first iPhone redesign - the iPhone 3G - in 2008, which is estimated at more than $15,000 (10,700).

In April 1976, Apple Computer, Inc. was co-founded by Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.Open source

Since the beginning of the day on February 23 in the area of antiterrorist operation in Donbas, 3 shelling by militants has been reported. This was stated by the press center of Donbas conflict in Facebook.



"Since the beginning of the day, there have been 3 shootings of positions of Ukrainian defenders from the side of Russian-occupation troops, as a result of which no Ukrainian soldier were injured," reads the message.



According to HQ, in the Luhansk direction the enemy from 82-mm mortars and grenade launchers fired Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk region. From the weapons of the IFV the militants shelled defenders of Troitske, and from grenade launchers and large-caliber machine guns fired on the defenders of Novoaleksandrivka.



In other sectors of the front, violations of the cease-fire regime have not been reported.

Related: Ukrainian Railways, General Electric sign $1 billion contract on procuring locomotivesOpen source

American ex-diplomats warn that peacekeeping missions never solved conflicts, but only frozen them. The Wall Street Journal writes about this.

The newspaper recalls that last week at the Munich security conference, US and NATO officials discussed the issue of placing a peacekeeping mission with Ukrainian and Russian diplomats.



Some US officials in private conversations have voiced a warning that Washington can be trapped by Putin.



"Russia is not interested in the calm situation in Ukraine, the peacekeeping forces may inadvertently consolidate Russian control over the territories in Donbas, and not resolve the conflict," the current and former US officials believe.



At the same time, both supporters and skeptics believe that the US should be cautious in discussing such a scenario.



"The Russian Federation can try to delay or frustrate the process of transferring control over part of the Russian-Ukrainian border to the peacekeeping forces, and the risks can be mitigated if the proposal includes a certain easing of sanctions until the peace is fully restored in Ukraine," allow former US officials.



At the Munich conference, former American diplomats from democratic and republican administrations questioned the current discussions on this issue.

Related: Ukrainian hacker sought by FBI detained in Poland



Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul recalled the example of Cyprus, where peacekeepers were deployed in 1864.



"These forces are still there, and the conclusion of a peace agreement that would unite the northern part of the island occupied by Turkey with the rest of the country remains vague. Explain what the factors differ in this particular case, so that this does not lead to a scenario like a permanent separation, like in Cyprus ? "said McFaul to Volker, who was present in Munich.



The US ambassador to the United Nations during the time of the George W. Bush administration, John Bolton, said that the peacekeeping missions of an international organization usually freeze the division rather than solve it.



"Very rarely, the deployment of peacekeepers does something different, except to fix the presence of these forces forever," he stressed.



Volker, who talks with Moscow about sending the mission, explained that such a plan will work only if Russians and Ukrainians want peace.



In addition, this, in his opinion, is the best chance to implement the Minsk agreements.



"The best thing we can do to protect people and create peace is to get the UN mandate for peacekeeping forces that will effectively stop the conflict," Volker said.



Ukrainian officials in Munich told to the newspaper that they do not doubt the American plan, but do not believe that Russia will agree with it.During the attack, a few shells exploded in the close vicinity of Luhanske

Open source

On Friday night, the militants used heavy artillery (122, 152-mm) to attack the Ukrainian Army in Donbas, according to the Ukrainian Army HQ.

In Luhansk sector, at around 21:00, the enemy shelled the strongholds of Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas with Minsk-banned weapons - artillery of 122-mm calibre, the report says.

According to the preliminary information of the HQ, a few of the shells exploded in the close vicinity of Luhanske, having damaged the property of civilians.

Near Pidlisne, the militants used 152-mm artillery against the Ukrainian soldiers. The information about the consequences of the attacks is being specified.

According to the Minsk agreements, all heavy weaponry must be withdrawn 15 kilometres from the line of contact by both sides, The Russian mercenaries failed to do so for the past three years.The observers noted that mobile network operator Vodafone stopped working in non-government-controlled parts of Luhansk region

The OSCE observers reported hearing 465 explosions from 19:30 on Feb. 21 to 19:30 on Feb. 22, according to their report from Feb. 23.

In Donetsk region, the SMM recorded more ceasefire violations, including 375 explosions, compared with the previous reporting period (134 explosions), while in Luhansk region, the SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations (about 90 explosions), compared with the previous reporting period (150 explosions).

On 22 February, the SMM observed that Vodafone mobile telecommunications services in non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk region were disrupted from around 10:25 onwards, the mission noted.

Upon SMMs inquiry, Vodafone said that the disruption was owed to damage in the area of Vesela Hora, which is controlled by the militants.Open source

Observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission documented the presence of heavy military equipment and armament of illegal armed formations outside the withdrawal territory, which violates the Minsk agreements. This is reported by the Joint Center for Control and Coordination, informs the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.



"In particular, on February 22, 36 tanks (T-64) were found by observers of the SMM OSCE, located in the vicinity of the village of Kruglyk, and 5 units of towed howitzers (D-30) near the settlement of Yasne. 10 units of tanks were found on the territory of the secondary school along B. Khmelnitsky Street in Donetsk, and artillery systems and mortars of different caliber on the north-eastern outskirts of the settlement of Kalynivka, "the report said.



It is underlined that this fact testifies to the neglect of the requirements of international law prohibiting the placement of heavy weapons and equipment in populated areas, as well as the systematic violation of the reached agreements on the removal of fire destruction weapons from the contact line of the parties in accordance.



Earlier, the deputy head of the OSCE SMM, Alexander Hug, stated that servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and representatives of illegal armed groups continue to move towards each other. He also pointed out the fact that both sides have long been keeping weapons in prohibited places.

Related: Deployment of UN mission in Donbas will only freeze conflict, - mediaReuters

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a note of protest to the Russian Federation in connection with the decision to conduct presidential elections on the territory of the annexed Crimea. This was announced by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin in his Twitter.



"We sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation: 1. Expressing a strong protest against the presidential elections in the occupied Crimea, 2. Warned them against attempts to organize elections in the occupied Donbas 3. Noted that there can not be any election in the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine without full execution of first 2 conditions, "he wrote.



The minister added that everyone who will be involved in the elections will be subject to sanctions.



"We will work to ensure that all involved in the election of the Russian president in the occupied Crimea fell under the appropriate sanctions," said Klimkin.



The presidential elections in Russia will be held on March 18, 2018. According to Russian laws, presidential elections should be held on the second Sunday in March. In 2018, according to these rules, the event will take place on March 11, but was postponed for a week, so that the voting day coincides with the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. Such a move, according to the plan of the presidential administration, should help to increase the turnout at the elections.



Related: Ukrainian National Guardsmen hold march with Soviet marks, investigation began, - Interior MinistryIt was noted that the law hadnt been adopted for a year due to the delicacy of Ukrainian issue, not Israeli

Deputy Marshal of the Polish Sejm Ryszard Terlecki says that amendments could be made to the controversial law on the Institute of National Remembrance and notes that with the Ukrainian issue, certain moderation is needed, according to Polish radio.

It seems that the amendments to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance were right since the Polish state hadnt had the instruments to prosecute such crimes and with this, it obtained such an instrument, a theoretical opportunity to prosecute individuals who lie about Polish history, Terlecki told TVP Info on Thursday.

At the same time, he says, the Ukrainian part of the law may be amended. Thus Ukrainian part, truth be told, most of all needs certain moderation. The law was dragging along for a year because of expenditure of categories, adding words, increasing the legal confusion. It seemed that at the end of this process, the document will be very sensitive, but thus Ukrainian part is hard for Ukrainians. But Ukraine adopted a similar law, although it doesnt specify the measure of punishment, it is about crimes when someone doubts the accomplishments of those who fought with communists, despite the fact that they also committed crimes against Poles, Ryszard Terlecki noted.

As we reported earlier, On Friday, Jan. 26, the Sejm of Poland has adopted the amendment to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance, which criminalizes the denial of the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the Poles.

The amendments to the bill also provide criminal liability or fines for denying the Volyn tragedy and spreading propaganda of "Bandera ideology". The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the adoption of this document. The international community criticized it as "denying the Holocaust and depicting Ukrainians in an unattractive light." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was categorically against the adoption of this law.112 Agency

Occupation "prosecutor's office" of Crimea began to check the members of the Ukrainian Cultural Center, as well as the library of Simferopol, where the activists of the center hold events. This is reported by "Crimea. Realiy."



As the newspaper informs, the participant of the center Olga Pavlenko told about the checks at the meeting of the "Crimean solidarity".



"The prosecutors inspect the library where we were engaged in embroidering. Imagine, only in embroidering!" said Pavlenko.



Also, activists said that because of the pressure of Russian law enforcement agencies, the printing firms of the annexed peninsula refused to print the newspaper "Crimean Teren", which is published by the Ukrainian Cultural Center.



It is reported that Russian law enforcers distributed letters to print offices, in which the newspaper was listed as extremist materials.



The activists note that the first experimental issue of the newspaper was published on August 26 in two languages, Ukrainian and Russian, and contained materials on entering Ukrainian mainland universities, on blocking Internet resources in Crimea, as well as studies by historian Leonid Kuzmin on Ukrainian lands and fragments of speech of Crimean political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh.

Related: Tennis: Elina Svitolina won WTA tournament in DubaiOpen source

Supporters of the ex-president of Georgia and the former governor of the Odesa region came to the house of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko and announced an indefinite picket.



This time, the reason for the protest was not the events around their leader. People demanded the release of Saakashvili's associate Severion Dangadze.



At the end of the rally near the house of Lutsenko, they installed a tent and an indefinite protest was declared.





We recall, the head of the Kyiv regional branch of the Saakashvili's political party Severion Dangadze was arrested last December on suspicion of high treason and cooperation with an organized criminal group.



In particular, the prosecutor's office believes that the protests organized by Saakashvili under the building of the Verkhovna Rada were financed by the comrades-in-arms of former president Viktor Yanukovych. These conclusions were made on the basis of the audio recordings of Dangadze's talks with Kurchenko's confidant.

Related: Biathlonists from USA, Canada and Czech Republic boycott World Cup stage in RussiaOpen source

US President Donald Trump said that Russia, along with Iran and the Syrian authorities, is responsible for "humanitarian disgrace" in Syria. He said this at a press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, CNN reported.



"What Russia and what Iran and what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace," Trump said.



According to him, the US military are now in Syria with the sole purpose of getting rid of the "Islamic state".



"We have no other reasons, and we have largely achieved our goal, but what those three countries have done to those people over the last short period of time is a disgrace," concluded Trump.

Related: Deployment of UN mission in Donbas will only freeze conflict, - mediaThe President of the Baltic-Black Sea Forum claimed that Vladimir Putin has no future as the president of Russia as well as the Kremlin regime. Gennady Burbulis claimed this at the IV Baltic-Black Sea Forum that takes place in Kyiv on February 23 as 112.ua reported.

He also noted that Russia experiences some ideological, moral and mental secession.

'It is a post-imperial syndrome; it is a mental disease, including the centenary social and cultural codes. It does not last forever, this disease passes but it is necessary to learn to objectively make a diagnosis. And my answer is that it is necessary to help Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock. Because every day it is clearer that there is no future for the Kremlin regime and the future president on the confrontation and military opposition', he noted.

Burbulis noted that the issue of such help is one of the super-tasks of the forum.

'I am sure that we will see the public tendency for the search of this recovery so necessary and important today for Russia and all of us since March or April 19 after the inauguration'.

Today IV Baltic-Black Sea Forum 'Solidarity security of countries of the Baltic-Black Sea region as the consensus strategy for Big Europe' takes place in Kyiv. It is organized by the National Institute of Strategic Researches and International Center of Baltic-Black Sea Research and Consensus Practice.Russias MFA says the document creates conditions for forceful seizure of Kyiv-uncontrolled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions

Open source

Russia has reacted to the Donbas reintegration law coming into force in Ukraine today. They called it a sentence to the Minsk process, according to the statement of Russias MFA.

On Feb. 24, 2018, a scandalous law of the so-called reintegration of Donbas has cone into force. In this way, Kyiv has ultimately confirmed its aim at a military solution of the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine. Having signed this law, Petro Poroshenko has de-facto crossed out the Minsk agreements, untying the hands of the party of the war, the statement says.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Ministry added that up until this day, there had been hope of a peaceful resolution of the conflict. However, a miracle didnt happen. By the signature of a pen, the President of Ukraine basically signed the sentence to the Minsk complex of measures, the Russian MFA said.

The practical application of this law, according to Russia, threatens to result in a serious escalation of the developments in the South-East of Ukraine. The document creates the conditions for a forceful seizure of the uncontrolled by Kyiv territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, legalizes deploying of the Ukrainian Army against peaceful civilians, Russia claimed.

The Donbas reintegration law defines Donetsk and Luhansk regions temporarily occupied territories as the territories over which Russias armed groups and Russian occupation administration have established control (including land, water, subsoil and air). According to President Poroshenko, this law does not violate any of Ukraine's international commitments, including Minsk agreements - 'despite Russia's intentions to put it this way.

The law also declares the political and diplomatic ways as the main ways of resolving the conflict and restoring the sovereignty of Ukraine.Open source

Today the law On the specifics of the state policy on ensuring state sovereignty of Ukraine on the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, known as Donbas reintegration law, is coming into force.

The law defines Donetsk and Luhansk regions temporarily occupied territories as the territories over which Russias armed groups and Russian occupation administration have established control (including land, water, subsoil and air). The boundaries of such territories should be determined by the president on the proposal of the Defense Ministry based on the recommendations of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. The total absence of Russian servicemen in the occupied territories should be confirmed by the Defense and Internal Ministry - they must together submit a communication to Ukraines president, who shall take the decision. The president will decide on the beginning and completion of measures to ensure national security and counteract Russian aggression. Also, the Russian Federation is officially recognized as an aggressor country.

'I think it will be symbolic that today, exactly four years after the Russian aggression began, we discussed and I signed this extremely important law. It enhances the legal framework of the use of the Armed Forces and other law enforcement agencies to protect our state. This law reflects my strategy of returning the occupied areas under the rule of Ukraine. In this law, we define Russia as the aggressor country. It is crucial that the law settles legal mechanisms of returning these territories by means of politics and diplomacy,' President Poroshenko said.

According to the President, this law does not violate any of Ukraine's international commitments, including Minsk agreements - 'despite Russia's intentions to put it this way.

Ukraines Armed Forces joint operation headquarters is going to replace the Anti-Terrorist Operation (which is the official name of the operation in the conflict zone now) and be the main body in the conflict area. It is going to command the military assets of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other military groups, the Interior Ministry, the National police dedicated to combating the Russian aggression in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Law enforcement officers, servicemen and everybody else involved in fighting the aggressor, are going to be subordinate to the Joint Force Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the law, the headquarters will plan, organize and control the execution of tasks on national security and protection and defense, curbing and coercion of the Russian military aggression in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, direction, coordination and control of civil-military or military administrations (if such are formed) in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the areas of national security and defense.

Last month, the Ukrainian parliament passed the law about the reintegration of Donbas, defining the legal status of certain areas of Donbas and Luhansk regions as 'the occupied territories'. The official date of the beginning of the occupation is February 20, 2014. Russia is considered responsible for numerous human rights violations in the occupied territories.Now the man is awaiting extradition to the USA

A citizen of Ukraine wanted by the FBI was detained in Poland, as RMF24 reports.

According to their information, the 44-year-old Ukrainian is suspected of participating in an organized criminal group that was spreading malware and organized hacker attacks.

Covert software was gathering and transferring to the perpetrators the data of credit cards, The damages caused by the criminals is estimated at a few hundred dollars, the Central Investigation Bureau of Poland informed.

The man was sought in the USA and was in the Interpols database and on the international wanted list. The investigators managed to establish that the perpetrator was in the South of Poland. As a result of the operation by the Central Investigation Bureau of Poland, he was detained in Bielsko-Biaa.

Now he is awaiting extradition to the USA. He faces up to 30 years of imprisonment.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!)Authors Brenda Drake, Jane Lindskold and Gabi Stevens celebrate the release of their new fantasy books.

THREE NM AUTHORS CELEBRATE "FANTASY FICTION SPECTACULAR" 4:00 PM SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 AT PAGE ONE

New Mexico authors Brenda Drake, Jane Lindskold, and Gabi Stevens are celebrating the release of their new fantasy books 4:00 pm Saturday, February 24, in a "Fantasy Fiction Spectacular" at Page One Books. Drake's latest is "Assassin of Truths: Library Jumpers Book 3," Lindskold has "Asphodel," and Stevens' effort is "Mystic."

Drake's "Assassin of Truths" is described as such: "The gateways linking the great libraries of the world dont require a library card, but they do harbor incredible dangers. And its not your normal bump-in-the- night kind. The threats Gia Kearns faces are the kind with sharp teeth and knifelike claws. The kind that include an evil wizard hell-bent on taking her down. Gia can end his devious plan, but only if she recovers seven keys hidden throughout the worlds most beautiful libraries. And then figures out exactly what to do with them. The last thing she needs is a distraction in the form of falling in love. But when an impossible evil is unleashed, love might be the only thing left to help Gia save the world."

Lindskold's "Asphodel" is teased as such: "Prison or Refuge? Nameless in a doorless tower graced with seven windows, she is imprisoned. Who is her jailer? What is her crime? After she discovers the secret of the seven windows, the nameless one, accompanied by two impossible companions, sets forth on fantastical journeys of exploration. But, for the nameless one, learning her name may not be a welcome revelation, and the identity of her jailer will rock the foundations of a tower that has come to be as much refuge as prison."

And Stevens' "Mystic" book is thus described: "On the run, and hes still trying to figure out how that happened, Trask Sinclair must keep psychic Allys Joel from getting captured, or killed, before they get to the safe haven promised in Mystic, Wyoming. How can a good deed go so wrong? Trask Sinclar is a reasonable man. Skeptical, sure, a little removed, but he's a writer, and he enjoys being a popular novelist and living comfortably. When he saves Allys Joel from a bully in a hotel lobby, Trask doesn't expect to lose control of his life to a reluctant and beautiful psychic, a mind-controlling bad-guy, a cross-country chase and a talking cat. Truth is stranger than fiction. Allys Joel sees the future when she touches someone. That's why a Wall Street firm held her prisoner for sixteen months. Her escape embroils the sexy, somewhat aloof, Trask Sinclair in her world of people with powers. And her search to discover the secrets that can save or destroy them leads to Mystic, WY, where they just might find their forever - together."

Drake grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. Her fondest memories growing up is of her eccentric, Irish grandmother's animated tales, which gave her a strong love for storytelling. So it was only fitting that she would choose to write stories with a bend toward the fantastical. When she's not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment). She lives in Albuquerque.

Lindskold is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than 20 novels, including the incredibly popular Firekeeper series ("Through Wolfs Eyes" to "Wolfs Blood") and the New Mexico-based "Child of a Rainless Year," as well as more than 60 shorter works. Several of her novels have been chosen by VOYA for their Best SF, Fantasy and Horror list. Lindskold's work has been repeatedly praised for its sensitive depiction of worlds and cultures different from our own  especially those that aren't in the least human. She has been a frequent contributor to Weber's "Honorverse," where her tales of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Michael have a loyal and enthusiastic following. Her most recent books were novels "Artemis Awakening" and "Artemis Invaded," and short-story collection "Curiosities." She lives in Albuquerque with her husband and several furry creatures.

Stevens was born in Southern California to Hungarian parents. After spending time in boarding school, college, and studying abroad, she spent eight years in the classroom trying to teach eighth graders the joys of literature. An award-winning author, Gabi writes in Albuquerque where she lives with her robotics engineer husband, three daughters, and two dogs. She loves to play games (Shes appeared on "Family Feud" and "Jeopardy!"), has a wicked addiction to reading, avoids housework and cooking, and doesnt travel nearly as much as she would like to.

Page One Books is located at 5850 Eubank Blvd NE, Suite B-41, in Albuquerque's Mountain Run Shopping Center (southeast corner of Eubank and Juan Tabo). The "Fantasy Fiction Spectacular" event is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 294-2026 or visit www.page1book.com.

-------------------------

Author Websites:

- Brenda Drake: http://www.brenda-drake.com

- Jane Lindskold: http://janelindskold.com

- Gabi Stevens: http://gabistevens.comInformational meeting for a new Soroptimist club forming in Albuquerque area.

New Soroptimist club forming in Albuquerque area. Join us for a Informational Meeting.

We are launching a new Soroptimist Club in Albuquerque greater area and want you to join us.

Are you ready for some new challenges?

Are you looking for both personal and professional development opportunities?

Are you interested in doing your part to contribute to the greater good?

Would you like to improve the lives of women and girls in your community?

Did you say YES to any of the above?

Sounds like Soroptimist might be the place for you!

Informational Meeting

February 24, 2018

1:00 pm -2:30 pm



Le Peep

4921 Jefferson St Ne

Albuquerque, NM

Free Informational Meeting about new club forming in the greater Albuquerque area. Meeting will be held at Le Peep restaurant, lunch available to purchase.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The delegation of the ministry of internal affairs of Georgia led by deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia arrived in Armenia on an official visit on February 23, the Armenian Police told Armenpress.

The delegation included deputy minister Levan Kakava, director of the Georgian MIA Central Criminal Police Department Tornike Mushukudia and other officials.

Chief of Police of Armenia, Colonel-General Vladimir Gasparyan and high-ranking police officers welcomed the guests at "Zvartnots" airport.

To welcome the Georgian counterparts the Armenian Police held a solemn ceremony during which the honor guard held a demonstration performance.

Thereafter, Police Chief of Armenia Vladimir Gasparyan had a working meeting with the delegation of the Georgian Internal Ministry.

Welcoming the guests, Vladimir Gasparyan highly appreciated the traditional partnership between the police structures of Armenia and Georgia and underlined the tangible results that have already been achieved by the joint efforts of law enforcement officials of the two friendly countries.

Expressing his gratitude for the warm reception, Giorgi Gakharia expressed a conviction that the close cooperation of the police structures in fighting against crime would deepen, being conditioned by the necessity of counteracting the challenges together.

Vladimir Gasparyan reiterated the determination of the leadership of Armenian Police to further strengthen the well-established partnership; the Police Chief highlighted the importance of the direct and daily interaction between the relevant departments of the two law enforcement structures is the best way for that.

During the meeting, the two sides also discussed other questions of mutual interest. Vladimir Gasparyan awarded Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia with a medal "For strengthening cooperation.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The Boko Haram terrorist organization has kidnapped 111 schoolgirls in Yobe state, Nigeria, PM News reported citing local police.

Earlier local media reported that 46 school gilrs are missing, and in addition the police were denying kidnapping reports.

Earlier in 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 school girls. The leader of the terror organization offered to exchange the girls with all arrested Boko Haram militants, but the Nigerian government refused.

In 2016, Boko Haram released a footage allegedly showing the surviving kidnapped girls. Boko Haram claimed that some of the school girls have been killed by airstrikes.

More than 20 kidnapped girls were later released in mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The remaining had fled from captivity.

195 girls were missing. In May of 2017, the Nigerian government said they swapped 82 kidnapped girls with Boko Haram militants.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The death toll in the suicide bombing attack in Kabul, Afghanistan has reached 3, RIA Novosti reported.

Earlier reports said 1 has been killed and 6 others were wounded in the attack.

The suicide bomber attacked the district in the Afghan capital which houses the NATO command center and the US Embassy.

Earlier the UN reported that nearly 3500 civilians have been killed in 2017 in Afghanistan, with over 7000 wounded.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Former minister of culture Hasmik Poghosyan has been appointed as advisor to the President of Armenia.

President Serzh Sargsyan signed the order on appointing the former minister, who was in office from 2006 to 2016, on February 24, the presidents office said.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanSTEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The Azeri military made more than 300 ceasefire violations in one week at the Artsakh line of contact.

The defense ministry of Artsakh released a statement on the situation at the line of contact in the period from February 18 to February 24.

According to the statement, the Azeri military fired more than 3000 rounds at Artsakhi outposts in the past week.

Azerbaijani forces also used 60mm mortar fire (1) to shell Artsakhi positions in the eastern section of the line of contact.

The Defense Army units are in control of the tactical-strategic situation and confidently continue their service, the Artsakh military said in the statement.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian economy had the highest growth among EEU countries in a number of important economy branches, coordinator of the Eurasian Expert Club Mr. Aram Safaryan told a press conference.

The year was generally good for EEU countries, after the difficult 2015 and partly also 2016 Russia has more than 1% economic growth and is on a sustainable development path, which has the most positive impact for small economies of the EEU territory. The economies of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan had the highest development indicators. While Armenias [indicator] is simply the highest, he said.

He mentioned that their earlier forecast on Armenia recording more than 4% GDP growth in 2017, which was contrary to what international structures were predicting, eventually became true.

Armenias economy displayed double digit growth tendencies in several important branches of the economy such as industry, trade, exports and imports, the construction growth indicators have been restored  totaling 3%, Safaryan said.

Commenting on the 7% growth of transfers to Armenia, the expert says transfers from Russia have a big share in this growth.

This is very important to understand because this speaks about Russias appeal for Armenian outgoing workforce. There is 1 billion 200 million dollar in transfers from Russia. 63% of transfers come from Russia, 14% from the USA, while the Ukraine is third with 5,5%, he said.

Speaking on 2018 forecasts, he said they predict that the volume of investments which existed in 2017 with the announced indicator will be maintained in 2018, the year will be good because the growth tendencies can be continuous.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Candidate for president in the upcoming elections of Armenia Armen Sarkissian visited the Mekhitarist Congregation of Vienna on February 21.

Abbots Vahan Hovagimian and Narek Dadurian presented the 400 year old history of the Congregation, the thousands of artifacts kept in the museum and library, ancient books as well as cooperation with the Imperial Palace during the over 200 year old activities of one of Europes oldest printing homes to Mr. Sarkissian.

H.E. Armen Sarkissian signed the guest book after touring the Congregation.

During the tour, the presidential candidate also met with Papal Legate for the Mekhitarist Congregation Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, who was at the Congregation at the time.

Earlier in January Armen Sarkissian, Armenias Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was offered by incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, who also serves as President of the countrys ruling Republican Party, to be the partys candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. Sarkissian initially requested a brief period of time for pondering the offer, and in the meanwhile held various meetings with political parties, civil society representatives, Diaspora structures and others, and subsequently agreed to be nominated. Few days later the HHK officially nominated Sarkissians candidacy for the presidential election.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Armen Sarkissian, the Republican Partys candidate for president in the upcoming elections in Armenia, has arrived in Lebanon on February 24, Vardapet Bedros Manouelian, head of the information department of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia said.

Manouelian said the presidential candidate has arrived in Lebanon to meet with Catholicos Aram I.

In a few hours he will visit the national and spiritual center of Diaspora Armenians  the Antelias Cathedral, he said.

Earlier in January Armen Sarkissian, Armenias Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was offered by incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, who also serves as President of the countrys ruling Republican Party, to be the partys candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. Sarkissian initially requested a brief period of time for pondering the offer, and in the meanwhile held various meetings with political parties, civil society representatives, Diaspora structures and others, and subsequently agreed to be nominated. Few days later the ruling coalition, HHK and ARF, lawmakers officially nominated Sarkissians candidacy for the presidential election.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Statements by Azerbaijans president calling for a return to historical lands in Armenia have landed Baku in hot diplomatic water, with Russia and France pointedly calling out Baku for the provocative comments, writes Bradley Jardine for Eurasianet information platform in an article titled Azerbaijani Presidents Claims on Armenia Spark International Backlash.

Jardine mentions how Ilham Aliyev referred to the Armenian capital Yerevan as part of Azerbaijans historic land during a speech at his ruling partys congress.

[To return Azerbaijanis there] is our political and strategic goal, and we need to work step-by-step to get closer to it, Jardine quoted Aliyev as saying.

The article then mentions that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan was quick to respond:

Until Azerbaijanis reject their maximalist, unrealistic expectations about the negotiations, but instead rave about seizing Yerevan or Zangezur, we will not harbor much hope that the issue will be resolved, he said at a press conference on February 12.

The international community also waded in.

Reports about Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs speech at a congress of the ruling party have certainly been seen in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said. We are well aware that Azerbaijans relations with neighboring Armenia are extremely tense. The comment in question will clearly not help to reduce the tensions, Bradley Jardine writes.

The article mentions that afterwards the French foreign ministry warned Azerbaijan to refrain from such statements which will harm the NK conflict peaceful settlement process.

Jardine notes that Armenia however found the international communitys response to be not enough.

Armenian MFA spokesman Tigran Balayan said the international response was insufficent and may jeopardize regional security.

Absence of an adequate reaction by the international community toward President Ilham Aliyevs territorial claims on Armenia have encouraged [Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir] Hasanov to reiterate the threat to use force, he said.

The statement refers to a February 19 meeting with Tovio Klaar, EU Representative for the South Caucasus, in which the Azeri defense minister warned that a war may break out at any moment.

Aliyev has made similar public statements in the past. Commentators link the recent surge in hostile rhetoric to Aliyevs electoral campaign. The president will be seeking a fourth term in office in a snap presidential election slated for April 11, Jardine writes.

The author also draws attention to the fact that the Azeri presidential election will be held two days after Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans term in office ends.

The Armenian leader is widely expected to become prime minister immediately after the country adopts a new parliamentary system in April.

Both leaders have pledged to intensify the Karabakh peace process.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Exports grew nearly 50% since Armenia joined the Eurasian Economic Union, which is a very important factor in terms of Armenian competitiveness growth in conditions of EEU membership, the Eurasian Expert Club said in a research.

According to experts it is a priority for Armenia to reach 30% GDP-export ratio, where finished goods must be dominant.

In 2017 Armenias exports exceeded 2 billion dollars for the first time, reaching 2,2 billion dollars. Further diversification of exports is also a priority. It is necessary to use all EEU opportunities to increase exports to 3 billion, the research says.

Exports to EEU markets grew in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector (71,4%), wood processing industry (50,5%), textile production (25%) and finished food products (27%).

The research notes that in 2017 exports to Russia grew 44,6%.

GDP growth exceeded 5% in 2017, significantly higher than the forecasted 3,2%, the research says, adding that exports to EU also increased.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The fact of the large scale massacres of Armenians in 1988 committed by Azerbaijani authorities in Sumgait, Azerbaijan must be shifted to the international legislative arena, sociologist Aharon Adibekyan, director of the Sociometer Sociological Center said at a press conference.

Armenia must shift the fact of the Sumgait Pogroms to the international legislative arena in order for it to be evaluated as genocide organized against Armenians in the end of the 20th century. It will also have a preventive nature for such countries, and Armenia will receive moral compensation, Adibekyan said.

According to him, the Azeri state sanctioned massacres of Armenians in Sumgait were directed against the Karabakh Movement.

The Sumgait pogrom was Azerbaijans response to the Karabakh struggle, an attempt to intimidate Armenians, Adibekyan said.

He mentioned that this resulted in 400,000 people emigrating from Azerbaijan. Nearly 200,000 from them moved to Armenia, he said.

Soviet troops were brought into Sumgait at the next day of the pogroms, and according to official data nearly 300 soldiers were wounded. Imagine the scale of the pogroms if a division suffered that many wounded, he said.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Foreign minister of Netherlands Sigrid Kaag says they expected a similar response from Turkey regarding the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolutions by the House of Representatives (lower house of parliament) of Netherlands, De Telegraaf newspaper reported.

Such a response from the Turkish side was expected, the minister said, refusing to give further comments, stating that answering to responds isnt a good idea.

After the Dutch House of Representatives passed the resolutions, Turkey was quick to critisize the move, and summoned the Netherlands envoy in Ankara to condemn the adoption.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanDALLAS, TexasRemember way back in 2016 when the Dallas City Council, largely at the insistence of religio-conservative oil baron Ray Lee Hunt, passed a resolution that prohibited the manager of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center from entering into a contract with Three Expo Events LLC, the owners of the Exxxotica Lifestyle Expo, for Exxxotica to once again take over the convention center for a weekend of sexy fun?

Remember the terrific reasons the council had for passing that resolution?

"One of the very early lessons I learned in life is, you don't go where you're not welcome," said District 7 Councilwoman Tiffinni A. Young during the council meeting. "This is not something that this city supports. This is not something you look forward to as something for our children to look up to and see around in the community."

(For a city that "didn't support" Exxxotica, it had a funny way of showing it. More than 15,000 locals attended the show at the convention center in 2015, even with church groups and Republicans constantly picketing.)

"I'm not going to be silent about this," declared District 13 Councilwoman Jennifer S. Gates. "I'm not going to be silent about an industry that's exploiting women and children, and you know what? If that makes more people attend, then more people attend, but my silence isn't an excuse."

(Just one problem with that: The previous week, the council had had a closed-door meeting with the Dallas police chief, the city's Vice Squad and other officials who had attended Exxxotica 2015, and the officials all assured the councilmembers that nothing untoward or illegal had happened during the convention.)

"I just can't see that the Framers of our Constitution and the writings in the Federalist Papers in no way believe in the unbridled or unrestricted right to allow pornography to be displayed in a public facility. There's something wrongheaded about that," opined District 5's Richey D. Callahan. "If you think the display of leather and whips and viewing folks in dominatrix outfits or suggestions of sadomasochism or anything that they're marketingagain, there's three X's in there, folks. You've seen it on the billboards. We're not talking about one X, we're not talking about soft porn; they're marketing with those three X's. Now, whether or not they actually do it or not, it doesn't matter. They want you to think that, 'Man, this is real stuff, XXX.' But if you think that's okay, then you go ahead and support that, but I'm not going to."

But guess who they do support?!?

"Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, a self-proclaimed Democrat in a nonpartisan office [and author of the anti-Exxxotica resolution], made a frustrated, impromptu speech Thursday morning after attending a bank's ribbon-cutting in West Dallas, saying now is the time for a blue-ribbon panel to take on the country's gun problem," wrote Stephen Young of the Dallas Observer in mid-February. "Rawlings didn't mention one of the biggest creators of that problem, the National Rifle Association, which will post up at Dallas' Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for its annual convention in a couple of months. ... The first weekend in May, the NRA, thousands of its members and dozens of conservative politicians will descend on Dallas for the gun-rights organization's annual get-together, which includes a trade show, classes, seminars and a leadership forum."

Among the reasons Rawlings' spokesflack Scott Goldstein gave Young for why the NRA was just hunky-dory for the venue but Exxxotica wasn't were: 1) "Exxxotica fraudulently misrepresented the existence of the entity that would be leasing the facility." (Untrue; Three Expo's J. Handy explained in court papers that the contracting entity, Exxxotica Dallas, was a subsidiary of Three Expo); 2) "Exxxotica fraudulently represented the manner in which the convention would be operated." (No, it didn't, and this was the first time such a claim had been put forth); 3) "Exxxotica permitted operations that violated their own policy of how the convention would be operated." (Another newly announced lie); 4) "Exxxotica committed Penal Code violations (sexual contact and public lewdness)." (Not according to the cops, who spent several hours at the 2015 convention and testified to the council that they'd seen no violations); and 5) "Exxxotica illegally operated a sexually oriented business." (Another lie; the city attorney told the council that the S.O.B. laws didn't apply to Exxxotica since it was only a "temporary presence.")

So let's spend a moment delving into why the NRA is so much better suited to use the convention center than Exxxotica would have beenand we need go no farther than the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), now taking place in the Washington, D.C. suburb of National Harbor, MD.

"What they [gun control advocates] want are more restrictions on the law-abiding," NRA VP and CEO Wayne LaPierre told a friendly audience at CPAC on Thursday. "Think about that: their solution is to make you, all of you, less free. ... If they seize power, our American freedoms could be lost and our country will be changed forever. Socialism is a movement that loves a smear."

The "socialists" to whom LaPierre was referring were the thousands of students from across the country who spent last week confronting their representatives in state houses and in congress to push for legislation to prevent future mass slaughters like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

"As usual, the opportunists waited not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain, LaPierre added. "Chris Murphy, Nancy Pelosi, and more, cheered on by the national media, eager to blame the NRA and call for more government control.

"The shameful politicization of tragedyits a classic strategy, right out of the playbook of a poisonous movement. They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom," LaPierre declared."The elites dont care one wit about school children. If they truly cared, they would protect them. ... Its not a safety issue, its a political issue. They care more about control. Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eliminate all individual freedoms.

"They dont care if their laws work or not," he added. "They just want get more laws to get more control over people. But the NRA, the NRA does care."

And how, pray tell, does the NRA show that care, aside from opposing increased background checks for potential gun buyers, and opposing the ban of assault rifles and enlarged ammunition clips?

LaPierre concluded this years speech by repeating the advice he provided in the wake of the Newtown mass shooting five years ago: "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Funny thing about that: The one guy who did have a gun at Parkland was sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson, who spent the entire massacre "seeking cover behind a concrete column leading to a stairwell," said fellow Officer Tim Burton. (UPDATE: Make that four more armed deputies who hid behind squad cars rather than tackle the shooter.) (UPDATE #2: And then there's been all that talk about arming teachers, which PZ Myers puts the lie to.)

But LaPierre wasn't the only complete asshole to speak for the NRA at CPAC: There was also former radio host/former Breitbart News editor-in-chief Dana Loesch, an official spokeswhore for the NRAand she began by attacking mainstream media.

"Many in legacy media love mass shootings," she told the crowd. "You love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold."

Loesch was apparently referring to a recent conservative meme perhaps best expressed in a Washington Times editorial, which stated, "The dead were not even buried from the Florida school shooting before the partisan hacks and jackals in the press showed up. With glowing eyes and snarling in the darkness, they were on the scent of a fresh kill they could exploit to advance their own political agenda. And, of course, to goose TV ratings. It was a gnarly NASCAR crashwithout a race. Pure political porn...

"The only villains present were the team of rolling cameras from CNN, which hosted the so-called 'town hall.' It was more like hecklers at a funeral. Desperate for viewers, CNN was offering up-close rubber-necking of a mass crime where 17 peoplemostly childrenwere killed by a very sick person. CNN was there to capture all the agony from innocent people at their most vulnerable. Reality TV carnage. Even better than the networks usual jubilant search for crashed airliners."

And once again, it wasn't the NRA itself which had any blame for the shooting, but the media and government: "Where are the stories about how only 38 states submit less than 80 percent of criminal convictions to the background check system? Its only as good as what is submitted to it  I have to question whether they want this system to fail. Where are those headlines?... It is not our job to follow up on red flags.... It is not our job; a failure of law enforcement is not a failure of the law. It is a failure of enforcement."

Right!!! Or as political commentator Ana Marie Cox noted on Twitter, "Loesch also says that she 'speaks for the NRA' when she says she supports 'stronger background checks.' Quoting from the NRA website: 'NRA opposes expanding firearm background check systems.'"

Loesch also blamed the FBI, and particularly fired director James Comey, for the murders: "Maybe if you politicized your agency less and did your job more, we wouldnt have these problems," she blustered.

Yup, those are just the sort of people who deserve to hold their annual convention in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, not those degenerates who support adults having fun with dildos rather than their metal penis-substitutes, and favor people getting off with foreplay rather than gunplay.

Or as late-night New York radio host Jean Shepherd used to end his broadcasts many years ago: "Excelsior, you fatheads!"

(For a brief rundown of Exxxotica's dispute with Dallas, see stories here, here, here, here, here and here.)We've detected that JavaScript is not enabled in your browser.

You must enable JavaScript to use craigslist.Cooper said GOP used H.B. 90 as political vehicle to advance partisan goals; Berger continued questioning governor's authority to create 'slush fund'

Gov. Roy Cooper insisted $57.8 million from energy companies building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was a voluntary contribution, but said at a news conference he doesn't know whose idea it was originally to seek the money he planned to distribute.During a 20-minute meeting with reporters Wednesday, Feb. 14, Cooper accused the General Assembly of hijacking the escrow fund he planned to create. In doing so, lawmakers risked losing the windfall he intended to use for environmental mitigation, renewable energy, and economic development projects. He also attacked GOP lawmakers for using a needed class-size reduction funding measure as a political vehicle to enact the pipeline provision alongside a plan merging the state elections and ethics boards.The governor failed to mention any constitutional authority he has to claim control over the fund without subjecting it to the legislative appropriations process. Nor did he clarify who originated the idea for a mitigation fund developed separately from the permitting process for the pipeline.The governor's unusual arrangement sparked a state ethics complaint announced earlier that day by the Civitas Institute.Cooper denied he had any conflicts of interest that were raised in the complaint.and was evaluated and issued separately from the $57.8 million escrow fund, Cooper said.Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a news conference immediately following Cooper's.Berger said.Cooper said he would allow House Bill 90 to become law without his signature. Berger said that implied a problem.or he would have either signed the bill or vetoed it, Berger said. The legislation was sent to Cooper on Tuesday.Education provisions in H.B. 90 expanding early childhood education and reducing class sizes were the redeeming value that prevented his veto, Cooper said.Cooper said. The education reforms are not a cause for celebration, he said.He criticized lawmakers because they did not include any school construction funds or more money for teachers, especially in poor rural districts, to help them meet the class size reduction mandate. H.B. 90 gives schools four years to meet smaller class mandates instead of implementing them next school year.Cooper said.Cooper said.He bristled at a component of H.B. 90 reviving a legislative plan to reformulate the Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement. The state Supreme Court twice has rejected legislation merging the two entities.Cooper said, repeating that the fund was now at risk.he said.He said the fund that he had envisioned was for economic development and job creation. It would have paid to construct local spur lines off the main natural gas pipeline running near the Interstate 95 corridor in eight North Carolina counties, ending near Lumberton.Yet when asked twice by Carolina Journal who proposed the massive escrow fund, Cooper did not specify.he said regarding the originator of the fund.Cooper said.Berger said Cooper's fund either smacks of pay-to-play politics to get a permit, or steers voluntary money into a slush fund he would control. Either scenario is wrong, he said.Berger said he thinks the energy companies building the pipeline wouldn't withdraw the money. He said he doesn't know who first advanced the idea for Cooper to create the fund.On Tuesday, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a blistering rebuke to his Supreme Court colleagues, as well as to lower courts that have refused to treat the Second Amendment with the same level of honor as other rights enshrined in the Constitution.Thomas wrote a dissent against his Supreme Court colleagues refusing to take up the case of California's 10-day waiting period for buying a gun. Under California law, gun buyers - even those who already own guns - must wait ten days before picking up their guns from the store. It doesn't matter whether the background checks have already been run; purchasers must wait. The idea is that these potential buyers will have second thoughts about owning a gun, and decide not to pick up the gun after all.The state of California provided little or no evidence to show that such cooling-off periods impact in any way either suicide rates or crime rates, particularly as applied to those who already have gun licenses and concealed carry permits. That didn't stop the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from upholding the law on the basis that the purchaserThat contention was entirely speculative, of course.But this is the lowest possible standard for constitutional review. As Thomas points out, the Heller case says Courts may notThe Court explicitly shot down "rational-basis scrutiny."All of this, wrote ThomasAs Thomas points out, if a state placed a ten-day waiting period on abortions, the Supreme Court would be quick to step in with a review. The Ninth Circuit even struck down a county's 50-day waiting period for nude-dancing licenses. And the Ninth Circuit struck down traditional marriage laws for supposed lack of evidence, despite thousands of years of human history. Thomas concludes,Thomas, of course, is right. And the judiciary's willingness to stand by and watch the Second Amendment dismantled piecemeal is an abdication of Constitutional duty on a grand scale.Panel addressed questions about unequal funding among wealthy and poor districts

The landmark decision in the Leandro case spelled out what North Carolina must do to ensure every student has access to a sound, basic education. But figuring out how to accomplish the requirement is proving a challenge.Leandro dictates that every classroom must be staffed with a competent, well-trained teacher, and every school must be staffed with a competent, well-trained principal. Add to that a requirement to identify the resources needed to ensure all children, even at-risk students, have an equal opportunity to a sound, basic education.Gov. Roy Cooper established the Commission on Access to a Sound Basic Education on July 21, 2017, to address challenges posed by the Leandro case.The focus of the commission meetings are manyfold, but the primary focus of the Feb. 20 meeting was school finance.As the needs of students increase so do the demands on local school districts and educational staff to meet those needs. The question is whether more funding is needed or if increased funding flexibility is the solution.Commission member Henrietta Zalkind, executive director of Down East Partnership For Children , a nonprofit education organization, questioned how increased flexibility would help if there isn't enough money to start.Zalkind said.Zalkind said the state shouldn't cut the education budget but should instead increase it.Terry Stoops, vice president of research and director of education studies at the John Locke Foundation, is skeptical of the commission's agenda and argued members should look beyond advocating for more funding.Stoops said.The state, at 62.7 percent, provides most of the total funding for public school operations, compared to 26 percent of funding from local government and 11.3 percent from the federal government. In 2017-18, the state allocated $9.7 billion, while $1.4 billion in funding came from the federal government and $4 billion from local government.Keith Poston, president and executive director of Public School Forum of North Carolina , said disparities in local county funding is a big problem. The gap in county level spending per student among wealthy and poor counties continues to grow.Poston pointed to the 2018 Local School Finance Study , which showed the wealthiest counties have more than five times the taxable property wealth per child available than the 10 poorest counties.Poston said.Orange County spends $4,852 per student compared to Clay, Columbus, Greene, Graham, Hoke, Robeson, and Swain County, which spend $4,663 combined.Commissioners also raised questions about the meaning of equity and how can it be achieved. Karen Hawley Miles, CEO and president of Education Resource Strategies , suggested equity isn't about equal funding between high and low wealth districts. Equity is also about ensuring low-wealth districts are getting all the help they need.Commission member Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, a professor and the dean of the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shared a similar sentiment.Abd-El-Khalick said.Miles also said school finance isn't just about how much funding is available but also about how the funds are used.Stoops agreed.Stoops said.Superintendents Anthony Jackson, Vance County Schools; Tim Markley, New Hanover County Schools; and Janet Mason, Rutherford County Schools, shared their thoughts on school finances at the district level.The superintendents said they had more flexibility eight years ago than they do today.Jackson said it's time to stop focusing on the flavor of the day and to start working on long-term strategies such as greater funding flexibility and fewer unfunded mandates.Cooper stopped by to share his thoughts on the commission's work.Cooper said.Cooper said decisions must be made to prepare for the future job market and ensuring North Carolina students can compete.Cooper asked.Stoops said.The commission will meet again April 10.Federal programs designed to address the deterioration of the central city enabled private institutions to begin the process, albeit controversial, of upgrading their neighborhoods. This growing engagement of universities in their urban communities further strengthened American higher education's commitment to service as a core mission.

Look at any map of our recent presidential elections and a key fault-line in our fractured country becomes clear. Cities and their denser suburbs vote overwhelmingly Democratic and show up as blue islands.It's also true that many of our most influential universities are located on those islands and leftist sentiment is even more pronounced in them than in their host cities. One recent study found that in a sample of over 7,000 faculty at 40 universities, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a ratio of 11.5-to-1, and by an astounding 33.5-to-1 among historians.As a few commentators have pointed out, progressive ideology hasn't been very effective in addressing urban ills such as poverty, crime, and inequality. And as academe becomes ever more ideologically monolithic and intolerant, it's worth asking whether solutions to such problems are likely to be found there-and, indeed, whether the academy bears some responsibility for exacerbating them.Unfortunately, those are not the sorts of questions to which Rutgers University history professor Steven Diner devotes much attention in his Universities and Their Cities. That is a pity, for based on his lengthy career as an academic, administrator, and president of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, he might have had much to say about the impact on cities of the perspectives and policies often popularized in academe.Instead, Diner serves up a bland, chronological summary of issues that will be of chief interest to students of the history of higher education administration. He devotes the first of his six chapters to a discussion of the 19th century "collegiate ideal" and academics' anti-urban, anti-immigrant biases. His second chapter covers America's urban growth from 1900 through the end of WWII, describing how colleges increasingly located where students were rather than where they were not, and various means of accommodating the needs of urban students.But Diner's narrative gets more interesting in the postwar era. He lauds urban institutions for leading "America's democratization of higher education" by enrolling more working-class commuters, immigrants, ethnic minorities, and adults, and also engaging "increasingly in urban research and support of city governments." This might have been an "aha!" moment for him: exactly when most major American cities were beginning a multi-decade descent in which they would lose population and wealth amid rising rates of crime and social decay, academics were climbing down from the ivory tower to help guide policymakers. Hmm.In truth, many of the ideas that would prove harmful to urban vitality in the second half of the 20th century were born in academe during its first half, especially at L'Ecole de Beaux Arts at the University of Paris, where the City Beautiful movement originated. Its central premises-that land-use and design decisions could not be left to property owners and the chaos of markets, while large-scale projects and rational planning would inevitably promote efficiency and good citizenship in cities-were imported to America by L'Ecole students such as Henry Hobson Richardson and Louis Sullivan. They were founding members of a "Chicago School" of architecture and urban planning that would acquire great influence on policymaking in many American cities.The essence of City Beautiful thinking was both utopian and high-handed. Beautiful surroundings would surely make better people, so doing whatever was necessary to impose planners' aesthetic visions became a policy imperative. Slum clearance, the use of eminent domain to acquire the vast tracts needed to implement the movement's " make no little plans " mantra, aggressive regulation, restrictive zoning, and redistributive programs all found an intellectual footing in the planners' manifestos.To his credit, Diner notes that the implementation of some progressive visions-an urban renewal program that translated as " Negro removal ," billions spent on high-rise public housing that often became vertical slums , and more-often damaged cities greatly. But, like most academics, he puts the lion's share of the blame for postwar urban decline on racism and a few misbegotten federal government programs commonly (and erroneously) assumed to be inspired by it. The visionary plans that sprung from the minds of professors at elite universities generally get a pass from Diner; academic hostility to conservative thinkers like Edward Banfield , author of The Unheavenly City, goes unexamined.It is noteworthy that the intellectual counter-revolution that ultimately discredited much of the City Beautiful dogma was led by someone unspoiled by academic training in planning or architecture-and, indeed, who possessed no college degree at all. Jane Jacobs studied how cities actually worked rather than how they might be re-designed to conform to aesthetic and sociological theories; her 1961 classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, would prove transformative and enduring. Diner mentions her just once as "a popular writer," academic code for "lightweight."Diner only briefly notes the complicity of many universities in renewal programs of the kind that Jacobs fought, and which adversely affected their low-income (often African-American) neighbors.For example, the University of Chicago (among other institutions) lobbied aggressively for the Housing Act of 1959 because it gave them financial leverage: for every dollar a university spent to acquire land, demolish buildings, or relocate their occupants near a project, its host city could receive two to three dollars of federal money (that would, of course, be spent partially for the benefit of the affected institution). Hard to resist such a strong incentive to crank up the bulldozers and clear "blighted areas," even if one by-product might be an occasional sit-in by a civil rights group.Remarkably, however, Diner actually gives universities an "A" for effort on such issues, concluding:Perhaps the hipsters being criticized for gentrifying low-income neighborhoods should argue that they, too, are engaged in "service"-just without bulldozers and money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.In describing universities' responses to cities' deepening crises, from the mid-1960s through the 1980s, Diner seems determined to award points for good intentions while making few or no deductions for bad results. Any effort at "community involvement" or "public service" is lauded, no matter how ineffective or counter-productive it might ultimately turn out to be. He only grudgingly quotes a 1976 Ford Foundation report that acknowledged "strikingly little of the advice generated by academics had the intended effect."Diner also has little to say about why the "urban crisis" began to ebb in some cities-but not others-in about 1980 (and later in New York, following the election of a Republican mayor) except to claim that urban universities "played a role in this change" at the same time they "benefited enormously from it." The argument seems to be-following Richard Florida's theory-that a "creative class" is the key driver of urban economies, and universities are fountains of creativity.That narrative is incomplete if not erroneous . The many stellar universities near Boston, New York, Oakland, and San Francisco were cranking out "creatives" while those cities shrank and became poorer from 1950-1980 as well as when they grew and prospered thereafter. And there are many fine schools in still-shrinking cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit. To explain the inter-temporal and cross-sectional evidence on urban viability, we need to look beyond what universities hope or claim they are doing and dispassionately evaluate the ideas and programs they are promoting. Had Diner chosen to do so, this book would have been far more interesting and useful.Editor's note: I've known Shahid Buttar for years, in his capacity as an activist organizer, drawing on his background as a constitutional lawyer and his deep commitment to a just world to help start effective grassroots groups across America; now Shahid has taken leave from EFF to challenge Nancy Pelosi  a consistent force for more surveillance and profits over people  for the Democratic nomination to Congress in California's 12th District. I'm proud to endorse his candidacy. -Cory

I'm running for Congress because I can't watch America's constitutional crisis from the sidelines. San Francisco's representative in Washington talks about resistance, but having been in the House for 30 years, she has become a pillar of the Washington establishment. Even worse, she has repeatedly caved under this maniacal President and compromised our rights.

Watching weak Democrats enable and empower Trump, I feel compelled to offer my neighbors an alternative. If you're tired of corruption and kleptocracy in Washington, we can do better together.

San Francisco is America's most progressive city. We deserve to be represented by someone who actively champions our community's inclusive values, rather than a corporate establishment placing profit before people. I've been fighting that establishment for nearly 20 years in the courts, in the policy sphere, in the media, and in the streets.

Watching our representative in San Francisco hand expanded domestic surveillance powers to the Trump administration in January 2018 was too much for me to bear. A month later, she spoke from the House floor about defending immigrants, after engineering a backroom deal to throw us under the bus.

My political backbone was forged early, long before I joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to create and cultivate a national grassroots network among local communities advocating for digital rights. As I finished college back in the 90s, I discovered the anti-globalization movement, just as the State Department began recruiting me to serve as a diplomat.

I went to Stanford Law School instead. I threw myself into my studies, as well as the movement to stop the War in Iraq. At Stanford, I helped organized a student strike and street art campaign, as well as non-violent direct action blockading a corporate weapons contractor.

Soon after graduating from Stanford Law in 2003, I helped push marriage equality for same sex couples into the national political mainstream. The legal challenge I organized in New York state was ultimately defeated, but paved the way for a legislative triumph in 2011.

I also helped win an appellate court battle defending campaign finance reform, years before the Supreme Court's disastrous Citizens United decision in 2010 that invited corporate corruption across the political establishment.

I've been speaking truth to power ever since, both on the inside and from the outside. From joining a dozen Occupy sites, to taking direct action with the movement for black lives, I've also crafted legal briefs challenging military detention powers, and spoken at congressional briefings about NSA surveillance at the invitation of Members of Congress.

My writing has appeared in outlets like TechCrunch, Huffington Post, and Project Censored, as well as legal academic journals and the Burning Man Journal. Writing for EFF, I've supported net neutrality and local campaigns to restrain surveillance, while critiquing absent congressional oversight of intelligence agencies, and the FBI's disturbing calls to undermine encryption.

My writing in other outlets addresses issues from police violence to drone strikes, from NSA surveillance to CIA torture, and from effective counter-terrorism strategies to voting rights. I've also published a guide to social justice events at Burning Man (where my performances are as political as my writing), and profiles of counter-cultural activists whose work combines art and organizing.

Our shared struggle pits We the People of the United States against a corrupt corporate establishment that dominates not only Republicans, but also Democratslike the one who has represented San Francisco for over 30 years.

When she first entered Congress, the Internet had not been invented yet.

San Francisco needs a fresh voice.

Our city needs a representative in Washington who will work to curtail military spending, fight to save social services, and defend the rights of all Americans. And our country needs public servants who will forcefully fight corruption in whatever form it emerges, from fraudulent weapons contracts to the prison-industrial-slavery complex.

You deserve a representative in Washington who embodies our city's values unapologetically, someone for whom resistance is more than just a hashtag.

We can do better together. Learn more about our campaign to gain real representation for America's most progressive city at www.ShahidForChange.us.While a shooter rampaged through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, the school's armed cop (who was a Broward County Sheriff's Deputy) and three of his deputy colleagues were hiding behind a police car outside the school.



Earlier reports mentioned that the school cop, Scot Peterson, had resigned when word got out that he'd done nothing to stop the shooter; but it turns out that it wasn't just him  literally every "good guy with a gun" at the school hid quietly while the shooter murdered 17 people and injured 15 others.



When Coral Springs police officers arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14 in the midst of the school shooting crisis, many officers were surprised to find not only that Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, the armed school resource officer, had not entered the building, but that three other Broward County Sheriff's deputies were also outside the school and had not entered, Coral Springs sources tell CNN. The deputies had their pistols drawn and were behind their vehicles, the sources said, and not one of them had gone into the school.



Sources: Coral Springs police upset at some Broward deputies for not entering school [Jake Tapper/CNN]



(Image: Peter, CC-BY-SA)

It's CPAC! The annual far-right hootenanny for preppers, false-flaggers, climate deniers, truthers, and the sort of person who closes their eyes and thinks of The Fountainhead, featuring Marion Marechal-Le Pen of France, Nigel Farage, Sean Hannity, and mass-murder enthusiast Wayne LaPierre.



Mr LaPierre didn't just give a speech accusing people who are upset about school shootings of secretly loving school shootings  he also presented the NRA's annual "Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award" (a gun!) to Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in recognition of his outstanding work in shooting Net Neutrality repeatedly with an assault rifle.



"When you get outside of DC, when people care about telecom, one of the things they're passionate about is getting better, faster, cheaper broadband," Carr said. "The last few years at the FCC was continuously imposing more regulations, more paperwork burdens, which was putting the US in the wrong direction." "I don't play small ball," Pai told the crowd. "I decided that I wanted to make a fundamental change in the way the [FCC] operates. I think it's important for us to set rules for the road that allow the American people to take control of their own lives, instead of having it run out of an American bureaucracy."



The NRA Just Awarded FCC Chair Ajit Pai With a Gun for His 'Courage' [Dell Cameron/Gizmodo]If you've had the sneaking suspicion over the past year that the world is going to hell, you're not alone. Amnesty International's 2017-2018 State of the World's Human Rights Annual Report says that in many countries, the politics of hate and fear are quickly becoming the norm.

The report, which covers the activities of 159 countries paints a troubling picture of the conditions that many people are forced to endure on an alarmingly more regular basis. For those who keep track of human rights issues, this is old hatthe world can be a shitty place, full of shitty people doing shitty things to folks that don't deserve it. What's new this year, although it's likely news to no one, is that America is one of a small group of countries at the forefront of Amnesty International's concerns. In a press release for the report, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, states:

"The specters of hatred and fear now loom large in world affairs, and we have few governments standing up for human rights in these disturbing times. Instead, leaders such as al-Sisi, Duterte, Maduro, Putin, Trump and Xi are callously undermining the rights of millions."

The report goes on call out the Trump administration's attempted rollback of women's rights and to block the entry of visitors and immigrants from Muslim countries, as particularly troubling and that Trump's "backward steps on human rights are setting a dangerous precedent for other governments to follow."

The whole text of the annual report is available for download, here. It's a lengthy, depressing read. But in a world where hate, fear and the creeping loss of the institutions that have safeguarded our rights are a fact of life, it's required reading for anyone that wants to raise an informed protest against all that's awful in our world.

Image courtesy of WikipediaThe online home for all things Brockley (SE4), Deptford, Ladywell, Lewisham and New CrossEntertainment / Shows

by Thulani Nkala

ULoyiko theatre play will be showcased at the annual Zabalaza festival on the 14th March 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. ULoyiko is a theatre play by Siphesakhe Youth Organisation about the gukurahundi genocide which took place in Matabeleland in 1983 to 1987.Zabalaza festival has become the most prestigious and a huge annual event in South Africa's Western Cape. "Zabalaza is a Baxter Theatre Centre development programme that develops theatre practitioners from in and around Western Cape by providing them with performance platforms so that they can realise their creative concepts" reads part of Zabalaza literature. "Creativity, when given encouragement and opportunity knows no limitation" is Zabalaza's motto which aptly describes the journey which ULoyiko has travelled to date. When uLoyiko was first staged in Johannesburg, Hillbrow Theatre many thought it was going to fizzle out soon, however, the brains behind uLoyiko have shown amazing tenacity and resilience. They have carried out an extensive research regarding the Matabeleland genocide. From where I stand I will not be surprised if the the Zabalaza festival catapults them to international stardom.The venue for the Zabalaza festival will at The University of Cape Town.Baxter theatreConcert Hall.Admission: R30Time: 7pmDate 14 March 2018"Uloyiko (Fear) exposes the brutal past of the Matabeleland genocide linking it with Umkhonto Wesizwe's challenge of securing military bases in Matabeleland soon after Zimbabwe's independence. It brings into reality on how African politics is at the mercy of ethnic bigotry and its progress hampered by tribalism more than any other factor. Through the backdrop of Zimbabwe's 1980s power grab and tribalism the play seeks to project to the world the evils of these isms and promote democratic fundamentals that are based on equality and accountability for the genocide which has been swept under the carpet for almost 40 years" reads part of uLoyiko's press statement."We invite everybody to the festival to come a witness a polished performance from uLoyiko cast, in addition to uLoyiko there would be other dozens groups showcasing their talents" Mr Yanga Mhluzi said"See you all there" he concluded.The issue of the Matabeleland genocide is now quickly gaining international recognition, soon somebody would be held accountable to the atrocities. Last week the citizens of Bulawayo and their organisations such as the MRP and 1893 MRM chased away Mnangagwa's so called National Peace and Reconciliation commission. Mqondisi Moyo was outside of Bulawayo on a campaign trail when the spectacle began, the commission had to call him to come back and talk to his people and when he arrived he sided with the people. That's how Mqondisi Moyo has become so important and indespensible in the Mthwakazi politics. He is a quiet spoken leader yet astute, principled and visionary.News / Education

by Edmore Kudakwashe

Seke Teachers College Principal Ephraim Mutubuki is continuing to frustrate and has barred students of the college ahead of their final examinations this coming Monday. Students who have been looking forward for the college to avail a payment plan, are left with no option but to approach the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Amon Murwira to sit for their examinations.Mr Mutubuki with combination of one Amai Dube have sweared and set to make example to those who have not yet settled their fees in full by not allowing them to sit for their exams. Students who spoke to this reporter on condition that they would not be published said have had enough frustration from Mr Mutubuki.Amai Dube is the Vice-Principal of the College and rumours are that he was transferred from Morgen Zintec College after students wrote a letter to the Ministry of Higher Education complaining about his attitude and bad feelings towards students."We don't know what to do, the Principal each time he comes to address us always punch on us. He used to be good, but with the coming in of Amai Dube things have changed. We Hope he will make us to sit for our final exams come this Monday and allow us a payment plan", said some of the frustrated students.Students have been made to apply for loans at either banks or money lenders. Mr Mutubuki was on the forefront inviting money lenders as he make an operation' by making sure that everyone pay fees before sitting for the exams. Last month he invited the people from Eduloan in hope that they would provide loans to the students, a deal which flopped because they asked for guarantee that the loans would be reimbursed by the college."We have had people from Eduloan who were giving loans, some of us came from poor families and also considering economic challenges, we need a bit of time to settle the fees", said another group of students.Yesterday the road from the college to Makoni Shopping centre was bulging with Seke students who were rushing for a date stamp at CBZ bank which they were told to obtain by Mutubuki as a guarantee that they were dedicated to pay the fees, the deal which was sort by the principal was not clear how the bank was to avail funds for the students. It was a day wasted as students did not attend lessons, instead chased wind. When the students returned to fetch Mutubuki, he told them to go back to the bank for a guarantor letter at the time of close of business; a move the students said was frustration at its highest form."We appeal to the Government to arrest this situation, a bigger percentage has not yet settled the fees in full due to economic challenges, it seems the college is up to no good, there is a bad combination now at the college which is up to fix students and the relevant authorities should investigate some of the motives behind this moves.Last night, Mutubuki could not be contacted to comment on the situation at the college ahead of the final examinations as his phone remained unreachable.Recentry the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development pledged to reintroduce grants for students at universities, colleges and other vocational training institutions in an effort to improve skills and develop manpower.Tertiary education is becoming more expensive and inaccessible to the majority of the poor, and as such, the government has so far engaged financial institutions to structure a new model for student loans.Recent reports have pointed to an increasing number of students dropping out of tertiary institutions.Professor Amon Murwira said under the new political dispensation, there is renewed hope in the hearts of many students that they will get grants which were discontinued in 2006.News / National

by Adv Gift Nyandoro

Heal Zimbabwe Trust has condemned in the strongest terms the use of violence against innocent civilians and journalists by the police which resulted in loss of life and injuries in Harare last night.On 22 February 2018, police officers had running battles with vendors and kombi drivers following a ban by the Ministry of Local Government prohibiting kombis from entering the central business district (CBD)."This resulted in the police using teargas canisters and firing live bullets on unarmed civilians. A total of three civilians lost their lives and many injured. Three journalists were also injured trying to cover the incident. Heal Zimbabwe perceives such act of barbarism as sad and uncalled for especially coming from law enforcers," said the trust."This incident clearly indicates that community members and citizens are not safe especially from the police who are supposed to protect them. Heal Zimbabwe also perceive the attack on journalists as a reversal of democratic rights provided for in the constitution under section 61 which guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the media."Heal Zimbabwe implored the Government under the Ministry of Local Government Public Works and National Housing, the police and Harare City Council to find peaceful ways of resolving the impasse emanating from the ban of kombis."The organisation further calls for justice to be served and ensure that the culprits responsible for the killings are arrested and brought before the courts. Heal Zimbabwe in line with section 210 of the constitution calls for the Government with immediate effect to set up an Independent Complaints Mechanism for receiving and investigating complaints from members of the public about the misconduct on the part of members of the security services, and for remedying any harm caused by such misconduct," said the trust."Heal Zimbabwe notes that if such acts of aggression continue unabated, they threaten peace, social cohesion and cast doubt on the eligibility of the state to protect its own citizens."News / National

by Dr Masimba Mavaza

Vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk

For Zimbabwe to achieve stability, there was to be a return to constitutional. Sanity had escaped the political landscape. The operation restore legacy can not be complete without order and a conclusion of presidential elections.On 15th November 2017 the people of Zimbabwe and the international community were surprised by a coup d'etat in Otherwise known as an operation to restore legacy. There have been a coup since the country fired the Vice president Joyce Mujuru.A group known as the G40 led by the clever but not wise professor had taken over the party and the country. To make their coup legitimate they had to make the then president believe that he was still in power. They realised his popularity and indeed exploited it. They have to put the first lady in their bag and they have to use her to achieve their goals. The idea was well strategised such that when people in each and every province protest agains the G40 the voices of the people were ignored.Ten provinces called for NPC Be fired but the first lady overturned the majority vote. All those who took part in the push for restoring order in the party were fired.There was indeed a coup with no soldier involved. The biggest problem was that this went beyond party politics. The first lady became the judge, the police, the court, the mother, all in one. While ZANU PF has become accustomed to violence and tragic events this one led by the first lady was the lowest point of all. Unfortunately the first lady was being used and too much power she got was used to elbow out the perceived enemies. It came to an extent where the nation was told that vice presidents took notes from the first lady.The country was turned to a personal property and every one was an employee of the husband of the first lady. and the firing of another vice president and other high state officials, including several chiefs of staff of the armed forces) no one was prepared for this event. The country was a few months away from the presidential elections set for 2018.Among diverse explanations, It should be good to distinguish between those given by the instigators of the coup, and those advanced by those couped. Among the latter, there is consensus that there are multiple causes, some with deep historical roots. From a holistic perspective concerned with the deeper causes of a political unrest prevalent in society, The army had to come in firstly having been concerned with the immediate motivations, while the second refers to older and more structural causes. Although they are of different nature, function, and range, the factors that explain the coup cannot be understood separately, as they are different links on the same chain.In terms of the immediate causes, it is important to recognize the deterioration of relations between the executive and the military elite. The deterioration can be traced to public castigation of the military at rallies. Accusing the army of wanting to bomb the Gushungo dairy. With all their ammunition the soldiers were accused of wanting to use petrol bombs to bomb the dairy. The first lady was made to believe that her life was in danger and the CIO was ordered to beef up her security. She now had security as strong as that of the president. In actual fact she was the president. This signified the take over of the state.The first lady got unconstitutional powers to fire executive. You cross her path you are gone. The country was put where the G40 wanted it.Great enmity between the army and other security services was made very wide. Security officers were now reporting to the minister of Higher Education and to the first lady. The governance system was a big joke. The president's age was not helping and the country resembled a dogs dinner table.The mission to restore order was instigated.This mission was created aiming at stabilization, peace, and support for reforms in security and defense sectors. The hotly discussed 'special' relationship between the party and the army. the principle of making a peacekeeping and stabilization force in the country became forcing power which led the international community to consider this as a stabilisation process. Therefore the establishment the restore legacy was rooted in the will of the international states.Though these forces were established legally, given the hesitation expressed by some leaders as to the adequacy, correctness, and opportunity of this decision, many have denounced Mugabe and those surrounding him for mismanagement. Along with allegations that the country was now under the few none combatant egoistic thugs. They have taken full advantage of first lady instability.The country has been engaged in a unprecedented chaos.There were allegations that The G40 has committed (or allowed others to commit) crimes such as the beatings and disappearances of prominent political and military figures, expulsions from the party became the norm. The party constitution was trampled and the national constitution was thrown out through the window.Still others allege rampant clientalism and nepotism in public administration, and party politics. Together these allegations have fanned the flames of discontentment, not only within the military but also among the political class-- even among personalities from the same political establishment. The decline in relations between the government and military elite reached its lowest point when certain sectors of the same elite began to feel uncomfortable with the presence of then first lady and her influence she has over elected members. the heart of discord appeared to be the fact that such a presence voted to fail, 'a priori', any attempt to change the constitutional order or advance any acts contrary to the normal functioning of institutions. To add to the tension, the center of certain political and military circles has developed a certain paranoia - a mental process highly influenced by anxiety and fear, with practical consequences resulting in efforts to prevent ED from acceding to the presidency. The same anxiety has allowed the military elite to believe there has been a conspiracy on the part of the President against military leaders and all war veterans.This process deteriorated in part because of the reasons analyzed above, but also because of the deliberate effort to instrumentalize ethnic identity in favor of the petty interests of one group, which can only lead to nonsensical accusations and irrational situations. The strong statements of the of The first lady not only reflects this way of thinking, but also reveals a desire to create a big gap between the military elite and a part of the political elite. This has fuelled tensions and all trust between each other was eroded.Beyond this, there are three other reasons that may explain the coup as the culmination of a situation of instability and the deterioration of the conditions under which state power is exercised. The first arose in the mismanagement of the resources from the national liberation struggle to the construction of a modern state. The polices and measures implemented by the powers was not likely to ensure a clear separation between civil and military affairs or permit the military contingent from the national liberation struggle to be transformed into a truly republican armed force. At the same time, for many years political life and the management of public services were dominated by the paradigm of the single-party state existing in a multiparty democracy.The take over of state apparatus by the G40 was opposed by elements that once belonged to the military wing of the liberation struggle but have been loyal to the first lady. After liberation, the party continued to be seen as a kind of a guide with ability to act widely despite emancipation. On their side, the armed forces were more committed to the ideology and interests of the party than to the norms and rules that politics must rule the gun. To them the gun was to be respected together with its handlers. This resulted in a somewhat incestuous relationship between the political and military elite - a tendency that was reinforced during the mandate of Mugabe. It has since become one of the cornerstones in the relationship between civilian and military leaders.Some analysts have focused more specifically on the breakdown of the hierarchical order and the political turmoil caused by the state of the party. This poisoned legacy is certainly not unfamiliar to the politico-military situation that preceded the 2017 coup. Who does not remember something funny about the rallies. Every person would know that rallies became battle grounds. The only problem was one person suffered the sharp edge of the other.The behaviour was un African and it turned the hearts of many against the first lady. Some even doubted her sanity. Her handlers missed the point.Indeed, the strong presence of the state party has constricted the space that could be filled by a civil society (which could serve as a counterweight to the excesses of a state party that became hegemonic.)The second structural reason has to do with the mismanagement of crises and conflicts (violent or not) that have periodically developed in the political scene involving on one side politicians properly speaking, and on the other, politicians who were aligned with the military and not allowed to talk.This eventually undermined the foundations of leadership at the height of the challenges facing ZANU PF. The heart of the crisis was the deposition of ED. under the pretext that the first had acted in a 'deviant' and 'reprehensible' manner. Whether or not these allegations are true, we should ask why it is permissible for a Party to fire without following procedure. in a state of law that is guided by the regular functioning of institutions, and in which military power is subordinated to a civil power, the lawlessness demanded the army to stand up and restore order bWith this act, a dangerous and irreparable precedent was set; in the very center of the armed forces, scrupulous respect for hierarchy was abandoned, along with the knowledge that the military is subordinated to political stakeholders. Acts like this certainly serve to explain the behavior of soldiers that subvert not only the military hierarchy but also undermine the rule of law.Another explanation for the army involvement has to do with the degeneration of the state apparatus, and the state itself. It is common knowledge that the embryo of the modern state, initially forged in the first years following independence, has suffered weakness without precedent in the last few years, especially under the first lady being handled by Jonathan Moyo. The situation resembles that of a country in which neither the law or hierarchies are respected - the combination that puts things near, if not identical to that of failed state.That is why many voices claiming to reestablish the state are premised on strengthening national unity, on reinventing the political system, and on building a functional and independent justice.For this coup to happen exactly when the country was preparing for the presidential elections is, at least, an 'unhappy' coincidence. It was clear from the beginning that the electoral process itself would be disrupted.For the country to find the path to stability again, the exit from the crisis must include a return to constitutional order.Everything has been done both nationally and internationally to bring the military to reason. The process of building lasting peace, democracy, and the rule of law is incompatible with any compromise to those that would usurp power through a coup. It is essential that the international community does not turn its back on Zimbabwe. We must see the operation as an opportunity to ensure that Zimbabwe returns to stability and a civil peace that is sustainable.The elections are coming soon and it is not the army calling shorts. It is the Zimbabweans doing the same.Zimbabwe was captured already before the army took over. The army wrestled the power from those who had taken it from the constitutional system which was in place.As to whom did they give after the restoration of order is a question which is already known. The majority party had the mandate to finish their term. So they appointed an interim president who was later confirmed at congress.That president became the president of the country as he was reinstated and available in the country. At that time the other vice president Comrade Mphoko had ran away to Botswana. There was no need to create a power vacuum. So Mnangagwa was duly sworn in as the president of the country.Saying now that the ascendance was unlawful is in itself mischievous.The army has a constitutional right to maintain peace and order in the country. Their duty is to the country and indeed they stood their constitutional ground.Even though they targeted the criminals surrounding the president it was not the duty of the army to replace Mugabe with ED.If the truth be said Mugabe resigned when the MDC populace in towns led by Chamisa marched in to state House. It was the army who stopped and addressed them. The rural populace did not take part. So for MDC to say the current government is illegitimate it is cheap politicking.Mnangagwa is not in the office by force. The procedure was constitutional and very lawful.The former president had been removed by the G40 and he believed he was working with them. People took advantage of him and things fell apart.Now it is not correct to say that the country was taken by force. The decision to make Chiwenga a Vice president soon after the operation was not a wrong move. It is indeed an unwise move but very legal. By the time of his appointment Chiwenga was not a soldier he had retired. So his appointment was not a military one.We need to come together as a nation and work towards oneness and success of the nation.Declaring that elections will not be free and fair is wrong and obviously not in the spirit of progress. How does one foretell the future of elections.Zimbabweans can only destroy themselves by preempting the results of the elections before the elections.News / Press Release

by Adv Gift Nyandoro

People's Rainbow Coalition headed by Dr JTR Mujuru condemns in the strongest terms the Police brutality and heavy handedness that led to the cold killing of two innocent Civillian lives and critical injuring of four more. The callous and brutal killing of innocent citizenry demonstrates that Zimbabweans are living in a Police state. Zimbabwe should never be allowed to turn into Somali state governed by the law of the jungle; survival of the fittest.It is shameful that the Commissioner General of police despeakably apportion blame on the unarmed civilians. To blame the innocent citizenry for the Police's lack of use of minimal force in dealing with the public when it is the same police and misguided city of Harare leadership that instigated a ruthless banning of commuters from entering the city centre and thereby increasing transport cost on the already economically suffering masses demonstrates leadership delinquency of the highest order. The regime should be ashamed that in its first 100 days of military administration it has only delivered dead bodies of innocent civilians and leaving more under dangerous life threatening circumstances.To that end PRC demands that the irresponsible police officers be brought to book forth with. Nobody is above the law.Our vendors are Zimbabweans who are also trying to make a decent living under the most trying inhuman circumstances. PRC condemns such inhuman treatment of the Suffering masses. As Zimbabwe we wonder" if Ndiko kutonga kwaro here ?."We challenge Mnangagwa to commission an independent commission of enquiry into these painful and saddening circumstances we witness reckless loss of human life and responsible culprits should be brought to book. Zimbabweans should vote out such cruel leadership come 2018 elections. The affected families deserve to be compensated for the nation should never allow Satan to run away with a christian bible from a christian pulpit.# The Regime must fall come 2018 elections.Mother Zimbabwe for President 2018 electionsAdv Gift NyandoroPRC SpokespersonIndia has inked memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Canadas International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for supporting its programme based research support in addressing current and future global and local developmental challenges. IRDC already is providing support to Indian government initiatives in areas like finance, industry, agriculture and health through quality research. Since 1972, IDRC has funded 551 research activities worth CA$159 million in India through institutions, researchers and NGOs. During l2012-17 period, 96 research projects worth CA$ 51 million were funded by IDRC in India.

International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

IRDC is Canadian federal Crown corporation that invests in knowledge, innovation, and solutions to improve lives and livelihoods in developing world. It was established by Parliament of Canada in 1970 under The International Development Research Centre Act. It encourages and supports researchers from developing countries to conduct research in their own institutions and regions.

IDRC development programs support innovative solutions that improve global access to food, jobs, health, and technologies for growth. IDRCs three program areas promote innovation and deliver large-scale impact are Agriculture and Environment, Inclusive Economies and Technology and Innovation. :        ,     ;    , ISIS-K  IT Infrastructure

DOD seeks cloud-based task management system

Defense Department human resource officials are considering a cloud-based enterprise-wide task management system.

In a new sources sought notice, the Defense Human Resources Activity (DHRA) expects to award a five-year contract that uses a software as a service model.

The system must provide interoperability with the Correspondence and Task Management System (CATMS).

Officials are looking for a system that streamlines cross-organizational task management systems and can handle as many as 5,250 users. They are also focusing on disaster recovery and continuance of operations, and services such as system administration and maintenance, adoption services, and training and technical support.

The effort is a response to a 2015 DOD memo regarding CATMS.

DHRA released its notice Feb. 22. Responses are due by March 9.Ukraine plans to purchase several hundred American diesel locomotives over the next decade, the IMF insists that the country create an Anti-Corruption Court and implement reform of the energy sector, while the government unexpectedly lifted the moratorium on business inspections, and the NBU reported on disappointing performance by banks in 2017 - these are the main economic news of the outgoing week.

Ukrzaliznytsia has launched a "locomotive revolution". At the end of the week, the Ukrainian rail operator signed off a very important framework agreement worth $1 billion, giving a green light to the joint production of locomotives with General Electrics.

The agreement provides for a 15-year partnership  the modernization of up to 74 locomotives, the delivery of up to 225 new GE Evolution-series locomotives until 2034 and their long-term maintenance.

The next important point is the sales contract between GE and Ukreximbank for the delivery of 30 GE GE33AC diesel locomotives at the end of 2018 and early 2019.

"This is a very important day for the entire economy. I can reveal the secret of how it all began. During my visit to the United States in June, we talked with [U.S. President Donald] Trump that our countries' relations should go practical. For many years, Ukrzaliznytsia has been underfinanced. The company needs rolling stock, new locomotives. A contract worth $1 billion was signed very quickly. GE's reputation is very high. It comes to [work in] those countries where tolerance for corruption is very low. Therefore, [its] arrival in Ukraine is an indicator of trust," said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who was present at the signing of the contract.

Ukrzaliznytsia has been facing a critical situation with locomotives. The lack of capacities prevented factories from having their products delivered in time, including for export. As a result, the country's economy has been suffering.

If everything goes as planned, Ukrzaliznytsia will get new opportunities. Besides, the important point is the localization of production in Ukraine, allowing Ukrainian enterprises to be involved in cooperation with GE and will become suppliers of goods and services for GE.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who attended the signing ceremony, said: We believe that your vision of using American technology for the transformation of the Ukrainian railway system will give a boost to the entire economy."

According to her, the agreement will have a significant impact on bilateral trade relations. "$ 1 billion is a big sum, even for General Electric. But what is even more important is that it will create hundreds of new jobs in the United States and Ukraine. And this will promote new supplies. And moreover - we have achieved the integration of our economies," Marie Yovanovitch emphasized.

Many foreign companies (such as Bombardier, Alstom, Siemens and CRRC) have earlier shown interest in the Ukrainian market more than once, but that did not go beyond general phrases.

By the way, General Electric are not limiting themselves to cooperation in infrastructure projects. In 2018, the company will supply 26 wind turbines for the wind power plant of DTEK's energy holding in the Zaporizhia region.

IMF mission goes, discussion continues

The International Monetary Fund is unshakable in its demands to Ukraine. Such a conclusion arises following a Kyiv visit of our key creditor's technical mission. Apparently, the attempt of the Ukrainian authorities to ease the terms of cooperation with the IMF has not been a success.

As before, the IMF insists on the urgent consideration in parliament of the bill on the anti-corruption court, taking into account the amendments, as well as on raising gas prices.

It seems that the IMF technical mission was invited by the Ukrainian authorities, who were trying to agree on easing the terms. However, so far, the Fund has given no signals about the softening of their stance or changing requirements.

"It is now important that the authorities move expeditiously with parliamentary consideration of the draft law on the anti-corruption court, while ensuring that the necessary amendments are adopted during the parliamentary process to make the approved law fully consistent with program commitments and the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe," the IMF said in a press release following the visit of the Fund's technical mission to Ukraine," said in a press release following the visit of the Fund's technical mission to Ukraine.

"Further progress also needs to be made on other delayed measures that are necessary to achieve program objectives, including in the energy sector and with regard to fiscal policy. Discussions will continue in the coming weeks," reads the report.

Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Danyliuk says the visit of the IMF mission to Kyiv was generally fruitful, but no final agreement has been reached yet on the creation of an anti-corruption court and energy reform.

"I believe that mission's visit was fruitful. "We have advanced on certain issues quite actively. There is some progress, for example, on the issues of an anti-corruption court and energy reform. But a final agreement has not been reached yet," Danyliuk said.

At the same time, he has stressed that the joint work with the IMF is ongoing. The minister expressed hope that it will continue in the future. To this end, the government, in cooperation with Ukraine's parliament, will take a number of decisions, essential primarily for Ukraine.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman took up the same position. At a high-level international meeting on reform in Ukraine this week, he said that a decision on one of the key requirements of the IMF - the creation of the anti-corruption court - will be taken in the coming months.

"Fighting corruption is Ukraine's main task for 2018 ... Our task is to make a decision in the coming months to create an independent, effective anti-corruption court. This tool will put an end to those many discussions about corruption in Ukraine. This will be the verdict to those corrupt officials who have confused their pocket with that of the state and their private interests - with state interests," Groysman said.

The prime minister also called on the government not to fear the creation of the anti-corruption court.

"We must join forces, and we are already doing it, so that a few months later an anti-corruption court is established in Ukraine. There is nothing to fear. Nothing. The only thing is to create it not in someone's favor, but openly, publicly, so that there is a quality selection of judges and international experts give their recommendations. They can even be Ukrainians. We need crystal-clear judges, and then everything will fall into place," the prime minister said.

During the government meeting, Groysman highlighted the word "recommendations" regarding the role of international experts in the selection of judges. At the same time, the head of government stressed the fact that there is no alternative to creating an anti-corruption court.

"This is a difficult task, I know it, but there is no other option," Groysman said.

Moratorium sunk into oblivion

Quite unexpectedly, the topic of business inspections has rocked the Ukrainian media space. This is due to a Cabinet decree inflicting a severe blow on the moratorium that has been in place for several years.

Everything happened fast and simple. Twenty agencies of state supervision were excluded from the list of bodies banned from conducting inspections that entrepreneurs had been so wary of. Among those whose hands are now untied are some "best friends" of businesses, among them - the National Bank, National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, State Audit Service, State Export Control Service, State Fiscal Service, and Antimonopoly Committee.

Besides, the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, National Energy and Utilities Regulation Commission have also "corked champagne".

Party time has also come to the Ministry of Ecology, State Aviation Service, State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate, State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation, State Service for Medicines, State Service of Geology and Subsoil, State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre, State Labor Service, State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, as well as the State Service for Emergency Situations.

The State Regulatory Service notes that from the date of the decree's publication (February 22 until year-end), the bodies listed will be able to go on a free "hunt" conducting their scheduled inspections.

In addition, according to applications filed by citizens on violation of their rights, state supervision bodies will now be able to conduct unscheduled inspections, which until now were conducted solely based on a written approval with the State Regulatory Service.

Speaking frankly, the moratorium would have soon been abolished anyway. Consumers literally showered state agencies with complaints on all sorts of violations. Even after the Revolution of Dignity, a sense of responsibility and law-abiding did not wake up with some businesses.

For example, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources explicitly stated that because of the lack of control, facts of abuse by unscrupulous businesses go off-scale.

"Now, the right to verify economic entities for compliance with the requirements of environmental legislation has been restored. This is an absolutely European practice when businesses take care of the environment, rather than hide behind moratoriums," Minister Ostap Semerak wrote on Facebook.

It is possible that the businesses will come to their senses, and go for a counterattack. Many business associations will require the introduction of a risk-based approach to monitoring business activities.

"Given the imperfection of the legislation and inadequacy of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil (in some cases), I believe that such a decision is premature and there is a high risk of abuse on the part of an inspecting authority," executive director of the Association of Ukrainian Gas Producers Roman Opimakh told UNIAN.

By the way, the scandal that would hurt Ukraine's investment climate became a confirmation of this idea. The State Service of Geology and Subsoil last fall granted the right to exploit a large oil and gas field in Poltava region to Arkona Gas-Energy Company. This was done beyond a due tender procedure and at an obviously dumped price. Besides, as recently revealed by Radio Liberty. Petro Poroshenko's entourage is related to Arkone Gas-Energy. A large deposit was given to the company for only UAH 3.8 million, while its real value is about UAH 110 million. The state suffered millions in losses, but so far, neither the Security Service, nor the National Anti-corruption Bureau, nor the Prosecutor General's Office has reacted.

Now the State Service of Geology and Subsoil has the right to conduct scheduled inspections of the entire range of subsoil use.

If authority is abused, any supervision body may be deprived of its right to conduct inspections by the Cabinet.

Financial sector weak, while industry showing growth

The National Bank this week reported on the banks' performance in 2017. And so far, the results have been extremely disappointing - the losses of the banking system hit UAH 24.4 billion. However, the NBU noted that the final indicators of the banks' performance in 2017 could be corrected by the end of April following an annual audit routine.

The figures for 2017 are 6.5 times lower than the all-time record loss recorded in 2016 at UAH 160 billion.

The largest profit was received by Raiffeisen Bank Aval (UAH 4.5 billion), UkrSibbank (UAH 1.5 billion), and Credit Agricole Bank (UAH 1.15 billion).

The largest losses over the year were recorded in PrivatBank (UAH 22.9 billion), Prominvestbank (UAH 7.7 billion), and VTB Bank (UAH 4.1 billion).

According to the NBU, the number of unprofitable banks in 2017 decreased to 18 from 33 in 2016.

According to the director of the financial stability department at the central bank, Vitaly Vavryshchuk, in 2018 the National Bank expects losses in fewer than 10 banks.

"The banking sector is returning to profit: operating income is growing, while allocations to reserves are declining," he said.

The government also decided to help the National Bank in reforming the banking sector. In the outgoing week, the Cabinet of Ministers approved an updated strategy for reforming the state banking sector.

According to Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk, the strategy provides for a reduction in the state share in the banking sector of Ukraine in the medium term from 55% to 24%.

The updated strategy for reforming state banks provides to create by late 2019 conditions for attracting minority shareholders to the capital of Oschadbank and Ukreximbank, the full sale of Ukrgasbank until 2020, and PrivatBank  until 2022.

"As early as before late 2019, we plan to have created conditions for attracting minority shareholders - international financial organizations such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), respectively, -- in Oschadbank and Ukreximbank," Danyliuk told a government meeting during the presentation of the financial strategy.

In addition, the strategy provides for a gradual cancellation of the full state guarantee for deposits placed in Oschadbank.

"We are planning a gradual transition of Oschadbank to the system of the Individual Deposits Guarantee Fund. This is provided for by the strategy," the minister said, adding that this step will allow all banks in the market to be placed in the same competitive conditions.

However, this week saw some positive news as well. Ukrainian industry showed 3.6% growth in the first month of 2018 y-o-y.

The greatest growth was recorded in industrial production of chemical substances - by 55.9%, electrical equipment - by 55.9%, and computer production - by 31%.

The greatest decline in the said period was recorded in the extraction of hard and brown coal - by 22.9% and production of coke and refined products - by 5.7%.

Olha Pavlovska

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterCargo ship confiscated for calling sanctioned Crimea ports to be handed over to Ukraine Navy

Sky Moon was detained by Ukraine's coast patrol on the Danube in late 2016.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterThe U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, is assisting the government and people of Malawi to combat the invasive crop pest called fall armyworm.

USAIDs assistance has included media campaigns to educate farmers on pest identification and control, in-person trainings with farmers, technical messages for use by extension workers, distribution of 1,400 pheromone traps as part of a national monitoring and early warning system, and funding to test 11 pesticides for efficacy in controlling fall armyworm.

USAID also facilitated a recent visit to Malawi by South African experts to assess the situation and provide training on pest identification, estimation of infestation rates, and control measures to public and private sector extension workers.

To combat the spread of the fall armyworm across the African continent, international experts recently gathered to produce a new comprehensive integrated pest management guide to help scientists, extension agents, and farmers tackle the voracious fall armyworm. It is based on scientific evidence and contains expert advice for plant protection organizations, extension agencies, research institutions, and governments working with smallholder farmers to better understand fall armyworm and the agricultural challenge it will pose to Africa for years to come.

USAID also recently announced the Fall Armyworm Tech Prize to source digital solutions that can help identify and provide actionable information on how to treat fall armyworm. Innovators can learn more and apply at fallarmywormprize.org.

The fall armyworm can feed on 80 different crop species including maize, a staple food produced by over 300 million African smallholder farms. Since its 2016 discovery, the crop pest has since been reported in over 40 Sub-Saharan African countries, posing a significant threat to food security, income, and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Without proper control measures implemented, the pest could cause extensive yield losses to maize crops, estimated between $3.6 and $6.2 billion per year across 12 major African maize producing countries, according to an evidence note published by the Center for Agriculture and Bio-sciences International in September 2017.

The United States is proud to work with its partners to help Malawi and other countries in Africa combat a serious threat to food production and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of farmers and rural communities.The Department of Justice announced on February 16th that a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special Counsel office headed by Robert Mueller. The indictment charges thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian companies with committing federal crimes as part of an effort to interfere in the United States political system, including the 2016 Presidential election.



According to the indictment, twelve of the individual defendants worked at various times for Internet Research Agency LLC, a Russian company based in St. Petersburg, and engaged in operations to interfere with elections and political processes. The organization allegedly conducted what the indictment calls information warfare against the United States, with the stated goal of spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.



The other individual defendant, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, allegedly funded the Internet Research Agency through companies he controlled, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, Concord Catering, often distributing the funds through affiliates. The influence operation is alleged to have been part of a larger operation called Project Lakhta. Project Lakhta included multiple components, some involving domestic audiences within the Russian Federation and others targeting foreign audiences in multiple countries.



The defendants also allegedly recruited and paid unwitting Americans to engage in political activities, promote political campaigns, and stage political rallies. The indictment claims the defendants and their co-conspirators posed asAmerican grassroots activists and did not disclose that they were Russian in their communications with any Americans.



The indictment includes eight criminal counts.

There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.



This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the Internet, said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. 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. The Department of Justice will continue to work cooperatively with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and with the Congress, to defend our nation against similar current and future schemes.New York-based organization Human Rights Watch has called on Iran to drop charges against women peacefully protesting compulsory hijab and to stop prosecuting women over dress code.

For decades Iranian authorities have imposed a compulsory dress code on women violating their basic freedom to express themselves and restricting access to economic and social opportunities for anyone who refuses, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Now when women are peacefully protesting a discriminatory dress code, authorities are adding to their misdeeds by arresting them.

The statement by HRW was made on February 24, one day after Iranian police threatened that although the sentence for not wearing hijab is a two-month imprisonment, anyone encouraging others to take off their hijab would be jailed for 10 years, Fars News Agency reported.

The statement is based on the polices interpretation of article 639 of the Iranian penal code, which calls for one to 10 years of imprisonment for those convicted of opening brothels and encouraging people to engage in prostitution.

Iranians on social media angrily reacted to the statement released by the Police. Ali Mojtahedzadeh, an Iranian lawyer, wrote on his Twitter page: The statement by the police has no legal value. The police are not in a position to interpret the law. They can simply enforce verdicts issued by judiciary authorities.

Several Iranian women have been arrested during recent weeks for taking off their headscarf in public and protesting the compulsory hijab while standing on electric utility boxes.

Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) put the number of women arrested for protesting the hijab at 21 as of February 1.

In this video, a hijab protester, Maryam Shariatmadari is pushed to the ground. She has broken here leg.

The most recent cases include Shaparak Shajarizadeh, who was arrested on Wednesday February 21 while peacefully protesting in north Tehran. Her family members have told reporters that she has been beaten up in custody.

Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotudeh who had earlier warned against violent treatment of jailed women in an interview with Radio Farda, said on February 22 that Shajarizadeh has been released on bail and is to stand trial on February 24.

On Thursday, another woman, Maryam Shariatmadari, was violently pushed down by a policeman while peacefully protesting on an electric utility box in downtown Tehran.

Reports from Tehran say she is now in jail with a broken leg. Social media posts say prison officials did not give her the antibiotic she needed to prevent an infection.

Iranian women started protesting compulsory hijab in public in late December 2017 while Iran was overwhelmed by widespread demonstrations against poverty and social injustice.

The first woman who took off her headscarf on top of an electric utility box was Vida Movahed. Others such as Nargess Hosseini, Azam Jangravi continued the campaign.

Activists on social media reported on February 24 that Nargess Hosseini has been indicted on the same day with three charges: encouraging others to commit corrupt behavior, not observing hijab regulation, and committing a prohibited act in public.

The hashtag Girls of Revolution Street, highlighted the campaign, and became "hot" within hours of Vida Movaheds arrest on December 27.

In a video released on Twitter on February 24, renowned sociologist Fatemeh Sadeqi has said in a speech at Tehrans Humanities Research Center No one can ignore these women any longer. Wherever there is a debate about womens demands, it is also about the girls of Revolution Street.

The Islamic regime in Iran imposed a mandatory dress code in early 1980s requiring all women including foreign diplomats visiting Iran to wear the hijab.

The enforcement of a compulsory dress code on women in Iran violates their rights to private life, personal autonomy, and freedom of expression, as well as to freedom of religion, thought, and conscience, Human Rights Watch said. It is also a form of gender-based discrimination prohibited under international law.

Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that guarantees peoples right to freedom of expression, to privacy, and to freedom of religion.The UN Security Council is scrambling to reach agreement on a resolution seeking a cease-fire in Syria and has put back a vote until February 24.



The vote on a motion calling for a 30-day truce in Syria to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid and to evacuate wounded civilians has already been postponed several times since February 22.



U.S. President Donald Trump on February 23 accused Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government of being responsible for a "humanitarian disgrace" in Syria.



"I will say what Russia and what Iran and what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace," Trump told a news conference at the White House.



"What those three countries have done to those people is a disgrace," he added.



Russia has previously voiced opposition to the resolution, saying it is unrealistic and that it ignores the fact that many Islamic State (IS) fighters remain in the region.



French President Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to back the resolution and to press its Syrian government ally to stop the bombardments of a rebel-held enclave outside Damascus.



Witnesses reported a new wave of bombs hit the enclave in Syria's eastern Ghouta district on February 23. More than 400 civilians reportedly have been killed in the district since February 18.



"The massacre in Eastern Ghouta must stop now," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement. "The European Union is running out of words to describe the horror being experienced by the people of Eastern Ghouta."



Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier on February 23 that "Russia and Iran must stop the regime."



He also said that the bombardment of Eastern Gouta and a government offensive against rebel-held positions in Idlib Province was "contrary" to agreements negotiated in Astana by diplomats from Ankara, Moscow, and Tehran.



Earlier, the United States criticized Russia over the bombing of Eastern Ghouta, saying Moscow has a "unique responsibility" for the deaths of hundreds of civilians there during the past week.



The U.S. State Department called on Russia to use its influence over the Syrian government to stop the killing while U.S. diplomats pushed for passage of the Security Council resolution.



State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert blamed Russia for not curbing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his army, which launched an all-out campaign in February to defeat militants in Eastern Ghouta.



"What are they doing to stop the devastation, the deaths, the murders that are taking place in Syria?" Nauert asked journalists in Washington. "Without Russia backing Syria, the devastation and the deaths would certainly not be occurring."



"It is a good reminder that Russia bears a unique responsibility for what is taking place there," she said.



Nauert also blamed Moscow for what she called "throwing a wrench" into negotiations at the UN over the resolution to establish a temporary cease-fire.



Russia's UN ambassador rejected the Western-drafted resolution, raising the possibility of a veto when the council votes.



Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the media and Western nations are conducting a "misinformation campaign" about the fighting in Ghouta and are ignoring what he called the "inconvenient truth" that several thousand fighters from a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda reside there.



Nauert said the fighting in Ghouta shows the failure of Russian-sponsored peace negotiations over Syria, known as the Astana process, which designated Eastern Ghouta as a "de-escalation zone" where fighting was supposed to be on the decline.



"It shows what a farce this de-escalation zone has become," Nauert said.



At the United Nations, U.S. ambassador for economic and social affairs Kelley Currie said Assad is trying to "bomb or starve" his enemies into submission in Ghouta, just as he did in Aleppo, Hama, and Homs.



She said Assad is counting on Russia to provide the cover he needs at the UN so his forces can "keep bombing and gassing these 400,000 people" who live in Ghouta.



The Syrian army on February 22 dropped leaflets calling on Ghouta residents to leave for their own safety and urging opposition fighters to hand themselves over. The leaflets were similar to those dropped over rebel-held neighborhoods during the government's siege of Aleppo.



Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja'afari told the UN Security Council that Ghouta will be the "second Aleppo."



With reporting by AP, AFP, and ReutersBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

In connection with the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide, Azerbaijanis held a protest rally in Munich, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Work with Diaspora said in a message.

Representatives of the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities of Munich took part in the protest rally organized by Sattar Karimov, chairman of the Cultural Center of Azerbaijanis of Munich, his deputy Fuad Rzayev and the Bavarian Federation of Turkish Societies.

The slogans Justice to Khojaly, Khojaly genocide - crime against humanity and others were voiced at the protest rally, posters and flags of Azerbaijan were raised.

Speaking at the rally, the Azerbaijanis demanded from the international community to demonstrate decisive stance against Armenias aggressive and occupation policy.

Following the rally, an appeal was sent to international organizations on behalf of the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities of Munich.

The international community must give legal assessment to the Khojaly genocide and take decisive measures to end the occupation policy of Armenia, according to the appeal. The document expresses concern over the indifference of the international community regarding the events that are taking place, which prompts Armenia to commit even more serious crimes.

On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid.

On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Estonia  Independence Day, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.

I am confident that the development of the friendly relations and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Estonia will further contribute to prosperity of our peoples. On this remarkable day, I extend my best wishes to you and wish the friendly people of Estonia lasting peace and prosperity.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

King of Jordan Abdullah II has sent a letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

I am delighted to convey to you my sincere greetings and best wishes for good health, happiness and success, and to commend your keenness to bolster your countrys progress and development, and ensure your peoples welfare, King of Jordan Abdullah II said in his letter.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Republic of Azerbaijan, it gives me great pleasure to express my deep pride in the historical ties of friendship between our two countries and peoples, based on our commitment to expanding bilateral cooperation in various areas.

During my visits to your brotherly country, I have taken note of Azerbaijans great achievements in the economic, cultural, scientific, and development-related fields, which reflect Your Excellencys continued commitment to leading your country into further progress and prosperity, King of Jordan Abdullah II added.

We are confident that Azerbaijan, under your wise leadership, will continue its important role in the service of regional and global security and stability.

I also take this opportunity to reaffirm our full commitment to continuing to strengthen bilateral cooperation, building on our strategic partnership to take it to further heights in the service of our two peoples shared interests and the causes of our Islamic Ummah, and with the aim of bolstering our shared goal to achieve peace, security, and stability, King of Jordan Abdullah II noted.

I pray that God Almighty bless Your Excellency and grant you success and good health, and the dear people of Azerbaijan the progress and prosperity they aspire to.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Turkey trilateral cooperation format will contribute to further strengthening of relations among the countries, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry told Trend Feb. 24.

Ukraine has traditional friendly relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey, and both countries are strategic partners of Ukraine, according to the ministry.

The Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Turkey trilateral cooperation format will become a platform that will allow to develop mutually beneficial projects similar to those being successfully implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey in other trilateral cooperation formats, the ministry noted.

Earlier, Azerbaijans Ambassador to Ukraine Azer Khudiyev said that the first political consultations regarding the creation of Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Turkey format will be held in Baku on March 6.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Ukraine amounted to approximately $810 million in 2017, almost $460 million of which accounted for imports of Ukrainian products, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

This is while Azerbaijans trade turnover with Turkey for the reporting period amounted to $2.64 billion, $1.4 billion of which accounted for exports of Azerbaijani products. Turkey is the second biggest trade partner of Azerbaijan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Leman Zeynalova, Samir Ali - Trend:

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan, Tajik ambassador to Azerbaijan Rustam Soli said at an event held on occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Tajik Armed Forces in Baku on Feb.24.

The ambassador noted that Rahmon is expected to visit Azerbaijan this year.

"Preparations for the visit of the president are underway. This visit will open a new page in the Azerbaijani-Tajik relations," he noted.

However, the diplomat did not disclose the exact date of the visit.

The legal framework between the two countries exceeds 35 documents.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Tajikistan amounted to approximately $2.04 million in 2017, almost $47,400 of which accounted for imports of Tajik products, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is interested in exporting agricultural products to Tajikistan, organizing export delegations of Azerbaijani businessmen, as well as participation of Azerbaijani companies in the projects in Tajikistan to expand economic cooperation between the two countries.

Tajikistan, in turn, expresses interest in the supply of goods to international markets through the Caspian Sea, creation of joint ventures in the sphere of processing agricultural products, cooperation in the field of tourism.

In order to develop bilateral relations, including in the sphere of tourism, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan are discussing the restoration of the Dushanbe-Baku direct flight.Details added (first version posted on 13:10)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Leman Zeynalova, Samir Ali - Trend:

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan, Tajik ambassador to Azerbaijan Rustam Soli said at an event held on occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Tajik Armed Forces in Baku on Feb.24.

The ambassador noted that Rahmon is expected to visit Azerbaijan this year.

"Preparations for the visit of the president are underway. This visit will open a new page in the Azerbaijani-Tajik relations," he noted.

However, the diplomat did not disclose the exact date of the visit.

The legal framework between the two countries exceeds 35 documents.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Tajikistan amounted to approximately $2.04 million in 2017, almost $47,400 of which accounted for imports of Tajik products, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan is interested in exporting agricultural products to Tajikistan, organizing export delegations of Azerbaijani businessmen, as well as participation of Azerbaijani companies in the projects in Tajikistan to expand economic cooperation between the two countries.

Tajikistan, in turn, expresses interest in the supply of goods to international markets through the Caspian Sea, creation of joint ventures in the sphere of processing agricultural products, cooperation in the field of tourism.

In order to develop bilateral relations, including in the sphere of tourism, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan are discussing the restoration of the Dushanbe-Baku direct flight.Khojaly Massacre is one of the most brutal incidents of inhumane warfare to take place in modern times, Head of the Community of Azerbaijans Mountain Jews Milikh Yevdayev said in his article published in the "Jewish Journal" on Feb. 24.

Speaking of history of Armenias aggression towards Azerbaijan, Yevdayev reminded that the occupation continues, and the international community does nothing to make Armenia comply with international law.

He said that Feb. 26, 1992 events in Khojaly were much more than an act of occupation.

What happened in Khojaly was a brutal massacre. Hundreds of totally innocent, unarmed Azerbaijanis were gunned down while fleeing the Armenian army. They were gunned down like animals in a field: men, women, and children, Yevdayev said.

He added that as an Azerbaijani Jew, he feels especially sensitive about such an incident of inhumanity in modern time.

It is hard to believe human beings were still capable of such atrocities, but as we know, even today, violence and cruelty ensues, in many countries around the world. We have such a responsibility to make good on that promise, and yet the world continues to challenge our commitment, Yevdayev wrote.

Commenting on Israeli President Reuven Rivlins speech at the UN General Assembly, where the head of state named Khojaly events among modern time genocides, Yevdayev said that Khojaly Massacre is something that should never have happened.

The author wrote about Azerbaijan-Israel relations being based on historical ties, 2,000-year old Mountainous Jewish community in Azerbaijan and roles of both countries for each another during different periods of history, such as Azerbaijanis fighting against Nazis and Azerbaijan being a safe haven for Jews during Holocaust, as well as Jews fighting for Azerbaijans sovereignty in Karabakh war, Azerbaijans National Hero of Jewish origin Albert Agarunov Among them.

Thankfully, we have the support of great nations, such as the State of Israel, the United States and many others, to continue pushing Armenia to take responsibility and to leave the occupied Karabakh region; our land they so brutally took and still refuse to leave. I hope it will not be long from now that we have more to be thankful for, and that the story of Khojaly and the entire region will have a new chapter; one without occupiers, one that has the thousands of residents returning home, even after so many years, Yevdayev concluded.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Bilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and Tajikistan is at a high level, Colonel Ruslan Mammadov, deputy chief of the Azerbaijan Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev, said Feb. 24 at an event in Baku dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Tajik Armed Forces.

Mammadov congratulated the people of Tajikistan on the anniversary and noted that friendship and brotherly relations between the peoples of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have long history.

Presently, the friendly relations between our peoples are also at a high level, he said. The foundation of relations between Azerbaijan and Tajikistan was laid in 1992. As a result of the policy pursued by the national leader Heydar Aliyev, the two countries established relations of cooperation, and this cooperation is developing under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. The cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries is also at a high level. The Azerbaijan Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev plays a role in strengthening of the Tajik army. The Tajik cadets who study at this school will contribute to the development of the Tajik army in the future.

Tajik Ambassador to Azerbaijan Rustam Soli said that 40 Tajik citizens graduated from the Azerbaijan Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev.

Presently, 15 cadets are enrolled, and the quota for the number of cadets will be increased, the ambassador noted. The decision has already been made, and the technical settlement of this issue is underway. Tajik cadets should appreciate this brotherly concern of the Azerbaijani people, the president of Azerbaijan. We are in a fraternal country, therefore, we should treat traditions and laws of this country with great respect. This fraternal country has given Tajik cadets a unique opportunity for free education.

Major-General Anvar Efendiyev, head of the combat readiness department of Azerbaijans Defense Ministry, congratulated the people of Tajikistan in his speech, noting that the day of the armys creation is a holiday in every country.

A country without an army cannot be independent, because the army plays an important role in gaining and strengthening of the countrys independence, he said. After Azerbaijan restored its independence just like Tajikistan, the country resumed development in all directions.

Highly appreciating the cooperation between the Azerbaijani and Tajik armies, the head of the department said that after 2010, 40 Tajik cadets were admitted to the Azerbaijan Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev.

I believe that the Tajik cadets who continue their studies, will serve in the army of Tajikistan with honor, he noted. Our cooperation continues for already eight years, and we will conduct joint exercises in the future.

Azerbaijani MP Aydin Mirzazade told about relations between Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.

Cooperation continues, he said. Tajikistan has always been in friendly relations with countries. Azerbaijan has always attached special importance to cooperation with Tajikistan, and this attitude will be strengthened even more under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev.

At the end of the event, the Tajik ambassador was presented with a gift on behalf of the Azerbaijan Higher Military School named after Heydar Aliyev.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Number of those looking to observe the April 11, 2018 presidential election in Azerbaijan has reached 51, the Central Election Commission told Trend Feb. 24.

Thirty-six observers are willing to observe the election by personal initiative, 15 others are nominated by non-governmental organization (NGOs).

All appeals received positive response.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of the State of Kuwait.

"On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I am pleased to convey my congratulations to you and through you to all the people of your country on the occasion of the public holiday of the State of Kuwait," President Aliyev said in his congratulatory letter.

"I am confident that the development and expansion of the friendly relations and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Kuwait will further serve our peoples` interests," the president said.

"On this remarkable day, I wish you robust health and happiness, and the friendly people of Kuwait lasting peace and prosperity," added President Aliyev.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait.

"I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you and your people on the occasion of the public holiday of your country," President Aliyev said in his congratulatory letter.

"I hope that Azerbaijan-Kuwait relations will continue developing in an atmosphere of friendship and cooperation," the president said.

"On this remarkable day, I extend my best regards to you, and wish the friendly people of Kuwait lasting peace and prosperity," added President Aliyev.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

On Feb. 26, Azerbaijan will mark the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

Starting from today, people are coming to the memorial in the Khatai district of Baku to honor the memory of the victims of the Khojaly genocide.

Photographs of the Khojaly genocide have been placed on the stands installed around the monument.

On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 24

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov met with Vice-President of Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Mansur Muhtar, Turkmen State News agency reported.

The IDB is proud of the business partnership with Turkmenistan on implementation of important projects, he noted.

Muhtar underlined the importance of the future TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistanIndia (TAPI) gas pipeline which guarantees further increase of economic and social wellbeing of many Asian nations.

The Turkmen president highly assessed activity of the IDB, the reached level of cooperation between Turkmenistan and the IDB, its considerable contribution to the promotion of the TAPI and a number of other important projects. Among them is the KazakhstanTurkmenistanIran railway. International freight transit has already been established over this route, and test trains were launched from China to Iran.

Implementation of the TAPI gas pipeline project with participation of the IDB will guarantee peace and stability in the region, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said, stressing that Turkmenistan is committed to the strategic partnership with the IDB.

Muhtar on his part noted the existence of huge potential for the expansion of mutual contacts.

The sides exchanged views on possibilities for future mutually beneficial partnership, including the financing of prospective programs of regional importance.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.24

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

The Astana International Financial Center of Kazakhstan (AIFC) intends to register about 100 companies by the end of the year, Center's manager Kairat Kelimbetov said at a government meeting on Feb.20.

"The main news for today is the registration of the representation of the State Development Bank of China. This is a significant incentive for the flow of Chinese investors. In general, we plan that by the end of the year about 100 companies will be registered at the AIFC, " Kelimbetov said.

He said that the AIFC raises active interest among potential investors, and the center acts as a modern high-tech infrastructure with favorable jurisdiction, which provides all the necessary conditions for attracting both direct and portfolio investments.

"Presently, the AIFC has identified a pool of potential participants, with whom agreements have already been reached on joint interaction at the center. Among these companies are the largest international development institutions, management companies, investment banks, consulting companies, financial associations, Islamic financial institutions and other market players interested in the AIFC's work, " Kelimbetov said.

He further said that the official opening of the center will be held at the Congress Center of EXPO on July 5.

Presently, all the necessary infrastructure has been created and all the bodies of the AIFC defined by the Constitutional Law "On the IFCA" have been formed, according to him.

"This is a management board, an administration, a financial services regulator, a court and an international arbitration center. As part of the development of the capital market, the AIFC Stock Exchange was created. An expat center was created to provide centralized access on the principle of single window to AIFC staff and participants on visa and other issues, "he added.

The aim of the AIFC is to form a leading international centre of financial services. For the first time in post-Soviet region Common law framework is introduced in the AIFC.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Nigar Guliyeva- Trend:

An exhibition of Uzbek national products Made in Uzbekistan and a joint business forum will be held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in the first half of March 2018, the Foreign Trade Ministry of Uzbekistan said in a message.

The expo is aimed at familiarizing the representatives of the business circles of Tajikistan with products, manufactured in Uzbekistan, and promoting the supply of domestic goods and services to the Tajik market.

The exhibition will present products of automotive, agricultural, food, light, pharmaceutical, chemical, oil and gas, metallurgy and electrical industries, as well as construction materials and samples of craftsmanship in Uzbekistan.

Within the business forum, it is planned to hold presentations of investment potentials of countries and organize B2B and B2G meetings.

Previously, within the framework of organized mutual national exhibitions in Dushanbe and Tashkent, a package of trade documents worth over $00 million was signed.

Currently, Uzbek banks consider providing credit lines to Tajik banks to finance purchase of the Uzbek-made products. It is expected that this will significantly increase business activity between the two countries in the shortest possible time.

In 2017, trade between the countries made up $236.8 million, which is 20.2 percent more than in 2016. The main export items to Tajikistan are transportation services, mineral fertilizers and food products. There are 22 enterprises with the participation of Tajik capital operate in Uzbekistan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Gulgiz Muradova -Trend:

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will not extend its agreement again, Tom Pugh, the economist at British economic research and consulting company Capital Economics, told Trend.

"The stocks to consumption ratio will be very close to its five-year average by the end of 2018. As such, we expect there to be some sort of managed increase in OPECs output," he said, adding that the cartel may announce about it in June or closer to the end of the year.

In late 2017, OPEC and non-OPEC producers led by Russia agreed to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018 in a bid to finish clearing a global glut of crude while signaling a possible early exit from the deal if the market overheats.

The producers previous deal, under which they are cutting supply by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to boost oil prices, expires in March 2018.

OPEC is expected to examine progress at its next regular meeting in June.

Pugh further added that OPECs refusal to extend the deal will be one of the reasons why oil prices will decrease in 2019.

"This is one reason, along with a sharp slowdown in the US output, why we expect prices to fall further next year," he said.

He noted that overall oil prices will fall back for three key reasons.

"First, supply will increase sharply. We have already seen dramatic increases in the US. Second, demand growth will slow as the global economy slows, led by China. Third, a stronger dollar will put some downward pressure on prices," he said.

He stressed that the end-2018 forecast of Capital Economics for Brent is $60 and end-2019 forecast is $55.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 24

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The nomination of candidates as part of a campaign for the upcoming election of members of parliament, as well as local authorities to be held March 25 in Turkmenistan has been completed in the country, the Turkmen government said in a message Feb. 24.

In the coming days, meetings of candidates with voters will begin. In accordance with the Turkmen legislation, meetings to nominate candidates were held in the constituencies.

The participants of the meetings, having familiarized themselves with the CVs of the applicants, their vision of the further democratic development of the state and society, supported their candidacies, the message said.

A total of 2,963 observers were registered from the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Agrarian Party, public organizations and associations, as well as groups of citizens of the country.

Representatives of the CIS, the UN, the OSCE, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stated that their representatives will participate as observers in the election.From 26 February to 1 March 2018, United Kingdom undertakes second Trade Mission to Bishkek, Kabar with reference to the British Embassy in Kyrgyzstan reported.

A delegation of seven UK companies, led by the London based organization British Expertise International, will meet with the Ministry of Economy, representatives of businesses, and international organizations in Bishkek. The event is aimed at establishing stronger relations around education reforms, policy and infrastructure development, provision of media and IT solutions.

The UK Trade Mission delegation consists of Crown Agents Ltd, De La Rue, Integras Technologies Ltd, Mishcon de Reya LLP, UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, MMD Mineral Sizing, and Scottish Qualifications Authority. These companies bring international best practice and expertise in the provision of E-Government, identity data management solutions, supply chain, fund management, supply of mineral processing solutions, education, consultancy and policy development, delivery of engineering solutions, high end solutions in media and IT, legal services and others.

The delegation arrives to Bishkek on 26 February and the official opening starts 9:30am on 27 February in Orion Hotel Bishkek. The programs will include networking reception, UK-Kyrgyz Business Forum, B2B meetings, roundtable and more. Her Majestys Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic Robin Ord-Smith said, This is a great opportunity to build stronger trade and investment ties between our two countries to support economic development and contribute to the National Strategy for Sustainable Development of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Forty Steps to New Era Program and Taza Koom.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

Trend:

Japan has completed implementation of five projects in the Khatlon district of Tajikistan, TajikTA news agency reported.

The projects were supported as part of the Japanese governments program of gratuitous aid and humanitarian security for the general population in the Khatlon district , the Japanese Embassy in Tajikistan said.

In particular, the Khuroson district hosted a completion ceremony for the reconstruction project of a secondary school, for which the Japanese government had previously allocated about $82,200.

Also, a grant worth $82,200 was issued for completion of the project on construction and equipping of a womens support center in the Bokhtar city.

Japan provided grants worth more than $84,000 each for improving the drinking water supply system in the Kubodiyon district, rehabilitation of the existing school building and construction of new buildings for a school in the Shahritus district, as well as reconstruction of two bridges in the Jayhun district.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Irans annual target of $53 billion worth of non-oil exports has materialized by 70 percent during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, started March 2017.

The latest official statistics indicate that Iran has exported $37.1 billion worth of non-oil goods (including gas condensates) during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (March 20, 2017-Jan. 21), which is equal to 84 percent of targeted figure for the period ($44.17 billion).

The Islamic Republic has increased its export target by $3 billion for the current fiscal year (March 20, 2017-2018) to $53 billion, despite the fact that the countrys non-oil exports stood at $43.93 billion in the one-year period to March 2017.

Irans non-oil exports registered a rise by 1.7 percent in terms of value, year-on-year during the 10-month period to Jan. 21, according to a report from the Islamic Republics Trade Promotion Organization (TPOI).

Raw materials share the dominant part of Irans non-oil export basket. Gas condensates, propane, butane and some other raw petroleum products - which Iran puts in the non-oil exports basket - made the countrys top exported goods during the 9-month period.

During the period, the country had exported $5.679 billion worth of condensate (8 percent less, year on year).

Liquefied natural gas($1.927 billion, 1 percent fall), liquefied propane (worth $1.213 billion, 22 percent increase), gasoline excluded light oils and products (worth $997 million, 51 percent fall), methanol (worth $984 million, 31 percent more year-on-year), iron ore(worth $845 million, 42 percent increase), semi-completed iron and steel products (worth $771 million, 300 percent increase), pistachio($762 million, 8 percent fall), liquefied butane ($744 million, 20 percent increase) and film grade polyethylene (worth $652 million, 19 percent decrease) where other top exported goods in the 10-month period (March 20-Jan. 21).

As seen all of Irans top exports are raw materials or semi-processed oil and mineral products.

Irans trade balance during the 10-month period witnessed a fall by 523 percent and became negative (-5.718 billion), after experiencing a positive balance previous year.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 22

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Turkeys gas import from Iran amounted to 792.81 million cubic meters in December 2017, 7.5 percent less year-on-year.

Natural gas imports from Iran accounted for 13.2 percent of the countrys total gas imports in the one-month period compared to 15.4 percent in December 2016, according to a report released by Turkeys Energy Market Regulatory Body.

Irans share from the countrys gas market was 14.5 percent in November 2017.

The Islamic Republic was Turkeys second gas supplier in the period, after Russia.

Turkeys gas import from Iran in January-December 2017 stood at 9.2 billion cubic meters (bcm).

Turkeys total natural gas import stood at 5.995 bcm in December 2017, registering a rise by 7.56 percent year-on-year.

Irans overall gas exports to Turkey accounted to 7.8 and 7.7 bcm in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Gas import sources December 2017(mcm) Share (%) Y/Y change (%) Russia 2,630.65 43.87 -6.91 Iran 792.81 13.22 -7.56 Azerbaijan 595.55 9.93 0.17 Algeria 529.98 8.84 -7.87 Qatar 525.69 8.77 504.59 Nigeria 394.97 6.59 102.91 Trinidad and Tobago 239.22 3.99 39.88 Equatorial Guinea 189.01 3.15 100 US 97.92 1.63 24.43 Total 5,995.79 100 7.56

Turkey also exported 61.79 million cubic meters of gas to Greece in December 2017, indicating a fall by 17.32 percent year-on-year.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.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

The industry sector products had the largest share among Irans non-oil exports during the current fiscal year, started March 20, 2017.

The country exported $13.881 billion worth of industrial products during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, equal to 37.4 percent of countrys overall non-oil exports including gas condensates, according to the data, released by Trade Promotion Organization of Iran.

The value of the industrial exports witnessed a rise by 17 percent, year-on-year.

The Islamic Republic exported 33.282 million tons of industrial products, indicating a rise by 18 percent compared to the same period of the preceding year.

The mining sector registered highest growth among the sub-sectors of Irans non-oil economy in the current fiscal year in terms of value of exports.

Iran exported $1.369 billion worth of mineral products during the 10-month period, registering a 28 percent increase year-on-year.

However, the volume of the exports (22.899 million tons) was 4 percent less compared to the 10-month period of the preceding year.

The petrochemical products ranked second among Irans non-oil exports in the period. During the 10-month period, Irans petrochemical exports decreased by 8 percent to $12.6 billion.

Meanwhile the volume of petrochemical exports registered a fall by 13 percent to 30.839 million tons in the same span of time.

Iran exported 14.477 million tons of gas condensate, worth $5.679 billion, which, compared to the same period last year, indicates a 8 percent decrease in volume and value.

Agricultural products stood at the next place with a share of 8.6 percent from total non-oil exports value.

The value of Irans agricultural exports accounted to $3.181 billion or 5 percent less, year on year.

The volume of the exported agricultural products was 3.38 million tons, 13 percent less in comparison to the 10-month period of the preceding year.

The Islamic Republic also exported $377 million worth of hand-made carpets and handicrafts in the 10-month period, 18 percent more year-on-year.

Hand-made carpets and handicrafts, minerals and industrial products were the only products among Iranian exported goods that witnessed value growth compared to the preceding year.

In the 10-month period, Irans total non-oil exports, which include gas condensate as well, stood at $37.087 billion, which indicates a 1.7 percent rise.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Liberty. What does the word stand for? Many things. People fought for it and died for it. There are as many meanings to the word, but all of them have something in common: free will of a human soul.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is a more than 200-year old maxim of the French revolution.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen defines the liberty as a right consisting of doing anything which does not harm others. The definition seems to be the most accurate and simple, although other people and nations may have different views.

But none of them, I dare say, has anything to do with the liberty Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is talking about, at least because his liberty presupposes the harm that is done to many hundreds of thousands.

Sargsyan, on Feb. 20 addressed on the occasion of the so-called Karabakh Movement 30th anniversary. In other words  30 years since the beginning of occupation of Azerbaijans lands.

February 20, 1988 was the moment of unity, determination and national awakening of the Armenian people, the president said. A rather bold assertion if we consider current state of Armenia, its sock-puppet semi-country in Nagorno Karabakh and the Armenian people.

Monte was right to insist that if we were to lose Artsakh, we would have turned the last page of Armenias history. On 20 February 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh Regional Council met in an extraordinary session to adopt a resolution expressing the Karabakh peoples will for free self-determination. Three decades ago, Armenians all over the world joined the fair demand and struggle of Artsakh. Today, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of that historic turning point, Sargsyans message said.

A turning point indeed. A turn so sharp, that wounds it has left will be healing during many years even after resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

First of all, it is rather interesting to see how the Armenian president quotes infamous Armenian nationalist and terrorist Monte Melkonian, an author of numerous attacks against Turkish diplomats in Europe. Anyway, Armenian authorities have shown their attitude towards the problem long ago by declaring a criminal the national hero.

Secondly, the Karabakh peoples will for free self-determination phrase looks even more interesting. Hard to understand: whom does Sargsyan refer to by saying the Karabakh people? Are they the residents of Nagorno Karabakh or of all the occupied territories? Does the phrase encompass Azerbaijani population of the region, who was forced to flee as a result of the Armenian aggression?

In any case it is quite obvious that the so-called Karabakh people is quite a useful term for needs of Armenian ruling circles, allowing to show the Armenian people of Nagorno Karabakh as an independent entity. It is the only way to use the idea of self-determination side-by-side with the Karabakh people thingy. Otherwise one could ask: who is self-determining and on what grounds? I havent heard of a law allowing any group to self-determine on a certain area yet.

Sargsyan blatantly lies in regard to the self-determination concept, as we dont deal with the actual liberty or independence here, in spite of fruitless Armenian efforts to show it that way, but rather with a banal annexation. Nazi Germany talked about anschluss and beginning of German unification from Austria. Greece looked at the Turkish shore in nostalgia, remembering glory of Byzantine Empire, and talked about enosis. Armenia has been filling heads of its people by the Great Armenia from Sea to Sea concept during many decades and talked about miatsum.

All these terms mean unification and all of them represent a forced amputation of other lands. All of these movements have been mere tools in the hands of certain political individuals and groups.

Sargsyans self-determination is no different from an occupation of someones territories. Armenian politicians have made up a cunning game with the independent Karabakh and are talking about the two Armenian states. This lie is so gross in its nonsense that I struggle to understand, how Armenian officials manage to spread it with serious faces. Be it annexation or secession  all the same  a crime against Azerbaijan and its territorial integrity, and effort are able to conceal that.

By the way, an interesting remark regarding the concepts of self-determination and territorial integrity was made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who commented on the situation in Syrian Afrin by saying that Russia is committed to resolving all issues related to this matter, but these solutions need to be done in a manner that respects Syrias territorial integrity.

Such an attitude is quite interesting by itself, but itd be better if all the actors dropped the double standards policy in regard to Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and made similar confident statements.

Let's get back to Sargsyan's remarks.

Subjugation does not have an excuse, while freedom has no alternative. We are building modern and democratic statehoods in the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh. We fully respect the fundamental human rights, since freedom and dignity are absolute values for the Armenian people, Sargsyan continued.

The Armenian president has become a skillful word-juggler jumping from the pilaf in a war to respect towards human dignity. How soon has he forgotten about his own interview with a British journalist Thomas de Waal, when he hypocritically justifies the Khojaly Massacre by the necessity to break stereotypes?

Or might it be that he hasnt read his favorite thug Monte Melkonians My Brother's Road: An American's Fateful Journey to Armenia biography book written by Montes brother Markar? The book very eloquently retells the respect towards human dignity in Melkonians performance. After all, it was his Arabo group that stabbed fleeing Azerbaijanis in Khojaly.

This book could prove very useful for Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan, as well as the reports of Human Rights Watch and Memorial, placing responsibility for the Khojaly Massacre on Armenian Karabakh forces.

The mentioned foreign minister of Armenia recently made a statement, where he mentioned "massacres in "Kirovabad, Gandzak and Baku". Given than Kirovabad and Gandzak - are the historical names for Azerbaijani city of Ganja, why not throw in "Yelizavetpol" as well?

And before talking about the necessity to make Baku answer and blaming the victim next time, Nalbandyan would better recall the message of Armenian Foreign Ministry, shamelessly asserting that "Azerbaijan shot the civilians themselves". This hypocritical message sent to the UN regarding the Khojaly events, caused a wide bewilderment of the international community.

What I am talking about anyway It would be too naive to believe that the aforementioned officials dont know about all of that. But it is always hard to see and accept such insolence and insincerity.

Three decades had passed, but nothing actually changed. The Armenian Foreign Ministry is busy blaming others in its own sins, while the president discourse about liberty and independence, both of which are simply non-existent not only in marionette Artsakh, but in Armenia itself.

The country has almost no open borders left and no access to the world market. The economy is largely reliant on foreign financial injections. The army is fully dependant on Russia, what can be observed from the panic in Armenia caused by the US sanction to the Russian defense industry. The people flee the country or die in a war, ignited by Armenia for specter goals. Such country has neither liberty, nor independence.

It does have slavery though. Slavery, in which the criminal regime of Armenia has been keeping its people 30 years already.A leading British company, BuroHappold Engineering, will be responsible for developing a visionary master planning and development plan study for Georgias Black Sea town of Anaklia, which soon will be transformed into a modern, bustling city, Agenda reports.

Anaklia City, a TBC Bank and Conti Group company implementing the construction of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, signed an agreement with BuroHappold Engineering today.

The British company became the winner of the international tender which was contended for by 20 large, international organisations.

Anaklia City is planned to be developed as a smart city with eco-friendly and green concepts turning it into an economic and business hub in the region.

The master planning and development plan study will be delivered by BuroHappold Engineering in six months.The UN Security Council will vote on the Syria ceasefire resolution on Saturday at noon, Kuwaits Ambassador to the United Nations Mansour Ayyad Otaibi told reporters, Sputnik International reports.

"We are working to have a consensus, draft resolution, and hopefully the council will be united, all of them, all fifteen will vote in favor of this draft resolution," Otaibi said on Friday.

The ambassador said the vote will take place "tomorrow at noon," adding that the Security Council is very close to reaching an agreement.A job application which shows an 18-year-old Steve Jobs seeking employment as an electronics tech or design engineer is expected to sell for more than $50,000.

The one-page document dates back to 1973, three years before the launch of Apple, and shows Jobss to-the-point yet error-laden responses to a series of employment questions, Bostons RR Auction said in its listing published on Thursday, Newsweek reports.

The budding technology pioneer wrote his name as Steven jobs and listed his address as reed college. Beside the section for a phone number he penned none.

Jobs stated his major as english lit and next to the question "Access to transportation?" the soon-to-be Apple co-founder wrote: possible, but not probable. With regard to skills, he scribbled (design, tech) under two sections titled "Computer" and "Calculator."

At the bottom of the page, he described his "Special Abilities" in a single sentence: electronics tech or design engineer. digital.-from Bay near Hewitt-Packard [sic].

It remains unclear what company Jobs was applying to.China exported barely any fuel to North Korea in January, data showed on Saturday, deepening months-long cuts in trade with its isolated neighbor amid growing tensions over Pyongyangs nuclear and missile program, Reuters reported.

Official data from the General Administration of Customs showed a fourth straight month of no diesel, gasoline or fuel oil shipments. China has traditionally been the main source of North Koreas fuel.

The only oil product sent to North Korea was 201 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The export breakdown by product comes after data on Friday showed trade with North Korea fell to the lowest level in dollar terms on records going back to June 2014.

China remains North Koreas largest trading partner and sole major ally, though overall trade has fallen in recent months as the United Nations stepped up sanctions, banning imports of some major commodities and seafood in September and capping annual oil product shipments in December.

China imported no iron ore, coal or lead from North Korea last month, according to the customs data, in line with those latest curbs, aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its weapons program.

Cereal trade also slowed, with exports of rice totaling 180 tonnes to North Korea, down 4.3 percent from a year ago. It did not export any corn.00:50 (GMT+4) At least 14 people were killed and 40 wounded when Islamist car suicide bombers and gunmen tried to storm the headquarters of a counter-terrorism unit in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, security and medical sources said, Reuters reported.

Islamic State, in a statement carried by its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for what it described as two martyrdom operations targeting the camp in Tawahi district in south-western Aden.

The agency provided no immediate evidence for the claim.

Security sources said two suicide bombers detonated two cars laden with explosives at the camps entrance while six gunmen tried to storm the facility.

They were all killed by guards and their bodies taken to a military hospital, a medical source told Reuters.

Aden police said in a statement on its Facebook page that security forces had foiled a major attack on the camp.

All the ... terrorists were liquidated immediately before they could reach the outer gate of the anti-terrorism headquarters, a police statement said.

Security sources and medics said three security men, a woman and two children died in the attack, while 40 other people, many of them civilians, were wounded.

21:35 (GMT+4) The two blasts reportedly ripped through the southern Yemeni city on Saturday, hitting the area near an anti-terrorism camp, Sputnik reported.

Five people have been killed in the explosions, security officials confirmed on Friday. Jumhouriya hospital officials earlier said that dozens of people were either killed or wounded in the explosions. They said that five bodies  mostly troops  had been transported to the medical institution along with a number of wounded people, including civilians.

An Al Arabiya correspondent in the city reported that most of those killed were civilians.

Al Arabiya also reported that a car bomb detonated on a highway near the entrance to an anti-terrorist camp that is located in the Al-Tawahi district in the south of the city.

The terrorist group Daesh has claimed responsibility for the bombings, according to Reuters.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Since the beginning of the Operation Olive Branch, 1,931 terrorists have been killed in Syrias Afrin district, the Turkish General Staff said in a message Feb. 24.

In particular, 58 members of Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organizations were killed in Afrin on Feb. 20.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

F-16 fighters of the Turkish Air Force are involved in the operation, inflicting strikes on the positions of PYD/YPG on the Syrian-Turkish border.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluLizards have special superpowers. While birds can regrow feathers and mammals can regrow skin, lizards can regenerate entire structures such as their tails. Despite these differences, all have evolved from the same ancestor as lizards.

Spreading through the Americas, one lizard group, the anoles, evolved like Darwin's finches, adapting to different islands and different habitats on the mainland. Today there are more than 400 species.

Constructing a family tree for three lizard species collected in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and a fourth from the southeastern U.S., scientists at Arizona State University compared lizard genomes--their entire DNA code--to those of other animals.

The researchers discovered that changes in genes involved in the interbrain (the site of the pineal gland and other endocrine glands), for color vision, hormones and the colorful dewlap that males bob to attract females, may contribute to the formation of boundaries between species. Genes regulating limb development also evolved especially quickly.

"While some reptiles such as tortoises changed remarkably little over millions of years, anole lizards evolved quickly, generating a diversity of shapes and behaviors," said Kenro Kusumi, corresponding author and professor at ASU School of Life Sciences. "Now that sequencing entire genomes is cheaper and easier, we discovered molecular genetic evidence for rapid evolution that may account for striking differences between bodies of animals living in different environments."

Kusumi's lab, working with colleagues at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, is especially interested in how reptiles' genomes shape their ability to regenerate and to develop a diversity of body forms.

"This is the first time the complete genetic code--the genome--of any vertebrate species from Panama has been sequenced and analyzed," said Oris Sanjur, co-author and Associate Director for Science Administration at STRI. "Information from these three species is an important contribution to our understanding of biodiversity and the evolution of new species."

Scientists estimate that there are 40 species of anolid lizards living in Panama, compared to only one in the U.S. A team from ASU collected three species with permission from the Ministry of the Environment, MiAmbiente: the Central American giant anole, Anolis frenatus, lives high on tree trunks; the grass anole, A. auratus, perches on bushes or on grassy vegetation and the slender anole, A. apletophallus, found only in Panama, hangs out lower on tree trunks or on the ground.

Researchers at ASU's School of Life Sciences lined up the DNA sequences of the lizards with the DNA sequences of 31 other animals: the lobe-finned fish and the four-legged animal groups that evolved from them. They also took a careful look at genes that code for proteins: more than 22,000 genes in the green anole, A. carolinensis, versus approximately 20,000 identified each in A. auratus and A. frenatus and 13,000 in A. apletophallus.

One obvious explanation for a faster rate of evolution is the anole lizards' faster rate of reproduction. Anoles typically mate in their first year of life, while other reptiles take much longer to reach sexual maturity. They also breed with many other individuals so mutations that make it difficult for individuals to survive are eliminated fairly quickly.

The first and only other anole lizard to be sequenced previously was the green anole, A. carolinensis, the only anole species resident in the U.S. In that study from MIT, the A. carolinensis genome held evidence of more recent evolution and the loss of ancient repeated elements in the part of the DNA that does not code for proteins. In this sense, it was important to sequence the three Panamanian species, because the U.S. species may not be the most representative of the diverse anole group.

"For 15 years, an impressive amount of time and money poured into discovering the genomes of mammals, motivated by our drive to understand human evolution and to look for cures for disease. Even though the squamate reptiles include more than 10,000 species--almost double the number of mammal species--a single genome was not enough to understand the variability within this group," said the first author of the report, Marc Tollis, a post-doctoral fellow at ASU.

"By comparing these four anole lizard genomes, we're beginning to understand how one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates regenerate, develop and diversify," he added.

###

The study's findings are published in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

This study was funded by ASU, STRI and the U.S. National Science Foundation and was made possible by an ASU/STRI innovation education and science partnership started in 2010. This agreement is aimed at sustaining biodiversity on Earth and this affiliation was created to acquire and share technology, education and outreach, and interdisciplinary research innovations in social systems, ecosystem services, sustainability, biodiversity and genetics, and alternative energy.

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical biodiversity and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems.The interplay between surface-water salinity and climate change in Central New York is the subject of a recent paper by researchers in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences.

Kristina Gutchess, a Ph.D. candidate in Earth Sciences, is the lead author of an article in the prestigious journal Environmental Science and Technology (ACS Publications). Her co-authors at Syracuse include Laura Lautz, the Jesse Page Heroy Professor and chair of Earth sciences, and Christa Kelleher, assistant professor of Earth sciences.

Another co-author is Gutchess' Ph.D. supervisor, Associate Professor Zunli Lu.

Rounding out the group are Li Jin G'08, associate professor of geology at SUNY Cortland; Jose L. J. Ledesma, a postdoctoral researcher of aquatic sciences and assessment at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; and Jill Crossman, assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences at the University of Windsor (Ontario).

The paper draws on the group's study of the impact of de-icing salt from Interstate 81 and other surrounding roads and highways on the Tioughnioga River watershed. Gutchess says their findings make her "cautiously optimistic" about the watershed's future surface-water chloride concentrations.

"The long-term application of road salts has led to a rise in the river's salinity level," says Gutchess, who studies processes affecting the quality of surface water and groundwater. "While various models have been used to assess potential future impacts of continued de-icing practices, they have not incorporated different climate scenarios, which are projected to impact hydrogeology in the 21st century."

Gutchess' team combined various computational approaches with rigorous fieldwork and laboratory analysis to simulate surface-water chloride concentrations in the Tioughnioga--a large, deep, 34-mile tributary of the Chenango River, flowing through Cortland and Broome counties.

Central to their experiment was INCA (short for "INtegrated CAtchment"), a semi-distributed catchment-modeling platform that assesses environmental-change issues. Gutchess calibrated the model for a historical, or baseline, period (1961-90), and used the results to make projections for three 30-year intervals: 2010-39, 2040-69 and 2070-99.

Based on the model's projections, the salinity of the Tioughnioga's east and west branches will start decreasing in 20-30 years. "A gradual warming trend between 2040 and 2099 will lead to reductions in snowfall and associated salt applications, causing [the river's] salinity to drop. By 2100, surface-water chloride concentrations should be below 1960s values," Gutchess says.

This is potentially big news for a part of the country that has experienced rising surface-water chloride concentrations since the 1950s, when road salting began.

Salt, or sodium chloride, is the most commonly used de-icing chemical in the country, spread at a rate of more than 10 million tons a year.

In New York State, a typical wintertime event requires 90-450 pounds of salt per lane-mile. Vehicle traffic picks up about 10 percent of the residue; the rest enters adjacent water catchments in the form of runoff, jeopardizing terrestrial ecosystems and drinking water resources.

Gutchess' hydrogeological study is one of only a few combining long-term climate variability and salinity management. The INCA model framework enabled her team to assess stream response under 16 different future scenarios, taking into account climate, land use and snow management.

"INCA originally was developed to assess sources of nitrogen in catchments in a single-stem main river," Jin says. "Here, we modified the model to incorporate a new multi-branched structure, enabling us to simulate daily estimates of in-stream concentrations of chloride. We also allowed for differences in salting practices between rural and urban areas."

According to INCA, road salt accounts for more than 87 percent of Tioughnioga's salinity. Current de-icing practices, combined with increased urbanization, will likely add to its salinity, but only for a while, thanks in part to the changing climate.

According to Lu, the study suggests that climatic impacts are not always negative in a specific region: "It is important to understand the nuances of climate change at various time and geographic scales. Ultimately, this project will help us manage our resources more effectively, as we adapt to future changes."

With a wink and a nod, he adds, "At the same time, we should not make blanket statements about climate change. No one is exempt from its effects, pro or con."

Gutchess is a member of EMPOWER, a water-energy graduate-training program at Syracuse that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and directed by Lautz. Additional support for Gutchess' research comes from the University's new Campus as a Laboratory for Sustainability program. Upon graduation in May, she will begin postdoctoral research at Yale.

###Pioneering research into the family tree of today's horses sheds new light on the origins of the species.

The earliest known domesticated horses are not at the root of today's modern breed's family tree, as had previously been thought, new research has shown.

It had been suggested that that Botai horses, from Kazakhstan, were the progenitors of all modern domesticated breeds found worldwide.

However, a pivotal international study has drawn on groundbreaking genetic and archaeological evidence to show that the Botai didn't give rise to today's equines, but are instead themselves ancestors of the 'wild' Przewalksi horses, native to the neighbouring Mongolian region.

The study, led by Professor Ludovic Orlando from the French National Center for Scientific Research with Professor Alan Outram from the University of Exeter, also indicates that there are no surviving purely wild horses.

The pioneering study is published in the respected journal Science, on Thursday, February 22 2018.

Professor Orlando, Professor of Molecular Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Research Director at the CNRS, University of Toulouse, France, said: "Our findings literally turn current population models of horse origins upside-down: what we used to understand as the last wild horse on earth is in fact the descendant of the earliest domestic horses, which simply escaped human pressure and became feral during the last few millennia."

For the study, the research team examined the genes of 88 ancient and modern horses from a range of eras and locations across Eurasia. The analysis found that many of the earliest Przewalski's horses had white, spotty Dalmatian-style coats. These horses once roamed freely along the Mongolian-China border and have recently been reintroduced to the region after having been saved from extinction in captivity. Thousands of years ago a surprisingly large number were bred to have the Dalmation-style colouring, possibly because it looked attractive.

Charleen Gaunitz, one of the two PhD students in Professor Orlando's team, who carried out the experimental work for the study, said: "Ironically, we used to think that the endangered population of Przewalski's horses should be preserved as the last wild horses in the planet. We now find that they must be preserved as the closest descent of the earliest domestic horses."

Professor Alan Outram and Professor Victor Zaibert carried out archaeological excavations on the Botai Culture for decades and have found communities living there thousands of years ago had horses who wore bits and were harnessed. They also milked their horses and ate horse meat.

New excavations carried out as part of this study shows Botai people built corrals to keep horses in numbers, close to their habitations.

Professor Outram said: "There is a lot of evidence in the archaeological record demonstrating that Botai horses were husbanded. It is not just horse meat that Botai people consumed, but also mare's milk. It was essential to Botai people to manage the horse resource as it provided the basis of their subsistence strategy. Probably horses were even first domesticated at Botai because horse riding somehow facilitated horse hunting."

###

The research was supported by the European Research Council (PEGASUS), the Villum Fonden, the Danish Council for Independent Research, Natural Sciences, and the Initiatives d'Excellence Chaires d'attractivite, Universite de Toulouse (OURASI).This is the first concrete evidence found in Finland of a goat dated back to the Neolithic Corded Ware period (in Finland ca. 2800-2300 BCE). The animal from more than four thousand years ago was identified by its fossilised hair, found in an archaeological soil sample.

The research finding tells about the mortuary practices of the Corded Ware culture. The soil sample under investigation originated in a grave structure discovered in the 1930s in Kauhava, western Finland. The grave and its perimeter were encircled by a layer of dark soil resembling the dimensions of an animal skin. Since the hairs were found in the sample collected from the feature in question, it can be assumed that they are connected with a goat skin placed in the grave.

The identification is based on images taken with a scanning electron microscope. The fibres included in these images were identified on the basis of their structure, typical to goat hair.

"Our study proves that completely new knowledge of our past can be gained by using microscopes to study organic material in advanced states of degradation. Now that we know to look for them, hairs have been found in other soil samples as well," explains Tuija Kirkinen.

In the light of these new findings, it is reasonable to assume that domestic animals and a herder identity have constituted a significant part of the belief system of the Corded Ware culture. This interpretation is also supported by objects made of domestic animal bones and pottery that might have been used for storing and drinking milk found in Corded Ware graves.

"Even though Corded Ware graves found elsewhere in Europe are generally better preserved, no equivalent evidence of skins placed in the grave have been found. As our findings show, the placement of the skin of an important domestic animal in the grave produces entirely new notions on the burial rituals and belief system of the Corded Ware culture," elaborates Marja Ahola.

Oldest animal hair found in Finland

From the perspective of Finnish prehistory, the finding supports the evidence of animal husbandry practised during the Corded Ware period. In the field of Finnish archaeology, it has long been assumed that people kept domestic animals also during the Corded Ware period. This conclusion is based on the fact that during the period, people often lived in meadow environments suited to animal husbandry. Milk residues have also been found in Corded Ware pottery. It has been difficult to prove the practice of animal husbandry, since in the acidic Finnish soil, unburnt bone is preserved only for about a thousand years. Therefore, Finland has little osseous material preserved from the Stone Age. The oldest domestic animal bones known here, for example, date back only to the later part of Stone Age in ca. 2200-1950 BCE.

"The hairs found in the Corded Ware grave in Kauhava are the oldest animal hairs found in Finland and the first evidence of goats. Our finding does indeed prove that goats were known already at that early period as far up north as Finland," says Krista Vajanto.

###

The study was conducted in cooperation between the discipline of archaeology at the University of Helsinki and the Aalto University Nanomicroscopy Center.

Article references:

Ahola, M., Kirkinen, T., Vajanto, K. & Ruokolainen, J. 2017. On the scent of an animal skin: new evidence on Corded Ware mortuary practices in Northern Europe. Antiquity Vol 92, Issue 361, 118-131.

Author affiliation:

Marja Ahola and Tuija Kirkinen, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts, archaeology

Krista Vajanto and Janne Ruokolainen, Aalto University Nanomicroscopy CenterSocial Media

Can first responders counter fake news?

In addition to fires, floods, active shooters and other natural and manmade crises, first responders often must deal with misinformation about breaking events polluting social media and putting people at risk.

A federal advisory group based at the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate has been studying the problem of fake news as it pertains to first responders.

A report approved Feb. 22 by a working group of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee lays out best practices for using and monitoring Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms during an ongoing disaster or event.

The Social Media Working Group for Emergency Services and Disaster Management report noted that bad actors with malicious agendas often use hashtags and other links to divert social media traffic toward advertising or coordinated social media phishing scams.

Sometimes, according to the report, even well-intentioned social media posts wind up misleading people. It mentions a Facebook post about the 2015 Nepal earthquake that asked for help for a village that was devastated in the event. That village, however, had been helped by a non-governmental organization before the post went out. The post reached 350,000 people around the world in just a few days on, but the need was no longer there and the social sharing wound up wasting time and resources.

Another cautionary tale involved the Oroville, Calif., dam that developed structural problems in 2017, threatening the Sacramento area with flooding. Areas near the dam were under an evacuation order, but a map tweeted by the National Weather Service showing the entire potential flooding area was misinterpreted as showing the evacuation area. That misunderstanding led to many unnecessary 911 calls from local residents. Sacramento area emergency services however, quickly did a Facebook Live broadcast and Periscope video to counter the misinterpretation.

One tip, gleaned from the Oroville dam episode, is to leverage support from a trusted volunteer to minimize rumors. Other best practices include training emergency responders to recognize misinformation or bad information; working with local broadcast media to disseminate accurate information; actively calling out disinformation and rumor on social media platforms; and making sure new information is identified and tagged so that users understand they are getting the most recent news.Defense

Raj Shah exits DIUx

After almost two years at the helm of the Pentagon's innovation shop, Raj Shah is returning to the private sector.

Shah, whose background is in venture capital, served as managing director of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, known as DIUx, as the office expanded and transitioned to the Trump administration. Shah joined DIUx in May 2016, and oversaw the expansion of DIUx from a single Silicon Valley outpost to an effort with offices in Boston and Austin, Texas. A DOD spokesperson confirmed the departure on Feb. 23.

"The nature of warfare is changing, and it's being driven by technologies that whose development is being led in the commercial center," Shah said at the 2017 Reagan National Defense Forum. "The Pentagon used to be a monopsony buyer  buying bespoke stuff for ourselves  that world is changing."

Shah stressed that as technologies with military applications become more and more available, the onus is on the U.S. to take a lead role in funding and shepherding startups because potential adversaries are all too willing to take on that role themselves.

"The challenge and driver here is that our adversaries are not waiting," Shah said at the Reagan Forum. He noted that Chinese sovereign wealth fund investment in robotics and other technologies is accelerating.

"You can makeobservations of why they're doing it," he said. "But if we think these things are going to be military-relevant in the future, then [China's] getting a seat at the table earlythat's a big deal"

Current focus areas for DIUx include artificial intelligence, space, IT, autonomous systems and countering biological threats. The innovation shop already has awarded in excess of $100 million in contracts for more than 45 pilot projects. The agency is expected to be funded at $54 million in 2018 and the Pentagon is seeking $71 million for DIUx in 2019.

"There is no doubt in my mind that DIUx will not only continue to exist, it will actually grow in its influence and its impact on the Department of Defense," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in an August 2017 visit to the unit's Silicon Valley office.

During the Obama administration, the DIUx chief reported directly to the secretary of defense. Under a recent reorganization mandated by the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, DIUx leaders will now report up to DOD's undersecretary for research and engineering.

Shah's exit comes just weeks after one of its funded companies, REAN Cloud, scored a major cloud contract with the Pentagon. DoD signed a five-year $950 million cloud deal with the Amazon reseller, enabling DOD agencies to quickly onboard cloud services using "other transaction authority," a process that streamlines acquisition speed. The OTA contract between REAN and DOD was modeled after a $6.6 million DIUx cloud migration pilot in 2017 conducted on behalf of the U.S. Transportation Command.

Shah's departure has been long expected, two Silicon Valley sources told FCW, and the Pentagon is in the midst of a search for a new managing director. The DOD spokesperson declined to tell FCW how close the unit is to landing a replacement.

Navy Capt. Sean Heritage, the DIUx military deputy, is serving as acting managing director while a replacement is sought.Photo credit: NASA

From Popular Mechanics

Robert Bigelow, back of inflatable space hotels, has announced the formation of a new company to build and market space stations in Earths orbit, called Bigelow Space Ops.

During his announcement, the companys founder made a point to paint a picture of a thriving U.S. industry: American-made hardware launching from American spaceports, leading the way into the orbital future. But what Bigelow and other space barons' business plans really want are for customers from other nations to emerge. "What we've always anticipated and expected is that we would be very involved in helping foreign countries to establish their human space programs, Bigelow told reporters.

The U.S. private space companies working on crewed spaceflight projects have the same opportunity. Boeing and SpaceX are building capsules for NASA astronauts, but plan to sell these flagship rides to other clients. Chris Ferguson, director of the Boeing Starliner, told Space News last year that Boeing is looking for participants in the form of countries, industries, and individuals that want to participate in this great business of human spaceflight." SpaceX already launches payloads for international customers, and has shown a willingness to send customers anywhere they want to go in the solar system - including a wealthy couple the company says has approached them with plans to fly around the moon in 2019.

These dreams tie into a central question of the commercial spaceflight movement: Now that industry is selling tickets, whos taking the rides? No one knows for sure yet.

The time is now to quantify in detail the global, national, and corporate commercial space market for orbiting stations, Bigelow Space Operations website says. This subject has had ambiguity for many years. BSO will be spending millions of dollars this year to establish concrete answers.

America First... Then Everybody Else?

In the short term, delivering American astronauts to the International Space Station will be the cornerstone mission for this new wave of human spaceflight, says John Lodgson, founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. Beyond that, he says, the crewed launch market looks rather vague.

Story continues

Photo credit: Getty

The first obvious (but overlooked) customer base would be astronauts from Europe and elsewhere, who need to travel to the ISS before any plans to privatize the station after 2024 come to fruition. Less clear is the possible demand from corporations from around the globe, who could desire to conduct research on to ISS or other research stations.

Then there are other nations who are not ISS partners, but who may want an off-the-shelf launch kit for their astronauts. A range of countries could be interested in such a ticket. Thinking off the top of my head, the United Arab Emirates, Lodgson says when prodded to name for possible customers. Nigeria? Iran always wanted a human spaceflight program.

Easing Exports Is No Coincidence

Another event last week - the meeting of the reformed Space Council - will have a direct bearing on Americans selling space services abroad. The Council is looking into how reforming export controls plays into all of this, Lodgson says.

At issue is the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Space rockets and military missiles have a lot in common, and for that reason, access to manufacturing facilities and launchpads is limited to citizens and U.S.-based companies. This makes sense for national security reasons, but it also could limit the marketing of space services.

For example, a spaceplane landing at an international airport could be subject to ITAR restrictions. A company bringing rockets to another nation clearly would. Would training an Iranian astronaut in a U.S. facility constitute a breach of ITAR? Yes, but the same would apply to an Australian or any foreign national on hte premises.

The Trump Administrations Space Council has a clear goal to reduce regulations that hamper commercial space. This week the members directed former NASA official and Space Council executive secretary Scott Pace to conduct an export control policy review. Its supposed to be done by January 1, 2019 - right around the time of the SpaceX and Boeings first crewed launches to ISS.

For Bigelow, being the first American company to offer a space station is great for the domestic market. But he also has to watch the global marketplace for competition. Lodgson says hell find it. China has said that its space station is open to non-Chinese visitors, he notes. So where does that fit in to the future of human spaceflight?

You Might Also LikeBy Jake Spring

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil environmental agency Ibama will decide on French oil firm Total's application to drill in the environmentally sensitive Amazon river basin before the end of May, and possibly as soon as the end of March, an agency official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Ibama last August ordered Total (TOTF.PA) to provide information missing from its application for an environmental license to explore for oil in the Foz do Amazonas basin, warning that it was the oil company's last chance to provide necessary details before the application is scrapped.

The agency received Total's response at the end of January and has four months to evaluate the new report and issue a ruling, said Antonio Celso Junqueira Borges, the general coordinator for oil and gas licensing.

But Ibama could rule more quickly, Borges said.

"Total filed its supplement to its studies at the end of January, it's in analysis," he said.

"(The timeline for finishing the analysis) is the end of March, but could be delayed a bit more than that."

He declined to comment on the chances of the application to explore being approved.

"All of the blocks offered in the 11th round are in environmentally sensitive areas. In many regions the modelling indicates that if there was an oil spill, it would reach the coast," Borges said.

"Beyond that it's a sensitive region, there are lots of fisherman and a great biodiversity, so it demands greater control and care," he said.

Officials at Ibama said pre-salt areas in recent auctions, thought to contain vast amounts of oil, were unlikely to face the same problem because of their greater distance from the coast.

The analysis of Total's application in Foz do Amazonas, once complete, must then pass through a series of approvals with the ultimate decision to be issued by the president of Ibama.

Total did not respond to request for comment.

The firm, leading a group of partners including BP Plc (BP.L) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA), won five blocks in Brazil's 11th auction of oil blocks held in 2013. As the operator, Total is responsible for applying for environmental licenses.

Total is the farthest along in the application process for Foz do Amazonas basin blocks awarded in 2013, with BP and Queiroz Galvao Exploration and Production (QGEP) in earlier stages of applying for licenses with Ibama for separate blocks they won in region, according to the agency.

(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by James Dalgleish)Georgia's Senate passed a bill allowing adoption agencies funded by taxes to discriminate based on religious beliefs.

LGBTQ advocates say the bill is designed to stop same-sex couples from adopting.

More than half of the Amazon HQ2 finalist cities are in states that lack LGBTQ discrimination laws.

Georgia's Senate passed a bill Friday that won't necessarily help Atlanta's chances of landing Amazon AMZN HQ2, the second North American headquarters for the technology giant that 20 metro areas are vying for with a decision expected from Amazon by year end.

The Georgia bill, called Senate Bill 375 , or the "Keep Faith in Adoption and Foster Care Act," allows adoption agencies funded by tax dollars to decline referrals if doing so would violate "sincerely held religious beliefs."

The bill's sponsors claim it will encourage more adoption agencies to open in Georgia, but opponents argue it is nothing more than a way to discriminate against same-sex couples looking to adopt or provide foster care. The bill would also allow agencies to deny services to LGBTQ youth.

"Senate Bill 375 is a dangerous step backward that would codify permission to discriminate against the LGBTQ community into Georgia state law," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, in a statement . "This bill is not about freedom of religion, which is one of our nation's fundamental values, but rather about imposing one's personal religious beliefs on others to discriminate against loving foster or adoptive parents simply because of their identity and deny services to LGBTQ youth."

The bill now heads to the Georgia House.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a bill in 2016 that would have allowed faith-based organizations to discriminate based on religious beliefs.

Amazon, a company known for its progressive nature , includes "cultural community fit" in its list of factors for deciding on HQ2. Georgia already lacks nondiscrimination laws for LBGTQ citizens.

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The City of Atlanta's Office of the Mayor declined comment. The city does have a record of support for the LGBTQ community and earned its fifth-consecutive perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equality Index in 2017. Atlanta was the only city in Georgia to receive a perfect score on the index.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment but referred to the requirements cited by the company in its Request for Proposal for cultural community fit . The RFP states, "This includes the presence and support of a diverse population, excellent institutions of higher education, local government structure and elected officials eager and willing to work with the company, among other attributes."

More than half of the 20 metro areas in the running for Amazon HQ2 are in states that lack LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws. Critics say that is reason enough to compel Amazon to not select any of those cities, even if they are blue cities in red states. Others, even some LGBTQ advocacy groups, argue that bringing Amazon into one of these states could lead to the development of a more progressive population and politics.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings conceded to CNBC in an interview earlier this year that it is among the Amazon HQ2 finalist cities with a "blue city in a red state" problem.





More From CNBC

There were a few notable topics that Warren Buffett did not want to talk about in his latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.

Warren Buffetts latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) shareholders was released Saturday, and a few major themes were missing.

Not the least of which was a glaring absence of any discussion about the controversy that has engulfed Wells Fargo (WFC) over the last 18 months.

Wells Fargo

The last 18 months at Wells Fargo, Berkshires largest public market equity investment by market value, have been tumultuous. The bank has been embroiled in a scandal over opening millions of fake accounts for customers, which cost former CEO John Stumpf his job, and continued missteps at the firm have led some lawmakers to call for current CEO Tim Sloan to be ousted from his post.

Following repeated calls from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to use its authority to enforce changes at Wells Fargo, the Federal Reserve earlier this month required the bank to replace four members of its board by the end of 2018. The Fed also said Wells Fargo will be restricted from growing its asset base until it makes sufficient improvements.

At the annual meeting of the Daily Journal (DJCO) company earlier this month, Charlie Munger, chairman of Daily Journal and the vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway who has served as Buffetts right-hand-man for decades, said its time for regulators to let up on Wells Fargo.

Of course, Wells Fargo had incentive systems that were too strong in the wrong direction, Munger said. Of course, they were too slow in reacting to the bad news when it came. Everyone makes those mistakes, but we make fewer than others.

Elizabeth Warren has been one of Wells Fargos loudest critics.

At last years annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett said that Wells Fargo had made three key mistakes, with the failure of former CEO John Stumpf to act quickly being the primary error among them. At some point if theres major problem, the CEO gets wind of it, Buffett said. And the CEO has to act.

In late 2016, Buffett had defended his mum stance on the wrongdoing at Wells Fargo as part of his pledge to regulators to be a passive investor in the company. This pledge was made during Berkshires application to the Fed to hold a larger than 10% stake in Wells Fargo without registering as a bank holding company. Last year, Berkshire pared its stake in Wells Fargo to remain below this 10% ownership threshold.

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Back in 2009, Buffett said that if he had to put all his net worth in one stock it would be Wells Fargo.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, right, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger have been fairly mum on Wells Fargo. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

In this years letter to shareholders, Buffett writes that, Charlie [Munger] and I view the marketable common stocks that Berkshire owns as interests in businesses, not as ticker symbols to be bought or sold based on their chart patterns, the target prices of analysts or the opinions of media pundits.

Instead, we simply believe that if the businesses of the investees are successful (as we believe most will be) our investments will be successful as well.

It is surprising, then, if not a bit disappointing, that the $29 billion investment Berkshire has in a bank recently subjected to the toughest regulatory action since the immediate fallout from the financial crisis gets nary a mention in Buffetts most direct communication with shareholders.

Healthcare

Among the other topics that some investors anticipated Buffett potentially hitting on, the recently-announced project between Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon (AMZN) and JP Morgan (JPM) in which the three companies would work together to find a new way to provide healthcare to their employees.

This plan brings together three of the most recognizable names in American business  Warren Buffett, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos  to try and solve one of the most recognizable problems in American society: the ballooning cost of healthcare.

The late-January announcement may not have given Buffett much lead time to have anything new to say on the matter. And most any Berkshire Hathaway shareholder reading the latest missive is aware of the announced initiative and what Buffett had to say at the time.

(The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy, Buffett said in January. Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the countrys best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes.)

Expect the topic to be addressed in May at the annual meeting of shareholders.

This combination of photos from left shows Warren Buffett on Sept. 19, 2017, in New York, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, on Sept. 24, 2013, in Seattle and JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on July 12, 2013, in New York. (AP Photos)

America

A feature of recent editions of Buffetts letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders has been what can only be called a sales pitch for the merits of American capitalism.

In his 2015 letter to shareholders, for instance, Buffett wrote that, For 240 years its been a terrible mistake to bet against America, and now is no time to start. Americas golden goose of commerce and innovation will continue to lay more and larger eggs. Americas social security promises will be honored and perhaps made more generous. And, yes, Americas kids will live far better than their parents did.

Last year, Buffett added that, Our efforts to materially increase the normalized earnings of Berkshire will be aided  as they have been throughout our managerial tenure  by Americas economic dynamism. One word sums up our countrys achievements: miraculous. From a standing start 240 years ago  a span of time less than triple my days on earth  Americans have combined human ingenuity, a market system, a tide of talented and ambitious immigrants, and the rule of law to deliver abundance beyond any dreams of our forefathers.

This year, Buffett said only that, Americas economic soil remains fertile. Adding, In America, equity investors have the wind at their back.

Surely, investors know where Buffett stands when it comes to his view on the American economy  in time, he expects it will raise the fortunes of all citizens. Re-emphasizing this point may come with diminishing returns.

But coming off a year in which financial markets and the real economy both performed quite well, extended commentary from Buffett on the American business climate is a notable absence.

Bitcoin

Over the last several months, even including a sharp drop and rebound in the stock market earlier this month, bitcoin (BTC-USD) and the cryptocurrency boom have been by far the biggest topic of discussion in financial markets.

The 87-year-old Buffett has previously lamented missing out on investments in Google (GOOGL) and Amazon, but now owns about $28 billion worth of Apple (AAPL) stock. It appears, however, will not be an early adopter in bitcoin  the cryptocurrency received no mention, explicit or passing, in this years annual letter.

And while it would have been somewhat out of character for Buffett to launch into commentary on a digital asset that has few easily-explicable characteristics save for the fact that it has gone up in price a lot over the last year, many of his peers have been unable to help themselves. Charlie Munger, for instance, called bitcoin a noxious poison earlier this month.

As The Bard tells us, however, the better part of valor is discretion.



Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland

Read more from Myles here:The Republican National Committee has for months been quietly paying expenses previously covered by the Trump campaign in an arrangement that experts say is bizarre, but legal.

The payments include more than $37,000 a month in rent to President Donald Trump's company, and thousands more in salary to Vice President Mike Pence's nephew, John Pence.

The payments started abruptly last September, when the RNC came under pressure to stop paying Trump's personal legal bills in the special counsel's Russia investigation.

Soon after the Republican National Committee came under pressure for paying legal bills for President Donald Trump and his eldest son in the special counsel's Russia probe, it started covering expenses for the president's re-election campaign.

The RNC is using campaign funds to pay Trump's company more than $37,000 a month in rent, and to pay thousands of dollars in monthly salary to Vice President Mike Pence 's nephew, John Pence, party officials confirmed this week. The rent pays for office space in the Trump Tower in New York for the staff of Trump's re-election campaign. John Pence is the Trump campaign's deputy executive director.

Campaign finance experts who spoke to CNBC said this type of spending by a party committee on behalf of a campaign is highly unusual but legal, and it appears the RNC disclosed it correctly.

"This is permissible and it's being reported properly, but why they are doing it is a mystery," said Brendan Fischer, senior counsel for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. "One would think the RNC could be spending their money more effectively right now on the 2018 campaign, rather than spending it to pay Trump's rent."

So far, the party has spent more than $290,000 to cover the Trump campaign's expenses since September, the first month it paid the Trump Tower rent or Pence's salary. Before then, both expenses had been paid directly by the Trump campaign.

Story continues

Then, in late September, the RNC abruptly began paying them both, and still does, according to financial disclosure forms released this week.

On Sept. 19, CNN reported that the RNC had paid $230,000 in August to two lawyers representing Trump in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, were paid through their law firms using money from a special RNC legal fund, the RNC disclosed in a subsequent filing.

CNN also reported that the party spent $196,000 in early September on lawyers for Trump's son Donald Trump , who was facing questions about a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russians who reportedly promised him dirt on Hillary Clinton .

The August payments were disclosed by the RNC in a mandatory FEC report released Sept. 20. At the time, the party publicly defended its decision to pay Trump's lawyers with RNC funds. But privately, officials debated whether this was a proper use of the legal defense fund, which was originally intended to help pay for things like vote recounts, according to news reports.

After a final payment on Sept. 18 to lawyers for Trump Jr., the RNC quietly stopped paying those attorneys and Dowd and Sekulow.

On Sept. 27, one week after the FEC report was made public, the RNC paid the Trump campaign's rent for the first time, according to the party's monthly disclosure. The initial amount, $75,083.34, was twice the monthly rate and appears to cover the rent for both September and October. John Pence had begun receiving a paycheck from the RNC on Sept. 15, before the first FEC report was released, but after it had been finalized and submitted, according to the same filing.

Below is the FEC's original record of the first rent payment the RNC made to Trump Tower.

Subsequent payments, known as "coordinated expenditures," were each listed on monthly filings that the RNC submitted to the Federal Election Commission, but do not appear to have been reported by a news outlet until now.

Officials at the RNC did not respond to calls or emails from CNBC on Friday, or to detailed questions about the arrangement.

According to the committee's filings, the amounts are the same as what the Trump campaign had last paid in August. Rent is $37,541.67 a month payable to Trump Tower Commercial LLC. Pence's salary was $12,000 a month at the Trump campaign, and the RNC appears to be paying him the same or nearly the same amount, judging from the state and federal payroll taxes withheld.

The RNC's most recent payment for the Trump campaign was made on Jan. 31, for what appears to be February rent.

This is not the first time that a Republican committee has paid the Trump Organization for the use of its properties. Ever since Trump was elected president, his hotels have become the preferred venue for GOP fundraisers, especially the Trump International Hotel, opened by the Trump family in 2016, mere blocks from the White House in Washington.

In August, The Washington Post reported that Republican committees had spent $1.3 million at Trump properties during the first eight months of 2017 -- spending that helped to offset losses elsewhere in the company.

One of the Trump Organization's biggest political customers is the Trump campaign itself, which by any measure, is flush with cash. In 2017, the campaign and two affiliated committees raised $32 million and ended the year with $22 million in cash.

This is in large part because the Trump campaign never ended. Trump filed the paperwork to run for re-election the day he was inaugurated, the first president ever to do so. Trump's predecessor, President Barack Obama, did not formally launch his re-election campaign until April 2011, after serving more than two full years in office.

All of which makes it difficult to compare Trump's campaign and the RNC to Obama's relationship with his party's campaign arm, the Democratic National Committee.

"There's really no comparison, because Obama's campaign didn't even have a headquarters in 2009 and 2010," said a former DNC official, when asked whether the party ever paid the rent for Obama's campaign headquarters.

The former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that Obama's 2008 campaign was basically absorbed into the DNC, a system, he said, that could work just as well for Trump's small staff. "They could have a dedicated space at the RNC, or they could just join the RNC staff, which would be a lot more cost efficient for the campaign."

Trump's campaign, however, doesn't necessarily need to be efficient. "It's not like the Trump campaign doesn't have money on hand," said Campaign Legal Center's Fischer. "They've been actively fundraising since day one, so they have enough money to pay their own staff and payroll taxes."

Officials at the Trump campaign did not respond to questions Friday from CNBC, including why they paid John Pence an additional $9,000 in December for "strategy consulting."

Equally puzzling, Fischer said, is why the RNC would choose to begin coordinating with Trump now, three years before Election Day 2020. "There are limits to how much a party committee is allowed to spend on coordinated expenditures with a presidential candidate," he said.

In 2016, the limit was $24 million, which may sound like a lot, but in reality was only 2 percent of the $1.2 billion that Republicans spent on the 2016 presidential race.

"Why would [The RNC] be blowing through their allowed expenditures now, on something the campaign can easily afford?" Fischer said. "Did they think they needed to show loyalty to Trump by paying the rent at the building Trump owns?" CNBC relayed this question directly to officials at the RNC, who did not respond.

The timing of the RNC's decision to start paying these campaign costs for Trump raised a number of eyebrows among experts and political operatives.

"Committees generally don't pay for campaign headquarters," said the former DNC official. "And this far out from 2020 makes it even stranger."

"If you follow the money, it sure looks like the Trump campaign is outsourcing payment for its bills to the Republican National Committee," said Stephen Spaulding, a former special counsel at the FEC who is now with the nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause.

"First the president was using RNC money to pay for his legal bills related to special counsel Mueller's investigation," he told CNBC. "Now cash from the RNC is apparently being used to cover payroll for the vice president's nephew and rent at Trump Tower for his 2020 campaign."

"It looks to me like the RNC is shuttling cash around to benefit Trump and the vice president's family in ways that are pretty unprecedented," Spaulding added.

Reached for comment, the White House referred questions to the RNC and the Trump campaign. A spokeswoman for the vice president declined to comment.





More From CNBC

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih (C) leaves after a meeting in New Delhi Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih (C) leaves after a meeting in New Delhi, India, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

By Nidhi Verma and Sudarshan Varadhan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia hopes OPEC and its allies will be able to relax production curbs next year and create a permanent framework to stabilise oil markets after the current supply cut deal ends this year, its oil minister said on Saturday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is reducing output by about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) as part of a deal with Russia and other non-OPEC producers.

The pact, aimed at propping oil prices, began in January 2017 and will run until the end of 2018.

Saudi Arabian oil minister Khalid al-Falih said OPEC and its allies were committed to bringing balance and stability to the market and that he hoped it would be possible to ease output curbs next year.

"A study is taking place and once we know exactly what balancing the market will entail we will announce what is the next step. The next step may be easing of the production constraints," he told reporters in New Delhi.

"My estimation is that it will happen sometime in 2019. But we don't know when and we don't know how".

Falih said OPEC was determined to translate the success of the deal to curb supply into a permanent framework with other major producers.

"What we want is an evergreen framework that brings producers from OPEC and non-OPEC (countries) together in a market monitoring fashion that allows us to take quick decisions," he said.

STEERING WHEEL

"I think everybody has learnt, producers as well as consumers, that a market without a steering wheel is very destructive, very damaging to the interests of all," he said.

Falih said compliance with the output cuts in January was "exceptional."

Oil prices have doubled from their lows in 2015-2016 after the cuts.

Falih said the market had absorbed rising U.S. shale oil production, as output from countries such as Venezuela and Mexico had declined.

U.S. oil inventories fell last week.

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Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, in March cut production and exported less than 7 million bpd due to seasonally soft demand.

Falih said that in January-March, Saudi Arabia's oil production was well below the production cap, with exports averaging below 7 million bpd.

INDIA FOCUS

State oil company Saudi Aramco has signed a preliminary deal to invest in India's planned 1.2 million bpd West Coast refinery. Falih said Aramco was also looking at buying stakes in existing major refiners and expansion projects in India.

He did not specify the size of stake Aramco will take in the west coast refinery, but added "the more the better."

India aims to expand its refining capacity by 77 percent to about 8.8 million bpd by 2030.

Falih said Saudi Arabia would also sign oil supply deals as part of the agreement to buy stakes in Indian refineries, a strategy the kingdom has adopted to expand its market share in Asia and fend off rivals.

Last year, Saudi Arabia pledged billions of dollars of investments in projects in Indonesia and Malaysia to secure long-term oil supply deals.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Mark Potter)Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) is steadily working through the regulatory process so that it can start flying to Hawaii near the end of 2018 or in early 2019.

When its Hawaii service finally arrives, the biggest casualty probably won't be either of the current market leaders -- Hawaiian Holdings and United Continental. Instead, Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) appears to be the most vulnerable carrier to Southwest's growth in Hawaii.

An accidental leader in the California-Hawaii market

A decade ago, Alaska Airlines had just begun flying to Hawaii from its core hubs in Seattle and Anchorage. However, the twin bankruptcies of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines within the span of a week in early 2008 created a massive void in the California-Hawaii air travel market, particularly outside of the big hubs, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Beginning in 2009, Alaska Airlines seized this opportunity by adding numerous routes to Hawaii from the top secondary markets in California. Today, it flies to Hawaii from Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, and San Diego. (Meanwhile, Alaska Air's Virgin America subsidiary flies to Hawaii from San Francisco and Los Angeles.)

A rendering of an Alaska Airlines jet flying over clouds

Alaska Airlines capitalized on two 2008 airline bankruptcies to grow in Hawaii. Image source: Alaska Airlines.

In total, flights to Hawaii -- mainly from California -- now account for 14% of Alaska's capacity. Alaska Airlines has particularly high market share from Oakland, San Jose, and San Diego to Hawaii.

A formidable competitor is coming for this traffic

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly has stated that the company plans to enter the Hawaii market with flights from one or two cities in California. Unfortunately for Alaska Airlines, Oakland and San Diego are two of the most logical Hawaii gateways for Southwest Airlines.

Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego are Southwest's largest bases in California. The carrier currently operates between 115 and 130 daily departures at each of the three airports. However, while Southwest will probably fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii sooner or later, L.A. not quite as attractive a departure point for Hawaii flights as Oakland or San Diego for two reasons.

Story continues

First, Southwest Airlines controls just 13 gates in Los Angeles, which limits its ability to expand. This means that adding flights to Hawaii would come at the expense of flights to other cities, at least to some extent. Second, there are already five airlines flying from Los Angeles to Hawaii. By contrast, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are currently the only airlines offering scheduled service to Hawaii from Oakland and San Diego.

A Southwest Airlines plane preparing to land, with mountains in the background

Southwest Airlines may soon start flying from Oakland and San Diego to Hawaii. Image source: Southwest Airlines.

Southwest absolutely dominates Oakland International Airport, with roughly 70% market share. As a result, it has a huge built-in customer base there. It will also be able to draw connecting traffic from the nearly three dozen other cities it serves nonstop from Oakland, whereas Alaska only offers flights to Hawaii and its Seattle and Portland hubs from Oakland.

Alaska Airlines has a more defensible position in San Diego, where it operates about 40 flights a day. Still, Southwest has nearly three times as many flights there and a commanding market share of nearly 40%. This will give it a natural advantage in competing for Hawaii-bound traffic.

Will Alaska Airlines retreat?

As noted above, Southwest Airlines' strong market position in Oakland and San Diego should give it a revenue-production advantage over Alaska if it flies from those cities to Hawaii. Southwest will also have a unit cost advantage due to its somewhat denser seating configuration, purchasing scale, and overall cost discipline.

In recent months, Alaska Air's management has emphasized that it will be aggressive in cutting capacity when necessary to improve profitability. In the long run, Alaska may significantly reduce its capacity from California to Hawaii if Southwest's growth puts too much pressure on pricing and load factors. Alaska Airlines could even exit the Oakland-Hawaii market entirely, as it doesn't seem to have a competitive advantage there relative to Southwest Airlines.

The good news for Alaska Air shareholders is that the company's acquisition of Virgin America has given it a strong foothold in San Francisco and Los Angeles. As a result, Alaska Airlines should have plenty of options for profitably redeploying planes that are no longer needed for flights to Hawaii in the coming years.

More From The Motley Fool

Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of Alaska Air Group and Hawaiian Holdings. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.BOJA vs. SBUX: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

Shares of Momo Inc. MOMO soared more than 12% in morning trading Friday after the Chinese instant messaging company acquired Tantan, Chinas top dating application, in an all-cash deal valued at more than $600 million.

Such a major deal clearly signals that Momo is looking to diversify its core business in an effort to compete against Tencents TCEHY WeChat, the clear leader in Chinas instant messaging market.

Our core position will continue to center on social networking and this acquisition enriches our product line in the social space, said Momo CEO Yan Tang. After the acquisition, the Tantan team will continue to operate the mobile apps under the Tantan brand with our full support.

Labelled as the Tinder of China, Tantan claims to have created 5 billion matches since launching in 2015. The app never disclosed its private valuation, although we do know that it has raised about $120 millionincluding $70 million in a funding round as recently as last year.

For Tantan, the deal presents the young company with a unique opportunity to scale while still operating under its own banner.

The acquisition is a critical strategic upgrade to cover a greater range of user demographics and needs, and build up a larger social networking market through complementary businesses and strategic synergy. We are very confident in our future development, said Tantan CEO Yu Wang.

Momo shares opened higher and continued to climb in morning trading Friday, reaching an intraday high of $34.50 shortly after the opening of the U.S. markets. The stock is now up nearly 35% over the past year, although it is still a long way off the 52-week high it reached in August.

Momos failure to generate much momentum actually presents a unique value opportunity in the Chinese internet space. While many of its peersincluding Line Corporation LN and Weibo Corporation WBtrade with sky-high valuations, Momo is currently sporting a P/E of just 13.9.

Story continues

But Momo is still a stock with explosive growth potential. Our consensus estimates are calling for the company to conclude its fiscal 2017 with full-year earnings growth of 97.7%, followed up by an additional bottom-line expansion of 28.2% in the upcoming fiscal year.

Momo is currently sporting a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), as well as an A grade for Growth in our Style Scores system.

Want more market analysis from this author? Make sure to follow @Ryan_McQueeney on Twitter!

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Zacks Investment ResearchAfghan officials said a suicide bomber has killed two security personnel and wounded seven in an attack in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the attack occurred around 8:15 a.m. local time on February 24 in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the U.S. Embassy.

Also near the site of the bombing is an Afghan spy agency facility, officials said. In December, a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near the same compound, killing at least six civilians.

In a statement posted on February 24 on the website of its news agency Aamaq, IS said the attack was carried out by a bomber with an explosive vest and targeted the gate of the headquarters of the Afghan intelligence service.

Meanwhile, 18 soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in western Afghanistan, the Afghan Defense Ministry said on February 24.

Khair Mohammad Noorzai, a provincial council member from the western Farah province, put the death toll at 25. Noorzai said militants attacked a checkpoint in Bala Buluk district of Farah late on February 23 with the attack continuing into the morning of February 24.

In separate attacks in the southern Helmand province, two suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

In the southern Helmand province, at least three people were killed and 17 others were wounded in two attacks in the capital city of Lashkar Gah and Nad Ali district, according to provincial officials.

Militants including the Taliban and the IS group have stepped up their attacks on Afghan troops and police in recent months.

Afghan soldiers have taken what the UN describes as "shocking" casualties since international forces ended their combat role at the end of 2014, though troop casualty figures are no longer released.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpaExecutives and regional leaders gathered for a ground-breaking ceremony for Afghanistan's section of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline on February 23 in the western Afghan city of Herat.

Herat, and uncertainty as the ceremony there approached, provide another reminder of the doubts and questions that have surrounded the TAPI pipeline for years now.

On February 20, Jailani Farhad, the spokesman for the Herat mayor, was quoted as saying the project would be inaugurated on February 25. China's Xinhua news agency seemed hesitant to provide an exact date at all, also reporting on February 20 that the "ceremony is expected to be held within coming days."

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov was visiting Mary on February 21. His country, of course, is the supplier of gas for TAPI; and given Turkmenistan's current dire economic situation (more on that below), it is in Berdymukhammedov's interest to see Afghanistan start construction of TAPI. Berdymukhammedov told officials that on February 23 "many important events" would take place, first of all the launch of construction on TAPI in Afghanistan but also the start of work to build a new high-voltage transmission power line and extend a railway from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.

Berdymukhammedov indicated he would be at the ceremony in Herat but it was not mentioned in a report on the official Turkmen government website.

So one question was whether the Turkmen president would make the trip to Herat (he did); another was whether he would dress in his commando fatigues, as he did in videos last year, perhaps to frighten away militants.

Because security along the 744-kilometer section of the TAPI pipeline has been a huge question in recent years as fighting spread and intensified in previously relatively stable areas of northern Afghanistan. In fact, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan, known locally as Azadi, reported on February 22 that Herat officials said insurgents who were trained by Iran to disrupt the February 23 ceremony had switched sides and joined the government.

For what's it's worth, a spokesman for the Taliban and a Taliban splinter group led by Rasul Akhund that operates in northwestern Afghanistan have both pledged to protect construction of TAPI through Afghan territory, since it is a "national project."

Given the government in Kabul's bold claims that TAPI would help bring prosperity and stability to Afghanistan, it is difficult to imagine any militant group in Afghanistan resisting the temptation to try to sabotage the project and keep the government from boosting its popularity and support in areas along the proposed TAPI route.

And the Taliban and the Taliban splinter group are not the only armed groups active in northern and western Afghanistan. There are other militant forces and warlords there as well.

What Afghanistan Gets

TAPI aims to carry some 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas a year, most of which is intended for markets in Pakistan and India.

Afghanistan should receive some 5 bcm of that gas, but equally if not more importantly, Afghanistan will receive transit fees from TAPI.

But how much?

The Afghan Voice Agency reported on February 19 that the amount would be "nearly $400 million" annually. Afghanistan's ToloNews reported on February 20 that "Afghanistan is expected to earn $500 million USD in transit duties annually from the project. Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov promised in November that Afghanistan would receive some $1 billion annually in transit fees from TAPI.

Of course, Turkmenistan is experiencing the worst economic crisis of its 26-year history as an independent country, in large part due to the inability to sell Turkmenistan's major and nearly only export: gas. So Turkmen officials could be expected to say anything that would portray TAPI in a positive light, especially since financing for the project is still uncertain.

Who Will Pay For Construction?

State company Turkmengaz is the operator of TAPI. That means Turkmengaz must find some $8.5 billion of the estimated $10 billion it will cost to build TAPI. The company has no experience managing a major project outside Turkmenistan and so far has found it difficult to attract investors. The Islamic Development Bank already promised a loan of some $700 million, but that's where it ends.

Other countries and companies have reportedly expressed some interest in joining TAPI -- the China National Petroleum Corporation, Russia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia -- but no contracts have been signed.

Turkmenistan alone cannot come up with the remaining almost $8 billion that Turkmengaz still needs to cover its share of the costs. And it will not have escaped the attention of potential foreign investors that Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, the countries that will also benefit from TAPI, have never gone beyond the 5 percent of costs ($500 million) that each is committed to spending -- showing, perhaps, that there are doubts about the viability of TAPI in Kabul, Islamabad, and New Delhi.

Another question that we're still looking for an answer to is whether Turkmenistan has completed its section of TAPI. There was a big launch ceremony in Turkmenistan in December 2015 for construction of the 214-kilometer portion on Turkmen territory. Turkmen officials have maintained since then that construction was progressing. But strangely, state media in Turkmenistan, which is obsessed with showing pictures and footage of the country's major projects, has not shown much proof of TAPI's construction. Once there were some photographs in 2016 of sections of pipe-laying in a desert that were alleged to be somewhere in eastern Turkmenistan.

But we're still waiting for clues from the February 23 ceremony in Herat to clear up that and other questions.

The views expressed in this analysis do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RLMachine learning with limited data

Machine learning has been credited with a wide range of advancements over the past few years. Its the backbone of image recognition technology, chatbots and driverless cars.

Many people right now are building machine learning applications across numerous fields, said James Sethian of Berkeley Lab's Center for Advanced Mathematics for Energy Research Applications.

The process of teaching a computer to recognize a stop sign or any other object typically requires a great deal of data. But what if there isnt much relevant data available?

Because were working in a laboratory, and because theres a lot of scientific problems here, we often dont have the vast amounts of curated or labeled data that are necessary to train such a network, Sethian said.

So Sethian and his colleague Daniel Pelt began work on a neural network that requires fewer parameters and training images. The result is a Mixed-Scale Dense Convolution Neural Network.

A typical neural network is made up of layers. In the past, each layer performed a specific analysis. One layer informs the next layer, so relevant information must be copied and passed along.

What that means is if there is some relevant information found at a certain layer, but its required deeper in the network, [then] it has to be copied throughout the network, Pelt said.

Standard practice involves looking at fine-scale information (i.e, Is this an edge?) in the early layers and large-scale information (Where is X in relation to Y in the image?) in the later layers.

The main differences with our approach compared to these traditional ones is that now we mix different scales within each layer, Pelt told GCN.

This means large-scale information is analyzed earlier along with fine-scale information, allowing the algorithm to focus on only the relevant fine-grain details. The ability to have multiple scales on the same layer was one important change, Pelt said. The second is what gives their network the Dense part of its name.

Pelt and Stehian wanted each layer to be able to talk with every other layer  they wanted to layers to be densely connected. This means information doesnt have to be copied repeatedly throughout the network, and earlier layers can communicate relevant information directly to layers later in the series.

These changes in how the neural network operates mean it needs far fewer parameters and training images to correctly identify what is being observed.

One project Pelt and Sethian have been working on is using this for extracting biological structure from cell images. This is an arduous process when done by hand, taking weeks to accomplish, the researchers said.

But the new neural network was able to be trained on data from seven cells to accurately identify the biological structure of an eighth. (All of these had been done by hand, including the eighth, so the results could be compared.)

Carolyn Larabell, director of the National Center for X-ray Tomography and a professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, explained the importance of this advance in a statement.

"This new approach has the potential to radically transform our ability to understand disease, and is a key tool in our new Chan-Zuckerberg-sponsored project to establish a Human Cell Atlas, a global collaboration to map and characterize all cells in a healthy human body, Larabell said.

And while the Mixed-Scale Dense Convolution Neural Network is quite powerful, it does not require supercomputer-scale resources. In fact, this ability is live on a web portal for anyone to access and use for image labeling applications.

Were hoping a larger community can take advantage of these capabilities without having to understand all the details inside them, Sethian said.Announcement in accordance with article 8, 1 of the Belgian Royal Decree of 27 April 2007 on public takeover bids

Gfi Informatique aims to support its international ambitions by strengthening its operations in Belgium and Luxembourg

Saint-Ouen (France) and Huizingen (Belgium), 23rd February 2018 - Gfi Informatique, a major player in digital solutions and services, and Realdolmen, a leading IT provider in Belgium and Luxembourg, announce today the signing of a transaction agreement, pursuant to which Gfi Informatique will file with the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) in the following days a voluntary and conditional takeover bid in cash for the shares of Realdolmen, at the price of 37.00 per share.

Strategic rationale for the transaction

Realdolmen is a single-source IT integrator supporting clients through the complete ICT-lifecycle, combining support services in both infrastructure and applications with product offerings. Its main divisions are IT & business consulting services and IT business support with a focus on upper SMEs. With around 1,250 highly trained employees, Realdolmen provides services to over 1,000 customers in Belgium and Luxembourg.

With this transaction, Gfi Informatique aims to strengthen its footprint in Belgium and Luxembourg, in line with its international expansion strategy. It will fully rely on Realdolmen's management and employees to further develop a platform for the Benelux.

Gfi Informatique intends to focus on business continuity and develop joint actions in services offerings by leveraging both companies' solutions.

Main terms of the transaction

The proposed transaction is a voluntary and conditional takeover bid in cash for all outstanding shares and warrants of Realdolmen at a price of 37.00 per share and an equivalent price per warrant.

The proposed share bid price represents a premium of 11% compared to Realdolmen's last closing price on 22nd February 2018, and a premium of 22% and 28% compared to the volume weighted average share price over 3 months and 6 months, respectively.

The proposed price corresponds to a transaction value of around 196 million.

The offer will be conditional to Gfi Informatique holding more than 75% of Realdolmen's fully diluted share capital and more than 75% of the voting rights.

Consistent with its fiduciary duties and subject to review of the final bid prospectus, the bid is unanimously supported by Realdolmen's board of directors.

Furthermore, the board of directors will provide its formal response to the proposed takeover bid in a memorandum of reply in accordance with the applicable legal provisions

A group of entities and persons affiliated to the Colruyt family and QuaeroQ CVBA, long-term shareholders of Realdolmen representing together 21.94% of its share capital have executed with Gfi Informatique an undertaking to tender their shares to the offer. Realdolmen will not tender its 3,192 treasury shares to the offer.

After the close of the bid, Gfi Informatique intends to launch a simplified squeeze-out bid, if the conditions for such a squeeze-out bid are met.

Comments

"With the support of Realdolmen executive leadership, the combination of our respective operations and our complementary portfolios gives us the potential to create a mid-market champion in Europe." declared Vincent Rouaix, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gfi Informatique.

Henri Van Engelen, chairman of Realdolmen's board of directors: "After the successful transformation of Realdolmen we are excited with the opportunity to continue our journey as a member of a leading European IT services company. It will allow us to lever our complementary portfolios and build on Realdolmen's strengths to serve mid-size companies. The price offered represents a significant premium on the historical share price of the company."

Marc De Keersmaecker, general manager of Realdolmen: "For our employees, customers and partners these combined forces open up access to a new and scaled-up international ecosystem, allowing them to further realize their goals, their ambitions and their potential."

Disclaimer

This communication does not constitute a formal notification of a voluntary public takeover bid, an offer, or a solicitation of any offer, to buy or subscribe for any securities. Any offer will be made only in compliance with and by means of a prospectus approved by the FSMA according to the Belgian Law dated 1 April 2007 relating to public takeover bids. This communication is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in or into, directly or indirectly, any jurisdiction in which such release, publication or distribution would be unlawful. Any non-compliance with these restrictions may constitute a breach of financial laws and regulations in such jurisdictions. Gfi Informatique expressly disclaims any liability for such a breach of these restrictions by anyone. The items in this press release other than historical facts are estimates. They do not constitute guarantees because of the inherent difficulties in forecasting results. Actual results may differ considerably from explicit or implicit forecasts

About Gfi Informatique

Gfi Informatique is a major player in value-added IT services and software in Europe, and occupies a strategic position in its differentiated approach to global firms and niche entities. With its multi-specialist profile, the Group serves its customers with a unique combination of proximity, sector organisation and industrial-quality solutions. The Group has around 15,000 employees and generated revenue of 1,132 million in 2017.

Gfi Informatique is listed on the Paris Euronext, Euronext (Compartment B) - ISIN Code: FR0004038099.

For more information: www.gfi.world

About Realdolmen

Realdolmen is an independent ICT expert with over 1,200 highly skilled ICT professionals, serving more than 1,000 customers in the Benelux with their strategical, tactical and operational ICT demands. In every cooperation Realdolmen endeavors to realize the potential of people and organizations and wishes to make ICT human again. All of this guided by the company motto "To get there, together".New York, Feb 24 (IBNS): Children as young as seven apply basic laws of physics to problem-solving, rather than learning from what has previously been rewarded, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge.

The findings of the study, based on the Aesops fable The Crow and the Pitcher, help solve a debate about whether children learning to use tools are genuinely learning about physical causation or are just driven by what action previously led to a treat.

Learning about causality  about the physical rules that govern the world around us  is a crucial part of our cognitive development. From our observations and the outcome of our own actions, we build an idea  a model  of which tools are functional for particular jobs, and which are not.

However, the information we receive isnt always as straightforward as it should be. Sometimes outside influences mean that things that should work, dont. Similarly, sometimes things that shouldnt work, do.

Dr Lucy Cheke from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge says: Imagine a situation where someone is learning about hammers. There are two hammers that they are trying out  a metal one and an inflatable one. Normally, the metal hammer would successfully drive a nail into a plank of wood, while the inflatable hammer would bounce off harmlessly.

But what if your only experience of these two hammers was trying to use the metal hammer and missing the nail, but using the inflatable hammer to successfully push the nail into a large pre-drilled hole? If youre then presented with another nail, which tool would you choose to use? The answer depends on what type of information you have taken from your learning experience.

In this situation, explains, Cheke, a learner concerned with the outcome (a reward learner) would learn that the inflatable hammer was the successful tool and opt to use it for later hammering. However, a learner concerned with physical forces (a functionality learner) would learn that the metal hammer produced a percussive force, albeit in the wrong place, and that the inflatable hammer did not, and would therefore opt for the metal hammer.

Now, in a study published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, Dr Cheke and colleagues investigated what kind of information children extract from situations where the relevant physical characteristics of a potential tool are observable, but often at odds with whether the use of that tool in practice achieved the desired goal.

The researchers presented children aged 4-11 with a task through which they must retrieve a floating token to earn sticker rewards. Each time, the children were presented with a container of water and a set of tools to use to raise the level. This experiment is based on one of the most famous Aesops fables, where a thirty crow drops stones into a pitcher to get to the water.

In this test, some of the tools were functional and some non-functional. Functional tools were those that, if dropped into a standard container, would sink, raising the water level and bringing the token within reach; non-functional tools were those that would not do so, for example because they floated.

However, sometimes the children used functional tools to attempt to raise the level in a leaking container  in this context, the water would never rise high enough to bring the token within reach, no matter how functional the tool used.

At other times, the children were successful in retrieving the reward despite using a non-functional tool; for example, when using a water container that self-fills through an inlet pipe, it doesnt matter whether the tool is functional as the water is rising anyway.

After these learning sessions, the researchers presented the children with a standard water container and a series of choices between different tools. From the pattern of these choices the researchers could calculate what type of information was most influential on childrens decision-making: reward or function.

A child doesnt have to know the precise rules of physics that allow a tool to work to have a feeling of whether or not it should work, says Elsa Loissel, co-first author of the study. So, we can look at whether a childs decision making is guided by principles of physics without requiring them to explicitly understand the physics itself.

We expected older children, who might have a rudimentary understanding of physical forces, to choose according to function, while younger children would be expected to use the simpler learning approach and base their decisions on what had been previously rewarded, adds co-first author Dr Cheke. But this wasnt what we found.

Instead, the researchers showed that information about reward was never a reliable predictor of childrens choices. Instead, the influence of functionality information increased with age  by the age of seven, this was the dominant influence in their decision making.

This suggests that, remarkably, children begin to emphasise information about physics over information about previous rewards from as young as seven years of age, even when these two types of information are in direct conflict.

This research was funded by the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme.Kabul, Feb 24 (IBNS): At least one person has died in a suicide bombing incident which rocked Afghanistan's Kabul city on Saturday, local media reports said.

Additionally, six people were injured and were moved to a hospital for treatment.

Confirming the incident, Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said, "Around 08:20 am local time a suicide bombing in Kabul in PD9, Shashdarak area killed one and wounded six others."

The deceased has not yet been identified.

No group has claimed the attack.



Image: Google MapsIn 2010, the term Axis of Resistance was adopted to encompass the forces of Iran, Hezbollah, Bashar Assads Syria, and Hamas.

After the February 10th downing of an Iranian drone, and the loss of an Israeli F-16 following Israeli strikes against Syria, the media mentioned the Axis of Resistance phrase, but did not discuss its meaning or motivation in depth.

In an article for the US News and World Report by Lamont Colucci, associate professor of politics and government at Ripon College, and senior fellow in National Security Affairs for the American Foreign Policy Council, writes, Iran has mobilized its own forces, its proxies and Syrian services to create a powerful network to threaten Israeli security. Iran and Syria have been instrumental in transferring greater amounts and more sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah, utilizing the fighting in Syria as a real-world training ground for future conflicts. The world was so mono-focused on the Islamic State group and the Syrian civil war that it continued to ignore Iranian strategic moves and intentions that go well beyond an Assad victory. In fact, we may come to view the Syrian Civil War as merely phase one of an overall Iranian plan to dominate the Middle East and wage war against Israel, culminating in an attempt to blunt or even drive out the American presence from much of the region.

Iran would like to gain access to the Mediterranean, and the new axis could become powerful enough to intimidate American allies in the region to retract support for American foreign policy goals.

Colucci adds, The Axis of Resistance poses a direct threat to the national interests of the United States and should be treated as a fundamental priority. It has no place in the international arena, and the movements and regimes that are its supporters are by definition illegitimate. In the past, the United States allowed Syria to dominate Lebanon; it now needs to decide if it is acceptable for Iran to dominate Syria, coerce Iraq and wage war against Israel. He calls out this axis, worshiping at the altar of tyranny, conquest and theocracy, as evil.Disabled Veteran Creates Veterans Health Solutions, The Premiere Cannabis Education Resource For The Veteran And Underserved Communities

Two weeks after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded a trio of memos from the Obama administration that had adopted a policy of noninterference with marijuana friendly state laws, Veterans Health Solutions (VHS) is now offering real time cannabis education to colleges, veteran organizations and urban centers nationally.

VHS, a non-profit public benefit organization has setup a full comprehensive strategy to educate the veteran populace and underserved communities regarding the use of medicinal cannabis and or hemp related products.

We have been working diligently for the last year on developing the most appropriate educational service, while preparing for the new laws and recently amended VA polices, states Life D. Griffith, MSM and Executive Director for Veterans Health Solutions.

ADVERTISEMENT

Mr. Griffith is a disabled veteran who served as a combat medic for 19 years in the active and reserve components of the U.S. Army. In 2015, he left the Department of Veteran Affairs as a Legal Administration Specialist & Minority Veteran Program Coordinator with the Department of Veteran Affairs in Los Angeles to concentrate on Veterans Health Solutions.

VHS strategy is simple. We strive to be the FIRST TO CARE by educating the veteran and underserved community hands-on about the benefits of medicinal cannabis via CBD oil especially for those who are suffering from chronic physical and mental aliments, Griffith remarked. Every day while working with the Veterans Administration (VA), I assisted my fellow veterans with their claims process and over time, I begin to witness the chronic pain and mental suffering that the veterans were experiencing while being treated at the VA. This led many veterans to distrust the VA, PTSD outbreaks, suicide and homelessness and the opioid crisis, which are the key issues plaguing veterans nationally and that made me decide to create Veterans Health Solutions, he further remarked.

The combination of increased prescription drugs after military service has led to more serious chronic disabilities which veterans often cant recover from because of the multiple drugs that are still being freely prescribed by VA doctors. These drugs are highly addictive and have been linked to more serious problems and even deaths.

Although President Trump announced there was a major opioid crisis in late 2017, and U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted to have VA doctors recommend medical marijuana to their patients, cannabis is still considered to be a scheduled 1 drug. VHS invites all veterans and the underserved to get involved and become more educated about cannabis.Marikoko boutique holds Choosing a Home for YOUR Small Business in Leimert Park

Feb. 27

Welcome to the Neighborhood: Choosing a Home for Your Small Business

Permits, licensing, size and parking availability, these are all givens when choosing a location for your small business but what about whats not always the first thing we look for? How do you choose the community that is most meaningful to your business, give back to create small business sustainability and stay accountable as a good neighbor?

ADVERTISEMENT

The Japanese American Women Entreprenure Speaker Series presents Choosing a Home for Your Small Business, an evening about small business education with a historical and cultural perspective at MarikoKo boutique, located at 3123 W Vernon Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90008, February 27 from 6:00 pm  8:30 PM with a reception with light snacks and beverage. There will be street parking.

Speakers include: small business owner of MarikoKo boutique, Mariko McKittrick; moderator and Japanese American community member, Mike Murase and Journalist and Food Blogger Veronica Hendrix. They will provide valuable insight on real estate, community equity and historical perspective.

ABOUT THE JAPANESE AMERICAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR SPEAKER SERIES

We are a quarterly community event + Q&A to take place every two to three months starting from February 2018 celebrating all members of the Japanese American women entrepreneur community.Sweet Briar College is a small, private womens college in the American state of Virginia. In 2015, the schools governing board grew concerned about its financial future and considered closing the school.

But after a change in leadership and the hard work of its employees and former students, Sweet Briar stayed open.

Now, almost three years later, Sweet Briar College is doing remarkably well, says Teresa Tomlinson. She is the head of the schools board of directors. She says the schools has been able to buy back $8 million of its debt and reduce its operating costs by almost $15 million.

Tomlinson told VOA that the school was able to help its financial situation by making changes to its study program. Sweet Briar now aims to better meet the needs of the next generation of students by tying their studies to the demands of the modern working world.

However, not all small, private colleges like Sweet Briar have been able to keep up with the changing demands. In recent months, some have said they can no longer operate. For example, St. Gregorys University in Oklahoma, Memphis College of Art and Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska have all announced they will be closing.

These announcements made observers question what the future may be for American higher education.

The research company Gallup asked chief business officers at more than 400 American schools whether they agree with media reports that tell of a financial crisis in higher education. About 70 percent of them said they believe those reports are correct. Gallup released the public opinion study last August.

Valerie Calderon is a senior researcher with Gallup. She says such concerns may come from the fact many Americans feel they have less money to spend on higher education.

The cost of higher education in the country has increased greatly over the past 30 years. Also, the U.S. economy, Calderon says, has been growing at a slower rate. This has made some American families think twice about investing a lot of money in a costly degree program, she says.

Fewer students are enrolling in higher education programs, the National Student Clearinghouse found. The organization studies American education. Last year, it reported that the overall number of students in higher education programs was 1.5 percent less than the year before.

So, why have the costs of higher education gone up so much? Calderon says part of the reason is because schools are employing more administrators.

Colleges have employed more highly paid professionals who dont teach, driving up the ratio of workers per student, she told VOA.

Ken Redd is a senior researcher with the National Association of College and University Business Officers. He says that schools have, in fact, employed more people whose jobs do not directly relate to teaching. But that is because of the changing nature of who the schools students are, he says.

Many colleges and universities have been doing more in recent years to help poor students get an education, for example. Redd says these students may need more support in their studies, because they often went to high schools that did not prepare them well for college.

Redd also says many schools are doing more to support students who face other difficulties, such as physical and mental health issues. This means schools must hire support staff.

All these efforts cost the schools money, which means their tuition costs may rise.

In addition, the U.S. government has created more rules that colleges and universities must follow. For example, in 2015 the Department of Education began holding schools responsible for creating an office to receive and investigate complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination. This came as part of a greater effort to enforce the law known as Title IX. Such efforts add extra costs, Redd says.

Redd adds that many schools have tried hard to combat the rising costs for students. Financial aid awards have increased overall. Some schools also employ special reductions and limits to tuition increases.

But Redd does have concerns. He says that a decreasing number of students and limited financial resources could put small, private schools at risk of closing, especially rural ones. He fears the effect this may have on students growing up in rural areas.

Eight out of ten students  in the United States go to a college within 20 miles [or 32 kilometers] of their home, Redd said. A school closing in a rural community would not necessarily lead to students picking up and going to a college in the city or going to a college in another state.

In other words, the students may choose to not pursue higher education at all.

But Richard Ekman of the Council of Independent Colleges, or CIC, remains unconcerned. His organization represents more than 650 private colleges and universities across the U.S.

He says recent media reports of a higher education crisis are untrue. He adds that, historically, few colleges have closed permanently. Schools that come close to closing are often bought by or combined with other similar or larger schools.

Not all will succeed, of course, Ekman said. But most will, to judge from what weve seen so far. That wont stop the business officers from worrying. But it means that very few colleges go out of business.

During the 2011-2012 school year, for example, just 10 colleges and universities across the country closed, according to the Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics. At that time, the United States was facing a severe economic recession.

Ekman says that for schools to survive, they need to try to appeal to students in different ways.

For example, Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, took note of the local areas growing industry for small, independent breweries. So it designed a program to train students in brewing. And Adrian College in Michigan observed a lack of schools with competitive college fishing teams. So the school started one, drawing in students who were looking to join the nationally recognized sport.

Im Pete Musto.

And Im Dorothy Gundy.

Pete Musto reported this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. How strong financially are colleges and universities in your country? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________ QUIZ Quiz - Experts Debate Financial Future of American Higher Education Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

board  n. a group of people who manage or direct a company or organization

remarkably  adv. done in a way that is unusual or surprising

degree  n. an official document and title that is given to someone who has successfully completed a series of classes at a college or university

enroll(ing)  v. to become a member or participant

administrator(s)  n. a person whose job is to manage a company, school, or other organization

professional(s)  n. someone who does a job that requires special training, education, or skill

ratio  n. the relationship that exists between the size, number, or amount of two things and that is often represented by two numbers

hire  v. to give work or a job to someone in exchange for wages or a salary

staff  n. a group of people who work for an organization or business

tuition  n. money that is paid to a school for the right to study there

combat  v. to try to stop something from happening or getting worse

pursue  v. to try to get or do something over a period of time

according to  prep. as stated, reported, or recorded by someone or something

appeal to  p.v. to be liked by someone

breweries  n. companies that makes beer, an alcoholic drink made from malt and flavored with hopsNow, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories, our weekly show about common expressions in American English.

Wind is a powerful force in nature. Wind energy is partly responsible for great waves in the world's oceans. Winds can help create powerful storms, such as tornadoes and hurricanes.

From very light winds, or breezes, to strong gales, wind is a force you can't see but can surely feel. Its power can be captured to create electricity for cities and the countryside.

Wind can also power many expressions in American English.

Let's start with a simple one.

If you run like the wind, you are a very fast runner.

After running, sometimes you can feel energized. The runner gets what we call a second wind. We use this expression when we were tired, but then get more energy to finish something. For example, sometimes I feel tired after work. But after a short rest and a cup of tea, I get my second wind. I'm ready to do something fun with my friends and family.

Now, people who throw caution to the wind take a chance. This means they become careless or carefree, depending on the situation. People forget what they should be doing and just do what they want to instead.

Now, if you are doing something difficult, it is good to have the wind at your back. This way it is easier to go forward. It's always more difficult to do something in a strong wind -- unless you are sailing.

Knowing the direction of the wind is the most important part of sailing. When wind fills a sail, it makes the boat go faster. When you or I have wind in our "sails," we have the energy and power to do what we what.

If you take the wind out of someone's sails, you keep them from reaching their objectives. You create a barrier or block them in some way. In life, its a good idea to surround yourself with people who want to fill your sails with wind and not take it out.

Wind and sailing give us another expression.

If you are three sheets to the wind, you have had way too much alcohol to drink. You are so drunk that you have a hard time standing up.

Several websites explain that in this expression "sheets" are the ropes used to control the sails on a boat or ship. If these ropes are left blowing in the wind, the crew might lose control  sort of like a drunk person.

Now, let's turn from sailing to music.

Many songwriters use the image of wind in their songs. If something such as an idea is blowing in the wind, it is being discussed but has yet to be decided.

You might have heard Bob Dylans song "Blowin' in the Wind."

How many deaths will it take 'til (until) he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' (blowing) in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

The answer, my friend, is blowin' (blowing) in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

Does Dylan mean the answer is undecided? Or does he mean that the answers to the problems he sings about will spread across the world like seeds carried away by the wind? When asked in an interview, he didnt give a clear answer. He simply said the answer is blowin in the wind.

Dylan uses another "wind" expression in the song Subterranean Homesick Blues. But the meaning is clear when he sings "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

Here, he means that you don't need someone knowledgeable or in power to confirm something for you. Just trust yourself. You can figure it out on your own.

So, when you know which way the wind blows, you know what is going on.

Now, some things are hard to do when there is no wind. Sailing a boat and flying a kite are two good examples. But other things are really hard to do in the wind, such as lighting a candle.

That brings us to our last expression for today.

A candle in the wind describes something that is weak, unprotected and likely to fail or possibly even die.

In the early 1970s, Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote the song "Candle in the Wind" in honor of actress Marilyn Monroe, who died at the age of 36.

In 1997, Elton John performed a version of the song, with different wording, at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

She died in a car crash in Paris while trying to escape photographers. Like Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana was only 36 years old.

And thats Words and Their Stories. Im Anna Matteo.

If you have similar expression using "wind" in your language, let us know in the Comments Section. Or simply practice using one or more of the expressions you heard here.

It seems to me you lived your life

Like a candle in the wind

Never knowing who to cling to

When the rain set in

And I would have liked to have known you

But I was just a kid

Your candle burned out long before

Your legend ever did.

And I would have liked to have known you

But I was just a kid

Your candle burned out long before

Your legend ever did.

Anna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

____________________________________________________________________

Words in This Stories

carefree  adj. having no worries or troubles

figure it out  phrasal verb to come to understand someone or something better

candle  n. a usually molded or dipped mass of wax or tallow containing a wick that may be burnedWhile many Indonesians watch for possible changes in the nations criminal code, Indonesias House of Representatives has quietly passed changes to another law.

The legislation is the revised Law on Representative Assemblies, also known as the MD3 law.

Critics say the new measures will limit criticism of Indonesian politicians. They say it also will make lawmakers less likely to take responsibility for their actions.

Under the new rules, representatives in parliament are permitted to bring charges against people who undermine its honor or that of its members. In addition, investigations into members of parliament must be approved by the House Ethics Council.

Critics say a target of the new legislation will likely be Indonesias anti-corruption commission, or the KPK.

Groups like Indonesia Corruption Watch and the Association for Elections and Democracy have launched an online campaign to fight the measures. The campaign has gathered more than 170,000 signatures. But the amendments can likely only be overturned by a Constitutional Court ruling.

Eight political parties supported the amendments. One of them is the Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDIP, of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. For months, PDIP members have been calling for MD3 to be passed.

The United Development Party and the National Democratic Party protested the legislation, but they were outvoted.

Andreas Harsono is a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Jakarta. He said, "Indonesias parliament is one of the least trusted state institutions. It does not help that they passed such a repressive law. Its going to create more and more problems in Indonesia.

Late reaction to the law

Ian Wilson teaches at Murdoch University in Australia. He says debate over the proposed criminal code changes may have helped direct public attention away from the anti-democratic effect of the MD3 amendments.

Indonesian lawmakers are considering a proposal to criminalize sexual acts between homosexuals. The proposed changes also would criminalize sex outside of marriage.

Its safe to assume the timing was at least partially intentional, Wilson said. The most divisive parts of the MD3 law are also relatively well hidden within the legislation. Its a fairly well practiced stratagem in Indonesia, he added.

Last week, the Forum on Law and Constitutional Studies asked the Constitutional Court to consider the MD3 Law. The group said that its requirements, like ordering citizens to appear by force, are not in line with the Indonesian constitution.

Yohanes Sulaiman is a defense expert at General Achmad Yani University. He said, The main way to oppose this measure is through the Constitutional Court. The other way [to resist], which is more difficult, would be for citizens to organize, and keep getting arrested. If they keep resisting, they can see how far Parliament is willing to push enforcement of the law.



Legal protection from criticism

Most politicians [around the world] know that they should have thick skin. Not in Jakarta, said Harsono. In recent years, many Indonesians have faced legal troubles after criticizing politicians on social media.

The House is just a bunch of people who are really proud and sure of themselves, said Sulaiman. Of course, this will be a way for them to attack their critics.

He added that the House has been concerned over increased pressure from the KPK. Last year, work by the anti-corruption group led to the detention of House Speaker Setya Novanto.

The MD3 law can be seen as an attempt by the House to strengthen its power while public opinion of it is very low.

Wilson said the MD3 law is unusual because it gives legislators powers similar to, or even greater than, that of the court system.

Wilson said the law will increase peoples opinion that parliament is a self-serving institution.

He suggested that hurting public trust in the parliamentary system in this way might even increase the appeal of other parties, including Islamists.

Indonesian journalists and the media also have expressed shock over the amendments. These groups say the legislation will reduce press freedoms.

Abdul Manan is head of the Alliance of Independent Journalists. He warned that the law could become a tool to limit freedoms.

He said, "The subjective nature of the wording means that journalists can easily be ensnared for doing their job, and the law can become another tool with which to suppressthe press."

Im Jonathan Evans.

Krithika Varagur reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted the report for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

code  n. a system of rules

undermine  v. to weaken or wash away

online  adj. involving a computer or computer system

institution  n. an established organization

stratagem  n. a trick designed to fool the enemy

assume  v. to accept as true

intentional  adj. planned; done by design

bunch  n. group

proud  adj. very pleased with who you are or what you have done

ensnare  v. to catch or take in

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.Scientists in Denmark have developed a venom test kit to help doctors treat victims of snake bites. The kit was created to be simple and has only two pieces of equipment: a centrifuge and a smartphone.

For victims, treating a snakebite requires the use of anti-venom. However, receiving the correct form of treatment can be difficult. The victim must first know which kind of snake bit them. That is because each poisonous snake produces a different kind of venom.

The new venom testing kit can help solve this problem.

Snake venom is made up of various protein patterns.

The different patterns in the venom can be used to determine the snake species. Catherine Larsen is a scientist at the Technical University of Denmark, or DTU. She said researchers found these patterns after testing different snake venoms with different small proteins.

Ivan Doudka is also with DTU. He explained that the kit works by using a smartphone app to analyze a serum sample from the patient.

To create the sample, the patients red blood cells need to first be separated. This is done by using a centrifuge which is a device created to separate fluids. The centrifuge is operated by hand and needs to be spun quickly to separate the substances.

The sample is then put into a special container that keeps the condition of the plasma serum the same. After 30 minutes, the sample is placed into a clear container called a cuvette.

The cuvette is used with a machine known as a spectrophotometer which analyzes the liquid by measuring the amount of light that is absorbed by it.

By connecting the spectrophotometer to a smartphone a smartphone app is used to show the results.

The app then identifies the type of snake and suggests the most effective anti-venom.

Andreas Laustsen, another DTU scientist, said the test kit will help doctors make quicker, possibly life-saving decisions.

The teams work could help the estimated five million people who are bitten by snakes each year. Those bites kill at least 100,000 people a year, and lead to around 400,000 venom-related amputations.

I'm Rachel Dennis.

VOA's Kevin Enochs reported this story. Rachel Dennis adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

venom - n. poison produced by an animal

kit- n. a set of tools or supplies that a person uses for a particular purpose or activity

equipment - n. supplies or tools needed for a special purpose

centrifuge - n. a machine that uses centrifugal force to separate substances or parts of substances (centrifugal - adj. moving away from a center)

analyze - v. to study (something) closely and carefully

serum - n. the part of blood that is like water and that contains substances (called antibodies) that fight disease

sample - n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from

amputation - n. the action of cutting off a part of a person's bodyXcel Energy, Inc. operates as a holding company, which engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity. It operates through the following three segments: Regulated Electric Utility, Regulated Natural Gas Utility and All Others. The Regulated Electric Utility segment generates, transmits and distributes electricity primarily in portions of generates, transmits and distributes electricity in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. In addition, this segment includes sales for resale and provides wholesale transmission service to various entities in the United States. It also includes commodity trading operations. The Regulated Natural Gas Utility segment transports, stores, and distributes natural gas primarily in portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan and Colorado. The All Others segment engages in steam, appliance repair services, nonutility real estate activities, processing solid waste into refuse-derived fuel and investments in rental housing projects that qualify for low-income housing tax credits. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Ariana Resources 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 Ariana Resources wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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(1), AES Argentina Holdings S.C.A., AES Argentina Investments Ltd., AES Argentina Operations Ltd., AES Arlington Services LLC, AES Armenia Mountain Holdings LLC, AES Armenia Mountain Wind 2 LLC, AES Aurora Holdings Inc., AES Aurora Inc., AES BES Jordan B.V., AES Bainbridge Holdings LLC, AES Bainbridge LLC, AES Ballylumford Holdings Limited, AES Baltic Holdings BV, AES Barka Services Inc., AES Barry Limited, AES Barry Operations Ltd., AES Beaver Valley L.L.C., AES Belfast West Power Limited, AES Belleville Solar LLC, AES Big Sky L.L.C., AES Botswana Holdings B.V., AES Brasil Ltda, AES Brazil Inc., AES Brazil International Holdings Limited, AES Broadalbin Solar LLC, AES Bulgaria B.V., AES Bulgaria Energy Solutions EOOD, AES Bulgaria Holdings BV, AES Bussum Holdings BV, AES CC&T International Ltd., AES CLESA Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita de Capital Variable, AES Calaca Pte. Ltd., AES Calgary Inc., AES California Management Co. Inc., AES Caracoles SRL, AES Carbon Exchange Ltd., AES Carbon Holdings LLC, AES Caribbean Finance Holdings Inc., AES Caribbean Investment Holdings Ltd., AES Cartegena Holdings BV, AES Cayman Guaiba Ltd., AES Cayman Pampas Ltd., AES Central America Electric Light LLC, AES Central American Holdings Inc., AES Central American Investment Holdings Ltd., AES Central Asia Holdings BV, AES Ceprano Energia SRL, AES Changuinola S.R.L., AES Chhattisgarh Energy Private Limited, AES Chigen Holdings Ltd., AES China Generating Co. Ltd., AES Chivor & Cia S.C.A. E.S.P., AES Chivor S.A., AES Climate Solutions Holdings I B.V., AES Climate Solutions Holdings I LLC, AES Climate Solutions Holdings II LLC, AES Climate Solutions Holdings L.P., AES Climate Solutions Holdings LLC, AES Colon Development S. de R.L., AES Columbia Power LLC, AES Communications LLC, AES Communications Latin America Inc., AES Connecticut Management L.L.C., AES Coop Holdings LLC, AES Costa Rica Energy SRL, AES Costa Rica Holdings Ltd., AES DE AssetCo VI LLC, AES DE Class B Holdings LLC, AES DE Class B I LLC, AES DE Class B II LLC, AES DE Class B III LLC, AES DE Class B IV LLC, AES DE Class B V LLC, AES DE Class B VI LLC, AES DE Class B VII LLC, AES DE Construction LLC, AES DE DevCo I LLC, AES DE DevCo NC LLC, AES DE Holdings I LLC, AES DE Holdings III LLC, AES DE Holdings IV LLC, AES DE Holdings V LLC, AES DE Holdings VI GB LLC, AES DE Holdings VI GB Owner LLC, AES DE Holdings VI LLC, AES DE Manager LLC, AES DE RS IX LLC, AES DE RS VI LLC, AES DE RS VII LLC, AES DE RS VIII LLC, AES DE RS X LLC, AES DE RS XI LLC, AES DE RS XII LLC, AES DE Residential Holdings I LLC, AES DE Solar Access Holdings I LLC, AES DE-GIE LLC, AES DPL Holdings LLC, AES DPP Holdings Ltd., AES Deepwater LLC, AES Desert Power L.L.C., AES Development de Argentina S.A., AES Disaster Relief Fund, AES Distribuidores Salvadorenos Limitada, AES Distribuidores Salvadorenos Y Compania S en C de C.V., AES Distributed Energy Inc., AES Dominicana Cooperatief UA, AES Drax Financing Inc., AES Drax Power Finance Holdings Limited, AES EDC Holding L.L.C., AES ES Alamitos LLC, AES ES Deepwater LLC, AES ES Gilbert LLC, AES ES Holdings LLC, AES ES Tait LLC, AES Ecotek Europe Holdings B.V., AES El Faro Electric Light Ltd., AES El Faro Generating Ltd., AES El Salvador Electric Light LLC, AES El Salvador LLC, AES El Salvador S.A. de C.V., AES El Salvador Trust, AES Electric Ltd., AES Electroinversora B.V., AES Elpa S.A., AES Empresa Electrica de El Salvador Limitada de Capital Variable, AES Endeavor Inc., AES Energia SRL, AES Energy B.V., AES Energy Developments S.L., AES Energy Ltd., AES Energy Services Inc., AES Energy Solutions LLC, AES Energy Storage Arizona LLC, AES Energy Storage Holdings, AES Energy Storage Holdings LLC, AES Energy Storage LLC, AES Energy Storage UK Limited, AES Energy Storage Zeeland B.V., AES Engineering LLC, AES Europe Services EOOD, AES Finance and Development Inc., AES Florestal Ltda., AES Fonseca Energia Limitada de C.V., AES Forca Ltd., AES Foreign Energy Holdings LLC, AES GEI US Finance Inc., AES GEO Energy OOD, AES GPH Holdings Inc., AES Gabreski Solar LLC, AES Gas Supply & Distribution Ltd., AES Gener S.A., AES Generation Development LLC, AES Global Insurance Company, AES Global Mobility Services LLC, AES Global Power Holdings B.V., AES Globales B.V., AES Grand Dominicana Ltd., AES Grid Stability LLC, AES Griggs Solar LLC, AES Guaiba II Empreendimentos Ltda, AES Guayama Holdings BV, AES Hawaii LLC, AES Hawaii Management Company LLC, AES Highgrove Holdings L.L.C., AES Highgrove L.L.C., AES Hispanola Holdings BV, AES Hispanola Holdings II BV, AES Holdings B.V., AES Holdings B.V. - Vietnam Rep Office, AES Holdings Brasil Ltda., AES Honduras Generation Ventures Ltd., AES Honduras Holdings Ltd., AES Horizons Holdings BV, AES Horizons Investments Limited, AES Hungary Energiaszolgaltato Kft., AES Huntington Beach Development L.L.C., AES Huntington Beach Energy LLC, AES Huntington Beach L.L.C., AES IB Valley Corporation, AES Ilumina Holdings LLC, AES Ilumina LLC, AES Ilumina Member LLC, AES India Holdings (Mauritius), AES India L.L.C., AES Indiana Holdings L.L.C., AES Integrated Energy LLC, AES Intercon II Ltd., AES Interenergy Ltd., AES International Holdings II Ltd., AES International Holdings III Ltd., AES International Holdings Ltd., AES Investment Chile SpA, AES Italia S.r.l, AES James Baird Solar LLC, AES Johnsville Solar LLC, AES Jordan Holdco Cayman Limited, AES Jordan PSC, AES Jordan Solar B.V., AES Juniper Point Holdings LLC, AES K2 Limited, AES Kalaeloa Venture L.L.C., AES Kekaha Solar LLC, AES Keystone L.L.C., AES Keystone Wind L.L.C., AES King Harbor Inc., AES Kuihelani Solar LLC, AES LA FIT Dedeaux LLC, AES LA FIT Francisco LLC, AES LA FIT Sun Valley LLC, AES LATAM Energy Development Ltd., AES Landfill Carbon LLC, AES Latin America S. de R.L., AES Latin American Development Ltd., AES Laurel Mountain LLC, AES Lawai Solar LLC, AES Levant Holdings B.V., AES Levant Holdings B.V/ Jordan PSC, AES Lion Telecom Investments B.V., AES Lumos Holdings LLC, AES Maritza East 1 Ltd., AES Maritza East 1 Services Ltd., AES Mayan Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Merida B.V., AES Merida III S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Merida Management Services S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Merida Operaciones SRL de CV, AES Mexican Holdings Ltd., AES Mexico Farms L.L.C., AES Mexico Generation Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., AES MicroPlanet Ltd., AES Mid East Holdings 2 Ltd., AES Mong Duong Holdings B.V., AES Mong Duong Project Holdings B.V., AES Monroe Holdings B.V., AES Mount Vernon B.V., AES NA Central L.L.C., AES NEXT Ltda. de C.V., AES Nejapa Gas Ltda. de C.V., AES Nejapa Services Ltda. de C.V., AES Next LLC, AES Nile Power Holdings Ltd., AES North America Development LLC, AES OPGC Holding, AES Oahu LLC, AES Oahu Wind Holdings LLC, AES Oasis Holdco Inc., AES Oasis Ltd., AES Oasis Mauritius Inc, AES Ocean Springs Trust Deed, AES Odyssey L.L.C., AES Ohio Generation LLC, AES Operaciones Laguna del Rey S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Operadora S.A, AES Orissa Distribution Private Limited, AES Overseas Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., AES Overseas Holdings Limited, AES Pacific Inc., AES Pacific L.L.C., AES Pacific Ocean Holdings B.V., AES Pak Holdings Ltd., AES Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd., AES Pakistan Operations Ltd., AES Panama S.R.L., AES Parana Gas S.A., AES Parana Holdings Ltd., AES Parana IHC Ltd., AES Parana II Limited Partnership, AES Parana Operations S.R.L., AES Parana Propiedades S.A, AES Parana Uruguay S.R.L, AES Pardo Holdings Ltd., AES Pasadena Inc., AES Peru S.R.L., AES Phil Investment Pte. Ltd., AES Philippines Power Partners Co. Ltd., AES Platense Investments Uruguay S.C.A, AES Puerto Rico Inc., AES Puerto Rico L.P., AES Puerto Rico Services Inc., AES Redondo Beach L.L.C., AES Renewable Power Group S.R.L., AES Renewables (India) Private Limited, AES Riverside Holdings LLC, AES SACEF Investment LLC, AES SEB Holdings (Delaware) LLC, AES SEB Holdings Ltd., AES Saint Petersburg Holdings B.V., AES San Nicolas B.V., AES SellCo III LLC, AES Services Inc., AES Services Ltd., AES Services Philippines Inc., AES Servicios America S.R. L., AES Servicios Electricos S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Servicos TC Ltda., AES Shady Point LLC, AES Silk Road Energy LLC, AES Silk Road LLC, AES Solar Energy B.V., AES Solar Energy Holdings B.V., AES Solar Energy LLC, AES Solar Espana S.L., AES Solar Holdings LLC, AES Solar Power PR LLC, AES Sole Italia S.r.L., AES Soluciones Limitada de Capital Variable, AES Solutions LLC, AES Solutions Management LLC, AES South America Holdings Cooperatief U.A., AES South America Holdings I B.V., AES South America Holdings II B.V., AES South American Holdings Ltd., AES South Point Ltd., AES Southland Development LLC, AES Southland Energy Company Holdings I LLC, AES Southland Energy Holdings II LLC, AES Southland Energy Holdings LLC, AES Southland Energy Investment LLC, AES Southland Energy LLC, AES Stonehaven Holding Inc., AES Strategic Equipment Holdings Corporation, AES Sul L.L.C., AES Summit Generation Ltd., AES Swiss Lake Holdings B.V., AES TEG Holdings I LLC, AES TEG Holdings LLC, AES TEG II Mexican Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., AES TEG II Mexican Investments S. de R.L. de C.V., AES TEG II Operations S. de R.L. de C.V., AES TEG Management Inc., AES TEG Mexican Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., AES TEG Mexican Investments S. de R.L. de C.V., AES TEG Operations S. de R.L. de C.V., AES TEG Power Investments B.V., AES TEG Power Investments II B.V., AES TEGTEP Holdings B.V., AES TEP Holdings I LLC, AES TEP Holdings LLC, AES TEP Management Inc., AES TEP Power II Investments Limited, AES TEP Power Investments Limited, AES Tamuin Development Services S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Texas Funding III L.L.C., AES Thames L.L.C., AES Thomas Holdings BV, AES Tiete Eolica S.A., AES Tiete Inova Solucoes de Energia I Ltda., AES Tiete Inova Solucoes de Energia II Ltda., AES Tiete Inova Solucoes de Energia Ltda., AES Tiete Integra Solucoes em Energia Ltda, AES Tonawanda Solar LLC, AES Transgas I Ltd., AES Treasure Cove Ltd., AES Trinidad Services Unlimited, AES Trust III, AES Tucano Holding I S.A., AES Tucano Holdings II S.A., AES U&K Holdings B.V., AES U.S. Holdings LLC, AES U.S. Investments Inc., AES U.S. Solar LLC, AES UCH Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., AES UK Datacenter Services Limited, AES UK Holdings Limited, AES UK Power Financing II Ltd, AES UK Power Financing Limited, AES UK Power Holdings Limited, AES UK Power L.L.C., AES UK Power Limited, AES US Distributed Solar Holdings LLC, AES US Generation Holdings LLC, AES US Generation LLC, AES US Services LLC, AES US Wind Development L.L.C., AES US Wind Generation Holdings LLC, AES Union de Negocios S.A. de C.V., AES Uruguaiana Empreendimentos S.A., AES Venezuela Finance, AES Volcan Holdings B.V., AES WR Limited Partnership, AES Waikoloa Solar LLC, AES Warrior Run L.L.C., AES West Oahu Solar LLC, AES Western Power Holdings L.L.C., AES Western Power L.L.C., AES Western Wind L.L.C., AES Western Wind MV Acquisition LLC, AES Wind Bulgaria EOOD, AES Wind Generation LLC, AES Wind Generation Limited, AES Wind Investments I B.V., AES Wind Investments II B.V., AES Yucatan S. de R.L. de C.V., AES Zephyr 2 LLC, AES Zephyr 3 LLC, AES Zephyr Inc., AES- IC Ictas Enerji Uretim ve Ticaret A.S., AES-3C Maritza East 1 Ltd., AES-RS Spanish Holdings LLC, AES-RS Sunshine Cooperatief U.A., AES-RS Sunshine Holdings LLC, AES-VCM Mong Duong Power Company Limited, AESCom Sul Ltda., AESEBA Trust Deed, AGV Solar IV Geradora de Energia S.A., AGV Solar V Geradora de Energia S.A., AGV Solar VI Geradora de Energia S.A., AM Solar B.V., AM Solar B.V. - Jordan Co., APR Walden Solar 1 LLC, ARNIKA Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, AZ Solar I LLC, AZ Solar II LLC, AZ Solar Phase Zero LLC, AgCert Canada Co., AgCert Canada Holding Limited, AgCert Chile Servicios Ambientales Limitada, AgCert International Limited, AgCert Servicios Ambientales S.R.L., Agilion Energy Private Limited, Allis Medina Solar LLC, Altai Power Limited Liability Partnership, Alto Maipo SpA, Amaterasu LLC, Andes Solar SpA, Arizona B&GC Solar LLC, Assonet Solar 1 LLC, Atlantic Basin Services Ltd., B.A. Services S.R.L., Bakersfield Industrial PV 1 LLC, Bakersfield PV I LLC, Beals Medina Solar LLC, Boa Hora 1 Geradora De Energia Solar S.A., Boa Hora 2 Geradora de Energia Solar S.A., Boa Hora 3 Geradora De Energia Solar S.A., Bolton Solar I LLC, Brasiliana Participacoes S.A., Bridgeport Solar LLC, Buffalo Gap Holdings 2 LLC, Buffalo Gap Holdings 3 L.L.C., Buffalo Gap Holdings LLC, Buffalo Gap Wind Farm 2 LLC, Buffalo Gap Wind Farm 3 L.L.C., Buffalo Gap Wind Farm 4 L.L.C., Buffalo Gap Wind Farm LLC, Bullock Freetown Solar 1 LLC, Bosforo de Responsabilidad Limitada de Capital Variable, CCS Telecarrier, CDEC-SING Ltda, CIA.TRANSMISORA DEL NORTE CHICO S.A., CO-CA Wholly Owned LLC, Camille Ltd., Camille Trust, Cavanal Minerals LLC, Cayman Energy Traders, Cemig II C.V., Centrais Eolicas Ametista S.A., Centrais Eolicas Borgo S.A., Centrais Eolicas Caetite S.A., Centrais Eolicas Dourados S.A., Centrais Eolicas Espigao S.A., Centrais Eolicas Maron S.A., Centrais Eolicas Morrao S.A., Centrais Eolicas Pelourinho S.A., Centrais Eolicas Piloes S.A., Centrais Eolicas Seraima S.A., Centrais Eolicas Serra do Espinhaco S.A., Centrais Eolicas Tanque S.A., Centrais Eolicas Ventos do Nordeste S.A., Centrais Eolicas da Prata S.A., Centrais Eolicas dos Aracas S.A., Central Electricity Supply Company of Orissa Limited, Central Termoelectrica Guillermo Brown S.A., Cerulean Properties LLC, Clean Wind Energy Ltd., Coastal Itabo Ltd., Colon LNG Marketing S. De R.L., Compania de Alumbrado Eletrico de San Salvador S.A. DE C.V., Compass Circle Solar LLC, Compania Transmisora Angamos SpA, Compania Transmisora La Cebada S.A., Compania Transmisora del Norte Grande SpA, Costa Norte LNG Terminal S. de R.L., Cronin Road Solar 1 LLC, DPL Capital Trust II, DPL Inc., Daggett Ridge Wind Farm LLC, Delano PV1 LLC, Diamond Development Inc., Distribuidora Electrica de Usulutan Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Domi Trading S.L., Dominican Power Partners, Dublin Solar I LLC, Dunstable Solar 1 LLC, EMLP Controladora S. de R.L. de C.V., ENERAB S. de R.L. de C.V., ENERGEN S.A., Eloy ESD Solar Holdings LLC, Empresa Electrica Angamos S.A., Empresa Electrica Campiche S.A., Empresa Electrica Cochrane II SpA, Empresa Electrica Cochrane S.A., Empresa Electrica Guacolda S.A., Empresa Electrica Ventanas S.A., Empresa Electrica de Oriente S.A. de C.V., Empresa Generadora De Electricidad Itabo S.A., EnerAB Cogeneracion I Laguna del Rey S. de R.L. de C.V., EnerAB Suministro Calificado S. de R.L. de C.V., EnerAB Tenedora S. de R.L., Energetica Argentina S.A., Energia Eolica Los Olmos SpA, Energia Eolica Mesamavida SpA, Energia Verde S.A., Energy Trade and Finance Corporation, Energia Eolica Curauma SpA, Energia Eolica Paposo SpA, Energia Natural del Este Enadom, Eolica Mesa La Paz S. de R.L. de C.V., FTP Power LLC, Finchville Solar LLC, Fluence Energy LLC, Founder's Homestead Farm Solar LLC, Fundacion AES Dominicana Inc., Fundacion AES Gener, GENERGIA S.A., GNRY Holdings & Investments Limited, Gas Natural Atlantico II S. de R.L., Gas Natural Atlantico S. De R.L., Gasoducto GasAndes Argentina S.A., Gasoducto GasAndes S.A., Gener Argentina S.A., Gener Blue Water Ltd., Genergia Power Ltd., Georgia Solar Holdings LLC, Georgia Solar Parent LLC, Global Energy Holdings C.V., Goller Enerji Uretim Ltd. Sti., Gray Springs Vista Solar LLC, Greenwich Solar 1 LLC, Guacolda Energy S.A., Guaimbe I Parque Solar S.A., Guaimbe II Parque Solar S.A., Guaimbe III Parque Solar S.A., Guaimbe IV Parque Solar S.A., Guaimbe Solar Holding S.A., Guaimbe V Parque Solar S.A., Health and Welfare Benefit Plans LLC, Hipotecaria San Miguel Limitada de Capital Variable, Hipotecaria Santa Ana Limitada de Capital Variable, INVERSIONES NUEVA VENTANAS S.A., IPALCO Enterprises Inc., Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Indimento Inversiones S.L., Instituto AES Brasil, InterAndes S.A., Inversiones Cachagua SpA, Inversiones Energia Renovable Limitada, Inversiones LK SpA, Inversiones Termoenergia de Chile Ltda., Inversiones Zapallar Limitada, Inversora de San Nicolas S.A., Itabo III S.R.L., Jemeiwaa KaI S.A.S., Johnstown Solar 1 LLC, KA Energy OOD, KMR Power Company, Kazincbarcikai Iparteruletfejleszt Kft., Kings Rooftop PV LLC, La Plata I Empreendimentos Ltda., La Plata II Ltd., La Plata III C.V., Lane Ave Solar LLC, Lemoore PV 1 LLC, MFP CO Holdings II LLC, MFP CO Holdings LLC, MFP CO I LLC, MFP CO II LLC, MFP CO III LLC, MFP CO Parent LLC, MM Solar Holdings I LLC, MM Solar Parent LLC, MSP Master Tenant I LLC, MSP Master Tenant II LLC, MacGregor Park Inc., Manteca PV 1 LLC, Maple Solar LLC, Maui 17-2 LLC, Mauka FIT Twenty LLC, Mercury Cayman Co II Ltda Agencia en Chile, Mercury Chile Co. II Ltd., Mercury Chile Holdco Ltd., Mercury Chile I Limitada, Mercury Chile II Limitada, Miami Valley Insurance Company, Miami Valley Lighting LLC, Mid-America Capital Resources Inc., Middletown Solar 1 LLC, Mong Duong Finance Holdings B.V., Motor EV LLC, Mountain Minerals LLC, Mountain View Power Partners IV LLC, Mountain View Power Partners LLC, Murcia Generation Holdings B.V., NY RNM Project1 LLC, NY RNM Project1A LLC, NY RNM Project2 LLC, NY RNM Project3 LLC, NY RNM Project4 LLC, Na Pua Makani Power Partners LLC, New Caribbean Investments SRL, Norgener Inversiones SpA, Norgener Renovables SpA, Norgener S.A., Nova Energia Holding S.A., Novus Barre Town Solar LLC, Nurenergoservice LLP, Oahu SPE 101-14 LLC, Oahu SPE 101-19 LLC, Oahu SPE 101-2 LLC, Oahu SPE 101-33 LLC, Oahu SPE 101-4 LLC, Oahu SPE 101-9 LLC, Odisha Power Generation Corporation Limited, Omega SpA, PARQUE EOLICO NOLANA SpA, PARQUE EOLICO TOPOLOA SpA, Parque Eolico Beata SRL, Parque Eolico Litueche SpA, Parque Eolico Campo Lindo SpA, Parque Eolico Los Cururos SpA, Parque Eolico Victoria SpA, Punta del Sol SpA, Quebrada Seca SpA, RMR Solar LLC, RT52 Walden Solar 1 LLC, Ransomville Solar 1 LLC, Remittance Processing Services LLC, Rep Office of AES Silk Road in Almaty, Rep Office of AES Silk Road in Tajikstan Republic, Richmond Solar Power 1 LLC, River Street Solar 1 LLC, Riverside Canal Power Company, Rosamond Solar LLC, Ryan Road Solar LLC, SD Solar I LLC, SEPV Imperial LLC, San Bernardino Solar LLC, Scituate Solar I LLC, Scottsdale Solar Holdings LLC, SeaWest Asset Management Services LLC, SeaWest Energy Project Associates LLC, SeaWest Properties LLC, SeaWest Wyoming LLC, Shazia S.R.L., Simple Energy Inc., Solar Access America LLC, Solar Access CA LLC, Solar Access California LLC, Southern Electric Brazil Participacoes Ltda., Store Heat and Produce Energy Inc., Stow Solar I LLC, Sudbury Ervin GMC Solar LLC, SunE Solar XVII Project5 LLC, SunE SunHoldings4 LLC, T&T Power Holdings I SRL, T&T Power Holdings II Ltd., TEG Business Trust, TEG/TEP Management LLC, TEP Business Trust, Tau Power BV, Tecnoma Energia Solar S.L., TermoAndes S.A., Termoelectrica Penoles S. de R.L. de C.V., Termoelectrica del Golfo S. de R.L. de C.V., Terneuzen Cogen B.V., The AES Barry Foundation, The Dayton Power and Light Company, Thermo Fuels Company Inc., Tozer Road Solar LLC, USVI Solar I LLC, University Solar LLC, Vientos Neuquinos I S.A., Village of Waterbury Solar I LLC, W. Orange RD Solar LLC, West Brookfield Boston Post Road Solar LLC, West Street Solar 1 LLC, Western Solar Parent LLC, Wilbur Woods Solar LLC, Wildwood Trust, Williamsburg East Street Solar LLC, Winchendon Ash Street Solar 1 LLC, Winchendon Lincoln Avenue Solar 1 LLC, Winchendon Lincoln Avenue Solar 2 LLC, Your Energy Holdings Limited, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-001 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-003 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-006 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-007 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-008 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-011 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-014 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-017 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-023 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-024 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-038 LLC, ZPD-PT Solar Project 2017-044 LLC, sPower, and sPower OpCo A Blocker LLC.5 hours ago

McConnell unmoved on debt limit, risking turmoil for Biden

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration has been enlisting one emissary after another to convince Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to help raise the federal debt limit. It's not working. Despite the high-level conversations, including a call from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the GOP leader is digging in and playing political hardball.

Read ArticleGenesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.

Read MoreSchlumberger NV engages in the provision of technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production and processing to the oil and gas industry. It operates through the following business segments: Digital and Integration; Reservoir Performance; Well Construction; and Production Systems. The Digital and Integration segment combines the company's software and seismic businesses with its integrated offering of asset performance solutions. The Reservoir Performance segment consists of reservoir-centric technologies and services that are critical to optimizing reservoir productivity and performance. The Well Construction segment includes the full portfolio of products and services to optimize well placement and performance, maximize drilling efficiency, and improve wellbore assurance. The Production Systems segment develops technologies and provides expertise that enhances production and recovery from subsurface reservoirs to the surface, into pipelines, and to refineries. The company was founded by Conrad Schlumberger and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

Read MoreRoyal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses. This segment offers financial products and services through branches, automated teller machines, and mobile sales network. Its Wealth Management segment provides a suite of advice-based solutions and strategies to high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and institutional clients. The company's Insurance segment offers life, health, home, auto, travel, wealth, annuities, and reinsurance advice and solutions; and creditor and business insurance services to individual, business, and group clients through its field sales force, advice centers, and online, as well as through independent insurance advisors and affinity relationships. Its Investor & Treasury Services segment provides asset, cash management, transaction banking, and treasury services to institutional clients; correspondent banking and trade finance services for financial institutions; and short-term funding and liquidity management services. The company's Capital Markets segment offers corporate and investment banking, as well as equity and debt origination, distribution, sale, and trading services for corporations, institutional investors, asset managers, governments, and central banks. Royal Bank of Canada has a strategic partnership with Royal College Of Physicians & Surgeons Of Canada to support the needs of Canada's medical specialists. The company was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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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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United Technologies Corporation provides technology products and services to building systems and aerospace industries worldwide. Its Otis segment designs, manufactures, sells, and installs passenger and freight elevators, escalators, and moving walkways; and offers modernization products to upgrade elevators and escalators, as well as maintenance and repair services. The company's Carrier segment provides heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration, fire, security, and building automation products, solutions, and services for commercial, government, infrastructure, residential, and refrigeration and transportation applications. This segment also offers building services, including audit, design, installation, system integration, repair, maintenance, and monitoring. Its Pratt & Whitney segment supplies aircraft engines for commercial, military, business jet, and general aviation markets; and provides aftermarket maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as fleet management services. The company's Collins Aerospace Systems segment provides electric power generation, power management, and distribution systems; air data and aircraft sensing systems; engine control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; engine components; environmental control systems; fire and ice detection, and protection systems; propeller systems; engine nacelle systems; aircraft lighting, seating, and cargo systems; actuation and landing systems; space products and subsystems; avionics systems; flight controls, communications, navigation, oxygen, and training systems; food and beverage preparation, and storage and galley systems; and lavatory and wastewater management systems. The company offers its services through manufacturers' representatives, distributors, wholesalers, dealers, retail outlets, and sales representatives, as well as directly to customers. United Technologies Corporation was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut.

Read MoreVarian Medical Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and services medical devices and software products for treating cancer and other medical conditions worldwide. It operates through Oncology Systems and Proton Solutions segments. The Oncology Systems segment offers hardware and software products for treating cancer with radiotherapy, fixed field intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiotherapy, artificial intelligence based adaptive radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, as well as quality assurance equipment. Its products include linear accelerators, brachytherapy afterloaders, treatment accessories, and quality assurance software; and information management, treatment planning, image processing, clinical knowledge exchange, patient care management, decision-making support, and practice management software. This segment serves university research and community hospitals, private and governmental institutions, healthcare agencies, physicians' offices, medical oncology practices, radiotherapy centers, and cancer care clinics. The Proton Solutions segment designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services products and systems for delivering proton therapy for the treatment of cancer. The company has a strategic agreement with McKesson Corp. to supply treatment delivery systems and planning, services, and radiotherapy information system solutions to its U.S. Oncology Network and Vantage Oncology affiliated sites of care; and a strategic partnership with Siemens AG to represent Siemens diagnostic imaging products to radiation oncology clinics in the United States and other select markets. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. was formerly known as Varian Associates, Inc. and changed its name to Varian Medical Systems, Inc. in April 1999. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Enel Generacion Chile a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Enel Generacion Chile wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.February 24, 2018 21:04

The Assassination of Gianni Versace for one blissful binge? Might want to reconsider, if theres any validity to a University of Minnesota study about fatal blood clots.

In an analysis of 15,000 adults divided into four groups based on how they watched television, people who watch very often run a 1.7 times higher risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE)  or deep vein thrombosis  clots in the legs and pulmonary embolisms.

The danger comes from prolonged sitting and impaired circulation and doesnt seem to be eliminated by exercise during other times or weight levels.

The study followed 15,150 adults over a 24-year-span and divided the participants into groups who never or seldom, sometimes, often or very often watched TV. The risks of VTE is greatest for adults over age 60. Estimates suggest that up to 300,000 people in the United States suffer a VTE annually.

Even individuals who regularly engage in physical activity should not ignore the potential harms of prolonged sedentary behaviors such as TV viewing, said Dr. Yasuhiko Kubota, the studys lead researcher. The findings were published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter(HealthDay)The health risks are high for young people who use tanning beds, but not all parents seem to see it that way.

To figure out why that is, researchers polled more than 1,200 parents of U.S. kids aged 11 to 17 years. The investigators found that parents who are less likely to believe that indoor tanning is harmful for teens include:

Fathers.

Parents who'd used indoor tanning devices themselves.

Parents who never received skin cancer prevention counseling from their child's doctor.

Parents of boys.

Parents of older teens (aged 16 to 17).

Parents of teens whose skin was less reactive to the sun.

"Parents who have never seen their children get sunburned or discussed skin cancer prevention with a doctor may not be aware of the dangers of unprotected exposure to ultraviolet light," study author Dr. Maryam Asgari said in a news release from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).

"Since mothers are often the ones to take their children to the doctor, fathers may be less likely to receive skin cancer prevention counseling from their child's provider," Asgari said. She's a dermatologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

It's not surprising that parents might not object to their kids' tanning if they've tanned indoors themselves, Asgari said. But, "it's important for all parents to understand the dangers of tanning at a young age and communicate those dangers to their children," she added.

"If you avoid tanning beds, especially when you're young, you can reduce your risk of skin cancer and early skin aging in the future," Asgari explained.

Using indoor tanning beds before age 35 increases the risk for melanomathe deadliest type of skin cancerby 59 percent, and the risk rises with continued use, according to the AAD.

A 2017 study found that 45 percent of people who start tanning before age 16 do so with a family member.

Results of the new study were scheduled for presentation Friday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, in San Diego. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Explore further AAD: Fathers may not perceive harms of teen indoor tanning

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the dangers of indoor tanning

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.Azerbaijan to also petition to UN International Court of Justice in response to Armenia appeal

OSCE PA chair: Despite ceasefire in Karabakh much more needs to be done to guarantee durable peace

759 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Those displaced in Artsakh stage protest outside Armenia government

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764 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

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Pashinyan: Refusing to pull out troops based on borders of Soviet era would have been disastrous for Armenia

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Armenia Deputy PM: There won't be surprises in terms of natural gas price in the near future

EU Special Representative, Azerbaijan FM discuss situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

Armenia health minister: Authorities have the right to adopt restrictive measures to maintain public health

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Armenia finance minister receives Japan AmbassadorHome | News | General | Parents of Dapchi schoolgirls say 105 students still missing, seek audience with governor

- Parents of students of secondary school in Yobe state attacked by Boko Haram insurgents said 105 school girls are still missing

- The parents said they would seek an appointment with the state governor whom they believed has been misinformed that there was no abduction

- A support group has since been set up for parents of missing girls

Parents of students of the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state, attacked by Boko Haram insurgents on Monday, February 19, said 105 names of schoolgirls still missing have been recorded so far.

In an interview with AFP, the parents claimed that a support group has been established for parents of the missing girls.

Bashir Manzo, the chairman of the newly created group, whose sixteen year old daughter is missing said the group has compiled names of missing girls.

READ ALSO: Alleged sabotage: Oyegun acknowledges Tinubu's letter

Manzo said: Our first step was to compile a comprehensive list of all the missing girls. So far, we have compiled the names of 105."

The spokesman of Governor Ibrahim Gaidam had earlier claimed that some of the abducted girls were rescued.

However, Governor Gaidam on Thursday faulted the claim allegedly by the Nigerian army that any girls were rescued and went further to question if there had been any abduction at all.

As speculations continue on whether the girls were abducted or not, Manzo said the governor must have been given a wrong information as 105 girls remain unaccounted for.

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He said: We believe he was misinformed. The school authorities from the beginning denied and kept denying that our daughters were taken.

We will see the governor and seek his help, as well as anyone who matters that can in one way or another assist in ensuring the freedom of our girls.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, February 23, described the abduction of the schoolgirls as a national disaster.

The president apologised for the unfortunate incident and promised to send more troops and aircraft to aid the security agencies in rescuing the missing girls.

Survivors of Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | APC crisis: Hours after meeting President Buhari, Oyegun acknowledges Tinubu's letter

- The leaked letter of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is still generating reactions

- Tinubu had accused the national chairman of sabotaging his efforts at reconciling aggrieved party members

- NAIJ.com has seen a letter personally signed by Chief Odigie-Oyegun acknowledging Tinubu's letter

NAIJ.com has stumbled on a letter personally signed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Chief Odigie-Oyegun acknowledging Asiwaju Bola Tinubu's letter to him.

Tinubu had accused the national chairman of sabotaging his efforts at reconciling aggrieved party members in a letter leaked to the media.

The letter titled 'Action and conduct weakening the party from within,' condemned the recently inaugurated party officials in the Kogi state chapter of the APC.

Disappointment greeted me when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of APC, Tinubu wrote.

The national chairman's acknowledgement dated Thursday, February 23, was copied to the President, Vice President, Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives.

The letter came after Chief Odigie-Oyegun met with President Muhammadu Buhari earlier today.

See the letter below:

The letter was personally signed by Chief Odigie-Oyegun

Meanwhile, the entire members of the Adamawa state House of Assembly on Thursday, February 22, passed a vote of confidence on the APC national executive led by Chief Odigie-Oyegun.

Led by its speaker, Rt. Hon. Kabiru Mijinyawa, on a visit to the partys National Working Committee (NWC) at the national secretariat in Abuja, the Adamawa lawmakers particularly hailed the leadership style of the APC national chairman.

Mijinyawa said: It is a great pleasure for us members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly to be in your midst to deliver our solidarity message. There is a tendency to have divisions and criticisms amongst ourselves at this crucial time. But most of the criticisms are not constructive and they hold no weight.

That is why today we are here to register and show our appreciation and support to our state executive, the governor of Adamawa state and the national executive of our great party led by our national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

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EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians on NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | One year after, police arrest university graduate involved in bank robbery in Imo state (photo)

-A member of the four-man robbery gang that attacked Zenith bank, Owerri in 2017

- He was arrested at his hideout in Rivers state by men of the Nigeria Police Force

- The accused confessed that he had been into robbery since 2012

The Imo state police command has arrested a member of the four-man robbery gang that attacked a customer at Zenith Bank in Owerri, killing two policemen.

The suspect, Chinomso Onwuegbuchulam, popularly known as Ogolo, was arrested at his hideout at Close 7 Mgbuakara, Eleparanwan in Rivers.

The Commissioner of Police in Imo, Mr Chris Ezike, who paraded the suspect on Friday in Owerri, described Onwuegbuchulam as the last man standing in the robbery gang.

READ ALSO: NAF trained 500 special forces personnel in 3 years - CAS

He said that Onwuegbuchulam had a bachelors degree in public administration from the Imo State University.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the four- man robbery gang attacked a customer at Zenith Bank, Owerri in February last year, killing two on-duty police officers.

The police had, however, arrested two out of the four gang members, days after the incident, recovering three AK47 riffles and 175 rounds of ammunition, while one member of the gang was killed during the robbery.

Chinomso Onwuegbuchulam with the police. Photo credit: Punch

Ezike said that operatives of the command had been trailing the Onwuegbuchulam, who had been on the run since the incident.

Speaking to NAN on the sidelines at his parade, Onwuegbuchulam said that he had been into robbery since 2012.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

He said that he was the one, who snatched N2.8 million from the customer at Zenith Bank.

Onwuegbuchulam disclosed further that he got N400, 000 as his share in the robbery, while the remaining money was shared among other gang members and the informant.

NAIJ.com previously reported that the Imo state commissioner of police, Chris Ezike approved the post-humous promotion for two police officers who died during a robbery at Zenith bank, Owerri.

The late officers promoted are Sergeants Chukwudi Iboko and Sunday Agbo.

The details of the four-man gang robbery that cost the lives of Iboko and Agbo came to light when a CCTV footage of the robbery was leaked to the public.

Is police truly your friend? - On NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | A day ARO Foundation fetes with handicapped children

By Dirisu Yakubu, Abuja

It was a day to remember for hundreds of less privileged members of the society as the Aham Rochas Foundation (ARO) took to the hospitals and schools to felicitates with them recently.

At the Nisa Premier Hospital, Jabi, Abuja, the foundation visited the childrens ward, with gifts items such as biscuits, candies and a host of others.

Adeola Adewunmi, Project Manager, One Home One World Project of the foundation said the non-profit organization chose to embark on visitation to sick and vulnerable children as part of its thematic focus of spreading love at all times.

According to her, the foundations One Home One World Project is reaching out to less privileged brothers and sisters in the society. The love trip we embarked upon in the past three days was to see children in hospitals, orphanages as well as children in IDP camps. We shared love and kindness and valentine gifts to these children. We also reached out to sick children in the society, spreading love to them.

Adewunmi said under the foundations emergency education program, scores of vulnerable children have been given the right to education despite the glaring difficulties they faced.

She added: We have about 200 children at the Karmajiji IDP camp here in the Federal Capital Territory. We set up a school for them teaching them Mathematics, English language, Basic Science and Computer Science. Weve been doing this for six months now.

We also have the female entrepreneurial programme where we empower women with basic skills to promote self reliance. We also have the peace campaign initiative where we spread the message of peace and harmony, encouraging the youths and everyone out there to hold on to peace.

The foundation was also at the Abuja School of the Handicapped, Kuje where after it listened to the peculiar challenges of the students and promised to return at a later date in continuation of its humanitarian and selfless service to humanity.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2019: Sanusi, Ooni, Dein, others for Southern, Northern Young Leaders Conference

Iruoma Kelechi

Event to hold in Enugu, Kano

Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi Lamido, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and Dein of Agbor, Benjamin Ikechukwu would be among those attending the Southern and Northern Young Leaders Conference.

The forum is being convened by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) in order to deliberate on the need to include young people in the processes leading to 2019 general election.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Emir of Kano

It would also serve as an avenue to reawaken the consciousness of young leaders on how best to make alignments that would guarantee a better representation in Nigerias political configuration.

Titled: Political and Economic Consciousness, the organisers said the timing of the gathering is very auspicious considering the growing calls from someone like former President Olusegun Obasanjo for a movement that would bring about a paradigm shift in leadership.

It is scheduled to hold in Enugu and Kano on March 3, 2018 and March 10, 2018, respectively.

The forum would also serve as an avenue to deliberate on the non-inclusion of young people in the political process with a view to finding a solution.

A statement by the conveners said the event which would be attended by notable young leaders from different professional backgrounds, would have the presence of student union leaders from all parts of the country.

The statement reads: The need to galvanize the political and socio-economical consciousness of young leaders across the country is long overdue. This has become more imperative given the unfortunate tide of political developments in our collective history as a people.

One of the cardinal objectives of this both conferences is to primarily create an avenue where young Nigerian Political leaders will converge to intellectually brainstorm, evaluate and affirm their position on the current economic and political realities in Nigeria, with a view to fashioning out a strategic plan.

The Southern/Northern Young Leaders Conference would serve as a conglomerate of collective reasoning on the need for every eligible young Nigerian to be registered as a member of a political party to be determined at the end of the conference.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Judges not barred from collecting gifts by law  Defence counsel

By Abdulwahab Abdulah

A lead defence counsel in the ongoing trial of a Federal High Court judge, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, Chief Robert Clarke, SAN, Friday said the law does not preclude judges from receiving gifts in line with the National Judicial Policy of the country.

Judges

Clarke also said there is a difference between a judicial officer and public officer, reiterating that the law classifies judicial officers as special specie.

The lawyer made the assertion while cross-examining a prosecution witness, Mr Lawal Abdullahi during Ajumogobias before Justice

Hakeem Oshodi of an Ikeja High Court.

Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Mr Godwin Obla (SAN), a former prosecutor for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Clarke who leads the defence team for Ofili-Ajumogobia said, A judicial officer is regarded as a special specie under the law.

In line with the National Judicial Policy, a judicial officer is allowed to receive gifts and the type of gifts are not specified under the policy.

The law does not define it, the law does not forbid it, a judicial officer is different from a public officer.

The definition of a judicial officer is well spelt out in the constitution and the definition of a pubic officer is in the Code of Conduct Act, he said.

Abdullahi, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), however, maintained that such gifts is limited to souvenirs given out during celebrations.

Im only aware of customer gifts like souvenirs during celebrations like new year and Christmas, he said.

Abdullahi during the cross-examination admitted to the court that he did not read the Nigerian Constitution and the Code of Conduct Act to read the definition of a judicial officer and a public officer during his investigation of the judges.

He told the court that he never cautioned the judge when invited her to the EFFC via phone conversation for interrogation that whatever she said in the phone call will be used against her in court.

The EFCC alleges that Ofili-Ajumogobia in a bid to avoid the interrogation, lied that she was admitted in the Goldcross Hospital, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Abdullahi, responding to Clarkes questions, told the court that he did not investigate the earnings the judge acquired during Ofili-Ajumogobias private legal practice before she joined the bench.

The EFCC investigator said the anti-graft agency did not invite Mr Abdullahi Dikko, the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to explain the alleged unlawful sum of N12million paid into the judges bank account by the NCS.

I did not see Mr Dikko, though I did not see him, I saw the written note from him which instructed a NCS staff, Mr Musa Tahir to effect payment into Justice Ofili-Ajumogobias account, he said.

Abdullahi also admitted that the EFCC never used a forensic expert to verify the anti-graft agencys claims that the judge forged a document.

Earlier, the EFCC investigator, while being led in evidence by Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the EFCC lead prosecutor had told the court how the NCS had unlawfully paid N12million sourced from 12 commands in the country into the judges bank account.

Three deposits totalling N12million were paid into the Nigel and Colive bank account belonging to Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia from Mr Omale Musa, a customs officers FCMB account.

The N12million was not part of the lawful earnings of the first defendant. They were sums being paid by various Comptrollers of Customs into Musas personal account.

Musa was invited by the EFCC for questioning and when we confronted the first defendant (Ofili-Ajumogobia), she said it was for the purchase of land at Rita Ajumogobia St., Asaba.

When we confronted Musa, he said that it was Mr Abdullahi Dikko, the Comptroller-General of Customs, who gave the instructions for the transfer.

When we confronted him with the first defendants statement, he said that he has never been to Asaba.

We took the first defendant to Asaba to trace the property but it was never found.

Our findings was that there was no business relationship between Nigel and Colive and the NCS regarding the N12million paid into the first defendants account.

It was not the legitimate earning of the first defendant from her employer, shes also the sole signatory to the Nigel and Colive account, he said.

Earlier during proceedings, the EFCC had re-arriagned Ofili-Ajumogobia and Obla on a newly amended 31-count charge and had withdrawn the former 30-count charge filed against them.

In the new 31-count charge, Ofili-Ajumogobia and Obla are jointly charged with two counts of perverting the course of justice.

Obla is facing an additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official, while serving as a judge.

Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 27-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.

They, however, plead not guilty to the fresh charges.

Justice Oshodi adjourned the case till March 23 for continuation of cross-examination of the EFCC investigator.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Dapchi girls saga: Presidency to blame  PDP

Urges FG to stop lying to Nigerians

By Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA-The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged Nigerians to hold the Presidency responsible for the abduction of schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State earlier in the week, saying the claim by government that Boko Haram insurgents had been degraded is a lie that must not be told again.

Dapchi schoolgirls during the headcount on Tuesday.

In a statement issued by the partys National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party on Friday blamed the worsening security situation in the country on the False claims by government that it had succeeded in winning the fight against the dreaded Boko Haram sects.

The Buhari Presidency has put Nigerians at risk by deceiving the people and issuing false performance indices suggesting that insurgents have been completely routed out, a situation which made our unsuspecting citizens trust a lie and dropped their guards in the face of real threats and danger.

The statement reads:

Without doubt, if the incompetent All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government had not dished out lies to the people in a bid to score cheap political points for its ill-fated 2019 re-election bid, more precautionary measures would have been adopted by the affected communities to ensure adequate protection, the statement read in part.

The party also berated the Buhari-led government for what it called an attempt to suppress information on the Dapchi saga, adding that the development rendered rescue mission difficult, thus compounding the woes of the families of the missing girls.

The PDP decries as iniquitous, the efforts by APC-controlled federal authorities to suppress information on the abduction, leading to conflicting reports and frustrating of rescue mission, just because they seek to hide the failures of the presidency in ensuring the safety of Nigerians, particularly in the north.

We were shocked that in their proclivity to deceive, the authorities earlier informed Nigerians that some of the girls have been recovered only for the news to turn out to be false.

While President Buhari has not uttered any word of assurance, governments visiting team headed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed only had a whistle stop at the Dapchi school and made no effort to interface or even commiserate with community leaders and parents of the abducted girls, while completely shutting out the media.

It is painful that Nigerians are faced today with a government that has been heavy on propaganda and issuing of false statistics, while playing down on several atrocities committed against defenseless citizens, it added

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Loading...Home | News | General | El-Rufai Slams N2bn Defamation Suit on Senator Shehu Sani

Ben Agande, Kaduna

Governor Nasir El Rufai has slammed N2billion naira suit at the Kaduna state high court against Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central over alleged defamation of character.

The suit filed by the governor represents deterioration in the worsening crisis between key gladiators in the All Progressive Congress in the state.

Governor El-Rufai in the suit seeks compensation for the injury he allegedly suffered as a result of the malicious statements made by Senator Sani through the mass media to humiliate him and defame his integrity by calling him a drunk, loose cannon and an embarrassment to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Among other reliefs, Governor El-Rufai is seeking a declaration that the derogatory remarks made against him by Senator Sani are totally false and injurious to his person in the eyes of the public.

Counsel to Governor El-Rufai, AbdulHakeem Mustapha, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told journalists at the court premises that each of the four actions attract the sum of N500 million.

He also dismissed insinuations that the governor by virtue of his position does not have the constitutional right to sue any citizen.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Oyegun replies Tinubu, says I support you to the core

By Nwafor Sunday

Following Asiwaju Tinubus letter to John Oyegun, the national chairman of All Progressives Congress party , APC, which he referred to Oyegun as a saboteur, Oyegun has on Friday replied him, saying that Tinubu has his full support in the discharge of his duties (resolving APCs crisis).

Tinubu and Oyegun

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had given Tinubu a task of resolving APCs crisis. In the bid of doing his job Tinubu gathered that Oyegun sabotages his effort and wrote a letter to him.

Based on the above allegation leveled against him, Oyegun replied therefore, I thank you for your letter dated February 21, 2018, for your prayers and good wishes for my health. I wish you the same and pray that our good God keeps you strong and grants you His peace, Oyegun wrote in the letter dated February 23.

Let me once again formally congratulate you on the peacemaking assignment Mr. President has entrusted you with.

It is most challenging but I believe you will ultimately justify the confidence reposed in you by Mr President. In this, you have my fullest support, he finally wrote.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Dapchi school attack getting every attention it deserves  Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured the families of students reportedly abducted from the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, that no effort will be spared to bring succour to them.

Buhari

Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu made this known via a statement he issued in Abuja today.

According to the President, When I received the devastating news of the attack on the school and the fact that the local authorities could not account for all the students, I immediately dispatched a high-level delegation on a fact-finding visit to the town.

I also instructed the security agencies to deploy in full and not spare any effort to ensure that all the girls are returned safely, and the attackers arrested and made to face justice.

The entire country stands as one with the girls families, the government and the people of Yobe State. This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain. We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.

Our government is sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Okowa salutes Uvwie monarch on 10th coronation anniversary

GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa on friday congratulated, HRM Emmanuel Sideso (JP), OON, Abe I, the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom on the 10th anniversary of his ascension to the ancient throne.

Okowa in a statement in Asaba, friday signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Aniagwu, commended the monarch for making Uvwie kingdom peaceful and investor-friendly since he ascended the throne of his forefathers ten years ago.

Emmanuel Ekemejewan Sideso (JP), Abe 1, the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom (left) being congratulated by Professor Akii Ibhadodeh, the Vice Chancellor of FUPRE

The Governor noted that His Majestys ascension to the throne has brought lasting peace to the once troubled Uvwie kingdom.

Uvwie Kingdom has metamorphosed from a once troubled kingdom to a peaceful and investor-friendly kingdom since His Royal Majesty ascended the throne ten years ago. His Majesty has worked so hard with his Council of Chiefs and the youths to maintain peace in the kingdom and I have no doubt that the Uvwie of today is positioned to be the commercial nerve centre of Delta State.

On behalf of the government and people of Delta State, I warmly felicitate with HRM Emmanuel Sideso (JP), OON, Abe I, the Ovie of Uvwie Kingdom on his 10th coronation anniversary.

The Governor joins the people of Uvwie Kingdom in celebrating His Royal Majesty with good health, wisdom and strength to continue reign in Uvwie Kingdom.

Continuing; As a bastion of culture and tradition, Umogu, has played significant role in the promotion of harmony among Uvwie people and their neighbours.

The Governor thanked the people of Uvwie for reposing confidence on the monarch as well as giving him the needed support and cooperation in the past ten years on the throne.

We pray that the Almighty God will continue to give you good health and wisdom to pilot the traditional affairs of your kingdom and offer valuable contributions to the development of our dear Delta State, the Governor said.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Open Grazing: 3 herders jailed in Benue

The Anti-Open Grazing Law in Benue has recorded a huge success as a Makurdi Magistrates Court on Friday sentenced three herders, Iliya Garba, Hassan Abdullahi, and Lanshak Lonfalk, to one year imprison each, for violating the law enacted in 2017.

The convicts were charged with criminal conspiracy and open nomadic livestock rearing and grazing.

The offences are punishable under Sections 97 of the Penal Code and 19 (2) of the Open Grazing Prohibition Ranches Establishment Law of Benue, 2017.

The prosecutor, Insp. Michael Iorundu, told the court that the joint patrol team of `Operation Zenda, led by Sgt. Edward Shinyi, arrested the herders on Feb. 18.

He said that they were brought to the State Criminal and Investigation Department, Makurdi.

The team reported that the three herders, and others now at large, were openly grazing their cattle along Yeluwata Road in Guma Local Government Area of Benue.

When the case came up for mention, the herders pleaded guilty to the charge against them, saying that they were not aware that open grazing had been prohibited in Benue, he said.

The Magistrate, Mrs Lillian Tsumba said that the herders were first offenders who were also illiterates and not even aware that open grazing has been prohibited in Benue.

Tsumba said that a law such as open grazing prohibition required massive exposure and education of persons at the grassroots.

She, however, said law is law and must be obeyed in spite ignorance.

The magistrate sentenced the herders to a year imprison each, with N500,000 option of fine each.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Permanent Secretary defends N15bn State House budget

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA  The Permanent Secretary, State House, Mr. Jalal Arabi, has said that the over N15 billion 2018 budget proposals of the State House will focus on the completion of all on-going projects.

Arabi, who stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Special Duties to defend the 2018 budget proposals and the utilisation of the 2017 budget releases, said several ongoing projects have been stalled or delayed due to funding constraints.

A statement signed by Mr Attah Esa, a Deputy Director of Information and made available to State House correspondents on Friday, quoted the Permanent Secretary as saying that the budget proposals were anchored to deliver on Nigerias Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (EGRP) 2018-2020.

According to him, the budget will maximise scarce resources in a manner that we function optimally and ensure that security of the State House is not compromised.

He urged the Committee to note that the State House administration caters for the offices of the President, the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, the Chief Security Officer to the President, the State House Medical Centre and the State House Liaison office in Lagos.

The State House budget proposal for 2018 is N15,479,178,778 for capital and recurrent expenditure.

The Chairman, House Committee on Special Duties, Nasir Sani Zangon-Daura, described the State House as the nerve-centre of the nation, adding that there was need to be fair in the allocation of resources so that it can effectively service the strategic offices located therein.

He assured that the committee will be open-minded in its recommendations without compromising quality.

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Loading...Home | News | General | France clamps down on radical Islam in prisons, schools

The French government said Friday said it would seal off extremists within prisons and open new centres to reintegrate returning jihadists into society as part of a plan to halt the spread of radical Islam.

President of France Emmanuel Macron

France is experimenting with various ways of ending the drift towards extremism of young people growing up on the margins of society, in predominantly immigrant suburbs where organisations like the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda recruit.

The plan unveiled Friday is the third in four years and aims to draw lessons from past failures, after three years marked by a series of attacks that left over 240 people dead.

No one has a magic formula for deradicalisation as if you might de-install dangerous software, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in the northern city of Lille where he presented his strategy, flanked by a dozen ministers.

But in France and elsewhere there are good approaches to prevention and disengagement.

France is particularly keen to stop extremism flourishing in its prisons, where some of the jihadists behind attacks in recent years first came under the spell of hardliners.

A total of 512 people are currently serving time for terrorism offences in France and a further 1,139 prisoners have been flagged up as being radicalised.

To prevent extremism spreading further, Philippe said he would create 1,500 places in separate prison wings especially for radicalised inmates.

 Islamic schools under scrutiny 

He also announced plans for three new centres that will attempt to reintegrate radicals referred by French courts, including jihadists returning from fallen IS strongholds in the Middle East.

A first de-radicalisation trial ended in failure last July, with a centre in western France that operated on a voluntary basis shutting after less than a year with no improvements to show.

Other measures announced by Philippe include:

 Investments in psychological care for returning children of jihadists. So far 68 children have been repatriated, most of them under 13.

 Tighter controls on private Islamic schools which have grown rapidly in number in recent years.

 More training for teachers to help them detect early signs of radicalisation and to debunk conspiracy theories.

 More investment in teaching students to separate fact from rumour on the internet.

 Making it easier to reassign public servants that show signs of radicalisation to jobs that do not involve contact with the public.

AFP

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Loading...Home | News | General | Just in: Odigie-Oyegun meets President Buhari over Tinubus letter

- John Odigie-Oyegun has met with President Muhammadu Buhari, barely 24 hours after being accused of sabotaging APC reconciliation process

- He met behind closed door with the president in the State House after the Friday prayers

- It was gathered that the duo deliberated on the protest letter submitted to the President by former Lagos governor Ahmed Tinubu

The national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, on Friday, February 23, met with President Muhammadu Buhari, barely 24 hours after being accused of sabotaging reconciliation efforts in the party.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the party chairman, who met behind closed door with the president in the State House after the Friday prayers, declined comment on the outcome of the meeting.

NAN reliably gathered that the duo deliberated on the protest letter submitted to the President by former Lagos governor Ahmed Tinubu, accusing Odigie-Oyegun of frustrating the activities of the party reconciliation committee.

READ ALSO: President Buhari calls El-Rufai the bulldozer

Buhari had, on February 6, appointed Tinubu to lead an APC consultation, reconciliation and confidence building team toward improving cohesion in the party ahead of the general elections in 2019.

Tinubu, in a letter of complaint to Odigie-Oyegun and copied to President Buhari, had accused the party chairman of sabotaging his reconciliation efforts in the party.

The letter, titled: Actions and conduct weakening the party from within, was also copied to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

Tinubu accused the APC Chairman of compounding the challenge of reconciliation by taking improper unilateral decisions on issues affecting national and state chapters.

He also accused Odigie-Oyegun of delaying the release of information critical to the resolution of crises in state chapters.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com stumbled on a letter personally signed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Chief Odigie-Oyegun acknowledging Asiwaju Bola Tinubu's letter to him.

Tinubu had accused the national chairman of sabotaging his efforts at reconciling aggrieved party members in a letter leaked to the media.

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The letter titled 'Action and conduct weakening the party from within,' condemned the recently inaugurated party officials in the Kogi state chapter of the APC.

EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Party chieftain urges APGA against imposition of candidate ahead of 2019 polls

- All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has been warned against imposition of candidates ahead 2019 elections

- A chieftain of the party, Chief Ahamdi Nweke, said that the party must conduct primaries for all elective positions

- He also urged the party to hold its primaries in line with its constitution and provisions of the Electoral Act

A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia, Chief Ahamdi Nweke, has reiterated warnings against imposition of candidates by the party ahead of the 2019 polls.

Nweke, who was the Abia Central Senatorial candidate of the party in the 2015 general elections, gave the warning in Umuahia on Friday,February 23, while briefing newsmen on crisis in the state chapter of the party.

He said that the party must conduct primaries for all elective positions ahead of the 2019 general elections for the emergence of the best candidates.

According to him, the party must hold its primaries in line with its constitution and provisions of the Electoral Act.

READ ALSO: President Buhari calls El-Rufai the bulldozer

Nweke blamed the disagreement on the insistence of some members that the party must encourage well-meaning Abia citizens to join the party and be able to put themselves forward for elections, subject to the outcome of primary elections.

He said that although he was the partys senatorial candidate in 2015, I am an aspirant for the senate in 2019, subject to the outcome of the primary elections.

APGA does not believe in imposition of candidates or the return-return tendency of other political parties.

Most of the APGA candidates in the 2015 polls defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because we opposed the undemocratic manner in which PDP chose its candidates for the various political offices.

It will seem odd that the same people would want APGA to act undemocratic in choosing candidates for the 2019 elections.

Your role in the party and the acceptance of your leadership style by party members should hold you in good stead, if you are the best candidate for any office.

If anyone has served the party well, there will be no reason to fear a primary election under the constitution of the party and in line with the Electoral Act, he said.

Nweke dispelled the speculation that Abia APGA was polarized into two factions, saying that it was the disagreement over primaries that people misconceived as faction.

I urge Abians to ignore the flame of discord being fanned mainly by other political parties that APGA is divided, he said.

Nweke, who is a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the party, described his purported suspension by State Working Committee (SWC) as unconstitutional and amusing.

He said that a BOT member could only be removed from office by a resolution at the National convention on the recommendation of the National Executive Committee.

Nweke, therefore, applauded the decision of the National Working Committee of the party directing that all the dissenting members of the SWC should return to status quo.

He said that the decision had restored the confidence of members and underscored the fact that impunity would not be tolerated in the party.

The party chieftain said the intervention of the NWC had doused the tension in the party occasioned by the suspension and counter-suspension of some members by the SWC.

Speaking on the existence of two party secretariats in Umuahia, he said that the old secretariat on School Road/Ikot Ekpene Road was rented in the name of the former governorship candidate of the party, Dr. Alex Otti.

While the new secretariat at the city centre (Isi-Gate) was rented in the partys name.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the deputy governor of Imo state, Prince Eze Madumere may be impeached.

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The purported impeachment was alleged to have been instigated by the kitchen cabinet of Governor Rochas Okorocha, led by his wife Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha and his son in-law, Uche Nwosu.

The governor's allies are wary of the deputy governor as he is seen as the main opposition to Okorochas plan to install Nwosu as his successor.

Okorocha erects gigantic statue to honour Ekwueme on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...By Ruth Anderah.

A senior police officer who allegedly shot dead his fellow police officer at Jinja Road police Barracks in 2014 finally have been produced before High Court in Kampala to start battling with a murder charge.

D/AIP Abdul Wabwire has been produced before Justice Elizabeth Kabanda who read the charge to him and denied the same.

AIP Wabwire has been on remanded at Luzira government prison since February 2014 to date.

Prosecution states that Wabwire on February 24th 2014 at Jinja road police Barracks shot dead to his colleague Edward Wabwire over unknown reasons.

The Judge further remanded him to Luzira prison until March 3rd when he will re-appear for the hearing to begin.Home | News | General | PDP: Lagos local chapters banned from holding unapproved meetings

- Local government chapters of PDP has been banned from holding meetings without the approval of the state secretariat

- The PDP said the ban became necessary after some unrecognized people held parallel local government meetings in Amuwo Odofin area

- PDP also urged members to shun acts that could undermine the peace in the party ahead of the general election in 2019

The Lagos state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has banned its local government chapters from holding meetings without the approval of the state secretariat.

The chairman, Mr Moshood Salvador, announced the ban on Friday in Lagos, while addressing party members after a meeting with the elders caucus.

According to him, the ban became necessary after some unrecognized people held parallel local government meetings in Amuwo Odofin area of the state on Thursday.

Such meetings by unrecognized persons can undermine the peace and stability of the PDP in the state, he said.

READ ALSO: President Buhari calls El-Rufai the bulldozer

He said that the party would not hesitate to sanction any member or group of people out to cause discord among members.

What happened in Amuwo Odofin yesterday was a shame. Some people impersonated local government executives in the area and were trying to create confusion.

We have found that such persons are detractors out to undermine the peace in the PDP. We are not going to allow that.

Henceforth, nobody should hold any local government executive meeting without the approval of the secretariat.

The constitution has provisions for dealing with situations like this; we shall not hesitate to apply appropriate sanctions against anyone found flouting our directive, he said.

He urged members to shun acts that could undermine the peace in the party ahead of the general election in 2019, and advised groups in the party to respect the power sharing agreement in the interest of progress.

He called on members to begin aggressive mobilisation of members ahead of the general elections, and expressed confidence that PDP shall capture Lagos State.

Also speaking, the lone PDP member in the Lagos House of Assembly, Mr Dipo Olorunninwa, urged members to work in unison ahead of the election.

He said that the party would be the loser if members engaged in infighting, and stressed the need for unity so as to form a cohesive force.

The lawmaker said that election time was not a time for parties to have crises, and advised those not willing to give peace a chance to leave the PDP.

Sunday Olaifa, PDP chairman in Oshodi/Isolo Local Government, said that local government executive councils of the party had confidence in Salvador to move the party forward.

On behalf of all local government party chairmen, I am expressing our confidence in our chairman to lead the party in the state.

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I call on all members of the PDP in the state to give him the necessary support to take the party to the promised land, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former works minister Adeseye Ogunlewe was among prominent party members that attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that some opposition political parties in Lagos state have said they are mobilising and restructuring to win and be fully represented in governance ahead of the 2019 general elections.

NAIJ.com gathered that the leaders of the parties told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, January 16, that voters were eager to have a true change in government.

However, Lagosians believe opposition parties are wasting their time.

What is working well and what needs improvement in Nigeria? - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Vimbai Mutinhiri replaces Toke Makinwa on Moments Nigeria

Ex-Big Brother Africa contestant, model and TV personality Vimbai Mutinhiri is taking on new and bigger projects this year as she joins co-hosts Bolanle Olukanmi and Laulah Doherty on Moments Nigeria.

Moments Nigeria is an African talk show (a spin-off of Moments with Mo) with a selection of hosts from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa discussing on key matters that touches Africa, her diverse cultures and peoples.

Vimbai

Having carved a niche for herself on the continent as one of the most sought-after TV and show hosts, Vimbai now forges a new alliance with Ebony Life TV as co-host on Moments Nigeria.

The 31 year old TV personality with prior hosting experience has been chosen to replace Toke Makinwa in the talk shows fourth season. Vimbai has taken on other hosting gigs such as Africa Magic Star Gist, first co-host for Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards as well as modeled on the runway for South African Fashion Week and Zimbabwe Fashion Week.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Oba Tejuoso joins class of octogenarians

By Oba Michael Soyebo

Monday, 19th of February 2018 will no doubt go down in the social radar and history of celebrity events in Abeokuta, Oguns capital city. The whole of Abeokuta stood still as one of Nigerias first class monarchs of international repute, the Osile of Oke-Ona, Abeokuta, Oba (Dr.) Adedapo Tejuoso clocked 80 in style. Trust the Tejuosos not to do things in half measure, particularly when the celebrant is the beloved patriarch of the Tejuoso dynasty.

The event was well attended by dignitaries from all walks of life who converged on The Marquee at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta. The heir apparent and first son of Oba Tejuoso, Senator Lanre Tejuoso said his father had been a good example to the children. Also present were billionaire Eleganza boss  Chief Razak Okoya, Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang.

Oba Adedapo Tejuoso

There were also goodwill messages from Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and many other prominent Nigerians. There were more than enough to munch and exotic wines flowed freely like water. The royal decor at the expansive marquee at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex can best be described as breathtaking.

The week-long event will be rounded off with a special praise night today, while a thanksgiving service is scheduled for Sunday. The birthday celebration which had many dignitaries from all walks of life include Ogun Deputy Governor, Mrs. Yetunde Onanuga, who represented Governor Ibikunle Amosun, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ovation Magazine Publisher, Bashorun Dele Momodu, Senators Dino Melaye, Demola Saraki, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Iyalode Alaba Lawson. The royal fathers include Alake, Olowu, all of Egbaland, Deji of Akure, Osamawe of Ondo Kingdom as well as Oniwo of Iwo and others too numerous to mention.

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Loading...Home | News | General | My husband is everything I prayed for in a man  Nkechi Emmanuel aka Nurse Titi

BY JULIET EBIRIM

Nollywood actress, Nkechi Emmanuel is obviously still basking in love having recently tied the knots traditionally with her British-born, Sierra-Leonian beau, Ambrose Amara. In this interview, the actress who is popular for her role as  Nurse Titi in popular TV sitcom Clinic Matters revealed how she met her husband, why she chose him, as well as major causes of divorce among other issues. Read on..

What should your fans expect from you this year?

We have a lot of things on ground already  a new movie project from Breaking Screen Production which is my company. We intend to shoot two good quality movies and to also work with other producers as well. I also intend to do my white wedding this year as well and it will be coming up by summer.

Your husband is into movies as well?

Yes, hes a movie director and a script writer.

How did you both meet?

We met through work. He spoke to a friend of his (who is an actor) in America that he wants to come and shoot a movie in Nigeria and that he needs some good actresses. He explained to the friend (who happens to be my friend as well) that hes been searching but havent found the kind of quality he wants. And so he (our mutual friend) recommended me to him. So we got talking on a professional level, exchanged mails and pictures and gradually one thing led to the other and we had our traditional wedding and court wedding.

Nkechi Emmanuel (Nurse Titi)

Im sure you had other suitors, why did you choose him?

I had other suitors, but they actually werent what I wanted. Theyre nice guys, but I didnt see myself spending the rest of my life with them. I chose him because I saw everything I wanted in a man in him. Hes my better half. Hes the one God has ordained for me.

What are those qualities you saw in him?

Ive always wanted someone who would understand me and the nature of my job. Most men wouldnt want you to continue acting after marriage, but he came and he was even more concerned about my career. Hes been supporting me and he even said he wants to write a script about me. I used to pray to God that I need a man who I wouldnt need to explain my job to. My husband is in the industry already, so he understands everything. He is also understanding, quiet, God-fearing and puts me first in everything he does. He even prays for me before praying for himself Those are the qualities I like about him.

Are you saying marriage isnt going to affect your acting career in any way?

Not at all. I dont see it coming. Its even going to multiply my progress, because hopefully most of the movies hes going to be directing, I will be involved. So. its going to boost my career.

What was your first time on set like?

I was nervous and scared, but I was sure of what I wanted and with time the fear vanished.

How would you rate your progress as an actor?

I will say God has been good. It hasnt been easy, but God has been faithful. I thank God that I kept striving. Im happy for where I am now, even though Im not yet where I want to be, but Im definitely not where I used to be.

Youve come to be popular especially for your role as Nurse Titi in Clinic Matters. How do you handle the stardom?

It hasnt been easy because personally, I love to live a simple life. Im not the loud, flashy type. I love to jump on a bike or Keke NAPEP Mix up with people and all. But when Im all alone in my car with glasses all wound up listening to the radio, its really boring. I love to eat roasted plantain and groundnuts, I love to drink garri and all the local food. But one cant be seen doing all of this because of the way people think. They will just assume youve gone broke, they wont understand that its what you want at that moment. So you have to keep packaging yourself because you cant explain to every single person that this is what you want. Though sometimes I just brave it and then go to Shitta to get my hot Amala. And there will always be one or two persons who would want to take pictures with you.

How would you rate the Nigerian movie industry?

We are trying, at least were among the top five in the world, though we need more alliances. When we watch Hollywood movies, we see about four or five top production houses coming together to produce something. But here everyone wants to be independent and thats how we make mistakes. My husband and I will be working with some companies on a movie soon. When production houses come together to produce a single movie, you can be sure that it will be a hit. Were also hoping to do some international collaborations as well. We also need to develop our scripts and story-lines because thats the foundation for a good movie.

What do you think is the major cause of marriage break-up?

A lot of things can lead to marriage break-up. First of all, I think such marriages were not committed to Gods hands. There will be trials and challenges, but when you commit your marriage to God, everything will be fine eventually. Also, marry someone who belongs to you. When you marry another persons own, it wont last. Dont marry based on sentiments, pity, pressure or frustration. When you take the vow For better, for worse, you dont expect the marriage to always be sweet and rosy. Also, lack of understanding  when both parties do not understand each other, there will always be disagreements. Know what you want, dont be blown away by material things. Ask yourself some basic questions before going into that marriage and also marry someone who has the fear of God, who will never raise his hands on you. Men are very patient by nature, so sometimes when a man hits a woman, the woman might have done a lot of things to push him. Sometimes as a woman, its better to be quiet and patient, you dont always have to talk back at a man. Men are egoistic. Another cause of divorce is infidelity, so before you get married, make sure he isnt promiscuous. For a man who isnt promiscuous to decide to cheat on his wife, it means the wife doesnt look good anymore. It means he is no longer seeing the thing that attracted him to her in the first place. Some women lose shape or become untidy after marriage.

Which is more important in a relationship  sex, money or looks?

Everything, they all work hand in hand. When my husband and I were dating, everything mattered to me. Hes handsome, his pocket was smiling and I was sexually satisfied. God gave me everything I wanted, everything is just complete.

Will being married influence the characters you play in movies?

Yes, because I know Im no longer single and its only natural for any man or woman to be jealous. I need to respect my marriage, so I dont see myself jumping into bed with someone all in the name of acting. Im an African woman so I need to respect my culture. There are many other roles to play as an actress that will still make you relevant, you dont have to jump from one bed to another with another man all in the name of acting. I have to make my husband happy and he doesnt like it. So, I dont see myself doing the kissing and smooching, except its my husband who will be playing the role with me. And he doesnt like acting. He did one scene in our movie  The Interview and I practically forced him to do it because the person we casted for the role failed to show up. The movie The Interview is a Breaking Screen Production and is my husbands debut as a director. It features Kalu Ikeagwu, Chinedu Ikedieze, Jibola Dabo, myself among others.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Buharis anti- corruption war room needs an adult with a whip

By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

We can excuse the police. The police have not had time to join the fight against corruption. Or perhaps they have not had the guile to pretend to be involved. We have seen the DSS. The way they took on the judges you would think that they would have emptied the country of corrupt senior civil servants and compelled a few senior police officers into prudent early retirement.

Buhari

But it would seem the DSS has gone on anti-corruption holidays. They are perhaps simply keeping up with the Kardashians rather than with economic saboteurs. We have seen the Office of the Attorney General. They have fought the EFCC more than they have fought corrupt politicians. They have seized the big nuts but have neither the willingness nor the capability to chew.

Of course there is the EFCC. They have taken on cases headlong. But they have picked those cases with a good dose of political wisdom. The EFCC blames the judiciary for all its woes. Their opponents say they are clumsy witch-hunters. The DSS says they are incompetent and dubious. The Attorney General says they are insubordinate. The President sees them being bullied and harassed, and sleeps on, unperturbed. Then there is the legion of whistle blowers. They appear seasonally. They may be getting their whistles ready. Its nearly electioneering season. Theyve to entertain the electorate.

That is the presidents war room against corruption. Riven by ego, hamstrung by selfishness, shackled by vindictiveness, lost in the wilderness of internecine squabbles. Destitute of cohesion, bereft of team spirit, disoriented by the absence of firm purposeful authoritative leadership and direction.

Lest I forget. There is the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption. Members of this committee have cried themselves hoarse. They have often sounded disappointed. But they ought to be angry. They ought to have lost their temper. They should have all resigned. They believe the EFCC has performed fairly creditably.

And I agree. They believe the office of the Attorney General is occupied by a Chameleon. They think that there are other highly placed vultures in this government who are actively sabotaging the anti corruption war. If the EFCC has not been overrun, it is probably because this committee and a few individuals have stood behind it. But how much longer an apparently insouciant president can endure the committees petulance remains to be seen.

There is the Vice President. A professor of law and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Soft spoken, honest, intelligent, unobtrusive, hardworking. Ordinarily, this government that was hired to restore law and order shouldnt have a problem organizing a formidable war room against corruption. The combination of the stone will of the president and the legal brain of his vice should have been unstoppable. But its been absurd insipidity. The presidents wife can explain it. She believes the government has been hijacked.

The war against corruption has been fought with curious circumspection. The Vice President has grown weary from settling internecine squabbles than marshaling the war. Some insiders agree with the presidents wife. They agree that the Vice President doesnt belong in the real locus of power.

It is widely speculated that given authoritative powers and a free hand, the Vice President can reform the anti corruption war room. But a beleaguered vice president, beset by the infernal nuisance of riotous jackals and hyenas and the somnolence of his principal, has been left to become a peripatetic preacher of optimism.

Buharis anti corruption war room isnt therefore just a tower of babel. It is that synagogue where people come in wearing long white Pharisaical robes, not to worship, but to nurse their selfishness and greed, and to trade malice and blackmail. In the tower of babel, they didnt understand each other. They innocently worked at cross purposes. In that synagogue filled with money changers, the purpose of the synagogue was subverted by greed. They deliberately usurped and defiled the synagogue. They impoverished their souls to fatten their pockets.

How else can anyone explain the travesty called Abdulrasheed Maina?

In a tower of babel many people would have tumbled over themselves to grab Maina. But in that commercial synagogue, Maina would be a potential lucrative commercial prospect. So those who got him first would shield him from the prying eyes and greed of others until they made profit.

After Maina, there is now Umar. And Danladi Umar is interesting. Umar is supposed to be a commander in the Buharis anti-corruption war room. But he has a history with the EFCC. No one is guilty until convicted, so Umar remained Chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal , the dark clouds of criminal suspicions notwithstanding. The Senate President was picked for prosecution in Umars tribunal. He questioned the cleanliness of Umars hands and heart.

The EFCC told the public that it had searched and found Umar cleaner than a whistle. Prosecutors often cooperate with soiled hands to secure elusive convictions. But this was a tribunal chairman. The EFCC ought to have come a little cleaner on Umar. The drama has no end. Umar concluded Sarakis trial and came to an acquittal decision the EFCC rejected. The case went to an appellate court. Umars decisions were upturned on some counts. The case was sent back to Umar. The EFCC pounced on Umar.

The EFCC said it had reviewed Umar and found that his hands were actually soiled. Criminal charges were filed against Umar. A microscopic review of the filed charges didnt show anything not known in 2013 . So why the baffling somersault? But you would think that the war room would back the EFCC and its desperation to land corruption a punch, albeit below the belt.

The office of the Attorney General moved in swiftly. It gave the EFCC chairman two days to explain the UMAR embarrassment. The Attorney General obviously isnt dealing with any arbitrariness but some perceived insubordination. What is his motive? You can guess. The cat fight it seems is being enjoyed by the old man.

Maina has subsided. Malabu has taken its place. The Attorney General cannot understand the president sometimes. The president sacked Maina whom he advised reinstated. He has asked the president to let Malabu rest in the interest of national prosperity but the president has treated him and his opinion with contempt. The presidential advisory committee on corruption must be seething. But they must make their position on the Attorney General louder and clearer. Perhaps, someday, the president would hear them.

Who would have imagined that Buhari , the Field Marshall of the war against Indiscipline would return and not match other African countries in the determination to contain corruption? Transparency International data dont lie. Nigeria has slipped behind others.

The war room needs urgent sanitation.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2019: Buhari waiting for Nigerians to decide

APC govs mount pressure on him to seek re-election

Pass confidence vote on Oyegun

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

AS governors elected on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, mounted pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to seek re-election in 2019 on Thursday night, Kogi State government said the President is waiting for Nigerians to decide on the matter.

Buhari

This came as the governors expressed support for the partys National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun.

Speaking to State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with the President, Bello said the governors urged the President to stand for re-election in 2019.

His words: The President is still consulting and he wants more Nigerians to speak before he can make up his mind. But I am very comfortable that Nigerians will speak loud.

We want him to contest because of the revival of the economy, job creation and making sure that average Nigerians are comfortable. Based on these performances, we are urging Mr. President to please run in 2019. There is nothing more to that.

The governors themselves are very careful because Mr. President is incorruptible. If anyone does anything unwholesome, the person is going to face the consequences. We are extremely very careful

We want Mr. President to continue to lead the way so that we can follow in order for Nigerians to have dividends of democracy.

On the issues raised by the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in a letter to the President, Bello said APC governors had confidence in Oyegun.

He said: The governors and majority of APC members have confidence in our National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun. We also believe in the President who appointed Bola Tinubu to reconcile some aggrieved members of our party.

However, one size fits all, will not do in all the states where some erring members need to be disciplined.

However, Chairman of APC Governors Forum and Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha told journalists that their meeting with the President centered on national issues.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Pastor kills pregnant lover, child, one other in Rivers

Forgive me, it is devils work, suspect begs police

By Davies Iheamnachor

OPERATIVES of the Rivers State Police Command have arrested a cleric, who murdered his pregnant lover, a nine-month-old child and one other lady in Rivers State.

Chidiebere Okoroafor, the senior pastor of Alter of Solution Church, Izuoma village, Afam clan in Oyibo Local Government Area of Rivers State was said to have killed his lover, Ada Concila Ezeawa who was six months old pregnant for him in order to allegedly conceal some secrets.

It was learned that Okoroafor, who hails from Abia State, but pastors in Rivers, had also killed his lovers sister, Uluoma Onweagba and her baby before he was arrested through the efforts of the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID.

Parading the suspect in Port Harcourt, yesterday, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Administration, Mr. Cyril Okoro, noted that the Pastor killed his victims four months ago, adding that strenuous efforts were made by the command to unravel the killer.

Okoro, who spoke on behalf of the CP, Ahmed Zaki, narrated: The unfortunate incident started unfolding when on December 11, 2017, the whereabouts of Ada Concila Ezeawa, Christabel Joseph ( 9 month old baby girl) and Uluoma Onweagba became unknown to their close ones resulting in the lodgement of a formal complaint of their disappearance at Afam Divisional Headquarters.

After preliminary investigation, the decomposing corpses of the three victims were discovered in a bush located along Afam-Igberu road. When SCID commenced investigation, it was gathered that Ada was in a relationship with the cleric and that the victims had visited the Pastor on the same day in respect of Adas pregnancy.

Meanwhile, the suspect, Okoroafor, when confronted with some facts, yesterday, knelt before the police officers pleading for forgiveness, adding that he was pushed to carry out the act by the devil.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 16 Pro Biafra groups meet in Nnewi, give condition for supporting restructuring

By Vincent Ujumadu, Awka

SIXTEEN pro Biafra groups have met in the industrial town of Nnewi, the home town of the late Biafra leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, saying the only restructuring they would accept in Nigeria would be the recognition of the countrys six geo-political zones as federating units.

restructuring

Among the groups that met were the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Eastern Peoples Congress (EPC), Biafra United Liberation Council (BULCO), Joint Revolutionary Council of Biafra (JRCB), Igbo Hebrew Cultural Restoration and Biafra Actualization and Defence Squad.

Others were Biafra Revolutionary Organization (BRO), Biafra Liberation Crusade (BLC), Salvation Peoples of Biafra, Ekwenche Organization, Biafra Peace Corps, BILLIE Human Rights Initiatives and Igbozurume Organization.

Biafrans in Diaspora were also represented, while the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was represented by its liaison Officer.

At the meeting, the groups deliberated extensively on the issue of alleged disunity among them which, they noted, was militating against the actualization of Biafra.

Comrade Felix Obioha and Engr. Amadi Innocent, who described the meeting as the first of its kind, advised the various groups to work together for the purpose of Biafra actualization and restoration.

According to them, all pro Biafra groups should maintain their individual status, name and internal running of their affairs, but should jointly as one body, execute all national and international engagements, programmes and commitments to Biafra, including its diplomatic affairs.

They rejected the proposals for states as federating units of Nigeria as a part of Nigeria restructuring, saying such arrangement was totally against the wishes and desires of the people of Biafra.

They said: We are reaffirming our total commitment for Biafra actualization and restoration and we wish to state that the only Nigeria restructuring that will be acceptable to us is recognizing the six geopolitical regions as a federating units using the 1963 constitution as a template.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2019: PDP out for alliance with CNM

By Dirisu YakubuBy Dirisu Yakubu

The gathering of loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja recently under the aegis of the CNM is believed by many as a response to the call for a coalition of patriotic Nigerians to chart a new force for the nation post 2019. A non-partisan political movement in its own admission, the body is nonetheless working collaboratively against the interest of the ruling party with the general elections barely a year away.

PDP

It is all settled that the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) which birthed a few weeks ago in Abuja is unlikely to transform into a political party before the 2019 general elections. From the get-go, the movement was clear in its mission of championing a paradigm shift in the leadership of the country, citing the dearth of positive ideological inclination of the two leading parties-The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the singular most causative reason for emerging on the national space.

But in spite of its non-partisanship posture, there are indications that CNM is working in sync with other political parties to unseat the APC at the centre in the next general elections. The PDP, always ready to bargain in any political dealings likely to boost its chances of regaining the power it lost in 2015 is already boasting of its chances ahead of the polls, labeling its rebranded platform, Nigerias best opportunity to redeem her fading glory.

Findings by this medium reveal that as part of its moves to woo members of the coalition to pitch tent with the umbrella platform, the PDP has in the past few weeks consistently reiterated its avowed commitment to restructuring if given yet another opportunity by the Nigerian electorate. Given the stand of such personalities as Obasanjo, Olagunsoye Oyinlola (CNM convener), Donald Duke, Ahmadu Ali (CNM adherents), amongst others on the imperative of restructuring, this secret alliance is therefore not the least surprising.

Only last week, the PDP in a statement jogged the collective memory of restructuring campaigners to the fact it started the sensitization of Nigerians on the need to tinker with the current structure, even as it questioned the sincerity of the ruling party, which it labeled a later day convert of restructuring.

The PDP has been the author of restructuring and this was further expressed in the report of the 2014 National Conference. The APC as a later day convert of restructuring is merely paying lip service to a matter of national importance. However, we have mandated our members in the National Assembly to immediately commence the process of initiating a bill to address issues bothering on restructuring, wrote the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan in a press statement last week.

A PDP lawmaker told this medium in confidence that the import of the partys statement quoted above is premised on the need to sensitize genuine lovers of Nigeria on the dangers of entrusting their future to the APC beyond 2019. According to him, Obasanjos call for a coalition of like-minds which eventually morphed into CNM a few weeks later is an indication that the Oyinlola-led movement and the PDP can find a common ground to work together in the near future.

I think weve all agreed that this government has failed on multiple fronts. Therefore, it is expected that those not comfortable with the way things are going will come together with the sole purpose of ousting this heartless government as soon as possible. As for Obasanjo, dont forget that he was elected on the platform of our party twice to preside over the affairs of this nation and no matter his misgivings against the party today, he cannot throw the baby away with the bath water. This is why a CNM/PDP alliance is a huge possibility, he said.

No doubt, the choice of its Presidential flag bearer will largely determine the success or otherwise of this alliance as the likes of Obasanjo and Duke had at one forum or the other in recent times aimed a veiled dig at the leadership of the country in the past two and a half years and condemned the stewardship of President Buhari. And amongst the crop of aspirants to the plum seat today, two enjoy excellent relationship with Obasanjo.

Former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido is a protege of Baba and their relationship has blossomed since they both quit power in 2007. However, Obasanjo is reportedly developing cold feet on the Lamidos Presidential project owing principally to his ongoing corruption trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Although, it is not clear if the presumption of innocence would be enough to elicit the former Presidents support, there are subtle moves by the camp of Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo to woo the former President to back the aspiration of the Gombe State first citizen.

The two, all enjoying a good relationship with the Ogun High Chief are prominent members of the PDP on which platform they are expected to seek the mandate of the party to test their popularity amongst other sundry contenders. Thus, the emergence of any of these two in addition to carving a role for his other proteges is all Obasanjo needs to work for the defeat of the APC in 2019. But Obasanjo, we gathered, is not alone in the battle to give Nigeria a dynamic leadership. There are other statesmen who have bought into the plan to rescue Nigeria going by their words.

Towards this end, the PDP has opened its doors to all Nigerians to aspire to various elective offices of their dreams, pledging a level playing field devoid of nepotism and discrimination. By removing barricades in the ways of defectors and intending members alike, the PDP is going the whole hog to leverage on the stance of the CNM to cling its way back to power. Only a few days ago, the party demonstrated its commitment to this avowed position in this statement:

As the name of our great party connotes, the PDP remains a people- oriented party, belonging to all Nigerians and as such will continue to accommodate and provide equal opportunity for all Nigerians to freely aspire, even for the highest position in the land, irrespective of creed, tribe or even previous party affiliation.

With our re-engineered mechanism for credible internal democracy, the PDP has now been repositioned as the epicenter of the new broad-based political engagement, where primary elections, at all levels of aspiration, guarantee level playing field to all members, old, new and returning alike, in line with our commitment to engender a healthy democratic culture in our dear nation.

The PDP will not in any way or under any guise whatsoever, exclude any Nigerian, but unreservedly embrace all who genuinely seek membership of our great party, especially at this critical time in our national life.

Consequently, our party structure at all levels have been well guided not to engage in any activity that may directly or indirectly tend to exclude any Nigerian that has shown interest in returning or freshly becoming a member of our great family.

Should this alliance sail through without hitting a major existential impediment, a former Minister in the first four years of President Olusegun Obasanjo administration (1999-2003) says the ruling APC and By extension President Buhari could as well bid the Presidency goodbye because There would be no stopping the force considering the pain being felt across the length and breadth of our great country today. After initially declining comment when asked of the imminent alliance, the former Minister changed his stand when his craving for anonymity was obliged.

I did not believe in Buhari but I was happy that he won. The reason was that most of those who knew him said the man would practically turn the country around in six months. So, I said, why not? But today, we have seen that the man has little or no idea on how to deliver on promises he voluntarily made.

Let me inform you that our party is open to many alliances with groups or even other political parties. We have the capacity to absorb them if they so wish. The common denominator in our collective struggle is that APC must go in 2019 and this is without prejudice to whether the President will run again or not, he said.

Speaking exclusively to Vanguard on Thursday, constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome said any form of alliance by political parties to displace the APC in 2019 will be a welcome development saying, As far as I am concerned, any candidate, just any candidate is better than the APC candidate. Even the deaf can hear, the blind can see, the dumb can speak, the numb can feel and the lame can walk the unspeakable misery, hardship, abject penury and mass suffering the Nigerian people have been wantonly subjected to in the last two years and nine months of this directionless, clueless and compassionless government in place today. It would be worse if Nigerians make the mistake of enthroning the APC again.

Although 2019 is not a few weeks away, the APC is apparently feeling the heat especially with the new sequence of elections recently given a nod of approval by the Senate that would see the Presidential election come last; a move being interpreted by the likes of Senator Abdullahi Adamu as a jibe to the ribs of Buhari by those bent on seeing him return to rural Daura home on May 29, 2019.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Guys, consider status in picking ladies!

By Yetunde Arebi

Hi,

After last weeks publication, I received a call from Tolu, a dear friend. She said she had a similar gist for me. It was unfolding right inside her compound and involved her landladys 14 year old daughter and one of the male tenants. The guy in his early 30s had impregnated the little primary school girl and absconded. What was most baffling was that the guy is a medical doctor and had a girl friend that could have passed for a fiancee considering how often she visited the apartment.

Love gone sour

My friend said Ada should consider herself lucky that Sunny was nabbed in the act on time, before he could cause much damage to her family. Had Sunny impregnated Ndidi, Ada would not have been able to end the matter by simply sending the poor girl back to the village. They would have become sisters-in-law, married into the same family, she added jokingly.

So, Tolu informed me that when Adedayo, the young girl in her compound turned up pregnant about two years ago, almost everyone in the compound refused to believe that Doc was responsible. Everyone called the little girl a wayward liar, insisting that the guy was a good, upright young man and promising doctor. Many in fact, hinged their argument on the fact that as a doctor, he could not have indulged in such an act knowing the full implications of what could happen. And others easily vouched for his sophisticated preference of female company and could therefore not stoop as low as to sleep with a 14 year old primary school girl. At the end, they were all proved wrong, she said.

Akproko will not kee me o. I quickly asked if she could arrange for me to talk to the girl and she said yes. The girl comes to her flat often to relax with her daughter. She advised me to bring along something the girl could snack on and perhaps a little token as gift when leaving. I jumped at it.

The girl I saw was a tiny, naive girl, now struggling with her identity .One minute a teenager and the next a caring mother. Adedayo couldnt speak much English, so we spoke mainly in Yoruba. At the end of the day, I discovered that her case could have been handled better but for ignorance and lack of good counselling. I walked away with only one desire, if only I could set my eyes on doc, whose real name incidentally is also Dayo. All I wanted to know was why.

Perhaps his answer could help me in figuring out why such men prey on young, hapless, naive girls, ruining their lives and destiny at the altar of a few moments of ecstasy. And while still pondering on this, I remembered those who cross all limits of decency and humanity, picking on infants, toddlers and young children. The devil must be really busy.

When compared with Adedayos story, Ndidi must be very lucky to have been courted with biscuits, ice-cream, lipstick and nail polish. This poor girl got nothing but the emotional hype of sharing a name with her predator. I was filled with pity as I watched her little girl crawling around happily inmy friends living room, oblivious of her circumstance and what the future holds for her and her mother. This is Adedayos story:

I didnt have a boyfriend. He was a tenant in our house. I live with my grandmother. (Her father is dead and her mother, remarried. She lives with her paternal grandmother). I cant really tell how old he is, but I think he is quite old. Maybe between 32 or more. Im not sure. Everyone calls him doctor but I called him brother Dayo because he said we have the same name and God had already planned that we should be friends. He was very nice to me.

I visited him sometimes when he is at home to watch some video films or TV and sometimes when he sends me on errands. He had a girlfriend, Aunty Shade who used to visit him. They both worked at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Brother Dayo is a doctor, while aunty Shade is a Nurse. I dont know where aunty Shade is now.

He was not my boyfriend. We only did it once, I didnt know just doing it once could lead to pregnancy. It was my first time and I was a virgin. He was really surprised when he knew too. I guessed he must have thought that Id done it before. It was painful but he told me not to worry that the pains will go. I dont know how long we spent in his flat, but it wasnt a long time. He gave me some medicine to use. I dont know what they were meant for and didnt ask because he is a doctor.

We never did it again after that. I dont know why. He was not usually around. He would come home late in the night when it would be impossible for me to go out. In the morning, I cant see him because I will be preparing to go to school. Nobody guessed in our house that anything like that happened between us, so they were really shocked when I told them he was responsible.

Brother Dayo packed out of our house a few months after the incident for an unknown destination. He found a new flat closer to his place of work, he told me. But he did not tell me the place. In fact, there was more or less nothing left between us.

Over the months, I didnt feel anything. I knew my period had stopped coming, but I didnt link it with pregnancy. I thought there must be some other reasons responsible for it. I was however having stomach pains and movements in my body. I did not change much. I am a small person by physique and I am told that the first pregnancy is not always so conspicuous in the early stages.

It was about seven months before my grandmother knew. It was my older sister who told her that she suspected something was wrong with me. Then, that night, I think they called a meeting. My aunty and her daughter were summoned by my grandmother, along with my older sister, and I was interrogated. After some time, I told them the truth. They were surprised. They traced him to somewhere in Idi- Araba area. That was when my problems began.

Initially, brother Dayo told them that he was not responsible. He denied having anything to do with me. He kept on shouting at us and practically walked us out. My sister suggested we call the police but my aunt and her daughter refused. They said it would only cause more trouble because his older sister was a family friend of theirs. He later confessed to his older sister that he did it to me once but said he was sure that he was not the owner of the pregnancy as he was not the only one.

My family was very annoyed. After that, they started maltreating me. My aunty, whenever she came around would rain abuses on me about how I have disgraced them and worse still, how my baby will not have a father. I had to stop school immediately and was taken to live with a doctor friend of my aunty for the rest of the duration of the pregnancy. Their fear was that I was too tiny to carry a pregnancy and would probably not be able to have the baby on my own. At the end, they had to perform a Caesarean Section on me because they said I was not strong enough to have the baby on my own and that my birth canal was too small.

After the child was born, things eased up a bit because there were no more doubts about the paternity of the child. It was a girl, but it looked so much like brother Dayo. When his mother and older sister came to see us at the hospital, they all confirmed that the baby was his. They wanted to take the baby from me after we left the hospital, but my family refused. They insisted that he should marry me which he also refused. Hospital expenses were borne by both families, although the bulk came from our side.

Even up till today, my family bears most of the finances. Sometimes, I feel so sad that I cant do anything for my baby by myself. If she is ill, I have to wait for my sister, or cousins who live nearby to buy something for her. Aunty (my friend) also buy things for her. Brother Dayo has now travelled to the USA. I was not informed when he was going. The family used to come once in a while to see us, but the tension is too much. So, they hardly ever come around any more these days. I would have preferred that they take the baby away, but my grandmother doesnt want to hear anything like that.

I often wonder how some people manage to close their eyes and sleep at night. Brother Dayo is somewhere now, enjoying himself in other relationships. Perhaps married and telling some awful lies to some woman out there about himself. He must be thinking of going further with his studies. Hoping to fall in love, marry and raise good children he would feel proud to call his own. Yet, he has taken advantage of a poor, young girl and changed the course of her destiny for his selfish uncontrollable libido. It is most unlikely he will ever come back for either mother or child. But I am resolved to help her track him down. And soon too. Guys, please pick on ladies your own status.

Do have a wonderful weekend!!

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Loading...Home | News | General | How the Senate deals with saboteurs

By Emmanuel Aziken

The Nigerian Senate is sometimes described as the countrys most exclusive club with strong solidarity often defying partisan and sectional considerations. When senators take a common position on issues concerning their personal interests, woe betide that senator who decides to break ranks.

For the Saraki Senate, no interests could be more important than the political survival of the members of the 8th Senate.

Senate

The urbane and strong-willed Senator Ovie Omo-Agege this week got a full dose of that lesson when in an unusual stance, he was forced to make a profuse apology on the Senate floor after breaking ranks.

Senator Omo-Agege had last week joined nine other senators led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu to protest the reorder of the sequence of elections in the Electoral Act. The revised order of elections inputted into the amendment of the Electoral Act had logically put the presidential election as the last to be contested for in a three-phase general election.

While it logically put the presidential election last, the amendment bill, however, illogically put the National Assembly elections as the first. Under the bill, the National Assembly elections are to be followed by the Governorship/State House of Assembly elections and then lastly the presidential election.

The federal legislators also provided for the same sequence for the party primaries.

The federal legislators had justified the amendment as a way of saving the country from the bandwagon effect that normally flows after one party would have won the presidential election. However, tongue in cheek, those supportive of the amendment also assert that it would also check whosoever is president from working against his foes after his election. The order would also put the federal lawmakers outside the control of their state governors.

Given the unfavourable rating of President Muhammadu Buhari in the Senate, it was not surprising for his supporters to see the move as another weapon directed against him. The same Senate has failed to consider the presidents nominations for several executive appointments, in part paralysing several governance actions; notably the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank.

So when the Senate penultimate Wednesday considered the report of the National Assembly Conference Committee on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, and ten senators walked out to protest what they alleged as a conspiracy against Buhari, it was expected that the Senate would respond.

That reaction was not long in coming. On Tuesday the Senate referred Omo-Agege to the Senate Ethics Committee upon claims by Senator Dino Melaye that he had breached his privilege by the claim that the Senate targeted the law against an individual, Buhari.

The following day, Wednesday that retort sharpened further, when the Northern Senators Forum, NSF summarily dismissed one of the ten pro-Buhari senators, Senator Adamu Abdullahi as its leader.

Senator Abdullahi, who served as governor of Nasarawa State between 1999 and 2007 had taken his pro-Buhari proclivities to the extent of lampooning President Olusegun Obasanjo over his call on Buhari to step aside in 2019.

Abdullahis stance on Obasanjo was shocking, especially in the degree of his ferocity. Not too long ago, Abdullahi was a regular and enthusiastic backup in the Obasanjo praise choir who fervently supported the third term plot. When Buhari first contested the presidential election in 2003 against Obasanjo, Abdullahi ably delivered Nasarawa to Obasanjo by as much as 65%.

He was conspicuously present when Nasarawa State senators took their position in support of Third Term in May 2006.

What could have been the departing point between Obasanjo and Abdullahi cannot readily be said, and the insinuation in some quarters is the unresolved corruption case leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. That, however, is an insinuation which may be true or false.

What is clear is that the Saraki Senate has gone for broke in its determination to make level paths for its members ahead of 2019. Anyone of the club members who breaks ranks would be dealt with irrespective of pedigree.

It is also instructive that on the day the bill was passed that only ten senators could stand with Buhari. With Omo-Ageges apology and the other nine senators cowering in the face of intimidation, the political permutations for Buhari and his fans are indeed alarming.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Its a piggy fight in Kaduna

By Rose Moses

Stories from Kaduna State in recent times have not been pleasant. In addition to the killings carried out mostly in the southern part of the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen, among others, the political crisis now rocking the state appears to have assumed a more dangerous dimension.

Nasir el-Rufai

Indeed, its a piggy, dirty fight all the way in Kaduna. And recent demolition of a building used by a faction of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by the state government early hours of Tuesday in the presence of armed security operatives, has obviously taken the fight to a whole new level.

The demolished building located at Sambo Road in the capital city of the state belongs to Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, member of a faction of APC that had earlier suspended the state governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai. Hunkuyi, in a Twitter account believed to belong to him, confirmed the demolition, while also sharing short videos of the exercise many have described as reckless and malicious.

And as if that was not enough, barely 24 hours after that demolition, the Kaduna state government is further demanding payment of N30.4 million from the same Hunkuyi as ground rent for his private residence, also in Kaduna.

The demand notice dated February 20, 2018, and signed by Director General of the Kaduna Geographic Information Services (KADGIS), indicates that the rent was for a period of 24 years (1995 to 2018) and should be settled within 30 days, a development Hunkuyi has described as ridiculous. Failure to pay may as well result in another demolition.

Call this another politics of bitterness taken too far and you will not be wrong, for the Kaduna state chapter of the APC is currently split into three factions. Hunkuyi, who had vowed to work against the re-election of Mr. El-Rufai, is believed to be sponsor of the faction using the demolished building as office.

The faction had earlier announced suspension of the governor from the party over what it described as his failure to respond to a query issued him by the Hunkuyi faction led by Alhaji Danladi Wada.

Interestingly, Governor el-Rufais suspension was coming two days after his own faction, recognized by the national leadership, had announced similar suspension of Senator Hunkuyi for six months, with 28 others expelled.

Acting secretary of the el-Rufai faction of the party in the state, Yahaya Baba Pate, said Senator Hunkuyi was suspended for his role in the setting up of a parallel office of the party in the state, while the 28 other members were expelled for violating the partys constitution by dragging it to court.

Now, your guess is as good as mine on how and why things suddenly fell apart for this set of people, who prior to the 2015 elections, had worked together for the election of Governor el-Rufai.

Senator Hunkuyi, for instance, who represents Kaduna North senatorial district at the National Assembly, was Director General of the el-Rufai campaign office during that election.

Said to be a grassroots politician of note, Hunkuyi allegedly deployed his political structures for the election of the governor, who hitherto and allegedly, had no political base in Kaduna following his period of service at the federal level.

But as things seem to have gone south for the one-time political allies, Hunkuyi has joined forces with other aggrieved members of the party in the state to form the Kaduna Restoration Group. In this group also belongs Alhaji Tijani Ramalan, owner of Liberty Radio and Television station in Kaduna.

Ramalan was director of the media and publicity committee of the el-Rufai campaign organisation and his radio station was effectively used for the 2015 campaigns. He was also made chairman of the APC caucus before things fell apart between them.

It was however the Senator Shehu Sani faction, known as APC Akida (True or Authentic APC), that first confronted el-Rufai for allegedly sidelining party members, who worked for his election, as I gathered.

About four months after he was sworn in, the Shehu Sani group, made up of prominent members of the APC, raised the alarm, via an open letter, on the governors alleged anti-people policies and attempts to pocket the party.

Their letter would nonetheless be described by the governor as an epistle of elite frustration, lengthy on lame lamentations but short on substance and facts.

In fact, they were simply described by the governor via another letter signed by his Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan; as a union of the disaffected, the discontented and the disappointed telling a government that all it needs do to be good is to settle them or go back to the old days of sharing state resources to the few professional politicians too lazy to work for a living like other hardworking citizens. What an irony!

Now that the piggy fight, apologies to Babatunde Fashola, is heating up badly by the elected leaders that ought to be providing dividends of democracy to a people that desperately need them, it is only natural that governance, if ever there was any, will also be suspended in the selfish fight of the elephants.

And the people, expectedly, are meant to bear the brunt. What a shame!

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Loading...Providence appears to have prevented a possible massacre at the Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, when suspected terrorists of Boko Haram struck at the institution on Monday, reports said yesterday.

A split second decision by the principal of the school did the magic.

Highly placed sources revealed that as soon as the principal heard the sound of a gunshot, he instinctively suspected that danger was lurking around.

He quickly ordered the students -926 of them home, remembering perhaps, the killing of 29 students of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi also in Yobe State by Boko Haram on February 24, 2014.

The gunmen struck at about 7pm.

The college authorities are working around the clock to ascertain the actual figure of students regarded by the military, police and security agencies as unaccounted. 

Sources said a detailed report of the invasion has been submitted to the government.

A preliminary report indicated that the suspected insurgents stormed the school between 7pm and 8pm in military camouflage, one of the sources said.

They were suspected to have been lurking around in disguise with the ultimate target of striking at night in the college.

Upon hearing of gunshots heralding their coming, the principal suspected that something was amiss in Dapchi. To prevent a reoccurrence of the massacre at the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, he quickly asked the girls to go home. They quickly vacated the school.

This was why it was possible for most of the 926 girls to escape. Actually by the time the insurgents stormed the school, it was empty.

But it is not impossible that the insurgents accosted some of the girls while scampering to safety through different paths.

From the schools account, the principal took the steps to avoid the girls being slaughtered because security was limited to school guards who cannot confront the insurgents, the source said.

It was learnt that the military and security agencies are still combing access routes to Sambisa Forest, suspected make-shift camps of Boko Haram and other neighbouring villages and towns.

The source added: We are leaving all options open in locating the girls who by our profile are rated as unaccounted.

The principal and the school management have been given time till Monday to reach out to parents to compile the list and determine if or not their wards have not been located.

It was gathered that the Federal Government was screening a claim that some insurgents are demanding ransom as a precondition for releasing the girls.

I think the purported ransom claim was being touted by someone but we may screen or vet the call.

No insurgent group has admitted abducting the girls and none reached out to the government. Wherever such a claim of ransom is coming from, we will screen or verify the source, said the source.Amina Mallam Usman is only 15 years old and a light weight in stature.But when the occasion demanded, as it did on Monday night,Amina put up the courage and fighting spirit of many people who are much older and twice her size.

She was one of the dozens targeted by the terrorists and about being packed into their vehicles for a journey into an uncertain future.

She had only a few seconds to break away from the terrorists who were out to ruin her life.

With one heavy jerk, belying her little frame, Amina broke loose from her captor, leaving behind her hijab, lest it became a hindrance in her escape bid.

Amina ascribed her escape to the grace of God.

She prayed that God might protect her friends and mates and guide them back home.

She said: When Boko Haram came to our school, we thought they were soldiers because they dressed like soldiers.

We ran, and then one of them called us. One of them asked me to come to the car.

I got close to the car, and then one of them started laughing at me.

I moved closer to them, thinking they were soldiers.

I soon realized that they were not soldiers. As I made to run away, one of them tried to grab me. I dodged him but he got my hijab. I quickly removed my hijab and left him with it and ran away. I thought I was dead.

They entered our hostel again, but some of us ran into the bush. I ran up to five kilometres and hid in one Fulani settlement called Miligia.

Asked how many students she saw in the invaders vehicles, Amina said: There were many students in the vehicles.. They were up to 50 that were in the vehicles.

She said she felt like the angels should take her soul the moment she realized the men were Boko Haram terrorists.

She is not psychologically prepared to return to the Dapchi school.Home | News | General | Good news as Canada, UAE, and Australia demand Nigerian yams

- The federal government has revealed how Nigeria will export 480 tonnes of yams monthly in 2018

- The chairman, technical committee on Nigerian yam exporting programme, Prof Simon Irtwange, said Canada, United Arab Emirates, UAE are demanding Nigerian yams from exporters

- He said the process of exporting yams from the country has improved based on the first exercise and experience

The federal government has revealed as non-oil exports continue to rise, countries like Canada, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Israel and Australia are demanding Nigerian yams from exporters in the country.

Vanguard reports that the chairman, technical committee on Nigerian yam exporting programme, Prof Simon Irtwange, on Wednesday, February 21, said the harmonizing efforts would enable them know in terms of how many tonnes of yams leaving the country.

READ ALSO: Election reorder: Rebel group reportedly emerges in Senate as Saraki adopts fire-for-fire approach

NAIJ.com gathered that Irtwange said the process of exporting yams from the country has improved based on the first exercise and experience, which was the official flag off of yam export by the federal government on June 29, 2017.

He also said the committee was working to ensure yams are preserved with long shelve life of about six months, which they are looking at various areas of technology, and some are ongoing, possibly to deploy the irradiating techniques that would keep yams from sprouting and possible rot.

He said: We are going to see more export of yams this year. When we start we are going to do 20 containers every month. A container is 24 tonnes and when multiplied that is 480 tonnes per month and that is our target.

Basically, this 20 containers are for United States of America, USA, and United Kingdom, UK, and now we are having openings in Canada, Australia where somebody just came back from and said yam is very expensive in that country, and also we have opening in United Arab Emirates, UAE, and there is big Nigerian population in Israel too, and other countries, and the opportunities are coming up on daily basis for us to ship yam to all this places.

So, we are doing our background work and as soon we are done with the preparation from our own end the Nigerian farmer should do more production because there will be a lot of demand from them to expand their production.

Allaying fears of Nigerians over shortage of yam for local consumption the university don from the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Engineering, Federal university of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue state, said: We keep saying there would not be any yam shortage because last year for example many more farmers went into production because of the opening for export. Right now we are working with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, IITA, to deploy seeds for farmers and we are working out the details in terms of seed requirement per state.

We already have requirements from three regions and we are also expecting other regions to send in their requirements. When we have that we will be able to work out the total quantity.

But we are working with four seed companies that have decided to go into seed production using the aerobatic technique in collaboration with IITA Ibadan, which we have made solid arrangements for seed to get to farmers. So everything is working according to plan, he stated.

Meanwhile, the coordinating director, Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Vincent Isegbe, urged Nigerians who want to export agricultural commodities to freely approach the agency for proper training to meet international export standards.

He said: Somebody has about 400, 000 tubers of yam to export and he is doing it. After that incidence he has exported yams and is still exporting and we are working together with him as an agency and he has no issues.

Anybody who wants to export agricultural produce should pass through us so we can advice the person, and that is to take him through the farm process, and we take him through so there will be no rejections, and we also take him through the general process. So it is important for Nigerians to partner with us so they dont have any problem across the borders.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that minister of agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, revealed that the US rejected yam exports from Nigeria because of their poor quality.

The minister made this known recently, saying, Some consignment of yams were exported from Nigeria to the United States and according to reports we have today, they were found to be of poor quality.

Ebonyi state is the focus as West Africa's food capital - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Uzodimma reveals why Igbo should produce president in 2023

- Chairman, Southern Senators Forum, Hope Uzodinma has disclosed why Igbo should produce president in 2023

- Uzodinma said if by then, the Presidency eludes Ndigbo, it shows that they have understood the politics

- The senator explained that every political party has zoning as a cardinal principle in any country

Chairman, Southern Senators Forum, Hope Uzodinma in an interview with Vanguard, said the Igbo should produce president in 2023 because every political party has zoning as a cardinal principle.

Uzodinma noted that all politicians agreed to the principle of rotating the presidency from the north to the south and vice versa.

He said: ''Every political party has zoning as a cardinal principle. All politicians are therefore agreed to the principle of rotating the presidency from the north to the south and vice versa.

READ ALSO: Police react to cows' invasion of airports, say herdsmen can't be arrested for grazing cattle on runways

''Now, if you check your records, you will find that since this political dispensation, the north has the Presidency at least twice.

''The south has had also twice. In the south, the southwest produced President Obasanjo who ruled for eight years and the southsouth produced President Jonathan who ruled for six years.

''Now, the North is currently in power and is entitled to a second term which will end in 2023. After that the Presidency will naturally return to the south and when it does it certainly will come to southeast, because southwest and southsouth have already had their turn. So, I think this is a simple reality. And that is what informs my position.''

He added: ''It is supremely important because that will assure Ndigbo that the ugly events of the civil war have been truly put behind us.

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''If by 2023, the Presidency returns to the South and by acts of omission or commission, it eludes Ndigbo, then that will only be a confirmation that Igbos have not truly been accepted into the mainstream of Nigerian politics.

''As you know, in 1998, former vice president Alex Ekwueme was coasting home with the PDP presidential ticket.

''It took a high level conspiracy to stop him. Many people believe that it was because he was Igbo and because of the stigma of the civil war.

''So, if in 2023 Igbos are stopped again, the simple conclusion will be that the rest of Nigeria do not welcome them as equal stakeholders in Project Nigeria.''

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that former governor of old Kaduna state and national chairman of Peoples Redemption Party, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa called for the zoning of the 2019 presidency to the Igbo.

Musa who made this known in an interview with Daily Sun said it has become necessary because the Igbo have been cheated for too long by denying them a shot at the presidency over the years.

The PRP national leader also alleged that Hausa and Yoruba should be held responsible for the political backwardness of the Igbo.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2019: Buhari wants Nigerians to tell him if to re-contest - Gov reveals

- Governor Yahaya Bello has spoken concerning the second term plans of President Muhammadu Buhari

- The governor disclosed that while still consulting on the issue, the president is waiting to receive input from more Nigerians

- Bello however disclosed that the APC governors want the president to re-contest so he can revive the economy, create jobs and make sure Nigerians are comfortable

The governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari wants more Nigerians to speak, while he is still consulting, before deciding if to seek re-election in 2019, Vanguard reports.

The governor made the disclosure in a chat with newsmen at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, on Thursday, February 23.

READ ALSO: Oyegun bows, agrees to back Tinubu's reconciliation move

NAIJ.com gathers that Bello stated that the president disclosed the information to All Progressives Congress (APC) governors.

He said: The president is still consulting and he wants more Nigerians to speak before he can make up his mind. But I am very comfortable that Nigerians will speak loud."

The governor also highlighted reasons why the APC governors want Buhari to re-contest in 2019.

In his words: We want him to contest because of the revival of the economy, job creation and making sure that average Nigerians are comfortable. Based on these performances, we are urging Mr President to please run in 2019. There is nothing more to that.

The governors themselves are very careful because Mr President is incorruptible. If anyone does anything unwholesome, the person is going to face the consequences. We are extremely very careful

We want Mr President to continue to lead the way so that we can follow in order for Nigerians to have dividends of democracy.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that Governor Yahaya Bello announced that President Muhammadu Buhari will get more support and votes from Kogi state in 2019 as the state had already endorsed the president for a second term in office.

The governor made the statement while speaking with State House correspondents after observing Jumaat service at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He added that President Buhari would get more votes in Kogi state than in his home state, Katsina.

Nigerians share their thoughts exactly 1 year before elections - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Breaking: This is a national disaster - Buhari reacts to abduction of schoolgirls in Yobe state

- President Muhammadu Buhari spoke on the abduction of schoolgirls from Dapchi

- The president described the incident as a national disaster

- He promised to send more troops and surveillance aircraft to the town

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, February 23, described the abduction of schoolgirls from Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe state by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram as a national disaster.

The president apologised for the unfortunate incident and promised to send more troops and aircraft to aid the security agencies in rescuing the missing girls.

Buhari said these in a statement made available to journalists by his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu.

READ ALSO: President Buhari calls El-Rufai the bulldozer

The president said: When I received the devastating news of the attack on the school and the fact that the local authorities could not account for all the students, I immediately dispatched a high-level delegation on a fact-finding visit to the town.

I also instructed the security agencies to deploy in full and not spare any effort to ensure that all the girls are returned safely, and the attackers arrested and made to face justice.

The entire country stands as one with the girls families, the government and the people of Yobe state.

This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain. We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.

Our government is sending more troops and surveillance aircraft to keep an eye on all movements in the entire territory on a 24-hour basis, in the hope that all the missing girls will be found.

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NAIJ.com previously reported that the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the abduction of the schoolgirls was a ploy by the insurgents to embarrass President Muhammadu Buharis government.

The minister, who arrived at the college on Thursday, February 22, said that the government didn't want to manufacture stories on the true state and number of the kidnapped schoolgirls.

Mohammed urged the parents of the affected girls and the people of Dapchi community to give the government more time to tell them the exact situation of things.

Survivors of Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Police parade pastor for killing pregnant mistress, two others to conceal love affair

- A pastor who killed his pregnant mistress was paraded on Friday, February 23, by the police in Rivers state

- The cleric was said to have killed the expectant mother and her friend as well as a nine-month-old baby belonging to her friend

- The relationship between the pastor and the mistress went sour when the mistress refused to abort the pregnancy which the pastor was responsible for

Police in Rivers state on Friday, February 23, paraded a pastor, Chidiebere Okoroafor, for allegedly killing his mistress, two church members as well as an unborn baby in cold blood, in Oyigbo area of the state.

It was reported that the incident took place on December 9, 2017, but was discovered four days after the deceased persons were declared missing.

The victims are: Ada Concila Ezeawa (25) Uloma Onweagba and her nine- month-old baby Christabel Joseph-Onweagba, The Nation reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that the deputy commissioner of police, finance and administration, Cyril Okoro who disclosed this to newsmen on Friday, February 23 during a briefing in Port Harcourt, said trouble began when the pastors alleged mistress, Concila Ezeawa, informed the pastor of her pregnancy following her alleged amorous relationship with the man of God, which did not go down well with him.

READ ALSO: Buhari reacts to the Boko Haram abduction of schoolgirls in Yobe state

Pastor Okoroafor, who is the founder of Altar of Solution Church, Izuoma in Afam Oyigbo local government area of the state, reportedly urged the girl to abort the pregnancy which she bluntly refused.

The deceased was reported to have informed Onweagba for her intervention so as to convince the pastor to allow her keep the pregnancy.

It was learnt that trio (Okoroafor, Ezeawa and Onweagba), agreed to meet somewhere to discuss the pregnancy issue, but it was unknown to the two women that the pastor gave them two different meeting points and at different times. He was said to have met with his mistress at a junction, while he asked the other woman to wait for them at a different point.

The suspect was said to that strangled his pregnant mistress to death in an uncompleted building and abandoned her remains there, after which he joined unsuspecting Onweagba who was still waiting.

According to Okoro, the pastor murdered Onweagba with her nine months old baby strapped to her back.

Okoro said: The pastor killed his mistress by luring and strangulating her in an uncompleted building in order to cover up his deed, after he has committed this evil act, he now joined his late mistress' friend at Afam road where they took a tricycle to Afam roundabout before taking a motorcycle to an isolated farm on Igberu road where he gruesomely murdered her with her nine months old baby strapped to her back.

According to the autopsy report, the nine months old baby was killed as a result of suffocation which was caused as result of wrapper used in carrying the baby."

Pastor Okoroafor was reported to have murdered his pregnant mistress and two others. (Photo credit: The Nation)

When he was being paraded on Friday, February 23, the pastor said: I am sorry, I ask for forgiveness from my family, let the family of the people I killed also forgive me, let the world forgive me, it is the devils work.

Okoro said the crime was able to be uncovered because the two women had already told their neighbours where they were going on that day. The neighbours lodged complaints of disappearance at the Afam divisional headquarters two days after they were missing.

Okoro added: After preliminary investigation and search by the police with members of the community, the decomposing corpse of Uluoma and a nine month-old-baby indentified as Joseph were discovered in a bush located along Afam Igberu road on 13th of December 2017.

Their corpses were evacuated and deposited at the mortuary, after more investigation. Six days after the recovery of Uluoma and the baby, the decomposing corpse of the mother of the baby, Ezeawa was recovered in an uncompleted building at Izuoma community in Oyigbo LGA and subsequently taken to the mortuary."

According to Okoro, the suspect would be arraigned in court soon.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a youth pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Akolade Arowolo, was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of his banker wife, Titilayo.

Prosecutors were able to present compelling evidence that led to the conviction of Arowolo and his sentencing by Justice Lateefat Okunu of the Ikeja igh Court, he was handed a death sentence.

Who is the most influential Nigerian pastor? - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Tinubu in a letter addressed to President Buhari had accused the APC chariman, Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.

has obtained the full text of the letter written by the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to President Muhammadu Buhari, over the lingering leadership tussle between him and the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun.

Tinubu had on Wednesday in a letter, accused Oyegun of sabotaging his efforts to reconcile aggrieved APC members .

The letter dated February 21, 2018, was addressed to President Buhari, copied to the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

Heres the full text of the letter:

I trust that this letter finds you in good health and may that never change. I also hope that you are in an apt frame of mind to read this letter according to the spirit in which it is written and to derive apt counsel from it.

Our party has travelled far in a brief time. To pull and mend the disparate legacy parties into one, we surmounted high obstacles that would have daunted others. To win the election, the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari had to campaign as never before and we, as a party, had to stare down great odds to win.

We held firm to our principles and did not cast our eyes away from the progressive objectives that led us to form this party in the first instance. We kept faith with the best of our ideals and we matched noble ideals to strong effort. We won. Nigeria won.

Sadly, some, who were entrusted with positions of high responsibility within the party seemed unable to handle the success given them. Little attention was tendered the principles upon which this party was formed and pursuant to which it was presented to the public as an alternative to the cynical politics of the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).

We were born as a party of internal democracy; but our internal institutions have been actively undermined or allowed to atrophy. The spirit of a new and better Nigeria that guided us to unprecedented electoral success has been steadily replaced by the bankrupt and rule-less ways that brought the PDP low.

Since the election, there have been several reports of lack of openness and fairness which have led to internal crisis in some of our states. There have been allegations of self-induced crisis resulting from merchandising of internal processes. We all must agree that the party was bound to suffer growing pains but not to the extent of losing part of the substantial goodwill that brought us to power.

However, that which concerns me has little to do with the manner by which the party is growing. What concerns me is the manner in which the crisis is developing that can lead to serious erosion of party cohesion and confidence. Were I alone in this concern, I would discount my observations as a sign of my own misperceptions or infirmity. However, I stand not alone in this worry. My grief is shared by so many party members that I would not be accused of exaggeration if I said substantial party leaders are worried about the course of our vessel.

I believe it was from this sober concern that President Muhammadu Buhari recently appointed me to lead the consultation, reconciliation and confidence-building efforts in our party. Upon the appointment, I gave the President my word that I would work diligently and objectively to achieve the goal set before me.

In this vein, my first port of call after receiving this assignment was our partys National Secretariat to present myself before the National Working Committee (NWC), with you as one of its members by virtue of your position as Chairman of the party. During my interaction with the NWC, I enjoined its members to freely express their views concerning the state of the party at the national, state and local levels. I listened attentively to the views of every member of the NWC present.

On your part, you promised unalloyed support for my mission. Consonant with that vow, you said you would provide all information at your disposal and you vowed to act as a liaison between me and the state party chapters. At that very meeting, I announced I had formally started the assignment handed me by President Buhari. I offered to keep you abreast of my work. I said that I wanted the NWC to be like an informal advisory council and sounding board to me in the discharge of this presidential mandate.

Unfortunately, the spirit of understanding and of cooperative undertaking to revive the party seems not to have lived beyond the temporal confines of that meeting. I assure anyone who cares to know that this positive spirit of cooperation did not meet its demise at my hands.

My position was and is that we can only restore the party by resolving its current deficiencies in an unbiased, neutral manner that allows us to strengthen our internal democracy by annealing those internal institutions and processes vital to such internal fairness. I stated this position then and still hold to it with all sincerity.

Yet, disappointment greeted me when I discovered that you had swiftly acted in contravention of the spirit of our discussions. Instead of being a bulwark of support as promised, you positioned yourself in active opposition to the goal of resuscitating the progressive and democratic nature of the APC. As a party, we have strived to be the best, present hope for the nation. Yet, your goal appears to be something of a lesser pedigree.

In our discussion, you personally mentioned Kogi, Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa States as places afflicted by serious party issues. Given your assessment, these were states where I believed cooperation between you and I should have been intense and detailed. Instead, you have taken it as your personal mission to thwart my presidential assignment in these key states.

In Kogi, you rushed to the state to unilaterally inaugurate a new slate of state officials, parallel to the officials already heading the state chapter of the party. While this may place you in significant affinity with those parallel officials you handpicked, this machination suggests no improvement in the welfare of the party in Kogi or at the national level. This usurpation of authority exacerbates conflict and confusion; it does not resolve them.

It is my understanding that your dissolution of the duly- constituted state executives and the hurried naming of the above-mentioned caretaker group was not approved by the NWC. This arrogation of power sets you at variance with members of the NWC as evidenced by National Publicity Secretary Malam Bolaji Abdullahis statement, condemning your improper and unusual action.

You had let this situation fester for months on end. Only when I was appointed to help resolve internal disputes and when you realised I might focus early on Kogi, did you stir from your indifference and inaction. You could have wisely and prudently treated this matter beforehand. By waiting to the last moment, your unilateral action was implemented in haste and unbalanced in thought. By creating a parallel body, you not only acted improperly, you grew a second problem from the stem where previously there had sprouted but one.

The Kaduna State chapter apparently has been troubled by disputes over who the party recognises as acting chairman for the state. The dispute has at times degenerated to the point where there purportedly has been demolition of property and the threat of violence.

This eruptive state of affairs is a direct and proximate result of the inability of the party under your leadership to follow the dictates of the party constitution and regulations to arrive at a result that all may agree was rendered objectively, in harmony with the principles by which this party was founded.

While everyone may not be pleased with the result, all contestants would acknowledge that the process had been fair and neutral. In this way, rancour is contained and reconciliation more easily achieved.

Because this matter has been left to fester, positions have hardened and intrigue and animosity are more the authors of the day than unity, compromise and cooperation. It is always better to repair the crack before it becomes a hole and the hole before it becomes a gap. You did neither in this instance. Yet, you lifted not a finger to honour your vow to provide information and contacts to help me do this important repair.

After my interaction with the NWC and given the urgency of the work needed to mend and heal the party, you should have presented the status reports on state party chapters as promised, and certainly without much delay. Your reportage is vital to my work. Your delay in not reporting on a single state chapter now delays and threatens my assignment.

Mr. Chairman, I cannot overstate the imperatives of time in this regard just as I cannot overstate the need for cooperation and to work in accordance with the formal rules and ways of our party.

Yet, something else is afoot and I must draw attention to it so that we can end the malpractice before it impairs the party and my assignment any further. Drawing from your behaviour in Kogi, Kaduna and with regard to the state chapter assessment requested, I am led to the inference that you have no intention of actually supporting my assignment.

Instead, you apparently seek to undermine my mandate by engaging in dilatory tactics for the most part. When forced to act, you do so in an arbitrary and capricious manner, without the counsel of other NWC members and without regard to our internal procedures.

You may have personal qualms with me. That is your right as a human being. However, you have no such right as the chairman of this party. This party belongs to all of its members. You have no greater claim on it than any of the rest of us. Whatever personal qualms you may have with me are secondary at this point. You have a moral and professional obligation as the party chairman to act in the partys best interests. Your hurried and unilateral actions belie the important agency you hold for the party.

Thus, in furtherance of the assignment given to me by President Buhari, I request that you make available to me the status reports and all other pertinent information regarding the state chapters without further delay.

Also, to lessen animosity and return the party to the path of internal democracy and openness, I beg that you refrain from taking any more improper unilateral decisions with regard to the national and state chapters of the party. As the chairman of the party, you must work within the confines of the duties and responsibilities enumerated under the party constitution. You must not stretch beyond them.

If you continue to do so, I fear you may undermine the party in no small degree. You may well cause internal fractures and dissension difficult to repair yet visible to all. I fear this can undermine our goodwill with the electorate and make the approaching challenges to the party materially more difficult than they need to be.

As chairman of this party, you should not want this to be your legacy. As a member of this party from its inception, I dont want this to happen to the party and I dont want such an awful thing to be your legacy.President Muhammadu Buhari, Friday in Abuja, told the Transparency International to focus whatever report they are publishing on facts and not fiction.

The President in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, noted that, while he welcomes constructive criticisms from the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), the organization has a responsibility to reflect the larger picture of the concrete and verifiable achievements of the his administration since May 2015.

According to the statement, The government is still wondering the criteria or facts used by the anti-corruption watchdog to arrive at its very misleading and unfair conclusions in its assessment of the Federal governments efforts in this anti-corruption crusade.

Political will is the first major component of fighting corruption in any country and President Buhari has made a huge difference by demonstrating not only the political will but also the extraordinary courage to go after high profile looters, including former military service chiefs and Judges.

It was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the big men for corruption in Nigeria but President Buhari has ended impunity for corruption.

Today, the Buhari administration has made accountability the bedrock of governance and corruption is no longer fashionable because it attracts consequences.

Blocking leakages for corruption through the rigid enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) had made life tougher for corrupt officials. He regretted that these efforts were not acknowledged by the Corruption Watchdog.

Figures published by the EFCC, the anti-corruption agency, reveal that N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of the Buhari administration and this impressive and unprecedented record is worthy of mention and acknowledgement by anybody genuinely looking at the larger picture of the countrys progress in the war against corruption.

During the 7th session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, the Chairman of the Agency Ibrahim Magu noted that the figure represents $2.9 billion dollars.

Besides these impressive recoveries of looted funds, the EFCC has recorded more than 140 successful prosecutions.

The Federal government has also signed international agreements to recover the proceeds of corruption and to block the laundering of stolen assets abroad by public officials.

Anybody who knows where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.

We wonder where they got their facts from. At a time, they are alleging increase in the incidence of corruption under this government, the whole of Africa is applauding by choosing President Buhari as the continental Champion to lead the fight against it.

Nothing can be more eloquent than this.

In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TIs patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration.The General Advisor, British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) in Nigeria, Major Ian Robertson, has said they would be willing to assist in the rescue of students from Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Dapchi in Yobe State, who were reportedly abducted by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.

Speaking on Friday at a forum organized by Partners West Africa-Nigeria on prioritising the voices of women in security organisations based on National Action Plan on Women (2017-2020), Robertson revealed his team was monitoring the situation closely.

He also expressed worries that schoolgirls have become soft targets for insurgents.

Having heard about this particular issue recently, I am still trying to get more information about what is going on, but it is clearly very disappointing that something like this has happened, that the girls have been taken.

But let me reassure you, from the British military perspective, that we are monitoring the event quite closely and we are cooperating with the armed forces of Nigeria to see how we can assist, Robertson said.President Muhammadu Buhari says Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, is stepping on many toes in the bid to defend his administration.

He said this when he received Ogiame Ikenwoli, the olu of Warri and some prominent Iteskiri sons, including Sagay, at the presidential villa in Abuja on Friday.

The president described Sagay as a man of conviction whom, he emphasised, was doing an exceptional job.

Thanks for producing a man like Prof. Itse Sagay, who is defending us robustly and stepping on many toes in the process. If hes not a man of conviction, he couldnt have done that, he said.

What he is doing is exceptional. Despite coming from a minority area, hes showing overwhelming influence at the centre.

Prof, I never had the opportunity to thank you personally for all youre doing. Thank you very much.

He assured the people of Niger Delta that his administration would continue to support rapid development in the region by consolidating on all ongoing projects and initiating new ones to create more economic opportunities and jobs for the people.

The president reiterated his administrations commitment to maintaining peace and security in the Niger Delta for economic and social activities to thrive.

According to him, developing the region remains a priority for his administration, adding that under his watch every region in the country would witness increased investments in critical infrastructure.

He promised to look into some of the concerns raised by the delegation including the dredging of Escravos bar for Warri and Koko ports, the gas revolution industrial park and EPZ project in Ogidigben, the ecological challenges in Ode-Itsekiri, Ugborodo, Orere/Yanagho and Ogheye-Eghoroke, among others.Home | News | General | Dapchi school attack: British military speaks; offers assistance to rescue abducted girls

- The British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) in Nigeria has offered to assist the Nigerian armed forces in rescuing the abducted Dapchi school girls

- The general advisor of BMATT, Major Ian Robertson, disclosed that his team was still monitoring the situation closely, after which it will come in

- He expressed disappointment that an incident like this could have occurred at all

The British military has pledged to assist the Nigerian federal government in the rescue of the school girls from Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Dapchi in Yobe State, who were abducted by suspected Boko Haram terrorists, Guardian reports.

The pledge was made by Major Ian Robertson, the general advisor, British Military Advisory and Training Team (BMATT) in Nigeria, at a forum organised by Partners West Africa-Nigeria on prioritising the voices of women in security.

READ ALSO: 2019: Buhari is waiting for input from Nigerians - Bello

NAIJ.com gathers that Robertson condemned the attack and lamented over the fact that girls schools have become soft targets for insurgents.

He disclosed that his team was still monitoring the situation closely, after which it will come in.

He stated: Having heard about this particular issue recently, I am still trying to get more information about what is going on, but it is clearly very disappointing that something like this has happened, that the girls have been taken.

But let me reassure you, from the British military perspective, that we are monitoring the event quite closely and we are cooperating with the armed forces of Nigeria to see how we can assist.

Robertson pointed out that Europe has embraced the idea of gender perspective and security, and expressed the need for a military action plan for Nigerian women.

He disclosed that he was working at a very basic level to ensure that there is a gender perspective to the training his team provides for the Nigerian armed forces.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the United States government strongly condemned the abduction of the Dapchi schoolgirls by suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

The spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, Heather Nauert, at a press briefing on Thursday, February 22, said the U.S. was yet to get all the details about the abduction.

She said: We are still trying to get all the details about that but we wanted to mention that we condemn in the strongest possible terms the terror attack on a school earlier this week in north-eastern Nigeria.

The choice of targets including schools, markets and places of worship reflect the brutality of terror organisations. The victims in the attacks were girls who were simply seeking an education.

Survivors of Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Military condemns amnesty internationals report in rights abuse

- The Nigerian military has formally reacted to amnesty internationals report alleging gross human rights abuses against the Nigerian Armed Forces

- The amnesty in annual report was said to have accused the military of serious human rights violations including killing of 164 civilians in an IDP camp at Rann in Borno state

- The report also accused the military of violating the rights of transgender and intersex persons

The Nigerian Military has formally reacted to Amnesty Internationals report alleging gross human rights abuses against the Nigerian Armed Forces especially in the militarys counter insurgency war against Boko Haram.

In a detailed statement signed by the acting director of defence information Brigadier General John Agim, the military described the report as a gross disservice to the nations high security command.

Find the full statement of the Military below:

READ ALSO: Police cant arrest herdsmen for grazing cattle on airport runways - Commissioner

''The recent report released by Amnesty International (AI) on 22 February 2018 alleging human rights violations by the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN), is a gross disservice to the nations high security command. The action of AI seem to be geared towards weakening the efforts of the AFN at ensuring peace and security in the country. It has been observed that AI has made it a routine duty to continue generating tension among the citizens by releasing unconfirmed reports, unsubstantiated claims and figures relating to military counter-insurgency operations and wanton killings by unknown groups or persons. It is pertinent to re-iterate that the AFN as a responsible institution, financed by taxpayers, is bound to respond to these allegations in order to put the records in proper perspective. The AI allegations of human rights violations and extra judicial killing of civilians by the AFN have followed a specific trend for some time now. It could be noted that the organizations allegations made against the AFN since 2011 to date are largely unsubstantiated.

''The figures released by the organization showed that 4,900 Boko Haram detainees were held in Giwa Barracks in an overcrowded facility where 340 detainees had already died of diseases and dehydration. They further stated that 164 civilians were killed by the Nigerian Air Force when an IDP camp was hit at Rann by a Nigerian Air Force fighter Jet and also that 12 IPOB members were kill in Umuahia by the AFN. Unfortunately, AI have failed to acknowledge the on-going fair trial and conviction of culpable members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect and the release of those not found guilty. The number of persons released and re-integrated with the larger community is over 500.Both the convicted and freed suspects were earlier arrested from different locations across the country and taken to Kainji, a place that is relatively safer with enough space to accommodate them while providing the detainees with 3 square meals daily. The suspects were also given proper medical attention by military medical team attached to the detention facility. It is notable that the arrested Boko Haram members from the ongoing OPERATION LAFIYA DOLE were being tried by the Federal High Court at Wawa Cantonment Kainji since Friday 16 February 2018 convicting 205 detainees to various jail terms while 526 suspects have been freed for want of evidence.

''Other sins of the Nigerian dovernment as captured by the AI in its report include infringing These AI championed rights have been strictly outlawed by Laws of the Federation of Nigeria subsuming the Nigerian constitution as well as the cultural practices of our people.

''This position of AI, clearly show slack of respect for the constitution of Nigeria which these laws have become part. Let it be known that the Nigerian Government and its people are not ready and would never be, even in future, to please AI or anyone with the introduction of such things. However, if AI feels strongly against the position of the Nigerian people on this issue and wants to assist the victims, they could issue these class of people with green cards to enable them re-locate to other places across the world that accept such practices as it may not be necessary for them to remain Nigerians.

''Generally, the authenticity and sources of figures generated by AI are worrisome. Regrettably, the military high commands were never contacted for clarification or guidance. The Defence Headquarters on its own made concerted efforts to meet with the country management of AI to discuss related issues without success, as they had consistently failed to show up. This reaction of AI connotes that the body in Nigeria could had been sponsored to frustrate conflict resolution efforts towards peace and positive development of the nation. The deliberate falsehood peddled by AI could cast the nation and its security apparatus in bad light. Meanwhile, AI does not seem to see anything wrong about the insurgents activities and known criminals until security agencies rise to the occasion of effectively containing their actions. It could be noted that anytime the AFN has reasonable assurances of getting military hardware and or expendables to further its operations or are recording remarkable successes, the AI as an organization would come forward with falsehood to weep up anti-Nigerian sentiments within the international community. These are evident in the AI reports from 2011 to date.

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''Such reports had made in roads to the US congress a couple of years back leading to the invocation of Leahy Law against Nigeria at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency. The current report could have been ill-conceived to frustrate the on-going US-Nigerian anti-terrorism cooperation. It could then be posited that the aim of AI in Nigeria is to cripple the countrys security apparatus through cheap blackmail in order to hold back necessary collaboration. The AFN has both constitutional and moral responsibility to protect Nigerian Citizens and cannot suddenly engage in mass murder as portrayed by AI. The AI reports are at variance with and do not reconcile the information we are collecting from the field on daily basis making these sources suspect.

''This is to inform the Nigerian public and the International Community that the AFN exhibit professionalism in its operations. Therefore, it is not proper an organization in the class of AI to incite the Nigerian public and the international community against them. Currently, the AFN is bringing sanity to security challenges in the North East and other parts of country. The Nigerian Military does not in any way condone indiscipline or breach of set regulations, let alone want on killing of citizens or destruction of property. It is worthy to note that, the AFN regularly collaborate with the International Committee of Red Cross on training of personnel on laws of armed conflict and International humanitarian law. Troops of the AFN are guided by Rules of engagement and Standing Operational Procedures which are explicit on how to conduct operations.

''It is also worthy to note that, since 2015 the military high command have introduced training of troops in Human Rights and Laws of Armed Conflict. These are compulsory courses in all AFN institutions which are yielding with positive results. The AI is therefore requested to liaise with the Defence Headquarters for clarification on any matter regarding military operations before putting up inaccurate reports. Such reports are also capable of hurting the reputation of AI itself which would not be the best for the society in terms of accountability. The Nigerian public and international community are hereby requested to disregard the current Amnesty report, keep faith and confidence in the AFN. You are please requested to disseminate this information to the public through your medium.''

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that amnesty international said Boko Haram had been responsible for various atrocities, nothing could justify the callous and widespread practice of torture committed by the security forces against ordinary civilians.

The new report titled Cameroons secret torture chambers: human rights violations and war crimes in the fight against Boko Haram, is based on testimonies from several people, and was corroborated by photographic and video evidence, including satellite imagery.

Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Nigeria is a great country; taxi driver returned my lost bag the first time I visited - Kirsty Brimelow

- A lawyer from the United Kingdom, Kirsty Brimelow, has recalled experience of her first visit to Nigeria

- She said she had a positive experience the first time she visited Nigeria, recalling that she left her bag in a taxi and it was returned by the taxi driver

- She said that the impression that Nigerians are corrupt and untrustworthy is quite unfair

The chairperson of the Bar Committee on Human Rights for Wales and England, Kirsty Brimelow, has expressed displeasure over the impression that Nigerians are corrupt and untrustworthy, saying she had a positive story on her visit to Nigeria.

Brimelow, who was recently in Nigeria at the invitation of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to train lawyers on legal rights and protection of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in northeast, Nigeria, said she left her bag in a taxi the first time she visited Nigeria, and it was returned by the taxi driver.

READ ALSO: Oyegun bows, agrees to back Tinubu's reconciliation move

In her interview she granted Daily Trust, she said the moment she realised that she had left her bag in the taxi she boarded, she felt she couldn't recover the bag because of the negative stories she had heard about Nigeria.

NAIJ.com noted that Brimelow called her phone which was inside the bag and the taxi driver answered the call and returned the bag to her.

She said: "A positive story on my very first visit was an incident that happened when I was in a taxi and I was going somewhere in Abuja. I had a bag with me, which contained my passports, telephones and other personal belongings. I was rushing for the meeting, got out and left my bag in the taxi.

"My first thought was that its gone! You wont recover it in London and I thought Nigeria with its reputation for dishonesty and corruption, that the bag was gone. But what happened was that I decided to telephone my phone that was in the bag and it kept ringing but there was no response.

"Eventually somebody picked the phone up and it was the taxi driver. It happened somebody else has gotten into the cab and saw my bag and handed it over to the taxi driver who also did not take or keep it to himself, answered the phone and brought the bag to me. It was a really nice story and that was my first experience of Nigeria. I know it might not be typical, but it remains with me."

Brimelow said that her major memory of Nigeria that she usually takes back home is the warmth, kindness and hospitality of the people.

She added: "I have always been extremely welcomed. I have also met a lot of people living in really harsh conditions but they are so kind and generous, and they keep a good sense of humour as well, which I love.

"There is this impression of Nigerians as corrupt and untrustworthy, but that has not been my experience of the people here. The impression is quite unfair; Ill encourage people to visit Nigeria, its a great country."

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that an American lawyer, Rogelio Garcia, has recounted how his lost $700 was returned to him by a Nigerian Uber driver, identified as Adekunle.

The lawyer made the development public via his twitter handle, @LawyerRogelio.

The lawyer stated that he had somehow dropped the money in the vehicle as he hurried to an event for his nephew. Hours later however, the Nigerian driver returned the cash to him and explained that another passenger had seen the money and handed it over.

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central district, says Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, cannot intimidate him.

He said this in response to the defamation suit filed against him by the governor.

In the suit he filed at the Kaduna state high court on Friday, el-Rufai sought N2 billion as relief for alleged injuries suffered as a result of malicious statements made by Sani.

But in his reaction, the senator said that would not stop him from commenting on issues, either at the state or national level.

In a statement issued by Suleiman Ahmed, his special adviser on political matters, Sani said though he is yet to be served, his team of lawyers are ready and well prepared.

The senator wishes to assure all his supporters and well-wishers that nothing and absolutely nothing can stop him from expressing his opinion on either Kaduna state or national issues, the statement read.

The senator is a dogged fighter who has been through many courts and even prisons in his life of struggle and can never be stopped or intimidated to silence by any means.

Those who are allergic to heat should not be in the kitchen. The senator will never falter or waiver in speaking truth to power whether at local or national level.

He added that he woulf continue to beam the light n the dark and grey areas of Nigerias democracy and that those irritated by the truth simply need to get a cotton bud.

Those who voluntarily offer themselves for public service have also chosen to offer themselves for public scrutiny, he said.

Sani said that in the last two years, he overcame sponsored violence and campaign of calumny by el-Rufai, and as such, would overcome the suit.

He said the nations politics is driven by our loyalty to our principles, our faith, our conviction and our conscience and not subservient to any tin God or demi-god.

We dont worship broom, we dont bow down to broom, he said.

Sani, who belongs to a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) different from the el-Rufais, has been having a running battle with the governor since 2015.Home | News | General | I married my sister to obey God and avoid divorce - Disgraced brother finally speaks, provides bible verses to back decision

- The young man who married his sister in Anambra state has disclosed that he carried out the action after discovering that it was permitted in the scriptures

- Cornelius Chiadi Ezeibekwe claims God told him to marry his sister; and that she saw the same vision as he

- He says he married his sister to avoid divorce and also prevent diseases and other deadly vices from encroaching into his family

Cornelius Chiadi Ezeibekwe, from Ekwulobia town in Aguata local government area, Anambra state, has stated that he got married to his sister in order to obey God.

In an interview with New Telegraph, the 25-year-old, who became the buzz of the moment after wedding his sister in a ceremony conducted by their elder brother, stated that he had studied the bible and discovered that such an act was permitted.

READ ALSO: No secret plans to establish cattle colonies in Anambra - Commissioner

NAIJ.com gathers that Ezeibekwe stated that upon his discovery, he informed his parents, who then gave their consent.

In his words: I am a Sabbath and when I searched through the scriptures, I discovered that the Bible permits marriage between a brother and a sister. So, I went ahead with the arrangement to marry my younger sister.

The marriage ceremony was observed in our family compound, which also serves as a place of worship for us. My immediate elder brother, Paul Ezeibekwe, the pastor, was present during the ceremony.

What happened was that when we decided to get married, we told our parents our intention and my father asked us if we knew what we were about to do. I told him that we searched through the scriptures and that God sanctioned it. It was after this that our parents consented.

However, our other relations objected to the idea when they learnt of the plan and when we ignored them and went ahead with the marriage, they and other villagers burnt the Sabbath Church where we used to worship because they thought it was in that place that we worship, not knowing that we had since abandoned the place and are worshiping in our compound. The burning of the church does not mean anything to us.

God told me to marry my sister and she also saw the same vision I saw earlier. There are places in the Bible that support such marriage. Those in doubt should read Songs of Solomon chapters 4 and 5 and 1st Corinthians chapter 7.

Since we took this decision, I have not felt anything unusual, or felt that I did anything wrong. In the school where I teach, many people asked me about it and I boldly referred them to the Bible.

One of the reasons for marrying my sister is to avoid divorce which is rampant these days because even if we divorce each other, we will remain in the same family. Besides, by marrying ones sibling, there will not be the possibility of introducing ugly situations, like diseases or social vices into the family.

The family was reportedly originally Catholics before they joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church and eventually switched to their own brand of Sabbath worship, with one of the children, Paul, serving as the pastor.

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Recall that NAIJ.com previously reported that 25-year-old Chiadi Ezeibekwe got married to his 17-year-old sister.

The young man did not only marry his sister but was said to be responsible for her pregnancy; and the union was said to have gotten the youths of Agba village, Enugu state, angry as they burnt down the church where the wedding took place.

The union was officiated by Chiadis elder brother Paul who also owns the church; and the youths burnt the place because they felt it was an abomination for such a union to have taken place.

How much should a man earn as salary before considering him for marriage? - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Ex-governor Peter Obi laments politicians' sharing of Nigeria's resources, says country needs wealth creators

- The ex-governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, has lamented the dearth of leadership in Nigeria

- Obi stated that the nation needs wealth creators and not wealth sharers to run her affairs

- The former governor urged Nigerians to be part of the political discuss for the purpose of achieving a better Nigeria

Former governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, has expressed displeasure over how Nigeria's resources are being shared by politicians.

The ex-governor said Nigeria needs to have wealth creators managing her affairs and not wealth sharers, if the country is to make any meaningful progress, The Nation reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that Obi made the statement during a recent media chat in Lagos, during which he was asked to share his thoughts on the future of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Yobe schoolgirl abduction: 15-year-old escapee narrates her brave escape

He said: Countries today are run like big business. If a man has not created wealth he cannot manage wealth. We need wealth creators in government and not wealth sharers. We need somebody to unite this country. It is critical. I have lived in many different parts of Nigeria as a businessman. I have invested and served in several corporations without knowing where my co-investors or partners or those that I conducted businesses with came from.

According to Obi, the excuse by those in power that they are unable to keep their election campaign promises because they do not have enough resources to work with, is flimsy.

The former governor said: Which country or where in the world do you have enough resources? What you do when in office is to manage the resources at your disposal to keep your election promises. If you cannot deliver what you promised, then you have no business wanting to continue in office.

According to Obi, election shouldn't be the discussion now, but how Nigeria moved from 35 per cent under-employment and unemployment to 40 per cent.

He said: Four million Nigerians lost their jobs last year. Our joblessness has increased from 14.8 per cent to 18.4 per cent, and 10 million Nigerians are out of school. These are what should worry us, not who is coming to continue the next stage of the drama."

He added: The country needs people with competence and capacity at all levels of governance. We need people who are entrepreneurs. Yesterday I analysed all the expenditure in education. Nigerias budget for education is 1.7 billion dollars - 0.4 per cent of our GDP. South Africa is spending 10 times that amount. We are among the MINT countries. Mexico is spending 60 billion dollars. Indonesia is spending 28 billion dollars, Turkey is spending 24 billion dollars and we are spending 1.7 billion. How can you compete? We need to change the conversation.

Obi appealed to Nigerians to engage their leaders in discussion and also be part of tthe debate about the country's present and future for a better Nigeria to be realised.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that The immediate past governor of Anambra state, Peter Obi, has stated that his financial situation took a turn for the worse, after he ventured into the political space.

The former governor disclosed that he was really wealthy before he decided to become a politician.

He stated: "I did not go into politics wretched. I was already a director in three financial institutions, a director in four other major companies; all by the virtue of my investments. I was also running a successful family business. Going into politics even made me poorer; but I wont question anything because that is where God wants me to be.

STREET GIST: Name a Nigerian politician who is not corrupt - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Anyone joining OBJ to fight PMB does so at their own risk  AnnKio Briggs

By Perez Brisibe

UGHELLI  NIGER Delta activist and former Minister for environment, AnnKio Briggs has warned that any one joining former President Olusegun Obasanjo to fight President Muhammadu Buhari, does so at his or her own risk.

Annkio-Briggs

Briggs in a statement yesterday, also noted that contrary to claims in some quarters that former President Goodluck Jonathan did a lot for the Ijaw nation including ensuring the election of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo only did so for his selfish reasons.

Taking a swipe on Governor Seriake Dickson for inviting Obasanjo to Bayelsa in commemoration of the governors 6th anniversary, she said: His (Obasanjo) visit confirms that Ijaw politicians are in politics for themselves and not Ijaw nation.

Briggs while mourning those who lost their lives during the 1999 Odi massacre, said: Obasanjo should have been taken to Odi before he leaves Bayelsa to enable those who survived the Odi massacre confer on him a traditional title.

Describing the visit of the former president as dancing on the graves of the people killed by the army, she said: May the over 4000 innocent Odi women, men, old and young, youths and children who were shelled, bombed, drowned, and murdered by Olusegun Obasanjo through the Nigeria Army haunt him.

He did not pick Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Vice President for the love of Ijaw or Niger Delta people, he did not support him in 2011 for love of Ijaw or Niger Delta people, but did so for his own selfish reasons, and when Jonathan did not be please him as president, he turned against him.

Reacting to Obasanjos advice to President Buhari not to run for second term, Briggs said: He is getting set to fight Buhari and he is pretending to be a friend of Ijaw and Niger Delta people.

Anyone who joins Obasanjo to fight Buhari is doing so at his or her own risk, Ijaw people will not vote for Buhari and we dont need Obasanjo to tell us that.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Why should you be surprised about Dapchi?, Fani-Kayode asks

Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, on Saturday asked why are Nigerians and even the government surprised about the Boko Haram attack and kidnap at the Government Girls Science and Technical School in Dapchi, Yobe state.

Sandals are strewn in the yard of the Government Girls Science and Technical College staff quarters in Dapchi, Nigeria, on February 22, 2018.

Anger erupted in a town in remote northeast Nigeria on February 22 after officials fumbled to account for scores of schoolgirls from the college who locals say have been kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists. Police said on February 21 that 111 girls from the college were unaccounted for following a jihadist raid late on February 19. Hours later, Abdullahi Bego, spokesman for Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam, said some of the girls had been rescued by troops from the terrorists who abducted them. But on a visit to Dapchi on Thursday, Gaidam appeared to question whether there had been any abduction. / AFP PHOTO /

He also said that the governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose will not bow to Buhari saying: Hell will freeze over before Peter the Rock compromises and bows at Buharis satanic alter. I can vouch for him.

Oshokomole is as constant as the northern star, I hold him in high esteem and he has my respect.

He further lambasted the Yobe Government over the apology it tendered saying

No girls were kidnapped! Sorry we lied! ALL the girls have been rescued! Sorry we lied! SOME of the girls have been rescued! Sorry we lied!WHAT A GOVERNMENT!

Recall on Thursday Yobe Government apologised for claiming that some of the abducted school girls at Government Girls College Dapchi had been rescued.

Abdullahi Bego, Director-General, Press Affairs to Yobe Governor, gave the apology over the statement, which turned out to be untrue.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2,500 women in Benue receive training on modern farming techniques

- 2,500 women have undergone training on modern farming in Benue state courtesy the Youth Agricultural Enterprise Training Programme

- The women were trained for the purpose of improving their commitment to agriculture and curbing post harvest losses

- The director of the the programme, Kator Hule, said that the exercise focused on empowering women in agricultural enhancement for food security in the state

The Youth Agricultural Enterprise Training Programme (YET-P) in Benue on Saturday, February 24, trained 2,500 women on farming in a bid to boost their interest in the vocation and enhance food production.

During the training on Saturday, Kator Hule, the director of YET-P, said that the women were trained under the Women Entrepreneurial Training Programme (WET-P), NAN reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that Hule said that the exercise focused on empowering women in agricultural enhancement for food security in the state.

READ ALSO: Yobe schoolgirl abduction: 15-year-old escapee narrates her brave escape

He said WET-P is an initiative developed as a toolkit for remedying the fall of Nigerias agriculture

According to him, its theme was:Engaging Women in Key Opportunities in Agriculture.

He explained that it seeks to provide women with enriched training on best agricultural practices towards improving their commitment to farm and curbing post harvest losses.

The director further said women comprised of the largest percentage of the workforce in agriculture sector but do not have access and control over all land and other productive resources, hence the training will provide means to such matters.

He said: We will enable women to claim their rights and access to land and other resources needed for farming that will help them contribute more to economic growth.

He assured women that the WET-P will continue to source for opportunities to develop them in agriculture, setting demonstration farms .

He said: We will conduct development programmes that will enhance womens role in agricultural productions."

The convener of the programme and chairperson Makurdi local government, Juliana Audu, said that the programme was designed to impart relevant techniques on farm activities, develop entrepreneurship skill and encourage women participation in agriculture.

She said: It is part of a comprehensive attempt to improve social and economic well being of mothers in the state.

According to her, the programme was in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, to empower women and expand the scope of the programme to enhance more participation in the exercise.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the minister of agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, revealed that the US rejected yam exported from Nigeria because of their poor quality.

The minister: Some consignment of yams were exported from Nigeria to the United States and according to reports we have today, they were found to be of poor quality.

We will be investigating both the company that exported it and our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Confusion as INEC issues Governor Bello another voters card

- Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state has been accused of planning to register with INEC

- The INEC was also alleged to have issued another voters card to Governor Bello

- The Kogi state chapter of PDP has asked the INEC to explain its roles in the alleged registration

There was a mild drama in the Okene local government area of Kogi soffice of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, February 23, over an alleged move by the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to register as a voter in the state.

Nigerian Tribune reports that the governor was said to have stormed the Okene local government headquarters of the commission to perfect his registration with an allegation that he wanted to register again to be able to vote in the state.

READ ALSO: Yobe schoolgirl abduction: 15-year-old escapee narrates her brave escape

NAIJ.com gathered that the governor, however, debunked the allegation of engaging in fresh registration, saying he had gone to the INECs office to collect his permanent voters card.

The director general, media and publicity to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo, said the governor went to collect the card having transferred his voters card to Okene.

Responding to an inquiry on the governor picking the Temporary Voters Card transferred to Okene, Fanwo said Bello had picked the temporary transferred card at INEC office, Okene.

He said the governor had been on the issue of the transfer for long and that he is excited it has finally been done by INEC.

He said: Yes, his card has been transferred to his polling unit at Okene. He has been on this for long but thank God INEC has finally done it. The Governor is a law-abiding leader who will continue to follow due process.

However, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, has challenged INEC to explain its role in the registration saga involving the governor, asking the commission to explain the mystery surrounding the collection of PVC by Bello

In a statement issued by Dickson Achadu, director research and documentation, the party said the governor was culpable, having been registered twice, once in Abuja and another one in Kogi state government House.

The party said INEC must come clear with what is happening and the circumstances surrounding the governors double registration, most especially that the governor had been dragged to court, having allegedly registered twice as even alleged by INEC.

The party said INEC must reassure the Kogi state citizens of its readiness to conduct a free, fair and credible poll in 2019, as the governors action is making it lose confidence.

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The party said: It is unimaginable that having confessed to not being able to transfer his PVC before 2015 and the governors second registration held in Kogi government House, Lokoja, INEC can still participate in the drama that took place at INEC office, Okene Friday, February 23."

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, stated that President Muhammadu Buhari wants more Nigerians to speak, while he is still consulting, before deciding if to seek re-election in 2019.

Nigerians share their thoughts exactly 1 year before elections - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Tragedy as 3 die, 3 injured in Abuja gas explosion

- Pandemonium has reportedly struck the Zuba motor park in Gwagwalada area council of the FCT as three people lost their lives in a gas explosion

- A witness Raphael Isaac said it happened at a popular park in the area around 9:12 am, as a gas cylinder suddenly exploded while being refilled

- Three others who were severely injured in the incident are said to have been receiving treatment at a private clinic in Zuba

Three people were reportedly left died while three others were severely injured in a gas explosion that took place on Friday, February 23, at the Zuba motor park in Gwagwalada area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Daily Trust reports that a witness, Raphael Isaac said it happened at a popular Lagos park in the area around 9:12 am, as a gas cylinder suddenly exploded while being refilled.

Isaac explained that two men and a boy died instantly while three other men were severely injured.

READ ALSO: Yobe schoolgirl abduction: 15-year-old escapee narrates her brave escape

It was gathered that the three dead victims were mangled beyond recognition and immediately evacuated by the police to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital morgue in Gwagwalada.

It was also learnt that the three injured victims are receiving treatment at a private clinic in Zuba.

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The Sarkin Pada of Zuba, Alhaji Mohammed Murtala, who visited the scene, expressed displeasure with the sale of gas close to the motor park, while praying for the souls of those who died, and for the injured to get quick recovery.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that police in Rivers state on Friday, February 23, paraded a pastor, Chidiebere Okoroafor, for allegedly killing his mistress, two church members as well as an unborn baby in cold blood, in Oyigbo area of the state.

The incident took place on December 9, 2017, but was discovered four days after the deceased persons were declared missing. The victims are: Ada Concila Ezeawa (25) Uloma Onweagba and her nine- month-old baby Christabel Joseph-Onweagba.

Victims of Herdsmen killing buried in Benue State - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Corruption not worse under the Buhari administration

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA  PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, Friday in Abuja, told the Transparency International to focus whatever report they are publishing on facts and not fiction.

The President in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, noted that, while he welcomes constructive criticisms from the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI), the organization has a responsibility to reflect the larger picture of the concrete and verifiable achievements of the his administration since May 2015.

Buhari

According to the statement, The government is still wondering the criteria or facts used by the anti-corruption watchdog to arrive at its very misleading and unfair conclusions in its assessment of the Federal governments efforts in this anti-corruption crusade.

Political will is the first major component of fighting corruption in any country and President Buhari has made a huge difference by demonstrating not only the political will but also the extraordinary courage to go after high profile looters, including former military service chiefs and Judges.

It was once unthinkable to touch or prosecute the big men for corruption in Nigeria but President Buhari has ended impunity for corruption.

Today, the Buhari administration has made accountability the bedrock of governance and corruption is no longer fashionable because it attracts consequences.

Blocking leakages for corruption through the rigid enforcement of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) had made life tougher for corrupt officials. He regretted that these efforts were not acknowledged by the Corruption Watchdog.

Figures published by the EFCC, the anti-corruption agency, reveal that N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of the Buhari administration and this impressive and unprecedented record is worthy of mention and acknowledgement by anybody genuinely looking at the larger picture of the countrys progress in the war against corruption.

During the 7th session of the Conference of State Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in Vienna, Austria, the Chairman of the Agency Ibrahim Magu noted that the figure represents $2.9 billion dollars.

Besides these impressive recoveries of looted funds, the EFCC has recorded more than 140 successful prosecutions.

The Federal government has also signed international agreements to recover the proceeds of corruption and to block the laundering of stolen assets abroad by public officials.

Anybody who knows where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.

We wonder where they got their facts from. At a time, they are alleging increase in the incidence of corruption under this government, the whole of Africa is applauding by choosing President Buhari as the continental Champion to lead the fight against it.

Nothing can be more eloquent than this.

In the end, this whole episode may turn out to be just a political distraction, given the strong views some of TIs patrons have expressed against the Buhari Administration.

This notwithstanding, facts are facts, and those facts wont cease to be facts even if you dont care to pay attention to them.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Man bathes female neighbour with hot water over electricity bill

A 35-year-old man, Benjamin Osueke, was on Friday charged before an Ikorodu Magistrates Court for allegedly pouring hot water on a female neighbour.

Osueke, who lives at 24, James Olaogun St., Ikorodu, is facing a charge of assault.

The Prosecutor, Sgt. John Iberedem, told the court that the accused on Feb. 18, poured hot water on his neighbour, Mrs Benedicta Orji, in the kitchen.

There was an argument over electricity bill between the accused and the complainant; after the argument, the accused warned her not to cook on his table because they share kitchen.

Suddenly, he poured hot water on the complainant which burnt her body badly, the prosecutor said.

He said that the offence contravened Section 230 of the Lagos State Criminal Laws, 2015.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs. A. Azeez, granted the accused N100,000 bail with two sureties in like sum.

Azeez said that the sureties must reside within the court jurisdiction, be gainfully employed and should show evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

She adjourned the case until March 29, for hearing.

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Loading...Reno Omokri, former presidential aide has berated President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to act fast at a time when 94 secondary school girls were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in Dapchi, Yobe State.

The former aide wondered why it took Buhari two days to address the issue despite the conflicting report on the release of the girls.

He noted that APC which condemned Goodluck Jonathan for not swinging into action when the Chibok girls were kidnapped are showing the same traits they once criticized him of.

Omokri, in a series of Tweets, wrote, When the #ChibokGirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, the then opposition @APCNigeria condemned the Jonathan administration most stridently for not swinging to action immediately and for keeping the public uninformed about the saga.

so you can imagine my surprise that a bunch of people who were so critical of others during their time of testing, have now shown the same traits they once criticized in others.

For instance, two full days after Boko Haram abducted almost a hundred girls from GGST School, Dapchi, Yobe State, on Monday the 19th of February, 2018, there was no word or communication from any level of the Nigerian government.

It was only on Wednesday that Nigerians heard from President Muhammadu Buhari via Twitter. But of course, all he did was give his usual platitudes.

But even sadder still is the fact that this incident happened in Dapchi, in Yobe State on Monday, and the very next day, the President was on his merry way to Adamawa for a so-called anti-corruption summit!

What an insensitive Presidency! They see nothing wrong in celebrating an alleged mammoth crowd that received Buhari in Adamawa a day after Boko Haram sacked the town of Dapchi.Home | News | General | If you cant pay workers salaries, resign - TUC fires at governors

- The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has chided governors who cannot pay their workers salaries; asking them to resign

- The TUC president called for a return to regional governments, as he stated that state governments had failed in their responsibilities

- He noted that President Buhari had approved bailout funds and budget support funding to enable states to settle workers salaries, to no avail

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on Saturday, February 24, advised state governors who could not address workers problems to resign, NAN reports.

The TUC president, Bobboi Kaigama, said in Lagos that workers could no longer vouch for state governments that non-payment of salaries was as a result of lack of funds.

READ ALSO: US decision to move embassy to Jerusalem in May is extremely worrying - Turkey

NAIJ.com gathers that he said that the non-payment could be due to corruption.

Kaigama made the TUCs views known while addressing journalists after the unions National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

He said that it was only the Lagos state Government that had been regularly paying workers salaries and allowances.

All the other states have one issue or the other in terms of salaries or benefits of their workers.

You will discover that it is 13 months arrears of gratuities or pensions that have not been paid.

In some cases, it is the contributory pension deductions that have not been remitted or promotions arrears and death benefits not been paid, he said.

He advocated a return to regional government, saying that state governments were failing in their responsibilities.

The trust we have in state government has eroded.

If it is for the purposes of payment of salaries and infrastructure development such as provision of health facilities, roads, rail transportation and others, we are better off with regional government, Kaigama said.

The union leader noted that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved bailout funds and budget support funding to enable states to settle workers salaries, to no avail.

Kaigama said that accountability in Nigeria was weak, and called for the strengthening of anti-graft agencies.

On national minimum wage, Kaigama said that state governments should be determined to pay the wage when approved.

He also called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the power sector due to its deteriorating condition.

No nation can develop without power, he said.

The labour leader urged the government to arrest and prosecute killers of innocent Nigerians in the guise of herdsmen and militia in different parts of the country.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that the 36 governors of Nigeria arrived at a decision to offset backlog of salaries and arrears of their workers as soon as a second tranche of funds from the Paris Club loan refund is released.

The decision came amidst rumours that the governors have squandered the first batch of Paris Club loan given to them to pay workers arrears by the federal government.

In a statement issued by Abulrazque Barkindo, spokesman of the forum, the governors said they had resolved to offset all backlog of salaries and allowances owed their workers as soon as the second tranche of the fund was released.

60-year-old LAWMA worker laments over unpaid salary - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Adamawa traditional ruler commends Buharis efforts at advancing road projects

- President Buhari has been commended for his efforts in road project

- Alhaji Umaru Sanda, the Gangwari of Ganye chiefdom in Adamawa disclosed this

- Sanda also lauded the National Assembly for capturing the contract for the rehabilitation of the Ganye-Jada-Mayo-Belwa road in the 2018 budget proposal

The Gangwari of Ganye Chiefdom in Adamawa, Alhaji Umaru Sanda, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari s efforts at making significant in-roads in advancing road projects across the country in 2018.

Speaking at the turbaning of chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, as the Gangwi of Ganye, Sanda also lauded the National Assembly for capturing the contract for the rehabilitation of the Ganye-Jada-Mayo-Belwa road in the 2018 budget proposal.

Sanda said Namdas was the first to be conferred with the tittle Gangwi of Ganye, worthy ambassador  because of his numerous contributions to the development of the area and youth empowerment programmes.

The traditional ruler urged Namdas to sustain the tempo assuring him of the people s support.

Responding, Namdas who represents Ganye/Jada/Toungo/Mayo-Belwa Federal Constituency, thanked the traditional ruler and the people for the honour and pledged to continue to do more.

READ ALSO: God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

Namdas also thanked the leadership of the National Assembly particularly Speaker Yakubu Dogara, for the support accorded him in the chamber to effectively represent his people.

In his remarks, Dogara, described Namdas as reliable and one of the best hands in the house.

Dogara urged the people of Ganye to ensure that Namdas returns to the House in 2019.

Also speaking, Governor Muhammadu Bindow of Adamawa described Namdas as a worthy ambassador of Adamawa.

NAN reports that after the turbaning, the Gangwi centre constructed by Namdas for skills acquisition training for youths in the constituency was inaugurated.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the National Economic Council Committee (NEC) on farmers and herdsmen clashes on Saturday, February 24, visited Zamfara on a fact-finding mission over security challenges in the state.

The committee was led by its chairman, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state.

Speaking during the courtesy visit at government house Gusau, Umahi said: We are in Zamfara today for fact finding over the recent security challenges faced by the state.

Victims of Herdsmen killing buried in Benue State on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state on Saturday, February 24, met with the former head of state, Yakubu Gowon in the state.

NAIJ.com gathered that Shettima, who was excited played host to the ex-head of state, said he was honoured to receive and appreciate him for standing by Nigeria and for one Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Anyone joining OBJ to 'fight' Buhari does so at their own risk - AnnKio Briggs

He said: "This morning, I was privileged to host Former Head of State of Nigeria Gen. Yakubu Gowon, the Chairman of Nigeria Prays group who is in Maiduguri for the Nigeria Prays Northeast Zonal Triumph Rally.

"Our father, Gen. Gowon (retired but not tired) is an international icon and a living legend. He is an epitome of humility, peace and unity.

Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

"I am honored to host him and I appreciate him for standing by Nigeria and for one Nigeria.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Yakubu Gowon, former head of state on Tuesday, December 12, said he chose not to make Jos Nigerias capital because he didnt want to be accused of parochialism and favouritism.

Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

It was reported that Gowon made this known on Tuesday, December 12, at the 26th anniversary exhibition and commemoration of the movement of the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja.

Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

According to him, ''One of the places I saw that attracted me was somewhere in Plateau, those of you who know the place, especially close to Jos forest, will agree that the area is beautiful and I thought that place was beautiful for the capital city.

Governor Kashim Shettima meets former head of state Yakubu Gowon

Do you prefer a restructuring of Nigeria or should we just split-up? - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Troops score major victory against Boko Haram insurgents, recover sophisticated arms (photos)

- The ongoing military operation against Boko Haram insurgents by troops of Operation Lafiya Dole has recorded some progress

- The troops which are currently on Operation Punch II were able to neutralise some Boko Haram terrorists and seize some sophisticated ammunition

- However, 2 soldiers were injured and were said to be receiving treatment

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole currently on Operation Deep Punch II which is aimed at clearance of the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists within Sambisa forest and Lake Chad basin general area, have recovered some ammunition after some suspected Boko Haram insurgents tried to escape.

This was contained in a statement released by Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, the deputy director, public relations, theatre command Operation Lafiya Dole.

NAIJ.com noted that days ago, on Thursday February 28, suspected Boko Haram terrorists attempting to escape through one of the blocking positions of the troops, paid dearly some of them were neutralised.

READ ALSO: Yobe schoolgirl abduction: 15-year-old escapee narrates her brave escape

It was learnt that in an ambush that lasted for less than 20 minutes near Sabil Huda, the troops recovered a G3 Rifle magazine, 1 Life jacket, a light machine gun metal link, 4 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition, 4 rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) ammunition and 3 rounds of 7.62mm (Special) ammunition. Unfortunately, 2 soldiers were injured in the process.

The statement read: "They have since been evacuated by the Nigerian Air Force and are responding to treatment.

"Buoyed with the success and information obtained, the troops yesterday Friday 23rd February 2018, embarked on offensive operations on suspected Boko Haram terrorists hideout ahead of Camp Zairo within Sambisa forest. Unfortunately however, they encountered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that affected one of their armoured fighting vehicles.

Nigerian troops neutralised some Boko Haram insurgents and recovered some arms (Photo credit: Facebook, SK Usman)

"Undeterred, they continued with the offensive action in which they cleared suspected Boko Haram terrorists hideout around Parisu. During the clearance, they also neutralized 5 Boko Haram terrorists and wounded several others. The troops recovered a 122 millimetre gun mounted on a truck that also has an anti-aircraft gun on it, 1 rocket propelled grenade, 1 Grenade Revolver, 7 mortar bombs and other assorted weapons.

"While advancing, the troops also encountered and recovered 2 Toyota Hilux vehicles, 3 power generating sets, 2 motorcycles, additional mortar bombs, gas cylinders and the Boko Haram terrorists metal fabrication factory replete with varying machines for welding and making IEDs.

"While on the offensive in other parts, the troops of 151 Battalion in conjunction with 7 Division Support Group also embarked on clearance offensive against Boko Haram terrorists hideouts around Frigi crossing point and Izza general area.

"The gallant troops discovered and destroyed 9 Boko Haram terrorists hideouts. Although the number of Boko Haram terrorists neutralized could not be ascertained, it is believed to be quite sizeable, while one of their leaders was captured."

According to the statement, an old man and 3 elderly women were rescued in one of the hideouts.

The statement added: "The troops also recovered 1 motorcycle with 10 bicycle tyres, a bicycle, 3 Boko Haram flags, 1 solar panel, 5 drums of Guinea corn, 2 medium size mattresses, 2 grinding machines, 3 bags of metal scraps, 2 motorcycle tyres and 2 underground food storages. They also recovered one AK-47 rifle magazine, 1 dummy rifle, a round of 12.7mm ammunition, 12 empty cases of 7.62mm ammunition, 2 bicycles, large quantity of IED making materials and a tool box. The Air Task Force of Operation Lafiya Dole provided air cover for the land troops throughout the conduct of the operations."

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole neutralised some Boko Haram terrorists and recovered some arms. (Photo credit: Facebook, SK Usman)

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that troops of Operation Lafiya Dole made tremendous progress in the on-going clearance operations nicknamed Operation Deep Punch II.

According to a statement by the director, army public relations, Brigadier-General Sani Kukasheka Usman, on Tuesday, January 30, the advancing troops had contact with Boko Haram terrorists and engagement ensued.

During the encounter, they were said to have recovered an Eagle Main Battle Tank (EMBT), 1 VBL, 1 AK-47 rifle, a police teargas rifle, religious books, many gas cylinder and bags of fertilizer, ostensibly for Improvised Explosives Devices making.

Boko Haram abducted my husband and the Govt forgot about him - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Osinbajo-led committee moves to find solution to security problems in the country

- Osinbajo-led committee on farmers, herders clashes is to interact with the government and major stakeholders in Zamfara state

- Abdulaziz Yari commends the federal government for establishing the committee

- Zamfara state government disburses over N200 million to families of victims of the recent gunmen attack in the state

The National Economic Council Committee (NEC) on farmers and herdsmen clashes on Saturday, February 24, visited Zamfara on a fact-finding mission over security challenges in the state.

The committee was led by its chairman, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Speaking during the courtesy visit at government house Gusau, Umahi said: We are in Zamfara today for fact finding over the recent security challenges faced by the state.

He said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo constituted the committee on behalf of the federal government.

READ ALSO: Police parade Rivers pastor for killing pregnant mistress, two others to conceal love affair

Umahi said the committee is expected to interact with the government and major stakeholders in the state.

According to him, the aim is to find solutions to the security problems in the state and country at large.

The committee since inception have been working hand in hand with the governors forum to address security challenges in the country.

We have earlier visited Benue, Nasarawa,Taraba and Adamawa and we have recorded great successes during the visits.

We are in Zamfara today and from what we have seen we are expecting good outcome from the people of the state.

I am using this opportunity to call on Nigerians irrespective of our differences to continue to cooperate with the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to improve security of the country, he said.

Responding, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, who described the visit as timely, commended the federal government for establishing the committee.

Yari said the state government would support and cooperate with the committee to end security challenges in the state and country at large.

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The committee also met with the major security stakehokders in the state.

Meanwhile, the Zamfara state government has reportedly disbursed over N200 million to families of victims of the recent gunmen attacks in some communities of the state.

The speaker of the state House of Assembly, Sanusi Rikiji, disclosed this on Thursday, February 22, in Zurmi, while presenting state governments assistance to the families of the deceased and victims of the recent gunmen attack at Birane Village in Zurmi local government area of the state.

Rikiji, who is the chairman of the states Damage, Assessment and Relief Committee, noted that over N200 million had been disbursed to families of the deceased and those who lost their properties in the recent gunmen attacks in Shinkafi, Bakura, Maradun Talata-Mafara and Zurmi local government areas.

Victims of Herdsmen killing buried in Benue State on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Anyone joining OBJ to 'fight' Buhari does so at their own risk - AnnKio Briggs

- Niger Delta activist, Annkio-Briggs Briggs, has lambasted former president Olusegun Obasanjo over comments on Buhari

- She said that anyone joining OBJ to 'fight' Buhari does so at their own risk

- AnnKio Briggs noted that Obasanjo supported former president Goodlucj Jonathan for selfish interest

Niger Delta activist and former minister for environment, AnnKio Briggs has warned that any one joining former President Olusegun Obasanjo to fight President Muhammadu Buhari, does so at his or her own risk.

Vanguard reports that Annkio-Briggs Briggs in a statement on Friday, February 23, also noted that contrary to claims in some quarters that former President Goodluck Jonathan did a lot for the Ijaw nation including ensuring the election of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo only did so for his selfish reasons.

READ ALSO: Confusion as INEC issues Gov Bello another voters card

NAIJ.com gathered that taking a swipe on Governor Seriake Dickson for inviting Obasanjo to Bayelsa in commemoration of the governors 6th anniversary, she said: His (Obasanjo) visit confirms that Ijaw politicians are in politics for themselves and not Ijaw nation.

Briggs while mourning those who lost their lives during the 1999 Odi massacre, said: Obasanjo should have been taken to Odi before he leaves Bayelsa to enable those who survived the Odi massacre confer on him a traditional title.

Describing the visit of the former president as dancing on the graves of the people killed by the army."

She said: May the over 4000 innocent Odi women, men, old and young, youths and children who were shelled, bombed, drowned, and murdered by Olusegun Obasanjo through the Nigeria Army haunt him.

He did not pick Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Vice President for the love of Ijaw or Niger Delta people, he did not support him in 2011 for love of Ijaw or Niger Delta people, but did so for his own selfish reasons, and when Jonathan did not be please him as president, he turned against him.

Reacting to Obasanjos advice to President Buhari not to run for second term, Briggs said: He is getting set to fight Buhari and he is pretending to be a friend of Ijaw and Niger Delta people.

Anyone who joins Obasanjo to fight Buhari is doing so at his or her own risk, Ijaw people will not vote for Buhari and we dont need Obasanjo to tell us that.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that the Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA) described former President Olusegun Obasanjos Coalition for New Nigeria (CNM) as a selfish agenda created to cause disunity among Nigerians.

2019 re-election bid: Should President Buhari heed Obasanjo's advice? - on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | NSCDC arrests self-confessed Boko Haram suspect in Edo

- One Sani who confessed to be a member of Boko Haram has handed over to DSS in Edo state

- The commandant of the NSCDC Makinde Ayinla said he arrested suspect after he was spotted twice loitering between 2 am and 4 am

- Ayinla said the suspect disclosed that it's only God can lead anybody to his groups hideout

The Edo command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) confirmed the arrest of a self-confessed Boko Haram suspect.

According to the commandant of the NSCDC Makinde Ayinla, the suspect who gave his name as Sani was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, February 24, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Ayinla said: ''Our men deployed to guard the premises of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), arrested suspect after he was spotted twice loitering between 2 am and 4 am. Nobody knew how he gained entry into the premises.''

READ ALSO: God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

He said that during interrogation, Sani claimed to be a member of the boko haram group.

Ayinla also said that Sani confessed to being in a group that speacilises in robbery, kidnapping, murder and selling of human parts.

The commandant said that Sani confessed that his group operate with sophisticated weapons.

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Ayinla said that when asked if Sani can lead men of the corps to his groups hideout, he said the suspect said: ''only God can lead any person there.''

The commandant said the suspect had been handed over to the state command of the Directorate of State Services (DSS).

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported one of the Yobe schoolgirls that escaped being captured by Boko Haram insurgents when her school, Government Girls Science and Technical College, was stormed by the terrorists has recalled the event of that fateful day.

Amina Mallam Usman, who is only 15-year old displayed courage and fighting spirit on Monday, February 19, during the invasion by the insurgents.

Amina said that the grace of God was responsible for her escape on that fateful day, praying that God protects her friends and mates and guide them back home.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Governors who cant pay workers should resign  TUC

Lagos  The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) on Saturday advised state governors who could not address workers problems to resign.

SOME STATE GOVERNORS

The TUC President, Mr Bobboi Kaigama, said in Lagos that workers could no longer vouch for state governments that non-payment of salaries was as a result of lack of funds.

He said that the non-payment could be due to corruption.

Kaigama made the TUCs views known while addressing journalists after the unions National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

He said that it was only the Lagos State Government that had been regularly paying workers salaries and allowances.

All the other states have one issue or the other in terms of salaries or benefits of their workers.

 You will discover that it is 13 months arrears of gratuities or pensions that have not been paid.

In some cases, it is the contributory pension deductions that have not been remitted or promotions arrears and death benefits not been paid, he said.

He advocated a return to regional government, saying that state governments were failing in their responsibilities.

The trust we have in state government has eroded.

If it is for the purposes of payment of salaries and infrastructure development such as provision of health facilities, roads, rail transportation and others, we are better off with regional government, Kaigama said, he said.

The union leader noted that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved bailout funds and budget support funding to enable states to settle workers salaries, to no avail.

Kaigama said that accountability in Nigeria was weak, and called for the strengthening of anti-graft agencies.

On national minimum wage, Kaigama said that state governments should be determined to pay the wage when approved.

He also called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the power sector due to its deteriorating condition.

No nation can develop without power, he said.

The labour leader urged the government to arrest and prosecute killers of innocent Nigerians in the guise of herdsmen and militia in different parts of the country. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Nothing can stop President Buharis reelection - Ondo state governor insists

- Governor Rotimi Akeredolu says Ondo state is satisfied with the numerous achievements of the Buhari administration

- He states that the Buhari/ Osibanjo presidential campaign office will be opened in the state capital very soon

- Governor Yahaya Bello speaks on the second term plans of President Muhammadu Buhari

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state has insisted that nothing can stop President Muhammadu Buhari from seeking a second term in office.

Akeredolu made the statement on Saturday, February 24, at a unification rally held in Akure as part of his one year anniversary in office, Vanguard reports.

Akeredolu, who endorsed the president for second term, said Ondo state was satisfied with the numerous achievement of the Buhari administration and therefore will support his second term ambition.

READ ALSO: God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

Ondo state is satisfied with the achievement of our President and we want this to continue and nothing can stop this, he said.

The governor said that the Buhari/ Osibanjo presidential campaign office will be opened in the state capital very soon. He told the people of Ondo state that they had not seen anything yet in terms of achievement.

Also president at the occasion was the national chairman of the party John Oyegun, Edo state governor Godwin Obaseki and the his Ogun state counterpart Ibikunle Amosun and former Ekiti state governor Kayode Fayemi.

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Meanwhile, the governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari wants more Nigerians to speak, while he is still consulting, before deciding if to seek re-election in 2019, Vanguard reports.

The governor made the disclosure in a chat with newsmen at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, on Thursday, February 23.

NAIJ.com gathers that Bello stated that the president disclosed the information to All Progressives Congress (APC) governors.

The next President of Nigeria. Who will win the 2019 elections? on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Former head of state, Yakubu Gowon calls for peace, unity in Nigeria

- General Yakubu Gowon has once again called for peace in Nigeria

- The former head of state said prayers were imperative to promote unity and harmonious coexistence as well as address the problems of the country

- He also urged Nigerians to shun violence and acts capable of disrupting peace and stability

Former head of state, General Yakubu Gowon has reiterated his call on Nigerians to pray for peace, unity and prosperity of the country.

Gowon made the call on Saturday, February 24, during a two-day National Prayer Rally organised under the aegis of Nigeria Prays, at the Government House, Maiduguri.

He noted that such prayers were imperative to promote unity and harmonious coexistence as well as address the nagging social and economic problems bedeviling the country.

READ ALSO:God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

He also admonished Nigerians to shun violence and acts capable of disrupting peace and stability in the country.

The former head of state lauded the Federal and State Governments efforts to restore peace and address the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast region.

Gowon further commended the Borno Government over its rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement programmes designed to provide decent residential homes, schools, clinics, religious places of worship and other public structures.

He said: The governors commitment to the restoration of peace is acknowledged by Nigerians. On behalf of Christians community, I commend you and associate with your achievements.

In his remarks, Governor Kashim Shettima said that the people of the state had demonstrated high level of religious tolerance and harmonious coexistence in view of its diverse cultures and beliefs.

Shettima commended Gowon for his patriotism and selfless service to the unity and progress of the nation.

Gowon worked for Nigeria without enriching himself and making sure that the word of God remains his watch word in the unification of the country.

We are one people and must remain one; as leaders, we must work to make our people unite for the betterment of all, he said.

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According to him, the state government has been providing relief materials to the people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency to assuage their sufferings.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had earlier reported that Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state on Saturday, February 24, met with the former head of state, Yakubu Gowon in the state.

NAIJ.com gathered that Shettima, who was excited played host to the ex-head of state, said he was honoured to receive and appreciate him for standing by Nigeria and for one Nigeria.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Troops capture Boko Haram commander, recover 1 AK-47 rifle magazine and others in Borno

- Deputy director, army public relations of operation Lafiya Dole, Onyeama Nwachukwu said troops have killed and captured Boko Haram commander

- Nwachukwu also said the army recovered one AK-47 Rifle Magazine, 1 dummy rifle, a round of 12.7mm ammunition among others

- He, however, regretted that two soldiers were injured in the process; they had been evacuated by the Nigerian Air Force and are responding to treatment

Troops in Borno killed five Boko Haram insurgents and captured a top commander of the group in the ongoing operation in Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad basin.

Deputy director, army public relations of operation Lafiya Dole, Onyeama Nwachukwu, in a statement in Maiduguri, said troops also rescued three civilians, recovered vehicles and high calibre ammunition in various operations in the past two days.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nwachukwu said the troops engaged and neutralised a number of fleeing insurgents while attempting to escape the military blocking position in one of the cleared enclaves Sabil-Huda, deep in Sambisa Forest.

READ ALSO: God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

He said that the troops also recovered one G-III rifle magazine, one life jacket, a light Machine Gun metal link, four rounds of Anti-Aircraft ammunition, four rounds of 7.62mm (NATO) ammunition and three rounds of 7.62mm (Special) ammunition.

According to him, ''Unfortunately, two soldiers were injured in the process; they had been evacuated by the Nigerian Air Force and are responding to treatment.''

Nwachukwu said that the troops on Friday launched offensive targeting a terrorists hideouts up CAMP ZAIRO, and neutralized a number of insurgents in spite of initial damaged caused to their armoured fighting vehicle by improvise explosive device planted beneath the ground.

He said that the troops killed five insurgents; several others wounded and recovered ammunition at a hideout in Parisu, Sambisa Forest.

Nwachukwu disclosed that troops of 151 Battalion in conjunction with 7 Division Support Group had also cleared nine terrorists hideouts along Frigi-Izza area.

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The director added that the troops also recovered one motorcycle, two bicycles, 10 bicycle tyres, one bicycle, three Boko Haram flags, a solar panel, five drums filled with grain, two mattresses, two grinding machines, three bags of metal scraps, two motorcycle tyres and two underground grain silos.

Also recovered are one AK-47 Rifle Magazine, 1 dummy rifle, a round of 12.7mm ammunition, 12 empty cases of 7.62mm ammunition, assorted IED materials and a tool box.

According to him, the Air Task Force of Operation LAFIYA DOLE provided air cover for the land troops in the conduct of the operations.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents again reportedly killed many people and abducted several others on Tuesday, January 15, in a fresh attack on Pallam community in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa.

The attack came barely a week after the terrorists launched a similar attack on neighbouring Wanu, Kamale and Kafin Hausa communities of Michika and Madagali areas.

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Loading...Home | News | General | How Shehu Shagari expelled one million Ghanaians from Nigeria

Ghana must go: in 1983 the Nigerian government ordered more than a million Ghanaian migrants to leave the country within just a few weeks. One of those who took part in the exodus recounts his ordeal.

Shehu Shagari said Ghana must go. This led to the epic and tragic exodus. Many lost their lives in that ordeal.

It was late January 1983, and President Shehu Shagari has suddenly announced that all foreigners without the right paperwork had just weeks to leave the country. Almost all of them were West African, the majority of them were from Ghana.

The Nigerian authority said in an official statement: If they dont leave they should be arrested and tried and sent back to their homes. Illegal immigrants, in fact, under normal circumstances, should not be given any notice whatsoever."

A Ghanaian, Charles Ekwere was working as an assistant sales manager for a chemical firm in Lagos. But technically he was an illegal immigrant.

He recalled: Someone told me that there was a deadline for us to leave. And that Nigerians had been empowered to do anything to any alien in the country. We had nowhere to hide in Nigeria because wherever youre staying you are staying with Nigerians. So that made everyone scared.

READ ALSO: Abachas Personal Doctor Sheds Light On How He Died

Across Nigeria up to two million migrants heard these warnings. They packed what they could into trucks, cars, pick-ups and taxis, and tried to get out of the country. The main route home to Ghana was west through the tiny neighbouring states of Benin and Togo.

They packed what they could into trucks, cars, pick-ups and taxis, and tried to get out of the country.

Charles and his friends hired a car and headed to the border. It was only when they left Lagos they realised the scale of the exodus.

He said: When we hit the main road, there we could see how serious it was; the trucks loaded with items and people, thousands of thousands of vehicles. Thousands and thousands of people, they were uncountable.

READ ALSO: Witness Of MKO Abiolas Death Reveals Suspicious Circumstances

When we were about to reach Benin, about two kilometres to the border people had been camping there on both sides of the road. Some had no water. And some had stayed there for so long that they had run out of money.

Many families were stranded; overladen lorries, cars or taxies had brought them this far, but now they camped out in the hope of being able to complete their journey home.

Among the exiles at least a million were Ghanaians.

The majority of the Ghanaian migrants were drawn to Nigeria during the oil boom of the seventies. But by 1983 the Nigerian economy was suffering. And it was an election year. Nigerian politicians hoped the expulsion would prove popular. Those with longer memories remembered that Ghana had expelled Nigerian migrants in 1969. But the scale this time was unprecedented.

READ ALSO: REVEALED! Late MKO Abiolas Personal Doctors Reveals Shocking New Details About His Death

Charles continued: Because of traffic the cars had piled up bumper to bumper. During the night people had their generators and transistors on and there was music and so on. The people set up music of Bob Marley titled Exodus, movement of Jah people."

But once in Benin, there were not many ways out. Those who had managed to reach Benin were besieging the main port at Cotonou in the hope of catching a boat to Ghana. The queue was several miles long.

There was a stampede during the boarding of the ship, and Charless friend received a serious fracture.

Ghanas leader, Jerry Rawlings, didn't want to see a million Ghanaians either - and he closed the border.

The main problem was that following an attempted coup the previous year, Ghanas leader, Jerry Rawlings, had closed the main land crossing with Togo and so, to avoid being host to a sudden influx of over a million migrants, Togo, in turn, shut its border with Benin. That left the Ghanaian refugees stuck again.

Tens of thousands of refugees, mostly Ghanaians, were massed at the border of the two tiny African states of Benin and Togo. The road home to Ghana had come to a standstill, hopelessly clogged with vehicles and a mass of refugees, while the frontier remained temporarily closed.

READ ALSO: The sad story of a man who designed Nigerias flag

Finally, Ghana relented and opened its border. Togo followed suit.

Within minutes of the frontier reopening, there was chaos. Many families had been waiting ten days to walk the fifty yards from Benin into Togo.

Charles added: When we reached the borders, all the people got down. People had a lot of personal belongings.

A lot of people blamed government. You know, when people are repatriating and you still close the border; some of them have been there for two months and over.

But once we reached Ghana I remember we had to go and look for coconut, because that was the only available food we could find at the border towns. At the border towns the things were very expensive.

"Some returning refugees were knocked off the back of packed lorries. We had these overhead bridges. You could see on top of the bridges some blood scattered all over. Many ones were coming during the night. The trucks were filled with personal belongings, so there were sittings at the edges of the trucks and some of them would be hit in the head against the overhead bridges. A lot of people died on their road to Ghana.

There had been real fears that Ghana, whose population was then around 12 million, could not cope with such an influx. Its economy was already in crisis. There were shortages. There were bush-fires and drought, and yet, across the country the refugees were reabsorbed by their communities.

Charles returned to his fathers village. He recalled: It was a very warm welcome. They were relieved. When I crossed Ghanas border I swore to myself I wont get back to Nigeria. Even if I have to travel it wont be Nigeria.

But within a year tens of thousands had returned to Nigeria. And there was another, much smaller round of expulsions two years later. The relations between the two countries did finally improve. Today there remains a small everyday reminder of the exodus called 'Ghana must go'.

'Ghana must go' is the name given to the huge cheap chequered bags used by Ghanaian refugees more than thirty years ago which are still very popular today.

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Submit your pump action riffles for verification or be prosecuted - Lagos police tell gun owners

- The Lagos state police command begins verification and re-validation of pump action guns

- It says firearms found in the possession of anybody who fails to partake in the verification exercise will be deemed illegitimate

- State police commissioners have been ordered by IGP Ibrahim Idris to commence disarmament and recovery of prohibited firearms

Individuals who own pump action firearm and other guns have been given an ultimatum by the Lagos state police command to submit their arms, licences for verification and re-validation within two weeks.

Vanguard reports that the ultimatum which was disclosed in a statement by the spokesperson for the command, SP Chike Oti, on Saturday, February 24, noted that firearms found in the possession of anybody who fails to partake in the exercise will be deemed as illegitimate.

It stated that such individual or group will be arrested and charged for unlawful possession of firearms in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the federation.

READ ALSO: Police parade Rivers pastor for killing pregnant mistress, two others to conceal love affair

The command said: Those issued with licence to bear pump action firearm or other repeating firearm operated by a slide action mechanism, by the Lagos State Police Command Firearms Registry(D7), are to submit their weapons and Licences to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the closest Police Station for verification, confirmation and revalidation.

The move is to enable the command update its data base with information about the owners, licences, and state of the firearms.

 The owners of these firearms types are given two weeks grace period from the date of this publication(Feb. 24) to ready themselves for the exercise which will last till March 29.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, enjoins all licenced gun owners to take advantage of this revalidation programme as firearms found in the possession of anybody or group who did not participate in the exercise would be deemed as illegitimate.

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Such an individual or group would be arrested and charged for unlawful possession of firearm(s) in accordance with the provisions of Prohibited Firearms Act 2004, Laws of the Federation."

Meanwhile, the inspector-general of police, Ibrahim Idris, has set up a task force to enforce the ban on illegal firearms.

In a statement on Friday, February 23, the police chief ordered state commissioners of police to commence the simultaneous retrieval of banned firearms from vigilante and militias.

It also gave a list of the nine firearms that have been prohibited. The police called on the citizens to support them as they work towards making the nation safe.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Gowon reiterates call for peace, unity in Nigeria

Maiduguri  Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon has reiterated his call on Nigerians to pray for peace, unity and prosperity of the country.

General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd)

Gowon made the call on Saturday during a two-day National Prayer Rally organised under the aegis of Nigeria Prays, at the Government House, Maiduguri.

He noted that such prayers were imperative to promote unity and harmonious coexistence as well as address the nagging social and economic problems bedeviling the country.

He also admonished Nigerians to shun violence and acts capable of disrupting peace and stability in the country.

The former head of state lauded the Federal and State Governments efforts to restore peace and address the humanitarian crisis caused by Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast region.

Gowon further commended the Borno Government over its rehabilitation, reconstruction and resettlement programmes designed to provide decent residential homes, schools, clinics, religious places of worship and other public structures.

He said: the governors commitment to the restoration of peace is acknowledged by Nigerians. On behalf of Christians community, I commend you and associate with your achievements.

In his remarks, Gov. Kashim Shettima said that the people of the state had demonstrated high level of religious tolerance and harmonious coexistence in view of its diverse cultures and beliefs.

Shettima commended Gowon for his patriotism and selfless service to the unity and progress of the nation.

Gowon worked for Nigeria without enriching himself and making sure that the word of God remains his watch word in the unification of the country.

We are one people and must remain one; as leaders, we must work to make our people unite for the betterment of all, he said.

According to him, the state government has been providing relief materials to the people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency to assuage their sufferings. (NAN)

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Loading...Home | News | General | Obaseki congratulates Akubeze on his election as Catholic Bishops President

Governor of Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has congratulated the Archbishop of Archdiocese of Benin, Augustine Akubeze on his election as the new President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN).

Godwin Obaseki

Archbishop Akubeze takes over from Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, who has served for two terms of three years each.

In a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr Crusoe Osagie, the governor said that the election of Archbishop Akubeze was well-deserved and speaks to the leadership prowess he has displayed in leading the Archdiocese of Benin.

According to him, We are, indeed, elated at the election of Archbishop Akubeze, who has shown over time, his support for a prosperous Nigeria through his engagement with the state governments efforts to address societal ills as well as his commitment to the course of the common man.

It is safe to say that Archbishop Akubeze will provide for the CBCN, pragmatic leadership that will swell the fold of Catholic faithful, propagate the course of Christianity and contribute to edifying the Christian community in Nigeria to engender national development.

The news gladdens my heart as it does to many Catholic faithful in Archdiocese of Benin. The state government has, at different times, sought the input of Archbishop Akubeze in religious matters and his insights were commendable. It is heartwarming to know that the Archbishop will be providing such insight at a broader level for our nations growth, the governor said.

Obaseki commended the CBCN for their strategic intervention in national issues, urging them not to relent in efforts to provide direction to the political leadership of the country.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Please be fair to us, Miyetti Allah begs Nigerians

- Nigerians have been urged to be fair to herdsmen by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria

- The group said herdsmen were only looking for greener pastures in the southern and middle belt regions

- It also urged Nigerians to disregard rumours that their members were planning coordinated attacks on Enugu and Anambra states

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has pleaded with Nigerians to stop passing unfair and rash judgements against them and the entire herdsmen in Nigeria.

The group said herdsmen were only looking for greener pastures in the southern and middle belt regions of the country.

READ ALSO: God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

Alhaji Gidado Sadiqu, the southeast zonal chairman of MACBAN said this during the groups zonal meeting in Enugu, on Saturday, February 24. He also urged the public to disregard rumours making the rounds that their members were planning coordinated attacks on Enugu and Anambra states.

Sadiqu said they are pained that any sight of a Fulani sends shivers down the spines of community members, Vanguard reports.

MACBAN also warned some of its members who were in the habit of destroying farm crops in a particular state, only to relocate to another state.

It urged such members to desist from the act and urged its leaders in different areas to report such cases to herdsmen/farmers committees set up in different states in the zone.

Going further, the body also requested that any farmer who unlawfully kills a cow should be made to pay for it same as herdsmen who destroy farmlands.

We also advise our members to participate actively during the coming election by obtaining PVC.This will bring them close to their host to reduce suspicion and hatred.

We urge our members to be submit to the committees that were constituted by the government to mitigate menace that is coming from the Fulanis or their hosts, said Sadiqu.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto appealed to Nigerians to stop tagging members of other ethnic groups as criminals.

The monarch made his comments at a book launch in honour of Prof Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Wednesday, February 21.

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Loading...Home | News | General | List of missing 105 Dapchi school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Yobe state

- 105 students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Yobe state are still missing according to reports

- Yobe government had apologised for claiming that some of the abducted school girls had been rescued

- The government had solicited for more patience from Nigerians

The names of missing students of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Yobe state, after an attack by the Boko Haram terrorists group on Monday, February 19, has been released.

In total, 105 students are said to be still missing according to a report published by Vanguard Newspaper on Saturday, February 24.

The Yobe government had on Thursday, February 22, apologised for claiming that some of the abducted school girls at Government Girls College Dapchi had been rescued.

READ ALSO: Be fair to us, Miyetti Allah begs Nigerians

Abdullahi Bego, director-general, press affairs to Yobe governor, gave the apology over the statement, which turned out to be untrue.

We issued the statement on the basis of information provided by one of the security agencies that is involved in the fight against Boko Haram and which we had no reason to doubt.

We have now established that the information we relied on to make the statement was not credible. The Yobe State Government apologises for that.

The statement said Gaidam solicited for more patience as government and security agencies at all levels continued the work to address the unfortunate situation.

1. Fatima Bashir

2. Aisha Kachalla

3. Zainab Abubakar

4. Falmata Wakil

5. Fatima Isa

6. Fatima Musa

7. Aisha Usman

8. Aisha Adamu

9. Fatima Isa

10. Hauwa A. Mohammed Idriss

11. Maryam Mohammed

12. Fatima Mohammed II

13. Hauwa Salisu

14. Hassana Gambo

15. Aisha Adamu

16. Adama Garba

17. Zara Grema

18. Maryam Daamkontoma

19. Zainab Bama

20. Fatsuma Abdullahi

21. Fatima Yahaya Tarbutu

22. Amina Yahaya Tarbutu

23. Amina Adamu

24. Hajara Ali

25. Fatima Abdullahi

26. Fatsuma Ali

27. ZaraU Mohammed

28. Salamatu Garba

29. Falmata Alh. Inuwa

30. Falmata Alh. Ali

31. Aisha B. Danjuma

32. Maryam Bashir

33. Maryam Aliyu Mabu

34. Fatima Modu Bamba

35. Aisha Modu Bamba

36. Hafsat Haruna

37. Rabi Alh. Nasiru

38. Hadiza MohD

39. Fatima Aji Hassan

40. Falmata Wakil

41. Aisha Wakil

42. Falmata A. Audu

43. Aisha Maina

44. Aisha Mohammed

45. Aisha Mamuda

46. Name missing on list

47.Zainab Usman

48. Hadiza Mohammed Taiduma

49. Maryam Ibrahim

50. Fatima M. Gira

51. Hafsat Ibrahim Gira

52. Maryam Ibrahim

53. Zara Tijjani

54. Amina Haruna

55. Fatima Adamu

56. Khadija Mai Sale

57. Khadija Ali

58. Habiba Musa Jakana

59 Fatima Bukar

60. Hajara Gidado

61. Maryam Basiru

62. Fatima Usman

63. Maryam Ibrahim

64. Leah Sherubu

65. Aisha Alh. Deri

66. Fatima Hassan Mustapha

67. Zainab Manu

68. Zara Tijjani

69. Zainab Bukar Abba

70. Hauwa Saidu Abubakar

71. Karima Inusa

72. Amina A. Abubakar

73. Yakura Sani

74. Rabi Yahaya Tela

75. Hajara Yahaya Tela

76. Marya Mustapha

77. Aisha Abdullahi

78. Maryam Adamu Mohammed

79. Bintu Usman

80. Fatsuma Mohammed

81. Salamatu Isiyaku

82. Hauwa Lawan

83. Aisha B. Danjuma

84. Aisha MohD Jakusko

85. Hauwa Bulama

86. Fatima Abubakar Jambo

87. Walida Adamu

88. Fanna Mohammed

89. Aisha M. Bukar

90. Maryam Usman

91. Aisha Abba Aji

92. Maryam Usman

93. Maimuna A. Hassan

94. Zara Musa

95. Maryam Mohammed Kaku

96. Khadija Suleiman

97. Habiba Nuhu Dan Inu

98. Fatima Isiyaku Aliyu

99. Sahura Jibir Mohammed

100. Khadija Grema Dabuwa

101. Zara Grema Dabuwa

102. Zara Mohammed Lawan

103. Fatima Mohammed

104. Fati Modu Aisami

105. Fatsuma Alli

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had earlier reported that one of the Yobe schoolgirls who escaped being captured by Boko Haram insurgents when her school, Government Girls Science and Technical College, was stormed by the terrorists, recalled the event of that fateful day.

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NAIJ.com gathered that 15-year old Amina Mallam Usman, displayed courage and fighting spirit on Monday, February 19, during the invasion by the insurgents.

Amina said that the grace of God was responsible for her escape on that fateful day, praying that God protects her friends and mates and guide them back home.

Survivors of Boko Haram - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | How my government is working to reduce unemployment - Buhari

- President Muhammadu Buhari urges youths to key into any of the programmes of the government

- He says his administration recognises that interdependency and professionals are the drivers of a thriving economy

- Governor Akeredolu endorses President Buhari for second term

President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration has implemented several programmes and initiatives to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.

He made the disclosure on Saturday, February 24, at the 22nd convocation ceremony of the University of Abuja. Buhari who was represented by the deputy executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Chinedu Mafiano, also urged youths to key into any of the programmes for national growth and development, The Nation reports.

READ ALSO: God told me to marry my sister - Disgraced brother speaks

My government is working hard to reduce the unemployment rates through several programmes and initiatives including the N-power, agriculture, small and medium scale businesses (SMEs), all of which are supported by government guaranteed loan scheme. I encourage you all to key into any of them for national growth and development, the president said.

Government will devote attention to technical and vocational educational training to impact the necessary skills to our youths in a bid to provide the requisite, competent and reliant personnel that can sustain the nations economic activities for the required socio-economic transformation.

He said his government recognises that interdependency and professionals are the drivers of a thriving economy and noted that the current administration was determined to continue to improve access to quality in our educational system.

Consequently, infrastructure, teachers development, curriculum relevance, funding and planning will continue to receive a boost with the resolve that they will facilitate the desired change in sociology-economic, political, and technological sectors, Buhari said.

Meanwhile, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state has insisted that nothing can stop President Muhammadu Buhari from seeking a second term in office.

Akeredolu made the statement on Saturday, February 24, at a unification rally held in Akure as part of his one year anniversary in office, Vanguard reports.

Akeredolu, who endorsed the president for second term, said Ondo state was satisfied with the numerous achievement of the Buhari administration and therefore will support his second term ambition.

List President Buhari's achievements in two years on NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | I will make Nigeria among safest investment destinations in the world - Buhari vows

- President Buhari says his government would sign the Continental Africa Free Trade Area Agreement in March, 2018

- He states that the purpose of the agreement will be to promote regional trade

- The presidents says his administration is working hard to reduce unemployment

President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to make Nigeria among the most safest and attractive investment destinations in the world.

Buhari made the pledge on Saturday, February 24, in a message at the opening of the 39th Kaduna International Trade Fair, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

The vision of our government is to make the country one of the easiest, safest and attractive places to do business in the world, he said.

The president, who was represented by the minister of trade and investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, said the administration is prioritising the industrial sector by focusing on rebuilding the nations infrastructure.

One of the important initiatives of our government is the Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council, which is a partnership of the government with the private sector meant to solve difficult problems militating against industrialization.

Buhari disclosed that the government would sign the Continental Africa Free Trade Area Agreement in March, as part of efforts to prioritize trade as a significant instrument for reform in the country.

According to him, the purpose of the agreement will be to promote regional trade.

Right now, the intra African trade is less than 15%; other regions of the world are well over 50%, so we want to move that of intra Africa to about 30% so as to grow.

The president assured that: "Other policies being pursued will promote export by establishing special economic growth zones where Nigeria and International businesses would have the required infrastructure.

He mentioned that the theme of the fair, Promoting Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for International Competitiveness was in line with the economic recovery and growth plan of the country.

Iyalode Lawson, president, national association of chambers of commerce, mines and industry, said the theme underscores the riding interest in the competitiveness of locally produced goods and services.

KADCCIMA should also show its support to the efforts of both the State and Federal government towards reviving the economy, particularly investing in agriculture, manufacturing, technology and other commercial activities.

Lawson hoped that the fair would increase exposure to global brands of businesses.

In another report, Buhari has said his administration has implemented several programmes and initiatives to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country. He made the disclosure on Saturday, February 24, at the 22nd convocation ceremony of the University of Abuja.

The president who was represented by the deputy executive secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Chinedu Mafiano, also urged youths to key into any of the programmes for national growth and development.

He said his government recognises that interdependency and professionals are the drivers of a thriving economy and noted that the current administration was determined to continue to improve access to quality in our educational system.

List President Buhari's achievements in two years on NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Nigerian priest reportedly set to marry months after resigning from Catholic Church

- Patrick Edet reportedly fixes March 17 as his wedding date

- The clergy broke the news in the Grace Family church which he has been running since he left the Catholic fold

- A young man who married his sister in Anambra state discloses that he carried out the action after discovering that it was permitted in the scriptures

A Nigerian priest, Patrick Edet, who resigned from the Catholic Church in July 2017, is reportedly preparing to get married.

Premium Times reports that Edet who had been a Catholic priest for more than 11 years has reportedly fixed March 17 as his wedding date.

The newspaper, citing a source, said the clergy announced the wedding plans in the Grace Family church which he has been running since he left the Catholic fold.

READ ALSO: Yobe schoolgirl abduction: 15-year-old escapee narrates her brave escape

The name of the bride-to-be is said to be Inyene, who hails from Itam in Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom state.

However, Patrick Edet is yet to confirm the report as his phone lines were switched off on Saturday, February 24, when Premium Times tried to reach him. The newspaper said messages sent to his phones werent delivered as at the time the report was been published.

Meanwhile, Cornelius Chiadi Ezeibekwe, from Ekwulobia town in Aguata local government area, Anambra state, has stated that he got married to his sister in order to obey God.

In an interview with New Telegraph, the 25-year-old, who became the buzz of the moment after wedding his sister in a ceremony conducted by their elder brother, stated that he had studied the bible and discovered that such an act was permitted.

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NAIJ.com gathers that Ezeibekwe stated that upon his discovery, he informed his parents, who then gave their consent.

The family was reportedly originally Catholics before they joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church and eventually switched to their own brand of Sabbath worship, with one of the children, Paul, serving as the pastor.

TOP-5 African pastor miracles on NAIJ.COM TV

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | There was fraud in Kano poll because only one party contested - Kwankwaso

- Incidences of underage voting in Kano state has been attributed to the numbers of political party that contested the election

- Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso claimed that only one party contested the election

- The former governor also claimed that it was the first time he would see a group of children queuing up to vote

The senator representing Kano central at the Senate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, says the alleged underage voting in the states local government polls was as a result the limited numbers of political parties that contested the election. He claimed that 'only one party' was involved in the election.

He also claimed that rigging the election would have been impossible if several political parties were involved.

The senator said in an interview with Osasu Igbinedion on The Osasu Show, that it was the first time he would see a group of children queuing up to vote, The Cable reports.

READ ALSO: Alleged names of missing Dapchi girls

In all elections, there should be more than one party contesting. If you have more than one party, then party A will not Allow part B to do any form of mago mago, especially the issue of people who are below 18.

In 2019, if you go there, no child will go close to any ballot box because if you are coming to vote for A, B will say get out of this place.

But those ones, I think they were invited to go and thumbprint because the real people were not there, the Kwakwansiya and the PDP werent there.

This is the first time I can see only children on the line or queue trying to vote I am seeing the type of thing that is happening," he said.

Speaking on the performance of the APC-led federal government, the ex-Kano governor said: So far so good, the administration is doing its best, so also the party.

But I hope the government and our party should do much more than what we have seen in the last three years so that by 2019, the good people of this country can come out again and vote for our candidates from the councillorship up to the position of president under the party.

This last one year is very crucial for the party, the government and the country.

He also said he has not decided if he will seek any political position in 2019.

The issue of decamping or leaving APC is not on the table now. We are looking at how the various stakeholders in our party will look at the situation, not only in Kano but there are many other places that something should be done.

People who understand democracy go into politics first and foremost as politicians. From 1991 to date, I contested 16 elections and won 14 and lost two.

Even the two are important to me because anybody who is in this age of politics who has never contested an election, or contested and only won or lost, to us is not yet complete. We cant call him a complete politician.

When the time comes, we look at ourselves, if we realise there is need to contest, we contest. Now I am a senator, I am a very happy and contented politician, he said.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna central at the national assembly urged the government to abolish State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOMS).

He argued that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had no constitutional power to invalidate any election conducted by the SIECOMS.

The senator made this known on Twitter in reaction to the recent case of under age voters in Kano state.

How Nigerian youths protest made the National Assembly pass the 'Not Too Young To Run' bill - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | World | Africa | NPRC condemns violence

NATIONAL PEACE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION PRESS STATEMENT CONDEMNATION OF ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE:

The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) is saddened by reports of intraparty violence and disturbances in Buhera at the burial of the late MDC T leader Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.

The nation is hereby implored to:

1. Stop immediately the victimisation of women and respect the gender equality provisions in our Constitution

2. Desist from making utterances that denigrate other people along ethnic lines and uphold our Constitution that recognises ethnic diversity and 16 official languages.

3. Avoid using insulting, obscene or threatening language against other members of society be it in intraparty or interparty situations. Them has to be respect for divergent views without resorting to violence.

The NPRC further condemns all other scenes of violence resulting in loss of life and destruction of property as is reported to have happened recently in Harare. In all respects the NPRC implores citizens to value life and engage in meaningful dialogue with a view to ending disputes peacefully. Law enforcement officers am implored to desist from the use of excessive and inappropriate force against citizens but use dialogue as a means of achieving a lasting peaceful resolution of disputes.

Political party leaders are urged to desist from inciting their members to engage in violence and criminal activities. The nation has to have a culture of resolving conflicts and disputes peacefully. The NPRC encourages intraparty and interparty dialogue as a means for engagement and ending conflicts. The NPRC remains ready to perform its constitutional mandate of facilitating dialogue between individuals, communities, in intraparty or interparty political situations.

Lilian Chigwedere (Commissioner)

Deputy Chaimen on

National Peace and Reconciliation Conunission

23/02/18





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Loading...Home | World | Africa | Jonathan Moyo taunts 'hopeless charlatan'

EXILED former Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo has waded into the Movement for Democratic Change succession battle.

MDC-T vice-president, Nelson Chamisa started fighting with his co-deputies, Thokozani Khupe and Elias Mudzuri for control of party business before Tsvangirai's death in a South African hospital.

Prof Moyo said via Twitter: "Anyone who claims entitlement to leadership of an elective structure on grounds of anointment or inheritance is a hopeless charlatan!"

Anyone who claims entitlement to leadership of an elective structure on grounds of anointment or inheritance is a hopeless charlatan! pic.twitter.com/o2g39pVvdI  Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) February 23, 2018

Moyo recently criticised supporters of Chamisa who allegedly attacked MDC-T's vice president Dr Thokozani Khupe and Lwazi Sibanda (Mat North MP) during Morgan Tsvangirai's burial in Buhera on Tuesday.

Prof Moyo said via Twitter: "Sad that violence by supporters of @nelsonchamisa was visited upon MDC-T Vice President #DrThokozaniKhupe & MDC-T Mat North women's quota MP, #LwaziSibanda at #MorganTsvangirai's burial in #Buhera today. The violence is an ugly example of the new #ChunhuChedu #EntitlementMantra!."

Sad that violence by supporters of @nelsonchamisa was visited upon MDC-T Vice President #DrThokozaniKhupe & MDC-T Mat North women's quota MP, #LwaziSibanda at #MorganTsvangirai's burial in #Buhera today. The violence is an ugly example of the new #ChunhuChedu #EntitlementMantra! pic.twitter.com/L0jzGhCATD  Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) February 20, 2018

The succession fights in the Movement for Democratic Change party continued today (Friday) as Vice President Thokozani Khupe snubbed a national council meeting held at the party headquarters with Acting President, Nelson Chamisa saying repeated efforts to resolve differences have yielded to nothing as she is not picking calls.

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Loading...Home | World | Africa | Chamisa to suffer an embarrassing disappointing defeat

A Political commentator Livingstone Masamba has claimed that MDC-T Acting President Nelson Chamisa will suffer embarrassing and disappointing defeat if the congress is held.

"The 2013 Crossover rally at Freedom Square/Robert Mugabe Square (Depending which side of politics you come from) has been recorded in the history of Zimbabwe as a political gathering that brought together the highest number of Political Party supporters at one gathering," he said.

"Fast forward to the announcement of results after the historic rally, MDC-T suffered a monumental and embarrassing defeat. Whether that was a clear defeat or manipulated result, everyone is clueless including some of the ZANU PF MPs who were announced as winners. Dr Joice Mujuru who was a Vice President in Mugabe's administration then also remains clueless on what transpired up to this day."

He said now coming to the burial of former MDC-T leader Dr Richard Morgan Tsvangirai, Nelson Chamisa's supporters are on top of the mountains celebrating the crowds who attended MTs funeral in Buhera.

"To them, this is "confirmation" that Chamisa has already defeated ED in the next Presidential election. They seem to have quickly forgotten how they were misled by the Crossover rally. There hasn't been any meaningful changes to how the elections in the country are administered besides ED playing to the gallery to give probably false hope to the opposition. It then boggles the mind when MDC-T structures and supporters are so much convinced that they are going to form the next government without them proffering how they intend to do things differently from the past when they were trounced. The party has to date failed to come up with clues on how the election came out in favour of ZANU PF in 2013 besides the myth of the mutating ballot paper," he said.

"The biggest and worst error the Party is making is confusing the number of people who attended MT burial with how the Party is going to perform in the forthcoming plebiscite. In the absence of a clear strategy and an understanding of the system employed (if indeed it is there) by the ruling Party to manipulate election results, it is naive to hope and believe that MDC-T will form the next administration. Instead of celebrating numbers attending rallies and funerals, the Party should have been on the ground looking for links and clues how and why it has been a permanent election loser besides indications pointing in its favour."

"I foresee MDC-T suffering the worst embarrassing election defeat and sending most of its members into dejection and depression."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa

Loading...the last samurai 2: yakuza boogaloo is shaping up nicely already i see

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"the last samurai 2: yakuza boogaloo"



lmfao 

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lmao

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lmao in one of the prereqs for my university's Japanese Studies program, students have to watch The Last Samurai and write a paper about how historically inaccurate it is

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Jared remains trash

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wow I forgot he existed

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Of course it's a white guy.

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Garbage film starring a garbage human being.

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Walk the Moon is touring with 30 Seconds to Mars this summer so Ill probably go and just leave before this douche and his vanity project play. Im worried their fans will be annoying.

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delurking to say i hate that i find this loser attractive? the race issue is a done deal, we've had this discussion, it's offensive. netflix, why won't you learn?

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legit how does this keep happening?? movies like this have gotten so much backlash in the past several years and generally haven't made a profit, so why keep trying it??????????? just give it the fuck up

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this one has been in the pipeline for a while, i guess is how.

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Cause it takes a long damn time for movies to be made and they somehow all come out one after another.



Some movies/shows are in development of YEARS. It's why you see stuff with the same concept come out within a year of each other and people think they are "copying" them.

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wow this sounds rough

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he's trash but i cant help but visit his instagram to just stare at him he's so gorgeous to me idk



help :(

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Why is he still a thing?

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How does Netflix have so much money? and why do they choose to spend it on trash, racist projects like this?

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LinkYeah I think it was the one where she did an livechat in a towel lol

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just  why?

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If so, it wasn't me who posted it

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was that on deleted bc the OP called Lorde australian?

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I wonder why it got deleted? All it had was a youtube video.

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I had comments I needed to reply to in there.

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Is it me or has she been annoying as of lately?

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Probably because for once, everyone's checking on who she's dating

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Isn't it everyone else doing the most about her and her relationships

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Mte

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yeah wtf. she's completely valid to be over all this b.s. about her friendships lmao



if this shit happened to every boy I talked to, or was friends with, I'd be livid too.

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lol right? She does like nothing but gets nitpicked in the media (Israel concert, Jack Antonoff dating rumors, her having the flu at the VMA's, people complaining about her not performing at the Grammy's)

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It's annoying to deny that she's dating someone?

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Annoying how? Compared to most famous people, she keeps to herself.

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only bc the israeli government wants people to think so

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Lmao oh God the fucking A word..

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she's always been idk why people are being dramatic

she was an annoying teenager who everyone gassed up for being an ~old soul~ and thus has turned into an annoying twentysomething

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ONTD, have you ever denied your thirst for a friend's ex?



anytime someone dates my friend they are officially Off Limits.



wish a particular friend*~ of mine could say the same!

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I'm so happy that I don't have the same taste in guys as my friends

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haha yeah i should add i've never been into any of them anyway so that helps! but once they start dating a friend they go into brother zone. it's almost a chicken/egg situation tbh idk what comes first.

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This is me with my newest friend.

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lol same, my best friend and i have similar but ultimately different tastes, which is definitely a good thing bc we can say that the other person's significant other is cute/nice/etc and actually mean it, but at the same time we know the other isnt trying to hit them up lol

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lol same we're all repulsed by each other's taste.

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yeah all my friends have really questionable taste so it has never been an issue for me

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Hi Rebecca did you forget I have a livejournal

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My boyfriend dated a friend of mine in college for a year before she cheated on him and bragged about it to me. I didn't know him at the time and her not showing remorse for her cheating made me distance myself from her as a friend anyway. It all worked out, because we're celebrating 11 years together next month.

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yet

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They're fucking. Or they fucked. Why did they call the paparazzi then?

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yes exactly, you don't need to be dating to be fucking

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umm don't you know that street in new zealand was just swarming with paps waiting for a picture lmao

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lol its nz... everybody always knows when lorde is here and where she is, she doesn't need to call the paps on herself they'll be there bc she's the biggest celeb we have and they can sell the photos to overseas mags not just nz ones haha

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They might not date but they probably fuck.

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Is this a repost or is she denying it multiple times?



Whatever, they may be just friends but they're definitely fucking.



Edited at 2018-02-24 08:07 pm (UTC)

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ONTD, have you ever denied your thirst for a friend's ex?

Yes and then we hooked up a year later and are still happily in touch another ten years after that. No idea what became of the "friend" though. Oops.

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Expand your horizons, young lady.

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this is a lot

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They're not dating, they're just fucking!

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I believe her

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I denied dating my current bf for a long time before and around when we started dating...

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LinkInvestor Warren Buffett, seen here speaking at an event early last year in New York with fellow billionaire Bill Gates, says in his new newsletter that his company received a $29 billion bonus in 2017 thanks to a new US tax law

Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, received a stunning $29 billion check last year from the US government, thanks to a new tax law that massively lowered corporate tax rates.

In his much-anticipated annual letter to shareholders, Buffett explained that the company's net gain of $65.3 billion in 2017 was only partly due to his employees' efforts.

"Only $36 billion came from Berkshire's operations," he wrote. "The remaining $29 billion was delivered to us in December when Congress rewrote the US Tax Code."

Still, Buffett assured stockholders, "The $65 billion gain is nonetheless realrest assured of that."

The new law, greatly touted by President Donald Trump, lowered the tax rate paid by US corporations from 35 percent to 21 percent, allowing many to undertake major new outlays and others to book significant fiscal gains.

Berkshire Hathaway wholly owns dozens of companiesfrom Dairy Queen to Duracelland holds significant shares in large and diverse corporations including American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Charter Communications, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Moody's, Wells Fargo and Southwest Airlines.

'The Oracle of Omaha'

Buffett's newsletters are read with intense interest on Wall Street and beyond. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha"after his birthplace in the Midwestern state of Nebraskahe is one of the world's most successful investors and one of its richest men. Now 87, he has been investing since he first bought stock at the age of 11.

His latest newsletter reports that Berkshire's net earnings rose last year from $24.07 billion to $44.94 billion.

The year also saw the company's war chest swell to $116 billion in cash and US Treasury bills, financial manna that Buffett wants to use to make significant new acquisitions.

The company's often-impressive pace of acquisitions had slowed last year, he noted, when the prices asked for businesses "hit an all-time high," amid what he called "a purchasing frenzy."

"Price seemed almost irrelevant to an army of optimistic purchasers," Buffett noted.

Still, he said, the company "will have opportunities to make very large purchases" going forward, with emphasis on those available at "a sensible purchase price."

Buffett said Berkshire would stick with a "simple guideline: The less the prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we must conduct our own."

A hit from hurricanes

Buffett also said that while Berkshire's insurance holdings would take a $2 billion after-tax hit from losses caused by hurricanes last year in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico, other reinsurance companies did far worse.

And he estimated the chances of a "mega-catastrophe" this yearone causing losses of at least $400 billionat 2 percent.

"No one, of course, knows the correct probability," he added.

Buffett concluded with a little advice to fellow investors: "Though markets are generally rational, they occasionally do crazy things," he wrote.

"Seizing the opportunities then offered does not require great intelligence... (or) a degree in economics," but rather "an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals."

Forbes magazine estimates Buffett's personal worth at some $87 billion.

He has undertakenas part of the so-called Giving Pledge he co-founded with Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergto donate more than 99 percent of his fortune to charities, and has already given away some $32 billion.

 2018 AFPOshkosh Corp. engages in the design, manufacture, and market of specialty vehicles and vehicle bodies. It operates through the following segments: Access Equipment, Defense, Fire & Emergency, and Commercial. The Access Equipment segment consists of JerrDan and JLG, which manufactures aerial work platforms; and telehandlers that are used in construction, industrial, institutional, and general maintenance applications to position workers and materials at elevated heights. The Defense segment produces tactical wheeled vehicles; and supply parts and services for the United States military and other militaries around the world. The Fire and Emergency segment sells commercial and custom fire vehicles; simulators and emergency vehicles primarily for fire departments, airports and other governmental units; and broadcast vehicles for broadcasters and television stations. The Commercial segment includes McNeilus, CON-E-CO, London, Iowa Mold Tooling Co., Inc (IMT), and Oshkosh Commercial. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Oshkosh, WI.

Read More1 Wall Street research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Pharos Energy in the last year. There are currently 1 hold rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street research analysts is that investors should "hold" Pharos Energy stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in SOCLF, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.

View analyst ratings for Pharos Energy or view top-rated stocks.This article is published through a partnership with New York Medias Strategist. The partnership is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. Every editorial product is independently selected by New York Media. If you buy something through our links, Slate and New York Media may earn an affiliate commission.

If youre one of the estimated 70 percent of people who sleep on their sides, youre likely familiar with the toss-fluff-repeat cycle of a fitful rest. Unlike stomach and back sleepers, side sleepers need extra support, making it near impossible for basic pillows to get the job done. Because of the greater distance between their heads and the mattress, side sleepers often need a thicker pillow to keep their head and neck in a neutral position, says Heather Turgeon, the author of The Happy Sleeper. As someone whos needed at least two pillows my entire life (lately a rigid Tempur-Pedic padded by a rotation of filling-challenged Ikea pillows), Ive consulted Turgeon for her august opinion on better side sleeper pillows. After testing each for a nightits like One Thousand and One Nights around my apartmentIve come away with a few favorites. Spoiler: Price has (in most cases) very little to do with what I ended up liking.

My Absolute Favorite

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Turgeon recommended the Wamsutta Extra-Firm, but I wasnt so sure. Next to every other pillow I was meant to test, the Wamsutta Extra-Firm was the least luxurious: it was lightweight, its filling wasnt down or cotton buthmpolyester, and, well, it was the cheapest. But as soon as I rested my head on it, I understood. Unlike other pillows that mistake plushness or fluffiness for support, the WEF didnt sink as soon as I rested my head. Instead, it had a firm, satisfying springits a different sensation, but one I took to right away. And even though I didnt do any measuring, my head felt more propped up from the mattress and sheets than any other pillow, save the Tempur-Pedic (more on that later).

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BUY: Wamsutta Extra-Firm

$26, Amazon

The Runners-Up

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Another lofty entry, the BioSense created a more elegant firmness than the WEF. On its own, a down filling is too soft for me, but the BioSense Luxes higher-tech combination of memory foam wrapped in a down cover translated to a cushier resistance, much like an unripe avocado with just the slightest give. Imagine the downy hotel experience, only with much more structure. Over the long haul, actually, the BioSense is probably a better bet than the Wamsuttaits memory foam contains green tea and charcoal to combat microbes and prevent odor. There arent many reviews of it to peruse (probably because its so expensive), but there are some amateurs who complain that its too firm, to which I say, Um, isnt that the point?

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BUY: Brookstone BioSense Luxe Pillow

$90, Bed Bath & Beyond

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A caveat up front: If you dont like the sensation of sleeping on a spongy piece of Styrofoam, you wont like this pillow. Maybe because Ive gotten used to my old Tempur-Pedic, but I really loved the hardness of the Side to Side Breeze, which is just like the regular Side to Side, only with a cooling gel layer for hot-headed sleepers (yes, please). Like Tempur-Pedic pillows you may be familiar with, this one features the brands signature viscoelasticwhich Im guessing means viscous and elasticfoam, but it wasnt sink-y the way Tempur-Pedic beds can be. There are different curves on the top and bottom of the Breeze, one that slopes more for higher neck support and one that slopes less for lower. The pillow feels expensivesleeping on the higher-sloping side was like a cushy, luxe embrace. Im not a fan of regular Tempur-Pedic pillows because theyre too squishy and the angles arent right, but this one feels tailored for side sleepers. My only complaint is that it was a little too wide for the bed (even the queen size), and that, unless youre Blue Ivy or Larry Ellison, its almost unjustifiably expensive.

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BUY: Tempur-Pedic Contour Side to Side Breeze

$114, Amazon

Very Worth Considering

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Developed by Dr. James Maas, a Cornell sleep doctor whos built an entire industry around sleep health and its accoutrements (a book, several pillowseven, puzzlingly, a comforter), the Sleep for Success! pillow was the first one I tried, and after a lifetime of Ikea welterweights, I liked it! After going back to it at the end of the experiment, though, I found its padding only okay. Dr. Maas puts a lot of stock in temperature regulation for a good nights resthis pillow has synthetic fibers produced from eucalyptus for moisture wicking and temperature regulation. Important, sure, but not my primary concern. Its gel fiber and eucalyptus filling was certainly cool (I guess?), but not quite supportive enough for my now-spoiled tastes.

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BUY: Sleep for Success! Side Sleeper Pillow

$48, Amazon

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At first appraisal, the alternative down pillow from the direct-to-consumer houseware brand looked fluffier than I thought I would like, but once I rested my head on it, it settled to a nice thickness that held. Ive found actually that for side sleepers who crave firmness, a polyester filling (like the kind that down alternative pillows use) generally outperforms real downactual feathers tend to be too soft (pesky nature!) and dont lift and prop my head the way it really needs to be cradled. The Snowe regular down pillow had that problem for me; side by side, it was less billowy than the down alternative, and less supportive, too.

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BUY: Snowe Down Alternative Pillow

$38, Snowe

Off the bat (and as you can see in the photos), the loft on these pillows is insanetheyre probably seven inches high just resting on your mattress. The pillows are filled with microfiber (which is a fancier way to describe a blend of polyester and various other man-made poly-prefixed materials) that didnt collapse the way that something like cotton or down would, but didnt provide the stiff support of the Wamsutta Extra Firm or Tempur-Contour either.

Interestingly, the Parachute was one of the only pillows that didnt have a gussetthat two-to-three inch panel along the perimeter of the pillow that, according to Turgeon, creates extra height for side sleepers. I didnt notice a huge difference because of it (the Parachute was actually firmer than a few gusseted pillows), but that may be why the pillow seems almost overfilled. Much of that fill is air, though. Sleeping on it felt like sleeping on a solider, more permanently fluffed hotel pillownice, but not my, er, dream scenario. If youre in the market for a plush mattress topper, though, my colleague Lauren slept like a baby on Parachutes.

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BUY: Parachute Down Alternative Pillow (Firm)

$59, Parachute

The hero of the Wamsutta pillow lineup (and much-fancier sibling of the Wamsutta Extra Firm), the Dream Zone provided a decent amount of support, but nowhere near the amount that my head and neck wanted. I pretty much want to sleep on a padded, pillow-shaped boulder. Filled with a synthetic down and lined with memory fiber, the Dream Zone has a plush springiness that your head plunges right intosome reviews describe it as sinking into a cloud, which Id say is pretty much spot-on. Whether thats what youre looking for pretty much determines how youll feel about this pillow.

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BUY: Wamsutta Dream Zone

$87, Amazon

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The Turgeon-suggested Claritin pillow has some (surprise) hypoallergenic advantages going for it; the polyester cover blocks various household scourges such as dust mites and pet dander from settling all over your pillow. Thats not a huge concern for me, but if it is for you, consider this one! If youre just looking for a good side sleeper pillow, this one provides mehnot greatsupport. Id need two of them.

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BUY: Claritin Anti-Allergen Embossed Side Sleeper Pillow

$52, Amazon

More for Stomach Than Side Sleepers

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Whenever I would casually mention that I was doing this story, people would recommend pillows from Casper to me. Enough friends raved that I decided to get my hands on one, but there must be some Casper-mattress halo effect because the pillows themselves are underwhelming (and underfilled). Theres nothing damning about the fabrication (its a cotton cover and polyester microfiber fill), but the biggest red flag shouldve been Caspers one-size-sleeps-all claim: Back? Side? Stomach? We created a pillow thats supportive and comfortable in every position. The morning after I slept on a Casper pillow, I wondered whether Id judged it too harshly or done something wrong. How could everyone love the pillow I could barely close my eyes on? After I showered, came back to my room, and saw the indent of my head still on the pillow, I knew I hadnt. If a sponge cake springs back after you touch it, surely your pillow should. (My boyfriend, a stomach sleeper, loves it though.)

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BUY: Casper Pillow

$126, Amazon

Less comfortable and supportive than a chenille blanket draped over my arm, this polyester-filled pillow really only has its scientific-sounding name going for it. Its website description calls it soft and fluffy; user reviews declare squishy, cushy, and If you sleep on your stomach, these are great! No argument here.

BUY: Isotonic Indulgence Side Sleeper Pillow

$49, AmazonThe Washington Post reported on Friday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein called the White House two weeks ago to discuss ongoing concerns about Jared Kushners security clearance.

Kushner has been accessing the nations top secrets for more than a year through an interim clearance that allows him to see both top-secret and sensitive compartmented information, the highest clearance level.

The issue of security clearance came to the spotlight earlier this month when Rob Porter was fired from his job as White House staff secretary after allegations of domestic abuse were publicized. Porter had been working on a similar interim clearance as Kushner and the White House repeatedly lied about the status of his clearance investigation, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. More than 130 political appointees working for the president were also still on an interim clearance as of late last year, NBC News recently reported.

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The publicizing of this unprecedented situation led White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to declare a new policy that as of this past Friday would supposedly strip interim clearances for individuals with investigations or adjudications pending since July. It would also limit access to highly classified information for individuals with interim clearance without approval of the Chief of Staffs office, which would be granted only in the most compelling circumstances.

It was unclear whether or not the policy actually went into effect on Friday and how it might have affected Kushners status. The Post reported that Rosenstein told White House Counsel Donald McGahn that significant information requiring additional investigation would further delay the security clearance process of senior adviser Jared Kushner, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

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Its unclear, though, what exactly Rosenstein shared with McGahn, who himself reportedly lacks permanent security clearance at the SCI level.

The Post reported:

Justice Department officials said Rosenstein did not provide any details to the White House about the matters that needed to be investigated relating to Kushner. The Deputy Attorney General has not referenced to the White House any specific concerns relating to this individuals security clearance process, spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement.

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Rosenstein reportedly wanted to talk with Kelly, who does have full clearance, about Kushners situation, but couldnt get him on the line.

There are conflicting accounts about whether Rosenstein discussed with McGahn the significance of the information and its possible impact on Kushners clearance, the Post reported. Two people said the deputy attorney general told McGahn the Justice Department had obtained important new information, suggesting it could be an obstacle to his clearance process. One other said Rosenstein did not discuss the nature of the ongoing investigation.

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Kushner repeatedly had to amend his disclosures of contacts with foreign officials when applying for security clearance, a move that the Post reported would normally jeopardize an applicants chances of obtaining final clearance.

Along with Donald Trump Jr. and then campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Kushner attended a meeting in the summer of 2016 with a Russian lawyer who was promised to have dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of Russias support of Trumps election. Later that summer, emails from the Democratic National Committee which had been stolen by the Russians were made public as part of Russias interference in our election, according to the assessment of the intelligence community.

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Manafort has since been indicted on multiple counts including conspiracy, failure to register as a foreign lobbyist, money laundering, and tax evasion related to lobbying work he allegedly did for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine before he worked for the Trump campaign. His former deputy, Rick Gates, pled guilty to conspiracy and to lying to investigators on Friday.

Its unclear whether or not Kushner will actually lose his clearance, as it appears the new Kelly order would demand. The president ultimately has the final say over who is granted access to the nations biggest secrets.

On Friday, Trump told a new briefing that it would be up to Kelly to determine if Kushner maintained that access.

I will let General Kelly make that decision, and hes going to do whats right for the country, Trump said. And I have no doubt that he will make the right decision.Heres something that might make Americans feel slightly better (or not) about their countrys ludicrous leadership: Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been forced stepped down from his postagainfollowing a litany of scandals surrounding his affair with his former media adviser and soon-to-be baby mama, Vikki Campion. Thats right, Mike Pences Australian counterpart not only dines with women who are not Motherhe also impregnates them.

Joycethe outgoing leader of the rural-based National Party and an advocate for good ol fashioned family valuesspent the last two weeks desperately trying to hold onto his job as the #BarnaBaby scandal unfolded, warring with the media and trading passive aggressive insults with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with whom Joyces Nationals maintain a coalition government. The deputy prime minister finally stepped down on Friday after his own party began moving against him. Republicans, take note.

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The affair started making headlines on Feb. 7, after tabloid the Daily Telegraph published a front-page photo of a pregnant Campion with the headline Bundle of Joyce. (The affair was said to be an open secret among politicians and the media but had up until now been kept quiet out of respect for Joyces family, including his four daughters.) While Australia is not an overly puritanical electorate, many were incensed that Joyce had spent the latter part of 2017 campaigning against marriage equality on the basis that it would degrade the institution of marriage for his daughters while engaged in an extramarital affair.

No stranger to hypocrisy, the deputy PM might almost have been able to ride the scandal out, had it not become apparent that Joyce had probably misused public funds to carry out his affair: Last year, he claimed travel allowance for 50 out-of-session nights in the nations capital (more than any other minister) and now lives rent-free with Campion in an apartment provided by a political donor. He has also been accused of breaching the ministerial code of conduct in failing to declare his lover his partner when she worked in his office, as well as when she was moved to another high-paying and unadvertised job in the office of a fellow minister (Joyce claims she wasnt technically his partner at the time.) Two other woman have since come forward to accuse Joyce of sexual harassment and misconduct, allegations he has denied.

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The BarnaBaby has led Prime Minister Turnbull to introduce a new rule banning grown adult government ministers from having sex with their staff, quickly dubbed the bonk ban. In a press conference, he called his deputys actions a shocking error, to which Joyce shot back, calling the Prime Ministers comments inept. Remember how inane political insults used to be?

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You may recall Barnaby Joyce from such scandals as the time he publicly threatened to kill Johnny Depp and Amber Heards dogs because they circumvented customs (and then forced Depp and Heard to publicly apologize), or the time he mocked members of the Australian Greens over their dual citizenship blunder, only to find himself also guilty of being a New Zealander (and then refused to stand down until the High Court disqualified him. The man could win awards for his hypocrisy). Its less likely you heard about the times he permanently ruined the word carp for no reason, brought a whip to the press gallerys annual Mid-Winter Ball, or was removed as opposition finance spokesman because he claimed Australia was likely to default on its foreign debt. The blundering, blustering, bush hatwearing Barnaby has long cut a figure as ridiculous as his name, a Simpsons Australia parody come to life.

Joyce has already been forced to step down once in the last six months, though he quickly climbed his way back up. Hopefully Australia has seen the last of this embarrassing leader. And hopefully, for just a moment, Americans can feel a little less embarrassed about their own. (Or not.)Its a day of the week, so the president of the United States is tweeting. Heres what Trump sent out on Saturday:

So true Wayne, and Lowest black unemployment in history! https://t.co/gDxxJdZQUm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018

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The tweet that Trump was flagging here was from Nov. 7, 2014, days after that years midterm election.

This is what it's all about! It's ok 2 b black, conservative and love America and not vote Democrat! Freedom exists! pic.twitter.com/G1694H03BX  Wayne Dupree |  (@WayneDupreeShow) November 7, 2014

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Which begs the question of how he surfaced it. Did he just remember that really good tweet from Wayne Dupree from 2014? If so, why did he send it out with the message touting the lowest black unemployment in history as if it happened today? Did somebody else send it to him today, making him think it was today because he never bothered to look at the timestamp? Did his social media assistant Dan Scavino surface it for the commander in chief and not tell him when it was from?

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So many questions.

Perhaps the biggest question of all is who is Wayne Dupree, the man Trump so affectionately refers to by his first name alone?

Think Progress reports that Dupree is a conspiracy theorist radio host who promoted the notion that grieving parents during the Sandy Hook massacre were actually crisis actors hired to promote the New World Order agenda of imposing gun control.

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Here are some of the highlights from Duprees work:

On and before December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook was infested with espionage operatives. These operatives posed as the incredible, primarily parents, Dupree wrote in January, 2013 shortly after the elementary school massacre that left 20 children between the ages of six and seven dead.

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Of another set of parents interviewed on CNN, Dupree wrote this: With two real children involved, it this were real, they would be real and would be with their children, consoling them, not promoting the New World Order agenda of total control, including the control of childrens minds.

As Think Progress also noted, Dupree has attacked the student survivors of last weeks Parkland massacre who have spoken up in recent days about a desire for new gun laws.

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Silence on the set......3......2......1..... Action! pic.twitter.com/QZolT6pGy4  Wayne Dupree |  (@WayneDupreeShow) February 20, 2018

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On Thursday, Trump himself went in the direction of a now popular right-wing conspiracy theory that the student survivors and activists are actually paid crisis actors.

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He tweeted a suggestion that Wednesdays CNN Town Hall where some of these activists confronted political figures and local leaders about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and this nations gun policies was scripted.

School shooting survivor says he quit @CNN Town Hall after refusing scripted question. @TuckerCarlson. Just like so much of CNN, Fake News. Thats why their ratings are so bad! MSNBC may be worse.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 23, 2018

It turned out that the student in question had been shopping a doctored email to claim that CNN was censoring him.

If his elevation of Dupree and historic affiliation with Alex Jones is any indication, Trump is more likely to move further in the direction of an antiParkland student conspiracy theory than to ever actually correct the record on any of this.The State Department has announced that it will move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the countrys founding.

This is a much faster timetable than discussed in December when Trump announced that the U.S. was recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital. Initially, the move was supposed to take three or four years. Then Vice President Mike Pence said during his visit to Israel in January that it could happen in 2019. The new timing will further anger Palestinians, who observe May 15 as the Nakba, or Catastrophe Day, commemorating the displacement of Palestinians during the founding of Israel.

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A new embassy will not be built by May, of course. That will take years. The AP reported earlier Friday that the Trump administration is considering an offer from Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, a major proponent of the Jerusalem move, to pay for part of the new embassy, which could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Letting a private citizen, particularly one with a partisan agenda as pronounced as Adelson, pay for a U.S. diplomatic facility would be an unprecedented and its not entirely clear if its legal.

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For now, the plan is to move Ambassador David Friedman and a small staff to a building that already acts as a U.S. consulate. Most staff will stay, for now, at the current embassy in Tel Aviv, but they can essentially hang a sign on the door of the Jerusalem building calling the consulate an embassy. While this might not seem like a big deal, it allows Trump to fulfill a campaign promise. As the New York Times reports, Trump bragged about the move in his speech Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

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You know, every president campaigned on, Were going to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, everybody, for many presidents, youve been reading it, and then they never pulled it off, and I now know why. I was hit by more countries and more pressure and more people calling, begging me, Dont do it, dont do it, dont do it. I said, We have to do it, its the right thing to do.

Never mind that its totally unclear why this provocative move that will deal another body blow to the Mideast peace process that Trump is theoretically still committed to, with no tangible benefits for the United States, is the right thing to do.. The important thing is that hes doing something his predecessors did not.In fall 2017, a high-ranking editor at Newsweek was fired four days after filing a grievance to the magazines human resources department, complaining of gender discrimination and bullying, and proposing an agreement to leave the company. Her termination letter, which Slate viewed, did not mention the HR complaints. Instead, it laid out a laundry list of performance and conduct concerns.

Sources familiar with her dismissal differ on its legitimacy, but some of the language from her termination letter is striking in light of what has transpired at the magazine since. Her alleged sins included undermining the companys attempt to enforce aggressive page-view quotas for reporters, insufficient commitment to search engine optimization, and rejecting story proposals for being not Newsweek. (At most publications, shooting down story ideas that dont fit the editorial ethos is an essential part of editors jobs.) The letter also faulted her for making an inflammatory allegation in a conference call with other top editors. Her inflammatory allegation, according to the termination letter: that the company had real problem(s) of morale and credibility.

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Just a few months later, that assessment reads as a dramatic understatement. Newsweek is coming apart at the seams. On Feb. 5, the magazine fired three of its top journalists, including the editor in chief, who had been investigating the financial dealings of its parent company, Newsweek Media Group, in the wake of a surprise raid of its offices by investigators for the Manhattan district attorney. Those firings touched off a cascade of public resignations and recriminations at the once-proud publication, leaving its management jumbled and its newsroom gutted. Amid the turmoil, the magazine on Feb. 9 announced after an outside investigation that it was reinstating a top editor it had suspended just weeks earlier over sexual harassment allegations at his previous employer. That prompted a fresh exodus of female staffers.

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This week, a cadre of Newsweeks remaining top editors threatened to resign unless their bosses allowed them to publish one of the investigative stories the fired staffers had been working on. The companys executives backed down, and the storyheadlined Why Is the Manhattan DA Looking at Newsweeks Ties to a Christian University?ran on Tuesday. It began with an explosive editors note accusing Newsweek Media Groups management of egregious breaches of journalistic ethics in the storys review process.

That embarrassment was a price the company was evidently willing to pay to keep the magazine alive, for the time being. A Newsweek Media Group spokesman said in an email that the investigative Newsweek story and editors note speak for themselves. Other than providing comment about one specific editor, the company repeatedly declined to comment on claims raised in this article and declined all of Slates requests to interview executives and top editors for this article.

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But Slate spoke with more than a dozen current and former Newsweek staffers across its New York and London offices, representing all levels of the newsrooms organizational chart. Most spoke on condition of anonymity, whether due to nondisclosure agreements or credible fear of professional repercussions for speaking out. Taken together, their accounts make clear that the magazines core had rotted months before the Manhattan DA raid or the well-publicized firings. And they help to explain how a yearslong attempt to revive a marquee American newsmagazine turned from inspiring to, in the words of one Newsweek journalist, holy-shit bad in the span of 12 months.

Though Newsweek has had more than its share of instability over the past decade, the rapidity and sensationalism of the magazines latest implosion is, in ways, exceptional. (Disclosure: I interned at Newsweek in the summer of 2010.) Few other major U.S. publications have seen their internal strife strewn across national headlines; still fewer have to worry about their owners funneling money to a religious institution, as Newsweeks parent company is alleged to have done.

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But much of the story, as insiders tell it, will ring disconcertingly familiar to anyone involved in the modern news industry. Its a tale of a precarious business model, a roller coaster of explosive growth and cruel contraction, mercurial corporate ownership, and journalists forced to produce work so shoddy and craven that they were embarrassed to attach their name to it, all in the name of saving the companyand their jobs. At a time when Google and Facebook have become the prime conduits to online news, Newsweeks downfall highlights the existential vulnerability of even the best-known media brands to the whims of tech companies algorithms. It also suggests something more chilling: how quickly a reputable news organization can disintegrate in the hands of the wrong owners.

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All media outlets are on a constant hunt for traffic, but not all newsrooms are managed the same way. With near unanimity, the staffers I spoke to described a newsroom ruled by fear, internecine rivalry, and a slavish obsession with clicks at all costs. They told of reporters covering beats such as science, culture, and foreign affairs being judged not on their works merit but on their ability to meet targets of 500,000 or 1 million page views per month. They told of top editors angling for one anothers jobs by trying to persuade higher-ups that they could bring in more traffic. Allegations of sexism, favoritism, and bullying were rampant.

At least five former staffers, including the editor who received the laundry list of alleged offenses, said they were fired shortly after either lodging HR complaints, raising questions about editorial strategy, or reporting suspicious irregularities in the companys traffic data. No one could prove definitively that they had been fired in retribution, but each said they found the timing disturbing. These firings, many agreedincluding several of their former colleagues who were not firedsent a message within the company that dissent would not be tolerated. It was a message hammered home more publicly earlier this month with the dismissals of editor-in-chief Bob Roe, executive editor Kenneth Li, and reporter Celeste Katz.

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That nightmarish picture contrasts starkly with the lofty hopes Newsweek staff had harbored for the magazines latest incarnation as recently as a year ago. That incarnation began in 2013 when the current ownerthen known as IBT Mediabought Newsweek, revived the print edition that had been mothballed the year before, and installed New York Times veteran Jim Impoco as the top editor with the goal of making Newsweek an indispensable read.

IBT Media, a privately held firm founded by evangelical Christian friends Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis in 2006 when they were in their early 20s, seemed an unlikely candidate to restore Newsweeks good name. Its flagship publication, the International Business Times, used cheap aggregation and search engine optimization to build impressive online readership figures. But IBT remained relatively little known, even within the industry, until the company purchased Newsweek from Barry Dillers IAC in 2013 for a sum that was not disclosed. (Three years earlier, the magazine had been famously sold to Sidney Harman for $1 by the Washington Post Company, which also owned the Washington Post and Slate at the time.) It wouldnt have been entirely unwarranted to predict that IBT Media would milk what remained of Newsweeks name brand for short-term profit.

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Instead, IBT Media gave Impoco space to run the magazine as he saw fit, insiders recalled, including publishing feature stories that seemed to go out of their way to tweak the owners religious sensibilities. Against the odds, the revival seemed to be working. Under Impocos editorship, Newsweek quickly regained traffic and stature, and in 2016 it was nominated for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. The higher-ups at IBT Media, sources said, treated Newsweek as a prestige brand within a company whose profits were driven by its faster-paced digital properties.

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At least three former reporters on the digital side said they were embarrassed not only by their colleagues work, but by their own.

Its tempting to point to Impocos firing in February 2017, the reasons for which were never made public, as the turning point. His replacement, former Time and Newsweek International editor Matt McAllester, undertook unpopular traffic-boosting experiments, oversaw a slew of firings, and stepped down after just six months. Three former employees told Slate they believe McAllester won Impocos job by pitching a wildly ambitious plan to CEO Dev Pragad to make Newsweek.com one of the most heavily trafficked news sites in the worldat a time when the companys owners were desperate to increase revenue. Six months later, McAllester was succeeded by Roe, whom sources described as a deft story editor who did little to stanch the chaos in the newsroom. (Impoco, McAllester, and Roe each declined to comment for this story.)

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But multiple sources I spoke to with knowledge of Newsweeks editorial strategy traced the magazines upheaval to a different, and perhaps surprising, source: a crisis at its sister publications, including the International Business Times.

The International Business Times rapid growth had fueled the rise of IBT Media and funded the companys 2013 purchase of Newsweek, as well as some prestige journalism initiatives at IBT itself. By 2016, however, trouble was brewing: The company laid off at least 45 people across its brands as part of a restructuring whose motivations were not clearly explained. Those laid off complained publicly that they had not been paid severance.

Then, in March 2017, disaster struck: A major update to Googles search algorithm, designed to crack down on low-quality, ad-heavy sites and private blog networks that are widely viewed as traffic scams, hit IBT Media hard. The flagship IBT publications organic search traffic plunged by 50 percent, according to the analytics site SEMrush, as did search traffic at other IBT Media properties. Reports from Social Puncher and BuzzFeed earlier this year revealed evidence of possible advertising fraud at the company. (The company denied that it committed fraud.) Earlier this month, co-founder Uzac and his wife, Marion Kim, the companys finance director, resigned.

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Numerous sources said the pressure to increase traffic at Newsweek was ratcheted up shortly after IBTs traffic fell off. In the words of one former employee: IBT was no longer the breadwinner, so Newsweek had to become the breadwinner. Within weeks, the company shifted seven reporters and editors from IBT to Newsweek, assigning them to cover breaking news in much of the same clicky, rapid-fire style they had learned at IBT. The following month, April, it announced that the company was rebranding from IBT Media to Newsweek Media Group. By June, company leaders were circulating a plan called Newsweek 100 million to increase the magazines monthly views more than fivefold over the following several years. (Multiple sources showed Slate internal documents that made reference to the plan.) Thats when many of the traffic quotas and performance bonuses took hold.

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Several sources said they believed Newsweek really did need to get more nimble: Under Impoco, certain full-time staff reporters had been producing just a handful of stories per year. But it appeared to many sources who spoke with Slate for this story that the companys executivesincluding Pragad and Chief Content Officer Dayan Candappawere trying to compensate for IBTs lost traffic by turning Newsweek into a content factory in its own right. Several sources, while acknowledging the aggressively ramped-up goals, believed that the increased metabolism would help pay for the magazine to do good journalism. Two sources with knowledge of the companys high-level operations said they believed the financial stakes were so high the orders were actually coming from the companys co-owners, Uzac and Davis.

One of the editors who had come over from IBT, Cristina Silva, rose quickly to the position of news director. She became the enforcer of traffic targets, and after McAllesters dismissal, some sources say she assumed day-to-day control of the newsroom. Others maintain that Roe and Li, her immediate superiors, remained in command, albeit in ways that were less visible to junior staff. Various emails viewed by Slate show both Li and Silva prodding staff to boost their traffic metrics and providing suggestions on how to do so. For all the outrage about the newsroom regimes obsession with clicks, its fair to note that at least some of those suggestions involved original reporting and analysis. All three editors declined to comment for this story.

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The staff received details of every writers daily and monthly pageview counts, which added to the culture of anxiety. One editor, referring to missed targets, said, We were told that as editors that if we cared about our reporters we would make sure they didnt fall into the red zone.  On multiple occasions, the staff was reassured that the traffic sprint was a temporary measure to save the company and that the pressure would soon relent if they met their goals. Many editors believedat least for some timethat the company was at a crisis point financially and this strategy was the only way to save it, one former editor said.

There were carrots to go along with the sticks. Under Candappa, Li, and Silva, Newsweek implemented a magazinewide pay scheme that promised to offset low base salaries with significant bonuses tied to the number of page views each writer generated. Some staffers complained that the scheme failed to differentiate between reporters who were on click-friendly beatslike the Trump administrationand those who covered less trafficked topics such as arts and culture, the Middle East, or immigration. Reporter Christal Hayes, who worked at Newsweek from September to December before leaving, tweeted the bonus scale on Feb. 5, along with her criticism of the incentives it created. [The] amount of corrections, retractions and issues with content there was pretty insane, Hayes wrote. The push was always to have a more clicky headlinealwayseven if it was incorrect or completely not ethical.

I definitely hope Newsweek can come out on the other side of this OK, but to brush off the clickbait model is inaccurate to say the least. This is the formula to get paid. My base salary was in the low 40s, which is very hard to live on in NYC with taxes, etc. pic.twitter.com/kcYVVltkyk  Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) February 5, 2018

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One former editor offered a partial defense of Silva. I think it is too easy to paint her as the villain of Newsweeks digital strategy issues, she said. She was enforcing targets set from above. Not many other editors were willing to drive staff as hard as she did. Though, to be clear, I dont think staff should ever be driven that hard. The company offered a full-throated defense of Silva in an emailed statement to Slate on Feb. 9, calling her a tireless advocate for first-rate journalism who pushed for a more diverse newsroom that would include and empower women and people of color. Newsweeks acting editor, Nancy Cooper, also defended Silva. In an emailed statement, she wrote, Under Cristina Silvas leadership as News Director of Newsweek, traffic has grown exponentially.

Indeed, to judge by traffic alone, the scheme worked wonders: Analytics viewed by Slate show that between June and January, Newsweeks monthly unique views nearly doubled from 18.2 million to more than 34 million. Yet the quotas were never relaxed. And in the process, the magazine produced a string of embarrassing factual blunders and gained a reputation for trolling and click-bait, including (multiple!) pieces claiming that Hillary Clinton could still become president and straightforward science articles shamelessly dressed up with Trump-bashing headlines and tweets. Thats not to say the magazine was bereft of serious analysis or original reporting; all agreed that some journalists were managing to produce strong work under adverse conditions. Still, at least three former reporters on the digital side said they were embarrassed not only by their colleagues work, but by their own.

In a public resignation letter on Feb. 5, veteran political journalist Matthew Cooper said he had never seen more reckless leadership. He spoke of a demoralizing newsroom culture that relentlessly prioritized clicks over journalistic ethics and led to a litany of embarrassing editorial missteps. Even the companys interns felt the pinch. Claire Shaffer, who interned at Newsweek last summer, said she was initially told shed be paid. But before she arrived in New York for the job, she was informed that there had been a mistake and they didnt have the budget to pay her: Shed have to work for school credit. She accepted the assignment anyway and spent the summer producing, in her words, embarrassing click-bait. More than one former reporter described the experience of working at Newsweek as psychologically traumatic. My mental health was just down the toilet, one said. I had stomach pains going in there every day.

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One former editor said young reporters were driven to write five or six stories per day, and when they complained, they were told by editors that this is the way it is everywhere in online media. Shaffer confirmed that.  Its like this everywhere was definitely something I heard a bunch, she said, which was pretty alarming with it being my first media job.

The race for clicks, and the power of the platform giants to make or break media companies, will sound familiar to any casual student of recent media woes. Still, what happened at Newsweek was not inevitable. As it became clear, by 2016 at the least, that the wave of search- and social mediadriven success stories (like IBT) were vulnerable to algorithm changes at Google and Facebook, a handful of media companies whose owners possessed both foresight and financial flexibility were actively tweaking their business models in order to survive. Newsweek Media Groups leaders, it now seems clear, possessed neither. Many of its staff accommodated themselves to the single-minded strategy that was implemented; sympathetic colleagues noted that some were proud journalists who justified their compromises with the consolation that the traffic sprints were temporary. Some, of course, had families to support. And it quickly became clear that those who didnt fall in line would be sacked. People would get laid off and youd never hear about it, said a former reporter who was fired last year. It was like the rapture.

Some ex-staffers said the chilling effect of those firings also served to deter inquiries about the companys ties to religious organizations founded by the controversial Christian pastor David Jang. Others disagreed that those ties had directly impacted the newsroom in any way or that newsroom employees had been dissuaded from talking about them before the Feb. 5 firings. The religious college Olivet University, which Jang founded, has at least twice received contracts worth more than $1 million from Newsweeks parent company, according to recent reporting by Newsweeks own Katz, Josh Saul, and Josh Keefe. This week, their latest reportthe one editors got published by threatening to resignrevealed that in 2016, Newsweek Media Group also gave free, full-page ads to county officials in upstate New York, where Olivet was seeking tax breaks and permits to build a new campus.

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Executives seem intent on wringing what remains of the companys name brand for clicks and ad revenue for as long as they can.

The companys CEO, Pragad, is a former academic adviser at Olivet; Uzac, the co-founder and chairman who stepped down in February, had previously served as Olivets treasurer and vice chairman; and Kim, the former finance director and Uzacs wife, has close ties to Jang, according to a 2014 Mother Jones investigation headlined, Whos Behind Newsweek? Staff concerns intensified after the DA raid, which reportedly focused at least partly on loans the company had taken out. In a staff meeting held amid this months chaos, which one staffer described to the New York Post as batshit crazy, Davis pleaded with reporters to stop investigating the companys ties to Olivet. Davis wife is the universitys president. He closed the meeting by suggesting that staffers who werent on board could find new jobs. And, somewhat bizarrely, he said in an International Business Times story this week that Newsweek Media Group would be working more closely with Olivet University from now on.

Nevertheless, Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for Olivet, pointed to a statement the company gave on Jan. 25, which said that media reports linking Olivet to government probes or to Newsweek were inaccurate. (Newsweeks story alleging otherwise was published Feb. 20, and Davis gave his interview to the IBT on Feb. 21.)

The companys Olivet connections, its journalistic compromises, and its alleged treatment of its staff could all be considered evidence of a company willing to blur ethical boundaries. The recent reports from Social Puncher and BuzzFeed implicated only IBT in allegations of buying traffic and ad fraud, and not Newsweek.com. However, three former Newsweek employees separately told Slate they had internally raised questions about Newsweeks own advertising and traffic-reporting practices. All three said higher-ups had discouraged them from pursuing such questions. Another said that when they expressed concerns to company leaders, I was told to fuck off 100 different ways. All three were eventually fired, although theres no evidence that their termination was related to those inquiries. Newsweek did not comment on the claims.

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In a twist, the same editors who were accused by some former staffers of turning Newsweek into a glorified content farm have been among those standing up to executives when it comes to investigating their parent companys finances. Li was one of those fired on Feb. 5, and Silva was among the group who had prepared letters of resignation in case their bosses blocked publication of the Tuesday story. For all their detractors, its easy enough to imagine that both hold journalistic principles that might have held up better under more favorable circumstances. I think Silva really did think she was saving the company, one former editor said. A current staffer with knowledge of the companys strategy said its possible that Silvas click-savvy editing did in fact play a large role in saving the company, or at least prolonging its life.

It now appears rather unlikely that Newsweeks goal of 100 million page views will come to fruition. Then again, IBT reached 55 million at its peaknominally, at leastand Newsweek has in many ways become the heir to the IBT business model. Executives seem intent on wringing what remains of the companys name brand for clicks and ad revenue for as long as they caneven though every recent tweak to the Facebook news-feed algorithm has made it less friendly either to low-quality journalistic content or to journalistic content in general. Departed Newsweek reporters and editors have been replaced with a fresh influx from IBT.

We used to sit in the newsroom and joke that theyre eventually going to fire all of us and replace us with IBT people, said one former Newsweek editor. And then, of course, thats exactly what happened.Two Slovak flew above the Antarctic

Slovaks from Spisska Nova Ves and Stara Lubovna went paragliding above the Antarctic.

Two young men decided to climb seven summits where no human has ever stood on seven different continents. However, they did not plan on walking or climbing back down but flying down.

They accomplished the first such adventure, as the commercial broadcaster TV JOJ reported, by climbing a summit where no human foot had stepped before.

We are first in the world, for sure, said climber Michal Sabovcik for TV JOJ.

They named the summit Divoka

Michal Sabovcik and Juraj Koren took a boat to reach the iceberg where the summit is located, then they climbed the virgin summit.

They named it in Slovak, Divoka meaning wild.

Climbing up took about seven hours, but the way back was shorter as they used paragliders.

Of the adventure at the Antarctic lasting almost one month, the longest and most dramatic section was sailing to the continent.

The wind blew over 50 knots, there were huge waves and strong gusts. I lay ill in the lower deck for 12 days out of 25, I cannot even remember them, said Juraj Koren, the Slovak champion in paragliding for TV JOJ.

24. Feb 2018 at 7:30 | Compiled by Spectator staff American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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Read MoreWall Street analysts have given United States Natural Gas Fund 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 United States Natural Gas Fund wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The week-long Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday in Vietnam that ended in the middle of this week spelled a bonanza for GrabCar drivers in Ho Chi Minh City as people still preferred the ride-hailing app despite its skyrocketed fares.

Grab Vietnam only notified customers that its motorbike taxi (xe om) service, GrabBike, would collect a surcharge for bookings made during the holiday from mid-February. However, passengers were shocked to see the exorbitant fares listed for the private car service, GrabCar, during Tet.

Some complained the fares were increased on a minute basis, especially during noon time and late afternoon.

Hung, a resident in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, said he used to travel by Grab to District 1 for only VND100,000 (US$4.4) but the fare on February 17, the second day of the Lunar New Year, tripled to VND299,000 ($13.2).

So it was nearly VND38,000 [$1.6] per km, he said.

I had to take a conventional cab, even though I had to wait longer, as such a three-fold increase was unacceptable.

A woman boards a GrabCar at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

On the same day, Thanh, a District 12 resident, wanted to travel to Go Vap District and was quoted a price of VND210,000 ($9.25) for the 11-km ride on her app.

Even so, I failed to book that ride and in the next attempt, made a few minutes later, the fare jumped to VND270,000 but no driver accepted my booking, she said.

Thanh then switched to Uber, and turned back to Grab and finally, we managed to book the ride for VND285,000.

It was not easy to hail a taxi or Grab during Tet so we had to accept whatever the fare might be, she added.

On the other side of the fence, GrabCar drivers were more than happy to work during Tet.

One of them, Tien, made no secret that he made nearly VND10 million ($440) during the first three days of Tet and the morning of the fourth day.

I was almost glued to my car all day and had no time to eat, he said.

On the first day of Tet, Tien said he would receive new booking immediately after dropping a customer off.

The icing on the cake is that streets were less crowded during Tet and there were no traffic jams, he added.

The bonanza for GrabCar drivers like Tien came not only from the surge in the number of bookings, but also the skyrocketed fares.

No GrabCar rides during Tet were priced below VND50,000 ($2.2), and short journeys cost anywhere between VND60,000 and VND80,000.

A ride from District 9 to the nearby Dong Nai Province normally costs only VND200,000 but the Tet fare was more than VND500,000 [$21], Tien said happily.

The interface of the Grab app is seen on a smartphone in this photo taken in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

With Tet proven to be a lucrative time, many GrabCar drivers have canceled or adjusted plans to return to their hometowns for family reunions and celebrations to stay in Ho Chi Minh City.

One driver named Viet said he had told his family he would be home on the second day of Tet, but eventually decided to work until the afternoon of the fourth day to enjoy the bonanza in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hien, who works for both Grab and Uber, celebrated Tet in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre and returned to the southern metropolis on the third day of the holiday with big regrets that his chance of earning easy money was gone.

A Grab Vietnam representative told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the Tet fares were higher than normal rates as the app prices are calculated using a flexible real time pricing, based on the supply and demand basis.

Prices will rise when there is high demand against low availability of drivers, and the time and location of the bookings also matter, according to the company.Read whats in the news today, February 24!

Society

-- Chu Thi Binh, the victim in the recently uncovered savings theft of over VND245 billion (US$10 million) by a former deputy director of Eximbanks Ho Chi Minh City branch, has said she does not agree with the banks offer to resolve the issue in court and demanded that the lender return to her the stolen amount immediately.

-- Police in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City on Friday caught a super thief who preyed on careless visitors at the Dam Sen theme park and confiscated valuable items in his possession, which he had stolen from 14 different victims in just one morning.

-- All eight crew members on Vietnamese freighter Binh Nguyen 86 were successfully rescued on Friday afternoon after their ship sank early the same morning off the coast of Nghe An Province in north-central Vietnam due to rough waters.

-- Six cases of illegal logging were booked by the forest protection unit of Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam during Tet, or Lunar New Year, as loggers took advantage of the long holiday when most officials are off-duty to commit their crime.

-- District 2, District 9 and Thu Duc District will be Ho Chi Minh Citys core driving force in the citys journey to welcome the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), the municipal Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan said at a meeting on Friday.

-- The administration of La Gi Commune in south-central Binh Thuan Province has confirmed that the black-ish water being discharged into the ocean as shown in recent viral footage on social media had been mud from a local dredging project to build a sea port, and was not wastewater from nearby seafood processing facilities.

-- The body of Kim Seung-guk, a 31-year-old South Korean national who works as an engineer at a company in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa, was discovered in a forest by locals on Friday afternoon after he had been reported missing the same morning.

Business

-- A company specializing in producing cassava flour with its factory in the southern province of Binh Duong has been fined for VND1.7 billion ($75,000) for illegally discharging untreated wastewater into the environment and other violations in environment protection.

-- Only one car was imported into Vietnam between February 16 and 22 when the entire country enjoyed a long holiday to celebrate Tet, or Lunar New Year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs the

-- Farmers in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, Vietnams biggest cashew growing region, are making huge profits as the price of the nutritious nut is reaching a high of up to VND45,000 ($1.98) a kilogram, around ten percent higher than the same period of last year, thanks to favorable weather conditions.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!The man, whom police identified as 31-year-old Kim Seung-guk, had been staying at a motel in Quang Loi Commune, in Quang Xuong District prior to his death.

Kim had returned to the motel with his friend Kim Sang-yeol, 48, at around 11:00 pm on Thursday, according to initial police report.

When the engineer was nowhere to be found the next morning, Kim Sang-yeol set out on a search at around 11:00 am, accompanied by a Vietnamese translator and a few others.

About an hour later, locals in Quang Lois Hong Phong Town reported finding the mans body in a wood located around 100 meters from the motel where the South Koreans were staying.

Both Kim Seung-guk and Kim Sang-yeol are engineers working at the construction site for a factory in Quang Loi, according to local residents. The men had been staying at the motel for work for some time, and had not been involved in any noticeable conflicts with their neighbors, they added.

Police have yet to release the cause of death, as the investigation is still ongoing.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Tran Van Chung, 24, is being detained for questioning on charges of property theft, officers said on Friday.

Chung was caught on Wednesday for stealing from visitors at the Dam Sen Water Park in District 11, according to information released by the police.

A search through his belongings led to the discovery of valuable items and cash that he confessed to having stolen from 14 different people on the morning that day.

Chung admitted to having intentionally circled the park to prey on careless victims who didnt pay attention to their belongings.

The man was caught by on-duty police officers at around 10:00 am the same day, when he was trying to flee after having stolen from his last victims.

Police later searched his temporary residence in Binh Tan District and confiscated a taser gun, a few magazines, a machete and a handcuff.

Chung said he had bought the items as means of self-protection during his criminal ventures.

Dam Sen Water Park is a popular getaway for families in Ho Chi Minh City, and is usually packed with visitors on weekends and national holidays.

Officers goes through Tran Van Chungs belongings in this video supplied by the police.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A creative urban space to be developed in an area spanning three districts in Ho Chi Minh City will be the core of the Vietnamese metropolis strategy to participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the municipal Party chief said Friday.

Developing a smart city is one of the key plans of the pilot scheme whereby Ho Chi Minh City is given special mechanisms for its development, as stipulated by Resolution 54 taking effect earlier this year.

Speaking at a meeting on Friday, Nguyen Thien Nhan, secretary of the municipal Party Committee, said Ho Chi Minh City authorities will focus on implementing seven breakthrough projects and a plan to develop a creative urban area, along with the smart city project.

The creative urban hub will cover District 2, District 9 and Thu Duc District in eastern Ho Chi Minh City, and plays the core role in the citys strategy to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution, according to Nhan.

The three districts are chosen as District 9 is home to the Saigon Hi-tech Park, one of the leading of its kind in Vietnam, while Thu Duc District is where the citys university village is located.

The university village consists of 12 universities and colleges, with 1,500 PhD holders and more than 70,000 students.

In the meantime, a new financial center has been planned to be formed in District 2, completing the creative urban hub for Ho Chi Minh City.

Nhan said the city will invite tender for the consultancy and designing of the creative hub.

The Resolution 54 was adopted by lawmaking National Assembly in November 2017. The special mechanisms mean Ho Chi Minh City authorities can make decisions on issues currently within the authority of the prime minister.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have since exerted effort to realize its plan to become a smart city, such as speeding up its administrative reform, highlighted by the e-governance system.

E-governance is the application of information and communication technology for providing government-to-citizen and government-to-business services, exchange of information and communication transactions.

Tran Vinh Tuyen, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City administration and leader of the citys administrative reform initiative, requested earlier this week that municipal departments and sectors develop mobile apps to better serve the public, instead of relying on websites.Next week UK crime drama Silent Witness returns to ABC for a landmark 20th series, with Emilia Fox, Richard Lintern, David Caves and Liz Carr.

There are 10 episodes this season, once again comprising 52 part stories.

This aired in the UK in January 2017. Season 22 has been confirmed for 2019.

Silent Witness follows a dedicated team of forensic pathologists who try to work out how and why the victim died, often risking their own lives in the process. Each story is told over two episodes.

In episode 1, part 1 a people-smuggler is found dead in the City, Nikki must delve Londons illegal immigrant community. She meets a vulnerable Syrian teen called Akka who is in need of help, putting Nikki in a moral dilemma  and the killer is still on the loose.

Starring Emilia Fox as Dr Nikki Alexander (The Wrong Mans, The Wipers Times), Richard Lintern as Dr Thomas Chamberlain (Spies of Warsaw, The Shadow Line), David Caves as Dr Jack Hodgson and Liz Carr as Dr Clarissa Mullery.

9:30pm Friday March 9 on ABC.When the next TV awards season rolls around, expect to see The Looming Tower high on the list.

The new series is produced by Legendary Television for Hulu, the same platform that is home to The Handmaids Tale.

Based on the book of the same name by Lawrence Wright, the 10 part drama dramatises global events in the lead-up to 9 / 11. Hauntingly, it reveals details missed by the FBI and the CIA which it suggests may have prevented the attack. Unlike the fiction of Homeland or 24, its revelations will ripple across America.

Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom, Godless) plays John ONeill, who runs the counter-terrorism unit of the FBI circa 1998. Amongst those his department is watching is the rise of Al-Qaeda and its wealthy leader Osama Bin Laden. An interview Bin Laden gives to ABC correspondent John Miller warns of threats to all Americans, whether military or civilian.

As far as we are concerned they are all targets, he warned.

While the FBI and CIA are supposed to share intelligence, CIAs head of counterterrorism Martin Schmidt (Peter Sarsgaard) keeps information within his department. Schmidt is convinced a reckless FBI will blow any leads they have and ruin all their work. A hard drive seized in the Middle East identifying Al-Qaeda names and their targets is kept from ONeill and his team.

It would be a foreign intelligence matter, not a law enforcement matter, Schmidt insists.

Against all of this backdrop the government and media are obsessed with the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair and a dress with tell-tale stains.

ONeills only Muslim agent, Ali Soufan (Tahar Rahim) works to identify evidence that convince the FBI to take action. But their path is thwarted as they endeavour to justify each chess move.

Meanwhile FBI agent Robert Chesney (Bill Camp) is sent to East Africa ahead of an embassy bombing, while forces are working underground against the west in Kenya, Tanzania & Albania.

Needless to say this is a labyrinthine plot that requires some attention, but one which is rewardingly portrayed. Recreations are authentically presented in various hotspots across the globe (Bin Laden appears via news footage, strategically avoiding a hammy impersonation). And while the politics and action scenes dominate, there are personal touches too including infidelity, ambition, romance and loss.

The ensemble is necessarily male-heavy, with Jeff Daniels bringing Will McAvoy-like swagger to his role. Locked in a c***fight with Schmidt, there are lashings of profanity and testosterone. For my money it is Tahar Rahim as Muslim FBI agent Ali Soufan who is the standout. Working alongside the US government he is questioned about his faith, but steadfast in his drive.

There are a lot of moving parts to The Looming Tower, superbly produced by Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney, and Lawrence Wright but they sing in harmony thanks to a solid cast and commanding direction (Alex Gibney).

Reminiscent of Homeland at its finest, the shows message is clear that our collective destiny may have taken a much different path had US government departments also been in harmony, and a terror group been quelled before that fateful day.

The Looming Tower begins Thursday on Amazon Prime Video.The warring and shaky tories are uniting as they rally around to take back control of Britain's laws after Brexit, the Daily Mail UK reports.

Sky News also mentioned that "Boris Johnson and Philip Hammond were both satisfied by the agreement on rules and standards, European courts and divergence."

Theresa May's Brexit talks deal brings fragile peace to warring Tories https://t.co/LEKavtETWY pic.twitter.com/yQhBLhOSvA  BSG History&Politics (@BSGHistory) February 24, 2018

Theresa May and the eight-hour talks

Theresa May met with the Brexit cabinet at Chequers where they talked for eight hours.

It seems that finally, there was a mature gathering of minds over the end of the week's talks as Sky reported that nobody "walked out." There were no tantrums and protests as they put together a compromised deal tagged as "managed divergence."

Prime Minister needs this unity - the first in a long while

This was the first evidence of some kind of unity in a long while. Even Boris Johnson seemed less wind-whipped and fraught and Remainer Philip Hammond was relaxed. While all the details have not yet emerged, there will be more information forthcoming next week in Mrs. May's keynote speech.

There are thought to be three areas of importance that were discussed and agreed upon. The Financial Times described it as basically wanting a Canada-style trade deal after the UK exit.

The unity is all well and good, but pundits are predicting it will not last long. FT writes that trying to compartmentalise the British economy into "sectors where regulations...remain the same," is a bit like "cherry-picking."

For many Tory supporters, the fragile, if temporary peace between the ministers is seen as absolutely vital.

As one commenter on Twitter said, "The thought of Maxist Corbyn as PM, McDonnell as Chancellor, Abbott as HS etc&Momentum running this country fills me with absolute dread. Every Labour government in my lifetime has been a disaster.That's why @theresa_may has 2 deliver a full Brexit or Labour will get in & ruin UK."

The thought of Maxist Corbyn as PM, McDonnell as Chancellor, Abbott as HS etc&Momentum running this country fills me with absolute dread.Every Labour government in my lifetime has been a disaster.That's why @theresa_may has 2 deliver a full Brexit or Labour will get in & ruin UK.  Karen Powell (@sheltiesretreat) February 24, 2018

This is a critical time for the Tories so that peace will hopefully last longer than their detractors predict.

The Independent has reported that the EU are becoming a bit fed up, saying to Theresa May, "Make up your mind on Brexit or well do it for you."

It is not just the left that are hoping for a Brexit fail to smear the face of Theresa May, and neither is it just the EU hoping to scalp the UK for entertaining the idea of Brexit. Within the party supporters, there is division as well, and much of it is focussed on Theresa May.

One commenter on Twitter posted, "As a lifelong Tory I couldnt dislike @theresa_may more. Shes the worst leader in our history. she keeps trying to ride two horses with one *ss. Shes deceitful, indecisive and weak. She is purposefully butchering our democratic Brexit vote."

Harsh words, but for some people, very poignant.

There seems to be a general wistfulness over Boris Johnson not being in the driving seat.

Brexit opponents preparing a major campaign

Meanwhile, Stavros Papagianneas mentioned on Twitter that "Opponents of Britains exit from the #EU are preparing a major campaign they say now has close to a 50:50 chance of stopping #Brexit by blocking PM #TheresaMays divorce deal."

Bad news is emerging via Bloomberg, that the "European Commission warns Theresa May that her strategy for a Brexit trade deal is unacceptable."

But perhaps Theresa May is taking a lot of hits over a strategy that was not fully confronted at the time of the Brexit vote. The government has to try and do what is best for the UK economy and if that helps to unify the Tories, it can only lead to hope for the Leavers.ISRAEL have stepped up there push against Palestine, with the US supporting closely behind them and the UK silence is a deafening noise as to who they support. This week Israel escalated the war in Gaza with airstrikes, the US plan to move the embassy to Jerusalem on Israels Independence Day, Israel also moved buildings into illegal settlements for the first time in 25 years.

The west has largely ignored the historical idea that they are responsible for the war in Palestine-Israel. There has been a history of violence over who has the right to the holy city, the spiritual home to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

But the Balfour Declaration has caused unprecedented violence.

Israels occupation of Palestine

Last weekend saw the violence escalate in Gaza after a device exploded, injuring 4 Israeli soldiers. They then responded by bombing 18 Hamas targets on Saturday and Sunday, furthermore, Israeli Forces killed two Palestinian teenagers on the ground. Then on Monday, Israeli jets carried out further air strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said this was in response to a missile fired from Gaza that hit southern Israel, though that has yet to be confirmed.

A senior official from Hamas said that they didnt want violence to escalate in the region and that plans were already underway to deescalate the situation.

Hamas have already sent messages through Egypt, who often act as a mediator between the two, a source within Hamas have already stated that have officially informed the head of Egyptian intelligence that the movement is not interested in any escalation in Gaza".

Israel started to move structures on Thursday to a new illegal settlement in West Bank, Netanyahu had already announced that the settlement will be for evicted residents of the Amona outpost, a settlement that Israel deemed illegal, 100s of new residents will be moved into the area.

Under international law, all settlements in West Bank are deemed illegal. The Amihai settlement is being built on a Palestinian village home to 500 people, called Jalod, southeast of Nablus City. The move could easily be preparation to annex further land from the Palestinians.

Susiya, a small Palestinian village were handed yet another demolition order by Israeli officials, they have been embroiled in legal battles with the Israeli state for decades, but the latest order came on the 1st February, when the Israeli High Court gave the government a green light to move forward with the demolition of seven structures housing 42 people, half of them children.

The move came despite widespread condemnation from British MPs and international activists. The latter maintain an almost constant presence in the village to assist villagers in the event of attacks from Israeli settlers or forces.

US pen date for embassy relocation

The United States plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on 14 May, the 70th anniversary of Israel's independence, a US official confirmed on Friday. In December, US president donald trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and signalled Washington's intention to relocate its embassy. The move infuriated many of Washington's Arab allies and dismayed Palestinians who see as East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Following the Decembers recognition by the US President, Donald Trump, that Jerusalem was the Israeli capital and signalled the intention to relocate the US embassy. The US have decided the move the embassy officially on the 14th May, the official 70th anniversary of Israels independence, this was confirmed on Friday by US officials. The latest move has infuriated Arab allies of the US because Palestine has seen East Jerusalem as their capital for any future established Palestinian state.

Last month, Vice President, Mike Pence had stated that the embassy would move by the end of 2019, however, it appears that the move has been sped up by the US. Clashes erupted in West Bank and Gaza on Friday during weekly protests Trumps decision, 25 Palestinians were injured when Israeli forces used live rounds on them.In a leaked memo first obtained by Politico, Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order that will keep the Military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba open for business. As expected, Trump faced backlash.

Trump and Gitmo

For the better part of the last year, Donald Trump has been accused of not passing through much new legislation. The former host of "The Apprentice," due to constant in-fighting with his own Republican Party as well as Democrats, has done his best to roll-back much of what was put in place during the eight years of the Barack Obama administration.

One action taken by Obama during his time in the White House was to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, in a debate that often became heated between the political left and right.

JUST IN; Trump to reverse Obama decision, keep Guantanamo Bay open: report https://t.co/rejNLIPUGz pic.twitter.com/mKHd0mPrrH  The Hill (@thehill) January 26, 2018

Barack Obama attempted to fully close the Gitmo during his last term, but was unable to transfer the remaining 41 detainees after being successful removing over 200. The document in question is reportedly scheduled to be sent to several United States embassies around the world, and while the current detainees are expected to remain, the document notes that the State Department is "not aware of any plans to bring additional detainees to Guantanamo Bay." During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump expressed his support for the prison, saying he wouldn't mind "loading it up with bad dudes."

Instant reaction

In response to the news of Gitmo, critics of Donald Trump decided to lash out.

"Hes gonna do a remodel before he becomes an inhabitant," one tweet read.

Well, of course. #TrickyTrump is a hateful, vengeful, and jealous man. Did I mention he has small hands?  TheGoodWitch (@S_Klein) January 26, 2018

Soon-his Winter White House.  Sandra Dee (@SandraPinkLady7) January 26, 2018

Hes gonna do a remodel before he becomes an inhabitant.  Mario Jenkins (@Mario_Jenkins) January 26, 2018

"Well, of course.

Tricky Trump is a hateful, vengeful, and jealous man. Did I mention he has small hands?" another Twitter user wrote. "Soon-his 'Winter White House,'" a follow-up tweet said of Guantanamo Bay. "Half of his admin could end up there :-) maybe he can install gold toilets... in preparation," yet another tweet read.

@realDonaldTrump, this is a great idea!! You already look great in orange, but by keeping Gitmo open youll guarantee a perfect place for you and Jared to retire; post the Russia investigation by Mueller. Shall we schedule a VIP tour for you and your @WhiteHouse staff?  Lightbuild3r (@lightbuild3r) January 26, 2018

Good we can put him and his corrupt family there!  Eileen Hager (@emhager4) January 26, 2018

half of his admin could end up there :-) maybe he can install gold toilets... in preparation :-)  Ina (@minzi8mango) January 26, 2018

"This is a great idea!!

You already look great in orange, but by keeping Gitmo open youll guarantee a perfect place for you and Jared to retire; post the Russia investigation by Mueller. Shall we schedule a VIP tour for you and your @WhiteHouse staff?" a Twitter user stated. "Good we can put him and his corrupt family there!" an additional tweet noted. The backlash continued as the opposition to Donald Trump and his entire family and administration is showing no signs of slowing down at any point in the near future, with the president's approval rating dropping to new lows.A Cold Case is one that has gone unsolved for years. However, homicide cases are never truly cold, for detectives constantly work cases until they are officially closed. Case in point is the recent arrest of 60-year-old Nancy Moronez. On Friday (Feb. 23), Moronez, a resident of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, confessed to police that she was responsible for three homicides between 1980 and 1985. A report by FOX News provided most of the information used in this article.

All of Moronez's victims were infants. The first to die was Moronez's son, a two-week-old boy who expired in March 1980.

The next victim, a six-month-old boy, died in 1984. A year later, a two-month-old girl passed away. One of the victims died in the city of Franklin, while the other two died in Milwaukee. In all three cases, the deaths were officially listed as the result of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.

According to police investigators, the first time that Moronez was mentioned as a suspect in these crimes was in 2015. At that time, her own daughter contacted police in Waukesha, Wisconsin in order to report that her mother had admitted to killing her own son in 1980 with a Garbage Bag. The other two victims were also smothered to death by Moronez. Moronez would later tell investigators that she drowned her son in a bathtub rather than smother him with a garbage bag.

Babysitter nightmare

The deaths in 1984 and 1985 occurred because Moronez claims that she grew "frustrated" with the two infants. At the time of the crimes, Moronez was working as a babysitter, and both victims were charged to her care. Milwaukee's FOX 6 has reported that Moronez explained away her last two homicides to investigators by simply saying "I can't take kids that constantly cry."

During the 1984 murder, Moronez used a blanket to suffocate the small child.

The next crime almost ended with Moronez being questioned by investigators, for one of the responding firefighters at the scene recognized Moronez from the 1984 case. After this third homicide, Moronez allegedly told her husband that she no longer wanted to work as a babysitter.

Moronez is currently being held on $35,000 bail.

She is facing the possibility of three life sentences if convicted. Moronez has supposedly expressed remorse for her crimes.

Horrific echoes

The case of Nancy Moronez bears an eerie similarity to the case of Helen Patricia Moore. Between 1978 and 1980, the Australian teenager killed three members of her own family. In each instance, the deaths of 14-month-old Andrew Stuart, 16-month-old Suzanne Moore, and seven-year-old Peter Moore were blamed on SIDS. After killing Peter, Helen admitted to her mother that she was responsible for all three murders. Despite this confession, Helen Moore would only serve 13 years in prison and was released back into the general population in 1993. During each crime, Moore babysat her victims.Could Catelynn Lowell have lost a child before she entered an Arizona treatment center for Thoughts Of Suicide? According to a new report, a sneak peek at an upcoming episode of "Teen Mom OG" showed Lowell's daughter, three-year-old Nova, sporting a "big sister" shirt and now, fans are convinced that Lowell may have suffered a miscarriage before considering ways to kill herself in November of last year.

In a sneak peek at Monday night's upcoming episode of "Teen Mom OG" season seven, Catelynn Lowell tells her husband of two years, Tyler Baltierra, that their daughter will soon be a big sister.

That said, Lowell and Baltierra never publicly acknowledged the pregnancy off-screen. So, did the pregnancy never actually happen, or did Lowell conceive a child and then suffer a miscarriage? Unfortunately, Lowell and Baltierra haven't said either way and it is unclear how much will be seen on the remaining episodes of the MTV series.

Report claims Catelynn Lowell was pregnant in 2017

Although Lowry and Tyler Baltierra have remained silent in regard to the alleged miscarriage she experienced, a source told The Ashley's Reality Roundup earlier this week that Lowell had surprised her husband and their daughter last year with the news of her pregnancy. Then, the outlet revealed, Lowell suffered a tragic miscarriage and went to treatment shortly thereafter after confirming her thoughts of suicide with her online audience on Twitter in November.

The outlet then said that while the MTV crew believed the reality star was around six weeks pregnant, no one was 100 percent sure about the timeline of her pregnancy.

Catelynn Lowell is dedicated to getting well

After entering the Arizona rehab center for the third time earlier this month, Radar Online's source said that the longtime reality star was determined to get her mental health back to 100 percent before she makes plans to return home to her family.

After all, her thoughts of suicide were reportedly quite strong before Catelynn Lowell decided to seek help. Its going to take more than a few weeks of therapy to help her recover," the source said.

To see more of Catelynn Lowell, her family, and her co-stars, including Tyler Baltierra and their daughter, three-year-old Novalee Reign, don't miss new episodes of "Teen Mom OG" season seven on Monday nights on MTV at 9 p.m. The show also stars Farrah Abraham, Andrew Glennon, Amber Portwood, Gary Shirley, Ryan Edwards, and Maci Bookout.Teresa Giudice is dealing with a lot while Joe is behind bars. Radar Online shared that Teresa is allegedly really scared that Joe could get deported when he gets out of prison, but everyone wants to know if she will be going along with him or not. Teresa hasn't opened up yet about what her decision would be.

Details about why Joe could get deported

It turns out that when everything came to light about Joe Giudice's financial fraud, they also found out that he was living in the United States illegally. This means that once Joe gets done with his time in jail they could decide to deport him to Italy.

An insider shared saying, "Teresa is terrified Joe will be deported upon his release in less than two years."

The source went on to explain that because of the felony charges against him, it won't be easy for Joe to win the case. Joe Giudice allegedly knew this when he took his plea deal. Of course, he is sitting in prison now and won't know for a while if he is going to end up being deported or not.

Will she stay behind?

The source explained that Joe is actually terrified that Teresa and the girls won't go with him. Instead, she could end up staying here in the United States if he is deported. Teresa and Joe have gotten used to being apart and she might end up deciding that she can live without him to stay here.

So far, Teresa Giudice hasn't said if she plans to go with him or not. She has said that Italy is pretty, but she hasn't said she would live there. It sounds like she is just going to avoid talking about a decision until she has no choice but to make her mind up about if she wants to go or not. The source said that Teresa hasn't forgiven Joe yet.

The source said, "Teresa and Joes marriage is not as it once was. Theyre both changed people. Both of them have grown so if he must go Teresa doesnt think shes going with him. At least not how she feels today.

Recently on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," the fans saw Teresa talk about how she wanted an apology from Joe and she finally got it when she went to see him in prison.

It had been over six months since she had seen him when she went. Teresa doesn't seem to be going to see Joe near as often as he went to see her while she was in prison.

Do you think that Teresa Giudice should end up going with Joe if he gets deported? Do you think that he will end up getting sent away? Sound off in the comments below on your thoughts, and don't miss new episodes of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" when they air on Wednesday nights on Bravo.Briana DeJesus has been making headlines for months now. From her failed relationship with Javi Marroquin to her post-surgery photos, everyone has questions for the Teen Mom 2 star. She gets a lot of pushback on social media. DeJesus knows that comes with the territory, but she hasn't stayed silent when someone says something she doesn't like. In fact, she has been pretty vocal about things in recent weeks.

Briana DeJesus speaks out

In an Exclusive statement to Blasting News, Briana DeJesus is talking about the people who are accusing her of being an attention-seeking.

The Teen Mom 2 star said; I'm on a show that's watched by millions, and I frequently have reporters ask me questions and if I share it, I'm sharing stories with interviews I've done with my fans. This isn't "Attention Seeking"- It's called being in the public eye and sharing things my fans and followers want to see. Same with the post-surgery photos like I said on Twitter. People ask me to see them. That's not attention seeking. If you don't like me feel free to hit the unfollow button or keep on scrolling. Your negativity has no effect on me and I'm here enjoying and living my life while you're sitting behind a keyboard clearly way too focused on bashing mine."

There was some pushback when Briana DeJesus released a statement on the firing of David Eason.

She is friends with Jenelle Evans. What she said was enough to support her friend but also let the network and fans know that she does not share the same beliefs as Eason. DeJesus was not the only Teen Mom 2 cast member to release a statement either. Both Kailyn Lowry and Javi DeJesus did as well. Other cast members just commented on Twitter.

New season confirmed filming

It looks like there are another six weeks or so of filming left. Briana DeJesus was added to the cast last year, and now, there may be more time to focus on her story. She had her relationship with Javi Marroquin happening, the plastic surgery with Dr. Miami, and plenty of other things happening that will make for good television.

Living your life in front of the public eye isn't easy. Fortunately, Briana DeJesus is mature enough to know what is happening and how to handle the push back. She has fans who follow her every move, and some of them aren't genuine. DeJesus is back in the spotlight, and she is ready to take everything head on. There is plenty to catch up on since last season, and fans are excited to see what Briana has been up to with her girls.Jenelle Evans appeared on Vince Russo's radio show earlier this week and during her appearance, she took major aim at her "Teen Mom 2" co-star Kailyn Lowry. As the two women continue to bicker back and forth on social media, Evans spoke out against Lowry, slamming her for constantly drawing attention to herself and being jealous of her life.

"She's trying make publicity of herself," Evans revealed to Vince Russo, according to a February 19 report by OK! Magazine. As Evans pointed out, Lowry has made a habit of drawing attention to her every move with her ongoing social media posts and recently tweeted about canceling her plastic surgery she previously scheduled in Miami.

"[Kailyn Lowry] is trying so hard!" Evans said.

Jenelle Evans is the only 'Teen Mom 2' star MTV pays attention to

Evans recalled a time when Lowry and her co-stars, including Chelsea Houska and Leah Messer, approached her because she was the only one who MTV producers pay attention to. While it is unclear why MTV would chose to ignore the requests of the other women and give only Evans the time of day, Evans said the women came to her in hopes of becoming a voice for them. "You're the only one that has a voice. Can you please talk to them?" they reportedly asked Evans. As Evans recalled, her "Teen Mom 2" co-stars were hoping for her help with payments or scenes from the show.

"I think [Kailyn Lowry], like I said, is just too jealous to get over it," Jenelle Evans said.

Leah Messer is following Kailyn Lowry's orders?

"It's just with [Kailyn Lowry] it's about attention and then you got [Leah Messer] following," Evans continued. As she revealed, she and Messer used to have a good relationship but in recent months, things between them have become strained and she suspects that Lowry is responsible for the divide.

Evans then said that Lowry lured Messer to her podcast series, "Coffee and Convos" with Lindsie Chrisley, and afterwards, Messer completely turned on both her and her co-star Briana DeJesus.

According to Jenelle Evans, Briana DeJesus confronted Leah Messer at the "Teen Mom 2" season eight reunion filming about why she was acting standoffish towards her.

In response, Evans claimed, Messer informed her that if she was not standoffish, Lowry would get mad at her.

The cast of "Teen Mom 2" is currently in the midst of production on the upcoming season of the show but MTV has not yet confirmed a premiere date for the new installment.Stencil Group apartment projects approved by planning commission

At the Board of Zoning Adjustment meeting, the board approved a $28.5 million project to start.In the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting and more than a dozen threats of violence against schools around the state that followed, Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez called on the Legislature to pass laws aimed at curbing school shooter threats and also proposed initiatives targeting the larger issue of gun violence in New Mexico.

We must act and act now  the level of gun violence in this country, and in this community, is unacceptably high, Torrez said during a news conference Friday afternoon. Each of us  must come together and say with one voice: Enough is enough.

Promising what he referred to as a zero tolerance from the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office with respect to school safety and gun violence, Torrez drafted a letter to the Legislature and governor for immediate consideration in giving law enforcement the proper tools to punish those responsible for making threats against a school.

The Legislature recently completed this years session and will not meet again until next January.

The district attorney called current statutes outdated in the age of social media, and while they address bomb threats, assaults and interference with the educational process, they do not include threats of gun violence and classify such crimes as a misdemeanor.

The language itself needs to be clarified, and the penalties need to be strengthened, Torrez said.

He added that current statutes are an insufficient deterrent and he hopes to see them reach the level of a felony, depending on the circumstances. We need to make sure the penalty matches the crime and right now  its simply inadequate for what were dealing with.

The state saw more than a dozen threats against schools in 11 different communities over the past week, and in December a former student walked into Aztec High School and gunned down two students before killing himself.

The lives that have been lost in this state, and across the country, its not a joke to anyone and needs to be taken seriously, Torrez said.

He added that tackling gun violence is a top priority of his administration, saying he has already directed prosecutors to seek pretrial detention of anyone charged with any felony while possessing a gun.

Armed felons are the very definition of someone who does not belong on the streets of this community, he said.

In light of newly allocated resources for his department during the past legislative session, Torrez said he is committing at least three more full-time gun prosecutors to refer any federally eligible case for potential prosecution in the U.S. Attorneys Office.

One of the things I think everyone needs to finally come to terms with is that there are people in society, either by virtue of prior criminal acts or mental instability, that should just not possess a firearm, he said.

Torrez, a gun owner who has a concealed carry permit, outlined three common sense gun safety measures he is pushing for legislative action during the next session, including supporting universal mandatory background checks nationwide, mandatory surrender of firearms for anyone convicted of domestic violence in New Mexico and a red flag law allowing family members or intimate partners to request a civil court order to have guns removed from persons they deem dangerous.

Torrez said his goal is to flag deficiencies that contribute to gun violence in an attempt to bring the law in line with where the community sentiment is.

Theres nothing to be done if this tragedy unfolds and were left to try and put the pieces back together, he said. The best thing we can do is try and intercept and prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place, and that requires all of us to get involved.

Maggie Byers, a mother of two, said she is terrified by the Parkland school shooting and subsequent threats against schools across New Mexico.

Fighting back tears, Byers said its something she thinks about everyday as she drops her kids off at school.

Byers attended the news conference with Moms Demand Action, an organization started after the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting and focused on calling for common-sense gun reforms.

The best thing to do is become involved, Byers said. Its not going to go away. We cant just stick our heads in the sand and pretend like its not going to happen to us.

She said she is proud of Torrez for sticking his neck out for the community.

A lot of people are going to give him a hard time about it and I know he has the backbone to take it, Byers said.

She said unfortunately, it seems to take a huge tragedy to get people in motion on gun reform.

Theres this cognitive dissonance that people experience, until it falls at their feet, Byers said. Then we all go oh, thats so close to home.'

In response to the proposed solution of arming teachers, Byers called it a horrible idea.

They dont need to have that responsibility, thats not their job, she said. We need to be making sure that this stuff is not rolling downhill to the schools.

Byers said she wishes people pushing for guns in schools would push equally as hard on legislators to close the laws.

Im not anti-gun, Im pro-gun safety, she said. There has to be regulation, there has to be common sense.

Byers said she hopes the next legislative session passes some of the laws Torrez proposed, addressing school threat punishments and keeping guns out of the wrong hands.

In New Mexico, I feel like were waiting and waiting and waiting for something huge to happen here, she said. If you look at all the people who have died from gun violence in New Mexico, I think that should be enough.A group of top New York Police Department officials spent the week in Albuquerque as part of efforts by the new administration to improve the citys own department.

Theyre doing the best they can with what they have, NYPD Assistant Chief Fausto Pichardo said during a Friday news conference. We have just seen the beginning of whats going to happen in this great city and in (the Albuquerque Police Department).

Pichardo said the most striking observation was the departments notable staffing shortage, which is estimated to be at least 200 officers.

You need the boots on the ground to respond to every 911 call, Pichardo said. If you dont have that, youre not going to be able to wholeheartedly proceed and reduce crime.

The five NYPD representatives also discussed their efforts to switch to a neighborhood policing model that focuses more on working with communities to reduce crime.

Its a model the Albuquerque Police Department hopes to emulate.

Weve gotten input not only on how our department can do better but also how our community can come together, Mayor Tim Keller said. Part of honoring and fulfilling the (Department of Justice) requirements and taking back our police department is having an effective neighborhood policing program, in which New York is one of the best.

Keller said more details on the visit will likely be given at a briefing next week that will also include additional information about the departments staffing shortage.

I sincerely believe its going to help us reduce crime and increase our efforts and strategies to make Albuquerque a safer place, APD Chief Michael Geier said.Classes continued Friday at Santa Fe High School as police officers were there investigating a possible threat that originated on social media, a Santa Fe Public Schools spokesman said.

We didnt close the school because in working with the police department we felt we could investigate a possible threat without disrupting school, SFPS spokesman Jeff Gephart said.

He said parents of SFHS students were notified of the situation by robocall, and that a few picked up their children, but classes went on as usual.

Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurule said it appears the possible threat originated from a Snapchat post by a student in Springfield, Ohio. Someone got hold of it and converted it to make it look like Santa Fe High, he said.

The investigation comes after more than a dozen incidents at schools in 11 communities around New Mexico following last weeks mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead. (See a story on page A1 with Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez talking about threats to schools.)

Friday, Grants High School and Los Alamitos Middle School were closed as a precaution after unspecified threats targeted both schools, the Cibola County Sheriffs Office told KQRE-TV. Sheriff Tony Mace said that a threat written on a bathroom urinal at Grants High Thursday was shared on Snapchat.

In Alamogordo, an Alamogordo High School student was taken into police custody for making what was perceived as a threat to the school. And a threat posted on Snapchat late Wednesday prompted Ruidoso School Superintendent George Bickert to request beefed up security from Ruidoso police at their high school and middle School Thursday and Friday.

Other threat-related incidents this week were at high and middle schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Belen, Los Lunas, Las Cruces, Farmington, Kirtland and Espanola. Farmington police announced Friday it was increasing its presence in the citys public schools for the rest of the school year.

Also Friday, the U.S. Attorneys Office filed federal charges against two New Mexico men for using social media to post school threats. No schools were identified.

The FBI arrested Sebastian Jarvison, 25, of Brimhall, N.M., for Facebook posts allegedly including threats in McKinley County to go shoot a school or put a bomb on a plane. A separate complaint charged John Russell Williams, 19, of Farmington for replying to a school shooting threat on Facebook with a slang term that means lets do it.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

A former U.S. Forest Service ranger was ordered this week to pay a disabled Afghanistan war veteran and another man almost $600,000 after a federal judge ruled that the ranger violated their civil rights by using excessive force during their 2014 arrests at the Juan Tomas campground in the mountains east of Albuquerque.

In May 2014, then U.S. Forest Service Ranger David Chavez confronted Adam Griego, who served in the Army during two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and fellow camper Elijah Haukereid at the Juan Tomas campground.

Earlier, Chavez had told Griego that the road to the campground was closed and that Griego would have to hike into the area to retrieve his belongings.

Griego found another route to rejoin his friends, who were packing up and preparing to leave.

According to findings made by U.S. District Judge Judith C. Herrera, after Chavez arrived at the campsite, he noticed Griego, then handcuffed him and slammed his face into the hood of Chavezs government truck.

Chavez then twice slammed Griegos head into the door frame of the truck while putting Griego into the rear seat, where Griego was kept for several hours without water despite the heat.

Herrera noted in her ruling, which followed a bench trial, that, at the time of his arrest in May 2014, Griego was 100 percent disabled from his military service by post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

Griego received a Purple Heart for his wounds from an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan, one of five IED explosions he experienced during his two tours of duty  in Iraq from 2009 to 2010 and in Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013.

He was wounded, and his best friend killed by the fourth IED explosion he experienced, and he returned to his unit after being treated for his wounds in Germany.

Griego served as an infantryman in 1st Battalion 23rd Infantry Regiment The Tomahawks 3rd Brigade Stryker Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Wash.

After forcing Griego into the truck, Chavez then turned his attention on Griegos fellow camper, Haukereid, who was recording Griegos arrest on his cellphone.

Chavez slapped the phone out of Haukereids hand and threatened him with a Taser. Haukereid questioned why Chavez said he needed to get on the ground. Chavez then commanded his trained dog to get out of the vehicle and attack Haukereid.

Haukereid then complied with Chavezs order, was handcuffed and placed in the Forest Service truck for two hours, according to the courts ruling.

It was a privilege to represent both men, attorney Louren Oliveros said. It was particularly important that Adam (Griego) got to tell his story to Judge Herrera. It was the first time he was able to tell his story.

Herrera awarded Griego $450,000 in compensatory and punitive damages after finding that the beating he suffered made his combat injuries worse. Haukereid was awarded $140,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

There is still a lot of legal work to do before either man can receive any money, according to Oliveros.

The Department of Agriculture, of which the Forest Service is a part, didnt provide former Ranger Chavez with a defense attorney, despite his request, and didnt agree to indemnify him.

Herreras order of a $590,000 judgement is directed at Chavez, but normally his former employer would have to pay the judgment for his actions.

Oliveros said she and her co-counsel, Timothy Padilla, will have to try to get the federal government to accept responsibility for Chavezs actions and pay the judgment.

Chavez pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor criminal civil rights charge in 2015 for slamming Griegos head twice into the hood of Chavezs government truck after handcuffing him.

The criminal information charging Chavez and his agreement to plead guilty were filed together in December 2015, which indicates that the charge and plea were negotiated before being filed. He was sentenced to one year of probation.

The criminal case was handled by prosecutors from Washington, D.C., because the local U.S. attorney had a conflict in the case.When the annual Mexican wolf population count came out earlier this week, one notable Mexican wolf pack was missing for the first time in 20 years.

Ever since 1998, when the 11 founder wolves were first released in southeast Arizona, the Hawks Nest Pack has roamed the White Mountains and the volcanic plateau that flanks its high peaks. There, amongst the ponderosa pine savannahs and plentiful elk herds, the pack raised many young, including the first wild-conceived, wild-born Mexican wolf pup.

Today, only one member of this once prolific pack remains, and a single wolf does not a pack make. The reason for the packs decline cant be fully known, but Im fairly certain the removal of another of its members in November 2016 played a prominent role in the packs demise.

That wolf was trapped, removed from the wild and forever banished from his birthplace and his family. Federal animal damage control agents did this for one reason: he killed a cow. His good fortune is that because he is genetically valuable to the overall wolf recovery effort, his life was spared.

Today, instead of enlivening the wild Greater Gila landscape, hes living out his days in upstate New York in a five-acre captive pen at the Wolf Conservation Center. The centers staff named him Lighthawk.

In an act of absolute synchronicity, he arrived at the center on the same warm October afternoon that I did. I was there to give a talk about our vision of  and obstacles to  wolf recovery in the American Southwest.

Lighthawk was there both as refugee and hostage. Refugee thanks to a Species Survival Plan that allows genetically vital members of the species, who otherwise might be killed for killing livestock, to live for their breeding value. Hostage to a geopolitical landscape that is hostile to wolf recovery.

Conflicts with livestock are, far and away, the primary justification for wolf removals. Conflicts with the livestock industry are the main reason the Mexican wolf recovery effort has not made more progress. As the program hits its 20th anniversary next month, two-thirds of the nearly 200 wolves removed during the recovery effort have been removed because of the political power of the livestock industry. Many of those wolves were removed by killing them.

Im grateful Lighthawk is still alive, but as I watched him slowly emerge from the crate into his five-acre pen, two thousand miles from his home and family, I could not help but feel a sense of collective failure.

Thats because its not just keeping wolves alive thats critical. Its keeping them alive in the places they belong. He belonged in the wildlands of the Greater Gila, with his Hawks Nest Packmates. Our job is to keep whats wild, wild. Wildness thrives in a wolfs presence on the land, not in the ecological simplifications that occur in the absence of wolves.

But the only way we give them that lifeline to the wild is by changing the geopolitical landscape of wolf recovery so that state and federal wildlife agencies charged with managing wolves actually work to help them thrive instead of merely keeping them on life support.

The Mexican gray wolf was first protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1976, the year of our nations bicentennial. At that time wolf advocates suspected the road to recovery would be a long and turbulent one. Our experience over the last 20 years has borne that prediction out, and while weve come a long way, we still have a long way to go. With only approximately 115 wolves in the wild, we cant afford to lose more wolves to intolerance and fear.

The Hawks Nest Pack that roamed the Greater Gila for 20 years no longer exists. The packs progeny still live, however, and I imagine Lighthawk will do his part to sire more young. Their day will come. All New Mexicans must continue the good work of creating stronger social and political conditions to prepare for those wolves return to the wild.In the wake of the horrific slaughter in Parkland, Fla., a cadre of energized and understandably traumatized teenagers has flooded Washington and the airwaves to say remarkably passionate, occasionally extreme, things about guns and the need for gun control.

Because these teens are politically effective, a bunch of goons, buffoons and trolls have floated conspiracy theories aimed at discrediting them. I wont be more specific than that because its all reprehensible bilge.

At the same time, quite a few advocates of gun control, including many who claim the mantle of objective journalism, have taken the view that these kids cannot be criticized or gainsaid in any way. Apparently, its fine to push kids suffering from post-traumatic stress  or the still-grieving parents of murdered children  in front of cameras in order to drive public policy, but its an affront to decency to disagree with what they say or question the practice of using victims this way. No, its not morally equivalent to some of the horrendous things the swamp-dwellers have said about these kids, but that is a low bar.

Of course, the parents and the surviving kids arent being forced to do anything. They clearly want to be heard, and they have every right to do what theyre doing. Indeed, theyre entitled to their rage and grief.

But fury, in and of itself, is the enemy of reason. This point was once obvious to many of the people eagerly hiding behind these children to wage a political battle. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks  and countless terrorist attacks since then  the op-ed pages and the airwaves bulged with cautions not to let anger cloud our judgment.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd spoke for so much of the liberal establishment when she lionized Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in the Iraq war. The moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute, Dowd insisted. It didnt matter she hardly spoke for all parents of the fallen and was politically radical. She was too useful as a cudgel against George W. Bush.

But when she became a thorn in Barack Obamas side she was downgraded to a crank.

And thats what I find so tawdry and mercenary about all of this. I can scarcely imagine the same people touting the unimpeachable wisdom of children would have the same position if the children of terror attack victims called for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

Of course, the response from many people to this counterfactual would be But thats a bad idea or That would be unconstitutional. And thats my point.

In an enlightenment-based democracy, the validity of an argument is supposed to stand independent of the person  or people  making it. Two plus two equals four whether a child says so or a demagogue denies it.

Of course, in real life it doesnt always work that way. Sometimes, credibility or moral authority carries more weight than arguments. And perhaps more often, passion and emotion sways. For instance, the NRA, not content with its victories over the last decade, has taken to fomenting rage and resentment against elites and the media with all the precision of an unmanned fire hose.

The introduction of child combatants in this political war seems only fitting

Of course I feel sorry for the victims, and I support their right to parrot the extreme rhetoric of their elders. I dont feel sorry for the NRA. When you turn the volume to 10 on everything, you shouldnt be surprised when your opponents invent an 11. But I am disgusted by the entire spectacle, and I feel sorry for a country that thinks any of this remotely normal.WASHINGTON  Let us hear no more lectures from Clarence Thomas on the sanctity of human life.

The Supreme Court justice, with timing that could be charitably described as clumsy, issued his latest paean to gun rights Tuesday, as the child victims of last weeks school shooting were still being buried.

Reacting to his colleagues refusal to hear a case challenging Californias waiting period for gun purchases, he complained that justices would hear similar challenges to abortion, speech or privacy. The Court would take these cases because abortion, speech, and the Fourth Amendment are three of its favored rights, Thomas wrote. The right to keep and bear arms is apparently this Courts constitutional orphan.

Not for the first time, Thomas has it backward. Abortions are restricted far more than guns  and abortions are declining, while gun deaths are rising. Even speech is limited if it endangers life. Why shouldnt there be reasonable restrictions on guns, too?

But Thomas has a bigger problem: claiming to be pro-life while his advocacy of unlimited gun rights expands a culture of death. The gun-control movement has been reluctant to use such words, lest it be seen as aping the anti-abortion movement. But the theme is apt, and it points to the hypocrisy of those who profess to be pro-life but are also pro-gun without exception, those who denounce the termination of a pregnancy but not the termination of innocent life outside the womb.

Even though 92 percent of abortions take place in the first trimester, the pro-life movement takes aim at late-term abortion. So lets think of the Parkland victims in those terms:

 Nicholas Dworet, who aspired to swim in the 2020 Olympics, was killed in the 72nd trimester of his life, just shy of his 18th birthday.

 Carmen Schentrup, a 2018 National Merit Scholarship finalist, was killed at the end of her 68th trimester of life and buried the day before her 17th birthday.

 Peter Wang, who had not yet reached his 64th trimester, was buried in his Junior ROTC uniform and was accepted posthumously at West Point.

They had a right to life. So did the 12 other kids and two faculty members who died.

The theme has been prominent this week in conservative social media, prompting a writer for the religion website Patheos, G. Shane Morris, to argue, thoughtfully: It is not legitimate, in the aftermath of the carnage at Stoneman Douglas High School, to yell, Yeah, but what about abortion?!  Morris argued: If we truly are pro-life, we should be willing to  talk about what needs to be done to stop a uniquely horrifying form of bloodshed thats wracked this nation again and again in recent months and years.

For many pro-lifers, opposition to abortion is deeply held morality. But it is no stretch to say that those who accept the routine mass murder of innocents are not truly pro-life.

Many on the right bristle at the idea that gun control will limit gun deaths, so lets set that aside. What else would stop horrors of the sort that occurred at Parkland? More school security? Better mental-health intervention? As Politico reported, President Trumps budget, released two days before the shooting, proposed a $25 million cut for school safety activities; elimination of a $400 million grant program for bullying prevention, mental-health assistance and the like; and deep cuts to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and National Institute of Mental Health.

Trump has made some noises about gun control in recent daysand responded to Parkland with pro-life language, urging a culture that embraces the dignity of life.

Dignity of Life. Culture of life. Sanctity of life. Protecting life. Those fighting against gun violence should own such language, seizing it from those who call themselves pro-life but refuse to act against Americas culture of death by firearms.Think of all the groundbreaking scientific developments that have helped in the fight against crime. Fingerprinting, blood testing and DNA profiling to name just three. Today it is way past time for another major advancement.

This one must be laser-focused on the digital world in which we all exist. And it must be fully funded and staffed by modern day detectives who have expertise in the ever-changing computer science landscape.

There is no denying that our internet-driven society is ripe with clues the criminally minded have left behind. The question is when will law enforcement get the funds needed to regularly and thoroughly plumb this field of publicly available evidence? Instead of waiting for a crime to occur and then working to identify the perpetrator, how about we help investigators try to stop crime before it happens?

I dont pretend to know what went wrong with the FBIs internal communications system vis-a-vis the case of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, but we now know there were numerous red flags about this kid, and the bureau received at least two specific warnings about the teenager.

Last September, a Mississippi bail bondsman e-mailed Tips@FBI.gov with a Cruz posting that said, Im going to be a professional school shooter. The message from Ben Bennight bounced back. Imagine, the advertised FBI address for concerned citizens who have seen something and want to say something was not operative! Bennight didnt give up. He called his local FBI office, left a message and finally had a discussion with a couple of visiting agents. The upshot? The FBI says it couldnt locate a Nikolas Cruz, despite the unusual spelling of his first name.

And just last month, the FBI failed to investigate a second warning. A caller alerted agents to Cruz by name and said he owned guns, acted erratically, posted disturbing social media messages and was talking about his desire to kill people, possibly at school. I know hindsight is 20/20, but such a detailed warning surely deserved a follow-up!

Cruz, the mentally anguished confessed killer of 17, left a trail of digital breadcrumbs that, if followed, might have helped avert the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Yes, the FBI is busy and possibly underfunded. Their field offices get a gazillion citizen tips each year. But if just one agent had bothered to check Cruzs online activity he or she would have found his Snapchat account where he was seen cutting himself and expressing an interest in buying guns. The agent would have seen how young he was and discovered his location. A call to Parkland, Fla., police would have revealed that officers had been to the home of Cruzs now-deceased adoptive parents many times for domestic disturbances. A check with the Florida Department of Children and Families would have discovered a 2016 investigation into Cruzs history of troublesome behaviors. Cruzs high school would have told the FBI that Cruz was a constantly disruptive and violent kid.

Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, YouTube and Instagram  all these online sites and many more  hold a treasure trove of pre-crime fighting clues. But they are worthless if there are no available detectives to investigate.

This isnt written to bash the FBI. Rather, it is a clarion call to everyone who is concerned about citizen safety, from politicians and cops to clergy and voters, to endorse an all-out onslaught on those who post online threats and statements casting doubt on their mental stability.

As I have written here previously, I have an internet stalker. In his more manic state he imagines various ways he will lash out at me and several others, blaming each of us for his troubled life. After I wrote a column in June 2014 about another campus massacre he wrote: Diane, I am mentally ill. I am a prime candidate for committing a mass gun shooting. I am easily triggered. Local police and the FBI said he has the right to free speech. Police did not visit him. His mental state was not evaluated.

In February 2015, he wrote to another victim, If I do become a serial killer guess who gets slaughtered first? In November 2017 he warned a long list of people, including an FBI agent in the Midwest, that he was just going to have to start (expletive) people up. Anyone who stands in my way will be demolished. A month later he used Facebook to inform another target, Ill kill you dead if you ever have the guts to come near me. You bring a gun after me and Ill rip it from your arms and beat you to death with it.

We victims, scattered across the country, stay in touch with each other for safetys sake. We have begged the FBIs cybercrime unit to find this nomadic soul before he acts on his ever-evolving violent threats. No action has been taken so we are left to keep our own files of his years-long series of threats. When this disturbed man finally snaps  as young Nikolas did  perhaps the FBI would be interested to look at the mountain of disturbing breadcrumbs he left scattered across the internet.

To lawmakers and law enforcement: Todays crime fighting battleground is online. Refocus the forces. Lives depend on it.

www.DianeDimond.com; e-mail to Diane@DianeDimond.com.Justin Quintana and Nehemiah Griego have more than a little in common.

For starters, both are killers. And thanks to quirks in New Mexicos legal system and various decisions by judges, prosecutors and bureaucrats, both are likely to be free men with little or no supervision and with what some contend is a likelihood to re-offend and put society at risk.

Legally, the cases are different, but both point to flaws in the system  and, to his credit, are being challenged by Attorney General Hector Balderas.

Quintana never faced justice after shooting his mother, State Police officer Susan Kuchma, in the head in December 2007. He was 25 at the time, found incompetent to stand trial and remanded to the state mental hospital in Las Vegas, N.M. Those who felt he would be there for life were wrong. Doctors at the hospital in August 2017 found Quintana was now competent to stand trial.

That set off a flurry of activity that resulted in a plea deal reached by District Attorney Mark DAntonio and defense attorney Gary Mitchell, which found Quintana not guilty by reason of insanity but he would remain in the state mental hospital  with no time limit  until it was deemed he could be released safely. Judge Douglas Driggers accepted the deal.

It appears that just as in 2007 there was little chance of Quintana being released.

But the Department of Health balked and said it had no authority to hold Quintana under those circumstances.

The state hospital can keep individuals under a civil commitment for 30 days before having to get an evaluation and court-ordered extension, and the Supreme Court added a few days so the DA could seek an extension. It appears that process began but went nowhere and Quintana was released just over 30 days later. It is unclear whether DOH formally concluded it was safe to release Quintana, and it wont say.

But we do know this. Instead of being treated to competence and standing trial, Quintana was released to a halfway house in Albuquerque on Sunday. He has a treatment guardian 220 miles away in Las Cruces who is supposed to make sure he takes his medication.

Case closed. No trial. No conviction. No real restrictions. No Justice.

I cant say without any certainty that an individual like this  able to pull the trigger and kill a State Police Officer, his own mother  wont murder again, said State Police Chief Pete Kassetas.

If knowing Quintana is out concerns you, the Griego case will do nothing to quell your anxiety.

Nehemiah Griego was just 15 when he murdered his parents and three siblings in the familys South Valley home in 2013.

The cold-blooded killings shocked the state as sheriffs deputies said he had planned the shootings for days. This was no out-of-control kid. He first shot his mother, Sarah, and 9-year-old brother, Zephaniah with a .22-caliber rifle around 1 a.m. Then he went into his younger sisters room and shot Jael, 5, and Angelina 2.

Not yet finished with his bloody work, he waited for his father, former Calvary assistant pastor Greg Griego, to return home from an overnight shift at a homeless shelter. He killed his father with a different rifle.

District Court Judge John Romero concluded the state failed to prove Griego could not be rehabilitated, meaning he remains jailed until he turns 21  just a few weeks from now  unless the state Court of Appeals rules in favor of an appeal by Balderas that Romeros ruling was in error.

The appeal of Judge Romeros decision notwithstanding, Balderas argues persuasively that New Mexico needs a system of blended sentencing for juveniles convicted of violent crimes  one that would allow reassessment and continue supervision after the offender turns 21. As it stands now, Nehemiah will be set loose on society with no restrictions.

A sister, Vanessa Lightbourne, who wasnt home when the murders occurred, said she still believes her brother is a danger to society and to her family. He murdered five people, she said. For him to do that, I dont think anybody can come back from that.

Griego was charged with murder by the office of then-District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, who rejected a defense offer that would have allowed some kind of supervision or assessment after age 21, although the legality of that isnt clear. Her rationale: Her office never expected a judge to find Griego amenable to treatment based on the evidence of his horrific crimes.

The two cases point to serious flaws in the system  including the fact that in a case like Griegos, its the states burden to prove the defendant CANNOT be rehabilitated.

Balderas needs to take his advocacy a step farther. He needs to meet with other prosecutors and stakeholders and come up with proposed legislative fixes for cases like Quintana and Griego.

A justice system needs to protect the rights of everyone  not just the accused.

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.SANTA FE  The graduation rate for students attending Santa Fe Public Schools dropped a couple of percentage points last year to 69 percent, according to figures released by the state Public Education Department.

The districts graduation rate for 2017 was also below the statewide rate of 71.1 percent.

Public Education Secretary Christopher Ruszkowski announced the 2016-17 school year graduation data Friday, emphasizing the new numbers come a year after a record high of 71 percent and amid tougher graduation requirements.

We have maintained (the rate) with a higher bar and higher standards, Ruszkowski said. Before (reforms), we were essentially handing out certificates of completion.

Those reforms include student passage of statewide PARCC tests for competency in math and English. Some schools allow alternative proof of competency.

At the end of last school year, New Mexico high schools graduated a total of 18,903 of 26,587 students, indicating 7,684 students either dropped out, moved or are taking longer to graduate from school.

The national average for 2016 was 84 percent, and New Mexico ranked second worst in the nation (above only Washington, D.C.) but had one of the higher rate increases in the country.

Santa Fe Superintendent Veronica Garcia said that while graduation rates are telling, her school districts emphasis is on preparing students for life beyond high school.

While we will continue to intensely address graduation rates, we will continue to keep a focus on graduating students who truly are ready for college or career, she said in a statement. It is our duty to ensure that we dont graduate students who hold a diploma but lack the academic skills to fully benefit from this first important academic credential, the high school diploma.

Graduation rates for the 2017 cohort dropped from 72 to 70 percent at Capital High School and from 73 to 68 percent at Santa Fe High, compared to the 2016 cohort. The cohort method accounts for how many students graduate four years after entering the ninth grade.

Garcia said the overall lower rate was not unexpected. I advised the Board of Education last year that we would see a drop in the graduation rate at our comprehensive high schools because we tightened up the credit recovery process and worked to adhere to rigorous academic standards, she said.

While it is important to have high graduation rates, it is troubling to me that in Santa Fe and throughout New Mexico we see low academic proficiency rates.

PED touted a statewide increase in graduation rates among Hispanics, which make up 60 percent of students in New Mexico, as well as better rates for students with disabilities and low income students. But in Santa Fe, graduation rates fell in those categories.

The graduation rate for Hispanic students across New Mexico has increased from 59 percent in 2011 to 71 percent in 2017, according to PED. The rate for Hispanic students in Santa Fe schools dropped from 71 to 69 percent. It also dropped for Caucasian students, from 74 to 70 percent.

The rate for economically disadvantaged students in Santa Fe fell from 72 to 69 percent, and from 56 to 52 percent for students with disabilities.

Garcia said the school district will analyze the data from PED and other sources to look for ways it can improve.

We will continue to analyze the relationship between how we are preparing our students for college and career and the success our graduates experience, she said. We will seek ways to collect post graduation data not only on remediation rates but also employment rates in our community.WASHINGTON  Rick Gates guilty plea to federal conspiracy and false-statements charges turns him from defendant to cooperating witness in the special counsels probe of President Donald Trumps election campaign and Russias interference.

The plea by Gates, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trumps election campaign, revealed he will help special counsel Robert Muellers investigation in any and all matters as prosecutors continue to probe the 2016 campaign, Russian meddling and Gates longtime business associate, one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

With his cooperation, Gates gives Mueller a witness willing to provide information on Manaforts finances and political consulting work in Ukraine  and someone who had access at the highest levels of Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington. He stood somberly beside his attorney and did not speak during his hearing, except to answer routine questions from the judge about whether he understood the rights he was giving up.

He admitted to charges of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying, as well as lying to federal authorities in a recent interview. Under the terms of the plea, he is estimated to face between 57 and 71 months behind bars and a possible fine ranging from $20,000 to $200,000. Prosecutors may seek a shortened sentence depending on his cooperation.

The plea came a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned a 32-count indictment against Gates and Manafort, accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. Gates is the fifth defendant to plead guilty in Muellers investigation.

The indictment in Virginia was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were initially charged last October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

Manafort continues to maintain his innocence.

I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise, Manafort said Friday. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me.

In court filings over the past few months, Gates gradually began to show the strain the case was placing on him and his family.

He frequently pleaded with U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson for leniency in his house arrest to let him attend sporting events with his four children. Even on Friday, ahead of his plea, Gates had asked the judge to let him take his children to Boston for spring break so they could learn about American history in general, and the Revolutionary War in particular.

Gates plea comes on the heels of last weeks stunning indictment that laid out a broad operation of election meddling by Russia. It began in 2014, and employed fake social media accounts and on-the-ground politicking to promote Trumps campaign, disparage Hillary Clinton and sow division and discord widely among the U.S. electorate.

The charges to which Gates is pleading guilty dont involve any conduct connected to the Trump campaign. They largely relate to a conspiracy of unregistered lobbying, money laundering and fraud laid out in his indictments.

But his plea does newly reveal that Gates spoke with the FBI earlier this month and lied during the interview. That same day, his attorneys filed a motion to withdraw from representing him for irreconcilable difference.

Gates served on the Trump campaign at the same time that Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner met with a team of Russians in Trump Tower in June 2016. He was also involved in the campaign when then-Sen. Jeff Sessions held a pair of undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

For a few months in 2016, Gates was indispensable to Trump, leading the ground effort to help Trump win the Republican nomination and flying from state to state to secure Republican delegates in a scramble that lasted all the way until the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

But his power and influence waned once Trump fired Manafort in August 2016 after The Associated Press disclosed how Gates and Manafort covertly directed a Washington lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

Gates survived his mentors ouster, serving as the campaigns liaison to the Republican National Committee and later working on Trumps inaugural committee. Gates also worked briefly with America First Policies and America First Action, outside political groups supporting Trumps agenda, but was pushed out of that job last year.

When he was indicted last October, Gates was working for Tom Barrack, a close friend of Trump.

Fridays court papers accuse Gates of lying to federal agents about a March 19, 2013, meeting involving Manafort, a lobbyist and a member of Congress. Gates said the meeting did not include discussion of Ukraine; prosecutors say it did.

The charges dont name the lobbyist or the lawmaker, but filings with the Justice Department show Manafort and Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs met with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., on that date as part of a lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

Also Friday, Muellers team unsealed a new indictment solely against Manafort that included an allegation that he, with Gates assistance, secretly paid former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

The indictment accuses Manafort of paying the former politicians, informally known as the Hapsburg group, to appear to be independent analysts when in fact they were paid lobbyists. Some of the covert lobbying took place in the U.S.

The indictment says the group was managed by a former European chancellor. Court papers accuse Manafort of using offshore accounts to pay the group more than 2 million euros.

___

Associated Press writer Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report.

___

Read Gates plea agreement: http://apne.ws/P8ZpD6hBEIRUT  A new wave of airstrikes and shelling on eastern suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus left at least 22 people dead and dozens wounded Saturday, raising the death toll of a week of bombing in the area to 500, as the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria.

The weeklong bombardment has overwhelmed rescuers and doctors at makeshift hospitals, many of which have also been bombed. Activists say that terrified residents have been hiding in underground shelters where dozens of people can be crammed into small places.

The latest wave of bombings came after the U.N. Security Council delayed a vote on a resolution demanding a 30-day humanitarian cease-fire for two days to try to get Russia on board.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia had repeatedly called an immediate cease-fire unrealistic.

In a bid to get Russian support, sponsors Kuwait and Sweden amended the draft resolution late Friday to drop a demand that the cease-fire take effect 72 hours after the resolutions adoption.

After two hours of additional negotiations on Saturday, the Security Council unanimously approved a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria without delay to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

The U.N. convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go, Swedens U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog told the council just before the vote.

After the vote, many council members urged stepped up efforts to ensure a cease-fire and get assistance to millions in need.

Russia has been a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad since the countrys conflict began seven years ago. In 2015, Moscow joined the war on Assads side tipping the balance of power in his favor.

Syrian opposition activists say Russian warplanes are taking part in bombarding Damascus suburbs known as eastern Ghouta, where many people are hiding in underground shelters with little food and medical supplies amid a tight government siege.

There is no electricity, no water, no flour, no bread and no baby formula, said paramedic Siraj Mahmoud in an audio message calling for a short break in airstrikes so residents can get food for their children. There is nothing inside Ghouta.

Syrian opposition activists said that government forces used phosphorous bombs in their attacks on the suburbs, but the claims could not be independently confirmed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes that hit several suburbs left 22 people dead in different areas, including 10 in the suburb of Douma.

The oppositions Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said 23 people were killed.

The Observatory said that since the latest wave of bombardment began Sunday, 510 civilians, including 127 children and 75 women, have been killed in eastern Ghouta.

The White Helmets said it has documented the names of 420 people who have been killed since Sunday, adding that dozens more have still not been identified.

Syrian state media reported that rebels fired mortar shells on Damascus, Assads seat of power, killing at least one person and wounding seven.

___

Lederer reported from the United Nations.Richard Taylor, who won the Nobel Prize in physics for his experiments that demonstrated the existence of quarks, constituents of matter even more fundamental than the protons and neutrons that are commonly regarded as composing the atomic nucleus, died Feb. 22 at his home in California. He was 88.

Taylor lived on the campus of Stanford University, where he carried out the high-energy experiments that brought him his share of the 1990 Nobel. The university announced his death. No cause of death could be learned.

By demonstrating through experiment the reality of quarks, Taylor helped lay the foundation of what scientists know as the Standard Model of particle physics. The model, with quarks at its heart, establishes the fundamental particles of the universe and the forces that govern their interactions.

In Taylors experiments, electrons, possessed of enormous energies imparted by a linear particle accelerator, were smashed into protons. By studying the angles and directions in which the electrons flew out of the protons, scientists were able to recognize what lay within the protons.

In one notable description, the experiments demonstrated that the proton was not some ball of nuclear jelly, homogenous and without structure. Rather, in the words of former Stanford accelerator director Persis Drell, it was more like jam, a jam with seeds embedded. The seeds were the quarks.

To a significant degree, the work of Taylor and other scientists represented a milestone on the long path to find out what is at the heart of all the objects, large and small, that can be seen around us.

The ancient Greeks put forward the idea that at its smallest level, the universe was made of atoms. At one time, the entire atom was thought to be tiny, solid and homogeneous. Groundbreaking experiments early in the 20th century discovered that the atom was largely empty space, with a tiny but solid nucleus at its core. The nucleus, in turn, was found to be composed of protons and neutrons.

It was Taylor and his two co-winners of the Nobel Prize, Jerome I. Friedman and Henry W. Kendall, both then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who showed by experiment from 1967 to 1973 that even the protons and neutrons were not natures fundamental building blocks.

Before that time, we had this vast collection of particles and did not know how they were put together, said Martin Breidenbach, a professor at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Accelerator Laboratory who participated in the work while at MIT.

Richard Edwin Taylor was born Nov. 2, 1929, in the town of Medicine Hat in the province of Alberta in western Canada. He eventually held dual citizenship in the United States and in Canada.

As a boy, he read quite a bit and was good in mathematics but was otherwise not an outstanding student, he wrote in his Nobel biography. An early interest in chemistry, he once said, was discouraged when an experiment with explosives in his basement laboratory blew off parts of three fingers.

After receiving undergraduate and masters degrees at the University of Alberta, he entered Stanford to work for his PhD. Interrupting his studies, he spent the period from 1958 to 1961 at a linear accelerator laboratory in Paris. On his return to the United States, he completed his dissertation and received his doctorate from Stanford in 1962.

It was about then that construction of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center was starting up. He began working there, and his principal contributions to the research that would win the Nobel were in designing the experiments and in collecting and analyzing the data, according to Les Cottrell, who worked with Taylor in 1967.

An enormous amount of teamwork is involved in large-scale scientific experiments. The Stanford Linear Accelerator was one of the worlds largest atom smashers. Its size and the energies it could impart offered one of the best chances available not only to see the basic building blocks of the universe, but also to see inside them.

Enthusiasm was infectious, and traditional labor hierarchies dissolved. I lived in mortal fear that a union steward would drop in unannounced, Taylor once wrote, and find a millwright [steelworker] building a wooden scaffold, while a carpenter was operating the crane.

As the head of a group of scientists and engineers, Taylor gave an example of hands-on leadership. He was an integral part of the experiment, not just the boss, Cottrell said. He would show up at 5 in the morning to take his shift, and he would be there in the evening when the lab director came around to check on progress.

Scientists studied what was within protons by scrutinizing the paths electrons followed when they were bounced off the protons. As the experiment developed, Cottrell said, there were too many particles coming off at a large angle than expected. It was puzzling. Perhaps the measurements were off, some thought.

But finally theory and experiment merged. The unexpected angles meant unexpected objects within the proton. These objects, scientists came to recognize, were the quarks that had been predicted by theorist Murray Gell-Mann. He took the name from a sentence in James Joyces Finnegans Wake: Three quarks for Muster Mark!

Taylors experiments made him something of a celebrity, and his work became the subject of a clue on the television game show Jeopardy.

Survivors include his wife, the former Rita Bonneau, and a son.

While so much of Taylors work involved the design and construction of massive pieces of equipment with the sensitivity needed for the most delicate and refined measurements, Taylor recognized their larger meaning to science and to humanity.

The quarks and the stars were here when you came, he once said, and they will be here when you go.MEXICO CITY Its looking increasingly likely that NAFTA talks will extend beyond a March target, meaning negotiators will have to deal with the added political uncertainty of a Mexican election campaign.

Negotiators are to meet Sunday through March 5 in Mexico City for the seventh round of talks. When negotiations began six months ago, politicians expressed optimism they could reach a deal by the end of 2017. They later pushed the goal to March  a deadline that now looks almost impossible. With the U.S. complaining that progress on its demands is too slow, President Donald Trumps threat to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement is weighing heavily on the discussions.

The round in Mexico is very important, because it will give an idea if we can advance technically, and if the political can support that and put us on a path to resolving the differences, said Juan Pablo Castanon, head of the Mexican chamber of commerce. The negotiations should take as much time as is necessary.

Negotiators have finished work on three issues and could wrap up five to seven more in this round, out of a total of about 30, Castanon said. Despite progress in modernizing the 24-year-old NAFTA, there has been little or no movement on controversial and politically charged U.S. proposals that Canada and Mexico say would hurt their economies.

Political will has been building to extend the talks. Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has signaled that his government is willing to negotiate through Julys presidential election, even though teams are working to avoid that scenario.

NAFTA negotiators have wanted to avoid clashing with the Mexican election, given that trade can be a lightning rod for voters anger over their economic situation. Adding to the uncertainty, leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has indicated lukewarm enthusiasm for the agreement, and there will be a five-month transition period before outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto hands over power to the new government.

Trump said last month that he could be flexible on the timetable for NAFTA talks given Mexicos election, a position on which Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has voiced support.

The nations began renegotiating the NAFTA in August on Trumps initiative. He says NAFTA is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Americans losing manufacturing jobs as plants moved to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor.

To revive U.S. factories, Trump wants to raise the minimum content that a typical car must have to benefit from NAFTAs tariff exemptions to 85 percent, from 62.5 percent. He also wants to add a U.S.-specific requirement of 50 percent.

Automakers say the plan would upend supply chains. Canada has its own ideas on how to calculate value, including giving more credit for driverless and electric cars, and research and development work. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at the last round called Canadas proposal vague and argued that it would reduce the share of a vehicle made within the region.

While Mexicos automobile association opposes a higher content rule, Guajardo has signaled government support for stronger requirements to reach a broader NAFTA deal.

The U.S. midterm elections in November also loom large. Supporting trade agreements can be perilous for politicians seeking re-election. If the Republicans lose control of the Senate or House, it could be harder for the Trump administration to win congressional support for a new deal. Trump must also seek renewal by June 30 of his authority to seek so-called fast-track approval in Congress of trade deals, though the president isnt expected to be denied an extension.

The atmosphere around NAFTA has also been influenced by a U.S. Commerce Department recommendation this month to impose steep curbs on imports of aluminum and steel. While Trumps decision is still pending, it was the strongest indication yet that the White House intends to follow through with protectionist threats.

Tension has been growing between the U.S. and Canada. Lighthizer has complained about Canada launching a wide-ranging World Trade Organization dispute with the U.S. over how it applies countervailing and anti-dumping duties.

One possibility for getting a deal by the end of March would be agreeing in principle and letting technical negotiations continue from there, David MacNaughton, Canadas ambassador to the U.S., said this month.

There are still four or five sticking points, he said. If we roll up our sleeves and work hard on them, we can at least get to the point where weve got an understanding, whether it be an agreement in principle or whatever it is, which would then allow technical people to work on.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.When the Labor Partys Central Committee appointed Golda Meir to become prime minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, the gender aspect wasnt highlighted. She was the first woman appointed to the position in Israel, replacing Levi Eshkol, who passed away, at a time when the country faced especially serious security challenges including the War of Attrition.

Almost 50 years have passed since then. While women have burst through many important barriers over the past few decades, especially in the judiciary, the economy and even the military, one question remains unanswered: Why hasnt Israels political system produced another Golda?

The only woman who came close to becoming prime minister was Tzipi Livni in the 2009 election. As head of Kadima, she ran against Ehud Barak (Labor) and Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud). One thing that will always be remembered from that campaign was Baraks dismissive and misogynistic attack on Livni, whom he called Tzipora, her full, old-fashioned first name, which means "bird." He challenged her ability to make important decisions concerning Israels defenses, claiming, She cant give answers, not at 3 o'clock in the morning, and not at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Its worth noting that Livni won the most votes in the election and an impressive 28 seats, while Baraks Labor Party dropped to just 13 seats. It was proof that the Israeli electorate trusted Livni to lead the country in every way, including defense. Netanyahu, who won 27 seats, eventually formed the next government because of his successful efforts to put together a coalition. When the moment of truth arrived, the ultra-Orthodox preferred a right-wing man as their partner.

In the ensuing years, the representation of women in the Knesset has improved beyond recognition. With 34 women now serving in the legislature, they make up more than a quarter of all Knesset members. On the other hand, none of the female ministers (of which there are only four) are considered potential candidates for prime minister, and no woman is positioned to compete for the office in the foreseeable future.

The most senior and influential woman in the Knesset today is Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, the second-ranking member of HaBayit HaYehudi. Last year, she announced that she sees herself competing for the office of prime minister at some point in the future after the chairman of her party, Naftali Bennett, completes a term in the position.

The question of whether a woman could be elected again was raised in a conference to mark the 120th anniversary of the birth of Meir, the first Hebrew diplomat. The event took place Feb. 19 at the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.

Meir was a trailblazer ever since she was a young woman. In that sense, she was a product of her time. She was an integral part of the group of people who paved the way for the state in the making. In the pioneering era  before Israel was established and during its early years  women fought in the military. Women joined the pre-state underground groups and were later integrated in fighting positions in the 1948 War of Independence. Women were also equals in the kibbutz movement, working the land alongside men. It was a consequence of a real need for a larger workforce and for people to provide support for the troops in combat.

In an age when no one talked about glass ceilings or women's empowerment, Meir burst through barriers, perhaps without understanding how great her achievements were. When women in so many countries still did not have the right to vote, Meir was appointed foreign minister, a position she held for 10 years. She was a powerful woman in a world of men and a militaristic society, and it must have seemed to her the most natural thing in the world. It would take another 40 years before another woman, Livni, would serve as foreign minister.

What really makes Meirs achievement so exceptional and fascinating is that while it was happening, no one around her or in the male-dominated leadership of the Labor Party doubted her ability to lead the country  except for the ultra-Orthodox, of course.

This was true until the Yom Kippur War fiasco in October 1973, for which Meir was one of those responsible. By the time she left the political stage, she was broken, despondent. The national trauma was the unfortunate closing chord in what was otherwise an exceptional career.

According to Gabriela Shalev, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, since Meir was the only woman to serve in the position until then, the fiasco became a kind of barrier, preventing other women from assuming leadership positions and, ultimately, the prime ministers office in the ensuing years. Notably, a woman has never served as Israels minister of defense or internal security.

The trauma of the Yom Kippur War created the sense that with Israel in a state of military conflict, it cannot be a woman to pick up the phone at 3 a.m., certainly not in a nation dominated by generals and in which machismo is such a predominant trait. As a result of her crash after the Yom Kippur War, people still say that a woman cannot be defense minister, chief of staff or prime minister, said Shalev, who participated in a panel discussion about women in leadership.

Nevertheless, the fact is that Livni received the most votes in the 2009 election, more than either Netanyahu or Barak. Israeli voters gave her their trust despite the collective memory of the Yom Kippur War. It is possible that the younger generation, which knows that war mostly through history books, found it easier to rely on a woman on security matters.

Dorit Beinisch, who also participated in the panel, was the first woman to serve as chief justice of the Supreme Court. She also believes that Meirs achievement should be viewed from the perspective of that era. It was an extension of the role that women played in the Israeli pioneering movement, a role that has diminished over the years. With the establishment of the State of Israel, pioneering women disappeared from centers of male activity in what can only be described as a regressive process. In fact, shortly after the 1948 war, the army adopted a different policy, distancing women from all combat positions.

Still, it was that same army that in the past two decades has been leading a gender revolution. The Artillery Corps was the first to open its gates for women in combat positions, and since then, the number of female warriors keeps increasing. According to Israel Defense Forces data, the number of female fighters doubled between 2012 and 2014, and it has increased since then annually by 250%. For instance, the Caracal Infantry Battalion integrates male and female soldiers who all go through training together.

This army gender revolution is taking place alongside a similar societal revolution in the business and economics world. And it is this gender revolution that could bring about the next Golda Meir. This next female premier could emerge from within the security establishment, and no one could tell such a premier  a former fighter  that she cant give answers at 3 oclock in the morning.ALEPPO, Syria  Many secondary school graduates in northern Syria have moved to Turkey to complete their university studies due to a lack of internationally accredited universities in the areas under the Syrian opposition's control. These students believe a university degree from Turkey will benefit their education and increase their chances of finding suitable job opportunities. Meanwhile, the students who are unable to travel and pursue their studies abroad are waiting to obtain a university degree from an internationally accredited higher education institution in Syria.

The Euphrates Shield area, controlled by the Free Syrian Army, has three universities. The International Sham University opened near Azaz on June 23, 2016, and is affiliated with the Council for Higher Education established by Syrian academics in May 2015. The university is administered by the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) and collects from its students an annual tuition fee of $100.

The Free Aleppo University, affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education at the opposition Syrian Interim Government, opened in mid-2016 and has branches in the Aleppo countryside. It charges an annual tuition fee of $100. However, these two universities do not grant students internationally accredited certificates.

The third university in the Euphrates Shield area is the branch of the Turkish Basaksehir Academy, opened in the city of al-Bab on Dec. 12, 2017, under the auspices of the local city council and in the presence of Selahattin Yildirim, representative of the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs.

This university has failed so far to attract a large number of students. Although it is the only university in the Euphrates Shield area providing internationally accredited certificates, its high tuition fees, ranging between $1,050 and $1,850, seem to be pushing students away.

The branch of Basaksehir Academy has opened in the Euphrates Shield area in order to accommodate high school students who for a long time now have been unable to pursue a university education. The branch allows students in this area to complete their studies under the best conditions and standards, Hassan Shalabi, deputy director of Basaksehir Academy, told Al-Monitor. This is the first Turkish university to open in the Euphrates Shield area and it will offer important opportunities for students to complete their university studies without the need to travel to Turkey or other countries.

Shalabi explained that, for a university to meet students ambitions, it must offer international accreditation and recognition. He added, Courses at Basaksehir are in Arabic, although the academy is Turkish. The branch offers various specializations and disciplines to meet the demands of the students and labor market. The branch includes departments for Arabic language, economy, Islamic banking, Islamic studies, jurisprudence and doctrine, fundamentals of religion, family studies, Dawa [preaching of Islam] and information. The university administration intends to open new sections in early 2019, namely engineering, psychology, mathematics as well as branches specialized in reconstruction.

Justifying the high annual tuition fees, he pointed out this includes the cost of obtaining an accredited certificate. The students tuition fees do not entirely revert to the university, but part is allocated for accreditation and for ensuring better education, he said.

Teachers at Basaksehir in al-Bab are Syrian. Some live in al-Bab and the other towns in the Euphrates Shield area, while others reside in Turkish cities in the border provinces of Gaziantep and Kilis. The Turkish authorities allow them to pass to al-Bab through the Bab al-Salama border crossing.

Al-Bab resident Mohammed Siraj obtained his high school diploma in 2017 but has yet to enroll in a university in the Euphrates Shield area. "The choice is difficult," he said. "The International Sham University and Free Aleppo University are not internationally accredited. I do not want to study for a certificate that does not qualify me to get a job. The branch of the Turkish Basaksehir Academy is very expensive. I come from a poor family and cannot afford the tuition fees. I may have to wait for a scholarship.

Mohamed Khadr, director of student affairs at Basaksehir Academy, told Al-Monitor, Al-Bab branch relies heavily on scholarships. This year [2017-18] we admitted 60 students; most of them have obtained a scholarship from Turkish charities and the Turkish Religious Endowment Organization. Most of the students in the Euphrates Shield area come from low-income families and cannot afford to register with us.

Located in the southern part of al-Bab, the Turkish Basaksehir Academy is housed in a three-story building that is being rented until the academy's permanent building to the west of the city is fully functional in cooperation with al-Bab council.

I have received a four-year full-time scholarship and I am enrolled in the Islamic Studies Department at the academy, Hosni Mahmoud told Al-Monitor. The grant is provided by the Turkish Religious Endowment Organization. I hope the number of granted scholarships increases next year to allow more students to receive a university education. I would not have been able to enroll in this academy if it werent for the scholarship.One of the most notable transformations that Turkey has seen under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) over the past 15 years was in the civil aviation sector. It was a real boom, both on domestic and international levels. The sectors staggering expansion, however, was not without risks, and the dirt long swept under the carpet has begun to stink.

A quick look at basic data is worthwhile to illustrate the scale of the boom. In 2016, the number of passengers passing through Turkish airports reached 173 million, a 409% increase from 34 million in 2003. The figure reportedly exceeded 190 million in 2017. The increase in domestic air traffic has been especially striking. Standing at 9 million in 2003, the number of domestic passengers grew no less than 1,033% to reach 102 million in 2016. International routes also thrived, with the number of passengers shooting up 184%, from 25 million in 2003 to 71 million in 2006.

The expansion drew on a valuable potential bestowed by geography, namely Turkeys location as a crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa. According to Turkish Airlines (THY), the countrys national carrier, narrow-body aircraft capability to and from Istanbul covers 40% of worldwide international traffic  over 60 national capitals and all of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and North and East Africa.

But why did the boom have to wait for the post-2003 period? Was it the outcome of some extraordinary skills of the AKP? Not really. Even before the AKP came to power in 2002, civil aviation was on an uptick, though at a slower pace. In 2002, passenger traffic stood at 34 million, up from 10 million in 1988.

What fueled the boom after 2003 was the abundant inflow of external funds, driven by International Monetary Fund-backed structural reforms in the economy after a severe financial crisis in 2001. Although at the expense of increased borrowing, integration with the global economy accelerated and put Turkey on a path of stable economic growth. This meant both an increase in the disposable income per capita and an opportunity to invest in civil aviation.

As a first step, the government moved to expand domestic air transport by rapidly increasing the number of airports across the country, both through the construction of new airports and the makeover of military ones. Turkey today has 55 airports, the largest of which have been built and are operated by the private sector. Airports operated on a public-private partnership (PPP) model handle 70% and 97% of Turkeys domestic and international passenger traffic, respectively. The third airport for Istanbul, a giant $14 billion facility currently under construction, is also a PPP project, designed to handle 200 million passengers per year.

In a further boost to the aviation sector, the government offered incentives that removed customs duties on jet fuel, encouraged investment in charter services and motivated the creation of new private airliners such as Pegasus.

Leading the sectors rapid expansion was THY. The national carrier was restructured with a view of enlarging its foreign passenger market in particular. In a short period, the company significantly expanded its fleet and added scores of new routes.

At the end of 2016, Turkish airlines had 540 planes (515 passenger aircraft and 25 cargo planes) with a capacity of more than 100,000 seats. Some 38% of that seat capacity belongs to THY, which has 223 planes and controls about half of the market in both domestic and international flights. In a bid to increase its share further, the company plans to expand its fleet to 342 aircraft by 2020.

THYs increase in international flights drew mainly on transfer passengers, those with connecting flights in Turkey. As member of the Star Alliance, the global partnership of airlines, the company grew by luring passenger traffic especially from United Airlines and Lufthansa. Its Star Alliance membership made Istanbul an attractive global stopover hub.

Some, however, argue that the motives behind THYs expansion were not purely economic and had a political dimension  to boost Turkeys image as a rising country, regardless of financial costs. This was the reason why, they say, the company began flying to the four corners of the world.

Some believe THYs geographical expansion had to do with the growing international activities of the Gulen community, which was the AKPs chief political ally until their alliance began to unravel in 2012.

Another argument is that some company decisions were meant to facilitate the overseas investments of entrepreneurs close to the AKP. Bahattin Yucel, a former tourism minister who remains a vocal opinion leader in the tourism sector, said as much in a newspaper interview in July 2016.

Yucel questioned THYs choice of new destinations, arguing that the company showed little interest in the markets that the Turkish tourism industry targeted. Alluding to a prominent Turkish hotelier known to be close to the government, he said, Curiously, THY launched flights to [the Egyptian resort of] Sharm el-Sheikh as soon as the person who says that one Arab tourist is worth five Russian ones leased a hotel there. And it offered very good prices, charging 505 Turkish liras [$133] for a round trip to that airport. The distance [from Istanbul] to Sharm el-Sheikh is 2.7 times longer than the distance between Istanbul and [Turkeys Mediterranean resort of] Antalya. In the same period, however, the price of an Istanbul-Antalya flight was 548 Turkish liras [$145]. This is called favoritism.

Yucel charged that THY had also catered to the interests of the Gulen community. The THY inaugurated routes to remote corners in Africa. It is obvious that those routes were launched with state support to provide help and logistics to Fethullah Gulens organizations in Africa. They have fallen out with each other now, but this doesnt eradicate the truth, he said.

THY has been growing through external borrowing, the cost of which is on the rise. The company relies on imports for fuel, which is the main cost item, and jet fuel prices are on the rise as well. Moreover, domestic and external political tensions have amplified Turkeys risks, leading to market losses. As a result, THY closed 2016 with operating losses of 374 million liras ($98.7 million). The setback is said to have been partially compensated in 2017, a year of high growth for the Turkish economy, but things will become clear only when the company releases its balance sheet for last year.

An issue that lacks transparency is the status of THY. Is it a public company? The state owns 49% of company shares, while the remaining 51% are traded on the stock exchange. The company remains in the category of public entities linked to the Treasury, but it has been off-limits to an audit by the Court of Accounts, which controls public institutions on behalf of parliament. Moreover, THYs public shares have been transferred to the Wealth Fund, a controversial sovereign fund created in 2016. With all of those factors at play, a transparent analysis of THY and monitoring its past and potential turbulences becomes difficult. The companys expected  and somewhat forced  relocation to Istanbuls new airport, scheduled to open in late 2018, heralds another bumpy process, the turbulence of which is likely to be even bigger.The US House of Representatives passed a bill to impose sanctions on Hamas Feb. 15. Devised by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the bill deems Hamas' use of human shields in fighting with Israel an act of terrorism and a violation of human rights. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is calling on the US delegation to the United Nations to work on a resolution to impose international sanctions on Hamas.

The House bill needs to be submitted for a vote in the Senate, then signed by the president before it becomes law.

Hamas responded in a statement condemning the bill as promotion of Israeli propaganda, saying it could be used to justify more violations against Palestinians.

Osama Abu Rashid, a US-based Palestinian researcher at Dohas Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, told Al-Monitor in a phone call, There are no signs pointing toward a straightforward American escalation against Hamas.

He added, But Washington sees Hamas rule over the Gaza Strip as impeding the establishment of the Palestinian state as the US envisioned it in the so-called deal of the century. The United States might believe that applying pressure on Hamas will prompt it to agree to the deal, considering the overwhelming crisis Hamas is dealing with in Gaza. However, Hamas military power might still obstruct the deal.

Hamas has been caught in a financial crisis since mid-2017, halving the salaries of thousands of the employees working in the movements political and military institutions. The movement was forced to reduce its operational expenses and its budget by about 50%. Hamas fears Washington might further limit its financial resources by pressuring countries with ties to Hamas, like Qatar and Turkey.

The US campaign against Hamas goes further. The White House issued a statement Feb. 9 holding Hamas responsible for Gazas humanitarian crisis. It accused the movement of exploiting the people of Gaza and treating them as shields and hostages in times of war. Spokeswoman for the US State Department, Heather Nauert, said at the daily State Department press conference Feb. 7 that Hamas has prevented the implementation of major electricity and water projects.

On Jan. 31, the State Department designated Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas political bureau, as a terrorist for his links with Hamas military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and supporting armed action against civilians.

Hamas denied these accusations in a Feb. 18 statement, describing them as a green light for Israel to continue its aggression against the Palestinian people. Hamas also described the Trump administration as a foe of the Palestinians.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al-Monitor that the recent US moves are not new, saying, This bill is part of a US campaign against Hamas to justify the occupations crimes and an attempt to strip the Palestinian resistance of its legitimacy. The current US administration wants to focus pressure on Hamas, as it is the strongest entity supporting the Palestinian cause.

Hamas can be expected to turn to friendly countries like Turkey, Qatar and Iran for support. Hamas fears the US sanctions might pave the way for Israel to launch ground operations against it or intensify the siege on Gaza under an American cover.

Oddly, the Palestinian Peoples Party is the only Palestinian group to have expressed disapproval over the US bill. A Feb. 15 statement by the party said the US decision came in harmony with the Israeli position against Palestine as Israel seeks to gradually build a vicious offensive against the Gaza Strip.

In his speech last May from Riyadh, Trump had accused Hamas of carrying out brutal actions and killing innocent people just like Hezbollah, the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Hamas is likely to contact parties close to the US administration for help. But Ghazi Hamad, the deputy foreign minister in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, Since the present US administration was inaugurated in early 2017, Hamas has been trying to establish a line of communication, but to no avail, thanks to the administrations adversarial stance against the group since Trumps address in Riyadh last May.

Hamad added, This policy could fuel tensions in the region. We had contacted nongovernmental US sides, who shall remain nameless, in the last few weeks, and they expressed disagreement with the current US administrations positions, feeling that Hamas, being a core component of the Palestinian people, shouldnt be antagonized despite the political differences. However, we dont know the extent to which these sides can make a change regarding the administrations positions on Hamas.

Trump-appointed Middle East special envoy Jason Greenblatt might be the US official with the most hard-line position against Hamas. Greenblatt never misses an opportunity to take a shot at Hamas, the most recent of which was a tweet on Feb. 19, in which he accused the group of being responsible for cowardly acts [that] will only escalate violence.

On Jan. 28, Greenblatt accused Hamas of using its funds to build tunnels and stockpile rockets instead of helping the citizens of the Gaza Strip, adding that Hamas spews hateful rhetoric and foments violence.

Hosam al-Dajani, a political analyst in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, This bill against Hamas is part of Washingtons stick-and-carrot approach toward Hamas, in that the US sanctions will be lifted should Hamas comply with the deal of the century. Otherwise, Hamas should be ready to face a vicious Israeli war, as these US sanctions could be a preface for Israeli military action. Washington might even take part in this military action against Hamas, or at least enforce US restrictions, such as pressuring the states that fund or support the group.

A new era of Hamas-Washington relations is approaching, one that will feature more tensions and mutual accusations that might force Hamas to add the United States to its list of foes next to Israel, even if the group didnt publicly declare so. While Hamas has always been committed to release aggressive statements and oppose US policies, it has not yet translated into actual moves against Washington. But Hamas believes that the US attitude toward it might top any move former successive US administrations have made against the Palestinian group.The Commerce Department announced affirmative final determinations in the antidumping duty investigations of biodiesel from Indonesia and Argentina, and the International Trade Commission is set to issue final determinations for the investigations April 6.



The Commerce Department on Wednesday announced affirmative final determinations in the antidumping duty investigations of biodiesel from Indonesia and Argentina.

In the Argentina investigation, Commerce calculated final dumping rates of 60.44 percent for LDC Argentina S.A.; and 86.41 percent for Vicentin S.A.I.C., Renova S.A., Oleaginosa Moreno Hermanos S.A., Molinos Agro S.A., Patagonia Energia S.A., VFG Inversiones y Actividades Especiales S.A., Vicentin S.A.I.C. Sucursal Uy, Trading Company X, and Molinos Overseas Commodities S.A.

In the Indonesia investigation, Commerce determined a dumping rate of 276.65 percent for PT Musim Mas on the basis of adverse facts available because the company failed to provide certain information requested, Commerce said.

For the same investigation, Commerce calculated a final dumping rate of 92.52 percent for Wilmar Trading PTE Ltd., and for all other producers/exporters.

Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of biodiesel from Argentina and Indonesia based on the final rates upon publication of final affirmative AD determinations in the Federal Register.

Todays decision allows U.S. producers of biodiesel to receive relief from the market-distorting effects of foreign producers dumping into the domestic market, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement. While the United States values its relationship with Argentina and Indonesia, even our closest friends must play by the rules.

The National Biodiesel Fair Trade Coalition, an ad hoc association comprising the National Biodiesel Board and 15 domestic biodiesel producers, petitioned for the duties, Commerce said.

The International Trade Commission (ITC) is set to issue final determinations for the investigations on April 6.

If the ITC makes affirmative final injury determinations, Commerce will issue antidumping orders, but if the commission makes negative final determinations of injury, the investigations will be terminated with no duties assessed.The agencys new field office in Hanoi, Vietnam was established to help expand Americas $2.5 billion-a-year agricultural export business to the Southeast Asian country.



The U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has opened a new office in Hanoi, Vietnam, to help expand Americas $2.5 billion-a-year agricultural export business to the Southeast Asian country.

The agency will also work with U.S. importers of Vietnamese agricultural products.

With this increase in trade comes increased pest and disease risk, and our in-country expertise will ensure the safest trade possible, while still providing greater options for U.S. consumers, said Greg Ibach, USDAs undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, in a statement.

The APHIS Hanoi office will work on technical matters with its Vietnamese counterparts involving the prevention of spreading animal and plant pests and species. By doing so quickly and locally, APHIS can help keep trade moving and benefit the producers and economies of both countries, the agency said.

Vietnam is currently ranked as the 11th largest market for U.S. agricultural goods. The expansion of USDAs presence in Vietnam is a clear indication of this countrys importance as a U.S. trading partner, said USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney.

In addition, to APHISs office in Hanoi, USDAs Foreign Agricultural Service operates an office at Vietnams Ho Chi Minh City. The USDA operates a total of 29 overseas offices to facilitate U.S. agricultural trade.The Alliance Rubber Company had petitioned for duties on rubber band imports from China, Sri Lanka and Thailand on Jan. 30.



The Commerce Department is starting antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into imports of rubber bands from China, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Commerce announced Thursday.

The Alliance Rubber Company (ARC) petitioned for the duties on Jan. 30.

The petitioner alleged dumping margins of 27.27 percent for China, 56.54 percent-133.13 percent for Sri Lanka, and 28.92 percent-78.36 percent for Thailand.

ARC alleged 16 Chinese subsidy programs, 20 Sri Lankan subsidy programs, and 10 Thai subsidy programs, Commerce said.

If Commerce makes affirmative findings in these investigations and the International Trade Commission (ITC) determines dumped and/or unfairly subsidized imports of rubber bands from the nations under investigation are injuring U.S. industry, Commerce will impose antidumping and/or countervailing duties on imports in the amount of dumping and/or unfair subsidization found to exist.

The ITC is set to make its preliminary injury determinations in the investigations no later than March 16.

If the ITC preliminary determines injury or threat of injury, Commerce will continue its investigations, with a preliminary countervailing duty determination due April 26, and preliminary antidumping duty determination due July 10, unless those deadlines are extended, Commerce said.

If Commerce preliminarily determines dumping and/or unfair subsidization, it will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from all U.S. companies importing rubber bands from China, Sri Lanka and/or Thailand, Commerce said.

Commerces final determination due dates are July 10 for the countervailing duty cases, and Sept. 24 for the antidumping duty cases, but those dates may be extended.

If Commerce finds no dumping or unfair subsidization, or if the ITC final determinations report no injury to U.S. industry was found, the investigations will be terminated and no duties will be applied.Yes, they do. For liberals, the distinction between the "dumb masses" and their enlightened selves renders life meaningful. Disdain for ordinary folks is not just an ancillary trait of liberalism. It is fundamental to the its nature.

At its heart, liberalism is a gnostic religion, and the essence of that religion is the believer's faith that he possesses the means of changing the world for the better. The belief that the world must be changed requires there to be a mass of individuals whose lives are in need of change. Following this logic, it is the liberal, not those deplorables in need of change, who knows what must be changed. For liberals, there must be a mass of people in need of this knowledge for life to make sense.

Above all, liberalism is a hubristic faith. Its followers share the fatal flaw of pride in their own intellectual capacity. This is why liberalism appeals so strongly to those in the knowledge trades: teachers, journalists, writers, psychologists, and social workers. The sense of "knowing more than others" is its strongest attraction  particularly to the young, who otherwise know so little. Liberalism confers, or seems to confer, almost immediate power and authority to those who embrace it.

The left's obsession with superior knowledge runs through its entire history. As Woodrow Wilson remarked, the "instrument" of political science "is insight. A nice understanding of subtle, unformulated conditions." Lyndon B. Johnson thought "a president's hardest task" is "to know what is right." And the most hubristic of all is Obama's "We are the ones we've been waiting for." Yes, we are wonderfully bright, and we've been waiting eons for ourselves to appear.

The problem for the liberal is that most people do not want to be transformed. They want life to be better but not qualitatively different. It is only the liberal, or the "progressive," as he prefers to be called today, who welcomes revolution and relishes the violent tactics necessary to bring it about. For the progressive, it is an article of faith that the masses will resist change and must be forced to swallow it.

This is a crucial difficulty, and it gives rise to all sorts of persuasion, nudging, compulsion, and outright violence. If the masses don't know what's good for them, they must be made to change. Every liberal in history, from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Barack Obama, has adopted this course of action. The current liberal lions, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, and their lion cubs  New Jersey's Sen. Cory Booker and California's Sen. Kamala Harris  appear to be even more radical.

Booker speaks repeatedly in favor of what he calls "the collective good." Apparently, he knows what that good is, and others do not. And he seems willing to use uncivil means to achieve that collectivist end, such as lashing out at DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. His humiliation of Nielsen was not just embarrassing. As I saw it, it revealed a cold, vicious, Leninist temperament, a willingness to sacrifice individuals in the service of the collective and of his own political ambition.

Then there is Harris. "Loose regulations and lax enforcement ... That's abandoning the middle class," she says. What she seeks, apparently, is more government control with herself in charge.

Both of these uber-liberals claim to know more than the rest of us, but what is it they know?

In a truth worthy of Wittgenstein, one could say that what they "know" is that they know, and nothing else. And what they oppose is any suggestion that they do not know.

In other words, liberalism is a temper, not a philosophy. It has no fixed content  it can be either communistic or fascistic, racially "progressive" or virulently anti-Semitic, pacifistic or militaristic  but in one respect, it never changes. It exerts control and demands obedience.

At its core, liberalism can be defined in gnostic terms as the human mind's idolizing of itself. In this sense, Obama's famous aphorism is spot on. The liberal mind really is what the liberal mind has been waiting for.

What it seeks is not, however, goodness, or security, or higher living standards, or even better health care. What it seeks is the celebration of its own brilliance. "Smug" is a small word that perfectly captures the nature of the progressive mind.

This gnostic trait is the source of all of the damage liberalism has wrought for more than 300 years. From the French Revolution to the Third Reich, from Stalinism to North Korea, liberalism has brought with it repression of liberty, death camps, and executions on a mass scale. What's often not well understood is the fact that violence and repression are inevitable because liberalism seeks to change what does not wish to change  and it does so not for the purpose of making things better, but as an attempt to confirm the superiority of the liberal mind and its ability to manage society.

Most Americans find this conception of existence repulsive. They follow the true path of love, marriage, childbirth, hard work, and faith in God and country. Liberals actively seek to destroy this conception of existence because it rejects their mission of transforming society. It's either the true path or liberalism. Both cannot be true.

To succeed, liberalism must acquire and retain clients in need of change. It is not in the interest of the liberal to solve problems. What the liberal needs is continually to discover new problems and hold them up as in need of solution. The fate of the "DREAMers," held in limbo by generations of liberals, is one example. The "downtrodden," as they were once called, are indeed the pawns of liberal politicians.

There are fewer pawns lately, what with President Trump's determination to actually solve problems rather than exploit them. But as the 2018 and 2020 elections draw nearer, there will be an explosion of media accounts of victimization. It will be theater nonstop, and it will express perfectly the liberal's need to transform the world whether it wishes to be transformed or not.

There is a point at which liberalism's hubris turns into bloodlust. The act of exerting force becomes reflexive and then pleasurable. It is not likely that Stalin suffered any remorse on March 5, 1940 after signing the order for the Katyn massacre. Every smug theorist of liberalism has morphed into a vicious mass murderer  or, like Jean-Paul Sartre, an apologist for such. Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Il-sung  they were all brilliant theorists who grew to savor violence.

It is chilling to realize how imperiled we are in the USA. No country is now at greater risk than America, where the young have been warped by state education and the nation intentionally divided along lines of race, class, and sex.

Our task as conservatives is to speak out against liberalism, with its inevitable tendency toward compulsion and violence. It is to offer an alternative that is truer and more generous. The alternative of liberty and freedom is not the construct of the human mind, but the natural condition of mankind wrought by our Creator.

Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).Peace Negotiations in the Middle East Should Not Be a Little Late This Year

The saga has ended, but the malady lingers on. In his address on February 20, 2018 at the U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East, Mahmoud Abbas, at 82 now in the thirteenth year of his four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), asserted that the United States is not an honest broker on issues concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Washington, he said, had "contradicted itself and its own commitments, and has violated international law." Abbas is not universally regarded as an expert on international law, and his reference to its violation apparently alluded to President Donald Trump's decisions to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Rejecting the U.S., Abbas proposed that to solve the "Palestine question," it is essential to establish a multilateral international mechanism emanating from an international conference that should be held later in 2018.

The histrionic statement by Abbas was immediately put in a true perspective in four ways. First, his rejection of the U.S., was accompanied by his version of the Palestinian Narrative of Victimhood. Palestinian residents, he claimed, were the direct descendants of the Canaanites, who lived in the land 5,000 years ago and remain there to this day. Whatever his other qualities, Abbas brought the dead to life, since the Canaanites, pagan idol-worshipers, disappeared from history many centuries ago. Secondly, he was followed to the rostrum by Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the U.N., who argued that the only way forward to end the conflict is direct negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. More important is the fact that Abbas walked out of the chamber when Danon began speaking, a vivid illustration of the Palestinians' lack of interest in rational discussion and avoidance of direct talks with Israelis. As a consequence, Danon, with some justification, accused Abbas of being the problem, not part of the solution. He pointedly asked Abbas, "What have you done to better the life of a single person in Ramallah or Gaza?" Another rebuke came from Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., who insisted not only on the U.S. role as a key mediator, but also that without it, the Palestinians would get nowhere. The U.S. was ready to talk with Abbas; the choice, she said, is "yours, but we will not chase after you." Haley also spoke sharply in reply to Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian "negotiator" who never negotiates, who said Haley should shut up and realize that the Palestinian leadership is not the problem. Haley's reply was that she would not shut up and would speak some hard truths. Indeed, she stated, the Palestinian leadership is the problem. The third factor is that the Trump administration is indeed working on a peace plan, with which Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, U.S. special representative for international negotiations, are involved, and which is fairly well advanced. The U.N. Security Council itself is not presently proposing a plan, but the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East process, Nickolay Mladenov, an advocate of a two-state solution, on February 20, 2018 called on all sides to reject violence and condemned terror. He explicitly replied to statements of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that settlement-building is the best way to respond to Palestinian terrorism. Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and diplomat who once worked for George Soros, replied that settlement construction is not a morally appropriate way to respond to murder. He strongly denounced the expansion of the settlement enterprise as compensation for Israeli deaths. His practical suggestions were twofold: transfer parts of Area C, in the West Bank, from Israeli military control to the civil control of Palestinians and advance the building of Palestinian institutions. The essential problem with this kind of formulation, well meaning though it may be, is its equation of violence by both sides. But this has not been the case since May 1948, when five Arab armies attacked the newly created State of Israel. The starting point in genuine analysis is that the violence and the provocation comes from one side and is continuous. Moreover, the Palestinians justify and praise the violence, as has been shown on many occasions, such as the remark after the September 26, 2017 attack on a settlement outside Jerusalem, when an Arab killed three Israelis. The PLO Fatah leaders praised the work of this "martyr." Only on a rare occasion has Abbas criticized Palestinian terrorism. In a phone call to Netanyahu, he condemned the attack on July 14, 2017 on the Temple Mount, though he referred to the area as the holy Al-Aqsa mosque, when three Arab-Israelis killed two Israeli police officers and injured three others. A continuing concern is that the Palestinian Authority pays the stipends, some $347 million, of families of security prisoners in Israeli prisons and of perpetrators of violent attacks on Jews. The key question is whether Israel has a serious Palestinian partner with whom to make peace. Even if Abbas is straightforward, which is questionable, the problem remains of Hamas, which is trying to become part of the official Palestinian leadership. Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, after the civil war with rival Fatah over which group should govern the area with its 2 million people. Since then, Hamas has fought three wars against Israel, has a heavily armed military wing of 25,000 with possession of a considerable force of rockets, and engaged in building tunnels to commit aggression against Israel. Fatah and Hamas are still unclear whether, as a result of negotiations, the West Bank and Gaza will form a single political entity. On October 11, 2017, a meeting between the two groups, a kind of reconciliation, took place. Fatah was supposed to assume full control of the Gaza Strip by December 1, which in fact has not been done. However, the P.A. did stop cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza and stopped cutting salaries of government employees. However, in November 2017, Hamas formally relinquished security control of key crossings from Gaza to Egypt and Israel to the P.A. There are hopeful signs. Other countries, including France, Egypt, and Jordan, have sought an equitable solution to the conflict. French president Emmanuel Macron did suggest in December 2017 to Netanyahu that an Israeli freeze on settlement construction could be a helpful first step. On February 15, 2018, Macron hosted in Paris a Palestinian-Israeli economic summit, in the attempt to reinforce mutual economic cooperation and maintain stability. Some agreement appeared to have been reached on a few issues: increasing commercial activities, investment, and Palestinian imports of consumer goods. Already in April 1994, France had brokered the Paris Protocol on economic relations, a form of customs union, between the two sides. According to it, Israel collects the import taxes and transfers to the P.A. the taxes on goods intended for the occupied territories. The P.A. can impose direct and indirect taxes and set industrial policy. Egypt can play a helpful political role as mediator, especially now that it has made a major economic deal with an Israeli energy company, the Delek group. The agreement, a $15-billion deal, is for Israel to supply an Egyptian company with 2,260 billion cubic feet of gas over the next decade. Delek is partnered with the Texas-based Noble group, which has developed Israel's offshore gas fields. Politically, since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in 2013, Egypt and Israel have cooperated in action against ISIS terrorists in northern Sinai and increased security cooperation. In addition, Israel already has a $210-billion deal with Jordan to supply it with 200 billion cubic feet of gas. The ghost haunting peacemaking efforts is the issue of corruption investigations in Israel concerning Netanyahu. They may be a threat to his political survival, but it is uncertain at this point whether Netanyahu, now 68, is a "political corpse" or the allegations are a witch hunt. Yet, irrespective of the answer, Netanyahu's personal problems, or whether "the Netanyahu era is over," does not pose an obstacle to presentation of plans for peace negotiations and a solution of a final status to end the conflict. This is the opportunity for the Trump administration to press ahead with its proposals. While recognizing that Israeli settlements in the West Bank may have complicated making peace, Trump is aware that Netanyahu, despite some rumors to the contrary, has not proposed legislation annexing any part of the West Bank. He is also aware of the pernicious and nonsensical remarks of Abbas at the U.N. that Israel was a "colony" and that Israel occupied "Palestine" in 1948, not in 1967. The moment of truth has arrived for the Trump administration to play a key role in helping to end the conflict.The Trump Factor and the Pashtuns

On February 6, 2018, the New York Times published a piece about social unrest by Pashtuns in Pakistan. It gave some background on how the Pakistanis have been perpetrating human rights abuses against the Pashtuns for decades. Of course, it also missed completely the big story for Americans: the protesters, their leaders, and many of the minority populations there have been inspired by President Donald Trump and his new, tough policy toward Pakistan and his support for human rights in the area. This is in line with the Times' and the rest of the mainstream media's anti-Trump bias  a bias they seem quite comfortable with in coloring the prism through which their readers get the news.

Roohul Amin is a Pashtun activist who had to flee Pakistan after being attacked by the military and Taliban, leaving his wife and children behind. He currently lives in Germany, where his asylum request could be ruled on as soon as next month. I was able to talk with him about the Pashtun, and while no one is saying the Pashtun are rebelling because of President Trump, most Pashtun you talk to will tell you he has inspired them and gives them hope that the United States will support their aspirations. They believe that recent statements and actions by the president represent a clear departure from former president Barack Obama's foreign policy. It is interesting that as I speak with these people and many more Asians, it is they who are ecstatic about the United States resuming its leadership role on the world scene  more so than many Americans, including, it appears, the editors of the New York Times. Amin, along with others, said Trump's strong words calling out Pakistani complicity in Islamist terror galvanized Baloch, Pashtun, and Sindhi in their struggles against their Pakistani. His statements led to an avalanche of tweets praising him. This one from Zar Ali Khan Afridi was typical: "We support His Excellency! President Trump. Very bold man. Long live." Trump's positive impact on our respect and international reputation caused at least one village to praise him and pray for his long life. Trump resonates on an official level, too. Former Afghan president (and Pashtun) Hamid Karzai said: "I welcome today's clarity in President Trump's remarks and propose a joint U.S.-regional coalition to pressurize [sic] the Pakistan military establishment to bring peace to ... the entire region." It also is leading to grassroots action where Muslims are battling the Taliban. I have been involved in South Asia for over a decade and believe that it will be where we fight the most critical battles for our planet's soul. Pro-democratic forces in the region have faced violence at the hands of the Pakistani military and intelligence services for decades. According to Amin and other Pashtuns and Sindhis I've interviewed, they now feel they have an ally in President Trump and the United States, after previously considering us part of the problem due to our decades-long support for Pakistan. In the last few days, Pashtun have been protesting publicly and in large numbers against the actions of Pakistan's military and spy agency. Standing up to the Pakistani government can mean a summary death sentence for the individual doing so and perhaps even his family. Yet, thousands have felt emboldened to take that risk. In part, it was finally too much to bear. In part, it was an expectation that they would find support, perhaps even from the world's strongest nation and Pakistan's former bankroller. The implications of this could not be greater  and could justify President Trump's more aggressive foreign policy that looks for ways to further both U.S. interests and those of the peoples with whom we team. It also marks a watershed departure from the Obama foreign policy that was so roundly condemned by American allies and potential allies worldwide. Not only is Pakistan supporting the terrorists killing American and Afghan troops by allowing them safe haven, something a free Pashtun people say they will stop, but Pakistan also is engaged in an extensive project with China  the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC  that would be ruinous to American and Western interests in the region if unopposed. How much would an emboldened Pashtun populace force Pakistan to shift its resources and concentration away from these anti-American activities? How much more would they be forced to do so if a successful Pashtun emboldened Baloch, Sindhi, Kashmiris, and other nationalities that have been complaining of Pakistani oppression for decades? And all of it without putting a single American in harm's way.Nia Harris, a sophomore in N.Y.U.'s College of Arts & Science, sought an explanation from Weinstein Passport Dining Hall's head cook. The cook dismissed her objections, Ms. Harris said in an email to university officials, telling her that the Kool-Aid was actually fruit punch (it was not, she said) and that the dining hall served fruit-flavored water "all the time" (it does, she said, but not watermelon).

So, thanks to the exquisite sensitivity of Ms. Harris, two people who probably earn less than her yearly tuition are without jobs in an expensive city. Nice work!

I grew up drinking Kool-Aid, as did all the white kids in my 1950s Minneapolis neighborhood. I recall drinking a lot of it at summer camp, too. And the only time I get to drink watermelon juice is at my favorite Mexican restaurant, which serves it. I was not aware of the "racist connotations" Ms. Harris objects to. Now, maybe I am clueless, but it is also clear that lots and lots of people who are not black see nothing particularly black or racist about either of them.

I am aware that barbecue ribs are a part of American cuisine, in fact one of its glories, and that African-Americans have played an outsized, if not completely exclusive role in its development and flourishing. For reasons that I cannot fathom, Ms. Harris apparently doesn't object to their inclusion on the menu, nor the other elements of the menu that might be ascribed to black people's preferences. But someone else desiring to complain of racism surely could object. It seems to me that in the current atmosphere, any attempt to commemorate Black History Month with a special menu at any institution is fraught with the hazard of being accused of racism. What food associated with black culinary preferences is immune to charges of stereotyping? No one could commemorate it with sushi  that would surely lead to charges of cultural appropriation, as has happened at Oberlin.

The only safe course for anyone associated with preparing food for a population that includes any blacks would seem to be to ignore Black History Month. Would that lead to protests? That works for me, but it no doubt would be considered racist as well by those with a need to be offended. So we are left with a full descent into rule by dining hall commissars who must approve every menu. You can count on that to produce cuisine that will both taste bad and be boring.

My only hope is that sooner or later, those who need to be offended will decide that singling out black people for a month, without so singling out every other racial group (especially whites!), is itself condescending and racist.Holder and Obama playing 'impeach Trump' in Pennsylvania

Former president Obama and attorney general Eric Holder are agitating again. After witnessing the loss of their presidential candidate and the flickering remains of the faux "Russia collusion" case, they are not deterred. Rather than politely passing the torch, they are attempting to torch our entire election process in their obsessive attempt to destroy Trump's presidency. During Obama's reign, we witnessed his flagrant flouting of United States laws, his weaponization of federal bureaucracies, his ham-handed interference in local criminal activities, and his illegal meddling in foreign elections  Egypt and Israel being the more egregious examples. Now he is back on the political scene, shrouded in the shadows, conniving, advising, and fundraising for the recently founded National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). The NDRC's stated goal is to end gerrymandering after the elections in 2020. Year 2020 is an obvious and legal target. Every ten years, after the national census is completed, congressional delegates and districts are reconfigured, added, and eliminated, based upon the population shifts in each state. In Pennsylvania, the state legislature is empowered to implement redistricting, and these functions are carried out in a timely and orderly manner.

Not content to wait until 2020, however, the NDRC hatched a scheme to wrest power away from key state legislatures. Pennsylvania has proven to be a prime target. Here's why. The Pennsylvania Legislature is controlled by Republicans who created the district maps, as authorized, after the 2010 census and elections. (It is essential to note that each party in power draws district maps to its advantage.) The legislature is still controlled by Republicans, but Pennsylvania's governor is a Democrat: Tom Wolf. Wolf went along with the districts until Pennsylvania's Supreme Court suddenly became controlled, after the last elections, by Democrat justices. When the governor and Legislature could not agree on a new map, the Democrats brought an "illegal gerrymandering" case through Pennsylvania's judicial system, knowing that the Democrat-controlled Supreme Court was predetermined to support their case. Accusing the Republicans of being avaricious in their redistricting, the new Democrat-devised map is equally slanted. The redrawn map confusedly renumbers districts; eliminates potentially four Republican seats, thereby abolishing some Republican "incumbency advantages"; and makes a mockery of the Democrats' professed motive of district neutrality. Exacerbating the chaos is the Democrats' pernicious timing. Their new map dropped just before parties were endorsing candidates for the May 15, 2018 primary. As a result, all candidates, excluding congressional candidates, have been endorsed and their petitions circulating. In practical terms, that translates into needless expenditures of time and money, where committees will be forced to duplicate the nomination and endorsement process. While "illegal gerrymandering" is the tagline for obliterating Pennsylvania's legislative landscape before the 2020 Census, the endgame is President Trump's destruction. Implementing a presidential impeachment is a power that resides solely in the House of Representatives. Currently, not that many Democrat representatives have called for Trump's impeachment, though the subject is bruited about frequently. Should Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in the next election, watch the impeachment games begin. Ms. Lechter is a practicing attorney in Philadelphia and an endorsed candidate for Pennsylvania's Republican State Committee.Moser only recently moved back to the 7th District in Texas and has been quoted as saying she doesn't like the state. But she seems to toe the standard liberal Democratic line on almost everything else, making the DNCC's choice to oppose her a puzzlement.

Saying that Laura Moser, a candidate in the crowded Democratic primary for a seat being held by a Republican, is "not going to change Washington," the Democratic National Congressional Committee took the highly unusual step of dropping some opposition research on Friday, clearly going on record as opposing Moser's candidacy.

Roll Call:

The committee said Moser, who recently moved back to Texas, wrote in a November 2014 magazine article that "she'd rather have her 'teeth pulled without anesthesia' than live in Texas." (In the story written for Washingtonian magazine, Moser was more specific, referring to her grandparents' hometown of Paris, Texas, which is not located in the 7th District.) The DCCC also alleged that Moser's husband has benefited from her campaign spending, since he works at Revolution Messaging, which her campaign has paid for online consulting and advertising. Moser criticized the move in a Thursday night statement. "We're used to tough talk here in Texas, but it's disappointing to hear it from Washington operatives trying to tell Texans what to do," Moser said. "These kind of tactics are why people hate politics." "The days when party bosses picked the candidates in their smoke filled rooms are over," she said. "DC needs to let Houston vote."

One of Moser's opponents, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, has been endorsed by EMILY's List, who supports pro-choice female candidates. The DNCC may be worried that the women will split the pro-woman vote, handing the primary race to an unelectable male challenger.

That may be the Democrat's biggest problem in trying to retake the House. Across the country, radical liberal activists are running to unseat Republicans. They are being heavily backed by the most extreme elements of the party. Many are Bernie Sanders supporters energized by his candidacy in 2016. For a party already out of touch ideologically with most of the country, there is a real danger that as much as voters are disgusted by Republicans, they would rather vote for them than some wild-eyed radical Sanders-supporter.

Democrats are energized more than at any time since 2006, when they retook the House from Republicans. At that time, they needed only 15 seats to flip in order to gain control. This time, they need to pick up 24 seats in an electoral world where Republicans have redrawn district maps, carving out dozens of safe seats and leaving the Democrats with far fewer contested races to target.

Not saying it can't be done. Not by a long shot. But regardless of Republican mistakes, it's still a steep hill for Democrats to climb, and the national party sticking their nose into local primaries is probably not going to help their cause.The court heard another case in 2016 involving the forced payment of fees by non-union workers and appeared ready to overturn the 1977 decision that allowed the practice. But the death of Justice Antonin Scalia deadlocked the court at 4-4, upholding the legality of the fees.

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a landmark case that will decide the legality of fees paid by non-union workers to public employee unions to help cover the costs of collective bargaining.

With another bite at the apple, the court is expected to strike a blow against public employee unions.

Reuters:

Republican President Donald Trump's appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch last year restored the Supreme Court's 5-4 conservative majority. Gorsuch could cast the deciding vote in dooming agency fees. Depriving unions of agency fees could hamstring their ability to spend in political races. They typically back Democratic candidates over Republicans. The 2016 case was brought by non-union California public school teachers. The plaintiff in the current case is Mark Janus, a child-support specialist for the state of Illinois who opted not to join the union that represents employees like him, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In both cases, the challengers argued that being forced to pay the agency fees to unions whose views they may not share violates their rights to free speech and free association under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. Unions in both cases contended that mandatory agency fees are needed in order to eliminate the problem of what they call "free riders"  non-members who benefit from union representation, for example through salary and working conditions obtained in collective bargaining  without actually paying for it. Janus, 65, is backed in the legal fight by anti-union groups including the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. He said in an interview he is not a member of a political party and his objection to the fees was not based on politics. Janus said he has chafed at having to pay the fees, currently just under $50 a month, since starting his current stint working for Illinois in 2007. "I don't agree with the fact that someone is telling me I have to support something without asking me about that. This is not freedom of association. If I don't pay, I lose my job," Janus said. AFSCME and other public-sector unions have called the case a well-funded attack by corporations and billionaires to undermine organized labor.

Isn't it amazing that those who yelp the loudest for "fairness" inevitably wind up supporting the extraordinarily unfair practices of unions?

The fees forcibly paid by non-union workers free up millions of dollars for AFSCME to spend on candidates who will be beholden to them. But it's not only that. Spending money on collective bargaining activities means that the non-union workers are funding lawsuits against employers and union election tactics that border on thuggery at times. Most non-union employees disagree with those tactics, and being forced to pay for them rankles.

To me, it's a simple question of freedom. Coercion should have no place in the workplace under any guise, be it union fees or unfair actions by management. The argument that the fees are necessary because without them, the union would suffer doesn't strike me as a strong case to make. That unions will have less money for political activity should not be an issue. The court should be considering the effect of the loss of fees on the union's primary purpose: collective bargaining. In that sense, dues paid by union members are more than adequate to give the union a fair shot in negotiations.

Unless Gorsuch pulls a Roberts and refuses to back the ban, a significant blow for freedom will be struck by the court when the justices strike down this odious law.I relate to Franklin Graham saying his dad was the same man at home that the world saw. So is my dad, Rev. Dr. Lloyd E. Marcus.

I feel compelled to pay my respects to preacher Billy Graham, who went to his eternal reward at 99 years old. My 89-year-old black dad has been a preacher for over 50 years. Dad told me how much he enjoyed watching people coming down the aisles at Billy Graham crusades to receive Jesus. Dad also enjoyed hearing George Beverly Shea singing " How Great Thou Art ."

The thing I remember most about Rev. Graham is that, in essence, he preached the same sermon (salvation) his entire ministry. Rev. Graham preached that God loves you; repent and surrender your life to him. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

While I am supposed to be talking about Rev. Graham, these two incidents keep coming to me.

When I was kid, our neighbor, six-foot-something old man Charley, was known as the meanest man in our small black suburban community. Mr. Charley would never set foot into a church. And yet he connected with my dad, young Rev. Marcus. Our family was Mom, Dad, me, and four younger siblings. Dad wanted to attend Baltimore Bible College but could not afford the tuition, $110.

To pay Dad's tuition, Mr. Charley brought Dad a jar filled with dimes, more than enough to cover the cost.

Dad recently recounted this next story to me. After over 50 years, Dad still welled up while sharing it.

Dad was at a Christian bookstore to make a payment on a book Aunt Nee had on layaway. While waiting to be served, Dad was intrigued by a thick book of Bible stories with beautiful colorful illustrations. A white woman approached Dad and began asking him questions about his life.

Dad decided to purchase the book of Bible stories. When the sales clerk told him it cost $5, Dad asked if he could put the book on layaway. To Dad's surprise, the white woman who had chatted with him offered to pay for the book. Dad said that up until then, he was not much of a reader  mostly comic books. Dad told the woman, "If you are kind enough to buy me this book, I promise to read it."

I remember Dad reading us, his five kids, bedtime stories from that book.

I'm not sure what any of this has to do with Billy Graham. Or perhaps I am. Dad and Rev. Graham  two humble great men of faith  God's hand on their lives.

Outrageously, leftists deem Billy Graham's sermons hate crimes. A preacher was arrested for quoting the book of Genesis.

Franklin Graham asked, "Daddy, what do you want on your tombstone?" Billy Graham replied, "Preacher." I am confident my dad wants to be remembered with that same word. Preacher.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Help Lloyd spread the Truth

http://LloydMarcus.comSamsung will introduce its new flagships, the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus tomorrow, and the two phones have just leaked in a number of real-life images. The company will announce these two phones during its even in Barcelona, as part of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018. The two devices had leaked a number of times thus far, but these new images are amongst the sharpest weve seen thus far.

If you take a look at the gallery down below, you will not only be able to see both the front and back sides of the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, but also several colors of the two phones, and even some icons for the companys new apps / features. These images, once again confirm that the Galaxy S9 will sport a single camera on the back, while the Galaxy S9 Plus will ship with two snappers on its back. Both phones will be made out of metal and glass, and sport a rear-facing fingerprint scanner. Samsungs branding is also included on the back, while these images also give you a good look at physical keys on both smartphones. On the right-hand side of both the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, sits a power / lock key, while the volume up, volume down and Bixby buttons are located on the left. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus both sport curved backs, while the front side is also curved, and both will ship with curved displays as well.

One of the images down below shows off the AR Emoji icon, and also the Super Slow-Motion icons. AR Emojis will almost certainly be included in the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, and will be similar to the ones that Apple announced with the iPhone X, quite probably. Samsung already teased those emojis in a recent video teaser, so its a give. The Super Slow-Motion icon probably has something to do with the camera, the name of this icon is quite revealing. App drawers of both the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are pictured in one of the images as well, and the same goes for the Always On Display feature. For those of you who are out of the loop, the Galaxy S9 is expected to sport 4GB of RAM, while the Galaxy S9 Plus will arrive with 6GB of RAM. Both phones will ship with curved Super AMOLED Infinity displays, and Android Oreo will come pre-installed on both as well, along with Samsungs Experience UI 9.0.United States intelligence chiefs from the National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security warned Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull not to enlist Huaweis help in its efforts to deploy the fifth generation of mobile networks, AFR reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The officials are said to have personally briefed Mr. Turnbull on the matter earlier this month, urging the head of the state to reconsider Canberras collaboration with Huawei due to the tech giants close ties to Beijing that raise various security concerns, insiders claim. The chiefs reportedly identified Beijings cyber espionage as one of the top risks on their joint cybersecurity agenda.

Should Huawei be responsible for supporting 5G buildouts in Australia, it could effectively seize control of the countrys next-generation network and use it for spying or other nefarious purposes, Washington officials reportedly warned. The intelligence chiefs are also said to have raised concerns about the existence of a Chinese government committee within Huawei whose purpose remains publicly unexplained. Wireless carrier Optus recently announced plans to launch Australias first 5G network in early 2019 after agreeing to a collaboration with Huawei. The worlds largest manufacturer of network equipment also entered into an alliance with the Australian division of Vodafone and is participating in the 5G working group organized by Canberras Department of Communications as of late 2017. The upcoming launch of Optus-enabled 5G will be partially supported using Huaweis equipment.

Washington has effectively blocked Huawei from doing business in the United States earlier this year and even pressured AT&T from dropping its retail partnership with the company that would have seen it become the first stateside carrier to sell Huawei smartphones in history, also due to spying concerns. Various mobile service providers around the world recently said they never saw any evidence of Huawei spying on anyone despite submitting the firms equipment to rigorous security inspections for years. Huawei was banned from participating in Canberras 2012 tender bidding process meant to find a partner to deploy a high-speed broadband network in the country. In a recent statement on the matter, Optus says its extremely cautious with all equipment procured by third-party manufacturers and is fully committed to ensuring its offerings are maximally secure going forward, adding that theres no need for the Australian government to intervene in its 5G deployment plans.Following the announcement of C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) trials conducted between six different companies back in January, Qualcomm has taken to its official newsroom blog to discuss its role in pushing vehicle-to-everything into the mainstream. More directly, the company says it is working with industry leaders ranging from Tier-1 suppliers and cellular module manufacturers to software solution providers and automakers to promote the commercial viability of V2X solutions. Moreover, bolstered by its current run of testing and validations trials, the company revealed that it plans to see its chipset implemented in both production vehicles and roadside infrastructure beginning in 2019. Tests are being operated in Germany, France, Korea, China, Japan, and the U.S.

According to the company, its chipset has been proven to be the most cost-effective solution to date through analysis conducted by P3 North America. At the same time, the overall goal of C-V2X and the focus of creating the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset is to provide communications that will improve safety, vehicle automation, and efficiency of both vehicles and traffic, in general. To that end, the company says it has been working with a number of the software stack and application providers, as well as system integrators to expedite commercial viability and take advantage of standardized protocols  such as ETSI-ITS, IEEE WAVE, and SAE. Beyond that, Qualcomm has designed its chip to be compatible with 5G and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) sensors from around the world. The 9150 C-V2X chipset also offers low-latency communications across the gamut of possibilities, allowing a vehicle utilizing the chips to talk to other vehicles, infrastructure, and pedestrian devices. Best of all, that will take place over the 5.9GHz ITS spectrum, as opposed to requiring a cellular network or subscription.

Tier 1 suppliers and cellular module manufacturers that already plan or are interested in incorporating the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X are said to include as many as 12 different companies. On the supplier side, that includes LG Electronics, Continental, Ficosa-Panasonic, Lear, and Valeo. On the other side of the equation, companies such as Gemalto, LG Innotek, Quectel, Sierra Wireless, Telit, WNC, and ZTE are cited as having taken an interest. Meanwhile, Qualcomm also revealed that it will be demonstrating its C-V2X chips and associated technologies at MWC 2018. For those attending the event, demonstrations are scheduled to take place between February 26 and March 1 in Hall 3 at Qualcomms Stand 3E10. Specifically, those are set to center around the companys 9150 C-V2X Chipset solutions outlined in the announcement and meant for use in vehicles and roadside infrastructure.The Samsung Internet Android app surpassed half a billion installs earlier this week, as evidenced by its recently updated Google Play Store listing which estimates the mobile browser has been installed between 500 million and a billion times. Samsung Internet originally debuted in 2012, with its backend being transitioned to Googles open-source Chromium project a year later. While primarily designed for Galaxy-branded devices, the app is also compatible with many other models from third-party manufacturers, though such handsets and tablets arent believed to make up a significant portion of its total install base. Samsung Internet has been the default web browser of the companys Android offerings for over half a decade now and is expected to have the same role on the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, the upcoming flagship duo scheduled to be officially announced tomorrow.

As of late October and the release of the app build 6.2, Samsung Internet is compatible with the vast majority of phones and tablets running Android 5.0 Lollipop and later versions of Googles mobile operating system. Every pre-installed variant of the app counts toward the 500 million figure cited by the Play Store but with Samsung not disclosing its detailed usage statistics, its presently unclear how many people rely on the firms app as their mobile Internet browser of choice. The tool supported content blocking since early 2016, a feature thats only now making its way to Googles Chrome, albeit in a more limited capacity. On a fundamental level, Samsung Internet is described as running on almost unchanged Chromium with optimizations for Galaxy-branded devices.

The latest version of Samsung Internet hit the Google Play Store two weeks ago, debuting a new download manager, as well as a variety of bug fixes and performance improvements. Samsungs mobile app portfolio has largely been developed to rival that of Google and provide owners of Galaxy devices with a unique experience with comparable features. The Seoul-based tech giant was recently rumored to be working on its own messaging platform with social media features called either Uhssup or Samsung Social, with some insiders even claiming the functionality will debut on the Galaxy S9 lineup, though that suggestion remains highly dubious and unconfirmed.SoftBank-led Carrier Blockchain Study Group accepted LGs wireless division LG Uplus and a number of other members earlier this week, the Japanese tech giant announced Friday in Barcelona where its subsidiary Sprint and other telecom giants will be participating in the 2018 edition of Mobile World Congress taking place Monday through Thursday. South Korean KT, Spanish Telefonica, Filipino PLDT, and Etisalat from the United Arab Emirates also joined CBSG as part of its latest expansion wave, having agreed to collaborate on exploring opportunities in the blockchain segment in an effort to create a global cross-carrier platform based on the emerging technology.

While blockchain is often associated with cryptocurrencies, the two terms arent interchangeable, with the former being a technology meant to enable public digital ledgers with a heavily decentralized structure used for recording transactions in a manner that doesnt allow for spoofing or hacking because all changes to the library are simultaneously being verified by numerous computers connected to a single network. The clients are programmed to trust each other equally but not the network in between them so even if a single client is compromised and alters a transaction in a manner that isnt allowed, whether by being hacked or e.g. trying to complete a purchase it cant fund, the rest of the computers connected to and verifying the ledger ignore its request. As such, blockchain is touted as a next-generation technology capable of doing everything from securing transactions and authenticating identities to proving property ownership, conducting equity swaps, registering copyright, and managing medical records. In essence, if theres digital information involved, blockchain can be implemented into any platform in order to reliably store and verify it whenever required.

As such, the technology has vast implications for a broad range of industries, wireless included. SoftBank established CBSG last September and is seeking to create a universal, carrier-agnostic platform for delivering various services to wireless customers, from IoT applications and identity authentication to bill payments and secure settlements. Later this year, SoftBank and Taipei-based telecom Far EasTone will test a blockchain-powered mobile wallet meant to support roaming in Japan and Taiwan. The consortium is ultimately seeking to spearhead the blockchain revolution in the wireless industry on a global level, though it has yet to share many details on its efforts.An unannounced Meizu smartphone sporting a thin display notch leaked online earlier this year, having originally been spotted on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The device seen in the low-quality image above doesnt resemble any model Meizu was already rumored to be planning to release this year but was presumably manufactured by the Chinese phone maker given how it apparently runs its proprietary Flyme OS. The handset also seems to be featuring extremely thin bezels save for a somewhat regular-sized chin, though the photograph doesnt clearly reveal whether it also has a physical Home button.

The company was previously said to be working on the Meizu 15 Plus that features a display notch, albeit older leaks suggested that design cue will be more reminiscent of the Essential PH-1. More recent supposed depictions of the device lacked a notch altogether but were otherwise somewhat similar to the newly uncovered handset. The Meizu 15 Plus is also expected to be accompanied by the smaller Meizu 15, though the more compact model isnt believed to be a flagship and should instead debut with Qualcomms Snapdragon 660 mid-range chip. The overall design of the leaked product is indicative of a more premium-grade offering and the firm is currently said to be working on only two such devices  the Meizu 15 Plus and the Meizu X2. The latter device still hasnt been the subject of any leaks claiming to depict it but will be launching with the Snapdragon 845 and a sub-$500 price tag at some point this year, as recently revealed by the companys Vice President Li Nan.

Display notches are expected to be a recurring design feature on 2018 smartphones, having initially been made mainstream by Apples iPhone X last fall, though the Essential PH-1 managed to adopt an arguably even more efficient take on such incisions before the latest iOS flagship launched. Meizu isnt expected to announce any high-end Android devices until this spring, though it remains to be seen whether the newly sighted handset from the company ends up being among its earliest 2018 releases. The majority of the industry is presently traveling to Barcelona, Spain, which will once again host the years largest mobile trade show  Mobile World Congress  scheduled to take place Monday through Thursday.Vuzix has now announced that it will be showing off its Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses and the associated Vuzix Blade Edge Program for developers at this years MWC 2018. Of course, this isnt the first time those will be presented as the company was also present at CES 2018 and actually won several awards in categories of innovation at that event. With that said, for those who may not be aware, Vuzix Blade is a wearable that features a transparent smart display which takes advantage of both proprietary optics and display engine. It weighs less than 3 oz and effectively looks like a slightly bulky set of shades, so this is one wearable that wouldnt necessarily look out of place in public. Meanwhile, the use of a fully transparent display that covers the wearers entire field of view means that AR experiences and or U.I. representing information received via a connected device can be much more immersive without necessarily being intrusive.

The company will also be putting its enterprise-geared M300 Smart Glasses on display, in addition to the associated Vuzix Basics Video SaaS Subscription. The wearable technology is intended to be used in business-oriented circumstances as opposed to the more general-purpose Blade series and the subscription allows field technicians and other wearers to connect remotely to central offices or other experts in real-time. That leaves employees and specialists able to communicate, as well as both sending and receiving information and media, without tying up their hands or distracting them from their local physical environment.

For those attending the Barcelona-based event, demonstrations of both sides of Vuzix wearable business will be presented at two separate press conferences in conjunction with MWC 2018. The first will take place before doors to the actual event open, on February 25 at the University of Barcelona. The second presentation will take place on February 26 at Pepcom MobileFocus Global 2018, scheduled to take place at the Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos. Aside from those more public events, President and CEO of Vuzix, Paul Travers, will be representing just Vuzix as just one of five companies showing off its innovations to the GSMA MWC CEO and guest authorities  a group which is said to include The King of Spain.The global law firm increased its headcount by 7% in 2017 and increased its revenue per lawyer by 1.5% to US$1.258m.

The firms London practice contributed strong growth with a double-digit hike in revenue according to Legal Business. Lathams co-vice chair Richard Trobman also told the publication that core practices of M&A, private equity, capital markets and banking saw growth of 20%+.

Australian mid-market M&A set to boom in 2018

This year is set to see a hot Australian mid-market M&A market according to new research from Pitchers Partners and MergerMarket.

Its newly-released report highlights the strong trends of 2017, including dealmaking up 55% from the previous year with mid-market deals accounting for 77%.The simplest fix to those fears is understanding that noises coming from the brake pads are normal and usually just warn you that, sometime in the near future, brake pads will have to be changed. Theyre also normal because, after all, brakes are made of pieces of metal or other materials rubbing against each other as you press the pedal inside the car.When a car travels down or up a road, it generates kinetic motion. When it needs to stop, it needs to dissipate that kinetic energy somehow. And thats where the brakes come in: by using friction, they do just that, and slow the car down.There are in fact two levels of friction involved when it comes to the process of braking. The first level implies the brake disk and the brake pads. By pressing on the pedal inside the car, the driver orders the pads, with the help of hydraulic pressure, to squeeze harder onto the disk, thus slowing its motion.The disk then sends the same reaction to the wheel itself, to which it is connected. The wheels friction with the asphalt is level two, and as the speed decreases, more friction force is generated between the wheel and the tarmac.Noises generally occur when the disk pads are pressed against the brake disk. As they are continuously used, the brake pads, usually made of metal alloys and ceramics, begin to wear off. Temperature and humidity can also make the brake pads squeal.There are several types of noises possible, difficult to render in writing, but generally they are described as squealing or grinding.When you hear awhile applying the brake, that means there is usually reason for mild concern. Although you are not in immediate danger, such a sound usually means that the brake pads are beginning to wear off.Each break pad is fitted with a so called metal wear indicator, a piece of metal embedded into the brake pad material that only surfaces when the pads have been worn enough.When it reaches a certain level, the material on the pads allows the wear indicator to rub against the brake disc and emit a sound. This is, if you like, a safety feature built into the pads to alert you when it is time to change them.Hearing this high-pitched squealing should prompt you to make a visit to a car service and have the brake pads checked out. Especially when the sound caused by the wear indicator is heard when the brake pedal is not pressed at all.can mean different things, so you should keep an ear out to better understand what they mean. Grinding sounds in the morning, or after a period of time during which the car hasnt been moved, are normal. During the night, brake pads become cool and at times covered in condensed vapors. Until they warm up and the moisture evaporates, they will make some grinding noise. It should go away after several stops.When they dont, then theres reason for concern. In extreme cases, such noises may be the first signs of the pads beginning to chew their way into the brake disc itself. They do this because the wear of the pads is so severe, that now their underlying metal rubs directly against that of the disk.To help us better understand brake noises, German manufacturer Porsche released in the beginning of 2018 a short video explaining why usually brake noises are not something to be scared of. You can watch it below.EV

AWD

We're talking about the Peugeot 508, shown earlier this week. Just when you thought that the crossover was going to take over the whole industry, the lion brand injected some growth hormones. No wonder they are boastfully bringing a giant statue to their Geneva Motor Show stand.We already got a wagon rendering, accompanied by the RXH , right after the launch of the real 508. At least one of those will see production, if not both. However, we'd value the chances of a 508 Coupe at under 20%.Sure, Peugeot might occasionally say that it wants a car like this, and it's now a real powerhouse in Europe. But at the end of the day, they are only going to sell... maybe 100,000 cars over its entire lifecycle. The money would be better spent on BMW X6 copycat or anThe French have had plenty of 2-door cars over the years. There was the 506 coupe, the 507, the 406, as well as the still-in-produced RCZ. Of course, we also fondly remember the Renault Laguna Coupe which got discontinued when the Talisman came along.Of course, if the 508 did have a 2-door version, it would probably need winder hips. X-Tomi did a decent job with what he had. We'd recommend adding some wider rear hips to disguise the fact that it's a front-wheel drive car.That is, unless it's the plug-in hybrid version. We know such a thing is coming out next year and it's likely going to have the 300 horsepowerpowertrain of the DS7 Crossback. Secretly, we think Peugeot want to prove Volkswagen is boring with everything they offer.That's not the only benefit to have from building a Nurburgring-like track in your own backyard, though. It will also allow the Japanese carmaker to test its vehicles away from the prying eyes of the spy photographers who give us those juicy shots of yet unreleased cars, meaning there's no need to waste any more time with the camouflage.Speaking of time savings, that's nothing compared to what goes into preparing the vehicle for its flight to Germany - assuming it wasn't designed and built in one of the company's European centers. In fact, the decision would be a no-brainer for any manufacturer, and it all comes down to costs.You can imagine that building a 12.9 miles (20.7 km) circuit isn't exactly cheap, especially when the track in question has the elevation variation of the German classic. Well, that's probably why Toyota's version will only measure 3.3 miles (5.3 kilometers) and will only reproduce - as accurately as possible - a few of the circuit's famous corners.The new track will be one of eleven built as part of a new research and development center situated in Aichi, central Honshu Island, Japan, Nikkei Asian Review informs. It would appear the total investment nears $3 billion, and it's aimed primarily at the development of electric vehicles which will sell on important markets such as the U.S.A or Europe.

Toyota has never been the go-to manufacturer when it came to handling characteristics, but if what one Mazda engineer says is to be believed, that might be about to change. And with a miniature Nurburgring at its full disposal 24/7, we should begin to see even more fun-driving Toyotas.President Trump has accelerated his diplomatic efforts to broker peace among quarreling Arab monarchies, starting with an upcoming series of White House visits by leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Axios has learned.

The impact: Sources with knowledge of the negotiations tell us they hope these separate meetings  hugely consequential in their own right  will lead to a peace deal over Qatar in late spring at a summit in Washington or Camp David. That could help end the longstanding dispute over its alleged support for terrorism and ties to Iran.

Between the lines: The proposed Gulf Cooperation Council meeting would not be a peace summit  it's part of an annual series of meetings. But if there's enough progress towards a deal on Qatar, Trump would surely be tempted to brand it that way and claim the leading hand in defusing the tensions.

That's not the only issue on the agenda, though. The meetings will be packed with other disputes, like the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the conflict in Yemen, and Irans funding of terror throughout the region.

What we're hearing: To ease the way to a potential deal, the current White House plan  which is only tentative and could change  is for Trump to welcome key Arab leaders in sequenced visits to Washington:

First, the Saudi Crown Prince is expected to visit in mid-March. Next, the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince would visit around March 27. The Emir of Qatar is expected to visit around a week or 10 days after that.

Why it matters (from the White House's point of view): The White House is keen to unify these gulf countries to preserve the integrity of the Gulf Cooperation Council and to bring the focus back to opposing Iran's bad behavior in the region. Iran benefits from the GCC being divided, so the Trump team is keen to unify the group again.

The UAE and Saudis, however, say the way for Qatar to resume diplomatic ties is to agree to 13 specific demands, which include commitments to cut ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and cool relations with Iran.

Crucial context: These Arab leaders who are opposing Qatar don't consider it the top flashpoint in the region. Theyre coming to discuss a range of issues  including the major regional problems in Iran, Yemen and Syria. Qatar is a piece, but its a small piece, said a source familiar with the negotiations.

In the view of some gulf leaders in the Saudi bloc, the Qatar dispute is a regional disagreement that has persisted for years. They argue the pressure on Qatar has yielded wins for the U.S., including the recent open skies agreement and a memorandum of understanding on combatting terrorism and its financing.By Trend:

The volume of investments so far made in the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) project, envisaging transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria is 17 million euros, Teodora Georgieva, executive officer at ICGB AD joint venture company, the projects operator, told Trend.

She noted that this amount has been invested by the projects shareholders Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD and IGI Poseidon S.A. (equally owned by Greek Depa and Italys Edison).

Georgieva said that the estimated total investment cost of the project is 240 million euros without valued-added tax (VAT), out of which approximately 220 million euros is capital expenditure and 20 million euros is the development cost.

The remaining funds for the project are to be provided by a grant financing, shareholder loan/equity and external loan financing, she added.

Georgieva pointed out that the project has an approved grant of 45 million euros under the European Energy Program for Recovery (EEPR) and 110 million euros worth state guarantee from Bulgarian government.

Further the project company has applied for additional grant financing from the ESIF (European Structural and Investment Funds) of Bulgaria and Greece. The amount of the grant financing is subject to evaluation and approval by the relevant managing authorities of both countries and European Commission, she added.

The ICGB application for ESIF financing in Bulgaria requires the amendment of the Operational Program Innovation and Competitiveness as well as the addition of the project company as a direct beneficiary.

IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.



The initial capacity of IGB will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.

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It is expected to complete 80 percent of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project by late 2018, Trend learned from TAP AG consortium, engaged in construction of the pipeline.

"At this point of time TAP is progressing well on schedule, having completed 2/3 of the project so far. TAP will continue to progress construction works this year. TAP expects to have completed 80 of the project by the end of this year," TAP Head of Communications Lisa Givert told Trend.

Regarding the possibility for TAPs awarding new contracts or holding new tenders, she noted that TAPs procurement process is complete and all strategic contracts have been awarded in early 2016.

Touching upon the decision of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to allocate 1.5 billion euros for the project, Givert said that this is in line with TAPs project financing strategy.

"The funds will be used to finance the ongoing project works as it progresses towards commercial and operational start up in 2020," she added.

TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor which is one of the priority energy projects for the EU.

TAP project envisages transportation of gas from the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to the EU countries.



The pipeline will be connected to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy's south.



TAPs shareholders are: BP (20 percent), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (20 percent), Snam (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 km, Albania 215 km, Adriatic Sea 105 km, and Italy 8 km). Its highest point will be 1,800 meters in Albanias mountains, while its lowest point will be 820 meters beneath the sea.

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President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on measures to strengthen the technical support to the agricultural sector.

According to the order, 160 million manats will be allocated to Aqrolizinq OJSC with the aim of sustainable development of such traditional agricultural areas as grain growing, cotton growing, rice growing, tea growing and horticulture, and meeting the needs of producers of agricultural products in machinery, equipment and kits for irrigation systems.

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Over 4,000 submissions were sent to courts in Azerbaijan after an order was signed last year by President Ilham Aliyev on the penal policy humanization, Ali Huseynli, chairman of the parliamentary committee for legal policy and state development, said at a plenary session of parliament Feb. 23.

He noted that after this order, the Azerbaijani parliament made changes to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses, and the application of the law started on Dec. 1, 2017.

According to the submissions, 479 prisoners were released, 585 prisoners had their terms of sentence shortened, 465 persons were released from other types of punishment, and 59 prisoners had their punishment alleviated," Huseynli said.

He noted that in addition it is planned to send submissions regarding 5,000 prisoners.

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As part of the Fourth Session of the Islamic Conference of Labor Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah city, head of the Azerbaijani delegation, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Salim Muslumov has met with Minister of Labor and Social Development of Saudi Arabia Ali bin Nasser al-Ghafis and Indonesian Minister for Manpower and Transmigration Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri, Azerbaijans Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population said in a message Feb. 23.

Muslumov at the meeting with Ali bin Nasser al-Ghafis stressed the active cooperation of Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia in the field of labor and social protection within the OIC.

Ali bin Nasser al-Ghafis expressed satisfaction with the constantly developing relations between the two countries and noted interest in strengthening cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of labor and social protection.

During the meeting with Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri, Muslumov told about the possibility of an effective exchange of experience and knowledge in improving the manpower skills. Dhakiri stressed the work carried out in accordance with changes in the labor market of Saudi Arabia.

The sides discussed issues of further cooperation in the areas of mutual interest, the draft Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Labor and Social Protection between the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of Saudi Arabia and the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of Azerbaijan and the Ministry for Manpower and Transmigration of Indonesia.

During the meetings, Muslumov invited Ali bin Nasser al-Ghafis and Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri to pay a working visit to Azerbaijan.

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Members of the Azerbaijani Youth Organization in Lithuania held a flashmob in the center of Vilnius dedicated to the Khojaly genocide, Azerbaijan's Embassy in Lithuania said in a message on Feb. 23.

The event was held with the support of the embassy upon a special permission of the Vilnius Town Hall in the crowded places and in front of the Town Hall.

Over 2,000 candles that burned all night on an area of 100 square meters formed #KHOJALY.

Along with Azerbaijani students receiving education in Vilnius and Kaunas universities, Lithuanian youth took an active part in the flashmob.

On Feb. 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, together with the 366th infantry regiment of Soviet troops, stationed in Khankendi, committed an act of genocide against the population of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly. As many as 613 people, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 old people were killed in the massacre. Eight families were totally exterminated, 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both. Some 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 people still remains unknown.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Ambassador Robert F. Cekuta and Mrs. Cekuta , along with Cabinet of Ministers representative Mahammad Guliyev, joined 33 students to kick off the "Knowledge is Power!" English language learning program at school No. 4 for internally displaced people (IDP) from Zangilan. This program will provide Zangilans young people with English language skills, opening doors to other new skills and stronger participation in the global economy. The Ambassador and Mrs. Cekuta also took part in an English speaking exercise with the students and learned about their goals and aspirations.

Funded by the U.S. Embassy and administered by the American Councils for International Education and the Azerbaijan University of Languages, "Knowledge is Power" provides English language skills to economically disadvantaged high school students from IDP schools through afterschool programming, helping build their career readiness and confidence. "Knowledge is Power" will include four hours per week of structured, classroom learning, with classes held two days per week. The U.S. Embassy is dedicated to supporting the IDP community in Azerbaijan, and offering young people in particular the educational foundation they need to build strong futures for themselves, their communities, and Azerbaijan.

The United States has provided $1.3 billion to support Azerbaijans development since 1991, including $125 million to assist Azerbaijans IDP communities.

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The conjectures voiced by the leadership of Armenia in the pre-election period are aimed at exclusively the domestic consumer, Hikmet Hajiyev, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend commenting on the speech of the Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Hajiyev said that the Armenian leadership's citing the mythology is not surprising.

"It's not a secret for anyone that Armenia has built for itself a reality based on mythical tales. The illogicality voiced by Armenia can only be explained by myths. Such kind of conjectures, voiced by the Armenian leadership during the pre-election period, are designed exclusively for the domestic consumer, "he said.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that, just as in the case of the UN Security Council resolutions, instead of familiarizing with the final document of the Eastern Partnership Summit held in Brussels and comprehend it, the Armenian leadership turns to fairy tales and legends.

"The final statement of the EU summit in Brussels once again expressed the European Union's commitment to the territorial integrity of the Eastern Partnership countries, including Azerbaijan," he stressed.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzThe Jerusalem Post has published an article by political analyst Arye Gut headlined Act of genocide in Khojaly - When will the moment of justice come?

There are place names that mean much more than just a point on the map. These are the names of villages and towns, which have become a symbol of cruelty and brutality: Babi Yar, Lidice, Oradour, Khatyn, My Lai. In the early 90-ies of the last century one more name was added to this list - the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly.

Khojaly genocide committed with an incredible brutality was one of the worst tragedies of the XX century. Such bloodshed has no analogue in the history. Azerbaijani will forever remember the scenes of such a cruel and merciless tragedy.I think the world community should also know more about the misfortunes and cruelties that Armenian nationalists have committed under the peaceful Azerbaijani population in the the occupied lands, Gut says.

What was the goal of the Armenians, choosing Khojaly as their targets? Besides the strategic objectives, they wanted to destroy Khojaly as a settlement that reflects the historical and cultural heritage of the city from ancient times to the modern period. This is a special culture now known as the Khojaly-Gadabay culture of the XVI century BC. Such funerary monuments as stone boxes, barrows and necropolis belonging to the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age, as well as such architectural monuments as round crypt (1356-1357 gg.) and mausoleum (XIV century) were discovered here. During the archaeological excavations there were found different decoration made of stone, bronze, bone, household items made of ceramics, and etc. There is the name of the Assyrian king Adadnerari inscribed on the one of the beads found in Khojaly (807-788 cc. BC). Armenian terrorists, through technology, destroyed all monuments of culture of the Khojaly cemetery, considered one of the ancient burial grounds.All of the monuments of the Khojali cemetery culture, which are considered to be one of the ancient tombs made using devices, have been destroyed during the Khojaly occupation. It is a vivd example of Armenian vandalism against world culture.

Khojaly, one of the ancient settlements of Azerbaijan, was ruined and burned down just in one night. This tragedy is a crime against humanity. This is a historical fact that the Armenian armed forces and mercenary units gave the quarter to no one in Khojaly, who had not managed to leave the city and its surroundings.

The storm of the city began with a two-hour artillery bombardment, which was conducted by tanks, armored vehicles and guns with the "Alazan" missiles, "Grad" and "Uragan" installations, military equipment of the 366th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the former Soviet Army. Khojaly was blocked from three sides; the fire broke out and burnt down almost the entire city. Many civilians were killed by shells in the first hours of the assault. After the start of the firing the Armenian fascists announced using the loudspeakers about the opening of the corridor for civilians to left the city.

The military personnel of the Russian Army's 366th regiment took an active part in the storming of Khojaly. At first the press center of the CIS Joint Armed Forces denied this fact emphatically though.However on March 11, 1992 the newspaper "Red Star" confirmed the participation of the 366th regiment in the fighting, despite the commanders emphatic orders. The paratroopers checked a few soldiers before the evacuation of the regiment, and found large sums of money, including foreign currency, he says.

Yuri Girenko, who served at the beginning of 1992 in the 97th separate engineering department, confirmed that the soldiers of the 366th regiment and mostly Armenians took part in the storming. The battalion commander, almost all officers and lieutenants were Armenians. The question arises: why did the namely Armenians appear to be in the Soviet battalion, which was located in the hot spot of confrontation between Armenians and Azerbaijanis? The answer is clear - it was planned and thought out in advance. And it must be taken into account that the battalion was well armed, and long before such attacks, from Azerbaijani villagers collected every weapon, including a hunting rifle. Let's return to the events, Armenians from this regiment, having gathered soldiers, as well as volunteers of other nations, began a bloody storming of Khojaly.

When Khojaly residents attempted to leave the city at 2am through the corridor which was from 100 to 300 meters in width, but they were raked with the submachine gun and machine-gun fire immediately. As a result of the Armenian armed forces atrocities, 613 people were killed, 487 people were crippled, 1275 old men, children and women were captured and subjected to unprecedented tortures, insults and humiliation. The reason for this massacre of Khojaly civilian population was just that fact that they were Azerbaijanis.150 people were killed at once by the eastern guard of the Khojaly city. The crowd panicked. The road turned into a snowy and bloody mess covered with bodies. One part of refugees managed to cross the river. They were soaked to the skin and the temperature was below zero. They tried to hide in the nearby mountains, but most of them died from hypothermia by the morning. It was impossible to calculate the total number of frozen to death that night. Most of them are still considered to be "missing according to the statistics reports.

Once all the Khojaly citizens had been slaughtered, imprisoned, or had fled the town, Armenian soldiers quickly took control of the region with the partial objective of obscuring the scale of the massacre. Azerbaijani helicopters attempted to pick up the bodies, but continually came under fire. Most of the dead were carried in vehicles, being transported by the truckload. However, the whereabouts of a further 150 victims remain unknown. The massacre at Khojaly by Armenia contravened international law and violated Geneva conventions and articles 2, 3, 5, 9, and 17 of the Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the UN Genera Assembly on 10 December 1948).

"The battered cars with wheels but without tires, piled high with rugs, pots and pans, rattled" - the American journalist Thomas Goltz wrote, - "choking with exhaust gases and bending under the weight of the mattresses and the iron beds, people were trying to overtake a tractor with trailers for transportation of cotton, inside of which there were grubby kids and quacking ducks sitting among the dumped in a pile clothes. Usually there were the men at the end of the column, who either rode the donkeys, or led the pulling carts mules. Barefoot shepherds were driving frightened sheep, cows and calves, who strove to get under the wheels of a passing truck, to the edge of the road."

The leaving of the Azerbaijani refugees of their land was one of the most mass in Europe since the World War II. The Land of Fire and its people were at the entryway of hell. They were betrayed, cheated and abandoned

Khojaly was the next stage of the capture and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani territories, creating panic and fear of shocking brutality. This barbaric cruelty towards innocent children, women and old people has no explanation. This is not the tragedy of one generation, but also one of the worst crimes in the history of mankind!

Together with the representatives of the Israeli media, I met some times with the Khojaly survivors, who have captured by the Armenian armed forces. Believe me, they told terrible things about Armenian savagery that it is even shameful to write about it. They showed us signs of torture. Then I had meetings with individuals and they told what they were ashamed to tell openly to all the people and the media.

In the article, Gut also provides testimonies of eyewitnesses of Khojaly massacre

Major Leonid Kravets, the helicopter pilot of Russian Air Forces: "I took the wounded people out from Stepanakert and returned them back through the Askeran gates*. My eyes caught some bright spots on the ground. I got lower and then my flight engineer shouted: "Look, there are women and children." I noticed about two hundred dead, scattered around the slope, and the people with arms wandered among them. Then we flew over that area to pick up the corpses. A local police captain was there with us. He saw a four-year old son with his skull crushed, and went mad. The other child, we managed to pick up before they began shooting at us, had his had cut off. Everywhere I saw the mutilated bodies of women, children and the old people. Many of them were killed at close range while trying to flee, some had there faces mutilated.

Elman Mamadov, the fromer Khojali mayor: Khojaly was a small town of Nagorno-Karabakh until the mid-80's. By the early 90's population began to grow because of the Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia and Meskhetian Turks refugees from Uzbekistan. When the number of residents has reached 10 thousand, Khojaly became the second-largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh by the number of Azerbaijani citizens after Shusha.

Isai Svirsky, Honored Builder of Azerbaijan, citizen of Israel: I am one of the builders of Khojaly. Peaceful and happy people lived here. They were very welcoming and they didnt have any national enmity. They raised their children, dreamt of a bright future, built houses, roads, schools, kindergartens and nurseries. I had never thought that something like that can ever happen there.

Ramin Hasanov, a refugee from Khojaly: Ive spent my childhood there, in Khankendi. We were going to the kindergarten together with the Russian and Armenian children, then to the school, we were friends with many children, playing different games together. I would have never thought that in a few years the Armenians would cut and kill us. It was so good to be together. Such a pity

Airan Aliyev, a refugee from Khojaly: After the capture of our city Armenians set up a concentration camp in swine farm in the village Darzhaz. It was a camp of death. Captured people did not get food... sometimes in a few days we were given 50 grams of stale bread. They spit on the bread just in front of our eyes, and then they forced us to eat just like dogs.

Asiya Abdullayeva, a refugee from Armenia: One part of the population of Khojaly are Azerbaijanis who have been banished from their native lands in Armenia. They fled from Armenia, from where they were brutally expelled. And what about poor Meskhetian Turks, how many lands had they changed? Are they guilty of finding a new homeland? Are they guilty of being born in another faith and becoming a part of Azerbaijan?

Dourdane Agayeva, cockpit communicator Khojaly: I have no right to remain silent. I survived the captivity. What Ive experienced, passed those who had fled from Khojaly through the forest and managed to escape. They saw the war, but did not see the Armenians. When the war started and Khojaly was blocked, when my brother fought in the trenches, I fought in the cockpit communicator. The whole our family fought. The shooting continued every night, and we had become accustomed to it, but this time it was particularly intense. Even the houses shook. At about eleventh thirty our neighbor, aunt Shargiya, with her daughter Irada said, that had shooting calmed down and we could go home. However, it turned out to be Armenians tactical trick to calm people down. They suddenly launched an offensive to capture the airfield. The door opened, and frightened neighbor Uncle Abdullah, whose family also was with us, appeared. "What are you going here? People are escaping through the forest!". When we came out of the basement, everything around was painted in bloody red: that was red tracer line. It was scary. We crawled to the forest.

While crawling through the forest I popped in a bag all the ammunition that I found, so that not to be empty-handed if we get to our people... We leaped when we could, and if the shooting was intensive, we crawled through the snow. At that moment a bullet hit me in the ankle. Now I could not run any more, crawling became difficult too. And what happened then I do not remember. When awake, there was the blood all around the bushes and trees, bloodied shreds of clothes: people must have been stripping themselves on the run to make it easier to move... There was an uncountable number of corpses of the children and men all around me... I lost my conscious at night and woke up in the morning. We crawled to the place from where the Aghdam village Shelley was about ten minutes away walking on foot. I looked around.

There was fellow villager Valeh walking with his wife Saadet. They got married recently and Saadat was pregnant. I saw the bullet entering directly into her stomach, then a few bullets in different parts of the body. Valeh, punching himself in the head under the shooting, yelled, "Saadet! Saadet !!! " like a mad... Saadet was a year younger than me. She was 19 and Valeh was about three years elder. I crept closer and said, "Valeh, do not worry, she will recover," but he did not hear, and only repeated: "Saadat was killed, shes gone!" - and hit himself in the head in despair...

I began to look into different directions, but there was no mother, no brothers or grandmother. The bullets flew thick and fast. I crawled to the side into a pothole, which was dug up by trying to escape from death refugees. I began to look around, and at this moment I noticed my brother hidden in a small hole. He leaned against the slope. He was covered with blood and his face was smeared with dirt. The bullet hit him in the right side. Valeh was already unable to protect the body of his wife and crawled after me into the same rut. There was also Gamboi, a refugee from Khankendi. He was crawling in our direction with his 5-year old son. We located in the potholes in a row: my brother, I, Valeh, and then Gamboi and his son. Thus, we were captured by Armenians.

Malahat Huseynova, a resident of Khojaly: By the victims' testimony the Armenian soldiers, there were enormous Syrians among them, took hostage my seven-year old daughter. She started going to studying at school only a week ago. They killed her just before my. Her mothers, eyes. In Karabakhh women were not afraid of death. They scared of becoming hostages, as those wild thugs abused girls and young women in a wicked cruel way, without fearing God. My other three children were lost. I was wounded and helpless. I was lying in bushes all night., till the Azeri guardsmen picked me up.

Suleyman Abbasov, a resident of Khojaly: Nearly all of the men, who can hold a weapon, took the first hit of the enemy. But we were powerless against the armored vehicles. The most of the city's defenders were killed. The rest, including me, were retreating fighting back, but the forces were unequal. I still can not forget that terrible bloody scene. The bodies of women, children, old people were lying on the streets. The houses were burning all around. The wounded were moaning. We stopped to look around if there was anyone still alive. And we saw how the Armenians coming just behind us were shooting down wounded people, and APCs moved along the streets, crushing the bodies of dead and wounded.

The refugee Almas Khasiyeva: I remember that humanitarian corridor. About thousand of my fellow countrymen, women and children were the object of looting of Armenian soldiers. The only thing we had was our lives and they deprived us of it in that "free corridor". They killed our children, grandchildren, shoot at us near the Nakhchivanik village. Everything was taken away from us, and even our motherland!

The refugee Rimma Hatileva: When I see my father, mother and relatives slaughtered bodies in the newsreels of those years, my hatred has no limits. What are they guilty of? Where is the world justice??? So many years have passed, and nevertheless the murderers and perpetrators of the Khojaly massacre are not punished!!!

Today the people installed in the administrative management of Armenia like Serj Sarkissyan (the current president, Seyran Ohanian (former defense minister), Robert Kocharian (former president) and dozens these types of government men attended directly in the extermination and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in the Mountainous Karabagh, occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The emergence of a new international legal doctrine, "crimes against humanity," intended as a vaccine against the recurrence of similar genocides by replacing impunity with institutionalized redistributive justice.

The successors of Armenian fascists Dro and Nzhdeh are incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan and Minister Seyran Ohanyan, both of whom committed a bloody massacre in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly in late 20th century. There are a lot of materials and video documents as well as testimonies provided by witnesses of the tragedy, which confirm the participation of the above-mentioned high-ranking officials of the Republic of Armenia in Khojaly massacre. Unlike the Nazis who tried to hide their crimes, some of these individuals gave interviews to foreign media. In these interviews, they justified and boasted their barbarous criminal acts against Azerbaijanis in Khojaly. Serzh Sargsyans words say it all: Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that stereotype.

The bloody act of genocide, which was committed with incredible brutality and barbarism in Khojaly, is one of the most horrible tragedies of the late 20th century. Cruel and merciless scenes of that massacre will always remain a never-healing scar in the hearts of Azerbaijanis.

This is a sorrow for innocent Azerbaijanis, who had their own stories, families, childhood, dreams and future, which was cut short as a result of this bloody massacre perpetrated by the Armenian armed forces. The relatives of the victims have one common pain: those who had committed this terrible crime against humanity have not been prosecuted by international court and have remained unpunished. Unlike the consequences of World War II, when the majority of the Nazis faced the international court at the Nuremberg trial, ideologists and executors of the mass slaughter of peaceful Azerbaijani citizens in Khojaly live freely in the modern Republic of Armenia.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBeaumont ISD students who participate in walkouts or other demonstrations related to gun control will be disciplined for violating the Student Code of Conduct, the district said Friday.

Student protests have been planned nationwide for several days this spring, including March 14, one month after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people, and April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

"Students who do not follow expectations outlined in the Student Code of Conduct will be disciplined," BISD spokeswoman Nakisha Burns said Friday.

She did not immediately explain which regulation in the Code of Conduct would be violated by walking out. Students are not allowed to "engage in actions or demonstrations that substantially disrupt or materially interfere with school activities," according to the code, which could result in punishment including removal from class and suspension.

More than 1,000 students at Austin-area schools participated in walkouts calling for stricter gun control laws this week, along with students across the country in Florida, Arizona, Kentucky and Illinous, among others.

A Houston-area superintenent drew attention this week when he said in a letter that all students who protested or walked out of class would be suspended for three days, according to the Houston Chronicle.

"Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative. We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved," Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in post on its website Friday that schools can punish students for missing class, but cannot "discipline students more harshly because they are walking out to express a political view or because school administrators don't support the views behind the protest."

BISD students will be on spring break on March 14, the day of one planned National School Walkout, but are scheduled to be in school on April 20.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzMore than six years after 4-year-old Breonna Nichole Loftin died from blunt force trauma to her head, her mother's boyfriend was found guilty of killing her by a Hardin County jury Friday.

Jason Wade Delacerda, 40, was convicted of capital murder after a jury deliberated for 2 hours and 40 minutes. He will be sentenced next week and faces the death penalty or life in prison.

Prosecutors, who argued throughout the trial that Breonna was "tortured to death," made an emotional appeal to the jury Friday morning.

"Life sometimes takes some cruel unusual turns. One day, you're a happy 4-year-old living with your grandmother and aunt, until you're brought to live with your mother's boyfriend," District Attorney David Sheffield said.

He ran through the list of injuries reported in Breonna's autopsy: bleeding on three parts of her brain, a spiral fracture in her leg, 12 broken ribs, marks from standing on bottlecaps, cigarette burns, bruises on her face, blisters from being paddled, pushpin piercings in her forehead and skull and two other major burns, including one described as "blackened."

While he and Assistant DA Bruce Hoffer provided no witnesses or evidence of what caused the head injury that killed Breonna during two days of trial, Sheffield argued that "there's pieces of the puzzle to put together" based on the extent of her injuries and testimony from family members.

Sheffield told jurors that "the only one that did not fail this child was God," who saw Breonna's suffering and "said this was enough, I'm taking you home."

"Do not fail Breonna," he told the jury.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Hoffer projected a picture of Breonna on a screen and played part of a song from the movie "Pitch Perfect" called "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" during his statement.

Delacerda's defense team criticized the emotional approach of the prosecution, saying it was used to compensate for insufficient evidence that he caused the blunt force head trauma that killed her.

While he conceded that some of the injuries that Delacerda admitted to, like making her stand on bottlecaps, were "weird and strange," Ryan Gertz said "everything they brought you was about something else on some other day."

"You didn't hear any evidence about this crime," he said,

Gertz and James Makin tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to stop the prosecutors from introducing any evidence that did not relate to the 24 to 48 hours before Breonna died, which is roughly the age of the hematoma that was ruled her cause of death.

He said the only evidence the state provided related to Aug. 17, 2011 was the 911 call that Delacerda and Breonna's mother, Amanda Guidry, made that night. When paramedics arrived, she had already flatlined and was turning blue, according to testimony given this week.

"What we know about that day is that Jason called 911, and Jason was on the floor for 25 minutes doing one-man CPR, even with an EMT in the room," Gertz said. "It was not his objective or desire to kill this child."

After the verdict was announced, Gertz said he was not surprised that Delacerda was found guilty, because of the evidence admitted over his objections.

"They heard, 'Jason's a bad guy,'" he said.

He and Makin both said they had never before tried a case where they did not make an opening statement, call or cross-examine witnesses, or present a case, as they did this week.

That strategy was chosen to "preserve the record" for an appeal, which they will file after next week's sentencing, Gertz said. "We believe there is sufficient error" in the evidence that was allowed to be admitted, he said.

On Monday, they'll present evidence that Delacerda has been a "model inmate" and does not present a future danger to try to convince the jury to spare his life.

Sheffield declined to comment on the verdict until the sentencing is complete.

Guidry is also charged with capital murder in her daughter's death. She was released from jail in December 2014 after posting bond. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in her case.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitz

DAY 3 RECAP:

Attorneys for a Kountze man accused of killing a 4-year-old girl more than six years ago stopped his two sons from testifying against him in open court Thursday.

Jason Wade Delacerda, 40, was indicted in 2011 on a capital murder charge along with his then-girlfriend Amanda Nichole Guidry in connection with the death of Breonna Nichole Loftin.

Delacerda's two sons, ages 16 and 18, were scheduled to testify Thursday morning about their experience living with their father, Guidry and Loftin in the weeks before the girl's death.

In his opening statement on Tuesday, Assistant Hardin County District Attorney Bruce Hoffer told the jury that Delacerda's sons were going to testify "about their perception of the joy their father got out of knocking Breonna around."

Before the teens were to take the stand Thursday, however, defense attorney Ryan Gertz asked District Court Judge Steven Thomas for a hearing on the boys' testimony.

The jury was not present for the hearing, during which Gertz suggested the prosecution would ask the teens "leading questions."

"(You) bring them in here with all these people and put them on the stand and ask them leading questions, of course, their answer is going to be yes," Gertz said. "I want to know everything they know and not in a leading question format."

Gertz said he was also concerned about an "extreme risk of corroboration" because the boys' mother was present during their interviews with authorities.

According to Gertz, the mother's presence in the initial interviews six years ago and again during their court testimony poses a "serious mistake in a case like this."

"We're told this morning that she's now potentially to be called as a witness because she magically recalls picking them up the weekend before, three or four days before Breonna's death," Gertz said.

"(That's) something we'd never heard before, it wasn't in any of their statements, anything we'd seen at all. Now she magically recalls this and one of the big questions is, has she reminded them of that? Because they certainly didn't seem to know about it on the videotapes."

Gertz requested a mistrial during the hearing, his fourth such request since Tuesday, saying it was "the only appropriate remedy at this point." Thomas denied the motion.

The judge agreed with Gertz that the matter should be investigated further, ordering Thursday that the sons should be questioned by him and counsel privately. The jurors were sent home for the day.

It was unclear if Thomas will allow the teens to testify when court resumes at 9 a.m. Friday.

Both District Attorney David Sheffield and Gertz declined to comment about the private interviews.

Phoebe.Suy@beaumontenterprise.com

Twitter.com/phoebesuy17The company responsible for an industrial accident that left Port Arthur residents wheezing and coughing for weeks plans to reopen its silo storage facility this summer.

German Pellets, owner of five large silos at the Port of Port Arthur, expects required repairs and changes to take five to seven months to complete, attorney Davin Boldissar said. "It is anticipated that the facility will be placed back into full operation after the process is complete."

Residents of the nearby neighborhood on Port Arthur's West Side called for the company to permanently shut down the facility this spring, when one of its five silos at the port smoldered for almost two months, emitting smoke that seeped into homes and made it difficult to breathe.

Texas Pellets, Inc. and German Pellets Texas (GPTX) removed all pellets from the silos as of Jan. 13, Boldissar said earlier this month. The company remains under a stop work order from the city of Port Arthur until it implements safety measures required in a hazard analysis plan.

GPTX, which is in bankruptcy proceedings, has refused to release the plan in response to public information requests, citing protected trade secrets and "confidential commercial information" that would give competitors an advantage.

More than 30 residents and property owners of the neighborhood near the silos filed a lawsuit against GPTX in October, alleging the company and the incident response firm it hired were negligent in causing and responding to the fire.

In a petition filed earlier this month, they outline a history of violations that GPTX was fined for by the U.S. Department of Labor, totaling more than $260,000.

GPTX, which has facilities in Port Arthur, Woodville and Louisiana, was fined for "repeat," "willful" and "serious" violations, according to records from the Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The company did not provide employees with a workplace that was "free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm," OSHA said in one citation, issued to the Port Arthur site in August 2017.

In February 2017, employees were "exposed to dust explosion, deflagration, and other fire hazards when using equipment with internal combustion engines while working in an environment normally expected to contain airborne combustible dust," the citation said.

That violation was categorized as willful, because the company "knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement" or "acted with plain indifference to employee safety."

The company has contested the violations, according to OSHA records.

OSHA has opened an investigation into the death of Jesus Cuevas, an employee who died while removing pellets from the silos on Oct. 20.

In a suit against the company filed by his family, attorney Jerry Hernandez wrote that Cuevas was trapped and suffocated when pellets fell on him. His family has alleged that GPTX's negligence caused his death.

That suit is pending in federal court, and OSHA's inspection remains open.

The city of Port Arthur filed suit against the company in June, alleging it violated city nuisance and public health ordinances. Judge Donald Floyd granted a temporary injunction to halt operations until the repairs and improvements are complete.

That injunction has been repeatedly extended and is now set to expire March 31.

The company has declined to comment on pending litigation.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.comTwitter.com/LizTeitzSouth Fla.-based ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, MD, received a 17-year sentence Feb. 22 for stealing at least $73 million from Medicare, the SunSentinel reports.

Here are five things to know:

1. Dr. Melgen was previously convicted of 67 crimes, including healthcare fraud, submitting false claims and falsifying records in patients' files. He has been in custody since his April 28, 2017 conviction.

2. According to the prosecution, he became the highest-paid Medicare physician in the U.S. between 2008 and 2013 by giving elderly patients unnecessary tests and treatments they did not need.

3. Prosecutors argued while any physician could make occasional billing mistakes, Dr. Melgen made too many to be honest. Among other things, he frequently billed Medicare for tests and treatment on the nonexistent eyes of one-eyed patients, and split single-use vials of an expensive eye drug into four doses when there was enough extra medicine in each, billing Medicare separately for each injection.

4. Melgen was ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution to Medicare; he could be ordered to pay more in the future.

5. Dr. Melgen became politically active in 1997 after treating Fla. Governor Democratic Lawton Chiles, D, who appointed him to a state board. Dr. Melgen began hosting Democratic fundraisers at his home and befriended Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J. In a separate trial, Dr. Melgen was accused of bribing the senator, paying for trips they took to France and his home at a resort in the Dominican Republic; Sen. Menendez reimbursed Dr. Melgen $58,500 after the trips became public knowledge.

6. In exchange for the gifts, Sen. Menendez allegedly interceded with Medicare officials investigating Dr. Melgen's practice, obtained visas for Melgen's foreign mistresses and pressured the State Department to intervene in a business dispute Dr. Melgen had with the Dominican government.

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Maximize your 2018 reimbursements: Know your health plans, know your market, and stay on top of trends

Mumfreesboro Clinic & SurgiCenter selects Meridian's revenue cycle management software  4 insightsAfter identifying a market deficiency, Provision, Device Reprocessing Solutions is entering the ASC marketplace with an ASC-specific device reprocessing model.

Here's what you should know:

1. The model is specifically built for ASCs and will positively impact a surgery center bottom line.

2. Provision offers a 50 percent discount pricing model, lead-times between 10 to 14 days as well as several other tools to drive savings to the ASC community.

3. Provision can process devices for numerous specialties including orthopedics, ENT, hand and general surgery. The company offers a full portfolio of remastered single-use devices for the ASC marketplace as well.

4. Michigan Ambulatory Association board of directors member Margaret Acker said, "During the past [five] years, reprocessors have shifted their focus away from the Surgery Center marketplace in pursuit of the bigger dollars available in the hospital arena. This change in direction has negatively impacted service to our centers across the state and has dramatically reduced the savings that we historically generated."

5. Provision President Kirk Mansberger seeks to address Ms. Acker's concerns. He said Provision is, "100 percent dedicated to ASCs and have built our company around a philosophy of bringing value back to this market."

He added, "We are personally committed to driving unparalleled savings to the marketplace while delivering quality that will ensure patient safety and complete satisfaction from the surgeon community."

For more information, click here.

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Mat-Su Regional Medical building 40,000 square-foot medical plaza  5 highlightsThe Florida Agency for Health Care Administration denied Ocala, Fla.-based Munroe Regional Medical Center's request to build a $102 million hospital at its existing TimberRidge campus in Ocala, according to the Ocala Star Banner.

State healthcare regulators approved Munroe Regional's proposal in December 2016. After the preliminary approval, three different local hospitals, owned by Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America, filed a petition to block the construction of the new hospital. Munroe Regional is operated by Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems.

In November 2017, an administrative law judge sided with the petitioners and recommended that AHCA reverse its approval, claiming that AHCA's preliminary approval was issued without sufficient analysis.

AHCA officially reversed its approval Feb. 21, 2018.

Munroe Regional officials, while disappointed by the ruling, will submit a new certificate of need application to AHCA in the coming months.

"We remain committed to providing high-quality care to our patients across Marion County and, while we continue to pursue a hospital at TimberRidge, we are moving forward with other plans to enhance our services at our main campus and physician practice locations," David Larrick, Monroe Regional's marketing director, told the Ocala Star Banner.The following hospital and health system credit rating and outlook changes and affirmations took place in the last week, beginning with the most recent.

1. Fitch affirms 'BBB' rating on Martin County Hospital District

Fitch Ratings affirmed its "BBB" issuer default rating on Martin County Hospital District, which owns and operates an 18-bed critical access hospital in Stanton, Texas.

2. Moody's affirms 'A1' rating on Sanford Health

Moody's Investors Service affirmed its "A1" rating on Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health's rated revenue bonds, affecting approximately $717 million of debt.

3. S&P revises Asante Health System's outlook to negative

S&P Global Ratings affirmed its "A+" underlying rating on Medford, Ore.-based Asante Health System's revenue debt. At the same time, S&P revised the health system's outlook to negative.Numerous healthcare organizations recently received donations to fund research, advance treatments, improve patient care and start renovations.

Here are four recent donations, pledges or bequests given to healthcare organizations by various entities reported by Becker's Hospital Review in the past two weeks, beginning with the most recent.

1. Cedars-Sinai receives record-breaking $50M gift to launch heart institute

Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai received a $50 million gift  the largest gift in its 116-year history  from The Smidt Foundation to establish a heart institute.

2. Intermountain donates $15M to U of Utah for new medical school: 4 things to

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare gifted $15 million to Salt Lake City-based University of Utah to help fund the construction of a medical school facility.

3. Seattle Children's receives landmark $60M

Seattle Children's received a $60 million bequest from late Seattle businessman Bruce Leven Feb. 13  the second largest single charitable gift in its 111-year history.

4. Christy-Houston foundation pledges $6M toward expansion at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital

Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital, part of St. Louis-based Ascension Health, received $6 million from the Christy-Houston Foundation to support an ongoing expansion project.From a former health clinic CFO sentenced to prison to a nurse charged with murder, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits making headlines.

1. Ex-UPMC Health Plan director sentenced to prison for embezzling $846k

The former senior director of the claims department at Pittsburgh-based UPMC Health Plan was sentenced to two years in federal prison for embezzling more than $846,000 from UPMC by putting ghost workers on the payroll.

2. New Jersey county opioid lawsuit targets former Purdue leaders

Attorneys representing Camden County filed a lawsuit against drugmakers and drug distributors for the companies' alleged roles in perpetuating the opioid crisis in New Jersey.

3. Former CFO gets prison time for stealing $111k from Montana health clinic

The former CFO of Rocky Boy Health Clinic of the Chippewa Cree Tribe in Box Elder, Mont., was sentenced Feb. 14 to 12 months and one day in prison for wire fraud.

4. Kentucky AG files third opioid epidemic lawsuit

Kentucky's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Cardinal Health, alleging the company engaged in deceptive business practices to promote the widespread distribution of opioids.

5. Florida man charged for attacking paramedics en route to hospital

Police charged a Florida man with battery after he allegedly attacked two paramedics who were transporting him to a hospital.

6. SSM Health hospital hit with physician kickback allegations: 4 things to know

Fond du Lac, Wis.-based Agnesian HealthCare, a part of St. Louis-based SSM Health, faces a federal lawsuit alleging the nonprofit hospital defrauded Medicare.

7. Fake nurse who worked at St. Louis hospital gets probation

A woman who lied about her nursing credentials to get a job at a St. Louis hospital was sentenced to five years of probation and eight months of house arrest.

8. Kentucky governor countersues those who oppose Medicaid work requirements

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, R, filed a lawsuit against Kentucky residents named as plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit that challenges Mr. Bevin's waiver request to impose work requirements on Medicaid enrollees.

9. Supreme Court won't review CareFirst data breach case

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected CareFirst's appeal to review a case involving a 2014 data breach.

10. Nurse charged with murder of patient who died gasping for air as staff laughed

A grand jury indicted two nurses and one nursing home aide on numerous charges  including felony murder  relating to the 2014 death of a patient at a Georgia nursing home.

11. Judge dismisses strangulation and assault charges against New York hospital surgeon

A judge dropped criminal charges against a surgeon at East Meadow, N.Y.-based Nassau University Medical Center who was arrested in January after he was accused of choking a nurse with an elastic cord over a disagreement about a patient's medication.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Ex-director of finance pleads guilty to stealing $3M from North Carolina hospital

Former CFO sues Chicago hospital to recoup $100k loan

Scripps will pay $1.5M to settle billing fraud caseThe Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management alleged in a Feb. 12 report Health Net of California obstructed a federal IT audit, thereby violating its contract with the OPM.

Here are six things to know about the allegations against Health Net of California.

1. The OIG performs IT audits of all insurance carriers participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which includes Health Net of California, according to the report. The goal of the IT audits is to ensure insurance carriers that provide coverage to federal employees, retirees and their families have controls in place to protect the confidentiality and integrity of patients' protected health information and personally identifiable information.

2. The OIG issued an IT audit notification letter to Health Net of California Sept. 12, 2017, as part of the agency's "normal procedure," the report reads. The OIG engaged in pre-audit planning discussions with the insurance carrier through January 2018, and scheduled two site visits for the IT audit: one in late January and one in mid-February.

3. The OIG completed audit interviews during the first site visit in January. However, it "subsequently became apparent that Health Net did not intend to cooperate with our planned testing," according to the report. The agency issued 13 data requests to the insurer, due by Feb. 1. By Feb. 6, "not a single document" had been provided to the OIG, the report states.

4. The OIG issued a formal memorandum to Health Net of California Feb. 6, requesting they state whether they intended to comply with the IT audit. The agency reportedly received an email from the insurance carrier Feb. 7, stating it would not allow the OIG to conduct vulnerability and configuration management testing, nor would it provide the agency with certain data.

5. The OIG alleged Health Net of California's refusal to participate in the audit violated its contract with the OPM. The agency recommended the OPM director require Health Net of California to cooperate, permit the requested IT testing and provide the requested records.

"Health Net's refusal to provide complete access and termination lists is unprecedented in our IT audits," the OIG wrote. "We request only the individual's name (or a unique identifier such as employee ID) and the employment termination date. This information is not considered PHI or PII, so there is limited risk to these individuals in the unlikely event that the lists were somehow inadvertently released."

6. In a statement to Becker's Hospital Review Feb. 23, Health Net of California said it has "fully cooperated" with the OIG's IT audit.

"We believe the Flash Alert and its accompanying memorandum issued by OPM contain unfounded allegations that Health Net is obstructing the audit," the statement reads. "We also believe the alert contains grossly inaccurate statements about the security of Health Net's technical environment."

In the statement, Health Net of California said it was advised by legal counsel that complying with certain audit requests would "risk violation of contractual obligations that we have in place to protect our data."

"We have discussed our concerns with the OPM and OIG over how their audit approach could compromise the security of our data and our members' privacy," the statement continues. "Based on our experiences with other audits, including audits by other federal agencies, we remain convinced that we can satisfy all of the objectives of the OPM and OIG requests without compromising the security of our systems."

To access the OIG's report, click here.UnitedHealth Group's Optum arm struck a deal with Reliant Medical Group, a physician group in Worcester, Mass., for at least $80 million, according to Federal Trade Commission filings.

Optum unveiled plans to buy the 230-member physician group in May 2017 for an undisclosed amount.



According to a Feb. 15 FTC notice, Optum received an early termination for the waiting period on its deal with Reliant before the statutory period expired. The FTC's transaction size threshold for reporting proposed acquisitions and mergers is $84.4 million for 2018, and was $80.8 million a year before. This means Optum's bid for Reliant is at least at the FTC's $80 million threshold.



Reliant Medical Group is one of several physician groups Optum is adding to its portfolio. Optum will acquire DaVita Medical Group for approximately $4.9 billion in cash, adding nearly 300 medical clinics to its network. Optum also is merging with Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates.



More articles on payer issues:

UnitedHealth will advance its bundled payment initiatives: 3 things to know

38 New York hospitals get $24.2M in quality payments from Excellus BCBS

Humana takes $148M hit from workforce cuts in 2017

Atlanta police are still looking for Dr. Timothy Cunningham, team lead for the CDC's division of population health, who was last seen Feb. 12, according to a report from ABC News.

Here are five things to know.

1. Dr. Cunningham, a 35-year-old epidemiologist and alumni of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, was last seen leaving work Feb. 12 after telling his supervisors he felt ill.

2. Dr. Cunningham's parents found their son's dog, cell phone, wallet, car and keys at his home.

3. Law enforcement and Dr. Cunningham's family are calling on the public for any information that could aid in the investigation.

"This is an appeal to the public," said Terrell Cunningham, father of Dr. Cunningham, according to ABC News. "We're seeking your help in bringing Tim back safe."

4. In a statement provided to ABC News, the CDC described Dr. Cunningham "as a highly respected member of our CDC family.  Our thoughts are with his friends and family during this difficult time."

5. Dr. Cunningham's research with the CDC has been focused on health disparities related to race, gender, socioeconomic status and geography. He also participated in the agency's emergency response efforts during Hurricane Sandy, and past Ebola and Zika outbreaks.

More articles on population health:

140k+ Americans died of alcohol, drugs or suicide in 2016: 3 things to know

Viewpoint: Mass shootings are a public health crisis

Chronic heavy drinking most important dementia risk factorJohnson & Johnson is collaborating with Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research to establish a 3-D bioprinting laboratory. Work on the new laboratory will begin in the first quarter of 2018.

Here are six things to know:

1. AMBER is the Science Foundation Ireland-funded materials science institute headquartered at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

2. AMBER and the J&J 3D Printing Center of Excellence will establish the new Global Centre of Excellence for 3-D bioprinting at Trinity College. 3-D bioprinting can be used to engineer "living" biological tissues for promoting bone and tissue regeneration.

3. Trinity engineering professor and Trinity Centre for Bioengineering Director Daniel Kelly, PhD, and J&J bioprinting senior fellow Joseph Ault will co-lead the laboratory.

4. The laboratory will be located in a 100-square-meter space in the Trinity Biomedical Science Institute building suitable for working with bioprinting, cell and tissue culture. It will have meeting and office space for 12 people.

5. Other principal investigators, post-graduate and graduate students may carry out work at the laboratory outside direct collaboration with Dr. Kelly. J&J scientists will provide training and education to students and staff. The collaboration will allow for individual research projects and longterm scale-ups to include adjunct professorships and staff exchange.

6. "Building on our long-standing collaboration with DePuy Synthes in Ireland, I am confident that this engagement will become the prototypical strategic partnership for AMBER as the Centre moves into the next funding cycle," said AMBER Director Michael Morris, PhD. "Our intent is to identify and grow similar engagements of equivalent scale and type across the ICT and manufacturing sectors."

More articles on biologics:

Bone Therapeutics completes recruitment for spinal fusion study: 4 things to know

Positive clinical trial results for human dermal fibroblast injection CybroCell: 7 key insights

Stempeutics Research inks deal with Alkem Laboratories for osteoarthritis drug: 3 insightsHere are seven orthopedic surgeons making headlines.

Orthopedic surgeon John Warbritton, MD, is suspended from participating in California's workers' compensation system following sexual and unprofessional misconduct.

While traveling to his practice in Yuma, Ariz., orthopedic surgeon John Serocki, MD, died after his single-engine plane crashed into a building in Kearny Mesa, Calif.

Pediatric orthopedic surgeon Gary Botimer, MD, returned to Idaho to open a practice at Boise-based St. Luke's Children's Hospital's medical center in Nampa.

Rachel Thompson, MD, is leading the Los Angeles-based Orthopaedic Institute for Children's International Children's Program team to provide free orthopedic care to children from Mexico with musculoskeletal conditions.

Orthopedic trauma surgeon J. Tracy Watson, MD, joined The CORE Institute in Phoenix.

James Browne, MD, joined the American Joint Replacement Registry's 2018 Steering Committee as a representative of The Knee Society.

New York-based University of Rochester Medical Center orthopedic surgeon Emily Carmody, MD, hosted a workshop to encourage young women to enter the orthopedics field.

More articles on orthopedics:

Orthopaedic Institute for Children physicians provide free international orthopedic care: 4 things to know

Orthopedic surgeon to know: Dr. John Barker of the Rocky Mountain Spine Clinic

Younger total shoulder arthroplasty patients likely to return to work 2.1 months after surgery: 5 things to knowA total of 275 workers are at risk of losing their jobs after it was announced that 125 staff are to be axed at a factory in Carrickfergus.

Sensata Technologies announced the jobs will be lost as a result of a drop in expected demand for some of its products.

Read More

However, in a letter seen by the Belfast Telegraph, Sensata informed employees yesterday that a total of 275 have been placed "at risk".

Sensata Technologies, which bought Schrader Electronics in 2014, makes tyre pressure systems and operates from two sites here in Carrickfergus and Antrim.

The news brings the number of job losses in Northern Ireland over the past two months to more than 1,000.

Graeme Thompson, UK general manager at Sensata Technologies, said: "Following a review of our operations and in response to a drop in expected demand for some of the products currently manufactured in Northern Ireland, the company regrets to announce that we will potentially be reducing the workforce at our site in Carrickfergus by 125 people."

In a letter to employees at the Antrim factory, bosses said that expected production levels for other lines within Northern Ireland "remain steady at this time".

"The company will continue to monitor our end markets and the resulting production level forecasts. As part of this business reorganisation there may be an adaptation to existing roles and some working conditions," they added.

"However, and whilst you are not directly affected, around 275 employees have been placed at risk.

"Many of your colleagues in Carrickfergus will have received unpleasant news this morning."

One Sensata Antrim worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said there was a "heavy mood" among employees yesterday morning when they heard the news.

"Everyone just seems to be waiting for a tap on the shoulder or a letter in the post," they said.

"It's awful. With all these other factory jobs going, it doesn't inspire confidence."

East Antrim DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: "While unemployment in Northern Ireland is at a 10-year low, recent jobs losses in the East Antrim area highlight the importance of ensuring Northern Ireland has a functioning government of some kind back in place as quickly as possible. We need to see a cross government strategy put in place to not only ensure the best possible outcome for those affected today, but also to attract new jobs and investment to Carrick/East Antrim."

Manufacturing NI boss Stephen Kelly said: "Political stability is the number one factor giving confidence to foreign direct investment investors and there have been examples in the past where a call or visit from the First or Deputy First Minister has secured or sustained jobs that could have been lost.

"What we have right now is no good for business."

It is the sixth significant job loss announcement in the first two months of the year following on from cuts to the workforces at Schlumberger, Williams Industrial Services, Kilroot Power Station, Wrightbus, Lagan Construction Group and Acheson and Glover.From changing the law on homosexuality in Northern Ireland to tackling litter hands-on, UUP councillor Jeffrey Dudgeon has played a pivotal role in public life. Ahead of a BBC NI True North documentary on Monday night about the history of the NI gay rights movement, the Belfast man tells Lindy McDowell about family, politics and the revived pan-nationalist front.

Some years back I was at a dinner in a restaurant in south Belfast with, among others, Jeff Dudgeon. We'd all been invited back to a friend's house close to the Holylands and since it wasn't very far, some of us, including Jeff and I, opted to walk.

En route, as you do, we got into a heavy debate about the political crisis of the day.

Every so often, however, Jeff would suddenly segue off to pick up some piece of litter or to rip from a lamppost some haphazardly pasted flyer.

Where the rest of us might roll our eyes or piously tut-tut about the city's dire dirt problem, generally we leave it to the council's cleansing department to sort that out.

Here was Jeff, though, quite literally taking matters into his own hands.

But then Jeffrey Edward Anthony Dudgeon MBE, gay rights champion, noted historian and UUP councillor for the Balmoral ward in Belfast City Council, has always been very much a doer, not just a talker.

Principled, outstandingly courageous and determined, he has done more to move forward the cause of gay rights in Northern Ireland (and indeed in other parts of the world) than any other living person.

Back in 1981 he took a case to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 (the law which criminalised male homosexuality and the same Act under which Oscar Wilde and later Alan Turing were prosecuted) contravened the European Convention on Human Rights.

The court ruled in his favour.

As a result, within a year, legislation was enacted which brought the law on male homosexuality in Northern Ireland into line with that in England and Wales, where it had been changed in 1967, and Scotland, where it had been changed in 1980.

The Dudgeon case was subsequently cited as a precedent for other successful court actions throughout the world from the Republic of Ireland to Cyprus and the American state of Texas.

To millennials, that year when Jeff took his seminal case, must seem like ancient history. To the rest of us it was yesterday.

The charts that year were dominated by the likes of the Human League and Adam Ant. Soft Cell had a big hit with Tainted Love. It's hard to imagine today that homosexuality wasn't merely frowned upon back then, it was actually regarded as a criminal act for which the penalty was imprisonment.

Jeff Dudgeon, just one of a number of angry young men and their supporters who led the campaign from the 1970s, had been born into a comfortable home in a middle-class area of east Belfast.

The Dudgeons ("It's an unusual name for here," I say. "There are more of us than you think," he replies) came over originally from Scotland, although latterly Co Tyrone, which is where Jeff's father came from.

The family home was just on the edge of Strandtown Primary School which he later attended before moving to Campbell College as a day boy, and finally Trinity College in Dublin.

Along with a number of other activists he was spearheading the campaign to have the law on gay criminalisation changed when, in 1976, police 'lifted' him and 21 other local gay men. Diaries and letters were seized, he was questioned for several hours in a police station.

Looking back that surely must have been frightening.

"Frightening to some degree, yes," he says, "but mostly in the wider context. Northern Ireland was a violent place back then and there was the worry that these events might divert some attention towards the gay community.

"In fact, there was a backlash but this came after the change to the law in 1982, when my house came under sustained attack. A breeze block was thrown through the window."

As leader of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, Jeff had a high profile and inevitably faced much hostility from those opposed to law reform.

Ian Paisley's graphically entitled Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign had been launched in the Seventies as a direct response to NIGRA. Jeff has previously described the opposition he and others within NIGRA faced back then as "incredible, colossal, total".

How difficult were those times for his family?

"Probably more difficult than I realised at the time. We were young men out to change the law. That's what we were focussed on. My immediate family were extremely supportive and one of my biggest regrets is that, at the time, I maybe didn't realise just how difficult it was for them too," he says.

In the years since that law change of 1982 Jeff, who lives with his long-term partner, has continued the fight for gay rights.

Now 68, he was awarded the MBE in the 2012 New Year's Honours list for his continued contribution to the LGBT community here, work that has included helping secure the introduction of civil partnerships and the pardons for men in Northern Ireland with historical gay convictions. It is not a small thing in his eyes that the DUP which, under Ian Paisley, had sought to maintain the criminalisation law, under Arlene Foster tabled the motion that enabled the pardons legislation to be extended to Northern Ireland.

"Arlene got it through the Assembly," he says. "Later she told me 'It was the right thing to do but we're not going to shout about it'."

He's been involved in local politics since his teens, first as a member of the old Northern Ireland Labour Party.

In 1979 he ran in a general election as a Labour Integrationist. Later, he was to work with then MP Robert McCartney, before joining the UUP.

He is, as a mutual friend neatly sums him up, "not a man who runs with the crowd".

A respected historical writer, he is also the author of Roger Casement, The Black Diaries, the acclaimed book about the prominent Irish republican.

During the Ashers 'gay cake' saga, he told one interviewer: "I am nervous of gay zealotry or any types of zealotry against Christians. It is a sort of triumphalism of people who were previously marginalised. There has been a lot of court activity, street preachers being charged with incitement.

"I think things have gone too far in that respect."

Similarly the man who was instrumental in having civil partnerships made legal here confesses that he was once "a bit chary" about gay marriage.

He has been struck, though, he says, by "how the public has rallied round us".

Currently he's involved in a campaign which includes Professor Paul Johnston, from York University, a legal expert from the university's Department of Sociology who played a key role with the gay pardons legislation.

The aim is to bring a Bill before Westminster to legislate for gay marriage in Northern Ireland by "undevolving" the power.

As Jeff points out, when/if Stormont ever gets back up and running there is already a majority in favour of gay marriage anyway.

And the DUP, even if they wished to stymie that, can no longer do so through a Petition of Concern.

How does he feel about the Sinn Fein espousal of gay marriage - something which he has described as "a test issue of modernism" - as a major demand in their current strategy re Stormont?

"I think, by and large they're probably genuine. But I do think they're also using it as a way to rather obviously pick up more support. And it's worked a treat.

"People who wouldn't be republicans now find Sinn Fein's honeyed words attractive."

I ask him what he makes of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's recent input into the ongoing debate about direct rule, and he replies succinctly: "The pan nationalist front has been reconstituted.

"For those who have a hatred of direct rule, the mantra is there can be no direct rule. But just because Sinn Fein say it can't happen doesn't mean it won't actually happen."

His priorities in his city council work include trying to do something about the dereliction in the Shaftesbury Square area, once part of what was deemed Belfast's Golden Mile.

He concedes that areas come and go but still believes it's possible to "retrieve the position", as he puts it.

When I remind him about that night he spent "retrieving" litter as we walked through the streets of south Belfast he says he still keeps up the DIY refuse collection.

He adds that he keeps a range of sturdy plastic bags and gloves for the job in a "doesn't everyone?" kind of voice.

When I express amusement at this he fires through to me on email, two pics of bags and gloves he keeps for this work, all neatly stacked and ready for action.

The tools of a man who sees a job to be done and just gets on with it.

People who change the world don't always stand out from the crowd. There's nothing loud or showy or "look at me" about Jeff Dudgeon.

But if anything reflects the inner grit that has surely sustained this honourable and understated hero through the arduous battles he's fought and the prejudice he's faced down, it's the firm set of the chin always held high.

Jeff Dudgeon has the look of a man used to walking into the wind.

BBC's award winning True North documentary series on Monday, BBC1, 10.40pm, will recall the story of the NIGRA fight to change the law on the criminalisation of male homosexuality led by Jeff Dudgeon and a small group of gay men in Northern Ireland. As well as archive footage and photographs, the programme hears what life was like for a gay man here in the 1970s and 1980sEven though Belfast's international foodie destination reputation basks in the glory of its two Michelin-starred assets, Ox and Eipic, there has always been a debate over which one is better. Their prices are similar, the food in both is of international standard and the service is as polished in Eipic as it is Ox.

Yet the moods are very different. Eipic is at the heart of the city centre, with far more footfall outside its door than Ox. When you sit down in Eipic you feel close to the action, yet safely and comfortably removed from the city's hustle and bustle.

Ox is on a major thoroughfare and, while the volume of traffic outside is heavy, the actual number of pedestrians walking by is far lower. The impression is coloured by huge windows which invite you to look outside to open space (and that eye-gouging horror, the Nuala with the hula). It's brighter and noisier.

Ox is very cool in a hipster way, with Nordic bare wood and brick with spindly lights and bad acoustics. Eipic is all hushed white linen, whispering good manners and formal serenity.

I like a bit of white linen and formality from time to time, but I have to admit I was never as entirely comfortable in Eipic as I was in Ox. Until now.

A visit last week to try the 30 Friday lunch with adviser Ali Askir completely transformed my view of Eipic and I came away happy and delighted and wanting more. There was a joyfulness to the entire two-and-a-half-hour visit. From arrival, when we were met at the door by Michael Deane himself (he is a bit like God: everywhere at all times), to our exit, we enjoyed everything about the place.

We were guided to a corner seat in the little Champagne bar to catch our breath and look at menus. The bar is classy with its buttoned cream leather upholstery, crystal chandelier and steely blue and silver colour palette.

It has just enough loucheness to give it a whiff of illicit affairs and big business, a sense of being in some kind of VIP enclosure, yet also very comfortable and darkly cosy. They also happen to make one of the best sidecars in Belfast in there. This cocktail moment provides a perfect moment of anticipation.

Menus are in hand and, this being Friday, we have the 30 option laid out before us with the wine pairing suggestions - they've thought of everything.

Having revived our drooping spirits, we take our seats in the dining room, another temple of modern opulence with a touch of Sixties glamour not unlike a scene from The Prisoner. There are silver rococo mirror frames, silver-sprayed satellite dish-like lights on the walls and one or two paintings of women who could be Kate Smith, but we're not sure. It's a beautiful dining room, elegant and spacious with plenty of distance between tables to allow utter privacy and yet still be within nodding distance of acquaintances and maintain access to the openness.

The dishes start arriving. There is a firm and fresh langoustine embedded in a dark squid ink ravioli with a sprinkling of shiitake, leek and bacon. This is an outstanding and memorable starter which sets the bar and we wonder can this be maintained in the following courses.

And of course, they just get even more exciting. If this is the 30 menu we vow to come back for the 70 one. There is brill, plain and virginal but supported by little tiny flutes of rolled salsify, made firm with white bread. A little nod of respect to Danni Barry is in the form of that famous roast bone sauce (which she has transported successfully to Clenaghans). The dish spans all the flavours and textures in a few bites. It is extraordinary and satisfying and we complete it smiling.

Desserts of chocolate with the citrus notes of yuzu fruit, coconut and coffee gel are a reminder that not all sweets have to be sugary.

Eipic is a wonder. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Ox and yet it provides a massively different experience. Some might say it's a bit more grown-up, a bit more mature and I say that this is exactly what we need. A bit of decorum, take your elbows off the table, please and thank you and you know what? I will have a drop of that Valdivieso Eclat Semillon 2013 with my chocolate.

The bill

Friday 3-course lunch x 2.................. 60

Glass of wine x 3................................ 27

Shot of wine x 2................................. 12

Total.................................................... 99The Top Gear presenters are having a discussion: who's the worst at laughing while filming? Chris Harris admits he struggles because Matt LeBlanc "always sets him off" (LeBlanc jokingly replies his funniest stuff doesn't make it into the show). Meanwhile, Rory Reid is being lovingly teased by both his co-stars for the clothes he wears - in this case, a military jacket emblazoned with cartoon-ish badges.

"Just when you can't think it can't get any funnier, Rory turns up in another outfit," quips Harris.

One thing's clear - the trio have definitely grown more confident as they return for a second series at the helm of the BBC Two show.

"The show's always going to be first and foremost a car show," notes 50-year-old LeBlanc. "And I think what we're trying to do is broaden the demographic of the show, so that it's not just appealing to petrolheads. It should be entertaining for the whole family."

When a show has been around for as long as Top Gear has - 41 years, to be precise - there's obviously a huge fanbase to impress.

But LeBlanc, famous around the world for his role in US sitcom Friends, doesn't let that faze him.

"In terms of things like the ratings and the comparisons to the other show, you can't worry about things that are out of your control in life," he says matter-of-factly, his voice quiet yet distinctive with its Massachusetts accent.

"We now understand the show we want to make," confides 43-year-old motoring journalist Harris. "The chemistry between the three of us is stronger, so we know how to irritate each other better - we know where the funny bone is located."

And the humour between the three of them also comes naturally, according to London-born Reid.

"These two are hilarious to hang around with on a day-to-day basis anyway," the YouTuber says of his co-stars. "One of the things that Matt loves to focus on is finding the funny element in any situation."

Memorably, when Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond were in charge of Top Gear, they made headlines for a couple of high-speed crashes while filming.

Asked if the current presenters are fearless when it comes to the cars, Reid (38) says: "I think we're up for anything - the producers enjoy putting us in situations that make us squirm.

"There's a really good moment in the Moab desert, when we were driving up these narrow roads. There's a two or three hundred foot drop and there's all these car wreckages where people have obviously come off the side of the cliff. And, as you're driving up, you think, 'What happened to the people that were in those cars?'."

But, while it sounds like there's the odd scary moment and plenty of fast driving, LeBlanc, who travels to Nasa to film an impressive stunt this series, insists they're all careful.

"At the end of the day, we're not teenagers," he remarks. "It's not a race, there's no prize - it's a television show."

The team have especially enjoyed making the Top Gear films together. There's more sparkle, joy and laughter in them now, says Harris, plus they've been "brave" with some of the treatment of cars.

"I know it might just look like a film, but the Citroen 2CV is a bit of a departure for Top Gear," enthuses the presenter, who grew up near Bristol. "That's a car that, say, previously might have been ridiculed and blown up, or thrown off of something, and it hasn't been - it's been celebrated as a piece of engineering."

And as well as the chemistry on-screen, it's clear the three have a lot of fun behind the scenes together.

Discussing fans approaching them while filming, Harris laughs about LeBlanc's favourite gag: "Monday morning, the first thing he'll say to me is, 'Do you know who was asking about you this weekend?' I'll go, 'Who?' He'll go, 'No one'," he says with a chuckle.

Of course, thanks to the enormity of Friends, LeBlanc (who has also been shooting US sitcom Man With A Plan while making Top Gear) finds people recognise him wherever he goes.

"It's strange, I've been in the public eye for so long I forget what it's like to not be, so it's kind of a norm," says the star, who portrayed aspiring actor Joey Tribbiani for 10 seasons. "Luckily, I'm known for playing a character that people like."

Of fans' reaction to the adorably dense Joey, an amused Harris chips in: "He (LeBlanc) said the other day, 'People still occasionally talk slowly to me, because they think I'm stupid'."

Top Gear, BBC Two Northern Ireland, Sunday, 11.40pmIn a beautiful old church in east London, a group of pension-aged men and women are coupled up and getting their Strictly on - tentatively puzzling out the steps to a ballroom dance. Look more closely and it becomes clear some of them are very familiar faces - there's Timothy Spall spinning around with an uncomfortable looking Imelda Staunton.

The ever-effervescent Celia Imrie is there, stealing the show, and doesn't that statuesque lady with the salt and pepper grey hair look familiar? It takes a minute for it to sink in that it's actually Joanna Lumley in grey-brigade mode, almost unrecognisable without her signature bright blonde locks.

This isn't any dance troupe, but the cast of a new movie, Finding Your Feet, on set filming a scene. The film is a gently comic and heart-warming tale about an uptight, snooty woman named Sandra (Staunton) whose marriage collapses along with her identity, just at the moment her husband retires. Cue an emotional unravelling, followed by reinvention which begins when she is persuaded by her bohemian sister (Imrie) to join a local dance class.

The movie is part of a growing genre of films that are made expressly to appeal to an older cinema-going demographic - a phenomenon launched by the success of 2011's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And the UK film industry, with its rich seam of celebrated acting talent among the over-60s, has cornered the market.

Later, on a break between scenes, Lumley sits down for a coffee and the chance for a closer gawk at that rich silver mane she's sporting. Turns out she hasn't given up the peroxide. It's a wig. But she seems delighted with the look and it's easy to see why.

Rather than making her look older, it has the opposite effect - the soft silver strands that fall around her face are luminously flattering, softening her features and making her skin look lit from within. "When you see yourself you go, 'Oh my God, that's me! Oh my God'," she says.

Still a pin-up at 71, in person Lumley is exactly as you would expect. Plummy, witty, that twinkle that made her famous as a young woman in The New Avengers still undimmed. She's an unreconstructed luvvie still after all these years - given to calling everyone "darling" and everything "adorable" or "sweet".

Born in Kashmir where her father was a major in a Gurkha regiment, Lumley had a military-classes type childhood; boarding school, finishing school and lots of foreign travel. She didn't go to drama school but worked as a model and appeared briefly on Coronation Street before her breakthrough role as Purdey in The New Avengers. She had her only son, Jamie, when she was 21, following a brief relationship with photographer Michael Claydon, and has been married to conductor Stephen Barlow for more than 30 years.

Jackie, her character in Finding Your Feet, has been married five times, is a strong, complicated, driven woman and Lumley seems to approve of her. "It's not a huge part, but like all the parts you do it doesn't matter," she says. "In life there is no such thing as a small part, we're all stars in our own lives.

"She's smart as a whip. She's been married five times. So I think she could be a bit of a handful. Probably very exacting," she says. Despite being rather the high-flyer, "she's joined this dance group because she's not a snob. When you work at the bar you meet all kinds of people. She liked the idea of it, she wants to keep going. She's amused by the company here, and quite enjoys the dancing".

Lumley admits that for a role this size, there's no point killing yourself with research. "There's a limit to how much research you have to do for things, if it's not there. If it's not on the film. But I imagine she's quite a lively character," she says.

Lumley is all for the film's message too, such as it is. "I think we should get our oldies up. Not sit them in television rooms," she says. "Dance, dance, dance."

She's not just paying lip-service to the themes of the film - it is an issue close to her heart. One of her favourite extracurricular activities is the work that she does for Age UK.

"There's a thing that goes on every year called Silver Sunday - I think it's the last Sunday in October every year. And it's for old people. Rather than Mother's Day or Father's Fay, this is just for anyone who is old. Give them a card, make them a cake.

"I've attended some of the dances which we threw for them. It was all set up by a wonderful councillor from Westminster and I went to these tea dances. Well!" she says with a flourish. "I don't know, I'm just hooked on tea dances. You can have champagne if you like. But you can just have tea and cakes and things. And a band plays, and you get up and dance with total strangers. It's safe, it's in the afternoon. Everybody dresses up a bit. They're lonely people in their old people's homes."

Admittedly, she says, the characters in the film are not quite at that point yet - "not quite old people's homes. They're just... it's better than bingo for them. And I love the idea. Because dancing is good for you anyway. Much better than sitting."

She's an advocate too of the therapeutic effects of "the human touch - this is old-fashioned dancing where you are with somebody. That's good for us. Because we've been so guided away from ever touching anybody unless it's a kind of sexual embrace. In school now you're not allowed hug. We've got so sort of 'eeeeuggh' about everything. So I think this is rather sweet."

Given her temperament and lively physicality one suspects she's probably a bit of a mover on the dance floor herself. Indeed, it's playing having two left feet that's more of a challenge, she says. "The difficulty is that we've kind of got to be not very good dancers, to begin with. So even though we've been at this club for maybe five years, we still haven't got any better. We're still struggling - getting it wrong a thousand times."

Her own favourite is "rock and roll, I think that's good fun to do", she says. But much of the dancing she's learned for the part is entirely new to her. "I never really went to dances. I'm too old to be disco. Nightclubs existed and at school you would learn how to do the waltz, the quickstep, maybe the foxtrot. But you'd do things like the Sir Roger de Coverley and Strip the Willow and really country dances, and Scottish reels."

She's past retirement age, but Lumley shows no sign of slowing down. She shot four movies in 2017, albeit with small roles in each. And one senses she is motivated more by the sheer pleasure of the job than anything else. A few years ago, she admitted that when she was still in her 20s and making her name as a theatre actress and single mother, the crushing anxieties she felt about making ends meet pushed her into burn-out and a nervous breakdown. So it must be rather satisfying, at this stage in her life, to find herself very much in demand.

Finding Your Feet, with its all-star cast, was a joy. "I hate the star system," she says. "Where some people are different and shepherded away to different bits and have different clothes, different lighting, different everything. It kind of divides it up. You don't really see it on film, but I can smell it now. I can see it. And I love this because it's not that, it's completely ensemble playing."

Outside acting, she has plenty going on as well. She recently followed in the footsteps of Stephen Fry as she hosted the Baftas. And she keeps herself busy in resting times filming documentaries.

"Ian Fleming, will.i.am, Elvis," she says, listing off some of the subjects she's covered. "I've done giraffes in Africa, I've done orang-utans. I've done the northern lights. I've done all Africa. Searching for Noah's ark," she says. "They rack up."

She has built up quite a portfolio of those now, over 25 years.

"I adore doing them, because I'm just so interested in the world and it gives you a chance to travel. It gives people who can never travel a chance to see, not just touristy things but maybe get around the side of it. When we do these documentaries we go to places tourists couldn't really get to. Find interesting people. Learn about the culture. Tuck in a bit of history, in the commentary, so it's not too leaden.

"But by the end of it, people know. And people stop me in the supermarket and go 'what I loved was that bit when...' or, 'I never knew that...' because we've discovered the world, and that's good."

Finding Your Feet is in cinemas nowMasked thugs used a hammer during a terrifying raid on a family home in rural Co Down

Masked thugs used a hammer during a terrifying raid on a family home in rural Co Down.

The three-man gang threatened the three occupants - a husband and wife and their grown-up son - and demanded money.

The older man, who is in his 60s, was attacked with a hammer and needed hospital treatment.

The aggravated burglary occurred at a house on the Castlewellan Road in Ballyward sometime between 11.40pm on Thursday and 12.10am yesterday.

It is the second violent burglary in Co Down this week.

On Monday a woman was tied up by two masked men who started a fire during a raid in Clough.

She was rescued by neighbours.

On the latest attack, the PSNI said: "The men threatened the three occupants and demanded money from them.

"The two male occupants were assaulted and received injuries which aren't deemed to be life-threatening.

"The female occupant was left shocked by the ordeal.

"The three males made off from the area with a sum of money."

The older male was struck by a hammer, while the younger male also suffered injuries as he tried to come to his father's aid.

Locals voiced concern that the PSNI took 30 minutes to arrive at the scene.

A neighbour who has lived in the area for 70 years told of his shock over what had happened.

"I didn't think anything like this could happen here - it is a quiet area, but it is quite isolated," he said.

"This has left me nervous, and I'm thinking of getting a guard dog.

"I think elderly people who live in rural areas are a soft target.

"The closure of rural police stations has made people feel more vulnerable as it means that it takes longer for officers to get to the scene if anything happens.

"The incident in Clough where a woman was tied up during a burglary and the house set on fire was just dreadful.

"She could have been burned alive."

South Down Sinn Fein MP Chris Hazzard described the Ballyward attack as "appalling".

He urged anyone with information to contact the police with it.

He said: "This is a vicious crime that has shocked the wider community. I am calling on anyone who may have any information about this armed robbery to come forward to the PSNI and help bring these vicious criminals responsible to justice."

UUP representative Jill Macauley said more police patrols were needed in rural areas.

"When you have three burglars in your house and you're being threatened, half-an-hour is a long time to wait," she said.

Chief Inspector Alexander Johnston said: "In relation to the burglary in Ballyward last night, resources were allocated two minutes after the initial call, responding from Downpatrick at 11.42pm, with the officers arriving at the scene at 12.10am.

"The investigation is ongoing and we ask anyone with information to contact 101.

"The reality is that nearly all policing services are delivered outside of stations and police officers do not spend their shifts within station complexes.

"Often local and neighbourhood police team officers are out on patrol, responding to calls across a wide area, working with vulnerable members of our community and tackling local issues."

Anyone with information can contact Ardmore PSNI Station on 101 quoting reference 1526 of 22/02/18, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.A 23-year-old man has been remanded in custody charged with attempted murder after a stabbing in Cookstown

A 23-year-old man has been remanded in custody charged with attempted murder after a stabbing in Cookstown.

A man suffered serious injuries, including a punctured lung, during the incident in the Co Tyrone town.

However, the accused denies involvement and instead claims he witnessed the victim's son carry out the stabbing, which followed a fight earlier in the evening.

John Stephen McDonagh of Sydney Lane, Aughnacloy, is accused of committing the offence against a male relative on February 22, as well as threatening to kill the victim's wife when she tried to intervene.

A detective constable told Dungannon Magistrates Court the charges could be connected.

Objecting to bail, the detective said police were called to a flat in the Burnvale Crescent area of Cookstown just after midnight, after a dispute had broken out. The victim suffered a stab wound to his back, puncturing a lung.

Then, at around 3.30am the same morning, a report was received that McDonagh was in the Cookstown branch of McDonald's restaurant, where police detained and arrested him.

Meanwhile, the wounded man was rushed to Craigavon Area Hospital for emergency treatment.

He told police a group of relatives had been drinking. A dispute had broken out and the victim described experiencing extreme pain in his back, and discovered he had been stabbed with a kitchen knife, identifying McDonagh as the assailant.

The victim's wife tried to take the knife from McDonagh, but he is alleged to have threatened to kill her.

She suffered hand injuries as a result of trying to grasp the blade.

During interview, McDonagh denied involvement, and while he agreed there had been a dispute among family members, contended this involved the male victim and his own son.

McDonagh claimed that following an argument, the son punched his father in the face, causing his nose to bleed. He asserted that the son went to the kitchen, returned with a knife and plunged it into his father's back.

But the detective told the court this was disputed by several witnesses and their comments were captured on PSNI body-worn cameras. He said both the victim and his wife clearly identified McDonagh as the assailant.

Opposing bail, the detective said: "While we have no evidence, we have been told the defendant intends to travel to the Republic of Ireland or England when he is released.

"In addition, all persons in this matter are family members and police believe they could be intimidated. There has also been a previous allegation between both parties."

A record supplied by An Garda Siochana showed extensive criminal offending in the Republic, the court heard.

McDonagh is also noted to have been on bail since June 13, 2017 on an allegation of intimidating a woman in order to have her withdraw a statement of complaint. In this instance it is alleged the threat involved a knife.

A defence solicitor argued McDonagh should be released and pointed out there were as yet no statements of complaint.

He told the court: "I am conscious this is a very serious offence, but my client strenuously denies involvement and tried to help police as best he could. I believe he is a strong candidate for bail."

District Judge John Meehan responded: "Your belief sir, is of no consequence."

Turning to McDonagh, the judge said: "Bail is refused. There is risk on every level."

McDonagh was remanded in custody to appear by video-link at Dungannon Magistrates Court next month.A former partner of a Northern Ireland woman who recently married a notorious US prisoner convicted of double murder has said he can't believe what the mother of their child has done.

North Belfast native Denise Stalford (31) wed so-called 'Woodland Park Killer' Jacob Ind in Teller County Jail, Colorado, last month - on her first trip to the United States.

Ind, who has already served 25 years, has won a retrial over the killings of his mother Pamela Jordan and stepfather Kermode Jordan, after a US judge ruled that the then-teenager was wrongly denied the right to testify on his own behalf.

Ind (40) admits killing the pair in a shooting and stabbing attack while they slept at their Woodland Park home in the early morning of December 17, 1992. But he has insisted it was in self-defence after suffering years of abuse.

"I don't know when it will be or how it will happen, but I believe he's coming home," said the now Mrs Ind, who told the Colorado Springs Gazette that should Ind be released following his retrial, the couple would set up home in Northern Ireland.

"It would be a fresh start in a country where no one knows him as Jacob Ind, the guy who killed his parents, and a safe place to heal and rebuild," she added.

"Jacob, more than anything, wants to be normal and have a normal life, and give his family some sense of normality, which he knows they can't have until he's out."

But, speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, her ex Ashley Byrne said he now feared for the safety of their 10-year-old son.

"I'm frightened for my son's life; I'm sick with worry," he said.

Mr Byrne (30), an IT worker, and Mrs Ind lived together in Whiteabbey and in Whitehead for two years before splitting. They'd lost contact in recent times, but the revelation that she'd married Ind came as a big shock.

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"I was sick inside and so scared and worried for my son," he said.

"I sit up at night-times thinking about (my son) and worrying if my son's okay. I feel powerless.

"When I think about what she's done - that she married this man - I'm just speechless.

"As a parent, I would like to know why, out of everyone in the world - and there's a lot of people - why this person?"

Dublin-based Mr Byrne, who is now off work with stress "over this whole episode", said he was going to enlist the help of a solicitor so that he could fight for full custody of the boy through the courts.

"It's for his safety; his safety is my number one priority," he said.

"I feel it's necessary to get my son removed from her. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to him."

He said he hasn't had any contact with his son, who will turn 11 in May, for five years.

He spilt with Mrs Ind when he was only seven months old and said he only learned about her behind-bars wedding when he read the interview she gave to a newspaper in the States. "Everybody moves on, it's the way of life, people get into relationships, and sometimes they don't work out and we move on and we meet somebody new, and that's fine. But for her to watch a documentary and then decide that 'I'm going to write to this guy and then marry him', to me it's not normal behaviour. That's my opinion," he said.

"As a parent, if I was in contact with a woman and she had a bad background, or if she was violent or on drugs, I'd take myself out of that scenario. I don't want to have my child put in any danger. Even if it's a one per cent risk, that's a one per cent chance."

The idea that Mrs Ind ultimately wants to bring Ind to Northern Ireland astounds him.

"Fair enough, people fall in love all the time, but I still can't get my head around it," he added. "She's thinking only of herself, not (my son). She'll tell you that she'll always put (my son) first and she only thinks about him, but I disagree with that.

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"She's not thinking about (my son) because if you took a survey of parents and asked them if they'd put their child in this scenario, I would stake everything I have that the majority of parents would say they wouldn't."

Meanwhile Mrs Ind, who is now back home, believes a retrial will prove that her husband was wrongly locked up - and allow them to finally live together as man and wife.

When the newlyweds tied the knot on January 19 they were separated by a plate glass partition, and have yet to kiss or hold hands as husband and wife.

Mrs Ind told the Gazette that she fiercely believed in her husband and, despite the seriousness of his past crimes and their highly unusual relationship, "it might be a little bit safer than meeting a guy at the bar and bringing him home. I trust Jacob. He is me".

She added: "There are not many women who can say they have full access to mental health records and every detail of (their partner's) past."

Mrs Ind's unusual relationship began when she saw him in 2013 documentary Lost For Life, about juveniles in the US serving life without parole.

"I heard it in his voice. He's not a monster. He's never been a monster," she said.

Then, in what she calls "the craziest thing I've done", she wrote to Ind to wish him luck in his bid to be freed.

Recently the US Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were "cruel and unusual punishment", resulting in a spate of resentencing hearings.

As Ind's older brother Charles would testify, Kermode Jordan molested the brothers repeatedly in what they came to call the "bathroom sessions".

Ind later said that in addition to physical and verbal abuse, his mother also sexually abused him until the age of 12.

"The parents should not have died, and it's sad that they did, but they were not the only victims," said Mrs Ind.

No date has been fixed for Ind's retrial, when the 1994 murder conviction will either be quashed or upheld. But in any case it's unlikely his life sentence would be renewed, hence his new wife's optimism that the couple could soon be living as a married couple on this side of the Atlantic.

"People (in Northern Ireland), even if they knew what happened, wouldn't be aghast in the street," said Mrs Ind, adding that her family are fully supportive of her choices. "Where I'm from, if something bad happens to someone who rapes children, people don't have a lot of sympathy for them. But a lot of people over here believe he shouldn't have been locked up in the first place."

Mrs Ind did not respond to requests from the Belfast Telegraph for a comment.Tributes have been paid to the Northern Ireland man killed in a workplace accident on a Fermanagh building site.

Father-of-three Barry McQuaid died in an incident at Market Street in the village of Ederney, around 15 miles north of Enniskillen on Friday morning. He had been working on a site at the local GAA club.

The 34-year-old was from Dromore, Co Tyrone.

He was described as a "hardworking, family-oriented" and the community's "go to man".

Dromore parish priest Father Patrick MacEntee told the Belfast Telegraph: "Barry was a very highly respected man, a nice fellow and an excellent trades man. He was a great worker and had a tremendous work ethic.

"He was very committed to his family and to his work. He was never idle, always doing something day or night. In his past time he loved to farm.

Mr McQuaid was a father to three children between the ages of seven and 14 months and husband to Edel. He worked alongside his father Noel in the family constriction firm.

"In a rural community everyone knows about it and an event like this strikes home very forcefully. His family and indeed the entire community feel this in a very acute way," the priest continued.

"Every parish has it's 'go to man' - someone that can be relied upon to help out and fix things - Barry was that man.

"His father Noel, mother Patricia, wife Edel, his grandmother and the entire family are just devastated. He was devoted to them all.

"This death has been very keenly felt and everyone is very saddened for his family."

Requiem Mass for Mr McQuaid will take place on Tuesday at St Davog's, Dromore.

The air ambulance and paramedics were scrambled to the scene following the incident on Friday. The Health and Safety Executive has opened an investigation.

Fermanagh and Omagh SDLP councillor John Coyle described the news as "devastating".

He added: "No words can describe what this poor man's family must be going through.

"Ederney is a small village and everybody knows everybody.

"I want to send my deepest condolences to the family. I know that the close-knit community of Ederney will rally round and support the grieving family in the best way that they can."

Fermanagh and South Tyrone UUP MLA Rosemary Barton added: "This is truly heartbreaking news

"The community is united in grief. No family ever wants to receive this devastating news, and my thoughts and prayers go out to them at this difficult time."Two men arrested in connection with the murder of Raymond Johnston in west Belfast have been released.

Mr Johnston died after being shot at a house in Glenbawn Avenue in Poleglass just before 8pm on Tuesday February 13.

He was blasted in the chest from a shotgun in front of his 11-year-old daughter and partner.

Detectives from Serious Crime Branch arrested two men, aged 27 and 47, under the Terrorism Act on Friday morning.

Following questioning they were released on Saturday.

Those arrested under The Terrorism Act must either be charged or released unconditionally. Police bail is not permitted under the legislation.

A 57-year-old man arrested on Thursday and a 34-year-old man arrested on Wednesday have both been released unconditionally.Former Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire has voiced support for Dame Tessa Jowells calls to allow cancer patients to be free to take the risk of undergoing more experimental treatments on the NHS.

The Old Bexley and Sidcup MP, who returned to Parliament on Tuesday after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, said it was time to challenge the thinking around ways to treat the disease.

Baroness Jowell, who has brain cancer, has called for more opportunities for adaptive trials in which patients can undergo different treatments, and if one does not work they can immediately move on to the next.

Pleased to return to Westminster yesterday after my lung surgery and to my duties as MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup. Made my first contribution in the Commons & really touched by the kind & generous comments from colleagues from all parties on my return https://t.co/s0kiVUVtlU pic.twitter.com/MY5tluD6P9  James Brokenshire (@JBrokenshire) February 21, 2018

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Brokenshire said it was time to asses how novel therapies could be made accessible to help those fighting the disease, while ensuring the system still protects patients.

He said: Of course, equally ensuring you are not abusing that situation and taking advantage of people in hard, difficult circumstance.

But I think we do need to challenge the thinking around all of this and assess what more can be done.

Huge progress for brain cancer patients today. Thanks to Gov, friends & many more for commitment to create a new future to beat this disease pic.twitter.com/gbhdCAn4JO  Tessa Jowell (@TessaJowell) February 22, 2018

The former Cabinet minister first discovered he was unwell in September, when he started to cough up blood while on a weekend break with his family in Northern Ireland.

The 50-year-old underwent tests, including X-rays and CT scans, although they did not find anything of concern.

It was only after a bronchoscopy on December 7, the day the Prime Minister announced a deal on phase one of the Brexit negotiations, that a cancerous lesion was discovered.

I think we do need to challenge the thinking around all of this and assess what more can be done

He underwent surgery to remove the cancer and part of his right lung a week after announcing his resignation from the Cabinet on January 8.

Mr Brokenshire said Theresa May had been very human, very supportive and genuinely concerned about my health and well-being and praised her for her support at such a difficult time.

The husband and father said his experience had made him take a step back and think about what is important.

While continuing with his recovery, the MP hinted he may one day return to the Cabinet in the future, saying: I am strong, I am resilient, I look to the future with confidence.

In January Baroness Jowell was given an unprecedented standing ovation in the House of Lords after making an emotional plea for more cancer treatments to be made available through the NHS.

The Labour peer told BBC Radio 4s Today programme at the time: Brain cancers happen very quickly, you have to show that theres been change quickly and if you dont do that then basically nothing changes.

She went on: That (adaptive trials) is exactly the kind of risk that patients should be free to take, it should be a risk that they have the chance to take, and its certainly what somebody like me wants.

Dame Tessa has been treated in London on the NHS but had advice from the US and consulted a doctor in Germany.

I got to the point in the NHS in London where I couldnt be given any more treatment but it was very clear that if I went to Germany then I had a chance of taking out this immunotherapy  a new experiment, she said.

And I was and I am prepared to try that.No side deals were made during the latest round of talks to restore power-sharing, the Northern Ireland Office has insisted.

The denial came after DUP leader Arlene Foster said her party had no knowledge of a claim by Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly on Thursday that his party had secured agreement with the UK Government to release funding to progress legacy inquests.

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Speaking on BBC's The View programme alongside Mr Kelly, DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he was not aware of any legacy deal.

And yesterday Sinn Fein's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said: "The British Government did commit to releasing the inquest funding and to go ahead with the consultation, minus the amnesty proposal for British State Forces."

But Mrs Foster insisted no one in the DUP had been aware of inquest funding being progressed, and said she intended to raise the matter with Secretary of State Karen Bradley.

"It would be astonishing if the Government granted funding for legacy inquests in the absence of an overall agreement to progress all elements of the Stormont House Agreement," she said.

In response to the DUP leader, the NIO said: "There are no side deals.

"It is ultimately the responsibility of the parties to reach an agreement and we have been working intensively with them over the past 13 months to support them in this process.

"Regrettably, no agreement was reached."

DUP MP Gregory Campbell downplayed the row, and said his party had taken the right decision, adding: "We all now need to move on.

"Sinn Fein has made a number of claims. Some sections of the media should know better in distinguishing between 'claims' and facts.

"A so-called side deal on inquests is the latest claim.

"The Government has now stated there are no side deals. Another spurious claim by an increasingly desperate Sinn Fein."

It came as the DUP faced criticism from rivals following withering comments from Baroness Paisley, widow of the DUP leader and former First Minister Ian Paisley, claiming that Mrs Foster should have stepped aside last year over the RHI scandal.

After meeting in Belfast, the Ulster Unionist Party claimed the leadership of unionism "cannot be left in the hands of the DUP".

"Since late 2016 the DUP has played fast and loose with the future of unionism," it said.

The statement goes on to accuse the DUP of creating "the opportunity for Sinn Fein to bring down Stormont and force a new set of negotiations on Gerry Adams' terms".

It added: "Baroness Paisley blames Arlene Foster for the crisis, Edwin Poots claims authorship of the 'agreement that never was', and meanwhile we have no input into Brexit, our hospital waiting lists are at record levels and schools at their wits' end to survive financially. It's an outrageous situation."

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein MLA Declan Kearney has called for a national civic campaign to "defend the Good Friday Agreement and demand its full implementation".

It comes after Former Secretary of State Owen Paterson was criticised for retweeting a newspaper column that said the Good Friday Agreement had "run its course".Jeremy Corbyn has questions to answer over his Cold War links, a former spy chief has said.

Sir Richard Dearlove said the Labour leader should have taken care to avoid meeting a Czechoslovakian agent and cannot just laugh off the claims.

The ex-MI6 boss said holding only a couple of meetings with Jan Sarkocy would amount to stupidity but if the spys claims that many more took place were true then this affair takes on a completely different aspect.

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Labour said Sir Richard should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears.

Mr Sarkocy, a former agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency, has been described as a fantasist by Mr Corbyns allies.

But Sir Richard, who was C at the Secret Intelligence Service, said the agent could not be easily dismissed.

The discussion I have had with friends close to the current Czech intelligence community suggests otherwise, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Sir Richard, who was posted to Communist Czechoslovakia, said everything I learned about the way the StB operated tells me that these accusations should be taken seriously.

Mr Corbyns spokesman has previously challenged records of supposed meetings between the then Labour backbencher and Mr Sarkocy.

Mr Corbyn recalled speaking to a diplomat from the then communist country in 1986, as one of many meetings with ambassadors, politicians, activists and dissidents from the majority of countries in the world, said the spokesman.

But another meeting with the same man was recorded in StB files as taking place the following year in the House of Commons, on a Saturday when the Labour MPs own diaries record he was attending a conference in Chesterfield.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: Richard Dearlove, who as head of MI6 was involved in the infamous dodgy dossier that helped take us into the disastrous Iraq War, should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears.A man is due in court charged with the manslaughter of Louella Eve Fletcher-Michie, who died at the Bestival music festival.

The 25-year-old daughter of Holby City actor John Michie was found dead in a wooded area on the edge of the Bestival site at Lulworth Castle in Dorset just before 1am on September 11 last year.

Ceon Broughton, 28, of Enfield, north London, is expected to appear before Poole Magistrates Court on Saturday, Dorset Police said.

#LatestNews - Update - Investigation into the death of Louella Fletcher-Michie at Bestival



Detectives investigating the death of a woman at Bestival have charged a man. https://t.co/NjM0dFFQ4w  Dorset Police (@dorsetpolice) February 23, 2018

An initial post-mortem examination carried out shortly after her death showed no clear signs of an assault, and further examinations have been carried out, including toxicology tests.

John Montague, senior district Crown prosecutor for the CPS in Wessex, said on Friday: Following a careful review of the evidence provided to me by Dorset Police I have today authorised the charge of Ceon Broughton with an offence of manslaughter by gross negligence, following the death of Louella Fletcher-Mitchie on September 11 2017 at Bestival, which was held in Dorset.

The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Broughton are now active and that he has a right to a fair trial.

It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.Talks between the UK and Ecuador over the future of Julian Assange at its London embassy have broken down, the South American countrys Foreign Minister said.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa suggested British officials had been unwilling to negotiate over the Wikileaks founders potential release.

Earlier this month, a judge upheld an arrest warrant issued when Mr Assange skipped bail as he fought extradition to Sweden in 2012.

Statement on ruling: We are surprised. Judge went well outside what the parties presented in court. This seems to have led to many factual errors in the judgment. US DoJ confirmed to Reuters again yesterday that its case is ongoing. There are 3 months to appeal judge's decision.  Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) February 13, 2018

The 46-year-old has been at the embassy ever since as he fears extradition to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves.

Ms Espinosa said of the failed talks: To mediate you need two parties, Ecuador is willing, but not necessarily the other party.

Ecuador said it would continue to protect Mr Assanges rights, however there was a risk to his physical and psychological well being after spending nearly six years in the building as a refugee.

The country has assessed more than 30 similar cases in a bid to break the deadlock, including that of British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is in prison in Iran accused of spying.

This included options for granting diplomatic immunity, although Ecuador said it would continue to respect the UKs laws.

In November, Ms Espinosa said Mr Assange had been granted Ecuadorian citizenship.

The Foreign Minister said Ecuador was trying to make Mr Assange a member of its diplomatic team, which would grant him additional rights under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations  including special legal immunity and safe passage.

Last week, former Cabinet minister Sir Patrick McLoughlin asked the Home Office when action will be taken over Mr Assanges case during Commons questions.

He said the first three years of Mr Assanges five-year stay in the embassy had cost the Metropolitan Police an additional 11 million.Mourners line the road through Black Mountain, as the motorcade carrying Rev Billy Graham passes by (John D. Simmons/The Charlotte Observer/AP)

Crowds lined the streets as a motorcade carrying the body of the Rev Billy Graham passed through his home state of North Carolina in a running tribute to Americas Pastor.

Adults and children stood behind wooden barricades and yellow tape as police officers saluted and admirers captured the moment on mobile phones.

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He has never really revelled in all of the celebrity. Its come with the territory, said Joe Tyson, a family friend who watched the procession in Black Mountain.

But theyve managed to live a very normal life for such famous people. And I think hed be very proud that his neighbors turned out and quietly celebrated his reward and his passage into heaven.

The motorcade left the mountain chapel at the training centre operated by Grahams evangelistic association in Asheville on a long drive along Interstate 40 to his library in Charlotte, the states largest city.

Expand Close Pallbearers carry the coffin of the Rev Billy Graham into a hearse (Kathy Kmonicek/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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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 Dr Billy Graham the International Evangelist on his last visit to Belfat. 28/5/1972 Dr Billy Graham the International Evangelist preaching in Ravenhill Presbyterian Church, Belfast. 28/5/1972 Dr Billy Graham the International Evangelist preaching in Ravenhill Presbyterian Church, Belfast. 28/5/1972 FILE - NOVEMBER 20: Evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, 95, was hospitalized with respiratory problems November 19, 2013 in Asheville, North Carolina. BALTIMORE - JULY 09: Evangelist Billy Graham preaches during the Metro Maryland 2006 Festival July 9, 2006 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, led the three-day-program filled with music, prayers and gospel messages. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Getty Images FILE - NOVEMBER 20: Evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, 95, was hospitalized with respiratory problems November 19, 2013 in Asheville, North Carolina. KANSAS CITY, MO - OCTOBER 7: The Rev. Billy F. Graham speaks to the crowd on a rainy night October 7, 2004 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Graham is conducting his "Heart of America" crusade in Kansas City October 7-10. (Photo by Larry W. Smith/Getty Images) Getty Images Dr Billy Graham the International Evangelist preaching in Ravenhill Presbyterian Church, Belfast. 28/5/1972 Dr Billy Graham the International Evangelist preaching in Ravenhill Presbyterian Church, Belfast. 28/5/1972 File photo dated 11/03/52 of US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 25/02/82 of US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 01/01/66 of US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 17/05/82 of US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 14/06/89 of US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 31/05/89 of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 01/06/66 of US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 27/08/73 of Cliff Richard (left) with US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 20/06/67 of Cliff Richard (right) with US evangelist Billy Graham, who has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 11/05/55 of US evangelist Billy Graham with his wife Ruth. Graham has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA File photo dated 11/03/52 of US evangelist Billy Graham with his wife Ruth. Graham has died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 99, a spokesman said. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday February 21, 2018. See PA story US Graham. Photo credit should read: PA Wire PA FILE - In this May 31, 2007 file photo, former Presidents, George H.W. Bush, left, Bill Clinton, second left, and Jimmy Carter, right, join Franklin Graham, second right, as they pose with Billy Graham, center, in front of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, N.C. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File) AP FILE - In this June 27, 1954 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham speaks to over 100,000 Berliners at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo, File) AP FILE - In this June 26, 2005 file photo, the Rev. Billy Graham speaks on stage on the third and last day of his farewell American revival in the Queens borough of New York. A spokesman said on Graham has died at his home in North Carolina at age 99. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams) AP FILE - In this Oct 26, 1994 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham begins his sermon in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File) AP FILE - In this July 7, 1954 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham poses with his his wife, Ruth, and their three daughters on the Queen Mary following his arrival in New York. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99.(AP Photo) AP FILE - In this Oct. 16, 1971 file photo, Evangelist Billy Graham and President Nixon wave to a crowd of 12,500 at ceremonies honoring Graham at Charlotte, N.C. AP FILE - In this Dec. 20, 2010 file photo, evangelist Billy Graham, 92, speaks during an interview at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Graham, who transformed American religious life through his preaching and activism, becoming a counselor to presidents and the most widely heard Christian evangelist in history, has died. Spokesman Mark DeMoss says Graham, who long suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments, died at his home in North Carolina on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. He was 99. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File) AP / Facebook

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It was a chance for residents in some of Grahams favorite places to pay tribute. He often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. He maintained his home in the nearby community of Montreat.

The procession is part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial March 2 at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.

Graham, who died Wednesday at his home in North Carolinas mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television.

A viewing will be held at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday. Graham will also lie in honour in the US Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Thursday, the first time a private citizen has been accorded such recognition since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.

He was such a wonderful man of God, and a messenger of GodRuby Sparks

Ruby Sparks, 85, attended a Graham youth ministry meeting in 1951, when she was a college student in Greensboro, North Carolina and met him in 1970.

He was such a wonderful man of God, and a messenger of God, she said.

Asked if there would ever be another force like his, she replied: I doubt it. Perhaps, in my next, in another lifetime. Not in my lifetime.

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Graham will be laid to rest March 2 at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the library in Charlotte, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007.

His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one.

The funeral will be held in a tent in the main parking lot of Grahams library in tribute to the 1949 Los Angeles tent revivals that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark DeMoss said. About 2,000 people are expected at the private, invitation-only funeral.Ivanka Trump has told South Korea's President that she will use her visit to the Winter Olympics to call for maximum pressure on Kim Jong-un to halt North Korea's nuclear programme.

The daughter of the US President is leading the US delegation at this weekend's closing ceremony for the Pyeongchang Games.

South Korean leader Moon Jae-in, however, highlighted at a banquet at the presidential compound how the Olympics have served as a vehicle for dialogue between the two Korean nations.

The banquet's start was delayed by about half-an-hour as Mr Moon and Ms Trump held a private meeting.The Divided Unionist Party? Even the most ardent critics of the DUP would concede that the party has been very good at concealing internal divisions in the past

The Divided Unionist Party? Even the most ardent critics of the DUP would concede that the party has been very good at concealing internal divisions in the past.

But events over the past fortnight indicate significant tensions between the DUP's ardent devolutionists - MLAs who are anxious to get the Stormont show back up and running - and the Westminster contingent, the all-powerful DUP 10.

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Naturally, the DUP will deny this - that's what all sensible parties do - but the evidence has grown.

The draft proposals of a three-in-one language bill and possible concessions on legacy issues reflect these divisions.

For MLAs, such as Edwin Poots, the draft (non) agreement, taking forward Irish Language measures - but only as part of a 'buy one, get two free' package, was a good piece of work, as Mr Poots publicly declared on the BBC's Spotlight programme.

Meanwhile, some within the DUP were denying the existence of draft proposals even as - courtesy of journalists Brian Rowan and Eamonn Mallie - they were about to appear.

The denials were curious.

Senior DUP figures had worked on the documents for weeks - and they were at an advanced stage in terms of dealing with the 'other side'.

One Sinn Fein MLA even commented privately last week that he was "sick of reading them".

Aware of internal unease, Arlene Foster declared that her party "weren't contemplating bringing in an Irish Language Act". In terms of a standalone measure, or one containing this specific title, this is true.

Yet the proposals clearly formed the basis of three interlinked acts, one of which was dedicated to the Irish language. As an equivalent, I might not be contemplating a cloudy day tomorrow - just one that is sunless.

Unquestionably, the DUP draft proposals were a serious effort to break the deadlock.

MLAs might have time on their hands at present but they're unlikely to spend it writing documents bringing proposals that they aren't really contemplating.

By the end of this week Sinn Fein, via Gerry Kelly, was also claiming a side deal with the British government on legacy issues - a devolution restoration carrot designed to enrage the DUP's Westminster team, Jeffrey Donaldson denying all knowledge of such an arrangement.

For 28 DUP MLAs, understandably anxious over their livelihoods, offering significant concessions to Sinn Fein makes sense. Stormont restored, salaries paid and the party leader back with a local power base.

For other sections of the DUP, there may be greater reluctance.

And given that only one-in-10 DUP voters backs an Irish Language Act, there are hardly strong electoral incentives for change.

Direct rule has its own risks for the DUP, of course - same-sex marriage legislation, for example - but some within the DUP might not be too heartbroken if Westminster enforces change with the party still showing fidelity to its own views.

And a Conservative government beholden to the DUP and not trying to restore devolution is less likely to offer Sinn Fein much on legacy issues.

Once upon a time, DUP internal rivalries existed mainly between Free Presbyterian religious fundamentalists and those of a milder Protestant dispensation.

And they didn't really matter anyway. The DUP was a ruthlessly top-down entity and it was a million miles from any power - all opposition and bombast.

The DUP's election successes changed all that and the party now has tough decisions to make over how and where to consolidate its power.

How much can be conceded to restore devolution? Given the current favourable position at Westminster, does devolution truly matter?

All within the DUP recognise that the current favourable arithmetic at Westminster will not last forever.

What exercises the party is whether a short-term period of direct rule - yielding nothing - is better than longer-term drip, drip devolutionary concessions to 'crocodiles'.

Nigel Dodds said a few years ago that the DUP cannot be led from Westminster any more. Yet as power has ebbed from Belfast since last year, can it be satisfactorily led from Stormont?

The DUP has to decide whether it wants to remain a Devolutionist Unionist Party - with all the attendant difficulties of power-sharing with Sinn Fein - or prefers, for now, to be the Direct Rule Unionist Party.

Given recent events, the latter seems favourite.

Jon Tonge is professor of politics at the University of Liverpool and co-author - with Maire Braniff, Tom Hennessey, Jim McAuley and Sophie Whiting - of the book, The Democratic Unionist Party: From Protest to PowerThe earth will be plunged into a 15-day blackout, warns Nasa! Morgue employee cremated while taking a nap! Denzel Washington says Donald Trumps election saved us from an Orwellian police state!

You can stop fretting about the darkocalypse, slapdash crematoriums and Denzels sanity. These headlines are, of course, fake news  fabrications from the warped world of hoaxes-for-hits and viral videos with a veracity void.

In the past two years, tall tales have flooded Facebook and Twitter, and climbed to the top of Google searches. A whole industry has sprouted up; more than 100 US political fake news sites have been registered in the small Macedonian town of Veles. Now politicians and tech firms promise a crackdown. This month, MPs in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee  led by Damian Collins  travelled to Washington to grill Facebook, Google and Twitter about Russian interference in the EU referendum and election, including the use of phoney news. At the Web Summit in Lisbon in November, the usually self-congratulatory sector turned self-reflective about how to tackle the mendacity in its midst.

Tech executives admit that fake news endangers their brands credibility and thus bottom lines (the consumer goods giant Unilever threatened to pull investment from sites that failed to address the problem), so their efforts to combat fake news are rooted in self-interest. If people lose trust, theyll stop using our services, says Richard Gingras, Googles vice-president of news.

Gingras adds that those sharing a link dont necessarily believe the content. But a Buzzfeed study found that three quarters of US adults who see untrue headlines do believe them. And why wouldnt they? These sites often look like polished products. There are two main motivations for spawning these scams: ideological and financial. The political falsehood machine  Hillary Clinton sold weapons to Isis; the Pope endorsed Trump  is dominated by right-wingers, especially in the US. Oxford University researchers found that 96% of Trump supporters who use Twitter shared fake news ahead of the State of the Union address.

Then there are the even more common cash-for-clicks stories, of the FBI finds 3,000 penises during a raid on a morgue workers home ilk. They spread like wildfire and have copycats, says Jane Lytvynenko, a Buzzfeed journalist who specialises in fake news. Some scams have only a headline and photo, and theyre still shared.

So how are the tech firms responding? Last month at Davos, Google execs privately floated an idea to fellow attendees: that the company could advise users on the trustworthiness of articles, potentially with an extension for the Chrome browser. However, no product is believed to be in the pipeline yet.

Both Facebook and Google have toughened their stances on fake news recently. Tessa Lyons-Laing, product manager on the news team at Facebook in the US, explains: Anything which violates our standards  such as hate speech  we remove entirely from the platform. Then there is content that doesnt violate our standards, but isnt consistent with our news feed values (like fake news). We do not remove that content; we work to reduce it.

The first line of defence against fake news involves chipping away at the financial incentives (advertising sold based on the number of hits web pages receive) to produce it. Google now prevents websites that run hoaxes from using its AdSense advertising network. Meanwhile, Facebook is trying to prevent those who keep sharing false stories from advertising on the site.

Then theres the technological fightback. Facebook has changed the way it recognises inauthentic accounts, identifying them by patterns of behaviour like repeated posting of identical content, and has removed tens of thousands of fake accounts in the UK alone. The site has also ensured that users now see fewer posts in their news feed that link to poor-quality pages. Algorithms alone cannot identify all nefarious content, so Google has also introduced a fact check label to show if information has been vetted and its veracity, with authoritative publishers and fact-checkers doing the fact checking. When a major story breaks, YouTube marks authoritative sources top news in search results.

In the UK, YouTube runs Internet Citizens workshops for teenagers to warn them about hoaxes and scams, and last April, Facebook posted a temporary notice at the top of users feeds to help them spot falsehoods, such as being sceptical about headlines.

Finally, Google and Facebook have tried to build closer ties with reputable news organisations. This charm offensive involves stumping up cash (Google has a 133m fund for European publishers digital news projects), product development (as part of its Journalism Project, Facebook collaborates with media firms to create new advances, while the Google News Lab works to adapt tools and YouTube provides free video hosting for 50 European news publishers under Player for Publishers) and offering training for journalists. Google is also a founding member of the First Draft Coalition, which trains journalists to determine whether eyewitness accounts are real, and both sites have worked with independent fact-checkers like PolitiFact, Snopes and Full Fact to scrutinise content that users flag as suspicious.

Twitters response lags behind the other two. When you speak to staff off-the-record, they often say that Twitter mirrors society, seemingly abdicating responsibility for the content published on the platform. James Ball, the author of Post-Truth, says this attitude extends to politicians: Twitters political response seems designed to p*** off world governments.

While working at Buzzfeed, Ball found a network of 13,000 Russian bots on Twitter that pumped out pro-Brexit propaganda in the run-up to the referendum. We shared details with Twitter and the company  characteristically  refused to comment but deleted the bot accounts.

Ball believes, however, that Facebook has been let off too lightly on this  its easier to find bot activity on Twitter because the platform is more open than Facebook, but Facebooks audience is much bigger.

There are other concerns too. According to research by Lytvynenko and her colleagues Craig Silverman and Scott Pham, despite Facebooks efforts, the top 50 most viral fake stories of 2017 were shared and commented on more than the top 50 the year before. Efforts to address fake news are also patchy, with many advances only available in a smattering of countries (even Facebooks mini guide to fake news was only in 14 countries). And many of the fixes are imperfect. Back in 2016, The Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr found that when you typed did the Hol... into Google search and clicked on the autocomplete suggestion, Did the Holocaust happen, top of the results list was a link to the neo-Nazi site Stormfronts article, Top 10 reasons why the Holocaust didnt happen. Moreover, do we really want tech firms to be the arbiters of truth?

Theres also a bigger tension here between tech firms and the media, which feels short-changed. Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch argued Facebook should pay news publishers a carriage fee for using their stories. Last year, I attended an off-the-record dinner for journalists hosted by one of the tech titans. The journalists were angry that tech firms threaten their business models, but they were also frustrated that these firms wouldnt admit to being publishers and take responsibility for their content.

Ball explains that their position is a hangover from when internet providers didnt want to be responsible for everything users found online. This was then extended to websites, where the case is much weaker, he says. People already accept that internet companies should have responsibilities, such as taking down child porn from their sites  so I think journalists are fighting the last fight here. He believes Google, Facebook and Twitter should talk more to newsrooms and experts on misinformation.

There is a role for government here, too. In January, Germany launched a new law which means social media firms have 24 hours after a complaint to take down fake news and hate speech, or face fines of up to 50m (44m) in the case of the latter. Tech bosses are worried other countries could follow. The age of the internet Wild West is coming to a close, and the sheriffs (regulators) may finally have some bullets in their guns.

Fake news is one of the growing pains of the tech titans. As companies, they are slowly waking up to the idea that far from being the worlds saviours, the geeks may have unleashed dark forces. But as Ball points out, thats not entirely on them: Lets not forget  people have an appetite for this stuff. Perhaps fake news shows that we end up with the social media we deserve.Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 83F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 68F. Winds light and variable.Biocon (Syngene) to set up R&D unit in Telangana and generate 1500 new jobs.

BioAsia, Asias largest Biotechnology and Life-sciences forum and the annual flagship event of the Government witnessed investments from Indias largest biopharmaceutical company -Biocon. The Bangalore based company will be expanding its current presence in Hyderabad on APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) Intermediates to add 500 new jobs. The company will also soon start an R&D lab of its subsidiary Syngene in Genome Valley, Telangana, which is expected to generate another 1500 high tech jobs.

Appreciating Mr. KT Rama Rao - Minister of Industries & Commerce, Govt. of Telangana, Biocon MD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw remarked that she was very impressed with his visionary leadership. She opined that when the industry sees leadership like this, they are motivated to come forward and support them.

Some insightful deliberations by global leaders of Life Sciences with key note sessions by Professor Michael Hall, Lasker Awardee, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland, Dr.Shreeram Aradhye, Chief Medical Officer, Novartis Pharma, USA and Dr.Udit Batra, Member of the Executive Board, CEO Life Science, Merck, Germany also took place.

In his keynote, Prof. Michael Hall explained in detail the TOR (Target Of Rapamycin)  TOR signaling, journey of Rapamycine being used in suppressive drugs, antifungal drugs and now in cancer drugs to control cell growth. Dr. Shreeram Aradhye emphasized on the role of technology and analytics in improving efficiency in healthcare and thereby improving the longevity and quality of human life. Dr. Udit Batra spoke about the low penetration of biologics in India despite the high affordability and increasing availability of biologics. He further elaborated on how Mercks wide portfolio is helping them exploit the US$ 64-65 billion market in India.

The highlight of Day 2 was the CEO Conclave which explored the key recent developments in the Indian Life Sciences industry and the actions that manufacturers and the government are taking to ensure holistic growth, with a focus on putting patients first.

The panel was chaired by Mr. KT Rama Rao - Minister of Industries & Commerce, Govt. of Telangana and the eminent panel included

Mr. Eswara Reddy, Drug Controller General of India

Mrs. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Ltd.

Mr. Satish Reddy, Chairman, Dr. Reddys Laboratories

Mr. Jawed Zia, Country President, Novartis India Ltd

Dr. Philip Larsen, Head of TA Diabetes Research & German HUB Chief Scientific Officer, Sanofi

Mr. Gregory Reh, Vice Chairman, US & Global Life Sciences Sector Leader, Deloitte

The key themes for Day 2 were (i) Innovation & Exponential Medicine Conference, (ii) Cancer Diagnostics & Biomarkers and (ii) Supply Chain & Logistics in Indian Biopharma.

Under theme (i), Mr. Gregory Reh, Vice Chairman, US & Global Life, Sciences Sector Leader, Deloitte chaired the first session on the discussions around how Life Sciences companies are bolstering R&D pipelines through deal-making, the Industry trends and emerging Partnership Models and the critical role the Asian continent. Mr. Sudeep Krishna, Head (Life Sciences), Deloitte conducted a fireside chat on disruption in Healthcare and Life Sciences with Ms. Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals and Ms. Terri Bresenham, President and CEO, Sustainable Healthcare Solutions  GE Healthcare. Mr. Utkarsh Palnitkar, Former Life Sciences Head, KPMG India deliberated on whether India ready to usher in the new era of Biologics. Two other panels deliberated on the Role of Industry, Academia, Government and Service Providers in creating an Innovative Ecosystem in Life Sciences.

While talking about Hyderabads growing prominence as a life sciences and technology hub, KT Rama Rao - Minister of Industries & Commerce, Govt. of Telangana said, Hyderabad has an established ecosystem of healthcare and life sciences companies. Out of the 160 USFDA approved companies, more than 60 are located in Hyderabad. Genome Valley 2.0 will focus on innovation in nano-sciences and radiotherapy as well as API manufacturing. Telangana State hopes to leverage its strong position to become the Gateway of India for biotechnology and life sciences.

He further added, The government needs to incentivize R&D and act as an enabler to companies that are transitioning from chemicals to biologics. It is also important to look at Lifesciences as a spectrum and synergies flowing from medical devices to generics and the next.

Theme (ii) was kicked off by a plenary address on Precision Oncology, Immunotherapy in Cancer-Current trends, New Developments in Cancer Diagnostic Radiology. A session on cancer diagnostics was chaired by Dr. Shanthi Naidu, Head of Department, Laboratory Medicine, Care Hospitals.

Under Theme (iii) Prof. Devendra Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Director, BSMA steered the panel discussion on Building the Supply Chain as a Core and Competency of the Indian Bio-pharma Industry. Prof. Devdip Purkayastha, Strategic Business Development, DHL chaired a session on Optimizing Packaging and Transportation and Securing the Best-in-Class Ocean and Airfreight for Biologicals and Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Prasad Deshpande, Vice President & Head, Global Procurement, Supply Chain, and Contract Manufacturing, Biocon Limited deliberated with panelists on Ensuring Product Quality and Integrity in the Emerging Cold Chain Network of Asia. Insights were provided on Revolutionizing Bio-production. Eminent speakers from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation India, Biolog Europe & Reliance Life Sciences also addressed the gathering.To keep the rating score and review content relevant for your upcoming trip, we archive reviews older than up to 36 months.

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This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement.The City of Brandon has officially entered into a municipal development and service agreement with Gambler First Nation  a historic step forward on what could lead to the citys first urban reserve deal.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/2/2018 (1304 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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SUBMITTED The proposed site for the First Nations Urban Development Area is nearly eight acres at the corner of 18th Street North and Clare Avenue.

The City of Brandon has officially entered into a municipal development and service agreement with Gambler First Nation  a historic step forward on what could lead to the citys first urban reserve deal.

The vision for the site  located at the corner of 18th Street North and Clare Avenue  is to develop a range of commercial options, such as a gas bar, convenience store, mini mall and hotel.

"I think this is an important day in the history of the City of Brandon," said Coun. Lonnie Patterson (South Centre). "Weve heard since the report on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came out  that local governments are on the front lines of reconciliation. As an urban centre, we are an opportunity for First Nations that traditionally have been pushed out of urban centres and into more rural and remote places, to build economic opportunities  and not be pushed off to the side anymore."

Jacqueline East, general manager of development services, said the deal offers many benefits for both parties.

JILLIAN AUSTIN/THE BRANDON SUN Jacqueline East, the City of Brandons general manager of development services, presents to council on the municipal development and services agreement between the city and Gambler First Nation during Tuesday nights meeting.

"Cities like Saskatoon and Regina and even now Winnipeg  have many of these agreements with First Nations, and theyre real economic generators," she said. "So its really exciting for Brandon that were entering this new phase of being a bigger city and having that kind of agreement in place with a First Nation."

Gambler First Nation Chief David LeDoux said after seeing the success of other First Nations Urban Development Areas, it was time to bring it to Westman.

He told The Brandon Sun that the goal is to set up the site of nearly eight acres to ensure the youth of Gambler First Nation have a positive future and financial stability. Gambler First Nation is a small community located west of Binscarth, with a population of less than 300 people.

Gambler First Nation council approved the agreement earlier this month, and Brandon City Council voted in favour of it last night. The document sets the terms and conditions for the First Nations purchase of municipal services.

"From the very beginning of when we started talking with Gambler and when the negotiations began, the most fundamental premise is that Gambler wanted to be treated exactly the same as everybody else," East said. "You could call it a no more, no less principle  In spite of it in some ways being two different communities, they want it to continue to be one community."

TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Gambler First Nation Chief David Ledoux walks through the future site of the development at 18th Street North and Clare Avenue with his grandkids Dawjae Smith, Emily Ledoux and Dylan Ledoux last August.

The deal includes the purchase of city services such as water/sewer, drainage, road system, etc.

Benefits to the city include revenue through development charges, as well as fees for service. It would provide increased amenities, create jobs and lead to economic spinoffs, East added.

"This is a very significant agreement. We certainly see a lot of developments come across our council desk here and this isnt just another one of them," said Mayor Rick Chrest, adding it is significant in the sense it is their first opportunity to collaborate with a First Nation in this way.

In 2018, a development charge of $1.93 per square foot for commercial and $2,190 per residence has been agreed upon. In addition, the First Nation will pay a general services fee to the city, equivalent of property taxes, less the amount for services that the First Nation is unable to purchase (governance, finance, human resources, etc.).

The agreement would begin as soon as the lands are set apart as reserve. Another term of the agreement reflects the citys desire to enjoy a long-term relationship with the First Nation that can only be terminated by mutual agreement or as a conclusion of a comprehensive dispute resolution process.

In the meantime, Gambler has been in talks with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and applied for an Addition to Reserve through the federal government, to have the lands transferred to reserve status.

Now that the development agreement has been set, the next steps can follow.

"The next step would be INAC to step in and fill out their process," LeDoux said. "Theyve been phoning us, and theyre all ready at the starting line, ready to go. So  its going to happen fairly quickly."

Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council has been involved in the planning, helping to ensure the right steps are being taken to create a positive relationship.

"I continuously use the word relationship, because it really does need to be looked at in that way," said Jason Gobeil, Aboriginal community co-ordinator with BUAPC. "Its not just business, but it is definitely two levels of government and creating a beautiful relationship."

Gobeil said this deal is not only important for Brandon, but for First Nations looking to grow.

"Brandon has come a long way in the years of talking, to now were starting to see the implementation of these actions happening right at the grassroot level here too. Its nice to see Brandon actually stepping up and playing a larger part."

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustinBy Carolyn Cohn

Standard Life-Aberdeen has agreed to sell the bulk of its insurance business to UK insurer Phoenix Group for 3.24bn (3.7bn) allowing it to focus on savings and investment products.

Standard Life-Aberdeen will receive 2.3bn in cash and a 19.9% stake in Phoenix, which is raising 1bn to fund the deal to become Europes largest manager of books of mature business from insurance companies.

The sale is part of a long-standing drive by the Standard Life business to exit insurance, which carries onerous capital rules as a result of the industrys European Solvency II rules.

Standard Life merged with Aberdeen Asset Management last year in an 11bn deal. By exiting insurance, Standard Life-Aberdeen has also cleared one of the hurdles to regaining control of a 109bn investment mandate from Lloyds Banking Group, which the bank last week said it was pulling due to competition concerns linked to their shared insurance businesses.

Analysts expect the capital generated from the sale to be deployed in buybacks and or deals. Standard Life- Aberdeen also revealed its co-chief executive Keith Skeochs pay rose 9% to 3m last year.

Skeoch was formerly the chief executive of insurer and asset manager Standard Life. His co-chief executive Martin Gilbert, Aberdeens former boss, was paid 1.3m for his time on the board of Standard Life-Aberdeen, it said in its annual report.

Standard Life-Aberdeen did not provide details of Gilberts pay before the merger and was not immediately able to say what he earned during the period while he was still chief executive of Aberdeen.

Standard Life-Aberdeen also said it had changed its remuneration policy to cut future maximum pay packages for its top executives to bring it into line with peers, as it shifts to an asset management focus.

Standard Life-Aberdeen also published its gender pay gap, fulfilling a new British government requirement.

As of April 2017, men were paid on average 34% more than women at Aberdeen, and 42% more than women at Standard Life.

The figures show a larger gap than for insurer and asset manager Aviva, which published a gender pay gap below 30% last month.

Standard Life-Aberdeen also said pro-forma adjusted pre-tax profit for 2017 came in at 1.04bn, down 0.5% but in line with market consensus.By Sarah-Jane Murphy

Update 6.45pm: Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm said the bank was still f***ed despite Mr F***ing Denis of Irish Life and Permanent telling him Anglo would be looked after, his trial has heard.

He made the remark during a recorded phone call with John Bowe, former Director of Treasury at the bank, on September 22 2008.

Denis Casey was the chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent at the time at which the phonecall took place.

Today Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard recordings of eight phone calls between employees of Anglo, the Central Bank and McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors, all of which took place on dates in late September 2008.

Six of the eight calls, played for the jury by Detective Sergeant Michael McKenna of the Garda National Economic Crime Unit, were conversations between Mr Drumm (51) and John Bowe.

Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, said the calls were deliberately recorded by the bank for business purposes, to preserve the details of transactions and deals. They were recovered during the Garda investigation at the bank.

In a phone call on September 22 Mr Drumm and Mr Bowe discussed the fact that 500m went out the doors today.

Mr Drumm suggested Mr Bowe do a Ladybird type thing when he made a presentation at an upcoming meeting and said a simplified version of Anglo's cash flow would be needed.

Mr Drumm said Mr f***ing Dennis had confirmed that morning that Anglo will be well looked after.

Mr Bowe commented that Anglo was still in a hole, to which Mr Drumm responded that they were f***ed, needed to fix the balance sheet by year end and said their liquidity had depleted by 14bn.

And who was in charge when that was going on, Mr Drumm asked, to the sound of laughter from the two men.

Mr Drumm asked Mr Bowe if they could bloat the balance sheet, and remarked that the family photo - Anglo's end of year financial snapshot - should it be published on f***ing Bebo was not going to look good.

The two bankers then discussed the September transactions with ILP, which Mr Bowe said were booked as a repo and had a small amount of haircut.

We're going to have to tell board members that we have lit a fuse here that's not going to go away, we'll have a difficult story to tell on December 3, Mr Drumm said.

The jury then listened to three phone calls that took place on September 29 2008 between Mr Drumm, Mr Bowe and other Anglo executives.

Mr Bowe explained the transactions with ILP to Mr Drumm: What happens is the money goes around in a circle. The dance here is that we actually get it back in time. It has to go through a lot of different hands.

Mr Bowe told Mr Drumm that Permo wanted collateral for future deals and said that recovering the money lent to ILP within time limits was becoming very very tough.

Mr Drumm said a f***ing journal entry would do it an awful lot quicker.

Laughter is heard when Mr Drumm said Anglo Finance director Willie McAteer might be auditing the books. Debit the giver, credit the receiver, he joked.

In another recorded conversation he referred to the financial regulator as Freddie f***ing Fly and said he intended to go to that f***ing shower of clowns down in Dame Street, to look for emergency funding for the bank.

Mr Drumm, with an address in Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

He has also pleaded not guilty to false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

The jury has been told that Mr Drumm accepts the facts of the 2008 transactions between Anglo and ILP but he disputes they were fraudulent or dishonest.

The trial, now in its fourth week, continues before Judge Karen O'Connor and a jury of 10 men and four women after losing a juror on day 26.

Earlier: Drumm referred to financial regulator as 'Freddie f***ing Fly', trial hears

Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm referred to the financial regulator as Freddie fucking Fly and said he intended to go to that fucking shower of clowns down in Dame Street, to look for emergency funding for the bank, his trial has heard.

On day 30 of Mr Drumm's trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court the jury listened to recordings of phone calls between employees of Anglo, the Central Bank and McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors, all of which took place on dates in late September 2008.

Six of the eight call played were conversations between Mr Drumm and former Director of Treasury at Anglo, John Bowe.

Prosecution barrister, Paul O'Higgins SC, told the jury that the calls were deliberately recorded by the bank for business purposes, to preserve the details of transactions and deals. The recordings were recovered during the Garda investigation at the bank.

Two phone calls between Mr Drumm and Mr Bowe from September 18, 2008 were played.

In one call Mr Drumm told Mr Bowe what he planned to do when he met those fucking clowns down on Dame Street the following day when asking for emergency funding for Anglo.

He told Mr Bowe I'm going to keep asking thick questions. When is the cheque coming? and said they needed to get into the fucking simple speak.

Mr Drumm is heard saying that if the Anglo bankers showed up with horrible numbers at least they looked like they had put up a fight.

We were badly fucking damaged like everyone else but we have rebuilt and here's a fucking balance sheet, he tells to Mr Bowe he plans to say to the Financial Regulator.

He referred to other fucking non-normal things such as the collapse of Lehmans Bank in recent times.

Mr Drumm said that he planned to ask the Financial Regulator: "How are you getting on with that loan, lads?"

In the second call on September 18, Mr Drumm asked Mr Bowe what would happen should the bank receive a ratings downgrade. Mr Bowe replied that Anglo's entire book would be affected by such an event.

We're not a morsel, we're half an element in their terms, Mr Drumm said.

Mr Bowe then read a draft letter from Anglo to the Central Bank, regarding the Anglo's liquidity ratio, and told Mr Drumm that there was no point whinging about it as we're effectively beholden to them.

He said to Mr Bowe that if the Central Bank didn't give funding in the coming days they would cause a bank collapse.

The phone call ends with the men agreeing to meet for a coffee and a pep talk the following morning in advance of their meeting with the Financial Regulator.

Mr Bowe signed off by telling Mr Drumm You the man.

Mr Drumm (51), with an address in Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

He has also pleaded not (NOT) guilty to false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

The jury has been told that Mr Drumm accepts the facts of the 2008 transactions between Anglo and ILP but he disputes they were fraudulent or dishonest.

The trial, now in its fourth week, continues before Judge Karen O'Connor and a jury of ten men and four women after losing a juror on day 26.A series of event will be taking place during Engineers Week, which begins today.

Over 75,000 participants, including young people, their parents, teachers, engineers and industry are set to take part in over 780 events nationwide - from hands-on engineering challenges in classrooms and libraries to onsite engineering tours and open days - as part of Engineers Irelands Engineers Week 2018.

Engineers Week is coordinated by Engineers Ireland's STEPS programme and funded under Science Foundation Irelands Discover Programme Call.

The annual campaign aims to promote engineering as a career choice and the importance of the profession to Ireland.

"We've an awful lot planned for the week," said Engineers Ireland CPD Director Dee Keogh.

"It runs until the second of March, and we've got over 780 Engineers Week events planned, and on top of that about 2,700 free screenings of a movie called 'Dream Big: Engineering Our World'.

Caroline Spillane, Director General of Engineers Ireland, said that she was delighted that many of Irelands large engineering employers, local authorities and engineering departments of Higher Education Institutes are getting involved to showcase their work and the role of the engineer within their communities.

Ms Spillane commented: Engineers Week, in this its 12th year, is reaching out to all facets of the industry to showcase the exciting world of contemporary engineering.

"Engineering affects all aspects of life, from tangible works such as roads, bridges and flood defences, to heart stents and prostheses, as well as the invisible technology that supports our daily lives.

"The wealth of engineering talent in Ireland is rich and varied and we are delighted to see so many engineering organisations, libraries, schools and third level institutes getting involved and showcasing the engineering profession to primary and secondary school students nationwide and inspiring todays children to engineer the Ireland of tomorrow.A Fine Gael TD has said that the Government has pledged to get access to new and innovative drugs.

Martin Heydon said that the move will ensure that they are made available to people who need them.An undersea hunt is underway for DNA from Ireland's first settlers.

IT Sligo and UCC join the Irish Marine Institute, this weekend to search for signs of ancient life submerged beneath the Irish Sea.

It is part of a project to examine 'Europe's Lost Frontiers' which the public can follow using the #IrishSeaExploration hashtag.

Chief scientist, Dr James Bonsall, from IT Sligo said that they are using new technology to retrieve signs of life from thousands of years ago.

"it's the first time we're able to get down into the Irish Sea and take these samples," he said.

"it's a submerged landscape, we can't go down and do excavations that most people would be familiar with, seeing on television and so forth... The only we can do it securely and safely, preserving the DNA, is by this coring method."

- Digital deskA vigil has taken place outside the GPO in Dublin in solidarity with the people of Syria.

More than 500 people have been killed in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region, with around 2,400 wounded.A woman in her 40s has been killed in an overnight crash in Laois.

Gardai and Emergency Services were called to the scene of the two-car collision on the N80 at Ballickmoyler at around 10pm. A 48-year-old woman, a driver of one of the cars, died at the scene.

The driver of the second car - a man in his 40s - was taken by Ambulance to Tullamore Hospital. His injuries are understood to be serious.

The stretch of road between Ballickmoyler and the townland of Coolhenry, where the accident occurred, remains closed this morning.

Garda forensic collision investigators will examine the crash site later this morning. The local Coroner has been notified.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Portlaoise Garda Station 057-8674100, the Garda Confidential Line or any Garda Station.

In a separate incident, a woman in her 50s has been taken to hospital after being knocked down by a taxi in Dublin last night.

She was struck by the car on Leinster road in Rathmines in Dublin 6 shortly after 1am.

The woman remains at St James Hospital this morning. The extent of her injuries are not known at this stage.

The collision site will be examined by local a local crime scenes unit later this morning. Local traffic diversions are currently in place.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Rathmines Garda Station 01-6666700 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.

- Digital deskDespite her modesty, Gowar has been on a steady trajectory of success since winning the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Scholarship to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia in 2013. There, she began writing about the museum artefacts that had gripped her since she developed a childhood obsession with Otzi the iceman, Europe's oldest human mummy, whose 3000-year-old body was discovered in 1991.

"I would draw him over and over again, surrounded by his possessions, which I would label carefully. His quiver and arrows, his cloak, his boots stuffed with straw against the cold ... He seemed reachable to me through those little details. If there was anything that got me interested in archaeology, that was it."

Her passion led, after a degree in archaeology, to a job in visitor services at the British Museum. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock was inspired by the museum's own "mermaid", a mummified 18th-century Japanese concoction, probably made for selling to gullible Dutch sailors, muddling the remains of a monkey and a fish into a ferocious-looking, infant-sized imp. It is nothing like the beautiful sirens of popular myth. Gowar says she was "not quite prepared for the fascination of it".

Neither is her Kentish merchant, Jonah Hancock. When a captain he has entrusted to bring him a more conventional cargo places a mummified "mermaid" into Hancock's hands, he "has a peculiar urge to dash it to the ground". But instead he exhibits it in a freak show, then accepts 300 guineas from a celebrated madam who wants to display the "desiccated and furious" creature to her wealthy and influential clients as part of a grand soiree that devolves into an orgy where young girls cavort before priapic old MPs.

Gowar revelled in the fruity language and humour of the Georgian era and admits to "treating characters like dollies to dress up in all my favourite costumes from the V&A". She threw herself into researching the world of the Georgian sex worker. "Some of it was just eye-popping," she says.Michael and Peter Spierig, 41, grew up in Brisbane, where they started making short films featuring zombies and blown-up teddy bears. Since then the identical twins have hit the Hollywood big time.

MICHAEL: We were born in Germany and moved to Australia when we were four. Dad worked in shipping, which meant we moved around a lot. We spent time in Canberra, even went to high school in the United States for a couple of years and are now based in Los Angeles, but Brisbane is home. That's where we spent the most formative years growing up.

Directors Michael and Peter Spierig at the Griffith Film School in Brisbane. Credit:Paul Harris

Peter and I fell in love with computer games really early on. We used to play on Atari together  I distinctly remember Pong. There was a lot of time spent in video-game arcades or at the local roller-skating rink. We also became fascinated early on with movie-making. Our first films together were pretty basic, backyard affairs. We'd blow up a teddy bear and film it using stop-animation. Peter was more the filmmaker, and I tended to be the one who was in charge of props and operating the puppets.

Our parents never restricted the movies we could and couldn't watch. By the time we were 10 or 11 we had already seen The Exorcist, The Shining and Jaws. One of the first movies I remember seeing was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I vividly recall that scene where the guy gets his heart pulled out, and thinking that was the greatest thing ever.Jean McIllhatton would normally live an active lifestyle, taking up yoga and walking around Lake Ginninderra several times a week.

That all changed while she was cleaning her home on January 19.

Jean McIllhatton with orthopedic surgeon Corinne Coulter. Credit:karleen minney

"I was washing the floors, like I do every week, and I guess I walked on an area that was wet. My legs went from under me and I went down on my hip," she said.

The Holt resident was rushed to hospital and was in surgery the next day, after being diagnosed with a broken hip.Marist College Canberra continued to display the picture of former headmaster Brother Christopher Wade, a convicted paedophile, up until this week.

Wade, also known as William Henry Wade, was the Canberra headmaster between 1993 and 2000.

Former Marist College Canberra headmaster Brother Christopher Wade giving evidence at the royal commission. Credit:Mags King

Damian De Marco and Mike Desmond, both former students, criticised the Canberra college for keeping up the picture since Wade first faced court in 2016.

"It's an honour wall, they're honouring a guy who had been given the ultimate level of trust and has breached it completely," Mr De Marco said.Clubbing together The article on Oatley ("Plans for open space a 'travesty'", February 18) would leave most readers with the erroneous impression that most of the local "community" is opposed to the proposed development of the Oatley Bowling Club site. The site in question is unused, difficult to access and serves no public benefit. The current proposal is for about 50 per cent of the site to be developed as an aged-care facility and for the remainder to be converted to usable public recreation space adjacent to the Myles Dunphy Reserve (which is unaffected). I am sure a majority of people in our (ageing) population would see the benefit in the council proposals if they were clearly explained to them. I trust the council is not unduly influenced by a vocal, but well meaning, minority in the community whose instincts are to resist change and object to the sort of sensible proposal being developed by the council which is clearly to the benefit of the wider community. John Woodward Oatley Political pedestal Yes, Jay Nauss, as one who has never practised the "new morality" (whatever that is) I do happen to hold politicians to a higher standard than the rest of the community (Letters, February 18). When someone is a heartbeat away from leading this country then I do not expect him or her to be a hypocrite; is that so difficult to grasp?

Dave Horsfall North Gosford See, it goes like this, Peter FitzSimons. It's just possible that a career public servant like Vikki Campion ("Come back John Clark, we need you", February 18), recognised for her qualifications and experience, became aware of the job opening in Senator Canavan's office, and decided to make the move; as many public servants and private employees do every day. Of course, your misogynist streak and antipathy for Barnaby Joyce blinded you to that possibility and yes, you "were missing something". You don't have to be sleeping with Barnaby Joyce to get a job in Canberra. But Ms Campion is a woman, right? And mate, we know there's no other way she would have got the job. Julian Emilio Cabarrus North Parramatta Flagging an issue Lyall Rissler (Letters, February 18) asked any Canadian would they prefer to keep their distinctive national flag with its maple leaf or revert to the old one with the good old Union Jack in the corner. I wonder what the response would be? Has he ever heard of a republic called Switzerland, which affords its citizens the highest standard of living? But then again, he appears to be happy living in a colony run by a sycophantic government that puts any foreign interest above that of the colonists.The plans look like something from a fantasy holiday getaway brochure. Sleek architect-designed buildings housing state-of-the-art gyms and swimming pools. Multi-tiered recreation spaces that would sit nicely on a Balinese hillside. An orchestra pit and a chapel nested into bushland. A Scottish baronial library.

But these are no escapist fantasies. All these developments are coming soon to seven private schools in Sydney, which have a stunning $365 million worth of combined development applications in the pipeline.

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These infrastructure improvements will be dangled like bejewelled carrots in front of eager parents wanting the very best facilities for their cherished offspring. But, there's a catch.

The rapid expansion plans among private schools revealed by Pallavi Singhal today have been labelled as an "arms race for students" and like most arms races, there will be a heavy price to pay.The ACT has joined forces with the Northern Territory to prioritise the removal of the Andrew's Bill that prevents the two territories from considering voluntary euthanasia reforms.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner signed a memorandum of understanding, the ACT-NT Strategic Collaboration Agreement, earlier this week to "draw upon shared attributes and combined strengths" to "promote mutual interests by maintaining a forward and progressive outlook".

The chief ministers of Australia's two territories, ACT's Andrew Barr and the NT's Hon Michael Gunner, have signed a memorandum of understanding on a number of joint policy priorities including the removal of the Andrew's Bill that prevents the NT and the ACT from considering voluntary euthanasia.

Mr Barr said the agreement would prioritise the territories' decision-making power on euthanasia.

"With the Victorian government now moving to implement voluntary euthanasia laws, the situation where the Australian territories aren't able to even consider our own reforms is absurd," Mr Barr said.The newest American navy vessel will have a touch of Australia on board, if only in name.

During a joint press conference in Washington DC with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, US President Donald Trump announced the US Navy's new warship will be named the USS Canberra.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and United States of America President Donald Trump shake hands as they address the media during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House during the Prime Minister's official visit to Washington DC. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The USS Canberra will be an Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship, and will replace its former namesake, which was decommissioned in the 1970s.

It is only the US navy vessel to be named for a city outside of the US.Dozens of Defence officials had previously been using phones made by the Chinese telecom giants and issued to them by the department. But Defence has now told Fairfax Media that it no longer has any Huawei phones in service and the ageing ZTE phones in service will be replaced by other brands when the existing handsets fail.

The Defence department is phasing out its use of Chinese-made Huawei and ZTE phones at the same time as United States spy chiefs issued blunt security warnings about the companies products.

A department spokeswoman said both brands had been used for unclassified voice and text only and that a risk assessment had found these phones do not pose a security risk for Defence when used for within these specific parameters.

Defence has conducted a risk assessment on the use of Huawei and ZTE mobile phones for unclassified voice and text purposes only, and deemed that these mobile phones do not pose a security risk for Defence, she said.

Top American intelligence and law enforcement chiefs issued stark warnings about the companies to a congressional hearing last week.

Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, which gathers intelligence on electronic communications, said when asked whether politicians and officials should look warily on the companies products: I would say you need to look long and hard at companies like this.

FBI director Christopher Wray told the hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee: Were deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks that provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information and it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage ... Those are the kinds of things that worry us.A national redress scheme for clergy abuse victims is imminent.

Premier Daniel Andrews has given the strongest signal yet that Victoria is on the brink of signing up to a national compensation scheme for child sex abuse survivors.

Speaking during a whirlwind trip to the US, Mr Andrews also confirmed his government was preparing new laws that could invalidate a controversial legal tactic preventing survivors of clergy abuse from suing the Catholic Church.

As revealed by The Age on Saturday, the passing of such laws in Victoria could expose billions of dollars in assets of the Catholic Church and other religious bodies to potential legal action for the first time in more than a decade.

"We'll very soon introduce into the Parliament a bill to deal with that. What's more, we are very hopeful of being able to sign on to a true national redress scheme as well, Mr Andrews told Sky News in Washington.Paris: French customs officers making a random check on a bus at a motorway layby found a painting by Edgar Degas, the 19th-century impressionist master, that was stolen just over eight years ago from a museum in Marseille.

Les Choristes (1877) was found in a suitcase in the vehicle's luggage compartment during a stopover in Marne-la-Vallee to the east of Paris. Its value is estimated at 800,000 ($1.25 million).

But when the officers asked passengers who the case belonged to, they were met with a stony silence, the culture ministry said in a statement.

"Its disappearance represented a heavy loss to the French impressionist heritage," said Francoise Nyssen, the culture minister who issued a statement saying she was delighted at "the happy rediscovery of a precious work".New York: The United Nations Security Council has unanimously called for a 30-day cease-fire in Syria, with Russia agreeing to the temporary hiatus only after forcing two days of delays that critics said allowed ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to pursue a renewed bombing campaign blamed for hundreds of recent deaths in a rebel-controlled area.

The nationwide truce would begin "without delay," a victory for the United States and other nations that resisted Russian efforts to push back the start or soften the terms.

It came after intense negotiations to persuade Russia not to use its veto power in the Security Council. Moscow had blocked 11 previous Syria resolutions. The United States and others accused Moscow of protecting the Assad government and its bombing campaign in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta while allowing a horrific humanitarian disaster to continue.New York: The fallout over last week's shooting rampage at a Florida high school started to take its toll on the National Rifle Association's roster of corporate partners on Friday as a half dozen companies severed marketing ties with the gun advocacy organzation.

The exodus of corporate names, ranging from a major insurer to car rental brands and a household moving company, occurred after the NRA launched a counter-offensive against a student-led campaign for tighter US gun ownership laws.

At the same time, gun control activists are stepping up pressure on Amazon.com Inc and other online streaming platforms to drop the online video channel NRATV, featuring gun-friendly programming produced by the NRA.Absconding diamond merchant Mehul Choksi voiced his defence for the first time since his named surfaced in the Rs 11,400-crore PNB fraud. The owner of Gitanjali group, in an office memo to company's staff members, pointed an accusing finger at investigating agencies probing the scam for painting him in a bad picture. He also said that he will not be able to clear the dues or pay future salaries of his employees.

Choksi said that a 'situation of fear and injustice' has been created against him and the organisation. "...with the recent 'false allegations' levelled against me of defrauding the PNB and media frenzy, the situation has gone grave which is turning graver by the day," he wrote in the letter to his employees.

At this moment, the investigating agencies seem to be interested not in a fair investigation but in creating a fear psychosis within my employees, Choksi said, adding that the present situation is making him highly insecure about his safety and that of his family members.

Using seizure of his bank accounts as a justification, Choksi said that he will not be able to reimburse the salaries of his employees. "It is very tough for me, as of now, to be clearing your dues or to pay the future salaries, in view of the seizing of the various bank accounts and other properties by the government agencies/ investigating agencies," Choksi said.

Blaming the investigating agencies of being 'hell bent upon stopping the operations' in India, Choksi said that it will take some time for him to prove his innocence, and the future seems uncertain presently. He asked the employees of Gitanjali group to find new jobs as he does not want people to suffer due to their connection/association with him.

The HR of Gitanjali group has been instructed to issue reliving letters and experience certificates. Choksi promised that the he will clear their dues 'once things return to normalcy'.

"Even the operations in India have come to a standstill and restarting the same may take time. In such a situation, it shall be wrong on my part to force you all to sit idle waiting for the work to restart, when the future for all you is bright," Choksi said.

Choksi is one of the prime accused in the PNB fraud case along with his nephew Nirav Modi that was brought to public domain by Punjab National Bank (PNB) the last week in a regulatory filing. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been investigating the case but the Modi, Choksi and their accomplices have fled the country before any action could be taken against them. Investigating agencies have been raiding and seizing properties of Nirav Modi brand and jewellery businesses of Choksi under the Gitanjali group to recover the defrauded amount.

Properties of Nirav Modi attached

Meanwhile, Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached 21 properties belonging to Nirav Modi, including a penthouse, a farmhouse, and a solar plant, and his group worth over Rs. 523 crore.

"21 immovable properties of Nirav Modi and companies controlled by him, with a market value of Rs. 523.72 crore, have been provisionally attached. These include 6 residential properties, ten office premises, 2 flats in Pune, a solar power plant, a farmhouse in Alibaug and 135 acres of land in Karjat in Ahmednagar district," the agency said.

With the latest action, the total assets seized by the ED in this case are now over Rs. 6,393 crore, officials claimed. They added that this value has been quoted from independent sources.The Reserve Bank has set an April 30 deadline for all banks to link the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) with their core banking solution (CBS), the apex body of bankers has said.

Indian Banks Association (IBA) chairperson Usha Ananthasubramanian said there is an urgency to fast-track SWIFT-CBS linkage.

This came after the country's second largest state-run lender Punjab National Bank detected a Rs 11,400-crore fraudulent transactions at one of its branches in Mumbai.

The firms of diamond jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoU) from PNB's Brady House branch in South Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

The LoUs were not recorded in the PSU lender's books and therefore were undetected for a long time.

Asked about the April 30 deadline, Ananthasubramanian said, "Correct. That could be a deadline, but it is an outer limit. Today, the urgency is such that everyone wants this (linkage of SWIFT to CBS) project to be on fast-track". CBS is a software used to support most common transactions of a bank.

In a release issued earlier this week, the RBI said it had alerted banks three times since August 2016 for a possible misuse of the SWIFT infrastructure.

"The risks arising from the potential malicious use of the SWIFT infrastructure, created by banks for their genuine business needs, has always been a component of their operational risk profile.

"The RBI had, therefore, confidentially cautioned and alerted banks of such possible misuse, at least on three occasions since August 2016, advising them to implement the safeguards detailed in the RBI's communications, for pre- empting such occurrences," the release said.

Ananthasubramanian, who is currently managing director and CEO of Allahabad Bank, said at her bank SWIFT and CBS is not linked. The bank has sent all its branches memos to take precautionary measures.

She said there is an urgent need for all banks to revisit their risk management system to plug any loophole.

"Banks are reviewing and revisiting the systems to ensure drawbacks/loopholes, if any, are addressed so that the system becomes robust. SWIFT linkage to CBS is being fast- tracked by banks".

Asked about Allahabad Bank's loan exposure to Nirav Modi's firms, she refused to divulge any information.

Last week, in a regulatory filing, Allahabad Bank had said it has an exposure of nearly USD 366.87 million in the form LoUs issued by PNB.

"The bank, through its overseas branch at Hong Kong, has been taking exposure with PNB as a country party under various LoUs issued through authenticated SWIFT message," Allahabad Bank had said in a filing.Industry body COAI today returned fire in the ongoing stand off with Reliance Jio, saying its "differences" are with regulator TRAI's orders, not with a specific operator, and it is duty-bound as an association to raise concerns on growth of the sector.

The rebuttal comes after Reliance Jio termed as "defamatory" and "malicious" recent allegations by the Cellular Operators Association of India's (COAI) that indicated that orders by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) are favouring the newcomer.

"Our differences are with the orders of the regulator and not with any specific operator. Our intention is not to aggrieve any particular operator. Individual operators are free to pursue the interests of their own company vigorously under the framework of the laws of the land," COAI Director General, Rajan S Mathews said in a statement.

Incidentally, Jio has demanded that both COAI and Mathews tender public apology within 48 hours over the industry body's allegations dated February 20.

COAI statement today further said, "However, the regulator's role is to ensure the competing claims of companies are appropriately handled in the interest of the entire industry. This is the mandate of the TRAI Act, which specifically tasks it with ensuring the orderly growth of the industry."

COAI emphasised that as an industry body it raises concerns over various issues. " ...we raise our concerns, as any relevant Industry association should, for the growth and development of the sector and in the interest of the nation," COAI said.

The association argued that all its "other" member operators are unanimous in their support of COAI's position "with absolutely no exceptions".

Jio - which is also a member of COAI - had yesterday claimed it was kept in the dark about the release issued by the trade body.

Yesterday, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio had also launched a scathing attack on COAI, saying the body has become a mouthpiece of incumbents like Airtel and is issuing "defamatory" and "malicious" statements on Trai favouring it.

COAI issued a "motivated" press statement earlier this week alleging that the regulator Trai was favouring the new operator, Jio had accused, adding that such remarks were meant to "devalue the esteem, regard and confidence enjoyed by Jio" and cause injury to its reputation.

Jio had warned that it "reserves its rights to initiate criminal and civil defamation proceedings, including damages, against both COAI and incumbent dominant operators (IDOs)".

The full-blown war of words has erupted in the sector after COAI alleged that Trai's regulations, including its rules and definition of predatory pricing, had distorted the market.

COAI had also alleged that the orders appeared "to be strengthening the ambitions of one particular operator with deep pockets and monopolistic designs at the expense of other operators" although it did not name Reliance Jio which has hit the incumbent operators hard by its aggressive pricing of mobile and data services.India's online smartphone sales grew by 23 per cent in calendar year 2017, faster than the global average with Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi dominating online sales with a 44 per cent share followed by Lenovo and Samsung at 18 and 15 per cent respectively. Among online shopping portals, Flipkart was the most favored platform for smartphones accounting for 51 per cent of the sales followed by Amazon at 33 per cent, according to research firm Counterpoint Research.

Online smartphone sales accounted for nearly a third of overall smartphone sales in the country, which is among the highest in the world. Nearly 100 smartphone brands were launched exclusively through online platforms during the year.

Counterpoint however, believes growth in online sales will be flat this year as manufacturers including Xiaomi reduce their dependence on online flash sales and adopt a more hybrid model--a mix of online and offline sales.

"The high-spec but low-cost, value for money smartphone models exclusively available only on online platforms were instrumental in successfully creating unprecedented demand throughout the year. The demand for such models was felt not only in online but offline channels as well due to walk-in customers asking for attractive models such as the Redmi Note 4," said Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research. "This has sparked an obvious channel extension strategy move to expand offline and capture the pent-up demand which is helping vendors such as Xiaomi which are able to offer such attractive models. In 2018, many brands will learn from Xiaomi's growth from online to offline and will try to replicate a similar strategy."

Hitherto a non entity till a couple of years back, Xiaomi has posted strong growth over the last six quarters in India exploiting stagnant sales of long time market leader Samsung. In the last quarter of 2017, it overtook Samsung to become the largest selling smartphone brand in the country. Overall for 2017, it still trails Samsung's 24 per cent share to 19 per cent of its own. Its growth can be understood by its market share which has climbed from just 6 per cent in 2016. In contrast, Samsung has lost 1 percentage point during the year.

"The competitive landscape has changed significantly in the last year, with the rise of brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, VIVO in the smartphone segment." said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research. "During the second half, players such as Xiaomi was particularly disruptive with an aggressively-priced, broad portfolio taken to market with an effective channel expansion strategy. This helped Xiaomi to surpass the long-time market leader, Samsung, for the first time ever. This performance ended Samsung's six year market dominance."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.Characters In The Real World

Four years ago, Riahi did a concept art test for The Breadwinner, in the midst of his graduation year at La Poudriere in France, and was chosen to be one of the films two art directors. He ended up spending three years in Ireland, designing the storyworld sequences as well as designing characters, and even correcting details on characters key poses during the animation phase.

When it comes to the character designs, main character Parvana was designed with the strong straight lines that were used to design the rest of the cast. Her design was made to look appealing and idealized. Parvana should be beautiful because shes the hero, Riahi explained. Thats the animation industryThe thing with main characters is that you have to make everyone happy with [its design]. Everyone  producers, director, the audience, whoever. If theyre not happy with it, theyre not going to watch the film.

More freedom was to be found in designing the secondary characters. You can do everything you want with them, said Riahi. Parvanas little brother became the most cartoony character, within the real world that is, fitting with his function of cute comic relief and uplifting sad moments in the film. Designing the little boy was hard for a long time, Riahi recalled, until one day when Riahis mom scanned childhood photos of him. There was the solution  he modeled the boy after his young self.

The character poses above were given to animators as reference, but the final animation design ended up having very clean lines. I really wanted the sketchy thing, Riahi recalled. I didnt want something perfect. But it wasnt possible to translate the charmingly sketchy lines directly to animation; it would be impossible to maintain consistency in a feature film, the art director explained, because so many different animators have to draw in the same style. The animators ended up working with extremely clean lines. Later, some imperfect-making effects were added in the compositing phase.

Characters in the Storyworld

Completely opposite to the real world sequences, the storyworld allowed for rich lines and textures, and unrealistic design. Even though the character rigs in the storyworld couldve easily been rigged to include more angles than just front-view and profile, Riahi chose to embrace the limitations, which resulted in truly charming and funny animation. Front views are just really expressive, Riahi said. If you dont need [something], you shouldnt use it.

Color and lighting

The color sketches below are just a few out of many that Riahi made during his three years on the film. In meetings, my drawings were my language, the artist explained. When I wanted to talk about something, Id just draw it. Hed make five-minute color sketches like these all the time, just presenting different suggestions for others in the team to choose from.

The color red connects different scenes in the film; everything that concerns Suleyman, the main characters late older brother, is red. Many storyworld sequences are dominated by red, and it appears in the real world as well sometimes, like when Parvana sells her sparkly red dress on the market with a heavy heart.

The film is all about contrast, Riahi stated. And so, whereas the colors of the real world are muted, those of the storyworld pop off the screen.

Aside from color boards, the art director also drew light boards, which are sometimes referred to as value studies. Regarding the artwork below, Riahi explained he was simply looking for ideas on how to use light and shadows. Without colors and with almost no outlines, he forced himself to really find out how to communicate the right atmosphere with light . A particular challenge in the film was figuring out how to handle the bright sunlight of Afghanistan.

Backgrounds and composition

After testing a watercolor style, one similar to Cartoon Saloons earlier film, Song of the Sea, Riahi and fellow art director Ciaran Duffy went looking for something harsh and realistic, instead of dreamy and soft.

Since the crew couldnt visit Afghanistan itself, they used as many photo references as possible for background research. Riahi recalls being surprised at the little amount of color that was present in the area, unlike what he had imagined.

For the real world, they ended up with a muted color palette that put the focus on the characters.

The inside of the familys home was also a challenge, Riahi recalled. The location had to be minimalistically designed because the family in the story is poor. At the same time, the walls had to be interesting enough to look at during the many conversations held in the home. Riahi and Duffy eventually found the right balance by combining rich textures and subtle colors.

Whereas the real world backgrounds of the film are naturalistic, the storyworld sequences are flatter and quirkier. In the storyworld sequences, the composition and lighting become quite theatrical. These sequences give the audience some light  some fun  in a harsh film, Riahi explained. Its design makes the films story more bearable.

Cartoon Saloon is currently working on an art of book about The Breadwinner. Its release will be announced at a later date.At a time when most major German premium car manufacturers are facing flak over diesel emissions scandals, BMW has voluntarily recalled 11,700 units for a software update. The company has recalled the luxury 5 and 7 Series models which have been manufactured between 2012 and 2017, and feature high-performance diesel engines and three turbo chargers. Clarifying on the issue, BMW has issued a statement saying, In the course of internal tests, the BMW Group has discovered that a correctly developed software update was mistakenly assigned to certain unsuitable model-versions. The BMW Group informed the relevant authorities immediately.

The fresh recall announcement comes at a time when its competitor Volkswagen has been reeling under the 2015 dieselgate scam. Earlier this week, Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler was accused of cheating emissions test, which the company has firmly denied. BMW has indeed been quick to issue a statement when one of the media agency claimed that the software manipulated emission of harmful gases such as nitrogen oxide.

Owners of the affected vehicles will receive an intimation from the company dealers and will be rectified at no additional cost. More details on the affected range will be known in the days to come.

BMWNo matter how things shake out with Robert Mueller and the FBIs investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian collusion, there has to be a movie about all of this someday. If not a movie, maybe a TV series. But seriously, somebody call Martin Scorsese or Oliver Stone.

With the knowledge that such a film is almost inevitable, we turn the attention toward casting one of the most intriguing true stories of all time. Who would play Donald Trump? What about Sean Spicer, Melania Trump, and Kellyanne Conway? Lets take a look at who could be vying for those starring roles, with the only caveat being that we dont include actors that have previously parodied the character.

1. Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump is President Trumps daughter and one of his key advisers. In addition to selling clothes around the world, Ivanka has also tried her hand at foreign relations since her father took office.

Amanda Seyfried has the look to play Ivanka, and her well-remembered role in Mean Girls is a notch in her favor as well. More recently, Seyfried is known for Les Miserables and a recurring role on Twin Peaks.

Next: Who would play Jared Kushner?

2. Jared Kushner

Pairing up with Seyfried to play Ivankas husband, Jared Kushner, should be Michael Cassidy. Hes not a household name as of yet, although fans of TBS comedy People of Earth will know him as Jonathan Walsh.

However, Cassidys most prominent role has to be as Dylan West in the 2006 Tim Allen hero-comedy, Zoom. While Cassidy is a good actor, he fits right alongside Seyfried in the big-but-not-too-big category of movie stars. Not to mention, he kind of looks like Kushner.

Next: Our choice for Sarah Huckabee Sanders

3. Sarah Huckabee Sanders

If anything, this would be fun just because it would really stick in Trumps craw. Casting long-time Trump foe, Rosie ODonnell, as White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders just seems too perfect.

The only issue here is the age difference, with ODonnell coming in at over 20 years older than Sanders. We can suspend a little disbelief, right? If ODonnell truly isnt a fit, however, maybe Amy Schumer with some freshly dyed hair.

Next: Heres a good option to play Paul Manafort.

4. Paul Manafort

Known for his raspy voice and roles in 90s hits, such as The Usual Suspects and A Bronx Tale, Chazz Palminteri is the perfect pick to play former lobbyist and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. The two are around the same age and have both have a tan complexion with black hair, so Palminteri knocks the Manafort look out of the park.

Hes also an accomplished actor, of course, so theres that. Manafort would be a smaller part in the movie, and Palminteri wouldnt overshadow any of the bigger roles.

Next: This star may be the perfect choice to portray Michael Flynn.

5. Michael Flynn

Casting Anthony Michael Hall as General Michael Flynn is easy because the former Sixteen Candles star has essentially already played him. Halls role as Greg Pulver in 2017s War Machine was based on Flynn and required the actor to pack on 20 pounds and really dive into the psyche.

Robert Muellers key witness would play a semi-regular part in the movie, at least in the beginning. Hall would likely need to be aged slightly, and he doesnt truly look like Flynn at all. But if youve seen War Machine, you know he can pull it off.

Next: The actor who could pull off Anthony Scaramuuci

6. Anthony Scaramucci

In the big, Trump-Russia movie, Anthony Scaramucci would be nothing more than a cameo role. The former White House Communications Director held his role in the Trump administration for just a few weeks, and then he essentially rode off into the sunset.

So why not bring in Mad Men star Jon Hamm to take on the cameo? Sure, Hamm could be a little distracting from the main plot, but theres probably not another actor in Hollywood thats more suited for the job. Unless were counting the 80s guy from Futurama, and were not because hes just a cartoon.

Next: Will this actor finally get his wish to play Stephen Miller?

7. Stephen Miller

White House aide Stephen Miller and fan-favorite of KKK leader, David Duke, once argued that the poem about huddled masses yearning to breathe free on the Statue of Liberty isnt actually a part of the statue. This, from a third generation Jewish-American.

At any rate, actor Zack Braff of Scrubs fame has lobbied unsuccessfully to play Miller on Saturday Night Live, and the fit is solid. Since Braff hasnt technically played Miller in a parody as of yet, thats who were going with.

Next: This guy could play Steve Bannon.

8. Steve Bannon

Its not hard to find someone to play former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Not only did Trump fire Bannon, but he also claimed that the alt-right nationalist had lost his mind.

Actor Michael Harney seems like hes probably a great guy, but he certainly pulls off the gray haired, disheveled, alcoholic with a few loose screws very well. For evidence, look no further than his roles in Jenji Kohans series Weeds and Orange in the New Black. If Harney downed a 24-pack of beer and stayed up for 48 straight hours, hed be a dead-ringer for Bannon.

Next: A dead ringer for Bernie Sanders

9. Bernie Sanders

This Trump-Russia drama would need more than just the Jon Hamm cameo, and in fact could use a little comedy infused into it. Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, would certainly have to make a quick cameo, and theres universal agreement that the only actor suited to play the cranky octogenarian is Curb Your Enthusiasms Larry David.

Our rules specifically state no parody actors, but were willing to let it slide here. The two even recently found out theyre distant relatives!

Next: Who would play the crucial role of Melania Trump?

10. Melania Trump

Melania is an important person to cast in the Trump-Russia movie. The actress has to have the look and the acting chops to pull it off, but also not overshadow the biggest stars of the movie.

For that reason, were going with NCIS: Los Angeles Claire Forlani. Shes also known from her role opposite Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black and the Kevin Smith cult-classic Mallrats. Forlani is just about a year older than Melania and certainly looks enough like her to make it work.

Next: Who could be a good match for the role of Sean Spicer?

11. Sean Spicer

Another Scrubs alum to make the list is John C. McGinley, playing the role of Sarah Huckabee Sanders Press Secretary predecessor Sean Spicer. Known for his brief stay in the role and the time he hid behind a shrub to keep the press from noticing him, Spicer is another small role fit for a quality character-actor like McGinley.

If youre unfamiliar with his role of Dr. Cox on Scrubs, you may remember McGinley as one of the Bobs in Office Space.

Next: Our choice for Jeff Sessions

12. Jeff Sessions

Can we cast the Keebler Elf in a movie? Its unfortunate that actor Henry Gibson passed away in 2009, because he was both accomplished enough and looked enough like Jeff Sessions to do the job. Comedian and actor Dana Carvey doesnt look much like Sessions on his own, but check back on his early-90s impressions of Ross Perot on SNL. Were thinking Carvey could nail it in the role of Trumps Attorney General and Americas most prominent Confederate sympathizer.

Next: Heres who could play Paul Ryan.

13. Paul Ryan

It would be hard to do a movie about Donald Trump without at least an appearance by Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. That goes double for if the Russia investigation eventually takes us down the path of an impeachment vote.

Ryan has, at times, been both Trumps biggest cheerleader and most ardent adversary, depending on which favors his political agenda the most on a given day. As for this role, One Tree Hills Jason Lafferty fits nicely.

Next: Who will portray Mike Pence?

14. Mike Pence

Vice President Mike Pence would have to be one of the larger roles in the film, which is why an accomplished character-actor would need to be cast. Its unfortunate that Hank Hills father, Cotton Hill, from King of the Hill, is just a cartoon, because he and Pence are otherwise separated at birth.

Leslie Jordan may not be a household name, but he can pull off the look of Pence while his diminutive height would give the proper allusion against a taller Trump actor. Add in the fact that Jordan is openly gay, while Pence is often criticized for his anti-gay stances, and its hard to find a better pick for the vice president.

Next: Eric Trump.

15. Eric Trump

President Trumps middle son, Eric, would probably be frequently seen but not often heard throughout the movie, so for this role we need an actor that pulls off the visage in a really big way. Look no further than Napolean Dynamite lead actor Jon Heder.

When you see Heder here without the orange, curly afro, and his thick glasses, and you can understand why he is such an excellent pick for Eric Trump. Heder is actually around eight years older, but his youthful looks cover it up easily.

Next: This actor would make a great Donald Trump Jr.

16. Donald Trump Jr.

The oldest Trump son, Donald Trump Jr., has to be played by none other than Will Arnett. This casting would be an excellent inside joke for fans of Arrested Development, the Fox/Netflix series about a real estate moguls and his family who are actually loosely based on the Trumps.

Arnett appears in the series as the oldest son, Gob Bluth, and carrying that over into a movie about the Trump-Russia investigation would be a no-brainer.

Next: This actress would be a great pick to play Kellyanne Conway.

17. Kellyanne Conway

Kellyane Conway would easily be one of the most unlikable characters in the movie, and Breaking Bads Anna Gunn has a ton of experience playing a character that the audience found easy to hate. Gunns Skyler White was along for the ride with her husband Walter, eventually becoming involved in his criminal schemes.

Gunn isnt exactly Conways doppelganger, but she is an excellent actress and would could easily pull off the role as one of Trumps key counselors.

Next: The actress who would make the ideal Hillary Clinton

18. Hillary Clinton

How could there be a Trump movie without an appearance or two by Hillary Clinton? For better or worse, these two American politicians are forever connected at the hip in the annuls of history.

The first major party female presidential candidate could be played by Glenn Close, a criminally underrated actress with a whole lot of movie credits to her name, who spoofed Clinton at the 2016 Tony Awards That includes Fatal Attraction, The Natural, and Sarah, Plain and Tall. She even has experience playing the first lady of the United States, in Mars Attacks!

Next: An option for Robert Mueller

19. Robert Mueller

For the FBI lead investigator, Michael Douglas fits like a glove. There are probably actors that look more like Mueller who could be cast, but outside of the president this would be the biggest and most important role in the movie.

With Mueller you have to think big, and Douglas certainly fits the bill. His credits include Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, and Basic Instinct. Another Hollywood legend that could possibly take on this role would be Robert Redford.

Next: This actor would nail a portrayal of Donald Trump.

20. Donald Trump

For Donald Trump, there would likely a massive list of actors vying for the role. It would be the whos who of Hollywood. It might even include President Trump, himself, because who is better to play the role of Donald Trump than Donald Trump? Its impossible to narrow this down to just one, although Alec Baldwin is immediately cut due to our parody rule.

Blue Collar Comedy Tour comedian Ron White has the right look to play Trump, while Back to the Futures Tom Wilson (Biff Tannen) has the experience playing a character based on Trump. Jon Voight, Robert DeNiro, and Bryan Cranston are all a fit here, too.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!City council candidates debate economic growth strategy, budget issues

Four candidates for two at-large seats and three candidates for the District 1 seat debated public safety, economic development and road repair issues.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

One of the more sour fruits of the Trump presidency (although it is not entirely new) is the fad of some folks asking the question: Am I still an evangelical? The idea behind asking is that evangelicalism has somehow made itself so obnoxious and obviously benighted that a right-thinking person cannot associate themselves with it. If we ask why, then we are likely to get an answer associated with politics.

More recently, the inquirer tends to feel that evangelicals (either by virtue of something a famous evangelical said extolling Trump's Christian virtue or the fact that the group voted lopsidedly for Donald Trump) have brought dishonor upon themselves and those who would call themselves by the name.

Before I go further, let me say very quickly that there is reason to be sympathetic to the impulse some have in asking the question. Evangelicalism is associated with a form of Christianity that puts a premium upon fealty to scripture and biblically-informed living. Donald Trump, the hard-living, sharp-elbowed, thrice-married, wall-building, wild-tweeting businessman without much background in the faith, doesn't seem to fit the bill. I grant that there is reason for concern, at least, that evangelicals find themselves tied to the president at the hip in the public mind.

The perception isn't exactly fair, I should add, though, as those who wish to study the matter would find that church-going evangelicals were not strong supporters of Donald Trump in the GOP primaries. And while they did largely back him in the general election, it was in the face of a binary choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton as the face of a Democratic party that is increasingly secular, pro-choice on abortion, and belligerent toward conservative Christians, their institutions, and religious liberty. Voting against Hillary can't fairly be taken to mean that evangelicals necessarily embrace the president in a holistic way. The better sense would be that they appreciate a lot of what his election seems to have spared them.

But why do I call the "Am I still an evangelical?" question wrong-headed? The answer is that evangelicalism is not something determined by politics. I would offer a definition for evangelicals that goes something like the following: An evangelical Christian believes . . .

1. Jesus Christ is the son of God.

2. He was born of a virgin.

3. He lived a sinless life.

4. Jesus was executed by the Roman empire and died for our sins.

5. He was physically resurrected and was seen by witnesses.

6. His resurrection confirmed his identity.

7. The Bible is trustworthy.

8. The Reformation critique of Rome offered an important corrective to a variety of theological and institutional missteps.

If you believe these things, then I would say it is very likely that you are either an evangelical or something very close to it. In American society, we contrast evangelicals to fundamentalists largely by winsomeness of attitude and a sense of engagement rather than withdrawal (though that distinction is probably becoming dated). We distinguish evangelicals from mainline Christians (think the Episcopal Church, for example) by looking to the much greater emphasis evangelicals place upon the authority of scripture and the reality of Biblical supernaturalism. We separate evangelicals from Catholics largely on the basis of their views of hierarchy, the place of tradition in relation to scripture as a source of authority, and the way we look at Mary.

Notable in the previous paragraph are the things that are missing. An evangelical is not a person who votes for a particular political party, who interprets social justice in a specific way, who breaks down a police shooting along certain lines, who is more open or closed on immigration, and/or who has a higher or lower desire for environmental regulation. Those are all things that evangelicals can argue about. We are seeking to be faithful to scripture, to listen to the Holy Spirit, and to see the lordship of Christ fully vindicated in our lives. Nevertheless, there is quite a bit of room to draw various conclusions about politics and current events.

For these reasons, it is inappropriate and wrong-headed to treat one's evangelicalism as some kind of personal referendum on the quality of the company one is keeping by being a member of this rather large group. If you think the Bible is only another book, then you're out. If you think Jesus was just a nice guy, you're out. But we don't choose this label (evangelical) on the basis of your position on the Paris Climate Agreement or who you thought was at fault in Ferguson.

Hunter Baker, J.D., Ph.D. is an associate professor of political science at Union University, a scholar affiliated with the Acton Institute and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the author of three books on politics and religion.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

How should Christians think about the size and scope of government? Over the past month, I've been writing about what the Bible has to say about government and discussed a number of key questions that Christians have in this area:

Is government inherently good or bad?

How does our sinful nature impact government?

Are there any explicit messages in the Bible about government?

What is the legitimate role of government?

While the Bible does not provide support for one form of government over another, a strong case can be made for a limited role of government. Regardless of where you come down on these issues, here are some key points to consider from scripture:

Government Is Established by God

God has clearly approved of government as an authority. Due to fallen human nature, God chooses to use government as a tool in order to uphold order, justice, and the rule of law. Thus, believers are to respect and pray for their leaders while submitting themselves to the authority provided by the government.

Limited Government Suits a Fallen People

Government itself is composed of fallen individuals and is far from perfect. As a result, scripture makes clear that God has also placed limits and expectations on the government. In the Old Testament, for instance, Israelite kings were expected to obey God's laws as written in the Pentateuch.

The Bible Warns About the Increasing Power of Government

Now that most governments are not theocratic but secular, Christians must concern themselves with where they can have influence to make sure that government does not grow beyond its bounds. The Bible provides many examples of government that grows to become oppressive, and Christians must be vigilant lest those in authority take, take, and take ever more. According to Romans 13:7, it is certainly right to pay taxes. Yet in the words of John Calvin, rulers "should remember that all they receive from people is public property, and not a means of satisfying private lust and luxury."

Government Is More Focused on Law and Order Than on Providing Services

So, what should the government ultimately be doing? New Testament passages imply that government's primary role is "negative" not "positive"focused more on punishing evil and praising good behavior and less on providing goods and services.

Perhaps the whole debate on limited government is between Romans 13 and Revelation 13. In Romans, we see the role of government to stop evil by upholding the rule of law. In Revelation, we see government taking over all, including worship.

The Bible repeatedly provides examples of governments that became corrupt and usurped freedom, property, and money. In addition, these and many governments today are highly bureaucratic, impersonal, inefficient, and often not grounded on biblical principles. The larger they become, the more resources they require from their citizens.

These considerations might lead many to question whether government should play a proactive role in providing goods and services. It might be helpful to first ask whether churches, nonprofits, private enterprise, and other non-government institutions could provide these goods and services more efficiently, economically, and wisely.

Let Scripture Be Your Guide, Even Though No Explicit Model Is Given

These arguments point to a need for limited government. But the question remains, how limited?

If Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-14 are to be our guidegovernment should be limited to law and order. It is important to remember that just because scripture does not command a government to play a certain role in providing a certain service, it does not forbid it either.

However, in light of the considerations discussed above, the burden of proof lies with those that advocate that government expand its power, since this involves relying so extensively upon the resources of others.

Ultimately, when coming to a conclusion about the size and scope of government, Christians must carefully assess the consequences of their choices, listening to biblical warnings, pondering the pervasiveness of the Fall, and learning from the lessons of history.

This article is copied with permission from the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (www.tifwe.org). The original article appeared here. IFWE is a Christian research organization committed to advancing biblical and economic principles that help individuals find fulfillment in their work and contribute to a free and flourishing society. Visit https://tifwe.org/subscribe to subscribe to the free IFWE Daily Blog.Archbishop of Canterbury says Church of England has 'dealt with' Meghan Markle's divorce

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has said that Meghan Markle's divorce is something the Church of England has 'dealt with' in the same way that it would with any other couple.

Speaking as he prepares to officiate at Meghan's wedding to Prince Harry in May, Archbishop Welby was asked whether her previous marriage was an issue.

'It's not a problem,' he said. 'The Church of England has clear rules with dealing with that and we've dealt with that.

'We went through that as anyone would who will officiate at a wedding where someone has been separated and a partner is still living.'

In 2002, the Church of England agreed that divorced people could remarry in church, with the discretion of the priest.

Markle married Trevor Engelson, an American film producer, in 2011. They filed for divorce in 2013, citing 'irreconcilable differences'.

It was announced earlier this month that the Archbishop, who has written a new book called Reimagining Britain  Foundations for Hope, would officiate as the couple take their marriage vows on May 19.

The service will begin at noon at St George's Chapel with the Dean of Windsor, The Rt Revd David Conner, conducting the service.

Prince Harry and Markle announced their engagement in November. The following day, Kensington Palace confirmed that Markle, who identifies as Protestant, would be baptised and confirmed ahead of her wedding day.

Asked what difference Markle, who is of mixed race, could make to the royal family, the Archbishop said: 'The wedding is going to be wonderful. I'm looking forward to it enormously.

'I think one of the places I started when I was writing [he book] was the excitement of living in a much more diverse country than the one I grew up in 45, 50 years ago, and what a gift that can be rather than a threat.'BEIJING - China's top leader has a message for his country's biggest dealmakers that could reverberate across the world: Get your debt under control - or else.

In a forceful statement about the country's changing priorities, the government on Friday seized control of Anbang Insurance Group, the heavily indebted Chinese company that spent billions buying businesses and properties around the globe like the storied Waldorf Astoria hotel.

For years, Beijing encouraged big Chinese companies to invest overseas, spreading the country's wealth and influence beyond its borders. The money transformed global markets and industries.

Now, the government wants to rein them in, worried that the debt-fueled spending spree could curtail the country's growth. A concern is that the companies' big borrowing binge could weigh on the country's financial system.

The action against Anbang shows China's companies, banks and other pillars of the country's economy that President Xi Jinping has embraced financial stability and is serious about curbing China's addiction to debt. As part of the move, the government also charged Wu Xiaohui, Anbang's politically connected former chairman, with engaging in fraudulent fundraising and taking company assets.

"All of the animals have now witnessed Wu's pyre," said Brock Silvers, the chief executive of Kaiyuan Capital, a Shanghai investment advisory firm, "and everyone in the zoo now understands the message."

By moving aggressively and publicly, China's government may give regulators in other countries new reasons to question the political connections and financial backing of Chinese companies hoping to make overseas deals, lest Beijing emerge as an unwelcome new landlord should times get tough. Authorities in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have already been ramping up their scrutiny of Chinese deals.

Any slackening in the pace of buying could cool deal-making and disappoint investors who have reaped windfalls thanks to profligate Chinese spenders.

In recent years, Chinese money has helped drive up the prices of real estate, oil fields, hotels and just about any other asset that big companies buy and sell. The purchases have included the strategic (global agribusinesses and energy companies) and the prosaic (movie theaters and video games).

The buying binge could not last. Many of China's deals in recent years depended on cheap money, and Chinese officials have become increasingly nervous about debt. China borrowed heavily to fuel a decade of growth, accumulating trillions of dollars of debt that put it on a level comparable to the United States, relative to overall size of the two countries' economies.

Chinese officials appeared reluctant to pare back at the risk of curbing growth and provoking unrest - until now at least. Since Xi consolidated his power at an important Communist Party meeting in October, Chinese officials have gotten more vocal about tackling the debt issue.

Anbang has personified a freewheeling type of Chinese dealmaker like Dalian Wanda Group, Fosun International and HNA Group. The push appeared to enjoy official approval initially. Xi stayed at the Waldorf Astoria during a stop in New York three years ago.

Despite the government pressure, Chinese deal-making is unlikely to completely end, given the country's vast sums of money and global ambitions. China has continued to support acquisitions in strategic areas like energy and technology. Fosun, widely considered a "gray rhino," said this week it had acquired a majority stake in Lanvin, the French fashion house.

"Anyone who knows anything about China knows the nature of the party and state and the opacity of company ownership," said Fraser Howie, a former banker and a co-writer of three books on the Chinese financial system. "There was never any excuse for not asking the difficult questions. A lot of foreign regulators just skipped over them and were far too relaxed in their approach."The flood of U.S. oil exports stepped up a gear after the first fully laden supertanker recently sailed from an American port, alleviating a bottleneck that has limited overseas shipments.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP, the only deep-water port in the U.S. able to handle the industry's biggest tankers, said it had successfully completed the first loading of a very large crude carrier. Shipping data compiled by Bloomberg show the tanker is the Saudi Arabian-owned Shaden, now heading to the Chinese port of Rizhao.(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett, the billionaire who helped assemble food-and-beverage giant Kraft Heinz Co., will retire from its board as he cuts down on travel commitments.

Buffett, 87, will step down at the end of his term, Kraft Heinz said Friday in a statement. The company will nominate Alexandre Van Damme to fill the vacancy. Buffetts firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is still represented on the board by Tracy Britt Cool and Greg Abel.

Buffett has been decreasing commitments to other company boards in recent years. He stepped down from the board of Washington Post Co. in 2011 and retired from Coca-Cola Co.s board in 2006. The investor was instrumental in the formation of Kraft Heinz, teaming up with Jorge Paulo Lemanns 3G Capital to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz in 2013 and merge it with Kraft Foods Group Inc. two years later.

Kraft Heinz shares dipped on the news in late trading Friday, falling as much as 1.5 percent to $67.98 before recovering. Buffetts financing is seen as pivotal to the companys acquisition ambitions, which are a key to growth for an outfit that has been cutting costs.

The shares have been hammered since the companys bid for Unilever collapsed a little over a year ago, falling nearly 30 percent and wiping out more than $33 billion in market value. That deal fell apart after resistance from Unilever Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman, and in part because of Buffetts well-known aversion to hostile takeovers.

Van Damme is a board member of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and Restaurant Brands International Inc., according to the Kraft Heinz statement.

Berkshire, where Buffett is chairman and CEO, is releasing its annual letter to shareholders Saturday. Bloombergs Top Live blog will cover Berkshires annual report and Buffetts letter to investors starting at 7:40 a.m. in New York.

--With assistance from Noah Buhayar

To contact the reporters on this story: Katherine Chiglinsky in New York at kchiglinsky@bloomberg.net, Craig Giammona in New York at cgiammona@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, David Scheer

2018 Bloomberg L.P.Police in Amarillo shot an innocent man who helped foil a possible church shooting.

The shooting happened shortly after 9 a.m. Feb. 14 at the Faith City Mission, a faith-based outreach organization. Police said Joshua Len Jones, 35, of Amarillo, barged into a church building at Faith City Mission, pulled out a gun and was holding about 100 congregants and church staff hostage.

In the time between when police were dispatched and when officers arrived, a handful of churchgoers wrestled Jones to the ground. One of the congregants was able to grab Jones' gun.

DEPUTY INJURED: Harris County sheriff's deputy hospitalized after crash

Officers entered the building and saw the churchgoer holding the gun and opened fire, according to the Amarillo Police Department. The churchgoer was hospitalized in stable condition.

The victim, who spoke to ABC 7 Amarillo, has since been released and told the station he would do it all over again despite being shot by police.

"There were other people there," Tony Garces said. "I just took the gun away from him. I got shot. I got the bad part. It's life."

Jones was booked into jail on six first-degree felony charges of aggravated kidnapping. He's being held on $1.2 million worth of bonds, according to jail records.

No one else, including Jones, was injured.

The Amarillo shooting happened on the same day 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on a Florida high school, killing 17 people.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.Three men were arrested Thursday afternoon in connection with threats to impose penitentiary rules on Brooklyn-based rapper 6ix9ine if he performed at an area nightclub.

San Antonio International Airport spokesman Rich Stinson confirmed that a group of men were taken into custody at about 4:30 p.m.

In total, three men had been arrested as of Thursday evening, Stinson said. One of the men is accused of making the threat, he said, while the others were arrested in connection with past traffic violations and warrants. They had not been publicly identified as of Thursday evening.

RELATED: SAPD releases name, photo of man arrested for allegedly threatening rapper 6ix9ine before S.A. concert

Both he and San Antonio Police Department spokesman officer Douglas Greene said law enforcement have been monitoring the situation since threats were first made last weekend through social media, including Facebook.

Authorities have been taking every necessary precaution that we can to make sure that everybody is safe, Greene said.

A video was released Saturday by self-purported members of Tango Orejon, a local prison gang, showing several men holding weapons and threatening the rapper because he had been convicted of a child sex crime.

You are not allowed in our city, a man in the video said. He was quickly followed by another saying, We dont (obscenity) with no (obscenity) child molesters in our city.

Stinson said an airport officer noticed a vehicle matching a description given to them by area law enforcement and was about to approach it when it drove away.

The same vehicle returned moments later, and a man entered the airport, Stinson said. Airport security then followed the man and arrested him moments later because he matched the description of someone they had been briefed on who was wanted on several warrants.

Airport police then went to the vehicle and found four other men inside, including the man who is accused of making the threat on Facebook, investigators said.

Airport police have turned the investigation over to the San Antonio Police Department.

As far as I know they did not have any weapons, but I do know they (police) were still searching the vehicle, Stinson said Thursday evening.

We are all very proud of our police department that we have at the airport and their awareness of whats going on, Stinson said.

Greene said San Antonio police were still talking to the individuals involved, and that there could be more arrests.On the cusp of March's mid-term primary elections, U.S. Rep Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, spoke at a town hall meeting in The Woodlands, discussing the new tax reform bill and touting the benefits the new tax structure will bring to businesses and families.

Officials with the Lone Star College System Small Business Development Center hosted the event, called a "Small Business Town Hall," on Thursday, Feb. 22, at the Lone Star Community Building in The Woodlands.

Brady represents Texas' 8th Congressional District, a position he has held since 1997. He is chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in the House of Representatives, the chief tax-writing committee at the federal level. When not in the nation's capital, Brady resides in The Woodlands with his wife.

The new tax bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump in December and took effect Jan. 1, 2018. At the town hall meeting, Brady, a key architect of the bill, outlined what the tax reform does and how it affects families as well as small businesses.

"My job as Ways and Means chairmanship was to create a new tax code, one that had two goals," he said. "It was literally designed to grow jobs and paychecks in the United States economy. The second goal was to leapfrog America from nearly dead last among our competitors: China, Asia, Europe, Mexico."

Brady said the reason Congress undertook tax reform was because the U.S. economy has been growing too slowly for too long.

Under the new tax structure, there is tax relief to come for small businesses, Brady said, with the goal in mind for small business owners to invest more in their businesses and workers. Families will be affected as well, he added.

"We really put a big emphasis on tax relief for middle class families," Brady said. "What we did was lower the tax rate at every income level."

With an emphasis on keeping charitable deductions, mortgage deductions, medical expenses, and the deduction from saving for college, the tax code has been simplified, Brady said.

"Under the new tax code, a family of four, parents and kids, won't pay taxes on the first $61,000 of their income. That's higher than the average household income in Texas."

In the district Brady serves, which includes Montgomery County, the former leader of the local chamber of commerce said the average family of four will save $2,630 each year.

"I know that doesn't change the world," he said. "But that's a lot of utility payments. That's helpful to truck payments. That helps you save for college for your children."

As a result of tax reform, Brady said that beginning this month, 90 percent of workers will see higher paychecks across America.

"You can both get immediate tax relief in your paycheck now and still keep the refund that you will have next year," he said. "So for middle class families this is really important."

Brady relayed a story about a recent trip he took to Home Depot on I-45 in The Woodlands. A Home Depot employee who used to work for Interfaith approached him, explaining how she owns a small business and works at the hardware store to make ends meet.

"She came up and said 'thank you-I can see $184 more every paycheck,'" he recalled for the crowd of several dozen.

Brady said that people in Washington might sneer at the level of tax relief, but said, "For families in Texas and in America, every dollar helps."

Brady spoke at length about small businesses, and he said he wanted to make sure they weren't "left behind."

"In addition to lowering the tax rate for small business, we created-for the first time-a small business deduction of 20 percent," he said. "All we wanted to do was send less money to Washington and keep more to invest in your business and your workers-more to invest in your success and survival."

Brady explained that businesses if all sizes will be able to immediately write off their investment in new plants, equipment and software.

"It saves small businesses an awful lot of cash flow, but more importantly, it allows our businesses to invest in the equipment to make that makes their work even more productive," he said. "That's really what drives economy and growth in America."

Brady also addressed the estate tax and the effect it has had on business, something he also discussed earlier Thursday during a private speech to community members and business leaders sponsored by the Howard Hughes Corp. and hosted at The Woodlands Resort.

"Too many businesses have been caught up in the death tax where you work your whole life and build up a nest egg and when you die Uncle Sam will swoop and take 50 percent off of everything you earn," he said, adding that his goal was to permanently repeal the estate tax.

That plan was not included the new tax reform, however, the exemption was doubled, he noted.

"That means more of our family owned businesses and farms don't have to worry about the death tax," he said.

As a result of the tax reform, Brady said optimism among business owners is at a 20-year high and local companies are better able to compete around the world.

Brady said half of America's manufacturers will expand and pay more for their workers because of the reform.

"We want to create a giant sucking sound for jobs to come back from overseas, back to the U.S.," he said.

Aside from the optimistic claims about the new tax code, Brady did say it is not perfect and has room for improvement, such as helping Americans save more early in life for health care, retirement and their children's education.

As for passing new tax code, Brady said it was important to find common ground amongst Republicans and Democrats.

"Not every idea makes it all the way through," he said. "We had several of them, and as we worked with others, there wasn't support for it. There are plenty of changes you and I or anyone might make, but the fundamentals are really good, and it's a good tax reform."Conflict between current and former elected officials in the city of Shenandoah is headed to the ballot box this spring.

Two of those involved in recent disagreements-current Mayor Ritch Wheeler and former three-term council member Gary Henson-will square off for mayor of the city of more than 3,000 residents on May 5 in the city's only contested race.

Henson, on the Shenandoah City Council from 2010 through 2016, said he hopes the 2018 election is less contentious than the 2016 and 2017 elections, when a wave of challengers unseated him and several other elected officials.

"Hopefully, a highlight of my campaign is to speak the truth," Henson said. "Some of the previous elections have gotten ugly, and I'd like to avoid that. Since there has been new council members, there has been a lot of turmoil and inability to communicate

Wheeler did acknowledge there has been controversy and quarrels amongst current and former elected officials, and he chose to respond to Henson's comments with a phrase from the Bible.

"A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people," Wheeler wrote in an email, citing the Bible's "2 Timothy 2:24."

Henson, a mortgage banker, said he is a 30-year resident of Shenandoah and his goal in seeking to become mayor is to give a voice to residents he claims are frustrated with current elected leaders.

"The only opportunity to have a voice was to win an office," Henson said.

Shenandoah has seen an almost complete make-over of the city council in the past two elections, with three new council members elected into office in May 2017 and a new mayor and new council member being elected into office in 2016. The lone holdover since 2016 is Position 5 Council Member Michael McLeod, who-like in 2016-is running unopposed. The Shenandoah council is comprised of five city council members and the mayor. All serve two-year terms.

Henson was defeated in his quest for a fourth term in the Position 1 seat on the council in 2016, losing to current incumbent Ron Raymaker by only eight votes. Wheeler, the current mayor, was first elected in 2016 and defeated then-incumbent Garry Watts by only 19 votes.

One reason he is running for mayor, Henson said, is he thinks he has a better shot at winning the mayor's seat versus a council seat.

"It may be an uphill climb, but the elections the last few cycles have been very close," he added.

Wheeler, who is in his first term as mayor of Shenandoah, said he is seeking re-election for several reasons.

"I have been very fortunate to be part of a great team that was able to effect change in some important issues for our city," Wheeler said in an email to The Villager. "After several trips to Austin we were able to help change the Cell Phone Node Bill, the Tree Bill, and get the city some special legislation approved. Back home, we were able to lower taxes, provide for free trash service, and enhance our image. We are protecting the city against very real mobility issues with solutions that in the end will be good for our region, alleviate traffic problems, but preserve the quality of life for Shenandoah and the community we live in."

Critics of the current City Council and mayor-including Henson-have been ramping up opposition to the council and its decisions, highlighted by a recent shouting match between former mayor Watts and current City Council member Ted Fletcher during a Dec. 5 town hall meeting to discuss fencing options at the city's Toddler Park.

Shenandoah has also received more than 250 public records requests since January of 2017, many of which officials say were filed by residents seeking information on why council has made certain decisions.

Henson said he personally made an estimated four to five public records requests to the city, seeking information in emails, text messages and other forms of communication he says would reveal the intention behind some city decisions.

"That's the only way you're going to get information to better understand what's going on," Henson said of his requests. "Public, or open records, are the only avenue a resident has (to get insight)."

As for his platform, Henson said he is still developing specific ideas or issues to focus on, but he added growth in the small town is a priority as well as simply being involved in making decisions.

On growth, Henson said: "I just really believe there are opportunities being missed. There are growth opportunities despite a lack of open land in the city."

Wheeler said he would like to continue working with developers like Metro Park, Centro, and Eastwood Village to ensure Shenandoah builds out responsibly with good partners.

"We have a few key pieces of land left in the city that will be sought after by developers as the region builds out," Wheeler explained. "Much like we have been able to do with Metro, Centro, and others, I want to draw from my business background to help ensure that these projects are developed the way the city wants and needs for them to be. I want to help make sure that the spaces we have left, add value to our community, whether they be commercial pieces of property, or city owned green spaces."

Wheeler also said her is concerned with the mobility issues for the entire south Montgomery County region, noting that he serves on many regional governmental entities such as the I-45 PEL, Houston-Galveston Area Council, the Economic Development Partnership and The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce. He also said he meets regularly with officials from The Woodlands Township, the Road Utility District 1 and Montgomery County Commissioners.

"I want to help decongest traffic in our area, and I want to do it without it being at the expense of Shenandoah," Wheeler said.

Wheeler said although he never served as an elected official while Henson was a council member, he respected Henson's service to the city during his three terms on the council.

"I never had the pleasure of serving with Mr. Henson, as he was defeated by Ron Raymaker during the same election that I first won the seat for mayor," Wheeler noted. "However, we are very appreciative of the time he gave when he was on council."

ELECTION DETAILS

The Shenandoah municipal election is scheduled for May 5. Early voting begins on April 23 and continues through May 1. The last day to register to vote in the city election is April 5 and the last day to register for a vote-by-mail ballot is April 24.

The mayoral race is the only contested seat in this year's election. Wheeler's name will appear as M. Ritchey Wheeler on ballots, city officials noted.

Two incumbent council members are seeking re-election-Raymaker and McLeod. Both are running unopposed.Texas teenager, Breana Rachelle Harmon, has pleaded guilty to the charges against her after lying to police about being abducted and raped.

According to a previous article by Chron.com, the 19-year-old from Pottsboro had cuts and scratches all over her body when she walked into a church on March 8, 2017, wearing a shirt, bra, and underwear and told parishioners that she'd been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by three black men.

The Denison Police Department began to poke holes in her story a few days after she was found saying that nearly every aspect of Harmon's story was made up.

MISSED THE STORY? Texas woman faces felony charges for allegedly lying about sexual assault

"Our team of detectives, led by John Watt, did an outstanding job in the case," Burch told Chron.com. "Almost from the beginning, we had doubts in Harmon's story as the puzzle pieces just weren't coming together. We were unable to corroborate any of Harmon's allegations that she had been abducted or sexually assaulted."

According to the Herald Democrat, Harmon pleaded guilty on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, to two counts of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and two counts of tampering with government records as part of plea deal.

"She's very remorseful for what she did and what she said," Harmon's attorney Bob Jarvis told the paper, "and that's why she decided to plead guilty."

Harmon will undergo sentencing on March 20. She faces either regular probation or deferred adjudication.

Take a look through the gallery above to see weird, unusual crimes that have happened in Texas.

Daniela Sternitzky-Di Napoli is a digital producer at Chron.com. You can read more of her stories here and follow her on twitter at @Dani_DiNapoli.Nick de la Torre/Staff

City of Houston employees' healthcare and Social Security data might have been compromised by a run-of-the-mill car burglary earlier this month, the city announced Friday.

A laptop computer was stolen from a human resource employee's personal vehicle on Feb. 2, the city said. The computer contained sensitive personal information for an unknown number of city employees, including names, addresses, birthdays, Social Security numbers and medical information otherwise protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.The Parent Teacher Association at a Texas elementary school painted encouraging, colorful messages in the 5th grade bathroom to remind kids they are not powerless, and it made a difference.

Mary Moore Elementary students were surprised returning to class on a Tuesday after PTA spent 37 hours of their weekend working on a project they hoped would help children feel valuable.

"Some of these kids aren't hearing how much they matter, or that they are going to be someone in this world," said PTA member Tammy Duhon.

Bathrooms are a place to collect yourself, take a deep breath, and say 'O.K. you can do this'. The messages are there to reinforce that.

"Bloom where you are planted" was perhaps the strongest of the quotes, Duhan said. She wants students to know that even if they lack support and resources, if they believe in themselves, they can do anything.

With the S.T.A.R. test and national tension in schools, Principal Tyson Jones said it is critical to stop and reflect, refocus on how to be happy, look for joy, and spread kindness in an environment that is supposed to be fun.

"You don't know what these kiddos are going through," Jones said.

He admits that a quote on a wall may not fix all of their problems, but he is happy if it gives his students a little bit of hope.

Kids have been bragging about the bathrooms, Jones said. They are determined to take care of the art work.

This year's theme was inspired by a book called The Happiness Advantage, which principal Jones had faculty read over the summer, said Assistant Principal Michael Zook. Teachers decorated the lounge with photos of things that bring them happiness, an exercise based on the reading concepts.

They have been taking what they learn and passing it on to the students and parents. In addition to the vibrant bathroom messages, the school had a week dedicated to encourage random acts of kindness.

The artwork was made with donations from Sherwin-Williams, Great Oak Dental, JC Nails, Home Depot, and cash contributions from parents who were not able help paint.

Up next is the sixth grade bathroom. Older kids are priority since they are at a vulnerable age when they begin to change and wonder who they are, said Duhan, who was actively seeking funding. The PTA will work to eventually cover all grades as well as hallways and the cafeteria.

Instilling respect and and kindness is just as important as teaching kids math, said 5th grade teacher Cindy Wayne, who has been at the school since they opened. She thinks the timing of the project was meant to be, since PTA began plans in January, and finished around the Florida shooting.

"The kids came that week and felt safe and felt loved," Wayne said. "It was the right time to let them know it was gonna be O.K."And while the public may be familiar with Buffett's prowess over the years, it's now backed by scientific analysis. Michael Toth, a data scientist at Orchard Platform and a former portfolio analyst at BlackRock, used statistical computing to quantify and prove the billionaire's penchant for positivity over the years. In March of 2017, Toth, 28, performed a sentiment analysis on Buffett's annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters from 1977 to 2016 and revealed several patterns. A sentiment analysis is a method of identifying and quantifying opinions of a particular set of text  in this case, the use is to determine the positive or negative vibes of Buffett's letters. Toth found that while the vast majority of shareholder letters spanning the past 40 years were positive, only five letters show a negative net sentiment score. But there's a catch.

Michael Toth "What surprised me was how well these negative letters lined up with negative recession events," Toth tells CNBC Make It. Those five events comprised of the market downturn in 1987 dubbed Black Monday, the recession of 1990, the September 11 attacks and collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2001 and 2002, as well as the Great Recession of 2008. Toth tells CNBC that the sentiment analysis demonstrated Buffett's ability to balance both optimism and realism.The president of a small college in Kentucky tried to prevent the endowment tax from hitting his school.

Berea College Source: Berea College

Last fall, the president of a small college in Kentucky realized his Christian school might be slapped with a hefty new tax. He was not happy. Lyle Roelofs reached out to Republican Rep. Andy Barr, whose district includes Berea College, to describe how the 1,600-student school would be affected by the proposed 1.4 percent excise tax on large college endowments. "We knew from the start this was a concern," Roelofs said. He estimated the lost revenue might force him to admit 30 fewer students a year. Berea College, founded in 1855, was the first interracial and coed college in the South. None of its students  most of whom come from low-income families and live in Appalachia  pay tuition. "Most of Berea students have this as their only option for coming to college," Roelofs said. Roelofs soon found a useful ally: the Senate majority leader from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell. "Sen. McConnell, right from the start, was interested in making sure this tax didn't disadvantage Berea," Roelofs said. "I don't think I even really needed to ask him about that. But of course, I did."

Lyle Roelofs, president of Berea College. Source: Berea College

McConnell offered a solution. The endowment tax proposal wouldn't apply to schools that educate fewer than 500 students. And so McConnell "inserted the phrase 'tuition paying' right in front of 'students'," Roelofs said. "Our number of tuition paying students is zero," he said. Not everyone would appreciate the move, which exempted only Berea. Indeed, the clause was dropped in December, when the Senate parliamentarian concluded it violated the so-called Byrd Rule, which bars matters that don't directly involve the budget from a piece of reconciliation legislation.

Sen. McConnell, right from the start, was interested in making sure this tax didn't disadvantage Berea. Lyle Roelofs president of Berea College

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. applauded the parliamentarian's action. "In the mad dash to provide tax breaks for their billionaire campaign contributors, our Republican colleagues forgot to comply with the rules of the Senate," they wrote in a joint statement. Soon after, some Kentucky residents blamed McConnell for letting the provision protecting Berea get dropped. Cartoonist Marc Murphy published this illustration in The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

McConnell quickly fired back in an op-ed in the newspaper, arguing that Democrats had exploited "a procedural tactic" to kill the provision protecting Berea from the tax. "The suggestion made in a recent Marc Murphy cartoon that I am somehow responsible for the new tax on Berea College but it also ignores the hypocrisy coming from Senate Democrats," McConnell wrote.

Berea College has a very unique and laudable mission, but other colleges that will be impacted by the endowment tax have laudable missions as well. Elizabeth Clark National Association of College and University Business Officers

After the provision was dropped, Roelofs said he received a call directly from McConnell. "He told me he remained committed to finding a way to restore protection to Berea," Roelofs said. "Even though it had not appeared in the final tax bill." In early February, the two men met in Washington to discuss the legislation. In the end, the "tuition-paying" language was restored in the bipartisan budget agreement reached earlier this month, which leaves more room for provisions than reconciliation legislation. In the end, Berea College won't be paying the endowment tax. "I am proud to have worked with my colleagues, especially Congressman Andy Barr, to fulfill my commitment to these students," McConnell said in a statement.

Senator McConnell met with Berea College President Dr. Lyle Roelofs in the U.S. Capitol to discuss legislation. Source: Sen. Mitch McConnell

"I was pretty happy," Roelofs said. "Most people were appalled that there was even a possibility of this tax applying to Berea." About 30 other colleges and universities were not so lucky. Institutions where the endowment is valued at more than $500,000 a student will still pay the 1.4 percent tax. That translates to a tax of around $1 million on a $1 billion endowment (the exact assessments are still being worked out). Dartmouth College estimates the change will cost it an additional $5 million in taxes each year. These are the affected schools, according to an analysis provided to CNBC by the American Council on Education.Pedestrians pass in front of a Bank of America branch in New York City.

Bank of America will ask its clients that make assault weapons about what the companies can do to help stop deadly mass shootings.

The bank sent this statement to CNBC:

"We are joining other companies in our industry to examine what we can do to help end the tragedy of mass shootings, and an immediate step we're taking is to engage the limited number of clients we have that manufacture assault weapons for non-military use to understand what they can contribute to this shared responsibility."

A number of companies have terminated their business partnerships with the National Rifle Association due to the rising outcry against the gun group after the deadly shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school last week.

Delta and United Airlines said on Saturday they will end group airfare discounts for NRA members and they were in the process of informing the gun group of this decision.

Axios was the first to report on Bank of America's statement.Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said they will scrap group airfare discounts for members of the National Rifle Association, joining a growing list of companies to end perks for the gun-rights group following the deadly mass shooting at a South Florida high school last week.

Delta and United were offering discounts of 2 percent and 10 percent off online fares for flights to the NRA's meeting in Dallas in June, according to the NRA's website.

Delta said that it will inform the NRA of its decision and will request that it remove the airline's information from its website. The airline emphasized in a tweet that it is not a sponsor of the NRA's event. United issued a similar statement.

Source: NRA website

"United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website," the airline told CNBC.

The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

@delta: Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website.

Others that have ended discounts for NRA members this week include car rental companies Avis Budget Group and Hertz Global Holdings as well as insurance company Metlife.

The decision comes after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in southern Florida on Feb. 14. The outcry after the shooting has sparked public pressure on corporations who offer discounts to the NRA as well as asset managers who invest in gun manufacturers.Warren Buffett's highly anticipated annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders released on Saturday did not disappoint this year with a little something for all fans of the Oracle of Omaha, from professional value investors to the casual admirers of his wit and wisdom.

Most newsworthy in this year's edition, the 87-year old billionaire pointed out that Berkshire Hathaway now has a $116 billion war chest to spend on a deal, but that prices were too high for him to spend any of it in a big way last year.

Buffett went on to give a valuable investing lesson that involved quoting a Rudyard Kipling poem from the 1800s. There are plenty of quips in the letter, including a joke likening a CEO's penchant for dealmaking to the sex drive of teenagers.

Here are the highlights below:Cancer patients need time and drugs that, over time, are effective. They might have more of both according to the results of a new study by researchers in Britain and Italy.

The study, just published in Science, showed that the creation of what the researchers are calling microtumors can help predict drug effectiveness in cancer patients better than the current standard method of testing the drugs on rodents. Researchers took biopsies from 71 colorectal cancer patients and made "cancer organoids," or cell culture models of cancerous organs. Researchers then treated these microtumors with drugs and observed the effectiveness in the laboratory.

In the past, doctors predicted how effective a treatment would be by growing cancer in mice. This process took six to eight months. The microtumors grow in a 3-D matrix called a matrigel, and the whole process only takes six to eight weeks.

Dr. Nicola Valeri, the lead clinician of the study and a team leader at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said the results are encouraging for multiple reasons: growing cancers in mice costs more, takes longer, and has lower effectiveness scores.

Drugs that worked in the microtumor worked 88 percent of the time on humans, and drugs that failed in the microtumor failed 100 percent of the time in the patient. Valeri said drugs that work in mice have only proved effective in 60 to 70 percent of human patients.

If doctors can more accurately predict what drugs will treat someone's cancer, they can select the right drugs for the right patients. If they know for sure what drugs won't work, they can spare patients the painful side effects.

"You can avoid unnecessary toxicity to patients who won't benefit," Valeri said. "You can switch to another treatment. You can avoid a treatment that doesn't work."

According to a 2015 research study in the Journal of American Medical Association, many new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration don't improve overall survival. The researchers examined 63 indications for approval and found that only 30 percent of them were approved based on overall survival.

Valeri doesn't know when this microtumor testing option will become widely available, but he thinks the medical community is closer than most people think.

"We're putting patients in trials as we speak," he said.

More from Modern Medicine:



Trump wants Koch brothers-backed risky drug agenda to be federal law



Bacteria engineered with sonar can track, fight disease

Nobel-winning research advises not taking an iPhone to bedRescuers in Syria's eastern Ghouta said the bombing would not let up long enough for them to count the bodies during one of the bloodiest air assaults of the seven-year war, while the U.N. Security Council called for a 30-day humanitarian truce.



The vote at the United Nations came as warplanes pounded eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria's capital, for a seventh straight day while residents holed up in basements.



The Security Council approved a resolution demanding a 30-day truce to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations with the support of Syrian ally Russia after a flurry of last-minute negotiations.



Medical charities have decried attacks on a dozen hospitals but the Damascus government and Russia, its key ally, say they only target militants. They have said they seek to stop mortar

attacks injuring dozens in the capital, and have accused insurgents in Ghouta of holding people as human shields.



There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.



A surge of rocket fire, shelling and air strikes has killed more than 500 people since Sunday night, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The dead included more than 120 children.



The Britain-based monitor said raids hit Douma, Zamalka and other towns there on Saturday, killing 31 people.



First responders searched for survivors after strikes on Kafr Batna, Douma and Harasta, the Civil Defence in eastern Ghouta said. The rescue service, which operates in rebel territory, said it had documented at least 350 deaths in four days earlier this week.



"Maybe there are many more," said Siraj Mahmoud, a civil defence spokesman in the suburbs. "We weren't able to count the martyrs yesterday because the warplanes are touring the skies."



As the bombs rain down, some hitting emergency centers and vehicles, workers have struggled to pull people from the rubble, Mahmoud said. "But if we have to go out running on our legs and dig with our hands to rescue the people, we will still be here."



A witness in Douma said he woke up in the early hours on Saturday to the sound of a squadron of jets bombing nearby. The streets have mostly remained empty.



The United Nations says nearly 400,000 people live in eastern Ghouta, a pocket of satellite towns and farms under government siege since 2013, without enough food or medicine.



The local opposition council said it was setting up emergency volunteer teams in several districts to reinforce shelters with sandbags and try to link them through tunnels.



"Every day we say God willing tomorrow will be better...Today, the main sight in the Ghouta is limbs, blood," Mahmoud said. "There is no need to dig graves, we will be buried under our houses."



Ceasefire Vote



The U.N. Security Council is to vote on Saturday on a draft resolution which demands a 30-day ceasefire across Syria to allow aid access and medical evacuations.



The 15-member council postponed voting on the text, which Sweden and Kuwait drafted. The delay followed a flurry of last-minute talks after Russia, a veto-holding ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, proposed new amendments.



The truce does not cover militants from Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and the Nusra Front.



Several previous ceasefire attempts have quickly unraveled during the multi-sided conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands and forced 11 million people out of their homes.



Syrian state media said Ghouta factions fired mortars at districts of Damascus on Saturday, including near a school. Insurgent shelling wounded six people, it said, and the army heavily pounded militant targets in the suburbs in response.



The Ghouta pocket has become the war's latest flashpoint, after a string of rebel defeats and negotiated withdrawals. With Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, Assad's military has restored state rule over the main cities across western Syria.



Insurgents in eastern Ghouta have vowed not to accept such a fate, ruling out the kind of evacuation that ended rebellion in Aleppo and Homs after bitter sieges.



Russia has blamed Nusra fighters, from al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, for provoking the situation in the Ghouta. The two main Islamist factions there in turn accuse their enemies of

using the presence of a few hundred jihadist fighters as a pretext for attacks.Tory rebels to vote for a customs union

with the freedom to diverge at a future date.  The Times

Pro-Brexit MPs warn May against conceding on amendments  Daily Telegraph

Customs union coup will collapse, Downing Street sources claim  The Sun

EU rubbishes Mays Brexit blueprint  Daily Mail

Tusk describes proposals as pure illusion  Daily Express

Theresa May is facing the biggest test of her fragile parliamentary authority as more than ten Tory MPs announced that they would vote to keep Britain in a customs union with Europe. Two of the partys select committee chairmen and three former ministers put their name to an amendment that would force the prime minister to put Britains membership of a customs union back on the negotiating table. The announcement came hours after the cabinets Brexit committee signed off a policy that Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said excluded a customs deal with the European Union. Instead the government is expected to pursue a policy of so-called managed divergence where Britain agrees to follow EU rules in specific areas in return for market access but

Labour:

Abbott refuses seven times to discuss Labours new position on Brexit  The Sun

Blair predicts that Britain will be forced to hold a second vote  The Sun

More:

Pro-EU Airbus votes to stay in the UK  The Sun

Brussels funding linked to migrant quotas  The Times

Comment:

Canadas Northwest Passage could yield a Brexit bonus  Andrew Lilico, Daily Telegraph

Labours clever move re-opens Tory wounds  Sebastian Payne, FT

Amnesty has strayed badly with its ideological attack on Brexit  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph

Editorial:

Labours customs union plot would be a staggering Brexit betrayal  The Sun

>Today: Stephen Hammond MP in Comment: Why I will be tabling amendments to the Trade Bill to explore joining EFTA

>Yesterday:

Charles Moore: Both we and Brussels need to know whats going on in Mays head

The old Spitting Image joke about Margaret Thatcher is so famous that people think it actually happened. The waiter at Chequers takes Mrs Thatchers order. She asks for steak. And the vegetables? ventures the waiter. Oh, she says, waving dismissively towards her Cabinet colleagues, theyll be having the same. Theresa Mays method seems to be almost exactly the opposite. The vegetables say what they want, and try to order for her as well. She says nothing. No one knows what she wants. Her future biographer (no, I am not volunteering) will have to decide whether this technique was very deep or merely vacuous. In this troublous and confusing present, it is hard to know.  Daily Telegraph

Prime Ministers moment to compromise her red lines  Charles Grant, FT

Hologram May leads a hopeless mission  Matthew Parris, The Times

No Plan B, but Plan A seems to be working for the Tories  James Forsyth, The Sun

Brexit walls are closing in on May  Rafael Behr, The Guardian

Editorial:

Prime Ministers fragile truce unlikely to last  FT

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: As Mays top team met at Chequers, Brains for Brexit launched in London

EU official mocks Goves plan to ban plastic straws

One of the European Unions top officials has mocked Michael Goves plans to try to ban plastic straws after Brexit. Frans Timmermans, the deputy to EU Commission president Jean Claude Juncker, pointed out that the EU was already planning to ban the straws later this year

B

Environment Secretary denies that Brussels is one step ahead  The Guardian

ut Mr Timmermans said in response that the EU was one step ahead of you adding that the EU doesnt suck with the taglines Stronger Together  and Plastics Strategy. He wrote on Twitter: EU legislation on single-use plastics coming before the summer. Maybe you can align with us?  Daily Telegraph

Comment:

Seriously cutting plastic waste will not be easy  Oliver Tickell, Daily Telegraph

Bradley faces questions from DUP as NIO denies striking side deal on legacy issues

No side deals were made during the latest round of talks to restore power-sharing, the Northern Ireland Office has insisted. The denial came after DUP leader Arlene Foster said her party had no knowledge of a claim by Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly on Thursday that his party had secured agreement with the UK Government to release funding to progress legacy inquests But Mrs Foster insisted no one in the DUP had been aware of inquest funding being progressed, and said she intended to raise the matter with Secretary of State Karen Bradley. It would be astonishing if the Government granted funding for legacy inquests in the absence of an overall agreement to progress all elements of the Stormont House Agreement, she said. In response to the DUP leader, the NIO said: There are no side deals.  Belfast Telegraph

Brokenshire on his resignation and recovery  Daily Telegraph

Williamson preparing anthrax vaccination programme for high-readiness troops

Army major returns medals over cruel enquiries  The Times

Britain has drawn up plans to vaccinate thousands of troops against anthrax to be better prepared to respond in the event of a war with North Korea or a terrorist attack at home. Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, is understood to be considering the introduction of an anthrax vaccination programme for all service personnel on short notice to mobilise, Whitehall sources say. This would include 16 Air Assault Brigade, 3 Commando Brigade and all other high readiness units of soldiers and Royal Marines. It is something that has gone through the planning phase and the secretary of state is seriously looking at it, one source said.  The Times

Editorial:

Shut down the Iraq Fatality Investigations Unit  Daily Telegraph

>Today: ToryDiary: Williamsons new defence policy will be meaningless without funding

May and Corbyn back opt-out organ donation

Organ donation will be made automatic under plans backed by the Government in a move which ministers believe could save 200 extra lives every year. People will have to opt-out of having their organs donated when they pass away under the terms of a presumed consent scheme. The proposals brought forward by backbench Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson have won the support of both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn which means they will almost certainly become law. It is hoped that the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill will make its way onto the statute book by the end of the year after it cleared its first major Commons hurdle as it received an unopposed second reading on Friday.  Daily Telegraph

Labour 1) Labours general secretary quits

SNP MPs targeted in Labours NHS campaign blitz  The Scotsman

Labour 2) Corbyn has questions to answer over spy claims, says ex-MI6 chief

Labours general secretary has announced that he is quitting his role after a tumultuous seven-year tenure. Iain McNicol said he was standing down to pursue new challenges in the Labour movement. The move comes after rumours that allies of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wanted to oust Mr McNicol from the top backroom role Mr McNicol, who took on the job in 2011, reportedly angered allies of the Labour leader after rumours he was involved in trying to stop Mr Corbyn being automatically included on the ballot paper when he faced a leadership challenge. Labour said officers of the party will now meet to decide the election of a successor. It will give Mr Corbyn a chance to further strengthen his control over party structures.  Daily Mail

Jeremy Corbyn has questions to answer over his Cold War links, a former spy chief has said. Sir Richard Dearlove said the Labour leader should have taken care to avoid meeting a Czechoslovakian agent and cannot just laugh off the claims. The ex-MI6 boss said holding only a couple of meetings with Jan Sarkocy would amount to stupidity but if the spys claims that many more took place were true then this affair takes on a completely different aspect. Labour said Sir Richard should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears. Mr Sarkocy, a former agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency, has been described as a fantasist by Mr Corbyns allies.  Daily Mail

Cold war allegations fail to dent leaders support  The Times

Labour 3) Short attacks hysterical, anti-aid reaction to Oxfam scandal

News in Brief:

What does McNicols resignation say about Corbyns control of Labour?  Stephen Bush, New Statesman

A partial customs union could be the solution to Britains trade dilemma  Oliver Wiseman, CapX

Brexit will let us drop the stupid ban on human cloning  Hugh McLachlan, Reaction

The NHS internal market is an expensive catastrophe  Max Pemberton, The Spectator

DUPs shambolic tactics mean prospects for devolution look bleak  Sam McBride, The i

Ministers must provide the resources to police our seas  Lee Rotherham, Brexit Central

A New Labour veteran risks uproar after slamming the hysterical reaction to the Oxfam charity sex abuse scandal. Clare Short  Tony Blairs Development Secretary  said while Oxfam staff were wrong to have used prostitutes in Haiti, 11 per cent of all British men had done so. And she said the story was being whipped up by critics of Britains 13 billion a year overseas aid budget. She told the BBC Radio 4s The Week in Westminster: This is no excuse, but its a crazy, crazy, hysterical, distorted story. Very hard not to think its part of the anti-development, anti-aid agenda. The comments will fuel fury that while Oxfam and Save The Children bosses have apologised for sexual abuse shame, the charity sector has yet to wake up to the need for far-reaching change.  The SunTerry Barnes advised Tony Abbott when he was a Cabinet minister in John Howards government. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

If ConservativeHome readers think British politics are a soap opera, they should try Australias. On Friday, Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister resigned his post after intense pressure over his complicated love life.

This is a first in Australian politics, where a what happens in Canberra, stays in Canberra ethos long has prevailed over reporting politicians private lives.

Last year, Joyce left his wife for his press secretary, and got her pregnant. While this was widely-known in political circles for months, it was only splashed publicly by a Sydney newspaper a fortnight ago, and since then its been the only political story in the country: think blanket Brexit coverage, with testosterone and steroids.

Like so many politicians before him, not least in Britain, Joyces leadership image was founded on his wholesome family, backed by a loyal wife who suppressed her own life ambitions to further his.

A staunch, socially-conservative campaigner for family values, and defender (while admittedly declaring Im no saint) of traditional marriage in Australias same-sex marriage vote late last year, Joyces plight was neatly summed up this week by US-based British satirist John Oliver: You might think that that is hypocritical, but in reality Joyce has such incredible family values that he cant restrict them to just one family.

With media coverage becoming ever more histrionic, Australians salivated over the rush of sordid but salacious details of the affair: the pregnant partner and the anger of Joyces repudiated wife and their daughters, who certainly were not standing by their man.

By Friday it had got to the point that Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, whose majority hangs by a one-seat thread and whose Liberal Party is in a brittle coalition with Joyces Nationals, could not bring himself to express confidence in Joyce, a week after the pair had a very public tit-for-tat brawl about the Governments handling of this self-inflicted political crisis.

Turnbulls puritanism over Joyces situation, highlighted by his ludicrous and unenforceable bonk-ban decree prohibiting sexual relations between his ministers and their special advisers, made Theresa Mays recent treatment of her now-departed deputy Damian Green look highly gracious by comparison. That he sought approval from his own wife in imposing it made it look even sillier.

It was notable that, in resigning, Joyce did not feel obliged to tell Turnbull, who is in Washington meeting Donald Trump (and who could give him some pointers on managing sex scandals), but merely advised the Acting Prime Minister back in Australia. Relations between the governing coalition partners, and their leaders, have got as poisonous as that, and the Corbyn-esque Labor opposition watches gleefully.

Until this scandal broke a fortnight ago, Joyce was the Boris Johnson of Australian politics: a colourful and entertaining individualist, with a Teflon factor that somehow protected him and his indiscipline from the consequences of foibles and misjudgements that would have ended the career of any ordinary politician, and which endeared him to the Australian public in spite of everything. His consequent belief in his untouchability ensured his downfall.

This overhyped scandal, and his and the Governments bumbling response to its public exposure (incredibly, Joyce seems to have assumed it would never be revealed), has transformed him from a Johnson into Ukips Henry Bolton, just another pathetic middle-aged male politician who loses everything in a mid-life crisis. And unlike, say, Cecil Parkinson once, or perhaps Green now, there seems no way back to high office for Joyce.

The conservative side of Australian politics is in disarray, its modest poll recovery has been torpedoed by Joyces antics and the Governments appalling management of the political storm they caused. Turnbulls prospects of being competitive at the general election due in 2019, let alone winning it, likely have been dealt a fatal blow from this testosterone-driven fiasco.

As for Australias political culture, which unlike the UK largely has been blissfully free of private life gotcha moments for public figures until now, the new, post-Harvey Weinstein puritanism and prurience frenzy that stormed Westminster last November has now reached Down Under. As journalists and gossip columnists now ferret furiously for proof of ministers breaching his bonk-ban, it now remains to be seen how Turnbull reaps the whirlwind of laffaire Barnaby.Stephen Hammond is a member of the Treasury Select Committee and MP for Wimbledon, and is a former Transport Minister.

Last Wednesday, Suella Fernandes, the Department for Exiting the European Union Minister, responded to Antoinette Sandbachs excellent debate on alternatives to a no deal Brexit. The Minister acknowledged that many colleagues had raised joining EFTA/EEA as a Brexit option, but gave four reasons why the Government will not pursue this, as below

EFTA itself does not give any EU market access, and EEA membership will not deliver direct control over decisions affecting the UK.

Our ambition as a global trading nation goes beyond the scope of EFTAs existing free trade agreements with third countries.

EFTA membership means accepting free movement between EFTA countries and it is difficult to see how any derogations from this can apply to the UK

The UKs participation in EFTA would fundamentally change the nature of that group.

EFTA is currently subject to a project fear from supporters of a hard Brexit, with misconceptions repeated by DExEU Ministers. The reality is that EFTA membership allows for, but does not automatically entail, membership of the Single Market. EFTA does not envisage political integration, is economically motivated, does not issue legislation, does not establish a customs union  and decisions are made by unanimity.

EFTA, market access to the EU and control.

The Ministers response suggested that joining EFTA alone would prevent the Government from negotiating a deep and special bespoke relationship with the EU.

However, on the contrary, it should greatly assist this goal by framing it within an institutional set-up that the EU is familiar with. The EFTA Court, Surveillance Authority, Council and Secretariat are all institutions understood and trusted by the EU, with well-established systems for information access, consultation and arbitration. They could be used as part of the UK/EU deal to strengthen our commitments and avoid having to create new institutions. This is called docking, and has been publically mooted as a possibility by the former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher.

Furthermore, EFTA provides a great deal of flexibility. Most proponents of EFTA would suggest the UK joins the EEA as well, since the EFTA/EEA arrangement keeps open the option of retaining access benefits to the Single Market. The EEA Agreement does not cover the controversial Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy, or Justice and Home Affairs laws  meaning that from the outset the UK would have control over these key areas.

Yes, the UK would be subject to EEA law, but this is mostly regulatory and, regardless of whatever deal with the EU we achieve, any domestic business hoping to trade with the EU will need to be comply with these laws post-Brexit. Furthermore, there is no principle of direct effect with EEA/EFTA membership  meaning all laws must be approved by domestic legislatures. As Vicky Ford perfectly explained during the debate, Norway does have a say on rules and regulations, sitting on various standard-making bodies and contributing to the drawing up of proposed EEA legislation. EFTA would certainly have more of an influence collectively over this process with the UK as a member.

By being a member of EFTA/EEA, we would regain our seats on global regulatory standard setting organisations too, which much of EEA law is based upon, and ultimately EFTA/EEA countries retain control through a right of reservation  an ability to veto any EEA rules they do not believe are appropriate.

Free Trade Agreements with Third Countries

EFTA has 27 Free Trade Agreements, covering 38 countries and 900 million customers. Many of these are more modern than the EUs deals with third countries, and indeed some analysis suggests EFTAs existing free trade agreements actually fit the UK economy more than the EUs and are more comprehensive. For example, EFTA has FTAs with Singapore, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Hong Kong, important markets for the UK which are without a completed EU deal.

There is no guarantee that the EUs trade agreements with third countries will still apply to the UK in the same way post-Brexit, and there may be complex negotiations ahead. Whilst the Minister was right that there would be necessary adjustments needed before EFTAs FTAs can apply to the UK, these are all minor and involve considerable fewer issues to be resolved. Surely, then, it is sensible that the UK attempts to take advantage of the best of the existing EU FTAs, and the best of EFTA FTAs, to ensure that trading relationships can continue as closely as possible as they did before we left the EU.

EFTA membership would not stop the UK from negotiating its own Free Trade Agreements. In fact, it would bring much needed assistance in negotiating and concluding these new arrangements. The UK currently lacks experienced international trade negotiators and so any support from the EFTA secretariat, which has the necessary negotiating experience, can only be extremely beneficial. The evidence refutes the Ministers claim.

Immigration

EFTA/EEA members have the option to unilaterally suspend the free movement of people under Articles 112 and 113 of the EEA Agreement if it is causing economic, societal or environmental difficulties. These are the exact problems that those concerned about immigration cite.

On joining EFTA, a transitional period to limit immigration under Protocol 15 can be established. This option was also offered to Switzerland had they joined the EEA. At the end of a transition, the EEA Agreement precedent confirms the possibility of having an immigration quota system.

While of course the UK is not the same as Liechtenstein, the flexibility and border controls permitted within the system are obvious. When it comes to the potential for the UK to use these controls, we must remember that during the pre-referendum renegotiation it was agreed by the EU that the UK would be justified in applying the proposed emergency brake for similar reasons. This would give the UK a very strong case to activate some of these controls.

Would EFTA want us?

A new, bigger EFTA is more likely to be renewed and revitalised, with better prospects and new aspirations for arrangements with other countries. The indications I have had is that we would be welcomed into EFTA for this reason. Indeed, Oda Helen Sletnes, Norways former ambassador to the EU, said last year: we would maintain an open-minded stance in the event of an application for EFTA membership from the UK. All the contacts I have had with the EFTA countries confirm they would welcome our membership, and the Government appears out of touch when it claims that this is not the case.

By joining EFTA, the UK could be at the forefront of creating a new common market between European nations without the controversial CFP, CAP and justice and home affairs policies. It would be a grouping dedicated to free trade and economic prosperity, while respecting national sovereignty.

Lets be clear: we all want the Prime Minister to achieve a deep and special relationship and a soft Brexit in the negotiations with our former partners. However, to shut off consideration of realistic and achievable alternatives would be irresponsible.

From the contributions during my Westminster Hall debate on EFTA earlier in the month, and conversations with colleagues afterwards, MPs on both sides of the House are interested in EFTA, want to hear more and want a greater debate on the topic. That is why I will be tabling amendments to the Trade Bill on EFTA, so that this topic can be debate on the floor of the House, and both front benches can have the chance to listen and respond.Earlier this week, Gavin Williamson signalled a major shift in Britains defence thinking when he told MPs that Russia now beats terrorism to the top of the national threat list.

This follows a similar move by the US where  allegations of Donald Trumps colluding with the Kremlin notwithstanding  James Mattis, the Defence Secretary, has likewise shifted focus onto the challenges posed Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang.

Given that only a few years ago individual countries werent even being mentioned in Britains strategic defence assessments, the speed of this pivot is rather remarkable. Mitt Romneys 2012 warning about Russia, then derided by Barack Obama, looks more prescient by the month.

As Mark Francois noted in Committee, if Williamsons comments reflect Government thinking then that will have significant implications for future British defence spending. Meeting the challenge of state-on-state conflict, as the Times puts it, will require building up capabilities rather different from those needed to tackle terrorists and non-state actors. Said terrorists will still need handling, too.

Turning the Defence Secretarys reasoning into policy would require a major shift in how the Government handles defence spending. Here is how Williamsons approach is described in the paper: Mr Williamson has instructed his officials to consider the threats and list the capabilities required to meet them. He would then deal with the question of how to pay for it.

Such an approach would make shibboleths such as the two per cent NATO spending commitment redundant. Outcomes-based defence commitments would cost what they cost  if an economic slowdown led to a smaller pie, the Ministry of Defence would simply need a larger slice of whats left.

Has the Government got the will to see such an approach through? As I wrote last month, being strong on defence is not the vote-winner it was during the Cold War, and any public funding will be competing with feel-good electoral bribes such as a tuition fees cut. Williamson has his work cut out.

If anything, this 2018 re-think highlights the foolishness of trying to find short-term dividends from slashing defence budgets, as many Western nations did after the Cold War. A nations strategic capabilities can be auctioned away in short order, but take much longer to re-acquire.The top 5 most read articles online, from Feb. 12-18 for Control Engineering, covered shop floor device networks, system integrator success, the 2018 Engineers Choice winners, IIoT and conditioning monitor, and digital twins. Links to each article below.

1. Create a secure network for shop floor devices

Operations technology (OT) environments consist of many devices using different protocols and different languages. This can cause a security risk if plant operators dont take steps to mitigate the risk and create awareness for everyone on the plant floor.

2. Four steps to system integrator success

A structured approach yields maximum value when engaging an integration partner.

3. 2018 Engineers Choice Awards: Spotlight on innovation

The 31st annual Control Engineering Engineers Choice Awards shines a light on 26 categories of control, instrumentation, and automation products, revealing the best of those introduced in 2017 as chosen by the Control Engineering print and digital audience.

4. IIoT and condition monitoring turn data into decisions

Manufacturers can leverage IIoT data in nearly all stages of the manufacturing process, including monitoring product quality and performance.

5. Time to start turning digital twins into improved productivity

Digital manufacturing in the auto industry is changing the way products evolve. From design to manufacturing, digitalization is optimizing the process.

The list was developed using CFE Medias web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, February 12-18, for articles published within the last two months.

Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com.CORNWALL, Ontario  The Heritage fair came to the Cornwall Square to celebrate the vast history of the region on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018.

Debbie Ledoux played a major role in putting the fair together by gathering numerous associations throughout the area, including the Akwesasne Genealogy, Dalkeith Historical Society, and the Loyal Orange Association of Canada to name a few.

The fair has been held steadily for 10 years by the work of the Municipal Heritage Committee of Cornwall that is chaired by Marjorie Vallee.

This year we have fourteen different associations, more than we have ever had in the past, so we are really impressed with the turnout, said Marjorie Vallee.

Many of the displays showcased the history of Cornwall with its countless buildings and heritage sites.

I love our community! The fact that this region is literally the founding of Ontario and in many ways the founding of Canada cant go much deeper than that, explained Don Smith, the Manager and Associate Curator of the Cornwall Community Museum

The fair was a great way for those who are new to the community or are part of the younger generations to delve into the past.Hewlett Packard Enterprise is creating a new Hybrid IT Business Unit with Chief Sales Officer Phil Davis doing double duty as interim president while the company searches for a top executive for the new organization, according to an internal memo seen by CRN.

"We have created a Hybrid IT business unit that will bring together all of our hardware, software, and services capabilities into a single organization, effective immediately," said HPE CEO Antonio Neri in the memo. "This new organization will be focused on the services-led and software-enabled infrastructure and solutions we need to deliver on our promise of making Hybrid IT simple."

[Related: CRN Exclusive: CEO Neri On HPE's 'Industry-Leading' Partner Program, Dell EMC's 'Confusing' Storage Lineup, And HPE's Spectre-Meltdown Response]

Neri made the formal announcement at an HPE all hands meeting just one day after the company posted first fiscal quarter earnings and sales growth well above Wall Street expectations.

HPE shares were up 11 percent or $1.73 to $18.14 on Friday after the company reported a whopping 24 percent increase in storage sales; a 27 percent increase in networking sales and an 11 percent increase in compute/server sales for its first fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31.

Neri said he chose Davis as interim president because he wanted someone with "Phils customer-centric and partner-focused view" to lead the Hybrid IT business while the company searches for a permanent president.

Separately, Neri named HPE Aruba senior vice president Keerti Melkote, the co founder of HPE's fast growing Aruba business, as president of the Intelligent Edge Business Unit.

Melkote has been the driving force behind breakthrough software innovation at Aruba that is driving robust wireless and intelligent edge sales growth.

"As you know, HPEs vision is to accelerate profitable growth through a focus on higher margin services and solutions," said Neri in the memo. "We are redesigning the company to deliver Hybrid IT and Edge innovations tailored to our services strengths, including our ability to create consumption opportunities for customers."

HPE partners said the new hybrid IT business unit and Melkote's appointment as president of the intelligent edge business unit align with how customers are buying next generation software defined and internet of things solutions.

Dan Sytsma, vice president and general manager of Melillo Consulting, one of HPE's top enterprise partners, said he sees the changes putting HPE in direct alignment with how customers are purchasing software in the hybrid IT-intelligent edge era. "You have to give HPE credit," he said. "The company is aligned completely with how customers are buying IT right now. This is all about being customer first."

Kelly Ireland, founder and CEO of Orange, Calif.-based CB Technologies, an HPE Platinum partner and No. 245 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500, said the changes are in line with the business model that CB Technologies has been building for the last two years centered on cloud, software defined and internet of things with a tight-knit ecosystem of partners.

Ireland credited Neri with driving a next generation operating model that is helping to propel dramatic sales growth for partners like CB Technologies. "Our committed sales funnel for current clients right now is equivalent to our total fiscal year 2017 sales," she said. "There is nothing but upside for us for the remainder of the year."

In the memo, Neri said that Ana Pinczuk will continue to lead HPE Pointnext, Alain Andreoli will lead Hybrid IT Infrastructure, and Ric Lewis will lead Software-Defined & Cloud Group, all reporting to Davis.

Neri said Irv Rothman will continue as president of the HPE Financial Services business unit.

"With this new operating model in place, we are in an even stronger position to execute and I am confident that this is what we need to propel HPE into our next chapter," said Neri.Dropbox, one of the hottest providers of online storage and file sync and share technology, has filed for an initial public offering in hopes of raising up to $500 million.

Dropbox, in its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, did not list an IPO date in the paperwork, so the actual amount raised and the company's valuation is subject to change.

Dropbox declined to provide additional comment beyond what's in the S-1.

[Related: The 20 Coolest Cloud Storage Vendors Of The 2017 Cloud 100]

In its filing, Dropbox said it has over 500 million total registered users that are storing some 400 billion pieces of content.

Dropbox has more than 11 million paying customers and it includes in those numbers all the members of a Dropbox Business team. A user with a paid individual subscription, who is also part of a Dropbox Business team, would count as two paid users. In fact, the company said over 40 percent of its new Dropbox Business team customers include a member who previously subscribed to an individual paid plan.

Dropbox, founded in 2007, reported 2017 revenue of $1.11 billion, up from $844.8 million in 2016 and $603.8 million in 2015. The company reported a net loss for 2017 of $111.7 million, down from $210.2 million in 2016 and $325.9 million in 2015.

The company will use its IPO proceeds to run and expand its business, and it might make acquisitions, too. "Additionally, we may use a portion of the net proceeds we receive from this offering to acquire businesses, products, services, or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments for any material acquisitions at this time," the company wrote.

Dropbox has a channel program, although the company declined to say how many channel partners it has signed. Partners can sign up through distributors like Ingram Micro and Synnex, or via Dell Technologies.

Dropbox indirectly addressed the need for channel partners in the S-1 filing, citing the fact that many of its actual and potential competitors have some advantages over the company including access to resellers.The Bridgetown Port in Barbados put up big numbers in 2017, according to a prepared statement, recording 818,752 cruise arrivals over the previous years 725,020, for a total increase of 12.9%.

Of these 818,752 cruise arrivals, some 137,541 passengers stayed over in Barbados, above 2016s total of 130,924.

I am delighted by this news and what it says about Barbados tourism product, said the Honourable Richard Sealy, Minister of Tourism and International Transport. It is never easy as a mature tourism destination to maintain growth at these levels in the competitive business landscape in which we operate, but I am pleased that through strategic marketing efforts we have once again proven Barbados value as shown by the record number of arrivals at both the air and sea ports throughout 2017.

The United Kingdom was once again the top producer of arrivals to Barbados with a 33.5% market share.

Arrivals from this market were flat compared to 2016, totaling 222,322. The United States followed, contributing 28.4% of business with 188,970 arrivals for the year. Canada contributed 12.8% of the business, and recorded an increase of 7.9% or 85,209 arrivals.

Of special note is the United States, who, while being the second-highest producer of business, grew by 11.7% over 2016. The United States 2017 performance was the highest for that market in three decades  since contributing 175,093 arrivals in 1987.BRIDGEPORT  Convicted felon Byron Troy has been home for five years after serving time for a gun charge and turned to art as a new outlet.

Troy, who lives in Norwalk but whose sculpture was a part of a nonviolence-themed art show in Bridgeport on Friday, said he used to be a stick up man  he would rob people while wielding a gun.

Less Guns, More Roses, was the theme at the anti-violence art show Friday at Blends Gallery on Main Street. Henry Reyes, one of the gallerys curators, said there were 25 artists featured from Connecticut and 10 artists featured from New York. There were also clothing vendors from various Connecticut locations.

Troys art fit perfectly into the shows theme, Reyes said.

Once Troy was free from behind bars, he said he became a certified welder. One day, he said he started to weld roses out of boredom and it stuck.

I used it to turn my life around after I was incarcerated, Troy said. He said art became his outlet since he turned away from violence.

Troys art at the show included welded steel roses of varying colors and sizes and chain links welded into the shape of a heart.

The show is a representation of the city and the art we have here, Reyes said. We wanted to give the youth something to look forward to  that wasnt guns, gangs or drugs. Less guns, more roses.

Artists and community members folded up their umbrellas and began to trickle in to the gallery around 5 p.m. The show was expected to run until around 10 p.m. and, based on last years numbers, bring out about hundreds of people. Friday was the forth show with this theme, Reyes said.

The gallerys event was in conjunction with the Bridgeport-based nonprofit Connecticut Against Violence, an organization that engages inner-city youth in activities that lead to discussion and education on violence prevention.

Jasmine Sade of Bridgeport created a portrait of 15-year-old Jayson Negron and Bridgeport Police Officer James Boulay. Boulay shot Negron to death following a brief pursuit in a stolen vehicle on May 9, 2017, where Boulay was hit by the vehicles door.

The twist? The two separate portraits were done in gunpowder.

I heard his story and I wanted to do something about it in a medium that would really make an impact, Sade said.

Boulay was cleared of criminal charges.

Im a portrait artist, but this is my first time working in a medium like this, Sade said. I wanted to dedicate my work in this show to him (Negron).

Bridgeport resident David Coelho had a drawing of former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather face-to-face with a police officer. He said he was inspired by the atmosphere of police brutality across the country in recent years.

We all know Floyd Mayweather would win in a real fight. But that badge, Coelho said, pointing to the officers badge. It gives gives him more authority, more strength.

The inspiration behind the shows theme, Reyes said, were two people he knew that were killed in Bridgeport  26-year-old Christopher 50 Pettway and 33-year-old Noel Dimelo Esbri. Pettway was killed on Sept. 10, 2013, and Esbri was killed on Dec. 15, 2016.

When Reyes heard news of an apparent shooting on Brooks Street while the show was in full swing around 5:45 p.m., he shook his head.

This is why we do this, he said. This is why we need this gallery and a place for youth to go.A year ago Bridgeport lawmakers took steps to reassure immigrants  undocumented and documented  they would be welcome in Connecticuts largest city, despite President Donald Trumps aggressive deportation efforts.

That included public assurances local police were not immigration enforcers, as well as issuing municipal identification cards that are available to all citizens, but are beneficial to undocumented residents.

So some recent arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside of Bridgeport Superior Court on Golden Hill have some in the community  and even Bridgeports top cop  particularly troubled.

Its hard enough to get immigrants or illegal immigrants to cooperate with the police on certain cases. Theyre afraid, said city Police Chief Armando A.J. Perez. So I dont want to make it more difficult by having ICE waiting outside of a courthouse.

Though perhaps a newer development in Bridgeport, such courthouse activity  some of it inside  have for months sparked controversy around the country, with critics alleging ICEs actions do more harm than good by discouraging immigrant communities from cooperating with local law enforcers.

For example, the Los Angeles Times reported that California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye last year accused ICE agents of stalking that states court buildings.

Cantil-Sakauye wrote in a letter to the Trump administration: Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our countrys immigration laws. (Such activities) not only compromise our core value of fairness but they undermine the judiciarys ability to provide equal access to justice.

A lot of people come to court  people charged with a crime, also victims, witnesses, people who are involved in civil cases, said Michael Lawlor, Gov. Dannel Malloys undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning. If people become afraid to come to court its going to be very difficult to convict guilty people if witnesses and victims dont show up.

Chased down

State Rep. Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport, was troubled by a recent Hearst Connecticut Media account of ICE agents operating outside of Bridgeport Superior Court and that a reporter witnessed Perezs officers provide some assistance.

Rosario was referring to a Hearst report about Edwin Silva-Caceres who, according to ICEs New England Region office in Boston, is a Honduran foreign national with a previous outstanding order for final removal from an immigration judge. Silva-Caceres was picked up outside of Superior Court on Golden Hill after a hearing on assault charges.

When ICE confronted Silva-Caceres, he fled the scene, followed by ICE agents and a couple of city cops who were also at the courthouse. Silva-Caceres was caught a few blocks away. It was not clear if Bridgeport police pursued him the entire time.

It (the newspaper report) insinuated that local police helped in apprehending the gentleman, Rosario said. He suggested that violated the welcoming city resolution the City Council passed last May that stated the Bridgeport police department does not, and will not, act as an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Perez said he only learned about the situation after the fact and said he wants to know when ICE is in Bridgeport.

I didnt know that our officers got involved. If ICE or anybody requested assistance, of course theyre obligated to help, Perez said, adding he has since learned the federal agents were not here looking for the guy who stands on the corner looking for work. They were looking for criminals.

ICEs website defends courthouse arrests, saying they are: Legal  people are being arrested in a public place based upon probable cause; targeted against specific aliens; and a safe way to apprehend targets because individuals entering courthouses are typically screened for weapons and other contraband.

In such instances, ICE officers and agents make every effort to take the person into custody in a secure area, out of public view, but this is not always possible, said ICE. And, according to the agency, its agents will generally avoid enforcement actions in courthouses, or areas within, that are dedicated to non-criminal proceedings, like family and small claims courts.

ICE also has a policy that undocumented family and friends who have accompanied an immigration enforcement target to court will not be subject to civil immigration enforcement action unless they interfere or pose a threat to public safety.

Guilt and innocence

Silva-Cacares attorney, Dennis Bradley, who is also a school board member, claimed ICE has been repeatedly targeting immigrants outside of the Bridgeport courthouse who have minor criminal activity.

ICE did not have statistics on its activities in Bridgeport. However, the agency said that ICE has nearly doubled its arrests in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, 2,834 versus 1,858.

The agency also maintains that, if there seems to be more ICE activity around courthouses nationally, that is because some local law enforcement agencies are not honoring requests to hold undocumented immigrants for pick up.

Besides Bradley, other local immigration attorneys also maintained there was ICE activity around Connecticut courthouses, though there was disagreement on whether it had increased recently or since Trump took office in January 2017.

Ive certainly heard of more people being picked up in the vicinity of a courthouse on the day they have a court hearing, but thats anecdotal, said Glenn Formica, a New Haven-based lawyer.

The Danbury States Attorneys office was not aware of any such courthouse arrests since last April, when ICE took a man accused of drugging and raping a young girl into custody outside of Danbury Superior Court.

Stamford Public Defender Barry Butler said he was informed by a community activist that two court defendants were recently picked up outside of the courthouse, and that one was ultimately charged with failure to appear at court as a result.

Formica said in the past year he has been getting more phone calls from immigrants fearful of attending to court.

Rosario worries, too: They could be going to court for a minor violation, and, due to the fear, now theyll have missed an appearance and youre going down a rabbit hole, adding charges.

Alex Meyerovich, who practices immigration law in Bridgeport, claimed a client who had been charged with domestic violence and was going through a court-approved program that would have cleared his record, was picked up by ICE at the courthouse.

Im applying for the program, and upon completion Im not guilty, but as far as ICE is concerned, theyre not going to await me to establish my guilt or innocence, Meyerovich said.

Federal power

Meyerovich said attorneys could complain to the state Judicial Branch about ICEs courthouse activities. But, he added, As far as Im concerned its a futile attempt. The Judicial Branch cannot do anything. The federal powers will supersede state powers.

The Judicial Branch in a statement for this story wrote it expects ICE to comply with ICEs stated guidelines for courthouses. And Chief Public Defender Christine Perra Rapillo did not respond to multiple phone calls seeking comment, though her predecessor last year had criticized ICE for causing people to lose faith in the fairness of our criminal justice system.

Former Bridgeport City Councilman John Olson voted last year for the welcoming city resolution. Olson said he too was troubled by ICEs reported activity at Bridgeport Superior Court and that local police helped pursue a suspect.

When we passed that resolution, Chief Perez said, Were not going to do anything like that, Olson said. He urged Perez and especially Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, who is running for governor, to stand up and issue a strong statement.

Ganims office did not return requests for comment.

Formica said it would not matter: ICE is more than free to go and pick anybody up from the courthouse steps that they want to.

But, Meyerovich warned, Bridgeport leaders should try to do something to reassure the undocumented community.

Bridgeport is heavily reliant on the immigrant community, he said. If immigrants start leaving, its not a pretty picture.

Staff Writers Daniel Tepfer, John Nickerson and Dirk Perrefort contributed to this report.Connecticut has the highest administrative costs for road and bridge projects in the nation  and its transportation system is among the worst, a new report claims.

In 2015 the state spent over $99,000 per mile on administrative costs associated with building and repairing roads and bridges, the most in the nation, according to The Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank linked to the oil industry.

By comparison, Kentucky spent $1,043 per mile, and the national average is nearly $11, 000 per mile, the report said.

Connecticut Department of Transportation officials blasted the report as inaccurate and misleading and not an effective assessment of the department.

The state concluded that when the data is corrected, Connecticut has the 10th highest administrative costs for road and bridge construction projects.

"The Connecticut DOT and many other states in the country do not regard the (The Reason Foundation) analysis as an accurate or fair representation," officials said.

Administrative costs are expenses incurred for managing and developing a road or bridge project and do not include the actual cost of the work. The level of expenses is often used to judge the effectiveness of a government program or a charitable organization.

James Cameron, founder of the Commuter Action Group, a Hearst Connecticut Media columnist and frequent DOT critic, said he doesnt believe the report is credible.

"My initial reaction to the Reason Foundation's report was this can't be true," Cameron said.

"It seems impossible that, expensive as our state is, that their numbers could be true," Cameron said. "Is DOT wasting as much money and giving us such poor roads, as this report implies? I think not."

But Baruch Feigenbaum, a co-author of the report, stood by his calculations, saying the numbers came from reports the state filed with federal highway officials to receive funding.

"We do stand by the report," Feigenbaum said. "The governor is raising taxes and they are trying to look better."

Feigenbaum said if the numbers reported to federal officials are wrong he would change the conclusions. But he said its doubtful those reports are wrong because the state would lose federal funding.

Bad conditions

The report, entitled "Ranking the Best, Worst, Safest, and Most Expensive State Highway Systems," contains bundles of data and dozens of charts ranking states on highway safety, transportation spending and other issues.

The foundation noted that Connecticut in 2015 spent $497,659 per state-controlled mile on road building and maintenance, the 44th most in the nation. The average cost per mile nationwide was $178,116, the report noted.

Connecticut ranked 46th in the nation for its overall transportation system in the report. The state received low scores for rural pavement and bridge conditions.

The foundation said that while most states saw bridge conditions improve, seven states - including Connecticut  reported that more than one third of their bridges were deficient.

More Information Here are some of the conclusions contained in the Reason Foundation report on Connecticut's transportation system: Connecticut in 2105 spent over $99,417 per state-controlled mile for administrative costs, the most in the nation Connecticut spent $497,659 per state-controlled mile on road building and maintenance, the 44th most in the nation Connecticut ranked 46th in the nation for its overall transportation system One-third of Connecticut's bridges are deficient. Connecticut's highway and road fatality rate is the 6th lowest in the nation. The condition of pavement on Connecticut's rural roads was ranked 48th worst in the nation Source: Reason Foundation report "Ranking the Best, Worst, Safest, and Most Expensive State Highway Systems" See More Collapse

On a positive note, the foundation said Connecticuts state highway and road fatality rate was the 6th lowest in the nation.

"North Dakota was the top-ranked state on performance and cost-effectiveness thanks to excellent scores on urban interstate pavement condition, rural interstate pavement condition, urbanized area traffic congestion and maintenance disbursements per mile," the study said.

"Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska and South Carolina were the other states in top five of the overall rankings," the foundation said.

The worst state overall, according to the report, was New Jersey, which ranked 50th in performance and cost-effectiveness. Rhode Island, Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut were also in the bottom five of the overall rankings, the report said.

Disputed report

Connecticut DOT officials have faced negative rankings in national reports before and readily admit the state is in dire need of billions of dollars to revamp its highways and bridges and reduce congestion on major highways, such as I-95 in Fairfield County and I-84 in Danbury.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is asking the legislature to approve electronic highway tolls, increase the gas tax by seven cents and slap a new $3 fee on tires to help pay for infrastructure repairs and replenish a nearly broke Special Transportation Fund.

DOT officials have rarely disputed a report with the detail and effort put into rebuking the Reason Foundation assessment.

In a lengthy statement, DOT noted that while the Reason Foundation has issued similar reports for the last 23 years, the current one has "several basic flaws inherent in the findings of the report."

Those flaws include not taking into account infrastructure age, weather, cost of living and complexity and usage of each states road system.

"Therefore, urban and rural states are ranked using the same criteria," DOT noted. "With two simple corrections to the data, DOT demonstrated that we rank 10th in the nation."

DOT faulted the report for also not taking into account "how state budgets for transportation differ. Many states do not include personnel benefits or costs for facilities in the DOT budget. Connecticut does."

DOT officials added the report "does not account for other important factors like system complexity, age, multi-modal responsibilities, seasonal impacts on construction and maintenance, regional cost of living and many other factors."

Feigenbaum said the state is offering two sets of numbers: those sent to federal authorities and those used to refute the report.

"Connecticut is not that different from Massachusetts or Delaware yet they have better rankings," Feigenbaum said.

Still, James Gildea, president of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council, worried about how the Reason Foundation report will be used.

"I hope that those who do not wish to address the issue of an insolvent Special Transportation Fund do not politicize this report in an attempt to ignore their responsibility of adequately addressing this issue and finding the long-term answer for moving our transportation system forward," Gildea said.

.RIDGEFIELD - A high-schooler fed up with Congressional inaction on gun safety policy has called for a national high school walkout - an effort that has gained 65,000 supporters in four days.

The call by Ridgefield 15-year-old Lane Murdock for a day of protest and solidary on April 20 is one of several youth-inspired movements for gun safety following the Valentines Day massacre at Florida high school by gunman with an AR 15-style rifle.

When I heard about the news in Florida, I thought to myself, Thats kind of the norm in American culture, and thats not okay,  said Murdock on Monday. So I decided to make my petition and get a movement started.

Murdock was referring to the massacre of 14 students and three staff members last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. - the deadliest school shooting in America since 2012, when a gunman massacred 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook School.

Two other days of youth-led civil disobedience are planned next month - a nationwide school walkout on March 14 and a march on Washington, D.C., 10 days later, organized by survivors of the Valentines Day massacre.

Sarah Clements, a Newtown college student whose mother survived the Sandy Hook shooting, is helping to organize the national walkout on March 14.

Clements said the rise of student activism is happening now because of work that began after Sandy Hook in 2012 by nonprofit groups such as Moms Demand Action for Gun Violence Prevention, which help give structure to student anger.

Young people are using their righteous anger about what happened to their friends, Clements said. I know very well that feeling of anger after something like this happens so close to you. This is the only way these students know how to heal, plus they are very skilled at using social media.

Ridgefields Murdock, who placed her petition online with the campaign platform change.org, saw her appeal grow by tens of thousands in just a few days.

There has been too much complacency on the part of politicians when it comes to gun violence, Murdock says in the online appeal. High School students across the U.S.A, the way to fight back is here.

School superintendents across greater Danbury said Monday that they were aware of students sharing messages of walkouts on social media, and had not yet discussed how to respond with administrators.

Brookfield schools Superintendent John Barile said talks are already planned between high school administrators and student leaders on Wednesday, for example.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who has been the target of criticism by some survivors of the Florida shooting, plans to meet with students on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

Clements, who founded a youth chapter of the Newtown Action Alliance, said Trump is fueling student activism because he is seen by some students as an opponent of gun policy reform.

That is also underlying the youth activity we are seeing in our community - this era of Trump that has motivated so many students to speak out, Clements said. Students today are extremely well-versed in social justice issues, and they know how to use technology to impact their world.ANSONIA  Honoring the past is something present Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale and his officers believe is important, especially when it comes to individuals who gave their all to serve and protect in the line of duty.

Hale recently told the Board of Aldermen he was approached by some of his officers, with Officer Chris Kelley taking the lead, about paying homage to Ansonias first Police Chief Daniel Hayes.

Hayes, according to Hale, was police chief in 1880. He was born in Ireland in 1846 and later settled in Ansonia. According to the website, The Officer Down Memorial, Inc., Hayes was shot two days before Christmas in 1880 while attempting to arrest a suspect.

The suspect was James Chip Smith. Hayes had been summoned by Smiths father who asked him to arrest his son for discharging a pistol in a saloon. Smith had been drinking most of the day, threatening both his boss and his mother with the gun.

When Hayes located Smith at the former Railroad Hotel downtown, which was located near the current railroad station, a struggle ensued and Hayes was shot in the stomach by Smith. Hayes, 34, died of his injuries four days later at the home of former Ansonia Police Chief Thomas Ellis, who went on to become the departments longest serving chief for 33 years.

Smith was eventually found guilty and executed in 1882.

Hale said Hayes was the second police officer in Connecticuts history to be killed in the line of duty. A more complete biography about Hayes can be found on Ansonia polices website.

With May known as Police Memorial Month, and May 15 dubbed National Police Day by President John F. Kennedy, Hale and his officers would like to pay homage to Hayes in a special way this year. Theyd like to see a street downtown, currently named Railroad Avenue, renamed after Chief Hayes.

Hale said the police will submit a formal request to the Board of Aldermen, likely at the boards monthly meeting in March, to rename the street.

It is important to remember those who have gone before us, especially those who gave their lives protecting others, Hale said. Chief Hayes left an important legacy in a number of ways.

Hale noted not only was Hayes the citys first police chief, but he had three children, one of whom was named Mary, who was an educator here and whose name was placed on the former Lincoln-Hayes School on Cottage Avenue. Hale also said judges to this day still use the Chip Smith Rule, when charging juries, an instruction that encourages juries to do all they can to break a deadlock.

There is a tremendous amount of history and bravery in Chief Hayes story and it is important for all of us to remember, Hale said.

Aldermanic President Lorie Vaccaro said the police departments proposal to rename a street downtown for Hayes is a fitting tribute.

I feel that to honor the late Chief Hayes by renaming Railroad Ave in his memory is absolutely the right thing to do, said Vaccaro.

Vaccaro noted that in order to change the name of a city street, aldermen would need to draft up a resolution, which he believes would receive full support from his fellow aldermen.

In speaking for the board, Id say that every alderman would be honored to rename Railroad Avenue to recognize, honor and remember one of Ansonias first true heroes, Vaccaro said.HARTFORD  The first battle of the 2018 election campaign will take place Monday when lawmakers consider the man who might become the first openly gay state Supreme Court chief justice in the United States.

Its shaping up to become a proxy fight, with conservative Republicans, including two gubernatorial hopefuls, importing Washington-style partisanship against Democrats and a disliked governor in his final year. The atmosphere has been heightened by homophobic internet attacks from fringe groups.

Stuck in the middle is Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonald, of Stamford, whose nomination to replace Chase T. Rogers will be the subject of a public hearing Monday morning before the General Assemblys Judiciary Committee.

McDonald was a longtime legal adviser to Dannel P. Malloy, dating back to Malloys tenure as Stamford mayor. A former state senator who was co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, McDonald left the General Assembly following Malloys 2010 election as governor to become his Capitol legal counsel. Malloy nominated him for a post on the Supreme Court in 2013.

One of the smartest people

McDonald declined to comment, but the governor said that his former adviser has the experience to lead the high court.

Hes brilliant, Malloy said. Hes one of the smartest people I have ever met. All I ask is that he be judged on the answers to questions and on what hes written. At the end, if there are reasonable differences, so be it.

Malloy and Democrats, with a nominal majority in the Senate and a narrow 79-72 edge in the House, are critical of GOP attempts to take a tactic from Washington and push for a delay in the appointment of a new chief justice until after the next governor takes office in 2019.

Criticism of McDonald has been led by Tim Herbst, the former Trumbull first selectman, and Rep. Prasad Srinivasan, R-Glastonbury, both of whom are running for governor.

As recently as Wednesday, during a GOP debate in West Haven, Herbst railed against McDonald several times, criticizing his links to Malloy.

Ill tell you what the swamp is, Herbst said. When the governor of the state of Connecticut nominates his best friend and political adviser to be the chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court with limited judicial experience.

A website called thefamilycourtcircus.com, referred to McDonalds nomination under a headline called Jewdicial Sodomites. The ultra-conservative Breibart news site, claims that opposition is growing against McDonald because he is a progressive judicial activist.

In 2009, McDonald, as co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, came under fire from Catholics after scheduling a public hearing on a bill that would have rewritten century-old church incorporation rules. The legislation was filed on behalf of parishioners dealing with million-dollar embezzlement cases in Greenwich and Darien. Roman Catholic officials considered the bill a threat to the state law that makes individual parishes liable for legal action, protecting the dioceses. Church officials bused in hundreds of church members from throughout the state to protest.

Republican Senate Leader Len Fasano, of North Haven, said that he will listen to Mondays testimony and he has been reading through decisions McDonald has written.

More Information Supreme Court Associate Justice Andrew J. McDonald Age: 51 Education: Stamford public schools; B.A. from Cornell University, 1988; Law degree with honors from UConn School of Law, 1991. Bench experience: State Supreme Court, confirmed 2013. Chairman of the Connecticut Criminal Justice Commission, 2016. Legal experience: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's general legal counsel 2011-13. Private legal practice, commercial litigation with Pullman & Comley, LLC 1991-2011. Legal affairs director and corporation counsel for the city of Stamford 1999-2002. Elected experience: State senator from Stamford 2003-11. Stamford Board of Representatives, 1993-95. City's Board of Finance from 1995-99, two years as chairman. Personal: McDonald and his husband, Charles, live in Stamford. See More Collapse

I like Andrew, personally, Fasano said. I think hes a good guy, but its about where he believes the role of the Supreme Court is.

Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, a veteran five-term member of the Judiciary Committee, said the big question is whether McDonald is qualified to run the Judicial Branch. McLachlan has filed several requests with the Judicial Branch in connection with McDonalds nomination.

A dangerous trend

This is a very unusual job in government, McLachlan said. Youre appointed and youre never answering to voters. Youre supposedly answering to the Legislature. Justice McDonald has been on the court for five years, but without judicial-management experience. He wasnt a chief judge in a Superior Court district.

Meanwhile, a group of the states top lawyers has warned all 151 House members and 36 senators that recent reviews of judicial nominees indicate a dangerous trend ... increasingly partisan in tone and increasingly focused on political concerns.

The 45-member group, which calls itself the Ad Hoc Committee of Concerned Lawyers, includes the deans of the University of Connecticut, Yale and Quinnipiac University law schools, as well as the states major law firms and organizations.

Senate President Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, said McDonalds experience in the Legislature, in the Capitol as the governors counsel and his current Supreme Court tenure make him uniquely qualified.

Looney said that while some might characterize McDonald as an activist judge, there are many decisions in which he has supported the Legislatures role. Looney said McDonalds understanding of the totality of state government makes his candidacy even more attractive.

Hes lived it all, rather than just dealing with it in theory, over the last 15 years, Looney said.

A tradition of qualifications

Andrew is a good friend of mine, someone I served with, said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. He is eminently qualified to be chief. I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the Republicans in our state who may use Andrews nomination for some kind of political tool because they may not like him personally, or the person who appointed him.

Sen. Beth Bye, D-East Hartford, expects there will be opposition during the hearing.

There are definitely some folks lining up against him, Bye said. I think its because of his strong advocacy for LGBT rights. The courts are there to stand up for people and for individual rights. But there are other groups that were not happy with his stands.Connecticut is facing a one-half billion dollar deficit in the two-year $41 billion budget Governor Malloy signed less than four months ago on Halloween. The actual trick, though, was played four months earlier when the Democrat-controlled Assembly ratified the Governors super-sweetheart deal with state employee unions, the SEBAC 2017 agreement.

Once SEBAC 2017 was inked, there was no way to balance the budget. Connecticuts budget will never balance until state employee pay and benefits are scaled back dramatically.

SEBAC 2017 includes a wage agreement for five years  one retroactive  and a 10-year benefits agreement. Yes, for 10 years, employee benefits are untouchable.

Lets focus just on the five-year part of the deal that will hit employees pay checks: wage provisions and deductions for employee contributions to fund their own benefits. To begin, a recent study by the American Enterprise Institute found that Connecticut is the only state where state employees have higher wages than private sector employees.

Malloy claims hes achieved billions in wage savings from painful sacrifices made by employees. He claims independent actuarial analyses found the savings.

Hardly. According to the governors own summary of his deal, Wages estimates were developed by OPM (Office of Policy and Management), the governors own budget department, which is not independent, nor staffed by actuaries.

Moreover, that same summary says the savings were derived from elimination of potential increases. Savings from potential increases? Thats the stuff of fantasy.

State Sen. Len Suzio, R-Meriden, has analyzed the impact on the average employee, which shows exactly the opposite of Malloys yarn, namely continuing wage increases. The legislatures non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis has reviewed and validated Suzios analysis.

The governor spun his tale of savings by pointing to three unpaid furlough days this year worth $850 for the average employee  and a wage freeze for the first three years, followed by 3.5 percent wage increases in each of the next two years. Note that flat years followed by annual increases do not save anything.

But theres more. Malloy failed to mention something called step increases, which are regular annual wage increases for every full-time employee. Steps average 3 percent, according to OFA. While they are suspended for the three-year wage freeze, they recommence in the fourth and fifth years. Wages will increase 6.5 percent in each of the final two years of the deal, or 13.6 percent compounded.

According to OFA, the average state employee made $74,000 last June. Four years later, he will be making over $84,000. Wheres the pain? Where are the savings?

Malloy skipped over the cash payments that employees are receiving. First, to soften the hardship of the wage freeze, SEBAC 2017 pays every employee a one-time payment of $2,000 to $2,850 in the third year. In effect, that cancels one of the three years of the wage freeze.

Then, there are annual longevity payments paid to longer serving employees every year, including the three years of the wage freeze. Employees with 10 to 15 years of service receive $1,000 and those with more than 15 get $2,000.

Most employees have served more than ten years. So, conservatively, half of employees will receive $5,000, bringing their cash receipts over the five years to more than $6,000, including the minimum $2,000 one-time payment and deducting $875 for unpaid furlough days. No pain here, and no savings.

Now, how about employee contributions to fund their own benefit programs? Theres a two-stage increase in their contribution to their pensions  1.5 percent of salary next year, plus another 0.5 percent thereafter. So, deductions from employees paycheck will total between 2 percent to 4 percent in the fourth year and thereafter  paltry amounts compared to the 13.6 percent salary increase.

There are three 1 percent annual increases in employees share of their health care premiums, taking them from about 12 percent to 15 percent of the premium in the fifth year. Not much pain here. Not much savings either, with the state share declining only from 88 percent to 85 percent.

Thats it. There are no other adjustments to state employees paychecks.

But Malloy thinks he extracted sacrifice, so he must have traded something for it, right? Union negotiators dont give something for nothing. Malloy gave the unions a four-year, no-layoff guarantee. So, the workforce cannot be downsized to save money.

When SEBAC 2017 took effect last summer, there were about 52,000 full time state employees and 16,000 part-timers, who receive retirement benefits. With about the same number in four years, and wages increasing, simple math tells us that there are no wage savings in the agreement.

Just the average $10,000 salary increase for full-timers will add roughly a half-billion dollars to the state payroll  just for their wages, excluding their benefits, and not counting any increases for part-time employees.

Malloy, the Democrats and their union cronies have played a cruel trick upon the citizens.PA liquor stores put 2-bottle limit on some booze. Here's the list

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board notified license holders Thursday that two-bottles-per-day purchase limits for customers at state stores, as well as well for bars, restaurants and other license holders, will remain in place indefinitely.CYBG PLC, through its subsidiaries, provides retail and business banking products and services to individuals and businesses under the Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank, B, and Virgin Money brands in the United Kingdom. It operates through SME Banking and Retail Banking segments. The SME Banking segment offers a range of banking products and services, including business current accounts; and secured and unsecured term loans, business overdrafts, and invoice and asset financing products and services. It also provides international trade services, such as import loans, export loans, documentary collections, currency guarantees, and letters of credit for securing trade; and current account facilities comprising debit cards, cheque books, regular statements, direct debits, and standing orders, as well as day to day and online banking services. This segment serves business customers in the small business, commercial, corporate, and structured finance markets. The Retail Banking segment offers personal current accounts, savings accounts, and term deposits; occupied mortgage loans and BTL loans, unsecured personal loans, and overdrafts, as well as credit card products; and insurance and investment products. The company was founded in 1838 and is based in Leeds, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Aramark: 1ST & Fresh LLC, AIL Servicos Alimenticios e Participacoes Ltda., AIM Services Co. Ltd., AMP Limited Partnership, ARA Catering and Vending Services Limited, ARA Coffee Club Limited, ARA Coffee System Limited, ARA Food Services Limited, ARA Marketing Services Limited, ARA Offshore Services Limited, ARAMONT Company Ltd., Active Industrial Unif, Alcatraz Hospitality, AmeriPride Services, American Snack & Beverage LLC, Aramark (BVI) Limited, Aramark Airport Services Limited, Aramark American Food Services LLC, Aramark Asia Management LLC, Aramark Aviation Services Limited Partnership, Aramark B.V., Aramark Beverages Limited, Aramark Business & Industry LLC, Aramark Business Center LLC, Aramark Business Dining Services of Texas LLC, Aramark Business Facilities LLC, Aramark CCT Trustees Limited, Aramark Campus LLC, Aramark Canada Ltd., Aramark Canadian Investments Inc., Aramark Capital Asset Services LLC, Aramark Catering Limited, Aramark China Dining Services (Shanghai) Limited, Aramark China Holdings Limited, Aramark Chugach Alaska Services LLC, Aramark Cleaning S.A., Aramark Cleanroom Services (Puerto Rico) Inc., Aramark Cleanroom Services LLC, Aramark Co. Ltd., Aramark Colombia SAS, Aramark Concessions Services Joint Venture, Aramark Confection LLC, Aramark Construction Services Inc., Aramark Construction and Energy Services LLC, Aramark Consumer Discount Company, Aramark Correctional Services LLC, Aramark Defence Services Limited, Aramark Denmark ApS, Aramark Distribution Services Inc., Aramark Educational Group LLC, Aramark Educational Services LLC, Aramark Educational Services of Texas LLC, Aramark Educational Services of Vermont Inc., Aramark Entertainment LLC, Aramark Entertainment Services (Canada) Inc., Aramark Executive Management Services USA Inc., Aramark FHC Business Services LLC, Aramark FHC Campus Services LLC, Aramark FHC Correctional Services LLC, Aramark FHC Healthcare Support Services LLC, Aramark FHC Kansas Inc., Aramark FHC LLC, Aramark FHC Refreshment Services LLC, Aramark FHC School Support Services LLC, Aramark FHC Services LLC, Aramark FHC Sports and Entertainment Services LLC, Aramark FSM LLC, Aramark Facility Services LLC, Aramark Food Service LLC, Aramark Food Service of Texas LLC, Aramark Food and Support Services Group Inc., Aramark Global Group S.a.r.l., Aramark Global Inc., Aramark GmbH, Aramark Gulf Limited, Aramark Gulf Limited Catering Services LLC, Aramark Healthcare Support Services LLC, Aramark Healthcare Support Services of the Virgin Islands Inc., Aramark Healthcare Technologies LLC, Aramark Holding Deutschland GmbH, Aramark Holdings GmbH & Co. KG, Aramark Holdings Ltd., Aramark Industrial Services LLC, Aramark Intermediate HoldCo Corporation, Aramark International Finance S.a.r.l., Aramark International Holdings S.a.r.l., Aramark Inversiones Latinoamericanas Limitada, Aramark Investments Limited, Aramark Ireland Holdings Limited, Aramark Japan Holdings Limited, Aramark Japan LLC, Aramark KSA LLC, Aramark Kazakhstan Ltd., Aramark Lakewood Associates, Aramark Limited, Aramark Management GmbH, Aramark Management LLC, Aramark Management Services Limited Partnership, Aramark Manning Services UK Limited, Aramark Mexico Group, Aramark Mexico S.A. de C.V., Aramark Monclova Manufacturing de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Aramark Monclova Support S.A.de C.V., Aramark Norway SA, Aramark Organizational Services LLC, Aramark Partnership Limited, Aramark Personnel Services, Aramark Peru S.A.C., Aramark Peru Servicios de Intermediacion SRL, Aramark Processing LLC, Aramark Property Services Limited, Aramark Qualified Opportunity Fund, Aramark Quebec Inc., Aramark RBI Inc., Aramark Rail Services LLC, Aramark Receivables LLC, Aramark Refreshment Group, Aramark Refreshment Services LLC, Aramark Refreshment Services of Tampa LLC, Aramark Regional Treasury Europe DAC, Aramark Remote Workplace Services Ltd., Aramark Restaurations GmbH, Aramark S&E/QCF Joint Venture, Aramark S.A., Aramark S.A. de C.V., Aramark S.R.O., Aramark SARL, Aramark SCM Inc., Aramark SM Management Services Inc., Aramark SMMS LLC, Aramark SMMS Real Estate LLC, Aramark School Catering Facility Ltd., Aramark Schools Facilities LLC, Aramark Schools LLC, Aramark Senior Living Services LLC, Aramark Senior Notes Company LLC, Aramark Service Industries (China) Co. 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Ltd., Campbell Catering Holdings Limited, Campbell Catering Limited, Campbell Catering Ltd., Campbell Catering Services, Canadian Linen and Uniform Service Co., Canyonlands Rafting Hospitality LLC, Catering Alliance Limited, Caterwise Food Services Limited, Central Multiservicios S.R.L., Central de Abastecimiento Limitada, Central de Restaurantes Aramark Limitada, Central de Restaurantes Aramark Multiservicios Limitada, Central de Restaurantes S.R.L., Centrapal S.R.L., Centro de Innovacion y Servicio S.A., Cliff House Hospitality, Comertel Educa SLU, Comertel Residencia SLU, Comertel SA, Complete Purchasing Services Inc., Corporate Coffee Systems LLC, Crater Lake Hospitality, D.G. Maren II Inc., Delicious on West Street LLC, Delsac VIII Inc., Distributor JV Limited, Dongguan Best Property Management Co., Doyon/Aramark Denali National Park Concessions Joint Venture, Effective Partnerships Limited, Filterfresh Coffee Service, Filterfresh Coffee Service LLC, Filterfresh Franchise Group LLC, Fine Host Holdings LLC, Food JV Limited, Freedom Ferry Services, GTB Gastro Team Bremen GmbH, Gestion de Alimentacion y Limpieza Colectivadades SLU, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve Concessions LLC, Glen Canyon Rafting Hospitality, Glenrye Properties Services Limited, Golden Collar, Good Uncle Services, Gourmet Aramark Services LLC, Guaranty Energy Group 1981, HPSI Purchasing Services LLC, Harrison Conference Associates LLC, Harrison Conference Services of North Carolina LLC, Harry M. Stevens Inc. of New Jersey, Harry M. Stevens Inc. of Penn., Harry M. Stevens LLC, Hunters Catering Partnership Limited, Institutional Processing Services, Instituto ICS S.A., Inversiones Aramark Chile Limitada, Inversiones Centralcorp Limitada, Inversiones Palm Limitada, Inversiones en Aseo y Mantenimiento S.A, Irish Estates (Facilities Management) Limited, L&N Uniform Supply LLC, Lake Tahoe Cruises LLC, Landy Textile Rental Services LLC, Lifeworks Restaurant Group LLC, Lotus Facilities Management, MESA, Masterplan, Medical Equipment Solutions & Applications Sagl (MESA), Mill Mount Weavers Limited, Muir Woods Hospitality, MyAssistant Inc., New Aramark LLC, Nissho Linen, North Rim Hospitality, Old Time Coffee Co., Olympic Peninsula Hospitality LLC, Orange Support Services Limited, Overall Laundry Services Inc., Paradise Hornblower LLC, Pelican Procurement Services Limited, Philadelphia Ballpark Concessions Joint Venture, Prem Hospitality Limited, Premgroup Franchise Services Limited, Premier Management Company (Dublin) Limited, Premier Partnership (Catering) Limited, Quebec Linge Co., ReMedPar, Restaura Inc., Rocky Mountain Hospitality LLC, Rushmore Hospitality LLC, SeamlessWeb, Seguricorp Servicios S.A., South Rim Hospitality LLC, Spokesoft Technologies Limited, Stuart Cabeldu Catering Limited, Sun Office Service Inc., Tarrant County Concessions LLC, The Aramark Foundation, The Original Food Company Limited, Travel Systems LLC, Trinity Hospitality Services GmbH, Trinity Hospitality Services SARL, Trinity Purchasing N.V., Vector Environmental Services Limited, Vector Workplace and Facility Management Limited, Veris Plc, Veris Property Management Limited, Veris UK Limited, WearGuard, Wilderness River Adventures, and Yosemite Hospitality LLC.TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG provides integrated telecommunication services to private and business customers in Germany. It offers voice, data, and value-added services in mobile and fixed line networks; access to infrastructure and services for its wholesale partners; and digital products and services in the fields of Internet of Things. The company provides its products and services through a network of independently operated franchise and premium partner shops, and online and telesales channels, as well as indirect selling channels, such as partnerships and co-operations with retailers. It markets its products and services under the O2, Blau, AY YILDIZ, Ortel Mobile, FONIC, netzclub, and TArkeiSIM brand names. As of December 31, 2020, TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG had approximately 47 million customers. The company was formerly known as TelefAnica Germany Verwaltungs GmbH and changed its name to TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG in September 2012. The company is based in Munich, Germany. TelefAnica Deutschland Holding AG is a subsidiary of Telefonica Germany Holdings Limited.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of WESCO International: 1502218 Alberta Ltd., ALLNET Technologies Pty. Ltd., AXE Distribution Solutions Trinidad Ltd., Accu-Tech Corporation, Anixter (Barbados) SRL, Anixter (CIS) LLC, Anixter (Switzerland) Sarl, Anixter (U.K.) Limited, Anixter Argentina S.A., Anixter Asia Holdings Limited, Anixter Australia Pty. Ltd., Anixter Austria GmbH, Anixter Bahamas Limited, Anixter Belgium B.V.B.A., Anixter Cables y Manufacturas S.A. de C.V., Anixter Canada Inc., Anixter Canadian Holdings ULC, Anixter Chile S.A., Anixter Colombia S.A.S., Anixter Communications (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Anixter Communications (Shanghai) Co. Limited, Anixter Costa Rica S.A., Anixter Czech a.s., Anixter Danmark A/S, Anixter Deutschland GmbH, Anixter Distribuidor de Soluciones Empresariales e Industriales S.A., Anixter Distribution Ireland Limited, Anixter Dominicana SRL, Anixter Egypt LLC, Anixter Espana S.L., Anixter Eurotwo Holdings B.V., Anixter Fasteners Deutschland GmbH, Anixter Financial Inc., Anixter France SARL, Anixter Guatemala y Compania Limitada, Anixter Holdings Inc., Anixter Holdings Mexico LLC, Anixter Hong Kong Limited, Anixter Iletisim Sistemleri Pazarlama ve Ticaret A.S., Anixter Inc., Anixter India Private Limited, Anixter Information Systems LLC, Anixter International, Anixter Italia S.r.l., Anixter Jamaica Limited, Anixter Japan KK, Anixter Jorvex S.A.C., Anixter Limited, Anixter Logistica do Brasil LTDA, Anixter Logistica y Servicios S.A. de C.V., Anixter Magyarorszag Elektronikus Halozati Rendszer Kereskedelmi es Szolgaltato Kft, Anixter Mid Holdings B.V., Anixter Middle East FZE, Anixter Morocco SARL AU, Anixter Nederland B.V., Anixter New Zealand Limited, Anixter Norge A.N.S., Anixter Operaciones y Logistica s De RL De CV, Anixter Panama S.A., Anixter Pension Scheme Trustees Limited, Anixter Pension Trustees Limited, Anixter Peru S.A.C., Anixter Philippines Inc., Anixter Poland Sp.z.o.o., Anixter Portugal S.A., Anixter Power Solutions Canada Inc., Anixter Power Solutions Inc., Anixter Procurement Corporation, Anixter Puerto Rico Inc., Anixter Real-Estate LLC, Anixter Receivables Corporation, Anixter Saudi Arabia Limited, Anixter Singapore Pte. Ltd., Anixter Slovakia s.r.o., Anixter Sub Holdings B.V, Anixter Sverige AB, Anixter Thailand Inc., Anixter U.S. LLC, Anixter Venezuela Inc., Anixter de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Anixter do Brasil Ltda, Atlanta Electrical Distributors, Atlanta Electrical Distributors LLC, Atlas Gentech (NZ) Limited, Avon Electrical Supplies, B.E.L. Corporation, Brews Supply, Brown Wholesale Electric, Bruckner Supply, CBC LP Holdings LLC, CDW Holdco LLC, Calvert Wire & Cable Corporation, Carlton-Bates Company, Carlton-Bates Company (CBC), Carlton-Bates Company de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Carlton-Bates Company of Texas GP Inc, Central Security Distribution Pty. Ltd, Communication Cables LLC, Communications Supply Corporation, Conney Investment Holdings LLC, Conney Safety Products, Conney Safety Products LLC, Distribuidora Materiales Electricos E-Supply Limitada, EECOL Electric, EECOL Electric Bolivia Ltda, EECOL Electric Corp., EECOL Electric Peru S.A.C, EECOL Industrial Electric (SudAmerica) Limitada, EECOL Industrial Electric Ecuador Limitada, EECOL Industrial Electric Limitada, EECOL Power S.A., EECOL Properties Corp, Eurinvest B.V., Eurinvest Cooperatief U.A., Fastec Industrial, HMH Pension Trustees Limited, Hazmasters, Hazmasters Inc., Herning Underground Supply, Hi-Line Utility Supply, Hi-Line Utility Supply Company LLC, Hill Country Electric Supply, Hill Country Electric Supply L.P., ICV GP Inc., Infast Group Limited, Inner Range Pty. Ltd, Itel Container Ventures Inc., Itel Corporation, Itel Rail Holdings Corporation, J-Mark Inc., LaPrairie, Liberty Wire & Cable Inc., Monti Electric Supply, Needham Electric Supply, Needham Electric Supply LLC, Obras Y Servicios Sunpark S.A.C., PT Anixter Indonesia, Potelcom Supply, Pro Canadian Holdings I ULC, RECO LLC, RS Electronics, Reily Electrical Supply, SASK Alta Holdings S.A., Services Voice Video and Data Distribution de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios Anixter S.A. de C.V., Signal Capital Corporation, Signal Capital Projects Inc., Stone Eagle Electrical Supply GP Inc., Stone Eagle Electrical Supply Limited Partnership, TVC Communications, TVC Communications L.L.C., TVC Espana Distribucion y Venta De Equipos S.L., TVC International Holding L.L.C., TVC UK Holdings Limited, Tri-Ed Puerto Rico Ltd. Inc., Trydor Industries, Voice Video and Data Distribution de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., WDC Holding Inc., WDCH LP, WDCH US LP, WDI USVI LLC, WDI-Angola LDA, WDINESCO B.V., WDINESCO II B.V., WDINESCO III B.V., WEAS Company S. de R.L., WESCO (Suzhou) Trading Co. Ltd., WESCO Australia Pty Ltd, WESCO Canada GP Inc., WESCO Canada I LP, WESCO DC Holding I LP, WESCO DC Holding II LP, WESCO DC Holding III LP, WESCO DC Holding IV LP, WESCO Distribution Canada Co., WESCO Distribution Canada LP, WESCO Distribution HK Limited, WESCO Distribution II ULC, WESCO Distribution III ULC, WESCO Distribution IV Inc., WESCO Distribution Inc., WESCO Distribution Ireland Limited, WESCO Distribution NL B.V., WESCO Distribution Pte. Ltd., WESCO Distribution de Mexico S. de R.L., WESCO Distribution-International Limited, WESCO Enterprises Inc., WESCO Equity Corporation, WESCO Holdings LLC, WESCO Integrated Supply Inc., WESCO Integrated Supply Polska Spolka z o.o., WESCO Netherlands B.V., WESCO Nevada Ltd., WESCO Nigeria Inc., WESCO Procurement Canada ULC, WESCO Real Estate I LLC, WESCO Real Estate II LLC, WESCO Real Estate III LLC, WESCO Real Estate IV LLC, WESCO Receivables Corp., WESCO Services LLC, WESCO TLD Holdings Co. Ltd., WND Nigeria Limited, WireXpress Ltd., Xpress Connect Supply Hong Kong Limited, XpressConnect Holdings B.V., XpressConnect International B.V., XpressConnect Supply B.V.B.A., XpressConnect Supply Colombia S.A.S., XpressConnect Supply Inc., XpressConnect Supply Mexico S.A. de C.V., and XpressConnect Supply do Brasil Ltda.The following companies are subsidiares of Colgate-Palmolive: 887357 Ontario Inc., COLGALIVE S.A., CP GABA GmbH, CP International Holding C.V., CP West East Investment Limited, Cleaning Dimensions Inc., Colgate (BVI) Limited, Colgate (Guangzhou) Company Limited, Colgate (U.K.) Limited, Colgate Business Services of the Americas S.C., Colgate Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Colgate Global Business Services Private Limited, Colgate Holdings, Colgate Inc., Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals Inc., Colgate Palmolive Ghana Limited, Colgate Palmolive Holding S.Com.P.A., Colgate Palmolive Nouvelle Caledonie Sarl, Colgate Palmolive Tanzania Limited, Colgate Sanxiao Company Limited, Colgate Venture Company Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Asia) Pte Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Blantyre) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Brunei) Sdn Bhn, Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc. y Compania Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive (Centro America) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (China) Co. Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Costa Rica) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominica) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominican Republic) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (East Africa) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Eastern) Pte. Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Egypt) S.A.E., Colgate-Palmolive (Far East) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Fiji) Pte Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Gabon) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Guyana) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (H.K.) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Hellas) S.A. I.C., Colgate-Palmolive (Hong Kong) Holding Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Kazakhstan) L.L.P., Colgate-Palmolive (Latvia) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Middle East Exports) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Myanmar) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (New York) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive (Proprietary) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Research & Development) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Romania) SRL, Colgate-Palmolive (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Uganda) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Vietnam) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Zambia) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Zimbabwe) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive A.B., Colgate-Palmolive A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Adria Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Treasury Services Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Belgium S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Bolivia Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Caricom Service Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Central European Management Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Chile S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cia., Colgate-Palmolive Comercial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Commercial (Hellas) SP LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Commerciale S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive Commericale S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive Compania Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive Company Distr. LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Cote dIvoire S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cyprus Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Development Corp., Colgate-Palmolive East West Africa Region (Pty) Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Enterprises Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Espana S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Europe (Holdings) Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Europe Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Finance (UK) plc, Colgate-Palmolive Global Trading Company, Colgate-Palmolive Holding Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Holding Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Hungary Kft Limited Liability Company, Colgate-Palmolive IHQ Services (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Inc. S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Industrial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Industriel S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive International Holding LLC, Colgate-Palmolive International LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Investment Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (BVI) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (PNG) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Investments Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Israel Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Italia S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive JSC, Colgate-Palmolive Lanka (Private) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Latin America Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Marketing Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive Maroc S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Mocambique Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive NJ Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Nederland B.V., Colgate-Palmolive Norge A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Participacoes e Investimentos Imobiliarios Lda., Colgate-Palmolive Peru S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Philippines Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Pty Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Retirement Trustee Limited, Colgate-Palmolive S.A. de C.V., Colgate-Palmolive S.p.A., Colgate-Palmolive Senegal S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Services (Hellas) LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Services CEW GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Services S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Slovensko s.r.o., Colgate-Palmolive Support Services, Colgate-Palmolive Temizlik Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticart S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Transnational Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Ukraine LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Unipessoal Lda, Colgate-Palmolive de Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive de Puerto Rico Inc., Colgate-Palmolive del Ecuador S.A.I.C., Colgate-Palmolive del Peru (Delaware) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Eeska republika spol. s r.o., Colpal CBS S de R. L. de C. V., Consumer Viewpoint Center Inc., Cotelle S.A., Dimac Development Corp., Dominica Coconut Products Limited, EKIB Inc., ELM Company Limited, Elta MD Holdings Inc., Elta MD Inc., EltaMD, Filorga Americas Inc., Filorga Asia Limited, Filorga Benelux SA, Filorga Cosmetiques Polska, Filorga Middle East DMCC, Filorga Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Filorga RU Limited Liability Company, GABA Europe Holding GmbH, GABA International, GABA International Holding LLC, GABA Schweiz AG, GABA Therwil GmbH, Gamma Development Co. Ltd., Global Trading and Supply LLC, Hamol Ltd., Hello Products, Hello Products LLC, Hills Funding Company, Hills Pet Nutrition (NZ) Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Asia Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Canada Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Denmark ApS, Hills Pet Nutrition Espana S.L., Hills Pet Nutrition GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Holding B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Indiana Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Italia S.r.l., Hills Pet Nutrition Korea Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing s.r.o, Hills Pet Nutrition Norway AS, Hills Pet Nutrition OOO, Hills Pet Nutrition Pty. Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition S.p.A., Hills Pet Nutrition SNC, Hills Pet Nutrition Sales Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition South Africa Proprietary Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition Sweden AB, Hills Pet Nutrition Switzerland GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Taiwan Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition Trading (GZ) Co. Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hills Pet Nutrition de Puerto Rico Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition s.r.o., Hills Pet Products (Benelux) S.A., Hills Pet Products Inc., Hills Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Hills-Colgate (Japan) Ltd., Hopro Liquidating Corp., Hygiene Systemes et Services SA, IES Enterprises Inc., Inmobiliaria Colpal S. de R.L. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Hills S.A. de C.V., Innovacion Creativa S.A. de C.V., Kolynos Corporation, Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Espana S.L.U., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Italia S.R.L., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques S.A., Laser Brand Toothpaste, Lournay Sales Inc., Mennen Company, Mennen Interamerica Ltd., Mennen Limited, Mennen South Africa Ltd., Mennen de Chile Ltd., Mennen de Nicargua S.A., Mission Hills Property Corporation, Mission Hills S.A. de C.V., Norwood International Incorporated, Olive Music Publishing Corporation, PCA SKIN, Paramount Research Inc., Penny LLC, Pet Chemicals Inc., Physicians Care Alliance LLC, Productos Halogenados Copalven C.A., Purity Holding Company, Purity Music Publishing Corporation, Refresh Company Limited, Samuel Taylor Holdings B.V., Sanex, Sanxiao Company Limited, Services Development Co. Ltd., Societe Generale de Negoce et de Services (GENESE) S.A., The GDN - The Global Distributive Network SAS, The Lournay Company Inc., The MPDP - The Medical and Pharmaceutic Distributive Platform SAS, The Murphy-Phoenix Company, Tom's of Maine, Toms of Maine Holdings Inc., Toms of Maine Inc., Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Vipont Pharmaceutical Inc., and XEB Inc..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 Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.Like any other Papua New Guinean ahead of the 2017 general election, I had expectations and high hopes for a result I knew I had worked vigorously to achieve with few resources.

I too was misled into believing that the growing rhetoric would match the end result.

However, when everything was said and done many hundreds of thousands of people did not follow through with the support that appeared to be pledged to me mainly through social media.

I spent each day imagining the wishes and aspirations of millions of people who advocated for revolutionary change in Papua New Guinea in 2017. I knew that my job was to deliver on some of the dreams expressed to me in emails, blogs, and private conversations and even in popular songs.

PORT MORESBY - Enough time has passed to discuss the issues at the centre of my recent decisions [to move from opposition to government]. I did not take any steps without considerable thought of the future of my political party and my country.

I too rested my hopes on the support of millions of people who embraced my messages. I optimistically led a team of committed people who witnessed the expanding crowds and teams of women and children who rallied around our campaign to grant this country the change it was longing for.

I was there I led the charge. But this spirit was not reflected in votes.

My district and my people sacrificed politically so that I could be the voice for the entire country. The people of Wau-Bulolo District accepted the limitations of having their MP in opposition for two terms.

They understood that the resources that developed their infrastructure and delivered services to them came from my own innovation and my willingness to find new and creative ways to access funds and roll out programs in my district with very limited resources from opposition.

Today many voices and faces that were given a chance to commit to lasting change are criticizing my recent decisions and direction. Importantly, I too had beliefs in those in all electorates in PNG that are criticizing me now.

My expectation was that they were going to help me to create change with confidence. Many social media campaigners will never do anything more than sit in the luxury of a virtual reality and criticize.

They will use the thin veil of online chat rooms to analyse and theorize without ever risking anything, not even a vote in a secret ballot.

I respect my friend and colleague Noel Anjo and other brave Papua New Guinean men and women who moved beyond being online social media personalities to becoming brave front line campaigners at the risk of their physical safety and credibility (in the face of an election loss).

I want to say that I too am disappointed with those who are angry with me. I was the voice and I led the fight in anticipation of a revolutionary build-up of support through the ballot that would have forced a different outcome to the one we must all have to live with now.

It will only be a matter of time before some newly elected MPs realise the difference between the cyber and the physical world and lets hope its not at the cost of their voters.

God Bless PNG.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Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. engages in the operation of senior living communities. The firm manages independent living, assisted living and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers. It operates through the following segments: Independent Living Assisted Living & Memory Care, CCRCs, Health Care Services and Management Services. The Independent Living segment is primarily designed for middle to upper income seniors who desire an upscale residential environment providing the highest quality of service. The Assisted Living & Memory Care segment offer housing and 24-hour assistance with ADLs to mid-acuity frail and elderly residents. The CCRCs segment offers a variety of living arrangements and services to accommodate all levels of physical ability and health. The Healthcare Services segment provides home health, hospice and outpatient therapy services, as well as education and wellness programs, to residents of many communities and to seniors living outside communities. The Management Services segment composes of communities operated by the company pursuant to management agreements. The company was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Brentwood, TN.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Sonic Automotive: AM GA LLC, AM Realty GA LLC, AnTrev LLC, Arngar Inc., Autobahn Inc., Avalon Ford Inc., Car Cash of North Carolina Inc., Cornerstone Acceptance Corporation, ECHOPARK: AM GA LLC, ECHOPARK: AM Realty GA LLC, ECHOPARK: EP Realty NC LLC, ECHOPARK: EP Realty SC LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark AZ LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark CA LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark Driver Education LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark FL LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark NC LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark Realty TX LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark SC LLC, ECHOPARK: EchoPark TX LLC, ECHOPARK: Echopark Automotive Inc., ECHOPARK: SAI DS LLC, ECHOPARK: SAI DS Realty TX LLC, ECHOPARK: SAI Vehicle Subscription Inc., ECHOPARK: TT Denver LLC, ECHOPARK: TTRE CO 1 LLC, FAA Beverly Hills Inc., FAA Capitol N Inc., FAA Concord H Inc., FAA Concord T Inc., FAA Dublin N Inc., FAA Dublin VWD Inc., FAA Holding Corp., FAA Las Vegas H Inc., FAA Poway H Inc., FAA Poway T Inc., FAA San Bruno Inc., FAA Santa Monica V Inc., FAA Serramonte H Inc., FAA Serramonte Inc., FAA Serramonte L Inc., FAA Stevens Creek Inc., FAA Torrance CPJ Inc., FirstAmerica Automotive Inc., Fort Mill Ford Inc., Franciscan Motors Inc., Frontier Oldsmobile-Cadillac Inc., Kramer Motors Incorporated, L Dealership Group Inc., Marcus David Corporation, Massey Cadillac Inc. (TN-MI), Mountain States Motors Co. Inc., North Point Imports LLC, Ontario L LLC, Philpott Motors Ltd., SAI AL HC1 Inc., SAI AL HC2 Inc., SAI Ann Arbor Imports LLC, SAI Atlanta B LLC, SAI Broken Arrow C LLC, SAI Calabasas A LLC, SAI Chamblee V LLC, SAI Charlotte M LLC, SAI Chattanooga N LLC, SAI Clearwater T LLC, SAI Cleveland N LLC, SAI Columbus Motors LLC, SAI Columbus T LLC, SAI Columbus VWK LLC, SAI Conroe N LLC, SAI Denver B Inc., SAI Denver C Inc., SAI Denver M Inc., SAI FL HC1 Inc., SAI FL HC2 Inc., SAI FL HC3 Inc., SAI FL HC4 Inc., SAI FL HC7 Inc., SAI Fairfax B LLC, SAI Fort Myers B LLC, SAI Fort Myers H LLC, SAI Fort Myers M LLC, SAI Fort Myers VW LLC, SAI GA HC1 LLC, SAI Irondale Imports LLC, SAI Irondale L LLC, SAI Long Beach B Inc., SAI MD HC1 Inc., SAI McKinney M LLC, SAI Monrovia B Inc., SAI Montgomery B LLC, SAI Montgomery BCH LLC, SAI Montgomery CH LLC, SAI Nashville CSH LLC, SAI Nashville H LLC, SAI Nashville M LLC, SAI Nashville Motors LLC, SAI OK HC1 Inc., SAI Oklahoma City C LLC, SAI Oklahoma City H LLC, SAI Oklahoma City T LLC, SAI Orlando CS LLC, SAI Peachtree LLC, SAI Pensacola A LLC, SAI Philpott T LLC, SAI Riverside C LLC, SAI Roaring Fork LR Inc., SAI Rockville Imports LLC, SAI Rockville L LLC, SAI S. Atlanta JLR LLC, SAI SIC Inc., SAI Santa Clara K Inc., SAI Stone Mountain T LLC, SAI TN HC1 LLC, SAI TN HC2 LLC, SAI TN HC3 LLC, SAI Tulsa N LLC, SAI Tulsa T LLC, SAI Tysons Corner H LLC, SAI Tysons Corner I LLC, SAI VA HC1 Inc., SAI VS GA LLC, SAI VS TX LLC, SAI Vehicle Subscription Inc., SAI West Houston B LLC, SRE Alabama  2 LLC, SRE Alabama  5 LLC, SRE Alabama  6 LLC, SRE California 10 LBB LLC, SRE California 11 PH LLC, SRE California  1 LLC, SRE California  2 LLC, SRE California  3 LLC, SRE California  4 LLC, SRE California  5 LLC, SRE California  6 LLC, SRE California  7 SCB LLC, SRE California  8 SCH LLC, SRE California  9 BHB LLC, SRE Colorado  1 LLC, SRE Colorado  2 LLC, SRE Colorado  3 LLC, SRE Colorado  4 RF LLC, SRE Colorado  5 CC LLC, SRE Florida  1 LLC, SRE Florida  2 LLC, SRE Georgia 4 LLC, SRE Georgia 5 LLC, SRE Georgia 6 LLC, SRE Holding LLC, SRE Maryland  1 LLC, SRE Nevada  2 LLC, SRE North Carolina  2 LLC, SRE North Carolina  3 LLC, SRE Ohio 1 LLC, SRE Ohio 2 LLC, SRE Oklahoma  1 LLC, SRE Oklahoma  2 LLC, SRE Oklahoma  5 LLC, SRE South Carolina  2 LLC, SRE South Carolina  3 LLC, SRE South Carolina  4 LLC, SRE Tennessee 6 LLC, SRE Tennessee 7 LLC, SRE Tennessee  1 LLC, SRE Tennessee  2 LLC, SRE Tennessee  3 LLC, SRE Tennessee  4 LLC, SRE Tennessee  5 LLC, SRE Texas 10 LLC, SRE Texas 11 LLC, SRE Texas 12 LLC, SRE Texas 13 LLC, SRE Texas 14 LLC, SRE Texas 15 LLC, SRE Texas 16 LLC, SRE Texas 9 LLC, SRE Texas  1 LP, SRE Texas  2 LP, SRE Texas  3 LP, SRE Texas  4 LP, SRE Texas  5 LP, SRE Texas  6 LP, SRE Texas  7 LP, SRE Texas  8 LP, SRE Virginia - 1 LLC, SRE Virginia  2 LLC, SRM Assurance Ltd., Santa Clara Imported Cars Inc., Sonic 2185 Chapman Rd. Chattanooga LLC, Sonic Advantage PA LP, Sonic Automotive - 1720 Mason Ave. DB LLC, Sonic Automotive 2424 Laurens Rd. Greenville Inc., Sonic Automotive 2752 Laurens Rd. Greenville Inc., Sonic Automotive Aviation LLC, Sonic Automotive F&I LLC, Sonic Automotive Support LLC, Sonic Automotive West LLC, Sonic Automotive of Chattanooga LLC, Sonic Automotive of Nashville LLC, Sonic Automotive of Nevada Inc., Sonic Automotive of Texas LP, Sonic Automotive  1495 Automall Drive Columbus Inc., Sonic Automotive  1720 Mason Ave. DB Inc., Sonic Automotive  2490 South Lee Highway LLC, Sonic Automotive  3401 N. Main TX LP, Sonic Automotive  4701 I-10 East TX LP, Sonic Automotive  6008 N. Dale Mabry FL Inc., Sonic Automotive  9103 E. Independence NC LLC, Sonic Calabasas M Inc., Sonic Development LLC, Sonic Divisional Operations LLC, Sonic FFC 1 Inc., Sonic FFC 2 Inc., Sonic FFC 3 Inc., Sonic Fremont Inc., Sonic Houston JLR LP, Sonic Houston LR LP, Sonic Momentum B LP, Sonic Momentum JVP LP, Sonic Momentum VWA LP, Sonic Resources Inc., Sonic Santa Monica M Inc., Sonic Santa Monica S Inc., Sonic Walnut Creek M Inc., Sonic Wilshire Cadillac Inc., Sonic eStore Inc., Sonic of Texas Inc., Sonic  Buena Park H Inc., Sonic  Cadillac D LP, Sonic  Calabasas A Inc., Sonic  Calabasas V Inc., Sonic  Camp Ford LP, Sonic  Capitol Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Capitol Imports Inc., Sonic  Carrollton V LP, Sonic  Carson F Inc., Sonic  Carson LM Inc., Sonic  Clear Lake N LP, Sonic  Clear Lake Volkswagen LP, Sonic  Denver T Inc., Sonic  Downey Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Fort Mill Chrysler Jeep Inc., Sonic  Fort Mill Dodge Inc., Sonic  Fort Worth T LP, Sonic  Frank Parra Autoplex LP, Sonic  Harbor City H Inc., Sonic  Houston V LP, Sonic  Integrity Dodge LV LLC, Sonic  Jersey Village Volkswagen LP, Sonic  LS Chevrolet LP, Sonic  LS LLC, Sonic  Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep LLC, Sonic  Las Vegas C West LLC, Sonic  Lloyd Nissan Inc., Sonic  Lloyd Pontiac  Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Lone Tree Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Lute Riley LP, Sonic  Massey Cadillac LP, Sonic  Massey Chevrolet Inc., Sonic  Mesquite Hyundai LP, Sonic  Newsome Chevrolet World Inc., Sonic  Newsome of Florence Inc., Sonic  North Charleston Dodge Inc., Sonic  North Charleston Inc., Sonic  Plymouth Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Richardson F LP, Sonic  Sanford Cadillac Inc., Sonic  Shottenkirk Inc., Sonic  Stevens Creek B Inc., Sonic  Volvo LV LLC, Sonic  West Covina T Inc., Sonic  Williams Cadillac Inc., Stevens Creek Cadillac Inc., The Sonic Automotive Family Emergency Fund (SAFE), Town and Country Ford Incorporated, and Windward Inc..Wall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Japan ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Japan ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of Marsh & McLennan Companies: 8WORKS INC., 8WORKS LTD, A. Constantinidi & CIA. S.C., A.C.N. 000 951 146 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 001 572 961 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 076 935 683 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 102 322 574 Pty Limited, ACE Insurance Agents Limited, ACE Insurance Consultants Limited, ACE Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Limited, AD Corretora de Seguros, AFCO Premium Acceptance Inc., AFCO Premium Credit LLC, Access Equity Enhanced Fund GP LLC, Admiral Holdings Limited, Agnew Higgins Pickering & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd, Aldgate Investments Limited, Aldgate Trustees Ltd, Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, Alpha Consultants Limited, Alta SA, Altius Real Assets (GP) LLC, Amal Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Anda Insurance Agencies Pte Ltd, AssetVal Pty Ltd, Assur Conseils Marsh S.A., Assurance Capital Corporation, Assurance Services Corporation, Australian Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Australian World Underwriters Pty Ltd., BBPS Limited, Barney & Barney Orange County LLC, Beaumonts (Leeds) Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Services Limited, Beneficios Integrales Oportunos SA, Benefitfocus Inc., Blue Marble Micro Limited, Blue Marble Microinsurance Inc., Bluefin, Bluefin Insurance Group Limited, Bluefin Insurance Services Limited, Boulder Claims LLC, Bowring (Bermuda) Investments Ltd., Bowring Marine Limited, Bowring Marsh (Bermuda) Ltd., Bowring Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Bowring Marsh Asia Pte. Ltd., Bowring Marsh Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Bowring Marsh Limited, Broderick Piller Pty Ltd, Broker 2 Broker Limited, BuildPay LLC, Burke Ford Trustees (Leicester) Limited, C.T. Bowring Limited, CMC-Belgibo NV, CPRM Limited, CPSG Partners LLC, Carpenter Marsh Fac Chile Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Carpenter Marsh Fac Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Carpenter Marsh Fac Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.C., Carpenter Marsh Fac Re LLC, Carpenter Turner Cyprus Ltd, Carpenter Turner S.A., Cascade International Holdings C.V., Cascade Regional Holdings Limited, Central Insurance Services Limited, Charter Risk Management Services LLC, Chartwell Healthcare Limited, Chronos Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Claims and Recovery Management (Australia) Pty Limited, Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers Limited, Client Provide Limited, Colombian Insurance Broking Wholesale Limited, Consultores 2020 C.A., Cronin & Co Insurance Services Limited, DVA - Deutsche Verkehrs-Assekuranz-Vermittlungs GmbH, Dawson Insurance, DeLima Marsh S.A. - Los Corredores de Seguros S.A., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Managing General Agency Corporation, Dovetail Technology Service India Private Limited, Draw Connect Limited, Draw Create Limited, Draw Group London Limited, Eagle & Crown Limited, Echelon Australia Pty Limited, Echelon Claims Consultants Sdn Bhd, Echelon New Zealand Limited, EnBW Versicherungs Vermittlung GmbH, Encompass Insurance Agency Pty Ltd., English Pension Trustees Limited, Epsilon (US) Insurance Company, Epsilon Insurance Company Ltd., Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Evolution Management Ltd, Exchange Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Exmoor Management Company Limited, Faulkner & Flynn LLC, Freedom Trust Services Limited, GC Genesis LLC, GCube Insurance Services Inc, GCube Underwriting Limited, Gama Consultores Associados Ltda., Gem Insurance Company Limited, Global Premium Finance Company, GrECo International Holding AG, Gracechurch Trustees Limited, Gresham Pension Trustees Limited, Group Promoters Pty Limited, Guy Carpenter & Cia (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter & Cia. S.A., Guy Carpenter & Co. Labuan Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company AB, Guy Carpenter & Company Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Guy Carpenter & Company Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company GmbH, Guy Carpenter & Company LLC, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Ltd./Guy Carpenter & Compagnie Ltee, Guy Carpenter & Company Participacoes Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company Private Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Proprietary Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Pty. Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A. (Uruguay), Guy Carpenter & Company S.A.S., Guy Carpenter & Company S.r.l., Guy Carpenter (Middle East) Limited, Guy Carpenter Bermuda Ltd., Guy Carpenter Broking Inc., Guy Carpenter Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter Insurance Brokers (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Guy Carpenter Japan Inc., Guy Carpenter Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, HAPIP GP 2009 LLC, HAPIP GP LLC, HSBC Insurance Brokers International (Abu Dhabi) LLC (in liquidation), Hamilton Bond Limited, Hansen International Limited, Hayward Aviation Limited, INSIA Europe SE, INSIA SK s.r.o., INSIA a.s., INSURANCE BROKERS OF NIGERIA LIMITED, IRC Asia Insurance Brokers Limited, InSolutions Limited, Industrial Risks Protection Consultants, Ingeseg S. A., Ingeseg S.A., Insbrokers Ltda., InsurTech Alliance LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC [BAHRAIN BRANCH], Insure Direct - Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC, International Loss Control Services Limited, International Risk Consultants (Asia) Limited, Invercol Limited, Irish Pensions Trust Limited, Isosceles Insurance (Barbados) Limited, Isosceles Insurance Company Limited, Isosceles Insurance Ltd, Isosceles PCC Limited, J&H Marsh & McLennan Limited, J.W. Terrill Benefit Administrators Inc., JI Holdings Limited, JIB Group Holdings Limited, JIB Group Limited, JIB Holdings (Pacific) Limited, JIB Overseas Holdings Limited, JIB UK Holdings Limited, JL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co. KG, JLM Verwaltungs GmbH, JLT (Insurance Brokers) Limited, JLT Actuaries and Consultants Limited, JLT Advisory Limited, JLT Affinity Colombia Solutions SAS, JLT Agencies Limited, JLT Asesorias Ltda, JLT Asia Holdings BV, JLT Asia Shared Services Sdn Bhd, JLT Belgibo, JLT Benefit Consultants Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Bermuda Ltd, JLT Brasil Holdings Participacoes Ltd, JLT Chile Holdings SpA, JLT Colombia Retail Limited, JLT Colombia Wholesale Limited, JLT Consultants & Actuaries Limited, JLT EB Holdings Limited, JLT EB Services Limited, JLT Employee Benefits Holding Company (PTY) LTD, JLT Employee Benefits SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Financial Planning Limited, JLT France Holdings, JLT Group Services Pty Limited, JLT Holdings (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Holdings (NZ) Limited, JLT Independent Insurance Brokers Private Limited, JLT Insurance Agencies Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited ( Shanghai Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Beijing Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Guangzhou Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Ireland Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers SA, JLT Insurance Group Holdings Ltd, JLT Insurance Management Malta Limited, JLT Intellectual Property Limited, JLT Intellectual Property [UK Branch], JLT Interactive Pte. Ltd., JLT Investment Management Limited, JLT LATAM (Southern Cone) Wholesale Limited, JLT Latin American Holdings Limited, JLT Life Assurance Brokers Limited, JLT Management Services Limited, JLT Marine (Pty) Ltd, JLT Mexico Holdings Limited, JLT Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., JLT Netherlands BV, JLT Norway AS, JLT PLA, JLT Pension Trustees Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Holdings Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Limited, JLT Peru Reinsurance Solutions Limited, JLT Peru Retail Limited, JLT Peru Wholesale Limited, JLT QFM Services Limited, JLT RE Brasil Administracao e Corretagem de Resseguros Ltda, JLT Re (French Branch), JLT Re (Northern Europe) AB, JLT Re Argentina Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.U., JLT Re Labuan Limited, JLT Re Limited, JLT Re Pty Ltd, JLT Reinsurance Brokers GmbH, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited [French Branch], JLT Risk Management Limited, JLT Risk Solutions AB, JLT Risk Solutions AB Branch - Germany, JLT SA IB Holdings Company (Pty) Limited, JLT SCK Affinity Administracao e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., JLT SCK Corretora e Administradora de Seguros, JLT Secretaries Limited, JLT Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerlii A.., JLT Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., JLT Specialty France, JLT Specialty Insurance Broker A/S, JLT Specialty Limited, JLT Specialty Limited [DUBAI BRANCH], JLT Specialty Pte. Ltd., JLT Towner Insurance Management (Anguilla) Limited, JLT Trust Services (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Trustees (Southern) Limited, JLT Trustees Limited, JLT UK Investment Holdings Limited, JLT Vantage Risk and Benefit Consulting Private Limited, JLT Wealth Management Limited, JLT do Brasil Corretagem de Seguros Ltda, JLTPCS Holdings Pte. Ltd., JMIB Holdings BV, JSL Securities Inc., Japan Affinity Marketing Inc., Jardine IBR Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (Proprietary) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Asia Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Australia Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited (UK Branch Office), Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance Consultants Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Inc., Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Holdings Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Unlimited Company, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Korea Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited [Macao Branch], Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS (Dubai) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS SA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Sdn Bhd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Valencia y Iragorri Corredores de Seguros SA, Jardine Pension Trustees Ireland Limited, Jardine Risk Consulting Co. Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited [Macao Branch], Jardines PF- Consultoria Em Gestao De Risco Limitada, Jelf, Jelf Commercial Finance Limited, Jelf Financial Planning Limited, Jelf Insurance Brokers Limited, Jelf Limited, Jelf Risk Management Limited, Jelf Wellbeing Limited, John Lampier & Son Ltd, Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Limited, Johnson & Higgins Limited, KESSLER & CO AG, Kepler Associates Limited, Kessler & Co Inc., Kessler Consulting Inc., Kessler Prevoyance Inc., Key Underwriting Pty Limited, Kroll, Lambert Brothers Holdings Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Employee Benefits) Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Hong Kong) Ltd, Laterlife.com Limited (in liquidation), Lavaretus Underwriting AB, Lavaretus Underwriting AB (BRANCH - Denmark), Libra Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Lloyd & Partners Limited, Local Government Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Lomond Macdonald Limited, Lynch Insurance Brokers Limited, M&M Vehicle L.P., M.P. Bolshaw and Company Limited, MAG JLT SpA, MERCER ALTERNATIVES LIMITED, MM Risk Services Pty Ltd (for dissolution), MMA Mid-Atlantic Employee LLC, MMA Securities LLC, MMB Consultores S.A., MMC (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd., MMC 28 State Street Holdings Inc., MMC Borrower LLC, MMC Brazilian Holdings B.V., MMC Capital Inc., MMC Cascade Regional Holdings LLC, MMC FINANCE (EUROPE) LIMITED, MMC FINANCE HOLDINGS LTD, MMC Finance (Australia) Limited, MMC Finance (Singapore) Limited, MMC France Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., MMC GP III Inc., MMC Group Services sp. z o.o., MMC Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, MMC Holdings (New Zealand) ULC, MMC Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC International Finance (Barbados) SRL, MMC International Holdings LLC, MMC International Limited, MMC International Treasury Centre Limited, MMC Middle East Holdings Limited, MMC Poland Holdings B.V., MMC Realty Inc., MMC Regional Asia Holdings B.V., MMC Regional Caribbean Holdings Ltd., MMC Regional Europe Holdings B.V., MMC Regional LATAM Holdings B.V., MMC Securities (Europe) Limited, MMC Securities LLC, MMC Treasury Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC UK Group Limited, MMC UK Pension Fund Trustee Limited, MMOW Limited, MMRC LLC, MOW Holding LLC, MPIP III GP LLC, MPIP IV GP LLC, MPIP V GP LLC, MPIP VI GP LLC, Mangrove Insurance Europe PCC Limited, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC Limited, Manoel Management Services Ltd, Marchant McKechnie Insurance Brokers Limited, Marine Aviation & General (London) Limited, Marsh & McLennan (PNG) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agencies AS, Marsh & McLennan Agencies Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency A/S, Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC, Marsh & McLennan Agency Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency Pty Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Argentina SA Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh & McLennan Colombia S.A., Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Funding Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Asia Pacific Treasury Center Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies BVBA/SPRL, Marsh & McLennan Companies Finance Center (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies France S.A.S., Marsh & McLennan Companies Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies Regional Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Services B.V., Marsh & McLennan Companies UK Limited, Marsh & McLennan Europe S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan GP I Inc., Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Holding GmbH, Marsh & McLennan Holdings (Canada) ULC, Marsh & McLennan Holdings Inc., Marsh & McLennan Incorporated (for dissolution), Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings II, Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Limited, Marsh & McLennan Insurance Services Limited, Marsh & McLennan Ireland Limited, Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Risk Capital Holdings Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Servicios S.A. De C.V., Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Canada Limited, Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Corporation, Marsh (Bahrain) Company SPC, Marsh (Beijing) Risk Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Marsh (China) Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh (Insurance Brokers) LLP, Marsh (Insurance Services) Limited, Marsh (Malawi) Limited, Marsh (Middle East) Limited, Marsh (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh (Pty) Ltd, Marsh (Risk Consulting) LLP, Marsh (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Marsh A/S, Marsh AB, Marsh AG, Marsh AS, Marsh Advantage Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd, Marsh Advantage Insurance Pty Ltd., Marsh Africa (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Argentina S.R.L., Marsh Associates (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Austria G.m.b.H., Marsh Aviation Insurance Broking Pty Ltd (for dissolution), Marsh B.V., Marsh Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh Brockman y Schuh Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Marsh Broker Japan Inc., Marsh Broker de Asigurare-Reasigurare S.R.L., Marsh Brokers (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh Brokers Limited, Marsh Canada Limited/Marsh Canada Limitee, Marsh Company Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Compensation Technologies Administration (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Isle of Man Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Malta Limited, Marsh Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Marsh EOOD, Marsh Egypt LLC, Marsh Emirates Consultancy LLC, Marsh Emirates Insurance Brokerage LLC, Marsh Employee Benefits Limited, Marsh Employee Benefits Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Marsh Eurofinance B.V., Marsh Europe S.A., Marsh FJC International Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh For Insurance Services S.A.E., Marsh Franco Acra S.A., Marsh GSC Servicos e Administracao de Seguros Ltda., Marsh GmbH, Marsh Holding AB, Marsh Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Marsh India Insurance Brokers Private Limited, Marsh Insurance & Investments LLC, Marsh Insurance Brokers, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Macao) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Private) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers AO, Marsh Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh Insurance Consulting Saudi Arabia (in liquidation), Marsh Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers LLC, Marsh Intermediaries Inc., Marsh International Broking Holdings Limited, Marsh International Holdings II Inc., Marsh International Holdings Inc., Marsh Investment B.V., Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited, Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited (UK Branch), Marsh Ireland Holdings Limited, Marsh Israel (1999) Ltd., Marsh Israel (Holdings) Ltd., Marsh Israel Consultants Ltd., Marsh Israel Insurance Agency Ltd., Marsh Israel International Brokers Ltd. (in liquidation), Marsh JCS Inc., Marsh Japan Inc., Marsh Kft., Marsh Kindlustusmaakler AS, Marsh Korea Inc., Marsh LLC, Marsh LLC Insurance Brokers, Marsh LLC [Ukraine], Marsh Lda., Marsh Limited, Marsh Limited [Fiji], Marsh Limited [New Zealand], Marsh Limited [PNG], Marsh Ltd. [Wisconsin], Marsh Management Services (Bahamas) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Dublin) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Labuan) Limited, Marsh Management Services (MENA) Limited, Marsh Management Services (USVI) Ltd., Marsh Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Management Services Guernsey Limited, Marsh Management Services Inc., Marsh Management Services Isle of Man Limited, Marsh Management Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Marsh Management Services Malta Limited, Marsh Management Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Marsh Management Services Sweden AB, Marsh Marine & Energy AB, Marsh Marine Nederland B.V., Marsh Medical Consulting GmbH, Marsh Mercer Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Marsh Nest Inc., Marsh Oman LLC, Marsh Oy, Marsh PB Co. Ltd., Marsh Philippines Inc., Marsh Privat A.I.E., Marsh Private Client Life Insurance Services, Marsh Pty. Ltd., Marsh Qatar LLC, Marsh RE S.A.C. Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh Rehder Consultoria S.A. (MRC), Marsh Rehder S.A. Corredores de Seguros, Marsh Resolutions Pty Limited, Marsh Risk Consulting B.V., Marsh Risk Consulting Limitada, Marsh Risk Consulting Ltda., Marsh Risk Consulting S.L., Marsh Risk Consulting Services S.r.L., Marsh Risk and Consulting Services (Pty) Ltd, Marsh S.A. Corredores De Seguros, Marsh S.A. Mediadores de Seguros, Marsh S.A.S., Marsh S.p.A., Marsh SA [Argentina], Marsh SA [Belgium], Marsh SA [Luxembourg], Marsh SA [Uruguay], Marsh SIA, Marsh Saldana Inc., Marsh Saudi Arabia Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Marsh Secretarial Services Limited, Marsh Semusa S.A., Marsh Services Limited, Marsh Services Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Marsh Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Szolgaltato Kft., Marsh Takaful Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Treasury Services (Dublin) Limited (in liquidation), Marsh Treasury Services Limited, Marsh Tunisia S.a.r.l., Marsh UK Limited, Marsh USA (India) Inc., Marsh USA Borrower LLC, Marsh USA Inc., Marsh Uganda Limited, Marsh Venezuela C.A. Sociedad de Corretaje de Seguros, Marsh Vietnam Insurance Broking Company Ltd, Marsh Zambia Limited, Marsh Zimbabwe Holdings (Private) Limited, Marsh d.o.o. Beograd, Marsh d.o.o. za posredovanje u osiguranju, Marsh for Insurance Services - Jordan, Marsh i-Connect (Pty) Ltd, Marsh s.r.o., Matthiessen Assurans AB, Mercer (Argentina) S.A., Mercer (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer (Austria) GmbH, Mercer (Belgium) SA-NV, Mercer (Canada) Limited/Mercer (Canada) Limitee, Mercer (China) Limited, Mercer (Colombia) Ltda., Mercer (Danmark) A/S, Mercer (Finland) OY, Mercer (France) SAS, Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer (Ireland) Limited, Mercer (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Mercer (N.Z.) Limited, Mercer (Nederland) B.V., Mercer (Norge) AS, Mercer (Polska) Sp.z o.o., Mercer (Portugal) Lda, Mercer (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer (Sweden) AB, Mercer (Taiwan) Ltd., Mercer (Thailand) Ltd., Mercer (US) Inc., Mercer Administration Services (Australia) Pty Limited, Mercer Africa Limited, Mercer Agente de Seguros S.A. de C.V., Mercer Asesores de Seguros S.A., Mercer Asesores es Inversion Independientes S.A. de C.V., Mercer Broking Ltd., Mercer Career Unipessoal Lda, Mercer Consultation (Quebec) Ltee., Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Consulting (Chile) Limitada, Mercer Consulting (France) SAS, Mercer Consulting (India) Private Limited, Mercer Consulting B.V., Mercer Consulting Group Inc., Mercer Consulting Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Mercer Consulting Limited, Mercer Consulting Middle East Limited, Mercer Consulting S.L.U., Mercer Consulting Venezuela C.A., Mercer Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Mercer Corretora de Seguros Ltda, Mercer Danismanlik Anonim Sirketi, Mercer Deutschland GmbH, Mercer Employee Benefits - Medicacao de Seguros Unipessoal Lda., Mercer Employee Benefits Limited, Mercer Financial Advice (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Financial Services Limited, Mercer Financial Services Limited liability company, Mercer Financial Services Middle East Limited, Mercer Global Investments Europe Limited, Mercer Global Investments Management Limited, Mercer HR Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer HR Services LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, Mercer Holdings Inc., Mercer Holdings Inc. [Philippines], Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltda, Mercer Human Resource Consulting S.A. de C.V., Mercer ICC Limited, Mercer Investment Consulting Limited, Mercer Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mercer Investment Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Investments (Australia) Limited, Mercer Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer Investments (Japan) Ltd, Mercer Investments (New Zealand) Limited, Mercer Investments LLC, Mercer Ireland Holdings Limited, Mercer Italia Srl Socio Unico, Mercer Japan Ltd., Mercer Korea Co. Ltd., Mercer LLC, Mercer Limited, Mercer MC Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer Master Trustees Limited, Mercer Mauritius Ltd., Mercer Oliver Wyman Holding B.V., Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Outsourcing S.L.U., Mercer Pensionsfonds AG, Mercer Pensionsraadgivning A/S, Mercer Philippines Inc., Mercer Private Investment Partners IV General Partner S.a.r.l., Mercer Private Markets AG, Mercer Private Markets Advisers (US) AG, Mercer Services Poland Sp. z.o.o., Mercer Sigorta Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Mercer South Africa (Pty) Limited, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, Mercer Switzerland Inc., Mercer System Services LLC, Mercer Technology Acquisitions Limited, Mercer Treuhand GmbH, Mercer Trust Company LLC, Mercer Trustees Limited, Mercer WorkforcePro LLC, Mercury Insurance Services Pty Ltd, Moola Systems Limited, Mountlodge Limited, Muir Beddal (Zimbabwe) Limited, NERA Australia Pty. Ltd., NERA Economic Consulting GmbH, NERA Economic Consulting Limited, NERA S.R.L., NERA SAS, NERA UK Limited, NERA do Brasil Ltda. (for dissolution), National Economic Research Associates Inc., NetComp Insurance Corp., Neuburger Noble Lowndes GmbH, Normandy Reinsurance Company Limited, Northern Alliance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), OWL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co.KG, OWL Marine Verwaltungs GmbH, Oliver Wyman (Bermuda) Limited, Oliver Wyman (Hong Kong) Limited, Oliver Wyman AB, Oliver Wyman AG, Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting Inc., Oliver Wyman B.V., Oliver Wyman Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Oliver Wyman Consultoria em Estrategia de Negocios Ltda., Oliver Wyman Energy Consulting Limited, Oliver Wyman FZ-LLC, Oliver Wyman Group KK, Oliver Wyman Inc., Oliver Wyman LLC, Oliver Wyman Limited, Oliver Wyman Limited Liability Company, Oliver Wyman Limited/Oliver Wyman limitee, Oliver Wyman Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pte. Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pty. Ltd., Oliver Wyman S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman S.A.S., Oliver Wyman S.L., Oliver Wyman S.r.l., Oliver Wyman SNC, Oliver Wyman SPRL/BVBA, Oliver Wyman Sdn. Bhd., Oliver Wyman Services Limited, Oliver Wyman Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman sp. z o.o., Omega Indemnity (Bermuda) Limited, Organizacion Brockman y Schuh S.A. de C.V., Osbornes Insurances Oxford Limited (in liquidation), PFT Limited, PI Indemnity Company Designated Activity Company, PT JLT Reinsurance Brokers, PT Jardine Lloyd Thompson, PT Marsh Indonesia, PT Marsh Reinsurance Brokers Indonesia, PT Mercer Indonesia, PT Nexus Asia Pacific, PT Oliver Wyman Indonesia, PT Quantum Computing Services, PT Quantum Investments, PT Quantum Support Services, Pallas Marsh Servicos Ltda., Pavilion Alternatives Group (Singapore) PTE. Ltd, Pavilion Financial Corporation Holdings UK Limited, Pavilion U.S. Investments Holdco LLC, Pension Trustees Limited, Pensionsservice Benefit Network Sverige AB, Perils AG, Personal Pension Trustees Limited, Pet Animal Welfare Scheme Limited, Portsoken Trustees (No. 2) Limited, Portsoken Trustees Limited, Potomac Insurance Managers Inc., Premier Pension Trustees Limited, Premium Services Australia Pty Limited, Professional Claims Handling Limited (in liquidation), Profund Solutions Limited, Promerit AG, Promerit Hungary Kft, Promerit Schweiz AG, Pymetrics Inc., R G Ford Brokers Limited, R R B Beratungsgesellschaft fuer Altersversorgung mbh, R. Mees & Zoonen Holdings B.V., Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters LLC, Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters Limited, Resource Benefit Associates, Rightpath Reinsurance SPC Ltd., Risk Management Australia Pty Limited, Rivers Group Limited, Rockefeller Risk Advisors Inc., Rutherfoord International Inc., SAFCAR-Marsh, SBJ Holdings Limited, SCIB (Bermuda) Limited, SCM Global Real Estate Select GP LLC, SCM Infrastructure General Partner S.a r.l., SCM International Private Equity Select III GP LLC, SCM LT General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE II GP Ltd., SCM PE II Scotland GP Ltd, SCM Strategic Capital Management (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., SICAR Marsh S.a.r.l., SME Insurance Services Limited, Sail Insurance Company Limited, Scalene Re Ltd, Seabury & Smith Borrower LLC, Seabury & Smith LLC, Secure Limited, Sedgwick (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Consulting Group Limited, Sedgwick Dineen Group Limited, Sedgwick Financial Services Limited, Sedgwick Forbes Middle East Limited, Sedgwick Group, Sedgwick Group (Australia) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Group (Bermuda) Limited, Sedgwick Group (Zimbabwe) Limited, Sedgwick Group Limited, Sedgwick Internationaal B.V., Sedgwick Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes (UK) Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Group Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Limited, Sedgwick Overseas Investments Limited, Sedgwick Private Limited, Sedgwick Re Asia Pacific (Consultants) Pte Ltd (for dissolution), Sedgwick Trustees Limited, Sedgwick UK Risk Services Limited, Sedgwick Ulster Pension Trustees Limited, Settlement Trustees Limited, Shanghai Mercer Insurance Brokers Company Ltd., Shorewest Insurance Associates LLC, Sirota Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Sirota Consulting UK Limited, Smith Long Term Disability Management Group Inc., Societe d'Assurances et de Participation Guian SA, Software Underwriting Systems Limited (in liquidation), Southern Marine & Aviation Inc., Southern Marine & Aviation Underwriters Inc., Sudzucker Versicherungs-Vermittlungs GmbH, Sumitomo Life Insurance Agency America Inc., Sylvite Financial Services, TBX Solutions Limited, Talent Tech Labs LLC, The Benefit Express Holdings Limited, The Benefit Express Limited, The Carpenter Management Corporation, The Insurance Partnership Holdings Limited, The Insurance Partnership Services Limited, The Positive Ageing Company Limited, The Purple Partnership Limited, The Recovre Group Pty Ltd, Thomsons Online Benefits (HK) Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits Inc., Thomsons Online Benefits Limited, Thomsons Online Benefits Pte Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits S.R.L, Torrent Government Contracting Services LLC, Torrent Insurance Services LLC, Torrent Technologies, Torrent Technologies Inc., Tower Hill Limited, Tower Place Developments (West) Limited, Tower Place Developments Limited, U.T.E. AMG, U.T.E. Marsh - Caja Castilla La Mancha Junta de Comunidades, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus (in liquidation), U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus 2012, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Vila-Seca 2010, UAD BB Marsh Lietuva, Vezina & Associes Inc., Vezina Assurances Inc., Victor Insurance Europe B.V., Victor Insurance Holdings Inc., Victor Insurance Italia S.r.l., Victor Insurance Managers Inc., Victor Insurance Managers Inc./Gestionnaires d'assurance Victor inc., Victor O. Schinnerer & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd., Victor O. Schinnerer & Company Limited, Victoria Hall Company Limited, Wellnz Limited, William M. Mercer (Canada) Limited/William M. Mercer (Canada) Limitee, William M. Mercer AB, William M. Mercer Comercio Consultoria e Servicos Ltda., Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, everBe SAS, and realright GmbH.The following companies are subsidiares of Jones Lang LaSalle: 225 Fitness Inc., 360 Commercial Partners, ACREST, AGL, AMAS Limited, AVM Partners, Advanced Technologies Group Inc., Alaska UK (GP) Ltd, Alkas Consulting, Aoyama Holding Limited, Australian Valuation Solutions, Avenue9, BRG, BRG International LLC, BRG Resource Group ULC, BRG WORKPLACE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS (EUROPE) LIMITED, BRG Workplace Management Solutions (India) Private Limited, BRG Workplace Management Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Beijing Dazheng Zhongheng Enterprise Consulting Co. Ltd., Beijing Guotai Zhongheng Enterprise Consulting Co. Ltd., Beijing Jones Lang LaSalle Property Management Services Co. Ltd., Big Red Rooster Flow LLC, Bill Goold Realty, Bradford McCormack & Associates, Brune Consulting Management GmbH, Building Services Network Inc., Business Products Group Inc., Business Resource Holdings Inc., CIG III Technoparc Nominee II Inc./Fiduciaire CIG III Technoparc II Inc., CMM Projekt & Office Solutions GmbH, COBERTURA - SOCIEDADE DE MEDIACAO IMOBILIARIA S.A., CTH, Capital Realty LLC, Carolyn House (General Partner) Limited, Charter Oaks Financial Services Inc., Churston Heard Ltd, Claygate Residential (General Partner) LLP , Claygate Residential (Nominee) Limited, CoR Advisors, Cobertura, Colliers Baltimore, ComRef LIM Co-Invest LLC, Corporate Concierge Services Inc., Corporate Concierge Services of Hawaii Inc., Corporate Realty Advisors, Corrigo, Corrigo Incorporated, Credo Real Estate (Singapore), Creston Residential (General Partner) LLP, Creston Residential (Nominee) Limited, DST International Property Services, Dalian Jones Lang LaSalle Services Limited, ECD Energy and Environment Canada, ECD Energy and Environment Canada Ltd., EID (General Partner) LLP, ELPF Lafayette Manager Inc., Eleven Eleven Construction Corporation, Environmental Governance Ltd, Europe Fund III Alberta GP Inc., Europe Fund III GP LLC, FACILITY ASSOCIATES RECRUITMENT LIMITED, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (NSW) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (NT) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (QLD) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (SA) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (TAS) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (VIC) PTY LTD, FIVE D PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (WA) PTY LTD, Five D Holdings Pty Limited, Five D Holdings Pty Ltd, Five D Property Management (ACT) Pty Ltd, Fox RPM Corp., GFN Property Investments L.L.C., Guangzhou Jones Lang LaSalle Property Services Company Limited, Guardian Property Asset Management, Guardian Property Asset Management Limited, H Park Germany LP GmbH, H Park Germany Verwaltungs-GmbH, HALL AND KAY FIRE HOLDINGS LIMITED, HFF, HFF Holdings Limited, HFF InvestCo LLC, HFF Partnership Holdings LLC, HFF Real Estate Limited, HFF Securities L.P., HFF Securities Limited, HG2 Limited, HUB PROFESSIONAL SERVICES LIMITED, Halcyon Real Estate, Hall & Kay Fire Services Ltd, Harry K Moore, Hentschel & Company LLC, Hercules Property Manager (Jersey) Limited, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P., Holliday GP LLC, Hunter Facilities Management (HFM), Huntley Mullaney Spargo & Sullivan Inc., Huntley Mullaney Spargo & Sullivan LLC, IFM Services Finland OY, INTEGRAL UK HOLDINGS LIMITED, Inmobiliaria Jones Lang LaSalle Limitada, Integra Realty Resources, Integra Realty Resources - Dallas, Integral, Integral Facility Services Limited, Integral UK, Integrated General Administration Services K.K., J P Sturge Limited, J.L.W. Nominees Limited, J.L.W. Second Nominees Limited, JLL 2002, JLL 2003 Limited, JLL CAMBRIDGE LTD, JLL CMG LLC, JLL Capital Markets AB, JLL Chile Asesorias Inmobiliarias Limitada, JLL Corporate Solutions - Servicos De Conservacao e Manutencao de Imoveis Ltda, JLL Corporate Solutions AB, JLL Corporate Solutions Holdings Inc., JLL Corretagen e Trasacoes Imobiliarias Ltda., JLL Expertises SARLAU, JLL Infrastructure Advisory Pty Ltd, JLL Ingenierie, JLL Investment Scottish Limited Partnership II, JLL Kapitalmarkand Holding AB, JLL Kapitalmarknad AB, JLL Ltd, JLL Macau Limited, JLL Mall Management K.K., JLL Marketplace LLC, JLL Morii Valuation & Appraisal K.K., JLL Mortgage Services Pty Limited, JLL Nevada Inc., JLL Properties LLC, JLL Public Sector Valuations Pty Ltd, JLL Puerto Rico Realty & Co. S. en C., JLL Real Estate Capital Pte. Ltd., JLL Scottish II G.P. L.L.C., JLL Singapore Capital Pte. Ltd., JLL Transaction Services AB, JLL Treasury Support AB, JLL Valuation & Advisory Services LLC, JLL/BWXT Naval Facility Experts LLC, JLLBRR LLC, JLLINT Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle & Compania Limitada, Jones Lang LaSalle (ACT) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (B) Sdn Bhd, Jones Lang LaSalle (Barbados) Ltd., Jones Lang LaSalle (Beijing) Consultants Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (China) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (Fiji) Pte Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle (Geneva) SA, Jones Lang LaSalle (Luxembourg) Secs, Jones Lang LaSalle (NSW) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (PNG) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (Philippines) Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle (Portugal) - Sociedade de Mediacao Imobiliaria S.A., Jones Lang LaSalle (Puerto Rico) Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle (QLD) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (S E) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (SA) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (Shenzhen) Commercial Consultancy Company Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (VIC) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (WA) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle (pty) ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle - Central Texas LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle - Front Range LLLP, Jones Lang LaSalle - Northeast Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle - Texas Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle -Sociedade de Avaliacoes Imobiliarias Unipessoal Lda, Jones Lang LaSalle 1. Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Jones Lang LaSalle AG, Jones Lang LaSalle Acquisition Corp., Jones Lang LaSalle Administration B.V., Jones Lang LaSalle Advisory Services Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas (Illinois) L.P., Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Arizona LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Asia Holdings Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Asset Management GmbH, Jones Lang LaSalle Australia Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle BV, Jones Lang LaSalle Bangladesh Private Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Beihai Holdings L.L.C., Jones Lang LaSalle Belgium Holdings LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Billion Management Services Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Brokerage Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Building Operations Private Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Bulgaria EOOD, Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Investments Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Charities, Jones Lang LaSalle Co-Investment Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Co. Ltd., Jones Lang LaSalle Constructions K.K., Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Appraisal and Advisory Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Finance Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Property (VIC) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Property Services Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Dorchester Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Ecuador S.A. JLL ECUADOR, Jones Lang LaSalle Electronic Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Espana S.A., Jones Lang LaSalle Europe Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle European Holdings Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle European Services Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Expertises SAS, Jones Lang LaSalle Facility Services S.L., Jones Lang LaSalle Finance BV, Jones Lang LaSalle Finance Europe, Jones Lang LaSalle Finance Luxembourg Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Finland Oy, Jones Lang LaSalle French Co-Investments Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Gayrimenkul Hizmetleri Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Jones Lang LaSalle German Holdings B.V. & Co. KG, Jones Lang LaSalle Global Finance Luxembourg Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Global Finance UK Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Global Finance US LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Global Holdings BV, Jones Lang LaSalle GmbH, Jones Lang LaSalle Great Lakes Corporate Real Estate Partners LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Group Finance Luxembourg Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Group Holdings BV, Jones Lang LaSalle Group Holdings SNC, Jones Lang LaSalle Group Services spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Jones Lang LaSalle Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Jones Lang LaSalle Gutland S.a.r.l., Jones Lang LaSalle Haiti S.A., Jones Lang LaSalle Holding AB, Jones Lang LaSalle Holding BV, Jones Lang LaSalle Holding SAS, Jones Lang LaSalle Holdings Cyprus Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Holdings Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Holdings Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Holdings Y.K., Jones Lang LaSalle Holdings spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels (NSW) Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Participacoes Ltda., Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels S.A., Jones Lang LaSalle IP Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Innovation Development L.L.C., Jones Lang LaSalle Insurance Services Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle International Holdings Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle International Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle International Properties Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Investments LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Israel Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Jamaica Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle K.K., Jones Lang LaSalle KFT, Jones Lang LaSalle Kenya Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle LLP (Kazakhstan), Jones Lang LaSalle Lanka (Private) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Laser Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Limitada, Jones Lang LaSalle Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Limited Liability Company, Jones Lang LaSalle Lithuania UAB, Jones Lang LaSalle Ltd (Ireland), Jones Lang LaSalle Ltd., Jones Lang LaSalle Ltda., Jones Lang LaSalle Luxembourg Star Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Malta Holdings Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Malta Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Management Services Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Management Services Taiwan Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Michigan LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Midwest LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Misr LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Multifamily LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Multifamily Member LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle New England L.L.C., Jones Lang LaSalle Northwest LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Pension Trustees Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Procurement Funding Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Procurement Ltd., Jones Lang LaSalle Property Consultants (India) Private Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Property Consultants Pte Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Property Fund Advisors Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Property Management Pte Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Property Management Services LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Advisory Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Brokerage Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Services Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Receivables Holdings LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Residential Development GmbH, Jones Lang LaSalle Resources Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle S. de R.L., Jones Lang LaSalle S.R.L., Jones Lang LaSalle S.p.A., Jones Lang LaSalle SAS, Jones Lang LaSalle SE, Jones Lang LaSalle SEA Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle SSC (Philippines) Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Saudi Arabia Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Secs, Jones Lang LaSalle Securities L.L.C., Jones Lang LaSalle Services (Jersey) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Services (Malta) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Services (Private) Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Services AB, Jones Lang LaSalle Services AS, Jones Lang LaSalle Services ApS, Jones Lang LaSalle Services B.V., Jones Lang LaSalle Services Bahrain S.P.C., Jones Lang LaSalle Services Gmbh, Jones Lang LaSalle Services LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle Services Lebanon S.A.R.L., Jones Lang LaSalle Services Limited (Nigeria), Jones Lang LaSalle Services Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Services S.r.l., Jones Lang LaSalle Services SA/NV, Jones Lang LaSalle Services SAS, Jones Lang LaSalle Services SRL, Jones Lang LaSalle Services Sarl, Jones Lang LaSalle Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Jones Lang LaSalle Sociedad Comercial de Responsabilidad Limitada, Jones Lang LaSalle South Africa (Proprietary) Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Strata Management Pty Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Surveyors (Shanghai) Company Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle Technology Services Pte Ltd, Jones Lang LaSalle Trinidad Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle UAE Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle UK FC, Jones Lang LaSalle UK Hanover, Jones Lang LaSalle Vietnam Company Limited, Jones Lang LaSalle d.o.o. (Croatia), Jones Lang LaSalle d.o.o. (Serbia), Jones Lang LaSalle de Venezuela S.R.L., Jones Lang LaSalle of New York LLC, Jones Lang LaSalle of Pennsylvania Inc, Jones Lang LaSalle s.r.o, Jones Lang LaSalle s.r.o., Jones Lang LaSalle sprl, Jones Lang LaSalle spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Jones Lang Wootton Ltd, Jones Lang Wootton Property Management Services Ltd, KHK Group Limited, Kensington CA LLC, Keystone Partners, King & Co Limited, King Sturge, King Sturge Holdings Limited, King Sturge Management SPRL, LAOF V (General Partner) LLP, LASALLE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT BV, LAVA (General Partner) LLP, LIC II (General Partner) Limited, LIC Lafayette Manager Inc., LIM Advisory Services S.a r.l., LIM Asia Co-Investments Pte. Ltd., LIM Associates L.L.C., LIM Consejeros S. de R.L. de C.V., LIM Management Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., LJPF Co-Investments GK, LMF Investments LLC, LPI (Australia) Holdings Pty Ltd, LRA MKP TRS L.P., LREDS II PF L.P., LREDS III Carry Partner L.P., LUKSS I Carry Partner L.P., LUKV Carry Jersey Limited, LUKV/CPP Co-Investment L.P., LaSalle (Shanghai) Industrial Co. Ltd. [ () ], LaSalle - VA Industrial GP LLC, LaSalle AIFM Europe S.a r.l., LaSalle Acquisitions Corp., LaSalle Asia Opportunity II GP LLC, LaSalle Asia Opportunity II Investors GP LLC, LaSalle Asia Opportunity III GP Ltd., LaSalle Asia Opportunity IV GP LTD, LaSalle Asia Opportunity Investors III GP Ltd., LaSalle Asia Opportunity V GP Ltd., LaSalle Asia Recovery L.L.C., LaSalle Asia Venture Co-Investment Trust, LaSalle Aureum Verwaltung GmbH, LaSalle Blooms General Partner Limited, LaSalle CAVA Industrial Carryco LLC, LaSalle CIG III GP Inc., LaSalle CIG IV GP Inc., LaSalle Canada Core Real Property GP Inc., LaSalle Canada Property Fund GP Inc., LaSalle China Logistics Venture GP Ltd, LaSalle China Logistics Venture GP S.a r.l., LaSalle China Logistics Venture SCSp, LaSalle Co-Investment L.L.C., LaSalle Co-Investment Management (General Partner) Limited, LaSalle Direct General Partner Limited, LaSalle EMEA (Scots) Investments GP LLP, LaSalle Euro Growth II S.a.r.l. , LaSalle European Co-invest (Scotland) LLP, LaSalle European Investments L.L.C., LaSalle European Recovery III (GP) LLP, LaSalle French Fund II Co-Investment GmbH, LaSalle French Fund II G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle Fund Management B.V., LaSalle Funds General Partner Ltd, LaSalle Funds Management Limited, LaSalle GPS Holdings LLC, LaSalle Genco G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle German Income and Growth G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle German Retail Venture GP L.L.C., LaSalle Global Partner Solutions Limited, LaSalle GmbH, LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VI Carry L.L.C., LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VI GP L.L.C., LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VI L.P., LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VII Carry L.L.C., LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VII GP L.L.C., LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VIII Carry L.L.C., LaSalle Income & Growth Fund VIII GP L.L.C., LaSalle Investment (Luxembourg) SARL, LaSalle Investment Limited Partnership II-A, LaSalle Investment Management, LaSalle Investment Management (Canada), LaSalle Investment Management (Canada) Inc., LaSalle Investment Management (Jersey) Limited, LaSalle Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, LaSalle Investment Management Asia Pte Ltd, LaSalle Investment Management Australia Pty Ltd, LaSalle Investment Management Co. Ltd., LaSalle Investment Management Distributors LLC, LaSalle Investment Management Espana S.L.U., LaSalle Investment Management Hong Kong Limited, LaSalle Investment Management Inc., LaSalle Investment Management K.K., LaSalle Investment Management Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, LaSalle Investment Management Korea Yuhan Hoesa, LaSalle Investment Management Luxembourg SARL, LaSalle Investment Management SAS, LaSalle Investment Management Securities B.V., LaSalle Investment Management Securities LLC, LaSalle Italia SRL, LaSalle Japan Logistics II GP Ltd, LaSalle Japan Logistics III GP Ltd, LaSalle Japan Logistics Investors II GP Ltd., LaSalle Japan Logistik-Immobilienfonds GP SARL, LaSalle Japan Property Fund GP Limited, LaSalle LIC II A G.P. Ltd., LaSalle LIC II A UK LLP, LaSalle LIC II B G.P. LLC, LaSalle Land General Partner Limited, LaSalle Land Trustee Limited, LaSalle Logistics GP LLC, LaSalle Mariner Co-Investment Fund Carryco L.L.C., LaSalle Mariner Co-Investment Fund G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle Medical Office Fund III GP LLC, LaSalle Mexico Advisors Inc., LaSalle Mexico Fund I Investors A G.P. LLC, LaSalle Mexico I (General Partner) LLC, LaSalle Mortgage Real Estate Investors Inc., LaSalle North American Holdings Inc., LaSalle Paris Office Venture General Partner L.L.C., LaSalle Partners (Mauritius) Pvt Ltd, LaSalle Partners International, LaSalle Partners S. de R. L. de C. V., LaSalle Partners Services S. de R.L. de C.V., LaSalle Property Fund GP Holdings LLC, LaSalle Property Fund GP LLC, LaSalle Property Fund REIT Inc., LaSalle RECC GP LLC, LaSalle REDS GP Inc., LaSalle REDS III GP Sarl, LaSalle REDS TSA GP LLC, LaSalle REIT Advisors K.K., LaSalle Ranger Co-Investment Fund G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle Ranger Co-Investment Fund II G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle Ranger Co-Investment Fund III G.P. L.L.C., LaSalle Ranger II Carry L.L.C., LaSalle Ranger III Carry L.L.C., LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies II (GP) LLP, LaSalle Real Estate Investment Strategies GP S.a r.l., LaSalle Residential Finance Fund GP Inc., LaSalle Residential Fund III GP Inc., LaSalle Retail Japan-Immobilienfonds GP S.a r.l., LaSalle Salt River Carry L.L.C., LaSalle Special Situations Carry GP LLC, LaSalle Special Situations II Venture GP S.a r.l., LaSalle Student Housing L.L.C., LaSalle Transpennine GP (Scot) LLP, LaSalle UK Property Services Limited, LaSalle UK Ventures (General Partner) Limited, LaSalle UKSS I GP Ltd., LaSalle UKV Co-Investor GP LLC, LaSalle UKVA GP LLC, LaVA Carry (Scotland) L.P., LaVA Feeder (Scotland) LP, Lava II GP S.a r.l., Lead Fast Investments Limited, Lee & Klatskin Associates, Leechiu & Associates, Lexington MKP Management L.P., Light bluu Limited, LodgeTax, MSCI's Global Occupiers business, Maloney Field Services, Martin Potts & Associates, Means Knaus Partners, Merlin UK Property Venture GP Limited, Merritt & Harris Inc., Midosuji Management GK, Morii Appraisal & Investment Consulting, Neo-Swiat, New England - Jones Lang LaSalle LLC, Nextport, Nima Mountaineer AB, Oak Grove Commercial Mortgage, Office Blocks Pte. Ltd., Opex Consulting, Orchid Insurance Limited, Oxford General Partner Limited, P.1 Administracao em Complexo Imobiliarios Ltda., P.2 Administracao em Complexo Imobiliarios Ltda., P.3 Administracao em Complexo Imobiliarios Ltda., PDM International, PDM International (Beijing) Limited, PDM International (Chengdu) Limited, PDM International China Limited, PDM International HK Limited, PDM International Limited, PMX, PT Jones Lang LaSalle, PT. Procon Indah, Pacific Real Estate Partners, Peloton Commercial Real Estate, Primary Capital Advisors, Prime Property Consultants Limited, Procofin, Propell National Valuers Pty Ltd., PropertyLinx Pty Ltd, Quadrant Realty Finance, Rogers Chapman UK Ltd, SBR Continental Europe GP LLC, Sage Capital, Salt River Investors GP LLC, Sandalwood Mall Management Private Limited, Shelter Bay Retail Group, Sovereign Asian Properties Inc., Spaulding and Slye Federal Services LLC, Stessa Inc., Strategic Advisory Group, TETRIS ARQUITECTURA SL - SUCURSAL EM PORTUGAL, TETRIS Arquitectura S.L, Tansei Mall Management Co. Ltd., TeTriSolutions LLC, Tenzing AB, Tetris Amenagement SARL, Tetris Design & Build BV, Tetris Design & Build Romania SRL, Tetris Design & Build Sarl, Tetris Design & Build sprl, Tetris Design and Build (Pty) Ltd, Tetris Design and Build S.R.L (Italy), Tetris Design and Build Sarl, Tetris Poland spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Tetris Projects GmbH, Tetris Projects Ltd, Tetris SAS, Tetris Tasarm ve Insaat Hizmetleri A.S, The Apartment Group, The Horizon Management Services Limited, The Spargo Corporation, The Standard Group LLC, The Staubach Company, Travis Commercial Real Estate Services, Triangle General Partner Limited, Trinity Funds Management, Trussard Property Consultants, Tetris Design & Build Servicos de Arquitetura Ltda., Tetris Design & Build s.r.o., Utrillo Ltd, ValuD Consulting, Veronique Nocquet, W A Ellis LLP, Washington Partners, Whitetail GP LLC, Wilson Retail Group, Wonderment BV, YY Property Solutions, bluu City Limited, bluu Projects Limited, bluu Regions Limited, bluu Solutions Limited, and bluuco limited.MidSouth Bancorp, Inc., a bank holding company, through its subsidiary MidSouth Bank, N.A., provides various community banking products and services to commercial and retail customers in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking accounts, money market, savings accounts, investment accounts, and NOW account deposits, as well as time deposits, such as certificates of deposit; and commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and consumer loans, as well as other loans secured by real estate. It also provides cash management services; and electronic banking services comprising remote deposit capturing services, Internet banking, and debit and credit cards. As of March 1, 2019, the company had 42 offices located in Louisiana and Texas, as well as a network of approximately 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs. MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana.

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The following companies are subsidiares of Cummins: Anvl, Apollo FC Holdings Ltd., Atlantis Acquisitionco Canada Corporation, Atlantis Holdco UK Limited, Brammo, CIFC Worldwide Partner C.V., CMI Africa Holdings BV, CMI CGT Holdings LLC, CMI Canada Financing Ltd., CMI Canada LP, CMI Foreign Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings B.V., CMI Global Equity Holdings C.V., CMI Global Holdings B.V., CMI Global Partner 2 C.V., CMI Global Partners B.V., CMI Group Holdings B.V., CMI Group Holdings Cooperatief U.A., CMI International Finance Partner 1 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 2 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 3 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 4 LLC, CMI International Finance Partner 5 LLC, CMI Mexico LLC, CMI Netherlands Holdings B.V., CMI PGI Holdings LLC, CMI PGI International Holdings LLC, CMI Turkish Holdings B.V., CMI UK Finance LP, CMI UK Financing LP, Cherry Island Renewable Energy LLC, Consolidated Diesel Company, Consolidated Diesel Inc., Consolidated Diesel of North Carolina Inc., Cummins (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Cummins (Xiangyang) Machining Co. Ltd., Cummins Africa Middle East (Pty) Ltd., Cummins Afrique de l'Ouest, Cummins Americas Inc., Cummins Angola Lda., Cummins Argentina-Servicios Mineros S.A., Cummins Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Cummins Aust Technologies Pty. Ltd., Cummins BLR LLC, Cummins Battery Systems North America LLC, Cummins Belgium N.V., Cummins Botswana (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins Brasil Ltda., Cummins Burkina Faso SARL, Cummins CDC Holding Inc., Cummins CV Member LLC, Cummins Canada ULC, Cummins Caribbean LLC, Cummins Center of Excellence Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Centroamerica Holding S.de R.L., Cummins Child Development Center Inc., Cummins Colombia S.A.S., Cummins Comercializadora S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Corporation, Cummins Cote d'Ivoire SARL, Cummins Czech Republic s.r.o., Cummins Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Diesel International Ltd., Cummins Distribution Holdco Inc., Cummins EMEA Holdings Limited, Cummins East Asia Research & Development Co. Ltd., Cummins Eastern Marine Inc., Cummins Electrified Power Europe Ltd., Cummins Electrified Power NA Inc., Cummins Emission Solutions (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Emission Solutions Inc., Cummins Empresas Filantropicas, Cummins Energetica Ltda., Cummins Engine (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine (Shanghai) Trading & Services Co. Ltd., Cummins Engine Holding Company Inc., Cummins Engine IP Inc., Cummins Engine Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Engine Venture Corporation, Cummins Enterprise LLC, Cummins Filtration (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtration GmbH, Cummins Filtration IP Inc., Cummins Filtration Inc., Cummins Filtration International Corp., Cummins Filtration Ltd., Cummins Filtration SARL, Cummins Filtration Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Cummins Filtros Ltda., Cummins Franchise Holdco LLC, Cummins Fuel Systems (Wuhan) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Americas Inc., Cummins Generator Technologies Germany GmbH, Cummins Generator Technologies India Private Ltd., Cummins Generator Technologies Italy SRL, Cummins Generator Technologies Limited, Cummins Generator Technologies Romania S.A., Cummins Generator Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd., Cummins Ghana Limited, Cummins Ghana Mining Limited, Cummins Global Financing LP, Cummins Global Technologies LLP, Cummins Grupo Comercial Y. de Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Grupo Industrial S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Holland B.V., Cummins Hong Kong Ltd., Cummins India Ltd., Cummins Intellectual Property Inc., Cummins International Finance LLC, Cummins International Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Cummins International Holdings LLC, Cummins Italia S.P.A., Cummins Japan Ltd., Cummins Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins LLC Member Inc., Cummins Ltd., Cummins Maroc SARL, Cummins Middle East FZE, Cummins Mining Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Mobility Services Inc., Cummins Mongolia Investment LLC, Cummins Mozambique Ltda., Cummins NV, Cummins Namibia Engine Sales and Service PTY LTD, Cummins Natural Gas Engines Inc., Cummins New Zealand Limited, Cummins Nigeria Ltd., Cummins Norte de Colombia S.A.S., Cummins North Africa Regional Office SARL, Cummins Norway AS, Cummins PGI Holdings Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (China) Co. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (S) Pte. Ltd., Cummins Power Generation (U.K.) Limited, Cummins Power Generation Deutschland GmbH, Cummins Power Generation Inc., Cummins Power Generation Limited, Cummins PowerGen IP Inc., Cummins Research and Technology India Private Ltd., Cummins Romania Srl, Cummins S. de R.L. de C.V., Cummins Sales and Service Korea Co. Ltd., Cummins Sales and Service Philippines Inc., Cummins Sales and Service Private Limited, Cummins Sales and Service Sdn. Bhd., Cummins Sales and Service Singapore Pte. Ltd., Cummins Sinai ve Otomotiv Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Cummins South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Cummins South Pacific Pty. Limited, Cummins Southern Plains LLC, Cummins Spain S.L., Cummins Sweden AB, Cummins Technologies India, Cummins Trade Receivables LLC, Cummins Turbo Technologies Limited, Cummins Turkey Motor Guc Sistemleri Sats Servis Limited Sirketi, Cummins U.K. Holdings Ltd., Cummins U.K. Pension Plan Trustee Ltd., Cummins UK Global Holdings Ltd., Cummins UK Holdings LLC, Cummins Vendas e Servicos de Motores e Geradores Ltda., Cummins Venture Corporation, Cummins West Africa Limited, Cummins West Balkans d.o.o. Nova Pasova, Cummins XBorder Operations (Pty) Ltd, Cummins Zambia Ltd., Cummins Zimbabwe Pvt. Ltd., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Costa Rica S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica El Salvador S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Guatemala Ltda., Distribuidora Cummins Centroamerica Honduras S.de R.L., Distribuidora Cummins S.A., Distribuidora Cummins Sucursal Paraguay SRL, Distribuidora Cummins de Panama S. de R.L., Dynamo Insurance Company Inc., Efficient Drivetrains, Efficient Drivetrains (Beijing) New Power Technology Co. Ltd., Efficient Drivetrains (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hilite International, Hydrogenics, Hydrogenics Corporation, Hydrogenics Europe N.V., Hydrogenics GmbH, Hydrogenics Holding GmbH, Hydrogenics USA Inc., Markon Engineering Company Ltd., Nelson Burgess Ltd., Nelson Industries, Newage Engineers GmbH, Newage Ltd. (U.K.), Newage Machine Tools Ltd., OOO Cummins, Petbow Limited, Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) B.V., Power Group International (Overseas Holdings) Ltd., Power Group International Ltd., Quickstart Energy Projects SpA, Shanghai Cummins Trade Co. Ltd., TOO Cummins, Taiwan Cummins Sales & Services Co. Ltd., Worldwide Partner CV Member LLC, Wuxi Cummins Turbo Technologies Co. Ltd., Wuxi New Energy Automotive Technologies Co. Ltd., and ZED Connect Inc..Winpak Ltd. manufactures and distributes packaging materials and related packaging machines in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Flexible Packaging, Rigid Packaging and Flexible Lidding, and Packaging Machinery. The Flexible Packaging segment provides modified atmosphere packaging products for fresh and processed meats, poultry, cheese, medical device packaging, and high performance pouch applications; high-barrier films for converting applications; barrier and non-barrier films for printing, laminating, and bag making, including shrink bags; and biaxially oriented nylon films for printing, metalizing, or laminating processes, food packaging, and industrial applications. The Rigid Packaging and Flexible Lidding segment offers portion control and single-serve containers, plastic sheets, and custom and retort trays, which are used for applications such as food, pet food, beverage, dairy, industrial, and healthcare; lidding products are available in die-cut, daisy chain, and rollstock formats and are used for applications such as food, dairy, beverage, industrial, and healthcare; and specialized printed packaging provides packaging solutions to the pharmaceutical, healthcare, nutraceutical, cosmetic, and personal care markets. The Packaging Machinery segment offers horizontal fills/seal machines for containers and vertical form/fill/seal pouch machines for pumpable and semi liquid and dry products. The company was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada. Winpak Ltd. is a subsidiary of Wihuri Packaging Oy.

Read MoreVIJAYAWADA: There are over 350 patients suffering from kidney disease in 21 girijan lambada tandas of 16 villages in A. Konduru mandal, Krishna district. Around 50 of them are undergoing dialysis. However, because of most of the patients are agricultural labourers, they are unable to afford regular treatment and medication. Many of patients have been bedridden for years. CPI(M) leaders want the government to conduct an official survey with professional doctors and save the girijans of A. Konduru mandal.

CPI(M) leaders visited the mandal, brought back five patients from Geelanagar tanda and Chaitanya Nagar tanda, and presented them before the media on Friday. They said the main cause of their problem was fluoride in the water. Barotu Thaina from Deeplanagar tanda said, I have been a kidney patient for the past six years, and my wife, Rami, also became a kidney patient two years ago. I am receiving treatment from a private doctor, and I give my wife the same medication. The cost of the medicines is Rs 3,500 per month. Be-cause we cant afford to buy enough for the both of us, I only take the medicines for 15 days a month.

The villagers say that neither the government officials nor politicians are taking care of them. Several lonely couples are suffering from kidney problems. They say that they have not been receiving the pension that is due to patients with kidney ailments, and some of them have not been receiving ration either. In our primary survey, we identified 97 kidney patients and 14 patients requiring dialysis. There must be 150 to 200 patients at present, said Dr M. Anusha, a medical officer at the A. Konduru PHC. This PHC does not have the equipment to carry out testing or drugs for kidney patients. The main reason for this problem is that most of the men and women in this area are alcoholics, she added.

Ch. Baburao, the convener of the CPI(M) Capital Coordination Committee, said he was ashamed of the governments failure to identify the 500 kidney patients in A. Konduru and Gampalagudem mandals. He demanded that the government set up of a dialysis centre and the appointment of a nephrologist at the A. Konduru Primary Health Centre. D.V. Krishna, district secretary (west) of the CPI(M), said, Over 20 patients have died in the past three years because of kidney problems. At least one person per house is suffering. Meanwhile, the officials say that there are only 16 patients in A. Konduru mandal.Yakaiah and Aruna were supposed to get married on February 21. (Photo: File/Representational)

Hyderabad: A 22-year old groom died on Saturday after being allegedly set afire by his would-be wife and her lover in Telangana's Jangaon district.

The man, B Yakaiah, succumbed to injuries at a private hospital. His 20-year-old fiance, Aruna and her lover Balaswamy, on February 19 evening, poured petrol and set him on fire outside her house in Madharam village in Jangaon district, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Yakaiah also gave a dying declaration at the hospital accusing the duo of trying to kill him.

Yakaiah and Aruna were supposed to get married on February 21.

According to the police, Aruna called Yakaiah to meet her outside her house on February evening. When he arrived, Balaswamy poured petrol on him and set him on fire.

The woman and her lover tried to mislead the people telling them that Yakaiah had attempted suicide, but the duo confessed to the crime during police interrogation.

Aruna did not want to get married to Yakaiah. Her parents were aware that she was in a relationship with Balaswamy, a distant relative, but did not not approve of him, the police said.

Following the incident, relatives and villagers staged protest on the Jangaon-Warangal highway blocking traffic for several hours. They also demanded immediate arrest of Aruna and Balaswamy.The Mahalakshmi Layout police have arrested three people, including the wife of the deceased, on charges of murder on Saturday. (Representational Image)

Bengaluru: Two days after a 34-year-old pani puri vendor was brutally hacked to death in front of his wife at his residence in Kurubarahalli, the Mahalakshmi Layout police have arrested three people, including the wife of the deceased, on charges of murder on Saturday.

The prime accused, Anitha (22), wife of the deceased Narasimhamurthy, hatched the plan to eliminate her husband along with her paramour Roshan (24), an AC technician at a sugar factory and his colleague Somaraj (27).

Anitha initially misled the police by stating that the murder was carried out by her ex-paramour Praveen and later confessed to killing her husband along with her present paramour Roshan and his friend Somaraj.

Anitha got married to Narasimhamurthy seven years ago and the couple has a five-year-old child. She told the police that she and Roshan had an affair and used to meet at her residence in Kurubarahalli, when Narasimhamurthy was away.

One day Narasimhamurthy returned home early and caught them in a compromising position. Since then he used to torture her, Anitha told her interrogators. She told police that she wanted to get rid of Narasimhamurthy, as he was becoming a hindrance in her affair with Roshan.

Anitha met Roshan on FB

It all started a few months ago when Anitha received a friend request from Roshan, a native of Chamarajanagar. They started chatting and soon exchanged their mobile numbers. They began calling each other and later got into a sexual relationship.

After some time, Anitha began calling up Roshan to her house, while Narasimhamurthy was away. After Narasimhamurthy got to know about this, he started consuming alcohol regularly and used to fight with Anitha.

She along with Roshan executed their plan to kill her husband on Thursday when Narasimhamurthy came home drunk.

How Anitha misled police

In her complaint, Anitha said that Murthy returned home at around 10.30 pm on Thursday. As they chatted after dinner, three armed men barged in, sprayed something on her, knocking her unconscious and presumably proceeded to attack Murthy. She regained consciousness in the morning and found her husbands body stuffed in a gunny bag.The woes of the AAP government did not end there as former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran resigned from its State Advisory Council For Education to express solidarity with Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: In an unprecedented move, a Delhi Police team on Friday seized a hard disk containing CCTV footage from the residence of Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the chief secretary's "assault" incident, while the chief minister knocked on the Lieutenant Governor's (LG) doors to ensure that the government's work was not hit due to the boycott by bureaucrats, even as the Centre hinted that the AAP supremo might be questioned in the case.

A total of 21 CCTV cameras and a hard disk were examined by the police.

The hard disk was seized and any possibility of "tampering" with the system could be ascertained only after forensic examinations, Additional DCP (North) Harendra Singh said, adding that there was a time-lag of 40-43 minutes with respect to the time of the alleged incident.

He added that 14 CCTV cameras were working, while seven were not.

The woes of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not end there as former bureaucrat Dhir Jhingran resigned from its State Advisory Council For Education to express solidarity with Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, who was allegedly assaulted by some AAP MLAs.

To make things worse for the ruling dispensation, the party's legislator from Narela, Naresh Balyan, triggered a fresh controversy by saying officers, who created hurdles in the works meant for people's welfare, should be beaten up, days after Prakash alleged that he was assaulted by the AAP MLAs.

Meanwhile, Union minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir hinted that Kejriwal might be questioned by the police in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat.

"Whosoever it may be, the police will question all those in whose presence the incident took place," he told reporters in New Delhi.

The AAP accused the Delhi Police of acting like a bully at the behest of the Centre by "illegally" entering the chief minister's house and alleged that the action was aimed at "insulting and humiliating" Kejriwal.

Without taking the name of the BJP or its leaders, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said it was "unfortunate" that some "dictators" and people with the mentality of "hooligans" had captured power, be it in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh.

"The dadagiri by the Delhi Police at Arvind Kejriwal's residence is being done at the behest of the BJP.

The Delhi Police is a mere puppet, but the Centre is resorting to such dadagiri to dismiss the Delhi government," he said.

At a press conference, the AAP also showed a two-and-a-half-minute clip, in which senior police officials were seen inside the residence of the chief minister, purportedly asking questions about the wall paint of the room.

The police claimed that its action (of dispatching a team to Kejriwal's house to collect evidence) came after its request for CCTV footage from the chief minister's residence "was not met".

The timing of the presence of the chief secretary at the chief minister's residence is important because Prakash has claimed that he was called at midnight and assaulted.

The AAP, on the other hand, has claimed that Prakash had reached the chief minister's residence at 11.25 PM.

"The time-lag of the CCTV cameras corroborates that the complainant was at the CM's residence at midnight (12.05 AM) and not at 11.25 PM, as was the plea of the AAP in the court," a top Delhi Police official said.

If the time-lag of 40 minutes was added to 11.25 PM, it would match the time the chief secretary claimed to have reached Kejriwal's residence, he added.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues met Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal and said the latter had assured them that he would take all steps to ensure that the officers started functioning normally.

The bureaucrats in the Delhi government had earlier decided to boycott all the meetings called by the ministers.

"Officers not attending meetings for last 3 days. Governance suffering. I m v concerned. LG assured he will take all steps to ensure officers started functioning normally. Council of ministers assured him all cooperation. All of us need to work together for betterment of Delhi (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted after the meeting with the LG. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Baijal had assured them that he would speak to the bureaucrats.

However, the LG sent out a very strong statement after the meeting.

"The Lt Governor strongly condemned the incidents and termed them as most unfortunate. The Lt Governor noted that no government can fulfil its promises to the people if the employees feel demoralised and insecure. There is no place for violence in a democratic and civilised society. Steps need to be taken to remove the mistrust between the government employees and the elected government, so that the development of Delhi and public interest do not get adversely affected," an official statement from the LG's office said.

Also Read: No CCTVs where Delhi chief secy was assaulted: Cops on CM home search

Meanwhile, a delegation of IAS officers working under the Delhi government met Union minister Jitendra Singh and put forward their grievances, following the alleged attack on Prakash.

After the meeting, Singh said, "We have heard the members of the delegation. We took cognisance of all the grievances and concerns raised by them and necessary steps will be taken."

The officers had submitted a memorandum, listing some of their demands, and necessary action would be taken on it, he added. The BJP launched an attack against Kejriwal and said his decision to call the chief secretary at his residence and the alleged physical assault on him was a case of bullying and thuggery.Kochi: In an initiative to open new avenues for women personnel in the force, the Kerala police has started deploying them in undercover operations. Ernakulam Rural Police has deployed three women personnel on field duty in Special Branch wing on an experimental basis. This is the first time women are assigned the tough assignment anywhere in the state. Their duty involves collecting information of all important developments in their assigned area well in advance through undercover operations and report the same to top officers on time, said Raveendran V.G., deputy superintendent of police, district Special Branch.

Among others, the personnel will have to collect details about agitations being planned by various political outfits and social groups, threats if any to law and order situation, gathering secret information of presence of criminal gangs or drug rackets among others. Such women personnel will be given specialised training, especially in self defense. Besides they will be constantly given guidance on how to go about specific assignments, the officer said.

The trio was selected on the basis of interview held by Ernakulam rural superintendent A.V. George from a group of personnel who expressed desire to work in the specialised wing. If the move yields results, we will be deploying more women personnel in the wing, Mr George said.The police said that some villagers stumbled upon the laptop-sized object on Wednesday in Kamle district. (Photo: Representational)

Guwahati: A metal instrument with Mandarin text on its cover has triggered concerns after it was found at a village 100 kilometres from the border with China in Arunachal Pradesh, the local police said.

The police said that some villagers stumbled upon the laptop-sized object on Wednesday in Kamle district, according to a report in NDTV.

The cops assume that it could be a Chinese aerial surveillance or a high-altitude weather observation device.

The Arunachal government has been informed about the mysterious device and it has been taken by the forensic department for further investigation.

The place from where the object was retrieved is a remote area and could be reached only after trekking for at least five hours, the police said.

Arunachal Pradesh has always been the centre of conflict for Indian and Chinese troops.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet and routinely objects to top Indian officials' visits to the area.THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The delegates from Kannur on Saturday said the party had the right to self-defence in the wake of murderous attacks from opponents. Taking part in the general discussions on the third day of the conference, Kannur delegates spoke about the threats faced by the party cadre in the district. There is a tendency to blame the CPM for violence. But when violence takes place against the party, there is selective silence on the part of those who make a lot of hue and cry about politics of murder.

They pointed out that those living in peaceful zones may not understand the degree of the threat to party workers in Kannur. CPM central committee member A. Viayaraghavan said the fact that the highest of number of party martyrs and living martyrs is from Kannur indicated the kind of attacks the comrades were facing in the district.

It may be recalled that delegates from outside Kannur had on Friday expressed concern over the mindless violence. They pointed out that such incidents diverted the attention of the party and the government from the good works being done for the benefit of the people.THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy slammed Prime Minister Modi for his statement that his government had rescued "Christian" nurses from the jaws of death in Iraq. By specifying Christians, he was trying to woo the majority Christian community in the state. However, while saying so the Prime Minster has undermined the constitution, Mr Chandy said.

"As the Prime Minister of world's greatest secular democratic nation your words are highly outrageous. In 2014 July, 46 Malayali nurses were brought back from war-torn Iraq, rescuing from the jaws of death after being held captive by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) for 23 days. It happened as a result of joint efforts put on by the then UDF led state government and the BJP led Central government," he said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

He said the Malayali community in the gulf countries had supported that unanimously. "As a person who witnessed the pain and anguish of their families, all of us had been a part of that, not because they are Christians, but what held us on, was that they are Indians and they were in deep trouble. I'm sure that Smt. Sushma Swaraj will vouch for my statement," he said. Mr Chandy said in politics allegations and accusations were normal but Mr Modi should remember that he is the Prime Minister of the people of the entire country.Modified human cells can be used as drugs. They can be modified in lab and can infuse them back into cells, says Dr Shreeram Aradhya, chief medical officer of Novartis Pharma.

Hyderabad: The breakthrough innovation, data and digital technology are the key priorities to lead innovation in Life Sciences sector in India. In breakthrough innovation, the main focus should be on high-end transformative innovation including personalised medicine said, Dr Shreeram Aradhya, chief medical officer of Novartis Pharma, during the keynote address at the BioAsia conclave.

Terming personalised medicine as not a business risk, he said, Modified human cells can be used as drugs. They can be modified in lab and can infuse them back into cells.

Due to the advancement in technology, there is increasing awareness in preventive medicine. Furthermore, real world data increasingly recognised as enabler of research and development and the next generation of platform is Data Science.

He said Artificial intelligence and Machine learning are allowing to progress in Life Sciences sector in a better way. Technology is helping cut costs in the clinical trails

Preventive medicine is inculcated using real-time monitoring with devices like patches, watches/bands, contact lenses, subcutaneous senors and integrated models. With digital therapies, drugs are being delivered in an intelligent way using assistance tools, apps, virtual reality, games and behavior change.

Speaking about a development on enhancing outcomes in heart failure, Mr Shreeram said, Enhancing outcomes in a heart failure are recorded using a wifi-enabled device instead of frequent visits to hospitals.Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam pay tribute after unveiling of a statue of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister late J. Jayalalithaa at party headquarters on the occasion of her 70th birth anniversary in Chennai on Saturday.  DC

Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Saturday unveiled the statue of AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa at party headquarters here on Saturday. Both CM Palaniswami and his deputy asserted that no one in Tamil Nadu can dislodge the ruling AIADMK from power.

In his speech, Palaniswami said there are vested interests trying to create a rift between AIADMK functionaries, but their thoughts will not materialise as 1.5 crore party cadres are united and are fighting like soldiers to protect the party and the government like their eyelids.

Heaping praise on party founder MGR and former CM Jayalalithaa deputy CM Panneerselvam said that the AIADMK party would thrive for the next 100 years.

After the demise of Amma new political outfits have mushroomed in TN and the people behind these outfits project them as a saviour of Tamils. Mark my words these outfits would soon burst out like balloons in the sky. Balloons will be colourful for some time, but they will come down when they burst, he said in veiled attack on actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanths political plunge .

Puja was performed for the life-size statue of Jayalalithaa and cadres celebrated by distributing sweets and bursing crackers. Both the AIADMK coordinators Panneerselvam and Palaniswami also launched the partys official Tamil daily Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma, (Our Revolutionary Leader Amma) on the occasion.Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the Tamil Nadu governments Amma two-wheeler scheme for working women by handing over a vehicle key to a beneficiary in Chennai on Saturday. TN Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam and Speaker P. Dhanapal are also seen.  N. Sampath

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched for women empowerment, saying empowering women tantamounts to empowering the entire family. His BJP-led NDA government is working on this concept to facilitate the development of the nation.

When we empower women in a family, we empower the entire household. When we help with a womans education, we ensure that the family is educated.

When we facilitate her good health, we help keep the family healthy. When we secure her future, we secure future of the entire home, he said while launching the Amma two-wheeler scheme at a packed Kalaivanar Arangam near Marina beach here on Saturday.

The Amma two-wheeler scheme for working women and also the planting of 70 lakh saplings marked the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa, here. The AIADMK governments scheme was announced in the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections. It provides 50 per cent subsidy to working women to buy two-wheelers.

I am glad to be able to launch one of her dream projects  the Amma two-wheeler scheme. I am told that on Amma's 70th birth anniversary, 70 lakh saplings will be planted across Tamil Nadu. These initiatives will go a long way in empowerment of women and protection of nature, the PM said while addressing the huge gathering.

We made a change in the Factory's Act and suggested states to allow women to work in night shifts as well. We also extended maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks. Under the PM Awaas Yojana, the registry of the House is done in the name of the woman, Mr Modi said. Lashing out at the Congress, he said, during the UPA regime Tamil Nadu had received `81,000 crore under the 13th Finance Commission. But after the NDA came to power, this state received `1,80,000 crore under the 14th Finance Commission.

Over `24,000 crore worth projects are currently being implemented through the Government of India in Tamil Nadu. After NDA came to power, we sanctioned `3,700 crore for the Chennai Metro Rail Project, he said listing out the schemes for the state. As part of its mission to provide housing for all by 2022 and TN has been given `700 crore during 2016 - 17 and `200 crore for rural housing during 2017  18 respectively besides `6,000 crore under the Urban Housing scheme.

The Union government has been working towards modernisation of fishing in TN and has given Rs.100 crore for long line trawling.

On Sunday, the PM will visit Puducherry. At Aurobindo Ashram, he will offer floral tributes to Shri Aurobindo, and interact with students of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.

He will also release a commemorative a postage stamp on the golden jubilee celebrations of Auroville.

PM floors Dravidian stalwarts with extempore oratory

In the Dravidian state where the political stalwarts are known for their fiery speeches albeit from carefully prepared and rehearsed texts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday stunned all at the Amma scooter function with his extempore oratory that froze many dropped jaws on the decorated dais.

Not just that, he also made it clear that he did not have to subscribe to the Amma agenda set by the host government and used most of his 20 minutes at the mike to explain in his signature stentorian tone the many schemes that his NDA Government had done for the people in general and for the women in particular; for India in general and for Tamil Nadu in particular.

He did not care to touch on Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswamis appeal to speed up the setting up of the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Regulation Committee as per the directions of the honourable Supreme Court.

That would be the business of the officials already vested with the responsibility and there was no need to play to the gallery by making fancy promises for the sake of crowd applause, the PM must have thought.

On the other hand, his speechprepared with great care and in deliberate detailserved as a clear warning to the Dravidian politicos and their well-entrenched parties that it would be possible to hold an audience even on home turf by dumping the filmi rhetoric and sticking to hard facts backed by real statistics.

It was clear that the men on the podium were clean bowled by the manner in which the PM spoke on the many national projects his government had implemented to help the people.

The huge audience in the hall-and surely the thousands watching on TV at homes-were clearly impressed. But what must have stunned them even more was that he did not need to refer to any notes when he listed out the projects done for Tamil Nadu.

Over `24,000 crore worth projects are currently being implemented through the Government of India in Tamil Nadu, said the PM. After NDA came to power, we sanctioned `3,700 crore for the Chennai Metro Rail ProjectCentre is working to provide housing to every person by 2022. TN has been given `700 crore during 2016 - 17 and R`200 crore for rural housing during 2017 - 18.

Under the Urban Housing scheme, TN has been given `6,000 crore. The Union government has been working towards modernisation of fishing in TN and has given `100 crore for long-line trawling.

All that had come straight from the mind, not from any written text under the mike-light.

But lo, Prime Minister Modi does not have anyone worth the saffron tinge in Tamil Nadu who could learn from his public speaking skills and challenge the Dravidian leaders on the many rival podiums-none at all.

Understanding the heaviness of the burden the boss was leaving behind on that Kalaivanar stage, Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan sat stunned as he listened to the PM not just speak about his government's development and welfare projects but also roll out specific statistics to punctuate that. How on earth was he going to try anything like that ever in his life, Ponnar might have thought as he listened spellbound; or perhaps, drew images of himself doing something like that at his own public rallies down the districts.Aditya Arya may have begun photography back in 1980, but his passion clearly hasnt died down. The photographer recently travelled to Jerusalem where he captured the Jerusalem Stone, known not only for its spiritual, historic and regional significance, but also for its remarkable durability as a high-quality building material. The stone is why ancient streets, buildings and monuments of Jerusalem remain perfectly intact for the past 3,000 years. I hadnt planned to focus on the yellow Jerusalem stone until I reached Jerusalem. Every building there is constructed with this stone  its Jewish identity, says the eminent photographer.





After graduating in History from St. Stephens College, Delhi University in 1980, he worked in the Mumbai film industry for some of the leading directors. He soon moved back to Delhi. Aditya is not only known for his commercial and travel portfolio, but also for his expertise in the field of advertising and corporate photography, specialising in products, interiors and food. Photography is about seeing. A photograph is formed in my head even before I click the photo. Unlike this generation, where photographers click hundreds of photos. Each photo has one decisive moment, he says.





Aditya was in Jerusalem for a week and he says that it was a fantastic experience. From a man entering the mosque, a shop window to a lady stepping on the footpath, his photos are stunning. However, the one that stands out is without doubt a white bird and its shadow on the Wailing Wall. Israel is a place with conflict, but it was good to see both sides of the story, says Aditya.





Aditya has documented historic photographic works from the famous Kulwant Roy Collection of the pre and post independence era. He has played a pivotal role in the establishment of India Photo Archive Foundation and the Neel Dongre Awards/Grants for Excellence in Photography. And now, he is coming up with Museo Camera  the only photography and camera museum in India. With more than 1,000 rare and iconic cameras and other equipment, this museum traces the history of photography from the 1870s to the Digital Era.





Its set to open in Gurugram by the end of this year. The museum is 22,000 square feet. People can learn and experience vintage photography apart from being mentored by senior photographers and setting up their galleries, he says. Adityas advice for amateur photographers: Go to a new place. Pre-visualise your shots and do not depend on technology.US-CERT, which issues warnings about cybersecurity problems to the public and private sector, did not respond to a request for comment.

Intel Corp did not inform US cybersecurity officials of the so-called Meltdown and Spectre chip security flaws until they leaked to the public, six months after Alphabet Inc notified the chipmaker of the problems, according to letters sent by tech companies to lawmakers.

Current and former US government officials have raised concerns that the government was not informed of the flaws before they became public because the flaws potentially held national security implications. Intel said it did not think the flaws needed to be shared with US authorities as hackers had not exploited the vulnerabilities.

Intel did not tell the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, better known as US-CERT, about Meltdown and Spectre until January 3rd, after reports on them in online technology site The Register had begun to circulate.

US-CERT, which issues warnings about cybersecurity problems to the public and private sector, did not respond to a request for comment. Details of when the chip flaws were disclosed were detailed in letters sent by Intel, Alphabet and Apple Inc in response to questions from Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Alphabet said that security researchers at its Google Project Zero informed chipmakers Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and SoftBank Group Corp-owned ARM Holdings of the problems in June.

It gave the chipmakers 90 days to fix the issues before publicly disclosing them; standard practice in the cybersecurity industry intended to give the targets of bugs time to fix them before hackers can take advantage of the flaws.

Alphabet said it left the decision of whether to inform government officials of the security flaws up to the chipmakers, which is its standard practice. Intel said it did not inform government officials because there was no indication that any of these vulnerabilities had been exploited by malicious actors, according to its letter.

Intel also said it did not perform an analysis of whether the flaws might harm critical infrastructure because it did not think it could affect industrial control systems. But Intel said that it did inform other technology companies that use its chips of the issue, according to its letter.

Intel, Alphabet and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment. AMD, ARM, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc also responded to questions from lawmakers. Microsoft said that it did inform several antivirus software makers about the flaws several weeks ahead of their public disclosure to give them time to avoid compatibility issues. AMD said that Alphabet extended the disclosure deadline from the standard 90 days twice, first to January 3rd, then to January 9th.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Streets surrounding the White House were cordoned off, snarling local traffic. Police block 17th Street near the White House in Washington. (Photo: AP)

Washington: A Tennessee woman driving a white van on Friday intentionally drove into a White House security barrier but did not breach it, and she was immediately apprehended and put under arrest, the US Secret Service said.

No shots were fired and no law enforcement personnel were hurt, the Secret Service said in a statement.

Previous encounters with the 35-year-old woman from La Vergne, Tennessee, near the White House had resulted in numerous arrests for a variety of criminal violations, it added, without giving her name.

The female was again charged today with numerous criminal violations and transported to the Metropolitan Police Department, the statement said, adding that normal operations had resumed at the White House complex.

The woman was seen holding a gun in her hand, according to a police report cited by the local Fox network TV station.

According to the report, she faces charges of unlawful entry, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, aggravated assault on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon-car, destruction of government property and contempt of court, the Fox station said.

The Washington Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters enquiry.

This minivan came and crashed into the barricade and tried to push through the barricade and tires were burning rubber and a lot of smoke was coming up, eyewitness Chris Bello, 50, of New York, told reporters near the scene.

And then about 30 seconds after that the two security guards that were in the booth, you know, ordered her to stop doing what she was doing and she didnt listen, Bello said.

The White House was put on a temporary partial lockdown following the crash, which occurred shortly after a meeting there between Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was still at the White House.

Trump later tweeted: Thank you to the great men and women of the United States @SecretService for a job well done!

Streets surrounding the White House were cordoned off, snarling local traffic.

A reporter for the local Fox affiliate tweeted that a witness had reported seeing officers pull a woman out of the vehicles window at gunpoint. He posted a photograph of what he said was the white Chevrolet minivan that hit the barrier.

Reuters video showed the minivan with an American flag emblem on the back and with both its rear window and a side window smashed. The video showed a law enforcement officer checking the underside of the van with a mirror.

CNN, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, said the action of driving into the barricade was not directed at the president or anyone at the White House and that mental health issues may have been a factor.Foreign ministers will also ask Mogherini and the EU's foreign service, the EEAS, on Monday to look at ways to strengthen the bloc's 1990s-era arms embargo on the Southeast Asian country that remains in place. (Photo: File)

Brussels: The European Union will start preparing sanctions against Myanmar generals over killings of Rohingya Muslims by formally calling on the bloc's foreign policy chief next week to draw up a list of possible names, two diplomats said.

Any new travel bans and asset freezes would be the EU's toughest measures yet to try to hold the military accountable for the abuses, likely joining US and Canadian sanctions already in place.

"Ministers will call on (Federica) Mogherini to propose restrictive measures on senior members of the Myanmar military for systematic human rights abuses, without delay," one diplomat said on Thursday, referring to EU sanctions.

Foreign ministers will also ask Mogherini and the EU's foreign service, the EEAS, on Monday to look at ways to strengthen the bloc's 1990s-era arms embargo on the Southeast Asian country that remains in place.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay could not be reached for comment. Myanmar military spokesman Major General Tun Tun Nyi when reached by phone did not comment on the EU decision.

In a statement expected to be released on Monday at a regular gathering of EU foreign ministers, the bloc is also expected to reiterate its call for the release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, detained on December 12 over accusations that they violated Myanmar's Official Secrets Act.

The two had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men who were buried in a mass grave in Rakhine state after being hacked to death or shot by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbours and soldiers.

No names of generals to be targeted for sanctions have been discussed, the diplomats said, but the United States said in December it was sanctioning Major General Maung Maung Soe, who is accused of a crackdown on the Rohingya minority in Rakhine.

EU sanctions lists are often coordinated with Washington.

The EU's decision to consider sanctions reflects resistance to such measures in the UN Security Council, where veto-wielding powers Russia and China said this month they believed the situation in Rakhine was stable and under control.

The United States, as well as United Nations, have described the military crackdown in Myanmar as "ethnic cleansing". About 655,000 Rohingya have fled from Rakhine State for shelter over the border in Bangladesh, according to the United Nations.Islamabad: Pakistan was on Friday in a denial mode as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to place it back on its terrorist financing watch-list.

The decision is a blow to both Pakistans economy and its strained relations with the United States. Reports after the FATF meeting in Paris said Pakistan will be included in the list in June this year. Earlier in the week China, Turkey, and the Gulf Cooperation Council were opposing the US-led move against Pakistan but by Thursday night both China and Saudi Arabia dropped their opposition.

In a message posted on Twitter, interior minister Ahsan Iqbal said there was no official intimation of FATF decision yet and we should not speculate till official statement is released. He also thanked Turkey for its support. The move comes days after reports that Pakistan had been given a three-month reprieve before being placed on the list, which could hamper banking and hurt foreign investment.

Foreign office spokesperson Dr Mohammed Faisal responded, saying Pakistan has serious concerns over and objections to the introduction of this new nomination procedure which is unprecedented and in clear violation of established rules/practices of FATF. He said most of the concerns raised by the US side regarding deficiencies in the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism regime had already been addressed in 2015 when Pakistan got an exit from the grey list.SALT LAKE CITY  A Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War wore an historic military uniform Friday to see the House Transportation Committee unanimously advance a bill restoring U.S. 6 as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway.

Eric Dan Richhart, secretary-treasurer of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War Department of Colorado and Wyoming, told the committee he had been working to restore the Grand Army of the Republic designation for nearly a decade.

He said he backs HB396 as someone "wholly supportive of all things veterans and military."

The highway had been renamed in 2009 for a former Democratic leader in the Utah Senate, Mike Dmitrich. But it had already been designated to honor Civil War veterans nearly 70 years ago.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, establishes the name of U.S. 6 as Grand Army of the Republic Highway, renaming the Mike Dmitrich Highway the Mike Dmitrich Byway.

"This is important to them and their heirs," Watkins said of the 1949 designation that somehow had been forgotten. She said highways stretching from Rhode Island to California also carry the name to honor those who fought to defend the union.

"We dearly love and revere our state senator," Watkins said of Dmitrich, who also was from Price but now lives out of state. But she said the highway designation in his honor needs to change after "finding out we shoved something else aside."

The added byway designation, along U.S. 6 from I-15 to I-70, is not unusual, Watkins said. The designations made in the bill would appear on state highway maps.

Richhart, who lives in Magna, said he supported the bill "as a compromise, knowing the people of Utah love this man and, at the same time, knowing the veterans who served in the Civil War" should be celebrated.SALT LAKE CITY  An 11-year-old girl who wowed Utah Jazz fans last October is taking her talents to Americas Got Talent.

According to the East Idaho News, Paige Anne and her mother, Launie Anne, will drive to Arizona this week to audition for the reality show.

We submitted an online audition and then they responded that they had the tape and gave us an audition time, Launie Anne told eastidahonews.com. Were excited to see what happens.

The family documented the trip on Facebook with live video updates that showed Paige singing at gas stations to help her prepare for the audition.

One of the most recent updates on her page showed her singing from an Arizona gas station a day ago.

The Phoenix audition is the last chance for prospective performers to audition for the reality show.

Paiges singing talents went viral in October after she sang the national anthem before the Jazz defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder, KSL previously reported.

Paige, who hails from Idaho Falls and has sung for three years, auditioned to sing for the Jazz game but nearly pulled out because she was feeling sick.

She also garnered attention while signing at the Hunting Expo at the Salt Palace. She used that money to travel to Phoenix for the audition, according to the East Idaho News.

I think shes so much braver than anybody that I know, her mother said. She can get up in front of anybody and sing in front of thousands and thousands of people and not bat an eye. Its fun to see her wings grow. Its fun to see her fly.OREM  A 17-year-old girl from Timpanogos High School is facing a potential charge for a threatening social media post, making her the fourth Utah student in a week investigated for making threats.

The wave of student threats comes within days of a deadly attack on a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.

Students who saw a "concerning" post from the girl on Snapchat about 5 p.m. Thursday immediately reached out to their parents, the Alpine School District and Orem police said.

Officers and district officials identified the girl, then interviewed her and her parents, Orem police said. Investigators determined the threat was not credible and that the girl had no access to any firearms. Police said officers would be on scene at the school Friday.

The girl's post "didn't rise to the offense of a terroristic threat," according to police, but is being screened for a misdemeanor charge. Because of the girl's age and the fact that she was only being investigated for a misdemeanor allegation, she was not taken into custody or booked into a youth facility, police said.

No further details about the post were provided.

Orem police praised the students who spoke out about the post and urged parents to emphasize to their children that any threatening messages, even posted as jokes, will be investigated by the department and the school district.

"We thank those students that showed the courage to come forward, the parents who called and the (Alpine School District) for their quick response. Threats like these will always be taken seriously and we will work quickly to ensure the safety of our kids in Orem," Orem police wrote in a statement.

Other school threats investigated this week in Utah include:

 A Springville High School student was arrested Thursday and booked into Slate Canyon Detention Center after police said he posted a picture on Snapchat of a person holding a gun, along with a message that suggested violence. Springville Police Lt. Warren Foster said the boy told officers the post was meant as "a dark joke" and he appeared to have no real intention of carrying out the threat. The boy's parents handed over his Airsoft gun to police.

 On Wednesday, a Wasatch High School student was arrested and accused of threatening gun violence. Heber City police did not identify the teen who allegedly made the threat but said the student was in custody and was cooperating with them. No details on the content of the post were provided.

 On Tuesday, a student at Sandy's Eastmont Middle School who was apparently upset about a friend who had been expelled from the school, posted a comment on social media to the effect of getting revenge by shooting up the school, said Sandy Police Sgt. Jason Nielsen. Police do not believe the threat was legitimate. The student was cited for investigation of making a false alarm.A flier advertising a "Women in Math" event at Brigham Young University has made national news this week for advertising the event with the pictures of the four male faculty speakers.

The flier went viral after BYU student Stephanie Driggs tweeted an image of the flier on Feb. 21 with the words  is this satire?

Ever wanted to learn about women in math, but from an entirely male perspective? Then look no further than Brigham Young University, the HuffPost wrote in an article about the hilarious (and cringeworthy) flier.

Driggs' tweet had received over 9,000 retweets and 24,000 likes by that afternoon, according to the HuffPost, and has since been deleted.

CNET also picked up the story. Still, who would not have been enticed by the promise of 'there will be treats,' as well as by the cheery, confident headshots of the male faculty? Naturally, when 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday rolls along, and the (edible) treats are laid out, I wonder how many women will attend, CNET writer Chris Matyszczyk wrote in a commentary.

The BYU Math Department responded to reactions to the flier in a Facebook post as well as a statement on its website. It was done with good intentions. It was not meant to demean women or be satirical. The posters were taken down and replaced.

The flier was made by female student Bryn Balls-Barker for the student-run Women in Math Club.

In a comment on the BYU Math Departments Facebook page, Balls-Barker wrote, I made the poster. I am a female math student and I feel very supported by my male and female professors.  I chose to ask professors that werent already affiliated directly with the club so that members of the club would have more opportunity to meet other faculty members.

Fox 13 spoke with Women in Math Club adviser Martha Kilpack, who said it was an honest mistake kind of poster and not intended to be a political statement.

"We should take a step back and look at the whole picture," Kilpack told Fox 13. "And the whole picture is that we put on a fun event that our female undergraduates wanted to have.

The Daily Universe, BYUs campus newspaper, addressed the math clubs flier in an article Thursday. Driggs, the student who initially tweeted about the flier, said she actually decided to go to the math event to find out more about it.

When I tweeted the tweet, I didnt intend for any specific person to be hurt by it, Driggs told The Daily Universe. I meant for it to be mostly a comment about the institution and a lot of problems that go on at BYU specifically.SALT LAKE CITY  She peeks out the windows of her Provo home, locates her car and assesses whether she can reach it safely.

When she gets to the car, she quickly locks herself inside, and the doors remain locked until she reaches her office. There, she parks as close as possible to the building, knowing her life is at risk every moment she's not behind those locked doors.

Anytime Heather Wolsey's ex-husband isn't behind bars, this is how she lives.

"I'm 45 years old," Wolsey told state lawmakers Friday. "I call my mom when I leave a place, and I call her when I show up. I love my mom and I appreciate that she protects me, but I'm a 45-year-old woman.

"It's like I'm a 12-year-old having to check in all the time."

Wolsey visited the state Capitol to voice her support for HB333, a bill that Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, says would show that Utah takes domestic violence seriously.

Specifically, the bill proposes to increase the penalty for domestic violence for a violation of a protective order from a class B misdemeanor to a class A misdemeanor, and on subsequent offenses, that penalty would go from a class A misdemeanor to a third-degree felony," Spendlove said.

"(And) it gives courts greater tools to be able to require that a perpetrator who violates a protective order must wear a GPS tracking system," he said.

For Wolsey, that would mean anytime her ex-husband leaves jail, both she and police would be alerted.

"I shouldn't have to live this way, nor should anybody else," she told the House Judiciary Committee. "Domestic violence needs to be taken seriously. We need to send a strong message to abusers that it's not OK to  abuse your significant other (and) continue to harass them and  control them because they're afraid to live a normal life."

The committee unanimously recommended the bill to the full House for further debate, despite concerns from prosecutors that lawmakers were not considering "unintended consequences" of the bill.

Will Carlson, Salt Lake County deputy district attorney, noted that changing the penalty for violating a protective order from a class B misdemeanor to a class A misdemeanor modifies the jurisdiction of such cases, moving them from the municipal justice courts to the state district courts.

District courts already are bogged down with felony cases, Carlson said, which means such cases could receive less attention than at the justice court level. Domestic violence cases often move through the legal process faster and with more personal attention from judges in justice court, he said.

The district attorney's office has not taken an official position on the bill, Carlson said, and instead is in a "hold pattern."

"(Domestic violence) is a serious offense, and it should be taken seriously," he said. "But when you turn this from class B misdemeanor assault into a class A misdemeanor assault, you change the jurisdiction of where it happens."

Steve Burton, with the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he doesn't believe HB333 "will solve the major issues involved in the criminal justice system dealing with domestic violence."

"We're enhancing a penalty (with the bill)," Burton said. "By enhancing a penalty, we're creating several other issues that we may not have contemplated."

The Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice and Utah Board of Juvenile Justice also have come out in opposition to the bill.

Spendlove noted that without the enhancements in his bill, abusing a domestic parter is treated the same under Utah law as "stealing a Snickers at the corner grocery store."

"If you beat up your wife, it's the same as letting your dog (run at large). We're not taking this seriously enough. We've got to increase these penalties. We've got to give victims the tools that they need," he said.

Darin Durfey, corrections chief deputy with the Utah County Sheriff's Office, called that classification of offense "unfortunate."

"We've seen the consequences of domestic violence which have ended in homicide. The biggest concern that I have is if we don't take domestic violence serious as a society that we will continue to clean up bodies. That is the result," he said.

Having domestic violence be on par with class B misdemeanors like public intoxication or reckless driving sends the wrong message, Durfey said. "I don't know what message we can send if we leave things the way we are."

Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, said it's clear that domestic violence is a problem in Utah that needs to be addressed.

"We talk about an opioid epidemic. Domestic violence isn't that far behind," Greene said.

Wolsey had with her a large envelope filled with police reports and court documents from her 20-year marriage. Included in those reports are allegations that she was choked, punched and threatened.

"I am both a victim and survivor of domestic violence," Wolsey told the committee. "My ex has tried to kill me before."

And today, she lives "with a very real fear that he intends to finish the deed."

"I call this a selfish bill," Wolsey said through tears, "because I don't want to die."

"But also, at the same time, my voice fighting for this bill speaks for so many that have lost their lives because they did choose to try and leave an abusive relationship," she said.

Spendlove shared the story of Memorez Rackley, 39, who was gunned down along with her 6-year-old son, Jase, in the middle of a quiet Sandy neighborhood on June 6, 2017. Rackley's 11-year-old son, Myles, and the 8-year-old daughter of a good Samaritan who tried to help the Rackley family were shot and injured.

The gunman, Jeremy Patterson, 32, then took his own life.

"This happened within a block of the woman's home, and blocks away from the elementary school where these children had just been released. It was the second-to-last day of the school year," Spendlove said.

As police investigated the "brutal murder," it was discovered that Rackley had been in contact with police just days earlier, he said.

"In a police report dated June 3, 2017, she told police that she was being followed, she was being harassed, and she said, 'I'm pretty scared for my safety and for my children's safety. I don't know what I need to do. He's threatened me, he's threatened the safety of my children, and I don't know what to do.'"

Spendlove says police "didn't have the tools" to protect Rackley and her children.

"In the police report, they said they could not find the perpetrator. They recommended that she go stay at a friend's house," he said.

"Then on June 3, 2017, Jeremy Patterson waited outside of the school where (Memorez) Rackley's children attended and ambushed them, followed them home, and brutally murdered them with dozens of children and parents literally feet away."

Spendlove says the tragic killing "exposed a fundamental flaw in our justice system in Utah. We are not taking the issue of domestic violence seriously enough, and we are exposing victims to continued abuse."

"If this system had been in place on June 3 of last year, it could have saved the lives of that mother and their young children," he said. "This is an important tool that police need. This is an important tool that victims need."

The technology for the GPS monitoring exists, Spendlove said. Such a system would notify both police and victims anytime "the perpetrator comes within a certain distance of the victim."

Andrea Hunziker shared with lawmakers the story of her sister, Sharee Nelson, who was killed in July 2002. Nelson's husband, Robert Steven Hatch, is serving two life terms in prison for the murder.

In 2004, 4th District Judge Fred Howard called the shotgun killing of Nelson "the unfortunate result of long and unabated domestic violence and the product of premeditation."

Hunziker told lawmakers how Hatch broke into Nelson's Spanish Fork home, kicked in her bedroom door and leveled a sawed-off shotgun at her, "while she cried and pleaded for her life."

"Her last words were, 'Please, don't shoot me,'" Hunziker said. "He shot her at close range in the chest. She fell to the floor.  She was dead. Then he stood over her lifeless body and shot her again at close range in the face."

HB333, she said, would have saved Nelson's life.

"It would have warned her he was close, and she could have got her and her kids out, and I would still have my best friend and sister here," Hunziker said.SALT LAKE CITY  A hobby farmer with three head of cattle is forcing the state to reorganize the private nonprofit Utah Beef Council because he says the fees he pays are requiring him to unconstitutionally support political speech.

For years, ranchers have paid 50 cents a head each time cattle are sold. That money goes to the Utah Beef Council, a private nonprofit entity that runs advertising campaigns and is made up primarily of members of the Utah Cattlemen's Association.

The arrangement with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food required the rancher to be associated with the Utah Beef Council, a private entity that engaged in political and promotional speech, said Nicole Hanna with the Utah Attorney General's Office.

Hanna told members of the Retirement and Independent Entities Committee Friday that guidance from federal court, where the rancher's lawsuit is pending, indicates there is only a "small" likelihood the state would prevail in the case. She said the rancher has been willing to hold off pending a legislative solution to the issue.

A legislative analysis, too, shows the beef promotion statute is unconstitutional and both State Auditor John Dougall and State Treasurer David Damschen agree.

"We're dealing with public funds. The exemption from the state money management act is improper," Damschen said.

Added Dougall, "Clearly, a change needs to take place."

Hanna said the constitutional nature of the lawsuit would open the state up to more litigation which could cost Utah, conservatively, $1 million.

Commissioner LuAnn Adams, who was personally named in the suit, said the issue needs to be fixed to ward off further legal vulnerability.

The recommendation before the legislative committee was to move ahead with the reorganization of the Utah Beef Council into a quasi-governmental entity so it is in the position to take money and engage in promotional activities  much like the Utah Dairy Commission.

Rep. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, is running HB432 to make that transformation, which includes modifications to the membership of the Utah Beef Council.SALT LAKE CITY  Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said Friday he believes it's time for Utah lawmakers to look at gun control in the context of school safety following last week's deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school.

But he does not think it is something legislators can tackle in the final two weeks of this year's session.

"I want to sort out what would be good policy versus what would just be window dressing," Niederhauser told reporters after being asked about restrictions proposed by Republican Florida officials opposed by the National Rifle Association.

Those include raising the age to buy firearms in Florida from 18 to 21, including semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 allegedly used by a teenager to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.

Other proposals in Florida include banning so-called bump stocks that permit semi-automatic rifles to fire faster and making it easier for law enforcement to keep firearms away from people with mental health problems.

Utah lawmakers have long been reluctant to consider restrictions on guns, even passing a contentious "constitutional carry" bill in 2013 that allowed concealed firearms to be carried without a permit.

That bill was vetoed by Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, who said while he was passionate about Second Amendment rights, Utah's gun policy needed to send a message the state is "not the wild and woolly West."

Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, said other bills in the works may need to be rethought because of the impact they may have on youths.

He cited HB129, which would strengthen the state's stand your ground law that allows people to use force to defend themselves even if they could get away from danger. The bill has passed the House and is awaiting a Senate hearing.

"Whats the message were sending?" Davis asked. "Are we saying, 'Dont try to arbitrate your problems with one another, that the ultimate solution is to shoot your way out of it?'"

Niederhauser said gun control is a "very controversial" issue in Utah.

"Let's face it," he said. "We've been big advocates of the Second Amendment. I know that troubles some folks. For the Legislature now to take that on and come up with a solution in the last two weeks of the session is a big ask."

Because it would be difficult to address those issues "substantively" with less than two weeks left in the 45-day session, Niederhauser said they would likely have to wait until the legislative interim and go before the 2019 Legislature.

That "may be prime time" to talk about gun control, he said, a discussion that would "probably be focused on the context of school safety, because thats where I think our biggest vulnerabilities are."

While there may be many solutions being proposed, Niederhauser said it's not clear what would make a difference.

"Is it going to be a background check? Is it going to be something else? Thats something we need to carefully move ahead with," he said.

What is clear is that lawmakers are feeling the pressure to act as mass shootings continue to occur.

Sen. Majority Whip Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he feels a sense of urgency after the latest deaths.

"I feel that personally," Adams said. "How would you not feel that?"

He said the question is finding what works.

"All of us would like to stop it. There's no one that wouldn't. The question is, what does," Adams said.

The majority whip didn't disagree that lawmakers already have had time to address the issue.

"I'm not going to argue that. We need to look at it now," Adams said. He said the issue of keeping guns out of the hands of those with mental illness was talked about by the governor's Teen Suicide Prevention Task Force.

"That's an issue most people can agree on," he said.

Sen. Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, who is serving as the temporary Senate majority leader, recalled growing up at a time when every pickup truck in his high school parking had a hunting rifle in the back window.

The Florida shooter "showed lots of weakness that maybe should have been caught," Van Tassell said. "I just think weve all got to be more vigilant."eServGlobal, the digital transactions technology company, announces it has secured a new three-year contract with existing customer, Ooredoo Algeria.

The contract encompasses technology platform upgrades as well as three-years of support through to 2020. eServGlobal has been a technology vendor to Ooredoo Algeria for more than a decade, facilitating all prepaid recharge requirements.

As part of the new contract, eServGlobal will upgrade the technology platforms to the new releases of PayMobile for electronic recharge and VoMS for Voucher Management to facilitate a comprehensive recharge offering for the largely prepaid subscriber base.

James Hume, eServGlobal COO, said, Ooredoo Algeria is one of our longest standing customers and we have worked closely with them over many years. Im pleased to be able to share this clear sign of progress against our objective to create true business partnerships with our existing customers. This contract also further supports our commitments to building strong recurring revenue.

Imed Soussou, Ooredoo Algeria, CTO, added Algeria is a growing and dynamic market with strong demand for new technologies. During the decade we worked with eServGlobal, we have seen the demonstrated ability of their technology, particularly recently, their commitment to support and engagement towards their customers. It is important for us to trust in our technology partners. We look forward to continuing this partnership as we work together to build technology solutions for Algerias future.

eServGlobal says it was was awarded this contract based on the proven, in-field performance of its technology solutions as well as its commitment to work together with the operator.Chimbu Warrior (Kurt Pfund)

BILL BROWN

SYDNEY - Kurt Pfund (1935-2017) was born in Switzerland and lived, worked and played in Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean before finding his way to Papua New Guinea.

He was lured there by the ambition to become a crocodile hunter. Instead he developed an abiding love for the country and its people which he expressed through his paintings and his writing.

Kurt was already a significant artist and had held several successful exhibitions at an international level when I first met him in 1973.

He had also published two books, Islands of love: portrait of the Trobriand Islands (paintings and text by Kurt Pfund) and Legends of Papua New Guinea (paintings by Kurt Pfund, text by Jack McCarthy). His studio was on a five-acre property at Sapphire Creek.

We saw a lot of Kurt until we went our separate ways after Independence in 1975. Kurt returned to Switzerland and we returned to Australia for a while. The Sapphire Creek property became an official residence.THE Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, a political party where President Rodrigo Duterte is a member, is purging its list to get rid of corrupt politicians and those engaged in drug dealing and trafficking. Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III revealed this on Saturday as the ruling party started reviewing records of membership to identify the politicians tagged in the drug watchlist of Duterte. He said those tagged in the drug list would be suspended or booted out of the party. There is zero tolerance for politicians who use their position to spread harm among the people, even if they are members of the Party, said Pimentel, also the president of PDP-Laban. In a related development:  In Bataan, at least 4,500 new members from the province joined PDP-Laban. House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez officiated their mass oath-taking at Vista Mall Thursday in the capital city of Balanga. This call of PDP-Laban could mean a possible unification of all political parties in the province. All incumbent officials were invited and took oath as members of the political party. commented Mariveles town Councilor Tito Catipon. For his part, Bagac Councilor Popoy del Rosario said in Filipino, I am happy to be part of the ruling political party PDP-Laban. I have strong confidence to (sic) the party. Balanga City Councilor Jovic Baluyot said, It is a privilege to be a member of PDP-Laban. The political party has good structure to sustain programs for its members and for the country as well. It has strict membership recruitment not accepting those involved in illegal drugs. Gov. Abet Garcia and Reps. Joet Garcia and Geraldine Roman of Bataans first and second districts, respectively, joined the oath-taking of new members who trooped to the mall as early as 6 in the morning. Sworn in were provincial officials, municipal officials from 11 towns and one city, and village officials and leaders from 237 barangays. According to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the drug problem in the Philippines would continue unless the administration got rid of government officials and law enforcers protecting drug dealing. The continued existence of the illegal drug trade is contrary to the principles of the Party. You are not a true member of PDP-Laban if you defy our chairmans campaign against illegal drugs, he said. Pimentel tapped PDP-Laban vice chairman and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to spearhead efforts in purging the partys ranks of corrupt elements. Cusi also heads the Partys Discipline Committee. As the President and our Chairman said, if you are unfairly linked to the drug trade, you will be given the chance to clear your name. However, no help will come to you if we can confirm the allegations, said Pimentel.Pimentel explained that membership in the PDP-Laban was a privilege reserved for those who actively support its principles and policies in words and deeds. He said the rapid expansion of PDP-Laban, swamped with thousands of applications, allowed these questionable members to enter the party, but with the multi-step membership review process, these individuals would be eventually identified and removed. In a forum, PDEA officials revealed that international drug syndicates were operating in the country in cahoots with government officials, law enforcers and community leaders. They said methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu; marijuana and party drug ecstasy were the top three narcotics distributed in the streets and these prohibited substances are manufactured by Chinese, Taiwanese and Mexican drug syndicates. Duterte also disclosed that 40 percent of barangay officials were linked to illegal drugs or directly involved in drug dealing and trafficking. Since July 2016, at least 39 village chairmen and 53 village councilmen have been arrested due to involvement in illegal drugs. Authorities suggested a target of 30 percent of barangays must be cleared yearly in the hope of totally eradicating the drug menace in four years. According to latest available figures, the National Capital Region had the highest drug affectation of 97.30 percent, with the cities of Caloocan, Navotas, Valenzuela, Muntinlupa and Taguig obtaining 100 percent, while Las Pinas had the least affectation of 55 percent. PDEA is closely coordinating with other law enforcement agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation, National Police, and the Armed Forces, and the Office of the President to go after a number of state officials protecting and financing the drug trade. Former PDEA chief and now Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena said the countrys drug problem could now be classified as national security threat. A study conducted by Philippine Center on Transnational Crime during the time of then President Joseph Estrada revealed the underworld has virtually taken a new role in the geopolitical order with the establishment of a semi-ideological institution known as Narcocracy. It said this institution had subtly invaded almost all countries and was now actively participating in running the economic and political affairs of some states to the extent of dictating courses of action of governments or, worst, monopolizing the administration of government. It relies solely on underground capitalism with profit as its primary orientation and drugs as the main subject of commerce. Its strategy is bribery directed against those occupying sensitive positions in government or participating in political exercises by shouldering the bulk of the financial requirements of political parties. Its social activity is giving off dole outs in the form of money with the end in view of influencing decision making or exerting pressure on concerned personalities to further their interests, the PCTC paper narrated. The authorities vowed the governments crackdown on drug dealing in the country would continue with the goal of catching protectors and financiers of the illegal drug trade.Members of Donegal County Council have stated their opposition to a controversial wind farm development in the Finn Valley but council planners have given their approval for the project.

An Bord Pleanala is due to decide on the proposed 19-turbine wind farm at Meenbog close to Barnesmore Gap.

In a report on its views on the project, the council said it recommends granting planning permission subject to the condition that seven of the 156.5m turbines be omitted as they are not within the setback distance of ten times the tip height from residential properties.

The proposal by Cork-based Planree development is the second time the company has attempted to construct a large wind farm in the area. In 2016 a 49-turbine project, which faced fierce opposition from local residents, was denied planning permission. The new smaller application focuses on the western cluster of wind farms included in the first application.

At a special meeting held on Monday to gather the views of councillors which will be added to the council's report, councillors said they were concerned about a number of issues including the overall impact of turbines in Donegal on the countys growing tourism industry.

A proposal made by Cllr Ian McGarvey and seconded by Cllr Seamus O Domhnall that the councillors oppose the development was passed.

The development has been designated as Strategic Infrastructure Development and the decision on the application will be made by An Bord Pleanala and not the county council.

Senior Executive Planner Paul Kelly told the meeting that the sole reason for the rejection of the previous application was the inadequacy of bird population surveys.

He said the repeat application is on the western area of the original application and on a smaller area. A lot of the issues we would have had with the eastern cluster which is close to a large number of residential dwellings do not carry through.

The meeting heard that local councillor Gary Doherty has concerns that include the impact of the wind farm on the Croaghonagh Bog, which is classified as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

In a statement read into the record by his Sinn Fein colleague Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher, he said: A substantial blanket bog in the area is home to a number of rare species of plants and wildlife and stands to be greatly perturbed by a development such as this. Bird species recorded as inhabiting the SAC include the Greenland White-fronted Goose and Merlin, both of which are listed under Annex 1 of the EU Birds Directive due to their high level of endangerment.

Finn Valley councillor Patrick McGowan said there needed to be an independent survey on the impact on peat land. He said local people have concerns about the unknown effects of wind turbines.

I think the one thing is that there is a lot of emphasis and talk about wildlife and habitat. The thing that is causing most concern is the impact that it is having on people.

Answering a question posed by Cllr Gerry Crawford, Mr Kelly said the report from the council is based on policy and guidelines as they stand, and An Bord Pleanala will make a decision based on the guidelines in effect.

Finn Valley councillor Martin Harley said the county has been put on the map by the Wild Atlantic Way and there is a massive potential for tourism.

The wind farms may give initial work in construction but there isn't much work in upkeep and maintenance.

There is a massive potential in tourism but we could be blighting our landscape with turbines and we could never get it back again.

Cllr Seamus O Domhnaill said there are fears in the area that this application will lead to a further application.

He asked whether environmental impact statements should be independently evaluated. Essentially, the results you want, you will get them if you shop around

I am not saying I am totally opposed to it, but I am saying that what should be done should be done right. It is something that is going to impact massively on communities. Donegal has more than our fair share of wind turbines.

In response, Mr Kelly said the bird survey submitted with the application was submitted by very, very comprehensive survey analysis.

Council chief executive Seamus Neely said it is positive that any suggestions or observations that members want to make can go directly to the board.

Cllr Niamh Kennedy said: We have had more than our fair share of wind farms and turbines around the county.Theres no better spot for motorsport enthusiast Donagh Kelly than to be out in front and leading the way, and thats exactly where he will be on Monday, 5th March when he puts his foot to the floor to kick off Local Enterprise Week in Donegal with a keynote address in the Solis Lough Eske in Donegal Town.

Following the official launch by Cathaoirleach Cllr. Gerry McMonagle, Donagh will share the story of how the KN group has grown to become, not just a national brand, but an international one too.

His talk is just one of many in a superb line-up of events across the county during Local Enterprise Week that runs from March 5-9 and will be followed at the same venue by a super discussion on building a niche business.

That panel discussion, hosted by Business Consultant Jim Meehan, will include Karen Campbell of Irish Pressings from Derrybeg, Eugene McBrearty Managing Director of the KER Group in Killybegs and Michael Masterston, Managing Director of Moll Industries in Donegal Town.

Head of Enterprise in Donegal, Michael Tunney, said businesses across the county would be urged to look to the future with confidence over the course of the week.

Every business can look back to where they have been, but they should also be always looking ahead to where they want to go. Thats what we are inviting Donegal businesses to do this year.

Our theme for Enterprise Week is Back to the Future and the programme we have put together in conjunction with partner agencies, includes talks, workshops and seminars on a huge array of important business topics, he said.

Six Donegal businesses who certainly are looking to the future with confidence will feature strongly on Monday night at a celebration of manufacturing in Donegal.

Included in that line up are ODonnells Bakery from Laghey; MacBride Brothers Joinery from Convoy; Joe Bonnar Metalcraft, Letterkenny; Welditz from Carndonagh; Silver Strand Ropes from Moville and Diorite from Buncrana.

Their stories will be told on screen in Donegal  We Make Things in Buncrana Cinema on Monday, 5th March at an event hosted by broadcaster Anton Savage, that will also see the launch of a book of the same name charting their stories.

Those events are just a few of a packed line up from the week and Head of Enterprise in Donegal, Michael Tunney, said they were delighted to once again have some fantastic local, national and international speakers bringing their expertise and experience to the county.

We are certain that there will be terrific learning and networking opportunities for businesses every day, he added.

The weeks events will see a superb mix of topics covered from Social Media, Export, Manufacturing, Marketing, Diaspora and many more, over the course of the week.

To book events, log on to www.localenterprise.ie/donegal or send an e.mail to patricia.clarke@leo.donegalcoco.ie or phone 0749160735.Majella ODonnell is the new President of Arranmore RNLI Lifeboat Station.

Majella met with the lifeboat crew at the station this week where she was warmly welcomed. Three new members were also welcomed on to the Lifeboat Crew.

Majellas interest in seafaring began when her family, from Thurles in County Tipperary, went to Spiddal, County Galway on their annual holidays. Her father and mother Tom and Marion Roche, both keen sailors, often brought the family on board their boat and sailed the entire west coast of Ireland.

Majella, who has a house on Owey island, often pilots her own boat when visiting the island and was always aware of the role of the lifeboats in saving lives at sea.

On meeting the crew and Arranmore RNLI press officer, Nora Flanagan, Majella said how pleased she is to be part of this vital service.

Ive always had a huge passion for water safety and have been a great admirer of the work of the RNLI, she said.

I want to lend my support to the work the Arranmore Lifeboat crew do, not just as a figurehead of the station but to be actively involved and in the forefront of all aspects of the station to help the crew continue their role of saving lives at sea.

I may not be a crew member of the lifeboat going out to sea but I think I can see my role as an asset, not only in fundraising, but listening to the needs of the crew, highlighting the importance of this vital service to all those who use the sea for business or pleasure and spreading the message of safety on the sea

The station has also signed up three new crew members: Sebastian Sebo from Krackow in Poland, experienced sailor and mother of four boys, Sharon ODonnell, and Erin McCafferty, who at 18 is the youngest crew member of the Arranmore Lifeboat and is currently studying for her leaving certificate at Gairmscoil Mhic Diarmada on the island.

Coxswain Jimmy Early said We are delighted to welcome our new President, Majella and of course our new crew members, we welcome inclusivity and diversity and all our crew reflect those ideals.

Jimmy Early, Nora Flanagan, Majella ODonnell. John McHugh, John McCafferty, Erin McCafferty, Sebastian SeboAll of a sudden green cars are in vogue.

Only a few years ago fuel efficient cars were the domain of left-leaning inner-city residents. However, public sentiment has changed course over the last half decade, with a greater awareness of environmental factors caused by global warming and increased density leading to higher pollution  especially overseas in China and Europe.

Only this week Drive got to sample Hyundai's newest zero emission vehicle, the hydrogen-powered Nexo SUV. The vehicle has a range of 600km producing zero harmful emissions, and benefits from a serious weight advantage over an electric car as there is no need for heavy batteries. The booming South Korean carmaker is set to offer the Nexo in Australia for lease to government and commercial fleets in 2019.

However, Hyundai isn't only playing the Hydrogen card, with the South Korean car maker also revealing to Drive this week that it will offer a fully electric version of its Kona city SUV in Australia from 2019.

This adds to the long list of electric and hybrid cars about to arrive in showrooms over the next few years from Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Porsche and Nissan among others.

But if you are looking for some frugal motoring right now, here are your best options.

The game changer

If you haven't heard of Tesla, or its off-beat chief Elon Musk, then you've been living in a cave up in the mountains somewhere. While everyone might not agree with the entrepreneur's wild dreams and overly confident assertions about his company's abilities, the man makes a mean electric car.

The two on sale in Australia at the moment are the Model S sedan and the Model X SUV. Neither is especially cheap, with the S starting at over $130,000 and topping out at almost $250,000  the X commands a premium of about $10,000.

Each vehicle uses absolutely zero fuel, but they still create emissions due to being effectively fueled by coal-fire power stations in this country. However, that's part of a much bigger discussion and we are talking only about fuel efficiency.

Tesla's edge is its populist leader, cool image and downright supercar territory performance. The brand's P100D models rocket to 100km/h. It's dual motors produce 568kW and 1000Nm which propel the two tonne machine from 0-100km/h in just 2.7 seconds.

However, the real test for the American upstart is the Model 3, and if it can actually get its production off the ground and deliver the cheaper, mass-market vehicle in great enough numbers to be a legitimate player in the automotive world.

One giant impact Tesla has made was that it forced the other carmakers to stand up and take notice, which is part of the reason we are about to see a tsunami of electric cars hit the market.

Plugging the gapA farmer whose trailer was stolen in Northern Ireland told Ardee District Court how he traced it through the Done Deal classified website.

This led to Daryl Gilsenan (28) with an address at Drynam Green, Kinsealy, Swords being charged and convicted of handling the stolen trailer at the Glebe, Ardee and was sentenced to five months in jail on Monday last.

The trailer owner said he noticed an advertisement the following December for the sale of a trailer two months after his Ifor Williams trailer had gone missing from his yard on October 24 2016 . He reported it stolen to the police in Newry.

On seeing the advertisement he made arrangements to go to see the trailer and identified it as his. He valued it at 1,600 to 1,700 sterling.

The investigating Garda recalled that the injured party called to Monaghan Garda Station about the advertisement. Witness obtained a warrant on December 5 that year and searched a property in Monaghan.

A man was interviewed who said he bought the trailer from the defendant.

Witness said he met Gilsenan by arrangement the following month. He said he bought the trailer for 100 cash and also exchanged batteries worth 270 for it, making a total of 370.

The defendant, a father of two, in evidence said he was a fitter and driver, who repaired machinery. He worked part-time. He purchased the trailer off a travelling fellah who had a fairly new transit and defendant hadnt reason to be suspicious.

The floor was rotten on the trailer.

The Judge was told that the defendant had seven previous convictions, but his solicitor Catherine Taaffe said they were for road traffic and public order matters--- none for this type of offence which was out of character.

Judge Coughlan fixed 400 cash bail for appeal.WASHINGTONUS President Donald Trump has rolled out fresh sanctions against North Korea-linked shipping assets, hailing the package as the heaviest sanctions ever levied on the Pyongyang regime. Trump used a speech to conservatives just outside Washington to step up his campaign of maximum pressure designed to force North Korea to roll back its weapons programs. We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before, Trump claimed at the end of a lengthy campaign-style address Friday. In light of past US embargoes, that is likely an overstatement, but Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin confirmed the sanctions covered virtually all the ships North Korea is using at this moment in time. Speaking to reporters in Pyeongchang Saturday on a visit to the Winter Olympics, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said: Hopefully well see a change on the part of the North Koreans to start to denuclearize the peninsula, thats what our focus is. She added: I can tell you the president wont make the mistakes the previous administration has [made] and be soft or weak.Trumps administration is locked in a nuclear standoff with Pyongyang, which is trying to develop missiles that could deliver an atomic weapon to major US cities. The latest sanctions are designed to put the squeeze on North Koreas already precarious economy and fuel supply. In his speech Friday Trump had been expected to provide details of measures that target 56 vessels, shipping companies, and trade businesses, but skipped that part of his prepared remarks. Frankly hopefully something positive can happen, he said instead. During a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump said sanctions were only the first step. If the sanctions dont work, well have to go to phase two. Phase two may be a very rough thing, he said, without elaborating. Mnuchin said there were signs the punitive measures were starting to have an impact, but did not elaborate. The North Korean military and broader economy depend heavily on imports of coal and oil from China and Russia.China, Pyongyangs only major ally, has steadfastly rebuffed Washingtons calls for a full oil embargofearing the chaotic collapse of the Pyongyang regimebut has accepted caps agreed at the United Nations.The timing of the new measures coincides with the arrival in South Korea of Trumps daughter Ivanka. She is attending the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics, which have taken place against the backdrop of the crisis. The 36-year-old businesswoman and now top aide to her father has been tasked with reaffirming US ties with South Korea, which have been strained over how to deal with the North. She was hosted in Seoul by President Moon Jae-in, who has long advocated talks rather than confrontation with North Korea. Mrs. Trump delivered a personal message to President Moon from President Trump about todays North Korea related sanctions announcement at a small meeting at the Blue House, the White House said. They also discussed the continued effort on the joint maximum pressure campaign against North Korea. South Korean officials, who sit in a capital well within range of conventional North Korea artillery, have been spooked by Trumps talk of military confrontation. US officials worry, meanwhile, that North Korea is luring Moon into talks that are designed to go nowhere. North Koreas delegation at the closing ceremony will be headed by top general Kim Yong Chol, who is widely blamed for a series of attacks against the South including the 2010 sinking of a warship, with the loss of 46 lives. The White House spokeswoman said Ivanka would probably sit apart from the North Korean delegation at Sundays closing ceremony.The Maldives has warned India against any such action, which threatens to disrupt the political crisis in the country. The Maldives has made this statement amidst concern over the increase in the period of emergency in India by the Maldives.

The Maldives Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday night that the government of President Abdulla Yameen has taken note of the public statements issued by the Indian government, in which facts and reality are ignored regarding the current political developments of the Maldives.

The Ministry told that India has said the facts have to be broken down and that the 30 days increase in the period of emergency is unconstitutional. He said that India has ignored the constitution and law of the Maldives in its statement. The Ministry of External Affairs said, There is no doubt that the Maldives is passing through one of the toughest touches in its history.

Therefore, it is important that friends and partners in the international community, including India, stay away from any such action, which hinders the resolve of the situation in front of the country. The Maldives Government repeats its commitment to work closely together with the international community, including India so that their concerns can be overcome.

While expressing dissatisfaction over the extension of the period of emergency in the Maldives, India had said on Thursday that it does not see any substantial reason for the Parliament of the Maldives and it is keeping an eye on the situation of this island nation.

On accepting President Abdulla Yameens recommendation by the Parliament to extend the term of the emergency in the Maldives 30 days, India declared deep disappointment and termed it a matter of concern. On Tuesday, the Maldivian parliament had extended the period of emergency in the country for 30 days, making President Yameens hold stronger on the power of the country.Deep learning has been experiencing a true renaissance especially over the last decade, and it uses multi-layered artificial neural networks for automated analysis of data. Deep learning is one of the most exciting forms of machine learning that is behind several recent leapfrog advances in technology including for example real-time speech recognition and translation as well image/video labeling and captioning, among many others. Especially in image analysis, deep learning shows significant promise for automated search and labeling of features of interest, such as abnormal regions in a medical image.

Now, UCLA researchers have demonstrated a new use for deep learning: this time to reconstruct a hologram and form a microscopic image of an object. In a recent article that is published in Light: Science & Applications, a journal of the Springer Nature, UCLA researchers have demonstrated that a neural network can learn to perform phase recovery and holographic image reconstruction after appropriate training. This deep learning-based approach provides a fundamentally new framework to conduct holographic imaging and compared to existing approaches it is significantly faster to compute and reconstructs improved images of the objects using a single hologram, such that it requires fewer measurements in addition to being computationally faster.

This research was led by Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, an associate director of the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute and the Chancellor's Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, along with Dr. Yair Rivenson, a postdoctoral scholar, and Yibo Zhang, a graduate student, both at the UCLA electrical and computer engineering department.

The authors validated this deep learning based approach by reconstructing holograms of various samples including blood and Pap smears (used for screening of cervical cancer) as well as thin sections of tissue samples used in pathology, all of which demonstrated successful elimination of spatial artifacts that arise from the lost phase information at the hologram recording process. Stated differently, after its training the neural network has learned to extract and separate the spatial features of the true image of the object from undesired light interference and related artifacts. Remarkably, this deep learning based hologram recovery has been achieved without any modeling of light-matter interaction or a solution of the wave equation. This is an exciting achievement since traditional physics-based hologram reconstruction methods have been replaced by a deep learning based computational approach, said Rivenson.

These results are broadly applicable to any phase recovery and holographic imaging problem, and this deep learning based framework opens up a myriad of opportunities to design fundamentally new coherent imaging systems, spanning different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible wavelengths as well as the X-ray regime, added Ozcan, who is also an HHMI Professor with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

###

Other members of the research team were Harun Gunayd?n and Da Teng, members of the Ozcan Research Lab at UCLA.

Ozcan's research is supported by a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Vodafone Americas Foundation, the Mary Kay Foundation and the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation. http://innovate.ee.ucla.edu/welcome.html http://org.ee.ucla.edu/The parliament of canton Geneva has voted for a resolution to exclude palm oil and its derivatives from free trade negotiations with Indonesia and Malaysia. Five other Swiss cantons have launched similar measures.

Exercising its right of cantonal initiative, Geneva cantons parliamentarians voted unanimously for a resolution to this effect. Around sixty deputies have signed the text. Christina Meissner, an independent parliamentarian and the first signatory, called attention to the catastrophic environmental and social consequences of oil palm plantations on Friday.

She also denounced the potential repercussions of facilitated entry of palm oil into the Swiss market, particularly the impact on indigenous production of rapeseed and sunflower oil. The negative effects of trans fats in palm oil on health also convinced several parliamentarians to denounce easy access.

Geneva is not the first canton to sound the alarm. The cantons of Thurgau, Bern, Fribourg, Vaud and Jura have also launched similar procedures.

Indonesia is the worlds largest producer of palm oil and Malaysia is in second place. These two countries supply 85% of the palm oil consumed worldwide.













SDA-ATS/ac





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NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.S&P Global Ratings on Friday raised Russia's sovereign debt rating a notch saying Moscow had shown fiscal restraint while managing international sanctions and falling commodity prices.

The move to BBB- with a stable outlook, coincided with Fridays decision by Fitch to affirm its rating for Russia at BBB- as well, although with a positive outlook, likewise due to Russias improved fiscal policies.

S&P said Russia had kept its fiscal house in order while central bankers promoted financial stability and a recovery in private-sector lending.

The economy is expected to grow 1.8 percent this year before moderating to 1.7 percent over the following three years, S&P said in a statement.

Economic recovery will likely be supported by the rebound in oil prices, a moderate expansion of domestic demand backed by gradual monetary easing, and the global economic upswing, the agency said.

At the same time, adverse demographics and low productivity continue to weigh on Russias long-term growth potential.

And with Washington poised to impose more sanctions on Moscow this year, geopolitical tensions could also be a drag on Russian growth, S&P said.

Fitch noted that Russias budget deficit likely fell to 1.5 percent of GDP last year, dropping more than half from the year before, and was likely to fall again to 0.6 percent in 2018 on rising oil prices and higher non-oil revenues.President Donald Trump's former campaign deputy Rick Gates pleaded guilty Friday to fraud and lying, pledging to assist special prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into alleged campaign collusion with Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Gates was the third former Trump aide to agree to cooperate in exchange for reduced charges by Mueller, who is also examining whether the president illegally sought to obstruct the probe.

The plea deal in the Washington federal district court, on charges vastly reduced from the original ones filed against Gates, immediately put him at odds with his former business partner and ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who refuses to bow to pressure from Mueller to strike a deal.

Manafort has countersued Mueller, accusing the former FBI director of going far beyond his Justice Department mandate in the probe.

 Charges tied to Ukraine work 

Gates and Manafort were originally charged on October 30 with multiple counts of laundering $75 million and tax evasion related to their work from 2006 to 2014 for former Russia-backed Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych.

They were also accused of illegally representing a foreign government, Ukraine, as lobbyists without first registering with the US government as foreign agents.

But the charges Gates ultimately pleaded guilty to on Friday were one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in relation to not reporting offshore banking accounts, and one count of lying over his work as a foreign agent for Ukraine.

Each count could bring a maximum five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. But sentencing depends on the extent of his cooperation with Muellers broader investigation, which has focused on a number of others in Trumps orbit, including current White House aides and members of Trumps family.

That was similar to deals offered to two other ex-advisors to Trump, who have also pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

Former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos have each pleaded guilty to one count of lying.

Gates, along with Manafort, still faces a separate indictment filed Thursday by Mueller in a Virginia court, on charges of bank and tax fraud in relation to how they deployed their Ukraine earnings back into the United States.

 Manafort defiant 

The Mueller probe, which began last May, continued to build steam in recent weeks.

Last week Mueller indicted 13 Russians who were allegedly behind a Kremlin-backed operation to spread disinformation and disrupt the 2016 election via social media.

And on Tuesday a London-based lawyer with links to Russia and to Gates pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents.

Manafort remained defiant Friday, refusing to cut a deal.

Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence, Manafort said in a statement.

I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.

In a letter to family and friends made public by some US news outlets, Gates said he had planned to defend himself but had a change of heart, and was ready to accept public humiliation to avoid distressing his children.

The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circus-like atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process, he wrote.Donald Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than two million euros ($2.5 million) to lobby for Ukraine's then-leader backed by Russia, according to an indictment filed Friday.

The charges, lodged in a Washington federal court by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, said Manafort retained the so-called Hapsburg Group of onetime politicians to take positions favorable to Ukraine, including by lobbying the United States.

The group, which operated from 2012-2013, was managed by an unnamed former European chancellor, who along with other members of the group lobbied US legislators and White House officials, the indictment alleged.

They were to appear to be providing their independent assessments of government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine, according to the indictment.

Manafort has been accused by the team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he did for Viktor Yanukovych from 2006-2014.

Yanukovych was Ukraines president beginning in 2010.

Backed by Moscow, the billionaire Yanukovych was eyed suspiciously at the time in much of Europe for his pro-Russia stance and widespread accusations of deep corruption.

He was overthrown in a 2014 uprising and exiled to Russia. After that, Manafort stopped working for him, returned to the United States and, in 2016, joined Trumps presidential election campaign.

The Hapsburg Group was meant to act informally and without any visible relationship to the Ukraine government, a memorandum written by Manafort in June 2012 read.

While the latest indictment did not charge Manafort with any crime specifically tied to the Hapsburg Group, those activities were cited to show Manafort had been actively lobbying for Ukraine and had allegedly broken laws by not registering as such in the United States.Ecuador's efforts to negotiate the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from its London embassy have failed, the South American country's foreign minister admitted Friday.

On the issue of mediation, I have to say very honestly that it has not been successful because two parties are needed to mediate. Ecuador is willing, by not necessarily the other party, said Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa, referring to Britain.

But she said her country would continue looking for mechanisms, ways to try to solve the standoff.

Assange last week lost his legal battle to overturn an English arrest warrant against him, and with it his hopes of freely leaving the embassy, where he has been holed up since 2012.

A judge at a court in London rejected the argument of Assanges lawyers that upholding an arrest warrant was no longer in the public interest, saying arrest is a proportionate response.

Assange was awaiting extradition to Sweden over a 2010 investigation into claims of rape and sexual assault when he breached his bail conditions to seek refuge in the embassy.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but the British warrant for his arrest for jumping bail remains, meaning he would be detained if he stepped outside.

The 46-year old Australian only rarely emerges onto the embassy balcony, citing concerns for his personal safety, but he frequently takes part in media conferences and campaigns via video link.

Ecuador in December granted citizenship to Assange, and asked Britain to recognize him as a diplomat in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with the immunity that could see him walk free.

London swiftly rejected the move.Posted Friday, February 23, 2018 9:15 am

Men and women whove been farming less than 10 years are at high risk for injury because agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries in the U.S.

According to Dr. Douglas H. Schaufler at Penn States Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, some of todays farmers didnt grow up on the farm, increasing their risk of injury on the job.

If you didnt grow up on a farm, there will be hazards and risks you just dont recognize, Schaufler said. Beginning farmers who did farm with their family may have been exposed to unsafe practices that they implement on their own operation.

Some 10 years ago, with USDA grant money, the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported development of a safety manual inexperienced farmers and ranchers can use to help establish safe practices.

Safety and Health Management Planning for General Farmers and Ranchers, a 58-page manual, outlines how to establish safety policy and procedures, how to identify and assess on-farm hazards and risks, prevent and control hazards and risks and educate and train family members and employees. The manual was authored by Penn States now-retired Sam Steele and Dennis J. Murphy and is available through Penn State Extension publications website.

One common hazard for beginning farmers occurs when they search for a tractor to purchase, Schaufler said. Typically, the farmer is focusing on tractor price, looking for the lowest price without regard to whether or not the tractor is equipped with seat belts, roll-over-protective structures (ROPS), a wide front end for stability and other safety considerations.

A Simple Hazard Checklist found in the manual mentioned here helps farmers understand that ROPS, seat belts, PTO master shields, and other safety features are key elements in working safely on the farm.

Establishing safety policies and procedures begins with making safety a priority on the operation. A policy describing the who-what-when-where-why of the farms safety focus can help clarify what safety practices are in place and who is responsible for different elements of the policy.

Safety rules should be simply stated, provided in a language all workers can understand and developed with input from employees. Periodic safety audits can help identify any safety issues and further communicate safety procedures.

In identifying safety hazards on the farm, farmers should consider all equipment, buildings, hand and power tools, animals, roadways, chemicals and working surfaces. Hazards can be prioritized in order to be addressed and corrected. A hazard checklist (provided in the manual or available on insurance company and farm safety websites) can help simplify the process.

Preventing and controlling hazards and risks can greatly reduce damage to people, products and the environment. Steps to prevention can be applied to people, products and objects. Prevention planning involves identifying opportunities for preventing a problem before it happens, managing it while and/or after it happens.

Prevention practices may involve training people, using safer products or removing hazardous conditions from the work site. One example is hitching tractors in a way that causes the tractor to tip over backwards. While avoiding this kind of situation is a good safety practice, roll-over-protective structures (ROPS) and seat belt use can greatly reduce harm to the farmer if a tractor does tip over while theyre using it.

Schaufler recommends that inexperienced farmers and ranchers seek out mentors who can provide insight when theyre dealing with equipment purchases or livestock handling or other farm activities that arent familiar to them.

Many times beginning farmers are strapped for money, Schaufler said. And theyre more focused on how they can save money on a purchase or activity than on the safety aspects of that activity.

Schaufler points out that using equipment thats either too big or too small for the job can add significant risks to an activity.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an important safety element on the farm because some activities involving hazardous conditions, i.e. excessive noise, are difficult to avoid or eliminate, but can be mitigated with the use of PPE. Equipment that protects the farmers or employees hearing is critical to safely completing this type of activity.

PPE does nothing to prevent or correct hazards, Schaufler said. However, it limits the amount of damage or level of injury or illness the hazard causes.

Safety education and training should be available to both employees and any of the farmers family members involved in farming activities. Helping adult workers and family members understand why one procedure is safer than another helps motivate them to implement safe practices. Examples of how they can apply training information to their own situations can further engage employees.

Training sessions can be as short as 5 or 10 minutes and can be conducted on the work site. When applicable, use of hands-on training  such as fit-testing a respirator  can help workers learn proper methods for using equipment. Outside presenters can bring variety to training events to help retain worker attention.

Open communication that allows workers to feel comfortable enough to report hazardous incidents or circumstances they have experienced or identified can help reduce the risk of injury. Teaching CPR and first-aid as well as how to properly report and document emergencies should be part of worker training. Newspaper and other media articles can also be used in training events.

Some safety practices are really simple, Schaufler said. Employees or any family members working on the farm should feel comfortable about asking how to use equipment or complete a task if they arent sure. Many farms hold weekly or at least monthly meetings to talk about farm activities. Safety concerns should always be a topic at those meetings.

Evaluating a farms safety and health environment can be as simple as observing employees on the job, providing short pre- and post-tests before and after a training session and asking employees to demonstrate newly learned skills and capabilities following a training event.

Safety discussions should also include activities that may be taking a toll on the body, such as lifting heavy objects or working in an unsafe manner, Schaufler said. Discussion should center around how that activity could be done differently and more safely.

The best safety practice is incorporating a safety mindset on the farm from the start, Schaufler said.WASHINGTON - Dreamers caught in the political crossfire that has immobilized Congress will get help next week from influential backers, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and then a gathering of faith leaders leaders preparing to wage civil disobedience.

But more than prayer likely will be needed for Congress to solve the plight of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants before the White House-ordered March 5 expiration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Almost 700,000 young immigrants have received temporary work permits under the 2012 program, including more than 120,000 in Texas.

The end of DACA is blocked by federal judges, but so-called Dreamers and their allies have long pressed Congress to act by next week given the prospect of losing in the courts.

Meeting that goal seemed improbable after the two most popular bipartisan solutions - one authored by San Antonio Republican Rep. Will Hurd - collapsed in a Senate session this month due in large measure to President Donald Trumps heavy-handed involvement.

An immediate DACA-fix grew next to impossible when the House, out of session all last week, declared Thursday that it would be voting next week for just one full day - leaving only two legislative days to get the job done.

Billy Graham, the evangelist and pastor to politicians who died last week, will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Thursday, two days the House was scheduled to be at work.

I try to remain optimistic that Congress can reach an agreement by March 5, said San Antonio Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, But its hard to look at the schedule and not feel grim about it.

Advocates for those who face losing work permits and possible deportation hope now that appeals based on morality can succeed where political pressure has not.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese, have declared Monday the National Catholic Call-In Day to Protect Dreamers. Cardinal DiNardo and others high in the Catholic Church declared in a statement that they were deeply disturbed at the Senates failure in a highly-anticipated session two weeks ago.

Our faith compels us to stand with the vulnerable, including our immigrant brothers and sisters. We have done so continually, but we must show our support and solidarity now in a special way, the statement read. It was also signed by Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin.

In a separate action on Tuesday, dozens of clergy, nuns and Catholic leaders expect to get arrested on Capitol Hill in what is being called a Catholic Day of Action, said a spokeswoman for PICO National Network, an alliance of faith-based community organizations.

In taking on DACA, the religious leaders are lending their voice  and some their freedom  to solving what has become most intractable issue in Washington. Even in addressing gun violence, Congress has been moving toward better federal record-keeping, and additional measures likely will be considered in the aftermath of the recent Florida high school shooting.

But on immigration, no clear path to legislation exists, with Republicans and their allies describing relief for DACA recipients as amnesty.

"The American publics interest needs to be addressed here and needs to be addressed first because weve been down this road before and seen what happens when amnesty is given and promises of future enforcement and changes are never delivered on," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation of American Immigration Reform.

Trump shows no signs of relenting on his offer of trading a path to citizenship for 1.8 million DACA-aged immigrants for border wall funding and revised methods of immigrant entry, among them limits on family sponsorship. But his plan received just 39 Senate votes this month, fewer than the bipartisan deals he worked to kill.

Democrats, many of whom have acceded to the presidents demand for $25 billion over time for a border wall, balk at limiting legal immigration to the extent Trump wants.

Trump, speaking on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, accused Democrats of abandoning DACA.

The Democrats have been totally unresponsive. They don't want to do anything about DACA. Its very possible DACA wont happen, the president's said.

Trumps forceful entry into 11th hour Senate dickering this month was far removed from his earlier stated hopes of seeing a bill of love and vowing to sign whatever agreement Congress reached. Instead, the administration attacked two bipartisan plans with news releases and requests that GOP backers drop sponsorships.

A Homeland Security news release using capital letters for emphasis claimed that the Hurd-drawn legislation in the Senate protecting DACA recipients and authorizing a range of border security measures Would Increase Illegal Immigration, Surge Chain Migration...and Give a Pathway to Citizenship to Convicted Alien Felons.

The administration was just as dismissive with a second Democrat-Republican agreement. Homeland Security warned that the bill  although giving the president $25 billion for the border wall  destroys the ability to enforce immigration laws and creates mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, criminals among them.

The presidents tactics provoked an outburst from South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham that reverberated through the Senate. Graham asserted that the political hack who had written the releases  Homeland Security press secretary Tyler Houlton  and senior White House adviser Stephen Miller are the two most extreme characters in town.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, aligned with other hard-line GOP senators, responded that Graham had embarrassed himself by punching down and bullying someone who cant defend himself.

The future of Hurds bill in the House is clouded by the Trump administrations veto threat despite having more than 50 House sponsors drawn equally from Republican and Democratic ranks. House authors of another immigration proposal with limited DACA protection that is tougher in some ways than Trumps are struggling to round up votes. They added provisions appealing to farm-state members worried about losing undocumented workers

A new plan on Capitol Hill, authored by Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, would trade three years of protection for Dreamers for three years of border wall funding. There are suggestions that the Flake plan could become part of an omnibus spending bill that must pass by March 23 to avoid another government shutdown, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn has hinted that such a scenario could unfold.

March 23 also may be the last time before the midterm elections in November that Democrats have leverage to help Dreamers by withholding key votes, suggesting yet another round of shutdown drama in the District of Columbia.

But the Flake plan is drawing little enthusiasm, falling far short of offering a path to citizenship and the permanent protections of the defeated plans.

Mario Carrillo, a Texas spokesman for the national advocacy organization Americas Voice, described Flakes proposal as a patch that continues second-class status and doesnt permanently resolve the problem for Dreamers.

He added: I think there are deals to be had and that it is a matter of Congress finding a backbone and coming through on a solution.

Andrea Fernandez, a senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio, sees such limited solutions as barely worth the effort.

If theyre really willing to place us in second-citizen status for three years, then it tells me that they just dont care, she said.

Fernandez, a DACA recipient who arrived in Texas with her family at age 8, feels so strongly that she has traveled to Washington six times since November. She was in Washington leading up to the Senate failure this month, keeping track of senators she spoke with, often fleetingly, as they came and went from meetings.

On her first days she spoke with six senators, on the second 15 and on the third eight. Some were polite and some were very, very nasty, she said.

She recalled that before the compromises went down, Cornyn told her politely, Youre going to be really happy.

It didnt work out that way. We just feel like theyre toying with our lives. Were pawns in their political games, Fernandez said.U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro joined Latino cancer researchers from around the country Friday in decrying President Donald Trumps proposed budget cuts to the National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health, urging instead that cancer research funding be increased.

Those cuts would be devastating to cancer research and cancer patients across the country, Castro said in an interview before addressing a national conference in San Antonio, Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos.

The idea that we would back away from funding research to try to find a cure is very disturbing, said Castro, D-San Antonio. So, Ive encouraged my fellow members of Congress to rethink that budget and support increased funding.

Trumps budget request calls for cuts to the NCI of $1 billion compared with its 2017 funding, a $575 million cut to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and a reduction in the NIH budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion.

Castro said funding for cancer research is one of the few issues facing Congress that still benefits from a semblance of bipartisan support.

For many in Congress, cancer research is still a mystery, he said. Its done far away in a lab and we lose sight that it affects human lives. Im asking these researchers today to speak up about the value of their work  demystify it  and (help the public) understand how close we are to breakthroughs on different cancers.

Castro addressed the group only briefly before heading to a forum on federal immigration policy, but he lent some anecdotes to a panel of doctors involved in public policy who discussed obstacles Latinos face in both getting properly treated as cancer patients and as researchers looking for funding.

Esteban Lopez, a pediatrician and official with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, recalled having to translate for his Mexico-born mother as a 9-year-old when she went to the doctor.

Job and family are very crucial in Hispanic communities, Lopez said. And when my mom went to the doctor I knew that meant she could not work. We must meet women where they are, where they work.

Older Latinos especially, said Lopez, show such deference to doctors that they may not ask enough questions during exams or in treatment. Latinos generally are more reactive than proactive about their health, he added, recalling to much warm-hearted laughter how his father would say, Why would I go to the doctor? Theyll just find something.

With only 8 percent of Texas doctors being Latino, Lopez said, the medical community must work to ensure cultural competency in treatment and research, including improving the translation of Spanish in many hospitals. Ive heard a lot of Spanish lost in translation in hospitals, he said. And not all Hispanic doctors speak fluent Spanish.

Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association, said the ideological divide in Washington must be bridged somehow but suggested that a directive to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that certain words and phrases not to be used in budget documents  vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based and science-based  shows where the health debate stands in Washington.City officials plan to cut off electricity Friday to a popular Southeast Side restaurant that is the subject of numerous complaints from nearby residents about excessive smoke affecting public health and even traffic.

The city revoked the certificate of occupancy for Pollos Asados Los Nortenos, 4642 Rigsby Ave., on Wednesday. City officials have cited the restaurant for not having a current license from the Metropolitan Health District for its cooking trailer, and no certificate of occupancy for its unattached smokehouse nearby.AUSTIN  As the attorney generals office tries to sniff out educators electioneering for candidates on the taxpayers dime, House Speaker Joe Straus is standing up for teachers becoming more engaged in this years primary election.

In an email to supporters Friday, the San Antonio Republican said some elected leaders and their allies are trying to discourage teachers from voting because they feel threatened by educators encouraging civic engagement.

We cant let these voter-intimidation tactics work, he wrote, encouraging his supporters to cast a ballot during early voting, which continues every day through Friday.

The letter is a thinly veiled criticism of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Empower Texans, a well-funded conservative group that sent letters to educators asking them to blow the whistle if their school districts engage in electioneering for candidates.

The concern comes as a pro-public-education group, Texas Educators Vote, has encouraged educators to sign oaths vowing to vote and encouraging school boards to pass a resolution urging a culture of voting in their districts.

Paxton has since targeted three school districts for unlawful electioneering. Two have agreed to take down Twitter posts and retweets of endorsements or statements in support of specific candidates or comments about voting for those with a pro-public-education agenda.

A third school district is fighting the states allegations, arguing a three-minute video it is sharing that encourages teachers to vote in the primary election for pro-public-education candidates is nonpartisan.

The push comes as the Legislature is at odds over how to address public education. The states share of education spending has dropped in recent years, while attempts to change how Texas funds public education have stalled repeatedly despite a Texas Supreme Court ruling that the formula is constitutional but in need of improvement.

Meanwhile, some conservative lawmakers are pushing to allow parents to use other taxpayer money to send their children to private schools, although those efforts also have stalled in the Legislature.

The primary election is March 6.There was little hesitation.

At around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, hours after a jury found state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, guilty on 11 felony charges, including multiple counts of fraud and money laundering, his Democratic colleagues in the Texas Senate held an emergency conference call, in which they reached a unanimous decision to call on him to resign.

Its easy to see why.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, already had announced he would strip Uresti, 54, of his committee assignments. And the Republican Party of Texas was hours away from releasing a statement of its own calling Uresti an example of the moral and ethical problems in the Texas Democratic Party.

The immediate response that occurs when this happens is, There goes another lying, thieving, cheating politician, said state Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, on Friday. And if you dont say, We appreciate him, but hes been found guilty by a jury, a judge  we just cant have the body associated with that. You just cant give that to people who are going to come after us politically.

Although hes now a convicted felon, Uresti isnt required to give up his seat. Texas ethics rules allow him to remain in office until he exhausts the appeals process.

Uresti said after his conviction that he wouldnt resign. After the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus reached its decision late Thursday, Menendez called the beleaguered senator, who said he wanted time to talk to his family before making a decision.

Judging from Urestis Twitter account, the gravity of his situation had yet to sink in.

On Thursday morning, the same day he was convicted, Uresti posted: Early voting for the March 6th primary election is underway now! Turnout so far is high! along with a link to a map of early voting sites in Bexar County.

(On Friday, every reply to the tweet was a request for him to resign.)

If Uresti cares at all about the Texas Democratic Party  an organization out of power and straining for relevance that he has served for more than two decades, first as a state representative and then as a senator  he would heed the calls to step down.

Uresti was found guilty of defrauding investors in FourWinds Logistics, a company that sold sand used in fracking. He was accused of having an affair with a legal client, whom he persuaded to invest in the company and who lost most of her money.

FourWinds collapsed in 2015. The companys CEO, Stan Bates, pleaded guilty last month to criminal fraud charges, admitting he misused investor money  apparently on prostitutes and expensive cars, among other hedonistic pursuits. Prosecutors called FourWinds a Ponzi scheme.

If politics is about appearances, Democrats had no choice but to sever ties with Uresti.

The same dynamic was at play in December with former U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who was accused of sexual misconduct by several women. As the allegations mounted, several Democratic senators called for Frankens resignation, who finally capitulated to the pressure.

The topic of Frankens downfall came up during the caucus emergency conference call.

It was a conference call with a lot of people talking at the same time, Menendez said, and everyone on the phone was just, in light of what happened (to Uresti), if you look at whats going on with Al Franken being asked to step down for much less, how could anybody stand by and say it was OK to keep serving in this capacity?

So it was an overwhelming, unanimous thing, he continued. And everyone was frustrated and upset. Nobody wanted to be on that call, to be honest with you. Everybody was just saddened.

In fact, Uresti and Franken have been accused of the same sort of behavior. A Daily Beast story in December detailed multiple accounts of sexual misconduct at the Texas Capitol by Uresti, who denied the allegations, and another Democratic senator, Borris Miles.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has since proposed that the Texas Rangers investigate the claims.

On top of that, yet another criminal case is hanging over Uresti, who is accused of using his consulting business to split $850,000 in bribes with a former county judge in Reeves County.

Its undeniable: Uresti is now toxic. The sooner he realizes it, the better for the Democratic Party.Click to read this Alamo dispatch as it originally appeared.

SAN ANTONIO de BEXAR, Mexico, Feb. 24, 1836  Pestilence, long the scourge of human endeavour, has cast its skeletal shadow across the hopes for a free and independent Texas, or  perhaps  a Texas taking its place alongside the several United States.

Already ailing at the time His Excellency, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the President and Dictator of Mexico, seized control of this city yesterday, driving before him its frightened citizenry like a flock of startled grackles, James Bowie  adventurer, fighter and frontiersman extraordinaire  has been forced by illness to relinquish his co-command of the forces of Liberty currently camped within the confines of Fortress Alamo.

---------

A NOTED MAN

Col. Bowie had been cutting a wide and colorful swath through San Antonio de Bexar since his arrival Jan. 19, after word had reached Texian Army commander Sam Houston that Gen. Santa Anna intended to retake the city.

Bowie had volunteered to lead a contingent of 30 to assist in the defense of the old Mission San Antonio de Valero site. Houston knows full well that the Alamo compound cannot stand a protracted siege by overwhelming forces and is reported to have authorized Bowie to remove the artillery pieces captured when the forces under command of Gen. Martin Perfecto de Cos were driven off after the Siege of Bexar and to destroy the fortress.

It is said that after much pondering and pontificating about their situation, Bowie and the Alamo's commander at the time, James C. Neill, decided that the number of oxen required to remove the aforementioned artillery were not available. And since it was their spurs  not Houston's  that were jingling and jangling upon the soil of San Antonio de Bexar, Bowie and Neill decided that even with their force of only about 135 troops, it would be better to keep the old mission intact.

Texian Army Lt. Col. William B. Travis and 30 more men arrived at the Alamo on the 3rd day of February, followed shortly thereafter by the Hon. David Crockett and 12 fellow Tennesseans. Like Bowie, Crockett is an individual most colorful  one already immortalized as being a lord of the untamed frontierlands.

A familial crisis caused Neill to take his leave of the Alamo on Feb. 11. Although he left Travis in command, this decision did not sit well with Bowie. Having been a colonel in the Texas militia, he felt he outranked Travis and refused to follow the lieutenant colonel's instructions. Travis then called for the troops to elect their commander, and they selected Bowie.

For his part, Bowie celebrated the election by joining forces with John Barleycorn and evicting the residents of the local bastille. The dispute was finally settled two days later when Bowie and Travis agreed to a joint command  the former heading the volunteers, the latter in charge of the regular Army troops and the volunteer cavalry.

---------

DIRE MALADY

That his troops had insisted Col. Bowie remain in their command is a testament to his ability to inspire men to greater successes. Now, though, it appears he is suffering from typhoid and pneumonia and is bedridden.

Oftentimes, it is said that pneumonia is the friend of the aged, as it allows them to lay down their burdens in this veil of tears and take their places among the choir silent. For a man as vibrant as Bowie, however, it comes as an enemy  a thief ready to rob Texas of a much-needed leader.

---------

LONELY BURDEN

With Col. Bowie removed from proceedings, the crushing weight of command at the Alamo now is Lt. Col. Travis' alone to bear. It is as if he has been placed atop a fire in a large caldron of water and Gen. Santa Anna is pumping the bellows to fan the flames under him.

An aide-de-camp to the dictator, Col. Juan Almonte, noted that this morning, the construction of "a new (cannon) battery was commenced on the bank of the river, about 350 yards from the Alamo. It was finished in the afternoon, and a brisk fire was kept up fromit." Santa Anna is keeping a close watch over the situation, as Almonte also stated that the general "reconnoitered on horseback, passing within musket shot of the fort."

---------

QUILL IN HAND

Realizing the gravity of the situation confronting him  and the fact that luminaries even now are en route to Washington-on-the-Brazos to chart a course for Texas  Lt. Col Travis authored to-day a stirring appeal addressed to "The People of Texas and all Americans in the World." In it, said he:

"I shall never surrender or retreat. ... I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of the country -

"VICTORY

OR DEATH

"William Barret Travis

"Lt. Col. Comdt."

COMING NEXT on Day 3: Alamo defenders lacking water.

About this series: To mark the 175th anniversary of the 13-day Alamo siege in 2011, Express-News copy desk veteran Robert Kolarik was tasked with becoming an 1836 reporter, covering the siege in a series of live daily newspaper dispatches in the language of the day from Feb. 23 through March 6. His stories captured the imagination of readers for almost two weeks. In this Tricentennial year, were repeating those daily dispatches. Art Director Adrian Alvarez created the vintage look for the daily pages and Graphics Editor Mike Fisher did the illustrations. Director of News Production Dean Lockwood conceptualized the series and its vintage format.by Matthew Fox | Spurs Correspondent | Sat, Feb 24th 1:52pm EST

Thaddeus Young scored 20 points during the Pacers' 116-93 win over the Hawks, making 9-of-16 field goals including four boards, one assist, two three-pointers, five steals, one block, and three turnovers.

Fantasy Impact:

Young delivered a great multi-category fantasy line against the Hawks, leading all starters with 32 minutes played, 20 points, and five steals. Young is not the most consistent fantasy producer around but he should deliver quality fantasy stat lines more often than not as the Pacers try and snatch the third seed from the Cavs.by Alex Murray | Heat Correspondent | Sat, Feb 24th 2:51pm EST

Kyle Lowry scored 17 points on 33 percent shooting from the field during Toronto's OT loss to the Bucks on Friday. Lowry added seven dimes, two steals and a rebound in 38 minutes of game action.Posted Saturday, February 24, 2018 6:30 am

Honoring their brave service to their country during Black History Month, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is recognizing the legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers, as well as their history as the countrys first national park rangers, with the introduction of a bipartisan U.S. Senate Resolution.

The sacrifices these brave Soldiers endured for their country  a country that saw them as second-class citizens at the time  are truly remarkable, McCaskill said. As we celebrate Black History Month, Im proud to honor the service, heroism and a legacy that lives on as a uniquely American story.

McCaskill cosponsored a bipartisan Senate Resolution that honors the dedication and courage of the Buffalo Soldiers and recognizes the Buffalo Soldiers contributions to military history in the United States, as well as to the legacy of our National Park System.

In 1948, Missouri native President Harry Truman signed an executive order that stipulated equal treatment and opportunity for all African American service members, bringing an end to the Buffalo Soldiers.

Missouri is home to the Buffalo Soldier Alexander/Madison Chapter  Greater Kansas City/Leavenworth Area 9th & 10th (Horse) Calvary Association and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Association of Buffalo Soldiers and Troopers Motorcycle Club. McCaskill will send a signed copy of the resolution to both of these organizations.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.Summary

Company Announcement Date: February 23, 2018 FDA Publish Date: February 18, 2018 Product Type: Animal & Veterinary

Food & Beverages

Pet Food

Foodborne Illness Reason for Announcement: Recall Reason Description Potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes Company Name: Northwest Naturals Brand Name: Brand Name(s) Northwest Naturals Product Description: Product Description Dog food

Company Announcement

February 27, 2018, this is the updated press release to include the correct states that received affected product. Northwest Naturals of Portland, Oregon is recalling 5lb frozen Chicken and Salmon pet food chubs because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria monocytogenes can affect animals eating the products and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products.

Listeria monocytogenes is pathogenic to humans. Healthy people exposed to Lm should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramping, fever.

Pets with Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) can affect animals eating the product. There is the possibility of risk to humans from handling product that is positive for Listeria monocytogenes especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after and if they have made contact with the product or any surfaces exposed to the product.

Product was 1 isolated batch of 94 cases distributed to distributors in California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington and sold thru specialty pet retail stores.

Product is packaged in 5lb frozen chubs labeled Chicken and Salmon Dog Food with a UPC code of 0 87316 38440 6 and a product best buy date code of 15 082218.

No pet or human illnesses have been reported to date. The product passed lab testing on 12-22-2016 and was sold over 1 year ago to distributors listed above, on or before 1-23-2017. Reports from distributors indicate there is no product at any distributors.

The company was notified on 2-21-2018 by FDA and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). MDARD bought 1 chub at a Michigan specialty pet store and tested the sample which was negative for e coli, salmonella, and positive for Listeria moncytogenes. The company tests all batches of products for all pathogens in a positive release program before releasing for shipping. The company tests over 600 batches of product per week. The company is a dual jurisdiction facility regulated by USDA-FSIS every day on every shift and FDA. The company does dual lab testing several times per month matching USDA- FSIS lab samples and comparing results.

Consumers are encouraged to check the lot code on any 5lb frozen Chicken and Salmon chubs. Any product with the noted lot code should return product to the specialty retailer where purchased for full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Northwest Naturals at 1-866-637-1872, Monday-Friday, from 8:00am to 4:00pm PST or go to www.nw-naturals.ne

Company Contact Information Consumers: 1-866-637-1872Salman Khan is back in Mumbai after shooting for Race 3 alongside Jacqueline Fernandez in Thailand. The next schedule of the film will be shot in Thailand. Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez are all set to entertain the audience with their chemistry in Race 3. The film is helmed by Remo DSouza and produced by Tips Films and Salman Khan Productions. Apart from Jacqueline and Salman, Race 3 also features Bobby Deol, Saqib Saleem, Daisy Shah, Anil Kapoor and Pooja Hedge in crucial roles. This is the first time that Salman Khan will be part of the Race series. The collaboration has made his fans super excited to watch him on screen.Salman came back to Mumbai only yesterday and the star was already bombarded with the questions of the media at an event that he attended last night. When the superstar was questioned about his marriage plans, he said, Marriage has become such a big thing. You spend lakhs and lakhs and crores of money in getting somebody married. I can't afford. That's the reason I am single man. Well, were sure thats not the reason Salman! The superstar has been linked with various actresses during his career, the latest being Romanian television host, Iulia Vantur. Salman has a great line-up of films in the coming future like Race 3, Kick 2 and Bharat. Dont know about his personal life, but his professional life is keeping us on our toes.Shahrukh Khan Meets PM Narendra Modi

Shahrukh Khan looks way too happy and excited to meet the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi at the Global Business Summit 2018.

Donald Trump Jr & Shahrukh Khan

Donald Trump Jr is seated in the same row (far left) with Shahrukh Khan (far right) at the Global Business Summit 2018 in New Delhi.

Selfie Time

Fans of Shahrukh Khan take their phones out to click a selfie with him and SRK happily posed with his fans.

Good Speech

Donald Trump Jr gave a speech at the Global Business Summit 2018 which was applauded by everyone present.

Business Dealings

Donald Trump Jr was in India for business dealing regarding Trump Luxury Apartment in New Delhi.

Mild Vs Aggressive

Donald Trump Jr also called the Indian media "mild and nice" and labelled the American media "aggressive and brutal."

Global Business Summit 2018

The Global Business Summit 2018 saw Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving up an amazing speech as well.Manila has announced the arrest of one of the two suspects believed behind the death of a Filipina maid, put in a freezer a year ago in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.

The suspect named Nader Essam Assaf, from Lebanon, was arrested in his country following coordination between Kuwaiti and Lebanese authorities in a manhunt.

Assaf and his Syrian wife, who is on the run, have been on Kuwaiti authorities wanted list for the death of their maid; a 29-year old Filipina called Joanna Demafelis found dead in a Freezer this month in the couples abandoned apartment.

Joanna Demafelis had apparently been in the freezer since last year and her body showed signs of torture.

Manila has welcomed Kuwaits announcement that Assaf has been arrested.

President (Duterte) welcomes the news that Nader Essam Assaf is now in the hands of authorities in Lebanon, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano said in a statement.

Assafs arrest is a critical first step in our quest for justice for Joanna and we are thankful to our friends in Kuwait and Lebanon for their assistance.

Demafeliss murder exasperated already strained relations between Kuwait and Philippines. President Rodrigo Dutret last month launched a tilt at Kuwait over abuses and maltreatment that Filipino workers most of whom maids, face in the Gulf country and in the region.

The Filipino leader demanded better conditions for the thousands of Filipinos working in Kuwait. Their number is estimated at 252,000.

Dutret this month imposed a ban on the recruitment of Filipino workers in Kuwait and dispatched free charter flights to repatriate those willing to come back. Over 2,500 have already headed home while authorities expect around 10,000 be enrolled in the repatriation program.

Dutret reportedly has accepted an invitation to visit Kuwait to settle the crisis. A team of Filipino labor officials visited Kuwait this week work out better protection mechanisms for migrant workers.Saudi Arabia has seen 19 entries in the regional media Gulf Businesss 2018 Arab Power ranking placing Chairman of the oil company Aramco as the most powerful Saudi figure and the second on the overall ranking while formerly detained billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal ranks third most powerful in the kingdom and the seventh in the Arab world.

Chairman of Aramco, Khalid Al Falih leads the kingdom list established by the Gulf media. Also in his position as minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Al Falih was at the forefront of the kingdoms negotiations with Russia and OPEC member-states in maintaining production cuts that have seen Bent crude prices rise from $55 a barrel to nearly $70, the media notes.

Al Falih is also chairman of the kingdoms mining company Maaden. The Saudi official led Aramco as CEO between 2009 and 2015.

The next most powerful Saudi individual is Yousef Abdullah Al Benyan who operates as Vice chairman and CEO of SABIC. He has been leading the petrochemical company since February 2015. Al Benyan, Gulf Business notes, managed despite difficulties to leave profit margin for the company, which stands as the Gulf regions largest listed firm. The company reported a 10.7 per cent increase in third quarter profit, Business notes.

SABIC under Al Benyan is currently working on expansion plans. The fourth largest global petrochemical company is envisioning opening an office in Iraq and boosting investment in China.

Al Benyan ranks third on the overall list.

The third Saudi figure on the powerful Arab list is the chairman of the Kingdom Holding, Prince al Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulazizi al Saud. His three-month stay at the five-star prison of Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh has not taken away his reputation as the kingdoms international figure in the business community around the world.

Al-Waleed was arrested early November in authorities alleged purge against corruption in which over 200 people were rounded up, including several other princes and business top figures.

The billionaire was released late last month after inking a settlement agreement with authorities.

Al-Waleed has investment in Movenpick Hotels, Walt Disney, News Corp and Twitter. He ranks 7 on the full list.

Amin Nasser, CEO of Aramco is the fourth Saudi most powerful figure. He took over from Al Falih in February 2015 after several years in the steering committee. Nasser is currently overseeing the companys plan to list five per cent of its value in the second part of this year, in a move that could generate as much as $100bn.

He is the 12th most powerful Arab figure on the list.

Right following Nasser is Mohamed bin Issa Al Jaber who is Chairman and CEO of MBI International. Al Jaber is in several sectors. He was not targeted by the purge. His wealth is estimate at $8.3bn by Bloomberg. The powerful businessman owns a hotel in London and a real estate company.A few years ago, a Western businessman visited North Korea and before leaving for home, he told a local man, I can only see two fat people in your country  your leaders. It is not difficult to imagine that this honest fellow was detained by North Korean authorities for a few days before being kicked out of the country. He lived to tell the tale, and was lucky, compared to University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier from the United States. The poor young man lost his life for allegedly attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel room to show off back home.

North Korea is a country where no one is allowed to make any negative comments about the Kim family unless they have a death wish. On the other hand, every single word that the leaders say must be written down, turned into doctrine and published as books that the whole country is ordered to study and learn by rote. As soon as the Leader appears anywhere, people around him must prepare a notebook to write down every single word he says.

This practice began with Kim Jong-uns grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea. He invented the Juche ideology of North Korean self-reliance, which is also called Kimilsungism.

The philosophy was published as a book, and it must be memorized by every North Korean as soon as they start to read and write.

All books written by Kim and his descendants must be studied and learned by heart

Now, all books written by Kim and his descendants must be studied and learned by heart. There are even competitions on knowledge of Kim Il-Sungs book of Juche ideology. Some people can tell you on which page a certain paragraph or sentence appears.

The main theme of the book is how a leader is like a father. Just as a biological father gives biological life, the Leader gives political life. Like a father, the Leader is a benefactor, has absolute power at home, and should be obeyed, respected and loved. As with a father, the people must be unconditionally loyal to their Leader.

Greatest philosopher

Though the schooling Kim Il-sung had is limited to primary school in Korea and a year and a half of secondary school in Jilin City, China, North Koreans hail him as the greatest philosopher and thinker the world has ever known.

In North Korea, even basic arithmetic lessons cannot be separated from the Dear Leader. A typical question might go like this: If there are three boys who passionately love the Grand Marshal Kim Il-sung and four girls who also passionately love the Grand Marshal Kim, how many children are there?

The song has a beautiful melody, but the lyrics are enough to send chills down ones spine

For Army Day on April 25, one North Korean composer wrote a song called You are our real father. It was a hit, just as was a previous song, We cannot live without you. This new song encourages all North Koreans to call 34-year-old Kim Jong-un Father.

The song has a beautiful melody, but the lyrics are enough to send chills down ones spine and make one burst out laughing at the same time. We know we are lucky to live next to his bosom, it goes. We want to be held tight by him, the more we see him, the more attractive he is to us. Oh, Comrade Kim Jong-un, you are our real father.

In traditional Korean culture, the father has the last say at home, the fathers words are nearly equal with Gods words; neither the children nor even the wife should talk back to the father or doubt him. Psychologically, this song strengthens the position of Kim Jong-un in North Korean peoples minds. They all have a new, young father.Google to roll out Lens for more Android devices News oi-Vishal Kawadkar Google Lens support for more devices.

Google lens, a machine learning-powered image analyser was announced at I/O last year. The tool currently is available for both Google Photos (to scan existing photos) and Assistant (to scan in real-time), but both methods require a Pixel smartphone.

The Lens will be rolled out for more Android devices and make an appearance on iOS, the company announced alongside ARCore announcements.

The Google Lens will soon be available to all English-language users for both Android and iOS platforms. Users will be able to scan their photos for objects and landmarks, regardless of the platform they use.

Additionally, Lens in Assistant will be rolled out to 'compatible flagship devices' in the coming weeks. Google will also be adding support for other devices as they move ahead.

Apart from the extended compatibility, Lens is also receiving some functionality upgrades. The Lens will soon be able to recognize common animals and plants, including few dog breeds and flowers.

Building on the momentum to create a pool of highly skilled tech workforce in India and giving the large Indian student community a head start on latest technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Mobile & Web Development, Google announced 'Developer Students Club' summit (DSC) in Goa.

The program is aimed at inspiring and training student ambassadors who will encourage students in their campuses to learn newer areas of technologies that will equip them with the right skill sets as they step out of colleges to join the workforce.

The inaugural batch will see 200 student ambassadors from 98 cities across 170 colleges in India, attend the three day Summit (Feb 23- Feb 25) and learn about various emerging technologies through a series of engaging sessions from experts from Google and industry, hands-on one-to-one mentoring activities, that will help the students to unlock their creative potential.

Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

The summit will also have a 'Design Thinking' workshop by the University Innovation Fellows from across India, encouraging them to find creative and innovative solutions, using advanced technologies to solve for India's complex problems. This is the first of many summits that Google plans to host in the next 12 months.

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Sony has a surprise launch for MWC 2018: Three Xperia models incoming News oi-Samden Sherpa Sony might be planning to launch three new devices at the MWC 2018, two XZ2 phones and a surprise.

MWC 2018 is just around the corner and things are getting pretty interesting. Tomorrow, Samsung, Nokia, and Huawei will be up on stage to announce their latest products and also give insights on what they are planning for 2018. Apart from these brands, a lot of other manufacturers will also be showcasing their latest products at the event.

And Sony, one of the major players in the consumer electronics space will also be sharing the stage to announce its products. Having said that, in the past few weeks we have heard that the Japanese firm is all set to launch two new smartphones namely Sony Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact at MWC. And just this morning new details about the smartphones were also leaked.

The leaks have revealed almost everything about the devices and there is hardly anything new to know about these handsets. But hold on! Sony might have a surprise for the fans as well as the consumers.

New reports now suggest that Sony might introduce a third smartphone at the event. A Facebook user has just posted a screenshot of Sony Mobile's Facebook account for South Africa. The screenshot shows the company's post which is inviting people to watch the live broadcast of MWC 2018 where the company will be showcasing "three amazing new Xperia models" with a surprise.

With this post, there is some mystery in the air as to what Sony is going to announce. As far as speculations go Sony could be looking to bring Xperia XA2 Ultra, in several markets. The new XA2 duo is not yet available in some markets, and since the post talks about live streaming from MWC 2018 it further hints at the global launch of the devices. But these are just assumptions right now.

Sony Xperia XZ1 First Impression

It will be interesting to see which smartphone will be unveiled alongside XZ2 flagship duo? There are a lot of possibilities of seeing a Premium or an "S" version of Xperia XZ2. Sony could also launch an entirely new product as well. In any case, we will find out soon.

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Xiaomi smartphones will soon come pre-installed with Microsoft apps News oi-Samden Sherpa

Xiaomi could soon feature Microsoft apps on several of its smartphones in the coming days. According to The Wall Street Journal's report, Xiaomi has entered into a partnership with US software giant Microsoft. As part of the deal, Xiaomi will be granted patent transfers from Microsoft and the Chinese handset maker will include Microsoft's software.

The report notes that Xiaomi after this new agreement will start shipping devices with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Skype later in September. As for the devices, Xiaomi is expected to pre-install Microsoft apps on Mi 5, Mi Max and Mi 4s, as well as cheaper Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3 smartphones.

"Microsoft has sold Xiaomi nearly 1,500 high-quality patents that read on a variety of technologies including wireless communications, video, cloud, and multimedia," a Xiaomi spokesperson was quoted as saying.

In a separate instance, Microsoft and Xiaomi have also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop new solutions in cloud computing, AI, and hardware. The Verge has reported that Microsoft could allow Xiaomi to use its cloud computing products mainly Microsoft Azure, that will help the Chinese OEM in developing better phones, laptops, and smart devices for the international market.

Besides, this partnership has been formed at a time when Xiaomi is looking to expand its operations around the globe especially in the U.S. Before this partnership was established, Xiaomi also entered into a patent deal with Qualcomm. Additionally, Xiaomi with the help of Google has also built an Android set-top box. All this clearly hints that Xiaomi wants to build relationships with top tech brands in the US.

Top 7 Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Tips & Tricks

Meanwhile, Xiaomi has been doing well in several markets including China and India and the company was even ranked among the top five vendors at the end of Q4 2017. According to IDC data, Xiaomi registered about 96.9 percent YoY growth in Q4 2017. With 28.1 million units of smartphone shipment, the company even doubled its market share from just 3.3 percent in Q4 2016 to 7 percent in Q4 2017. The meteoric rise of Xiaomi has indeed become a threat to all manufacturers.

In any case, Microsoft may also be looking to tap into Xiaomi's growth and expand its products reach to more consumers especially in China.

Source / Via

Best Mobiles in IndiaChance of Rain: 24% Sunrise: 06:58:34 AM Sunset: 07:17:16 PM Humidity: 21% Wind: SSW @ 13mph UV Index: 6 High

Saturday Night

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low 56F. NNE winds shifting to ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.The UN Security Council delayed a vote on a ceasefire to allow aid to civilians in Eastern Ghouta as the Syrian government continues its bombing of the besieged area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a week since the launch of the bloody campaign on Eastern Ghouta over 500 people were killed and hundreds more injured.

The group said the strikes were being carried out by both Syrian and Russian planes  although Russia denies direct involvement.

The scale of the attacks from barrel bombs and other missiles was making it hard to find and count the dead, rescuers said.

Doctors and medical activists from around the world called for an end to the violence, protection for civilians, and greater action from the UN, in a joint appeal published in the Lancet.

Intense talks at the UN headquarters in New York followed a direct appeal Friday by French and German leaders to Vladimir Putin for Russia to support a ceasefire, but a vote was pushed back several times as talks stalled.Man accused of giving marijuana edibles to teens, who then became sickMilitary Strikes Hit ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 23, 2018  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria between Feb. 16 and yesterday, conducting 41 strikes consisting of 76 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the most recent strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

-- On Feb. 22 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted four strikes, destroying a fighting position and damaging two ISIS supply routes.

-- On Feb. 21 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted three strikes, destroying two mortar staging facilities and a weapons cache.

-- On Feb. 20 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted five strikes, destroying three staging facilities, a mortar system and two motorcycles.

-- On Feb. 19 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes, destroying an ISIS observation post, a weapons cache and an ISIS resupply vehicle and damaging a bulldozer and a mortar.

-- On Feb. 18 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted four strikes, destroying a fighting position, a weapons cache and an ISIS headquarters. Two ISIS supply routes were damaged.

-- On Feb. 17 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes, destroying an ISIS supply route, four fighting positions and three ISIS vehicles. Four ISIS supply routes, a tactical vehicle and an unmanned aerial vehicle were damaged.

-- On Feb. 16 near Abu Kamal, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes, damaging an ISIS supply route.

Strikes in Iraq

-- There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on Feb. 22, 2018.

-- On Feb. 21 near Lake Hamrin, coalition military forces conducted a strike, destroying an ISIS vehicle, a tractor, a bunker, a motorcycle and an ISIS-held building.

-- There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on Feb. 20, 2018.

-- On Feb. 19 near Kirkuk, coalition military forces conducted a strike, destroying an ISIS tunnel entrance.

-- There were no reported strikes conducted in Iraq on Feb. 16, 17 and18, 2018.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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Cobra Gold 18: HADR-X

US Marine Corps News

By Cpl. Breanna Weisenberger | III Marine Expeditionary Force | February 23, 2018

The HADR-X is a part of Cobra Gold 2018, an annual exercise conducted in the Kingdom of Thailand held from Feb. 13-23 with seven full participating nations.

Participants of the HADR-X included the Kingdom of Thailand, the U.S., China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea as well as numerous civil organizations.

This years' HADR-X is only the beginning of a multi-national exercise made of several events. Each one of the events is designed to showcase each nation's capabilities in disaster response and promote interoperability focusing on saving lives.

"This is a disaster prone area, it makes sense that we are all working together," said U.S. Navy Commander Randy Panke, the deputy group surgeon for 3rd Marine Logistics Group. "We need to be prepared and know what everybody is going to bring to the table."

Drills such as this one provide a venue for both U.S. and partner nations to increase partner capacity in planning and executing complex and realistic multinational force and combined task force operations, said Panke.

"The reason why I like working with other countries is because not only do you get to know your host nation but you get to know other forces in your area of responsibility," said Panke. "We're here in this part of the region so it's important for us to build trust and foster good relationships."

While the United States primarily provided an advisory role, each of the rescue and medical teams worked side by side.

"For the preparation to the actual exercise, I'm doing subject matter expert exchanges with other countries, and comparing how we do our treatment, our triage, and equipment we carry," said U.S. Army Master Sgt. Annalita Chavez- Pratt, with 322nd Civil Affairs Brigade.

Chavez-Pratt's role in the HADR-X is to support other countries in the development of the scenarios, the flow of the exercise and embedding other American advisors into rescue and medial teams.

"It's a little challenging because of the language, but I think that medicine is pretty universal so we have a common understanding," said Chavez- Pratt. "Anticipating more collaborative efforts to save lives, because that is our end state, is saving lives."

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1/2 Marines engage in live fire exercise

US Marine Corps News

By Cpl. Juan Madrigal | Marine Corps Installations East | February 23, 2018

Marines with 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division conducted platoon attacks at range G-27 Infantry Squad Battle Course Range on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Jan. 24, 2018. The Marines conducted day and night live-fire drills to build their confidence moving forward into future operations.

"We just got new joins this last week and some of these guys, it's their first range (with the unit)," said Cpl. Joseph Rose, bravo company machine gun section leader, 1/2. "Working platoon attacks is a little complicated, but I think the squad leaders and mortars are killing it out here. The new joins that just came in are getting hands on training, so they're experiencing what it's like to do a full platoon-sized attack and understand what goes into those attacks."

The new Marines weren't the only ones learning from the exercise, team leaders and squad leaders were also refining their skills.

"Team leaders are being able to work on their communication between the other gunner as well as being able to give ADDRACs (alert, direction, description, range, assignment and control) on the spot to their gunner," said Rose. "Squad leaders are able to see the whole picture and control his squad's fire.

"Shifting fire and communicating with his 11s as well as letting them know that 'hey we're picking up the rate of fire or we're taking a rocket shot and we need you to pick up the rate of fire,' are the things we're working on."

The Marines fired M240B machine guns, M4 carbines, AT-4 rocket launchers and 60mm mortars. The Marines conducted immediate remedial action drills and traversed, searched and engaged targets moving from one to another.

"The Marines have exceeded our expectations for them at this range," said 2nd Lt. Austin Ahmed, bravo company commander, 1/2. "Prior to this range we had about 14 new joins, so this is their first time doing an attack with us however they're performing way above what we expected them to."

The Marines are training to become proficient in their field for future deployments and to move onto more training.

"We've accomplished a lot at this range," said Rose "We're also preparing for future training at Fort Pickett. As machine gun section leader, I'm evaluating squad leaders and giving them the input on how they can better their squad and how they can better themselves. We're definitely not where we need to be, but we're on the right track to where we're going."

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USS Carney Departs Varna, Bulgaria

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS180223-10

Release Date: 2/23/2018 9:15:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James Turner

VARNA, Bulgaria (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) departed Varna, Bulgaria, Feb. 22, after a scheduled port visit.

Strengthening alliances during the visit to Varna demonstrated a shared commitment to promote security and stability within the region, while seeking opportunities to enhance interoperability with NATO allies and partners in the Black Sea.

"The crew and I enjoyed our stay in Varna," said Cmdr. Peter F. Halvorsen, commanding officer of Carney. "We are thankful for the hospitality of the Bulgarian navy and the city of Varna, and we are appreciative to have received the opportunity to experience what Varna has to offer. It was a very productive visit, including both community relations projects and exchanges with the Bulgarian Navy - which is so important to maintaining an enduring alliance."

While in Varna, members of the crew hosted a luncheon for the Bulgarian chief of naval operations, experienced the city's historical and cultural treasures during three different guided tours, and watched a performance provided by children at a local elementary school.

Members of Carney's crew also visited the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, where they conducted bilateral ship exercises with sailors from the Bulgarian navy using ship simulators.

USS Carney (DDG 64), forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, is conducting a routine patrol to support U.S. national security interests in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations, and demonstrate a continued commitment to the collective security of the European region.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

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Navy Accepts Delivery of USNS Hershel "Woody" Williams

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS180223-22

Release Date: 2/23/2018 10:58:00 AM

From Team Ships Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The Navy accepted delivery of its second Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ship, USNS Hershel "Woody" Williams (ESB 4), Feb. 22.

The delivery marks the official transfer of the ship from the shipbuilder to the Navy. ESB 4 will be owned and operated by Military Sealift Command.

"The delivery of this ship marks an enhancement in the Navy's forward presence and ability to execute a variety of expeditionary warfare missions," said Capt. Scot Searles, Strategic and Theater Sealift program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. "Like the ship's namesake, USNS Hershel 'Woody' Williams will exemplify the Navy's commitment to service."

USNS Hershel "Woody" Williams is named for Medal of Honor recipient, Hershel Williams. During the battle of Iwo Jima, then- Cpl. Williams bravely went forward alone against enemy machine gun fire to open a lane for the infantry. Williams continues to serve his fellow men and women in uniform through his foundation, the Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation, established to honor families who have lost a loved one in service to their country.

ESBs are highly flexible, modular platforms that are optimized to support a variety of maritime based missions including Special Operations Force, Airborne Mine Counter Measures operations, humanitarian support and command and control of traditional military missions. The ESBs include a four spot flight deck, hangar, and a versatile mission deck; and are designed around four core capabilities: aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support, and command and control assets. The ESBs will operate as the component commanders require, providing the fleet with a critical access infrastructure that supports the flexible deployment of forces and supplies.

USNS Hershel "Woody" Williams was constructed by General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in San Diego. NASSCO is also constructing the future USNS Miguel Keith (ESB 5).

As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and boats and craft.

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Afghan, Pakistani, Indian officials launch Turkmen natural gas pipeline

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 03:21PM

The Afghan president and Pakistani prime minister have inaugurated a 1,814 kilometer gas pipeline that will carry Turkmenistan's natural gas to Afghanistan as well as Pakistan and India after its construction officially began on the Afghan-Turkmen border.

The pipeline project, which is known by the acronym TAPI, was launched on Friday as workers welded the first link crossing the border with Afghanistan's western province of Herat in a ceremony observed on video bridge by Afghan and Turkmen presidents, Pakistan's premier and India's foreign minister, AP reported.

"We are transforming TAPI into a corridor that unites the region," said Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani as quoted in an AP report. "This is not only an economic but also a political project."

The inauguration event on the border was followed by another ceremony in the Afghan capital of Kabul later in the day attended by Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as well as a representative of the Indian government.

Ghani told the crowd at the Kabul event that the pipeline, which is to carry 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, is a message to future generations, adding: "We hope our next generation will see this pipeline as the foundation of a joint position in our region which is aimed at improving our economy, providing jobs and increasing our security, all in our fight against extremists."

He further stated that the next big project being readied is the laying of Afghanistan's first railway tracks, from the Turkmenistan border to Iran.

"We, Afghans have suffered but now we are looking to our future and we have no hostility with any country and want only our national interests to be protected," Ghani emphasized.

This is while the pipeline construction through the war-torn country will be guarded by heavy security measures, according to spokesman for the Heart provincial governor's office, Jelani Farhad.

"It's a golden day for Afghanistan today," Farhad added, however, insisting that "it will help our economy and create thousands of jobs."

The pipeline - expected to take two years to complete after several years of planning - reflects a rare show of cooperation between often hostile neighbors Pakistan and India as well as the often contentious neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Although security has been a major hurdle leading up to the inauguration events, Farhad further underlined that Afghanistan has devised a detailed security plan to protect the pipeline construction as well as the pipeline.

Interestingly, the TAPI project enjoys the support of Washington  which has persistently opposed another pipeline project taking Iranian natural gas to Pakistan and India  as well as the Taliban terrorist group, which has even pledged to "guarantee the pipeline's security," according to the report.

"We are ready to protect TAPI. It is good and important and vital for the economy of Afghanistan," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, speaking to AP in a telephone interview, further noting that the pipeline had been under consideration during the Taliban rule that ended in 2001 with the military invasion of the country by US-led forces.

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Trump admin. says US forces can stay in Syria without Congress authorization

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 02:50PM

The administration of US President Donald Trump says it needs no legal authorization from Congress to indefinitely keep American military forces deployed in Syria and Iraq, even in territories that have been cleared of terrorist fighters, according to two newly published letters written by the Pentagon and State Department.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had hinted the plan in a speech last month, saying that US troops would be in Syria to contain Iran and Russia who are fighting Daesh terrorists in Syria, and also to prevent the Syrian government from taking-back terrorist-held areas of the country.

Democrat Senator Tim Kaine to whom the letters were addressed sharply criticized the administration's reasoning and said in a statement that Trump risks "acting like a king by unilaterally starting a war."

The deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, David Trachtenberg, wrote the letters to Kaine, who had inquired the Trump administration to explain its understanding of its authority to stay on in Syria.

Borrowing arguments first advanced by the Obama administration, the State Department also sent the Virginia senator a similar letter, which claimed that international law provided a basis for American forces to remain in Syria  despite the lack of consent from the Syrian government  to protect Iraq and the US from terrorists.

Kaine, who has tried for years to get his colleagues to debate and vote on authorizing the war against Daesh terrorists, warned in January that the US mission in Syria was evolving and risked putting American forces on a collision course with Syrian government troops and their Russian supporters.

The US and its allies have been bombarding what they call Daesh positions inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The strikes, however, have on many occasions resulted in deaths of pro-government forces and civilian casualties, failing to fulfill their declared aim of countering terrorism.

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EU to double funding for military force in West Africa's Sahel region

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 08:21AM

The European Union is to double the budget allocated to a multi-national force in West Africa's Sahel region as part of a declared mission to crack down on militancy and human trafficking there.

Europe fears that growing instability in the Sahel region of Africa  an arid land mass lying to the immediate south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the breadth of the African continent  could worsen the already high levels of human trafficking toward Europe and create a springboard for militant attacks on the West.

"There is a direct European interest in restoring stability to the region," a senior EU diplomat said as quoted by media reports published on Friday. "There is a general awareness now that the future of the European Union is also the future of Africa."

The deaths of two French soldiers in Mali this week and four US soldiers in Niger in October last year, where most Americans did not know the United States had forces, has highlighted the security threat in the vast scrublands spanning from Mauritania to Chad.

To address the mounting security threats, Brussels and Washington have devised a two-sided strategy, including military and development aid in Africa.

The West created the G5 Sahel force  made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania  to counter militancy in the region. The Western-backed force is to receive more than 400 million euros (494 million dollars) to be able to meet its declared objectives.

The new budget is almost double the 250 million euros it has now.

France, which has more than 4,000 troops in the region, has been frustrated that it is the only EU member with combat troops on the ground, although others have contributed trainers.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the military approach alone would not be effective and called for greater efforts to relieve the roots of the conflict, namely poverty, poor governance, and climate hazards.

"When you add more weapons, you add more suffering," Patrick Youssef, the deputy head of the ICRC's operations for Africa, told Reuters. "That needs to be accompanied with real measures to alleviate the suffering that is the main reason why this war was created."

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Leaders Mark Start Of Work On Afghan Section Of TAPI Pipeline

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan February 23, 2018

Leaders and senior officials from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and India have inaugurated the start of work on the Afghan part of a multibillion-dollar pipeline project that they hope will meet the region's energy needs.

The Afghan and Turkmen presidents, Ashraf Ghani and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, were joined by Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and India's Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar in Afghanistan's western city of Herat for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Afghan section of the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) natural-gas pipeline.

"Galkynysh, the world's second-biggest gas field, will feed the TAPI pipeline," Berdymukhamedov told reporters gathered in a town near the Turkmen-Afghan border via a video link from Herat.

Turkmenistan holds the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves but has been heavily dependent on gas exports to China after Russia cut back on gas imports in the last few years.

The planned 1,800-kilometer pipeline connecting Central Asia with South Asia is to carry 33 billion cubic meters of Turkmen natural gas annually for 30 years.

The total cost of the project, which is expected to take two years to complete, is estimated at $10 billion.

"A new chapter of economic growth and regional connectivity starts right here in the economic and cultural hub of #Afghanistan," Ghani wrote on Twitter after arriving in Herat on February 22.

Railway Link

Ghani and Berdymukhammedov were also expected to inaugurate work on the construction of a railway link between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.

Heavy security will guard the pipeline construction through Afghanistan, said Jelani Farhad, a spokesman for the Herat provincial governor's office, on February 23.

Security personnel were deployed in sensitive areas across Herat for the opening ceremony, checking all vehicles entering the city.

"It's a golden day for Afghanistan today. It will help our economy and create thousands of jobs," Farhad said.

Backers of the TAPI pipeline say it will ease energy deficits in South Asia and help reduce tensions in the divided region.

Afghan officials say Kabul should earn some $500 million annually in transit duties and that the project should help create thousands of jobs.

However, security concerns over the project remain high as the Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014.

Turkmenistan started construction of its section of the pipeline in December 2015.

Taliban Support

The planned underground pipeline is intended to carry 33 billion cubic meters of gas annually alongside Afghanistan's Herat-Kandahar highway, then through Quetta and Multan in Pakistan and ending up at the India-Pakistan border town of Fazilka.

It would start from the Galkynysh Gas Field near the town of Yoloten in Turkmenistan's eastern province of Mary.

Officials say 5 billion cubic meters would go to Afghanistan and India, and Pakistan would buy around 14 billion.

Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan have all repeatedly stated their commitment to the project despite the tensions that New Delhi and Kabul have with Islamabad.

Pakistan is accused of not doing enough to stop terrorist groups from using its soil for attacks against the neighboring countries, which Islamabad denies.

Highlighting security concerns surrounding TAPI, officials in Herat Province on February 22 paraded a group of 10 Afghan militants claiming to have been trained by neighboring Iran to sabotage events related to the planned pipeline.

Herat Governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi told RFE/RL that the insurgents changed their minds at the last minute and surrendered.

Iranian officials have not commented on the claims.

The pipeline would mostly run through parts of Afghanistan where the Taliban has a strong presence. However, the main Taliban organization in the country has declared its support for TAPI, calling it an "important project" for the country.

With reporting by Pajhwok, Tolo News, VOA, Reuters, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tapi-pipeline- afghanistan-pakistan-turkmenistan- india-taliban-herat/29058473.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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Leaders To Mark Start Of Work On Afghan Section Of TAPI Pipeline

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan February 23, 2018

Leaders of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and India were expected on February 23 to inaugurate the start of work on the Afghan part of a multibillion-dollar pipeline project that they hope will meet the region's energy needs.

The Afghan and Turkmen presidents, Ashraf Ghani and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, were set to join high-level Pakistani and Indian officials in Afghanistan's western city of Herat to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for the Afghan section of the TAPI natural-gas pipeline.

The planned 1,800-kilometer pipeline connecting Central Asia with South Asia is to carry 33 billion cubic meters of Turkmen natural gas annually for 30 years.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $10 billion.

"A new chapter of economic growth and regional connectivity starts right here in the economic and cultural hub of #Afghanistan," Ghani wrote on Twitter after arriving in Herat on February 22.

Security personnel have been deployed in sensitive areas across Herat, checking all vehicles entering the city, local media reported.

Ghani and Berdymukhammedov were also expected to inaugurate work on the construction of a railway link between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.

'Easing Deficits, Tensions'

Backers of the proposed 1,800-kilometer TAPI pipeline say it will ease energy deficits in South Asia and help reduce tensions in the divided region.

Afghan officials say Kabul will earn some $500 million annually in transit duties and that the project will help create thousands of jobs.

However, security concerns over the project remain high as the Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014.

Turkmenistan started construction of its section of the pipeline in December 2015.

The planned underground pipeline is intended to carry 33 billion cubic meters of gas annually alongside Afghanistan's Herat-Kandahar highway, then through Quetta and Multan in Pakistan and ending up at the India-Pakistan border town of Fazilka.

It would start from the Galkynysh Gas Field near the town of Yoloten in Turkmenistan's eastern province of Mary.

Taliban Support

Officials say 5 billion cubic meters would go to Afghanistan and India, and Pakistan would buy around 14 billion.

Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan have all repeatedly stated their commitment to the project despite the tensions that New Delhi and Kabul have with Islamabad. Pakistan is accused of not doing enough to stop terrorist groups from using its soil for attacks against the neighboring countries, which Islamabad denies.

Highlighting security concerns surrounding TAPI, officials in Herat Province on February 22 paraded a group of 10 Afghan militants claiming to have been trained by neighboring Iran to sabotage events related to the planned pipeline.

Herat Governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi told RFE/RL that the insurgents changed their minds at the last minute and surrendered.

Iranian officials have not commented on the claims.

The pipeline would mostly run through parts of Afghanistan where the Taliban have a strong presence. However, the main Taliban organization in the country has declared its support for TAPI, calling it an "important project" for the country.

With reporting by Pajhwok, Tolo News, and VOA

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tapi-pipeline-herat -afghanistan-turkmenistan-pakistan -india-taliban/29057467.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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Turkey Summons Dutch Envoy, 'Fiercely' Condemns' Armenia Genocide Vote

RFE/RL February 23, 2018

Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned the top Dutch envoy in the country on February 23, a day after lawmakers in the Netherlands voted to recognize the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I as "genocide," the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

It was the second time in a week that Erik Weststrate, the Dutch charge d'affaires to Ankara, was summoned. He had also been called to the ministry last week as it became clear Dutch lawmakers planned to move ahead with the recognition.

Turkey "fiercely" condemned the resolution -- which received overwhelming support from Dutch lawmakers, with only three lawmakers voting against it -- saying it has "no legal binding character or validity," Anadolu reported.

Dutch lawmakers also passed a separate resolution calling for a government representative to be sent in April to Armenia's capital, Yerevan, for commemorations of the victims.

The World War I-era mass slaughter and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks is a highly sensitive issue in both Armenia and Turkey.

Armenia says it is one of the first examples of genocide in modern history, predating the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany against more than 6 million Jews during World War II.

Turkey objects, saying that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and because of civil strife rather than a planned, systemic effort by the Ottoman government against the Christian minority.

At least 23 countries, including France and Germany, recognize the killings as "genocide."

Relations between the Netherlands and Turkey are rocky. The two NATO allies do not have ambassadors posted to each other's capitals.

The Dutch government banned Turkish politicians from entering the country to conduct election rallies aimed at Turkish expatriates in the Netherlands in March 2017, ahead of a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry welcomed the Dutch vote, saying: "With this step, [the] parliament of the Netherlands once again reconfirmed its commitment to universal human values and the noble cause of prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity."

Earlier on February 22, Dutch acting Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag said the government would not follow the lawmakers' lead in recognizing the killings as genocide.

Kaag said the cabinet will "continue to exercise restraint" in the issue and continue to discuss "the question of the Armenian genocide."

Kaag also said an official representative would be sent to the commemoration ceremony in Yerevan on April 24, but insisted that it was not a sign that the Dutch government recognizes the massacre of Armenians as genocide.

"This cabinet wants to be very careful about relations with Turkey, which have been better," she said in comments before the vote.

With reporting by AP, dpa, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/turkey- summon-dutch-envoy-armenia- genocide-vote/29058574.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. Special Counsel Files New Charges Against Ex-Trump Aides

RFE/RL February 23, 2018

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. special counsel investigating alleged Russian interference in U.S. politics has filed updated criminal charges against two former top campaign aides of President Donald Trump.

The grand jury indictment, released on February 22, is the latest move in Robert Mueller's spreading investigation of interactions between Trump associates and Russian-linked officials.

Paul Manafort, who was fired as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016, and his deputy, Rick Gates, had initially been hit with conspiracy, fraud, and other charges last year. Most of the charges stem from consulting and lobbying work Manafort did for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.

Both had pleaded not guilty to the initial charges, filed in October.

The new charges, which include tax evasion and financial fraud, seem to indicate a tough approach by Mueller, who has reportedly been seeking the cooperation of both Manafort and Gates in the investigation.

A spokesman for Manafort said he was "innocent" and "confident" that he would be acquitted of all the new charges.

Manafort and Gates are among a growing number of people indicted by Mueller's team. Mueller has secured guilty pleas on related charges from four people, including Trump's ex-national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Earlier this week, a London-based lawyer pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his communications with Gates.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-special- counsel-mueller-files-new-charges-ex-trump- campaign-aides-manafort-gates/29058042.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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Pentagon Wants $500 Million to Research Sixth-Gen Warplane 'Family of Systems'

Sputnik News

21:59 23.02.2018(updated 22:02 23.02.2018)

The US plans to spend more than half a billion dollars on sixth-generation jet research for the "family of systems" that will eventually replace the F-35 and F-22 warplanes.

The Pentagon has requested $504 million for research, development and testing of the "next-generation air dominance" platform in fiscal year 2019, Military.com reported February 16. Over the next five years, the US Air Force proposes to invest $9.8 billion on the new air dominance family of systems, Inside Defense noted.

"Under next-generation air dominance, we're investing in a family of systems," USAF spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Military.com, explaining that "we're going through the analysis of alternatives now, and that will help define the capabilities of the future."

The "family of systems" approach shows that the next generation fleet of warplanes will defy conventional categories of military aircraft. In an Air Force study, "we specifically precluded ourselves from using the word 'fighter' Air combat is not all about fighter aircraft dogfighting anymore," Brig. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said last summer.

Instead, the future of air combat is "about bringing a network to bear, and attributes [like penetrating counter air] needs in terms of range, persistence, survivability [and] lethality," the general said.

While the "family of systems" approach has yet to be fully fleshed out, the only certain thing is that it will replace the "one-size-fits-all" approach that the military took with its beleaguered F-35 program, which sought to use one F-35 airframe and customize it for the Air Force, Marines, and Navy. The family of systems approach, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said earlier this month, will put munitions, lasers, sensors and speed and other systems on the table for different missions.

The air superiority capability would coincide with a focus on electronic warfare, networked capabilities, and dominating the electromagnetic spectrum, she said.

 Sputnik

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Manila Summons US Ambassador as Duterte Called 'Threat to Democracy' in Report

Sputnik News

20:02 23.02.2018

The US intelligence community labeled the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, a "threat to democracy" in their Worldwide Threat Assessment report, a move that has added to the already strained relations between the two countries.

The Philippines has summoned US ambassador Sung Kim over an American intelligence report that mentioned President Duterte as long as other threats in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand, according to Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea discussed the global threat assessment with the envoy and asked the Philippines' diplomatic mission in the US to explain to Washington that President Duterte's was advancing economic development in the region while "respecting at all times the rule of law," the spokesman added.

Manila's move comes after US intelligence published on February 13 a report labeling Duterte as a "threat to democracy," which caused an angry reaction from Manila's officials, with the presidential spokesman saying the US assessment made it "very difficult to be friendly" with Washington.

"Autocratic tendencies" were mentioned in the US report, referring to Duterte's suggestions to establish a "revolutionary government" and impose nationwide martial law.

But spokesman Roque said in a statement that Duterte had not declared a revolutionary government nor nationwide martial law. Recently Duterte has decided to extend martial law in the southern part of the country through the end of 2018, as the Philippines are fighting against the Daesh-linked Maute terror group, which last year besieged the city of Marawi. In October 2017, the Philippine army liberated the city from the remaining militants and rescued all hostages.

Close relations between the US and the Philippines have deteriorated after Duterte came to power in the summer of 2016, as Duterte announced his intention to pivot the US former colony towards China and Russia after decades of strong ties with the US.

The then US President Barack Obama harshly criticized Manila's war on drugs, whereas Duterte called him a "son of a whore."

Both countries acknowledge that relations improved after the election of US President Donald Trump, who is more closely aligned to Duterte's law-and-order approach, but Duterte has continued to court foreign powers in trade and political agreements.

 Sputnik

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Opening of U.S. Embassy Jerusalem

Press Statement

Heather Nauert

Department Spokesperson

Washington, DC

February 23, 2018

In May, the United States plans to open a new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. The opening will coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary. The Embassy will initially be located in the Arnona neighborhood, in a modern building that now houses consular operations of U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem. Those consular operations, including American citizen and visa services, will continue at the Arnona facility without interruption, as part of the Embassy. Consulate General Jerusalem will continue to operate as an independent mission with an unchanged mandate, from its historic Agron Road location. Initially, the interim Embassy in Arnona will contain office space for the Ambassador and a small staff. By the end of next year, we intend to open a new Embassy Jerusalem annex on the Arnona compound that will provide the Ambassador and his team with expanded interim office space. In parallel, we have started the search for a site for our permanent Embassy to Israel, the planning and construction of which will be a longer-term undertaking. We are excited about taking this historic step, and look forward with anticipation to the May opening.

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Rights violations in South Sudan may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes, concludes UN panel

23 February 2018 - United Nations panel on human rights violations in South Sudan documents unspeakable cruelty against civilians, not just limited to widescale brutal massacres and sexual violence but extending to individuals trying to defend themselves or their families and had their eyes gouged out, their throats slit or were castrated.

A United Nations inquiry into allegations of human rights violations and abuses committed during the ongoing conflict in South Sudan has concluded that some of the violations may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Since conflict erupted in the world's youngest nation in 2013, over four million people have been driven from their homes.

"Holding those in charge in South Sudan accountable for the intentional suffering they inflict on their own people is crucial to stemming this humanitarian catastrophe," Andrew Clapham a member of Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said on Friday.

The Commission, established by the Human Rights Council in March 2016, has identified more than forty senior military officials who may bear individual responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country.

In addition to investigating allegations, the Commission is also mandated to collect and preserve evidence for use in the Hybrid Court and other accountability mechanisms agreed under the 2015 peace agreement.

Urging for the swift setting up of the court, Yasmin Sooka, the Chair of the Commission underscored "ultimately this is the only way to stop the rampant devastation of millions of human lives by South Sudan's leaders."

The public report, which reflects only a portion of the information in the 58,000 documents and 230 witness statements collected, documents abhorrent instances of cruelty against civilians, including massacres, sexual violence as well as destruction of homes, hospitals and schools.

People who tried to defend themselves or their families had their eyes gouged out, their throats slit or were castrated.

It also noted that children have been recruited by all sides in the conflict and forced to kill civilians; in many cases they have watched loved ones raped or killed. The elderly have not been spared either.

Unable to flee on foot they have been left behind in villages only to be hacked to death or burned alive, it adds.

The report is to be discussed by the Human Rights Council  the highest UN intergovernmental body on all matters related to human rights  next month.

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Construction Begins on Afghanistan Section of International Gas Pipeline

By Ayaz Gul February 23, 2018

Leaders of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and its arch rival India jointly inaugurated construction work Friday on the Afghan section of a long-delayed multibillion-dollar gas pipeline connecting the four nations, raising hopes for regional cooperation and peace.

A ceremony took place in the ancient Afghan city of Herat, attended by President Ashraf Ghani, his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Indian External Affairs Minister M.J. Akbar.

The long-awaited 1,814 kilometer pipeline, known as TAPI, will transport natural gas from the world's fourth-largest reserves in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to growing economies of Pakistan and India, which are facing energy shortages.

TAPI was originally conceived in the 1990s, but differences over terms and conditions, unending Afghan hostilities and regional rivalries are blamed for delays. Turkmenistan took the initiative in December 2015 and has since constructed its portion of the pipeline up to the Afghan border.

President Ghani, while addressing Friday's ceremony, vowed Afghanistan believes in connectivity and will "not spare any efforts" to implement the project to connect South Asia with Central Asia after a century of separation.

"This is the beginning of confidence in Afghanistan, confidence on national unity and harmony of the state and the people of Afghanistan," noted Ghani.

Pakistani Prime Minister Abbasi reiterated his country's commitment to peace and stability in Afghanistan.

"We are turning, by the grace of God, TAPI into a reality. It will provide shared regional prosperity  and it will provide peace dividends," said Abbasi, whose country is accused of covertly supporting the Afghan Taliban, charges Islamabad denies as baseless.

"I want to tell my Afghan brothers and sisters that your success is our success, your development is our development and peace in Afghanistan means peace in Pakistan," Abbasi emphasized.

He termed TAPI critical for Pakistan's energy needs, saying it will provide about 10 percent of his country's total energy consumption.

Expected cost

Officials say the project, estimated to cost up to $10 billion, will carry 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for 30 years and is extendable.

The final cost, however, is anticipated to be much higher because of an accompanying power transmission pipeline and the fiber optic cable to be laid from Turkmenistan to Pakistan.

Afghanistan will buy about five billion cubic meters of gas once the project is completed. Kabul also will earn up to $500 million in transit fees from the project, which Afghans expect will create about 25,000 jobs in their war-shattered nation.

The Afghan section of the pipeline will run through five provinces in the south and southwest, including Herat, Farah, NImruz, and Helmand, before entering the southern Pakistan city of Quetta.

Security concerns

Taliban insurgents control or contest much of the Afghan territory along the TAPI route, raising security concerns for the pipeline.

In a statement issued Friday, though, the insurgent group dismissed those concerns and pledged to protect the pipeline, reminding skeptics the TAPI was initially negotiated and brought to Afghanistan when the Taliban was ruling the country.

The insurgency, which currently controls or influences about 44 percent of Afghan territory, blamed the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of the country for the delay in TAPI's implementation.

Groundbreaking for the Afghan section took place at a time when Pakistan's relations with India have deteriorated and both countries are locked in daily border skirmishes in Kashmir.

TAPI is dubbed by some as a "peace pipeline," citing the potential the project has to promote regional economic and security cooperation. But analysts remain skeptical about future progress in the wake of Islamabad's prevailing tensions with Kabul and New Delhi.

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UN Report Accuses South Sudan Officials, Military Officers of War Crimes

By VOA News February 23, 2018

U.N. investigators say they have identified more than 40 South Sudanese officials and military officers who may be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The alleged crimes occurred during South Sudan's ongoing civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and uprooted more than 4 million people from their homes.

The report from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, released Friday, details horrifying acts of cruelty against South Sudanese civilians. It says some victims had their eyes gouged out, their throats slit or they were castrated. Others were gang raped or forced to watch the rape of relatives.

The report makes the case for "individual command responsibility for widespread or systematic attacks on civilians."

The report also documents what commission member Andrew Clapham called "a clear pattern of ethnic persecution, for the most part by government forces who should be pursued for crimes against humanity."

The investigators say their findings are based on 230 witness statements and nearly 60,000 documents.

The civil war, which broke out in December 2013, is largely a conflict between ethnic Dinka supporters of President Salva Kiir and Nuer tribe rebels led by Kiir's former deputy Riek Machar. A 2015 peace agreement collapsed and a cease-fire agreement reached last year has had little impact.

The commission says a confidential list of 41 suspects has been forwarded to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. The suspects include three state governors, 33 generals and five colonels.

No high-level South Sudanese officials have been prosecuted for crimes related to the civil war.

The U.N. commission is calling on the African Union to set up a promised special court to try alleged crimes.

"The court could be set up straight away and the prosecutor could begin working on indictments," said commission chief Yasmin Sooka. She noted that under the 2015 peace agreement, those indicted can no longer hold or run for office.

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US to Move Embassy to Jerusalem in May

By VOA News February 23, 2018

The United States says it will open a new embassy in Jerusalem in May to coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary.

The State Department said Friday that the new embassy would be located in a building that currently houses the U.S. consular operations in Jerusalem, before moving to a separate annex by the end of 2019.

The move followed a December announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and planned to move the U.S. Embassy there.

The embassy has been located in Tel Aviv.

The choice of the date, which is a year earlier than originally forecast, sparked an angry response from the Palestinians, who said the founding of Israel on May 14, 1948, is mourned by Palestinians as the Nakba, or "catastrophe."

"The American administration [decision] to choose the date of the Palestinian catastrophe  the Nakba  on which to move the embassy, and to take this move in this expeditious fashion, reflects their total insensitivities to what goes on in this region," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Palestinians claim the eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Israeli intelligence minister Israel Katz quickly welcomed the opening date.

"There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend!" he wrote on his Twitter account.

U.S. officials said most embassy employees would remain in Tel Aviv until the building in Jerusalem can be expanded. They said U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, who lobbied Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, along with one or two of his aides, would be the first to move to the new embassy.

The State Department said the next phase of the plan would be to search for a secure location to build a new embassy in Jerusalem, which it said would be "a longer-term undertaking."

The embassy move comes earlier than expected. Just last month, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament the move would take place by the end of 2019.

In a speech on Friday to a gathering of conservatives outside Washington, Trump said of his decision to move the embassy, "It's the right thing to do."

No other country has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Trump's decision has sparked anger from Washington's Arab allies and led to weeks of violent protests by Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the United Nations this week, called moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem "unlawful."

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Int'l Donors Pledge More Than $500M for West Africa's Sahel

By Lisa Bryant February 23, 2018

The European Union and other international donors pledged more than half-a-billion dollars Friday to support a multi-national military operation in Africa's vast Sahel region, which has fallen prey to smugglers, human traffickers and terrorists in recent years.

Speaking after an international meeting on the Sahel in Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the pledges far exceeded initial expectations. She said they mirrored the strong international support for the so-called G-5 Sahel  a regional development and security initiative headed by five Sahelian nations.

Mogherini said the challenges facing Sahel spill well beyond the region, and demand a collective response  although G-5 countries must define their own strategy and priorities.

Along with African countries, Europe is concerned about the Sahel not only because it is a transit route for tens of thousands of migrants trying to reach its shores, but also because it fears it may become a launching pad for terrorist strikes at home.

Insecurity has deteriorated in the region since 2011, and extremist attacks occur regularly. There are also fears that Islamic State group fighters fleeing Syria and Iraq are heading there.

The United States has about 800 troops in Niger alone, while France has 4,000 forces in the region under its Barkhane anti-terrorism operation.

Niger's president, Mahamadou Issoufou, noted the money raised will only cover the G-5 operations for this year. Continuous funding was needed, he said. And until security conditions improve in Libya, he added, it will be difficult to stabilize Sahel countries further south.

International support includes billions of dollars in development aid for the region.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in the next few weeks, the first development initiatives will be up and running, including in Mali's restive central region of Mopti.

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UNHCR Calls on Rwanda to Investigate Refugee Deaths

By Lisa Schlein February 23, 2018

The U.N. refugee agency is calling on Rwandan authorities to investigate police culpability in the deaths of at least five Congolese refugees during a recent protest of food ration cuts.

The deadly confrontation took place Thursday when some 700 Congolese refugees from the Kiziba refugee camp were demonstrating outside the U.N. refugee agency's office in Karongi, in western Rwanda.

UNHCR spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly says the situation got out of hand after police reportedly used tear gas to disperse the protesters and shots were fired. She says that resulted in several deaths and injuries among both the refugees and members of the police force.

"We regret that our continued appeals for maintaining calm and restraints were not heard. This tragedy should have been avoided. Disproportionate use of force against desperate refugees is not acceptable. UNHCR calls on authorities to refrain from further use of force and to investigate the circumstances of this tragic incident," she said.

Pouilly blames much of the unrest on underfunding, which is severely affecting humanitarian operations in Rwanda. She tells VOA lack of money forced the World Food Program to reduce food rations for refugees by 10 percent in November, followed by another cut of 25 percent in January.

"These people are not only desperate over the lack of food. They are also desperate because of the lack of prospective (future). Some of them have been there for 20 years. There is very little hope for them. There is a great sense of despair. Many of them have been born in the camp and they see no future," Pouilly said.

Kiziba refugee camp hosts more than 17,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 173,000 refugees from the DRC and Burundi live in six camps in Rwanda.

Pouilly says she fears more violence could be in the offing if refugee needs are not met. She notes the UNHCR has received only two percent of its $99 million appeal for humanitarian operations in Rwanda this year.

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Former Trump Campaign Associate Pleads Guilty in Russia Probe

By Masood Farivar February 23, 2018

Rick Gates, a former associate of President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy and lying charges related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the election.

The plea came hours after ABC News reported Gates sent a letter to his friends and family earlier in the day telling them about his plan to plead guilty in the special counsel's case again him.

Gates could face 57 to 71 months in prison, but prosecutors could ask for a lower sentence based on his cooperation, Federal Judge Amy Jackson said.

Gates is the third former Trump campaign associate to plead guilty to criminal charges and agree to cooperate with Mueller's investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump team and Russia during the 2016 election.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos last year pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their interactions with Russian officials.

Gates faced decades in prison over a raft of charges brought by Mueller.A guilty plea to a lesser charge and cooperation with prosecutors could help him reduce jail time.

The plea comes a day after Mueller's office announced a new indictment against Gates and his former business partner and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Friday afternoon, after Gates' indictment, Manafort released a statement via Twitter. He said, "Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me."

The new indictment accuses Gates and Manafort of bank fraud and tax evasion among other charges, alleging the two men avoided taxes by hiding millions of dollars in consulting fees from Ukrainian politicians as bank loans from offshore entities.

Manafort and Gates were initially charged in a 12-count indictment in October in connection with a multi-million-dollar money laundering conspiracy tied to their political work in Ukraine. They also were accused of failing to register as agents of a foreign government.

Manafort headed the Trump campaign from June to August 2016. Gates was brought into the campaign by Manafort and stayed on even after Manafort was fired a few months later following revelations about his Russian connections.

The charges against Gates and Manafort are not related to a key question Mueller has been investigating since his appointment last Maywhether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Last week, Muller's office announced charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for conspiring to disrupt the U.S. elections and tilt it in favor of the real estate tycoon. The indictment, however, did not allege collusion on the part of the Trump campaign.

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Cambodian PM Vows to Bash Aussies on Their Own Soil

By David Boyle February 23, 2018

An Australian parliamentarian says he has sought the intervention of federal police in response to threats from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to beat citizens of the country on their home soil.

In a speech Wednesday in which he also threatened to boycott the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Sydney next month, Hun Sen said those who plan to demonstrate there should remember "that my visit is an honor for their [Australian] government."

"If you burn my effigy, I will go after you and beat you up at your houses. I warn you in advance," he said. "I want to be clear, if you have the right to burn [images of] me, I have the right to beat you up."

At the summit, hundreds of protesters are planning to confront Hun Sen, who has ruled for more than three decades and recently had his country's only viable opposition party dissolved ahead of elections in July.

Before that he vowed to kill several hundred people if necessary in order to win the ballot and has orchestrated a sweeping, prolonged assault on the media, civil society and political opponents.

Threats and sanctions

The premier's inflammatory remarks this week came as Germany imposed punitive measures in response to these actions while the EU Council is reportedly about to request sanctions and a review of Cambodia's crucial preferential access to their market.

In his speech Wednesday Hun Sen also threatened his would-be Australian hosts that he will "leave shame on the face at the scene" if they dare treat him inappropriately.

Cambodian-Australian Hong Lim, a veteran MP in the Victorian state parliament, said he contacted Australian Federal Police (AFP) on Thursday in relation to the threats and is taking the matter to Victorian State Premier Daniel Andrews as well as federal parliamentarians.

"Yeah I think they have an obligation to look after us and also if somebody is threatening to beat someone up that's illegal, that's a criminal offense and if they are actually following, that's stalking, that's a criminal offense."

Lim said he was "astounded" that Hun Sen could make comments like this on the eve of a visit to another country, but that in Australia, the Cambodian PM seemed to get away with everything.

"I would have assumed that the federal police would have to go and get him at the airport and interrogate him. Any other person would have that consequence and why with this man is that not the case?"

"It looks like Australia is now being blackmailed, or held hostage  it's my way or the highway," he said.

'Embarrassment' for Australia

Only a few refugees in several years have been resettled under a controversial deal with Cambodia in exchange for tens of millions of aid dollars. Observers regularly suggest the deal is muzzling Canberra from speaking honestly about rampant human rights abuses and corruption under Hun Sen's regime.

Rather than seeing Hun Sen's visit as an honor, Lim characterized it more as an "embarrassment" for Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government.

Canberra's relationship with Phnom Penh is further complicated by the latter's influence on in its long-term ambition for ASEAN membership and recent efforts Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has made, under domestic pressure, to secure the release of an Australian filmmaker charged with espionage in Cambodia.

Australia has also just accepted as refugees the wife and family of slain Cambodian political activist Kem Ley, a hugely popular figure who was assassinated in 2016 in what many in the country consider to have been a state-sponsored hit.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh did respond to VOA requests for comment.

The Australian Federal Police told VOA they had yet to receive a referral regarding the issue but would evaluate the situation in accordance with standard procedures if they did.

Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor and the University of New South Wales and a regional expert, said Hun Sen's threat could be seen as " an incitement" as information was surfacing that Phnom Penh was orchestrating a counter protest for the summit.

"Well, look, you know I think that obviously the federal police will have to listen and evaluate threats to Australian citizens and I think that the threat there is not that Hun Sen would do it but some of his supporters in this country," he said.

"I'm told there is an attempt to organize some sort of pro Hun Sen activity to counter what's going on," he added, stressing details were very vague.

Controversy in US

Another assertion by the Cambodian premier, that his absence would invalidate any ASEAN consensus at the Australia summit, was not true, Thayer said.

Hun Sen could, however, wreak havoc on Australia's attempts to foster closer ties with the association by rallying members against them, he said.

The Cambodian premier's family has courted controversy during several recent trips abroad.

During a 2016 trip to the United States, his son Hun Manet was confronted by protesters everywhere he went and forced to pull out of one event while his bodyguards were accused of assaulting a process server attempting to hand them legal papers at another.

Later that year when he traveled to Australia, his reception from the local Cambodian community was equally frosty.

This week Germany announced that preferential visas had been punitively withdrawn from senior Cambodian officials, including Hun Sen and his family.

The Financial Times has reported that EU Council Conclusions set for Monday will warn of a possible rollback of Cambodia's duty and quota free access to their market and request enhanced monitoring of it.

Moves in the United States are underway to impose targeted sanctions against members of Hun Sen's regime including asset freezes.

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Daesh stashed millions of dollars during reign of terror in region: Economist

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:06AM

A report says Daesh rose to become the "richest terrorist group in history" by stashing millions of dollars across the region before losing its territorial rule in Iraq and Syria late last year.

In a report on Thursday, the Economist news portal said that the terrorist group has invested in businesses in Iraq, bought gold in Turkey and continued to transfer money to its affiliates.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of money that has gone out of IS' [Daesh] territory," the report quoted a former weapons-dealer involved in transferring the terrorists' cash.

Daesh first emerged in Syria in 2014 and later expanded its campaign of terror to neighboring Iraq. The terrorist managed to seize large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land in lightning advances.

It took three years for the Syrian and Iraqi national armies to fully liberate their land from the clutches of the world's most notorious terror group.

The report said Daesh has built up fat reserves of cash as it gained ground in the two countries, where it declared a so-called "caliphate."

Citing an unnamed Iraqi legislator, the report said Daesh smuggled $400 million out of Iraq and Syria during its retreat.

The terrorist group sold oil from the fields it captured, taxed and robbed the people it ruled and stole perhaps $500 million from Iraqi banks, making it the richest terrorist group in history, said the report.

It further said that the traditional tools used to starve terrorists of funds by blocking foreign donations were of little use.

"It became clear that the most important way to address IS financing was to deprive it of territory," said an American counter-terrorism official.

The terrorists, who had anticipated their loss of land, mandated the use of their own currency in eastern Syria, an order it later extended to currency dealers and money-transfer shops, according to the report.

The Takfiri group has bankrolled hundreds of exchange houses in Iraq, said the report, adding that dozens of them even participated in the Iraqi central bank's currency auctions in 2014 and 2015, enabling the group to convert Iraqi dinars into dollars.

Currency dealers in Turkish cities that border Syria said Daesh have been moving large sums of money out of the territories under its control since early last year.

Much of the cash has ended up in Turkey, where intelligence officials believe it is being stored by individuals for future operations, invested in gold and used to keep Daesh sleeper-cells active, the report said.

"You only need $500 a month to feed and house a cell of two or three people," said Ahmet Yayla, the former head of counter-terrorism for the Turkish police.

The report said that Daesh has also been laundering its cash reserves by investing in legitimate businesses around the region.

The terror group, it said, has used middlemen, many of whom are tribal leaders or businessmen, to buy farms, car-dealerships, hotels and hospitals in Iraq.

The report said that the Takfiri group may use its businesses to siphon funds meant for reconstructing the region's cities devastated during the Daesh reign of terror.

It added that extortion, smuggling and kidnapping would remain profitable, as the group shifts its focus from capturing territory to waging militancy.

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Trump announces 'largest ever' tranche of North Korea sanctions

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 04:25PM

US President Donald Trump has announced what he called America's "largest ever" tranche of sanctions against North Korea, in an attempt to increase pressure on the nuclear-armed country.

Trump made the announcement during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, days after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the pressure from the US-led economic sanctions is "having its bite on North Korea."

"Today I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime," Trump said.

"The Treasury Department will soon be taking new action to further cut off sources of revenue and fuel that the regime uses to fund its nuclear program and sustain its military by targeting 56 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses that are assisting North Korea in evading sanctions," he added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Treasury, State Department and the US Coast Guard are issuing a global shipping advisory that threatens "very significant consequences" for assisting North Korea evade US-led sanctions, according to Trump administration officials.

"By targeting North Korea's ability to ship goods from international waters, we are very much closing in on one of the primary means that the regime uses to sustain and finance itself," an administration official said.

"The president has made it loud and clear to companies around the world that if they choose to help finance North Korea and its nuclear ambitions, they will not do business with the United States."

North Korea, already under numerous harsh US-led sanctions, has resisted the pressure campaign led by Washington to try to force Pyongyang to halt its weapons program. It has vowed to keep up the development of its weapons programs as a deterrent against US aggression. The US has substantial military presence in the region.

US Vice President Mike Pence had spoken about the plan for the new sanctions when he was heading to South Korea from Tokyo two weeks ago.

Pence, who led a US delegation to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea's PyeongChang, had reportedly planned to secretly meet with a high-level delegation of North Korean leaders, but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, according to the State Department. The cancellation allegedly came after Pence spoke of the sanctions.

The US vice president used tough rhetoric against Pyongyang again on Thursday in response to criticism of his choice to pass up several opportunities to meet North Korean officials during the Olympics. Pence sat in close proximity to Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, during the opening ceremony in PyeongChang.

The 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.

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US plans bans on North Korea, South invites sanctioned official

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 06:30AM

The United States is reportedly set to unveil a large package of sanctions against North Korea, even as Pyongyang is continuing to engage its main rival Seoul in pursuit of peace.

The administration of US President Donald Trump will announce on Friday what is being described as "the largest package of new sanctions" ever against Pyongyang in an attempt to put more pressure on the North Korean government over its nuclear and missile programs, a senior administration official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Trump is expected to talk about the new measures during a mid-morning speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, and the Treasury Department will get into the details later in the day, according to the official.

North Korea, already under numerous harsh UN and other international sanctions, has resisted the pressure campaign led by Washington to try to force Pyongyang to halt its weapons program. It has vowed to keep up the development of its weapons programs as a deterrent against foreign aggression, including by the US, which has substantial offensive military presence in the region.

US Vice President Mike Pence had spoken about the plan for the new sanctions when he was heading to South Korea from Tokyo two weeks ago.

Pence, who led a US delegation to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea's PyeongChang, had reportedly planned to secretly meet with a high-level delegation of North Korean leaders, but the North Koreans canceled at the last minute, according to the US State Department. The cancellation allegedly came after Pence spoke of the sanctions.

The US vice president used tough rhetoric against Pyongyang again on Thursday in response to criticism of his choice to pass up several opportunities to meet North Korean officials during the Olympics. Pence sat in close proximity to Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, during the opening ceremony in PyeongChang.

The two Koreas have been improving ties since last month, when Pyongyang announced its willingness to participate in the Winter Olympics, a decision that led to the historic visit to the South by Kim's sister, during which an invitation was extended to President Moon Jae-in for a visit to Pyongyang.

The two neighbors have been separated by a heavily-militarized border since the end of Korean War in 1953.

South approves visit by sanctioned North Korean official

Meanwhile, Seoul said on Friday that it had approved a visit by another high-level North Korean official, currently sanctioned by the US and South, for the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang on Sunday.

Kim Yong-chol, the vice-chairman of the North's ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, will lead a high-level delegation to South Korea. The delegation is also scheduled to hold a meeting with Moon.

He was previously chief of a top North Korean military intelligence agency, which Seoul blamed for the 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship that killed 46 sailors.

The South's Unification Ministry Baik Tae-hyun said on Friday that they prefer to focus on dialog with North Korean officials rather than "on their past or who they are."

"Under current difficult circumstances, we have decided to focus on whether peace on the Korean Peninsula and improvement in inter-Korean relations can be derived from dialog with (the visiting North Korean officials), not on their past or who they are," Baik told a media briefing.

A South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country's spy agency also said on Friday that Kim Yong-chol was the "right person" for inter-Korean talks, according to Yonhap news agency.

"Kim Yong-chol is the top official regarding inter-Korean relations and he is being accepted (here) as the right person to discuss various issues like easing military tension, improving inter-Korean ties and de-nuclearization," said Kang Seok-ho.

His visit will coincide with a visit by Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who is scheduled to arrive in South Korea later on Friday. She will attend a dinner with Moon and later, the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony.

Moon's office has said there are no official opportunities for US and North Korean officials to meet there.

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North Korea blasts UN chief as 'henchman' of US

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 01:55AM

North Korea has dubbed United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a "henchman" of the United States, after he expressed support for US-led sanctions against Pyongyang during the Munich Security Conference last week.

"This is nothing but an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as secretary general of the United Nations and only make us to think whether he is a kind of henchman who is representing the United States," North Korea's mission to the UN said in a statement Thursday.

Discussing the long-running standoff between the US and the North over the latter's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, Guterres said last week that it was "absolutely essential" for the international community to keep the economic pressure until North Korea gives in.

Denouncing the remarks as "ill-minded," Pyongyang's UN mission said the UN chief needed to "refrain from acting like a "somnambulist any further."

The statement repeated previous charges by North Korean officials that the country's military programs merely served as deterrents and if anybody, it was the US that threatened peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The UN Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in an attempt to stop its nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Last year, the pressure reached its peak as the council targeted North Korea with three sets of sanctions beginning with the country's iron, coal and fishing industries in August.

In September, the sanctions were expanded to include the North's textile exports while limiting oil supply. The most recent round of bans came on December 22 and targeted refined petroleum products.

Since then, the US has moved to blacklist North Korea's cargo ships, claiming that Pyongyang uses them to traffic banned goods.

In the statement, the North Korean mission to the UN told Guterres that instead of economic pressure, the UNSC had to welcome "the process of improved inter-Korean relations and discourage neighboring countries from disturbing the process.

"In a surprising announcement, the North said earlier this month that it would sit down for negotiations with South Korea to negotiate sending athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.

Guterres said in Munich that even in case of a rapprochement between the two Koreas, "the central question remains the question of denuclearization."

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US Imposes 'Largest Ever' Set of Sanctions Against North Korea

Sputnik News

17:43 23.02.2018(updated 20:36 23.02.2018)

The US president is set to announce new sanctions against 56 vessels, trade entities, and shipping companies that are aimed at maximizing pressure on Pyongyang, which has recently held talks with Seoul to ease the ever-growing tensions on the Korean peninsula and sent its athletes to the 2016 Winter Olympics in South Korea's Pyeongchang.

The US Treasury Department announced on Friday sanctions against "27 entities and 28 vessels located, registered, or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama, and Comoros."

More than 50 trade businesses and shipping companies are targeted by the new set of restrictions for assisting the DPRK and evading sanctions, according to the report. Eighteen of the shipping companies and vessels were sanctioned for coal exports from North Korea and the engagement in ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products prohibited by UN sanctions.

The rest 16 shipping companies that have 19 vessels were from North Korea and were sanctioned for being a part of the DPRK's transportation industry.

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said following the release of the sanctions list that Washington will keep sanctioning North Korea in order to keep a focus on Pyongyang's actions. He also noted that the US is prepared to sanction Russian vessels for conducting trade with North Korea.

"We are working on Russia sanctions. I can assure you that it is in a process," Mnuchin told reporters at the White House. "I will be back here within the next several weeks to talk about that."

Prior to the announcement, a White House pool report containing the excerpts of President Trump's speech on the new sanctions was made public earlier in the day.

"I am announcing that we are launching the LARGEST-EVER set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime," an excerpt of Trump's speech reads.

The Trump administration will continue targeting fuel deliveries to North Korea, which it uses "to fund its nuclear program and sustain its military."

The new round of sanctions comes amid a thaw in relations between the two Koreas with the two states agreeing to hold a summit to soothe tensions and the DPRK sending its delegation and athletes to the ongoing Winter Olympic Games.

Speaking after the comeback of the DPRK's delegation from Pyeongchang, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un said he would like to strengthen the "warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue" with South Korea.

Athletes from North and South Korea wave Korean unification flags as they walk on stage during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 9, 2018

It has been several months since North Korea conducted the latest test. The DPRK has faced several rounds of sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, conducted in violation of the UN Security Council's (UNSC) resolutions.

In August, the UNSC imposed sanctions on Pyongyang targeting exports of coal, iron ore, lead and seafood from the Asian nation to the UN member states. In December, new sanctions against North Korea were imposed over the country's continuing missile tests.

 Sputnik

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North Korea Brands UN Secretary General a 'Henchman' of the United States

Sputnik News

14:35 23.02.2018

The decision of the head of the UN to endorse economic sanctions against North Korea has provoked a sharp retort from the country's representatives, who accused him of being an American lackey.

Pyongyang has accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of making "reckless remarks" after he delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference praising the international restrictions imposed against North Korea.

"This is nothing but an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as Secretary-General of the United Nations and only make us to think whether he is a kind of henchman who is representing the United States,' a statement made by North Korean envoys to the UN said.

As Guterres insisted that the pressure against North Korea "is absolutely essential to be maintained," the country's envoys asked him "to refrain from his behavior acts like somnambulist."

Over the past years, North Korea has repeatedly conducted ballistic missile launches and nuclear weapon tests despite criticism and condemnation from the international community and the United Nations.

The UN Security Council imposed several rounds of economic sanctions against Pyongyang, targeting exports of coal, iron ore, and seafood from the Asian nation to UN member states, as well as imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

 Sputnik

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Trump Announces 'Largest Ever' Sanctions on North Korea

By William Gallo February 23, 2018

After announcing what he called the "largest ever" set of sanctions against North Korea, U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened a "phase two" if the measures aren't effective.

"If the sanctions don't work, we'll have to go to phase two, and phase two may be a very rough thing," Trump said, speaking alongside visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Trump did not specify what he meant by "phase two," but suggested it would be "very, very unfortunate for the world."

"Only time will tell," he added.

Both as a candidate and as president, Trump repeatedly has made headlines about Pyongyang. He threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea and has suggested he would have China "get rid of" North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Earlier Friday, Trump announced the "heaviest sanctions ever imposed" against North Korea, part of what the White House bills as a "maximum pressure" campaign against the North.

The sanctions, which target North Korea's illicit shipping and trade, come despite a recent thaw in tensions between North and South Korea, which have been holding high-level talks.

The sanctions target 56 entities  27 shipping and trade companies, 28 vessels, and one individual located all over the world, from North Korea to China to Tanzania, according to senior U.S. administration officials.

North Korea has long relied on a complex and shadowy global shipping network to evade United Nations sanctions that target its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"We are determined through these efforts to increase the pressure on the North Korean regime and show Kim Jong Un that there's no other path for him to take but denuclearization," said a senior U.S. official.

The announcement came as Trump's daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, arrived in South Korea for meetings with senior Seoul officials and to attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

At a dinner for the U.S. delegation in Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in praised North Korea's participation in the Olympic Games "as an opportunity for us to engage in active discussions between the two Koreas and this has led to lowering of tensions on the peninsula."

"I also believe that such developments are thanks to President Trump's strong support for inter-Korean dialogue and I would like to express my deep appreciation on this point as well," Moon added.

A high-level North Korean delegation is also attending the closing ceremony, but U.S. officials have said there will not be any meetings between the U.S. and North Korean delegations.

Since Trump took office, U.S. officials have given mixed messages on the idea of talking with the North, at times suggesting Washington is open to talks without preconditions and at other moments insisting Pyongyang must first commit to giving up its nuclear program.

The latest U.S. position, outlined by Vice President Mike Pence, is that the White House remains open to negotiations but that it will also keep up its campaign to diplomatically and economically isolate North Korea.

Earlier sanctions

Since August of last year, the U.S. has helped oversee three rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea. The pressure has not stopped Pyongyang from conducting more nuclear and missile tests.

Nonetheless, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters U.S. sanctions are "beginning to have a significant impact" on North Korea's ability to fund its weapons programs, though he did not provide any evidence for the assertion.

The U.S. also released a global advisory Friday, intended to alert the world to "deceptive shipping practices used by North Korea to evade sanctions," according to a Treasury Department statement.

"The president has made it clear to companies worldwide that if they choose to help fund North Korea's nuclear ambitions, they will not do business with the United States," Mnuchin said.

But the new sanctions' effectiveness depends on whether they can successfully be implemented.

And the U.S. has limited leverage over many of the shipping companies involved in helping North Korea evade sanctions, warns Gary Samore, former White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction.

"A lot of the companies working with North Korea are very small," Samore said. "And they don't care whether they work with the United States."

Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official, praised the new sanctions for addressing North Korean shipping, which he says "has long been a gaping hole in the U.S. sanctions regime."

"The only thing missing here today is action against complicit Chinese banks," said Schanzer, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "We know they continue to undermine our efforts to isolate North Korea.

"Until we take that step, DPRK will be able to operate rather freely in the formal financial sector."

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India Test Fires Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile Dhanush From Naval Warship

Sputnik News

17:41 23.02.2018

This was the third test in a month of Dhanush, which is the naval version of the Prithvi missile. It has the capability to carry conventional and nuclear warheads and strike sea and land-based targets; it can hit targets at a distance of up to 350 kilometers.

New Delhi (Sputnik): The Indian armed forces have successfully test-fired nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile Dhanush in full operational configuration on Friday morning from a naval warship positioned in the Bay of Bengal. The trial was conducted at about 10.52 am (Indian Standard Time) by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the Navy from an undisclosed location nearly 45 km from the Paradip coast.

The Dhanush missile is a single-stage, liquid-propelled, short-range ballistic missile and is the naval variant of the Prithvi missile. This was the third test of this version of a Prithvi missile this month. On Wednesday, the SFC of Indian Army had successfully conducted the first night trial of Prithvi-II ballistic missile from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) off Odisha coast.

"It was a textbook launch and fantastic mission accomplished. The missile has achieved close to zero circular error probability," a defense official who did not wish to be named confirmed to Sputnik.

The missile is about 8.53 meters in length and 0.9 meters in diameter; its launch weight totals about 4.4 metric tons. Dhanush has already been inducted into the armed forces and is under production after it successfully completed several developmental and user trials.

 Sputnik

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India Locally Develops FSAPDS Ammunition for T-72, T-90 Battle Tanks

Sputnik News

13:33 23.02.2018

The state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has claimed that it conducted a series of trials for at least 10 days, which were very much successful.

New Delhi (Sputnik): India's state-owned Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO) has conducted a successful penetration trial of the critically important Fin Stabilized Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) ammunition, designed and developed for the Indian Army's T-72 and T-90 main battle tanks.

"The trial results established the penetration capabilities of the indigenously designed FSAPDS ammunition, at par with NATO and Russian tank ammunition," a DRDO document reads.

The ammunition is developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, and the trial was conducted between November and December last year.

India, presently, imports FSAPDS for approximately 3,500 T-90 and T-72 tanks, worth over $70 million annually. Since 2012, the Indian Army has been relying on Russia for such critical ammunition, following the blacklisting of the Israeli Military Industry by the Indian government for alleged wrongdoing in military purchases.

"With low cost, low wear and moderate chamber pressures, this ammunition is extremely safe and effective up to combat ranges. The successful trials would pave the way for overcoming the shortage of tank ammunition for T-72 and T-90 Indian Army Main Battle Tanks," DRDO said.

The Indian Army is facing a critical shortage of ammunition for its main battle tanks and plans to import a hundred thousand rounds to meet the immediate requirement, while promoting domestic manufacturing for future needs.

Last year, in June, the Indian Army had issued a detailed tender for the acquisition of one hundred thousand FSAPDS, which can be fired to destroy enemy tanks and infantry combat vehicles.

Last year, the Indian defense ministry had also asked domestic manufacturers to supply ammunition worth $3 billion for the armed forces over the next decade. At present, the government-owned ordnance factories managing 41 manufacturing units and 32 other establishments have a monopoly over the production of ammunition. The Ministry of Defense had floated a tender for domestic private manufacturers for the supply of 125mm armor-piercing types for T-90 and T-72 tanks, 40mm multiple grenade launchers/under-barrel grenade launcher) ammo, 30mm ammunition used by armored infantry carrying vehicles, 122mm Grad rockets for Pinaka series and a bi-modular charge system.

FSAPDS ammunition is the most lethal kinetic energy ammunition, capable of destroying all known tank armor up to direct shooting range. FSAPDS components are sensitive and sophisticated in nature and demand utmost care during their manufacturing and assembly. The dimension and weight accuracy in various components is maintained to very close tolerance limits to achieve the optimal overall performance of the ammunition.

 Sputnik

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Top commander vows to prevent recurrence of Pasdaran Ave. incidents

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Feb 23, IRNA -- Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri on Thursday underlined that the powerful defenders of national security will never allow recent incidents in northern Tehran to be repeated.

In a message, the top commander also vowed that and any threat to Iranian citizens' security will meet resolute response.

While the Iranian nation were still mourning for the death of a number of their fellow countrymen aboard the ATR passenger plane in southwestern Iran, the enemies provoked such riots to avenge their contemptuous setbacks in the wake of resistance movement's victories and Iranians' epic turnout in the 22 Bahman rallies.

Iran's sustainable security and durable peace which have angered the wicked enemies have not achieved so easily that a group of filthy mercenaries can target in a bid to frighten people in the capita and other cities, he said.

Baqeri also appreciated police and volunteer forces who foiled the plots of the rioters.

In one of the streets of northern Tehran, there was a riot on Monday night. The riot was subdued by the security forces after a few hours and the main instigators were arrested.

In addition to the five security forces, who were killed in separate car-ramming attacks and stabbing on Monday night, 30 others were injured in the protest.

8072**1396

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US warns Iraq of 'consequences' if it buys Russian S-400 missile systems

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 03:39PM

The United States has warned Iraq, among a number of other countries, of the consequences of extending military cooperation with Russia, and striking deals to purchase advanced weaponry, particularly the S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Neuert said on Thursday that Washington has contacted many countries, including Iraq, to explain the significance of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), and possible consequences that would arise in the wake of defense agreements with Moscow.

On August 2, 2017, US President Donald Trump signed into law the CAATSA that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

Neuert said she did not know whether Iraq and Russia have finalized an accord on the S-400 missile systems.

The remarks came only a few days after Saudi Arabia's Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper reported that Baghdad is planning to buy Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile system from Moscow.

There are also reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has tasked a team of advisers from the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and National Security Council to negotiate the purchase of the missile systems with Russian officials.

Earlier this month, Chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian Federation Council, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev, named Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Egypt as the potential buyers of the defense systems.

Last week, Chief Executive Officer of Rostec, Russia's state-owned corporation for promoting the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products, stated that Moscow is ready to sell its air defense systems to any country with security concerns.

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Libyans Still Waiting for Peaceful Transition 7 Yrs After Revolution

By Mohamed Elshinnawi February 23, 2018

February marks the seventh anniversary of the Libyan revolution, but many Libyans believe there is not much to celebrate as they are still waiting for the birth of a democratic state.

Since the fall of long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libya has been torn apart by a power struggle waged by armed groups and competing governments.

The lack of security and basic services has become part of daily life for Libyans. The oil industry, the main source of revenue, still has not returned to its pre-revolution earnings.

Internal, external factors

"Internally, Libyans still are suffering from the legacy of lack of institutions and the ability to formulate a political consensus that allows them to negotiate power through a constitution and build a state," said Esam Omeish, executive director of the Libyan-American Public Affairs Council.

"They are still suffering from the overflow of weapons and the presence of militias that, unfortunately, prevent the ability to focus on political solutions rather than military ones."

Omeish says regional intervention is the major destabilizing factor. He said Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other states derailed the recovery in Libya by backing General Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the so-called Libyan National Army. Their backing, Omeish said, encouraged Haftar to resort to force instead of joining United Nations efforts to reach a political solution. Haftar has the backing of a rival government based in eastern Libya.

Haftar opposes the national accord government in Tripoli, which was created by a U.N.-sponsored political agreement in 2015.

Nayira Abada, a Libyan activist, thinks Libyans are moving toward a political consensus that could pave the way for a democratic state.

"Looking to 2017 and 2018, we kind of understand and have more solid ground to reach a political agreement and we understood in general that we are reaching one goal, which is peace and security for Libya and the future generation," Abada said.

U.N. mediation

For three years, the U.N. and several Arab countries have tried to persuade the rival Libyan governments to comply with the 2015 deal.

Abada said that to save the negotiating process, the new U.N. special representative for Libya, Ghassan Salame, introduced a three-stage plan: amend the disputed political agreement of 2015, reconstruct the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, and draft a constitution ahead of legislative and presidential elections later this year.

Aly Abu Zaakouk, a former minister of foreign affairs in the government of national salvation, argues that the most critical element needed is security.

"Without security you cannot have elections, you cannot have civil society, so if those international actors can play a good role, then the elections can be doable and a hope for Libya can be achieved," Zaakouk said.

But Abada thinks the new U.N. envoy could succeed.

"I think everyone is excited about Ghassan Salame. He has done, so far, a good job by meeting and speaking to everyone from different parties and cities. In addition, he understood what the Libyans need and explained what they need to do in 2018. And we are seeing Salame speaking to key influencers to ensure that the elections run smoothly," Abada said.

International community

But even if Salame gets a deal, Omeish says Libya will need help from the international community, including the United States.

"We have to use the will and the strength of the international players to force the spoilers, who are refusing to be part of the national accord path, in order to participate," Omeish said. "And we also need some international influence to be able to minimize meddling of the regional powers that has enabled some of the spoilers to continue on their path of imposing a military dictatorship despite the refusal of people to accept it."

Omeish notes, however, that while Libyans are disappointed that the revolution did not immediately lead to a democratic transition, there was a massive turnout to mark the seventh anniversary. And demonstrators were making clear they see no future for dictatorship in Libya.

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Myanmar bulldozing Rohingya villages to destroy its 'crime scenes'

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:31AM

New satellite imagery shows that the government of Myanmar is bulldozing more than dozens of already-burned-out Rohingya Muslim villages in the west of the country in an attempt to destroy evidence of violence committed by the military, rights groups say.

Satellite imagery from Colorado-based DigitalGlobe that were handed to the Associated Press on Friday showed that at least 28 depopulated villages had been leveled by bulldozers and other machinery in a 50-kilometer radius around the town of Maungdaw in western Rakhine State between December 2017 and February this year.

Citing human rights groups, the AP said authorities were destroying "crime scenes" that contained evidence of the atrocities committed by the military against the minority Rohingya Muslim community  including rape, torture, and murder.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) also released a similar analysis on Friday, saying the Myanmarese government had cleared at least 55 villages by heavy machinery since late 2017. At least two of the flattened villages had been previously undamaged by fires, the HRW said.

"Many of these villages were scenes of atrocities against Rohingya and should be preserved so that the experts appointed by the UN to document these abuses can properly evaluate the evidence to identify those responsible," said Brad Adams, the Asia director of the HRW. "Bulldozing these areas threatens to erase both the memory and the legal claims of the Rohingya who lived there."

A rights monitoring group said earlier this week that the government appeared to be destroying the villages to demolish the site of mass graves in Rohingya villages.

The Arakan Project, a human rights organization documenting the atrocities against the Rohingya community, earlier this week provided The Guardian with a video of a mass grave site before its destruction.

The group's director Chris Lewa said the bulldozing appeared to be part of the government's attempts to destroy evidence of the grave permanently.

"Two of the mass graves sites we know about have appeared in the media, but on Thursday one of the other mass grave sites was bulldozed. This means that evidence of the killings is being destroyed," Lewa said.

The government denies the charges, saying it is simply trying to rebuild the devastated region. It has also so far denied charges of massacre and ethnic cleansing of the Muslims as well.

Thousand of Rohingya Muslims have been killed in a military crackdown that began in late 2016 and intensified in August 2017. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have also escaped to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year.

Amnesty blames 'hate-filled rhetoric' of Myanmar's leaders

In its annual report, Amnesty International blamed the massacres of Rohingya Muslims on the society that, according to the group, is encouraged by the "hate-filled rhetoric" of its leaders.

"We saw the ultimate consequence of a society encouraged to hate, scapegoat, and fear minorities laid bare in the horrific military campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people in Myanmar," said Salil Shetty, the secretary general of Amnesty.

The group also criticized the international community for failing to respond robustly to "crimes against humanity and war crimes" in Myanmar.

EU prepares sanction against military

Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing sanctions against Myanmar's military over the killings of Rohingya people.

According to an EU diplomat, European foreign ministers will call on EU foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini "to propose restrictive measures on senior members of the Myanmar military for systematic human rights abuses, without delay."

They will also ask Mogherini on Monday to look at ways to strengthen the EU's 1990s-era arms embargo on Myanmar that remains in place.

In a statement expected to be release on Monday at a regular gathering of EU foreign ministers, the EU is also expected to reiterate its call for the release of Reuters' reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, detained on December 12 last year because of their coverage a massacre of the Rohingya.

Earlier this year, the two were officially charged for breaching a colonial-era law. The charges brought against them could carry a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.

Rohingya kids facing threat of violence, cyclone season: UNICEF

The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, warned on Friday about the condition of more than 720,000 Rohingya children who are facing a threat of violence in Myanmar as well as those who are living in "a very difficult situation" in unsanitary and overcrowded camps in Bangladesh.

"Some 720,000 Rohingya children are essentially trapped  either hemmed in by violence and forced displacement inside Myanmar or stranded in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh because they can't return home," said UNICEF Director of Emergency Programs Manuel Fontaine.

"This is a crisis without a quick fix that could take years to resolve unless there is a concerted effort to address its root causes," he said.

There are around 534,000 Rohingya children living in a "very difficult situation" in camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, which are now expected to get even worse as the cyclone season, with heavy tropical rains, approaches.

"Actually, if there is a bad cyclone passing through the camp, which became the fourth biggest town, a slum town of Bangladesh, we may have then a real situation to face," UNICEF's representative Edouard Beigbeder said in Geneva.

The cyclone season, which will bring heavy rain and high wind from March through July, is feared to cause another humanitarian crisis, including disease, flooding, landslides, and further displacement for those in camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

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Fresh threats loom over 720,000 Rohingya children 'cast adrift, trapped in limbo' - UNICEF

23 February 2018 - Rohingya children are facing threats either from severe weather approaching Bangladesh where hundreds of thousands are sheltered in squalid, overcrowded refugee camps, or by ongoing violence in their Myanmar homeland, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday, calling urgently for scaled-up assistance ahead of the region's storm season and to address the root causes of the crisis.

"Some 720,000 Rohingya children are essentially trapped  either hemmed in by violence and forced displacement inside Myanmar or stranded in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh because they can't return home," Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes said Friday.

UNICEF's report, LIVES IN LIMBO: No End in Sight to the threats facing Rohingya children, marks six months since the start of the latest exodus of Rohingya refugees into southern Bangladesh.

The agency says that floods caused by the forthcoming cyclone season are likely to engulf the fragile and insanitary camps where most of the refugees are living, raising the likelihood of waterborne disease outbreaks and forcing clinics, learning centres and other facilities for children to close.

The report also estimates that some 185,000 Rohingya children remain in Myanmar's Rakhine state, fearful of the violence and horror that drove so many of their relatives and neighbours to flee.

In Bangladesh, there are estimated to be around 534,000 Rohingya refugee children from last year's and previous influxes.

"This is a crisis without a quick fix that could take years to resolve unless there is a concerted effort to address its root causes," stressed Mr. Fontaine.

The report states that the Rohingya are a people cast adrift  chased from their homes and communities, trapped in limbo and deprived of their basic rights  while facing fresh threats to their well-being.

UNICEF calls on the Myanmar Government to end the violence, and to address what it terms a crisis of human rights in Rakhine state, referring to restrictions on Rohingya people's freedom of movement, extremely limited access to health care, education and livelihoods, and consequent dependence on humanitarian support.

According to the report, recognizing the Rohingya people's basic rights would create conditions necessary for the refugees to return to their former homes in Myanmar.

"People won't go home unless they are guaranteed safety and security, unless they have citizenship, unless they can send their children to school and have a chance of a future," Mr. Fontaine explained.

Since August 2017, a lack of access to many parts of the Rakhine state has severely restricted the work of UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies.

Immediate and unimpeded access to all children in the state is imperative  along with longer-term efforts to address intercommunal tension and promote social cohesion, said UNICEF.

Aid efforts led and overseen by the Bangladesh Government have averted disaster as local communities have accommodated 79,000 Rohingyas.

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'You can still save lives'; UN aid chief urges Security Council action to halt violence in Syria's war-battered east Ghouta

22 February 2018 - The United Nations humanitarian chief on Thursday called for action by the Security Council to halt the appalling destruction of Syria's eastern Ghouta, where nearly 300 people have reportedly been killed in just the past few days, as "bombs and mortars have rained down on bakeries and medical facilities."

"What we need is a sustained cessation of hostilities and we need it desperately," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told the Council via video conference, adding: "Millions of battered and beleaguered children, women and men depend on meaningful action by this Council."

He told the gathering that as UN Member States, they are all aware that their obligations under international humanitarian law are just that; legally binding. "They are not favours to be traded in a game of death and destruction. Humanitarian access is not a 'nice-to-have.' It is a legal requirement."

Counter-terrorism efforts, Mr. Lowcock continued, cannot supersede the obligation to respect and protect civilians. "They do not justify the killing of civilians and the destruction of entire cities and neighborhoods."

"When an entire generation is robbed of its future, when hospital attacks have become the new normal, when sieges of entire cities and neighbourhoods have become a lasting reality for hundreds of thousands of people, the international community must take urgent and concrete action," he told the members of the Council, who remain divided after nearly a week of consultations on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in eastern Ghouta.

Reading out to the Council excerpts of thousands of text messages and social media posts received over the past three days by the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria in Geneva, from civilians in eastern Ghouta pleading for help, Mr. Lowcock said one aid worker had lamented:

"Most air raids have intentionally targeted civilian residential buildings. Whole families have died under the rubble. Today, as the battles intensify I call on you [] to act to stop the systematic operations against civilians and open the roads for humanitarian assistance."

Mr. Lowcock recalled that the Council had been briefed "in minute detail  month after month  on the scale of the suffering of the Syrian people," with endless reports on dead and injured children, women and men.

"Airstrikes, mortars, rockets, barrel bombs, cluster munitions, chemical weapons, thermite bombs, suicide bombs snipers, double-tap attacks on civilians and the essential infrastructure they depend on, including hospitals and school, rape, illegal detention, torture, child recruitment and sieges of entire cities reminiscent of medieval times," he detailed the situation.

He updated the members that over the past 24 hours, heavy shelling and aerial bombardment on multiple communities in East Ghouta continued, killing at least 50 and wounding some 200 people adding that according to some sources, the death toll since 19 February is close to 300 people.

Mr. Lowcock, noting that half of Syria's population has either fled the country or faced repeated internal displacement.

"Eastern Ghouta is a living example of an entirely known, predictable, and preventable humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes," he said, enumerating that nearly 400,000 people have been besieged for more than four years, thousands upon thousands of children face acute malnutrition and 700 people are in need of urgent medical evacuation to hospitals  just miles away from Damascus.

He highlighted that as the "appalling violence" ensues, accessing people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas remain elusive.

"Access is not only limited on aid deliveries, but we are also seeing growing challenges to our ability to independently assess needs on the ground and to monitor aid delivery," he explained.

"You can still save lives in eastern Ghouta  and elsewhere in Syria. I urge you to do so," the Emergency Relief Coordinator said.

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UN special envoy for Syria calls for immediate truce

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Feb 23, IRNA/Anadolu -- The UN special envoy for Syria on Friday reiterated his call for immediate cease-fire amid 'horrific' bombings in besieged Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus.

Staffan De Mistura called on guarantor countries Turkey, Russia and Iran for an immediate meeting for re-establishing 'tension reduction zones', in a statement read out by UN spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci during a briefing in Geneva.

De Mistura underlined that immediate, unhindered humanitarian access to Eastern Ghouta, as well as evacuation of the sick and injured had to follow the cease-fire.

On Thursday, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia said Russia would not support a UN Security Council proposal calling for a one-month humanitarian cease-fire in Eastern Ghouta unless some changes were made.

Nebenzia described the proposal as unrealistic.

Home to some 400,000 people, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling siege for the last five years, bringing it to the verge of humanitarian catastrophe.

9376**1771

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Pentagon Says U.S. Was Told No Russians Involved In Syria Attack

Mike Eckel February 23, 2018

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon says U.S. military commanders were told by their Russian counterparts that there were no Russians in a paramilitary force whose attack on a base in eastern Syria earlier this month led to a massive counterstrike by U.S. forces.

The comments by Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White on February 22 add another piece to the puzzle surrounding the February 7 incident, which Moscow said this week caused dozens of casualties among fighters from Russia and other former Soviet republics but did not involve uniformed Russian troops.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other U.S. military officials have repeatedly said that U.S. military commanders were in contact with their Russian counterparts at the time of the clash. But White's comments are the clearest to date that the U.S. military was told there were no Russians in the attacking force.

"The strike in Syria -- our strikes were done out of self-defense. We were very clear about that. We saw those -- that group moving towards us. We still don't know, and I won't speculate, about the intentions or the composition of that group," White said.

"What I can tell you is that we used our deconfliction phone line, and we used it before, during, and after the strike. And we were assured by the Russians that there were no Russians involved," she said.

The clash in Deir al-Zor Province appears to be the first time that U.S. forces engaged directly with Russians in Syria, where Russian forces are backing President Bashar al-Assad's government in a devastating seven-year civil war.

The revelation that Russian mercenaries were killed stoked fears of an outright hostile confrontation between Russians and U.S. forces. But the Russian government has distanced itself from the incident and its public comments have been subdued.

The United States has said that air and artillery strikes launched after as many as 500 pro-government forces attacked a base housing U.S.-backed opposition forces and U.S. military advisers killed about 100 of the attackers.

Mounting Evidence

No Russian official directly acknowledged that Russian citizens were involved until February 15, when Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that about five people who were "presumably Russian citizens" may have been killed.

On February 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry said "several dozen" citizens of Russia and other former Soviet republics were wounded in the lopsided exchange.

With accounts from relatives and acquaintances of Russian fighters in Syria mounting, some open-source researchers and media reports have said that dozens or hundreds of Russians were killed.

Russia has given Assad's government crucial support throughout the war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on protests.

Moscow helped turn the tide of the conflict in his favor by launching a campaign of air strikes in 2015 and stepping up its military presence on the ground.

In Russia, anger is growing among relatives of the dead and survivors, and supporters of private military companies like Vagner, which is believed to have sent hundreds of contract soldiers to Syria.

The company is financed by a wealthy St. Petersburg businessman, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known for his close ties to the Kremlin.

Some relatives have said their loved ones were lured by the company's relatively high wages, but were deceived into thinking they were going to work on construction projects.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/syria-deir-zor-attack- pentagon-russians-involved/29058555.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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EU, Turkey Join Call For Russia, Iran To 'Stop' Syrian Offensive

RFE/RL February 23, 2018

Turkey and the European Union have joined international calls for Russia and Iran to "stop" Syrian government forces from carrying out a military offensive on the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus where more than 400 civilians have reportedly been killed since February 18.

The calls by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini came hours ahead of a February 23 United Nations Security Council vote on a Western-drafted resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Ghouta.

"The massacre in eastern Ghouta must stop now," Mogherini said in a statement. "The European Union is running out of words to describe the horror being experienced by the people of eastern Ghouta."

Cavusoglu said earlier on February 23 that "Russia and Iran must stop the regime."

He also said that the bombardment of eastern Gouta and a government offensive against rebel-held positions in Idlib Province was "contrary" to agreements negotiated in Astana by diplomats from Ankara, Moscow, and Tehran.

Earlier, the United States criticized Russia over the bombing of eastern Ghouta, saying Moscow had a "unique responsibility" for more than 400 people being killed in the Damascus suburb this month.

The U.S. State Department called on Russia to use its influence over the Syrian government to stop the killing while U.S. diplomats pushed for a resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Ghouta that was scheduled for a vote in the UN Security Council early on February 23.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert blamed Russia for not curbing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his army, which launched an all-out offensive to defeat militants in Ghouta in February -- an operation that Russia and Syria said would mirror their bloody campaign to retake Aleppo.

"What are they doing to stop the devastation, the deaths, the murders that are taking place in Syria?" Nauert asked journalists in Washington. "Without Russia backing Syria, the devastation and the deaths would certainly not be occurring."

"It is a good reminder that Russia bears a unique responsibility for what is taking place there," she said.

Nauert also blamed Moscow for what she called "throwing a wrench" into negotiations at the UN over a resolution to establish a temporary cease-fire that would allow aid to get to the civilian population that is trapped in Ghouta amid the fierce fighting.

Russia's UN ambassador rejected the Western-drafted resolution, raising the possibility of a veto when the council votes on it on February 23.

Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the media and Western nations were conducting a "misinformation campaign" about the fighting in Ghouta and ignoring what he called the "inconvenient truth" that several thousand fighters from a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda reside there.

Nauert said the fighting in Ghouta shows the failure of Russian-sponsored peace negotiations over Syria, which had designated eastern Ghouta as a "de-escalation zone" where fighting was supposed to be on the decline.

"It shows what a farce this de-escalation zone has become," Nauert said.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador for Economic and Social Affairs Kelley Currie said Assad was trying to "bomb or starve" his enemies into submission in Ghouta, just as he did in Aleppo, Hama, and Homs.

She said Assad was counting on Russia to provide the cover he needs at the UN so his forces can "keep bombing and gassing these 400,000 people" who live in Ghouta.

The Syrian Army dropped leaflets on February 22 calling on Ghouta residents to leave for their own safety and urging opposition fighters to hand themselves over.

The leaflets were similar to those dropped over rebel-held neighborhoods during the government's siege of Aleppo.

Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja'afari told the UN Security Council that Ghouta would be the "second Aleppo."

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-says-russia-has- unique-responsibility-for-killing-syrias- eastern-ghouta-reign-in-assad/29058192.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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Militants Fire Mortar Shells from East Ghouta at Residential Areas of Damascus

Sputnik News

07:32 23.02.2018(updated 08:47 23.02.2018)

HMEYMIM (Syria) (Sputnik) - The militants fired 83 mortar rounds from East Ghouta suburb at the residential areas of the Syrian capital Damascus in the past 24 hours, the Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation said Thursday.

"The situation in East Ghouta continues to worsen as the bombardment of Damascus residential areas continues," center's spokesman Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko said at a daily briefing.

According to Yevtushenko, "83 mortar rounds have been fired at different areas of the Syrian capital in the past 24 hours, and the number of victims, as well as the scale of destruction, are increasing."

Also, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation reported that Nine civilians were injured in the Syrian province of Daraa when militants opened fire on a local administrative building.

"Yesterday, illegal armed formations launched a mortar attack against the building of the Daraa provincial administration, where a scheduled session of the National Reconciliation Committee was being held. In total 30 mines have been fired. The d[b]uilding has been damaged; nine civilians have been injured," Yevtushenko said at the briefing.

Yevtushenko stressed that that the militants's actions undermined the peace process and provoked the government forces to respond.

 Sputnik

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Top UN officials urge stronger support for Syrians and host communities amid escalating violence

23 February 2018 - Senior United Nations officials on Friday called for greater support for Syrian refugees as well as the communities hosting them amid escalating violence in the war-torn country.

"We are deeply shaken and distraught by the brutality and utter disregard for civilian lives we are witnessing in Eastern Ghouta and other parts of Syria today," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock in a joint press release.

"We are urging an immediate ceasefire, protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure and unfettered humanitarian access to Eastern Ghouta, swift evacuation of sick and injured people and safe passage for civilians wishing to leave," they said.

"Now more than ever, it is critical to sustain and reinforce international support to the neighbouring countries and communities hosting some 5.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. They continue to provide a profound service to humanity at a time when inside Syria, inhumanity seems to be prevailing," they added.

According to the UN, nearly seven years of relentless violence in Syria has displaced half of Syria's population, including 6.1 million internally displaced, and 5.5 million Syrians living as refugees in the region.

Despite the generosity of the neighbouring countries, most Syrian refugee families  and many in their host communities  fall below the poverty line and struggle to meet basic needs, the release said.

In December last year, UN agencies and some 270 non-governmental organizations released the 2018 Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan seeking $4.4 billion to support Syrian refugees and host communities in neighbouring countries.

The Plan aims to provide protection for refugee populations, education, health, food security, livelihoods, and water and sanitation services to vulnerable groups.

The UN Security Council is considering adopting a resolution that would establish a 30-day ceasefire across Syria.

UN migration agency seeks $194 million in funding to help Syrians

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Friday launched an appeal for $194 million to help displaced Syrians living in and outside their war-torn country as well as the communities hosting them.

Seven years into the armed conflict in Syria, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. Over 13 million people are still in need of humanitarian assistance inside the country, with nearly 3 million people living in hard-to-reach or besieged areas.

With its 2018 appeal, the UN migration agency seeks to assist:

- 1 million people with non-food items and shelter support

- 800,000 people with access to safe water and services

- 500,000 people with health services

- 500,000 people with community-led protection services

- 200,000 people with livelihood opportunities

- 135,000 displaced people to receive adequate services in camps

- 35,000 children to attend school

"These interventions are vital to ensuring that Syrians get the life-saving assistance and livelihood support that many desperately need," said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing, from the Organization's headquarters in Geneva.

Since the crisis began, economic growth within host countries has been severely affected. With high unemployment rates, especially among young people, and limited resource availability, it is challenging for governments and municipalities to provide basic services.

IOM tracked 850,000 internally displaced persons returning to their areas of origin during 2017. During the same period, however, 2.9 million people continued to flee their homes, illustrating the continuing adverse effect of violence and conflict on the Syrian population.

Access to primary health care has been drastically reduced inside Syria, while agricultural production has been cut in half compared to 2011 levels.

In 2017, IOM organized the transportation of over 37,000 Syrian refugees from Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt to 23 countries including Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, the United States and the Netherlands, among others.

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UN Security Council Works to Hammer Out Syria Cease-Fire

By Margaret Besheer February 23, 2018

United Nations diplomats carried out last-minute negotiations Friday in an effort to avoid a Russian veto and adopt a resolution implementing a 30-day cease-fire across Syria and lift sieges on towns, including in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta district.

U.N. Security Council members were due to vote at 11 a.m. in New York, but delayed until at least 2:30 p.m. as they tried to find consensus.

Russia had expressed objections to the draft on Thursday and diplomats were continuing to work intensively to try to hammer out a compromise.

"We are still working on language on some of the paragraphs, but we are almost there," council president Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi told reporters mid-day Friday.

He addressed the press flanked by the other nine elected members of the Security Council. "The whole E [elected]10 members, we are here just to show that we are all united and we want the draft to be adopted today at 2:30 p.m.," he said.

"We've really taken our responsibility," Netherlands Ambassador Karel van Oosterom told reporters of the elected members. "We've tried to cross the bridge of the different interests that are there."

The text, drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, demands at least a 30-day cessation of hostilities to allow in aid and evacuate the critically ill and injured. It also calls for the lifting of sieges in four specific locations, including eastern Ghouta.

Earlier Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a joint letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, appealing to him to support the draft resolution and saying it is now time to act.

U.N. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura also called for an immediate cease-fire to stop both the "horrific" bombing of besieged eastern Ghouta and indiscriminate mortar shelling on Damascus.

U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Thursday that Russia has a "unique responsibility" for the more than 400 people "horrifically killed by the Syrian regime" in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta.

Meanwhile, Syrian government warplanes supported by Russia pounded the rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta for a sixth straight day Friday, killing at least five people, opposition activists and a war monitor reported.

Fighting has escalated in the enclave as the Syrian military and its allied forces appear to be launching an all-out operation to re-take the area, which is one of the last near Damascus still under control of the armed opposition.

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UN Envoy Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Syria

By Lisa Schlein February 23, 2018

The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, is calling for an immediate cease-fire in Syria to stop the relentless bombing by the Syrian government, with support by its Russian ally, of civilians trapped in the besieged city of eastern Ghouta.

Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, has been subjected to what the U.N. special envoy for Syria calls horrific bombardment for the past six days.

A U.N. spokeswoman in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, says de Mistura is urging a cease-fire to stop both the heavy airstrikes in this besieged city of nearly 400,000 inhabitants and the indiscriminate mortar shelling of Damascus by rebels on the ground in eastern Ghouta.

"The cease-fire needs to be followed by immediate unhindered, humanitarian access and the facilitated evacuation of medical cases out of eastern Ghouta," Vellucci said. "The special envoy calls again upon Astana guarantors to hold an urgent meeting to reinstall the de-escalation. He warns that this situation cannot be a repeat of Aleppo."

Last May, Russia, Turkey and Iran signed an agreement in the Kazakh capital, Astana, aimed at reducing violence between rebels and Syrian government forces in four so-called de-escalation zones in mainly opposition territories.

This cessation of hostilities agreement appears to have run its course. Syrian activists report more than 420 civilians in eastern Ghouta have been killed this past week. The United Nations reports at least seven health facilities have been hit, putting several out of service.

U.N. Security Council efforts to pass a resolution mandating a 30-day cease-fire, so far, have hit an obstacle. Western diplomats accuse Russia of delaying a vote on an agreement to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's move to regain control of rebel-held eastern Ghouta.

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Yen chosen as new defense minister for his experience: official

ROC Central News Agency

2018/02/23 20:22:43

Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) Yen Teh-fa () has been tapped as Taiwan's new defense minister because of his rich knowledge and experience in the field of national security, an administration source told CNA Friday.

The Cabinet announced Friday afternoon that Yen, the incumbent National Security Council secretary-general, will replace Feng Shih-kuan () to become the nation's new defense chief next Monday.

Yen is a retired three-star Army general and decorated officer who has served various important posts in the military, including as chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and vice defense minister.

He will become the first defense minister in Taiwan's history who has both served as NSC head and as chief of the General Staff.

President Tsai Ing-wen () picked Yen based on the national security experience he gained from his time in the NSC and the Army, which has equipped him with the knowledge and skills needed to deal with international relations and national strategy, an official told CNA.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the selection of Yen reflects the emphasis Tsai has placed on building Taiwan's defense capacity with the help of people experienced in homeland security and in national security governance.

Alexander Huang (), an associate professor in the Department of Diplomacy and International Relations at Tamkang University, said Friday's reshuffle of Taiwan's national security apparatus, including the choice of Yen, was more cosmetic than substantive.

"It's just an administrative adjustment. It does not mean any change in Tsai's diplomatic, cross-strait, or defense policy," he said.

"It is only a refresh, not a rejuvenation, of the Cabinet."

As an officer, Yen is best known for the disaster relief efforts of his Kaohsiung-based 8th Army Corps in August 2009 following Typhoon Morakot, one of the worst natural disasters to hit Taiwan in recent decades.

Yen has served as the de facto head of the NSC since May 2017.

Meanwhile, Feng will become the head of a soon-to-be-launched think tank to be called the "Institute for National Security Studies" ().

Founded by the Defense Ministry, the semi-official organization will focus on the study of the Chinese military after it is established in May, according to Taiwan's military.

According to the source, appointing Feng to lead the Institute for National Security Studies was part of Tsai's plan to enhance the nation's defense capabilities.

The official said the 72-year-old Feng was able to step down at this time after completing the mission given to him when Tsai took office in May 2016, which was to maintain stability during the transition of power to a new Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.

He had already been retired from the service with the rank of general for 10 years when he was picked for the job, allowing him to detach himself from infighting between different military branches.

That allowed him to facilitate harmony between military branches upon his return, the official said.

(By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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Taiwan replaces foreign minister, China policy chief (update)

ROC Central News Agency

2018/02/23 18:11:42

Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) Taiwan's government announced a long-rumored reshuffle of top Cabinet posts Friday, with the country's foreign and defense ministries and top agency for China policy all getting new leaders.

Presidential Office Secretary-General Joseph Wu () is to replace David Lee () as foreign minister, while Lee will head the National Security Council (NSC), government officials said Friday.

The NSC position was vacated by Yen Teh-fa (), who was tapped as defense minister to replace Feng Shih-kuan (), the officials said.

Wu has been President Tsai Ing-wen's () confidant on national security matters since she became Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman in 2014.

He was a key member of Tsai's transition team after she was elected president in January 2016 and then served as NSC secretary-general for about a year after Tsai assumed office in May 2016, before being transferred to his current position.

The appointment of such a close aide to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows Tsai's intent to lead Taiwan's diplomatic activities, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lee faced repeated rumors that he might be replaced after Taiwan faced various diplomatic setbacks in the international community resulting from Chinese pressure on the Tsai administration.

Taiwan has lost two diplomatic allies to China since Tsai took office -- Sao Tome and Principe in December 2016 and Panama in June 2017 -- and failed in bids to participate in regular meetings of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the World Health Assembly.

Despite the difficulties, however, the 68-year-old Lee was highly trusted by the president because of his decades-long diplomatic experience, and taking the post as NSC head shows he will continue to play a major role in the government.

Alexander Huang (), an associate professor in the Department of Diplomacy and International Relations at Tamkang University, did not think the move represented any shift in policy, but he said Wu's appointment could give Tsai more flexibility in naming envoys to represent Taiwan abroad.

"Wu is more like a politician than a diplomat and that might make it easier for Tsai to appoint political appointees as envoys," he said.

Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) chief Chang Hsiao-yueh () will be replaced by former MAC chief, Chen Ming-tung (), according to Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung ().

Chen, who currently teaches at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of National Development, headed the MAC -- which handles relations with China -- in 2007 and early 2008, the last year of the previous Democratic Progressive Party administration under President Chen Shui-bian ().

In other moves, Veterans Affairs Council (VAC) Minister Lee Hsiang-jow () is to be replaced by former chief of the general staff Chiu Kuo-cheng (), Hsu said.

Also, Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Hsu Ming-chun () has been appointed to be labor minister, succeeding Lin Mei-chu (), who tendered her resignation for health reasons but also came under fire for her handling of controversial revisions to five-day workweek rules.

As for who will take over for Wu as Presidential Office secretary-general, office spokesman Alex Huang () said Wu's deputy Jason Liu () will be temporarily acting for Wu until the position is filled.

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu () was rumored to be a potential candidate for the post, but she said the rumor was not true, and Huang would not comment on the speculation.

NSC adviser Lin Liang-jung () has been appointed to lead the Coordination Council for North American Affairs, the counterpart of the American Institute in Taiwan, and she will be replaced by Chen Jin-ji (), Huang said.

Chen is the deputy head of the DPP thinktank, the New Frontier Foundation, and the head of the Graduate School of Financial Management at CTBC Business School.

Ko Cheng-heng (), secretary-general of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation, has been appointed to replace National Security Bureau Deputy Director Kuo Chung-hsin (), who is to retire in the middle of next month, Huang said.

(By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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Turkish military not avoiding civilians in strikes against Syria's Afrin: HRW

Iran Press TV

Fri Feb 23, 2018 01:35PM

Human Rights Watch has criticized the Ankara government's ongoing cross-border offensive in Syria's northwestern region of Afrin against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), stating that the Turkish military has failed to adopt necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties.

The New York-based group, in a statement released on Friday, pointed to three attacks in the Afrin region in late January, stating that they claimed the lives of 26 civilians, including 17 children.

It also called upon Turkey to thoroughly investigate these strikes, and then publicize the findings.

Also on Friday, the YPG accused Turkish military forces of bombing a convoy of civilians crossing into Afrin to protest Turkey's offensive.

The US-backed Kurdish militants said the attack left scores of people wounded, who were taken to hospitals in Afrin for treatment.

Syria's state-run television reported late on Thursday that Turkish artillery units had hit an Afrin-bound aid convoy, inflicting casualties.

Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) 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 terrorist 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 already condemned the "brutal Turkish aggression" against Afrin, rejecting Ankara's claim about having informed Damascus of the operation.

Damascus "strongly condemns the brutal Turkish aggression on Afrin, which is an inseparable part of Syrian territory," Syria's official news agency, SANA, cited a Syrian Foreign Ministry source as saying on January 20.

"Syria completely denies claims by the Turkish regime that it was informed of this military operation," the source added.

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GREENWICH  By late March, the first migrating ospreys will return to the shores of Connecticut to reclaim and rebuild their nests and reconnect with mates.

And one special pair that nests in Greenwich has been the subject of documentary filmmaker Jacob Steinberg.

From 1:30 to 4 p.m. March 4, Steinberg will present two showings of clips from his feature-length documentary, Osprey, followed by a question-and-answer session. The event is part of the Bruce Museums Fred Elser First Sunday Science at the Seaside Center.

The film, which he has been working on since 2012, is in the editing stages. Steinberg expects it to be ready for screening this fall.

Its a brand-new cut, he said, so its modern and up-to-date with our footage. It demonstrates the fantastic conservation history of the osprey, how remarkable the species past has been.

Steinberg has been cultivating his relationship with and filming an osprey pair in Greenwich for seven years.

A harbinger of spring, ospreys travel thousands of miles yearly, he said, and are surprisingly open to humans.

By watching one pair for so long, you really learn so much, Steinberg said. Its a personal drama unfolding year after year for you. ... Osprey will grab you and theyll keep you.

He will be accompanied by Genevieve Nuttall, former coordinator of Connecticut Audubons Osprey Nation citizen program.

Nuttall will explain how the public can become involved in monitoring osprey nests around the state to better understand the health of Connecticuts osprey population.

The seashore birds have a better chance of being protected in the future, after DDT almost drove them to extinction in the 1970s, because of their distinct, captivating personalities, she said.

They are so charismatic and give chance for anyone, not just researchers, to be scientists, said Nuttall. Anyone can go out during the summertime and watch an osprey pair court, incubate and raise the chicks to fledglings.

And observing this species is really important, she said, because, in case a new pesticide or chemical, or any other environmental factor, starts to harm them, Connecticuts citizen scientists will know right away since they keep such a great track record of all the nests in the state.

The event will be held at the Innis Arden Cottage in Greenwich Point Park, Old Greenwich.

For more information on the event, Bruce Museum Seaside Center Manager Cynthia Ehlinger can be contacted for more information by email at cynthiae@brucemuseum.

org or by phone at 203-413-6756.Yvonne Cech and Diana Perri Haneski met 36 years ago while working at a Connecticut radio station. They married men they met at the station and moved hundreds of miles apart, but their lives appeared to continue in sync. They twice gave birth within weeks of one another. They each earned a master's degree from the same university.

Cech became a librarian at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Haneski became a librarian at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

And now, each has survived a mass shooting at her school. Last week in Florida, Haneski used lessons she had learned from Cech's experience in 2012.

"The kinds of conversations we had after Sandy Hook were about looking at your surroundings differently, security . . . how you would shelter children and how you would be able to escape," Cech said. "Fortunately, Diana is very smart and she was retaining all of that information. And very, very unfortunately, she ended up having to use it."

People in this world divide their lives into "before" and "after": before they survived carnage, or lost a loved one, and everything after. They call themselves the "club no one wants to join," but it is a group that keeps getting bigger.

With the growing list of mass shootings in America, survivors have taken it upon themselves to connect. They offer support that only someone who has huddled in a closet while a gunman lurked outside, or buried a murdered child, can provide. They find one another via formal and informal networks, social media and, as their ranks grow, by unlucky coincidence, such as Cech and Haneski's friendship.

When a lone gunman attacked Sandy Hook, killing 20 students and six teachers, Cech and her staff shepherded 18 fourth-graders into a closet, barricading it with a filing cabinet.

Haneski was among the first people Cech spoke with in the days after the shooting, and the two would talk about it during annual trips with friends from the radio station. Haneski internalized what Cech told her and built it into her daily routine. She was never without her cellphone or school keys; if an outfit didn't have pockets, she would keep them in a pouch. She was more aware of her surroundings and security.

"I didn't think I was getting ready for the same thing that happened to her," Haneski said.

On Feb. 14, the fire alarm went off at Haneski's school in Parkland, at about 2:20 p.m. Haneski thought the culinary department had burned something. She shuttled children out of the media center. But she had a school radio on her. "Code red, lockdown," someone said. The voices made it clear that this was not a drill.

She opened a door to a hallway and told the students to come back inside the media center. She ushered children into a large equipment room on one side of the library; another staffer did the same, getting dozens of children into another room on the other side.

Haneski and about 50 students crouched behind media and computer carts and paper boxes. A clerk covered the windows with paper and turned off the lights. Haneski texted her husband and told the students to message only their parents and not to look at the news or social media.

Haneski immediately thought about Cech.

She remembered she had barricaded her students in the closet with a filing cabinet and put media carts in front of the door. About 90 minutes after the shooting in the Florida high school started, the SWAT team came to rescue the group. Haneski again remembered what Cech told her: Make the officers push their identification under the door. Police ended up breaking the door down because Haneski did not want to open it.

Cech was in a meeting in Connecticut that day. She looked at her phone and saw many missed calls from another friend from the radio station. She slipped away and called the friend, who told her that there was a shooting at Stoneman Douglas.

"I kept thinking, 'That can't be. That just can't be,' " Cech said. "I immediately felt like I had to come and be with her because I remembered how helpful it was for me when people who had been through the same thing offered support."

After Newtown, Cech and others who worked at Sandy Hook met with teachers from Colorado's Columbine High School, where a 1999 shooting that killed 13 students ushered in the modern era of mass school shootings and security lockdowns. A group from an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., where a gunman killed five people in 2006, took a bus to Newtown to meet with survivors.

"It's hard to imagine for anyone who hasn't been through it what it feels like and what you're going through," Cech said. "I felt like I had a real need to talk with them, just because it was people who would understand it in a way that no one else could. And I found it very helpful."

After Caren Teves's oldest son, Alex, was murdered in a 2012 shooting at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater while shielding his girlfriend from gunfire, Teves and her husband returned home to Arizona, "alone in our tragedy." Soon after, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was hosting a town hall meeting. Teves wanted to go, but didn't think she could do it alone.

She reached out for support to the Everytown Survivor Network, survivors of gun violence and their loved ones run by the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. They connected her to Pat Maisch, who survived a 2011 mass shooting in Tucson. She drove two hours to accompany Teves to the town hall.

She and Maisch now call one another sisters. There are days when Teves doesn't think she can get out of bed. She calls Masich.

"We help each other incorporate our tragedy into our lives," Masich said. "There are thousands and thousands like me. And that's what kills me. When I hear about another mass shooting, my first thought is, 'My God, people are going to have to go through this.' "

The women have turned their grief into action, lobbying legislators, testifying before Congress and speaking about guns and life after a mass shooting.

Teves and her husband started an organization called No Notoriety, urging the media not to publish the names of mass shooters.

In the days after nine people were killed in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Lucy McBath went on Facebook to find survivors and the families of those who died to let them know she was praying for them. McBath's son, Jordan Davis, was killed in an argument over loud music at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station in 2012.

McBath mailed handwritten letters to Charleston.

The Rev. Sharon Risher, whose mother and two cousins were killed, spotted one with her name written on the side. Risher felt compelled to open it, and she immediately felt as if McBath was someone she could confide in without having to be careful about what she said.

The two found common ground in their devout faith, and they hugged and sobbed when they first met face-to-face in what McBath called a "painful" meeting. McBath lost her son, and she could not imagine the "emotional, spiritual burden" that came with losing three loved ones.

Risher worked as a trauma chaplain at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, helping countless people through their grief. But she could not process her own.

"My brain just couldn't compute that type of devastation even though I had helped other people," Risher said. "Lucy gave me this love. She gave me that encouragement."

Zach Elmore's sister, Alicia Johnston, was wounded during the October 2017 mass shooting at a concert on the Las Vegas Strip that left 58 people dead and more than 500 injured. He said that once the shooting fades from public view, people forget that there are families who are torn apart and survivors who will never be the same. He and his sister have both been in touch with people who survived or whose loved ones were killed in a mass shooting.

"There are a lot of people who are out there who have been through those kinds of things and they are very willing to have those conversations," he said. "Unfortunately, that community has grown exponentially."

On Saturday, more than 100 teachers and local school officials packed into a room of the Broward Teachers Union, miles from Stoneman Douglas in Florida. The meeting was a way for teachers to grieve with one another, and to meet educators and students who survived Columbine and Newtown.

"We are all family . . . you do not journey this alone," said Crystal Miller, who survived Columbine as a 16-year-old. "Eighteen years ago we stood exactly where you are now. . . . It should have never happened again. You should not be sitting here, it is not okay, it is not all right."

Cech arrived in Florida on Friday and went right to Haneski's house.

The women greeted one another with a long embrace. Haneski was simultaneously grieving and ready for action. The first words she said to Cech after the shooting: "How can we make this the last one?"

Cech went to a student's memorial service with Haneski and spoke with school board members. For years, the women had talked about doing something together, maybe writing a book. Now they have found their cause - ending gun violence.

"People might think this is unusual or atypical. This is going to happen more and more and more unless we do something to change it," Cech said, noting that she wishes Haneski never had to use the knowledge gained from Sandy Hook. "While I'm glad that Diana had that information in her mind and it's useful to her, I'm angry as hell she had to use that information."

- - -

The Washington Post's Renae Merle, in Tamarac, Florida, contributed to this report.Samsung needs to tighten up its security  live images of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are all over the web! We get to see the two phones side by side and gawk at the color options a day ahead of schedule.

To be fair, the copious rumors have given away all the twists and turns, including the selection of colors. Still, this beats the renders and even the two live photos from a few days ago.



Live photos of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

Look closely at the Galaxy S9, then go look at an image of the Galaxy S8, say, this one:



Samsung Galaxy S8

Can you spot the differences? Clearly, the repositioned fingerprint reader on the back will be a dead giveaway, but the front looks wholly unchanged.

Source | ViaAs you might already know, Samsung recently resumed the Galaxy S8 Oreo update roll out after fixing a critical issue. Last we heard, units in Germany were getting this new update.

And now, the update has arrived in several other markets as well, including India, Poland, and some Nordic countries.

Moving on, the Samsung Galaxy Note8 has also started getting a new update. No, it's not Oreo. It's the latest security patch - for February. Arriving as firmware version N950FXXS3BRB3, the update is currently hitting units in Italy.

Via 1 2



Haiti - Canada : $15M support for Haitian Midwives





During her stay in Haiti, which ended Wednesday, February 21, Marie-Claude Bibeau Minister of International Development and La Francophonie Canada https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23591-icihaiti-canada-minister-marie-claude-bibeau-s-3rd-visit-to-haiti.html participated in the inauguration of the National Institute of Higher Education for Midwives (INSFSF).



Canada is proud to have contributed to the rebuilding, curriculum renewal, equipment and operationalization of the INSFSF following its destruction by the 2010 earthquake, said Minister Bibeau.



Taking advantage of the event, she announced a new $15 million support from Canada to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to strengthen the capacity of the Haitian government to train, recruit, deploy and maintain midwives in the underserved communes of Haiti, despite the improvement of many health indicators in Haiti, indicates that just over half of deliveries are still carried out without any medical assistance and that Haiti is faced with a shortage of health personnel.



This investment will also allow to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services for Haitian women.



The initiative will be implemented in collaboration with the Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres and the Canadian Association of Midwives.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23608-haiti-canada-$83m-contribution-to-help-women.html



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Humanitarian : OXFAM Great Britain suspended for 2 months in Haiti





Thursday, after a meeting with Simon Ticehurst, Oxfam International Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Aviol Fleurant, the Minister of Planning and External Cooperation announced that it was decided a precautionary measure against the NGO, Oxfam Great Britain (Oxfam GB), consisting of a suspension of two months of the recognition granted to this NGO for serious misconduct https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23597-icihaiti-flash-oxfam-will-hand-its-investigation-report-to-the-haitian-government-copy-of-report.html in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Decree of 14 September 1989 governing Non-Governmental Organizations in Haiti and Haitian criminal laws.



"Haiti is no longer a Republic of NGOs [...] We are not joking, the dignity of the Haitian people is priceless," said Minister Fleurant after the meeting adding that his Ministry may take other precautionary measures to protect the rights of victims, the interests of the Haitian State and those of the population.



This measure has no impact on the course of public action initiated by the Public Prosecutor's Office near the competent courts. It extends over the two months of the institutional investigation will last conducted by the Ministry of Planning on behalf of the Government "If, during the two months of the investigation, I find a link between the crimes committed and the money that Oxfam GB had received as aid on behalf of Haitians, then I would make sure that Oxfam GB is declared "persona non grata" in Haiti and that it leaves the country without delay," said the Minister of the Interior.



"Oxfam will continue to work on major reconstruction and development projects in Haiti, helping people through other affiliates (Oxfam Italy, Oxfam Spain, Oxfam Quebec...) but we anticipate Oxfam GB's temporary suspension will have a significant impact on the organization [...]" said a spokeswoman for the organization.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23613-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23604-haiti-news-zapping.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23597-icihaiti-flash-oxfam-will-hand-its-investigation-report-to-the-haitian-government-copy-of-report.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23563-haiti-news-zapping.html



HL/ TB/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Politic : The United Front of the Diaspora meets the MHAVE





Wednesday a delegation of the United Front of the Diaspora, a Haitian organization based in Miami, led by Judge Lionel Jean Baptiste, in tour on Haiti met Yolette Mengual the Director General of the Ministry of Haitian Living Abroad (MHAVE) who was accompanied by technical staff of the Ministry and members of the Cabinet of the acting Minister Stephanie Auguste.



The United Front of the Diaspora called for the effective integration of compatriots from abroad in all spheres of decision-making and recalled that a document proposing the amendment of more than 50 articles of the Constitution had been submitted in November 2017 to the Special Committee of the Chamber of Deputies on the amendment of the Constitution https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22775-haiti-politic-constitutional-amendment-the-diaspora-wants-representatives-in-parliament.html



Me Lionel Jean Baptiste addressed among others at this meeting: the enjoyment of civil and political rights of compatriots living outside the country, the creation of a database of Haitian skills in the diaspora, the return of the Haitian nationality to the grandsons of Haitians living abroad to allow them to represent the country in areas such as sport, culture etc... It intends to fight the social exclusion of which is victim, in his eyes the diaspora and wished that the MHAVE has a representative in each consulate or embassy to take the grievances of the diaspora.



Robert Vaval, cabinet member of Minister Auguste believes that the Diaspora has an important role to play in the development of the country. According to him, no development is possible in Haiti without the active participation of the Haitian diaspora at all levels.



For his part, Yolette Mengual emphasized the ongoing projects at MHAVE as: the drafting of a draft law on the census and the participation of the Diaspora in the next elections; the setting up of the Consultative Council of the Diaspora Observatory, a body composed of Technical Directors of the MHAVE and some representatives of Haitian diaspora associations, tasked with drafting legislation on the involvement of the diaspora in all the social, political and economic activities of the country.



Before leaving the country for the United States, the delegation must go to the Primature meet the technical cabinet of the Prime Minister, Lafontant and Parliament to bring the claims of the Diaspora to representatives of both Houses.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22775-haiti-politic-constitutional-amendment-the-diaspora-wants-representatives-in-parliament.html



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Cap-Haitien : Fire at the Tabernacle Market

The Directorate of Civil Protection (DPC) informs us that in the night of Thursday to Friday the rapid intervention of the firefighters of Cap Haitien has helped to control a beginning of fire that had declared at the Tabernacle market. One only regret minor damage.



PAP Sidewalk release

The City of Port-au-Prince has proceeded to sidewalk clearance operations in the Turgeau Bourdon and Canape Vert areas.



National Fire Corps, passed but not published

The Deputy of Mirebalais Abel Descollines encourages President Jovenel Moise to publish in the official newspaper "Le Moniteur" , the bill establishing the National Fire Corps, voted by the Lower House in 2016 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17333-haiti-politic-2-bills-voted-in-the-chamber-of-deputies.html then by the Senate last year.



The NUMC before the Senate

The members of the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) led by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant were in the Senate Wednesday to respond to the various concerns of the Senate Committee "Justice and Public Security". This very lively session allowed the Commission to obtain answers on public security. Note that the Minister of Justice did not show up. "I liked the quality of the interventions," said Sen. Joseph Lambert, Speaker of the Senate.



Binational Tourism

On Thursday, Ms. Colombe Emilie Jessy Menos, the Minister of Tourism paid a courtesy visit to the Dominican Ambassador Alberto Despradel, who has been working in Haiti for eight months to discuss multi-destination tourism between the two countries. Ambassador Despradel reaffirmed at this meeting the commitment of his country with Haiti, particularly in the field of tourism.



Fire : Deputy Bodeau encourages the Government

Deputy Gary Bodeau, Speaker of the Lower House, encourages the Government to embrace the cause of the "Port Market" traders and wants every commune of the West to have a fire department capable of intervening effectively if needed to limit the damage.



Follow-up meeting with IDB

On Thursday, Branly Eugene, the Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Agriculture, met with officials from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to discuss progress of the preparation of the Public Management Strengthening Program to improve service delivery in Haiti.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















As we grow older, our muscular function declines. A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows how an unexpectedly high number of mutations in the stem cells of muscles impair cell regeneration. This discovery may result in new medication to build stronger muscles even when in old age. The study is published in Nature Communications.

It has already been established that natural ageing impairs the function of our skeletal muscles. We also know that the number and the activity of the muscles stem cells decline with age. However, the reasons for this has not been fully understood. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated the number of mutations that accumulate in the muscles stem cells (satellite cells).

What is most surprising is the high number of mutations. We have seen how a healthy 70-year-old has accumulated more than 1,000 mutations in each stem cell in the muscle, and that these mutations are not random but there are certain regions that are better protected, explains Maria Eriksson, Professor at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet.

The protection declines with age

The mutations occur during natural cell division, and the regions that are protected are those that are important for the function or survival of the cells. Nonetheless, the researchers were able to identify that this protection declines with age.

We can demonstrate that this protection diminishes the older you become, indicating an impairment in the cells capacity to repair their DNA. And this is something we should be able to influence with new drugs, explains Maria Eriksson.

The researchers have benefited from new methods to complete the study. The study was performed using single stem cells cultivated to provide sufficient DNA for whole genome sequencing.

Complex mutational burden

We achieved this in the skeletal muscle tissue, which is absolutely unique. We have also found that there is very little overlap of mutations, despite the cells being located close to each other, representing an extremely complex mutational burden, explains the studys first author, Irene Franco, Postdoc in Maria Erikssons research group.

The researchers will now continue their work to investigate whether physical exercise can affect the number of accumulated mutations. Is it true that physical exercise from a young age clears out cells with many mutations, or does it result in the generation of a higher number of such cells?

Can result in new exercise programmes

We aim to discover whether it is possible to individually influence the burden of mutations. Our results may be beneficial for the development of exercise programmes, particularly those designed for an ageing population, explains Maria Eriksson.

The researchers gained access to the muscle tissue used in the study via a close collaboration with clinical researchers, including Helene Fischer at the Unit for Clinical Physiology at Karolinska University Hospital.

The study has been a cooperative project between researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab), Uppsala University, Linkoping University and Stockholm University, in addition to several affiliated institutes in Italy.

The research is financed by the Swedish Research Council, CIMED (Centre for Innovative Medicine), the David and Astrid Hagelen Foundation, the Swedish Society of Medicine, the Gun and Bertil Stohnes Foundation, the Osterman Foundation, the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, Wallenberg Advanced Bioinformatics Infrastructure and the EU Commission funding programme, Marie Skodowska-Curie.

Publication

Somatic mutagenesis in satellite cells associates with human skeletal muscle aging

Irene Franco, Anna Johansson, Karl Olsson, Peter Vrtacnik, Par Lundin, Hafdis T. Helgadottir, Malin Larsson, Gwladys Revechon,Carla Bosia, Andrea Pagnani, Paolo Provero, Thomas Gustafsson, Helene Fischer, Maria Eriksson

Nature Communications, online 23 February 2018, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03244-6

Karolinska InstitutetAn "exceptionally" drunk burglar who fell asleep in the kitchen armchair of the house he was raiding has been jailed for two years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that David English, the homeowner, initially thought Mark O'Mahony (33) was his son when he found the intruder sleeping in an armchair at the end of his kitchen table.

O'Mahony woke up and repeatedly claimed that Mr English had let him into the house, but co-operated with emptying his pockets when asked to do so.

Mr English's wife entered the kitchen a short time later and the couple detained O'Mahony until gardai arrived.

Judge Martin Nolan said a burglar falling asleep in the middle of a crime was "a new departure" in his court.

"This could be described as an inept, non-violent burglary," he said, noting that O'Mahony had behaved himself and used no violence toward the householders.

Convictions

O'Mahony, a father-of-two of St Donagh's Road, Donaghmede, Dublin, pleaded guilty to burglary at Carndonagh Park, Donaghmede, on June 10, 2017.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing a medical card, driving licence and jacket belonging to Eric Mulrooney at the same location. He had 86 previous convictions, including for theft and handling stolen property.

Garda Jason Flynn told Dean Kelly, prosecuting, that Mr English's son had departed for the airport between 3am and 4am and had left the front door open.

Mr English was getting up for work a short time later when he discovered O'Mahony asleep in the kitchen.

Gda Flynn agreed with Helen-Claire O'Hanlon, defending, that O'Mahony told him he had been at his uncle's funeral and could not recall anything else after he had dropped his grandmother home.

He accepted that O'Mahony had a serious drug addiction.

Ms O'Hanlon submitted to Judge Nolan that the funeral had triggered events for her client, who was very remorseful.

Judge Nolan imposed a two-year jail term, backdated to when O'Mahony entered custody in June last year.Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm described the Financial Regulator as "f**king Freddie f**king Fly" and the Central Bank as a "shower of clowns" before getting emergency funding during the financial crisis, a jury heard.

In phone recordings made at Anglo in 2008, Mr Drumm was heard telling a colleague that he would go to the Central Bank and "keep asking the thick question: when is the cheque arriving?"

Mr Drumm also described a letter to the Financial Regulator stating that the struggling bank was in breach of the liquidity conditions of its banking licence as a "death warrant".

Conspiracy

The tapes were being played in the trial of Mr Drumm, who denies conspiracy to defraud and false accounting charges.

He is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors in 2008 by dishonestly creating the impression that customer deposits were larger than they were.

He is alleged to have conspired with former Anglo officials Willie McAteer and John Bowe, as well as then-chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), Denis Casey, and others.

Mr Drumm also denies false accounting by providing misleading information to the market.

The case centres on a series of circular billion-euro inter-bank transactions between Anglo and ILP, routed through Irish Life Assurance.

The money was placed back in Anglo and treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a bank's strength.

Mr Drumm admits he auth- orised the transactions but denies there was anything dishonest or fraudulent in them.

Det Sgt Michael McKenna, who was involved in the investigation, agreed with Paul O'Higgins, prosecuting, that it had emerged there were certain telephone recordings.

Calls were recorded in treasury and other areas that were kept and were still in existence, he said.

One of the phones that was recorded belonged to a senior treasury department official, John Bowe, and some of the calls on that phone became relevant to the proceedings.

The jury first heard a call between Mr Bowe and officials in the Financial Regulator, on September 18, 2008, followed by a call with John Cronin of McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors.

This was followed by a call between Mr Bowe and Mr Drumm in which Mr Drumm said "the rumour is going around that they're trying to merge", referring to other financial institutions.

He then said: "It would never be allowed politically." They had 30,000 to 40,000 employees between them, and for half of them to lose their jobs was "not palatable" for the country.

"William didn't give me any confidence this morning but he didn't tell me anything that I didn't expect," he said.

The two men spoke about Anglo being a "hard sell", and Mr Drumm said he did not know "what you would describe it as ... a f**king stallion".

Mr Bowe read out to Mr Drumm a letter he had prepared for the Financial Regulator about Anglo's breach of the regulatory liquidity ratio under the bank's licence. The jury had heard earlier this was in advance of Anglo seeking emergency funding.

Deteriorating

"The bit about the licence is signing a death warrant," Mr Drumm said. He also told Mr Bowe that Anglo was "still f**ked" despite "Mr F**king Denis" of Irish Life and Permanent telling him the bank would be "looked after".

In a call on September 19, 2008, Mr Bowe told Mr Drumm about the bank's position "deteriorating more slowly than our worst case scenario".

They then discussed getting cash - 6bn - from ILP. "We can't take it off f**king Freddie f**king Fly down there, the Financial Regulator, because it will appear on the balance sheet," said Mr Drumm.

Mr Drumm spoke of what they would say to the Central Bank. He referred to the bank as being under stress.

The trial continues.A Guatemalan woman who was caught with shirts soaked in cocaine valued at 179,000 in her luggage at Dublin Airport has been jailed for three years.

Gardai said a chemical process would later have been used to extract the cocaine from the garments.

Keila Pineda Lopez (29), of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of cocaine for sale or supply at Dublin Airport in November 22 last year. She had no previous convictions.

Gda Michael Higgins told Derek Cooney, prosecuting, that Lopez was intercepted by customs officers at Dublin Airport after travelling from Brazil.

Her luggage tested positive for cocaine and it was found there were 20 identical shirts soaked with the drug.

The shirts were analysed and the cocaine that would have been extracted was estimated to have a street value of 179,550.

Threats

Lopez told gardai she had been approached in her home country and offered 3,000 to transport the drugs. She said she was to be paid on her return and made allegations of threats.

Gardai accepted there had been a mixture of inducement and coercion involved in her participation in the offence.

Lopez had little English and had been given a note to give to a taxi driver with the name of a hostel, where she was to wait for further instructions.

Padraic Dwyer, defending, said his client was a mother of one child who she had as a teenager and left school to support.

He asked the court to take into account her guilty plea, co-operation with gardai and her remorse.

Judge Melanie Greally said the circumstances allowed her to depart from the presumptive minimum sentence of 10 years and she imposed a three-year sentence, to date from when Lopez went into custody.Catherine Nevin, who carried a red rose at the funeral of her husband

Tom Nevin's life came to a violent end in the early hours of March 19, 1996. He was 55 years of age.

The date of the murder was hugely significant - just after a busy Bank Holiday St Patrick's Day weekend, there would have been lots of cash in Jack White's pub. It seemed like the perfect night to stage a botched robbery, or at least that is what Catherine Nevin, who died earlier this week, might have thought.

Expand Close Catherine Nevin was found guilty in 2000 of murdering her husband, Tom, at the pub they owned / Facebook

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Whatsapp Catherine Nevin was found guilty in 2000 of murdering her husband, Tom, at the pub they owned

Gardai received a call - via a panic alarm downstairs in the pub - to go to Jack White's at 4.35am and arrived at the pub 10 minutes later.

Detectives Martin MacAndrew and Paul Comiskey arrived at the scene, where they discovered the door open and Catherine lying "slumped on the floor" behind the door, and her wrists tied very tightly behind her back.

Knife

The 'Black Widow' was dressed in just a purple silky shirt and white panties. She was gagged with a stocking and her own panties.

Her first words to the officers were: "He came into the bedroom. He had a knife. He had a knife and a hood over his head."

Within seconds, gardai discovered the lifeless body of her husband Tom on the kitchen floor - he had been killed with a single shot from a nine-pellet shotgun fired from close range in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, officers found all the windows and doors secure apart from the front entrance.

They discovered Catherine's jewellery box on the hall floor along with items of jewellery scattered around it.

When gardai attempted to lift a shocked and pale looking Catherine, she winced, as though with pain.

As she lay on the couch she whispered: "Where's Tom?"

She later told officers: "I was awakened by someone pressing my face into the pillow. There was a light coming from the hall as the bedroom light was off.

"It was a man shouting, 'f**king jewellery, f**king kill ya'. He had a knife in his left hand. Everything in the room was coming down around."

Catherine said she was then tied up by her attacker. She managed to get to a panic button and then gardai arrived.

Tom was slumped on the kitchen floor in a small pool of blood.

In their first review of the case, officers wondered why she had used a panic button to contact them rather than her mobile phone, which was discovered in her bedroom.

They also considered why Catherine had not gone into the kitchen to check on the welfare of her husband before they arrived.

Some IR13,000 was taken from the pub that night and the Nevins' car was later found abandoned in Dublin - over an hour's drive up the road.

In a later interview with officers, Catherine described the raiders as "the animals that killed Tom", but her behaviour at this early stage of the investigation was starting to raise alarm bells.

At one stage, Nevin refused to give a full statement to gardai, saying she did not trust the local station or Superintendent Pat Flynn. However, she later gave a formal statement to the investigation team on the advice of her solicitor in which she described her husband as an alcoholic.

Catherine was also "disruptive and agitated" when a garda fingerprints expert examined her home for prints, two days after Tom was murdered.

Almost exactly four years later at the Central Criminal Court, Nevin told a jury that when she saw her husband's body in Wicklow hospital the night after his murder, she wished she was dead as well.

She said there was "no way" she had arranged the killing, and said she was "absolutely terrified" after being tied up by the armed raiders who shot her husband. She could not remember how she got downstairs from the bedroom where they left her bound and gagged.

This backed up what she had told an increasingly sceptical garda investigation team in the days after the murder.

However, a few loose ends at the scene of the murder ensured that detectives became very dubious of Nevin's story and led to the downfall of the 'Black Widow'.

Firstly, gardai found no signs of forced entry and no evidence of serious ransacking consistent with a frenzied raid.

Secondly, only Catherine's fingerprints were found on the jewellery box and no jewellery was taken.

Days after the incident, Catherine told one of her sisters-in-law that her ankles had been tied together and then pulled up towards her back and bound to her wrists with her own nylons. But no such ties were ever found.

On the day of Tom Nevin's funeral, Catherine told Assistant Garda Commissioner Jim McHugh that the smell of the incense at the ceremony reminded her of the gunsmoke she had smelled in the kitchen on the morning of the murder.

But officers realised instantly that it would have been impossible for her to smell the discharge of the shotgun unless she had been in the kitchen shortly after Tom was killed.

This conflicted with her statement that she did not go into the kitchen after the raid.

Also on the day of the funeral, Nevin - who carried a red rose in an act of melodrama as her husband was being buried - wanted to take guests back to see the bloodstains in the kitchen where Tom was shot.

Arrest

These factors, as well as crucial statements from staff members and people who knew Catherine and Tom very well, meant gardai felt they had enough evidence to arrest her in June 1996, just three months after she had organised her husband's murder.

But while being questioned for 48 hours, the 'Black Widow' refused to answer any of the questions put to her by the investigation team.

Thirteen months after Tom was murdered, she was arrested again as she collected rent from a property she owned at Ballybough in north inner city Dublin.

She was then charged with the crime, as well as soliciting three other people to kill her husband on dates between 1989 and 1990.

The three other people were John Jones, Gerry Heapes and William McClean, whose highly controversial evidence would be crucial in securing a murder conviction against Catherine in April 2000.

After her brief appearance before Dublin District Court on April 14, 1997, the 'Black Widow' got her first taste of jail when she was remanded in custody for a week. It would not be her last.

A month before she was charged with murder, Nevin had told the High Court: "I was guilty of nothing to do with my husband's murder. I had nothing whatever to do with it."

She made the indignant comments at a hearing where she was fighting her mother-in-law Nora Nevin for control of her late husband's estate.

Nevin was released on bail and it would be almost three years before her murder trial kicked off at Dublin's Central Criminal Court before the now-deceased judge Miss Justice Mella Carroll.

From the start, the case attracted the sort of media attention which made it legendary and it was engulfed in high drama from the word go.

In January 2000, after nine days of dramatic evidence, the trial collapsed when it emerged that the jury's deliberations could be overheard in the public gallery.

A retrial was ordered and a new jury was sworn in but was then discharged on the day the trial was due to start on February 8, 2000, when one member of the jury said she had a condition which prevented her from serving.

It was third time lucky for the trial which finally started for real in late February 2000 - a huge media circus surrounded the case and it gripped the nation for weeks.

Why wouldn't it? Allegations of affairs with a senior garda and respected judge, shadowy crime figures, the savage murder of an innocent publican and right in the middle of it all, the 'Black Widow' who seemed to revel in the blanket publicity.

It was ultimately a tale of greed and lust, lies and power - a story that made Nevin a household name across Ireland.

The trial judge was so concerned about publicity that she banned newspapers from commenting on or publishing photos of Nevin during the trial.

Ms Justice Carroll was outraged about "colour pieces" in newspapers that commented on Nevin's clothing, hairstyle, fingernails and choice of reading material.

This included poetry by Kipling and Yeats, as well as Seamus Heaney's Booker Prize-winning translation of Beowulf.

After almost a month of dramatic evidence, the trial almost collapsed again when Nevin was taken ill before she had finished giving evidence to the court.

The trial was held up for a number of days while she received treatment at St James's Hospital for a mystery sickness. Many people believed it was one last ploy to try and get sympathy from the jury - a tactic that didn't work.

On Tuesday, April 11, 2000, when the jury came back after the longest deliberation in the history of the State, it found her guilty of all the charges.

Nevin stood and looked calmly at the judge as she handed down the mandatory life sentence.

Ms Justice Mella Carroll told Nevin she had her husband assassinated and then had tried to have his character assassinated.

This is an extract taken from the book CSI Ireland, written by Ken FoyDublin was invaded by an army of roaring Welsh rugby fans as they painted the town red last night before their team take on Ireland today.

Fay Jones (58) was among a group of friends from Blackwood in South Wales who took the ferry across the Irish Sea to soak up the atmosphere in Dublin before the kick-off in today's Aviva Stadium showdown.

Fantastic

While none of the group were able to secure tickets for the Six Nations clash, Fay said they were happy enough to take in the action in a local pub.

She added that it was a case of "lager with breakfast, wine with lunch and gin and tonics after that".

"It's fantastic," she said as the group got the party started early at the Mercantile pub on Dame Street.

"The Irish are just so friendly and welcoming - it's always the way."

Sarah Jarvis (37), from Cwmbran, is hoping it will be third time lucky when she watches the match in a pub in Temple Bar today.

It is her third visit to the capital and she wasted no time having fun with five of her friends.

"Dublin's the place to be. It's absolutely amazing," she said.

For Lauren Davies (28), from Neath, her first visit to Ireland with her husband Richard (28) didn't disappoint.

"When we've gone to matches with Ireland in Cardiff, it's always been a fantastic atmosphere and being here is the same. It's fantastic," she said.

Meanwhile, Irish rugby legend John Hayes believes Ireland can beat Wales today, but warned it won't be easy.

"They will be a tough prospect. It will be close, but I think Ireland will win it," he said.

"Wales come over to Dublin and they always travel here without any fear, and they'll come out hoping to get their Six Nations back on track."

'The Bull' Hayes was one of the attendees at the launch of the first ever permanent exhibition on the Irish flag at the GPO Witness History Visitor Centre on O'Connell Street.

The exhibition commemorates the 170th anniversary of the first flying of the Irish tricolour.At first when I began watching the British streaming series Girlfriends on ACORN TV, it looked like it was going to be a show in the style of Golden Girls. I was wrong. Rather, its an addicting drama about three mature women each facing aging, family dilemmas and work situations while at the same time bonding ever closer.

The three women in the show have been friends for decades, and their closeness has endured through the trials and tribulations of life. Now, the Girlfriends face even more obstacles, but continue to manage everything together.

Rounding out the cast are Miranda Richardson, Phyllis Logan and Zoe Wanamaker, who make up the delightful trio of friends: Sue, Linda and Gail. Recently Richardson and Logan met with members of the media to discuss the new series.

Its enormous fun to play something which is absolutely not of your experience and then inhabit that and use your imagination and hopefully spark the audiences imagination as well, said Richardson of her role in the show.

Speaking specifically about her character Linda, she said, Shes driven. Shes single minded. As we find out, there are lots of layers in her life as well. It looks like she, as she says, neglected her girlfriends. I think actually whats happened is that shes in denial about whats really going on in her life. And I think maybe bat brain is too proud to call on them for help. So its actually Lindas situation that precipitates the re-bonding of the girls and then they discover what theyve missed.  She certainly discovers what shes missed. She loses just about everything in the first episode, but then she regains two girlfriends and has a chance to boss them around for a bit before realizing that she hasnt got all the answers.

Indeed, the three women are reunited by the death  or disappearance  of Lindas husband. This is similar to the hit movie The First Wives Club but that is as far as the comparison goes.

Richardson and Logan were both complimentary of the writer, Kay Mellor, whom they said writes beautifully for women of all ages. With this aging trio in particular, its important to have a writer who is able to communicate what the friends have experienced in their lives that has brought them all back together. All of lifes experiences make us who we are, and these three have had a lot of experiences.

As an example of their trials, the friends are dealing with the death of Lindas husband, as well as Sues longtime lover and the father of her son, not to mention Gails impending divorce. Sue is also in the middle of a battle about age discrimination in her business, and Sue is tackling the issues affecting her son who is now out of prison.

In speaking of her career prior to the show, Logan mentioned her time playing Mrs. Hughes in the popular series Downton Abbey.

I never planned that I was going to be doing six years of Downton Abbey,' she said. None of us did. But as it transpired, I was well happy that it did last that long. And we all had a great time. And I loved playing the character and I loved working with the rest of them and we all had a fantastic time.

Logan took a moment to mention her other roles before adding how enthusiastic she was to move on to Girlfriends.

Its quite gritty but its funny as well as being quite dramatic and (it has) twists and turns a bit like a detective novel  its just great to do a myriad of different things, so Im very lucky.

Miranda Richardson also has a unique show history, having recently portrayed Clemmie Churchill in the 2017 acclaimed film Churchill. Also, Zoe Wanamaker played Princess Marie in Mr. Selfridge and has a long resume of other shows.

ACORN TV is noteworthy for bringing acclaimed British shows to American viewers. If you are in the mood for a good drama, Girlfriends has six episodes in the first season available to stream.Amber Savage

American Red Cross

February is National Heart Month  a tribute that makes sense considering the emphasis on Valentines Day, love and all things heart related.

All hearts, unfortunately, are not in great shape, though. Each year, nearly 383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests happen throughout America. Almost 90 percent of those happen in the home. For the American Red Cross, teaching lifesaving techniques of first aid has been a century-long effort and a fundamental part of our mission.

In 1960, cardiopulmonary resuscitation was introduced to American physicians, and quickly became a staple to emergency medicine everywhere. The Red Cross, as well as other organizations, have been instrumental in delivering CPR training to tens of thousands of individuals across the country.

The Red Cross has taken their mission a step further to provide and enhance our CPR training. Instead of only offering full certification courses, the Red Cross is offering a shortened, 30-minute Hands Only CPR training to individuals, companies and other groups. This Hands Only CPR training is simplistic in its approach  we train people to push hard and fast in the middle of the chest. The change from needing to do rescue breaths to now only needing to do chest compressions was intended to alleviate some nervousness many bystanders may have about the risks associated with mouth to mouth resuscitation.

The change in approach is also supported by studies that show the new procedure was as effective as chest compressions with rescue breaths.

As an organization, Red Cross takes great efforts to arm the population with lifesaving training, preparedness information and more. Our efforts for CPR are no different. While the overall effectiveness of CPR is not as high as our favorite prime time hospital or police television show would have us believe, some studies have shown CPR resuscitation rates as no more than 8 percent. That does not lessen the commitment we feel to ensure people know and feel confident in the skill that has been shown to save 8 percent of lives that would otherwise have been lost. Add in the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), and the resuscitation rate jumps significantly.

The Red Cross cannot emphasize enough the need for community members to have the skills to act immediately during an emergency. Early intervention is a key in saving lives. In fact, for every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation, the chances of survival decrease by 7 to 10 percent.

This month, we challenge you to take action in honor of someone you love  whether alive or passed on  and learn to save a life. Get fully certified in CPR and First Aid, or take a Hands Only CPR class.

From our Red Cross family to yours, we wish you a happy Heart Month!

About the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nations blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.1 / 7 Cracks crisscross the pavement at the intersection at 100 N. And 500 E. in Pleasant Grove on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Evan Cobb, Daily Herald 2 / 7 A web of cracks cross the intersection at 100 N. And 500 E. in Pleasant Grove on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Evan Cobb, Daily Herald 3 / 7 Cracks crisscross in the pavement at the intersection at 100 N. And 500 E. in Pleasant Grove on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018. Evan Cobb, Daily Herald 4 / 7 Info display from the Pleasant Grove Road Fee Open House Feb. 21, 2018. Karissa Neely Daily Herald 5 / 7 Info display from the Pleasant Grove Road Fee Open House Feb. 21, 2018. Karissa Neely Daily Herald 6 / 7 Info display from the Pleasant Grove Road Fee Open House Feb. 21, 2018. Karissa Neelykneely@heraldextra.comhttps://www.heraldextra.com/content/tncms/avatars/4/9d/ae6/49dae6a8-da58-11e5-9f01-cfb32bcd0e57.e27daf07c6bb3a19cb8ae7ce9a434c31.png 7 / 7 Info display from the Pleasant Grove Road Fee Open House Feb. 21, 2018. Karissa Neely Daily Herald  

Pleasant Grove city and staff are seeking input on funding options to get city roads up to acceptable levels.

Despite the defeat of Proposition 3 in Pleasant Grove last election cycle, road maintenance is a high priority for the city. The mayor, City Council and staff presented two funding options to residents Wednesday during a special road fee open house at the Pleasant Grove Recreation Center.

In option one, residents would pay a monthly road fee of $10.29. Businesses in the city would also pay into the road fee fund, dependent on a national standard that judges their Peak Day Average Trips, or PDAT. Those businesses in the general office category would pay $23.45 per month and those in the small retail, or medical/dental office category would pay $69.53. Those with higher PDATs, including fast-food restaurants, large retail or convenience stores would pay significantly higher rates.

In the second option, residents would pay $8.45 per month, and the business fees would be broken down into two tiers. Those businesses that are general office, smaller retail and medical/dental office would pay $41.27 per month, while larger businesses with more traffic would pay $236.05 per month.

The fee is tied to usage, said Scott Darrington, Pleasant Grove city administrator Wednesday, as he sat at a table of residents looking for clarification and information. We based it on usage and national standards to make it as fair as possible.

A 2011 JUB Engineers study rated all of Pleasant Groves roads based on a standard Pavement Condition Index, or PCI. The study found that 17 percent of the citys roads are in excellent condition, 21 percent are classified as very good and 19 percent are good. Unfortunately, 41 percent of the roads are in fair or poor condition. Just 2 percent have reached the point of failure.

According to a city studies, Pleasant Grove needs about $3.8 million each year for 20 years to get all roads into very good condition or above. The city annually receives $425,000 from the general fund and $1.28 million from Class C gasoline tax money, leaving a funding gap of $2.1 million In the first option, the road fee would annually raise $1.72 million in funds, while the second option would raise $1.11 million.

Mayor Guy Fugal said Wednesday that all money collected through the road fee would go directly to a road fund.

You cant use any of this money to do water repairs, sewer repairs, etc. It goes only to road maintenance, he said.

Fugal also said the fee would be reviewed annually, to ensure it is used efficiently and is adequate to the roads needs.

Wednesday nights meeting was the first step in the process to implement funding. Darrington explained that the city wants to hear residents questions and concerns about the options before the council makes a decision on the fee. Council members will factor in resident feedback as they settle on an option.

I think residents want a sustainable, obtainable solution, Councilman Eric Jensen said that evening.

Residents who missed the open house can visit the citys website for road fee information, at https://plgrove.org/index.php. Residents are also encouraged to share their thoughts through a survey at https://surveymonkey.com/r/PGRoadFunding.

If you missed the open house, visit the citys website at https://plgrove.org/index.php for information.

Then share your thoughts and opinions through a resident survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PGRoadFunding.What's with all the COVID variants? And should I still get a shot?By Abhijit Bhattacharya

The world knows, but can do little, because each nation unto itself on terror. Consensus on terrorism is simply impossible. Consequently, welcome to the world of a fanatic armys terrorist state  the Army-ISIs Pakistan. Indeed, for seven decades India has been facing the perfidy of this terrorist army and its illegal chiefs; illegal, because of their penchant for coups and forced, mala fide seizure of political power from bona fide civilian state rulers.

Although political and politicised today, the same pre-1947 Muslim officers of British Indian army were professionals and not politicians. They were professional keepers of Christian-ruled, non-Muslim and non-Hindu British India. Curiously, however, post-1947 the same professional Muslim officers of Pakistan played a leading role in destroying their new Muslim state, as can be seen from secession and consequential transformation of Muslim East Pakistan into an independent, sovereign, mainly Muslim Bangladesh in 1971. Although religion was shot dead by religion, yet apolitical, non-religious professionalism of Muslim soldiers of pre-1947 British Indian Army too succumbed at the altar of political perfidy and religious fanaticism in post-1947 Pakistan.

In fact, the birth of Bangladesh clearly showed Pakistans fanatic religious Armys orgy of violence perpetrated on their own co-religionists thereby violating all canons of their own (purported) constitutional law. It is, therefore, time to analyse the circumstances leading to the creation of the all-powerful army rulers of Pakistan.

First, see the Pakistan Army Act 1952. Its the military law which has an inherent and overriding power to prevail and trample on Constitutional sovereignty, through religion, it transpires. Whats strange is that it is the early civilian rulers who bestowed the Pakistani military with special and unbridled power. Why? Is it because of bitter linguistic rivalry? Between Punjabi and Urdu; Sindhi and Punjabi; Pashtun and Punjabi; Urdu versus non-Urdu and the far off, majority Hinduized Muslim East Pakistani Bengalis versus minority non-Bengali West Pakistanis? Or was the political-space occupation competition between the traditional Punjabi land-holding class and the perceived and potentially land-grabbing Urdu-speaking Mohajir refugees from North India migrating to West Pakistan the cause? Indeed, the cauldron appears a mystery of the civilian rulers political agenda albeit using a religious alibi. Yet, the Pakistan of 1952 still had the semblance of civilian rule as Ayub Khan had not seized power.

Whereas it was the upper class (non-Punjabi) Indian Muslims who spearheaded the politics of division and demand for Pakistan prior to 1947, strangely the Muslim officers and men of the undivided Indian Army, which also constituted a bulk of Punjabi-speaking Muslims, by and large, were not reported, or known, to be affected by the political lunacy of hatred and divisiveness. Here, grudgingly though, one has to acknowledge the seminal contribution of British imperialists for creating an apolitical and professional army consisting of men from various religions and divisions. Though done essentially to benefit British imperialists themselves, yet the fruits thereof are being enjoyed most by India. Pakistan has fallen by the wayside, becoming a victim of its armys transformation from an apolitical and professional army to a revengeful, mindless political instrument overrunning and destroying the very state to which it belongs.

Be that as it may, let us go through a few sections of Pakistan Army Act 1952 to understand as to who and what all India will face in the foreseeable future:

Section 2 (1). The persons subject to this Act include- (b) persons enrolled under Indian Army Act 1911. Clearly, the organic origin of Pakistan from Indian mainland is legally enshrined; cacophonic denial by religious fanatics to establish their West Asian genealogy notwithstanding.

Section 8 (a): Islamic law means a law relating to enforcement of Hudood. Unsurprisingly, the Pakistani Army is high on religious fanaticism and low on professionalism. Courtesy Zia ul Haq (1976-1988).

Section 8 (2): The form of oath shall contain a promise that person to be attested will bear faith and allegiance to Pakistan and uphold the Constitution and that he will not engage himself in any political activities whatsoever. Constitutional provisions notwithstanding, the four coup masters (Ayub, Yahya, Zia, Musharraf) made a joke of the Constitution by imposing their own personal misrule.

Section 24: Any person subject to this Act who commits following offences: (b) in presence of enemy, shamefully casts away his arms, ammunition or (d) treacherously sends flag of truce to enemy, shall be punished with death. The entire Dhaka-based Army high command surrendered in December 1971. Nobody was given the death sentence. On the contrary, the surrendered General AAK Niazi published a magnificent memoir, accusing his bosses of unpardonable treachery to break the country.

Section 31: Any person subject to this Act, who commits following offences: (a) begins, incites, causes, or conspires to cause, or joins in, any mutiny in military or (b) being present at any such mutiny, does not use his utmost endeavours to suppress the same; shall be punished with death. All four dictators, making mockery of Section 31, rendered their tenure of army chief illegal and ultra vires of the nations Constitution as well as the Army Act.

Section 8: Any person who abets commission of any offence (provided that such person is found guilty under any Islamic law, the sentence awarded to him shall be that provided for the offence in that law. Clearly, Pakistan Army has multiple sets of laws. Army Act 1952 and any Islamic law. An inevitable fatality, as no army can run on dual/multiple laws and under dual or multiple commands of both man and god.

Section 60: Punishments include (a) stoning to death; (aaa) amputation of hand, foot or both; (cc) whipping not exceeding one hundred strips; (k) any other punishment provided for in any Islamic law. What more can be said about the medieval and archaic punishment for soldiers of the 21st century?

Section 88 (3): In trial of accused who is a Muslim for an offence punishable under Islamic law, the officer holding trial, and officers attending under sub-section (2), shall all be Muslims. Pakistan clearly has turned from professional soldiering of the Indian Army to a bigoted, fanatic, religious body of jihadis.

Section 170: Arguably the most hilarious provision. (1) No person subject to Army Act 1952 is liable to be arrested for debt under any process issued by, or by authority of, any civil or revenue court or revenue officer. Army rules the state. Army makes law. Even if in debt, no court to punish the army man!

And finally, vide Section 173 of Army Act 1952, soldiers get priority for hearing by courts of cases in which persons subject to the Army Act are concerned. Soldier is the (mis)ruler of the state; being the owner thereof. It is an Islamic Armys Islamic Pakistan. All scripted. In writing. As for rationalism, logic, neutrality what is that?

(Author is alumnus National Defence College. Views are personal)

Source : Daily PioneerThe ongoing Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival is celebrating its 16th anniversary this year. Visitors can look forward to an exciting list of performances. The shows bring to life the sheer beauty of puppets on stage. The festival starts on February 20 at India Habitat Centre and will end on February 27.

The shows will highlight traditional as well as modern forms of puppetry, and genres like rod and string puppetry. There will be shows that also feature dance, theatre, and music. The Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival is bigger and better this time around.

There will be performers from Tunisia, Singapore, Thailand and Argentina, who will mesmerise audiences with their performances. The journey has been positive and the festival has now spread over the world. Global artists are participating and we always select something different, said Dadi D Pudumjee, founder of The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust.

Since 2001, the Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust has supported and nurtured the annual Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival. From its humble beginnings, it has grown into the countrys leading established platform for Indian and international puppetry. Over 150 international puppetry companies have performed at the festival, including groups from the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Iran, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan, Afghanistan, Ireland, Australia, Switzerland and the US.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreMore than 4.35 lakh voters will on Saturday decide the fate of 35 candidates contesting the bypolls being held in Kolaras and Mungaoli assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, which will set the tone for the upcoming assembly elections.

Polling began at 8 am at 575 polling centres amidst tight security. 10 companies of paramilitary forces, four companies of state armed forces (SAF), and local police and home guards have been deployed, state chief electoral officer Saleena Singh said.

In the 2013 assembly elections, Congresss Ram Singh Yadav and Mahendra Singh Kalukheda had won in Kolaras and Mungaoli. However, the deaths of the two leaders necessitated the bypolls.

Both, the Congress and the ruling BJP are desperate to win the seats to gain a psychological advantage ahead of the general assembly elections in November.

In the run-up to the election, charges and counter-charges flew thick and fast. Leaders from the two parties accused each other of trying to buy votes. Complaints were lodged with the election commission.

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan led the BJP campaign and deployed an army of his ministerial colleagues to crisscross the constituencies and woo voters. Chouhan promised five years development in five months.

Meanwhile, Guna MP and prominent Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia asked people to endorse the development works he ensured in the constituencies.

As per chief electoral officer, about 3,000 government employees have been engaged in poll duties. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be fitted with voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines to enable voters to see if their votes have been registered against the candidates of their choice. They will get seven seconds to see the paper and verify their vote.

Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan borders in the poll-bound Shivpuri and Ashok Nagar districts have been sealed while micro-observers have been appointed in the constituencies for the bypolls.

In a significant development, the Election Commission of India found statements made by chief minister Chouhan, minister for sports and youth welfare Yashodhra Raje Scindia and minister of woman and child development Maya Singh as violation of the model code of conduct.

The commission advised the chief minister to be more careful in future while making public speeches. It censured Yashodhra Raje Scindia and expected that you being a responsible political leader, shall be more circumspect in your public utterances during election time. Maya Singh has been directed to submit her reply by 5 pm on Sunday.As Ajay Devgn and Kajol celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary, heres a look at their rather interesting journey from being friends who would solicit relationship advice from each other to becoming one of the most solid couples in Bollywood today. Speaking on a chat show some time back, Kajol had said her first reaction on meeting Ajay was: What kind of a guy is he, doesnt talk, smokes like a chimney.

As they went on to do films together, they became friends. It appears Kajol had happily friendzoned Ajay and was dating someone else at that time. She would even ask for dating advice from him. On the same chat show, she said, It was in the middle of a shot of one of the films we were doing together, when I realized that Ajay was going to play a very crucial role in my life. Ironically, I was dating someone else at the time and used to often solicit relationship advice from Ajay!

Kajol and Ajay, got married in 1999 and are the parents of two children - daughter Nysa and son Yug. After the birth of her daughter in 2003, she has done a few films such as Fanaa, U Me Aur Hum, My Name Is Khan, We Are Family and Toonpur Ka Superrhero. She was last seen in VIP 2 opposite Dhanush.

Playing to my strengths this Diwali ;) A post shared by Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) on Oct 19, 2017 at 9:20am PDT

It was the right thing for me to do at that point of time. I had been already working for around eight and a half to nine years. So, I was ready to kind of calm down on my work front and kind of take it easier, she has said about her marriage.

I was doing four to five films a year. I didnt want to do only that and to only live like that. That wasnt what I had set out for. So I assumed that I would get married and do one film a year. Ill be happier and be more settled, she added.

According to reports, the couple along with their son is in Singapore to ring in their anniversary with Nysa, who is studying there.Long lost in the pages of history, the first book exhibition held in the city under the watchful eyes of Rabindranath Tagore, Lala Lajpat Rai, Gurudas Banerjee, Bepinchandra Pal, Satish Mukherjee (founder of Dawn Society), Dr Nil Ratan Sarkar, Rashbehari Ghosh, Chittaranjan Das, Aurobindo Ghosh and many others has been resurrected after 100 years.

The exhibition was held in 1918 at College Street, the hub of Bengals learning and publishing industry. It was also the first of its kind in the country.

The centenary is being celebrated with a modest book fair organised at the Jadavpur campus of National Council of Education (NCE) which is a part of the campus of Jadavpur University.

NCE started the movement to spread science and technical education on national lines and under national control to counter education and trade policies of the British government.

Among the publishers you see here today, Motilal Banarasidass Publishers from Benaras and Basumati from Kolkata participated even in 1918. It was the countrys first book fair. The NCE however called it book exhibition, said veteran academician and a former vice chancellor of Vidyasagar University Ananda Deb Mukherjee.

Nearing 80 but still active, Mukherjee serves the NCE as general secretary. The council runs a school and several institutes.

Formally set up in 1906 following the plan to bifurcate Bengal that prompted people to boycott factory-made products from Britain, NCE was actually the first to raise the make in India slogan.

Incidentally, Kolkata hosts the worlds largest book fair in terms of footfall. Kolkata International Book Fair organised by the Publishers and Booksellers Guild in the second half of January attracts more than 2.5 million visitors. (In 2018 the 42nd fair was held in Salt Lake.)

In 1906 great souls set up the Bengal Technical Institute. The same year, Bengal National College and School were also set up with Aurobindo Ghosh as principal, said Ananda Deb Mukherjee.

We are all volunteers at NCE and, following the principles of the founding fathers, we dont accept any monetary help from the government. It was necessary to organize this book fair and many publishers such as Oxford responded. Sadly, the present generation of students doesnt know that in 1908 the city witnessed its first industrial fair as well. Instruments, tools and machines manufactured at Bengal National College were exhibited, said Mukherjee.

To help researchers and spread awareness among youths, NCE has reprinted Education for Industrialisation that noted economist Benoy Kumar Sarkar wrote in 1946. The book was almost forgotten by people. Prof Sarkar was a student and later a teacher at Bengal National College. He chronicled the history of Bengal Technical Institute and how it became the College of Engineering and Technology at Jadavpur which gradually evolved into Jadavpur University in the 1950s. During Independence the college was headed by the legendary Dr Triguna Sen, said Mukherjee, himself a former student.

In his book, prof Sarkar narrated how students from the College of Engineering and Technology excelled in various fields in countries across the world and how the British government was compelled to relax its reservations about allowing them into colleges in England.

During WW II American engineers and army officers took keen interest in the works of the alumni and paid visits to Jadavpur.

So did top industrialists such as G D Birla.

In 1945, Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the convocation address before a 5000-strong audience comprising American, British and French visitors, wrote prof Sarkar who was a member of think-tank bodies in England, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and China.One of the most integral aspects of a city is its nightlife, not only socially and culturally, but economically too. With talks of Mumbai becoming a 24x7 city and to discuss the chinks in the armour when it comes to Indias nightlife, restaurant mogul Riyaaz Amlani brought down Night Mayors from around the world for the India Nightlife Convention and Awards last year. Brunch sat down Mirik Milan (Night Mayor of Amsterdam), Amy Lame (Night Czar of London), Jorge Sanza (Night Ambassador of Madrid) and Frederic Hocquard (Deputy Mayor of Night Time Policies, Paris) for a tete-a-tete...

What do you see as the new trends in nightlife in your city?

Amy: A lot of people in London are working at making nightlife more inclusive and expansive. I think the biggest thing thats changed is the introduction of the night tube. Every Friday and Saturday night it runs 24x7, so thats encouraged a lot of new places to pop up.

Jorge: Since the new political party came into power two years ago, they are more open to parties on the streets or in parks. Also, after gin bars, now vodka bars are very popular in Madrid.

Frederic: There is a lot of diversity now in Paris. A club need not only have techno music  there are different kinds of music, different forms of amusement.

Mirik: We introduced 24-hour licensed places which are multidisciplinary  it could be a mix of co-working, bar, restaurant, gallery with even DJs performing. Some even organise kindergarten lunches on Sundays for the parents kids to play.

Do you think cities in India need a Night Mayor?

Amy: Yeah. I think Mumbai is a global city and all global cities should have one. Mumbai is clearly on the map for its culture and nightlife.

Riyaaz: I think we first need a proper nightlife and then yes, we need a Night Mayor. The scary part is that nightclubs are shutting down, I think that needs to change. They are a very important part of the social fabric of going out and our culture. Right now, we are at 32 different licenses from different authorities for opening a new place  which has come down from 42! One of the best things that Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis did was doing away with getting police licenses, but theres still more work to be done. A restaurateur spends 50 per cent of his time doing all this running around rather than concentrating on his restaurant.

Mirik: I always say that you dont start with having a Night Mayor, but having a conversation about nightlife  which we are having now. So thats the first step.

Which is the best club in the world?

Mirik Milan, Night Mayor of Amsterdam (Shivangi Kulkarni)

Jorge Sanza, Night Ambassador of Madrid (Shivangi Kulkarni)

Frederic Hocquard,Deputy Mayor of Night Time Policies, Paris (Shivangi Kulkarni)

Riyaaz Amlani, Restaurant Mogul (Shivangi Kulkarni)

Nowadays everyone is obsessed with their phones. Should cellphones be banned at restaurants/nightclubs?

Amy: I wouldnt want to ban them (laughs). In one way, phones are very helpful in nightclubs because sometimes you get separated from your friends and the only way to connect is through your phones. Also, now, having Wi-Fi in clubs is very important. But, I have to say at the same time, we are social beings and the reason we go out is because we crave human interaction and dont want to be stuck staring at our screens.

Mirik: There are a lot of nightclubs (in Amsterdam) that dont allow phones on the dance floor. I think its better to experience the place, rather than just looking at a screen.

What Indian food are you keen on trying while here?

Amy: I eat Indian food in London all the time. You know that our national dish is an Indian dish, right  chicken tikka masala. Yesterday I went to Trishna and now I would really like to try idli, dosa and some of the special dishes for Navratri. Its such a privilege to eat Indian food in India.

Frederic: In Paris where I work, we have a small Indian district. I like biryani. While I am here I want to discover not only the restaurants, but also the parties on the streets at night.

Jorge: I want to try everything because I love Indian food  tandoori, curry.... There are more Indian restaurants in Barcelona than in Madrid. Now its quite popular.

Mirik: My wife and I love butter chicken. And Im learning to make a better curry at home.

From HT Brunch, February 25, 2018

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Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunchIn early February, Vijai Sardesai, Goas Town and Country Planning Minister, spoke at the Goa Biz Fest. Directly contradicting his Chief Minister Manohar Parrikars position that Goa should attract one crore tourists this year, Sardesai made it clear that he did not want too many domestic tourists whom he described as the scum of the earth.

Sardesai then explained why he didnt want a lot of tourists. It wasnt that he was against all tourists. He liked foreign tourists, he said. He liked upper class (presumably, he meant wealthy) Indian tourists. But he did not want downmarket North Indian tourists who wanted to create another Haryana in Goa.

Most new places in Goa are effectively run by people from elsewhere (Shutterstock)

When I read the quotes from Sardesais speech, which was front paged in national papers, I was a little taken aback. It is unusual for a minister in a state that relies so much on tourist revenues to bad-mouth tourists. And it is even more unusual for a minister in a state government to take a stand that is directly opposed to his chief ministers. I guess it may have something to do with the nature of Parrikars coalition. Sardesai is not from the BJP but represents a party called Goa Forward, whose name he might consider changing to Goa Forward (But Only If You Are Rich and not Scum).

I tweeted a screenshot of the story about Sardesais speech and waited for the response. Twitter is always good when it comes to outrage and Sardesais remarks were particularly outrageous. Not only is it unacceptable for a state that wants to attract tourists from all over India to bite the hand that feeds it, but the remarks were also classist (stay away, you scum-like middle class tourists!) and ethnically-offensive (why single out North Indians and Haryana in particular?). Moreover, he was unusually abusive for a minister. (Scum of the earth? Really?)

So yes, my timeline was full of angry tweets of the if-this-is-how-you-feel-then-I-am-never-going-to-Goa variety.

But there was one huge surprise.

An astonishingly large number of people tweeted to say that they agreed with Sardesai! Even those who did not approve of his language said that they understood the sentiment behind his outburst!

Presumably Sardesai got the same sort of response because the next day, he said that he stood by the thrust of his remarks, that Goa was being destroyed by a certain kind of domestic tourist, etc. etc.

Ever since this controversy blew over  Goa is back to its target of one crore tourists, whether or not we are scum  I have been trying to work out why Sardesais remarks struck a chord and what it tells us about attitudes to tourism.

Goa has profited enormously from the tourism boom (Shutterstock)

Here are some tentative conclusions.

* Many people in Goa dont really like tourists. Part of it is that usual fear of outsiders who change the way an area or a region looks. But in the case of Goa it is a little more specific. Till the 1990s, you had a sense that even though Goa had been an integral part of India since 1960 when we booted out the Portuguese it still had an ethos all of its own. Thats not really true any longer. Each time I go to Goa it seems more and more like any other part of India. Some Goans believe that tourism has destroyed the spirit of Goa.

* Nobody can deny that Goa has profited enormously from the tourism boom. The state administration also does its best to make sure that local Goans benefit from the flow of tourists. This ranges from making it difficult for non-Goans to run businesses without local partners to encouraging a taxi mafia throughout the state (especially at the airport) so that the states favourite sons can make money ripping off tourists.

A consequence of the expansion in domestic tourism over the last

two decades is the need for accommodation at all price points

Despite all this, there are huge levels of resentment over the so-called outsiders who have made millions from the tourist boom. The days when tourism in Goa was about little beach-front properties run by locals and the dining experience focused on Goan shacks are fading. Most of the new, successful places in Goa are (effectively, if not always on paper) run by people from elsewhere  and often by North Indians.

Even the employment pattern is skewed. You find fewer and fewer Goans employed at the newer places. The hospitality sector likes to hire people from outside the state, from as far away as Sikkim and Meghalaya.

So, Goans often feel left out by the boom in tourism.

* And then there are the problems that plague all Indian resorts. Name a hill station that was once celebrated through the ages and I will show you a hideous urban sprawl.

Shimla? Ugly and overdeveloped beyond belief. Ooty? Hard to believe that this town was ever considered charming. Nainital? You must be kidding!

One consequence of the expansion in domestic tourism over the last two decades is the need for accommodation at all price points. Corrupt politicians and unscrupulous local officials have lined their pockets by approving all kinds of unregulated construction. Lovely towns have been destroyed and entire regions ruined.

One by one, all the great and beautiful destinations have had the charm ripped out of them. The real cause of this is corruption. But tourism is the motivating factor.

* It is not clear why but locals all over Asia are like Sardesai in that they seem to prefer white tourists to all other kinds.

Nearly everywhere you go in Asia  even in such cities as Singapore which are dominated by ethnic Chinese  you will hear complaints about tourists from Mainland China. They are rude, they are pushy, they have no culture, they are dirty  the complaints will keep coming.

If you suggest that worse things could be said about white tourists whose behaviour is not much better, your opinion will be brushed aside. Asian tourism revolves around worship of the white man.

There is no logic to this. All over Asia, Chinese and Indian tourists spend much more than most tourists from so-called white countries. But the prejudices persist.

* There is, however, one kind of white tourist that nobody wants. Way back in the 1970s, Lee Kuan Yew who founded modern Singapore, banned people with long hair from entering the country. He was merely reasserting a region-wide prejudice against hippies

Other countries have been less harsh but as unenthusiastic about long hairs. Goa was once a hippie paradise but most have now been run out of the state. The nicest part of Kathmandu used to be Thamel, the hippie district. Then the government of Nepal decided it only wanted upmarket tourists and threw out the hippies. As a consequence Thamel became as crummy and charmless as the rest of Kathmandu and eventually Nepal itself collapsed, both as a country and as a tourist destination.

* In the case of Goa, the we-love-white-tourists policy is complicated by the influence of the Russians who many Goans see as having introduced drugs, prostitution etc. to the state. Despite these charges, Goa has continued to welcome Russians and Goas tourist earnings still fluctuate wildly, depending on the state of the Russian economy.

Goa was once a hippie paradise but most have now been run out of the state (Shutterstock)

But still, I guess, some Goans would rather welcome white-skinned Russians over middle class North Indians.

* There is, in Sardesais remarks and in some of the comments on Twitter, a classist bias. This is the first time in the history of independent India that young, middle class Indians can afford to travel far and wide for holidays.

Obviously, this changes the character of domestic tourism. And many people dont like it. They dont like hearing Hindi, Punjabi or Gujarati spoken loudly on planes and they hate seeing people in salwar kameezes walking on the beach.

To which, what can one say but: get over it, you snobbish idiots. This is the new India. And we should all be proud of the social and economic mobility of 21st century India.

* And finally, one rather sad admission. Indians are not always the best travellers. We make lousy passengers. Often we misbehave with airline staff. We dont treat people who serve us well. We can be insensitive to local sensibilities.

To that limited extent, Sardesai may have had a point. But he destroyed his case with his disparaging references to North Indians (rather than all Indians) and by pleading for more rich Indian tourists. In my experience, the richer the Indian tourist, the more obnoxious he can be.

So, all things considered, Goa should be thanking us. And people who call others scum should take a good look at themselves in the mirror first.

From HT Brunch, February 25, 2018

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Connect with us on facebook.com/hindustantimesbrunchCommuters at the Sector-17 bus stand wondered what was under their feet, and asked the young volunteers if the paint was dry. Bonjour! replied one of the artists at work, giggling. The commuters walked on, amused. Bonjour is the word written in a giant street artwork on a raised platform at the Sector-17 bus stand and attracting eyeballs for a week now. It is French for namaste (or greetings), helped Sowat.

Sowat, a self-taught artist, along with fellow Frenchman Fred Visualek and Indian artist Hanif Kureshi created this mural as part of Bonjour India, a partnership between India and France, further strengthening the French connection of the city built by Swiss-born French architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier.

They were also to write Chandigarh in Gurmukhi (Punjabi) first, but the UT administration kept the file in abeyance. We were told they wanted to decide on which script to use for writing the citys name here  Devanagari (Hindi) and Latin (English) were options too, said Hanif. But we worked a way around.

Tracing with human chain

Since the two Frenchmen had to leave, they traced the word in Devanagari and made a human chain on it to complete the mural on Friday evening. We would have changed the script, written it in Latin (English), but the communication never came, smiled Hanif. UT tourism director Jitender Yadav did not respond to HTs calls and messages on Saturday.

Yet, on the bright side, it was amazing to have people participate in the human chain. Something like this wont be easy in, say, Paris, said Sowat. It truly turned the art towards the people  our true aim!

The mural  combined with the temporary installation of red and yellow plastic bands joining pillars in the corridor  is part of the four-month project that covered 33 cities across 20 states and union territories. The aim is to tell each city its own story, said Bertrand de Hartingh, the projects general curator and counsellor for cultural affairs at the French Embassy.

Artwork at ISBT, Sector 17, Chandigarh on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT )

Artwork at ISBT, Sector 17, Chandigarh on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT )

Hanif Kureshi, Sowat and Lek at the site. (HT Photo)

Whats the work?

The mural has three parts  typography in a font created by Hanif, abstract freehand scribbles by Sowat, and defined strokes by Lek, explained local artist Gagandeep Singh Sandhu, who along with students of his alma mater Government College of Art and Chandigarh College of Architecture worked with the trio who previously collaborated in Delhi in 2016.

We decided on writing words since the bus stand is an interactive space. We wrote bonjour owing to the French heritage connection of the city, thanks to Le Corbusier. In fact, Chandigarh is one place that almost everyone there knows about. Its somewhat of a legendary story, said Sowat, We chose Gurmukhi to write Chandigarh in discussion with Hanif over a video call last month as it is a beautiful local script.

About the design, he added, Since Chandigarh is about grids and patterns, we utilised the concrete slabs on the ground as part of the work, putting each letter into a grid. After all, the idea of graffiti or street art, he said, is to also use or respect what already exists while of course painting your own thought on it.

The abstract strokes and pattern around the letters also lift the typography. The style of the strokes is our way of engaging with Chandigarhs architecture, he further explained, citing Jackson Pollock, an abstract modern art legend, among inspirations for him and Lek, who are known as Da Mental Vaporz. Lek, a trained architect, is counted among the first generation of Parisian graffiti artists.

About the plastic band installation in the corridor, when asked if its to disrupt the pattern, he said, Disrupt is a strong word! Thats our embrace to Le Corbusier, adding our art to what he made. Even the colours we have used are in keeping with his preference of primary colours.

An installation at the ISBT in Sector 17, Chandigarh, on Friday. (Ravi Kumar/HT)

Installation signifying embrace to Le Corbusier at the Sector-17 ISBT. (Photo courtesy Pranav Gohil/St+art India Foundation)

Corbusier and democracy

Speaking for Lek, who did not speak English, Sowat said about Corbusier and Chandigarh, This city needs to also evolve beyond whats been built; interact with other expressions of art. Our work should be seen like that. He added, I feel the spaces Le Corbusier created  the vast expanses, the stark facades, the long benches  were for people to take over. But, somehow, they ended up becoming and feeling quite the opposite.

Hanif, one of the five founders of St+art India Foundation, chimed in, So, our aim here was to turn our art towards the people, make it democratic and accessible by embedding it in the city.

But its actually interesting how Latin script and a French word were permitted, but the decision on a local language was kept pending for too long, Sowat remarked on the complex language politics of Chandigarh, We are happy, though, leaving our work here for the people.

Lek at work at the site. (Photo courtesy Gagandeep Singh)In February 1918, a hundred years ago this month, the King of England gave his assent to a bill permitting women over 30 and with five pounds worth of property to vote. The anniversary has sparked a flood of articles and books in Great Britain, remembering the popular movement that led to this (at the time only partial) enfranchisement of women.

This article is about the impact of that struggle on an influential Indian. In 1906 and 1909, Mohandas K. Gandhi visited London to lobby for the rights of the diaspora in South Africa. Both times, his visit coincided with street protests by activists known as suffragettes. In an article published in his journal Indian Opinion in November 1906, Gandhi wrote: Today the whole country is laughing at them, and they have only a few people on their side. But undaunted, these women work on steadfast in their cause. They are bound to succeed and gain the franchise, for the simple reason that deeds are better than words.

Gandhi was impressed that the suffragettes courting arrest often came from established families. They included the sister of the war hero, General French, and the daughter of the Liberal statesman Richard Cobden. Gandhi hoped that their example would inspire Indians in South Africa to go to jail in their struggle against racial discrimination. If even women display such courage, he remarked, will the Transvaal Indians fail in their duty and be afraid of gaol? Or would they rather consider the gaol a palace and readily go there?

In January 1908, back in Transvaal, Gandhi himself went to jail for the first time. His imprisonment was short, but he knew it could be the first of many. In April of that year he wrote again in Indian Opinion of how the brave women of England are continuing their campaign. They started their movement earlier than we did ours, and no one can say when it will end. But their courage and their capacity for suffering are inexhaustible. He quoted from a jail diary of a suffragette, which spoke of the dreadful food and living conditions, the humiliations poured on them by the jail staff, etc. Gandhi told his readers these experiences ought to shame us and inspire us to greater courage. Our sufferings are nothing compared to what she has had to go through.

Gandhi was back in London in 1909, and saw the suffragettes at work again. The British women who have been demanding the franchise, he wrote in Indian Opinion, are putting up a wonderful show. They are not deterred by any kind of suffering. Some of these ladies have suffered in health, but they do not give up the struggle. Every day a number of them keep standing the whole night near Parliament gate with the intention of handing in a petition to Mr. Asquith [the Prime Minister]. This is no ordinary courage. What great faith they must have! A great many women have been ruined, in this struggle, but they do not yield. Their campaign has gone on for a longer time than ours. We can learn quite a few things and draw much inspiration from it.

Gandhis admiration, however, was not unqualified. When the suffragettes, desperate for results, resorted to violence and arson, Gandhi remarked: There is no room for impatience in satyagraha.  If demoralised by suffering they [the suffragettes] take to extreme measures and resort to violence, they will lose whatever sympathy they have won and set the people against themselves. We must draw a lesson from this case.

While Gandhi was in London, there was a very big gathering of suffragettes in the Albert Hall, where 3000 was collected in cash on the spot. He was deeply impressed by their courage, their unity, their readiness to bear pecuniary losses, their intelligenceall these deserve to be admired and emulated. The franchise is nowhere in sight, he wrote, but they refuse to accept defeat and go on fighting. This is surely no ordinary spirit. It will be enough if the Indians follow their example, he added: Only, we should avoid imitating them in their use of physical force. We may be sure that no good will come out of it.

It is not clear whether Gandhi knew of the wing of the womens movement in England which opposed violence too. Known as the suffragists, unlike the suffragettes they relied rather on petitions and peaceful demonstrations to make their point. In June 1913, these suffragists organised a march from London to 17 cities in the United Kingdom, garnering support and signatures along the way. Earlier that year, Gandhi had organised a long march of his own, crossing provincial boundaries between Natal and Transvaal. Before and during this march, many Indian women courted arrest.

The British women activists being remembered afresh this month had a profound impact on Gandhi. Their willingness to sacrifice their lives and families to go to jail inspired him and his fellow Indians to do likewise in South Africa. Back in 1913, the incipient freedom struggle in British India was entirely male; if in Transvaal and Natal, Indian women were on the streets defying racial laws, it was in part because their leader had seen women doing similar things in London in 1906 and 1909.

The struggle of the suffragettes and the suffragists may largely be a British story. However, it influenced the techniques of protest used by Gandhi in South Africa, and it also influenced his decision, when back in his homeland, to support the Congresss commitment to universal adult franchise when the country became free. This is a British anniversary with global resonances, hence this article marking its relevance to India.

Ramachandra Guhas books include Gandhi Before India

The views expressed are personalIt doesnt really matter whether the Modi government sought to snub Justin Trudeau or not. The optics have been such that the impression that he has been cold-shouldered has now been taken to be a fact. This is clearly an occasion when perception matters more than reality. Which means even if it didnt snub Trudeau  and Im prepared to believe it did not mean to  its not only accused of doing so but convicted as well.

The worst part is Justin Trudeau is aware of this. Even if he doesnt feel snubbed he knows that many Indians believe he has been and that image has been forcefully communicated to his own country. So, whatever the truth, he could feel belittled even if he hasnt been. All of which means this is a sad and sorry tale that does neither party any good.

However, today I want to look at the facts and see what they tell us. Do they suggest Trudeau was made to feel less than welcome? Whether intentionally or otherwise, the answer could be arguably yes.

That the Prime Minister wasnt present at the airport to welcome Trudeau is irrelevant but what isnt is the level at which the government was represented. A full-fledged cabinet minister was not present. Instead, the government was represented by a mere minister of state and a pretty unknown one at that, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Given that Trudeau was coming for a week and we need to improve our relations with Canada would it not have been wiser for the foreign minister to welcome him?

If this was a slight, there were others to follow. On his visits to Agra and Ahmedabad, the chief ministers of UP and Gujarat made no effort to meet him. No doubt they were otherwise preoccupied but Trudeau is a visiting prime minister and not just the most recent Canadian tourist. The fact that they were recently in attendance on Israels Benjamin Netanyahu, when he visited the same cities, would have been known to the Canadians and, in particular, their media.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was Prime Minister Modis failure to tweet a welcome for Justin Trudeau when he arrived. But was it a failure? Surely not? It has to be deliberate. These things dont just happen by accident. They are intended. And there was a message behind it, may be not crystal clear but suggestive. But then thats more powerful because it can be interpreted in many ways.

However, one interpretation is hard to set aside. For a prime minister who tweets so frequently and has made a weapon of his effusive hugs this silence could speak volumes to Canadians. And it is.

The worst part is none of this was necessary. The differences we have with Canada should have been left for the formal discussions. That is where they are best addressed. But if youve invited someone to your home it behooves the host to ensure hes received graciously. Once an impression to the contrary is created, repeated and spread many will believe youve treated your guest badly. This is very far removed from Atithi Devo Bhava. I fear the Trudeaus will go home believing they were an exception to this much-touted commitment.

Finally, I doubt if our welcome will encourage Trudeau to mend his allegedly pro-Khalistan ways in the long run. Yet if our hospitality had been more gracious and less formal, it might have been easier to persuade him. We seem to have overlooked a simple lesson: Never hurt a man whose thinking you want to change.

The views expressed are personalThe Uttarakhand Congress had in December 2016 opened a separate bank account to manage its expenses in the assembly polls held two months later, former party chief Kishore Upadhyay said Friday. It was done in compliance with an Election Commission of India (EC) directive and had nothing to do with the NH-74 scam, the Congress leader said.

The EC had directed that a separate account be opened for the elections. We complied with that. Everything is in the open. The money was deposited through cheques and is accounted for. (However) I dont know the source of the funds as I was busy with the elections, said Upadhyay.

The former PCC chiefs reaction comes two days after a Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the alleged Rs 300-crore scam in procurement of land for NH-74 in Udham Singh Nagar, questioned him.

It has been alleged that the compensation meant for farmers whose land was procured was instead used by the party during campaigning for the assembly elections held in 2017.

The SIT has said that Rs 5.54 crore was deposited in the bank account that the Congress had opened on December 29, 2016. Congress general Ssecretary SS Rangad and former chief minister Harish Rawats officer on special duty (OSD) Kamal Rawat had the rights to operate the account. Kamal Rawat was made the partys organization secretary after he resigned from the post of OSD.

The account was operated from January 16, 2017 to February 17, 2017. There were a total of 46 fund transfers into the account and money was also deposited through 11 cheques.

Congress veteran and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Indira Hridyesh, and Harish Rawat, who were in Haldwani Friday, said that the party funds were transparent and there were no shady dealing as was being alleged by the ruling BJP.

The irregularities had taken place when Harish Rawat was CM and Upadhayay was at the helm of the state Congress unit.

I am open to any investigation in the future. The SIT is acting on a pick-and-choose policy. Why isnt there any inquiry into BJPs election funds, asked Upadhyay.

Senior superintendent of police, Udham Singh Nagar, Sadanand Date refused to make any comments saying the SIT was probing into the fund transfer made by farmers.

It was earlier alleged that some farmers, who got exorbitant compensation for their agricultural lands at commercial rates, deposited a part of the money into the Congresss bank account.

Finance minister Prakash Pant sought to brush aside the allegation that the ruling party was using the SIT to put pressure on the Congress. Our party collected funds through cheques in a transparent manner, he said, adding the law will take its own course (in the SOT probe) and the truth will not remain hidden for long.

It was then Kumaon Commissioner D Senthil Pandiyan who blew the whistle on the scam. Soon after coming to power in March last year, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat took cognisance of the issue, suspended six state-level officers and recommended a CBI probe.

However, Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari advised against the CBI probe saying it would have an adverse impact on the morale of NHAI officials, prompting Congress to allege that the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre were trying to save some big names involved in the scam.

Later, the state government had formed the SIT to look into the matter.A forgery and cheating case has been filed against a man who impersonated his father and withdrew his pension for 37 years, Dehradun police said.

Not only did the accused, UK Sarkar, conceal his fathers death to get his pension, but also asked his wife to impersonate his mother to avail of four loans from the bank that disbursed the pension.

UK Sarkars father, KK Sarkar, was born in 1899. He was an employee with the forest department and had retired in 1955. In 1965, he opened a pension account at the Convent Road branch of the State Bank of India (SBI). When he died in 1981, his son did not inform the bank and continued to withdraw the pension, police said.

Bank and pension documents mention KK Sarkar as 119-year-old.

The fraud was unearthed after the income tax department recently instructed the bank to have a physical verification of all the pensioners who are more than 100-year-old.

When bank officials visited Sarkars house for verification, his grandson informed them that he had died in 1981. We immediately started a probe and registered a complaint at Dalanwala police station, said Vinay Kumar Khatri, assistant general manager of SBI, Dehradun main branch.

Over the years, UK Sarkar was successful in fabricating the mandatory annual verification for pensioners. The proof that the pensioner is alive can be established online using digital signatures. The beneficiary is not required to visit the branch in person. It seems that UK Sarkar first forged his fathers signature and then used it for verification, said Khatri.

He added that the bank was trying to verify the exact year of KK Sarkars death. We have initiated an internal investigation. The bank will take strict action against all employees who are found guilty in this fraud case, Khatri said.

The guidelines for pensioners state that they should appear before the disbursing agency in November every year and submit their annual life certificates. In case, a pensioner is unable to appear due to illness or infirmity, he/she can submit the certificate authenticated by a gazetted officer. Pensioners also have option to submit the certificate using Aadhar card-based authentication through Jeewan Pramaan.

Meanwhile, the police are trying to find out how the accused was able to carry out the fraud for 37 years. We have asked the bank to provide us all documents that UK Sarkar submitted from time to time to impersonate his dead father. We are also investigating the role of bank officials, said special sub-inspector Devender S Rawat who is investigating the case.

UK Sarkar also availed of four loans against the pension in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011.

When asked how the bank failed to detect the fraud on four occasions, Khatri said UK Sarkar had fabricated many identity documents. He himself looks very old and it is possible that bank officials mistook him for his father. It is possible that he made forged identity documents. I will be able to tell the specifics once the internal probe is completed, he said.

The loans were taken mostly as advance pension loans. One of the loans was worth Rs 25,000, but the bank did not share the amounts of other loans. They were around the same amount, said Khatri.

He said UK Sarkar also got his wife to impersonate his mother, who then became the guarantor in the four loans.

To avail of a loan against pension, the wife/husband has to be a guarantor. UK Sarkar first impersonated his father and then asked his wife to impersonate his mother. Following this, she was presented as a guarantor and the loans were availed. We will also look into the role of his wife and how she fabricated her identity, said Khatri.

The bank is yet to calculate the loss incurred by it in the last 37 years. At present, UK Sarkar was drawing a monthly pension of approximately Rs 9,000.

Khatri said the bank was calculating the loss incurred, following which they would get UK Sarkars property attached and recover the amount.

Police said the role of the officials, who verified life certificates given by UK Sarkar, would be investigated.The Congress leaders may have spoken in one voice against the ruling BJP after a Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the Rs 300-crore NH-74 scam, questioned Kishore Upadhyay, but that has failed to appease the former party chief.

Upadhyay is reportedly upset with senior party leaders for not standing by his side when the SIT came knocking at his door.

My concern is when the party did not stand by my side, then how can it safeguard party workers, Upadhyay asked partys former state in-charge Ambika Soni, a source close to the former PCC chief said. Upadhyay also talked to several other leaders at All India Congress Committee (AICC) expressing his displeasure.

A senior party leader, however, put blamed Upadhyay for having sidelined himself from the ongoing verbal duel between Congress and BJP.

It is a matter of the party and let it deal with it, Upadhyay said curtly Saturday when reached out for comments.

The SIT had on February 21 grilled Upadhyay over a bank account that Congress had opened in December 2016. It has been alleged that some farmers, who got exorbitant compensation for their agricultural lands at commercial rates during acquisition for NH-74, deposited a part of the money into the Congresss bank account.

Upadhyay had planned a press conference on Saturday, but it was called off following intervention of former chief minister Harish Rawat. Sources in the party said that Rawat, tp present a united face of Congress, wants to interact with media along with sitting PCC chief Pritam Singh and Upadhyay.

Rawat had earlier said that the SIT should give prior notice before investigating the party account. He also pointed fingers at BJP saying that the ruling party also needs to give details of funds collected in the name of donation.

Pritam Singh too claimed that the details of the partys bank account were crystal clear and the party was ready even for a CBI inquiry.

Despite such claims, Congress leaders, sources in the party said, were worried about the investigation. The senior leaders are nervous, a party leader said.

Rawat, however, claimed that theres nothing that we have to hide. The bank details are clear and most of the transactions were electronic. We have never said no to any investigation, he said.

Soon after taking charge as chi3ef minister last year, Trivendra Singh Rawat had suspended six state-level officers and recommended a CBI probe into the scam. After Union minister red flagged the CBI probe saying it would have an adverse impact on NHAI officials, the state government formed the SIT to investigate the matter. The SIT has already questioned more than 150 people, including farmers.Delhi Police is in the process of obtaining the mobile phone locations of nine Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs who were allegedly present when chief secretary Anshu Prakash was allegedly assaulted by two other party legislators -- Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan -- at chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence on February 19.

Investigators said they would examine CCTV camera footage of the CMs residence to corroborate the presence of all the MLAs and find out who came when and what happened before and after the alleged assault on the chief secretary.

Police said they would first wait for forensic experts to establish if the footage was tampered with or not. Jarwal and Khan are presently in judicial custody.

On Saturday evening, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the impasse in Delhis administration following the alleged assault on Prakash.

Baijal, who had submitted a report to the home ministry on February 21, reportedly apprised Singh of the stand of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet and that of the bureaucrats.

A 55-member police team raided Kejriwals official Civil Lines residence on Friday to gather scientific evidence in the case. The team led by Harendra Kumar Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (north), seized digital video recorders and hard disks containing footage of 21 CCTV cameras.

A police officer privy to the probe said the chief secretary in his statement had said nine legislators, apart from Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia, were present at the CMs residence when Jarwal and Khan allegedly assaulted him during a late-night meeting.

Before probing the role of the nine MLAs, it is important to establish if they all were present in the room where the meeting was held. For this, we will have to ascertain the location of their cell phones and their official vehicles at the time of the assault, said the officer.

There were reports on Saturday that the investigating team had sent notices to the nine MLAs, asking them to join the probe. But Dependra Pathak, special commissioner of police and chief spokesperson of Delhi Police, denied it.

We have not sent any notice to any of the nine AAP MLAs. Whatever professional requirement is required in the probe, we will do it as per law, said Pathak.The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has proposed to increase the total usable area of buildings, called the floor area ratio, in local shopping complexes provided no pub or bar operates from the commercial spaces, BJP legislator and board member Vijendra Gupta said on Saturday.

The move is aimed at providing relief to traders facing the threat of sealing by a Supreme Court-appointed committee that has clamped down on unauthorised commercial establishments since December last year, sparking a political slugfest between the ruling AAP and the BJP.

At present, DDA allows a floor area ratio of 180, which means only three floors can be used for commercial purposes.

The authority has proposed to increase the ratio to a uniform 300 that would allow commercial use upto four floors.

Besides conversion charges  a premium paid to convert residential spaces for commercial purposes  will not be taken after 10 years and markets will be pedestrianised wherever adequate parking facility is not available, as per recommendations that the land owning agencys board of enquiry submitted on Saturday for amendments to the citys master plan 2021.

The changes, however, require approval by lieutenant governor (L-G), Anil Baijal, at the authoritys board meeting on February 27. The L-G is the chairman of DDAs board.

The recommendations have been sent to DDA. We hope the L-G will approve them in the DDA board meeting, Gupta said.

Apart from Gupta, the fivemember board of enquiry includes another BJP MLA, OP Sharma, DDAs member finance and chief town planner.

Headed by Jaish Kumar, member engineering of DDA, the board was set up by the land owning agency to review suggestions and feedbacks to the proposed amendments.

Officials said that DDA put the restrictions on bars/pubs following a suggestion from a delegation of resident welfare association representing apex residents bodies such as the Delhi RWAs Joint Forum, Delhi Residents Forum and GK-1 RWA during a public hearing on February 9.

The move to tweak the master plan had sparked criticism of DDA with many questioning the three-day public hearing. Even the Supreme Court had on February 5 questioned the DDAs proposal, slamming it for refusing to learn from past tragedies, and labelled it the Delhi destruction authority.

The DDA had later extended the three-day public hearing to a week.

Officials said the amendments in the master plan, which will be applicable after being notified by the Union ministry of urban and housing affairs, will not bring any relief to shopkeepers who have been found violating construction norms. Not paying the conversion charges is the major violation by shopkeepers.IndiGo Airlines said on Saturday it would comply with the Supreme Courts order and partially shift its operations to Terminal 2 (T2) of Delhis Indira Gandhi International airport in the coming weeks.

On Friday, the apex court had rejected IndiGos plea challenging a Delhi High Court order to shift its some of its flights from Terminal 1 (T1) of the IGI Airport to Terminal 2 (T2). It had given two weeks to Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) to work out the particulars of the shift, after which the airline will have 10 more days to move its operations.

The airline said in a statement that it deferentially accepts the decision of the apex court and shall implement the order in the coming weeks, in close coordination with DIAL.

By its order dated February 23, 2018, the Honble Supreme Court of India has declined to interfere with the judgment of the division bench of the Honble Delhi High Court, which upheld the decision of Delhi International Airport Limited to shift one-third of IndiGos operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, the airline statement said.

IndiGo has maintained consistently in all forums that shifting of only a part of its operations from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 would not only cause grave inconvenience and confusion among passengers, it will also reduce flight options for passengers connecting through Delhi. By virtue of the said order, IndiGo will be one of the only two airlines to operate from three different terminals of one airport, it further stated.

T1 has a capacity of around 20 million passengers a year, but it was handling about 24 million passengers before GoAir shifted flights to T2. DIAL needs to reduce the passenger movement to 15 million in order to start expansion work at T1.

Terminal 2 was renovated to accommodate at least two of the three low-cost airlines operating from T1.Gurgaon: Member of Parliament (MP) Gurgaon, Rao Inderjit Singh, seems to have given the war cry for the upcoming assembly election in 2019 in Haryana by raising the issue of Lal Dora house tax on Friday. While addressing a huge gathering at Wazirabad village, called by the locals, Singh said that the house tax on residential houses falling in Lal Dora is unjustified and the government should give a thought to exempt villages from it. With this announcement, the Gurgaon MP gave a clear signal that time has come for taking up popular causes and making populist announcements. The issue of expansion of Lal Dora and imposing property tax on houses inside this area is being imposed tooth and nail by the villagers, who are now planning to up the ante against the government if the authorities insist on taxing them.

The land of a village with abadi (residential houses) is called Lal Dora. In revenue record, this land has been separated from agriculture land. The Lal Dora also denotes that the jurisdiction of the municipal authorities or the urban development is not applicable in toto.However, the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) collects house tax from residential houses in Lal Dora .

The residents of 51 villages falling in Lal Dora in Gurgaon continue to pay house tax to the MCG since its inception in 2008 unlike Delhi and Faridabad and now they have raised their voice seeking exemption from paying house tax.

Why would the residents of Gurgaon living in Lal Dora pay house tax to the MCG while residents of Lal Dora in Delhi and Faridabad are exempted from the house tax? This is a serious matter and villages need to unite to put a strong fight against this, said Singh, adding that he would extend all possible support to the locals in their struggle with the government in order to get exemption from the house tax.

The state is set to go in the state assembly poll mode next year.

More than three lakh people are living in residential houses falling in Lal Dora of 51 villages, who are paying house tax to the MCG. On the contrary, the government has failed to provide basic amenities in these villages such as community centre, water storage tanks, parks, sewer, etc. In Delhi and Faridabad, people of Lal Dora are free from paying house tax but we are forced to pay it. We want our MP to help us in getting the exemption from paying the house tax, said Sube Singh Bohra, former sarpanch of Wazirabad, adding that a major panchayat will be called to discuss the matter after Holi.

Political experts believe Lal Dora house tax is a hot topic and it will be a poll issue in the assembly elections in Haryana in 2019.

We have opposed Lal Dora house tax and will definitely take up the issue in this assembly election, said Mukesh Sharma, former sarpanch of Silokhra Village.For decades, the Naga Hoho held sway over every aspect of life in tribal-dominated Nagaland. But, in the run up to next weeks assembly polls, the influence of the apex body of tribal organisations appears to have declines, especially among the urban, younger population.

The Hoho has been embroiled in two controversies in recent times. Last year, it stalled elections to urban local bodies over a clause that stipulated 33% reservation in seats for women  a decision that sparked violent protests. The body said it feared dilution of Article 371-A, which gives special status to Nagaland.

Then, in January, the tribal organisation joined hands with other civil society organisations to demand a deferment of the assembly polls  a call that was initially supported by all major political parties. A day later, the agreement fell apart as candidates from one party after another started filing nominations. The Hoho and other organisations were then forced to withdraw their boycott call in the face of popular support for the polls.

Despite most of them being filed on the last day, we got more nominations than last time. It doesnt look like the call made an impact, said Abhijit Sen, chief electoral officer of the state.

On the streets of Kohima and Dimapur, dissatisfaction over job opportunities and infrastructure dominates popular discussion.

I am proud of my tribal roots and traditions, but jobs are my first concern, said Jacob A, a college student. Next to him, a group of women students said they did not like the Hohos stand on womens reservation.

D Kuolie, a professor at the University of Nagaland, suggested that the Hohos dwindling clout could be attributed to the fact that society was changing and the younger generation wanted more professional avenues. The Naga Hoho puts more onus on cultural preservation, which is important, but it doesnt think enough about things such as employmentthere is a need to understand the aspirations of the young, he said.

Theja Theriah, convenor of the now-dissolved Core Committee of Nagaland Tribal Hohos and Civil organisations (CNNTHCO), said more structural problems existed with the imagination of a greater Nagaland that comprises Naga people from other states such as Arunachal Pradesh or Manipur.

There is resentment about thisclubbing together everyone cannot work. For instance, the question of jobs that belong to us, in this state, it doesnt belong to everyone else. This is also what the youngsters think.

However, members of the Hoho said they were never against women and their opposition last year was mischaracterised. There was a different interpretation among lawyers on Article 371-A. So, when politicians and lawyers are divided, there will be confusionbut the protest cannot be termed anti-women, said Chuba Ozokum of the Hoho.

Supporting the organisations stand on the elections, he said political parties betrayed the Naga people.The Allahabad high court has set aside the suspension of 22 students of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), who were accused of ragging their juniors.

While the alleged ragging took place on the intervening night of August 19-20, 2017, the institutes senate, the apex decision-making body, had on October 9 suspended 16 students for three years and six others for a year. They were also asked to leave the campus.

The ragging was allegedly recorded on cellphones and circulated on social media groups.

Allowing the writ petitions filed by Abhinav Kumar and eight others, Justice Manoj Misra directed that the committee appointed by IIT-K in this regard shall submit a fresh recommendation/report in light of the observations made by the court.

The court further directed the IIT-K to allow the suspended students to participate in the semester examinations and also permit them to reside on the campus with the rider that they will not meet or interact with freshers during their stay on the campus.

Passing the above directives, the justice observed, The court would also like to observe that the petitioners are not petty criminals. They are in a premier institute of this nation which has been conferred the status of an institute of national importance. To get admission in such institutes is an arduous task and only the competent few are able to gain an entry. Such students are therefore potential national assets.

For taking a harsh decision on such students, there has to be not only material but analysis of that material with reference to the defence/explanation taken by such students because a harsh decision may not only defeat the morale of such students but may also be a loss to the nation, the court observed.Indias law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that now that the collegium system for appointing judges to the higher judiciary has been around for almost 25 years, maybe it is time for an audit  done by the collegium itself  on how it has worked.

It is not his job to do the audit, Prasad added in an interview. We respect the independence of the judiciary.

The government and the Supreme Court have been locked in a battle over judicial appointments. The National Democratic Alliance government sought to pass a law on judicial appointments to create the National Judicial Appointments Commission. But despite having bipartisan support, as Prasad points out, this was scrapped by the Supreme Court in late 2015.

The Supreme Court then asked the government to come up with a Memorandum of Proceeding or MoP, on judicial appointments, a move seen as widely acknowledging the need to improve the process by which judges to the higher judiciary are appointed. The MoP is stuck with the Supreme Court since mid-2017. Prasad says his ministry has suggested the need for a screening mechanism for judicial appointments instead of an opaque process. His ministry would not just accept recommendations from the collegiums with no reasoning or selection criteria mentioned, he seemed to suggest: This ministry is not a post office.

Read: SC collegium makes judicial appointments transparent, begins posting online

Despite having serious reservations on the NJAC judgment, the government is hoping to work with the court to create a transparent MoP, Prasad said. Meanwhile, his ministry hasnt let this get in the way of work, and once the NJAC Act was repealed, it has appointed more judges to the senior judiciary per year, on average, than most governments that came before it.

There is meaningful and purposive engagement between his ministry and the Chief Justice and the senior judiciary, Prasad said in responsive to a question, but added that it has stayed out of the internal situation in the Supreme Court.

His reference is to a spat between the Chief Justice and the next four most senior judges that has vitiated the atmosphere in the court, potentially stalled key judicial appointments, and resulted in a cold war of sorts.Delhi Police searched Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence for CCTV footage of the alleged assault on civil servant Anshu Prakash. The Financial Action Task Force put Pakistan on its grey list of nations not doing enough to counter terror financing. These stories made news on Friday. Here is more about them.

Delhi Police searches Kejriwals residence; AAP cries foul

Delhi Police searched Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals residence for CCTV footage of the alleged assault on a civil servant, prompting his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to allege that the central government was bullying them. Police said no security cameras were installed in the room where AAP MLAs allegedly assaulted Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash. Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, the two AAP MLAs who are in judicial custody for allegedly assaulting Prakash, lost their court appeals for bail.

Pakistan put on grey list of nations not curbing funds for terrorism

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) put Pakistan on its grey list of nations not doing enough to counter terror financing and money laundering after the Gulf Cooperation Council and China withdraw their opposition. Inclusion in the grey list will lead to greater scrutiny by banks and international financial organisations of transactions involving Pakistan and make doing business more difficult. The FATF, according to its website, is an intergovernmental organisation that combats money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threat.

Modi breaks silence on PNB fraud, says system will not tolerate loot of public money

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will take stringent action against financial irregularities and not tolerate loot of public money, breaking his silence more than a week after Indias second largest bank PNB?said it had been defrauded of over Rs 11,400 crore.

Modi hugs Trudeau, India and Canada sign six pacts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau with a hug, a day after embarrassed Canadian diplomats had to revoke a party invitation for a man convicted of attempting to kill an Indian politician. Modi and Trudeau held talks on counter-terrorism and improving trade, after which the two sides inked six pacts, including one on energy cooperation.

Nirav Modis passport revoked, Mehul Choksi tells employees he cant pay their dues

The government revoked the passport of disgraced diamond czar Nirav Modi even as his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi wrote to his employees telling them that he would not be able to pay their dues. Modi and Choksi are facing multiple investigations into one of the biggest frauds in the countrys banking history and are accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank of an estimated Rs 11400 crore.

Mob beats man to death in Kerala, CM calls it heinous act

A man of a tribal community was beaten to death by people who suspected he had stolen from a village shop in Palakkad district of Kerala. Videos posted on social media showed Madhu, who was reportedly mentally challenged, standing injured while a man is taking a selfie with him. Kerala Police detained eight people for the assault and announced a special investigation team for the crime. This heinous act is a blot on Keralas progressive society, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Sooner rather than later, Pakistan will pay for Sunjuwan attack: Army chief

The Indian army will give Pakistan a reply sooner rather than later for the February 10 terror attack on a military camp in Jammu, Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said. Pakistan thinks it is fighting a war that is paying them dividends but we have several options, including surgical strikes, he said in an interview to Hindustan Times.

Trinamool asks MP to explain Facebook posts on Gandhi, Netaji

The Trinamool Congress asked Anupam Hazra, party MP from Bolpur,to explain his social media messages that are not in line with the partys position on Indias freedom fighters. Hazra had on February 16 posted a Facebook message that appeared to justify Mahatma Gandhis assassination. Six days later, he put up another message wondering if he was going against the ideals of party leader Mamata Banerjee by expressing his belief that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was superior to Gandhi.

Stalker kills schoolgirl with sword, nearly beheads her

A man killed a 17-year-old girl with a sword outside her school gate and nearly severed her head in Madhya Pradeshs Anuppur district, police said. Pooja Panika was attacked in Kotma town, more than 550km east of Bhopal, on Thursday afternoon by a man whom she had accused of harassing her.

Priyanka Chopra terminates contract with Nirav Modi, not suing him yet

A spokesperson for Priyanka Chopra announced that the actor is terminating her contract with Nirav Modis brand, of which she was the global brand ambassador. There were also speculations that she is suing the brand for non-payment of dues. But her spokesperson denied this.

The termination news comes in the wake of after Kangana Ranaut and Bipasha Basu accusing Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali Group of breaching the contracts with them and not paying their dues.After Panchkula police, the prosecution lawyers have been caught on the back foot in defending cases with sedition charges against dera sacha sauda followers in connection with the violence that broke out on August 25 following the dera chiefs conviction.

As per norms, the permission of state government is mandatory to prosecute accused with sedition charges.

In last three days, the public prosecutors have sought adjournment in framing of charges in a couple of these cases on the ground that Haryana governments prosecution sanction is awaited.

One such case is state Vs Hoshiyar Singh in which police framed 10 accused with three sedition charges including Section 121 (waging war against state), Section 121A (conspiracy for waging war) and then Sector 124A for bringing disaffection towards government through words, signs, or otherwise.

The court deferred the hearing on framing of charges for March 9 on the adjournment plea of public prosecutor Romil Lamba but the defence counsels took a strong objection of prosecutions plea, calling it delaying tactics.

In another case state vs Naib Singh in which sedition charges are slapped against 40 dera followers, the public prosecutor NS Bhoria too pleaded for adjournment on similar grounds following which the matter is now listed for March 15.

There are ar present 10 cases where Panchkula police have slapped sedition charges and so far, Haryana government has given sanction only in two casesone of which is against Honeypreet and 45 members of the dera committee as the accused and other is the one involving the dera chiefs security guards.

In rest of the eight cases, two are already declined while six cases are pending.

The state Vs Harjinder was the one first where court dropped the sedition charges against 53 dera followers in cases.

Defence lawyer SK Rohilla said the police should have secured government permission to levy these charges before filling challan. If state government has held up and declined sanctions in several cases, it clearly indicates police mindless approach to frame innocent people, he said.

Rohilla also said that the dera followers who were framed with such notorious sections converged here for faith, not to wage war against the state. In the violence that occurred on August 25, not a single police personnel was killed. All 36 dead were innocent people. They are now being tried under false premises, he added.

Haryana police spokesperson Mamta Singh, however, said that the charges framed by the police in Panchkula violence cases were based on the evidence they had collected.

She added that as far as prosecution sanction is concerned in cases with sedition charges, the matter is already under consideration of the state government and it will hopefully be decided soon.

This is the matter between police and the government. We are looking into it, state home secretary SS Parsad hung up the phone after commenting this when contacted on this issue.

Permission in two cases so far

So far, out of 10 cases where sedition charges have been included, sanction has been given in two casesone of which has Honeypreet and 45 members of the dera committee as the accused and other is the one involving the dera chiefs security guards.

In rest of the eight cases, two are already declined while six cases are pending. Out of the pending cases, three cases are listed by the end of this month, in which prosecution too is trying hard for adjournment.The Maoist top leaderships prime concern these days is disputes between senior and junior cadre, according to one of the oldest CPI(Maoist) functionaries who was arrested with his wife earlier this month.

These disputes are leading to loss of discipline among cadre in Dandakaranya, a forest area between the borders of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharastra and Odisha that Maoists call free zone, rebel leader Tech Ramanna has told the police during questioning.

Maharashtras Gadchiroli police arrested Ramanna, aka Srinivas Madru, 65, and his wife, Padma, also a Maoist operative on February 9.

Ramanna was involved in several attacks on security forces and also trained cadre to handle weapons. There was a reward of Rs 25 lakh on him, said a police officer who interacted with him after the arrest. The officer did not want to be named.

Chhattisgarh police also questioned Ramanna, one of the founder members of Peoples War Group (PWG) that merged with another rebel outfit, Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI), in 2004 to give birth to the unified CPI(Maoist). Maoist violence is considered one of Indias worst internal security challenges.

According to Ramannas interrogation report, younger cadre are no longer respecting seniors and this is a source of friction. Junior cadre have sidelined seniors, some of whom have even attempted suicide, the report noted. He said Mahita, 60, a senior Maoist cadre from Telangana, committed suicide due to such disrespect.

The party is going through difficult times as many senior leaders are old and retiring... Some (Maoists) are also stealing the organisations money and sending it to their homes, which is matter of concern within the party, stated the report.

Ramanna told the police the CPI(Maoist) was now concentrating on the tri-junction Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, which the outfit has dubbed MMC, to misguide security forces and draw their attention away from Chhattisgarhs Bastar region, known as a rebel stronghold.

Police are treating Ramannas statements with caution, waiting to corroborate his words with evidence. Ramannas revelations on infighting are what police have long suspected.

Chhattisgarhs special director general of police (Anti-Naxal Operations), DM Awasthi, said, Apart from interrogation report of Tech Ramanna, our intelligence also suggests that the infighting has increased. The reason is constant pressure from security forces in Bastar region.

Number of cadre in Dandakaranya zone Armed: 2,000-2,500 Jan Sangathan: 20,000 Recruitment going on in south Bastar. More than 150 cadre are recruited every year. A senior Maoist leader of Bastars Darbha division, Surinder, has been sent to the new MMC zone. He is called Kabir now. Maoists have snipers. In 2017, military commander Deepak (a Chhattisgarh resident) fled with his wife, Moti, and is considered a deserter. Maoists had a doctor in their ranks  Dr Rafeeq, a resident of north India. Dr Rafeeq is missing since 2017. Another doctor, Dr Kiran, was inducted recently.

On the Maoists creating their so-called MMC base, Awasthi said, In this new zone of theirs, we have gunned down about half-a-dozen of senior cadre.

A resident of Telangana, Ramanna was president of Radical Youth League, a frontal organisation of the Maoists, in 1978-80. He joined the Maoists in 1982 and came close to senior leader Kishenji, who gave him responsibility to make guns, according to police records.

WHAT TECH RAMANNA TOLD POLICE

Weapons with Maoist cadre

*CPI(Maoist) no longer has weapon factories like it had in Bhopal (MP), Rourkela (Odisha) and Solapur (Maharashtra). Police busted all three.

*There is a technology department, whose members make ammunition for automatic rifles. The team can also make rockets, mortars, grenades and pipe bombs.

*The team started making rockets under the guidance of Shirnu, well-educated cadre, in 2001. Later, Shirnu became mentally unstable.Nestled in the Japfu hills, Nagalands capital Kohima has been witness to many battles, the most famous of which was a turning point in the second World War in 1944.

These days, though, the town is witnessing a battle of a different kind, one that mirrors the most unpredictable election in the northeastern state for years.

The sitting MLA, and the states forest minister, Neikiesalie Nicky Kire, is a popular doctor who polled more than 60% of the votes in the last election  bettering his performance from 2008 when he polled around 56% of the votes. The 66-year-old is widely respected and has ties with the influential Angami tribe, which traditionally calls Kohima its home.

But heres the catch: Kire is one of the several influential Naga politicians who jumped ship from the Naga Peoples Front (NPF), which has ruled the state since 2003, to the newly formed National Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), which is fighting the polls in an alliance with the BJP on the basis of a 40-20 seat-sharing pact.

The ruling NPF has a formidable ground-level organisation and deep roots in a state where tribal loyalties often determine the winner in a constituency.

But the party also faces allegations of corruption and lack of development  in the capital itself, roads often disappear into ditches and the hills are dotted with decaying semi-built structures.

Many of Kohimas young have left the city in search of jobs.

The party president, Shurhozelie Liezietsu, has tried to stem anti-incumbency by nominating fresh faces  just 17 of the 48 sitting MLAs have been given tickets (10 MLAs joined NPF from Congress after the 2013 polls). This purge is the reason behind Kires exit to the NDPP, claims NPFs Sebastian Zumvu.

Kire joining NDPP cannot hurt us, we are better off without quite a lot of them. We are confident about our candidate (Tseilhoutuo Rhutso), he added.

The NDPP, on the other hand, is banking on the popularity of three-time chief minister Neiphiu Rio, who quit his position in 2014 to go to the Lok Sabha, and joined the NDPP just a month before the polls.

We are confident of victory because Nicky Kire has been a helpful and effective leader, said TL Merry of the NDPP.

Some experts say that Nagalands earlier rule of people having long-term allegiances is changing fast. Politicians are now switching parties very oftenso people are now looking at the person, the candidate, said N Venu, a professor at the University of Nagaland.

There is another important factor in a state where 88% of the population is Christian: the Church, which has expressed reservations about the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS. The people know that the BJP has a strong hold at the Centre but, at the same time, the perception of Christian persecution might hurt the candidate, said D Kuolie, a professor at the University of Nagaland.

At the end of the day, the story of Kohimas election, and that of Nagaland, might also be decided after the polls are done. After all, the NPF continues to be a part of the NDA and Zumvu hinted that in case his party doesnt cross the majority mark, it wouldnt mind taking the BJPs support.

We have been opposed to the Congress for decades we might reconsider our association with BJP as and when required.we are not enemies with any party.Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale was in Beijing on Friday and Saturday for diplomatic consultations with senior Chinese officials.

Gokhale, who was Indias envoy to China before he succeeded S Jaishankar as the foreign secretary last month, held talks with Chinese vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou, and called on foreign minister Wang Yi and state councillor Yang Jiechi, the statement said.

The visit comes at a time amid uneasy relations between Delhi and Beijing on a range of bilateral and regional issues.

During the consultations, the two sides reviewed recent developments in bilateral relations, including high level exchanges, and discussed the agenda for bilateral engagement in the coming months. Both sides agreed upon the need to expedite various dialogue mechanisms in order to promote multifaceted cooperation across diverse fields of India-China engagement, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

The key theme of the visit was the need to build on the convergences between India and China and address differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each others concerns, interests and aspirations.

Both sides underlined that as two major countries, sound development of relations between India and China is a factor of stability in the world today. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest, the ministry said.Taking action against the protesting farmers who were marching towards Delhi demanding a complete loan waiver and implementation of the Swaminathan panel recommendations, the Yamunanagar police booked about 150 farmers for blocking the National Highway and pelting stones at the police on Friday. As many as 35 farmers were also arrested by Radaur police. The police have also impounded several tractor-trailers of the farmers.

When contacted Radaur deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Ajay Rana said, As many as 150 farmers were booked, including 41 by name, under Section 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and they have also been booked under Section 8 of the National Highway Act.

As of now 35 farmers have been arrested and investigation is on to arrest others, he added. He said that Section 307 (attempt to murder) was invoked as the farmers were indulged in stone pelting and one policeman sustained injuries, and was hospitalised.

The police also foiled the attempts of farmers to hold meetings that they had called to decide the further course of action after several others were detained on Thursday.

Yamunanagar superintended of police (SP) Rajesh Kalia could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Will boycott BJP in next polls

Meanwhile, the agitated farmers threatened to boycott the BJP leaders in the coming elections. We have decided not to allow the leaders of the ruling party to enter our village. They will have to pay for it, a farmer leader Sandeep Topra, said in a video message on Facebook..

It is pertinent to mention here that the Yamunanagar police used force to remove the protesting farmers on Thursday evening when they refused to lift the blockade from Yamunanagar-Kurukshetra road at Radaur, alleging that the police did not allow them to reach Delhi to join protest for their demands.

5 farmers detained in Panipat

Five farmers were detained in Panipat district as they were planning to reach Delhi to participate in the protest. As per the police, those arrested have been identified as Naveen, Jasbir, Satyanaran, Navrang and Kuldeep. The police said that they were detained on charges of disturbing peace.

A group of famers from Panipat also reportedly managed to reach Delhi.

Heavy police deployment was made in Panipat as the police had got secret information that farmers from Uttar Pradesh may reach Delhi via Panipat.

Stand-off ends in Hisar as admn releases farmer leader Suresh Koth

The stand-off between farmers and the Hisar local administration ended at Kheri Chopta village, after the local administration released their leader Suresh Koth on Friday.

On Thursday, police had detained Koth in a bid to stop the farmers from moving towards the national capital as a part of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasanghs Delhi-Gherao call.

Irked over Koths detention, the other farmers jammed the Jind-Barwala road, forcing the administration to call the Rapid Action Force (RAF) to maintain law and order. On Friday, Koth was released after 3pm following which the farmers lifted the blockade.

Vikas Kumar, a protesting farmer, said, At about 3am, we decided not to move towards Delhi and instead continue our protest from here at Kheri Chopta village.Heavy firing exchanges started on Saturday between Indian and Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

Unprovoked ceasefire violation by the Pakistani army has been continuing in Uri sector since 11.50 am, defence ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.

Our troops are strongly and effectively retaliating. Firing exchanges were going on between the two sides when reports last came in, Kalia said.

The Pakistani army has been violating the bilateral ceasefire agreement in Uri of Baramulla district intermittently for the last four days.

Indiscriminate targeting of defence and civilian facilities by the Pakistani army has forced around 500 residents of villages close to the LoC to migrate to safer places leaving behind their homes, cattle and agricultural land.The Army has lodged an FIR against unidentified miscreants for pelting stones at a military station, which was recently attacked by three Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants in Jammu.

Six soldiers and a civilian were killed and 10 others, including four soldiers, were injured in the terror attack on the Sunjuwan camp. All three militants, who stormed the camp, were also killed in retaliatory action.

An army official said unidentified people pelted stones at the camp along the Jammu-Pathankot bypass on Friday.

The stone pelting was done on post number 12, which is adjacent to the area which was the suspected entry point of three terrorists, he said.

The FIR was lodged last evening, the official said. The police carried out inspections in the area from where the stone pelting was done, he added.

Some suspects were identified by the police, the official said, adding that the police was keeping a vigil.

A senior police officer said an investigation was underway in the case.Kicking off the second leg of his Karnataka Janashirvada Yatra, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow 13th century philosopher Basavanna and not just pay lip service to him.

Modi had invoked the revered Lingayat saint on Februrary 7 to claim that he, Basavanna, was the founder of democracy in India about 800 years ago and not, as is believed, Jawaharlal Nehru, the countrys first prime minister. Modi had dedicated a large part of his speech to criticise the Congress party.

Gandhi on Saturday quoted Basavannas dictum to say that the Congress government in Karnataka has delivered on the promises it had made to the people.

Modi, too, had made promises about employment and bringing back black money. Now, remember Basavannas words. Did Modi fulfil any of his promises? So what is the meaning behind taking his name? questioned Gandhi in the states Lingayat-dominated Mumbai-Karnataka region.

There are many prominent Lingayat monasteries in the region and Basavanna, who is credited with having founded the sect, is a revered saint here. Gandhi referred to Basavannas five principles of staying away from stealing, lying, spreading hatred, using violence and praising oneself to hit out at Modi.

He said Dalits, adivasis and minority communities were being attacked every day in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Basavanna said dont praise yourself. Whatever is done by his party or the government, the credit goes to Modi. The army takes action but Modi takes the credit. Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj do no work, only Modi does, Gandhi said.

Gandhi said the PM accuses the state government of being corrupt but fails to talk about former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, who was taken into custody for illegal denotification of land. He speaks a lot but doesnt talk about the Rafale deal. Demonetisation destroyed many businesses but the business of Jay Shah (son of BJP chief Amit Shah) earns a profit and Modi doesnt speak about that, Gandhi said.

He also accused the PM of lying when he promised to bring back black money and deposit it in everybodys accounts and providing 20 million jobs a year.

Gandhi also raised the issue of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi fleeing the country after acquiring bank loans illegally. Nirav Modi runs away with Rs 11,500 crore but Modi says we will investigate. How did you let this happen? Basavanna said dont steal and you let this happen under your watch, Gandhi said.

If you want false promises go to Modis rally. But if you want kaam ki baat, not Mann ki baat, come to us. Support the party of brotherhood and love, Gandhi said,canvassing votes for the party in the upcoming elections, scheduled to be held in May.

Gowda, former Karnataka chief minister, questioned the Congress on the frauds in the public sector banks while blaming the UPA government for weakening the banking system.

Countering Gandhi, Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda said the Congress party should not lay claim to Basavannas legacy. Over several years they have acted in a manner that is completely opposed to the teachings of Basavanna, so they have no locus standi to appropriate him now, he said.A group of people stand outside the modest house of SM Doddagoudar, a debt-ridden farmer who allegedly committed suicide a day earlier on Wednesday after failing to repay loans he had taken from private money-lenders.

People here say it has become a common enough sight in Karnatakas Gadag district, now the epicentre of a farm crisis and also a peasant uprising against Goas refusal to release additional water from the Mahadayi river during the dry winter season.

Angry farmers of the region  that straddles at least six districts in north Karnataka  have decided to exercise the NOTA  none of the above  option in the upcoming assembly polls, likely in May this year.

Sixty-year-old Doddagoudar became the 24th farmer in the district to take his life due to agriculture distress perpetuated by less than normal rainfall. The farmers demand for more water from Mahadayi has sparked a slugfest between the ruling Congress and BJP, both accusing each other of failing to settle water dispute with Goa.

However, for the farmers, successive governments led by both the Congress and BJP have failed to solve the water shortage in the region  which mainly grows cotton, lentils and groundnut -- leading to crop failures and subsequent farmer suicides.

For all three political parties (the Congress, BJP and Janata Dal-Secular) the issue has become an avenue to divide voters so they reap electoral benefits, said Kumaragouda Hiregoudar, a 37-year-old farmer who cultivates groundnut on his 1.5-acre farm.

The region  known as Mumbai-Karnataka as it was once part of the Bombay Presidency  elects 50 legislators to 224-member Karnataka assembly.

In the last elections in 2013, the Congress won 34 seats. In 2008, it was the BJP which won 36 seats.

The BJP says that its party government in Goa is ready to settle the issue provided chief minister Siddaramaiah is interested. The Congress says the claim is bogus as Goa has been opposing the crucial Kalasa-Banduri Canal project through which additional water from the river can be diverted to Karnataka.

The main water source of the region, the Malaprabha dam, has had deficit water levels for several years. According to the Karnataka Disaster Management Authority, the water in the dams reservoir is only 12% of its capacity and is being supplied to homes, which is also not adequate.

As the water situation is unlikely to improve in the dam in the near future, the farmers have pinned their hopes on getting water from the Mahadayi river, a west flowing river, to the Malaprabha basin.

However, farmers in Siddapura and nearby Chikka Nargund say they are angry over the state governments inability to press for the completion of the Kalasa-Banduri Canal project, through which water from the Mahadayi will be diverted.

The project is the subject of an inter-state water sharing dispute between Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Goa, in particular, arguing against the proposal.

Vijay Kulkarni, an activist associated with the farmers protest, said that the state government has failed to provide an alternative source of water even after 70 years of Independence.

Kulkarni, who started the Kalasa-Banduri Horata Samiti (Agitation Committee) in 2002, says, the recent politicking over the issue, after former chief minister and state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa read out a letter from Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar at a rally in Hubballi was the last straw for them to campaign for using NOTA in the forthcoming polls.

We have decided to campaign for the NOTA (none of the above) option in the upcoming elections. We have had enough of this petty politics, said Kalmesh Sular, another farmer.

Kulkarni said the people have to embarrass the parties so that they take us seriously.

While the state Congress president G Parameshwara said he will ask local leaders to try and convince the farmers against such a move, BJP spokesperson S Prakash said it was a democratic right of every person to choose NOTA if they are not satisfied with the candidates.

According to Sular, the three parties were obsessed with the Cauvery river dispute.

When it comes to the Cauvery they can come together, but not to solve our problems,  he alleged.Eight persons were charged with murder by the Kerala police on Saturday for allegedly lynching a tribal youth even as the Centre sought a report from the state government on the incident.

The post-mortem report of the youth, Madhu, showed that he was brutally beaten up and two of his ribs were broken in the attack.

The lynching incident occurred at Attapady in Palakkad district on Thursday night after a mob accused Madhu of theft. Many among the mob took selfies during the assault.

Our ministry has sought a report from the chief secretary about the incident and the action taken by the state government, Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram told a television channel.

To protest against the brutal attack, the Opposition Congress and BJP are observing a hartal at Mannarcaud taluk, under which Attappady falls.

Post-mortem was conducted on the victim at Thrissur medical college hospital by a team of doctors and forensic experts and they said the victim suffered serious internal injuries in the attack that eventually led to his death. Two of Madhus ribs were broken in the attack, the report said.

We were waiting for the post-mortem report. Since the report indicated attack, eight accused will be charged with murder and other sections of the IPC, inspector general of police M R Ajith Kumar, who is heading the special investigation team, said.

The state government announced an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the victim.

Meanwhile, deceaseds sister Chandrika alleged that forest officials first spotted the cave where Madhu lived and they alerted local people about his presence there.

She said the officials should also be named accused in the case.

After nabbing him he was forced to walk, carrying a big sack, for at least four kilometres. Though forest jeep was there they refused to take him in the vehicle, she said, adding when he asked for water they refused it.

However, state forest minister K Raju denied involvement of any forest official in the crime.

Relatives of the victim said Madhu was mentally unstable and was staying away from the family for many years.

They said he used to come out of the forests once in a while to collect food items for sustenance and he was not a thief as was alleged by the mob.

The lynching has triggered widespread protest across the state with many taking to social media to condemn the incident.

It also exposed living conditions of tribals in remote areas of the state. Attapadi is one of the most impoverished areas of the state that frequently hit headlines over malnutrition deaths of children.

(With agency inputs)Police arrested a rape accused on Friday, hours after the minor victim of the alleged sexual assault immolated herself in Jharkhands Chatra district.

Chatra sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Gyan Ranjan said on Saturday the girl set herself on fire pouring kerosene over her soon after she was allegedly raped by Md Saddam at Humajang village on Thursday night.

The family members rushed her to a nearby hospital where she was declared brought dead.

The police officer said the accused raped the girl when she ventured out of her home to answer natures call.

On hearing alarms raised by the victim, the girls family members rushed and nabbed the accused, a resident of the same village.

The villagers later informed Saddams family about his misdeeds.

However, minutes later his brother Israr came, thrashed the girls family members, and threatened them of dire consequences before forcibly taking the accused with him.

Police after being informed of the incident, arrested the accused and his brother.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Md Saddam had raped the victim. When the villagers informed family members of the accused, Saddams brother Israr reached there and got the accused released forcefully from the villagers detention. Israr also helped the accused to hide. We have arrested both of them, the SDPO said.

Police said they are also probing the role of another brother of the accused, who was not named in the first information report lodged by the victims family.Meghalayas most wanted terrorist Sohan D Shira who headed the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) was shot dead on Saturday by Meghalaya police commandos in an encounter at Achakpek near Dobu in East Garo Hills district.

The GNLA is suspected to have carried out a bomb attack on February 18 in which NCP candidate for the Willimanagar assembly constituency Jonathone N Sangma and four others were killed in the Samanda area of East Garo Hills district .

Responding swiftly to intelligence inputs, the Special Force 10 (SF-10) team led by commandant J.F.K. Marak tracked down Shira at Achakpek, 110 kilometers from Tura, the main town of Garo Hills.

Policemen familiar with the raid said Shira initially outwitted the commandos and tried to escape but was finally shot after a long pursuit. Shira who was in his 40s, carried a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

Confirming the death of the GNLA founder, deputy IGP (Western Range) Onimus Pasi said, Yes its true. He is dead after a challenging encounter. More personnel are being rushed to the spot. Ive been informed that the encounter is still going on and the exact number of fatalities is yet to be ascertained.

An assault rifle and live ammunition was seized from the encounter site.

Shira was a former area commander of the Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC), which later signed a peace pact with both the state and central governments. In 2007 he surrendered before the then chief minister DD Lapang.

But two years later he went back to the jungle alleging that he had been given a raw deal. He formed the Garo National Liberation Army along with deserter deputy superintendent of police and chairman of the outfit Pachkara R. Sangma a.k.a. Champion R. Sangma.

Shira who was facing numerous charges of murder, extortion and kidnapping among other heinous crimes had escaped security dragnets many times in the past.A day after an AIADMK MLA switched loyalty to dissident leader TTV Dhinakaran, Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami said on Saturday attempts to drive a wedge between cadre and the party wont work.

Taking potshots at Dhinakaran without naming him, Palaniswami said attempts to topple the regime and split up the party continue to be a day dream, for them.

Addressing cadres on the birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa at party headquarters in Chennai, the chief minister said no one could touch the government till it had the blessings of Amma.

The 1.5 crore cadres are guarding the party and the government like soldiers. Some are thinking of creating differences among us to gain from it. Such a thing will never happen. All of us are working in cohesion right from office-bearers to workers. No one can divide us, he said.

Meanwhile, hitting out at the Palaniswami regime as a crowd of betrayers, Dhinakaran, in his message to cadres on the birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa urged them to take a vow to usher in a true peoples regime under the stewardship of party general secretary Chinnamma.

Deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, too, in his address to cadres on Saturday took a veiled dig at actor-turned-politicians Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. New balloons have begun to fly in the political sky. Colourful, cosmetics smeared balloons will be only beautiful to see. We and this nation will see that such balloons will soon burst and go down, he said.

Panneerselvam said the dialogues, of such new entrants to politics who have taken new political avatar, will end up like the flowerpots (after displaying colourful lights), and their make-up will soon be gone, he said.A son of the vice-president of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a nephew of the partys general secretary on Friday made it to the list of selected candidates for different jobs with the Jammu and Kashmir Khadi and Village Industries Board (JKKVIB), leading to a sharp attack from the opposition National Conference (NC).

Syed Aroot Madni, son of PDP vice-president Sartaj Madni and cousin of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, was selected for the post of executive officer of the board while Peer Kashif Hussain, the nephew of PDP general secretary Peerzada Mansoor  who is also the vice-chairman of the JKKVIB itself  made it to the waiting list for the post of assistant executive officer.

The two names on the list has led to allegations of nepotism and conflict of interest against the PDP, although government officials and sources maintained that due process was followed in the selections.

Asked for a response, PDPs Madni said, You please tell me do our children [children of political workers] not have the right to apply for jobs. My son went through the complete process comprising written test and interviews and he got selected. What's wrong in this?

Calls to Mansoor and Chander Prakash Ganga, the minister for industries and commerce who is also the chairman of the KVIB, went unanswered.

In a press statement, the NC has asked Mehbooba to explain how the two people figured on the list. NC state spokesperson Junaid Mattu said the government has taken the patience of unemployed youth for granted and should not try to portray this brazen nepotism as a miraculous coincidence.

He called the selections a cruel joke and demanded an immediate independent probe into the matter. He said, Most of the people figuring in the final list issued by state KVIB are either children of close associates of PDP leaders or have direct patronage from the powers that be. The chief minister is directly culpable for this open loot and plunder she has authorised in the state, Mattu added.

Shailendra Kumar, commissioner-secretary of the department of industries and commerce, who is also a director of the KVIB, said all steps were taken to ensure a completely fair selection process. Secretary industries was not the controller of examination. The law secretary was in charge of the process.

Kumar added, A Delhi-based firm was chosen by the law secretary to conduct the written test. This firm has conducted many examinations of the police department in the past and no questions have never been raised.

He said that candidates were given a duplicate copy of their written answer sheets and a key was provided a few hours after the exam so that they could match the answers and get an idea of how much they would score.

Some candidates, however, suspect manipulation in the interview. But Kumar said that the four interviewers had no idea of how much a candidate had scored in the written round nor did they know what marks each of them had given to a candidate.

An official requesting anonymity said that questions regarding the conflict of interest with regards to Mansoor and his nephew should not arise because Mansoor was not involved in either setting the written question paper or as an interviewer.

Calls to law secretary Abdul Majid Bhat went unanswered.

The selection list also led to a wide array of Tweets and Facebook posts and among them was Shah Faesal, managing director of the state power development corporation and the first rank holder in the UPSC examination in 2010.

He wrote: If its true that the merit list has been rigged then instead of an inquiry there should be an FIR. High time that we take those people to task who push our educated youngsters to wall and kill their confidence.

EOMThe town of Sterling will receive over $1.8 million in federal funding to construct a new water district in the town.

The town will receive a $1.27 million loan and a $550,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grants program, according to a press release from Sen. Kristen Gillibrand's office. The loan will be financed over 38 years.

The scope of the project includes installing approximately 25,000 feet of water main distribution pipes, hydrants and valves. The new system will serve around 90 residences and "help improve the private water quality and quantity deficiencies for residents," according to the release.

"This federal investment is good news for the Town of Sterling and Cayuga County," Sen. Chuck Schumer said. "These federal funds for the Town of Sterling will help boost economic development, protect public health and support critical water infrastructure upgrades. I am proud to announce this federal investment and will continue to fight to make sure that rural communities have the resources they need to build, protect and maintain their infrastructure."

Gillibrand added, "These federal funds will help provide a safe and reliable source of water for the residents in the Town of Sterling. New Yorkers should be able to trust the quality of their water supply, and investments such as this one are critical for the health of our local communities and local economic development. I will continue to fight for funding in the Senate that helps improve the health and quality of life for New Yorkers.

Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0The lawyer of Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandian, whose discharge in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case has been challenged in the Bombay high court, said on Saturday that he was framed by the CBI.

Pandian was the main officer who had taken on fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI of Pakistan when he was with the IB, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, his lawyer, told the court.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the encounter case from the Gujarat CID in 2010, framed Pandian by fabricating evidence, he alleged.

I (Pandian) have unimpeachable documentary evidence to prove that I was not in Hyderabad on the day of the alleged abduction, Jethmalani contended on Saturday.

As per the CBI, Sohrabuddin, a gangster with alleged terror links, his wife Kausar Bi and his aide Tulsiram Prajapati were abducted by the Gujarat Police on the night of November 22-23, 2005 while they were travelling from Hyderabad to Sangli in a private bus.

I had taken a flight from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad on November 23, 2005... However, the CBI claims I never took that flight and instead sent constable Ajay Parmar to Ahmedabad on my ticket as a cover-up, the lawyer said.

It was an international flight of Air India, where every passengers ID card would have been checked, he said.

The CBI presented, as evidence, the custom declaration form submitted at the Hyderabad airport, filled in Pandians name but bearing Parmars signature, Jethmalani said.

The agency claimed that it proved that Parmar took the flight on Pandians ticket to help him cover his tracks. This is a fabricated document. I am a victim... The victim of false investigation by the CBI, Jethmalani said.

I was the main officer who fought Dawood Ibrahim and ISI (during a stint as SP with the Intelligence Bureau). I have an unimpeachable record, and yet the CBI is trying to undermine me like this, the lawyer said.

According to Pandian, he was in Hyderabad on November 21-22, 2005 only to inspect the site of a bomb blast that had taken place near the city in October that year, and he had nothing to do with the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin.

Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat Police in November 2005, while Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006.

Of the 38 persons charge-sheeted by the CBI for being involved in the two fake encounters, 15, including senior IPS officers DG Vanzara, Pandian, Dinesh MN, and BJP president Amit Shah were discharged by the special CBI court in Mumbai, where the trial is underway.

The high court is conducting day-to-day hearing on petitions filed by the CBI and Rubabuddin Shaikh, Sohrabuddins brother, challenging the discharge of five of the 14 police officers.As the eight-day visit by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India concluded on Saturday, it has attracted much criticism, some ridicule, adjectives like disaster, joke, fiasco, snarky memes and cartoons, in the mainstream Canadian media.

But observers believe that one positive by-product of the coverage was that the issue of Sikh separatism on Canadian soil may have permeated into mainstream Canadian consciousness.

Normally, Canadian media hardly pays any attention to resurgent Sikh separatism despite its violent history in that country. The majority has been oblivious of the Khalistan movement and the violence associated with it, but Trudeaus India trip helped serve as a vehicle for informing them.

That message was driven home forcefully as the controversy over the dinner reception invitation at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi to a person once convicted for attempting to assassinate a Punjab minister in the 1980s.

The story was broken by Toronto Suns Candace Malcolm who started the frenzy with a tweet: Here is the official invitation sent to Jaspal Atwal, inviting him to join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in India. Trudeau is denying his sympathies for Sikh extremists, while also wining and dining them.

Among the most articulate commentators to appear across Canadian networks, including CBC, the national broadcaster, was former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who himself survived a murderous assault allegedly carried out by Atwal in 1985.

Atwal was charged for that attack but never convicted. Dosanjh said, I think its a good thing its coming out in the open. Previously, most Canadians didnt think there was anything wrong, they didnt know what was happening. Now, he expects Canadians will start asking questions.

Vishnu Prakash, former Indian High Commissioner to Ottawa concurred: Awareness about the Khalistani issue and that the separatists were being afforded a platform by Canadian politicians, was rather limited among the general public and Canadian media, as it barely touches their lives.

Trudeaus visit in general and the misguided invitation to Atwal in particular, finally brought the issue into public consciousness in Canada. This may lead to introspection and hopefully some course correction.

The Canadian media could no longer pretend the Sikh separatist issue was being hyped by New Delhi.

The national daily, Globe and Mail noted a good lesson may come of this at a domestic, cultural level. Mr Trudeau, as well as the NDP's Jagmeet Singh, may be looking to a sizable Sikh vote base to strengthen their electoral position  but that's doesn't mean they should fall back on free speech whenever they are questioned on the Khalistan issue, especially given Canada's own history with the Khalistan movement.

Toronto Star stated in an editorial, Last year in Toronto, for instance, the prime minister attended an event where separatist flags and portraits of an extremist Sikh leader were prominently displayed. Indian government officials have called on Ottawa to take a harder line on Sikh separatist elements at home, which they believe promote terrorism in India. The reference was to the prime ministers presence at a Khalsa Day nagar kirtan in Toronto, a story first broken by the Hindustan Times.

The lukewarm reception for Trudeau as he arrived in India and his meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Amritsar also highlighted the Khalistan issue across Canadian screens, newspapers and online outlets.

As Dosanjh said, Its always good to have the rot exposed to sunlight. Canadians are aware this nonsense has been going on, this duplicity by politicians has been going on.Education up to intermediate level will be made free in Uttar Pradesh and the Yogi Adityanath government will make an announcement in this regard soon, a minister in the state cabinet said on Saturday.

Om Prakash Rajbhar, the minister for Divyang and OBC welfare, said this while addressing a meeting of his Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP).

Yogi government will make education up to the intermediate level free and an announcement in this regard will be made soon, Rajbhar said without elaborating further.

Coming down heavily on the parents who do not send their children to schools, Rajbhar said that such parents needed to be sent to jail.

We will make the parents understand that children need to go to school in the next four months or consider taking action against them, he said.

I have been working in this direction for the past two months and have been telling parents that education is most important as without going to school neither they will develop nor will they get employment, he said.

Later in his interaction with media, he said that his party will contest the 2019 elections along with the BJP.

To a question, he held Muslim leaders responsible for the backwardness of the community and asserted that there is no discrimination against them (muslims) under the Yogi government.

Meanwhile, four members of the escort team of Rajbhar and one other were injured in a road accident near Ubhaon turn later after the meeting.

The escort vehicle had to apply emergency brakes to avoid collision with a motorcycle and it overturned leading to minor injuries to four members of the team and the motorcyclist, police said.Teachers of Saraswati Shishu Mandir at Balibela in Hoogly district, about 100km northwest of Kolkata, are a worried lot. The schools silver jubilee celebration in December coincided with the biggest survival threat it has faced  chief minister Mamata Banerjees crackdown against RSS-inspired schools.

After education minister Partha Chatterjees announcement in the assembly Tuesday regarding the shutting down of 125 schools for deviating from the states curriculum and operating without obtaining no-objection certificate, teachers at the Balibela school are anxious to find out if their school features on the list.

Breeding hatred

Chatterjee had said that the government has received information about 493 schools that are inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the BJP, and had also remarked that schools are not the places for wielding sticks.

At a public meeting two months ago, MLA Manas Majumdar lambasted us for preaching hate and working towards disturbing communal harmony, said Bijoy Chandra Roy, a swayamsevak and the schools headmaster since its inception.

The MLA said that the school was a facade for the RSS main operational centre for its Arambag subdivision. Senior RSS pracharaks stay at the school while visiting Arambag. It hosts RSSs training sessions. Why are they using a school as breeding ground for communal hatred? he said.

Roy claims teachers from government-sponsored primary schools have been asked to convince parents to get their children enrolled at government schools.

District school authorities recently informed Roy that 65 of his 427 students have enrolled in government-run schools.

An inside look

Run by Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan, the educational wing of the RSS, the school started operating in 1992 in a mud hut with 17 students. It now functions from two two-storeyed buildings named after RSS founder KB Hedgewar and his successor MS Golwalkar.

Eighteen teachers (acharyas) and three non-teaching staff look after 427 students in eight classes: pre-primary sections Arun, Uday and Pravaat, and Classes 1 to 5. Vidya Bharati runs 326 schools in the state, where 65,000 students are taught by 3,200 teachers. Most of the schools are for students up to Class 5 while about half-a-dozen have sanction to hold classes until the 10th standard.

In the morning, the school begins with Saraswati vandana, yoga and moral lessons. Students are allowed to have their tiffin only after chanting the bhojanam mantra.

Curriculum fix

The state government finds the books on Indias history and culture, titled Bodhamala, most objectionable. The books speak about Hinduism and place RSS ideologues Hedgewar, Golwalkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya among the great men of India since the ancient times. Among other things, Maharshi Kanada is mentioned as worlds first atomic scientist and that Afghanistans name came from Sanskrit word Upaganasthan.

Books claim that eating food before taking bath affects health and that cow is mother because gods live in her body.

The importance of the Bodhamala books is so high that the teachers are also required to take centrally-conducted tests every year. We stress equally on curricular and co-curricular activities, aiming at the childs comprehensive development, said Anil Kanrar, teacher, Sarada Shishu Mandir at Tantiberia.

Partha Ghosh, Vidya Bharatis north Bengal in-charge, said government authorities carried out inspection twice in last one year.

School inspectors were accompanied by the police. The headmasters were asked about the curriculum, whether the RSS funds these schools and gets a portion from the earnings, Ghosh said.

Ten schools in North Dinajpur district took the legal route last year after receiving the closure notice. The HC in February ruled against the district inspector of schools for acting on a verbal order from the education department. ..but we are ready to go to Supreme Court, the education minister has said.Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said everyone has the right to practice and follow his faith and he, being a Hindu, has every right to visit religious places like Ayodhya and Mathura.

After taking stock of the security arrangements at Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura on Saturday, Adityanath also said that during his 11-month tenure, no one has been stopped from celebrating Eid or Christmas.

Everyone has the freedom to practice or follow his or her religion and I, being a Hindu, have the right to visit places like Ayodhya and Mathura, the chief minister said when asked as to whether he would celebrate Eid after celebrating Diwali at Ayodhya and Holi at Mathura.

I have not stopped anyone from celebrating Eid or Christmas during my 11-month tenure as chief minister. Everyone has freedom to practice his religion and there is no harm in developing religious spots as tourist destination, he said.

Diwali is celebrated in Ayodhya, Holi in Mathura, Dev Diwali in Varanasi, Kumbh in Prayagraj and Ramayan Mela in Chitrakoot and we would continue going there, he said.

Stating that he was proud of the rich cultural traditions and heritage of religious spots, Adityanath said he would ensure measures are taken for their conservation and growth.

On the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, the chief minister discussed security measures with officials.

We would improve arrangements here and would address the security measures, so that those having intention to create tension or to damage security will not succeed, Adityanath said.

The temple shares a boundary wall with a mosque. Right wing activists have in the past demanded freeing of these locations.

Amidst heavy security, Adityanath reached Mathura on Friday evening and attended the Rasotsav presented by Mathura MP and actor Hema Malini at a veterinary institute. Noted musicians, including Pandit Jasraj and Hariprasad Chaurasia, performed there.

In the morning, he inspected the security arrangements at the temple. Devotees movement was restricted while CM was inside temple from 7.30 am.Buoyed by the state governments film policy, producer Rahul Mittra, who had earlier shot Bullett Raja in Lucknow and Chambal, will come back to Uttar Pradesh again to shoot his next  Sultana Daku.

Mittra, who was in Lucknow to attend the UP Investors Summit, says the film is based on Sujit Sarafs historical fiction Confessions of Sultana Daku and stars Randeep Hooda.

I will be back to Lucknow in a month or so for the recce with Hooda. The films story is in place and Madhurita Anand is writing its script and screenplay. She will also direct the film, says Mittra and adds the film will be shot in the Terai belt of Uttar Pradesh after monsoon.

We are yet to lock the locations. Since its a period film (set in 1920s) so we need to show that era. Besides, the film will have lot of horse ride, river bed and train robbery so we need to figure out in which part of UP we will shoot, he says.

Talking more about the film he says the story dates back to British era when this bandit is captured and narrates his story. The confessions in the book are bit dark but we want to make it entertaining. That is why we are spending a lot of time on the script. We want to make it for everyone including kids. Sultana had a horse (Chetak) and dog (Rai Bahadur). He was a big-heart Robinhood kind of guy who used to take from rich and give it to the poor, he says.

The filmmaker plans to rope in action directors from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for the film. I have been to this belt and they are very good in horse-related actions. This film needs a lot of them and best part is that we have Randeep who has mastery in horse ride. He is one actor who breaks down his DNA to get in the skin of his character  be it Sarabjit (Singh), Charles (Sobraj) or any other role, he says.

Earlier, a film on same subject and name has been made in 1972 starring Dara Singh.

Mittra is also ready with his next Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster3 directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia.

With Sanjay (Dutt) as Gangster the franchise has become very big. We will release the film in July 27 two days before Sanjus birthday. It will release one month after Sanjays biopic (directed by Raju Hirani) hits the screen, says Mittra who is also CEO of Wave Cinemas.

He also lavished heavy praises on the UPs film policy.

The job of a producer, who is in bottom of pyramid, is full of challenges apart from the money angle. When we come to shoot at a place it not only creates employment and exposure but benefits in many other ways like tourism and talent building. So, such policies are very encouraging which has single window clearance, ease of shoot and the biggest thing monetary benefit in form of subsidy, he says.

Mittra feels the announcement of the policy has come as big relief to filmmakers.

For quiet sometime there was no clarity. Makers were skeptical if the policy and subsidy will continue or not. To our delight it has only become better. Its for other states to replicate it. Where ever I go and governments ask me I tell them to take clues from the UP model which has actually delivered, he says.Primary school teachers in Allahabad are upset over a question put to class 12 students during the English examination in the second shift on February 21.

Alleging that the question insulted them, the teachers union of primary schools has threatened to approach the Allahabad high court on the issue.

Devendra Srivastava, district unit president of Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, said if the UP Board of Secondary Education did not take action on the issue, we will be forced to approach the court against the same.

One of the questions read, Write a letter to the district magistrate of your district drawing his attention towards the laxity of primary school teachers in performing their duties? 

The question appeared in the English paper for class 12 students. The question paper was given to the students in Lucknow and the adjoining districts on February 21.

The question appeared in the Class 12th English paper.

Deepak Mishra, a teacher in a government-run primary school in Koraon tehsil of Allahabad, said such a question is a sheer insult to us and our dedication.

We decry such people who are involved in the act and seek action by the (UP) Board against them, he said.

Kalpana Mishra, another primary school teacher in Allahabad, also objected to the question. She asked if the same question had been asked about secondary school teachers, how would they have felt.

UP Board secretary Neena Srivastava said the question was not aimed at hurting anyones sentiments.

Clear directives are issued to the teachers engaged for setting question papers to avoid asking such questions which could raise a dispute. We will see that such acts are not repeated in future, she added.The sprawling Indira Gandhi Prathisthan  the venue of Investors Summit  is often bandied as a symbol of Congress hegemony in the political corridors.

Despite all its magnificence and size, before investors meet, the government had rarely used the venue to hold events of significance and magnitude.

In fact, initially, the IGP was not the preferred venue for this mega event too, sources familiar with the matter insist.

The most preferred choice to host the event was Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre, but since the building was incomplete, the government reluctantly opted for the IGP as venue, confirmed an official, not willing to be named.

However, with Yogi Adityanaths first big ticket event ending in a roaring success, the magnificent venue, spread in around 25 acres in Gomti Nagar, is basking in the glory and sharing credit for the success.

Almost all the high profile guests liked the venue and wondered whether it was in Lucknow, said an official.

Respective state governments avoided hosting big events here but a successful summit will go a long way in changing perceptions about it, hoped former judge, CB Pandey, the man who played a crucial role in its construction.

I filed the PIL against the BSP governments decision to take over the IGPs land to extend Ambedkar Park. After several hearings, the court ordered the government to allot another land and release funds for the project, said Pandey who was then legal advisor to UP governor.

But the BSP government did not comply with the courts order and I had to file a contempt petition. It was after this petition that the government had released Rs 110 crore for the project, said Pandey, who is now senior lawyer, Lucknow high court.

The court had also appointed Pandey as observer to monitor progress of the project.

The building was finally completed in 2010.

ND Tewari, last Congress chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, had allotted around 25 acres of land for the IGP adjacent to Ambedkar Park, Gomti Nagar, in 1989. He laid the foundation stone and a boundary wall was also constructed.

But Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati acquired this land to extent Ambedkar complex when she was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The foundation stone was removed and the boundary wall was demolished.

Congressmen took to street in protest against the BSP supremos decision under the leadership of Moti Lal Vohra, who was then incharge of Uttar Pradesh.

Before summit, Pandey, said the venue was never used for the purpose it was constructed.

Hardly conventions are being organised at the IGP due to its high commercial charges. Mostly marriage functions are being organised here, he said, hoping that after successful completion of the summit, the IGP might host more mega events.UP Electricity Regulatory Commission (UPERC) may announce rebates in power tariff for the Bundelkhand farmers on a request made by the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL).

The commission, in an order, on Friday said it would hold a public hearing here on March 14 to take stakeholders views on the power tariff rebate proposed by the UPPCL with regard to private tube wells in Bundelkhand.

The UPPCL has requested the regulator to announce a seasonal tariff for Bundelkhand farmers private tube wells to save them from the liability of paying fixed charges for all the 12 months without operating tube wells.

The UPPCL, in its petition, said that Bundelkhand farmers availed only one crop (Rabi) in a year and needed tube wells to irrigate fields only for four months but they had to pay the fixed monthly charges for all the months even if they do not operate them. The corporation has suggested that such farmers be charged monthly fixed charges only for four months between October and February.

Supporting the UPPCLs demand, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad, president, Avadhesh Kumar Verma said the introduction of the provision of seasonal power tariff would help the poor Bundelkhand farmers in a big way.The sun has barely risen over the lush green Patkai range that rings Pfutsero and the rutted roads of Nagalands coldest town are deserted. But Rekha Rose Dukrus house is bustling with activity as the 35-year-old races against time to make it to her first election meeting of the day.

Her younger sister rushes in and out with steaming mugs of tea as her parents mouth a silent prayer.

They have reason to be worried. Dukrus campaign hinges on two meetings later that day  one in her mothers ancestral village of Tsupfume that hangs on a cliff, and the other in her fathers clan village of Zhavame. Her challenge: Wear down the hostility of the tribe and village elders, who are opposed to her candidacy because of one reason: She is a woman.

Dukru, who is fighting as an independent from the far-flung Chizami constituency, is one of five women in this election who are trying to change the course of political history in Nagaland.

Since the northeastern state was formed in 1963, no woman MLA has ever set foot in the 60-member assembly, and only one woman, Rano M Shaiza, has become an MP, that too back in 1977. But a watershed election this time might change that. I decided to contest the election because the state needs a woman MLA, I know we are making history, laughs Dukru.

It is 7am and the crowds have already gathered outside the community hall; but unusually, more than half are women who have come to see a woman hold forth on a public stage for the first time in their lives. Your vote can change everything, it can bring water to your kitchens, electricity to your houses. Dont let the men decide who to vote for, Dukru implores the crowd. After the men disperse, she convenes a meeting of just the women, many of whom break into tears as Dukrus mother Asale rises to speak. I have never spoken before anyone but dont let me be humiliated vote for my daughter, she tells the crowd.

An elderly woman named Rukho rises from her seat and says its the first time she is speaking to a candidate, who usually only talk to the patriarch of the house. Today, I can assure you that my vote is for you, she chokes on her tears.

AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY

Women in Nagaland are everywhere  they man restaurants, form more than 60 per cent of the agricultural labour, they run shops and sell wares in the markets. But when it comes to decision making, be it in the village council or city corporations or the assembly, women are missing.

Women run most of the stores at some of Kohimas main markets. But their labour often doesnt translate into economic freedom and political rights. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

The primary reason for this, in a state where 89 per cent of the population is tribal, are customary laws that govern each community, says Rosemary Dzuvichu, a professor at the University of Nagaland and an adviser to the apex womens body in the state, theNaga Mothers Association (NMA). In Naga society, women have no land rights, no inheritance rights, no sustenance rights and very little political rights, she says, pointing out that though a majority of markets are controlled by women, men run the finances.

In the influential Ao tribe, women are barred from the Putu Menden (the traditional village council) and cannot become a Patir (village councillor). They are also restricted from public debates and titles.

In the Chakhesang tribe, to which Dukru belongs, an adulterous woman is banished with the clothes she is wearing at the time, and with a fine.

Most of these laws are not codified, and are interpreted by a council of male elders. Among the Lotha tribe, one custom, Rangpyahtaro (which literally means ten coins), was meant to seal a divorce. But the sum, considered massive in ancient times, is now interpreted as a paltry 10, according to a 2016 report Enquiry into the Status of Women.

Wedie U Kronu , a National Peoples Party candidate for the Dimapur III seat, outlines her agenda that will focus on youth and development. Next to her is her husband Roland Lotha. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

Accepting a woman in a political position is a major mental block, there is lack of support within the families... this hurts the confidence of women, says Akole Wekowe, who works with a womens organisation, the North East Network.

Her colleague, Seno Tsuhah, adds that men underestimate womens contribution and they are regularly paid less. Women are paid less to maintain the honour of the men, she laughs. Any immovable property or land is never passed onto a woman because it is thought that the land will be controlled by her in-laws.

Elections in Nagaland are expensive, and more than half the candidates have assets above  1 crore, but a woman possesses little property or resources to marshal for the polls. And till very recently, a womans vote would be decided by her husband or family, adds Anungla Aier, chief of the Watsu Mungdang, the apex womens body of the Ao tribe. As we speak, news comes of three women thrashed in Tuli because they allegedly dared to go against the diktat of their family on who to vote for  a grim reminder of how harsh the punishment is for women who dare to dissent.

A LONG HISTORY

Dzuvichus grandmother was one of hundreds of women in her generation who left their homes and families to join Naga warrior tribes in the forests in the 1950s in the war against Indian forces. Even today, the separatist NSCN-IM group has women negotiators on the table. But the role of those women has been forgotten, they have been never written about.

The situation was made more precarious by long spells of militarisation, and the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act which was imposed in 1958. We have had a history of rape, violence, killing and total disrespect to women.the presence of army made us more insecure, she says.

The glass ceiling was broken in 2005, when Tokheli Kikon became the first woman to become the village chairperson in Naharbari, near Dimapur. I had to fight a lot with the men. Everyone said we dont allow women to lead us. But I was determined, and won twice more.

A security personnel keeps watch as campaigning progresses in Nagaland, which goes to the polls on February 27. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

But the challenges kept on mounting, and at every step she battled male entitlement. They were apprehensive of a woman making decisions. When I tried to save a heritage pond, everyone opposed me. The same happened when I upgraded the school. I did everything on my own.

The simmering tensions spilled into the streets last year after the government notified elections to urban local bodies, and made 33 per cent reservation for women mandatory. The apex Naga organisations protested, warning that this suggested a dilution of Article 371A, which gives special status to Nagaland and is an emotive issue in the northeastern state where separatist movements have deep local roots. Two women died of alleged police firing as protests shut down the state and forced the government to defer the polls, despite a Supreme Court order.

Tokheli Kikon at home in Dimapurs Naharbari village. In 2005, Tokheli became the first woman chairperson of the village. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

You should have heard the names they called usprostitutes, Indian agents, witchesour men were insecure. The men assumed the town wards were theirs to inherit, says Dzuvichu.

This came as a shock because the applicant in the case, the NMA, was widely respected and had a long history of working against corruption, alcoholism, drug use and militarisation. They talk of customs, what customs do they follow when they jump in and out of parties? she fumes.

There appears to have been some rethink among the men. Chuba Ozokum of the Naga Hoho, the apex tribal organisation, said the protest was mischaracterised and that the body fully supports womens rights. Theja Theriah, another tribal leader, says he regrets the protests. Both hope more than one woman is elected.

THE WAY FORWARD

Back in Dukrus ancestral village of Zhawame, tensions are rising. The village council doesnt want her to contest because the sitting MLA is from the same village, and to have a woman represent the clan would mean dishonour. She calls the elders home for a lunch of rice, pork curry and traditional pickles before calling for a meeting  above them in makeshift wood galleries, groups of men laugh and look on.

Everyone used to love me when I ran the local farms, brought investment and became an entrepreneur of organic and local foods. But now, I only feel hostility. I will not back down, I know I can become a leader, she says with confidence.

Rosemary Dzuvichu is a professor and one of the women leaders who battled the tribal leadership for 33% reservation for women in urban local bodies last year. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

More than 300 kilometers away in Aboi, Avon Konyak is fighting a similar battle. The 38-year-old is the daughter of a former minister and is considered a favourite to win. She is also the only woman candidate of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP). Women need to be part of decision making bodywe are more sensitive, more sincere, she tells me.

Rakhila Lakiumong, the BJP candidate from Tuensang Sadar II, is the only one who has fought an election before, though she lost by a small margin the last time. Changing the existing system is my top priority. Winning the election will be the beginning of change, she says.

The other two candidates are from the National Peoples Party: Wedie U Kronu from Dimapur - III seat and Mangyangpula Chang from the Noksen constituency.

We dont remember having so many women candidates, says the states chief electoral officer Abhijit Sen.

Still, the road ahead is bumpy. When asked why more women werent fielded, the BJP and NDPP say they didnt receive more nominations. The ruling Naga Peoples Front admits that getting women to win in Naga society is difficult. If the women have no winnability or mass support, then it doesnt make sense, says Sebastian Zumvu.

As the evening clouds gather, Dukru implores her audience one last time. My symbol is the candle but it is not lit. With your support, we can light it together. Little does she know that she, and her fellow candidates, have already lit the flame for women in the state.Franklin County, MO - A woman who authorities believe helped an inmate escape a southeastern Missouri work site led police on a chase before she was arrested here Monday evening, authorities say.

Brigitte L. Bruyere, 23, of Cuba, Mo., was wanted for questioning in the escape of inmate Jacob Dylan Martin, who walked off a Missouri Department of Transportation work site in southeastern Missouri Feb. 13.

Franklin County Sheriff Steve Pelton said investigators believe Bruyere, who is Martin's girlfriend, picked him up from the work site and gave him a ride.

Martin was arrested after five days on the run near Six Flags St. Louis in Eureka Sunday, more than 100 miles from where he escaped.

The next day, Franklin County Sheriffs deputies and narcotics detectives were tipped off that Bruyere might come to a gas station near Highway 50 and Highway 185 in Beaufort.

Officers spotted Bruyere about 5:30 p.m., but when they attempted to block her in, she sped off on Highway 185 toward Sullivan, according to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. Officers chased her.

As the chase continued, deputies warned Sullivan police that she was headed their way. Sullivan Police officers set up spike strips that disabled the vehicle and Bruyere was arrested, according to the sheriff's office.

Bruyere is being held at the Franklin County Detention Facility for a separate probation violation warrant, as well as resisting arrest and traffic violations.

Bruyere has outstanding felony charges for stealing and receiving stolen property. She pleaded guilty to felony burglary in 2017 and received a suspended sentence upon the completion of probation.

The escaped inmate, Martin, was serving a five-year sentence for two counts of first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, second-degree burglary, and stealing in Franklin County as well as a concurrent three-year sentence for attempted first-degree tampering in Marion County.Last week in Chennai at the historic Kalakshetra dance academy, there was a dhrupad festival featuring the Gundecha Brothers of Bhopal and their gifted students from places as far apart as Portugal, the edge of Europe, and Japan, the edge of Asia. This reminds us of the wide reach of the Ramayana. The Ramayana is the Epic of Asia in ways not fully counted yet. Theres even a version in Mongolia.

Regarding the Ramayana, I like the root Ramayana best, which is Valmikis. I do so while dutifully acknowledging, if not always celebrating plurality (its not always interesting because someone else said it). Also, I stay with Valmikis first six books, which end the epic with the heros homecoming and coronation and the phala shruti or list of listeners benefits.

Its not that I dont recognize that the Ramayana has dialogued unceasingly with the Indic bandwidth and beyond. I choose to stick with the root story because I dont want to be confused, or confuse others. No dubious later twists like the killing of Shambuka, sending Sita away to the forest, no twin sons, no terrible last parting. Not by Valmiki anyway, in some scholarly opinion, which suits me. Valmiki didnt have a Lakshman rekha either.

I curl my lip at the Lakshman rekha as a literal device thats medievally prudish and feel sure that Valmiki would curl his lip, too. In the root Ramayana, Ravan drags Sita away by her hair and holds her in his arms. Kamban didnt hold back from graphic descriptions of Sita in his 9th century Tamil Ramayana in which he acknowledged Valmiki of the northern lands.

But Tulsi, gallant soul, couldnt handle the thought in the 16th century of Ravan laying hands on Sita and neither could others elsewhere, so they respectfully or prudishly changed it. Therefore, its about them, not the epic. Much as I honour and appreciate Tulsis concern, its another reason why I choose to clinically stick to the original Valmiki. Its the Ramayana as it is without the little zari curtains and pyjamas.

This view need not be a cause for quarrel. As Tulsi himself said, Hari anant, Hari katha ananta, kahat sunat bahuvidhi sab santa: God is infinite and so are the stories about God, which are told and heard in different ways. He justified his retelling of the epic with these words. What his short-sighted opponents couldnt see was that Tulsi rescued religion in the cow belt, even if he added extra devotional prudery to it to make it acceptable to the public of his day. How similar it seems today to what Rukmini Devi Arundale did for Bharata Natyam when setting up Kalakshetra. Art researchers now revile her for it like crows pecking at the bones of a magnificent dead elephant.

However, like with Tulsi in the 16th century, to be prudish in the 20th century was good strategy by Rukmini Devi to chalao what was then considered dirty dancing. So the line between modesty and prudery advances and retreats and people must do what suits them, to push or retract their own lines.

shebaba09@gmail.com

Views expressed are personalYour travel to Konkan by road this Holi festival will be smoother. The Maharashtra State Road Transport department is providing additional bus services between February 25 and March 1.

The festival of colours sees lakhs of residents from Kalyan and Dombivli travelling to their native place.

One can pre-book tickets at Vitthalwadi, Kalyan and Dombivli depots from February 25 (Sunday).

To avoid standing in long queues at depots while booking tickets, one can even book tickets online or get them booked through private agents.

The facility is provided to ease commute from Kalyan and Dombivli areas to Konkan. Every year, lakhs of people travel to Konkan for Holi, said Muralidhar Shirke, president of Konkan passengers association.

The preparations to allot additional buses during the festival begin in advance. We prepare the list of routes to be included in the services and send it to the state transport department. Based on this, the buses are provided, said Shirke.

Around 100 buses ply to Konkan during Holi from Vitthalwadi and Kalyan state transport depot. This time, 25 more buses are reserved for group bookings.

There are several residents who plan to visit Konkan in groups for them we have kept buses reserved for group booking, added Shirke.

The bus service will be available to Ratnagiri, Kase-Makhjan, Devrukh, Guhagar,Chindrawal (Garathewadi),Chiplun, Dhapoli, Poladpur, Mahad, Kalmani, Ovli,Diveagaar, Ambavade,Kotwal and Alibaug.

I visit my native in Chiplun every year for the festival to celebrate the occasion with my family. The celebrations overthere is carried out in traditional way. The additional buses helps us reach our native place conveniently,said Sumant Shirur, 34, who resides in Chinchpada,Kalyan (East).

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Booking starts from February 25

Book ticket at ST bus depot at Vitthalwadi and Kalyan Book ticket online at your home Book it online through agents.Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) try to win four of the six Rajya Sabha seats that are going to fall vacant in April this year? And will former chief minister Narayan Rane be one of its candidates?

These questions are doing the rounds after the Election Commission of India declared that the elections for 58 Rajya Sabha seats will be held on March 23.

Six Members of Parliament from Maharashtra  Rajeev Shukla and Rajani Patil from Congress; DP Tripathi and Vandana Chavan from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP); Ajaykumar Sancheti from the BJP; and Anil Desai from Shiv Sena  will complete their terms in April. The six new members from the state will be elected by the 288-member legislative assembly.

Currently, the BJP has a strength of 122 members in the state assembly, while the Shiv Sena, congress, and NCP have 63, 42, and 41 members, respectively. Going by the current strength of the parties in state assembly, the BJP can win three seats, while Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP can win one each.

Party leaders told HT that the BJP can make the effort to win four seats only with the cooperation of the Sena, which is jointly in power in the state with the BJP.

We can easily get three candidates elected in the polls as each one requires only 42 votes. We already have 122 votes, as well as the support of some smaller parties and independent MLAs. Our collective strength on the floor of the House is around 136. If the Sena decides to help us, we could get 31 more votes and make a bid to win one more seat. It will be a tough task as it will be open-ballot voting, said a senior BJP leader.

The final decision will be taken by the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, he added. The party leadership is also expected to deicide whether to induct Rane into the state government or give him a Rajya Sabha berth.

Madhav Bhandari, state BJP spokesperson, said, We will follow whatever decision the high leadership takes.

Ajaykumar Sancheti; human resource development minister, Prakash Javadekar; vice-president and Delhi in-charge, Shyam Jaju; and farmer leader Pasha Patel are believed to be among the probable candidates from the BJP. Like Sancheti, Javadekar, who was elected from the Madhya Pradesh constituency, will also complete his term in April.

Shiv Sena is likely to give Anil Desai, a close aide of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, a second term in the Rajya Sabha, said party leaders. Thackeray has called a meeting of all Sena MLAs on Monday.From next week, commuters will be able to use the three foot overbridges (FOBs) constructed by the Indian Army at Elphinstone Road, Currey Road and Ambivli railway station.

The FOBs will be handed over to the Railways, following which they are likely to be inaugurated by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union railway minister Piyush Goyal and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday.

We are putting the finishing touches on the Elphinstone Road and Currey Road station FOBs. We aim to complete the work and hand over the bridges to the Railways by Monday, said an senior army official from Bombay Sappers, a wing of the Indian Army Corps of Engineers (IACOE) constructing the FOBs.

Local trains will be able to resume plying on the CSMT-Goregaon stretch of the Western Railways harbour line extension between Andheri and Goregaon next week.The Bombay high court on Saturday, rapped the commissioner of police, Navi Mumbai, for failing to comply with its order directing him to personally look into the abrupt withdrawal of police protection to Sandip Kumar, the son of slain developer Sunil Kumar Loharia.

The division bench of Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice BP Colabawalla was furious to note the Navi Mumbai commissioner of police had flatly refused to meet Sandip Kumar despite the high court order.

Sandips lawyer, advocate Tanveer Nizam on Saturday, pointed out that Sandip had gone to the officials office thrice, but the police commissioner behaved rudely with him and claimed that there was no court order directing him to personally see Sandip and look into his grievance. Nizam said the police commissioner not only abused the petitioner, but also showed disrespect towards the high courts order. Nizam claimed the entire episode was recorded on phone.

Sandip Kumar had approached high court after the police protection provided to him was abruptly withdrawn, purportedly for want of payment of police protection dues  at the rate of Rs1.80 lakh per month. He has contended that he apprehends threat to his life, as the trial in his father Sunil Kumbar Loharias murder has started and witnesses are being examined.

Irked with the police commissioners conduct, the judges warned that they will not hesitate to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the veracity of the allegations made by the petitioner and take appropriate action against the IPS officer. How can he (the police commissioner) speak like this, the bench sought to know from assistant public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh. He is there to serve the public, they said, ordering Deshmukh to ensure that he tenders unconditional apology, failing which the court will have no option but to order inquiry and ascertain the truthfulness of the allegations.

Loharias petition states that his father had apprehended threat to his life and had approached the high court seeking police protection. According to the petition, Sunil Kumar Loharia filed a petition on February 13, 2013 and the petition was to come up for hearing a week later, but the developer was brutally killed on February 16, 2013.Abdul Subhan Qureshi alias Kalim alias Tauqeer, who was arrested last month in New Delhi for his alleged involvement in the 2008 blasts in Gujarat and the national capital, tried to bridge the gap between the banned Indian Mujahideen and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Known as Indias Bin Laden, he wanted to revive the IM network in the country.

He would meet prominent IM members at SIMIs head office in Kurla and conspire to carry out attacks. Qureshi, a resident of Highland apartment from Nayanagar area of Mira Road in Mumbai, was an active SIMI member since 1998  when radicalisation of Muslim youth reached its pinnacle.

He studied computer science at Bharatiya Vidyapeeth at Kharghar (in 1990) and Wilson College at Marine Lines. He worked with various software firms in and around Mumbai, including at SEEPZ in Andheri.

The first signs of his radical tilt were witnessed when he resigned from a software firm in 1999. His resignation stated that he had quit to to pursue religious activities. Qureshi, police sources said, enrolled himself into SIMI and used to give public speeches at Mira Road. SIMI, which called for liberation of India through Islam, was first banned in 2001.

His activities caught the attention of senior SIMI leaders who then used to visit him on a regular basis. Qureshi rose through the ranks and is believed to have handled SIMIs technical aspects owing to his education and work experience, according to the an officer from Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad. Such was Qureshis hold in the organisation that, police sources said, Safdar Nagori  the chief of SIMIs radical wing  used to visit him in his house and at times stay there. Police officials believe that Qureshi played a vital role in organising SIMI meetings before the 7/11 serial train blasts in Mumbai.

His name features prominently in almost all interrogation reports of SIMI leaders, who were arrested from Madhya Pradesh. Qureshi attended all meetings and training camps organised by SIMI in various parts of the country, including the ones at Choral in Madhya Pradesh, Waghamon near Alwaye in Kerala and at Halol near Vadodara.

Qureshi thus became a key SIMI operative. This is one of the reasons that he was roped in by IM founders Amir Raza, Riyaz Ismail Shahbandri alias Riyaz Bhatkal and Sadiq Israr Shaikh. Riyaz studied at Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Mumbai.

Hyderabad-born Salim Mujahid Islahi first recruited Bhatkal and others to carry out blasts in India. Islahi had contacts with brothers Asif Raza Khan and Amir Raza Khan, who controls IM from Pakistan.

Qureshi would meet Riyaz and Sheikh at SIMIs Mumbai head office in Kurla and they became the key planners for IM. Qureshi, police sources said, would plan the blasts and leave the city making it tough for them to nab him.Nearly a decade after the 26/11 terror attacks showed how the police force was vulnerable without proper bulletproof vests, the Maharashtra police still do not have the required number of such jackets. According to sources, it will take at least three more months before the bulletproof jackets are with the force.

The delay is owing to the police returning the jackets to the Kanpur-based manufacturer, after 1,430 of 4,600 bulletproof vests  received by the Maharashtra Police in the aftermath of the 2008 attacks  failed the AK-47 bullet test during trials.

We had written a letter to the company to give us a commitment letter about the time they are going to take to deliver the bulletproof jackets, which will be used by Force One and Quick Reaction Team personnel during an hour of need. We have been told that the companys factory in Kanpur was gutted by fire, said a senior official from the Maharashtra police.

The company, said sources, will be getting the jackets manufactured at Malwa in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh, and so it will take three to four more months.

We want to provide the jackets to our force as soon as possible but we cannot compromise on quality. We have not paid a single penny till now, said the senior officer.

A controversy had erupted on the quality of bulletproof jackets after ATS chief Hemant Karkare, who was wearing one such vest, was killed during the 2008 terror attacks.A 43-year-old autorickshaw driver was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing a man to death in 2014, in Borivli (East).

The convict, Guru Dasari and the victim Durga Shirke, 27, lived in Indira Nagar in Borivli (East). According to the prosecution, the incident took place on May 23, 2014. Shirke was sleeping outside his house when Dasari showed up with a sword in his hand around 4am. The convict assaulted the victim on his neck, face and legs.

There were five deep stab wounds on the victim, said KY Salunkhe, additional public prosecutor at Dindoshi sessions court. The prosecution examined 12 witnesses including Shirkes sister, an eye witness to the incident. Shirkes neighbours and siblings had rushed him to Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli (West), but he was declared brought dead. According to the police, Shirkes brother works with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority.

Dasari, who had one apartment in an SRA scheme, desperately wanted Shrike to secure an extra apartment for him under the same scheme. There were disputes between them for over a decade. The Kasturba Marg police had also found that Shirke and Dasari would often get drunk and have verbal spats.Mumbai doctors successfully operated on a 60-year-old farmer from Uttar Pradesh and surgically removed more than 11kg of non-malignant tumour from his right hip bone to knee on Saturday. The two-decade- old growth restricted Ramraj Yadavs movement. Doctors said that he has had three failed surgeries. If not removed, the tumour could have cost Yadav his limb.

Doctors from Lifeline Hospital, Goregaon, who performed the surgery, said earlier other medicos were not able to remove the entire infected part of the tumour. After the last failed surgery in 2013, Yadav had lost hopes of achieving any medical relief from the protruding mass

The patient was not able to walk or sleep due to the sheer size of the tumour. In the past five years, it had grown big enough to start protruding out of the skin. Being a farmer, there were high chances of infection due to the open wound, said Dr Anchan Oak, surgeon who performed the operation.

The tumour, doctors said, has also affected the nerves supplying blood to his leg, almost leaving him crippled. After his admission a week ago, the doctors first conducted a biopsy of the tumour cells to check if it was cancerous and decided to surgically remove the mass.

To make sure minimal chances of recurrence of the tumour, we removed some parts of the muscles. Immediately after the surgery, the patient was able to move his feet and lie down comfortably, which seemed impossible for over five years, Dr Oak added.

Yadav will remain in the hospital until the final test results of the tumour biopsy are out.The crime branch on Friday arrested a 27-year-old drug addict for allegedly raping a 31-year-old junior artiste last month by offering her a lift on his bike and taking her to a secluded place in Dahisar.

The police said the accused has nine crimes registered against him, including a rape case in 2008 and a molestation case in 2015. The other cases are of theft, burglary, assault, abusing women and drug consumption.

According to unit 12 of the crime branch, the accused, Pradeep Tiwari alias Chintu, 27, is a resident of Rawalpada in Dahisar (East). On January 12, the woman was returning home when she got stuck at Dahisar check naka. The accused offered to drop her at Vile Parle, but took her to an isolated spot in Dahisar (East) instead.

According to the police, Tiwari allegedly beat up the survivor and raped her. The accused also threatened her with dire consequences, if she approached the police, and took her mobile number, said police. He then dropped her at Dahisar railway station. The woman then called up her mother and narrated the sequence of events. The duo went to Cooper Hospital.

The Dahisar police registered an FIR. DCP, crime branch, Nisar Tamboli said the accused has been handed over to the local police.NOTICE:

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MUGSHOTS.COM IS A NEWS ORGANIZATION. WE POST AND WRITE THOUSANDS OF NEWS STORIES A YEAR,MOST WANTED STORIES, EDITORIALS (UNDER CATEGORIES - BLOG) AND STORIES OF EXONERATIONS. OUR CONTENT REVOLVES AROUND CRIME, ARRESTS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT. WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE...Sakinaka police arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly kidnapping a two-and-a-half-year-old girl. The incident happened on Friday when the girl was playing outside her fathers sweet shop in Sakinaka. The accused, Sandeep Parab, was crossing the adjoining footpath and in the CCTV footage, was seen picking up the girl .

As soon as the parents realised, the police were informed and a team was dispatched from the police station to search the minor. While scrutinising the CCTV footage, we spotted the accused in a blue shirt picking up the girl child and leaving. Locals were asked about the identity of the person and then he was tracked, said an officer investigating the case.

When police arrested the accused, he was interrogated after which he confessed that he had abandoned the girl in Kurla. A team of police officials rushed to the spot and rescued the minor.

We have also added section 10 and 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences act and 354 of Indian Penal Code, added the officer.

The official said that the additional sections were added as they suspect the intentions of the accused were wrong. According to police, the CCTV footage and the support from the locals in identifying the accused helped the police in nabbing him within six hours.Of the 185 civic engineers who faced investigation in the two phases of inquiry into the road scam, 84 were found guilty in both, highlighting the nexus between engineers and contractors responsible for construction, maintenance and upkeep of the roads, claim activists.

The probe was into the scam was divided into two parts  phase 1 covering 34 roads that were to be repaired at a cost of Rs352 crore and phase 2 covering 200 roads to be repaired at a cost of Rs1,700 crore. The report on the second phase of the probe which was out on Friday led to sacking of six engineers and 163 getting penalized. Most of the engineers named in the report had a supervisory role and failed to keep a tab on the work done by contractors.

While activists and politicians demanded harsher punishment for those found guilty, corporators alleged the civic body was bowing to the pressure of the engineers lobby. The punishment for those found guilty in both the phases that collectively covered 234 roads should be more stringent. The number of engineers indicted in the second report appears to be lower as engineers became cautious after the scam came to light, said a civic official.

Gordon Dsouza, a citizen activist from Bandra, said, The condition of roads in Mumbai is very bad, even though the standard of living is high. The punishment is a good move, but they should be imprisoned to prevent such things.

The message is out loud and clear. We dont want the system to collapse as punishing all engineers will hamper the citys development. The contractors should also be punished, said Rais Shaikh, from Samjawadi party.

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta has refuted any such pressure. We conducted an inquiry in a transparent and democratic manner. All engineers were given hearing and there was no injustice.

The road scam came to light in September 2015, when Mehta, following a letter by then mayor Snehal Ambekar on shoddy roads, appointed an inquiry committee led by then additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh to probe the roads repaired in the previous three years. In most of the cases, the inquiry committee found use of inferior quality material, and discrepancies in the thickness of the roads repaired and what was presented on paper. The inquiry found that at many places, the contractor did not dig roads or remove debris, but claimed transport bills for the work. The inflated and fake transport bills caused huge losses to the BMC, according to the inquiry committee report.Bombay high court records show that diamond trader and prime suspect in the Rs11,400 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, Nirav Modi, is involved in a 12-year legal dispute over a 21,500 sq ft Malabar Hill bungalow valued at more than Rs 300 crore. Hemant Bhatt, a Modi associate and director in the Modi-owned AMI Merchandising Pvt Ltd, was arrested in December 2013 for his alleged role in forging documents pertaining to the property.

Modi and his parents, too, were named in the FIR lodged with Malabar Hill police by Surendra Agarwal, who claims he was sold the property by its erstwhile owner, Najoo Bhiwandiwala, for Rs 70 crore in 2008.

According to available court documents, Bhiwandiwala leased two floors of the bungalow in 2003 to Modi, who wanted a place for his parents  Deepak and Pragya Modi  to stay when they visited India. Modi had rented the ground and first floors in the name of two his group companies, Dream Trading and AMI Merchandising Limited, for four years.

Bhatt, a director at AMI, had signed the lease agreement. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Bhatt was a director in 15 of Modis many group firms.

Modi and Bhatt claim that Bhiwandiwala had promised them that she will sell a part of the bungalow to Modi. This was allegedly written in a lease agreement that specified that a option to purchase clause. They claim they would have paid Bhiwandiwala Rs 15.90 crore within five years, according to the contract.

When she was alive in 2006 (she was 91 then), Bhiwandiwala denied signing any such contract. In December 2005, when Modi approached Bhiwandiwala to purchase the property she did not respond. Modi filed a suit for execution of the agreement and also deposited Rs 16 crore with the Bombay High Court in 2006.

In December 2007, Bhiwandiwala sold the property to another diamond merchant Surendra Agarwal. In 2008, in response to Modis suit, Agarwal approached Malabar Hill police in 2008 to file a case for forgery and cheating against Modi. In the complaint, Agarwal claimed on behalf of Bhiwandiwala that she never signed any lease agreement with Modi that included a purchase option clause. On her behalf, he alleged that Modi and Bhatt had obtained her signature fraudulently on some of the agreements. He added that Modi had removed furniture and fixtures from the premises without her permission.

During the investigation, the police approached the notary official who admitted that he could certify that the signature and stamp on the declaration was his. When the police went to record Bhiwandiwalas statement, they found she had lost her sense of hearing, and was unable to comprehend their questions. The police did not record her statement.

On August 22, 2008, the police filed a closure report, which Agarwal challenged. The magistrates court refused to accept the closure report and ordered a reinvestigation.

The second investigation took four years, and the police filed another closure report on July 20, 2012. This, too, was rejected by the court, and a third investigation was ordered. The police arrested Bhatt on December 4, 2013  six years after the first complaint. Modi, meanwhile, applied for anticipatory bail at the Sessions court.

In his arguments, the assistant public prosecutor contested Modis anticipatory bail saying he had breached the terms and conditions of the leave and licence agreement. He added that only a draft of the declaration was sent to Bhiwandiwala, and that no cheque was sent with the letter. He also said that on the date of the alleged declaration  August 29, 2008  Modi was not in India, and that the declaration was notarised on February 2, 2009 though it was to be executed in August 2008.

When contacted on Friday, Gulab Shukla, one of the notary advocates whose stamp and signatures were found on the disputed agreement dated September 4, 2002, said, I am 77 years old. I cannot recollect anything. Hindustan Times reached out to the other lawyers  Ishwarlal Sonawane, Madhav Phanse and GJ Rajani  but there was no response.

In December 2013, the Sessions court granted Modi anticipatory bail, but also ordered the police to investigate the signatures of the complainant, the notary advocate, and the advocate who signed the agreement. Police records show that this was not done, and another closure report  the third  was filed in 2016. Meanwhile, Bhiwandiwala had passed away.

The magistrates court accepted the third closure report, but passed a few strictures against the police saying, The material collected on record is not sufficient to issue process. There is no alternative than to accept C-summary report and to drop the proceedings. A C-summary report is filed when the case is determined to be neither true nor false or when the criminal case was filed due to mistake of facts or the offence is of a civil nature.

Modis 2006 lawsuit, meanwhile, is still subjudice at Bombay High Court. During the hearing, the high court had appointed a court commission to cross-examine Modi. The cross-examination began on September 19, 2013 and it was completed more than four years later in November 2017. Modi was asked 837 questions in his cross examination, during which he admitted that the cheque he gave to Bhiwandiwala was never credited to her account. Modis chartered accountant Ramesh Assar will be examined on February 26 and 27.Want to watch the state budget and your elected representatives debate on various issues in real-time online? From Monday, when the budget session of the state legislature begins, you can log on to YouTube and catch all the live action from the legislature on two channels.

We are creating two channels  Maharashtra Assembly Live and Maharashtra Council Live  where proceedings of both the Houses will be streamed live. The broadcast will continue till proceedings of each of the House for that day are on, said a senior official.

The official said this can be done for free as the legislature secretariat records all the proceedings and also gives video feeds to news channels. The same system will be used for live streaming on YouTube, he said.

The decision was taken to reach out to as many people as possible, so that they know what the government is doing for them on various issues, said Dr Anant Kalse, principal secretary, state legislature, refusing to share further details on the initiative.

However, recordings of the proceedings will not be available like other video feeds. Many times, some speeches or some names considered objectionable get expunged from the records by the Speaker. The objective of expunging that part from the debate will be defeated if recordings or videos will be made available on YouTube, said the official.

The legislature secretariat had earlier planned exclusive television channels for both Assembly and Council on the lines of the Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV. However, that proposal has been pending for the past two years owing to lack of funds.A Royal Enfield dealer from Andheri (East) has lodged a complaint with the Sakinaka police station alleging that his manager cheated him of Rs43.46 lakh and that he was responsible for 14 motorcycles that were missing from his showroom.

While filing for an anticipatory bail, the accused, Amit Singh, 32, claimed he had not been paid for two years by his employer  the dealership owner and complainant Nitish Rathi, 44. Rathi had started Synergy Auto Inc on Andheri-Ghatkopar Road at Sakinaka as a dealership store for Royal Enfield Bullets in 2012. Rathi, who also has a business catering to manufacturing machineries for plastic industries in Nagpur, frequents between Mumbai and Nagpur.

He therefore entrusted Singh, who was associated with the store since its inception, to handle it as the manager. Rathi said in his complaint to the police, Six months ago, my wife Reena found irregularities in the stock report. She then asked the accounts department for a fresh stock report. Reena found 14 Bullets were missing including 13 Classic 350 Bullets and one Classic 500 Bullet.

Opposing Singhs anticipatory bail plea, the prosecution said apart from the 14 missing bikes, the complainant found Rs43.46 lakh towards 18 other bikes, the payment for which was not made fully and the sales amount was not deposited in the companys bank account.

The defence advocate for Singh told the court, My client has not been paid his salary for two years. He has also complained to the senior inspector of police and the police commissioner. He is being falsely implicated. The preliminary probe found there were no sales record in the company software. Additional sessions judge JV Deshmukh granted interim relief to Singh till February 26.The Haffkine Institute For Training, Research and Testing in Parel has proposed the development of a national venom research centre for better diagnosis and treatment of snake bites in India. In addition to this, Haffkine is also planning to conduct a countrywide venom mapping and improving the availability of anti-snake venom.

In its letter to the central government requesting funds for the centre, the institute cited a Hindustan Times report on snake bite cases in India.

Nishigandha Naik, director in-charge, Haffkine Institute, said, When HT published its report on snakebite emergencies, it was the first such data highlighting the issue. It drew our attention, leading us to call for better facilities to address the problem.

On November 20 last year, HT had reported that of the 1,14,000-odd emergency cases related to snakebites in India, Maharashtra recorded 24,437 cases between April 1 and October 31 last year. The data was recorded by the health management information system (HMIS), an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

HT accessed the updated HMIS data, recorded from April 1 2017 and January 31 2018, which revealed that Maharashtra continues to report the maximum number of snake-bite emergency cases (35,025), followed by West Bengal (31,361) and Tamil Nadu (16,789).

In Maharashtra, maximum cases were recorded in Nashik, followed by Palghar and Thane districts.

This means an average of 116 snakebite cases per day over the past 10 months in Maharashtra and over 570 cases per day in India.

According to Haffkines, snakebites affect the lives of 4.5 million people globally every year. Over 2,80,000 people are bitten in India annually, which includes around 50,000 fatalities. There are 216 species of snakes in India, of which 52 are venomous, with kraits, cobras, saw-scaled and carpet viper being the major ones.

After consulting institutions from different states on how they plan to tackle the issue, we are now in the process of developing a concrete proposal, said Dr. Naik. I personally visited the health ministry to help with forest permissions and accessibility to remote areas through inter-department consultation.

She added that once the country-wide venom mapping is completed new venom compositions can be developed. The efficacy of the current anti-snake venom in circulation has gone down as several viles are being pumped into patients to treat bites. We will need samples from various parts of the country to understand the variations in venom. This will help develop a more powerful composition, which can address this problem on a large scale level across India, said Dr. Naik.

Doctors pointed out that snake bite emergencies needed to be highlighted as a notifiable disease. Snake-bite cases or deaths often go unreported in India. It can be notified only when reporting becomes mandatory for all medical centres from cities, district level hospitals and even clinics at the gram panchayat level, said Dr. YK Gupta, head, department of pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and chief of National Poisons Information Centre.After the cleanliness survey, Thane residents will soon know how liveable their city is.

Thane which is struggling to provide sufficient civic transport buses, manage its solid waste and sewage and control the increasing air pollution level, will now be marked on its public amenities, governance, economic growth and public readressal system. The ranking will be done under the City Liveability Index undertaken by the urban development ministry of the Government of India.

The Thane Municipal Corporation will start collecting data from each of its departments for the parameters mentioned in this survey. The data will be submitted to the government before April 10.

In June last year, the Centre launched the initiative to rank the quality of life through the City Liveability Index across India. Thane is among the 116 cities which will be judged in the survey. The survey will tell you where your city stands in terms of quality of life and the standard of its public amenities, the citys public transport, the air you breathe and the quality of health and education system. The cities selected are those with a population of more than one million each.

Sunil Chavan, additional municipal commissioner, said, A workshop to decide the framework for the survey was held in Delhi this month. It was decided that we will have to provide the information on all the civic amenities in the city before April 10. Next week, I will meet the TMC department officials and other government agencies in the city. We will start collecting the data under each of the category in the survey.

He added that since many agencies are involved, the data collection might take at least a month.

The cities will be assessed on a comprehensive set of 79 parameters in 15 categories including public transport, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open spaces and culture.

Talking about the challenges which the city faces, Chavan added, The city lacks in many aspects  mainly in the public buses. The city needs 720 buses, but we have around 300. Apart from these, we also lag in sewage treatment and solid waste management. The increasing particulate pollutants at the traffic junctions too are a cause of concern.

Chavan added that the municipal corporation though plans to start 24x7 water supply and smart meters, the supply at present needs a lot of improvement.

He added that the survey will be helpful for the city. Based on the ranking, the corporation will get help from the government wherever needed. We can get grants or technical support to improve in these sectors after the survey.

TMC still backward in providing amenities, activist

The city might be marching towards smart city. But, it is still lagging behind in terms of providing public amenities. Activists Chandrahas Tawade said, The transport system in the city is completely mismanaged and has failed to meet the needs of the population. The flyovers constructed along the highways are unplanned and lead to more congestion. The standard of civic education too is pathetic which is evident in the decreasing number of students in civic schools. The corporation has failed to develop its reserved plot. The city can improve its ranking if all government agencies work towards improving the amenities.The Thane crime branch is in process of sending notices to two Bollywood actors in connection with the call data records (CDR) scam. Police have not yet revealed names of the actors. Deputy commissioner of the crime branch Abhishek Trimukhe, said, We are in process of sending notices to two Bollywood actors. They will soon be called to the police station for questioning and if they are involved, they will be arrested.

On January 24, four private detectives were arrested by the Thane crime branch, Unit 1, for allegedly selling CDR illegally. They used to sell the data for Rs25,000 to Rs50,000. The accused Makesh Pandiyan, 42, Prashant Palekar, 49, Jigar Makawana, 35, and Samresh Jha alias Pratik Mohpal, 32, were arrested from Kalwa.

The two renowned Bollywood actors had purchased the CDRs from the accused, who were arrested earlier, a police official said. They are also checking the accuseds WhatsApp chats.

We have found chats from the accused mobile phones, which clearly show that they were in regular touch. They might have also created a group to deal with everyday activities. Investigations are on, he said.

Till now, the Thane crime branch has arrested 11 people in this scam, which also includes a police constable from Yavatmal and the first lady detective of India, Rajani Pandit. Her bail was recently rejected by the court after deferring bail hearing two times.

The police have seized more than 1000 CDRs from the accused, which are under scanner.

Police also said that the four accused have the link to the main accused, who is supposedly in Delhi. A team has been searching for the main accused at Delhi and other states.In a second robbery case within three days in Pydhonie, two unidentified people robbed a goldsmith outlet of gold ornaments and diamonds worth about Rs43 lakh. The incident took place about 100 meters away from the Pydhonie police station.

The accused took the digital video recording machine installed in the shop to ensure that they could not be traced. The police, however, are scanning different footage in the area to determine the accuseds identity.

The goldsmith, Manoj Samant, is in his early 30s and is a resident of Dombivli. His jewellery outlet is located on Abdul Rehman street.

Avinash Kanade, Senior Police Inspector, Pydhonie police station, said, The two accused pretended to be an income tax officer and crime branch official, and took the jewellery on the pretext of a raid. We have registered a case and are further investigating the matter.

The Pydhonie police have registered a case under sections 170 (personating a public servant) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal code, and have started the investigation.

Samant was not present in the shop when the incident took place.

The theft took place in the morning, while six workers were on duty. Samant was informed of the incident when he reached the office, said a relative of Samant who accompanied him to the police station.The Ghaziabad district magistrate (DM) has been authorised to finalise the rates for leasing the land needed to operate the proposed regional flights from the Hindon airbase. The farmers had earlier quoted the a very high annual lease rent in response to the rate proposed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The procurement of land on lease is vital to the project as the regional connectivity scheme will help operate flights from Hindon, thereby easing the burden on the already congested Delhi airport.

As part of the regional flights plan, the Ghaziabad officials were asked to scout for land adjacent to the Hindon airbase. The officials identified 7.5 acres land and sent a proposal to the AAI. The negotiations reached a deadlock after farmers quoted a lease rent price of Rs 1.5 crore per annum while the AAI quoted Rs 10 lakh per annum, officials said.

Now, to sort out the issue, the district magistrate has been authorised by the UP government to decide the rate at which the land can be rented. The AAI has also authorised the DM to decide the rate. We are now trying to find a basis on which the lease rates can be decided. The price quoted by the farmers is high and it cannot be approved, Ritu Maheshwari, district magistrate, Ghaziabad, said.

The land is needed to construct the entry/exit zones and waiting facilities for passengers. Only the runway of the airbase will be used for operating the flights. The facility is intended to meet a demand of 200 peak hour passengers.

Once we deicide an amicable rate, the farmers and AAI officials will also meet soon. We have also asked farmers about the basis on which they quoted the lease rate, she said.

According to officials, 90% of the land identified in Sikandarpur belongs to farmers while the remaining 10% is with a state government agency. Officials said an additional 35 acres will be required for future expansions.

The deliberations to start regional flights from Hindon have been on since November when the AAI officials held a meeting with Indian Air Force officials. During that meeting, various pockets of land, including the 7 acre one, was taken up for discussion.

The additional piece of land, which is being considered, will be used for development of a full-fledged civil enclave, including apron facilities.A constable belonging to the Accher police post in Greater Noida was suspended after three tyres of an accident-hit vehicle, parked inside the outpost, was stolen on Thursday night.

Police said the tyres of a Maruti S-Cross were found to be stolen on the night of February 22. The outpost is located in the Accher area of Pi -1 in Greater Noida.The car had met with an accident on February 20 in the same area and it was towed away to the police post.

The image of the force has been affected due to this incident and, prima facie, it appears that the allegations levied against constable Atar Singh are true. He has been suspended with immediate effect and a department inquiry has been initiated against him, Prabhat Dixit, public relation officer, Gautam Budh Nagar police, said.

Although police have refused to divulge details about the incident, sources say a complaint was filed against the constable Atar Singh to the senior superintendent of police Love Kumar by the vehicle owner after he noticed the tyres missing. Singh was alone on duty on the night of the alleged theft and he has been punished for being negligent while on duty, police said.

We are investigating the case and no one has been arrested in the matter yet, Brajesh Verma, station house officer, Kasna police station, said.

This is the fifth such incident in the last three months when personnel of the Gautam Budh Nagar police have been suspended on various criminal and disciplinary charges.Two unidentified motorcycle-borne criminals gunned down a medicine trader in Bihars Vaishali district on Friday night, police said.

Anil Thakur, 45, was about to leave for his home after closing his pharmaceutical shop when the criminals fired at him near Guru Chowk at Jandaha, 34 km east of district headquarters Hajipur, the police said.

Thakur was immediately taken to the nearby primary health centre, where the doctors declared him brought dead.

Protesting against the killing, hundreds of people on Saturday paralysed the movement of vehicles by placing the body of Thakur on the Hajipur-Jandaha road. Enraged villagers deflated the tyres of some vehicles and also raised slogans against the failure of Jandaha police in controlling incidents of crime.

Locals said Thakur, son of former up-pramukh of districts Sahdei Bujurg block, Sandhya Devi, had received a ransom demand for Rs 50 lakh three months ago. Earlier also Thakur had received such demands and he was provided two constables of State Auxiliary Police (SAP) for protection. The security was withdrawn last year, they said.

Vaishali superintendent of police (SP) Rakesh Kumar said the security to the trader was withdrawn last year for deployment of the constables in panchayat election related work. He said the police were investigation the murder from all angles.

Meanwhile, the state police headquarters in Patna have sought a report on the incident from the Vaishali SP.At a time when thrust is on data, the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH)  one of the oldest and busiest health hubs in India, with a bed count of around 2,000  has been struggling for the past four years to utilise its quota of internet data, available free of cost, under the Centres National Knowledge Network (NKN) programme.

Against the available 1 gigabyte per second (1,073,741,274 bytes) data, the medical college has not been able to utilise even the threshold 100 megabyte per second (104,857,600 bytes) since the NKN project was completed at the PMCH four years back.

An institute must first utilise 80-85% of 100 Mbps data to qualify for 1 Gbps data under the NKN project. Data usage at PMCH is low, as compared to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Patna, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, National Institute of Technology and the Lalit Narayan Mishra Institute of Economic Development and Social Change, which are consuming 1 Gbps, said Neeraj Sinha, technical director and state coordinator of the NKN project of the National Informatics Centre (NIC)  the government agency executing the project here.

The reason for our low data utilisation is because only 15% of our campus  the non-clinical departments, principals office and the central library  is covered with internet connectivity under NKN project. We have now requested the Beltron (a state government IT agency) to extend data connectivity to the medical college hospital campus and also make it wifi under the chief ministers seven resolves programme, said PMCH acting principal Dr VK Gupta.

Even for the 15% PMCH campus, data connectivity was restored after four months on February 22. There was some snag in our UPS system and its battery had also drained out last October. It became functional on Thursday, added Dr Gupta.

Our mandate was to ensure data connectivity reaches the PMCH. It is now for the institute to expand it within its campus, said an NIC officer.

A senior Beltron functionary said the PMCH and Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH) were initially opposed to having data connectivity, even as it was offered to them free of cost under the Central scheme.

The PMCH has a data user base of 400-500 people, which is not commensurate with the investment required to make the campus WiFi. The portion, which the earlier principal had signed off, was made WiFi some nine months back. The PMCH now wants to extend it to the entire campus. We have decided to execute the project and place orders with L&T, the executing agency. The survey has been completed. The L&T is at present facing issues with its suppliers, but we expect it to complete the project by March 31, said Rahul Singh, managing director, Beltron.In the annals and chronicles of Chandigarh, there has seldom been a journal more iconic and celebrated than the Guttersnipe. The word guttersnipe, to start with, was used for the common bird, the snipe, and later for a person who gathered refuse from gutters. The dictionary meaning veers towards a vagabond, a runaway on the streets, or a homeless outcast  a person referred to as a guttersnipe would, therefore, be one who had the mannerisms of one raised in squalor or a person to whom poor moral values could be ascribed. This pejorative word, itself, might be considered by some to be redolent of an elitist morality, condemning those deemed to be outside of its circle.

When a person is found to foray into the aforementioned activities or has a reputation that is far from stellar, the adjective for such an individual would be guttersnipish. The significant synonyms of this rare word are vagrant, down-and-out, a never-do-well, an alms-seeker, ragamuffin or, as in unqueenly slang, an uncommon bum. If PG Wodehouse was to describe a guttersnipe, and the greatest of the 20th century humorists failed to use the word even once, he would have probably taken recourse to words he was fond of, such as a cadger or a sponger.

The philosophical men who founded The Guttersnipe were no ordinary mortals, as history records, but imbued with the sensitivity and need to record the human condition in the storied corridors of the Panjab University.

This university alone, among the universities of Northwest India, extending as far afield as the green fields of Ganganagar, or the historic battle field of Kurukshetra, can be compared to an Ivy League institution. The chancellor is the vice-president and the tradition of learning is long and arduous.

A rare magazine

The Guttersnipe always had a loyal readership.It was hard to lay a hand upon the copies, and all the issues that were ever printed and published were cyclostyled sheets, with the contents and illustrations drawn out meticulously, somewhat on the pattern of the animated film Loving Vincent, commemorating the life of Van Gogh, where every slide has been hand-drawn and hand-painted.

It was the considered aim of the broad-sheet to reveal hypocrisy in all its resplendent forms and to deride the mighty, lest they undeservedly soar into the solar heights. For this reason, in the hallowed traditions of anarchic and revolutionary literature, the composition, compilation and confabulation, to capture the contents of the Guttersnipe, was a secret activity that was carried out completely surreptitiously.

When the end came, as it must for all times and seasons in the sun, it was, as it usually is, sudden and swift. The editorial board, erudite as it was, had failed to take adequate note of ground realities. Every boy and girl, who has studied in the university, has had the pleasure of tucking into makhan-toast, at breakfast time and teatime. It is a popular canteen snack, with a quintessential Indian name. In their exuberance, they had merrily and flippantly referred to a student leader, whose methods were often rash and unpredictable, as the makhan-toast man, which appellation was a spoof derived from the title of the 1973 film The Mackintosh Man.

Grimly detecting a smudge on the veneer and sheen of his unchallenged sway, the indomitable and well regarded leader called Makhan Singh was compelled to resort to strong-arm tactics. Among student-union leaders, leadership seldom flourishes, for alpha males, in the sterile effeminate mannerisms of mild and happy conversations.

Censorship and freedom of speech

Not one to be trifled with, and having been scathingly trifled with, he arrived at the easy conclusion that his leadership had been dealt a low blow. Determined not to allow the pen to be mightier than the sword and recognising even a sinister design, the redoubtable leader soon put precept into practice by recalling the old witticism of GB Shaw who had inspirationally stated, Assassination is an extreme form of censorship.

With the editorial board on the run, Makhan rampaging on the campus, copies of the Guttersnipe being seized by loyalists of Makhans injured pride, the magazine ceased publication for all time, in one of the darkest chapters of the saga of freedom of speech and expression.

When the four founding editors nervously emerged from the hiding of their underground and subterranean refuge, the matter was allowed to rest on the solemn assurance that such effrontery on their part would never be tolerated peaceably. Thus, they lived to tell the tales of their youthful forays into the exacting world of the media and I am happy to state that they continue to be meritorious members of society in Chandigarh.

( The writer is an IAS officer in Chandigarh)According to the Chinese calendar for the New Year , 2018 is the Year of the Dog. While China celebrates with unique endeavours for its furry mates, closer home things are getting better for our four-legged friends too. For most of us heading out for a meal or a shopping spree, even work, means locking up pets at home or leaving them in the custody of a caretaker. But all that is changing fast.

Be it an office space, a neighbourhood cafe, a cocktail bar or even a beauty store, an increasing number of places in the city are now going pet friendly. I felt really bad that being in the hospitality industry I couldnt take Donut, my pet Shih Tzu, with me anywhere, says 27-year-old Armaan Kohli. So when Kohli decided to open his own cafe, he decided pets were going to be welcome. It helped that his partner, Yogesh Joshi, an accomplished chef, shared similar sentiments. Housed in Sector 32, Chandigarh, Same Old Place is a small cafe and eatery that is dog friendly. Turning up after your evening walk with your dog isnt frowned upon. In fact, we encourage pet owners to meet up and get their pets to make friends too, says Kohli.

Realising that there are many pet owners who feel left out when it comes to having a good time, Lumos Coco, the cocktail bar and co-working space in Industrial Area decided to host a special event that was all inclusive for people and their dogs.

Ditto is the case at the Just Herbs store in Sector 9, Chandigarh. We have a lot of clients who walk in with their pets from the locality. We encourage it, says Arush Chopra of the organic luxury skincare brand. For Chopra, being animal-friendly is part of the business ethos as well. We are a PETA certified brand and our customers are mostly animal lovers. We never have and never will test on animals. So when we opened our first store in Chandigarh, we decided to allow our customers to bring in their pets, informs Chopra.

Realising that there are many pet owners who feel left out when it comes to having a good time, Lumos Coco, the cocktail bar and co-working space in Industrial Area decided to host a special event that was all inclusive for people and their dogs. The Doggy Style event was a one of a kind party and fashion do for small dogs and their owners. Highlights included specialised advice from professional vets, behaviourists and nutritionists for pets. Buoyed by the response, the restaurant has now decided to be the perfect place for small dogs to interact.

Thats exactly the thought that Abhishek Gulshan Bali of The Spice Cave in Zirakpur had in mind. We wanted to allow pets as it goes with the vibe of the place. We are renovating the space to make more room for pets. As of now there is a place in the lobby and under the stairs. We also offer food for pets as required by the owners, informs Bali.

Just Herbs store in Sector 9, Chandigarh. (HT Photo)

Its really nice to see places open up to pets, especially dogs, says Pancham Prashar. The co-founder of CueBlocks Technologies, an ecommerce agency in Manimajra, has made his office pet-friendly for seven years now. We have our in-house dogs, two beagles Chatur and Carlos, who make sure everyones always in a good mood, says Prashar. A couple of labradors, too, join in occasionally. They make for prefect stress relievers and are like buddies to the entire staff, says Prashar who feels the benefits are plenty and should be the norm wherever possible.

But there are a few rules for pets to follow. They should be trained and no biting or barking allowed.A magnificent eagle of the wetlands has again surfaced in the tricity region. The Pallass fish eagle was recorded at the Mirzapur dam on Friday, the earlier and first sighting of this species from the tricity region had come from nearby the Siswan dam on January 26, 2015. The bad news is that during that three-year gap, the eagles global status has been raised from vulnerable to endangered, given the fact that the population of mature individuals is estimated at less than 2,500 and declining due to a spectrum of disturbances to the eagles habitat, such as commercial fisheries at both the dams.

The eagle is known to hunt waterbirds as large as geese, pirate food from other predators and hunt fish in shallow waters rather than diving deep for fish. Latest research suggests that this eagle breeds in the sub-continent and migrates in spring to northern latitudes. This is in contrast to migratory waterfowl at wetlands such as the Sukhna lake, which spend winter in India but fly back to northern latitudes in spring to breed.

Three satellite-tracked birds recently provided evidence that the species undertakes extensive, seasonal migrations of over 4,000km from India to Mongolia and Russia. Tracked individuals also demonstrated a previously unknown capability to fly directly over the Himalayas at altitudes exceeding 6,000m, states researcher Marla Steele from the University of Arkansas (US), whose collaborators included raptor specialist Dr Vibhu Prakash of the Bombay Natural History Society. The satellites recorded that the eagles were flying at an average speed of 12-13 metres per second during migration and at altitudes comparable to the soaring migration of Bar-headed geese.

Soldier of Sukhna

Guarding the Sukhna lake reserve forests is a daunting task. Forest supervisor Ajay Kumar and watcher Sagar were on Thursday commended by chief conservator of forests Santosh Kumar for braving threats and foiling a groups bid to bury a girl child in the Bird Walk jungles. This group comprised of seven men led by Chandigarh police head constable Darshan Singh.

Forest & Wildlife department Watcher, Sagar, of the Sukhna lake Nature Trail. (VIKRAM JIT SINGH )

In his four years of service, Sagar has established himself as an expert jungle tracker, who can determine the number of Rock pythons hibernating in a burrow by the variation of slide marks. He can differentiate between similar footprints of Golden jackals and Indian crested porcupine by the fact that the latters nails punch deeper. A sambar wounded by poachers at night not only leaves a blood trail but also a splay of hooves that Sagars expert eye picks up instantly.

Son of late ex-serviceman Shiv Dayal, the doughty Sagar has his hands full, warding off youths wanting to intrude into jungles for sexual activities and groups indulging in liquor and drug abuse. The Sukhna nature trail is a sensitive zone and is frequented by VIP couples for walks and jogs such as high court chief justice SJ Vazifdar and British deputy high commissioner Andrew Ayre.

Come monsoons and fish poachers invade the lakes backwaters. Sozzled on liquor, they prove a dangerous lot as in earlier years, they have assaulted and wounded forest guards, Babu Ram and Paramjit Biloo, with axes and lathis. To his credit, Sagar has outmanoeuvred many a poacher gang and confiscated bunches of nets and hooks.

Elephants trending

Canadian PM Justin Singh Trudeau did not tweet on his meeting with Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh but he did globalise his passion for Asiatic elephants. Trudeau fancies himself an environmentalist and is radical when it comes to politically-correct terminology. He prefers peoplekind to mankind. The Trudeaus spent quality time at the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation & Care Centre, Mathura, on February 18, 2018. His kids fed elephants sugarcane, melons and oranges and felt the peculiar, velvety touch of gentle, dangling trunks.

The Trudeaus are not unfamiliar with African elephants, either. His wife, Sophie Gregoire, has an elephant named after her in the Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, along with elephants with such politically-prominent monikers as Michelle Obama and Martha Washington!

Trudeau, who posted a tweet with a picture of his Mathura interlude, also recorded a minute-long video conveying his concerns for Noahs Ark swamped by humanunkind. I am showing my son Hadrien how important it is to care for our wildlife, to respect the extraordinary nature that we have around us. As cities grow, as populations increase, we have to make sure we are taking care of elephants and other wildlife that have been here forever and are having to adjust to a world that is changing, declared Trudeau.

The visit underscored the fact that most Indians, even those living close to the Centre, have not cared to visit the elephants to express solidarity. Some of these elephants were rescued from ghastly circus practices and begging tricks.

Canadians were quick to fire Twitter potshots at Trudeaus Mathura tweet, citing the demand to rehabilitate the lonely elephant, Lucy, from the Edmonton zoo to a sanctuary, Trudeaus support for seal slaughter, permissions for oil industry and an overall questionable delivery on his manifestos green promises.

vjswild1@gmail.comNanis looks and his performance are the reason why this man is tagged as the Natural Star by his fans. Nanis roles are realistic and relatable, which makes him more of a boy next door than the star who has arrived. From his debut film Ashta Chamma in 2008 to his most recent release Middle Class Abhayi in 2017, Nani has made himself the quintessential middle class hero. He is not loud and his action sequences are power packed, but still restrained. In most of his films, its the characters intellect or his uncanny ability to escape situations that are in focus. The following are his top films IMHO -- Eega was more about the fly and Awe being more about the script itself did not make it to the list!

Yeto Velipoyindhi Manasu

The Telugu version of Gautham Vasudev Menons Tamil film Neethaane En Ponvasantham has Nani playing the role of Varun, whose life revolves around Nithya. As a kid they play together, but are torn apart after a misunderstanding and a relocation. They meet again as school students and break up again. This sequence repeats itself many times as they are come together and circumstances tears them apart. Might sound like a Hindi soap, but on screen it is one of the most beautiful romantic films.

Yevade Subramanyam

This is a coming-of-age film in which Nani plays an IIM graduate who was career driven and has brought around his life with the help of his friends. From trying to manipulate a man to selling his company to living in the moment, the character arc here is an intriguing one.

Krishna Gaadi Veera Prema Gaadha

One of the characters that lead actors would be worried about playing is to be a scaredy cat. That is exactly what Nani is in Krisha Gaadi Veera Prema Gaadha. The title sums up the plot, as in essence, Krishna (Nanis strength is his love for Mahalakshmi (Mehreen Pirzada). His journey from running away to standing up makes for an entertaining watch.

Gentlemen

In Gentlemen, Nani plays a double role and out of the two, it is Gautam who charms us. It was this role that drives the film, and it is also Gautam who keeps you interested in the script. The fact that the film begins with two women sharing their love stories leading to Nanis introduction is a great moment.

Pilla Zamindar

A grandfather wants his brat of a grandson to learn the value of human life. So to teach him a lesson, he leaves a will before his passing which has a certain number of challenges that he has to pass to get the wealth. The challenges that Nani faces as Praveen Jaya Ramaraju is a ribtickling watch.

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC

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ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopMuch before she won over people in her political avatar, J Jayalalithaa was the uncrowned queen and a very popular pin-up star of Tamil cinema during 1960s and 1970s. For all her reluctance to be an actor, her journey as one of the leading luminaries of south Indian cinema is more dramatic than any film script.

Jayalalithaa, 68, breathed her last on December 5, 2016 after a bitter 74-day battle for life.

Though born in the lap of luxury, bad times fell upon the family when Jayalalithaa was very young, forcing her to follow her mothers footsteps into acting in order to support the family. As an individual, Jayalalithaa hated limelight. In an interview to Simi Garewal, she had said, I have been propelled by fate into two high-profiled careers (second being her stint as chief minister of Tamil Nadu).

In 1961, when she was barely 12, her first association with celluloid came in the form of English film, Epistle, directed by Shankar Giri.

Her familys financial troubles compelled J Jayalalithaa to enter the film world. (HT Photo)

Ace director BR Panthulu introduced her in a leading role in 1964 Kannada film, Chinnada Gombe, and her performance in the film garnered a lot of attention. In 1965, she made her acting debut in Tamil and Telugu industries with films Vennira Adaia and Manshulu Mamathalu respectively. Her role as a girl with a mental disorder falling for her psychiatrist in Sridhar-directed Vennira Adai was well received.

In 1965, when Panthulu cast her opposite the charismatic MG Ramachandran (MGR) in Ayirathil Oruvan, little did he predict that the pair would go on to create history. They worked together in 28 films. Many of her movies with MGR - Adimai Penn, Kavalkaran, Raman Thediya Seethai and Thedi Vanda Mappillai - are timeless and memorable even today.

Jayalalithaa with Sivaji Ganesan in Chitra Pournami, produced in 1976. (HT Photo)

A little less known fact is that Jayalalithaa replaced Saroja Devi in Adimai Penn as the latter was married by then. MGR reshot the whole movie with her. The song Amma Endral Anbu from Adimai Penn also marked her singing debut.

Jayalalithaa was known to reinvent on screen and she didnt hesitate to take up glamorous roles, even if it required her to wear sleeveless blouses and tight-fitting salwar kameezes. She was reportedly the first leading lady of Tamil filmdom to wear Western clothes.

She had also paired with Sivaji Ganesan on several occasions, and theyre popular for working together in Tamil films such as Motor Sundaram Pillai, the full-length comedy Galatta Kalyanam and Engirundho Vandhal among others.

With MGR in the Tamil film Adimai Penn.

Her performance as a prostitute turned wife in Engirundho Vandhal propelled her to the forefront of filmdom. The 1972 Tamil film Pattikada Pattanama, Jayalalithaa won the best actress Filmfare award. The film also won a National award. Shes also known for her collaboration with actors such as Muthuraman, Jaishankar, Nagesh and Ravichandran.

Opposite Jaishankar, she starred in hit films Muthuchippi, Yaar Nee, Nee and Vairam among others. The Jaishankar-Jayalalithaa combination resulted in memorable films such as Naan, Bhagdad Perazhagi and Magarasi. In 1973, she won her second Filmfare award for the Tamil film Suryakanthi, in which she also crooned two songs Oh Meri Diruba and Naan Andral Adhua.

She also thrived in mythological roles, in movies such as Kandan Karunai, Annai Velangani, Sri Krishna Vijayam and Saraswathi Sabadham. In Telugu, Jayalalithaa had starred in a total of 28 films.

In Manushulu Mamathalu, she starred with heavyweights of Telugu film, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Savitri.

Undeterred by the presence of thespians such as Savitri and Jamuna, she proved her mettle in Telugu filmdom.

Opposite veteran actor Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR), she had starred in well-known films such as ace Chikkadu Dorakkadu, Thikka Shankaraiya, Baghdad Gajadonga and Katha Nayakudu. Her two films with Akkineni Nageswara Rao, another doyen of Telugu cinema, include Adrushta Vanthalu and Aadarsa Kutumbam.

In Krishna-starrer 1967 Telugu actioner Goodachari 116, she had no qualms of playing a role with a vampish slant.

In her solo Hindi film, Izzat, she played a tribal belle while her association with Malayalam industry ended with just two films, Jesus and Uppu.

With NT Rama Rao in Sri Krishna Vijayam.

In about a decade during 1960s and mid 1970s, Jayalalithaa had starred in over 100 Tamil films and at one point was tipped to be the highest paid actor of the industry. She also worked in few Kannada movies. She made her last on screen appearance in Tamil film, Nadhiyal Thedi Vanda Kadhala (1980), and by then was nursing her political ambitions.

In 1982, she became an AIADMK party member. In the political circuit, she was popularly known as Puratchi Thalaivi, meaning a revolutionary leader for her aggressive brand of politics. In 1991, Jayalalithaa was sworn in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the first time. From then on, her journey as Amma started.

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ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopThe Assam government will be observing September 22 as Rhino Day to generate public awareness on protection of the one-horned pachyderm, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said. A day dedicated to the approximately 2,500 rhino population in the state will be a tribute to the rhinoceros  the pride of Assam, the chief minister said at the 10th meeting of State Board for Wildlife here last night.

A State Rhino Project in line with National Rhino Project will be launched in Assam soon for protecting the pachyderms from threats of poaching, he said. The CM also asked the wildlife board to raise a quick response team to rush to the sites where animal deaths have occurred unnaturally. Taking into account the recent deaths of tuskers in railway accidents, Sonowal asked the board to initiate a survey of elephant corridors in the state with the help of the World Wildlife Fund.

Once the elephant corridor mapping in completed, we will hold a meeting with the Ministry of Railways to take remedial steps like creating tunnels or overpass for the elephants, he added. The meeting also discussed plans to form a wildlife health and research institute to study diseases of animals and suggest appropriate treatment mechanism, a government official said. A Special Battalion will be raised to protect wild animals in Manas National Park, the official added.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreFor the third time in a row, Singapore has registered record arrivals from India with 1.27 travellers visiting the country last year. Over 1.1 million Indian travellers went to Singapore in 2016. Visitor arrivals from India into Singapore has crossed the one-million mark, according to data from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

India has moved a notch higher in becoming the third biggest source market for Singapore, from fourth earlier, ahead of Malaysia, but behind China and Indonesia. Tourist arrivals from India also registered the highest growth rate of 16% among all other markets, according to STB.

Six others out of the top 15 source markets, including China, witnessed over 13% growth. We are happy that Singapore continues to be perceived as one of the must-visit destinations, Singapore Tourism Board regional director  SAMEA, GB Srithar said.

The board plans to focus on deepening and expanding partnership with travel trade partners, informed Srithar.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreMore than 100 girls are missing after a Boko Haram attack on a school in northeast Nigeria earlier this week, parents told AFP on Friday.

Parents in Dapchi, in Yobe state, said had they set up a support group after Mondays raid, which has revived memories of the 2014 abduction of more than 200 girls in Chibok.

Our first step was to compile a comprehensive list of all the missing girls. So far, we have compiled the names of 105, said Bashir Manzo, the chairman of the newly created group.

Heavily armed jihadists stormed the boarding school in the remote town, forcing terrified students to flee into the surrounding bush.

But with many girls failing to return home, fears are growing that dozens of the girls have been kidnapped.

Hopes were raised on Wednesday evening, when the spokesman for Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam confirmed the abduction and said some of the girls had been rescued.

But Gaidam on Thursday questioned whether there had been an abduction, while his spokesman apologised and said they had been misled for publishing inaccurate information.

Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter, Fatima, is among the missing, said the schoolgirls mothers and fathers would seek a meeting with Gaidam.

We believe he was misinformed. The school authorities from the beginning denied and kept denying that our daughters were taken, he added.

We will see the governor and seek his help, as well as anyone who matters that can in one way or another assist in ensuring the freedom of our girls.A landscaper accused of killing Toronto gay men was charged Friday with a sixth murder after human remains found hidden in large planters were matched to a missing person.

Bruce McArthur, 66, was arrested in January following an investigation into the disappearances of two men from a predominantly gay neighbourhood in downtown Toronto last year, which led police to the planters at a property that he used for storage.

So far, the remains of three victims have been identified through fingerprints and dental records, Toronto polices lead investigator Sergeant Hank Idsinga told a press conference.

DNA analysis is still outstanding on the remaining three sets of remains at the Toronto east side house, Idsinga said.

The three identified victims are Andrew Kinsman, 49, who was known to have had a long-term sexual relationship with McArthur; Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, who was reported missing in 2010; and Soroush Mahmudi, 50, whose disappearance was reported almost three years ago.

McArthur is also charged with the premeditated murders of Majeed Kayhan, 58, 47-year-old Dean Lisowick, and Selim Esen, 44.

Cases going back decades

I cant get specific about where the murders occurred. We do believe we have multiple murder scenes, though, said Idsinga.

Police are also reviewing multiple outstanding murders, unexplained sudden death cases, and hundreds of outstanding missing persons cases going back decades for possible links to McArthur, he said.

The investigation could take months, possibly years, he added.

Authorities have searched upwards of 20 planters at the east side home, and expect to return with cadaver sniffer dogs to comb for more possible remains once the frozen ground thaws.

Police are also looking at two other properties in the city, and have reached out to police forces abroad, where McArthur may have traveled, for help.

Police have not yet said how the victims died.

I believe we have evidence on how some of them may have been killed. But that is as far as Ill go, Idsinga said.

McArthur came under suspicion in September 2017 in connection with the disappearance of Kinsman, but police at first rejected suggestions that a serial killer was prowling Torontos gay neighbourhood.

According to local media, police made a quick decision to enter McArthurs home and arrest him on January 18 when they saw a young man enter his apartment. Police found the man tied up on a bed, but unharmed.

Court documents also indicate McArthur was convicted of assault with a weapon for attacking a man with a metal pipe in 2001.

He was spared jail time, but was prohibited him from soliciting gay prostitutes and from possessing poppers -- a recreational drug used in sexual encounters -- and was ordered to undergo anger management.

Last month, Idsinga said: We believe there are more (victims) but I have no idea how many more there are going to be.President Donald Trump cited China and India once again as the reason why he held the Paris Climate Accord unfair and pulled the US out of it, rhetorically mocking the notion that they were developing nations.

They called India a developing nation. They called China a developing nation, Trump said at an annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). But the United States, were developed -- we can pay.

Tump was reiterating a misleading argument he had first made in days leading up to the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Accord, a point he repeated during a speech to announce the pullout, that India was demanding billions and billions and billions of dollars for its participation in the accord.

But Trump appears not to have given up on the accord completely, as he and his officials have indicated they are willing to return in a re-negotiated pact, which other countries, including India and China, have ruled out.

He said in the CPAC speech. Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country. They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow too?

About China, his grouse has been that it has been given a late emission mitigation target deadline than America  you know, China, their agreement didnt kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately.

Russia -- theyre allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time, Trump said.

Read| US move to pull out of Paris climate pact could add 0.3 degrees of warming: UN

We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country, Trump said.

Defending his decision Trump said, You know, basically, it said, You have a lot of oil and gas that we found -- you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world -- we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much.

And basically, they were saying, Dont use it. You cant use it. So what it does is, it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. Its not going to happen, I told them. Its not going to happen, he added.

Read| Could use a little global warming, says Donald Trump as cold wave hits America

The President asked if people understood about the Paris Accord and said that his country is in favour of his decision.

Because it sounds so good. Its like some of the environmental regulations that I cut. They have the most beautiful titles. And sometimes, Id say, Look, Im just going to close my eyes and sign this, because you know what? Im going to get killed on this one. And I get so much thanks. The country knows what Im doing, he said.

We couldnt build. We couldnt farm. If you had a puddle on your land, they called it a lake for the purposes of environmental. I mean, its crazy. Its crazy, Trump said. (With inputs from agencies)Seven suspects accused of killing five South African policemen were shot dead by officers in a bloody gunfight outside a church, according to investigators.

The shoot-out erupted when police hunted down the armed gang that is alleged to have stormed a police station in Eastern Cape province and killed five officers and a retired soldier on Wednesday.

The group which uses a church as a hiding place was cornered inside the church premises, the Hawks police investigative unit said in a statement.

A gun battle between suspects and police ensued which left seven suspects dead and a task force member injured in the legs.

It added that 10 other suspects were arrested, while some escaped the scene near Ngcobo, the town where the policemen were killed.

Local media said the shoot-out had occurred outside the Mancoba Seven Angels Ministries church in Nyanga village.

The gang had stolen weapons from the police station.

Attacks on police are common in South Africa, but the killing of five officers provoked national outrage.

In the past, people would just accept it and move on but this time they are saying no, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office last week, said.

We want answers and we want arrests. When there is a disaster like this it should be attended to with maximum speed.

At least 57 South African police officers were killed in the line of duty between April 2016 and March 2017, according to the latest crime statistics.The US and Australia have called for a free, open, and prosperous rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region, echoing the central theme that binds The Quad, an emerging four-nation compact with India and Japan focussed on managing and countering the rise of China.

We are committed to fostering an Indo-Pacific region where all countries abide by international law, said the US-Australia joint statement after a meeting of their leaders Donald Trump and Malcom Turnbull at the White House on Friday. A free, open, and prosperous rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region is in both our nations enduring national interests, it said.

There was expectation in the run-up to their meeting that discussions would include a project the US, Australia, India and Japan were jointly considering to rival Chinas ambitious multi-billion-dollar One Belt, One Road initiative. There was speculation they could announce it, something officials had dismissed as not ripe enough, The Australian Financial Review reported.

But the two countries, who are close allies, did say in the joint statement that they intend to continue to use diplomacy and assistance to support good governance and smart development decisions in the region.

Though there has been talk of the Quad  short for Quadrilateral  for a while, the four countries are taking another shot at it in efforts that began gathering steam around the time of US secretary of state Rex Tillersons visit to India.

We've long had a trilateral relationship in the Indo- Pacific between Japan, Australia, and the US, and we're now working towards whether this will become a quad relationship to include India because of the importance of India's rising economy as well and I think shared national security concerns that we have with India, Tillerson had said in a speech before the visit in October.

The first formal meeting of Quad officials took place in November on the sidelines of the ASEAN meet in Manila, Philippines.

The participants agreed that a free, open, prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region serves the long-term interests of all countries in the region and of the world at large, Indias ministry of external affairs had said using the same language and terms the Quad members have tended to use.A report on grooming of young and vulnerable women in the United Kingdom has identified people of Indian descent as among those who plied them with drugs and alcohol for sex, and have been convicted and jailed.

The report is based on a review of a police operation called Sanctuary that saw 18 people jailed in Newcastle, north England in October 2017. Nearly 700 victims have been identified in the Northumbria police area.

Members of similar Asian gangs were previously convicted in other parts of the UK.

In response to questions after the Newcastle trials, the police confirmed that the defendants were mainly not white but came from a diverse range of backgrounds including Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Turkish, Albanian and Eastern European, the report released on Friday said.

In the case of incidents in Newcastle, the report added: (All) appear to come from a non-white, predominantly Asian/British Minority Ethnic culture or background.

In 2017, research by counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam Foundation found that of 264 offenders convicted for grooming offences between 2005 and 2017, 84% were of Asian heritage, mostly Pakistani; 8% were black and 7% were white.

The report said that the material it gathered and analysed illustrated the calculated and persistent determination of perpetrators over a long period to exploit women and girls through horrific acts of abuse, violence and manipulation, targeting and grooming the most vulnerable with a dismissive disregard for the criminal justice system.

It mentioned about an unnamed perpetrator: If convicted for rape in his home country, he would be beheaded or buried up to the neck and stoned. He was asked about what he thought about the United Kingdom and influences in his education.

He said you can get anything here  any sex, drugs, alcohol. There is no control. He spoke in a derogatory way about lack of morals in British girls and did not go with Muslim girls because there are not many of them.

The Theresa May government spokesperson said it would look carefully at the reports 33 recommendations, and added: These are abhorrent crimes that have had a devastating impact on the lives of the victims involved.The Palestinian leadership on Friday slammed a US decision to open its embassy in Jerusalem in May, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of Israels independence, as a provocation to Arabs.

The founding of Israel seven decades ago on May 14 1948 is mourned by Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe.

The American administrations decisions to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital and choose the Palestinian peoples Nakba as the date for this step is a blatant violation of international law, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) number two Saeb Erekat told AFP.

He said the result would be the destruction of the two state option, as well as a blatant provocation to all Arabs and Muslims.

Israel follows the Jewish lunar calendar and this years official independence celebration falls on April 19.

Israeli intelligence minister Israel Katz was quick to welcome the opening date.

I would like to congratulate Donald Trump, the President of the US on his decision to transfer the US Embassy to our capital on Israels 70th Independence Day, he wrote in English on his Twitter account.

There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend!

US President Donald Trump in December broke with decades of policy in Washington by officially recognising Jerusalem as Israels capital and pledging to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv.Taliban militants have attacked an Afghan army post and killed 18 government soldiers, the defence ministry said on Saturday, while a suicide bomber in the capital killed one person and wounded six.

Violence has intensified in Afghanistan since US President Donald Trump unveiled a more aggressive strategy in August with US-led forces carrying out more air strikes and the Taliban responding with bombs, ambushes and raids.

Militants attacked a government army post overnight on Friday in the western province of Farah, a ministry of defence spokesman said.

A large number of Taliban attacked an army outpost and we lost 18 soldiers and two were wounded, said the spokesman, Dawlat Waziri.

Waziri said he had no more details of the attack. The Talbian claimed responsibility and said two of their fighters were killed.

The bomb in Kabul on Saturday was the latest in a spate of attacks in the city in which hundreds of people have been killed and wounded.

The capital has been on high alert since a Taliban suicide bomber blew up an explosive-packed ambulance on a busy street on January 27, killing more than 100 people and wounding at least 235.

A week earlier, militants killed more than 20 people, including four Americans, in an attack on one of the citys top hotels. The Taliban claimed that attack too.

On Saturday, a bomber blew himself up on a road near the headquarters of Afghanistans NATO-led mission. The identity of the casualties was not known, said Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish.

Islamic State claimed responsibility in a message on their Amaq news agency.

Islamic States Afghan affiliate, which first appeared near the border with Pakistan in 2015, has become increasingly active and has claimed several recent attacks.

The Western-backed government is under growing public pressure to set aside rivalries and improve security.

President Ashaf Ghani has approved a new security plan for Kabul but it was not clear what steps could be taken in the city of 5 million people, which already has numerous checkpoints and vehicle restrictions.

Also on Saturday, at least one civilian was killed and eight were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car-bomb in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The Taliban, fighting to drive out foreign troops and re-establish their form of strict Islamic law, claimed responsibility.

In another attack in the province, a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army post killing two soldiers and wounding one, Zwak said.Pakistan said it was made a target of politics at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting, which has voted to place the country on its grey list over its record on money laundering and terror financing.

The decision by the 37-member body will take effect after three months after the completion of certain procedures. Pakistan will have to work with the FATF to prepare an action plan to tackle money laundering and terror financing, sources said.

Pakistans de-facto finance minister Miftah Ismail said his country was made a target of politics despite its tangible efforts to crack down on money laundering and terror financing.

What do [they] want? They just want to humiliate Pakistan. Pakistan is not a big money launderer, said Ismail, who is the prime ministers adviser on finance. If they were bothered about terror financing, they would work with us, they would see how much we have done and [what more] we will do till June, he told Geo TV.

Putting up a brave front, the adviser said that though Pakistan was placed on the list between 2012 and 2015, the stock market still grew by 3%.

Ismail said Pakistan would see no substantial effect on its economy if placed on the list.

He said the fundamentals of the countrys economy are strong. Nothing is going to happen before June [but even then] nothing really will happen to Pakistan. It is not a big issue.

The Dawn newspaper cited Pakistani bankers as saying they were watching the developments with mixed feelings of confidence and unease: they are confident that the move to put Pakistan on the FATF watchlist will not succeed, but feel uneasy because it seems there is more to this issue than meets the eye.

This impression has become stronger after the weekly media briefing by foreign office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal on Thursday, the paper reported. In response to a question raised about the resolution put forwarded to the FATF, he challenged that the real aim of this politically motivated move is to hamper Pakistans economic growth.

Top bankers are apparently confident that the FATF will refrain from putting Pakistan on the watch list as, according to them, most members of the global task force will appreciate our seriousness in the fight against illicit finance, Daily Dawn reported.America is no longer a nation of immigrants, according to a US government agency that oversees immigration and has emerged as Trump administrations chief tormentor for users of H-1B visas popular with Indian IT companies and professionals.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) dropped the phrase nation of immigrants from its new mission statement that critics have said reflected the Trump administrations general antipathy to immigrants, both legal and illegal, and that ran counter to the very ethos of the country.

The recently released new mission statement read: US Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nations lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.

Compare that to the previous statement, created in 2005: USCIS secures America's promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.

The phrase became popular from a book by that name written by President John F Kennedy that was published posthumously. It first appeared as a phrase as far back as 1874, according to The New York Times, in an editorial published in The Daily State Journal of Alexandria.

That editorial praised a bill passed by the Virginia Senate appropriating $15,000 to encourage European immigration. We are a nation of immigrants and immigrants children, it had said.

Its exit from the USCIS mission statement was announced by the agency head L Francis Cissna in an internal note to USCIS staff. But he assigned no reasons other than a general one: I believe this simple, straightforward statement clearly defines the agency's role in our country's lawful immigration system and the commitment we have to the American people.

To critics, that statement went straight to the heart of Trump administrations barely concealed antipathy for immigrants. There have been moving stories of deportation of undocumented immigrants  a long-time beloved teacher hustled away in front of his/her students, or a middle-aged man taken away from his wife and children.

Those here legally and hoping to stay on legally  such as Indian H-1B visa holders awaiting their Green Card have never felt more threatened and uncertain with a new threat or, worse, a decision thrown their way frequently.

As have people from nations targeted by the presidents travel restrictions generically called the Muslim ban.

Critics see a pattern and fear the administration was threatening the very character of the country by dropping the phrase. Unless you can trace your heritage to a Native American group, every single person living in the United States is an immigrant, said Suhag Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation, an advocacy group, in a statement.

The removal of language (the phrase  nation of immigrants) recognising this fact runs directly counter to our history and the very ethos of this nation. America is great because it is a nation of immigrants.The Trump administration and key Asian allies are preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating sanctions on North Korea, a plan that could include deploying US Coast Guard forces to stop and search vessels in Asia-Pacific waters, senior US officials said.

Washington has been talking to regional partners, including Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore, about coordinating a stepped-up crackdown that would go further than ever before in an attempt to squeeze Pyongyangs use of seagoing trade to feed its nuclear missile program, several officials told Reuters.

While suspect ships have been intercepted before, the emerging strategy would expand the scope of such operations but stop short of imposing a naval blockade on North Korea. Pyongyang has warned it would consider a blockade an act of war.

The strategy calls for closer tracking and possible seizure of ships suspected of carrying banned weapons components and other prohibited cargo to or from North Korea, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Depending on the scale of the campaign, the United States could consider beefing up the naval and air power of its Pacific Command, they said.

The US-led initiative, which has not been previously reported, shows Washingtons increasing urgency to force North Korea into negotiations over the abandonment of its weapons programs, the officials said.

North Korea may be only a few months away from completing development of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland, despite existing international sanctions that, at times, have been sidestepped by smuggling and ship-to-ship transfers at sea of banned goods, according to officials.

There is no doubt we all have to do more, short of direct military action, to show (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un we mean business, said a senior administration official.

The White House declined official comment.

The effort could target vessels on the high seas or in the territorial waters of countries that choose to cooperate. It was unclear, however, to what extent the campaign might extend beyond Asia.

Washington on Friday slapped sanctions on dozens more companies and vessels linked to North Korean shipping trade and urged the United Nations to blacklist a list of entities, a move it said was aimed at shutting down North Koreas illicit maritime smuggling activities to obtain oil and sell coal.

Tighter sanctions plus a more assertive approach at sea could dial up tensions at a time when fragile diplomacy between North and South Korea has gained momentum. It would also stretch US military resources needed elsewhere, possibly incur massive new costs and fuel misgivings among some countries in the region.

Boarding ships

The initiative, which is being developed, would be fraught with challenges that could risk triggering North Korean retaliation and dividing the international community.

China and Russia, which have blocked US efforts at the United Nations to win approval for use of force in North Korea interdiction operations, are likely to oppose new actions if they see the United States as overstepping. A Chinese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such steps should only be taken under United Nations auspices.

Chinas foreign ministry, in a statement to Reuters, said they did not know anything about the plan, but that in principle China believes UN resolutions on North Korea should be fully and thoroughly implemented.

At the same time, we hope relevant countries act in accordance with Security Council resolutions and international law, it added, without elaborating.

But Washington is expected to start gradually ratcheting up such operations soon even if discussions with allies have not been completed, according to the senior US official.

US experts are developing legal arguments for doing more to stop sanctions-busting vessels, citing the last UN Security Council resolution which they say opened the door by calling on states to inspect suspect ships on the high seas or in their waters.

Washington is also drawing up rules of engagement aimed at avoiding armed confrontation at sea, the officials said.

A Japanese ruling party lawmaker briefed by the government said discussions with the United States were focused on the need for stepped up cooperation on surveillance and information-sharing between Washington, Tokyo and Seoul regarding ship-to-ship transfers suspected of violating sanctions, and on the need to notify authorities in ports of origin.

The lawmaker as well as a Japanese defense ministry official involved in policy planning said that under current UN sanctions, the agreement of the flag state and ship captain was necessary to conduct inspections on the high seas.

I think it is unlikely that the UN will strengthen the sanctions so that inspections on high seas are possible without agreement, the Japanese defense official said.

From the viewpoint of the country in question, that would be an act of war, he said, referring to North Korea.

US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters in Washington on Friday the United States does not rule out boarding ships for inspections.

But US officials said privately that such action, especially the use of boarding crews, would be decided on a case-by-case and with utmost caution.

Some US officials believe the risk could be minimized if Coast Guard cutters, which carry less firepower and technically engage in law-enforcement missions, are used in certain cases rather than warships.

The Coast Guard declined to address whether it might deploy ships to the Asia-Pacific region but acknowledged its ties to countries there. Future ship deployments would depend on US foreign policy objectives and the operational availability of our assets, said spokesman Lieutenant Commander Dave French.

The more partners we have

A senior South Korean government official said there had been discussions over intensified maritime interdictions, including at a foreign ministers meeting in Vancouver last month where US secretary of state Rex Tillerson pressed counterparts on the issue.

We are discussing with various countries including the US and South Korea how to fully implement the sanctions, but I have not heard talk of creating a framework or a coalition, said the Japanese defense ministry official involved in policy planning.

Japans foreign ministry, in reply to a question from Reuters, repeated Tokyos call for maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

The ministry declined to comment on specific discussions with other countries, but said Japan continued its close collaboration with the US, ROK (South Korea) and the international community including China and Russia to secure the effectiveness of UN Security Council Resolutions to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The Trump administration has also sought greater cooperation from Southeast Asian countries, which may have little military capability to assist but are seen as sources of intelligence on ship movements, US officials said.

The more partners we have, the more resources we have to dedicate to the effort, said Chris Ford, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation. He declined to talk about discussions with specific countries.

Washington is especially interested in detecting of ship-to-ship transfers at sea of banned goods, something North Korea has increasingly resorted to as vessels have faced greater scrutiny of their cargo in Asian ports, the officials said.

Reuters reported in December that Russian tankers had supplied fuel to North Korea at sea in a violation of sanctions. Washington also said at the time it had evidence that vessels from several countries, including China, had engaged in shipping oil products and coal. China denied the allegation.

US interception of ships close to Chinese waters is something likely to be avoided, in favor of informing Chinese authorities of banned cargo onboard and asking them do the inspection, one official said.

Its probably impossible to stop everything, but you can raise the cost to North Korea, said David Shear, former deputy secretary of defense for Asia under President Barack Obama.The United States said Friday it will relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in May, bringing forward the contested move to coincide with the Jewish states 70th birthday -- and enraging Palestinians, who called it a blatant provocation.

Palestinians object to recognition of the disputed city as Israels capital, and say it could destroy a two-state solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.

Palestinians also object to the date chosen for the embassy move -- they call May 14, on which Israel declared independence in 1948, Naqba, their day of catastrophe.

Israels intelligence minister meanwhile congratulated US President Donald Trump on the embassy move, which had previously been expected to take place in 2019, saying there was no greater gift.

The embassy move is expected to complicate efforts to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians -- and jeopardize the traditional, if disputed, US role as an honest broker in efforts to resolve one of the worlds most intractable conflicts.

In May, the United States plans to open a new US embassy in Jerusalem. The opening will coincide with Israels 70th anniversary, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert in a statement.

Until now, the US embassy has been located in Tel Aviv with a separate consulate general located in Jerusalem that represents US interests in the Palestinian territories.

The new embassy will be initially located in a US consular building in Jerusalems Arnona neighborhood while Washington searches for a permanent location, the planning and construction of which will be a longer-term undertaking, Nauert said.

The interim embassy will contain office space for the ambassador and a small staff, she said.

By the end of next year, we intend to open a new embassy Jerusalem annex on the Arnona compound that will provide the ambassador and his team with expanded interim office space, she added.

Trump broke with decades of policy in December to announce US recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and a pledge to move the embassy, drawing near global condemnation, enraging the Palestinians and sparking days of unrest in the Palestinian territories.

It ruptured generations of international consensus that Jerusalems status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Destruction of two-state option

The Palestine Liberation Organization immediately decried Washingtons embassy announcement as a provocation to all Arabs.

The American administrations decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and choose the Palestinian peoples Naqba as the date for this step is a blatant violation of international law, PLO number two Saeb Erekat told AFP.

He said the result would be the destruction of the two-state option, as well as a blatant provocation to all Arabs and Muslims.

Israel follows the Jewish lunar calendar, so this years official independence celebration falls on April 19.

Israeli intelligence minister Israel Katz welcomed the May opening, taking to Twitter to congratulate Trump on the decision to transfer the embassy.

There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend! Katz wrote.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Trump said his recognition of Jerusalem -- making good on a 2016 campaign pledge -- marked the start of a new approach to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israelis and Palestinians alike have seen his move as Washington taking Israels side in the conflict -- a view reinforced by the White Houses recent decision to withhold financing for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas this week travelled to the United Nations to call for an international conference by mid-2018 in which the United States would not have the central mediating role in launching a wider peace process.

Trumps envoy for Middle East peace, Jason Greenblatt, and his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner subsequently met behind closed doors with UN Security Council ambassadors soliciting their support for a prospective Trump peace plan.

While the Palestinians want a new international mechanism to shepherd peace talks, the details of the Trump plan and its timing are still unclear.

The revised schedule on the embassy move comes after US Vice President Mike Pence pledged only last month to move the embassy by the end of 2019 in a speech to Israels parliament that saw Arab lawmakers expelled after they shouted in protest.

The hardest deal to make of any kind is between the Israelis and Palestinians, Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.

Were actually making great headway. Jerusalem was the right thing to do."This world is such a, and when I say this world I mean it, I dont mean it in an ideal sense, I mean in every day, every little thing you do. Its such a gimme, gimme, gimme! Everybody back off. You know, everybodys taught that from school. Everywhere, big business, you want to be successful? You want to be like Trump? Gimme, gimme gimme. Push push push push! Step step step! Crush crush crush! Thats how it all is, its like nobody ever stops," -Tupac Shakur

----

The revolution is being televised. In fact, almost every waking second of the revolution is being recorded. Will Smith said it best when he stated, "Racism isn't getting worse, it's getting filmed." Hip-hop leaders like Tupac Shakur might have agreed with the Fresh Prince's statement. 'Pac was the creation of Black Panther pride, a strong-minded soul who looked at the flaws of his nation and spoke for a generation who witnessed those same flaws destroy their communities. 'Pac had no love for the political system in this country, and neither did any of the rap heroes of the 90s.

The relationship between hip-hop and politics has evolved over the last thirty years. Being a child of the 90s, I recall rappers attempting to tear down the walls of the White House from the lawn. Legends like Chuck D and KRS One weren't physically ripping at the White House walls, but the movements they inspired tore at the fabric of America's political system. Nas dreamt of ruling the world, and giving Black people the ultimate freedom. Ice Cube acrimoniously denounced the prison and political systems that ravaged his country. These were our rap heroes, militant and rebellious, a sentiment they imposed on the children of my generation.

Things have changed. No longer are rap stars fighting from the outside. Instead, they've adapted to fight from within. The main difference between the political warriors of 90's hip-hop and today's artists, is, power. Think about the amount of marketing power someone like Diddy has. Think of how much reach and influence someone like Jay-Z or Dr. Dre has. The intelligent moguls that have survived the times learned something from watching all these years. Few things happen in Congress without money and power acting as a motivating factor. Not to discredit the exalted rappers of the 90s, but there have been few times in modern history where burning everything to the ground has worked. On the other hand, political parties, corporate bosses, tech-giant CEOs, and weapons and arms dealers have all influenced policy with large donations and questionable gifts.

Hip-hop and politics started off on two opposite ends of the spectrum, although one begat the other. If proper policies were put in place to help develop poverty-stricken communities in the 50s and 60s, hip-hop may have never been born. Instead, hip-hop was created by the struggle that horrendous politics help create and accommodate. Naturally, to the leaders who pioneered rap music, politicians were abhorrent. Rappers and politicians were immediately poised to be enemies because of their respective ideals, and the tension between hip-hop and politics is well documented throughout history. The F.B.I.'s letter to NWA and former President George H. W. Bush speaking disparagingly about Ice-T's "Cop Killer," are just two examples of the rancorous relationship hip-hop and politics once shared.

Of course, everything isn't perfect in 2018. You would be hard-pressed to find a rapper who supports Donald Trump. In fact, YG's "Fuck Donald Trump" plays at clubs nationwide repeatedly. Instead of reverting to methods that serve as a catalyst for more tension though, many rappers have instead invested in the opposition. Whereas Tupac might have suggested taking it to the streets, rappers like Killer Mike have instead taken it to the boardroom, working with politicians such as Bernie Sanders. Capitol Hill has warmed up to hip-hop culture as well. Politicians such as Marco Rubio, and more famously President Barack Obama, have defended rap culture.

If a time machine took us back to the 90s, and Cube, 'Pac, or Nas were informed that a president was defending rappers, they would never believe it. While I do harbor mythological levels of reverence for the hip-hop revolutionaries of the 90s, the evolution of hip-hop and politics has taught us there is a better way. Now, we can enact change from within.In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer and composer Ludwig Goransson had the chance to discuss his musical role in the Black Panther movie as he headed up the film's score, having to take a deep look at the layers of African heritage to craft the sounds of the blockbuster. While he delivered on several interesting snippets, explaining the process with which he constructed the score, the Reporter casually dropped off a tidbit of information that we all can appreciate when it revealed that Goransson hopped on the phone for the interview "during a break from producing the new Childish Gambino album with Donald Glover."

Despite previously stating that he'd soon be retiring the moniker and musical career of Childish Gambino after his next album, Donald Glover recently inked a deal with RCA records, announced at the top of the year, providing fans with a new shining light of hope of some sense of an extension on that promise. Now that both men have wrapped up the bulk of their obligationsGlovers filming for the second season of Atlanta and the forthcoming Star Wars film and Ludwig's duty in scoring Black Panther--new releases may soon be among us.

For Goransson, this latest endeavor marked the third time he's collaborated with director Ryan Coogler in an influential film, having previously worked on Coogler's critically-acclaimed critically Fruitvale Station and Creed films. I was incredibly excited as it was a dream of mine to score a superhero movie, Goransson told the publication. "I also felt incredible pressure to pay homage to African culture and its traditional music. Its not lost on me that Im a Swedish guy from one of the coldest countries in the world."

I traveled to a library in South Africa called ILAM [International Library of African Music]," he added. "Which has a collection of about 500 different instruments that dont really exist anymore. To be able to go there, record the instruments and use them in the movie it was an incredible opportunity."

Goransson also mentioned that he travelled to West and South Africa to get a jump on the film's score, even being able to send Michael B. Jordan the theme for his character of Killmonger to help the actor prepare for his role. He went on to add that he impressively scored the four-hour director's cut of the film, but an established catalog of written and recorded material from months of research made the task a simple one.The Pharrell x Adidas collaborations will continue in 2018, including several colorways of the popular Adidas NMD HU Trail.

Among the Pharrell x Adidas NM Hu Trails releasing this Spring are several "Holi" colorways, which are inspired by the Hindu spring festival celebrated in the Indian subcontinent, also known as the "festival of colors" or the "festival of love".

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Check out some additional images in the gallery above and stay tuned for a list of stores that'll have the sneakers in stock.Tekashi 6ix9ine is fresh off the release of his debut mixtape Day69 but it wasn't sure that the New York upstart would be in the best condition to celebrate his release. 6ix9ine has been stunting all over Instagram, taunting the numerous gang members that have taken issue with him due to his claims that he does not need to check in with rival gangsters, and his involvement in a 2015 sex crime against a minor. Notably, San Antonio heavy hitters Tango Orejon, one of the most violent gangs in Texas, alleged that if Tekashi made his way to his scheduled performance Thursday night in their city, that bad things would be coming his way.

TMZ reported that, as expected, 6ix9ine performed last night as the venue had ramped up security for his arrival. However, he may not have been as lucky had the Tango Orejon not been arrested on their way to catch him at the airport. Police allegedly recognized one member of the gang, Adam Rodriguez, while they went "child molester hunting" as he eloquently refers to his chase for Tekashi in the video below.

Rodriguez and several other goons were stopped by police and quickly arrested to prevent them from taking action against the Brooklyn rapper. Rodriguez was live on Instagram at the time of the arrest, documenting his journey to the San Antonio airport to catch up with Tek. 6ix9ine made it out of the city safely and the San Antonio goon was booked for making terroristic threats. In all reality, he kind of snitched on himself here. It probably wasn't the best idea to live stream the whole thing.or:

How to Succeed at Recursion Without Really Recursing

Tiger got to hunt,

Bird got to fly;

Lisper got to sit and wonder, (Y (Y Y))?



Tiger got to sleep,

Bird got to land;

Lisper got to tell himself he understand.



 Kurt Vonnegut, modified by Darius Bacon

Introduction

I recently wrote a blog post about the Y combinator. Since then, I've received so many useful comments that I thought it was appropriate to expand the post into a more complete article. This article will go into greater depth on the subject, but I hope it'll be more comprehensible as well. You don't need to have read the previous post to understand this one (in fact, it's probably better if you haven't.) The only background knowledge I require is a tiny knowledge of the Scheme programming language including recursion and first-class functions, which I will review. Comments are (again) welcome.

Why Y?

Before I get into the details of what Y actually is, I'd like to address the question of why you, as a programmer, should bother to learn about it. To be honest, there aren't a lot of good nuts-and-bolts practical reasons for learning about Y. Even though it does have a few practical applications, for the most part it's mainly of interest to computer language theorists. Nevertheless, I do think it's worth your while to know something about Y for the following reasons:

It's one of the most beautiful ideas in all of programming. If you have any sense of programming aesthetics, you're sure to be delighted by Y. It shows in a very stark way how amazingly powerful the simple ideas of functional programming are.

In 1959, the British scientist C. P. Snow gave a famous lecture called The Two Cultures where he bemoaned the fact that many intelligent and well-educated people of the time had almost no knowledge of science. He used knowledge of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a kind of dividing line between those who were scientifically literate and those who weren't. I think we can similarly use knowledge of the Y combinator as a dividing line between programmers who are "functionally literate" (i.e. have a reasonably deep knowledge of functional programming) and those who aren't. There are other topics that could serve just as well as Y (notably monads), but Y will do nicely. So if you aspire to have the True Lambda-Nature, read on.

By the way, Paul Graham (the Lisp hacker, Lisp book author, essayist, and now venture capitalist) apparently thinks so highly of Y that he named his startup incubator company Y Combinator. Paul got rich from his knowledge of ideas like these; maybe someone else will too. Maybe even you.

A puzzle

Factorials

We'll start our exploration of the Y combinator by defining some functions to compute factorials. The factorial of a non-negative integer n is the product of all integers starting from 1 and going up to and including n . Thus we have:

factorial 1 = 1 factorial 2 = 2 * 1 = 2 factorial 3 = 3 * 2 * 1 = 6 factorial 4 = 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 24

and so on. (I'm using a function notation without parentheses here, so factorial 3 is the same as what is usually written as factorial(3) . Humor me.) Factorials increase very rapidly with increasing n ; the factorial of 20 is 2432902008176640000 . The factorial of 0 is defined to be 1 ; this turns out to be the appropriate definition for the kinds of things factorials are actually used for (like solving problems in combinatorics).

Recursive definitions of the factorial function

It's easy to write a function in a programming language to compute factorials using some kind of a looping control construct like a while or for loop (e.g. in C or Java). However, it's also easy to write a recursive function to compute factorials, because factorials have a very natural recursive definition:

factorial 0 = 1 factorial n = n * factorial (n - 1)

where the second line applies for all n greater than zero. In fact, in the computer language Haskell, that's the way you actually define the factorial function. In Scheme, the language we'll be using here, this function would be written like this:

(define (factorial n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1)))))

Scheme uses a parenthesized prefix notation for everything, so something like (- n 1) represents what is usually written n - 1 in most programming languages. The reasons for this are beyond the scope of this article, but getting used to this notation isn't very hard.

In fact, the above definition of the factorial function in Scheme could also be written in a slightly more explicit way as follows:

(define factorial (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1))))))

The keyword lambda simply indicates that the thing we're defining (i.e. whatever is enclosed by the open parenthesis to the immediate left of the lambda and its corresponding close parenthesis) is a function. What comes immediately after the word lambda , in parentheses, are the formal arguments of the function; here there is just one argument, which is n . The body of the function comes after the formal arguments, and here consists of the expression (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1)))) . This kind of function is an anonymous function. Here you do give the anonymous function the name factorial after you've defined it, but you don't have to, and often it's handy not to if you're only going to be using it once. In Scheme and some other languages, anonymous functions are also called lambda expressions. Many programming languages besides Scheme allow you to define anonymous functions, including Python, Ruby, Javascript, Ocaml, and Haskell (but not C, C++, or Java, unfortunately). We'll be using lambda expressions a lot below.

In the Scheme language, the definition of factorial just given is identical to the one before it; Scheme simply translates the first definition into the second one before evaluating it. So all functions in Scheme are really lambda expressions.

Note that the body of the function has a call to the factorial function (which we're in the process of defining) inside it, which makes this a recursive definition. I will call this kind of definition, where the name of the function being defined is used in the body of the function, an explicitly recursive definition. (You might wonder what an "implicitly recursive" function would be. I'm not going to use that expression, but the notion I have in mind is a recursive function which is generated through non-recursive means  keep reading!)

For the sake of argument, we're going to assume that our version of Scheme doesn't have the equivalent of for or while loops in C or Java (although in fact, real Scheme implementations do have such constructs, but under a different name), so that in order to define a function like factorial , we pretty much have to use recursion. Scheme is often used as a teaching language partly for this reason: it forces students to learn to think recursively.

Functions as data and higher-order functions

Scheme is a cool language for many reasons, but one that is relevant to us here is that it allows you to use functions as "first class" data objects (this is often expressed by saying that Scheme supports first-class functions). This means that in Scheme, we can pass a function to another function as an argument, we can return a function as the result of evaluating another function applied to its arguments, and we can create functions on-the-fly as we need them (using the lambda notation shown above). This is the essence of functional programming, and it will feature prominently in the ensuing discussion. Functions which take other functions as arguments, and/or which return other functions as their results, are usually referred to as higher-order functions.

Eliminating explicit recursion

Now, here's the puzzle: what if you were asked to define the factorial function in Scheme, but were told that you could not use recursive function calls in the definition (for instance, in the factorial function given above you cannot use the word factorial anywhere in the body of the function). However, you are allowed to use first-class functions and higher-order functions any way you see fit. With this knowledge, can you define the factorial function?

The answer to this question is yes, and it will lead us directly to the Y combinator.

What the Y combinator is and what it does

The Y combinator is a higher-order function. It takes a single argument, which is a function that isn't recursive. It returns a version of the function which is recursive. We will walk through this process of generating recursive functions from non-recursive ones using Y in great detail below, but that's the basic idea.

More generally, Y gives us a way to get recursion in a programming language that supports first-class functions but that doesn't have recursion built in to it. So what Y shows us is that such a language already allows us to define recursive functions, even though the language definition itself says nothing about recursion. This is a Beautiful Thing: it shows us that functional programming alone can allow us to do things that we would never expect to be able to do (and it's not the only example of this).

Lazy or strict evaluation?

We will be looking at two broad classes of computer languages: those that use lazy evaluation and those that use strict evaluation. Lazy evaluation means that in order to evaluate an expression in the language, you only evaluate as much of the expression as is needed to get the final result. So (for instance) if there is a part of the expression that doesn't need to get evaluated (because the result will not depend on it) it won't be evaluated. In contrast, strict evaluation means that all parts of an evaluation will be evaluated completely before the value of the expression as a whole is determined (with some necessary exceptions, such as if expressions, which have to be lazy to work properly). In practice, lazy evaluation is more general, but strict evaluation is more predictable and often more efficient. Most programming languages use strict evaluation. The programming language Haskell uses lazy evaluation, and this is one of the most interesting things about that language. We will use both kinds of evaluation in what follows.

One Y combinator or many?

Even though we often refer to Y as "the" Y combinator, in actual fact there are an infinite number of Y combinators. We will only be concerned with two of these, one lazy and one strict. We need two Y combinators because the Y combinator we define for lazy languages will not work for strict languages. The lazy Y combinator is often referred to as the normal-order Y combinator and the strict one is referred to as the applicative-order Y combinator. Basically, normal-order is another way of saying "lazy" and applicative-order is another way of saying "strict".

Static or dynamic typing?

Another big dividing line in programming languages is between static typing and dynamic typing. A statically-typed language is one where the types of all expressions are determined at compile time, and any type errors cause the compilation to fail. A dynamically-typed language doesn't do any type checking until run time, and if a function is applied to arguments of invalid types (e.g. by trying to add together an integer and a string), then an error is reported. Among commonly-used programming languages, C, C++ and Java are statically typed, and Perl, Python and Ruby are dynamically typed. Scheme (the language we'll be using for our examples) is also dynamically typed. (There are also languages that straddle the border between statically-typed and dynamically-typed, but I won't discuss this further.)

One often hears static typing referred to as strong typing and dynamic typing referred to as weak typing, but this is an abuse of terminology. Strong typing simply means that every value in the language has one and only one type, whereas weak typing means that some values can have multiple types. So Scheme, which is dynamically typed, is also strongly typed, while C, which is statically typed, is weakly typed (because you can cast a pointer to one kind of object into a pointer to another type of object without altering the pointer's value). I will only be concerned with strongly typed languages here.

It turns out to be much simpler to define the Y combinator in dynamically typed languages, so that's what I'll do. It is possible to define a Y combinator in many statically typed languages, but (at least in the examples I've seen) such definitions usually require some non-obvious type hackery, because the Y combinator itself doesn't have a straightforward static type. That's beyond the scope of this article, so I won't mention it further.

What a "combinator" is

A combinator is just a lambda expression with no free variables. We saw above what lambda expressions are (they're just anonymous functions), but what's a free variable? It's a variable (i.e. a name or identifier in the language) which isn't a bound variable. Happy now? No? OK, let me explain.

A bound variable is simply a variable which is contained inside the body of a lambda expression that has that variable name as one of its arguments.

Let's look at some examples of lambda expressions and free and bound variables:

(lambda (x) x) (lambda (x) y) (lambda (x) (lambda (y) x)) (lambda (x) (lambda (y) (x y))) (x (lambda (y) y)) ((lambda (x) x) y)

Are the variables in the body of these lambda expressions free variables or bound variables? We'll ignore the formal arguments of the lambda expressions, because only variables in the body of the lambda expression can be considered free or bound. As for the other variables, here are the answers:

The x in the body of the lambda expression is a bound variable, because the formal argument of the lambda expression is also x . This lambda expression has no other variables, therefore it has no free variables, therefore it's a combinator. The y in the lambda body is a free variable. This lambda expression is therefore not a combinator. Aside from the formal arguments of the lambda expression, there is only one variable, the final x , which is a bound variable (it's bound by the formal argument of the outer lambda expression). Therefore, this lambda expression as a whole has no free variables, so this is a combinator. Aside from the formal arguments of the lambda expression, there are two variables, the final x and y , both bound variables. This is a combinator. The entire expression is not a lambda expression, so it's by definition not a combinator. Nevertheless, the x is a free variable and the final y is a bound variable. Again, the entire expression isn't a lambda expression (it's a function application), so this isn't a combinator either. The second x is a bound variable while the y is a free variable.

When you're wondering if a recursive function like factorial :

(define factorial (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1))))))

is a combinator, you don't consider the define part, so what you're really asking is if

(lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1)))))

is a combinator. Since in this lambda expression, the name factorial represents a free variable (the name factorial is not a formal argument of the lambda expression), this is not a combinator. This will be important below. In fact, the names = , * , and - are also free variables, so even without the name factorial this would not be a combinator (to say nothing of the numbers!).

Back to the puzzle

Abstracting out the recursive function call

Recall the factorial function we had previously:

(define factorial (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1))))))

What we want to do is to come up with a version of this that does the same thing but doesn't have that pesky recursive call to factorial in the body of the function.

Where do we start? It would be nice if you could save all of the function except for the offending recursive call, and put something else there. That might look like this:

(define sort-of-factorial (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (<???> (- n 1))))))

This still leaves us with the problem of what to put in the place marked <???> . It's a tried-and-true principle of functional programming that if you don't know exactly what you want to put somewhere in a piece of code, just abstract it out and make it a parameter of a function. The easiest way to do this is as follows:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1)))))))

What we've done here is to rename the recursive call to factorial to f , and to make f an argument to a function which we're calling almost-factorial . Notice that almost-factorial is not at all the factorial function. Instead, it's a higher-order function which takes a single argument f , which had better be a function (or else (f (- n 1)) won't make sense), and returns another function (the (lambda (n) ...) part) which (hopefully) will be a factorial function if we choose the right value for f .

It's important to realize that this trick is not in any way specific to the factorial function. We can do exactly the same trick with any recursive function. For instance, consider a recursive function to compute fibonacci numbers. The recursive definition of fibonacci numbers is as follows:

fibonacci 0 = 0 fibonacci 1 = 1 fibonacci n = fibonacci (n - 1) + fibonacci (n - 2)

(In fact, that's the definition of the fibonacci function in Haskell.) In Scheme, we can write the function this way:

(define fibonacci (lambda (n) (cond ((= n 0) 0) ((= n 1) 1) (else (+ (fibonacci (- n 1)) (fibonacci (- n 2)))))))

(where cond is just a shorthand expression for nested if expressions). We can then remove the explicit recursion just like we did for factorial :

(define almost-fibonacci (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (cond ((= n 0) 0) ((= n 1) 1) (else (+ (f (- n 1)) (f (- n 2))))))))

As you can see, the transformation from a recursive function to a non-recursive almost- equivalent function is a purely mechanical one: you rename the name of the recursive function inside the body of the function to f and you wrap a (lambda (f) ...) around the body.

If you've followed what I just did (never mind why I did it; we'll see that later), then congratulations! As Yoda says, you've just taken the first step into a larger world.

Sneak preview

I probably shouldn't do this yet, but I'm going to give you a sneak preview of where we're going. Once we define the Y combinator, we'll be able to define the factorial function using almost-factorial as follows:

(define factorial (Y almost-factorial))

where Y is the Y combinator. Note that this definition of factorial doesn't have any explicit recursion in it. Similarly, we can define the fibonacci function using almost-fibonacci in the same way:

(define fibonacci (Y almost-fibonacci))

So the Y combinator will give us recursion wherever we need it as long as we have the appropriate almost- function available (i.e. the non-recursive function derived from the recursive one by abstracting out the recursive function calls).

Read on to see what's really going on here and why this will work.

Recovering factorial from almost-factorial

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that we already had a working factorial function lying around (recursive or not, we don't care). We'll call that hypothetical factorial function factorialA . Now let's consider the following:

(define factorialB (almost-factorial factorialA))

Question: does factorialB actually compute factorials?

To answer this, it's helpful to expand out the definition of almost-factorial :

(define factorialB ((lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1)))))) factorialA))

Now, by substituting factorialA for f inside the body of the lambda expression we get:

(define factorialB (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorialA (- n 1))))))

This looks a lot like the recursive factorial function, but it isn't: factorialA is not the same function as factorialB . So it's a non-recursive function that depends on a hypothetical factorialA function to work. Does it actually work? Well, it's pretty obvious that it should work for n = 0 , since (factorialB 0) will just return 1 (the factorial of 0 ). If n > 0 , then the value of (factorialB n) will be (* n (factorialA (- n 1))) . Now, we assumed that factorialA would correctly compute factorials, so (factorialA (- n 1)) is the factorial of n - 1 , and therefore (* n (factorialA (- n 1))) is the factorial of n (by the definition of factorial), thus proving that factorialB computes the factorial function correctly as long as factorialA does. So this works. The only problem is that we don't actually have a factorialA lying around.

Now, if you're really clever, you might be asking yourself whether we can just do this:

(define factorialA (almost-factorial factorialA))

The idea is this: let's assume that factorialA is a valid factorial function. Then if we pass it as an argument to almost-factorial , the resulting function will have to be a valid factorial function, so why not just name that function factorialA ?

It looks like you've created a perpetual-motion machine (or perhaps I should say a perpetual-calculation machine), and there must be something wrong with this definition... mustn't there?

In fact, this definition will work fine as long as the Scheme language you're using uses lazy evaluation! Standard Scheme uses strict evaluation, so it won't work (it'll go into an infinite loop). If you use DrScheme as your Scheme interpreter (which you should), then you can use the "lazy Scheme" language level, and the above code will actually work (huzzah!). We'll see why below, but for now I want to stick to standard (strict) Scheme and approach the problem in a slightly different way.

Let's define a couple of functions:

(define identity (lambda (x) x)) (define factorial0 (almost-factorial identity))

The identity function is pretty simple: it takes in a single argument and returns it unchanged (it's also a combinator, as I hope you can tell). We're basically going to use it as a placeholder when we need to pass a function as an argument and we don't know what function we should pass.

factorial0 is more interesting. It's a function that can compute some, but not all factorials. Specifically, it can compute the factorials up to and including the factorial of zero (which means that it can only compute the factorial of zero, but you'll soon see why I describe it this way). Let's verify that:

(factorial0 0) ==> ((almost-factorial identity) 0) ==> (((lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1)))))) identity) 0) ==> ((lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (identity (- n 1))))) 0) ==> (if (= 0 0) 1 (* 0 (identity (- 0 1)))) ==> (if #t 1 (* 0 (identity (- 0 1)))) ==> 1

OK, so it works. Unfortunately, it won't work for n > 0 . For instance, if n = 1 then we'll have (skipping a few obvious steps):

(factorial0 1) ==> (* 1 (identity (- 1 1))) ==> (* 1 (identity 0)) ==> (* 1 0) ==> 0

which is not the correct answer.

Now consider this spiffed-up version of factorial0 :

(define factorial1 (almost-factorial factorial0))

which is the same thing as:

(define factorial1 (almost-factorial (almost-factorial identity)))

This will correctly compute the factorials of 0 and 1 , but it will be incorrect for any n > 1 . Let's verify this as well, again skipping some obvious steps:

(factorial1 0) ==> ((almost-factorial factorial0) 0) ==> 1 (via essentially the same derivation we showed above) (factorial1 1) ==> ((almost-factorial factorial0) 1) ==> (((lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1)))))) factorial0) 1) ==> ((lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial0 (- n 1))))) 1) ==> (if (= 1 0) 1 (* 1 (factorial0 (- 1 1)))) ==> (if #f 1 (* 1 (factorial0 (- 1 1)))) ==> (* 1 (factorial0 (- 1 1))) ==> (* 1 (factorial0 0)) ==> (* 1 1) ==> 1

which is the correct answer. So factorial1 can compute factorials for n = 0 and n = 1 . You can verify, though, that it won't be correct for n > 1 .

We can keep going, and define functions which can compute factorials up to any particular limit:

(define factorial2 (almost-factorial factorial1)) (define factorial3 (almost-factorial factorial2)) (define factorial4 (almost-factorial factorial3)) (define factorial5 (almost-factorial factorial4)) etc.

factorial2 will compute correct factorials for inputs between 0 and 2 , factorial3 will compute correct factorials for inputs between 0 and 3 , and so on. You should be able to verify this for yourself using the above derivations as models, though you probably won't be able to do it in your head (at least, I can't do it in my head).

One interesting way of looking at this is that almost-factorial takes in a crappy factorial function and outputs a factorial function that is slightly less crappy, in that it will handle exactly one extra value of the input correctly.

Note that you can again rewrite the definitions of the factorial functions like this:

(define factorial0 (almost-factorial identity)) (define factorial1 (almost-factorial (almost-factorial identity))) (define factorial2 (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial identity)))) (define factorial3 (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial identity))))) (define factorial4 (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial identity)))))) (define factorial5 (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial identity)))))))

and so on. Again, if you're very clever you might wonder if you could do this:

(define factorial-infinity (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial ...))))

where the ... means that you're repeating the chain of almost-factorials an infinite number of times. If you did wonder this, go to the head of the class! Unfortunately, we can't write this out directly, but we can define the equivalent of this. Note also that factorial-infinity is just the factorial function we want: it works on all integers greater than or equal to zero.

What we have shown is that if we could define an infinite chain of almost-factorials , that would give us the factorial function. Another way of saying this is that the factorial function is the fixpoint of almost-factorial , which is what I will explain next.

Fixpoints of functions

The notion of a fixpoint should be familiar to anyone who has amused themselves playing with a pocket calculator. You start with 0 and hit the cos (cosine) key repeatedly. What you find is that the answer rapidly converges to a number which is (approximately) 0.73908513321516067 ; hitting the cos key again doesn't change anything because cos(0.73908513321516067) = 0.73908513321516067 . We say that the number 0.73908513321516067 is a fixpoint of the cosine function.

The cosine function takes a single input value (a real number) and produces a single output value (also a real number). The fact that the input and output of the function are the same type is what allows you to apply it repeatedly, so that if x is a real number, we can calculate what cos(x) is, and since that will also be a real number, we can calculate what cos(cos(x)) is, and then what cos(cos(cos(x))) is, and so on. The fixpoint is the value x where cos(x) = x .

Fixpoints don't have to be real numbers. In fact, they can be any type of thing, as long as the function that generates them can take the same type of thing as input as it produces as output. Most importantly for our discussion, fixpoints can be functions. If you have a higher-order function like almost-factorial that takes in a function as its input and produces a function as its output (with both input and output functions taking a single integer argument as input and producing a single integer as output), then it should be possible to compute its fixpoint (which will, naturally, be a function which takes a single integer argument as input and produces a single integer as output). That fixpoint function will be the function for which

fixpoint-function = (almost-factorial fixpoint-function)

By repeatedly substituting the right-hand side of that equation into the fixpoint-function on the right, we get:

fixpoint-function = (almost-factorial (almost-factorial fixpoint-function)) = (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial fixpoint-function))) = ... = (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial ...)))))

As we saw above, this will be the factorial function we want. Thus, the fixpoint of almost-factorial will be the factorial function:

factorial = (almost-factorial factorial) = (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial (almost-factorial ...)))))

That's all well and good, but just knowing that factorial is the fixpoint of almost-factorial doesn't tell us how to compute it. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some magical higher-order function that would take as its input a function like almost-factorial , and would output its fixpoint function, which in that case would be factorial ? Wouldn't that be really freakin' sweet?

That function exists, and it's the Y combinator. Y is also known as the fixpoint combinator: it takes in a function and returns its fixpoint.

Eliminating (most) explicit recursion (lazy version)

OK, it's time to derive Y.

Let's start by specifying what Y does:

(Y f) = fixpoint-of-f

What do we know about the fixpoint of f ? We know that

(f fixpoint-of-f) = fixpoint-of-f

by the definition of what a fixpoint of a function is. Therefore, we have:

(Y f) = fixpoint-of-f = (f fixpoint-of-f)

and we can substitute (Y f) for fixpoint-of-f to get:

(Y f) = (f (Y f))

Voila! We've just defined Y. If we want it to be expressed as a Scheme function, we would have to write it like this:

(define (Y f) (f (Y f)))

or, using an explicit lambda expression, as:

(define Y (lambda (f) (f (Y f))))

However, there are two caveats regarding this definition of Y:

It will only work in a lazy language (see below). It is not a combinator, because the Y in the body of the definition is a free variable which is only bound once the definition is complete. In other words, we couldn't just take the body of this version of Y and plop it in wherever we needed it, because it requires that the name Y be defined somewhere.

Nevertheless, if you're using lazy Scheme, you can indeed define factorials like this:

(define Y (lambda (f) (f (Y f)))) (define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial (Y almost-factorial))

and it will work correctly.

What have we accomplished? We originally wanted to be able to define the factorial function without using any explicitly recursive functions at all. We've almost done that. Our definition of Y is still explicitly recursive. However, we've taken a giant step, because this is the only function in our language that needs to be explicitly recursive in order to define recursive functions. With this version of Y we can go ahead and define other recursive functions (for instance, defining fibonacci as (Y almost-fibonacci) ).

Eliminating (most) explicit recursion (strict version)

I said above that the definition of Y that we derived wouldn't work in a strict language (like standard Scheme). In a strict language, we evaluate all the arguments to a function call before applying the function to its arguments, whether or not those arguments are needed. So if we have a function f and we try to evaluate (Y f) using the above definition, we get:

(Y f) = (f (Y f)) = (f (f (Y f))) = (f (f (f (Y f)))) etc.

and so on ad infinitum. The evaluation of (Y f) will never terminate, so we will never get a usable function out of it. This definition of Y doesn't work for strict languages.

However, there is a clever hack that we can use to save the day and define a version of Y that works in strict languages. The trick is to realize that (Y f) is going to become a function of one argument. Therefore, this equality will hold:

(Y f) = (lambda (x) ((Y f) x))

Whatever one-argument function (Y f) is, (lambda (x) ((Y f) x)) has to be the same function. All you're doing is taking in a single input value x and giving it to the function defined by (Y f) . In a similar way, this will be true:

cos = (lambda (x) (cos x))

It doesn't matter whether you use cos or (lambda (x) (cos x)) as your cosine function; they will both do the same thing.

However, it turns out that (lambda (x) ((Y f) x)) has a big advantage when defining Y in a strict language. By the reasoning given above, we should be able to define Y as follows:

(define Y (lambda (f) (f (lambda (x) ((Y f) x)))))

Since we know that (lambda (x) ((Y f) x)) is the same function as (Y f) , this is a valid version of Y which will work just as well as the previous version, even though it's a bit more complicated (and perhaps a tiny bit slower in practice). We could use this version of Y to define the factorial function in lazy Scheme, and it would work fine.

The cool thing about this version of Y is that it will also work in a strict language (like standard Scheme)! The reason for this is that when you give Y a particular f to find the fixpoint of, it will return

(Y f) = (f (lambda (x) ((Y f) x)))

This time, there is no infinite loop, because the inner (Y f) is kept inside a lambda expression, where it sits until it's needed (since the body of a lambda expression is never evaluated in Scheme until the lambda expression is applied to its arguments). Basically, you're using the lambda to delay the evaluation of (Y f) . So if f was almost-factorial , we would have this:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial (Y almost-factorial))

Expanding out the call to Y, we have:

(define factorial ((lambda (f) (f (lambda (x) ((Y f) x)))) almost-factorial)) ==> (define factorial (almost-factorial (lambda (x) ((Y almost-factorial) x)))) ==> (define factorial (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n ((lambda (x) ((Y almost-factorial) x)) (- n 1))))))

Here again, (lambda (x) ((Y almost-factorial) x)) is the same function as (Y almost-factorial) , which is the fixpoint of almost-factorial , which is just the factorial function. However, the (Y almost-factorial) in (lambda (x) ((Y almost-factorial) x)) won't be evaluated until the entire lambda expression is applied to its argument, which won't happen until later (or not at all, for the factorial of zero). Therefore this factorial function will work in a strict language, and the version of Y used to define it will also work in a strict language.

I realize that the preceding discussion and derivation is nontrivial, so don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away. Just sleep on it, play with it in your mind and with your trusty DrScheme interpreter, and you'll eventually get it.

At this point, we've accomplished everything we've set out to accomplish, except for one tiny little detail: we haven't yet derived the Y combinator itself.

Deriving the Y combinator

The lazy (normal-order) Y combinator

At this point, we want to define not just Y, but a Y combinator. Note that the previous (lazy) definition of Y:

(define Y (lambda (f) (f (Y f))))

is a valid definition of Y but is not a Y combinator, since the definition of Y refers to Y itself. In other words, this definition is explicitly recursive. A combinator isn't allowed to be explicitly recursive; it has to be a lambda expression with no free variables (as I mentioned above), which means that it can't refer to its own name (if it even has a name) in its definition. If it did, the name would be a free variable in the definition, as we have in our definition of Y:

(lambda (f) (f (Y f)))

Note that Y in this definition is free; it isn't the bound variable of any lambda expression. So this is not a combinator.

Another way to think about this is that you should be able to replace the name of a combinator with its definition everywhere it's found and have everything still work. (Can you see why this wouldn't work with the explicitly recursive definition of Y? You would get into an infinite loop and you'd never be able to replace all the Ys with their definitions.) So whatever the Y combinator will be, it will not be explicitly recursive. From this non-recursive function we will be able to define whatever recursive functions we want.

I'm going to go back a bit to our original problem and derive a Y combinator from the bottom up. After I've done that I'll check to make sure that it is a fixpoint combinator, like the versions of Y we've already seen. In what follows I will borrow (steal) liberally from a very elegant derivation of the Y combinator sent to me by Eli Barzilay (thanks, Eli!), who is one of the DrScheme developers and an all-around Scheme uberstud.

Recall our original recursive factorial function:

(define (factorial n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (factorial (- n 1)))))

Recall that we want to define a version of this without the explicit recursion. One way we could do this is to pass the factorial function itself as an extra argument when you call the function:

;; This won't work yet: (define (part-factorial self n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (self (- n 1)))))

Note that part-factorial is not the same as the almost-factorial function described above. We would have to call this part-factorial function in a different way to get it to compute factorials:

(part-factorial part-factorial 5) ==> 120

This is not explicitly recursive because we send along an extra copy of the part-factorial function as the self argument. However, it won't work unless the point of recursion calls the function the exact same way:

(define (part-factorial self n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (self self (- n 1))))) ;; note the extra "self" here (part-factorial part-factorial 5) ==> 120

This works, but now we have moved away from our original way of calling the factorial function. We can move back to something closer to our original version by rewriting it like this:

(define (part-factorial self) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n ((self self) (- n 1)))))) ((part-factorial part-factorial) 5) ==> 120 (define factorial (part-factorial part-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

Pause for a second here. Notice that we've already defined a version of the factorial function without using explicit recursion anywhere! This is the most crucial step. Everything else we do will be concerned with packaging what we've already done so that we can easily re-use it with other functions.

Now let's try to get back something like our almost-factorial function by pulling out the (self self) call using a let expression outside of a lambda :

(define (part-factorial self) (let ((f (self self))) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial (part-factorial part-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

This will work fine in a lazy language. In a strict language, the (self self) call in the let statement will send us into an infinite loop, because in order to calculate (part-factorial part-factorial) (in the definition of factorial ) you will first have to calculate (part-factorial part-factorial) (in the let expression). (For fun: figure out why this wasn't a problem with the previous definition.) I'll let this go for now, because I want to define the lazy Y combinator, but in the next section I'll solve this problem in the same way we solved it before (by wrapping a lambda around the (self self) call). Note that in a lazy language, the (self self) call in the let statement will never be evaluated unless f is actually needed (for instance, if n = 0 then f isn't needed to compute the answer, so (self self) won't be evaluated). Understanding how lazy languages evaluate expressions is not trivial, so don't worry if you find this a little confusing. I recommend you experiment with the code using the lazy Scheme language level of DrScheme to get a better feel for what's going on.

It turns out that any let expression can be converted into an equivalent lambda expression using this equation:

(let ((x <expr1>)) <expr2>) ==> ((lambda (x) <expr2>) <expr1>)

where <expr1> and <expr2> are arbitrary Scheme expressions. (I'm only considering let expressions with a single binding and lambda expressions with a single argument, but the principle can easily be generalized to lets with multiple bindings and lambdas with multiple arguments.) This leads us to:

(define (part-factorial self) ((lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1)))))) (self self))) (define factorial (part-factorial part-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

If you look closely, you'll see that we have our old friend the almost-factorial function embedded inside the part-factorial function. Let's pull it outside:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define (part-factorial self) (almost-factorial (self self))) (define factorial (part-factorial part-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty fed up with this whole (part-factorial part-factorial) thing, and I'm not going to take it anymore! Fortunately, I don't have to; I can first rewrite the part-factorial function like this:

(define part-factorial (lambda (self) (almost-factorial (self self))))

Then I can rewrite the factorial function like this:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial (let ((part-factorial (lambda (self) (almost-factorial (self self))))) (part-factorial part-factorial))) (factorial 5) ==> 120

The factorial function can be written a little more concisely by changing the name of part-factorial to x (since we aren't using this name anywhere else now):

(define factorial (let ((x (lambda (self) (almost-factorial (self self))))) (x x)))

Now let's use the same let ==> lambda trick we used above to get:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (self) (almost-factorial (self self))))) (factorial 5) ==> 120

And again, to make this definition a little more concise, we can rename self to x to get:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (almost-factorial (x x))))) (factorial 5) ==> 120

Note that the two lambda expressions in the definition of factorial both are functions of x , but the two x 's don't conflict with each other. In fact, we could have renamed self to y or almost any other name, but it'll be convenient to use x in what follows.

We're almost there! This works fine, but it's too specific to the factorial function. Let's change it to a generic make-recursive function that makes recursive functions from non-recursive ones (sound familiar?):

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define (make-recursive f) ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (f (x x))))) (define factorial (make-recursive almost-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

The make-recursive function is in fact the long-sought lazy Y combinator, also known as the normal-order Y combinator, so let's write it that way:

(define almost-factorial (lambda (f) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define (Y f) ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (f (x x))))) (define factorial (Y almost-factorial))

I'm going to expand out the definition of Y a little bit:

(define Y (lambda (f) ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (f (x x))))))

Note that we can apply the inner lambda expression to its argument to get an equivalent version of Y:

(define Y (lambda (f) ((lambda (x) (f (x x))) (lambda (x) (f (x x))))))

What this means is that, for a given function f (which is a non-recursive function like almost-factorial ), the corresponding recursive function can be obtained first by computing (lambda (x) (f (x x))) , and then applying this lambda expression to itself. This is the usual definition of the normal-order Y combinator.

The only thing left to do is to check that this Y combinator is a fixpoint combinator (which it has to be in order to compute the right thing). To do this we have to demonstrate that this equation is correct:

(Y f) = (f (Y f))

From the definition of the normal-order Y combinator given above, we have:

(Y f) = ((lambda (x) (f (x x))) (lambda (x) (f (x x))))

Now apply the first lambda expression to its argument, which is the second lambda expression, to get this:

= (f ((lambda (x) (f (x x))) (lambda (x) (f (x x))))) = (f (Y f))

as desired. So, not only is the normal-order Y combinator also a fixpoint combinator, it's just about the most obvious fixpoint combinator there is, in that the proof that it's a fixpoint combinator is so trivial.

If you've made it through all of this derivation, you should pat yourself on the back and take a well-deserved break. When you come back, we'll finish off by deriving...

The strict (applicative-order) Y combinator

Let's pick up the previous derivation just before the point where it failed for strict languages:

(define (part-factorial self) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n ((self self) (- n 1)))))) ((part-factorial part-factorial) 5) ==> 120 (define factorial (part-factorial part-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

Up to this point, everything works in a strict language. Now if we pull the (self self) out into a let expression as before, we have:

(define (part-factorial self) (let ((f (self self))) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1))))))) (define factorial (part-factorial part-factorial)) (factorial 5) ==> 120

As I said above, this will not work in a strict language, because whenever the factorial function is called it will evaluate the function call (part-factorial part-factorial) , and when that function call is evaluated it will first evaluate (self self) as part of the let expression, which in this case will be (part-factorial part-factorial) , leading to an infinite loop of (part-factorial part-factorial) calls.

We saw above that the way around problems like this is to realize that what we are trying to evaluate are functions of one argument. In this case, (self self) will be a function of one argument (it's going to be the same as (part-factorial part-factorial) , which is just the factorial function). We can wrap a lambda expression around this function to get an equivalent function:

(define (part-factorial self) (let ((f (lambda (y) ((self self) y)))) (lambda (n) (if (= n 0) 1 (* n (f (- n 1)))))))

All we've done here is convert (self self) , a function of one argument, to (lambda (y) ((self self) y)) , an equivalent function of one argument (we saw this trick earlier). I'm using y instead of x as the variable binding of the new lambda expression so as not to cause name conflicts later on in the derivation when self gets renamed to x , but I could have chosen another name as well.

After we've done this, the part-factorial function will now work even in a strict language. That's because once (part-factorial part-factorial) is evaluated, as part of evaluating the let expression the code (lambda (x) ((self self) x)) will be evaluated. Unlike before, this will not send us into an infinite loop; the lambda expression won't be evaluated further until it's applied to its argument. This lambda wrapper doesn't change the value of the thing it wraps, but it does delay its evaluation, which is all we need to get the definition of part-factorial to work in a strict language.

And that's the trick. After that, we carry through every other step of the derivation in exactly the same way. We end up with this definition of the strict Y combinator:

(define Y (lambda (f) ((lambda (x) (f (lambda (y) ((x x) y)))) (lambda (x) (f (lambda (y) ((x x) y)))))))

This can also be written in the equivalent form:

(define Y (lambda (f) ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (f (lambda (y) ((x x) y)))))))

Hopefully, you can see why this is equivalent. Either of these are the strict Y combinator, or as it's called in the technical literature, the applicative-order Y combinator. In a strict language (like standard Scheme) you can use this to define the factorial function in the usual way:

(define factorial (Y almost-factorial))

I recommend you try this out with DrScheme, and lo! marvel at the awesome power of the applicative-order Y combinator, that which hath created recursion where no recursion hath previously existed.

Other matters

Practical applications

This article has (I hope) convinced you that you don't need to have explicit recursion built in to a language in order for that language to allow you to define recursive functions, as long as the language supports first-class functions so that you can define a Y combinator. However, I don't want to leave you with the notion that recursion in real computer languages is implemented this way. In practice, it's far more efficient to just implement recursion directly in a computer language than to use the Y combinator. There are lots of other interesting issues that come up when considering how to implement recursion efficiently, but those issues are beyond the scope of this article. The point is that implementing recursion using the Y combinator is mainly of theoretical interest.

That said, in the paper Y in Practical Programs, Bruce McAdams discusses a few ways in which Y can be used to define variants of recursive functions that e.g. print traces of their execution or automatically memoize their execution to give greater efficiency (as well as a few more esoteric applications), so Y isn't just a theoretical construct.

Mutual Recursion

Experienced functional programmers and/or particularly astute readers may have noticed that I didn't describe how to use the Y combinator to implement mutual recursion, which is where you have two or more functions which all call each other. The simplest example I can think of to illustrate mutual recursion are the following pair of functions which determine whether a non-negative integer is even or odd:

(define (even? n) (if (= n 0) #t (odd? (- n 1)))) (define (odd? n) (if (= n 0) #f (even? (- n 1))))

Before you start yelling at me, yes, I know that this isn't the most efficient way to compute evenness or oddness  it's just to illustrate what mutual recursion is. Any computer language that supports recursive function definitions has to support mutual recursion as well, but I haven't shown you how to use Y to define mutually-recursive functions. I'm going to cop out here because I think this article is long enough as it is, but rest assured that it is possible to define analogs of Y that can define mutually-recursive functions.

Further reading

The Wikipedia article on the Y combinator is somewhat difficult reading, but it has some interesting material I didn't cover here.

The Little Schemer, 4th. ed., by Dan Friedman and Matthias Felleisen. Chapter 9 has a derivation of the Y combinator which is what got me interested in this subject.

The article Y in Practical Programs, by Bruce McAdams, which was referred to in the previous section.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people:Tekashi's DAY69 is upon us. Suffice it to say, some are finding it difficult to separate the artist from his work. His reputation has been put under fire by fan and hater alike, with plenty finding it difficult to forget his sordid legal past. Still, that hasn't stopped him from compiling some big name guest appearances for his debut, including Young Thug & Tory Lanez on fan favorite "Rondo." Doubtless, Tekashi's debut will be discussed for a while; does it mark the opening chapter of a promising and lucrative career, or is it simply a flash in the pan?

We've been witnessing our community debate, discuss, praise and ridicule the rapper with every Tekashi-centric articles. Not since the early days XXXTentacion has an artist drawn such fierce and passionate responses. It's not really a surprise, as the rapper himself seems to rival that intensity. Tekashi doesn't have a subtle bone in his body, whether he's screaming threats at gang-bangers, whipping his shirt off to play 1 on 1 with Tory Lanez, or partaking in airport brawls in the middle of broad daylight. The same unapologetic and brash personality has bled into his music, leading to an intense and divisive listening experience.

Therefore, in an effort to gauge how our community feels about Tekashi's latest project, we combed through some of the most memorable comments.Young Scooter is still relevant in the streets because he doesn't chase the action, it passes through him. "Bread Crumbs" is really a free pass for Young Thug to run the bases with his signature syncopation. If Young Thug's role is to push the musical boundaries of the record, Young Scooter aptly falls into place as the paid enforcer.

With Thugger taking the year off of music, we are going to have to respectfully cling to these hardbody moments right here. Trippple Cross is available for stream and download right now.

Quotable Lyrics

We come and take over your ward, like a STD

I got lights on me bling in the dark, I got LED

Lil shawty photogenic, she collagin'

We gon' spin the block with the carbon if you're dodgin' me

All us hard body, shiny diamond watches

Chinese kitty cat, yeah, make it hard to not

Turn it up a notch, fuck about a block

Fuck curly head, fold him like a wallet

-Young ThugFor Sonia, it felt like her husband, Dave, was having a separate relationship, one that didn't include her.

With whom, you may ask? With their household finance spreadsheet.

She told me: "I felt Dave was having an affair with his spreadsheets, like it was something secret that I couldn't take part in." She said she wanted to be part of it, but it felt like he wouldn't ever include her.

Dave, an electrical engineer in space sciences at a local nonprofit, research and development organization in San Antonio, admits he likes his spreadsheets. But Dave disagrees with Sonia's description.

As he told me, "The truth is, Sonia helped me build the spreadsheet. I got the budget categories from (well-known finance guru) Dave Ramsey. I forwarded it to her, and she'd tweak it a little bit. I think she would agree she was included. She probably didn't want to be included. My perspective is: We both came up with the plan. The problem with it was sticking to the plan. Then later she would say, 'I don't want to talk about the spreadsheet.' "

And that description by Dave is quite different from the way Sonia experienced it. "I did have a part in creating the spreadsheet but once it was created, I felt excluded from maintaining it or suggesting changes to it," she told me.

In my self-appointed role today of pretending to be a financial therapist, these different narratives are troubling.

Now is the time I should mention: Sonia and Dave got divorced. They agreed to speak with me separately about their distinct approaches to shared household finances.

There's no villain here. Just two good people for whom shared financial responsibility couldn't reconcile happily. They both agree that irreconcilable approaches to spreadsheeting did not cause the divorce, but they also both describe it as an unresolved tension in their marriage.

Totally irreconcilable approaches to money are extremely common in couples. Google "top reasons for divorce" and money generally makes the top three of any list.

Dave's engineering mindset couldn't cope with Sonia's approach. He said, "I like to keep everything within a few squares. When I was a kid, I was certainly someone who likes to color within the lines. And Sonia was a person who colored outside the lines. I remember clearly coming home and there were a bunch of Target bags, and I'm like: where is this going to fit on the spreadsheet? We're going over our budget."

Dave described their differences like this: "She came at it from a quality-of-life approach. But the way I see it, you have $10, you can only spend up to $9.99. That thing over there would make my life enjoyable, but we don't have the extra money to do it. I'm an engineer, so numbers explain the world. When I talked to her about money, I used to get a blank stare."

Sonia also remembers being blamed, she felt unfairly, for making Target a favorite, well, target. Sonia, in recalling that same interaction, described it more as a glaring stare, rather than a blank one. "I felt like he overreacted when I'd made purchases that didn't have a spreadsheet category - we never broke the bank - in fact with our two incomes, we had a promising little nest egg building up," she said.

Sonia is an executive for a nonprofit organization in San Antonio. She has a professional life beyond yoga, but I first met her when she taught my daughters sun salutations in a local studio. In her office job she works with spreadsheets to track projects. But at home, rather than representing a shared solution, she felt the spreadsheet tended to limit their collaboration. She resented it.

I myself enjoy spreadsheets, but while listening to Dave I could empathize with Sonia's reaction to his "stay inside the lines" approach. That, in turn, reminded me of reader feedback I received last fall.

Loyal readers of this column (both of you!) may recall me asking for your help last November with a project. We know that couples stress about, fight about and sometimes even break up about money.

To prevent that, what questions - I queried back - should couples ask each other before they get married or commit to a life together?

I figure good communication can't guarantee a happy financial path, but maybe is the first step to solving problems together.

I received some nice responses. Thank you. I also received some responses that made me laugh, ruefully. They frankly made me worry about the relationships of my readers.

Like when the husband responded to my open-ended query by mansplaining to me over email how his spreadsheet was the key to their financial success. Notice "my spreadsheet is a key to our success" is a far cry from the original topic of "what questions should new couples discuss together about their financial life?"

To state the obvious, "here's the answer" is not the same as "what are the questions?"

Dave, with his engineer mindset, struggled with Sonia's yoga-teacher mindset. Dave remembers their marriage counselor telling him, "Your way is not the right way. Or the only way." So even while Sonia probably needed to work harder to fit inside the boxes, Dave probably needed to work harder to let go of his rigid plan. Sonia's feeling of exclusion was real, even if Dave didn't see that as a big problem, or the main problem.

The two now face financial challenges that come with divorce.

Sonia and I recently chatted about building her financial plan, now that she's single and head of her own financial household. We talked about her mortgage, savings and investments. I asked her if she had any money stranded in retirement plans with previous employers that she should "roll over" into a brokerage account. She looked sheepish.

She said, "I might have some." Sonia wasn't being coy. She just didn't know.

"That's why Dave loved his spreadsheets more than me. Because the spreadsheets always knew where the money was," Sonia told me.

On a positive note, we're coming up with a plan that doesn't involve a spreadsheet. She gave full custody of that to Dave in the divorce.The Trump administration has announced stricter requirements for companies that rely on workers with H-1B visas.

The new restrictions particularly target Indian tech workers and IT outsourcing companies.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a policy memo that it will require "detailed documentation" about H-1B workers employed at third-party work sites to ensure that employees are filling specialty roles for which they were hired.

The memo aims to clamp down on H-1B abuses by ensuring that employers are maintaining "an employer-employee relationship" with their H-1B workers.

H-1B is a non-immigrant U.S. visa that allows American companies to hire graduate-level foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as IT, finance, architecture, engineering and medicine, in which there may be shortages of suitably trained domestic employees.

Many tech companies say the visa is critical to ease a shortage of employees with highly technical skills, but outsourcing firms, accused by lawmakers of hiring cheaper, foreign labor, and "farming" them out to employers, have drawn particular attention.

"This policy memorandum makes clear that employers must provide contract and itineraries for employees who will work at a third-party location," the memo said. "For such third-party, off-site arrangements, additional corroborating evidence, such as contracts and work orders, may substantiate a petitioner's claim of actual work in a specialty occupation."

From January to August 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent 85,265 requests for evidence in response to H-1B visa applications, a 45 percent increase from the comparable period year earlier, agency data show. Immigration lawyers say the requests - made when an application is missing required documents or the agency determines it needs more proof to decide if a worker is eligible for the visa - could even discourage companies and individuals from seeking H-1B visas in the first place.

Silicon Valley companies, long dependent on skilled foreign workers, began bracing for changes to immigration policy as soon as Trump was elected. Trump made immigration central to his campaign, and has singled out the H-1B program.

The stakes are particularly high in the Bay Area. Although the federal government does not release H-1B visa holder population data by region, a Brookings Institution study found that the Bay Area had about 27,000 H-1B visas approved in 2013, trailing only the New York metropolitan area. An estimated 57 percent of 100 jobs in Silicon Valley requiring a bachelor's degree or higher are filled by people who weren't born in the U.S., according to a 2017 report by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Immigration data show companies such as Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft paid higher average salaries in fiscal 2016 compared with Indian outsourcing companies Infosys, WiPro and Tech Mahindra. But Silicon Valley technology companies also contract with those outsourcing firms, which means they can rely on these contractors with H-1B visas for particular tasks.

In April, Trump signed an executive order that asked federal agencies to suggest ways "to help ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries."Homebuyers are finding their way to a new community in Liberty County, suggesting more residential growth to come.

"Ten years ago, Liberty County was not ready for this kind of development. It's ready now," said Robert Williams, sales director of the new Encino Estates subdivision. "The growth pattern for the entire area is going that direction, and Houston has always been the catalyst. Once it starts moving that way, it's hard to stop.When most 60-year-olds decide their home isn't working for them anymore, it's because they want to downsize to something smaller.

Not so for Holly and Tom Forney, who in November moved into their new, three-story townhome in Spring Branch.

It isn't smaller than their Hedwig Village home - in fact, it's a little bigger. Its components aren't that much different, either.

What has them smiling now is that they have less to take care of - and they didn't have to live through an exhausting renovation of the home they'd lived in for 28 years.

Married 38 years, the couple raised their two children in a 4,100-square-foot home with a big yard and swimming pool. There was always plenty of room for their kids' friends to play and stay.

"It was the desire to not be committed to any kind of long-term relationship with that house anymore. We loved the house and the neighborhood; we just wanted to be gone," Tom said matter-of-factly.

Their choice was simple: Spend lots of time, money and energy updating a home that hadn't gotten a face-lift in 28 years or start fresh with a new one that also will simplify their lives.

The decision was easy.

A new palette

On-trend taupe-stained wood flooring adds warmth to the home's pale gray walls -- Sherwin Williams' Agreeable Gray -- and sparkling white kitchen. The Forneys opted for a whole new aesthetic - an elegant-rustic style and a muted color palette - in their new place.

Before, they had heavy wood furniture with pieces upholstered in gold, maroon or other dark colors. Much of that is now being used in the nearby offices of their company, Forney Construction - located just behind their home in the new Springwood Manor community in Spring Branch.

Holly and her interior designer, Cathy Robinson Hutton of Renovate, took stock of what they'd take with them - accessories and just a few other pieces - and what they'd need.

Their lives have revolved around faith, work and family, and they've always had a connection to the sea - for 20 years they had a second home in Rockport.

"We went through their old house, and Holly knew she wanted a different look," Hutton said. "Their accessories  we knew we wanted to use those and the pelican paintings. And with their ties to the ocean, this green is a great color."

Pale green has a presence in every room, and shades of taupe and creamy white accompany them.

Only a few things made it into the new home. A small, brindle-leg table was chalk-painted taupe, and four simple dining chairs were painted pale green and their seats reupholstered in a pretty paisley-ish print.

That all resides in the front sitting room on a thick jute rug layered with an animal hide, sharing space with two comfortable armchairs. It's all meant to mimic things that are important to the Forneys: their connection to Rockport and the sea.

Each trip to Central America added to their collection of clay pueblo figures, and a handful are on display on shelves in the room. The rest of their huge collection is stored in the attic.

Holly and Hutton shopped together, in stores and online, and email and texting factored into sharing photos with Tom and getting everyone's approval on purchases.

"We walked into Laurie's (Home Furnishings), and both of us went directly to this couch and then to that chair," Holly said of the green-gray sofa and pale-striped swivel chairs that sit around an onyx-topped coffee table in the family room.

In one corner, a leather chair with nailhead trim adds a bit of gravitas, and above the fireplace is a bold painting by the Forneys' friend, Dixie Friend Gay.

Their kitchen-dining area sits behind the family room, and its unique metal cable, hand-blown mercury glass chandeliers immediately catch your eye.

White, Shaker-style cabinets reach to the tall ceiling, so the Forneys have plenty of storage space.

"I had a big kitchen before. It's just that everything here is new and awesome. But I did not have a pantry in my other house - look at this," Holly said as she opened a door to reveal a pantry tucked under a nearby staircase.

Giving back

Holly flips through pages of a book filled with pictures of their passion project - Camp Aranzazu in Rockport - as Tom tells the story of the smiling faces and inviting spaces.

In 2004, he "retired" from the SpawMaxwell construction company of which he was a founding partner to spend time developing the camp for children with chronic illnesses or special needs. The concept started in 2001, and in 2003 they formed a 501(c)(3).

The Forneys, along with Tom's brother, Larry, and his wife, Cindy, donated the land, valued at $2 million. Through grants and fundraising, another $16 million has been invested in the camp and its structures.

On 104 acres on Copano Bay near Rockport, Camp Aranzazu hosts up to 135 campers and 20 staff at a time. Since the first campers arrived in 2006, more than 20,000 children have kayaked, learned about nature and the sea and made new friends there.

As a host camp, various groups use Camp Aranzazu for their clients. One week it might have children with cancer, another might be children who've undergone kidney transplants or children who are blind.

"At camp, kids know they're not alone, and they're not uniquely alone," Tom said. "They get to mentor each other; they learn from each other how to live with their disabilities."

In addition to their continued support and fundraising for the camp, the Forneys have devoted years of service to Faith in Practice, a medical mission effort in Antigua, Guatemala.

Through their church, Memorial Drive Presbyterian, the Forneys traveled frequently to Central America to help. From Houston, Tom coordinated shipments of medical supplies and provided construction oversight for clinics and schools in Guatemala.

"Our kids grew up watching us do volunteer work," Holly said. "It's a big deal to us to give back to the community."

That concept extends to Forney Construction, which they started in 2008. Coincidentally, their new home backs up to their business, and Tom jokes that his walk to work is 86 steps, door to door.

Two-thirds of their clients are nonprofits, and they give one-third of their company's net income back to the community each year.

Construction projects have included the Houston Zoo Elephant Exhibit, Camp Strake, River Oaks Country Club, Lakeside Country Club and projects for Memorial Hermann and St. Luke's hospitals. They've done work at churches, too, including St. John Vianney Catholic Church and Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

And they've donated to dozens of charities, including Salvation Army, Star of Hope, Search, Boy Scouts of America, Faith in Practice and Stages Theater.

"The focus of Forney Construction is service. The basis of our company is that we're about the community and giving back," said Tom, a fifth-generation Houstonian. "Giving is an integral part of being a Christian, of being a human being."

Holly is "the glue" at Forney Construction, Tom says. Technically, she handles community relations - which is the giving part of the business - but in reality, her duties are endless.

She helped her husband launch this business after their children were grown, and now she says she'd like to find more time to play mahjong with friends.

The couple moved the week before Thanksgiving, when they had 15 people over for dinner. Christmas brought a group of 25, and they've celebrated birthdays and hosted other family events in their big, open home.Nearly one in seven school districts across Texas allow teachers and some staff to carry concealed weapons on campus, a new role for educators that has come amid a rash of school shootings and concerns about student safety.

The policies - adopted in recent years in mostly rural areas where law enforcement officials are not routinely on campus - position trained teachers, administrators and staff members to respond immediately to active shooter situations.

The setup mirrors President Donald Trump's call Friday for more school employees to carry weapons after a gunman killed 14 students and three adults at a Florida high school on Feb. 14.

"We think it has worked in Texas," said state Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, who drafted a law that allowed the use of armed "school marshals" after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012 that left 26 people dead.

"It will continue to work in Texas as we expand it," he said.

At least 172 of Texas' roughly 1,200 districts have implemented the policies as the nation has re-engaged in debate over whether teachers and other school employees should be armed at work, according to an analysis by the Texas Association of School Boards.

The association declined to release a list of the 172 school districts, but Klein ISD Police Chief David Kimberly, who serves as first vice president of the Texas School District Police Chiefs' Association, said he is unaware of any Houston-area districts that allow staff to carry concealed weapons on campus.

Whether the use of armed educators deters violence is yet to be determined. Advocates for arming more teachers argue the approach could prevent violence and end mass shootings more quickly, potentially saving children's lives.

In Keene ISD, a 1,000-student district about 30 miles south of Fort Worth, Superintendent Ricky Stephens said board members opted to allow select employees to carry weapons to cut down on response times in the event of a school shooting. He said he believes staff members would try to end the threat, regardless of whether they are armed.

"Do you want them to go with a pencil or a pistol?" said Stephens, who initially opposed the idea but now supports it.

Opponents of the idea say there is little evidence to suggest arming teachers would reduce deaths and that teachers should be focused on educating students. They also say law enforcement officers could confuse armed teachers with the actual shooter.

"I don't believe that's the answer. Before we take that step, we need to find ways to take guns out of schools," Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said. "Allowing guns inside of schools creates a dangerous situation. Do we really want to see cases of a teacher's gun discharging and hitting a student? Even highly trained officers are not (immune) to discharges."

A 2013 study by the FBI found it is rare for armed citizens who are not law enforcement officers to end an active shooter incident, with five out of 160 analyzed cases ending that way.

Kimberly cautioned against hastily putting guns in employees' hands, arguing that more consideration and research is needed.

"I recognize there is a huge call in the country for this, and I hope, if we move in that direction, we really study it," he said.

Dax Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said most districts that have enacted concealed carry policies are in sparsely populated regions of Texas, where small law enforcement agencies often cover large swaths of territory.

"They're concerned that local law enforcement would not be able to get to the school soon enough," Gonzalez said.

The TASB reported about 150 Texas school districts have police departments, while 250 districts partner with area law enforcement agencies to provide school resource officers.

Of the 25 largest school districts in the Houston area, 18 have in-house police departments, while the remaining seven use school resource officers from neighboring law enforcement agencies.

In Houston ISD, for example, district police officers are stationed in about 90 of the district's 284 campuses, covering all high schools and nearly all middle schools.

"We also have patrol officers that patrol passages to schools at the start of the day and end of the day," Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza said. "We try to have quite a presence at our campuses."

While Houston-area districts have not embraced the idea of putting more guns in schools, superintendents in some rural Texas districts said their communities support policies allowing teachers to work while armed.

In Holliday ISD, a 1,000-student district about 15 miles southwest of Wichita Falls in north Texas, Superintendent Kevin Dyes said allowing staff members to carry concealed weapons is a low-cost option for protecting students when full-time officers are not on site.

"The problem is the randomness of it all," Dyes said. "No place is immune."

A Keene ISD staff member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the integrity of the district's concealed weapon program, said teachers already run toward screams or if a scuffle erupts in a hallway. An active shooter incident would be no different.

"I think as educators, we naturally want to protect our students," said the staff member, who grew up around law enforcement officers and previously owned a gun. "I think it's just natural instinct as an educator to go where our kids have a problem."

The staffer said school employees who carry concealed weapons on campus undergo "arduous" training by law enforcement

"We train to take care of it, so if it occurs, our mind just takes over and we don't have to think about it," the staff member said, adding, "Our kids have a sense of security."

Houston-area law enforcement officials said they see benefits and drawbacks to arming teachers. They said any staffers carrying weapons must be extensively vetted and provided training.

"If they decide to go this route, there has to be an unmatched rigorous training program," said Joseph Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union. "It needs to be training the likes of which we have never seen before."

Texas legislators have taken steps in recent years to put more weapons in the hands of well-trained school staff members. Lawmakers passed the law in 2013 allowing the designation of "school marshals," who must complete rigorous, law enforcement-style training to receive the certification.

Villalba said Friday he did not know how many districts have put the law into action, but said he hoped the idea serves as a national model.

His bill echoes Trump's call Friday to arm some "very gun-adept people," such as teachers with military or law-enforcement backgrounds.

Reporter John D. Harden contributed to this article.Police at Houston-area schools say their officers know what they are supposed to do in the event of an active shooter on campus: Go through the door.

"I believe every police officer should inherently know that," Klein ISD Police Chief David Kimberly said Friday.

The question of what police should do in the event of a mass shooting has come into sharp focus following revelations that a school resource officer at last week's school shooting in Parkland, Fla., stayed outside and never engaged accused gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, as he made his way through a building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 14 students and three adults.

The revelations have sparked a national discussion about when officers should intervene in a mass shooting, with President Donald Trump saying the Broward County deputy was a "coward" or "didn't react properly under pressure." More sympathetic social media commenters questioned what a lone officer with a handgun could do against a gunman with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.

Stewart Russell, chief of the Pasadena ISD Police Department, minced no words Friday about an officer's role in responding to threats.

"Our officers are trained to respond, that one person can make a difference, not to wait," Russell said. "Nobody wants somebody to senselessly go in. However, we believe we are there to make a difference and trained to make a difference. That is being a police officer. If you don't want to take that risk, you are in the wrong job."

'What they are trained to do'

Alan Bragg, retired chief of the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Police Department, said news that the deputy remained in the parking lot during the Florida shooting would prompt a gut check in individual law enforcement officers.

"I guess the talk that is probably going on now is about that, and doing what they are trained to do," Bragg said. "I think they are going to be talking among themselves that they are all trained and all committed."

It is a training that never has been truly put to the test in the Houston region. Officials from multiple districts could not recall any incident in the Houston area in which a school district officer fired his weapon at a potential threat on a K-12 campus.

Bragg, who led the Spring ISD and Cy-Fair ISD police departments for 26 years, said neither department had a shooting incident during his tenure.

"We don't want to use our training," Bragg said. "But if it is needed to save a life, that's what they are trained to do."

After Parkland, considerations of how best to keep schools safe spilled almost immediately into the political arena, with gun control advocates, including many Parkland students, calling on Congress to tighten access to guns.

Trump and the National Rifle Association have called for teachers and school staff to be armed as a first defense against potential on-campus threats.

Gov. Greg Abbott has called for a review of school safety procedures and more public information of school safety audits, which schools in Texas must complete every three years.

"Our schools must always be a safe place for learning," Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said. "I have directed (Texas Education Agency) staff to begin full implementation of his directives."

Abbott also called for better scrutiny and upkeep of federal databases. Failure by military officials to update background check information allowed Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, to obtain access to a gun, later used in a church shooting in Sutherland Springs last Nov. 5.

According to news reports, both the FBI and local law enforcement were tipped off that Cruz could be a threat and made social media posts in which he posed with guns and boasted of becoming a "professional school shooter," but they failed to take any action before he walked into Marjory Stone Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and began shooting.

In Houston-area schools, there is no blurred line between who is responsible for security. Though state officials give local districts discretion, most in the Houston area have their own police departments with licensed, certified officers.

Across all the large districts, those officers are armed and stationed at high schools and middle schools. Elementary schools in the area may not have an officer on campus every minute of the school day, but patrol officers routinely pass through. The larger districts have commissioned police staffs that number in the dozens. Houston ISD has more than 200 officers.

Lessons from Columbine

All of those officers undergo rigorous training, some specifically aimed at what to do alone against an active shooter.

Much of that training changed dramatically after the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado on April 20, 1999. At Columbine, police maintained a perimeter and waited for more equipped reinforcements to arrive. That delay prolonged the attack by the two teenaged gunmen who killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded 21 more.

"What Columbine showed us is we can't wait," Russell said.

When confronted, he said, most school shooters stop. Resistance forces them to take a defensive position, Russell said, or "eliminates" the threat.

Officers now follow Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, taught at Texas State University in San Marcos. The program has taught more than 105,000 officers nationwide how to react to shooters.

"We put them in fight or flight, in a ramped-up situation," Kimberly said, noting his department relies on ALERRT. "We put them in scenario-based environments to teach."

Instruction includes identifying threats but also awareness that there will be many young people between the suspect and the officer. Friendly fire is to be avoided as much as possible.

"We want them to slow down their breathing, not panic, aim at a target," Kimberly said, noting the training is as much teaching people to rewire their instincts as much as providing instruction.

Officers also are outfitted more than ever, with many large departments, including HISD, providing body armor. Schools in the Houston area with departments also have close contact with larger police departments, which in the metro area have rapid response capability with S.W.A.T. that schools lack.

'Our officers are going in'

It is a backstop city police do not take lightly, said Joseph Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union.

"If something like that shooting happened in Houston, our officers are going in, I promise that to the public," Gamaldi said. "That's who we are, and that's the oath we took."

Ex-Broward County Sheriff's Office Deputy Scot Peterson also took that oath but stayed outside the Parkland school, leaving many in law enforcement wondering what led him, a veteran officer, to not follow through. Few local school police officers, however, wanted to discuss it Friday.

"It turns my stomach to think about it, to see it," Russell said, echoing what Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said when Peterson's actions were revealed. "I don't know what he was faced with, but one person can make a difference."For more than a decade, most of Harris County's felony court judges directed magistrates to deny no-cash bail to all newly arrested defendants, in apparent violation of state judicial conduct rules, according to internal documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

The documents include charts with explicit court-by-court instructions from 31 district judges to reject all requests for no-cash bonds when defendants made initial appearances in court.

Records and testimony show that misdemeanor judges also routinely told magistrates for years to decline personal bonds, which allow a person to gain pre-trial release from jail without posting cash bail.

The previously undisclosed bail and bond instructions, which surfaced during disciplinary hearings against three Harris County magistrates, appear to corroborate longstanding complaints from criminal justice activists that the county's bail system deprived defendants of a fair chance at pre-trial liberty.

RELATED: Harris County magistrates sanctioned for not considering personal bonds



More Information Decades of denial A Houston Chronicle review of more than 600 pages of internal documents related to Harris County's bail bond practices found at least 31 current and former judges in felony and misdemeanor courts who instructed magistrates not to grant no-cash personal recognizance bonds. The documents include memos dating back more than 20 years and charts from 2006 to early 2017 with court-by-court instructions. By early 2017, the judges had uniformly rescinded the policies. According to the documents, the following judges issued those instructions at some point during their tenure. State District Court (felonies) Devon Anderson, Republican, 177th Criminal Court, 2005-2008, who later became district attorney after her husband died in the office. Instructed magistrates to deny personal bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Mike Anderson, Republican, 262nd Criminal Court, 1999-2010, and later district attorney, who died in office. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 through 2009. No chart exists for 2010. Jeannine Barr, Republican, 182nd Criminal Court since 1995. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds between 2006 and 2017. Denise Bradley, Republican, 262nd Criminal Court since 2011. No charts exist for 2011, but she instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds on charts from 2012 to 2017. Marc Brown, Republican, 180th Criminal Court, 2010-2013. No charts exist for 2010, 2011 or 2013, but he instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds on a 2012 chart. Susan Brown, Republican, 185th Criminal Court since 1999. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds according to charts from 2006 to 2012. No chart exists for 2013. Since 2014, she has given magistrates latitude to decide on PR bonds. Katherine Cabaniss, Republican, 248th Criminal Court since 2013. No chart exists for 2013. She instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2014 until 2017. Joan Campbell, Republican, 248th Criminal Court, 1999-2012. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 until 2012. Marc C. Carter, Republican, 228th Criminal Court since 2003. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 until 2014. No chart exists for 2015, but in 2016 and 2017 he began giving magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Caprice Cosper, Republican, 339th Criminal Court, 1993-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Denise Collins, Republican, 208th Criminal Court since 1992. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2012. No chart exists for 2013. In 2014, she began giving magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Mark Kent Ellis, Republican, 351st Criminal Court, 1997-2016. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2016. Catherine Evans, Republican, 180th Criminal Court since 2013. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds 2014 to 2017. George Godwin, Republican, 174th Criminal Court, from 1989-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. William T. Harmon, Republican, 178th Criminal Court, 1985-2006. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006. Since 2007, he has been a Harris County misdemeanor judge. Belinda Hill, Republican, 230th Criminal Court, 1997-2012. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2012. Joan Huffman, Republican, 183rd Criminal Court, 1999-2005 and a state senator since 2008. Huffman's tenure as a judge predates the charts, but a memo from the magistrates' office dated Jan. 4, 1999 indicates she told magistrates not to grant PR bonds or lower bond rates. Hazel B. Jones, Democrat, 338th Criminal Court, 2009-2012 and in the 174th since 2017. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2009 and 2012. No charts exist for 2010 or 2011. She gave magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds when she resumed office in 2017. Jan Krocker, Republican, 184th Criminal Court since 1995. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006. Since 2007 she has given magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Renee Magee, Republican, 337th Criminal Court, 2013-2016. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2014 but was gave latitude to grant them in 2016. No charts exist for 2013 or 2015. Michael McSpadden, Republican, 209th Criminal Court since 1982. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2017. Ryan Patrick, Republican, 177th Criminal Court, 2012-2016 who began serving as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas in 2018. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2012 and 2014. He gave them latitude to grant PR bonds in 2016. No charts exist for 2013 or 2015. George Powell, Democrat, 351st Criminal Court since 2017. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in early 2017. Brian Rains, Republican, 176th Criminal Court, 1988-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Herb Ritchie, Democrat, 337th Criminal Court, 2009-2012 and began a new term in 2017. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2009 to 2012, but granted latitude on PR bonds when he returned to the bench in 2016. Debbie Mantooth Stricklin, Republican, 180th Criminal Court, 1995-2010. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2009. No chart exists for 2010. Don Stricklin, Republican, 337th Criminal Court, 1999-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Brock Thomas, Republican, 338th Criminal Court, 2002-2008 and 2013-2016. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006, 2007 and 2014. No charts exist for 2013 and 2015. In 2016, he gave magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Vanessa Velasquez, Republican, 183rd Criminal Court since 2005. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. She began giving latitude to grant PR bonds in 2009. Jim Wallace, Republican, 263rd Criminal Court since 1995. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2017. Michael J. Wilkinson, Republican, 179th Criminal Court, 1989-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Harris County Court at Law (misdemeanors) Diane Bull, Republican, has served in Court 11 since 1995. A 1995 memo to magistrates indicated she instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds but wanted them referred to her court. She told the Chronicle she expected magistrates to send them over if she was on the bench or rule on them if defendants requested them in the evenings or on weekends. Mike Fields, Republican, has served in Court 14 since 1999. From 2012 to 2013 he instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds. Before and after that time, he granted them latitude to rule on bonds. See More Collapse

County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a former state senator who authored the law requiring prompt hearings and appointed lawyers for indigent defendants, said the newfound evidence illuminates a problem that has festered for years.

"For too long, Harris County has had two systems of justice - one for those who have money and another, more punitive system for those without money," he said. "Harris County should not continue to spend the taxpayers' money defending this unconstitutional and immoral system."

Harris County's bail system was upended by a federal court order last year requiring no-cash bail for qualified misdemeanor defendants who couldn't afford to get out of jail. The county strongly denied in federal court that magistrates had been ordered to forgo personal bonds, but the new evidence suggests otherwise.

RULING: Harris County bail system unconstitutional, federal judge rules

Among those listed in the documents with no-bond policies are former judges Ryan Patrick, now the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas; former Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson, now deceased, and his wife, Devon, who succeeded him in office after his death; and state Sen. Joan Huffman.

State District Judge Michael McSpadden, a long-serving jurist in Harris County, said he also had a no-bond policy for magistrates for at least a dozen years because he didn't trust the lower-level jurists not to make errors.

"Almost everybody we see here has been tainted in some way before we see them," he said. "They're not good risks."

The judge said he was concerned defendants would be released on bond only to be arrested on another offense. Many had casual attitudes about showing up for court, he said.

"The young black men - and it's primarily young black men rather than young black women - charged with felony offenses, they're not getting good advice from their parents," he said. "Who do they get advice from? Rag-tag organizations like Black Lives Matter, which tell you, 'Resist police,' which is the worst thing in the world you could tell a young black man ... They teach contempt for the police, for the whole justice system."

In all, local judges granted personal, no-cash bonds to about 6,900 defendants of the more than 80,000 arrested in 2016. As of Thursday, 75 percent of the jail's more than 8,700 inmates were awaiting trial, according to the sheriff's office.

The high numbers remained even after restrictions on bonds were formally rescinded in Harris County in 2016 for misdemeanors and in 2017 for felonies after the indigent defendants filed the lawsuit. A federal appeals court recently upheld the bulk of the ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal but sent back for reconsideration some procedural matters, including whether bail should be decided within 24 hours.

RULING: Appeals court OKs most of federal ruling that Harris County's bail practices unconstitutional

'Never, never, ever'

The federal lawsuit cast a bright light on the bail hearing process, in which lower-level judges serve as the first stop for people arrested on a range of charges, from misdemeanors to serious felonies.

The hearings are run 24 hours a day, including holidays and weekends, by 10 full time magistrates and five temporary magistrates, hired by the judges.

The documents reviewed by the Chronicle indicate internal prohibitions on no-cash releases were in place for at least 12 years, as hundreds of thousands of defendants passed through court.

The paperwork also exposes a pattern of micro-management by the higher-tier elected judges of the magistrates, whose work is limited in scope but essential to determining the liberty of people presumed innocent in the eyes of the law.

The instructions on bail came to light during disciplinary proceedings against three Harris County magistrates before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, filed complaints against magistrates Eric Hagstette, Jill Wallace and Joseph Licata III after he saw videos of bail hearings capturing brusque treatment and perfunctory exchanges with defendants, with no mention of the possibility of personal recognizance, or PR, bonds.

RELATED: Rosenthal rules federal courts in Houston region with firm hand



Whitmire claimed the hearing officers had been unprofessional and violated their legal duties.

The magistrates did not comment on the hearings, but audio recordings obtained by the Chronicle show they told the commission they were pressured to follow the elected judges' orders for years. They submitted into evidence hundreds of pages of documents going back more than two decades.

Among the documents was an undated memo to magistrates from the late James V. Garrett Jr., chief hearing officer at the county court of law, who handled hearings from 1993 until his retirement in 2005. Tucked into a list of 10 "Things you need to know," Garrett wrote, "You may never, never, ever give a PR bond to a defendant in the district courts. This could probably get you fired. So don't."

Magistrates could not carry out rulings as they saw fit, Wallace said in written remarks submitted in her defense. She told the commission that hearing officers "serve many masters" and "exercise the discretion they can within the bounds set," according to the recordings.

She said misdemeanor judges also gave informal instructions about bond.

Hagstette testified at his disciplinary hearing that he felt pressured to comply with the elected judges' wishes.

"It was just sort of the lore in the office - of hearing officers getting called on the carpet for various things," he said.

Hagstette said he still felt scrutinized in December 2017, 10 months after the judges retracted their instructions about bond.

"We still get comments like, 'Why would you approve a personal bond on this sort of thing?'" he said.

In January, the commission sanctioned the three magistrates for violating the law, failing to maintain professional competence and breaching their duty not to be "swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism." The commission also cited Rosenthal's conclusion that the magistrates had violated the county's 30-year-old federal court settlement in Roberson v. Richardson, which guaranteed defendants a meaningful review of alternatives to pre-set bail amounts.

RELATED: Harris County's $5.2 million bail case may be headed toward settlement

Robert Soard, first assistant at the Harris County Attorney's Office, said even with the restrictions, bail decisions were made in a timely fashion and that county judges never asked the magistrates to violate the law or the Roberson order.

"There was never a widespread practice," Soard said.

'Not a sinister thing'

The hearing officers filed a rare appeal of the sanctions to the Texas Supreme Court, asking that their formal admonitions be revoked.

In the meantime, the commission's proceedings could have further repercussions for Harris County judges, according to one expert.

The complaint against the magistrates "very likely" triggered an investigation by the commission into potential ethics violations by a broad swath of the county's current and former judges, said Lillian B. Hardwick, an Austin-based attorney, who coauthored a book on judicial ethics under Texas law.

Eric L. Vinson, executive director of the state judicial commission, said he could not comment on whether any such investigation is underway.

RELATED: Federal judge orders Harris County judges to produce any evidence missing in bail case

Several elected judges discussed their longstanding bail practices with the Chronicle, saying for years they instructed magistrates not to grant personal bonds. Each offered what they said was a clear rationale for doing so.

State District Judge Marc C. Carter, on the bench since 2003, said he - like McSpadden - did not want to leave those decisions to the magistrates, although documents show he had amended his policy by 2016.

"I was not comfortable giving magistrates the authority to grant PR bonds in felony cases, because I was ultimately responsible for ensuring the public's safety regarding defendants released on bond from my court," he said. "I always believed that should be my burden to carry, and not the magistrate's."

Criminal Court at Law Judge Mike Fields, who has presided over misdemeanors for nearly 20 years, said he was one of those who imposed limits on magistrates, saying he found it upsetting that they didn't always set restrictions before letting defendants go.

RELATED: Veteran criminal judge withdraws from appeal of federal bail ruling



"I do not believe I was alone," Fields said. "There are some things that judges want to do themselves and (PR bond) was one of the things I wanted to do myself."

He has since changed his policy.

"Wanting to review these things is not a sinister thing," he said. "I'm the judge. I want to make the decision - it's what we get paid to do."

MORE: Lawyers in Harris County bail case claim evidence may have been withheld

In 1995, in her first months overseeing misdemeanor cases, Judge Diane Bull also notified the magistrates that she wanted to set bail during work hours, but left magistrates to make the decisions when she was not on the bench.

"I did not give them any instructions on how to carry out any of their duties, including the granting of PR bonds," Bull said.

Six other current judges were cited in the documents, but they declined to comment. Several former judges also declined to discuss their policies.

Acting in good faith

Experts in judicial ethics said the higher-ranking judges were probably acting in good faith.

"I'm not sure the judges intended to do anything inappropriate in giving those instructions," said Sandra Guerra Thompson, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center. "I think this is part of the history - misunderstanding that magistrates are not the clerks of the judges. They are themselves hired to be independent judges."

As the lower-level judicial officer, a magistrate is perpetually trying to gauge what the assigned judge on a case would want, said Pamela R. Metzger, a professor of criminal law and ethics and director of the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at Southern Methodist University.

"It's like a dog that's been beaten one too many times," Metzger said. "They've been told, 'If you do it this way, I'm just going to undo it. Do not waste your time.' It gets to the point where even the most diligent public servant won't attempt to exercise discretion because the outcome will not be any different."

Lise Olsen contributed to this report.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []A Houston-area U.S. Army recruiter is expected in court Monday after being arrested for displaying harmful material to a minor, accused of sending a photo of his genitals to a 16-year-old Deer Park High School student.

Adam Matthew Perkins, 37, is accused of using the Snapchat app to communicate with a teen he met during a school fundraiser while recruiting in Deer Park in early December. The app is infamous for allowing users to send indiscreet photos because they are erased within seconds of the recipient viewing them.Rep. John Culberson called on the U.S. Justice Department Friday to investigate whether the Army Corps of Engineers violated civil or criminal laws by failing to alert the public to its own forecasts showing that Hurricane Harvey could cause the Corps' two West Houston reservoirs to flood suburban neighborhoods.

"If it is accurate that (the Corps) knew in advance of this threat to lives and property yet failed to adequately warn, I believe those responsible for this failure need to be held civilly liable," Culberson, R-Houston, said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. "I also ask that you investigate whether any criminal statutes were violated."

Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he would hold hearings on the matter, "so we can prevent future flood disasters."

A third Houston-area congressman, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Spring, called for action to compel the Corps to give residents warning of possible flooding ahead of future storms. "The Army Corps of Engineers should be required to convey information to elected officials and the public when there is a significant probability that reservoirs will overfill, causing flooding in affected communities," he said.

And a fourth - Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land - also called for more disclosure. "Any information regarding risks surrounding flooding of Barker and Addicks should have been disclosed by the Corps immediately to officials and homeowners."

The congressmen's districts include areas that were inundated when Barker and Addicks Reservoirs spilled beyond government-owned land during Harvey, flooding more than 9,000 homes and businesses.

All of the Congressmen were responding to a report in Houston Chronicle saying that in the days before Harvey hit the Houston region with full force, Army Corps forecasts showed that Barker and Addicks would engulf subdivisions upstream of the reservoirs. The Corps did not share these predictions with the public but did brief Harris and Fort Bend County authorities and Houston city official

Read more: Record Reseervoir Flood Predictions Kept Secret before Hurricane Harvey hit Houston

Floods projected Aug. 24

The Corps forecasts, closely held internal documents, have emerged through discovery in a lawsuit in which thousands of homeowners are seeking compensation from the federal government. The Chronicle obtained copies of the documents.

Addicks and Barker Dams were built by the Corps in the 1940s to hold back storm runoff from vast prairies west of downtown Houston. During heavy storms, water builds up in the reservoirs. Engineers call this the "flood pool." The reservoirs are not bounded by walls or banks, so in an extreme storm, the flood pool can extend into the residential neighborhoods that grew up on the reservoirs' fringes in recent decades. Before Harvey, many of those homeowners did not know their neighborhoods were at risk of inundation, and many did not have flood insurance.

As the hurricane barreled toward Southeast Texas last August, Army Corps projections showed that those reservoir-adjacent areas were at high risk. The forecasts were generated by the Corps Water Management System, which crunches information about rainfall, weather forecasts, river conditions and other data.

A forecast generated Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017, a day before Harvey made landfall, projected flooding upstream of Barker. The next day's forecast showed that neighborhoods upstream of Addicks would suffer the same fate.

It wasn't until Saturday, Aug. 26, that Fort Bend County authorities, acting on the latest forecast, issued a flooding advisory for areas adjacent to Barker. Harris County did not issue similar warnings until late Sunday, Aug. 27. By then, many neighborhoods were already under water. Many people were evacuated in boats or military vehicles or fled on foot.

Corps responds

The Army Corps, in a statement Friday, said it briefed local officials on its projections for reservoir flooding throughout the crisis. The statement, from Edmond Russo, a top official in the Corps' Galveston district, suggested that it was the responsibility of local officials to decide what to do with the information.

"In the lead-up to and during Hurricane Harvey and the ensuing record rainfalls, the Corps of Engineers released information to local officials and the public multiple times each day," the statement said. "Public records show Corps of Engineers liaison officers provided reservoir safety data through three daily briefings to local, county, state and federal officials."

The Corps is prohibited from issuing evacuation orders, the statement said.

Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert said that he was not informed of the Aug. 24 forecast, the first warning of flooding upstream of Barker, although the Corps briefed his staff in the days that followed.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he was not told about any of the Corps' projections for reservoir flooding, even though part of West Houston was at risk. "Prior to or during Hurricane Harvey, I was not aware or told of any modeling. We were making decisions based on the information that was provided and alerting the public to any potential danger based on the information we had before us," he said.

Joe Stinebaker, a spokesman for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, said the Army Corps forecasts were "among numerous worst-case' and 'best-case' scenarios" presented to the judge as the crisis unfolded. He said Emmett had information coming at him "from a myriad of sources," including the National Weather Service and the Harris County Flood Control District as well as the Corps.

Up to 10,000 homes flooded

Stinebaker did not say why Emmett chose not to join Fort Bend officials Aug. 26 in issuing an advisory to residents near Barker, instead waiting until the following day. The area upstream of Baker lies in both Fort Bend and Harris County and was predicted to flood first.

"It should be noted," Stinebaker said, "that members of the Army Corps of Engineers were present at nearly all of the news conferences offered by Harris County during the floods - and were active, speaking participants in many. Corps officials were free to emphasize at any time any messages of which they felt the public needed to be aware."

At least 4,000 properties upstream of Barker and 5,000 to 6,000 upstream of Addicks were flooded by the reservoirs during Harvey, according to a Chronicle analysis of damage reports. Had the Corps' early forecasts been made public, flooded-out homeowners and their attorneys say they could have saved cars and property - and moved out children and the elderly more easily.He woke up after the crash to sheriff's deputies knocking on his car window.

It was late on Jan. 14, 2016, after he had hit three vehicles in three separate collisions that he only vaguely remembered. Seizures caused him to black out at the wheel, he told the deputies.

His ensuing arrest and lack of medical treatment for epilepsy is now at the center of a federal lawsuit accusing Harris County and seven jailers and deputies of mistakenly putting him into a maximum security cell where he was physically and sexually assaulted.

The man, identified in the lawsuit only as John Doe, said the three-day trip to jail weighs on him every day.

"It still affects me," he told the Houston Chronicle recently, speaking on the condition that he not be named. "The way I was dehumanized and treated in jail and all the things that happened, I don't understand. I can't go to sleep. I stay up until seven in the morning."

The Harris County Sheriff's Office declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

The suit accuses county officials of violating protections under the U.S. Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act by wrongly arresting him and then failing to provide adequate care and protection in the jail. Details about his beating and assaults were documented in official reports, copies of which were provided to the Chronicle by his attorney, Drew Willey.

Natalia Cornelio, director of criminal justice reform at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said efforts by advocates to bring abuse and neglect to the attention of officials have often been met with defensiveness rather than a willingness to change, creating a jailhouse culture that is difficult to correct.

And although she welcomed now-Sheriff Ed Gonzalez's calls for change in his 2016 campaign for office, she said reform does not happen quickly.

"Experience teaches us that when there's that much of a negative history of lack of care, of lack of accommodation, it's going to be a long and intense process to remedy," she said. "Even the best of intentions and best of systems in place to replace what used to be is not going to be a quick or easy solution.

Ongoing assaults

The Houston man was arrested on felony hit-and-run charges by deputies working for then-Sheriff Ron Hickman. Although the suit says he told deputies he had seizures and asked for medical care, he was taken instead to the Harris County jail.

At the jail, he indicated on a jail questionnaire that he had "physical, developmental or mental health history." A jailer noted in a needs assessment that Doe had a mild disability or illness requiring outpatient treatment, because of seizures, and that he had limited work skills. Nevertheless, the same jailer still approved maximum security housing for Doe, declining to "override the housing recommendation."

The error, his attorney said, appears to have stemmed from the jailer incorrectly failing to subtract a point from his risk score for his age, which, at 26, would have been enough to keep him out of the maximum security cell.

He should have been housed in medium security, Willey said, where perhaps he might have avoided being assaulted.

Hours after being booked into jail, however, as he was still recovering from the seizures that landed him there, an inmate came over and tapped him on the shoulder, according to the lawsuit. The attack that came next is corroborated by reports from detention officers who partly witnessed it.

The man said that a group of eight or more jail inmates began punching him and kicking him in the face and ribs, slamming his head to the concrete floor, in a blind spot in the cell that was out of full view of the guards and security cameras.

During the attack, one of the inmates sexually assaulted him, causing him to defecate and urinate on himself, the lawsuit says.

Detention Officer Cody Hickman, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, filed an inmate offense report stating he noticed an inmate running toward the area in the jail and found that inmate and several others swinging at the man closed fists, kicking him in the abdomen and face. He called for backup.

Other detention officers pulled the man aside and asked him to identify the inmates who had attacked him.

The lawsuit says he was also assaulted by a guard in a jail elevator after falling forward onto the man after he began having another seizure. The guard filed a disciplinary complaint against him for "unauthorized contact," but the complaint was later dismissed.

He says he was not provided medical care until just before his wife arrived at the jail to post his bail. His wife took him to hospital after his release, about 36 hours after he first arrived.

'My story needs to be told'

The Houston man said he did not submit a complaint under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act because he was ashamed of the assault and afraid of retaliation.

Harris County, as other jails, are required under PREA to disclose sexual contact in jails. Reports filed between 2013 and 2016 by Harris County show 293 inmates complained that they were sexually abused by other inmates, and six complaints were substantiated. Another 70 inmates complained of being sexually abused by guards, with four of those complaints being upheld.

"The question those stats beg is, what are they doing to take care of all these people who are claiming severe injury by other inmates or guards?" Cornelio asked. "They're treating those complaints as unsubstantiated or just leaving them open instead of providing needs to people who consider themselves victims of something egregious."

Years later, the Houston man said he is still attempting to come to terms with the nightmarish episode.

"I was disrespected worse than any man should have to endure," he told the Chronicle. "The trauma from sexual assault does not go away ... My story needs to be told so that the culture of disrespect and abuse at all levels of HCSO can be cleansed."

He said he does not want an apology from the sheriff's office. The lawsuit asks for damages for his repeated distress and lost wages.

But the remedy he wants most of all is not possible.

"The only thing that could fix anything is if they somehow came up with a time machine that could go back in the past so we could relive that moment and that date," he said, "and instead of taking the time to take me to jail, take the time to understand what was happening to me."WASHINGTON  Prodded by a wave of gun violence, including a school shooting in Stockton, Calif., that left five children dead and dozens more wounded, Congress passed a federal assault weapon ban in 1994, the first major curb on gun access in decades.

Following a decade of escalating gang and drug crime, it had the support of former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it into law hours after the Senate approved it by a narrow 52-48 vote.

At the time, school shootings were still seen as an anomaly, and the ban proved to be short-lived.

Though the law survived a series of court challenges, it expired exactly 10 years later, in accordance with a sunset provision that had been a key political condition for its original passage. Republican lawmakers from Texas helped battle attempts to revive it.

Once left for dead, proposals for a new ban on semi-automatic military-style rifles like the AR-15 that was used in the Valentine's Day school shooting in Parkland, Fla., are now back in the national conversation.

The sentiment was summed up by Stoneman Douglas High school shooting survivor Samuel Zeif, one of several victims and school officials who met Wednesday with President Donald Trump.

"I don't understand how I can walk in to a store and buy a weapon of war," said Zeif, an 18-year senior who lost his best friend in the shooting rampage. "Let's never let this happen again. Please. Please."

To gun rights advocates, that sentiment, however well-intentioned, is misdirected.

The real culprit, they have argued for decades, is not the gun, but the person behind the gun.

But if the arguments haven't changed since 1994, the political climate has.

Now some gun control advocates see the Parkland massacre  the 18th school shooting in the first 44 days of 2018 as a potential tipping point.

California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat who was the architect of the 1994 ban, called Thursday for a hearing on a new iteration of her long-stalled bill restricting assault weapons.

"From Aurora to Sandy Hook, San Bernardino to Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs to Parkland, one common thread that runs through mass shootings is the use of the AR-15 military-style assault weapons," she said. "These weapons are designed to kill the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time and we need to get these weapons of war off our streets."

To Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who led the fight against Feinstein's last assault weapon bid  that one following the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.  those gun control efforts have begun to feel like "Groundhog Day."

"It's tiresome," he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday. "Every time you see a horrific crime, people in the media and Democratic politicians immediately try to leap on it to advance their agenda. And their agenda is stripping the rights away from law-abiding citizens."

While both sides have dug in, they both also have turned to lessons of the 1994 ban for rhetorical ammunition.

Critics cite federally funded studies showing that it proved ineffective in reducing gun crime, then a national preoccupation after the crack cocaine and gang epidemic of the 1980s and 90s.

"It was silly," said Alice Tripp, legislative director for the Texas State Rifle Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association (NRA). "It attempted to fix a serious social issue by attacking one particular style of very common firearm."

Gun control advocates said the 1994 law was watered down and riddled with loopholes. It barred the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms deemed as "assault weapons," as well as "large capacity" ammunition clips of more than 10 bullets. Among the banned weapons was the AK-47 rifle used in the 1989 Stockton school shooting. It also banned the AR-15 used by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz in Parkland this month.

But the ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the law passed. That meant leaving millions of existing guns, which suddenly increased in value, in the hands of the public.

"Although it was called a ban, it was not really a ban," said David Chipman, a former federal ATF agent who serves as senior policy advisor to Americans for Responsible Solutions, a gun control group founded after the 2011 Arizona shooting rampage that wounded former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

"A ban to me means that any assault weapon would be illegal," Chipman said, "and that's not what the assault weapons ban did."

The debate also got bogged down in a semantic dispute over what constitutes an assault weapon, as distinct from a hunting or sporting rifle.

"The 1994 ban banned weapons based on their appearance, not their functionality," said former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who authored the state's concealed handgun law as a senator in 1995. "They were going after ones that were macho looking."

Patterson and other gun rights advocates point to the proliferation of weapons in the U.S. to question the utility of any ban, no matter how defined. Nothing short of confiscation would serve the purpose of removing assault weapons entirely from the civilian population, an idea that is anathema to Second Amendment activists.

'They're not going away'

One possible remedy, Patterson said, might be to ban large capacity ammunition clips. "If there's a villain, it's high-capacity magazines," he said.

But even that, he says, would be useless. Smaller capacity magazines can be easily switched out to continue the sort of rapid fire that is the hallmark of mass shootings. And besides, he says, like guns, there already are millions of high-capacity clips in circulation.

"They're out there," Patterson said, "and they're not going away."

Gun control advocates counter that an assault weapon ban would at least make it harder for the likes of a troubled would-be shooter to walk into a store and walk out with a weapon of mass destruction.

"How much is too much? How much do you need?" asked Ed Scruggs, board vice chair of Texas Gun Sense. "Continuing to add to the stock makes it more and more available, and more and more normalized."

To Scruggs, the 1994 ban also provides a faint counterpoint to the conventional wisdom that Congress could never pass meaningful gun restrictions  whether they be bans on certain weapons, expanding background checks, raising age limits, or even expanding the registration requirements that have been in place for fully automatic weapons since the 1934 National Firearms Act, a response to the gangland crime of the Prohibition era.

"When people say it's impossible to have an assault weapon ban, they forget that we did have one," Scruggs said. "Whether it was as comprehensive as it needed to be, that's debatable."

When Congress let the ban die in 2004, the 1999 school shooting in Columbine, Colorado, was then still seen as an aberration, however shocking.

Meanwhile partisan divisions were widening, and a number of Texas political figures played into the ban's demise. Although then-president George W. Bush had run as a supporter of the assault weapon ban, he did not press for its extension as president, deferring to Congress.

Republicans, who had taken control of the House, failed to bring it to a floor vote. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land called it "feel-good" legislation.

In the Senate, Feinstein and others introduced bills to reauthorize the ban, but none got out of committee. A subsequent effort in 2013 got just 40 votes in the Senate, with 60 voting against, including Cruz and Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

But it wasn't just Republicans who supplied the votes against reviving the ban. They were joined by 15 of Feinstein's fellow Democrats, mainly those from Western pro-gun states. Post-Newtown legislation mandating universal background checks for firearms sales also failed.

Momentum shift

Five years later, gun control advocates believe that the momentum is shifting as a new generation comes of age in an era of random death. All the teens shot in Parkland were born after Columbine. The national conversation is less about combating urban street crime than protecting school children from lone-wolf mass shooters, who can strike anywhere.

"What has unfolded over time is that the assault weapon issue evolved from being a street crime problem to really a terrorism problem," Scruggs said. "People get the sense that it could happen in a mall. It could happen in a supermarket. It could happen anywhere the public gathers. It's the terroristic impact that these events have."

Pivoting away from guns, Trump and many top Republicans have turned their attention to mental health and law enforcement remedies, including arming teachers.

"In my view, we have a nut job problem, not a gun problem," said Patterson, who is running again as a GOP candidate for land commissioner.

Meanwhile Cruz's Democratic opponent in the 2018 Senate race, El Paso U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, has co-sponsored the House version of a new assault weapon ban. "Will I get the stuffing knocked out of me by the NRA for this?" he said. "Just watch it come down on us in the campaign."

But while the Parkland students are mobilizing a national gun control effort, it remains to be seen if NRA-backed lawmakers in Washington are prepared to face down gun rights allies who make up one of the most active parts of the GOP base.

"Clearly, the awareness has changed," Chipman said. "Clearly the urgency by the Democratic Party has changed. What has not yet changed, at least at the federal level, is the calculus in Congress."If you thought Mayor Sylvester Turner's $1 billion pension bond issue solved all of Houston's budget problems, think again.

A newly released consultant's report offers a grim assessment of the city government's financial future: Houston is on track to spend $1 billion more than it will take into its coffers in the coming decade. The city will have to dramatically cut spending and raise revenue to balance its budget. Otherwise it will eventually face insolvency, triggering layoffs in the city workforce, a shrinking police department and a general decline in services.

The city paid an outside consultant, PFM of Philadelphia, $565,000 to take a hard look at municipal finances. We won't dwell on the fact that this is a job we're already paying the mayor and city controller to do. But we will point out that this report highlights the need for some fundamental changes in the way Houston's city government does business.

RELATED: The fire department's budget overruns and personnel issues point to a problem

Take, for example, the recommendations for the city's fire department. The report suggests saving up to $40 million a year by changing the structure of firefighters' schedules, going from four shifts down to three. Fire Chief Sam Pena says that would require his people to work longer hours, but it could also allow him to raise firefighters' pay, deploy more ambulances and provide more training without raising the budget.

The Houston Fire Department is long overdue for fundamental restructuring, because it's now mostly an ambulance department that responds to many of its emergency medical calls in fire trucks. Today about nine out of every 10 calls to HFD are for emergency medical help. Figuring out the most cost effective way to provide fire protection and ambulance service in the 21st century is an essential part of any serious discussion about the city's financial future.

RELATED: Revenue cap stands in the way of fiscal responsibility

The dire picture painted by this report is also further evidence that Houston needs to repeal its revenue cap. If you're new to Houston or you haven't followed this complicated mess, you should know that the nation's fourth-largest city has its hands tied when it comes to raising money for municipal government. An arbitrary algorithm dictates that if the city takes in more than a certain amount of property tax revenue, it has to cut its rate. Homeowners get a few extra bucks, but the city government loses a fortune. A couple of the nation's biggest bond rating agencies, Moody's and Standard & Poor, specifically cited the revenue cap as one of the reasons they downgraded Houston's credit rating a couple of years ago. Nobody likes paying property taxes, but Houston needs to get rid of the cap.

Meanwhile, there's no cap on tax increment reinvestment zones that suck up millions in property taxes to spend on questionable endeavors.

RELATED: Whether bright or dim, Houston is at a tipping point to decide its future

And as this consultant's analysis makes abundantly clear, the landmark pension deal painstakingly negotiated by Turner was no panacea. Two years from now, the city government is projected to spend just as much on pension plan contributions as it did two years ago. And the costs just keep on rising, albeit nowhere near as drastically as they would have without Turner's deal making. Constantly escalating pension costs cannot be a permanent fixture in Houston city budgets.

Our city government spent more than a half-million bucks on this report. The mayor and City Council shouldn't just set it on a shelf and watch it gather dust. Some council members have already expressed dismay that the upcoming municipal budget doesn't implement enough of the recommended reforms.

As this report clearly explains, City Hall needs to make some difficult decisions or face potentially ruinous consequences.While lawmakers are working to resolve the precarious legal limbo of "Dreamers," the termination of the Temporary Protected Status program has received far less attention and could have equally devastating impacts on families and the economy.

The Temporary Protected Status Program is a humanitarian program that provides an opportunity for those who have fled natural disaster and conflicts in their home country. The men and women in this program, many who have now been in the United States for decades, are crucial to the construction industry.

An estimated 50,000 TPS holders work in the construction industry - literally building America.

Through a series of determinations, the Department of Homeland Security has begun terminating the status for TPS holders from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.

Over the next 18 months, collectively, this will force more than 350,000 legal immigrants out of the United States who have built careers, started families, paid taxes including Social Security, and in most cases raised U.S. citizen children.

While the word "temporary" may seem an adequate justification for terminating the program, the fact remains that the conditions in these countries continue to be extraordinarily difficult.

In El Salvador, for example, there are severe food, water and housing shortages, as well as extremely high rates of crime and gang activity.

The U.S. State Department has even issued a travel advisory to American travelers warning of the conditions in El Salvador.

Haiti is still recovering from the 2010 earthquake, and a recent United Nations report found that 2.5 million Haitians are still in need of humanitarian aid.

Terminating TPS will return hundreds of thousands of people to countries who cannot meet the needs of those already there.

It will be a double blow to these nations because many families rely on earnings sent from TPS workers in the United States.

Given the recent destruction by Hurricane Harvey and the devastating wildfires in California, our businesses and local economies now, more than ever, need the help of workers from these countries. Rebuilding and recovery in large parts of the United States will be adversely impacted by a failure to extend their status.

These workers play an important role in helping to fill a small part of the larger workforce shortage gaps in the construction industry, and their role is vital in those communities.

Even before Harvey and other hurricanes hit, large numbers of contractors across the nation were reporting difficulty finding needed workers.

The construction industry is facing a workforce shortage making the role of legal foreign workers all the more important.

Ending TPS designation would create the loss of tens of thousands of workers and would lead to construction delays for many large and small projects that rely on those workers, and the impact would ripple through the economies of the communities waiting for those projects to be completed.

Many TPS recipients are skilled union workers, and their expertise and experience are needed, now, especially if Congress moves forward on the White House infrastructure proposals.

There is no time for delay. We call on Congress to prevent the uncertainty and economic damage that would result from the removal of the current TPS designation for these workers.

Congress must work with the administration to avoid a lapse for TPS designations and provide more structure and certainty to those who benefit in the construction industry.

Terry O'Sullivan is general president of LIUNA - the Laborers' International Union of North America - representing a half-million workers predominantly in the construction industry. Sandherr is chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, representing 26,000 construction firms.The district's administration was "shocked" about the arrest, the letter continued, adding the district wasn't notified of the charges ahead of time, O'Brien said in the letter.

O'Brien said it was a "misstep" to say on social media that police had determined there was no viable threat. He also laid out ways the district can learn from this, saying he will use the district's system that sends calls and text messages to parents in the future.

He said the district will continue to adhere to its code of conduct, which says a superintendent's hearing must be done before a student can come back to the school. Such a hearing can apply suspension for up to one year. The letter also noted the state's charges have been filed in family court.

Additionally, the letter said the district's board of education wants the BOCES regional safety expert to review the district's safety plan. Internal meetings have already been set up ahead of the district presenting its preliminary findings to the board at a March 8 meeting, the letter said.

"Our first order as an administrative team is to develop a more robust crisis communication plan that clearly identifies when to communicate during an emergency situation, as well as what channel(s) to use," O'Brien said in the letter.Priyanka Chopra Surprises 'Love of Her Life' Nick Jonas on His Birthday, Singer Calls Her 'The Best'You heard about the Southwest Airlines flight where the little girl was injured by a support dog, right?

The story went viral. Questions were asked. Was she bitten? Was she merely "scraped?" Was it all her fault to begin with?

In all the noise, however, something was glossed over: an entire legal specialty with an admittedly silly name: "dog bite law." Because it turns out "dog bite law" provides a lot of the answers that people are searching for.

Let's go through what happened, what people are talking about--and why a lot of this might already be settled without people even realizing it.

Dogs on a plane

First, the reported facts. The 6-year-old girl was with her parent, boarding a Southwest flight in Phoenix en route to Portland, Oregon. (See the video embedded at the end of this article for more context.)

She passed by a customer with a dog--and as six-year-olds might be expected to do, she tried to pet it. Another passenger posted what he saw on Twitter:

Southwest ... "allows a support dog on the plane, bites kid, paramedics now on plane."

(The tweet was later deleted.)

Southwest Airlines had a slightly different take, saying in a statement afterward, "a support dog's teeth scraped a child's forehead as the young passenger approached the animal, causing a minor injury."

A bite? A scrape? Who knows. Cops were called, EMTs checked the girl out.

Ultimately, the passenger with the support dog was asked to leave the plane; the little girl and her family stayed aboard--with the little girl sporting a bandage.

(As the father of a little girl myself, I'm going to go out on a limb and say she probably liked having the bandage.)

The backlash and the bite

On the Internet, because we can't have nice things, a lot of people seemed to side quickly with the dog owner, who reportedly told police that the girl had been warned to stay away.

As one person tweeted, according to Business Insider, after apparently taking the dog owner's version as Gospel truth:

"She was specifically told to stay away, clearly she nor her parents listened. She's already six, teach her personal responsibility. The pet owner has every right to be angry, it's not the dog's fault the kid wasn't supervised."

Only, as it turns out, in Arizona, it literally wouldn't matter. There is no question under the law: the owner is 100 percent at fault, legally speaking.

This is because Arizona has a very tough dog bite law, which imposes "strict liability" on an owner whose dog bites someone, explained Sean Phelan, a partner at Jensen Phelan Law Firm in Prescott, Ariz.

You might not agree with it, you might not like it. But the law is pretty close to ironclad.

"Simply, the dog owner is liable even if he/she exercised the utmost care to prevent any harm," Phelan said. "Arizona strict liability dog bite law make no exceptions for service or assistance animals."

"Man bites dog"

Kids get bit by dogs all the time in this world, of course. What makes this newsworthy is that it happened on an airplane.

And it comes in the midst of a vehement debate over whether airlines should really have to let people bring support animals aboard in the first place.

People have been seriously hurt--like the man who was reportedly viciously attacked by a dog on a Delta flight last year. In the wake of these kinds of incidents, United Airlines and Delta Airlines both announced more stringent restrictions on people bringing animals aboard.

However, Southwest's policy seems a little less restrictive. (It's posted on their website.) Anyone who wants to bring an animal aboard for emotional support has to bring a letter from a medical health professional.

All of which leads to something I think they taught us on the first day of law school: the Deep Pockets Rule.

"The actual issue is whether there is insurance," explained Michael P. McCready, a Chicago lawyer with McCready, Garcia and Leet, P.C., and a lot of times, individual dog owners don't have enough insurance or deep enough pockets to make them worth suing.

The Deep Pockets Rule

You know who does have deep pockets, though? The airlines themselves. And if I were running an airline, I'd be a little concerned.

Granted, the airlines really are in a bind. Federal disability law requires them to let people bring support animals aboard, but other passengers often aren't thrilled about the idea of sharing a pressurized metal tube at 30,000 feet with a strange and unpredictable dog. (Or peacock.)

It's not until people get hurt, however--and lawyers get involved--that we start thinking about the real risk to an airline that doesn't think this all through. An airline wouldn't face the same strict liability standard, but if a creative lawyer could come up with a good negligence argument, it could be really costly.

Fortunately, this little girl wasn't seriously injured. Fortunately, the whole thing happened on the ground.

What would happen sometime when a dog becomes scared and protective at altitude, trying to defend its owners against perceived threats? What would happen if other passengers or crew members were seriously injured--or worse?

Besides the obvious physical danger, the financial danger is perhaps much greater than many people appreciate.

"Animals in cabins can be potentially very dangerous," said Alexis Breyer, a personal injury and wrongful death lawyer with Breyer Law Offices, P.C., in Arizona. "There should be procedures that dog owners have to follow so that the animals cannot come out near other passengers. This is especially so for dogs near minors."Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

I sometimes have days, weeks even, when nothing surprises me.

Then, seemingly out of thin ether, along comes perhaps a very small thing and I descend into marveling and even the odd, uncontrollable bout of chuckling.

This week's candidate involves, surprisingly, an airline.

American Airlines, to be precise.

This vast carrier has decided to make a few changes to its inflight safety video.

What, you might hiss, could be surprising about that?

Perhaps some rules have changed. Perhaps the airline has decided to emphasize a different aspect of its procedures.

In this case, however, American is -- according to View From The Wing -- changing its safety video because passengers couldn't stand how it ends.

You see, having reminded you of all the things you have to do to keep yourself safe on the plane, a (possibly) Flight Attendant says you should ask the cabin crew for anything you need, because "as always we're here to make your flight great, coz great is what we're going for."

This seems typical corporate gobbledy-blah-di-blah, doesn't it?

Oh, but then whole groups of American Airlines employees emerge onto the screen cheering away, as if the airline had just won the Gold Medal in the Great Airline Olympics In The Sky.

This is what seems to have endangered the state of passengers' nerves.

Here they were, say, sitting after a three-hour delay, still not knowing how late they were going to be or when they'd get a glass of water.

And there was American Airlines cheering away, proclaiming its greatness.

Which may have made one or two passengers want to thump -- or even offer a less than discreet Glasgow Kiss to -- the screen in frustration.

Internal American Airlines communication seen by View From The Wing says: "We've adjusted the ending to dial down the cheering at the very end, and faded the music out to be subtler."

When you're creating a piece of communication in isolation, context can be hard.

It's easy to forget what circumstances the communication will be seen in by your customers.

They might not have bought into the corporate rah-rah quite as well as you. Or even at all.

They might be in a very different frame of mind than you are in that warm editing suite.

One of the main jobs of an airline is to put the passengers in the right mood.

One way that some European airlines do it -- especially the British ones -- is the soothing tones in which the pilots speak.

There's something so reassuring about that.

On the other hand, how many times have I been on a Virgin America flight -- fine, though they can be -- and pleaded that they turn the volume on the safety video down.

Much as I secretly enjoy the painfully catchy tune.

It's heartening to know that American Airlines cares enough about its video (and even its passengers) to do something about it.

I asked the airline how many passengers had complained about it.

A spokeswoman would only reveal: "After listening to the feedback of our team members and customers we made edits to the end of our safety video."Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

Airlines are rarely first when it comes to political action.

They benefit far too much from government regulation to do anything other than quietly lobby and keep their ingrained advantages.

After the killing of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, however, things are changing.

Today, United Airlines and Delta both announced they're severing ties with the National Rifle Association, the lobbying arm of the gun industry.

United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website. -- United Airlines (@united) February 24, 2018

Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website. -- Delta (@Delta) February 24, 2018

Why would these essentially conservative organizations risk alienating diehard gun supporters, many of whom have a certain political hue?

Why now? Why not after Sandy Hook or Columbine?

It's partly because they've become more sensitive to their customers.

They know that airlines have come to represent the opposite of customer service and even humanity for many people.

More significantly, corporations in general have found themselves drawn into political issues because of the divisions that are being fomented in the U.S.

It's much harder for a corporation to now do what Michael Jordan once did when he maintained a steadfastly neutral stance on political issues.

The contrast today is LeBron James, who takes every opportunity to say what he thinks about the Trump regime. And say it very, very clearly.

Similarly, corporations have increasingly been forced (or chosen) to take stances on everything from North Carolina's bathroom law to the president's immigration bill.

Theirs is a belief that they need to be on the right side of history -- and of many of their younger employees who believe that corporations should have a social mission, not just a money-grabbing purpose.

Some CEOs, like Salesforce's Marc Benioff border on the sanctimonious with their zeal for social change.

Others, like Apple's Tim Cook try -- and sometimes fail -- to take humanistic stances on behalf of their companies.

United and Delta have already been joined by rental car companies Hertz, Enterprise, Alamo, National and many others in distancing themselves from an organization that thinks it wise to arm teachers.

Of course, social media has played an important role.

The Parkland students have shown that they are extremely adept at using Facebook and Twitter to present their arguments.

The hashtag #BoycottNRA is extremely active.

Moreover, in an appearance at a CNN Town Hall earlier this week, the students made politicians and an NRA spokewoman look like the craven representatives of a twisted morality.

Which, some might say, is precisely what too many of them are.

Corporations see this and want to be on the right side of (what they see as) the prevailing winds.

Personally, having grown up in a culture in which guns simply weren't a thing, it's impossible to explain to many friends in America that you can have a successful society without as many guns in circulation as there are here.

Why would, indeed, any civilian need a semi-automatic weapon, unless it's to use it at a strictly controlled shooting range?

Airlines and other corporations beginning to distance themselves from the gun lobby won't change things overnight.The EU will call for its citizens to retain the right to work on the island of Ireland, including the North, after Brexit.

It is being stipulated to allay concerns from local businesses who have employees from EU member states living in Border counties which are part of the Republic but who are working in parts of the North - and vice versa.

Brussels lead negotiator Michel Barnier will insist EU citizens will be free to live and work in Northern Ireland after Brexit, even though the UK will have left the EU.

Ireland and the UK already have a common travel area for Irish and UK citizens to travel back and forth among the two islands.

For example, Eastern European farm workers living in Monaghan or Donegal but working on farms in Tyrone would be able to travel daily to work without restriction.

It protects the jobs and rights of EU citizens whose livelihoods and living circumstances are at risk due to the UK's decision to leave the EU.

The draft text will also demand Northern Ireland be part of a customs arrangement with the EU in order to prevent a hard Border being erected after Brexit.

All of the scenarios listed will only kick in if the UK and EU fail to agree a satisfactory alternative as part of the Brexit talks.

Solutions

The UK insists it will be able to introduce high-tech solutions alongside a broad trade agreement with Brussels that will negate the need for customs and border checks.

So far the British government has failed to bring forward any such plans, and Britain is due to leave the EU in 12 months' time.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is due to present her government's proposals for its future relationship in a speech next week.

She spent a day with most of her cabinet colleagues at her Chequers retreat on Thursday where reports say the cabinet favours a move away from aligning with EU rules.

In order to prevent a border with the North, the UK will have to maintain full regulatory alignment on more than 150 areas such as agriculture. Any goods that cross the Border from Northern Ireland to the Republic will have to remain aligned with EU regulations in order to prevent a border from being erected.

"It is only with these conditions that we will have no border," said a source.

The situation will maintain Northern Ireland in a de facto customs union, but the British are said to be uncomfortable with this description as it sounds like a failure of Brexit.

"We don't care what happens with the rest of the UK - that is not our problem, but in order to protect the Good Friday Agreement and for there to be no border, then Northern Ireland will have to be aligned in these areas," said the well-placed EU source. "For face-saving, the Brexiteers can say something like 'alignment in certain areas - that's fine by me'," they said.

Mr Barnier is due to deliver the December agreement made by the EU and UK into legal text as part of the overall Withdrawal Agreement.

The UK is committed to regulatory alignment to protect the Good Friday Agreement, and in the event of no other solutions, will be contained in a protocol which has the same legal standing as the main part of the agreement.Shinrone is a quiet place on the Offaly side of the Tipperary border, but the village has played host to many a music legend.

The place is home to a massive parish hall built by Fr Frank Bergin, a very enterprising priest back in the 1980s.

To pay for the construction bills and upkeep of the building, along with funding the renovation of the Church and building a new school the priest linked up with Roscrea music promoter, Tom Stapleton.

Together they brought the likes of Arlo Guthrie, The Waterboys, Nanci Griffith, Don McLean, Meatloaf and Billy Connolly to the new parish hall.

I was in Shinrone last week to walk a 62ac residential tillage and grass farm with a period house and the remnants of a traditional farmyard. It comes to auction under the gavel of John Ryan of Birr with a guide price of 530,000.

Woodbrook House is about 2km from Shinrone on the Dunkerrin Road and about 10km from the N7 at Dunkerrin and 5km from the Barack Obama Plaza on the M7.

The house is approached by an old avenue that winds its way through the front fields and crosses the Little Brosna River over a quaint stone bridge.

A three storey Georgian building in need of complete refurbishment, the residence has loads of character and plenty of potential.

While the site around the house is overgrown the original elegance is everywhere to be seen. The accommodation includes an entrance hall, three reception rooms, an old kitchen with an Aga located in an extension to the rear while over the kitchen is a bedroom.

There are two bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor while a narrow stairway leads to the third floor, home to four bedrooms.

The residence hasn't been lived in for many years and will take substantial investment to bring it back to the glory it certainly would have enjoyed in former times.

Out of doors there is a series of old sheds and a lovely arched entrance to the original courtyard that contains the remains of cut-stone out offices. To one side is a relatively modern four-column haybarn.

The land is a mixture of slightly elevated tillage ground under stubble and lower grazing ground that needs attention. There is plenty of road frontage and lots of existing and potential access points.

Just over 30ac of the ground is in tillage with the other 30ac in grazing and rough grazing. The tillage land is in good order and is obviously productive ground while the grassland tends to be lower.

However, there is good drainage potential into the Little Brosna that bisects the property.

A 7ac portion of elevated stubble ground across the road from the main farm has about 100m of road frontage and with the proper permission could have planning potential.

Elevated

There is a further 120m of road frontage adjacent to the main entrance, while an 11.5ac portion has an elevated section with road frontage on to a side road.

The farm will be offered in a variety of lots with the first lot made up of the house on 20.7ac of tillage and pasture with road frontage. This is guided at 210,000. The second lot is adjacent to the first and is also in tillage and grazing with road frontage. Extending to 21.3ac this has a guide of 180,000.

The third lot is a combination of the first two consisting of the house and yard on 42ac and guided at 400,000.

The fourth lot is made up of 7.6ac of tillage across the road from the main farm and guided at 65,000, while the fifth lot made up of 11.5ac of pastureland in need of attention is guided at 70,000 to 75,000. The entire will be offered with a guide of 530,000.

John Ryan is confident of local interest in the lots or the entire when the farm comes to auction at Dooly's Hotel, Birr at 2.30pm on Thursday, March 22.Minette Batters has become the first female president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU/PA)

The first ever female leader of the National Farmers Union has told how she has had to overcome sexism in the farmyard by reminding people coming to her farm that she is the boss.

Minette Batters, a beef farmer from Wiltshire, became the first woman to lead the NFU in its 110-year history after winning the union's elections this week.

Ms Batters told how she had to make it clear to visiting delivery drivers to her farm that she was in charge.

She said: I can always remember somebody delivering something to the farm and saying can I see the boss. And I said I am the boss.

And he looked me up and down and he looked very surprised that I was going to get in the loader, put the pallet forks on and unload the delivery.

There is a lot of that and often you get phone calls from people saying can I speak to your husband.

So a lot of women suffer from that. It is more interpreted by the outside world as being a male industry than those working within it.

Ms Batters, 50, a mother of two, also called for less fruit to be sold in plastic wrapping. She urged retailers to learn the lessons from greengrocers which tend to sell loose fruit which is not covered in plastic.

She said: Addressing packaging and plastic has to be a core priority. We are the producers of whole foods and the more we can take out of plastic packaging the better.

A recent report in 2016 found that two-thirds of plastic household waste is sent to landfill or incinerated each year.

Ms Batters said it was wrong that hardier root vegetables are wrapped in plastic when they are sold to consumers.

She said: We all remember when we were young buying swedes from the greengrocer.

It is important that food is protected  but if we can all be committed to taking out more plastic and behaving really responsibly for the environment in how we recycle  that has got to be a good thing.

We have become fairly plastic obsessed and we still see local greengrocers selling things without the plastic.

Everybody is committed to trying to use less plastic and if we do to make sure we recycle responsibly.

Ms Batters also spoke out against a recent trend which has seen militant vegans attacking farmers for keeping cattle.

She said: It is up to individual people how they choose to eat and what they want to eat. I personally want to understand and be involved with our consumers more.

We cant tolerate abuse at any level from either side  that cannot be good for anybody.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Aer Lingus CEO Stephen Kavanagh, pictured with cabin crew, said the airline is poised to lease another long-haul Airbus A330 and overall capacity will rise 9.7pc this year

Aer Lingus has reached an agreement with the DAA regarding plans for infrastructural development at Dublin Airport to enable continued expansion by carriers, according to the airlines chief executive, Stephen Kavanagh.

But Mr Kavanagh and IAG CEO Willie Walsh have both warned that capacity constraints at Dublin Airport continue to risk airlines growth plans there.

However, despite the concerns, Mr Kavanagh revealed that Aer Lingus is poised to lease another long-haul Airbus A330, which will bring its wide-body fleet to 14 jets during the summer.

It will also start taking delivery next year of an order of eight A321LR jets to expand its North America operations.

The executives were speaking as IAG, which also owns Iberia, Vueling, Level and British Airways, released full-year financial results. Aer Lingus recorded a 269m operating profit last year, up 15pc on 2016. Its revenue climbed 5.3pc to 1.85bn.

Capacity at Aer Lingus jumped 12.1pc last year as it added more routes and expanded existing services.

Its capacity will rise 9.7pc this year. Its launching a service between Dublin and Seattle this year and in 2017 inaugurated a service to Miami.

Apart from progressing a 320m runway plan, the DAA is now planning to spend another 285m on a number of projects that will include the construction of new aircraft stands on the so-called south apron, as well as taxiways and additional immigration facilities in both existing terminals.

An already complete extension to the existing Pier 1 has also been included in the calculations. The bulk of the 285m of projects will be delivered between 2019 and 2021.

Thats all on top of the 100m a year that the DAA has been spending on Dublin Airport improvements.

The Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) has indicated that it intends to allow the DAA  whose CEO is Dalton Philips  to recoup 267.5m of the required funds for the latest 23 capital projects through potentially higher passenger charges.

This is the difference between a commercial operation and one that relies on a regulatory guarantee of profit, said Mr Walsh.

Aer Lingus has been growing, spending money on new aircraft which means they [the DAA] get more passengers, but the average prices [fares] would have fallen.

We dont put our prices up when we get new aircraft, he said. Thats the same argument we have with airports. Theres nothing stopping them building new infrastructure, which then generates more business, gets more people coming though the airport  they should be seeing their average passenger charge reduce, not increase.

Its just a fundamental difference of opinion as to how your business operates. We take commercial risk. The airport should do the same.

But in 2014  the year before it was acquired by IAG  Aer Lingus told the CAR that no further infrastructure development was required by Dublin Airport. Meanwhile, passenger numbers have now surged to close to 30 million a year at Dublin, while Aer Lingus has itself significantly expanded.

An airport source also pointed out that the pace of passenger growth at Dublin Airport wasnt envisaged by airlines, the CAR or the DAA.

And despite the criticism of the DAAs infrastructure rollout, Mr Kavanagh said engagement so far with Mr Philips has been excellent.

Theres a recognition that, not just from an Aer Lingus perspective, but from an airport perspective, infrastructure is required, said Mr Kavanagh.

I think theres now a joint agreement in terms of where and how the Aer Lingus ambition can be fulfilled in terms of the development of the south apron.

He added: The question then of course is how quickly it can be delivered. While we can see summer 18 operating, beyond summer 18 were seeing pinch points.Forty people have withdrawn their applications for senior financial services jobs since 2011 after being challenged by the Central Bank.

Five cases involved top positions in the banking sector.

The Central Bank challenges to the applications were done under the regulator's so-called 'fitness and probity' gatekeeper role, which has been in place since 2011.

Under the 2010 Central Bank Reform Act, the Central Bank has the power to refuse to approve the appointment of individuals to certain senior roles where there are concerns in relation to the individual's fitness and/or probity.

"As part of the Central Bank's gatekeeper role which again has been in place since 2011, 40 individuals who had applied to take up senior positions within financial services firms withdrew their applications following robust challenge by the Central Bank, which in many cases involved one or more challenge interviews with that individual," said Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

"These withdrawals span all sectors and five have involved individuals withdrawing their applications for senior positions in banks."

Minister Donohoe also revealed that under the Central Bank's Fitness and Probity regime four individuals have been banned from working in regulated firms, including two employed in credit unions.

The Fitness and Probity regime is used to vet anyone taking a senior job in a bank, insurer or other financial service provider. Slightly different rules apply for credit unions.

The system involves the Central Bank actively assessing the skills, suitability and track records of anyone before they take a senior job. The Central Bank has said in the past that applicants tend to withdraw from the process when issues and questions are raised.

Mr Donohoe also revealed that under the Central Bank's Administrative Sanctions Procedure, which has been in place since 2006, 12 people have been disqualified from performing senior management roles in regulated firms.

The data was obtained by in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty.Central Bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics, who sits on the ECB council, denies taking bribes and insists Im not a friend of the banking system in this country

Even for a country long accused of funnelling dirty Russian funds into the European Union, Latvia's latest banking scandal is shocking.

Just days after the US threatened to penalise Latvia's third-biggest lender for having "institutionalised money laundering," including for clients linked to North Korea's nuclear programme, authorities in Riga detained veteran central bank Governor Ilmars Rimsevics on suspicion of bribe-taking.

Hours later, after his two-day detention ended, the drama deepened with the publication of an Associated Press investigation that suggested he's a target of Russia's security services.

As a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, Mr Rimsevics is privy to market-moving decisions, and he's also a senior official in a former Soviet state that angered Moscow by joining Nato.

Under fire from multiple sides, Mr Rimsevics summoned reporters on Tuesday to deny wrongdoing, accuse banks of conspiring against him and declare himself the victim of a death threat to destabilise Latvia. Premier Maris Kucinskis thickened the plot after by urging Mr Rimsevics to resign - while also disparaging the bank Norvik and Russian owner Grigory Guselnikov for publicly accusing Mr Rimsevics of demanding a bribe without producing evidence.

Then the Defence Ministry weighed in with what amounted to a national-security alert that all but accused Russia of a disinformation attack.

President Raimonds Vejonis claimed Latvia is locked in a "hybrid war" and that Mr Rimsevics should step down for the sake of the financial system.

Mr Rimsevics dug in Thursday, telling Bloomberg Television he won't step down, even temporarily. He denied ever accepting an illegal payment, though he said he regretted not reporting the "hint" of a bribe in the past. "I'm not a friend of the banking system in this country," Mr Rimsevics said in his lawyer's office in Riga.

The ECB, whose council met on Wednesday without Rimsevics, its Latvian representative, has yet to comment.

With Vladimir Putin and his lieutenants once again at the hazy centre of a geopolitical storm, the Kremlin responded with a characteristic shrug.

"This is an internal political matter for our Latvian comrades," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "We wouldn't want to get involved."

As the murky events engulfing this Baltic outpost unfold, officials in Riga point to tighter rules, record fines and annual checks for banks with foreign clients as progress in their efforts to shed the country's reputation as a laundering centre.

The amount of dollars banks handle has fallen by two-thirds, from $221bn (179bn) in 2014 to $76bn last year, mainly because major counter-parties like Deutsche Bank closed their Latvian dollar accounts.

Foreign deposits in Latvia have fallen by a third in the last two years and the finance minister expects another 50pc decline over the next few years.

A country of just 2 million bordering four other former Soviet republics - Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Estonia - Latvia emerged as a trusted conduit of dollar flows westward after the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which triggered the equally sudden emergence of legions of millionaires. Like Cyprus - an even bigger mover of Russian funds - Latvia is a regional banking hub on the fringes of the EU with a large Russian-speaking population.

From 1996 to early 2005 - the year after Latvia joined both the EU and Nato - the US Treasury identified Russia and Latvia as major violators of anti-money-laundering laws. Of the 1,002 so-called suspicious activity reports it received on US shell companies in the period, 504 involved banks in Russia and 449 in Latvia that together handled $18bn of illicit transfers.

In 2005, Latvia's oldest commercial lender, Multibanka, and VEF became two of the few institutions to be blacklisted by the US as a "primary money-laundering concern" under a measure of the 2001 Patriot Act that gives Treasury power to ban lenders from the US system through which all dollar transfers must pass. Multibanka was later bought by a Russian lender controlled by the Rotenberg brothers, Putin's old friends from St Petersburg who are both sanctioned by the US over Ukraine along with their bank.

"Russian money will always try to find the easiest way out and that means the Baltics will always be an attractive channel," said Aivar Paul, a former head of Estonia's financial police who's now an executive at LHV bank in Tallinn. "How many EU countries offer extensive banking services in Russian?"

Three years later, a Treasury delegation flew to Riga to discuss with Latvian officials Iranian efforts to circumvent penalties imposed over its nuclear programme through Krajbanka.

Krajbanka eventually collapsed amid fraud allegations.

It was one of several domestic banks involved in a case where $1.6bn went missing from lenders owned by a Russian investor.

From 2011 to 2014, Latvian banks helped shift illicit cash out of Russia in a $20bn scheme the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which uncovered it, dubbed "The Russian Laundromat."

"You get the feeling the authorities are scared of the banks in Latvia, not vice versa," said Bill Browder, a fund manager whose lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Moscow prison after alleging a $230m tax fraud by officials. The Hermitage Capital Management founder said much of those funds were laundered via Latvian banks.

"There was never any interest in pursuing laundering charges, even when we brought them a case on a platter," he said. Trasta Komercbanka had its licence pulled by the ECB two years ago for breaching regulatory requirements. And last year, a Paris court fined another Latvian lender, Rietumu, a record 80m for helping clients of a French company evade taxes.

The bank denies wrongdoing and is appealing the decision.

Two weeks after the French ruling, Rietumu became the fifth Latvian bank to reach a settlement with local regulators over involvement in attempts to circumvent sanctions on North Korea. Another lender fined over North Korea at the same time, Norvik, is the one now accusing Rimsevics, the central bank governor, of demanding 100,000 a month in bribes.

"For 25 years, Rimsevics controlled everything," Mr Guselnikov, the Norvik owner, said. "He and his team are unmovable. He's been in charge of supervision since 1992 and all his employees have been there since the 1990s or 2000 and they owe him their careers and positions." Since the Korean fine, Mr Guselnikov has lured two western security experts to Norvik's board: former Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and former German foreign intelligence chief August Hanning. Cofer Black, the former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism centre, is also a director of Latvia's Baltic International Bank.

One bank that escaped fines in the Korea probe, ABLV, is the lender the US designated a "primary money-laundering concern" last week. It denied the charges, said it's taken steps to prevent laundering and pledged to work with US officials.

"In money-laundering centres like Latvia there's a sense their hands aren't really dirty," said Mark Galeotti, from the Institute of International Relations who tracks Russian organised crime.

"The money just passes through and earns fees. You could argue the true laundering capitals are London and Frankfurt, but money arrives there pre-washed." (Bloomberg)Denise Van Outen reacts as Jason Byrne presses the golden buzzer with his foot. Photo: TV3

Comedian and Irelands Got Talent judge Jason Byrne accidentally presses the golden buzzer by mistake on tonights show.

The singing act, whom Louis Walsh describes as so bad, already has three red buzzers from judges Louis Walsh, Michelle Visage and Denise Van Outen.

Van Outen then appears to tackle Byrne to get him to press the red button, but everything goes awry when Byrnes foot landed on the golden one.

The judging panel appears entirely shocked.

That is such a waste of a golden buzzer, says Louis Walsh. Its just the singing was so bad.

I mean if Cilla Black heard that version, shes spinning in the grave.

I think Jasons in trouble, added commentator Lucy Kennedy.Personal finance editor of the Irish Independent, Charlie Weston on Sir John Rogerson's Quay in Dublin. Photo: Mark Condren

A VULTURE fund has bought my mortgage.

No payment has ever been missed on the home loan.

This week the vulture funds agent wrote to me and my wife Emer demanding that we get a garda to certify who we are and provide it with two utility bills to prove our identities.

Yet, the letter demanding this is not signed by any individual.

It merely ends with Yours sincerely, Pepper Financial Services.

Our mortgage had been with Danish bank Danske. It is a tracker set at a very attractive margin of 0.5pc over the European Central Bank key rate.

Yes that is a juicy rate, and we will not be giving it up to the vulture fund. (If a personal finance writer cannot make some good financial decisions it would be a poor look out).

Days before Christmas we got a letter from Danske telling us that it had sold our mortgage.

We were taken aback by the after-the-fact nature of this.

The letter stated that Pepper Finance Corporation would have responsibility for our mortgage. Pepper is an Australian lender with an operation in Shannon where it manages mortgages on behalf of funds and also issues its own mortgages. It is registered with the Central Bank as a credit servicing firm.

Pepper is referenced a number of times in the December letter. There is one reference to a company called Proteus Funding DAC, which has actually bought the mortgage.

But you could easily get confused by the sloppy wording in the letter.

Who owns Proteus, who is behind it, and is it regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland? None of these questions was addressed.

So Proteus, the new owner of my tracker mortgage, provides no information on itself, yet it thinks it is appropriate to get its agent to send me and my wife separate letters (never mind that it is a joint mortgage) demanding that we identify ourselves.

So it was time for some digging.

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Proteus, it turns out, is a company only set up last October 13, with registered offices at 32 Molesworth Street, Dublin, which is the address of corporate law fiem Maples and Calder. A search in the Companies Office reveals that the directors of Proteus Funding DAC are Gareth Rowe and Jarlath Canning, who are also employed by Maples and Calder.

A call to the offices of solicitors Maples and Calder got transferred to a company called Maples Fund Services, at Molesworth Street, Dublin.

Mr Rowe is listed on a Maples website as having experience that covers Irish and Cayman Islands domiciled investment funds including hedge funds, multi-manager funds, private equity funds, emerging market funds and unit trusts.

He is a director of 239 companies. He did not return calls.

Mr Canning is a director of 135 companies. He studied law and business studies at Waterford Institute of Technology, and has extensive experience in the provision of management, company secretarial and administration services to Irish Special Purpose Vehicles across a broad range of structure types, according to the Maples Fiduciary website.

Mr Canning was said to be on leave when his office was phoned.

The Central Bank confirmed that Proteus is not a regulated firm in this country.

However, the Companies Office information shows that Proteus Funding DAC is owned by none other than Goldman Sachs of New York. The controversial Wall Street investment bank has been described by Rolling Stone magazine in the US as a vampire squid.

The worlds most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money, it said.

Goldman Sachs has a registered office at 70 Sir John Rogersons Quay, Dublin. The receptionists said they had no knowledge of the company when I called on the phone and in person.

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All this means our little mortgage has become the plaything of big financiers and it is now better travelled than me. High financiers have packaged it up and are trading it without a by your leave to us.

The merry-go-round started back in 2004, when we switched from EBS to National Irish Bank to benefit from that banks good value tracker offer.

The ownership of the mortgage then ended up in Denmark when National Irish Bank was bought by Danske Bank in 2005.

When Danske closed its Irish retail banking operation in 2014, Pepper in Shannon took over the management of it.

Now the ownership of the mortgage has moved to New York, via a special purpose vehicle set up in Dublin.

The mind boggles.

Pepper says it needs to confirm our identify to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

Who do these vultures think they are, making demands on a mortgage holder who has never defaulted, while at the same time failing to provide any details about themselves?

I take exception to the mannerless, unprofessional and contemptuous nature of the letter.

Listen here Proteus/Pepper, try starting by setting out who exactly Proteus is, and who is behind it before making any demands on us.

And if you really need to confirm who we are, you know where we live. After all, you bought our mortgage.A woman has told the trial of a man accused of carrying out three random attacks on women she thought she was going to die during one assault.

Slawomir Gierlowski (33), of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, is charged with falsely imprisoning and assaulting a woman in September 2016 at a location near Naas Road, Clondalkin, Dublin.

He is also charged with unlawfully having a hunting knife with intent to intimidate on the same occasion.

Mr Gierlowski is also charged with false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault of a second woman at another location in Clondalkin on September 3, 2015.

Finally, he is charged with false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault of a third woman at this same location on September 11, 2011.

Mr Gierlowski has pleaded not guilty to all nine charges.

A jury of 12 men was sworn for the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

One juror was excused yesterday when he said he recognised a witness in the trial.

The alleged victim of the 2015 attack told the jury she was walking home from a night out in the city centre when she felt a sudden force around her neck.

She said that it felt like a thick leather belt and it had come around her chin and upper neck before she had time to grab it.

She lost her balance and ended up on the ground.

She felt her legs being restricted and the man kept putting his hand over her mouth and nose to prevent her from screaming.

She said that after several screams the man told her: "Shut up or I'll kill you".

The alleged victim said his accent was Eastern European and his voice was quite vicious and angry.

She felt something being wrapped around her head and face and she guessed from the sound that it was tape.

As she described how it became difficult for her to breathe and became light-headed, she became upset in court.

"I thought I was dying. I had gone quite light-headed, like I was passing out. I felt it was for the best. I didn't know what was going to happen," she said.

She added: "I was still trying to scream as much as I could. I was still trying to scream but nothing was coming out."

She said the man turned her onto her stomach and took her hands behind her back and restricted them.

He then sexually assaulted her.

The attack ended when the owners of a nearby house called gardai and the man ran off.

The trial continues before Judge Pauline Codd.Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm described the financial regulator as "f**king Freddie f**king Fly" and the Central Bank as a "shower of clowns" before getting emergency funding during the financial crisis, a jury has heard.

In phone recordings made at Anglo in 2008, Mr Drumm told a colleague he would go to the Central Bank and: "Keep asking the thick question: when is the cheque arriving?"

He also described as a "death warrant" a letter to the financial regulator stating Anglo was in breach of a condition of its licence.

The tapes were played yesterday in the trial of Mr Drumm, who denies taking part in a 7.2bn conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

Mr Drumm (51) is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors in 2008 by dishonestly creating the impression that the bank's customer deposits were larger than they were.

The case centres on circular transactions from Anglo to Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), routed through Irish Life Assurance (ILA) back to Anglo.

Detective Sergeant Michael McKenna told Paul O'Higgins SC among the phones recorded in Anglo for business purposes was John Bowe's.

Mr Bowe, one of the people Mr Drumm is alleged to have conspired with, was treasury director.

On September 18, the two discussed money leaving the bank and how, if it was downgraded by the ratings agencies, Anglo could lose another 2bn.

Mr Bowe read out to Mr Drumm a letter he had prepared for the financial regulator about Anglo's breach of the regulatory liquidity ratio under the bank's licence.

The jury had heard earlier this was in advance of Anglo seeking emergency funding.

"The bit about the licence is signing a death warrant," Mr Drumm said.

He said it meant the regulator could force Anglo to stop lending, but said they could do that anyway. Mr Bowe said Anglo was beholden to them.

In a call on September 19, 2008, Mr Bowe told Mr Drumm about the bank's position "deteriorating more slowly than our worst-case scenario".

Mr Drumm asked that if they got 6bn from IL&P, did they have to "cash back" and asked if Anglo had the cash. Mr Bowe replied that they did not have the cash.

"We can't take it off f**king Freddie f**king Fly down there, the financial regulator because it will appear on the balance sheet," Mr Drumm said.

He told Mr Bowe they had to make their best attempt to get the balance sheet looking in reasonable health.

Mr Drumm spoke of what they would say to the Central Bank, referring to Anglo being under stress.

"We'll be saying, 'Yeah, a stress because HBOS were f**king sold and Lehman's went bust and f**king Bank of America f**king took over Merrill's and other f**king non-normal things happened'," Mr Drumm said.

"We need the f**king loan because we are running out of money," he said.

He said he was going to keep it "stupid simple".

"I'm going to keep asking the thick question: 'When, when is the cheque arriving?'," he said, adding: "If we say it in their language, nothing will happen.

"You have it, so you're going to give it to us and when would that be? We'll start there," he said.

"If they don't give it to us on Monday they have a bank collapse - if the money keeps running out the door, the way it has been running out the door."

Mr Drumm also spoke about being "relaxed" before agreeing to meet the following morning for a "pep talk and then off we go". Mr Bowe suggested 10am.

"Ten o'clock it is. You the man," Mr Drumm said.

In the next phone call, on September 22, the two men again discussed the bank's situation and Mr Drumm at one point asked about what would happen if they got "4bn or whatever from that f**king shower of clowns down on Dame Street".

Mr Drumm asked Mr Bowe to "come in for the CEO's review" for the next board meeting.

He said he thought they "just need a ladybird-type thing", "something we can hand out to them". Mr Drumm said they would say "this is the real world here" at the meeting, "this is what could happen, this is what we think will happen, even with the six billion fixes, which Mr f**king Denis confirmed for me this morning".

"We're f**ked," Mr Drumm said, adding that the bank had "depleted our liquidity by 14bn".

He said the question would be asked: "Who was in charge when that was going on? Whose f**king can was that?

Mr Drumm also spoke about the "snapshot" of its finances Anglo would have to show to the market at its year end, on September 30.

Snapshot

"The snapshot, the family photo, is not going to be any better than that no matter what we do," he went on to say.

"The balance sheet looks shot," Mr Drumm said at one point before asking: "Are you going to be able to bloat the balance sheet on the right hand side?"

"If this photo is ever going to be published on f**king Bebo, it's not going to look that great," Mr Drumm said. He said it did "not look doable" that you could "fix the poxy balance sheet over the year end".

He continued to say it needed to be got into the minds of the board members that "we have lit a fuse here and it's not going to go away".

Mr Drumm was asked on the call about a meeting he had had with "Gillian and Denis".

The jury heard earlier that a possible merger between Anglo and ILP had been discussed.

"Gillian was listening but this man had a f**king brick wall built in front of him," he said.

"He is just mind numbingly blocking it," he said.

He suggested getting back to Gillian and saying "one party, ie your f**king chief executive is not receptive".

Mr Bowe asked if Mr Drumm thought they "can be turned."

"I do," he replied, adding: "It's the last f**king roll of the dice."

"Keep whacking our heads off that wall and see if we can eventually split it open," he said.

On September 29, Mr Drumm said in a phone call the transactions had become an "academic exercise".

Mr Bowe said: "Permo came back and said they couldn't do it. They basically said they couldn't do any more without collateral."

"But we are sorted anyway," Mr Drumm said.

Mr Bowe said of getting money back in time from ILP: "it's very tough to do but we are picking away at it."

"F**king journal entry would do it an awful lot quicker," Mr Drumm said, adding with laughter that Anglo's finance director Willie McAteer might be auditing the books himself.

The trial continues.A convicted armed robber who has become one of the Kinahan cartels main Dublin operators was the primary target of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) when it raided nearly 40 homes and businesses nationwide yesterday.

The CAB, supported by national and local garda units, searched properties in four counties as part of a massive investigation into mobster Ross Browning (34).

The north inner city thug was previously a driver and enforcer for the cartel but has since risen through the ranks to become one of its main operators on Dublins northside.

Shortly after 5am, CAB officers, backed up by heavily armed gardai, began searching several locations in Dublin, Meath, Longford and Limerick.

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Twenty homes and 19 businesses  including accountants, solicitors and a gym linked to Browning  were searched.

The large haul seized from the cartel mobster included:

Approximately 15,000 in cash.

Luxury vehicles including an Audi Q7, Mercedes Vito, VW Golf Mark 7 GTD and a Honda motorcycle.

Watches including Breitling, Rolex, Cartier and Legend.

A large amount of documentation was also recovered, which will be analysed by specialist gardai, as well as mobile phones.

The CAB also secured a freezing order on a bank account which contained a substantial amount of money.

One house raided by gardai was Brownings family home in Hardwicke Street in the north inner city, while properties in Finglas and north Co Dublin were also searched.

The main focus of the CAB was a city centre flat, two homes, a plot of land and an industrial unit, as well as two properties in Limerick.

The head of the CAB described yesterdays raids as a significant development and added that it will continue to go after the gangs ill-gotten gains.

This CAB investigation into an organised crime gang is continuing. Today marks a significant development in the progress of this investigation, said Det Chief Supt Pat Clavin.

The Criminal Assets Bureau are relentless in their mission to identify the criminally-acquired assets of persons and to deny such people these assets.

The motivation of these organised crime gangs is greed for wealth and we will do all we can to deprive them of this wealth.

The operations involved garda units from various divisions, including the Emergency Response Unit (ERU), the Armed Support Unit (ASU) and district detective units.

Browning was one of around 30 people arrested by officers investigating Christy Kinahans massive drug organisation in an international police probe, codenamed Operation Shovel, in 2010.

He was released without charge after being questioned by Spanish police.

The fitness fanatic has also been closely aligned to mob boss Daniel Kinahan and was recently investigated for being in possession of a false passport.

In March 2002, Browning was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence for carrying out an armed robbery with two of his associates, and for dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm.

A year earlier, Browning was involved in a robbery in which more than 17,000 was stolen from a Securicor van driver.

The driver was leaving McDonalds, in Parnell Street, Dublin, after collecting the money when he was approached by Browning, who waved an imitation gun at him and demanded he hand over the bag containing cash.

Last August, Browning posted a testimonial online in which he said he was planning to transform his life after having a road to Damascus moment.A Dublin-based dad has revealed his fears for his son after learning his former partner has married a notorious US prisoner convicted of double murder.

North Belfast native Denise Stalford (31) wed so-called 'Woodland Park Killer' Jacob Ind in Teller County Jail, Colorado, last month - on her first trip to the United States.

Ind, who has already served 25 years, has won a retrial over the killings of his mother Pamela Jordan and stepfather Kermode Jordan, after a US judge ruled that the then-teenager was wrongly denied the right to testify on his own behalf.

Ind (40) admits killing the pair in a shooting and stabbing attack while they slept at their Woodland Park home in the early morning of December 17, 1992. But he has insisted it was in self-defence after suffering years of abuse.

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"I don't know when it will be or how it will happen, but I believe he's coming home," said the now Mrs Ind, who told the Colorado Springs Gazette that should Ind be released following his retrial, the couple would set up home in Northern Ireland.

"It would be a fresh start in a country where no one knows him as Jacob Ind, the guy who killed his parents, and a safe place to heal and rebuild," she added.

"Jacob, more than anything, wants to be normal and have a normal life, and give his family some sense of normality, which he knows they can't have until he's out."

But, speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, her ex Ashley Byrne said he now feared for the safety of their 10-year-old son.

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"I'm frightened for my son's life; I'm sick with worry," he said.

Mr Byrne (30), an IT worker who knows , and Mrs Ind lived together in Whiteabbey and in Whitehead for two years before splitting. They'd lost contact in recent times, but the revelation that she'd married Ind came as a big shock.

"I was sick inside and so scared and worried for my son," he said.

"I sit up at night-times thinking about (my son) and worrying if my son's okay. I feel powerless.

"When I think about what she's done - that she married this man - I'm just speechless.

"As a parent, I would like to know why, out of everyone in the world - and there's a lot of people - why this person?"

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Mr Byrne, who is now off work with stress "over this whole episode", said he was going to enlist the help of a solicitor so that he could fight for full custody of the boy through the courts.

"It's for his safety; his safety is my number one priority," he said.

"I feel it's necessary to get my son removed from her. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to him."

He said he hasn't had any contact with his son, who will turn 11 in May, for five years.

He spilt with Mrs Ind when he was only seven months old and said he only learned about her behind-bars wedding when he read the interview she gave to a newspaper in the States. "Everybody moves on, it's the way of life, people get into relationships, and sometimes they don't work out and we move on and we meet somebody new, and that's fine. But for her to watch a documentary and then decide that 'I'm going to write to this guy and then marry him', to me it's not normal behaviour. That's my opinion," he said.

"As a parent, if I was in contact with a woman and she had a bad background, or if she was violent or on drugs, I'd take myself out of that scenario. I don't want to have my child put in any danger. Even if it's a one per cent risk, that's a one per cent chance."

The idea that Mrs Ind ultimately wants to bring Ind to Northern Ireland astounds him.

"Fair enough, people fall in love all the time, but I still can't get my head around it," he added. "She's thinking only of herself, not (my son). She'll tell you that she'll always put (my son) first and she only thinks about him, but I disagree with that.

"She's not thinking about (my son) because if you took a survey of parents and asked them if they'd put their child in this scenario, I would stake everything I have that the majority of parents would say they wouldn't."

Meanwhile Mrs Ind, who is now back home, believes a retrial will prove that her husband was wrongly locked up - and allow them to finally live together as man and wife.

When the newlyweds tied the knot on January 19 they were separated by a plate glass partition, and have yet to kiss or hold hands as husband and wife.

Mrs Ind told the Gazette that she fiercely believed in her husband and, despite the seriousness of his past crimes and their highly unusual relationship, "it might be a little bit safer than meeting a guy at the bar and bringing him home. I trust Jacob. He is me".

She added: "There are not many women who can say they have full access to mental health records and every detail of (their partner's) past."

Mrs Ind's unusual relationship began when she saw him in 2013 documentary Lost For Life, about juveniles in the US serving life without parole.

"I heard it in his voice. He's not a monster. He's never been a monster," she said.

Then, in what she calls "the craziest thing I've done", she wrote to Ind to wish him luck in his bid to be freed.

Recently the US Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were "cruel and unusual punishment", resulting in a spate of resentencing hearings.

As Ind's older brother Charles would testify, Kermode Jordan molested the brothers repeatedly in what they came to call the "bathroom sessions".

Ind later said that in addition to physical and verbal abuse, his mother also sexually abused him until the age of 12.

"The parents should not have died, and it's sad that they did, but they were not the only victims," said Mrs Ind.

No date has been fixed for Ind's retrial, when the 1994 murder conviction will either be quashed or upheld. But in any case it's unlikely his life sentence would be renewed, hence his new wife's optimism that the couple could soon be living as a married couple on this side of the Atlantic.

"People (in Northern Ireland), even if they knew what happened, wouldn't be aghast in the street," said Mrs Ind, adding that her family are fully supportive of her choices. "Where I'm from, if something bad happens to someone who rapes children, people don't have a lot of sympathy for them. But a lot of people over here believe he shouldn't have been locked up in the first place."

Mrs Ind did not respond to requests from the Belfast Telegraph for a comment.Killer Catherine Nevin - known as the Black Widow - was cremated yesterday in a small, private ceremony in west Dublin it has emerged.

According to reports, the short religious service was conducted by a priest and attended by a small group of the convicted killers family, friends, and former prison mates.

The funeral took place at Newlands Cross crematorium in west Dublin.

The arrangements were kept under wraps all week to prevent media attention, the Irish Daily Star reports.

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Two years after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, Nevin (67) died at a hospice in the Beaumont area of Dublin last Monday night.

She had been on temporary release from the Dochas Centre womens prison since last August , following being granted full-time compassionate leave due to her need of end-of-life care that could not be provided in prison.

Nevin was convicted in 2000 for one of the most high-profile murders in Ireland. She was found guilty for paying a hitman to kill her husband at their business, Jack Whites pub in Co. Wicklow in March, 1996.

The hitman then tied up Nevin in an effort to disguise the incident as a robbery.

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Details of Nevins attempts to solicit three men to murder her husband emerged during the trial, but she never revealed who pulled the trigger.

The Black Widow was charged with murder in April 1997 and found guilty in August 2000 following a 42-day trial.

Nevin protested her innocence till her death and never revealed the identity of the hitman she hired. She will now take the secret of who killed her husband to her grave.A fundraising campaign started by cancer-stricken author Emma Hannigan has raised more than 51,000 for Breast Cancer Ireland (BCI) in five days.

The mother-of-two (45) told recently how she has reached the end of her long-running battle with the disease and doctors say there is no more they can do for her.

But spurred on by the wealth of support she received in the wake of her news that her cancer is terminal, she turned her attentions to raising some valuable funds for BCI, which backs pioneering research into the disease.

Thousands of people have been supporting her CURE campaign and have also helped her new book 'Letters to my Daughters' reach the top spot in Ireland, with Dubray Books also donating all profits to BCI.

Ms Hannigan, who has fought cancer 10 times after being diagnosed with the BrCa1 gene in 2005, said she's been overwhelmed by the response to her campaign.

"I'm quite simply blown away by the kindness being shown," she said.

"More than that, if my story can help raise much needed funds so that fewer families have to face losing a loved one, I'd be thrilled."

BCI chief executive Aisling Hurley commended her for her hard work in raising the funds for its research labs.

"We are humbled that our dear friend and ambassador Emma Hannigan is continuing, even at this precious time, to raise awareness on the importance of investing in research towards advancing a cure," she said.

"We cannot thank her enough and we acknowledge the overwhelming support we have received this week."Publicans from Newmarket Co Cork who will remain closed as usual on Good Friday. From Left John O'Connell, High Street Bar, Julia McAuliffe, Scullys Pub, Michael Scanlan and John Scanlan, Scanlan's Bar, Newmarket. Photograph by Eamon Ward

All of the publicans in one rural town are going keep their doors shut and remain closed for business this coming Good Friday.

Six publicans based in the north Cork town of Newmarket coming together and deciding collectively that they will not open their doors in spite of the State lifting the 91-year old ban on publicans serving alcohol on Good Friday.

The publican, John Scanlon of Scanlons bar, Church Street, who first proposed the move in an initial chat with a colleague, said yesterday: We have only two days off each year, Christmas Day and Good Friday and we want to hold onto that. It is a day publicans want to spend with their families.

According to the most recent census, Newmarket has a population of 976 and the move has received an overwhelmingly positive response from pub customers in the town with one customer congratulating the publicans saying well done Newmarket, keep up our traditions.

Publican, Joan Hourigan has been serving pints from the behind the counter at Hourigans bar on Newmarkets New Street for the past 50 years.

A mother-of--nine, five of her children are involved in the business and Ms Hourigan said that she has always enjoyed a day out or decorating their shut pub on Good Friday and I dont want to give that up.

Ms Hourigan said that the day off on Good Friday is something that I cherish and a tradition I want to maintain.

She said that religion is playing only a small part in her decision to remain closed.

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She said: A lot of our customers would be older farmers and I wouldnt think we would be particularly busy on Good Friday anyway. They have grown up with the tradition and I think they will see it out.

One of the other publicans in the village, Mick Hourigan announced the move to his customers on his pubs Facebook page and the response from customers has been universally positive.

He said yesterday: There are 363 days a year when the pub is open and I think that it plenty. Soon they will want us to open on Christmas Day.

Mr Hourgian operates a bar and a night-club in the village employing more than 20 people and he said: I wouldnt ask my staff to work on Good Friday. What is around on a Friday is not a lot.

In his comments, Mr Scanlon said: The day off every Good Friday is a day that publicans look forward to.

Mr Scanlon admitted that the decision to close can only work when all publicans in the area decide to close.

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He said: It would be different for city publicans who would be giving up a lot of revenues by staying shut on a Friday night, but I dont think there would be a lot around here on Good Friday.

Mr Scanlon said that there has been no negative feedback from customers and the response has been positive.

Mr Scanlon said: It is going against the grain - but who knows? Other pubs around the country may follow.

On the Facebook page of Mick Hourigans pub, one customer wrote: It is great to see that old traditions matter to our countrywell done to you and hopefully more will follow.

Another wrote well done Newmarket, keep up our traditions while one woman posted: Well done to ye guys. Fair play. Our country needs to stand up for its traditions. Very proud that it is Newmarket leading the way - we lead where others follow.

Another wrote right job - only two days off in the year - keep the tradition going while another customer posted Well done, fair play to ye - hope most bars will do the same. People are not that mad for drink as publicans will tell you they are in no rush into pubs during the week anyway.

Earlier this year, President Michael D Higgins signed into law the amendment to the Intoxicating Liquor Act that lifted the Good Friday pub ban that had been in place since 1927.

Independent senator, Gerald Craughwell was a co-sponsor of the bill that has resulted in the lifting of the ban.

He said yesterday: The bill was all about choice, especially for publicans and I fully respect the decision by the publicans of Newmarket to stay closed on Good Friday. It is very interesting that they have come together to do this.

Senator Craughwell said that he wasnt approached by any vintners while the bill went through the Oireachtas.

A spokesman for the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) said yesterday: Like all other days of the year -except Christmas Day - publicans can choose to open or remain closed on Good Friday. The decision is entirely their own to make.

He said: The removal of the ban on serving alcohol in licenced premises on Good Friday has received broad support from the pub sector particularly as many tourists visit Ireland during the Easter period.Major changes to plans for the expansion of the Dart have dropped the underground element completely in favour of four new stations at ground level, the Irish Independent can reveal.

The cost of the revised proposals is half what was originally budgeted by the National Transport Authority - but, controversially, will benefit only the northside of Dublin city.

Documents seen by this newspaper show the NTA now wants to extend a Dart service from Heuston Station through the Phoenix Park Tunnel to new stops in Cabra, Glasnevin and finally the Docklands.

Aside from the fact it completely boycotts the southside, the route is likely to draw political comment as it will primarily serve the constituencies occupied by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

The long-delayed underground project had proposed stations in Inchicore, Heuston, Christchurch, St Stephen's Green, Pearse Street and the Docklands.

It is understood the estimated cost for the revised expansion is 1.95bn, compared with 4bn for the original plan to tunnel under the city.

According to the documents, the NTA believes it should "prioritise" investment in non-tunnel elements as "this will enable additional services to be put in place much earlier". The plan is to rely heavily on existing infrastructure rather than create new routes, meaning a large part of the cost will be new trains.

The expectation is that Irish Rail will buy hybrid trains that can run on electricity or diesel.

The Government's 'Project Ireland 2040' sets out plans for high-frequency electrified services to Drogheda on the Northern Line, Celbridge/ Hazelhatch on the Kildare line, Maynooth and M3 Parkway on the Maynooth/Sligo line, while continuing to provide Dart services on the south-eastern line as far south as Greystones.

But the NTA documents outline how it wants to push ahead with the Dart expansion, initially without electrification.

According to an indicative timeline, it will be four years before the new Demu hybrid fleet will be available.

Between 2022 and 2025, the new Dart vehicles will be deployed to provide services on the Drogheda line every five minutes, while the frequency on the Maynooth and the Celbridge lines will be every 10 minutes.

Electrification of the lines will be completed between 2023 and 2027.

Project Ireland 2040 includes maps showing the underground route, but doesn't include any funding for it.

The alternative now being drawn up would enable commuters - who would currently have to exit their Dart at Heuston - continue into the city.

The service will link up with the Metro line at a new station at Cross Guns Bridge, on Whitworth Road in Glasnevin.

From there, the Metro will travel north to the airport or south through the city centre, including St Stephen's Green.Top members of the UK cabinet gathered this week at Chequers, the country residence of Prime Minister Theresa May, to discuss Brexit. Photo: Getty Images

It was breakfast time, so Leo Varadkar's food metaphors were probably unavoidable.

The Taoiseach warned that Britain will end up with "scrambled rashers" if it cannot decide what it actually wants from a Brexit process that is rapidly gaining pace. The continuing problem for Ireland is that it has been a process without London's real participation up to now.

Mr Varadkar warned that the London government just has to tell the EU negotiators what it is aiming for in these divorce talks.

"As Chancellor Merkel said, the UK can have as close a relationship with Europe as it wants to have. What it can't do is cherry-pick. The EU is a set-menu restaurant, not an a-la-carte," he went on, staying with the food analogies.

The Taoiseach was speaking at an Independent News and Media breakfast on Thursday as he very pithily laid things on the line: Britain cannot have things both ways.

"If you're a member of the club, you're a member of the club. And if you want to be an associate member, you can't write the rules yourself," he said in a message that could not have been plainer.

But here's the rub. Within two weeks a draft withdrawal agreement, or so-called "divorce treaty", between the EU and UK will be published in Brussels, giving us a clear view of what is to come.

It will put into legalese the items agreed on December 8 last in that deal which Mr Varadkar told us was "bullet-proof". These include agreements on citizens' rights; the EU-UK divorce bill; and the Irish Border and common UK-Ireland travel area.

There was up to this weekend a growing sense of exasperation in all of the EU capitals with Mrs May's government. While the Taoiseach was speaking on Thursday morning, the 11 members of the British "Brexit war cabinet" were gathering at the Mrs May's country residence in Chequers in the foot of the Chiltern Hills.

Both the ardent Brexiteers, like Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, and those less keen, like Finance Minister Philip Hammond, said they were satisfied with the strategy adopted after eight hours of talks. The outcome must be cleared by the full British cabinet next Tuesday and will then be unveiled by Mrs May in yet another landmark speech next Friday.

We understand that Britain will continue to sign up to EU rules on a "voluntary basis" after Brexit happens in March 2019. That would avoid a collapse in trade and would be good news for the immediate term for Ireland. Thereafter it hopes to diverge from the EU regime.

The deal still has to be sold to the other 27 sceptical EU leaders. It looks like the "cherry-picking" approach cited by the Taoiseach.

Mr Varadkar was in Brussels yesterday for talks on the EU post-Brexit, including remedies for a 10bn per year budget hole caused by Brexit. He remained sanguine about the threats of "backsliding" by London out of the December "no hard Border deal".

But he was completely correct when he said it does not matter if language on Ireland and the Border is in a separate protocol or in the body of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The point is that it must be legally binding, Mr Varadkar insisted.

"The position of the Irish Government, which is the same position of the European Union, is that we want commitments and guarantees that we were given in December written in the withdrawal agreement," he said.

Way back in 1992 Ireland learned all about how a treaty protocol, a sort of addendum to the main text, had exactly the same weight as the rest of the treaty.

In late 1991 Ireland insisted on a protocol which stated that nothing in the EU Maastricht Treaty affected the issue of abortion in this country.

Then in early 1992 the 'X-Case' happened and Albert Reynolds's government sought to withdraw the protocol.

The answer from Brussels was a flat "No" as Ireland and the other member states had already signed the Maastricht Treaty.

In the end the EU gave Ireland a "declaration" to take account of the outcome of three referendums in November 1992 on the issue.

Thus we learned that in this instance a protocol is every bit as strong as text in the main document.

Yet the question remains, will Britain come up to the mark on aligning its rules and standards with those of the EU?

If it does not, it remains extremely hard to see how a hard Border can be avoided.

Scrambled rashers are not much good to anyone.The Trump administration is considering appointing a special envoy to Northern Ireland it has emerged.

The possibility arose at a meeting of the Tanaiste Simon Coveney and US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson in Washington.

At the meeting, the Tanaiste and Secretary of State discussed the current impasse in Northern Ireland and the implications of Brexit.

The first special envoy - George Mitchell - was appointed in 1995.

Until Trump's inauguration as president Senator Gary Hart held the position but role has remained vacant under the Trump administration.

With ongoing political deadlock in the North continuing there have been renewed calls for the position to be filled.

Speaking after the meeting in Washington Mr Coveney said the US has a "valuable" role in Northern Ireland.

The United States, has been instrumental in helping to broker peace in Northern Ireland and continues to provide valuable encouragement and support to the peace process," he said.

I also underlined our determination that Brexit must not in any way undermine the peace process and the gains achieved by the Good Friday Agreement.

"I also expressed the view that Ireland would be in a position to play an enhanced role in transatlantic relations post-Brexit in light of our unique ties with the US.DESPITE the gathering storm clouds of Brexit, Kiltimagh in east Mayo is a small town with big hopes for a brighter future.

If qualities like resilience and adaptability count for anything, the people here have them in spades, according to Ronan Egan, managing director of Genfitt, one of the towns biggest employers with a staff of over 50 and an annual turnover of 11m.

An independent wholesale distributor of farm machinery parts, hardware and other products to the agri sector, Genfitt sells mostly to the domestic market, but with 25pc of its customers in Northern Ireland and the UK, a hard Brexit could have a serious impact on operations. Yet its boss remains sanguine about the prospect.

Id be surprised if its a hard Brexit, says Egan. Id like to think that common sense will prevail. Business has to be done, no matter what.

Besides, if Theresa May doesnt know how Brexit will play out, and the powers-that-be in the EU cant tell us, how are we supposed to know? We cant make plans on the basis of what might happen. We have to continue to trade and serve our customers.

Hes fully aware of the potential impact the deal could have on the company, which imports from Europe, China, Taiwan, India and North America.

Tariffs, import duties and additional freight costs would be a significant cost, and delays in delivery, extra paperwork and red tape would be a concern too, he says. However, no problem is insurmountable and we will find a way of trading, whatever the outcome, even in difficult circumstances. Brexit will not be an obstacle to that.

Egan feels the initiatives supported by Project Ireland will help the region rise to the challenge of Brexit and beyond.

The recently opened Tuam to Limerick road is a case in point of how improved infrastructure delivers tangible benefits, he says. For our staff driving from Kiltimagh to Killarney, thats cut an hour off the travel time each way. More regular flights and increased routes to and from Knock Airport would be very helpful too. Its a lot easier to drive 10 minutes from there after a business trip than face the trek from Dublin. And rolling out a decent broadband service will be good for business and the wider community.

Read more: 'You have got to be innovative, especially in the west of Ireland'

Im excited that 1bn is being put aside for rural regeneration, because in order to attract business talent, we need to invest in Kiltimagh as a desirable place to live.

With two hotels, a couple of supermarkets, a selection of shops, pubs, GAA club, schools, and a population that jumped from just under 1,200 to 1,500 in the last three years, things appear to be picking up, but not at the rate locals would like.

Theres a super community spirit, but the town needs more facilities, says Mr Egan. Develop the infrastructure; then the people will come. The people here are resourceful. My instinct tells me that well find ways to manage, whatever happens.

For more information on Project Ireland 2040 visit the official websiteA Laois woman who was killed in a car accident last night on the N80 has been remembered as a lovely lady and great mother by a local councillor.

The fatal accident involved two cars and the 48-year-old woman died at the scene.

The second driver, a man in his 40s, was rushed to Tullamore Hospital with serious injuries.

Councillor John Moran (FG) said he lives close to the family and he sends his deepest condolences to them at this time.

She was a neighbour of ours, and our granddaughter is best friends with one of her children, so its just a terrible situation," he told Independent.ie.

She has four children that she looked after full-time, its very tragic and my thoughts are with the family.

Councillor Tom Mulhall (FG) said he has great sympathy for all involved.

It was a terrible, tragic accident and I offer my sympathies to the family of the deceased and am hoping for a quick recovery to the man who was injured.

A lot of road accidents take place every day so Id definitely say drive safe and be careful to avoid more tragedies like this.

The collision occurred around 10pm on Friday night in Ballickmoyler.

The road was closed to traffic this morning and investigated by Garda forensic collision investigators. The local Coroner was notified.

Gardai in Portlaoise are appealing for witnesses.

A second person died this morning after the van he was driving crashed into a 4x4 vehicle at Ballyhest Cross (R678), Rathgormack in Co Waterford.

The crash occurred at around 10am on Saturday morning.

The man was pronounced dead on arrival at Waterford University Hospital following the crash. The two occupants of the other vehicle have since attended hospital for a medical assessment.

Gardai investigation the Waterford crash are appealing for witnesses to contact Tramore Garda Station on 051-391620, the Garda Confidential line on 1800-666-111 or any garda station.Passengers were left stranded in trains and more than 26,000 homes and businesses were affected after a major power outage in Dublin.

Trains were left stranded between stations for up to 30 minutes yesterday after a fault at a substation left large parts of the capital without an electricity supply, with knock-on delays through the morning peak on rail services which affected around 30,000 commuters.

The ESB said a plant failure at its Finglas 220kV substation, the biggest in the country, caused the outage which hit at 7.20am. Power was restored by 8.25am.

It said hospitals were not affected, as they would have switched to back-up generators. But Irish Rail said there were significant delays to commuter and Dart services which lasted until 10am. The outage comes just days after 4,600 homes and businesses in Dublin city centre were left without electricity due to a fault with a transformer in Temple Bar, which was likely caused by construction works.Qatar Airways has become the first customer of the brand new Airbus A350-1000, an aircraft hailed as a game-changer for long-haul travel.

The carrier has 42 A350-1000s on order, the first of which will go into service on its Doha-London route this month.

The 74m-long aircraft offers passengers "the quietest twin-aisle cabin in the skies", according to Airbus, as well as advanced air-con and full LED mood lighting.

As a long-range, twin-jet, wide-bodied aircraft, Airbus's A350 series competes with and is often compared to Boeing's 787 Dreamliners.

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It retains the distinctive, curving wingtips of the A350-900, but the A350-1000 is 23-feet longer with 4pc larger wings and an all-new, six-wheel main landing gear.

Like the A350-900, over 70pc of its lightweight airframe is made from advanced composites, titanium and aluminum alloys. A carbon fibre reinforced plastic fuselage results in lower fuel burn, Airbus says, as well as easier maintenance.

The plane is powered by two Rolls Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, new additions offering a take-off thrust capability of 97,000lbs per engine, lower approach speeds and savings of around 2.4 million per aircraft per year on fuel, according to Qatar.

They are "the world's most efficient large aero engines," it adds.

Qatar flies daily from Dublin to Doha, a service it launched with an A350-900 (see video above) but operates with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus lists the A350-1000's range at 14,750km, slightly longer than Boeing's listing for the 63m long 787-9 Dreamliner, at 14,140km.

The A350-1000 is the first Airbus aircraft to be fitted with Qatar's Qsuites - business class suites that can be sealed off with their own doors.

QSuites boast 80-inch fully flat beds, mood lighting and both aft and forward-facing seats, allowing colleagues to work or groups to socialise.

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The suites follow similar 'private' in-flight accommodations like Singapore Airlines' A380 First Class suites, Etihad's three-room 'Residence' and Emirates' new private suites, featuring 40-square-feet of space inspired by Mercedes Benz.

Qatar's middle Qsuites can also convert to six double beds.

Read more:Crushing my body tightly against a boulder, I'm frightened to even breathe. Like the final moments in a thrilling blockbuster shoot out, I know at some point I'll have to move; the question is not if, but when.

Behind this haphazardly stacked kopje sits 50 million years of natural history embodied in almost two thundering tonnes of flesh - the size and power of a BMW car with a notoriously volatile grump at the wheel.

An intruder in someone else's wild, coarse environment, I know I'll soon be rumbled. Yet as I peer over rocks into a crumpled face mapped with more contours than an ancient mountain range, all I want to steal is a glance.

Being within arm's reach - and trampling distance - of one of the world's oldest and most critically endangered species is humbling.

And when heavily pregnant Nadungu detects my presence with her acutely-tuned antennae-like ears, bolting away in a cloud of ochre dust, I'm soberly reminded of how fragile a black rhino's existence has become.

A species under threat

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A Loijupu being fed at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Saruni Rhino camp. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Tracking rhino in the Sera Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu woman. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Feeding time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu warrior below the Milky Way. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. / Facebook

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Whatsapp A Loijupu being fed at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri.

Between 1960 and 1995, poaching caused a 98% decline of the species, and although the situation has slightly improved, conservationists estimate less than 5,500 survive in the wild.

Home to just under 1,000, Kenya is one of the eastern black rhino's biggest strongholds, and efforts are underway to preserve and grow that population.

What's more, tourists are now able to observe the animals at a much closer range than ever before, thanks to a pioneering project to return black rhino to a rugged, tribal territory in northern Kenya - uniquely driven by requests from indigenous people living there.

Launched at the beginning of 2017, Walking With Rhinos is the first black rhino tracking experience in East Africa and the first community owned and managed project of its kind on the continent.

"When many of our staff were children, poachers would offer them sweets and ask where the rhino were," recalls Sammy Lemiruni, lodge manager at the Saruni Rhino Camp. "They'd innocently point to a few, hiding in the bushes."

By the mid-1990s, black rhino had been wiped out completely from this remote sector of Samburu County, which now forms the Sera Conservancy. But in 2015, with the help of Northern Rangelands Trust, Kenya Wildlife Service and conservationist Ian Craig, black rhino from the nearby Lewa Conservancy and other national parks in the country were translocated to a fenced 41sq mile sanctuary within Sera.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A Samburu woman. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Saruni Rhino camp. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Tracking rhino in the Sera Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Feeding time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu warrior below the Milky Way. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu being fed at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. / Facebook

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The birth of Nadungu's calf a few days ago raises the current number of residents to 12.

Owned by Italian writer and safari guide Riccardo Orizio, the Saruni stable was exclusively invited to set up a lodge within Sera, six miles from the Sanctuary. Although foreign owned, the intimate three-banda (stone cottage) enclave is staffed by Samburu swathed in handsome shuka blankets and a rainbow of beadwork, making this a business very much rooted in and respectful of its surroundings.

A place that's still wonderfully wild

A few days earlier, I'd arrived in the neighbouring Kalama Conservancy via a 50-minute bush flight from Nairobi, for an overnight stay at Saruni Samburu, a six-villa hilltop camp drowning in views of enormous skies and burning red plateaus, crowned by Mount Kenya on a clear day.

At night, stars swelled every available corner and the Milky Way billowed overhead in a long, inexhaustible plume. It was pure, undisturbed wilderness - but only a taster of what was in store.

Driving initially along tarmac road, we soon turned off into the bush for a 45km journey to Saruni Rhino, passing only goat-herding pastoralists and camels with bells clanging around their necks. Villages were a collection of mud and animal hide huts clustered together, and the local 'school' constituted a gathering of wide-eyed children sheltering below the shady, protective arms of an acacia tree.

By the time we reached our final destination, the modern world had disappeared almost completely.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Tracking rhino in the Sera Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu being fed at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Feeding time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu woman. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Saruni Rhino camp. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Tracking rhino in the Sera Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri.

Hidden along the banks of a dried-out river bed, where stooping doum palms lazily sweep their fronds along the sandy floor, Saruni Rhino is remote - even by Northern Kenyan standards - and wonderfully so

Sat in the hull of an upholstered wooden canoe, I watched an elephant family parade to a watering hole, followed by a Somali ostrich wiggling his pom-pom tail feathers like a cabaret dancer in the Folies Bergere.

Tracking rhino is the obvious focus for guests, but there's so much more besides to see.

Tracking rhino on foot

Rhino within the Sanctuary have been fitted with microchips in their horns, allowing rangers to monitor movements and track their whereabouts. Shy and reclusive browsers, black rhino thrive in the thickets and can be notoriously difficult to find, but using a telemetry device almost guarantees a sighting.

A fleeting glimpse of Nadungu has whet my appetite for further encounters, and on our second outing into the Sanctuary, we go in search of another female, Napanu.

Standing on top of a rocky mound, rangers Thomas and Anthony take turns in holding aloft an aerial, hoping to detect clicks from chip 16; each rhino is numbered and has its own frequency.

Once Napanu has been located, we travel by foot, led by our guide Sambara who uses a sack filled with ash to gauge wind direction. (Although a rhino has poor eyesight, its senses of smell and hearing are astounding.)

Weaving through fairy-tale turrets of termite mounds and spiky commiphora bushes, I painstakingly watch every step, tip-toeing through a minefield of brittle twigs and jagged quartz rocks, trying not to make a noise.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A Samburu warrior below the Milky Way. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Feeding time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu being fed at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu woman. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Tracking rhino in the Sera Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Saruni Rhino camp. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. / Facebook

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Whatsapp A Samburu warrior below the Milky Way. PA Photo/Renato Granieri.

While closing in on our quarry, we reach a stand-off, frozen for 45 minutes as she grows suspicious of our presence. When she finally moves into the valley, we position ourselves at the base of a hill and marvel as she trots slowly towards us, every fold, crease and skin rumple visible in glorious, magnified detail.

This time, there's no rock to hide behind and with only metres of air between us, her breath almost touches my neck. One camera click results in a mock charge, causing Sambara to intervene by shouting and clapping, leaving me drunkenly dumbstruck as one of the world's few surviving black rhinos hurriedly scrambles away.

A community caring for elephants

The return of black rhino to this region of Kenya is more than a conservation effort and revenue generator - it's also a source of pride for the Samburu people. The same is true for the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, another pioneering community owned and managed project in neighbouring Namunyak Conservancy, part of the Matthews Range where one of Kenya's largest elephant population resides.

Opened in August 2016 to rescue and eventually release abandoned and orphaned elephants back into the wild, it was set up with funding from Conservation International and Tusk Trust, with a view to returning the animals to their natural home rather than other parks in the country.

Arriving early morning after a two-hour drive from Sera, we're the only tourists privileged to watch a writhing throng of eager trunks reaching for their bottles at feeding time.

There are plans to release some of the 13 elephants into Sera later this year, along with Reteti's only rhino, three-month Loijupu who was abandoned at birth.

A bundle of wonder and hope, he curiously stumbles towards me and - perhaps naively - I allow him to get much closer than his elders. Nostrils flared and bottom lip curling, he's unbelievably cute.

But an instinctive defiant foot stamp is a firm reminder he's wild, belligerent and, above all, a fighter - like every black rhino today should be.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Feeding time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu at the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Loijupu being fed at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu warrior below the Milky Way. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. A Samburu woman. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Tracking rhino in the Sera Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. Saruni Rhino camp. PA Photo/Renato Granieri. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Feeding time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. PA Photo/Renato Granieri.

How to get there

Sarah travelled with The Ultimate Travel Company (theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk), which offers a six-night holiday from 5,237/5,926pp.

The price includes three nights at Saruni Samburu and two nights at Saruni Rhino on a fully inclusive basis, including game viewing and rhino tracking at Saruni Rhino.

Also included is a night at Ole Sereni Hotel, Nairobi, international flights from London and internal light aircraft flights.

Both KLM (klm.co.uk) and Air France (airfrance.co.uk) offer flights to Nairobi from various regional departure points via their hubs in Amsterdam and Paris.

Read more:Can you safari on the cheap? Yes. Should you? I dont think so.

Some of the prices for these holidays will make your eyes water. Theyd buy you a second-hand car or an Hermes bag. But they need context.

You can buy safaris off the shelf, but youll get what you pay for them. Do you want to join one of a dozen Jeeps scrambling for views beside a well-worn waterhole, or the sole vehicle spending hours alone with a lioness and her cubs?

On safari, youre buying an experience, and excellent planning is rewarded... Here are eight tips to get you started.

1) Set your budget

How much are you prepared to spend? Could you target a trip a few years out and start saving now? Its better to splash on a super safari than to cut costs and rush a mediocre one.

2) Pick your moment

Hot, dry weather (July-October in East Africa) sees lighter vegetation, plus it draws animals towards dwindling water supplies. November to March is hotter and greener, and can be rainy. It can also be great for birdlife, however.

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3) Dont rely on your phone

Good binoculars and/or a camera with a quality long/zoom lens are essential on safari. Its surprising how little phones and point-and-shoot cameras can capture, especially in low light at dawn or dusk, so nows the time to invest (or borrow!). Bring spare memory cards and batteries too.

4) Plan your jabs

Most African countries require a yellow fever vaccination certificate for entry. Thats just the beginning. Check with your GP several months ahead as regards polio, tetanus, typhoid, hepatitis A and other vaccinations that may be required.

5) Dress for the occasion

It can get hot on safari, so pack appropriately, drink plenty of water, wear sunscreen and a hat and take the camps advice on how to fend off mosquitoes or flies (which can be a real nuisance on game drives). On a walking safari, wear long trousers and sturdy shoes for protection from thorns, insects and snakes. Yes, really.

7) Get a good guide

Talk to your tour operator, your lodge and locals about this one. A guide with a gra for his work and a genuine knowledge of the wildlife and terrain is worth paying more for. A bad one can turn a long drive into an expensive yawn-fest.

8) Dont forget to relax

Long flights, drives, hot weather and insects can make safaris hard work. Plan your downtime to rest and recover before, during and after safari days, and think seriously about whether your kids are old enough to manage.

P.S. Getting started

Google will only get you so far with safaris. With a holiday this specialised, and expensive, you need to get talking to humans.

In Ireland, The Safari Expert (thesafariexpert.com), Sunway (sunway.ie), Trailfinders (trailfinders.ie) or Tropical Sky (tropicalsky.ie) are worth a call. Todays euro/sterling exchange means prices from UK operators like Kuoni or Belfasts Mahlatini are bit keener too.Fr. Gabriel Harty OP, Marion Belton, Mary Farrell and Mary Mackin at the official launch of Fr. Gabriels books, The Rosary and Make My House a House of Prayer held in St. Malachys Friary Centre

Fr. Gabriel Harty and Fr. Maurice Colgan at the official launch of Fr. Gabriels books, The Rosary and Make My House a House of Prayer held in St. Malachys Friary Centre

Dundalk Based Dominican priest Fr. Gabriel Harty, better known as 'the Rosary Priest of Ireland' celebrated the launch of the latest books in his collection last week.

The Friary chaplain was joined by staff members from the school to launch the 'The Rosary' and 'Make My House A House of Prayer'.

The 96 year old continues to defy his years, publishing these his latest books in a long series of volumes over the years. He even learned to use a computer when he was 80 years old, in order to keep publishing.

Indeed he had been the creator of hundreds of booklets, CD's, and pamphlets, with a particular emphasis on the Rosary.

Fr. Gabriel, known to most at the Friary school and church, as 'Fr. Gus' travelled the world throughout his life and priesthood, bringing his unique message of the Rosary to many countries.

Having spent most of the last few decades living with the order in Tallaght, he says Dundalk has been a very welcoming new home.

'I've never felt more welcome anywhere than in Dundalk, and I have travelled to a lot of different places. I'm still bowled over by the generosity and warmth of the people of Dundalk,' Fr. Gus told the Argus.

Indeed such is the popularity of the 96 year old that a pupil of the Friary decided to write to Pope Francis to highlight his good works,. The letter, written by formjer 6th class pupil Ruth McGee, then saw a response from the papal office, and a set of rosary beads, blessed by the Pope, for Fr. Gabriel.The people of Louth are being asked to support the Irish Cancer Society's 2018 Daffodil Day, which will take place on March 23rd.

There are currently 165,000 people living with cancer in Ireland and over 12 months 826 people in Louth were diagnosed with the disease.

Averil Power, Chief Executive of the Irish Cancer Society, spoke at the launching of Daffodil recently, noting: 'As the number of Irish people with cancer increases, record numbers are turning to the Irish Cancer Society for information, care and support. Only two per cent of our funding comes from the State. We are therefore hugely dependent on the generosity of the public to fund vital services used locally.

'Last year, the number of people using our Volunteer Driver Service to travel to chemotherapy appointments increased by fifteen per cent. A total of 19 journeys were covered for patients in Louth. Our Night Nursing service provided 240 nights of care to terminally-ill patients locally in their own homes. None of this would be possible without strong support for Daffodil Day from individuals and communities across Ireland.'

Ms Power also thanked Boots Ireland for extending its support for the Irish Cancer Society's work by becoming the official main sponsor of Daffodil Day 2018.

Bernadette Lavery, MD, Boots Ireland said: "Colleagues in Louth are excited to join with Daffodil Day volunteers to fight back against cancer this March 23rd. We see the effect cancer has on the lives of patients and families in the communities we serve, and we are determined to make a difference. We have worked closely with the Irish Cancer Society for five years and are delighted to extend our support to their flagship fundraising day this year as official main sponsor.Gay Berkery, Oliver Nixon and John Igoe at the Rotary Club of Dundalk charity breakfast morning held in The Crowne Plaza

Dundalk Rotary Club held their annual pancake breakfast in the Crowne Plaza Hotel last Tuesday.

The Club have been staging the event for many years and it is always very well supported by the local community.

'It was a very successful event and it is very well supported by members and non members alike', explained Club President, Seamus McDermott.

'It met its fundraising targets and the money will be distributed to charitable causes in due course'.

'Our event has been held for several years but it is harder now than to keep it as popular, as many other clubs and local voluntary groups now also hold their own pancake mornings, although ours is a full breakfast'.

The club have had a very busy period with their Remembrance Tree at Christmas one of their own visible events during the year.

'The Remembrance Tree was especially beautiful this year and again it was very well supported by the public and these funds will also be used for charitable purposes'.

In addition to these two events over the recent times, the Club have been engaged in a bike renovation scheme, with collected bicycles restored by prisoners and then transported to Africa for a second lifespan.

Dundalk along with other Rotary clubs around the country also contributed funds raised locally to a programme to renovate accommodation in the Children's Hospital in Crumlin for parents of sick children, so they can be near their sick sons and daughters.

Dundalk Rotary Club's year ends on July 1st when they hold their annual meeting but before then Club members will visit Rotarians in Belgium in May and welcome fellow Rotarians from Larne in June.

The Club meet every Monday.Irene Moley, Laura Boyle and Magritte McGivern, Woddlers and Toddlers Pre-school receives the Healthy Ireland award from Frank OBrien, Louth County Childcare and Maureen McDermott (right), National Childhood Network at the Health Promoting Pre-schools Healthy Ireland Smart Start programme awards ceremony held in the Crowne Plaza Hotel

Pre-school services across Ireland who have implemented the Healthy Ireland Smart Start programme, a holistic health promotion programme for young children have recently received their award and certification as Healthy Ireland Pre-school services from the HSE.

In recognition of their success Louth County Childcare Committee has held a recent event to celebrate the success of local service providers. The programme is built upon the Governments Healthy Ireland Strategic Framework which seeks to improve the health and well-being of the nation beginning with Ireland's youngest citizens.

Development and delivery of the programme has been a collaborative effort between the Health Promotion and Improvement Department of the HSE and the National Childhood Network (NCN). Delivery of the programme is heavily subsidised by the HSE and supported the Department of Children & Youth Affairs and Department of Education & Skills.

The programme is specifically designed for pre-school children aged between three and five years of age and encompasses all aspects of a healthy lifestyle: oral health, physical health, health & safety, emotional well-being & literacy as well as nutrition & healthy eating.

The programme has been very positively received by pre-school providers, staff and parent with feedback showing that is has helped to enhance health awareness in children attending the services involved.

Denise Cormilla, CEO, NCN said, 'The preschool sector has such an important role to play in promoting our children's health and wellbeing and the Healthy Ireland Smart Start programme provides them with the information, training and resources to be able to do so very effectively. Through this Healthy Ireland initiative, the HSE equips more and more pre-schools around the country in a consistent, sustainable and efficient manner with many of the tools needed to nourish children's overall health and well-being.'

The programme is open to all pre-school providers; private or community, sessional or full day care, regardless of size or location. Registered childminders are also welcome to participate in the training. Validated pre-school providers can retain the Healthy Ireland Smart Start award for three years upon completing an annual assessment process.

Services who have achieved the award in Co. Louth to date are Tir Na Nog, Dunleer; Woddlers & Toddlers, Omeath;Lios Na Nog Dundalk and Realt Na Mara Dundalk Co LouthSpecsavers Dundalk is thrilled to announce that they have raised 500 in aid of the National Council for the Blind, Ireland. The store has received enormous support and kindness from the local community, making this generous donation possible.

The store raised the much-needed funds through in-store activities throughout the last quarter of 2017, including a charity raffle offering customers the chance to win a decadent chocolate hamper.

Specsavers has an existing charity partnership with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. The NCBI is Ireland's national charity working for the rising number of people affected by sight loss. Its practical and emotional advice and support helps 8,000 people and their families face their futures with confidence every year. NCBI advocates for people with sight loss to have the same rights, opportunities and choices as others.

Specsavers Dundalk would like to thank the local community for their support and donating generously to this worthy cause.The new National Development Plan, or Project Ireland 2040, was always going to be a curate's egg as far as the north East is concerned. Parts of it are good and parts of it are disappointing.

The Plan recognises the importance of Dundalk as a key centre on the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry cross-border network and in the context of the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor; there's funding for road networks in the region, including a nod towards the long awaited Narrow Water Bridge; the Dart is going to be expanded to Drogheda, but there is no money for a new regional hospital to take pressure off Drogheda's over-crowded and land-locked Our Lady of Lourdes hospital.

Project Ireland 2040 is the first time in Irish history that a joint Planning and Investment plan and cultural plan has been put together with 115bn in funding, and last week's announcement was watched anxiously in Louth as the county braces itself for the fallout from Brexit.

The Plan acknowledges the challenges facing the county. 'It will be necessary to prepare co-ordinated strategies for Dundalk and Drogheda at both regional and town level to ensure that they have the capacity to grow sustainably and secure investments as key centres on the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry cross-border network.'

It notes that 'the significant influence of Dublin and the cross-border network extends to the county towns and other settlements within the north-eastern region as well as to Fingal and parts of Co Meath.

'In identifying opportunities for leveraged employment and sustainable population growth, development must be supported by enhanced connectivity, quality of life, strengthened urban cores and more compact housing in urban settlements. This is to protect and manage the strategic capacity of transport infrastructure and to ensure that the distinctiveness of settlements and rural areas is maintained.'

Of special interest to north Louth is the commitment under the investments in cross-border routes to 'support' the Narrow Water Bridge project,

Fine Gael TD for Louth-Peter Fitzpatrick TD said: 'Louth is going to benefit from real investment and proper planning as a result of Project Ireland 2040.'

'The plan will support families and strengthen communities in Louth, and will ensure sustainable growth for the future of the county.

Highlighting projects which will benefit the region he noted that these include the long awaited

N52 Ardee Bypass, comprising a 4.7 km Type 2 single carriageway, while the DART is to be extended as far as Drogheda. A number of flood risk management schemes are targeted for the North East, including Dundalk, Carlingford and Greenore and Drogheda.

He also welcomed the 2016-2021 target to deliver approximately 2,000 additional social homes under the programme across this region, including the 102 new homes by Tuath Housing Association at Castleguard, Ardee.

'This is our plan for the future of Ireland. For the first time in the history of the State, our spatial planning is backed up with solid investment and it will deliver for our citizens.

Fianna Fail TD Declan Breathnach welcomed certain aspects of the National Planning Framework 2040 but said that delivery on the projects outlined was needed and not just publicity. 'While I welcome the plan to extend the DART service as far as Drogheda, in addition to the plan for the long awaited link road between Bettystown and Laytown, I am disappointed that the plan to develop a new hospital for the North-East has been omitted.'

'A lot of it is mere repetition and re-announcements of what went before,' he said. 'This is an ambitious plan, but there are no time limits set for the various projects outlined.'

He claimed that The Plan 'is highly politicised, is being rushed through to avoid a Dail vote and is not co-ordinated and thought through at all.'

Sinn Fein TD Gerry Adams also criticised the government's refusal to allow a vote on placing the National Planning Framework on a statutory footing as 'disgraceful'.

Dundalk Chamber has welcomed the publication of the National Spatial Strategy, which is says 'has been significantly altered following separate representations by Dundalk Chamber and Louth County Council.'

Chamber PRO Paddy Malone, who along with Rodd Bond and incoming President Pat McCormick coordinated the Dundalk lobby, said: 'The Plan will place the M1 corridor and the Drogheda- Dundalk-Newry

corridor in the centre of both economic and social planning for the next 50 years.'

He said they had put a lot of time and hard work and were glad to get the result which would 'mean continued investment in infrastructure and future Foreign Direct Investment projects' for the region,

'It means that our young people will have greater opportunities to live and work locally.'Rachel Connolly from Donegal, Cian Tully from Oldcastle and Harrison Jameson, from Virginia, Co. Cavan, at Dundalk Institute of Technology. Photo: Arthur Carron

Improved business and transport links will be key to confronting the challenges posed to the county by Brexit, writes Deirdre Reynolds.

The impact of Brexit is a key element of the new 116bn masterplan for the future of Ireland.

Project Ireland 2040 recognises Dundalk and Drogheda as key centres on the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry cross-border network and in the context of the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor.

The plan aims to Brexit-proof the country by investing in the future with a focus on the border regions.

The document also outlines plans for a 300m loan fund to businesses with fewer than 500 employees exposed to the impact of Brexit, as well the expansion of the IDA Regional Property Programme and launch of the second phase of the Regional Enterprise Development Fund in 2018.

New Regional Sectoral Clusters will be developed involving small to medium companies and multi-nationals collaborating with research centres and third-level institutions, including Dundalk Institute of Technology.

The N52 Ardee Bypass, a 4.7km Type 2 single carriageway bypassing the town on the banks of the River Dee, is also due to begin construction this year under the plan.

Also in Ardee, a new ambulance base will be established under the infrastructure plan, which also pledges the development of primary care centres and the upgrading and replacement of community nursing units across the north eastern region.

Approximately 2,000 additional social homes are also set to be delivered across the region by 2021, with 1,000 of the units already completed, on site or progressing through approval stages, including 102 new homes by Tuath Housing Association at Castleguard, Ardee.

A Flood Risk Management Plan  aimed at minimising the impact of river and coastal flooding on communities  will be rolled out in areas including Dundalk, Drogheda, Greenore and Carlingford.

The long-mooted DART line from Drogheda to Dublin has been confirmed in the plan. Project Ireland 2040 vows to deliver a full metropolitan area DART network for Dublin with all of the lines linked and connected by 2027.

The 2bn DART Expansion Programme now includes plans for the electrification

of the northern commuter line from the existing end of the DART network in Malahide on to Drogheda, promising commuters fast, high-frequency electrified services to Drogheda on the Northern Line.

For local student Aaron Byrne, who commutes for up to three hours a day, its a positive development.

I commute for a placement for college, said the 20-year-old, who studies Youth Work at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Im working with Swan regional youth service in North Strand until May.

At the moment, I get a bus to Dublin  it takes an hour to an hour and a half, depending on traffic and if Im able to get the direct bus.

For a ten-journey trip, its 55, so if youre doing five days a week it works out at 220 a month.

The train would be quicker, but its a little bit more expensive.

If it was cheaper than getting the bus, I would definitely consider getting the DART.

Better digital connectivity, too, is just another of the improvements residents of the county can look forward to under the plan.

Acceleration of the National Broadband Plan, it outlined, would ensure access to quality high-speed broadband in villages, rural areas and islands and play a major role in empowering rural communities.

Assuming the flow of traffic is two-way, Drogheda Chamber of Commerce council member Brian Hanratty also welcomed the proposed new rail route to Irelands largest town.

We have the busiest commuter train station outside of Dublin, but its one-way, he said, its out of Drogheda in the morning.

The first thing weve got to do is to fill the trains that come back from Dublin every morning that are almost empty.

Despite Drogheda missing out on the previous plan, the National Spatial Strategy, people have chosen Drogheda as a place to come and live, and the problem is most people cant work locally, theyve got to move out of Drogheda  and that should be the focus of the plan.

Towns in Louth are also among those set to benefit from a new Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, which will provide 1bn nationally to promote the sustainable growth of towns and villages with populations of up to 10,000 people over the next decade.

Currently commuting up to 90 minutes to Dublin Airport each morning for work, Drogheda native Zoe Kerr is hopeful the initiatives will help her find work closer to home in the future.

For me, if I had the opportunity to work in Drogheda, I would, said the 21 year-old, who currently works as a food and beverage assistant at HMSHost. I have to spend two to three hours extra daily [on the bus] that I wouldnt have to if I worked in Drogheda.

I would love for them to pump more business into the region for more job opportunities in the area, because the travelling can be very tiring, she said.

I also have to pay weekly for my bus ticket, which is over 50, so it works out as taking 1 or more off my hourly rate.

For more information on Project Ireland 2040 visit the official websitePaddy Donnelly, David Minto, Majella Toner Downey, Zoe Conway,Billy Doyle and David Caldwell at the launch of the St. Patricks day parade in The Oriel Centre

The Oriel Centre, home of traditional music in Dundalk, was the ideal venue for the launch of this year's Dundalk St.Patrick's Day Parade.

Young Irish dancers provided a flavour of what to expect on the day itself, when the parade celebrates all that is good about Dundalk.

The 2018 St Patrick's Day Parade is fortunate to have a main sponsor in Dundalk Credit Union, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary and the inspiration for the Parade's 'Dream Big' theme.

The Longwalk Shopping Centre, Louth County Council, Dundalk Chamber of Commerce and Pelican Promotions continue as associate sponsors.

Parade Chairperson, David Minto spoke of the importance of having Dundalk Credit Union as their main sponsor

The Chairman of Dundalk Credit Union Mr Paddy Donnelly commented: 'The Board of Directors of Dundalk Credit Union are delighted and honoured to be sponsoring the 2018 St Patrick's Day Parade in what is the 50th Anniversary year of the Credit Union"

Internationally renowned fiddle player Zoe Conway, who has been chosen as the 2018 Grand Marshal Zoe Conway, spoke of her excitement at being asked to carry out that role and shared her enthusiasm for the Dream Big theme. She also treated those who attended the launch to a few tunes,

Other speakers at the launch includdl Cllr Maeve Yore and Dundalk Chamber of Commerce President, Michael Gaynor,

A special presentation was made to Kim Hearty to mark her commitment and dedication in the organisation of the Dundalk St Patrick's Day Parade over many years.Louth has the lowest rate of collection for commercial rates in the country, according to the council's CEO Joan Martin.

The local authority chief told members at their monthly meeting yesterday (Monday) that the collection rate is now the lowest of all local authorities.

She said that Louth was unique in having two large towns in the county Dundalk and Drogheda, a factor which she added was 'part of the story.'

Cllr. Pearse McGeough added that it was 'a damning indictment' of the county that it had the lowest rate of collections in the country.

Cllr. Mark Dearey queried why the existence of two large towns in Louth had any link to the collection of rates.

The CEO told members that there appeared to be a difference in the 'attitude' to paying between rural and urban areas.

'In rural counties, the attitude to paying is different to the big towns where the culture is different.'

She said it was her view that the water charges protest movement had impacted on this issue.

'The protests didn't help as there was a the view that if they can get away without paying..'

The CEO told councillors that her number one priority had been addressing the rents, rates and development contributions debts over the last few years.

She said these debts affected the cash flow of the local authority 'as it is money that we should have.'

Ms. Martin said it was accepted that a lot of businesses had been hit hard financially.

She said that it had been a case of either 'can't pay or won't pay' and that many only paid their debts when legal proceedings were started.

She explained Louth County Council are now part of a national debt management project, and had 'put a lot of resources into addressing the rates issue.'

These efforts had improved collection rates considerably, said Ms. Martin.

But the CEO did admit that the figures were skewed somewhat by the system that is used nationally to calculate rates.

Cllr. Mark Dearey added that he had called for a 'heat map' to be made available to the council, which would indicate where there might be specific problems with rates collections.

Director of Finance, Bernie Woods, said that there was an upgrade to the system being undertaken which should provide more detailed analysis for the councillors.

She added that there were a lot of 'vacant properties' where the local authority was struggling to locate the owners, an issue that posed considerable problems.

Cllr. Dearey said that he felt a lot of vacant property owners could be from outside the state, making it much more difficult to local them.

Chairman, Cllr. Colm Markey added 'Those who do not pay are making it so much worse for those who do.'The community in Omeath is rallying around a couple who lose everything when fire engulfed their Lislea home last week.

Paddy McKevitt moved to Ireland with his American-born wife Alisha to be closer to his ageing mother and they were restoring the cottage at Line Road which they bought last year.

Alisha woke to the sound of their rescue dog Rosie barking around 6am on Wednesday morning and escaped the burning cottage with their other two dogs before it was engulfed in fames, although sadly Rosie perished in the blaze.

We have lost everything we own, all our possessions, says Paddy, who had left for work earlier that morning.

It was Rosie, a lovely Rottweiler who we had rescued a few months ago, that raised the alarm. She saved my wife. Alisha woke up and heard the dog barking in the other room. She smelled smoke and went into the hallway and when she put her hand on the door, she could feel the heat. She opened the bedroom door to let the dogs out and ran out as quickly as she could and called the dogs. She thought all three had followed her, but the firemen found Rosie on the bed in our room. They tried to revive her but she was overcome by and our two cats also died.

I had left to go to work at 2am and got a phone call from Alisha around 7am telling me the house was on fire,

The fire destroyed all their belongings and a GoFundMe page has been set up by their friends in America to help them rebuild the house. The local community in Omeath has also called a public meeting which takes this Tuesday evening at 7.30pm in the Dolmen Centre.

I grew up in Newry and moved to Chicago years ago, says Paddy, who worked at the Brave Hearts therapeutic riding centre in Illinois which provides services to children with disabilities and war veterans.

My mother is getting older and her health is failing so while it was a real hard decision to make, we decided to come back home to help look after her, he told The Argus. We bought this cottage and were doing it up. We had just moved in and had spent all our money on putting on a new slate roof.

He explained that they were working on bringing it up to standard so that they could get insurance but now they have lost everything.

We were planning to have the house rewired and to put in new plumbing but now we will will have to redo the whole house.

Paddy was full of praise for the way in which the local community has come to their support.

Everyone has really rallied around us over the weekend and we hope to get the house fixed up as quickly as possible.

They have been given temporary accommodation in a vacant house and neighbour Ciaran Philips is among those co-ordinating the fund-raising in Omeath, calling for donations of building materials and manpower to help the couple rebuild their home.

Already the pledges of help is unreal , just goes to show the good nature of people, he stated.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and ministers at the launch of the plan in Sligo IT. Photo: Kyran OBrien

What will our country be like in 20 years' time?

Project Ireland 2040 aims to set out how Ireland will develop as the population grows by one million people over the next two decades.

Planning for the future, it envisages the building of 500,000 new homes; a 2bn urban regeneration fund for the country's five main cities; three new hospitals to tackle waiting lists; a series of road upgrades and 22bn for climate change initiatives.

The plan is accompanied by a commitment to invest 116bn spending over the next 10 years.

Project Ireland 2040 joins up the National Planning Framework to 2040 with the National Development Plan 2018 to 2027. Basically, this links the plan on how the country will grow and develop with the necessary funding for infrastructure and services.

The plan covers a vast range of areas from transport to health, rural regeneration to culture, childcare to housing.

The plan includes a 1bn fund for regeneration of towns and villages with a population of fewer than 10,000 people.

A number of towns get special status as regional hubs in the plan, including Athlone, Sligo and Letterkenny. And 4.5bn has been allocated for regional and local roads.

To tackle the traffic and housing crises, the plan envisages building up rather than out in our cities.

The plan says Dublin should grow primarily within the M50 and as much as possible within the canals. A new Metro will connect the city centre with Dublin Airport. Four new Luas lines will serve the commuter belt of the city.

Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford are listed as primary cities in the report. Among the proposals for Cork is a light rail system and a redevelopment of the docklands. Galway city centre will benefit from part of a regeneration fund worth 2bn.

Limerick will be connected to Cork by the M20 motorway. And Waterford's North Quays are to get significant investment. Each of these cities will see their population grow by up to 50pc over the next two decades.

Three new hospitals for elective surgeries are to be built in Dublin, Cork and Galway to deal with the public waiting lists. The ambulance fleet is to be upgraded and new bases established in Ardee, Mullingar, Limerick, Cork and Galway. The refurbishment of 90 State nursing homes is planned.

A new body known as the National Regeneration and Development Agency will be responsible for building on State-owned lands.

Project Ireland 2040 was launched by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Sligo last week.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Varadkar said it was time to "turn back on" the projects that had to be shelved during the economic downturn.

Mr Varadkar said it marked "a significant milestone in our country's development, the point at which we put the lost decade behind us and move forward into a new decade of expansion".

To find out more and view the plan in full go to:

http://www.gov.ie/en/project-ireland-2040

For more information on Project Ireland 2040 visit the official websiteThe line-up for the 2018 West Wicklow Festival has been finalised with Julian Bliss, Philip Highman, Gavan Ring, the Benyounes Quartet and Fiachra Garvey all set to perform.

The festival runs from May 17 to May 20 at Russborough House and St Mary's Church in Blessington.

The festival's founder and artistic director is Ballyknockan man Fiachra Garvey who, having attended many great festivals all around the world, decided to establish his own festival in his native county in 2017. Last year's event was a huge success and Fiachra is looking forward to drawing music-lovers to Blessington once again with a hugely talented line-up.

'The West Wicklow Festival brings the riches of wonderful artists from Ireland and abroad to west Wicklow, for the enjoyment of all-comers,' he said. 'Russborough House, one of Ireland's most beautiful Palladian houses, and St Mary's Church Blessington, are fitting venues with their intimate surroundings and long history and association with music.

'I am hugely excited about our second festival which will build on the enormous success of last year.'

Julian Bliss is one of the world's finest clarinettists excelling as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, jazz artist, masterclass leader and tireless musical explorer. He has inspired a generation of young players as guest lecturer and creator of his Conn-Selmer range of clarinets.

Philip Higham has made solo appearances with the Philharmonic Orchestra, the Halle Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Philip's late night solo Bach concert at Russborough in particular promises to be a real highlight.

Gavan Ring is one of Ireland and Europe's leading baritones. A prizewinner at Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition, his other awards include the Southbank Sinfonia Award for Orchestral Song, the National Concert Hall Dr Bernadette Greevy Bursary and the Cuisine de France John Count McCormack Bursary.

Winners of the 2012 International Sandor Vegh String Quartet Competition in Budapest, the Benyounes Quartet is gaining a reputation as one of the most engaging, dynamic and successful quartets to have emerged from the UK in recent years.

Tickets for the second West Wicklow Festival are now on sale from www.westwicklowfestival.com.19442018

Raymond Ray Pridmore, 73, passed away Friday, February 16, 2018, unexpectedly at his home in Lake Berryessa. He was born on July 7, 1944 in Napa, California, to Charles and Stella Pridmore.

Ray was a dedicated son, brother, husband, father, uncle, papa, and friend to many. He was an avid 49ers fan, and was passionate about hunting, fishing and the outdoors. Ray was happiest when sharing time with family and friends.

Ray is survived by his wife Rochelle, ex-wife Judy, daughter Mandy, stepchildren Richard and Wendy, sister Jeanne, brothers Joe and Ken, in addition, to many grandchildren, nephews, nieces, and cousins.

He was preceded by parents, Charles and Stella, brother Chuck, son Matthew, and stepson Gerald.

A rosary will be held at Treadway and Wigger on Thursday, March 1, 2018, at 6:30 pm. A funeral mass will be celebrated at St. Apollinaris Catholic Church on Friday, March 2, 2018, at 11 am. Interment is planned for family members following the funeral.

Family and friends are invited to join those who loved Ray at Treadway and Wigger at 1 pm following the funeral. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to, www.gofundme.com/raymond-pridmore to assist with funeral expenses.Bray came to a standstill last Friday as the Chinese community celebrated the start of the New Year.

Summy Wong, one of the organisers, said there had been a fantastic atmosphere in the town centre during the celebrations with plenty of local people joining in the fun.

'I am just home from Hong Kong and we wanted to organise an event to celebrate the New Year which is the Year of the Dog. We are always trying to integrate into the community here in Bray and this provided a great opportunity to show people part of our culture.

'We had a traditional New Year blessing which extended out to all the people in Wicklow and traditionally it was said to banish the evil spirits and bring good health, weather and life to people.

'We started the Dragon Dance at the town hall and we paraded through the Main Street onto Quinsborough Road before heading onto the Florence Road. We finished up at the Civic Centre and there was a large crowd of local people there.

'At the Civic Centre we did a five minute Dragon Dance and plenty of people from Bray joined in with us during this celebratory dance.

'We were really happy with how it went and we plan now to take part in the St Patrick's Day parade as well.'

Summy said that the 15 celebrations to mark the Chinese New Year will continue in the IFSC this weekend.The Wicklow branch of BirdWatch Ireland have a number of events and outings taking place over the coming months.

On Sunday, February 25, there will be an outing to Rogerstown Estuary in Dublin. The meeting point will be the Turvey Park car park in Donabate for 10 a.m.

On Tuesday, March 13, Graham Prole will deliver a talk on 'Mute Swans: nesting, breeding, dispersal and survival' in the Glenview Hotel at 8 p.m. There will be a particular focus on the swans of Bray Harbour. A photo-presentation detailing the work of the Irish Midlands Ringing Group's Mute Swan monitoring project in the greater Dublin region will also feature.

An outing to Kilcoole will take place on Saturday, March 24, to view early spring migrants and late winter visitors. Those attending should meet at Kilcoole train station car park, 10 a.m.

At 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, BirdWatch Ireland's Niall Hatch will present 'The land of the Rising Sun' in the Glenview Hotel, when he will share stories from his trips to Japan, including encounters with Steller's Sea Eagles and the gorgeous Red-crowned Cranes.

An outing to Tomnafinnoge Wood will take place on Saturday, April 21, and those attending are asked to meet in the main car park at north end of the woods (near Tinahely) at 10 a.m.The removal of Tom Nevins body from the premises in 1996 (Part of the Independent Newspapers Ireland/NLI Collection).

Catherine Nevin at court in February 1998. (Part of the Independent Newspapers Ireland/NLI Collection).

Catherine Nevin has died aged 67 in a Dublin Hostel having passed away on Monday night.

The convicted murderer, who was sentenced to life in prison for organising the murder of her husband Tom in Jack White's in 1996, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2016.

Last year, she was given full-time temporary release from prison so she could see out her final days in a nursing home.

Prior to that she was being supervised by the Probation Services after receiving temporary release from the Dochas Centre in Dublin.

She was released following months of medical treatment for an incurable brain tumour. For a period, she had been receiving care at Dublin's Mater Hospital.

She was required to sign-on once every four weeks with probation officers.

Born Catherine Scully in Nurney, Co Kildare, in October 1950, she came from a farming family and attended the Presentation College in Kildare town. She met her husband-to-be, Galway man Tom, in 1970 and they married six years later in Rome.

Initially she worked as a beautician before joining Tom in the pub trade. They started running Jack White's in Brittas Bay in 1986.

In April 2000, Nevin was jailed after a jury found her guilty of paying a hitman to murder her husband Tom in their home at Jack White's Bar, Brittas Bay, on March 19, 1996.

Her trial gripped the nation and made international headlines, with Nevin parading in front of the waiting media on each day of the trial dressed in an expensive array of outfits.

The trial lasted 42 days and the jury deliberated for a record five days before reaching their decision, then the longest period of deliberation in the history of the state.

Nevin claimed she had no part in the murder and said she been tied to her bed by attackers before freeing herself on the night her husband was killed.

Speaking at her sentencing, Miss Justice Mella Carroll told Nevin she had 'assassinated' her husband twice, once by ordering his murder and again when she tried to destroy his character in court.

Speaking to Tom Nevin's family, the judge said: 'I hope this family will take some consolation form this result.'

As well as being jailed for life, Nevin also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for soliciting three men - William McClean, Gerry Heapes and John Jones - to kill her husband in 1989 and 1990.

After the verdict was delivered, the Nevin family delivered a statement through their solicitor Sinead Curtis, saying: 'Whilst nothing will ever diminish the grief and sadness which we have suffered as a result of Tom's death, it gives us some relief that a person primarily responsible for his murder has, today, been convicted of that offence.'

The family then expressed their appreciation to the Gardai, the prosecution team and the jury before asking for time, space and privacy to deal with their brother's death

Later that same night cars beeped their horns as they passed Jack White's Inn in a show of support for Tom Nevin's family.

Nevin lost an appeal against her conviction in 2003. In 2010, she also lost an application to have her conviction declared a miscarriage of justice.

In 2014, a Supreme Court appeal against her conviction was dismissed.

She was also disbarred from inheriting her husband's estate but had recently launched a legal challenge to that High Court ruling.

Tom Nevin died without leaving a will. His assets included Jack White's, which was jointly owned with Catherine Nevin, and which she sold in 1997 for 620,000. Other assets included two Dublin properties, a 78,000 insurance policy and cash of 197,000.Bray author Emma Hannigan has announced that she has little time left to live, having battled cancer for the past 13 years.

Dubray Books will donate the proceeds of Emma's new book 'Letters to My Daughters' to the Irish Cancer Society.

'All good things must come to an end,' Emma wrote on her blog on Friday.

'The time that I knew was borrowed must be given back soon, so it seems.

'The conversation I never wanted to have has been said. My medical team have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at this fight but all avenues have now been exhausted.

'To say that I am heartbroken doesn't begin to cover it.

'But I feel I'd like to say something, after all that's what I've done over the years - say stuff, write stuff and tell you what's going down. So I feel it wouldn't be fair to leave you out in the cold right now.

'I've gained such strength from all of you. We've shared tips and hints and stories over the years. For all of it - thank you.

'Thank you for taking my hand when I needed it most and for posting all sorts from doggy snaps to moggy pics and the rest. We've made a great team.

'I have a new book out. I'm immensely proud of it and it's titled "Letters to my Daughters".

'Usually I'd spend a next few weeks chatting about it and inevitably daring to wonder if you like it. Because this is the time when all authors want to hide in the back of the wardrobe in case nobody likes their new baby! I won't need to hide unfortunately, but I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

'These characters were as real to me as all the others. They grew on me and some annoyed me at times, but as always, they were mine. Enjoy them, curl up with some chocolate or some comfort food and a cup or a glass of whatever tickles your fancy.

'Faced with very little time can I tell you what screams out at me? Love.

'Nothing else has much meaning anymore. Just the love I feel for the people I hold dear. My two babies (ok they both tower over me, but I'm still allowed call them my babies) my husband, my parents, my family, my friends and readers.

'The love in my heart is all that matters now. I am broken-hearted at having to say goodbye so if it's alright we'll say farewell instead.

'Mind each other. Be kind to each other and hold those you love close by.

'Life is so very precious. We never know the day or hour that it will be whipped away. So fill your days with as much happiness as you can muster.

'Stay away from drains, we all know them, they're the people pull the good out of everything. The ones who suck the beauty from things and change colour to black and white. Leave them to fester - I think they're secretly enjoying being grim.

'Instead, gravitate towards the light and laughter. Like a moth to a flame, remembering not to get your pretty wings burnt. You'll like it better there, I promise.

'Farewell and thank you, I am taking a bow. Until we meet again may all that is good and decent be yours.'

Bray Wanderers have added their voice to those of a host of Irish authors encouraging readers to buy Emma's book and ensure it reaches number one in the charts. Her father Philip is club president and long-time sponsor.

'Emma has been battling cancer for over 13 years,' said the club in a statement.

'In that time she has been an inspiration to thousands who face this disease, by raising awareness and giving advice which has saved, and will continue to save, many women's lives.

'She has done this with great good humour and grace, and has written 13 best-selling books which have made her much loved and admired.

'If you cannot manage to get the book, please donate to the fight against breast cancer - text Cure to 50300. Emma is their proud ambassador.'

This newspaper had the pleasure of interviewing Emma a number of times over the past decade and her bright disposition, intelligence and warm welcome left a lasting impact.

She is the type of woman who makes a person feel at home. One might have blocked off half an hour for a meeting with her and still be chatting away after an hour or two.

Our thoughts are with Emma, her husband Cian, their children Sacha and Kim, and all of her family.Ninety-nine schools across Co Wicklow will benefit from over of 880,000 in funding for computer equipment.

The grant, which will be received by schools built prior to 2014, is worth in excess of 4,100 for a 100-pupil school and almost 13,000 for a 500-pupil school at primary level. At post-primary level, the grant is worth almost 18,000 for a 500-student school and over 33,000 for a 1,000-student school.

The funding can be spent on PCs, laptops, tablets, hybrid devices or projectors, while schools can also purchase cloud-based tools and software applications to support learning.

Minister Andrew Doyle said the funding will make a 'huge difference' to school communities and will 'help equip children and teenagers with the skills they need for the future.'

'Digital technology can transform the way people learn, encouraging curiosity, exploration and creative thinking. These are the capabilities our young people will need in the future,' said Minister Doyle. 'Critical, creative thinking, problem solving skills and adaptability will be key to flourishing in this environment and we need to make sure our young people are well prepared.'

The rates payable are 2,000 per school plus 21.47 per mainstream pupil in primary schools, with additional per capita payments for pupils in DEIS schools, Special Classes and Special Schools. At post-primary, the rates payable are 2,000 per school plus 31.22 per student, with an additional per capita payment for students in DEIS schools.Maison Moli in Bray is among the cafes to sign up to the Conscious Cup Campaign.

The battle to make single-use, takeaway coffee cups a thing of the past has begun in north Wicklow.

Two Bray coffee shops have signed up to the 'Conscious Cup Campaign', with others preparing to come on board, while over in Greystones, the local Tidy Towns group is signing cafes up to participate in a similar scheme.

Takeaway cups are neither recyclable or compostable in Ireland, meaning that over 200 million takeaway cups are dumped in landfill or incinerated each year.

With that in mind, the Tidy Towns groups in Bray and Greystones are trying to get people and cafes to change their habits and switch to reuseable cups.

Bray Tidy Towns has already signed Maison Moli on Florence Road and Cafe Letterario on Albert Walk up to it 'conscious cup campaign', which aims to encourage people to switch to reusable cups and persuade coffee shops to accept those cups and perhaps offer a reward in the form of a discount or points for customers using reusable cups.

Students from North Wicklow Educate Together secondary school have joined Bray Tidy Towns on the campaign path, and a number of seafront cafes are now in the process of signing up.

Over in Greystones, the 'Every Cup Counts' campaign is gathering pledges from every cafe in the town to sell reusable coffee cups. The group is also asking cafes to offer a discount to customers for using their own reusable cups.

Tidy Towns members are supplying cafes with their Greystones-branded 'Keep Cups' to sell and are also investigating the use of compostable cups as an alternative to the standard disposable cups.

The campaign was triggered by the ever-growing number of disposable cups evident throughout the town.

A spokesperson for Greystones Tidy Towns said they were staggered to learn that millions of takeaway coffee cups were going to landfill in Ireland on a daily basis and felt compelled to do something.

'It is up to everyone to be accountable for their actions and not let that cup of coffee or tea cost the earth,' the spokesperson said.Having sold out their gig in Cork last year The Beat, arguably one of the most influential bands of the British Two-Tone movement of the 1980's, will return to the city in June when they play the Cork Opera House.

When they rushed on to the UK music scene in 1979, it was a time of social, political and musical upheaval and The Beat sought to calm the water with their simple message of "love and unity" set to a great dance beat. The Beat were all about inclusion, rather than exclusion, something that was readily apparent in their line-up and their musical influences.

The original band consisted of Dave Wakeling on vocals and guitar, Andy Cox on guitar, David Steele on bass, and Everett Morton on drums - later additions Ranking Roger (toasting) and foundational First Wave Ska legend Saxa (saxophone) completed the outfit.

The band crossed over fluidly between soul, reggae, pop and punk creating an infectious dance rhythm. Along with their contemporaries The Specials, The Selecter, and Madness, the band became an overnight sensation and one of the most popular and influential bands of the British Two-Tone Ska movement.

By Christmas of 1979, The Beat were riding high in the UK charts with their first single, a cover of Smokey Robinson's 'Tears of a Clown'. Over the course of the next five years they released three studio albums - 'I Just Can't Stop It', 'Wh'appen' and 'Special Beat Service' and singles including 'Mirror in the Bathroom', 'Save it for Later', 'I Confess', 'Stand Down Margaret' and the Andy William penned 'Can't Get Used To Losing You', ensuing they were rarely out of the charts.

They also toured the globe with acts such as David Bowie, The Police, REM, The Clash, The Talking Heads, The Pretenders and The Specials to name but a few.

After four glorious years The Beat decided to call it a day, with Wakeling and Roger forming General Public, Andy Cox and David Steele tasted success with Fine Young Cannibals and Morton founding the International Beat.

In February 2003, a dream came true for Beat fans with teh band reuniting for a UK tour, culminating in a sold out command performance at the prestigious Royal Festival Hall in London. Showman that he is, Wakeling has continued to keep The Beat alive and strong.

Touring as The Beat starring Dave Wakeling with an amazing all-star ska backing band playing all the hits of The Beat, General Public and his new songs.

Tickets for the concert on June 6 from www.ticketmaster.ie and www.corrkoperahouse.ie priced at 25.IRD Duhallow has welcomed funding of 70,066 that will help it retain its community laundry service - particularly in light of cuts to it Tus programme.

This week, Cork NW deputy Minister Michael Creed welcomed the funding award for IRD Duhallow under Strand 3 of the Community Services Programme.

The Community Services Programme (CSP) supports local community based organisations and activities to deliver a diverse range of services in the community while providing employment opportunities for people from specific target groups.

Strand 3 of the Community Services Programme focuses on services that meet two core objectives - developing and providing social enterprise through the funded organisation's offering to the community, while also creating employment and career progression opportunities for members from the CSP target groups.

Welcoming the funding, Minister Creed said "I am delighted that this Government is in a position to award funding to IRD under the Community Services Programme. It is the first time we have had an open call for proposals under the programme in more than a decade.

"The funding will support IRD to provide employment opportunities for specific disadvantaged groups and categories of people, such as the long-term unemployed, Travellers, those recovering from drug addiction and people with convictions, to name but a few.

"The funding ... is an excellent investment by Government. It will help job-seekers return to employment and, importantly, will support the delivery of valuable services in communities."

Anne Maria Bourke, chair of IRD Duhallow, said she was delighted to read Minister Creed's announcement regarding CSP Programme for IRD's community laundry.

"The laundry is providing an essential service to the elderly and the carers in the wider Duhallow region," she said. "This funding is to enable us to employ staff from a particular socio economic background.

"It is particularly welcome in light of the cuts to the Tus Programme as it will enable us to keep our service and grow it into the future."

She added that IRD still awaited official confirmation from the Department ... "which I'm sure will be issued in due course".

Pipe band heads for 55 year mark

The AGM of Newmarket Pipe Band was held in the bandroom recently and all the events of the past year were discussed along with the plans for the future.

The general feeling expressed the need for young people to join the ranks of the band, which is always in need of new members to continue what is now active since St Patrick's day 1963, or almost exactly 55 years ago.

Tuition is provided weekly in the bandrooms and keen trainees are most welcome, so why not give it a try. If interested do come along to the Kerry Road on any Thursday night.

The following were elected at the AGM: Chairman Ted Singleton, Hon Secretary Mairead O'Keeffe, Hon Treasurer Denis Jones, Vice Chairman and Drum Sergeant Michael O'Flynn

Committee: Nora Buckley, Donie Forde, Alyson Fitzpatrick, Shane Arnold, Paudie Dineen, Joanie O'Connor, Transport Officer John Murphy, Registrar Tom Arnold, Pipe Major Alyson Fitzpatrick, Pipe Sergeant Shane Arnold

The importance of child protection was highlighted and Tom Arnold, who is also drum sergeant, was appointed to this very important post.

The band is busy preparing for the annual parade in Newmarket on St Patrick's Day which, of course, marks 55 years of unbroken service.

Easter art and drama camp

Mike Guerin and Brid Moynahan will run an Easter art and drama camp on March 26, 27, 28 from 10am to 1pm in the Cyms Newmarket at a cost of 40 per child. Please ring 087 4124741 if interested. Spaces are limited.

Juvenile GAA

A final Juvenile GAA registration night will take place this Friday, February 23 in the clubhouse between 6.30-7.15pm. Fees: 1st child 30, 2nd child 20, 3rd Child 10. Boys born after January 2013 are also eligible to register for U6. Enquiries to Noirin (087)3803481 or Patricia (086)19386280

Bridge results

Mrs Lenihan's Memorial Prize, sponsored by Lenihan's Fashions: 1st Pat and Eoin Fitzgerald, 2nd Nora Collins - Liam Fitzgerald, 3rd Joan O'Connor - Maura O'Riordan, 4th Treasa O'Sullivan - Delia FitzgeraldCork East TD, Kevin O'Keeffe has warned that beef producers in Cork are facing a very anxious number of weeks as a major ferry has been pulled from service for refurbishment and a replacement is not expected for a number of weeks.

Between Mid-February and the end of April, at least 140,000 calves need to be exported from Irish farms to ensure equilibrium in the market, and to protect the future price of beef.

"This is already a very narrow window for such a large quantity of animals to be transported to the continent," Deputy O'Keeffe said.

"Stena Horizon operated on the Rosslare to Cherbourg route, and was one of the major carriers of live beef from Ireland to continental Europe. The Minister has confirmed to me that while a replacement vessel, the Stena Carrier, is expected, it will not be operational until the end of February.

"Traditionally, the Stena Horizon would have commenced the transit of cattle at the start of February. This delay will have an impact on the volume of cattle that is exported - it simply will see a reduction, and that will be damaging to Cork farmers," he said.

"The Minister is attempting to wash his hands of the matter with his weak response to me where he stated that - 'I and my Department have no direct involvement in the commercial activities or operational decisions of ferry companies.

"This simply isn't good enough," said Deputy O'Keeffe. "The beef export industry is a crucial component of Irish agriculture, and a failure to reach the 140,000 target will jeopardise beef prices and damage farm incomes.

"As Minister for Agriculture, Micheal Creed has a responsibility to ensure that our exporters can secure enough berths for live exports. He needs to stop being an observer on agricultural matters and start doing his job," said Deputy O'Keeffe.According to Irish Water, "work will get underway shortly" to upgrade the water supply network in Ballydesmond.

An IW spokesperson said that following a "competitive tendering process" Healy Rae Plant Hire (HRPH) have been appointed to carry out the nine kilometre watermain works.

The watermains will be laid between Ballydesmond village and Ballinatona public water supply at Dromskarragh Beg.

Site investigation work will get underway "in the coming weeks" with substantial construction work due to start this summer. This work will start in Ballydesmond village itself in order to "facilitate Cork County Council's planned roadworks in the area."

The spokesperson said that "negotiations are also ongoing to acquire a stable site for a new reservoir to supply the villages."

As previously reported, a new pumping station will be installed at Kiskeam, which will be configured to supply water to the villages in the interim, while the work to install the reservoir is being processed.

The spokesperson said the upgrading will result in a "marked improvement" in the quality of water supplied to residents and businesses in Ballydesmond and surrounding areas.

"This area has had historic issues with water discolouration due to the presence of manganese in the water source. There have also been regular supply outages caused by bursts in the old water mains. By decommissioning the existing supply and installing new water-mains to connect to the Ballinatona public water supply, we will address both of these problems and provide a more secure, reliable and better quality water supply in the area," he said.

Paul Cremin, Regional Capital Programmes Lead with IW said the project will address issues leading to a much more reliable and better quality water supply for the community and providing the "capacity for future growth and development."

The Corkman asked if any substantial movement has been made in acquiring a site for a reservoir, as it is a long-time issue in Ballydesmond. However, at the time of going to print, The Corkman had not yet received a reply.Its just a beautiful way to do something good for the environment and protect pristine landscapes, he said. Youre returning yourself back to nature and the nutrients of the soil.

In the years to come, Families can come and visit their loved ones and enjoy nature at its best, he said.

The traditional funeral industry has become expensive, he said. Thats why cremation has become so popular. But cremation impacts the environment too, he said.

At the Natural Passages cemetery in Angwin, the acreage would be open to the public in the same way a traditional cemetery would be, said Morgan.

There would be trails and walking areas for visitors. The parcel is located a little more than two miles from the middle of Angwin.

The average Natural Passages burial would cost about $3,000, he said. A traditional burial including embalming, casket and concrete vault, can cost as much as $12,000 or more, according to Morgan.

After death, the deceased is preserved at a mortuary in cold storage. On the burial day, the body is then transported to the green cemetery and buried. Natural Passages sells the plots and opens and closes the graves, he said. Ashes can also be interred, he said.Having this week announced she has joined the Social Democrat Party, Mitchelstown-based Cork County Councillor June Murphy has said she would be giving serious consideration to running under the party banner at the next general election.

Cllr Murphy was elected to the local authority in 2014 but sensationally quit the Sinn Fein party in late 2015 saying that internal wrangling had left her with no option but to leave and join the ranks of the independents in County Hall.

Speaking to The Corkman this week, Cllr Murphy said she had thought long and had on the prospect of returning to party politics

"Given my previous experiences this was not a decision I took lightly. However, I have always been a great admirer of Roisin Shorthall and Catherine Murphy (the two sitting Social Democrat TDs) and have been impressed by their passion and integrity," said Cllr Murphy.

"The policies of the Social Democrat party very much mirror my own ethos on many issues and having spoken to Roisin and Catherine I was impressed with their transparency and awareness of the issues that impact people across Irish society," said Cllr Murphy.

"In many ways this is the perfect fit for me to be working with people who have a clear vision for a fairer and more decent Ireland. I am looking forward to representing the party and working alongside people who identify with my own strongly held beliefs and political outlook," she added.

Cllr Murphy, who represents the Fermoy Municipal District and is the current chair of the council's Northern Area committee, said it was too early to say if she will run for the Dail.

However, she did not dismiss the idea, saying it was something that she would discuss with party colleagues over the coming weeks and months.

"For now I am very happy to have made the move. It has reignited my passion for politics and I am looking forward to continuing my work on the council," she said.

"If that does lead to me contesting for a seat in the Dail, so be it," she added.The ongoing co-operation between local businesses has been one of the main elements behind the success of the Fermoy-based NRG Networking Group, set up to help promote commerce within the local area.

That was one of the key messages to emerge from an open evening held by the group at the Fermoy Community Centre on Ashe Quay last Thursday.

A crowd of almost 50 NRG members and business people from the area attended the event, during which they were given a run down on the group, how it works and the benefits of joining.

Physiotherapist Dave Pyne, who has been a member of the group since it was established in 2008, said members meet every Thursday morning at 7.30am in the community centre.

Each member will make s short 60-second presentation outlining their business and sharing their experiences over the previous week.

Mr Pyne said NRG was primarily a referral group, with members going to each other for the goods or services they may need.

"If we know someone who is looking for goods or services we can also refer them to a member of the group," he said.

Mr Pyne pointed out that in January of this year alone more than 13,000 worth of referral business was generated from within the group.

He said that at some point or another people come across problems in their business and it was great to have members of the group to turn to for help and advice.

"Everybody gives something to the table and everybody takes something away from it. That is how it works," he said.

PR consultant Karen Twomey, said the group has proved to be a valuable resource for her.

"Being part of the group such as this is fantastic in that it helps keep you in touch and if I need something, there is a member at the other end of the phone to help," she said.

"It is not just about business, there is also a fantastic social element to the group," she added.

For more information about the group and how to join visit www.nrgnetworking.ie.While the publication of the National Development Plan and Planning Framework has been, for the most part, widely welcomed, Cork East Fianna Fail TD Kevin O'Keeffe has said the Government must now back up its promises with firm action.

While Deputy O'Keeffe conceded there were many positive aspects to last Friday's announcement, he said 'the devil would be in the detail' when it came to invigorating North and East Cork.

"While commitment to projects such as the M20 Cork - Limerick motorway, the Mallow Relief Road, Dunkettle upgrade and other local projects is positive, every one of the Government's plans over the past seven years has failed to deliver on their goals and targets," said Deputy O'Keeffe.

Deputy O'Keeffe held up the M20 as an example, pointing out that progress on the inter city route was postponed in 2011 by the then Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar.

"It's re-announcement on Friday was simply a case of reheating an old dinner. So, anything that Fine Gael and their Independent supporters proposes needs to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt," he said.

Deputy O'Keeffe also pointed to the fact that a number of empty IDA sites, including the one in Fermoy, were still lying idle.

"Real delivery in terms of finding suitable investment in these sites would make a massive difference to Cork. A targeted campaign needs to be started by Government to publicise the benefits of each location," he said.

He said proof of the intent contained within the plan would only come through its delivery.

"Anyone who raises concerns of the nature that I have is being shouted down by the Government, but it is the role of opposition TD's like me to criticise where necessary and to make suggestions for improvements," said Deputy O'Keeffe.

"Delivery based on a spreadsheet is fine, but we need delivery on the ground and that delivery in a timely fashion is absolutely critical.

"Everyone wants Cork and Ireland to prosper and to succeed, but for that to happen the Government needs to stop promising and start delivering."Released to tremendous fanfare last week the enormously ambitious Ireland 2040 national planning framework document is certainly a laudable document but it is difficult to deny the opposition's claim that it amounts to little more than an election manifesto.

As in all such cases, the devil is in the detail and, sadly, in this document the detail is sadly lacking. At least as far as rural Ireland is concerned.

The document is supposed to have a little something for everyone and set out a path for the next two decades of development across Ireland.

Though supposedly an all Ireland framework, it is primarily focussed on the major cities and the vast majority of the pledges for rural Ireland are generic and lack real specifics.

According to reports emanating from Leinster House it could have been even worse.

There are strong and persistent rumours that a number of influential rural-based cabinet members and Fine Gael back bench TD's forced Leo Varadkar and his team to include more rural initiatives in the scheme.

Given the lack of concrete proposals for rural regions - as opposed to the very specific and costed plans for Dublin and Cork - one can only imagine how threadbare the rural plan would have been had these rural TDs not intervened.

To be fair, the Ireland 2040 plan does contain a lot of proposals for rural Ireland but by contrast with the plans for developing our main cities - and a small handful of larger towns - the plan is extremely vague and makes few real promises.

It should also be noted that several of the key proposals in the document were also unveiled several years ago. It would appear that the Government's predilection for repetitive announcements remains undimmed.

Plans to build a metro in Dublin were first announced in 2005. So too was the Cork Limerick Motorway, which was a key part of the equally ambitious 'Transport 21' infrastructure plan.

Going back even further, plans for a national children's hospital - another major development that was shoe-horned into the supposedly "historic" Ireland 2040 document - were first announced back in 1984.

34 years later that badly needed hospital remains little more than an artists' impression on a press release. Progress on it has moved forward in the last few years but it will probably be at least 2022 before the first patient crosses its threshold.

Successive Irish government's have had a dismal record when it comes to delivering on their national plans, lets hope this time it will be different.

The framework's lengthy 22 year time frame should come in handy for the Government who, presumably, will be long gone by the time their ambitious deadlines have passed without progress.

For the next few years though - and especially once the next election rolls around - we can expect to be hearing a lot about the plan.

We've heard this all before and we'll believe it when we see it.It was with some degree of relief that clarity was finally brought to the long-running saga over the M20 Cork-Limerick motorway with its inclusion on the Government's much-vaunted 116 million 'Project Ireland 2040' plan.

Backing the case for the M20 project, the plan said Limerick and Cork were only 100km apart, "yet at present the economic interaction and inter-relationship between the two cities is limited, with poor transport connectivity."

It pointed out the project, which would cost 850 - 900 million, was currently due to commence planning and had an estimated completion date of 2027, "subject to appraisal, planning and procurement."

"An opportunity exists to provide better connectivity between the two cities by improving the quality of the transport network, which will address road safety issues associated with the existing N20 route and provide for safer and more efficient journey times," it read.

Confirmation that both the M20 and in particular the Mallow Relief Road had been incorporated into the plan was warmly welcomed by the Mallow Development Partnership (MDP).

"Both of these projects are included in the Inter Urban Roads Section [of the plan], along with other high-profile schemes such as the N8/N25 Dunkettle Interchange, the N28 Cork/Ringaskiddy Road and the N22 Ballyvourney to Macroom Road. All, as we understand, it now have statutory status," said MDP chair Noel O'Connor.

He pointed out Cork County Council had presented a route feasibility report on the Mallow Northern Relief Road last December and the project was now at the planning, design and construction stage.

Mr O'Connor reiterated the MDP's position that the Mallow Relief Road be given first priority in light of the fact that the M20 would not be completed until 2027 at the earliest.

"Among the many benefits flowing from the relief road would be an immediate dismantling of the current bottlenecks in the town centre and the opening up of opportunities for new investments, particularly in the agri-food sector," said Mr O'Connor.

"We [the MDP] will therefore be writing to Transport Infrastructure Ireland seeking any information they may have in regard to the implementation of the Relief Road project and time-scales."

Confirmation that the Relief Road was included in the plan was also welcomed by Dairygold, which has been one of the strongest voices in the campaign for improved infrastructure across the wider Cork region and in particular North Cork.

In recent years Mallow has been a key pillar of Dairygold's expansion plans, with the company investing 86 million in its West End Nutritionals Campus with further investment planned in the future. Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe said it was "critical" that there now no further delay in progressing the Relief Road.

"The town of Mallow is strategically well positioned but its business growth and sustainability is being significantly inhibited by its current road network," said Mr Woulfe.

"As a large employer in the region through our Nutritional s Campus, Agri Operations and Co-Op Superstore in Mallow, we have lobbied the Government for many years on the critical need for improved infrastructure to enhance the town's accessibility, connectivity and economic competitiveness," he added.

Kanturk/Mallow area county councillor Gearoid Murphy said he was "delighted" to see that both the M20 and the Mallow Relief Road had been incorporated into the plan.

"It is also encouraging to see that the proposed route for the M20 follows the original Mallow-Charleville route, which will help drive investment in the north Cork region and improve road safety for commuters. I hope that the promises made are kept and that these projects come to fruition. In any case, I will keep advocating for the badly needed Mallow Relief Road to be built as a matter of priority and to become operational in advance of the rest of the M20 project," he added.A decision is due within the next fortnight on an application to demolish the Lidl store in Fermoy and replace it with a new store on the existing and adjoining site

A decision is due soon on an ambitious plan by German discount giant Lidl to further expand its north Cork operation by demolishing its existing store in Fermoy and replace it with a larger one.

If given the green light, an application lodged with Cork County Council planners would see the existing 1,342 sq metre store on the Courthouse Rd and the adjacent former 'Touch of Luxury' premises torn down.

Under the provisions of the application these will be replaced a by a new 2,167 sq metre mono-pitched licenced discount store with associated infrastructural works ranging in height from one to two storeys.

The proposed new store on the 2.7 acre site will incorporate an expanded 1.338 sq metre retail sales are incorporating an off-licence and bakery. lobby, toilets, staff facilities, meeting rooms, IT room and storage/delivery areas.

Externally, the application makes provision for new signage, a trolley bay, parking for 140 cars and 31 cycles and motorcycles.

Primary vehicular and pedestrian access to the proposed new store will be via a repositioned site entrance onto the N72 Courthouse Road, with a second dedication pedestrian entrance from the road.

One submission in relation to the proposed development has been lodged with the planning authority in the name of Michael O'Riordan.

While Mr Riordan wrote that he had no objection in principal to the proposed development, he did express concerns of over its appearance.

'Having regard to the site's prominent location on the principal approach road to the town, I believe the design and layout of the proposed store are inappropriate at this location,' he wrote.

'This prominent gateway site (to the town) demands a building of much higher quality and merit than is currently proposed,' he added.

In its statutory report, Irish Water said it had no objection to the proposal based on the plans included in the application providing 'the applicant sign a connection agreement with Irish Water prior to work commencing'.

In its report, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) said any development should be undertaken in accordance with recommendations of the submitted Transport (traffic) Assessment and Road Safety audits.

'Any recommendation arising should be incorporated as conditions in the permission if granted. The developer should be advised that any additional works required as a result of the Transport Assessments and Road Safety audits should be funded by the developer,' wrote a TII official.

Cork County Council planners have set a date of Tuesday, March 6 for a decision on the application.

Should it be given the green light it will be the third Lidl store in north Cork set to be expanded after An Bord Pleanala previously sanctioned plans for the demolition and expansion of stores in Mitchelstown and Kanturk.Plans are stepping up a gear for the 2018 Boyne Swim with details of the event just announced by Drogheda Triathlon Club.

The fifth annual swim, which takes place on June 16th this year, will start in Mell and finish at the Boyne Fishermen's HQ under the Boyne Viaduct.

As always, the Boyne Swim is supported and facilitated by the Drogheda Port Company who have made the swim possible and have provided a set of trophies and medals to all the winners.

The winners and runners up in various categories receive magnificent trophies designed and made by local artist Ronan Halpin.

Drogheda Port Company ensure that the swim and all other maritime activities on the river Boyne are carried in a safe and professional manner. Louth County Council have also provided support for the event each year since it's inception in 2014.

This year the organisers of the Boyne Swim have joined forces with Aura Leisure Ltd who are specialist in the health and leisure business nationwide and are responsible for managing and running the local swimming and leisure facility in Drogheda.

Aura will become the main sponsor of the swim which will be called the 'Aura Boyne Swim'.

'As experts in the health and leisure business and joining forces with Drogheda Triathlon Club provides both of us with the opportunity to promote health and wellness and encourage people of all ages to participate in sport and health activities,' said a spokesperson for the club.

The swim attracts swimmer from all corners of Ireland and many travel from the Uk and the continent.

Last year there were in excess of 175 registered for the swim and this year we are aiming for more than 200 swimmers in the Boyne. With swimmers ranging in age from 9 years old to 70 both male and female in wetsuits or skins the event will surely provide a colourful and exciting spectacle as the swimmers make their way down river through the centre of Drogheda and under the iconic Boyne Viaduct to the finish line.

Ireland has many open water river and sea swims throughout the year and the Boyne Swim although only now in its 5the year has become one the major river on the national open water calendar. At a distance of 2.7K the swim is one of the longer events of its type and requires participants to put in the training during the year and be acclimatised to the low water temperatures they will have to deal with.

Aura have very kindly prepared a training programme for aspiring swimmers who would like to 'Battle the Boyne'. If you would like to avail of this logon to auraleisure.ie for more information.

'Looking forward to seeing you in the Boyne on the 16th June and maybe you will be one of the lucky ones to be presented with one of the magnificent trophies or medals from Drogheda Port Company. The after swim party on the grounds of the Boyne Fishermen is definitely not to be missed as the food is as good as the hospitality provided by the Boyne Fisherman who generously cover the swim and allow us use their facilities,' said the spokesperson.

Online registration opens this week at www.boyneswim.ieFr. Barry Matthews and Archdeacon Jim Carroll with Mickey Harte in Our Lady of Lourdes church on Sunday

St Peter's Parish is hosting a number of talks in respect of healing and peace at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on each Sunday of Lent at 7pm.

February 25th - Fr Peter McVerry - A Jesuit priest whose interest in social justice is unquestionable. From a position of 'seeing God in all people' Fr Peter believes that as a Church we must reach out together to the brokenness in our World. The Peter McVerry trust is currently the national leader in services to those affected by homelessness

March 4th - Archbishop Eamon Martin - appointed Co-adjutor Archbishop of Armagh in January 2013 and installed in September 2014. Archbishop Eamon has been a leading voice in calling for a more equal and just society and has been a key player through the Bishops Conference in the planning for the World Meeting of Families in August 2018 (Dublin).

March 11th - Katie Ascough - A former president of the UCD students union, Katie is a vocal advocate of retaining the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution. Katie recently won the Westminster Award for Human life, Human Rights and Human Dignity.

March 18th - Rev Daniel Nuzum - A minister in the Church of Ireland - Rev. Daniel is a Chaplain to University College Cork where he also acts as supervisor to the Chaplaincy training programme CPE. Rev Daniel has worked on the national frame work on the treatment of patients who suffer miscarriage.

March 25th - Elaine Mahon - A mother and a teacher by profession - Elaine is the Author of the Catholic religious curriculum 'Grow in Love'. Elaine has a wonderful sense of how the Church can communicate its message to the world of 2018 with respect and dignity.

All are welcome and invited to join with the wider faith community this Lent in reaching out to the hurt in society.Friends, family and colleagues gathered in the Westcourt Hotel last Friday night to wish PJ O'Brien well as he retired from his role as Paramedic Supervisor at the Cottage Hospital after almost 30 years with the service.

PJ, who lives in Termonfeckin, covered his last shift on Sunday, November 26th - 28 years and one day exactly to when he first started in the job.

Originally from Naas in County Kildare PJ married Drogheda woman Carmel Fay in 1986 and couple lived in Naas for a number of years before deciding to relocate back to Drogheda.

PJ had been working for the healthboard Daycare Centre in Naas and after sending out his CV to the healthboard in the north east, he was called for an interview with Chief Ambulance Officer Paddy Conaty and subsequently got the job.

PJ recalls: 'At that time, the ambulance service was moving from the hospitals to be a separate identity at the Cottage Hospital. There was a lot of change going on, it was all new. They had to form a station of ten people.'

PJ started work with Seamus Townley, the late Dick Cooney and Austin Byrne from the Lourdes, Jimmy Nannery, Joe McDermot and the late John Boylan from St Mary's and the three other new recruits, Declan O'Connor, Oliver Reilly and Michael Seaman.

'This was the first independent ambulance service in the north east. The call would go to Navan control and Navan would dispatch the call to the nearest ambulance. There were two frontline ambulances but also one spare in the event of a breakdown or a major incident where off duty personnel could come in. Most of the calls in those days were localised within a 20 mile radius.'

PJ said the scope of what ambulance personnel can do has changed hugely over his time with the service.

'When I started we could only give oxygen and pain relief with Entonix but that was it in those days. Now we have EMTs, paramedics and advanced paramedics who can do so much more.'

He said he participated in an upskilling training programme in 1993 which would have been the start of what is now known of EMT training.

'That's when you could see extra skills being brought in and patient monitoring and of course the use of defibrilators for the first time so there were massive changes around this time.'

Some time later PJ was promoted to the role of Leading Paramedic,a job now known as Paramedic Supervisor, where he was responsible for rosters, leave, vehicle maintenance, stock checks etc

Some of the most memorable callouts he has attended was assisting at numerous births over the years, including once in the securty hut at Mosney.

'The delivery in Mosney was actually twins and I assisted Austin Byrne. The first baby was born and it wasn't breathing so he handed it to me and then the second baby was born healthy. Thankfully the first baby started to breath within minutes so a happy outcome thank god. Then after the second baby arrived the woman was still having contractions, someone said 'she's going to have a third' and her partner fainted! Luckily for him it was just the placenta instead of a third baby!'

PJ said he was very lucky to have worked with such great people down through the years and up until his retirement. 'The guys in the station have been amazing, they reall have. I can't thank them enough,' he said.

He was joined at the party by his wife Carmel, sons Sean and Ciaran, daughter Eimear and grandson Noah as well as extended family, colleagues and friends.Hopes of introducing a reduced speed limit at the location where two local women lost their lives in a road traffic accident have been dashed.

But there is still time for 'people power' to change the minds of authorities in relation to the stretch of road at Hunterstown.

It is presently 100km/h and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) want to keep it that way, rather than revert to a similar scenario experienced at Monasterboice, where a tragedy sparked a reduction to 60km/h, with improved lighting and crossings.

Speaking at the Ardee area council meeting, Cllr Dolores Minogue said she asked why Hunterstown was not reduced and was told it was a TII decision and not the council.

Engineer Pat Finn said that the consent of the TII was needed in these matters and they had a 'veto' on decisions. 'They had their consultants look at it,' he stated.

However, 'people power' could spark a change in attitude with plans for changes to the speed limit in various locations going on public display shortly.

Members of the public can make submissions.

Cllr Minogue said she was aware of issues with the speed at Hunterstown, especially in respect of the local GAA club which had a number of juvenile teams.

Cllr Jim Tenanty said that he had an issue with the Hunterstown to St Mary's GAA stretch, which was going from 100km/h to 50km/h.

Again, Pat Finn said people were welcome to make submissions if they had issues.

Cllr Minogue also said she was proposing a 30km/h limit on a narrow stretch of road at Cappocksgate, where it was presently 50km/h. 'It is narrow and there are ramps but people pick up speed here,' she warned.Duane L. Cronk, Angwin resident and one of the founders of two environmental groups, died on Feb. 20 from complications of heart valve surgery. He was 93.

In June 2016, during its 40th anniversary celebration, the Land Trust of Napa County, honored Cronk and Harold Kelly, two of the groups founders, who gathered in 1976 in the living room of Si and June Foote. One of the groups first tasks was to protect Napas Mount George, which the Footes owned.

On Thursday, Doug Parker, Land Trust president and CEO, said he was glad we had the opportunity to acknowledge him there. He was one of the first board members during the formative years of the Land Trust and always since then has had a strong interest in conservation.

Parker added early on in the Land Trusts history, Cronk took on the organizations publicity and outreach, including writing the newsletter. In doing so, he helped establish the Land Trust in its formative years and get the word out.

Save Rural Angwin

Cronk and Angwin resident Mike Hackett were two of the founders of Save Rural Angwin, a group opposed to Pacific Union College selling its land in Angwin for a housing development. There wouldnt have been a Save Rural Angwin without Duane Cronk, Hackett said.

The group began 15 years ago and Cronk served on the steering committee for the group as did the late Volker Eisele.

Hackett said attending those meetings was very interesting because both men were heady politicans. Volker had the stronger personality, but watching them go at it in these meetings was uncomfortable for me. But Duane was never bothered by it, he said. Cronk said that was how the two men got along.

Brent Cronk, one of Duane and Marys five sons, wrote the obituary for his father. In it, he said, Duane was a big picture, long-term thinker with a passion for politics. He loved to get involved in political campaigns, slow growth issues and local environmental and agricultural land preservation groups such as Upper Napa Valley Associates.

Save Rural Angwin was his last cause, the son said, with the SRA team claiming success less than a year before his death.

Hackett said Duane Cronk campaigned for various candidates, including Supervisor Diane Dillon, Guy Kay, Mel Varrelman and for slow-growth county measures, including J and P, the 2016 version of the Watershed and Oak Woodland Initiative and most memorably for Measure U.

One thing that stands out most significantly to me is that during the Measure U campaign (in 2012), he made a sandwich board for himself and he would stand at the corner of Highway 29 and Redwood Road in Napa every afternoon during rush hour. All by himself. He was already in his late 80s and he would stand there, wave at people and urge them to vote yes on Measure U. I was always touched by that, Hackett said.

Measure U, which required a county-wide vote, would have rezoned land in Angwin and would have allowed the expansion and modernization of a sewage treatment plant on Howell Mountain Road. In the November 2012 election, Measure U failed with 60.48 percent of voters casting no ballots.

Four years later, during a 2016 campaign, Cronk went door-to-door, stood in front of markets and collected 350 signatures for the Watershed and Oak Woodland Initiative which the county rejected for legal reasons. He was a phenomenal guy, Hackett said.

Cronk born

in Wisconsin

In his written obituary, Brent Cronk said his father was born Sept. 15, 1924 in Stevens Point, Wisc., where he attended grade school. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army near the end of World War II and attended Emmanuel Missionary College, where he met and married Mary Cronk. Together, they raised five sons: Clifford, Bruce, Brent, Loren and Andrew.

In 1950, he graduated from Denver University and 13 years later, he earned his Master of Arts degree from American University in Washington, D.C. He spent his career in public relations and opened his own firm specializing in the heavy construction field, writing for many publications.

The Cronks moved to Angwin 1962 and Cronk opened an office in San Francisco, where he handled public relations for contractors who built the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, among others.

After retirement, Cronk sold local real estate by obtaining a brokers license. He kept his brokers license active for more than 20 years, passing the licensing exam for the final time when he was 92.

Brent Cronk writes, All his life Duane loved books. He could spend hours in a bookstore. His house was filled with books  on shelves and in stacks. A visitor to his home would often leave with a book from Duane under his arm. Photography was another of Duanes passions. He used it in both his work and for pleasure. Photos covered the walls around the book shelves, and gifts to friends and loved ones often consisted of a picture he had taken.

Angwin Telephone Book

From 1993 to 2015, Duane Cronk and his wife Mary compiled and published The Angwin Telephone Book, which was put out every other year. According to a March 2006 story written by former Star reporter Carolyn Younger, the Angwin phone book was a labor of love, she wrote. Why else would anyone spend the thousands of hours required to collect names, verify addresses and phone numbers, (Mary Cronks job), scare up ads, take photographs for them, design them and write essays to fill any blank pages?

When the Cronks took over production of the phone book in 1993, it was already 31 years old, having started by Lyle and Ruth McCoy.

Duane Cronk was also publisher of an online newsletter, The Angwin Reporter. His last report was from Jan. 18, when he wrote about his experiences at UC Davis Medical Center. In the midst of the effective complexities of the first treatment regimen, you may find hot cereal unappetizing or room-temperature puree-of-turkey unpalatable. But then you will be brought a drink of Cold Water. And it may well be this, the simplest of care, that kicks you back into life, he wrote.

His son wrote, Duane had a lifelong interest in storytelling and photography. As anyone who has met Duane knows, he always had a joke or story to share. Storytelling was part of his soul and he never hesitated to share a story or joke, even with a total stranger. Ive got a story for you is a phrase many will miss.

Duane was always willing to help out and was a staunch environmentalist. He was an example for all of us to follow in that many people get more fearful as their life closes in as they age. He continued to grow and became more courageous as he aged, Hackett said.

Brent Cronk said the details of a memorial service for his father will be announced soon on The Angwin Reporter website, www.angwinreporter.com. Condolences may be sent to Mary Cronk and her sons at P.O. Box 707, Angwin, 94508.

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.Project Ireland 2040 sets out plans to extend the DART as far as Drogheda by 2027 at the latest.

The plan outlines proposals for a 2 billion DART Expansion Programme which will see the DART extended to Donabate, Rush and Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan and on to Drogheda by 2027.

This will provide a 'fast, high-frequency electrified service to Drogheda' according to the plan.

However, the government's proposed Drogheda Dart Plan has been described as 'a farcical stunt' by a local rail user group.

The Commuter North Eail Users Group (CNRUG) said the proposal 'flies in the face of the National Planning Framework and ignores rip-off fares'.

The group criticised the recent statement made by Deputy Fergus O'Dowd who said a DART extension 'would be transformational for Drogheda, East Meath and South Louth'.

'Instead of prioritising initiatives which would assist much needed jobs growth in the Greater Drogheda area, the main thrust of Deputy O'Dowd's statement is focussed on moving even more people away from their local communities to work and study in Dublin,' said a spokesman for the group.

'While Deputy O'Dowd claims that '1,200 people travel by rail from Drogheda and 400 from Laytown daily,' he conveniently fails to mention just how few travel northwards from the city and intermediate stops to these stations - indicative of the failure of successive Governments to create jobs in sufficient numbers for the 83,000 people now living in the Greater Drogheda area.'

The spokesperson said this flies directly in the face of the National Planning Framework which sets out to disperse economic development away from Dublin.

'So, it can only be described as a hollow, political stunt that completely lacks substance and offers no comfort to rail commuters who face the long and expensive daily commute - and is a 'cop-out' as far as job creation in the Greater Drogheda area is concerned.'

CNRUG state Drogheda needs more direct Inter-City services to and from Dublin and Belfast, since in a future post-Brexit scenario, Drogheda will be the closest EU city to the EU:UK land border. Already, it is the largest urban centre on the line between Dublin and Belfast. Along with that, it they claim it needs 'semi-direct' trains, picking up or dropping off passengers at Howth Junction; Malahide; Skerries and Balbriggan - and those services could connect to an extension of the slower DART services to serve other intermediate stations as well as connecting with the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise service at Drogheda. The Group has called on Minister Shane Ross and local Independent Alliance Councillor, Kevin Callan, to get involved in delivering a more appropriate local rail strategy.

They criticised the government's failure to prioritise Drogheda as the key Growth Centre for the North East in the National Development Plan, and called the DART plan 'pie in the sky' at a time when the trains that return from Dublin each morning are almost empty.

'Give us local jobs in Drogheda and the North East, not DART carriages,' the spokesman said.The Drogheda City Status Group has accused the government of abandoning Drogheda and relegating it to 'third tier positioning' in the plan.

The group, which has been campaigning tirelessly for City Status for Drogheda, said the government had failed to publish a 'credible and sustainable blueprint' for the next two decades.

A City Status Group spokesman said: 'In spite of assurances by then Local Government Minister Simon Coveney TD to our committee that the 2040 plan would be evidence based, Drogheda has again found itself cast aside.

'We had hoped that the Government would have the courage and the determination to provide a realistic blueprint for the country in planning for the future but all they have left us with is a shambles of a document that has bent the knee to various vested, political interests and provided a one for everyone in the audience report that ultimately is completely meaningless,' the spokesman said.

He said this now leaves the entire north east without a city or regional capital which Drogheda, through its population alone, would justify. 'We are now officially a third-rate quasi development town,' he said. The City Status Group had provided a detailed planning study, based on evidence, pinpointing how Drogheda should be granted City Status under the National Planning Framework (NPF).

The report, from Dr Brian Hughes, a chartered planning and development expert, argued that with a population of 83,000 people, Drogheda urgently required new administrative structures to ensure meaningful planning and coherent development in the years ahead The Hughes report pointed to the latest census figures which effectively made Drogheda the fifth largest city in the State - larger than Waterford City - and enjoying a population growth rate of 80% between 1996 to 2016.

The report was presented to Government along with a petition with over 3,000 names as its submission under the NPF guidelines. The spokesman said: 'We are bitterly disappointed that the expert report we submitted, which detailed how the population rise demanded on economic and planning grounds that Drogheda should be administered locally and not effectively the plaything of local administrations in Louth and Meath, has been disregarded. Our worst fears have been met that once again, when the tough decisions had to be made, an Irish Government has decided to pass the parcel and place a major impediment to the future prosperity of the people of Drogheda.'

'Foolishly we thought that matters might be different this time. Drogheda was ignored in the 2002 National Spatial Strategy which was designed to develop gateway towns and hubs but ended up being a massive fudge. We have been cast aside again as our political masters have abysmally failed in their duty towards its citizens,' he said.

Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster has voiced concern and disappointment that government have once again paid 'lip service' to what Drogheda needs to prosper as the largest town in Ireland.

'Third tier recognition on its own has no substance and could well be just an appeasement to ward off any political backlash for government representatives. Designating Drogheda as a 3rd tier growth centre without defining what that actually means in real terms, considering we are already strategically placed and identified as part of the M1 economic corridor of Newry- Dundalk- Drogheda.'Improved business and transport links will be key to confronting the challenges posed to the county by Brexit, writes Deirdre Reynolds.

A long-mooted DART line from Drogheda to Dublin has been confirmed in the 116bn masterplan for the future of Ireland.

Project Ireland 2040 vows to deliver "a full metropolitan area DART network for Dublin with all of the lines linked and connected" by 2027.

And the 2bn DART Expansion Programme also includes plans for the electrification of the northern commuter line from the existing end of the DART network in Malahide on to Drogheda, promising commuters "fast, high-frequency electrified services to Drogheda on the Northern Line".

For local student Aaron Byrne, who commutes for up to three hours a day, it's a positive development.

"I commute for a placement for college," said the 20 year-old, who studies Youth Work at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

"I'm working with Swan regional youth service in North Strand until May.

"At the moment, I get a bus to Dublin - it takes an hour to an hour-and-a-half, depending on traffic and if I'm able to get the direct bus.

"For a ten-journey trip, it's 55, so if you're doing five days a week it works out at 220 a month.

"The train would be quicker, but it's a little bit more expensive.

"If it was cheaper than getting the bus, I would definitely consider getting the DART."

Better digital connectivity, too, is just another of the improvements residents of the county can look forward to under the plan.

Acceleration of the National Broadband Plan, it outlined, would "ensure access to quality high-speed broadband in villages, rural areas and islands" and "play a major role in empowering rural communities".

Assuming the flow of traffic is two-way, Drogheda Chamber of Commerce council member Brian Hanratty also welcomed the proposed new rail route to Ireland's largest town.

"We have the busiest commuter train station outside of Dublin, but it's one-way," he said, "it's out of Drogheda in the morning.

"The first thing that we've got to do is to fill the trains that come back from Dublin every morning that are almost empty.

"Despite Drogheda missing out on the previous plan, the National Spatial Strategy, people have chosen Drogheda as a place to come and live, and the problem is most people can't work locally, they've got to move out of Drogheda - and that should be the focus of the plan."

The N52 Ardee Bypass, a 4.7km Type 2 single carriageway bypassing the town on the banks of the River Dee, is also due to begin construction this year under the plan.

Towns in Louth are also among those set to benefit from a new Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, which will provide 1bn nationally to promote the sustainable growth of towns and villages with populations of up to 10,000 people over the next decade.

The impact of Brexit is also key to the new plan. Recognising both Drogheda and Dundalk as "key centres on the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry cross-border network and in the context of the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor", the document also outlines plans for a 300m loan fund to businesses with fewer than 500 employees exposed to the impact of Brexit, as well the expansion of the IDA Regional Property Programme and launch of the second phase of the Regional Enterprise Development Fund in 2018.

New Regional Sectoral Clusters will be developed involving small to medium companies and multi-nationals collaborating with research centres and third-level institutions, such as Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Currently commuting up to 90 minutes to Dublin Airport each morning for work, Drogheda native Zoe Kerr is hopeful the initiatives will help her find work closer to home in the future.

"For me, if I had the opportunity to work in Drogheda, I would," said the 21-year-old, who currently works as a food and beverage assistant at HMSHost. "I have to spend two to three hours extra daily [on the bus] that I wouldn't have to if I worked in Drogheda.

"I would love for them to pump more business into the region for more job opportunities, because the travelling can be very tiring," she said.

"I also have to pay weekly for my bus ticket, which is over 50, so it works out as taking 1 or more off my hourly rate."

Elsewhere in Ardee, a new ambulance base will be established under the infrastructure plan, which also pledges the development of primary care centres and the upgrading and replacement of community nursing units across the north-eastern region.

Approximately 2,000 additional social homes are also set to be delivered across the region by 2021, with 1,000 of the units already completed, on site or progressing through approval stages, including 102 new homes by Tuath Housing Association at Castleguard, Ardee.

A Flood Risk Management Plan - aimed at minimising the impact of river and coastal flooding on communities - will be rolled out in areas including Dundalk, Drogheda, Greenore and Carlingford.

For more information on Project Ireland 2040 visit the official websiteIrish Cancer Society Daffodil Day fundraising volunteers (from left) Grainne Lally-Black, Mary Convery and Lizanne Allen, from Drogheda, joined RTEs Aengus Mac Grianna and Boots Irish Cancer Society Information Pharmacist Clare ONeill (far right) at the launch of Daffodil Day 2018. Daffodil Day, proudly supported by Boots Ireland, takes place on Friday, March 23

RTE broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan has urged people in Louth to dig deep this Daffodil Day to support the Irish Cancer Society as it was revealed that 826 people in Louh were diagnosed with cancer in the past 12 months.

The RTE broadcaster, who lost a sister to cancer, was speaking at the launch of the Irish Cancer Society's 2018 Daffodil Day, which will take place on 23rd March.

There are currently 165,000 people living with cancer in Ireland.

Also at the launch were Minister for Health Simon Harris, Chief Executive of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power, RTE's Aengus Mac Grianna, representatives from Boots Ireland and hundreds of Daffodil Day volunteers, including representatives from Louth.

Miriam said: 'Tragically a person dies from cancer every hour in Ireland, but for so many people there's also great hope. More people are surviving cancer now than ever before thanks to lifesaving research. Daffodil Day, proudly supported by Boots Ireland, is a day where we can all help fight back against cancer. Like so many Irish people, I have lost loved ones to cancer. I lost my precious sister Anne who was just 33 when she died. On March 23rd people of Louth can help fund lifesaving research and crucial services to ensure cancer patients and their families are properly supported. Get involved now at www.cancer.ie'

Chief Executive of the Irish Cancer Society Averil Power appealed to the public to support cancer patients in the community.Project Ireland 2040 has been described as 'a missed opportunity of a generation for Drogheda'.

Drogheda Seanator Ged Nash said the much hyped plan had essentially given the 'last rites' to City Status for Drogheda and claimed it does not contain a single new idea or fresh innovation for the development of Drogheda.

'Behind the spin, it is a case of 'as you were' for Drogheda,' he said. 'Spin wins over substance. Put simply, there is absolutely nothing of significance for Drogheda in this project. This plan changes nothing and contains no evidence of any real ambition for the town.'

He said the commitment given in the plan to the development of the M1 Economic Corridor and the Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry network are 'anything but new' and are already to be found in such programmes as the Action Plans for Jobs and other policy initiatives from this and the previous government.

'These proposals are merely a restatement of existing national and local government plans and policies packaged together and tied up with a shiny new bow. To present all of this stuff as new and imaginative is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Drogheda.

'The people of Drogheda were fooled into thinking that this process would be informed by evidence and facts, but as the decision to provide a form of city status to Athlone and Sligo and not Drogheda shows, it was political influence that won out in the end.'AN eight-year-old Drogheda girl got the shock of her life when she wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth - remarking on her great fashion sense - and got a reply from the monarch!

Living in Drogheda since 2014 and a pupil in St Brigid's NS on Bothar Brugha, Emilia Data loves everything royal and is a great fan of the queen.

So much so, she recently decided to write to Buckingham Palace, stating that she admired the queen's dresses and loved watching films about her. She even drew a picture!

The queen was so impressed, she got her Lady in Waiting, Susan Hussey, to write to her, saying how much she appreciated the gesture and thanked her for the 'message of support'.

Emilia was born in England and as mum, Agnieszka explained, she took on the task of writing the letter by herself.

'Like all the girls at her age, she loves everything royal and she is a great fan of Queen Elizabeth. She reads about her, watches documentaries about her early life and youth, etc. She made everything herself, I only helped her with addressing the envelope.'

The palace also sent some information about the queen's life, the Crown Jewels and Buckingham Palace itself.

'Emilia was delighted. She was so excited and never expected to get a response so it was a great shock for her and a great joy of course,' Agnieszka added.

Emilia is Polish but was born in Britain, has been living in Drogheda for four years with her mum, dad and siblings.There was a capacity congregation in St Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy, last Thursday for a desperately sad and emotional final farewell to James Breen, father of four from 21 Sli Na Slaine, who passed away in tragic circumstances at his residence on Monday of last week.

News of his unexpected and sudden death sent shockwaves throughout the community where he and his family are well-known and highly respected. James was born on March 15, 1983, the youngest in the family of Tom and the late Kathleen Breen, Tomnalossett, Enniscorthy, and he was educated at Enniscorthy CBS.

James married Sinead Walsh from Mill Park Road in 2010, and they lived at Sean Garrai before moving the short distance to Sli Na Slaine, where he cared for his family with love and affection.

He was a quiet-spoken person, who was described as 'very good with his hands and meticulous in his work' and was a member of the staff at Tomas Swaine Contracting Ltd, Farmleigh, Enniscorthy, who paid a moving tribute with a guard of honour on his final journey.

James was a skilled operative providing services to the electricity network around the country and was engaged in storm damage repairs on many occasions in several counties, including Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and in the midlands.

Bishop Denis Brennan, a relative of the Breen family, attended the funeral ceremony and spoke of James' love for his family and the dedication and pride he always showed in his work, and offered his condolences to both grieving families.

Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr Odhran Furlong, Adm, assisted by Fr Jim Nolan, P.P., Davidstown, and afterwards the cortege made the final journey to Enniscorthy Cemetery, where Fr Furlong presided at the graveside.

There was a large and representative attendance at all stages of the obsequies, something for which James' family are eternally grateful.

Beloved husband of Sinead; loving father of Abbie, Ryley, Ada and Lauren, and dearly loved son of Tom and the late Kathleen. Sadly missed by his heartbroken family; brother John, sisters Breda, Mary and Sarah, parents-in -law, Margaret and Dan Walsh, aunts Peggy and Bridie, uncle Jim, brothers-in law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, extended family, relatives and friends. May he rest in peace.Another week brought another series of lucky winners in shops around Enniscorthy as our team was out and about rewarding loyal readers with a crisp 20 note as part of our Buy & Win campaign.

Journalist Padraig Byrne and photographer John Walsh were out on the streets looking to spy people picking up a copy of their favourite local newspaper to reward them with a few extra euro in their pocket. At the Kiosk Shop in the Abbey Centre, it didn't take long for a lucky winner to come along. Fidelma English of Ballinapierce nipped in out of the cold to pick up a copy of the paper and left 20 richer.

Out at Londis in Tomnalossett, Joanne Murphy received plenty of help in spending her winnings as her little ones Hannah and Tadgh were allowed to pick out something nice in the shop.

A regular at Campus Gala on the Old Dublin Road, Mary Cash was over the moon to win a few bob and was congratulated by all the staff there. While a couple of copies of The Enniscorthy Guardian were being snapped up at the counter in O'Callaghan's Centra in Templeshannon, Tom Cahill was first in line and collected his 20 note. Similarly at Delaney's in Rafter Street, May Wilson just managed to pick up her copy first and was over the moon to get some extra pocket money for the day.

The promotion has generated a great bit of excitement in shops around the local area over the past couple of weeks and it ain't over yet! Members of our team will be out in shops once again next with with another 100 in cash to give away to five lucky readers, so be sure to pick up The Enniscorthy Guardian!A meeting regarding the attendance of confirmation families at Sunday Mass which had been scheduled to take place on Thursday evening was cancelled on just a few hours notice via the St Senan's Parish Facebook page.

The meeting was called by Fr Paddy Banville after he criticised the parents of children who were due to make their confirmation for failing to attend mass in the build up to their big day. Via the Parish newsletter he said that the absence of parents and children from Mass was 'more significant because I've made it abundantly clear that for Confirmation families, participation in Sunday Eucharist is not optional, it's essential.'

Fr Banville went on to say that he had been ignored in relation to the matter and scheduled a meeting to take place in the Templeshannon Community Centre on Thursday evening. The piece gained widespread interest and was published nationally and debated across the airwaves. Meanwhile, Fr Banville was unavailable for comment on the matter.

On Thursday, just hours before the meeting was due to take place, a message was published on the St Senan's Parish Facebook page from Fr Banville, stating: 'In light of the very intensive - and unanticipated - media interest in tonight's proposed meeting in St Senan's Parish, I have decided to cancel the gathering. The proposed 'faith formation conversation' I initially envisaged is, I believe, an important one and it does need to occur. To properly occur, it should proceed in a more structured and shared manner, and it needs to occur without making individuals the subject of publicity or attention.'

'I readily recognise that parents want the very best for their children,' Fr Banville continued. 'So do I and so does the parish and the church. This was - and is - my goal as a fellow pilgrim. I will now begin to consider how better this conversation might be organised and how I and others - including parents and parishioners - might fruitfully participate.'In the case of Tuscana Public Schools v. R.P., the justices ruled 7-2 in favor of the school. In the actual federal case, the aggrieved student won.

The fact that he (the student) had been caught using his phone in the first place  warranted some search, Oliveira said, explaining the courts decision.

Afterward, Oliveira said that the facts of the case kept him engaged.

As a justice, he said, he tried to find holes in each persons argument. Although he had prepared questions ahead of time, many of them he thought of in the moment, he said.

Its interesting to see how quickly your opinion can sway, he said.

Solga said that he was impressed with the students.

Its really hard to get up and speak in front of people and risk getting embarrassed, he told the students. He recommended that they learn not to read from their notes while theyre talking to people.

Force yourself never to talk to people while youre reading your notes  dont be afraid of silence, he said.

Having professionals like Solga come in and participate in the project really helped raise the bar for students, Trott said.A traditional Irish music school, Craobh Na Mara has celebrated its first anniversary in style.

The group held a special concert at the Seamus Ennis Arts Centre, which was the culmination of an exciting year's work.

It featured sets by the children and adult groups in banjo, fidil, guitar, flute, tin whistle, bodhran and button accordion.

Performances also included the newly formed Children's Ceili Band and the teachers who are regular concert/session performers.

Craobh Na Mara is the new North Fingal branch of the well renowned Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann.

It is a community organisation based in Balbriggan and attracts pupils from Skerries, Balrothery, Balscadden and the wider surrounding areas.

Classes take place on Monday evenings 7-9pm and cater for all ages and levels from beginner to advanced. Regular, privately run sessions take place in Skerries Mills for the children and in the Man O'War for adults. A number of parents have started an instrument for the first time and plans for 2018 include a Senior Adults Ceili Band and 'family sessions' where parents and children play together.

The classes are excellent value with discounts for multiple classes or additional family members. Tuition is also provided for the Comhaltas grading programme.

CCE is an international non-profit cultural movement with branches all over Ireland and abroad. Comhaltas is perhaps best known for its annual Fleadh Cheoil na hEireanm in which thousands of talented artists compete for the coveted All-Ireland titles in music, song and dance.

The Fleadh 2018 will take place in Drogheda, Co. Louth in August. It will feature workshops for young musicians, competitions, concerts, singing, ceili's and lots of fun throughout the week.

For further details contact 089 239 6348 FB: craobhnamaracce or www.craobhnamaracce.com.The winter blues were well and truly banished in Malahide recently when the Lions Club hosted a very enjoyable travel-themed table quiz.

The venue for the event was the Grand Hotel in Malahide and a great night was had by all as the event brough a ray of springtime sunshine to the participants.

Paddy Courtney, the well-known actor, writer and Radio Nova host, guided the contestants on their travels, and test ed their knowledge with his inimitable mix of sharp wit fun.

Every single cent raised went towards worthy causes supported by Malahide Lions. These include St Francis Hospice, Hugh's House, St Michael's House, Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Parkinsons Association of Ireland, CASA and local individual cases.

Anybody wishing to get involved should check out the group's website www.malahidelions.com or their Facebook Page 'Malahide Lions Club'.

It meets twice a month in the Grand Hotel and the aim of the group is to give something back to the local community.Skerries will once again host the final stage of the Ras.

Skerries will once again host the final stage of the annual Ras Tailteann event.

The route of Ireland's toughest annual sporting event was unveiled last week, with no less than 34 climbs set to slow legs and quicken pulses next May.

Totalling eight days and 1168.7 kilometres in length, the race will begin in Drogheda on May 20th and end in Skerries on May 28.

The route designed once again by Stephen O'Sullivan and assessed by Gerard Campbell will feature four gruelling category one climbs, 10 category two ascents plus 20 third category slopes, and pitch specialist climbers against all-rounders.

The profile is much hillier than recent years, with the 34 climbs considerably more than the 21 in 2015, 25 in 2016 and 21 last year.

'This year's route is very reminiscent of the 2013 route, when we headed down to Kerry and Glengarriff. A couple of stages are very different, though,' says the new race director Eimear Dignam, the daughter of the former race organiser Dermot Dignam.

'For the most part, there are a lot of hills, but there are an awful lot of very fast roads and very undulating roads on a lot of the stages. I think it is a mix straight across the board, it varies from stage one to stage eight, from hills to fast days.

'It is going to suit somebody who is comfortable in the mountains and also comfortable on the fast roads. Those category one climbs are going to really test each rider's climbing abilities. That is especially the case when the climbs ramp up on stage four, just under halfway through the week, and also when they appear on the penultimate day.'

The final stage is a 144.6 kilometre race from Naas to Skerries.

The platforms for attacks will be five category three climbs, namely the Hill of Allen, Plukhimin, the Cross of the Cage and the two ascents of the Black Hills on the finishing circuit in Skerries.

Dignam believes that an aggressive and exciting race lies in store, not least because of the penultimate day showdown in Wicklow.

She is looking forward to announcing those who will take part, although her thoughts are also with someone who will be missing.

In recent days former stage winner and lon-time race official Gabriel 'Gaybo' Howard passed away, and his funeral will be held on the day the race route was originally going to be launched.

'At this difficult time, the Ras family are thinking of the Howard family,' says Dignam. "Gabriel was aware of the route as I was discussing it with him over the last few weeks. He had been very much looking forward to it, and will be greatly missed.'Slimming experts in Dublin are celebrating another successful year supporting thousands of members to lose weight.

They have now launched a campaign to recruit more people with a passion for helping others with a special Slimming World careers Opportunity event planned at the Hilton Dublin Airport Hotel on Saturday, March 3 at 10am.

Rachel Wood, who manages a team of consultants who run Slimming World groups in the Dublin area, said: 'We're going through a period of steady growth. In 48 years, millions of people have changed their lives with Slimming World's brilliant combination of a hunger-busting eating plan, increased activity and weekly group support.

'Now, with obesity at an all-time high - two out of three adults in the UK and Ireland are overweight or obese - and government predictions say that 80% of men and 70% of women will be overweight or obese in the next decade - the demand for our unique warm and friendly approach has never been greater.

'At Slimming World we have the best eating plan in the world where members can, and do, lose weight without ever having to go hungry,"'says Rachel.

'Every consultant who comes on board goes through an in-depth training programme and is awarded diplomas in nutrition and the psychology of weight management, as well as successfully running t'

Slimming World is looking for people who have lost weight themselves with the organisation, people who can share their own weight-loss success to build a fabulous career.

There are also vacancies for experienced managers to help co-ordinate the work in the area and ensure that our unique support is available in every community.

Slimming World Consultants are all former members. The role is part-time, with the potential to earn 100-600 a week for working 10-20 flexible hours as a self-employed franchisee.

In-depth training is offered with a well-respected and recognised brand that has been established for more than 48 years, and all Consultants get the benefit of excellent support from more than 300 head office staff based in Alfreton, Derbyshire.

Anyone looking for a career that offers opportunities for growth and development and flexibility around family life could find that opening a Slimming World group offers the perfect solution. There are opportunities across the whole of the UK and Ireland.

For more information contact Rachel on 086 8062229 or go to www.slimmingworld.co.uk/careers.Metro North has been re-branded as 'Metro Link' in the Government's new 'Project Ireland 2040' National Development Plan and while the long-awaited rail link has an increased budget and a new Southside element, it won't be delivered any sooner than 2027.

Any hopes that the plan may have sped up the delivery of Metro linking Swords and the City Centre were dashed as the 2027 estimated date for delivery of the project remained unchanged.

Metro Link will now cost an estimated 3 billion with a target delivery date of 2027, according to the new plan and has a brand new element to take the project southwards.

According to the plan, Metro Link will be a light rail system from Swords, via Dublin Airport to Dublin's south city centre operating in tunnel under the city centre and onwards to Sandyford using the existing Luas Green Line.

According to the plan: 'This will provide Dublin with a high capacity, high-frequency cross-city rail corridor serving key destinations such as Swords, Dublin Airport, Dublin City University, Ballymun, the Mater Hospital and existing destinations along the Luas Green Line to Sandyford.

'Metro Link will provide faster reliable journey times to see the project delivered.

Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell has said the delivery of both Metro North and the DART Extension to north Fingal must remain priorities for Government following their inclusion in the National Development Plan.

He said: 'While the Government's commitment to these projects is certainly positive, the fact remains that communities across the North County are still waiting for the sod to be turned on both of these projects. Advancing both of these projects to construction stage must be an absolute priority for Government.'

He added: 'With regard to the delivery of both Metro Link and DART Extension to the Donabate, Rush and Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan stations, I understand that for a number of people it may be a case of having to see works commencing to finally believe these projects will be delivered for our community. To those people, I wish to state that Fine Gael in Government is committed to the delivery of both of these vital pieces of transport infrastructure for our local communities.'

He said he would 'hold the Government to account' on both projects 'to ensure no further unnecessary delays occur'.

Senator James Reilly welcomed the plan's commitment to Metro and its new connection on the Southside, saying the project was 'critical for the future development of Fingal'.A new Day Hospital and Diagnostic Centre for Swords is now 'a real possibility' in the wake of plans to extend these kind of facilities across the country and expand the population of Swords, according to a local senator who has been campaigning for the facility.

Senator James Reilly, said elements of the Government's new 'Project Ireland 2040' National Development Plan will help realise his ambition to bring a Day Hospital to Swords.

Senator Reilly said it was now 'game on' for a day hospital for Swords and asked the public's support for his campaign to bring the facility to the Fingal capital.

He said the Government's plans meant there will be two new day hospitals in the Dublin Metropolitan Area. He said that with the predicted growth in the area's population Fingal and Swords 'could make a strong bid' for one of those hospitals.

Senator Reilly said: 'This is a very important statement of intent on health and reaffirms my commitment for a Day Hospital in Fingal in the Swords region to serve Fingal.

Meanwhile, Senator Reilly's constituency and party colleague, Deputy Alan Farrell said Fingal would make an 'ideal' location for a new hospital for elective procedures.

He said: 'I believe that the new elective-only hospital which will be constructed in Dublin following its inclusion in the Government's National Development Plan, should be based in Fingal. With the fastest-growing population in the country, and with Fingal's proximity to significant transport infrastructure, I believe our community would be the ideal home for a new medical facility. A medical campus to serve such a facility would bolster the services currently in Fingal. Furthermore, locating this new hospital in Fingal who ensure it would be easily accessible to people travelling from other parts of the country.'Terry OReilly, who commutes from Balbriggan to Blackrock by train, at Balbriggan train station. Photo: Justin Farrelly

Caroline Keeling of fruit producer Keelings welcomes the plan for the Fingal area

The Metro and Dart developments will transform transport links in Fingal for commuters and businesses, writes Laura Lynott.

Project Ireland 2040 will herald a "new era" and leave behind the "dark days" of economic turmoil, business leaders in Fingal believe.

For business representatives, the commitment to a completion date for a 3bn underground Metro to link Swords to Dublin Airport, Dublin city centre and the south city, is a major boon.

Promises for such a service have been pledged before but the economic crash had placed the scheme on hold.

Now, finally, a streamlined public transport network seems possible by 2027 if the plans come to fruition, and the potential is there to finally link the north county with Dublin.

Anthony Cooney, chief executive of Fingal Chamber of Commerce, understands the scepticism some residents feel - in particular regarding the Metro - but this is a "new era". The naysayers need to change their mindset, he feels.

"I understand it's a case of 'haven't we been here before?' because the Metro North plan was first mooted in 2005," Mr Cooney said.

"But what we have to understand is post-2005 we had a major crash, so the State couldn't afford to complete such an ambitious project.

"Now, we're in a good place as a country; timing is everything. Fingal is central to the Dublin economy. We've witnessed the biggest and youngest population increase in Ireland.

"The Metro will provide our communities easier access in and out of the city to work and to carry out business."

The 2bn Dart expansion also offers the potential to create new stops on the Northern Line from the city to Drogheda, Co Louth, and Maynooth, Co Kildare. This project is expected to be finished in tandem with the Metro and proposals include linking all Dublin services up with park-and-ride and green-fuel bus services.

A second 320m runway for Dublin Airport, to be completed by 2021, has also been welcomed by business leaders preparing to Brexit-proof their companies by linking up with European and international counterparts on a more regular basis.

"For the first time we will become a city comparable to other European cities, where we can access a host of flights in and out of Dublin and jump on to a Metro right into the city and around the city, then back to the airport," Mr Cooney said.

"Transport will be easy instead of clunky and cumbersome, as it is now. It will make business easier for everyone."

Caroline Keeling, CEO of fruit producer Keelings, based in north county Dublin, close to the airport, said: "The Metro announcement is great for Fingal because of the benefits of connectivity from Swords into the city.

"We're developing a food park but that doesn't have great public transport links. We're so well located to the airport, the port, the M1 and a fantastic roads network, but better public transport is crucial.

"We bring a lot of clients in to Dublin also, and we hope to bring more people in via the airport and an improved transport network.

"There are so many great businesses in Fingal and this is going to really connect everyone with the rest of Dublin, Ireland and the world."

Keelings employs a maximum workforce of 2,000 during strawberry-picking season but even attracting workers at this peak time is more challenging than it ought to be, due to the lack of public transport to the site.

A public transport system that links up across Dublin could transform ease of access, the company feels.

Paul Reid, chief executive of Fingal County Council, also welcomed Project Ireland. He's excited, in particular about the Metro plan for Swords.

"Swords currently has a population of 50,000 and we see it growing to 80,000 within the next number of years," Mr Reid said.

"We need the improved transport network to provide for the additional housing and population. We have 4,000 units unlocked but ultimately we have capacity for 49,000 homes.

"This plan will grow Swords strategically rather than sporadically and the benefits to business, jobs, quality of life, are immense."

Hundreds of new homes are being built across Fingal in preparation for another population boom. It almost doubled in the past 25 years, rising from 152,766 in 1991 to 296,214 in 2016.

And new social housing units are planned for Fingal at Avondale, Mulhuddart, Castlelands and Balbriggan.

Fingal County Council has already hit 63pc of the Rebuilding Ireland programme target, delivering 2,241 social houses in the past three years - after being set a target of 1,376. The council has been given a target of providing 5,084 social housing homes in the six years to 2020.

Corina Johnston, secretary of Supporting Proper Development in Donabate, said there is a lack of school places in her area - and the investment is required.

"Donabate is earmarked for 4,000 houses and we fully support more housing and the development of Fingal, but the infrastructure just isn't here," she said.

"We want to see more housing, we understand there's a housing crisis but we need the infrastructure to go with it.

For more information on Project Ireland 2040 visit the official website

"MSD Ireland is to open a new facility in Swords under the MSD Biotech banner, which is set to create 350 jobs on the same site as the plant the company shut down last year.

The company's former plant in Swords completed its wind down last year with the loss of 570 jobs but a brand new plan is to be established on the same site, bringing 350 jobs back to Swords.

It will be entirely new operation known as MSD Biotech and the plant will produce biologics-based medicines for the global market.

Ger Brennan, Managing Director of MSD Ireland said the decision to locate the new plant in Swrods was 'a testament to the talent we have here in Ireland'.

The company wrote to Senator James Reilly about the jobs announcement, saying the new plant 'will play a pivotal role in the manufacture of MSD's biologics-based medicines, including in the area of immuno-oncology, and will expand MSD's current internal network of biologics drug substance manufacturing plants'.

Site preparation and facility design will commence immediately. Full manufacturing operations are expected to begin in 2021, according to the company.

The company told Senator Reilly: 'The decision to locate this new facility in Ireland is a testament to the talent of MSD's Irish employees and the high standard of our existing operations. It reinforces MSD's commitment to Ireland and further strengthens our global network'.

Senator Reily said: 'This is great news for Swords and comes hot on the heels on a major investment by Korean firm SK BIOTEK where I recently attended the formal ceremony of the marking of their investment in swords securing 360 jobs and more new jobs to come soon as they invest more in Swords and Ireland.

'International companies recognise the quality of our education system here producing skilled employees to take up well paid jobs in this hi-tech business.'

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys TD and IDA Ireland today welcomed the announcement, saying: 'This investment by MSD is a great vote of confidence in Ireland.'

She said: 'MSD has been a tremendous success story in this country with plants located in several centres, providing valuable employment.'

Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland said: 'MSD's decision to develop a new biotechnology facility in Swords, with the expected creation of up to 350 new jobs greatly strengthens Ireland's position as a global destination for manufacturing excellence in biopharmaceuticals.'

The company has said that its former Swords employees can apply for the new positions but added that the skills needed at the new plant will be different to the one that shut down, last year.Two major new pieces of infrastructure for Dublin Airport in the Government's new 'Project Ireland 2040' National Development Plan.

The plan provides for a new runway. the development of which is already underway at Dublin Airport and a new control tower.

Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell has said the inclusion of the new runway and a new control tower for Dublin Airport in the Government's National Development Plan is positive, but concerns of local residents regarding both the runway and noise levels at Dublin Airport must be addressed.

He said: 'The activities of the Airport have many benefits for local communities across the North County, both in terms of the jobs created directly and indirectly by its activities, and the boost our local economy receives from visitors coming through the Airport. In this regard, the inclusion of the new runway and a new control tower for Dublin Airport in the Government's National Development Plan is positive.

'However, many residents in the vicinity of the Airport, and particularly in Portmarnock and St. Margaret's have a number of reasonable concerns regarding development at the Airport relating to the construction of the new runway and noise regulation. I believe the concerns of residents must be addressed by the Department of Transport and the daa. One of the greatest concerns is in relation to the proposed appointment of Fingal County Council as Airport Noise Regulator.'Two separate operations, involving Revenue detector dogs Josie and Frankie, at Dublin Airport have resulted in the seizure of cash and cigarettes.

Officers with the support of the dogs recovered 44,000 in cash and 46,000 in contraband cigarettes over two days earlier this month.

Officers first seized 14,000 in cash when they stopped a woman in her 20s who was travelling to Eindhoven. In a second operation, officers detained 30,000 carried in another woman's luggage by a woman travelling to Barcelona.

Revenue detector dog Josie assisted in both cases. At Dublin District Court, Judge Grainne O'Neill granted three month detention orders in both cases, to allow Revenue to investigate further.

Also on Saturday over 46,000 contraband cigarettes were seized when detector dog Frankie indicated on the luggage of four Romanian nationals who arrived in Dublin Airport on a flight from Istanbul.

The smuggled cigarettes, branded 'Kent', have an estimated retail value of 26,600, and represent a potential loss to the Exchequer of approximately 20,500.

These seizures are part of Revenue's ongoing operations targeting smuggling and shadow economy activity. If businesses, or members of the public have any information, they can contact Revenue in confidence on free phone number 1800 295 295.Browns prison agency must now either rewrite the regulations, presumably to provide more leniency to John Doe and other sex criminals, or try to overturn Sumners ruling on appeal.

The latter course is more likely, because rewriting the rules would, in effect, concede the issue to the prosecutors who criticized Proposition 57 as too vaguely drafted and too broad.

We repeatedly warned prior to the election that the ambiguities of language in Prop 57 would allow sex offenders to be released early from prison, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys said after Sumners ruling. The proponents realized the public wouldnt support that, so led by Gov. Jerry Brown they responded by promising that CDCR would write regulations to make sure sex-offenders werent released early.

We knew that approach would fail, the ADDA continued, because a regulation cannot expand the scope of the law that it purports to implement. Now, the completely foreseeable result of this poor drafting has occurred.

Were John Doe and several thousand other predatory sex criminals to waltz free despite Browns campaign assurances, it also would put a stain on what he clearly hopes will be a legacy of criminal justice reform.

CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.Conditions surrounding night time flights on the proposed second runway are a source of contention between the daa and local residents.

The Minister for Transport has suggested that Fingal County Council may not be the final arbiter of whether or not planning conditions restricting night flying from Dublin Airport when its new runway is operational, stay in place or not.

The minister recently controversially announced that Fingal County Council would be appointed the new noise regulator for Dublin Airport, potentially giving it powers to overthrow the night-time flying restrictions attached to the development of a new 320 million runway at the airport.

Those conditions are a matter of dispute between neighbours of the airport who insist they must be kept and adhered to and the daa who want the conditions removed.

In a recent exchange in the Dail with Roisin Shortall TD, Minister Shane Ross revealed that Fingal County Council's decisions on this issue or on any other noise-related issue at Dublin Airport will be subject to appeal.

He did not name the body that would hear those appeals but it is likely to be An Bord Pleanala, according to Cllr David Healy (GP), speaking in a debate on the issue at this month's meeting of the full council.

The significance of that move would be that An Bord Pleanala is the body who imposed those planning conditions in the first place.

The announcement that Fingal County Council would be appointed noise regulator for the airport sparked local concern and led to accusations that the council could not act independently in the matter, as Dublin Airport is a major rate-payer, generating a lot of income for the local authority.

However, addressing that concern in the Dail, Minister Ross said it was 'unfair to suggest that local authorities would have a conflict of interest between their statutory regulatory environmental protection and enforcement responsibilities and wider economic and physical development roles'.

He said: 'Local authorities already have a wide range of statutory-based regulatory and enforcement functions in relation to environmental quality, planning, enforcement and other areas which necessarily must sit alongside their rateable income and property tax collection functions.'

However, those concerns over a conflict of interest for the council in the new role were raised by several councillors at last week's meeting in County Hall. Cllr Anne Devitt, Cllr Darragh Butler, Cllr Malachy Quinn, Cllr David Healy and Cllr Brian McDonagh all raised the issue with the council's chief executive, Paul Reid.

Cllr McDonagh called the move a 'lazy' decision on behalf of the Minister and saying that the Government had rejected the Irish Aviation Authority for the role over a 'perceived' conflict of interest and replace it with a body that could be perceived to have an even great conflict of interest.

Mr Reid said the council could not comment further on the issue until it saw the legislation underpinning its proposed new role. He said it had been made clear to the department that the move would have to be properly resourced and funding.

He admitted that the expertise to carry out the role was not currently available to the council and it would have to 'scale up' and bring in the appropriate expertise to carry out its new functions as airport noise regulator.Member of the ICA enjoyed a fantastic afternoon at the Talbot Hotel when they celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Wexford Federation.

While the ICA was founded in Bree by Anita Lett in 1910, Wexford did not have enough members or guilds to form a Federation until 1948 when Margaret Stamp from Kilcottymore was the first Federation President for the area. Today, Wexford is the third biggest guild in the country, after Cork and Dublin.

About 260 ladies, approximately half of the Wexford membership, attended the lunch where a portrait of Anita Lett, by Bree artist Dave Duffy, was unveiled by Ms Lett's granddaughter Anita McNamara, the artist, and Regional Presidents Esther Cahill, Dee Devereux and Wexford Federation President Dee Connery.

The ICA even managed to source vintage horse riding clothes and equipment for the artist so that his protrait could be as authentic as possible. Ciara O'Connell from Side Saddle Ireland answered a request on social media and provided all of the required equipment. Unfortunately, she was unable to attend the recent lunch but is expected to attend the formal hanging of the portrait in An Grianan later in the year.

ICA Federation PRO Mary Fitzgerald said there was great excitement at the event as many members had not seen the portrait: 'We were a little bit nervous about Anita McNamara's reaction but she was very happy with it.'The Minister with responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe has said plans are in place to upgrade Coastguard stations around the county and to provide a new station in Kilmore Quay.

The Wexford TD said the Office of Public Works is in communication with Wexford County Council about the plans and 'further updates will follow'.

Deputy Kehoe said the Coastguard is also investigating options for a new station in Courtown while an extension to the station at Fethard-on-Sea is being considered.

The Fine Gael TD's statement follows the tabling of a Parliamentary Question in the Dail by Fianna Fail and a response from Minister for Transport Shane Ross which outlined the poor state of Coastguard stations in Ireland, including County Wexford where four out of six stations do not have running water or bathroom facilities.

He said the Coastguard has undertaken a modernisation programme over the past 20 years, refurbishing or building one to two stations nationwide every year. 'In Wexford, this has resulted in the building of a modern, state-of-the-art stationhouse in Rosslare Strand', said Minister Kehoe, adding that upgraded stations will have a kitchenette, toilet, showering and changing facilities as well as classroom, operations room and garage space.

While the selection of stations for upgrade is the responsibility of the Department of Transport, Deputy Kehoe said he has insisted that Wexford must be prioritised.

'The contribution made by Coastguard volunteers across Wexford cannot be overstated. It's important to reassure people that upgrades to Coastguard stations in Wexford are a priority for me and the Government', he said.

'Night and day, all year round, Coastguard volunteers put their lives on the line in order to save the lives of others. This heroic contribution to our community deserves constant recognition. The very least they deserve is a well-equipped station'. Deputy Kehoe said he will continue to stay in contact with Minister Ross to ensure that the upgrades in Courtown and Fethard are delivered.'And I look forward to seeing the plans developed by the OPW and Wexford County Council which will see the opening of a station in Kilmore Quay'Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy, the new Laureate for Irish Fiction, Sebastian Barry, Billy Roche and the Arts Councils Sarah Bannon

Almost 200 people flocked to Gorey Library last Tuesday evening for a special event with two internationally acclaimed writers.

Wexford playwright and author Billy Roche interviewed the newly announced Laureate for Irish Fiction Sebastian Barry in Barry's first public appearance since he was honoured with the title.

During the evening Sebastian Barry who penned The Secret Scripture spoke about Gorey in glowing terms saying how he visited the town at least twice a week.

He told the large crowd that he often enjoyed a visit to Partridge's Cafe and also Redmond Dry Cleaners.

Mr Barry said that he knew Billy Roche since the 1980s when both men met at a writer's retreat in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annamacarrig in Monaghan.

The two men spoke at length about writing in general as well as their own works keeping the audience enthralled with their prose and turns of phrase.

The staff at Gorey Library were delighted with the success of the event and noted it was a great coup to be the location of Mr Barry's first public appearance was Laureate for Irish Fiction.

'It was a great occasion and we were delighted to see so many people interested in the event. Mr Barry's books are very popular with our readers and to have two authors of such calibre, both with strong Wexford connections, here at the library was fantastic. People were really happy with the event.'Over 100 people from all corners of Ireland descended on Gorey to celebrate their family ties

Over 100 people from all corners of Ireland descended on Gorey recently to celebrate their family ties.

Organised by Deirdre Devereux the family reunion had often been talked about but never come to pass. However Deirdre decided that the time was right for the gathering and set about contacting all her first cousins who were all equally keen on meeting up.

Ann Devereux said it had been a lovely occasion.

'It was a fabulous night and it was great to see relations and their families from all over Ireland. We often only see each other at weddings and funerals like so many other families and more often than not it's at funerals so it was great to have such a happy occasion to look forward to.

'There was a great crowd of people there and the atmosphere was absolutely brilliant with people chatting to people they hadn't seen in years. It was a really family occasion and it was great to see relations and the younger generations as well.

'Deirdre was the driving force behind it. The Devereux family is originally from Enniscorthy but Deirdre's father came here to Gorey to work in the post office so the family link to the town is strong,

'As well as chatting to each other there was also music and a lovely buffet. It went on into the early hours and there was a great sing-song at it as well which everyone really enjoyed.

'It was such a great night and I think that everyone was delighted to be meeting up again on such a happy occasion.'Author of Unbroken Circle, James Wesley (second from left)pictured at Gorey Little Theatre with Louise Forde, Tara Ann Byrne, who directed the play, and Gary Lonbard

There were nervous cast members of 'Unbroken Circle' last week after they received news that a special guest would be paying a visit.

Author of 'Unbroken Circle' James Wesley arrived in Gorey, after flying in from New York earlier that day, to watch the talented Gorey Little Theatre cast perform. He sat among the audience for two-nights, met the committee members and cast, and spent some quality time with director Tara Ann Byrne.

James attended the after show reception in the theatre, where he was presented with Irish gifts and a signed programme from all of the cast. The whole experience was magical for the members.

'To say having James Wesley make such a long trip is an honour would simply not do it justice,' said secretary Clara Carter. 'It's the most exciting thing that has ever happened to us and we are so happy to take the play on the circuit with such a wonderful endorsement with the man who put the words into our mouth.'

The sell-out shows were a huge success and tickets are still available for one more performance, which will take place on Sunday, February 25, at 8 p.m., in KMH Kilmuckridge for the Drama Festival. The cast includes Debbie Gartland, Jan Cullen, Paula Bolger, Halle McQuade, Niall McGrath, Lily Henrich-Doyle and Joan Duignan.From the famous scene he shared with Ed Sheeran in Game of Thrones to a leading role in a horror flick scaring the pants off viewers and getting rave reviews in the process, Kerry actor Sean McGillicuddy's star is very much on the rise.

'Beyond the Woods' is the title of the chilling new film in which he stars, released this week to view on Sky on Demand, Eir Movies, iTunes, Amazon and more.

It's a romp the Listowel native says he is very proud of and one that is being lauded by the critics for the quality of the acting and the direction of Sean Breathnach.

Sean McGillicuddy stars as one of a group of friends whose summer time gathering in a rural retreat (filmed in Cork last summer) is thrown into chaos when a fiery pit opens near their secluded holiday home, yikes!

Described as a psychological horror it comes with a ringing endorsement by one of the UK's great experts of the genre and a leading horror author himself, Kim Newman.

Newman's glowing review in Empire film mag stated: "Beyond the Woods really works. Its strongest suit is the element that too many low-budget horror films bungle - believable characters and decent performances."

It is available to view now on Sky on Demand, Eir Movies, iTunes, Amazon and other sites and is also available to buy on DVD in HMV, Golden Discs, Tower Records; and has also been released in America and Canada.Maire Ui Shithigh and her daughter Orla with President Michael D Higgins after the Ceolchoirm Mortas Cine iHalla na Feothanai on Friday night. Photos by Declan Malone

It was by no means a headline event, but in many ways the Tinol na nOg (gathering of the youth) in Tig Aine on Friday said everything you'd need to know about Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh.

Aine's restaurant in Graig was packed to the doors with children, some seated, others perched on tables if they weren't early enough to grab a seat, all armed with whistles, flutes, concertinas, fiddles and other instruments of music.

Bernie Phaid Ni Mhuircheartaigh was calling for tunes from one corner or another of the room, never failing to get a willing response. The young musicians weren't held back by shyness; fresh from their morning music classes they were all in it together. And in the home of bothantaiocht, in the heart of Corca Dhuibhne, it produced an afternoon of ceol and craic, the tradition safe in the hands of another generation.

Founded in 2005 by Niamh Ni Bhaoill and Breanndan O Beaglaioch, Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh is exactly what it says on the tin - a music school. One that is dedicated to the music of Corca Dhuibhne and passing it on to (mostly) young musicians - and the world at large if they care to head west to Baile an Fheirtearaigh for the weekend and learn from teachers who are masters of their art.

Well over 200 students attended classes and afterwards, at sessions in the pubs, they were able to practice what they had learned. Some joined Carlos Nunez on the bigger stage at Halla na Feothanai on Saturday night, where 13-year-old banjo player Tadhg Scanlon from the Maharees made a massive impression on the Galician piper who holds rock star status in the trad music world.

The concert with Carlos Nunez was the second of two held in Halla na Feothanai. On the Friday night President Michael D Higgins was in attendance at a concert in memory of Domhnall Mac an tSithigh who was very closely associated with Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh over the years.

The President, who admitted in a speech delivered in Irish that, "leis an fhirinne a insint, nil se deacair riamh me a mhealladh go hIarthar Chiarrai!", lauded the festival and its organisers. "Ta a seacht ndicheall deanta ag Breandan, Niamh agus coiste aitiuil Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh chun ceol Chorca Dhuibhne a chaomhnu agus a chur chun cinn," he said and later went on to strongly underline the importance of continued funding for the festival from State agencies.

Addressing the sombre theme of the evening, the President spoke warmly of 'ar gcara mor Domhnall Mac an tSithigh' as a man of culture, seamanship and great personality who would live long in the memory.

He had special words of sympathy for Danny's naomhog companions. "Deanaim comhbhron go speisialta libhse, a Bhreandain, a Liam agus a Phadraig, sibhse a bhi ina chuideachta an la sin. Ta a fhios agam gur mor an bhris daoibhse e."

Later in the evening Breandann delivered his own tribute to Danny and his unquenchable 'rogaireacht'- "I spent 10 years and the worst day of my life with him," he said (in Irish) before delivering a heart-torn rendition of Roisin Dubh as a personal lament that reached out and grabbed the audience.

The sadness lifted and the fun returned; very much so the following day when all the music class students gathered in Ballyferriter church to add their tunes and talents to a concert of many parts. In keeping with the tradition of the event, the 235 students ended the concert with a single tune - 'Polka Camino', composed for th occasion by Breanndan O Beaglaoich in memory of Danny.

For organiser Niamh Ni Bhaoill this year's Scoil Cheoil was special, but not for any reason she can put a finger on.

"There were big attendances at all the events and a great atmosphere over the weekend. I don't know if it was the crowds or that it was in memory of Domhnall but there was something really magical about the whole thing," she said.

Omos dUachtaranMicheal D. O hUigin

Mortas Cine in omos d'Uachtaran na hEireann, Micheal D. O hUigin

Dairena Ni Chinneide

Leim tharis lios na hanama

cruinn direach go cuisle an cheoil

crosaire ar gcinniuna

scoite ar imeall an domhain

mar a eirionn gothai na dtonn

ar dhroim faille

siud a mhaireann Duibhnigh

ginealaigh greannta sa chre

duchas na daonnachta

seineann siotai gaoithe poirt

ar shleasaibh sleibhe

ceol sa chaint

gol leis na ngoltrai

gair leis an ngeantrai

seimh leis an suantrai

guthanna arsa

trathnonti uaigneacha

mar a bheadh pucai ar sinsear

gluin og ur alainn

ag cur snas ar a gcroithe

le cuisle ceirde

failtitear roimis an cuairteoir

meallannn gach corr bothair radharc

a bhainfeadh anail asat

sinne pobal na cruinne

ar dteanga nios binne

na an stoirm

gan filiocht on bhfon poca

gan gatar le googleail

gan ardan shoisialta ach staitse

dar nguth imeallach

ag ragairne ainneoin aimsire

ag spraoi is ag athshealbhu, mar a

bheadh scoil cheoil.Childs play young traditional musicians practicing their tunes in Muckross Abbey ahead of The Gathering Traditional Festival which returns to Killarney from February 21-25 at the Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney. Photo by Valerie OSullivan

As it approaches its 20th anniversary, the Gathering Traditional Festival returns to Killarney for the 19th time, and organisers have promised an even bigger and more quality-filled range of events than usual, with concerts, sessions, workshops and classes billed for the Gleneagle from February 21 to 25.

As ever, the five-day event is expected to attract visitors from all over Ireland and Europe - and beyond.

Among those lined up for the festival are Ui Bhriain, Neily O'Connor, and the Johnny Reidy Ceili Band, as well as acclaimed Scottish trad musicians Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham, Saturday night's headliners in conjunction with Mairtin O'Connor, Cathal Hayden and Seamie O'Dowd. Stockton's Wing will also headline.

"For those who love a late-night session this year's programme of events is jam packed," a spokesperson said.

"Highlights include the Festival Club House Band; Sean Murphy; Tim O'Shea; Dermot Byrne; Eileen O'Brien; Orlaith and Brogan McAuliffe; The Rising; Ciara O'Shea; Aileen Bourke and Lily Sweeney; Tim Hickey and many more.

"Budding musicians or those looking to enhance their skills can partake in the schedule of Gathering workshops and master-classes including fiddle, accordion, concertina, flute, set dancing, sean nos and singing. The Schools Outreach Programme will once again visit schools, in the lead up to the festival, showcasing the Sliabh Luachra tradition."It was a chain of coincidences, and charmed turns so improbably fortunate that it caused a member of the New York Fire Department to describe it as 'Heavenly'. New York fireman Tim Grant says he's experienced "a million stories" in Kerry - but none as beautiful as the one he's recounting by the stove in O'Flaherty's Bar, Dingle, this night.

As the Long Island resident dug through photos in looking ahead to his umpteenth visit to Kerry, he happened upon a picture from a Kingdom adventure of old - one his eyes had scarcely encountered in the near-quarter-century since gone. He took it as a sign that two 'brothers' of his - 'Bronko' Durell Pearsall, who died on 9/11, and the recently deceased Joe Murphy - were saying hello from Heaven - and he took to Facebook that day to say as much.

Tim could recall the picture had been taken on the Ring of Kerry. He was less certain of its exact location - but its reappearance prompted a wish to revisit 'Heaven', some stony hillside overlooking what he felt might be an inlet sourced from Dingle Bay.

"I'm a New York city fireman, been on the job 25 years," he says. "I'm also in the FDNY Emerald Society bagpipe band, and we do a lot of travelling together. A couple of trips I made to Ireland were with those guys. Five of us came over here in 1995 and rented a van and travelled all over.

"We came to Killarney, but it was so long ago. I remember we did part of the Ring of Kerry, and I thought we did it counter-clockwise because the water was on our right as we came from the town.

"I have tons of pictures of that trip, and this one was of my buddy, Bronko. Also in the picture was Joe Murphy, who passed away two years ago It's almost as if they called me to say 'hi' and knew I was going to Ireland in a week's time.

"I said to my daughter, Jessica, that I wanted to set out on a mission and try and find that exact spot - and we did that."

As his friend Tim Murphy, daughter Jessica, and her girlfriend Maggie hit the 'Ring' on a mid-morning last week, taking the anti-clockwise route his faded recollections recommended, the four-strong collective gained energy from its first sighting of Dingle Bay - but, in the ensuing hours, the search stumbled from one false dawn to the next.

Their car eventually rolled into Kenmare, by which time Tim's dreams had been drained of their colour. He knew he'd passed his target but his fanciful ambition would recharge with a fortunate misstep.

"I'd given up on it. We had lunch but we made a wrong turn-off the ring on the way back to Killarney. We took this side-road to get back to the Ring and it took us towards the National Park. We saw water and we took a left instead of the right we knew we had to take - it was the lakes. I said to my friend, Tim, 'All I could remember was a zig-zaggy road - and this is a zig-zaggy road'.

"This whole trip it's been pouring, and out of nowhere this bright light came out. 'They're leading you to this spot; they want you to find it," Tim said. "And, sure enough, I started to remember. We came up to Ladies' View and we found the exact spot."

Posing with Jessica - who was just a one-year-old on 9/11 but has grown up to a backdrop of stories of 'Bronko' - Tim recreated a moment of such power that it shook the imposing fireman to tears as he took to video.

"It was a special moment," he says with a slight but telling shake of the head. "We're a very, very tight group [the New York Fire Department].

"Bronko was like a brother. On September 11, I was told at around 10pm that night that he'd been working, and I knew he was gone. Joe died two years ago; he'd had some health problems.

"We were here for four nights in Killarney for the Irish dancing with Jessica and Maggie. We're spending two nights in Dingle, and we're going on to Ennis now.

"I love Kerry, I've got a million storiesbut for the sun to come out like that and bring us to the exact spot where we took that photo in 1995 - I can only describe it as Heavenly."The 17th volume of the 1968-founded Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society (KAHS) annual journal is out - and its material on archaeology has received a warm welcome.

In a typically broad range of academic articles on the history and archaeology of the county and surrounding areas, the journal examines topics such as ogham stones, Tomas Aghas, land taxes, and stone rows.

Editor Tony Bergin, who himself contributed one of the five pieces, was rightly proud of the completed product following its recent launch at Kerry County Library.

"We are very pleased to have a big archaeological theme to this year's Journal. Usually historical articles make up the bulk of our content, but three of our five articles this year relate to archaeology work carried out across the county," said the Lios Poil resident.

"Two of our articles are on Ogham stones. Isabel Bennett and members of the 'Corca Dhuibhne 3D community project' give us an update on their fine work of recording carvings on ogham stones on the Dingle Peninsula and elsewhere in Kerry, while Senior Archaeologist with the National Monuments Service Fionnbarr Moore writes about a previously unrecorded Ogham stone in the Black Valley.

"Added to this, Kerry County Archaeologist Dr Michael Connolly publishes his comprehensive fieldwork and findings on the Iochtar Cua Stone Row near Waterville and how it fits in with other stone rows in Kerry."

'On the historical front, I contributed an article of my own on the many references to Thomas Ashe in the Bureau of Military History Witness Statements. These Statements are a wonderful, free, online resource and I would recommend them to anyone with an interest in the 1916 Rebellion or Irish War of Independence era... Our final article by Jim Collins of UCD, will appeal to those with an interest in how land was measured, denominated or valued in Kerry in olden times, investigating the usage of terms such as Gneeve, Cos, Collop and Cows-grass'.

Mr Bergin described the journal as being in great shape, and some excellent articles are already lined up for next year's edition. To submit an article or retrieve more information on the journal, you can contact the society via journal@kerryhistory.ie.Mayor of Kerry John Sheahan presenting Fr Pat Ahern with a certificate in which the Authority marked the clerics outstanding contribution to the artistic and cultural life of the county and nation. Photo by Domnick Walsh

A Civic Reception for Fr Pat Ahern was the main highlight of Monday's meeting of Kerry County Council as its members gathered to acknowledge the tremendous work done over many years by the popular priest who helped promote the artistic, musical and literary tradition of Kerry.

Speaking at the event was Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council John Sheahan who spoke in glowing terms about Fr Pat, saying his work and personal achievements have enriched the lives of people in the county.

"Fr Pat's contribution to the cultural life of our county has been immense. A native of Leitrim Middle, Moyvane, he was immersed in traditional Irish music from a young age. Having studied for the priesthood, he became a curate at St John's in Tralee in 1957. He founded the St John's Choir and was given responsibility for liturgical music in the Diocese," said Mayor Sheahan.

He added that Fr Pat's musical and theatrical work in his early years was channelled into the establishment of Siamsa Tire, founded in the early 1970s.

"Fr Pat had great foresight in seeing the need for such a centre. Such was his passion for the new development that the Diocese released him from Parish work so he could devote his time to the new theatre. Fr Pat's legacy is immense - locally, nationally and internationally. We salute his many achievements and hope in the years ahead, Fr Pat will continue to make a contribution to the artistic life of Kerry," the Mayor added.'Save This Beach' spokesperson Maurice Murphy said some 600 people from Glenbeigh and beyond - including locally based business people and politicians such as Minister Brendan Griffin and Councillors Michael Cahill and Damian Quigg - flocked to Rossbeigh Beach on Sunday to voice their concerns over plans to develop an oyster farm in the area.

A 2.75 hectare plot is proposed for farming non-native crassostrea gigas oysters using bags and trestles, and is projected to produce 25 tonnes by its fifth year.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine told The Kerryman this week that it is currently processing 10 further aquaculture licence applications in the Rossbeigh/Glenbeigh/Dooks areas, which have not yet reached public consultation stage.

The protest group and its supporters' broad range of concerns include worries about the impact the development could have on local scenery in an area that is highly dependent on tourism, and the implications farming non-native oysters they feel could have for the Special Area of Conservation.

Minister Creed has played down these concerns previously in not requesting an Environmental Impact Assessment, saying the proposed oyster farming site was unlikely to have a significant effect on the environment or scenery.

The group also believes shifting sands have been experienced since a 2011 Appropriate Assessment and that the site is unsuitable.

"[We held] a 20-minute walk that started from the sand dunes to the areas of concern to the back-strand, and I addressed the gathering for a short time," Mr Murphy said of the protest. "We had people with signs and we were handing out information on how to contact Minister Creed and how to sign their names to support the campaign."

"It was a very friendly atmosphere, people enjoyed the walk... but the mood, at the end of the day, was one of concern at the system for public consultation.

"The aim is that we strongly feel that, because of changes to this area, that the Appropriate Assessment [dated 2011] is no longer relevant and therefore that it is really important from the public's point of view to have an Environment Impact Study. Our aim is to get this message to the Minister," Mr Murphy said.

"Because there's no EIS, we will be appealing this first of all, and we've until the end of the week to get that in. We have scientific information on the area, and we feel the Minister needs to talk to us... then we need to sit down with the Minister and discuss the other applications that are coming through."

The group also feels the process constrains submissions on proposals through its costliness and a window that only remains open for four weeks. The deadline for submissions on the current application is February 28.

In a response to a query from The Kerryman, the Department said it considers all applications in accordance with applicable Irish and EU legislation. Application details and other relevant documentation on the current public application are open to the public online and in Killorglin and Killarney Garda Stations.

Full details of the appeals process are available at www.alab.ie/appealsprocess/.

The application was lodged by highly experienced fishermen based in Kerry. Minister Creed said the decision not to require an EIA gave regard to European Commission documents.

Aquaculture farmers in the Castlemaine Harbour area have previously criticised delays in the application process as they feel they have put many jobs on hold.The first round of this year's Credit Union Schools Quiz was held in the Horse & Hound Ballinaboola from which four quick witted quizmasters emerged victorious.

This was the first knockout phase and two schools from each category will progress to the regional knockout stage which is on Sunday, March 4, in the Ashdown Park Hotel in Gorey.

Anne St Ledger of New Ross Credit Union said: 'The quiz is an enjoyable way and fun way for schools to nurture a culture of partnership among students and we encouraged all schools to take part.'

There were two categories: the under-11s, which is competition A and the under-13s, which is competition B. There were a total of 21 teams in the A and 22 teams in B.

The winners and the runners-up go forward to the regional round and the winners and the runners-up of that competition will go forward to the national final in Dublin on Sunday, April 8.

'It was a great day and all the children really enjoyed it and it was very close with a great level of knowledge with all the teams.'

The results from Round 1 were: Team A (Under-11) 1st Marymount National School, The Rower, 2nd St Canice's, Rosbercon and 3rd Cushinstown National School; Team B: Under-13: 1st St Oliver's National School, 2nd St Brigid's National School, Clonegal and in third place Glenmore National School.The Presbyterian Moderator, Rt Rev Dr Noble McNeely visited Wexford last week as part of a week-long tour around the Dublin and Munster Presbytery.

This will be his third and final visit to a presbytery as Moderator before stepping down from office in June.

The Dublin and Munster Presbytery has 32 congregations with 4,000 members, covering 24 counties in the Republic. Speaking about the trip, Dr McNeely said: 'Each of our congregations across Ireland have their unique characteristics, and I look forward to discovering how our ministers are impacting on their local communities. I want to encourage our ministers in their work, as they often minister in isolated situations.'

Rev David Conkey from Wexford said that he had met with the Moderator and the Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of Dublin and Munster, Stuart Ferguson, during their tour around the presbyteries.

'We met in Enniscorthy and had coffee with them. We brought them to the church in Enniscorthy, which they were very interested in, and then down to one in Anne Street in Wexford town where they spent some time and we had lunch together.'

Rev Conkey explained that the Moderator role changes hands every year and that the person in the role is, effectively, the chief public representative for the church. Rev Dr McNeely will return to his duties in Hollywood, Co Down in June.The contribution made to music within the county by the late composer and conductor Sue Furlong was acknowledged by councillors.

Cllr Jim Moore said Ms Furlong, who passed away in late January, made an extraordinary contribution to the musical lives of many people within the county and further afield.

'It was a sad loss to her family and to everyone involved in music,' he said.

Cllr Lisa McDonald extended her condolences to Ms Furlong's family saying she was an amazing musician and creative force within the county. 'She is such an absolute loss to the community and the wider arts community.'

Chairman Cllr John Hegarty said some of the staff and public contacted him following Ms Furlong's death praising the role Wexford County Council played in affording her the opportunity to develop her talent.

'Her family has the sympathy of all the staff and everyone in this building,' he said.

Cllr Hegarty said Ms Furlong was over a local authority funded programme and worked with Wexford children's choir from 2000 and with the commission of the Irish language songs.

'It was all through Wexford County Council and Sue was very thankful of that.'Eoin Colfer and former Abbey Theatre artistic director Ben Barnes have been announced as two of the big names to feature in the Eugene O'Neill Festival taking place in New Ross this October.

Named after the son of James O'Neill, who was born in Tinneranny in 1845 and emigrated as a small boy with his family from New Ross, the festival is a celebration of the work of the son of America's most promising Shakespearean actors and his father. Eugene O'Neill created modern American drama and remains the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize and four Pulitzer Prizes, his works are amongst the greatest plays of the 20th century.

At Tao House in Danville, California in September and at St Michael's Theatre in New Ross in October, in a partnership called 'One Festival, Two Countries', both James and Eugene, united at last in their adopted and ancestral countries, will be celebrated.

The festival programme will start with a screening of Edwin Porter's 1913 film of The Count of Monte Cristo, starring James O'Neill. Two of the four plays will be directed by Ben Barnes, a staged reading of Eugene O'Neill's 'Mourning Becomes Electra' and Eoin Colfer's 'My Real Life', a hit at the Dublin and Edinburgh festivals in 2017.

On board the Dunbrody famine ship there will be a site-specific production of O'Neill's Glencairn cycle of one-act sea plays. This will be an amateur production, with auditions this spring, and featuring Wexford's Paul Walsh as guest director.

Director Eric Hayes's Danville production of O'Neill's 'Hughie' will come to New Ross with an American cast. The festival aims to attract 100 visitors from the US and Europe, and already there is great interest in the week-long tour package. Wexford County Council have generously committed 10,000 to the festival, and additional grants and sponsorship are planned.Councillors approved of plans to take out a 40m loan to help pay for numerous projects across the county.

CEO Tom Enright asked the councillors for approval to borrow the 40m to go towards numerous large-scale projects across the county over the coming years.

He said: 'This decision for approval to borrow is a very important one. For the first time we have the income to borrow 40m for our economic and community development project.'

The increase in Local Property Tax and commercial rates approved by councillors last year has made it possible to service the 40m loan, Mr Enright said.

'We have already talked to national and international institutions and we can borrow at a 1 per cent fixed rate. That opportunity will not always be there. For us to be borrowing this sum shows a very strong committment by this council for the future ambition of the county. Together with another 10.5m for other important infrastructure in the county.'

By way of showing that things are starting to happen in the county, Mr Enright said: 'We have proposals for an advance factory in New Ross and tenders for Min Ryan Park (in Wexford) are being assessed. We are hoping to award a tender in the next few weeks,' he said, adding that Part 8 planning is being applied for a technological park in Enniscorthy and for the Market House in Gorey to be refurbished and extended.

Cllr Michael Sheehan said the entire north quays of Waterford city are being developed, with Waterford City Council planning to provide 60m in funding.

'Our two market towns of New Ross and Enniscorthy are in deep trouble economically and at the end of this week we will have a National Development Plan which is Dublin focussed.

'What is happening in Waterford will be a draw for the south of the county and what is happening in Dublin will be a draw for the north of the county.'

Cllr Ger Carthy said Rosslare Harbour needs to be developed, suggesting that there are banks of land available for the council to purchase and develop there.

He queried why Wexford County Council was promoting the New Ross to Waterford Greenway, saying it will benefit Waterford mainly.

Director of Services Eamonn Hore said the New Ross to Waterford Greenway will benefit the county, adding that it is the most advanced Greenway project that Wexford County Council is progressing.

Cllr Malcolm Byrne said: 'I don't think we should be making any apologies for being ambitious in what we are doing. We are not going to be able to get credit at a better rate.'

Cllr Byrne said it was important for the message to go out that the council is not just borrowing 40m, but has extensive plans to use this sum, adding that the communications department has been strong on conveying that message.

Cllr George Lawlor said towns like Sligo, Athlone, Drogheda, Dundalk and Letterkenny are being ranked as hubs, making places like Wexford third tier towns.

'The launch of the National Development Plan is in Sligo. This is a 115bn, ten year plan. The focus is going to take away from towns like Wexford in favour of towns like Athlone and Sligo which will be known as regional capitals. They have been designated for growth. We have one of the biggest counties in the country.'

He said there is massive infrastructural investment in gas, broadband and roads, adding that now that the county is finally ripe for investment and development, its main urban centre is being downgraded to a 'third or fourth tier town'.

Cllr Lawlor said with Brexit looming there are fantastic opportunities for companies to export through Rosslare Europort.

'Did any of our TDs contact our council about what they wanted to bring forward to promote Wexford. Now it's left to Wexford County Council to invest and to bring about the development as it's clear we don't have any political firepower.'

He said not a single councillor made representations for town and village renewals when the plan was being drawn up.

'We as a council have to drive this forward,' he said.

Cllr Oisin O'Connell said: 'I appreciate the aspirations and enterprising nature of this programme,' asking what the timeline is for paying the money back.

Head of Finance Annette O'Neill said: 'We are looking at paying it back over 25 years. We will be drawing the loan down in stages.

'At the peak of our borrowing we will be paying back around 1.8m. There is the option to pay the loan off at any stage within a 20 to 30 year fixed period, depending on council income.'

Cllr Pip Breen said: 'You will never get money at 1 per cent again.'

Cllr Tony Dempsey said he was delighted to support the request for borrowing. 'It's about doing the work ourselves and people are happy to pay a little increase in property tax once they know the money is being spent rightly.'Wexford councillors have been urged to rein in the use of social media when council meetings are in progress

Twitter happy councillors were asked to resist the urge and keep their social media activities outside the council chamber.

At a protocol committee meeting on February 5 it was recommended that two standing orders should be amended, whereby no cameras of any kind or sound recording equipment may be used at council meetings without council approval. Also that the use of social media during a council meeting, including at meetings held in-committee, is not permitted.

The amendment states that this behaviour may be subject to disciplinary procedures. Also that the use of mobile phones and other electronic devices for the purpose of posting information or images in relation to the business of the meeting is not permitted at council meetings, including at meetings held in-committee.

Chairman Cllr John Hegarty said some councillors were posting to social media before meetings had even concluded. 'The protocol committee felt it was something we should bring to your attention as it impacts on the professionalism of what we are trying to do.

'Any in-committee meeting should remain so until the issue is brought to the public meeting. This includes photos taken of plans which were dispersed by a councillor even though it is not yet ready for public consumption.'

Cllr Hegarty asked for councillors not to invite the public to discuss motions prior to them being debated at meetings. 'We feel councillors would be getting calls asking for support for motions, putting councillors in an unfair position.'

Cllr Oisin O'Connell said he has no issue with the argument concerning in-committee meetings, but said he does not see how practical it is to enforce a ban on social media use during meetings at a public meeting where the media are present. 'I don't see how that is going to be enforced unless you are going to discipline members of the public or reporters. With technology it is possible to schedule (when posts are sent) so there is no real way of determining if something was sent at the time of the meeting and was written beforehand.'

Cllr O'Connell said he does not see how issues can be avoided being discussed publically. 'We have a tea break and people go on their phones straight away. This is framed so broadly it invites ambiguity.'

Cllr Davy Hynes said: 'It's almost impossible now to police this sort of thing. You are really hoping councillors would be considerate enough to give people an opportunity (to debate the motions). Human nature being what it is there are some people on Facebook before others.'

Cllr Hegarty said: 'We accept that this would be very difficult to police and that is not our objective. It's about professionalism in our conduct. We are not out to catch people and even with that there are very limited scopes for discipline.'

Cllr Robbie Ireton was fully behind the planned amendments. 'There is stuff going out on social media and it's just not on. I do know some people can't help themselves and I honestly believe they are addicted to social media.'

Cllr Mary Farrell agreed, saying: 'Once it is discussed then post. We should respect each other. We are all in the same job here.'

Cllr Malcolm Byrne said: 'It's a bit bizarre where members of the press can report and members of the public can comment. I think we should look at the concept of web casting local authority meetings to get people to engage with democracy.'

Cllr Larry O'Brien said: 'We would need help with the make-up department straight away.'

Cllr O'Connell said: 'A meeting is either public or it isn't.'

Cllr Michael Whelan said: 'There is no one talking about holding anything back from the public. If you want to take credit (online) for something you didn't have a lot of input in if that is how you feel you will get elected.'

Cllr Paddy Kavanagh said: 'We are asking that people will be respectful towards each other and not post during meetings.'

Cllr O'Connell proposed an amendement limiting the change to use of social media in in-committee meetings being subject to disciplinary action.

Cllr Willie Fitzharris said: 'Nobody is going to be locked up over it.'

Cllr O'Connell's amendment was carried.

Cllr Tom Forde said said it is important for the public to participate in local government and to suggest for councillors to raise certain issues.

'I'm not here that long, but I'm well aware that everyone here has their own minds and is able to make their decisions themselves.'08:06

US President Donald Trump has once again named India and China to defend his policy on climate change and reiterated that these countries and some others benefited the most from the Paris agreement while America didn't get any advantage.





"We knocked out the Paris Climate Accord. It would have been a disaster. Would have been a disaster for our country," Trump said in his address to the Conservative Political Action Committee.





He was referring to his decision last year to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.





In June last year, Trump had announced to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and renegotiate the deal that was agreed upon by over 190 countries during the previous Obama administration.





Arguing that countries like China and India are benefiting the most from the Paris Agreement, Trump had said that the agreement on climate change was unfair to the US, as it badly hit its businesses and jobs.

Defending his decision Trump said, "You know, basically, it said, "You have a lot of oil and gas that we found" -- you know, technology has been amazing. And we found things that we never knew. But we have massive -- just about the top in the world -- we have massive energy reserves. We have coal. We have so much".





"And basically, they were saying, "Don't use it. You can't use it. So what it does is it makes us uncompetitive with other countries. It's not going to happen, I told them. It's not going to happen," he added.





"And China -- their agreement didn't kick in until 2030. Right? Our agreement kicks in immediately. Russia -- they're allowed to go back into the 1990s, which was not a clean environmental time," Trump said.





Commenting on India and other countries, he said, "Other countries, big countries -- India and others -- we had to pay, because they considered them a growing country.





"They were a growing country. I said, What are we? Are we allowed to grow, too? Ok? No, Are we allowed to grow?," he said.





"They called India a developing nation. They call China a developing nation. But the United States? We're developed. We can pay," Trump said.





-- PTIAn illustration of The Helen Blake lifeboat during the rescue of the crew of the Mexico. Thanks to Brian Cleare

Today (Tuesday) is the one hundred and fifth anniversary of the Helen Blake lifeboat tragedy.

Now a community group in Fethard on Sea who are planning to build a replica of the Helen Blake have just announced that construction will commence in June and it will be launched twelve months later. When complete, the boat will be housed in the village where it is expected to become a major tourist attraction.

On the afternoon of February 20, 1914, with the wind blowing so hard it was difficult to stand up straight, and the waves at sea so high the view beyond them was totally obscured, 14 brave men from Fethard on Sea launched the Helen Blake, a thirty five foot rowing boat.

A Norwegian schooner, the Mexico, had gone aground on the Keeragh Islands and the lifeboatmen put their own lives at risk, battling their way through a storm, to save the lives of people they did not even know.

Arriving at the islands their boat was immediately swept towards the rocks by the raging seas before being swamped by a freak wave which filled it with water. In this perilous state it was impossible to control and the entire crew were thrown out.

Crewman John Kelly grabbed a rope hanging from the Mexico and was quickly pulled aboard the wreck. George Crumpton and Richard Bird landed on the rocks, managing to clamber over them to the relative safety of the island where they immediately secured a line from the schooner to begin the energy sapping task of hauling the men ashore from the stricken ship. They were later joined by John McNamara and Garrett Handrick who had been thrown into the sea, churned around in the surf and hurled on to the rocks by a huge wave, sustaining substantial injuries. The rest of the crew, nine of them, were sadly taken by the raging sea.

Exhausted, cold and weighed down by their soaking wet clothing, the rescuers and the rescued settled down at the start of what was to become an amazing feat of endurance and survival. As the storm continued to rage, they were stranded on the island for three days and nights without food, water or shelter before being rescued by lifeboats from Dunmore and Rosslare.

In the summer months it will be possible to take a trip on it to the Keeraghs on the replica Helen Blake to see the site of the tragedy.A County Wexford Gothic fiction author has landed a three-book deal with Poolbeg Press for her stories involving three teenagers growing up in a cursed town, writes David Looby.

Set loosely in New Ross, Tina Callaghan's River's Edge book series is her first book deal. The first spooky instalment is due out in September, just in time for Hallowe'en. From Begerin, Loftus, just outside New Ross, Tina (48), who works at New Ross Library by day, has been an avid reader and writer all her life and has been published in horror anthologies by Stephen King's publisher.

'When I was nine I confided in my mother that I wanted to be a writer, like a secret. She got to read my book before she died,' Tina, who runs a creative writing course at New Ross Library, said.

Tina is working on the second book in her young adult fiction series, which has exploded in popularity in recent years. Drawing on a rounded and well-honed knowledge of fiction in all its guises, Tina based her story on the curse of New Ross. 'The story is very loosely based on the medieval history of New Ross. In the 13th century there was an abbey on Priory Street run by the Crutched Friars. They were hospitular monks who became corrupt. They put a very high toll on the river and when a popular ship's captain was nominated to try and get the toll reduced they murdered him. The people of New Ross rose up and drove the monk from the town, drawing a curse from the abbott.

'The Pope of the time supported the monks and took the sacraments from the town and it was only in 1945 when the last enclave of these monks returned to bless the town and lift the curse.'

Set in a fictional Irish town called Bailey where bad things happen to its residents, the action sparks to life when a brother of one of the protagonists dies in the river.

There is an unrequited love story between two of the teenagers, Gabe and Kate, and between the three friends, they try to get to the bottom of the curse. 'They keep seeing the animated bodies of the dead in the river and they get chased by the dead abbot and there is a banshee', said Tina.

She submitted River's Edge to Poolbeg Press, one of Ireland's great publishing houses which include Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes and Patricia Scanlon in its catalogue. She plans to release the second book in the series in 2019. 'I started it as adult fiction but it lent itself to young adult fiction. I write visually and I am a big fan of movies and the cinema. There is an underlying dread in my stories and a feeling of lives lived at extremes with supernatural happenings going on', she said.

Tina's advice to budding writers is: 'Persistence was the key. I was rejected many, many times and I am glad that I've had the experience of being rejected so many times as it's most people's experience.'Local writer Sharon Thompson has signed a deal for two more books with leading crime publishing house, Bloodhound Books UK.

The Sligo native's debut novel 'The Abandoned' launched on Thurs 25th Jan 2018 at #1 on Amazon.

On pre-order kindle sales, 'The Abandoned' dominated the Irish crime category and continues to sit comfortably in the top 10.

Available in paperback and kindle on Amazon, this gritty crime novel, is being made into an audio book.

Local bookshops, Liber in Sligo, Supervalu in Carndonagh and Farrens Moville, also stock signed copies.

The Abandoned is set in 1950s Dublin and follows the life of a backstreet abortionist and brothel owner, Peggy Bowden.

Set against the backdrop of Ireland in the 1950's The Abandoned tells the story of one woman's fight for survival and her journey into the underbelly of a dangerous criminal world where she becomes a 'back-street abortionist' almost.

Written through the eyes of the strong protagonist, readers have found it an, 'exciting read they can't put down.'

Linda Green book blogger adds, 'Gripping, emotive, raw, and compelling are just some of the adjectives I could use to describe this stunning debut that will take your breath away."

Following on from the immediate success of her first book, Sharon Thompson has signed with her publishers for a further two crime novels.

Thompson tells us, 'I am delighted to have secured two more books with the great Bloodhound Books.

The support of my local papers, bookshops and communities has been amazing. I'd like to thank everyone who buys my book and huge gratitude to all those who gave it such positive reviews.'

Bloodhound Books UK founder and director, Betsy Reavley says, 'We are delighted to announce that readers can look forward to two more mystery thrillers from number 1 best-selling author Sharon Thompson. The Abandoned was released in January of this year to widespread critical acclaim and significant commercial success.

"We are thrilled that Sharon has signed a further two-book deal with Bloodhound Books.'

The Abandoned is available to purchase online on Amazon in paperback and kindle. Signed copies are sold locally.A plumber has been convicted of dangerous driving and banned from holding a licence for two years after colliding with a mini-bus full of special needs children almost four years ago.

Niall McDonald (31) of Cartronbree, Knocknahur, was convicted in his absence after the court heard he was now working as a plumber in Germany.

The collision happened on 1st April 2014 on the Ballygawley Road, Collooney. Gardai found the mini-bus on its side in the ditch and McDonald's crew cab on the wrong side of the road. All the children were brought to hospital.

Blood samples taken from McDonald showed the presence of Benzodiazepines sedative. In a Garda statement McDonald said he was not wearing a seat belt and lost consciousness on impact.

Judge Kilrane convicted him of dangerous driving, fined him 500 and disqualified him for two years. He also fined him 200 for not having motor tax.A 61-year-old Coolaney man has been convicted of assaulting a woman at O'Grady's Bar in the village almost two years ago.

Thomas Middleton, of Horseshoe Crescent, Coolaney, appeared before Judge Kevin Kilrane at Sligo District Court to deny assaulting Ms Louise Marshall in O'Grady's Bar, Main Street, Coolaney on 8th May 2016.

Photos of the woman's injured face were handed into court by Inspector Donal Sweeney.

The victim took the witness stand and told Judge Kilrane that she had visited her daughter Chelsea Murray and her partner Trevor Hennessy in Coolaney that night. The three of them were in O'Grady's Bar when Ms Marshall went out to the smoking area for a cigarette.

She said: "Tommy Middleton was standing there. I moved down on my own. He was starting to chat with me but I said 'I just prefer to smoke'. In my opinion he was trying to come on to me."

She then claimed Middleton told her to go away and called her a tramp.

She returned to her daughter "upset" and told her what happened. Ms Murray then went back out to the smoking area and confronted Middleton.

Ms Marshall said she followed her daughter back out to the smoking area and trying to persuade her daughter to leave.

"I looked at Tommy Middleton. His face was angry. He thumped me on the left jaw. I was stunned," she said. "My face swelled up straight away," she continued. She had a holiday booked the next day and said the bruising to her face was "embarrassing".

"People thought I was a battered wife," she said, adding that her husband had only died a few weeks earlier.

Defence solicitor Mr Mark Mullaney put it to Ms Marshall that his client never called her a tramp, that it was not an expression he would use.

He also said Middleton never struck her.

"I know he did. His teeth were stripped. His face was angry," she replied.

Ms Chelsea Murray testified that she saw Middleton leaning in to her mother but was watching his face and so didn't actually see his arm make contact with her mother's face.

Middleton then took the stand and said Ms Marshall made an offensive comment to him first but denied calling her a tramp and denied assaulting her.

"I didn't do it. I never had any disagreement with her," he said.

He then claimed someone hit him with an iron bar outside the pub afterwards, and the windows of his house were smashed in.

Judge Kilrane said this counter-complaint showed Middleton was "simply making it up as he goes along" and rejected it as a defence.

He convicted Middleton and fined him 300.The mother of a baby with a life limiting condition told a Sligo Pro-Life meeting how her child survived for months after he was born.

Yvonne Donoghue gave an emotional address to the meeting in the Clayton Hotel last Saturday evening, describing her experience and journey in carrying a baby with a life limiting condition, how she coped in deciding to let the baby be born naturally and letting it live until his natural death a number of months after his birth.

Ms Donoghue was joined by businessman and pro-life advocate Declan Ganley, grand-niece of 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt, Dr Judy Ceannt and Bernadette Smyth of Precious Life in Northern Ireland.

Mr Ganley told the Meeting, which was organised by the SLIGO for LIFE organisation, that politicians could not be trusted if the 8th Amendment was repealed.

"Political leaders on a journey can't tell us when their journey has ended. They're all over the place and can't be trusted to the degree that we take away the rights of pre-born girls and boys and instead entrust life or death power over those lives to Politicians who bend with the wind."

"Ireland is a beacon of light for human rights. We are the one place that a global campaign has failed to snuff out the rights of pre-born human individuals. We will win this, because the Irish people, when it comes to it, will not strip one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world of it's recognition that the pre-born are human too and should not have their right removed so they can be lawfully killed," he told supporters.

He likened the referendum campaign to the abolition movement: "When we vote to save the 8th, history will look back at this and see as a key turning point, like William Wilberforce and The Abolition Movement, which was the beginning of the end of Slavery."

He urged everyone to work hard and attend the Major Life March in Dublin on Saturday the 10th of March and to spread the message that to Repeal the 8th is to introduce the killing of the pre-born girls and boys in Ireland.

Yvonne Donoghue told how when she got the news about the problem with her unborn baby after a scan it was a major shock but she decided that her child deserved to live and that she as a mother had no right to destroy the new human life in her womb. After the birth of her baby she loved, cuddled and cradled it for months until he passed away in a peaceful death. She said she had many happy and poignant memories of the time she spent with her baby, and believes she was absolutely right to let her baby live and die naturally.

Bernadette Smyth spoke of her campaign to keep abortion out of Northern Ireland over the last 20 years. She has been supported by the D.U.P but not Sinn Fein. She said abortion is "killing the innocent who are given no choice. Abortion is against the 5th Commandment."

She said the pro-choice side rarely if ever mention the baby and that they view it as human life. She asked what choice does the baby get? She highlighted that over many years she has helped many girls and women in crisis pregnancies to overcome fear, shock and trauma and have kept their babies or given them up for adoption rather than abort them. She said that those who abort their babies suffer terrible loneliness and sadness which is visible in their eyes.

Dr. Judy Ceannt, spoke of her strong opposition to repealing the 8th Amendment from her job as a G.P. where she deals with people in crisis pregnancies. She was very passionate in her view that life should be protected from it's earliest stages in the womb. She is worried that Medical people and Hospital staff would have to carry out terminations if the 8th was repealed. She said doctors were trained to do no harm but now the Irish Government was planning to ask them to participate in the killing of human lives.

The meeting started with the showing of a D.V.D. called "Keep The 8th" produced by the Donegal Pro Life Group. Copies are available free. Phone 089 2469599 or email donegalprolife@gmail.com

It covers 11 Topics including testimony from a former doctor who performed thousands of abortions but is now promoting life.County Council CEO Ciaran Hayes with Ministers Heather Humphreys and Charlie Flanagan at IT Sligo last Friday. Pic: Donal Hackett

Project Ireland 2040, the plan announced with much razzmatazz last Friday makes some "major statements in terms of rebalancing economic development in the country and in the North West."

Chief Executive of Sligo County Council Ciaran Hayes also thinks the plans are "well thought out and considered."

"This is a statement of confidence in Sligo and the region," he said, adding that after decades of neglect, it is a "very welcome step forward."

"If the Western seaboard is to act as a counter balance to the East, in the plan they're making a very strong and clear statement as to where the development should take place and Sligo is included in that.

"The challenges now for Sligo County Council and other agencies is to be able to deliver on these ambitions," he told The Sligo Champion.

In terms of infrastructure, the plan includes the N4 Collooney to Castlebaldwin, the Eastern Garavogue Bridge, the Western Distributor Road and the N17 Knock to Collooney upgrade.

This last road is the only new road project included - all the others are already in train, something Ciaran Hayes acknowledges but says long-term plans such as this will always take into account projects already planned.

He pointed to the goal of improving regional connectivity of the Atlantic Economic Corridor as something that will drive the N17 upgrade.

He also pointed to the importance of Knock Airport and the Mullingar to Longford motorway: "Knock Airport is as important to Sligo as it is to Mayo. Even the Mullingar to Longford motorway will benefit Sligo," he said.

"If we want to develop this region we must deal with infrastructure deficits and issues of access to the regions. Also for companies, allowing them access to their markets.

Other gains for Sligo are commitments to a new Central Sterile Services Department at Sligo University Hospital and a new Acute Mental Health Unit, both of which are already planned.

"It augurs well. There are certain challenges in putting it together and in terms of delivering on the vision of the plan," he said.

He also pointed to the proposed National Regeneration and Development Agency which is to overlook planning and said "we need to see more detail."

"If the intention is to ensure balanced regional development it would be welcome. It demonstrates a different type of initiative that's coming through between the Council and other local agencies," he said.A 59-year-old man has been convicted and fined 200 for a breach of the peace on the Mall last month.

Inspector Donal Sweeney told the court that Gardai were called to help an ambulance crew with a member of the public on 23rd January.

They found the defendant, Desmond McLoughlin of no fixed abode, "very agitated and abusive" and intoxicated.

"After a while he agreed to go to hospital by ambulance but as he was being strapped in he kicked out at Garda O'Hora and was arrested," said Inspector Sweeney.

The court heard McLoughlin has previous convictions for Public Order, Assault and drink driving.

A charge of larceny of a duvet set from Penneys on 25th October 2017 was struck out on condition McLoughlin give an undertaking to stay out of Penneys, which he gave. "I don't need Penneys and Penneys doesn't need me," he told the court.

Judge Kilrane convicted the defendant on being abusive on the Mall and told him to stay off alcohol in future.Minister for Disability Issues Finian McGrath TD paid a vist to St. Angela's college last week to recognise the work that the Lough Gill based campus does in the area of disailbity studies.

He addressed a packed lecture theatre of staff, students, disabled people and those who work in the sector.

In his keynote address Minister McGrath complimented the academic team for promoting the vision of Disability Inclusion, which is "That disabled People will be Visible, Empowered and Participating."

He said: "The programmes at St Angela's offer transformational education, which will ensure that the required changes in attitudes and culture occur within the disability sector.

"The Disability Studies programmes provided here are bringing Ireland into the 21st Century in terms of inclusion."

Cllr Marie Casserely was among the guests last Monday.

She said: "It was great that the Minister recognised the work done in St Angela's so far. This is a great achievement for a regional college."

Programme Director of Disability Studies Susan Carton said: "We are passionate and motivated to drive this initiative and have developed the expertise and networks to succeed."

The college also provides a specific course for students with intellectual disabilites, a certificate in Life Skills Studies. Course Coordinator Carmel Jennings explained: "This course is an opportunity for persons with an intellectual disability to experience college life.

"For the students and staff of the college it has been a privilege to share the campus with such enthusiastic students.

"This development reiterates our commitment to inclusive education. Many of the students met the Minister and commented on their courses."

Carmel added: "The college would like to further this initiative by offering an internship module that would support graduates to realise their employment ambitions and bring them to the world of work."

A call for further funding for disability studies was made.A man who stole 75 worth of clothes from Penneys had intended sending them back to his child in Romania.

Vasile Costea (32) of Sexton Street, Limerick, pleaded guilty through an interpreter to the theft on 10th November 2017 from Penneys, Sligo.

Defence solicitor Ms Laura Spellman said he wasn't long in the jurisdiction and came with the promise of a job in a car wash. She said he had now got a job in Limerick earning 150-200 a week.

She said he had wanted to send the clothes back to his child in Romania. The clothes were recovered and returned to Penneys.

Judge Kilrane convicted and fined Costea 100. The fine was taken from 200 bail money.The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]The west Sligo community was out in force on Friday morning to protest against the threatened closure of Easkey Post Office.

Dozens of concerned locals, along with local representatives staged a protest at the gates of IT Sligo as members of the cabinet arrived for the meeting.

"It's great first of all to see the full cabinet coming to Sligo. Hopefully with them they have funding for the North-West and especially for Sligo. Hopefully the Taoiseach and his ministers will have the acorns for the future and have a brighter future for Sligo and beyond," said Blair Feeney, west Sligo businessman.

He added: "Today the issue is West Sligo, rural decline and the closure of Easkey Post Office. Easkey is a beautiful village dwindling along the Atlantic Ocean with huge surfing opportunities. I'm a local business person from the area and I get great support from the area. The post office is very important for the social and economic benefits of the entire region. The post office could be best described as the shirt button of the community. It holds the community together, it's there for the people.

"It's a great centre for people to meet weekly, and it's the backbone of any village. Once you lose the backbone of any community all you'll see is further closures of shops, of pubs. You cannot expect anybody to dream of investing or setting up a new business in a rural community if you don't have the basic infrastructure there, broadband, a post office and a decent road network. It's not only today that the problem is, it's the problem of the future. I think for our children and our children's children that we must be seen to try and save our post offices and rural Ireland."

Easkey, like many villages in rural Ireland, has suffered as a result of the downturn in the economy. Locals fear that the closure of the local post office could have a domino effect.

"Easkey, no more than many rural villages has seen a huge downturn, as has West Sligo. There's a secondary school, there's a Primary Care Centre, we must keep these facilities open if we want to keep rural Ireland alive. There's an aging farming community out there, but in saying that, they're a very proactive community. I think Easkey with the right supports coming from the government and coming from the County Council can deliver more employment and look seriously at tourism initiatives and what we have to offer out there.

"Our fear is that once Easkey goes then Dromore West goes and then you're left with one post office in the West Sligo area. We don't want Easkey to be the lost vilalge than in 100 years time we'll hear about the village that was."

Richard Morrissey, PRO of the 'Save Easkey Post Office' campaign says the group will continue demonstrations and meetings over the next number of weeks.

"This is the first of a few actions we're planning over the next few weeks. We've had to have an accelerated campaign because we only got the word over a week ago. We heard this was happening here today and the mountain came to Mohammed so this is an ideal time for us, the protest here is a plan about 2040 whereas in 2018 our post office is under threat. In terms of the ecology of Easkey the post office is vital. If we want torevitalise and regenerate rural Ireland then a post offices have to be in place. Here we have another bright and shiny plan with the title 2014. 20140 is no good to us."

The group handed a letter to a representative from the Taoiseach's office: "In the letter we were underlining how important and how vital a cog the post office is to our community. We have people there who have issues with mobility and for them to have to go elsewhere, it's about community and is it an economy or community? A post office is a service that should be provided. We're citizens of this country and we deserve the same infrastructure as others, the bare minimum," he added.Brian Nolan, Gus Cooney, Colm O Neill, Eoin Gaffney and Mary Aldridge presenting the cheque to members of Wicklow RNLI crew

Wicklow RNLI were delighted to welcome some Leinster Open Swim members bearing gifts to the Lifeboat Station on Sunday morning.

The visiting swimmers consisted of Brian Nolan, Gus Cooney, Colm O Neill, Eoin Gaffney and Mary Aldridge who presented a cheque for 3,000 to the local crew.

The money was raised on Sunday, August 19, 2017 during the Leinster Open Swim at Wicklow. Over 200 swimmers travelled to Wicklow town to participate in the three-kilometre race from the Monkey Pole at the Murrough to Travelahawk beach.

All profits from the race went to the RNLI, with the 3,000 representing the largest amount raised yet. 1,000 was raised in 2015 and 1,200 in 2016.

Leinster Open Swim also donated 1,000 to Howth RNLI raised in the Island Swim in 2017.

The 2018 race in aid of Wicklow RNLI is expected to take place in September. For more details check leinsteropensea.ie.

Leinster Open Swim are a not-for-profit-organisation who work with swimming clubs, such as Wicklow Swimming Club, to establish a summer season of open sea races in a variety of locations throughout Leinster.

All ages and abilities are catered for, from teenagers to senior citizens and from novice swimmers to former internationals. In order to take part, swimmers must first be a registered member of a Swim Ireland swimming club.Emma Hayden (Centre) receives a cheque for 2,125 on behalf of the Irish Cancer Society from the annual candlelight walk organised by St Marys Church in Blessington

The annual candlelight walk held by St Mary's Church in Blessington on the grounds of Russborough House raised over 2,000 for the night nurses in the Irish Cancer Society.

The fundraiser held at Russborough House took place in October of last year and the money raised was to be split between St. Mary's Church and the Irish Cancer Society.

A cheque for 2,125 was accepted by Emma Hayden of the Irish Cancer Society, who explained the night nurse service is totally funded through donations and was very appreciative to all who participated in the event.

The organisers have sent their thanks to the management and trustees of Russborough House for allowing this event to be held on the grounds. They have also offered thanks to the very large team of volunteers, ranging in age from two-and-a-half all the way up to 80 years of age, and, in particular, to the very large number of people who come every year to walk the candlelight walk.

The donation to the Irish Cancer Society will be used in the local area to fund the night nurse service provided to patients and their families.Many residents were displaced as the valley was flooded to create the Poulaphouca Reservoir

A trip around the Blessington Lakeside Heritage Trail is a journey through the social history of north west Wicklow, as it visits sites of religious and economic importance as well as shining a light on population change and migration.

The trail begins in Blessington, a town littered with historical interest. Sites worth visiting include the Credit Union Building, the Downshire monument, St Mary's Church of Ireland and the Horseshoe Arch. Nearby, Russborough House, the Palladian mansion built in the 1740s for the First Earl of Milltown, stands overlooking the lakes.

The next port of call is Baltyboys. The privately owned Baltyboys House was the home of Elisabeth Smith, author of a fascinating account of daily life during the Great Famine and the great-grandmother of Ninette de Valois, founder of the London Royal Ballet.

The Quakers lived in the area from the 17th century, working mainly in the wool industry, and the restored Quaker Graveyard at Boystown is the next stop along the trail before heading to a constant reminder of significant local unheaval in the last century.

Valleymount Bridge was built after the valley was flooded in 1940 as part of the Poulaphouca Reservoir Scheme. Eighty homesteads, 300 farms, the village of Ballinahown and over 5,500 acres of farmland were lost under the lakes.

The village of Valleymount itself plays host to an old schoolhouse, a sweathouse and a very distinctive church built in 1803 in a Mexican style. The church contains beautiful Harry Clarke stained glass windows.

The trail then travels onwards to Ballyknockan Quarry, followed by the village of Ballyknockan. The quarry is a reminder of Ballyknockan's long history with stonecutting, which has been practiced the area since 1824. Local granite was used to build many of Dublin's most famous buildings and is also very much in evidence in the nearby village, where many of the homes are built from local stone. The village also contains some unique buildings, such as the barn cinema, and commands stunning views over the lakes.

The next stop on the trail is Templeboden, a townland named after Bishop Boden, whose grave and crumbling small church are located in the local graveyard. A cillin, or burial place for unbaptised local children, has also been identified.

Ballynultagh, its cairns, ballaun stone and deserted village are the next destination. The isolated village survived, without electricity, until its last resident died in the early 2000s.

The final stop before heading back to Blessington is Lacken, where many buildings are constructed of local granite while the old schoolhouse was built by Elisabeth Smith of Baltyboys House in the 1880s.

The Blessington Lakeside Heritage Trail passes through areas of incredible scenic beauty, with plenty of opportunities for bird-watching, walking and other outdoor pursuits.Avocain Kilmacanogue is among the establishments listed in the new edition of Georgina Campbells Ireland  The Best of the Best

Jaipurin Greystones is among the establishments listed in the new edition of Georgina Campbells Ireland  The Best of the Best

Cafes, restaurants and accommodation providers across Wicklow feature in the latest Georgina Campbell guide.

The guide, Georgina Campbell's Ireland - The Best of the Best, features her personal selection of the very best places to eat, drink and stay, hand picked from the comprehensive guide to Ireland's best.

This new edition of Georgina Campbell's famous 'glovebox bible' is a highly selective independently assessed guide to the very best of Irish food and hospitality.

Designed as a handy reference, to accompany the more extensive recommendations on the award-winning website ireland-guide.com, its wide range of categories - hotels, restaurants, cafes, pubs, country houses, guesthouses and farmhouses - ensures the best choices for the discerning traveller in all regions, at all times and in all price ranges.

Wicklow is strongly represented in the guide with over 15 entries, covering everything from five star hotels such as Powerscourt and Druids Glen, country houses and smaller hotels such as Rathsallagh, Hunter's Hotel and BrookLodge and interesting B&B accommodation such as celebrity chef Catherine Fulvio's Ballyknocken House and Cookery School.

There is also a thriving and diverse range of great dining destinations. Avoca thrives in several locations, including Mount Usher, while the Happy Pear in Greystones is also popular. There are smaller, quality-led places like the Grangecon Cafe in Blessington and the Firehouse Bakery & Cafe in Delgany, ethnic treats such as Chakra by Jaipur and individualistic old favourites, including The Hungry Monk and the Roundwood Inn.

Ms Campbell said that Wicklow is an 'all-round wonderful destination and there is great scope for further hospitality development in the county, especially in quality accommodation'.

The emphasis throughout this collection is on the all-round experience, especially for the 'culturally curious', and hosts who will engage enthusiastically with guests regarding places of local interest and artisan foods in the area, many of which feature on the website

Explaining the rationale behind this new selection, Georgina Campbell says: 'Exploring Ireland has always been a great experience and this book is testament to the enormous changes for the better that have recently been taking place in Irish food and tourism.

'In general, standards have been raised throughout the country and across the board. There's now a special brand of excellence that covers a much broader spectrum and includes many very casual places to eat, drink and stay, so this selection reflects that changing perception, and the fact that best experiences are accessible to all, regardless of taste or budget. A stay at a simple island B&B or a converted horse truck, for example, can be at least as memorable as a break in a top hotel, and a casual meal in a beach shack might be the highlight of a holiday or business visit that also includes plenty of fine dining.'

The guide is now on sale in bookshops and online from Ireland-guide.com for 20.Saints, rebels and stone circles are just some of the treats in store for those heading out along the West Wicklow Heritage Trail.

The looped trail begins and ends in the village of Hollywood. With strong links to St Kevin of Glendalough, the village has welcomed thousands of pilgrims over the years and the earliest indication of a church in Hollywood is found in the 13th century.

The trail continues onto Dunlavin and its attractive Palladian-style market house. The town also has strong links to the 1798 rebellion, during which 35 men were executed at the Fair Green.

The next destination is the Bronze Age stone circle at Castleruddery, where there is also a defensive motte which was built in the 12th century following the arrival of the Normans.

Baltinglass Heritage Town is the next stop. Located in an area of rich archaeological interest that boasts a number of hillforts, the town itself has several historical sites, including the 12th century Cistercian Abbey, the old courthouse and the Sam McAllister statue.

From here, the trail leads to Kilranelagh Graveyard, which includes the foundations of a church, St Brigid's holy well, some small stone crosses, the grave of Sam McAllister and two unusual upright stones which are referred to as the Gates of Heaven.

The next stop is the Dwyer-McAllister cottage, which is associated with that hero of the 1798 rebellion, Michael O'Dwyer, and displays furniture and memorabilia from that time.

From there, the trail heads much further back in time with a visit to the Knickeen Ogham Stone near the Glen of Imaal. With its Christian inscription in the earliest form of writing known in Ireland, the imposing stone has been dated to between 400-550AD.

Ogham is again on display at the next stop on the trail, Donard, thanks to the stone in the centre of the village. Donard has its origins as a monastic settlement and the village contains the ruins of a medieval church as well as some ancient grave slabs. Donard also has strong connections to the 1798 rebellion.

The final destination on the West Wicklow Heritage Trail is the Piper's Stones, a large Bronze Age stone circle that originally contained 29 stones.

The trail is 80km long and, taking in the River Slaney Special Area of Conservation, the outer edge of the Wicklow Mountains National Park and one of the largest groupings of prehistoric forts in Ireland, it should take a full day to complete.Undated handout photo issued by World Vision of Meghan Markle during her visit to Rwanda. The charity has paid tribute to Prince Harry's bride-to-be, saying the "true humanitarian" will bring "vast energy" to her royal work

Undated handout photo issued by World Vision of Meghan Markle during her visit to Rwanda. The charity has paid tribute to Prince Harry's bride-to-be, saying the "true humanitarian" will bring "vast energy" to her royal work

Princess Diana, Princess of Wales is seen cuddling a child during a visit to a hostel for abandoned children many of whom are HIV positive or suffer from AIDS on April 24, 1991 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

Undated handout photo issued by World Vision of Meghan Markle during her visit to Rwanda. The charity has paid tribute to Prince Harry's bride-to-be, saying the "true humanitarian" will bring "vast energy" to her royal work

Undated handout photo issued by World Vision of Meghan Markle during her visit to Rwanda. The charity has paid tribute to Prince Harry's bride-to-be, saying the "true humanitarian" will bring "vast energy" to her royal work

As Meghan Markle acclimatises to public life, more comparisons are being drawn between her and Prince Harry's late mother, Princess Diana.

Royal insiders have said that the British royals haven't been shaken up this much since Diana, nor have the public been so enraptured by someone with so much commitment in the last 20 years. But the similarities don't end there...

Wardrobes

Expand Close Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle watch the wheelchair tennis event during the Invictus Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle watch the wheelchair tennis event during the Invictus Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Nearly 30 years apart, both Princess Diana and Meghan Markle blazed a stylish trail within the British royal family. Diana ruffled feathers in the late 80s and early 90s with her fondness for daring shoulder baring (gasp!) gowns was met with disapproval from high ranking royal family members - not to mention her off-duty wardrobe. She was once pictured running back to her car in London wearing a Harvard sweatshirt and gym shorts. Quelle horreur!

Dianas former stylist Anna Harvey told the Telegraph that she and the late princess were learning the royal ropes together, trying to curate cutting edge looks befitting the most talked about woman in the world.

Neither of us really knew that much about royal etiquette and what was expected of her style-wise, she explained. Were going to Balmoral and we have to dress for tea,' Diana would say, and then we'd have to guess about the style of dress she should wear and find lots of options. She very quickly jettisoned gloves.

The royal family all wore them, but Diana just preferred not to.

Expand Close Princess Diana at the film premiere of "Octopussy" Odeon Leicester Square in London. (Photo by Tom Wargacki/WireImage) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Princess Diana at the film premiere of "Octopussy" Odeon Leicester Square in London. (Photo by Tom Wargacki/WireImage)

Meghan was met with similar objection for having the audacity to wear ripped jeans in her first event with then-boyfriend Prince Harry in September. She has stayed true to her signature low-key luxe look and keeps residents of her new home happy by mixing British designers with an arsenal of Canadian couturiers for her carefully choreographed public appearances in the run up her May wedding.

And she has been shunning structured skirt suits in favour of more relaxed attire like flared jeans or an Alexander McQueen tuxedo; only wearing a required-by-uniform pillbox hat for Christmas Day celebrations with her future in-laws.

Charity work

Expand Close Undated handout photo issued by World Vision of Meghan Markle during her visit to Rwanda. The charity has paid tribute to Prince Harry's bride-to-be, saying the "true humanitarian" will bring "vast energy" to her royal work / Facebook

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Whatsapp Undated handout photo issued by World Vision of Meghan Markle during her visit to Rwanda. The charity has paid tribute to Prince Harry's bride-to-be, saying the "true humanitarian" will bring "vast energy" to her royal work

If you re-watch the now infamous interview with Meghan and Harry after their engagement, its clear the couples mutual attraction for charity work was a catalyst of compatibility between the pair. Harry gazed adoringly as his new fiancee saying, She can do anything when asked about their future intentions.

Both of us have passions for wanting to make change for good. With lots of young people running around the Commonwealth, thats where we want to spend most of our time, he said. Theres a lot to do.

And Meghan has been living up to her word  it was revealed earlier this month that she made two secret visits to victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, purposely not seeking media attention of her endeavours.

Expand Close Princess Diana, Princess of Wales is seen cuddling a child during a visit to a hostel for abandoned children many of whom are HIV positive or suffer from AIDS on April 24, 1991 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Princess Diana, Princess of Wales is seen cuddling a child during a visit to a hostel for abandoned children many of whom are HIV positive or suffer from AIDS on April 24, 1991 in Sao Paolo, Brazil. (Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images)

Diana, similarly, would famously sneak out of Kensington Palace to visit sick children in hospitals around London, even bringing Prince William when he was 12 to educate him; in addition to leaving Kensington Palace to visit homeless shelters in the night. During her lifetime, Diana became synonymous with her preferred charity organisations, including AIDS research and most childrens charities, a cause similarly chosen by Kate Middleton.

If Im going to talk on behalf of any cause, I want to go and see the problem for myself and learn about it, she told the Washington Posts Katharine Graham about wanting to be more than just a figurehead.

Dealing with the public

Expand Close Crowds greet Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee Meghan Markle during a visit to Cardiff Castle in Cardiff, Britain, January 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ben Birchall/Pool / Facebook

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Whatsapp Crowds greet Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee Meghan Markle during a visit to Cardiff Castle in Cardiff, Britain, January 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ben Birchall/Pool

Diana was, and Meghan is, acutely aware of her impact on the public. Today, there are an endless array of photos of Meghan standing back and genuinely fawning with gratitude as she greets well-wishers around the UK. Last week, she surprised everyone by speaking Filipino to visitors from the Philippines in Scotland.

The coverage of Markle has been overwhelmingly positive, save for some questionable commentary in the early days of her relationship with Harry and a recent piece by the Daily Mail denouncing her as too huggy wuggy for, wellhugging people when she meets them.

In her sit-down engagement interview, she addressed the coverage of her race, which had prompted her then-boyfriend to issue a statement denouncing the British medias portrayal of her, which she described as 'disheartening.

"You know it's a shame that that is the climate in this world to focus that much on that or that that would be discriminatory in that sense, but I think...at the end of the day I'm really just proud of who I am and where I come from, and we have never put any focus on that. We've just focused on who we are as a couple, she said.

Expand Close Princess Diana of Wales smiling as she prepares to embrace a woman in the crowd, on the streets of Carmarthen, Wales, October 29th 1981. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Princess Diana of Wales smiling as she prepares to embrace a woman in the crowd, on the streets of Carmarthen, Wales, October 29th 1981. (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Diana was just as welcoming when dealing with visitors who would take time out of their lives to catch a glimpse of her, or a handshake is they were extraordinarily lucky. It was this seemingly effortless affability why she was dubbed the Peoples Princess. While Kate Middleton has to adhere to stricter guidelines in public for myriad reasons, largely because her husband will ascend the throne eventually, Meghan doesnt have the same restrictions: because shes 36, because shes American, because Harry is bumped further down the line, she has a lot more freedom.

Diana was just 20 when she wed Prince Charles and when dealing with the public, she had the self-assuredness of a woman twice her age.

Ms Harvey spoke fondly of her dealings with Diana, saying: Everyone was always so nervous, but Diana put them at ease. She started off so shy and ended up so confident. It just shows what we can still all learn from her."

PR

Prior to her engagement, Meghan rather shrewdly gave an interview with Vanity Fair discussing her new chapter as a royal girlfriend, a move which would have been choreographed and approved by the royal communications office, and one which divided critics. The decision to choose a prestige publication, a respected journalist and give enough tidbits to satisfy the publics appetite proved just how adept she is at portraying herself in a positive light, a handy quality to possess when youve become internationally recognised overnight.

Expand Close The October 2017 cover of Vanity Fair featuring actress Meghan Markle is seen in this handout photo obtained September 5, 2017. Peter Lindbergh exclusively for Vanity Fair/Handout via REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp The October 2017 cover of Vanity Fair featuring actress Meghan Markle is seen in this handout photo obtained September 5, 2017. Peter Lindbergh exclusively for Vanity Fair/Handout via REUTERS

During her relationship with Harry, some publications began to lose the run of themselves, the couple had only been together a year and public for six months, but we knew everything there was to know about her.

Diana, on the other hand, Diana was incomparable in her dealings with the press, and appeared on the cover of British Vogue on three occasions during the course of her lifetime. The late Liz Tilberis, who was editor of Vogue at the time, orchestrated two covers with the princess, and Alexandra Shulman approved her third cover, which was to commemorate her tragic death in 1997.Ivanka Trump (L) shows the heart sign with her hands with wife of Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim Jung-sook (C) and Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha (R) attending the final of the men's snowboard big air event at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on February 24, 2018 in Pyeongchang. Photo: Franck Fifefranck/AFP/Getty Images

Ivanka Trump makes the heart sign with her hands while watching the final of the men's snowboard big air event at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on February 24, 2018 in Pyeongchang. Photo: Franck Fifefranck/AFP/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka flashed a heart sign for Team USA when she watched the snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics yesterday.

Ivanka, who paired a stylish red winter coat with a Team USA hat, arrived in Seoul yesterday to lead the US delegation at the closing ceremony.

She called it a "great honour", adding: "We are very, very excited to attend the... games to cheer for Team USA and to reaffirm our strong and enduring commitment with the people of the Republic of Korea."

Ms Trump was due to attend a dinner with South Korean president Moon Jae-in in Seoul yesterday evening.

She was then expected to head to Pyeongchang to be at the closing ceremony tomorrow.

Ms Trump's arrival marked the latest in a string of high profile appearances at the Winter Games.

The sporting events have been increasingly eclipsed by powerful political delegations and diplomatic manoeuvres behind the scenes.

Comparisons have been drawn between Ms Trump and Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who appeared to mesmerise the global media with her presence at the opening ceremony earlier this month, despite her not speaking a word in public.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Barnaby Joyce, Australia's deputy prime minister, has resigned after a torrid fortnight in which he faced claims of sexual harassment and was forced to admit that he had an affair with a staffer, who is pregnant.

Blaming his demise on "leaking" by his political foes, Mr Joyce said the harassment allegations were untrue and he was resigning because his wife Natalie, his four daughters and his new partner, Vikki Campion - and the government - all needed a "circuit-breaker".

"It's incredibly important that there be a circuit-breaker, not just for the parliament, but more importantly, a circuit-breaker for Vikki, for my unborn child, my daughters and for (wife) Nat," he told reporters. "This has got to stop. It's not fair on them."

Mr Joyce (50) is the leader of the National party, the rural-based member of the ruling coalition, and has been a popular and outspoken champion of rural causes.

But his career began to unravel earlier this month when a Sydney tabloid revealed that his former media adviser, Ms Campion (33), was pregnant and due to have a baby in April.

Mr Joyce, a devout Catholic who opposed legalising same-sex marriage, has since faced a barrage of stories about his personal affairs, including allegations he misused travel expenses to be with Ms Campion.

He received little support from Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister, who described his conduct as "appalling" and announced a new ban on ministers having sex with staff. Mr Joyce responded by describing the prime minister as "inept".

However, Mr Turnbull, who leads the Liberal party, was powerless to remove Mr Joyce as leader of the Nationals.

In recent days, Mr Joyce's party colleagues began to publicly withdraw support, culminating in the party's president admitting that a woman had made a sexual harassment complaint against Mr Joyce.

Insisting any such complaint should be referred to police, Mr Joyce said: "The leaking, the backgrounding, it will destroy not only our government, it will destroy any government."

Mr Joyce says he will remain in parliament.

( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Donald Trump has said the GOP memo 'vindicates' him in the ongoing Russia investigation (Evan Vucci/AP)

The US House intelligence committee has published a redacted version of a declassified memo which aims to counter allegations by the Republicans the FBI abused government surveillance powers in its investigation into Russian election interference.

The Democratic memos release on Saturday was the latest development in an extraordinary back and forth between Republicans and Democrats about the credibility of not only the multiple inquiries into links between the Trump campaign and Russia, but also about the credibility of the nations top law enforcement agencies.

The Democratic document attempts to undercut and add context to some of the main points from the Republican memo, including their assertion that the FBI obtained the surveillance warrant without disclosing that former British spy Christopher Steeles anti-Trump research was funded by Democrat Hillary Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic memo contends that the Justice Department disclosed the assessed political motivation of those who hired him and that Mr Steele was likely hired by someone looking for information that could be used to discredit then-candidate Trumps campaign.

Republicans say that is not enough, since the Clinton and the DNC were not named. President Donald Trump himself seized on this point in a tweet on Saturday evening: Dem Memo: FBI did not disclose who the clients were  the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!

The White House had objected to the Democratic memos release, citing national security concerns on February 9. That sent the Democrats back to negotiations with the FBI, which approved a redacted version. It was then declassified and released.

Mr Trump had no such concerns about an earlier classified memo written by Republicans, which he declassified in full on February 2 over strong objections from the FBI.

In that memo, Republicans took aim at the FBI and the Justice Department over the use of information compiled by Mr Steele in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor the communications of a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

The Democratic memo asserts that the FBIs concerns about Mr Page long predate the Steele dossier, and that its application to monitor his communications details suspicious activities he undertook during the 2016 presidential campaign.

That includes a July 2016 trip to Moscow in which he gave a university commencement address.

The memo also contends that the Justice Department provided additional information from multiple independent sources that corroborated Mr Steeles reporting in the dossier.

Most of the details of the corroborated information are redacted but they do appear to reference Mr Pages meeting with Russian officials. The memo says that the Justice Department didnt include any salacious allegations about Mr Trump contained in the compilation of memos drafted by Mr Steele, now known as the Trump-Russia dossier.

The memo also details Russian attempts to cultivate Mr Page as a spy. It cites a federal indictment of two Russian spies who allegedly targeted Mr Page for recruitment and notes that the FBI interviewed him based on those suspicions in March 2016.

The Democrats say the FBI made made only narrow use of Steeles sources in the warrant in the secret court that operates under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

Republicans say that is still too much.

Again, the fact the minority cannot outright deny that a DNC/Clinton funded document was used to wiretap an American is extremely concerning, the Republican National Committee said in a statement.

Mr Trump has said the GOP memo vindicates him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

But congressional Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who helped draft the GOP memo, have said it should not be used to undermine the special counsel.Syrian government warplanes have carried out a sixth day of air strikes in rebel-held suburbs east of Damascus, killing 32 people, activists said, as the death toll from a week of bombardment soared over 400.

At the United Nations, a vote on a Security Council resolution demanding a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire across Syria was delayed until Saturday to try to close a gap over the timing of a halt to fighting.

The new bombings came a day after Syrian army helicopters dropped leaflets over the rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ghouta, urging residents of those suburbs to leave for their own safety and calling on opposition fighters to surrender because they were surrounded by government troops.

Opposition activists reported air strikes and artillery shelling on a string of towns on the edge of Damascus or eastern Ghouta.

At least 32 people were killed in raids on areas including Hammouriyeh, Zamalka, Douma and al-Marj, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war through a network of activists in Syria.

"I am deeply saddened by the terrible suffering of the civilian population in eastern Ghouta: 400,000 people who live in hell on earth."



-- @antonioguterres on the situation in Syria. https://t.co/aMQXUlAQ8V pic.twitter.com/0fjHShLDkQ  United Nations (@UN) February 21, 2018

The Ghouta Media Centre, an activist collective, also reported 32 killed, saying the victims included 13 people in the Damascus suburb of Douma, five in Ein Tarma and five in Shiefouniyeh.

Syrian state TV reported that insurgents fired 70 shells on Damascus, killing one person and wounding 60 others.

It said one of the shells hit a hospital, damaging its intensive care unit as well as cars parked nearby.

The oppositions Syrian Civil Defence rescue group reported new air strikes in Douma, Arbeen and other towns east of Damascus.

At the White House, US President Donald Trump blamed Russia, Iran and the Syrian government for the recent violence in Syria, calling it a humanitarian disgrace.

Expand Close President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the East Room of the White House (Carolyn Kaster/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the East Room of the White House (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

His comments came at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura called again for an urgent ceasefire to relieve the appalling suffering of civilians in eastern Ghouta by stopping the bombing there and the indiscriminate shelling of Damascus.

He said the cease-fire must be followed by an immediate, unhindered humanitarian access to eastern Ghouta and evacuation of sick and injured.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also had urged an immediate suspension of all war activities in eastern Ghouta, saying 400,000 people are living in hell on Earth.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said unhindered humanitarian access and the protection of civilians is a moral duty and a matter of urgency.

The UN draft resolution demands that as soon as the ceasefire takes effect, all parties should allow humanitarian convoys and medical evacuations in areas requested by the UN.

It states that 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities are in acute need, including 2.9 million in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

The Syrian government and its Russian allies want to continue attacking extremists from the Islamic State group and all al Qaida affiliates.

Expand Close Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, left, speaks to Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu before a Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria (Mary Altaffer/AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia, left, speaks to Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu before a Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria (Mary Altaffer/AP)

Russias UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has called an immediate ceasefire unrealistic and proposed an amendment to delay it.

But the Russian amendment was rejected by Sweden and Kuwait, sponsors of the proposed Security Council resolution that demands a 30-day ceasefire to start 72 hours after the measures adoption.

Kuwaits UN Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaiba, the current council president, and Swedens UN Ambassador Olof Skoog told reporters on Friday evening after six hours of negotiations that members were very close to agreement on a text  but there was still a gap.

We all agree there needs to be a ceasefire and it has to be urgent, immediately, Mr Skoog told reporters. There are still some discussions on exactly how to define that. So thats what were working on.

Mr Skoog said he was extremely frustrated that the council was unable to adopt the resolution on Thursday or Friday because the situation on the ground is dire.

Mr Al-Otaiba said the council will meet on Saturday at noon EST (1700 GMT) and there will be a vote.

The draft resolution demands that as soon as the ceasefire takes effect, all parties should allow humanitarian convoys and medical evacuations in areas requested by the UN. It states that 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities are in acute need, including 2.9 million in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

APFrench customs officers making a random check on a bus at a motorway lay-by found a painting by Edgar Degas, the 19th-century impressionist master, that was stolen just over eight years ago from a museum in Marseille.

Les Choristes (1877) was found in a suitcase in the vehicle's luggage compartment during a stopover in Marne-la-Vallee to the east of Paris. Its value is estimated at 800,000.

But when the officers asked passengers who the case belonged to, they were met with a stony silence, the culture ministry said in a statement.

"Its disappearance represented a heavy loss to the French impressionist heritage," said Francoise Nyssen, the culture minister, who said she was delighted at "the happy rediscovery of a precious work".

The colourful pastel (right), measuring 13in by 10in, was on loan to the Musee Cantin in Marseille from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris for an exhibition featuring some 20 works by Degas when it was stolen in 2009.

When the customs officers opened the suitcase on Friday of last week, they were surprised to find a work of art bearing the signature "Degas".

They handed it over to art experts who said preliminary examinations showed it was the Degas painting that depicts a line of men singing in a scene from Don Juan, the opera.

The inquiry into how it came to be on the bus has been handed over to OCBC, the French agency that investigates art theft.

Les Choristes went missing on the night of December 31, 2009, from the museum in the southern port city. There were no signs of a break-in, leading police to believe it was an inside job or that a museum visitor had hidden and waited until the venue was shut before unscrewing the work from the wall.

Maurice Di Nocera, the city councillor responsible for organising major events in Marseille at the time, called the theft "a disaster for the museum".

( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Shocking CCTV footage has been released showing a drunk man narrowly miss being hit by a train.

Derek Acton (44) was filmed stumbling on the platform at Harlow Mill station in Essex before climbing down onto the tracks.

He then lay between the tracks moments before a Greater Anglia train passes through the station and over him.

Paramedics and police were dispatched to the scene but Acton, of Pinner Road, Harrow, north-west London, was unharmed.

His actions cost Network Rail an estimated 13,000 in delay compensation.

Acton was convicted of railway obstruction at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, British Transport Police said.

He was sentenced on Monday to a 12-month community order, a 60-day alcohol abstinence requirement and fined 570.

Inspector Steve Webster of BTP said: Quite frankly, Acton is lucky to be alive.

In his intoxicated state, he climbed down onto the tracks and lay in the path of a fast approaching train. His actions were baffling.

"I hope Acton sticks to his community order and the alcohol abstinence requirement.

"Hopefully he will steer clear of the tracks and avoid being involved in another near miss.

"The railway is an extremely dangerous place to trespass."Nestled on the Damascus hinterland, Ghouta - a patchwork of small towns and farms - was formerly known as the Syrian capital's breadbasket, providing Damascenes with cereals and other produce grown on land fed by centuries-old canals.

The area known as Eastern Ghouta was once a place of plenty, but in recent years it has become a place of suffering and fear, besieged by forces loyal to the Assad regime and subjected to multiple chemical attacks, most notoriously the 2013 sarin attack that killed hundreds. Last year the opposition enclave was declared a "de-escalation zone" in a deal forged between Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Some 400,000 people continued to cower there, 700 of whom perished in recent months. This week Ghouta once again became a place of horror, so much that Unicef issued a blank statement, saying it could not find the words to convey what was happening to those who call it home.

A new barrage by the Assad regime on Ghouta killed more than 400 people within a week - according to activists - with two dozen lives claimed on Wednesday alone. Residents say barrel bombs dropped from the air - a favoured weapon of the Assad regime since the uprising against it began - are being used and, according to reports, seven hospitals have been hit since the beginning of the week.

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Many of the images emerging from Ghouta this week are as familiar as they are disturbing: the bloodied corpses of children pulled from pulverised buildings, or others barely alive but dazed and covered with dust, the terror in their eyes an admonishment to all the failed efforts to bring an end to Syria's war as it now approaches its eighth year. The pictures are familiar because we have seen similar from the other Syrian cities and towns bombed by their own government over the lengthy course of a bloody and increasingly tangled conflict.

In New York, Moscow - the key ally whose bomber jets helped Assad turn the course of the war in his favour - tried to scuttle attempts to agree a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire. In chilling remarks to Reuters, a commander from the Assad regime side declared: "The offensive has not started yet. This is preliminary bombing."

Diplomats suspected Russia's stalling at the Security Council - and not for the first time when it comes to the Syrian morass - was to ensure Damascus enough time to land a definitive blow against opposition forces in Ghouta. Moscow has not only vetoed 10 previous UN resolutions on Syria, it has also done all it can to protect Assad from the prospect of war crimes investigations. Late last year Russia used its veto to block a resumption of UN probes into the use of chemical weapons by regime forces.

This week's draft UN resolution called for a nationwide truce to go into effect 72 hours after it is approved, followed by medical evacuations and aid deliveries within a further 48 hours. According to the draft, 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities across Syria are in acute need of help. But getting humanitarian access to Eastern Ghouta - described by UN secretary general Antonio Guterres this week as "hell on earth" - was the priority.

France's ambassador to the UN declared the UN's credibility was on the line. "The Syrian tragedy must not also become a graveyard for the United Nations," he said. Calling for the truce, the UN's envoy for Syria said it was needed not only to stop one of the worst aerial offensives of the entire war but also to prevent a "massacre" in Eastern Ghouta.

Russia pushed back against the draft because it took issue with the ceasefire terms, arguing that it was not enough to exclude Isil or the Nusra Front, a group previously affiliated with al-Qa'ida, but that it should also exclude other rebel forces Moscow accuses of collaborating with them, and which have shelled Damascus. Syrian state media reported this week that shelling in one government-controlled neighbourhood of the capital resulted in the death of one child and the injuring of six other civilians.

At a Security Council session on Thursday - the day before the draft resolution was put to a vote - members heard from Mark Lowcock, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, who said: "You're all as member states aware that your obligations under international humanitarian law are just that. They are binding. They are not favours to be traded in a game of death," he said, adding that "counter-terrorist efforts cannot supersede the obligation to respect and protect civilians. They do not justify the killings of civilians and the destruction of entire cities and neighbourhoods". Ordinary Syrians could be forgiven for thinking they have heard it all before. Because they have.Most Americans now approve of Donald Trump's performance as president, a poll has suggested.

Some 50pc approve while 49pc do not, the Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll shows.

At the same stage of his presidency, Rasmussen gave Barack Obama a 45pc approval rating. It is the first time Mr Trump has hit 50pc in the survey of 500 probable voters, since June.

Other polls earlier in the week had lower support for Mr Trump, with Reuters/Ipsos putting him at 40pc, and Quinnipiac at 37pc.

At yesterday's CPAC conference, Mr Trump abandoned his script.

Looking from the stage at an image of himself on a big screen, he said: "What a nice picture that is. Look at that. I'd love to watch that guy speak."

Mr Trump turned and put his hands on the hair at the back of his head and told the crowd: "Oh, I try like hell to hide that bald spot, folks. I work hard at it. It doesn't look bad. Hey, we are hanging in, we are hanging in. Together, we are hanging in."

The president added: "You don't mind if I go off script a little bit, because, you know it's sort of boring." In scenes reminiscent of his campaign rallies, Mr Trump referred to "crooked" Hillary Clinton, sparking chants of "lock her up" from the crowd.Mourners leave the funeral of Aaron Feis, one of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida, Photo: Reuters

My late father-in-law taught art at a Connecticut high school about 50km west of Sandy Hook. I thought of him when Donald Trump came up with his latest wheeze to stop kids getting slaughtered at their desks.

The idea of my father-in-law packing heat as he drove his Rambler Metropolitan to work every day borders on the surreal.

Of course, he could perhaps have kept a Colt in his desk along with class seating plans, pens, pencils and the odd paint brush.

Then one has to ask where he would have kept his bullet-proof vest.

Maybe he could have kept it in the staff room, before donning it as he went into the classroom.

I find myself asking what sort of training would he have been offered. Perhaps basic pistol training would have sufficed.

But that hardly would have been much use against an assault weapon. So would he have been taught how to wield an AR-15?

Of course, there are other questions. If teachers were supposed to provide their own guns, would the cost be tax deductible? School boards could have a line in their budgets for teachers' weapons, which would be handed out with the morning coffee.

Then there is the slight problem of the Trump scheme being illegal under federal law. The Gun-Free School Zones Act bans weapons within 1,000 feet of a school.

In France, the big debate is over whether schools are legally obliged to have canteens.

In America, it is whether teachers should be armed. That is worth reflecting upon. Such is the level of violence in America that one school in 10 believes it necessary to use a metal detector to screen people as they arrive.

The pupils and parents of Parkland have shamed the administration; they have shamed Congress; they have shamed local politicians. Even rudimentary measures, such as reimposing the lapsed 1994 assault weapon ban - officially, the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act - are beyond them. It survived 10 years before being allowed to expire.

In Florida, less than a week after the Parkland mass shooting, the state legislature voted down a bill which would have paved the way for a ban on future sales of assault weapons, while approving a measure declaring pornography a public health risk.

The bill would not have even made people hand in assault weapons if they already owned them. They would, however, have been expected to apply for a certificate of ownership.

Apparently, the 71 Florida legislators who voted down the bill all have an "A-rating" from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Good for them. The NRA spends a fortune in political donations.

According to one estimate, it expended $11m (9m) in direct contributions to federal politicians and many times that on ads attacking those who want to tighten gun laws.

The NRA is not an organisation which anybody wants to cross, as gunmakers Smith & Wesson discovered in 2000.

With lawyers threatening the gun industry with massive lawsuits, holding it responsible for the deaths its weapons caused, Smith & Wesson cut a deal with the Clinton administration. It agreed on a package of safety measures including the introduction of locking devices, limits on clip sizes and some restrictions on sales.

The NRA was furious, issuing a stream of press releases accusing the company - which it pointed out was "British owned" - of caving in.

It instigated a consumer boycott and the company tanked, with sales dropping by 40pc.

The boot may be on the other foot now. Citizens' groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America have taken out a two-page advert in the 'New York Times', naming and shaming every member of Congress who has been funded by the NRA - and setting out how much they received. Given the public anger which erupted following Parkland, an "A" rating from the NRA may not be good news in the mid-terms.

Let us hope so and perhaps classrooms will not be turned into the OK Corral, and teachers can concentrate on teaching rather than pretending to be John Wayne.Students opposing a neo-fascist party have scuffled with police in Milan at one of at least a dozen rallies being held across Italy on the last weekend for political action before the March 4 national election.

Thousands of police have been deployed at protests in Rome, Milan and other Italian cities, seeking to prevent clashes during an election campaign that has increasingly been marked by violence.

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One Rome march protested racism and neo-fascism, while another targeted the centre-left governments labour reforms. A third rally in Rome was opposing mandatory vaccines, which has become a campaign issue.

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Shops closed early amid fears of violence between far-left and far-right protesters in Palermo, Sicily, where days ago a neo-fascist leader was attacked in the street.Women in an impoverished state in India have been offered free cosmetic breast surgery because 'beauty treatments should be available to the poor'.

The surgery will be offered free to all women in India's Tamil Nadu state with priority given to the poorest.

"Why should beauty treatment not be available to the poor?" C Vijaya Baskar, the state health minister said, the Guardian reported.

"If we don't offer [the procedure for free], they may opt for dangerous methods or take huge loans for it."

Previously officials in the state have set up free food canteens and doled out wedding rings and venues to the regions poorer people.

The surgeries will take place at a Government run hospitals on Mondays while cleft lip surgeries and other surgeries will also be free under the scheme and will be carried out on different days of the week.Texas, Feb 24 (IBNS): Focusing science education on students through genetic and genealogical studies may be the way to increase minorities in the pipeline and engage students who would otherwise deem science too hard or too uninteresting, according to a Penn State anthropologist.

"Henry Louis Gates (Jr.) and I talked about using personalized genetics and genealogy in classrooms as a way to help get kids to understand their heritage and be proud," said Nina Jablonski, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Penn State. "And especially for African-American kids to connect with their heritage. Then also, equally, as a way to create interest in science."

Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He has also produced a variety of documentary films and is currently host and expert on the Public Broadcasting System's "Finding Your Roots," which is in its fourth season.

A working group of about 30 people explored the various approaches to this goal. Eventually, the group was whittled down to only a few and an informal approach centered on the "study of me" developed.

"What we wanted to see was if the genetic 'study of me' influences the feelings about science and aspirations about wanting to be a scientist," said Jablonski. "Does it impact understanding?"

The researchers felt it was critical to work with middle school children because that is when children are figuring out who they are and what they are going to do in life. They wanted to influence the middle schoolers before they got to high school to see if this intervention approach was effective. The program and curriculum they developed were for a two-week summer camp which was eventually orchestrated by Penn State's Science U, an outreach program of the Eberly College of Science.

In the process, the group realized that this curriculum and approach would work just as well for high school and introductory undergraduate students. A program was also begun at Spelman College and Morehouse College to incorporate the material as a module in an introductory biology class.

The researchers involved in both projects will present the results of their work at a session, "Understanding Your Roots: STEM Diversity and an Evidence-Based Curriculum," organized by Jablonski today (Feb. 17) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas.

"We are trying to give students the impactful personal message that history is related to what they are studying," said Jablonski.

By focusing on genealogy and genetics, the curriculum ranges from DNA and inheritance to evolution and the origins of humanity.

"The students become more literate in science, but they also see themselves as part of the genealogy of humanity, that is, ultimately all people united," said Jablonski.

During the summer camp, African-American students were often able to trace their ancestry back to their ancestors' original entry into the new world. This was possible through family oral histories that still exist. Some students of European descent had more trouble getting that far back in their ancestry.

The summer camp includes two days of independent study where kids were able to choose the direction of their studies. Projects ranged from bacteria, to further DNA studies, to genealogical trees of anime characters complete with inherited traits.

"We took the risk to empower these kids," said Jablonski. "The risk paid off in the creative thinking they showed."

Also part of the symposium are Aditi Pai, associate professor of biology, Spelman College; C. Brandon Ogbunu, assistant professor of biology, Brown University; and Elizabeth Wright, postdoctoral fellow in anthropology, Penn State.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Science Foundation supported these projects.New Delhi, Feb 24 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the Economic Times Global Business Summit in New Delhi, on the theme: New Economy  New Rules.

Noting that the Union Government is going to complete four years of assuming office in a few months, he said that a definite change is now visible.

He said this change in the economic and social content, represents the essence of the New Rules for the New India and the New Economy.

The Prime Minister said that within the last four years, the discourse has changed from India being a Fragile Five economy, to the target of India becoming a Five Trillion Dollar economy. The Prime Minister presented facts and figures to indicate how India is playing a key role in the entire worlds growth.

He said that in nominal terms, Indias share of the world GDP has risen from 2.4% in 2013, to 3.1% in 2017. He said India is performing better on various macro-economic parameters.

The Prime Minister said that this change has come about due to a new approach and a new work culture.



He said Indias competitiveness is being validated by the entire world today.

Narendra Modi recalled that when he had last attended this Global Business Summit, GST was still, just a possibility.



Today, he added, it is a reality, which has delivered a better tax compliance system and a better revenue system.

The Prime Minister mentioned other reforms such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The Prime Minister said that speed, scale and sensitivity are important to ensure the success of the Governments initiatives.

He gave some examples of the increase in pace in the infrastructure sector.

The Prime Minister said that there is unprecedented investment being made today in infrastructure, agriculture, technology, health sector, and education sector.

The Prime Minister mentioned the initiatives taken in the health sector, such as Mission Indradhanush, Jan Aushadhi Stores, and the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

Talking about the Digital India Mission, the Prime Minister said that the trinity of 100 crore bank accounts, 100 crore Aadhaar cards and 100 crore mobile phones, would create a unique ecosystem, not seen anywhere else in the world.

He also spoke of initiatives taken for the MSME sector.

The Prime Minister recalled that in his last address at the Economic Times Global Business Summit, he had spoken of Housing for All,Power for All, Clean Cooking for All, Health for All,and Insurance for All.

He outlined the steps that have been taken in this regard in house construction, Saubhagya Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, and insurance.



Saying that the Governments initiatives are aimed at empowering the poor, the Prime Minister also mentioned the construction of toilets, distribution of loans through the Mudra Yojana, and distribution of soil health cards.

The Prime Minister mentioned the announcement in the recent Union Budget, on MSP.

The Prime Minister appealed that those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring rules and ethics in various financial institutions, should work with full dedication  especially those who are responsible for supervising and monitoring.

He made it clear that the Government would take strict action against irregularities in financial matters. He said that the illegal accumulation of peoples money is unacceptable, and this is the basic mantra of New Economy  New Rules.

Image: Narendra Modi Twitter pagePatna, Feb 24 (IBNS): At least nine children were killed when a vehicle lost control and entered the school premises in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district on Saturday, media reports said.

The incident reportedly left 20 others injured.

The injured were rushed to Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) at Muzaffarpur, reported The Tribune.

The mishap occurred on National Highway-57 near Jhapaha

Muzaffarpur SSP Vivek Kumar told the newspaper: The injured children were taken to SKMCH and all assistance is being provided.

More details are awaited.He was addressing the CII Partnership Summit 2018, in Vishakhapattanam, Andhra Pradesh on Saturday.

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, the Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

The Vice President said asked investors to look into the tremendous potential for investments.

He further said that value addition can be made in agriculture and allied sectors like dairying, fisheries, poultry, food processing, setting up of cold storage facilities and refrigerated vans.

Adding value to the farm produce is crucial for increasing farmers income and establishing agri-related industries in the rural areas will not only provide employment but also help in minimizing migration to cities, he added.



The Vice President said that Vital structural reforms like the implementation of demonetization and GST by the Indian government have led to an expansion of the formal economy and brought about increased tax compliance. The number of people, who had filed Income Tax returns increased from 6.47 crore in 2014-15 to 8.27 crore at the end of 2016-17, he added.



The Vice President said that Indian companies need to identify segments of global value chains with higher value addition and low entry barriers in global markets to achieve higher exports in the short term.

He further said that connecting to global value chains is critical for Indian MSMEs. Access to technology and internet can be a major factor to allow SMEs to integrate with the global market and e-trade allows SMES to reach out to new export avenues and access to low-cost imported inputs, he added.

The Vice President welcomed the delegates to the Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh, which is among the top States in the Ease of Doing Business.

He further said that this State is endowed with a rich vast mineral resources, long coastline, talented human resources and most importantly uninterrupted power supply. It is endowed with rich natural resources & mineral wealth and boasts of the second longest coastline of 974 kms in the country next to Gujarat and it has 1000km of National Highways, 3 International airports and 5 operational airports, he added.



Following is the text of Vice President's address:



"We have gathered here at a time when India has emerged as one of the growing large economies in the world and the global outlook also looks brighter.



As per the IMF World Economic Outlook of January 2018, the Indian economy is projected to grow at 7.2 per cent in 2017 and 7.7% in 2018.



India is expected to become the third largest economy in the next 10-15 years and grow from $2.3 trillion today to about $8 trillion, with an average income of over $5,000.

As you all are aware, the world economy has undergone tremendous structural shifts due to rising influence and role of the emerging economies across the globe. This has led to a shift of balance of powers between the global north and the global south. This is perhaps the most significant geo-political development of the recent times.



The emerging economies including countries like India, China and Brazil have evolved from being policy takers to policy makers and are playing a significant role in multilateral world bodies.



Vital structural reforms like the implementation of demonetization and GST by the Indian government have led to an expansion of the formal economy and brought about increased tax compliance. The number of people, who had filed Income Tax returns increased from 6.47 crore in 2014-15 to 8.27 crore at the end of 2016-17.



Any tough reform will face teething problems in the initial stages and the same was the case with both demonetization and GST. However, the long-term advantages will definitely outweigh the short-term hiccups which caused a bit of economic slowdown. Well, that period is over now and the economy is on the track to achieve a higher growth.



As a result of strong macro-economic fundamentals and reforms, the Indian economy has been improving steadily. For instance, the Current Account Deficit (CAD), which ranged between 6.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent in the past, is now in the range of 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent. Similarly, the Fiscal Deficit hovered between 5.9 per cent and 4.5 per cent earlier. Now, it has been brought down to 3.5 per cent. It could have been reduced to 3.2 per cent, but for shortfall of GST revenue by a month.



The major reforms include harmonization of indirect taxes through GST, easing the regulatory environment, facilitating foreign direct investment across all sectors, massive recapitalization of the public sector banks at Rs.2.11 lakh crore to improve credit growth and investment and the implementation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.



Various reformatory measures have improved Indias ranking in the World Banks Ease of Doing Business by 30 slotsfrom 130 to 100. Friends, today India has emerged as a bright spot in the global economy and investors from around the world are coming here because of a host of advantages the country offers.



The FDI inflows have increased steadily from US$ 45 billion in 2014-15 to touch US$ 60 billion in 2016-17. Indias exports have been recovering steadily over the last several months and grew at over 12 per cent in the first three quarters of 2017-18.



A key item on the reform agenda has been restructuring of the banking system to reduce the non-performing assets. The recently introduced Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is being used by the RBI to speed up recoveries. Privatization as also sale of public sector units is being undertaken in many areas where the enterprises have been consistently making losses.



Apart from implementing reforms, the governments both at the national level and in various States are implementing measures to ensure a conducive atmosphere for businesses to grow. However, every reform should have a human face. There should be equitable distribution of prosperity and the fruits of development must reach the poorest of the poor.



Another area that is receiving top attention is infrastructure growth. Airports, ports, railways, power plants, roads, bridges and hotels, among others, are in an expansion mode. It is estimated that an investment of Rs 43 trillion is required over the next five years in sectors such as power, roads, ports and urban transportation.



India is a young nation with about 60 per cent of the population under the age of 35 years. Various initiatives like Skill India, Start-up India and Digital India have been launched to convert this huge, educated human resource talent into a demographic dividend.



India has become the third largest start up eco-system in the world. According to a NASSCOM report, about 1,000 start-ups were added in 2017 taking their number to nearly 5,200. Interestingly a chunk of these start-ups are from Tier-II and Tier-III cities.



With growing middle class, rising disposable incomes, expanding consumer market and the presence of a young, talented work force, the MNCs and other global giants are apparently looking to India. There is also a healthy competition among various State Governments, which are implementing reforms to attract investors.



Friends, another important area that needs the attention of both the government and investors is agriculture. Over 58 per cent of the rural households are dependent on agriculture in India, which is endowed with a vast agro-ecological diversity. There is tremendous potential for investments and value addition in agriculture and allied sectors like dairying, fisheries, poultry, food processing, setting up of cold storage facilities and refrigerated vans. As you all are aware, adding value to the farm produce is crucial for increasing farmers income. In view of the important role played by the food processing sector, the government has doubled the allocation to Rs.1,400 crore in this years budget. Establishing agri-related industries in the rural areas will not only provide employment but also help in minimizing migration to cities.



On the external front, the global economy is showing signs of pick-up after a prolonged phase of economic slowdown. According to recent OECD report, global GDP is projected to show a modest rise to 3.5 % in 2017 and 3.7% in 2018 from 3.2% in 2016. Yet the projected rates for global growth are much below pre-crisis averages, especially for the advanced economies as well as commodity exporting countries. This could bring attendant repercussions which might undermine the nascent signs of growth revival.

Already there are calls for protectionism from the advanced economies which, when implemented, could mean restrictive policies for cross-border trade and investment flows.



Although, India has a lot of trading agreements, both regional and bilateral, the country is yet to fully capitalize on the existing synergies in its Regional Trading Agreements. An example is the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) as South Asian region is the least integrated among all the regions in the world. The regional value chain (RVC) approach could be an appropriate model to foster intra-regional trade by deepening regional processes.



I feel the Indian companies need to identify segments of global value chains with higher value addition and low entry barriers in global markets to achieve higher exports in the short term.



In addition, connecting to global value chains (GVCs) is critical for Indian MSMEs. Access to technology and internet can be a major factor to allow SMEs to integrate with the global market. E-trade allows SMES to reach out to new export avenues and access to low-cost imported inputs.



Finally, I would like to welcome all of you to the Sunrise State of Andhra Pradesh, which is among the top States in the Ease of Doing Business. This State is endowed with a rich vast mineral resources, long coastline, talented human resources and most importantly uninterrupted power supply. Opportunities are aplenty for investors in different sectors, including pharmaceuticals, textiles, food processing, automobiles and electronics among others.

Andhra Pradesh, Indias Sunrise State, is a gateway to growing markets and promising opportunities with many advantages. One among the top states in the Ease of Doing Business.



It is endowed with rich natural resources & mineral wealth and boasts of the second longest coastline of 974 kms in the country next to Gujarat. It has 1000km of National Highways, 3 International airports and 5 operational airports. It has first river linking project. It has two industrial corridors. Its fast becoming a Pharam & Auto hub. Its becoming a Solar power house with 1000MW installed and 1000 MW coming up.



India poised to be a $10tn eco by 2030, which is four times bigger than its current size, by 2030.



To achieve this country may have to adopt several unorthodox measures. For instance, with around 120 million people set to join the Indian workforce, skilling them in a short span of time is essential, You cannot do that with conventional education, time frames of educating or imparting skill to people should be shortened said Barton.



My best wishes for the success of all your endeavors to partner in Indias growth story. Thank you.



JAI HIND!"Gothangaon, Maharashtra, Feb 24 (IBNS): A team from UN Environment (UNEP), led by its Executive Director Erik Solheim and Country Head (India) Atul Bagai, accompanied Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) Executive Director & CEO Vivek Menon to Gothangaon, a village near Maharashtras Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday afternoon.



WTI Brand Ambassador and UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador Dia Mirza was also present at the village, where the local community is developing a conservancy.

The UNEP team was shown WTIs Improved Cook Stove (ICS) initiative, under which several thousand energy-efficient cook stoves have been introduced in village households near the critical Nagzira-Nawegaon-Tadoba tiger corridor in the Eastern Vidarbha Tiger Landscape.

The modified cook stoves serve a dual purpose: reduced emissions, improving air quality and the health of community women, and reduced fuelwood consumption, which mitigates the anthropogenic stress on nearby forests. WTI has partnered with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund (JTEF), the KFW Group, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Maharashtra Forest Department in this endeavour, which forms part of its larger Vidarbha Tiger Project.

Having minutely examined the functioning of an ICS unit against that of a traditional cook stove, UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim lauded the WTI team for the initiative, which he said would serve as a bridge between the heavily polluting and less energy efficient cooking methods of the past and the highly energy efficient cooking mediums of the future.

This is a really important intervention given that we are so keen to improve our air quality as well as the health of our rural women, said Dia Mirza, who took a hands-on approach by preparing a chapati on an ICS unit; It allows these women to cook as they always have, yet with less fuelwood taken from the forests and without the problems associated with smoke inhalation.



Over 2.5 lakh rural women suffer from respiratory diseases associated with smoke emitted from traditional cooking methods, said UNEPs India Country Head Atul Bagai, adding that when the team had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi he had asked UNEP to provide technological inputs on cheaper alternatives based on renewable energy.

The visitors were given chapatis along with mahua pickle prepared by women Self Help Group members of Rampuri and Garada villages, which lie near the Nagzira-Nawegaon-Tadoba corridor. Other dignitaries present on the occasion included the Umred MLA Sudhir Parwe; the Conservator of Forests and Field Director of Pench Tiger Reserve R Govekar; the Founding Editor of Sanctuary Asia Bittu Sahgal; WII Scientist Bilal Habib; Special Secretary to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Praveen Pardesi; Tehsildar of Kuhi Taluka, Nagpur District Vinita Lanzewar; and Nagpur Collector Sachin Kurwe.New York, Feb 24 (JEN): United Nations panel on human rights violations in South Sudan documents unspeakable cruelty against civilians, not just limited to widescale brutal massacres and sexual violence but extending to individuals trying to defend themselves or their families and had their eyes gouged out, their throats slit or were castrated.

A United Nations inquiry into allegations of human rights violations and abuses committed during the ongoing conflict in South Sudan has concluded that some of the violations may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Since conflict erupted in the worlds youngest nation in 2013, over four million people have been driven from their homes.

Holding those in charge in South Sudan accountable for the intentional suffering they inflict on their own people is crucial to stemming this humanitarian catastrophe, Andrew Clapham a member of Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said on Friday.

The Commission, established by the Human Rights Council in March 2016, has identified more than forty senior military officials who may bear individual responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country.

In addition to investigating allegations, the Commission is also mandated to collect and preserve evidence for use in the Hybrid Court and other accountability mechanisms agreed under the 2015 peace agreement.

Urging for the swift setting up of the court, Yasmin Sooka, the Chair of the Commission underscored ultimately this is the only way to stop the rampant devastation of millions of human lives by South Sudans leaders.

The public report, which reflects only a portion of the information in the 58,000 documents and 230 witness statements collected, documents abhorrent instances of cruelty against civilians, including massacres, sexual violence as well as destruction of homes, hospitals and schools.

People who tried to defend themselves or their families had their eyes gouged out, their throats slit or were castrated.

It also noted that children have been recruited by all sides in the conflict and forced to kill civilians; in many cases they have watched loved ones raped or killed. The elderly have not been spared either.

Unable to flee on foot they have been left behind in villages only to be hacked to death or burned alive, it adds.

The report is to be discussed by the Human Rights Council  the highest UN intergovernmental body on all matters related to human rights  next month.



OCHA/Jacob ZochermanNew York, Feb 24 (JEN): The United Nations on Friday took note of the recent decision by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, to resign, to allow further political reforms to take place in the country aimed at widening democratic space, and welcomed the Governments expressed intention to follow through with governance reforms.

Through his spokesperson, Guterres asserted that the Government of Ethiopia expressed its intention to continue implementing governance reforms and increasing participation in the political process.

The United Nations welcomes the steps so far undertaken in that direction, including the release of detainees, said UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric in a statement.

The statement added that the UN considers Ethiopia a valued partner in peace and security, development, humanitarian and human rights issues in the Horn of Africa and the African continent, and will continue to support the Government and its people in implementing reforms to enhance governance, stability and development.

The United Nations also takes note of the recent declaration of a state of emergency and stresses the importance of avoiding actions that would infringe on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of citizens, the peace, security and stability of the country, or impact on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, concluded statement.

UN Photo/Rick Bajornas



New York, Feb 24 (JEN): The United Nations and its partners met in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday to strengthen support for a group of five nations in Africas troubled Sahel region which are facing pressing challenges including extreme poverty, food and nutrition crises and violent extremism.

The International Conference on the Sahel brought together the UN, the European Commission, the African Union and the so-called Group of Five or G5 Sahel countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the meeting as a timely effort that demonstrates the international communitys support for the regions efforts to prevent violent extremism and fight terrorism and organized crime.



Together  the G5 Sahel countries, the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations  we can achieve peace, stability and prosperity in the region, he said in a video message played at the conference.



The UN chief also praised the G5 Sahel Joint Force, a joint military initiative by the five countries to respond to the many interlinked challenges confronting them.



It is also essential to reinforce the programmes envisaged under the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel, which provides an overarching framework aimed at strengthening governance, resilience and security, he added.

The troops will conduct cross-border counter-terrorist operations and donors at the conference have pledged $516 million for the force, according to media reports.



The head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, told the gathering that the global organization is in a good position to start supporting the force through its integrated operation in Mali, known by its French acronym, MINUSMA.



This assistance is in line with a UN Security Council resolution adopted in December which provides for operational and logistical support for the Sahel force.



The Sahel stretches between the Sahara to the north and the wider Sudan region to the south. According to the UNs humanitarian wing, across the region, over 30 million people face food insecurity, one in five children under the age of five suffers from acute malnutrition and at least 4.9 million are displaced by the effects of conflicts.



Naomi Frerotte



Kabul, Feb 24 (IBNS): At least three people were killed as a suicide blast rocked Shash Darak area of Afghanistan's Kabul city on Saturday, media reports said.

The blast left six others injured.

Nasrat Rahimi, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), told Pajhwok Afghan News two injured had been in serious condition. Initial reports showed the blast was carried out by the Haqqani Network.

The incident occurred near the National Directorate of Security (NDS) office.

It occurred at around 8.30 am.

Image: Wikimedia CommonsOttawa, Feb 24 (IBNS): Library and Archives Canada's (LAC) move to finally release a 98-year-old document on Ottawa's treatment of sick First Nations children has unveiled a part of Canada's history that has been hidden in the darkness of locked archives, media reports said.



Majority of old Indian Affairs health files, official reports said, were still locked away by LAC.

LAC's initial refusal to release the document was based on provisions of the Access to Information and Privacy Act that exempts files covered by solicitor-client privilege.

Edward Sadowskie had requested the release of the document to study the case of First Nation students who contacted tuberculosis and were sent for treatment, as part of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

When he failed to get the document released, he filed a complaint last October with the federal Office of the Information Commissioner which opened an investigation.

A little over a week after CBC News first reported on the case, Sadowski learnt from LAC that it had reconsidered the case and decided to release the document without restrictions.

"There are hundreds of documents in archives that should be opened but are not, that we need to look at to get a better impression of what went on," Laurie Meijer Drees, chair of the First Nations studies department at Vancouver Island University was reported to state.

Drees said LAC still keeps all records produced by the federal National Health and Welfare Department locked in their archives.

The department took over First Nation and Inuit health care from Indian Affairs in 1945.

Health records produced by Indian Affairs were only accessible, said Drees, through individual requests under the Access to Information Act.

"You can't actually research this topic as as researcher because it could take you 100 years to get them," she said.

Sadowski said the document revealed the steps Ottawa took to deal with tuberculosis outbreaks in First Nations communities, which were made worse by residential schools, while keeping costs down.

The document was from the time when Duncan Campbell Scott was deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs.

It was reportedly Scott who made amendments to the Indian Act that made it mandatory for First Nations children to attend residential schools.

Scott once stated that Indian Affairs' goal was to find a "final solution of our Indian problem."

An Indian Affairs letter of 1920 described the case of a young girl with tubercular spine and the case of a child with eye trouble who could not be properly treated in their home but whose parents refused to permit them to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

Sadowski said the Indian Act was amended by 1927, giving the department the powers it wanted.

A 1926 letter from the United Church to Scott revealed why parents didn't want their sick children taken away for treatment to places like Selkirk, Manitoba.

"The Indians seem to object to their children being sent to Selkirk, as they say they never see them again, because of the distance, and because most of them go there to die," said the letter signed by the United Church's general secretary Rev. J. H. Edmison.

Edmison was writing to Scott about the possible construction of an "isolation hospital" for children with tuberculosis near the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ontario.

A $1.1 billion class action lawsuit was reportedly launched last month by two law firms against Ottawa over abuse suffered by "Indian hospital" patients.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj, image of Library of Congress: FacebookOttawa, Feb 24 (IBNS): Consumption of Cannabis has more than doubled among Canadians who are 15 and older, a new Statistics Canada report said.

In the wake of Canada's Liberal government's plans to legalize cannabis later this year, the national statistics agency has been reportedly trying to compile a picture of marijuana use in Canada.

Reportedly Statistics Canada, for the first time, compared nine national household population surveys that touched on cannabis use starting in 1985 to get a sense of long-term trends.

It found cannabis use among Canadians aged 15 years and older went from 5.6 per cent in 1985 to 12.3 per cent in 2015.

But Wednesday's report shows that pot use over the last decade actually has remained stable or decreased among young people.

The report also found differing trends between young men and women.

Reportedly Cannabis use in boys 15 to 17 between 2004 and 2015 remained stable but showed a decreasing trend among women in the same age group.

"We do know from other studies pertaining to youth that factors such as fear of the consequences from parents or from the negative of cannabis itself could have impact on cannabis use for young people," Michelle Rotermann, senior analyst with Statistics Canada's health division was reported to state.

Pot use dipped for both men and women aged 18 to 24 during that same 11-year span, but increased among Canadians 25 and older.

"One of the things that's changing is respondents' attitudes toward cannabis use over time, as well as perhaps their willingness to declare drug use in a survey," said Rotermann.

The results are reportedly based on several national surveys, including the: Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey; Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey and 1985 Health Promotion Survey.

All these surveys reportedly used target populations that included youth and adults in every province and the questions asked were about past-year cannabis use.

The agency mentioned that although the nine surveys used could reportedly be combined to estimate the evolution of cannabis consumption but are not perfectly comparable as they were designed originally for different needs.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj, Image: Cannabis/Facebook page1. Minor Girl Who Was Kissed By Papon Defends The Singer, Explains The Incident In A Video

During the Holi episode, all parents and us, kids, had gone up to Papon sir...we were playing and having some fun when we went live on Facebook. So everyone saw he didnt do anything to me... he kissed me like he would kiss his own child. My mother and my father also kiss me lovingly so there is nothing wrong about it. Papon sir didnt do anything with the wrong intention."

2. After A Book On Sons Cancer, Emraan Hashmi Now Inaugurates India's 1st Cashless Cancer Hospital

Now, the man has inaugurated first ever open care cancer hospital that will treat cancer patients all across the nation for free. The initiative is a part of a newly launched NGO called New India by a Banglore-based couple. It was the couples dream to launch this NGO. The couple has invested Rs 200 crore.

3. UP Government Backs Rs 500-Crore Ramayana, MoU Signed To Shoot The Film In The State

Madhu Mantena, who has earlier produced films like Ghajini, is bankrolling the project. Besides him, the project is being backed by Allu Aravind and Namit Malhotra, the co-producers of Ramayana. As per the latest development, the producers have signed an MoU with the Uttar Pradesh government's cinema arm 'Film Bandhu'. The MoU was sealed at UP Investors Summit 2018, according to PTI.

..

Agar aap paise kamane ke liye theatre karna chahte hain, toh paise toh nahi hai, bhai, he told students of Shri Ram College of Commerce during a session organised by dramatics society of the college.

5. Heres How Actors Break Glasses & Bottles On Their Heads In Films Without Getting Hurt

Mostly, in films, candy glasses also known as sugar glasses or breakaway glasses are used. They are not made up of actual glass but they are made up of brittle transparent sugar. It looks like glass but has minimal chance of causing any injuries. It can be formed into a sheet of glass (for window pane) and also into a wine glass, bottle or any other object.A 30-year-old woman smothered two of her daughters  Nandini (6) and Akanksha (6 months)  at her house in Zakhira in west Delhis Moti Nagar. Police sent her to IBHAS, Shahdara on Thursday on the suspicion of mental illness and she will be arrested after getting treatment.

Her husband has alleged that she killed her daughter under the influence of black magic.

Police got a call about the incident on Tuesday morning. When a team reached there, the mother, Suman, started to shout at the cops to stop them from entering the house. When the bodies of the girls were taken to a hospital, doctors said that the deaths were unnatural.

bccl/representational image

Their bodies were shifted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital and handed over to the family members after autopsy.

Sumans behaviour was unpredictable throughout the investigations. She would seem shocked one moment and act chirpy the next as if nothing has happened. Cops waited and gave the family time to grieve before asking the woman to narrate how she had found her daughters lying dead on the floor. Finding discrepancies in her statement, she was soon found guilty of killing her daughters.

bccl/representational image

The father of the girls said that Suman had been acting strangely for the past fortnight. She had even started visiting a tantric and may have killed the girls under the influence of black magic. Her reaction to many situations had scared me as well. She had even slapped me several times, a cop quoted the man as saying.

The accused woman works as a domestic help, while her husband is a daily wage labourer. They have a third daughter, Arpita (3), who was sleeping next to her father when the other two were smothered. Police said when Sumans husband left for work that morning, he patted his daughters thinking they were sleeping little realising that they were dead.

bccl/representational image

The couple had rented the house 11 months ago, but rarely interacted with their neighbours. Speaking to TOI, the couples neighbours said that the family was very abnormal.

She would keep the children locked up inside the house and only allowed them to play twice or thrice a week, that too on the terrace. She would always keep a watch on the girls. No one had imagined that she would kill her daughters, said Mamta Devi, their landlords wife.

Another neighbour, Kamla, said that she had seen the family having dinner in the open space outside their house on Monday. Everything seemed normal till we got the shocking news of the death of the girls in the morning, she added.Na khaunga, na khaane dunga.

These golden words were said by BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who went on to secure a landslide win in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and eventually became the Prime Minister. Seems like the viral slogan is turning out to be at least half untrue.

Despite the tall claims made by the BJP government, India is finding it extremely hard to shake off the image of being a corrupt country.

India has a long way to go to fight corruption.

According to 2017 Transparency International report, India was ranked 81st on the perceived level of corruption in the public sectors of 180 countries. The country slipped two places from 2016.

Transparency International

Indias score remained unchanged from the previous year at 40, which is below the average score of 43. The annual study, which ranks countries between zero (highest level of corruption) and 100 (least corrupt), found India among the worst in the Asia-Pacific region.

Indias ranking has gone downhill in the year following the November 2016 note ban, touted as the move to choke corruption and the restraint the generation of black money or unaccounted cash.

In July 2017, the government introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) in a bid to expand the formal economy.

Transparency International also looked at the relationship between corruption levels and the freedom with which civic organisations are able to operate and influence public policy. The analysis, which incorporates data from the World Justice Project, shows that most countries that score low for civil liberties also tend to score high for corruption.

Grippingly, the study found that countries with the least press freedom tend to be the most corrupt.

Representational Image

When individuals dare to challenge the status quo, they suffer the consequencesThe Philippines, India and Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths. In the last six years, 15 journalists working on corruption stories in these countries were murdered, it said.

In India, at least six journalists were killed between 2016 and 2017, according to data provided by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit organisation working on press freedom issues.

China, which is permanently under threat from authorities, ranks at the 77th place with a score of 41. India fares worse than this.

Governments and businesses must do more to encourage free speech, independent media, political dissent and an open and engaged civil society.Kudumbashree, arguably the most successful women's empowerment program undertaken in India so far, has taken another step in making success story even sweeter.

Kudumbashree has launched it own e-commerce site to sell products manufactured by various women's'self-help groups across the state. Launched earlier this week, kudumbashreebazaar.com aims to bring quality products to the Kudumbashree under one umbrella.

Customers can purchase ethnic products of Kudumbashree from anywhere in the state. So far Kudumbashree products have a limited commercial platform in the regional stores and expos.

Kudumbashree

The organization has also signed a MoU with India Post to deliver goods to customers doorsteps. Launched in 1998, Kudumbashree was a part of Kerala's State Poverty Eradication Mission and it focused on women-centric activities to improve their standard of living and income.

Activities of Kudumbashree began with small women neighbourhood groups, which were given basic vocational training in a varied number of fields ranging from food processing to computer skills and even coconut plucking.

Kudumbashree

Over the years, Kudumbashree has played a vital role in improving the economic self-reliance of the rural women and making them equal stakeholders in running the household.

The small neighbourhood groups slowly began making their mark felt in the market with their own brand of products backed by Kudumbashree.

Kudumbashree

The product range varied from popular everyday items like soaps, detergents, foods products, coconut oil, pickles, sweets, umbrellas etc.

With its goodwill and quality, over the years, Kudumbashree managed to find its own foothold in the highly competitive market with these products. Now the women's empowerment revolution hailed by the world is going online, adding another chapter of success in its story.At her age, most of her friends will be still in school, struggling with their lessons, but not Harshita Arora, she is busy in the world of cryptocurrencies. The 16-year-old girl from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh dropped out of school, at the age of 14, because she was "not cut out for common courses".

Today, Harshita is a successful app developer, the brain behind Crypto Price Tracker, one of the most popular paid apps on Apples App Store since its launch less than a month ago.

The app tracks and updates users about rate changes in more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies in 32 nations.

According to the developer's website, users can create time-based alerts to get prices of a coin and create price threshold-based alerts on the app.

The app which costs $0.99 has seen more than 1,400 downloads in less than one month since it was launched on January 28. The teenage protege told The Times of India that she was introduced to cryptocurrencies in 2016, and soon began bitcoin mining.

Harshita, the daughter of a local financier father and a homemaker mother, who was already introduced to app development, began creating an app her own.

Ever since I was 13 and was introduced to designing concepts, I began reading IT magazines and the latest developments in the field. I learned about cryptocurrency and how it worked. Then I interacted with my internet friends and real investors in the currency to understand what they wanted in an app," Harshita told The Times of India.

While her app was widely welcomed, Harshita recently became the victim of an online threat campaign, on reddit, by users who were not ready to believe that the app was developed by a 16-year-old self-taught girl.

They went on to accuse her of plagiarizing the app and some even issuing death threats.

The negative campaign has had little effect on the determined girl, who has envisioned what she wants to be.

Harshita now has plans to move to America to broaden her horizons.

"In June I will move to the US and eventually establish myself as an entrepreneur launching startups. Currently, I am working on a new app, Snap Food. It will aim at providing exhaustive information on a particular food item, she said.Primary School teachers in Uttar Pradesh have threatened to move the High Court against a question in class XII Board Exam English second paper, which they claim is insulting them.

The five-mark question asked students to write a letter to the district magistrate drawing his attention on the laxity of primary teacher's in performing their duties. The students were also instructed not to write their actual name and address anywhere in the letter.

The paper was held on February 21 and the issue came to light on Friday after the question paper went viral on social media.

"This is a deliberate move to defame primary teachers. Such kind of question raises question on the paper setter's mentality," Demanding immediate action on the paper setter, Vinay Singh, president, Primary Teachers, Trained Undergraduate Association told The Times of India.

AFP

The UP Secondary Education Board, however, played down the incident calling it unfortunate.

"I will find out how this type of question was set by experts and then passed by moderators. An action would be taken after that. We have no intention to degrade or discourage anyone," Neena Srivastava, Secretary, UPSEB told The Times of India.While browsing the internet, we often stumble upon some really interesting tech jargons such as Virtual Reality or VR and Augmented Reality or AR, and while many might not be really interested to dive deep into the confusing world of tech, you keep on coming across these terminologies and you do get inquisitive to know what it really means.

And although they sound similar, they are two entirely different things.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is the creation of a digital, virtual space to interact with using a VR headset and a computer. Basically, Virtual Reality replaces your existing reality and takes you to a digital world, using the VR headset.

The headset completely disconnects you from the outside world and lets you interact with the digital world within. You cannot see anything from the outside world while wearing the headset. The headset consists of two tiny displays with lenses, which generate a 3D image within. So when you actually wear it, it gives you the feeling of actually being present in the virtual world with realistic three-dimensional elements. The headset also comes with a bunch of sensors which track your head movement and simultaneously change the image within, creating an illusion of a digital world.

This digital world could be anything! It could take you to New York while youre at your home in Mumbai, or take you to some planet in the solar system. Since it is digitally generated, the possibilities are endless.

Certain VR headsets come with dedicated controllers to interact with the elements in the digital world. Commonly used VR headsets include Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Google also has its VR headset called Google Daydream, which allows compatible smartphones to be placed into the headset for an immersive VR experience.

Today VR is used by game developers in the gaming industry to provide a larger-than-life gaming experience. Moreover, there are numerous movie makers are creating movies in VR to create an immersive movie experience. It is also being used for training pilots, doctors in performing certain kind of surgeries, as well as by the tourism industry to actually take the person to the location to experience its beauty. It is also being used by

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality, also known as Mixed Reality is the opposite of VR. Where in VR, the headset takes you to a virtual world, blocking you from the real world, Augmented Reality uses the real world and adds virtual or digital elements into it. AR also uses headsets but isnt bound to use one. You have apps that provide AR interaction through a smartphone.

Microsofts Hololens is a great example of an AR or Mixed Reality headset. Hololens has two holographic lenses in front of a huge glass viewfinder with cameras that allows the wearer to look at objects in the room, and the displays add the virtual overlays to interact with elements. The cameras help in tracking objects in the room and interacting with the digital elements accordingly.

AR is seen to have far more practical applications, most commonly seen in the sensational smartphone game Pokemon Go, where players would fight in a digital space, using the actual maps and locations.

Global lifestyle brand IKEA has an AR app on the iPhone that lets users try out furniture inside a home using the camera from the smartphone, giving buyers a good idea of the dimensions of the furniture.

Both AR and VR are working to make our lives simpler and fun, and although theyre in really early stages right now, the future looks promising!MIT has just released a list of what it believes are the 10 breakthrough technologies this year. This is tech thats going to change the world, either right now or sometime in the future. Some may still be starting out, while other may be figuring out how to tackle ethical dilemmas, but theyre all very much here to stay.

So here are the 10 things in science and technology that are going to change your life.

3D Metal Printing

3D printing has been around for a really long time, but its so far not been much used outside of art and niche tech uses. However, thats about to change thanks to the fact that its now become a lot cheaper and faster to 3D print metal in, even on a large scale. Some airline companies are even looking to print some of their titanium parts. Basically, once manufacturers fully adopt metal 3D printing, they wont need to maintain large inventories of gadget or machine parts. Instead of having to wait for a new part for your cars engine to be shipped from the warehouse, you could get a freshly printed piece directly from the manufacturer in a much shorter time period. This would work even for models out of production, seeing as all that would be needed is the blueprint for the replacement, even if the car itself isnt being manufactured anymore. Not to mention that 3D printing allows a much finer control in the manufacturing process, allowing for parts with more complex shapes that are still lighter and stronger.

Artificial Embryos

Embryologists working at the University of Cambridge in the UK have managed to grow realistic-looking mouse embryos using only stem cells, with no egg or sperm involved in the process. Of course, the team said the synthetic embryos may not have actually grown into mice, but its just a start. The breakthrough means we could soon see a day where animals are born without any egg. The teams next step is to build a synthetic embryo from human stem cells. It could let scientists study processes very early in development that would have previously been impossible. Of course there are the obvious ethical dilemmas to consider here. What if the fake embryos grow to exactly resemble the real ones? At what point do they start to feel pain? There are a lot of questions to answer as we make progress in this field.

Smart Cities

The idea for smart cities has been around for a while, and a number of projects have been put into motion, though most have fallen into delays. However, a new project in Toronto called Quayside is hoping to change that by building a smart urban project from the ground up. A project by Alphabets Sidewalk Labs, its a collaboration with the Canadian government set to transform Torontos industrial waterfront. Basically, a massive network of sensors around the area will inform every civic decision regarding design, policy etc based on data gathered on everything from air quality to noise levels to peoples activities. All vehicles will be shared and autonomous, robots will perform menial chores by travelling through underground levels, and Alphabet intends to open up the software so other developers can plug into the system and build their own apps or services.

Universal AI Access

Until now, AI has largely been the playground for megacorporations like Google, MIcrosoft, and IBM. However, a few of those names are now opening out their AI capabilities to startup son the cloud. Amazon has its AWS subsidiary, Google has TensorFlow and Cloud AutoML, and Microsoft has Azure. Basically, building and training an AI should soon become as cheap and easy as building an app. That means all your Apps and games could get a lot smarter and more varied in their capabilities. And more importantly, all of that will come pretty cheap for you and me.

Dueling Neural Networks

Until a little while ago, training an artificial intelligence was a time-consuming chore. You can train an AI to identify a certain kind of image or feature with incredible accuracy, but it would take millions of images to practice. That is, until the advent of the generative adversarial network (GAN) method. Basically, it pits two neural neural network against each other in a versus game. For instance, one has to generate a specific type of fake image, and the other has to identify which ones are fake. Both have been trained on images to begin with, so they start at a decently advanced level. But by pitting two neural networks against each other in this learning process, you drastically speed up the entire process of training the generator, to the point where another AI cant distinguish its fakes. The same concept can be used for a variety of training procedures to create realistic speech patterns, generate photorealistic fake images, or even imagine faces of people that dont exist.

Instant Translation Devices

Google has developed a set of earbuds called the Pixel Buds, they launched for $159. But aside from being a set of tiny Bluetooth earbuds, they can also work as audio translation devices in real time. With just the earpiece, the Pixel smartphone, and the smartphone data to access Googles Translate service, you could hear a translation as youre having a conversation with someone speaking in a different language, and even have your own words translated for them. While the Pixel Buds themselves werent too popular at launch, the technology they brought was, and you can expect more tech companies to adopt and perhaps improve it soon.

Carbon-Free Natural Gas

Natural gas is still likely to remain humanitys primary source of electricity for the next few years at least, and though it may be cheap and easily available its still a massive source of the worlds carbon emissions. But a new pilot power plant in the US is testing a technology that could make clean energy from natural gas a reality. Net Power says it can generate electricity at least as cheaply as standard natural-gas plants while still capturing almost all the carbon dioxide released in the process.This would mean truly carbon-free fossil fuel energy for the first time, and at an economically feasible price. Its not a perfect solution, but it might be as close as well get while using natural gas.

Absolute Anonymity Online

Thanks to a new tool developed by various efforts in the blockchain industry, we may be able to have complete privacy online while still being able to verify things like age and bank balance for online services. Called zero-knowledge proof, its a concept thats been in development for decades but has gained massive interest recently thanks to the cryptocurrency popularity boom. Using this new protocol, you could theoretically even safely and legally transact with Bitcoin through a bank, without anyone being able to see your details. As of right now, the developers are still working on improving its security system, but we may very well soon see the technique adapted to all areas of the Internet, not just blockchains.

DNA Predictions

Thanks to recent breakthroughs in genetics, new babies may one day be presented to their parents along with a DNA report card. These reports could offer predictions of the kids health in the future, from their chances of suffering a heart attack or cancer, to their addiction affinity, to even their intellect. DNA test is still a learning field, considering that traits are usually not a product of a single gene but rather multiple acting in concert. Studying these could help scientists determine polygenic risk scores, which may not give definitive diagnoses, but could offer medical probabilities that parents and doctors could watch out for over the childs lifespan.

"Magic" Materials

With us inching ever closer to quantum computing well soon have the capability for vast and complex computations at our fingertips. And while theyll probably have hundreds of other uses, scientists are excited about how they could use them to create completely new materials. They could design and synthesis stronger build materials, more effective drugs, more efficient fuels, and maybe things we cant even imagine just yet. All of the ridiculously hard calculations required to model those new molecules would be a cinch with quantum computing.EOSUSD Elliott Wave analysis: Be aware of reversal down EW-Forecast.com - 1 hour ago EOSUSD is similar as other cryptocurrencies, where we are tracking a minimum three-wave A/1-B/2-C/3 reversal down, so current a-b-c recovery should be as part of wave B/2 ^EOSUSD : 5.20933 (+6.39%)

Cocoa (CC) Consolidates Just Above Key 2600 Level Tradable Patterns - Thu Sep 16, 10:48PM CDT Cocoa (CC) consolidated for a 3rd straight day yesterday with its daily Doji, continuing to gear up for a retest of last weeks 2021 high. Significantly, CC has been trying to extend its Bull Flag... NIB : 31.20 (-1.14%)

Chart of the Day: Energy Fuels - Nuclear Play Barchart - Thu Sep 16, 6:56PM CDT The Barchart Chart of the Day belongs to the uranium miner Energy Fuels (NYSE: UUUU ). I found the stock by sorting Barchart's Top 100 Stocks list first by the most frequent number of new highs... UUUU : 8.16 (-2.04%)

Triple Digit Rally in Hogs Barchart - Thu Sep 16, 5:00PM CDT Lean hog futures added another triple digits to the upside on Thursday follow through from Wednesdays gains. Prices closed $2.15 to $3.20 higher on the day. USDAs National Average Base hog price... HEV21 : 85.475s (+3.89%) HEG22 : 77.525s (+2.85%) KMV21 : 101.025s (+2.56%)

Corn Closes Red on Thursday Barchart - Thu Sep 16, 5:00PM CDT At the settle for Thursday, corn futures were 3 1/4 to 4 cents weaker. Poor weekly export sales were the main influence, with the lack of New Orleans origination crimping sales. Crude Oil prices are also... CLX21 : 71.84 (-0.73%) XVF22 : 2,448s (-0.73%) ZCZ21 : 528-6 (unch) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.1568 (-1.26%) ZCH22 : 536-4 (unch) ZCZ21 : 528-6 (unch)After the initial reinsurance, which will transfer the economics of the CTP insurance business to Enstars subsidiary, both parties will carry out a portfolio transfer of the CTP insurance business under Division 3A of Part III of Australias Insurance Act 1973 (Cth), which would provide legal finality for Zurich. The transfer is subject to court, regulatory and other approvals.

This transaction with Zurich builds on Enstars successful management of other large Australian legacy portfolios, commented Enstar CEO Dominic Silvester. It significantly enhances our footprint in Australia as we continue to grow our non-life run-off operations in key insurance markets. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Zurich to offer a reinsurance solution for its CTP portfolio.



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What happens to claims when cars drive themselves?

Swiss Re income drops in the face of natural catastrophesWe are expecting 2018 to be the most exciting year for cyber insurance in Australias history, Dean Marcus, consulting actuary at Taylor Fry writes in the report. If the rate of large-scale cyberattacks continues to increase, insurance volume should grow, while the evolution of exposure assessment across lines of business, risk pricing and aggregation management will present significant challenges to all players.

However, the industry remains cautious in its approach to the rapidly emerging market. With mandatory breach notification now a reality in Australia, Kevin Gomes, Taylor Fry principal and senior actuary, said that while there is potential for strong growth in the cyber market, it comes from a low base.

A number of underwriters, while they are excited about it, are approaching it very cautiously, Gomes said. There is a recognition that we need to understand the gaps and overlaps between cyber insurance as a new product and some of the existing products that may already offer some cyber cover.

From a distribution perspective, Gomes had good news for brokers but noted that insurers may look to take simpler aspects of the cover direct.

While the distribution of cyber is an area of interest, insurers will always prefer to go direct if they can, but the complexity of cyber means that it will probably need to be intermediated, Gomes continued. However, where insurers may see opportunities on more straight forward cyber covers such as extortion risk, they may be able to go direct on that.

Only time will tell if 2018 is a banner year for cyber growth, but having been discussed throughout the industry for some years, many will be asking if not now, then when?

Related stories:

Mandatory breach notification goes live

Beazley report looks at rising cyber risksOne thing even new investors understand is the concept of diversification, or the blending of asset classes to reduce risk. But even with a well-diversified stock portfolio, an individual is still exposed to market risk (or systematic risk), which cannot be reduced by adding additional stocks. Below we discuss the principles of diversification and how investors can a build a truly diversified portfolio.

What Exactly Is Diversification?

Diversification works by spreading your investments among a variety of asset classes (such as stocks, bonds, cash, T-bills, real estate, etc.) that have a low correlation to each other. Low correlation reduces volatility. The assets rise and fall in price at different times and at different rates. A portfolio holding diversified assets helps to create more consistency and improve overall performance.

How Does Correlation Work?

Correlation is simple: If two asset classes are perfectly correlated, they are said to have a correlation of +1. This means they move in lockstep with each other, either up or down.

A completely random correlationa relationship in which one asset's chance of rising is equal to the chance of it dropping if the other asset rises or fallshas a correlation of 0.

If two asset classes move in exact oppositionfor every uptick in one asset there is an equal downtick in the other, and vice versathey are negatively correlated, or have a correlation of -1.

Diversified Stock Portfolio vs. Diversified Portfolio of Assets

When we talk about the importance of diversification in a stock portfolio, we're referring to an investor's attempt to reduce exposure to unsystematic risk (i.e. company-specific risk) by investing in various companies across different sectors, industries or even countries.

When we discuss diversification among asset classes, the same concept applies, but over a broader range. By diversifying holdings across different asset classes, the investor reduces exposure to the systemic risk of any one asset class.

Like holding a single company in your stock portfolio, having your entire net worth in a portfolio of any one asset (even if that portfolio is diversified) constitutes "putting all of your eggs in one basket." You are still very much exposed to market risk. By investing in a broad number of assets, you reduce exposure to market risk or the systemic risk of any one asset class.

Although diversification is no guarantee against losses, investing professionals see this as a prudent long-range strategy.

How to Diversify Your Portfolio

Bonds are a popular way to diversify due to their low correlation with other major asset classes, particularly equities. Other fixed-interest investments such as T-bills, bankers' acceptances and certificates of deposit are also popular.

Another option is real estate, which has a relatively low correlation with stocks. Adding some real estate to your portfolio is a practical way to diversify, largely because many people (through home ownership) are invested in the real estate market.

It's amazing how often investors overlook the potential of real estate. Investing in real estate doesn't require the purchase a house or building. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) provide an easy and less expensive alternative to buying property directly. REITs trade like stocks on the major exchanges. They invest directly in property and mortgages and typically offer high yields. Because real estate has a relatively low correlation with stocks, investing in REITs is a good way to diversify away from equities.

The Bottom Line

Diversification is a key building block to anyone's financial plan, including understanding what diversification does and how it helps an individual's overall financial position. It is crucial that investors know the difference between systematic and unsystematic risk, as well as understand that by diversifying among asset classes, they can mitigate exposure to systematic risk.Investopedia and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors)Risk management helps cut down losses. It can also help protect traders' accounts from losing all of its money. The risk occurs when traders suffer losses. If the risk can be managed, traders can open themselves up to making money in the market.

It is an essential but often overlooked prerequisite to successful active trading. After all, a trader who has generated substantial profits can lose it all in just one or two bad trades without a proper risk management strategy. So how do you develop the best techniques to curb the risks of the market?

This article will discuss some simple strategies that can be used to protect your trading profits.

Key Takeaways Trading can be exciting and even profitable if you are able to stay focused, do due diligence, and keep emotions at bay.

Still, the best traders need to incorporate risk management practices to prevent losses from getting out of control.

Having a strategic and objective approach to cutting losses through stop orders, profit taking, and protective puts is a smart way to stay in the game.

Planning Your Trades

As Chinese military general Sun Tzu's famously said: "Every battle is won before it is fought." This phrase implies that planning and strategynot the battleswin wars. Similarly, successful traders commonly quote the phrase: "Plan the trade and trade the plan." Just like in war, planning ahead can often mean the difference between success and failure.

First, make sure your broker is right for frequent trading. Some brokers cater to customers who trade infrequently. They charge high commissions and don't offer the right analytical tools for active traders.

Stop-loss (S/L) and take-profit (T/P) points represent two key ways in which traders can plan ahead when trading. Successful traders know what price they are willing to pay and at what price they are willing to sell. They can then measure the resulting returns against the probability of the stock hitting their goals. If the adjusted return is high enough, they execute the trade.

Conversely, unsuccessful traders often enter a trade without having any idea of the points at which they will sell at a profit or a loss. Like gamblers on a luckyor unlucky streakemotions begin to take over and dictate their trades. Losses often provoke people to hold on and hope to make their money back, while profits can entice traders to imprudently hold on for even more gains.

Consider the One-Percent Rule

A lot of day traders follow what's called the one-percent rule. Basically, this rule of thumb suggests that you should never put more than 1% of your capital or your trading account into a single trade. So if you have $10,000 in your trading account, your position in any given instrument shouldn't be more than $100.

This strategy is common for traders who have accounts of less than $100,000some even go as high as 2% if they can afford it. Many traders whose accounts have higher balances may choose to go with a lower percentage. That's because as the size of your account increases, so too does the position. The best way to keep your losses in check is to keep the rule below 2%any more and you'll be risking a substantial amount of your trading account.

Setting Stop-Loss and Take-Profit Points

A stop-loss point is the price at which a trader will sell a stock and take a loss on the trade. This often happens when a trade does not pan out the way a trader hoped. The points are designed to prevent the "it will come back" mentality and limit losses before they escalate. For example, if a stock breaks below a key support level, traders often sell as soon as possible.

On the other hand, a take-profit point is the price at which a trader will sell a stock and take a profit on the trade. This is when the additional upside is limited given the risks. For example, if a stock is approaching a key resistance level after a large move upward, traders may want to sell before a period of consolidation takes place.

How to More Effectively Set Stop-Loss Points

Setting stop-loss and take-profit points is often done using technical analysis, but fundamental analysis can also play a key role in timing. For example, if a trader is holding a stock ahead of earnings as excitement builds, they may want to sell before the news hits the market if expectations have become too high, regardless of whether the take-profit price has been hit.

Moving averages represent the most popular way to set these points, as they are easy to calculate and widely tracked by the market. Key moving averages include the 5-, 9-, 20-, 50-, 100- and 200-day averages. These are best set by applying them to a stock's chart and determining whether the stock price has reacted to them in the past as either a support or resistance level.

Another great way to place stop-loss or take-profit levels is on support or resistance trend lines. These can be drawn by connecting previous highs or lows that occurred on significant, above-average volume. Like with moving averages, the key is determining levels at which the price reacts to the trend lines and, of course, on high volume.

When setting these points, here are some key considerations:

Use longer-term moving averages for more volatile stocks to reduce the chance that a meaningless price swing will trigger a stop-loss order to be executed.

Adjust the moving averages to match target price ranges. For example, longer targets should use larger moving averages to reduce the number of signals generated.

Stop losses should not be closer than 1.5-times the current high-to-low range (volatility), as it is too likely to get executed without reason.

Adjust the stop loss according to the market's volatility. If the stock price isn't moving too much, then the stop-loss points can be tightened.

Use known fundamental events such as earnings releases, as key time periods to be in or out of a trade as volatility and uncertainty can rise.

Calculating Expected Return

Setting stop-loss and take-profit points are also necessary to calculate the expected return. The importance of this calculation cannot be overstated, as it forces traders to think through their trades and rationalize them. As well, it gives them a systematic way to compare various trades and select only the most profitable ones.

This can be calculated using the following formula:

[(Probability of Gain) x (Take Profit % Gain)] + [(Probability of Loss) x (Stop-Loss % Loss)]

The result of this calculation is an expected return for the active trader, who will then measure it against other opportunities to determine which stocks to trade. The probability of gain or loss can be calculated by using historical breakouts and breakdowns from the support or resistance levelsor for experienced traders, by making an educated guess.

Diversify and Hedge

Making sure you make the most of your trading means never putting your eggs in one basket. If you put all your money in one stock or one instrument, you're setting yourself up for a big loss. So remember to diversify your investmentsacross both industry sector as well as market capitalization and geographic region. Not only does this help you manage your risk, but it also opens you up to more opportunities.

You may also find yourself a time when you need to hedge your position. Consider a stock position when the results are due. You may consider taking the opposite position through options, which can help protect your position. When trading activity subsides, you can then unwind the hedge.

Downside Put Options

If you are approved for options trading, buying a downside put option, sometimes known as a protective put, can also be used as a hedge to stem losses from a trade that turns sour. A put option gives you the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying stock at a specified priced at or before the option expires. Therefore if you own XYZ stock from $100 and buy the 6-month $80 put for $1.00 per option in premium, then you will be effectively stopped out from any price drop below $79 ($80 strike minus the $1 premium paid).

The Bottom Line

Traders should always know when they plan to enter or exit a trade before they execute. By using stop losses effectively, a trader can minimize not only losses but also the number of times a trade is exited needlessly. In conclusion, make your battle plan ahead of time so you'll already know you've won the war.By Padraig Hoare

The boss of Ulster Bank has defended his decision not to attend an Oireachtas finance committee hearing on the tracker mortgage scandal earlier this month.

Gerry Mallon, who is leaving to head up Tesco Bank in the UK, said he felt it was the right decision at the time as other Ulster Bank officials could provide the required information in a more comprehensive manner.

His decision drew fierce criticism from TDs and senators, who accused him of disrespecting the Oireachtas and customers affected by the tracker scandal.

Ulster Bank boss Gerry Mallon has said no decision has been made on the sale of 7,000 mortgages in arrears to a foreign fund.

Speaking on the back of the banks annual results, Mr Mallon said Ulster Bank was not firing the starting gun on any kind of portfolio sale at the minute, after speculation that a vulture fund could take over 7,000 of its 20,000 mortgages in arrears  a book worth 4bn.

We have a level of non-performing loans of about 16% of our total loanbook. The direction from the ECB is that the banks should probably be closer to 5%.

Weve got a requirement to get down to that, so there will be a range of strategies deployed reducing that overall level of non-performing loans, the best of which is to get customers on track to repay their borrowings and to have them restructured in a sustainable way.

He said in 25% of cases, customers in arrears are not even engaging.

Up to a quarter of the total in this arrears category are not engaging with the bank at all. They really need to do that because it is impossible to find any kind of sustainable solution for them if they are refusing to even engage, he said.

The costs of Ulster Banks role in the tracker mortgage scandal was a factor in it recording an operating loss of 151m last year, compared to a 24m profit in 2016.

Mr Mallon, who is soon leaving to take over the reins of Tesco Bank in the UK, said it would soon be in a position to confirm how many more customers were affected by the tracker scandal.

Ulster Bank has around 3,500 identified cases as needing redress and compensation for wrongly being put on more expensive loans.

An additional 87m has been set aside for redress and compensation, in addition to the already earmarked 211m.

Mr Mallon said the tracker scandal and the adverse publicity had not been a factor in his decision to leave the bank.

I was offered a very attractive new role. It wasnt an opportunity I went seeking. It was a very difficult decision to leave, if that opportunity had not presented itself to me, I would have been more than happy to continue on, and be proud to lead what is a fantastic team at Ulster Bank, he said.

Mr Mallon said he had no regrets about not appearing before the Oireachtas Finance Committee last month to update TDs and senators on the tracker progress, instead sending Ulster Bank officials to face questions.

His decision to not appear led to ferocious criticism from members of the committee, who accused him of disrespecting the Oireachtas and the people affected by the scandal.

On the subject of tracker mortgages, I have colleagues who provided that evidence comprehensively and much more thoroughly than I could have. In every case, we need to decide what is the appropriate representation for the bank.

Given the fact that I had just announced I was departing, we felt it would be more appropriate for others to appear rather than myself, Mr Mallon said.

Meanwhile, Ulster Banks owner Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) reported its first annual profit in a decade. A case being taken by the US Department of Justice against RBS remains on investors minds, analysts said.

Shares were down more than 4% though the bank exceeded expectations by turning an 854m profit.A further 1m interim settlement has been approved by the High Court for a girl with cerebral palsy, bringing her total payments to date to more than 2.45m, writes Ann O'Loughlin.

The President of the High Court, noting Ruby Leanne McCandless will celebrate her 12th birthday next month, wished the child a very happy birthday.

Ruby has diskinetic cerebral palsy and will require lifelong care. She suffered her injuries as a result of her mother not being referred to hospital with symptoms of pre-eclampsia, it was claimed.

Des O'Neill SC, for the family, said Rubys mother, Christina McDaid, had high blood pressure at the end of her pregnancy and should have been referred to hospital immediately.

Through her mother, Ruby, of Foxwood, Gleneely, Co Donegal, sued the HSE in relation to the care Ms McDaid received at the end of her pregnancy in 2006. It was claimed there were failures to diagnose and treat pre-eclampsia at the earliest reasonable opportunity and to have her admitted to hospital to have her high blood pressure properly managed.

In 2014, the High Court approved a settlement including an interim payment of 1.45m to cover care to 2018.

Ruby with her parents in 2014

When the case came back before the court today, Mr Justice Peter Kelly was asked by Mr O'Neill to approve a further payment of 1m for the next four years, to include payments to assist Ruby's parents, her main carers, in providing her care into the future.

The judge said he was satisfied it was a good settlement and perfectly adequate to meet her future care costs over that period. He was also glad to be told by the child's parents they were satisfied with the settlement.

He adjourned the matter to March 2022 on the understanding the parents would have the option of a further interim settlement or lump sum payment. He was hopeful the legislation necessary to provide for periodic payment orders, which was passed last year, would be commenced "long before 2022" and the parents had the option to avail of that.

Outside court, a representative of Callan Tansey, solicitors for the family, said they were happy with the settlement but he said politicians should remedy the "fundamentally flawed" periodic payments legislation. It will not ensure the lifelong needs of the catastrophically injured will be sufficiently funded, he said.

The court previously heard Ruby's mother was due on March 30, 2006. It was claimed her blood pressure was normal up to March 28th when she attended for her last antenatal check up at Carndonagh Community Hospital during which, it was claimed, it was noticed she had a major problem with her blood pressure.

In the days leading up to the appointment, it was claimed she was extremely pale and developing swelling around her face and ankles and her blood pressure was taken four times at the hospital.

When she was examined a doctor indicated her elevated blood pressure was a borderline case and told her to visit her GP on March 31st, it was claimed. Her ankles and face were still swollen the next day and she had a headache.

On March 30, her right hand started to shake, her face to droop and she began to lose the power over her tongue. An ambulance was called but Ms McDaid blacked out.

She was rushed to Letterkenny General Hospital 45 miles away, suffered a series of severe pre-eclamptic fits and there was a lack of oxygen to the baby who was not yet born. Ruby was later delivered by cesarean section and spent her first 11 days in intensive care.Police in the North are appealing for witnesses after an armed robbery in the west Belfast area.

It happened in the Springfield Road area of the city in the early hours of Sunday the 18th of February.Update - 5.30pm: The government should buy some of the non-performing mortgages being sold by banks, according to a People Before Profit TD.

Ulster Bank confirmed earlier it plans to sell around 7,000 mortgages - that's on top of the 18,000 to be sold by Permanent TSB.

The news has lead to fears unregulated vulture funds may buy the majority of the distressed mortgages.

TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the government needs to step in and help people "saddled with massive debt who do not know how to cope".

He went on: "The banks have not been the most pleasant people to deal with so it is not surprising many people are burying their heads in the sand."

His comments follow calls by Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail for new laws to regulate vulture funds.

Sinn Fein's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the mooted sale will "end in tears" and will result in an increase of home repossessions.

Deputy Doherty told RTE's Morning Ireland programme warned that repayment options offered by banks will not be provided by vulture funds and said families in arrears should also be offered the type of write-downs being offered by vulture funds.

Deputy Doherty warned that no court could force vulture funds to offer options to distressed mortgage holders and suggsted Ulster Bank chief executive Gerry Mallon's failure to appear with his colleagues before the Oireachtas Finance Committee was a "snub to the committee and to the Irish people".

Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath said swift action is needed to ensure that such international investors are fully monitored by the Central Bank ahead of any loan portfolio sale.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has previously said the Government cannot prevent the sales but that he is deeply aware of homeowners' concerns. Laws on repossessions are being reviewed as a result.

But Mr McGrath said: "The case for full regulation of these vulture funds is compelling.

"If the fund buys a mortgage, a farm loan or an SME loan, it makes all the crucial decisions about the future of that loan. Despite this, the vulture fund is untouchable, unaccountable and entirely beyond the reach of the Central Bank."

Fianna Fail is to introduce new legislation on regulation next week.

Mr McGrath also called for the 2013 Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears to be reviewed. He said 38,000 family home mortgages now owned by non-bank entities, including over 11,000 by unregulated vulture funds.

"Mortgage holders who are fully honouring the terms of a restructuring agreement need greater protection," the opposition spokesman said.

"The fact that vulture funds do not have to offer some of the main restructuring options such as arrears capitalisation, term extension or split mortgage places distressed borrowers whose loans are with them in a perilous position."

Update - 11.30am: Ulster Bank's CEO Gerry Mallon has said the bank will try to sell their loan book as long as it is legal.

He said: "We operate under a framework of laws and regulations and neither of these are optional to us, so the laws are a matter for the lawmakers and the regulations are a matter for the regulators.

"We'll do whatever is required to comply with both, we'll have a portfolio that we will bring forward to the market and we'll see who is eligible and interested to buy it."

9.41am: Ulster Bank to sell up to 7,000 home loans; Warning mortgage sales will lead to surge in repossessions

Ulster Bank has today admitted that it intends to sell up to around 7,000 home loans.

The bank has published its full-year results this morning which show it had an operating loss of 151m in 2017.

The sale would make it the second major bank in the country to try to put non-performing mortgages on the market.

Permanent TSB still has not found a buyer for the 18,000 home loans it has been trying to sell.

Ulster Bank's CEO Gerry Mallon said that his bank now intends to make a similar move.

"Part of our strategy and one of the things we've made an adjustment in our accounts for is the fact that we reckon that a loan sale is one of the things we'll have to deploy and it could be approximately a third of the overall non-performing loan book," he said.

- Digital deskThe Indian Spring festival of colours, Holi, is celebrated by Hindus all over the world and after Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is considered to be the second biggest festival on the Hindu calendar, writes Darina Allen.

Its a moveable feast, the date varies every year according to the full moon. This year it will be celebrated with gusto on March 1 and 2. Holi pronounced Holy, lasts for a night and a day. The first evening is known as Holikadahan when huge bonfires are lit to dispel any evil spirits that might be lurking around.

Next day, everyone takes to the streets and it becomes a free for all when people throw or spray a virtual rainbow of coloured powders at each other. Everyone is fair game, from tiny tots to elders, friends, or strangers. There is much noisy hilarity  Indian music, singing, dancing, hugging and peals of laughter.

The coloured powders were originally natural but nowadays most are cheaper synthetic versions however, theres a growing call to make natural powders more widely available because of the allergic reactions that many are suffering.

Historically the four main colours are used to represent different things. Red represents love and fertility, green symbolises Spring, blue is the colour of Krishna and yellow is closest to the traditional turmeric which was always used for the gulal.

All this excitement is hungry work so there are lots of street foods to snack on  Channa masala, pakoras, katchori, samosas, pani puri and gujiya. What was originally an Indian festival is now being celebrated around the world, yet another excuse to have fun and enjoy some delicious spicy food.

This year here in Ireland several of our top Indian chefs like Sunil Ghai of Pickle and Asheesh Dewan, owner of the Jaipur group of restaurants, are creating special Holi menus in their restaurants. Arun Kapil, founder of Green Saffron in Cork and alumni of Ballymaloe Cookery School is doing a Holi PopUp in the Raddison Blue Royal Hotel on February, March 1, so check out your local Indian restaurant for Holi excitement.

Traditional foods to celebrate Holi are all about colour, an excuse to eat foods that awaken the senses and keep the spirits high.

Thandai, literally translated means something that cools, a sweet drink flavoured with nuts and spices and usually laced with edible hmarijuana around Holi. Puran Poli and Dahi vada are also festive favourites that arent easy to reproduce outside India.

So here is an Indian feast that you and your friends can enjoy making and sharing together. Happy Holi.

Sunil Ghais Kheer Marwadi Indian Rice Pudding

Rosewater varies in strength so be careful to add gradually and taste. This dessert can be made ahead and may be served warm or cold.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

50g (2 ozs) Basmati rice, soaked for an hour and drained

1.5 litres (2 pints) milk

3 tbsp whole almonds, peeled and ground to a paste 2 tbsp water

100g (ozs) sugar 50g (2ozs) fresh coconut, grated 25g (1oz) raisins

50g (2ozs) pistachio nuts cut into slivers

50g (2ozs) blanched almonds, cut in to slivers

 tsp ground green cardamom seeds

2 tsp Kewra essence  keeps indefinitely or use Rosewater instead but be careful  add  tsp first and then taste

Method:

Heat the ghee in a pan. Add the soaked rice, stir for 2 or 3 minutes then add the milk and cook over a low heat for an hour until the rice absorbs the milk and the pudding thickens.

Stir in the almond paste, sugar, coconut, raisins, pistachios and almond slivers. Cook for a final couple of minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the ground cardamom and kewra or rosewater. Cool and chill.

Serve in individual dishes.

Mild Madras Curry with Fresh Spices

Serves 8

Ingredients:

900g (2lb) boneless lamb (leg or shoulder is perfect)

Nut milk

110g (4oz) almonds

475ml (16fl ozs) light cream

1 tbsp pounded fresh green ginger

Salt

50g (2 oz) ghee or clarified butter

4 onions  sliced in rings

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp coriander seed

2 tsp black pepper corns

1 tsp green cardamon seeds, start with whole green cardamon pods if possible

8 whole cloves 1 tbsp turmeric powder

2 tsp sugar

Some freshly squeezed lime juice

Garnish

Segments of lime

Method:

Trim the meat of the majority of the fat. Blanch, peel and chop up the almonds (they should be the texture of nibbed almonds). Put into a small saucepan with the cream and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile peel the ginger thinly with a vegetable peeler, pound into a paste in a pestle and mortar, or chop finely with a knife, or grate finely on a slivery grater.

Cut the meat into 4 cm (1in) cubes and mix it with the ginger and a sprinkling of salt.

Melt the butter and cook the onion rings and crushed garlic over a gentle for 5 minutes. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and measure 1 teaspoon. Discard the pods.

Grind the fresh spices, coriander, pepper, cardamom and cloves in a clean spice or coffee grinder. Add the spices to the onions and cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Remove the onions and then add the meat to the saucepan. Stir over a high heat until the meat browns. Return the onion and spices to the pot. Add the nut milk, turmeric and sugar. Stir well. Cover and simmer gently on top of the stove or better still in a low oven 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3, until the meat is cooked (1 hour approx.) Finish by adding a few drops of lemon or lime juice to taste.

Serve with plain boiled rice, basmati rice with star anise, lime segments and other curry accompaniments which might include  bowls of chopped mango, tomato chutney, Raita, chopped apples. A hot chilli sauce is also good and of course some Indian breads  poppodums, Naan or Paratha.

Note: 1 biggish leg of lamb or mutton will yield approx 3 lbs (1.35kg) of meat.

Laxmis Lassi

Laxmi whose family owns the gorgeous Leela Palace Hotel in Mumbai gave me this recipe.

Serves 1

Ingredients:

75ml (3fl oz) best quality natural yoghurt (see recipe) (not low fat)

175ml (6fl oz) water and ice mixed

 green chilli seeded and chopped

2 fresh curry leaves

4 fresh mint leaves

Pinch of salt

Method:

Put everything in a liquidizer and whiz for a few seconds. Serve in a tall glass.

Laxmi whose family owns the gorgeous Leela Palace Hotel in Mumbai gave me this recipe.

Indian Spiced Vegetable Pakoras with Mango Relish

Mangoes are a great source of betacarotene and Vitamin C. They aid digestion, reduce acidity in the system and help cleanse the blood.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Vegetables

1 thin aubergine cut into  inch (5mm) slices

1 tsp salt

2 medium courgettes, cut into 1 inch (2.5cm) slices, if they are very large cut into quarters

12 cauliflower florets

6 large mushrooms, cut in half

Batter

6oz (175g) chick pea or all-purpose flour

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1 scant teaspoon salt

2 tsp curry powder

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp (freshly squeezed lemon juice

6-8fl oz (175-250ml) iced water

vegetable oil for deep frying

Garnish

Lemon wedges and coriander or parsley.

Method:

Put the aubergine slices into a colander, sprinkle with the salt, and let drain while preparing the other vegetables.

Blanch the courgettes and cauliflower florets separately in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain, refresh under cold water, and dry well. Rinse the aubergine slices and pat dry.

Put the flour, coriander, salt and curry powder into a large bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil, lemon juice and water until the batter is the consistency of thick cream.

Heat good quality oil to 180C/350F in a deep fry. Lightly whisk the batter and dip the vegetables in batches of 5 or 6, slip them carefully into the hot oil. Fry the pakoras for 2-3 minutes on each side, turning them with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels and keep warm in a moderate oven (uncovered) while you cook the remainder. Allow the oil to come back to 180C/350F between batches. When all the vegetable fritters are ready, garnish with lemon wedges and fresh or deep fried coriander or parsley. Serve at once with mango relish.

Mango Relish

Ingredients:

2fl oz (50ml) medium sherry

2fl oz (50ml) water

2fl oz (50ml) white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

 cinnamon stick 1 star anise

 teaspoon salt pinch of ground mace

1 mango, peeled and diced

1 small red pepper, seeded and diced

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:

Put the sherry, water, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, star anise, salt and mace into a small, heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the mango, pepper, and lemon juice, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes more. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. Spoon into a screw top jar and refrigerate until required.Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and fiercely independent  it is after all an island between two continents  Africa and Europe, writes Leslie Williams.

In wine terms, the region has a long history of viticulture dating from ancient times.

Sadly much of the old bush vines were replaced with higher yielding varieties but the move towards quality is now apace and it is now rare (in Ireland at least) to come across bad wine from the island. Native grapes such as Nero dAvola, Catarratto and Grillo are always interesting and imports from mainland Italy such as Aglianico, Greco,

Alicante Bouschet, Narello Mascalese, Fiano and others have adapted well as have some French varieties  you will even find Pinot Noir growing on the slopes of Mount Etna.

Most of my selections this week are from the excellent Mandrarossa Co-Operative based on the south-west coast of Sicily. Im an avid fan of the Italian TV series Inspector Montalbano which is set on the same coastline as many of this weeks wines. Inspector Montalbano would be able to reach the co-op in under two hours by driving along the gorgeous coastline from Porto Empedocle (the town on which his hometown of Vigato is based).

The Co-Op has more than 2,000 growers with an average holding size of under 10ha and is quality focused with growers incentivised to focus on quality rather than quantity, a practice that is rarer than you might think.

The vineyards here are blessed with warm days with intense sunlight tempered by cooling sea breezes. The growers work with a variety of soils from limestone and clay-loam to sandy and chalky soils and the co-op is keen to ensure the right grapes are on the right soils.

I didnt have room to mention their supple fruity FIano/Chenin-Blanc Santannella (24) or their light fragrant cherry and raspberry pie flavoured Frappato (16-17) which works well chilled on warm days or with spicy food. Given the almost perfect weather for grape growing there are lots of organic growers on the island also so Ive included a good example imported by Le Caveau in Kilkenny.

UNDER 15

Mandrarossa Ciaca Bianca Fiano,Sicily  14.99

Stockists: World Wide Wines, 1601, Bradleys, Cashel Wine Cellar, Baggot Street Wines, Redmonds, Jus de Vine Fiano probably originates in Campania and has been grown throughout Southern Italy since Roman times. Fiano is almost always interesting and worth seeking out, with floral and honey aromas and (these days) decent acidity. This has floral tinged lemon and citrus aromas.

Mandrarossa Costadune Grillo,Sicily  14.95

Stockists: As above

Grillo thrives in Sicilys hot climate and is most associated with Marsala dessert wine but increasingly it has proved useful as a varietal thanks to modern production methods. Grillo has some Muscat in its heritage so has a pleasing fleshy peach and floral aroma. The Mandrarossa version has lemon flowers and textured fleshy fruit aromas.

Mandrarossa Costadune Nero dAvola,Sicily  14.99

Stockists: As above

Nero dAvola is native to Sicily and also likes the climate and performs wonderfully as both a workhorse grape at entry level as well as producing ageworthy wines of depth and quality. This is packed with ripe bright plum fruits with liquorice and smoke tinged aromas, juicy and full-fruited with a lingering bitter cherry kick.

OVER 15

Cantina Rallo Baglio Rosso,Sicily IGP  18.95-19.95

Stockists: Le Caveau, Greenman Wines, Bradleys.

This is 100% Nero dAvola from an organic estate in the hills above Alcamo in north-west Sicily. Ive mentioned their good value Ciello label Nero dAvola and Bianco Catarratto before but this is more serious  packed with spice-tinged ripe dark fruits, cherries and blueberries and a touch of chocolate. This is a good example of a ripe and pure natural wine.

Mandrarossa CartaghoNero dAvola 2014, Sicily  23.99

Stockists: Bradleys, World Wide Wines, Drink Store, Redmonds, McHughs

This is one of the Mandrarossa co-ops best wines from a vineyard at Sicilys most southern point. The grapes are long macerated and the wine is aged in 225l French barriques for 12 months  deep purple in colour with aromas of vanilla, cedar and floral tinted black cherries.

Mandrarossa TimperossePetit Verdot 2014, Sicily  23.9

Stockists: Bradleys, World Wide Wines, D6 Wines, Drinkstore, Higgins, Redmonds

Petit Verdot is the fifth grape of Bordeaux where it is used to add a little backbone to some blends but rarely makes up more than 10%. It ripens considerably better in Sicily and this has volet and cherry aromas, soft ripe fruits with herbal touches, integrated tannins and a juicy freshness.Ahead of World Book Day, Ciara McDonnell asks well-known Irish parents what they read to their kids. Plus, she compiles a list of top reads for every age.

I spent my entire childhood lost in books. From Enid Blyton, to Roald Dahl, to the entire works of CS Lewis, books offered me a chance to escape into a world where I could observe fantastical happenings from the safety of my readers perch.

These days, as a parent to two demanding boys, I dont spend as much time as I would like in my fictional reading room, but we do explore worlds unchartered each night as we devour the Julia Donaldson archive, and read about outer space in books like The Darkest Dark by Chris Hadfield.

In a time so dominated by digital distractions, books remain as popular as ever, says children and young adults book buyer from Eason, David OCallaghan.

2018 looks set to be another stomper of a year for childrens books, especially this spring, he says. It is especially exciting when it comes to Irish authors, with brand new books from Anna Carey and Celine Kiernan. There is also a sequel in Peader OGuilins Call series  The Invasion along with Dave Ruddens final book in his series, Knights of the Borrowed Dark  The Endless King.

OCallaghan says that a West-African-inspired fantasy novel called Children of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi will take the young adult market by storm this year.

What would he recommend for younger readers? I am loving Isadora Moon (Half fairy/Half vampire) by Harriet Muncaster and Dog Man (Half man/Half dog) which are both doing really well for the 5-8 age group.

Aoife Murray from Childrens Books Ireland says that there is no such thing as too early to introduce your kids to books.

If you want to foster a culture of reading in your home, it essential to expose them to reading as early as possible and to have books available to them, so that it seems like a normal thing. Keep your books with the toys  we are not fans of special books being kept on big high shelves  thats not what books are for.

With World Book Day on the horizon (March 1), we asked three of Irelands most prominent readers and parents to share what they read with their children, and about the books that they come back to again and again, when they need to balm their soul in the way that only books can.

Alison Curtis

Alison Curtis is mum to Joan (6), and uses her platform on Weekend Breakfast With Alison Curtis on Today FM to champion reading with our children.

We started the Little Readers Club in July 2017, and what was to be a once off feature has taken off  we have people booked all the way up to May to read on the show.

For me, reading was something that I did with my Dad growing up. He was an avid reader and both my sister and I love books as a result. As Ive gotten older, I find it harder and harder to read, but my love of childrens books has never gone away.

Joan and I read every day, its a big part of our lives and I think its really important. You do have to work at it  Joan is happy for me to read our books to her, but we encourage her to read the stories too, because I really want her to love it like I do.

My husband loves having books around the house now, and Joan has a great collection of the on her own shelf. Its getting to the stage now where we are taking out the littler books and replacing them with ones for older kids.

The very first book we read was Room On the Broom by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. We have a puzzle of it that we are going to get framed for her room because it forever reminds me of when she was one and a half or two and we loved it so much. I love all of Julia Donaldson stories but some of them have too many words and this one was just perfect for us.

Right now, one that she absolutely loves reading to me is Clarice Bean, Thats Me by Lauren Child. This is one that shell be proactive with and read to me. I am reading two books to her at the moment; one is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo and the other one is Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World by Kate Pankhurst, which we are reading at the nighttime. I just interviewed Sophie Kinsella who has just debuted her first kids book called Mummy Fairy and Me and we are really enjoying that one as well.

I loved the Anne Of Green Gables books when I was growing up. My father knew that he was dying for a long time before the rest of us did, and before he died he took myself and my sister to the area where it was set in Eastern Canada. My mind was blown  I was so excited to be there It was the summer that we were thirteen and he passed away on the Valentines Day when we were 14, and so the books hold a special place in my heart forever because of it.

Keelin Shanley

Keelin Shanley says that its important to teach your children to love books, but equally, not to pressurise them into it.

Books were very much a part of our early years. My daughter would be a big reader now; she reads all kinds of different things, and every night before she goes to sleep. She will read anything from Ripleys Believe It Or Not to Enid Blyton, to the Narnia series. I think shes quite like me in that respect.

Keelin Shanley is anchor of the Six One News and is mum is Ben, 9, and Lucy, 11.

Both my children still love to be read to. When they were very little, we read together every single night and I actually found some of our old favourites when I was clearing out Lucys bedroom last week. We loved Tiddler by Julia Donaldson and there was a story called The Magic Sky by Lucy Richardson, which we adored. It was about a little polar bear looking at the Northern Lights.

Books are always around our house, and our kids would have picked up magazines and supplements to look at pictures and read some of the stories. I think thats a really great way of getting children into reading and recognising newspapers as an important part of life.

Particularly in the younger years, we always went to books if they were in a tizzy, or fed up or over tired. It was just a way for us to sit down, distract them and relax. The old favourites like Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers or The Book Eating Boy would come out during these times, and thats where the illustrations come into their own.

I do think that reading is in them to an extent, but it was interesting when Ben started going to bed with a car instead of a book, and we work on it by encouraging them to read to us. Weve introduced Ben to David Walliams books recently and he loves the anarchy and the boldness of his writing.

I definitely went through the Enid Blyton phase when I was a child. I loved them all  I was fascinated by the swimming pool in the rocks at Mallory Towers  I thought that the idea of something like that at school was just heavenly.

Daithi OSe

Since becoming a father to Micheal Og, 3, Daithi OSe says that the quiet time spent reading to his son is one of the most precious times of his day.

Micheal Og is a really easy-going guy and always has been  we are really lucky. He loves books and being read to.

One of the cutest things of the day is after weve read him the bedtime story and we head off with the baby monitor and hear him with the book still on his lap in the cot, going through the pages.

Reading to his son is the highlight of Daithi OSes day, says the presenter.

Reading is something that we have done since day one. Our house is full of books, both his and mine, and I do all the Irish reading stories with him, while Rita does the English ones.

He understands everything in Irish; we read a book called Scealta Si by Criostoir OFlynn and it has all the fairy tales that we would have grown up with.

We are also reading Adams Cloud books by Benjamin Bennett who wrote these books after his son died.

We had him on the show and it would break your heart. The messages in his books like I love you to the moon and stars and back again are just brilliant.

Its a really nice thing for us to do together. We lie back on the bed, Ill have the arm around him and we relax and read together. Particularly for dads, I think, this is a really special time to spend quality time with our kids.

My father didnt read with us, because it wasnt the done thing, but I see the benefit of being able to spend this time with Micheal.

Our relationship grows and blossoms during this time, I really see it.

Its during this time that I get to hear whats really going on in his head; what hes learned at pre-school and if he has any worries.

Shelf Life

David OCallaghan, Children and Young Adult book buyer at Eason, has chosen the best books to introduce your kids to, this year.

Age 0-4:

Guess How Much I Love You, Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram

The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Helen Oxbury & Mem Fox

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

The Gruffalos Child, Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Age 5-8:

Dog Man 3: Dog Man - A Tale of Two Kitties, Dav Pilkey

Rover and the Big Fat Baby, Roddy Doyle

Rabbit and Bear: Rabbits Bad Habits: Book 1, Julian Gough and Jim Field

Dog Man, Dav Pilkey

Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet, Dav Pilkey

Three More Wedgie-Powered Adventures in One: Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey

Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape, Dermot OLeary

The Giggler Treatment, Roddy Doyle

Age 9 plus:

Bad Dad, David Walliams

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (book 12), Jeff Kinney

The Worlds Worst Children 2, David Walliams

Gangsta Granny, David Walliams

Wonder, RJ Palacio

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, JK Rowling

Awful Auntie, David Walliams

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J K Rowling

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down (Book 11), Jeff Kinney

Grandpas Great Escape, David Walliams

Upcoming titles to watch out for in 2018:

Begone the Raggedy Witches (The Wild Magic Trilogy, Book One), Celine Kiernan (9+)

The Endless King: Knights Of The Borrowed Dark (Book 3), Dave Rudden (12+)

The Invasion, Peadar OGuilin (14+)

Mollie On The March, Anna Carey (12+)

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (14+)

Isadora Moon Goes to the Fair, Harriet Muncaster (7+)

Ready Player One Film Tie In, Ernest Cline (14+)

Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli (14+)

A Wrinkle in Time Tie In, Madeleine LEngle (12+)It is a case of do as I say, not as I do for the Government, with dirty diesel cars being their vehicle of choice, writes Elaine Loughlin.

When the Cabinet and a number of junior ministers travelled to Sligo (in their fume-emitting diesel cars) to unveil the hyped-up Ireland 2040 plan last week, much of the emphasis was on a 22 billion package which will transform our country into a low-carbon economy.

Amid the razzmatazz of the grand unveiling were promises to stop buying diesel buses by the middle of next year; to put an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars after 2030; and by that time a prediction that at least 500,000 electric vehicles will be on our roads.

Judging by those promises, many in Leinster House will be buying themselves shiny new electric cars soon.

A survey by the Irish Examiner has revealed that of those ministers and junior ministers who were willing to give details of the cars they drive, just Denis Naughten, the climate action and environment minister, currently owns a hybrid car.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan claims there is a lack of initiative coming from Government when it comes to protecting the environment.

While range anxiety had been a major issue in the past, he claims a number of car companies such as BMW and Tesla are now rolling out electric cars which can do long distances.

Mr Ryan, who owns an eco-friendly biodiesel Volkswagen van, called for the introduction of electric vehicle charging points at all filling stations to encourage more people to buy these cars.

This was echoed by Fianna Fails Timmy Dooley, who said there is now a serious need to roll out the infrastructure to make electric vehicles an appealing option.

There is the option now to change to electric because the battery life in these cars is a lot longer, but the infrastructure is not there. The charging infrastructure is deplorable and even where there are charging points, they often dont work.

The Clare TD said he would like to change to an electric car from his current diesel model but a lack of Government commitment and investment in charging facilities means that he would not be able to travel around his constituency.

What we need is a comprehensive investment programme so the option is there to use electric vehicles. There is a phenomenal lack of commitment.

Timmy Dooley

We are all now aware of the detrimental impacts diesel is having on our already damaged environment.

Earlier this week the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) went as far as suggesting it is now justifiable to hike taxes on diesel up to the same rate as petrol, given the deadly impacts the fuel has on our environment. It said this would cut emissions from the transport sector by 283,000 tonnes per year.

Some in Government have dabbled with electric cars, including Mr Naughten, who took one for a week-long stint last year.

Back in 2014, Tanaiste Simon Coveney  who along with the Taoiseach and Justice Minister are given State cars  test-drove an electric Nissan Leaf while at the Department of Agriculture.

The Taoiseach had also taken the opportunity to test-drive an electric car as transport minister. But when it comes to a longer-term commitment to bring down emissions, it seems ministers are saying one thing and doing the other.

Since May of 2011, Cabinet ministers, with the exception of the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, and Justice and Equality Minister, have been using their own cars for official business, on the same basis as ministers of state.

While ministers provide their own private car for official purposes, they are entitled to two civilian drivers working week on/week off, and can claim back mileage.

Despite a host of incentives to go green and purchase electric cars, which the current Government has introduced, not one of the ministers or ministers of state who responded has an electric vehicle.

Mr Naughten this week said: What we are looking at in Government is a suite of measures to try and reduce the overall consumption of diesel, particularly for domestic cars. I think it is something that we have to do to discourage people... and actively consider how we can actually do that.

Considering Mr Naughten cant even get his own Cabinet colleagues on board, it appears we have a long way to go to reach 500,000 electric cars on our roads.

Answered

Ministers

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar: State car

Tanaiste Simon Coveney: State car

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan: State car

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe: Skoda Superb, 2015, diesel

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed: Skoda Superb, 2013, diesel

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten: Toyota Prius, 2016, hybrid

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy: Skoda Octavia, 2014, diesel

Ministers of State:

Minister of State at the Department of Education Mary Mitchell OConnor: Audi A3, 2013, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection Finian McGrath: Opel Insignia, 2014, diesel

Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee: Mazda, 2016, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Patrick ODonovan: Audi A6, 2015, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Finance Michael DArcy: Peugeot 509, 2016, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Ciaran Cannon: BMW 316d, 2013, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Health Jim Daly: Opel, 2017, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin: Audi A4, 2007, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Housing John Paul Phelan: Audi A4, 2016, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Health Catherine Byrne: Ford Focus, 2013, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development Sean Kyne: Skoda Superb, 2015, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Andrew Doyle: Honda Accord, 2010, diesel

Minister of State at the Department of Housing Damien English: Saab, 2007,diesel

Minister of State for the OPW, Kevin Boxer Moran: BMW 520, 2014, diesel

Declined

The following declined to provide information on the type of car they use.

Ministers

Minister for Education Richard Bruton: refused to provide details

Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation Heather Humphreys: refused to provide details

Minister for Health Simon Harris: awaiting response

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross: refused to give details

Minister for Children and Youth Affair, Katherine Zappone: awaiting response

Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring: refused to provide details

Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty: refused to provide details

Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan: refused to provide details

Ministers of State:Times Up is a great campaign, and times up was a theme of the week. Times Up was established at the start of the year by a group of women in Hollywood to raise money to fight cases of sexual harassment, writes Michael Clifford.

Last Sunday at the Baftas a whole host of female stars wore black in solidarity with the campaign. The only one to demur was Frances McDormand, who won the Bafta for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but she expressed empathy with the campaign.

Time is being called on those who have always used power of one sort or another to sexually harass or abuse, mainly women, but also men.

The events of the last few months are encouraging, but the issue is as old as the hills. Hopefully, the campaign will spread right into the parts of the world where womens rights remain in the dark ages.

Is time up for Neanderthal attitudes towards women in general? One incident last week suggests there may be a way to go.

While attitudes towards women are changing across the world and as the deluge of allegations subsides, the dreary chambers of county councils are emerging once again. (With apologies to Mr Churchill).

At a meeting of Kerry County Council last week, Fine Gaels Aoife Thornton was told by the chairman and party colleague, John Sheehan, that she should get the hair dyed blonde if she wanted speaking time.

Ms Thornton, who combines her public representation with a solicitors practice and rearing three small children, had tried to get speaking time at the meeting.

Then she jokingly mentioned that she had worn a yellow jacket in the hope of not being overlooked. Her colleague suggested she could do something with her hair colouring to further her case.

When it did come to her turn to speak she was nearly drowned out with the laughing and shouting in response to the elevated wit and repartee set loose in the male-dominated chamber.

How would it have gone down if one of the five women in the 33-member council made a joke about councillors sporting beer bellies, or having no hair at all worth colouring?

Councillor Sheehan did apologise for the remark on radio the following day, but the incident suggests that time is not yet up on some perceptions of women in politics.

Maybe somebody should get to work and plant three billboards outside Tralee to reflect the distance yet to be travelled from the 1950s in some quarters. The red boards could spell out: COUNCILLORS PREFER BLONDES.

Times up for another iconic shop in a city centre. After the announcement that Liam Russells bookshop in Cork is to close, it emerged during the week that Waltons music shop in Dublin is to relocate a soulless shopping centre from its George Street store.

Its one more step towards the Dystopian prospect of city streets dominated by shops bearing global brands and peopled by staff who talk with demented cheerfulness in acquired American accents.

Any quirkiness or independent thought is to be dispatched into a consumer wilderness. Times up on the unique character of various cities and towns in the State. Was it for this the women of 1916 went out and fought and were forgotten about?

With all this change at least time appears to be on the side of one national institution.

It emerged during the week from sources familiar with the presidents thinking that Michael D Higgins intends to run for a second term.

The first thing to observe here is that the source of the story should be identifiable as there are a very limited number of minds like Michael Ds.

Being familiar with his thinking is a state that would be confined to a few fellow intellectuals.Lets face it, Michael D is a breath of fresh air in a public sphere of managerial politicians who look like they have just arrived blow-dried from the gym.

He gives good speeches. I saw him deliver one last year on the evolution of the world economy since the Bretton Woods conference at the end of the Second World War. He expounded on the shortcoming of various economic theorists, the proliferation of neo-liberalism and the consequent reaction on what he called the European street.

There was both eating and drinking in the speech, even if he lost me around the 1970s oil crisis.

The point is, you might not know what hes talking about but deep in your maw you know it must be great stuff.

Apart from having an enormous brain Michael D knows how to eat with the right knives and forks at state banquets.

More importantly, though, he is a poet, a real, living, breathing poet who can compose verse between courses at state banquets, while multitasking by engaging with visiting guests and their banalities.

Do foreign heads of state come here and meet this man who can articulate on the deep recesses of the human condition through the English language and then compare him to the president of the United States who is barely functionally literate?

They must all go home and tell their people that the Irish are a fierce crowd altogether for the poetry and you couldnt find a sweeter place to relocate all technology companies, irrespective of the low corporate tax rate.

The naysayers point to Michael Ds age. Yet, he will be no older than Eamon DeValera, who occupied the office well into his 80s. Dev owed much of his popularity to the legend that grew out of his participation in the 1916 Rising.

Michael D is an avid fan of Galway United, a heroic pursuit at the best of times.

For those who claim that Michael Ds time is up, the obvious question is who would do a better job. The only candidate to declare thus far is senator Gerard Craughwell, a competent man who has brought fresh thinking to the Seanad.

But, pray tell, has he ever as much as had a run at putting together a nursery rhyme, not to mind an actual poem?

Does he know how we got here as a civilisation? Does he have access to whats going down on the European street?

Has he ever endured a League of Ireland match on the western seaboard in the dog days of winter?

So perhaps time is on Michael Ds side. As the world spins through change, surely we need something to remind us that there is more to life than consuming, more to culture than Netflix, more to the presidency than cutting ribbons.Update 6pm: Belgian police sealed off part of a Brussels suburb on Thursday and searched two apartments, warning residents to stay inside following witness reports that an armed man could be at large.

The area in the Forest neighbourhood was reopened after about three hours and police spokeswoman Kathleen Calie later confirmed the incident was not terror-related.

The incident began after a Polish man reported what he said was a murder, Ms Calie said. When police arrived at the address they found nothing. "It seems he may have expressed himself badly," Ms Calie said.

But witnesses there said that an incident had happened at a nearby building and they reported seeing an armed man, so officers from Belgium's special federal police force were called in, she said.

Update 2.30pm: Belgian police say an incident involving a suspected armed man in Brussels is not terror-related.

Brussels police spokeswoman Kathleen Calie said officers from Belgium's special federal force were deployed to the Forest suburb following witness accounts that an armed person could be at large.

A search of one building produced nothing, and a second search is ongoing.

Ms Calie said "we can rule out terrorism."

Police sealed off part of the neighbourhood and Associated Press television images showed armed officers hiding behind buildings and staking out a rooftop in the area.

Masked police, some with automatic weapons, were aiming their guns high at a building near the Place Saint-Denis. A police helicopter flew overhead.

Broadcaster RTL quoted Forest mayor Marc-Jean Ghyssels as saying that police "suspect the presence of an armed man". The area was sealed off at around 12.30pm local time and people were warned to stay in their homes.

A suspect in the deadly Paris attacks in November 2015, Salah Abdeslam, hid in Forest and was caught up in a shootout with police in a nearby apartment.

Belgium recently lowered its threat level after almost two years on high alert. In March 2016 suicide bomb attacks on the Brussels airport and an underground station killed 32 people.

File image of Police patroling in Brussels, Belgium.

Earlier: Police lock down part of Brussels amid gunman reports

Belgian police have sealed off part of a Brussels suburb amid media reports that an armed man could be at large.

Associated Press television images showed armed police officers hiding behind buildings and staking out a building rooftop in the Forest neighbourhood of the Belgian capital.

A police helicopter flew overhead.

Broadcaster RTL quoted Forest mayor Marc-Jean Ghyssels as saying that police "suspect the presence of an armed man".

A suspect in the deadly Paris attacks in November 2015, Salah Abdeslam, hid in Forest and was caught up in a shootout with police in a nearby apartment.

There was no immediate indication that today's incident is terror-related.

This is a breaking news story, more as we get it...Execution team members jabbed an inmate repeatedly in the lower legs, ankles and groin in effort to find a usable vein before the state called off the lethal injection, according to a court filing by the inmate's lawyer.

Lawyer Bernard Harcourt said he is seeking more information about what happened during the attempted execution of his client, 61-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm, on Thursday night.

US District Judge Karon Bowdre yesterday ordered a medical examination of Hamm and directed the state to maintain material related to the attempt.

Hamm, who has battled lymphoma, was to be executed on Thursday for the 1987 slaying of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham.

However, prison officials announced at around 11.30pm that they were halting the execution because medical staff did not think they could obtain "the appropriate venous access" before a midnight deadline.

The announcement came about two-and-a-half hours after the US Supreme Court cleared the execution to proceed.

The state prison commissioner said the execution was delayed because of a "time issue".

"I wouldn't necessarily characterise what we had tonight as a problem. ... The only indication I have is that in their medical judgment it was more of a time issue given the late hour," Commissioner Jeff Dunn said early on Friday.

Mr Harcourt said the execution was botched and that he had argued in court filings since July that lethal injection would be difficult and painful because Hamm's veins have been severely compromised by lymphoma, hepatitis and prior drug use.

Two execution team members, working on each side of Hamm's body, tried multiple times to insert the intravenous line on his left and right legs and ankles, and later turned him over and slapped the back of his legs to try to get a vein, Mr Harcourt said.

They then tried unsuccessfully to connect the line through his groin, he said.

"He's in great pain from yesterday evening, physically, from all of the attempts to access his veins in his lower extremities and in his groin," Mr Harcourt said.

Alabama carries out executions by lethal injection unless an inmate requests the electric chair.

Hamm was convicted in the 1987 killing of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham.

Mr Cunningham was shot once in the head while working an overnight shift at a Cullman motel.

Police said US$410 dollars (295) was taken during the robbery. Hamm gave police a confession and he was convicted after two accomplices testified against him in exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to lesser offences, according to court documents.

Executions were also scheduled to take place Thursday in Texas and Florida.

In Florida, Eric Scott Branch, 47, was pronounced dead at 7.05pm on Thursday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Branch was convicted of the rape and fatal beating of University of West Florida student Susan Morris, 21.

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott accepted the recommendation of the state's parole board and granted clemency for Thomas "Bart" Whitaker, on death row for masterminding the fatal shootings of his mother and brother at their suburban Houston home in 2003.

- APCork City Council approved the ambitious HQ mixed-use scheme on Horgans Quay yesterday which will deliver more than 230 apartments, a 136-bed hotel, and up to 400,000sq ft of office space, with capacity for up to 5,000 employees, across eight buildings on a six-acre riverside site alongside the citys train station.

Most of the schemes delivered in the docklands to date have been office blocks. But this scheme, which includes a residential and retail element, as well as a hotel, marks a significant expansion of the city eastwards into the docklands.The Government has been accused of a phenomenal lack of commitment on climate change with many ministers still driving diesel cars.

Despite announcing a 22bn package for climate- change measures under Project 2040 and encouraging a move away from diesel, an Irish Examiner survey today reveals that ministers are failing to switch to electric.It comes amid mounting concerns over the future of the former St Kevins unit, in Shanakiel, on the northside of Cork city, seven months on from a devastating fire.

City councillors questioned city officials, last week, about the status of the HSE-owned building and site, and whether progress was being made, in relation to its use as a possible location for housing.

The citys head of planning, Pat Ledwidge, said officials have made it known to the Government that they would like the site to be considered for housing, and that engagement with the Government on that issue is ongoing.

But in response to a series of questions from the Irish Examiner, the HSE said it previously offered the site to government departments and got no response, and, as a result, is now planning to dispose of the site on the open market.

The former mental hospital, which was part of the former Our Ladys psychiatric complex, in Shanakiel, was gutted last July, in a fire that is believed to have been started deliberately.

It took almost eight hours for the blaze to be brought under control.

Two-thirds of the imposing, five-storey, red-brick Victorian building were destroyed. The building has been boarded-up since.

Lord Mayor Cllr Tony Fitzgerald led calls, soon afterwards, for the development of a masterplan for the site, which should prime it for housing.

Last week, Mr Ledwidge confirmed that officials are still pressing the case, with the Government, for the site to be used for housing.

The HSE said, in a statement, that because it doesnt require the continued use of the site as a healthcare campus, the site has been deemed surplus to HSE requirements.

As a result, the site was offered previously to other government departments, under the protocol for the intra-state transfer of state property assets and the protocol for the intra-state sharing of state property assets, as advised by Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, a spokesperson said.

The HSE has not received confirmation, from other government departments, of their interest in the property, and so the HSE intend to dispose of the property on the open market.

The HSE was criticised, some years ago, when it emerged that 1.5m was spent on security for the former mental-health facility, from its closure, in 2002, to 2007. The cost of providing security at the site and associated lands, since 2007, fell to around 626,000, it emerged last year.

The HSE confirmed, this week, that it spent an additional 63,902.72, ex-VAT, on further security, following the fire.

The extra-over cost covers additional security provision, between July 4 and August 18, 2017, it said.

It was not clear, last night, when or how the site will be disposed of on the open market.New Zealand was found to be the most open and transparent country in the world, followed closely by Denmark, Finland, and Norway.

Syria, South Sudan, and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12, and 9 respectively out of 100.

The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).

Britain ranked joint 8th place alongside Luxembourg, Canada and Holland while the US ranked in joint 16th place alongside Belguim and Austria.

Ireland scored a total of 74 points out of 100, which was one point higher than 2016 but one lower than the 75 points scored in 2015.

The CPI 2017 is calculated using 13 different data sources from 12 different institutions that capture perceptions of corruption within the past two years.

The 2017 report found that authoritarianism rose across Eastern and South East Europe, hindering anti-corruption efforts and threatening civil liberties. Across the region, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and independent media experienced challenges in their ability to monitor and criticise decision-makers, the report said.

The analysis, which incorporates data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, shows that in the last six years, more than nine out of 10 journalists were killed in countries that score 45 or less on the index.

Transparency International made a number of recommendations in the report.

It says governments and businesses must do more to encourage free speech, independent media, political dissent and an open and engaged civil society.

It also says governments should minimise regulations on media, including traditional and new media, and ensure that journalists can work without fear of repression or violence.

In addition, international donors should consider press freedom relevant to development aid or access to international organisations.

The report also says civil society and governments should promote laws that focus on access to information.

Governments and businesses should proactively disclose relevant public interest information in open data formats, the report states.The banned substances are sometimes used in products used for weight loss, bodybuilding, appetite suppressants and impotence remedy.

The European Commission has published the results of control programme which involved organisations from member States identifying food sold online that did not comply with EU legislation.

Last September 25 member states, along with Switzerland and Norway checked 1,077 websites which identified 779 offers for sale of food which did not comply with EU legislation.

Here, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland identified 17 types of unauthorised novel foods and six kinds of food supplements making unpermitted claims.

A spokesperson for the FSAI said it is precluded by law from identifying the products in question, but that they were found on websites with either.ie domains or offered for delivery to Ireland.

However, the novel foods identified in the programme all contain one or more of four different ingredients.

Ireland takes part in EU-wide internet sweep of food sold online https://t.co/ZjOOudniAt pic.twitter.com/Pw7Odxp8d2  FoodSafetyAuthority (@FSAIinfo) February 23, 2018

They are defined as foods that not been consumed to a significant degree before 1997. They include agmatine (4-aminobutyl) guanidine sulfate, used for muscle-building, and acacia rigidula, which features as an ingredient in weight-loss products.

The other banned novel foods are epimedium grandiflorum, also known as horny goat weed which is sold in natural impotence remedies, and Hoodia gordonii or Bushmans hat which is an ingredient in appetite suppressants.

The authorities also sought out retailers offering food supplements promising the prevention, treatment, or cure of bone and joint diseases.

Food Safety Authority of Ireland chief executive Pamela Byrne, said the high number of non-compliant offers found in the report is a clear sign that e-commerce controls in Europe need to be strengthened: Whether purchasing from a physical store or online, consumers have the right to buy safe food which does not mislead.

"Furthermore, businesses selling food online must abide by the same rules as their bricks and mortar counterparts.

To strengthen controls in Ireland, the FSAI has established a cross-agency working group focusing on online sales of food and last year published information for food businesses selling or advertising food online.

I strongly encourage all food businesses to take the time to read this information and revise their online offers, as necessary. Inspectors are putting more focus on reviewing the online activity of food businesses, she said.Mr Varadkar and Mr Tusk lashed out at the British prime ministers half-way house plan to end the Brexit customs union stalemate as the Taoiseach separately warned hard-line Brexiteers to respect our vote on the 20-year-old Good Friday Agreement.

In a bid to finally outline a coherent Brexit plan on Thursday, Ms May held a high-level Brexit cabinet committee meeting in Chequers to find a balance between a soft and hard departure from the EU.

Leaks yesterday indicated Ms May offered ministers a choice between three baskets  ongoing EU rules alignment; the continuation of some EU regulations; or complete divergence involving either a hard Irish border or customs checks between the North and Britain, which the DUP opposes.

Ministers chose the middle option, which Downing St had hoped would end the stand-off when Ms May announces it next Friday.

However, that hope was shattered last night, after both Mr Varadkar and Mr Tusk insisted the plan will not be accepted.

That [the British plan] is not a significant move away from having your cake and eating it, and that just isnt possible, Mr Varadkar told reporters in Brussels after an informal European Council meeting last night, describing the option as cherry-picking.

Mr Tusk was similarly dismissive, saying: I am glad the UK government seems to be moving towards a more detailed position. However, I am afraid that the UK position today is based on pure illusion.

Mr Varadkar hit out at hardline Brexiteers calling for the Good Friday Agreement to be scrapped as it is causing Brexit difficulties.

I would say to them what they always say to us: Respect our vote. The UK voted 52-48% to leave the EU. [We voted] 94% for the Good Friday Agreement in Ireland and 71% in Northern Ireland, Mr Varadkar said.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach admitted that he only found out last week that last Decembers bulletproof Irish border agreement will not be included in the EU-UK withdrawal deal and will instead be relegated to a linked protocol.

Asked when he learned of the move, after the decision was leaked in recent days before the withdrawal deals wording is published, Mr Varadkar said I suppose last week.A new radiotherapy service, Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) has been launched at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and should immediately benefit 60% of its breast cancer patients, an average of 180 a year.

In a statement yesterday, the HSE described it as a unique way of treating patients with left-sided breast cancer.

The HSE said left-sided breast cancer patients are at a heightened risk when receiving radiation as there is limited protection for the heart during treatment.

In some cases, radiation treatment can be extremely harmful to these patients, the HSE said.

However, DIBH radiotherapy treatment is delivered to patients while they are holding a deep breath as this moves a patients breast away from their heart.

The patients breathing is carefully controlled by specialist equipment, and as a result, radiation doses to the patients heart are vastly reduced.

This has long-term benefits to the patient and reduces the rate of morbidity and mortality.

The HSE said the new therapy was enabled through a multidisciplinary effort in CUHs radiotherapy oncology department.

The equipment for the new treatment was sponsored by independent charity Aid Cancer Treatment.

However, a spokesperson for the hospital was unable to say how much the equipment cost.

Tony McNamara, CUH CEO, said they were very proud to announce the new treatment. Id like to thank the staff of the radiation therapy department for their efforts in bringing this cutting-edge treatment to the patients of CUH.

Id also like to thank Aid Cancer Treatment for sponsoring the equipment used during treatment, he said.

CUH patients with left-sided breast cancer will be able to avail of this treatment without having to travel to Waterford or Dublin.

We are wrecked tired here at Lollipop HQ.. here is to another great day of fundraising tomorrow! Thank you to everyone for all of your support today- please share and tag us in all of your lollipop day pictures! We love to see all of our supporters enjoying our delicious lollies! pic.twitter.com/YB4fo36RgB  Oesophageal Cancer Fund (@OesophagealCF) February 23, 2018

Separately, members of the general public are being asked to dig deep for Lollipop Day, the annual fundraiser for oesophageal cancer.

Irish oesophageal cancer rates remain among the highest in Europe, with a continued rise in incidence, particularly in men.

Oesophageal Cancer Fund (OCF) is asking the public to buy a lollipop (2) from volunteers today, to show support and help fund research into oesophageal cancer.

Oesophageal cancer starts in the food pipe, known as the oesophagus or gullet. Symptoms include difficulty swallowing, frequent and persistent hiccups, acid indigestion, and constant burping or coughing.On foot of her election, she has vacated her position on the Public Accounts Committee and is to be replaced by Cork North Central TD, Jonathan OBrien.

There are a number of vacancies in respect of the Sinn Fein team in Leinster House arising from my election as Uachtaran Shinn Fein.

"Whilst not undertaking a full reshuffle of spokes- persons at this time, I am appointing Pearse Doherty TD as my deputy leader in the Dail and Jonathan OBrien TD as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, she said.

In explaining her decision to appoint Mr Doherty as her Dail deputy leader, Ms McDonald said: Pearse will play an important role in advancing the partys work in Leinster House, fielding leaders questions to the Tanaiste on Thursdays and will continue in his role as finance spokesperson.

Jonathan O'Brien

She also paid tribute to Mr OBrien: Jonathan has worked closely with Pearse in the finance portfolio on issues relating to insurance, public sector pay and reform and will now sit on the Public Accounts Committee, in addition to his other responsibilities.

The new party leader said she is currently engaged in a process of consultation with all of the partys Oireachtas members and will make further announcements in due course.

Meanwhile, DUP justice and legacy spokesman, Jeffrey Donaldson MP, claims he was not aware of a side deal between Sinn Fein and the British government over the release of funding for legacy inquests. The DUP politician was speaking on BBC programme The View.You are a fierce mum, he told Jane Lamcellari, mother of musician, Jayden, 15 after agreeing to sponsor the talented teen.

Jane appealed via RTEs Ryan Tubridy Show on Thursday for support for her sons training at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Jayden Lamcellari attends the academy every week. The UKs oldest conservatoire has waived its fee to help him realise his full potential.

He was also offered scholarships to study in the Royal College of Music in London and the Guild Hall in London.

Ryan invited Jayden to perform on last nights Late Late Show even though he had never heard him play.

Jane, from Blanchardstown, Dublin, full time and has a 15-month-old baby girl.

She said the family is struggling to meet the annual travel costs of about 4,000.

Jayden has to be accompanied by either Ms McColgan or her husband, Enrien when he flies to London every Saturday.

The young cellist who has had the entire country talking - Jayden Lamcellari (15) from Blanchardstown performing on the #latelate tonight pic.twitter.com/CbTpsKflxT  The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) February 23, 2018

The Junior Cert student also won a competition to play at Carnegie Hall in New York in June.

Jane spent a year trying to get support for her son but found there was none. She was at her wits end when she appealed to Mr Tubridy for help.

After hearing Jane so eloquently stating her position on the radio, the director of Riverdance said he wants to do all he can to help support Jane and her son.

He was speaking from Chicago in the United States where Riverdance is playing.

We have contacts in New York who could certainly help with Carnegie Hall, and I would be happy to sponsor the 4,000 a year that would get him (Jayden) what he needs, he said.

Ryan asked the music business entrepreneur why Janes story caught his ear.

I have always loved and tried to support talent in many ways, from dancers to musicians to painters and writers and whenever I can over the years, I have supported individuals who have come my way. I love youth, and I love talent.

He said that Jane should organise a group of fierce Irish mums like her and help other children like Jayden.

Jane said she finds that there is no support for talented children like her son unless they are over 18 years: What is here for children in Ireland, particularly young musicians like my son, is just not up to power with the rest of Europe. It is a greater issue that needs to be addressed.Neil ODonovan, 26, of Lyre, Clonakilty, Co Cork, was directed by Judge Sean O Donnabhain to attend his doctor within the next week and thereafter to attend a psychiatrist.

Neil ODonovan pleaded guilty earlier in the week to a charge of assault causing serious harm to his father Willie ODonovan at Teadies Upper, Enniskeane, Co Cork.

Garda Tadhg OSullivan said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court that after the defendant used his fists to attack his father, Neil ODonovan then used a hatchet to smash up a bedside locker and other property in the bedroom.

He pleaded guilty to a criminal damage charge arising out of that.

Ben Shorten, defence barrister, said: I have impressed on him the need to engage with his GP and

consultant psychiatrist.

Prosecution barrister Siobhan Lankford said: There is no doubt he is in need of psychiatric assistance, whether that is in prison or in the community.

The judge noted that when Neil ODonovan was on bail previously, there was no breach of terms of bail.

Mr Shorten BL said the accused was now living with another relative and not at the family home. His mother is in court to support him, Mr Shorten said.

The judge said if any of the bail conditions were breached, the case was to be re-entered by gardai. Sentencing was put back until April 25.

Garda OSullivan said the accused went to his parents bedroom and assaulted his father, who was hospitalised for two nights. He got three stitches to a head wound.

He sustained a brain injury which caused short-term memory loss and permanently damaged his sense of smell.IT Sligo, along with University College Cork (UCC) and the Irish Marine Institute are all part of the University of Bradfords Europes Lost Frontiers research team, which have set out on an expedition to explore the extensive submerged landscapes that exist between Ireland and Great Britain.

Following the last Ice Age, large areas of habitable land were submerged following climate change and sea level rise across the world.

Globally, the sea level rose around 120m and an area more than twice that of the modern US was lost to the sea.

Beneath the waves of the Irish Sea is a prehistoric palaeolandscape of plains, hills, marshlands and river valleys in which evidence of human activity is expected to be preserved.

This landscape is similar to Doggerland, an area of the southern North Sea and currently the best-known example of a palaeolandscape in Europe.

Doggerland has been extensively researched by Prof Vince Gaffney, principal investigator of the Europes Lost Frontiers Project, who said that valuable clues to the first settlers of Ireland could be found under the waves.

Research by the project team has also provided accurate maps for the submerged lands that lie between Ireland and Britain and these are suspected to hold crucial information regarding the first settlers of Ireland and adjacent lands along the Atlantic corridor, he said.

To provide this evidence, sediment is currently being taken from 20 sites by the Irish Research Vessel RV Celtic Voyager in Liverpool and Cardigan Bays.

The research started on Wednesday and will continue until Sunday and the findings will be studied by an international research team.He made the comments as it was confirmed the Fine Gael general secretary is to speak with Ms Noone and the other individual involved about the matter before deciding in the coming days on whether it warrants a full investigation.

Speaking during the weekly Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday evening during a debate on the need for more women to enter politics, Ms Noone said such a change would be difficult in the current climate.

Breaking her silence on the issue, she claims she was the subject of a bullying campaign by a Seanad party colleague who has made misogynistic remarks about her and sought to undermine her for a number of years.

The claims, which have yet to be substantiated, led to Mr Varadkar telling Wednesdays behind-closed-doors meeting that Fine Gael will not accept any internal bullying and of the decision to launch an initial investigation into what is alleged to have happened.

Asked by reporters before an informal meeting of the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, yesterday what action is now being taken, he said discussions with both individuals have taken place, adding that the matter will be addressed and will not be ignored.

Yes, theres a dispute between two senators, said Mr Varadkar.

Senator Noone has made a complaint against another senator in terms of the way he has spoken to her, and that complaint has been taken very seriously. It will be investigated by the party, that will be done swiftly and any necessary action will be taken on foot of that.

The Irish Examiner understands that Mr Varadkar spoke with Ms Noone privately about the allegations on Thursday.

In response to the Wednesday parliamentary party revelations, he also asked Fine Gael chairman, Martin Heydon, to contact party secretary general, Tom Curran, who is currently examining the matter.

Mr Curran is expected to speak with both Ms Noone and her Seanad colleague over the coming days before recommending whether the claims warrant further investigation early next week.

Speaking on RTE Radios Today With Sean ORourke yesterday, Mr Heydon said the allegations will be examined in full and an initial answer will be given in days, not weeks.Dateline How Do We Break the Silence on Rape?

Irrawaddy reporter Nyein Nyein talks with Daw Thandar Kyaw, child protection adviser, and gender-equality advocate Daw Nilar Tun about preventing and punishing rape, particularly against children.

Nyein Nyein: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss punishing and deterring rapists of children as well as awareness campaigns with Daw Thandar Kyaw, child protection adviser at Save the Children, and Daw Nilar Tun, joint chairperson of the Gender Equality Network. Im Irrawaddy English reporter Nyein Nyein.

Dateline Irrawaddy Dateline Irrawaddy :                 Save the children         GEN     Posted by The Irrawaddy  Burmese Edition on Friday, February 23, 2018

Nyein Nyein: There have been more and more reported rape cases of women and children. There are rape cases almost every day and the age of the victims range from above 60 to below 2 years, which is quite disturbing. There has been a large number of rape cases since the beginning of 2018, and these have been reported in various areas including Yangon, Mandalay, Hpa-kant and Mawlamyine. What can we do to deter rape?

Thandar Kyaw: In addition to rape, there are other forms of sexual abuse. To cite one example I came across, a 26-year-old man put ash along with a spoon into the sex organ of a 4-year-old girl. Also, sexually touching children can be considered rape. It is very important to prevent this. Because of the economic conditions in our country, both parents usually have to work to earn a living and have to leave their children at home. They think that their children are safe with neighbors and acquaintances. But then, 90 percent of cases are acquaintance rape. Only around 10 percent of rape cases are committed by strangers. In acquaintance rape, offenders are mostly cousins, uncles, friends of uncles, neighbors, grandfathers, fathers, and stepfathers. So, we would advise parents not to leave children alone with an acquaintance; dont leave [them] under a single pair of eyes.

NN: People our age grew up in a safe and secure environment. So, we think that our children are also safe. But we have been shocked by recent rape cases. We find these tragedies hard to believe. What are the weak points in the laws protecting women and girls?

Nilar Tun: Our country does have a law protecting women. But that law has a lot of shortcomings. The existing laws define rape as penetration only. But as Daw Thandaw Kyaw has pointed out, there have been cases of inserting fingers and spoons. So, I would say the definition of rape is not comprehensive enough. As a result, there have been many cases in which loopholes have been exploited. This means effective prevention cant be provided.

NN: There has also been criticism that the existing laws have not been properly enforced. What are the difficulties in enforcing the laws? What are the weaknesses of law enforcement organizations? Ma Thandar Kyaw, your organization handles a lot of cases and cooperates with law enforcement. Can you share your experiences?

TK: In our culture, rape is a source of shame, so it often goes unreported. In some cases, the offender is rich or powerful or has higher social status [than the victim]. An example is outside tuition teachers [those who teach to primary/secondary students outside of school hours]. In one case, an outside tuition teacher sexually abused their entire class, both boys and girls. But, [people] didnt believe it, and thought the children were talking nonsense. Later it was found to be true. There have also been [unreported] cases committed by rich people. For example, a 60-year-old neighbor sexually abused a 3-year-old girl. He was rich and the parents of the victim couldnt afford the trial expenses. So, they took compensation and settled the case. There are cases that go unreported because of shame. There are cases in which the daughter is raped by her step-father and the mother dare not report it. When a case is reported, it is important that the police who conduct the investigation are specially trained. If a child victim is sent to a hospital after being raped, hospitals refuse to give medical care if the case has not yet been reported to the police. The child is in urgent need of medical care, covered with blood, but the hospital refuses to give medical care without a police letter. We can improve this situation. Hospitals can give medical care first and ask for a police letter later. In one case I encountered, we lost the lawsuit at the first stage [township-level court] though the offender was guilty. We had to appeal to a higher level [court] as the offender was rich. As he was rich, he paid bribes and

NN: Money talks.

TK: Yes, there are cases in which richer persons win lawsuits. This is still the case. We also need to improve this situation. This is also a challenge in handling child-rape cases.

NN: This issue involves public education. Speaking of public education, there have been campaigns, but not with clear policies outlined by all stakeholders. In your experience, what is the response of the public to education campaigns?

NT: Lately, there has been wider media coverage of the issue, including calls for imposing the death penalty in rape cases. Given this, we can conclude that people dont accept [the increase in rape cases]. But as far as awareness-raising programs go, there are hardly any being conducted at the national level at present. It is fair to say that the concerned departments and organizations are doing small-scale activities on their own.

TK: There is a great need to raise awareness about this issue. But in the context of our culture, it is a difficult issue to talk about between parents and children. We have to overcome this. In order for children to be able to protect themselves, parents need to tell their children which of their body parts should not be touched by anyone; and that they can refuse if somebody tries to touch those parts and that they should tell their parents if somebody touches those parts. It is still difficult for parents to have a friendly talk to their children in this way. People still believe that such things are not appropriate to say to their children. But public awareness needs to be raised on a wider scale.

TK: As you have just said, similar measures should also be taken at schools and both parents and teachers should always monitor childrens behavior and check to see if they have any injuries on their body. They should also know that they need to report it to the authorities if they find injuries. For example, if a teacher finds irregular behaviors and injuries on a child, that teacher should recognize that this is not natural and think about where to report it. Could they, for example, report it to the Social Welfare Department through its number for exploitation and sexual violence against children? When personnel from the Health Department visit schools, they should do the same if they find suspicious injuries, even if the visit was for a different purpose. In this way, we will be able to prevent rapes more effectively. If we can broadcast more television programs and debates on such issues through the media, awareness campaigns will be more effective.

NN: There have been cases in which younger teenage girls were raped by older teenage boys. In our society, boys are always taught to treat girls and women as their sisters. There are still such cases, however much we teach them. How important is the participation of men in the campaign?

NT: The participation of men is very important to prevent, reduce or eliminate sexual violence based on gender discrimination. This is because more men are involved in committing rapes than women, although not all men commit rapes. Therefore, their participation is very important. Although our society teaches them to treat girls of their own age as sisters, they too have to live in narrow boxes for too long. Teenage boys think they should have sexual experiences and they will be real men only when they have done so.

NN: It is said that law enforcement as well as awareness campaigners are important in prevention of rapes. Last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced that one of the reasons for rape is the wearing of revealing clothing by girls and women. This is a government ministry blaming rape on the way girls dress. This is victim blaming. What do you think of the statement from the ministry?

NT: We need to ask whether all victims dress like that. If we look at the world, rapes cases are abundant in places where every part of a girl or womans body is wrapped up in clothing. Therefore, we think it is unacceptable to blame dress style for rapes. It depends on peoples attitudes. A person with a rapists mentality will commit rapes whether the victim is dressed properly or not. However, people who do not have such a mentality will never commit such crimes. It depends on the mentality, not on the dress.

NN: Whats your opinion?

TK: I agree. I cannot accept blaming dress style for rape because even nuns have been raped. No one dresses as properly as nuns. We need to do deeper research into it. We need data and statistics because everything needs to be based on evidence. In Myanmar, rapes are mostly committed in five states and regions. We need to do research into why most rapes were committed in these states and regions during a particular period under certain conditions and who committed the rapes. We need to know everything including whether the victims dressed properly, whether a particular situation forced them to be victims, whether the rape was committed intentionally or not. It is necessary for us to know such things. Only then will we be able to adopt effective measures to prevent rapes against girls and women.Burma Three bombs rock Myanmar's northwestern city Sittwe, policeman injured

Security forces at one of the blast sites in Sittwe on Saturday. / MOI / Facebook

YANGON- Three bombs rocked the capital of Myanmars restive Rakhine State, Sittwe, early on Saturday, police said, adding that a policeman was slightly injured and the authorities were still working to determine who was behind the bombings.

The blasts come only three days after a large bomb killed two bank employees and injured nearly two dozen other people in the northeastern city of Lashio, where several ethnic insurgent groups are fighting the Myanmar military.

Sittwe is the capital of Myanmars violence-torn Rakhine where Rohingya Muslim insurgent attacks last year sparked a massive military response that pushed 688,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh. Many of them recounted killings, rape and arson by Myanmar soldiers and police.

One of the Sittwe bombs  which went off around 4:30 a.m.  exploded in the backyard of an outspoken state government secretary, Tin Maung Swe, police said. He is one of the highest-ranking officials in the local administration. The other two bombs exploded near the high court and a land record office.

Therere suspects, but now is not the time to talk. Police are trying to make sure about the suspects by analysing the structure of the bombs, police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe, told Reuters by phone.

Myo Thu Soe also said three other unexploded hand-made bombs were found in the city.

The United Nations and the United States have called the crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, but the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has blocked U.N. investigators and other independent monitors from the conflict zone.

Myanmar says its forces have been engaged in a legitimate campaign against Muslim terrorists.

No one has claimed responsibility for the Saturday blasts. The twitter account of the Rohingya insurgents, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, did not post anything new as of Saturday mid-morning.

Rakhine is also home to the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group fighting against the Myanmar Army.

Tensions have increased in Rakhine since mid-January, when Myanmar police shot dead seven demonstrators, while 12 people were injured in Mrauk U township in the northern part of the state, after a local gathering celebrating an ancient Buddhist Arakan kingdom turned violent.

Rakhine police chief Colonel Aung Myat Moe told Reuters that security was being tightened in the city and police were inspecting exit roads out of Sittwe.News This Week in Parliament (Feb. 19-23)

Thousands of pro-military demonstrators march in Yangon in support of Myanmars military and civil servants on Oct. 29, 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

Monday (Feb. 19)

Upper House lawmaker U Myat Nyana Soe submitted draft amendments to the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law. The new provisions would require protest organizers to inform authorities of the estimated cost of their event and to identify the person or organization paying for it.

Tuesday (Feb. 20)

Seventeen Lower House lawmakers discussed a motion calling for the union government to adopt transparent long- and short-term projects designed to ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of northern Rakhine State and to fulfill the needs of local people to lead secure lives. The motion was submitted by lawmaker U Aung Thaung Shwe, of Rakhines Buthidaung Township.

A representative of Myanmars military said security forces were also troubled by the Arakan Army, accusing it of being unpatriotic and of launching an armed struggle to disrupt the peace process.

Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Win Myat Aye added that it was necessary to handle the situation in Rakhine State cautiously and with foresight. He said the governments actions in Rakhine State were meeting the locals needs and desires.

The motion was added to the record.

Wednesday (Feb. 21)

Upper House lawmaker Siang Awi asked the union government when it would release its figures on the countrys ethnic makeup. Union Minister for Population and Immigration U Thein Swe said the figures would be released after further negotiations and consultations with ethnic community leaders and representatives, historians, anthropologists and cultural experts in order to finalize the terminology and classifications of the ethnic groups.

Thursday (Feb. 22)

Parliament approved a proposal from the president to borrow 14.95 billion yen ($140 million) from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which Deputy Minister for Planning and Finance U Maung Maung said would be used to issue loans to small and medium enterprises.

During the same session, Union Minister U Kyaw Lin sought approval for the presidents proposal to borrow 15 billion yen to develop housing for low-income families.

Friday (Feb. 23)

The Upper House Bill Committee advised replacing the phrase the schedule for peaceful procession with the complete schedule for peaceful procession in the Peaceful Assembly Law and the phrase money or materials with a motive to damage the interest of public morality or to do so knowing of such damage to the interest with money or materials with the motive to damage the interest of public morality. The committee recommended approval of the bill.

Translated from Burmese by Myint Win Thein.Great Wall, BMW announce possible MINI JV in China

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Friday, Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor announced that it has signed a letter of intent with BMW Group to set up a possible joint venture for new energy vehicle (NEV) business and technologies.

BMW said in a separate statement that Next steps will be to agree on the details of a possible joint venture and cooperation agreement and clarify aspects such as the choice of production location and concrete investments.

Both parties will carry out further discussion on the cooperation mode and decide which models will be jointly produced. In the future, the joint venture will focus on the development, procurement, production and other businesses in NEV segment.

After signing the letter of intent, the automakers will decide the investment scale, set up business mode and finish the feasibility study. And the companies will start to discuss the joint venture cooperation details soon.

The Chinese automaker said in its announcement that the cooperation will help to improve its technology level and brand premium ability, meet consumers demands and expand the NEV market shares at home and abroad.

In 2017, many China local automakers and foreign automakers entered into joint venture cooperation in China, such as JAC and VW, Zotye and Ford, Dongfeng and Renault-Nissan.Reddit Email 78 Shares

TeleSur |  

Human rights groups that fear the Burmese government is destroying crime scenes before any credible investigation takes place.

Satellite imagery shows at least 28 Rohingya villages have been leveled between December and February. However, reports produced by some human rights groups place the figure at 55.

Myanmars military, aided by Buddhist mobs allegedly burned hundreds of Rohingya villages between last August and November when a military clearance operation forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee from killings, rapes and other violence.

The bulldozing of villages have raised concerns by human rights groups that the Burmese government is destroying crime scenes before any credible investigation of the atrocities, some say have amounted to genocide and ethnic cleansing, takes place.

Rohingya people who were forced into exile also fear the operation is aimed at preventing them from returning to their villages and at destroying the remnants of their cultural heritage. Upward of 500,000 Rohingya have been reported as refugees since last Augusts military crackdown in Rakhine state, preceded by a series of attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

Richard Weir of Human Rights Watch said theres no more landmarks, theres no trees, theres no vegetation Everything is wiped away, and this is very concerning because these are crime scenes what were talking about really is obstruction of justice.

The organization has also asked that representatives of the United Nations be given access to Rakhine to study the allegations that the army committed murder, rape, and other crimes.

So far, Myanmar has refused to allow U.N. investigators from conducting an international probe into the mass graves reported by international press agencies and denounced by human rights organizations.

According to Myanmar officials, the clearing operation has been conducted to build new houses for the refugees returning, who were expected to go back to Rakhine after the Burmese government signed a repatriation agreement with Bangladesh.

However, many Rohingya refuse to return for fear the Buddhist majority will launch new attacks. Human rights organizations claim there are no conditions for a safe return. The Rohingya people continue to lack basic rights including citizenship.

Via TeleSur

Creative Commons License.



Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

Myanmar Is Bulldozing Rohingya Villages In A Move Some Fear Is Erasing Evidence Of Atrocities | TIMEReddit Email 144 Shares

Emma Heywood | (The Conversation) |  

Popular resistance against the Israeli presence in the West Bank, be it violent or peaceful, is a constant feature of life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. With no money and little international support, Palestinian activists put their own lives at risk and sacrifice their well-being to fight the many aspects of control imposed by the Israeli state  checkpoints, permits, the wall, prisons  but mainly the lack of freedom, respect and dignity.

This is whats at issue in the case of Ahed Tamimi, the 17-year-old Palestinian girl who was arrested in December 2017 for slapping an Israeli soldier. A video of the incident, which went viral, was recorded by her mother, who was also arrested for uploading it. The slap came just an hour after the same soldiers shot Tamimis 14-year-old cousin Mohammed in the face, leaving him in a critical condition.

Tamimis case has divided opinion, with each side accusing the other of exploiting it to support their own agenda. The trial has attracted criticism, partly because it concerns the arrest of a minor in acutely aggressive circumstances. Aheds appearance has also courted attention. Some in the Israeli press reported claims that the family are using Tamimis blonde, blue-eyed image for publicity purposes. Some have even questioned whether she could possibly be Palestinian looking like that.

In the meantime, the judicial process is moving slowly. Her military trial was recently postponed yet again until March 11  a decision that was taken behind closed doors after international journalists, human rights researchers and observers were ejected from the courtroom.

Amid this chaos, I interviewed Tamimis father, Bassem. He claims the Israelis want to keep the case behind closed doors out of fear of international attention.

The face of a conflict

While I was in the West Bank, I repeatedly encountered certain themes about the trial. All the Palestinians I spoke to deeply respect and admire the Tamimis, but many worry that Aheds high-profile case is detracting from other ongoing ones, of which there is no shortage.

Tamimi is the tip of the iceberg. According to the prisoner human rights association Addemeer, there are more than 450 children in Israeli prisons, a figure which has doubled in the past three years. Tamimis age is not exceptional, and nor is her treatment. Western media must be careful not to focus on fragmented aspects of the occupation, be it the wall, the checkpoints, certain arrests, and be distracted from looking at the occupation as a whole. But as Bassem sees it, if Ahed is the one to bring the occupation to the fore, then so be it.

But what about Tamimis safety, her welfare, her education? Is the extended family that lives in Nabi Saleh, the small village whose existence has been increasingly threatened since the creation of the expanding Halamish settlement, right to put its children (not just Tamimi) in such a position to further its popular resistance? What about the safer options that many Palestinians pursue in the richer bubble of Ramallah, the West Banks de facto administrative capital?

Bassem agrees he torments himself that his daughter is losing her childhood, and is taking responsibility for something her generation should not be responsible for. But to him, normalising the conflict is not an option. He is more than aware that he and his family are taking on a heavy burden in representing occupied Palestine. He is in constant demand for interviews from journalists. Raising awareness of the cause, particularly internationally, is effectively his main occupation and not one he takes lightly. He speaks with pride of being a Fatah member and refuses to hear ill of those in charge.

His apparent stoicism could be interpreted in the West as hard-hearted, uncaring and even manipulative, yet in Israel and Palestine, he cannot afford to be perceived as playing the victim. Any display of emotion  however well received by international audiences  would only weaken his cause.

There is no question about the pride he has for Ahed. Swiping through some photos on his phone, he lands on one of her when she is about ten, wearing a pretty summer dress of traditional Palestinian cloth, smiling at the camera. He hesitates for a moment as he looks at it, and yes, emotion flickers across his face  then instantly, its back to business.

A childhood compromised?

The Tamimis campaign, which aims to raise awareness of all the ills caused by the occupation, extends to social media, weekly Friday demonstrations, and other protests. Bassem talks proudly of Janna Tamimi, his 11-year-old niece, whos developed a profile as Palestines youngest journalist. More commonly known as Janna Jihad, she has more than 250,000 followers on Facebook, and uses Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to report on the occupation  as do other members of the extended Tamimi family.

Regardless of whether Ahed is being noticed primarily because of her appearance, the moral point is whether or not her case can be used to the benefit of the many other minors who are or will be under arrest. The Tamimi family are not optimistic about the eventual outcome of the postponed trial, but even with a sentence of up to ten years on the cards, Ahed herself still plans to study law in order to fight for others in similar situations.

These activists  or freedom fighters, as they call themselves  are foregrounding the frustrations of others living under occupation who cannot easily speak out. They face international and external censorship and see international support for their existence undermined, while simultaneously being often collectively perceived as sufferers. Dont call us victims, we are not victims. This is main thing to show the world  the main lesson I have learnt from my daughter.

Emma Heywood, Lecturer and Researcher, University of Sheffield

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.



Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

AP: Lawyer and father react as Tamimi trial gets underwayReddit Email 218 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The Sustainable Energy in America Factbook finds that renewable energy (including hydro) was up 14% in 2017, bringing the renewables total in US electricity generation to an unprecedented 18% twice as much as in 2008. And in 2008 renewables were almost all hydro. The rapid growth of renewable electricity generation and the decline of coal and even, slightly, of gas, took place despite a Trump administration determined to put its thumb on the scale for coal and other fossil fuels.

Some of the increased renewable energy, admittedly, came about because of a lessening of the drought in the West, which increased hydro-electric generation. But Non-hydro renewables continued to represent the largest share of all U.S. new installations, hitting roughly 62% in 2017, the report found.

The most important single number for human welfare is now the amount of carbon dioxide that a country farts out every year. That number tells us how bad the climate change catastrophe will be. Like hurricanes or earthquakes, climate change should be given scaled numbers. Were looking at category 1 change now, which is bad. But if we dont quickly curb emissions well be looking at category 2 change. And if we go on like we are, well be looking at a category 8 change, which is like a category 8 earthquake or a category 8 hurricane. Unlike the case in most earthquakes and hurricanes, how bad the climate change will be depends entirely on you. When you drive your gasoline car to work or you put on the air conditioning in your house burning coal to make the electricity for it, you are driving us toward category 8 climate change. That one wont be pretty. Climate change involves rising sea levels, coastal erosion and storm surges, more intense hurricanes, risk of increased long-term drought in some areas, wildfires, and other unpleasantness.

Reducing emissions and limiting climate change to a Category 1 would actually save corporations a lot of money. Major corporations saved $14 billion in 2017 by reducing their carbon dioxide output.

US greenhouse gas emissions actually fell in 2017, down 1.4% year-on-year. A lot of these carbon reductions came in the electricity sector, and most of the savings were from increased wind and solar and from reduced electricity use, not from switching from coal to gas as in the past.

Because of the renewables surge, the US very likely will meet its stated Paris Agreement targets of CO2 emissions 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.

One unexpected piece of good news was that US electricity use actually declined slightly, despite continued population and economic growth, proving that we can do more with less if we are of a mind to. Last I knew, 25% of US buildings lacked insulation, and just putting it in would vastly reduce electricity use.

The transportation sector is now overtaking electricity generation as a source of toxic greenhouse gas emissions. This fact points to the need for consumers to use more public transportation, move to cities close to their work and shopping, and if they must have a car, buy a Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf, Tesla 3 or other electric vehicle.

Despite quixotic Trumpism, coals decline will accelerate in 2018, given that owners of coal plants announced last year that they would retire installations generating 12.5GW this year. These closings are very good news, since coal is the most polluting of the fossil fuels and the one that when burned puts most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per watt of electricity generated.

Natural gas prices were up 18% last year, which gave wind and solar an advantage, since their installation prices keep falling and once they are installed the fuel is reliably free.

Americans spent less on electricity last year but they spent more on gasoline and other vehicle fuels. Obviously, people who absolutely must have a car should buy a Chevy Bolt or Nissan Leaf or Tesla 3 or other electric vehicle and save even more money on fuel (if you are a homeowner and combine an EV with solar panels on your roof, both are paid off even more quickly, typically in only 6 years, and your fuel from sunshine is free if you charge during the day or have a Tesla Powerboard battery).

In electricity generating sectors, solar now employs the most workers, some 374,000, double those in fossil fuel electricity generation (151,000). Solar jobs increased by 74,000 in 2015-16. Wind was in second place, increasing jobs by 24,650.

Politicians who promise you more jobs but want to punish solar and wind in favor of fossil fuels are lying to you. The jobs are green.



Bonus video:

Citi: Deepwater Wind  Americas First Offshore Wind FarmThe ghosts of Brazils dictatorship are stirring in the wake of President Michel Temers order for the army to take over policing in Rio de Janeiro.

Theres no direct comparison between the Rio operation and the 1964 coup that brought two decades of military rule to Latin Americas biggest country. In this case, the military isnt overturning a president  its just taking charge of Rio states security situation after months of escalating crime.

But the echoes have been loud enough to force the government into extraordinary denials.

Im going to tell you how many marks I give the idea of a military coup: zero, Temer told Radio Bandeirantes on Friday. The center-right president went on to say that there was no mood in the military or population for a coup.

Earlier, the defense minister, Raul Jungmann, stated there is no risk to democracy. On the contrary, we are strengthening democracy.

 First since democracys return 

Over the last decade, Rio residents have grown used to seeing camouflaged soldiers support the police in their battle against powerfully armed drug gangs.

Some 8,500 troops arrived last July in an ongoing deployment to help with operations in favelas, the latest of which took place Friday in western Rio. During the 2016 Olympics, troops focused on securing tourist areas, patrolling with rifles among the bathing-suit clad crowds of Copacabana and Ipanema.

But the intervencao, as its called in Portuguese, is different this time.

Now the army isnt only helping out  its taking full charge, with generals replacing the entire civilian leadership of the police.

This hasnt happened anywhere in Brazil since democracy returned in 1985.

 Mass arrests 

Facing an understandably nervous public, the government made what looked like an immediate PR blunder by suggesting that mass arrests and mass searches might become the norm.

That would mean, for example, that an entire street, rather than a single house, could be subjected to an intense raid.

There was strong backlash, including from Brazils highest-profile anti-corruption prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol.

The government has softened its message on the collective searches.

But there are still widespread fears that military intervention will become a blunt instrument endangering poor and defenseless people in the favelas, while doing little to eradicate narco gangs.

A short video made by three young black men about surviving encounters with police  including advising against carrying a long umbrella that could be mistaken for a gun  went immediately viral on social media.

The intervention in Rio is an inadequate and extreme measure that causes concern because it puts the populations human rights at risk, said Amnesty Internationals director in Brazil, Jurema Werneck.

 Who watches the watchmen? 

Temer made it clear Friday that the army will use deadly force when justified. But rights activists, weary after years of botched police operations and stray bullets, ask who will hold the soldiers to account.

The army wants troops to be subject only to military courts, while the police it is working alongside have to face regular courts.

Adding a politically explosive twist to that already complex issue, the armys top commander, General Eduardo Villas Boas, said this week he wants a guarantee of being able to act without risking a new truth commission.

He was referring to the National Truth Commission, a body set up by then leftist president Dilma Rousseff to examine appalling human rights abuses committed during the military dictatorship.

Many saw the commission as a way to air painful memories and promote reconciliation, even if an amnesty meant that confessed torturers revealed in the commissions final 2014 report could not be tried.

Villas Boas, however, revealed the armys nervousness and perhaps lingering resentment.

Another key figure in the Rio intervention  Temers security minister Sergio Etchegoyen  has previously lambasted the truth commissions report as pathetic.

Etchegoyens father, Leo, served in high positions during the dictatorship, while an uncle allegedly headed the so-called House of Death  a property near Rio where mainly far left political prisoners were fatally tortured.

 Trial balloon? 

One story fueling conspiracy theories has been that Rio is only a trial balloon for more widespread military takeovers. Last year, Etchegoyen himself described Rio de Janeiro as a laboratory.

This week, though, he backtracked partly on this, stressing there was currently no need for a takeover in other states.

But on Friday, Temer stirred the pot when he revealed that hed considered extending the federal governments takeover from the Rio security services to the entire state government.

It was a conversation we had but it was soon discarded, he told Radio Bandeirantes.

It was a very radical thing and I quickly refuted it, he said.Romantic musical comedy opens Feb. 23 in Purple Masque Theatre

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018



The student-written musical "An American in Beirut" will be presented as a stage reading by K-State Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 and 24 in West Stadium's Purple Masque Theatre.





MANHATTAN  Kansas State University's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance will present "An American in Beirut" Feb. 23 and 24 in West Stadium's Purple Masque Theatre. Both performances will be at 7:30 p.m.



In this light-hearted musical comedy, Jack travels to Lebanon to meet with his cousin, Elie, and his wife, Nabila. Through their scheming, Jack falls in love with Anna, reconnecting him to their shared Lebanese culture. This student-written musical will be presented as a stage reading.



Alex Wakim, senior in applied music, Wichita, wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics with Jonah Ericson, senior in English and theatre, Manhattan.



Tickets are $9 for general public; $7.75 for seniors, military, faculty and staff; and $5.75 for students and youth. They can be purchased online at k-state.edu/mtd/tickets or by calling 785-236-8638. Tickets may also be purchased one hour prior to the performance at the Purple Masque Theatre. All tickets, regardless of purchase method, include sales tax and are free from convenience fees.



The stage reading musical is directed by Jennifer Vellenga, associate director, K-State Theatre. The following Kansas State University students are in the cast of "An American in Beirut":



From Greater Kansas City: Lauren Taylor, sophomore in applied music, Olathe, as Anna; and Morgan Sterrett, senior in theatre, as a chorus member, and Kelly Urschel, senior in applied music, as Nabila, both from Overland Park.



Gage Stielau, senior in theatre, Syracuse, as Elie; Hunter Nelson, senior in English and theatre, as a chorus member, and Noah Lindquist, senior in applied music and theatre, as Jack, both from Topeka; and Drew George, senior in theatre, Uniontown, as a chorus member.



From out of state: Samantha Williams, sophomore in applied music, Branson, Missouri, as a chorus member.





The Herald reports:

The woman who accused Barnaby Joyce of sexual harassment has been named as a former recipient of the West Australian Rural Woman of the year award.

The Weekend Australian has named the woman as Catherine Marriott, after her lawyer, Emma Salerno, told the newspaper she wants the complaint followed through to its conclusion.

The revelation comes as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Joyce had made the right decision in resigning as deputy prime minister and Nationals leader yesterday.

The judgement that hes made in resigning was the right one for himself and his family, Mr Turnbull told reporters in Washington, DC.A guest post by David Garrett:

Andrew Little has said he is utterly committed to creating a safer New Zealand  a laudable goal, but one which he simply cannot achieve given Labours present assumptions about offending and penal policy. His colleague Kelvin Davis wants to reduce the prison population by 30%  impossible unless we release those convicted of violent offences. Some leftie claimed on National Radio the other day that the jails are full of people convicted of cannabis offences. This is a myth. In fact, only 12% of the prison population are there for drug offences, the vast majority of them for manufacturing, distributing or importing P. None are in jail for possession of cannabis.

The first thing Labour needs to change is the common leftie perception that most prisoners are hapless boys who have had one lamentable lapse  a sudden mad or drugged urge to commit an aggravated robbery perhaps. The reality is very different. The average prisoner has 46 convictions  yes you read that right  forty six , and has served the gamut of non-custodial sentences before finally being incarcerated. Of the 5% who have less than five convictions, they will invariably be in prison for murder or a very serious assault.

Do-gooders like Workman like to mock people like me by suggesting that we have an unreasoning and irrational fear of a mythical Other; that those in jail are really pretty much ordinary people, just like the rest of us. While this picture may have been at least partly true 50 years ago, it is emphatically not so today. By and large, prison inmates are fundamentally different from the rest of us. They are people who have not only utterly rejected, but laugh at the principles by which most of the rest of us try to live: not to steal from or beat up our fellows; not to take advantage of the weak; to try and help the vulnerable, or at least not to do them further harm. They are indeed The Other, and we justifiably fear them.

How did we get here? By two main routes in my view: firstly by abandoning the idea of a universal moral code to which all decent members of society should subscribe, evidenced by the decline both of organized religion, and the ideal of service above self. All the members of Bomber Command in WW II  of whom 30% never returned  were volunteers. Does anyone really imagine that would happen today?

We declared two generations ago that the ordinary nuclear family of Mum Dad and the kids was no better than any other family  or whanau, as it is now. We declared that society had no business criticising a solo mum with five kids to three different fathers  a whanau that may have utterly different values to the mainstream. And we have reaped the consequences of that foolishness.

At the same time, far from becoming more punitive, as the Workmans and their supporters claim, our justice system has, with a few notable exceptions, become softer and softer over the past sixty or seventy years. As recently as 1974 a common assault on a woman would inevitably attract a jail sentence. It is now very difficult to be sent to jail unless one has committed a much more serious violent offence.

Consider for example, the punishment for murder. When capital punishment was first abolished by Labour in 1941  it was restored by National in 1950  it was replaced with hard labour for life. Even the Labour party then recognized that the price for taking a life must be a harsh and lengthy one. When capital punishment was finally abolished in 1961, it was replaced with life imprisonment  without the hard labour. A lifer in 1962 was eligible for parole after ten years, shortened to seven years in 1975. So in 15 years, the punishment for murder went from paying with your life, to possibly being out after seven years. The minimum non parole period was restored to ten years in 1987.

The next really significant change  again largely a softening of penal policy  was the Sentencing Act 2002. Although it provided for a minimum NPP of 17 years for aggravated murder, the rest of the Act was largely concerned with lessening the burden on the criminal. All sentences of two years or less are now automatically cut in half. Judges are directed that they must give the least restrictive sentence possible, plus discounts of up to 25% of whatever the sentence would have been for early guilty pleas. There has never been a definition of early, and in practice, any guilty plea entered before a trial has actually begun attracts a discount.

So, far from becoming a more punitive society, we have become softer and softer. The one thing we havent tried in that period is a return to the penal policies of the past: hard labour for life for murder, and incarceration in harsh conditions for even minor assaults.

In my view there are only two ways to achieve the safer society that Little says he wants. First and best would be to stop pretending that every form of whanau is equal, and admit that a stable two parent family is best for society. To acknowledge that there is in fact a universal moral code to which all civil societies subscribe  the ten commandments contain the main elements of it: not stealing from ones fellows; not bashing or killing them; recognizing that parents are in a better position than some 14 year old punk to decide what is and isnt good for that young person. Sadly, despite the efforts of groups like Family First, such a change is most unlikely.

The second alternative is to allow or at least accept the licence of modern life  but to severely punish those who break the few basic rules; to once again routinely lock up those who bash and steal from others; to once again make the focus on paying a price for wrongdoing rather than the illusory holy grail of rehabilitation.

Labour refuses to accept that rehabilitation of adult prisoners is and always will be rare, and only comes from within the individual. No matter how firmly you lead a horse to water, you cannot make him drink. Those Other who now fill our jails will mostly keep on offending until age tires them of being locked up. Unless, perhaps, if we make jail truly the kind of hell hole that has only existed in lefties imaginations for the last 60 years or so. Such a policy shift would be as radical as Labours welfare state in 1938. What do we have to lose by giving it a try? Heaven forbid, it might just work.For the full financial year that ended in March 2018, Airtel's net profit came in at Rs 1,099 crore, over 71 per cent lower than Rs 3,800 crore logged in FY2016-17. (Photo Credits: PTI)

Gurugram, Feb 23: The first-ever trial run of 56 network was conducted in India on Friday by Chinese tech major Huawei and leading domestic telecomp service provider Bharti Airtel. The fastest internet technology was conducted at Airtel's Network Experience Centre in Haryana Manesar.

Confirming the successful test launch, Bharti Airtel's Director Networks Abhay Savargaonkar said the test-run has affirmed their resolve to develop a robust 5G ecosystem in India.

During the 5G interoperability and development testing (IODT), a user throughput of more than 3Gbps was achieved, claimed the statement issued by Bharti Airtel.

The speed achieved is considered to be highest for a mobile network in India, in 3.5 GHz band with 100 MHz bandwidth.

The test run proves the viability of using the 5G internet network in 3.5 GHz band, said Emmanuel Coelho Alves, Director, Wireless Marketing, Huawei HQ.

The first-ever 5G internet test in India comes days after the state-run BSNL signed a pact with Japan's NTT AT along with their Indian partner Virgo Corps to create a "5G test-bed". The agreement came in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japan counterpart Shinzo Abe agreeing to boost joint technological development between the nations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 23, 2018 08:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Portlaoise is to be the first town to get funding for an urban regeneration under the government's newProject Ireland 2040 Plan.

Laois TD and Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, welcomed last Friday's announcement of the Project Ireland 2040 plan, signed off by Cabinet.

It aims to cover job creation, infrastructure and planning on a structured way over the next 20 years.

Minister Flanagan welcomed the idea for the new National Regeneration and Development Agency.

It is using publicly owned land, allied to investment from the urban regeneration and development fund and wider community and local businesses to rejuvenate local communities, he said.

He said the pilot project will take place in Portlaoise.

It will create a new vision for the centre of the town, to show how the best quality planning, urban design and implementation can create turnaround towns. This is very good news for both the town and the county. the Minister said.

Towns like Portlaoise experienced rapid expansion of new housing areas and retail centres outside the traditional town core during the Celtic Tiger. Portlaoise is the largest town in the midlands, with the population growing by 10% since 2011. However investment in public services has not kept pace, he said.

There is a strong need for a major focus on regenerating the original town centre and main street areas... to create a town that is welcoming for visitors for work, shopping or recreation. This multi-million Euro investment is a step in the right direction to achieve a brighter, vibrant future for Portlaoise, he said.

The plan includes funds for rural and urban areas, the environment and innovation including a 1 billion Rural Development Fund.

He noted the investment by the Dept of Justice in Laois, in a new county courthouse listed in the plan .

This crucial piece of infrastructure will be progressed as a matter of priority, when the procurement and planning process has been completed. It will begin a long-needed process of upgrading the facilities for the Justice system in the midlands and around the country, he said.

Also welcomed in the plan is a new 40 bed Mental Health facility in Portlaoise.

This is a crucial service, and will go some way towards addressing the mental health needs of Laois, Offaly and this part of the midlands.

I am advised that construction will commence in 2020, with completion in 2022 on the basis that there are no unforeseen delays, Minister Flanagan said.

This announcement represents another step in the right direction. I am committed to supporting continued improvements in the mental health system and I will continue to work alongside my Government and party colleagues to achieve this, the Laois Minister said.There was great excitement on Saturday evening at the official launch and first official meeting of the Laois Rose 2018.

A number of Laois women who have put themselves forward to be selected as the Laois Rose 2018 met up on the night for photos, chats and to get to know each other.

Organisers Lyn Moloney and Steve Cronly were on hand guiding the hopeful ladies through the evening.

The launch took place at the Midlands Park Hotel in Portlaoise and it was an opportunity for anyone who wanted to know more about the Laois Rose selection to go along and find out everything they needed to know.

The Leinster Express, as proud media sponsor of the Laois Rose 2018, was on hand to meet the first group of women who hope to become this years Laois Rose.

Sharon Byrne from Portlaoise said that she entered the Laois Rose with the encouragement of her sisters.

I wanted to do something different and challenge myself but really my younger sisters were behind it, they were asking me to do it for so long and I just bit the bullet and went for it!

Clara-Eva Bambrick from Arles is taking part in the Laois Rose selection to do her grandfather proud.

I entered because it was always my Grandads wish, every year we watch The Rose of Tralee and every year he says that will be you some day thats why I want to do it for him. He doesnt know yet, I am going to surprise him!

My main goal is to help people who go through depression, my uncle commit suicide two years ago and I have been through depression so my goal would be to help younger people get through it, she said.

Niamh Conroy from Portlaoise was spurred on by her friend who had taken part in the Laois Rose selection before.

I decided to give it a go and come along to see what it is about. I work in Laois part time and I am in college in DCU in Dublin so I am studying business at the moment and I will hopefully be graduating next year.

I watch The Rose of Tralee every year and one of my friends entered a couple of years ago so we were at the selection night which was a great night and it looked like a really good experience, she said.

Gillian Osborne from Mountrath always looked at The Rose of Tralee when she was younger and decided to go for it this year.

I just wanted to do something different, my mams friend tagged me on Facebook so that was the push I needed.

I am looking forward to meeting new people, my confidence getting a bit better, speaking and mostly making new friends, she said.

Beauty therapist Bronwyn Dunne from Abbeyleix has always imagined being on the Rose of Tralee stage.

It was always a dream, looking at it as a child you see the dress and the idea of standing up on the stage but never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be possible so it is a bit of a shock.

I am looking forward to getting to know the girls, already it is lovely it is something social and it is interesting to get out there and do things like this.

To represent my county and to have a platform to discuss mental health and work with charities, she said.

Sports clubs, societies, groups and businesses can nominate a representative from their respective communities to take part. There is still time for anyone thinking of entering to do so.

For further details please contact the Laois Rose Team of Lyn on 083 4631611 or Steve on 086 2505791. They are looking forward to hearing from you all.

The Leinster Express is delighted to support the Laois Rose Selection again this year as exclusive media partner. Laois Shopping Centre is also sponsoring.

'Go for it' Rose of Tralee urges young women to enter Laois Rose 2018.

Rose of Tralee: Could you be the next Laois Rose? Enter now!The large number of locals who paid their respects to the late Sr Marion Rankin in the Convent Chapel on Saturday, February 3, and the large congregation which packed St Peter and Pauls Church for her funeral Mass on Sunday, was eloquent testament to how dearly the Sister was loved by the people of Monasterevin.

Sr Marion began school in Monasterevin in 1939 and entered the Mercy Order in 1951. Over the next five decades, she was involved in every facet of the life of Monasterevin parish.

When the young local Sister took on the housekeeping duties at the Mercy Convent, their kitchen became a place of welcome and the centre of energy for the community.

Sr Marion was a great support to young mothers, and under her guidance young women, and some not so young, learned to expand their culinary repertoires through the Sisters promotion of healthy eating practices.

At her wake, many parishioner s talked about how Sr Marion had enkindled in them a love of needlework and embroidery.

Over the weekend of her funeral, it was generally accepted that Sr Marion , more than anyone before her, had opened up the Mercy Convent to parishioners and made it a place of welcome and warmth and ongoing support for the women of Monasterevin.

Sr Marion had a special love for the missions and supported many missionary orders. It was no surprise, when the Mercy Headquarters needed someone for the Ministry of Hospitality at their International Centre in Baggot Street in Dublin, that they called on a woman who had supported the missions.

Sr Marion moved to Dublin in 1995, and she was happy in her new surroundings but never forgot her beloved Monasterevin.

The magnificent attendance at her wake and funeral was clear evidence of how dearly Monasterevin loved her and how well her many kindnesses were remembered.

Following Mass, she was interred in St Evins Cemetery. One of 11 children born to the late Catherine and James, Sr Marion was predeceased by a brother James and sister Sheila, and is mourned by two sisters and six brothers. She passed away in the devoted care of the staff at McAuley Nursing Home, Beaumont, after a long illness, on Thursday, February 1.

May she Rest In Peace.

 Mary Ryan

SEE ALSO: Call for lollipop staff over 'ad hoc' school parking in MonasterevinOne lucky Kildare EuroMillions player is half a million richer today.

The National Lottery has confirmed a winning EuroMillions Plus ticket has been sold in the county.

One lucky punter bought a winning quick pick 500,000 Euromillions Plus top prize ticket in John O'Sullivan's Spar Store, Ballymany. The winning Newbridge ticket was bought on Friday last February 23 - the day of the dray.

Last Fridays (February 23) draw also produced an incredible four winners of the EuroMillions Plus top of 500,000. This makes is 11 Irish EuroMillions Plus Winners this year.

The four other winners were bought in Bergins Foodfair in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary  quick pick ticket purchased on Thursday, February 22; Michael OBriens Spar Shop in Borrisokane, Co. Tipperary  quick pick ticket purchased on Thursday, February 22 and Walshs Daybreak Store, Cork Road, Waterford  quick pick ticket sold on Friday, February 23.

The winning numbers were 15, 33, 37, 39 and 48.

In total, there was in excess of 144,000 Irish winners in Friday nights EuroMillions draw while the rolling 177 million jackpot was shared between two winners in Spain and in the UK.

With so many Irish winners in Fridays EuroMillions draws, the National Lottery is now encouraging all its players to check their EuroMillions tickets. A spokesperson said: The luck of the Irish certainly continues for our players in the EuroMillions. We look forward to welcoming all of last nights big winners into National Lottery headquarters next week, in particular the lucky winner of the EuroMillions EuroMillionaire Raffle who is Irelands newest millionaire!The family of a 10-year-old Leitrim girl have made a heartbreaking plea to the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to directly intervene so their daughter, and others with her rare condition, can retain access to vital medication.

Grace McIntyre, who lives in Aughavas, Co Leitrim has the rare condition Morquio A Syndrome.

People who have Morquio A cant make an important enzyme that is a key part of clearing out materials from cells. This is a progressive condition and a buildup of materials in the cells can lead to potentially serious problems impacting the heart and skeleton as well as causing issues with vision, hearing and breathing.

It is an extremely rare condition and only 10 people have the syndrome in Ireland.

Grace and an 11-year-old Kilkenny girl, Cezy Fosca, are the only children with Morquio included in trials for Vimizim, an enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) which is the treatment available for this condition.

Grace has been receiving weekly intravenous transfusions of the drug, Vimizim, since May 2012 as part of the trials. Her last treatment was on February 15 and her family has just been informed that no more drugs are available for Grace or Cezy.

Graces mother Barbara told the Leitrim Observer they are devastated by the news.

Each time she gets the drug, Grace has to have a four hour infusion.

She was last offered her medicine on February 15 and she has to take it weekly. We have now been told that there is no more medicine for her, said Barbara.

It is like the heart has been ripped out of us. It is devastating for us and for Grace. We normally get this treatment on a Thursday but the Temple Street Metabolic Unit (where Grace receives treatment) has told us there is no more medicine.

We are at our wits end. The HSE hasnt been in contact with us. The manufacturer of the drug (Biomarin) hasnt contacted us. Its like nobody cares about the families who are affected.

Vimizim was approved by the European Medicines Agency in 2014 and the manufacturer continued to provide it to Grace and Cezy, free of charge on compassionate grounds.

The families of those using Vimizim had hoped that this therapy would be included on the HSE reimbursement list but the HSE has now refused a number of applications by Biomarin for reimbursement.

In November last year it was suggested that the manufacturers Biomarin, reapply to the HSE to have Vimizim included in the reimbursement scheme.

The Leitrim Observer understands that the manufacturer requested a meeting with the HSE in December last year and agreed to submit a new application for reimbursement along with new data on its efficacy.

This was due to be discussed at the HSE drugs group meeting on January 18. The recommendation on whether to approve the drug for inclusion in the reimbursement scheme was due to be forwarded to the HSE Leader Group two weeks ago.

However Barbara says that the families on the drug have heard nothing since, however she says the fact the drug has been stopped seems to indicate it hasnt been good news (coming out of the January 18 meeting).

Sinn Fein Sligo-Leitrim TD, Martin Kenny, told the Leitrim Observer that Biomarin had agreed to resubmit their application on the basis that they be given an answer by the HSE on their application within six weeks.

Biomarin said that if they reapplied and didn't get an answer in six weeks they would withdraw the drug, noted Deputy Kenny, and it is clear they did not get their answer in that timeframe.

He said that Biomarin had stressed they would not restart supply of the drug until they heard something positive from the HSE.

They have made it clear they won't keep supplying the drug for free, noted Deputy Kenny.

I have met the Minister for Health a number of times on this and I will be meeting with him again this week.

We are not going to give up and we are hopeful that it will be resolved and we will continue to work towards this, he said.

Grace's mother, Barbara, paid tribute to Deputy Kenny and Cllr Paddy O'Rourke, saying their support on this issue was amazing, but said she and her family are now appealing directly for the Minister for Health to intervene.

This is so awful for us as a family but it is worse on Grace, she said.

These are children and they need this drug. This situation has been going on for so long now and it is unbearable. It sucks your emotions so much. It drains you to have to keep facing this; the not knowing if this drug is going to be available for your child.

The Leitrim Observer contacted the HSE and the following statement was issued The HSE received a new application from Biomarin in December.

That application is being considered through the formal processes the HSE has in place and is due for consideration at the next HSE Leadership meeting.

No date for this meeting has been released.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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Support our mission and join our community now.DISAPPOINTMENT was expressed this week as much-needed funding for the revamp of Croom Orthopaedic Hospital was not included in the Governments 10-year National Development Plan.

The Government has committed nearly quarter of a billion euro to health services in Limerick, including the 210m relocation of University Maternity Hospital Limerick to the Dooradoyle campus at UHL; a new 96 acute bed block at University Hospital Limerick; and a new ambulance base to be located in the city.

Though there is no official delivery timeline for the new ambulance base, the new maternity complex is set for completion in 2026 while the new bed block is expected to be delivered in the next three years.

UL Hospitals Group CEO, Prof Colette Cowan delivered a presentation at the metropolitan district meeting on Monday morning, addressing a number of concerns, including the lack of funding for Croom Hospital.

There is an estimated 15m required for this project, the council heard.

When asked by Fianna Fail councillor James Collins on her thoughts about the funding, Prof Cowan replied: We would very much have liked to have seen this in Ireland 2040. But we cannot have everything.

Cllr Richard ODonoghue said that Croom Orthopaedic Hospital has needed investment for a long time.

There are link roads coming in. Croom is going to be more accessible. It's a building which needs funding to bring it up to a mark to be on the same level as other hospitals. To have it overlooked, I imagine, was like tunnel vision. Investment has to be made within all the structures of Limerick. Croom Hospital has been looking for funding for many years. It has had very good surgeons, who now, because investment is not there, are opting to move to other practices.

Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins said: It's disappointing the Government has failed to recognise the importance of the Orthopedic Hospital in Croom, and didn't see fit to include it in the capital development programme. It was also missed that St John's Hospital is looking for a new bed ward unit as well. They have made an application, and are trying to progress this. That was omitted from the programme.

Speaking after the National Development Plan launch, Prof Cowan said that she is delighted to see that commitment formalised for the two major hospital projects.

Prof Cowan said that much progress has already been made with the planning and design of the new acute block and the maternity relocation which will ensure delays are kept to a minimum as soon as a funding and construction plan is arranged.

Prof Cowan added that the new developments for UHL will mean a good news day for Ennis, Nenagh, Croom and St Johns hospitals in the Mid-West region.

It will allow us to attract the specialist staff that will benefit the group as a whole and also provide services in our model 2 hospitals.

The UMHL relocation is one of the most expensive health projects in the 116bn 10-year plan.EVERY Monday night for the last five weeks up to 150 men, women and children have been walking around Doon GAAs field in hail, rain and snow as part of Operation Transformations Ireland Lights Up.

But as well as encouraging physical health through the walks and the clubs adult and junior set-ups, they are also promoting mental health.

On Thursday night, over 100 gathered in the community centre to hear blind paralympic athlete Peter Ryan speak. Talented enough to make the Tipperary minor team in 2008, his life was turned upside down within 18 months. He was diagnosed with a rare eye condition there are fewer than 20 known cases in the country  and he now has 5% sight.

With his promising hurling career over he understandably became bitter and began drinking too much. A spell in an alcohol treatment centre put him back on track to sporting excellence and he is now an Irish paralympic cyclist. Peter is an inspirational speaker and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand in Doon. His talk was a follow on from Armagh legend Oisin McConvilles visit last year and the club plan to have a speaker in every six months.

Audrey Crowe, PRO, said the club strongly supports health and well-being, the position held by Marie Riordan.

The Peter Ryan talk would not have been possible without the work of Marie. She and the club want to promote the importance of mental health from underage up to the seniors, said Audrey.

She said Peters story is one of amazing resilience.

He gave a very honest talk straight from the heart. He spoke about the work he does, especially with youths to help them find a road back from lifes challenges. We had a great turn-out on the night of all ages  from 12 upwards. While he spoke you could hear a pin drop. He captured the attention of all age groups.

He spoke about the dark parts in his life and how it made him realise than if he puts his mind to any challenge he can do it.

They were all very impressed by how honest was and how it is always good to talk.

Peter is a young man on a mission to show other people with disabilities how to bounce back from adversity. He is also an accomplished public speaker for some of the worlds leading business and philanthropic organisations on overcoming seemingly insurmountable adversity and we were delighted to have him in Doon, said Audrey.

It isnt too late to lace up for Ireland Lights Up. The last of the six weeks of walking around Doon GAA field is on this Monday evening.THE LOCAL branch of An Taisce  the charity that aims to protect natural and built heritage  has welcomed calls in the Project Ireland 2040 vision to extend the city centre to the Limerick Docks.

But while a local spokesperson has welcomed the National Planning Frameworks support for the Limerick 2030 strategy, the organisation has called for the plan to be updated without delay and to include a detailed masterplan for the city.

An Taisce supported the frameworks vision to direct 75% population growth away from Dublin and towards regional cities.

However it said: Whether the distribution of this 75% on a pro rata basis to the four regional cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford is the correct thing to do is open to question. It may, in effect, be spreading the growth too thinly, and therefore may fail. A better approach may be to pick a single counterbalance to Dublin and direct heavy investment there to drive growth.

The local branch said that plans for a minimum of 40% of all new homes to be built on infill or brownfield sites - and for the remainder to be built on the edge of existing settlements or in rural areas - could be a recipe for urban sprawl.

It said that this could be disastrous for the country from an economic point of view.

Ireland should urbanise but to do so in a high density rather than a low density fashion. Otherwise it will make itself uncompetitive.

The Government expects to see a population growth in Limerick by at least 50,000 in the next 22 years. But An Taisce said that this possibly underestimates the potential of Limerick and the Mid-West, given its strategic and infrastructural advantages over other regional cities.

It added: The plan to develop a strategic cycleway network for Limerick city with a number of high capacity flagship routes is very welcome. This should be progressed without delay as it would bring multiple benefits to the city.

However, it noted that there was no mention of cycle infrastructure in the 10-year 116bn National Development Plan.AN EXTRAORDINARY Plenary meeting of the Limerick Public Participation Network has been called by some of its members following the news that funding for the group has been stalled while an internal audit is being carried out.

The Limerick Public Participation Network (PPN) is made up of organisations from the community, voluntary, social inclusion and environment sectors, with up to 400 members.

Limerick City and County Council has confirmed that a number of issues have been raised in relation to the processes and governance of the network and an internal audit is currently being carried out.

Meanwhile, funding worth 30,000 from the local authority has been stalled while this audit is ongoing.

As a result, the PPN has had to temporarily terminate its coordinators contract.

Ten members of the PPN, including An Taisce, Rape Crisis Centre, LCCR, Feale Biodiversity and Employability Limerick have now called an extraordinary plenary meeting for March 1 to work on resolving current issues.

At the meeting, a proposal for a vote of no confidence in the current secretariat members will be sought by the members.

A nomination for an interim secretariat is also expected to be sought at the meeting.

A motion is also expected to be put to the floor to seek the reinstatment of the coordinator and that an investigation is launched into the handling of the contract.

The group will also propose that the coordinator should have access to all systems as access has been removed and is needed to fufil requirements of the audit.

A draft work plan will also be discussed at the meeting, to ensure that day to day operations of the PPN continues.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council said the Council is fully supportive of the aims of the PPN.

A number of issues have been raised in relation to the processes and governance of the Limerick PPN, which Limerick City and County Council is obliged to examine.

Under the regulations, Limerick City and County Council is accountable to the Council and the government for the manner in which the funding budgeted for the Limerick PPN is allocated.

Limerick City and County Council advised it would not be making a further comment as the audit is still ongoing.STUDENTS from Colaiste Nano Nagle stopped traffic as they turned Limerick City into a haute couture catwalk with a showcase of their Junk Kouture creations.

Megan OMahoney and Gala Simic Kokot created a buzz on OConnell Street, modelling their entries to this years Junk Kouture Regional Finals.

Now in its eight year, Irelands leading fashion and art competition for secondary schools challenges students to create unique, original and innovative outfits from recycled materials and junk.

Both students eye popping designs were inspired by Limerick, with Megans design representing our love of sport and Galas highlighting the importance of industry to the continued prosperity of the city.

Inspired by the citys proud rugby tradition, Megan set out to capture the love for Munster Rugby with her eyecatching design Stand Up and Fight.

Old flags, provided by Munsters training ground Thomond Park were used to create a flowing, elegant skirt, with a tribute to the late Anthony Foley incorporated into the design.

The antlers were provided by Curraghchase animal farm.

Modelled by Gala, the Insight design uses the smallest of waste products, contact lenses, to create a big and dramatic look, with all materials donated by Vistakon. The Junk Kouture regional finals will take place in the University Concert Hall Limerick on March 9. For a full list of students through to the finals, and to vote for your favourite entry visit www.facebook.com/BOIstudents.A MAN refused entry to a popular County Limerick pub broke a PVC door with a beer keg to gain entry to get a drink.

However, the defendant, who was very drunk, broke the wrong door and ended up in an adjoining apartment, Kilmallock Court heard.

Colm Keogh, aged 32, of Lough Mills, Grove Island, Corbally pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage.

Sergeant Michelle Leahy said at 2.40am on January 21, 2018, the accused was refused entry to Clancys Bar in Bruff.

He broke a PVC door with a beer keg to try and get a drink. The side door accessed the apartment above the bar. The people in the apartment saw a man walking around. The gardai were called. The defendant was very drunk on the night in question, said Sgt Leahy.

The sergeant said that Mr Keogh has no previous convictions and has paid 1,135 - the cost of the damage - to the injured party.

Sabina Hegerty, solicitor for the accused, said her client is extremely apologetic.

He is 32 and works full-time. He has no memory [of the night]. He drank too much - no excuses. He is more than disgusted with himself, said Ms Hegerty.

Despite having no recollection of what happened, the solicitor said Mr Keogh accepts he did it.

He has entered a plea on the first day. We didnt seek disclosure. He has learned his lesson - a very expensive lesson. He hasnt been out drinking since. The next time he has a drink he will be monitoring it, said Ms Hegerty.

Judge Marian OLeary said Mr Keogh was a 32-year-old man with no previous convictions and has paid the cost of the damage.

If you pay the court poor box 400 I will strike the matter out, said Judge OLeary.

On behalf of the State, Sgt Leahy had no objection.Feb 24, 2018, 5 AM

The Garfield-Perry Stamp Club will host its March Party stamp exhibition Thursday, March 22, through Saturday, March 24 in Cleveland, Ohio.

By Linn's Staff

The Garfield-Perry Stamp Club will host its March Party stamp exhibition, the largest annual event in Ohio for postage stamp and postal history collectors, Thursday, March 22, through Saturday, March 24, at La Villa Conference and Banquet Center, 11500 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio.

Show hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission and parking are free.

The bourse (sales area) will include approximately 54 dealers offering a wide range of philatelic material available for sale, including stamps, covers, postcards, and related literature and supplies.

Linns Stamp News and Scott Publishing Co. will have a table at the show.

In addition, the United States Postal Service and the United Nations Postal Administration will have postal stations.

The show also will feature the annual convention of the United Postal Stationery Society, which was founded in 1945. The society will hold a board meeting and its own champion of champions exhibit competition at the show.

From 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, members of the Garfield-Perry Stamp Club will provide free evaluations of stamp collections as a service to the public. Also, club members will be available throughout the show to answer questions about stamp collecting.

At the beginners area, free stamps will be available to youth. New collectors are invited to visit and learn more about the hobby.

The March Party is an American Philatelic Society World Series of Philately show. The grand-award winner of the exhibition will qualify for the APS Champion of Champions competition to be held at Stampshow 2018 in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 9-12.

The 215-frame exhibition at Garfield-Perry includes single-frame and multiframe exhibits presenting a wide variety of U.S. and foreign material, ranging from classic early material to 20th-century issues. The awards banquet is Friday, March 23, at 7 p.m. at the show hotel. Banquet tickets will be available for $55 at the show until noon Friday.

A wine and cheese party will take place at the show hotel, the Cleveland Airport Marriott, 4277 W. 150th St., Cleveland, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

For a detailed schedule, visit the show website.

Prior to the show, on Wednesday, March 21, the American Philatelic Society will host an On-the-Road course titled French Definitives: 1849-1900. Led by Stan Fairchild, the course runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and costs $45 for APS members and $95 for nonmembers.

The course will be held at Memorial Hall, River City Hall Complex, 21016 Hilliard Blvd., Rocky River, Ohio. Please contact APS via its website to enroll. Registration deadline is March 5.

In 2018, the Garfield-Perry Stamp Club celebrates 128 years of continuous activity as a stamp club. The club meets the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel, 6200 Quarry Lane, Independence, Ohio.Three men found dead in San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury neighborhood Thursday had trace amounts of the lethal opioid fentanyl in their bodies, city officials said Friday, reinforcing the belief that adulterated street drugs caused their deaths.

The Department of Public Health said the men were likely using methamphetamine augmented with fentanyl and the fentanyl-like substance, acetyl fentanyl.

Fentanyl and fentanyl-like compounds are synthetic opioids commonly mixed with street drugs. Because of their strength, theyve been tied to tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States in recent years.

While an analysis by the Medical Examiners Office showed fentanyl in the victims bodies as well as in the drug paraphernalia they possessed, officials said they would not be able to confirm the causes of death until additional toxicology tests are completed.

The men were identified as Michael Campbell, 32, David Clark, 31, and Adam Wilson, 36. The residency of the victims was not immediately known, though authorities said they did not live in the neighborhood.

A school security guard came across the victims at 4:35 a.m. on the 1500 block of Page Street. Authorities said there were no signs of foul play or weather-related distress.

The deaths prompted public health officials to issue a warning to drug users to be on the alert for fentanyl-laced narcotics. Several San Francisco syringe-access sites offer fentanyl test strips.

The number of deaths related to fentanyl has been on the rise in the city. In 2016, 22 people died from the drug, up from 11 in 2015, according to public health officials. Over these two years, 45 percent of those cases involved fentanyl mixed with methamphetamine, 27 percent with cocaine and 41 percent with some other opioid.WASHINGTON  The manager of a San Joaquin Valley water district seen as a model for how to manage toxic agricultural runoff was jailed last week in Fresno on charges of embezzlement and burying 86 drums of toxic waste on the water districts property.

The arrests of former Panoche Water District General Manager Dennis Falaschi and four others on Thursday could further muddy congressional passage of a multimillion-dollar settlement between the federal government and the nearby Westlands Water District over selenium-tainted irrigation runoff that led to an environmental disaster at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in 1983.

San Joaquin Valley Republicans, led by Rep. David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County), have been trying to push the settlement through Congress for two years, over opposition by Bay Area Democrats who call the deal a taxpayer giveaway.Their last attempt, in December, included a similar deal for the smaller Panoche, Pacheco and San Luis water districts north of Westlands known as the northerly districts.

Rep. Jim Costa, a Fresno Democrat allied with Republicans on water issues, had introduced the legislation for a settlement for the smaller districts. Water districts are public agencies that distribute public water, and in farming areas, they are typically controlled by farmers.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed felony charges against Panoche district officials, including Falaschis son, Atomic Falaschi, alleging their embezzlement of more than $100,000 in public money for slot machines, landscaping, home remodeling, loans, car repairs and other personal expenses. Of the 10 felony counts, eight were related to embezzlement allegations and two to the charges involving hazardous waste disposal.

The investigation into the districts finances began after the California Department of Toxic Substances Control found the drums of hazardous waste buried on the districts property.

The Panoche water districts drainage program was held up as the model for the Westlands settlement and the architects of that model now have their mug shots in the post office, said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who has battled congressional approval of the deal. The criminal charges touch on the management of federal drainage funds, he said, and just added another huge waving red flag that hopefully will cause Congress to slow down.

Johnny Amaral, deputy general manager for Westlands, said the Panoche arrests should have no effect on the legislation before Congress because Panoche is independent of the Westlands settlement.

We do not anticipate that actions involving agencies that are not party to the settlement will affect the settlements chances of approval, Amaral said.

The proposed settlement was negotiated by the Obama administration after years of litigation, and has been endorsed by the Trump administration. The agreement relieves the federal government of its obligation to provide $2.7 billion to drain selenium-polluted runoff from Westlands, a district that waters 600,000 acres of cropland on the arid west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

That obligation stemmed from the governments decision in 1960 to extend the Central Valley Project to the arid west side of the San Joaquin Valley, despite the knowledge that the soils are laden with salts and selenium, a mineral lethal to wildlife and humans.

Under the settlement terms, Westlands would be forgiven the $375 million it still owes the federal government for the construction of the 1960s-era extension of the Central Valley Project that delivers water to the district, which runs along Interstate 5 from Mendota in Fresno County to Kettleman City in Kings County. The district also promises to deal with the drainage problem on its own.

Although federal agencies have recommended that Westlands retire up to half its cropland to prevent further drainage problems, the settlement requires the retirement of only 100,000 acres where farming has already been abandoned because of drainage problems.

Late last year, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield attempted to attach the Westlands settlement, along with one for Panoche and the other northerly districts, as a rider to a big military authorization bill.

But the effort was blocked by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., after the Interior Departments inspector general raised alarms about significant questionable costs in a Panoche demonstration water treatment plant intended to show that irrigation runoff can be treated.

Critics draw a parallel with Westlands history of internal accounting problems in 2016, paying a $125,000 fine to the Securities and Exchange Committee for misleading investors in a bond offering, which its general manager, Tom Birmingham, had conceded was a little Enron accounting.

The justification for the Westlands mega-deal has been that local districts manage toxic drainage more effectively and with some federal help ... they can solve the problem, said Hal Candee, a San Francisco attorney for environmental groups in pending drainage litigation. Yet now current and former leaders of the model district for this local approach are charged with crimes directly related to the management of toxic wastes and the management of public funds.

Observers expect that the next opportunity for the drainage settlement to pass Congress will be as a rider to giant spending bill set for consideration next month.Investor Warren Buffett on Saturday disclosed that the tax legislation signed by President Donald Trump netted a $29 billion windfall to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha-based conglomerate he leads.

The one-time benefit comes from savings on future taxes that the company would have to pay if it sold about $170 billion in equities, which run from American Express to Apple to the Coca-Cola Company. The taxes on the gains that in some cases have been piling up over decades, have dropped from 35 percent to 21 percent under the new tax law.

Berkshire's 2017 gain "was far from standard: A large portion of our gain did not come from anything we accomplished at Berkshire," Buffett wrote in his annual letter. The $29 billion "was delivered to us in December when Congress rewrote the U.S. Tax Code."

Berkshire doesn't pay a dividend, but the $29 billion increased the value of the company. He called the gain "nonetheless real - rest assured of that."

The 17-page missive issued Saturday morning is eagerly awaited by investors, shareholders and others who find the billionaire's advice, insights and approach to life appealing.

"My main takeaways are the underlying businesses continue to do extremely well, the cash continues to pile up, an additional $30 billion in the last year alone" to a total of $116 billion, said Whitney Tilson, a Berkshire shareholder for more than two decades and a close follower of Buffett, 87, and his longtime business partner and sidekick, Charlie Munger, 94.

The letter went on to caution investors to stick to "simple fundamentals" and lamented the Buffett braintrust's inability to find acquisition targets at what he called "a sensible purchase price."

The lack of a comfortable purchase price "proved a barrier to virtually all deals we reviewed in 2017, as prices for decent, but far from spectacular businesses hit an all-time high. Indeed, price seemed almost irrelevant to an army of optimistic purchasers."

Buffett and Munger are known for their aversion to risk. That theme remains steadfast in the Berkshire culture even with $116 billion in cash and rock-bottom prices for debt.

"I'm glad to see Buffett and Munger are being disciplined and not putting [the cash hoard] to work in a richly valued market," Tilson said.

"Our aversion to leverage has dampened our returns over the years," Buffett said. "But Charlie and I sleep well. Both of us believe it is insane to risk what you have and need in order to obtain what you don't need. We held this view 50 years ago when we each ran an investment partnership, funded by a few friends and relatives who trusted us. We also hold it today after a million or so 'partners' have joined us at Berkshire."

Despite its equity investments, its $116 billion-plus in dry powder and ownership of dozens of other businesses, small and large, Berkshire Hathaway is primarily an insurance company. Buffett built a large portion of the company based on "float," which is the money he collects and holds from insurance premiums before he must pay it out in claims. Buffett uses the float - now in the billions of dollars - for Berkshire Hathaway investments.

Buffett loves to talk about insurance, and the 2018 letter was no exception. He said Berkshire Hathaway's exposure to the three hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico last September will be $2 billion after taxes.

He said the damage to Berkshire and other insurers could have been "far worse: Had Hurricane Irma followed a path through Florida only a bit to the east, insured losses might have well been an additional $100 billion."

That said, "no company comes close to Berkshire in being financially prepared for a $400 billion" mega-catastrophe - known as "mega-cat."

"Our unparalleled financial strength explains why other (property and casualty) insurers come to Berkshire - and only Berkshire" for reinsurance.

Buffett also used his letter to take a victory lap over winning his $1 million bet with a hedge fund that a passively managed index fund would achieve a superior return than a basket of hedge funds.

"The bet illuminated another important investment lesson: Though markets are generally rational, they occasionally do crazy things. Seizing the opportunities then offered does not require great intelligence, a degree in economics or a familiarity with Wall Street jargon," he wrote. "What investors then need instead is an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals. A willingness to look unimaginative for a sustained period - or even to look foolish - is also essential."

Tilson said it was significant that Buffett pointed out in the letter that two longtime Berkshire executives - Ajit Jain and Gregory Abel - had been elevated to vice chairs on the board of directors of the $500 billion conglomerate.

"It's old news, but the fact that he mentioned in the annual letter is an indication that one or both of them will likely be his successor," Tilson said.Any current discussion of artificial intelligence in the workforce centers on how it will impact -- or outright replace -- certain departments or even employees.

But thats not the most pragmatic conversation for venture capitalists. considering AI's utility in identifying the most interesting startup investments. InReach Ventures co-founder Roberto Bonanzinga, for example, is investing $7 million on software that utilizes machine learning to find worthwhile European startups to pour capital into.

Which raises the question: Why isnt every venture capital firm already doing this? Well-established metrics are being used to assess startup potential, and one glance at the market unveils a trove of data points being used by AI algorithms to establish correlations and patterns. These historical points are valuable in assessing how an early-stage startup will perform, while their disjointed and scattered natures provide the perfect environment for AI to thrive in.

AI is a powerful tool that can filter through all the noise and present VCs with potential candidates for investment. And that will make it easier for entrepreneurs to find the best way to appeal to VCs and attain the optimal level of funding.

Related: The First Thing Your Startup Can Do With AI is Become Instantly More Attractive to VCs

AI as an investment aid

An inherent risk comes with investing in first-time entrepreneurs, who succeed just 18 percent of the time, according to a Social Science Research Network study. Creative novice business owners are unproven, which can give VCs pause when it comes time to invest.

An AI framework arms VCs with the tools and information to use reasoning, knowledge, planning, communication and perception to boil startup viability down to metrics that can complement gut instinct. AI can internalize data -- much like an automated financial adviser -- to quickly summate findings and attach a success probability to a company on the basis of previous industry experiences, churn, revenue growth and market size.

By better clarifying which data best translates to successful startups, VCs can educate current and future entrepreneurs. Business owners can tweak their pitches and modify their companies' profiles to better align with what AI deems successful startup metrics, hopefully resulting in more readily available capital. Heres where they can start.

1. Mind the market.

Every entrepreneur dreams of running a company thats seen as a market leader. However, raising the money to make that dream a reality is a difficult feat, especially without the right data to act upon. Attracting funds is even harder for less traditional founders who are competing with well-connected rivals for funding.

Alice, an AI platform tailored toward entrepreneurial women, whittles the crowded startup scene down for founders by using data to spotlight minority-fronted businesses worth funding. With just 2 percent of U.S. women-owned businesses grossing more than $1 million in revenue, Alice measures metrics in any given industry and uses concrete data to provide personalized recommendations using concrete data, giving business owners the chance to assess their companies against a saturated field.

Most founders hope to build a company that can stand out from its most successful competitors while exhibiting similar characteristics to them. Entrepreneurs should use AI platforms like Alice to look at key metrics to see how their startups stack up to competitors who have received funding or are on the cusp. From there, use this information to mold the kind of company that inspires faith -- and funding -- from VCs.

Related: The Best Ways to Do Market Research for Your Business Plan

2. Track investor trends.

Entrepreneurs historically educated themselves about investors by preparing their applications and pitching to investors, only to find out after meeting with them that they'd been rejected in favor of later-stage companies or ones in different verticals. Many entrepreneurs give up before they've found success because of this, but AI is changing that.

Berlin-based VC firm Fly Ventures targets seed and pre-Series A startups and just closed its first fund at $41 million. The plan is for Fly Ventures to target European startups in the seed round and use machine learning to generate deal flow. The company's AI algorithm is reportedly discovering 1,000 new companies a week and can even find burgeoning tech startups before theyve begun fundraising.

This type of technology directs entrepreneurs toward meeting the right investors at the right times. After surveying the market, use the AI-provided information to ensure your company's metrics line up with what investors seek in a viable startup partner. Being cognizant of what traits appeal to investors can make the search for funding more fruitful and a little less frustrating.

Related: How to Approach an Investor for Your Startup

3. Never stop improving.

The great thing about AI is that -- like a business -- it's never done evolving. Machine learning is constantly receiving and analyzing information, so entrepreneurs should use these nonstop updates to constantly tweak their businesses and pitches for investors.

Hone Capital is already modeling this behavior. The tech-focused investment firm partnered with AngelList to create a database of more than 30,000 deals from the past decade to feed to a machine-learning model. It explored 400 characteristics and narrowed them down to 20 that are most indicative of future success.

Hone provides entrepreneurs a living database of companies to consult for tips on how to improve and differentiate themselves. Founders can take this information and simplify the investment process by applying concrete success metrics to their own businesses. Use these AI capabilities to continually improve your company's profile and gain that first -- or future -- round of funding.

By harnessing the power of AI, entrepreneurs at every stage will have access to better data and better insights. The technology isnt just disrupting business operations -- its changing the entire game from top to bottom. And if youre already working with it, youll know youre doing it right when a VC calls you out the blue because you fit the entrepreneurial profile that his AI was looking for.

Related:

Why Agritech is Set to Redefine VC Investments from 2018?

Here's How AI Is Changing VC Funding

Why Would Venture Capitalists, Investors Invest in Healthcare Startups in 2018?



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

BAIC BJEV vice general manager becomes president of EV startup Hozon Auto

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- After the Spring Festival, Zhang Yong, former vice general manager of BAIC BJEV, has officially joined Zhejiang Hozon New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd (Hozon Auto) as president, taking charge of the production and operation business of the electric vehicle startup, according to Hozon Auto.



Zhang Yong previously held key positions in Foton Auto, the stated-owned BAIC Group's subsidiary. In 2010, he left Foton Auto for Chery Auto as executive deputy general manager and was in charge of Chery's new energy vehicle business. Then he returned to BAIC in 2014, taking charge of BAIC BJEV's channel building, marketing, after-sales service and brand promotion which enabled him to accumulate abundant experiences in new energy vehicle industry.

According to relevant statistics, during Zhang's tenure, BAIC BJEV's annual sales had reached 48,000 vehicles in 2016, skyrocketing 138.73% year on year. The company remained such strong impetus in 2017, achieving a year-on-year sales growth of 125.2% to 104,500 units, and ranked first in new energy vehicle sales in China.

Founded in 2014, Hozon Auto is a China's electric vehicle startup led by R&D experts from Tsinghua University, involving a registered capital of around RMB 630,000,000. In April last year, Hozon Auto received an official government permit for the production of electric vehicle. With a total investment of RMB 1,157,000,000, the new project of electric vehicle is operated at Tongxiang Economic Development Zone of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province and is expect to realize the mass production target of 50,000 new energy vehicles.

Its first electric vehicle model E-TAKE has been showcased in December last year. According to official news, the E-TAKE, with a combined battery range of 500km, is expected to go on sale by the end of 2019.The United Nations Security Council on Saturday unanimously called for a 30-day cease-fire in Syria, with Russia agreeing to the temporary hiatus only after forcing two days of delays that critics said allowed ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to pursue a renewed bombing campaign blamed for hundreds of recent deaths in a rebel-controlled area.

The nationwide truce would begin "without delay," a victory for the United States and other nations that resisted Russian efforts to push back the start or soften the terms.

It came after intense negotiations to persuade Russia not to use its veto power in the Security Council. Moscow had blocked 11 previous Syria resolutions. The United States and others accused Moscow of protecting the Assad government and its bombing campaign in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta while allowing a horrific humanitarian disaster to continue.

There was a further delay Saturday as Russia and the United States haggled behind closed doors over the final text. Cameras in the Security Council chamber captured other delegates poring over the document shortly before the session finally began, more than two hours behind schedule.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said little had changed during the arduous negotiations, "except a few words and some commas." She blamed Russia, Syria and Iran for not taking moral responsibility for the urgency of the situation.

"As they dragged out the negotiation, the bombs from Assad's fighter jets continued to fall," she said. "In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and shelling? How many more images did we need to see of fathers holding their dead children?

"All for nothing, because here we are voting for a cease-fire that could have saved lives days ago."

It will be up to Russia to use its influence with Assad to enforce the cease-fire, which would allow desperately needed deliveries of emergency supplies and medical evacuations of the seriously injured and sick.

Activists and monitors say more than 500 civilians have been killed in the last week in Eastern Ghouta, in what is considered the fiercest assault in seven years of civil war. Each day of delay in imposing the cease-fire allowed Assad's forces to level more of the largely rebel-controlled area.

The humanitarian convoys "are ready to go," Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog told the council.

"This ended up being a bit of a showdown," between Haley and Russian Ambassador Vasilly Nebenzia, said a Security Council diplomat who requested anonyity to describe the backroom negotiations.

"She succeeded in retaining vital language in the resolution that called for an immediate start to the ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access without delay. The Russians kept trying to water it down."

On Friday, a vote was scheduled, and delayed, three separate times before diplomats gave up the effort after sundown.

One sticking point was when the cease-fire would begin. The draft submitted Friday night by Kuwait and Sweden did not give a specific start time.

It would demand "that all parties cease hostilities without delay for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria for a durable humanitarian pause, to enable the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid and services and medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded."

The resolution would encourage efforts toward a longer cease-fire but does not set terms for that goal.

It also would carve out an exception for military action against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

Some diplomats suspect Russia was stalling a vote to allow government warplanes to press on its offensive against rebels with missiles, mortars and barrel bombs.

Hospitals also have been hit, and the pleas coming from some of the 400,000 residents of the area have grown increasingly desperate in the face of what U.N. officials describe as a medieval siege. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres labeled conditions in Eastern Ghouta "hell on earth."

World leaders appealed to Russia to back a truce allowing a temporary reprieve to the unrelenting bombardment.

President Donald Trump accused the Syrian government and its backers, Russia and Iran, of being responsible for a humanitarian "disgrace."

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed in a joint letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin to back a cease-fire.

Haley supported the cease-fire idea and, in remarks Thursday, criticized Russia for "trying to give cover" to its ally Assad.

She said U.S. military strikes like those Trump ordered a year ago are "always going to be on the table," and said Russia had walked away from its previous cooperation in the removal of chemical weapons from Syria.

"Russia has covered for Assad many times we now have to decide what's the response to that," Haley said during a question-and-answer session at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.

"Assad very much knows that we will act if we see proof that they have done this, and they are walking a very fine line," Haley said.Opio was 16 when he was abducted by a Bible-quoting warlord and forced into a militia notorious for massacres and sexual slavery. Two decades on, he again took up a rifle -- this time playing one of his former comrades in an award-winning Ugandan movie.

As the cameras rolled, he and other actors stormed a village set, shot at civilians and were ambushed at a river crossing. It was all for 'The Devil's Chest,' one of two feature films about Joseph Kony and his rebel Lord's Resistance Army that were made on location in northern Uganda last year and stirred some painful memories.

"I felt it all coming back, the frustrations, the helplessness and how sometimes I would feel that I just wanted to die," said Opio, who's now 38 and spent seven years in the LRA before fleeing and accepting a state-sponsored amnesty. "But at the end of it all, I knew it was just a movie -- I had already left that real life in the past."

Uganda, too, has moved on from the chaos sown by Kony's militia, which may have been responsible for 100,000 deaths in central and eastern Africa in the past three decades. There's been investment in oil exploration and infrastructure in the north, which the LRA terrorized until 2005, while the capital, Kampala, is touted as a hot new nightlife spot. Now at peace -- and still under the iron rule of President Yoweri Museveni -- U.S. ally Uganda is a regional heavyweight, sending troops to Somalia and South Sudan.

The country isn't a complete stranger to Hollywood: 'The Last King of Scotland' recreated the despotic 1970s rule of President Idi Amin, while Lupita Nyong'o played the mother of a chess prodigy in Disney's 'Queen of Katwe,' which takes its title from a Kampala neighborhood. Recent years, though, have brought a surge in locally funded films. Museveni's drive to remain in office may have curbed political expression, but it hasn't dampened creativity in a economy that's almost quadrupled in size since he took power in 1986.

At least 700 Ugandan features and short films have played at festivals in the past five years, according to Ruth Kibuuka, content development manager at the Uganda Communications Commission, the industry regulator. While quality was initially "wanting," it has "greatly improved," partly due to technical training, she said.

There's still a long way before Uganda challenges Nollywood, Nigeria's film industry that produces movies at a rate second only to India's. That's despite the efforts of Nabwana Isaac Godfrey. The founder of Wakaliwood, a studio that turns out scrappy, fast-paced action movies from a Kampala slum, he says he's directed about 60 since 2005 -- at less than $300 each.

"The industry is growing at a very good speed and it's passion that is driving it," said Godfrey. His most famous production,'Who Killed Captain Alex?,' showcases the crude computer-generated effects and over-the-top violence that's won him a cult following outside Uganda.

Timothy Agaba, a 29-year-old accountant in the capital, says Ugandan movies are offering a "new, interesting angle."

"However much people loved films like those from Hollywood, having our own people bringing to life our history and social life makes it all the more interesting," he said.

For director Hassan Mageye, 'Devil's Chest' commemorates the insurgency's victims while showing that people have moved on. It won best feature at Uganda's main film festival in September, but hasn't yet been widely released. He estimated about 90 percent of the 400-strong cast were affected by Kony's rebellion, including some ex-fighters.

Roger Masaba, who portrayed Kony, said he was advised by some of the cast who'd met the real man. The 47-year-old said he was surprised not everyone off the set in the north expressed dislike for the warlord. When he was in costume, some even thought he was Kony.

Indicted by the International Criminal Court and still on the run, Kony went on to plague South Sudan and the Central African Republic with a much-diminished militia. His former fighters in Uganda were mostly granted amnesty by the government, which has provided counseling and outlawed discrimination against them.

There's a strong local appetite for stories about Uganda's past, according to Steve Ayeny, the director of 'Kony: Order From Above,' another feature about the rebels and their captives filmed at a northern army base. He said about half his 445 actors and extras were former insurgents.

Reenacting the lynchings and burning of villages "was not easy," said Ayeny, who had friends killed during the period his film portrays. "Because they were the truth, we just had to deal with it and say, ya, let's move on."/Courtesy

The Alamo Colleges will not hold student or public forums with Mike Flores, the lone finalist for chancellor, until after the community college districts trustees vote to confirm his appointment.

Flores is president of Palo Alto College, one of the districts five colleges.Edgewood Independent School Districts board of managers voted to put Superintendent Emilio Castro on paid leave as a third-party firm investigates a harassment complaint against him.

Phillip Chavez, chief academic officer for the school district, will be filling in for Castro in the meantime.

READ MORE: Police report detail's school officials harassment

The Houston-based firm Rogers, Morris & Grover will be investigating the complaint for the district.

RELATED: Senator: Uresti wants 'time' after call for resignation

Edgewood ISD encourages all employees to report harassment, in any form, to their immediate supervisor, said Roy Soto, president of the board of managers.

It is the goal of the district to provide a healthy work environment for all employees so that they could be able to proficiently serve the students of Edgewood ISD, he added.

The special meeting comes one week after a 46-year-old woman who works in the districts main office reported being inappropriately touched by Castro to the police. She also notified Edgewoods human resources department about the incident.

Chavez said he didnt think there would be an issue balancing his role as an academic officer with his new role as interim superintendent.

RELATED: Ex-S.A. district official under fire for trespassing

Every day is a new day. We are all hands on deck at this time, he said. We have a very strong team, and we work collaboratively and have always worked collaboratively.

He was confident the leadership change would not affect student achievement in the district. He declined to comment on whether news of the harassment complaint was surprising to him.

Earlier this week, Soto said in an interview that the harassment allegation came out of the blue.

This was all just something that surfaced, he said.

The incidents of inappropriate behavior detailed in the report varied from Castro shaking the complainants hand and not letting go, to running his hand across the back of her lower neck, according to the police report.

Amanda Gonzalez, a former board manager who was ousted by Texas education officials last summer without explanation, said she was repulsed but not surprised to hear of the complaint filed against him. She said she had been a recipient of his inappropriate behavior before.

Dr. Castros inappropriate behavior carried on until I finally moved his hand away from me at town hall meeting, avoided meeting him at one-on-one meetings off district campus, and tried any and every attempt to not sit next to him, she said in an email to the Express-News.

She said she had never reported his behavior but did show the Express-News an anonymous email she had received regarding two female employees who said Castro had invaded their privacy. She contacted the districts attorneys about what she should do and they told her she should advise the emailer to take the complaint to Human Resources.

Gonzalez said Texas Education Officials removed her from the board because they didnt appreciate her outspokenness and willingness to go against the board majority opinion.

The board of state-appointed managers took over Edgewood in 2016 when the previous elected board could not break 3-3 faction tie votes, which prevented the appointments of several key school district officials.

The managers hired Castro as superintendent in December that year.

Castro was a deputy superintendent at San Antonio Independent School District before being hired at Edgewood. Before that he was an elementary, middle and high school principal in Dallas.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.Why dont they do it the right way, like my ancestors? is a common refrain heard from many European-origin Americans when theyre talking about immigration.

This is easily explained. Lets start with the history.

When the Europeans came to the U.S at the turn of the 20th century, they just had to go through Ellis Island. More than 15 million immigrants were inspected and processed at Ellis Island, and the majority were allowed to stay. Only those with mental problems, those with sickness, those who were too weak to work, or those who were considered a danger to society were sent back  a mere 2 percent of all immigrants.

Immigrants at that time  the ancestors of most Americans  didnt have to face numerical limitations or the need to have a visa to enter the United States.

This was true until 1924, the year in which the border patrol was established. Immigrants were then required to process a visa at an American consulate before entering the U.S. In 1924, the U.S. also decided to change the immigration law to mostly favor immigration from Western Europe because those from Eastern and Southern Europe were considered undesirables.

After World War II, the Bracero Program was implemented. It brought up to 5 million Mexican immigrants who came to do the hard work in the fields, as there was a labor shortage.

This program lasted 22 years and ended in 1964.

In 1965, for the first time, the U.S. had a restriction on visas for the Western Hemisphere. This was the beginning of undocumented immigration. In other words, our laws created this undocumented migration flow by making it exceedingly difficult for many immigrants to come legally to the U.S.

Today, we need immigrants to work in unskilled occupations  jobs that Americans dont want to do. Would Americans want to pick the grapes in California under a hot sun all day? Or would they want to work in poultry processing industries inside refrigerators for entire shifts?

But our immigration laws only allow for 60,000 temporary visas and only 5,000 visas for unskilled workers annually to fulfill the demand for unskilled labor. All of the rest of the work-related visas are for those who are professionals and those who possess extraordinary abilities.

OK, so what about entry through refugee status? Or family reunification?

Lets take refugees first. Unfortunately, refugees  particularly those from Central America and Mexico  are less likely to get their cases approved in immigration courts. Only 3 percent of Salvadorans applying for refugee status were approved, compared to 14 percent of all applicants.

Family reunification? People seeking entry through family reunification typically have to wait extremely long periods  often up to 15 years or longer. And the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996 made this even more difficult. This law says that those who entered without inspection, regardless of whether they are married to a U.S. citizen and/or have U.S. born children, cannot apply for Legal Permanent Residency (LPR) without first being banned from the country for 10 years.

Beginning to understand why undocumented immigrants risk being suffocated inside a cargo truck or dying of dehydration while trying to get across the desert to here?

If there was a way to do it the legal way, believe me, they would have at least tried. There isnt.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) provided a lifeline for Dreamers, who did not have any other option for gaining a path to legalization. The same is the case with Salvadorans who recently lost their Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Most of them have been living in the U.S. for more than 20 years.

Why would they continue to renew their TPS every two years and pay about $500 in processing fees per person each time if there was another way for them to apply and become legal permanent residents?

Right, youre probably now saying this is a country of laws, and these must be obeyed. By everyone.

OK, but employers are giving jobs to undocumented workers. So, of course, immigrants come to fill those jobs. And the effects of the free market economy also displace workers from jobs in developing nations.

For example, after the elimination of tariffs due to NAFTA, agricultural workers in Mexico suddenly found themselves unable to sell their crops because the corn exported from the U.S. was selling for a cheaper price. So, people suddenly found themselves without jobs and no way to survive  due to U.S. policy.

These countries dont have effective safety nets, such as unemployment benefits. Others face deep levels of poverty. Others need to emigrate to save their lives due to the high levels of violence from or extortion by drug dealers and gangs.

Yes, part of the IRCA law in 1986 included employer sanctions, making it illegal to knowingly hire undocumented workers. But, guess what? There has been very little enforcement of that in the last 32 years.

If this is a country of laws, why dont employers set the example and follow the law?

These employers are hiring millions of undocumented immigrants and nobody calls them lawbreakers, much less illegal employers. That adjective  illegal  is reserved only for immigrants in the harsh anti-immigrant environment we now find ourselves in.

People who believe that todays immigrants are lawbreakers because their ancestors followed the law and came legally should consider what would have happened if the current U.S. laws had existed when their ancestors wanted to come.

As with many immigrants today, back then many came without skills, were poor, and were escaping punishing economic conditions and war. They also would not have been able to qualify for legal documents.

So, please, stop asking, Why dont they just go to the back of the line?

Lets make it simple. Practically speaking, there is no line! Which is to say, there is mostly no way most undocumented immigrants can qualify for legal entry. They cant successfully do it the right way.

The last time we had an amnesty program was through IRCA (the Immigration Reform and Control Act) of 1986.

I, along with another 3.5 million immigrants, was able to regularize my immigration status then. After that, a lot of wonderful life opportunities opened up for me. I was able to get my General Education Diploma (GED), attend a community college, transfer to a four-year university, and get my masters and Ph.D. at an Ivy League university.

Today, Im an assistant professor of sociology at Texas Tech University.

Without IRCA, I would not have been able to do all these things.

So, why not give the opportunity afforded by legalization  such as the one I had  to all the immigrants who have been satisfying the huge demand in the U.S. for unskilled labor?

The vast majority of these immigrants have been law-abiding, have been working very hard, and have already established their lives in the U.S.

Instead of criminalizing immigrants, we need to understand how, through bad immigration policy, the U.S. has created a huge population of second-class citizens who are now being used by corporations, legislators and our president for political and economic gain.A prosecution barrister said there is "not a shred of truth" in a murder accused's claim that he was provoked by the deceased when he stabbed him to death.



Patrick McGrath SC delivered his closing speech in the trial of Rihards Lavickis (25) of Annaly Court, Longford who has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Akadiusz 'Arek' Czajkowski (31) at Rue Noyal Chatillon, Townspark in Longford on November 1, 2016. His plea was not accepted by the State and he is on trial at the Central Criminal Court.



The accused, a confessed drug dealer, admits stabbing Mr Czajkowski.

Giving evidence on day seven of the trial, Mr Lavickis said the deceased came looking for repayment of a 300 drug debt and beat him with a knuckle duster several months before the fatal encounter.

The night before the stabbing, he said Mr Czajkowski and two other men chased him and the following morning Mr Lavickis awoke to find his front windows had been smashed. He believed Mr Czajkowski was responsible and went looking for him armed with a knife, saying he wanted to frighten the deceased. When he saw Mr Czajkowski, he said he had a "kind of a black out" and lost self control.



Mr McGrath said that under Irish law, if the accused was provoked his conviction would be reduced from murder to manslaughter. But counsel said the prosecution has proven beyond reasonable doubt that he was not provoked and that he is a "deliberate killer".



Mr McGrath explained that for provocation to be used as a defence, the accused man must have suffered a total and sudden loss of self control so that he was no longer master of his own mind. It is a crime of passion, he said, and the common examples, like the battered wife who finally snaps and kills her husband, are "miles away" from the evidence in this case.

He pointed out that there was a three-and-a-half hour gap between Mr Lavickis waking to find his windows broken and the fatal stabbing. In that time, he said the accused had time to call the gardai who arrived and took a report from him. He then took the knife, brought it to the deceased's apartment but couldn't find him, went back home, smoked cigarettes and thought about what he would do.

He went to meet a friend to do something in relation to drugs, sat in that man's car and saw the deceased. He opened his knife, got out of the car, went across the road where he concealed himself and waited for Mr Czajkowski before chasing after him with his knife held over his shoulder and stabbed him to death.



"Provocation does not arise in this case," he said adding that there is not a shred of truth to the claim that he had a blackout or lost control.

While Mr McGrath accepted there was background between the two men, he said this is not the type of case that the law allows to be reduced from murder to manslaughter. "This is a deliberate killing," he said, adding that the accused took the law into his own hands and made a conscious decision to go after Mr Czajkowski with a knife.

He described the claim that he had a blackout and lost control as a "contrivance and a fabrication" and a "nonsense wholly lacking in credibility". He asked the jury to consider why Mr Lavickis did not use those phrases in four interviews with gardai immediately after the stabbing. Instead, he told gardai that he was angry and that his blood was boiling, which would not amount to the legal defence of provocation.



John Shortt SC for the accused said the jury must decide if his client is a "cold blooded killer", as the prosecution has suggested, or a self confessed killer who, acting out of character, reacted to events in his life.



He said the jury had heard evidence that he was a popular man who was trying to maintain a normal family life in a three-bed apartment with his partner, her mother and sister and three children.

He questioned how the prosecution could have the temerity to call his client a liar when, from the outset, he had stood up and said: "I did this, I regret it. I was out of order but I'm telling you why I did it."



He said that taking the knife is not proof of intent. He suggested that had Mr Lavickis put on a disguise, thrown away the knife following the stabbing and gone on the run, he would be in a "very much more awkward position."

He pointed out that the hoodie is the "garment du jour" for those looking to cover their identity when carrying out a crime, but Mr Lavickis did not wear one. He made no effort to conceal who he was or to go on the run. That, he said, would be strong evidence of someone cold and calculating and guilty of murder, but in this case Mr Lavickis went home and waited for gardai to arrive. He did not try to hide the knife.

Counsel also reminded the jury that following the stabbing, Mr Lavickis was standing over Mr Czajkowski but rather than persist in stabbing him to make sure he had killed him, he stopped and walked away. This, he said, shows someone who suddenly regained reason as the enormity of what he had done came to him.

He also pointed to the evidence of State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy who said the knife entered the deceased's heart by one centimetre - "the difference between life and death in this case."



He said this was an attack that went too far, but that the prosecution must prove intent beyond reasonable doubt. If they are satisfied that he had the necessary intent, they must then consider the defence of provocation.

Counsel asked them to remember that Mr Lavickis was assaulted by the deceased with a knuckle duster but did not react or look for revenge. His family home was attacked and on Halloween night it kicks off again when the deceased got out of a car and chased Mr Lavickis as he was simply going about his business.

Despite that the accused went home and went to bed rather than going out looking for Mr Czajkowski. But it didn't end there, he said. The hostility persisted and all of it from Mr Czajkowski. The following morning the accused's windows are smashed and his mother in law, girlfriend and her sister are "not best pleased". He said his client's head was a "total mess" because Mr Czajkowski won't leave him alone and he is getting grief from his family.

He described a "tumult of emotion" as the accused, who had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs the night before, thought about why this was happening, that it would not end and what he was doing to do about it.

He told the jury they would have to get inside the accused man's head as this was happening. He told the jury that based on the evidence, they should find him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.



Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh will complete her charge to the jury on Tuesday.

The trial as it happened:

Day 1, Thursday, February 8 (morning):

Longford manslaughter plea rejected at Central Criminal Court

Day 1, Thursday, February 8 (afternoon):

Jury sworn in for Longford murder trial

Day 2 Friday, February 10 (morning):

Longford murder trial hears man was stabbed after dispute over smashed window

Day 2, Friday, February 10 (afternoon):

Longford murder trial hears accused stabbed victim three times

Day 3, Tuesday, February 13 (morning):

Longford murder accused told garda he was going to 'sort out' deceased

Day 3, Tuesday, February 13 (afternoon):

Accused had blood on his trousers when he informed partner he stuck knife in victim's 'belly'

Day 4, Wednesday, February 14 (morning):

Partner of accused in Longford murder trial feared revenge

Day 4, Wednesday, February 14 (afternoon):

Longford murder accused owed deceased money for cannabis he received 'on tick'

Day 5, Thursday, February 15 (morning):

Single stab wound to the heart caused death of Longford father of two

Day 5, Friday, February 15 (afternoon):

Father of two had drugs and alcohol in system when he died from stab wound to heart

Day 6, Friday, February 16 (morning):

Drug dealer wanted to teach deceased a lesson

Day 6, Friday, February 16 (afternoon):

Longford murder trial hears drug dealer wanted to teach deceased a lesson

Day 7, Tuesday, February 20 (morning):

Accused tells Longford murder trial he didn't mean to harm deceased

Day 7, Tuesday, February 20 (afternoon):

Longford murder accused tells trial: 'It's not the kind of person I am, to stab anyone'A woman in her 40s has been killed in a crash in the midlands.

The two-car collision occurred at around 10pm on Friday night on the N80 close to Ballickmoyler in Laois.

Gardai and Emergency Services were attended the scene. The female (48) driver of one of the cars sustained fatal injuries and died at the scene.

A man in his 40s, who was the driver of the second car was transferred to Tullamore Hospital and his injuries are understood to be serious.

The N80 is currently closed to traffic and local diversions are in place to enable Garda forensic collision investigators to examine the crash site. The local Coroner has been notified.

Gardai in Portlaoise are appealing for witnesses and anyone with information is asked to contact Portlaoise Garda Station 057-8674100, the Garda Confidential Line or any Garda Station.

You may also be interested in:

Closing speeches in Longford murder trial: prosecution suggests that killing was deliberate

Met Eireann Weather Alert: Significant snowfall accumulations to hit Ireland due to Sudden Stratospheric Warming

Longford Gardai urge homeowners to be vigilant of banknote sellersOne of the primary rules of Apple punditry is that if Apple has a problem, then that problem must be existential.

Writing for Computerworld, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols says Apple is not as good as its bottom line. (Tip o the antlers to @designheretic.)

How can I say Apple is in trouble when its selling 10 iPhones per second?

And not burst into flames? Uh, say it while lounging in a bathtub full of industrial strength firefighting foam? That might do it.

This is a company that just recorded quarterly revenue of $88.3 billion, an increase of 13% from a year earlier and an all-time record.

Surely it will go out of business any minute now.

So how can I diss success like that? Easily.

For a long time Pauly Shore got new movie deals easily, too. That doesnt make it right.

For starters, sales of Apples top-of-the-line smartphone, the iPhone X, have been lagging.

Vaughan-Nichols quotes the rather misrepresented report claiming Apple will kill the iPhone X and the two reports claiming the company slashed iPhone X part orders for the current quarter from an absurd 40 or 45 or even 50 million units to a reasonable 20 million. Pundits are falling over themselves like pandas trying to stop a zookeeper from cleaning their enclosure to push this rumor without evaluating whether or not it makes a lick of sense, which it kinda does not.

Then he supplies his own reasons.

First, I think some people who can afford to spend $1,000 on a phone finally realized after the phone-slowdown brouhaha that Apple is ripping them off.

Sure, people are not buying the iPhone X (despite the counter indications that they are that no one ever seems to mention) because the company slowed down older phones instead of letting them just shut down. Nnkay.

Second, even the most loyal Apple fanboi knows that iOS is a mess, with iOS 11.x plagued by one bug after another.

Dear reader, let the Macalope tell you, it is antler-bangingly maddening to have to respond to the same arguments three times a week. But here we are. Let us get to the paragraph that the Macalope has had to just slightly rewrite three times now.

Does it make sense that customers will dump iOS to run willingly into the arms of the platform that collects the users location even when location services are turned off and has had a long-standing problem with security, one exacerbated by continued problems delivering security updates? Not much sense, no. Negative sense, really. Is that a thing? Are we finding out right now? Ooh, this is very exciting. We might be on the edge of an ontological breakthrough.

The latest bug is a doozy.

The fix for this bug was released on February 19th, a day before Vaughan-Nichols article was published. The article does not mention the fix.

Are we going to go back and drag out all the Android bugs that have cropped up and subsequently fixed, too? Because, if so, the Macalope hopes you brought a chair.

But lets say that Apple is finally facing its internal problems; its external enemies arent sleeping. Besides the ones you know about, such as global smartphone leader Samsung

Which certainly has never had any quality assurance problems worth mentioning.

the Chinese smartphone OEMs, such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Oppo, are growing their sales at double-digit rates.

Well, Huawei only until last quarter when sales actually declined. And who cares if the U.S. intelligence community recommends against buying their phones over fears that its beholden to the Chinese government? Why even mention that?!

I think the company would be wiser to do a better job of cleaning up its software before customers finally realize that Apples luxury brand has become second rate.

Thats literally what its committed to doing this year (an effort Vaughan-Nichols is rather dismissive of). And while the company does have problems and possibly even more problems of late, their stuff is still better than the competitions, so its still technically first rate.

Again, because some people seem to think the Macalope is saying APPLE IS PERFECT! THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS! let him assure them that he has noticed and experienced some of the problems! And he does not like them! The company is not perfect! The point is, unless youre suddenly going Amish, you have to choose between platforms and the grass really isnt greener on the other side. Yeah, Apple needs to clean up its yard, but the mess isnt nearly bad enough yet to cause it any real trouble.by Sara Guaglione , February 23, 2018

Health and wellness media brand Mindbodygreen relaunched MBG Collective Thursday to celebrate its large influencer community. The refocus on the collective is another push from the site, following its redesign last October.

Mindbodygreen also changed its tagline to You. We. All. The idea is that you need to take care of yourself and we are the community to support your self-care needs. All refers to inclusion  caring for the people and the planet around us.

The new MBG Collective gets a big splash on Mindbodygreens homepage. It celebrates the top 50 experts in the network, categorized as healers, innovators, visionaries and change makers. It includes big names like actor Hill Harper and Whole 30 founder Melissa Hartwig.

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Experts will produce live streams, videos, articles and social events for Mindbodygreen.

Consider them your personal guides, there to support you and sustain you on your journey, Wachob wrote in a post announcing the relaunched collective

But going deeper, CEO and founder Jason Wachob told Publishers Daily the new Mindbodygreens mission is to become more accessible to a wider audience.

Wellness is needed now more than ever, but so much of it can still feel exclusive to a privileged few in places like LA or NYC, Wachob wrote in a post on the site, announcing the relaunch in October.

He cited the tragedies in Charlottesville and Las Vegas noting: The planet we inhabit is in crisis. People are hurting. People are angry. So are we.

Access to finding purpose, moving our bodies, eating nourishing foods, looking after our health, building communities, and healing our planet  for everyone is critical, Wachob wrote in a post.

The demographic of Mindbodygreens 10 million unique monthly visitors tend to be women in their early 30s, living in big cities with a high income. But Wachob wants to expand Mindbodygreen to reach people who live in more rural parts of the country.

Accessibility is a key goal. Instead of speaking down to its readers, Mindbodygreen aims to give audiences trustworthy information on everything from the supplement CoQ10 to exercises to combat a sedentary lifestyle.

We wont write about the hottest leggings or a boutique fitness trend, Wachob said. We dont chase fads.

The site also provides short videos for Mindbodygreens target audience: mindful moms, or women that have a child or are planning to have one.

The site has about 80 video classes, and is launching a few serialized short video shows soon.

About 80% of Mindbodygreens revenue comes from ads, with a specific focus on branded content. Its online classes account for about 25% of revenue; events are its fastest-growing business, Wachob said.

Online, Mindbodygreen can get brands to unlock certain video classes for a week. Class is free, thanks to sponsorship.

The media company doesnt work with a lot of brands, he notes, but makes an effort to work with partners that coincide with Mindbodygreens mission. That means teaming up with brands like Whole Foods Market and Siggis, with partnerships that span across content, influencer video and experiential areas.

We are not chasing scale for the sake of scale, Wachob said. He is only interested in that which is authentic to the brand.

Wachob believes Mindbodygreen has resonated because old endemic print magazines are out of touch. Those magazines tout unattainable four-minute ab workouts, while other wellness magazines recommend products with questionable scientific backing.

Mindbodygreen is comprised of about 40 employees, but taps into its network of more than 5,000 contributors in the wellness space for advice and guidance content, ranging from enthusiasts to celebrities, doctors to nutritionists.

Wachob loves to say: Community is in our DNA.by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, February 23, 2018

A deal created between Google and Twitter that was intended to bring more news from the social site into search results seems to have hit a roadblock. During the past few years, the number of tweets indexing in Google search continues to decline.

In a dataset of 693 users who posted in aggregate, about 47,000 tweets analyzed, Stone Temple Consulting researchers found that only 5.2% of these tweets appeared in the Google Index.

Stone Temple Consulting has been tracking Google's integration with Twitter since 2014. In their most recent study, researchers analyzed 47,800 tweets across 693 accounts to compare the tweet index in Google search over time. The data also shows that tweets are not indexed quickly, and they take into consideration many factors such as follower count, number of retweets, age of a tweet, and account verification.

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Indeed, follower count and retweets influence the likelihood the tweet will appear in Google search queries.

These factors also influence the speed at which the tweet is indexed. Overall, 5.2% of sampled tweets were indexed by Google during the research phase, down from 8% in 2016, and only 1.6% of tweets were indexed within seven days of being posted.

Researchers found that the most likely metric that increases the chance of indexing appears to be favorites and second, retweets. The data also suggests that length of the tweet does not influence whether the tweet gets indexed or the speed in which it appears in Google search results.

The speed at which tweets are indexed declined steadily since October 2016. Most recently, only 1.6% of the tweets were indexed within the first seven days during the study -- a rate that is nearly as low as that in February 2015, a time before Google and Twitter announced their API deal to have the content appear in search results.

Overall, the number of Twitter tweets that index in Google search results continues to decline. While it's not clear whether the decline has any impact on the amount marketers now spend on Twitter, but it's clear from iProspect's most recent Paid Social Trends report that budgets to paid social on Twitter also continue to decline.

Twitter spend fell 56% YoY in 2017, but only 44% quarter-over-quarter. iProspect's report suggest the year-over-year spend fell due to Twitters dwindling focus on direct-response tactics. Among the agency's clients, 29% of fourth-quarter spend on Twitter was allocated to driving web site clicks, and 22% was allocated to their in-stream video ad capabilities.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 23, 2018

Google has defeated a lawsuit by business owner Dawn Bennett, who alleged that the company defamed her by displaying a disparaging blog post written by her former search marketing consultant.

In a ruling issued Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Communications Decency Act immunizes Google from liability for blog posts created by users.

The decision, which upheld a ruling issued last year by a trial judge, stems from a 2016 lawsuit filed by Bennett, a former financial adviser who currently owns the ecommerce business Bennett Holdings.

She sued over a blog post allegedly written by Scott Pierson, the founder of The Executive SEO Agency -- which she had hired in 2013, according to the opinion. Bennett's business relationship with Pierson broke down after several months, the judges wrote.

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Pierson subsequently criticized Bennett in a blog post, published via Google, that included the following language: "I urge you to think twice before giving your patronage to DJ Bennett.com . . . . The website is pretty, but the person running the show is quite contemptible," according to the court's opinion.

Bennett alleged that she asked Google to remove Pierson's post. When the company didn't do so, she sued Google for defamation and other claims.

She argued that Google wasn't entitled to the Communications Decency Act's protections on the grounds that the post violated Google's blogger guidelines. which prohibit "harassment" and other objectionable content.

"By ignoring Piersons blog, after being put on notice it violated its guidelines, Google accepted and embraced its content and thereby lost its immunity from liability," she argued.

The D.C. Circuit judges rejected that argument, ruling that Google was immune from liability.

Google "did not edit Piersons post nor did it dictate what Pierson should write," the judges wrote.

They added: "If Bennett takes issue with Piersons post, her legal remedy is against Pierson himself."by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 23, 2018

The National Rifle Association on Friday honored Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai for the "courage" he displayed in repealing the net neutrality rules.

The award was presented by the NRA immediately before Pai was scheduled o give a speech at the American Conservative Union's Conservative Political Action Conference.

At the event, American Conservative Union executive director Dan Schneider, praised Pai for the agency's decision to repeal the Obama-era open Internet rules. Among other restrictions, the rules prohibited broadband providers from censoring content by blocking or throttling material.

"The Obama administration had some curveballs, and they implemented these regulations to take over the internet," Schneider said, referring to the rules. "As soon as President Trump came into office, President Trump asked Ajit Pai to liberate the internet and give it back to you."

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Schneider added that Pai has received death threats and that his "property has been invaded by the George Soros crowd." Last year, Pai said his family was harassed at home by "Internet regulation activists."

When NRA board of directors member Carolyn Meadows took the podium to honor Pai, she told him the "Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award" is only given "when someone had stood up under pressure with grace and dignity and principled discipline."

Prior recipients have included Vice-President Mike Pence and radio host Rush Limbaugh. Meadows said that she couldn't bring the award itself -- a handmade rifle -- onstage, but added that the NRA will give the handmade gun to Pai in the future.

The FCC published the full text of the net neutrality repeal Thursday. The order won't take effect for at least two months.

Pai argued that the net neutrality rules were too "heavy handed." But net neutrality proponents -- including consumer advocacy groups and tech companies -- counter that the rules are necessary to prevent broadband providers from engaging in censorship, and from harming competitors.

A coalition of 23 attorneys general are challenging the repeal in court, as are Mozilla, Vimeo and consumer advocacy groups. Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) said Thursday he is pressing forward with a resolution to scrap the FCC's recent move. So far, that effort has garnered the support of 50 senators.

A survey conducted by the University of Maryland late last year revealed that 83% of Americans -- including 75% of Republicans -- disapproved of the planned repeal.If you are anything like me, you understand that perfectionism is more than a great opportunity to humblebrag during a job interview. You see perfectionism for what it really is: a nagging, self-criticizing inner voice that stands in the way of happiness. However, new research may have found a way to quell it.

Share on Pinterest Self-love may protect us from the harmful effects of perfectionism.

If I hadnt had a deadline for this news story, I would probably have spent a whole day tweaking it.

The opportunities are boundless: endless word rearranging, reading sentences out loud more times than I can count, and generally fooling myself into thinking that Im distinguishing between nuances that are, most likely, indistinguishable to everybody else.

While paying attention to detail, ways to self-improve, and being passionate about what you do often leads to great work, an excessive focus on ones mistakes can do the opposite and interfere with your performance.

Not only can perfectionism lead to endless procrastination (been there), missing deadlines (almost been there every day, sometimes multiple times per day), and being less productive, but research has also shown that this overly critical mindset makes people more prone to depression  and no wonder!

When you have a persecutory inner voice that constantly compares everything you do with an ever-changing standard, it makes sense that your mind would wallow in a soup of frustration, anger, and continuous dissatisfaction with oneself.

But what if there was a way to quieten down the little perfectionist monster inside of our heads? A new study suggests that there might be.

Researchers led by Madeleine Ferrari, from the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, examined the link between perfectionism, depression, and self-compassion in two groups: one comprising adolescents, and one with adults.For most Mumbaikars, vada pav is their forever love. But for two Mumbaikars, this delicacy is not just their favourite food but is in fact, their bread and butter. (Pun intended)

 Twitter

Sujay S Sohani and Subodh Joshi were classmates at Bandra's Rizvi College in 1999 where they studied hotel management. Both of them decided to pursue a postgraduate course from London, after which they both managed to get decent jobs in reputed hotels. Sounds so perfect, right?

Well, it was, until 2007, when the recession hit the entire world. Among the unfortunate ones was Sujay, who lost his job at a five-star hotel.

 Facebook/Subodh Joshi

Disappointed and with no idea as to what he should do, he approached his old friend Subodh and told him how he doesn't even have enough money to buy a vada pav.

 Facebook/Sujay S Sohani

Little did he know that this joke would change his life forever!

The duo decided to take a huge risk and set up a vada pav stall in London. After a lot of research, they decided to settle upon a Police ice-cream cafe in Hounslow. However, the owner of the cafe allowed them to set up two tables for a rent of 400 (Rs. 35,000) a month.

In August 2010, they finally opened their stall and started selling vada pav and dabeli at cheap prices.

While vada pav was being sold for only 1 (Rs 80) and dabeli for 1.50 (Rs 131), it was still difficult for them to attract the London crowd. They realised soon they need to advertise their product and so they started offering the product for trial in the busy shopping street for free.

Their strategy was to sell these 'Indian burgers' for half the price of other burgers that were available. And luckily for them, it worked. Their business started to grow 6 months later and the two tables were soon, not sufficient.

 Facebook/Shree Krishna Vada Pav, UK

While they did find another stall a few meters away, a Punjabi restaurant called 'Big Bite', approached them and asked if they'd like to do business with them. That was the beginning of the Shree Krishna Vada Pav stall as a restaurant.

 Facebook/Subodh Joshi

Till then Sujoy retained his old job but after the restaurant opened, he quit his job and started to work full time for the restaurant. Now, they have three branches of their restaurant spread across London and also take orders for weddings and parties.

Also, it isn't just vada pav that they are selling now. Their menu now includes 60 street food dishes from India including pav bhaji, vada missal, bhelpuri, paani puri, kachoris , samosa etc.

From just two people, Shree Krishna Vada Pav now has 35 employees and an annual turnover of nearly Rs 4.40 crores.

Their story is proof that how you react to a crisis is more important that the crisis itself. You can either cry about it for the rest of your life or take it up, heads on and move on to do bigger and better things.It's the 21st century, and on paper, we might be taking a step towards becoming a developing nation, but in reality, we are still backward when it comes to dealing with mental health issues. In India, depression as a mental health problem is still considered a taboo. We aren't a country where we openly talk about it, maybe that's the reason why many who suffer from it are scared to take professional help. We often try shutting down such conversation and often call one dealing with it 'insane'. But what's even more concerning is when an influential figure talks about depression and terms it as 'luxury'. In a recent interview, Salman Khan spoke about how since the age of 15-16, he has been working non-stop and has never taken a time off. Even when the actor isn't shooting, he is out on the field doing something or the other. According to media reports, the actor even talked about mental health and said, I see a lot of people getting depressed and emotional, but I can't afford that luxury of being depressed or sad or emotional. He also added, I see a lot of people going on vacations, but I cannot afford that luxury of taking a vacation. Dear Salman, you ain't the only one who is missing out on vacations. There are lakhs of people out there who can't afford the luxury of taking a vacation. But you can SURELY afford the vacation. You not taking one is your CHOICE. And to be clear having a vacation and being depressed isn't the same thing.

(c) Colors

Depression is a serious issue and a bit of research will surely help you understand it. Also, DEPRESSION isn't a LUXURY...no one loves being miserable, sad, dejected, or low-spirited. It's not a CHOICE that someone can make. What stuns us is the fact when someone like Salman Khan who is considered a demigod in India dismisses it as a trivial problem. When a public face who can influence millions of people talks in this way, you can just understand the consequences his words can have and we don't need to tell you that. Depression isn't a temporary phase as if you are having a mood swing or just some random hormonal change which will get better. It is pretty serious and not easy to overcome. It is such a SHAME when a popular figure talks about it as if depression is like choosing a topping on your pizza, which you decided when to have and when not to have.

(c) Twitter

FYI Mr Khan, as per World Health Organisation (WHO), one in every four children between the age of 13 and 15 in India and 86 million people in the Southeast Asia region suffer from depression. Well, definitely can't call it a luxury now, can we? Mental illness is as serious as your back problem or you getting hurt while doing some stunt that goes viral all over the Internet. Those bruises you get are temporary but not DEPRESSION! Well, you can actually talk to your film fraternity friends to get a better idea about it.

Actors like Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan have come forward and actually talked about it publically. Believe it or not but confessing that you are depressed or have come out of it ain't an easy job. It requires a lot of strength, hard work, and strong spirit. It is a fight much real than the action sequences you do on-screen. It ain't a fight that gets over with few retakes; in depression, every day is a fight and you are just clueless when it will end.He is one of the biggest stars in India today but reaching here was no easy job for Salman Khan. From highs and lows to legal battles, Salman khan has seen a lot in order to achieve this stardom.

The actor who is loved by millions has been through breaking points in his life but believes that his work doesn't give him the liberty to share the vulnerable side with the world.

Talking about it at the Global TiE Summit, the actor said, My profession is such that I have to look good, dress up, do stylised action sequences and romance. Articles come on my affairs, me working with beautiful heroines and then suddenly a court date comes up... People see me on Bigg Boss in which I am laughing and joking. So, people think I don't give a damn about things. That is the most difficult part about our journey as actors. No matter what you are going through at your home or in your personal life, you can't have subtitles there. You have to be that character, no matter what you are going through, Salman said at the Global TiE Summit.

The actor also causally termed being depression or sorrow as luxury. I see a lot of people getting depressed and emotional, but I can't afford that luxury of being depressed or sad or emotional because no matter what I am going through, it works against me, he said.

(c) Twitter

Talking about his initial days in the film industry, Salman talked about Aamir Khan and revealed how he somewhere shaped and influenced his career, The journey I began with 'Maine Pyar Kiya', not knowing if I would make it, and that time it was difficult because there was another actor, who had started his career and he had given a big hit. That kid's name was Aamir Khan. He was from the same locality. I thought that he made it and if I didn't make it, the whole of Bandra will start laughing at me. So, my concern was only Bandra- Pali Hill and the friends' circle, which just had four-five people, he said.

Coming e-soon ! A post shared by Salman Khan (@beingsalmankhan) on Jun 4, 2017 at 11:53pm PDT

Well, we bet even Aamir had no idea about how he unknowingly shaped Salman's work and made him deliver the blockbuster 'Maine Pyaar Kiya' that we still love.

Further talking about how all this began he said, When I was 15-16 (years old), I started partying and stuff like that because that's the age when everyone parties. When I was in college, I used to assist in films and then I started working as a model too.As was expected, a high court in South Africa delivered a politicized verdict giving ownership of the 50,000-ton Phosphate cargo on board bulk carrier Cherry Blossom to the Polisario separatists.

Bound for New Zealand, the ship was held in Port Elizabeth for almost a year after the Polisario challenged the legality of the transaction in a bid to use the justice system of its South African ally to undermine Moroccos economic interests.

The legal process was described by the owner of the cargo, Moroccos OCP, as political piracy and a hostile act revealing the stark partiality of the South African justice system.

Considering that the South African justice has no legitimacy to rule on the case, the OCP decided to withdraw from the proceedings last July.

The Moroccan phosphate giant denounced the seizure of the cargo on multiple occasions, deploring South Africas blatant interference in the political process led by the UN Security Council.

Legal experts say that holding the Moroccan phosphates cargos in international ports in response to complaints filed by a separatist entity that is not recognized by the UN is in itself a violation of international law.

The Polisario is not recognized by the International community as a representative of the commercial interests of the population of the Sahara, although it is considered as a party in the political process to find a solution to the Sahara conflict.

Last May, Panamanian authorities refused to hold a tanker carrying Moroccan phosphate bound for Canada on grounds that the Polisario has no jurisdictional competence in the matter.

Phosphates production and related industries, an area of excellence for Morocco, has been key in the Kingdoms African foreign policy. The state-owned phosphate company has been investing in African states and signed two landmark agreements with Nigeria and Ethiopia, Africas most populous countries, to build fertilizer production plants.

Phosphate revenues have also contributed to the development of the southern provinces where Morocco spends seven times more than the revenues reaped from the region.For the last one week or so, we have just been hearing about all the outrageous yet adorable things that Justin Trudeau has been up to while in India. He's having the time of his life here and we're all honestly living vicariously through him.

While all of the things he's doing is kind of part of the big Indian dream, I couldn't help but think if there is an ulterior motive behind his antics. So please, bear with me and my conspiracy theory, because what is life without a little overthinking.

I am personally loving all of his sherwanis and his bhangra, even though some Canadians think he's embarrassing them  and himself, but what I would like to discuss is that all of the things he has done while in India is just an audition for Bollywood on a grand scale. Let's begin the theory and examine all the evidence we have, shall we?

Reuters

First of all, he's already famous, obviously, he's the freaking Prime Minister of Canada. So, everyone already knows him, but that doesn't get you that lead role in a movie, does it? So, that is why he's hellbent on proving his talent and the fact that he does look like a future superstar.

Let's start with his clothes. Almost every tourist in India would dress the part and enjoy their time here in some desi attire. While a lot of them would just opt for simple kurtas and all, Justin went to the next level, of course, and tried to fit in as many sherwanis as he could in this trip.

Reuters

While dressed like a proper dulha who looks like he's early for his own wedding (because just look at his face, that's the face of sincerity), he hung out with all the big names in Bollywood.

Here, he is with King Khan himself.

Tonight, we celebrated stronger ties & new co-production opportunities between Bollywood and the Canadian Film Industry. And who better to help than @iamsrk himself... Great to meet you!  pic.twitter.com/1OcwsA9lMS  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 20, 2018

And then, he also met Farhan Akhtar.

And R Madhavan.

@JustinTrudeau such a pleasure and honour meeting you sir. Your relatability, grace and charm was most endearing and its easy to see why you are the Pride and toast of Canada.Have a lovely rest of the tour. pic.twitter.com/yNpZV6l4Vo  Ranganathan Madhavan (@ActorMadhavan) February 21, 2018

And, Anupam Kher as well.

Chilling with so many Bollywood A-listers, it's almost as if he's making personal connections with them that would come in handy in the future. So smart, Justin, I'm impressed.

Then, let's take a look at the next piece of evidence. When he visited Taj Mahal, we were blessed with this picture.

Twitter

10 points to whoever guesses who he's posing as!

Well, it's almost the same, isn't it? Extra points for the effort to Justin!

He's basically telling the world that he has what it takes to replace Shah Rukh Khan, so he better watch out. He's coming for you, SRK.

After showing his star potential with just one pose, he also showed off his incredible dance moves, because what kind of Bollywood actor can't dance, right?

Making a grand entrance fit for a star, he decided to flaunt his Bhangra moves while at an event at Canada house in Delhi.

Canadian PM @JustinTrudeau makes an entrance at the Canada house in New Delhi. Truly in the spirit of India. @DemocracyNewsL pic.twitter.com/ph19O7ysB4  Rohit Gandhi (@rohitgandhi_) February 22, 2018

He's just gearing up for that pending Bollywood debut and we're so here for it. With a little more practice, his dance skills could put any current actor to shame.

Now that we've talked about the technicalities of becoming a Bollywood actor, let's focus on the social aspect.

An actor obviously needs to have fans and for that you need a lot of goodwill in the society. And since Justin is already a great guy, he just needed to be himself to impress everyone.

We've all seen pictures of him and his family at the Golden Temple but there also he took it up a notch by showing everyone how humble he is. One of the highlights of his visit was his entire family doing 'seva' at the Golden Temple and he even left a heartfelt note in the visitor book.

Instagram

He's so down to earth and humble, it's so refreshing. He would be a fan favourite if (read: when) he becomes an actor. Why? Because the fame will never go to his head. He's just like all of us, living his life, doing his best.

And now, we've arrived at the last bit  Justin Trudeau and his family meeting our PM Modi. If you're in the country's Prime Minister's good books, everything else should obviously be easy.

Reuters

See, he's already become such good pals with PM Modi, that whenever he tries to make that transition from the Prime Minister of Canada to a Bollywood superstar, it should be an easy ride for him.

As for now, I'm just waiting for his debut, because if my calculations are right, it should come soon enough. These upcoming star kids have some competition. Wait, will Justin be that blessing for our country who will rid us of nepotism? Let's wait and watch.Humans are capable of extreme cruelty and over the years torture techniques have become more and more sophisticated. To understand the true extent of human indignation we dived deep into world history and found out some of the most painful torture devices to have ever been used on humans in this gory, gory list.

1. Flaying

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Flaying is a punishment where people are skinned alive. It has successfully made appearances in a lot of different cultures. Assyrians used to hang the skin coat of their defeated enemies on city walls to represent the cruelty and trigger fear in people's mind.

2. Brazen Bull

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Brazen Bull is a device considered not only one amongst the most painful devices of all time but also technologically advanced for the time 6th century BC. In fact, it is believed that it's inventor; Perilous of Athens got tricked into being the first guinea pig to be served to the metallic bull. The bull was lit underneath, and its mechanism was such that a system of tubes amplified the victim's screams. The voices that came out of the bull allegedly resembled a raging bull.

3. Impalement

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Impalement was 'Vlad the Impaler's' favored punishment for traitors and people who refused to abide by him. The process involved forcing victims to sit on a sharp pole which would rise at a constant speed. The victim would slide down the pole slowly. Sometimes it took as long as three days for the victim to die. Some historical books suggest that Vlad once punished 20,000 people with impalement while enjoying a meal.

4. Scaphism

 sickchirpse

Did somebody say food? We have another torture method sailing the same water. It is an ancient Persian method where victims are force-fed large quantities of milk and honey to trigger bodily dysfunction. They would then be strapped to a rowboat surrounded by honey to be either consumed by insects or drown in their filth.

5. Keelhauling

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In the 18th century, this was a standard punishment adopted by pirates as well as Navy men. The strangled victims would get dragged and tossed overboard. The open wounds and blood would entice hungry sharks to attack and kill them.

6. The Breast Ripper

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It is pretty self-explanatory. A heated or frozen metal was used to rip the breasts off women. It was a device used in medieval Germany to punish women for parturition out of adultery.

7. Boots

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Many amongst the entire list of popular medieval torture devices are believed to be legends. This one, however, is not only recognised by historians but considered the cruelest of them all. The victim's legs were covered with a wooden or iron casing and wedges would be hammered between the boards, creating pressure. The device had a lot of variants throughout the history one was surfaced with metal spikes.

8. The Rack

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Every reader of George Orwell's masterpiece 1984 would recognise this device. All four limbs were tied to a wooden frame using a rope. The torturer would then start turning the handle to tighten the cables and in turn stretching the victim's limbs. They would only stop when the victim's limbs were dislocated.

9. Water Torture

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This Chinese torture device drives the strongest-headed human insane. A slow but continuous stream of water droplets falls on the head of the victim in an isolated space.

10. Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered

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In England, the punishment for treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The multistep process was abolished in 1814. The victim is dragged into a wooden frame; they are then hanged by the neck until they are near-death. They are then immediately castrated their genitals are then burned before their own eyes. The final stage; quartered is where the victim is cut into four separate parts and beheaded.WhatsApp Payments feature is finally live in India. Backed by Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the WhatsApp Payments feature is available for both Android and iOS. With this, you will now be able to send and receive directly to your bank account (Peer-to-Peer).

The new feature is pretty convenient, and potentially has a huge user base in the country because of the app's immense popularity. Moreover, since it is based on UPI, the money will go straight to your bank account, eliminating the need for mobile wallets and other similar financial instruments.

Update WhatsApp to the latest version 2.18. Note that you will not get this feature just by updating the app. You would need someone, who has already got Payments feature, to message you. After that, just relaunch WhatsApp and the feature will automatically show up.

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If you satisfy the necessary pre-conditions and wish to avail the service, search for a 'Payments' tab in the 'Settings' drop-down within the application. Users then will have to verify their phone numbers by choosing "Verify via SMS" and that can be done by tapping on the green coloured send button on the next screen to send a verification SMS from your phone. It's worth noting that the SMS charges will be applicable. Once the WhatsApp number has been configured then add your bank from a vast list of over 70 banks.

New users can create a UPI account with a pin for authenticating the payments inside WhatsApp as well. This can be done easily by just following the instructions the app provides. You must remember that the WhatsApp payment feature works only if the recipient has set up their bank account within WhatsApp.

 MensXP

To send payments, open the chat of the WhatsApp contact to whom you want to send money. Then select the 'attach' option or the 'plus' icon on iOS. You'll see a Payment option, select it, add your amount and authenticate via the UPI PIN you have previously set.

Once the transaction is complete, WhatsApp also notifies the user about the money sent to a contact. You can also keep a track of Payments from within the app, by using the Payment history option in WhatsApp.HARBOR BEACH  With the help of grants, the city hopes to make some improvements to the local marina.

The grant process can be long and involved. Nonetheless, at this week's Harbor Beach City Council meeting, council began the process to secure funds to bring their prized marina to the next level. Each project must be listed under a separate grant proposal, and the process needs to start with a public hearing.

The city set a public hearing date for March 28, which will coincide with the second regular council meeting in March. At that time, several items for grant approval will be laid out to the community.

At the March meeting, the mayor and council members will discuss several DNR Waterways Grant Proposals.

These include: Engineering services, dock replacement, a new fuel dispenser, asphalt replacement, and cement replacement. In addition, they will discuss grants for upgrading the restrooms, shower rooms and the marina office.

In other business:

 At the request of City Director Ron Wruble, council approved purchasing playground mulch from Michigan Bark Products at a cost of $2,460. Mayor Pro-Tem Al Kleinknecht pointed out the mulch must be a specific type to meet state requirements.

 Council agreed to hire AIS Construction Group to perform maintenance to the citys excavator at a cost of $2,000 or less.

 The board rescinded a resolution that set the deadline for potential office seekers to file petitions for elected office. The deadline date will now be the first Monday in August prior to an election.

 Council member Matt Woodke reminded everyone of the upcoming Annual German Dinner, sponsored by Zion Lutheran School. The dinner will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday at the school. Takeouts will be available.

Council is scheduled to meet next at 7 p.m. March 5 at City Hall.SEBEWAING  Unionville-Sebewaing Area School District officials have completed their investigation of a rumored gun threat, and the rumor has been discredited.

It is clear from our interviews with over 50 students and multiple staff over the last two days, that there was no danger of harm at any time before, during or after the initial report, Superintendent George Rierson said in a communication to parents Thursday.

This was a case of good students being immature and making irresponsible statements at a time of heightened sensitivity, he added. They will receive appropriate consequences and others who make statements that create fear or insecurity for our students, staff and parents will be handled similarly in the future, or more severely if necessary.

The school went on lock down, which the school officials referred to as secure mode, for about an hour Wednesday due to the rumors.

No one was allowed into the building, and classrooms were locked. Parents were notified of the possible threat.

Two students who made alarming comments that started rumors of a gun threat were suspended, Rierson said.

Rierson has discussed the situation with Huron County Sheriff Kelly J. Hanson, and the information gathered in the investigation will be turned over to Hanson's office for consideration by law enforcement and the Huron County Prosecutor's Office, Rierson said.

Results of the investigation included the following, according to Rierson:

 There were two students who made comments of an alarming nature in separate incidents earlier this week. Other students repeated and exaggerated the comments.

 One of the original statements was You better not come to school tomorrow if you know what I mean."

 The other statement, which was unrelated to the first, was, If one more person (says that), Im going to shoot up the school or something.

 There was no intent or plan to do harm in either statement, and that this was confirmed by the sheriffs office.

 Witnesses to the second statement said the person was not angry or threatening in any way, but instead, they were weary of an ongoing situation.

 The witnesses were not initially alarmed, but shared their observation with staff during interviews regarding the initial report.

We will not tolerate actions or statements that create fear and anxiety regarding the safety of students and staff, Rierson told parents.

Making statements that create a sense of fear and anxiety impact our ability to maintain an orderly environment for learning and will result in discipline, he added.

The students who made the statements above have been assigned discipline (suspension) according to the student handbook.

Rierson visited classrooms Thursday with a Huron County sheriff's deputy to inform students of the importance of sharing concerns with staff, another adult whom they trust, or anonymously through the states OK2Say program.

We also plan to implement our own 24/7 anonymous tip line this spring, he added.

Rierson also stated that people should practice the golden rule while on social media.

Finally, I ask that we think about the golden rule before spreading information, particularly through social media. This is what we teach our children, and as adults, we should model that behavior, he said.

Terrible things have been spread about good people in the absence of facts, and now we need to work to heal and return to normal. We are better than what was demonstrated by some, and we need to strive for higher standards for ourselves, Rierson added.

He concluded his statement by thanking parents for their cooperation, and he said he is confident in the students safety at USA schools.

Hanson told the Tribune Friday that the school district handled the situation well by not taking it lightly.

The situation needed to be looked into, without any doubt," he said. "They did a good job looking into it, and the sheriffs department followed up any leads to substantiate a viable threat. (Which is) not there at this point.

Three deputies have been involved with the situation since Wednesdays threat, and Hanson also spent time with Rierson at the school Thursday.

The school hasnt been pushing it under the rug. Theyve been up front. Some might not be happy, but to go and seek any kind of a criminal charge in this matter, I dont believe is going to occur.

Social media did not help the situation, Hanson added.

Rierson told the Tribune Friday that looking back, the main point of improvement would have been in the area of communication.

"Communication is always something you think could be better," he said. "We could continue to do some things to improve communication, especially with staff."

He added that everyone did a great job of coming together to make sure students were well served and protected.

"I really appreciate how the staff pulled through the entire situation and the parents  they trust us to keep their kids safe every day." he said.Morocco has reiterated its firm commitment to security and stability in the Sahel calling for a triangular cooperation (Morocco-EU-Sahel) benefiting the region.

Speaking at the International High-Level Conference on Sahel, held Friday in Brussels, Moroccos foreign minister, Nasser Bourita underscored the priority given to the Sahel in Moroccos foreign policy as evidenced by the multiple royal visits paid in recent years to Sahel countries, where Morocco is working together with friends in multiple cooperation areas including economic and social development.

Bourita recalled that Morocco kept stressing the need to address the deteriorating security conditions in the Sahel-Saharan region where porous borders and surge of terrorist and trafficking groups, in connivance with separatist militias, are seriously undermining the regions stability.

He said that Morocco advocates a comprehensive approach that combines security measures with economic and social development while taking into consideration environmental concerns.

In a message to Algeria, Bourita said that addressing security challenges in the Sahel requires collective efforts that break away with the blackmail. Theories of exclusiveness in this area have shown their limits. Only international action and regional cooperation could help address the challenges facing the region, he said.

The conference raised 414 million in support of the G5 counter-terrorism force set up by five Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger), whilst reinforcing the coordination of sustainable development efforts in the region.

The International High Level Conference on the Sahel was co-chaired by the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union and the G5 Sahel group.An amateur astronomer became the first person to photograph a star as it began to explode.

Victor Buso from Argentina photographed the moment a brief flash of light was shot out by the supernova in September 2016.

That early phase can take only a matter of minutes, with Business Insider putting the chances of capturing it on camera as one-in-billions.

RELATED: How close would a supernova have to be to wipe out Earth?

Speaking of chance, that's how Buso chose the spiral Galaxy NGC 613, which is where the star was located while testing out a new camera.

He told Newsweek, "...among those in that region of the sky, it has a beautiful form with looping cloudsbright and dark."

Buso noticed a single-pixel difference between his images and ones he'd seen online.

He checked back the next night, seeing what had become a supernova.

Buso sent his observations to scientists at UC Berkeley, who confirmed he was the only known person to ever take a photo of the flash of light produced by an exploding star.

RELATED: Amazing images from Hubble

As UC Berkeley astronomer Alex Filippenko put it to Business Insider, "It's like winning the cosmic lottery."

Troy Frisby writes and produces video for Buzz60ORLANDO -- As the military services begin to execute the Pentagon's new deploy-or-get-out policy, the Air Force is working to take into account its small number of "non-deployable" career fields while being fair to those who do a large share of deployments, the top civilian for the service said.

The Air Force is keeping "fairness and the lethality of the force" in mind, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said during a roundtable interview here during the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium.

"The Air Force has had ... a lower percentage of non-deployable people than the other services, historically. We also have some career fields that don't deploy at all," Wilson said on Thursday.

Some military instructors and Air Force musicians are among those who would fall into the non-deployable category by nature of their job.

"I would expect we would try to implement it [the Defense Department policy] with two priorities in mind: one is the lethality and readiness of the force overall to be able to fight. The second is fairness. There is an argument that says if you've got 100 people that can do a job and 10 of them that are non-deployable, the other 90 are carrying the greater burden. If that's true, then we've got to do things that are fair," she said.

Wilson said the service is pulling the numbers now to see what percentage of airmen remain non-deployable.

Related content:

"We need to look at who is really non-deployable," she said. "Then what are their skill sets. Do they even have to deploy; does their career field even have to deploy? So we're defining what the area of concern really is, and then we'll manage and look at that."

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is looking to separate troops who remain in non-deployable status for more than a year due to a medical issue or other problem. When these troops don't deploy, he said, others have to shoulder a greater burden.

Roughly 286,000 troops are considered "non-deployable" on any given day, though it's unlikely the department would separate that many.

The DoD's new deploy-or-out rules, first reported by Military Times, were recently disclosed by Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell, the senior enlisted adviser to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford.

Troxell said about 11 percent, or 235,000, of the 2.1 million personnel serving on active duty, in the reserves or National Guard are currently non-deployable.

Of that 235,000, about 99,000 are on the list for administrative reasons, such as not having all their immunizations or required dental exams. About 20,000 are not deployable due to pregnancy, and 116,000 are not deployable due to either short- or long-term injuries or wounds, Troxell said.

On a recent trip in Europe, Mattis addressed the separation policy, and laid down the law behind his strategy.

"You're either deployable, or you need to find something else to do. I'm not going have some people deploying constantly and then other people, who seem to not pay that price, in the U.S. military," he told reporters en route to the U.S. from the Munich security conference.

"If you can't go overseas [and] carry a combat load, then obviously someone else has got to go. I want this spread fairly and expertly across the force," Mattis said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.The U.S. Military's top leader has launched an effort to make ground forces such as infantry and special operations units deadlier in close combat.

Defense Secretary James Mattis sent out a Feb. 8 memorandum to the service secretaries, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all combatant commands and other Defense Department agencies announcing the Secretary of Defense Close Combat Lethality Task Force.

"I am committed to improving the combat preparedness, lethality, survivability, and resiliency of our nation's ground close combat formations," Mattis wrote.

"These formations have historically accounted for almost 90 percent of our casualties and yet our personnel policies, advances in training methods, and equipment have not kept pace with changes in available technology, human factors science, and talent management best practices."

The memo does not provide a description of close combat, but "close quarters combat," or CQB, training deals with ranges between zero and 100 meters within a built-up or urban area -- the "belt buckle" zone that often takes a fiscal backseat to major combat platforms such as advanced aircraft, naval systems, armored vehicles and high-tech missiles, according to military experts.

Aside from new military technology, the task force may provide much-needed coordination for the services to ensure they are working together on small arms and equipment innovations -- something that the Marine Corps and the Army often fail to do, experts maintain.

In 2017, the DoD's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation, or CAPE, office conducted a Close Combat Strategic Portfolio Review to "identify the most promising investment opportunities to improve our close combat effectiveness and survivability," the memo states.

The CAPE review is now complete; recommendations and a final report are now being prepared, the memo states. The task force will fall under the direction of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness and will consist of members from the Army, Marine Corps, Special Operations Command and representatives from DoD's acquisitions as well as the research and engineering communities.

Related Content:

Military.com reached out to the Defense Department to ask about the cost of such a sweeping effort but did not receive a reply by press time. Breaking Defense, which first wrote about this story, reported that the task force was prepared to invest more than $1 billion in the effort.

"The task force, I think is a great idea, because the intent behind it is, we spend a lot of attention and we spend a lot of money on aviation, the undersea environment ... missile defense," said Dakota Wood, a retired Marine Corps officer and the senior research fellow for Defense Programs at The Heritage Foundation. "Huge sums of money, so are we giving proportionally as much time and attention and resources to ground combat?"

This new emphasis on close combat is not a surprise considering Mattis's background. For more than four decades in uniform, he commanded Marines at all levels, from an infantry rifle platoon to a Marine Expeditionary Force.

Mattis led an infantry battalion in the 1991 Gulf War, an expeditionary brigade in Afghanistan in 2001 and a Marine division in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003. He later commanded Marine Corps Combat Development Command.

But the effort also "serves as an indictment to the very communities that it is meant to support," Wood said, describing how the Army and the Marine Corps have a long tradition of selecting their most senior leaders from infantry and combat arms communities.

"So why then have the services chosen to prioritize spending on aviation or other systems and not the communities from which they have been selected?" Wood said.

To be fair, the Army and the Marines have made significant advances in individual combat equipment in the last two decades. These advances have included equipping troops with sophisticated weapons optics instead of iron sights, improved body armor, night vision equipment and small unmanned ground vehicles and aerial drones that can alert a combat unit if the enemy is hiding around the next street corner, Wood said.

Last October, the Army launched a sweeping acquisitions reform effort and named soldier lethality as one of its six modernizations priorities.

The U.S. Army is also leading a joint effort to develop new tactics and procedures for subterranean operations -- fighting in cramped tunnel complexes.

Learning to fight deep underground where ventilation is often poor has highlighted the need for specialized equipment such as self-contained breathing equipment, according to an Army source involved in the effort, who is not cleared to speak with reporters.

Anytime soldiers use explosives or fire small arms, toxic fumes are released into the air they breathe; prolonged exposure in this environment can be deadly, the source said.

The effort has been testing off-the-shelf, self-contained breathing apparatus, but these systems can cost as much as $13,000 each, a figure that has been hard for Army leaders to accept, the source said.

Specialized ballistic shields are another piece of kit that units will need for this type of warfare since tunnels provide little to no cover from enemy fire. Special operations forces have been using similar shields for tunnel operations since the late 1980s, but under their own contracts, the source said.

But some solutions to improving close combat effectiveness have nothing to do with technology.

The Army's Asymmetric Warfare Group has recommended to the senior leadership that the service needs to increase training ammunition allocation for units to allow them to conduct more CQB training with small arms, especially carbine and pistol, the source said.

"It's not about future vertical lift, it's not about artillery, it's not about tanks," the source said. "It's about hands, knives and guns."

The services are supposed to be working together on common solutions for needs such as body armor and small arms programs, but the Marine Corps and the Army often go in different directions.

The Marine Corps is evaluating the Army's new XM17 Modular Handgun System for adoption, but both services are headed in different directions when it comes to primary individual weapons.

In December, Marine Commandant Gen. Robert Neller confirmed to Military.com that the service plans to equip each member of the infantry squad, and possibly other infantry support elements, with the M27 infantry automatic rifle. The 5.56mm rifle, based on the HK 416, has been used by automatic rifle Marines since 2010.

But senior Army modernization officials recently told Congress that the Army is not interested in the M27 and instead aims to develop more powerful infantry weapons to replace the M4 carbine and M249 squad automatic weapon.

Last May, Gen. Mark Milley testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the service's current M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round will not defeat enemy body armor plates like the United States' Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert, or ESAPI.

Lt. Gen. John Murray, deputy chief of staff for Army G8, told congress earlier this month that the Army wants a new squad automatic rifle and carbine that will fire something in between 5.56mm and 7.62mm NATO.

Murray also confirmed that the Army already has a science and technology demonstration weapon, made by Textron Systems.

The working prototype, chambered for 6.5mm, has evolved out of Textron's light and medium machine guns that fire 5.56mm and 7.62mm case-telescoped ammunition developed under the Lightweight Small Arms Technology program.

Over the last decade, the Army has invested millions in the development of the program, which has now been renamed Textron Cased Telescoped Weapons and Ammunition.

The question is, "will this task force be able to accomplish something that the services themselves have been unable to accomplish at the same level -- grappling with the defense acquisition system, can you turn things quickly enough?" Wood said.

"It's a neat idea; it is fascinating to see the secretary of defense directly getting involved at that level," he said. "But a neat idea doesn't necessarily mean it's easily translatable into effectiveness and accomplishing the objectives for which the task force has been formed."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.The Trump administration said it will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on May 14, a date that coincides with Israels 70th anniversary.

Speeding up the embassy transfer has infuriated Palestinians and Muslims from across the globe as well as the international community who see in setting up the US embassy in Jerusalem a move prejudicial to peace in the region.

Palestinians object to recognition of the disputed city as Israels capital and say the embassy move could destroy a two-state solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.

The date chosen by Trmps administration to open its embassy in Jerusalem also coincides with the Naqba, the Palestinian day of catastrophe.

The Palestine Liberation Organization immediately decried Washingtons embassy announcement as a provocation to all Arabs.

The American administrations decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and choose the Palestinian peoples Naqba as the date for this step is a blatant violation of international law, PLO number two Saeb Erekat said.

He said the result would be the destruction of the two-state option, as well as a blatant provocation to all Arabs and Muslims.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians are attached to establishing the capital of their future state in the eastern part of the city.

Turkeys foreign ministry has decried in a statement the US decision saying: This decision shows the US administrations insistence on damaging the grounds for peace by trampling over international law, and resolutions of United Nations Security Council on Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was envisaged in the 1947 UN partition plan as an international city. After the end of the 1949 war, Israel took the western part and Jordan the eastern part of the city. During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied East Jerusalem. Since then, the entire city has been under Israels authority.

In July 1980, Israel passed a law that declared Jerusalem the united capital of Israel. The United Nations Security Council responded with a resolution condemning Israels annexation of East Jerusalem and declared it a violation of international law.

In 1995, the US Congress passed a law requiring America to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Proponents said the US should respect Israels choice of Jerusalem as its capital, and recognize it as such.

Every president since 1995  Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama  has declined to move the embassy, citing national security interests. Every six months, the President has used the presidential waiver to circumvent the embassy move.President Donald Trump said Friday that he would review policies that keep troops from carrying personal weapons onto military bases.

"If we can't have our military holding guns, it's pretty bad," Trump said in a wide-ranging speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Maryland, "and I'm going to look at that whole policy on military bases."

"So we want to protect our military. We want to make our military stronger and better than it's ever been," Trump continued in the speech, in which he also renewed his call for allowing trained teachers and military retirees to carry concealed weapons in schools.

Schools and military bases currently are "gun-free zones" that are easy targets for deranged shooters such as the one in Parkland, Florida, who killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week, Trump said.

Defense Department policy mainly has been that base security is the province of military police. In most cases, troops are required to leave their personal weapons at home or check them at the gate in an effort to prevent accidental shootings and discourage suicides.

"We had a number of instances on military bases, you know that," Trump said in his speech, apparently referring to active shooter episodes.

In making the case for personal weapons on military bases, Trump appeared to be referencing the July 2015 incident in Chattanooga, Tenn., where four Marines and a sailor were killed.

The shootings occurred at a recruiting storefront in a strip shopping mall and at a U.S. Naval Reserve Center some miles away. But Trump said the victims "were on a military base in a gun-free zone."

The victims were Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, 40; Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 35; Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist; Lance Cpl. Squire D. "Skip" Wells, 21; and Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26.

The FBI and local police said that Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez carried out a drive-by shooting at the recruiting center and then drove to the U.S. Naval Reserve Center, where he was killed in a shootout with police.

Then-FBI Director James Comey later said that Abdulazeez was "motivated by foreign terrorist organization propaganda."

"You know the five great soldiers from four years ago, three of them were world-class marksmen," Trump said in his account of the incident. "They were on a military base in a gun-free zone."

"They were asked to check their guns quite far away. And a maniac walked in, guns blazing, killed all five of them. He wouldn't of had a chance if these world-class marksmen had -- on a military base -- access to their guns," Trump said.

In his 2015 Senate confirmation hearing to become Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley was asked about the Chattanooga shootings and said that "in some cases I think it's appropriate" for recruiters to carry weapons for self-defense.

He said that arming recruiters was complicated by a patchwork of state laws but "I think under certain conditions -- both on military bases and in outstations, recruiting stations, reserve centers -- we should seriously consider it."

Then-Lt. Gen. Milley was commander at Fort Hood, Texas, in April 2014 when Spec. Ivan Lopez opened fire, killing three soldiers and wounding 12 others before killing himself.

Numerous lawmakers then called for allowing troops to carry weapons on base, but Milley said at a news conference that he didn't support the idea.

"I don't think soldiers should have concealed weapons on base," he said.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.What Is ISIS-K? Two Experts on the Group Behind the Kabul Airport Attack and its Rivalry with the Taliban

By 2018, the group had become one of the top four deadliest terrorist organizations in the world.Feb. 24th: The Twins have announced the signing.

Feb. 23rd: The Twins have agreed to a minor-league deal with infielder Erick Aybar, according to LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune. The contract includes a MLB invite. Aybars potential salary is $1.25MM and there are some plate appearance-based incentives, too, per Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (Twitter link). The deal also includes an opt-out opportunity on March 27th.

Aybar signed on with the Padres last year in hopes of rebounding from a pair of tough seasons, but ended up struggling in San Diego. Over 370 plate appearances, Aybar slashed just .234/.300/.348 over 370 plate appearances and continued to post sub-par metrics at shortstop. The 34-year-old switch-hitter also missed time with a foot fracture.

Minnesota wont be handing its regular shortstop job over to Aybar, of course, but it could allow him to compete for a bench spot. Ehire Adrianza currently seems like the favorite to function as a utility infielder, but Aybar will now join Gregorio Petit and Taylor Featherston as potential non-roster options in camp.

It has now been some time since Aybar was a quality regular, but he certainly was that and more earlier in his career with the Angels. In addition to being a quality defender, Aybar was a league-average hitter from 2009 through 2014.Business boycotts dont kill gun sales, people kill gun sales. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Friday was a bad day for people who enjoy both AR-15s and a reliable sedan with that new-car smell.

Several companies, including multiple rental-car concerns, discontinued partnerships and programs they had with the National Rifle Association as the hashtag boycottNRA stood atop Twitter all day, in the wake of last weeks mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Since that massacre, student survivors have led an unusually aggressive push to shame lawmakers into changing overly permissive gun laws. Late this week, anti-NRA sentiment shifted from state capitals to boardrooms.

As social media lit up with the outrage that is its native language, First National Bank of Omaha, which had issued an NRA-linked Visa card, bowed to pressure on Thursday afternoon.

Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.  First National Bank (@FNBOmaha) February 22, 2018

On Friday, more businesses followed suit, including Hertz and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRAs rental car discount program with Hertz.  Hertz (@Hertz) February 23, 2018

Thank you for contacting us! All three of our brands have ended the discount for NRA members. This change will be effective March 26. Thank you again for reaching out. Kind regards, Michael  EnterpriseRentACar (@enterprisecares) February 23, 2018

Other companies that cut off NRA programs included software company Symantec and insurance company Chubb Limited, which announced that it would stop underwriting an NRA-branded insurance policy.

And corporations that used to do business with the organization, like hotel chains Best Western and Wyndham, had to reassure customers that they had already severed ties.

On Saturday, the exodus continued. Delta and United announced that they would stop offering discounted fares to NRA members to attend the groups annual meetings.

Delta is reaching out to the NRA to let them know we will be ending their contract for discounted rates through our group travel program. We will be requesting that the NRA remove our information from their website.  Delta (@Delta) February 24, 2018

United is notifying the NRA that we will no longer offer a discounted rate to their annual meeting and we are asking that the NRA remove our information from their website.  United Airlines (@united) February 24, 2018

Despite growing more and more extreme in its anti-liberal, anti-media rhetoric, the NRA has for the most part escaped a business backlash, even amid a steady stream of mass shootings over the years. But with major gun-reform legislation a pipe dream at the federal level (for now), the business world may have more leverage to change the way guns are bought and sold than anyone else.

As Andrew Ross Sorkin laid out in a New York Times column this week, financial institutions in particular have a great amount of leverage over the gun industry. If they wanted to, credit-card companies, banks, and card processors could make it difficult for gun sellers to unload the high-powered rifles that are the weapon of choice for mass shootings  or any guns at all.

Companies like Hertz dont have that much power, of course, and this weeks measures are aimed only at the NRA, which, with its increasingly unhinged platform, is doing much to isolate itself from the mainstream. Still, its another sign that American public opinion on guns may be shifting, and that the usual corporate impulse to avoid riling up firearm enthusiasts may be fading.Still reading in the shade. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Two weeks ago, the Justice Department informed the White House that a decision on Jared Kushners permanent security clearance would be further delayed because of significant issues that require additional investigation regarding his background, according to the Washington Post and New York Times. Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, has only had interim security clearance for more than a year, but that has still granted him full access to top secret and other sensitive information  and he apparently requests more of it than anyone who isnt on the National Security Council.

A week ago, White House chief of staff John Kelly announced new procedures which would revoke security clearance for some of the many staff members without permanent clearance, but it was not clear if Kushner would be included in that group. On Friday, President Trump said that the decision on whether to revoke Kushners access to classified information was Kellys to make, but added that he thinks his son-in-law is a high quality person who has been treated unfairly. Kelly will do the right thing, Trump insisted, though that doesnt necessarily mean the right thing  to Trump  is revoking Kushners clearance.

Kushner himself has been reportedly pushing back on the idea of revoking his clearance, and is apparently nervous that he is going to be treated the same as everyone else in the White House, in accordance with Kellys new policy.

Its not clear exactly what significant issues with Kushners past are causing the delay, but there are plenty of possibilities. First off, Kushner has had to revise his federal disclosure forms three times after previously omitting contacts with foreigners  the kind of problem that would normally jeopardize your shot at security clearance. In addition, this past week it was reported that special counsel Robert Mueller may be looking at conversations Kushner had with foreign investors regarding Kushner Companies projects during the Trump transition, particularly since Kushners family business is so deep in debt. But is not clear if Muellers investigation of Kushner is what is preventing a decision on his security clearance, or if its some other thorny issue. The Times reports that the heads-up from the Justice Department led White House lawyers and aides to believe that [the issues involving Kushner] were more problematic than the complexity of his finances and his initial failure to disclose contacts with foreign leaders.

It is not at all normal for someone in Kushners position to retain access to the nations most sensitive information for such a long time without passing an FBI background check, but rules and norms  and guardrails regarding nepotism and corruption  rarely seem to matter to this administration.Police is holding three women alleged to have participated in finishing off the life of a Finnish businessman Terasvuori Tuomas Juha Petteri about two weeks ago.



The three suspects; Faridah Nakaye, Carol Alinda and Fatima Kabagambe, were arrested from different parts of Kampala following information linking them to the death of the businessman, who, had reportedly travelled to Uganda to meet the head of Internal Security Organisation Col Fred Bagyenda.

Terasvuori Tuomas Juha Petteri was found dead in his hotel room

Petteri was arrested on accusations that he had travelled into the country on a forged clearance letter. He died a day later from Pearl of Africa Hotel in Kampala.



The inspector general of police (IGP) Kale Kayihura says three people have so far been arrested after CCTV footage showed one of them; Faridah Nakaye, leaving the hotel room at 10pm on the fateful night and returning a few hours later with a polythene bag believed to contain drugs.

A toxicology report released earlier indicates that the deceased was killed by a concoction of narcotics, pesticides and herbicides.



Nakaye, 27, was initially arrested on February 7, after the same footage showed her leaving the hotel room the morning of the reported death. She was released on police bond and rearrested two days later, as she tried to flee the country through Entebbe International Airport.



She is alleged to have been the mastermind of a shoddy weapons deal that brought the Finnish national to Uganda. Petteri is believed to have come to Uganda after he was told that there was a deal for the government of Uganda to buy weapons from his company.



Now detained at Nalufenya, Nakaye told police that Petteri insinuated to her that he would love to market and do business with the government of Uganda and it was upon this background that she contacted a friend of hers Carol Alinda with the deal.



Alinda is also implicated by relatives of the deceased who were informed that he was going to meet highly-placed people in the Ugandan government through two fixers; Carol and another only identified as Musa.



A source who is privy to the ongoing investigations told URN that it was Alinda who contacted Apollo Kyabagye; an operative attached to the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and presented to him details of the deal.

Kyabagye was arrested earlier on suspicion that he forged the invitation letter that the businessmen used to come to Uganda.



Nakaye, the key suspect, also named Fatima Kabagambe as the person who sold her cocaine on the fateful day. She had reportedly been sent out by Petteri to buy him some drugs for personal use.



It still remains unknown and unexplained by the suspects how the pesticides and herbicides which are believed to have ended the life of the deceased were consumed.Huawei shows off driverless Porsche to be driven by smart phone

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Recently, Huawei unveiled its first driverless vehicle to be controlled with an AI-powered smart phone Mate 10 Pro.



According to the video Huawei released on its website, a Porsche Panamera ran forward quickly without any human in driving seat. Besides, the vehicle successfully bypassed a dog standing ahead who was detected by a Mate10 Pro that gave a turning right instruction immediately.

Andrew Garrihy, Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Western Europe, proudly said that it only took them 5 weeks to let a Porsche Panamera to drive by itself.

Huawei names this driverless vehicle project as RoadReader. Unlike other driverless cars, the Porsche was controlled by a smart phone. The in-house AI chip of the Mate10 Pro made the vehicle not only see, but also understand the surroundings and recognize over 1,000 of various objects, such as cats, dogs, foods and other things and then take appropriate actions.

The smart phone maker stated that the RoadReader project has made a breakthrough in the application of target identification technology. It endows the AI facility with an ability of self-learning and has tested the speed and performance of this AI technology.

Driverless vehicle is becoming a hot industry that plentiful automakers and tech providers flock to. Huawei, as a leading tech company in China, is no exception. Its rich customer resources in communication and internet of vehicle areas and the advanced design and manufacturing ability of AI chip made Huawei realize a breakthrough ahead of many other competitors.

As early as October of 2016, there was information saying that Huawei will team up with Magna to jointly manufacture vehicles. The Canadian global automotive supplier has impressive achievements in such areas as bodywork, chassis and powertrain.

In September last year, Shenzhen released two certain testing roads for driverless bus which was backed up by Huawei to some extent.

Most driverless vehicles development currently relies on the computer system of purpose-built chips developed by third party technology providers, such as NVIDIA and Mobileye (acquired by Intel). However, Huawei has developed its self-owned AI chip Kirin 970 that is available in its smart phone Mate 10, recommended by the company as Intelligent Machines.

Now Huawei is extending its unique merit in AI chip to the use in driverless vehicles.Your Excellency,

We write this letter with a profound appreciation that this year government plans to conduct elections in the six newly created districts of: Nabilatuk, Bugweri, Kwani, Kapelebyong, Kasanda, and Kikuube; elections will also be conducted to fill vacancies in about 264 of the 1,403 sub counties in Uganda.

Other elections envisaged include: parliamentary and Local Government by-elections, as well as possible Local Council I and II elections alongside the possibility of a national referendum.

In order to deliver a cost-effective and democratic electoral process that will enlist the confidence of the wananchi to participate unimpeded in the different electoral processes, electoral reforms are a must.

Your Excellency, we want to believe that it is because you clearly understand the importance of progressive political reforms that you rightly campaigned on the platform of instituting a constitutional review process.

Under chapter II of your 2016  2021 manifesto, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) commits to uphold the principle of democracy where citizens directly participate in regular, free and fair elections.

Correspondingly, NRM has situated itself as the trustee and principal guarantor of vision 2040 in which the need for democracy is recognized as the anchor to transform Uganda.

Vision 2040 states that, government will inter alia, enhance the legal and regulatory framework covering the electoral process. In line with these commitments, the second National Development Plan (NDP II) recognises that without free and fair political and electoral processes, key development objectives cannot be achieved. To this end, the NDP II proposes to enact laws to strengthen credibility of electoral processes in Uganda and citizen participation in the electoral process

Your Excellency, we recognise that following the enactment of the 1995 Constitution, Uganda has held regular elections during the set constitutional time frames  every five years. Yet, since 2001, general elections in Uganda have ended in controversy.

The 2001, 2006 and 2016 presidential elections culminated in court disputes while in 2011, elections ended in violent public demonstrations. Despite your policy direction, concerns about your governments commitment towards a transparent and accountable electoral framework persist.

Since 2001, election observers, political organisations, civil society organisations and private individuals have proposed electoral and constitutional reforms that would guarantee credible, free and fairer elections in Uganda.

Despite their significance, many of the substantive and popular electoral reforms have not made it to the legislative agenda, close to two decades later, with significant implications for our growth as a nation.

Your Excellency, your governments reluctance to consider popular progressive electoral reforms, in order to address electoral deficits that have afflicted previous elections, has dented the credibility of electoral processes.

These persisting challenges undermine commitments in the NRM manifesto, Vision 2040 and the NDP II and continue to paint elections as mere rituals that are incapable of translating the will of the citizenry into genuine democratic choice.

It is not surprising that according to a recent survey conducted by a renowned research firm, Afrobarometer, only 22% of Ugandans believe that their country is either a full democracy or a democracy with minor problems.

Your Excellency, the work of CCEDU has since 2009 affirmed the crucial need to address legal and political reforms. Through the Free and Fair Elections 2013/14 public consultations conducted countrywide, over 1,200,000 Ugandans directly endorsed the Citizens Compact and the Citizens Electoral Reform Agenda (CERA). In addition, a research conducted by Afrobarometer in 2015, indicated that 89% of Ugandans wanted electoral reforms before the 2016 elections.

Your Excellency, after the 2016 general elections, the Judiciary received approximately 118 parliamentary election petitions, accounting for about 30% of the composition of the tenth Parliament.

Contestations were as a result of widespread perceptions that elections are marred with irregularities and electoral malpractices, therefore falling short of constitutional and internationally accepted standards of free, fair and credible elections.

Violence, bribery and vote-rigging have been a constant feature of Ugandas elections at different scales across the country.

It is important to recognise that the recent 2016 electoral process was marred by avoidable legislative, administrative and logistical failures, the impact of lack of trust in the independence and impartiality of the EC, questions about the impartiality of security agencies and the use of money in electioneering.

The Supreme court ruling on the Presidential Election Petition No.1 of 2016 (Amama Mbabazi v Museveni & Ors) acknowledged electoral reforms as a prerequisite for free and fair elections in Uganda.

Your Excellency, in the recent ruling, the Supreme court recommended that the time for filing and determination of a presidential election petition be increased from 30 to at least 60 days; the use of oral evidence in addition to affidavit evidence be accepted in court; time for holding a fresh election where the previous elections has been nullified be increased from the currently prescribed 20 days;

the use of technology in elections be backed by law; sanctions against any state organ or officer who violates provisions of the law with regard to access to state-owned media be provided; election related law reform be undertaken within two years of the establishment of the new parliament; laws be enacted to prohibit the giving of donations (during campaign periods) by all candidates including a president, who is also a candidate; laws prohibiting public servants from getting involved in political campaigns be made more explicit; laws be amended to make it permissible for the attorney general to be made respondent in a presidential election petition where necessary; and that the attorney general be the authority to follow-up with the Supreme courts recommendations.

Your Excellency, the recent recommendations of the Supreme court came against the backdrop of numerous calls for substantive electoral reforms by both state and non-state actors including: Cabinet (2005, 2009 and 2015), 7th, 8th and 9th parliaments, Electoral Commission (EC), Uganda Law Reform Commission (ULRC), National Consultative Forum (NCF), Uganda Law Society (ULS), Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue (IPOD), Inter Party Cooperation (IPC), Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) among others.

Some of the prominent recommendations include: calls to review the appointment procedure of the EC to make it competitive and participatory; proposals on implementing a sustainable mechanism for continuous civic and voter education; proposals on mainstreaming the role of security in electoral processes; call to manage the illicit use of money and government resources especially during electoral seasons; proposals to enact and implement a code of conduct for political parties; proposals to review the mode of election of special interest groups in Parliament and other local government councils; calls to institute a comprehensive framework to manage the political transfer of power from an outgoing democratically elected president to an incoming President; provisions to counter gerrymandering; calls to trim the size of cabinet and parliament, among others.

These reforms mainly target seven pieces of legislation: the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995; the Presidential Elections Act 2005; the Parliamentary Elections Act 2001; the Electoral Commission Act 2005; the Local Governments Act 1997; the National Youth Council Act 1993; and the Public Order Management Act 2013.

Your Excellency, we acknowledge the reforms on voter registration, security of tenure of the EC as well as other administrative and technological changes that have positively, albeit minimally, had impact on improving the integrity and outcome of elections.

However, there remains a lot to be done in order to improve the credibility of the electoral process. The key to achieving the latter is a sound legal and institutional framework.

Low voter turn-out, high cost of elections, unprecedented numbers of spoilt ballot papers in elections, voter apathy, incidents of electoral violence, voter disenfranchisement, vote rigging, vote buying and misuse of money during campaigns; all point to the urgent need of a solid legal, institutional and administrative framework for election management in Uganda.

The 2016 general election cost over Shs 400 billion; however, had Uganda for instance aptly reformed its electoral process and deployed necessary technology, the cost would have essentially been lowered by over 60%.

Technology is an example of a tool which, when implemented properly, will broaden franchise, modernise elections, but most importantly cut the alarming election costs and increase transparency of the electoral process for the wananchi.

Needless to mention, the continuous reform and adaptation of the legal framework governing electoral management informed by experiences, reviews and assessments is necessary in every democratic society.

Your Excellency, we hold the view that electoral reforms should be undertaken within the context of a constitutional review process which facilitates a national conversation on our role as citizens, towards maintaining peace and ensuring the development of our country.

A constitutional review process will allow for the re-examination and reform of other sectors such as security, public service, and judiciary that seem to have historically gratuitous influence over the conduct and verdict of elections in Uganda.

Your Excellency, beyond the legislative and administrative tiers of reform, Uganda ought to invest robustly and strategically in civic education as a support measure to sustainable good electoral practices.

Civic education must integrate cognitive moral information which speaks to the prominence of the value of democracy, justice, peace alongside social values such as integrity, trust, honesty, patriotism and confidence which have over the years had a far-reaching impact on the nature of elections in Uganda. It must also be informed by our traditional values linked to social cohesion, productivity as well as law and order.

Your Excellency, it is therefore our desire and that of many Ugandans, that you urgently:

Establish an independent constitution review process whose findings and recommendations will be implemented before any subsequent national electoral exercise; and

Launch a national dialogue process that will genuinely provide Ugandans an opportunity to adaptively address root causes of conflict and issues caused by failures of the previous constitutions to provide a basis for an inclusive social contract, which aims at satisfying the needs of the citizens.

Your Excellency, we look forward to your timely and positive response and action on the issues that we have brought to your attention.

Crispin Kaheru

Coordinator, CCEDUShortly after Trump suggested that violent video games could be responsible for mass shootings, a Rhode Island representative has proposed a tax levy for M-rated video games. The proposed bill would be a 10% tax for Mature and higher-rated video games. And now, legislators are looking to combat violent video games by imposing a tax.

The saddest thing in this process is that once again video games are seen as the problem behind shootings (the latest at the high school in Parkland, Florida), which is yet another way to preserve the interests of the lobby of weapons and let people think the lawmakers are actually doing something concrete about the issue.

Although I support Nardolillo's effort for counseling and mental health programs in schools, I'm not convinced pinning the blame on video games is the right approach, especially given the lack of evidence backing that claim. His goal, he says, is to make all schools in Rhode Island "a safe and calm place". "By offering children resources to manage their aggression today, we can ensure a more peaceful tomorrow", said Nardolillo.

The video game industry has received its fair share of controversy and criticism over the decades, and there are those who believe that many violent acts committed by young people are caused by exposure to #Violent Video Games.

Clooneys donate $500000 to student gun reform march

Capshaw and Spielberg called the students "an inspiration to us all" and applauded their efforts "to take a stand for the benefit of this and future generations".

Scientific studies have not proven any link between violent behaviour and violent video games. You see these movies, and they're so violent, and yet a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn't involved, but killing is involved, and maybe they have to put a rating system for that.

Taxing of video games, which would more than likely make their way to the consumer, would have an undeniable impact on the industry.

Under Nardolillo's proposals, the money would go into a special fund that would give schools extra resources to help students deal with their aggression "in a positive way". While finding ways to fund school counseling programs is commendable, many will disagree with how Nardolillo is going about it.US businesses and diplomats are pressing India to cut tariffs, industry and government sources say, after New Delhi's move to increase customs duties on dozens of products to help its flagship Make-in-India drive aggravated differences over trade.

Ford, which has two plants in India, has sought a reversal of the new tariffs on auto components, while Apple Inc is concerned its iPhones have become even more expensive in the price-conscious $10 billion smartphone market.

India and the United States have built close political ties and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Washington last summer, bear-hugging President Donald Trump in his personalized style of diplomacy. But trade friction is casting a shadow.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson in Washington told Reuters that India should lower trade barriers, which were holding back economic ties.

Trump has already called out India for its duties on Harley-Davidson motorbikes, and this month Modi ordered them cut to 50 percent from 75 percent for high-end bikes.

But that has not satisfied Trump, who pointed to zero duties for Indian bikes sold in the United States, saying he would push for a "reciprocal tax" against countries, including U.S. allies, that levy tariffs on American products.

"It is important that India make greater efforts to lower barriers to trade, including tariff and non-tariff barriers, which will lower prices to consumers, promote development of value chains in India," said the State Department spokesperson, referring to Trump's comments on motorbikes.

The U.S. Congress has been pushing over the past year for greater pressure on India to dismantle economic barriers, and now House Republicans have raised the issue of the new round of duties with New Delhi.

"We conveyed our concerns to the Indian government last week to raising tariffs above WTO rates - especially as it relates to information technology," a Republican aide in Washington told Reuters.

IMPORT TAXES

India announced higher import tax on electronics products such as mobile phones and television sets in December, and then on 40 more items in the budget this month. These included goods as varied as sunglasses, juices and auto components.

India says the move is aimed at giving local industry the chance to grow and is part of a broader plan to lift the share manufacturing makes up of GDP to a quarter, from around 15 percent, and create the tens of thousands of jobs needed for a young workforce.

U.S. commerce department referred questions to the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office in Washington, where a spokesman declined to comment.

The Indian commerce ministry did not respond to a request for a comment on the U.S. criticism of the import taxes.

But a senior finance ministry official defended the decision to raise duties, saying it reflected a trend in other parts of the world.

"When all the major economies, including the U.S. and China, are following protectionist policies, why are we being questioned," the official said.

TRADE TIES

Bilateral trade between India and the United States has grown to about $115 billion in 2016 from $20 billion in 2001. The United States buys close to a fifth of India's goods and services exports and its trade deficit has widened from $13 billion in 2006 to $31 billion in 2016.

The USTR's office is "fairly negative" on India at this point and is analyzing the impact of the customs trade tariffs on various American companies, an industry source aware of the matter told Reuters.

"They are more vigilant than earlier, they are in bulldog mode under Trump," the source said. A spokesperson for the USTR's office declined to comment.

Even before the new round of hikes, India has been seen as one of the most protected major economies. The United States had an average tariff rate of 3.4 percent on imported goods in 2016, compared with 13.5 percent for India, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

China, which the Trump administration is targeting for its trade practices, had an average tariff rate of 9.9 percent that year.

Apple, whose top-end iPhone costs nearly $1,700 after the company raised prices twice in recent months due to higher duties, is in talks with other firms on whether the issue could be raised at the WTO, an industry source said.

Apple did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Ford and European carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) have written to Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying the new tariffs are going to hurt the auto sector and should be reviewed, sources said.

Anurag Mehrotra, Ford India's managing director, said the company has invested $2 billion in the country and the government's move would hit the automobile sector.

"Like many, we also see it as the return of protectionism," Mehrotra told Reuters, adding he expected car prices to rise up to 4 percent due to new duties.

Andreas Lauermann, the head of Volkswagen's India unit said it "remains a challenge to invest further" because of sudden tax hikes.About Me Oscar Bartoli Washington, DC, United States Avvocato, giornalista pubblicista, collabora con molti media italiani. Risiede negli Stati Uniti dal 1994 e vive tra Washington D.C., Los Angeles e Bangalore (India). Consigliere comunale per il Partito Liberale a Palazzo Vecchio (Firenze) porta ancora addosso i segni delle percosse che i 'compagni' comunisti di allora gli hanno dato per essere andato a parlare nelle piazze dove comandava solo il PCI. Ha lavorato per molti anni nel gruppo SMI,leader europeo nel settore metalli non ferrosi, successivamente nell'IRI come responsabile dei contatti con i media e in seguito direttore IRI USA. Ha insegnato per dieci anni alla scuola di giornalismo della Luiss e per due anni alla Catholic University di Washington DC. Tiene un corso sulla comunicazione nel Master di Relazioni Internazionali dello IULM di Milano. Rotariano da decenni ha contribuito a creare due Club a Roma, e' stato presidente del Cassia Romana ed attualmente fa parte del Washington Rotary Club. Da giovane, per pagarsi gli studi ma, soprattutto, perche' gli piaceva, ha lavorato come chitarrista - cantante suonando nelle case del popolo, circoli cattolici, night clubs, radio e televisione. View my complete profile

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Former first lady Laura Bush paid a surprise visit to the Museum of the Southwest Tuesday.

Marketing director Natasha Blackmore said museum staff was surprised when Bush came to view the current exhibition, Portraits of Courage.Pakistan not included in FATF 24 February, 2018



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Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry

Woke Bingo Pakistan has, at least for now, not been included in a list of countries with 'strategic deficiencies' in countering money laundering and combating financing for terrorism.



The decision was to be made in a three-day plenary meeting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog on money laundering and terrorism financing.



The meeting concluded Friday, February 23, without any explicit measures announced against Pakistan with respect to terrorism financing.



The countries on the FATF's watchlist, announced after the meeting, included Ethiopia, Iraq, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Vanuatu and Yemen.



Pakistan's name was also absent from a public statement issued by the regulator following the meeting. Similarly, Pakistan was not mentioned in a statement mentioning the outcomes of the FATF's plenary meeting.



Soon after the watchdog's statements were issued, Geo News quoted Alexandra Wijmenga-Daniel, manager communications for the FATF, as confirming that Pakistan was not added to the so-called grey-list and that the FATF was not responsible for any reports making claims to the contrary.



Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had said on Tuesday that Pakistan had been given a three-month reprieve by the global watchdog.



Asif had tweeted that Pakistans efforts have paid (off) and suggested that there had been no consensus for nominating Pakistan.



However, he had also suggested that the meeting had proposed a three months pause and asked for the Asia Pacific Group, which is part of the FATF, to consider another report in June.



That statement was contradicted earlier today in Indian and international media, which circulated reports that a decision had been made to include Pakistan in the FATF's grey list late Thursday night after Saudi Arabia and China allegedly withdrew their support.



Similar claims were also reported by Reuters, a London-based news agency. Reuters had cited an unnamed, "non-Indian diplomatic source" from one of the FATF countries as saying that the group had decided that Pakistan would be put back on the watchlist.



The reports had triggered a sharp drop in the Pakistan Stock Exchange's benchmark KSE-100 index, which plummeted as much as 615 points in intra-day trading immediately after activities resumed following a mid-day break.



The rout was somewhat contained, however, with the market closing with more modest losses of 261 points (0.6pc).

Critical review



The FATF session was being held to review proposals that included, among other things, putting Pakistan back on a list of countries which have failed to prevent terrorist financing.



The United States (US) and Britain had put forward a motion to place Pakistan on the FATF terrorist-financing watch list.



If adopted, the resolution would have placed Pakistan on the FATF grey-list of jurisdictions with deficient anti-money laundering regimes.



Pakistan was previously on the FATF watchlist from 2012 to 2015.



Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal had tweeted today cautioning against speculation on the matter until there was official confirmation of the FATF decision.



Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal, in a weekly press briefing in Islamabad today, said Pakistan had serious concerns over the motion moved by the US and United Kingdom at the FATF, Radio Pakistan reported.



Dr Faisal claimed that most US concerns over deficiencies in steps taken to curb money laundering and terror financing had already been addressed in 2015, when Pakistan exited the grey-list.



The FO spokesperson had added that Pakistan's name being taken off the grey-list was acknowledgement of the country's "robust mechanism" against money-laundering and terror financing, which he claimed was in line with international standards.



Prior to the FATF's official decision, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif had taken to Twitter on Wednesday to announce that Pakistan had been given a three-month reprieve.



Grateful to friends who helped, Asif had added.



On the same day as Asif's tweet, The Wall Street Journal had named China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia as the 'friends' who had come forward to rescue Pakistan, saying that the three countries had blocked the US's motion to put Pakistan on the list.



Terming it a rare disagreement between Riyadh and the Trump administration, the WSJ, citing officials involved in the process, had reported that Saudi Arabia joined Turkey and China in a move to block the US-led attempt.



According to the report, the Trump administration had been trying to reverse the reprieve to Islamabad and was pressuring the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and other countries to withdraw their support to Pakistan.

Scramble for adequacy



In the lead-up to the FATF plenary session this week, the government had taken control of three dispensaries run by Hafiz Saeed's Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) in a rural area near the capital.



Additionally, President Mamnoon Hussain on Feb 9 had quietly promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 with regards to proscription of terrorist individuals and organisations to include entities listed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)  in a move that would end a longstanding ambiguity over the status of the JuD and FIF by firmly placing them on the list of proscribed groups.



Nonetheless, on Thursday, ahead of the FATF's outcomes, White House deputy press secretary, Raj Shah, hadbexpressed the Trump administration's displeasure over the efforts so far made by Pakistan. He told reporters that US President Donald Trump is not "satisfied with progress when it comes to Pakistan".



"For the first time, were holding Pakistan accountable for its actions. Weve seen modest progress in terms of Pakistans actual acknowledgement of these concerns, but President [Trump] is not satisfied with progress when it comes to Pakistan," Shah had said while answering a question at the press briefing about the US's South Asia policy.



The FATF, an intergovernmental body based in Paris that sets global standards for fighting illicit finance, had previously warned Islamabad it could be put back on the list without further efforts to crack down on the flow of funds to militants.Marriage Wahala: What would you do ...A growing number of Plainview residents want one of the areas newest residents, Stephanie Rene Lopez, to know that shes not welcome.

Lopez was living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, when convicted in the 2002 death of her 5  month old daughter, Brianna Lopez. In 2003, she was found guilty of negligent child abuse resulting in death and child abuse and sentenced to spend the next 27 years in prison. She was released Wednesday from a prison in Grants, New Mexico, after serving about 13 years. The next day, she reported to her parole officer in Plainview, after being paroled her through the interstate compact that includes all 50 states and the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

Were just in shock that New Mexico would send her here, said Virginia Castro. This is a very close, tight community, and shes not welcome.

Castro joined with a group of more than a dozen residents Friday who voiced their opposition to having Lopez in Plainview to a news team from KCBD-TV in Lubbock. They first heard that Lopez was coming to Plainview through Facebook and Instagram, and quickly began organizing.

Its just crazy, Castro said. She needs to go. She needs to leave, that monster. We want her to know that we know shes here, and we dont like it.

Casie Augustine, a mother of four between ages of 8 and 4, said the groups aim is not to promote violence against Lopez. Rather, its to serve as a voice for Baby Brianna. We wont let this baby be forgotten. Whether 10 or 100, Plainview has become her family and we are looking out for her. We are now Briannas mothers and fathers, her brothers and sisters, her grandmothers and grandfathers, and aunts and uncles.

Augustine has organized a Balloons for Brianna vigil at 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, at Kidsville Park. They plan to release pink and white helium-filled balloons and hold a candlelight vigil and walk for the child.

Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, confirmed Friday that Lopez reported to her parole officer in Plainview about noon Thursday and will be staying at a private residence in the Plainview area, possibly with family members.

According to the Plainview Police Department, Stephanie Lopez will not be residing inside the Plainview city limits, but elsewhere in the region while reporting to the parole office here.

Clark said Lopez will be under close supervision and be required to wear a GPS device around her ankle. She is forbidden to have contact with co-defendants and other felons, and must pay fees associated with her parole. She will be subject to random homes visits and drug testing, and must either find employment or seek educational opportunities.

According to published accounts, Brianna Lopez - Baby Brianna - was born Feb. 14, 2002, and died just over five months later as a result of horrific abuse inflicted by her father, Andy Walters, and uncle, Steven Lopez. Those injuries included two skull fractures, broken ribs, broken legs, a broken arm, 15 human bite marks and numerous bruises all across her body. She also was sexually abused.

Steven Lopez and Andy Walters were convicted in 2003 on several felony charges, including intentional child abuse resulting in death and first-degree criminal sexual penetration. Both remain behind bars after drawing sentences of more than 50 years.

According to trial testimony, Stephanie Lopez was aware of the ongoing abuse but did nothing to intervene. She delayed calling for an ambulance for several hours following the final episode of abuse that took Baby Briannas life.

New Mexicos Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel, in a statement issued following Stephanie Lopez release, noted, The case sent shock waves through the community. Baby Brianna was horrifically tortured, raped and murdered, and we all want the monsters who took part in this brutal crime to face justice. Unfortunately, the law at the time allowed these violent offenders to have a much lighter sentence than what they deserved.

As a result of the death of Brianna Lopez, the state of New Mexico in 2005 adopted the Baby Brianna Bill, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 30 years for intentional child abuse, up from a maximum sentence of 18 years when Brianna died.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez was the Dona Ana County district attorney who prosecuted the Baby Brianna case. Since taking office, she has proposed reinstated the death penalty to include those charged with intentional child abuse resulting in death.Training elements rather than fighting forces are being sent to Saudi Arabia: Shahid Khaqan

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that "training elements" rather than fighting forces are being sent to the Kingdom. "The reality is very different from the perception," the prime minister said in an interview aired on TV. "There is no deployment from here. No force is going to attack anyone over there."



Last week, a press release by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) saying that a Pakistan Army contingent would be stationed in Saudi Arabia on a "training and advisory mission" had fuelled fears of Pakistan being sucked into the Yemen conflict.



He said that Pakistani forces have been present in Saudi since the past forty years for training purposes and that the recent send-off was also a part of the same procedure. "Some personnel go and some come back. Sometimes they are less and more at other times. This is routine practice. There is nothing new."



He categorically denounced the perception of a large contingent being sent and planning of an attack on Yemen.



Abbasi also asserted that the parliament would be provided with any details of the troops being sent. "Any details asked for will be provided," he asserted, adding: "Defence minister has given a clear statement in the Senate and if the house feels, I will also give one."



Asked about his speech in the National Assembly about the need for a debate in parliament on who has the final say in legislation, Abbasi said that the issue should have been settled decades ago but had persisted because of breaks in democracy in the country.



"The role of every institution is defined in the constitution and whenever an institution exceeds its authority, it will be doing so at the cost of another institution. Now we are seeing that the legislature and the executive are being affected [by court decisions].



"It is said in court that 'we will reject laws made by the parliament'; discouraging remarks are made for parliamentarians by the court. Other than that, appointments are challenged and officials are removed and humiliated. Government officials are called to the court and are asked irrelevant questions," he said about recent court hearings.



"In this situation the easiest thing for a government official is to do nothing because no matter what you do, you will be questioned on by the court."



"Mistakes do happen and they do have consequences in terms of losses or benefits. But it is the domain of the executive. The responsibility to deliver at the end of the day is with the executive," he said. "No one is going to ask the judiciary about why the work was not done."



He said these were the reasons debate had become necessary to decide "whether the parliament is sovereign on not, what is the domain of the executive and whether the parliament can make laws."



He concurred with Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani's suggestion for an intra-institutional dialogue.



Abbasi also criticised court actions against the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, asserting that the former PML-N president did not have any corruption charges against him.



"Who [else] has to appear twice before the courts every week?"



"Show me another NAB case where there have been two, or even one hearing every week. Is there only one case that is left in Pakistan?" he asked, citing other cases where even charges have not been framed despite evidence of corruption being presented in the court years ago.



"I do not see justice happening. People are not accepting it. This is an alarming situation."



"There is no charge of corruption against Nawaz Sharif," he said. "What are you prosecuting? This is not prosecution but persecution."



He also asked the judiciary to tread carefully when making important decisions.



"The judiciary should keep an eye on decisions which have no legal precedent, which will not be accepted by history or by the people."



"There have been decisions by the courts which have made us liable to pay billions of dollars and we have no appeals over them," Abbasi said.



Read: Pakistan to pay dearly for expropriating assets of Turkish firm Karkey



"Justice should not only be done, it should be seen as being done."



Condemning rumours of horse trading ahead of Senate elections, he expressed concern that people with no political standing had filed their nomination papers in hope to buy votes of lawmakers.



He suggested alternate ways to hold the elections to avoid horse trading saying proportional representation  where a party can be designated a number of seats in the upper house depending on its standing in the lower house  as well as direct elections were possible methods to prevent votes from being bought and sold.This story originally published in October 2017.

Selena fans were excited to see Google had changed the logo on its website to honor the Queen of Tejano on Tuesday, but that's not all the company has in store.

The Quintanilla family, who runs The Selena Museum in the icon's hometown of Corpus Christi, worked with the tech giant to launch "Celebrating Selena: Fotos y Recuerdos," an online catalog of rare photos of artifacts including outfits, fan art and her prized possessions.

"Google Arts & Culture is an immersive way to experience art, history, culture and world wonders from over a thousand organizations worldwide," Google Spokeswoman Charlotte Smith told mySA.com.

RELATED: Google creates Doodle in Selena's honor

Visitors can swipe through the gallery to see up-close photos of Selena's signature costumes, letters sent from fans as far as Hungary and artwork, like one made of lip impressions using lipsticks from her MAC makeup line.

The online museum also provides the story of La Reina's rise to fame in the male-dominated Tejano realm and how her legacy has transcended generations.

"Selena became a beacon of inspiration and hope for the Latinx, immigrant, and bicultural communities around the globe," a description on the Google museum reads. "Her story of embracing and celebrating all parts of her cultural heritage and persevering in the face of adversity forged an emotional connection with millions."

See the photos from the online museum in the gallery above.

mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkyeOn this date in ...

1918: A three-day conference for workers dealing with tuberculosis, aka "the white plague," was scheduled to open at the State Education Building in Albany, creating much interest in the doctors, nurses, social workers and public officials of the Capital Region. It was estimated that 22,000 men in New York would soon be returned to their homes from various military camps and stations because of the presence of tuberculosis in their systems.

1968: An increase in the number of low-priced seats and a simplified price scale were among the features of a new ticket program announced by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Cost of season tickets for the 10-program New York City Ballet, directed by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, would be 15 percent less than individual ticket prices. Single reserved tickets for the ballet would range from $3.50 to $6.50 with lawn admission being $2. A season ticket for the Philadelphia Orchestra would enable admission to 16 programs for the price of 14 tickets. Single reserved sets for the orchestra would be scaled from $3.50 to $7.50, with lawn admission at $2.50.

1993: An epidemic of guns in New York classrooms prompted calls from police and prosecutors for tougher penalties for possession of weapons on school grounds. The New York state Law Enforcement Council conducted a lobbying blitz at the Capitol, urging lawmakers to adopt measures that would allow 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds to be prosecuted as adults for having guns in schools. The council, made up of police officials, district attorneys and state Attorney General Robert Abrams, also endorsed legislation that would require fingerprinting of juveniles who committed gun crimes, serious assault and felony sex abuse.

Want to read more about the Capital Region's past? Have any memories or thoughts about how our history relates to today's events? See http://blog.timesunion.com/history/MIDDLETOWN  The man who police said drove his car into the Middlesex Hospital emergency room and set himself on fire Thursday morning livestreamed the incident on Facebook.

Steven Ellam, 27, of Milardo Lane, Middletown, was airlifted to the Bridgeport Hospital burn unit after the 10 a.m. crash, officials said. His was listed in critical condition at the hospital on Friday afternoon.

In the 21/2-minute video, Ellam spoke in a flat voice, referred to himself several times as Jesus Christ and appeared to address the president while driving along Crescent Street.

Donald Trump, where are ya? My name is Jesus Christ. Im in Middletown, Connecticut. Ive come to expose you as the Antichrist protecting the Illuminati. The 1 percent.

At first, the camera faced the dashboard, with a view of the street, then Ellam turned it on himself, and filmed himself driving down Crescent Street, with the hospital on his right.

The 1 percent have been trying to brainwash me to protect the police for I dont even know how long. I know that you are their protector, Ellam said. Im going to attack one of your headquarters right now  Middlesex Hospital.

Ellam again turned the camera toward the front of the silver Chevrolet sedan.

After he hit the building, he screamed Jesus Christ several times. The camera captures the flames in the car as he yelled Save me!

The vehicle smashed through the emergency room doors and entered the vestibule, where it came to a rest. It did not reach the hospital interior.

During a conference Thursday, the mayor said Ellam purposely crashed into the facility, where 30 people and 20 staff were at the time.

It was intentional, but we are not going to speculate as to why, Mayor Dan Drew said. Based on eyewitness statements, we believe he then set himself on fire. ... At this time, we believe this is an isolated incident. No one else was hurt.

Ellam had gas cans with flammable liquid inside the sedan, and the vehicle caught fire after it collided with the building, witnesses said.

In November 2016, Ellam was convicted of first-degree strangulation after a June 2013 incident in which he violently attacked a woman on High Street and punched her repeatedly. Police at the time said he placed two garbage bags over the womans head in an attempt to strangle her.

The current investigation is ongoing alongside state and federal agenciess probes, but Middletown police said Friday afternoon that they had no new details to report.

We are interviewing witnesses today and following up on any leads, Lt. Heather Desmond said Friday afternoon. As this investigation progresses, we remain confident that Ellam acted alone and that there is no threat to the public at this time.

Police asked anyone who may have information regarding Ellam or the incident to contact the Middletown Police Department at 860-638-4000.

This unusual incident quickly became manageable because of the quick response of hospital staff, random citizens who called 911, the actions of police and fire personnel and the quick response from the outside agencies, Police Chief William McKenna said in a release Friday afternoon. Because of the combined efforts of all of those involved, we were able to limit the damage and threat to innocent lives.

Critical incident management procedures were successfully executed and exceeded expectations, McKenna said.

The lives of doctors, nurses, patients, staff and visitors of the hospital were affected and the healing process may take some time, the chief said. Hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities stepped up and provided a remarkable service when it was in need. Events as this one can cause major disruption, yet it can also bring out the best in those who rarely receive the credit they deserve.Florida Gov. Rick Scott joined a growing list of Republican lawmakers Friday to endorse raising the minimum age for purchasing rifles to 21 years old, marking his first major break from the policy priorities of the National Rifle Association.

The GOP leadership of the Florida House and Senate quickly stood with Scott in backing a broad package of legislative initiatives, including additional school-security funding and a new process to take guns out of the hands of those deemed to pose a danger. The proposals have come in response to the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.

Any new regulation of firearms represents a dramatic shift in position for the state's Republican leaders, who have spent decades easing the regulation of guns and giving legal protection to those who use firearms in self-defense. The split with the powerful NRA also underscores the potency of a growing movement led by teenage survivors of the attack and demanding tighter gun restrictions.

"I'm an NRA member, a supporter of the Second Amendment, and the First Amendment, and the entire Bill of Rights for that matter. I'm also a father, and a grandfather, and a governor," Scott said. "We all have a difficult task in front of us balancing our individual rights with our obvious need for public safety."

Republicans from outside the state, including President Donald Trump, have separately called for a new federal age limit, which has become a focus after 17 students and faculty members in Parkland were fatally shot, allegedly by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who is accused of carrying out the attack with a semiautomatic rifle he legally purchased.

Federal law sets the minimum age for handgun purchases from licensed dealers at 21, while the minimum age for rifles and shotguns is 18. The federal age limits for unlicensed sales, including at gun shows, is 18 for handguns and any age for long guns.

Other Republicans have called for more regulation of guns. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Rep. John Faso, R-N.Y., have argued for raising the purchase age to 21. "Certainly nobody under 21 should have an AR-15," Roberts told reporters in Topeka on Thursday, referring to the type of weapon Cruz is accused of using. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., an Army veteran who lost both legs while deployed in Afghanistan, announced Friday that he supported a ban on all assault rifles, a central demand of surviving students at Stoneman Douglas.

But Republican leaders in Tallahassee continue to oppose such a move, all but ensuring that it will remain an issue for this year's midterm elections. "Banning specific weapons and punishing law-abiding citizens is not going to fix this," said Scott, who is planning a campaign for the U.S. Senate this year.

Republican leaders in Florida have until March 9 to approve the new bills under the state's compressed legislative calender. They will also seek a ban on "bump stocks," which can be used to make semiautomatic weapons mimic automatic weapons in rate of fire, more money to harden school campuses, funding for mental-health initiatives and new funding for trained school security officers.

The governor said he would seek to strengthen state laws to prevent the purchase or possession of weapons by any adult "when either a family member, community welfare expert or law enforcement officer files a sworn request, and presents evidence to the court of a threat of violence involving firearms or other weapons."

State lawmakers passed no restrictions on guns after the fatal shooting of 49 people at Orlando's Pulse Nightclub in 2016 and the mass shooting that killed five at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2017.

Several gun rights groups have said they will oppose the new age limit as an infringement on the rights of adults. "Passing a law that makes it illegal for a 20-year-old to purchase a shotgun for hunting or an adult single mother from purchasing the most effective self-defense rifle on the market punishes law-abiding citizens for the evil acts of criminals," NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said in a statement this week.

On other regulatory questions, Florida Republicans are not yet in agreement. Leaders of the House and Senate want to require a three-day waiting period for taking possession of long guns purchased in the state, while the governor said he did not support that change. Florida's current waiting period applies only to handguns.

Scott also said he opposed allowing teachers to carry firearms in schools, another proposal that Trump has been promoting. The legislative leaders, by contrast, said they would allow local sheriff's offices and police departments to deputize teachers as armed "school marshals" if they completed 132 hours of training and passed background checks.

"It's just a question of working out the details," said state Sen. Bill Galvano, a Republican and the next Florida Senate president, about the differences in the proposals.

The Republican age-limit proposal in Florida would provide exceptions for active-duty and reserve military personnel and their spouses, National Guard members and law enforcement officers over the age of 18 to purchase guns.

Galvano, a supporter of the NRA's legislative priorities in the past, said Thursday that the group's opposition to raising the age for semiautomatic rifle purchases was not a major issue. "I think the desire to act and do something meaningful right now seems to be what's going to win the day," he said.

The Florida Education Association, a teachers union particularly influential with Democratic lawmakers, opposes any effort to arm teachers. In a statement Wednesday, the group's leaders said the carriage of firearms on school campuses should be limited "to highly professional law enforcement personnel."

But the Republican measures are likely to earn Democratic support when they come to a vote. Several Democratic lawmakers from Broward County, where the shooting occurred, have been working closely with Republicans to develop the legislative response, and they are likely to embrace the proposals.

"At the end of the day I'm not voting against a bill that is going to take guns out of the hands of 18-year-olds," said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Broward County. "If Democrats want to complain that the NRA is a special interest and say Republicans kowtow to the NRA, then we should look internally at our special interests."

In fact, the broad outlines of the legislative packages were drafted during tours of the crime scene in the 48 hours after the shooting, when Democratic lawmakers invited Republican leaders from Tallahassee to walk the school's bloodstained hallways and speak with local officials.

The bills proposed Friday by lawmakers would also create exemptions from the state's public records law to protect the privacy of victims and provide money to raze and reconstruct the building where the shooting occurred.

The Broward County school board has requested $28.5 million for that task, including $450,000 for a memorial to the students and faculty members killed in the attack.MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexican immigration agents say they have found 103 Central American migrants in a freight trailer left by a roadside near the U.S. border.

Mexico's National Immigration Institute said Friday the trailer was found near Ciudad Camargo, across the border from Rio Grande City, Texas.The national chairman of the main opposition party in Cameroon, Ni John Fru Ndii, has declared that he will not be presenting his candidature for the 2018 presidential elections.



The veteran politician founded the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in 1990 and has led the party since then.



Speaking at the special congress of the party held in Bamenda, 77 year old Ndii reportedly said he was leaving the stage for the younger generation.



I will not present my candidature for the Presidential election, i want you to chose who is best to be the flag bearer, Ndii tells the congress



Ndii has recently been embroiled in a war of words with secessionists in the Anglophone region who wanted the SDF congress moved from Bamenda to Yaounde.



Ndii maintains that he is an Anglophone citizen who is not pro-secession.



Analysts will now watch whether 49 year old Joshua Osih, who is currently the deputy of the party, will now seek to be nominated as the partys presidential flag bearer.



Electoral activities ahead of the presidential election , have already started, and the opposition party recently met in the restive Bamenda region and declared that it would participate in the March 25 senatorial polls.

Source: africanews.com









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Featured VideoEdward A. Ornelas /San Antonio Express-News

Because a string of candidates this week dropped their bids to run for seats on the North East Independent School District board, all of the races for the districts May elections will be uncontested.

At a special meeting Monday, NEISD trustees will consider certifying the unopposed candidates and canceling the election.Three Republicans challenging Land Commissioner George P. Bush slammed his proposal to relocate the granite Cenotaph from Alamo Plaza during a rally Friday night.

This is the symbol of liberty, and it shall stay right here, said candidate Jerry Patterson, who led the General Land Office for 12 years before Bush.

Roughly 100 people gathered at the 60-foot monument to protest the ambitious Alamo redevelopment plan Bush has undertaken during his first term in office. The potentially $450 million, multiyear plan aims to restore dignity to the historic site that draws thousands of visitors each year, Bush has said.

But the plan to restore open space on the historic battlefield  by relocating the Cenotaph honoring fallen Alamo defendants  faces fierce resistance.

Patterson and the two other challengers  land surveyor Davey Edwards and retired firefighter Rick Range  pledged to keep the Cenotaph in place.

Its not going out of sight and out of mind, Edwards said. Were going to fight not with weapons; we are going to fight in the polling booths with our votes.

On the first day in office, what I will do is I will send armed Texas Rangers down here to guard this place 24 hours a day with orders to arrest anybody who even attempts to try to touch it, Range said.

The primary is March 6.

Bush did not attend the rally and has said any final decision will be determined by the public input being solicited over the next few months.

The (Land Office) has retained a highly respected outside firm to marshal a massive effort to garner the input of Texans regarding the plan to restore and rejuvenate The Alamo  our states most precious monument and one of Americas, campaign spokesman Lee Spieckerman said in a statement. The findings will heavily influence how we hone the Alamo plan and specifically what steps we take with the Cenotaph.

Before the Remember the Alamo rally  organized by This Is Texas Freedom Force  attendees processed around the shrine and laid a wreath in front of the mission-era church. Friday marked the anniversary of the arrival of Santa Annas army on Feb. 23, 1836, before the siege and battle for which the site is known.

We consider the Cenotaph a family tomb, said attendee Raylon Schlueder, an Alamo defender descendant. It would be like me going to the cemetery and saying, Hey, theres your grandfathers headstone; I am going to dig it up and move it to a more appropriate place.Allierose Patricia Galt Steves, who helped Lady Bird Johnson start the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and who supported countless other cultural and charitable institutions, died Feb. 18 at 90.

With a knack for bringing the right people together to achieve her goals, Steves, who was known as Patsy to almost everyone, took an overdose of commitment to the community, said longtime friend Luci Johnson, daughter of Lady Bird and President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Steves met the first lady while helping to plan HemisFair 68, the Worlds Fair held in San Antonio 50 years ago.

They became fast friends about 15 seconds after they met, Johnson said.

When Lady Bird Johnson was mulling over whether to start the wildflower center, Steves encouraged her.

More Information Allierose Patricia Galt Steves Born: Nov. 5, 1927, Ardmore, Oklahoma Died: Feb. 18, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Husband Marshall Terrell Steves Sr.; parents Edward and Allierose Breeding Galt; a sister Survived by: Sons Marshall Terrell Steves Jr. and daughter-in-law Jane, Edward Galt Steves and daughter-in-law Nancy, and Sam Bell Steves II and daughter-in-law Sarah; seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; a sister Services: Funeral was Thursday. See More Collapse

It was my mothers dream; but at 70, I think she had some hesitation about how was she going to get it put together, Johnson said. Patsy was her No. 1 cheerleader. She believed in the cause; she believed in Mother; and she knew she could get it done.

Steves, a founding member of some of the citys most beloved institutions and events, including the Texas Folklife Festival, liked starting something and seeing it through until it had enough synergy on its own, and moving on to other things, her son Edward Galt Steves said.

One of the questions she asked her three sons most often while raising them was, What are you going to do change my world, to make it a better? Edward Steves recalled. She said it to everyone, and everyone who knew her recognized that she was serious.

As busy as she was, Steves was a hands-on mother who often took her children with her while attending her various activities.

When we were kids, wed go to the Witte (museum) with her, the symphony, Edward Steves said. We all worked with her on Junior League projects  helped her with the rummage sale.

A consummate hostess, Steves was asked for a special favor by former President Lyndon B. Johnson before his death.

My mother had a very unfortunate birthday  Dec. 22, Luci Johnson said. It meant  that the last thing people were focusing on was a birthday party three days before Christmas.

The former president, who had always thrown his wife a birthday party despite the time of year, wanted to make sure that the tradition continued after he was gone.

He turned to Patsy one night and said to her, When Im gone, will you always make sure that Lady Bird has a party? Luci Johnson said. Patsy leaned over and said, President Johnson, thats exactly what I will do. And she did.Following a performance at a popular Northwest Side club, local rapper Christopher Polk, 25, was gunned down by unknown assailants while driving on Loop 410, according to San Antonio police.

Police say Polk, also known as Chris P - OG Ape Life, and another man left the Ice Lounge, in the 5500 block of Loop 410, shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday.

RELATED: Men tied to threats against Brooklyn-based rapper detained at S.A. airport

As the two got onto Loop 410 and headed east near Callaghan Road, police say a silver SUV pulled up beside them and a passenger in that SUV opened fire on the driver's side of the victim's car.

A second vehicle then got in front of the victim's vehicle and began shooting as well, police reported Saturday afternoon.

Polk, who was driving the vehicle, was hit multiple times during the barrage, according to police. The passenger, who was struck in the hand, managed to gain control of the steering wheel during the attack and bring the car to a stop on the right shoulder of Loop 410, police say.

Polk was pronounced dead at the scene and the wounded passenger was taken to University Hospital. Early reports were that the second victim was in stable condition, but Ofc. Doug Greene, SAPD spokesman, said that victim was in serious condition as of Saturday afternoon.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Polk's identity Saturday morning.

Officials say the shooting occurred in the 4400 block of Loop 410 at 2:30 a.m.

Police say the suspects fled and are still at large.

This is the second rapper in two days to be targeted by violence, or threats, in the San Antonio area. Brooklyn-based rapper 6ix9ine was threatened by a notorious Texas prison gang over a Thursday performance at Bar 23. Three men were later arrested in connection to those threats.

Police reported there were no incidents at the Ice Lounge during or before Friday's show.

(Warning: The video below contains graphic subject matter.)

According to an Ice Lounge promotional poster, rappers Trae Tha Truth, Sabo Yayo of ABN and Versace Boys and Don Julio were billed as the performers Friday night. Ice Lounge owner Ron Hicks said Polk was not on the bill for Friday night's show and did not perform.

Polk was there as a parton, Hicks said Saturday afternoon. According Hicks, Polk has only performed at the Ice Lounge once, and that was three years ago. Though a promotional poster found online shows Polk being promoted for a June show in 2014 at Ice Lounge.

On Saturday morning, Polk's Facebook page was flooded with messages from friends and fans grieving his death.

Police ask anyone with information on the attack to contact Crime Stoppers at 210-224-7867, or homicide detectives at 210-207-7635.

Staff writer Alexandro M. Luna contributed to this report.Hostiles, a violent Western released a month ago, is set in 1892, a time when death rode high on the open range alongside Cavalrymen and Indian tribes, aimed to deliver a message: Survival is complicated. Its a kill-or-be-killed world. Its us vs. them.

Its always been that way, so thats pretty simple as long as you are clear about whos side youre on. Its that moral compass that makes things complicated for the softies among us.

Black Panther, an action-and-special-effects blockbuster released a week ago, is about a superhero who has to risk his idyllic home to help others who dont share his good fortune. It delivered a more modern, hopeful version of that message: Survival is complicated. But if were willing to accept and learn from our mistakes and the bad calls of the elder statesmen that came before us, if we can adapt to a changing world and compromise for the greater good, complicated doesnt mean impossible.

Hostiles tells the story of the ruthless Old West: soldiers killing warriors, brutal invaders killing innocent women and children, newfangled six-shooters killing everybody. As the dialogue unfolds, the best of the tortured characters tell the viewer that theyve all learned that this savagery is taking its toll on everyone, but its just the way things are. The powers that be are to blame, and individuals are powerless to enact change.

Black Panther tells the story of the sovereign of a technologically advanced nation and its power to change the world, as well as the threat the world poses to it. Through its dialogue, we learn that those who have the power to change things really do need to step up and take action, because not doing so makes one complicit and, therefore, responsible.

We learn that a hands-off approach to the future of mankind proves ultimately more problematic than the most advanced gun in the world. And we learn that the pesky moral compass, when driven by love, can stop a tremendous charging rhino.

These cinematic lessons seem particularly relevant right now.

Some Americans feel powerless in what seems like endless waves of gun violence. Are the powers that be really caught between an outdated constitutional right, modern weaponry created to rack up a high body count, millions in political campaign contributions and a very understandable fear of being caught unarmed? And what good will that do in the face of all the guns that are out there, in locked safes, bedroom nightstands and glove compartments that stick?

But there are some Americans who are stepping up and demanding change. Across the nation, young people are staging walkouts and marches, urging the powers that be to take action. They are demanding that something be done now, weighing in through traditional media and gaining momentum on social media with images recorded during live shooter situations in their classrooms. Unburdened by jobs and mortgages, theyre demanding the safe school years their parents attended. And maybe its because they are young enough to believe more than anything that theyre the ones who can really make things happen.

They are scared, probably like teenagers trying to survive the frontier wars 150 years ago were scared. But they know theyre not powerless.

They have a voice. They have the technology to be heard, to organize and to mobilize. And they have knowledge. They know that, once upon a time when this country was formed, guns changed the balance of power, and that changed everything.

But they know guns arent everything. And they know that it isnt us vs. them. On this planet, its really just us. Us and our kids.

And, hopefully, they have the understanding that change happens, but it only does when enough of us make ourselves heard.Its been called an infrastructure plan, but its more like lip service to this nations vast infrastructure needs.

Thats why President Donald J. Trumps infrastructure proposal  contained within his budget  has mostly been described as dead on arrival with Congress. In a nation facing $2 trillion in infrastructure needs, according to numerous experts, the White House has proposed $200 billion. Much of that gap would somehow, magically, be filled by private investment as well as by states and local entities.

This has many problems.

For starters, private investors are motivated by profit, which can be different than meeting an infrastructure need. A highway serving high-end private development could prompt private investment, but not so much a drainage project in a low-income community.

Or as Elliott Sclar, a professor of urban planning and international affairs at Columbia University, told The New York Times: Instead of the public sector deciding on public needs and public priorities, the projects that are most attractive to private investors are the ones that will go to the head of the line.

It also represents a significant cost shift to local entities and states in unrealistic ways.

For example, it would flip the current 80-20 split in federal highway funding. As in, at present, the federal government pays 80 percent of most highway projects. States and local entities pick up the balance.

Ray LaHood, former federal transportation director and Republican congressman from Illinois, told National Public Radio flipping that probably is not going to work.

States and local entities just dont have that type of funding or capacity.

There are other problems with the plan, notably that much of the $200 billion would come from cuts to transit, community development block grants and other programs. Some of that spending is already dedicated to infrastructure.

And of the $200 billion, half would go toward competitive grants.

Other controversial aspects include privatizing airports and lifting a ban on interstate toll roads. The president would also hasten environmental review of projects. This could be a welcome change, but only if it eliminates unnecessary delays and does not shortchange necessary environmental and safety reviews.

Infrastructure is one area that should have strong bipartisan support. We all rely on bridges and roads. Imagine if Trump had led with this topic as opposed to attempting to repeal health care?

A bold infrastructure plan could have united a fractured nation, but not only is this plan underwhelming, the timing is brutal. It follows the passage of tax cuts and a budget that increases debt. Where would the public money come from to fund infrastructure?

As a conversation starter, Trumps infrastructure plan has two obvious merits. Its triggered a much-needed conversation about raising the federal gas tax, which hasnt been raised since 1993. The federal gas tax is set at 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. No one wants to raise taxes, but there are consequences to not funding things appropriately.

Trumps proposal has also brought attention to the need for rural broadband networks, which is so crucial for economic competitiveness in all parts of this country.

If anything, those are examples of why a bold plan is needed.

This isnt it.February 22, 2018 marks one month of George Weahs assumption of office as President of Liberia, having secured 61.5% of the presidential run-off votes against then outgoing Vice President, Joseph Boakai.



The peaceful conduct of the polls, coupled with Vice President Joseph Boakais gracious concession, is another milestone in Liberias post-war efforts at building a democratic and tolerant society. What is even more reassuring is President Weahs pledge at his inauguration to govern by consensus and ensure prosperity for all Liberians by tackling corruption.



The Media Foundation for West Africa congratulates (MFWA) and its partner organisation in Liberia, Centre for Media Studies and Peace-building (CEMESP) congratulate His Excellency George Weah on his election and assumption of power and wish him success in his proposed anti-corruption crusade.



A crucial ally in the presidents anti-corruption crusade is the media and civil society. Fortunately, Liberia has a Right to Information Law and its constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression  two powerful tools in the fight against corruption.



However, the full exercise of these rights has been undermined by a flurry of criminal libel and civil libel suits that have resulted in excessively prohibitive judgments. Journalists and media houses have been at the receiving end of crippling fines, closure or long custodial sentences for publishing information deemed uncomfortable.



One of these crippling fines was seen in the Rodney Sieh case of 2013. In what is arguably the most infamous libel judgment in West Africa, the Supreme Court in Liberia, on August 20, 2013, sentenced Sieh, the Managing Editor of the FrontPage Africa newspaper, to 5,000 years in prison. The sentence followed Siehs failure to pay an equally hefty fine of USD$ 1.6 million in a civil suit for defamation brought by then Minister of Agriculture, Chris Toe. The journalist was later pardoned after he apologised as part of a deal to end the case.



In July 2015, the publisher of the Nation Times, Octavin Williams was arrested and held in pre-trial detention for eight days after a criminal complaint by one Tony Lawal, a construction mogul, who sought US$4 million in damages for an alleged defamatory article. The journalist has made four appearances in court so far.



On October 7, 2016, Philipbert Browne, the publisher of Liberias Hot Pepper newspaper, was arrestedand jailed without trial at the Monrovia Central Prison on the orders of a Civil Law Court. Browns imprisonment for libel followed an article he wrote which was based on an interview with an alleged rape victim. The alleged perpetrator of the rape, lawmaker Prince Moye, had filed a US$1.5 million libel lawsuit against Browne together with Jah Johnson, the editor of Hot Pepper. Alfred Togbah, the publisher of The People newspaper, which first broke the rape story, was also joined in the suit. .



As Philipbert Browne and Rodney Siehs cases clearly illustrate, judgments of even civil libel cases have also been excessively punitive in recent times. Crippling fines and damages are often imposed, and defaulting in payment often leads to detentions. The New Democrat, Analyst, the Independent and the New Broom are some of the media organisations that have recently suffered excessive punishments in civil libel suits.



In November 2017, Tony Lawal again sued Joel Cholo Brooks, the publisher of the GNN Liberia online newspaper for libel. The businessman is demanding US$10 million in damages in connection with a series of investigative reports by Brooks in which he alleged that the businessman was involved in some dubious road construction deals.



The harassment of media owners and journalist with criminal prosecutions and prohibitive fines in civil cases has led to widespread self-censorship and weakened the media in Liberia. This situation has seriously hampered the medias watchdog duties as well as the ability of citizens to freely express themselves.



Over the past few five years, Liberias press freedom landscape has consistently been rated as partly free in the RSF Press Freedom Index due to these press freedom violations and the difficult environment under which the media works.



Before leaving office, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf attempted to make some amends by taking steps to get criminal libel scrapped from the statutes. On July 20, 2017, the president put before Parliament a billto decriminalise libel. The bill sought to amend the following repressive provisions in Liberias criminal code: Criminal Libel against the President; Section 11.12 (on Sedition) and Section 11.14: Criminal Malevolence of the Penal Law of Liberia.



Unfortunately, the House of Representatives could not consider the bill before it vacated in October 2017.



It is a credit to Liberia that it gave its citizens a legal basis to demand accountability by adopting a Right to Information law in 2010. The country will be equipping itself with a set of progressive press freedom laws if it successfully repeals criminal libel. Such a prospect, will be a major boost to press freedom in the country.



We therefore recommend to President George Weah to use his good offices to ensure the repeal of the anti-free speech sections of the Liberia Criminal code to give a new lease of life to the countrys media, thereby enhancing the capacity of the media to support his anti-corruption agenda and also the countrys young democracy.

Source: MFWA









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An Ex Zipra veteran Max Mkandla has warned former President Robert Mugabe to shut up about claiming that this years elections will not be free and fair because he during his tenure retained power through violence and refused to hand it to the late Morgan Tsvangirai who had trounced him by 73% in 2008.

The remarks came after Mugabe reportedly claimed that this years elections will not be free and fair and condemned President Emmerson Mnangagwas administration as having taken over from him illegal.

Mugabe is not the right person to tell the people that this years elections will not be free and fair. He can not criticise Mnangagwas administration when he himself got into the leadership of Zanu in 1975 through clandestine means when the rest of the Zanu comrades were refusing, Mkandla said.

If Mugabe can disapprove Mnangagwas leadership it means he is disapproving his leadership. From prison in 1975, Mugabe joined Zanu when most of the party leaders had deserted Ndabaningi Sithole. He became the leader while others were refusing. Ask Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo they will tell you that he was a defector leader.

He said Mugabe used own tactics to bulldoze himself into leadership and can not talk about constitutionalism. He said during his time as prime minister at independence Mugabe appointed Rudzayi Nguruwe to lead the police force while he appointed Peter Halls as leader of the army there by returning the power to the colonial regime.

He there engaged the North Korean army to train the fifth brigade to kill people in Matabeleland and we ask him if that was peace and if it was fair. Since 1980 up to 2017 he never condemned violence. The opposition dwellings were killed and their homes burnt was that fair? He addressed rallies and made inflammatory remarks and preached hate speech was that fair, Mkandla said.

What we say is that the new administration must walk the talk and make sure that the elections are free and fair. A person like Mugabe is not the right one to talk about peace. MDC won the 2008 elections and he refused to hand power was that free and fair? I blame the new administration especially the army. These guys must just have shot him he is a disgrace to the people.

In a scathing brief to African Union Commission (AU) chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat at his Blue Roof mansion in Harares Borrowdale suburb on Monday afternoon, Mugabe said the Mnangagwa government was illegal and the AU should help to restore normalcy and democracy in Zimbabwe.

In the emotionally-charged meeting, Mugabe also said the country was effectively under military rule, hence the need to urgently restore democratic order.

He said he was willing to call a spade a spade as he was not afraid of anyone to help bring Zimbabwe back to a constitutional and legal path. He added that his security and wellbeing were not guaranteed as he was being denied his constitutional benefits while his wife was being harassed.

Mugabe further said the upcoming general elections would not be free and fair as they would be run by the military.

Apart from Mugabe and Mahamat, the meeting was also attended by Mugabes wife Grace, AU Commissioner (Political Affairs) Minata Samate Cessouma, the AU chairs interpreter, Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, chief secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda, Zimbabwes former ambassador to Namibia Chipo Zindoga, and a former diplomat in Angola now a senior official in the Foreign Affairs and International Trade ministry. The interpreter translated from French to English, and vice-versa as Mahamat asked to speak in French, but listen to Mugabes address in English.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest News- Police have revealed why it can't arrest herdsmen for grazing cattle on airport runways

- Cows had on Saturday, February 14, prevented an Air Peace flight from Lagos from landing at the Akure Airport, Ondo state

- The commissioner of police, airport command, Mustapha Dandaura, said herdsmen could only be arrested in states where the anti-open grazing law was effective

The Nigeria police force has said it cannot arrest herdsmen who allow their cattle to stray onto and graze on airport runways in the country.

The Punch reports that commissioner of police, airport command, Mustapha Dandaura, stated this in an interview on Friday, February 23.

READ ALSO: Oyegun bows, agrees to back Tinubu's reconciliation move

Legit.ng gathered that he said herdsmen could only be arrested in states where the anti-open grazing law was effective.

However, Dandaura, said that all policemen and other security officials at the airports had been instructed to stay on high alert to prevent a situation whereby cows would take over airport runways.

He said: Its only in states where the anti-open grazing law is in place that herdsmen can be arrested for allowing their cattle to graze on airport runways. Apart from those states, we have not been told to start arresting herdsmen.

But we have already alerted our men at the airports to ensure such incident does not occur again. The state police commands have also been carried along and everyone is on the alert.

We cant have a situation whereby cows would be straying onto and grazing on airport runways because it is embarrassing. Everyone is now on the alert and its going to be prevented.

It would be recalled that last Saturday, February 14, an Air Peace flight from Lagos was prevented from landing at the Akure Airport, Ondo state as cows took over the runway.

It had taken the efforts of airport security and other aviation workers to clear the runway before the airplane landed.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria had apologised to the airline affected and suspended the head of aviation security at the airport following the bizarre incident.

A similar incident had occurred in November 2016 when a fully-loaded plane belonging to Air Peace had to abort landing at the Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, Imo state when the pilot discovered that the runway had been invaded by cows.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Before the Owerri episode, an Air France plane was reported to have collided with cows at the runway of the Port Harcourt International Airport.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state raised an alarm over a misnomer he witnessed at the Akure airport, Ondo state today, Saturday, February 17.

Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers - on Legit.ng TV

Source: LegitYves here. This post summarizes a major UK research project in how the right wing has sold its economic policies and how progressives can best counter their PR. This is important reading since the researchers tested and refined various messages to settle on the framings that were most effective. Given that neoliberalism is the dominant ideology in the Anglosphere, these findings seem relevant to the US.

It is probably not news to most of you that that the shift in the political center of gravity to the right in America was no accident. Starting in the 1960s, a group of extreme conservatives, many of them aligned with the John Birch Society, embarked on a program to undo the New Deal and make American values and politics more supportive to business interests. That campaign was codified in the so-called Powell Memo. As we wrote in ECONNED:

.wealthy conservative lawyer and later Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell wrote a memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1971 that galvanized the right wing. He argued that corporations needed to launch a coordinated and sustained attack to discredit liberals. Among the key elements was the creation of a well-funded effort that looked like a movement to press its cause with the media. Generously financed scholars, writers, and thinkers would demand fair treatment and equal time as the wedge for forcing the press to treat them seriously. In turn, they would recast issues, with the aim of reshaping opinion from the elite to the mass level.

Too often, people on the left seem to believe that their team is obviously more virtuous than the other side, and they seem to regard having to sell their case as somehow beneath them. The assumption of moral superiority also leads them to dismiss people who differ with them. That may be emotionally satisfying but it is a lousy political strategy.

While some are too deeply invested in their views to be open to new ideas, the reality is that despite liberal having been turned into a borderline dirty word, Americans for decades have polled as consistently supporting progressive positions, such as strengthening Social Security and Medicare, taxing the rich, reducing war spending, spending more on infrastructure, strengthening social safety nets. Even though the US has become more conservative, the press also depicts the US as more conservative than it really is. So there is more opportunity to move the debate than you might think.

By Rosie Baines, media training officer for the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON) Spokesperson Network. Originally published at openDemocracy

In 2010, the British right wing media and political parties told a very convincing story about the economy that persuaded the public we had no choice but to make massive cuts to public spending. You probably know it already: there was no money left, the economy was like a household budget, wed maxed out the nations credit card, and it was time to tighten our belts. Anyone who watches the news will be familiar with this story, and if youve ever gone door knocking, you will have heard people repeat it back to you with total conviction. Since 2010, there have been 120,000 excess deaths linked to austerity, the Red Cross declared a humanitarian crisis in the NHS, and use of foodbanks has soared. Why, in light of all of this, did people still support it?

This was the backdrop for the Framing the Economy project. We believed the public endorsed a right wing story about the economy because progressives had failed to come up with an alternative. There werent that many progressive spokespeople on current affairs programmes, and when they were it was like they didnt know what to say. So four organisations came together to understand how British people understood the economy and what new story could be told to persuade them to share our ideas. The four organisations that led the project were NEF (New Economics Foundation), NEON (New Economy Organisers Network), PIRC (Public Interest Research Centre) and the Frameworks Institute.

Of course a lot has changed since 2010. We didnt expect the host of The Apprentice to become the American President, for example. But the tumultuous politics of the last eight years do suggest the austerity consensus is breaking down, and that there is a real opportunity for a resonant progressive story about the economy to win public support. After the 2017 election, where the Labour Party defied all odds to destabilise the government on an anti-austerity programme, the need for a project like Framing the Economy seemed more urgent than ever. The public are finally ready to hear about an alternative economy. This project is to help communicators explain how we might create one.

So in June 2016, shortly after 52% of the British public voted to leave the European Union, we got to work. The project consisted of three phases: first, we would conduct in-depth interviews with a cross section of British voters to understand how they conceive of the economy. Second, we would compare these interviews to how progressives think of the same thing, to identify gaps in our ways of thinking. And finally, we would come up with a new and resonant story, rich with metaphor, that would be able to close those gaps. The eventual story would be rigorously tested, so we could safely say it moved peoples thinking from where they were originally to where we wanted them to be.

Our interviews revealed several cultural models held by most members of the British public to understand how the economy works. We use the word how because cultural models show us how people think of the economy as a whole, rather than what they think about single issues  which is what opinion polls tell us. Cultural models are the durable, deep assumptions we hold to organise information and interpret the world around us. They are shared by all of us. Here are the main cultural models we found:

Cultural Models

What the economy is and how it works

People only really understand the economy as the monetary system and expressed this through the metaphor of circulation. They dont consider things like social care, for example, to be part of the economy.

People think the economy is always on the edge of disaster, using language like tumbling, falling, and rocketing to describe it.

People conceive of the economy as a container, with people putting in (contributing) or taking out (draining). The government was assumed to control what goes in and out of the pot, as well as how its contents are distributed.

People actually dont understand how the economy works, by and large  except for in quite limited ways. They also lack confidence in talking about it.

People think that the economy exists in competition with the environment  what is good for the environment is thought to be bad for the economy and vice versa.

Why the economy works as it does

People think the system is rigged by elites in government, business, and the media who pull the strings of the economy for their own benefit.

People viewed the media as having a hidden agenda and were very distrustful. Having said that, several of our participants who said they distrusted the media later dispensed arguments that correspond with popular news frames.

People assumed greed is a basic part of human nature: all people are motivated by a desire to enrich themselves, even at the expense of others.

How the economy should work

People wanted Britain to have more national self- reliance, producing key products at home and be able to meet its basic needs without relying on other countries. Globalisation and, to a surprisingly small extent, Europe are the foil for this model.

People often idealised an earlier time  typically the post-war period  when wages were high, jobs were more secure, inequality was low, there was a greater sense of community, and we did more manufacturing.

People believe the government has overall responsibility for managing the economy.

Overall people were extremely fatalistic and didnt think the economy could be changed for the better. This meant that they often drew a blank when asked about different ways to run the economy.

Telling a New Story

Because we found so much fatalism in the responses of our interviewees, we felt that we could not make economic arguments to the public if there was a pervasive belief that change simply wasnt possible. For that reason, the story we told argued that the economy had been designed as a result of human choices, made by a small elite, and could be redesigned with different choices. After testing and analysis, we found two powerful but fairly different stories that help shift peoples thinking. If you want to use them in your work, we recommend you read our full report on the project first. It contains lots of information how to best deploy the stories so theyre most effective, and theres some pointers on what to avoid doing so you dont undermine your argument.

Story 1: Resisting corporate power

There are a lot of different ways to interpret the term populism, so it is important to be clear that when we use the term, we mean a story that pits elites against the people. Story 1 is a fundamentally populist story. It contains the following elements:

The value of equality or economic strength

The explanatory metaphor of reprogramming the economy

An explanation that connects the dots and explains: 1) how corporate elites have programmed the economy and how this has undermined equality/economic strength, and 2) how the economy can be reprogrammed to promote a strong/equal economy.

Heres a sample message that uses the value of economic strength. Our research shows this value is particularly successful in convincing Conservative voters, but this story can also be employed using the value of equality (but not both at the same time).

Over the last forty years, our government has become a tool of corporations and banks, and as a result our society has served their interests while failing to provide the broad-based supports that our economy needs to work well. This has weakened our economy, so it doesnt meet peoples needs.

Our economy is like a programme that is constantly being revised and updated. Corporate elites have gained the password to the economy, and have programmed the economy to work well for corporate users. But the public have been locked out, so the parts of the economy they rely on have been neglected. As a result, many users of the economy experience constant glitches, and the economy as a whole doesnt run well.

By programming the economy for financial services rather than manufacturing, weve destroyed the types of good jobs that put money back into the economy. And cutting taxes and privatising industries has undermined our ability to invest in ways that strengthen the economy and keep it running smoothly.

As a society, we need to prioritise a strong economy over the desires of corporations and wealthy elites. We need to reset the password and give control of the economy back to the public. That way, we can reprogramme the economy so it works better. We can create a strong and durable economy by guaranteeing decent wages for the least well-off, investing in local communities, and restoring public ownership of common resources like energy and transport. Creating a good society means taking back the password to the economy from corporate elites and reprogramming the economy so it runs smoothly and makes a good life possible for all users.

Story 2: Meeting our needs

Sometimes it might not be appropriate for communicators to tell a populist story about the economy. So for these cases, we recommend the second story, which doesnt blame elites but instead focuses on how the economy fails to meet peoples real needs. It includes the following elements:

The value of fulfilment

The explanatory metaphor of economic tracks

An explanation that connects the dots and explains: 1) how our economic tracks have made it difficult for people to reach fulfilling lives, and 2) how the economy can be rebuilt to get people to their real needs.

Heres a sample message that shows how these elements can be put together:

A good society makes it possible for everyone to lead a meaningful and fulfilling life. Yet, our society is currently focused solely on profit, and people are forced to chase money rather than happiness.

Our economy is like a railway networkits built to take people to particular places. The laws and policies that we make lay down tracks that determine where the economy takes people. Right now, our economy is built around profit, rather than being built to get people to their true needs. By allowing businesses to use zero-hour contracts, provide low wages, and require people to work more and more hours for the same pay, we have built economic tracks that move profit forward but leave people without the things they need to achieve wellbeing and realise their potential. When people dont have decent wages or stable jobs, this undermines wellbeing in all sorts of ways. And for those of us who do have stable jobs, the need to work more hours means less time with our families and to pursue our goals in life outside of work.

As a society, we need to prioritise happiness and fulfilment over profit. We need to lay down economic tracks that make it possible for people to arrive at a meaningful life. We can build an economy that gets people to happiness by guaranteeing decent wages for the least well-off, banning zero-hour contracts, and reducing working hours. Creating a good society means laying down economic tracks that enable us to get to our real needs rather than keeping us all on a train whose only destination is profit.

Making Sure People Listen

So weve got a new story on the economy. But we need to make sure the public will actually hear it. To do this, NEON is founding a Communications Hub which will provide tools, research and training to make sure people in communications will be able to get the stories weve identified into the public sphere as efficiently as possible. We know certain frames already exist in political discourse  like the system is rigged cultural model  but progressives need to insert themselves into public debate to make sure these frames are wielded in a way that does convince people to share our ideas.

The Communications Hub will launch in Spring 2018. It will expand on NEONs existing programme to train progressive spokespeople who appear in the media, as well as introducing new training programmes like a training programme for press officers. The Hub will also help communicators frame their messages effectively, connect communicators in the same sector to one another, and share the latest research on framing and public opinion. In short it will do all of the things communicators should be doing, but simply dont have time for. With the Communications Hub and the two stories from the Framing the Economy project, NEON will be able to provide the tools for communicators to fundamentally change the way we talk about economy  and then progressives can start telling stories that are as effective and impactful as the one the public bought into about austerity.(Natural News) A controversial paper, which was published in an issue of the journal PLOS ONE and which documents how to make a virus, has sparked public outcry in the scientific community.

This bug, which is non-threatening to humans, is genetically similar to smallpox  a disease which killed at least 300 million people in the 20th century. Fears have been spreading that this virus would do indescribable harm should it fall under the hands of terrorists, especially with reports circulating that North Korea is mass-producing batches of smallpox.

The new study demonstrates exactly how to make horsepox virus based on trials conducted by Professor David Evans at the University of Alberta in Canada in July 2017. Evans and his colleagues claimed that the goal of the experiment, which was funded by New York-based pharmaceutical company Tonix, was to create vaccines for smallpox.

Evans and his research associate, Ryan Noyce, ordered horsepox DNA online, put them together, and told everyone that the resulting virus was able to infect cells and reproduce.

Experts in their fields chastised the decision to publish the study on Friday, January 23, noting that effective vaccines against smallpox already exist, with the United States government having 28 million doses, and gaining access to another 13 million. (Related: Smallpox vials gone missing from government lab undexpectedly found in cardboard box: this is security?)

Virologist Stephan Becker of the University of Marburg in Germany said there is no market for a horsepox-based replacement for smallpox vaccines. It simply does not add up.

The world is now more vulnerable to smallpox, said Dr. Thomas Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

For his part, Andreas Nitsche, who is the chief of the Highly Pathogenic Viruses division at Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany, said: If anyone wants to recreate another poxvirus, they now have the instructions to do that in one place.

Virologists even pointed out that even though some guy in a cave would not have the capability to recreate the bug, a reasonably equipped undergraduate medical student would be able to.

Smallpox vaccines stopped being distributed in the 1980s; most people have no immunity against the disease. Experts are afraid that the virus that causes it, variola, could be used in acts of biological warfare. The last samples of variola are kept under lock and key in Russia and the U.S.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the banning of the synthesis of variolas full genome.

This is not something that can be done tomorrow in any lab, said Gregory Koblentz, a biodefense expert at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia.

For more stories on viruses, illnesses, and the threat of worldwide pandemics, visit Outbreak.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

ScienceMag.org(Natural News) Remember the Sanchi oil spill? It has barely been a couple of months since that terrible accident happened, and yet it seems like most people have already began forgetting about it.

Sanchi is an oil tanker that recently sank in the East China Sea, causing what some experts are now claiming to be almost irreparable harm.

According to a new report, the Sanchi oil spill has already caused serious ecological injury since it first happened, as it is a different kind of oil spill. One pertinent factor could also be the fact that it has now grown so big that it has been referred to in one report as an oil spill the size of Paris.

On board the Sanchi tanker were almost one million barrels of condensate, which is described as an especially flammable type of light oil. And the interesting thing about it is that its type has never been the subject of an ocean cleanup before.

According to Richard Steiner, an Alaska-based marine scientist and an oil spill consultant, its a bit difficult to find out exactly how to best deal with the Sanchi oil spill while minimizing damage and doing things at a steady pace. Theres a lot we dont know about a major condensate spill because weve never seen one, he explained. This is the first. This is a very big deal.

The one characteristic of light oil that makes it hard to deal with is the fact that its hard to see, which causes problems as far as tracking where it is and how far it has traveled are concerned.

Steiner went on to say, Im sure the toxic plume that dissolved in the water column has already spread over hundreds of square miles of the East China Sea. By this, he means that there has already been some serious damage done to the ecological area near the site of the accident.

It is said that the light oil that spilled from the tanker could have already reached the major fisheries in the areas near China, Japan, and South Korea, which are home to a variety of animals like seabirds, whales, and more than a few hundred species of commercially harvested fish. According to Jonathan Watts, the global environmental editor at The Guardian, potentially millions of fish were affected already by the Sanchi oil spill.

Its quite possible a lot of them will end up in the supermarket shelves, particularly in those three countries, said Watts. Theres a big mystery, a big fear, about exactly where all this huge amount of toxic oil has gone. And if the cleanup effort doesnt pick up steam and become successful in tracking all of the spilled oil for possible containment, the world may end up finding out just how bad its effects on human health could be soon enough.

As mentioned in previous reports that covered oil spills in the past, these types of environmental disasters can have far-reaching consequences. Apart from killing aquatic life, human life can also be put in danger, as so-called dispersants used in cleanup operations are said to cause certain health symptoms in people exposed to them.

It may be problematic to keep track of what has happened so far as a result of the Sanchi oil spill, but with enough time, its effects on the environment, the economy, and on humans should become apparent. One can only hope that the officials in charge of the cleanup manage to get a grip on things before it gets to that point.

Stay updated on the latest in water pollution at Pollution.news.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

CBC.caThousands of women, including Hollywood stars, gathered in San Jose Friday for the Watermark Womens Conference where networking, workshops and inspiring speeches were all on the agenda.

Among the women in attendance were Amal Clooney and Reese Witherspoon as well as Jodi Kantor, who broke the story about Harvey Weinsteins alleged abuse and sparked the #MeToo movement.

As an investigative reporter for the New York Times, Kantor opened up about her work and said she couldnt have imagined it would prompt a massive new movement, with thousands of women coming forward to tell their own stories.

"It felt much more like a spontaneous uprising," she said. "The idea that women were actually doing it spontaneously and taking our work to a place we never could have imagined. It was really inspiring."

Despite the outpouring support, Kantor said that there still much more to be done for Me Too and it would not be easy.

"Solving harassment is not as easy as firing the alleged perpetrator," Kantor said. "We've got to have a gigantic, complicated, messy social discussion about what to do about it."

Watermark Conference For Women 2018

The conference tackled topics like leadership, diversity and gender equality. Issues that human rights attorney Amal Clooney told the crow were not yet present in our society.

"The issue for women is not so much bare numbers, but making sure we have opportunity and the same rewards as men do," Clooney said, "and I think we're not there yet."

Clooneys message of equal opportunity in the workplace was a shared feeling among keynote speakers. Reese Witherspoon, who started her own production company said that sometimes, one has to create their own opportunity.

"How many women in this room have saved themselves?" she asked the crowd. "You don't turn to someone next to you and ask. What are we going to do and how are you going to help me? You pick yourself up, get a new job, get a better relationship and save yourself."

This was the fifth conference of its kind.

How did Weinstein get away with it for over 30 years? @jodikantor discusses the impact of her investigation of Harvey Weinsteins sexual assault cases at the #WatermarkConf pic.twitter.com/W554LBOOrG  Jennifer Gonzalez (@JennieGonzMedia) February 23, 2018

People dont choose to become a refugee, they are victims of war: Human rights activist and lawyer, Amal Clooney, takes the stage at the #WatermarkConf pic.twitter.com/iwPtcapWAl  Jennifer Gonzalez (@JennieGonzMedia) February 23, 2018Min. 10,000 Mts / month , CIF UK, Target = 80-95 USD pmt, 2 Years contract, Bulk, Moisture 22-24% max. G35. Origine: FSC certificate required. Please send you offer and we go into further details.Prosecutors unexpectedly dropped all charges Friday against 26-year San Francisco police veteran Joel Babbs, a whistleblower who had been facing misdemeanor counts of vehicle registration fraud and filing a false police report.

I believe in the court system, Babbs said outside San Francisco Superior Court after Superior Court Judge Sharon Riordan granted prosecutors motion to dismiss the case in the interests of justice.

Babbs has said repeatedly that the charges were part of a campaign of retaliation that began when he reported accusations of misconduct based on videos he shot of roll call at the departments Muni division.

Babbs attorney, Murlene Randle, said the decision came after she met with District Attorney George Gascon and presented evidence that the vehicle registration tag fraud charge was not substantiated and the false police report charge was not justifiable.

Babbs said his legal ordeal started after he lodged misconduct allegations against his superiors in late 2016.

They ruined 26 years of my career right here, all because I told the truth, I blew the whistle, he said, adding that one secret tape shows a police commander boasting about using force against a woman in the Bayview.

If you ever see her, shes missing a tooth from me, the supervisor says on the recording reviewed by NBC Bay Area. I went to hand cuff her and she grabbed my hand, so I fing grabbed finger and snapped it.

The city last year officially ruled that Babbs had been targeted for retaliation based on his complaint.

But the dismissal of the charges was bittersweet for Babbs, who says he is stripped of his star and gun as he fights internal affairs charges.

Its short term vindication, what I mean is, Im still going through a process of retaliation. Each and every day I come to the police department, more charges are being piled on me.

The Police Department issued a statement about Fridays dismissal, saying: We respect the District Attorneys decision. We are unable to comment further about this case, which is a personnel matter.Ellen DeGeneres joined the March for Our Lives movement Friday when she brought three survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, on her show to share their stories.

DeGeneres partnered with Shutterfly, an organization that helps school students, to donate $50,000 towards the gun violence protest.

The deadly mass shooting, which took the lives of 17 people, sparked a student outcry on guns with Emma Gonzalez, 18 Cameron Kasky, 17 and Jaclyn Corin, 17, leading the way.

Each of them was personally affected by the shooting, losing close friends and teachers from the massacre. Kasky spoke about what motivated the teens to become activists and organize a march for gun reform.

"The thing that inspired us to create the march was people saying, You are all talking about gun control and this is not the time to talk about gun control this is the time to grieve,' Kasky said. "We understand that and now might not be the time to talk about gun control. Heres the time to talk about gun control: March 24th."

Kasky added: "Its amazing the universal support weve gotten. Its proof that this isnt red and blue, this isnt generation versus generationthis is the 97 percent of people who believe we need to take steps here together."

Gonzalez shared with DeGeneres the story behind her moving "We Call BS" speech at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale that went viral.

"I knew I would get my job done properly at that rally if I got people chanting something. And I thought 'We Call BS' has four syllables, that's good, I'll use that." Gonzalez said. "I didn't want to say the actual curse words... this message doesn't need to be thought of in a negative way at all."

DeGeneres commended the students for taking a stand and using their voices to create change within their community and the country.

"You are grieving but you're also using your activism and your voices, which is so important for young people to do," DeGeneres said. "The fact that these young people are taking such a stand, coming out of being in that situation and taking your energy and that's how you're coping with it. It is the best thing you could possibly be doing."

The March for Our Lives demonstration will take place on March 24, in Washington D.C. DeGeneres joins Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney and comedians Nick Kroll and John Mulaney who have all pledged to support the cause.Several Massachusetts schools have taken to social media to remind students that facing disciplinary action for peacefully protesting won't interfere with their acceptance.

MIT, Northeastern, UMass Amherst, Smith College, Boston University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are a few of the Massachusetts schools that have informed students peaceful protest will not negatively impact their admissions decision.

In a Facebook post, MIT says applicants in the Class of 2022 have asked if protesting gun violence will affect their admission.

WPI Dean of Admissions Andrew Palumbo says students applying to the school should not worry about protesting stopping them from getting in.

"Peaceful protest is not going to rise to the level where we revoke someone's admission. It's certainly not going to be the reason that a student is denied admission into the university," he said. "We look at who they are as a person. Their academic credentials, who they are outside of the classroom and we are looking for a fit."

Some high schools have informed students that they will face disciplinary action for walking out of class to protest gun laws. A national walk-out is scheduled for March 14.

"If there was no penalty where I'm from ... I would absolutely walk out and protest," said high school student Emily Hagoot from Alabama. "I honestly think it's a violation and an infraction on our rights as students."

Hagoot's mother agrees that students should be allowed to exercise their First Amendment right.

"I don't think there should be a punitive measure but if the schools are choosing it and the colleges support student activism, than I'm 100 percent behind the colleges," said Toni Shayo.The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Saturday demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria "without delay" to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock welcomed the vote saying: "Words must now quickly become action - any cessation of hostilities must be real. Attacks must stop."

The vote was postponed for several days of lengthy and intense negotiations to try to get support from Russia, a key Syrian ally that said repeatedly an immediate cease-fire was unrealistic.

Sponsors Kuwait and Sweden amended the resolution late Friday in a last-minute attempt to satisfy Russia, dropping a demand that the cease-fire take effect in 72 hours.

The effort worked, though U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley was sharply critical of Russia for delaying the vote.

"How many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and the shellings?" due to the delay, she asked. "How many more images did we need to see of fathers holding their dead children?"

Sweden, Kuwait and many other countries had been pressing for an immediate cease-fire as deaths mount in a Syrian bombing campaign in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta where the death toll in a week of bombardment has risen to 500.

Earlier this week U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate suspension of "all war activities" in eastern Ghouta, where he said 400,000 people are living "in hell on earth."

Guterres welcomed the resolution's adoption and stressed his expectation that it will be "immediately implemented and sustained" so aid gets to the needy and sick, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "The U.N. stands ready to do its part."

While the spotlight is on eastern Ghouta, the resolution expresses "grave distress" at the humanitarian situation there as well as throughout the country including Idlib governorate, Northern Hama governorate, Rukhban and Raqqa.

It states that urgent humanitarian assistance is now required by 13.1 million people in Syria, including 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities in "acute need." That includes 2.9 million in hard-to-reach and besieged locations such as eastern Ghouta.

The resolution calls on all parties to immediately lift the sieges of populated areas including eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Foua and Kefraya.

On the key issue of a cease-fire, the resolution "demands that all parties cease hostilities without delay for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria for a durable humanitarian pause, to enable the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid and services and medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded ... and demands that all parties engage to this end."

The resolution also demands that a cease-fire be followed immediately by access for humanitarian aid.

Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog told the council just before the vote that "the U.N. convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go."

Kuwait's U.N. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaiba, the current council president, said after the resolution's adoption that "it cannot end the human suffering in Syria immediately."

"However, it is a positive sign sent by the Security Council  a sign that the council is united and showed solidarity to stop the humanitarian suffering and stop hostilities immediately," he said. "Now we must implement this resolution to save the lives of Syrian people and to deliver humanitarian aid."

Since the Syrian conflict began nearly seven years ago, the Security Council has been deeply divided, with Russia backing President Bashar Assad's government and the U.S., Britain and France supporting the opposition. The result has almost always been paralysis and inaction.

Those divisions were evident Saturday in the tough language from the U.S. ambassador and the reply from her Russian counterpart after the vote.

"Every minute the council waited on Russia the human suffering grew," Haley said. "Getting to a vote became a moral responsibility for everyone, but not for Russia, not for Syria, not for Iran. I have to ask why? At least 19 health facilities have been bombed since Sunday" in eastern Ghouta.

She expressed hope that Russia's belated decision to support a cease-fire "after trying every possible way to avoid it ... will be a turning point, where Russia will join us in pushing for the political settlement to this conflict."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia responded saying it took so much time to reach an agreement because an immediate cessation of hostilities, which was originally called for by the sponsors, was "not feasible, ... not possible."

"What is necessary is for the demands of the Security Council to be underpinned by concrete, on-the-ground agreements," he said. "It would be naive to think that difficult issues can be addressed overnight, momentarily. We trust that all parties with influence to bear will help to bring this about."

Another major issue in the negotiations was an exemption the Russians sought to keep up attacks against extremist groups.

The resolution allows attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State group and all al-Qaida affiliates including the Nusra Front to continue. The Syrian government and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamic extremists they call "terrorists"  and U.S.-backed forces are also going after IS and al-Qaida militants.

Nebenzia accused the U.S. of using the fight against terrorists for "geopolitical agendas with dubious legitimacy." Instead of "scaling-up rhetoric against Russia," he called for the U.S.-backed coalition to promptly end its "occupation" which would improve the humanitarian situation in Syria's north and east.

Later, he told reporters that Russia also negotiated for so long to make sure the resolution "is not used as a pretext for any military action. He pointed to "worrying comments on that in recent days, and including today some very bellicose language."Hollywood has had enough of the NRA.

In the wake of one the worst mass school shootings in history on Valentine's Day, celebrities are showing that it's more than just the students, teachers and parents of Parkland, Florida, that want a sweeping change to gun laws in America.

Hollywood stars Alyssa Milano, Evan Handler join Amy Hargreaves, Ally Walker, Tara Strong and many others that have taken to Twitter to make their voices heard, calling for a boycott of the NRA using #BoycottNRA and Amazon #StopNRAmazon.

The social media movement has companies from all over the country to begin to distance themselves from the gun advocacy group ending their discount partnerships with them.

Milano has been an activist for the cause on social media, dedicating her Twitter page to the victims of Parkland shooting by featuring the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School logo.

Milano and Handler have both called for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to end his relationship with the NRA and to stop airing NRAtv on Amazon Prime TV.

Did you know there is something called NRAtv? And that it's carried by streaming service @amazon?

We'd like to stop them from carrying this gun industry funded misinformation, which adds to gun violence throughout our nation.

Please let @JeffBezos know.

#StopNRAmazon  Evan Handler (@EvanHandler) February 22, 2018

The television network airs more than 30 original series with the likes of NRA spokesperson and Breitbart editor Dana Loesch.

Amazon has yet to release an official statement.A Griswold man is dead after a crash on Stone Hill Road early Saturday morning.

Connecticut State Police said 27-year-old Kyle Emmerthal was driving near 270 Stone Hill Road around 12:30 a.m. when he went off the road and hit a stone wall and a tree.

Emmerthal was ejected from the vehicle. He was rushed to Backus Hospital where he died of his injuries.

No one else was in the vehicle at the time, police said.

Debris from the crash caused minor property damage.

The crash remains under investigation.With her children in tow, Dahemia Douet lined up with dozens of others at the Hartford library Saturday to get her taxes prepared by the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program or VITA.

The volunteer organization sets up across the state during tax season to help those making under $54,000 per year file for free by appointment. Saturday, they accepted walk-ins for their VITA Dollars and Sense Day.

I paid the year before but once I discovered Vita I decided Im not gonna pay again, why should I, said Douet. Its very important. It saves us money where we could spend on groceries.

The program is sponsored by the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. Laura OKeefe, the financial stability director for the Village for Families and Children, a key partner in the program, said she hopes to do more than just save families money.

Help them to understand what their tax return is really about, said OKeefe. Its also an opportunity to help people think about their finances in a broader sense.

The program helped more than 12,000 people in central and northeast Connecticut get back about $28 million in refunds last year alone.

You know, those without the internet and knowledge of a computer, you know you need places like this for people to go to, said Dawn Rioux.

The Hartford resident said she usually files on her own, filling out the paperwork by hand, but technology has taken over the tax business.

Tax preparation is somewhat complicated, a little intimidating, so were able to help with that, added OKeefe.

VITA volunteers will continue to provide the free tax filing service through April 17, in the hopes of helping people move ahead and build a solid financial future.

Find the full list of locations here. To make an appointment, dial 211.In a speech to conservatives, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre distorted the facts when talking about the federal system for conducting background checks on prospective gun buyers.

LaPierre got a lot wrong when describing a rescinded Obama-era rule requiring the Social Security Administration to report certain mentally disabled beneficiaries to the federal database used to conduct gun background checks.

He said the rule applied to an elderly couple simply because they sought help to do their taxes. But it didnt single out anyone for that reason. It covered 18- to 65-year-olds receiving disability benefits  not retirement payments  due to a diagnosed mental condition.

He also said the rule  with no questions asked  banned from purchasing a firearm Social Security recipients who granted financial authority to a family member, friend or financial professional. In fact, the SSA rule said that in order to be reported, individuals had to meet five criteria, including having a severe mental health issue and being unable to manage their benefits. It also allowed affected individuals to petition for the ability to obtain a gun, provided they could demonstrate that they posed no threat to the public.

During his speech, LaPierre also boasted that the NRA originated the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, for gun sales. Thats misleading.

As we have written, the NRA proposed instant background checks in 1991 after it appeared certain that Congress would pass the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The NRA backed instant background checks  even though the technology for it did not exist  as an alternative to a mandatory seven-day waiting period before a purchaser could take possession of a gun. Supporters of the bill saw the NRAs move as an attempt to kill or weaken the bill  one of several lobbying efforts to reduce or eliminate the waiting period, which LaPierre at the time called unfair.

[[474961933, C]]



After the Brady bill became law, the NRA sued to prevent the federal government from temporarily retaining any information on the approved gun sale and gun buyer. It also has consistently opposed expanding background checks to include private gun sales and transfers, including those at gun shows and on the internet.

Social Security Rule

LaPierre made his claims in a speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where he addressed calls for more gun control following a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school. He said socialists love to makes lists  that can be used to deny citizens their basic freedoms. (His remarks about the Social Security rule start around 17:53 in the video.)

LaPierre, Feb. 22: Imagine this  and this happened and its true. Imagine telling an elderly couple that because they sought help to do their taxes that they could no longer exercise their fundamental Second Amendment right. Thats exactly what Obama did. His administration proposed if some Social Security recipient  recipient who granted financial authority to a family member, friend or financial professional was banned from purchasing a firearm. No questions asked; just like that. Good, law-abiding people were automatically and unjustly declared mentally incompetent and put on a new government list.

We wrote about similarly false claims made by another NRA executive in October.

As we said then, the rule, which had been finalized by the SSA under President Barack Obama in December 2016, was revoked by a joint resolution that President Donald Trump signed into law February 2017. The rule had required the SSA to report certain people disqualified from buying or possessing a gun to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

But the rule didnt apply to all Social Security beneficiaries, as LaPierre suggested. And it would not have applied to an elderly couple simply because they sought help to do their taxes or granted financial authority to a family member, friend or financial professional.

The rule would have covered 18- to 65-year-olds with a qualifying mental condition who were receiving benefits through the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Plus, the SSA said it would only report to the NICS individuals who met five specific criteria, including having a severe mental impairment and being assigned a representative to handle their benefit payments.

Also, affected individuals could appeal a listing in the NICS by showing that they were not dangerous. Thats the opposite of being banned from purchasing a firearm with no questions asked, as LaPierre put it.

The SSAs final rule was created to comply with the reporting requirements mandated by the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, which was signed into law in January 2008 by President George W. Bush. The law required federal agencies to report individuals prohibited from acquiring guns to the NICS.

After the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Obama issued a presidential memorandum advising the Justice Department to make sure that federal agencies were complying with the 2008 law by reporting relevant records to the national background check system.

The final rule went into effect on Jan. 18, 2017, but Congress and Trump repealed it that February, months before SSA actually had to comply with its requirements in December 2017.

SSA did not refer any records to the NICS under the now-rescinded final rule, Mark Hinkle, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, told us in an email.

So, no good, law-abiding people were automatically and unjustly declared mentally incompetent and put on a new government list, as LaPierre said.

NRAs Role in Creating NICS

In a bit of revisionist history, LaPierre also took credit for creating the federal background check system for gun sales.

LaPierre, Feb. 22: Look, and this is really important, and you never hear of this on the national media. So I want to say it to all of you now and I need your help in telling all of America this because it is the truth. The National Rifle Association originated the National Instant Check System. It was our bill.

Thats misleading. The fact is that in 1991 the NRA supported an instant background check system as an alternative to a proposed seven-day waiting period when Congress was considering the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. At the time, the bills advocates saw the NRAs proposal as an attempt to weaken or kill the Brady bill, because the technology for instant checks didnt exist yet.

In a paper on the history of the Brady law, Richard Aborn, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and past president of Handgun Control Inc., wrote that the NRA was concerned that it no longer had the votes to defeat the Brady bill, so the NRA tried a last-ditch effort to block it by working with then-Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska on an amendment to create an instant background check system.

Aborn, 1995: The fatal flaw in the instant check bill was that there was no technology available to conduct the background check instantaneously. The instant check bill would have completely gutted the Brady bill by eliminating the waiting period, thereby depriving law enforcement officials of the time necessary to conduct a background check of the purchaser.

The Brady bill did not become law in 1991 or 1992. But it was reintroduced in 1993 with compromise language on background checks. The bill required potential gun buyers to wait up to five business days to allow local law enforcement time to conduct a background check, and the five-day waiting period would be in effect until the creation of a national instant background check system.

The NRA opposed the waiting period and worked with Republican Rep. George Gekas of Pennsylvania to successfully make changes to the bill as it neared final passage in November 1993.

We recognize a bill is going to become law on this, LaPierre was quoted as saying in an Associated Press story at the time. We want to make it the best version possible.

Gekas won approval for an NRA-backed amendment that would end the five-day waiting period after five years, even if the instant check system wasnt operational. In a Nov. 10, 1993, States News Service story, Bill McIntyre, an NRA spokesman, was quoted as saying that the NRA worked closely with [Gekas] on the language and to round up support for it.

When the Senate passed the Brady bill on Nov. 24, 1993, the New York Times quoted LaPierre as describing the five-day waiting period as unfair.

The waiting period is unfair to honest, law-abiding people, LaPierre said in the Times story. The criminals wont wait.

Then-President Bill Clinton signed the Brady bill on Nov. 30, 1993, and, as required by law, the instant background checks took effect five years later on Nov. 30, 1998.

As the NRA began to understand that we were building substantial momentum and would likely succeed, they hedged their bet by cynically introducing the instant check system knowing it wouldnt work because the technology wasnt available, Aborn told us. Notwithstanding having introduced the idea, they still continued to oppose Brady with all the resources they could muster, but they ultimately failed to stop us.

Even after the law was passed, the NRA continued its opposition to aspects of the new background check system.

On the day that NICS went operational on Nov. 30, 1998, the NRA filed a lawsuit claiming that the rules allowing the FBI to maintain an audit log of gun purchases for up to six months (later reduced by the Department of Justice to 90 days) amounted to a firearm registry. The NRA suit was dismissed, but federal law every year since fiscal year 2004 requires the FBI to destroy firearm transfer records within 24 hours of approval.

As we have written before, a weapons sale can be approved in less than an hour using NICS if a background search turns up no evidence that the applicant is prohibited from owning a gun. If the name of the applicant matches any of those in a variety of databases, including criminal and civil court records, then the gun purchase can be delayed for further review, but only up to 72 hours.

The NRA has successfully lobbied over the years to limit the background checks to licensed firearm dealers  excluding private sales, such as some purchases made at gun shows or over the internet, for example.

A month after the Brady bill was signed into law in 1993, the Associated Press wrote about an effort to close the so-called gun show loophole, which the news organization described as a loophole large enough to sneak a crate of 9-millimeter pistols through. NRA lobbyist Joseph Phillips told the Associated Press at the time that such legislation would be unnecessary.

The NRA says it still opposes expanding background checks to include gun shows, because expanding the background check requirement would be a step toward transforming the background check system into a national gun registry.

To this day, they continue to oppose the idea of universal background checks, Aborn told us, so to argue that they created a national instant check system is quite misleading given all of their efforts to limit background checks for gun purchases.What to Know The 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz was captured an hour later in a neighborhood about 2 miles from the school where 17 people died.

For almost a half-hour after the shooting, police officers thought they were seeing his actions live on the school's security system.

For almost a half-hour after a school shooter dropped his assault-style rifle and escaped Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, police officers thought they were seeing his actions live on the school's security system.

They soon realized the images were tape delayed, which Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi told the South Florida Sun Sentinel made a chaotic situation more confusing.

The 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz was captured an hour later in a neighborhood about 2 miles from the school where 17 people died Feb. 14.

The newspaper reports police transmissions show that police initially couldn't get to security cameras. Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference he didn't know about the security system delays but would look into it.

At a news conference Thursday, Pustizzi said there was a communication issue between the person reviewing the footage and the officers in the school.

"There was nothing wrong with their equipment, their equipment works, it's just that when the person was reviewing the tape from 20 minutes earlier, somehow that wasn't communicated to the officers that it was a 20-minute delay," Pustizzi said. "It added to some confusion...because the officers that are in the school trying to find him were given inaccurate information, unintentionally, it's just miscommunication, but that 20-minute delay did cause some confusion."

Pustizzi said the confusion didn't put anyone in danger.

"The delay never put us in a situation where any kids' lives were in danger or any teachers' lives were in danger," he said.



BSO officials say Cruz started firing shots around 2:21 p.m. and left less than 10 minutes later. Commissioners approved a nearly $60 million plan to replace the old system, which reportedly will not be ready until later this year.

In a statement Thursday, Broward County Public Schools officials said the Sun-Sentinel's report contained information that "does not accurately reflect the capability of the surveillance system" and said "the account of events reported in the article does not adequately or accurately reflect the full circumstances in immediately responding to the event."

"The surveillance system definitely has the ability to view the cameras in real-time. It also has the ability to view the recorded footage and replay footage from earlier in the day. During the immediate response to the event, the system was being viewed in real-time and the recorded footage was being viewed to retrace the actions of the shooter," the district said in the statement. "The District no longer has access to the video footage, as the server and all footage related to the incident was removed from the Districts possession through a search warrant as part of the investigation to the event."What to Know Scott held a Friday morning press conference in which he laid out an action plan aimed at improving safety on school campuses.

A "Violent Threat Restraining Order," which would allow a court to prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from buying or owning a firearm

Scott is also calling for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school, with at least one officer for every 1,000 students.

In the wake of the worst mass shooting inside a Florida school, Gov. Rick Scott announced a "major action plan" in an effort to keep students safe.

Scott held a Friday morning press conference in which he laid out an action plan aimed at improving safety on school campuses and keeping guns away from those people struggling with mental illness.

"I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun. I want to make it virtually impossible for anyone who is a danger to themselves or others to use a gun," Scott said.



The Governor, who traveled to Parkland within hours of the February 14th tragedy inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people, has met with a variety of school officials, including students, teachers and parents from Douglas after a rally for gun law reform.

Scott began his Friday news conference by reading the names of all of the victims.

"Unfortunately, none of the plans Im announcing today will bring any of them back," he said.

Included in Scott's plan is what he calls a "Violent Threat Restraining Order," which would allow a court to prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon when either a family member, community welfare expert or law enforcement officer files a sworn request, and presents evidence to the court of a threat of violence involving firearms or other weapons.

Scott said he also wants to require anyone purchasing a firearm to be at least 21, with exceptions for active duty and reserve military and spouses, National Guard members and law enforcement.

Scott's plan also would require anyone involuntarily committed by a court to surrender all firearms and not regain their right to purchase or possess a firearm until a court hearing. The plan would also prohibit a person from possessing or purchasing a firearm if they are subject to an injunction for protection against stalking, cyberstalking, dating violence, repeat violence, sexual violence, or domestic violence.

Scott is also calling for a mandatory law enforcement officer in every public school, with at least one officer for every 1,000 students by the 2018 school year. Sheriff's departments would also be allowed to train school personnel or reserve law enforcement officers to protect students.

A new, anonymous "See Something, Say Something" hotline, website and mobile app for K-12 students statewide will also be initiated.

Jaclyn Corin, a shooting survivor who is part of the #NeverAgain movement to prevent similar tragedies, said the app may be a "small step" but that "we are moving in the right direction."

"Apps like this have been successful in other states, as utilizing social media to prevent gun violence/suicide/other threats is incredibly beneficial for this generation," Corin wrote on Twitter.



Scott said $50 million in additional funding will be made available for mental health initiatives.

"We must expand mental health service teams statewide to serve youth and young adults with early or serious mental illness by providing counseling, crisis management and other critical mental health services," Scott said.

Scott said keeping away guns from dangerous people and people with mental issues is what needs to be done, rather than a "mass takeaway of 2nd amendment rights."

"I do know that some are going to accuse me of unfairly stigmatizing those who struggle with mental illness. I reject that," he said. "I am not asking them to wear a scarlet letter, nor am I unsympathetic to their plight. I have a family member who has dealt with these issues. It is hard on them and it is hard on the family."

The Governor's proposal was met with criticism from Florida's longtime U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who called it the "bare minimum."

Students, parents and teachers across our state are demanding action - but instead of listening to them, its clear the governor is once again choosing to listen only to the NRA," the three-term Democrat wrote. "The governors plan doesnt do one thing to ensure comprehensive criminal background checks or ban assault rifles, like the AR-15. We need to get these assault rifles off our streets and expand criminal background checks for anyone acquiring a gun."

Some students called the measures a step forward.

"We did not know if he was listening to us because they were being very political, as politicians are, so were happy to see that change is happening," student Tanzil Philip said.

"I think it is a step in the right direction but honestly I dont feel like we need to have such high powered guns," Lara Terrazas said.



Politicians under pressure to tighten gun laws in response to the mass shooting floated various plans Thursday, but most fell short of reforms demanded by student activists who converged Wednesday on Florida's Capitol.

Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran said Thursday night that his chamber is going to recommend creating a special commission to investigate the "abject breakdown at all levels" that led to the shooting deaths. The Republican said the commission, likely be led by a parent of one of the slain children, would have subpoena power.

Corcoran said the news about the resource officer's failure to respond did not dissuade him from moving ahead with what he was calling the "marshal" plan to let local law-enforcement officials train and deputize someone at the school who would be authorized to carry a gun.

State Sen. Bill Galvano, who is helping craft a bill in response to the shooting deaths, insisted the idea is not the same as arming teachers. He said the program would be optional and the deputized person would have to be trained by local law-enforcement agencies.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said a visit to Stoneman Douglas prompted him to change his stance on large-capacity magazines. The Republican insisted he is willing to rethink his past opposition on gun proposals if there is information the policies would prevent mass shootings.

"If we are going to infringe on the Second Amendment, it has to be a policy that will work," Rubio said in an interview Thursday with AP.Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen to release new self-owned models

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company LTD (DPCA) will set up a self-owned JV brand dubbed Fukang New Generation, according to Su Weibin, general manager of the company. Besides, at the beginning of 2019, it will release two EV models, which will be sold at DongFeng Citroen's dealership network.



DPCA, located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, is a joint venture between China's Dongfeng Motor Corp. and Groupe PSA. Currently it owns two brands, Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot.

The Fukang New Generation brand is likely to give priority to the new energy field. In the future, it will launch new models with the help of PSA and Dongfeng's technologies. According to Su Weibin, the two new EV models will be built under the new brand. However, he declined to expose the detailed information about the two models.

What's more, the two EV models are expected to be based on the CMP and eCMP, which are co-developed by Dongfeng and PSA. The CMP covers hatchback, sedan and SUV and can manufacture models with three different wheelbases and wheel treads, while the eCMP is an electric modular platform based on the CMP.

In the future, new model products under Fukang New Generation will be sold across DongFeng Citroen's dealership network. Currently, Dongfeng Citroen has over 400 dealers, completing from first-tier cities to fifth-tier cities. By virtue of the widely-covered dealership, the expenditure of expanding channels can be largely decreased at the early stage.What to Know The 12-year-old girl, clutching her princess lunch box and wearing her school uniform, was attacked on Feb. 24, 2015 as she got off bus

The stranger threatened to kill her, then dragged her roughly, turning down an alley where he brutally attacked her, police say

Despite DNA evidence and surveillance footage of the attack, no arrests have been made; one detective remains haunted

The rapist who grabbed a 12-year-old girl off a New York City street in broad daylight and raped her three years ago will strike again if he's not caught, an NYPD detective working on the case says.

Det. Diane Crowley has been investigating the brutal rape since it happened Feb. 24, 2015, unpacking the chilling clues and chasing down every lead. The victim was a sixth-grader in pigtails, wearing a school uniform and a bookbag shaped like a dinosaur, clutching a princess lunchbox.

"She was a baby and she looked like a baby," she told News 4 in an exclusive television interview Friday.

"This could be anyone's kid. And he's still out there," she said of the predator. "I have full confidence that he's gonna hit again."

News 4 NY

The girl didn't live in the neighborhood where she was raped. She'd stepped off the Bx19 bus to transfer to another bus after school, heading home around dinnertime after tutoring. That's when the rapist grabbed her by the arm and threatened to kill her if she screamed.

He dragged the terrified sixth grader through the strange neighborhood and took her into an alley where he brutally attacked her.

"She doesn't want to die. She told me she was afraid he was going to kill her," said Crowley.

News 4 NY

The rapist had tried to get into two locked buildings on 179th Street, and ultimately ended up in an alley on Daly Street. The girl later told Crowley she remembered a "grass wall."

After searching hundreds of alleys, the Special Victims Unit found the grass wall, and the girl confirmed at the scene that was where she was attacked.

"As soon as she walked through here, 'That's it! Detective Crowley, this is it. This is it,'" Crowley recalled. The girl was talking about a turf-covered fence at the end of a sunken alley hidden from the street.

News 4 NY

A surveillance camera and video captured the attack -- disturbing even for a veteran detective.

"Having to see it, of course it gets you, it's your fuel," said Crowley. "It's what makes you want to throw handcuffs on the person that did this."

News 4 NY

The footage shows a young man in tan cargo pants, wearing a blue jacket with a hood and a hat. His face is blurry, but it's not impossible to recognize. Part of the problem, Crowley has told The Associated Press, is the suspect was also young, probably 14 to 16 years old. She thinks people are afraid of being wrong and turning in an innocent kid.

"Obviously with the forensic evidence, there's no way the wrong kid will go to jail for this," she told the AP.

After the attack, the girl ran and called her mother and they went to the hospital, which collected forensic evidence. Crowley told the AP that when she arrived to the hospital, the little girl was in a bed, still in her uniform, but it was ripped and dirty. Her glasses were askew.

She had a hard time explaining the attack to police.

"She had to describe things that happened to her that she didn't even have the vocabulary for," Crowley said. "She'd never seen a male body before."

The 12-year-old girl had stepped off the bus at about 6 p.m. to walk home after a tutoring session when the suspect accosted her and grabbed her arm near East Tremont Avenue and Southern Boulevard near the Cross Bronx Expressway, the girls mother told NBC 4 New York. Lori Bordonaro reports.

SVU is not working the cold case alone. The rape has haunted the Bronx neighborhood where it happened for years, and neighbors are eager to find the attacker.

"They need to find him, and he needs to pay for what he did," said East Tremont resident Ninoska Veras. "Little kids should not go through situations like that."

"For a little girl to get raped, I'm not going to tolerate that," said Richie Pearson. "All rapists need to come off the street."

News 4 NY

Crowley says the girl is more concerned than anything about future potential victims.

"Not, 'I want him to rot in jail.' Not, you know, 'He deserves something bad to happen,'" she said. "'I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I went through.'"

Police have been back in the neighborhood, on the three-year anniversary of the case, talking to people on the street and handing out fliers, urging them to contact investigators with tips, no matter how small.

News 4 NY

"Even if they think it's insignificant, we may be able to run with it and it may provide a huge break for us," said Crowley.

Crowley said the girl has had ups and downs. She's anxious and can't sleep, struggles in school, but she's growing into a smart young woman and is doing her best.

"But, her innocence was taken. The twinkle in her eye dimmed out," she said. "I would love nothing more than to bring her and her family justice."

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS or nypdcrimestoppers.com. There's a reward of more than $22,000 for any tips leading to an arrest.

A new law is in the works to save thousands of dollars for Washington, D.C., homeowners and keep renters from holding up home sales.

The new legislation follows a News4 I-Team investigation which exposed how some renters have used an old law to make their landlords pay them huge sums of money.

"I know there is still work to be done, but I'm excited in what happened today and I think this is a great thing for our community," said Colin Johnson, past president of the DC Association of Realtors.

The bill, debated and approved by the D.C. Council's Housing Committee Friday, addresses problems exposed by News4 last year.

The committee's report cites several News4 stories saying the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) was never intended to be a money-making windfall for tenants, nor a way to hold homes hostage during pending sales.

TOPA was enacted decades ago to preserve affordable housing in the District of Columbia. It gives renters the first chance to buy the place they're renting if the owner decides to sell it.

"TOPA was designed to give you a place to live at a reasonable rate, a decent place to live, and it never was to take from an owner their rights," said Anita Bonds, chairwoman of the D.C. Council Housing Committee.

The new legislation basically exempts single family homes from that entire process with a narrow exception for elderly and disabled tenants who had a lease signed by December 31, 2017. The proposed legislation was amended to define "elderly" tenants as anyone 62 years of age or older.

D.C.'s real estate community turned out in force Friday, wearing yellow "Fix TOPA" stickers to support the committee's decision. This version of the law goes much further than the original fix proposed last fall.

"We are doing what's right. We're taking care of the people of DC and that includes everyone, whether you're rich or poor, it's our responsibility," said Bonds.

The News4 I-Team investigation revealed horror stories from owners who were trying to sell and potential buyers who had their sales delayed for months because of TOPA.

Some told News4 they had to pay their renters tens of thousands of dollars for their TOPA rights, which felt like extortion.

One local attorney told the I-Team "TOPA chasing" had become a $100 million-a-year industry in the District and that had become the focus of his entire practice.

"I think everything that happened not only with (News4's) story but also what was happening in our community just made it that much more apparent that action needed to happen as soon as possible," said Johnson.

In a hearing following the I-Team reports last fall, several realtors and single-family homeowners told the DC Council about the burden TOPA placed on them, and how that was actually discouraging owners from renting out all or part of their properties.

Jodie Fleischer/NBCWashington

Lower rental inventory drives up rent prices, so if more owners are willing to rent, that could lower rents across the District.

Owners forced to pay tenants to leave, have also passed those costs on to the eventual buyers, artificially inflating sales prices.

The new legislation would have no impact on renters living in multifamily apartment buildings- they would still get the traditional TOPA rights, designed to help protect affordable housing in gentrifying neighborhoods.

The bill is scheduled for a full council vote on March 6.Two bills designed to protect children and drafted as a direct result of a News4 I-Team investigation have been signed into law by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam.

The laws require child protective services agencies to notify school districts and the state department of education when child protective services workers find teachers abused children.

The laws were drafted and debated after an August 2017 I-Team investigation revealed that a former Arlington County teacher kept his teaching license and found a new teaching job in Prince Georges County, Maryland, months after Arlington Child Protective Services found he sexually abused a child.

The investigation showed failures by the child protective services agency to notify the Arlington County school district and the Virginia Department of Education.

Under the newly signed laws, such mistakes would be avoided, according to the legislators who sponsored the bills.

For the families and for the students, this is really important, said Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax). "We need to make sure we are learning from these loopholes and that we are tightening our laws and regulations so that it doesnt happen again.

State Sen. Barbara Favola (D-Arlington) said, Teachers are in a profession where they see children every day. Its very common for teachers to leave one school district and go to another one.

The new law applies to the more than 130 child protective services agencies across Virginia.

Child safety advocates said strengthening the reporting requirements in Virginia also helps protect children in other states. The I-Team found a series of recent cases in which teachers accused of misconduct crossed state lines to find new teaching work in other regions.

The I-Teams 2017 investigation into the Arlington County teacher quickly captured the attention of state legislators. Two formal legislative hearings were called before the end of 2017 to discuss the I-Team reports and debate changes.

In its investigation, the I-Team reported a review by Arlington County Child Protective Services had found former Claremont Elementary School teacher Zevlin Staten sexually abused a third-grade student in 2006. The state records said the abuse occurred inside a classroom closet and continued in successive years, when the girl was in the fourth and fifth grades.

Police investigated Staten but said it didnt have evidence to recommend criminal charges. Staten was not prosecuted. The records show he had denied the accusations from the outset. Staten maintains his innocence, according to his attorney. He declined to be interviewed by the I-Team.

The records obtained by the I-Team show Arlington County Child Protective Services failed to notify Arlington Public Schools and the Virginia Department of Education about its findings, as required under Virginia law. The error prevented state officials from revoking his license until May 2017, more than three years after the investigation.

Though Staten resigned his position in Arlington Public Schools in June 2013, during the investigation by Child Protective Service agents, he found a new job as an assistant principal at Thomas Johnson Middle School in Prince Georges County, Maryland, within weeks. School district and state records obtained by the I-Team show Staten remained at Thomas Johnson Middle School until he resigned in January 2017.

Several parents of Thomas Johnson Middle School students said they were unaware of Statens prior misconduct investigation in Arlington County until they were notified by the News4 I-Team. Dwight Francis of Lanham said his daughter was a student of Statens through January.

[They] could have notified me of a potential danger to my child," Francis said. "Shes in the seventh grade and he was a seventh-grade adviser.

Arlington County Department of Human Services officials, who oversee the countys Child Protective Services agency, said they are not allowed to comment on the handling of specific cases.

The county will look into and address any report that a required notification was not received and also ensure that its protocols are updated, an agency spokesman said in a statement to the I-Team.

Statens case was discovered languishing in October 2016 by Arlington Public Schools. A school district spokeswoman said officials became aware Staten was teaching in Prince Georges County and began an inquiry.The woman who rammed a security barrier at the White House with her van was armed with a pistol, according to police records, and she had been arrested for trying to climb the White House fence twice in 2017.

U.S. Secret Service officers took 35-year-old Jessica Ford of La Vergne, Tennessee, into custody about 3 p.m. after she struck the pop-up barrier near the White House, at 17th and E streets, the Secret Service said.

No shots were fired and no one in law enforcement was injured in the incident, the Secret Service said, but a witness said he heard what he thought sounded like gunshots.

"After she hit the barricade, she just kept pressing on the gas and trying to push through, I guess," Chris Bello said. "That's what it looked like. And then they ordered her to stop, and they fire because she wouldn't stop."

He said it sounded like two or three shots.

It appears officers may have used something to smash the van's windows, possibly to get Ford out of the vehicle.

"I heard like a firecracker," witness Kimberlie Flauto said. "It didn't sound like a crash or anything and then I turned around and saw all the smoke and as soon as I saw all the smoke. And all the police were starting to pile out the back of the White House and from across the street. And then everybody's just screaming, 'Go, go!' and that's when I told all the kids, Go.'"

According to a police report, an officer saw a gun in Ford's hand before she was taken out of the van. The weapon was pointed in the opposite direction of the officers, and Ford ignored multiple commands from officers to drop the gun. Two officers had to take the gun from her hands before forcibly removing her from the van, the report said.

Officers arrested Ford and charged her with unlawful entry, carrying a pistol without a license, unregistered firearm, aggravated assault on a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon-car, destruction of government property and contempt of court.

Records state that while officers were taking Ford to jail she said "she had the 'BB gun' because if James Burris was the president the officers would shoot her to protect him and that she knowingly brought the gun with her."

A law enforcement official said the Secret Service knows Ford because she's been around the White House before. She's believed to have mental or emotional issues.

On May 17, 2017, Ford was caught scaling the White House fence. She was rearrested July 6 when she violated a stay-away order at the White House.

Ford was again charged with several criminal violations and taken to the Metropolitan Police Department.

The White House was locked down but concern about the incident was low, NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reported. Secret Service and George Washington University police officers blocked off the area.

Operations at the White House returned to normal before 6 p.m.

President Donald Trump had just met with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House.

"Thank you to the great men and women of the United States @SecretService for a job well done!" the president tweeted.

The News4 I-Team has reported more than 20 White House security breaches in the past four years. Many of them involve people with mental or emotional issues, and many of them try to do it again.Charles County, Maryland, authorities are searching for four men who forced a teenage girl inside an SUV, held her at gunpoint and sexually assaulted her.

The 16-year-old girl was walking on Melrose Court in Waldorf about 1 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 17, when she noticed a dark-colored vehicle pass by her several times. The driver stopped and a man got out of the vehicle ans started talking to her. Another man then got out and the two suspects dragged the girl to the vehicle and forced her inside, the Charles County Sheriff's Office said.

Two more suspects were inside the vehicle. The armed men then sexually assaulted the girl, police said. About 3 a.m., they pushed her out of the vehicle and took off.

The girl told police she started walking to a convenience store for help and an elderly man helped her and drove her back to where she was staying. She is from California and was visiting relatives in Waldorf.

Police gave detailed descriptions of the four suspects:

The first suspect is a black man, possibly in his twenties, with a moustache and goatee, large tattoo of an angel on the left side of his neck, tattoo with writing across the lower stomach, wearing a blue skull cap with stripes, a large North Face brand jacket, a True Religion shirt, black jeans with white stitching, blue Nike shoes and a small gold chain on his neck with a circular piece of gold with diamonds on it. He also had an electronic monitoring device on his ankle.

Suspect two is a black man, possibly in his twenties, with shoulder-length dread locks worn in a ponytail and clean shaven. He was wearing a black and white shirt with a picture of a man on the front wearing a gold chain holding the chain up from the neck with both hands, black pants, black Jordan Retro 2s, black North Face brand jacket and a gray belt.

The third man is a black male, possibly in his twenties, with a teardrop tattoo below his left eye, a thin moustache, heavy/large build, green eyes and short black hair. His right eyebrow had a vertical scar which was missing hair from that area. He wore a black-hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, black shirt, black North Face brand jacket, khaki pants, gray belt and black shoes.

Suspect four is a black man, possibly in his twenties, tattoo on back of his right arm which was a picture with some writing, very short hair, wearing a black shirt (possibly True Religion), a black North Face brand jacket, running style pants and Jordan brand sneakers that are black, gray, blue and red.

Police described the suspects' vehicle as a newer model, black vehicle, possibly a Jeep Cherokee, with four doors, dark tinted windows and an American flag sticker on the lower passenger side front windshield. The SUV had a dark colored leather interior.

Police are asking anyone with information to call Det. K. Gross at 301-609-6436 or email grossk@ccso.us. Tipsters wishing to remain anonymous can contact Charles County Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS. Crime Solvers is offering a cash reward for information leading to arrests in the case.Five people, including two children, were hospitalized after a tractor trailer crashed into a home in Clements, Maryland, police said.

Early Saturday morning Bolden Macarthur Walker, 72, was driving a tractor trailer eastbound on Budds Creek Road in the area of a traffic circle at Colton Point Road when he lost control of the truck as it approached the roundabout, the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office said.

The tractor trailer went through the traffic circle and struck a curb, causing it to cross the westbound lanes of Budds Creek Road and crash into a home.

Four people were inside the house, including a man, woman and two children.

The 38-year-old woman, 37-year-old man and Walker were sent to Prince Georges Hospital Center, which is more than 50 miles away from the crash site. The three adults sustained incapacitating injuries and are now stable, police said Saturday evening. Medics took the two children to Medstar St. Mary's Hospital out of precaution.

Budds Creek Road was closed near the crash and a D.C. Fire Tactical team and a crash reconstruction unit were called to the scene, police said.

The crash is under investigation.

Anyone who witnessed the crash is asked to call police at 301-475-4200, extension 8109.Amid a national conversation over whether teachers should be able to carry guns in schools, a teacher in the Washington, D.C., area says she's more than ready to take a firearm into her classroom.

Sierra Collins, an elementary school teacher in Virginia, said she already takes a 9 mm pistol to her school every day. She leaves the weapon locked in a safe in her car but told News4 she wishes she could take it inside with her.

"It's terrifying when you enter a place you can't have it," she said, speaking in her home. "I care about every single one of my kids. I care about all my coworkers. And I would not be able to protect them if something were to happen."

Collins said she grew up around guns. She has taken classes and done target practice, and has several guns at home. She said she takes pride in being able to defend herself and others.

"It is a last resort. It is truly if you feel that your life is threatened," she said, speaking on the condition that News4 not reveal where she works.

While she can't carry a gun into her school now, she said she does usually carry at least one knife.

"Typically, I wear this knife under my clothes. Its just a simple neck knife on a chain," she said, showing the weapon.

She said she has never had to use the knife, but she takes comfort knowing it's there.

Collins said she thinks allowing some teachers to carry guns in classrooms would have a deterrent effect.

"People arent going to walk into a school where they know theres the possibility of a teacher carrying," she said.

Training should prevent accidental shootings, Collins said. She said she just wants to be able to keep her students safe.

"I would do anything for these kids, and just like so many teachers, I would lay my life down on the line for them," she said. "Its really important that Im able to have my gun with me so that Im able to protect them."

Virginia laws allow guns to be kept in cars on school grounds. However, some school districts do not allow it.A caller from Massachusetts told authorities months before the Parkland, Florida school shooting that suspect Nikolas Cruz was a "school shooter in the making."

According to a document released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, a caller from Massachusetts reached out to them in November of 2017.

"Caller advised subject Nikolas Cruz is collecting guns and knives. Cruz wants to join the Army. Concerned he will kill himself one day and believes he could be a school shooter in the making," the document reads.

The deputy who responded contacted the caller via telephone.

"No report was initiated," the document reads.

In an interview after the shooting, the deputy said he referred the caller to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office as the caller said he believed the Cruz was living in Lake Worth.

The document makes no reference to how the caller knew Cruz. The call and response remain under an internal affairs review.

Brookline Deputy Superintendent Michael Gropman said it is not surprising that a tip about Cruz came from out of state. He said in today's digital and social media age, it is common.

"All those warning signs were there," he said in reference to Cruz.

Gropman conceded that it can be difficult for departments to keep up with the "massive" amount of tips received, but information suggesting an imminent threat should be taken seriously.

While the Cruz case may make it seem like law enforcement failed to act on numerous tips, Gropman said sometimes the issue is that agencies aren't sharing critical information with each other.

He said privacy laws make it difficult for law enforcement to know about school or medical issues.

"Until the social service agencies, law-enforcement, education, mental health, and hospitals can all communicate readily about possible, perceived threats, we're not going to be able to significantly affect this," said Gropman.

Cruz, 19, a former student, is accused of fatally shooting 17 people with an assault-style rifle on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Authorities said he had displayed behavioral troubles for years.

The tip from Massachusetts was one of about two dozen calls received by local and federal law enforcement about Cruz's behavior over the two years leading up to last week's school shooting. Many of the incidents involved the threat of violence.

Two years ago, a deputy responded to a suspicious incident call in which someone reported that Cruz made a post on Instagram indicating he "planned to shoot up the school." However, the police document suggests the specific target was "unknown."

The deputy made contact with the caller who wished to remain anonymous. The deputy determined that Cruz had knives and a BB gun.

"Information forwarded to Stoneman Douglas School Resource Officer," the document's response description concludes.After a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump's election campaign pleaded guilty Friday to federal conspiracy and false-statements charges to become a cooperating witness, special counsel Robert Mueller charged former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in the probe of Trump's campaign and Russia's election interference.

The plea by Rick Gates revealed that he will help special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in "any and all matters" as prosecutors continue to probe the 2016 campaign, Russian meddling and Gates' longtime business associate, one-time Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

With his cooperation, Gates gives Mueller a witness willing to provide information on Manafort about his finances and political consulting work in Ukraine, and also someone who had access at the highest levels of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington. He stood somberly beside his attorney and did not speak during his hearing except to answer routine questions from the judge about whether he understood the rights he was giving up.

He admitted to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities in a recent interview. Under the terms of the plea, he is estimated to face between 57 and 71 months behind bars and a possible fine ranging from $20,000 to $200,000. Prosecutors may seek a shortened sentence depending on his cooperation.

The plea came a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned a 32-count indictment against Gates and Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. Gates is the fifth defendant to plead guilty in Mueller's investigation.

The indictment in Virginia was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were initially charged last October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

Manafort continues to maintain his innocence.

"I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise," Manafort said Friday. "This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me."

In court filings over the past few months, Gates gradually began to show the strain the case was placing on him and his family.

He frequently pleaded with U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson for leniency in his house arrest to let him attend sporting events with his four children. Even on Friday, ahead of his plea, Gates had asked the judge to let him take his children to Boston for spring break so they could "learn about American history in general, and the Revolutionary War in particular."

Gates' plea comes on the heels of the stunning indictment last week that laid out a broad operation of election meddling by Russia, which began in 2014, and employed fake social media accounts and on-the-ground politicking to promote Trump's campaign, disparage Hillary Clinton and sow division and discord widely among the U.S. electorate.

The charges to which Gates is pleading guilty don't involve any conduct connected to the Trump campaign. They largely relate to a conspiracy of unregistered lobbying, money laundering and fraud laid out in his indictments.

But his plea does newly reveal that Gates spoke with the FBI earlier this month and lied during the interview. That same day, his attorneys filed a motion to withdraw from representing him for "irreconcilable difference."

Gates served on the Trump campaign at the same time that Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner met with a team of Russians in Trump Tower in June 2016. He was also involved in the campaign when then-Sen. Jeff Sessions held a pair of undisclosed meetings with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

For a few months in 2016, Gates was indispensable to Trump, leading the ground effort to help Trump win the Republican nomination and flying from state to state to secure Republican delegates in a scramble that lasted all the way until the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

But his power and influence waned once Trump fired Manafort in August 2016 after The Associated Press disclosed how Gates and Manafort covertly directed a Washington lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

Gates survived his mentor's ouster, serving as the campaign's liaison to the Republican National Committee and later working on Trump's inaugural committee. Gates also worked briefly with the outside political groups supporting Trump's agenda, America First Policies and America First Action, but was pushed out of that job last year.

When he was indicted last October, Gates was working for Tom Barrack, a close friend of Trump.

Friday's court papers accuse Gates of lying to federal agents about a March 19, 2013, meeting involving Manafort, a lobbyist and a member of Congress. Gates said the meeting did not include discussion of Ukraine, when in fact prosecutors say it did.

The charges don't name the lobbyist or the lawmaker but filings with the Justice Department show Manafort and Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs met with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., on that date as part of a lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests.

Also Friday, Mueller's team unsealed a new indictment solely against Manafort that included an allegation that he, with Gates' assistance, secretly paid former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

The indictment accuses Manafort of paying the former politicians, informally known as the "Hapsburg group," to appear to be "independent" analysts when in fact they were paid lobbyists. Some of the covert lobbying took place in the U.S.

The indictment says the group was managed by a former European chancellor. Court papers accuse Manafort of using offshore accounts to pay the group more than 2 million euros.

Associated Press writer Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report.Two high-ranking members of the Massachusetts State Police have retired after being accused of taking part in a conspiracy to alter an arrest report.

State police announced Friday that Lt. Col. Daniel Risteen and Major Susan Anderson had retired. Court documents allege that Col. Richard McKeon, the department's former head, conspired with Anderson, Risteen and state officials to amend the report on the arrest of a judge's daughter.

McKeon retired in November after troopers Ryan Sceviour and Ali Rei sued, alleging that the colonel ordered changes to their arrest reports for OUI charges against Alli Bibaud, the daughter of District Court Judge Tim Bibaud.

Sceviour's defense says he was told to delete Bibaud's alleged indication about "the possibility of sexual favors in return for leniency," as well as her alleged statement that her "dad is an [expletive] judge."

In Sceviour's opposition to McKeon's motion to dismiss a lawsuit against him, Anderson is named as a defendant.

"McKeon also ordered defendant Major Susan Anderson to destroy the official log containing the statements of Alli Bibaud and to order Trooper Ali Rei to alter her corresponding report," the court document read.



That same document claims that "according to Major Anderson, District Attorney Joseph Early, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Risteen, and Secretary of Public Safety Daniel Bennett, participated in the conspiracy," which Sceviour classifies as "'an agreement' to threaten, intimidate, and coerce him into amending his report."

Col. Kerry Gilpin, who replaced McKeon as superintendent, announced Friday that Robert Favuzza had been promoted to lieutanant colonel and assigned as commander of field services to replace Risteen. Thomas Zona was promoted to major and named commander of Troop C, replacing Anderson.An investigation is underway into what caused a massive three-alarm fire that destroyed an auto body shop in Greenland, New Hampshire on Saturday.

No injuries were reported as a result of the fire, which happened at Carter's European Auto on Portsmouth Avenue.

Police said that the damage to the building and the machinery inside was extensive and called the property "a total loss," as a result of the fire.

Police told NBC10 Boston that multiple vehicles were destroyed in the blaze.



Police are saying that some animals may have died in the building, but are not sure what kind or how many at this time.

Greenland police confirmed that they responded to the scene of the fire around 10 a.m.

First responders said that the blaze was through the roof when they arrived. Police reported multiple explosions of unknown origin at the auto shop; however, investigators said they believe the explosions were caused by propane or oxygen tanks within the facility.

By 5:30 p.m., crews were still trying to clean up fuel inside of the building and expect to be there through the evening covering hot spots.

The cause of the fire is not known at this time, and the incident remains under investigation.Diving into the waters off Woods Hole, Massachusetts reveals a surprise for some- coral.

We got them right here, right in front of the MBL, associate researcher Loretta Roberson says inside the Marine Biological Laboratory, showing off coral samples she herself collected.

You have a tropical coral thats able to live in freezing temperatures here, she adds, saying she wants to know how the coral does it.

She wants to figure out how this species lives so far north, in waters with huge temperature swings, while other types survive only in specific conditions.

We want to really know everything about the corals and we dont know that much about this one.

What she does know is that our New England coral survives under stress  whats called a bleached state.

But scientists dont fully know why.

By contrast, if more sensitive tropical corals stay bleached too long, theyll die.

Thats happening now in some tropical areas as oceans warm.

Its the largest, massive global bleaching event that weve witnessed so far, Roberson says while describing recent bleaching events.

Thats a huge problem, with reefs acting as a buffer for the coastline, and a lifeline for ocean species.

Places like the Great Barrier Reef that hadnt bleached in the past, now 50 percent of the reef is gone because of higher temperatures, she says.

Roberson also studies what gives the reef its shape, the corals skeleton.

The skeleton is what makes the reef, its the backbone of the reef, she says.

Roberson is working to understand how the coral makes the skeleton, and how things like changes in ocean temperature or acidity impact the process.

All of this knowledge, hopefully enough to better protect this vital resource in a future changing world.Music students at Spaulding High School in Rochester, New Hampshire are collecting donations for Majory Stoneman Douglas High School students after the deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida where a former student killed 17 people.

Jeremiah Richardson and Alexa Connelly and some of their peers walked from classroom to classroom with donation buckets collecting cash and coins.

"A lot of people don't think they can do anything but really they can," said 15-year-old Alexa Connelly.

"Everybody was so excited to think that we could do something like that for another community," said 18-year-old Jeremiah Richardson.

Spaulding's music director and another music teacher already had trip planned to Florida.

"Can we do something from our school, you know what should we, what do you think we should do," said Spaulding Music Director Joanne Houston. "I said let's go in and have a chat with the kids and see where they're at, because obviously it was very upsetting for all of them."

They're going to deliver money, an ROTC seal, handwritten letter and their leadership eagle because of Douglas High School's mascot, in person.

"We would just like to meet the adults and say this is from New Hampshire," said Houston.

"When something happens that just makes you think wow that could happen anywhere, that could have happened to us," said Connelly.

Spaulding High School said they want Douglas High School to know they stand with them.

"The change that they want is what a lot of people are wanting and we will fight until we get there," said Jeremiah Richardson.

The students have collected more than $3,000 so far.A New Hampshire man suffered multiple injuries Friday afternoon after falling while ice climbing on Mt. Willard in Crawford Notch.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department was notified by 911 just before 2:30 p.m. that the climber had fallen approximately 20 feet and was suspended on a rope.

The climber, identified as Tom Boydston, 64, of Center Conway, suffered multiple injuries in the fall.

Authorities said Boydston's climbing partners, along with other climbers in the area, were able to lower him to a safe area until rescue arrived. The rescue was delayed due to the difficult terrain and high winds, sleet, rain and darkness.

New Hampshire Fish and Game Conservation Officers, Bartlett Fire Rescue services, Twin Mountain Fire Rescue services and Mountain Rescue Service worked together to locate, stabilize and transport Boydston to Memorial Hospital in North Conway where his exact condition remains unclear.

No further details are available at this time.What to Know Prosecutors say a Massachusetts man stole a bakery delivery truck and crashed it into a Planned Parenthood in East Orange

The 31-year-old pleaded not guilty in court Friday

Planned Parenthood has been a target of anti-abortion activists

A Massachusetts man began researching the locations of Planned Parenthood clinics more than a year before he deliberately crashed a stolen truck into one last week, injuring three people including a pregnant woman, prosecutors said Friday.

The state attorney general's office will review the case to see if terrorism charges should be filed against Marckles Alcius, a Haitian national who is not a U.S. citizen but is believed to be in the country legally.

The 31-year-old gave authorities an address in Lowell, northwest of Boston, that turned out to be an abandoned building, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Adam Wells said Friday.

Alcius indicated to investigators after his arrest that the act was intentional and that he was willing to die, Wells told a judge in seeking to deny Alcius's attorney's request that he be released while awaiting trial.

"It was personal, and I don't care what happens after that," Alcius said during an interview, Wells told state Superior Court Judge Peter Ryan. Wells didn't discuss what might have motivated Alcius.

"When I asked him if he would do it again, he paused for eight seconds and then said, 'I don't know,'" Wells added.

Ryan, rejecting a recommendation from pre-trial services to release Alcius with electronic monitoring, ordered him held in the Essex County jail.

Alcius poses "a significant threat to persons working at Planned Parenthood," Ryan said.

Alcius, who prosecutors said has been living with relatives, including some who live in the Newark area, faces numerous charges including aggravated assault and attempting to cause widespread injury or damage.

He allegedly stole a bakery delivery truck that was making deliveries on Feb. 14 and drove it into the clinic in East Orange, just west of Newark.

A clinic staff member and two patients - including a pregnant woman - suffered minor injuries and were treated at a hospital and released, Wells said. Alcius wasn't hurt.

Wells said electronic evidence reviewed by investigators indicates Alcius had done online research on Planned Parenthood locations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey beginning in January 2017.

Susan Freedman, a public defender representing Alcius, said her client has no criminal record and accused investigators of not properly instructing him of his rights to have a lawyer present at his interview.

Wells denied the allegation and noted that Alcius has four previous arrests in Massachusetts, including for burglary and assault and battery, though he didn't know the status of those cases.A situation involving a barricaded subject in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Friday has been peacefully resolved, police said.

Police responded to the scene on Kearsarge Way around 2:30 p.m. Seacoast EMS and crisis negotiators also responded to the scene, according to Portsmouth police.

The situation ended about an hour later, police tweeted.

During the situation, Portsmouth police advised the public to avoid the area, which was described as a "major artery in and out of downtown Portsmouth area."

There is no information on the suspect at this time. Police have not released the circumstances leading up to the situation.

Police say the initial call came in around 2 p.m., though they have not specified the nature of that call.

At this time, there have been no reports of hostages or shots fired at the scene.One person was killed Saturday after a double stabbing in a public library in Winchester, Massachusetts, police said.

The victim, a 22-year-old woman, has not been identified by police, and a man is in custody in connection with the stabbing.

Fire officials said the stabbing happened at the Winchester Public Library on Main Street around 10:30 a.m.

The second victim, identified only as a 77-year-old man, remains hospitalized. Police are saying the man suffered non-life-threatening injuries while attempting to help the woman.

The man taken into custody has been identified as Jeffrey Yao, 23, of Winchester. According to police, Yao stabbed both victims with a 10-inch hunting blade. He was previously known to police.

Both victims were transported to an area hospital, said police. The 77-year-old victim was treated for a stab wound to his arm. The 22-year-old victim suffered numerous stab wounds to her head and upper torso, police said. She subsequently died from her injuries.

Investigators said the female victim had been sitting at a table when the suspect allegedly approached her unprovoked and stabbed her multiple times. According to the police, she tried to make her way to the front lobby to escape. A number of patrons came to her aid, at which point the 77-year-old victim was also stabbed, police said.

Police are investigating possible motives for the attack.



Neighbors of the suspect immediately identified Yao after seeing his picture, telling reporters that he previously attempted to break into homes and cause damage to property.

Nicole Luongo, one of Yao's neighbors, said that people in the neighborhood had previously gone to police with concerns.

"We fear for our neighborhood," she said.

Luongo says knowing Yao is locked up eases her fears, but she wishes Saturday's events could have been prevented.

"I was afraid that he would come," she told NBC10 Boston, "I would sleep with a bat under my bed."

Yao is charged with murder and assault with attempt to murder. He is being held without bail pending his arraignment on Monday. Its unclear if he has an attorney.

CORRECTION (Fab. 25, 9:41 a.m.): A previous headline stated the stabbing took place at "a Boston Public Library," which could be confused with the Boston Public Library system. The headline has been updated to reflect that the stabbing took place at a Boston-area library.Two weeks after President Donald Trump blocked the full release of a classified Democratic memo, the House intelligence committee published a redacted version of the document that aims to counter a narrative that Republicans on the committee have promoted for months  that the FBI and Justice Department conspired against Trump as they investigated his ties to Russia.

The Democratic memo's release on Saturday was the latest development in an extraordinary back and forth between Republicans and Democrats about the credibility of not only the multiple inquiries into links between the Trump campaign and Russia, but also about the credibility of the nation's top law enforcement agencies.

The Democratic document attempts to undercut and add context to some of the main points from the GOP memo, including the GOP assertion that the FBI obtained the surveillance warrant without disclosing that former British spy Christopher Steele's anti-Trump research was funded by Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic memo contends that the Justice Department disclosed "the assessed political motivation of those who hired him" and that Steele was likely hired by someone "looking for information that could be used to discredit" then-candidate Trump's campaign.

Republicans say that is not enough, since the Clinton and the DNC were not named. President Donald Trump himself seized on this point in a tweet Saturday evening: "Dem Memo: FBI did not disclose who the clients were - the Clinton Campaign and the DNC. Wow!"

The White House had objected to the Democratic memo's release, citing national security concerns on Feb. 9. That sent the Democrats back to negotiations with the FBI, which approved a redacted version. It was then declassified and released.

Trump had no such concerns about an earlier classified memo written by Republicans, which he declassified in full on Feb. 2 over strong objections from the FBI. In that memo, Republicans took aim at the FBI and the Justice Department over the use of information compiled by Steele in obtaining a secret warrant to monitor the communications of a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

The Democratic memo asserts that the FBI's concerns about Page long predate the Steele dossier, and that its application to monitor his communications details suspicious activities he undertook during the 2016 presidential campaign. That includes a July 2016 trip to Moscow in which he gave a university commencement address.

The memo also contends that the Justice Department provided "additional information from multiple independent sources that corroborated Steele's reporting" in the dossier. Most of the details of the corroborated information are redacted but they do appear to reference Page's meeting with Russian officials. The memo says that the Justice Department didn't include any "salacious allegations" about Trump contained in the compilation of memos drafted by Steele, now known as the Trump-Russia "dossier," in its FISA application.

The memo also details Russian attempts to cultivate Page as a spy. It cites a federal indictment of two Russian spies who allegedly targeted Page for recruitment and notes that the FBI interviewed him based on those suspicions in March 2016.

The Democrats say the FBI made "made only narrow use of Steele's sources" in the warrant in the secret court that operates under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

Republicans say that is still too much.

"Again, the fact the minority cannot outright deny that a DNC/Clinton funded document was used to wiretap an American is extremely concerning," the Republican National Committee said in a statement.

Trump has said the GOP memo "vindicates" him in the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. But congressional Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who helped draft the GOP memo, have said it shouldn't be used to undermine the special counsel.

Partisan disagreements on the intelligence committee have escalated over the last year as Democrats have charged that Republicans aren't taking the panel's investigation into Russian election meddling seriously enough. They say the GOP memo is designed as a distraction from the probe, which is looking into whether Trump's campaign was in any way connected to the Russian interference.

Republicans say they are just alerting the public to abuses they say they've uncovered at the Justice Department and FBI.

The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, said Saturday that the memo should "put to rest any concerns that the American people might have" as to the conduct of the FBI, the Justice Department and the court that issued the secret warrant.

The review "failed to uncover any evidence of illegal, unethical, or unprofessional behavior by law enforcement," he said.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders disagreed. She said that Trump supported the redacted release of the memo in the interest of transparency, but "nevertheless, this politically driven document fails to answer serious concerns raised by the majority's memorandum about the use of partisan opposition research from one candidate, loaded with uncorroborated allegations, as a basis to ask a court to approve surveillance of a former associate of another candidate, at the height of a presidential campaign."

There are some points of agreement between the GOP and Democratic memos, including that the FBI did not open its counterintelligence investigation into links between Russian election interference and the Trump campaign because of Steele's dossier.

Instead, both memos show that the investigation was prompted by concerns about contacts between former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and people linked to Russia.

So far, Mueller has charged nearly 20 people as part of his investigation. Three Trump associates have pleaded guilty  and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors  including Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign aide Rick Gates.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Tom LoBianco and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.We hope that the sentence given today will give confidence to others who have suffered abuse of this nature"

A Hampshire man who sexually assaulted boys in Tadley and Reading has been jailed.

Daren Jones, 48, pleaded guilty to 29 counts of sexual offences during a hearing at Winchester Crown Court last month.

The offences included sexual assaults on two boys under the age of 13 that took place in the Tadley and Reading areas between 2015 and 2017.

At the sentence hearing yesterday (Friday), the court heard the offences came to light in December 2017, when they were reported to the police.

Officers tracked down Jones, of Silchester Road, Little London, to a hotel in Brighton, Sussex, in December and he was arrested.

The court was told Jones had left the United States in 2008 while on bail, having been charged with serious sexual offences against children.

Jones used the name Simon Jones to live under the radar until his arrest, the court heard.

Judge Jane Miller sentenced Jones to 12 years in prison, with an extended licence period of five years.

He was also made subject of a sexual harm prevention order until further order.

Ivestigating officer Detective Constable Sarah Moyce-Phillips, of Hampshire Constabularys Child Abuse Investigation Team, said: We hope that todays sentence provides some form of closure to the victims and their families for what has been an extremely difficult time.

Once the offences came to light, officers worked tirelessly to make sure Jones was arrested and could be brought to court to face justice for what he did.

We hope that the sentence given today will give confidence to others who have suffered abuse of this nature.

We always take allegations of this kind extremely seriously, so anyone who has concerns and would like to speak to someone should call police on 101.

Anyone who has concerns about this case should call police on 101, quoting 44170480287.As we grow older, our muscular function declines. A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows how an unexpectedly high number of mutations in the stem cells of muscles impair cell regeneration. This discovery may result in new medication to build stronger muscles even when in old age. The study is published in Nature Communications.

It has already been established that natural aging impairs the function of our skeletal muscles. We also know that the number and the activity of the muscles' stem cells decline with age. However, the reasons for this has not been fully understood. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated the number of mutations that accumulate in the muscle's stem cells (satellite cells).

"What is most surprising is the high number of mutations. We have seen how a healthy 70-year-old has accumulated more than 1,000 mutations in each stem cell in the muscle, and that these mutations are not random but there are certain regions that are better protected," explains Maria Eriksson, Professor at the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet.

The mutations occur during natural cell division, and the regions that are protected are those that are important for the function or survival of the cells. Nonetheless, the researchers were able to identify that this protection declines with age.

"We can demonstrate that this protection diminishes the older you become, indicating an impairment in the cell's capacity to repair their DNA. And this is something we should be able to influence with new drugs," explains Maria Eriksson.

The researchers have benefited from new methods to complete the study. The study was performed using single stem cells cultivated to provide sufficient DNA for whole genome sequencing.

"We achieved this in the skeletal muscle tissue, which is absolutely unique. We have also found that there is very little overlap of mutations, despite the cells being located close to each other, representing an extremely complex mutational burden," explains the study's first author, Irene Franco, Postdoc in Maria Eriksson's research group.

The researchers will now continue their work to investigate whether physical exercise can affect the number of accumulated mutations. Is it true that physical exercise from a young age clears out cells with many mutations, or does it result in the generation of a higher number of such cells?

"We aim to discover whether it is possible to individually influence the burden of mutations. Our results may be beneficial for the development of exercise programmes, particularly those designed for an ageing population," explains Maria Eriksson.

The researchers gained access to the muscle tissue used in the study via a close collaboration with clinical researchers, including Helene Fischer at the Unit for Clinical Physiology at Karolinska University Hospital.It is a well-known fact that fluoride is good for the teeth. Two researchers at Uppsala University show in a working paper from IFAU that a higher level of fluoride in the drinking water does not lead to lower intelligence.

Earlier international research has indicated that there is a connection between a high level of fluoride in the drinking water and lower intelligence. Using a large Swedish data material, the resarchers compare children who during their childhood and adolescence in the 1980's and the 1990's have consumed different amounts of fluoride in the drinking water.

As expected, the researchers find that the dental health is better for those who have lived in areas with a higher level of fluoride. However, there is no support for the levels of fluoride having any negative effect on intelligence, measured as men's cognitive ability when enlisting, or school results measured as the result on the national test in mathematics in ninth grade.

- Our study is the largest of its kind and we do not find that the fluoride levels in Sweden are harmful to the intelligence, says Mattias ohman, who is one of two researchers behind the study. Earlier research has shown that very high levels of fluoride are harmful to the health. Future studies should focus on finding at what levels this damage might occur. Our results indicate that these levels do, at any rate, exceed those we have in Swedish municipal drinking water.

Labour market outcomes?

The authors of the report were also interested in what happened on the labour market. They find that individuals who in their childhood and during their adolescence lived in areas with a higher level of fluoride seem to be employed to a somewhat larger extent at the age of 22-29 and have a somewhat higher labour income.

- That there is an income increase is a surprising result that we cannot really explain. It might be that good dental health is positive on the labour market says Mattias ohman.

Data and method

The study is based on information about the fluoride levels in the approximately 1700 municipal waterplants in Sweden. The study makes use of the fact that the fluoride levels vary between different waterplants and due to the individuals' moving patterns. Intelligence for men was measured in connection with the enlistment, while dental health, maths results, employment and income were measured for both men and women. The measurement period differs for different outcomes. Individuals born between the years 1985 and 1992 constitute the focus of the study. The individuals are followed until 2014.More boys than girls begin school a year late and more girls than boys begin a year early. But researchers are not certain whether maturity is the explanation.

Researchers Sara Cools, Pal Schne and Marte Strm have studied the differences between boys and girls with regard to pupils who either defer or expedite school start in their article 'Forskyvninger i skolestart: Hvilken rolle spiller kjnn og sosial bakgrunn?' ('Displacement in school start: The role of gender and social background').

"Gender is the most important factor when it comes to deferred school start. Twice as many boys as girls start school a year late," says Sara Cools.

Useful survey

The background for the study is the so-called maturity hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, girls mature intellectually earlier than boys do, in accordance with girls entering puberty earlier than boys. This uneven maturation process also results in a gender difference in school performance.

"We have initiated a larger project in which we are taking a closer look at gender differences in school performance, and the present survey is also a preparation for this larger study," says Cools.

The data selection is gathered from Norwegian Education Base (NUDB) and consists of all children who completed lower secondary school between the years 1995 and 2008.

"This study of early and late school start does not tell us anything new or revolutionary, and neither can it confirm or refute the maturity hypothesis," says Cools.

"But we believe it is important to map out which factors are decisive for deviations from the norm."

The study shows that deferred school start is most common among boys, whereas expedited school start occurs mostly among girls.

"In total, most children start school at the regular time, in autumn the same year as they turn six, or seven for the children who started school before Reform 97," Cools explains.

"But approximately eight per cent of the girls who are born in January start school one year early, whereas approximately nine per cent of the boys born in December start a year late."

One day's age difference, such as being born on December 31 and January 1, normally involves starting school a year apart. This demonstrates how accidental it is whether you become the oldest or the youngest child in your class.

"The fact that more girls than boys have their school start expedited may also reflect the common assumption that girls are generally more mature," says Cools.

An advantage to be the oldest

"What consequences does it have to be either the youngest or the oldest in the class?"

"Being the oldest is positive short-term. On average, those born in the very beginning of the year get better grades than those born just before Christmas," says Cools.

However, she emphasises that this effect gradually fades out.

"Most studies do not find any significant long-term effect of being the oldest in the class. By long-term we mean that it no longer has any significance when the children are grown up, for instance when it comes to education and income."

Being the youngest in the class also has consequences.

"Several studies show that those born in December, and particularly boys, are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. A Danish study shows that these children also have bigger chances of being caught for criminal offences."

Cools and her colleagues have also looked at what significance parents' education may have for early or late school start.

"In general, parents with higher education are more likely to change the time of their children's school start. In particular, they are more likely to let their children start a year early," says Cools.

"These children also seem to perform better. We don't think this is because they start school a year before, but rather that those children who start school earlier would do well in any case."

More boys than girls born in December have their school start deferred.

"It seems that we are more prone to draw the conclusion that boys who are born late in the year are not mature enough for regular school start," she says.

Thinks girls mature earlier

According to Ingeborg Folly Solli, economist and associate professor at the University of Stavanger Business School, there are many indications that girls mature earlier than boys.

"But we can't be sure," she admits.

Solli is part of the Agder Project (Agderprosjektet), where one of the aims is to develop and test a pre-school program that will contribute to giving children an improved and more equal learning foundation when they start school.

"We know that the oldest pupils perform better than the youngest. We also know that girls perform better than boys. The question is whether it also has to do with maturity, if girls mature earlier than boys? We don't know this for sure, but there are many indications of this."

According to her, it might be a positive thing to defer school start for the more school-immature children.

"Research shows that being the oldest in the class is an advantage. Thus for immature pupils, deferring school start may help the children perform on the same level as the rest of the class," says Solli.

"In Norway we already have a certain flexibility and the opportunity to start a year early or a year late for particularly mature or immature children. But the question remains whether there should be even more flexibility if the parents believe there are reasonable grounds for that."

Cools' survey showed that mature girls who started school a year early did not perform poorer than the class average.

"This confirms that these children were particularly mature and that the flexibility within the system is used in accordance with the intention," says Solli.

"This is different in the U.S., for instance, where particularly resourceful parents often let their children start school a year late regardless of their level of maturity, in order to take advantage of the positive effect of being the oldest child in the class."

Girls better than boys in Norwegian - and maths?

Solli emphasises that here in Norway the gender difference in school performance is biggest within the subject Norwegian as primary language.

"The girls perform much better than the boys in Norwegian. The gender differences are definitely biggest in this subject, and the differences increase throughout the entire primary and lower secondary school," she says.

Solli refers to figures from Statistics Norway (SSB) showing that of those children who finished lower secondary school in the spring of 2017, the girls had an average mark of 4,2, whereas the boys had an average mark of 3,5.

In maths, however, the boys perform better than the girls. At least they did for a long time.

"The strange thing is that although the boys are on average better than the girls throughout the entire primary and lower secondary school, the figures show that even within this subject, the girls nevertheless end up with better average marks and examination marks," says Solli.

She has no explanation to why this is the case, however.

"Perhaps the exam is formulated very differently from the national tests."

National tests versus exam

Marit Dorothea Bjrnstad, senior adviser at the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, emphasises that you cannot compare the results of the national tests and the exams, primarily because they measure different things.

"National tests measure skills, not subjects. The results aid teachers, head masters, municipalities and authorities in their work to ensure facilitated and high quality teaching to all students."

The exam, on the other hand, is a final assessment of one subject.

"On the exam, the candidate is required to demonstrate that they have learned what they are supposed to according to the subject curriculum. The examination mark shows the individual pupils' level of knowledge as expressed on the day of the exam," she explains.

"National maths tests measure skills related to numeracy and algebra, measurements and geometry, statistics and probability. The exam will also test skills related to other areas within the subject."

Weak students defer school start

Both the girls and the boys who start school a year late perform poorer than the class average when they finish tenth grade. The differences are bigger among the girls than the boys. According to Sara Cools, this may indicate that parents find it harder to defer school start for girls than for boys.

"These differences nevertheless seem to show that there were good reasons to defer school start for these children. Those who are displaced are generally the weaker students, and if we are to believe research on the effects of deferred school start, they would probably have performed less well if they had begun school at the regular time."

She believes the reason why parents let their children begin school early or wait a year is that they fear the mature children might get bored or that the immature children might not be able to keep up with the teaching and the other pupils.Single-cell analysis holds enormous potential to study how individual cells influence disease and respond to treatment, but the lack of cost-effective and user-friendly instrumentation remains challenging. As described in a study published today in Nature Communications, researchers at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and New York University (NYU) have taken steps to facilitate broad access to single-cell sequencing by developing a 3D-printed, portable and low-cost microfluidic controller. To demonstrate the utility of the instrument in clinical environments, the researchers deployed the device to study synovial tissue from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS).

In the study, the researchers describe the 3D-printed custom device, which, along with its electronic and pneumatic components, can be easily obtained and assembled for a total cost of about $600, a fraction of the cost of comparable commercial systems. The device occupies a small footprint as well, not much larger than a tissue box. "Most commercial microfluidic instruments are very costly; as a result, not every lab has access to exciting technology for single-cell analysis," said William Stephenson PhD, Senior Research Engineer in the NYGC's Technology Innovation Lab, who led the development of the instrument and is a lead author on the study. "We designed the instrument to perform droplet microfluidics and in particular Drop-seq, a massively parallel technology for single cell RNA-sequencing."

In collaboration with researchers and clinicians at HSS, a world leader in rheumatology research and disease treatment, the group used the instrument to profile joint synovial tissue from RA patients. RA is an autoimmune disease that affects 1% of the population and is associated with painful swelling in the joints. The precise cause of RA is undetermined and muddled by the diversity of cells found in the swollen joints of patients.

The portability of the controller permitted patient samples to be processed on-site and immediately after surgery, minimizing handling and transport to optimize sample quality. The researchers collected samples from five RA patients totaling 20,387 cells and looked at the individual gene expression patterns for each cell. "This dataset gave us the opportunity to identify individual subpopulations of cells that could drive the progression of RA, even if they have not been previously characterized," said Rahul Satija PhD, a Core Faculty Member at NYGC, Assistant Professor of Biology at NYU, and senior author on the study.

By analyzing the complete dataset and searching for clusters of similar cells, the researchers identified 13 groups, representing both infiltrating immune and inflamed stromal populations. Of particular interest were distinct groups of fibroblasts with strikingly different gene expression patterns. "Roughly an hour after surgical excision, individual cells from patient tissues were labeled for single-cell sequencing. From this work, we have classified unrecognized fibroblast subtypes that may prove to be important drug targets for our RA patients," said Laura Donlin, Co-Director of the HSS Precision Medicine Lab and Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, and a lead author on the study. The researchers were able to validate the presence of these multiple groups using flow cytometry, and discovered that they exhibited distinct localization patterns with the joint tissue as well.

The dataset is a step towards creating a comprehensive "cell atlas" for synovial tissue from RA patients. Moving forward, the researchers are compiling data from additional RA patients, and aim to obtain patient samples from other arthritic conditions such as psoriatic arthritis and osteoarthritis. In addition, they plan to use CITE-seq, a technique also developed in the Technology Innovation Lab at the NYGC, to more precisely classify cell types by measuring the presence of surface proteins in addition to the transcriptome. They also envision that technology will be useful for profiling samples that are difficult to study in a standard lab, such as highly infectious samples in biocontainment facilities or samples being collected in field research settings. To facilitate its widespread use in the scientific and medical community, the instrument has been fully "open-sourced." Instructions and assembly manuals for the instrument can be found online at the popular microfluidics repository Metafluidics. "We hope that this instrument lowers the hurdles associated with performing single-cell transcriptome profiling experiments in basic research and clinical settings," Dr. Stephenson said.Bottom Line: Ninety-four percent of adolescents ages 13 to 19 in an economically disadvantaged, largely minority population in San Francisco had measurable levels of a biomarker specific for exposure to tobacco smoke (NNAL).

Journal in Which the Study Was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Author: Neal L. Benowitz, MD, professor of Medicine and Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences, and chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Background: Benowitz explained that exposure of adolescents to secondhand smoke poses a public health challenge because it increases risk for respiratory infections, aggravates asthma, and is linked to an increased likelihood of becoming an active smoker.

In a prior study, Benowitz and colleagues showed that 87 percent of adolescents in an economically disadvantaged population had evidence of exposure to nicotine, as defined by the presence of cotinine in urine samples.

In this study, they set out to assess tobacco smoke exposure in this population by measuring levels of NNAL in urine samples. Benowitz explained that NNAL is detectable in urine for much longer periods after tobacco exposure compared with cotinine and that it is present only in the urine of people exposed to tobacco. He and his colleagues, therefore, investigated whether NNAL would be a more sensitive biomarker of exposure to secondhand smoke compared with cotinine, more likely to identify adolescents only intermittently exposed.

How the Study Was Conducted and Results: The researchers measured levels of cotinine and NNAL in urine samples from 465 adolescents who received pediatric care at the Children's Health Center at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Among these adolescents, 91 percent had public health insurance and 8 percent had no health insurance; 53 percent were Latino, 22 percent African-American, 11 percent Asian, and 3 percent white.

Overall, 94 percent of the adolescents had detectable levels of NNAL, compared with 87 percent for cotinine. Thus, using the NNAL biomarker indicated a higher prevalence of tobacco exposure in this population compared with cotinine.

Using a level of more than 30 ng of cotinine per ml of urine as a biomarker of active smoking, which is consistent with prior research, 12 percent of the adolescents were identified as active smokers. Eighty-two percent of the adolescents were identified as nonsmokers who had been exposed to secondhand smoke because they had detectable levels of NNAL but did not have cotinine levels above 30 ng per ml of urine.

The percentage of individuals who were identified as active smokers was highest among the African-American adolescents, 32 percent. In addition, the level of NNAL in the urine of nonsmokers was highest among African-American nonsmokers, suggesting higher levels of secondhand smoke exposure.

Author Comment: "Now, using the tobacco-specific biomarker and lung carcinogen NNAL, we find an even higher prevalence of tobacco exposure, which eliminates the possibility that the [prior] result with cotinine was due to consumption of nicotine-containing products such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and black tea," said Benowitz

"Our data show nearly ubiquitous exposure to tobacco smoke in this population of economically disadvantaged adolescents, which highlights the need for new public health initiatives to reduce exposure," he added. "It also suggests that routine urine screening for NNAL or cotinine, with counseling intervention in those screening positive for exposure, could help address this public health challenge."

Limitations: According to Benowitz, the main limitations of the study are that it was conducted at a single hospital and that ethnic minorities comprised the majority of the study population, both of which mean the results might not be generalizable to all urban adolescents.The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is supporting U.S. clinical sites participating in two ongoing international Phase 2 clinical trials evaluating investigational antibody-based therapies aimed at preventing potentially antibiotic-resistant infections. By aligning the NIAID Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) with a large international consortium leading the effort, the U.S. investigators hope to enroll 30 adult patients from 15 intensive care units in the trials. NIAID is supporting the domestic sites with a grant to Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, which is part of the ARLG--a clinical research consortium working to reduce the impact of antimicrobial resistance. The larger international trials are supported by MedImmune, the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the Brussels-based Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking and the Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance in Europe (COMBACTE) consortium.

One trial, called EVADE, is evaluating the safety of the investigational medicine MEDI3902 (developed by MedImmune) and its ability to prevent pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The other trial, called SAATELLITE, is testing the safety of another investigational MedImmune medicine, suvratoxumab (previously known as MEDI4893), and its ability to prevent disease caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Both trials are randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind, meaning neither the participants nor the investigators will know who receives a placebo.

MEDI3902 and suvratoxumab are both monoclonal antibodies being investigated as preventive therapies. The medicines are not antibiotics but can be administered alongside standard antibiotic therapy. Monoclonal antibodies have been developed for use against diseases such as cancer, Ebola and respiratory syncytial virus, but rarely have been used to target bacterial pathogens.

The World Health Organization recently included P. aeruginosa and S. aureus on a list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that pose the greatest risk to human health. People in healthcare settings with weakened immune systems, especially those on breathing machines or with catheters, face an increased risk of becoming seriously ill from these infections.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Staphylococcus bacteria are a leading cause of healthcare-associated infections, such as pneumonia, bacteremia, and heart valve and bone infections. In 2011, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) caused more than 80,000 serious infections and 11,285 related deaths in the United States, according to the CDC. P. aeruginosa can cause bloodstream infections and pneumonia that can be fatal. Approximately 51,000 healthcare-associated P. aeruginosa infections occur each year in the United States, and about 6,700 of these are drug-resistant, leading to more than 400 deaths annually, according to CDC estimates based on a 2011 survey.

"It is becoming increasingly common for hospitalized patients--especially those with weakened immune systems--to develop severe, hard-to-treat bacterial infections," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "These clinical trials testing monoclonal antibodies as novel preventive therapies are part of a global collaborative effort to explore innovative ways to mitigate the threat of antimicrobial resistance."

All participants in both the EVADE and SAATELLITE trials will be on mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit at the time of enrollment. Trial investigators will provide information about the purpose and possible risks and benefits of the study so that patients can ask questions before they agree to participate. If a patient is unconscious or otherwise unable to consent during the screening process, a legally authorized representative can provide initial consent.

Participants in the EVADE trial must be colonized with P. aeruginosa bacteria in the lower respiratory tract but display no signs of pneumonia. They will be randomly assigned to receive either one intravenous (IV) infusion of MEDI3902 or placebo. Investigators will check for incident pneumonia caused by P. aeruginosa for 21 days, and will monitor participants for 49 days total.

Similarly, participants in the SAATELLITE trial must be colonized with S. aureus in the lower respiratory tract but free of S. aureus-related disease. They will be randomly assigned to receive either one IV infusion of suvratoxumab or a placebo. Investigators will evaluate the incidence of S. aureus-related pneumonia for 30 days, and monitor participants for 190 days total. Participants in both the EVADE and SAATELLITE trials will be regularly evaluated for any treatment-related safety issues.Children from low-income neighborhoods had a higher mortality rate and higher hospital costs after heart surgery compared with those from higher-income neighborhoods, found a national study of more than 86,000 kids with congenital heart disease. The magnitude of the neighborhood effect, which persisted even after accounting for race, type of insurance, and hospital, was similar for children of all disease severities.

The findings were published online today in Pediatrics.

"These results were surprising," said Brett Anderson, MD, MBA, an attending pediatric cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, assistant professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the study's lead investigator. "The fact that disparities exist in healthcare is nothing new. But the fact that we see such a big effect in this population is shocking. We think of this group of children as being particularly well integrated into the healthcare system, regardless of their background. Most children with congenital heart disease are diagnosed prenatally or as newborns, and the children in this study-;mostly infants-;all had access to highly specialized cardiac care teams at major tertiary children's hospitals. While we expected to see some differences, we assumed the effect would be minor compared to what is seen in general pediatric populations. In fact, the effect was essentially identical to that observed in general pediatric patients."

How the study was conducted

The researchers used data from the Pediatric Health Information System (the largest U.S. database of pediatric discharges) to evaluate post-surgical mortality, length of stay, and standardized hospital costs in 86,104 children with congenital heart defects at 46 U.S. pediatric hospitals between 2005 and 2015. The results were combined with U.S. Census Bureau data on median household income by zip code.

What the study found

Overall, 2.9 percent of the children who had heart surgery died. Children from the lowest-income neighborhoods, which included more families with public insurance, had an 18 percent increase in risk of death compared with children from the highest-income neighborhoods, after adjusting for differences in race, insurance, and disease severity. Length of hospital stay and costs were both 7 percent higher for children from the lowest-income neighborhoods compared to children from the highest-income neighborhoods.

The researchers also looked at outcomes in 857,833 children who were hospitalized for other conditions between 2013 and 2015. About half of this group had a chronic condition. Similarly, children from the lowest-income neighborhoods had a 22 percent greater chance of dying in the hospital compared with kids from higher-income neighborhoods. Length of stay and in-hospital costs were about 3 percent higher for children from the lowest-income neighborhoods.

What caused the disparities?

"When neighborhood disparities have been described in other studies, they have been largely attributed to differences among hospitals or in environmentally-mediated differences in behavioral health," said Dr. Anderson. "In our study, even when the hospital effect was taken into account, neighborhood remained an important predictor of outcomes."

The study found a higher incidence of severe heart disease in children from low-income neighborhoods, but the neighborhood effect remained after controlling for disease severity.

"Certain environmental factors-;such as maternal stress, nutrition, or health expectations-;might have contributed to the differences in outcomes that we saw in children from low-income neighborhoods," said Dr. Anderson. "But until we conduct detailed qualitative studies, we can't be sure why these disparities persist. Ideally, such studies would examine the role of both families and providers-;such as how long it takes before a family makes or obtains an appointment with a subspecialist, and whether providers knowingly or unknowingly make different care choices based on a family's income level or the socioeconomics of the neighborhood from which the child comes."

Source: http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2018/02/23/kids-from-low-income-areas-fare-worse-after-heart-surgery-finds-study/OGHS Invests in Robotic Diagnostic X-ray Solution to Meet Growing Community Imaging Needs

Visaris Americas, is an innovative provider of digital radiography (DR) technology for the medical diagnostics market. Together with Ultimate Medical Services, their preferred channel partner in the South-Central States; the Company is proud to announce the installation of its premium, fully robotic, Vision C ceiling-suspended digital X-ray suite at the Opelousas General Health System (OGHS), South Campus location in Opelousas, Louisiana.

The Vision C digital X-ray suite is designed to provide all levels of imaging facilities with a high functioning, ceiling-suspended solution that delivers numerous benefits at the touch of a button: fully-robotic 360 patient positioning, seamless image stitching for Orthopedics, and smooth, fluid movements.

"The robotic system improves patient comfort, while the digital component yields more diagnostic information at significantly less radiation exposure." stated Dr. Paula Sharkey, Radiologist, Opelousas General Health System.

Our team is dedicated to delivering high quality medical imaging solutions that best meet the needs of our Customers; with a strong value proposition. OGHS has chosen to provide a state-of-the-art diagnostic system, the first in Louisiana, to improve their patient comfort and diagnostic capabilities, commented Kevin Fix, CEO, Ultimate Medical Services. We have received a great response from the (Opelousas) South-Campus site noting a tremendous increase in workflow and Radiologist satisfaction with the image quality; plus, the Technologists love the systems overall functionality and ease-of-use. As an organization long-focused on providing a high level of customer satisfaction and technical support; these results are what keep us confident in providing the Vision solutions to our Customers.

We are proud to have Ultimate Medical Services as our partner representing the Vision portfolio in the highly visible digital imaging market, stated Rick Sbordone, Vice President of Sales, Visaris Americas. Through Ultimates professional representation of this solution, the Vision C was selected by OGHS as the best imaging suite, not only to meet the increased imaging needs of the Community; but their growing group of Radiologists. Were confident that the Vision C solution, in conjunction with our Avanse image processing software platform, provides the highest quality digital images while delivering increased diagnostic clarity.Maldives to hold presidential poll in September

Male : The first round of presidential elections in Maldives will be held in early September and preparations for the polls have already begun, the Elections Commission has announced.

It said on Thursday that a second round, if necessary, would be held within 21 days from the election day.

The President's Office in a statement said it welcomed the announcement and encouraged all relevant stakeholders to offer the Elections Commission their full, unreserved support for the conduct of their work.

"Free, fair and credible elections are the foundation of our democracy and it is essential for continuity of our nation's growth, stability and prosperity," the statement said.

"The government of the Maldives extends its invitation to all international stakeholders to observe the electoral process and... urges the international community to provide support in bringing back normalcy in the Maldives.

"It also requests the international community to refrain from any actions that could hinder resolving the situation the country is facing," the President's Office said.

It further said that the government recommended all political parties and politicians alike to work towards, making the upcoming elections free and fair, rather than engage in a battle to topple the government and to destabilize the nation.

The Maldivian Parliament earlier this week approved extending the state of Emergency in the country by 30 days following a request by President Abdulla Yameen.

Yameen had requested for an extension "as the threat to national security had not diminished" following the Supreme Court ruling on February 1 ordering the release of detained opposition leaders, including self-exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed.

The President had first declared a 15-day state of emergency on February 5 after the Supreme Court ruling, which was, however, rescinded shortly after the declaration of the state of Emergency.NEWTOWN  Hundreds of students, parents and activists huddled in freezing rain Friday night to advocate for stricter guns laws and mourn the 17 victims of last weeks shooting massacre at a Florida high school.

Organized and led by students at Newtown High School and the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, the rally mirrored the student-led activism of the survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The Parkland students activism captured the attention of the nation in the days that followed the shooting, and the student leaders of the Junior Newtown Action Alliance see in it traces of their own work over the past four years.

So after seeing a horrifyingly familiar breaking news alert last Wednesday, alliance leaders Jackson Mittleman and Tommy Murray channeled their grief into renewed energy. In a matter of days, they mobilized their own group and planned Friday nights rally in solidarity with the students from Parkland.

A lot of times this response gets lost in the craziness of the day and the news moves on, Mittleman said. We just want to let those students know were not going to let this disappear either, that were here with them.

On Friday night, nearly 300 people showed they are with Mittleman and Murray. They lined the track at the Newtown High stadium to hold a vigil for the Parkland victims and echo the call for more checks and regulations on weapons like the legally bought AR-15 style rifle used in the latest shooting.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty lauded the student leaders both in Florida and Newtown, bonded by tragedy but working side-by-side to advocate for their own positions.

We know whats wrong, now we just need democracy to get to work and do whats right, Esty told the crowd to cheers.

Mittleman and Murray hope the alliances effort Friday is just the first of several events to pressure for new gun laws and other policy changes across the country. They view the Parkland students effective activism as provided new momentum and attention to the issues they have long unsuccessfully pushed in the wake of Sandy Hook and the shootings that followed.

Were a high school organization, but were trying to change the law ultimately, Murray said. This is a way to draw people into it and make a difference.

Ridgefield 15-year-old Lane Murdock made headlines this week when her pitch for a national high school walkout on April 20 went viral. Local students across several area districts also plan to participate in two other days of youth-led activism during another nationwide school walkout on March 14  one month after the shooting Parkland  and a march on Washington, D.C., 10 days later organized by the Parkland student survivors.

The groundswell of support gives Mittleman hope change could be possible this time.

Yeah, were a bunch of teenage kids, but we planned a march on Washington, Mittleman said. What did you do?

If a group of teenagers can change the whole conversation about guns in five days, what cant we do?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Ridgefield is the latest town to sign on to the Connecticut Green Banks financing program for energy-efficiency projects, extending the programs reach to nearly all of greater Danbury.

The town last week became the 130th in the state to approve an agreement with the Connecticut Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program, known as C-PACE, which offers low-cost financing for clean-energy upgrades on non-residential properties. Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield, Newtown, New Milford and Redding have already joined the program.

Members of Ridgefields Action Committee for the Environment told town officials last week that at least two businesses, including the Ridgefield Academy, a private school, hope to use the program for large-scale improvements.

The businesses would join about 10 others in the Danbury area that have used C-PACE, which requires that project costs be offset by long-term energy savings.

We want to be able to show that these are projects that get a return on their investment that would certainly be able to pay for themselves at the end of the day, said Nicholas Zuba, who has managed the C-PACE program for the last 2 1/2 years.

Repayment of the project loans is spread over the life expectancy of the upgrades and automatically transfers to the new owner if the property is sold. Payments are made part of local tax payments, which the towns tax collector then passes on to the Green Bank.

So far, Green Bank data show that all projects have either been in line with or surpassed estimated cost savings, Zuba said.

He said the bank also supports towns that sign on to the program by hosting round tables with businesses or working with contractors to come up with the project details and estimate costs.

For Tier ONE Machining and Assembly in Newtown, C-PACEs projections were a key decision-maker when considering the project, said Joe Young, a principal at the company. Tier ONE used C-PACE to finance the installation of 810 solar panels on its roof in 2016.

C-PACE was a really helpful, he said. They kind of double checked everything and held everyone to their numbers.

The company decided to install the solar panels, Young said, as a way to finance a portion of a $1 million roof replacement.

Rick Rapice, an architect for the Diocese of Bridgeports Real Estate Office, said the diocese has used C-PACE in its effort to convert its 92 parishes and more than 20 schools to clean energy.

Two of those projects were Immaculate High School in Danbury and St. Josephs parish in Brookfield, which both were given clean energy upgrades over the last two years. Rapice said the upgrades are in line with the bishops goal of finding cost savings while making the parishes more environmentally friendly.

Once we find the energy savings, were not just taking the money, were reinvesting the money back into the parishes, he said. The whole idea is that the earth is truly a place we are stewards of and with the multiple properties we have, it just makes complete sense.

At Immaculate, energy use has decreased by more than 20 percent and the school has saved 41 percent in its energy costs between 2015 and 2017.

St. Josephs officials estimated their $52,000 heat and electrical bill will now be replaced by the $36,000 a year spent to pay off the project, which will be done over the next 20 years.

Ridgefield Academy is considering using C-PACE for its latest clean energy upgrade. The school switched from heating oil to propane two years ago and is installing LED lights.

Administrators now think installing solar panels might be the next step in energy efficiency. Business Manager Briggs Tobin said they are still in negotiations, but estimates show the project would cost about $500,000 and could save hundreds of thousands on the schools energy bill over the next two decades.

Its a way to reduce our carbon footprint, Tobin said at Ridgefields town meeting. Its good for the environment and good for business.

Zuba said the C-PACE program has been steadily growing since it began in 2013. The program surpassed its 200 completed-project mark earlier this year and has invested about $114 million in projects so far.

Aside from environmental benefits, Zuba said, the two goals of the program have always been to help businesses save money as a way of promoting economic development.

By building owners being able to reduce costs they can reinvest those savings to grow and expand those businesses, Zuba said. That allows them to grow, hire more people, create more jobs and helps a municipality have a more stable tax base so they can continue to provide public goods and services.Connecticuts registrars of voters are busier than ever, but they say the resources at their disposal arent growing as fast as their responsibilities.

Registrars are now required to obtain state certification and, with state efforts to make voting easier, are processing large numbers of registration forms, each of which must be carefully vetted.

But while most registrars say they have more work to do, they also acknowledge that they are getting a better handle on their jobs  and are glad that it means more people are registered to vote.

Theres a lot more work, but its made it easier for people, said Marcel Grenier, a registrar in New Milford.

Among the biggest changes is the 2015 law that registrars be certified. The requirement includes completion of eight classes, each at least two hours long, costing the towns about $1,600 per person. Registrars must also take the classes at a University of Connecticut campus, which some registrars say makes it difficult to block out the time for the classes and the associated travel.

Its time-consuming, said Judy Doran, a registrar in Roxbury.

Some registrars hope the classes will be offered online. But Gabe Rosenberg, a spokesman for the Secretary of the State, said its cost-prohibitive to do so. He added that the department has made it as easy as possible to take the classes and that the majority of registrars are now certified.

Other registrars said the classes were worthwhile because they were able to meet with counterparts from across the state.

I dont have any problem going to the courses because I can interact with people, said Lisabeth Adams, a registrar in Washington. Theres always conversations during coffee breaks. Outside of the standard law, everyone has a way of doing things and running their office.

The catalyst for the changes in state law was a series of problems in recent elections in two of Connecticuts biggest cities.

In 2010, Bridgeport ordered just 21,000 ballots for its 69,000 voters. Ballots had to be photocopied and delivered to the polls by police. The shortage caused long lines at polling places and about a dozen places had to stay open an additional two hours. Some voters waiting in line gave up and left without voting.

In 2014, several polling stations opened late in Hartford because voter registration lists werent ready.

There was a growing recognition that we had to professionalize the work of putting on an election, Rosenberg said. We owe it to the voters that its done correctly.

Registrars also supervise election moderators, temporary employees who oversee the polling places. State law now requires the moderators to renew their training every two years instead of four, an expense borne by the towns.

In addition to the increased training, registrars offices have taken on more responsibilities.

Grenier said he has a 10-page document listing the tasks registrars perform, including checking the voter rolls to ensure that people arent-double registered, as well as removing felons, voters who have died and those who have been inactive for six years from the lists. Registrars also have duties including maintaining records of property transfers.

Grenier estimates that the responsibilities have doubled in the past five or six years.

Things have changed considerably, he said.

To tackle these tasks, registrars are working longer hours rather than hiring more help.

When Grenier became registrar seven years ago, he was told he would work about two or three hours a week. He estimates he works 20 to 25 hours a week now.

The workload has gotten a lot larger with the same money, Grenier said. It could be a full-time job.

Marge Gallo, who has been a full-time registrar in Danbury for 20 years, said the amount of work hasnt changed, just the type, especially with the shift from voting by lever to marking paper ballots.

The switch has increased costs because the number ballots registrars need to purchase after the Bridgeport fiasco has increased, as well as the price of ballots themselves.

To offset these increased costs, Grenier said, his office has delayed some purchases, including more tabulators or a copier.

Judy Doran, a registrar in Roxbury, estimates the office budget increases 20 to 30 percent during presidential election years to cover the cost of ballots.

Rosenberg said it is important to err on the high side in estimating the number of ballots needed in each election, to make sure the Bridgeport experience is not repeated. But doing so raises costs, too.

The cost of not having enough ballots to democracy is greater, he said. We have to decide as a society whether our elections are important enough to spend money on.

The new registration methods have also increased the registrars workloads. A Bethel registrar said shes seeing an increase in same-day registrations, meaning those made on Election Day.

In 2013, the first year same-day registration was allowed, Bethel had about 17 people sign up. In 2015 that number grew to 25, and spiked even more sharply in 2016, a presidential election year. In 2017 another dozen people registered on Election Day.

Voters can still register online or through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

DMV registration poses other challenges, however. Registrars have found that encouraging motorists to register means they are getting paperwork for people already registered to vote, for non-citizens, for those too young to vote and for those with P.O. boxes instead of physical addresses.

Registrars are also required to hold office hours on certain statewide registration days, so people can register in person. But Doran said these are unnecessary in small towns, given the other options available and the relatively few people who take advantage of the opportunity.

You can sit at home on your computer and register, so theres no reason to go to Town Hall at 7 p.m. and register, she said.

Despite the extra work, many registrars say theyre happy to be able to serve their towns.

Its a great to get involved with politics without getting involved with politics, Grenier said.REDDING  A fire at an apartment complex on Portland Avenue sent one resident to the hospital Saturday morning.

Crews from the Georgetown Volunteer Fire Department were called to 56 Portland Ave. around 10 a.m. for a fire that broke out in a second floor condominium, Asst. Chief Robert Napoleon said.

The complex was evacuated as firefighters from Georgetown, Wilton, Ridgefield, West Redding and Redding Ridge worked to contain the blaze, which was contained to the second-floor unit, Napoleon said. The fire was brought under control in about a half an hour.

One resident from the second-floor condo was brought to the hospital after the fire. A Georgetown fire official said she was taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and would be displaced from the fire.

No one is going to be reentering that unit for a while, Napoleon said. Some of the other units will not be occupied tonight (Saturday) because of smoke.

The second-floor unit was the only condo that sustained physical damage from the flames, Napoleon said.

That apartment was completely gutted by the fire, the Georgetown fire official said.

The American Red Cross is helping other residents who chose not to return to the building after the fire. The unit below the fire sustained significant water damage, the Georgetown fire official said, and the residents living there were temporarily displaced.

Two additional apartment further back in the building had their power disrupted during the fire, the official said.

The Georgetown fire official said he wasnt sure on an exact number of people displaced. He said at least three or four units were impacted by fire, smoke or water damage. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.D-Wave Systems is involved in a grant-funded UK project to improve logistics and planning operations using quantum computing algorithms. The work will focus on an area known as AI/Hierarchical Task Network planning techniques, used to optimize resource management and operations for a wide range of industries including law enforcement, telecommunications, and transportation.

In 2018, the project will explore how D-Waves quantum annealing system can enhance and refine planning techniques. The objective is to confirm the business case for quantum-enhanced optimization algorithms. As a result of this research, the team will release reports on their experiments with quantum algorithmic approaches, case studies on telecommunications network optimization, and outputs from commercialization workshops and collaboration with industry players in a variety of markets.

Advancing AI planning techniques could significantly improve operational efficiency across major industries, from law enforcement to transportation and beyond, said Robert Bo Ewald, president of D-Wave International. Advancing real-world applications for quantum computing takes dedicated collaboration from scientists and experts in a wide variety of fields. This project is an example of that work and will hopefully lead to faster, better solutions for critical problems.

Complex planning problems are considered too demanding for classical computers. Especially when dealing with larger solution spaces, the required processing power is prohibitively expensive and computations require too much time. Therefore, enhancing AI planning capabilities with quantum computing could help operations teams across industries optimize complex plans and schedules to manage resources and operations efficiently.

D-Waves quantum annealing approach is well suited to solving constraint satisfaction problems that make up 99 percent of the processing power required for running AI planners, said Dr. Roberto Desimone, Director, Plantagenet Systems. Leveraging D-Waves system will help us understand how quantum annealing can enhance simple planning techniques in order to solve optimized planning tasks and refine them algorithmically.

The project includes academics from BT Group, D-Wave, University College London, and University of Bristol. The team is led by Plantagenet Systems, a company specializing in quantum R&D. Grant funding comes from Innovate UK, a public innovation agency funded by the UKs Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. The project won a 12-month grant as part of Innovate UKs Commercialisation of Quantum Technologies competition for funding.NEW HAVEN  Daniel Diaz, the New Haven Public Schools parent advocate, said New Haven is a known name in Puerto Rico.

Ever since storms tore through Puerto Rico at the end of last summer, leaving a wake of fatalities and destroyed infrastructure, Diaz has been traveling back and forth to the island, where he has family including his mother. To date, Diaz and other New Haven advocates have raised $131,000 locally for people on the island, donating mattresses, appliances and food.

At Wednesdays Board of Alders Education Committee meeting, Diaz said the community in New Haven has worked hard with very little resources to help and accommodate residents and evacuees from territories hit hard by the storms. Locally, the New Haven Board of Education and Junta for Progressive Action have gone above the call of duty to assist evacuees living in New Haven, he said, because its the right thing to do.

Paola Serrecchia, program director for adult education and community outreach for Junta For Progressive Action, said the group is facing many tough challenges. It is the only resource center for evacuees in the city, and will be the last remaining center in the state in March.

Junta has received calls from municipalities across the state, Serrecchia said  including Willimantic, Hartford, Bridgeport  and families will likely travel to New Haven next month when resources elsewhere are cut off.

Although advocates were successful in having the Federal Emergency Management Agencys Shelter Assistance programs end date extended from Feb. 1 to March 20, Serrecchia said when the program ends and the federal government will no longer host evacuees in hotels, there will be a housing crisis.

Junta has helped nearly 1,000 evacuees to New Haven thus far, and Serrecchia said they are still receiving new families.

Right now, we are in minimal resources and we would really like to see that funding come in to help the victims of the hurricane and the rest of the community, she said.

Adry Sotolongo, a volunteer with Puerto Rico Rising Connecticut, warned that although the number of evacuees coming to Connecticut seems to have leveled out, the island is approaching future tipping points.

Doctors and primary care providers are leaving because they cant open their offices, and as specialists leave, it becomes progressively harder for people to have access to services, Sotolongo said. We could see another influx in the future.

Since the number of evacuees has gradually grown, some municipalities have experienced an unexpected financial burden, especially in schools.

Mandi Lewis, policy and governmental affairs associate with Gov. Dannel P. Malloys office, said the department will contribute an additional, but currently undisclosed, amount to the Education Cost Sharing grant of any municipality that has seen a growth in the evacuee population after Oct. 1, the deadline for school districts to report their enrollment.

Unfortunately, we cant wait for the federal government to come in, she said. Right now, this is affecting people on the ground.

Lewis said that the state government is able to assist schools because there are only two metrics the state can use to measure evacuee populations  what is reported to boards of education and people who apply to FEMA  because Puerto Ricans are American citizens, meaning theres not paperwork involved if they move to Connecticut.

Sherri Davis-Googe, NHPS director of choice and enrollment, said the evacuee population has been distributed fairly evenly across grade levels. Although the number of evacuee children in New Havens schools has hovered around 200, Serrecchia said Junta is assisting more than that because children up to 5 years old are not counted by the New Haven Board of Education.

Adrian Colon and Ferdinando Voltaggio have both been placed in New Haven hotels since evacuating the island. Voltaggio is concerned because he takes dialysis three times a week as his kidneys are not functioning. Colon said his wife lost her job as a teacher in Puerto Rico when her school closed. Going back to the island, he said, is not an option.

I want to stay here. I want to do what I have to do for my family, Colon said.

Many people on the island can only access power through generators, and even having one can make a family a target for violence or theft, he said.

Even though a lot of people are going through the FEMA process, their regulations for what is considered habitable are actually not what I would consider habitable, Serrecchia said.

At the conclusion of the public testimony, committee chairman Alder Aaron Greenberg, D-8, said the committee recognizes there are social, bureaucratic and economic challenges in place.

Alder Kenneth Reveiz, D-14, asked the evacuees to remain engaged in advocating for themselves. He said housing arose as a consistent need in the testimony, and he suggested public-private partnerships as a way of providing housing.

I dont think climate change is going to change any time soon, he said.WESTPORT  Harvey Weinstein sold his two remaining properties in Westport to town resident Andrew Bentley for $16 million earlier this month.

The Feb. 2 sale came in the wake of sexual assault and harassment allegations leveled against the media mogul and little over a week before New Yorks attorney general filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company, the film studio founded by Weinstein and his brother.

Weinstein bought the Greens Farms early-1900s colonial home at 26 Beachside Ave. with his first wife, Eve Chilton, in 1994 and co-owned the beachfront property until the couple divorced in 2004 and Weinstein became the full owner, according to tax assessor records. In 2000, Weinstein bought the adjoining property at 28 Beachside Ave. for $4,000,000 and kept it as an empty lot.

While not his primary home, Weinstein held fundraisers for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the properties.

Down the street from the film producer, married couple Andrew Bentley and Fiona Garland bought 124 and 128 Beachside Ave. in 2010 for $2,100,000 and $11,585,300, respectively. In the years since, Bentley has gobbled up three more properties on Beachside Avenue, the most recent acquisitions being Weinsteins former properties.

Ive never met or seen Weinstein, Bentley said of his former neighbor, who was known to spend weekends at his Westport home with his former wife Georgina Chapman and the couples two young children before a slew of sexual assault and harassment allegations against Weinstein came to light in October.

Bentley said the property transaction was completed through the real estate company Coldwell Banker. Tax assessor records show Bentley bought 26 Beachside Ave. for $10 million and Weinsteins adjoining property for $6 million.

In the coming months, Bentley said he plans to work with the architectural firm Roger Ferris and Partners, which has an office in Westport, to come up with ideas for the property, and ostensibly a new home to put on the currently empty 28 Beachside Ave. property, which Bentley said is zoned as a building lot.

Well let them use their imagination and come up with the coolest thing they can think of, Bentley said.

As for Weinstein, he has since been fired from the company that bears his name. It was on the verge of a fire sale until New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a suit Feb. 11 against the Weinstein Company for allegedly violating state and local gender discrimination and sexual abuse and harassment laws. The purchase may be back on, however, following a productive talk on Wednesday between Schneiderman and the group of interested investors, according to TheWrap.A former Bridgeport man faces 25 years behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of armed bank robbery.

Bryce Alexander Laister, 25, also admitted he robbed a total of five Connecticut banks between November 2016 and June 20.

On Thursday Laister waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today in Hartford federal court.

Laister admitting robbing:

Webster Bank at 314 Merwin Ave. in Milford on November 30, 2016

Key Bank at 133 East Main St. in Plainville on April 7, 2017

Key Bank at 1328 Boston Post Road in Westbrook on May 5, 2017

Peoples United Bank located inside the Stop & Shop at 898 Bridgeport Ave. in Shelton on May 30, 2017

Peoples United Bank located inside the Stop & Shop at 112 Amity Road in New Haven on June 10, 2017.

John H. Durham, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, said in a release that during the Shelton robbery, Laister brandished a pistol, and during the Plainville and Westbrook robberies, Laister threatened to kill or shoot bank employees if they did not comply with his demands.

Laister was located and arrested in Stratford on June 15, 2017, after he engaged in a two-hour standoff with local and federal law enforcement officers.

At the time of his arrest, Laister possessed a .380 caliber pistol and a magazine loaded with two bullets.

A subsequent search one of Laisters vehicles revealed clothing he wore during the robbery on June 10, a makeup kit he used to disguise his features, and a Stop & Shop circular.

Laister is scheduled to be sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello on May 17, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 25 years.

If he gets the maximum sentence - and serves the full term - the 25-year-old Laister will be 50 when he is freed.North Augusta, SC (29841)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 86F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.Roseburg, OR (97470)

Today

Partly cloudy. High 84F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with periods of rain after midnight. Low 58F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.Do you have information of interest to Douglas County veterans? Contact John McDonald at jd.mcdonald.jd@gmail.com or 541-580-6178. He is a combat veteran with more than 18 years of military service and serves in the Oregon National Guard. He is also a member of the Douglas County Veterans Forum, the Douglas County Veterans Advisory Committee, the Patrick W. Kelley VFW Post 2468 and the Earle B. Stewart American Legion Post 16.In the aftermath of nearly all of the mass shootings in the United States, there have been attempts to pressure lawmakers and companies that manufacture or sell guns to change. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, both the Californias state pension fund and the California teachers pension fund divested their stakes in gun manufacturers.

And after a gunman used an accessory called a bump stock in a mass shooting in Las Vegas last October, two retailers, Walmart and the outdoors store Cabelas, removed the products from their websites.

But in the days since the Florida school shooting, the push for boycotts and meaningful change has mobilized faster than with previous mass shootings. Professor Schweitzer noted that reflected the fact that the survivors are teenagers who are well versed in the usage and power of social media.

On Twitter, the hashtag #stopNRAmazon was a rallying cry aimed at pressuring Amazon to stop streaming content from NRATV, the gun groups online video channel. The effort quickly drew support from Hollywood as actors like Alyssa Milano, Denis OHare, Evan Handler and Misha Collins posted on social media in support of the campaign; several noted that Amazon prohibits the sale of firearms on its e-commerce site.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Leading retailers including Cabelas, Walmart and Bass Pro Shops also came under renewed boycott calls on Twitter for selling guns or sponsoring N.R.A. events. The retailers did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Still, in some cases, the rapid assembly on Twitter and Facebook may have resulted in a speedy response. In less than 24 hours, at least eight companies that had offered N.R.A. members discounts or special deals announced plans to separate or end affiliations with the organization, including Hertz, Enterprise and Avis Budget; SimpliSafe, which gave N.R.A. members two months of free home security monitoring; and North American and Allied Van Lines.

North American and Allied Van Lines no longer have an affiliate relationship with the N.R.A. effective immediately, the company said in an emailed statement. We have asked them to remove our listing from their benefits site.SYDNEY, Australia  The rampage at a high school in Parkland, Fla., has prompted calls for an Australian-style response, as have previous massacres in the United States. Australia introduced a comprehensive gun control regime after a massacre in Tasmania 22 years ago, and mass shootings here dropped to zero. Some experts regard it as the most effective gun control system in the world.

But the Australian model wont work in the United States. Heres why: We Australians have a profoundly different relationship with weapons. Americans love guns. Were scared of them.

This difference explains why a conservative prime minister was able to confiscate some 650,000 privately owned firearms and ban semiautomatic weapons without a single reported act of violence.

That wasnt all. Twenty-eight-day waiting times were introduced for firearm purchases. All gun buyers were required to have a genuine reason to qualify for a license (self-protection didnt count). A national gun registry was created.If you follow the news from Israel, you might surmise that Benjamin Netanyahus days as prime minister are numbered. The police recommend that he be charged on multiple counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Fresh charges may yet be brought in additional investigations. A former top aide to Netanyahu agreed this week to serve as a witness against him. Press reports suggest a man clinging to power.

Dont be so sure. If an election were held tomorrow, Bibi  as Netanyahu is universally known in Israel  and his Likud party would likely win, according to recent polls. Roughly half of Israelis think the prime minister should quit, but thats down from 60 percent in December. Netanyahu has no intention of resigning, even if the attorney general chooses to indict him. The Likud rank-and-file remain loyal to their leader. His coalition partners may detest him, but for now they see greater political advantage in a wounded prime minister than in a fresh one.

Besides, Bibi has been, for Israelis, a pretty good prime minister. Some indicators:

Economy: Since Netanyahu returned to power in 2009, the economy has grown by nearly 30 percent in constant dollars  nearly twice the growth rate of Germany or the United States. Some 3.6 million tourists visited Israel in 2017, a record for the Jewish state. On Monday, Israel announced a $15 billion dollar deal to export natural gas to Egypt from its huge offshore fields.

Diplomacy: Netanyahus personal ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are exceptionally close, as they are with Japans Shinzo Abe. Israels relations with African countries and the Arab world are the best theyve been in decades; reaction in Riyadh and Cairo to the Trump administrations decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem amounted to a shrug. Netanyahus 2015 speech to Congress opposing the Iran deal, billed as an affront to the Obama administration, turned out to be an inspiration for Israels neighbors. And Netanyahus arguments against the deal now prevail in the current White House.Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, is a 43-year-old up-and-comer who was rumored to nurture presidential aspirations until the recent unpleasantness. In his campaign announcement he introduced himself as a Navy SEAL, native Missourian and most importantly, a proud husband and father.

Image Missouris governor, Eric Greitens, in January. A photo from an extramarital affair has led to his indictment on a felony charge. Credit... Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

Now, he admits that when he was gearing up to run for office in 2015, he had an affair with his hair stylist. We are a pretty jaded country at this point, and this news alone would hardly be the sort of thing that would cause his constituents to faint. Or even, probably, mention over coffee.

As usual, the problem came with the details. Greitens, according to the story everyone in Missouri who is not in a coma now knows, invited the woman to his home for a series of assignations  presumably when the wife and kids were off premises. At one point he took her into the exercise room for sex, taped her hands to some rings, blindfolded her and then  snapped her picture.

He said, Youre never going to mention my name, the woman recounted later. Otherwise, she said, the governor warned there will be pictures of me everywhere. This was during a confession to her husband, who secretly taped the whole thing. Really, I think its possible to feel sorry for the hair stylist.

This week, a grand jury indicted Greitens for taking the picture in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer. Which turns out to be a felony.

Greitenss wife, Sheena, is standing by him. The governor is going around talking about his tax plan, which does not seem to be the first thing on most peoples minds. The Republican-dominated legislature is gearing up for inquiries, possibly with an eye to impeachment.Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, perhaps the Trump administrations most responsible national security official, may have thrown the president a political lifeline by proposing this week that transgender members of the United States military be allowed to continue serving.

The recommendation, reported by The Washington Post, would afford Mr. Trump, who has often spoken about how he values the advice of his generals, a chance to reverse his earlier cruel decision against transgender enlistees and potential recruits. In the interest of fairness, justice and a military that represents American diversity, he should seize it.

It was only a year after transgender Americans secured the right to defend their nation as equals in the military that Mr. Trump, in a series of tweets last July, summarily said he would banish them from serving.

The president, who dodged the Vietnam War with five deferments, seemed to disparage the transgender enlistees as unsuited for battle by gratuitously asserting that the military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory. Since then, many have rallied to the defense of the transgender troops, including two senior Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona, who is a former P.O.W., and Orrin Hatch of Utah, plus a group of 56 retired generals and admirals.Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri, who is charged with invasion of privacy in connection with an extramarital affair, faced a revolt by weeks end from many fellow Republicans who demanded that he resign and prepared to take steps that could lead to impeachment.

Mr. Greitens, just over a year into his first term, showed no sign of stepping down after his arrest on Thursday, but pressure was mounting and the implications were being felt beyond Missouri.

On Friday, officials from the Republican Governors Association announced that Mr. Greitens was giving up a leadership position with the group. Mr. Greitens abruptly canceled a weekend trip to a meeting of governors in the Washington, D.C. area, where he had planned to visit the Pentagon and give a speech about veterans issues. And Missouri Republicans worried aloud that the scandal would hurt their partys chances this fall in the battle to defeat Claire McCaskill, a Democrat whose United States Senate seat is seen as one of the most contested in the nation.

Around the state on Friday, lawmakers from both parties urged Mr. Greitens to quit and lamented what they said was a lurid, time-consuming distraction from the business of governing Missouri.OXON HILL, Md.  Conservatives have committed to memory the Trump achievements that they can recite when that inevitable, needling question comes up: Are you still glad you voted for him?

A $1.5 trillion tax cut. Sweeping deregulation. Increased military spending. Conservative judges.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference this week, a lot of activists and elected officials were quick to rattle off that list as they assessed President Trump one year in and defended the man many of them initially believed was not conservative enough to be their president.

Everybody knows that list, said Ben Domenech, the publisher of The Federalist and a speaker at the conference.

Sure, there was another  and far longer  list that left many shaking their heads. The tweeting. The West Wings high turnover and constant turmoil. The hush money paid to a pornographic-film actress. The indictments. But all that seemed quite incidental because, as Mr. Domenech added, conservatives have been pleasantly surprised by the presidents policies, if not by him.Mr. Manafort pleaded not guilty to those charges and additional charges related to his alleged failure to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to launder money. A second trial for those charges was set for September in Washington.

Pleaded Guilty

Michael D. Cohen

Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trumps former personal fixer and lawyer, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud.

The campaign finance violations relate to two payments Mr. Cohen said he made to two women during the 2016 campaign to prevent them from publicly airing their allegations that they had affairs with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump had requested the payments be arranged.

Mr. Cohens plea deal did not include a requirement that he cooperate with federal prosecutors. However, he can provide information or evidence to them or Mr. Muellers investigators later.

Pleaded Guilty and Known to Be Cooperating

George Papadopoulos

Mr. Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to the F.B.I. about a conversation with a professor during which he was told that Moscow had dirt on Hillary Clinton and thousands of emails, according to court records. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail, fined $9,500 and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and one year of probation after he serves his sentence.

Mr. Papadopoulos initially told investigators that he met with the professor, who has known ties to the Kremlin, before he joined the Trump campaign. In fact, the meeting happened days after he became a campaign adviser, and he repeatedly tried to arrange meetings between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign.

He has been cooperating with the Mueller investigation since his arrest last July at Dulles Airport outside Washington. Mr. Papadopoulos was the first person to plead guilty in the inquiry.MOGADISHU, Somalia  Two car bomb blasts in Somalias capital killed at least 18 people on Friday and shattered a monthslong period of calm in Mogadishu. The Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The explosions came a day after Somalias interior minister warned of an explosives-laden vehicle somewhere in the capital.

The first explosion occurred near the countrys intelligence headquarters, police Capt. Mohamed Hussein said. He said the second occurred near Parliaments headquarters, where a vehicle tried to speed through a checkpoint.

Mogadishu was the target of a truck bombing in October that killed 512 people, the deadliest attack in the Horn of Africa and one for which the Shabab was blamed.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan  At the urging of the Trump administration, an international task force has decided to place Pakistan on a terrorism-financing watch list, a decision that has stunned and alarmed Pakistani officials and one that could deliver a major blow to the nations economy.

The Paris-based organization, the Financial Action Task Force, which conducts much of its business in secret, concluded its meetings on Friday with no public statement on Pakistans status.

But Miftah Ismail, a financial adviser to Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, said he expected Pakistan to be placed on the list in June, after the country and the task force agreed on an action plan.

In addition, a former high-level Pakistani official, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize relationships with current negotiators for the government, said that members of the task force had decided to place Pakistan on the list as of June.For five centuries, the Habsburgs dominated much of Central Europe, reaching from their ancestral base in Austria to eventually encompass a multiethnic and multilingual empire that collapsed only at the end of World War I.

The name of the dynasty that ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire quickly became a trending topic on Friday evening, after the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election in the United States accused Paul Manafort Jr., President Trumps former campaign chairman, of secretly paying a group of former European officials to lobby for Ukraine in 2012 and 2013, when its government was pro-Russian.

Around 2012, according to the indictment released on Friday, Mr. Manafort and his colleague Rick Gates secretly retained a group of former senior European politicians to take positions favorable to Ukraine, including by lobbying in the United States.PARIS  Perhaps nothing represents the tradition of French cuisine more than the Guide Michelin, whose coveted stars can make or break restaurants around the world.

But this years guide collided with the Me Too moment, when it awarded new stars to 57 French restaurants, only two of which have female chefs.

I was really shocked and angry because its been years that we dont understand why, in the 50 new stars, there are no or very few women, said Verane Frediani, a filmmaker who made a documentary about the search for female chefs around the world.

Ms. Frediani sent up a post on Twitter with the hashtag #MichelinToo, inspired by the #MeToo movement. Her aim was not so much to denounce sexual abuse in restaurant kitchens  though there is plenty of that  but to shame the sacred guide for what she considers its abiding contempt toward women.As the title of her new collection, Feel Free, suggests, Ms. Smith explores variations on a theme: freedom of language and thought; freedom from received narratives that tend to be foolishly consistent, if not downright constricting; freedom from the impossible identities society so facilely places on people, or from those we too readily adopt ourselves. Books

_____BERLIN  Touch Me Not by the Romanian director Adina Pintilie won the Golden Bear for best feature film, the top prize at the 68th annual Berlin Film Festival.

The announcement on Saturday came as a surprise: Ms. Pintilies formally experimental feature was one of the festivals more divisive entries, partly because of the frankness of some of its sex scenes and was not considered a front-runner.

It tells the story of three people  including a fiftysomething woman who recoils at being touched and a man crippled by spinal muscular atrophy  struggling with issues of intimacy. It also won the award for best first feature film.

This was a particularly strong year for German films at the festival, with several homegrown entries, including Christian Petzolds Transit, considered favorites for the major awards. Ultimately, however, they went home empty-handed.What is your background?

I have a degree in forensic science with an emphasis in chemistry. I started working for the State of Arizona as a drug analyst in 1993, identifying drugs that were seized, including marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. When this forensic document examiner job opened, I applied, was hired and entered a two-year training program. I sat side by side with an experienced colleague while he worked, read articles about handwriting and pored over old proficiency tests. Its a learned skill; you need to look at hundreds of handwriting comparisons to become proficient.

What other documents or items do you examine?

Everything from bank robbery notes, bomb threat letters and other threatening letters to drivers licenses and birth certificates. For an item that someone may have doctored, we have tools, such the video spectral comparator, that uses ultraviolet light to verify whether someone has used a different pen to falsify a document. The difference in inks may not be apparent to the naked eye.

Are there any misconceptions about your field?

Some people think we can do personality evaluations from a persons handwriting, which is graphology, but its not a valid science. Also, presenting oneself as a forensic document examiner doesnt always mean the person is highly qualified. Credentials vary widely.

You often see the results of unsavory behavior. How do you deal with it?

When I started, cases involving seniors or children being taken advantage of financially got to me, but Ive gotten more cynical. Still, the vast majority of the population are good, law-abiding citizens. Its rewarding when you can get justice for a victim, and even those whove been falsely accused.Eight days after a gunman with an AR-15 rifle killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Fla., a major bank cut ties with the National Rifle Association.

The bank, the First National Bank of Omaha, was among the first businesses of at least a dozen to scrap special rates or discounts to the five million people the N.R.A. says it has as members.

Supporters and detractors of the N.R.A. have butted heads over the issue on social media, calling on partner companies to either stay put or step away, essentially leaving them with no neutral ground.

Of those companies that did cut ties, many said they did it in response to consumer complaints.

In a statement on Feb. 24, the N.R.A. said the companies, in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice, were trying to punish its law-abiding members who had nothing to do with the Parkland shooting.This sounds terrible, but its absolutely true, Stephen Rubin said, sitting at a small circular table in his office. He was grinning, shaking his hands in excitement. On rare occasions, when I read something that I know is simply wonderful, I see dollar signs. I saw dollar signs. And I was just luxuriating in the pleasure of reading it.

Mr. Rubin, the president and publisher of Henry Holt & Company, was recalling the first time he read the draft of the book whose final version now sits on thousands of American night stands: Michael Wolffs Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. As of this writing, the book has sold more than 900,000 copies (not including e-book sales and audio downloads), been at top of the best-seller lists for the last two months, provided a strikingly unfiltered view of the inner workings of the Trump administration and helped lead to a nasty break between President Trump and his once-close ally, the former White House official Steve Bannon. It has inspired the beginning of a cold open for Saturday Night Live, has been read out loud at the Grammy Awards and reportedly will be made into a television series.

And it has provided the ultimate victory lap for the 76-year-old Mr. Rubin.

Roughly nine years ago, when he left Random House  where over the years he had made the authors Dan Brown and John Grisham into household names  for the less-glamorous perch of Henry Holt, some in the industry speculated that his once-powerful career was all but over. But Mr. Rubin now finds himself with a book that has arguably matched the heights of The Da Vinci Code and The Firm.

This is a pretty remarkable time in his career, if not the most remarkable, said Jane Friedman, the former chief executive of HarperCollins and a longtime friend of Mr. Rubins. This is a moment to be savored.WASHINGTON  Volkswagens unit in the United States has settled a lawsuit brought by a North Carolina man whose car was equipped with software that concealed excess diesel emissions. The case would have been the first involving the automakers emissions scandal to go to trial.

The settlement, on Friday, came days after a Virginia state court judge, Bruce D. White, rejected a request by the German automaker to delay the trial because of what it called inflammatory comments made by a lawyer representing car owners.

Judge White approved the cases dismissal on Friday. Michael Melkersen, a Virginia lawyer who represented David Doar, the North Carolina man, along with more than 300 other Volkswagen diesel owners in the United States, said the case had been dismissed by agreement. But he declined to discuss the terms. A Volkswagen spokeswoman declined to comment.

The first trial in the United States could have resulted in testimony by current and former company executives and additional negative publicity. Mr. Doar had sued Volkswagen over fraud and unfair trade practice claims and sought punitive damages as well as compensation for the vehicle.WASHINGTON  As a New York Times correspondent who has traveled around the world with American government officials, I can think of few more memorable destinations than the Demilitarized Zone, the two-and-a-half-mile-wide, 160-mile-long strip of land that divides North and South Korea.

For journalists, the zone offers a chance to peer into the worlds most hermetic country, while being surrounded by the artifacts of a hot war-turned-cold: an observation post, ringed by razor wire, that overlooks barren hillsides. A car-dealer-size red-and-blue North Korean flag billows over a tiny village in the distance.

For politicians, a visit to the DMZ offers the chance to put on a bomber jacket, squint through binoculars at North Korean soldiers and nod gravely while an American military officer gives them a briefing about life on the last Cold War frontier.

Ive made three trips to the DMZ  with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and President Barack Obama  and the experience has never lost its sense of marvel or menace. To stand at ground zero of a once and possibly future war with North Korea brings home the threat of what can otherwise seem a very distant danger.Mr. Cuomos donor-appointees span the states vast network of boards and authorities. They have served as trustees of both the city and state university systems, on the panel overseeing economic development and on the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs New York Citys subways and buses. Most positions are unpaid, but they hold great power and prestige: Board members can approve multibillion-dollar contracts and multimillion-dollar grants, oversee the distribution of tax breaks, and have broad influence over everything from the states highways to local arts projects.

In response to questions about the donations from appointees, Cuomo administration officials said they believed that the order only applied to appointees who could be fired at any time by the governor, not those serving set terms. Under that interpretation, donations by board members of many of the states most powerful authorities would be allowed.

The purpose of the order is to prohibit employees and board members who serve at the pleasure of the governor from making political contributions, said Alphonso B. David, Mr. Cuomos counsel. It does not apply to every single person who serves in government, to individuals who volunteer for government, or to individuals who were appointed by the Senate and cannot be removed by the executive. A different reading simply divorces the purpose of the order from its language.

The Cuomo interpretation differs from what some public authorities say in their own internal ethics rules, from the interpretation of independent government watchdogs and from what Mr. Spitzer himself said he intended when he crafted the order.

The executive order was intended, and did, in fact, apply to all gubernatorial appointees, regardless of the need for Senate confirmation, or any term applicable to their service, Mr. Spitzer said in an interview.

The order does not differentiate between types of authority appointees. It simply says that no member of a public authority appointed by the governor can donate or solicit donations.The cultural critic Mark Dery galvanized a generation of artists and intellectuals when he argued during the 1990s that African-Americans whose histories had been obscured by slavery and racism were in danger of being written out of the future as well  unless they engaged the areas of art, literature and technology through which that future was being envisioned.

Mr. Dery coined the term Afrofuturism to describe the work of artists who used the tools of science fiction to imagine possible futures. The list of practitioners was relatively short at the time: It included black science fiction writers like Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler and the fantastical orchestra leader Sun Ra, who carried the name of the ancient Egyptian sun god and offered an allegory of salvation in which African-Americans were urged to escape tribulation by emigrating to the stars.

The ranks of the Afrofuturist creators have grown considerably over the last 25 years. They expanded in dramatic fashion with the release of the wildly successful film Black Panther, the first major superhero movie to feature a black director and writers and a majority black cast. The films most important distinction is that it is told from an Afrocentric point of view; it breaks with the spirit of derision that has always saturated Hollywood films about Africans.

The movie takes its title from a 50-year-old Marvel comic superhero who might easily have passed out of existence had he not crossed paths with the African-American comic book writer Christopher Priest, who broke into this white industry during the 1980s and achieved influence in time to keep Marvel from hollowing out the character that has now become one of its most lucrative properties.To the Editor:

Re Americas Real Digital Divide (Op-Ed, Feb. 12):

As a public school educator, I find Naomi Schaefer Rileys analysis of the digital divide troubling. She begins with a range of research that I do not question regarding the problems associated with excessive television watching and video game playing for children. Oddly, she then uses this research to attack public schools for providing technology to students for learning.

Using technology in the classroom to ensure that students can communicate, create, collaborate or code is not the subject of screen-time research. While schools have more work to do to ensure that technology investments are used well to support student creativity and mastery of content, dismissing the digital divide as a gap between parents who do and dont limit screen time is simply arrogant.

While most children have access to devices, the digital divide is between those children given the opportunity to create with technology and those using it only as consumers. Schools have an obligation to ensure that all children are learning to use technology as creators, contributors and collaborators.

PAUL FOSTER

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

To the Editor:

We applaud Naomi Schaefer Rileys Op-Ed essay. As parents, we know all too well the screen-time struggles that families face. Yet, as researchers of computer science education, we believe that Ms. Riley overemphasizes the quantity of screen time while ignoring the quality and content.Bishop Wayne Jackson, who is the pastor of Great Faith Ministries International in Detroit and calls himself a lifelong Democrat, remembers Mr. Trumps campaign visit to his church. He told me that the moment Mr. Trump got out of the car, the spirit of the Lord told me that thats the next president of the United States.

Evangelical leaders also see a civic obligation to speak godly counsel to him, on policy and personal matters. He is, after all, the president. And its paying off. Ive watched Mr. Trump through the lens of the faith community for years, and he has delivered the policy goods and is progressing on the spiritual ones.

My reporting suggests Donald Trump is on a spiritual voyage that has accelerated in recent years, thanks to evangelicals who have employed the biblical mandate of sharing and showing Gods love to him rather than shunning him. President Trump told me that he was exposed to a lot of people, from a religious standpoint, that I wouldve never met before. And so it has had an impact on me.

This presidents effect on our cultural norms has been shocking. His critics would call it appalling; evangelicals say its immensely satisfying: Theyve seen a culture deteriorate quickly in the past decade, and theyre looking for a bold culture warrior to fight for them. Showing that God does indeed have a sense of humor, He gave them Mr. Trump. Yet in Gods perfection, its a match made in heaven. Mr. Trump and evangelicals share a disdain for political correctness, a world seen through absolutes and a desire to see an America that embraces Judeo-Christian values again rather than rejecting them.

Finally, why in the world wouldnt evangelicals get behind and support a man who not only is in line with most of their agenda but also has delivered time and time again? The victories are numerous: the courts, pro-life policies, the coming Embassy in Jerusalem and religious liberty issues, just to name a few. He easily wins the unofficial label of most evangelical-friendly United States president ever.

Does Mr. Trump have moral failings? Yes. Critics will suggest a hypocrisy coming from evangelical leaders who are quick to denounce the ethical failings of others who dont have an R next to their name. But the goal of evangelicals has always been winning the larger battle over control of the culture, not to get mired in the moral failings of each and every candidate. For evangelicals, voting in the macro is the moral thing to do, even if the candidate is morally flawed. Evangelicals have tried the moral candidate before.

Jimmy Carter was once the evangelical candidate. How did that work out in the macro? George W. Bush was the evangelical candidate in 2000: He pushed traditional conservative policies, but he doesnt come close to Mr. Trumps courageous blunt strokes in defense of evangelicals.

Evangelicals have found their man. It may seem mystifying to outsiders, but for someone like me, with a front-row seat to an inside view, it makes perfect sense. Maybe theyre taking their cue from Billy Graham, embracing presidents with moral failings rather than rejecting them.An overdose is often a lonely way to die. Overdoses happen when a toxic amount of a drug, or a combination of drugs, overwhelms the bodys basic functions, first slowing and eventually stopping the brains drive to breathe. If someone notices the signs of an overdose  lips turning blue, restricted pupils, unresponsiveness, a loss of consciousness, among others  it can generally be reversed with drugs like naloxone, which saves thousands of lives a year. But someone must be there to notice.

Yet one of the most consistent patterns in the more than 64,000 deaths attributed to opioid and other drug overdoses in 2016 was that the victims last moments went unobserved. Last year, the number of deaths was most likely even higher.

In the face of this emergency, dedicated public health officials and policymakers have suggested some vital solutions. One important, rigorously tested harm-reduction method, however, is still rarely discussed in the United States: supervised drug consumption sites, also known as safe injection sites. This must change. All evidence so far shows these facilities have proved incredibly effective at slashing overdose deaths in every country that has welcomed them. If lawmakers are serious about ending the opioid crisis, American cities and states should follow their lead.

At safe injection sites, trained staffs provide clean needles, administer naloxone when there are overdoses and offer long-term treatment options. People bring their own drugs  most often heroin.The United States is in the midst of at least two plagues with much in common.

One is gun-fueled mass murder; the other is addiction to opioids  pain pills, heroin, fentanyl.

Both are uniquely American afflictions, killing in alarming numbers. Both are revved in part by commercial interests and in part by the collapse of community in American culture. Both persist because of the erroneous belief that theres an easy answer to these complicated problems.

Above all, both are about supply.

Laid on top of a culture of increasing social isolation for many, our vast supply of easily accessible opioids has sent overdose deaths skyrocketing. So, too, a vast supply of easily accessible guns has produced a similarly rising death toll.

I wrote a book about our opioid-addiction epidemic. I first thought the book was about drug marketing  both from pharmaceutical companies and from Mexican heroin traffickers. But it was bigger than that; it was about who we were as Americans. The root of the scourge, I believe, is in isolation and a conviction that we are entitled to a life free of pain  all of which forms heroins natural habitat.Little data exists on whether kids actually listen to what their parents say, he concedes, but if you dont talk to your children, he argues, theyre left to absorb norms from, most likely, pornography. And what boys learn from porn is that men must dominate and that women like it that way  neither of which is necessarily true.

Lots of things impede us from having these talks: Were embarrassed by sex; dads may even be ashamed by things theyve done; moms may be triggered by recalling their own experiences. But we must get specific, Mr. Weissbourd says. Telling boys to respect women isnt enough. Explain that catcalling isnt all right; having sex with someone whos drunk is not O.K.; women probably dont enjoy having men ejaculate in their face, and so on.

His larger point is that many mens need for self-aggrandizement, for confirmation about our prowess  what he called the narcissism of male desire  shows just how fragile the construct of manhood can be. He blames this on the shaming that goes into making men manly. It produces brittle people in constant need of shoring up.

It is surely little solace to the many women who have been harassed and worse, but men are also hurt by their concepts of masculinity. Rewiring male sexuality shouldnt be seen as another attack on beleaguered men  the Trumpian interpretation  but as a step toward their own emancipation. As the educator Tony Porter says, My liberation as a man is tied to your liberation as a woman.

We know what to tell boys not to do, but what about telling them what they should do?

Jackson Katz, the author of The Macho Paradox, offered one idea. He has his 16-year-old son read lots of young adult novels. The idea is to expose boys to a language for talking about feelings  to help make them relationally and emotionally literate.

Dr. Kimmel, from the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities, also recommended encouraging boys to have cross-sex friendships. Thats one way they learn to see girls as people, not objects. It also helps to be able to talk with friends who are not undergoing the hardening process boys are subjected to.

Finally, we need to teach boys to handle rejection with grace. Tell them about the time the girl you were smitten with dumped you for that guitarist. Tell them about the woman in college who suddenly pulled away from your kiss.So the students created not just a policy but an educational curriculum of lectures, discussion groups, presentations from Planned Parenthood and skits in which actors would work through different scenarios where consent should be taught. It was so owned by students, it was created by students, and students created education around it, Ms. Wolford said. The school administration adopted the policy with enthusiasm in the winter of 1991.

When Louise Smith, a professor of performance who graduated in the class of 1977, first came back to Yellow Springs to join the faculty, the S.O.P.P. was newly in place but already a prominent part of the zeitgeist, she said. Ms. Smith had come back to Antioch from New York City, where she was entrenched in the downtown performance scene. She thought the policy was too based in political correctness. I was an eye roller, she said.

But over the years  including a stint as dean of community life in 2011, during which she worked with students to remove S.O.P.P. language about rape culture in favor of sexual violence, which she hoped would be less alienating and accusatory toward men  she has changed her mind.

I have very little patience with the notion that something like this isnt needed, she said. I dont feel the policy was meant to stop us from shaking hands without consent. What it does do is sort of say, Your body is your body and if you dont want something to happen to it or with it, it shouldnt. And then that can be applied into every social interaction.

Andy Janecko, 19 and a second-year student, wants to create another policy. Im really wanting to write a separate policy, that brings consciousness about consent a little bit further, said Mx. Janecko, who uses they/them/their pronouns. Were missing this whole component of consent in general, teaching people not to touch people at all if you dont have their verbal consent, they said, suggesting that it could be called the Nonconsensual Contact Prevention Policy.

One reason for the policy, they said, is to protect against people casually touching people who dont like to be touched or who have disabilities that make unexpected touch painful or unsettling.

Im also looking for it to help people get justice or get acknowledgments at least for microaggression, said Mx. Janecko, currently on co-op in San Francisco, working at a mime theater. They hope to get to work on this next evolution when they return to campus this spring.I dont know, I think when you start to play those kind of roles, you get offered more like that, she said. Maybe its just your destiny to get those jobs. But, she added, I feel like those roles could be better written. Most are written by men, and men sometimes limit women. They want to put her into a box  the prostitute, the stripper, the porn star. They dont show her as a complicated, interesting, fully rounded person.

Shame and Fear

In real life, Ms. Graham is reserved and bookish, she said. I did bring some makeup, but I forgot to put it on.

Her newfound pleasure is comedy, particularly the work of Issa Rae, Frankie Shaw and Amy Schumer. The comedians I like are the people who are very real, honest and raw. I respect that, she said. I always think people are beautiful when theyre real.

She has not found celebrity easy. Its almost like you have two personalities, Ms. Graham said, citing an oft-told story about Marilyn Monroe walking down a street in New York with a friend, who watched in awe as she went from obscure to ogled in a nanosecond simply by turning on some internal electricity.

I still feel like Im this nerdy person thats a little bit shy, she said, alluding to her teenage geek self, who grew up in Milwaukee, took Advanced Placement classes and longed to be the pretty girl who got attention from guys. These days, she said, I can pretend to be a Hollywood actress whos glamorous. You can have a persona thats not really you.SAN FRANCISCO  For all the optimism, innovation and wealth that are produced here, the Bay Area can also feel like a place that doesnt work quite right.

The cost of housing has priced out teachers and line cooks. Income inequality is among the widest in the nation. The homeless crisis never seems to ebb. Traffic is a mess. On bad days, transit is, too. And local governments are locked in conflict.

Clearly, the region has not been optimized.

It could be so much better, said Ben Huh, who moved to San Francisco in 2016 after running the Cheezburger blog empire in Seattle. Theres so much wealth. Theres so much opportunity.

In the maddening gap between how this place functions and how inventors and engineers here think it should, many have become enamored with the same idea: What if the people who build circuits and social networks could build cities, too? Wholly new places, designed from scratch and freed from broken policies.For more coverage of race, sign up here to have our Race/Related newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox.

There are many lenses with which to view African-American history, but what about through the evolution of postcards? While it may not be a common vantage point, the narrative is a natural one for Marilyn Stern, a photographer and graphic artist who is a member of the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of postcards that feature black people in the United States from the 19th and 20th centuries were very racist, she said.

I was so sick of seeing these horrible racist stereotypes, said Ms. Stern, a collector since the mid-1970s. Whenever I came across something that was not racist or not stereotypical, or even went so far as showing romance between the races, I wanted to save it and collect it.In his 1963 Letter From a Birmingham Jail defending nonviolent civil disobedience, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the tactic as an effort to silence African-American voices.

If our white brothers dismiss as rabble rousers and outside agitators those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies  a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare, Dr. King wrote.

Politicians of that era often promoted the idea of the outside agitator to portray racial discord as isolated and exaggerated, but they hardly invented the strategy.

Similar tactics were used in the years after the Civil War to minimize stories of the violence and discrimination faced by African-Americans, Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, said in a phone interview.

As the nation began the process of postwar reunification, some in Congress invited testimony from African-Americans, offering them a per diem to cover travel costs and missed wages, she said. But those seeking to dismiss their stories of pain and demands for equality argued that the payments were proof that their accounts could not be trusted.

You get this idea immediately after the war, during these testimonies, that people talking about civil rights are literally getting paid to tell fabricated stories, Ms. Richardson said.

That belief spread to other contexts, too. Testimony from African-Americans on the violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan, for example, was explained away as funded falsehoods.FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  Among the suspects on the list of the countrys 10 worst mass shootings, Nikolas Cruz is alone in one thing: He was taken alive.

His arrest raises the rare prospect of a death penalty trial for a massacre, a huge undertaking with far-reaching consequences for all involved. Some would not be satisfied without an execution, while for others the trial itself would bring anguish.

The chief prosecutor here in Broward County has said that the killing of 17 people at a high school on Valentines Day certainly is the type of case the death penalty was designed for. A trial may be the only opportunity to lay bare all of the facts. But it would also likely be televised and followed by lengthy appeals, provoking years of public agony, as well as sustained attention for Mr. Cruz, who has already confessed.

Over years of mass shootings, from a university campus in Huntsville, Ala., to a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., prosecutors have struggled with this conundrum, testing political winds, spending days talking with survivors and families of the dead and reflecting on the intersection between morality and the oath of office.Regional

How All India Radio Amritsar is being blocked by Shimla

Haryana to reopen schools for Class 1 to 3 from Sep 20

Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya pays obeisance at Sachkhand Sri Harmandir SahibWASHINGTON  The House Intelligence Committee released a redacted Democratic memorandum on Saturday countering Republican claims that top F.B.I. and Justice Department officials had abused their powers in spying on a former Trump campaign aide.

The document was intended by Democrats to offer a point-by-point refutation of what it called the transparent attempt by President Trumps allies on the committee to undermine the congressional and special counsel investigations into Russias meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

But the dueling accounts reflected an extraordinary struggle on the committee to try to shape public perceptions of the credibility of the nations top law enforcement agencies. For weeks, instead of focusing its full energy on investigating an attack on the American democratic system, the committee has been pulled into a furious effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to sow doubts about the integrity of the special counsel inquiry and the agencies conducting it.

The Democratic memo amounted to a forceful rebuttal to the presidents portrayal of the Russia inquiry as a witch hunt being perpetrated by politically biased leaders of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department.WASHINGTON  Few places have seen the National Rifle Association wield its might more effectively than Florida, where it has advanced a sweeping agenda that has made it easier to carry concealed weapons, given gun owners greater leeway to shoot in self-defense and even briefly barred doctors from asking patients about their firearms.

To many of its opponents, that decades-long string of victories is proof that the N.R.A. has bought its political support. But the numbers tell a more complicated story: The organizations political action committee over the last decade has not made a single direct contribution to any current member of the Florida House or Senate, according to campaign finance records.

In Florida and other states across the country, as well as on Capitol Hill, the N.R.A. derives its political influence instead from a muscular electioneering machine, fueled by tens of millions of dollars worth of campaign ads and voter-guide mailings, that scrutinizes candidates for their views on guns and propels members to the polls.

Its really not the contributions, said Cleta Mitchell, a former N.R.A. board member. Its the ability of the N.R.A. to tell its members: Heres whos good on the Second Amendment.WASHINGTON  As consumers face rapidly rising drug costs, states across the country are moving to block gag clauses that prohibit pharmacists from telling customers that they could save money by paying cash for prescription drugs rather than using their health insurance.

Many pharmacists have expressed frustration about such provisions in their contracts with the powerful companies that manage drug benefits for insurers and employers. The clauses force the pharmacists to remain silent as, for example, a consumer pays $125 under her insurance plan for an influenza drug that would have cost $100 if purchased with cash.

Much of the difference often goes to the drug benefit managers.

Federal and state officials say they share the pharmacists concerns, and they have started taking action. At least five states have adopted laws to make sure pharmacists can inform patients about less costly ways to obtain their medicines, and at least a dozen others are considering legislation to prohibit gag clauses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said that after meeting recently with a group of pharmacists in her state, she was outraged to learn about the gag orders.Newer lobbying upstarts like Ballard Partners have won foreign clients by capitalizing on ties to President Trump. Founded by Brian Ballard, a lobbyist based in Tallahassee, Fla., who was a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Trumps campaign, transition and inauguration, Ballard Partners has signed contracts with government entities or political parties in Albania, the Dominican Republic, Kosovo and Turkey, all since the inauguration.

Those firms, which have not been accused of impropriety, disclosed the foreign contracts to the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law requires anyone who lobbies or does public relations for foreign individuals, companies, governments and political parties to reveal detailed information about their work and payments for it. The act is intended to prevent foreign actors from surreptitiously influencing American public policy.

But for years, many American consultants have skirted the laws requirements. Mr. Muellers inquiry has focused on such undisclosed lobbying among some of its leading practitioners, including Mr. Manafort, who helped pioneer the model for international consulting three decades ago. The investigation has left other firms rushing to ensure their own compliance.

This is creating concern in the Washington lobbying community about not only complying with FARA, but also a new emphasis on enforcement that perhaps folks didnt think was happening or would happen, said Thomas J. Spulak, a lawyer in the Washington office of King & Spalding who specializes in lobbying compliance.

Mr. Mueller has scrutinized Skadden on two fronts  its own work for Mr. Yanukovychs government, and its role advising to two other powerhouse Washington lobbying firms paid to bolster his government, Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group.

Mr. Mueller accused Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates of orchestrating a complicated scheme through which Mercury and Podesta were paid about $1 million each through a nonprofit front group to advocate on behalf of Mr. Yanukovychs government.

As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Gates admitted that he knowingly misled Skadden  though the firm is not named in court filings  in a scheme to avoid FARA registration by indicating incorrectly that the nonprofit was not supervised or controlled by Mr. Yanukovychs government. Relying on that information, Skadden prepared a legal opinion in 2012 that the lobbying firms used in opting not to register under FARA.WASHINGTON  President Trump added his voice on Saturday to the continued conservative outcry over the court-ordered redistricting of the Pennsylvania congressional map, calling the decision very unfair to Republicans and to our country.

Democrat judges have totally redrawn election lines in the great State of Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. This is very unfair to Republicans and to our country as a whole. Must be appealed to the United States Supreme Court ASAP!

The Supreme Court this month denied a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to stop the states highest court from requiring lawmakers to redraw the map of the states 18 House districts. The new map, released by the state court this past week, effectively eliminates the Republican advantage in Pennsylvania, endangering several incumbent Republican seats and bolstering Democrat standings in two open races.

Pennsylvania is typically a swing state, and the new map, if it stands, could play a crucial role in efforts by the Democratic Party to gain control of the House in the midterm elections.The fact that Mr. Gates was allowed to plead guilty to just two relatively lower-level charges indicated to legal experts that he must have something of value for Mr. Mueller. The presumption in Mr. Trumps circle is that Mr. Gates may not have any incriminating information about the president but could be a dangerous witness against Mr. Manafort, who in turn could threaten Mr. Trump.

Mr. Manafort participated in a meeting in June 2016 along with Donald Trump Jr., the candidates son, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, with a Russian lawyer on the promise of receiving incriminating information about Hillary Clinton on behalf of Russias government.

Mr. Manafort also reportedly offered during the campaign to give private briefings to Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch allied with President Vladimir V. Putin who claimed Mr. Manafort owed him $19 million. Prosecutors are interested in learning how a Republican convention platform plank on Russias intervention in Ukraine was watered down.

On the other hand, Mr. Trumps defenders said Mr. Gatess credibility as a witness may be tainted by the fact that one of the charges he pleaded guilty to was lying to the F.B.I. even as he was negotiating his plea deal. Ty Cobb, the White House special counsel, has said that Mr. Manafort has no damaging information against Mr. Trump. Mr. Manafort insisted again on Friday that he was innocent and would fight the untrue piled up charges.

Mr. Trumps argument that none of this has anything to do with him resonates with many of his supporters, who have echoed his repeated insistence that there was no collusion with Russia. But being surrounded by people who are prosecuted has damaged other presidents even when they were not directly implicated.

Jimmy Carter endured significant political damage when his confidant and budget director, Bert Lance, was accused of banking irregularities. Even putting aside the Iran-contra scandal and the Monica S. Lewinsky affair, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were besieged by investigations of their aides unrelated to them. In Reagans era, it became known as the sleaze factor. Mr. Clintons team drew the scrutiny of six independent counsels other than Kenneth W. Starr.

In the current case, the targets so far have included not just a coffee boy, as Mr. Papadopoulos was described by an adviser to Mr. Trump, but the presidents top two campaign officials and national security adviser. While Mr. Trump has dismissed the relevance of allegations against Mr. Manafort because they involved business dealings before the campaign, the latest indictment claims that he was scheming to defraud banks while serving as Mr. Trumps chairman.Other countries, big countries, India, and others, we had to pay because they considered them a growing country.

This is misleading.

Mr. Trump is likely referring to the Green Climate Fund, a United Nations program to help poorer countries mitigate the effects of climate change.

The voluntary program has been in place since 2013, and was not mandated under the Paris agreement. The United States pledged $3 billion to the fund, but Mr. Trump halted contributions, with $2 billion still outstanding. Developing countries, including Mexico, Indonesia and Mongolia, also are putting money into the fund.

Companies are pouring back into this country, pouring back. Not like  when did you hear about car companies coming back into Michigan and coming to Ohio and expanding? You never heard that.

False.

The Reshoring Initiative is an advocacy group that works with manufacturing companies to return jobs to the United States from overseas. Its website lists dozens of instances when car companies returned manufacturing jobs to the United States over the past decade. For example, Ford announced it would move production of pickup trucks from Mexico to Ohio in 2015, and General Motors said it would build a type of Cadillac in Tennessee instead of Mexico in 2014.

We declined to certify the terrible one-sided Iran nuclear deal. It was a horrible deal. Whoever heard you give $150 billion to a nation that has no respect for you whatsoever?

This is misleading.

The Iran nuclear deal released about $100 billion  not $150 billion  in previously frozen Iran assets; the United States did not cut Iran a check. Much of that money is also tied up in debt obligations. For example, $20 billion is owed to China for financing projects in Iran. Estimates for the actual amount available to Iran range from $35 billion to $65 billion.

You saw Apple just brought $350 billion in.

Not quite.

Mr. Trump has previously claimed that Apples $350 billion investment is the direct result of his tax cuts. But Apple, according to reporting in The Times, was already on track to spend $275 billion over the next five years. After the $38 billion tax payment is subtracted, that leaves its new investment at roughly $37 billion over the next five years.

Theyre not giving us their best people, folks. Theyre not giving us  use your heads. Theyre giving us  it is a lottery.

There is no evidence to support this.

Mr. Trump is referring to the diversity visa lottery. But foreign governments do not select entrants; rather, millions of individuals enter of their own volition. A computer chooses winners at random and, before receiving a visa, those selected must undergo a screening process that bars criminals and the indigent. In fact, those who have been admitted through the program have higher rates of employment and of finding work in professional or managerial occupations than most other immigrants.

This guy came in through chain migration. And a part of the lottery system. They say 22 people came in with him.

There is no evidence to support this.

It is implausible that Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in the October 2017 truck attack in Manhattan, enabled 22 to immigrate to the United States. He is a green card holder who immigrated to the United States in 2010 from Uzbekistan, married another Uzbek immigrant in 2013 in Ohio and fathered three children in the United States. Under current law, he is not eligible to sponsor any extended family to immigrate to the United States.KABUL, Afghanistan  The Taliban staged three attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 20 Afghan soldiers as a high-level NATO delegation was visiting the country to discuss the peace process.

The insurgents have been striking checkpoints and small outposts at night in the turbulent southern provinces of Farah and Helmand.

In one attack, the insurgents detonated explosives packed into an American-made Humvee that had been captured from the Afghan Army. And in another, they made off with a Humvee, replenishing their supply.

In the most lethal strike, insurgents overran a checkpoint in Farah Province around 3 a.m. Saturday. An Afghan Army spokesman said that 18 government soldiers were killed and two others wounded, and that a firefight with the attackers had continued even after reinforcements arrived.A Lebanese man suspected in the death of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait has been arrested, the Philippine foreign secretary said on Friday.

The discovery of the body of the maid, Joanna Demafelis, on Feb. 6 in an apartment in Kuwait City, where it had reportedly been kept for more than a year, spurred outrage and refocused attention on the plight of poor Filipinas toiling as maids abroad.

Alan Peter Cayetano, the foreign secretary, said he had told President Rodrigo Duterte about the arrest in Lebanon of Nader Essam Assaf, but added that Mr. Assafs Syrian wife, who is also a suspect in Ms. Demafeliss death, remains at large. Mr. Assaf and his wife employed Ms. Demafelis as a maid in their home.OTTAWA  Nothing has reshaped Canadas modern economy more than free trade with the United States.

But that doesnt mean the country is staring at economic ruin if the current negotiations over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement collapse, and the agreement is scrapped.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is just one among many Canadians who have suggested that the trade deal is far from critical to the countrys economic survival.

We will not be pushed into accepting any old deal, and no deal might very well be better for Canada than a bad deal, Mr. Trudeau said in Chicago this month. His government supports Nafta, but it has rejected many of the demands put forth by the Trump administration as conditions for keeping the three-country trade pact, to which Mexico also belongs.

The prime ministers remarks may have been a negotiating tactic. But many trade experts say the changes to the worlds trading system that have come about since Canada and the United States opened their mutual border in 1989 mean that an end to Nafta would not be a devastating blow to the worlds 10th largest economy.GROZNY, Russia  Every day, Belant Zulgayeva gets a knot in her throat watching her grandchildren play their violent games, what she calls their little war. They talk very little, but they run around, hide and, occasionally, slam one another to the ground with a disturbing ferocity.

Ms. Zulgayeva is on the front line of a different kind of struggle: an effort by the Russian government to bring home and care for Russian children like her three grandchildren, who were raised by Islamist militants in the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

As the American-led coalition and Syrian government forces captured cities that had been held by the Islamic State, they found among the ruins a grim human wreckage of the organizations once successful recruitment drive: hundreds and perhaps thousands of children born to or brought with the men and women who had flocked to Syria in support of the Islamic State.ROME  The specter of Benito Mussolini returned this month in the form of a poster at Piazza Venezia, the Roman square where more than 70 years ago he fired up the masses with Fascist speeches and stirred a fatal brew of Italian nationalism.

The multistory movie poster of Mussolini, a.k.a. Il Duce, head bald and arms akimbo, advertised Im Back, a satirical film imagining the dictators return to modern-day Italy.

In many ways, the poster symbolized the debate on Mussolini  or at least the violent nationalism that fueled his rise  that has returned with force to the country as critical elections loom on March 4.

The re-emergence of extremist violence, harassment and xenophobia has gripped Italy and forced the country to reckon with the hard-right and fascist ideologies fueled by a lingering financial crisis and migration.BRUSSELS  Former European leaders who tried to bring Ukraine closer to Europe before a 2014 uprising there reacted with shock on Saturday after a federal indictment accused Paul Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, of secretly paying former European officials some two million euros in 2012 and 2013 to lobby on the countrys behalf.

Ukraine at the time was led by Viktor F. Yanukovych, who first agreed to closer ties to Europe and then reneged under Russian pressure and was toppled in the uprising.

The indictment, released on Friday by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election in the United States, did not name the former officials, but it set off furious speculation about who they might be.

The indictment says the lobbying effort was managed by a former chancellor of a European country, identified as Foreign Politician A, in coordination with Mr. Manafort.The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday in favor of a 30-day cease-fire in Syria, after days of bombardment by the Syrian government on a Damascus suburb left hundreds of civilians dead.

The resolution called for all parties to cease hostilities without delay across the country to enable the safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services and medical evacuations of the critically sick and wounded.

The pause in fighting for at least 30 days would let humanitarian aid reach the besieged suburb of eastern Ghouta, and allow civilians there to be evacuated.

More than 500 people, including women and children, have been killed this past week in the intensifying strikes against the rebel-held area of eastern Ghouta, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.The Drowning Coast This three-part special report about the ecological crisis facing Louisianas vanishing coast, and the people who live there, is the product of a partnership between The New York Times and NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS  Burnell Cotlon lost everything in Hurricane Katrina  just like everyone else, he said.

When the flawed flood wall bordering his neighborhood here in the Lower Ninth Ward gave way in August 2005, the waters burst through with explosive force that pushed his home off its foundations and down the street. What was left: rubble, mud and mold.

Not far from his rebuilt home stands a rebuilt flood wall, taller and more solidly anchored in its levee than the old one. On the other side of that lies the canal whose storm-swollen waters toppled the old wall, letting Lake Pontchartrain spill into the neighborhood and then sit, more than 10 feet deep, for weeks on end. As an added shield, an enormous gate closes the canal off from the lake when storms approach. Similar gates can secure the citys other major canals. In all, federal, state and local governments spent more than $20 billion on the 350 miles of levees, flood walls, gates and pumps that now encircle greater New Orleans.

The Drowning Coast This three-part special report about the ecological crisis facing Louisianas vanishing coast, and the people who live there, is the product of a partnership between The New York Times and NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

I hope and pray that the money was well spent and it is a decent system, said Mr. Cotlon, who opened the first grocery store in the still-recovering neighborhood in 2014.

This year, New Orleans celebrates its 300th birthday. Whether it will see 400 is no sure thing.

As Jean Lafitte and other vulnerable little towns that fringe the bayous plead for some small measure of salvation, New Orleans today is a fortress city, equipped with the best environmental protection it has ever had  probably the strongest, in fact, that any American city has ever had. Yet even the systems creators have conceded that it may not be strong enough.

The problem, in the argot of flood protection, is that the Army Corps of Engineers designed the new system to protect against the storms that would cause a 100-year flood  a flood with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. And that, experts say, is simply insufficient for an urban area certain to face more powerful storms.

A Barricaded City Federal, state and local governments have spent more than $20 billion on levees, flood walls, gates and pumps in greater New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But much of the city sits below sea level, making it vulnerable if infrastructure were to fail. Lake Pontchartrain Levees and

flood walls Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Metairie Lake Borgne Central Wetlands Lower Ninth Ward New Orleans Mississippi R. Algiers Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Cataouatche West Closure Complex Lake Salvador Jean Lafitte Lake Pontchartrain Levees and

flood walls Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Metairie Lake Borgne Central Wetlands Lower Ninth Ward New Orleans Mississippi R. Algiers Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Cataouatche West Closure Complex Des Allemands Lake Salvador Jean Lafitte Lake Pontchartrain Levees and

flood walls Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Metairie Lake Borgne Central Wetlands Lower Ninth Ward New Orleans Mississippi R. Algiers Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Cataouatche West Closure Complex Des Allemands Lake Salvador Jean Lafitte Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Pontchartrain Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Central Wetlands New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward Algiers Miss. R. West Closure Complex Levees and

flood walls Jean Lafitte Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Pontchartrain Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Metairie Central Wetlands New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward Algiers Miss. R. West Closure Complex Levees and

flood walls Lake Salvador Jean Lafitte Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Pontchartrain Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Metairie Central Wetlands New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward Algiers Miss. R. West Closure Complex Levees and

flood walls Lake Salvador Jean Lafitte Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Pontchartrain Bayou Sauvage Seabrook

floodgate complex New Orleans East Lake Borgne

surge barrier Gentilly Metairie Lake Borgne Central Wetlands New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward Algiers Miss. R. West Closure Complex Levees and

flood walls Lake Salvador Jean Lafitte Blue areas are below

mean sea level. Lake Pontchartrain New Orleans Levees and

flood walls Jean Lafitte The New York Times | Source: Army Corps of Engineers

All along we knew that 100-year was somewhat voodoo math, said Garret Graves, a Republican congressman from Louisiana and former chairman of the states Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. Indeed, the corps has stopped calling its handiwork a hurricane protection system, opting instead for the more modest Hurricane & Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.

How that came to be is a story of money and politics and, perhaps, a degree of Louisiana fatalism. In simplest terms, though, it comes down to a mismatch between limited resources and limitless amounts of water.

If New Orleans is culturally and culinarily unique among American cities, it is also uniquely vulnerable: Half the city lies below sea level, and is sinking still, and the buffer of protective wetlands that can knock down the force of incoming hurricanes is eroding away.

Climate change threatens to make these problems far worse. The rising oceans will strengthen storm surges, and increased moisture in the atmosphere will add to the drenching rains that regularly overwhelm the citys aging drainage system. Scientists also suggest that a warming world will bring stronger hurricanes.

Climate change is turning that 100-year flood, that 1 percent flood, into a 5 percent flood or a 20-year flood, said Rick Luettich, a storm surge expert and vice chairman of one of the New Orleans areas two regional levee authorities. By that inexorable logic, the 500-year flood becomes a 100-year flood, and so on.

The corps itself has repeatedly acknowledged that the new system will not prevent future floods. Theres still going to be a lot of people that will be inundated, the corpss former commander, the retired Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp, warned as far back as 2009. In storms at 200- to 500-year levels, the corps has said, New Orleans could still suffer breaches like those experienced during Katrina.

As he ends his eight-year run at City Hall, the mayor, Mitch Landrieu, sounds as if he has a bit of the prophet about him. The combination of sea level rise, subsidence and coastal erosion, he said in an interview, poses an existential threat for New Orleans.

What we should have done, Mr. Landrieu said, is build to a 10,000-year flood standard, which is what the Netherlands built to, and we didnt, and that was for the country a monetary decision.

Now, he fears, his city itself could join a variety of landmarks that, as a popular local song puts it, aint dere no more.

A Devils Bargain

The Army Corps spent nearly 50 years building the old hurricane protection system for New Orleans. More than 1,400 people died in the city when it failed. So in the aftermath of Katrina, Congress thought big.

Funding measures that passed beginning in late 2005 outlined a three-stage program for restoring a shattered and sodden New Orleans. The first step was to repair the broken levees and flood walls to what they were before the storm. At the same time, the corps would develop a plan to offer interim protection, that 100-year level, achievable within several years. Finally, Congress called on the secretary of the Army, who oversees the corps, to consider providing protection for a storm surge equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane  a storm, that is, more powerful than Katrina.

A range of experts consulted by the corps called for defense of that level or higher. Indeed, a study by Dutch engineers found that central New Orleans needed protection against the kind of storm that might show up once in 5,000 years.

In the end, though, the interim level became the benchmark. One central factor was a congressional compromise reached during the George W. Bush administration that came to be known locally as the Devils bargain. Under the deal, New Orleanians would remain eligible for federal flood insurance if the system could be brought up to the 100-year level  the protection needed for insurance eligibility in what the government defines as a flood zone. An insurance standard became a proxy for a safety standard.

Though the corps produced a 4,000-page report with a host of alternatives, it offered no recommended course of action. That, along with the financing, largely fell to the state. By 2012, the states Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority had already issued two versions of its own master plan, the later one calling for Katrina-level or greater protection for New Orleans. But when the third plan was released in 2017, predictions for the effects of climate change had outstripped ambition: The seas were rising so fast, the authors concluded, that with its $50 billion price tag for greater New Orleans and the south Louisiana coast, the hoped-for protection was out of reach. Whats more, that much money might never become available.

Sidney Coffee, who led the state authority from 2005 to 2008, said the state had to balance the needs of the city with those of the rest of Louisiana. The state has always wanted the best, the highest level of protection that could be afforded for New Orleans, she said.

Knowing that the new flood walls and earthen levees werent high enough to stop a Katrina-like surge, the corps built in features intended to keep them standing, including erosion-fighting measures like concrete splash pads to prevent overflow from washing away supporting soil. Deeper pilings will help the walls stay upright. Gates to keep Lake Pontchartrain from pouring in should mean less water to pump out after a storm.

Because of measures like these, what resulted from the design was much more like a 500-year system than a 100-year system, said Ed Link, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland who led the corps-sponsored investigation of the levee failures in Katrina. With an emphasis on improving evacuation protocols, even supplying transportation for pets, fewer deaths are expected during the next Katrina.

But the flooding could still be severe  during a 500-year flood, as much as five feet deep in the half of the city that sits below sea level. In August, a thunderstorm dumped between six and nine inches of rain over parts of the city within a three-hour period, overwhelming antiquated pumps  some dating to 1912  and causing extensive flooding. Updating the drainage system will cost at least $1 billion through 2026, and perhaps much more.

Challenges Ahead

One of the most spectacular features of the citys new defenses is a 1.8-mile-long wall that cuts across wetlands at a corner of Lake Borgne, east of the city. It stands 26 feet above the water line and cost $1.1 billion. Its support piles reach more than 100 feet into the muck of the lake. Its top is crenelated like a castle wall.

And it illustrates how, in many parts of New Orleans, upgrading further is not feasible.

The wall was designed for a 100-year storm, with some extra height to compensate for subsidence and estimated sea level rise over 50 years. But at this location, Katrina sent a far stronger surge.

There is no easy fix. While earthen levees can be raised by adding dirt, raising the wall even higher would be impractical, said Robert Turner, director of engineering and operations for the regional levee authority that operates the barrier. A cap of an additional foot could be built, he said, but if you try to go higher than that over time, you can stress the pile foundations that hold this barrier in place.

To many local officials, 500-year protection is a fantasy. Susan Maclay, the head of the levee authority for the New Orleans-area communities on the west bank of the Mississippi River, said that finding the money to maintain the current system was daunting. The financially squeezed state government, too, is searching for a way to pay its share of the hurricane protection system  $100 million a year for the next 30.

Youre so focused on killing the snakes right in front of you that you cant, its just not feasible, to think beyond the immediate problem, Ms. Maclay said.

All the while, the rest of the state is waiting for its own 100-year protection.

Its difficult to sell, on the state level, elevating New Orleans protection to 500 when you have places such as Jean Lafitte, Terrebonne Parish, Houma, New Iberia and other places that have zero level of protection, or at best 10-year protection, said Jerome Zeringue, a state representative. New Orleanians, he said, should lessen their expectations.

The rest of the nation, too, awaits a higher level of protection from the effects of climate change: Major cities like New York and Miami, but also smaller communities like Galveston, Tex., want costly projects of their own. The rest of the coast, and the rest of the country, needs help, said Col. Michael Clancy, commander of the New Orleans district of the corps.

Still, more must be done, said Mr. Graves, the Louisiana congressman. The projects to protect the state so far are tremendous, but what is to come will have to be tremendouser, he said, adding, People say we cant afford to do this  I would say we cant afford not to.

Repairing hurricane damage is always far more expensive than providing protection. Katrina cost between $120 billion and $150 billion, Mr. Graves noted. The new system has already saved hundreds of millions of dollars in smaller storms like Hurricane Isaac in 2012. When a big one comes, he said, that project will pay off multiple times over.

New Orleans residents like Artie Folse hope that is true. But Mr. Folse is also wary. His house near Lake Pontchartrain had to be rebuilt from the studs up after Katrina. If the next storm overwhelms the citys defenses, he said, I cant do it again.An Offaly based weather forecaster has predicted the worst wintry weather in Ireland since 1982 to hit the Midlands next week.

Qualified meteorologist from the Midland Weather Channel, Cathal Nolan has said he thinks the national forecaster will issue a red warning on Wednesday of next week with the worst weather expected to arrive on Thursday and Friday.

"Having further assessed the latest run of weather models and carefully pieced together the likely physical makeup of the weather event it now looks increasingly likely that Ireland will be impacted by one of the worst spells of wintry weather since 1982," he warned.

"Heavy snow will begin during Tuesday in Eastern areas and will gradually begin to effect the Midlands during Tuesday, with the snow itself likely to continue right through until Saturday.

The heaviest of the snowfall looks likely to occur on Thursday and Friday, as an Atlantic storm tries to push northeastwards it will interact with the frigid air across the country and will lead to blizzard conditions as heavy snow will be accompanied by winds of between 60 and 80 kph.

While its hard to put an estimate on the amounts of snow we may encounter from this period of time its certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that some areas of the Midlands may see as much as 30-40 cm. What will make the snow even more disruptive will be its potential to drift in the strong easterly winds."

"From Tuesday right through until Sunday the temperatures across the Midlands of Ireland will remain below freezing. Day time highs on Wednesday and Thursday will range between -4 and -2 degrees Celsius. Night time lows during the period may dip to as low as -8 or -10 degrees Celsius in one or two sheltered areas."

"Sub zero temperatures will feel even colder given the strength of the winds and will actually feel more like -6 to -10 during Thursday and Friday in particular when we see the strongest of the winds," he added.

He predicts that schools, businesses and public transporr will grind to a halt next week.

"This truly has the potential to become an extreme weather event and with that in mind I have taken the precautionary measure of issuing a Red Weather Warning," Cathal said.Adivasi man death case: Kerala govt announces Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia to family

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Kerala government announced Rs 10 Lakh ex-gratia to the family of the tribal youth who died after being beaten up by a mob in Palakkad's Attappadi on Thursday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the incident and said that he has instructed the State Police Chief to take strict action against the culprits.

In a shocking incident, a 27-year old Adivasi was allegedly hacked to death by a mob who say that he had stolen eatables and food packets. Two people were arrested in connection with the case.

Meanwhile, postmortem report confirmed that he died of the trauma caused by the torture, it also confirmed he was beaten up and had internal injuries and injuries to his head and back.

Adivasi man, Madhu, belonging to an Adivasi community called 'Muduga' in Attappady forest range in Palakkad district. According to reports, the mob questioned him for hours and tied his hands and one of them even took a selfie with Madhu before he was thrashed brutally.

The mob handed over Madhu to cops and he died while he was being taken to the hospital in Agaly Palakkad on Thursday evening. Madhu had informed the cops that he was assaulted by the mob. Police have registered the case.

Muduga tribes mainly habitat in the Attappady valley south of the Nilgiris in Palakkad district.

OneIndia News'No problem' was Gogoi's guiding mantra; Cong stalwart had said it helped him take hard decisions

Army chiefs should not be allowed to contest election for 5 years post retirement: Tarun Gogoi

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Former Assam chief minister Tarun gogoi on Saturday suggested that chiefs of India army must be barred from contesting elections for at least five years from the date of retirement.

His statement comes in response to Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat's political statements recently that illegal influx into Assam from Bangladesh is continuing in a manner planned by India's western and northern neighbours.

The Army chief also referred to Ajmal's AIDUF in connection with reports of increase in Muslim population in several districts of Assam, observing that the party has grown "faster" than the BJP in the 1980s.

Gogoi said that Rawat's statements is not expected from the chief of army. "The Army chief should desist from making political statements. Army chiefs should not be allowed to contest elections for 5 years from their retirement to ensure they do not hobnob with the ruling party towards end of their service to fulfil their future political aspirations."

"I was chief minister for 15 years and I have interacted with at least three Army chiefs and none of them of have told me about this issue. If the influx is still on, why isn't the centre taking any steps to stop it, more so when the chief of the Indian Army himself is talking about it?" Gogoi said.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 24, 2018, 23:04 [IST]Early Lok Sabha polls may be a reality: BJP CMs to push for One Nation, One Election

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The concept of One Nation One Poll may become a reality as all the BJP Chief Ministers are likely to propose the same. The issue would be taken up at a meeting of the BJP on February 28 where the proposal to hold simultaneous polls would be made.

The national general secretary of the BJP has written to all the CMs of the BJP ruled states arrive at a consensus on one nation one election. They have also been told to convince the opposition to come on board.

This development comes in the wake of speculation that the Lok Sabha elections may be advanced. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi too has been pitching for this concept. He said that the development momentum would be lost on account of frequent elections.

There is talk that the government could advance the elections to coincide with the polls being held in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Mizoram. Adding to the speculation of an early poll, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad too told party workers to be ready for the same.

Yadav sent out the communication following a meeting of a panel comprising 10 Rajya Sabha MPs. During the meeting, the views of the PM were taken into account and it was also said that the Election Commission too was in favour of an early election.

OneIndia NewsLegal drinking age in Delhi reduced from 25 to 21: here is a look at the rules in other states

Extra-legal elements waiting to take over judiciary: Justice Amitava Roy

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The judiciary must stand together and cannot project a fractured face as extra-legal elements are waiting to take over, outgoing Supreme Court judge, Justice Amitava Roy said.

Speaking at a function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in the Supreme Court, Roy said the top court is the guardian of the rule of law and "the bedrock of our existence is the faith, the trust and the credibility that this institution enjoys".

"I intend to tell you that we, being the guardians of the rule of law, need to secure the same, otherwise the caveat is that extra-legal elements are waiting to take over. That would spell the destruction of the institution. That would mean our extinction because we survive for the institution which is not otherwise. Every institution is a collective entity," Roy said.

He also said that despite all the reservations many have about the judicial process, people flock to the courts seeking refuge for justice.

"This is because of the credibility this institution enjoys and the trust. I feel that we cannot in any way project a fractured face to anyone. If that happens, we lose credibility. If we lose credibility, we lose paramountcy of the judicial process. If we lose paramountcy of judicial process, the rule of law is undermined. I find each one of my colleagues are excellent judges by his or her own right. Individually they are brilliant, but it is necessary to be together.

"We may exist as a musical note in isolation but that note would be only a sound of some frequency. It's only when we integrate and blend, a melody would emerge. A melody that is necessary for this institution," Roy, who retires on March 1, said.

The remarks of the retiring judge assume significance in the wake of the January 12 presser by four senior-most judges who had virtually revolted against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra. Reports had suggested that some other judges had expressed their displeasure over the incident.

The Chief Justice and the Attorney General dropped hints at the function that Justice Roy would man "one of the very big and important tribunals in the country".

The CJI was all praise for the eloquent retiring judge and said that time was being cruel to everyone as the last three working days of Justice Roy has been lost due to the upcoming holidays on account of the Holi festival.

Attorney General K K Venugopal asked the Centre to re-look the retirement policy of Supreme Court judges as they have to retire at the age of 65 years.

"It's a pity that the judges of the Supreme Court of India, that is the highest court in the country, have to retire at 65 years. Look at all around the world. There is nothing ending at 65. Today, the longevity of Indians is 70 year. The advocates running around the corridors of the SC are above 80. Now Justice Roy is retiring and look at the great loss of talent. I think it's time that the Government of India had a re-look," Venugopal said.

Justice Roy was born on March 1, 1953, at Kolkata in West Bengal. He served as the Chief Justice of the high courts of Rajasthan and Orissa and was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on February 27, 2015.

OneIndia NewsMeghalaya Assembly polls: Shashi Tharoor invokes Congress performance record to counter BJP

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Shillong, Feb 24: In poll-bound Meghalaya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is giving a good fight to the incumbent Congress which is in power for almost 15 years in the state. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi (who recently campaigned in Meghalaya) to BJP president Amit Shah, in the picturesque state of Northeast, the BJP is appealing to voters to throw the Congress out of power as the incumbent government under chief minister Mukul Sangma has failed to bring development in the state. The BJP alleged that the Congress government in Meghalaya is "corrupt" and its leaders have pocketed all the funds meant for developmental work in the state.

The Congress, on its part, is appealing to the people of the state to reject the BJP as it is "communal". As the high-voltage campaign continues, Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday predicted the party would come back to power in Meghalaya on account of good performance record of its government whereas the BJP has no "record of delivery".

Tharoor said that the BJP's failure in the delivery of its poll promises made in 2014 have left people of Meghalaya with no hope that they would deliver in the state. Stating that the BJP's biggest weakness is that they have no record of delivery even at the national level, Tharoor said, "What make the people here suddenly believe that somehow in Meghalaya they will deliver when they have not done anywhere else?"

On the other hand, the Congress government in the state has good performance record and that would help the party romp home. "I believe that the Congress is in with a very good chance (of retaining power). The present government in Meghalaya actually got performances to point to and it can turn to the voters and seek rewards for our performances," Tharoor, who was here to campaign for the party, told journalists. He said the government here has proof to its performances.

"The social audit law is a law and it exists. Meghalaya got the best record in women education, empowerment in the proportion of women in school and higher education and these are national figures maintained by the HRD Ministry," he said to drive home the point.

Taking a dig at the BJP Government at the Centre, the All India Professional Congress chairman said, "The BJP has failed spectacularly for the three-and-a-half-year to achieve anything at the central government level.

"And now they claim that they are going to achieve something in Meghalaya which will be an improvement on the achievement of the existing government?"

He also downplayed BJP's aggressive campaign which began in Shillong with the Central government offering Rs 70 crore as pre-poll sops under the Swadesh Darshan Schemes to the churches. "The vigorous efforts by the BJP with the backing of the resources by the Centre will not work as money alone can't buy votes," he said.

Claiming that the NDA government has only renamed schemes initiated by the UPA government, Tharoor said, "What they have done is they have become a name changing government but a not a game-changing government."

"Instead what they have initiated you have the demonetisation. It was a bad idea and badly implemented and you have the GST which was a good idea but badly implemented," he said.

The Congress leader, who campaigned for Shillong-East candidate Ampareen Lyngdoh and held two small meetings at cafes in Shillong, also criticized the BJP ally, the National People's Party, with whom the BJP formed the government in Manipur.

Calling it a "masked party", Tharoor said the NPP pretends to be one thing while it speaks for local interests but also attaches itself to a party which in so many ways has betrayed the values of our country.

The Member of Parliament and a former bureaucrat also accused the BJP Government of "promoting a narrow-minded idea of India" which he said was "an idea based on Hindutva that is their only message."

Hitting at the reported attacks on Christians in BJP-ruled states, Tharoor questioned the "real face" of the BJP Government. "In Meghalaya, they come here and say that you can eat whatever you like and in the rest of India they beat and even kill people on suspicious of having eaten beef," he said.

The Elections to the 60-member Assembly in Meghalaya is scheduled on February 27.

While the Congress will be contesting in all the seats, the BJP has put up candidates in 47 seats.

Along with Meghalaya, Nagaland is also hosting the state Assembly elections on February 27. Tripura has voted for the Assembly polls on February 18. The result of all the three Assembly elections will be declared on March 3.

OneIndia NewsAmit Shah on two-day trip to Meghalaya; All set to meet all northeast CMs

Most wanted Meghalaya terrorist shot dead in police encounter

India

oi-PTI

Meghalaya's most-wanted terrorist and GNLA (Garo National Liberation Army) Commander-in-Chief Sohan D Shira was gunned down in a fierce encounter with the security forces, the police said.

The encounter of Sohan D Shira, who carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, came after NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma was killed in an IED attack, suspected to be carried out by the GNLA in the same district on February 18, reports PTI.

Following Sangma's death, counter-insurgency operations had been stepped up in poll-bound South and East Garo Hills districts.

Acting on inputs regarding probable movement of some armed GNLA cadre in Dobu area, counter-insurgency forces were pressed into service, a senior police officer involved in the operations told PTI.

He said the encounter took place around 11 am in Achakpek village near Dobu, in which Sohan was killed.

East Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Kumar said inquest on the body of the slain militant was on and necessary formalities would follow.

Earlier this week, Meghalaya Director General of Police S B Singh had said, "There are credible leads that are being obtained about the involvement of the group (GNLA) in Sunday night's carnage (Sangma's killing).

" NCP candidate Jonathone N Sangma and three others were killed in an IED blast triggered by militants in the Samanda area of East Garo Hills district around 8 pm on February 18.

PTI

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Story first published: Saturday, February 24, 2018, 17:19 [IST]Compulsory leave for Punjab govt employees if even one Covid vaccine dose not taken

Punjab Municipal poll: Clashes, complaints of booth capturing mar voting in Ludhiana

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Amid reports of clashes, firing incidents and complaints of "booth capturing", voting for the biggest municipal body in Punjab, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, was held on Saturday.

Sources in District Election office say that voting percentage has crossed 50% around 2.40pm.

Two persons were injured in a "clash" between Akali and Congress workers outside DAV Public School, BRS Nagar, in ward no. 75. It is learnt that firing took place during the 'clash' at around 3.55 pm, minutes before the end of polling, reports The Tribune.

A total number of 494 candidates, belonging to the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Lok Insaf Party will be contesting the elections from 95 municipal wards. 1,153 polling stations have been created for voting for the 10.5 lakh voters in Ludhiana, who are eligible to cast their votes.

Apart from the Ludhiana civic polls, by-polls in the two wards of Payal and Jagraon municipal councils will also be held.

Hours ahead of the polls of Municipal Corporation in Ludhiana, the Commissioner of Police suspended the SHO at police station Salem Tabri Inspector Vijay Kumar for being unfair while performing election duty, on Friday late night. The inspector has been suspended with immediate effect.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 24, 2018, 21:08 [IST]Why Dharmendra Rajpoot stands out as a Journalist among others?

Senior journalist Neelabh Mishra dies at 57

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, Feb 24: Neelabh Mishra, senior journalist and editor-in-chief of National Herald, passed away at a Chennai Hospital on Saturday. He was 57.

The well-known journalist was critically ill and was suffering from complications resulting from non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis. He was admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai earlier this month and developed multiple organ failure before a liver transplant could be carried out.

Mishra steered the re-launch of National Herald, the newspaper. Informing about his demise, National Herald tweeted, "With deep sorrow, National Herald announces the passing away of our Editor-in-chief Neelabh Mishra at Apollo Hospital, Chennai, on Feb 24, 2018. NH will take forward Neelabh's unwavering commitment to defending India's precious democratic freedoms."

With deep sorrow, National Herald announces the passing away of our Editor-in-chief Neelabh Mishra at Apollo Hospital, Chennai, on Feb 24, 2018. NH will take forward Neelabhs unwavering commitment to defending India's precious democratic freedoms https://t.co/RjHvZEDad7 pic.twitter.com/sQd2XBIdfR  National Herald (@NH_India) February 24, 2018

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi condoled his death, describing him as one who spoke the truth to power.

"An Editor's Editor. A man who spoke truth to power. An institution builder. On Neelabh Mishra's tragic passing away this morning, my deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and admirers. #NationalHerald," tweeted Rahul.

An Editor's Editor. A man who spoke truth to power. An institution builder. On Neelabh Mishra's tragic passing away this morning, my deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and admirers. #NationalHerald  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 24, 2018

OneIndia NewsIndia may overtake China as most populous country sooner than expected: Here's why

Uttar Pradesh Population Control Bill: No govt jobs for those with more than 2 kids

World Population Day: UP announces new population policy for 2021-2030, all you need to know

Four Bills on Population Control to be tabled in Lok Sabha today

UP: Hindus should 'produce more children', says BJP MLA Vikram Saini

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

While population control remains a major concern for the policymakers, a BJP MLA has said that Hindus should not stop producing children until a law for population control comes into existence.

Ironically, Vikram Saini, who represents Khatauli constituency in Muzaffarnagar district, made these remarks while addressing a population control campaign program.

A video of the BJP MLA urging his Hindu supporter to have more children also surfaced on the social media.

"When we had two children, my wife said we did not need a third one, but I said we should have four to five," he said.

"I appeal to my Hindu brothers to not stop. If the law is made it will be foe everyone in this country," he went on to say.

He further said that Hindus have accepted the two-child policy, but others have not who still produce dozens.

Saini is not new to controversies. In January, he had said that "Hindustan is for Hindus" while asking Muslims to go to Pakistan.

Last year, Saini had threatened to break the bones of those who kill and disrespect cows.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, February 24, 2018, 16:43 [IST]Talks with China will not help says USA NSA on situation on Ladakh

Ex-Trump campaign aide pleads guilty in Russia probe

International

pti-PTI

Washington, February 24: A former top adviser to President Donald Trump's election campaign pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and false-statements charges in the special counsel's Russia investigation.

The plea by Rick Gates revealed that he is planning to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as it continues to probe the Trump campaign, Russian election interference and Gates' longtime business associate, Paul Manafort.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Virginia, made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington. He admitted to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities in a recent interview.

With his cooperation, Gates gives Mueller a witness willing to provide information on Manafort about his finances and political consulting work in Ukraine, and also someone who had access at the highest levels of the Trump campaign.

Gates' plea came a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned a 32-count indictment against him and Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. The indictment in Virginia was the second round of charges against Gates and against Manafort, who has denied any wrongdoing.

The two men were initially charged last October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party. Gates' decision marks the fifth publicly known guilty plea in the special counsel probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign.

The plea also comes quickly on the heels of the stunning indictment last week that laid out a broad operation of election meddling by Russia, which began in 2014, and employed fake social media accounts and on-the-ground politicking to promote Trump's campaign, disparage Hillary Clinton and sow division and discord widely among the U.S. electorate.

The charges to which Gates is pleading guilty don't involve any conduct connected to the Trump campaign. They largely relate to a conspiracy laid out in his indictments, but they do reveal that Gates spoke with the FBI earlier this month and lied during the interview.

That same day, his attorneys filed a motion to withdraw from representing him for "irreconcilable difference." The court papers accuse Gates of lying about a March 19, 2013, meeting involving Manafort, a lobbyist and a member of Congress. Gates said the meeting did not include discussion of Ukraine, when in fact prosecutors say it did.

The charges don't name the lobbyist or the lawmaker but filings with the Justice Department show Manafort and lobbyist Vin Weber of Mercury Public Affairs met with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., on that date as part of a lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests. On Friday, Manafort said in a statement that he maintains his innocence.

"I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise," Manafort said.

"This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me." In court filings over the past few months, Gates gradually began to show the strain the case was placing on him and his family.

PTISure China will work out arrangement with Taliban: Biden

What would Indias role in Afghanistan be with the Chinese backing Taliban

To counter India, China equips US-styled combat gear

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A branch of the PLA with a powerful US-styled integrated individual soldier combat system has been equipped by China along the India border.

A media report stated that this was being done to prepare for a future informatised warfare.

Informatised warfare, a term widely used by the Chinese military in recent years, refers to the use of IT, digital and artificial intelligence applications in battlefield conditions.

The Sky Wolf Commandos, a branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) special operations forces from the western theatre command, have been equipped with the QTS-11 system in their training, Weihutang, a column affiliated with the China Central Television (CCTV), reported.

The western theatre command looks after the security along the 3,488 km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India.

The QTS-11 system, according to Chinese experts, is similar to the one being used by US soldiers.

Hailed as the "strongest individual firepower in the world", the QTS-11 system not only contains firearms but also a full digitalised integrated individual soldier combat system, including detection and communications, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert told state-run Global Times.

The system, which includes an assault rifle and 20-millimeter grenade launcher, is capable of destroying antipersonnel targets.

Each soldier equipped with the system is armed with a thermal imager and optoelectronic and positioning systems, the Global Times quoted a report by Science and Technology Daily. QTS-11 system weighs up to seven kgs.

"The individual soldier combat system is only part of the digitalised army, something countries are attempting to do. Developing the integrated individual soldier combat system adapts to informatized warfare in the future," Song said.

"QTS-11 systems of the US and China are similar but not comparable. The system's capability depends on how it is used," Song said.

Special operations forces are the first to have a taste of the QTS-11 system before the system would be widely equipped with other forces.

The system is also very expensive, Song said.

The announcement by the official media of the deployment of new system along the border with India followed a report a few days ago of the upgrading the air defences along the LAC was seen by military observers here as a psychological warfare being resorted to by the PLA.

The Global Times earlier quoted an expert as saying the upgradation of the air defence with the deployment of fighter jets like J-10 and J-11 is aimed at confronting any threat from India in the light of India acquiring new fighter aircraft, an apparent reference to Rafale aircraft.

The Chinese military carried out a media blitzkrieg during the height of last year's 73-day Dokalam standoff highlighting deployment of the new battle tank as well as massive military exercises on the Tibetan plateau.

The standoff over PLA's attempts to build a road close to the strategic narrow Chicken Neck corridor in North East ended after the Chinese military stopped the road building in the area which is also claimed by Bhutan.

The integrated combat system was firstly developed by the US but they have dropped the research of Objective Individual Combat Weaponry system due to weight problems.

OneIndia NewsCongress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Fascinating, eye-opening, and extraordinary, Rob Kall's Bottom Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution explores the emerging paradigm of our age -- bottom-up thinking -- connecting an enormous range of disciplines and topics from systems, chaos, and complexity theories to the evolving role of technology in our lives. Not merely a cogent exposition of contemporary thinking, however, Bottom Up extrapolates from abstract ideas to derive practical, everyday steps we can take to improve our chances of global survival, peace, and prosperity. Following Rob's lead, we can change habits as individuals to deepen our connection with others across the planet."



Wendell Potter, former health insurance executive, co-author of Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It, and Founder of Tarbell.org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.

**This fictional headline was originally printed by me in 2007, but it shows that very little has changed in the truly pathetic gun debate in this country. Add to this the bloodlust of various state legislatures in crafting "stand your ground" statutes while claiming that we are returning to our roots: as primitive apemen.

---------

AP WIRE

Headline: Man with Assault Rifle Gunned Down

April 19, 2007

Washington: Jim Smith, owner of an assault rifle, was gunned down by Meyer Litsky, a 64-year-old furniture maker, this past Monday. Litsky, apprehended by police immediately after the shooting, claimed he had just killed a terrorist. The shooter, when picked up by police, was having chest pain, palpitations, and could hardly speak. He had just shot Smith, a physician, in the chest, claiming that the assault rifle that Smith carried was the same weapon that terrorists had used to kill his mother, father, his wife and one of his sons before his own eyes.

Smith's wife, almost hysterical, confirmed that her husband routinely used the assault weapon to hunt small rodents. She stated that he was on his way to a nearby wooded area "in the country" to pursue his sport.

Litsky used a registered handgun, a .38-caliber pistol (with a legal concealed-weapon permit), which he had hurriedly removed from his car. After questioning Mr. Litsky at the hospital emergency room, the police were forced to let him go without charges. Litsky, who carries the gun "for fear of my life," having witnessed six mass murders by various terrorist groups, could say only that he was very sorry but that he could not help himself, that the man carrying an assault weapon in public "scared me to death."

The tragic shooting brings to the forefront the issue of assault weapons, not as to whether they ought to be legal, but whether or not it should be legal to kill someone who is carrying one in public if he is not a police officer or a military person. Another concern is that it being so simple in some states to legally acquire assault weapons and high-grade semi-automatic weapons, how does one even know that the carrier is really a policeman or an officer of the people and not really a disguised terrorist?

The NRA, late today, issued an angry statement, asking:" Is it now going to be legal to kill anyone carrying an assault weapon? This is a gross violation of civil rights, a violation of the Second Amendment! Mr. Litsky should be prosecuted!... uh ... we think... Actually, we're not sure," the spokesman affirmed. "We'll have to think about it." Meanwhile, Congressman Diddlepoop, head of the anti-gun proponents, actually agreed with Andrew Poopdiddle, the NRA spokesman. He stated in an interview with CNN that "We're not sure either. We too will have to think about it."

The hope is that Misters Poopdiddle and Diddlepoop can come to some kind of an agreement someday on the issues of gun laws and special concessions for assault rifles. In fact, earlier this week, in a sign of good faith, Mr. Diddlepoop relented on his proposal to ban water pistols, conceding that some brands ought to be allowed, but that they must be licensed and the owners must pass a competency test and swear they will use only water in the pistol. But very soon the great battle raged again, the NRA stating that if all the students had been issued assault weapons, they could have gunned down that "sick bastard" at Virginia Tech. "At least give them a fighting chance, some sort of semiautomatic weapons," they argued. Anti-gun proponents countered that if everyone on campus were armed, it could result in hundreds or even thousands of deaths!

The NRA called on President Botch, who agreed that "we dare not trample on the Second Amendment, which reads: 'the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'" The anti-gun lobbyist argued "didn't you forget about the first part of the amendment about 'a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state?'" "I didn't know there was a first part." the president replied and added: "Besides, nobody knows what that means anyway."

"You certainly don't," mumbled the anti-gun proponent under his breath.

"This is the most important right that people have! It was more important to the founding fathers than any of the other amendments," the president admonished, "and i don't think it's my place to interfere."

And so the battle raged on! The first reporter, David Ben Gregorian, wanted to ask President Botch "then why are you trying to create a remedial Christian state, censor and intimidate the press (1st Amendment), why all the search and seizures, bugging phones and searching bank accounts without a warrant (4th Amendment), delaying and denying trials of American citizens while withholding counsel for 4 years, not to mention a little torture (5th, 6th,7th, 8th, and 9th Amendments down the tubes, and how about the War Powers and Patriot Acts usurping those powers 'not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states [that] are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.'" (In other words, if an illiterate or stupid congress doesn't want these powers, they don't go to the president, they go to the people. 10th Amendment.) "Geez," he thought, "the only one of the original amendments you haven't trampled on is the 3rd. You've probably never heard of it."

Instead, Ben Gregorian took a deep breath and asked a more pertinent question: "Assuming, Mr. Botch, that every citizen is entitled to an assault weapon, what about 'nuclear weapons?' Aren't they entitled to them under your Second Amendment? And, if that is the case, how can we deny them to Iran or North Korea?"

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From Libertarian Institute



From commons.wikimedia.org: Comedy and tragedy

(Image by Sheldon Richman) Details DMCA



The whole election-meddling distraction is remarkable in both comic and tragic ways. The tragedy can be summed up in three words: New Cold War. At a time when the U.S. and Russian governments ought to be working toward nuclear disarmament, relations are deteriorating dangerously. As the estimable Australian writer Caitlin Johnstone notes, despite Donald Trump's campaign promise of detente with Russia,

Would Trump have done these things without the pressure of Russiagate? I don't know, but Russiagate hasn't helped. And what more would Hillary Clinton have done by this point? Johnstone argues that Russiagate is all about putting Russia in its place and securing the American ruling elite's geopolitical and economic interests -- not about getting Trump:

"America's unelected power establishment doesn't care about impeaching Trump, it cares about hobbling Russia in order to prevent the rise of a potential rival superpower in its ally China. All this lunacy makes perfect sense when you realize this. The U.S. deep state is using the hysterical cult of anti-Trumpism to manufacture support for increasing escalations with Russia, and the anti-Trumpists are playing right along under the delusion that pushing for moves against Russia will hurt Trump."

Of course, removing Trump from office would be a cherry on top. If the drivers of Russiagate can't have that, at least they can leave the impression that Hillary Clinton would be president today were it not for the diabolically cunning Vladimir Putin and the inherently depraved Russia in cahoots with their tool, Donald Trump. (Putin's opponents in Russia are irritated that Americans portray Putin as virtually omnipotent.) Russiagate promoters in the Democratic Party deny they intend to right the wrong of 2016, but I don't believe them. Surely they are trying to delegitimate the election on the grounds that Trump and Putin stole it from its rightful owner. (For the record, I think all elections are illegitimate but not because of foreign involvement.)

The anti-Russia campaign has certainly gone well beyond overboard. Former Director of National Intelligence James (Yeah, I lied. What you gonna do about it?) Clapper, on "Meet the Press," said the Russians "are... typically, almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique." (Beg your pardon, I linked to RT. Here's an American site for anyone concerned about having RT in their browser history.) Johnstone points out that Clapper has said such things before, including: "But as far as our being intimate allies, trusting buds with the Russians, that is just not going to happen. It is in their genes to be opposed, diametrically opposed to the United States and to Western democracies." As I recall, former CIA Director John Brennan said something similar.

On the comic side, Russiagate is a new theater of the absurd, featuring Americans running around with their hair on fire over alleged official Russian actions that amount to nothing significant: it was an act of war -- another Pearl Harbor -- no wait, another 9/11!

Let's assume -- purely for the sake of discussion since no evidence has been made public -- that the Russians did it. Note, first, that the "it" looks like the product of the gang that couldn't shoot straight. I'm not going to do what Johnstone, Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate', and the late Robert Parry have done so well so many times, namely, catalog all the inane acts the Putin-guided Russian intel agencies are said to have committed in order to bring down America. (Start here.) Suffice it to say that if that's the best Putin can come up with, we have little to worry about. Of course, the very inanity of this so-called campaign to destroy America -- the ridiculous discrepancy between means and alleged end, the sheer clownish ineptitude -- furnishes sufficient grounds for skepticism, at least, about the Russiagate narrative. (See David Stockman's explanation of the ineptitude. SPOILER ALERT: It wasn't a Russian intel operation. The man who we are to believe sought to subvert America's democracy is a freelance pro-Putin Russian food-industry oligarch employing a bunch of minimum-wage keyboard jockeys who didn't pay attention to the United States until the 2014 U.S.-sponsored coup in Ukraine, i.e., before there was a Trump campaign.)

Another comic aspect is the national arrogance of it all. How dare anyone interfere with our election! What's so funny is that some people who express such outrage really have no idea how many times the U.S. government has interfered in other countries' elections (including Russia's), not to mention far worse things, like perpetrating assassinations, coups, and invasions. (See Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. This sordid history is summarized here.)

Americans generally do not know the nefarious things "their" government has done over many, many years. This is partly due to what Bryan Caplan in The Myth of the Rational Voter calls "rational irrationalism." Americans embrace a nationalism that is impervious to facts. Even vivid accounts of the systematic wholesale slaughter of the Indians wouldn't shake it. People generally don't like to venture outside their comfort zones to shake up their worldview, and even if they did so, what would change? Each person has only one vote, and the chance that one vote will make a difference is close to zero. So why not indulge one's nationalist biases? It's not as though there's an opportunity cost to doing so.

On the other hand, politicians and pundits do have some idea of America's long record of intervening in other countries. (Maybe I'm being too charitable.) What's their excuse for being so offended by even the possibility of meddling in an U.S. election? One explanation is the "exceptional nation" dogma of the American creed, or what I call the American chosen-people complex. Even secular American nationalists believe America has been anointed -- by history if not by a deity -- to lead the world. (This goes back to the founding generation, by the way. It's no post-World War II phenomenon. See America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited.)

Thus, we have a moral inequivalence on our hands. It's okay if we do it to "them" (whomever), but it's not okay if "they" do it to us. Moreover, we can do it to ourselves, but if anyone else tries it, there'll be hell to pay.

Any way you look at it, Russiagate is ridiculous. Of course it serves some people's interests. But it harms the rest of us, most of all by bringing us closer to conflict with Russia, perhaps even to nuclear war.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.

(This is a reprint from NewsBred)



Image created from image crediting

(Image by Ashish Shukla) Details DMCA



Indian Express is breathless in rubbishing the recent speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Parliament that "democracy in India wasn't the work of Pt. Nehru... but that it was in ragon (veins) of Indians." In last one week, Ashutosh Varshney and D.N. Jha have hogged its edit pages to sneer at the Prime Minister and swoon at Pt. Nehru as the reason India has democracy.

We know too well the design of such anti-India forces to blacken our glorious heritage. You call them stooges of Western powers (for whom democracy originated from Greece ) or the lackeys of left (sworn enemies of Hinduism) but never forget the vileness of these forces. They don't mean good of you or me or our future generations.

Varshney defines democracy as one of elected governments and universal adult suffrage, a typical Western notion. Who are we to tell him that Pt. Nehru's own mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, took a dim view of such a democracy! Gandhi saw better merit in "Republics of Village" -- a direct democracy rather than a representative democracy--in which India abounded.

Varshney's second line of propaganda is that ancient India may have had Councils (Gana or Sangha) through which a king governed but a common citizen had no role to play. Here's what the eyewitness account of Alexander's campaign to India in the 4th century BCE by a Greek historian Arrian states: " (there were) free and independent Indian communities at every turn".

Greek writer Diodorus Siculus mentions that he mostly came across cities in India that practiced a democratic form of government." The reference was from an account of no less than Greek traveler Megasthenes who had covered the entire Northern India and went as far as Patliputra.

Varshney probably hasn't heard of Kautilya or his Arthashastra in the 4th century BCE, which mentions "janapadas" (republic) where craftsmen, traders and agriculturalists had their guilds and wealth earned from trade ran the political process.

Panini, in his Sanskrit Classic "Ashtadhyayi", mentions the process of decision-making in politics. He provides various terms for voting and decision making through voting. He also mentions that in these republics "there was no consideration of high and low." The Buddhist literature in Pali and Brahmnical literature in Sanskrit portray a complex scenario of different groups managing their own affairs.

Indeed, the non-monarchical governments in India go back to Vedic times . Rig Veda (10/191/2) mentions that "all resources to all stake-holders must be distributed equally."

As for Pt. Nehru and his democratic credentials, his very appointment as Prime Minister was as undemocratic method as you could come across in any world annals. Nobody voted for him, yet he was made Prime Minister after majority's favourite Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel bowed to the tyranny of Mahatma Gandhi.

And before touting for "democratic" Pt. Nehru, Varshney also ought to have informed the readers that the first Prime Minister of India had indeed jailed Majrooh Sultanpuri for his poem, which didn't paint him in golden colours. No wonder, his daughter Indira Gandhi went a step further and imposed emergency.

So much for "freedom of speech" and "freedom of expression", which Varshney calls essentials in democracy.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 flickr.com: blowback

(Image by timsnell) Details DMCA



"The compulsive hatred of Putin by many who have almost zero idea about Putin or Russian history is disproportionate to any rational analysis, but not surprising. Trump and Putin are like weird doppelgangers in the liberal imagination." - John Steppling, "Trump, Putin, and Nikolas Cruz Walk into a Bar"

The Trump and Netanyahu governments have a problem: How to start a greatly expanded Middle-Eastern war without having a justifiable reason for one. No doubt they are working hard to solve this urgent problem. If they can't find a "justification" (which they can't), they will have to create one (which they will). Or perhaps they will find what they have already created. Whatever the solution, we should feel confident that they are not sitting on their hands. History teaches those who care to learn that when aggressors place a gun on the wall in the first act of their play, it must go off in the final act.

These sinister players have signaled us quite clearly what they have in store. All signs point toward an upcoming large-scale Israeli/U.S. attack on Lebanon and Syria, and all the sycophantic mainstream media are in the kitchen prepping for the feast. Russia and Iran are the main course, with Lebanon and Syria, who will be devoured first, as the hors d'oeuvres. As always, the media play along as if they don't yet know what's coming. Everyone in the know knows what is, just not exactly when. And the media wait with baited breath as they count down to the dramatic moment when they can report the incident that will compel the "innocent" to attack the "guilty."

Anyone with half a brain can see the greatly increased anti-Russian propaganda of the past few weeks. This has happened as the Russia-gate claims have fallen to pieces, as former CIA analyst Raymond McGovern, the late Robert Parry, Paul Craig Roberts, and others have documented so assiduously. All across the media spectrum, from the big name corporate stenographers like The New York Times, CNN, National Public Radio, The Washington Post to The Atlantic and Nation magazines and other "leftist" publications such as Mother Jones and Who What Why, the Russia and Putin bashing has become hysterical in tone, joined as it is with an anti-Trump obsession, as if Trump were a dear friend of Putin and Russia and wasn't closely allied with the Netanyahu government in its plans for the Middle-East. As if Trump were in charge. "Russia Sees Midterm Elections as a Chance to Sow Fresh Discord (NY Times, 2/13), "Russia Strongman" (Putin) has "pulled off one of the greatest acts of political sabotage in modern history (The Atlantic, Jan. /Feb. 2018), ""Mueller's Latest Indictment Shows Trump Has Helped Putin Cover Up a Crime" (Mother Jones, 2/16/18), "A Russian Sightseeing Tour For Realists" (whowhatwhy.com, 2/7/18), etc.

I am reminded of the turn to the right that so many "muckrakers" made during and after WW I. Afraid of a revolt from below, bewitched by their own vision to articulate the world's future, heady over their own war propaganda, and wanting to be on the safe side of the government crackdown on dissent (The Espionage Act, the Palmer Raids, etc.), many progressives of the era embraced a jingoism similar to the anti-Russia mania of today.

Only someone totally lacking a sense of humor and blind to propaganda would not laugh uproariously at today's media nonsense about Russia, but such laughter would be infused with a foreboding awareness that as the Middle East explodes and U.S./NATO backed Kiev forces prepare to attack the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, the world is entering a very dangerous period. And of course Trump has said, "The U.S. has great strength and patience but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."---totally destroy 26 million human beings. While his bully buddy in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, recently said at the Munich Security Conference that Iran is "the greatest threat to the world," compared it to Nazi Germany, and claimed it was developing ballistic missiles to strike deep into the United States. "Iran seeks to dominate our region, the Middle East, and seeks to dominate the world through aggression and terror," he said. And he vowed to act against Iran and anyone who supported it -- i.e. Lebanon and Syria---and Russia.

Putin also, like all the mythic bogeymen, is portrayed as the new Hitler intent on conquering the world. If the American public wasn't so "sophisticated and adept at seeing through lies" -- pause and laugh -- we could expect some World War I posters with Russian soldiers (like The Huns), sharp teeth glistening, gorilla strong and beastly, holding American women in preparation for the kill or rape. Last year, when Oliver Stone did the world the great service of releasing his four-part interview with Putin, he was bashed, of course. Just as he was with his film JFK, the only movie in history to be reviewed and panned one year before its release by a Washington Post reviewer who didn't see the movie but had a purloined preliminary script as his source. The Washington Post: the object of the latest film drivel, The Post, portraying it falsely as the savior of the nation through the publication of the Pentagon Papers (which is another story). The Washington Post -- the CIA's dear friend.

In his Putin interviews, Oliver Stone, a man of truth and honor, lets viewers catch a glimpse of the real Vladimir Putin. Of course Putin is a politician and the leader of a great and powerful nation, and one should receive his words skeptically. But watching Stone interview Putin for four hours, one comes away -- but I doubt few have watched the four hours -- with a reasonably good sense of the man. And putting aside one's impressions of him, he makes factual points that should ring loud and clear to anyone conversant with facts. One: that the U.S. needs an external enemy ("I know that, I feel that."). Two: the U.S.A. engineered the coup d'e'tat in the Ukraine on Russia's border. Three: the U.S. has surrounded Russia with US/NATO troops and bases armed with anti-ballistic missiles that can, as Putin rightly says to Stone, be converted in hours to regular offensive nuclear missile aimed at Russia. This is a factual and true statement that should make any fair-minded person stand up in horror. If Russia had such missiles encircling the United States from Cuba, Mexico, and Canada, what American would find it tolerable? What would CNN and The New York Times have to say? Yet these same people readily find it impossible to see the legitimacy in Russia's position, resorting to name calling and illogical rhetoric. Russia is surrounded with U.S/NATO troops and missiles and yet Russia is the aggressor. So too Iran that is also surrounded. These media are propagandists, that's why. They promote war, as they always have. They are pushing for war with Russia via Syria/Lebanon/Iran and Ukraine, and they are nihilistically demonizing North Korea (as part of Obama's pivot toward Asia and the encircling of China, as John Pilger has brilliantly documented in his film The Coming War on China) in what can only be called a conspiracy to commit genocide, as Dr. Graeme MacQueen and Christopher Black make clear in their Open Letter to the International Criminal Court: click here

We are moving toward a global war that will become nuclear if an international ant-war movement doesn't quickly arise to stop it. Most people bemoan the thought of such a war to end all wars, but refuse to analyze the factors leading to it. It happens step-by-step, and many steps have already been taken with more coming soon. It's so obvious that most can't see it, or don't want to. The corporate main stream media are enemies of the truth; are clearly part of the continuation of the CIA's Operation Mockingbird, and those who still rely on them for the truth are beyond reach. Douglas Valentine, in The CIA as Organized Crime , says the CIA has long aimed to use and co-opt the "Compatible Left, which in America translates into liberals and pseudo-intellectual status seekers who are easily influenced." And he adds that the propaganda is not just produced by the CIA but by the military, State Department, and red, white, and blue advertisements that are everywhere. Nothing has changed since the Church Committee hearings in the 1970s. Valentine adds:

All of that is ongoing, despite being exposed in the late 1960s. Various technological advances,

including the internet, have spread the network around the world, and many people don't even

realize they are part of it, that they're promoting the CIA line. "Assad's a butcher," they say, or

"Putin kills journalists," or "China is repressive. They have no idea what they're talking about

but spout all this propaganda.

William Blake said it truly:

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From Consortium News

Fads and scandals often follow a set trajectory. They grow big, bigger, and then, finally, too big, at which point they topple over and collapse under the weight of their own internal contradictions. This was the fate of the "Me too" campaign, which started out as an expose' of serial abuser Harvey Weinstein but then went too far when Babe.net published a story about one woman's bad date with comedian Aziz Ansari. Suddenly, it became clear that different types of behavior were being lumped together in a dangerous way, and a once-explosive movement began to fizzle.

So, too, with Russiagate. After dominating the news for more than a year, the scandal may have at last reached a tipping point with last week's indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three Russian corporations on charges of illegal interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But the indictment landed with a decided thud for three reasons:

-- It failed to connect the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the alleged St. Petersburg troll factory accused of political meddling, with Vladimir Putin, the all-purpose evil-doer who the corporate media say is out to destroy American democracy.

-- It similarly failed to establish a connection with the Trump campaign and indeed went out of its way to describe contacts with the Russians as "unwitting."

-- It described the meddling itself as even more inept and amateurish than many had suspected.

After nine months of labor, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller thus brought forth a mouse. Even if all the charges are true -- something we'll probably never know since it's unlikely that any of the accused will be brought to trial -- the indictment tells us virtually nothing that's new.

Yes, IRA staffers purchased $100,000 worth of Facebook ads, 56 percent of which ran after Election Day. Yes, they persuaded someone in Florida to dress up as Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform and stand inside a cage mounted on a flatbed truck. And, yes, they also got another "real U.S. person," as the indictment terms it, to stand in front of the White House with a sign saying, "Happy 55th Birthday Dear Boss," a tribute, apparently, to IRA founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the convicted robber turned caterer whose birthday was three days away. Instead of a super-sophisticated spying operation, the indictment depicts a bumbling freelance operation that is still giving Putin heartburn months after the fact.

Not that this has stopped the media from whipping itself into a frenzy. "Russia is at war with our democracy," screamed a headline in the Washington Post. "Trump is ignoring the worst attack on America since 9/11," blared another. "...Russia is engaged in a virtual war against the United States through 21st-century tools of disinformation and propaganda," declared the New York Times, while Daily Beast columnist Jonathan Alter tweeted that the IRA's activities amounted to nothing less than a "tech Pearl Harbor."

All of which merely demonstrates, in proper backhanded fashion, how grievously Mueller has fallen short. Proof that the scandal had at last overstayed its welcome came five days later when the Guardian, a website that had previously flogged Russiagate even more vigorously than the Post, the Times, or CNN, published a news analysis by Cas Mudde, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, admitting that it was all a farce -- and a particularly self-defeating one at that.

Mudde's article made short work of hollow pieties about a neutral and objective investigation. Rather than an effort to get at the truth, Russiagate was a thinly-veiled effort at regime change. "[I]n the end," he wrote, "the only question everyone really seems to care about is whether Donald Trump was involved -- and can therefore be impeached for treason.

With last week's indictment, the article went on, "Democratic party leaders once again reassured their followers that this was the next logical step in the inevitable downfall of Trump." The more Democrats play the Russiagate card, in other words, the nearer they will come to their goal of riding the Orange-Haired One out of town on a rail.

This makes the Dems seem crass, unscrupulous, and none too democratic. But then Mudde gave the knife a twist. The real trouble with the strategy, he said, is that it isn't working:

"While there is no doubt that the Trump camp was, and still is, filled with amoral and fraudulent people, and was very happy to take the Russians help during the elections, even encouraging it on the campaign, I do not think Mueller will be able to find conclusive evidence that Donald Trump himself colluded with Putin's Russia to win the elections. And that is the only thing that will lead to his impeachment as the Republican party is not risking political suicide for anything less."

Other Objectives of "Russiagate"



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Barzani and Qubad Talabani are working with Turkey, while Qubad older brother Bafel Talabani is working with Iran. There is an indication that Erdogan is doing everything against the US interest because of powerful lobbyist loyal to Israel in Washington D.C. are ignored by the new US administration.

The Lords of the Satanic organization who want to control the world through globalization are not happy with the new US administration. The Lords of the Satanic organization were planning wars against Iran. But the US is not capable to wage war against Iran now.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is in Lebonan, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen now with thousands of missiles to hit Israel and oil supplies in the Persian Gulf countries and Turkey's ports. Russian is actively helping Iran in last three decades. North Korea helped Iran too.

In short, Iran is not an easy target for the US now. Only internal war within Iran can defeat the current government of Iran. Who is capable to fight Iranian forces within Iran?

The supporters of the former Shah of Iran are without Iranian people's support. The People's Mujahedin of Iran is without Iranian people's support. The tribal organization of Iran can be defeated in few battles. In short, there is no powerful organization within Iran to fight Islamist forces within Iran.

PJAK and KODAR of Kurds are well organized and gaining the support of Medes people (Kurd, Lur, Gilani, Mazandarani, Khorasani, Sorkah, Taylish, and others). Only Persian and Azeri Turs are supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Medes under the leadership of PJAK and KODAR can defeat the Islamist of Iran internally.

The Lords of the Satanic organization are pushing the US to wage war against Iran without any plan. And such war could lead to the killing of millions of Jewish people in Israel. For sure the Lords of the Satanic organization never cared about Jewish people in the past. They are after collection of money if one studies their histories. They always sacrificed Jewish people for self-interest.

Erdogan and Barzani are not capable to wage war against Iran. And Iran is going to get out of control sooner than later unless the Lords of the Satanic organization are giving up the old ideas and joining the new US administration to fight Iran internally. As long as the Lords of the Satanic organization are helping Erdogan and Barzani kind, the Islamic Republic of Iran power is increasing, which can lead to Israel destruction for good.

References

Turkey and Israel's deep trade ties expose the emptiness of Erdogan's rhetoric over Jerusalem

click here

"Mossad sent me to Kurdistan to help the Kurds": Sagi Chori 13.7.2011

Saqi Chori interviewed by Israel-Kurd

rd.net/mismas/articles/misc2011/7/state5261.htm

BARZANI'S ISRAEL TRIP IN 1960ies

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From Truthdig



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The Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington-based Democratic Party think tank funded by Wall Street, including private health insurers and their lobbying group, unveiled a new healthcare proposal designed to confuse supporters of "Medicare for All" and protect private health insurance profits. It is receiving widespread coverage in "progressive" media outlets. We must be aware of what is happening so that we are not fooled into another "public option" dead end.*

The fact that CAP is using Medicare for All language is both a blessing and a curse. It means Medicare for All is so popular that they feel a need to co-opt it, and it means that they are trying to co-opt it, which will give Democrats an opportunity to use it to confuse people.

This effort could be preparation for the possibility that Democrats win a majority in Congress in 2018 or 2020. It is normal for the pendulum to swing to the party opposite the President's party during the first term in office. If Democrats win a majority, they will be expected to deliver on health care, but they face a dilemma of having to please their campaign donors, which includes the health insurance industry, or pleasing their voters, where 75% support single-payer health care.

The public is aware that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) protects the profits of the medical-industrial complex (private health insurers, Big Pharma and for-profit providers) and not the healthcare needs of the public. "Fixing the ACA" is not popular. Last year during repeal attempts, people made it clear at town halls and rallies that they want a single-payer healthcare system such as National Improved Medicare for All (NIMA). By offering a solution that sounds good to the uninformed, "Medicare Extra for All," but continues to benefit their Wall Street donors, Democrats hope to fool people or buy enough support to undermine efforts for NIMA.

This is an expected development. If we look at the phases of stage six of successful social movements by Bill Moyers (see slide 8), we see that as a movement nears victory, the power holders appear to get in line with the public's solution while actually attacking it. If the movement recognizes what is happening, that this is a false solution and not what the movement is demanding, then we have a chance to win NIMA. If the movement falls for the false solution, it loses.

Our tasks at this moment are to understand what the power holders are offering, recognize why it is a false solution and reject it.

"Medicare Extra for All" versus National Improved Medicare for All

The basic outline for the new proposal is that people would be able to buy a Medicare plan, a form of "public option," including the Medicare Advantage plans offered by private health insurers. People who choose to buy a Medicare plan would pay premiums and co-pays, as they do now for private health insurance. The new Medicare system would replace Medicaid for people with low incomes.

Private health insurance would still exist for employers, who currently cover the largest number of people, federal employees and the military. While workers would have the option to buy a Medicare plan, it is unclear how many would do so given that most employers who provide health insurance have their own plans and that private health insurers are experts at marketing their plans to the public.

NIMA, as embodied in HR 676: "The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act," would create a single national healthcare system, paid for up front through taxes, that covers every person from birth to death and covers all medically-necessary care. NIMA relegates private insurance to the sidelines where it could potentially provide supplemental coverage for those who want extras, but it would no longer serve as a barrier for people who need care.

Here are the flaws in the CAP proposal: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.

China's air force is trying to boost its capability at high altitudes over its far western airbases amid simmering tensions with India, sending more advanced fighter jets to the area, South China Morning Post reported Thursday (Feb 22).

Months after a protracted stand-off on the Doklam plateau ended, both nations are still building up their militaries along the border -- which observers say is preparation for further confrontation, the Post said adding:

"Last week, J-10 and J-11 fighter jets joined a combat training exercise in western China, according to an article and photos on the People's Liberation Army website. The drill was held a month after satellite images showed a Chinese build-up in air power at two bases near the border -- including fighter aircraft and helicopters -- while the Indian air force had also deployed more Su-30 MKI warplanes to two airbases near Doklam since the middle of last year."

Song Zhongping, a former instructor with the PLA's Second Artillery Corps, was quoted as saying that China's deployment of J-10s and J-11s was a sign it is trying to boost its defenses in the area to counter any threat from India.

J-11s have a range of 1,500km, which can be extended with additional fuel tanks, while J-10 jet fighters have a range of 1,850km.

"The upgrade in the Western Theatre Command is urgent because in China's western region, relations with India have been strained due to the border tensions, with no resolution in sight. India is gearing up already, so it's necessary for China to prepare for a possible military confrontation. And in these mountainous areas, superiority in the air is of utmost importance," Song said.

The PLA's western zone covers Tibet, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Chongqing.

Adam Ni, a military researcher from the Australian National University, was quoted as saying that China's western airbases were located in high altitudes with low air density, making it a difficult environment for the air force to operate in.

"The new deployment of the jets is part of a concerted effort to improve Chinese air power, which is at initial disadvantage against India due to the natural landscape," he said. "However, this disadvantage is more than offset by the quantitative and qualitative advantages that China's air force can call upon in a prolonged conflict."

Ni added that China was trying to build on these advantages by developing and deploying advanced jets and improving its logistics, airbases and technology.

Extreme weather poses the greatest challenge at high altitudes, according to Song, because fuel efficiency is lower and the aircraft must be able to withstand tougher conditions.

He said using more advanced aircraft was only one aspect of the air force's approach to overcoming altitude problems.

"China also needs to constantly train pilots and prepare them for high altitudes, and improve cooperation between the support team on the ground and pilots to make sure performance isn't affected [in the difficult conditions]," he said.

But Shanghai-based military expert Ni Lexiong said the J-10 and J-11 fighter jets were less advanced than its J-20 stealth fighters and the Su-35s that were recently sent on combat patrol over the South China Sea -- suggesting Beijing's priority was still its rivalry with Washington.

"Sending these jets to different theatre commands shows that the major focus of China's military is still the east, with the United States being the main rival. The threat from India comes second in China's military priority," he said. "But of course China made sure the new jets it deployed were better than India's."

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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

There are many signs of American collapse. One of the most scary is the fact that the American Civil Liberties Union no longer knows what are the civil liberties it purports to defend. Identity Politics has transformed civil rights into privileges for victim groups.

Yesterday (February 22, 2018) I received a 50-state survey from the ACLU. The envelope in which the questionnaire arrived said the survey was about how "to protect civil liberties during the Trump Presidency." However, the survey (essentially a fundraiser) did not mention a single civil liberty contained in the Bill of Rights and added as amendments to the US Constitution.

Nothing about the sweeping away by the criminal Bush regime of habeas corpus with indefinite detention. No mention of the criminal Obama regime's kill list, which swept away due process by executing US citizens on allegation alone without trial, evidence, and conviction. Nothing about the sweeping away by both criminal regimes of the prohibition against spying on citizens without warrants. No mention of the shutdown of free speech and protest or of the destruction of civil liberties by unaccountable police who brutalize, rob, and murder Americans at will.

In place of civil liberties, the ACLU has Identity Politics. The ACLU "civil rights" survey is concerned with the civil rights of illegal aliens, of women to have abortions and publicly financed birth control, the "fundamental rights of LGBT people," and Muslim bans. The civil liberties listed in the Constitution do not qualify for concern; only invented rights that are not listed in the Bill of Rights.

The letter accompanying the questionnaire does mention the First Amendment and suppression of free speech "emanating from the White House." I mean, really, the Bush and Obama regimes decimated free speech and imprisoned whistleblowers. Julian Assange has been imprisoned for years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for publishing leaked material revealing criminal and deceitful behavior of the US government. By the time of Trump's election, the First Amendment was a dead letter civil right.

In the ACLU's Identity Politics, white people, especially white heterosexual males, have no rights. They are not protected by quotas, political correctness, or hate speech prohibitions. No one has to worry about offending a white by destroying statues of white males or church plaques commemorating George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Try destroying a statue of Martin Luther King. A white person can be called every name in the book, and is. White DNA is said to be an abomination. Anyone who said black DNA or homosexual DNA was an abomination would face hate crime charges.

Even men-hating white feminists jump on the anti-white bandwagon, denouncing white heterosexual -- not homosexual -- males as misogynist. The feminists reserve their hate for the men attracted to women.

War is the greatest destroyer of civil liberty. Indefinite detention, execution without due process, spying without warrants, suppression of the First Amendment are all consequences of the use of 9/11 to put the US on a war basis. The replacement of civil liberty with a police state is said to be necessary in order to protect us from Muslim terrorists, expanded to include undefined "domestic extremists." Currently the US is being put on an even greater war basis with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and even Venezuela declared as threats to America.

The ACLU shares responsibility for the explosion of the threat level from al Qaeda to every country that "threatens" America by having its own independent foreign policy and insisting on its sovereignty. It was Trump who said he was going to normalize relations with Russia, and it was the ACLU and the entirety of the liberal/progressive/left who jumped on the anti-Trump bandwagon and went after him with the orchestrated conspiracy of Russiagate. What the liberal/progressive/left did was to drive Trump into the arms of the military/security complex.

Clearly, the liberal/progressive/left and the ACLU are a greater menace to the Bill of Rights than Donald Trump.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Reader Supported News

Full disclosure: I am a gun owner and I have been for 35 years. I do not however own an assault rifle and never have.

Like most American gun owners, I allowed myself to shoot paper -- paper targets, specifically. I went for years on a fairly regular basis to my local (police-run) shooting range and honed my marksmanship on paper targets.

In December 2012, I was busy publishing RSN and had little time for any activities that diverted my time and attention from my work, when the news of the Sandy Hook shooting exploded.

To this day, most Americans cannot even begin to imagine the horror of what occurred in those classrooms to those children and the teachers who gave their lives to defend them.

I was angry that the photos of the dead children would not be released. The Connecticut State Legislature passed a law specifically to prevent the release of the images. Ostensibly it was to shield the families of the murdered children from further pain and suffering. That was a lie.

The suffering of the families of these children will never, ever end, and if they were really asked if they wanted the country to know what was done to their children, most of them would likely say, "Yes, the world should know ... the world must see this." Just like the mother of Emmett Till.

I always saw the decision to hide the Sandy Hook photos as a cynical mechanism concocted by lawmakers to shield the NRA and the politicians who enable them. In fact the NRA should fear the day those images are released.

To the point, I call for the release of all the Sandy Hook photos that the family members of the murdered children are willing to authorize. They must be asked directly. That lie must end. Let the State of Connecticut stand in direct opposition to the families of the slain children.

After Sandy Hook, I never fired another shot. In the beginning I wrote it off as being too busy or not living in an area where it was convenient. But time passed and then more time, and I came to understand that it was something deeper.

The photos of the murdered children at Sandy Hook have never been released, but I can see them. I always could. I couldn't bring myself to go back and pick up a firearm again. I can't.

My heroes are the young people who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and all the students across the country who are mobilizing in solidarity with their brave struggle. They are young and strong -- that gives them a chance to effect change. We must stand with them.

Oh yeah, this piece was supposed to be about Wayne LaPierre: Step over him.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Counterpunch



From youtube.com: Palestinian Art as a Form of Nonviolent Resistance.

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As soon as Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a couscous-style salad "inspired by the flavours of Palestine," a controversy ensued. Israel's supporters ignited a social media storm and sent many complaints to the company, obliging the airline to remove the reference to Palestine.

In the Zionist narrative, Palestine does not exist -- nor is it allowed to exist -- even if merely as a cultural conception.

The sad irony is that, while Israel appropriated Palestinian-Arabic couscous (the Palestinian dish, in particular, is known as "maftoul"), branding and marketing it in western countries as "Israeli couscous," its supporters go to every extent possible to erase any reference that may validate Palestinian Arab culture, whether Muslim or Christian.

This is an old habit, an endemic practice that dates back to the destruction of nearly 600 Palestinian villages and localities in 1947-48. Palestinians refer to these earth-shattering events as the "Nakba," or catastrophe. Tellingly, Israel outlaws the use of the term or the commemoration of the tragic event in any way.

From claiming Palestinian Arab culinary culture as their own, to "Judaized" Arabic street names to rewriting history, Israel and its supporters are relentless.

Israel fears a Palestinian narrative because the Israeli government understands, and rightly so, that it is the collective Palestinian narrative that has compelled resistance, in all of its forms for over 70 years.

All attempts have failed, until recently.

The 1993 Oslo Accord is a critical juncture that shattered the cohesiveness of Palestinian discourse and weakened and divided the Palestinian people. However, it is not too late to remedy this through decisive and concentrated efforts that overcome the challenge of a Palestinian political viewpoint beholden to self-seeking political aspirations and competing factions.

In the absence of a Palestinian leadership populated by the Palestinian people themselves, intellectuals must safeguard and present the Palestinian story to the world with authenticity and balance. The clarity and integrity of the Palestinian story has been damaged and divided by Palestinian Authority (PA) tactics which remove Palestinian refugees' right of return from their political platform.

Essentially, the story of Palestine is the story of the Palestinian people, for they are the victims of oppression and the main channel of Resistance, starting with the creation of Israel on the ruins of Palestinian villages. If Palestinians had not resisted, their story would have concluded right there and then and they, too, would have disappeared.

Those who admonish Palestinian Resistance, armed or otherwise, have little understanding of the psychological ramifications of resistance, such as a sense of collective empowerment and hope amongst the people. In his introduction to Frantz Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth," Jean-Paul Sartre describes violent resistance as a process through which "a man is re-creating himself."

And for seven decades, Palestinians have embarked on this journey of the recreation of the "self." They have resisted, and their resistance in all forms has moulded a sense of collective unity, despite the numerous divisions that have been erected amongst them.

Relentless resistance, a notion now embodied in the very fabric of Palestinian society, denied the oppressor the opportunity to emasculate Palestinians, or to reduce them to helpless victims and hapless refugees. The collective memory of the Palestinian people must focus on what it means to be Palestinian, defining the Palestinian people, what they stand for as a nation, and why they have resisted for years.

A new articulation of the Palestinian narrative is necessary, now more than ever before. The elitist interpretation of Palestine has failed, and is as worthless as the Oslo Accords. It is no more than a tired exercise in empty cliche's, aimed at sustaining American political dominance in Palestine as well as in the rest of the Middle East.

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From Reader Supported News



The New York Times

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The Central Intelligence Agency last week told a federal judge, in response to a lawsuit, that it had a right to leak classified information to selected journalists and then to deny release of exactly the same information to other journalists requesting it under the Freedom of Information Act.

The suit was filed by independent journalist Adam Johnson, whose work is frequently published in The Nation, Alternet, and on other progressive sites. Johnson noticed that in a 2012 information release request to the CIA by then-Gawker journalist John Cook for correspondence between the CIA and a number of prominent journalists, many of the responses to those journalists were redacted. Why, Johnson wondered, would the CIA send emails to some journalists and then withhold the same information from others? Why was preferential treatment being given?

For the record, the journalists who received preferential treatment were Jo Becker and Scott Shane of The New York Times; David Ignatius of The Washington Post; Ken Dilanian and Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times; Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman of the Associated Press; and Siobhan Gorman and Evan Perez of The Wall Street Journal. Most have since moved on to other outlets.

In one example that Johnson cited in his suit, The Wall Street Journal's Gorman wrote to the CIA's Office of Public Affairs, "I'm told that on runs, Director Petraeus's security detail hands him bottles of water, relay-style, so as not to slow him down. And you mentioned the director's running a 6-minute mile, but I was told that the agency-wide invitation was that if you could run a 7-minute mile, you can come run with the director. I wanted to make sure both are is [sic] accurate. On the chart, it's accurate to say that the congressional gym and the Pentagon gym ranked high, right? And I was just told that the facilities at the black sites were better than the ones at CIA. Don't know whether that's something you want to weigh in on, but I thought I'd see if you did."

The CIA responded the same day. "Siobhan ..." The rest of the document is redacted. In closing, the CIA added, "We can chat more on Monday, hope this helps." That's it. The entire response was deemed to be too classified for you and me. But it was okay for Siobhan Gorman. She quickly responded, "Thanks for the help. I hope I wasn't the cause of your dental appointment delay. This is very helpful as I try to tie up loose ends on this story. Sometimes 'fun' stories take as much work as their 'less fun' brethren. Sorry for all the qus [sic]."

The CIA argued that limited, selective disclosures of classified information to journalists are perfectly legal. The National Security Act of 1947, they said, only requires protection of intelligence sources and methods from "unauthorized" disclosure, not from authorized disclosure. And because the disclosures at issue were actually intended to protect intelligence sources and methods, they were fully authorized.

That was nonsense, according to Chief Judge Colleen McMahon. She said that Johnson's question "is a good one. The issue is whether the CIA waived its right to rely on otherwise applicable exemptions to FOIA disclosure by admittedly disclosing information selectively to one particular reporter or to three." She ordered the CIA to prepare a "more rigorous" justification of its legal position. Johnson may then respond to the CIA's response by March 1.

The CIA has a long and ugly history with journalists. From the early 1950s to the mid-1970s, the CIA carried out something called "Operation Mockingbird." The purpose of the operation was, in part, to recruit journalists and to manipulate the news media for propaganda purposes, including the propagandizing of the American people. Then-CIA director George H.W. Bush restricted the program in early 1976, and by the time the Church Committee was ready to release its report on CIA wrongdoing around the world, Operation Mockingbird was over.

But routine and regular contact with journalists never ended.

If the CIA wants to be an equal opportunity leaker, well, I guess there's not much to stop it. But the issue is far more serious, and that's because the legal definition of espionage is "providing national defense information to any person not entitled to receive it." That came from Judge Leonie Brinkema in US v. Kiriakou. She couldn't have been any more clear about it.

So why does the CIA get to commit espionage? Because there's nobody to stop them. I've said countless times in this venue that the Congressional oversight committees are cheerleaders and lemmings and will never challenge the CIA on these issues, at least not with the current lineup. Meanwhile, the CIA can leak whatever it wants to whomever it wants with impunity. There won't be any espionage trials for the CIA's Office of Public Affairs.

We can talk in more detail about former CIA director Leon Panetta leaking classified information to a Hollywood producer and writer and getting away with it. We can talk about Panetta publishing his memoir without putting it through the CIA's Publications Review Board, leaving it chock full of classified information and paying no price. We can talk about former CIA director David Petraeus leaking classified information, including the names of 10 covert operatives, to his girlfriend, who was writing his hagiography. He pleaded to a misdemeanor. And the list goes on and on.

But what good would that do? The fix is in. The CIA can do whatever it wants. The rest of us have to follow the rules. There is one glimmer of hope, though. It's Judge Colleen McMahon and those jurists like her. Maybe she'll use this case to give Washington a lesson in respect for the law, freedom of the press, and separation of powers. Maybe.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.Fetal and Neonatal Care Equipment Market -

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1319

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/market-insight/fetal-and-neonatal-care-equipment-market-1319

http://www.coherentchronicle.com/

Global Fetal and Neonatal Care Equipment Market - InsightsFetal and neonatal care products are used for assessment and treatment of newborn babies. Fetal care equipment include devices, which help in monitoring and diagnosis of both mother and fetus. Equipment, which help in assisting in diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of newborn babies are neonatal care equipment. According to the UN Foundation, 2015, maternal & infant care is a global priority, as around 800 women die every day from preventable causes associated with pregnancy or childbirth. This has led to increasing demand for neonatal and fetal care equipment.The global fetal and neonatal care equipment market is estimated to be valued at US$ 7,279.5 million in 2017 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 7.4% over the forecast period (2017  2025).Request a sample copy of this report:Increasing government initiatives for fetal and neonatal care is expected for growth of the marketVarious government and non-government organizations are actively taking initiatives to provide better maternal and fetal care. Moreover, rise in number of problems during pregnancy due to high-blood pressure, diabetes, preterm labor affects the fetus. So, fetal and neonatal care devices are routinely used by gynecologist and obstetrics to examine fetal or babies health during labor and delivery. According to National Institute of Health, Newborn screening programs across the U.S., screen four million infants each year. This public health program detects treatable disorders in newborns, allowing treatment to begin, often before symptoms or permanent problems. Furthermore, demand for fetal monitoring devices is also increasing significantly to reduce intrapartum stillbirths. According to WHO, annually, 15 million babies are born preterm, of which 1 million died before the age of five years, as stated in 2015.North America is expected to account for highest market share in the global fetal and neonatal care equipment market, owing to the presence of a better reimbursement structure, development of well-equipped neonatal intensive care unit by hospitals. The Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Brigham and Womens Hospital (BWH) is a 60-bed Level III newborn intensive care unit that provides complex multidisciplinary care to more than 3,000 babies each year. Moreover, Asia Pacific is expected to witness high growth in the global fetal and neonatal care equipment market. This is owing to increasing incidences of premature births, high birth rates in countries such as India and China, and increasing healthcare awareness are the factors boosting growth of the market in this region. According to WHO, 2012, most neonatal deaths occur in Asia, which accounted for 40% of the global neonatal deaths, given the high mortality rate in the South-central Asia sub-region. Furthermore, neonatal equipment has been observed to have increasing demand in the middle-income countries, as birth rates in these countries are higher, and the priority for improved fetal & neonatal care is high in these countries. As a result, sales of the equipment are expected to flourish at a rapid rate.Key players in the region are focusing on offering clinicians, innovative tools and devices for enhancing safety for mothers, babies, and families. For this, companies are focusing on acquisition strategy and increasing regulatory approval for the devices. For instance, in March, 2017, GE Healthcare expanded its Maternal-Infant Care business with the acquisition of Monica Healthcare  a U.K.-based monitoring technology company. This acquisition enhances GE Healthcares mobile and digital offerings by providing clinicians and patients around the world with more innovative solutions for labor, delivery, and home care. Furthermore, in February, 2017, Masimo received CE marking for Eve  a critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) newborn screening application, for the Rad-97 Pulse CO-Oximeter. Eve is integrated with Masimo SET Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry with a pre-ductal to post-ductal synchronization algorithm designed to reduce calculation errors and giving appropriate outcomes for the treatment of newborn lives.Click here to know more about this publish report:Key players operating in the global fetal and neonatal care equipment market include Koninklijke Philips N.V., General Electric Company, Medtronic plc, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited., FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc., Masimo, Natus Medical Incorporated, Atom Medical Corporation, and CooperSurgical Inc.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Image Guided Therapy System Market -

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Image guided therapy or image guided interventions help surgeons by navigating the devices inside the body of patients and provides a three dimensional image of the targeted area, making the surgery safer and less invasive. The constant flow of information enables surgeons to plan for surgery, make minute adjustments to treat across various therapeutic areas, including cardiac, vascular, endovascular, pain, trauma, urology, orthopedics, spine, and neurology. Image guided therapy devices also can be potentially used in the treatment of hypertension through renal denervation. All these therapeutic areas rely on powerful imaging modalities, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fixed interventional X-ray, and mobile C-arms. Each modality has advantages and limitations and differs according to its mode of operation, level of complexity, and price point. As the fields of minimally-invasive interventions, interventional imaging, and image-guided surgery (IGS) continue to mature, the advancements in integration of image guided therapy system market with therapeutic modalities in real time is expected to lead to major growth over the forecast period.Request a sample copy of this report:Image Guided Therapy System Market Taxonomy:By Modality:-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-Ultrasound Systems-Positron Emission Tomography (PET)-Intervention X-Ray-Computed Tomography (CT) Imaging-Other ModalitiesBy Application:-Interventional Radiology-Cardiology and Electrophysiology-Neurointerventional-Oncology-Other applicationBy End User:-Hospitals-Ambulatory Surgical Centers-Other end usersAdoption of these systems by various hospitals is expected to propel the growth of the Image guided therapy systems marketImage guided therapy systems provides doctors and technicians with access to patient database records and accordingly develop exact detailed surgical plan or the optimal path to the targeted area. In addition, ultrasound recording during surgery makes the image guided therapy safer and helps the surgeon to operate on the targeted area avoiding any critical injury to the nearby parts of the area. Various hospitals are focusing on installing image guided system to offer wide range of interventional procedures to patients. For instance, in November, 2017, UnityPoint Health, a network of hospitals, clinics and home care services in Iowa, Illinois, U.S. and Wisconsin installed Infinix-i-4-D CT (computed tomography) system, a product by Toshiba Medical which offers fast, safe and accurate interventional radiology (IR) and oncology procedures, such as tumor therapy, embolization, arterial interventions, dialysis and stent placement. These rising demand among the hospitals expected to fuel the growth of the image guided therapy system market.Regionally, image guided therapy system market is segmented into North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. North America is estimated to account for the largest market share in 2017, owing to continuous funding by government to facilitate integration of image guided therapy technology among research centers. For instance, in 2015, Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) initiate Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support research in development of integrated imaging-based systems for delivery of drugs or biologics in cancer and other diseases, quantitative imaging assays of drug delivery, and early intervention.Click here to know more about this report:Various strategies adopting by market players will have a lucrative market growth on image guided therapy system marketDevelopment of these devices has created further demand for manufacturers in this image guided therapy system market to create tailored technologies and imaging modality that help improve patients outcomes, thus reducing the burden on healthcare system. Philips Healthcare is continuously capitalizing on image guided therapy as a core pillar of its growth strategy in imaging, operating high-profile partnerships, acquisitions, and product launches in this area. For instance, in February, 2017, Philips launched Azurion, its next generation image-guided therapy platform, capable of performing a wide range of routine, as well as minimally-invasive, catheter-based procedures in the interventional lab or hybrid operating room (OR). Furthermore, on January, 2018, Varian Medical System signed an agreement to acquire Sirtex Medical Ltd., an Australia-based global life sciences company focused on interventional oncology therapies so that Varian leverage its capabilities in combination with Sirtex's interventional oncology platform in treatment planning and delivery, image guidance and processing, oncology practice management software, and radiation safety.Key players in this image guided therapy system market includes General Electric Company, Toshiba Medical Systems, Siemens AG, Medtronic plc, Brain lab AG, Image Guided Therapy, and Ziehm Imaging, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Varian Medical System, Inc.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:X Ray Detectors Market -

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X-ray technology is the most conventional and widely used form of medical imaging. X-rays consist of ionizing radiations, which are passed through the patients body and are absorbed by the internal organs. X-rays have been in use for non-invasive imaging of biological matters by passing high resolution radiations. X-Rays have wide range of applications such as structural imaging of bones, cavities in soft tissues, and metal implants pre and post operational comparisons.X-Ray applications are further expanding due to advancement in technology and different techniques such as fluorescent X-Ray, introduction of copper wires, radiation dose monitoring, better LED displays, and 3D X-rays, which have revolutionized the way X-Ray imaging procedure. These advances have increased X-rays usability to structural as well as functional monitoring. These techniques improve the ability of X-rays to study complex body systems and diagnose various diseases. Biochemistry can be studied in situ with the help of these advancements.Increasing preference towards non-invasive medical imaging is expected to boost the growth of x-ray detectors marketThe medical applications of X-Ray Imaging are increasing, as the need for noninvasive medical procedures is becoming evident, owing to low costs and less traumas. For instance, non-invasive procedures can cut down costs for dental implants. X-Ray imaging has a wide range of medical applications including but not limited to radiography, dentistry, mammography, and diagnosis of chronic conditions.Request a sample copy of this report:According to World Health Organization (WHO), geriatric population with age of 65 years and above is projected to reach to 1.5 billion in 2050 with emerging economies on top of the list. Increasing burden on healthcare, owing to non-communicable diseases affecting older people and adults more readily. Improving health care infrastructure and increasing availability of medical equipment are fuelling the number of imaging-based procedures.According to National Health Service (NHS) England 2016, Plain Radiography (X-ray) was most common (1.91 million number of X-rays performed), owing to the fact that early diagnosis of various cancers can be facilitated with diagnostic imaging and according to World Health Organization (WHO), 3.6 billion diagnostic tests such as X-rays are performed every year globally and this figure continues to expand with increasing access to medical facilities.Standard film based imaging using X-rays or neutrons is being replaced by digital imaging. Images are stored in an electronic format and further enhancing the images results can be optimized. The digital X-ray systems softwares are becoming more compatible with the systems giving out accurate and optimum results, in turn facilitating the growth of the market.The Global X-Ray Detectors Market TaxonomyThe global X-Ray detectors market is segmented on the basis of detector type, end user, and geography.On the basis of detector type, the global X-Ray detectors market is segmented into:-Flat-panel Detectors (FPDs)-Indirect Flat-panel Detectors (Silicon photodiode)-Direct Flat-panel Detectors (Amorphous selenium)-Computed Radiography (CR) Detectors-Line Scan Detectors-Charge-coupled Device (CCD) Detectors-Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor DetectorsOn the basis of applications global X-Ray detectors market is segmented into:-Medical-General Radiography-Mammography-General Fluoroscopy-Surgical Imaging-Cardiovascular Imaging--Pulmonary Imaging-Dental-Security-OthersOn the basis of end user, global X-Ray detectors market is segmented into:-Hospitals-Diagnostic Centers-Clinics-OthersClick here to know more about this report:Increasing adoption of digital X-Ray systems is expected to fuel the growth of X-ray detectors market in Asia PacificRegional segmentation of the X-ray detectors market by Coherent Market Insights comprises, North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America region is expected to dominate x-ray detectors market, owing to highly advanced healthcare infrastructure, wide adoption of advanced technologies, new and efficient product launches in the category, and reducing prices. In May 2016, Varian Medical Systems (U.S.) launched a new software, which makes the radiological protection system design and shielding process much simpler, impacting the market significantly. Asia Pacific region is expected to show highest growth rate due of increasing production capacity along with decreasing prices and increasing healthcare expenditure in medical device industry.Key players in the X-Ray detectors market include Agfa (Belgium), Analogic Corporation (U.S.), Canon, Inc. (U.S.), Fujifilm Medical Systems (Japan), Konica Minolta, Inc. (Japan), PerkinElmer (U.S.), Teledyne Dalsa (U.S.), Thales (France), Varian Medical System (U.S.), and YXLON International GmbH (Germany).About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave, #3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Global GaN Power Device Market - Trends and Forecast to 2025

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Gallium nitride (GaN) compound is a hard semiconductor material featuring a wide band gap (energy gap) of 3.4 electronvolts (eV) with high heat capacity and thermal conductivity. GaN finds significant applications in power devices used in electrical energy control systems and conversions including telecommunication, industrial, automotive, and high RF antennas and radar in aerospace and defense technologies are expected to provide opportunities for growth of the GaN market over the forecast period.Request Sample Copy Of This Report:High energy efficiency loss in power devices is primarily attributed to conduction losses due to high device resistance and switching transitions. GaN materials prevent such energy loss, as they are featured with high breakdown voltage and low conduction resistance, in turn enabling high-speed switching operations. GaN thus is used to ensure high efficiency of operations in electrical systems. Moreover, low conduction resistance of GaN, allows the material compound to sustain high energy application in compact sizes, enabling higher miniaturization of the circuits. These significant benefits of GaN over other alternatives such as silicon transistors that feature relatively larger chip area to enhance their conductivity, are expected to fuel the overall GaN power device market.Substantial growth of end-use verticals is expected to boost market growthAdvancements in technology related to GaN power devices are enhancing the computational power of all systems, in turn boosting market growth. For instance, in December 2017, Yuji Zhao, an electrical and computer expert from Arizona State University received a three year grant of US$ 750,000 from National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA) Hot Operating Temperature Technology (HOTTech) program for the gallium nitride processor for applications in space. In January 2018, Corsair introduced Corsair AX1600i featuring off-the shelf efficiency, ripple suppression, noise levels, voltage regulation, and highly compact power supply unit. These two instances of technological developments are primarily based on the utilization of Gallium Nitride based materials. replacing Silicon transistors as prominently used material in the switching devices.The recent past has witness high proliferation of electric vehicles and increasing adoption of electrical and electronic components in internal combustion engines for enhanced and convenient control among users. According to Coherent Market Insights, vehicle electrification technologies are expected to witness a CAGR of over 8.8% over the forecast period and be valued at over US$ 120 billion by 2025. Increasing adoption of autonomous vehicles is expected to increase the demand for efficient communication systems featuring high frequency bandwidth and robust operations. This in turn, is expected to fuel growth of the market for GaN power devices in the near future.High cost of systems featuring integration of gallium nitride components due to capital intensive nature of materials and manufacturing procedures is expected to hamper growth of the market. Moreover, GaAs components are widely used in small signal Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) and low noise amplifier (LNA). Application of gallium nitride semiconductor is projected to become mainstream component, though it will require considerable time owing to the cost factor and thus, is among the prominent growth challenges.Asia Pacific accounts for the largest population base and is also the largest market for key end-use industries, in turn, contributing to the largest consumer base of GaN power devices. According to Coherent Market Insights analysis, China and India contribute to around 35% of the global population base. Moreover, largest consumer base for automotive, consumer electronics, communication, and industrial manufacturing will provide the strongest growth prospects over the forecast period.Some of the key players in the GaN power devices market are Cree Inc., Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) Corporation, Infineon Technologies, GaN Systems Inc., Macom, Microsemi Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Navitas Semiconductor, Qorvo, Inc., and Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation.For More Information :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit Our New Website:Machine to Machine Connections Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, 2017  2025

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Machine-to-machine technology refers to any technology that enables direct communication between network devices with the help of wired and wireless communication channel by exchanging information, interpreting data, and making decisions individually without human assistance.Request Table of Content of This Report:Machine to machine connections are usually used in warehouse management, supply chain management, and remote monitoring. For instance, machine to machine connections enables a retailing machine to directly communicate with the distributor regarding any particular product stock whenever it is running low by sending him a message. Hence, it is very important for warehouse and retail sector. Moreover, it and be utilized for traffic control, telemedicine, and fleet management.Major factors driving the growth of machine to machine market connections is increasing penetration of internet. Moreover, advancement in technologies and increasing adoption of 2G, 3G, and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular networks are favorable for global M2M market growth. For instance, according to Internet World Stats, in June 2017, total internet users count was around 3.89 billion, which is about 51.7% of the global population. Furthermore, substantial penetration of short range wireless technologies, which includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee are further expanding the role of machine to machine connections globally. These wireless connectivity technologies enables real time communication. They have applications in healthcare for patient monitoring devices, car infotainment systems, and smart appliances.Mobile, other connected devices including wearables, and social media are key factors responsible for the evolution of machine to machine connections and have also accelerated overall growth of the market. These enables a new way of real time communication in cost effective way. For instance, according to Coherent Market Insights analysis, in 2016, over 68% of global population was already using mobile phones and the count of M2M connections were around 192 million in 2014 as compared to over 70 million in 2010. Machine to machine connections transmit data between mobile devices and the cellular network.However, lack of standardization in connectivity protocols is the major restraining factor for the growth of the M2M connections market.Machine to Machine Connections Market: Regional InsightsThe global machine to machine connections market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The market for machine to machine connection in Asia Pacific region accounted for largest share of the global machine to machine connections market in 2016. This growth is attributed to explosion of smart devices. China manufactures inexpensive sensors, which are responsible for increased penetration of smart devices such as wearable devices and smart home appliances. These smart devices collects data and zap is wirelessly connected to the internet, owing to increased number of smartphones utilization, which is propelling the demand for regional machine to machine connections. According to the State of Social Media and Messaging in Asia Pacific: Trends and Statistics published by RVC, a state fund of funds and the development institute of the Russian Federation, in 2016, around 3.42 billion internet users were representing around 46% of global population, 2.31 billion social media users were there delivering 31% of global penetration, and 1.97 billion mobile social media users were there equaling 27% of global penetration in Asia Pacific region.Machine to Machine Connections Market: Competitive BackgroundMajor players operating in the global machine to machine connection market include AT&T Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Texas Instruments Incorporated, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Intel Corporation, Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Gemalto N.V., Vodafone Group PLC, U-Blox Holding AG, Commsolid GmbH, and Fanstel Corporation.For More Information :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit Our New Website:Enterprise Session Border Controller Market, by Verticals, and Organization Size - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Session border controller is a device, which provides high security and maintains quality interactive communications through multiple IP networks. Increasing demand for voice over Internet protocol is one of the major drivers for growth of the session border controller market globally. According to Coherent Market Insights, in 2017, 258.5 million VoIP subscribers were present globally and is projected to reach 285.9 million subscribers by 2018 end. Moreover, session border controller has features to provide improved security to private network and other devices from malicious attacks such as Denial-of-Service attack and Toll Fraud. Also, session border controller provides malformed packet protection privacy which is another factor for growth of the market. In addition to this, session border controller also provides quality of service to networks through various applications such as call admission control, resource allocation, and traffic policing. Moreover, lack of awareness regarding advantage of session border controller in various region especially in economically developing countries become major challenge for the market.Request Table of Content of This Report:Large Enterprises segment is projected to exhibit the highest CAGR over the forecast period. Large scale enterprises have adopted session border controller for network security and for maintaining the quality of network service. Moreover, advantages such as efficient bandwidth utilization and routing session has helped large scale companies to reduce its IT expenses.North America enterprise session border controller market held the dominant position in 2016On the basis of geography, the enterprise session border controller market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. North America held the dominant position in the market and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The U.S. and Canada are the growth engines in this region. Due to presence of companies such as Verizon, AT&T providing Voice over internet protocol services have led to increasing demand for session border controller market in this region. Moreover, the region is characterized by large presence of early adopters of novel technologies and robust IT infrastructure. Asia Pacific market is projected to exhibit the highest CAGR over the forecast period. India, China, and Japan are some of the major countries in this region. This is owing to growth of mobile VoIP market in this region thus, accelerating growth of the session border controller market. According to Coherent Market Insights, Asia Pacific mobile VoIP market is expected to be valued at US$ 60 billion by 2024.Key Companies: Global Enterprise Session Border Controller MarketAdtran, Inc., Audiocodes Ltd., Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Edgewater Networks Inc., Genband, Inc., Ingate Systems AB, Oracle Corporation, Patton Electronics Co., and Sonus Networks, Inc. are some of the major companies in the global enterprise session border controller market.For More Information :About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit Our New Website:Global Aerospace Adhesives and Sealants Market: Increasing Demand for Aircraft in the Military and Commercial Aviation Sectors to Contribute to the Growth in World Aerospace Adhesives and Sealants Market

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The report Aerospace Adhesives and Sealants Market by Technology (Waterborne, Solventborne and Other Technologies), Type (Epoxy, Silicone, Polyurenthane and Other Adhesives), Application (Commercial and Non-Commercial) - Global Industry Analysis, Trends analysis and Forecast up to 2024 studies the world as well as regional markets including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW (Including Latin America, Middle East and Africa), aerospace adhesives and sealants market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% over the forecast period of 2018 - 2024. Factors driving the growth of this market include increasing demand for aircraft in the military and commercial aviation sectors, increasing demand for adhesives in aerospace for structural bonding to provide tensile strength between components and increasing demand for adhesives and sealants in aerospace owing to high resistance to heat and chemical reactions.Get free Sample Pages of this Report:Epoxy is estimated to Account for the Largest Share of the Market in 2018By type, the aerospace adhesives and sealants market are classified into epoxy, silicone, polyurenthane and other adhesives. The epoxy segment is expected to lead the global aerospace adhesives and sealants in 2018. Factors driving the growth of this segment include increasing adoption of epoxy resin owing to its properties such as protection against corrosive environment, chemical resistance as well physical properties and rising demand of epoxy resin due to their volatile organic compound combination.Commercial Application is estimated to Command the Largest Share of the Market during the Forecast PeriodBased on application, the aerospace adhesives and sealants market are categorized into commercial and non-commercial. The commercial segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the global aerospace adhesives and sealants market during the forecast period. Rising demand for commercial aircraft due to constant travelling coupled with rapid urbanization and high standard of living as well as due to high economic growth are the key factors driving the growth of this application segment.Get 15% Discount on this Report:Asia Pacific is estimated to Command the Largest Share of the MarketBased on region, the aerospace adhesives and sealants market are segmented into North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (RoW). Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the aerospace adhesives and sealants market in 2018. This is attributed to factors such as presence of large manufacturers of adhesives specifically China, India and Japan, growing demand for commercial aircrafts coupled with increasing disposable income and rising space exploration programs in the emerging economies of the region.Companies Profiled Covered in this Report:The report profiles some of the key companies in the aerospace adhesives and sealants market including Master Bond Inc, 3M Company, Huntsman Corporation, HEXCEL Corporation, Henkel AG, Solvay SA (Cytec industries Inc.), Beacon Adhesives Inc., Royal Adhesives and Sealants Inc, PPG Industries Inc, Arkema S.A. and Other companies.Browse Complete TOC of this Report:Report Highlights:The report provides deep insights on demand forecasts, market trends and micro and macro indicators. In addition, this report provides insights on the factors that are driving and restraining the global aerospace adhesives and sealants market. Moreover, IGR-Growth Matrix analysis given in the report brings an insight on the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider. The report provides insights into the market using analytical tools such as Porter's five forces analysis and DRO analysis of aerospace adhesives and sealants market.Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2018 to 2024. We also have highlighted future trends in the aerospace adhesives and sealants market that will impact the demand during the forecast period. Moreover, the competitive analysis given in each regional market brings an insight on the market share of the leading players. This report will help manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of the aerospace adhesives and sealants market to understand the present and future trends in this market and formulate their strategies accordingly.About Us:Infinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you.Contact Us:Infinium Global ResearchGoyal Shinde Park, Bhau Patil Road,Bopodi, Pune-411 020.U.S. + Canada Toll Free: 1-800-638-0796Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comWebsite:Master Data Management Market Analysis by Top Key Players, Technological Innovations and Applications Till 2022

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Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled "Global Master Data Management (MDM) Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Product Type and Application, Forecast to 2022" to its Large Report database."Master Data Management (MDM) is a method of helping organizations in linking all critical and important data to a master file. MDM is the process of the collection of best data management practices. The benefits of the Master Data Management (MDM) model increase as the number and diversity of organizational units, the role of workers, and the expansion of computing applications. MDM may be more valuable to large or complex businesses than small, medium, or simple businesses. Master data management can facilitate the operation of a variety of system architectures, platforms and applications."Request for Sample Copy of Study Report@Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Master Data Management (MDM) in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSAPOracleIBMInformaticaStibo SystemsTIBCO SoftwareRiversand TechnologiesOrchestra NetworksEnterWorksMagnitudeTalendSAS InstituteMicrosoftKPMGTeradata CorporationSoftware AGAgility MultichannelVisionWareSupplyOn AGSunway WorldYonyouMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversCustomer DataProduct DataOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBanking, Finance and Insurance (BFSI)IT and TelecommunicationsGovernment & Health CareManufacturing & LogisticsOthersRequest for Discount on Study Report@There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Master Data Management (MDM) marketChapter 1, to describe Master Data Management (MDM) Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Master Data Management (MDM), with sales, revenue, and price of Master Data Management (MDM), 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 Master Data Management (MDM), for each region, from 2012 to 2017;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 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Master Data Management (MDM) market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Master Data Management (MDM) sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Check the Trending Report of Global Master Data Management (MDM) Market:About WMRWorldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email: sales@worldwidemarketreports.comTactical Communication and Protective System Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled "Global Tactical Communication and Protective System Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Product Type and Application, Forecast to 2022" to its Large Report database.Tactical Communication and Protective System (TCAPS) provides concurrent hearing protection and auditory situational awareness. Historically, Soldiers have had to choose between hearing protection and force protection. TCAPS maintains hearing protection while enabling Soldiers to use existing tactical radios, resulting in increased mission effectiveness, safety, and survivability.Request for Sample Copy of Study Report@Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Tactical Communication and Protective System in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversBAE SystemsGeneral DynamicsHarrisIridiumL-3 CommunicationsLockheed MartinMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversAirborne PlatformShipborne PlatformLand PlatformUnderwater PlatformMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoISRCommunicationsCombatCommand & ControlOtherRequest for Discount on Study Report@There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Tactical Communication and Protective System market.Chapter 1, to describe Tactical Communication and Protective System Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Tactical Communication and Protective System, with sales, revenue, and price of Tactical Communication and Protective System, 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 Tactical Communication and Protective System, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;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 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Tactical Communication and Protective System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Tactical Communication and Protective System sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Check the Trending Report of Global Tactical Communication and Protective System Market:About WMRWorldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Contact Us:Mr. ShahWorldwide Market Reports1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.STel: +1 415 871 0703Email: sales@worldwidemarketreports.comHenry F. Lewis was born into slavery in Maysville, Kentucky about July 12, 1834/35 (he wasn't sure of the correct date). When an infant, he and his mother moved with his master to the slave holding state of Missouri where they settled in St. Louis.

As a small child, he watched as his mother was dragged from their cabin and sold on an action block. Mother and son would never see each other again. Frightened and alone, Henry was bought by a slave trader and given to a gentleman planter as a gift. He was later passed into the possession of the planter's son. According to Henry, the son was kind and protective of him and not like other cruel slave owners.

Henry was about the age of seven when the second Planter's House Hotel was completed and opened in St. Louis in 1841. A room cost $4.25 and the price included four sumptuous meals a day. During that same year, Henry accompanied his master to a barbecue at this famous hotel in celebration of President William Henry Harrison's election and inauguration.

Young Henry may have become interested in becoming a cook when he saw all of the meal preparations for President Harrison's festivities. There was more food than he could imagine in one place and of better quality, too. Recognizing the little fellow's interest in food and its preparation, Henry's master may have loaned him out to work at the hotel when he was older. Years later, Henry would remember that his master told him that if he behaved and worked hard, he would be given his freedom.

As a young adult and still a slave, Henry married a woman named Margaret Fredericks. He recalled that a priest named Rev. Father Ryan officiated at the wedding in St. Louis. Henry and Margaret eventually separated and Margaret died sometime after the couple went their separate ways.

Before 1861, Henry's master freed him and gave him his papers of manumission. Maybe the master realized that slavery would soon be abolished when he gave Henry his freedom. And, as we know, a terrible war was looming on the horizon that finally would bring freedom to millions of African-Americans. The old master recognized that Henry, now a free man, wanted to make his own way in the world. He told Henry, as he gave him those important papers, that he would always have a home to return to in Missouri if life didn't work out quite the way that he wanted it to.

In 1862, Henry worked his way north and east, all the way to Racine, Wisconsin, where he made friends and found employment as a cook in a local hotel. Measuring five feet four and a half inches tall, he joined a white Civil War military unit in Wisconsin and was assigned to the commissary department where he continued to hone his culinary skills. Years later, when he was affectionately called "Uncle Josh," Henry would delight in telling friends that he was quite a sight perched upon his white mule with cooking utensils dangling from his saddle. His soldier comrades enjoyed his company and his cheerful manner.

Henry left the white unit in 1863 and enlisted as a private into Company K, First United States Colored Infantry (also known as United States Colored Troops or USCT) on 01 July of said year at Alexandria, Virginia. His enlistment officer was Captain Rice who signed him for three years service. Henry was stationed at Mason's Island, Virginia, not far from Georgetown. On 28 October of 1863, Private Lewis was sent on recruiting service. His beginning monthly pay was at first only $10.00 but was later increased to $13.00 as the African-American enlisted soldiers were finally paid the same beginning monthly wage as the white enlisted units.

In addition to sometimes serving as a company cook, Henry's main duty as a soldier was that of a teamster, or a wagoner, who hauled supplies for his company.

A teamster was detached from regular service - at least Henry didn't have to march in the infantry.

He was responsible for handling and caring for the horses and mules, lubricating and repairing the wagon and conveying canon.

The responsibility of a teamster required a special set of skills and was not a job for a slacker. Teamster work was hard physical work and would eventually take a toll on Henry's health.

Private Henry F. Lewis was promoted to corporal sometime between November and December of 1863. As a corporal, Henry was paid $17.00 a month.

There were no medical records found that detailed illnesses or wounds incurred by Henry during his military service.

Corporal Henry F. Lewis was honorably discharged from the army on 29 September 1865 at Roanoke Island, North Carolina. He returned to Racine, Wisconsin to visit his friends and again found employment as a cook and porter in a local hotel.

While living in Wisconsin, Henry met Elizabeth (Lizzie) Roberts age 20, the daughter of John and Mary Roberts who had emmigrated from Wales, United Kingdom. The young couple fell in love and were married in Kenosha shortly after 1865. Henry and Lizzie were a devoted pair.

Having decided to leave Wisconsin and seek "greener pastures," Henry and Lizzie made stops in Chicago, and the Michigan cities of Detroit, Saginaw, Caro and Midland. The couple finally decided to settle in Midland City's third ward in 1868.

Henry supported his wife by working as a chef in two of Midland's finest hotels - the Findlater Hotel and the Sherwood House. Many important people, who stopped in Midland and took accommodations at these hotels, enjoyed Henry's culinary expertise and his warm engaging personality. Henry must have been quite good at what he did because these guests kept coming back as noticed in the hotel registers.

After settling in Midland, Little Jennie Lewis would join her joyful parents in 1868. Jennie was followed by Henry C., born in 1871. Henry would die a painful death of inflammation of the bowel in 1872. Alice was born in 1873 and George W. would complete the family in 1876.

In 1880, Henry worked for a short time as a chef at B.F. Nettleton's Hotel in Caro and then returned to Midland.

Several more tragedies would strike the Lewis family in the years to come. In 1883, Jennie, age 15, who worked as a cook and assisted her father, died of spinal fever.

Today spinal fever is known as cerebrospinal meningitis. Her parents' hearts were broken as they watched helplessly as their beloved daughter died. A beautiful letter of thanks for the outpouring of sympathy from Midland's citizens upon Jennie's death was written by the Lewis parents and published in the Midland newspaper. It is as follows:

While sitting in the shadow of the great sorrow that has recently fallen upon our home in the loss of our dear daughter, we wish to heartily thank the friends who so kindly assisted us during her illness, and funeral obsequies: also the choir for the beautiful music rendered at the funeral. May you all, if ever called to pass through sorrow, find sympathizing friends to help you. -- Henry F. Lewis Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis

In 1891, Henry's beloved wife, Lizzie, died after a short illness in which she developed symptoms of mild dementia. Henry was now without his life's partner.

George W. Lewis, age 18, died in 1892 when he was swimming with some friends in Sturgeon Creek. He became entangled in some underwater tree branches and could not free himself. George had worked to help support his family at the local Pail Factory and was considered an excellent employee.

Young George was buried from the M.E. Church with 80 of Midland's residents and his factory's employees in attendance. Those attending the funeral included businessmen William and John Reardon. Lead by the Reardons the mourners walked from downtown to the church for the service. As with Jennie's death, this act was an affirmation of the community's respect for the Lewis family.

At age 24, Alice Lewis married John Henry Tyler on September 22, 1897. John was employed at the Dow Chemical plant. In time, the couple were the parents of two daughters, Leona Marie and Elsie. Needless to say, Henry was a proud and doting grandfather.

As the years went by, Henry became more infirm and suffered from several physical ailments. He applied for an invalid pension on October 1, 1900.

John Tyler died suddenly of dilation of the heart while at work at the Dow plant in August of 1907. Alice descended into despondency and threatened suicide several times.

In the 1910 Federal Census, Henry was listed as living with Alice and his granddaughters Leona Marie and Elsie.

Henry did receive pension #1,024,833 beginning at $8.00 a month and increased to $18.00 a month for his service with the USCT. By 1913 his pension payments totaled $30.00 a month.

By February of 1914, Alice, despondent over a recent failed love affair, said that she had nothing to live for and made a final decision to commit suicide.

She swallowed laudanum (a tincture of opium in alcohol) and carbolic acid. She died an agonizing death 18 hours later. By said year, Henry had lost his wife and all of his children. He was alone in his grief.

On January 14, 1918, Henry's granddaughter, Leona Marie Tyler, age 18, married Charles W. Rowan age 27 in Midland. Rector George Bennett officiated at the ceremony. In that same year, Henry's military pension rate was increased to $40.00 a month.

By the middle of 1918, Henry was deemed incompetent to handle his affairs and a guardian was appointed for him.

During said year, Henry's pension payments had increased to $50.00 a month. This increase in payments allowed his acceptance on August 13, 1918 into the Old Soldiers Home in Grand Rapids.

The 1920 Federal Census for Midland County listed Elsie Tyler as age 16 and living with the Rollin C. Gordon family on West Main Street. Elsie was employed as a domestic in the Gordon household. Gordon owned a retail clothing store in downtown Midland.

The old soldier's health continued to decline until he died of general sclerosis of the arteries on November 4, 1923 at the Soldiers Home. He was almost 90 years of age.

Henry's body was prepared for burial and sent to Midland. His granddaughter Leona Tyler Rowan made the final arrangements for his burial. Rev. Hoakley officiated at a short prayer service in the cemetery before interment. Henry F. Lewis lies at rest in Section G, Lot 126 of Midland City Cemetery. The grave stone for Henry and Lizzie's son, Henry C., lies near his father's grave.

Henry was a remarkable man.

He was a survivor, not a victim.

A faithful husband, a devoted father and grandfather and an industrious worker, he made the best of life's challenges and tragedies. Henry had an engaging personality and was well liked. Through the adversities that he experienced, he remained strong, and won the respect and admiration of everyone who knew him.

Midland resident Quita Shier's new book, "Warriors in Mr. Lincoln's Army," details the lives of the members of the all-Native American company and their contribution to America's deadliest war.Saginaw Medical Federal Credit Union donated almost 300 hats, mittens, socks and scarves for the Saginaw Salvation Army. Winter items were donated by credit union members and employees through SMFCU's Giving Tree campaign in December.

"The participation in this year's Giving Tree campaign was overwhelming" said Laura Crase, President/CEO of SMFCU. "We are very proud of our members and our staff for helping give the gift of warmth this winter."To the editor:

A recent law to allow access to rail-trails by E-Bikes has seemed to have caused an overreaction by our Parks and Recreation staff. This law which was promoted by the League of Michigan Bicyclists was meant to distinguish E-Bikes from being classified as Mopeds. This legislation would have allowed senior citizens to ride pedal assist, and throttle-controlled bikes on the rail-trails. But because our week-kneed legislators in Lansing put in a provision allowing cities and counties to opt out, it will create a hodgepodge of regulations and rules for every city and county in Michigan.

The Parks and Recreation staff claim that they are looking out for the safety and welfare of walkers is without merit when anyone who has been using the rail-trail can tell you that there are currently hundreds of bikes using the rail that can reach and exceed 20 mph. These people need to get out in the real world or at least the realities of what is going on out on our rail-trails.

I am an avid bike ride and have enjoyed riding the Pere Marquette trail in the past. Recently at the age of 70, I have developed knee and hip problems and have converted my bike to a pedal assist E-Bike version last fall so that I can ride my recumbent bike at a reasonable and enjoyable speed. I was looking forwards to once again being able to ride the rail-trails with the passage of the new E-Bike law. Now, before the ink is barely dry, our Parks and Recreation staff wants to take that privilege away.

The idea that Public Service Director Karen Murphy thinks I would be more of a danger to bikers, runners, walkers and dog walkers because I can reach 20 miles per hour is not only insulting but is also ludicrous, when I have already pointed out that we have several hundred bikes out on the trail currently able to reach those speeds.

Safety on the rail-trail is everybodys responsibility not just bike riders. If speed is the concern of the Parks and Recreation staff, then maybe they should enact a speed limit where they think necessary. Thinking they have solved the safety problem by banning E-Bikes on the rail-trail, they havent addressed the real of the issue of speed and safety.

If they want to punish riders who carelessly cause injury, then fine them $500 and give them 90 days in jail, not E-Bikers who want to enjoy use of the trails as much as anybody. Midland claims to be a bike friendly city. Dont let that change by enacting an arbitrary E-Bike ordinance, which will discriminate against senior citizens.

DUANE COOPER

Midland3.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Former Watergate Asst. Special Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks warned that Trumps son in law Jared Kushner is now at extreme risk of being prosecuted in the Russia scandal.

Video:

Former Watergate Asst. Special Prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks warns that Jared Kushner is now extreme risk on the Russia investigation. #AllIn pic.twitter.com/BO5NkM2qWl  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 24, 2018

Wine-Banks said on All In, What I was going to say is that the noose is tightening. The pieces of the puzzle are all coming together. I would say that we have Jared Kushner in extreme risk right now. Remember that Manafort was in the meetings with him. And Gates could be the thing that pressures manafort to finally talk. But we also have to keep in mind that Gates was around after manafort was booted out of the campaign. So he was there all the way through the transition. And he knows things that Manafort even doesnt know. So he could be a very compelling witness. He has been hurt as a witness, lets not forget, hes pleading guilty to being a liar. So that is one of the things that will undermine him as a witness. If you read carefully what has been said in the court documents, it says that he did these things on the orders of Manafort. But it doesnt say that Manafort did these things. And so manafort now has the ability to say, well, hes lying now. I didnt tell him to do that. So we have to be you know, careful in how excited we are about what this means. But it does mean something because Mueller is not giving away the shop.

The new indictments are very bad news for Trump and Kushner

No one should be doing any victory dances yet, but there is clearly a method to the Special Counsels investigation. Mueller and his team are picking off the players one by one on this scandal and working their way up the food chain. Manafort seems to be the only person standing in the way of the floodgates completely opening up on Trump and Kushner.

Jared Kushner is in deep trouble, and where Kushner goes, Donald Trump Jr. is sure to follow. The dominoes are falling in this investigation, and the biggest domino of all is waiting to be tipped in the Oval Office.782 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Donald Trump took to his Twitter account on Saturday to continue pushing his proposal to arm American school teachers. He said the plan would be a very inexpensive deterrent and be left to cash-strapped states to implement.

Armed educators  love our students and will protect them, the president said. Very smart people.

Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again  a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2018

From cost to effectiveness, Trumps plan to arm teachers is a bad one

Like most nonsense spewed from the presidents mouth, this was false. The proposal would not be cheap. In fact, it could have a price tag of more than $1 billion.

According to The Washington Post, who estimated the cost of the plan, arming teachers would cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

If we assume the cheapest training and the discounted Glock, were at $251 million to arm 718,000 teachers, the Post found. If we instead assume the full-price, more expansive training and the full-price firearm, the tab creeps past $1 billion.

During a Friday appearance on Fox Business Channel, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis weighed in on Trumps latest plan, echoing the Washington Post assessment that it would be incredibly costly.

It would be extremely expensive and just logistically virtually impossible to arm school teachers, he told Neil Cavuto. That says nothing of the potential for friendly fire and the number of rounds that go off in a police department every year.

You lose more children at the end of this conversation than you protect, Davis added.

Cost aside, the plan Trump is focusing on would likely put students in more danger, not less. Multiple studies have shown that where there are more guns, there is more gun violence. As I noted earlier in the week, a study from the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found that where there are more firearms, there is a higher risk for homicide.

This is an expensive plan that serves only the interests of Trumps NRA masters. It would do nothing to keep Americas schools safer.1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele was the victim of a racist attack by CPAC Communications Director Ian Walters who then tried to blame his racist language on former president Barack Obama.

Jon Levine of The Wrap tweeted:

CPAC communication director Ian Walters at Reagan dinner We elected Mike Steele as chairman because he was a black guy, that was the wrong thing to do  Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 24, 2018

Steele responded on MSNBCs The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell:

Former RNC Chair Michael Steele tells @JoyAnnReid that CPAC communications director tried to blame Obama for his racist attack on Steele. (And Republicans wonder why they get called racist). pic.twitter.com/VWaQCP3dSf  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 24, 2018

Steele said that Walters tried to blame Obama when he called him, He did call and tried to explain himself. He relaid it back to the Barack Obama election. And he said at one point, I apologize. And I said, thats not acceptable, thats not enough.

The Obama made me a racist card really doesnt work.

Republicans express shock that the rest of the country calls them racist, but the fact that a conservative official would make such a remark is proof that the partys racism isnt some political strategy. It is an institutional belief. Donald Trump is a very large symptom of an ugly disease that started to come to the surface after Obama was elected.

The racists used to be the fringe of the Republican Party. They were the people that Bush campaign blew dog whistles at during the South Carolina primary in 2000, but now they are the Republican Party.

The message to a decent person like Michael Steele is that he doesnt belong in Trumps Republican Party, because the racists are running the GOP now, and their attitude of discrimination is why the Republican Party is dying a little more each day under Donald Trump.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.The Kremlin news outlet Russia Today claims international outrage caused by hundreds of civilian deaths in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta is merely a spike in the information war, a provocation, organized by the United States. The report quoted Vladimir Putins press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, dismissing the accusations as baseless and with no concrete data.

Fighting recently escalated in eastern Ghouta as the Syrian military and its allies, including Russian forces, appear to be launching an all-out operation to retake the area, one of the last spots close to Damascus still under Syrian opposition control. Human rights organizations say the bombing campaign is targeting an area where 400,000 civilians live.

On February 22, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the situation in eastern Ghouta a human tragedy, saying the U.N. cannot let things go on happening in this horrendous way, he said.

Warplanes struck eastern Ghouta overnight February 22-23 even as Russia objected to a draft U.N. resolution to implement a 30-day pause in fighting across Syria. Diplomats say the purpose of the resolution is to lift the siege of eastern Ghouta to allow humanitarian aid and medical evacuations.

Saturday, the U.N. Security Council in New York adopted a resolution calling for a cease fire, demanding hostilities cease in Syria "without delay" and for 30-days to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered and to evacuate the critically ill and injured. The resolution, itself, was delayed more than 24 hours as diplomats negotiated to settle on language acceptable to Russia.

U.S. Ambassador Niki Haley expressed her skepticism that Syria would comply and admonished Russia for stalling U.N. action.

"Every minute this council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew," Haley said. "In the three days it took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to the bombing and shelling?"

Earlier, Western officials placed responsibility on Russia for the humanitarian emergency in eastern Ghouta.

Without Russia backing Syria, the devastation and the deaths would certainly not be occurring, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on February 22.

The White House said the U.S. strongly condemns recent attacks on the people of Syria in eastern Ghouta by Russia and the Assad regime.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the bombing of eastern Ghouta a massacre.

That same day, amid growing international criticism, President Vladimir Putin praised the performance of the Russian military in Syria: I would like to once again thank for their service all who participated and are participating in the military actions in the Syrian Arab Republic. Our warriors are splendidly prepared, they are honorably doing their duty, fighting decisively, fearlessly, to the end! Putin said.

While formally advocating for ceasefire and peace negotiations in Syria, Russia continues taking steps that, experts say, are causing a further escalation of violence.

And February 22, Russia blocked the first draft of a U.N. resolution calling for a ceasefire. Russias envoy to the U.N., Vassily Nebenzia, stated that international media reports of heavy civilian casualties in eastern Ghouta was a product of mass psychosis."

Russia circulated proposed amendments that some reports indicated would create loopholes in a ceasefire. Russia has vetoed 10 earlier U.N. resolutions on Syria.

Earlier, on February 21, Kommersant.ru, citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Moscow has deployed an unknown number of Su-57s, its most advanced combat warplane, to Syria. Nicknamed the F-22 killer, the Russian military sees the Su-57 as a direct competitor to the U.S. F-22 Raptor.

With the arrival of the Su-57s, it appears that Moscow is expecting major escalations in Syria during 2018, reported Beirut-based Al-Masdar News, which boasts close links with the Syrian military.Editor's Note: Shortly after Polygraph published this fact check on February 22, The Washington Post published a story that details information the newspaper obtained from U.S. intelligence sources that bolsters Polygraphs reporting on ties between the Kremlin and the private military company Wagner. The information focuses on Yevgeny Prigozhin, and updates the section below detailing the Putin allys involvement.

--------------------------------------------------

The Wagner Group, allegedly a private military company, attracted worldwide attention after some of its personnel in Syria were killed and wounded in a devastating air and artillery strike by the U.S. military targeting pro-Syrian government militia forces on February 7.

Mercenary forces are illegal in Russia, yet there is evidence the government established and supported Wagners early growth, operations in eastern Ukraines Donbas region, and their operations in Syria.

Estimates of the number of Russian citizens killed in the February 7 incident ranges from "five," to more than 200, according to Wagner personnel.

The Conflict Intelligence Team, an NGO that investigates reports of military activity in Ukraine and Syria, has confirmed the deaths of ten contractors -- nine Russians and one Ukrainian.

Russian officials from the Kremlin, Foreign Ministry, and Defense Ministry initially denied or downplayed the number of Russian victims. Statements have been contradictory, at times accusing the press of spreading disinformation and other times admitting higher casualty figures while still denying any knowledge of the Russian citizens activities in Syria.

This week, (February 21) the Russian Foreign Ministry admitted there were dead citizens of Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries and "several dozen" wounded in the clash.

Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery and the Yankees were holding it, said a paramilitary fighter in an audio recording obtained by Polyraph.info from a source close to the Kremlin and published February 16.

So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming, the unidentified soldier said.

In recent days, some Russian state media started acknowledging higher Russian casualty figures even while reporting on official denials. In reporting, earlier, that dozens of Russian and CIS citizens had been killed in the attack, RT quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying:

There are Russian citizens in Syria, who went there on their own will and for various purposes. Its not up to the Foreign Ministry to judge the legality of the decisions taken by those people.

The same article noted: Moscow denies any direct involvement with such paramilitary troops and insists that they act as private citizens. Being a mercenary or organizing a mercenary force is a crime in Russia, although in practice only a handful of people have been prosecuted for it.

Indeed, despite overwhelming evidence that Russian citizens crossed international borders to wage wars to advance Russian state interests in such places as Ukraine, very few have been prosecuted for mercenary activities. On the contrary, some have been lauded as heroes by the state media specifically for their mercenary service. One Russian video on Youtube calls Wagner "our heroes."

The Origin of Wagner Group

A pair of individuals who were arrested for mercenary activities, however, has an interesting connection to the Wagner Group, and its story may shed some light on the role of the Russian security services in organizing this private military company.

In the spring of 2013, a Hong Kong-registered private military company called Slavonic Corps went to Syria to conduct combat missions on behalf of the Assad government. The organization recruited mostly on Russian Web sites and sought to attract former members of elite Russian military units in the airborne forces, naval infantry, and special forces (spetsnaz). Officially, the Slavonic Corps had been hired by another Russian Hong Kong-based firm known as the Moran Security Group. Moran Security Group is a security company, specializing mainly in anti-piracy and security for high-value sites. While private security companies are legal under Russian law, private military companies are not.

The story of Wagner begins with the Slavonic Corps and its failed mission in Syria. In fact, Wagner was the code name of one of the groups contractors, Dmitry Utkin, a Russian former special forces officer. When Wagner and his comrades returned to Russia, two of the companys executives were arrested by the Federal Security Services (FSB), charged with mercenary activity and sentenced to jail terms.



Utkin and his new PMC (Private Military Company) Wagner would again appear in 2014, during Russias invasion of Ukraine, where the unit fought against Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas region. Hacked emails reveal that the FSB was closely involved in recruitment operations for this supposedly private outfit. But subsequent investigations by the Russian independent news outlet Fontanka revealed far more connections between Wagner and the state.

First, Wagner was allowed to use a military facility as its training base. The facility, located in Molkino in Russias Krasnodar region, is also home to the 10th Special Forces Brigade of the GRU (military intelligence).

The Russian news agency RBC talked to a former mercenary who spoke about his experiences with the outfit during its first deployment to Syria in 2016. According to him, the company was well supplied. Ammunition was plentiful, and the unit, organized as a battalion tactical group with an estimated total strength of over 2,000 men, was equipped with modern T-72 tanks, D-30 122mm howitzers, and BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers. Pay was high and always on time.

In addition to the generous supply of money and equipment, as well as the right to use a Russian military base, members of Wagner also received state medals typically awarded to members of the Russian armed forces. These individuals received state medals despite the fact that their activities appear to be illegal and Russian authorities, from the Kremlin to the Defense Ministry, have routinely denied knowledge about this groups operations in Syria.

In addition, some sources claim Wagner troops have been transported to and from Syria on Russian military transport aircraft, and that its food and other essential supplies come from the Russian Defense Ministry. Fighters wounded in the February 7 attack have been found in Russian military hospitals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Under New Management?

All this would seem to cast doubt on the initial claims of the Kremlin, Foreign Ministry, and Defense Ministry that they know next to nothing about the Wagner Group and the fate of its personnel in Syria. It is possible that the outfit lost some of its state support in 2017. This is based on claims that during the groups second deployment to Syria that same year, soldiers suddenly experienced unexplained pay cuts and salary arrears. There were also complaints about severe shortages of ammunition and that, in contrast to the modern equipment they received for their 2016 deployment, in 2017 they were furnished with out-of-date weapons.

This theory is also supported by reports of Evgeny Prigozhins involvement. He is the owner of a number of businesses that are linked to the Kremlin and a close associate of Vladimir Putin. The Washington Post reported February 22 that U.S. intelligence had intercepted communications between Prigozhin and a Syrian official, in which he claimed to have received permission from an unnamed Russian government minister to move forward with a fast and strong initiative which would take place between February 6-9. Prigozhin reportedly told the Syrian official that his initiative would be a good surprise for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Post report said U.S. intelligence believes that Prigozhin also almost certainly controls Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria, specifically Wagner.



Prigozhin is also linked to a company called Evro-Polis, which opened an office in Damascus in 2017. According to AP and Fontanka, Evro-Polis signed a deal with Syrias state-owned oil company whereby it would receive 25% of any oil and gas revenues produced at facilities it recaptured from the Islamic State or rebel forces. Fontankas report on Wagner found that it was cooperating with Evro-Polis in 2017. Survivors of the February 7 battle claimed their mission was to take control of an oil refinery. Prigozhin is also the owner of the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, better known as the troll factory. He was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2016 over his business activities in Ukraine and recently he was indicted by the FBI for alleged involvement in election interference in 2016.

Plausible Deniability

Mark Galeotti, a researcher with the Institute of International Relations in Prague, has written extensively on the topic of Wagner and Russias use of mercenaries as a potentially deniable asset. According to him, Wagner cannot be considered a legitimate private military company.

I tend to call Wagner a pseudo-mercenary outfit because it is somewhere in between, Galeotti told Polygraph.info. Given that it seems largely bankrolled through Evro Polis [a company owned by Prigozhin], and it has a contract with the Syrian government worth 25% of the output of any gas and oil fields it recovers, there is clearly some truly mercenary aspect, even if much of the time it is working for the Russian command cell in Damascus.

But while he acknowledges a possible change in Wagners ownership, Galeotti agreed that the organization was undoubtedly tied to the Russian state, at least in the beginning: I don't think there is any question they were originally a state-sponsored op, is there?

And given the fact that wounded fighters still appear to be receiving treatment at Russian military hospitals, possibly arriving on Russian military transport aircraft, it appears that Russian authorities know far more about Wagner and its activities than they have so far admitted in public.



Managing partner Genevieve Mashburn takes a seat at the bar at The Getaway, which is now open in the former home of King Dusko arts space at 541 King Street. Wade Spees/Staff Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018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.Deanna Pan is an enterprise reporter for The Post and Courier, where she writes about education and other issues. She grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati and graduated with a degree in English from Ohio State University in 2012.Adam Parker has covered many beats and topics for The Post and Courier, including race and history, religion, and the arts. He is the author of "Outside Agitator: The Civil Rights Struggle of Cleveland Sellers Jr.," published by Hub City Press.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.Paul Bowers is an education reporter and father of three living in North Charleston. He previously worked at the Charleston City Paper, where he was twice named South Carolina Journalist of the Year in the weekly category.You are the owner of this article.Hannah Alani is a reporter at The Post and Courier covering race, immigration and rural life across the Palmetto State. Before graduating from Indiana University and moving to Charleston in 2017, her byline appeared in The New York Times.Andrew Knapp is editor of the Quick Response Team, which covers crime, courts and breaking news. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor at Florida Today, Newsday and Bangor (Maine) Daily News. He enjoys golf, weather and fatherhood.Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.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.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Light rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers in the afternoon. High 84F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Some clouds. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-23 22:54:01

A.M. Best Changes Credit Ratings of CBL Insurance Limited Following Regulatory Action; Withdraws Issuer Credit Rating of CBL Corporation Limited

A.M. Best

Jason Shum, +65 6303 5020

Associate Director, Analytics

jason.shum@ambest.com

or

Christopher Sharkey, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

Manager, Public Relations

christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

or

Chi-Yeung Lok,+65 6303 5016

Director, Analytics

chi-yeung.lok@ambest.com

or

Jim Peavy, +1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644

Director, Public Relations

james.peavy@ambest.com

A.M. Best has removed from under review with negative implications and changed the Financial Strength Rating to a Non-Rating Designation of E (Under Regulatory Supervision) from B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) to e from bbb+ of CBL Insurance Limited (CBL) (New Zealand) following a regulatory action that placed the insurer in interim liquidation. Concurrently, A.M. Best has removed from under review with negative implications and withdrawn the Long-Term ICR of bb+ of CBL Corporation Limited (CCL) (New Zealand) based on the same regulatory action.

These rating actions follow the High Court of New Zealands announcement on Feb. 23, 2018, that it placed CBL in interim liquidation, following a request from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

A.M. Best had been closely monitoring the activity surrounding CBL since taking an earlier rating action on Feb. 6, 2018. The ratings of CCL and CBL were downgraded and placed under review with negative implications at that time following CCLs announcement that CBLs insurance reserves for its long claim-tail French construction insurance business needed to be strengthened, and due to the resulting capital strain and pending the completion of an intended capital raise within weeks. In addition, the under review status had reflected the need to assess the adequacy of the strengthened reserves and the corrective actions taken by management to address the causes of the reserve shortfall.

Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Bests Credit Ratings and A.M. Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper [..].

A.M. Best is the worlds oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2018 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201802230058PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-23 22:32:14

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for BlissCo Cannabis Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE:BLIS). has issued a press release with the following headline:BlissCo Files Listing Statement for Canadian Securities Exchange and Provides Transaction UpdateTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on BlissCo Cannabis Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/BlissCo Cannabis Corp.Source: BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE: BLIS)Date: February 23, 2018Time: 4:32 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of BlissCo Cannabis Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-23 23:07:16

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Ellipsiz Communications Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Ellipsiz Communications Ltd. (TSX Venture:ECT). has issued a press release with the following headline:Ellipsiz Communications Ltd. Announces Proposed Strategic Initiatives to Expand Business ModelTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Ellipsiz Communications Ltd., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Ellipsiz Communications Ltd.Source: Ellipsiz Communications Ltd. (TSX Venture: ECT)Date: February 23, 2018Time: 5:06 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Ellipsiz Communications Ltd. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)The research encompasses information gathered and examined by subject-matter experts, laying down growth opportunities and developmental strategies for enterprises.

Research Trades

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-24 14:04:41

Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Market is an expert and sharp analyses of the key business and future development prospects, key driving factors and restraints, profile of key market players along with segmentation and forecast. The study offers a comprehensive qualitative on the industry growth parameters, current market status in terms of analyzing key economic situations and macroeconomic analysis.Scope of the Report:The key business and future development prospects, key driving factors and restraints, profile of key market players along with segmentation and forecast. The study offers a comprehensive qualitative on the industry growth parameters, current market status in terms of analyzing key economic situations and macroeconomic analysis.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, IndiaClick here for sample report @ https://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1459469 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Zoranoc, Wako USA, Innova Corporate, Parchem fine & specialty chemicals, Zeel Product, Shandong Taihe Water Treatment Technologies Co, Shandong Xintai Water Treatment Technology Co., Zaozhuang Dongtao Chemical Technology CoOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Solution, SolidOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingAgriculture, Chemical, Electronics, OthersRequest for discount @ https://www.researchtrades.com/discount/1459469 Some Points from Table of Contents:1 Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA)1.2 Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Solution1.2.4 Solid1.3 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Segment by Application2 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Poly Acrylic Acid(PAA) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.Reach us at:Email: sales@ researchtrades.com Call us: +1 6269994607 (USA), +91 7507349866 (IND)Web: http://www.researchtrades.com Skype ID: researchtradesconResearch Trades

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-24 11:55:18

Global Outdoor Lighting Market is an expert and sharp analyses of the key business and future development prospects, key driving factors and restraints, profile of key market players along with segmentation and forecast. The study offers a comprehensive qualitative on the industry growth parameters, current market status in terms of analyzing key economic situations and macroeconomic analysis.Scope of the Report:The key business and future development prospects, key driving factors and restraints, profile of key market players along with segmentation and forecast. The study offers a comprehensive qualitative on the industry growth parameters, current market status in terms of analyzing key economic situations and macroeconomic analysis.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Outdoor Lighting in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, IndiaGet an exclusive sample of this report @ https://www.researchtrades.com/request-sample/1457212 Global Outdoor Lighting market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Black Diamond, Goldmore, Johnson Outdoors, Newell Brands, Extreme Lights, KLARUS,Lumintop, MontBell, Nitecore, Outlite, Outwell, Paddy Pallin, Xtreme, VITCHELO, YalumiOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Flashlights, Lanterns, HeadlampsOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, including Specialty stores, Department stores, hypermarkets, and supermarkets, Online retail, Warehouse clubsBuy a Copy of this report for a single user price of USD 2900 @ https://www.researchtrades.com/checkout/1457212 Some Points from Table of Contents:1 Outdoor Lighting Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Outdoor Lighting1.2 Outdoor Lighting Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Outdoor Lighting Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Outdoor Lighting Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Flashlights2 Global Outdoor Lighting Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Outdoor Lighting Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Outdoor Lighting Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Outdoor Lighting Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Outdoor Lighting Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Outdoor Lighting Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Outdoor Lighting Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type3 Global Outdoor Lighting Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Outdoor Lighting Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Outdoor Lighting Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Outdoor Lighting Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Outdoor Lighting Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.Reach us at:Email: sales@ researchtrades.com Call us: +1 6269994607 (USA), +91 7507349866 (IND)Web: http://www.researchtrades.com Skype ID: researchtradesconPR-Inside.com: 2018-02-23 22:17:03

LONDON, Feb. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Valero Logistics UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO), and SemGroup Europe Holding L.L.C., a SemGroup Corporation company, have today signed an agreement for the purchase of SemLogistics Milford Haven fuel storage facility on the west coast of Wales.

Situated across the Haven from Valero's refinery at Pembroke, the facility is one of the largest petroleum products storage facility in the United Kingdom (UK) with 8.5 million barrels of capacity for storing gasoline, gasoline blendstocks, naphtha, jet fuel, gas oil, diesel, and crude oil. Over 67 percent of the storage capacity is multiproduct or dual purpose, giving Valero the flexibility to meet customers' demands in the UK and throughout Northwest Europe. Additionally, Milford Haven will continue to operate as a third-party storage facility, offering storage options for third party customers across the European petroleum markets.

"This facility complements our Pembroke refinery and fuel terminal in the UK and Ireland, making it a natural fit for the company," said Joe Gorder, Valero Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "This purchase demonstrates Valero's commitment to Wales and the UK, and it aligns with our strategy to grow the logistics business and reduce secondary costs," added Gorder.

Subject to customary regulatory approvals, Valero expects the purchase be completed in the third quarter of 2018. Valero also expects to retain the UK employees currently engaged in the business to be acquired.

About Valero

Valero Logistics UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation, operates terminals and pipelines in the UK. Valero Energy Ltd, its affiliate, markets fuel in the UK and Ireland under the Texaco brand, of which approximately 850 of the branded service stations are located in the UK and 230 in Ireland. Valero Energy Ltd also owns and operates Pembroke Refinery in southwest Wales, which is one of Europe's largest and most complex refineries. The company has ownership interests in four major pipelines, seven fuel terminals, and a 14,000 barrels per day aviation fuels business.

Valero Energy Corporation, through its subsidiaries, is an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels and other petrochemical products. Valero, a Fortune 50 company based in San Antonio, Texas, with approximately 10,000 employees, is an independent petroleum refiner and ethanol producer, and its assets include 15 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.1 million barrels per day and 11 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.45 billion gallons per year. The petroleum refineries are located in the United States (US), Canada and the UK, and the ethanol plants are located in the Mid-Continent region of the US. In addition, Valero owns the 2 percent general partner interest and a majority limited partner interest in Valero Energy Partners LP, a midstream master limited partnership. Valero sells its products in both the wholesale rack and bulk markets, and approximately 7,400 outlets carry Valero's brand names in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. Please visit www.valero.com for more information.

Valero Contacts

Investors:

John Locke, Vice President - Investor Relations, 210-345-3077

Karen Ngo, Senior Manager - Investor Relations, 210-345-4574

Media:

Lillian Riojas, Director - Media Relations and Communications, 210-345-5002

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Valero Energy Corp. via Globenewswire

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Dear Movie maker,

The fact remains indisputable that you are obsessed with our brown rusted roofs in Ibadan. Of course, they appear the ONLY symbolic things with which you re-present our city in your movies always. I have done a sample of a few among your works, all of them contemporary, and I noticed that an average of 3 out of 5 movies re-present Ibadan ONLY through the realities of Beere and Oje-Igosun.

Nothing, at least on the surface, is quite bad about that.

But I have equally noticed, perhaps out of unbridled love for that city, that at the heart of this obsession of yours is a dangerous narrative, a poorly veiled single story. I need not engage in academic gymnastics by doing a semiotic analysis of those images of yours to prove this assertion because even someone with no modicum of intelligence could see through the mischief in your portrayal of our city in your art, almost ALL the time: an ancient city where poverty and squalor and dirt and feaces swagger around in competition for space with humans whose dialect, apart from being unusually funny, stinks.

If you had a democratic lens, youd have noticed that Ibadan is bigger (and much more cosmopolitan!) than the areas captured in your videospace; those areas with which you symbolize the city almost ALL of the time. Oje-Igosun. Beere. Mapo. Gege. Idi-arere. Beyerunka.

The essence of art is to mirror life and even though it may be near-impossible, artistically, to REPRESENT life in its exact state (hence the need to RE-PRESENT), it is expected that artists should strive to create verisimilitude in their re-presentation of reality. And, ipso facto, while mirroring a societys imperfections through their arts, artists should look towards mirroring its beauty too.

Indeed, I need not say that every city  well in Nigeria, at least  has its fair share of the beautiful and thewell, not-so-beautiful.

First, a few minutes drive away from the sky-scrappers of Marina in Lagos, for instance, there is an Ajegunle settled somewhere amidst dirt and feaces. In Ilorin, the overhead bridge at Post office is what separates the serenity of Fate-Basin from the dirt and filth of Opo-maalu. In Akure, a makeshift bridge is what separates the din of Okejebu from the quietness of Ijapo Estate.

But to consider a place ONLY from the perspective of a permanent traditional past, to edit out those diversified components that reflect its leap into modernity, is not only to indulge in mischief, create a single story and stereotype a people it is to jeopardize the essence of art.

Like I think you should know, few things influence and shape perception like artistic representation; and perception, I want to presume you know too, is very important. Infact, perception is everything in life. Perception is what makes folks who have no knowledge of anything about that city beyond what they see on the internet and, of course, in your movies, to conclude that Ibadan is dead nah. Do you now see why your incurable, if not mischievous, fixation on those areas with brown rusted roofs ALL of the time is becoming nauseating? See?

To be sure, those places are part of our socio-cultural realities, our historical heritage, which we arent ashamed of and cannot erase. But then, every society evolves and, of course, since there is nothing permanent about culture/heritage, Ibadan wont be an exception. Do I even need to tell you that Ibadan is evolving, already?

And so, in case you dont know, now listen: there are other places outside of Gege and Beere with which you can re-present Ibadan in your movies, areas the average Nigerian may not consider posh but would still offer insights into the other side of ibadan Bodija Housing Estate, Awolowo Road, Felele extension, Flavours, Challenge, Agbowo-UI, Oluyole estate.

And, yes, even though decades of bad governance, occasioned by the occupancy of our Agodi government house by those whose philosophy about leadership is rooted in the politics of Amala and Gbegiri, has stunted developments in this city, Ibadan isnt just all about the feaces and dirt of Oje-Igosun, nor the filth and brown rusted roofs of Beere-Oranyan. Do I even need to tell you that apart from the numerous nite clubs and radio stations that litter our relatively cleaner streets today, there is a Shoprite mall in Ibadan, too?!

And on a lighter note, there is a (not-too-) new fly-over bridge too in Mokola-Roundabout, the one built by our uncommon transformer.

Go check it out and project it in your movies. What makes Ibadan tick is its diversity. Embrace this reality and stop pigeonholing our city.

Yours faithfully,

Olawoyin Oladeinde

SW2/57A,

Agboole Olowo-ake/Abere,

Ojaba Ibadan.The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has withdrawn the police Special Forces from Benue communities, barely five weeks after he deployed them to keep order and security in the wake of a string of deadly attacks linked to suspected herdsmen.

Several security sources in Benue told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that Mr. Idris quietly took the decision last week, even as villagers continued to report sporadic attacks on their communities.

The officers were removed on February 14 from Logo and Guma Local Government Areas, where scores, including security agents, have been killed in suspected herdsmen attacks since January 1. They were taken to police rank and file mess in Makurdi, the state capital, PREMIUM TIMES understands.

Their withdrawal came two days after three security agents, comprising a policeman and two Civil Defence officers, were confirmed killed and two others declared missing in suspected herdsmen attacks across the two local government areas.

The state police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, told PREMIUM TIMES the withdrawal was strategic and warned against reporting police operation at a time of crisis.

Its an operational matter that should be left to the police, Mr. Owoseni told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Saturday. Just leave that to us whether we removed Special Forces or not.

Mr. Owoseni said the police still have a presence in the communities and the security of lives and property would not be jeopardised.

The special forces are amongst about 96 regular officers sent to Belarus in 2014 to receive training as snipers, rocket-propelled grenade experts, rangers, bomb disposal technicians, amongst others.

Upon their return to the country in December 2014, they were briefly deployed in Maiduguri to support their counterparts in the Army, Navy and Air Force in the war against Boko Haram.

In February 2017, Mr. Idris ordered the deployment of 71 of them in Southern Kaduna to help quell the incessant clashes between herdsmen and residents there.

In July 2017, when abduction cases along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway became frequent and the police leadership came under pressure to take action, Mr. Idris deployed the elite police unit in Kateri, a town in Kaduna State along the highway.

The officers remained along that axis curbing the activities of kidnap-for-ransom syndicates until January 11 when they were moved to Benue following attacks on villages that left more than 70 dead within two days.

The special forces were primarily stationed in Anyiin, a major town in Logo LGA where thousands of displaced villagers are still putting up in two separate camps for the internally-displaced persons.

During their deployment, the officers patrolled villages across Logo and Guma LGAs and regularly exchanged gunfire with suspected herdsmen.

The special forces were expected to be joined by soldiers in the military intervention exercise named Ayem Akpatuma or Cat Race when translated from Tiv, a major tribe in the north-central.

Were shocked to realise that they moved us out a day before the soldiers even arrived, a special forces personnel told PREMIUM TIMES Saturday. But were not sure if the soldiers know the terrain very well enough to secure all the places.

The troop, whose size has not been disclosed by the military, is scheduled to be in Benue and five other states for only six weeks.

Perhaps because it has not had immediate impact, the withdrawal of the special forces from the communities was not immediately detected by state government and activists in the state.

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Paul Hembah, the security adviser to Governor Samuel Ortom, told PREMIUM TIMES he resumed work only last week after his predecessor was removed due to ill health and was not aware of the development.

Similarly, David Ogbole, a pentecostal preacher and leader of the Coalition against Fulani Occupation, said he would need time to confirm the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal.

Operatives complain

PREMIUM TIMES interviewed four special forces personnel who said the police IG gave no compelling reason for withdrawing them from the battlefront. They also accuse the police of withholding their allowances.

Even when we were still stationed in Anyiin and carrying out patrols every day and sometimes facing armed bandits in the villages, the police did not pay our allowances, one officer said. Now they just abandoned us in Makurdi where were doing nothing and have no food or proper sanitation.

Another officer said the state government paid them N8, 000 per week for the first three weeks of their stay in Benue before the payment suddenly ceased.

We were hoping that if the state would continue with the stipend which we used to support our normal salary of just N45, 000, the officer said. But the governor suddenly stopped this.

Mr. Hembah told PREMIUM TIMES he could not comment on the matter because he did not have enough knowledge about the states arrangement with the officers to give an accurate account of why their payments stopped.

The officer further stated that the police owed them several months of backlogs in allowances dating back to their days in Kaduna.

Mr. Owoseni did not confirm or deny the officers statement about their allowances, only insisting that their salaries are being paid.

Theyre paid their salaries, Mr. Owoseni said.

When pressed to respond specifically about the status of the officers allowances, the commissioner said the matter was strictly a police affair.

Theyre paid salaries, theyre working for salaries, Mr. Owoseni said. This is not for media reporting, its an operational issue.

The officers said they were entitled to N15, 000 as their allowances per month, but PREMIUM TIMES could not independently verify this. Several police sources told PREMIUM TIMES it was difficult to confirm what the Special Forces are entitled to during deployment in special missions because theres no instrument that enumerates their activities.Parents of schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in Dapchi secondary school in Yobe state have released the names of 105 girls missing by Saturday.

The parents said they were the only source of credible data, dismissing figures provided by the state government as false.

The parents, who have created a group to collate names of the missing girls, advised the governor of Yobe state to stop listening to fake data given to him by security operatives.

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam must call us to a meeting so that we can give him a firsthand data on the number of our daughters that have gone missing since the attack on Monday, said Mr. Bashir Manzo, who acts as the chairman of the Forum of Missing Dapchi Schoolgirls Parents.

The governor had on Friday, while hosting governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, said 86 girls were missing after the attack on Monday.

Mr. Manzo, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES by phone, said they created a forum to check such misrepresentation.

We have decided to form a forum not for any other purpose other than seeing that we also contribute to how our missing daughters can be rescued and brought to us safely, said Mr. Manzo.

So our forum has since been collating the bio-data of all the girls that are not accounted for. And to achieve the best result, we do not take information from any third person or through phone call except by physical presentation by the father or mother of the missing schoolgirl.

When any parent come here to meet us, he has to give us his name and the name of his daughter; her class and then we also collect his phone number along the name of his town and local government area.

So far, from what we have collated as at today Saturday 23rd February 2017, we have a total of 105 schoolgirls who have not been seen since the attack of Dapchi on Monday 19th February. This list did not come from the school management or any government source but (was) collated by us from the parents of the girls.

As far as we are concerned, the governor is still being fed with fake information about these poor girls. Our major concern now, is for us to have a direct meeting with the governor of Yobe state so that we could tell him the home truth about our daughters that have gone missing.

Whatever report that is given to him, (if) they dont tally with what we have, amounts to fake information. He needs to know that truth and only we the parents that can confirm it to him that our daughters who are students of GGSTC Dapchi had been kidnapped by Boko Haram.

From the feelers we are getting it thus seem the governor is still not been made to understand that these girls were abducted; he is still being made to believe that they had gone missing because they ran into the bush and have not been able to find their ways back to town.

The fact of the matter is that all those that fled into the bush had been brought back to the school on Tuesday, and a roll call was taken after which they had all gone home to meet their parents.

So far, we have a total of 105; we dont know if there could be more of them, he said.

Mr. Bashir said his teenage daughter, Fatima Bashir, a Junior Secondary III student, is amongst the missing girls.

Boko Haram gunmen on Monday attacked Dapchi town of Yobe state and went away with students of the towns girls secondary school.

Neither the military nor the management of the school have given yet an accurate figure of the schoolgirls that were abducted.

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The minister of information, Lai Mohammed, visited Dapchi on Thursday where he told the media that the federal government still needs some few days to confirm the figures with the parents.

According to the Forum of Missing Parents, the 105 missing girls are as follows:-

1. Fatima Bashir

2. Aisha Kachalla

3. Zainab Abubakar

4. Falmata Wakil

5. Fatima Isa

6. Fatima Musa

7. Aisha Usman

8. Aisha Adamu

9. Fatima Isa

10. Hauwa A. Mohammed Idriss

11. Maryam Mohammed

12. Fatima Mohammed II

13. Hauwa Salisu

14. Hassana Gambo

15. Aisha Adamu

16. Adama Garba

17. Zara Grema

18. Maryam Daamkontoma

19. Zainab Bama

20. Fatsuma Abdullahi

21. Fatima Yahaya Tarbutu

22. Amina Yahaya Tarbutu

23. Amina Adamu

24. Hajara Ali

25. Fatima Abdullahi

26. Fatsuma Ali

27. ZaraU Mohammed

28. Salamatu Garba

29. Falmata Alh. Inuwa

30. Falmata Alh. Ali

31. Aisha B. Danjuma

32. Maryam Bashir

33. Maryam Aliyu Mabu

34. Fatima Modu Bamba

35. Aisha Modu Bamba

36. Hafsat Haruna

37. Rabi Alh. Nasiru

38. Hadiza MohD

39. Fatima Aji Hassan

40. Falmata Wakil

41. Aisha Wakil

42. Falmata A. Audu

43. Aisha Maina

44. Aisha Mohammed

45. Aisha Mamuda

46. Name missing on list

47.Zainab Usman

48. Hadiza Mohammed Taiduma

49. Maryam Ibrahim

50. Fatima M. Gira

51. Hafsat Ibrahim Gira

52. Maryam Ibrahim

53. Zara Tijjani

54. Amina Haruna

55. Fatima Adamu

56. Khadija Mai Sale

57. Khadija Ali

58. Habiba Musa Jakana

59 Fatima Bukar

60. Hajara Gidado

61. Maryam Basiru

62. Fatima Usman

63. Maryam Ibrahim

64. Leah Sherubu

65. Aisha Alh. Deri

66. Fatima Hassan Mustapha

67. Zainab Manu

68. Zara Tijjani

69. Zainab Bukar Abba

70. Hauwa Saidu Abubakar

71. Karima Inusa

72. Amina A. Abubakar

73. Yakura Sani

74. Rabi Yahaya Tela

75. Hajara Yahaya Tela

76. Marya Mustapha

77. Aisha Abdullahi

78. Maryam Adamu Mohammed

79. Bintu Usman

80. Fatsuma Mohammed

81. Salamatu Isiyaku

82. Hauwa Lawan

83. Aisha B. Danjuma

84. Aisha MohD Jakusko

85. Hauwa Bulama

86. Fatima Abubakar Jambo

87. Walida Adamu

88. Fanna Mohammed

89. Aisha M. Bukar

90. Maryam Usman

91. Aisha Abba Aji

92. Maryam Usman

93. Maimuna A. Hassan

94. Zara Musa

95. Maryam Mohammed Kaku

96. Khadija Suleiman

97. Habiba Nuhu Dan Inu

98. Fatima Isiyaku Aliyu

99. Sahura Jibir Mohammed

100. Khadija Grema Dabuwa

101. Zara Grema Dabuwa

102. Zara Mohammed Lawan

103. Fatima Mohammed

104. Fati Modu Aisami

105. Fatsuma AlliADVERTISEMENT

Controversy surrounding the altering of the election sequence topped the agenda at the senate this week.

While some of senators who are against the change received knocks, an allegation of financial mismanagement hit the Northern Governors Forum.

Below are the top stories from Nigeria senate this week:

Tuesday

 The Senate mandates its committee on public accounts to carry out an investigation into an alleged secret account operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Agip Oil Company and report back in four weeks.

 While speaking at the launch of Dubawa and Udeme projects of the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, PTCIJ, Shehu Sani (Kaduna-APC) said constituency projects have no place in Nigerias democratic development, noting that lawmakers should focus more on oversight functions.

 It is of concern to us that these actions by the governor have been done in the name of Mr. President who he believed that he is his son that he so much loves. Governor Nasir El-Rufai is an affliction to the people of Kaduna State and a curse to us, Shehu Sani on the demolition of an APC faction building in Kaduna.

 Dino Melaye, Kogi-APC, draws the attention of the Senate to comments made by a senator Ovie Omo-Agege on the election sequence. The Senate resolves to look into the matter and asked its committee on ethics and privileges to investigate.

Wednesday

 Senators under the umbrella of the Northern Senators Forum remove Abdullahi Adamu as their chairman. He is replaced by Aliyu Wammako, a former Sokoto State governor.

 Shehu Sani (Kaduna-APC), claims (many believe jokingly) that about N70 million belonging to the Northern Senators Forum was carted away by monkeys in a farm house.

 Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta-APC), who accused his colleagues of working against President Muhammadu Buharis re-election plans in 2019, apologises.

Thursday

 Abdullahi Adamu, who was removed as chairman Northern Senators Forum, denies allegation he mismanaged funds belonging to the group.

 Some senators hint that the release of some of the Chibok girls kidnapped in April 2014, involved payment of huge amounts of money to the Boko Haram.

 Members of the Northern Senators Forum never held a meeting to discuss the removal of Abdullahi Adamu as its chairman, a member of the forum, Ali Wakili, says.The Nigerian military has accused Amnesty International of a deliberate attempt to weaken its effort towards ensuring peace and security in the country.

In a statement on Friday night, the military through its spokesperson, John Agim, a general, accused the global human right organisation of propagating falsehood through its 2017/2018 human rights report on Nigeria released on last Thursday.

In the report, Amnesty International accused the military and other security agencies in the country of widespread human right abuses, including operating sub-human mass detention centres where Boko Haram suspects are kept in overcrowded and disease-infested cell.

The organisation, which also accused the military of extrajudicial killings, said some of the captives are even starved to death in the detention centres.

It also accuse security agencies of muffling freedom of speech and breaching press freedom through intimidation of journalists and bloggers.

But the military on Friday accused Amnesty International of the habit of releasing unconfirmed reports, unsubstantiated claims and figures relating to military counter-insurgency operations.

It is pertinent to reiterate that the AFN (Armed Forces of Nigeria) as a responsible institution, financed by taxpayers, is bound to respond to these allegations in order to put the records in proper perspective.

The AI allegations of human rights violations and extra judicial killing of civilians by the AFN have followed a specific trend for some time now. It could be noted that the organisations allegations made against the AFN since 2011 to date are largely unsubstantiated.

The statement however erroneously claimed that Amnesty International, while highlighting various cases of alleged right abuses and extrajudicial killings did not acknowledge the release of those found not guilty.

Unfortunately, AI failed to acknowledge the ongoing fair trial and conviction of culpable members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect and the release of those not found guilty.

The number of persons released and re-integrated with the larger community is over 500, Mr. Agim wrote.

But Amnesty Internationals report acknowledged that 468 suspects were discharged after first phase of trials.

Mr. Agim said the suspects were well-fed and given medical attention while in detention.

Mr. Agim said the military were never contacted to balance the report. He added that the organisation has turned down previous efforts by the military for discussions about its allegations.

He said the report, which he described as deliberate falsehood, was aimed at denting the image of the military so as to prevent it from acquiring military hardware needed to fight Boko Haram and other non-state armed groups.

Treatment of homosexuals

The statement while defending the federal government also stated that Amnesty Internationals claim that the Nigerian government was infringing on the rights of lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgender as well as intersex persons was unfounded as the law of the country and the culture of Nigerians forbids all forms of homosexuality.

The military also added that if Amnesty International was unhappy with the treatment of homosexuals in the country it should offer them admittance to countries where they would be tolerated.

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This position of AI, clearly shows lack of respect for the constitution of Nigeria which these laws have become part.

Let it be known that the Nigerian Government and its people are not ready and would never be, even in future, to please AI or anyone with the introduction of such things.

However, if AI feels strongly against the position of the Nigerian people on this issue and wants to assist the victims, they could issue these class of people with green cards to enable them re-locate to other places across the world that accept such practices as it may not be necessary for them to remain Nigerians.The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has said that there is no need for data capturing while applying for renewal of drivers licence.

Hyginus Omeje, the FRSC Lagos State Sector Commander said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, adding that the agency departed from the old system long time ago.

I want to use this opportunity to tell motorists that they can renew their licence without going through capture.

The choice of coming to capture is yours, as long as we have your data base at the initial stage and its already in the system, you dont really need to be captured any longer, he said.

Mr. Omeje said there is provision to bypass capture in the new process of renewal of licence.

The FRSC boss however, noted that recapturing of data would only happen when people want to change their passport photographs or change some variables stated at the initial stage in the data.

The whole essence of renewal is to update your records. You might have changed your residential address and all other variables except date of birth which is constant.

And it is possible that somewhere somehow you had an accident that has given you mark or scars on your face, that has not been there before and if you dont do the update, of not going for capture, you may be embarrassed when you go to the embassy, Mr. Omeje noted.

He also advised motorists to go to their various centres for collection of their drivers licences.

NAN reports that over 55,000 motorists were yet to collect their processed drivers licences at various designated centres in Lagos state.

The sector commander had said in October that about 55,412 processed drivers licences were ready and waiting for collection by their owners at the various designated centres in the state.

According to him, there are no backlogs on the issuance of drivers licences again in the Lagos state.

We have 55,412 uncollected licences across our stations in Lagos state.

It is unfortunate that people do not come to collect their licences.

We produced 48, 423 out of which 14,323 were fresh; 33,899 were renewed and 199 were re-issued as a result of loss or damage.

The only challenge we are facing now is the collection of these licences because we have so many of them in our various centres.

Not because they have not been produced but the applicants are not coming to collect them, he said.

The sector commander appealed to the motorists, who have applied for drivers licence to visit the centres and collect their licenses before the expiration date.

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Mr. Omeje said that Lagos command had established some dedicated numbers for whomever has any complaint concerning either delay in issuance or collection of the licences.

According to Omeje, 08150654567 is the number any applicant can call in case there is a delay in issuance of the driver licences .

He said that the numbers were created solely for the purpose of attending to issues related to licence.

The sector commander noted that drivers could now renew their licences for N10,350 for a five-year duration while three-years licence costs N6,350.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Friday said the Nigerian governments war against corruption will not be won by sentiments and media trials.

He said attention should rather shift to the facts.

We must try to identify why, though we have been ostensibly fighting corruption for the past few years, Transparency International, the official global anti-corruption monitoring agency, has not increased our Corruption Perception Index rating, Mr. Abubakar said while picking the Silverbirds 2017 man of the year award in Lagos Friday.

In what appears a direct smack on the Buhari administration, Mr. Abubakar noted that in terms of corruption war, The last time we made progress was in 2014.

His comments came days after Transparency International announced in its new report that Nigerias corruption perception worsened between 2016 and 2017, driving a wedge between the Buhari administration and its critics.

Nigeria ranked 148 out of 180 countries evaluated in 2017, dropping 12 positions from 2016.

The presidency rejected the findings as a fiction, with Mr. Buharis spokesman, Garba Shehu, saying those who know where Nigeria was coming from would not believe that corruption is worse under the Buhari administration.

The Buhari administration has been criticised for its anti-corruption tactics, especially over how corruption cases that are under investigation often find their way into the newspapers.

The government is also accused of allowing its own corrupt officials and cronies of the administration escape prosecution.

Mr. Abubakar said Transparency Internationals results showed that corruption is still endemic in Nigeria and would require concerted efforts to combat.

Not to belabour the point, but we have to kill the snake of corruption that swallows the commonwealth that should lift our people up from poverty, Mr. Abubakar said.

Whether that snake is in a JAMB Office or any other government office, we must kill it or it will kill us, Mr. Abubakar added in a reference to recent corruption allegations at the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.

Mr. Abubakar, who has said he would run for president in 2019, said corruption could condemn more Nigerians to poverty which could worsen crime rate if not urgently addressed.

This month of February 2018, according to the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria has just overtaken India as the worlds capital of extreme poverty. There are more extremely poor people in Nigeria than there are in India, a country that has six times Nigerias population.

When people do not have jobs and the means to start a business are beyond their reach, they are incrementally much more likely to engage in criminal behaviours like terrorism, kidnapping, militancy and armed robbery, Mr. Abubakar said.Patrick Edet, the Nigerian priest, who a year ago announced on radio his resignation from the Catholic Church, is set to marry.

Mr. Edet has been running his own church, the Grace Family, since he left the Catholic fold in July 2017.

He had been a Catholic priest for more than 11 years.

A source close to the clergy told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Edet has fixed March 17 as his wedding date. The clergy broke the news in the church, Tuesday, about his planned wedding, this newspaper was told.

They (are) have engaged already, the source said.

The name of the bride-to-be is Inyene, said to be from Itam in Itu Local Government Area of the state.

She was teaching in a private nursery/primary school along Oron Road, Uyo, before the priest withdrew her from work, this newspaper learnt.

Information about Mr. Edets engagement has once again put him in the spotlight, especially in Akwa Ibom where he comes from.

I really think we should learn to mind our business. Someone freely left the priesthood in order to be free; he now freely chooses a wife-to-be, whats your business? He is not a priest anymore! a Catholic priest, Patrick Udotai, wrote on Facebook, Thursday.

I have been fuming about people trying to make news out of no news. Let the guy live his life for Gods sake, another Catholic priest, Justin Udomah, commented on Mr. Udotais post.

He loves publicity. He created a superstar image for himself. He cannot enjoy any private life because he opted for it. I pray for him and those he is deceiving, another Catholic priest, Richard Edet, commented.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately reach the former Catholic priest for his reaction.

His phone lines were switched off on Saturday afternoon when this paper tried to reach him. The text messages sent to his phones werent delivered as at the time of filing this report.

When Mr. Edet announced his resignation from Catholic Church, he said I ceased to be a Catholic priest in my thinking, in my spirit, in my soul, (and) in my body.

In my mind, every law that bound me bound me because I submitted myself to the Catholic Church as an institution.

Having submitted my resignation letter to my authorities in the Catholic Church, in my spirit, soul and body, I am free from every law that guided me. I submit myself to one authority  God.

The reason I am doing this is that I want to be right with God first. I want to go to heaven when I die, he had said.

He had also said that being a Catholic priest didnt give him enough space to serve God.

ADVERTISEMENT

A box is already made for you and you cannot go outside that box.

You cannot know God beyond that box. You cannot express God beyond that box. And any attempt for you to go beyond that box brings you label, he said.ADVERTISEMENT

The Association of Waste Managers in Nigeria has distanced itself from claims of a resolution of the dispute between the Dubai-based firm, Visionscape Group, and private waste operators.

In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday, the association said the claims that Visionscape and the PSP operators have resolved to work as partners following a meeting on Thursday the 22nd February 2018 is clearly misleading and untrue.

On the said date we were before Justice Taofiquat Oyekan Abdullahi of the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, in the suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria also known as PSP against the Lagos State Government, the group said in a statement by its chairman, Oladipo Egbeyemi.

Visionscape, and ABC Sanitation Solution all the parties legal representatives were duly present and the case was adjourned till March 7, 2018.

The reason for the adjournment was to allow all parties to document agreement reached with His Excellency Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on Saturday 27th January 2018. It was also to allow both parties to conclude on areas that have not been resolved.

But, according to the PSP operators, while the court proceedings were ongoing; the Lagos State government, Visionscape, ABC Solutions and another group of PSP operators were holding a parallel meeting at the states Ministry of Environment.

At the meeting, which had Thomas Forgacs, the Chief Operations Officer of Visionscape Sanitation Solutions; Abiodun Bamgboye, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment; Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, the Commissioner for the Environment, an agreement was reportedly reached.

Also at the meeting were Babatunde Hunpe, Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment; John Irvine, Chief Executive Officer, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions; Bamidele Garko, Chief Executive Officer, Bamitony and Company, Ikoyi; and Lanre Wilton-Wawdell, Chief Executive Officer, Cleanway Limited.

We, the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, registered under the Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have a duly nominated Executive Caretaker Committee to steer the affairs of the Association following the resignation of the former Executives. This executive Caretakers have been mandated to negotiate on behalf of our members, the group continued in the statement.

We are proud of being responsible for making Lagos a clean State and are saddened to see waste return to our beloved Lagos. With a great sense of responsibility we agreed to collaborate with Visionscape following an explorative meeting between the Chief Executive of Visionscape, John Irvine. We expected that by now negotiations would have been concluded but Visionscape have yet to follow through after the agreements reached at the meeting.

We hereby appeal to the Government of His Excellency Mr Akinwumni Ambode, not to patronize or encourage or meet with those that (are) not the accredited representatives of PSP operators, so that the government is not seen as encouraging impunity or sponsoring factions within our registered organization. We have continued to adher to the directive of His Lordship to continue to work despite the air of uncertainty that has plagued our industry in the last two years and the deplorable state of the dumpsites.

We remain committed to an amicable legal resolution with the Government and collaboration with all stakeholders to not only restore Lagos to her once glorious clean state of old but to actualise the Cleaner Lagos dream of His Excellency Mr Akinwummi Ambode.Including European, American, Asian, Latin American, and Russian Fine and Decorative Art & Antiques

By: Shapiro Auctions LLC

Franz Roubaud (Russian 1856-1928), "Meditation in the Desert," 1887

Contact

Shapiro Auctions

***@shapiroauctions.com Shapiro Auctions

End

-- Shapiro AuctionsFine and Decorative Art & Antiques AuctionMarch 7, 2018, 10am ESTNEW YORK, NY Shapiro Auctions is pleased to announce the Fine and Decorative Art & Antiques Auction taking place on March 7, 2018. The auction will include nearly 400 lots of fine and decorative art from a wide variety of genres and stylistic periods including American and European fine art, Polish modern art, Latin American contemporary art, Asian art and antiques, and Russian art.Shapiro Auctions will once again display their expertise in the field of Russian fine art with the magnificentby Franz Roubaud, executed in 1887, soon after the artist's return from his extended travel through the Caucasus region. This calm painting portrays a peaceful and very personal moment of reflection in the daily life of a traveler in the Central Asian desert, as he initiates part of his daily prayer, Salat al-maghrib, performed just after sunset. Islamic calligraphy carved into the monumental frame of this lot repeats Moorish design of the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain, and reads "There is no God but Allah". The work is included in the artist's catalogue raisonne and was presented upon its completion in 1887 at the exhibition-sale Kunsthandlung Wimmer in Munich, where it was sold to Ph. Lewisohn from New York. It is possible, that the work was also exhibited at the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts in St. Petersburg two years later.Asian works of fine and decorative art and antiques cover an important facet of the March 7Auction, but a special grouping of lots from the collection of Dr. Victor Chi-tsai Hoo and his brother, Ambassador Hu Shi Xi, shines a spotlight on the important accomplishments and influence these diplomats had on the course of Chinese history.One of the important lots from this historic collection is Lot 13, a Personal Autograph Book of Ambassador Hu Shi Xi, which includes letters, signatures, drawings, and calligraphy, circa 1941-1958 (est: $2,000-3,000.)Several ink drawings by Hu Shi Xi himself are also available in this sale, each estimated $1,000-2,000. Other important items from the collection include several orders awarded to U.N. Under-Secretary General Victor Chi tsai Hoo, such as a first class set of the Chinese Order of the Brilliant Jade (est: $3,000-5,000,)among others.The March 7Auction will bring attention to American modern and contemporary art with works like Wayne Thiebaud's($60,000-80,000,)depicting his first wife Patte Thiebaud. The painting was acquired by a private collection directly from Patte herself, with a certificate of authenticity. A cut-out steel portrait by Tom Wassermann will be offered for $25,000-35,000, as well as a line drawing by Louise Nevelson ($5,000-7,000,)and an invitation to Andy Warhol's retrospective in 1981, signed by Warhol himself ($3,000-5,000.)A work by Ludwig Bemelmanns, the illustrator and writer of thechildren's picture books, takes his sense of style and color into a more adult-oriented realm with($12,000-15,000,)which alludes to both Manet'sand Titian'sA large portion of the March 7Auction is dedicated to European fine art, with highlights including Jean Metzinger's, estimated $80,000-100,000. Metzinger'swill be in the company of Moise Kisling ($70,000-90,000,)Andre Lhote ($3,000-4,000,)and works by Maurice de Vlaminck. Two prints by M.C. Escher are being offered, each one sold with a signed letter by Escher that accompanied the prints when he sold them to the current owner. The lithographs,and, both classic works of his, are each estimated at $15,000-20,000.Growing upon their exceptional sales records for Polish modern art, Shapiro Auctions continues to expand their selection of artists available to collectors. This includes artists Aleksander Kobzdej, Ana Guntner ($8,000-10,000,)Jan Cybis ($2,00-3,000,)and Tadeusz Brzozowski ($25,000-35,000,)among others. Boleslas Biegas, the important sculptor with works in collections such as the Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, will be offered on March 7th as well. His bronze work,is estimated at $9,000-12,000.Other significant offerings with Russian origin consist of a quintessential Philip Maliavin painting,($40,000-60,000.)To contrast, two large paintings by Vasily Shulzhenko are being offered for $10,000-15,000 each. Additionally,by Fedot Sychkov ($25,000-35,000,)will be offered along with Vladimir Makovsky ($40,000-60,000,)and Sergei Soudeikine's($35,000-45,000.)Rounding out the Russian portion of the sale will be several works by Abraham Manievich, David Burliuk, Anatoliy Zverev, as well as several Russian Nonconformists such as Mikhail Chemiakin, Leonid Purygin, Vitaly Komar.The March sale also offers a dazzling array of antique and modern jewelry, Faberge, and decorative art pieces with intricate silver, gold, and enamelwork. Discerning book collectors are sure to be pleased with the rare set of1853-1917 ($15,000-20,000,)which to the specialists' knowledge, have never appeared at auction before. The set of six volumes of) by Solnstev and Stroganov ($20,000-30,000)is sure to grab attention, as well as) ($20,000-30,000.)All of the artworks will be on view in advance of the sale during the auction preview exhibition held from February 28th through March 5th, 10am-6pm.; March 6th, 10am-1pm.; March 7, 9am-10am; and by appointment. Both the preview and the auction will take place at Shapiro Auctions, 506 East 74th Street, New York, NY 10021. A full catalogue of the lots offered in the sale will be available on http://www.shapiroauctions.com in the weeks preceding the sale.Please join us on Wednesday March 7th, 2018 at 10 a.m. EST to take part in the sale of this remarkable assortment of fine and decorative arts.SAN DIEGO, Feb. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Supported by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio and school leader Margaret Fortune, hundreds of registered Democratic charter public school parents, teachers, students, community activists and education advocates from across the state, rallied at the California Democratic Convention today. They rallied to raise awareness among Democratic Party delegates, candidates and elected officials on their shared progressive values, shared focus on social justice and how charter schools are providing a great education to all students regardless of zip code, income or ability level.

"There's a lot of misinformation about charter schools being circulated for the wrong purposes. These are public schools attempting to serve students in need. A one-size fits all approach to education doesn't work for my kid. What I want, as a parent, is to exercise my right to enroll my child in a great public school," said Lisette Duarte, parent of student attending eCals charter public high school in Glassell Park.

California's charter public schools offer a different approach to public education  one that is as creative as the kids of California, one that puts kids above bureaucracy.

Since their creation 25 years ago by the state legislature, charter public schools have utilized their creative ingenuity and learning flexibility to help close the achievement and opportunity gap in communities across California. Publicly available data indicates that charter public schools suspend California Latino and African American charter public school students 50 percent less than traditional schools. Additionally, these students are more likely to be prepared for, apply to and attend college and are twice as likely to attend California's highest performing schools.

"Everything my party stands for including free public education, public transparency and high standards of accountability are the hallmarks of charter public schools, yet there are simply not enough party members representing our experiences and opinions about the value charters bring to public education in any of the platforms or debates here at the convention. Where's the inclusion?" said Shakira Dupa, parent of charter school student attending Aspire College Academy in the Oakland area.

"Charter schools are an important part of strengthening California's public school system. They offer more kids an opportunity for a great public education at schools that put their needs first," said said Roxanne Nazario, parent whose child attends Stetson Avenue Charter Public School in the Los Angeles area.

"Party leaders can't ignore the data and the desires of parents. We are here today to raise our voices and talk about education and the way it impacts our kids and communities."

The charter school community is ready to collaborate to build a better California by embracing schools that are committed to closing the achievement gap, protecting our most vulnerable and delivering the best education for students.

About California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) Families

CCSA Families' vision is to ensure all families in California have high quality public schools to choose from in their neighborhoods. Our mission is to create the pathway for high quality public schools to exist and thrive by demonstrating the needs in families, and advocate for policies that promote learning, facilities equity, and options. For more information, please visit our website at www.ccsafamilies.org.

Media Contact:

Caity Heim, California Charter Schools Association

530-304-1242

[email protected]

SOURCE California Charter Schools Association

Related Links

http://www.ccsa.org

The site includes 34 existing buildings, including office, manufacturing, warehouse, data center and laboratory space. IBM will lease back eight of these buildings on the eastern portion of the campus, affirming its continued commitment to the Rochester area by signing a long-term lease agreement.

In addition to its own business activities, IBM has contributed to the local economy by attracting numerous existing tenants to the technology campus and investing in facility upgrades and infrastructure. IRG's expertise will now attract additional tenants and secure the property's future.

"We are delighted to add this great asset to our portfolio. Utilizing our nationwide network, we have already engaged many potential tenants who are interested in locating their operations to this high-tech campus," said John A. Mase, Chief Executive Officer of IRG. "IRG plans to create an environment that encompasses a variety of uses and creates as many jobs as possible."

Since occupancy began in 1957, the site's employees have produced thousands of U.S. patents on behalf of IBM. The property was designed by Eero Saarinen, a 20th-century Finnish American architect known for also designing the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

About IRG

IRG is a nationwide real estate development and investment firm specializing in the acquisition, development and management of commercial and industrial real estate throughout the U.S. IRG, through its affiliated partnerships and limited liability companies, operates a portfolio containing over 100 million square feet space in 28 states. IRG is nationally recognized as a leading force behind the adaptive reuse of commercial real estate, solving some of America's most difficult real estate challenges. For more information, visit www.industrialrealtygroup.com.

For more information, contact:

Lauren Crumrine | Director of Marketing | IRG

(614) 562-9252

[email protected]

SOURCE Industrial Realty Group, LLC

Related Links

http://www.industrialrealtygroup.com

GREENFIELD, Mass., Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The registered nurses of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, agreed on Friday to withdraw their one-day strike notice after Baystate Health requested the withdrawal in order to return to the bargaining table on February 26. Nurses agreed to bargain while hoping for progress toward a contract that must include improvements to RN staffing and patient care, along with decent health insurance.

A 24-hour nurse strike had been scheduled to start at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Baystate had threatened to lock out BFMC nurses from 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27 through 7 p.m. Friday, March 2. BFMC nurses retain the right to re-issue a new 10-day notice of a new one-day strike if necessary.

"Our community wants to see us reach a resolution that protects and improves patient care," said RN Donna Stern, Senior Co-Chair of the BFMC RN Bargaining Committee. "We have been seeking to negotiate a fair contract all along, and we hope that the withdrawal of our strike notice gives us space to reach an agreement that benefits our patients, our nurses and our community."

On February 8, BFMC nurses voted by 85% to authorize a potential one-day strike. Key issues:

Baystate refuses to improve patient care conditions

Baystate wants the right to make nurse staffing worse

Baystate wants to force its nurses to take terrible health insurance from Baystate's own insurance company, Health New England

Why Inadequate RN Staffing is a Patient Care Problem:

By failing to schedule enough nurses or forcing nurses to work through our meal breaks and routinely past the end of our shifts, Baystate is making it more and more difficult for exhausted, overworked nurses to provide the best care for our patients.

Nurses worked, were pressured or forced to work 3,980 shifts of 12 hours or more in one year. National best practices say nurses SHOULD NOT work more than 12 hours.

Safe Patient Care Solutions

Nurses are seeking specific staffing improvements in specific hospital units, along with the proposal that charge nurses not be required to take a patient assignment. This is tied to a proposal that management hire the nurses it needs to staff its staffing grids and not worsen staffing by assigning even more patients to all other nurses.

Charge nurses need to be able to effectively coordinate care and assist other nurses. If their patient assignments are eliminated or reduced but their fellow nurses have even heavier patient assignments, the problems nurses have identified for years will worsen.

Decent Health Insurance

Mid-contract, BFMC management took away the only two decent health plans offered to nurses: Gold and Silver. Nurses are just asking them to bring back a decent health plan.

Baystate Health owns Health New England and Baystate President & CEO Dr. Mark Keroack is also CEO of the health plan. Baystate is self-insured, meaning that the health insurance the nurses get is not from an outside provider that sets the cost. Rather the cost is set by Baystate/Health New England and any additional cost to the nurses means more money for Baystate/Health New England.

is also CEO of the health plan. Baystate is self-insured, meaning that the health insurance the nurses get is not from an outside provider that sets the cost. Rather the cost is set by Baystate/Health New England and any additional cost to the nurses means more money for Baystate/Health New England. In addition, Baystate agreed to provide Noble Hospital nurses the Silver plan when they settled in November 2017 .

. Baystate is advertising that the people of the Pioneer Valley and Springfield areas should come to them for care, while being unable to provide a healthcare to their own employees.

Baystate Profits

Baystate Health has the financial means to provide safe staffing and fair RN benefits and wages. It ended 2014 and 2015 with a combined $121 million in profit, according to the state. During fiscal year 2016, BFMC alone reported $2.2 million in profits.

Bargaining Background

BFMC nurses held a one-day strike on June 26, 2017 after voting by a 93% margin to authorize the strike. The nurses were preemptively locked out of the hospital by Baystate management, who kept the RNs from caring for their patients the evening before the strike. The lockout lasted for two days following the strike and involved Baystate spending $1 million to hire replacement nurses from outside the community instead of allowing BFMC nurses to care for their patients once the strike concluded.

Following the strike, Baystate gave its "best and final" to BFMC nurses on July 21. BFMC nurses voted to reject that offer on August 15. The MNA has filed more than 20 unfair labor practice charges against Baystate on behalf of BFMC nurses for, among other reasons, failing to bargain in good faith over mandatory subjects of bargaining such as nurse workload and health insurance.

BFMC nurses began negotiating for a new contract in November 2016 to replace the contract that expired Dec. 31, 2016. A federal mediator is involved in negotiations.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses Instagram.com/MassNurses

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

http://www.massnurses.org

GALVESTON, Texas, Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Moody Foundation has launched its Generation Moody Education Initiative, a signature project benefitting Galveston Island by providing a catalyst for exceptional education opportunities for infants through high school and into post-secondary learning. Generation Moody Education Initiative launches with four grant recipients, totaling an $8,613,679 initial commitment from the Moody Foundation.

"Boosting educational attainment is one of the best ways to contribute to the prosperity of any community," said Ross R. Moody, trustee of the Moody Foundation and CEO of National Western Life Group. "The Generation Moody Education Initiative aims to impact every Galveston Island child over the next 10 to 20 years, steadily building students' achievement from cradle to career."

"We see the Generation Moody Education Initiative as an investment in the next generation of Galvestonians," said Frances Moody-Dahlberg, chairman and executive director of the Moody Foundation. "Over time, the Generation Moody grants will provide support for the best practices and demonstrated outcomes that enable educational excellence. We believe this bold plan is the very kind of undertaking our founders, W.L. Moody, Jr. and Libbie Shearn Moody, would have envisioned for their beloved community."

"Just as the Moody Foundation is steeped in Galveston's amazing history, it is equally committed to Galveston's future," said Elizabeth Moody, trustee of the Foundation. "I am truly happy that Generation Moody grants will encourage lasting, sustainable programs to benefit students now and for decades to come."

Generation Moody Education Initiative grants will support recipients who are focused on student achievement in areas such as literacy, science, technology and math. The Generation Moody Education Initiative also connects longstanding Moody Foundation projects such as the Moody Scholars program (c. 1969) and more recent endeavors like the Moody Early Childhood Education Center with new support for after school, summer school and family literacy programs, and new professional development initiatives. Grant recipients include:

Galveston Independent School District

Moody Early Childhood Center

Odyssey Academy

SMART Family Literacy

"The Moody Foundation knows that strategic and purposeful planning, using evidenced based interventions, can have a positive effect on a child's success at any age," said Angela Blair, director of education for the Moody Foundation. "We're excited to join forces with Galveston Island schools and nonprofits in a community wide effort to enhance educational attainment. Together, we can help provide a continuous path of opportunities for the children of Galveston Island'from cradle to career.'"

About the Moody Foundation

The Moody Foundation was established by W.L. Moody, Jr. and Libbie Shearn Moody in 1942 to share their good fortune and make a difference in the lives of the people of Texas. Since then, the Moody Foundation has made more than $1.2 billion in grants throughout the state to organizations that have educated, healed, nurtured and inspired generations of Texans. Learn more at MoodyF.org.

SOURCE The Moody Foundation

Related Links

http://MoodyF.org

Greenbelt, Md., Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland, announces a definitive agreement has been signed between SGT and KBR for the purchase of SGT. SGT, a privately held company, began operations in December 1994. Owners, Dr. Kam Ghaffarian and Harold Stinger joined forces with the objective to exceed customer expectations, provide rewarding opportunities for employees, operate with the utmost integrity and enjoy the journey.

The two worked hard to beat the odds and successfully graduated from the 8(a) program in 2005, then moved to full and open opportunities. For the last decade, SGT has been successfully operating and competing in the government marketplace as a large business government contractor. "Today we embark on an exciting new chapter in the SGT journey," commented President and CEO, Dr. Kam Ghaffarian. "Over the last 22 years we have relentlessly worked hard to create a company that brings value to everything we do. By joining forces with KBRwyle we will be able to offer a broader set of service offerings to our customers, give our workforce more opportunities and bring a stronger set of solutions to the marketplace. Even more importantly, the two entities have strong business synergies and culture alignment that will enable us to continue to exceed customer expectations and be very competitive in the marketplace."

"We are excited to bring SGT into the KBR family," said Stuart Bradie, KBR President and CEO. "There is a strong cultural fit. Like KBR, SGT is a people company that operates with integrity and delivers strong results by putting customers and employees at the forefront of everything they do."

The transaction is expected to close around the end of the first quarter. Once closed SGT will operate as a business unit within KBR's global Government Services business, KBRwyle with Kam Ghaffarian and the SGT management team remaining intact.

SGT provides technology solutions and services to the United States government for space programs, national security and civilian operations. For more than 20 years, our dedicated staff of nearly 2,500 employees has delivered high-value engineering, mission operations, IT and science solutions that yield high-performing and cost-effective government programs.

Contact: Shelley Johnson

Phone: 301.489.1108

Email: [email protected]

http://www.sgt-inc.com

SOURCE SGT, Inc.

Related Links

www.sgt-inc.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CNX, a leader in providing broadband master planning and program management services to municipalities across the country, wants Tennessee residents to understand the impact that the recent House Bill 2279, if passed will have on their communities.

On February 2, 2018 House Bill 2279 and its companion SB 2504 were introduced. The bill has been presented by AT&T and if passed, will impact municipalities' ability to manage their public right-of-way and generate on-going revenue from city-owned assets, like light poles located in the public rights-of way.

In order to meet growing demand for wireless services, it is estimated carriers, like AT&T, will seek to deploy hundreds of thousands of small cells in densely populated areas like Nashville. These small cells can be installed on existing city owned infrastructure like light poles. The bill would require that carriers be allowed access to all municipal owned infrastructure in the right-of-way while at the same time removing the city's right to develop and enforce design guidelines or aesthetic standards. The proposed legislation would permit a carrier to place a 28 cubic feet equipment cabinet on the ground next to a pole or up to within 50' of a pole.

Angela Stacy, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at CNX is also a member of the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee and a resident of Tennessee has expressed grave concern with the proposed legislation. "As recently as today, I have seen an email campaign sent by AT&T to its customers in Tennessee claiming they need to support small cell legislation because it will make it 'easier and more efficient' for them to enhance their networks. AT&T isn't giving them the whole truth. This bill, if passed, will not only diminish a city's ability to manage their public rights-of-way, it will also drastically reduce the revenues cities earn today by leasing their assets to carriers. To the tune of billions of dollars."

The bill moved this week from the House Business and Utilities Subcommittee at the Tennessee General Assembly and is scheduled to be discussed at the February 28th Tennessee House Business and Utilities Committee meeting.

About CNX:

As technology evolves we have strategically partnered with communities across the county to develop broadband masterplans to drive the cities of tomorrow forward.

CNX is transforming the broadband delivery model by bringing simplicity, speed, and transparency to outdated processes that hinder collaboration between cities and service providers. CNX offers your city a roadmap to long-term connectivity, growth, and sustainability for your ber and wireless broadband needs. More information at www.cnx.io

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Angela Stacy at 615-351-7555 or email at [email protected].

Contact Angela Stacy Telephone 615-351-7555 Cell 615-351-7555 Email [email protected] Website www.cnx.io

SOURCE CNX

Related Links

http://www.cnx.io

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a successful 2018 National Conference in Omaha, Nebraska with over 500 in attendance, Therap has announced the dates and location for its upcoming 2019 National Conference. Therap's annual event returns to the Southeast region as Charlotte, North Carolina will host from January 29 -January 31st. The conference brings together system administrators, nurses, clinicians, and attendees from across the nation in a forum to share their knowledge and experiences using Therap's LTSS and Disability software with peers from around the country. The conference highlights new and coming innovations to the platform and focuses on national initiatives and the regulatory impact of legislation and changes to Medicaid guidelines affecting the intellectual and developmental disability field. Recent topics included the impact and Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) features incorporated in response to the 21st Century Cures Act, and how Therap's comprehensive incident reporting system fits as model practice per recommendations in the 2018 Joint Report issued by the Office of the Inspector General, Office of Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human Services, and Administration on Community Living.

Conference sessions include numerous How-To sessions for Therap modules with simultaneous tracks for different skill levels. Other sessions focus on group discussion or brainstorming with focus on functionality, system user insight, and proposed solutions to common issues, state regulations hot-button issues in the intellectual and developmental disability, LTSS and adjacent human services fields.

The national conference showcases user presentations, with provider agencies presenting on topics including their experiences implementing Therap, quality assurance practices, reporting, and staff training. Presentations include in-system demonstrations, cost and case studies, recommendations and more. Tracks on designated topics such as community-based employment, aging in the I/DD community, family member and self advocate access to health records, managed care and health information exchanges, mobile applications and policies on personal device usage, and using data and business intelligence to drive agency decision-making all feature at the conference.

Therap looks forward to welcoming attendees to the Queen City in 2019.

About Therap

Therap Services provides secure, web-based documentation, communication and electronic billing services to over 4000 intellectual disability providers, LTSS and other human service providers across the United States.

Learn more at www.TherapServices.net.

SOURCE Therap Services

Related Links

http://www.therapservices.net

BOSTON, Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Attendees at the 2018 START National Training Institute (SNTI), held May 7  9 in Boston, Mass., will notice Therap among the list of sponsors at this year's event. Providers supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities have used Therap's certified electronic health record for nearly 15 years to collect service and clinical data, health records, billable documentation and communicate securely within their agencies as well as the broader inter-disciplinary team.

Therap's tools include clinical case notes, program and service data linked to plan outcomes, support plans and reports to help with trending, analysis and more than 70 unique features from employment plans to health tracking to medication administration records with drug reference and pharmacy interface. At the START Training Institute, Therap will be in attendance to discuss how its software applications are used in home and community-based services (HCBS), ID/DD and LTSS provider settings for clinical data, service documentation, communication and reporting.

START providers are invited to learn more about how Therap's tools adhere to their state's specific billing requirements, including its trading partner status to bill electronically to state Medicaid Management Information Systems in dozens of states. Therap's claims generation process meets the HIPAA Version 5010 standard for electronic claim transactions and creates 837 claims. Billing data is generated at the point-of-service with the configurable service data, units are swept quickly, checked against billable service requirements, and claims created in a fraction of time by front-office finance personnel.

Attendees interested in clinical service notes and reporting can learn more about Therap's person-centered planning tools and multiple modules for case managers, care coordinators, clinicians, therapists and behaviorists. These include bio-psycho-social assessments, eligibility determinations, plan worksheets, and service data forms for events, outcomes, or interval data. Secure applications within the system include comprehensive incident reports and follow-up processes, medication administration records (MAR), behavior tracking, individual service plans and goal tracking, health records, supported employment notes, nursing notes and progress notes. Therap also offers staff supports including employee training management, individual budgeting and work scheduling.

We're pleased to be a sponsor of the START National Training Institute, and welcome attendees to visit our booth.

SOURCE Therap Services

Related Links

http://www.therapservices.net

Luis Alberto Urrea declares that his latest book, The House of Broken Angels, will be timely in a way I never imagined. The laydown date set by Little, Brown for Urreas eighth novel is March 6the day after the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program is scheduled for repeal. Thats an unfortunate marketing tool, adds Urrea, a creative writing professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The House of Broken Angels is about the extended de la Cruz family in San Diego, Calif. Some of them are immigrants from Tijuana, Mexico, and some are undocumented, including some Dreamers. Most of the characters live in a fictional working-class neighborhood in the borderlands, reminiscent of the south San Diego barrio where Urrea spent much of his childhood.

The story shifts among times and places in Mexico and California and revolves around the clans patriarch, Big Angel, who is dying of cancer and wants to throw a huge party to bid his loved ones farewell. After the arrival of his half-brother, Little Angel, now a college professor and poet living in Seattle, the brothers tell their stories and reminisce about their larger-than-life Mexican father, as well as about Big Angels Mexican mother and Little Angels Anglo mother.

Urrea describes The House of Broken Angels as a story of Americans that fills a gap in the canon of immigrant literature, and he points out that the de la Cruz family is an American familyjust one that speaks Spanish and happens to worship the Virgin of Guadalupe. When he first read The Godfather in his teens, he was enthralled by the portrayal of the Italian-American Mafia that was also a tale about la familia. It inspired Urrea, who is now 62, and he says that he has always wanted to write a family epic of my own.

Urrea laughs as he remembers that, when he met Jim Harrison at the 2015 Tucson Festival of Books and told the late author he wanted to write about his unconventional family, Harrison called it an idea handed to [him] by God and told him he had better write a novel.

The House of Broken Angels is very personal to Urrea: the narrative was inspired by the last days of his older half-brother Juan, who died in 2016. He notes that the personal also is political. You cant have a name like mine and not be political, he says. Its automatically politicized me. No matter what I do I cant help but be radical.

Urreas familys story, too, connects him to a larger political context. He is the son of a Mexican father who looked like Errol Flynn and a New York socialite mother; he was born in Tijuana, and the family moved to San Diego after he contracted tuberculosis as a young child. I was dying, he explains. They moved to the U.S. to keep me alive, and settled in Barrio Logan.

Urrea says that he has feels anger over the bigotry against Mexicans he has encountered all of his life, even though he looks Irish. He adds, I dont like being angry all the time; its not good for me. I have to have serenity, or else go to war.

Disclosing that he is outraged beyond belief about the Trump administrations stance against immigrants, Urrea says that he wanted to boil it down to a different dynamic in House of Broken Angels. Its in the background. Its this dark shadow thats around the edges all the time.

Urrea notes that he wanted to explore the discomfort that Mexican-Americans feel constantly, this cultural violence we feel all the time. Hence, although the characters in House of Broken Angels deal with the kind of bigotry that Mexican-Americans experience in real life, there is no terror, there are no tears when characters see a man holding up a sign demanding that the U.S. build a wall or are confronted by a woman in Target wishing theyd be deported. Rather, the characters are bemused, he says. Oh, theres one of those people again.

Urreas family also had much to do with his path to writing. Explaining that his father had deserted the Mexican army after being ordered to assassinate an enemy of the state and that his mother suffered from PTSD after working for the Red Cross in World War II, he laughs and says, How could I not be a writer with parents like that?

In San Diego, when Urrea was growing up, his father drove a bakery delivery truck and his mother worked in a department store. We didnt have any money, he says, describing his mother taking him on a couple of buses on Saturdays to the public library downtown. I maxed out my library card every week by checking out seven books.

Urrea says that his entire world consisted of a miserable Catholic school and the porch of my home, where he read. He describes himself as a voracious reader then, especially of science fiction. He initially didnt enjoy poetry, he recalls, but he loved music. His appreciation for poetry was awakened in junior high when a teacher introduced him to Stephen Crane. I felt the world pivot, he says; that sensation was amplified when he discovered the poetry collections of such favorite musicians as Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen, as well as John Lennons short stories.

I just started writing, Urrea says. I tried to create poems and short stories in the mold of my heroes. It was a fever. I just had to do it.

Urreas mother gave him her typewriter and also sewed together about 40 typewritten pages of his early creative efforts into a book. She also, through force of will, motivated him to apply for grants to attend the University of California, San Diego, where he majored in writing.

It was while studying at UCSD that Urrea discovered contemporary Latino writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda. I felt like I was taken to another world; it was like graduating from Ray Bradbury, he says, describing his literary influences to this day as everybody I read and claiming that he can best measure his growth as an artist by the books hes reading at any given time.

Sadly, it was his fathers murderin Mexico, where hed traveled to raise funds to help pay for Urreas college tuitionthat led to Urreas being published for the first time, in 1980. Unable to process his grief, he wrote an essay about having to pay the Mexican police $750 to retrieve his fathers body for burial. His professor showed the essay to Ursula K. Le Guin, who was leading a writing workshop at UCSD at the time, and she invited him into it.

Suddenly, I was with Ursula Le Guin, learning to write for real, Urrea says. It was transformative. Le Guin subsequently included the essay in an anthology she was editing.

Up until that point, I didnt think somebody like mea blue-collar kid from Tijuana and the barriocould get into real books, Urrea adds. I thought Id probably just print my own books.

But that was only the beginning: after graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Urrea held a series of jobs while he wrote the first of his four nonfiction books: Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border (1993). The first of three poetry collections, Fever of Being, was released in 1994, as was his first novel, In Search of Snow. Urrea has also written two collections of short stories and two memoirs.

Though Urreas works have received critical acclaim and a number of prestigious awards, he says that he has never before received so much prepub buzz as he has for The House of Broken Angels. It seems to be striking a nerve, he says. I wasnt really trying to be subversive, but I was trying to be subversive at the same time. Im always trying to, using literature, subvert peoples responses.Bestselling indie author Christian A. Brown resists labeling his work, though it has been called speculative fiction. His Four Feasts till Darkness series takes place in the fantasy realm of Geadhain, where science and magic merge into a force called technomagik. Handmaid Morigan Lostarot learns that she is in possession of magical abilities, which she harnesses upon meeting and forming a powerful romantic union with a wolf-man. The books feature threads of horror, fantasy, suspense, drama, and romance, and though Browns characters inhabit worlds other than our own, they also serve as vital representations of human complexity here on Earth. We are a multitude of sins and greatnesses, Brown says.

Born in Canada, Brown grew up in a lower-income mixed-race household and is no stranger to adversity. His family valued equality and principles of fairness and kindness, even in a world that appeared quite hostile. One incident that stuck with Brown happened when he was still in diapers: someone burned a cross on his familys front lawn. When he sought an explanation from his mother, she sagaciously explained to him that fear made people do bad things.

Perhaps it was the desire to understand his fellow human beings that led Brown to become a voracious reader. He counts Roald Dahl as a significant early influence, as well as the work of Ursula K. Le Guin. It was the Earthsea [series] that really teleported me into a world and showed me the magic of the written word. I felt as if I lived in Earthsea, Brown says. For him, fantasy wasnt necessarily an escape from our reality, but rather provided a different lens for understanding it: Fantasy gives us an abstraction, a distance, through which we can view complex issues, then break them down into less-realistic and -startling pieces. We dont lose that wisdom when we leave a good book or show.

For Brown, self-publishing was the clear option for getting his books into the world; he has always considered himself a self-starter. However, he knew better than to publish his work without first consulting a professional editor. Over a period of three years, Brown worked on five different manuscript drafts. He wasnt naive about the heavily saturated industry he was entering: he knew that to thrive, he would need to ensure that his first book stood out. I copied the industry standards for traditional publishing, and spent another year doing three further editorial and copyright passes, he says. My goal was to have a book indistinguishable from a traditionally published novel. In 2014, Brown self-published the first book in the series, Feast of Fates, which received a starred review from Kirkus.

Brown has some advice for writers who are considering self-publishing their work. I should stress that we are living in an age where many of the old rules of publishing and exposure are being redefined, he says. Artists should be open to change, to new avenues of promoting and sharing their work, of hybrid and crowdfunded publishing. There isnt just one best way to publish a book anymore. Above all, he encourages writers to be open to all possibilities, present yourself and behave authentically, and take criticism on the chin.

In addition to being an author, Brown is an activist who speaks out on issues relating to marginalization, rape culture, and representation. He himself is a survivor of assault, which he has written about. Brown credits his late mother for inspiring much of his social consciousness and passion for advocacy, and these influences carry into his fiction as well. Given my heritage and experience with marginalization, violence, and survivorism, youll find social commentary peppered throughout my work, he says. His characters are predominantly female-identifying and come from diverse backgrounds; his readership is also largely female.

With the clamoring for diverse voices within the literary world, Brown believes that fantasy and sci-fi have entered kind of a golden era, with the better instincts of the genre being concerned with diverse representations and outsider narratives. All my weird and eccentric characters suddenly have an audience! Brown says. Writing diverse characters comes naturally to Brown, but he is always at work to ensure that his representations are accurate: Even though I am the poster child for diversity, that doesnt make me exempt from being tone-deaf. I constantly check myself and my work for authenticity.This month, Michelle Argyle at Melissa Williams Design reimagines the cover of Dying for a Vacation by Donna Huston Murray, who thanked Argyle and BookLife for the opportunity to correct my freshman mistake.

Design Note #1: Though the original cover photo is interesting, it feels gothic and cold. With an artist as its main character, this book needs a cover with more color, which will also help it stand out.

Design Note #2: A sharp contrast between light and shadow is a good way to capture the readers eye.

Design Note #3: Readers love a novel with a fascinating setting. Including a warm, colorful view of the French Riviera promises readers a setting theyll want to visitin the books pages and on vacation.

Design Note #4: The title is clever but doesnt indicate a murder mystery. Including the subtitle will attract the right readers.

To submit a book for a free cover redesign, email us at booklifeeditor@booklife.com.Last March at Camex, the National Association of College Stores annual trade show, NACS CEO Robert Walton announced a program aimed at stemming the loss of independent campus stores to corporate leasing programs by revamping the organizations IndiCo subsidiary. We get an F if our goal is to retain independent stores, he said. Were losing a store every four days to these programs, run primarily by Follett and Barnes & Noble Education.

IndiCos program, the Independent Campus Stores Collaborative, gives colleges and universities the option to allow IndiCo to manage their campus stores or provide custom services. When it was launched at last years Camex, there were roughly 2,000 indie stores.

Whitlow Campus Store at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa, was the first of three college stores to sign with IndiCo for full store management. Sarah Haas, the stores manager, said, We knew this was the best decision we could have made. Were very happy. Fall was a learning experience for us all. Spring was better. Everything is just getting smoother. Although store processes have changed, she added, the only thing students have noticed is a drop in textbook prices beginning in the second semester.

Over the past few years, other school stores have gone independent, but not all through IndiCo. Im not sure [the transition] is a complete success, said Jim Huang, director of the bookstore at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. There was a lot of skepticism [among faculty] about what we do thats different when the college took over store management in spring 2015 from Follett. Huang said that books are the focus of the revamped store. Currently textbooks account for 40% of sales, with spiritwear and spirit gear another 40%, and 20% of sales generated from other items.

The 55-year-old Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Mass., has been selling textbooks for Mount Holyoke College since 2001. Last summer Odyssey became the official school store after the college closed its longtime campus store, which had been managed by Follett, to make way for a community center. Odyssey added a dedicated area, painted with Mount Holyokes colors, for spiritwear and spirit gear. The bookstore also has a new tagline: Home of the Mount Holyoke College Store. For Odyssey owner Joan Grenier, the stores expanded relationship with the college is an opportunity to create a new revenue stream. It has already boosted Odysseys online sales.

Feminist bookstore Charis Books & More in Atlanta is making even bigger changes in order to become a campus store. The shop is moving to Decatur, Ga., to become the campus store of Agnes Scott College and will sell everything but textbooks.

For RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Ct., adding its first college storeWesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore in Middletown, Ct.last May brings a new kind of managed store to its portfolio. (It has also managed other trade bookstores.) Wesleyan wanted to offer its community the kind of trade book presence and events the Madison store provides. There was a learning curve, and there still is, said general manager Lori Fazio. Were still understanding what the students, staff, and community want to see. For now, Fazio said, we are very pleased.

Yet even with those additions to the independent market, the number of independent campus stores continues to drop. Barnes & Noble Education added 700 virtual bookstores and a textbook wholesaling company with its acquisition of MBS last year. It now operates 777 physical bookstores and 706 virtual stores.

Follett has nearly double that number, with close to 1,200 physical stores and more than 1,550 online stores. The company is bullish about retail in general and continues to open two to three stores per month, and it has begun tinkering with its model to make its stores more like community centers, adopting some of the words and phrases that have become associated with the thriving independent trade bookstore market. We want to be the store of the community, said Roe McFarlane, chief digital officer at Follett Higher Education Group.

E-commerce continues to be important to Follett, which will roll out a new omnichannel point-of-sale system soon. At the same time, it is testing a new campus store model to create more of a lifestyle experience. Theyll be much more student focused, with more soft seating and integrated services like coffee and a mail hub, McFarlane said. These are places where students want to hang out.

By reorganizing course material by author at Texas Christian University, University of Texas at Arlington, and Notre Dame, Follett has been able to shrink the physical size of its course material area by 30% to provide more open space. McFarlane anticipates opening three more lifestyle stores at other schools soon.

But shrinking textbook margins and declining sales could be problematic for Follett and B&NEs plans, which are dependent on sales of course materials, offering indies an opportunity to rebound. Were waiting patiently, Walton said. Were really playing the long game here. B&NE and Follett need to make a minimum of 25% margin on books. And the new minimum is 18% if youre lucky. Publisher rental programs are 10%.

In another indication of the challenges in the college store landscape, Walton pointed to Amazons decision to drop out of the customized course material business this summer. In the fall it canceled contracts with New Yorks Stony Brook University and UMass Amherst to be their college textbook provider.

If Amazon, with unlimited resources, doesnt want to enter this business, how can [others] do it? Walton asked.

Not that Amazon is leaving the college market entirely: Students can purchase and rent textbooks, as well as shop hundreds of millions of items every day, on Amazon, said Amanda Ip, an Amazon spokeswoman. With more than 30 locations both on and off college campuses across the country and plans to expand in 2018, Amazon is making it even easier for customers to get the things they need, when they need [them].

Even as Amazon pulls back a bit on the college front, independents are facing new competition from Target. Since it opened its first small-format store near the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 2014, Target has been expanding its presence on or near college campuses. It has 12 locations and will open stores near the Florida State, Ohio State, and Northwestern University campuses later this year. Two additional stores, at Loyola and Michigan State, are slated for 2019. The most popular items are grab-and-go lunches, snack items, school supplies, and tech accessories, according to Target spokeswoman Erin Conroy. The stores offer a unique on-campus retail experience, with each one designed for quick and convenient trips and stocked with locally relevant products at affordable prices, she added.

Last May Walton wrote a blog post questioning whether campus stores should profit from course materials. If higher education institutions are truly serious about affordability and student success, he wrote, theyll start examining ways to get their margins on course materials as close to zero as possible. He received a lot of hate mail.

In the intervening months, academic publishers have moved to direct rental of textbooks, campuses have experienced an uptick in the use of open educational resources (OER), and sales of printed textbooks have continued to decline. When Walton delivered a similar message at a college store gathering in Anaheim, Calif., earlier this month, there was no pushback.

Walton told PW that independent college stores need to explain to college administrations that they can no longer fund other parts of the university. (College store income is often used for scholarships.) He added that theyre also going to have to make more money on general merchandise and services. Instead of being silos, he said, they need to share responsibility with other college and university departments.

To help, IndiCo is introducing an array of services at Camex 2018 in Dallas (March 26). Among them is an automated locker service that operates similarly to those of Amazon and FedEx, with 24/7 secure parcel pickup. Its also offering Suitable Attire, a turnkey interview suit rental and sales program, to remove a barrier to student success. Eighty-five schools have already indicated that theyre interested in the program.

Walton also expressed excitement about new IndiCo programs such as Direct, which will enable independent campus stores to buy general merchandise at substantially lower costs, with no minimums. Ten thousand distinct items will be available by the end of the year. Direct Custom enables stores to source and place large custom orders. (For college stores, IndiCo will handle the process and even hold orders in its distribution center and ship quantities on request for up to two years.) Direct Group will allow stores to take advantage of group purchasing opportunities on special merchandise buys every quarter.

With Custom Decorating, stores will be able to get free, on-demand laser engraving, embroidering, printing, and embossing on orders of any quantity with no minimums and no set-up fees. Store Essentials will provide low-cost fixtures and displays, as well as loss prevention technology. And Institute offers a weeklong immersion program for store staffers on global trade and international alliances.

Much of last years presentation at Camex about IndiCo and the importance of independent stores was much more about the underlying philosophy than how, specifically, IndiCo would support stores. Walton said that one of the criticisms NACS got was about the lack of concrete details. The new services being launched are just a part of the organizations response. Were still getting started, he added.Where photographys main goal is to make food look deliciousnot a bad thing, to be sureillustration offers more opportunities for storytelling and can convey a wider variety of sentiments, such as nostalgia, enthusiasm, or humor.

Thats the case for Something Old, Something New (Scribner, Apr.) by Tamar Adler, a food writer whose work has appeared in Vogue and the New York Times Magazine. The book reimagines recipes that are often dismissed as passesteak Diane, peach Melbarendered in watercolors by Mindy Dubin. Together, the text and illustrations give the book a feeling of gentle amusement: the chapter on seafood is titled On Poverty and Oysters and includes a watercolor of a lobster putting its pincers together as if in contemplation.

I love photography, but it doesnt fit the aesthetic of this book, says Kara Watson, who edited the title. Illustrations offer charm and a quiet intimacy, she says, and can reassure the home cook that a finished dish doesnt have to look perfect.

A similar spirit guides Dan Bransfields Pizzapedia (Ten Speed, Apr.), which narrates the history of pizza through watercolors. Bransfield, who has done illustration work for Applegate Farms and Whole Foods, says that, with food illustration, the whole story is not spelled out, which allows the viewer to fill in the gaps, engaging his or her imagination. Illustration can be refreshingly nonliteral, adds Ten Speed executive editor Jenny Wapner.

Barbara Scott-Goodman, a cookbook author, designer, and art director with more than 20 years of experience, collaborated on two illustrated cookbooks due out in the next six months: Cake (Penguin Press, Apr.), with venerable artist and author Maira Kalman, and Delicious Dessert Cocktails (Bluestreak, Aug.), with Lauren Tamaki, whose work has appeared in Food & Wine, the New York Times, and other publications. Both are single-subject books that, if full of photographs, might have become monotonous, Scott-Goodman says. Everybody knows what cake looks like.

The use of illustrations also allows for flights of whimsy. In Cake, the recipe for Pavlova is accompanied by Kalmans gouache painting of the desserts namesake, Russian ballerina Anna Pavlovaa visual that might have been less charming if rendered photographically. Illustrations, too, can inflect a cookbook with emotion. Certain foods make you think about your childhood, Scott-Goodman says. You can do a lot more with that with painting and drawing than with photography.

Cookbooks by A-list chefs tend to favor photography over illustration: a famous face is a big selling point. French chef Jacques Pepin, for one, has appeared on the cover of several of his cookbooks. He is also a paintera selection of his illustrated menus and prints is held at the Smithsonian National Museum of American Historyand two forthcoming Pepin books, both with Rux Martins imprint at HMH, feature his artwork: Poulets & Legumes (Apr.) and Menus (Sept.). Martin says that illustrations tend to be reserved for books, such as Pepins, that are personable. Even so, they face challenges in the market. What youre always up against, she says, is whether readers will be as attracted to the quirkiness of illustrations, versus the vividness of seductive photos.

Mixing It Up

Some cookbooks combine illustration with photography, and the reasons are as varied as the titles. Sometimes, practicality wins out. Illustrating rather than photographing an ancillary touch, Scott-Goodman says, such as an image of a single apple, can save money. And for some cooking instructions, says Emilia Terragni, publisher at Phaidon, drawings can explain even better than photographs.

Charles Miers, v-p and publisher at Rizzoli, says that his team will pair a photo-heavy interior with an illustrated coveras it did for The L.A. Cookbook by Alison Clare Steingold (Mar.)if we think the result is fresh and inviting or might draw in the reader in a new way.

At Phaidon, the heavily photographed regional cookbooksincluding Japan by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (Apr.) and Cuba by Madelaine Vazquez Galvez and Imogene Tondre (Jun.)sport illustrated covers. The cover needs to immediately communicate the essence of that specific country, Terragni explains. For Japan, we were inspired by the beauty and simplicity of traditional bamboo objects, and the cover resembles a bamboo box with contrasting black cloth edges. For Cuba, we looked at photographs of cities and landscapesthe overlapping walls washed out by the sun and covered with abstract compositions created by mixing various slogans, words, and colors.

The New Spanish (Kyle, May) draws on recipes from the East Village Basque restaurant, Huertas, that the authors, Jonah Miller and Nate Adler, cofounded. Its cover and interior combines lighthearted illustrations by Hugo Yoshikawa with photography. This inflects the book with what Adler calls visual surprises. Chris Steighner, editor at Kyle, says of the collages, They encourage you to connect with the concept of the recipes in a way thats different from what you get with conventional plated dish photos.

Return to the main feature.On Tuesday morning, the body of the sixteen-year-old Carmen Schentrup was laid to rest in an Episcopalian ceremony at the St. Andrew Church in Coral Springs, Florida. In his sermon, the Reverend Canon Mark H. Sims remembered Schentrup, who liked teal handbags and red lipstick, and who wrote notes on her piano sheet music to remind her where she had left off. At a nearby funeral home, a wake was being prepared for the fifteen-year-old Peter Wang, who was also killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14th. The child of Chinese immigrants who owned a restaurant in West Palm Beach, Wang had wanted to join the military. His fellow J.R.O.T.C. members served as his pallbearers, and West Point posthumously granted him acceptance into the class of 2025.Yes, There's Clear Link Between Mass Shooting, Mental Illness

Efforts to downplay the role of mental illness in mass shootings are simply misleading.Got some scoop for our reporters or editors? Click on the link below to send us your information.

Send your newsLooking around Kelly Dyers office, there is no doubt about what she does. Large pictures of flies, DNA molecules and a Darwin bobble head canAcross the country, students are gearing up for spring break season. While some are grabbing towels and laying out in the sun at the beach, otDACA is an essential part of the infrastructure of the U.S. economy. Without DACA, many immigrants who have actually grown up in America will suffer.Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, flanked by pictures of ships serving North Korea, explains new sanctions on Pyongyang, in the White House Feb. 23, 2018.

The United States on Friday announced a fresh package of sanctions on North Korea that President Donald Trump called the "largest-ever" set of punishments aimed at pressing the reclusive country to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

In an effort to squeeze funds that North Korea can access in support of its weapons programs, the U.S. Treasury added one person, 27 companies and 28 ships to disrupt shipping and trading with Pyongyang.

"Today I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime," Trump said in a speech to a conservative activist group gathered near Washington.

He later told reporters "if the sanctions don't work, we'll have to go phase two," without elaborating on what that might entail.

"Phase two may be a very rough thing, may be very, very unfortunate for the world. But hopefully the sanctions will work," said Trump.

Announced by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the sanctioned ships are registered or flagged in China, Comoros, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Panama, Singapore, Taiwan, and Tanzania -- as well as North Korea.

"As part of the maximum pressure campaign against North Korea, the United States is committed to disrupting North Koreas illicit funding of its weapons programs, regardless of the location or nationality of those facilitating such funding," said a statement by the Treasury Department.

"The North Korean shipping industry is a primary means by which North Korea evades sanctions to fund its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. As such, The United States will continue targeting persons, wherever located, who facilitate North Koreas illicit shipping practices," it said.

Treasury warned the identified firms and vessels they faced big risks by working with North Korea.

"These practices may create significant sanctions risk for parties involved in the shipping industry, including insurers, flag registries, shipping companies, and financial institutions," said a Treasury statement.

"Parties subject to U.S. and/or United Nations (UN) sanctions should be aware of these practices in order to implement appropriate controls to ensure compliance with their legal requirements," it said.

Entities to be blacklisted

In a related move, Washington also proposed a list of entities to be blacklisted under UN sanctions on North Korea, a move that targets the North's smuggling of oil and coal.

"We are ramping up the pressure on the North Korean regime, and we're going to use every tool at our disposal, including working with our allies and through the U.N., to increase the pressure until North Korea reverses course," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council has steadily boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006, when North Korea conducted its first of its six nuclear tests.

The new trade strictures and tough talk from Washington came two weeks after Vice President Mike Pence raised the suggestion of a sanctions package during a stop in Tokyo that preceded his visit to South Korea to represent the U.S. at opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The new U.S. sanctions were unveiled during a visit to South Korea by Trump's daughter, Ivanka. She is slated to attend the Olympics closing ceremony and had dinner with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Like Pence, Ivanka Trump is not scheduled to meet any North Korean officials during her visit to Seoul and Pyeongchang.An international rights group on Friday issued new satellite images showing the Myanmar government's demolition of dozens of deserted Rohingya Muslim villages in northern Rakhine state in recent months, charges that Myanmar officials insist was part of reconstruction work.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing the images, said the government used heavy machinery to clear all structures and vegetation in at least 55 villages, most of which were among 362 villages completely or partially destroyed by arson during a military crackdown on the persecuted group that began in late August.

The satellite images indicate that at least two of the demolished villages were previously undamaged by fire and likely inhabitable, while hundreds of structures have been torn down in 10 other villages partially destroyed by fire, HRW said.

The group said it could not independently verify if any of the destroyed villages were inhabited when the demolition began, though the imagery suggests that the demolitions are ongoing.

HRW called on the United Nations Security Council, U.N. agencies, and international donors to demand that the government stop destroying the villages which should be treated as crime scenes until a U.N.-appointed fact-finding commission is allowed into the region to conduct an investigation.

Many of these villages were scenes of atrocities against Rohingya and should be preserved so that the experts appointed by the U.N. to document these abuses can properly evaluate the evidence to identify those responsible, said Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director, in a statement. Bulldozing these areas threatens to erase both the memory and the legal claims of the Rohingya who lived there.

Myanmar security forces began attacking Rohingya communities in northern Rakhine after a militant Muslim group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) carried out deadly assaults on police outposts on Aug. 25.

The brutal campaign, which refugees and rights groups say included indiscriminate killings, rape, and arson, forced nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in what the international community has said amounts to ethnic cleansing, if not genocide.

The Myanmar government has denied accusations of atrocities committed by the army and prevented a U.N. commission from entering the region to investigate reports of abuses and killings. Independent reporting or fact finding in the area by reporters or forensic experts has not been permitted.

A handout satellite image taken by DigitalGlobe on Feb. 19, 2018, and released by Human Rights Watch on Feb. 23, 2018, allegedly shows the ongoing demolition of Rohingya villages in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State. Credit: AFP/DigitalGlobe via Human Rights Watch Reconstruction efforts

The HRW report comes as Myanmar and Bangladesh are preparing to begin repatriating Rohingya refugees to northern Rakhine, where the government has said it has built houses in more than 20 villages to accommodate the returnees.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister of social welfare minister, earlier told Agence France-Presse that the demolition was part of a plan to rebuild the villages to a higher standard than before.

On Friday, he told RFAs Myanmar Service that the demolitions reported by HRW are part of the region's overall reconstruction plan for for returning refugees.

For their resettlement, we have to work on a village plan to replace the [old structures] by clearing burned houses in order to build new ones, he said. The roads will also be widened, and we will install lampposts as well. We already announced that we will provide electricity for the entire Maungdaw [township] region by the end of 2018."

With the refugees returning, we have to build houses, schools, religious buildings, markets, and government offices according to a township plan, Win Myat Aye said. Because we are implementing this plan according to [the United Nations Human Settlements Programmes] guidelines, we need to clear the burned buildings. This is the process for both villages and township plans. What HRW said must refer to these clearings, but we must clear the areas to implement the plan.

In accordance with an agreement with Bangladesh, Myanmar has already built two refugee processing facilities and a transit camp where returning Rohingya must stay for several days before they can be transferred to their previous places of residence, he said.

In response to HRWs report, Maung Ohn, a Rakhine state lawmaker who represents Maungdaw township where new structures for returning refugees are being built, also said the demolitions are part of the project to build new houses for refugees.

Ive heard that authorities are working on the resettlement projects for the refugees who are returning homes, he told RFA. Because their villages were burned down, the authorities have to clear them to build new buildings for the people who are returning.

Rights groups and the U.N. have warned against a hasty return of the refugees, saying that they will continue to face repression and discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and access to basic services.

Conditions are not yet conducive to the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees, said Filippo Grandi, U.N. high commissioner for refugees, during a U.N. Security Council briefing on the situation in Myanmar on Feb. 13. The causes of their flight have not been addressed, and we have yet to see substantive progress on addressing the exclusion and denial of rights that has deepened over the last decades, rooted in their lack of citizenship.

EU prepares sanctions

Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing to impose sanctions on Myanmar army generals and diplomats over the crackdown on the Rohingya.

Ministers are expected on Monday to ask Federica Mogherini, the EUs foreign policy chief, to put together a list of senior Myanmar military officials to sanction for their alleged involvement in human rights abuses, Reuters reported Thursday.

Though the EU has had an arms embargo on Myanmar since the 1990s, new sanctions in the form of visa bans and asset freezes would be the blocs toughest measures on the country to date, the report said.

The U.S. and Canada have already imposed sanctions on Myanmar military officers, including Major General Maung Maung Soe, head of the Myanmar Armys Western Command, who led the militarys brutal crackdown on the Rohingya.

Reported by Thiri Min Zin for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.Chinese authorities at Chengdu airport in Sichuan blocked three Tibetans holding foreign passports from entering China on Thursday, questioning them harshly and detaining them for hours before expelling them, Tibetan sources say.



No explanation was given for the move, which saw the three members of the group, who had hoped to visit family members in Sichuan, sent back to South Korea after being turned away, a Tibetan living in exile told RFAs Tibetan Service.



Two members of the group held South Korean passports, and the third held a U.S. passport, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



They were detained for eight hours in a small room at the airport, without even a drop of water to drink, RFAs source said, adding that a Chinese immigration official and other police officers took turns interrogating the group.



Besides asking them all kinds of questions, they also searched their web chat and notebooks and made copies of their telephone contacts, the source said.



The authorities did not listen to any of their explanations, and the group feels that they were scorned and mistreated because of their Tibetan origins.



All three held valid visas to enter China, RFAs source said.



Strict screening



Tibetans with foreign passports go through a strict screening process and must meet conditions required only of Tibetans when applying for visas at Chinese embassies overseas, the source said.



But even then, many of them encounter various problems on the way, such being stopped and searched at the airport or having their visas revoked when they arrive, he said.



Harassment is seen more frequently in the lead-up to politically sensitive dates, such as the March 10 anniversary of a 1959 Tibetan national uprising against Chinese rule, he added.



Chinese control of passports held by Tibetans living in China has meanwhile blocked travel by members of the ethnic group hoping to travel to India to attend religious teachings given by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, sources told RFA in earlier reports.



In January, authorities in northwest Chinas Qinghai province blocked Tibetans from traveling outside the country by refusing to reissue passports confiscated the year before.



The move affected hundreds of Tibetans traveling as pilgrims to India and Nepal and as tourists to other Asian countries, and came amid official concerns over Tibetans presence at a series of Buddhist teachings led by the Dalai Lama in January.



Reported by Lhuboom for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.The URL has been copied to your clipboard

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Afghan officials say a suicide bomber killed at least two security personnel and wounded seven in an attack in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, on February 24. The extremist group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. (RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan)Czech President Milos Zeman has repeatedly lobbied for a suspected Russian hacker detained in Prague and wanted by the United States to be extradited to Russia, Justice Minister Robert Pelikan was quoted as saying on February 24.

Zeman, a 73-year-old ex-communist with strong pro-Russian, pro-Chinese and anti-Muslim views, won a second five-year term in a presidential vote last month.



Yevgeny Nikulin, 30, is being sought by the United States for alleged cyberattacks on social networks and also by his native Russia on fraud charges, has been in prison since he was arrested by the Czech police in Prague in October 2016 in a joint operation with the FBI.

In May last year, a Prague court ruled that Nikulin could be extradited to either Russia or the United States, with the final say left to Justice Minister Robert Pelikan.

"It's true that there have been two meetings this year at which the president [Milos Zeman] asked me to extradite a Russian citizen not to the United States, but to Russia," Pelikan told Czech news site aktualne.cz.

The site said the meetings had taken place last month, while earlier this week Pelikan received Vratislav Mynar, the head of Zeman's office, who also lobbied for Nikulin's extradition to Russia.

"It's none of your business, but I have handed the minister a letter from the detained Nikulin's mother," Mynar told aktualne.cz.

Zeman's spokesman Jiri Ovcacek declined to comment on the matter.

Following Nikulin's arrest, Moscow accused Washington of harassing its citizens and vowed to fight Nikulin's extradition.

It then issued a separate arrest warrant for him over alleged theft from the WebMoney settlement system.

The United States wants Nikulin on multiple charges, including computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft.

U.S. prosecutors say Nikulin sent a program to a LinkedIn employee's computer, stole the employee's username and password and used them to access the company's computers in 2012.

LinkedIn has linked Nikulin to the 2012 breach and said it resulted in more than 100 million of its users' passwords being compromised, prompting a massive password reset operation.

Nikulin is also accused of hacking two other companies, Dropbox and Formspring, and conspiring to sell user names, passwords, and e-mail addresses stolen from Formspring customers.

Nikulin's lawyer Martin Sadilek told the AFP news agency that his client alleges that FBI investigators had tried twice to persuade him to confess to cyberattacks on the U.S. Democratic Party.

With reporting by akutalne.cz, idnes.cz, and AFPEstonia is celebrating the centenary of its independence declaration with festivities and a military parade in the Baltic state's capital, Tallinn.

The celebrations on February 24 started with Estonia's blue, black, and white flag being hoisted atop the same 45-metre-high Pikk Hermann (Tall Hermann) tower it was flown from in 1918.



The tower is part of the Toompea Castle in the medieval heart of the city. The castle is now home to the Estonian Parliament.

Like its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Latvia, Estonia was part of the Russian Empire and briefly Soviet Russia before it declared independence 100 years ago.

The small country was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and by Germany for three years during World War II.

It regained independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

'Never Forget'

During the February 24 parade, President Kersti Kaljulaid reviewed troops, including a multinational NATO unit stationed in Estonia.

"The independence of Estonia is now better protected than ever before as we have friends and allies," parliamentary speaker Eiki Nestor said at the start of celebrations. "Estonia is part of the free world."

Prime Minister Juri Ratas urged citizens never to forget their predecessors who established the republic.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson congratulated Estonia and its people, saying the country is a vital ally of the United States and our relationship is stronger than ever.

During his visit to the country last year, the statement said, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence emphasized the United States' "unwavering support for Estonia and the region," and reiterated the United States' commitment to NATO and to the military alliance's Article 5 mutual defense clause.

On April 3, U.S. President Donald Trump is to host the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to "set the stage for another century of strong ties between the United States and these three important allies," the White House said this week.

The meeting will "focus on how best to strengthen our security, business, trade, energy, and cultural partnerships," a statement said.

The Baltic states have expressed concerns about Moscow's intentions in the region, especially since Russia's seizure and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and estonianworld.com



Iran's civil aviation organization has grounded ATR-72 planes belonging to Aseman Airlines after one of them crashed this week with 65 people on board, state media reported on February 23.

The regulator was reported as saying that the measure was temporary as authorities investigate the cause of the accident on February 18 in which an ATR-72 twin-engine plane that had been in service since 1993 crashed in Iran's Zagros mountains.

"In order to make sure of the improvement of this type of aircraft's safety, it is necessary to stop their flights temporarily," IRNA news agency quoted the regulator as saying.

Aseman, which is banned from flying in the European Union, operates five ATR-72s, according to the company's website.

Flight EP3704 disappeared from radar around 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran on a domestic flight. No survivors have been found. The flight was carrying 59 passengers and six crew members.

The wreckage of the ATR, which is part-owned by Europe's Airbus, was discovered at a height of around 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) in the Dena range, but bad weather has hampered recovery efforts.

Helicopters have been unable to access the site and an operation to bring bodies down the mountain on foot has been suspended until February 26.

The plane's "black box" flight recorders have also not yet been recovered.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is embarking on a Western Balkan tour to promote the EU's new strategy for the region.

Juncker's tour to the six Balkan countries that remain outside the European Union starts in Macedonia, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on February 25.

Earlier this month, the European Commission unveiled its new strategy to integrate Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia.

Among the six countries, the commission considers Serbia and Montenegro as current front-runners toward accession and the new strategy says they could be allowed in by 2025 if they meet all the conditions.

Juncker has warned that this was an "indicative date; an encouragement so that the parties concerned work hard to follow that path."

"The EU door is open to further accessions when, and only when, the individual countries have met the criteria," the EU road map said.

It insisted that the six countries still have many obstacles to overcome before joining the bloc, including regarding corruption, the rule of law, and relations with their neighbors.

EU member states Croatia and Slovenia are still locked in a border dispute stemming from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Macedonia and EU-member Greece are engaged in UN-mediated talks to resolve a 27-year-old dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic.

The EU-sponsored dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has produced agreements in areas such as freedom of movement, justice, and the status of the Serbian minority in Kosovo -- as well as enabling Serbia to start EU accession talks and Brussels to sign an Association Agreement with Kosovo.

Juncker strip to the Western Balkans comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to Belgrade this week for a two-day visit aimed at bolstering longstanding ties with Serbia.

During the visit, Lavrov welcomed Serbias drive to join the EU, but also vowed that Moscow would remain engaged with the Balkan country no matter what happens.

"We always wanted partners to have a free choice and develop their political ties," Lavrov said at a news conference with President Aleksandar Vucic, who is leading Serbia through a delicate balancing act.

Although Serbia is seeking to join the EU, it continues to nurture close ties with Moscow and has said it will not join the EU's economic sanctions against Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.Leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan said a new pipeline being built between their countries is the start of a major new energy, road, and communications corridor connecting Central Asia with South Asia.

"South Asia is being connected with Central Asia through Afghanistan after more than a century of division," Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said at the inauguration on February 23 in his country's western city, Herat, of the $10 billion pipeline that should carry Turkmen gas to South Asia.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the pipeline would lead to the development of broader road, rail, and communications networks between the countries.

"It will lead from a gas pipeline into an energy and communication corridor," he said.

The Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India (TAPI) project, supported by the United States and the Asian Development Bank, has been touted by energy-rich Turkmenistan for years as a way to get its gas onto world markets.

Turkmenistan, which currently sells gas only to China, started construction on its section of the pipeline in 2015.

But work was delayed on the section in southern Afghanistan, where the pipeline is due to run for hundreds of kilometers through areas controlled by Taliban insurgents fighting the Western-backed government in Kabul.

In a surprise move on February 23, the Taliban issued statements pledging its cooperation, saying the pipeline would be an important element in building up Afghanistan's economic infrastructure.

"There will be no delay in this important national project," it said.

Backers of the planned 1,800-kilometer pipeline say it will ease energy deficits in South Asia and help reduce tensions in the divided region.

Afghan officials say Kabul will earn some $500 million annually in transit duties and that the project will help create thousands of jobs.

Based on reporting by Reuters and RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan

Macedonia has removed an "Alexander the Great" sign from its main airport in another goodwill gesture to Greece, as the two neighbors work to resolve a 27-year-old dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic.

The 3-meter-long letters spelling out the name of the famed ruler of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, who is also celebrated in Greece, were removed from the Skopje airport terminal on February 24.

The Macedonian government earlier this month decided to rename the airport and the countrys main highway, which was also previously named after Alexander the Great.

The capital's airport was renamed International Airport Skopje and the highway will be known as the Friendship Highway.

Name signs were earlier this week removed from the highway running from Macedonia's border with Greece to the border with Serbia.

Greece objects to the former Yugoslav republic's use of the name Macedonia, which Athens says could imply territorial claims over its own northern region of the same name.

Negotiations between the two neighbors have been inconclusive since 1991, when Macedonia gained independence from the former Yugoslavia.

It was admitted into the United Nations in 1993 under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Skopje and Athens have recently stepped up efforts to resolve the row that has hampered Macedonia's efforts to join NATO and the EU. Greece is a member of both entities.

Macedonia has said it is ready to add a geographical qualifier to its name to help resolve the dispute. An agreement could include Macedonia adding "Upper," "New," or "North" to its name.

My wish and ambition, as well as of each of us that are involved in this process, is to reach a solution for the name dispute by the end of March, Macedonian prime Minister Zoran Zaev told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) in an interview published on February 23.

"It will not help us if we delay it because there are always antagonistic forces that are against a solution," he added.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and Balkan InsightMedia reports say Pakistan will be put back on a terror financing watch list by June if it does not take further action against militants operating within its borders.

Citing Pakistani officials and unnamed diplomats, Reuters and India Today reported on February 23 that the Financial Action Task Force, which met during the week in Paris, decided to put Pakistan back on its "gray list" after China and Gulf Arab countries dropped their opposition to the move.

The terrorism task force discourages banks and global investors from lending money to a country put on its gray list. Pakistan was on the list from 2012 to 2015.

The United States, Britain, and France, and Germany put a motion before the task force to put Islamabad back on the list out of concern it is not doing enough to fight militants.

They said Islamabad's recent move to ban some charities linked to a militant believed to be behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people did not go far enough.

Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells told Reuters that Pakistan's move against charities linked to Hafiz Saeed was insufficient, especially since the Islamist leader and the radical groups he leads remain free and untouched in Pakistan.

"When we saw terrorists like Hafiz Saeed be released for the sixth time from house arrest or saw charitable arms of Lashkar-e Taiba or Jaish-i-Mohammad operate freely, sometimes in front of police stations doing fund-raising exercises, it obviously raises serious concerns," Wells told Reuters. Wells said she could not confirm any decision to put Pakistan back on the watch list.

India Today said the terrorism task force made its decision to re-list Pakistan provisional, starting in June, to give Islamabad time to avoid being listed by cracking down further on militants.

If no further action is taken by June, Pakistan would go back on the list, the media reports said.

However, Pakistan's Finance Minister, Rana Muhammad Afzal told RFE/RL on February 24 that Islamabad had not received any written notice yet from the FATF that it will review its performance once again in June.



All the information we are getting is through media reports," Afzal said.

Afzal explained that Pakistan wants to cooperate with the FATF. "During next three months if Pakistan is provided with actionable intelligence, the country will fulfill its obligations," he said.

The decision came days after Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif said on Twitter that his "efforts have paid [off]" and Pakistan had been granted a "three months pause" by the task force.

Participants in the Paris task force meeting said the United States, which under President Donald Trump has toughened its stance toward Pakistan, lobbied to convince other task force members that Islamabad is not doing enough to combat terrorism financing.

At the outset of the meeting, China, Turkey, and several Gulf Cooperation Council members had opposed re-listing Pakistan, but those countries dropped their opposition by the time the decision was made late on February 22, media reported.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries are allies of the United States, and they were "flipped" by U.S. lobbying, Reuters cited a Pakistani official as saying.

Reuters quoted a government source as saying that Pakistan expects it will be able to satisfy the task force's concerns by the group's next session in June, when Pakistan is otherwise scheduled to go back on the list.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman in Islamabad, Mohammad Faisal, said Islamabad was working to take more measures to satisfy the task force and Washington's concerns.

Pakistani businessmen fear getting put back on the "gray list" will endanger Pakistan's banking links to the outside world and cause financial pain for the economy.

Countries already on the gray list include North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Ethiopia.

The Associated Press reported that Bosnia-Herzegovina was removed from the list at the Paris meeting because it was judged to be in compliance with efforts to counter money laundering and terror financing.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and India Today

The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations in conflict areas.

All 15 members of the council voted on February 24 in favor of a cessation of hostilities "without delay" following a flurry of last-minute negotiations on the text.

The move comes as, according to activists, Syrian government forces killed more than 500 civilians during a week of intense bombardment in eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held enclave near the capital, Damascus.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes struck Ghouta minutes after the Security Council adopted the resolution.

The two major rebel factions in Ghouta later welcomed the UN resolution, and pledged to protect aid convoys that come into the besieged enclave, Reuters news agency reported. There was no immediate reaction from Damascus.

Previous truce attempts have failed to take hold in the country, despite multiple rounds of international talks aimed at putting an end to the civil war.

Reports said the sponsors of the resolution, Kuwait and Sweden, amended the text to get Russian support, dropping a demand that the truce take effect in 72 hours.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has veto power on the security council.

U.S. Skepticism

The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, called for the truce to be implemented immediately, but also expressed skepticism that the Damascus government would "allow humanitarian access to all of those who need it."

Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzya said the cease-fire would not be possible without agreements between warring factions.

The vote had been postponed several times since February 22, with Western diplomats accusing Moscow of stalling for time.

Nebenzya has repeatedly argued that an immediate cease-fire was unrealistic. He also said the media and Western nations were conducting a "misinformation campaign" about the fighting in Ghouta and were ignoring what he called the "inconvenient truth" that several thousand Islamist fighters were still present in the region.

Russia, along with Iran, has given 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 Assad's favor by launching a campaign of air strikes in 2015 and stepping up its military presence on the ground.

'Hell On Earth'

There has been a growing outcry from Western capitals, the United Nations, and humanitarian groups over the situation in Ghouta, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called "hell on Earth."

The UN says nearly 400,000 people live in the region, a pocket of satellite towns and farms that has been under government siege for more than four years.

More than 2,400 people were said to have been injured there since government forces and their allies escalated their offensive on the Damascus suburb on February 18.

Ten hospital and medical centers have reportedly been knocked out of service due to the bombardment.

Meanwhile, Syrian state media said rebels in Ghouta have killed at least 16 civilians in eastern districts of the city over the past week.

At a news conference at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump on February 23 accused Russia, Iran, and the Syrian government of being responsible for a "humanitarian disgrace" in Syria.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to back the UN resolution and to press its Syrian government ally to stop the bombardments of Ghouta.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that "Russia and Iran must stop the regime."

He also said that the bombardment of eastern Gouta and a government offensive against rebel-held positions in Idlib Province was "contrary" to agreements negotiated in Astana by diplomats from Ankara, Moscow, and Tehran.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and dpaUzbek authorities say the country's former prosecutor-general, Rashidjon Qodirov, is being investigated for alleged extortion, bribery, and abuse of office.

The Prosecutor-Generals Office said in a statement on February 24 that Qodirov was detained the previous day.

It did not provide further details of the case.

Qodirov is the latest in a series of top government officials who have been caught up in an apparent purge by the administration of President Shavkat Mirziyoev.

On February 22, an official with the Prosecutor-General's Office told RFE/RL that Qodirov had been arrested, and was being questioned by investigators in Tashkent.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two other former prosecution officials, who worked under Qodirov, were also arrested on February 22.

The moves come roughly three years after Qodirov was sacked amid a purge of officials connected to the investigation of Gulnara Karimova, the elder daughter of late President Islam Karimov.

Karimova has been imprisoned since 2014, and was reportedly sentenced last year, for a multinational, multiyear bribery extortion campaign that ensnared, among other things, major telecommunications companies.

Qodirov, who served as the country's top law enforcement official for 15 years, was the prosecutor at the helm in 2014 when Karimova was charged.

Qodirov's arrest also comes about 10 days after his son, Alisher, fled the country.

Under Islam Karimov, who ruled the country with an iron fist after the Soviet collapse, Uzbekistan had largely become isolated and economically stagnant.

Since succeeding Karimov after his death in 2016, Mirziyoev has publicly criticized government agencies, and moved to sack or remove large numbers of officials.

At a meeting of ministers in August 2017, the Uzbek president called officials at the Prosecutor-General's Office "the biggest thieves."

The country's finance minister has reportedly dismissed some 1,000 employees since December, after being called out publicly by Mirziyoev.

More recently, on January 31, Mirziyoev removed the long-serving head of the country's powerful SNB security service.

With reporting by Reuters

New laser scanning technologies developed at the University of Salford are being used to map forests in more detail than ever before.

The technology could help give earlier and better data on the impacts of climate change on nature.

In two new papers published this week by the Royal Society, researchers at Salford, UK Forest Research and the Universities of York St John, University College London, Newcastle and Tampere, Finland, described the impacts of terrestrial laser scanners on mapping plant life.

Mark Danson, professor of geography at the University of Salford said: "Climate change has led to earlier spring growth in forests in many part of the world but measuring the amount of leaves present in a forest canopy through time is currently almost impossible.

"Our research is testing new methods to map three-dimensional leaf growth in forests, so that rather than rely on an 'observer' spotting growth in a forest on a given day, we can map the spatial and temporal changes in leaf development remotely."

Prof Danson has developed the Salford Advanced Laser Canopy Analyser (SALCA), the first operational scanner capable of distinguishing between leaf and wood and also capable of creating three-dimensional maps of leaf distribution for both single trees and complete forest stands.

The approach promises to revolutionise the measurement of leaf dynamics in forests providing key information that can be related to climate change.

To check the accuracy of leaf maps, the team counted the leaves on three large oak trees in Hampshire, and estimated their weight and total area.

In this paper, three dimensional models of the same three trees were then derived from scans acquired in 'leaf-off' condition and 'virtual' leaves added to these trees in the same proportions as the measured leaves. The virtual 'leaf-on' tree was then compared with the distribution of leaves derived from manual sampling and found to correspond very well.

Measuring the leaf area manually took fifteen volunteers three whole days; the laser scanner reconstruction took just a few hours.

Prof Danson added: "Rapid and accurate measurements of the spring growth of leaves in forests will be key to understanding the link between climate change and vegetation growth, and these Royal Society papers confirm the vital role that laser scanners will play in understanding and monitoring these environmental changes ."

Issue: http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/8/2One of the biggest obstacles to eradicating malaria is a dormant form of the parasite that lurks in the livers of some patients. This dormant form is resistant to most antimalarial drugs and can reawaken months or years later, causing disease relapse.

Malaria researchers know little about the biology of these dormant parasites, so it has been difficult to develop drugs that target them. In an advance that could help scientist discover new drugs, MIT researchers have shown they can grow the dormant parasite in engineered human liver tissue for several weeks, allowing them to closely study how the parasite becomes dormant, what vulnerabilities it may have, and how it springs back to life.

After verifying that they had successfully cultivated the dormant form of the parasite, the researchers showed that they could also sequence its RNA and test its response to known and novel antimalarial drugs -- both important steps toward finding ways to eradicate the disease.

"After 10 years of hard work, we were able to grow the organism, show it had all the functional hallmarks, perform a drug screen against it, and report the first transcriptome of this elusive form. I'm really excited because I believe it will open the door to both the basic biology of dormancy as well as the possibility of better medicines," says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Bhatia is also a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and the senior author of the study.

MIT graduate student Nil Gural is the first author of the paper, which appears in the Feb. 22 issue of the journal Cell Host and Microbe.

Persistent infections

Most human cases of malaria are caused by one of two parasite species, Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Plasmodium vivax, while less deadly, produces dormant forms known as hypnozoites (so called because they are "hypnotized"), and can lead to recurring infections.

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In 1991, Aneityum, a small island in the Southwest Pacific, was chosen as a site to test possible measures to eradicate malaria. Researchers sprayed against mosquito larvae and supplied bed nets and malaria medicine across the entire island. These efforts led to the complete eradication of Plasmodium falciparum within a year. In contrast, it took five years to eliminate Plasmodium vivax.

"This dormant form has been seen as the critical barrier to eradication," Bhatia says. "You can treat the symptoms of vivax malaria by killing all the parasites in the blood, but if hypnozoites linger in someone's liver, these forms can reactivate and reinfect the blood of a patient. If a mosquito comes along and takes a blood meal, the cycle starts all over again. So, if we want to eradicate malaria, we have to eradicate the hypnozoite."

The only existing drug that can kill hypnozoites is primaquine, but this drug cannot be used in large-scale eradication campaigns because it causes blood cells to rupture in people with a certain enzyme deficiency.

Bhatia's team became aware of this problem in 2008, when the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called for a renewed effort to eradicate malaria, which infects more than 200 million people every year and killed an estimated 429,000 in 2015. Her lab is working with special micropatterned surfaces on which human liver cells can be grown, surrounded by supportive cells. This architecture creates a microenvironment in which human liver cells function much the same way as they do in humans, making it easier to establish, maintain, and study infections of the liver.

Bhatia, who initially used this technology to model hepatitis infections, realized it was also well-suited to studying the liver stage of malaria. She and her malaria team lead, Sandra March, began with Plasmodium falciparum, the strain that can be cultured in lab settings, and found that parasites grown in these liver tissue followed the same life cycle observed in natural infections. They also found that the system could be used to test responses to experimental malaria vaccines.

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Following that success, Bhatia's lab began working with Plasmodium vivax. Efforts to bring the parasite-infected mosquitoes into the United States were unsuccessful, so Gural, the paper's lead author, traveled to collaborator Jetsumon Prachumsri's lab in Thailand repeatedly to obtain samples from infected patients and perform the experiments there.

Using their new technology, the researchers showed that they could grow small forms of the parasite that had all of the known features of hypnozoites: persistence, sensitivity to primaquine, and the ability to "wake up" after a few weeks.

New drug targets

Once the researchers were confident that these forms were actually hypnozoites, they set out to do some further studies. First, they obtained six candidate antimalarials now in development and tested them for activity against their Plasmodium vivax samples. They found that none of them could kill established hypnozoites, which was what they had expected based on clinical trials. They now plan to test a larger set of new compounds, working with the nonprofit group Medicines for Malaria Venture, which has a collection of thousands of drug candidates.

Working with scientists at the Swanson Biotechnology Center at the Koch Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, the MIT team performed the first sequencing of the hypnozoite transcriptome. No one had been able to look this closely at hypnozoites before, and RNA sequencing revealed that the dormant forms were not transcriptionally silent, as had been expected, but instead express a different subset of genes than those found in their active counterparts.

In future studies, Bhatia, in collaboration with other MIT labs, plans to use single cell RNA-sequencing to identify gene signatures to uncover the signaling pathways that control hypnozoite dormancy and reactivation. The researchers will also study corresponding changes in gene expression of the infected liver cells. This approach could yield potential new drug candidates that would specifically target the dormant forms of the parasite, bringing the field closer to its goal of eradicating malaria. The researchers also hope to identify biomarkers that could be used to diagnose patients who have an otherwise undetectable dormant infection.An international research consortium developed, with significant involvement of Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) scientists, the first computer model to include 3D in the representation of human metabolic processes.

To this end, the researchers integrated the three-dimensional structures of over 4,000 metabolic products, or metabolites as they are known, and nearly 13,000 proteins into an existing computer model. They also added an enormous volume of genetic and chemical information to the model on which the simulation runs. The name of this new computer-based tool, which has been made available to the biomedical research community recently, is Recon3D. The researchers' results on Recon3D appear in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

The importance of scientific computer models continues to increase. They make the existing knowledge tangible and thereby help scientists to accurately formulate and work on targeted problems in research. To create such models, researchers analyse all the publications and databases they can find on a topic and feed this information into their model.

Human metabolism research is one example, as Prof. Ines Thiele, head of the Molecular Systems Physiology group at the LCSB of the University of Luxembourg and an ATTRACT fellow of the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), says: "For the predecessor of Recon3D, Recon 2, a large team of research groups in different fields aggregated an enormous volume of data on the genome, chemical metabolic activities and physiological properties of the human organism." This data basis has now been considerably expanded yet again for Recon3D, Thiele reports.

Computer model of human metabolic processes

What is unique about the new computer model, however, is the integrated three-dimensional structural data of proteins and metabolites. Dr Ronan Fleming, head of the LCSB Systems Biochemistry group which was responsible for integrating the structural data of the metabolites into Recon3D, says "so far, we have been able to say of a given metabolic reaction that substance A and B turn into substances C and D. Now, we know precisely which atoms each substance consists of, how the atoms are arranged in the starting materials and where those very same atoms can be found again in the products of the chemical reaction."

To make this possible, the researchers first had to find out which computational program -- or algorithm as scientists call it -- imports the three-dimensional structures of the molecules most accurately from the literature into Recon3D. To find this out, Fleming's team researched the molecular structure of the starting materials of a series of chemical reactions and determined the whereabouts of every single atom after the metabolic reaction was completed. They then tested various algorithms on the same reactions to identify those with the best predictive power. Fleming reports "with these results, we were then able to import very accurate structures of more than 4,000 metabolites into the computer model." Fleming's colleagues from the University of California in the United States expanded Recon3D with data on almost 13,000 protein structures, thereby bridging the research fields of structural biology and systems biology.

An expanded computer model available to all researchers

"Recon3D now allows us to study metabolic processes that run differently, for example, in Parkinson's patients than in healthy people, much better and with more accuracy," Thiele sums up the possibilities that the new computer model offers. Dr Andreas Drager from the Center for Bioinformatics at the University of Tubingen (ZBIT) has put it into a standardised format so that other researchers can use the model for their scientific questions. "Recon3D lays the foundations for creating cell-type-specific models that could be used to simulate the function of tissues through to entire organs in the computer," explains Drager and continues "it could help to better understand the interplay between pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, and the human host." Fleming also adds that, thanks to the three-dimensional structures of the metabolites and proteins in Recon3D, it is now possible to follow, at atomic resolution, how a genetic mutation could affect the development of certain diseases. "This can open up entirely new avenues for research on therapeutic approaches," Fleming concludes.Scientists have shown in mice that skin cells re-programmed into brain stem cells, transplanted into the central nervous system, help reduce inflammation and may be able to help repair damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS).

The study, led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, is a step towards developing personalised treatment based on a patient's own skin cells for diseases of the central nervous system (CNS).

In MS, the body's own immune system attacks and damages myelin, the protective sheath around nerve fibres, causing disruption to messages sent around the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms are unpredictable and include problems with mobility and balance, pain, and severe fatigue.

Key immune cells involved in causing this damage are macrophages (literally 'big eaters'), which ordinarily serve to attack and rid the body of unwanted intruders. A particular type of macrophage known as microglia are found throughout the brain and spinal cord -- in progressive forms of MS, they attack the CNS, causing chronic inflammation and damage to nerve cells.

Recent advances have raised expectations that diseases of the CNS may be improved by the use of stem cell therapies. Stem cells are the body's 'master cells', which can develop into almost any type of cell within the body. Previous work from the Cambridge team has shown that transplanting neural stem cells (NSCs) -- stem cells that are part-way to developing into nerve cells -- reduces inflammation and can help the injured CNS heal.

However, even if such a therapy could be developed, it would be hindered by the fact that such NSCs are sourced from embryos and therefore cannot be obtained in large enough quantities. Also, there is a risk that the body will see them as an alien invader, triggering an immune response to destroy them.

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A possible solution to this problem would be the use of so-called 'induced neural stem cells (iNSCs)' -- these cells can be generated by taking an adult's skin cells and 're-programming' them back to become neural stem cells. As these iNSCs would be the patient's own, they are less likely to trigger an immune response.

Now, in research published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers at the University of Cambridge have shown that iNSCs may be a viable option to repairing some of the damage caused by MS.

Using mice that had been manipulated to develop MS, the researchers discovered that chronic MS leads to significantly increased levels of succinate, a small metabolite that sends signals to macrophages and microglia, tricking them into causing inflammation, but only in cerebrospinal fluid, not in the peripheral blood.

Transplanting NSCs and iNSCs directly into the cerebrospinal fluid reduces the amount of succinate, reprogramming the macrophages and microglia -- in essence, turning 'bad' immune cells 'good'. This leads to a decrease in inflammation and subsequent secondary damage to the brain and spinal cord.

"Our mouse study suggests that using a patient's reprogrammed cells could provide a route to personalised treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, including progressive forms of MS," says Dr Stefano Pluchino, lead author of the study from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge.

"This is particularly promising as these cells should be more readily obtainable than conventional neural stem cells and would not carry the risk of an adverse immune response."

The research team was led by Dr Pluchino, together with Dr Christian Frezza from the MRC Cancer Unit at the University of Cambridge, and brought together researchers from several university departments.

Dr Luca Peruzzotti-Jametti, the first author of the study and a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellow, says: "We made this discovery by bringing together researchers from diverse fields including regenerative medicine, cancer, mitochondrial biology, inflammation and stroke and cellular reprogramming. Without this multidisciplinary collaboration, many of these insights would not have been possible."Three-month-old babies cannot sit up or roll over, yet they are already capable of learning patterns from simply looking at the world around them, according to a recent Northwestern University study published in PLOS One.

For the first time, the researchers show that 3- and 4-month-old infants can successfully detect visual patterns and generalize them to new sequences.

Throughout the animal kingdom, being able to detect not only objects and events, but also the relations among them, is key to survival. Among humans, this capacity is exceptionally abstract. When we learn a rule or pattern in one domain, such as an alternating pattern of lights, we readily abstract this pattern and apply it to another domain -- for example, an alternating pattern of sounds.

This ability, known as "abstract rule learning," is a signature of human perception and cognition. What we do not know is how early it develops.

Prior research documented that 4-month-old infants successfully abstract rules from speech sounds and tone sequences, but failed to abstract rules in the visual domain, such as from patterns of objects. This presented a puzzle: Why were infants successful at detecting abstract patterns from the sounds that they heard, but not from the objects they saw?

New research from Sandra Waxman, the Louis W. Menk Chair in Psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern, and her Northwestern colleagues, former doctoral student Brock Ferguson, and Steven Franconeri, professor of psychology, solves this puzzle.

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"If you present infants with the stimuli in a more appropriate way for the visual system, they can learn abstract rules visually, just as they can from speech," Ferguson said.

The researchers showed 40 infants patterned sequences of different kinds of dogs. For example, infants learning an "ABA" pattern might see a picture of an Alaskan malamute (A) followed by a picture of a German shepherd (B), and finally another Alaskan malamute (A). Infants saw several "ABA" sequences, each time with different kinds of dogs.

Then, the researchers presented infants with two new sequences with new kinds of dogs that the infants had not yet seen. The elements in each sequence were identical -- only the pattern in which they were presented differed. One sequence followed the same ABA pattern (terrier, setter, terrier); the other followed a new AAB pattern (terrier, terrier, setter). Measuring how long the infants looked at each of these two sequences allowed the researchers to gauge their attention.

Although the elements in the AAB and ABA sequences were identical, infants noticed the different patterns. This documents infants' ability to learn abstract rules visually.

The infants' success in this experiment reflects something key about the visual system, Waxman explained. Unlike all prior experiments, infants in this study could see all three images together on the screen. The researchers note that the auditory system most effectively abstracts patterns from sequences that unfold over time (like listening to language or music), while the visual system is better at extracting patterns from sequences that are structured in space.

"Auditory learning is able to get patterns like ABB or ABA, just by hearing them in a sequence," said Waxman, a faculty fellow in the University's Institute for Policy Research. "The visual system needs to take a moment to see all the things together."

The study results indicate that infants are learning such abstract rules through seeing from a very early age.

"The basic capacity of abstract rule learning has its origins in infancy," Waxman said. "Babies are doing really powerful abstraction from just their observation of the world."

"Very young infants learn abstract rules in the visual modality" was recently published in PLOS One.Lizards have special superpowers. While birds can regrow feathers and mammals can regrow skin, lizards can regenerate entire structures such as their tails. Despite these differences, all have evolved from the same ancestor as lizards.

Spreading through the Americas, one lizard group, the anoles, evolved like Darwin's finches, adapting to different islands and different habitats on the mainland. Today there are more than 400 species.

Constructing a family tree for three lizard species collected in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and a fourth from the southeastern U.S., scientists at Arizona State University compared lizard genomes -- their entire DNA code -- to those of other animals.

The researchers discovered that changes in genes involved in the interbrain (the site of the pineal gland and other endocrine glands), for color vision, hormones and the colorful dewlap that males bob to attract females, may contribute to the formation of boundaries between species. Genes regulating limb development also evolved especially quickly.

"While some reptiles such as tortoises changed remarkably little over millions of years, anole lizards evolved quickly, generating a diversity of shapes and behaviors," said Kenro Kusumi, corresponding author and professor at ASU School of Life Sciences. "Now that sequencing entire genomes is cheaper and easier, we discovered molecular genetic evidence for rapid evolution that may account for striking differences between bodies of animals living in different environments."

Kusumi's lab, working with colleagues at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, is especially interested in how reptiles' genomes shape their ability to regenerate and to develop a diversity of body forms.

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"This is the first time the complete genetic code -- the genome -- of any vertebrate species from Panama has been sequenced and analyzed," said Oris Sanjur, co-author and Associate Director for Science Administration at STRI. "Information from these three species is an important contribution to our understanding of biodiversity and the evolution of new species."

Scientists estimate that there are 40 species of anolid lizards living in Panama, compared to only one in the U.S. A team from ASU collected three species with permission from the Ministry of the Environment, MiAmbiente: the Central American giant anole, Anolis frenatus, lives high on tree trunks; the grass anole, A. auratus, perches on bushes or on grassy vegetation and the slender anole, A. apletophallus, found only in Panama, hangs out lower on tree trunks or on the ground.

Researchers at ASU's School of Life Sciences lined up the DNA sequences of the lizards with the DNA sequences of 31 other animals: the lobe-finned fish and the four-legged animal groups that evolved from them. They also took a careful look at genes that code for proteins: more than 22,000 genes in the green anole, A. carolinensis, versus approximately 20,000 identified each in A. auratus and A. frenatus and 13,000 in A. apletophallus.

One obvious explanation for a faster rate of evolution is the anole lizards' faster rate of reproduction. Anoles typically mate in their first year of life, while other reptiles take much longer to reach sexual maturity. They also breed with many other individuals so mutations that make it difficult for individuals to survive are eliminated fairly quickly.

The first and only other anole lizard to be sequenced previously was the green anole, A. carolinensis, the only anole species resident in the U.S. In that study from MIT, the A. carolinensis genome held evidence of more recent evolution and the loss of ancient repeated elements in the part of the DNA that does not code for proteins. In this sense, it was important to sequence the three Panamanian species, because the U.S. species may not be the most representative of the diverse anole group.

"For 15 years, an impressive amount of time and money poured into discovering the genomes of mammals, motivated by our drive to understand human evolution and to look for cures for disease. Even though the squamate reptiles include more than 10,000 species -- almost double the number of mammal species -- a single genome was not enough to understand the variability within this group," said the first author of the report, Marc Tollis, a post-doctoral fellow at ASU.

"By comparing these four anole lizard genomes, we're beginning to understand how one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates regenerate, develop and diversify," he added.Soil pathogen testing -- critical to farming, but painstakingly slow and expensive -- will soon be done accurately, quickly, inexpensively and onsite, thanks to research that Washington State University scientists plant pathologists are sharing.

As the name implies, these tests detect disease-causing pathogens in the soil that can severely devastate crops.

Until now, the tests have required large, expensive equipment or lab tests that take weeks.

The soil pathogen analysis process is based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that are very specific and sensitive and only possible in a laboratory.

The new methods, designed by WSU plant pathologists, are not only portable and fast, but utilize testing materials easily available to the public. A paper by the researchers lists all the equipment and materials required to construct the device, plus instructions on how to put it all together and conduct soil tests.

Responding to growers needs

"We've heard from many growers that the time it takes to obtain results from soil samples sent to a lab is too long," said Kiwamu Tanaka, assistant professor in WSU's Department of Plant Pathology. "The results come back too late to be helpful. But if they can get results on site, they could make informed decisions about treatments or management changes before they even plant their crop."

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Some diseases from soil pathogens may not be visible until weeks after the crop has sprouted, Tanaka said. That could be too late to treat the disease or could force farmers to use more treatments.

Magnetic breakthrough

WSU graduate student Joseph DeShields, a first author on the paper, said it took about six months of work to get their device to work in the field. It relies on magnets to capture pathogens' DNA from the soil.

"It turns out, it's really hard to separate and purify genetic material from soil because soil contains so much material for PCR tests," said DeShields "So we were thrilled when we made that breakthrough."

Rachel Bomberger is a WSU plant diagnostician who helped with the concepts of the machine testing. She said she's impressed by what Tanaka and the team accomplished.

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"We removed a huge stumbling block when it comes to soil testing," said Bomberger, one of the co-authors on the paper. "We found the missing piece that makes the testing systems work in the field without expensive lab equipment or testing materials."

Worldwide application

The system was tested on potato fields around eastern Washington, Tanaka said, but it will work on soil anywhere in the world.

"It's a really versatile method," he said. "You could use it for nationwide pathogen mapping or look at the distribution of pathogens around the country. We started small, but this could have huge implications for testing soil health and disease."

Tanaka said it was important for this discovery to be available in an open-access video journal.

"We're always concerned about helping every grower and the industry as a whole," Tanaka said. "We want everybody to look at this and use it, if they think they'll benefit from it."To Bay Area children well-rehearsed on how to react if a heavily armed gunman tries to kill them in class, what happened in Florida seemed  at first  like just another school shooting.

There have been so many, said nine student organizers this past week as they sat around a conference table at their Oakland high school. Why would this one be different? And then, as if someone hit a switch, everything changed.

Teens across the country heard the gunshots and screams recorded on cell phones by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. They watched survivors their own age take to social media and cable news, delivering elected officials an ultimatum: Either help us stop this or lose your job.

Within hours of the Feb. 14 massacre  allegedly committed by a 19-year-old ex-student armed with a legally purchased assault rifle  the students around the table at Bishop ODowd High School were among those who responded.

They and students across the Bay Area planned marches, hijacked class time to discuss their fears and plans, called lawmakers at lunchtime and resolved to stay at it for as long as it will take to tighten gun laws and fight to prevent more mass shootings.

This generation is a sleeping giant, said Bishop ODowd senior Kameela Hall, and we have woken up.

It is a political coming-of-age moment for members of a generation born in a post-Columbine world, who say they are realizing  after dozens of similar rampages across a span of nearly 19 years  that politicians have done little to protect them. Theyve made never again a vow and a hashtag.

I think the reason it hit so hard this time is because its becoming a normalized thing, a part of everyday life hearing about a shooting on the news, said Sawyer Shine, a senior at Tamalpais High in Mill Valley.

There, students held a candlelight vigil after the Florida shooter killed 17 people. Then they organized an action plan on gun control and school safety.

Its our reality, and we dont really want to accept that at all, Shine said. Now, it officially has become too much.

The teens have offered a fresh, and strikingly unintimidated, perspective on the calcified debate over gun control and gun rights in America. Their powerful position as victims and potential ones, and their skill at amplifying their messages on social media, have not been lost on the adults.

It isnt unusual for teens to play a part in social movements. Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for doing the same thing there.

Vietnam War protests were sprinkled with high schoolers, though their numbers were dwarfed by college-age peers. Bay Area high school students have long fought for local issues, protesting police brutality and education budget cuts.

But to have high school kids at the vanguard of a national movement is highly unusual, said Doug McAdam, a professor of sociology at Stanford and author of Deeply Divided: Social Movements and Racial Politics in Post-War America.

What theyve done already is quite remarkable, McAdam said. But the question is, how long can this be sustained?

The Parkland students claimed the spotlight within hours of the shooting. Senior David Hogg begged adults to do something. At a gun control rally two days later, senior Emma Gonzalezs words echoed across the country.

Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving, she said. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and president can do is send thoughts and prayers, then its time for victims to be the change that we need to see.

Survivors were soon meeting with President Trump and challenging lawmakers and the National Rifle Association at a televised town hall.

Centering a movement on high schoolers could present some drawbacks. Teenagers are at a transient age, and in a few months many will be headed to college or a job or the military. In the meantime, there are calculus tests, prom and weekend plans. Over the past week, however, many have said they are steadfast.

Teenagers can buy a prom dress and plan a protest at the same time, said Hall, the Bishop ODowd student. They are social media savvy, smart and a ticking time bomb of voters, she said.

The groundswell for meaningful gun control has been coming for a long time, said her classmate, junior Eli McAmis.

From an activist perspective, when youre trying to effect change in a democracy, the most important aspect is to not become jaded by the world around you, he said. This is not a group that is jaded.

Now Playing: A Ticking Time Bomb Of Voters

And they are not alone. On Tuesday, the massive progressive hub MoveOn.org solicited members to donate toward a $100,000 goal to help the student-led effort to end gun violence.

On Thursday, billionaire San Francisco activist Tom Steyer said he would contribute $1 million to helping register high school students to vote, focusing on districts represented by Republicans opposed to tighter gun control in California and Florida.

Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg announced they would donate $500,000 each to the March 24 March for Our Lives to be led by students in Washington, D.C. Clooney said he and his wife, Amal Clooney, were so inspired by the courage and eloquence of these young men and women from Stoneman Douglas High School.

The concern from organizers is that opponents will tag the students as puppets of liberal organizations in an effort to diminish their message.

One of the ways to discredit a movement  any movement  is to say theyre naive or corrupt or in league with someone else, said UC Irvine sociology Professor David Meyer, author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America.

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The Oakland students scoffed at the idea that they are too young or too inexperienced.

We are the people who experience this, said Alden ORafferty, a Bishop ODowd junior. The Parkland students, she said, know what theyre talking about because they watched their friends die in front of them. They know what theyre talking about because they heard the screams of their classmates as they ran through the halls.

While students views vary, the evolving student movement has generally pushed for more gun control, including restrictions on high-powered rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines and an end to unregulated private gun sales  laws that now exist in California but not at the federal level.

Many students also want to improve support on campus, such as additional counselors, as well as anonymous tip lines and better classroom security, including functioning locks.

Arguably, the students have already achieved something that has eluded politicians  reopening the gun control debate. Some Republican politicians, including Trump, have said they may be open to modest changes in gun laws, such as increasing the legal age to buy rifles from 18 to 21.

Several student marches are planned in coming months, with administrators and teachers in many schools working with the students to find ways to participate.

Thousands of teachers are throwing support behind the students, including three in the Bay Area who formed a Facebook group, Teachers Take Action Against Gun Violence, that drew nearly 7,000 educators in just over a week.

They are sharing classroom curriculum around school shootings, creating opportunities for students to connect across states and lambasting the idea  voiced by Trump, among others  that a portion of teachers should carry guns at school, said Lyndsey Schlax, a social studies teacher at San Franciscos Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.

Things can happen pretty quickly when you have conversations across the country in real time, said Schlax, who started the Facebook group with former kindergarten teacher Sonya Mehta and El Cerrito middle school teacher Sarah La Due. Kids want to participate, but they arent always sure how.

At Tamalpais High, teacher LesLeigh Golson said she will do whatever she can to support her students, noting that she was in college studying to be a teacher at the time of the Columbine shooting.

Ive wanted to do something for a long time, but the tide hasnt been on our side, she said. I think weve been waiting a long time for critical mass to shift.

She believes the teens have been inspired as well by the success of the #MeToo movement against sexual abuse and harassment  the power of collective speaking out.

At the conference table at Bishop ODowd, students said the movement cant wait any longer.

Were going to leave a legacy, Hall said, rather than leave a lesson.Facing a homelessness crisis and funding gaps from recent tax cuts, the city of Berkeley is considering something revolutionary: making its own bitcoin-like cryptocurrency.

Acts of resistance require creating resources, said Councilman Ben Bartlett, one of the people behind the plan. Hes working with Mayor Jesse Arreguin, and teaming up with the startup Neighborly and UC Berkeleys Blockchain Lab on proposals to turn municipal bonds into digital currency, with the goal of raising additional funds for specific projects.

Bartlett and Arreguin came up with the idea over dinner when they were brainstorming about the affordable housing crisis with constituents, some of whom work with digital currencies.

This is largely driven by Berkeley residents, Bartlett said. Their nickname for Berkeley is Crypto City.

Some of cryptocurrencys harshest critics have characterized them as Ponzi schemes, even as others anticipate that they will revolutionize payment systems. A few early backers of cryptocurrencies are now billionaires on paper, thanks to the run-up in prices. Startups have sought to use the issuance of new digital currencies, called inital coin offerings, to fund development of software tools and marketplaces instead of raising venture capital.

Berkeley has no plan to buy bitcoin, ether or other similar currencies with city funds. Instead, the idea is to break up municipal bonds, allowing people to buy them in smaller quantities as digital tokens, similar to how other cryptocurrencies are traded. The currency will use blockchain technology, as most cryptocurrencies do, that creates a decentralized ledger of transactions designed to increase peoples trust in cyber money. But the micro-bonds recorded on the blockchain will be tied to an asset  the underlying bond. Bartlett argues that this makes it less risky than other cryptocurrencies, which have seen wide price swings in the past year.

The councilman said he expects the plan to be embraced by residents and regulators. But John Reed Stark, a lawyer and professor who was formerly head of the Securities and Exchange Commissions Office of Internet Enforcement, is dubious.

I truly cannot believe this, he said of Berkeleys plan. He says cryptocurrency offerings resemble the drivers-ed film of securities violations. They trigger every single kind of security violation.

The notion that a municipality is somehow encouraging the use of pseudo-anonymous currency strikes me as incredibly irresponsible, Stark said. There are tremendous security ramifications, and they should expect an unbelievable amount of regulatory scrutiny. Whatever they do will be under the microscope of the SEC.

More than a dozen companies have shelved plans to raise money from investors after SEC officials called them up, Robert Cohen, head of the SECs cyber enforcement unit, said Friday. The SEC scrutiny prompted firms to realize that their offerings may have violated federal securities laws, he said at a conference in Washington.

Regulators have been sounding the alarm about initial coin offerings since last year, with SEC chairman Jay Clayton cautioning that crooks could be harnessing the latest technology craze to pull off a scam thats as old as markets themselves: talking up an asset and then selling once the dumb money pours in.

Lynnette Kelly, president and executive director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board said its too early to say whether there would be concerns about security or stability in Berkeleys case.

There are rules in place and all of those rules need to be followed, she said. I think having a currency backed by a municipal bond is different, and I know the SEC and the (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) have talked at length about cryptocurrencies and issues surrounding these coins.

Well continue to investigate and monitor, and get smarter about this and any other new technique in the market, but that doesnt mean it necessarily raises red flags, Kelly said.

A spokesman for the SEC declined to comment.

Marc Lifsher, a spokesman for the State Treasurers Office, said the office has no position and views it as a local issue.

The State Treasurers Office has not talked to Neighborly or Berkeley about cryptocurrency, he said.

Jase Wilson, CEO of San Franciscos Neighborly, shrugged off questions about instability.

The volatility looks more like a municipal bond, Wilson said. Berkeley is an extremely strong and fiscally disciplined borrower.

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The downside of a relatively stable security is that its unlikely to attract the get-rich-quick speculators and arbitrageurs who have caused gyrations in the prices of cryptocurrencies but also created relatively liquid markets in them.

The Berkeley projects goal is to streamline the process for buying and selling municipal bonds, cut transaction costs and allow people to invest in projects of their choosing at low levels.

For a normal person to invest in a bond is like $5,000, but under a micro-bond enabled by the blockchain it could be like $25 or $50, Bartlett said. Someone could theoretically invest in the creation of a new park  or even just the purchase of a swing set.

While Bartletts long-term goal is to fund big projects like affordable housing, he wants to start small. Some ideas so far, which Bartlett said came from residents: planting a row of trees, buying another ambulance for a fire station and engaging a group of artists to create a series of rotating public art pieces.

The city and its partners are planning what backers like to call an initial community offering for May.

Bartlett said that either the City Council would have to approve the plan, or its backers could pursue it with a private company without the councils OK.

They want to move quickly, he said: The technology promises direct community engagement, and the need is more pressing than ever.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.There are many reasons for living in a city like San Francisco, and one of them is finding something unexpected, like the Occidental Cigar Club on Pine Street, just off Montgomery in the Financial District.

You would not confuse the Occidental Cigar Club with an outpost of healthy living. In a city where marijuana is celebrated and tobacco is barely tolerated, the Occidental is full of patrons puffing on cigars and drinking strong whiskey or fine wine. The place is full of smoke and good humor, like a private club.

We are the last bastion of civilization, said Curtis Post, the founding partner.

Now Playing: The%20Occidental%20Cigar%20Club,%20where%20smoking%20is%20legal Video: SFChronicle

Smoking in bars is illegal under the state labor code because secondhand smoke harms employees, but there is a wrinkle here: The Occidental has no employees. Everyone who works there is a partner in the enterprise.

The Occidental is at the end of Belden Alley, which is lined with restaurants. And a sign at the door gives fair warning: If the odor of fine tobacco products offends you, this is not an entrance.

Its a bar for grown-up people, said John Perricone, who was smoking a big cigar and drinking scotch the other afternoon. Perricone is an occasional visitor  he was in town for a convention  but most of the patrons seem to be regulars, people who seem to know each other, united in their admiration for cigars.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

A lot of them are stockbrokers, who come in after the market closes at 1 in the afternoon. Others are blue-collar types, and a few are tourists, out for a taste of supposed city sophistication.

They get some of it at the Occidental. There is a ritual in cutting the ends from the cigar  We cut it for you or you can do it yourself, Post said. It turns out there are a couple of ways to cut a cigar, and it has to be done correctly, a kind of cigar etiquette.

Why does it matter? Its like pouring a glass of wine correctly, Post said. If its done right, it makes the wine taste better.

The Occidental gets its name from the Occidental Hotel, the citys first European-style hotel, which flourished in the 1860s just around the corner on Montgomery Street. It was at the hotels bar that Professor Jerry Thomas, the renowned bartender, supposedly invented the Martinez cocktail, ancestor of the martini. The Occidental and the rest of the old cigar-loving city were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The modern-day Occidental has the clubby feel of a neighborhood place, but it is no shot-and-a-beer bar. It stocks 100 single malt scotches, 45 different bourbons, 35 rums, 19 Irish whiskeys, and a number of craft beers. There are also wines, said to go well with cigars  all California wines with a certain style. If they sell it at Safeway, I dont stock it, Post said.

That sort of thing appeals to regulars like Desmond Cliett, an executive with a high-tech firm who comes in most afternoons, sits down with his laptop and a fine cigar and does a little work, as if the place were a coffeehouse with smoke.

He likes getting away from the office. I like the people, and I like to smoke, he said. I like the fabric of the place.

He had a leaf cigar, one wrapped in tobacco leaf rather than artificial wrapping. This one was a Leaf by Oscar, wrapper from Nicaragua, the binder and filler Honduran tobacco. The price: $22.

Cliett said he discovered the Occidental on his birthday two years ago. I wanted to celebrate with a drink and a cigar, he said. And my girlfriend took me here.

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.

Not long ago, most of the patrons were men, but more recently the place has drawn more and more women. On some nights, half the people here are women, said Tracy Deguise, who was smoking a big cigar the other night. Deguise came with her husband, Kevin.

Its a place we can go together, have a drink, smoke and talk, she said.

We have lots of friends here, too, Kevin Deguise said.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Cigars and talk seem to go together, perhaps because cigar smoking is an acquired taste, and smokers tend to band together, like exiles from another time. A patron sitting alone, hunched over his drink is a rare sight.

Cigarette smoking is frowned on at the Occidental. Post dislikes cigarettes, which he says are full of chemicals, are addictive and are discouraged at the Occidental. Cigars are pure tobacco. You dont inhale a cigar, he said.

The American Cancer Society, however, is clear: There is so safe form of tobacco, it says. All cigars are dangerous to your health.

But people still smoke away. Even a bit of danger is addictive.Lynda Deschambault knew her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had taken a hard turn in July when, she said, her supervisor told her during a performance review to be as invisible as possible. The next month, she took early retirement.

The request, she said, was jarring for a woman who had spent two decades enforcing pollution laws and the cleanup of toxic lands for the EPAs Pacific Southwest region, based in San Francisco. Managing Superfund sites is not a position that lends itself to blending in.

Ive been through other administrations before, and we were always told to tighten our bootstraps and get to work. This was saying, Well, dont do your job, said Deschambault, who was the remediation manager at Leviathan Mine, an abandoned sulfur pit in Alpine County. It was very surreal. I had never seen this before.

More than a year into the Trump presidency, cuts to the EPAs budget and the easing of regulations under Administrator Scott Pruitt have demoralized many workers in San Francisco-based Region 9, according to three current employees, a manager and a scientist who left in the past year, and five other former employees.

In interviews with The Chronicle, the workers described a situation in which managers, enforcement officers and scientists who take pride in their mission are being pushed out or shunted to the side. They said the tension is probably one reason Region 9 is the only one of the agencys 10 offices still without a permanent leader.

Ive been here 31 years, and this is definitely the worst Ive seen it in the EPA in terms of job security, staffing and just being able to do the work that the American people expect to protect the environment, said Mark Sims, an engineer in the air enforcement division in Region 9 who spoke as a representative of the local chapter of the Engineers and Scientists of California union.

The White House said this month it is seeking to cut more than $2.5 billion out of the agencys budget. The proposal, for fiscal 2019, would shrink EPA spending by more than 23 percent. That would come on top of reductions carried out in 2017, when hundreds of employees, or roughly 5 percent, took buyouts and early retirement.

Pruitt, who declined to be interviewed, is engaged in a revamping of the EPA anchored in his belief that the agency has overstepped its congressional mandate, including when it began regulating heat-trapping greenhouse gases under President Barack Obama and hindered oil, gas and coal production in favor of renewable energy.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

Pruitt, who as Oklahoma attorney general sued the agency 14 times, has denounced the picking of winners and losers and believes in a lean EPA using a collaborative regulatory system. A memo sent to regional administrators Jan. 2 said the priority is a level playing field for regulated entities. It urged EPA regulators to defer to the states on enforcement whenever possible.

Whats happened over the last 10 years or so is that the agency evolved and morphed into something that was almost like a superagency, Pruitt told the New York Times in a recent podcast. I think the agency took the perspective ... that though we have been blessed with natural resources that help us literally feed the world and power the world, that we should not develop those resources.

Central to Pruitts agenda  and particularly alarming to the current and former employees who spoke to The Chronicle  is his questioning of climate science. He acknowledged that the planet is warming in a recent television interview, but said it wasnt necessarily a bad thing, despite evidence that warming could drive extreme weather events and coastal inundation from sea level rise. Pruitt has removed much of the information that the EPA had about climate change from the agencys website.

The request for Deschambault to lie low came on top of a series of regulatory rollbacks and cost-cutting moves. In October, Pruitt announced his intention to repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obamas 2015 bid to curb power plants release of greenhouse gases. He said the program had weaponized the agency.

Even without the budget cuts at the EPA, enforcement has suffered, critics say. A report released this month by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, which pushes for strong enforcement of environmental laws, said that in the first 12 months of the Trump administration, the agency brought an average of 44 percent fewer civil cases than the previous three administrations did in the same time frame. The report said civil penalties paid by polluters declined 49 percent during the same period.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

Deschambault and others said a malaise has gripped the EPA office at 75 Hawthorne St. in San Francisco, as managers are forced to tighten purse strings and limit inspections.

Many inspectors have been discouraged from conducting inspections, and the attorneys who focus on enforcement have been moving away from it, said Taly Jolish, an EPA lawyer speaking in her capacity as the president of the local American Federation of Government Employees union. Its depressing and discouraging ... we came to EPA to enforce the environmental laws of the United States, which have been the model for the world.

The 702 employees in Region 9 enforce federal regulations in California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, the Pacific islands and 148 tribal nations. The office has ordered California to re-examine rules that allowed oil companies to inject wastewater into aquifers, fined companies that polluted San Francisco Bay, forced the cleanup of rivers and creeks, and taken legal action against the Bureau of Indian Affairs for not providing adequate drinking water to schools on Indian land.

Environmental advocates say Pruitts actions have decreased critical oversight of polluting industries.

We dont have a fully functioning agency and thats intentional, said Jared Blumenfeld, who ran the San Francisco office before stepping down as regional administrator in May 2016. He said Pruitt is delivering on his promise: Dont do enforcement so polluters can be left to pollute.

Pruitt has said oversight remains strong, but now strictly follows federal law.

The San Francisco office employs about 250 fewer people than it did in 2010, Blumenfeld said. Records show about 700 employees nationwide have left the EPA since Trump was elected. Staffing is now roughly equivalent to the level in 1988, when 14,442 people worked for the agency. Thats about 3,000 less than were employed at the EPA a year into the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama.

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said 400 workers took buyouts, including 11 in Region 9, a small percentage of those who were eligible. He disputed that the San Francisco office is beset by concern over the agencys direction, saying, Morale is great at EPA.

Blumenfeld said 800 to 900 employees are needed to attend to all of the work in Region 9. Sims said that in addition to those who took buyouts, as many as 40 other San Francisco employees quit or retired last year. Pruitts plan, he said, is to cut 10 percent a year for the next three years in Region 9, eliminating 47 jobs in the coming fiscal year.

Those numbers are not accurate, Wilcox said without elaborating.

Environmental groups and Democratic politicians are afraid staffing nationwide will be decreased so much that it matches the early 1980s, when then-EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch cut the budget, feuded with employees and reduced cases against polluters. She resigned in 1983 after a scandal over the mismanagement of the Superfund program. There were fewer than 11,000 employees in the agency that year, according to EPA documents.

Pruitts critics fear he will end dozens of programs nationwide and virtually eliminate work related to climate change. They say deferring to states with varying environmental priorities will make it more difficult for the EPA to hold polluters accountable.

The critics point to a recent settlement with Syngenta Seeds, which was accused of exposing workers in Hawaii to an insecticide. The EPA initially sought $4.8 million after 10 workers at a farm on Kauai were hospitalized, but settled this month for $150,000 while mandating a training program for growers.

To reduce it by this amount is quite unusual, said Judith Enck, a former EPA administrator in New York.

Pruitt has stated he wants to focus on Superfund cleanup and recently released a list of 21 sites targeted for immediate attention. The list included two of the 111 sites in Region 9. California has 98 Superfund sites, second in the nation to New Jersey.

One site on the list was ARCOs abandoned Anaconda Copper Mine southeast of Reno. But instead of going forward with a remediation plan this month, Pruitt agreed, over the objections of nearby American Indian tribes and environmentalists, to delay a Superfund priority listing for at least four years.

The first thing he did where an oil company is the polluter was say, Oh, we wont make it a Superfund site, said Kathy Setian, an environmental engineer who worked for 20 years as a Superfund project manager and left the agency in 2012. Its devastating. I feel like it is my lifes work that is being dismantled.

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.

Some project managers say regulations are being relaxed at many toxic sites, including Leviathan Mine, a 250-acre property in the Sierra abandoned in the early 1960s after sulfuric acid drained out and metals were detected in a creek and on Washoe Indian land. The state of California bought the site in 1983, and the Washoe asked the EPA to intervene 15 years later.

Oversight and the interpretation of data collected at the mine were curtailed last June as part of the lean management adopted by Pruitt. Deschambault said she was told to cut down on meetings and stop putting pressure on ARCO, which as a former site owner was handling cleanup, to provide the EPA with sampling results.

When Deschambault pushed back, she said she was told a second site manager would be brought in to streamline the process. She said her supervisor had told her to be invisible out of helpless frustration and concern for her, not out of animosity. The agency did not allow the supervisor to respond to inquiries, but Deschambault said she was told her supervisor denied the charge after she included it in her resignation letter.

We dont have any information for you at this time, Michele Huitric, a Region 9 spokeswoman, wrote in an email when asked about Deschambaults allegations.

We feel like the administrator is promoting the oil and gas industries and that hes focused on limiting the work that we feel is important, Jolish said. He sees industry as our customer.

Wilcox said that Administrator Pruitt is proud to streamline regulations, which is creating regulatory certainty.

Blumenfelds onetime deputy, Alexis Strauss, has been acting administrator for Region 9 for nearly two years. (She could not be reached for comment.) So far, none of Pruitts preferred candidates have agreed to take over an office in a left-leaning region populated by employees considered to be largely hostile to the administrations views.

Ryan Flynn, an oil and gas lobbyist in New Mexico, recently became the second oil industry executive to turn down the job, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing EPA sources. Flynn, who was twice awarded the Toxic Turkey prize by the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, was not a popular choice among the rank and file, current and former Region 9 workers said.

Flynn, the executive director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, told The Chronicle he never aspired to be the San Francisco office administrator.

I admire EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and strongly believe in EPAs mission to protect human health and the environment, however, my family is happily rooted in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I am very satisfied with my current role, he said in an email.

Managers and former employees said EPA staffers fear that resisting changes, or criticizing the leadership, will lead to being targeted by the administration.

The EPA gave a no-bid, $120,000 contract to a Republican-linked opposition-research firm, Definers Public Affairs, and the the New York Times reported that one of its executives spent last year filing Freedom of Information Act requests while scouring the agency for resistance figures.

People are so afraid of retribution, Setian said. They are trying to intimidate people.

Wilcox, the EPA spokesman, said the firm was hired only to collect and categorize media reports for the agency. He denied the agency had sought to intimidate employees, but he acknowledged internal communications were subject to review.

Like any government agency, all EPA employees are subjected to the Freedom of Information Act, he said, and in terms of the FOIAs, nearly all are aimed at political, not career employees.

Deschambault said it is clear to her that the agencys watchdog role is broken.

The people we used to regulate are now in charge, she said.WASHINGTON - A former top adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign pleaded guilty Friday to fraud and lying to investigators in the special counsel inquiry into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and will cooperate with the investigation.

The adviser, Rick Gates, is a longtime political consultant who once served as Trump's deputy campaign chairman. The plea deal could be a significant development in the investigation - a sign that Gates plans to offer incriminating information against his longtime associate and the former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, or other members of the Trump campaign in exchange for a lighter punishment. He faces up to nearly six years in prison.

Change of heart

The deal came as the special counsel, Robert Mueller, has been raising pressure on Gates and Manafort with dozens of new charges of money laundering and bank fraud that were unsealed Thursday in Alexandria, Va. Mueller first indicted both men in October, and both pleaded not guilty.

Appearing with his attorney in a Washington courtroom Friday afternoon, Gates changed his plea, acknowledging that he participated in the financial conspiracy with Manafort.

He also admitted that he lied to investigators earlier this month - after he was under indictment and was negotiating with the prosecutors - about the details of a 2013 meeting in Washington that Manafort had with a member of Congress and a lobbyist, during which there was a discussion about Ukraine, where Manafort and Gates worked as political consultants.

It is unclear exactly what he might have to offer the special counsel, or what his cooperation with Mueller means for Trump. Neither indictment indicated that either Gates or Manafort had information about whether Trump or his aides coordinated with the Russian government's efforts to disrupt the 2016 election.

But Gates was present for the most significant periods of activity of the campaign, as Trump began developing policy positions and his digital operation engaged with millions of voters on platforms such as Facebook.

Even after Manafort was fired by Trump in August 2016, Gates remained on in a different role, as a liaison between the campaign and the Republican National Committee.

In addition to offering some visibility into the Trump campaign, Gates might be able to provide prosecutors with glimpses into decision-making in the months after the president's election victory. He was a consultant on the transition team, and he also worked in 2017 with America First Policies, the main outside group supporting the Trump presidency.

Three admit lying to FBI

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Besides the plea agreement with Gates, the special counsel's team has already secured guilty pleas from two of Trump's advisers. Michael Flynn, the president's first national security adviser, and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy aide during the campaign, have both pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with the inquiry.

It was not immediately clear what Gates' plea agreement will mean for the newly filed charges in Virginia.

In a letter to friends and family, Gates said, "Despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, I have had a change of heart. The reality of how long this legal process will likely take, the cost, and the circuslike atmosphere of an anticipated trial are too much. I will better serve my family moving forward by exiting this process."

If Manafort continues to fight the charges in a trial, testimony from Gates could give Mueller's team a first-person account of the criminal conduct that is claimed in the indictments - a potential blow to Manafort's defense strategy.

In a statement Friday, Manafort said, "Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pleaded today, I continue to maintain my innocence. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me."Far-fetched transit ideas have a way of becoming real. Jammed freeways, sardine-packed transit cars and a bulging population are giving two breakthrough ideas serious attention.

But one makes sense and the other should be tossed. BART is facing crush load capacity limits and its leaders are giving serious thought to a second Transbay Tube. Its an enormous undertaking  likely the biggest infrastructure project ever in the region  but it could bring benefits in a variety of ways, not just a quicker commute ride.

Another, older idea is making a modest comeback, but that doesnt mean it makes sense. A long-discussed second crossing that calls for another car-carrying bridge connecting the east and west sides of the bay has at least one powerful backer: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who keeps an eagle eye on Bay Area living conditions. But its the wrong answer, given scarce money and changing travel needs. Her request for a battle plan on building such a span should be respectfully shelved.

BARTs plan is hazy, written in pencil and sketched in sand. It calls for a second Transbay Tube running to the south of the existing one and hooking up Alameda with several possible spots along San Franciscos southern waterfront. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the regional planning and financing agency, is on the same wavelength with an initial study of six possible routes.

The cost will be eye-popping, beginning at $12 billion with construction overruns or added features nearly a given. The cost of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which doubled, make a bridge just as financially risky.

But a second tube comes with major advantages: It can connect housing and jobs in a way a bridge cant. The alternatives on BARTs drawing board imagine a transit line up Mission Street  San Franciscos new financial artery  along with other landing spots in the Mission Bay area, filled with apartments, a medical campus, offices, the Giants ballpark and Warriors arena. Theres thought of linking up with long-dreamed Muni lines running westward across San Francisco.

The tube comes with other draws: It can serve as a backup when maintenance needs and emergencies intrude. Like the existing rail tunnel, it will have two tracks that could be shared with Caltrain and the Capitol Corridor line that runs to Sacramento. Right now, these two services are trapped on either side of the bay with no way to get passengers across without changing seats, stations and tickets, obstacles that push people into their cars. High-speed rail, which has no plans for a direct bay crossing, might tap the new tunnel, too. Theres a significant hitch, though, because BART uses a different track width, a mismatch that should be resolved.

Money remains a huge obstacle. A project of this scale could mean higher fares and tolls along with bond borrowing costs. Federal help will be needed, a longshot in the current atmosphere of tax cuts and private investment in infrastructure projects. Public support will have to be earned with a carefully thought-out blueprint.

But standing still isnt a choice. The central argument for a second tube should be obvious: The regions mainstay commuter service is running out of seats. BART is adding scores of new transit cars and shortening the time between trains running through the existing tube. These steps can grow ridership by 25 percent in seven years. But capacity, a bland word for shoulder-to-shoulder crowding, is expected to be reached by 2030.

Over the same time span, the Bay Areas population is expected to keep growing by almost 2 million residents. Putting these additional commuters in vehicles on an additional span will only spill them out on ever-crowded freeways, achieving little except a pleasant view of the bay waters while in 15 mile-per-hour traffic.

Building a new tube, along with choosing the best route, will be challenging. BART is planning to spend $200 million on planning and engineering in coming years on the task. Another $50 million may come via a June ballot measure to raise bridge tolls for transit improvements. Thats a hefty price tag before a shovel is turned.

The lead time needed is turning the tube idea into a generational project that will take more than a decade to conceive, plan and build. That long incubation period lessens the urgency of a second tube but gives decision-makers an opportunity to think carefully about a monumental project. The details of exactly where the tracks will run or which transit agency has first dibs are key, but its more important to get the project rolling and not left on the shelf. Its time to think big on a big issue.Silicon Valley continues to lead the country in innovation, according to the latest update to the Silicon Valley Leadership Groups comprehensive report on regional competitiveness and innovation.

But our regional challenges  especially in housing, transportation and education  are quickly catching up with us.

In partnership with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group measures important indicators like migration, transportation and business costs to assess how the region of Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties is doing at providing jobs and opportunities. This years just-released report, which looks at 2016, contains more than a few surprises for anyone who cares about the regions future.

In some ways, the region is doing better than ever  but fewer and fewer people are able to enjoy it.

Silicon Valleys innovation industries (a category that includes software, biotechnology, aerospace and similar technology-enabled fields) continued to do better than everywhere else in the country in 2016, posting a whopping 5 percent growth over 2015.

But an average of 42 people left Silicon Valley every month in 2016. Thats a huge change from 2015, when an average of nearly 2,000 people were moving in every month.

The number of people who left increased dramatically, said Brian Brennan, senior vice president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. The dynamics that drive those decisions have been around for a while, but we saw a really big shift in 2016.

The dynamics to which Brennan refers wont be news to anyone who lives here.

The single biggest takeaway for policymakers is that we really need radical action when it comes to the production of housing, Brennan said.

Brennan cited SB35, state Sen. Scott Wieners (D-San Francisco) 2017 legislation that forces local governments to speed up affordable housing production, as an example of the kind of big changes California needs.

The region also needs to make traffic more manageable  preferably through sustained investments in mass transit. Commute times, which are a crucial factor both for business productivity and residents quality of life, keep increasing year over year.

Finally, the region has to focus on providing future opportunities for its young people through education.

The 2018 update found that Silicon Valley area students have made slight gains during key developmental points in their K-12 education. In 2017, 55.1 percent of local third graders were proficient in language arts, up from 51.7 percent in 2015. Eighth-graders were doing better in math, too  53.3 percent were proficient in 2017, compared to 49.4 percent in 2015.

Its wonderful to see this positive trend in our educational system, Brennan said. But were still leaving too many students, especially African American and Latino students, behind.

As the report makes clear, the region still has a lot to offer its residents in terms of cutting-edge opportunity and economic dynamism. But if our policymakers cant get costs and congestion under control, only a select few will be able to reap the benefits.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.This spring, a section of downtown Napa will reopen after a major transformation. Dubbed First Street Napa and located on a three-block stretch of  you guessed it  First Street, the $200 million development has been over five years in the making.

What were once landmark businesses in Napas Town Center, like Merrills Drugstore and McCaulous department store, both long since closed with some buildings left in disrepair, have been replaced with 325,000 square feet of new construction, restored historic buildings, and major renovations that house boutiques, wine bars and upscale restaurants.

There are several parts to the project, opened in stages since the fall. At the center of the project is the Archer Hotel Napa, a five-story affair with more than 180 guest rooms, which opened in late November. Retail shops and bistros, including a fashion boutique and cosmetics store, are scheduled to spring up from now through April.

We wanted to create an experiential shopping, eating and staying district, a gathering of different types of destinations for people who live here and for those who visit, says Todd Zapolski, managing member of Zapolski Real Estate, which owns the property with Trademark Property Company. That hasnt been available in Napa in one significant place until now.

The project endured major setbacks, including the October wildfire that raged through Napa, the August 2014 earthquake that damaged the foundations of buildings across the county, and heavy rains last winter and spring that delayed construction.

Were opening later than we hoped, but were patient and trying to build this in a way thatll be a lasting success and benefit to the general area, says Zapolski.

Heres a glimpse at whats coming soon and whats already arrived at First Street Napa.

Megan Michelson, travel@sfchronicle.com

1 Archer Hotel Napa

The five-story, 183-room Archer Hotel Napa, which opened in November, is the tallest commercial building in Napa Valley. All rooms come with wine fridges and many have balconies and gas-burning fireplaces; a rooftop bar has fire pits and panoramic views of Napa Valley. Archer Hotel opened sister locations in New York in 2014 and Austin, Texas, in 2016. Open now. Rooms from $259. 1230 1st St.; (707) 690-9800; www.archerhotel.com/napa

2 Charlie Palmer Steak Napa

Located inside Archer Hotel Napa, Charlie Palmer Steak features a locally inspired menu designed by award-winning executive chef Jeffrey Russell, who moved to Napa after running Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington, D.C. The menu has classic steakhouse dishes with a modern, wine-country twist. Open now. 1260 1st St.; (707) 819-2500; www.charliepalmersteak.com/locations/napa

3 Lush

Lush, a national chain thatll open its First Street Napa location this spring, specializes in fresh, handmade cosmetics, everything from black-currant soap bars that create a pink bubble bath to coffee-scented face masks that jump-start your day to vodka-infused, sea-salt body scrub. Opening in April. www.lushusa.com

4 Compline Wine Bar, Restaurant & Merchant

Master sommelier Matt Stamp and business partner Ryan Stetins, both Napa locals, opened their new wine bar, restaurant and wine shop, Compline, in September. Stop in for a glass of wine or a bottle to go from more than 250 wines, many from Napa-area wineries, or sit down for lunch or dinner. Try the cool cucumber gazpacho and the gruyere-topped burger. The space also hosts wine education classes with tastings from around the world. Open now. 1300 First St. No. 312; (707) 492-8150; www.complinewine.com

5 Brown Downtown Napa

The Brown Estate Winery is located in St. Helena, about 45 minutes away, but in April it opened a tasting lounge on the second floor of the old Napa Register building, at the corner of First and Coombs streets. The space has an unpretentious, speakeasy vibe, perfect even for wine-tasting rookies. Book a tasting appointment online to secure your spot at the bar. Open now. From $25 per person. 1005 Coombs St.; (707) 963-2435; www.brownestate.com

6 Napa Valley Jewelers

Napa Valley Jewelers has one of the widest selections of diamond rings in the valley, which means if youre planning a romantic Napa marriage proposal, you may want to start here. The jewelry store has been located in downtown Napa for the past 25 years, but its opening soon in a brand new location a few hundred yards away, next to Eikos Sushi. Open now. 1300 First St., No. 365; (707) 224-0997; www.napavalleyjewelers.com

7 Eikos Modern Japanese Cuisine

Everything you love about Napa favorite Eikos Sushi remains unchanged. Its still in its original location, at the intersection of First and Franklin streets, and the menu still has its lunchtime bento boxes, Japanese tapas such as pork belly dumplings, and deliciously fresh and creatively prepared sushi. Eikos opened a second location, a smaller sushi bar and fish market, within the nearby Oxbow Market in 2014. Open now. 1385 Napa Town Center; (707) 501-4444; www.eikosnapa.com

8 State & First by Maris Collective

Los Angeles-based Maris Collective operates fashion boutiques in conjunction with luxury hotels and resorts around the world. It specializes in unique and locally curated designer apparel and accessories. This spring, Maris will open a 3,000-square-foot shop next to Archer Hotel Napa. Youll enter the store through a floor-to-ceiling glass atrium covered with vines. Opening in March. www.mariscollective.com

9 Overland Sheepskin Co.

Overland Sheepskin Co., relocated from nearby Yountville, its shop location for the past 28 years, opened a new store in December within First Street Napa in a 2,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of the historical Beckstoffer Building, below the Brown Downtown tasting lounge. Known for its made-in-America leather and sheepskin coats, bags and slippers, the company was founded in Taos, N.M., in 1973. Open now. 1202 First St.; (700) 224-1860; www.overland.com

0 100-year-old cork oak tree

In the main plaza of the shopping complex is a 100-year-old cork oak tree, bordered by an outdoor fire pit and a pathway that leads to a metal sculpture by local artist Gordon Huether, whos known globally for his large art installations. You can visit Huethers studio and gallery on Napas Monticello Road, a few miles outside of town.

First Street Napa, By the numbers

183

Rooms at the new Archer Hotel Napa

1

Rooftop fitness room and yoga studio, at Archer Hotel Napa

0

Dollars required to park here, thanks to two free parking garages

6.8

Millions of visitors to the Napa-Sonoma region each year

25

Wine-tasting rooms in a 1-mile radius

1864

Year the Napa Valley Wine Train, which stops nearby, was established

3.1

Number of wineries the average Napa visitor stops into

150

Shops and restaurants within walking distance of First Street Napa

68.7

Percentage of Napa Valley visitors who make it to downtown NapaA treadmill accident in a Riverside County apartment complex has led to a state appeals court ruling narrowing tenants' ability to sue landlords for negligence.

A 1975 California law prohibits rental agreements that purport to excuse the landlord from any legal "duty of care to prevent personal injury or personal property damage." But in a 2-1 ruling Thursday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Riverside said the law applies only to "core functions" of the residence and not to "amenities" like recreation areas.

The law was intended to protect "a tenant's basic, essential need for shelter" and leaves a landlord free to demand a waiver of liability for "a nonessential matter of personal improvement or enjoyment" like a gym, the court majority said. The dissenting justice said the court was trying to rewrite the law.

The case dates from April 2009, when John Costahaude fell off a treadmill at an apartment complex in Mira Loma and injured his shoulder. In his suit against the property owners, Costahaude said one of their employees had carelessly rolled an exercise ball under the best treadmill, causing it to flip upward and throw him off.

The owners sought to dismiss the suit because their rental agreements required tenants to accept "all risk of harm" at a gymnasium on the grounds and barred them from suing the landlords for negligence. A Superior Court judge said the agreement conflicted with the 1975 state law, but the appeals court disagreed.

Landlords are legally required to provide dwellings that are habitable and safe, but have no obligation to offer health and recreation facilities, said Justice Douglas Miller in the majority opinion ordering dismissal of the case.

Since the owner of a private gym can require customers to waive the right to sue for negligence in order to use the equipment, Miller said, "there is no reason why the landlord may not protect itself by requiring the tenant, as a condition of use of the amenity, to execute the same waiver."

But dissenting Justice Jeffrey King said the law was designed to protect tenants from unknowingly signing away their right to sue landlords for carelessness anywhere on the grounds, including recreational areas.

"It is not for the court to make its own exception based on its notion of what the policy should be," King said.

Michael Terhar, a lawyer for the property owners, said the ruling would encourage landlords to provide on-site recreation and other amenities. The tenant's lawyer was unavailable for comment. He could appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The ruling can be viewed at links.sfgate.com/ZLEL.A bronze statue of President William McKinley has held court over the picturesque town square of Arcata, Calif. for more than a century. It will soon be torn down.

The 8 1/2-foot monument and a nearby plaque have long been a point of contention among Arcata residents, some of whom say McKinley's expansionist policies were racist toward indigenous people. During his presidential tenure at the turn of the 20th century, McKinley annexed tribal lands in the western U.S. and Hawaii in the name of Manifest Destiny.

In a 4-1 vote on Wednesday, Arcata City Council decided to tear down the McKinley statue and place it into storage. The only dissenting vote came from councilmember Michael Winkler, who proposed letting the public decide via ballot measure.

A 1963 plaque that denotes the historic status of a town square structure, the Jacoby Building, will also be removed. The plaque includes offensive wording referring to a "time of Indian troubles." It will be replaced with a new marker designating the historical significance of the building - known locally as the Jacoby Storehouse - and the region's indigenous history.

Many of those in attendance spoke during the public comment portion of the gathering or sent letters to City Council voicing their thoughts on the issue. Some applauded the push to remove the statue, citing McKinley's imperialist legacy and lack of ties to the city.

"The statue doesn't symbolize what we want in our living room, the center of our plaza, to symbolize," said councilmember Susan Ornelas, per the North Coast Journal.

Others said they resented the monetary cost of the removal, a motion that could cost the city up to $60,000.

According to local lore, the statue of the assassinated president was brought to Arcata after it was created to in San Francisco and nearly ruined in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The community of McKinleyville, just north of Arcata, was named in honor of the 25th president.

The vote to remove the statue follows a year that saw countless monuments torn down across California and the nation. Earlier this week San Francisco officials said they plan to remove a "racist" statue of a subjugated Native American from Civic Center.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.An overturned truck turned completely on its side on southbound US-101 near the Cesar Chavez offramp Saturday morning, blocking three lanes and snarling traffic for nearly three hours.

The truck turned over at 11:22 a.m, following a collision that involved three vehicles. California Highway Patrol Sgt. Rob Nacke said that the driver of the truck went to the hospital with minor injuries.If you werent expecting an income tax refund but discover a big deposit from the Internal Revenue Service in your bank account, dont be quick to celebrate. You may have been the target of a clever scam.

The latest twist in tax-time identity fraud involves thieves who pilfer personal and financial information, often from professional tax preparers. They then use those details to file fake tax returns and have refunds  sometimes as large as $20,000  sent electronically to your account with plans to collect it later.

The IRS initially warned about the scam Feb. 2, urging tax professionals to step up security and beware of phishing emails that can secretly download malicious software that can help cybercriminals steal client data.

The agency next issued a warning to taxpayers Feb. 13 after reports of the incidents mushroomed from a few hundred potential victims nationwide to thousands, said Terry Lemons, an agency spokesman.

This one is really worrisome to us, Lemons said. Scammers are getting a government deposit into your account.

In the past few years, the IRS said, its Security Summit  a collaboration with state tax agencies and makers of do-it-yourself tax software  has helped reduce incidents of tax-related identity fraud, in which someone files a fake return in your name to collect a refund.

But now, criminals are increasingly targeting businesses, including tax professionals and human resource departments, because they are rich sources of sensitive personal information  including W-2 forms, bank statements and tax returns  that thieves can use to impersonate taxpayers and file bogus returns with authentic data.

Criminals go where the data is, said Jonathan Horn, senior manager for tax policy and advocacy with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

How does putting the money in your account benefit the criminals? The thieves think youll give it to them.

The crooks, for example, will call victims and pretend theyre a collection company for the IRS, which has deposited the funds in error. They then demand that victims transfer the money to a different account.

They say, We made a mistake; send it back to us, Lemons said.

Or, they will leave voice messages threatening the taxpayer with criminal fraud charges or an arrest warrant if they dont call the number provided to return the refund.

It signifies the ingenuity of the fraudsters out there, said Russell Schrader, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, which promotes online safety and security.

The scam has the ring of truth for victims, as there is actually an erroneous deposit sitting in their bank account (or in some cases, a paper check in the mailbox). That can frighten victims into acting, especially if a caller is bullying them.

But its always best to hang up and independently check whether the information you were given is valid, said Eva Velasquez, chief executive of the nonprofit group Identity Theft Resource Center.

Always go to the source when you get these kind of contacts, she said.

Look up a public number for the IRS online, she advised, and contact the agency to ask if the call was legitimate. The IRS identity theft units number is (800) 908-4490.

Here are some questions and answers about tax refund fraud:

Q: What should I do if an erroneous tax refund is deposited in my account?

A: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is, Lemons said. Dont forward the money, he said, and dont spend it: Dont go out and make a down payment on a new car with the cash.

If the refund arrived as a direct deposit, the agency said, you should contact your banks automated clearinghouse department and have the funds returned to the IRS. (Consumers may also need to close their account.) Call the IRS to explain why the money is being returned, notify your tax preparer and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

Q: What questions about security procedures should I have for my tax preparer?

A: Horn with the accountant association recommended that consumers ask whether their tax preparer uses encrypted email  standard email isnt secure and should never be used for sensitive financial information  and where the agency stores its paper files.If you missed it ...

In a week when Olympians were on cereal boxes and politicians were on soapboxes, this also happened:

When Kylie Jenner tweets, people listen. Shares of Snap fell 6.1 percent, wiping out $1.3 billion in market value Thursday  the day after Jenner said she doesnt open Snapchat anymore. Wall Street analysts also have noticed lots of users unhappy with Snapchats redesign.

Apple needs its cobalt fix. Its in talks to buy long-term supplies directly from miners, according to people familiar with the matter. The metal is a key ingredient for phone batteries  but is also in demand for electric vehicles.

Dominos Pizza says its now No. 1 in global pizza retail sales, passing Pizza Hut. In the past few years, Dominos has touted digital innovation, such as apps to track orders and testing driverless pizza delivery.

Sales of existing homes fell in January from a year earlier by the most in more than three years. The National Association of Realtors said many investors who bought homes at low prices during the housing bust are now renting them out rather than selling.

People who like Subway sandwiches might be feeling a little less loyal these days. The company is shaking up its loyalty rewards program, giving customers the ability to earn $2 discounts instead of free Footlongs. Sales at Subways U.S. stores fell more than 4 percent in 2017.

A judge gave the green light Thursday to a Minnesota company that wants to put advertising in vehicles driven for companies such as Uber and Lyft in New York City. Vugo Inc. sued the city in 2015 after the Taxi and Limousine Commission prohibited the ads in vehicles that were not medallion taxis or street hail liveries.The launch of three highly-anticipated non-stop flights bringing summer travelers between the Bay Area and Hawaii were unexpectedly either cancelled or deferred by Hawaiian Airlines Friday.

The carrier cited delays in the delivery of its new Airbus A321neo jets for the sudden schedule changes.

A new non-stop service between Oakland International Airport and Kona (Big Island) along with an added summer flight between San Francisco International Airport and Honolulu were both cancelled. Both flights were scheduled to launch in late May.

Another new non-stop between Oakland and Lihue (Kauai) that was scheduled to launch on April 11 will not operate until July 15.

All of those flights were supposed to be operated on Hawaiian's new Airbus A321neo single-aisle planes. (Read more about those new planes here.)

Hawaiian Airlines says passengers who were booked on the affected flights will be contacted directly and rebooked on its other flights serving the Bay Area. Passengers who have not been contacted can call the airline's reservations department at (800) 367-5320.

Some new itineraries may require passengers to fly to Hawaiian's hub in Honolulu and connect to flights to Kona and Lihue-- adding hours to the journey.

"We know how popular our seasonal summer flights have become, and we regret being unable to provide the full scope of services we had hoped to offer out of the Bay Area," said Hawaiian Airlines Vice President Brent Overbeek.

The airline added the services ahead of the busy summer travel season. The Hawaiian islands are a perennial favorite of Northern California travelers, particularly during the summer vacation months.

Hawaiian Airlines took delivery of its first A321neo in November 2017 and it began flying the plane on its Kahului to Oakland route in January. It has ordered 18 of the new, efficient aircraft from Airbus.

But many deliveries have been delayed because of problems with the engines, manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, that could cause them to shut down in-flight. Hawaiian Airlines has at least one A321neo in its fleet affected by the engine issue, according to CNN .

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience to our guests whose flights have been affected, and we are currently re-accommodating them on our other flights from the Bay Area," said Alex Da Silva, a Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson. "We are also working with Airbus and Pratt & Whitney on our future A321neo deliveries."

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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.Comments and links to reports on science, and its applications.Comedian Dave Chappelle made another one of his increasingly frequent surprise appearances in San Francisco, this time popping in on a late-night DJ set by producer Madlib on Thursday, Feb. 22, at 1015 Folsom, part of the 26th annual Noise Pop Music and Arts Festival.

Chappelle arrived at the nightclub around 1 a.m., fresh from a late set at the Punch Line comedy club, and joined rapper Yasiin Bey on the stage.

Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, was first to surprise fans during Madlibs set, taking the mike shortly after midnight and prompting fans to pull out their smartphones. Beaming as he looked over the sea of bobbing heads and camera flashes, the emcee seemed more spirited than usual.

Its a big moment for me. I hope its a big moment for you, Bey said.

Earlier this month, the emcee announced a follow-up to his lauded 1998 album Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, a collaboration between Bey and the New York hip-hop artist. This time around, however, the forthcoming Black Star release will also include Madlib. Bey told fans Thursday that he had recorded the first verse of the new album just the previous day.

Im so excited, I dont even know how to feel, Bey said.

After he spit a few stray semi-freestyled verses over Madlibs beats, the crowd erupted again when comedian Chappelle appeared. As is standard for his appearances, he quickly asked fans to put away their phones: I implore you to make a memory.

He then commented about the current state of the country, telling people to take care of each other.

Listen, Chappelle said to the cheering audience, this is the beginning of a new day. This is the kindest conspiracy. It dont matter what anybody says. All we gotta do is commit to being kind to one another.

The comedian continued to tell stories, including the time that he was in San Francisco when he found out Prince died. A huge fan of the the music icon, Chappelle recalled how Princes camp would reach out to invite him to the the Purple Ones parties, saying, When Prince called, it was like getting the call from Aquaman.

From there, at Madlibs discretion, the two traded turns at the mike, with Bey rapping here and there, and Chappelle offering advice and other musings during the more than three-hour set.

Chappelle then led the audience in a clip of Wu-Tang Clan Aint Nuthing ta F Wit and later, around 2:15 a.m., Killing Me Softly after a quick but respectable stage dive.

Chappelles three-day stint in the city  a total of six stand-up shows at the Punch Line that kicked off Tuesday, Feb. 20  was his first string of Bay Area performances since winning his first Grammy Award for best comedy album with The Age of Spin & Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Youre welcome, Bey told the crowd. When you leave here, you can tell a friend you were here. Congratulations!

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer, and Mariecar Mendoza is the arts content editor for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: apereira@sfchronicle.com, mmendoza@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alyspereira, @SFMarMendozaTALLAHASSEE, Fla.  Less than two weeks after the Florida school shooting, Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislators announced school safety and gun restriction proposals Friday that would ban the sale of firearms to anyone under 21, but they differed on whether some teachers should carry guns.

The action came as teachers returned for the first time to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School since the Valentines Day shooting that killed 17 people. The Broward County school superintendent said he is adamantly opposed to teachers having guns. But President Trump repeated in a speech to a conservative conference that he favors the idea.

Scott, a Republican widely expected to run for the Senate, outlined his plan at a Tallahassee news conference. In addition to banning firearm sales to anyone under 21, the governor called for a trained law enforcement officer for every 1,000 students at every school in Florida by the time the fall 2018 school year begins.

Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which has more than 3,000 students, had one armed resource officer, who never entered the school while a gunman was shooting people inside, officials said.

Trump questioned the inaction of the officer, telling reporters that when it came time to get in there and do something, Florida deputy Scot Peterson didnt have the courage or something happened.

That failure, plus reports of a delay in security camera footage scanned by responding police and several records about 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruzs troubled background added to what Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran called an abject breakdown at all levels.

Among other things, the governors plan would also create a violent threat restraining order that would let a court prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon when either a family member, community welfare expert or law enforcement officer files a sworn request and presents evidence to the court of a threat of violence involving firearms or other weapons.

The proposal would also strengthen gun purchase and possession restrictions for mentally ill people under the states Baker Act, which allows someone to be involuntarily hospitalized for up to 72 hours.

No one with mental issues should have access to a gun. It is common sense. It for their own best interest, much less the best interest of our communities, Scott said.

The governors plan made no mention of arming teachers on school grounds. However, proposals from legislative leaders outlined by Corcoran included one to let a teacher carry a gun in school if he or she has completed the requisite training to be a law enforcement officer.

Cruz has been jailed on 17 counts of murder and has admitted the attack, authorities have said.A San Francisco federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to enforce limits on emissions of climate-changing methane gas from wells on federal and tribal lands, saying the benefits to public health and the environment far outweigh the minimal costs to oil and gas companies of reducing pollution.

Weighed against the likely environmental injury, which cannot be undone, the financial costs of compliance are not as significant as the increased gas emissions, public health harms, and pollution, U.S. District Judge William Orrick III said in a ruling late Thursday.

He told the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to end its suspension of rules approved by President Barack Obamas administration that require oil and natural gas producers on federal lands to reduce flaring and venting that lower gas production and leak methane, a potent source of greenhouse gases. The rules took effect in January 2017, but the Trump administration ordered them suspended last month for a year while it developed its own regulations.

Those rules were announced this week. They include a repeal of the Obama regulations and an elimination of restrictions on methane emissions.

Orricks order applied only to the previous regulations and not to any new rules. So the Bureau of Land Management, after receiving public comments for the next 60 days, and responding to them, could put its plan into effect by late spring or early summer. But it would then face more lawsuits.

They are dead set on revoking obligations on oil and gas operators at any expense to the climate, to the communities or to the air, said Laura King, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center who took part in the court case. They have got to be seeing that they are on the wrong side of the law.

Orricks reasoning will apply to the next case as well, said Michael Saul, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, which also participated. Of particular importance, he said, was the judges finding of a lack of facts or figures to support the BLMs alleged concern with costs to operators.

The ruling came in suits by 17 environmental and tribal groups and by the states of California and New Mexico. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Friday that the ruling should remind President Trump and his administration that they are not above the law.

The administration was joined in the case by oil and gas industry associations and by the states of Texas and North Dakota, which supported suspension of the methane rules. None of them responded to requests for comment.

Orricks ruling was the third, by three different federal courts, to maintain the methane restrictions.

In January 2017, a federal judge in Wyoming rejected requests by industry groups and four states to block the Obama administration rules. Their lawsuit, which claims the rules invaded the authority of both the states and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is still pending.

In October, U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte of San Francisco ruled that the Trump administration had acted illegally in trying to halt enforcement of the methane rules, and had failed to consider either the environmental benefits or the potential increase in revenue by reducing waste emissions.

In announcing its subsequent plan to suspend the rules, the Bureau of Land Management said the methane restrictions unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth, and prevent job creation.

But Orrick said the bureau had presented virtually no evidence to contradict the extensive findings by Obama administration officials, who issued their rules after more than two years of study.

Orrick said the current administrations argument that the flaring restrictions would hurt small oil and gas operators, and force shutdown of some wells, was contradicted by evidence that their profit margins would be affected by less than two-tenths of 1 percent. He said the administrations forecast of financial losses to tribes and the government disregarded earlier evidence to the contrary as well as the economic benefits of less pollution.

In addition, Orrick said, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who invited public comments before suspending the flaring rules, refused to consider any comments on the merits of the rules.

It appears that BLM is simply casually ignoring all of its previous findings (under Obama) and arbitrarily changing course, Orrick said.WASHINGTON  The Justice Department informed the White House this month there were substantial issues related to Jared Kushner that still needed to be investigated and would significantly delay a recommendation on whether he should receive a permanent security clearance, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The White House was not told what the issues were involving Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser. But the notification led White House lawyers and aides to believe they were more problematic than the complexity of his finances and his initial failure to disclose contacts with foreign leaders  the reasons Kushners lawyers have said are holding up the process, the two people said.see here A digital archive of Tributes, Obituaries and Condolences for Neelabh Mishra has been compiled by National Herald

[updated on 27 February 2018]

===

Newsreport announcing the passing of Neelabh Mishra & some tributes

The Hindu

National Herald editor-in-chief Neelabh Mishra passes away

PTI

New Delhi, February 24, 2018

Senior journalist and editor-in-chief of National Herald, Neelabh Mishra, passed away on February 24 at a Chennai Hospital.

He was critically ill and with complications resulting from non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Mr. Mishra, 57, was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai earlier this month, and developed multiple organ failure before a liver transplant could be carried out.

Mr. Mishra steered the re-launch of the National Herald.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi condoled his death, describing him as one who spoke the truth to power. aAn editoras editor. A man who spoke truth to power. An institution builder. On Neelabh Mishraas tragic passing away this morning, my deepest condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and admirers,a he tweeted.

o o o

Select Tributes:

From social movement organisations

NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOPLES MOVEMENTS National Office :6/6 Jangpura B, New Delhi a 110 014 . Phone :011 2437 4535 | 9818905316 E-mail: napmindia[at]gmail.com | Web : www.napm-india.org

24th Feb, 2018

NAPM salutes the life and relentless work of Neelabh Mishra for journalistic justice and human rights

National Alliance of Peoples Movements is deeply saddened to know of the untimely demise of our dear friend, veteran journalist and human rights activist, Neelabh Mishra, today in Chennai, after a prolonged battle with liver failure. In so many ways, Neelabh reflected the true spirit of an Indian citizen who believed in, lived and breathed the constitutional values and constantly challenged, through his words, work and wisdom, the narrow confines of nationalistic, divisive and unjust politics.

As the Chief Editor of National Herald and Navjeevan and subsequently as the Editor of Outlook (Hindi) from 2005, Neelabh worked relentlessly and meticulously to bring forth numerable stories that mattered to the masses and marginalized people of the country. With over three decades of commendable work on a wide range of issues, he groomed and guided an entire generation of journalist-activists. A true feminist and partner of multiple peoples platforms, he was deeply committed to truth, fairness and secular values. A widely-read and well-informed person, with command over many languages and also an equally abiding interest in literature, culture and politics, he carried his wisdom very lightly, with immense humility and responsibility.

With the passing away of Neelabh, the world of journalism and conscientious citizenry has lost a brave, self-effacing comrade who had an unflinching faith in the values of constitutional democracy, justice and equality of all beings. In the times that we are living in, where sections of the media shrill-mouth only the interests and prejudices of corporates and fascist political forces, Neelabh stood out like a rock and never for once drifted away from the spirit of progressive politics and journalistic ethics of pro-people, secular values.

On behalf of all saathis in NAPM, we extend our most sincere condolences to human rights activist and long time co-traveller, Kavita Srivastava, who has constantly been by Neelabh in the past many months, as he fought bravely against his illness. We will sorely miss him and his brilliance, but re-commit ourselves to the values he cherished and lived, all his life. His work has been and would be a guiding spirit to a generation of young journalists and activists who we know and hope would carry and keep the torch aglow.

Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and National Alliance of Peopleas Movements (NAPM)

Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), National Campaign for Peopleas Right to Information and NAPM

Prafulla Samantara, Lok Shakti Abhiyan, and NAPM, Odisha

P. Chennaiah, Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union-APVVU and National Centre For Labour and NAPM (Andhra Pradesh)

Binayak Sen and Kavita Srivastava, Peopleas Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)

Gabriele Dietrich, Penn UrimayIyakkam, Madurai and NAPM (Tamilnadu)

Geetha Ramakrishnan, Unorganised Sector Workers Federation, NAPM, (Tamilnadu)

Sandeep Pandey, Socialist Party and NAPM, Uttar Pradesh

Sister Celia, Domestic Workers Union, and NAPM, Karnataka

Maj Gen (Retd)S.G.Vombatkere, Mysuru, NAPM, Karnataka

Arundhati Dhuru, Manesh Gupta, NAPM, Uttar Pradesh

Vilayodi Venugopal, CR Neelakandan and Prof.Kusumam NAPM, Kerala

Anand Mazgaonkar andKrishnakant, ParyavaranSuraksh Samiti, NAPM Gujarat

Ramakrishnam Raju, United Forum for RTI and NAPM (Andhra Pradesh)

Vimal Bhai, MatuJansangathan, NAPM, Uttarakhand

Dayamani Barla, Aadivasi-MoolnivasiAstivtva Raksha Samiti, NAPM Jharkhand

Dr.Sunilam and Adv. Aradhna Bhargava, KisanSangharsh Samiti, and NAPM, Madhya Pradesh

Samar Bagchi andAmitavaMitra, NAPM West Bengal

Suniti SR, SuhasKolhekar, and Prasad Bagwe, NAPM Maharashtra

Basant Kumar Hetamsaria and Ashok Verma, NAPM Jharkhand

Kailash Meena, NAPM Rajasthan

Gautam Bandopadhyay, NAPM, Chhattisgarh

Anjali Bharadwaj, National Campaign for Peopleas Right to Information and NAPM

Kaladas Dahariya, RELAA, Chhatisgarh

Meera Sanghamitra, NAPM Telangana-Andhra Pradesh

Bhupender Singh Rawat, Jan SangharshVahini, NAPM, Delhi

Faisal Khan, Khudai Khidmatgar, NAPM Haryana

J S Walia, NAPM Haryana

Lingraj Azad, Samajwadi Jan Parishad,Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, and NAPM, Odisha

Guruwant Singh, NAPM Punjab

Richa Singh, Sangatin Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, NAPM Uttar Pradesh

Arul Doss, NAPM (Tamilnadu)

Jabar Singh, NAPM, Uttarakhand

Sister Dorothy, NAPM Bihar

Kamayani Swami and Ashish Ranjan, Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, and NAPM Bihar

Mahendra Yadav, Kosi Navnirman Manch, NAPM Bihar

Bilal Khan, Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, Mumbai and NAPM

Rajendra Ravi, Nanhu Prasad, Madhuresh Kumar, Sunita Rani, Amit Kumar, Himshi Singh, Uma, NAPM, Delhi

Aaquib Zabed Mazumder, Rajesh Serupally, NAPM, Telangana a Andhra Pradesh

o o o

Select tributes by journalists, colleagues and friends

The Editor who wasnat afraid to question Samir Jain in his first job, or Narendra Modi in his last by Krishna Prasad (24 February 2018)

RIP Neelabh Mishra: We Are All In The Gutter But Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars by Seema Mustafa (24 February, 2018)

Neelabh Mishra, a man whose work spoke for him by Om Thanvi (Feb 24th 2018)

Neelabh Mishra, my mentor, my friend by Bhasha Singh (Feb 24th 2018)

Neelabh merges in sunshine, water, sand and air becoming the vast the ocean he was by Kavita Srivastava (February 26, 2018)Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist , specializing in International Relations , my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations . I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.

Education Reporter

Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Dragons will be dancing, paraders will be parading and onlookers will be enjoying a variety of events today and tomorrow in San Francisco celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The Lunar New Year started Feb. 16 and this year is the Year of the Dog. The Miss Chinatown USA Pageant was held last night and the biggest San Francisco event, the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade, is scheduled to take place Saturday.

On Lok Lifeways held a Lunar New Year celebration for seniors with traditional lion and dragon dances at the Gee Pace Center on Bush Street this morning.

The San Francisco Police Department's lion dance team performed. The team was started in 1988 as an opportunity for community relations. Heather Fong, a former San Francisco police chief, is an alumni of that dance troupe.

At noon, San Francisco Interim Mayor Mark Farrell will join city officials at the Coalition of Asian American Government Employees' Lunar New Year celebration luncheon at New Asia Restaurant on Pacific Avenue.

On Saturday, the San Francisco Symphony will hold a Lunar New Year concert at 3 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall as well as a post-concert dinner. The family event draws on ancient and contemporary Asian traditions.

The culminating event will be the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade Saturday, named one of the top ten parades in the world by the International Festivals & Events Association.

With floats, costumes, lions, firecrackers and the newly crowned Miss Chinatown USA, the parade begins at 5:15 p.m. at Second and Market Streets.BERKELEY (BCN)

A 37-year-old man who was the subject of a police warning to the community last year has been charged with two counts of misdemeanor battery for allegedly grabbing two boys, ages 12 and 14, as they walked to school last week and asking them if they had "weed."

William Turner, who's being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $5,000 bail, was charged and arraigned on Thursday and is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 26 to be assigned an attorney and possibly enter a plea.

Berkeley police Officer Kenneth Tu wrote in a probable cause statement that he learned on Feb. 13 that Turner had an arrest warrant for violating the terms of his probation for a prior offense and on Feb. 14 he saw him walk in front of and within 100 yards of two Berkeley schools, even though he had a court order mandating that he stay at least 100 years away from all playgrounds and schools in Alameda County.

Tu said that when he arrested Turner at University Avenue and Chestnut Street at about 8:40 a.m. on Feb. 14 for violating his court order and the terms of his probation the two boys told police that Turner "grabbed them and asked if they had weed while they walked to school, making them uncomfortable."

In addition to the two battery charges, Turner faces a misdemeanor charge of disobeying a court order.

Last Sept. 18, Berkeley police today issued a warning about Turner to parents so they would be vigilant when visiting parks with their children.

Turner had been arrested June 12 after he allegedly tried to feed an unknown liquid to children, including one as young one years old, at a playground in the Ohlone Greenway near McGee and Hearst avenues, according to police.

Officers placed Turner on an emergency psychiatric hold and he was later arrested on suspicion of annoying or harassing a child and possession of stolen property, police said.

He later pleaded guilty to a lesser offense and was placed on probation with a stay-away order from all parks and schools in Alameda County, but was arrested again on Sept. 1 after being spotted near Berkeley High School and Berkeley City College, police said.

Authorities issued the warning after that arrest.

272-6213

Berkeley police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Frankel (510) 981-5780FAIRFIELD (BCN)

Fairfield police today arrested a juvenile on suspicion of killing a 24-year-old man on Christmas Day last year, a police lieutenant said.

The 17-year-old male suspect from Fairfield was booked in Juvenile Hall for murder with the use of a firearm, Lt. Greg Hurlbut said.

The victim was identified as Jakkari Sampson, 24, of Fairfield.

Police responded around 1:15 p.m. on Dec. 25 to a report of a shooting at Utah Street near 2nd Street. Officers found Sampson with a gunshot wound in the 1000 block of Second Street, Hurlbut said.

Sampson died at a trauma center, Hurlbut said.

The FBI's Safe Street Task Force and a Fairfield police SWAT team served multiple search warrants today in Fairfield that led to the juvenile's arrest, Hurlbut said.

The investigation will continue this weekend and into next week, Hurlbut said.GILROY (BCN)

Gilroy police have reason to believe that an 18-year-old man who allegedly sexually assaulted three people may have assaulted additional victims, police said today.

The Gilroy Police Department first received a report of possible sexual assault involving Gianni Filice in March 2017. After further investigation, police obtained an arrest warrant.

During the process, two additional victims came forward and said that Filice had also assaulted them, according to police.

In each case, Filice allegedly established a relationship with the victim prior to the assault, police said.

Filice is currently in custody at the Santa Clara County Main Jail, where he's being without bail, according to jail records.

Gilroy police are asking that anyone who may have been assaulted by Filice report the incident by contacting them at (408) 846-0350.SONOMA (BCN)

Sonoma County officials are holding a Rebuilding Community meeting Wednesday for residents of Sonoma Valley and other unincorporated areas of the county who plan to rebuild after the October wildfires.

First District Supervisor Susan Gorin and county staff will present an overview of the rebuilding permit process and answer specific questions.

Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will update residents about the free government sponsored debris removal program. The Contractors State License Board will give advice on selecting a contractor for rebuild.

The meeting is 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Altimira Middle School, 17805 Arnold Drive in Sonoma.

The county's Resiliency Permit Center at 448 Fiscal Drive in Santa Rosa is open to expedite the permit process. The center is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays. The Center also is open Saturdays by appointment.

Call (707) 565-1788 or go online to https://rebuildprescreen.timetap.com/ to schedule and appointment.BCN40)

OAKLAND (BCN)

A one-alarm fire gutted a vacant landmark library building in East Oakland this afternoon but no one was injured, fire officials said.

Oakland Fire Department Chief of Staff Angela Pinon described the former Miller Avenue Branch Library at 1449 Miller Ave., which closed in the 1990s, as "a total loss."

However, she said firefighters believe no one was inside the two-story building when the blaze was reported at 1:49 p.m. today.

Oakland fire engineer Charleton Lightfoot said the fire was controlled by about 3 p.m. but said crews will remain at the scene throughout the night because it was a large blaze and isn't completely out.

Lightfoot said firefighters haven't yet entered the building because they're waiting for city engineers to examine its structural integrity and determine if it's same for them to go inside.

Lightfoot said the cause of the fire hasn't yet been determined because fire investigators haven't gone inside yet.

But Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo, who represents the area and was at the scene, said he was told that there was a fight between two groups at the abandoned building this morning and the group that was kicked out came back and set the building on fire.

Gallo said, "I believe it was deliberately set."

Pinon said there was a two-alarm fire at the same building last April 25 in which a firefighter suffered a broken ankle and was taken by ambulance to a hospital.

According to the website Oaklandwiki.org, the Miller Avenue Branch Library is a Spanish Colonial Revival-style building and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been named an Oakland city landmark.

The website says the library was built in 1914 but was boarded up after the city decided in the 1990s that it needed major seismic upgrades but didn't have the funds to make the upgrades.

Gallo said he had just met with Oakland Public Works Director Jason Mitchell this morning to discuss ongoing problems at the building, which he claimed prostitutes and gang members in the neighborhood have been using to turn tricks and do drugs. Gallo also said homeless people have been sleeping at the building because of the recent cold spell.

The councilman said he and other people in the neighborhood clean up the area every weekend and last weekend they saw about a dozen people at the building who were carrying guns and shooting heroin into their veins.

Gallo said Public Works officials periodically board up the building and kick people out but people keep coming back.

Although fire officials said they don't think anyone was in the building when the fire started Gallo said it wouldn't surprise him if authorities found someone dead inside the building once they go inside.

Gallo said several churches have expressed interest in renovating the building but the cost of doing so was too high because of the building's landmark status.

Gallo said if the building, which is on public land, is torn down it will be easier for a group to develop the site.

"We will get more offers because people won't have to deal with the landmark situation," Gallo said.Amazon Echo Dot

Cnet rating: 5 stars out of 5

The good: The second-gen Dot is just as smart as the first at nearly half the cost, and its better at hearing you, too. Its also the only Echo product you can connect to an existing audio setup.

The bad: Echo products still cant offer audio that syncs across multiple devices in multiple rooms.

The cost: $50

The bottom line: The new and improved Dot takes Amazons best-in-class smart home speaker and wraps it in an ultra-affordable package.

Sonos One

Cnet rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

The good: The Sonos integrates Alexa voice control, just like an Echo speaker but with better sound. It offers most of Alexas smart home controls and its far-field microphone performs similarly to an Echo. It works seamlessly as part of a Sonos multiroom system, and can pair with another One for stereo sound. Google Assistant and AirPlay 2 support will arrive this year.

The bad: The One costs twice as much as the Echo. It cannot form a stereo pair with an existing Sonos Play:1. It doesnt work how youd expect if you have an Echo within earshot. Theres no Bluetooth.

The cost: $199

The bottom line: Its the first smart speaker that actually sounds good with music  and more new features will be coming soon.

Google Home Mini

Cnet rating: 4 stars out of 5

The good: Its a stylish speaker with surprisingly strong sound. The Google Assistant is a capable Alexa competitor, especially thanks to its ability to search out detailed answers to a wide variety of questions.

The bad: There isnt much the Home Mini does that Alexa cant do, too. It also lacks a line-out jack, and requires Chromecast Audio in order to connect with an external speaker setup.

The cost: $50

The bottom line: The Mini is a no-brainer for Google Home users  but it isnt the Echo Dot-killer that Google probably needs it to be.

Apple HomePod

Cnet rating: 4 stars out of 5

The good: It has excellent bass and consistently superior sound quality across a wide variety of music genres. The speaker is easy to set up and Siri can hear you from across a room.

The bad: Youre stuck with Apple-only audio services when using voice commands and the HomePod only works on iOS. Some key features, including multiroom audio and stereo pairing, arent yet available. Siri and HomeKit lack Alexa and the Google Assistants polish and device compatibility.

The cost: $349

The bottom line: It wont slay Alexa out of the gate. But if you have an iPhone and prize sound quality above all, seriously consider this speaker.Idrissa Ouedraogo, whose simple, carefully observed movies about cultural change in Burkina Faso and elsewhere in Africa brought him international acclaim and a top award at the Cannes International Film Festival, died Feb. 18 in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where he lived. He was 64.

The countrys president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, announced the death on Twitter. No cause was given.

Ouedraogo (pronounced oh-dra-OH-go) was in his early 30s when he wrote and directed his first feature, Yam Daabo (The Choice, in the Moore language of Burkina Faso, which is in Western Africa), a 1986 release about a family disrupted by famine.

When it was shown in New York in 1988 as part of the Museum of Modern Arts New Directors/New Films festival, Caryn James, in her review in the New York Times, called it a beautifully composed, emotionally triumphant film, and said that it brings to our attention a most valuable filmmaker.

A bigger international success came in May 1990, when Ouedraogos Tilai (The Law), about the violation of familial taboos, was one of two films to receive the Gran Prix at the Cannes festival, the events second-highest honor after the Golden Palm.

Films like Tilai do more than restore ones spirit, Jay Carr wrote in reviewing it in the Boston Globe in 1991, they restore ones perspective, reminding us that theres still such a thing as a self-renewing world cinema, and Ouedraogo  not likely to be invited to a Hollywood power lunch soon  is a major figure in it.

Ouedraogo was born Jan. 21, 1954, in Banfora, Burkina Faso. His parents were farmers, and he grew up in a village outside Ouagadougou.

In primary school, he showed enough promise that, as was customary, he was sent to Ouagadougou to continue his studies. There, he made sure to reserve enough money each week to buy a ticket for a weekend show at one of the citys three outdoor cinemas, favoring karate films and Hindi musicals.

Ouedraogo continued his education at the Institut dHautes Etudes Cinematographiques in Paris. (Burkina Faso is a former French protectorate, and its official language is French.) He received a degree in film studies at the Sorbonne in 1985.

Ouedraogo made a series of short films before The Choice, and he followed that feature with Yaaba (Grandmother), which won a critics prize at Cannes in 1989.

His later films included Samba Traore (1993), about the aftermath of a botched robbery (the title is a characters name), and Kini & Adams (1997), a story about two friends in Zimbabwe. Samba Traore won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival, and Kini & Adams was shown at Cannes.

In 2002, he contributed a segment to September 11, a composite film in which 11 directors provided different perspectives from around the world on the 9/11 attacks. His was a somewhat humorous take, a story about five impoverished boys who become convinced that Osama bin Laden is in their town and hope to earn a $25 million reward by capturing him.

Ouedraogo largely used villagers and other nonprofessional actors in his films. Sometimes, to explain what he was doing, he would have to show them a movie first because they had never seen one. Scripts were often useless because his amateur actors couldnt read.

I dont teach them how to act, he said in a 1989 interview with the Times. The lines are easy and often ad libbed. I simply explain to them what emotions I want them to feel under certain situations. And they already know a very wide range of these emotions.

Throughout his career, Ouedraogo advocated for better financing for African films  he would often travel to Paris to secure backing for his  and for setting a high bar.

I want African cinema to escape from the ghetto, to get more resources, he told The Guardian in 1991, but I dont see myself as an African director. I think films should be relevant to everybody.

Ouedraogo was sometimes criticized for presenting one particular aspect of Africa  small stories of village life  and not taking on subjects like rampant political corruption. But he was unapologetic.

Some people make politics their life, he told The Guardian in 1991. I dont.

His most recent feature film, according to the Internet Movie Database, was Kato Kato in 2006. He also sometimes directed for African television and the theater and produced movies.

A list of his survivors was not immediately available, but he had a large extended family, as is evident from the credits on his movies, which are full of Ouedraogos. Although Ouedraogo once explained that the name is common in his country and that not all people with it are related, many actors and crew members were from his family, which made for an interesting scene at Cannes in 1990.

Tilai takes place in remote African villages made of mud and straw, and is played by a fine cast of barefoot actors, a number of whom are the directors relatives, critic Janet Maslin wrote in the Times. Immediately after the screening of Tilai, this same group and the director himself appeared at a black-tie festival reception in their dinner clothes and were warmly congratulated by, among others, the director of a film festival in Moscow.

Culture shock in Cannes isnt just an occupational hazard. Its a way of life.ABDULMONAM EASSA/AFP/Getty Images

BEIRUT  A new wave of air strikes and shelling on eastern suburbs of the Syrian capital of Damascus killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens Saturday, raising the death toll from a week of bombing in the area to 500.

The rising toll came as the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire across Syria without delay to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.The Trump administration is considering an offer from Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson to pay for at least part of a new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, four U.S. officials told the Associated Press.

Lawyers at the State Department are looking into the legality of accepting private donations to cover some or all of the embassy costs, the officials said. The discussions are occurring as the administration plans a ribbon-cutting for a scaled-down, temporary embassy that will open in May  more than a year ahead of schedule.

In one possible scenario, the administration would solicit contributions not only from Adelson but potentially from other donors in the evangelical Christian and American Jewish communities, too. One official said Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate and staunch Israel supporter, had offered to pay the difference between the total cost  expected to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars  and what the administration is able to raise.

Under any circumstance, letting private citizens cover the costs of an official government building would mark a significant departure from historical practice. In the Jerusalem case, it would add yet another layer of controversy to Trumps politically charged decision to move the embassy, given Adelsons long affiliation with right-wing Israeli politics.

The move of the embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed holy city cleared a final bureaucratic hurdle last week when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signed off on the security plan. In a letter sent to Congress, the State Department said the interim facilitys inauguration will coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israels independence on May 14.

Adelsons unconventional offer, made around the time Trump announced in December that the embassy would move, would address the presidents stated distaste for shelling out large sums for overseas diplomatic facilities. Although Trump has promoted the Jerusalem move as fulfilling a key campaign promise, he also was outspoken last month in blasting the $1 billion price tag for a new embassy in London.

How quickly to move the embassy has been a source of intense debate within Trumps administration, said the officials, who demanded anonymity. An Adelson spokesman didnt respond to multiple requests for comment.

Tillerson, who opposed moving the embassy in the first place, advocated a go-slow approach and said it could take years. But Ambassador David Friedman, who lobbied Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, has pushed to move it sooner.To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.

A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of ancient and brilliant quasar 3C 273, which resides in a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. Its light has taken some 2.5 billion years to reach us. Despite this great distance, it is still one of the closest quasars to our home. It was the first quasar ever to be identified, and was discovered in the early 1960s by astronomer Allan Sandage.

Shining so brightly that they eclipse the ancient galaxies that contain them, quasars are distant objects powered by black holes a billion times as massive as our sun. These powerful dynamos have fascinated astronomers since their discovery half a century ago.

In the 1930s, Karl Jansky, a physicist with Bell Telephone Laboratories, discovered that the static interference on transatlantic phone lines was coming from the Milky Way. By the 1950s, astronomers were using radio telescopes to probe the heavens, and pairing their signals with visible examinations of the heavens.

This artist's concept illustrates a quasar, or feeding black hole, similar to APM 08279+5255, where astronomers discovered huge amounts of water vapor. Gas and dust likely form a torus around the central black hole, with clouds of charged gas above and below. (Image credit: NASA/ESA )

However, some of the smaller point-source objects didn't have a match. Astronomers called them "quasi-stellar radio sources," or "quasars," because the signals came from one place, like a star. However, the name is a misnomer; according to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, only about 10 percent of quasars emit strong radio waves.

Naming them didn't help determine what these objects were. It took years of study to realize that these distant specks, which seemed to indicate stars, are created by particles accelerated at velocities approaching the speed of light.

"Quasars are among the brightest and most distant known celestial objects and are crucial to understanding the early universe," astronomer Bram Venemans of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany said in a statement.

Light-speed jets

Scientists now suspect that the tiny, point-like glimmers are actually signals from galactic nuclei outshining their host galaxies. Quasars live only in galaxies with supermassive black holes  black holes that contain billions of times the mass of the sun. Although light cannot escape from the black hole itself, some signals can break free around its edges. While some dust and gas fall into the black hole, other particles are accelerated away from it at near the speed of light. The particles stream away from the black hole in jets above and below it, transported by one of the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe.

"Quasars are thought to form in regions of the universe where the large-scale density of matter is much higher than average," astronomer Fabian Walter, of Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, said in a statement.

Most quasars have been found billions of light-years away. Because it takes light time to travel, studying objects in space functions much like a time machine; we see the object as it was when light left it, billions of years ago. Thus, the farther away scientists look, the farther back in time they can see. Most of the more than 2,000 known quasars existed in the early life of the galaxy. Galaxies like the Milky Way may once have hosted a quasar that has long been silent.

In December 2017, the most distant quasar was found sitting more than 13 billion light-years from Earth. Scientists observed the quasar, known as J1342+0928, as it appeared only 690 million years after the Big Bang. Quasars this young can reveal information about how galaxies evolved over time.

Quasars emit energies of millions, billions, or even trillions of electron volts. This energy exceeds the total of the light of all the stars within a galaxy. The brightest objects in the universe, they shine anywhere from 10 to 100,000 times brighter than the Milky Way.

"Quasars are capable of emitting hundreds or even thousands of times the entire energy output of our galaxy, making them some of the most luminous and energetic objects in the entire universe," according to NASA. For instance, if the ancient quasar 3C 273, one of the brightest objects in the sky, was located 30 light-years from Earth, it would appear as bright as the sun in the sky. (However, quasar 3C 273, the first quasar to be identified, is 2.5 billion light-years from Earth, according to NASA. It is one of the closest quasars.)

Studying quasars has long been a challenge, because of their relationship to the hard-to-measure mass of their supermassive black holes. A new method has begun to weigh the largest of black holes in bulk.

"This is a big step forward for quasar science," says Aaron Barth, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Irvine said in a statement. "They have shown for the first time that these difficult measurements can be done in mass-production mode."

Family tree

Quasars are part of a class of objects known as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Other classes include Seyfert galaxies and blazars. All three require supermassive black holesto power them.

Seyfert galaxies are the lowest energy AGN, putting out only about 100 kiloelectronvolts (KeV). Blazars, like their quasar cousins, put out significantly more energy.

Many scientists think that the three types of AGNs are the same objects, but with different perspectives. While the jets of quasars seem to stream at an angle generally in the direction of Earth, blazars may point their jets directly toward the planet. Although no jets are seen in Seyfert galaxies, scientists think this may be because we view them from the side, so all of the emission is pointed away from us and thus goes undetected.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.SpaceX has delayed the planned Feb. 25, 2018 launch of the Spanish communications satellite Hispasat 30W-6 from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Here, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launches the GovSat-1 satellite from the same launchpad on Jan. 31, 2018.

SpaceX has delayed its weekend launch of a Spanish communications satellite to allow time for extra tests on the mission's Falcon 9 rocket.

The Falcon 9 was scheduled to launch the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite Sunday (Feb. 25) at 12:35 a.m. EST (0535 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. But on Saturday, SpaceX said it needed extra time to test the rocket's payload fairing, the clamshell-like nose cone that protects satellites during flight. A new launch date has not yet been announced.

"Standing down from this weekend's launch attempt to conduct additional testing on the fairing's pressurization system," SpaceX representatives wrote on Twitter. "Once complete, pending range availability, we will confirm a new targeted launch date." [6 Surprising Facts About SpaceX]

SpaceX is not the only one hoping to launch a space mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the next week. On Thursday (March 1), NASA and the United Launch Alliance are scheduled to launch an Atlas V rocket carrying the new GOES-S weather satellite from Space Launch Complex 41 at the station.

An artist's illustration of the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite in orbit. (Image credit: Hispsat)

So, SpaceX may only have a short time to complete the Falcon 9 fairing checks before having to wait until after the GOES-S launch later next week for another opportunity.

"The launch will take place as soon as the incident is resolved and the launch window with the greatest chances of success is available," Hispasat, the satellite communications company that owns the Hispasat 30W-6 satellite, said in a statement.

Hispasat 30W-6 will provide television, broadband and other communications services to Hispasat customers across Europe, North Africa and the Americas, according to a Hispasat description. The satellite will orbit the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit in the 30-degrees west position, and serve as a replacement for the older Hispasat 30W-4 satellite. Hispasat 30W-6 is designed to last at least 15 years in orbit.

The launch of Hispasat 30W-6 will follow close after SpaceX's successfully launch of another mission for Spain. On Thursday (Feb. 22), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Paz Earth radar-imaging satellite into orbit for the Spanish company Hisdesat. Two prototype satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband internet constellation also launched on that mission.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.



Kitten was written by Gabe Rotter and was directed by Carol Banker. This is Bankers first time directing, but she worked as a script supervisor on the first run of the series and her first directing gig was! This is also Rotters first writing credit for the show, though he worked as a writers assistant on the 2001-2002 season and producer for seasons 10 and 11. The episode features a little stunt casting with Haley Joel Osment as the title character Kitten and his son Davey. This time, however, instead of seeing dead people, he sees monsters. The episode also focuses on Skinners (Mitch Pileggi) past and finally seems to land him square on Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scullys (Gillian Anderson) side.The episode begins with a very young, idealistic Skinner (Cory Rempel) in Vietnam with John Kitten James. The two have been assigned to protect a crate. Its soon clear that Kitten is a bit of a coward  until they are attacked and the crate is damaged, releasing a toxic cloud that turns Kitten into a tiger-like killing machine. Skinner only gets a small dose of the gas, but even he, briefly sees a monster.Fast forward to the present and Mulder and Scully have been called in to Deputy Director Kershs (James Pickens Jr) office. Skinner is missing, and hes been poking around things he shouldnt be  sound like anyone else we know? Mulder and Scully have no idea where Skinner is  mainly because theyve been keeping their distance because they dont really trust him right now. Scully asks if anybodys checked Skinners apartment. Kersh takes the wind out of Mulder and Scullys sails by intimating that its Skinners association with them that has stalled his career.Mulder and Scully break into Skinners apartment, which is devoid of any personal effects. Scully wonders if whatever Skinner is looking into has something to do with them or with William. Mulder quips that hes looking for cigarette butts  hes clearly more suspicious of Skinner than Scully is. Scully feels like theyre invading his privacy, but Mulder is sure Skinner will thank them if hes in trouble.They find a package addressed to Lance Corporal Walter Skinner containing a desiccated ear and a note  the monsters are here. Later, we see that Davey had started collecting the ears of the people he killed. Its never really clear who sent this package, however Davey to lure Skinner seems most likely. Scully is unable to get any information on Skinners platoon as the documents are classified above her clearance.The package leads them to Mud Lick where they are accosted by a Beggar  Trigger Davis (Patrick Keating), who eventually leads them to Kitten. At the morgue, Mulder and Scully examine a body  Banjo  with a missing ear  who is also missing teeth. Mulder determines hes been killed by punji stake  a Vietnamese booby-trap. The Sheriff (Brendan Patrick Connor) and his wife have also lost teeth  and this becomes a recurring motif for anyone who has been exposed to the gas  even, in the last scene, Skinner.The Sheriff tells Mulder and Scully that people have seen a monster in the woods  now were in X-File territory! However, when they examine the hunting camera footage  which Banjo didnt put up  Mulder immediately sees that the monster is someone in a costume. They lose the Sheriffs trust when Skinner shows up at the crime scene on the video, and they have to admit that hes their boss. Scully tells the Sheriff that Skinner has been with the FBI for 30 years and wouldnt murder someone and even if he did, he wouldnt get caught! Mulder also assures the Sheriff that Skinner isnt his man, but they fail to convince him.As usual, Scully turns to medicine for answers. She wonders if Skinner is suffering from some kind of PTSD brought on by the shock of receiving the ear in the mail. As they leave the morgue, Trigger tells them that he told the Eagle where to find Kittens kin. And of course the Eagle is bald I love the hidden humor in this show!Finally, we catch up with Skinner at Daveys trailer. He finds a dead deer hanging, waiting to be butchered and inside a picture with Kitten and a woman with her face cut out. He also finds a photo album with pictures of his platoon in Vietnam. This sparks a memory of Kitten in Vietnam with his ear necklace  and his teeth falling out. Theres a nice fake out in which it looks like Skinner is about to put Kitten down but shoots a suicide bomber who has come into their camp. Skinners reminiscence is interrupted by Kittens son  who is the spitting image of his father.Davey tells Skinner that Kitten called him the baby-killer. Davey blames Skinner for Kitten spending 38 years in the local mental hospital  Glazebrook  where Kitten and other veterans were subjected to a barrage of experiments to perfect the weaponized MK-ULTRA into MK-NAOMI which is going to be used on the general population! Skinner maintains that he tried to find and help Kitten, but he was continually shut down.Davey points out that Skinner didnt even mention that gas at Kittens Court Martial. Davey was forced to watch his father waste away  kept behind glass so that Davey couldnt even touch him. Skinner admits that he did what his superiors told him to, and hes lived with the guilt ever since. Skinner explains that Kitten had changed because of the gas and was dangerous  he thought he was doing the right thing. Skinner thinks that Kitten is doing the killing now, but when Davey takes him to his father, Kitten is hanging in a tree  and Davey makes sure that Skinner ends up skewered in a punji pit.Mulder and Scully are on the way, and Mulder is still bothered by the fact that they may be responsible for Skinners career. Scully maintains that Skinner is a man ruled by his moral compass  and its the reason she feels that they should give him the benefit of the doubt, but Mulder still doubts him.Davey covers the pit and returns to the trailer when he hears Mulder and Scully pull up. Davey tells them that hes never heard of Skinner and hasnt seen his dad in weeks. He lets them come in to ask questions and puts on loud music to drown out any screams from Skinner. Davey tells them that his dad was released a month ago when it was determined he was no longer a threat. Mulder sees the picture with the face gouged out and asks if it was Daveys mother. When he asks if he can ask how she died, Davey shuts him down with an abrupt NO.Davey tells them both that Glazebrook continued to use the gas on his father and others, and Scully remarks it sounds like a dystopian novel. Mulder looks at the photo album and suddenly breaks off the conversation. If the picture of the mother wasnt disturbing enough, hes found the evidence that Davey had to know about Skinner. He ushers Scully into the car and away. Mulder has also noticed Skinners shiny SUV  clearly not Daveys. Mulder sends Scully for the Sheriff while he goes back to try to help Skinner. He tells Scully to Do what I hope hed do for us.Mulder finds the monster costume in Daveys trailer and when the record ends, hears Skinners cries. Davey pushes Mulder into the pit  and Skinner  who has somehow unskewered himself!  manages to make sure Mulder misses the spikes. Davey douses them with gas and is about to light them up, when Scully arrives in the nick of time and shoots him. By the time they get Mulder out, Davey is gone.We get some classic flashlights in the woods as Mulder and Scully give chase. Davey has another booby-trap waiting for them. This time Skinner saves them, and Davey ends up staked out.Scully patches Skinner up, and Mulder tells him to call Kersh. Skinner finally asks Mulder whats bothering him. Scully tells Skinner that Kersh told them that they ruined his career. Skinner sets them straight  and this was a very satisfying moment for me. Skinner tells them that he would be there without them. When Skinner enlisted he was patriotic, idealistic and naive, but John was drafted and afraid. Skinner had wanted to protect him, and when it all went south, he lost faith in the government. Then they came along and showed him that he didnt have to be blindly loyal, but he could shine a light into the darkness  a BLUE flashlight no doubt! He tells Mulder that he may kiss the ring but hes also going to find the truth to honor John. Mulder and Scully tell him that they are with him.The final scene is of a crop duster, spreading what appears to be the gas  now weaponized for the general population. Another conspiracy  or part of the same one, more likely.This was a really solid episode. I feel a little better about trusting Skinner now, and Osment was a great guest star, doing double duty as John and his son Davey. Ive always thought of Skinner as part of the team and if this really is the end, I want that. I love how much of the original gang is writing and directing as it really helps deliver an episode that feels like and the Mulder and Scully  that we  or at least I  fell in love with. What did you think of the episode? Do you trust Skinner? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!London, Feb 23, 2018 (SPS) - The Moroccan authorities used, in 2017, unnecessary and excessive force against the population of Western Sahara who claimed their right to self-determination and justice, affirmed the latest annual report of Amnesty International (AI) on the situation of human rights in the world, published on Thursday.

The authorities routinely used excessive and unnecessary force to disperse peaceful protests in Western Saharan cities, including Laayoune, Smara, Boujdour and Dakhla,  said teh report.

The document underlined that those demanding Sahrawi self-determination and calling for the release of Sahrawi prisoners were all targeted by this practice.

Pointing out that in April, UN Security Council extended the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another year without human rights monitoring.

The report cites the example of Sahrawi blogger Walid El Batal who served a 10-month sentence and received a fine on trumped-up charges and that of Sahrawi activist Hamza El Ansari found guilty and sentenced to one year of prison on the basis of false accusations. (SPS)

062/SPS/APS



Bir Lehlu, February 23, 2018 (SPS) - The government of the Saharawi Republic (the SADR) notes the successful conclusion of civil litigation proceedings in the High Court of South Africa to recover ownership of a cargo of phosphate rock illegally exported from the occupied area of Western Sahara.

On May 1, 2017, the 55,000 tonne cargo was detained aboard the Marshall Islands registered bulk carrier NM Cherry Blossom when the ship entered South Africas Port Elizabeth. On June 15, the High Court concluded that the SADR had a prima facie claim to ownership of the cargo and directed that the claim could proceed to a trial on the merits. In July, the two companies which had mined and purported to own the cargo during its shipment to a would-be purchaser in New Zealand, Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd., withdrew from defending the case. A lengthy period of how the vessel charterer would recover its losses for the detention of the cargo  and therefore the NM Cherry Blossom as its carrying ship  then followed.

In an order issued on February 23, the High Court concluded that: (1) The SADR is the owner of the whole of the cargo of phosphate presently laden on the motor vessel NM Cherry Blossom and (2) ownership in the phosphate has never lawfully vested in the Moroccan state owned companies OCP SA and Phosphates de Boucraa SA and they were, and are, not entitled to sell the phosphate to Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd.

While it remains the policy position of the SADR government to insist upon and endeavour to have returned natural resources plundered from Western Sahara to that territory pending the completion of the Saharawi peoples right to exercise self-determination, the fact of Western Sahara being under armed occupation makes such a result impractical. With clear, and uninterrupted title to the commodity aboard the NM Cherry Blossom now assured, it is anticipated a sale of it will now take place.

Emhamed Khadad, member of the leadership of Polisario stated that, The South Africa case is a part of the Saharawi peoples efforts to use international law to arrive at a just end to a vicious, illegal occupation and safeguard the right of our people to the most fundamental of human rights, self-determination. We will continue to pursue those people and corporate interests who directly plunder Western Saharas resources, and who are the knowing recipients of pillaged commodities. The Saharawi Republic is committed to the rule of law, and to successful trading relationships involving the resources of Western Sahara, both now and in the future.

The result in South Africa is the part culmination of dual civil legal proceedings undertaken in May 2017. A parallel case in Panama resulted in a court-ordered detention of the Panamanian flag Ultra Innovation with a cargo of phosphate rock for Agrium Inc. in Vancouver. (In early 2018, that Canadian company merged with Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Ltd. to create a new publicly-traded entity, Nutrien Ltd.)

On 25 January 2018, Chuck Magro, Nutrien's President and CEO, affirmed that the company has an intention to end its trade in phosphate rock from Western Sahara. Nutrien is a newly formed Canadian company following the merger in January this year between PotashCorp and Agrium. Mr. Magro confirmed that notice has been given to end imports to Canada, by a stopping of the contract previously in place with Agrium, at the end of this year.

The Saharawi government notes the abundant legal and reputational risks for those few purchasers of phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara, namely the New Zealand companies Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd. and Ravensdown Fertiliser Co-operative Ltd., and Indias Paradeep Phosphates Ltd., the latter company in a joint venture with OCP SA.

The Saharawi government further observes the operational and legal risks for vessel interests  ship owners, charterers and managers  in trading in and carrying natural resources from occupied Western Sahara. The complexities, cost and loss of trading opportunity resulting in the NM Cherry Blossom case, after 299 days of its cargo being under detention, are instructive in this regard.

Once again, the SADR government cautions shipping interests, including time charterers, to insulate themselves and their ships from such prospective liability and compensation-attachment proceedings. It is understood that voyage charterers and managing enterprises will not always disclose such risks. Therefore, the SADR government suggests contracts between Ship Interests prohibit the carriage of resources (or any commodity) from Western Sahara. An indicated charterparty term could something like the following:

Charterers are not permitted to trade this vessel to El Aauin (also known as Laayoune) and Dakhla in Western Sahara.

For more than four decades, the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara has been partly occupied under armed force with its original inhabitants, the Saharawi people, denied the opportunity to exercise their right of self-determination. This period has seen the continuing large-scale plunder of natural resources including phosphate mineral rock, the fishery of the Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem, and sand aggregates. The illegal sale and export of such resources, confirmed as such most recently by the High Court of South Africa, is contrary to the fundamental principle of international law which assures the Saharawi people permanent sovereignty to their natural resources, and is a violation of international humanitarian law defined in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The would-be purchase of such resources has no certainty of right or enforceable title to them.

# # #

For additional information and media contact:

Mr. Kamal Fadel



Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic representative for Australia and New Zealand



Senior Executive, SADR Petroleum and Mining Authority



T: + 61 416335197



E: kfadel@sadroilandgas.com (SPS)

062/SPSBrussels, Feb 24, 2018 (SPS) - The Saharawi Minister for Europe, Mr. Mohamed Sidati and POLISARIO Representative to Belgium, Mr. Abba Malainin met Thursday with Southern African Development Community (SADC) group of Ambassadors based in Brussels at the Embassy of South Africa.

The Saharawi delegation briefed the SADC Ambassadors about the latest developments related to the U.N. peace process in Western Sahara and the illegal EU-Morocco trade agreements that do not exclude Western Sahara, the last Colony in Africa in crystal clear contradiction with the European Court of a Justice ruling (ECJ) 2016, which said that Western Sahara is separate and distinct to Morocco and that EU-Morocco trade agreements cannot be applicable in Western Sahara.

The EU-Morocco trade agreements prolong the illegal occupation, reinforce Moroccos intransigence, and obstruct the U.N. peaceful efforts in Western Sahara to achieve fair and lasting solution respecting the right to self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

SADC group has unequivocal stand with regard to the decolonisation process in Western Sahara.

The Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have adopted at the close of their 37th summit a recommendation to hold a Conference of solidarity with the Saharawi people.

In their final communique released following the summit held on 19 and 20 August, 2017 SADC Heads of State and Government expressed deep concern over the standstill in the process of decolonization in the African continent and Western Sahara.

In solidarity with the Saharawi cause, the SADC Heads of State and Government adopted a recommendation to hold a Conference of solidarity with the Saharawi people and the SADR, whose results will be submitted to the African Union Commission, said the same source.

For us, the Member States of SADC, the struggle for the people of Western Sahara is a struggle for self-determination and is based on the principles of decolonisation, promotion of human rights, international legality and the stability and security of the African continent. It is a struggle that we are familiar with in our sub-region. said in earlier discussions the Former Ambassador H.E Mr. Dumisani S. Kumalo, Former Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the U.N. on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples at the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (Fourth Committee). (SPS)

062/SPSCanada may be just six months away from creating a nationwide, legal marijuana industry.

The last hurdle is in the Canadian Senate, where a bill has been introduced to finalize creation of a regulated medical and recreational marijuana industry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supports the measure and made legalizing marijuana a part of his campaign for office in 2015.

Sen. Tony Dean, who sponsored the bill, told CNN Money "I think it's broadly recognized that criminalizing cannabis has been a failure." If this last legislative hurdle is cleared as expected, legal marijuana sales could begin in July 2018.

Backing of the marijuana legalization by Trudeau and top Canadian officials stands in contrast to the anti-marijuana stance taken by some in the Trump Administration in the United States. And Canada is about to reap the benefits.

Related: 9 Business Ideas for People Looking to Cash in on the Marijuana Boom

A $5 Billion Industry?

Estimates vary on how big the legal marijuana industry could grow in Canada.

A Deloitte study famously predicted a more than $22 billion a year industry. On a more conservative note, Marijuana Business Daily, an industry publication, projected between $2.3 billion to $4.5 billion by 2021.

Related: Will New York or Illinois be Next to Legalize Recreational Marijuana?

A 2016 report from the Canadian Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated a $5.5 billion to $5.8 billion annual retail market in Canada.

While Trudeau has framed the legalization issue around health and safety rather than finances, the country stands to take in hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana tax and fee revenue.

Private businesses also are seizing on the potential of this new market, including hotels in one Canadian province.

Related: How Will Businesses Handle Legalized Marijuana in the Workplace?

Alberta Hotels

The Canadian province of Alberta is taking steps to lead the pack on allowing cannabis consumption in hotels.

That's an issue not only in Canada but across the United States. People can travel to Colorado and Washington -- and soon California and Massachusetts -- and legally buy recreational marijuana. However, they can't use it outside of a private home.

Related: The Cannabis Industry Has Had Explosive Growth in Business Expos and It Isn't Slowing Down

That's led to local residents renting out "cannabis friendly" places to stay through sites such as Airbnb, but it still presents a big issue, especially for tourists. Denver is putting a pilot project in place to allow marijuana use in licensed cannabis establishments. But, Alberta is taking it a step further.

Officials in the province are considering a law allowing marijuana consumption in hotel rooms where tobacco use already is permitted. Hotels would have the right to not allow cannabis use. But, some already see a huge opportunity.

Passing such a law would give hotels in Alberta a competitive edge over the rest of the country, David Kaiser, president and CEO of the Alberta Hotel &; Lodging Association, told Marijuana Business Daily. "A lot of hotels might be interested," he said. "If there's a potential market there that we could provide, it could be important for tourism and we would be interested in those opportunities."

Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said it's not such a bad idea for native Albertans, either. She said province officials recognize not all province residents would necessarily have a private home where they could legally consume cannabis. Renters, for example, could face prohibition against marijuana use from landlords. In those cases, a cannabis-friendly hotel could come in handy.

Alberta is home to the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, as well as Banff National Park, a major tourist destination.

Related: Some Universities Offer Classes On Marijuana. LSU Plans to Grow It.

Related: What Is Schedule I and Why Is Marijuana on the List, Anyway?

To stay up to date on the latest marijuana related news make sure to like dispensaries.com on Facebook

Related:

Canada Is Creating a Multi-Billion Dollar Legal Marijuana Industry

Will New York or Illinois be Next to Legalize Recreational Marijuana?

Cannabis Advocates Want 'Unjust' Federal Tax Code Changed



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Hes in the tuxedo he wore at his wedding; shes in a pink dress, ribbon in her hair. They are holding hands, smiling, swinging carefree.

Its a photo a friend recently posted on social media of himself and his only child, sharing a small slice of gymnasium floor together and a special bond, at a father-daughter dance.

Little did they know ... they are ruining modern society. Shaming the fatherless! Excluding the gender fluid! Maybe even mortifying the creators of The Electric Slide!

Not really. Its as wholesome and innocent as it seems. But some are trying to distract from the larger debate about inclusivity and traditional division of the genders through such proclamations.

It started, as many things do, in New York City. Earlier this month a handful of father-daughter dances were canceled, postponed or reconfigured in the wake of someone finally reading a year-old school rulebook. In wake of national fight over which bathroom transgender people should use in public places in March 2017, the citys Department of Education updated guidelines to eliminate any gender-based policies, rules, and practices without a clear educational purpose. While the dances arent among the cited examples, it does mention graduation gowns (Im guessing no blue for boys and pink for girls), classroom lines and dress requirements for yearbook pictures as possible relics of history.

Sounds reasonable in todays climate. Except given the background behind these changes and their placement in the Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Student Guidelines rather than a section on general equality and non-discrimination in school, it stirred the pot rather than turn down the heat.

Father-daughter dances inherently leave people out. Not just because of transgender status, just life in general, Jared Fox, the LGBT community liaison for the city education department, told the New York Post in February during the height of the dance debate. These can be really uncomfortable and triggering events.

Hysteria, naturally, followed. Political correct culture run amok, screamed headlines. Adults who should know better virtually claimed that the loss of a dance would create a generation of pregnant crack whores. And, heavens, what will become of the upcoming mother-son bowling night? To quote a Fox News opinion piece written by the head of the conservative Christian nonprofit womens activist group, Concerned Women for America, Our children are paying the price.

Our children do pay the price when we blindly accept anachronistic tradition as the only way. Fathers have opportunities every day to set an example for their daughters of what a good man is that dont involve a DJ and disco ball. Yes, a father-daughter dance can be a special moment in a girls development but it should not, and cannot, be the only moment if you are serious about raising strong daughters who become strong women.

Our children do pay the price when they are excluded because they do not have a father, or even a father figure, in their life who set that example regularly, let alone take them to a dance or to a ballgame or just down to the library to find a book to read together at bedtime.

Our children do pay the price when they cannot freely express who they feel they are because the close-minded point fingers, mock and harass them because they do not conform to what they have been told they must adhere to because, well, its tradition.

Some schools and parents recognized this easily. They changed their dances to more general family events to include all students and the parent/parent-figure of their choosing to get in on this one-time moment of fun and bonding. Others just scrapped the events completely. But a few took their chances and carried on with their old ways, claiming no harm or exclusion meant even though those things are so much easier to see today in a far more open, expressive society.NEW CANAAN  When Madison Mulhern was looking for teaching jobs prior to graduating from Pennsylvania State University, she set her sights on returning to her hometown of New Canaan.

It was always my dream to come back to New Canaan and teach, said Mulhern, now a third-grade teacher at her alma mater, South School. I didnt think it could happen right away, but it did.

Mulhern now lives at home in New Canaan with her parents, with whom she says shes very close. But the 22-year-old is a bit of an anomaly in New Canaan. Despite the U.S. Census Bureau estimating in 2016 that millennials are the largest living generation in the country, estimates from the bureau also show millennials only make up about 6.3 percent of New Canaans population.

Pew Research Center defines a millennial as anyone between the age of 18 and 34 in 2015. According to the most recent census data in New Canaan from 2010, about 1,210 millennials were living in New Canaan out of about 19,000 residents. According to five-year Census estimates, the average age in town is 43.1.

New Canaan is often called the next station to heaven, so why isnt it more attractive to the countrys largest population?

I dont think a lot of people in their twenties move to town in general, said First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. Millennials are waiting until theyre older to have children.

In August of 2017, the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce, town officials and members of the New Canaan Board of Realtors joined forces to produce a series of videos aimed in part at attracting a younger generation to town. The videos were meant to emphasize the towns diversity, cultural and culinary offerings, proximity to New York, safety, good school systems and its vibrant, multigenerational downtown.

Its a result of certain trends that weve seen a younger group bypassing this town, said William Larkin, of William Pitt Sothebys when the videos were released. Were trying to dispel these myths about what these towns are about and attract a much broader audience.

The Center for Disease Control reported in 2015 birth rates were rising for women aged 30 to 44, with the largest increase being in mothers aged 40 to 44. Moynihan, who moved to New Canaan with young children when he was 32, said hes now seeing many of his childrens friends in their late 30s looking to move out of the city and to the suburbs...but not necessarily to New Canaan.

I know from seeing a lot of my sons and daughters friends in the 35 to 40 range, thats when theyre looking to leave Manhattan, Moynihan said. They actually gravitate more to Greenwich...People follow each other and Greenwich has a lot to offer.

Moynihans own children, aged 38 and 40, live in Greenwich, which he said they were attracted to because of the better commute time to the city from there and more choices in starter homes. With an average median household income of $176,601 according to the Census Bureau, and a median home price of $1,586,500 according to the real estate website Zillow, New Canaan isnt the most affordable option for millennials.

Both of these things, Moynihan said, cannot be changed about New Canaan.

I dont think theres many people who want to move back to New Canaan, Moynihan said. For my own kids, the desirability of Greenwich and the easier commute all outweigh the benefits of growing up here... it all depends on lifestyle preferences. I dont believe theres any solution I could offer them. Its simply economics.

Holly Donaldson Casella said her husband initially wanted to move to Greenwich for the shorter commute time. But the couple ended up in New Canaan after Casella, a New Canaan native, convinced her husband the benefits of the town outweighed the extra 20 minutes he tacked on to his commute to New York City.

More Information Millennials in New Canaan, per the last U.S. Census 18-year-olds - 243 19-year-olds - 84 20 -year-olds - 83 21-year-olds - 68 22-year-olds - 116 23-year-olds - 119 24-year-olds - 76 25-year-olds - 85 26-year-olds - 85 27-year-olds - 64 28-year-olds - 77 29-year-olds - 83 30-year-olds - 84 31-year-olds - 95 32-year-olds - 86 33-year-olds - 102 34-year-olds - 126 See More Collapse

If (people) grew up here, they know how special it is, she said. For a lot of my friends who are deciding to move out of the city and looking for that next step, Darien is really attractive to the untrained eye because of the quicker commute...parking for commuting and better cell service. But I think what makes New Canaan so special is our town center. Other towns really dont have that and I think theres much more community here. A lot of people who grow up here come back here so theres a lot of continuity.

Casella, 29, lived in New York City for six years after graduating Hamilton College. Despite the fact she was previously working for Americares in Stamford, Casella said she did a reverse commute so she could live near her friends in the city. But once she was ready to buy a home, she knew she didnt want to stay in New York.

I always didnt really like the city, she said. I like green space. I like to drive my car places. It was really fun to live in the city, but at one point, I was over it.

Casella moved to New Canaan with her husband in the summer of 2017. Casella grew up in New Canaan, but didnt necessarily think she would return to town. But after looking at nearby Darien and Bedford, N.Y., Casella and her husband, 30, were drawn to New Canaan for its town center.

Casella works in town as the director of alumni affairs at her alma mater, New Canaan Country School. But her husband works in New York City. While his office being located in Grand Central Station helps cut back on commute time, she admits the commute time can be a struggle, as is commuter parking.

Casella said her husband drives to the Noroton Heights train station in Darien or she will often drop him off at the station. Occasionally, hell park at her fathers law office in downtown New Canaan and walk to the station. But if he cant catch a direct train, the transfer tacks on time to his commute.

Its a bummer when he gets out later and has to change in Stamford to get back to New Canaan, Casella said. Sometimes hell drive to Noroton and park there if he knows he has to do that.

Still, Casella maintains the charm of New Canaan outweighs some of its commuter issues. She and her husband enjoy New Canaans green space and downtown, especially the restaurants some of which she says compare to those in New York City. The two also joined New Canaan Country Club to meet other young couples, though Casella said she already has a strong network of people in town she knows from growing up there.

Its a testament to New Canaan, she said. People come here because they want to live here.

Casella said most of her friends in town are married, some with children, while most of her friends who are still single are living in Stamford or New York City for the social scene.

Janis Hennessy, president of the New Canaan Board of Realtors, said shes seen a similar trend. While it appears many young people are drawn to cities for their bustling nightlife, many young couples are drawn into New Canaan once theyre ready to have children. These couples are often with New Canaan/Fairfield County natives or know someone from the area.

Once a young couple comes for the first time and you give them a tour of the town, I think theyre sold before theyve even gone into a house, said Hennessy who moved to town in 1991 and has been selling homes since 1995. When they see the downtown and they see one of the many parks we have, they see themselves there. They want their family to be part of that. Then you talk about schools. Theyre nationally ranked.

Schools may not be a priority for younger millennials living in town, but for those working in the area or living at home, New Canaan still has a lot of appeal.

I love New Canaan, Mulhern said. Its a community feel when you walk through town. Its always felt like home to me.

Mulhern said a handful of her friends have returned to town to live at home, while some have moved to Boston or other big cities. On the weekends, she says she and her friends will go to Stamford, South Norwalk or even New York City if they want to go out, depending on what shes up for that day. Mostly, Mulhern said she spends her free time lesson planning or spending time with family and friends and going out to eat in town. She also said she enjoys going to Grace Farms to catch up on work.

Mulhern said she hasnt thought seriously about moving out of her parents home yet, but she is content to stay in New Canaan for the time being. While many post-grads feel the pull of living in cities, Mulhern said with the top ranking of New Canaan schools, along with the appeal of the area make her content to stay.In Wakanda, the homeland of Marvel superhero Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan's character is known as Erik Killmonger, sworn foe of King T'Challa.

But at home in Sherman Oaks, CA, the muscle-bound movie star lives with his folks, Donna and Michael A. Jordan, in a mansion he purchased in 2015 for $1.7 million. It turns out the big-screen villain is a pussycat in real life who spends plenty of time at home with Mom and Dad when he's not acting or honing those perfectly cut abs.

ALSO READ: $303K is the annual income now needed to buy a median priced home in San Francisco

During a recent interview on "The Ellen Show" to promote "Black Panther," Jordan offered a peek of his domestic side, talking about his love of ironing and thanking Ellen DeGeneres for sending him and his parents a housewarming gift of cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner. The talk-show host teased the hunky star for living with his parents and grilled him on his plans to get a place of his own.

"As soon as I can," Jordan answered with a laugh. "I love my parents, but we have a roommate relationship right now, which is interesting. You know, you get home-cooked meals but then you also have random trips to the kitchen in the middle of the night and just the random run-ins that might be uncomfortable from time to time."

"Naked?" DeGeneres asked.

"Sometimes shirtless, maybe a little naked," Jordan respondedthen clarified that he was the one who might be missing an article of clothing, not his mom or dad.

ALSO READ: Movie about San Jose's famous landmark distances itself from city

As for the home he shares with his folks, it started out as a modest tear-down on a large corner lot. A developer purchased it for $710,000 in June 2013 and then replaced it with a Spanish-style contemporary with four bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. The new house, which Jordan wound up purchasing, measures 4,672 square feet and comes with a pool and spa.

We have pictures of the original home that was razed. It was cozy yet charming, and had a garage that had been converted into a two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage.

It's a big improvement, right?

Despite the occasional awkwardness between him and his parents, Jordan says he was thrilled to be able to buy the home for them.

"It's every kid's dream, to buy their mom and dad a house," said Jordan, who shot to fame in HBO's "The Wire" and then "Creed." "It was a bucket list thing for me."

But things haven't been perfect at the Jordan family home. In May, it was one of several celebrity residences to be burglarized, according to TMZ. The homes of Scott Disick, Nicki Minaj, and Jaime Pressly were also targeted. The burglars, who smashed a window to get inside, took jewelry and an undisclosed amount of cash from Jordan's home.

Fans also got a peek inside the San Fernando Valley home in a recent video Jordan did for Vogue. Jordan can be seen lifting weights in the garage and cooking with his parents in the kitchen.

VIDEO: 'Black Panther' cast is well-received on special Asia trip

Jordan might joke about his parents cramping his bachelor style, but he's clearly loving it.

The actor likely won't have much time to look for a place of his own anytime soon. Jordan told DeGeneres that he's already hitting the gym in preparation to start filming "Creed II" in April.

With "Black Panther" set to smash box-office records as well as making history as a black superhero movie, Jordan's career prospects look bright. He may be starring as a supervillain, but it's nice to know that at the end of the day, he goes home to Mom and Dad and lets his sweet side shine.

The post In Real Life, 'Black Panther' Villain Michael B. Jordan Is a Pussycatand Lives With His Parents appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.R aging fires, sieges and Brexit  it's safe to say our dear Palace of Westminster has been through a lot over the years.

Royal palace and home of the government, the beauteous thing you see before you now was designed and built collaboratively by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin. Famous the world over, the building hardly needs any introduction at all. A symbol of politics and royal history, it's the finest example of the Gothic Revival-style in the world.

Covering an astonishing eight acres,1,100 rooms organised symmetrically over two courtyards spreading over 1,210,680 sq ft make up the entirety of the Parliamentary estate. Inside and out, the place boasts some incredible feats: 4,000 stained glass windows, hundreds of sculptures, thousands of heraldic shields, millions of tiles, and countless gothic chandeliers make up the entire mediaeval/Victorian fortress. It's even got its own post office, hair salon, rooftop, gym and pub, too.

We paid a visit and asked the fine people who work there to take us round and tell us 11 supremely interesting facts about the place. From a secret bathroom to illegal deaths, here's what you need to know.

BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

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It's much older than you think...

Most of the great big thing you now see straddling the Thames is Victorian, but Westminster Hall, which stands in the centre of the estate dates back hundreds of years. The original Palace of Westminster was commissioned by Edward the Confessor in 1045 to be the royal residence of the ruling monarch of England. Rebellions, plots and a few fires later, Westminster Hall still miraculously stands and claims the largest mediaeval roof in Europe.

The building has a very weird law...

It's actually illegal to die inside the Palace of Westminster. We're not too sure what the punishment is if you do actually die within its walls, but according to Parliamentary insiders, the law is in place for a very good reason. Anyone who does happen to kick it in the building, would be entitled to a State Funeral, so it survives to ensure the tax payer does not have to fork out for the local butchers regal wake.

Green has been a custom in the House of Commons for over 300 years...

It's not just in the Palace of Westminster, though. Everyone who has walked across Westminster Bridge (the crossing which leads to the Palace) will know that the iconic thing is laced in a shade of a light green. There's a reason for this - it's to mimic the colour of the benches in the House of Commons. Who knew?!

You can demand to enter the building whenever you like (sort, of)...

Us members of the public never need an appointment to lobby an MP. If Parliament is in session, simply go up to the gate, say you wish to meet or make an appointment to see your MP, pass through security, walk through Westminster and St Stephens Hall, and totter on to the desk and inform the receptionist of your request. Every member of both houses are obliged to contact you, for any query, no matter how big or small.

What many people don't know is that it's actually your constitutional right to enter the building whenever you like. Monday to Thursday, all visitors can just swan in and watch a debate in the public galleries of both the Lords and The Commons. Best time to go? Wednesdays for Prime Minster's Questions. You're basically guaranteed to see a good cat fight between May and Corbyn.

UK residents and overseas visitors can also go in and watch committees from both the Commons and the Lords whenever they are in session. Watch everything from government departments being scrutinised .to Lords select committees chatting on all things Europe, science and technology, economics, communications, international relations, and the UK constitution. It sounds boring, but when you're in there, quite a sexy thing to behold.

Superstition is writhe...

Every State Opening of Parliament, Yeomen of the Guards (The Queen's Bodyguard) still check underneath the House of Lords chamber just in case anyone decides to reenact the Gunpowder Plot. Once the coast is clear, they reward themselves with a drop of whisky. It's mostly ceremonial, but you can't be too careful, right?

UK Parliament/Catherine Bebbington

The Lobby Grilles are cooler than you think...

In the windows surrounding the central lobby of the palace (the big room you see on the telly) you'll notice some very large metal grilles. They were originally built to cover the windows in the Ladies' Gallery in the House of Commons so that MPs were not distracted by the sight of their female counterparts as they worked. As you can imagine, the suffragettes were not at all happy about this, and specifically targeted the Ladies' Gallery throughout the early part of the 20th century.

In 1908, two suffragettes chained themselves to one of the grilles in protest screaming 'we have listened behind this insulting grille too long!'. After hours of campaigning, the grille was eventually removed so that the women could be cut free in the committee room. The grilles were permanently removed from the gallery and placed in the central lobby following a vote in the House of Commons in August 1917.

Since then, they have become a very powerful symbol of the exclusion of women from Parliament.

The word lobby comes from Parliament...

This one's for all you geeky linguists out there. The word lobby dates all the way back to the 16th century meaning covered walk, as in traversing a monastic cloister. It's verb use, however, is far more fascinating. In the UK, 'lobby' refers to each of the corridors in the Houses of Parliament to which MPs retire to vote, as well as to the several large halls in which members of both houses meet members of the public. It's third use, also refers to lobby correspondents - i.e those journalists you see lobbying politicians to get their scoop. It's all a tad confusing, but in a nutshell, a word wrapped up into the workings of the UK constitution is pretty cool.

It's on an island...

Like it's UNESCO-neighbour Westminster Abbey, the entire Parliamentary estate is built on an island. For those who walk through and visit, it's strange to think that Parliament and the surrounding area used to be separated from the rest of the capital. 1,000 years ago, the area used to go by the name of Thorney Island. Unbeknown to many, Westminster (where the Palace sits) actually gets its name from the Abbey, which originally used to be called West Minster. Today, Parliament still fully occupies the island's plateau. Mind blown.

Protesters will march on Downing Street as the Queen delivers her speech / PA

The Queen has a super secret toilet...

If you ever go on a tour, chances are (unless it's in use) you'll have a glimpse of the Robing Room. It's in here where The Queen pops on her crown and her robes of State before she officially opens Parliament (AKA the State Opening). As you go into the room, concentrate on the wooded panelling to the right and you'll see a little door knob. That's her bathroom. Only she and special staff are permitted to enter. We asked to go in, but sadly, our guides said nope.

Speaking of the Queen, she actually owns it...

The palace is owned by all reigning monarchs in right of the crown and for all ceremonial purposes. It's because of this, that the entire building retains its status as an official royal residence  hence the name, the Palace of Westminster.

There's a flat inside..Eggbreak

How do you like your eggs in the morning? At Notting Hills Eggbreak, you can get them in pretty much any way imaginable. Keep it traditional with an eggs Benedict topped with brown butter hollandaise and hardwood smoked bacon, get a little fancy with burrata and truffle scrambled eggs on top of challah bread with chives, or get a little filthy with the Spicy piggy Bun, which features a Gochujang-spiced pork patty, homemade chilli jam, a fried egg and American cheese, all squished into a potato brioche bun. Even better? The restaurant serves its egg-centric menu up until 3pm every day that they're open  in the evenings, the Notting Hill dining room transforms into a the new location for Indian restaurant Tandoor Chop House.J etting off to some far flung destination used to be considered the ultimate in luxury but now trains are giving planes a run for their money.

Over the last few years, luxury rail travel has become commonplace as new trains have been built and old ones restored to their former glory. New routes have been launched and honeymooners have been catching on.

Today, you can sleep in a double bed, dine on five star menus in five star settings and experience countries such as Japan and South Africa while doing so.

Below are some of the world's most luxurious rail journeys. Start saving now...

The Blue Train: Pretoria to Cape Town (and vice versa)

(The Blue Train ) / The Blue Train

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First introduced in 1939, The Blue Train is an icon of South African travel. Running from the city of Pretoria right down to Cape Town, the journey takes 31 hours.

Five star, the train has luxury ensuites and offers incredible views of largely unexplored countryside as it carves down the country. The train itself is clad in South African wood and the decor speaks of bygone eras with plush velvet furnishings and '40s frills.

Sip the fine South African wine, dine on a three course dinner and then retire to your cabin. When you wake up, youll have arrived in Cape Town.

From approximately 1000 per person. bluetrain.co.za

Belmond: Venice to London (or vice versa)

Belmond

Imagine a perfect Art Deco train and youll probably imagine something that resembles the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Each carriage of the train dates from between 1926 and 1929 and each has been restored to its former glory.

Glamorous, elegant and utterly beautiful, rooms are decorated in extravagant fabrics, 1920s lampshades are fringed, a piano sits in the bar, glossy wood panels line the corridors and guests dine on feasts of steak and lobster.

The route takes you from London, through the mountains of Switzerland, through Verona and all the way to Venice in one night.

The perfect mini-moon? Absolutely.

Golden Eagle: Persian Odyssey

Golden Eagle

An incredible to way to travel over boarders, the Persian Odyssey rail route goes from Moscow, via the Silk Road, to Irans capital, Tehran and passes through Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan en route to Persia.

An 18-day tour, no luxury is spared. A sort of hotel-on-wheels, concierge will assist you 24 hours a day, fine dining menus reign for each meal and theres a bar club on-board where excellent cocktails will be shaken and stirred for you nightly.

When you do tear yourself away from your cabin, youll explore each country through an incredible range of excursions.

Passing through Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan en route to Iran, youll visit sites from both the ancient and modern world including the space station at Baikonur, famous for launching the first human into space in 1961. On the Silk Road, youll view the worlds oldest Koran at Tashkent; tour Samarkand, once one of the most important cities in Asia, and the ancient cities of Bukhara and Khiva, both UNESCO sites.

The second leg of the journey traces the legacies of the Persian Empires. Youll visit the sacred city of Mashhad, home to the largest mosque in the world, before viewing the well-preserved mud brick citadel at Rayen, considered one of the most interesting sites in Iran.

When you alight in Yazd, one of the oldest cities in the world, youll tour the city of Isfahan, once Persias capital. The final stops ahead of Tehran are Persias cultural capital, Shiraz, and the nearby ruins of Persepolis, perhaps Irans most important archaeological site dating back to the 6th century B.C.

This journey is made for history lovers.

From 16,995, including 14 nights on board the Golden Eagle in an en-suite cabin in Silver Class, 3 nights 5-star hotel accommodation (1 in Moscow, 2 in Tehran), and all meals and drinks. Prices are based on two people sharing. goldeneagleluxurytrains.com

Seven Stars: Kyushu

(Cruise Trains)

Launched in 2013 at a cost of three billion yen (around 20 million pounds) this cruise train was the brainchild of JR Kyushu Chairman Koji Karaike and designer Eiji Mitooka. Karaike had dreamed of creating a train of this kind for over twenty years.

The standout thing about Seven Stars is that it has that beautiful vintage train feel but not in the European, Agatha Christie way - instead its distinctly Japanese. Lattices that line much of the train are inspired by the traditional Japanese door, the shoji, and the art and furniture is distinctly Eastern.

There are two different circuits of the island of Kyushu to choose from but both start and end in the city of Fukuoka. The first option is a one-night 800km tour of northern Kyushu or you can opt for a three-night 1,200km circuit of the whole island.K nife arches could be rolled out at McDonalds across London after successful police trials at restaurants in parts of the capital.

The fast food giant has been working with police teams in Croydon and Woolwich to trial the initiative in recent months.

Police say it is not about highlighting a particular problem with McDonald's but identifying the restaurant as one popular destination for young people.

In Croydon, the knife arch, which detects metal as people walk through it, was set up temporarily in the restaurant's doorway for two hour periods.

It was manned by a team of around six police officers, on hand to distribute leaflets, offer advice and confiscate weapons.

And Croydon Borough Commander Jeff Boothe told the Standard the scheme had been a success, with plans underway to introduce the idea across the capital.

Chief Superintendent Boothe said the aim of the police initiative is to go to places where young people congregate to educate them about the issue of knife crime and its dangers.

It forms part of Scotland Yards Operation Sceptre tackling knife crime, in addition to Croydons longer-term children and young people plan, he said.

A spokesman from McDonalds said: As a responsible member of our local community we are working very closely with the local Police Safer Neighbourhood teams to help tackle knife crime in these areas.

Which McDonald's have had knife arches? North End, Croydon Powis Street, Woolwich

The weapons detector was placed in Croydons North End branch of McDonalds on November 22 and December 23.

The restaurant sits just metres away from where 17-year-old Aren Mali was stabbed to death in October last year.

It was intended to discourage young people from carrying knives and Ch Supt Boothe said the arch received positive feedback from the public and local businesses.

Woolwich Riverside Police has run three operations with temporary knife arches in McDonald's / Woolwich Riverside Police

He said: It was a preventative scheme to educate young people about the dangers of knives and that it is an offence. A number of young people werent aware.

We had a lot of interest from the public, who said that they felt reassured and that we were doing stuff proactively.

He added: There isnt an issue with McDonalds but we recognised a high congregation of young people there.

We knew that we needed to do something, so we ran an operation there.

"You have to think about how to engage them [young people]."

Ch Supt Boothe added that the scheme had been a success so far based on feedback received from young people, the public and local businesses.

The team has since been invited to expand the idea into a longer three-week operation in the town centre to educate young people, which began on February 12.

On Thursday, knife arches were set up at entry points to shopping areas within the town centre  these being another popular spot for young people to congregate.

And the borough commander said schools in the area are getting more involved in the operation.

He said: Schools at first were wary of these operations for fear of their negative impact. But that has now turned, so schools and parents are saying Its great. People are recognising there is an issue and getting more proactively involved.

A similar scheme has also been trialled three times in branches of McDonalds in Greenwich, by Woolwich Riversides local policing team.

Most recently, police made three arrests after the weapons detector was installed in Powis Street McDonalds on Wednesday.

It followed operations on January 15 and 23, where officers conducted stop and searches.

Woolwich Riverside wrote in a tweet last month: Woolwich Riverside Officers have been working in partnership with #McDonalds today in an anti-knife campaign. A knife arch was implemented as a condition of entry to dissuade the carrying of knives. Stop and searches conducted by the team. #StopKnifeCrime

The scheme could soon be rolled out across London, Ch Supt Boothe confirmed, but talks are "ongoing".

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: All Londoners need to know that it is simply not acceptable to carry a knife - you are putting yourself and others at risk  and you will be caught and face the full force of the law.

We are doing everything we can from City Hall to tackle the scourge of knife crime. Last week I announced new funding for 1,000 additional police officers and also a new 45m Young Londoners Fund to provide alternative paths away from crime.A Conservative party vice chairman is to apologise to Jeremy Corbyn for making false claims about links with communist spies, the Labour Party has said.

Ben Bradley was threatened with legal action after making the claims about Mr Corbyn on social media earlier this week.

The Tory MPs tweet followed allegations about Mr Corbyns contact with a Czech intelligence agent in 1980s.

Mr Bradley apologised unreservedly for the message on Saturday, and agreed to never repeat the claims, according to statements released by the Labour Party on Saturday.

He will make a donation to a homeless charity and a food bank in his constituency, and meet the opposition leader's legal costs, the party said.

Labour said Mr Bradley has agreed to tweet an apology that says: "On 19 February 2018 I made a seriously defamatory statement on my Twitter account, 'Ben Bradley MP (@bbradleymp)', about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold British secrets to communist spies.

"I have since deleted the defamatory tweet. I have agreed to pay an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice, and I will also pay his legal costs.

"I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false. I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.

"I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him."

The written apology has been shared widely online, with Labour party politicians including Tom Watson tweeting the message.

Mr Bradley was promoted in Theresa May's January reshuffle, but quickly became embroiled in controversy after it emerged that he had suggested benefit claimants should have vasectomies.

Labour said it would not let "dangerous lies" about Mr Corbyn go unchallenged.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded an apology from Mr Bradley for his twitter message / Getty Images

A spokesman for the leader said: "We are pleased Ben Bradley has admitted what he said was entirely untrue and apologised, and that charities in Mansfield will benefit.

"Following the botched smear campaign against Jeremy, this case shows we are not going to let dangerous lies go unchallenged."

It comes after a former spy chief insisted Mr Corbyn did have "questions to answer" over his Cold War links.

Sir Richard Dearlove said the Labour leader should have "taken care to avoid" meeting a Czechoslovakian agent and cannot just "laugh off" the claims.

The ex-MI6 boss said holding only a couple of meetings with Jan Sarkocy would amount to "stupidity", but if the spy's claims that many more took place were true then "this affair takes on a completely different aspect".

Labour said Sir Richard should not be "trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears".

Mr Sarkocy, a former agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency, has been described as a fantasist by Mr Corbyn's allies.

But Sir Richard, who was "C" at the Secret Intelligence Service, said the agent could not be easily dismissed.

The "discussion I have had with friends close to the current Czech intelligence community" suggests otherwise, he told The Daily Telegraph.

Sir Richard, who was posted to Communist Czechoslovakia, said "everything I learned about the way the StB operated tells me that these accusations should be taken seriously".

Mr Corbyn's spokesman has previously challenged records of supposed meetings between the then Labour backbencher and Mr Sarkocy.

The Labour leader recalled speaking to a diplomat from the then communist country in 1986, as one of many meetings with ambassadors, politicians, activists and dissidents from "the majority of countries in the world", said the spokesman.

But another meeting with the same man was recorded in StB files as taking place the following year in the House of Commons, on a Saturday when the Labour MP's own diaries record he was attending a conference in Chesterfield.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: "Richard Dearlove, who as head of MI6 was involved in the infamous dodgy dossier that helped take us into the disastrous Iraq War, should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears."Chambers was best known for playing lovable Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley alongside French, and also starred as ditzy Honey in Notting Hill opposite Grant.

On Saturday evening, French posted a photo on Twitter of the pair lying on the sofa together.

She wrote: "I was regularly humped like this by the unique & beautiful spark that was Emma Chambers.

"I never minded. I loved her. A lot"

She added in a statement: "Emma was a very bright spark and the most loyal and loving friend anyone could wish for. I will miss her very much."

Hugh Grant described Chambers as hilarious and very warm. He called news of her death "very sad".

Jon Plowman, who produced The Vicar of Dibley and is the former head of comedy at the BBC, said: This is a sad day. Emma was a gifted comic actress who made any part she played  no matter how ditzy or other worldly  look easy.

To create a much loved comic character as she did, you have to be every bit as bright and clever as Emma always was.

She was great fun to work with and adored by all the cast and crew of Vicar of Dibley.

Emma Chambers in pictures 1 /7 Emma Chambers in pictures Emma Chambers, who has died aged 53, arrives at the charity world premiere of The Clandestine Marriage in 1999 PA Chambers and Joan Collins at the charity world premiere of the film The Clandestine Marriage PA Chambers arrives for the World Premiere of Notting Hill, in which she played Honey PA Chambers arrives at the World Premiere of Notting Hill PA Archive/PA Images Chambers, who also played Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley, at the Comedy Awards in London aged 34 PA Archive/PA Images Chambers at the British Academy Television Awards at Grosvenor House in London PA Archive/PA Images Chambers in the late 1990s BBC series How Do You Want Me? PA Archive/PA Images

Actor James Dreyfus, who starred in Notting Hill, said Chambers was unspeakably funny as he too paid tribute on social media.

He tweeted: "RIP the wonderful and talented Emma Chambers. Unique & unspeakably funny. Too young."

Meanwhile broadcaster Emma Freud, wife of The Vicar of Dibley's creator Richard Curtis, tweeted: "Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. We're very very sad.

"She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being."

Chambers agent, John Grant, said in a statement: We are very sad to announce the untimely death, from natural causes, of the acclaimed actress, Emma Chambers.

Over the years, Emma, created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work. She brought laughter and joy to many, and will be greatly missed.

At this difficult time we ask that the privacy of the family and loved ones be respected.L ondon and south-east England could be colder than the North Pole this weekend as experts predict the Arctic could inch above freezing during the polar night for the first time in February since records began.

Fears of rapid polar warming that could have huge implications for global climate have been growing in recent days as the North Pole and northern Greenland have been 30C to 40C warmer than historic averages.

A weather station at Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland which is the northernmost in the world was above freezing almost all day on February 20, the Danish Meteorological Institute said.

Rod Downie, head of polar programmes at World Wildlife Fund said the Arctic was in meltdown following wild and weird weather and that action was needed now.

Cold Weather 'Polar Vortex' arrives in London 1 /5 Cold Weather 'Polar Vortex' arrives in London People in winter coats and scarves cross Waterloo Bridge, in central London, as freezing air from Russia is to grip the UK in what is set to be the coldest late February in five years PA PA PA PA PA

He said: The Arctic is in meltdown, and wild and weird weather is happening in front of our eyes.

We need to take responsibility as evidence shows us that sea ice is in severe decline due to our changing climate.

We need to act now to cut carbon emissions and ramp up efforts towards a renewable future, to secure a future for Arctic wildlife and people."

WWF is calling for urgent action to protect the planet from the effects of climate change / Pixabay

London and the south-east woke to sub-zero temperatures on Saturday morning with the mercury expected to peak at just 5C or 6C during the daytime. Overnight, temperatures are expected to fall again to as low as -4C and climb to as little as 3C during the day on Sunday.

Britain is braced for the coldest week in five years with heavy snow showers and harsh frost expected to sweet the country.

In London and the south-east the Met Office said it would be extremely cold from Monday night onwards with snow showers becoming more widespread and heavier. It is also expected to be windy.

Yellow warnings for snow are in place on Monday and Tuesday for the East and West Midlands, East of England, London and South East England.

Between 5 to 10cm of snow could fall in places, the Met Office said.

Health officials have warned of the risks of exposure as temperatures plummet and urged people to look out for the most vulnerable around them.

Dr Thomas Waite, of Public Health Englands extreme events team said: Cold temperatures, indoors and out, pose real health risks to many and every winter we know that thousands of people get ill and even die following exposure to cold conditions.T wo major US airlines have cut ties with the NRA amid the fallout from last week's massacre at a Florida high school.

United and Delta airlines joined a growing list of companies to reject the gun advocacy group after it hit out against a student-led campaign for tighter gun laws.

In tweets on Saturday, both airlines said they were ending discounts for NRA members.

It comes after the NRA lashed out at campaigners advocating gun control, saying they were exploiting the mass shooting to promote an anti-gun agenda.

Former student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on February 14, using an AR-15 assault rifle he had purchased legally.

Other firms dropping the NRA include rental car brands Alamo, Enterprise and National.

Florida school shooting: Survivors take on politicians and NRA

All are owned by Enterprise Holding which said it was ending discount programmes. Another car rental firm, Hertz, also said it was ending discounts.

First National Bank of Omaha said it would not renew the NRA-branded credit cards, while insurance firm Chubb Ltd said it would stop underwriting a NRA-branded insurance policy for gun owners.

Florida school shooting: Rally - In pictures 1 /10 Florida school shooting: Rally - In pictures Arrival: the students were welcomed by fellow teens in the state capital Reuters The group plan to hold a demonstration on Wednesday Reuters A high school student places a candle representing one of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School outside the North Carolina State Capitol building during a demonstration calling for safer gun laws, in Raleigh, North Carolina Reuters Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivor Ryan Deitsch arrives with fellow students at Leon High School in Tallahassee AP Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are welcomed as they arrive at Leon High School, prior to their meetings the next day with Florida state legislators, following last week's mass shooting on their campus in Tallahassee, Florida Reuters Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors arrive at Leon High School in Tallahassee AP Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School survivors Tanzil Philip (left) is comforted by fellow student Diego Pfeiffer as Philip speaks to Leon High School students after arriving in Tallahassee AP Proitest: Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hold signs while waiting to board buses in Parkland, Florida EPA Trip: the grieving students travelled 400 miles to the Capitol in Florida EPA High school students observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, during a demonstration calling for safer gun laws outside the North Carolina State Capitol building in Raleigh ReutersU S Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy has rescued a puppy from a South Korean dog meat farm he visited during the PyeongChang games.

The athlete, who also rescued dogs at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, has not walked away from the games with a medal, but instead adopted a new puppy named Beemo with his actor boyfriend Matthew Wilkas.

The American freestyle skier, 26, was visiting a dog meat farm where up to 90 of the animals were being kept in poor conditions. It was in the process of being shut down by the Humane Society International after the puppy farmer had a change of heart.

In a heart-felt Instagram post, Kenworthy, who won silver at the Sochi Games in 2014, said: This morning Matt and I had a heart-wrenching visit to one of the 17,000 dog farms here in South Korea

US Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy and his his actor boyfriend Matthew Wilkas adopt puppy Beemo / Gus Kenworthy Instagram

Across the country there are 2.5 million dogs being raised for food in some of the most disturbing conditions imaginable.

I was told that the dogs on this particular farm were kept in 'good conditions' by comparison to other farms.

US Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy after visiting a South Korean dog meat farm / Gus Kenworthy Instagram

"The dogs here are malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens, and exposed to the freezing winter elements and scorching summer conditions."

Describing his new pooch, he added: I adopted the sweet baby in the first pic (we named her Beemo) and she'll be coming to the US to live with me as soon as she's through with her vaccinations in a short couple of weeks.

I cannot wait to give her the best life possible!"

In Pictures | Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 1 /88 In Pictures | Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 Team GB's women's curling team lose their bronze medal match to Japan Getty Images Billy Morgan celebrates after winning bronze in the snowboarding's Big Air final. Clive Mason/Getty Images Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Eve Murihead of Great Britian competes against Canada during the Women's Round Robin Session 11 at Gangneung Curling Centre Getty Images Elise Christie of Great Britain crashes out during the Ladies Short Track Speed Skating 1000m Heats Getty Images Chemmy Alcott wears a toga on Today at the Games BBC Guillaume Cizeron and Gabriella Papadakis of France encounter a wadrobe malfunction Reuters Getty Images Getty Images Getty Images Great Britain's Rowan Cheshire competes during the Freestyle Skiing Ladies' Ski Halfpipe Qualification Getty Images Great Britain's bronze medalist Laura Deas and gold medalist Lizzy Yarnold celebrate during the medal ceremony Getty Images Elise Christie of Great Britain crashes out of the Short Track Speed Skating Ladies' 1500m Semifinals Getty Images Garry Bowden/SIPPA AP AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Lizzy Yarnold of Great Britain celebrates as she wins gold during the Women's Skeleton Getty Images Elise Christie of Great Britain is tended to after a fall during the Short Track Speed Skating Ladies' 1500m Semifinals Getty Images Elise Christie of Great Britain is carted off the ice on a stretcher after a crash with Jinyu Li of China during the Short Track Speed Skating Ladies' 1500m Semifinals Getty Images Eve Muirhead of Great Britain gives her team instructions during the Women Curling round robin session 7 Getty Images Great Britain's Isabel Atkin celebrates winning bronze in the Freestyle Skiing Ladies' Ski Slopestyle final on day eight Getty Images Bronze medalist Isabel Atkin of Great Britain celebrates during the medal ceremony for the Ladies' Ski Slopestyle Getty Images Dom Parsons of Great Britain pictured with his bronze medal for finishing third in the Men's Skeleton Getty Images, Great Britain's Dom Parsons in action during the heat for the Skeleton event Reuters Reuters Reuters Getty Images PA Reuters USA's Shaun White jumps during the men's halfpipe finals at Phoenix Snow Par AP Getty Images Reuters Reuters Italy's Joseph Luke Cecchini trains during the Mens Skeleton training session on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty Images Brooke Voigt of Canada competes in the Snowboard Ladies' Slopestyle Final on day three of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Phoenix Snow Park Getty Images Anastasia Bryzgalova of Olympic Athletes from Russia falls as she competes against Norway during the Curling Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal Game Getty Images Adam Rippon of the United States competes in the Figure Skating Team Event Men's Single Free Skating on day three of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty Images A multi-exposure picture shows Germany's Alexander Gassner in his men's skeleton training session at the Olympic Sliding Centre during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games AFP/Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie reacts after crashing during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating final on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena Getty Images Minjeong Choi of Korea races past as Elise Christie of Great Britain crashes during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating final on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie crashing during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating final on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie crashing during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating final on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie reacts after crashing during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating final on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena AP Elise Christie of Great Britain prepares before the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating final on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie competes in the women's 500m short track speed skating quarter-final event during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games AFP/Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie (centre) crosses the line to win the Ladies Short Track Speed Skating 500m Quarter-Final 2 ahead of Canada's Kim Boutin (right) and Hungary's Andrea Keszler in third at the Gangneung Oval during day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games PA Great Britain's Elise Christie and Kim Boutin of Canada collide during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating quarterfinal on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty Images Great Britain's Elise Christie and Kim Boutin of Canada collide during the Ladies' 500m Short Track Speed Skating quarterfinal on day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games Getty Images Angela Wright, mother of Elise Christie, in the stands at the Gangneung Oval during day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea PA Great Britain's Elise Christie during a warm up at the Gangneung Oval during day four of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games PA USA's Chloe Kim competes in run 2 of the women's snowboard halfpipe final event AFP/Getty Images Gold medallist USA's Chloe Kim celebrates with an US flag during the victory ceremony after the women's snowboard halfpipe final event at the Phoenix Park during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games AFP/Getty Images Poland's Dawid Kuback soars through the air REUTERS Great Britain's Lizzy Yarnold during Womens Skeleton practice on day three PA Great Britain's Aimee Fuller crashes in the Snowboard Ladies' Slopestyle Final on day three Getty Images Gold medallist US Jamie Anderson celebrates after the women's snowboard slopestyle final event AFP/Getty Images USA's Lindsey Vonn is greeted by her dog Lucy after a press conference AP Sweden vs Japan in the Women's Ice Hockey Preliminary Round Reuters Britain's Elise Christie (R) and China's Qu Chunyu take part in the women's 500m short track speed skating heat event AFP/Getty Images USA's Mirai Nagasu performs during the Women's Single Free Skating of the Figure Skating Team Event at the Gangneung Ice Arena during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games, South Korea EPA USA's Mirai Nagasu celebrates in the team event Women's Single Skating Free Skating competition final Reuters Great Britain's Rupert Staudinger brakes in the finish area after the first round of the men's luge at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea AP Germany's Andi Langenhan slides during the Men's Singles Luge on day one Getty Images France's Lucile Lefevre competes in the Women's Slopestyle Finals Issei Kato/Reuters Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada skate during the Ice Dance Free Dance section of the Team Event on day three Getty Images Gold medalists Team Canada celebrate during the victory ceremony after the Figure Skating Team Event Getty Images Great Britain's Aimee Fuller competes in the Snowboard Ladies' Slopestyle Final on day three Getty Images Miyabi Onitsuka of Japan crashes. Reuters Japan's Hikaru Oe reacts after her run in the Women's Halfpipe Qualification Reuters Noriaki Kasai of Japan makes a jump during the Ski Jumping - Men's Normal Hill Individual Final on day one Getty Images Sweden's Charlotte Kalla celebrates after winning the women's 7.5km + 7.5km cross-country skiathlon event at the Alpensia cross country ski centre AFP/Getty Images Alina Muller #25 of Switzerland scores a goal against So Jung Shin #31 of Korea in the first period during the Women's Ice Hockey Preliminary Round - Group B game on day one Getty Images Great Britain's Adam Rosen competes in the men's luge singles run 1 AFP/Getty Images Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr takes part in the Men's Downhill 3rd training AFP/Getty Images France's Anais Bescond reacts after crossing the finish line of the women's 7,5 km sprint biathlon event AFP/Getty Images Great Britain's Rowan Coultas falls during the qualification for the men's snowboard slopestyle at the Phoenix Park AFP/Getty Images Russia's Emina Malagich (L), Hungary's Petra Jaszapati (C) and Britain's Charlotte Gilmartin crash in the women's 500m short track speed skating heat event d AFP/Getty Images Jamie Nicholls of Great Britain competes during the Men's Slopestyle qualification on day one Getty Images Britain's Farrell Treacy falls during the men's 1,500m short track speed skating heat event d AFP/Getty Images Switzerland's Nicolas Huber finishes his round of qualification for the men's snowboard slopestyle at the Phoenix Park AFP/Getty Images Athletes compete at the start of the Ladies Cross Country Skiing 7.5km + 7.5km Skiathlon on day one Getty Images

The rest of the puppies will be rescued and taken to the US and Canada.

The Siheung farmer told HSI he never intended to sell dogs for slaughter but had no choice when his collection of pet Jindo dogs kept producing puppies.

He eagerly accepted HSI's proposal to buy out his farm, and plans to put those funds into farming mushrooms and other plants.A fter an iffy couple of years, with the controversial departure of Jeremy Clarkson, then the only marginally less controversial departure of Chris Evans, Top Gear seemed to get back on track in 2017 once the reliable Matt LeBlanc took the helm.

Producers and fans will be hoping the former Friends actor and his co-hosts Rory Reid and Chris Harris can recreate that winning formula in the shows 25th series.

Heres everything you need to know.

What can you can expect from series 25?

If you dont know the drill by now

For starters there's be the usual road-testing of new releases in the world of cars, including the new Aston Martin Vantage, Lamborghini Huracan Performante and the McLaren 720S hypercar.

But as well as the shiny new stuff, therell also be the silly stunts in the most clapped out vehicles they can find, not to mention heading off around the world to shoot all of those epic wide-lens test-driving scenes.

Who are the presenters?

Adventures: the team head off to destinations including Norway in the new series / BBC

Matt LeBlanc leads the presenting trio, with motoring journalists Rory Reid and Chris Harris riding shotgun.

Theyll also be joined by racing driver The Stig, whose identity remains under wraps as ever, alongside regular contributers Eddie Jordan and Sabine Schmitz.

Where are the filming locations?

Series 25 starts with a road trip across Americas Wild West. The team have also headed across Europe to locations including Norway, and of course, the UK.Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia ZimbabweTwo US destroyers, the USS Ross and USS Carney, recently entered the Black Sea. CNN quoted a US official who claimed that the goal was to "desensitize Russia" to the American military presence. The ships turned up just as the Russian Navy launched a series of military exercises. A British destroyer had only just left the Black Sea when the American ships arrived. The Royal Navy vessel had also been on a mission to challenge Russia.

Not since NATO's Sea Breeze naval exercises in July 2017 have two American combat ships been simultaneously deployed in the Black Sea.. That scenario included an amphibious operation to practice landing on Russian shores. Last year the US Navy was part of three large-scale exercises in the Black Sea: Spring Storm, Sea Shield, and Sea Breeze.

Ukraine features prominently in US plans. Last summer, Americans began to build a naval facility in Ochakov, Ukraine that will support their operations in the region. There can be no doubt that this is just the beginning and the facility will expand. Ukraine takes part in NATO training events on par with the blocs full-fledged members. Last June, Ukraines parliament annulled the countrys non-aligned status.

The voices calling for Ukraine to join NATO sounded louder than usual at the recent Munich conference. US Senator Lindsey Graham argued that there was nothing to lose, since the Wests relations with Russia seem to be beyond salvageable. He thinks its time Ukraine was given a green light to join the bloc. Estonian Defense Minister Juri Luik said Ukraine and Georgia should be patient and ready to join.

Last October the NATO Parliamentary Assembly adopted a Resolution on Stability and Security in the Black Sea Region, calling for Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine and Georgia. Russia's southern flank appears to be dangerously unsettled. Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey are in NATO. Georgia and Ukraine host NATO forces on their soil and aspire to membership  an ambition that has strong support.

Romania is hosting a NATO brigade  an infantry unit  as well as 150 US Marines. British, Canadian, and Polish aircraft have recently begun operating from a Romanian air base. That country is home to a missile-defense site capable of firing intermediate-range surface-to-surface cruise missiles in violation of the INF Treaty.

The American military is to deploy a 2,500 strong force in Novo Selo, Bulgaria. That facility can host up to 5,000 NATO troops with heavy tanks, such as US Abrams. Bulgaria is being transformed into a springboard for offensive NATO operations. US and Bulgarian aircraft have been patrolling the Black Sea since 2016  the year NATO adopted its Tailored Forward Presence (TFP) initiative, pledging to increase its footprint in the region. As one can see, the mission has so far been successful, and without attracting much public attention to the ongoing build-up.

NATO and Russia are trading accusations over who is to blame for the close calls that have become increasingly frequent. No one seems to remember the INCSEA agreement concluded in 1972 between the US and Russia (the USSR) to prevent incidents on and over the high seas.

True, the US destroyers are not violating the 1936 Montreux Convention, which regulates the activities of non-Black Sea states in the Bosporus Straits. Neither would a Russian naval task force that consisted of ships with long-range cruise-missile capability patrol international waters near US shores. One can only imagine the brouhaha furor that would ensue were such a mission to take place. There was a reaction even when the Victor Leonov, an unarmed Russian intelligence-gathering ship, was sighted near the US East coast last year. Would the US remain silent if Russian cruise-missile-capable surface ships and submarines started making frequent port calls to Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela? And if Russian intelligence aircraft regularly flew near US airspace the way American aircraft do while carrying out intelligence missions near Russian borders? Would the US perceive such activities as friendly and posing no threat?

Russia is not eager to whip up tensions. Its been pretty forbearing. But if a red line is crossed, there are things it can do without violating any rules in order to bring others to their senses. The lesson the US Navy received in 2014 springs to mind, although that event has now largely been forgotten.

In 2014, the USS Donald Cook entered the Black Sea. A Russian Su-24 flew over the ship a number of times. The Cook's Aegis radar system was blinded by the Khibiny radar jamming device and the ships entire communications system rendered useless. It was unexpected and very impressive. Some crew members were demoralized and there were even reports of resignations.

There has been a lot in the news about Russia strengthening its military presence in Crimea. It would be strange if this were not the case, seeing how NATO has been increasing its military capability. Now the US appears to be going to any length to turn the Black Sea, which is located at such a great distance from the continental United States, into a real hornets nest, as if it were not already involved in enough conflicts in remote regions. This policy of testing Russias resolve could backfire like it did in 2014.

Photo: navaltoday.comWestern governments, their corporate news media, and even the United Nations chief Antonio Guterres are once again playing a disgusting, emotive propaganda game over the Syrian war.

UN Secretary General Guterres told the Security Council this week that the East Ghouta enclave near the capital Damascus was hell on Earth and called for an immediate ceasefire. His ceasefire call was echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Where is Guterres public concern about hellish conditions elsewhere? In Gaza where more than a million people are starving under a years-long blockade by a US-backed Israeli regime  in violation of countless UN resolutions? Where is Guterres legal or moral authority for Palestinians?

Or for Raqqa, the Syrian city razed to the ground by US air strikes? Or for Iraqs Mosul, likewise obliterated along with thousands of civilians by US air strikes? Or for Sanaa, the Yemeni capital being bombarded by American-supplied Saudi warplanes?

We dont recall seeing the UN chief pointedly addressing the Security Council about those situations, and dramatically invoking hell on Earth.

The trouble with the Western-orchestrated concern over Syrias East Ghouta is that is so selective, cynical and a sickening sleight of hand.

Western media outlets have this week stepped up airing one-sided footage out of the militant-held East Ghouta suburb, along with shrill demands for the US and other governments to take action. The implicit message is for greater military intervention in Syria by NATO nations to confront the Syrian government.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia are being accused of massacring civilians with air strikes on East Ghouta. Russia has denied its forces are deliberately attacking civilian centers, while the Syrian government claims that militants from East Ghouta are launching deadly mortar attacks on nearby Damascus, and therefore has the right to put an end to the insurgents fire.

One wonders how Washington, London or Paris would react if in a similar position? Ruthlessly and self-righteously, rebuffing any international concerns as interfering in its sovereign affairs.

Shamelessly, Western media outlets are once again giving one side of the story in Syria and a very distorted side too.

They are making tenuous comparisons with the conflict over East Aleppo back in 2016. Back then the Syrian government and Russia forces ended the siege of Syrians second largest city by routing militants who had held the eastern quarter for nearly four years.

A victory for the Syrian people was perversely distorted by the Western media to appear as a brutal conquest involving massacre of civilians. This week the Aleppo myth is being reprised in the Western media with the same barefaced lies.

The Washington Post admonished this week, The world sits by as another massacre unfolds in Syria. It goes on: The scenario is similar to the regimes [sic] slow, destructive reconquest in 2016 of rebel-held [sic] areas in Aleppo.

Quoting activists from East Ghouta, the Post depicts an infernal scenario of hospitals overflowing with blood, graves filled with body parts, and children sitting alone amid rubble.

This is an exact replay of the Western narrative over East Aleppo, when Syria and Russia were accused then of war crimes and compared to Nazi Germany.

One pressing corrective question is this: why have Western and UN officials, as well as Western media, not gone to report on Aleppo since the city returned to full Syrian government control for over a year now?

Why have these hand-wringing protagonists who were hysterically protesting war crimes and slaughter in Aleppo not followed up to check on their earlier claims of mass slaughter? Yet they are making the same scripted claims again with regard to East Ghouta.

One reason is that they would find in Aleppo a population which has happily returned to peaceful normalcy after the Syrian and Russian forces liberated the city from the death-grip of terror groups like Al Nusra Front.

Thats why Aleppo is not in the Western news any longer. It doesnt fit their propaganda narrative.

During the liberation of Aleppo, the Western media relied solely on videos and claims issued by the so-called humanitarian responders and activists of the White Helmets. This pseudo first-aid group has been unmasked by Vanessa Beeley and other investigative journalists, to be a media arm of the Nusra terror network and its various Islamic State (IS) affiliates.

In East Ghouta, the Western media are again relying on the White Helmets for their information about what is going on in that enclave, just as they had done in their fabrications over East Aleppo.

Western media are not reporting on a war; they are part of the war, disseminating propaganda for terror groups like Al Nusra, who are covertly sponsored and directed by US, British and French military intelligence to destabilize the country.

The Washington Post deceptively fabulates about East Ghouta as the last bastion of opposition rebels. It published a map apparently showing East Ghouta as rebel-held and distinct from another area which was designated under the control of Islamic State.

All the Western media engage in this sophistry of contriving a seeming separation between good rebels and the terrorists.

The fact is that East Ghouta has been held under siege by Jaysh al Islam (formerly Liwa al Islam) for the past four years. This group is an affiliate of the cult terror-network comprising Al Nusra and so-called Islamic State. They rule over captured areas with a bloody sword, decapitating anyone deemed to be an infidel.

The comparison of East Ghouta with East Aleppo is real enough, but not in the make-believe propaganda nonsense way that Western media are portraying.

Audacious falsification by the Washington Post was further compounded this week when it tried to underscore the suffering in East Ghouta by claiming the area was hit with chemical weapons in 2013 by the regime [sic].

That is an outrageous lie that has been already exposed by several independent journalists, such as Seymour Hersh, who showed that it was the Jaysh al Islam militants (the so-called good rebels) who carried out the 2013 atrocity against civilians under its control as a deliberate false flag attempt to trigger US military intervention in Syria. Similar to the stunt pulled last April in Khan Sheikhoun, in Idlib Province, which President Trump reacted to three days later with a barrage of 57 Tomahawk cruise missiles slamming into Syria.

The repugnant irony of Western media and the UN chief calling for tougher Western government intervention in Syria is that it is precisely because of Western governments intervening in Syria for regime change that has resulted in the present devastation and suffering of the country.

Western media will never tell the full story of how past US administrations in league with their NATO allies, Israel and other regional client regimes were plotting for years to destroy Syria as part of a wider war plan to control the oil-rich Middle East.

The proxy war in Syria for the past seven years has followed the war plan laid out by pro-Israeli American imperialists in Washington like Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. In their Clean Break plan from as far back as 1996, Syria and Iraq were a priority for roll back or regime change. The list of Mideast countries targeted by the US for regime change, including Syria and Iraq, was confirmed by American General Wesley Clark in 2007.

This is how the suffering in Syria we are witnessing today has come about.

Want to end the misery and horror in Syria? Then the US and its accomplices, including Britain and France, should get out of Syria and stop waging their covert war for regime change.

Western media will never elucidate that truth because their purpose is to tell lies about lies, and to manipulate Western public into supporting ever-more criminal war.American ground forces (soldiers and marines) are moving towards 3D Print on Demand UAVs to complement more expensive ($30,000 each) UAVs like the Raven. The problem with Raven is cost and availability. Since 2013 UAVs like the Raven have been considered too expensive for regular training. That means when troops first use them they dont get most out of UAVs. There is was still Raven training, but was infrequent and when a Raven was lost there was a lot of paperwork involved because a $30,000 item had been lost or badly damaged. There is computer based Raven flight simulator (Vampire) that uses the Raven controller and supplies realistic flight characteristics and video of what is seen by the Raven. While Vanpire is good with teach operators basic skills and procedures, real world training is always more useful and if often too expensive for peacetime budgets to handle.

There were two possible solutions and both may be employed. One is cheap (under $1,000 each) consumer grade UAVs, especially camera equipped quad-copters. Another solution is 3D printed UAVs that also cost about $1,000 but use commercial components (batteries, electric motors, cameras and wireless comms). The airframe is 3D printed on demand at battalion and brigade level. The army has been using 3-D printing since 2003 (for simple equipment components that break and can take a long time to order and deliver). The troops would still have Raven, with its longer duration, better sensors and encrypted comms. But for most combat zone needs the 3D UAVs built back at battalion or brigade headquarters as needed would get the job done. These weigh less than 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) and have limited endurance (20 minutes) and range (about three kilometers) but for most combat situations that is sufficient. A smart phone or tablet can be used as a controller. The 3D printers required are small and use plastic material that can also be used to create replacement parts on-demand for damaged UAVs as well as a long list of parts for other equipment in the battalion. Thus the 3D Printers would not be added to battalion or brigade equipment just for making UAVs but for supplying a long list of plastic replacement parts instantly.

The need for a cheaper alternative to Raven became more obvious after 2012 with the departure of troops from Iran and combat operations winding down in Afghanistan. The U.S. Army cut back on a lot of purchases, including its popular RQ-11B Raven micro-UAV. In the previous decade the U.S. has bought most of the 19,000 Ravens produced. But after 2012 those purchases faded to zero. In 2012 the army bought 1,134. That fell to 234 in 2013 and zero in 2014. The reason why the army bought so many Ravens was because this tiny (two kg/3.3 pound) aircraft rapidly wears out in combat. The Raven is made of Kevlar, the same material used in helmets and protective vests, but there are many ways for one to be lost in combat. On paper a Raven can survive about 200 landings before it can no longer be used. Thats in peacetime operations. In a combat zone few Ravens made it past fifty or so landings. While some Ravens have been shot down, the most common cause of loss is a problem with the communications link (as the aircraft flies out of range or behind something that interrupts the signal) or a software/hardware failure on the aircraft. Combat losses have been high, as nearly 20,000 have been built and most of those have been lost on the battlefield.

With much less combat expected after 2012s, the army is cut orders for new Ravens and, in effect, lived off existing stocks (over 5,000 Ravens) and resuming purchases only if a lot of troops are sent into combat. Raven, in effect, is being treated like ammunition, with not much needed in peacetime than in wartime. After 2012 there were purchases of new sensors and other accessories for Raven. Production of Raven continued, but mostly for over two dozen (and growing) export customers.

Despite the high loss rate, the Raven is popular with combat and non-combat troops alike. In part this is because the army has developed better training methods, which enables operators to get more out of Raven more quickly. Combat troops use it for finding and tracking the enemy, while non-combat troops use it for security (guarding bases or convoys). In both cases troops have come to use the Raven for more than just getting a look over the hill or around the corner. The distinctive noise of a Raven overhead is very unpopular with the enemy below and is often used to scare the enemy away or make him move to where he can be more easily spotted.

The current model, the Raven B (RQ-11B), was introduced in 2007, a year after the original Raven entered service in large numbers. This UAV is relatively inexpensive ($30,000 each) for what it provides. The Raven is battery powered (and largely silent unless flown close to the ground). It carries a color day vidcam or a two color infrared night camera. It can also carry a laser designator and a new gimbaled camera is also available. The cameras broadcast real time video back to the operator, who controls the Raven via a handheld controller, which uses a hood to shield the display from direct sunlight (thus allowing the operator to clearly see what is on the ground). The Raven can go as fast as 95 kilometers an hour but usually cruises at between 40 and 50 kilometers an hour. It can go as far as 15 kilometers from its controller and usually flies a pre-programmed route, using GPS for navigation.

From the very beginning the Raven changed the way troops fight. With the bird's eye view of the battlefield, commanders can move their troops more quickly, confident that they won't be ambushed and often with certain knowledge of where the unseen enemy is. The big advantage with Raven is that its simple, reliable, and it just works. The UAV can be quickly taken apart and put into a backpack. It takes off by having the operator start the motor and then throwing it. This can be done from a moving vehicle and the Raven is a popular recon tool for convoys. It lands by coming in low and then turning the motor off. Special Forces troops like to use it at night because the enemy cant see it and often cant hear it either.

By 2012 the army was equipping each combat brigade with 35 mini-UAV systems (each with three UAVs, most of them Raven but at least ten of these systems are the larger Pumas). That means that each combat brigade now had its own air force of over a hundred reconnaissance aircraft.

In 2012 the U.S. Army began using the larger (5.9 kg) Puma AE UAVs. Adopting Puma is part of an army effort to find micro-UAVs that are more effective than current models and just as easy to use. The Puma, a 5.9 kg (13 pound) UAV with a 2.6 meter (8.5 feet) wingspan and a range of 15 kilometers from the operator proved to be the next big (or micro) thing the army was looking for. Combat commanders quickly realized how useful Puma is and wanted more, as quickly as possible. This was not surprising as SOCOM (Special Operations Command) has been using Puma since 2008.

The army wants to equip each infantry company with a Puma system. That would mean 18 Puma AE UAVs per brigade and nearly 400 for the entire army. These larger UAVs have been most useful in route clearance (scouting ahead to spot ambushes, roadside bombs, landslides, washouts, or whatever). The larger Puma is particularly useful in Afghanistan, which is windier than Iraq and thus more difficult for the tiny Raven to operate.

Top speed for Puma is 87 kilometers an hour and cruising speed is 37-50 kilometers an hour. Max altitude is 3,800 meters (12,500 feet). Puma has a better vidcam (providing tilt, pan, and zoom) than the smaller Raven and that provides steadier and more detailed pictures. Because it is larger than Raven, and three times as heavy, Puma is much steadier in bad weather. Both Puma and Raven are battery powered.

Puma has been around for a decade but never got purchased in large quantities by anyone. The 2012 model used a lot of proven tech from the Raven (both UAVs are made by the same company). Like the Raven, Puma is hand launched and can be quickly snapped together or apart. Another version, using a fuel cell, has been tested and was able to stay in the air for nine hours at a time. There is also a naval version that floats and is built to withstand exposure to salt water.

In 2012 the army had nearly 7,000 UAVs. Over 6,000 are micro-UAVs like the Raven and Puma. These tiny (under six kg/13.2 pound) reconnaissance aircraft have become very popular with the troops, anyone of which can become an operator after a few hours of training. These tiny UAVs are a radical new military aircraft technology that took air recon to a new level. That level is low, a few hundred meters off the ground. These tiny aircraft changed how the troops operate and greatly reduced army dependence on the air force (or army aviation) for air reconnaissance. The lightweight, hand launched Raven UAV can only stay airborne about an hour per sortie, but troops have found that this is enough time to do all sorts of useful work, even when there's no fighting going on. This is most of the time. The heavier Puma can stay up for 120 minutes.The recent change of attitude by North Korea towards South Korea could be attributed to a number of obvious factors like the continued collapse of the North Korean economy along with morale and effectiveness of the North Korean military and security forces in general. Recent defectors from North Korea report that conditions inside the military are bad and getting worse. Physical exams of these defectors confirms those reports.

But there is another reason for the change of attitude that was not commented on much because of the sensitive nature of the information. In short, at the end of 2017 North Korea got a look at South Korean and American war plans and were alarmed at what they found. The northerners had every reason to believe this information was accurate because in late 2017 South Korean military networks were hacked and a large quantity of secret documents appear to have been copied. This apparently included several OPLANs (Operational Plan, a plan for a single or series of connected operations to be carried out simultaneously or in succession by specified military units). American OPLANs after World War II often involved allied forces and there are a number that involve South Korea. The hackers are believed to have taken OPLAN 5015 (joint U.S.-South Korean response to all-out war with North Korea) and OPLAN 3100 (South Korean only responses to various North Korean local provocations.) OPLANs are typically updated frequently (even daily) in times of crises so what the North Koreans may have got could already be out-of-date. However OPLANs also include a lot of operational details that do not change much over time so grabbing even one version of a particular OPLAN has its uses.

South Korea and the United States have a number of shared OPLANs. Some of these are more like disaster plans but involve military units. For example OPLAN 5029 deals with making sure North Korean nuclear weapons technology will not get into the wrong hands (the U.S. will deal with this), and that preparations are in place to deal with the North Korean army falling apart, or millions of hungry North Koreans trying to move into South Korea (South Korea takes care of this). There are also plans for dealing with natural disasters that do a lot of damage to both countries. Another shared operation is OPLAN 8044 that covers nuclear retaliation for a wide variety of situations. This OPLAN has long included details of which nuclear missiles were aimed where in Iran and North Korea if the need arose to fire back.

In response to this latest hack South Korea quickly ordered some changes in its Cyber War defenses. OPLANs were apparently also updated to minimize the damage done by North Korea possibly having some current as of late 2016. What was scary about all this from the North Korean viewpoint was that the OPLANs detailed capabilities many North Korean generals believed were enemy propaganda. But OPLAN documents are top secret and only for internal use. No need for propaganda there and that made it clear the North Korean military was a lot more vulnerable than North Koreans realized. The South Korean and American intelligence knew a lot more about the location and status of North Korean weapons than the North Korean generals had believed. Not only that but the OPLANS described in detail how the many modern weapons the South Koreans had, like smart bombs and guided missiles, would be able to do a lot more damage to the North Korean military and do it faster than the North Koreans had believed possible. The OPLANS described how the North Korean air defense system would be quickly destroyed and South Korean and American commando teams would hit key targets. OPLANS made reference to messages broadcast to North Korean civilians emphasizing help (food, medical care, elimination of the police state) was on the way. While many North Koreans would fight to defend the Kim dynasty the North Korean secret police (that monitored public attitudes) knew that a growing number of North Koreans would welcome the southerners as liberators.

Once the North Korean hackers delivered the stolen OPLANs documents in September 2017 it took a few months for the military and other security agencies up north to digest all this information and conclude that the north was screwed. Supreme leader Kim Jong Un was briefed, followed by him firing another few senior advisors who were apparently on the wrong side of this new reality. Kim then told South Korea that he wanted to improve relations, send a delegation to the Winter Olympics and get together with South Korea leaders to have friendly discussions about matters of mutual interest.Syria has become more of a problem than an opportunity for Russia. Despite that Russia still sees itself as the more effective playmaker in Syria. That, however, is always a work-in-progress and every week there are new challenges. Israel has suggested that Russia work out some sort of truce between Iran and Israel and solve a major problem in Syria. That is a great idea in theory but in practice Iran is pretty irrational when it comes to Israel. Russia has recently publicly criticized Iran for regularly calling for the destruction of Israel. Russia has also sided with Turkey in disagreements with Iran over strategy and tactics in Syria. Russia still considers Iran an ally, but a flawed one that really should work on their bad habits. Meanwhile Turkey is becoming troublesome with its offensive into northwest Syria. Then there are the Kurds and their American allies in the northeast. That has become particularly nasty and embarrassing.

Many of the problems Russia has in Syria are self-inflicted. , For example Russia declared victory there in December 2017 to bolster morale back home. With that came the announcement that a gradual withdrawal of most Russian forces was to occur in 2018. That meant the only Russian ground forces left in Syria were to be contractors who are, of course, not members of the military. That victory claim and withdrawal plans are now on hold as Russia has to deal with heavy losses of Russians in northeast Syria (because of the Americans) and heavy losses to their Iranian allies in the south (because of Israel). Russia had always positioned itself as the deal maker in Syria. That was largely because Russia alone was on reasonably good terms with most of the players (Israel, Americans, Iran, Turkey, Iraq and the Assad government of Syria).

There were other complications. Russia had supported and used Islamic terror groups in the past but no more, not after the Cold War ended in 1991. That gave Russians some good insights into Islamic terrorism, especially because of their recent campaign to crush Chechen Islamic terrorists. Many of the most effective ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) members and leaders in Syria were Russians, especially Chechens from the Caucasus. Russia was eager to kill as many of these troublesome Chechens as it could, wherever it could get to them. Syria proved to be a good place to kill Chechens and Russia had a lot of help in doing that. The helpers included the United States and Israel. Keeping all those alliances stable and productive (rather than unpredictable and unproductive) has proved to be more difficult than Russia anticipated. The American continue to support the Kurds in northeast Syria (and northern Iraq) and Israel wants Iran out of Syria and Lebanon for the very simple reason that Iran has been openly seeking to destroy Israel since the 1980s.

Troubles With Turkey

The Turkish actions towards U.S. backed Kurds in Syria is but one of several actions Turkey has taken to cut its ties with Western nations since World War II. For Russia that is a major opportunity. Turkey is a member of NATO because of that but NATO is edging closer to expelling Turkey. Not so much for Turkish moves in Syria, but because Turkey is becoming an ally of Russia. More to the point Turkey has ordered two Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems but is also in line to get over a hundred new F-35 fighters. The S-400 is not compatible with the NATO air defense system and the F-35s contain a lot of technical secrets the Russians would like to get a close look at. Worse the current Russian government has accused NATO of plotting to destroy Russia. This fantasy is a ploy by the current (since 1999) Russian leaders to justify reviving police state rule. To get away with this Russia needs a scary foe that will not actually become a threat. China wont do because China has claims on much of the Russian Far East while there is no such claims by any Western nation. Russia appears to be playing with both Turkey and Iran in Syria, but thats another story.

Iran opposes Turkish operations along the Syrian border and there have been clashes between Assad and Turkish forces in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. The Assads do not want to fight Turkey but the Assads have been kept in power throughout the civil war by Iran, or at least mainly Iran. Russia arrived in 2015 and plays a secondary role. Neither Iran nor the Assads want to go to war with the Turks, but they are not cooperating with them either. Most European countries see Turkish and Iranian operations in Syria as a violation of international law, despite the fact that Iran was officially invited to enter Syria. Turkey and the United States did not get an invitation but for Europe the Americans in Syria are seen as helpful, not a threat to regional stability.

Iran appears to control most of the military forces available to the Assads. This force is better armed, trained and led than the Syrian military. The Iranian forces includes 3,000 Iranian personnel, 8,000 Hezbollah fighters (with more on call in Lebanon) and some 70,000 pro-Iran militias. About a fifth of these are foreign Shia mercenaries recruited, armed and led by Iranians. The rest are local pro-Assad militias that are equipped (and often paid) by Iran. Russia is the main source of logistic, technical, air and diplomatic (via a UN veto) support. But Iran has the most armed people on the ground. To make matters worse the main function of the Iranian ground forces is to prepare for a war with Israel.

Russia is being asked to take sides in northern Syria where Turkey has begun attacking Syrian Kurds west of the Euphrates River, an area dominated by Russian warplanes and air defense systems. The Russians did not interfere with Turkish air strikes used to support Turkish ground troops seeking to drive Syrian Kurds out of territory (especially the town of Afrin) they control near the Turkish border. After that the Turks want the Americans to get out of northeast Syria. The Americans dont want to leave but have heeded Turkish concerns and agreed that the Syrian Kurds would not control security along the Turkish border (from Iraq to the Euphrates River). In mid-January the United States announced that it is assisting in the creation of a 30,000 strong BSF (border security force) in northeast Syria. This appears to be a repeat of what the U.S. and Britain did in Kurdish northern Iraq in the early 1990s. Neither Turkey, Iran nor Syria (the Assads) support this autonomous Kurdish portion of Syria. But the Americans insist it is essential to ensure that Islamic terrorists do not again have an opportunity to operate in this area. Russia noted with approval how the autonomous Kurds of northern Iraq kept things quiet in their territory since the early 1990s. The U.S. backed SDF (Syrian Defense Forces, predominately Kurdish rebels) have already said they would not allow Assad forces to cross the Euphrates River in order to regain control of northeastern Syria that was now largely held by the SDF. The SDF is being converted to the BSF and, unlike Kurdish northern Iraq, the SDF controlled territory will have a defense force (the BSF), that will be about a third non-Kurds and border security will be handled by whichever ethnic group dominates in that area. Most of the Turkish border will be patrolled by Kurds while the Iraq border will have a lot more Arab participation. There will be two American bases in this SDF controlled territory. One will be on the Iraq border at the al Tanf border crossing. The other American base in Syria will be at the airbase outside Raqqa. This American controlled area will block Iran from having a land route from Iran to Damascus (and Lebanon).

Contractor Commandos

Russia brought in several thousand of their Spetsnaz (special operations) troops both as active duty Russian army operators and former Spetsnaz serving as contractors. Unlike the popular image of special operations troops these Spetsnaz were rarely used for raids. Like their Western counterparts Spetsnaz are also trained to do reconnaissance (often deep into enemy territory), provide security for very valuable people or equipment and carry out direct action (raids) as needed. Spetsnaz did a lot of direct action in Afghanistan in the 1980s and in the Caucasus since the late 1990s but not in Syria. Thats because Russia wanted to avoid casualties in Syria as any troop losses here were very unpopular in Russia. Spectacular victories, on the other hand, are still popular. Russian Spetsnaz commandos had been in Syria officially since October 2015 and unofficially up to a year earlier. Russia did not say much about what Spetsnaz was doing in Syria, which is standard for special operations forces. Initially Spetsnaz were there to train their Syrian counterparts and help hunt down and kill key ISIL leaders. Any successes there were not publicized, which is, again, pretty standard for secretive commando operations. It was more difficult to hide the role Spetsnaz (especially the contractors) played in helping improve the security around senior government officials in Damascus. That operation was also a success. Russia also sent expert snipers, many of them Spetsnaz, who mainly served as instructors for Syrian Army snipers and to set up a program to select troops who could be good snipers and train them. New Russian sniping rifles were seen in Syria after 2015. Despite all this help, the Assad forces still needed Russian special operations troops for key operations. The Assads preferred to depend on the Russians for this than the Iranians.

To make their Syria intervention work Russia had to quietly resort to employing Russian private security companies. By the end of 2017 there were about 1,200 military contractors from the Wagner Group. About half these private security troops were believed to have been organized combat units that were reliable enough to be used in place of scarce army special operations troops. By monitoring Russian language social media activity (which anyone can do) it was noted how many recent military veterans were working for several of these private security companies. These fellows would often post pictures from Syria and Ukraine. Casualties were suffered in both places although the duties of the contractors were different. In Syria the security contractors mainly guarded Russian bases but were also used in combat when they provided security for Russian artillery units supporting Syrian Army troops. In a few cases the contractors were sent in to assist Syrian troops who got themselves in trouble. Russia described these men as special operations troops, because outside Russia the security contractors often wear Russian military uniforms. But social media revealed that many of these dead Russians in Syria were actually contractors. In Ukraine at least one private security company was used as enforcers to punish troublesome pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels. Often this just meant arranging an accidental death for a disobedient rebel leader but in a few cases a larger number of rebels had to disappear. The Russian supported rebels came to call these contractors cleaners and were justifiably terrorized and impressed. Cuban troops were also reported in Syria, brought in to help train and assist Syrian troops. Some of the Cubans are believed to be special operations (commando) forces. Cuba, Russia and Syria deny the presence of Cuban troops in Syria.

As of the end of 2017 Russia admitted to 45 Russians killed in Syria since mid-2015. The actual number is believed to be 30-80 percent higher because of the growing use of Russian military contractors, who are not, for record keeping purposes, members of the Russian military. Because of the disastrous February encounter with the SDF and Americans the Russian dead have gone way up. The Syrian war effort, despite the low number of Russian casualties, is not popular with most Russians who see Assad and most other Middle Eastern governments (especially former Soviet allies) as losers. More Russian casualties mean lots more unrest back home.

Fever Dreams

Russia has been trying to act like it is still a superpower because the current Russian president realizes that nostalgia and nationalism is a large part of what keeps him in power despite poor performance and successful efforts to revive the traditional Russian police state. A recent opinion poll showed that since 2015 Russian attitudes towards what government priorities should be have changed. In 2015 29 percent believed the government should concentrate on improving living standards but now that is 41 percent. In 2015 21 percent believed the government should concentrate on improving Russian prestige internationally but now that is 15 percent. In general Russians want more emphasis on conditions at home, not what is going on elsewhere in the world.

And then there is the Enemy Within. The 2017 international corruption ratings show the world that Russia is not making much progress dealing with corruption and is stuck near the bottom (135 out of 180 nations compared with 131 out of 176 nations in 2016). Corruption in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index is measured on a 1 (most corrupt) to 100 (not corrupt) scale. The most corrupt nations (usually Syria, South Sudan and Somalia) have a rating of under 15 while of the least corrupt (New Zealand and Denmark) are over 85. African nations are the most corrupt, followed by Middle Eastern ones. The current Russian score is 29 compared to 30 for Ukraine, 41 for China, 73 for Japan, 6o for Poland and 75 for the United States. A lower corruption score is common with nations in economic trouble. Russia had the same score as Ukraine in 2016 but it 2017 Russia stayed the same (and became the most corrupt nation in Europe) while Ukraine improved a little. Most of the other nations that used to be part of the Soviet Union have scores similar to Russia. Do you see a pattern here? A growing number of Russians (and others who used to be ruled by Russians) certainly do. Ukraine is particular is keen to make more progress in dealing with corruption because its current war with Russia and efforts to build more political and economic links with the West. That is what triggered the Russian invasion in the first place and the enemy within is proving more intractable than the Russian threat.

February 22, 2018: Two Russian Su-57 stealth fighter prototypes appear to have been flown to the Russian air base in Syria. The Russians apparently plan to test some Su-57 features in a combat environment. The Su-57 is nowhere near ready for combat but it can fly and some of its features (limited stealth, some electronics) are operational. Besides, it is great publicity for an aircraft Russia hopes to export someday. The two American stealth fighters are operational in Syria. F-22s have flown some missions and Israel has declared its F-35I operational, the first non-U.S. user of that new aircraft to do so.

Ukraine has banned the export of locally made D-436 aircraft engines to Russia. Those engines are needed in Russia for An-148 commercial transports. The An-148 is a twin jet commercial transport that normally carries up to 80 passengers or nine tons of cargo and is built in Russia. The engine is also used in the new Russian Be-200 amphibious aircraft.

February 21, 2018: Russia has come to the defense of its ally (and arms customer) Pakistan as Russia and Pakistan are accused of supporting Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan. Russia denies the allegations and charges the United States with using unmarked helicopters to supply ISIL and other Islamic terror groups in Afghanistan. There is no evidence of this but Russia has learned in the past conspiracy theories like this are a popular distraction and had worked often during the Cold War.

In Ukraine military intelligence reported that the latest convoy of Russian trucks, which the Russians claim only contain humanitarian supplies, illegally crossed into Ukraine. This one also contained some 200 Russian Army officers, who are apparently being sent in to try and instill some order and discipline among the many Russian backed local and mercenary units that comprise the Russia supported rebellion in Donbas. This convoy also carried about 430 tons of supplies that apparently consisted of medical supplies and food for children.

February 20, 2018: Responding to criticism that Russian airstrikes in Syria ( the Ghouta suburbs 15 kilometers east of Damascus) have killed over 200 civilians in the last week, Russia pointed out that the Russian airstrikes are directed at Islamic terror groups among the rebels and that Russia has a less restrictive ROE (Rules of Engagement) and that is not going to change. The Ghouta fighting has been particularly intense so far in 2018 and has left the Assads frustrated in their effort to capture what is one of the last rebel strongholds around Damascus. This 100 square kilometer (40 square miles) enclave still holds over 300,000 people and was the scene of a major chemical weapons attack in 2013. In mid-2017 the Ghouta area was controlled by over 10,000 armed rebels and at the end of the year that had not changed much. There are about six rebel factions, most of them Islamic terror groups divided between those associated with al Qaeada and the rest supported by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil states. These factions have spent a lot of time fighting, or feuding, with each other. Despite that the Ghouta rebels have tied down a lot of Assad forces to keep an eye on them and the rebels will cooperate in defending the area if attacked. In July 2017 Russian military police established about a dozen checkpoints in the Ghouta area and that was as much to reassure the people in the area that Russian and Syrian air strikes would not return but to also monitor movements of known rebels. But the rebels kept shooting, despite ceasefires and more pro-government forces set up patrols around the rebel controlled area. By late 2017 nearly all the smuggling routes were no longer safe (or reliable for regular use) and since early November airstrikes and artillery fire intensified, against both military and civilian targets. But the government forces could not make significant gains and the government tightened the blockade in an effort to literally starve the rebels out. This works better during the cold weather, but this has not happened as food and other supplies continue to get into Ghouta and as long as that rebel presence exists outside the capital Assad claims of having taken back control of Syria are suspect. In February Russia has contributed more airstrikes to targets in Ghouta and done a lot of damage. In part this is because some Islamic terror groups (like the al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra) in Ghouta have been responsible for recent attacks on Russian targets (including the embassy) in Damascus. Russia is using airstrikes tactics it developed to break rebel resistance in Aleppo a year ago. What worked in Aleppo was massive airstrikes against rebel held areas, without regard to civilian losses.

The UN had support (mainly because of Ghouta) for a Syria ceasefire resolution but Russia said it would use its veto and the proposal was dropped. Taking Ghouta and inflicting some kind of defeat on American forces in Syria seems to be a major priority for Russia. Ghouta is the largest remaining rebel held areas and it is right outside the Syrian capital. Then there are the Americans, who have two thousand troops in northeast Syria to bolster Kurd efforts to establish an autonomous Kurdish dominated region. The Turks are particularly eager to block the Kurds in the northeast but the Assads have always been able to make a deal with the Kurds and agree with the Kurds that the Turks should not be in Syria.

The U.S. government reported that sanctions on Russia had blocked $3 billion in Russian arms exports since 2015.

February 19, 2018: Russian officials admitted that the dozens of foreign troops killed in eastern Syria during a February 7th battle were not Russian military personnel but were working for Russia. Many of the dead were Russian and the rest were from nations that used to be part of the Soviet Union. The official admitted that the many wounded Russian military contractors were being treated in Russian military medical facilities in Syria. By now the extent of Russian participation, and loss, in the attack became known. Initially Russia would admit that only five Russians were killed. But it turned out all the Russian casualties were military contractors from the Wagner Group, the largest military contractor in Russia and active in several areas, mainly Ukraine (Donbas) and Syria. The contractors handle security and, in the case of the Deir Ezzor attack, form special combat units normally used to go after ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) or other difficult foes on the ground. Working for Wagner is not a military secret in Russia and death benefits (up to $88,000 depending on rank and job) are paid promptly and in most cases the body is quietly returned to the family. Friends and family of the Wagner casualties will usually discuss the loss on the Internet and after a while an accurate estimate of contractor casualties is known. The contractors themselves sign a non-disclosure agreement but that does not apply to family and friends. Posts to the Internet or other communications with family tend to become public after a while. It appears that at least fifty contractors were killed in this incident and about 70 wounded. There was also confusion about what the Russians were up to. It was believed that the Russians were supporting to take control, as promised, of territory ISIL once controlled. By in the northeast the Kurds had done most of the fighting to defeat ISIL and had told the Assads that Kurds were autonomous now and were willing to either negotiate that, or defend themselves if attacked. The Russians knew the Americans were working with the Syrian Kurds and knew what the American forces were capable of and that loss of a lot of Russians in combat, even if they were contractors (former soldiers) and not active duty troops. On the face of it there is no obvious way putting Russian troops in danger like this does Russian any good. Meanwhile Ukraine reports that it has lost 21 soldiers so far this year in eastern Ukraine. Wagner losses in Ukraine this year were unclear because there are a lot of other armed groups fighting for Russia in eastern Ukraine.

Russian military personnel in Syria are paid nearly as well as the Wagner personnel and receive bonuses in addition to their regular pay. But deaths among Russian military personnel in Syria, even though all of them are volunteers, is a much bigger deal back in Russia than the death of a Russian mercenary.

February 18, 2018: Russian diplomats told Israel that Russia would support Israel if Iran attacked. However Russia was not convinced that Israel shooting down an Iranian UAV over Israel on the 10th was an Iranian attack. After all, Syria or Hezbollah (which Russia considers a Lebanese not an Iranian force) have been using Iranian UAVs for a long time. This was an example of how unreliable Russian support is. Other Middle Eastern allies of Russia, like Iran and Turkey, have noticed the same thing. Russia apparently also persuaded Israel to not destroy Iranian weapons (missile and rocket) factories in Syria and Lebanon after the February 10th incident where they destroyed an Iranian UAV that had entered Israeli air space. Israel and Russia are continually making deals involving decisions like this but in the end Israel will do what it has to do to defend itself and Russia openly acknowledges that.

In the south (Dagestan) a local Moslem man used a hunting rifle to kill five Christians coming out of a church and wound another five. Police soon arrived and killed the shooter and after an investigation found that the 22 year old killer had taken an interest in ISIL and ISIL took credit for the attack. Most of the victims were women. Some 80 percent of the Dagestan population is Moslem and the incident took place near the Chechen border. The government is afraid that the ISIL connection Russian Moslems will be even more disliked and avoided.

Video appeared on the Internet showing what appears to be a large fire in or very near a Kilo class submarine docked at a Russian naval base near the Pacific port of Vladivostok. Russia said this was actually part of a damage control exercise. But the diesel-electric Kilo has a history of catastrophic accidents like that.

February 17, 2018: Russian military personnel in Syria have been ordered to stop using smart phone and to replace them as soon as possible with older models that lack GPS, high speeds and other features that are used by many commercial UAVs and quad copters. The frequencies used smart phones will be jammed around Russian bases in Syria not only to make it more difficult for quad copters to be used for mass attacks but to prevent Russian personnel from posting military information on the Internet.

Over the last two days two Burke class American destroyers have entered the Black Sea to show support for American allies bordering the Black Sea and annoy Russia.

February 16, 2018: After six more months of haggling (and two years of negotiations before that) Indonesia has signed the contracts to buy eleven Russian Su-35 aircraft to replace its aging (and grounded) American made F-5s. The first two Su-35s will be delivered by October. Indonesia originally discussed obtaining 16 Su-35s and that is still a possibility if the current deal works. Indonesia drove a hard bargain and while it is paying $104 million per aircraft (including maintenance, spare parts and tech support) only 15 percent of that is being paid in cash. Half the price is being paid in Indonesian goods. This would mainly consist of items Russia has to import and that Indonesia produces like palm oil, rubber, coffee, cocoa, tea, processed fish, copra, and spices. Indonesia also has some manufactured goods Russia could use like footwear, furniture, paper, textiles and several kinds of machinery. Indonesia also produces some defense related goods. Then there is the 35 percent of the aircraft price that will be offset. This will include technology transfer for components and service (maintenance, assembly) to be done in Indonesia. The 35 percent offset for defense related purchases is standard with Indonesia. Details of the offset and exports to Russia have still to be worked out.

Russia was eager to make this sale as it would be the second export sale for the Su-35. The first export sale was to China, which received the first of these Su-35s in 2016. Because of frequent illegal copying of Russian technology this is expected to be the last Russian warplane exported to China. The Indonesia sale is important because it may help convince other potential customers (UAE, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Egypt) that Russia has been negotiating with. Brazil and South Korea rejected the Su-35 and Venezuela and Libya were interested but both have run into political and financial problems. Currently Russia has about 70 Su-35s and China has twelve (out of 24 ordered). Russia received its first Su-35s in 2013 and four were sent to Syria in early 2016 for some combat experience. These were apparently successful, especially when delivering Russian built smart bombs.

February 15, 2018: Russia delivered the first batch of nine T-90S tanks to Iraq. Another 27 will be arriving over the next week or so. This is half of what Iraq ordered and those will arrive by April. The T-90S is a popular Russian export, with 64 of them delivered to Vietnam in late 2017. The T-90S usually cost about $4 million each and are similar to the T-90 model India uses. Russia also offers a T-90SK command tank for export (without the latest Russian communications and security systems installed). Older equipment is included or none at all so the buyer can purchase such gear from other (usually Western) suppliers.

February 10, 2018: In southern Syria (Golan Heights and Israel border) an Israeli F-16I was shot down by a Russian built S-200 (SA-5) surface to air missile. This was but part of a very complex day. It began when an Iranian UAV (launched from an Iranian base in central Syria) entered Israeli air space and was shot down 90 seconds later. In retaliation Israel sent eight F-16Is to hit the Iranian base, especially the operations center for the larger Iranian UAVs operating over Syria. This facility was destroyed and some Iranians were killed. Israeli warplanes had dealt with the SA-5 for years and could destroy all the Syrian SA-5 launchers and radars. But Israel had an understanding with Russia, a nation that was something of a frenemy in Syria and the Russians wanted the SA-5s left alone. Even though the SA-5s were older tech they still posed some risk to Israeli (and American) warplanes and that is what happened to the F-16I today. The aircraft crashed on the Israeli side of the border and the crew of two safely ejected. Israel then prepared to carry out their plan to destroy the Syrian air defense system when the Russian leader called the Israeli leader and asked that the Israeli attack be put on hold. Given the relationship Israel and Russia had developed over many decades, Israel agreed. But now the Russians owed Israel a favor and the Israelis consider that another weapon to use against the Iranian threat in Syria.

The Syrians know their Russian made SA-5s missiles are not very effective against Western fighters and have adopted tactics involve firing a lot of these missiles a at Israeli jets and hope they get lucky. Today it did. The SA-5 is a 1960s design that Russia has updated and Syria received the latest S-200 version of the missile in 2010. This seven ton missile has a range of 300 kilometers but Israel has apparently developed effective countermeasures but in this case the F-16I had an equipment failure that prevented it from carrying out a tight turn to evade the S-200 warhead entirely.

In southern Russia (Chechnya) a military police battalion composed of Chechen about 400 personnel returned from 18 months providing or supervising security, particularly in Aleppo and Russian bases along the coast.

February 9, 2018: Reaction to the resent successful launch of the American SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket elicited interesting comments from Russian space program officials. The state owned space flight company Roscosmos described the SpaceX launch as a nice trick. This was in reference to the SpaceX Falcon Heavy using 27 rockets operating in unison to launch very heavy loads into orbit. Also notable was two of the three booster rockets returning and landing for reuse. This, and many other innovations made SpaceX Falcon Heavy much (by over 70 percent) cheaper than competing American designs. Finally because the first SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch was a test the SpaceX owner used, for a payload, an electric car (a convertible) with a crash test dummy in a space suit in the drivers seat and the dash board having an iconic Dont Panic sign on it as well as two high tech storage devices with massive data about earth and its inhabitants (in the event that extraterrestrials find the car in the future). Most Russians appreciated the humor in all this and the reality that it meant Roscosmos was in a hopeless position because Roscosmos lacked the cash and talent to do operate as effectively as SpaceX.

February 8, 2018: In the east, North Korea held a military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the North Korean military. That event so long ago was organized and paid for by Russia and this anniversary parade has always been a big deal. But this year it was smaller than expected and only displayed one new missile system. This one was a SRBM (Short Range Ballistic Missile) that seemed similar to the Russian Iskander or South Korean Hyunmoo-2. The Iskander is an export item while the South Korean missile is not. South Korea developed a 180 kilometer range ballistic missile (Hyunmoo 1) and a 300 kilometer one (Hyunmoo 2) in the 1980s. Both are about 13 meters (40 feet) long and weigh 4-5 tons. Both of these were based on the design of the U.S. Nike-Hercules anti-aircraft missile, which South Korea used for many years. Recently it was announced there was now a longer range (500 kilometer) version; Hyunmoo 2C. North Korea hackers have stolen a lot of South Korean defense secrets in the last decade and that might have included details of the Hyunmoo 2. This is a missile North Korea is more likely to build than the more modern and complex Iskander.

Sudan announced an agreement with Russia to help modernize Sudan's military. No details about the agreement were released. Most of Sudan's military aircraft are Russian-made and out of date. The thinking is that Sudan wants to acquire new aircraft and air defense systems. Sudan also needs airplane and vehicle parts. Modernization discussions between Sudan and Russia occurred in November 2017 when Sudanese leader Bashir visited Moscow. During that visit, Bashir allegedly told Russian president Putin that he wanted to be able to defend his country "against the United States."

February 7, 2018: In eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor province) over 300 pro-Assad troops attacked SDF positions near the Khusham oilfields (which once supplied ISIL with a lot of cash). The attack was defeated with the help of American air power (F-15Es, AH-64s and an AC-130) and artillery. At least a hundred of the attackers were killed and that included many Russians, most or all of them Russian contractors. The attackers also lost two tanks and several artillery systems. The SDF suffered a few wounded even though the attackers had tanks and artillery with them. The U.S. was in touch with the Russians to ensure there no problems in the air (Russian and American warplanes operating too close together). There were some American troops among the SDF defenders.

Under increasing pressure from the UN and neighbors along the Pacific Coast, Russia has agreed to enforce the UN sanctions and send 12,000 North Korean workers back to their homeland. China has already sent back most of its North Korean workers but Russia has a labor shortage in its Far East territories and losing the 12,000 North Koreans will be felt. Russia always had a hard time getting its citizens to move to areas east of the Ural Mountains (that mark the divide between Europe and Asia) and the Far East saw its economic potential crippled by this. Russia says it will take until 2019 for all the North Korean workers to leave because the sanctions allow the workers to stay until their contracts are completed. Meanwhile Russia has to deal with accusations that it is participating in a North Korean sanctions scam where North Korean coal is shipped to the Russian Far East and then exported from Russia as Russian coal.

In the last week the UN issued a report on North Korean efforts to violate economic sanctions. The UN investigators detailed how North Korea managed to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 by evading export sanctions. This was facilitated by a network of over 30 North Korea agents (usually identified as bankers) in foreign countries to organize smuggling operations. Most of the illegal export income came from selling at least 39 shipments of coal mainly to Russia and China (as well as South Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam)

February 6, 2018: In Vietnam the navy put two more (of six) 1,900 ton Gepard class frigates into service. The first two arrived in 2011. This largely completes a major arms deal negotiated in 2009 by which Vietnam agreed to purchase six Kilo class submarines, for $300 million each, four (later six) Gepard class frigates, over a dozen patrol boats and 36 Su-30MK2 jet fighters (for over $46 million each). In effect, Russia was supplying the weapons to modernize Vietnam's armed forces. Until Vietnam enacted market economy reforms over the previous two decades, the country was broke. But that has changed, and Russia offered attractive prices. This annoyed China, which considers Vietnam part of southern China. But despite centuries of military efforts, the Chinese could never keep Vietnam under control. Now Russia is arming this wayward part of the motherland. China has not made open claims on Vietnam for over a century, but the animosity, and memories, are still there.

February 5, 2018: Russia ordered its aircraft in Syria to not operate lower than 5,000 meters (16,000 feet), which will protect aircraft from ground fire (including shoulder fired missiles kike the Igla-S that brought down an Su-25 on the 3rd). This will make ground support by the Su-25 and other aircraft less effective because the Russians dont have many smart bombs or guided missiles for ground targets.

February 4, 2018: In Syria, because of the introduction of a new Russian air defense system, Russia told the Turks to keep their aircraft out of Syrian airspace until further notice. This has made it more difficult, and dangerous, for Turkish forces fighting the SDF around Afrin. Turkish aircraft resumed operations over Syria on the 9th.

February 3, 2018: In nearby Idlib province al Qaeda forces used a shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile to bring down a Russia Su-25 ground attack aircraft that was providing support for attacking Syrian troops. The pilot ejected but was killed on the ground. Russia says it launched more airstrikes and cruise missile attacks (via ships off shore) and killed 30 of the al Qaeda gunmen. Russia later revealed that they believe the Su-25 was brought down by a Russian made Igla-S (SA-18) missile. There are many of these in use by rebels as well as Assad and Russian forces in Syria.

February 1, 2018: The Russian space program successfully carried out its third launch at the new Vostochny space center. The Soyuz rocket put 11 satellites into orbit. This was in contrast to the second launch back in November. That one was a major setback when the Soyuz 2.1 satellite launcher again failed to put its valuable cargo into orbit. This failure was traced to a software error in the fregat third stage. The control software for fregat was programmed for launch from the Balkinor launch facility but the failed launch was from the new Vostochny space center. If fact, this was only second launch from Vostochny, which became operational in 2016 and is now the center of another embarrassing and expensive failure. The government is conducting an investigation but the basic problem is well known; too little money and not enough available talent to make the space program work as well as it did in the past.

January 30, 2018: Japans first F-35A stealth fighter became operational this month. Nine more will arrive in 2018 and eventually Japan will have at least 42 F-35s. This means the Japanese F-35 may soon go up to intercept the growing number of Chinese and Russian warplanes that enter the Japanese ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone). South Korea is also seeing more ADIZ activity. Japan is also looking to purchase some F-35B aircraft. This is the version that can land and take off like a helicopter and could operate from Japanese helicopter carriers (which are described as destroyers but look like light carriers.) These carriers could carry six F-35Bs as well as come helicopters.

January 29, 2018: In the south (Crimea) a Russian Su-27 harassed an American EP-3E electronic intelligence aircraft operating in international airspace near Crimea. The EP-3E crew took video and photos of the Russian aircraft flying dangerously close (less than two meters) to the four engine turboprop aircraft. The EP-3E was ordered back to base before its mission was over to avoid an accident. Russia said it was justified in doing this because NATO fighters did this to Russian aircraft. The U.S. pointed out that this was not true and Russia had no video evidence. Russia ignored that point. Meanwhile Russian electronic intelligence ships have resumed operating off American coasts with one recently spotted off the coast of Virginia, an area that contains several major naval bases.

Russia hosted another round of Syrian peace talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi. Russia invited 1,600 Syrians from a large number of Syrian factions (both rebel and pro-Assad or neutral) to work out a peace deal. Only about 22 percent of those invited agreed to attend which shows that the rebellion is still active.

January 28, 2018: There were nationwide protests against corruption and government efforts to prevent fair elections. Some 350 of the protestors were arrested but soon released.Tauranga Labour list MP Jan Tinetti has revealed a deeply personal tragedy while talking in support of her leader and Prime Minister.

The MP had been asked by The Weekend Sun for a report card on her governments first 100 days in power, and was asked about the timing of Jacinda Arderns pregnancy announcement to the nation.

Jan vehemently defended any womans right to choose when, where and how they tell people about a pregnancy. And she divulged her own misfortune to make her point.

Being someone who has miscarried in the past, I think its good for mums to come up with their own time frames when they want to let people know about a pregnancy.

The MP shared her secret to totally support Jacinda and partner Clarke Gayfords decision to withhold the news until they felt comfortable. Any mum can take that time, says Jan.

But has the electorate been hijacked by a pregnancy and cooing noises? Boy, this baby is reaching inane royal proportions said one punter in a disgruntled note to a newspaper editor. The photo I want to see is Jacinda Ardern behind a desk getting on with the work we are paying her to do.

The nation loves it, says Jan. When I heard about it, 15 minutes before the rest of New Zealand, I couldnt stop jumping around because it is us leading the way again with a PM who is having a baby. We are leading the world in a lot of areas.

Its not just about babies, says Jan, its about leadership. John Key was a huge part of the previous government and his leadership was important because people trusted him. Its the same with this government. And even prior to the pregnancy, people had trust in Jacinda.

That trust is soaring on the back of nearly 120 days in government. In the latest Colmar Brunton preferred Prime Minister polling, Jacinda is up four percentage points to 41 per cent. Outgoing Bill English dropped eight points to 20 per cent. The Labour Partys enjoying its best polling in 15 years - up nine points to 48 per cent and well in front of National, down three to 43 per cent.

Well, we achieved everything we set out to achieve in the first 100 days, says Jan. Families package, child poverty bill, the mental health inquiry, Pike River inquiry, industrial relations amendment bill, stopping the sell-off of state housing and the halt on foreign ownership. Plus things that werent on the 100 day plan, like the end of national standards.

They are lots of things, says Jan, that the previous government could have done and should have done, but didnt do. Foreign ownership of homes  it was an easy one, we tackled it quickly and there werent the issues they said there would be. There was an absolute willingness from the electorate.

I also struggled to see why the National government wasnt doing anything about child poverty. The whole electorate was saying it wasnt acceptable. Now the opposition is saying yes, we have to do something. Theyre in support of doing something. Why now?

Labour may be about to face its first real test as a government. And as the newbie backbencher and deputy chair of the education and workforce select committee, Jan is right in the firing line.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins was set to announce a complete overhaul of the education system - from early childhood through to post-secondary, the biggest education reform in New Zealand for almost three decades.

As the governments education plans unfold, it will fall on Jan to help smooth the way, to maintain the relationship with the education sector, keep a closeness with the people and feed back to the minister. Sometimes governments are perceived to be out of touch. We will keep it in touch. There will be a lot we can do, says Jan.

I may have been grieving for what I left behind at Merivale Primary, but I am absolutely loving what I am doing now.Rat traps will be popping up in the backyards of Merivale and Matua next month as local environmental groups begin a push for the Bay of Plenty to become predator free to protect our native birds.

The Predator Free Bay of Plenty campaign is a collaboration between Envirohub Bay of Plenty, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and the Bay Conservation Alliance.

The campaign follows the work of Kelvin Hastie - a Wellington man whose crusade to rid his Crofton Downs neighbourhood of introduced predators saw it named New Zealands first predator free suburb in 2015.

With backing from the Next Foundation, Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Council, the project went city-wide in 2016.

They found that if you put a rat trap in one of every five backyards, you can pretty much rid the area of rats, which is what they have successfully done in Wellington, says Envirohubs general manager Laura Wragg.

The Bay of Plenty project is launching in the suburbs of Matua and Merivale next month.

The wooden boxes for the rat traps have been made by the Mens Shed in the Historic Village, and the Tauranga and Sunrise Rotary Clubs will assemble the traps for distribution.

Once weve got them installed in Matua and Merivale, well be looking for champions in other suburbs to get on board so we can roll it out across the Bay of Plenty, says Laura.

Groups in Rotorua have already expressed an interest in taking part.

Its super exciting, says Laura. In Wellington, theyre already seeing so many more birds there and will soon be able to introduce species that would never have survived before.

We already have rat-trapping in reserves, but this is a chance to be involved at an urban level. Everybody who gets a trap will use an app to log the location of their trap and how many kills theyve had so we can map progress.

To keep up-to-date on the project follow Predator Free BOP on Facebook.A robotics initiative by Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi has been awarded increased funding to support the growth of computational thinking among Maori students in Gisborne, Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Northland regions.



Professor John Clayton and the team from Tokorau  Institute for Indigenous Innovation have been awarded increased funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The funding comes from the Unlocking Curious Minds contestable funding initiative created to increase engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Awanuiarangi CEO, Professor Wiremu Doherty, said the RoboPa initiative aligns well with the Awanuiarangi vision of engaging learners in STEM activities.

This is an initiative in which  through culturally and Te Reo aligned project-based learning experiences  Maori youth actively engage with entrepreneurial thinking practices, modern technologies, software and equipment, says Wiremu.

Learning Facilitators Thomas Mitai and Rochelle Rapana says RoboPa, as a portable maker-space, is designed to encourage Maori students and emerging teachers to engage in computational thinking practices, scientific approaches and technological innovation.

This work had proven to be engaging and successful in previous RoboPa activities and the significant increased support for RoboPa was an indication of the ongoing potential of this innovative approach, they say.

John believes supporting Maori youth through this initiative  particularly those who have fewer opportunities to engage  will continue to encourage Maori students to participate further in STEM activities.

This will help equip our rangatahi to become great innovators and creators in the highly skilled, digitally driven environments they will encounter as part of the 21st-century workforce, says John.Coming to Cambridge, I realised the best way to stay sane through the hectic terms was through books. From the hundreds of books in my room back home, I whittled down a handful that really meant something to me. I wanted my bookshelf to be a paper version of myself, and I wanted to be able to find some respite from the compulsory reading with some that made me feel at home. Tucked up in bed, hot chocolate topped with whipped cream in hand, these are the books that make me feel me again.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

This amazing woman is half of what is possibly the best comedy double-act, ever. Starting, as any other autobiography does, with her childhood and rise to fame, Poehler doesnt limit herself to the conventional forms  fitting for someone who breaks the mould herself. Frank, funny and inspiring, I smiled the whole way through reading Yes Please, and I still do every time I flick through its pages. Its a wonderful book that encourages you to leave your comfort zone, to not be afraid to say yes please. Im not generally a reader of autobiographies, but I just had to say yes to this one.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Gaskell was once described to me as Jane Austen with chest hair, and to this day I think it stands true. The Victorian Gaskells works had a social conscience, focussing on the plight of the worker during the Industrial Revolution in Manchester. Of course, North and South has a romantic thread, throwing tough mill-owner John Thornton against the morally upright southerner Margaret Hale. Unusually, the romantic focus is on Thornton rather than Hale, who gives him little thought (a character who might pass the Bechdel test!). Unfortunately, its ending is too abrupt; serialised in Dickens Household Words, he cut the number of editions as he found it wearisome to the last degree, meaning Gaskells planned ending had to be cut; fortunately, the BBC TV series makes up for this deficiency (I would highly recommend the adaptation, available on Netflix, if you need a break from work).

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Of course Jane Austen had to pop up: Britain's best-known (and best-loved?) female author, every student has felt the reach of her witty prose. Persuasion, however, is one of her later works, published posthumously, and by far less well-known than Pride and Prejudice. Persuasion fits convention better than Pride and Prejudice since the female protagonist is not outspoken, but it leaves its reader so much more entranced than the earlier works. Admittedly, there is less sarcasm and less obvious wit, but it is unnecessary in the story of Anne Elliot, middle daughter of a spendthrift baronet, who, at eighteen, is persuaded to give up the man she loves because of his lack of fortune. When he makes a surprise return to the neighbourhood, seven years later, his fortune made, downtrodden Anne must face the possibility that now past her prime (of 27!!) she may never marry. The novel is much more sensible, reflective and personal than Pride and Prejudice, as though Austen has come-of-age as an author.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

In spite of the brevity of this novel, it packs a punch. Influenced by French authors such as Guy de Maupassant, it is the first book Ive read with a wholly feminist protagonist, even by todays standards. Theres a beautiful sense of individual female suffocation, trapped by the demands of society, but who finds release in the wisdom of other women and  scandalously  an amorous relationship. Of course, there is no happy ending, but the novel speaks to its readers, both male and female, and remains with them. This is my favourite book, and I would make it obligatory reading for any person wanting to explore the history of feminism in literature.Proposals to remove a painting of a communist flag from Kings College bar have provoked controversy amongst its student body.

The motion was put forward by Stephen Downie, a fourth year MML student, after his visiting friends from Russia were quite disturbed by the presence of such a controversial national symbol in a social space.

This is a recurrent issue, with a similar debate occurring almost five years ago.

The open meeting was held on Thursday 4 February and lasted over ninety minutes, during which discussion became heated. Shayan Moftizadeh, who managed the meeting, resorted to standing on a chair throughout in order to make herself heard.

Opposition to the proposal was strong: PhD candidate Olivia Meehan stated that the removal of the artwork in question would represent not only an overt act of censorship but a very serious rewriting of history and an even more disturbing attempt to pervert the pure stream of radicalism at Kings College.

Another vocal opponent agreed that it would be a shame to lose something clearly so powerful because of a simplistic and reductionist political correctness.

Conversely, the associations with repressive regimes concerned other members, causing Will Caiger-Smith to pose the question who would agree with having a Nazi flag up on the wall?

A Russian student also commented that since my great-grandmother was killed by this regime, I cant look at it as just an artefact.

The manner in which people expressed their opinions caused Kings College Student Union (KCSU) secretary Barnaby Bryan to email all college members admonishing those who showed a complete lack of regard for standard open meeting etiquette and to be honest, basic human politeness and decency.

The meeting was inconclusi although participants did vote to set up a decision was taken to establish a moderated online forum.

The forum suffered an initial setback when a prank meant that the link on the KCSU website took students to a YouTube video of Rick Astleys Never Gonna Give You Up.

However, the discussion has since progressed: at the time of writing, twenty-four comments have been posted, one of which is 800 words in length.

The flag itself is a painting of the hammer and sickle, symbolic of the industrial working class and the peasantry.

The painting is in a gilt frame, which those who are protesting its removal suggest is ironic.

Kings bar has traditionally been painted socialist red, and the picture was put up as a memento after its redecoration in 2004.

Much of the debate has centred on whether it was indeed a flag or a provocative piece of artwork.

Suggested proposals for the future of the flag include repainting it in Kings colours, replacing it with the Amnesty International symbol, or adding the open meeting minutes to the piece to emphasise its role in stimulating debate.

Discussion is ongoing, with actions such as turning the painting upside down overnight continuing to draw attention to the issue.

The next highly anticipated open meeting, at which the issue is to be decided, is scheduled for this evening.

KCSU President Juan de Franciscosummed up the debate by saying that its clear that Kings is still a highly politically active College.

Roanna MottersheadTwo separate protests coincided with the last day of the bumps, one of which delayed the races by ninety minutes.

The most visible protest occurred when three activists from Animal Rights Cambridge dressed as swans piloted a boat down the River Cam, preventing the womens fourth division from racing. The activists paddled to the A14 motorway bridge before turning back while a boat from the Conservators of the River Cam, the body responsible for traffic on the river, looked on. The protesters were arrested for breach of the peace, and released without charge.

Paula from Animal Rights Cambridge told The Cambridge Student, For the past four years the Conservators of the River Cam have refused to meet with us and the RSPCA to put in place measures to protect the wildlife of the Cam.

Mismanagement has led to nesting ducks being mown over and a swan becoming aggressive after having its young killed by rowers. Were not against rowing, we just want the river to be managed in a way that lets everything use it.

The protest was not received well by some spectators on the bank, who booed them. Theyre being selfish, said Johnny Walker, from Newmarket, theyre spoiling a traditional day out for hundreds of people when they should be using other ways to put their point across.

At the time of writing Conservators of the River Cam had not commented on the protest.

In addition to the protest by animal rights activists, there was also a march of about fifteen members of the anarchist group Class War from Senate House to the boathouses.

Were here to take action against the Oxbridge Oligarchy, said Ian Bone, who founded the group in 1983. All the people who are influential in politics, art, and sport are the same  they all went to Oxford or Cambridge, and theyre all fucking tossers. A barricade was erected outside Trinity College by the porters, who were implored by Bone to throw down your bowler hats and join us, comrades.

Some students passing the march felt it was incendiary and inaccurate. A student from St Johns responded to the march, saying, There are a lot of state school students in Cambridge who work really hard here, were not all toffs. Its fair enough for them to complain about elitism, but theyre going about it in the wrong way.

Devon Buchanan  News ReporterCambridge City Council has announced plans to install more lighting on Parkers Piece, which has been a prominent concern of the Cambridge University Students Union Womens Campaign in recent years. The move comes as a result of broad support for the trial lighting installed at the end of January.

According to a survey on the issue, three fifths of people  particularly women and children  felt unsafe in the park at night. Over half claimed that the trial lighting installed earlier this year between Reality Checkpoint and Melbourne Place had made them feel safer.

The Council have made the decision to install further lights with the support of 75% of respondents.

Parkers Piece lighting became a key focus of the CUSU Womens Campaign after several incidents occurred, in which women walking to work in the morning were subject to assaults and indecent exposure.

In January, Reclaim the Night marchers began their protest at Parkers Piece to mark the installation of the trial lighting, after months of complaints by the Womens Campaign.

Susy Langsdale, CUSUs Womens Officer, told The Cambridge Student that she was thrilled to hear about the plans, adding that this decision by the Council will have direct consequences for improving these individuals safety at night.

However, Cambridge City Council Leader Tim Bick has noted that there is still a significant minority of people who are opposed or have reservations.

Indeed, lighting was installed originally as a trial as a result of some residents reservations concerning the lights obtrusive appearance in one of Cambridge centres beauty spots. This remains a concern, as 17% of respondents objected to the lights, either based on their physical appearance or the fear that they could become obstacles for wheelchair users and cyclists.

Langsdale, however, sees the large amount of support for Parkers Piece as a gateway for similar installations throughout Cambridge:

There is still much to do. There are many areas with inadequate lighting in Cambridge such as Christs Piece, West Road, along the backs and around much student accommodation within colleges.

I hope the council continues to increase lighting locally and that colleges follow suit and begin to address the inadequacy of their lighting where it needs to be addressed.

TCS NewsCambridge Defend Education (CDE), one of the largest participating groups in the strike,

responded to University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Toopes call for

more negotiations between UUK and UCU by calling it evidence that the strike is working.



In an email seen by TCS, Matt Kite, a CDE spokesperson, said the last two days of strike

action had shown UUK how staff and students had resisted attempts by the union to create

a wedge between the two players over pension pay. It claims that strong turnout have made

this weeks action impossible to ignore.



However, the email also made clear the need to push on with continued support of striking

staff by not crossing picket lines or attending lectures and classes. It warned that any action

undermining the strike could prevent todays decision from being more than just talk.



There is only a prospect of resolving this dispute if UUK are prepared to reverse their

decision to slash pensions, it concludes. We have come a long way this week, but there is

further to go.



The two days of strike action have seen support from over 200 students attending a

demonstration outside Senate House, with supporting speeches from members of the

Cambridge University Student Union Council. Rallies yesterday and today included chants of

They say marketise, we say organise and Students and workers, unite and fight.



Action is currently expected to continue into the next week as part of 14 days of striking.

Its been nearly a year since Google eased restrictions regarding what devices can use the Google Assistant. As a result, the personal assistant has been adopted by people from all around the world but theres still plenty of work to do to reach even more potential users.

As Nick Fox, Vice President of Product at Google, notes in a recent blog post, the Google Assistant is currently available in eight languages  English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese (Brazil). By the end of the year, however, itll be available in more than 30 languages including Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian and Swedish, effectively blanketing 95 percent of all eligible Android phones worldwide.

The Google Assistant will also gain multilingual support later this year, making it even easier for families or individuals that speak more than one language to use it. This feature will first be available in English, French and German, were told, with additional languages set to be added over time.

Google next week will also flip the switch on Routines, a feature first announced late last year. With Routines, youll be able to use simple voice commands to accomplish all sorts of routine tasks. For example, on your way home from work, you could say, Ok Google, lets go home, and your Assistant can rattle off traffic updates, text your partner to let them know you are on the way and start playing your favorite podcast. Once home, simply say, Ok Google, Im home, and itll adjust the temperature of your connected thermostat, share reminders, turn on the lights and more.

Speaking of reminders, in the coming weeks, youll also be able to set location-based reminders using your smart speaker. Need to pick up milk at the grocery store? Just ask Assistant on your speaker and when you get to the store, the Assistant on your phone will remind you.Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates were indicted last October by Robert Mueller for crimes including conspiracy "to defraud the United States." Mueller then expanded the charges this week in a new indictment. A former federal prosecutor described Manafort and Gates to the Washington Post as "extensive and bold and greedy with a capital G, but not all that sophisticated." One section of the indictment shows just how unsophisticated they were.

Manafort emailed Gates a .pdf version of the real [document], which showed a loss of more than $600,000. Gates converted that .pdf into a Word document so that it could be edited, which Gates sent back to Manafort. Manafort altered that Word document by adding more than $3.5 million in income. He then sent this falsified [document] to Gates and asked that the Word document be converted back to a .pdf, which Gates did and returned to Manafort. Manafort then sent the falsified [document] to Lender D.

Manafort and Gates were attempting to secure some loans but decided to falsify their financial documents to try to get better terms. The original document was a PDF file which is not easily editable in that form. The financial document Manafort planned to submit needed to be in .pdf form but it appears that Manafort was not tech savvy enough to figure out how to convert and edit it.

He decided to email it to his business partner, Gates, who converted it and sent it back. The two traded the document back and forth in various forms as they added their fake income and eventually submitted it.

This incriminating paper trail was caused by Manafort's lack of basic technical skills and inability to do things on his own. While editing a PDF document certainly isn't trivial, anyone with elementary computer knowledge or access to Google should be able to do it. If you're committing international conspiracy and are working for a major presidential campaign, it may not be a bad idea to brush up on your computer skills.Samsung's hotly anticipated Galaxy S9 is set to arrive tomorrow in a special event that will take place a day before MWC 2018 opens its doors in Barcelona. We'll be there to witness it and get some early hands-on action with the handset.

As the dominant force in the world of Android phones, Samsung has eclipsed all competitors at this year's Mobile World Congress to the point that we don't expect major phone announcements to take place during the show (except perhaps for Sony), with LG, Huawei, Motorola, HTC and others waiting for later. Samsung's Galaxy will thus once again mark the path that other Android phone makers will follow as the year unfolds. With just a few more hours until the final reveal, here are our top five considerations ahead of the launch.

Update #3: Read our latest update, Samsung unveils its camera-focused Galaxy S9 handsets

Update #2: Watch the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2018 livestream below. Event starts Sunday 9AM PT / 12PM ET / 6PM Barcelona.

Update: This is as good as a leak gets, Samsung's official Galaxy S9 launch video is below...

#1 The Galaxy S9 will not be radically different than the S8

The Galaxy S8 took a big leap in design over the S7 with its markedly curved display and edges reaching a new extreme that even a year later, few have matched. These past holidays most of the attention centered around the newer Note 8, iPhone X and Pixel 2 on the premium segment, but the Galaxy S8 remains a really attractive phone -- more so than the ones just mentioned depending on who you ask -- so we are not surprised the South Korean electronics giant isnt straying far from that recipe.

The Galaxy S9 will be very similar to its predecessor on the outside (see the images above, courtesy of this Instagram leak), with similar sizes, aspect ratio, and svelte profile expected on both the S9 and S9+. The biggest change expected in the S9+ model is a vertically-oriented dual camera setup with the fingerprint reader positioned directly underneathsomething that will doubtlessly please those who found the sensors off-center position to be the worst thing about the S8 and Note 8.

The industry's shift towards the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack has been controversial, but if rumors ring true, the Galaxy S9 will arrive with its headphone jack intact as well. The Galaxy S9 is rumored to come packing 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, while the S9+ model will be configured with 6GB of memory and 128GB of local storage. Both will remain IP68 water and dust resistant and keep the option to add memory via microSD. The same 3,000mAh and 3,500mAh battery capacities are expected, with any battery life improvements coming from SoC efficiencies.

#2 It will be the fastest Android phone in the market

Samsung gets first dibs to Qualcomm's latest silicon, meaning the Galaxy S9 will be the first to pack the new Snapdragon 845 SoC (or Samsungs own Exynos 9810 in certain markets). The wonder 10nm chip features a Kryo 385 octa-core CPU that is 30 percent faster for the high-powered cores, and about 15 percent quicker than those in the Snapdragon 835 for low-powered tasks. On top of that, Qualcomm promises a 30 percent boost in graphics performance with its Adreno 630 GPU, and another 30 percent improvement in power efficiency.

One of the most interesting elements of the Snapdragon 845 is its Spectra 280 image signal processor. The ISP can capture images at up to 16 MP at 60 images per second, as well as high-definition slow-motion video at 480FPS. As for its high-dynamic-range capabilities, the Spectra 280 can record 4K HDR video at 60FPSa smartphone firstand capture 64 times more HDR color information compared to the Snapdragon 835.

There are more improvements on the side of security (embedded private RAM, crypto engine, biometric support and encryption). An X20 LTE modem replaces the 835s X16, bringing support for 5x Carrier Aggregation and peak speeds of 1.2Gbps. It also has support for dual-SIM connectivity. Support for Quick Charge 4+, which enables a 50 percent charge in 15 minutes, an increased focus on AR and VR technologies, and improved AI through the third-gen Hexagon Vector DSP.

#3 The camera will be better, pack new software features

Samsung has made it clear on the S9 teaser and event invitation that the phones biggest improvement will be in the photography department. Rumors indicate that both devices will feature a variable aperture on the primary 12-megapixel camera that switches between f/2.4 and f/1.5 -- this will presumably offer greatly improved low-light performance.

Let's remember that the Galaxy S7 was considered the best phone camera in the market for over a year, so Samsung didn't feel the need to stir things up with the S8 that inherited the same capabilities. Samsung isnt giving anything away in its teaser advert, though it does come with the tagline The Camera. Reimagined. Leaked images of the S9s retail packaging lists it as having a f/1.5 aperture, which would make it the largest out of all the current smartphones.

Sporting a second 12-megapixel lens on the larger S9+ would allow for portrait mode (to create a depth-of-field effect) similar to what is offered in the newer iPhones and Samsung's own dual-rear camera Galaxy Note 8. The ability to capture videos in super slow-motion is another of the rumored features.

#4 "Me too" features

Samsung and Apple are destined to copy each other, though Samsung tends to be less subtle about it. While iPhone X has not sold nearly as well as Apple hoped (hint to Samsung not to hike prices), and Galaxies already offer a design that matches or surpasses the X, the other two differentiating features that we can expect Samsung to emulate from the iPhone are Animojis and Face ID.

That would suppose Samsung has worked on new software features that combined with the improved cameras and a 3D sensor (or some other trick), it could offer an additional authentication method that improves upon the terrible iris scanner on the S8 and rival Apple's Face ID (side note, most iPhone X owners we know hate Face ID). Further confirming this, on a beta version of Samsung's Android Oreo a hidden feature was found dubbed "Intelligent Scan," which reportedly combines iris and face scanning "to improve accuracy and security even in low or very bright light."

As for animojis, this is more or less confirmed based on one Samsung's teaser videos the Galaxy S9 will allow you to map your own face to create a 3D emoji.

#5 Improbable surprises. What could impress us?

With leaks abounding, it's hard that a major feature has been missed so far, but we'll be happy to be surprised. A shortlist of great (but improbable) additions that would differentiate the Galaxy S9 include:

A shatterproof display

When we reviewed the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8 we praised the phones for its beautiful design, but that came with a big caveat: they were very susceptible to breaking from accidental drops. We wrote a column when one of our editors broke his S7 within the first month of owning it, and in our Galaxy S8 review we basically said a protective case was a must (which detracts from having a slim all-glass design in the first place).

So how about the best of both worlds? Phones like the Motorola Moto Z2 already offer a "shatterproof" display, however it's not become a big sales driver among consumers. And despite the screen's resistance to accidental drops, it tends to scratch easily. So please, surprise us Samsung.

In-screen fingerprint reader

The implementation of in-display fingerprint sensors seems like the next logical step for smartphone manufacturers. Removing the need for a bottom bezel allows them to increase screen real estate and eliminating the home button leaves fewer opportunities for the phone to wear down over time. We know Samsung (among others) has been working on this for a while now, but if it arrives on the S9 (and works flawlessly) it will be a big surprise. Synaptics and Vivo banded together to unveil the first phone to include in-display fingerprint sensing at CES 2018.

Drop Bixby

Is Bixby ever going to be a viable assistant for everyday use? It's not close today, Google's version is better and competing digital assistants that have had several years to mature like Siri are still very limited. However, companies like to tie their assistants to other services they own (like Apple and the HomePod) and Samsung wants to get the same chance. The S8's dedicated Bixby button was more of an annoyance, so hopefully this time Samsung will offer a way to remap it from scratch and find a better alternative use for that hardware button.President Lopez Obrador highlighted the importance of respecting the sovereignty of the world's peoples during his celebration speech. | Read MoreBEUYS: ART AS A WEAPON



PG, 112 minutes. Australian Centre for the Moving Image, until Monday, March 12.

"I'm ready to provoke right now," says Joseph Beuys in an archival clip from this sombre, striking documentary about the late German artist's life and work, and director Andres Veiel has crafted a film that reflects his capacity to confront and challenge, to liberate and lecture; there are as many side to Beuys (pronounced boys) as there are disciplines he created in. Zooming in and out of proof sheets and mainly working in black and white archival footage, the film shows him hard at work to further art's boundaries, whether working at an art happening or sparring with a cravat-wearing critic, while detailing his service in Hitler's armies during World War II and the subsequent psychological reckoning. Beuys, who died in 1986 at the age of 64, had a gaunt face and haunted eyes, which made the toothy smile he often flashed all the more unexpected. Instead of narration the documentary emphasises his perpetual engagement, even in the face of continued misunderstanding or outright rejection.

John Cassavetes directing a scene for his film Shadows.

"I AM HERE AND I DON'T KNOW WHY": THE FREE-FORM FILMMAKING OF JOHN CASSAVETES

melbournecinematheque.org. Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Wednesdays, February 28, March 7 and March 14.

Beginning with 1959's Shadows, which is part of this program, the actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes laid the foundations for what would become America's independent cinema movement: emotionally revelatory performances, a guerilla shooting aesthetic, and a desire to tear away conventions and reveal the messy lives lived underneath. His 1968 feature Faces (, M, 130 minutes) is the story of a middle-class and middle-aged couple, Maria and Richard Forst (Lynn Carlin and John Marley) who are at the end of their union. After loaded barbs over dinner, the pair go their separate ways for the night  carousing was a recurring antidote in Cassavetes' films  to find consolation in the company of others. The filmmaking is raw and feels improvised, but as the notes to this retrospective emphasise Cassavetes worked to weave together the disparate elements he summoned. In Faces the result is harsh but yet also compassionate  the movie has moments of tender openness and sad, sudden acceptance.QUEEN OF THE DESERT



7.30pm, NITV

A length of silver lurex billowing behind her car, Starlady, the Melbourne activist formerly known as Starpower, is aware of the Priscilla vibe she invokes as she rolls into an outback Aboriginal community to teach hairdressing to teenagers, something she has been doing since 2002. Narrated by Rachael Maza, this documentary reveals more about Starlady than her shy students, but offers a different glimpse of community life.

Queen of the Desert: teaching hairdressing.

FLEABAG



9.30pm, ABC Comedy

It's getting harder to like sex-crazed cafe owner Fleabag (series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge), especially when she toys with the feelings of her wet sock of an on-again, off-again boyfriend. But the emotional armour in which she clads herself seems overdue for a massive crack. This is an absorbing and acidly amusing study of a tortured soul just plodding on.A four-year-old boy has been rescued from a stormwater drain north of Brisbane on Saturday after becoming stuck under the grate.

A spokesman for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said the child crawled through the drain on Ridgegarden Drive in Morayfield, but became stuck just before 10.30am.

Fire crews managed to remove the grate and handed the boy over to paramedics for a check-over.

The QFES spokesman said the responding crews did hold safety concerns for the boy during the rescue because the situation "could have easily gone south".Transfield Services was worried about asylum seekers potentially rioting as it looked to clean mould off the inside of tents at the Nauru detention centre, leaked emails show.

The immigration department and then centre operator Transfield (now Broadspectrum) were warned about mould health risks to asylum seekers and staff in a top-secret 2014 report.

Transfield may have misled a Senate inquiry over its efforts to fix a mould problem at Nauru Detention Centre. Credit:Angela Wylie

The report by microbiologist Dr Cameron Jones said airborne and surface-bound fungal and bacterial cells and spores are capable of causing disease "by direct infection, toxicosis or by allergy".

At least 20 former detention centre staff have become seriously ill from mould exposure, including an Australian teacher who now has a cognitive disability.Obtained from: SBA U.S Small Business Administration Administrator Linda McMahon announced the appointment of Steve Bulger as the SBA Regional Administrator for Region II, the area that encompasses New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.According to McMahon, Bulger will be responsible for managing and overseeing the agencys lending, economic development and procurement programs over five district and six branch offices. Combined, these offices total 64 employees and assist nearly 3 million small businesses employing over 6 million workers inRegion II.SBA has 10 regions covering the United States and U.S. territories. These offices, which are managed by politically appointed administrators, play a part in supervising the 68 district offices and promoting the Presidents and SBA Administrators policies, messages and priorities throughout the region.I am very pleased that Steve is in place to help support me and the President in serving as a voice and go-to resource for our nations 30 million small businesses. In his new position as the RegionalAdministrator for Region II, I will rely on him heavily as we move forward in 2018 and beyond and look forward to working closely with him on the issues and concerns that are most important to the small businesses in his region, McMahon said.Bulger, a New York native has extensive experience in economic development, sales and marketing, and government relations, having spent thirty years in the private sector prior to his government service. I am honored to join SBAs team of talented individuals who are committed to the development of small business across New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the USVI, said Bulger. I look forward to leveraging SBA s tools and programs to help create more opportunities for small businesses to succeed, create jobs, and improve access to capital in order to drive local and national economic growth.Most recently, he served six years as District Director for Congressman Chris Gibson, where he oversaw all Congressional district operations across 15 counties in Upstate New York. In that role, he handled government affairs with the business, non-profit, and healthcare sectors, while working with other federal, state and local elected officials. This included economic development and infrastructure issues, along with helping lead the Districts disaster recovery efforts following Hurricanes Irene & Lee in 2011.Prior to that, he was a Manager with the Stryker Corporation overseeing orthopedic implant and equipment sales and marketing efforts in the Upstate NY/Western New England area, and spent a total of twenty years in the medical device sector. Bulger was also a co-founder of a digital marketing start-up firm, and worked as an investment broker in the financial services industry.Bulger is a graduate of Lafayette College with a BA in Government & Law. He has held leadership positions in numerous non-profit and local government organizations. He lives in Saratoga County with his wife Mary Beth, and they have three children.Gail Thompson's art will be one of the 30 pieces showing at Youth Projects' Art and Soul exhibition. Credit:Eddie Jim

When life on the streets would get all too much, when the concrete sucked her energy away, Gail Thompson would retreat to a beach and sketch.

For the 33-year-old, who is now in temporary housing, art has been the one constant reminder of happy times. Of days as a four-year-old spent painting with her grandmother.

"My nan, she was pretty close to me," Ms Thompson says.

"She used to sit down and note how good I was with all my colours. "Police make shocking discoveries in the course of their investigations every day  but surely there have been few as strange as that uncovered by Mill Park police last year.

More than 2400 pairs of shoes were stolen from people\'s front doors over a period of six years.

Officers were executing a search warrant in Mernda in November when they stumbled upon a stash of more than 2400 pairs of allegedly stolen work boots and sneakers.

Police arrested a 43-year-old who they allege was a notorious boot bandit behind a six-year romp through the city's northern suburbs.Mr Turnbull moved the small business ministry out of cabinet in 2015, but Mr McCormack - a former small business minister - believes the portfolio should be at the centre of the governments economic strategy.

Mr McCormack is now the clear favourite to be the next Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, after first-term MP David Littleproud said it was "highly unlikely" he would run in Monday's party meeting and a swath of Victorian and NSW MPs backed Mr McCormack over rival David Gillespie.

Nationals frontrunner Michael McCormack will call for the small business portfolio to be returned to cabinet if elected as Deputy Prime Minister and will not be afraid to stand up to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull despite the severely damaged relationship between the Coalition partners.

On Saturday, his office confirmed he would continue to his predecessor Barnaby Joyces policy of decentralisation to close the gap between our overcrowded cities and the bush, and put an emphasis on regional infrastructure projects.

In a sign the former farmer will not be afraid to pick fights with the senior Coalition partner in cabinet he highlighted his willingness to cross the floor and his motto: I promise not to be silent when I ought to speak.

The election of the Riverina MP to the Deputy Prime Ministership could also set up clashes over school funding and the National Broadband Network.

In 2010, the NBN sceptic said he had encountered very few people who rated national broadband as something they could not live without, and praised the Catholic school system for spending government funding wisely.

The Turnbull government is currently in a battle with the Catholic education sector with both sides accusing the other misleading figures as the government looks to implement a needs-based funding system that could see funding to some Catholic schools reduced.History might have seared these Labor indiscretions into collective memory, but Terry Barnes - a top adviser to Tony Abbott in the latter years of the Howard government - insists the Tories were no less naughty when they were in power. "Most MPs and staffers worked hard, many played hard and a few played very hard indeed," he recalls. "Condoms in the Meditation Room were the norm in my day, and what happened on tour stayed on tour." That infamous room, a quiet alcove above the grand Mural Hall in the centre of Parliament, was built for prayer and reflection. Each semi-private nook contains a seat, some floor space and a plaque pointing to Mecca. These days it is sparse but in its infancy, the room was packed with ridiculous, kitschy Christian babble", in the words of long-serving former Labor operative Justin Di Lollo, who recalls a number of grey plastic Jesus figures superglued on to fake pine crucifixes. I took it upon myself to relieve the room of most of it, he says. Since then, the Meditation Room has become notorious - in the sort of wink-wink, nudge-nudge innuendo indulged by colleagues on the hill - as the go-to venue for a bit of on-site action. Di Lollo, who started just weeks after the new Parliament House opened in 1988, reckons he went in there more than 100 times over a decade but "for all of the many, many, many stories that one hears, I have never in all of those visits seen any nefarious nocturnal activity or evidence thereof".

Other hot spots for hanky panky were cleaned up and squeezed out years ago. Di Lollo remembers a number of windowless "guest rooms" with green vinyl lounges dotted around the building. "There are various stories of a bit of rooting going on in there," he says with a hint of nostalgia. One contemporary staffer tells of an especially "hot and risque" moment with a journalist that was "the closest I've ever come to having sex in Parliament House". But the danger of being discovered loomed large. "He didn't have an MP suite at his disposal, so it did shift a lot of risk on to my side," the staffer said. They ended up going back to the journalist's house.

In truth, most of the sex between staff, press and lobbyists happens out of Parliament - not difficult when most people are staying at nearby hotels. Evenings during sitting weeks tend to follow a familiar path, from boozy events in the building to dinner in Kingston to  particularly on Wednesdays - the Public bar in Manuka, where the party often goes until 3am. Though the venue has changed over the years there has always been a place for the political class to blow off steam on the night before everyone leaves town. Locals seem to know to stay away on a Wednesday night, when the hordes from the hill descend. "They definitely have a good time when theyre here," says Scott Barrie, the bar manager at Public who presides over the suit-and-tie swamp. "They all get real pissed but theyre always really polite and they never act out at all. Barnaby Joyce is fighting to hang on to his career. Credit:Peter Hardin Barrie takes a laissez-faire view on the whole spectacle. "Eighty per cent of them would be guys," he observes, rightly. "Theyd just be smashing beers. What they do once they leave, I don't know."

This reporter can vouch that hook-ups between staffers and journalists are common, and Public is ground zero. And rest assured, people do not discriminate on partisan grounds. But, as Murray Watt notes, none of this should come as a shock. "If you get any sort of venue where there are large numbers of younger people gathering together with a few drinks involved, it's not surprising that sometimes people go home with each other," he says. "That happens every Friday night in every town in Australia. Canberra's no different." Alcohol can be a lubricant and a liability around Parliament. It is omnipresent, dished out for free at black tie dinners, office parties and countless drinks events put on by lobby groups and other associations. Ewen Jones, a boisterous and much-loved Liberal MP who lost his seat at the last election, says it was like being in the chocolate factory. But it was also fraught with danger. I love being on the drink. What I didnt get when I went to Canberra is people use a glass of wine as something around which to have the conversation they need to have, he says. Me, I would drink it like it was beer, and I ended up making a fool of myself on more than one occasion. I fell over in the whips office trying to find a seat and nearly took out Bronwyn Bishop. [Liberal MP] Russell Broadbent actually took me aside and said mate, you better watch yourself.

Lest you get the wrong impression, make no mistake: ministers and shadow ministers resolutely don't have the time for such shenanigans. They're up at 5am running laps around the building, doing media interviews and preparing for 16-hour work days. And even the raucous corridor parties have largely subsided, according to old hands, though there are still reckless moments. Labor veterans fondly recall the end-of-session parties during the Rudd/Gillard years. "They were wild. People were so drunk. Theres no way someone wasnt f--king in someone elses office," one attendee says. Others describe that government's tortured last months as a long bacchanale. Certain offices develop a culture and, by extension, a reputation. Then-treasurer Wayne Swan's team was notorious for enjoying a good time. Nobody would be surprised to see Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young at a party. The spirit of the old days might be dulled but it limps on with a restraint befitting the modern age. Although we were sometimes a bit horny, we never did anything inside the building, says one recently-departed Liberal staffer. I think most people are professional enough to take it to the hotel room. In the end, the overwhelming sentiment among those who discussed the topic of sex this week was simply bewilderment that anyone found time to copulate in the corridors of power.Greens candidate for Batman Alex Bhathal, flanked by leader Richard DiNatale and Melboune MP, Adam Bandt. Credit:Darrian Traynor The Australian Electoral Commission announced a confirmed field of 10 candidates on Friday. The landline phone poll of 693 voters was conducted by market research company Lonergan Research on Monday and Tuesday nights this week. It found the Liberal Partys choice not to field a candidate had given the Greens a 1 per cent lift, but less than it needed to get over the line. Although many consider the Greens to be the front-runners for this byelection, we believe the ALP hold the lead at this stage of the race, pollster Chris Lonergan said.

This may be due to differences in the popularity of the Labor candidates, or it may be due to the focus on broader, national issues. The Greens campaign has centred on Adanis massive proposed coal mine in north Queensland. The party has exploited Labors ambivalence towards the project. The Greens say the project will damage the Great Barrier Reef and release billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide. Labor leaders have not opposed the project, although Mr Shorten said on Friday he did not believe it would proceed.

The poll found Batman voters were much more likely to vote for a party that opposed the Adani mine: 76 per cent said they would be less likely to vote for a party that supported it, while 24 per cent said they would be more likely. There was also justifiable confusion about Labors position. Forty-four per cent said they believed Labor supported the proposed mine, 28 per cent believed they opposed it and 27 per cent didn't know. Mr Lonergan said it was important for Labors chances that it clarified its position on the proposed mine. If voters believe the ALP will oppose the Adani mine, the ALP has a very good chance of winning this seat, he said.

If voters remain unsure as to where the ALP stands, I would expect the Greens to continue to press their advantage in what is clearly a very important issue to voters. Labor strategists in Victoria are not optimistic about holding on to Batman following the partys recent rout in Northcote, which sits entirely within Batman's electoral boundary. But they believe the seat is winnable if the Northcote result is replicated in the gentrified southern half of the seat, and there is no swing to the Greens north of Bell Street. Labor lost Northcote with an 11.6 per cent swing to the Greens from the 2014 state result, but still performed better there than it did in the 2016 federal election. Analysis for Inside Story by former Age economics editor Tim Colebatch shows 5.3 per cent of voters swung back to Labor at Novembers state byelection.

On Friday it reheated its 2016 promise to extend tram route 11 north from Preston into Reservoir, which held firm as Labor heartland at the last federal election, but where the Greens have been doorknocking to garner support in recent days. The poll suggests the votes of those who dislike Labor and the Greens will be influential once again: 16 per cent said they would vote for another party, two-thirds of whom said they would preference Labor ahead of the Greens. South Australian senator Cory Bernardis Australian Conservatives party will run in a bid to claim to right-leaning vote and has preselected David Bailey, a former SAS soldier. The poll provided few insights into the voting intentions of younger people, as respondents skewed heavily towards people aged 35 and older. It also included significantly more women than men.Forest defenders: Ed Hill, Fiona York and Kristin Godby from Goongerah Environment Centre.

The Andrews government has spent years investigating claims of unlawful logging against its state-owned timber company without enforcing any penalties.

Documents reveal Victoria's environment department is currently probing 27 alleged forest breaches against VicForests, reported by the community between January 2016 and December 2017 - including multiple claims involving rainforests, where timber harvesting is prohibited.

At least four of those cases relate to coupes in East Gippsland, where logging activities allegedly took place in or around rainforest areas without establishing protective buffers that are required under the Code of Practice for Timber Production.

And in one of those cases, an entire section of rainforest was found within VicForests proposed harvest area before environmental lawyers obtained a Supreme Court injunction to stop the process.Washington DC: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared his visit to Washington DC a success after "frank and productive meetings" with US President Donald Trump, military leaders, business executives and more than 40 state governors.

They gave Mr Trump and first lady Melania RM Williams boots as gifts during Friday's four-hour visit at the White House.

Ms Turnbull also gave Ms Trump a scarf made by a small business located in the Wentworth electorate.

"This has been a very, very valuable visit," Mr Turnbull told reporters on Saturday before leaving for Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base and the long flight home.Vienna: Austria's new government is allowing secretive groups with links to the far right to exert control over powerful positions in the state, according to former Chancellor Christian Kern.

Kern told reporters that it was the job of his successor, Sebastian Kurz, to halt the creeping takeover by members of fraternities linked to the nationalist Freedom Party, the conservative chancellor's coalition partner.

Christian Kern, Austria's former chancellor Credit:Bloomberg

Kern, a Social Democrat, was speaking after anti-semitic songbooks were found in the possession of two of the shadowy groups, prompting the Austrian Jewish community to boycott official Holocaust memorials last month.

"There's a massive, creeping restructuring of our state," Kern said in Vienna on Friday. "A secret society, the fraternities, is infiltrating the state's structures. They are taking senior posts in the bureaucracy, in the universities, in companies, they are sitting in ministers' cabinets and have significant responsibilities."The Detroit city centre with Windsor, Ontario, on the horizon, across the Detroit River which forms the US-Canada border. Credit:ALEX MACLEAN He said he had had to fend off sceptics and theorists who believe that the hum is related to secret tunnelling, UFOs or covert government operations. Provost, a retired insurance salesman, said his work was a blend of obsession and hobby. "I've got to keep going," he said. "I'm not going to quit this." Windsor Arena, which closed in 2012. Reports of the Windsor hum first surfaced in 2011. Credit:Fabrizio Costantini The hum is not limited to Windsor, a city of about 220,000 people on the Detroit River. Provost said he had received reports from McGregor, Ontario, 30 kilometres to the south, and from east of Cleveland, about 145 kilometres away.

Tracey Ramsey, a member of the Canadian House of Commons, said in a phone interview that she regularly gets calls from constituents about the health effects of the hum. Residents have complained of headaches, sleeplessness, irritability and depression, among other symptoms. Boarded-up houses in the Sandwich neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario. Credit:JOHAN HALLBERG-CAMPBELL "It's something they are desperate for an answer to," she said. Tracing the noise's origins is complicated by who hears it, and when and where. Tim Carpenter, a retired consulting engineer who specialised in geotechnical engineering and machine vibrations and is an administrator of the Facebook page, said not everyone can hear it.

"It's as if you had a fire hose moving back and forth and the people who have the water falling on them hear the noise, and if you're outside that stream, you don't hear the noise," he said. Researchers have found no trends related to gender or age for the "hearers." Dr Darius Kohan, director of otology and neurotology at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, said that the low-frequency hum was unlikely to cause long-term hearing damage but that it could be as debilitating as tinnitus, a persistent ringing in the ears. Scott Barton, an assistant professor of music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, said that infrasound, which is below 20 hertz, can create a sense of unease because it is unintelligible to human hearing but still detectable. While it is possible to be accustomed to certain noises (the hum of an air-conditioner, for example), this low-frequency noise is challenging because it has been so inconsistent, he said. Seeking intervention by government regulators for the hum is difficult because regulations typically address decibel levels that can lead to hearing loss or damage, not those that affect quality of life, said Rebecca Smith, a sound engineer and doctoral student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who researches urban noise.

"Think about the sound of a dog barking," she said. "It doesn't need to be loud enough to physically damage you to be really annoying and distracting." The University of Windsor report said the hum's likely source was blast furnace operations on Zug Island on the Detroit River, which is densely packed with manufacturing. Activists complained that US Steel, which operates the furnaces, has been uncooperative and secretive. A company spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. A principal investigator on the study, Professor Colin Novak, told CBC News in 2014 that researchers needed more time and cooperation from US authorities to pinpoint the source. "It's like chasing a ghost," he said. Hums similar to Windsor's have been reported in at least a dozen communities worldwide, the study said. In the United States, high-profile hums have been reported in Taos, New Mexico, and Kokomo, Indiana. Researchers studied the Taos hum in 1993 but did not pinpoint a source. Karina Armijo, the town's director of marketing and tourism, said in a telephone interview that complaints had subsided.

"I have never heard the Taos hum, but I've heard stories of the Taos hum," she said. "There's not been a lot of buzz about it in the last few years." A 2003 study in Kokomo by the acoustics and vibration consulting company Acentech prompted two industrial plants to install silencing equipment, providing relief to some residents but not all, a 2008 paper about the study said. "In fact, one affected resident had become so disturbed that she moved more than 700 miles away to relieve her symptoms," it said. Carpenter said it was possible a major source of the Windsor hum could be eliminated and other mechanical sources would replace it, entering the "heard spectrum". "It's possible that no matter what is done to relieve or attenuate the noise, it might never be enough," he said.A Dangerous Drug Class Still Being Promoted

Bisphosphonate bone drugs are among the most harmful and misrepresented drug classes still on the market. But that has not stopped Pharma-funded medical associations like the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research, the National Osteoporosis Foundation and the National Bone Health Alliance from periodically wringing their hands over low sales. [1]

This week the New York Times repeats the industry lament. Currently, many people at risk of a fracture  and often their doctors  are failing to properly weigh the benefits of treating fragile bones against the very rare but widely publicized hazards of bone-preserving drugs, experts say, it writes. Hip fractures among women 65 and older on Medicare are rising says the piece and Medicare reimbursements for bone density tests are falling. Doctors who did them in private offices could no longer afford to [do them] which limited patient access and diagnosis and treatment of serious bone loss, says a doctor quoted in the article which sounds like a Pharma plea for tax-payer funding.

But here is the back story.

The first bisphosphonate bone drug approved for osteoporosis, Mercks Fosamax, received only a six month review before FDA approval. When its esophageal side effects were revealed, the FDA tried to unapprove it but Merck got the FDA to settle for a warning label that told patients to sit upright for an hour after taking the drug. Six months after Fosamax was approved, there were 1,213 reports of adverse effects including 32 patients hospitalized for esophageal harm. One woman who took Fosamax but remained upright for only thirty minutes was admitted to the hospital with severe ulcerative esophagitis affecting the entire length of the esophagus and had to be fed intravenously, according to the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Six months after Fosamax was approved, there were 1,213 reports of adverse effects including 32 patients hospitalized for esophageal harm.

Soon bisphosphonates (which include Boniva, Actonel and Zometa) were shown to weaken not strengthen bones by suppressing the bodys bone-remodeling action. Yes bone loss is stopped but since the bone is not renewed, it becomes brittle, ossified and prone to fracture. More than a decade ago, articles in the NEJM, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma and Injury warned of the paradoxical drug results. One-half of doctors at a 2010 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting presentation said theyd personally seen patients with bisphosphonate-compromised bone. There is actually bone death occurring, said Phuli Cohan, MD on CBS about a woman whod been on Fosamax for years.

By 2003, dentists and oral surgeons found that after simple office dental work, the jawbone tissue of patients taking bisphosphonates would sometimes not heal but become necrotic and die. They had received no warnings though Merck knew about the jawbone effects from animal studies since 1977.

Up to this point, this rare clinical scenario was seen only at our centers in patients who had received radiation therapy and accounted for 1 or 2 cases per year, said the authors of an article titled Osteonecrosis of the Jaws Associated with the Use of Bisphosphonates: A Review of 63 Cases, published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Despite reports of ulcerative esophagitis, bone degradation, fractures and jawbone death Merck aggressively promoted Fosamax. It hired researcher Jeremy Allen to plant bone scan machines in medical offices across the country to drive sales and to push through the Bone Mass Measurement Act which made bone scans Medicare reimbursable paid by you and me. Hopefully that is changing.

Blaming hip fractures on not enough people taking bisphosphonates is not a new tactic for Pharma. It blamed increasing suicides on not enough people taking antidepressants (even when as much as a fourth of the population takes antidepressants). Get ready for Pharma to blame obesity on not enough people taking prescription obesity drugs. The ruse is even more dishonest because many popular drugs people are taking like GERD medications really do thin bones. First do no harm.

Martha Rosenberg is author of the award-cited food expose Born With a Junk Food Deficiency, distributed by Random House. A nationally known muckraker, she has lectured at the university and medical school level and appeared on radio and television.



[1] According to the British Medical Journal, the National Osteoporosis Foundation is funded by Bayer Healthcare, Lane Laboratories, Mission Pharmacal, Novartis, Pharmavite, Pfizer, Roche, Warner Chilcott and Eli Lilly. The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research is funded by Pfizer and Eli Lilly. The National Bone Health Alliance is a public- private partnership that is an offshoot of the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Actress Emma Chambers Dies at Age 53

British actress Emma Chambers died of natural causes at age 53, the BBC reported, citing her agency.

Chambers is known for playing the character of Honey in Notting Hill. Honey is the younger sister of Hugh Grants character, William Thacker.

U.K. media reports say she died of a suspected heart attack.

Chambers also played Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley alongside Dawn French.

Chambers died on Wednesday evening, according to her agency, which added that she will be greatly missed.

Emma created a wealth of characters and an immense body of work, the agency said in a statement. She brought laughter and joy to many.

The actress is survived by her husband, Ian Dunn, also an actor.

Our beautiful friend Emma Chambers has died at the age of 53. We're very very sad. She was a great, great comedy performer, and a truly fine actress. And a tender, sweet, funny, unusual, loving human being. pic.twitter.com/vLQcRcv2Ex  emma freud (@emmafreud) February 24, 2018

Chambers won the British Comedy Award for best TV actress for her performance in Vicar of Dibley.

From NTD.tv

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaThe teapot, initially bought for $20, is the only known piece of its kind in existence. (Woolley and Wallis)

Broken Teapot Bought for 14 Pounds Sells for 575,000 Pounds

A broken teapot bought for $20 has sold for about 575,000 (US$800,000) after it was found to be one of Americas first pieces of porcelain.

The blue and white teapot, made in the United States by John Bartlam toward the end of 18th century, is reported by the BBC to be so rare as to possibly be the only one of its kind in existence.

The bargain hunter who bought the item initially thought it was common pearlware, the Telegraph reported, and that with its missing lid and broken handle glued back on was not worth much.

But the unnamed buyer took it to an expert at Woolley and Wallis auctioneers in Salisbury, UK, for a formal appraisal. It was there that he was told that the piece was actually the work of Bartlam, a Staffordshire potter who took his business abroad to the United States.

Bartlam left England around 1763, the Independent reported, and became the first known manufacturer of American porcelain.

Appraisers said this was the only known Bartlam teapot in existence, making it the earliest U.S.-made teapot ever to be discovered.

This teapot is missing a lid, and the handle is repaired. Yet it sold for more than $800,000 at auction. Why? https://t.co/FuLci2c1gy  New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) February 23, 2018

Based on what experts told him, the buyer expected the pot might fetch somewhere between $27,000 and $70,000 when it went to auction in Lincolnshire, the Telegraph reported.

But interest unexpectedly skyrocketed, and thanks in particular to strong engagement from U.S. bidders, it sold for a hammer price of $643,000. Adding in all the fees brought the final price tag to just over 575,000 pounds (US$803,000).

London dealer Rod Jellicoe ended up with the unique item, having bid on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is there that the unique teapot will be housed.

According to the Telegraph, expert Clare Durham, of Woolley and Wallis Auctioneers, said that the vessels historic importance rests in its association with the very beginning of American porcelain production.

The teapot marks the birth of American porcelain. At the time the United States was saying, We dont need British porcelain anymore.'

It means so much more to the Americans than it does to us hence why it ended up being bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Durham said. Bartlam made a fair amount in America but no pieces survive over there. We dont know how the tea service came to Britain but it might have been when Bartlam visited in 1769.

The 9 cm (3-inch) tall teapot is decorated with a bright blue pattern featuring two cranes under a palm tree on one side, and on the othera man on a bridge.

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaDog Gets Shot Protecting Teen During Home Invasion

Robbers shot a dog after they broke into a home in Des Moines, Washington. The dog survived the shooting and managed to distract the robbers from a 16-year-old hiding in a closet.

The 2-year-old German Shepherd, Rex, ran downstairs when he heard the robbers. They beat him until he was bloody, and then he ran back upstairs to the closet where the boy was hiding, Kiro 7 reported.

The robbers moved through the house, trashing each room they encountered. When they approached the room with the boy and Rex, the dog again took action. According to a Gofundme page for the dogs medical bills, upon the second encounter, Rex was shot four times. The robbers ran off when they heard police sirens.

Rex looked dead when police found him. But he survived and is in stable condition at the animal hospital, according to Kiro 7.

The family has already raised almost $40,000 on Gofundme in just one day, after seeking only $10,000 for the dogs medical bills. The campaign has been shared over 4,000 times.

There is nothing in the world that compares to the total and unconditional love and devotion our canine family members give us. The most amazing thing is that they ask for nothing but love in return. Humanity surely needs to learn this lesson. Best wishes for a speedy recovery Rex, commented Tami Long, via the Gofundme page.

Since youve far exceeded your goal, please buy Rex a nice steak with my donation. He deserves steak every day for the rest of his life! GOOD BOY, REX! commented Susanne Shaw.

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Emotional Footage Shows Overjoyed Family After Being Reunited With Missing Dog Only one of three planned executions completed: Florida carries out death sentence, Texas Gov commutes at last minute, and Alabama misses deadline | Main | Notable video from American Conservative Union: "Unshackled - America's Broken Justice System" 

February 23, 2018

Interesting sentencing details as former Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleads guilty and faces significant prison time

In this post from October following their indictment, I highlighted that former campaign officials for Prez Trump, Paul Manifort and Rick Gates, could be facing very significant prison terms in light of the charges and potentially applicable sentencing guidelines. Today, as reported here by BuzzFeed News, "Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and longtime associate of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty on Friday in the criminal case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's office." And the BuzzFeed News report includes these interesting legal and practical sentencing particulars:

The two counts in the new criminal information each have a maximum penalty of five years in jail. According to Gates' plea agreement with the special counsel's office, he faces an estimated sentencing guidelines range of between 57 and 71 months in jail and a fine between $20,000 and $200,000; those numbers could change when the guidelines range is ultimately calculated, the judge noted. Gates' lawyer Thomas Green told the judge that he reserved the right to argue for a lower sentence based on Gates' "disproportionate conduct" as compared to Manafort. Gates has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's office. If prosecutors determine he has "provided substantial assistance," they have agreed to file a motion asking for a downward departure from the sentencing guidelines range. When Gates is sentenced, the government will dismiss the remaining counts in the original indictment as well as the new charges filed in Virginia. As part of the plea deal, Gates agreed to delay his sentencing to give him time to cooperate. Asked how far out into the future the judge should set a deadline for the government to update the court on the status of the case, special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann suggested three to four months. US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a deadline for a status report for May 14. Gates spoke little during the plea hearing. He and Green declined to speak with reporters after the hearing as he exited the courthouse and got into a car. He'll remain free pending sentencing, albeit subject to continued GPS monitoring and certain limits on his ability to travel beyond his home city of Richmond, Virginia. He also had to agree to forfeit certain assets if he fled or failed to show up to court.

The folks at Lawfare have Gates's superseding criminal information and plea agreement now posted at this link. That agreement explains the ways in which the parties determine that "the applicable Guidelines Offense Level will be at least 25" which means the "estimated Sentencing Guidelines range is 57 months to 71." The plea agreement also speaks to potential departure arguments this way:

Your client agrees that, solely for the purposes of calculating the applicable range under the Sentencing Guidelines, a downward departure from the Estimated Guidelines Range set forth above is not warranted, subject to the paragraphs regarding cooperation below and the argument that the Guidelines do not adequately reflect the defendant's role in the offense. Accordingly, you will not seek any departure or adjustment to the Estimated Guidelines Range set forth above, nor suggest that the Court consider such a departure or adjustment for any other reason other than those Specified above. Your client also reserves the right to disagree with the Estimated Guideline Range calculated by the Office. However, your client understands and acknowledges that the Estimated Guidelines Range agreed to by the Office is not binding on the Probation Office or the Court. Should the Court or Probation Office determine that a different guidelines range is applicable, your client will not be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea on that basis, and the Government and your client will still be bound by this Agreement.

February 23, 2018 at 04:26 PM | Permalink

Comments

Watergate redux.

Posted by: Sam the prosecutor | Feb 23, 2018 5:09:23 PM

The defense lawyers should have ordered Michael Levine's "171 Easy Mitigating Factors" before making the deal--but hell, maybe they did.

Posted by: Emily | Feb 23, 2018 5:11:40 PM

Emily, they did, but only two of the 171 applied!!

Posted by: anon1 | Feb 23, 2018 5:13:40 PM

the dominoes are falling one by one.

Posted by: Mary contrary | Feb 23, 2018 5:44:47 PM

The plea agreement says that Gates "will not seek any departure or adjustment to the Estimated Guidelines Range set forth above, nor suggest that the Court consider such a departure or adjustment for any other reason other than those Specified above." Nothing here, however, prohibits Gates from arguing for a downard "variance" from the guidelines, as opposed to a departure or adjusment. Plea agreements are strictly construed gainst the government!!

Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Feb 23, 2018 8:26:42 PM

Trump and his cronies "only choose the best" advisors: Papadopoulos (felon) , Gates (felon), Flynn (felon), Alex van der Zwaan (felon) , Manafort (charged with multiple felonies). Historians, what do you say? Are we approaching Watergate levels? TeaPot Dome?

Readers, you be the judge. Here's a nice summary of historic scandals by one website:

1. The Credit Mobilier Scandal

The Credit Mobilier scandal was the first major corruption scandal in the wake of the Civil War. Starting in 1867, several high-ranking Republican congressmen (all close supporters of soon to be President Ulysses S. Grant), were given and/or purchased at below market prices stock in the Credit Mobilier of America company, which was involved in the funding and construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. The Congressmen then proceeded to grant a number of public subsidies and other gifts to the company to help line their own pockets. Another of the major players was another future President: James A. Garfield.

2. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings

Thomas Jefferson's alleged relationship with Sally Hemmings was the first presidential sex scandal in the United States and prompted a discussion that continues to this day. In 1802 Jefferson was charged with having an affair with his slave, Sally Hemmings, and in fact fathering a child. Jefferson denied the charges and remained as president for another 7 years, however the debate about the truth of the matter continued until 1998 when DNA testing proved that Jefferson more than likely fathered at least one of Sally Hemming's children.

3. The Whiskey Ring

Ulysses S. Grant's presidency is often considered to be one of the most corrupt in history, and with good reason, as two major scandals took place during his presidency. The second was the Whiskey Ring scandal, involving a bribery and tax evasion scandal among many high ranking members of his cabinet (and even his own private secretary) and whiskey distillers. It resulted in the impeachment of his secretary of war, William Belknap, although he resigned before he could be convicted.

3. Iran-Contra

Iran-Contra is one of the biggest scandals to rock the presidency in modern times. When news that the Reagan administration was not only selling arms to Iran but using the profits to secretly fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua, whom Congress had forbid the President from giving assistance too, the story caused a firestorm throughout the country. Admiral John M. Poindexter and Lt. Colonel Oliver North became the major targets of the scandal and became embroiled in lengthy trials and originally convicted for their roles although these convictions were later released on appeal, among fourteen other persons charged criminally in the whole affair. The scandal continues to be a black mark upon the Reagan presidency for many.

4. Teapot Dome

The Teapot Dome scandal of the Warren G. Harding administration has long been one of the poster boys of the world of presidential scandals. Harding transferred control of naval oil reserve lands over to the Department of the Interior in 1921 (although it was later reversed by the Supreme Court, who ruled the move illegal). Then Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall used his new power for personal gain, giving rights to the Teapot Dome Reserve in Wyoming to the Mammoth Oil company in return for bribes. When the scandal broke in 1924 he was found to have accumulated over $100,000 worth of bribes from the Mammoth Oil Company, among others. Although Harding had already died in office prior to the scandal breaking, it became a hot topic of controversy for years after his death and continues to plague his now infamous legacy.

5. Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky

Perhaps no other scandal in presidential history can equal the Monica Lewinsky affair for pure sensationalism and absurdity. President Bill Clinton's sexual affair with an intern ultimately led to the second presidential impeachment in the history of the country (the first was that of Andrew Johnson in 1868). Although Clinton was ultimately acquitted of any crime, the affair became a laughing stock around the world and led to one of the most unusual documents in political history: the Starr Report, which intimately and often graphically described Clinton's entire sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsy.

6. Watergate

There may be many scandals in the annals of United States presidential history, but none can compare for sheer impact with that of the Watergate scandal under the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. Beginning with a break-in at the Democratic headquarters stationed in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. by five members of Nixon's re-election campaign. Although not initially involved Nixon found out about the break-in and did everything he did to cover up the scandal. When he was ultimately found out the news shocked the nation and led to a grand disillusionment with the American political system. It has also led to just about every subsequent presidential scandal, both large and small, gaining the suffix "gate." (I.E. Whitewatergate, Monicagate, Plamegate, etc.)

Readers, where do you think the "Russia-gate" scandal will ultimately rank?

Posted by: Sandra the historian | Feb 23, 2018 11:19:52 PM



Current washington crew couldnt organize a 3 car parade and have it done on time or within budget.



Posted by: MidWestGuy | Feb 24, 2018 6:57:48 AM

Trump's Russia-gate scandal is just unfolding. In my veiw it will ultimately equal if note surpass Watergate.. I have no doubt that the evidence will show that he and his cronies conspired with Russia to accept Russia's help in winning the election in return for lifting of sanctions. I also have no doubt that Russia has been black-mailing Trump by threatening to release docuements showing his and his children's laundering of dirty Russian money. There may also be photos of Trump or his son in sexually compromising positions with Russian prostitutes. In short, Russia has had him by the gonads, and we continue to pay the price.

Posted by: Dave from Texas | Feb 24, 2018 11:08:00 AM

Seriously?? The comments in this thread sounds like they are coming out of the Twilight Zone than by ostensibly learned legal boffs. Considering that most of the "evidence" seems to have emanated from the Democratic Party in the lead-up to the 2016 election, including the staffing of the FBI and DOJ with individuals in place to PREVENT, not PEVERSE, such investigation to take place, in the event Hillary Clinton were elected. The fact that it was Donald Trump severely upended their plans, and suddenly exposed themselves to some potentially damaging exposure. (Every Mueller staffer is a Democrat donor with absolute incentive to push their agenda more than anything else.)

The fact that the investigators themselves may have more culpability to actual criminal actions (actual crimes by Hillary Clinton, coverup by Obama, Lynch, Huma Abedin, etc.) than Trump did to being "blackmailed" is hilarious.

The bottom line: The investigation will continue throughout 2018, with one, and only ONE purpose: to flip the House, and if possible the Senate, to the Democratic Party, by discrediting Trump and the Republican Party. Key factor: Trump voters do not care if Trump kills someone on 5th Avenue, and Clinton voters do not care if she illegally kept confidential emails on private servers (and lied about them).

The Deep State, whether Democrat or Republican individuals are involved, is the real culprit. Once it takes root, the legal profession is over. Keep abreast.

Posted by: Eric Knight | Feb 24, 2018 12:44:47 PM

The deep state and its adversaries are all lawyers. All conflict generates legal salaries. They can switch sides if that step would generate even more employment.

Posted by: David Behar | Feb 24, 2018 2:50:40 PM

Former Nixon aide John Dean asserted over the weekend that former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates could bring down Donald Trumps entire presidency. In a tweet on Saturday, Dean explained why Gates testimony against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort also puts the president in peril.

Mueller is throwing everything he can against Manafort, including Gates who can nail him, Dean wrote. Increasingly it appears Manafort is the link to Russian collusion. If Gates can testify that Manafort was acting with Trumps blessings, its the end of his presidency, he added. Thats substantial.

Posted by: Houdini | Feb 26, 2018 11:04:30 AM

You don't have to be a Houdini to recognize that Trump will be unable to escape from Mueller's snare.

Posted by: Mary contrary | Feb 26, 2018 2:18:59 PM

Post a commentDont Count on History to Predict the Future

Pollsters, stock pickers, and political prognosticators have been spectacularly wrong in their predictions in the recent pastso frequently that doing so has become the norm. Their overreliance on historical performance to attempt to predict the future has often proven to be fallacious.

Twenty years ago they might have been justified in presuming that what happened in the past will prove to be an accurate guide about what may happen in the future, but in the era of paradigm shifts and serial disruptionthat has changed. Historical performance no longer serves as an accurate guidepost to the future in a whole host of areas.

One need look no further than the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, the Brexit vote, or the Colombian peace referendum to see how spectacularly the pollsters and bookies got it wrong. Very few pundits predicted that Donald Trump would win, with those who missed it having relied too much on what used to determine voter sentiment and how that was measured.

While UK voters were broadly expected to reject Brexit. Colombian voters were widely expected to embrace the originally signed peace agreement with the FARC rebels (at the time), they ended up doing exactly the opposite.

Are these misses resulting from outdated polling methods, a failure to truly understand the pulse and intention of voters, missing the boat completely, or the combining of some of these variables? Have voters around the world become so fickle and the rise of populism so unpredictable that accurately predicting election outcomes is no longer possible?

Something similar may be said about historical U.S. economic performance, which would suggest that the United States has been due for a recession for some time. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which has tracked recessions on a monthly basis since 1854, between 1854 to 1919, there were 16 economic cycles, the average recession lasted 22 months, and the average economic expansion was 27 months. From 1919 to 1945, there were 6 cycles, recessions lasted an average of 18 months and expansions for 35 months. The period from 1945 to 2009 saw 11 cycles, recessions lasted an average 11 months, and expansions an average of 58 monthsso recessions got shorter and expansions longer over time.

Since the third quarter of 2009, the U.S. economy has expanded every quarter but one (in 2014) and is poised to continue the trend through at least 2018. Given that the U.S. economy still remains the de facto engine of the global economy, far outpacing Europe and most other developed economies, there would appear to be little reason to believe that there are two consecutive quarters of negative growth or real GDP in the near-term future (which would constitute the beginning of a recession).

On this basis, current U.S. economic performance is blowing statistics for the past 170 years out of the water, with 80+ months of post-recession growth. This is evidence that technology, innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurialism, which are so prevalent in the U.S. economy, are translating into extended economic gains that literally swim against the tide of history.

That said, the change in global economic dynamics, with a transition away from developed country domination of the global economy in favor of emerging economies, has had a profound impact on economic statistics. Trade flows have shifted away from the predominant north/north and north/south orientation toward a south/north and south/south orientation. As Chinese outward foreign investment continues to expand and given the recent change in the U.S. tax law, it is difficult to predict what the impact on corporate asset valuations and profit will be in the longer term.

As these examples illustrate, there is great danger in presuming that what has happened in the past will provide any indication of what will happen in the future. This has as much to do with the rise of nationalism as it does with the free flow of information, instant communication, and the voice of voters who were previously either shut out or not heard having become integrated into the political process.

It also has to do with the need to integrate previously ignored or unforeseen factors into the equation and discarding the outdated and increasingly mistaken view that the way it was done in the past is the way it will be done in the future, simply because it has always been done that way.

To those political pundits who continue to proclaim that they know the outcome of the next election anywhere in the world, those stock market prognosticators who swear to their brethren that they know the future movement of stocks or the market, and those global leaders who honestly believe that they are in tune with the pulse of their peoplethey are probably all wrong. Historical performance is no longer a reliable guide to the future. The sooner we all admit that the better off we will all be.

Daniel Wagner is CEO of Country Risk Solutions and author of the new book Virtual Terror.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.An Oxfam activist stages a street play near a meeting of European Union ministers over a blacklist of non-EU tax havens, in Brussels on Dec. 17, 2017. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Europes Misguided Tax Crusade

The United States is cutting taxes; the EU is protecting its punitive tax regime

The United States and the European Union (EU) have two completely different approaches to taxation.

To make American companies more competitive, President Donald Trump kept his electoral promise and cut taxes on corporate profits significantly. To prevent the rest of the world from outcompeting European producers, the EU served notice it would renew and intensify its fight against tax evasion (violations of tax laws), tax avoidance (exploiting loopholes in the tax legislation), and unfair tax competition.

To that end, the European Commission prepared a blacklist of 17 countries. According to the commission, each of these countries represents a serious threat to fiscal and commercial order worldwide. The list includes South Korea, Mongolia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and smaller states such as St. Lucia and Samoa; it excludes EU members themselves.

Growth V ersus Welfare

The principles of the American and EU approaches to taxation are clear. According to the current U.S. administration, the best way of solving economic problems is growth. High rates of economic growth make public expenditure sustainable, keep unemployment low, eliminate the need for monetary somersaults to stimulate demand, and ultimately serve to defuse social tensions. In this light, by reducing the tax burden, Trump showed the way to encourage entrepreneurship and create wealth.

The EUs take is manifestly different. From the European perspective, the main policy goal is to avoid cuts in the public expenditure necessary to maintain a large welfare state and engage in redistribution. Thus, tax revenue must stay high and possibly rise.

A Simple Question

On second thought, however, it is hard to believe that those 17 countries could present a serious threat to any EU policy, no matter how bad the policies might be. Growth has recently picked up in Europe as well, and economic forecasts admit some optimism.

If so, why has the commission reverted to its focus on tax evasion and tax avoidance, targeting a handful of harmless countries, when it could simply relax and enjoy the expanding tax base that economic growth delivers?

It is theoretically possible for a company with substantial operations in France to set up its headquarters in, say, Ulan Bator and demand that Paris and Brussels respect Mongolian tax rules. Yet that would not deter the national tax authorities and the EU from extracting taxes and possible fines from the offender, even without a tax treaty with Mongolia.

The simple answer is that the commission does not believe that Mongolia, Tunisia, or Samoa are fearsome competitors that will soon attract swarms of European companies seeking tax havens. The real purpose of this EU tax crusade, I would suggest, is to keep some of its member countriesfor example, Malta, Ireland, and the Netherlandsin line.

Now that entrepreneurialism is on the rise worldwide, countries and regions hostile to entrepreneurship have much to lose. If some EU countries were to take this opportunity to follow in Trumps footsteps, the EUs own cherished project of centralization would be doomed.

It emphasizes a more centralized vision of economic policymaking at all levels, along with a unique tax strategy that nurtures a large welfare state and rampant state intervention and would not work if some smaller states chose to go the opposite way.

Foolish Pride

With this in mind, the commission has chosen to act preemptively. Its priority is to enforce discipline within its own ranks, while reminding EU members about their duty to enforce tax compliance, and punish those who dare to cut taxes.

The renewed efforts to combat low-tax regimes are thus not directed at tax havens but at those who might disrupt the tax cartel already operating in Europe today.

If this assessment is accurate, should we expect growing tensions within the EU, as some countries resist the strategy imposed by Brussels?

In the short run, the commission will probably succeed in enforcing fiscal discipline within the EU bloc and foolishly feel proud about it. In the long term, the outlook could be considerably darker. Europe may have reason to brag about the sharpness of its fiscal claws. But the excessive tax burden will only help kill growth, while other parts of the world keep forging ahead.

Enrico Colombatto is a professor of economics at the University of Turin, Italy, and a senior fellow at Geopolitical Intelligence Services. This report was first published by GIS Reports Online.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.The 5-mile hikes, yoga classes, and communal dinners are now routine for the residents at PDX Commons Cohousing in Portland, Oregon.

These 39 individuals (about half partnered but largely strangers at first) started forging relationships well before they moved in late this summer to join a trend called cohousing.

Here, you walk in and know every one of the people and you know them well, said Steve Fisher, 63, a retired transportation planner who leads the weekly hikes.

He and his wife moved from San Jose, California, to PDX Commons.

You greet them. Theyre your friends. You do stuff with them. Its the opposite of the isolation you sometimes get in the urban areas.

Its not a commune and theres no sharing of income, though decision-making is by consensus. Cohousing bolsters sharing of items like a lawnmower and tools or builds it in, like sharing an on-site laundromat, or guest quarters for out-of-town visitors.

Homes are private, clustered near a common space where homeowners meet regularly to share meals and build community.

Of the nations 168 cohousing communities, almost all are intergenerational. But now, as more aging adults reject the idea of institutional living, cohousing has become an attractive option.

In 2010, no U.S. cohousing communities were geared toward seniors. PDX Commons is now the nations 13th such community for the 55-and-older demographic. Two more are under construction and 13 others are in the early stages of development.

Interest in cohousing has not only increased in general but especially in the senior world, said Karin Hoskin, executive director of Coho/US, the Cohousing Association of the United States, a nonprofit that supports cohousing communities nationwide.

While groups of friends may discuss growing old together on common ground, in most cohousing communities, the residents start as strangers who plan to help each other for the rest of their lives. Fisher said part of the home-buying process includes months of getting-to-know-you activities that precede the purchase.

We are people who have the ability to live independently who intended to come together to form a community, Fisher said of the group that ranges in age from 57 to 80. We made it really clear: Were not a care facility.

Trudy Hussman, 68, bought into PDX Commons in June 2016 after retiring two years ago.

I had been living alone for a long time and was feeling fairly isolated since I retired. I was used to it but not happy with it, she said. I started thinking that living in a community with other similar people would be an antidote.

Clinical psychologist Elizabeth Lombardo, of Chicago, agrees. Social support is critical to health and well-being, with countless studies showing those with social ties live longer, are healthier, happier, and have less stress, she said.

From a psychological and physical health perspective, its a pretty cool idea, Lombardo said of cohousing. It depends upon how open-minded and like-minded people are.

Sidney Ewing, 82, and his wife of 54 years, Margaret Ewing, 77, had second thoughts about moving to the cohousing Oakcreek Community in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The couple, both retired professors from Oklahoma State University, were among the groups founders but dropped out.

We decided the social load might be too heavy for us, he said. We are much more introverts.

Two events changed their thinking. A neighbor fell down the stairs at home and was on the floor eight hours before being found. And, they got a notice from Oakcreek of an approaching deadline. They rejoined in time to get in on the planning and moved in five years ago when the community opened.

Cohousing came to the United States after architects Charles Durrett, 62, and his wife, Kathryn McCamant, 57, learned about the concept in Denmark. The Nevada City, California, couple became advocates and have designed more than 55 such projects in the USA and consulted on others.

Cohousing fulfills a variety of needs, from saving money through sharing to having ready companions. Cohousing developments include private homes (typically 20 to 40 such homes, with square footage reflecting a downsized lifestyle) clustered around shared space designed to promote frequent interaction. The legal entity is usually a condo or homeowners association with monthly fees, generally between $100 to $350, Durrett said.

Structurally, theyre infinitely different, he said. It needs to be designed from scratch for each group.

At some senior projects, one of the guest rooms in the common house was designed for future caregivers to assist homeowners; however, the cohousing communities say they havent been used that way because anyone who might have needed such help hired someone privately. Cohousing communities dont aim to be continuing-care or nursing facilities, homeowners say.

None of us moved in here with the idea of bathing or dressing our neighbors, said Pat Darlington, 66, of Oakcreek. There are certain things were committed to doing and certain things were not.

The nations first senior cohousing community opened in December 2005 with eight homes and a dozen individuals at Glacier Circle in Davis, California, about 15 miles from Sacramento. Seven of the initial group remain.

Were declining and holding on and trying to be good to each other, said Stan Dawson, 86, president of its homeowners association. Theres no sense that anyone wants to move out to a nursing home yet, unless they absolutely have to.

Dawson said the community connected as members of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Davis but didnt really know each other.

As time has gone on, were more of a family, he said.

Their thrice-weekly communal dinner has expanded to Monday to Friday most weeks. From the beginning, they hired a cook, but now that the members are aging, Dawson said theyre also hiring out other needs.

Alan OHashi, 64, who moved to senior cohousing at Silver Sage Village in Boulder, Colorado, in 2010, offers newbies some advice.

The best thing about cohousing are neighbors and the worst thing about cohousing are the neighbors, he said. You get to know people in ways you wouldnt. Youre putting up with everyones positives and negatives and striking a balance between being in community and being an individual.

Lew Bowers, 65, said PDX Commons is learning that. In consensus, he said, you have to think about whats good for the group.

KHNs coverage related to aging and improving the care of older adults is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation.Indias PNB Adopts Strict SWIFT Controls After Mega Fraud Case

MUMBAIIndias state-run Punjab National Bank has stepped up its controls on the use of global payments network SWIFT following an alleged $1.77 billion fraud, according to memos issued this month and seen by Reuters.

Indias second-biggest state lender this month revealed the countrys biggest loan fraud, which it alleges was committed by two junior officials at a Mumbai branch, who issued unauthorized letters of undertaking (LOU) via SWIFT, for firms linked to a billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

The undertakings, which PNB says were issued between 2011 and 2017 with incomplete ledger entries by the two officials, were used by Modi and Choksis firms to obtain credit from the overseas branches of mostly Indian lenders.

Auditors and the Reserve Bank of India have been under scrutiny over how they could have failed to detect a scam of such proportions.

A lawyer for Modi has denied his client was involved in any fraud. Choksi has not commented but his firm, Gitanjali Gems, has also denied involvement in the alleged fraud.

The new measures mean only PNB officers will be able to initiate messages on SWIFT, taking away the authority of clerks to do so. Several new limits have been placed on the amount that officers can generate depending on their seniority in the bank hierarchy.

The note sent by the banks head office in New Delhi to all regional offices on Feb. 17 also stated any SWIFT message will have to be created, verified, and authorized by three different officers, starting Feb. 22. Previously only two individuals were needed for the process.

In continuation of efforts to strengthen SWIFT operation and deploy additional measures to ensure more effective control, it has been decided to set up SWIFT user base limits, the note went on to say.

A SWIFT spokeswoman in Brussels said it was aware of the reports around PNB but that it could not comment on individual customers.

When a case of potential fraud is reported to us, we offer our assistance to the affected user to help secure its environment, Natasha de Teran said. SWIFT can reassure customers that there is no indication the SWIFT network has been compromised.

New Division

PNB has also created a unit called Treasury Division Mumbai for re-authorization of most messages sent over SWIFT by branches. The messages include those meant for LOUs, according to a separate circular the bank sent to all its offices on Feb. 12.

The designated officer at SWIFT Center, Treasury division, will cross-check the credentials of (the) message in Finacle, said the note, referencing the lenders core banking software that was allegedly bypassed to pull off the scam, whose scale PNB only disclosed last week.

Any rejection due to any mismatch will be kept on record for audit by auditors, the note added.

The alleged fraud occurred as one PNB deputy manager, with the assistance of one or more colleagues, issued more than 100 fraudulent LOUs for firms linked to Modi and Choksi.

Indias federal police have arrested some half a dozen bank officials, including the two junior Mumbai officials, as well as employees of companies controlled by Modi and Choksi. Lawyers and families of the accused officials have denied any wrongdoing.

The Central Bureau of Investigation says Modi and Choksi left the country last month before the issue came to light.

Since PNB disclosed the fraud last week the bank, auditors and the Reserve Bank of India have been under scrutiny over how they could have failed to detect a scam of such proportions.Missouri Man Kills Fiancee and Her Son Before Turning Gun on Himself

Police in Missouri rushed to a Bellefontaine Neighbors home after receiving a chilling 911 call saying that inside, they would find three bodies.

According to the St. Louis Dispatch, when officers arrived at the residence, they found a 4-year-old girl pretending to be asleep, and the bodies of the girls mother and 15-year-old half-brother.

The suspected caller, identified as Dornubari Dugbor, 31, was also found in the home, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Katrina Banks, 31, and her son Kevin Johnson, 15, had been shot to death.

Its a shame. I just would not expect it right here and then being so close to my home, said neighbor Miceala Redmond, according to a Fox2 report.

It was reported by the St. Louis Post Dispatch that Bellefontaine Neighbors Police Chief Jeremy Ihler said the little girl was in the home when her parents and half-brother died. The chief added that the child was unharmed.

It is reported that Dugbor and Banks were engaged to be married and the girl was their common daughter.

The police chief said the child heard the first shots and came into the living room, finding her mother on the floor. Dugbor was said to have told her to go back to her room, which she did.

She heard several shots fired after that, Ihler said.

The police at first thought that they could be dealing with a triple homicide, as crime scene suggested bullets had been fired from the area of the front door. But investigators later concluded that a murder-suicide had taken place, as Dugbor was found dead bent over on the couch with his cellphone in hand and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in his lap.

Police believe that Dugbor made the 911 call and then pulled the trigger.

Banks reportedly lived at the home with her son and neighbors told reporters they saw the little girl at the home occasionally playing outside.

They also said Dugbor sometimes stayed at the home but had a residence in St. Louis.

Police did not indicate a motive and said that relatives did not report any mental health issues or conflicts between the parties involved.

I had to sit down and gather myself because I was in shock as I am now, said Dr. Katrice Noble, a longtime friend of Banks, according to KSDK.

Police believe that Banks was shot in the living room and that her son was shot after he came to see what the commotion was.

He made it to the hallway before succumbing to his wounds, Ihler told reporters.

Citing a police statement, Fox2 reported that law enforcement had not had prior contact with this home, and none of the individuals involved had criminal records.

Theyve made contact with the relatives of the victims, who said there was no indication something like this might happen.

At the time of reporting the child was being evaluated at a hospital, with the authorities planning to hand custody over to relatives.

I think it is going to be very imperative for this community to come together to assist this young baby, said Noble, adding that she plans to set up a fund for the surviving 4-year-old girl.

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaNursing Home Employee Indicted in Death of Neglected WWII Veteran Surrenders

One of the three nursing home employees indicted in the death of a WWII veteran has surrendered to authorities in Georgia.

Wanda Nuckles, 61, turned herself in to the DeKalb County Sheriffs Office on Friday, Feb. 23, a sheriff spokeswoman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Nuckles was a licensed practical nurse when James Dempsey, 89, was found dead in his room at Northeast Atlanta Rehabilitation Center four years ago.

Hidden footage revealed that Dempsey had called for help just before he died but he was ignored by Nuckles and two other nurses.

The video showed the three women laughing at the World War II vet.

They are also accused of trying to cover up their neglect, which was only revealed when the footage emerged recently.

Video surveillance shows the patient suffering in respiratory distress and repeatedly calling out for help. Soon after his distress calls, the victim became unresponsive, the DeKalb County District Attorneys Office said in a statement Wednesday, reported UPI.

The indictment alleges the Defendants, in varying degrees, failed to provide timely and necessary medical assistance, ultimately resulting in Mr. Dempseys death.

Dempseys family had placed the hidden camera in his room because they were anxious about his staying in a nursing home, his son told WSB-TV.

We would have just thought it was natural causes and everything was done that should have been done and he passed away in his sleep, Tim Dempsey said, referring to what would have happened if they had not placed the camera in the room.

Attorney Michael Prieto, who is representing the Dempsey family, said that the main problem is covering up what happened.

If they made a mistake then a person of integrity stands up and says I made mistake and you deal with the consequences that certainly hasnt happened in this case, Prieto said.

Nuckles was charged with Depriving an Elder Person of Essential Services. Loyce Agyeman was charged with Felony Murder and Neglect to an Elder Person. Mable Turman was charged with Neglect to an Elder Person. All three women were also charged with Concealing the Death of Another.

Agyeman and Turman are still at large, the sheriff spokeswoman said.

From NTD.tv

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Teen Breaks the Ice on Frozen Trampoline in One Epic BounceBroken glass at the entrance to Forest Acres Liquor on Feb. 22, 2018. (Tulsa Police Department)

Oklahoma Mom and Daughter Shoot Down Armed Robber in Fight for Their Lives

An Oklahoma mom and her daughter gunned down an armed robber after he attempted to rob their liquor store on Feb. 22, KJRH reported.

In an action-packed, yet terrifying security camera video, the two women are seen firing several shots at the robber after locking him inside the store.

The robber was identified as Tyrone Lee, 36. He was in an induced coma at a hospital and expected to survive, Dailymail reported.

The owner of the store, Justin Christian, was out of town when his mother and sister faced the robber. Christian reviewed the tape with KJRH.

The family successfully defended themselves with handguns at a time of intensified national debate over gun rights, triggered by a deadly shooting at a Florida high school.

I basically see a guy walk in the door from this angle and have a sawed-off 12 gauge, the owner of the store, Justin Christian, told KJRH. My mom says, open the drawer, give him the money, give him the money.

Once the robber got what he wanted, he headed for the door. This is when the mom tried to lock the robber in the small room between two doors at the entrance. But only one door locked.

Shes says, stop, stop but hes still got the gun, Christian explained. He reached over, she ducked and fired again, and of course the guns empty or else my mom and sister would be dead.

When the moms gun runs out of ammo, the robber struggles with her for the gun. This is when the daughter pulled out a gun of her own and fired a shot at Lee point blank.

The women then flee from Lee as he stumbles around behind the counter and eventually collapses.

What theyre showing on TV aint the real deal when you really watch it and know it and clean up the blood, and really understand what happened, Christian said.

The store reopened the next day. Some customers came just too look at the two women who stood up to the robber.

The clerks did an outstanding job of fighting him, Tulsa Police Sgt. Dave Walker told KJRH.

From NTD.tv

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Surveillance Footage Shows Robber Attack Virginia Store EmployeePregnant Goat Shot Dead at Trendy Goat Yoga Farm

A pregnant goat was found shot to death at a farm in Maine that holds goat yoga classes.

Smiling Hill Farm said the goat was shot on the morning of Feb. 18 during a snowstorm. Investigators determined the goat was shot dead in its fenced pen, according to a press release posted to Facebook. Farm staff discovered the dead goat during feeding time.

The goat was a 5-year-old Toggenburg female named Ava.

It has been a difficult week for our Farm family on the hill this week. Many of you were no doubt introduced to Ava, our goat, as she and her twins were a part of our Baby Goat Snuggling Events, and she spent the Summer in our Baby Goat Petting Area of the Barnyard, the farm wrote via Facebook.

People commenting on the post are offering donations for reward money to capture the shooter. Some people are also offering money toward a surveillance system.

As a fellow goat owner I find this incredibly sad. I had visited the farm over the summer with my little niece and nephew, and Ava was by far their favorite goat, commented Kristy Kendrick.

Im here on a short visit to see my sister and was so sad to see this as Smiling Hill has been a favorite of our family for years. I hope they catch the people who did this soon! commented Pam Crandall.

The farm has been around since 1720. Besides goat yoga, the farm raises cows and produces dairy products, exhibits barnyard animals, and offers cross-country ski trails, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Goat yoga started in central Oregon, in 2016. A woman started hosting events where people could mingle with her goats. A friend who was a yoga instructor suggested she let her teach a yoga class with the untethered goats, according to CBS Sunday Morning. Goat yoga grew in popularity and is now offered across the country.

The farm is offering $1,000 for information leading to the shooter.

From NTD.tv

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Emotional Footage Shows Overjoyed Family After Being Reunited With Missing DogMembers of the International Committee of the Red Cross walk toward a plane at the international airport in Sana'a, Yemen, on April 11, 2015. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images)

Red Cross Says Staffers Bought Sex as Large-Scale Sexual Exploitation in Aid Sector Rears Head

At least 21 staffers of the International Committee of the Red Cross have been dismissed since 2015 for paying for sexual services or resigned during an internal inquiry, the charitys Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement.

Another two staff members suspected of sexual misconduct did not have their contracts renewed, he said.

This revelation comes as multiple allegations of sexual misconduct have come to light in the aid sector.

Massive international charity Oxfam was recently implicated in a sexual abuse scandal after The Times reported it obtained an internal confidential 2011 report that alleged staffers were hiring prostitutes in Haiti even as the country was devastated by a 2010 earthquake. They acted with a culture of impunity the report stated.

The paper talked to several Oxfam insiders who said some senior staffers were holding parties at an Oxfam-rented guest house with as many as five prostitutes at a time. Three sources were concerned that some of the girls were only 14-16 years old.

Oxfam told the paper the allegations of underaged prostitutes were not proven.

But the sources said the internal investigation was watered down to only uncover enough to fire the people implicated.

U.K.s former International Development Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC that the issue goes beyond the Oxfam scandal as there is a culture of denial in the aid sector about the exploitation and sexual abuse that has taken place historically for decades.

Daccord said that since 2006, all of the Red Crosss more than 17,000 staffers are contractually forbidden to buy sexual services.

We are concerned that incidents that should be reported have not yet been reported, or were reported but not properly handled, he said.

In Oxfams case, the charity withheld specifics of the allegations from the public to avoid scrutiny, based on what its chief executive, Mark Goldring, told the BBC.

I dont think it was in anyones best interest to be describing the details of the behavior in a way that was actually going to draw extreme attention to it when what we wanted to do was get on and deliver an aid program, he said.

We have to recognize that this is not the occasional bad apple but a structural sector-wide problem, said Kevin Watkins, chief executive of the charity Save the Children, WTVA reported.

This is a real problem, it is systemic, its a large-scale problem and we have to fix it, he said, talking to the U.K.s House of Commons International Development Committee.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersTeen Admits to Killing Tennessee Couple, Setting Apartment on Fire

A Tennessee teenager has admitted to killing a Memphis couple and setting their apartment on fire.

Aareon Berryman, 18, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, especially aggravated robbery, aggravated arson, possession of marijuana with the intent to manufacture or sell, and possession of ecstasy with the intent to manufacture or sell, reported Fox13.

A Memphis police officer heard multiple gunshots coming from an apartment complex in the 3500 block of Tall Oaks Circle.

They were responding to a utility theft complaint nearby when the robbery and murder happened, reported WMC.

Witnesses began yelling Its a robbery happening!

The officer spotted Berryman running from the apartment and caught the teen after a foot chase.

Berryman told the police that there were two other people inside the apartment.

He said he left them there.

The Memphis Fire Department responded to the fire and found the bodies of Brandon Allen and Regina Allen inside the apartment, reported WREG.

WMC Action News 5  Memphis, Tennessee

Berryman admitted he killed the victims and stole from them before setting the apartment on fire.

When arrested, Berryman had a loaded handgun, an AR-15, marijuana, prescription pills, and a bottle of lighter fluid.

Around a dozen adjoining apartment units were damaged from the fire, with a total damage estimate of $254,000.

Fire officials said ammunition exploded during the fire.

No one was injured during the fire, reported the Memphis Commercial-Appeal.

Berryman is slated to appear in court on Feb. 26.

The Allens celebrated Reginas birthday just four days before the killings.

Family members and friends are mourning their deaths, with some posting on Reginas Facebook page.

Im so hurt.may you both rest well in peace, said one.

RIp Regina. You will be truly missed, said another user.

I am so sorry to hear about the loss of Brandon & Regina! said another.

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Amazing View of Airbus Atlas Sweeping Through Valley "A Pound of Flesh: The Criminalization of Private Debt" | Main | Interesting sentencing details as former Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleads guilty and faces significant prison time 

February 23, 2018

Only one of three planned executions completed: Florida carries out death sentence, Texas Gov commutes at last minute, and Alabama misses deadline

As noted in this prior post, yesterday there were executions scheduled in Alabama, Florida and Texas. If all three had been carried out, it would have marked first time in eight years that three killers were all executed on the same day. But, and the press stories below detail, only Florida completed its planned execution:

Texas : "Gov. Greg Abbott commutes death sentence minutes before Bart Whitaker's scheduled execution":

Kent Whitaker was praying when he got the news: The governor had spared his son. In an unexpected last-minute decision, Gov. Greg Abbott granted clemency to the Sugar Land man slated for execution Thursday, just minutes before he was to be strapped to the gurney in Huntsville. Thomas "Bart" Whitaker was sent to death row for targeting his own family in a 2003 murder-for-hire plot aimed at landing a hefty $1 million inheritance.

Florida: "Eric Branch's last words target governor, AG: 'Let them come down here and do it'":

Convicted murderer Eric Branch used his final moments before he was executed to make a political statement, falling into unconsciousness as he shouted "murderers" between blood-curdling screams on the execution gurney. The state of Florida carried out the execution of Branch, 47, on Thursday evening at the Florida State Prison in Raiford  roughly 335 miles from where he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed University of West Florida student Susan Morris as she was leaving a night class in January 1993. Branch, who was on death row for nearly 25 years, was pronounced dead of a lethal injection at 6:05 p.m. Central Standard Time.

Alabama: "Execution of Alabama inmate Doyle Lee Hamm called off"

Doyle Lee Hamm survived his date with the executioner Thursday, as Alabama was unable to begin the procedure before the death warrant expired at midnight. It was after 11:30 p.m. when word came that the execution had been called off. Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said medical personnel had advised officials that there wasn't enough time to ensure that the execution could be conducted in a humane manner. However, Dunn declined to detail the exact medical factors behind the decision, and said he didn't want to characterize them as a problem. Hamm, 61, was convicted of killing Cullman hotel clerk Patrick Cunningham in January 1987. Recent appeals in his case involved the question of whether cancer had left him healthy enough to be executed without excessive suffering. His advocates had argued that his veins were in such bad shape that it wouldn't be possible for the state to carry out its lethal injection protocol cleanly. One of Hamm's attorneys, Bernard Harcourt, was among those waiting outside death row at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore. Afterward, via Twitter, he speculated that "they probably couldn't find a vein and had been poking him for over 2 1/2 hours."

Also worth noting is that the Alabama inmate's appeals to the Supreme Court generated some comments from some Justices detailed in this order: Justice Breyer issued a short statement respecting the denial of a stay which spoke to the defendant's lengthy time on death row; Justice Ginsburg issued a dissent, which Justice Sotomayor joined, expressing concerns "about how Hamms execution would be carried out." Since the execution was not carried out, it will be interesting to see now if and when courts get asked again to scrutinize Alabama's execution plans and protocols.

February 23, 2018 at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Comments

The Alabama bit just shows how screwed up the law is in this area. Why should it matter whether it is completed on a particular day?

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Feb 23, 2018 11:32:03 AM

It's normal to have things scheduled for such and such a day & it is good procedure to do that to allow for an orderly process. It isn't limited to executions. Leave things open, the tendency will be to drag things out, which in various ways causes problems. I'm reminded of the movie "Taking Of Pelham One Two Three" where the city is given an hour to provide the ransom. That managed to get it & when they complained, the lead kidnapper said that if he gave them more time, it would just cause unnecessary delay.

Posted by: Joe | Feb 23, 2018 12:19:22 PM

Post a commentThe man at the top of the list of 'deadbeats' on the U.S. Office of the Attorney General website, has been captured.

Top Deadbeat Fugitive Captured, in Canada

The man at the top of the wanted list of deadbeats has been caught after 20 years of running.

Joseph Stroup, AKA Joop Cousteau was captured in Calgary, Canada, thanks to the suspicions of restaurateur Scott Winograd, owner of the recently closed Bears Den restaurant, an upscale local favorite.

According to the United States government website, Joseph Stroup had been a fugitive for nearly 20 years. He owes more than $560,000 in child support.

In a report in the Edmonton Journal, Winograd told the story:

One day he came in and he called a server over after about 10 minutes and said he bit on a maraschino cherry pit, which is odd because maraschino cherries dont have pits. He handed this thing that looked like a cherry pit . . . and said he broke some dental work.

Stroup came back the next day, dental form in hand.

He had his name on it and his birthday, so I thought, OK, Joop Cousteau, thats an odd name. I thought I should Google him because all my spidey senses were going offI was thinking this doesnt seem right.

Winograd googled him and came across a facebook page that linked his name and his alias. According to the Edmonton Journal, the page had been set up by Stroups son.

A facebook page had been set up that connected the names Joseph Stroup and Joop Costeau. (Facebook)

The picture, Im like, oh, my god, thats him 20 years ago, said Winograd. So I brought up my surveillance photo from the day before and started comparing back and forth, you know, the shape of his nose and exact same moustache, of course. His height was perfect and his age was about right.

When Stroup returned again to the restaurant, Winograd called the RCMP and the U.S. Inspector Generals office.

Stroup was transported to the United States on Feb. 15, 2018. He is now in U.S. custody and will stand trial for his child support violation.

According to the Office of the Inspector General, In August 1989, Stroup was ordered to pay child support for his four children in the amount of $100 per month. However, as a result of telling the court he was unemployed and medically disabled, his support was reduced to $14 per month. In 1996, the court learned that Stroup was operating a successful Internet business, which he ultimately sold for more than $2 million. The child support order was subsequently modified to account for the unreported income. From June 1996 to present, Stroup failed to pay any further child support. An arrest warrant was issued in July 1998.

When speaking to the Edmonton Journal about Stroups capture, Winograd said that hes glad hes not around to screw anyone else over.

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Video Catches Woman Climbing Through Drive-Thru WindowWomans Severed Head Found in Suitcase, American Arrested in Japan

The severed head of a missing woman has been found in a suitcase in Osaka, Japan, police said on Saturday, Feb. 24, according to Fox News.

Police investigating the disappearance of a woman from Hyogo found the head in a suitcase left behind at the Nishinari Ward of Osaka, Japan Times reported.

Police arrested a 26-year-old American several days before discovering the head. The man entered a building together with the victim on Feb. 16, according to security footage. The woman never left the building, according to Japan Times.

The woman said on Instagram that she was going to meet Jay shortly before the disappearance.

Police started the investigation after the womans mother called because she could not reach her daughter.

The American man was arrested in Nara Prefecture on Thursday on suspicion of confining the victim in an apartment in Osakas Higashinari Ward, which he was using as a vacation rental.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersFor nearly nine years, scientists inside the boxy brick Western Connecticut Health Network Research Center have been working to develop a more accurate test to diagnose the scourge of the Connecticut woods: Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is carried by the tiny blacklegged tick, commonly known as a deer tick. When a blacklegged tick infected with Lyme bites a human, it can transmit a tiny microscopic organism, called a spirochete, that moves around the human body, evading easy detection.

Researchers in Danbury have been trying to detect that spirochete, similar to those that cause syphilis and other diseases, in peoples blood. Pathology research scientist Donna Guralski powered up her microscope and computer recently to show the culprit: a fluorescent green corkscrew-shaped organism that twisted around the screen, just as it would burrow through a persons blood vessel walls and into tissue.

But scientists have learned that they cant view the spirochete in fresh blood samples. We gave up on this method, Guralski said.

Growing Problem

About 300,000 Lyme cases have been reported nationally from 2006-2016, and about 3,000 cases are reported in Connecticut yearly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2015, some 9.5 percent of all confirmed Lyme cases were reported in 14 states including Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. But the CDC says that Lyme disease is 10 times as common as the number of cases confirmed each year.

Part of the reason for the explosion in Lyme cases is the changing climate. Warmer falls and earlier springs have helped spread Lyme disease, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined four years ago.

Tick eggs lie dormant through cold weather, and adult ticks are very clever at surviving under buried leaves, in basements and sheds.

People say, Weve had a really bad winter; there was a lot of snow, said Kirby Stafford III, state entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. I say the ticks are doing just fine. Snow is an insulator. One of his researchers discovered that winters with more snow and rain lead to summers with more ticks, he said.

And Lyme ticks arent the only ones thriving these days. The mostly southern lone star tick showed up in Connecticut last year on a deer found dead near Norwalk.

Two of the most crucial carriers of the disease are white-footed mice and chipmunks. Those animals thrive in forested suburban landscapes, and theyre responsible for infecting the nymph (baby) ticks every spring, starting the whole cycle again.

Difficult Diagnosis

Lyme disease isnt easily diagnosed. If a person isnt producing antibodies just as blood is drawn and analyzed, the test result is often negative. Only about one in 10 cases can be confirmed using diagnostic tests, leaving the rest to guesswork by doctors, according to a 2012 analysis of the failed Lyme vaccine trials of the 1990s by Robert A. Aronowitz in the Milbank Quarterly.

Only a small fraction of initially suspected cases were confirmed as definite Lyme disease (in the 10 percent to 20 percent range), suggesting widespread overdiagnosis (or alternately, that the diagnostic criteria were too narrow), according to Aronowitz.

The difficulty in diagnosing Lyme has left possibly thousands of Connecticut patients suffering myriad painful symptoms, including flu-like aches, arthritis, Bells palsy and headaches.

Suffering with undiagnosed Lyme disease changed my life, said Kimberly Ruggiero of Madison, who finally received antibiotics after three years of joint pain, excruciating headaches and confusion, before a lab test confirmed she had Lyme disease.

The disease, named after the Connecticut town of Lyme, is the most common vector-borne disease in America. It was discovered in the late 1970s when 51 people, mostly children who lived in or near Lyme, all suffered similar arthritis-like symptoms. Willy Burgdorfer, a medical entomologist, verified the connection to the blacklegged tick and identified the spirochete in 1982.

But the signs and symptoms of Lyme disease are often nonspecific, appear in stages and can be linked to other conditions, making it difficult to diagnose, according to the Mayo Clinic. Early signs include a rash in the form of a bulls-eye and flu-like symptoms, such as fever, chills and body aches.

No test was needed when Deborah Livingston of Bolton took her son, Shep, to a pediatrician as soon as he developed a circular dark-pink rash under his arm. When the pediatrician saw the rash, she knew right away, Livingston said.

Annie Atwood of New Haven said that in 2008, her then 4-year-old son, Roddy, was complaining of ankle pain, and within a few weeks lay on his side, moaning.

The next morning, he couldnt even walk, Atwood said. A test confirmed Lyme disease and he was cured after several weeks of antibiotics.

Antibiotics, such as doxycycline, are often prescribed, but there is no official consensus on how long treatment should last.

Right now, the diagnostic and treatment criteria, last updated in 2006, are under review by the Infectious Diseases Society, the American Academy of Neurology, the American College of Rheumatology and other collaborators.

Progress at Danbury Lab

At the Danbury lab, researchers have tested various methods in search of the best diagnostic tool.

They have tried going to the molecular level. Scientists amplified Lyme patients DNA from their blood using a test known as PCR, or polymerase chain reaction.

Srirupa Das, a pathology research associate, demonstrated the process on a screen showing 48 patients test results using this ultra-sensitive technology. Each patients DNA sample is divided into 770 tiny square segments. If even one out of 770 squares show red, Lyme disease is present.

In some patients, most of the 770 squares turned red; in others, just a few (those people were sick, too, just not as sick). Its very hard to detect because infection levels in humans are less, Das said. They hide in the joints.

The PCR test is so sensitive that it would be too expensive to use widely, said Dr. Paul Fiedler, chairman of the labs pathology research group. He said a simpler test known as QPCR (quantitative PCR) also works at the molecular level, looks for the Lyme spirochetes genes, and divides each patient sample into 96 segments. Das used graphs showing rising colored lines that revealed Lyme, and other graphs showing no rising lines, or no disease. He said someday soon this test might become a standard to diagnose the rising number of Lyme cases.

The lab hopes to develop one test that detects three of the diseases carried by the blacklegged tick: Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. The tick also carries Powassan virus, another serious illness.

The scientists challenge is that the Lyme spirochete does not remain in the blood, as other tick-borne organisms do. Lyme spirochetes hide from detection. They can curl up into a ring and break up into blobs to survive. They dont stay in red or white blood cells, as some other tick-borne bacteria do. They move around, pushing through blood cells and into tissue, scientists explained.

The big debate is how long do they live? Fiedler said. And, why cant they be seen easily? He said the current diagnostic tests are not reliable because if a patient is treated and improves, we wont see the antibody.

A prime supplier of blood samples for study is the Western Connecticut Health Networks Lyme disease biobank. Joann Petrini, director of the bank, said the bank begins signing up patients for study as early as March.

The biobank is currently looking for new study participants. To participate, subjects must be at least 5 years old and have been diagnosed by a doctor as having Lyme disease. Participants donate both blood and urine for research studies. Some of the samples are studied right away, and others are labeled and frozen.

Some people who come in are very sick, Petrini said. Were very fortunate that people are willing to come and do this.

To donate to the biobank, call 203-739-8383.WILTON  Western Connecticut Health Network will present a free health seminar on Fueling the Fabulous Female from 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, March 20 at the Riverbrook Regional YMCA Activity Center, 404 Danbury Road in Wilton. Featured speaker will be Barbara Schmidt, nutrition lifestyle program specialist at Norwalk Hospital. To register for this program, call 1-866-NHB-WELL (1-866-642-9355).

On Tuesday, March 27, a free health seminar presented by WCHN will discuss Advances in the Management of Knee Pain & Replacement. The program takes place at the Riverbook Regional YMCA Activity Center, 404 Danbury Road in Wilton, from 7-8 p.m. Featured speaker will be orthopedic surgeon Dr. Michael M. Lynch of OrthoConnecticut, Coastal Orthopedics of Norwalk, Darien and Westport. To register for this program, call 1-866-NHB-WELL (1-866-642-9355).STAUNTON  Among the items going out for bid at a March 10 Ducks Unlimited dinner/auction in Staunton is a tabletop made from a white oak tree grown in Edwardsville.

Its a 42-inch tabletop that fits an authentic barrel that Jim Steward brought back with him after a trip to the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn.

Steward, who works for the city of Edwardsville Street Department, is organizing the dinner auction along with his wife, Kelli. Jim Steward took the barrel to Bill Cerny, a longtime woodworker in Edwardsville.

What I used was quarter sawn white oak, because that matched what the barrel was, said Cerny, who is president of the Edwardsville Woodworkers Club.

Cerny gets his wood from a local arborist. After receiving the request, he asked another woodworker to come over and saw the logs to Cernys specifications, then air dried them and dried them even further in a kiln. That way Ive got a quality lumber that you cant buy on the market.

Steward and Cerny had met a couple of years earlier. It was just after workers had harvested dozens of sassafras, cherry, oak, walnut and hard maple trees at Schwarz and South Main streets to clear the way for the citys new Public Safety Facility Building. Cerny and his colleagues turned one of those pieces of light-colored sassafras lumber into a table for the Goshen Market.

Some others were made and driven out to the fire station at SIUE. More tables were given to the police, fire, maintenance and other city departments. Cerny and the woodworkers did it all free of charge.

I know a lot of the guys in the police department and the fire department, Cerny said. And if you give them a quality piece of furniture, it wont be thrown out in the alley in six years. It will be with them forever. Thats the way I build things - to last forever.

The Jack Daniels tabletop is hardly the only interesting item to be auctioned off at the dinner.

Theres a chocolate lab puppy, donated by Brian Branson of Carlinville and four Cardinal green seat tickets. Plus a rental from Nu-Way Rental, in Troy, and a duck mount, donated by Ben Slemmer of Dorsey.

One of the featured items will be a four-man Argentina dove hunt, Kelli Steward wrote in a press release. If you have ever thought of participating in an unbelievable hunt, this is the one for you! Pica Zura Lodge is the premier wing-shooting outfitter in South America.

Among other auction items are a decoy package, donated by Phillips 66, and a print from wildlife artist Anthony Padgett. He is sending one of his representatives to the dinner, Kelli Steward said.

Other items include prints by renowned artist Terry Redlin, and a Higdon waterfowl package.

The March 10 dinner auction, sponsored by the Highball Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, will be held at the Crystal Ballroom in Staunton.25 minutes ago

Add These Buy Now, Pay Later Stocks to Your Shopping List

Companies that offer buy now, pay later services to consumers are catching a major bid in the market at this time and might just be the next big thing in fintech. If you arent familiar with this new take on consumer lending, its a form of short-term financing the helps consumers make purchases with a small down payment and wait to pay for the rest of the balance at a later date.

Read Article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.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Thomas Cook Group 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 Thomas Cook Group wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Accidents put Phuket traffic lights in spotlight

PHUKET: Phuket Highways Office Chief Somwang Lohanut has ordered officials to install warning signs for the traffic lights at the Kuan Dindaeng Intersection on Thepkrasattri Rd in Rassada

transportaccidents

By Chutharat Plerin

Saturday 24 February 2018, 09:56AM

The traffic lights will be switched off if they continue to cause accidents, promised the Phuket Highways Office Chief. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The decision follows a spate of accidents at the intersection (see map below) since the lights were first switched on Wednesday this week (Feb 21). (See story here.)

We have already been informed about the accidents caused on the first day that the traffic lights were switched on, (the accidents) might be caused by habit, Mr Somwang told The Phuket News sister publication Khao Phuket.

We have ordered officials to install traffic light warning signs at the intersection. The traffic lights have already been set up for a long time but had never been turned on, he explained.

The area is under the responsibility of the Phuket Highways Office, but the traffic lights were designed and installed by Rassada Municipality, Mr Somwang said.

We are not involved in any designing or approving any standard of these traffic lights, he added.

Mr Somwang defended the move to switch on the traffic lights.

Rassada Municipality had to turn on the traffic lights because many motorists did not follow traffic rules, such as ghost riders, Mr Somwang said.

We have to explain to Rassada Municipality that they can test the traffic lights, but if these traffic lights cause accidents they will have to turn them off immediately, Mr Somwang noted.

Although the traffic lights have been in operation since Wednesday, an official trial period will begin on Monday (Feb 26), Mr Somwang noted.

Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong is expected to attend the event, he said.

However, Mr Somwang noted that Phuket Highways Office did not know exactly how long the trial period will last.TORONTOEzra Levants Rebel Media has teamed up with a wealth management firm to launch a retirement saving fund geared toward Canadians who want to invest in the highly controversial and conservative online news site.

The Wells Plus 6ix Rebel Freedom Fund is run by Alberta-based Wells Asset Management.

The firm says the RRSP eligible income fund is directed at investors who desire modest, regular, steady income, and is advertised as having a four per cent target rate of return.

It also says the fund is suitable for investors who want to help Rebel Media expand by funding Rebel projects such as film and television-style programming, online apps, and even real estate-related projects such as studios.

Levant came under heavy criticism last year after the Rebel Media founder admitted the sites content and management need more oversight in the wake of a string of controversies.

One reporter was fired, another founder quit and two other contributors resigned in August after the outlet came under intense criticism for its coverage of deadly riots in Virginia.

At the time, Levant also pledged greater transparency for the outlets finances, after two other former contributors levied a string of allegations over where Rebel Medias largely crowd-sourced budget was actually going.

Read more:

Scheer says hell reject interviews with The Rebel until it changes editorial direction

Tim Harper: Is this the beginning of the end for Canadas Rebel Media?

Gillian Steward: Why did conservative politicians wait so long to renounce The Rebel?Last weekend, Instant Pot shared a post on its Facebook page about some of its products potentially melting and asked customers to stop using them. The story started gaining traction online, seemingly kicked off by the venerable, reliable Consumer Reports on Wednesday, but there are two things to keep in mind.

First  and a very big first: This has nothing to do with the companys pressure cookers, the whiz-bang, do-everything devices that have gained a cult following.

REPEAT: Your Instant Pot pressure cooker is not a safety hazard.

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Second, there is no official recall (yet) on the affected appliance, a multicooker that does not have a pressure-cooking function (it does, however, have settings for baking, steaming, roasting and slow-cooking, among others).

According to the post from Instant Pot, We have received a small number of reports of the Gem 65 8-in-1 Multicooker overheating, resulting in localized melting damage to the underside of the product. Owners are asked to look on the silver label on the underside of the cooker; if the batch code is 1728, 1730, 1731, 1734, and 1746, Instant Pot wants you to immediately stop use of the product.

The company said it is working on co-ordinating replacements for customers with the affected models.OTTAWAThe official Opposition is calling for an emergency committee meeting about how a man convicted of attempted murder wound up at a prime ministerial event in India.

Conservative public safety critic Pierre Paul-Hus wants the House of Commons committee on national security to review the Privy Council Offices screening practices following Jaspal Atwals attendance at a reception this week.

Atwal was convicted of attempting to kill Indian cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986.

He was also charged, but not convicted, in connection with a 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, a staunch opponent of the Sikh separatist movement, who later became B.C. premier and a federal Liberal cabinet minister.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus office says Atwals invitation to a party in New Delhi was revoked as soon as his name was discovered on the guest list.

However, Atwal showed up at a reception earlier in the week in Mumbai and was photographed with Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the prime ministers wife.

In a statement, Paul-Hus said he wants to know if the director of security operations in the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic arm of the Prime Ministers Office, screened Atwal.

Canadians expect that when the prime minister meets with individuals, whether at home or abroad, there is a process to ensure the proper vetting of individuals to ensure that they do not pose a safety or security risk.

Atwals name was apparently put forward by British Columbia MP Randeep Sarai, one of several Liberal members of Parliament in India with Trudeau. Sarai has acknowledged he should have used better judgment, and Trudeau has promised to sit down with Sarai once they are back in Canada.

A government official, discussing the matter on condition of anonymity, said guest lists for receptions such as those in India are not vetted individually for security. Those who issue the invites are expected to do their own due diligence to ensure their own guests are safe, the official said.

The official also suggested Atwals presence was engineered by elements within the Indian government to distance the country from Ottawa, driven by concerns that Canada is not fully committed to a united India.

A former senior Conservative government official dismissed that theory.

That is complete nonsense, said Garry Keller, who served as chief of staff to interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose.

How exactly Atwal got to India  given his criminal history  is a legitimate question, Keller said.

And thats a valid question for the Indians to consider themselves. But the Indians didnt have control over the guest list at the event. That was ultimately a decision of the Prime Ministers Office.

Keller, who also worked for John Baird when he was foreign minister, said Conservative MPs would often ask that associates be added to guest lists for events abroad.

A roster of those prospective invitees would be forwarded to PMO officials, who would research the names.

What do we know about this person, who are they? Maybe calling the MP back and saying, Weve got some questions about this individual youve submitted, Keller said.

Then a revised list would go to the RCMP for further scrutiny.

Security vetting is on the back end of the radar for the current government, Keller said.

The high priority is getting the prime minister out there to meet with people. Theyre clearly willing to sacrifice some of the vetting in exchange for that. And, in this case, I think its coming back to bite them.

Court records show that Atwal arrived in Canada in 1972 as a teenager, working at sawmills and in the forestry sector until 1986. The next year, Atwal was convicted of attempted murder in the failed assassination.

Although sentenced to 20 years in prison, he was paroled in 1992, became a taxi driver and later sold cars for about seven years.

A B.C. Supreme Court decision in 2010 on an unrelated matter noted that Atwal became a top salesman during his time at dealerships.

Atwal has moved in Liberal circles for years, posing with Trudeau before he became prime minister and posting pictures to his personal Facebook page.

Elections Canada records show Atwal made a $500 donation to the Liberal candidate in the British Columbia riding of Fleetwood-Port Kells during the 2011 federal election, one which saw the Liberals finish a distant third in the riding.

Around the same time, Atwal reportedly became a member-at-large for the Liberal riding association executive. A former Liberal candidate in B.C. told the Vancouver Sun in 2012 that Atwal attended local fundraisers and was well-known for his work with the federal and provincial Liberals.

Also in 2012, Atwal was a guest of the B.C. Liberals for their provincial budget speech. Once his attendance in the public gallery became public, the regional director with the party who sent the invite resigned his position and called the invitation an error in judgment.

Ashiana Khan, CEO of Surrey radio station Media Waves, said she knew Atwal because he often dropped by the station or called with opinions and news tips. He enjoys being the person who has all the knowledge of the community, she said.

Atwal is most involved with the B.C. Liberals and federal Liberals, she said, but she has also seen him with politicians from other parties, including the federal Conservatives and B.C. New Democrats. He enjoys posting photos of his encounters on social media, she said.

Some people have that thing in them that they want to have pictures and boast about it, she said. Its not just politicians, he does it with (the) film industry as well. Hes a person who wants to be around celebrities and famous people.

Khan said she never spoke with him about Indian politics, but she was surprised hed been allowed into the country given his past. He is well-liked by some in the community because hes a friendly, charming guy, she said.

If I didnt know anything about his criminal activities back then, then I would say hes a nice person.

Read more about:OTTAWATuesdays federal budget will commit $50 million over five years to support local journalism across Canada, the Star has learned.

The federal government will provide the funding in the coming fiscal year to one or more independent non-governmental organizations that will support local journalism in underserved communities.

Those organizations will be responsible for administering the funds, a source told the Star. The investment is being made to help ensure trusted, local perspectives as well as accountability in local communities.

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As well, the budget will signal the governments intention to explore new business models that would enable private donations and philanthropic support for trusted, professional, non-profit journalism and local news.

This could include new ways for Canadian newspapers to innovate and be recognized as charitable or not-for-profit providers of journalism, reflecting the public interest that they serve, the source said.

That was one suggestion to emerge from the Public Policy Forums The Shattered Mirror report that examined the financial crisis hitting Canadas media outlets. Released in 2017, it gave a grim overview of the media landscape, noting that since 2010, 225 weekly and 27 daily newspapers had closed or merged operations.

The government is taking the step of promising to look at different models and to work with the industry to make sure that it is viable, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the budget measures.

The idea of federal support for Canadian journalism has provoked criticism from some who say funding would imperil the independence of media outlets. Instead, they argue that market forces should decide which outlets survive the economic crunch.

Tuesdays budget, the third since the Liberals took power in 2015, is expected to feature gender equality and science investments as key themes.

Women earn less than men. Theres a wage gap issue. There are fewer women in the trades. There are fewer women in leadership positions . . . . There are barriers there that are holding back 50 per cent of the population, the source said.

The budget will shine a light on that issue, the source said. We will be paying attention to the particular barriers along gender lines.

It was an issue that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted during a speech to the World Economic Forum in January.

He said that Ottawa would be rolling out legislation to ensure pay equity at the federal level.

But he portrayed that as only a start: When we dig a little deeper, when we peel back that outer layer, we see that there are a whole host of barriers facing women in the workplace, Trudeau said.

Child care, parental leave and elder care are seen as a few of the barriers to women in the workforce.

The message will be that not only is it a social and moral imperative, but there is a very real economic argument behind it, too, the source said.

This budget will also feature a detailed gender-based analysis of every single measure, a more in-depth version of the initiative that began last year.

The budget is also expected to detail new investments in science to promote research and development, in part acting on the recommendation of a 2017 report that examined the state of fundamental science.

Led by former University of Toronto president David Naylor, the document urged Ottawa to invest a further $1.3 billion over four years to fund researchers, scholarships and facilities better.

Science, research and innovation will be a big theme of this budget, the source said.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more about:A central Ontario community was searching for answers on Saturday as police investigated the suspicious deaths of four people.

Ontario Provincial Police offered few details, but said they received a 911 call at 7:30 p.m. Friday from someone who found the bodies in a home in Ryerson Township, Ont., about 300 kilometres north of Toronto.

Officers who arrived on the scene found two men and two women dead inside, said OPP Sgt. Carlo Berardi.

The deaths are suspicious, he said. I dont know whether its all four or just a portion of them.

He said all four bodies  two men and two women  showed signs of trauma.

Berardi said police are still trying to identify the bodies and do not know what, if any, relationships existed among the victims.

He declined to comment on the cause or time of death, but said there is no threat to the public.

An official in Ryerson Township said she was shocked to learn about the grisly discovery.

This is just horrible, said Deputy Reeve Barbara Marlow. I feel so sorry for the people.

She said little information was available nearly 24 hours after police arrived on scene.

You just dont hear of this sort of thing going on that often, she said.Soroush Mahmudi once told his wife, Fareena, that if anything ever happened to her, hed travel the lengths of the country to get answers.

When police announced Friday that theyd found Mahmudis dismembered remains  a month after charging a man for his murder, and over two years after he vanished  her mind went reeling back to that moment, from the apartment they once shared. The Scarborough home still echoes with memories of 50-year-old Mahmudi, with much left untouched since his August 2015 disappearance.

Along with her husbands remains, police said they also identified the remains of Skandaraj Skanda Navaratnam and have laid a new first-degree murder charge against Bruce McArthur, who faces five other first-degree murder charges.

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Fareena Marezook told the Star she used to doll herself up before Mahmudi came home from work. She wanted to look beautiful for him. Since he disappeared, she leaves her face bare.

He, all the time, would talk about this lipstick, she remembered, her voice soft, gently turning the pages of a photo album she keeps beside her bed. In an image of them together, her lips are painted dark. The album is filled with images of Mahmudi, back to the couples earliest days together.

It was a beautiful smile he had. A good heart, Marezook said. He loved me too much. He worked hard, too, she recalled, often waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning. Early one Saturday morning, he woke up before Marezooks son  who Mahmudi was a stepfather to. Mahmudi left him breakfast before going out the door. He never came home that day.

Police now believe thats when he was killed.

But for over two years, he was just missing. Mahmudi was last seen near Markham Rd. and Blakemanor Blvd., and no one knew what happened to him. Now, Marezook is bombarded by news about his brutal killing.

In a voice choked with emotion, she wondered how anyone could kill this beautiful guy with a good heart.

Bruce McArthur, who was charged in late January with Mahmudis murder, has been charged with murder in the deaths of five other men to date, many of whom frequented Torontos Gay Village, some leading double lives to do so.

When asked if she knew anything about her husband visiting the Gay Village, Marezook said she didnt. She had kept up hope since he disappeared that he would come back. She didnt know where he would have gone. Its unclear how Mahmudi and McArthur met.

These days, her apartment is a solace from the throngs of cameras often waiting outside the door. Inside, she can weep in privacy for the husband shes been hoping for over two years will return. She opened the door hesitantly on Friday, asking at first if there were cameras.

Without any, her demeanour softened. Inside, she talked of a love story turned wrenching tragedy. Mahmudi was from Iran, and Marezook from Sri Lanka. They met in Canada, introduced by a friend. They were together 12 years before he disappeared.

I miss him, you know? she said, tears welling in her eyes. How would I forget him? I cant forget him.

Mahmudi had purchased all the furniture in their apartment  an intimate space, flooded with light in the centre. They moved there after living in Barrie, a home listed on 2014 bankruptcy documents filed in Toronto. Despite that, Marezook remembers Mahmudi  listed on those documents as a professional painter  happily taking her out shopping, and buying her nice clothes.

She pointed to all the spaces where Mahmudis memory lingers. A slow cooker sits on their kitchen stovetop, which she said was used to make a kind of soft beef that he liked.

He liked good food, she said, remembering Mahmudi wandering in the door after a day of work with specific cheeses or other foods in hand, and starting to cook. He liked to cook his own way, Marezook remembered.

Police say Mahmudi was reported missing by family. Beyond his wife and stepson, Mahmudi came from a large family. A very big, nice, beautiful family, Marezook added. He had three sisters and a brother in Iran, and would speak to his sister over the phone all the time.

Both his parents, also in Iran, had died. Family photos on both sides are sprinkled through the album by Marezooks bed. Multiple photos show the couple together  quiet photos and jovial photos, clad in vibrant red the day they got engaged, or clasping hands and dancing on their wedding day. Mahmudi, she said, was the life of the party.

He was happy with family. He was happy with my son, she said. Every day since he disappeared, part of her waited for him to come back through the door. One day hes coming, one day hes coming, she recalled thinking.

And though his remains have now been found, and a murder charge has been laid in his death, she let a desperate wish float off her tongue in the quiet apartment. I want him to come back, she said, her voice shaking.

Ill never forget him.One man has been sent to hospital in life-threatening condition after he was shot in the Rexdale area on Friday night.

Toronto paramedics say the man was found with gunshot wounds near the intersection of Albion Rd. and Islington Ave. around 10 p.m.

Police have not released any further information regarding the victim. Police have closed roads in the area for further investigation.The TTC has suspended a fare inspector involved in a physical altercation with a Black teenager on a streetcar last weekend.

In a letter to City of Toronto ombudsman Susan Opler, TTC acting CEO Richard Leary said the inspector was suspended with pay pending the outcome of this investigation.

The investigation will probe allegations that the inspector failed to treat customers equally without discrimination, assaulted a customer, acted uncivilly, discredited the reputation of the TTC, and used unauthorized force on a customer.

Read more: TTC investigating after video shows fare inspectors in altercation with teen

On Sunday, the teen was leaving a streetcar near St. Clair Ave. W. and Bathurst St., when he was grabbed by a fare-inspection officer.

Witnesses said the teen was not asked for proof of payment before being grabbed, and was removed from the streetcar and pinned to the ground by two fare inspectors. Three police officers joined in, handcuffing him. Witnesses said he was pinned down for about 20 minutes.

I didnt do anything, said the teenager in a video that caught some of the incident. Youre hurting me!

Witnesses said the teen had blood on his face, and was visibly shaken by the incident.

A video shows more than 15 police officers arrived at the scene.

The teen was later released.

No criminal charges were laid.

The Star reached out to the teen, who was not immediately available for comment.

Learys letter said that the TTC is trying to complete its investigation as soon as possible, and that transit staff have asked Toronto police to investigate the matter to determine if criminal charges are warranted.

Paul Manherz, the TTCs Unit Complaints Coordinator, will conduct the investigation in consultation with TTCs Diversity and Human Rights Department.

The TTC declined to provide further comment.

(The) Professional Standards (unit) is working cooperatively with the TTC to review any potential infractions committed by the police officers or the Special Constables, said Meaghan Gray, a spokesperson for Toronto police.

Community groups and residents responded passionately to the incident.

The Jane Finch Action Against Poverty group called the incident an example of egregious violence and anti-Black racism and demanded the suspension of the fare inspectors and police officers involved, along with a public apology from the TTC, police, and Mayor John Torys office.

They shouldnt be touching unless theyre in danger or the publics in danger, so this isnt good enough, said Butterly Gopaul, a spokesperson for JFAAP, responding to news of the suspension.

This is a human rights violation.

This isnt something to take lightly.

Alejandra Bravo, a resident of St. Clair West Village, wrote an open letter to the TTC and Torys office demanding answers and more than 200 people have signed it online.

Our community continues to demand answers, Bravo said on Friday. One suspension wont solve a problem across the city faced especially by Black youth.

Councillor Neethan Shan, the citys Youth Advocate, expressed concern that young people, particularly young people of colour, are being impacted by excessive force and targeting in our city.

Tory responded to Shans letter on Friday before the suspension was announced, saying he shared his concern that young people of colour are disproportionately targeted, and that he welcomes all the investigations underway.

I believe this will ensure that the public will have a full and transparent accounting of why this occurred and how we can ensure it doesnt happen again, he said.Margie Goold, who suffers debilitating arthritis, bought a new walker.

Lance Dingman, who lost his right leg to a chronic bone disease, is no longer running out of groceries by the middle of the month.

Wendy Moore, who has been homeless for almost two years, is looking for an apartment.

The three Hamilton residents are part of the first wave of participants in Ontarios experiment with basic income, a monthly, no-strings-attached payment of up to $1,400 for people living in poverty. Those with disabilities receive an additional $500 a month.

Have your say

Read more:

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Opinion | Jennifer Wells: Wynnes basic income experiment deserves to live a full life

Ontario launches basic income pilot for 4,000 in Hamilton, Thunder Bay, Lindsay

The three-year pilot project, which began in the Hamilton and Thunder Bay areas last summer and in Lindsay last fall, is testing whether unconditional cash support can boost health, education and housing for people on social assistance or earning low wages.

Information gleaned from the three test sites will guide future provincial policy on how to better support all Ontarians living in poverty.

The province is among several areas in the world experimenting with the idea of a basic income, including Finland, which began a two-year pilot last January.

After couch-surfing for almost two years, Moore, 60, is using her basic income payment to look for stable housing.

My biggest focus is getting my own place and giving poor John his apartment back, said Moore, who has been sleeping on her friends living room sofa for about a year.

Before joining the program in October, the single mother of six and grandmother of 12 was barely surviving on $330 a month in basic needs allowance from Ontario Works, the provinces welfare program for people without disabilities.

Her total income for 2016 was $4,247.

Because Moore was homeless, she was not eligible for a shelter allowance that would have brought her monthly Ontario Works payment to just over $700.

But under the basic income experiment, Moore receives $1,416 a month, an amount that remains constant no matter where she lives.

It is giving me back my independence, she said. I dont feel so backed into a corner. If I want to eat, I can afford to buy something instead of going to a food bank or a soup kitchen.

Moore and the others are among almost 3,000 people enrolled so far in the test sites. The province hopes to recruit 6,000 participants, including 4,000 who will receive a basic income, fill out surveys and participate in focus groups as part of the study.

A further 2,000 wont get the monthly payments but will be paid to complete surveys and tracked as a control group.

Thunder Bay heating and fireplace installer Taras Harapyuk, who hasnt worked since 2015 when he fell lifting a ladder out of his truck, signed up for the pilot project last September. He learned last week that his application was randomly selected as part of the control group.

I was very disappointed to hear I wasnt chosen to get the extra money, Harapyuk said. But I will fill out the surveys. I am happy to help.

Adults in the three test sites age 18 to 64 with incomes under $34,000 before taxes and deductions, or couples with incomes under $48,000, are eligible. The income cut-off for individuals with disabilities is $46,000.

If participants find employment or get a better job, their basic income payments are reduced by 50 cents for every dollar earned until they are no longer financially eligible. But unlike social assistance, which is adjusted monthly, basic income payments are calculated once a year, based on the participants previous years income tax return.

Project administrators can make mid-year adjustments if participants lose a job or go back to school, change a living arrangement or become disabled.

After a slow start last summer, enrolment topped 2,544 at the end of January and the project is on track to be fully enrolled by the summer, the government says.

We are well on our way to reaching full enrolment of participants into the pilot and have the measures in place to ensure this study is conducted with the utmost integrity, rigour and ethical standards, said Social Services Minister Helena Jaczek and Housing Minister Peter Milczyn, the governments co-chairs for the pilot project.

What we learn from this pilot will help inform our longer-term plans to better support people living on low incomes, they said in a joint statement.

Goold, 60, who has a developmental disability and suffers from severe arthritis, was receiving about $1,400 a month from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) before her first basic income payment arrived in October.

Since then, her monthly income has increased by 28 per cent to $1,806.

In addition to being able to buy a new walker with all the bells and whistles for about $500, the extra money allowed her to take her husband, Don, to the Keg for his 65th birthday this month.

Its nice to be able to celebrate a milestone like everybody else, she said.

Fellow Hamilton resident Alana Baltzer, 28, traded her $722 monthly ODSP benefit for a basic income of $1,915 in October.

It meant Baltzer, who had previously shopped only at thrift stores, was able to take advantage of Black Friday sales in November to buy her first new winter coat.

It has certainly come in handy with the cold weather, she said.

While the cash means the cost of Baltzers rent-geared-to-income bachelor apartment will rise to $520 from $200 a month, her spending money has almost tripled.

After growing up on welfare and living in social housing most of her life, Baltzer says basic income could allow her to move into market housing away from all the fighting and noise.

This has already been a huge life-change for me, she said. I have a full fridge. I am eating more healthy food.

And she says she can finally afford a mouth guard to help correct chronic teeth problems caused by years of poor eating.

She has opened a tax-free savings account and hopes to find someone to help manage her finances.

It still hasnt sunk in that I can afford things, she said.

Some participants may squander the money, said Laura Cattari, 48, part-time co-ordinator with the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. But as someone who relied on social assistance for 12 years after being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and other health problems, Cattari believes people in the study are more likely to be reluctant to spend.

For example, Cattari says, it took her more than a year after landing her job at the roundtable in 2016 before she felt comfortable buying something as basic as a new sweater.

Thats what deprivation does over the long-term. It makes you afraid to change. Basic income will make people healthier and less stressed, for sure. But it takes time, she said.

To change attitudes and outlook, people need to feel comfortable and not stressed. And Im not sure three years is long enough.

Kwame McKenzie, the provinces special adviser on the initiative, says researchers would love to have 10 years to study the effect of a basic income.

But with automation and the rapidly changing workplace, government needs information quickly to help guide possible changes to social assistance, said McKenzie, CEO of the Wellesley Institute health think-tank and director of health equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

The project is being independently assessed by researchers from St. Michaels Hospital and McMaster University who will track changes in employment, health, education, food security and housing through surveys and focus groups.

We wont be comparing one person to another person. We will be looking at groups of people who get the basic income compared to people who dont, he said.

In Lindsay, a so-called saturation site where about 2,000 residents, or almost everyone living in poverty, will receive the basic income, researchers will also be assessing how the community changes.

We will be looking at things like the level of unemployment and crime and comparing it to three or four other places that are as close to the GTA as Lindsay with the same size of population, McKenzie said.

Lindsay resident Kathy Mahood, 53, who joined the pilot project in October, says she has already seen a difference in the community of about 22,000 just north of Peterborough.

People are relieved and happy for the extra help, she said. I really notice it when the cheques start coming out at the end of the month. The stores are much busier. The town is busy, busy. A lot busier than it was before. There are lineups at the grocery store. Its definitely injecting more money into the community.

Mahood fell into deep poverty after a work-related back injury and the death of her husband two years ago.

When she joined the pilot project in October, she was living on about $735 a month in federal Canada Pension Plan disability benefits and proceeds from the sale of her house.

I figured I had a year and a half left before I would lose my apartment and have to rent a room. It was pretty frightening, she said.

But with $1,200 in basic income every month on top of her disability benefits, Mahood has money for rent and healthy food  and has begun making regular payments to clear her credit card debt.

If I am careful, I should be debt-free when the program ends in three years, she said.

Mahood was able to buy modest Christmas gifts for her four grandchildren in December. She could afford to buy ingredients for Christmas baking. She can put gas in her car and has money for repairs.

I feel healthier and I am not stressed all the time about money, she said.

Back in Hamilton, Lance Dingman, 56, acknowledges some people may be afraid to switch to basic income, which, unlike social assistance, is not off limits to debt collectors.

But the thought of losing everything didnt dissuade Dingman, who has been on ODSP for most of his life because of chronic osteomyelitis, a bone disease that cost him his right leg in 1990.

Were all fighting for a break, he said. Well, the break is here, so lets make the best of it.

This story has been updated to reflect that income thresholds for the basic income pilot project are before taxes and deductions.The union representing University of Toronto teaching assistants is promising action after hearing a student groups concerns over multiple instances of racial violence and harassment on campus and what they consider the universitys inadequate response.

The Graduate Student Unions race and ethnicity caucus wrote a letter Feb. 6 calling on the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3902 to address recent incidents of racism on campus that have created a toxic workplace environment for U of T employees.

CUPE 3902 is the local that represents contract academic workers at U of T, including roughly 7,500 graduate students employed as teaching assistants or in other campus jobs.

The letter pointed to a number of troubling incidents in the first half of the academic year.

In September, history professor Michael Marrus made a racially offensive remark to a Black graduate student and was pressured to resign his senior fellowship position with U of Ts Massey College, where there have been concerns over racism.

In November, there were reports of razor blades hidden behind posters that read Its okay to be white, a slogan associated with the white supremacist movement. Subsequent investigations found no evidence of razor blades but the posters  which U of T called antithetical to its core values  were reportedly part of a trolling campaign initiated on 4chan, the notorious imageboard website favoured by the alt-right.

That same month, a Black engineering student came forward to report several instances where students used the N-word and other racist language in online chats, prompting an investigation by the university.

The cases of racial violence at hand, and the lack of appropriate response on behalf of the university, have culminated in an environment of emboldened racism and white supremacy at the U of T, the race and ethnicity caucus wrote in its letter. We are thus calling on our local to uphold its responsibility to ensure the health and safety of its members.

In a written response, CUPE 3902 assured the caucus that it shared its concerns. The rise in instances of racism, especially anti-Black racism, as well as the administrations slow response, in some cases, and conspicuous silence, in others, have not gone unnoticed by our executive committee, they wrote in a Feb. 15 letter.

The local wrote that it approached CUPE Ontario in November to share its fears that the rise in white-nationalist activities across the province was emboldening racists on our campuses and asked them to launch an anti-racism campaign. According to the letter, CUPE Ontario agreed and allocated $50,000 towards the campaign, which it will be leading.

CUPE 3902 said it would push for a campus-specific element in the anti-racism campaign and promised several other actions, including lobbying U of T to provide a safe space for racialized people and developing a working paper on racism as a health and safety issue.

The local further pledged to acknowledge its own complicity in the perpetuation of oppressive structures of power by engaging an anti-racism consultant to review its own policies and procedures.

Issues of racism on campus have taken a backseat for too long, the local wrote.

Kelly Hannah-Moffat, U of Ts vice-president of human resources and equity, said the university works hard to ensure that everybody feels safe and welcome on campus. U of T is consistently recognized as one of Canadas top diversity employers, she noted.

But Hannah-Moffat said she also recognizes that there is always more that can be done.

The issue is a top priority for us, she said. By no means are we naive to the issue, and we feel that its something we have to work hard on, and its something that we have to continue conversations on.

Hannah-Moffat said the university is continually making changes to improve racial equity on campus; for example, unconscious bias training or recruitment strategies aimed at improving representation on campus  last year, the medical faculty had only a single first-year student who identified as Black.

Some high-profile changes have resulted from the advocacy of racialized students. In 2016, U of T became the first university in Ontario to initiate a program for collecting race-based data from its students  a move that Black community leaders pushed for and celebrated as a step in the right direction. Last year, the university agreed to hold its first-ever Black graduation ceremony after being approached with the idea by U of T student Nasma Ahmed.

Hannah-Moffat said when students or staff experience racial discrimination, there are very robust processes for investigating complaints. There are a number of different avenues for employees to raise those issues, whether its formally or informally, she said.

But CUPE 3902 chair Pamela Arancibia frequently hears from members who are too scared to speak up.

What we see is a problem of enforcement, she said. People repeatedly come to us saying there is racism, there is discrimination, but in order to go forward with it, theres a fear of reprisals.

These same fears are often voiced to the race and ethnicity caucus, which was formed in 2014 to advocate for the equitable treatment of racialized graduate students.

For example, one graduate student and researcher wanted to report ongoing racial harassment from a lab mate but worried that speaking up would jeopardize future research or career prospects, according to Kenny Murphy, the caucus vice president of external communications.

Weve attended multiple anti-racism training sessions, in which student leaders expressed their frustration and burnout from engaging in anti-oppression work at the university, Murphy said in an email. In one case, a student representative broke down as they described feeling dehumanized by their colleagues and supervisors.

Murphy said the caucus is pleased with CUPE 3902s initial response to its letter, but emphasized that efforts are still in the early stages. To date, the universitys response to racial discrimination and harassment on campus has been generally slow and ineffective, he said.

As a result, the onus has repeatedly fallen on racialized students, faculty and staff to voice their concerns and call the university to action, he said. (This) takes time and effort away from their academic work, not to mention the mental and emotional burden that these folks have to bear, again and again.

Clarification  February 26, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear that CUPE Ontario will be leading the anti-racism campaign, not CUPE 3902.Ottawa has reached a last-minute deal with Israel to suspend the deportation of asylum-seekers who currently are waiting for resettlement to Canada.

Israel is set to begin deporting some 37,000 asylum-seekers, the majority of them Sudanese and Eritreans, in April after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government issued them expulsion notices.

The asylum-seekers, most of them deemed by Israel to be economic migrants rather than refugees in need of protection, can either leave voluntarily for a safe African country and receive $3,500 and a plane ticket, or face imprisonment.

The Canadian government is under the gun to resettle 1,845 of the African refugees whose sponsorship applications are currently in process, some for years.

Canada does not support policies of mass deportations of asylum-seekers. The rights of asylum-seekers and refugees are laid out in the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, of which Israel is a signatory, said Adam Austen, press secretary for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

As the country that resettles the highest number of African asylum-seekers from Israel, we are in direct contact with the Government of Israel to convey Canadas concerns about the situation.

A spokesperson for Immigration Canada confirmed it has reached an agreement with Israeli authorities to allow the Canada-bound asylum-seekers to remain in the country and not be jailed until their sponsorships are finalized.

We ask that sponsors advise the department should any of their applicants be issued deportation or detention notices, said Faith St. John. Our office in Tel Aviv has dedicated resources to deal with the applications.

Italy Tavor, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa, said the country recognizes the significance of the current migration situation and has allocated dozens of new staff positions to streamline and expedite the asylum determination process.

Israel does not hesitate to grant refugee status when required, and follows a procedure consistent with the criteria and standards of international law, laid down by the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, said Tavor in an email to the Star.

With that said, the data about the migrants who have entered Israel illegally indicates that 70 to 80 per cent of the migrants are of working age (19-40 years old) and that there are about five times more men than women. These numbers are consistent with a population that is composed mostly of economic migrants.

Jenny Miedema of the Dufferin Countys Compass Community Church, which is sponsoring 14 African refugees through Tel Aviv, said sending asylum-seekers to third countries  namely Rwanda and Uganda, according to Israeli media reports  remains an issue of concern.

They will be dropped off at a brand new country, with a brand new language, with no legal status, said Miedema. These countries are no safe haven. By sending them there, it becomes somebody elses problem.

Joanne Beach, director of justice and compassion for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada, which has a sponsorship agreement with Ottawa, said Canada must do its utmost to expedite the resettlement of refugees.

The alliance is still concerned for the welfare of those at risk of deportation in Israel who do not have applications currently in process. We are appealing to churches to consider entering into a sponsorship agreement or partnering with a Canadian Jewish organization to help those at imminent risk of deportation from Israel, said Beach.

We pray that sufficient resources are put in place (by Ottawa) to reduce backlogs and processing times.

Read more about:Ransomware attacks at two childrens aid societies have spurred the Ontario government to tighten cybersecurity around a new, $123-million provincial database for children in care.

One of the agencies  the Childrens Aid Society of Oxford County  paid a $5,000 ransom to regain access to their sensitive data after the malware attack on their local servers on Jan. 18, according to sources with knowledge of the incident.

Officials with the other agency  Family and Childrens Services of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville  saw an English ransom message flash on their computer screens, demanding $60,000, when they tried to access their database in November.

It encrypted most of our servers, says the Lanark agencys executive director, Raymond Lemay. No data was taken out of our system. It was just an attempt by whatever you call these people to get a ransom.

Lemay says his agency didnt pay up. He says it used an offline backup of computer files to get the agency up and running again in about eight hours.

Cybersecurity experts from the provinces Ministry of Children and Youth Services, along with a private internet security firm, swooped into the agency to neutralize the malware in the infected servers.

It took them about three weeks to find the needle in the haystack, Lemay says.

The ransomware attack locked the agencies out of local online files that contained private information on the children and families they serve.

The computer virus attacked while the Lanark agency was uploading its data to a centralized database known as CPIN. It will allow societies across Ontario to share information more easily and better track how children in foster care and group homes are doing.

They might have taken advantage of vulnerabilities that occurred because we were changing over to a new system, Lemay says of CPIN. Thats one of the hypotheses, but we dont know for sure.

Due to the attack, Lemay says the ministry tightened up the security protocol used when data is transferred from local societies to the provincial database. That was one of the lessons learned, he adds.

About half of Ontarios 47 childrens aid societies have transferred their data to CPIN. The rest are expected to do so by 2020.

There have been two recent cyberattacks on childrens aid societies but CPIN has not been compromised in any of these attacks, the childrens ministry said in a statement to the Star.

Following these incidents the ministry and Ontario Association of Childrens Aid Societies have reinforced cyber security best practices and protocols with all societies across the province to help prevent similar incidents from happening, the ministry added.

The childrens ministry spends $1.5 billion annually on a child protection system that serves some 14,000 kids taken from abusive or neglectful parents.

Lemay says the ransomware attack cost his agency $100,000 to fix, an expense covered by his agencys cyber insurance.

Bruce Burbank, executive director at the Oxford agency, confirmed ransomware made data on the agencys computers inaccessible. He declined a request for an interview and didnt respond to written questions about the ransom his agency paid.

Fortunately we were able to restore our computer system the following day and I can confirm that no data was stolen, Burbank said in an email. We cannot provide further details of this incident as we do not want to make other agencies (and) organizations vulnerable to similar attacks.

Aleem Punja, who heads the CPIN effort for the Ontario Association of Childrens Aid Societies, said Oxford was quarantined from using the CPIN system for a couple of weeks while ministry cyber-experts made sure the provincial database would not get infected.

Punja says he doesnt know if the agencies were specifically targeted.

Reza Kopaee, director of Toronto-based RiskView cybersecurity firm, describes ransomware as a fast-growing problem. In the last month alone, he says his company was called to help on six ransomware attacks against public or private agencies in Ontario.

Often they end up paying the ransom, Kopaee says, adding that the largest amount an Ontario company that hes attended to has paid was $40,000 (U.S.). Ransoms to unlock computer data are almost always demanded in Bitcoin or other untraceable cryptocurrency, he adds.

Obviously, there are ethical questions that need to be answered before paying ransom, he says in a phone interview. Is it the right thing to do to pay money to someone who is pirating the whole internet? And where does it stop?

Hackers behind the scams rarely know what agencies or companies theyre attacking, Kopaee adds. They use automated tools that search the internet for weak entry points, grab whatever money they can and move on.

As companies get better at cybersecurity, and opportunities for random attacks diminish, Kopaee expects the attacks to become more targeted and ransom amounts demanded to increase.A woman is asking Ontarios integrity commissioner to investigate her complaint of sexual assault against a former MPP  and why it went ignored more than a decade ago.

The former political staffer, who is represented by Toronto lawyer John Nunziata, said she was groped, propositioned and had to endure the MPPs chronic inebriation.

The woman also alleges that after she came forward, her complaint was shuffled to another department, never dealt with and that she was moved to another job and eventually let go.

She recently sent a letter detailing the 2006 accusations to an email address for Premier Kathleen Wynne, and subsequently received a followup email from a lawyer.

Wynne has said her constituency office received the troubling allegations against the unnamed former politician, who left the Legislature many years ago and was never a member of my or premier (Dalton) McGuintys cabinet.

Nunziata said three weeks elapsed between the time his client emailed the premier and received a response, which he called disrespectful.

The womans allegations include repulsive and adulterous groping, propositioning and innuendo and chronic inebriation.

She says that when she alerted the personnel department about what was going on, it was eventually dismissed so as not to embarrass the premier of the day.

The woman says the crux of the issue is that the MPP was not held accountable. She ended up losing her job and she suffered mental anguish for the last 10 years, Nunziata has said.

Nunziata is hoping the integrity commissioner will take on the case as a disclosure of wrongdoing under the Public Service of Ontario Act, which is used when an act or omission of a public servant or elected official creates harm or gross mismanagement.

Read more about:BANGKOKFirst, their villages were burned to the ground. Now, Burmas government is using bulldozers to literally erase them from the earth  in a vast operation rights groups say is destroying crucial evidence of mass atrocities against the nations ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.

Satellite images of Burmas troubled Rakhine state, released to The Associated Press by Colorado-based DigitalGlobe on Friday, show that dozens of empty villages and hamlets have been completely levelled by authorities in recent weeks  far more than previously reported. The villages were all set ablaze in the wake of violence last August, when a brutal clearance operation by security forces drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into exile in Bangladesh.

While Burmas government claims its simply trying to rebuild a devastated region, the operation has raised deep concern among human rights advocates, who say the government is destroying what amounts to scores of crime scenes before any credible investigation takes place. The operation has also horrified the Rohingya, who believe the government is intentionally eviscerating the dwindling remnants of their culture to make it nearly impossible for them to return.

One displaced Rohingya woman, whose village was among those razed, said she recently visited her former home in Myin Hlut and was shocked by what she saw. Most houses had been torched last year, but now, everything is gone, not even the trees are left, the woman, named Zubairia, told AP by telephone. They just bulldozed everything ... I could hardly recognize it.

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Rohingya refugees say Burmas military was purposely starving them

They couldnt hide all the death: Unreported mass graves suggest Burma is covering up a genocide

UN, aid groups warn repatriation of Rohingya to Burma could lead to new dangers

The 18-year-old said other homes in the same area that had been abandoned but not damaged were also flattened. All the memories that I had there are gone, she said. Theyve been erased.

Burmas armed forces are accused not just of burning Muslim villages with the help of Buddhist mobs, but of carrying out massacres, rapes and widespread looting. The latest crisis in Rakhine state began in August after Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on security posts.

Aerial photographs of levelled villages in northern Rakhine State were first made public Feb. 9 when the European Unions ambassador to Burma, Kristian Schmidt, posted images taken from an aircraft of what he described as a vast bulldozed area south of the town of Maungdaw.

Satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe indicates at least 28 villages or hamlets were levelled by bulldozers and other machinery in a 50-kilometre radius around Maungdaw between December and February; on some of the cleared areas, construction crews had erected new buildings or housing structures and helipads. A similar analysis by Human Rights Watch on Friday said at least 55 villages have been affected so far.

The images offer an important window into what is effectively a part of Burma that is largely sealed off to the outside world. Burma bars independent media access to the state.

The government has spoken of plans to rebuild the region for months, and it has been busily expanding roads, repairing bridges, and constructing shelters, including dozens at a large transit camp at Taungpyo, near the Bangladesh border. The camp opened in January to house returning refugees; but none have arrived and Rohingya have continued to flee.

Myint Khine, a government administrator in Maungdaw, said some of the new homes were intended for Muslims. But that does not appear to be the case for the majority of those built or planned so far, and many Rohingya fear authorities are seizing land theyve lived on for generations.

One list, published by the government in December, indicated 787 houses would be constructed, most of them for Buddhists or Hindus. Only 22 of the houses were slated for Bengalis  the word Burma nationalists often use to describe the Rohingya, who they say are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Myint Khine said the government had no ulterior motive.

Of course we have been using machines like earth removers and bulldozers because we have to clear the ground first before building new houses, he said.

Chris Lewa, whose Arakan Project monitors the persecuted Muslim minoritys plight, said the degree to which the villages had been razed would make it even harder for the Rohingya, who have no citizenship and few rights, to ever reclaim their land.

How will they identify where they lived, if nothing is left, if nothing can be recognized? Lewa said. Their culture, their history, their past, their present  its all being erased. When you see the pictures, its clear that whatever was left  the mosques, the cemeteries, the homes  theyre gone.

Richard Weir, a Burma expert with Human Rights Watch, said on the images he had seen, theres no more landmarks, theres no trees, theres no vegetation.

Everything is wiped away, and this is very concerning, because these are crime scenes, he said. Theres been no credible investigation of these crimes. And so, what were talking about really is obstruction of justice.

Both Weir and Lewa said no mass graves were known to have been destroyed. But, Weir added: We dont know where all the graves are ... because there is no access.

Zubairia, who asked that only one of her names be used to protect her identity because she feared reprisals, said she did not believe any of the newly constructed homes were intended for Rohingya.

Even if they give us small houses to live in, it will never be the same for us, she said. How can we be happy about our houses being ripped off from our land?TALLAHASSEE, FLA.Floridas governor announced plans Friday to put more armed guards in schools and to make it harder for young adults and some with mental illness to buy guns, responding to days of intense lobbying from survivors of last weeks shooting at a Florida high school.

Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his school safety proposals as teachers returned for the first time to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School since the shooting nine days ago that killed 17 people.

The shooting sparked an intense push to restrict access to assault rifles fuelled by student activists who swarmed the state capitol demanding concrete gun control measures.

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Florida lawmakers decry abject breakdown at all levels during Parkland school shooting

President Donald Trump said repeatedly Friday that he favoured arming teachers to protect students, an idea many educators rejected out of hand.

I am totally against arming teachers, Broward schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. They have a challenging job as it is.

Scott, a Republican widely expected to run for the Senate, outlined his plan at a news conference. In addition to banning firearm sales to anyone under 21, the governor called for a trained law enforcement officer for every school  and one for every 1,000 students at larger schools  by the time the fall 2018 school year begins.

Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which has more than 3,000 students, had one armed resource officer who never entered the building under attack while a gunman was shooting people inside, officials said.

That failure was compounded by confusion about what was being shown to police on school security cameras the day of the shooting and the lack of meaningful response to reports to the FBI and local police that 19-year-old suspect Nikolas Cruz might become violent, had guns and possibly would attack a school.

Floridas House speaker called it an abject breakdown at all levels. Cruz is jailed on 17 counts of murder and has confessed to the shootings, investigators say.

A woman close to Cruz warned the FBI on Jan. 5 that he had rifles and said, I know he is going to explode, according to a transcript of the tip to the FBIs call centre, which was obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The FBI has acknowledged it failed to investigate the tip. The woman described Cruzs short temper and said he had the mental capacity of a 12 to 14 year old. She said Cruz posted pictures of weapons on social media and he wrote, I want to kill people.

Among other things, the governors $500-million (U.S.) plan would create a violent threat restraining order that would let a court prohibit a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing or possessing a firearm or any other weapon under certain circumstances.

The proposal would also strengthen gun purchase and possession restrictions for mentally ill people under the states Baker Act, which allows someone to be involuntarily hospitalized for up to 72 hours. Scott is seeking $50 million for initiatives that include expanding mental health services by providing counselling, crisis management and other mental health services for youth and young adults.

No one with mental issues should have access to a gun. It is common sense. It for their own best interest, much less the best interest of our communities, Scott said.

The governors plan made no mention of arming teachers on school grounds.

However, the Legislatures Republican leadership proposed letting teachers carry a gun if they have had law enforcement training. The legislators plan also calls for a three-day waiting period for most gun purchases, with exceptions.

Democrats said neither plan goes far enough.

Unfortunately, both plans omit a third, critically important piece of legislation Democrats have been and continue to push for: a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines, said state Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon. He added that recent mass shootings show that so long as these high powered weapons of war remain available for purchase these killings will continue.

Talia Rumsky, a 16-year-old Stoneman Douglas High student who was at school during the shooting, was among those who travelled to Tallahassee Wednesday to lobby lawmakers about gun control.

She said Scotts plan to make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase a gun is a start, but said she doesnt think it goes far enough.

This is a great first step and we appreciate it, the sophomore said. But its not enough and were going to make sure they know its not enough and is not solving our problems.

Trump told reporters Friday that schools need some kind of offensive capability to deter and respond to attackers.

If theyre not gun free, if there are guns inside, held by the right people, by highly trained professionals, youre going to see this end. It wont be happening again. Our schools are essentially gun-free zones and that makes them very dangerous places, the president said.

On Friday evening, Marion P. Hammer, former president of the National Rifle Association and longtime Florida lobbyist, issued an appeal to gun enthusiasts titled, EMERGENCY ALERT! Dont Let Them Blame You For Parkland. She mentioned several proposals they could support, such as hardening our schools, putting officers in schools and training volunteer teachers to use guns. But she said a three-day waiting period would not have stopped the Parkland shooter; bump stocks had nothing to do with it; and raising the age limit for gun purchases would be unfair.

After days of funerals for those killed in the attack, teachers began the emotionally fraught process of returning to the school Friday to collect belongings from classrooms that have been off-limits since the slayings. Following an orientation Sunday for teachers and students, classes resume Wednesday.

Broward teachers union president Anna Fusco met with the teachers as they returned to campus Friday hailing them as incredibly brave and strong.

I met with one that was grazed with a bullet . . . she has a hole in her arm and a bruise from her shoulder to her elbow that looks like somebody whacked her with a bat and shes like, Im here because we need to get things ready, Fusco said.LINCOLN, NEB.The United States largest privately-owned bank holding company and a major car rental chain said Thursday they will stop promotions aimed at National Rifle Association members.

The Nebraska-based First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract to issue the groups NRA Visa Card, spokesperson Kevin Langin said in a statement.

Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA, Langin said.

Langin declined to say when the contract would expire and would not elaborate on what sort of feedback the company had received.

Read more:

The NRA lashes out at Trump-influenced conservative conference

After Trumps endorsement, the NRA denounces the FBI, calls Democrats saboteurs and says reporters love mass shootings

U.S. companies cut NRA ties as pressure mounts

Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation cast blast NRA for using Leslie Knope GIF on Twitter

Separately, car rental company Enterprise said its three brands would end a discount program for NRA members.

Each company released its statement dozens of times on Twitter in response to calls to sever ties with the NRA. Some Twitter users who identified themselves as customers pledged to take their business elsewhere.

The announcements came after the progressive news website ThinkProgress listed them as companies that support the NRA. ThinkProgress noted that First National Bank offered two NRA cards, each with a $40 (U.S.) bonus, and touted it as enough to reimburse your one-year NRA membership! It also noted Enterprise offers members an unspecified discount.

On Thursday, the bank webpage that advertised the NRA card had been disabled. A cached version of the site touted the card as the official credit card of the NRA and noted the benefits of membership.

The NRA credit cards are part of a larger business in which the bank issues cards branded with organizations logos, such as the sporting-goods store Scheels and the Best Western hotel chain.

Twitter accounts for Enterprise and its two other brands, Alamo and National, tweeted late Thursday: All three of our brands have ended the discount for NRA members. This change will be effective March 26.

The NRA has faced intense criticism following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead, the latest in a string of high-profile mass killings in the U.S.

An NRA spokeswoman referred questions Thursday to the groups licensing department. A phone message left with that office wasnt immediately returned.

A group that tracks the credit industry said the move could carry significant risks for First National Bank of Omaha.

Many will applaud the move, but NRA members are famously loyal and the organization has shown itself as being very good at mobilizing its members, said Matt Schulz, a senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com. However, banks are in the business of managing risks of all kinds, and First National clearly sees this as one theyre willing to take.

First National Bank has banks in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Texas.LONDONBritain took a crucial step Friday toward making all adults presumed organ donors unless they say otherwise, which would add the country to a growing list of those that have adopted the policy to address a chronic shortage for transplants.

The House of Commons, on a sparsely attended voice vote, gave unanimous approval to send an organ donor bill to committee, where a final version would be hammered out. Though it still could face procedural obstacles, it has the support of a rare alliance of the Conservative government, the leadership of the opposition Labour party, and the British medical establishment, indicating that chances of passage are good.

Ive seldom seen such a unanimous range of support, said Geoffrey Robinson, the Labour lawmaker who sponsored the bill and who was one of dozens from both major parties who spoke in favour of it Friday. This will save lives.

Read more:

Ontario helping spur nation-wide rise in organ donations, report says

China wants the world to know it has stopped using executed prisoners as organ donors

The change would apply in England. The Scottish Parliament is also considering moving to an opt-out system, while Northern Ireland requires explicit consent. Wales has had presumed consent to organ donation since 2015.

Dozens of countries have presumed consent laws, in which people who do not want their organs to be used must take formal steps to opt out of donation. Though some of those rules have been in place for decades, most have been adopted in recent years; an opt-out system took effect in France last year, and the Dutch Parliament approved one this month.

In the United States, to be organ donors, people must fill out forms or join an online registry, or their families must give approval; a few states have considered opt-out bills, but none have adopted them.

Though public opinion surveys show that a vast majority of people in developed countries favour organ donation, far fewer sign up as donors, and thousands of people around the world die every year while waiting for kidneys, hearts, livers, lungs and other tissue to become available.

The European countries with the highest donation rates  Belgium, Portugal and Spain  have long-standing presumed consent laws. But in some countries, like Sweden, such laws have not produced high donation rates.

In 2008, Gordon Brown, then the prime minister, called for a presumed consent law in Britain, a measure that the British Medical Association has advocated for years. But the plan was doomed by criticism from a government task force and by some religious leaders; in particular, some Orthodox Jewish authorities took the position that standard organ harvesting practices violated Jewish law, which prohibits desecrating the body.

Since then, surveys have shown rising public sentiment in favour of donation, driven partly by highly publicized cases of people who were forced to wait for organs. With the co-operation of rabbinical authorities, Israel has loosened its restrictions on organ transplant.

Last fall, Prime Minister Theresa May said Parliament should change to an opt-out system, and the government has invited public comment on the issue through March 6.

Have your say

Several lawmakers from both major parties said Friday that the success of a new law would depend largely on specifics that had yet to be worked out. Designing the program poorly could backfire, they said, making people distrust the system and increasing the rate of refusals.

Noting Browns experience and the uneven record of the laws in other countries, lawmakers advocated a soft system, in which families could refuse donation even if their dead relatives had not opted out. Most countries with opt-out laws have gone that route, but a few, like Austria and Singapore, have hard opt outs, in which the familys wishes can be dismissed.

There can be no question of the state taking control of organs, and thats why the ability to opt out is central to this bill, and it has to be made relatively easy, said Jackie Doyle-Price, a Conservative health minister. Its also central to this that the issue of family consent is respected.A Brampton senior who mysteriously disappeared Feb. 15 and was found slumped beside her SUV in Georgetown days later is expected to be released from hospital some time next week.

Shes eating well, walking around, joking and interested in whats going on in the Olympics, said daughter Susan Berry on Wednesday.

Doctors and nurses at Georgetown District Hospital are amazed by her quick recovery, she said.

Read more:

Missing 73-year-old Brampton woman found safe

Carole Berry, 73, was found Sunday afternoon (Feb. 18) collapsed beside her SUV in a remote part of the Food Basics grocery store parking lot in Georgetown. She was affected by hypothermia, was dehydrated and needed help getting up.

Her friends and family had been searching for the well-known local volunteer for days.

She left her Brampton condo around 10:45 a.m. to buy cupcake mix for Family Day with her granddaughters.

What happened after that is still a bit of a mystery, her daughter said. Police and doctors are still working to figure that out, because her mothers explanation that the Brampton grocery store she went to was closed so she drove to Georgetown is puzzling.

There are plenty of grocery stores in Brampton that are a lot closer, Susan Berry said.

She cant recall what happened in a way that makes sense, she said, adding some kind of medical episode may have led to the incident.

Susan Berry praised the work of the many volunteers who organized searches for her mother, including Brampton Rotary, the Unitarian Church in Mississauga, and in particular John Sanderson and Vanora Spreen who spearheaded the searches.

She is also grateful to Braeden Murray, 20, the grocery store clerk who found her and called an ambulance.

He was presented with a certificate Tuesday night by Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette, who called him a local hero.

Needless to say, Berrys friends and family are elated to have her back, and although she will miss Seedy Saturday this weekend, an event she founded in Mississauga 15 years ago, she will be around to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary this August, and the young man who found her is definitely getting an invitation, Susan Berry said.

Read more about:KYIV, UkraineA new indictment against former Donald Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort focused a spotlight Saturday on uncovering the former European leaders who prosecutors contend were secretly paid by Manafort to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

The U.S. indictment handed up Friday by a grand jury doesnt name the European politicians who were paid, although it notes they worked in co-ordination with Manafort, his deputy Rick Gates and two Washington lobbying firms  the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs  to lobby U.S. officials and lawmakers.

At least four leaders  former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko  were named last year in public filings by the two lobbying firms. The firms said the politicians were involved in U.S. speaking events and meetings with U.S. lawmakers and others to promote Manaforts client at the time, Ukraines pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych.

Read more:

Top Trump campaign official pleads guilty to conspiracy, lying to FBI as Russia probe escalates

Special counsel brings new charges against ex-Trump associates Manafort and Gates

Lawyer pleads guilty to lying to investigators in Trump-Russia probe

The filings did not disclose any payments to the former officials, and its unclear if they are the same politicians referenced in the U.S. indictment.

U.S. law requires people who are lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of foreign governments or political parties to register, and a Justice Department database doesnt show that those former European officials did.

But its unclear from the U.S. indictment how much the former European politicians knew about their funding or if they could be covered by some legal exemption.

The lobbying by the European political figures, identified in the indictment as the Hapsburg Group, allegedly took place in 2012-13, when Ukraine was moving toward closer integration with the European Union. But the indictment doesnt formally charge any of the leaders or refer to them as co-conspirators of Manafort and Gates.

None of the four politicians responded to requests for comment Saturday from The Associated Press but three of them were quoted as denying the reports.

Gusenbauer told the Austrian national news agency APA that he never acted on Yanukovychs behalf.

I never undertook activities for Mr. Yanukovych or his party, the news agency quoted Gusenbauer as saying. He said his interests in 2012 and 2013 were in bringing the nation of Ukraine closer to Europe.

In public events in Paris, Brussels and Berlin, I advocated for the European Union concluding an association agreement with Ukraine, he said.

The press office for Prodi, the former Italian premier and European Commission president, denied that he was ever involved or paid by a secret lobbying group.

Prodi never took part in any kind of secret activity, let alone in secret lobbying groups, nor has he ever received compensation for this kind of activity, said the statement, carried by the Italian news agency ANSA.

The statement said Prodi has long worked so that Ukraines growing nearer to Europe can become concrete and added that his activity was public and thus easily traceable.

Kwasniewski was quoted as saying he had no financial or political agreements with Manafort and was not familiar with the term Hapsburg Group.

The leading Polish news outlet Onet quoted him as saying that he knows Manafort, having met him in 2012 when he and Patrick Cox, a former European Parliament president from Ireland, led a mission to Ukraine to try to persuade Yanukovych to release his rival, former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, from prison.

We met several times, with the hope that Manafort would help convince Yanukovych to release Tymoshenko, Kwasniewski was quoted as saying. I have not seen him since November 2013, when Yanukovych refused to sign the association agreement with the EU.

No money came into play. I did not have any financial or political agreements with him. This is some kind of misunderstanding, he said.

He said there were many debates and conferences on Ukraine in 2012 and 2013, and he took part in them, sometimes with Prodi, sometimes with Gusenbauer.

Of course, we took fees. Maybe Manafort paid for them through his companies? But these were public, open debates, Kwasniewski was quoted as saying.

A Ukrainian lawmaker, meanwhile, told the AP on Saturday that a former Austrian chancellor was among the European politicians secretly paid to lobby for Ukraine.

Serhiy Leshchenko, who says he helped uncover off-the-books payments from Yanukovych to Manafort, said he saw the information about a former Austrian chancellor in a ledger of payments to Manafort.

I dont remember the name, but I remember the position, Leshchenko said in an interview.

Leshchenko noted that Gusenbauer had lobbied for Ukraine when Yanukovych was in power and said his activities clearly were in the interests of Yanukovychs Party of Regions and could be seen as a way to launder the reputation of Yanukovych in Europe.

There were a number of events that took place in Europe with the engagement of Mr. Gusenbauer and other former European politicians to present Mr. Yanukovych in better lights in Europe, he said. Mr. Prodi was engaged in this activity as well.

In a statement, Mercury partner Mike McKeon said his firm was misled by Gates, who pleaded guilty Friday in the case, about the nature of the work.

Gates admitted that he didnt tell the truth to the government and didnt tell the truth to our lawyers when he spoke to them about this project, McKeon said.

While he and others involved with this matter may have acted criminally and tried to hide it, we have acted appropriately, following our counsels advice from the start, he added.

McKeon said the firm is co-operating with special counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

A person familiar with the lobbying effort said that Podesta Group employees were not aware of any payments to former European politicians as described in the indictment, learning of the allegations only Friday when prosecutors made them public. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The EU integration issue eventually led to Yanukovychs ouster.

He had been expected to sign an association agreement with the EU that would allow for a freer movement of goods and was seen as a step toward eventual EU membership.

Russia, however, strongly opposed any tilt to the west by Ukraine.

Under pressure from Russia, Yanukovych backed away from signing the EU agreement at the last minute, sparking a protest in Kyiv in 2013. Police brutally dispersed the demonstrators, which galvanized opponents to call larger anti-government rallies that developed into a huge, ramshackle protest encampment in the centre of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

The protests persisted for months and descended into violence, which climaxed with the February 2014 shooting deaths of scores of people by still-unidentified snipers. Faced with growing chaos, Yanukovych quickly fled the country and ended up in Russia.

Read more about:MINNEAPOLISGarrison Keillor says several sexually suggestive emails exchanged with a former researcher on his A Prairie Home Companion radio show were romantic writing that never led to a physical relationship.

Keillor rejects the idea that his status as the womans boss means he could have committed sexual harassment.

Keillor spoke to The Associated Press in one of his first extended interviews since Minnesota Public Radio cut ties with him over the womans sexual harassment claim.

Keillor says he wasnt really the boss around the radio show and had no control over the woman, who was a freelancer.

The woman said in an emailed response via her attorney that Keillor had power over her job assignments and opportunities, and she feared saying no to him would hurt her future. AP is not naming the woman.

MPR says it stands by its handling of Keillors case based on facts confirming unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.

Read more:

Allegations against Garrison Keillor far beyond a single touch, Minnesota Public Radio says

Garrison Keillor fired by Minnesota Public Radio over alleged improper behaviourSidelining the two-way economic and cultural partnership, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus state visit to India was overtaken by his hosts religious sensitivities on the prickly issue of Sikh nationalists in Canada.

New Delhi has long been urging Ottawa to rein in what it sees are radical Sikhs domiciled in Canada who are plotting the secession of the state of Punjab from India to create Khalistan. The lukewarm reception accorded to Trudeau was widely interpreted as an expression of Indias concerns on these extremists operating unfettered in Canada. Having battled a vehement Sikh separatist revolt in the 1980s, Indian authorities are sensitive to any attempts at a revival of the movement toward Khalistan.

In his pointed global outreach, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi frequently breaks protocol to receive visiting heads of state and government at the airport, takes to Twitter to express his cordiality and often accompanies the dignitaries along their itineraries.

However, when Trudeau arrived in New Delhi at the start of his unusually long seven-day visit, along with his wife and three children, he was welcomed by the very junior Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Gajendra Shekhawat. Even when the Trudeau family made an excursion to the Taj Mahal in Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and visited Mahatma Gandhis Sabarmati ashram in the state of Gujarat, neither of the state Chief Ministers was at hand to receive the Canadian leader.

The cold shoulder was accentuated by the fact that while a state visit begins with receptions and state banquets hosted by the Indian president, prime minister and cabinet ministers, these engagements in Trudeaus case were scheduled for the end of his visit. The way this dishonour to Trudeau overshadowed his India visit harked back to his visit to the U.S. a year ago when the deft manner in which he skirted President Trumps clasping handshake outshone all else on his trip.

Eventually, Modi and Trudeau did embrace when they met in the forecourt of the presidential palace, as is the custom, and the two sides did sign six MoUs after holding bilateral talks on a wide range of subjects. Their joint statement expressed concern over such matters as the restiveness of North Korea and the developments in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Trudeau was also pleased with the over C$1 billion worth of commercial contracts and agreements signed at a business roundtable in Mumbai, saying this would help create more than 5,800 good Canadian jobs.

I appreciate his deep commitment to ties between our two countries, Modi finally tweeted on Trudeau. India has attached high importance to pursuing its strategic partnership with Canada. Trudeau, in turn, described India as a natural partner and a trusted friend. Downplaying all talk of a snub to him, he cast his trip as being focused on building business and cultural ties, and not just political ones. He even thanked Modi for his hospitality.

While the Indian side explained that the breaking of protocol by the prime minister was an exception rather than the rule, it was also made known that when Modi visited Canada for three days in 2015 in what was the first stand-alone visit to Canada by an Indian prime minister since 1973, he too was not received at the airport by his then-counterpart, Stephen Harper. That visit had gone off well, Harper also terming the two countries natural partners in a new global economy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he made it clear to Punjabs chief minister at their meeting that Canada supports a united India. Amarinder Singh has accused several Canadian ministers of supporting Sikh separatist extremists. (The Canadian Press)

India also desires early conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Canada, which, though not a large market for Indian goods, could prove a good destination for the Indian services industry under the Agreement. While Canada is also keen on concluding the CEPA at a time U.S. President Donald Trump is forcing it to renegotiate the $1.2 trillion North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), India is hurt by Trumps America First policy restraining the recruitment of Indian IT professionals in the U.S. and is looking to the CEPA to facilitate their entry into Canada via easier work visas.

Despite denials of a rebuff by both the sides, Trudeaus visit was unquestionably one of humiliation. Evidently, the snub was in no way 67-year-old Modis strong-arm one-upmanship over 47-year-old Trudeau. But clearly, there was little rationale in inviting the head of a country if he was unwelcome. This was also the outcome of diplomatic deficiency on both sides.

If India was indeed incensed by the Sikh issue in Canada, it should have sought its resolution and put off Trudeaus visit until an understanding was reached. It is likely that Ottawa, which too should have delayed the visit till then, had not anticipated any snub, considering for instance that Chinese president Xi Jinping was treated most flatteringly on both his India visits, in 2014 and 2016, despite his countrys open hostility towards India, its sustained claims of certain Indian territories, and frequent incursions by its border troops.

Canada has 1.3 million people of Indian heritage, making them one of the largest South Asian diasporas per capita, and all four Indian-Canadians who are ministers in the Trudeau Cabinet, are Sikhs, a couple of whom are suspected by India to be Khalistan sympathizers.

Trudeau had boasted that his cabinet had more Sikhs than the Modi regime, which has two. The 17 Sikhs elected MPs in the 2015 Canadian elections constituted the highest ever number from this community. Trudeau made it a point to visit Punjab during his visit, one of his countrys three Consulates General in India being in that states capital of Chandigarh. The other two are in Mumbai and Bengaluru, while the High Commission is in New Delhi and also happens to be Canadas largest visa office abroad. The High Commissioner, Nadir Patel, too is of Indian origin, but not a Sikh.

Patel caused a flutter, however, when his High Commission apparently failed to heed invitations extended to the alleged Canadian Sikh separatist, Jaspal Atwal, to a reception in Mumbai, where he was photographed with Trudeaus wife Sophie, and to another in New Delhi, the invitation to which was nevertheless rescinded in time. Indias External Affairs ministry has launched an inquiry into how Atwal had secured a visa to India, but said he was no longer on its blacklist of Sikh extremists. He had been convicted in Canada for attempting to murder visiting Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986 and had been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

The Khalistan issue was also raised by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in his meeting with Trudeau in Amritsar where he presented a letter listing nine Sikh radicals in Canada he desired action against. It was, however, felt that he need not have waited for Trudeaus visit to make this submission and could have raised this issue through proper channels even earlier.

On his trip, Trudeau strongly rejected suggestions that Canada was encouraging Sikh extremism, saying Canadas position of supporting one united India had not changed. India, however, has often raised the issue of his attendance at various Sikh community events in Canada where separatist leaders have been felicitated.

One such event he attended last year carried announcements for a referendum in 2020 by all Sikhs in Punjab and worldwide on separate statehood for Sikhs. Last year, the Ontario Assembly also became the first legislature in Canada to uphold a motion that termed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India as genocide.

We have taken up such issues in the past with the government of Canada, and..I can tell you the practice has not been discontinued, said External Affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay.

Sarosh Bana is executive editor of Business India.

Read more about:Theres the law, and then theres justice. As much as possible, the two are supposed to overlap neatly. But all too often, that just doesnt happen.

In the legal case of R. vs. Cormier, a judge and a jury of seven women and four men applied the law. The result was the acquittal on Thursday of 56-year-old Raymond Cormier on a charge of second-degree murder.

From a legal point of view, most experts seem to think it was a predictable outcome. The legal case against Cormier was circumstantial, they say, not enough to find him guilty beyond the venerable standard of reasonable doubt.

But of course there is another case, one that raises questions of justice that go far beyond the confines of any courtroom.

In the case of Tina Fontaine, the 15-year-old Indigenous girl whose tiny body, wrapped in a duvet cover and weighted down by rocks, was pulled from the Red River in Winnipeg three and half years ago, there has been no justice.

Most obviously, no one has been held responsible for her murder. The Winnipeg police and Crown prosecutors failed to prove in court that Raymond Cormier committed the crime. But the fact remains that someone did, and that person is walking free. For Tinas family, that itself is a reason for both grief and outrage.

But as many have pointed out, her death was just the culmination of a long tragedy, one that began even before she was born.

Her life, like that of so many Indigenous people in this country, was shaped by trauma and injustice that has been visited upon generation after generation. Her family was shattered by illness and addiction, and she ended up in foster care.

When she left her home in the Sagkeeng First Nation to go to Winnipeg, she was a vulnerable young teen. She was supposed to be under the care of Manitobas Child and Family Services, but they failed in their duty to her.

They put her in a hotel with scant monitoring and, all too predictably, she ended up in the citys darkest and most dangerous corners. When she disappeared, the social workers charged with keeping an eye on her didnt bother to tell her remaining family back home. They had to call to find out what had happened.

Police also failed her. At one point, while she had been reported missing, they came across her in a car with an older man but did nothing to return her to safety.

The litany of neglect and indifference goes on, enough for Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman to declare that we all failed Tina and urge all Canadians to confront the shame and tragedy of our countrys racism and treatment of Indigenous people.

Thats fine, indeed essential. But the best way at this point to ensure a measure of justice for Tina Fontaine is to ensure that the inquiry she helped to inspire does not end up as a wasted opportunity.

Outrage at her death in 2014 was a crucial factor in prompting the Trudeau government to set up the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) two years later. The idea is to examine why so many women and girls have shared the fate of Tina  cast away by a society that puts little value on their lives.

It should be a great opportunity but so far the MMIWG inquiry has been known mostly for its own internal problems  a string of resignations and a lack of clear direction. So much so that several major First Nations groups called last year for a reset of the inquiry and replacement of its leadership.

The Trudeau government has refused to go that route, and recently the inquiry is showing encouraging signs of getting its act together. It has been holding regular public hearings and says it has already heard from more than 700 of the 1,321 family members and survivors who registered with it.

But its success will be measured not in numbers of people spoken to, but in how effective it is in sparking real change. The inquiry itself has reported that in combing through past reports, some of them decades old, it has compiled 1,200 recommendations to address the problems it is looking at. The issue isnt more recommendations  its whether they are put into action.

The task for the inquiry, and the government, is to make sure it overcomes its internal issues and makes a convincing case for change. Tina Fontaine, and the other Indigenous women and girls who have shared a similar tragic fate, deserve no less.North Korea and the U.S. have traded barbs and threats for more than a year.

The U.S. is upping the ante in its cold war with North Korea.

The White House announced that it is imposing its largest package of sanctions against North Korea in an effort to force the rogue country to give up its nuclear weapon arsenal.

The sanctions are aimed at one person, 27 companies and 28 ships.

North Korea has repeatedly threatened to develop ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States, leading to a war of words with President Donald Trump who has repeatedly mocked North Korean leader Kim Jung Un by calling him "rocket man."

"We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before," Trump said at the CPAC conference just outside of Washington D.C. Friday. "And ... hopefully something positive can happen; we will see."

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin used enlarged photos to illustrate that North Korea is skirting current sanctions by using ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products. Mnuchin said he would not rule out the prospect of the U.S. boarding and inspecting North Korean ships.Bitcoin was narrowly ahead of the $10,000 mark Friday. Here's what you need to know.

Bitcoin had a decent run this week, reaching as high as $11,958.50 on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Its low came on Thursday, Feb. 22, at $9,939.09, according to historical data from Coinmarketcap. On Friday, bitcoin traded higher, albeit narrowly.

Most exchanges listed bitcoin hovering close to $10,200 on Friday afternoon, up about 2% for the day. Nearly all of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap joined bitcoin and traded in the green Friday. As Wall Street heads out for the weekend, these are the bitcoin stories you need to know Friday.

Exchange Divergences

One of the biggest hurdles to normalizing bitcoin is getting a clearer price definition for daily moves. Friday action was illustrative of that struggle. On Coindesk's Bitcoin Price Index in early trading Friday, bitcoin fell to $9,592 for its lowest level in a week. But at the same time on Coinmarketcap, bitcoin was higher by about $200. This is what the market refers to as the "Kimchi Premium" - Coinmarketcap includes price quotes from Asian exchanges, where bitcoin was trading as high as $11,000 Friday. The discrepancies make it hard to keep track of any real price movements.

Georgia Considers Bitcoin

Georgia has become the latest state to consider accepting bitcoin as payment for tax obligations, according to public records in the state. A measure put forth by Senators Michael Williams and Joshua McKoon would have the Georgia Department of Revenue update its rules in order to accept bitcoin and other undetermined cryptocurrencies for tax bill payment. The state of Arizona has also weighed similar legislature with meaningful support from lawmakers.

Japan Reports on Crypto Crime

Japan's National Police Agency received 669 reports of suspected money laundering from cryptocurrency exchanges in the country from April to December of 2017, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review. In April, Japan passed a law that recognized bitcoin as a legal payment method and started requiring licenses for crypto exchanges. Japan has 16 exchanges at present that have yet to be fully approved by regulators in the country.

Austria's Regulation

Austria is reportedly planning to soon regulate cryptocurrencies using framework derived from current regulation of gold, according to Bloomberg. The government is said to be most concerned with the use of crypto assets for money laundering schemes. "Cryptocurrencies are significantly gaining importance in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing," finance minister Hartwig Loeger told Bloomberg. "We need more trust and security."

Want even more cryptocurrency coverage? TheStreet has you covered:Samsung's Galaxy S9 will be shown off at the mobile industry's biggest trade show. Also look for announcements from Google, Qualcomm and other big industry players.

Ahead of its biggest annual trade show, the mobile industry is at something of a crossroads.

On one hand, the smartphone has firmly cemented itself as the primary computing device for a large portion of humanity. Phone makers are increasingly comfortable pricing flagship models above $800, trusting relatively affluent consumers won't object to paying such sums for devices being used for several hours per day. And genuine innovation is still happening in fields such as camera tech, 3D depth-sensing and smartphone augmented reality (AR) platforms.

On the other hand, smartphone unit sales are clearly under pressure due to high penetration rates and lengthening upgrade cycles. 4G network buildouts are largely complete in developed markets, and 5G rollouts are at least a year away from starting in earnest. And thanks in large part to the technical limitations of current hardware, the AR and VR headset markets remain in their infancy.

Here's what to keep an eye on as the Mobile World Congress (MWC) gets underway in Barcelona.

Samsung's Galaxy S9 and S9+

As is its custom, Samsung will be unveiling its latest flagship phone at a Sunday press event prior to MWC's official start. Unlike last year, when the Korean tech giant put its head-turning, edge-to-edge, Infinity displays on the Galaxy S8 and S8+, this year's Galaxy S models will look a lot like their predecessors. The most visible changes: The S9+ will (like many other high-end phones) have dual rear cameras, and the rear-panel fingerprint sensor on both models won't be as awkwardly-placed.

The S9 and S9+ are also expected to sport improved primary rear cameras with large f/1.5 apertures (good for low-light shots), along with slightly improved displays and battery life. And of course, faster processors -- some models will use Samsung's Exynos 9810 system-on-chip (SoC), and others Qualcomm's (QCOM) - Get QUALCOMM Incorporated Report Snapdragon 845. Not a terrible refresh, but the lack of big hardware changes could give Alphabet/Google (GOOGL) - Get Alphabet Inc. Class A Report an opening this fall.

Sony, Nokia, LG and the Rest

A slew of other Android phones are also set to be revealed at MWC. Sony (SNE) - Get SONY GROUP CORPORATION SPONSORED ADR Report is expected to reveal its Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact phones, which respectively sport 5.8-inch and 5.2-inch displays. The Japanese conglomerate is taking a page from Samsung and putting edge-to-edge displays on the devices. Nokia (NOK) - Get Nokia Oyj Sponsored ADR Report -- or rather, Finland's HMD Global, which has the rights to sell phones under the Nokia brand -- will reportedly launch multiple phones, including one with a 5.5-inch OLED display and a Snapdragon 835 SoC.

LG is rumored to be launching a slightly updated version of its V30 flagship, one that relies on AI-powered software to produce better photos and a more useful voice assistant. Lenovo/Motorola, HTC, Asus and other Android OEMs might also launch phones.

Google's ARCore and Android Go

With the help of major Android partners, look for Google to make its presence felt at MWC. Ahead of the conference, the web giant officially launched its ARCore augmented reality platform (in beta since last fall), which serves as an Android-based rival to Apple's (AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. (AAPL) Report ARKit. Google claims 100 million Android phones already support ARCore, provided they're running Android O; there should be plenty of demos for ARCore-capable apps running on eligible phones.

The first phones supporting Google's trimmed-down Android Go operating system, meant for cheap smartphones aimed at emerging markets, will also be shown off at MWC. Android Go comes with lightweight versions of YouTube, Gmail, Chrome and other popular Google apps, and is pivotal to Google's efforts to further grow an Android active device base that has already topped 2 billion.

Jim Cramer and the AAP team hold positions in Apple and Alphabet for their Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL or GOOGL? Learn more now.

5G Announcements

Though 5G isn't ready for primetime yet, there's a lot more substance to the technology than there was a couple of years ago, as Winter Olympics demos make clear. With the qualifier that new mobile radio technologies take time to ramp, the potential for 5G networks to deliver gigabit-plus real-life download speeds, support fixed-wireless broadband deployments and accommodate billions of low-power IoT devices is already creating plenty of buzz.

Ahead of MWC, Qualcomm has been eager to promote its Snapdragon X50 5G modem, which it aims to put into commercially-available phones and other devices next year, and has announced a partnership with Samsung to develop next-gen 5G modems relying on Samsung's 7-nanometer manufacturing process (expected to see mass-production in 2019). Intel (INTC) - Get Intel Corporation (INTC) Report , meanwhile, has promised 5G-capable notebooks containing Intel modems will be launched by the likes of Dell, HP (HPQ) - Get HP Inc. (HPQ) Report and Lenovo by the 2019 holiday season.

Look for additional announcements from chipmakers, OEMs and carriers during MWC. Sprint (S) - Get SENTINELONE, INC. Report and T-Mobile (TMUS) - Get T-Mobile US, Inc. Report have already promised to launch 5G mobile networks in 2019, but it remains to be seen just how widely available the networks will be at first.Wall Street analysts have given Labrador Technologies 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 Labrador Technologies wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides marine transportation, subsea installation, and accommodation support services to exploration and production, oilfield service, offshore construction, and the United States military customers. It operates offshore supply vessels (OSVs), multi-purpose support vessels (MPSVs), and a shore-based facility to provide logistics support and specialty services to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production industry, primarily Gulf of Mexico in the U.S., Latin America, and internationally. Its fleet of U.S.-flagged OSVs and MPSVs support deep-well, deepwater, and ultra-deepwater activities of the offshore oil and gas industry, such as oil and gas exploration, field development, production, construction, installation, well-stimulation, and other enhanced oil recovery, as well as inspection, repair, and maintenance services. The company also provides vessel management services, including crewing, daily operational management, and maintenance activities for other vessels owners. As of December 31, 2018, it owned and operated 66 OSVs and 8 MPSVs. Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Covington, Louisiana.

Read MoreA Guilderland town justice arrested Friday for allegedly stealing about $4 million from trust funds connected to the estates of three sisters has been placed on leave, the town said Saturday.

Town Justice Richard J. Sherwood "has been placed on leave from his position as a Town Judge pending the resolution of his pending criminal proceedings," town officials said. He is a Democrat who was elected town justice in 2013.(Bloomberg) -- The 2018 Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG Cabriolet is the fastest, plushest yachtlike four-seater drop-top you can get for the money.

And at $179,500 its a lot of money, so it had better be good.

The first thing you notice is the front, which has had a face-lift so subtle it belongs in the Bel Air lunchtime crowdyou know theres something different and its not just because youve been so well-rested and happy lately. The results are enviable, if expensive.

The second thing you notice about the car is the more than two feet of high-resolution touchscreen that extends along the dash from the left side of the car to the center of the console in one unbroken line. On it, in high detail, you can see the indicator gauges and the controls for sound, climate, navigation, crash avoidance technology, and phone capabilities. Its far more advanced and far more beautiful than anything Ive seen yet in another convertible.

Its all controlled by a round knob at the bottom of the center console, as weve grown used to in recent years. Between that and the high-clarity heads-up display and subtle buttons on the steering wheel, everything you could ever need while driving is at your fingertips.

Interior Success

It wasnt until I brought the S63 to the guys at Parkhaus 1, a Porsche tuning and sales shop in Miami, that put the screen in perspective. Wow! This is nicer than any TV Ive ever ownedlike an iPad with buttons was the comment that stuck out the most. Its high praise considering the sources: longtime Porsche enthusiasts so die-hard they havent owned another brand in years.

Related video: Mercedes-AMG GLE63 S Coupe Review in 60 Seconds

Elsewhere inside, theres wraparound wood paneling and a pinstripe design that makes the car feel like sort of like a mini-ship. In fact, I had several people see it next to the water in the background of a photo and assume it was some sort of boat rather than a car. But the company has managed to fit together very modern, fresh and easy new technology configurations with the old-world appeal of woodwork and hand-stitched hide that feels as thick as a leather jacket. Its a triumph of interior design. The stitching on the seatsits great, Al Rodriguez, the boss at Parkhaus, told me.

The Porsche-heads were also impressed by the room in the back seats, which is ample compared with a 911. But I had to sit with my legs angled to the side when testing them outfor most people, theyre not really functional. And though the carefully edgeless sides and rounded rear of the car didnt bowl me over, design-wise, those features are expected in a convertible that has four seats and needs a high shoulder to maintain balance, rigidity, and stability. The only really sexy thing on the car is that front grille.

The car also drives a bit like a speed boat, if youll pardon the continued maritime comparisons. Simply point the 5.5-liter V8 turbo engine in the direction you want to go, and youre barreling down the road like a shot. Press the gas for a moment, and the car doubles down and lifts off with no discernable effort through its seven speeds, specialized by AMG to seamless glory.

The caveat here is youve got to be ready; the cabriolet looks sedate, even like something a new retiree might drive, but it packs a 577-horsepower punch that will catch you dangerously unaware if youre not careful. Zero to 60 mph is 3.8 seconds, faster than the $124,300 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet (4.2 seconds), though not as fast as the $174,000 911 Turbo S Cabriolet, which can do it in 3 seconds flat.

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A Select Group

On the flip side, the seats themselves are very large, wide, and highif youre looking for Recaro-level sport seats, or even something you can sink into a little bit for a closer connection with the road, forget it. In fact, the disconnect between how seriously fast and smooth this AMG-tuned car drives and how La-Z-Boy-like the seats feel is a little disconcerting. (The bulky heft of these seats is due to things like adjustable lumbar supports, active side bolsters, and shoulder supports, plus six massagers including two modes combining massage and heat for a hot stone effect. Its a lot, and, to my mind, unnecessary in anything less than an actual town car or a Rolls-Royce.)

While Im at it, the trunk is, uh, prohibitively small. You can fit one overnight bag and one backpack in it, plus maybe a coat stuffed on top. The power-operated roof, which deploys at a blissfully quick sub-20-second rate and tucks into the trunk when it does, will see to it that you wont find room for anything more. This, of course, is par for the course for virtually any convertible on the market today made after about 1980, so its not that surprising.

There is certainly a perfect buyer for this car. Its someone who wants a sleeper convertible that looks as appropriate as a strand of pearls at a Bal Harbour brunch but can rip away from most challengers in a second. Someone who needs an inner sanctum as silent as a library but wants a car that can surprise with a throaty roar if necessary. Someone who travels lightor alonefor most trips and who can afford the high sticker price and low (14 mpg in the city) gas mileage.

If you are that person, youre in for a treatthe S63 AMG is the drop-top of your dreams.

2018 Bloomberg L.P.Former President Barack Obama crying on stage, a police officer racing to the scene of shooting at a Florida airport, and a Libyan woman crying in a rescue boat after having just lost her child are a glimpse into the 101 most powerful Getty news photos taken this year.

This year's photos captured President Donald Trump's first year in office and the devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey in Texas. Some of the photos in the slideshow above are graphic in nature.Lower temperatures this weekend and a lessening of snow melt are expected to reduce chances of flooding along the Mohawk River, especially in Schenectady County, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office said Friday.

An ice jam at Freemans Bridge that caused flooding this week in Schenectady's historic Stockade neighborhood and in the Rotterdam Junction has since broken apart and moved downstream, officials said.Washington

A former senior adviser to President Donald Trump's election campaign pleaded guilty Friday to federal conspiracy and false-statements charges, switching from defendant to cooperating witness in the special counsel's probe of Trump's campaign and Russia's election interference.

The plea by Rick Gates revealed that he will help special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in "any and all matters" as prosecutors continue to probe the 2016 campaign, Russian meddling and Gates' longtime business associate, one-time Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

With his cooperation, Gates gives Mueller a witness willing to provide information on Manafort about his finances and political consulting work in Ukraine, and also someone who had access at the highest levels of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Gates, 45, of Richmond, Va., made the plea at the federal courthouse in Washington. He did not speak during his hearing except to answer routine questions from the judge.

He admitted to charges accusing him of conspiring against the U.S. government related to fraud and unregistered foreign lobbying as well as lying to federal authorities in a recent interview. Under the terms of the plea, he is estimated to face between 57 and 71 months behind bars and a possible fine ranging from $20,000 to $200,000. Prosecutors may seek a shortened sentence depending on his cooperation.

The plea came a day after a federal grand jury in Virginia returned a 32-count indictment against Gates and Manafort, accusing them of tax evasion and bank fraud. Gates is the fifth defendant to plead guilty in Mueller's investigation.

The indictment in Virginia was the second round of charges against Gates and Manafort, who were initially charged last October with unregistered lobbying and conspiring to launder millions of dollars they earned while working on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.

Manafort continues to maintain his innocence.

"I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise," Manafort said Friday. "This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me."

In court filings over the past few months, Gates gradually began to show the strain the case was placing on him and his family.

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He frequently pleaded with U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson for leniency in his house arrest to let him attend sporting events with his four children. Even on Friday, Gates had asked the judge to let him take his children to Boston for spring break so they could "learn about American history in general, and the Revolutionary War in particular."

The charges to which Gates is pleading guilty don't involve any conduct connected to the Trump campaign. They largely relate to a conspiracy of unregistered lobbying, money laundering and fraud.

But his plea does newly reveal that Gates spoke with the FBI earlier this month and lied during the interview. That same day, his attorneys filed a motion to withdraw from representing him for "irreconcilable difference."

For a few months in 2016, Gates was indispensable to Trump, leading the ground effort to help Trump win the Republican nomination. But his power and influence waned once Trump fired Manafort in August 2016.

Also Friday, Mueller's team unsealed a new indictment solely against Manafort that included an allegation that he, with Gates' assistance, secretly paid former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.Washington

Few places have seen the National Rifle Association wield its might more effectively than Florida, where it has advanced a sweeping agenda that has made it easier to carry concealed weapons, given gun owners greater leeway to shoot in self-defense and even briefly barred doctors from asking patients about their firearms.

To many of its opponents, that decades-long string of victories is proof that the NRA has bought its political support. But the numbers tell a more complicated story: The organization's political action committee during the past decade has not made a single direct contribution to any current member of the Florida House or Senate, according to campaign finance records.

In Florida and other states across the country, as well as on Capitol Hill, the NRA derives its political influence instead from a muscular electioneering machine, fueled by tens of millions of dollars' worth of campaign ads and voter-guide mailings, that scrutinizes candidates for their views on guns and propels members to the polls.

"It's really not the contributions," said Cleta Mitchell, a former NRA board member. "It's the ability of the NRA to tell its members: Here's who's good on the Second Amendment."

Far more than any check the NRA could write, it is this mobilization operation that has made the organization such a challenging adversary for Democrats and gun control advocates  one that, after the massacre at a school in Parkland, Fla., is struggling to confront an emotional student-led push for new restrictions.

The NRA's impact comes, in large part, from the simplicity of the incentives it presents to political candidates: letter grades, based on their record on the Second Amendment, that guide the NRA's involvement in elections. Lawmakers who earn an "A" rating can count on the group not to oppose them when they run for re-election or higher office.

For candidates who earn lower grades, the group deploys a range of blunt-force methods against them. The NRA mails the voter guides to its 5 million members, displaying images of favored candidates on the front, and some state chapters bombard supporters with emails about coming elections.

The organization's calculation is that its money is better spent on maintaining a motivated base of gun rights supporters than on bankrolling candidates directly.

"Everyone wants a simplistic answer, which is they buy votes," said Harry L. Wilson, a political scientist at Roanoke College and the author of "Guns, Gun Control, and Elections." "But it is largely incorrect. The NRA's power is more complex than people think."

Compared with the towering sums of money donated to House and Senate candidates in the last cycle  $1.7 billion  the NRA's direct contributions were almost a rounding error.

The NRA directly donated a total of just $1.1 million to candidates for federal office in 2016, with 99 percent of that money going to Republicans, while giving a total of only $309,000 in direct contributions to state legislative candidates in 2016 and 2017, according to tallies by the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks federal donations, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which tracks state-level donations.

Those amounts are dwarfed by the largesse of other major contributors. Comcast, through its political action committee and its employees, directly donated $12.7 million in the 2016 campaign cycle to federal candidates or political parties, and the committee for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, and its employees directly donated nearly $3 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics tallies.

Those numbers are tied to campaign finance reports filed by individual lawmakers. The NRA's spending on messages like its voter guides does not need to be disclosed, because it falls into the category of a membership-based group communicating with its members.

When candidates waver in their support for sweeping gun rights, the group does not hesitate to turn on them. After Ted Strickland, a Democrat who earned the NRA's endorsement as a candidate for governor of Ohio, backed a ban on assault weapons, the organization spent more than $1.5 million in independent expenditures, such as TV ads, to defeat him in a 2016 bid for the Senate.

Mitchell, a Republican election lawyer who sat on the group's board for nearly a decade, said its record of loyalty to those who stand by it was a cornerstone of its influence. "They know that it's not easy, sometimes, to stick with the NRA," she said of the group's leadership. "At times like this, it's very easy to get stampeded by the media and the left."

While the NRA cuts relatively few checks to individual lawmakers  a fact that has been noted by The Tampa Bay Times, among others  it does devote tens of millions of dollars to ads backing its preferred candidates or criticizing its opponents, often with vividly alarmist messages about crime and self-defense.

The NRA spent $20 million in the 2016 election cycle on ads and other campaign tactics intended to persuade voters to reject Hillary Clinton and another $11 million to support Donald Trump  money that is not marked down as a direct contribution to Trump, because the NRA spent the cash on its own.

At the state level, the NRA also spends much more on these independent expenditures than on direct contributions to candidates.

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Expenditures like these are the area of real growth for the NRA: At the federal and state levels, overall independent spending by the group jumped from $9.3 million in the 2009 election cycle to at least $55 million in 2016, according to an analysis by the National Institute on Money in State Politics that was published Friday.

"Its most precious resource is perhaps the passion and political engagement of its members and its fans," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics.

This type of spending also comes with risks, particularly when the group ventures into "purpler" parts of the country, where the two parties have similar levels of support. The NRA's presence can draw in an increasingly well-funded collection of groups that support gun control, and can sometimes unnerve moderate voters.

This past fall in Virginia, where the NRA is headquartered and once held commanding clout over the state government, Democrats swept all of the state's major offices after campaigning loudly against the organization. The state's attorney general, Mark Herring, a Democrat whom the NRA had targeted for defeat, said the group had insisted on defending a platform that was "becoming more and more untenable" with voters in the political middle.

"There were parts of the state where they wouldn't run their ads because they knew it would drive voters to supporting me," Herring said, adding of the NRA's campaign spending: "It did elevate the conversation, the issue, but it was also one that I wanted to talk about."

Still, in more rural areas where voters fiercely support gun rights, Democrats have routinely paid a price in recent years for crossing the NRA.

In Colorado, where a Democratic-held state government passed new gun regulations after the 2012 massacre at an Aurora movie theater, the NRA helped bankroll successful recall campaigns against two Democratic lawmakers, including the president of the state Senate.

The former Senate leader, John P. Morse, who lost his seat in 2013 by a margin of 319 votes, said the NRA had played a decisive role in motivating Second Amendment voters in a low-turnout race. After that, Morse said, Democrats have "run like scalded rats from the issue."

"They turn out people that already agree with them," Morse said of the NRA. "The reason why gun policy is where it is in this country, at this point, is that the rest of us are too lackadaisical."

There have been hints in recent days, with the protests after the Parkland shooting and a string of businesses cutting ties with the NRA  as well as a fiery and defensive speech delivered by its leader at a conservative conference  that the group is losing ground. Even some of its key political supporters, like Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, a Republican, and top lawmakers in the state, have proposed measures such as raising the age limit for gun purchases to 21.

John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group, said he saw signs that the NRA's influence was in decline, despite a surge in 2017 in federal lobbying spending by the organization.

He pointed to its inability in 2017 to get legislation through the Republican Congress that would give legal gun owners the right to carry concealed weapons outside their home states.

"What we are seeing right now is a reversal of fortune," Feinblatt said. "The truth is, they are making bad bets. And they are out of sync. Their power is diminishing by the day."Dr. Sanford Kempin, a highly respected New York hematologist and oncologist, knew how abnormal it is for cancer to occur in the eyes. That made the mystery even more bizarre.

Four New York City ophthalmologists sent him 10 patients diagnosed with vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL), a cancer so rare that normally less than one case is diagnosed annually in New York state. No one could think of a time or place where VRL attacked the eyes of 10 different patients in just four years.

To solve the mystery, Kempin, then at Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center, assembled a medical dream team in 2015. Research by University at Albany genetic epidemiologist Roxana Moslehi caught his eye. Born in Iran, she can remember Tehran being bombed during the Iraq-Iran War while she attended high school. When her family moved their lives to Canada, she earned a bachelor's in biology and a master's and doctorate in medical genetics.

Kempin was drawn to one of her papers describing an usually high rate of another type of rare eye lymphoma among Pacific Islanders. Her research held a key clue to his New York City mystery although he realized that later. He recruited her to join a group that included Dr. Robert Gale, the world-renowned leukemia expert.

"Roxana's research on Pacific Islanders was fascinating," Kempin said. "She's also brilliant at math. I failed math in high school. I needed her on the team."

Moslehi's first challenge posed a unique math problem; prove the cases were a cancer cluster, not a freakish coincidence.

"VRL is so rare, there are no valid estimates of the instance of VRL in America," Moslehi said Friday at the UAlbany uptown campus. "It's so rare, doctors may not recognize it when they see it in a patient's eyes."

She used SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) registries  a collection of statistics reported to the National Cancer Institute. In 22 years of SEER covering 13 regions of the U.S., only 20 VRL cases were reported. The numbers confirmed that the VRL outbreak met the definition of a cluster of an unusually high number of cases diagnosed in a small geographic area in a brief time.

Moslehi pored through the patient histories Kempin was assembling: ages, racial or ethnic backgrounds, health problems, family background, prior residences.

"Epidemiologists consider themselves the detectives in the medical science world and I truly enjoy putting together clues," Moslehi said. "But I always remember that the clues are woven into human lives. And I want to save those lives. As I read their histories and hear what their doctors say, those patients become very real to me. And the investment I make is emotional."

One common thread between six of the patients leapt off the pages at Kempin; six of the patients had lived near Chernobyl during the 1986 nuclear power plant catastrophe in the Ukraine. Four lived in Kiev, 104 miles from the nuclear reactor. A 2011 United Nations study linked 7,000 cases of thyroid cancer to the Chernobyl fallout. But those patients were under 18 years of age at the time of the accident. The 10 VRL patients were middle aged or older in 1986. The U.N. study thought adults were less vulnerable to increased cancer risk.

Kempin had a eureka moment when he saw a connection between those six patients and Moslehi's Pacific Islanders who were also exposed to radiation.

"These people out in the middle of the ocean on an atoll were exposed to radiation when the nuclear testing was conducted back in the 1950s and '60s," Kempin said.

The United States exploded nuclear bombs in the Pacific Islands from 1946 to 1962 and the United Kingdom did its own atomic testing there in 1957-58. For decades, scientists have been studying and debating whether cancers among Pacific Islanders are linked to the tests or contamination from the fallout.

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Of the four VRL patients who never have been anywhere near Chernobyl, one lived in China before moving to the Bronx. Kempin said the other three are from the U.S. Kempin notes that one lives near the Storm King nuclear power plant.

He emailed several ophthalmologists in Kiev, Ukraine to compare notes with them about any VRL cases they may have found. But he hit a technological wall when their computers autoreplied with Ukrainian ads for cataract surgery.

Kempin and his team of researchers published their findings in the Leukemia & Lymphoma journal in January this year. The title is, "Vitreoretinal lymphoma in New York with Possible Link to Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster."

"The cause of VRL is unknown so any information about possible risk factors is valuable," Moslehi said. "We didn't prove radiation causes it but our research raises important questions about how long after exposure a cancer might manifest itself."

In an era when survivable nuclear war is considered a possibility, the research also raises important questions about how dangerous low doses of radiation can be. Kempin hopes it provokes discussion about radiation used to treat cancer and how much might be too risky. He hopes Moslehi will use her detective skills to pursue the epic mysteries involving low dose radiation's impact.

"I keep telling Roxana that her contribution was the most interesting part of our paper; I hope she believes me," he said, "I'm 73 and retired now but Roxana has the skills and intuition for this adventure."

Moslehi would like to carry on and at least dig deeper into the backgrounds of the four VRL patients who did not live near Chernobyl. Were they exposed to radiation somewhere else? Do they share some other commonality the previous questions missed? Could radioactivity be one cause of VRL among others? She was encouraged by the response to the team's VRL research when she presented it at an April Washington, D.C. conference. Several experts in radioactivity approached her and were very enthusiastic. One gave her a list of grants to pursue.

"Perhaps she were just being nice but I would love to work on this with an international team of researchers," she said. "As an immigrant, you never quit hoping to do something good for your adopted homeland, to prove you deserve the good fortune. I'm still motivated by that."Rith 2018 will be coming through Tipperary in March 2018 and the participating runners will carry a baton containing a message of hope to the people of Ireland from the President Michael D. Higgins.

The event is a national festival for Ireland which will take place from 10-17 March 2018 as one of the main celebrations of Seachtain na Gaeilge.

A course has been set for a nonstop relay run from Belfast to Listowel with the baton changing hands between people and groups every kilometre.

Rith 2018 will run over seven days and nights with tens of thousands of people taking part. It is a unique opportunity for communities throughout Ireland to visibly celebrate the Irish language and culture, while also raising money for the development of the language.

Rith 2018 will be in County Tipperary at the following times and place:

Ros Cre Thursday 12.20in 15 March 2018

Nenagh Thursday 2.00in 15 March 2018

Thurles Friday 9.15rn 16 March 2018

Tipperary town Friday 11.00rn 16 March 2018

Each kilometre will be sponsored by individuals, community groups, schools or businesses. The money raised will go towards supporting Irish language events around the country. Kilometres cost 100.

Each kilometre can be seen on the www.rith.ie website where there is a map of the route. To take part in Rith 2018 you can register a kilometre online or contact us to arrange which kilometre is most suitable for you.

Further information is available from Marcas Mac Ruairi on 086 171 9755 or email me on marcas@glornangael.ie.I was trying to get an Australian visa online recently. When I first searched on Google, the first thing that came up was I also tried looking at the Australia government website but did not find a proper link to obtain a visa online. Therefore, I thought that the website I mentioned was legit. It never mentioned that they were just an agency. I filled out my info on this website and provided my credit card info. It never mentioned how much I would be charged. I thought it would bring me to a "review" page before submitting but then I was charged 99USD immediately. I found it that it was 99USD because my bank sent me a text message.

It turned out that this website was not an official one. The actual cost of the visa should only have been 20 AUD. I requested for a refund but they replied saying that they had listed their prices and stated that they were just an agency in the "terms and conditions" section, which was hidden in small text at the bottom of their page.

I am posting here just to let everyone know not to use this website to get your visa.It will be cool in Sydney and cold in Melbourne at that time of year and far too cold to swim at the beach down south - it might be warm enough on the GC but as you are from the tropics, you might be too cold even on a sunny Gold Coast day.

Agree, skip the drive, fly to. Melbourne, drive the GOR over four days, three nights, then fly to Gold Coast for a few days at the end.

Definitely car, not camper for the Great Ocean Road, and come back via Ballarat for sovereign Hill - the whole family will love it.

Cheers.Its likely the rental car company paid the fine, then turned the debt over to a collection agency who made the effort to get paid by sending you letters and probably by now have also closed the case and moved on.

Its very likely a dead issue now. Certainly nothing that would cause issues with Immigration on entry. And probably not even possible to pay at this point even if you try.Planning our trip to Costa Rica in July 2018. 2 adults traveling with 2 teenagers, flying in to San Jose. Trying to decide between a stay in Nosara or Samara or Santa Teresa? Son and husband are both intermediate level surfers (they plan to surf daily). Which location has more consistent surf? Is there a difference in crime/safety (I read somewhere that Santa Theresa has a lot of crime)? Other activities besides surfing? Nice hotels?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Must see/ things to do in these areas? We then plan to drive to Manuel Antonio.-:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:-

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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.We thought that the pass would make life easier for our 21 day visit but vise versa.

Not only we have to swich many trains with our heavy luggage

we now see that in every location we go outside the big cities we need very expensive taxies to travel around.

Just one example out of many: taking jr trains from osaka to a pretty rice field near kumano. So the trains get to kumano but from there we need a 8000yen taxi each way, and probably the driver will stay with us as there are not many taxies back.

We should have taken a car as hard as it is to drive in japan. Or to skip travelling rural areas at all.

We might need to rent a car every time we get somewhere. So paying double.We stayed in a hotel in Hakone last year where the rooms all came with a change of clothes for dinner- a uniform of a sort of kimono plus a jacket.

We didn't avail ourselves of these as they were too small for us, although later we found Westerner size clothes in a recess in the corridor.

At dinner, possibly half the diners wore the provided clothing, so we didn't look odd not doing so.

Is this common (we saw it nowhere else)? A friend said these clothes were provided to change into after using the onsen, but I doubt this slightly!My family and I are looking to book a villa though Tulemar (Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica), but apparently each villa on their property is individually owned. We called the number listed on their website and on Trip Advisor to book, and Tulemar said over the phone (and online) that to book you have to put 50% down. On the lease agreement they sent us via email, they gave us a few option to send the payment, via a Wells Fargo bank account or wiring it somewhere else. I understand that if the property is individually owned but managed by Tulemar, that we would have to send the payment to the owner. But this all seems a bit strange, depositing money in a random bank account... Does anyone have experience in booking at Tulemar? Is this a normal process?-ODM on February,24 settled on lawyer Edwin Sifuna as the perfect replacement for the former secretary general,Ababu Namwamba

-At the event attended by party leader Raila Odinga, the Orange party also picked Nairobi women representative Esther Passaris as the secretary for international affairs

-Secretary for public policy and economic affairs docket will now be under the tutelage of Nyando MP Jared Okello,taking over from Kariuki.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) on February,24 announced changes to its National Executive Council membership.

Perhaps wanting to re-strategise after the suffering the 2017 General Election,the NASA coalition partner party dropped Jubilee-allied members of parliament.

Notable figures that have been replaced are Ababu Namwamba, former Taita Taveta women representative and immediate former Mathare North Steven Kariuki, son to powerful Nairobi bishop-turned-politician Margaret Wanjiru.

READ ALSO: Wanawake wa Mombasa waerevuka, wapatia mafisi nambari za simu za waganga

Namwamba resigned in 2016 from the position as the party secretary general.Photo/Uhuru Kenyatta

READ ALSO: Ababu Namwamba Wife Profile 2017-2018

Namwamba self-declared general,resigned in 2016 from his position as the secretary general of the Raila-led party citing frustrations and lack of support from his troupes.

Namwamba,now the country's Chief Administrative Secretary in the foreign affairs ministry.has been replaced by combative Nairobi ODM's senatorial loser Edwin Sifuna.

At an event attended by ODM party leader Raila Odinga and Amani National Congress Musalia Mudavadi, the party settled on Esther Passaris as the secretary for international affairs replacing Gladys Lay.

READ ALSO: Chances of Raila working with Uhuru before 2022 are so high - Moses Kuria

ODM replaces Ababu Namwamba,Steven Kariuki and Gladys Lay as the Orange party changes guard.Photo/Nation Breaking

READ ALSO: Tension after furious mourners dump coffin in supermarket

Secretary for public policy and economic affairs docket will now be under the tutelage of Nyando MP Jared Okello,taking over from Kariuki.

Below is the full list as seen by TUKO.co.ke.

NOTE: Left and there under the replacement.

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

 Party Leader - Raila A. Odinga

 Deputy Party leader - Wycliffe A. Oparanya

 Deputy Party Leader - Ali Hassan Joho

 National Chairperson - John Mbadi

 Vice Chairperson - Josphat K. Nanok

 Vice Chairperson - Paul Otuoma  LEFT

Janet Ongera

 Vice Chairperson - Adan Keynan  LEFT

Tom Mwadeghu

Vice Chairperson - Christine Lemein

 Secretary General - Ababu Namwamba  LEFT

Mr Edwin Sifuna

 Deputy Secretary General- Agnes Zani  Ag. SG

 Deputy Secretary General- Elizabeth Ongoro  LEFT

Hon Florence Mutua

 National Treasurer - Timothy Bosire

 Deputy Treasurer - Ogla Karani

 Deputy Treasurer - Hilda Sianga

 National Organizing Secretary - Abdikadir Aden

 Deputy Organizing Secretary - Fatuma Ibrahim

 Deputy Organizing Secretary - Reuben Ndolo  LEFT/

Hon Owen Baya

 Deputy Organizing Secretary - Rozah Buyu

 Deputy Organizing Secretary - Suleiman Dori

 Secretary for Public Policy and Economic Affairs - Steven Kariuki  LEFT

Jared Okelo

 Secretary for Legal and Constitutional Affairs - Timothy Wanyonyi

 Secretary for Publicity and Information - Denitah Ghatti

 Secretary for International Affairs - Joyce Lay  LEFT

Esther Passaris

Secretary of Regional Affairs Tabitha Seii

 Secretary for Women Affairs / (ODM Women League Leader)  Beth Syengo

 Secretary for Youth Affairs / (ODM Youth League Leader) - John Ketora

 Secretary for Special Interests Groups - Edin Wario  Absconded

Halima Daro

 Secretary for Environment - Ronald Ngeny

 Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs / (Whip) National Assembly - Thomas Mwadeghu  NOW VACANT

Gladys Wanga

 Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs / (Whip) Senate - anet Ongera  NOW VACANT

James Orengo

 Secretary for Devolved Government - Kipkorir Menjo

 Secretary for Science and Technology - Noah Akala  moved Dep. Director of Campaigns

Steve Mbogo

 Secretary for Special programmes and Social welfare - Grace Mboja  DECEASED

Memusi Kanchori

 Secretary for Labour and Human Resource Development - Mike Rubia

 Secretary for National Security - John Waluke LEFT

Justus Kizito

 Secretary for Humanitarian and Disaster Management Affairs - Amos Olempaka  LEFT

Bob Njagi

 Secretary for Disability Affairs - Isaac Mwaura  LEFT

Nixon Kakiri

 Secretary for Political Affairs - Opiyo Wandayi

 Director of Campaigns - Junet Mohamed

 Executive Director (Ex-Officio) - Oduor Ong'wen

Homa Bay shook as governor Cyprian Awiti is out | TUKO TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- NASA leader Raila Odinga's indication that his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) would go it alone in the 2022 elections has recieved backlash from a section of opposition leaders

- Former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale lashed out at the Opposition chief and reminded him of a NASA agreement on 2022 elections

- Khalwale said the ODM was not eligible to produce a Presidential candidate in the 2022 race according to the agreement and Raila must honour it

Barely six months after Kenya went to the polls in August 2017, the stage is already being set for the 2022 presidential race with splits emerging in the Opposition National Super Alliance (NASA).

NASA affiliate parties  Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Amani National Congress (ANC), Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM) and Ford Kenya  are already strategically positioning themselves for the big seat.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Je, wamkumbuka afisa mrembo wa polisi - Linda Okello? Achapisha picha za kupendeza akifuzu

As reported earlier by TUKO.co.ke, Raila Odinga's ODM held a national conference in Nairobi where it kicked off an audit of its performance in the last elections with a view of strengthening its weaknesses for the next elections.

NASA co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Raila Odinga and Musalia Mudavadi during a past meeting. Photo: NASA

According to party leader Raila Odinga, ODM needs to put its house in order ahead of the 2022 polls and already, it has filled positions left vacant with lawyer Edwin Sifuna being appointed the new secretary-general.

However, this indication that ODM was planning to go it alone in the 2022 race has irked a section of opposition leaders who feel that Raila was scheming to ignore an agreement signed ahead of the 2027 elections that ODM will not present a presidntial candidate.

Former Kakamega Senator who is also the deputy party leader of Ford Kenya Boni Khalwale took to his Twitter to remind Raila of the agreement and warned him against breaking it.

READ ALSO: NASA MPs dare Musalia Mudavadi to expel them from his party as wrangles intensify

Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang'ula and ODM leader Raila Odinga in the past. Photo: NASA

"The NASA coalition agreement expressly excludes ODM from the predidential race, leaving it open only to @FordKenyaSimba, @anc_party & @WiperMovement Party. @RailaOdinga, be a statesman & avoid any push or shove for u to renege on the NASA contract!" he tweeted.

READ ALSO: Chances of Raila working with Uhuru before 2022 are so high - Moses Kuria

Ford Kenya deputy party leader Boni Khalwale addressing opposition supporters during a past public event. Photo: NASA

Khalwale said that in the agreement, it was agreed that ODM would produce a presidential candidate for the 2017 elections and that ANC, Wiper and Ford Kenya would fight it out to produce a NASA flagbearer in 2022.

The scramble by NASA affiliate parties to fly the Opposition's flag has threatened to split the coalition as each party says their respective leaders are the best bet.

The four co-principals have for a long time been dismissing reports of mistrust and imminent split explaining that what is being witnessed is only sibling rivalry that does not threaten their unity.

I started my business with 1000 shillings only | Faces of Kenya - on TUKO TV

Source: Kenya Breaking News Today- Parents and students at Ihiga Mixed Secondary School in Muranga County are in fear after a strange disease struck students at the institution

- The disease has left at least 16 students with swellings on their palms and ankles

- The inflammations are so severe that the affected students have been left to depend on their classmates do perform duties for them

- The disease, which was first reported at the institution last year, has only affected the learners who reside at the school dormitories

A strange disease whose cause and cure is yet to be established, has instilled fear among the students, teachers, parents and the entire fraternity of Ihiga Secondary school in Kangema constituency, Muranga County.

The discriminatory disease is only affecting the girls who are boarders in the mixed day and boarding secondary school which has a population of 334 students.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Je, wamkumbuka afisa mrembo wa polisi - Linda Okello? Achapisha picha za kupendeza akifuzu

Muranga secondary school students struck by strange disease of swelling the right hands that only affects boarding students. Photo: Mark Wachira/ TUKO

READ ALSO: Man attempts to kill 8-month-old baby over KSh1,000

The affected pupils have developed swellings of their right hands at the wrist while one student has swellings on both legs at the ankles.

TUKO.co.ke learnt about the disease after an alert was raised by parents whose children are day scholars at the institution.

The parents feared that the disease could spread to their children and possibly other members of their families since their sons and daughters were in close contact with the affected students while at school.

TUKO.co.ke undertook to investigate the matter on Friday, February 23 when some parents whose daughters are victims spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimization called to express their fears.

READ ALSO: Govt rejects proposal to legalise gay and lesbian relationships

Muranga secondary school students struck by strange disease of swelling the right hands that only affects boarding students. Photo: Mark Wachira/ TUKO

READ ALSO: Chances of Raila working with Uhuru before 2022 are so high - Moses Kuria

During our interaction, the parents said so far 16 students have symptoms of the disease.

They explained that the mysterious disease which defied treatment was first reported at the school during the third term of last year with one student but has since spread to the other students.

Another strange thing about the disease is that the condition presents itself once the students are in school but when out of school at home it heals.

The peculiar thing about the disease is that it only affects the girls who are boarders at the school and who cannot perform any tasks. The hands are painful and our daughters cannot perform any tasks including writing and washing their body and clothes. Our daughters told us they cannot be even able to wash their panties and have to be assisted by their friends. One of the parents said.

READ ALSO: I am beginning to enjoy the name Watermelon - Kalonzo Musyoka

Muranga secondary school students struck by strange disease of swelling the right hands that only affects boarding students. Photo: Mark Wachira/ TUKO

READ ALSO: ODM replaces Ababu Namwamba, Steven Kariuki and Joyce Lay as the Orange party changes guard

The claimed not to have a problem with the school but accused the principal of not seeking specialized treatment of their children.

They added that the students are normally taken for treatment at the nearby Gikui trading Centre and Kangema health Centre and a few students at Kiriaini Catholic Mission Hospital.

They argued the health facilities could be ill equipped to tackle the disease.

The students are only given pain killers and another drug called PDL that is not of much help to the students before we are summoned to the school to go and take our d daughters to hospital. We request the Ministry of Education to intervene and look for a lasting solution to this problem. One of the parents remarked.

We think treatment should be centralized for proper diagnosis because the students could be getting different treatments for different ailments. A proper clinical analysis should be undertaken including taking the samples of the fluid that has build up on their hands and legs for laboratory analysis. Another parent added.

READ ALSO: Capital FMs radio queen, Miss Mandy, parading her saggy breasts

Muranga secondary school students struck by strange disease of swelling the right hands that only affects boarding students (School Principal). Photo: Mark Wachira/TUKO

READ ALSO: NASA-affiliated MPs rush to the help embattled ex- journalist Louis Otieno

The parents further explained the school is taking the disease casually by claiming the students are pretending and feigning to be sick and forcing them to sit for examinations that are going on at the school using their left hands.

During a tour of the school, the school Principal Mr. Paul Mwangi was first reluctant to talk and kept us waiting for abour two hours claiming he had to get authorization from the education officer incharge of Kangema Sub County.

I first alerted him that you are around but he advised me to first get a report as to why you are here and call him back so that he can give me permission to address you. I am afraid he is not taking my phone as he could be driving."

He agreed to grant an interview after he realized one of the journalists was calling the education officer while we told him that in our reports we will quote we had visited the institution but he did not talk to us as his boss was inaccessible.

READ ALSO: Kenyan rapper accused of pushing Briton girlfriend from balcony among new faces on Nairobi Diaries

Mwangi admitted there was perennial problem at the school claiming one of the students was diagnosed with bone marrow disease and another one to be suffering from arthritis.

He claimed to have addressed the area public health officer besides taking the students to hospital. The journalists found him in the company of the area public health officer at the school.

The public health officer disclosed that she had inspected all the facilities in the school including the dormitories where the students sleep but found nothing alarming.

She added said she was equally perturbed by the disease since the victims are only the boarders who sleep in different dormitories and who told her they do not share any of their personal effects.

Story by Mark Wachira, Muranga County

ALSO WATCH: I was accused of sleeping with Raila Odinga on TUKO tv

Source: Tuko Breaking News- A Kenyan woman is calling for help to save her life after she was diagnosed with Lupus which is a rare disease

- Faiza was diagnosed with the condition after she delivered her baby in 2016

Faiza Mohamed Dahir has been battling with lupus( a rare disease) and is now appealing for medical funds to help her get specialized treatment.

TUKO.co.ke understands Faiza was doing fine until 2016 when she was diagnised with Lupus after she delivered her baby.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Je, wamkumbuka afisa mrembo wa polisi - Linda Okello? Achapisha picha za kupendeza akifuzu

Beautiful Kenyan woman calls for help to save her life.Photo: Yassin Juma/Facebook

READ ALSO: Capital FMs radio queen, Miss Mandy, parades her breasts for all to see

In a Facebook post by Yassin Juma and seen by TUKO.co.ke, Faiza has been strong and hopeful to one day win the fight over Lupus.

However, she has is losing hope following financial constraints as a result of the cost of her treatments.

According to Yassin, the last time he visited the family in mariakani in october last year, Faiza was in a bad state that they could only recognize her smile.

READ ALSO: NASA MPs dare Musalia Mudavadi to expel them from his party as wrangles intensify

Beautiful Kenyan woman calls for help to save her life.Photo: Yassin Juma/Facebook

READ ALSO: ODM replaces Ababu Namwamba, Steven Kariuki and Joyce Lay as the Orange party changes guard

The young mother suffers severe flare-ups mostly at night and in the morning which leaves her helpless as she cannot do anything for herself.

"My stomach was filled with water, my lungs were also filled with water and my kidneys hurt alot." narrated Faiza.

She has been brought to Nairobi for treatment where she is appealing for help in-order to get better treatment.

Beautiful Kenyan woman calls for help to save her life.Photo: Yassin Juma/Facebook

You can send your contribution through Mchanga using this link as provided ,Faiza M-changa

According to Mayo Clinic, Lupus is a systemic autoimmune disease that occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs.

Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart and lungs.

The disease can be difficult to diagnose because its signs and symptoms often mimic those of other ailments.

ALSO WATCH: Top-5 Engaging Facts about the Kikuyu people on TUKO tv

Source: TukoMore than 24 hours later, and no help has come for residents of Belle View, Diamond Road, ClRussian-backed militants launched 13 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) area in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

In Luhansk direction, illegal armed formations fired 122mm artillery, mortars, grenade launchers and small arms near Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk). According to preliminary information, several shells exploded on the outskirts of this frontline village and damaged the property of local residents. In addition, the enemy used 152mm artillery to shell the outskirts of Pidlisne village. Militants also launched attacks on Ukrainian strongholds outside Troitske (69km west of Luhansk), using 120mm mortars and weapons on infantry combat vehicles.

Moreover, the aggressor forces launched provocative attacks on Ukrainian troops near Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk), Novhorodske (34km north of Donetsk) and Zaitseve (67km north-north-east of Donetsk), using grenade launchers of different types and small arms.

In Donetsk direction, ATO troops came under 120mm mortar, grenade launcher and small arms fire outside Novotroitske (32km south of Donetsk)

No casualties among Ukrainian troops were reported.

olUkraine's cooperation with the United States has grown fourfold over few months.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said this at the ceremony of signing of the agreement between PJSC Ukrzaliznytsya (Ukrainian Railways) and General Electric, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I must say that our cooperation has grown fourfold over few months, President said, adding it has been facilitated by the Government of Ukraine, the White House and the US Government.

As Poroshenko noted, the General Electric is the reputable company, which starts to work in the countries with development prospects.

"For me, it is a clear recognition of what has already been done and the confidence in what we are going to do," the President said.

olUkraine's full membership in the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) opens up broad prospects in the field of renewable energy.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Arab Emirates Yuri Polurez said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Our full membership in the Agency [IRENA] indeed opens up broad prospects in the field of renewable energy as it accumulates the best practices of the developed countries that have reached 60% and even 70% of the energy balance derived from the renewable energy sources," the diplomat stressed.

In his opinion, joining this club will give an opportunity for using the best world experience, the unique knowledge base regarding new technologies and trends of their implementation.

"It is very important for Ukraine as the share of renewable energy sources is growing every year. The participation in these initiatives will be very important for Ukrainian business, industry professionals, and, ultimately, for the Government," Ambassador Polurez said.

olThe Law of Ukraine On the Peculiarities of the State Policy on Ensuring Ukraine's State Sovereignty over Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions comes into force today.

The Ukrainian parliament's Holos Ukrainy newspaper published the wording of the law on February 23, 2018. The law comes into force one day following its publication date.

As reported, on January 18, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law on the peculiarities of state policy on ensuring Ukraine's state sovereignty over temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in which Russia is recognized as an aggressor state carrying out temporary occupation of part of Ukrainian territory.

The document identifies the date of the beginning of the occupation of part of Ukraine, in particular, Crimea and Sevastopol - February 20, 2014.

The law on Donbas reintegration outlines the peculiarities of the state policy on securing Ukraine's state sovereignty in temporarily occupied territories in Donbas.

The document foresees that the boundaries and list of districts, towns, villages and settlements, parts of their territories temporarily occupied in Donetsk and Luhansk regions are determined by the president under a motion from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, prepared on the basis of proposals from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

According to the law, responsibility for financial or moral damage done to Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression is placed on Russia in accordance with generally recognized principles and norms of international law.

In addition, MPs established that persons participating in Russia's armed aggression or involved in the Russian occupation administration are held criminally liable for violating Ukrainian legislation and norms of international humanitarian law.

olOfficial Washington views Ukraine as a promising strategic partner for security and defense as well as other sectors, the dialogue in which has been intensified in recent years.

Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Valery Chaly said this in an exclusive commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Three years ago it was difficult to say that the Americans view Ukraine as a strategic partner in the long term. However, now we see that certain goals can be achieved only in close cooperation. The US is now seriously considering Ukraine as a strategic partner at least in the field of security and defense," the Ukrainian diplomat stressed.

However, he said, "strengthening energy security and economic ties amplifies this partnership."

As the Ambassador recalled, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Ukraine-US Charter on Strategic Partnership. "It is symbolic that our relations have really intensified this year," he said.

According to him, this concerns the contacts both at the highest level and the departmental level. "In fact, for the first time we have held the meetings of the heads of almost all departments of Ukraine and the United States, i.e. we have launched a full-fledged mechanism for interaction within the executive branch and legislative bodies and we further work in this direction," the diplomat noted.

In his opinion, the most important thing is to establish direct economic ties with the American companies, bring them to the Ukrainian market and provide assistance to Ukrainian exporters in the US.

"The signing of a $1 billion framework agreement with the General Electric Transportation, plans to work with Westinghouse and Holtec, signing of OPIC guarantees, further infrastructure projects, joint production of missiles and aircraft are the opportunities to change Ukraines environment for foreign business," Chaly stressed.

olThe Inter-Parliamentary Conference "The Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine: Eastern Partnership and Current Security Challenges" will be held in Chisinau, Moldova, on March 2.

As Speaker of the Parliament of Moldova Andrian Candu announced, the conference participants will discuss the joint actions to counter regional security challenges, the ways to address the problems in the field of defense and energy infrastructure and deepening the processes of European integration, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"First of all, we will discuss the current situation in the region, present ways for resolving existing problems for further synchronization of the actions of the states of the region, in particular, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, in order to counter regional security challenges. We will also discuss the issues of defense, the implementation of projects related to the energy infrastructure development, the implementation of reforms and deepening the processes of European integration in our countries," the speaker said.

During the Conference, the representatives of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia are expected sign the joint declaration on regional security and prospects for European integration of the three countries.

olThe anti-Russian sanctions policy of the United States as well as the support for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine have strengthened under the current administration of the White House, and we can soon expect new evidence for this.

Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Valery Chaly said this in an exclusive commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"First of all, the White House, the departments and the Congress clearly share the views on the continuation of sanctions against Russia, launched under the previous administration. The stand of President Trump and the White House has not softened like Russia could have expected," the diplomat said.

The ambassador also stressed that the official Washington, including President Donald Trump, had repeatedly declared support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. "Not to speak of the U.S. Department of States continuing statements calling on Russia to stop supporting those who kill people and fuel the conflict in Ukraine," Chaly stressed.

As the ambassador noted, a number of mechanisms of Ukraines interaction with the United States and other countries of the West are in effect to force Russia to fulfill "absolutely understandable things in accordance with the international law."

"First, I talk about strengthening the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in order to stop attempts to further advance [of Russia] to our territory," Chaly noted. In this regard, he recalled the provision of the U.S. military and technical assistance, supply of weapons, including counter-battery radars, special communication systems, motor boats, anti-tank weapons, as well as conduct of exercises.

The second direction, he said, is sanctions. "Despite Russias chest-thumping statements, the sanctions produce the result. According to the U.S. Department of State, Russia has not received several billion dollars in defense sector sales, which could be spend to further kill people," he recalled.

As Chaly noted, the third direction is the assistance in reforms, including the creation of an anti-corruption system and tackling corruption on the whole.

olThe minister also warned Russian officials against any attempts to set up polls in the occupied Donbas.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note of protest to the Russian Federation in connection with the presidential elections in the territory of the illegally annexed Crimea, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter.

"We sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation: 1. A resolute protest against presidential elections in the occupied Crimea; 2. Warned against attempts to organize elections in the occupied Donbas; 3. Noted that there can be no election in the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine without full implementation of the first 2 conditions," he tweeted.

Read alsoPutin may go to polling station in occupied Sevastopol in upcoming electionsThe minister added that everyone involved in organizing the voting process in the presidential elections in the occupied Crimea would be put on a sanctions list.

"We will work to ensure that all those involved in [setting up] presidential elections in the occupied territory of Crimea are subject to appropriate sanctions," Klimkin stressed.

As UNIAN reported earlier, presidential elections in Russia are scheduled for March 18, 2018, the day of the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea.At the same time, the president believes that Ukraine's 76th place in the Doing Business ranking is an insufficient result.

The pace of economic reforms Ukraine has been implementing is indeed impressive, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

"76th place in Doing Business rating is not enough for Ukraine. And we are resolutely moving forward to improve our country's position: this is evidenced by the new law on the tax on withdrawn capital, creation of the National Bureau of Financial Investigations, the law on banning "balaklava shows" at enterprises [widely criticized law enforcement raids], law on privatization, and completion of competition for 4G communication. This pace of reform is truly impressive," the president wrote.

Read alsoTalks with IMF on increasing gas tariffs at "hot stage"  Rada SpeakerAs UNIAN reported earlier, the U.S. State Department called on Ukraine to double its reform efforts.

On February 20, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said that Ukrainian authorities over the four years after the Revolution of Dignity had failed to ensure sustainable economic growth and radically improve the quality of life of citizens in line with the country's potential.

To continue cooperation with the IMF, the government needs to carry out a number of reforms: to ensure that pension reform is consistent with the objectives of cooperation, adopt a law on privatization, to bring gas tariffs in line with the import parity, create an Anti-Corruption Court, and ensure the implementation of the budget for 2018 with a deficit within 2 5% of GDP.The law states that Russia shall be held liable for moral, financial or physical damage inflicted on the state of Ukraine, government authorities and local self-government agencies, individuals and legal entities.

The law on Donbas reintegration, defining Russia as an aggressor state, entered into force today, Feb 24.

The law on special aspects of state policy to ensure Ukraine's state sovereignty in temporarily occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on January 18. It was signed off by the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, February 20.

Parts of Ukrainian territory where armed formations of the Russian Federation and the administration of the Russian occupation forces have established and exercise general effective control have been designated as temporarily occupied areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Read alsoNo more ATO: What Donbas Operation format change means for troops and civiliansThe law says that activities of the armed formations of the Russian Federation and the administration of the Russian occupation forces in Donetsk and Luhansk regions are considered to be those that contradict international humanitarian law and are illegal.

The law states that Russia shall be held liable for moral, financial or physical damage inflicted on the state of Ukraine, government authorities and local self-government agencies, individuals and legal entities.

According to the law, the launch and completion of measures to ensure national security and defense, repel and deter Russia's armed aggression in Donetsk and Luhansk regions shall be enacted by separate decisions by the President of Ukraine.

Read alsoPoroshenko: "Russian world" turns everything it touches into ruin and declineNSDC Chief Oleksandr Turchynov said the law significantly strengthens Ukraine's positions in international courts and tackles attempts by the Russian Federation to disguise the war against Ukraine as a "peacekeeping operation."

The law also expands the use of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to repel Russia's armed aggression, he added.

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs deemed the law "preparations for a new war." Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov claims the law derails the Minsk agreements.

In turn, Poroshenko insists that the law does not contradict the Minsk agreements, and Moscow's reaction confirms that it is a right law.Russian diplomats say that by signing off the new legislation, President Poroshenko "untied the hands of the war party" and "signed the verdict" against Minsk agreements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is raging over the entry into force of Ukraine's new law on Donbas reintegration.

On its website, the ministry wrote that "the document creates conditions for the forcible seizure of the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions now beyond Kyiv's control, legalizing the use of the Ukrainian army against civilians."

The report says that by signing off the law, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko "untied the hands of the 'war party' and 'signed the verdict' against Minsk agreements.

Read alsoUkraine's Donbas reintegration law enters into force Feb 24The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the law's entry into force coincides with the anniversary of the shooting of the Heavenly Hundred at the Maidan in 2014, the uprising the ministry called "a coup by Ukrainian nationalists."

Russian diplomats also expect that Ukraine's "Western curators" would be able to influence Kyiv and prevent "the implementation of a scenario disastrous for Ukrainian statehood."

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry branded the adoption of the Donbas reintegration law "preparation for a new war."The president reportedly said no peacekeepers must come "from a country that is an ally of an aggressor state".

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko does not support the idea of deploying in eastern Ukraine peacekeepers from Belarus, the Belarusian Partisan news outlet wrote citing former head of the country's Supreme Council Stanislav Shushkevich as saying.

Speaking about an earlier discussion with Poroshenko of Belarus's participation in the peacekeeping mission in Donbas, Shushkevich said: "This was categorical: Poroshenko said that there can be no peacekeepers from a country that is an ally of the aggressor."

"Through the CSTO and through an agreement on the so-called Union State, Belarus actually has a single military formation with Russia, so there cannot be peacekeepers from Belarus. The aggressor state cannot deploy peacekeepers to Ukraine," Shushkevich said.

Read also"Up to 30,000 peacekeepers": presidential envoy on size of possible mission in DonbasHe stated that there was no need actually for Poroshenko to back such a position during the discussion.

"I am convinced that everyone at the table agreed with this," Shushkevich added.

As reported earlier, Belarusian Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov stated that Belarus could send its peacekeepers to Donbas if a number of conditions were met, in particular, there should be consent of the UN Security Council and Ukraine.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated that the country was ready to participate in the peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, upon the agreement between presidents of Ukraine and Russia.

However, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Olena Zerkal has said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry does not consider it possible for Belarus to participate in the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas, since this country is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military-political bloc led by the Russian Federation.

Read alsoRussia may unleash bloody massacre in Donbas to discredit peacekeepers, Ukraine  expertPresident Petro Poroshenko has stated that Ukraine is ready for discussions on the stages of the introduction of the UN peacekeeping mission to Donbas, as well as on the number of countries that will participate in such mission.

At the same time, he noted that, according to the general principle of peacekeeping operations, neighboring countries traditionally refrain from participating in such missions.The 430-tonne aid allegedly includes baby food and medical equipment.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has reported that its monitors were not allowed to enter a facility where recently arrived "humanitarian" aid from Russia is stored.

"Near Novosvitlivka (non-government-controlled, 16km south-east of Luhansk), the SMM saw ten white cargo trucks labelled 'Humanitarian Aid from the Russian Federation' (in Russian) with Russian Federation license plates accompanied by two cars labelled 'Police' with 'LPR' [self-proclaimed 'Luhansk People's Republic'] plates, four cars labelled 'Ministry of Emergency Services of Russia,' an ambulance with Russian Federation license plates and two other vehicles with 'LPR' plates. The convoy was seen entering a compound at 2a Rudneva Street in Luhansk city. When the SMM attempted to follow, it was blocked by two armed men who stated that the SMM would not be allowed to enter the compound because it had not 'coordinated in advance,'" the OSCE said in an update based on information received as of 19:30, February 22, 2018.

Read alsoOSCE co-ordinator holds secret meeting with Putin's aide Surkov - GerashchenkoRussia has recently sent its 74th convoy of cargo trucks with "humanitarian" aid, which arrived on February 22. The 430-tonne aid allegedly includes baby food and medical equipment.

The previous convoy from Russia arrived in the occupied areas in eastern Ukraine on January 25.Militant groups intensified their shellings after dark.

Over the past day, Russian-occupation troops continued flagrantly violating the Minsk agreements, employing large-caliber weapons banned by the deal.

Nighttime provocations were most intense, the Ukrainian military reported, adding that a total of 13 ceasefire violations by militants were recorded in the past day.

"In the Luhansk direction, the enemy fired 122mm artillery systems, mortars, grenade launchers, and the entire arsenal of small arms, near Luhanske," the report says.

Read alsoNo more ATO: What Donbas Operation format change means for troops and civilians"According to preliminary data, several shells exploded in the vicinity of the front-line settlement, damaging civilians' private property. Also, the enemy fired from the temporarily occupied Pervomaysk toward Pidlisne, using 152mm artillery. The invaders fired from 120mm mortars and weapons installed on infantry fighting vehicles on Ukraine's strong points near Troitske.In other sectors of Ukraine's defense lines, the aggressor forces provoked Ukrainian troops from grenade launchers of various types and small arms near Novo-oleksandrivka, Novhorodske, and Zaitseve," the military say.

In the Donetsk directon, occupation forces opened fire from 120mm mortars, grenade launchers, amd small arms just outside Novotroyitske," reads the report.

No casualties have been reported over the past 24 hours.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine has reported that its monitors were not allowed to enter a facility where recently arrived "humanitarian" aid from Russia is stored.Taking advantage of the fact that the militants did not open fire, power and gas supplies were restored in Luhanske.

On Saturday, Feb 24, the Ukrainian Army recorded no shellings by militants in the Donbas war zone.

"Since day-start, the ceasefire has prevailed along the entire contact line in eastern Ukraine, according to the latest report.

"As of 18:00, there have been no shellings on our strongpoints, while the Ukrainian army strictly has adhered to the Minsk accords. The situation in the area of the anti-terrorist operation is under control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Combat units performing their tasks on the first line of defense retain their positions and keep monitoring the adversary," the statement reads.

Read also"Disastrous scenario": Russia reacts to Donbas reintegration law being enforcedDuring yesterday's shelling by militants, power and gas supplies to Luhanske were damaged.

"Today, with the assistance of officers of the civil-military cooperation unit of the ATO Staff and representatives of the Ukrainian side to the JCCC, power and gas supplies to Luhanske, damaged in yesterday's artillery shellings by Russian mercenaries, was restored," the press center said.The man is now awaiting extradition to the United States, where he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Polish police working with the FBI have detained a Ukrainian suspected of cybercrime.

The 44-year-old is suspected of being a member of a criminal group responsible for hacker attacks and spreading malware, according to Radio Poland.

Read alsoUkrainian "poison ad" hacker group exposed after stealing $50 mln in cryptocurrency - mediaThe Ukrainian, detained in Bielsko-Biaa, southern Poland, was wanted under an international arrest warrant, state broadcaster Polish Radio reported.

The man is now awaiting extradition to the United States, where he faces up to 30 years in prison, according to Polands IAR news agency.The European Central Bank warned Saturday that Latvia's third-largest lender ABLV was at risk of failing, after freezing payments following money laundering allegations from Washington

Berlin, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :The European Central Bank warned Saturday that Latvia's third-largest lender ABLV was at risk of failing, after freezing payments following money laundering allegations from Washington.

"Due to the significant deterioration of its liquidity, the bank is likely unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due," the ECB said in a statement. The ECB this week announced it was freezing payments to ABLV, providing another shock to Latvia's financial sector after its central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics was barred from carrying out his duties amid claims of bribery.

"The bank did not have sufficient funds which are immediately available to withstand stressed outflows of deposits before the payout procedure of the Latvian deposit guarantee fund starts," the statement said.

Last week the US Treasury Departmentnamed ABLV "an institution of Primary money laundering concern" and accused it of connections to North Korea's weapons development programme. Latvian police announced Friday they had begun probing the money laundering claims.

In a statement, ABLV defended itself, insisting that it had gathered 1.36 billion Euros ($1.67 billion) to strengthen its liquidity. It said this "was absolutely sufficient for the bank to resume executing payments and meet all obligations towards its clients, yet due to political considerations the bank was not given a chance to do it".Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) and Employers Federation Of Pakistan (EFOP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to build a dependable, pragmatic and advantageous relationship.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) and Employers Federation Of Pakistan (EFOP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to build a dependable, pragmatic and advantageous relationship.

LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid and EFOP President Majyd Aziz signed the MOU here at Lahore Chamber where LCCI Senior Vice President Khawaja Khawar Rashid, Executive Committee Members and EFOP Vice President Zaki Ahmed Khan were also present.

Malik Tahir Javaid said that agreement between the two organizations was an important breakthrough and help establish friendly and cordial relations between the two organizations through an increased cooperation mode among the industrialists, businessmen and entrepreneurs of their respective organizations.

He said that LCCI would enhance growth in interaction with Employers Federation of Pakistan. Both organizations would also make joint efforts to focus mutual cooperation for increase in membership by capitalizing on the opportunities of engaging them intensively in issues of common interests.

LCCI President said it was imperative that there should be maximum dissemination of information that could lead to further increase in bilateral relationship between the industrialists, businessmen and entrepreneurs.

He said that coordination between LCCI and EFOP would help promote joint ventures, initiate partnership, provide technical expertise and introduce joint project possibilities. He said, Lahore Chamber and Employers Federation of Pakistan would work together to dispel negative perceptions about industrial issues, will attract investment and will also make efforts to remove bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Malik Tahir Javaid said that being the premier most business support organization of Pakistan, the Lahore Chamber always led from the front to highlight the issues of private sector. LCCI worked very systematically and it continued to analyze the present scenario of business and suggest ways to government to address the issues.

He said that LCCI organizes various activities for the capacity building of its members like seminars, workshops and conferences etc. These events help them in obtaining up-to-date information about national and international market and allow them to learn new methodologies to remain competitive.

He said that LCCI played vital role in policy making by way of sending proposals to government which were duly considered while finalizing annual budget and different policies meant to regulate business affairs.

President Employers Federation of Pakistan Majyd Aziz also welcomed the agreement and said that EFOP was providing a forum to the employers of Pakistan to progress in the global society through decent work and better human resource management while keeping in view the corporate social responsibilities.

EFOP was also striving for industrial peace, harmony, poverty reduction and business promotion and perused policies and legislation conducive to investment, economic growth, employment generation, decent wages and keeping peace with socio-economic development of country, he added.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The government of Saudi Arabia has agreed to finance gravity flow water supply scheme in district Mansehra of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). A spokesman of provincial government talking to Radio Pakistan informed that the Saudi Fund for Development will provide two billion rupees for the project

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :The government of Saudi Arabia has agreed to finance gravity flow water supply scheme in district Mansehra of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

A spokesman of provincial government talking to Radio Pakistan informed that the Saudi Fund for Development will provide two billion rupees for the project.

After completion of the project, the serious issue of clean drinking water in district Mansehra will be resolved on permanent basis.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that a political party that had been in power for four decades is confronting the judiciary and threatening the accountability institutions only to save an individual which was most shameful.

Lahore, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018) : Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that a political party that had been in power for four decades is confronting the judiciary and threatening the accountability institutions only to save an individual which was most shameful.

He was addressing the opening session of the two day leadership workshop of the JI at Mansoora on Saturday. The district heads of the JI from all over the country along with their deputies and Secretaries are attending the workshop which would discuss the forthcoming elections and take stock of the Corruption Free Pakistan drive of the part.

The JI drive against corruption began exactly two years ago on February 24, 2016 with a press conference by the JI chief Sirajul Haq. Speaking on the occasion, Sirajul Haq said that it was unfortunate that instead of curbing corruption, the government was patronizing the corrupt officers and the Punjab government had convened a cabinet meeting to protect the corrupt bureaucrats.

He said that it was the legal and moral duty of the governments to wipe out corruption from the institutions but unfortunately, the rulers were doing just the opposite. Sirajul Haq said the JI was striving for the supremacy of Deen in the country through public support.

He said the JI believed in a change through the ballot because a change brought by force was not lasting. He however said that a meaningful change could not be conceived without eliminating corruption.

He said that the present system of oppression and exploitation could be wiped out only with public support. Sirajul Haq said that the JI was against terrorism of any form and by anyone. However, he said, that terming patriotic groups and welfare institutions as terrorists and taking punitive action against them under US and Indian pressure was undesirable and against national interest.Balochistan Assembly Speaker Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani chaired a session of Assembly on Saturday where Mir Abdul Karim Noushairwani tabled in Balochistan Finance draft Act, 2013 under Article 13 of the house, which speaker has rolling to submit the relevant committee.

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2018 ) :Balochistan Assembly Speaker Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani chaired a session of Assembly on Saturday where Mir Abdul Karim Noushairwani tabled in Balochistan Finance draft Act, 2013 under Article 13 of the house, which speaker has rolling to submit the relevant committee.

The chairman of Standing Committee for S&GAD, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights, William Johan Barkat, presented a motion to submit extension report on Balochistan House Islamabad in the period of 24 February 2018, which was approved by the house in a session.

On this point, former Chief Minister Balochistan Dr, Abdul Malik Bloch said that now this matter was in Supreme Court which hearing to be held on March 31 in this regard and adjourned it till court verdict.

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) leader Abdul Raheem Ziaratwal followed point of Dr, Abdul Malik Baloch and this matter could be postponed till court decision. Speaker Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani quoted in this regard that this issue was in Supreme Court which would be adjourned according to situation of hearing of this case.

Chairman Committee for Rules Coordinator and Executor Engineer Zamurk Khan Achakzai presented a motion to extend the expansion of the report on amendment by 24 February, which was approved by the house.

He also recommended movement of rules and Balochistan Assembly 1974 for Efficiency and discipline (Amendment) Bill and it was also approved in the session. Provincial Minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs Syed Agha Raza moved the amendment draft for the necessary amendment in the Provincial Assembly.

Provincial Advisor Treasury, Dr. Raquiya Saeed Hashimi, under the Financial Committee Report Regulations Regarding Regulation Act, 1974, rule 166 (4) presented a resolution in the House for Financial Year 2012.13 (Legislative Alliance).

The rules of Assembly 1974's regulation number 255 under a resolution was moved by provincial Law and Parliamentary Affairs Syed Agha Raza, that the Senate proposed senate election to the house of Balochistan which was approved. Later, after completion of other proceedings the house was adjourned till February 27.International Women's Day would be observed on March 8 worldwide including Pakistan to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :International Women's Day would be observed on March 8 worldwide including Pakistan to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

Every year on 8th of March, International Women's Day is celebrated worldwide to honour women's accomplishments from political to social achievements and thus raising voice for gender equality.

It has been observed since the early 1900s and is now recognised each year on March 8, Private news channel reported. This day is not affiliated with any one group, but brings together governments, women's organisations and other civil rights institutions to praise women for being role models despite hurdles and societal pressures.

In Pakistan working women in formal and informal sectors celebrate International Women s Day every year to commemorate their ongoing struggle for due rights, despite facing many restrictions. It is not known when this day originated but its roots can be traced to 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding voting rights, better pay and shorter working hours.

A year later, the first National Woman's Day was observed in the US on February 28, in accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.

In 1910, a woman called Clara Zetkin, leader of the 'women's office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany tabled the idea of an International Women's Day .

She suggested that every country should praise women on one day every year to push for their demands. A conference of more than 100 women from 17 countries agreed to her suggestion and International Women's Day was formed.

In 1911, it was celebrated for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19. In 1913, it was decided to transfer IWD to March 8, and it has been celebrated on this date ever since.

The day was recognised by the United Nations in 1975, but ever since it has created a theme each year for the celebration. The theme for IWD 2017 is "Be bold for change" thus encouraging people to step up and take ground breaking action to help drive gender equality.

The original aim of this day is to achieve full gender equality for women around the world which has still not been realized. A gender pay gap persists across the globe and women are still not present in equal numbers in business or politics.

A number of functions including thought-provoking dialogue sessions and other activities would also be held to pay tribute to women's struggle for their rights.Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Saturday urged officers to play their role for setting the department on modern lines and requirements of the present era.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Saturday urged officers to play their role for setting the department on modern lines and requirements of the present era.

Addressing the concluding session of a two-day All Pakistan PR Divisional Conference held at the PR Headquarter here on Saturday, he said that the railways had set a new record and hopefully officers would continue the journey of restoration, progress and modernization.

The minister said that he wished officers should work till the age of 65 instead of 60 so that the institution could get benefits of their experience.

The minister directed the divisional officers to cooperate for the restructuring work so that the job could be completed earlier.

He also directed the officers to work for the increase in number of railway divisions so that the workload could be reduced. Saad said that Gawader would soon be a part of railways network and land acquire work in Gawadar had been completed for this purpose. He also ordered for speedy completion of restructuring work of directorate of land and directorate general.(@rukhshanmir)

SARGODHA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz on Saturday said former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had launched a crusade for democracy and fundamental rights of some 220 million people of Pakistan.

Addressing the Social Media Convention of Pakistan Muslim League-N here at Company Bagh, she said Nawaz Sharif was striving to banish the fall-outs and legacies of dictatorial regimes from the country.

The former prime minister, she said, was ruling the hearts of the people and nobody could diminish their love for the PML-N leader. He as prime minister had completed a number of mega development projects, including motorways, roads, bridges and metro bus service not only in cities but in far-off villages also, she added.

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which was bringing exemplary development across the country, was also initiated by him, she said. Maryam said during the last over four years, the PML-N government had successfully completed many electricity projects to remove darkness from the country.

She said it was Nawaz Sharif who had made Pakistan's defence invincible by making it a nuclear state despite international pressure. She hoped that the people would vote for the PML-N in the general election 2018 and Nawaz Sharif would again become prime minister. APP/mab/zhrSindh Governor Muhammad Zubair has said that the friendly relations between Pakistan and Japan are being strengthened with the passage of time.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair has said that the friendly relations between Pakistan and Japan are being strengthened with the passage of time.

He said tihs while talking to Ambassador of Japan Takashi Kurai, who called on him here on Saturday, said a statement of the Governor House. Matters of mutual interests, including good investment environment in Karachi and measures to increase the bilateral trade between the two countries, came under discussion in the meeting.

The governor underlined the need for increasing the trade and business activities between the two countries.

He said the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was an important project and invited the Japanese companies to invest in the CPEC related projects in Pakistan.

The Sindh Governor also thanked to the government as well as people of Japan for assistance in the fields of education and health. The Japanese ambassador said that Pakistan was a reliable friend and Japanese companies were taking interest in setting up industrial units in Karachi.(@FahadShabbir)

Pakistan Navy's operational exercise Ribat-2018 to enhance interoperability between naval and air assets commenced with opening brief held at Karachi on Saturday

Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018) Pakistan Navy's operational exercise Ribat-2018 to enhance interoperability between naval and air assets commenced with opening brief held at Karachi on Saturday.

Vice Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Kaleem Shaukat, graced the occasion as Chief Guest. RIBAT series of exercises are focused on validating PN war fighting concepts under evolving multi-faceted threats ranging from conventional to sub conventional warfare.

The exercise would also encompass joint operations of PN with PAF at extended ranges into the Arabian Sea. In his address, the Vice Chief of Naval Staff emphasized on the combat readiness of Pakistan Navy and that joint operational exercises are the essence of modern warfare which affords real-time training to undertake defence of the motherland against any aggression.

He urged all the participants not to be deterred by the numerical superiority or greater wherewithal of the enemy as Islamic history is full of incidences of smaller Muslim forces defeating larger enemies through their superior strategy, faith in ALLAH (SWT) and own just cause.

He expressed hope that the exercise will prove to be professionally rewarding for both the combat and support elements of PN and PAF. Besides operational units of Fleet Command, units from Coastal and Logistics Commands are also taking part in the exercise.

Special emphasis will be laid in the exercise to enhance interoperability between naval and air assets and validation of war plans. The exercise will continue till 6 March 2018 in the North Arabian Sea and will culminate with a fire power demonstration by combat units of Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force.Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Remarks

2018/02/24

Q: On February 24, the US Treasury Department announced its latest round of sanctions against the DPRK as well as companies, vessels, and individual of some countries who they believe are working in connection with the DPRK, including some Chinese entities. What is your comment?

A: The Chinese government has been comprehensively and strictly implementing the Security Council resolutions on the DPRK and fulfilling its international obligations, and never allows any Chinese citizen or company to engage in activities in violation of the Security Council resolutions. If any breach of the Security Council resolutions and Chinese laws and regulations is found out through investigation, the Chinese side will seriously deal with it in accordance with laws and regulations.

The Chinese side firmly opposes the US imposing unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction" on Chinese entities or individuals in accordance with its domestic laws. We have lodged stern representations with the US side over this, urging it to immediately stop such wrongdoings so as not to undermine bilateral cooperation on the relevant area.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that despite ousted as President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif owns the party and the party will remain with his name but the party will decide about next president in days to come.

Lahore, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018) : Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that despite ousted as President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif owns the party and the party will remain with his name but the party will decide about next president in days to come.

He stated this while talking to media persons after reviewing the ongoing development work at Nazeer Shaheed Road, Lahore, on Saturday.

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that the parliament has a unique status and it was backed by the power of masses, however, the importance of Senate and National Assembly was being degraded.

The NAB should keep in view the self-respect of others as the inquiry being conducted but Cheemas' appearance in bunkers was manhandling, he said while responding to a query. The Speaker said, "There is need of change in NAB laws, however the time should be kept in mind."(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday attended the link-up ground-breaking ceremonies of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project and laying of power transmission lines and fibre optic, here at the Serhatabad city of Turkmenistan.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Feb, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday attended the link-up ground-breaking ceremonies of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project and laying of power transmission lines and fibre optic, here at the Serhatabad city of Turkmenistan.

This was the first leg of the ground-breaking ceremony, which was also attended by Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and India's Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar, according to information received here.

An Agreement on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan power line was also signed on the occasion.

A Pakistani cultural troupe performed at the occasion along with their counterparts from partner TAPI countries.

The prime minister also attended a special handicrafts exhibition in the city along with heads of other member countries representing arts, culture of the four states followed by the inaugural ceremony.

Prime Minister Abbasi later proceeded to Herat, Afghanistan where he attended the second leg of the ground-breaking ceremony. The ambitious natural gas pipeline project entered its practical phase in Pakistan after the process of initiating front-end-engineering-and-design (FEED) route survey was formally inaugurated last year.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) has decided to provide concessions in fares to Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) lawyers and its members whenever they stay in the corporation's motels

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) has decided to provide concessions in fares to Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) lawyers and its members whenever they stay in the corporation's motels.

The PTDC Managing Director, Ch. Abdul Ghafoor Khan during a meeting with President of IHC Bar Association, Arif Chaudhry Saturday invited lawyers to secure some time for tourism in order to get acquainted with the beautiful surroundings and sites across the country.

While giving briefing about the tourists destinations of Pakistan, the managing director said the people should consider PTDC as their own department and must benefit from the facilities provided by it.

Ghafoor Khan appreciated the role of lawyers fraternity on rendering sacrifices for the supremacy of law and justice in the country. He said that the government was paying attention towards promoting tourism in the country, and referred to the UNWTO Conference organized recently by the PTDC which has created soft image of Pakistan across the world.

Similarly, PTDC has also succeeded in getting on-arrival tourists visa facility to facilitate travelers coming from other countries of the world, adding that in addition, the services of City Tour Bus Services for Islamabad had also been launched and was operating successfully.

The PTDC would shortly introduce Chartered Flights and Helicopters for visits to the tourist destinations. The establishment of Tourist Police on the pattern of Newzealand is also under consideration of the corporation, he added.

Ghafoor Khan said that the PTDC would soon ink agreements with Iran, Uzbekistan, Mauritius and Belarus to work jointly for the promotion of tourism in Pakistan. On the occasion, the President of IHC Bar Association, Arif Chaudhry said Pakistan was a very beautiful country and rejected the negative impression being created about it.

He praised the efforts of Ghafoor Khan for taking practical and effective measures for the promotion of tourism in the countryInterior Minister Ahsan Iqbal On Saturday Said That Surgical Strikes Were Being Carried Out On The Country's Political Stability

Lahore: (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018) Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal On Saturday Said That Surgical Strikes Were Being Carried Out On The Country's Political Stability. Speaking To Journalists, (Pakistan Point news - 24th Feb, 2018) Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday said that surgical strikes were being carried out on the country's political stability.

Speaking to jo(Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018)urnalists, Ahsan warned that Pakistan is facing conspiracies and the country's enemies were working overtime to spread anarchy. He added that any person or institution moving the country towards anarchy could not be considered a friend.

Ahsan also mentioned the threat of a surgical strike that Pakistan had received from Indian army chief, adding that country was also faced with similar internal threats. "We need to be united. Our neighbouring country is threatening us with surgical strikes and we will face this threat.

But surgical strikes are also being carried out on the political stability in the country. There is no room for this. Why are we becoming our own enemy?" The minister opined that the Panama papers were used to achieve political objectives.

He said this was not unusual to have differences between political parties, but every party will have to bear the brunt of any designs to weaken democratic polity. When asked about the Senate elections, Iqbal responded that some steps that have been taken are creating the impression that the process of target killing is underway in politics.

According to the interior minister, the Pakistani voter is no longer comparable to a Primary school student, rather someone who has received a PhD in politics. "They [people] are well informed and analyse everything.

This is the reason that the PML-N, despite steps being taken against us, is not experiencing any political backlash. In fact, our political support is increasing.

" Iqbal stressed on the supremacy of Parliament, calling it the most important institution in the country that gives birth to the constitution and other institutions.

"The Parliament decides on how many judges will be appointed in the Supreme Court or what the pension of a Supreme Court judge will be; it also gives birth to the structure of the judiciary. It decides on the prime ministerial criteria and who will be the next premier." "The Parliament is the representative of the people of Pakistan," he added.

Interior Minister said that a decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to place Pakistan on the grey-list of the global money laundering watchdog will be made in June. "The resolution against us was on political grounds to pressurise Pakistan.

We were on this watch list till 2015 and despite this, we grew the country's economy. It is wrong to speculate that this will have dire economic consequences on the country." Iqbal emphasised that Pakistan had made the most efforts to combat terrorism.

"We are taking steps not to please the US but four our own benefit. We will follow our own agenda to achieve national goals." Earlier addressing a workshop, Ahsan Iqbal says the youth have a crucial role in economic development of a country.

He said the future of Pakistan is linked with its youth. Ahsan Iqbal said we have to train the youth as per our future requirements. He said the incumbent government is making concerted efforts to make the youth an asset of the country.

The Interior Minister said we are digitally empowering the youth to ensure their contribution in the process of progress and prosperity. He said Pakistan is included in the countries where youth is in majority. He emphasized the need for implementing the resolutions of the United Nations, including the one that seeks amicable resolution of the long-standing Kashmir dispute.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Indonesia planned to deliver capacity building programmes to several South Pacific countries so as to enhance capabilities of those countries in several sectors, an Indonesian senior minister said on Friday, Xinhua reported

JAKARTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Feb, 2018 ) :Indonesia planned to deliver capacity building programmes to several South Pacific countries so as to enhance capabilities of those countries in several sectors, an Indonesian senior minister said on Friday, Xinhua reported.

Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto said that the assistance programmes requested to Indonesia among others were the trainings to host and organize international events, police works, fishery and seaweeds processing.

Besides the assistance programmes, Indonesia and countries in the region also look forward to enhance trade cooperation. "We are now arranging those capacity building programmes and how to deliver it to them," the senior minister said on the sidelines of his meeting with representatives of 43 related agencies regarding the assistance programs for South Pacific countries.

Cited to results of his discussions with those leaders, Wiranto said that Indonesia and those countries have a common understanding and shared similar notions in efforts to further develop South Pacific countries.

Indonesia Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi, who attended the meeting, said the arrangement of capacity building programs was part of Indonesia's efforts to further strengthen the nation international relations.Bogota, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Feb, 2018 ) :A drug kingpin dubbed Ecuador's "Pablo Escobar" who was under arrest in Colombia was extradited to the United States early Saturday, local officials said here.

Washington Prado, also known as "Gerard," faces charges of moving more than 250 tonnes of Colombian cocaine from Ecuador's Pacific coast to Central America and beyond to the United States, Colombian prosecutors said in a statement.

Colombian authorities captured the 36-year-old Prado in April 2017 and held him in a maximum security prison in Bogota. Authorities compared Prado to the late Colombian kingpin Escobar -- killed in a 1993 police operation in Medellin, Colombia -- for his powerful role in Ecuador's drug trafficking world.

Prado has also been linked to bribing and murdering prosecutors and investigators in Ecuador. Prado tried to avoid extradition by claiming to be an ex-guerrilla with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

As part of the peace deal between Colombia and the FARC that ended a five-decade-long conflict, ex-guerrillas involved in drug trafficking could avoid extradition to the United States in exchange for reparations and a vow to abandon their life of violent crime.Estonia on Saturday celebrated 100 years since declaring independence with a military parade and other festivities in the Baltic state, which is now firmly ensconced in the West, though tensions remain with neighbour Russia.

Tallinn, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Estonia on Saturday celebrated 100 years since declaring independence with a military parade and other festivities in the Baltic state, which is now firmly ensconced in the West, though tensions remain with neighbour Russia.

Flag-waving Estonians watched the parade in capital Tallin, with about 11,000 soldiers and hundreds of vehicles from both the domestic army and other NATO countries taking part in a show of strength.

Along with fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia declared independence in 1918 as the Tsarist Russian empire collapsed during World War I. But it was annexed by the Soviet Union under a 1939 deal with Nazi Germany in World War II.

The nation of 1.3 million people then broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991. "The independence and freedom of our people has never been and should not be taken for granted," General Riho Teras, Estonia's chief of staff, said at the parade.

"The war of independence sent a clear message: anything is possible if a nation really wants it," he said, referring to the 1918-1920 war with the Russian empire. Tensions with Russia remain, and the largely secular country joined NATO and the European Union in 2004.

Relations have been particularly strained by Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russia rebels and the government. Festivities to mark the centenary will run until 2020 and include concerts and exhibitions.

Estonia announced Thursday that US President Donald Trump will welcome his Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts in Washington on April 3 to discuss security and economic ties.Donald Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than two million euros ($2.5 million) to lobby for Ukraine's then-leader backed by Russia, US prosecutors have claimed.

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Donald Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than two million Euros ($2.5 million) to lobby for Ukraine's then-leader backed by Russia, US prosecutors have claimed.

The charges, lodged in a Washington Federal court by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday, said Manafort retained the so-called Hapsburg Group of onetime politicians to "take positions favourable to Ukraine, including by lobbying the United States." The group, which operated from 2012-2013, was managed by an unnamed "former European chancellor," who along with other members of the group lobbied US legislators and White House officials, the indictment alleged.

They were to "appear to be providing their independent assessments of government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine," according to the indictment. Manafort, 68, has been accused by the team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he did for Viktor Yanukovych from 2006-2014.

- 'Highly personal relationship' - Yanukovych served as Ukraine's president from 2010 until he was ousted in 2014 as a result of a popular uprising. After that, Manafort stopped working for him, eventually returned to the United States and, in 2016, joined Trump's presidential election campaign.

Backed by Moscow, Yanukovych was eyed suspiciously at the time in much of Europe for his pro-Russia stance and widespread accusations of deep corruption. Manafort is believed to have been behind Yanukovych's spectacular political comeback after huge protests dubbed the Orange Revolution overturned his fraud-tainted victory in 2004.

With Manafort's help Yanukovych's Party of Regions won parliamentary elections in 2006 and in 2010 he beat rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a presidential poll. Yanukovych's allies say that the shrewd political strategist had enormous influence over Yanukovych.

A report in the Atlantic magazine said the two men developed a "highly personal relationship" and even swam naked together outside Yanukovych's bathhouse. Yanukovych currently lives in Russia and is wanted in Ukraine for high treason.

The Hapsburg Group was meant to "act informally and without any visible relationship" to the Ukraine government, a memorandum written by Manafort in June 2012 read. While the latest indictment did not charge Manafort with any crime specifically tied to the Hapsburg Group, those activities were cited to show Manafort had been actively lobbying for Ukraine and had allegedly broken laws by not registering as such in the United States.

- Ukraine wants to cooperate - In Kiev, Ukrainian prosecutors said Saturday they wanted to cooperate with Washington over Manafort. Sergiy Gorbatyuk, head of special investigations at the General Prosecutor's Office, said Ukrainian prosecutors would be sending a letter to Mueller in the coming days.

"We want to understand how they will be cooperating with us," Gorbatyuk told AFP. "We have criminal proceedings under way where we are looking into Paul Manafort's activities," he added. "The accusations made against him overlap with our investigation and cooperation is important to achieve results," Gorbatyuk said.

"That's what we should say in the letter to Mueller." He added that Ukrainian prosecutors wanted to question Manafort several years ago but a formal request sent to the US authorities went unanswered. "Until now we had practically no cooperation."Zagreb, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2018 ) :Following a long-standing border dispute between European Union members Croatia and Slovenia, Brussels has warned Western Balkans aspirants that they need to resolve their territorial disputes before joining the bloc.

Here are the border rows of the five EU hopefuls: Albania Albania and Greece signed an agreement on their border in the Ionian Sea in 2009. Albania's top court squashed it the following year citing violation of the country's "rights and interests." The talks were relaunched and both sides hope to sign the deal in April.

Albanian opposition and civil society groups accuse the government of planning to cede the territory, where gas and oil have been discovered, to Greece to get its support for EU membership. Bosnia-Hercegovina Bosnia shares with EU-member Croatia a more than 1,000-kilometre long border.

The two countries signed a border deal in 1999, but it was never ratified. The main issue is the demarcation at Bosnia's small port of Neum around which lie the country's 11 kilometres (seven miles) of Adriatic coastline.

Kosovo In 2015 Kosovo signed a border demarcation deal with Montenegro but unlike its neighbour failed to ratify it. In Kosovo the agreement has sparked violence, including a teargas attack on parliament.

The parliament is to discuss the deal Wednesday. Montenegro Montenegro and Croatia are in dispute over the ownership of uninhabited Prevlaka peninsula on the Adriatic which is not even two kilometres (a mile) long.

Serbia Serbia's main border issue is with its former province of Kosovo, whose independence it has not recognised since it was proclaimed a decade ago. Belgrade and Zagreb have since 2003 discussed the border on the Danube river, relating to more than 11,000 hectares (27,181 acres) of land.

Serbia wants the border to go through the middle of the Danube while Croatia, referring to land registry data, wants the border to cut through land claimed by both sides The countries' leaders have said that if a deal is not reached in the next two years, the issue should be put before international arbitration.Page Content

Spring is coming early to Schmeeckle Reserve at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, with a variety of free workshops that celebrate the upcoming season.

These public programs will be taught by UW-Stevens Point students at the reserve's Visitor Center, 2419 North Point Dr., Stevens Point, unless otherwise noted. Some activities are outdoors, so dress for the weather. For more information, call 715-346-4992 or go to www.uwsp.edu/cnr/schmeeckle.

March programs include:Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme  La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.



Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.



Experts and activists have expressed dismay over deteriorating press freedom in Cambodia in recent months, amid a government crackdown on the political opposition, civil society and the independent media ahead of the countrys next general elections in July.

The Paris-headquartered Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) said in a report released last week that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) had left the free press in ruins.

In a simplistic, either-with-us-or-against-us strategy, the regime is now in the process of banning, obstructing, or intimidating all independent media outlets that might refuse to toe the official line, Daniel Bastard, head of RSFs Asia-Pacific Desk, said in its new report Cambodia: The Independent Press in Ruins, which was released on February 14.

In early September, Kem Sokha, the leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party was arrested and later charged with treason for alleged collusion to overthrow the government. Two months later, the CNRP was dissolved by the Supreme Court at the governments behest, while all the partys 118 senior members were banned from political activities for five years.

At the same time, a number of independent media outlets and organizations were closed or suspended, and more than a dozen radio stations were ordered to either shut down or cease broadcasting Khmer-language news from Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Voice of Democracy.

Just a day after Kem Sokhas arrest, one of just a handful of independent newspapers in the country, The Cambodia Daily was forced to close after 24 years of operation following a government-imposed order to pay back taxes of $6.3 million. Only days later, RFAs Phnom Penh news bureau also shut down due to similar pressure over a tax bill. And at least five former journalists, including a filmmaker, have been charged by Cambodian prosecutors in three separate cases within the past eight months.

Cambodian Aun Pheap and Canadian Zsombor Peter, both former reporters with The Cambodia Daily, were charged in August with incitement to a crime under articles 494 and 495 of Cambodias penal code. The charges stemmed from questions about politics they asked villagers while covering last Junes commune elections campaign in Pate commune of the northeastern province of Ratanakkiri. If found guilty, the journalists, both of whom have left the country indefinitely, could face a two-year jail term.

Asking questions during an election campaign has absolutely nothing to do with inciting crime. This is what we call journalism, Daniel Bastard said.

Two former RFA reporters, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, were also charged with espionage in another case in November. They were jailed following a warning from the Information Ministry that journalists would be arrested if they continued filing news reports to the US-funded broadcaster.

The pair were charged with providing information that is destructive to national defense to a foreign state, according to Ly Sophana, a spokesman for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. If found guilty, they could face a prison term of up to 15 years each. Both journalists have vehemently denied the accusation, and their families and RFA have said the former reporters were no longer working for the radio station at the time of their arrest.

James Ricketson, an Australian filmmaker, was also charged with espionage for flying a drone over an opposition rally in Phnom Penh in mid-2017.

Pa Nguon Teang, the executive director of Cambodian Center for Independent Media, who himself was charged in a separate case and also fled the country last year, told VOA that these media professionals had done nothing wrong.

To me, that was not an offense. The charges were just the governments fear-spreading strategy, he said.

Several independent journalism organizations, including the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, the Southeast Asia Press Alliance, the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia, and RSF, as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists, released a statement last week calling the governments legal actions against these journalists acts of intimidation, not due process.

The government clearly feels that a free and independent press will undermine its position ahead of crucial elections later this year, Shawn Crispin, the Committee to Protect Journalists Southeast Asia representative, told VOA in an email.

Hun Sen's regime aims to tightly control the narrative ahead of the polls by threatening journalists, he said.

Government officials have repeatedly refuted such criticisms, insisting that there is no crackdown on press freedom.

In the Cambodia Daily and Radio Free Asia cases, the government did not close them; they closed by themselves and left [the country], Huy Vannak, an Interior Ministry undersecretary of state and the president of the pro-government Union of Journalist Federations of Cambodia, said at a media roundtable discussion hosted last month by the Cambodian News Channel, a private TV station where he serves as news director.

Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the CPP, said the cases against the charged journalists were based on the rule of law and that if they were innocent, they would eventually be released or the charges would be dropped.

If they are not guilty, no one wants to arrest and keep them in jail, as that would just waste rice in the prison, he told VOA.

He added that just a few media outlets had been forced to close down.

How many media outlets among nearly a thousand still in operation have been in ruins now? he asked. Those ruined are only the ones who did not pay taxes, so if we just took one or two to represent the whole picture, that would be opposite to reality.

The Trump Effect

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia almost uninterruptedly for more than 33 years, has also defended himself and his government, saying authorities were just enforcing tax law impartially.

Speaking to journalists last month at a correspondents dinner in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen said, in an apparent reference to The Cambodia Daily and RFA: Some media outlets were operating illegally in the country and evading taxes and, after we found out, they acted as if they were Cambodias political victims.

In defense of his governments actions, he pointed out that even in the U.S. fake news was a problem, citing complaints frequently made by U.S. President Donald Trump, as well as a parodic fake news award the president recently gave out.

Media freedom advocates say autocratic leaders around the world, in places including Syria, Venezuela, Egypt, and Southeast Asian nations like Malaysia and Thailand, are increasingly using Trumps fake news rhetoric to delegitimize independent media outlets they do not like.

Its very unfortunate what happens in America, that other repressive governments like the government in Cambodia like other countries around the world, they see whats happening in America, they say, Well, its okay to crack down on media because the president of United States has said terrible things about the media, Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, told VOA in a recent interview.

Its hard enough to be a journalist in dictatorships like Cambodia when the United States is setting a good example, Tom Malinowski, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Labor, told VOA.

Now every dictator who wants to ban media he doesnt like can say, Trump does it so why cant I? said Malinowski, who served under President Barack Obama.

When hosting the U.S. president during last years ASEAN summit, the infamously outspoken Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who had previously used disparaging epithets to refer to journalists, also referred to reporters as spies.

Journalism is not espionage, James Ricketson, the Australian filmmaker who remains behind bar awaiting trial in Cambodia, told reporters while appearing at one of his hearings at the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh recently.

Unlikely to Resume Operations

John F. Lansing, chief executive officer and director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees both VOA and RFA, said in a statement in August that the governments clampdown on independent media was disturbing and a form of intimidation and harassment in the run-up to this year elections.

We call on the Cambodian government to reverse this decision to muzzle objective sources of news and to allow all impacted stations to resume normal operations immediately, he said.

But CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said there was no use in outsiders shouting and trying to put pressure on the government to heed their demands.

To call a spade a spade, both RFA and VOA seem a bit tricky. They did not pay taxes nor did they register but they were operating by renting airwaves, so why didnt they just pay taxes? he told VOA.

For The Cambodia Daily, if they pay the $6.3 million and ask to register to resume their operation, I think the Royal Government [of Cambodia] probably will not mind; we also want many independent foreign journalists, he said.

But with regard to the five journalists currently in jail or charged with serious crimes, he said the cases were a matter for the judicial system.

As for those journalists, they may want to find strong lawyers to defend them in courts, he said.

However, both media and legal experts said they did not have much hope that the journalists would find an impartial hearing in the Cambodian courts, which have not been known for their independence.

Cambodia's courts are notoriously pliable, so I doubt there is any credible legal remedy for journalists and media outlets targeted in the recent clampdown, said Shawn Crispin of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Jonathan Bush, a lecturer at Columbia Law School, told VOA in an interview that the legal system could easily be abused by authoritarian regimes by applying the letter of the law while ignoring its spirit.

Obviously, these kinds of things narrow the democratic space in a way that is really sad, he said of the situation in Cambodia. One hopes that foreign NGOs and foreign journalist groups will allow the spotlight to shine and maybe let the government know that people are watching.U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced what he said was the "largest ever" set of sanctions against North Korea, as part of what the White House bills as its "maximum pressure" campaign against Pyongyang.

"We have imposed the heaviest sanctions ever imposed," Trump said during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

WATCH: Trump on North Korea Sanctions

The sanctions, which target North Korea's illicit shipping and trade, came despite a recent thaw in tensions between North and South Korea, which have been holding high-level talks.

The sanctions target 56 entities  27 shipping and trade companies, 28 vessels and one individual  located all over the world, from North Korea to China to Tanzania, according to senior U.S. administration officials.

North Korea has long relied on a complex and shadowy global shipping network to evade U.N. sanctions that target its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"We are determined through these efforts to increase the pressure on the North Korean regime and show Kim Jong Un that there's no other path for him to take but denuclearization," said a senior U.S. official.

The announcement came as Trump's daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, arrived in South Korea for meetings with senior Seoul officials and to attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

At a dinner for the U.S. delegation in Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in praised North Korea's participation in the Olympic Games "as an opportunity for us to engage in active discussions between the two Koreas, and this has led to lowering of tensions on the peninsula."

"I also believe that such developments are thanks to President Trump's strong support for inter-Korean dialogue, and I would like to express my deep appreciation on this point as well," Moon said.

A high-level North Korean delegation is also attending the closing ceremony, but U.S. officials have said there will not be any meetings between the U.S. and North Korean delegations.

Since Trump took office, U.S. officials have given mixed messages on the idea of talking with the North  at times suggesting Washington is open to talks without preconditions and at other moments insisting Pyongyang must first commit to giving up its nuclear program.

The latest U.S. position, outlined by Vice President Mike Pence, is that the White House remains open to negotiations but that it will also keep up its campaign to diplomatically and economically isolate North Korea.

Earlier sanctions

Since last August, the U.S. has helped oversee three rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea. The pressure has not stopped Pyongyang from conducting more nuclear and missile tests.

Nonetheless, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters that U.S. sanctions were "beginning to have a significant impact" on North Korea's ability to fund its weapons programs, though he did not provide any evidence for the assertion.

The U.S. on Friday also released a global advisory intended to alert the world to "deceptive shipping practices used by North Korea to evade sanctions," according to a Treasury Department statement.

"The president has made it clear to companies worldwide that if they choose to help fund North Korea's nuclear ambitions, they will not do business with the United States," said Mnuchin.

But the new sanctions' effectiveness depends on whether they can successfully be implemented.

And the U.S. has limited leverage over many of the shipping companies involved in helping North Korea evade sanctions, warned Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction.

"A lot of the companies working with North Korea are very small," Samore said. "And they don't care whether they work with the United States."

Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official, praised the new sanctions for addressing North Korean shipping, which he said "has long been a gaping hole in the U.S. sanctions regime."

"The only thing missing here today is action against complicit Chinese banks," said Schanzer, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "We know they continue to undermine our efforts to isolate North Korea.

"Until we take that step, DPRK will be able to operate rather freely in the formal financial sector."Host Carol Castiel speaks with Elliott Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, about his new book Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy After the Arab Spring. Abrams tells VOA that chaos is the real enemy of political progress and that a breakdown of law and order is what allows extremist groups like ISIS or al Qaida to move into the vacuum. Abrams says the U.S. should do more to promote democracy not only because it is a better form of governance for the Arab world but also because it is in the long-term national interest of the United States.This week's featured artist is Zimbabwean pop star Ammara Brown. She sings a live dedication to the late Hugh Masakela, accompanying herself on mbira and speaks candidly with Heather Maxwell in Harare about her life as Zimbabwe's top female pop artist. Also in this edition, the death of Ghanaina pop star Ebony Reigns is discussed and song of the week is "Tose" by Blessing Chimanga.About 15,000 protesters turned out Saturday on the streets of Tel Aviv to voice their opposition to the deportation of African asylum-seekers, many of them from Sudan and Eritrea.

The demonstration in south Tel Aviv was in the heart of the area where many Africans live after arriving in the city via the bus station there. Over the past 12 years, about 40,000 Africans are estimated to have entered Israel illegally.

Earlier this week, Israel began detaining African asylum-seekers who refuse to accept the deal Israel offers to encourage them to leave  $3,500 and a plane ticket to an African destination. Refusal to go could land them in jail indefinitely.

About a dozen such refugees were jailed this week.

The Israeli government considers these people economic migrants who have come to Israel to seek jobs rather than avoid persecution. But Saturdays protesters  sympathetic Israelis, as well as asylum-seekers themselves  carried signs saying No to deportation and Were all humans.

Earlier this week, some African migrants wrapped themselves in chains to protest, chanting, We are refugees, we are not criminals!

Most of the migrants say they prefer prison in Israel to returning to Africa, where their lives will be in danger.

The crackdown has been condemned by Israeli human rights groups, which say that since Israel was built by refugees from the Holocaust, it has a moral obligation to help those facing a similar fate.Australia appears to be failing in its efforts to crack down on bribery, according to the latest survey conducted by Transparency International, a non-governmental organization based in Germany.

The group said developed countries - including Australia - appeared to be lagging in their efforts to combat corruption in the public sector. It pointed to an inadequate regulation of foreign political donations in Australia, conflicts of interest in planning approvals, revolving doors and improper industry lobbying in large-scale mining projects.

While Australia's ranking is unchanged - it remains ranked 13th out of 180 countries - its corruption score has slipped eight points since the index started in its current form in 2012.

Concern about Australia's ranking comes as debate continues about the need for a nationwide anti-corruption body similar to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in the state of New South Wales. It was set up in 1989 and has scored many notable victories, including the jailing of corrupt state politicians.

Professor A.J. Brown, who leads a project called Strengthening Australia's National Integrity System for Transparency International, says much more work needs to be done.

We do not have a federal anti-corruption body amongst other things, so it is also about the fact that our track record in terms of government commitment to controlling foreign bribery or money laundering and some of the things that the private sector is also involved in internationally is not that strong. We are moving but we have been moving very slow and very late, and not very comprehensively, Brown said.

This year, New Zealand and Denmark were ranked highest in the Transparency International survey, the U.S. is ranked 16th, while South Sudan and Somalia were the lowest-ranked nations. The best performing region was Western Europe, while the most corrupt regions were Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The survey found that more than 6 billion people live in countries that are corrupt. Transparency International said most countries failed to protect the independence of the media, which plays a crucial role in preventing corruption.Well-wishers lined freeway overpasses and small-town streets to honor the late Rev. Billy Graham as his motorcade crossed his beloved home state of North Carolina for four hours Saturday from his mountain chapel to namesake library in the states largest city.

Adults and children stood behind wooden barricades and yellow tape, police officers saluted, and admirers captured the moment on cellphones along the route. Fire trucks parked on overpasses along Interstate 40.

Pallbearers, followed by family members, carried the coffin into the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, which will serve as a backdrop for the evangelists funeral.

Franklin Graham said he was fulfilling a promise to take his fathers body to Charlotte. He said was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love we are seeing as we travel.

The motorcade for Americas Pastor, which began at the training center operated by Grahams evangelistic association in Asheville, was a chance for residents in some of the evangelists favorite places to pay tribute. Graham often shopped or caught trains in Black Mountain. He made his home in the nearby community of Montreat.

He has never really reveled in all of the celebrity. Its come with the territory, said Joe Tyson, a family friend who runs a furniture store in Black Mountain, where he watched the procession. But theyve managed to live a very normal life for such famous people. And I think hed be very proud that his neighbors turned out and quietly celebrated his reward and his passage into heaven.

A week of mourning

Graham, who died Wednesday at his home in North Carolinas mountains at age 99, reached hundreds of millions of listeners around the world with his rallies and his pioneering use of television.

A viewing will be held at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte on Monday and Tuesday. Graham will also lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday and Thursday, the first time a private citizen has been accorded such recognition since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.

The procession was part of more than a week of mourning that culminates with his burial Friday.

A man played bagpipes at a highway rest area near Marion, where an overpass was draped with flags from about 15 nations. In Black Mountain, a group sang Amazing Grace.

Motorists lined sidewalks and medians as the motorcade rolled through Charlotte neared the Graham library, which was closed as mourners laid flowers and awaited arrival of the evangelists casket.

He was so bold, he so boldly confessed the word of God, said Madeline Reid. And I believe because of his service to humanity, that hes truly gonna be great in the kingdom of heaven.

Ruby Sparks, 85, attended a Graham youth ministry meeting in 1951, when she was a college student in Greensboro, North Carolina, and met him in 1970.

He was such a wonderful man of God, and a messenger of God, she said.

Asked if there would ever be another force like his, she replied: I doubt it. Perhaps, in my next, in another lifetime. Not in my lifetime.

Burial at Graham library

Graham will be laid to rest at the foot of a cross-shaped walkway at the library in Charlotte, buried in a simple prison-made plywood coffin next to his wife, Ruth, who died in 2007. His coffin was built by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, who typically construct caskets for fellow prisoners who cannot afford one.

The funeral will be in a tent in the main parking lot of Grahams library in tribute to the 1949 Los Angeles tent revivals that propelled him to international fame, family spokesman Mark DeMoss said. About 2,000 people are expected at the private, invitation-only funeral.China responded angrily Saturday to new sanctions the United States imposed on North Korea, maintaining they were counterproductive to efforts to halt Pyongyang's nuclear and long-range missile development programs.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Friday what he called the "largest ever" set of sanctions against North Korea and threatened a "phase two" if the measures weren't effective.

The sanctions target one person, 27 companies and 28 ships registered in China and seven other countries with the intent of eliminating North Korea's illicit shipping and trade. They block assets held by the companies in the U.S. and prohibit U.S. citizens from interacting with them.

China's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Beijing "resolutely opposes" the U.S. for "enacting unilateral sanctions" and vowed to "seriously handle" the issue in accordance with the law. The ministry also demanded that the U.S. immediately lift the sanctions "to avoid harming bilateral cooperation in the relevant area."

Saturday's statement was China's latest in a series of denunciations of any sanctions against North Korea not imposed within the framework of the United Nations.

China, traditionally North Korea's closest ally, insists it has fully enforced existing sanctions against Pyongyang. China's trade with North Korea in January fell to its lowest level in nearly four years, the latest indication China has maintained pressure on the isolated country.

Previous sanctions

Since last August, the U.S. has helped oversee three rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea. The pressure has not stopped Pyongyang from conducting more nuclear and missile tests.

The new sanctions' effectiveness depends on whether they can successfully be implemented. And the U.S. has limited leverage over many of the shipping companies involved in helping North Korea evade sanctions, warned Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction.

"A lot of the companies working with North Korea are very small," Samore said. "And they don't care whether they work with the United States."

Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury Department official, praised the new sanctions for addressing North Korean shipping, which he said "has long been a gaping hole in the U.S. sanctions regime."

"The only thing missing ... is action against complicit Chinese banks," said Schanzer, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "We know they continue to undermine our efforts to isolate North Korea."

Until that step is taken, he said, North Korea "will be able to operate rather freely in the formal financial sector."The U.N. childrens fund reports at least 90,000 children have been forced to flee their homes in the face of escalating inter-communal violence in Democratic Republic of Congos Ituri Province.

Ituris Djugu territory in northeastern D.R.C. has been the scene of recent carnage and displacement, with tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes in fear of their lives.

The U.N. childrens fund reports ethnic violence in this province has displaced an estimated 66,000 children internally and sent another 25,000 seeking refuge in neighboring Uganda.

Violent disputes between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups over cattle and grazing issues erupted in December, after lying relatively dormant over the past two decades. Conflict between the two groups intensified early this month with destructive force.

UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac says more than 70 villages have been burned down. He says more than 76 people have been shot dead, a majority women and children.

Boulierac says at least three health centers and seven schools have been pillaged and/or set on fire, depriving children of an education. He adds that education has been interrupted for some 30,000 children in more than 100 schools throughout the region.

UNICEF warns that thousands of children risk falling ill from diarrhea, cholera and other diseases because of exposure to bad weather, lack of food and safe water. The agency says it and other aid agencies are distributing blankets, soap, safe water and other essential relief to this needy population.

UNICEF is calling for a peaceful resolution to this conflict, noting an end to violence is the only way to protect children from the many dangers facing them.Two suicide car bomb attacks Saturday on a camp used by anti-terrorism forces in Yemen's port of Aden killed at least five people and wounded several others.

Soldiers were among the five bodies brought to the city's main Juhouriya hospital, according to the Reuters news service, after the attacks on the area known as Gold Mohr in southwestern Aden.

The government of Yemeni President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi has been struggling to contain separatists in Aden, who have launched attacks on government facilities to try to gain control of the city.

Late Friday, the White House issued a release praising efforts by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to bring humanitarian aid to Yemen.

Offloading supplies

Friday's release by the Trump administration noted that four World Food Program mobile cranes, funded by the United States, have begun offloading supplies at Yemen's Hudaydah port, as part of the Saudi-led coalition's efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and contribute to Yemen's reconstruction.

The White House statement said the U.S. stood ready to assist Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in expanding Yemenis' access to food and medicine. It also urged ethnic Houthis to work with the international community to make sure supplies are delivered to people in need in Houthi-controlled areas.

The statement also said the United States appreciated "the coalition's willingness to contribute to Yemen's reconstruction, including investment in key ports and transportation infrastructure," as well as to work with the U.N., World Food Program and other nongovernmental agencies "to meet the needs of millions of desperate Yemeni people."

The statement concluded by saying the United States "stands ready to support U.N.-led efforts to achieve peace."The U.N. migration agency is appealing for nearly $194 million to provide essential aid to three million Syrian war victims displaced internally or as refugees in neighboring countries. The money also would support the communities hosting them.

Nearly seven years of conflict in Syria has taken a heavy toll. The United Nations reports about one-half million people have been killed and more than 18.5 million civilians both inside and outside the war-torn country are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The International Organization for Migration reports more than six million people are internally displaced in Syria, and ongoing violence continues to force people to flee their homes, many multiple times.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman says it is vital to provide a lifeline to the many displaced who are trying to survive the deteriorating conditions in the country.

Access to primary health care has been drastically reduced inside Syria, while agricultural production has been cut in half compared to 2011 levels. Livelihoods have also been severely hampered by the conflict and many areas of the country are contaminated by weapons, Millman said.

The U.N. reports more than 5.5 million Syrians have taken refuge in five neighboring countries: Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. Millman says this large number of people places a huge burden on the host countries.

Since the crisis began, economic growth within host countries has been severely affected. With high unemployment rates, especially among young people, and limited resource availability, it is challenging for governments and municipalities to provide basic services, Millman said.

The IOM says money from the appeal will provide one million people with non-food items and shelter support. Other assistance will include access to safe water, health services, community-led protection services, and schooling for tens of thousands of displaced and refugee children.Italy has had 64 governments since the World War II and many more prime ministers, but even by its own chaotic standards the country is mired in one of the most divisive and increasingly violent parliamentary elections in recent years.

Rising political violence has prompted comparisons to the 1970s and early 1980s  the "Years of Lead," as they were known  when the country was engulfed in political and social turmoil and buffeted by domestic terrorism launched by extremists on the right and left of the political spectrum.

Twenty-one parties  and two highly unstable electoral alliances with shifting allegiances and sharp personal animosities, also darkened by intrigue worthy of the Borgia era  are competing in a race that has become shriller and more menacing with each passing day.

Tribal mood prevails

Politicians havent restrained their political rhetoric, hurling accusations with abandon at their rivals, smarting their characters and alleging treachery. The political language matches the grim, tribal mood of an electorate in the grip of anti-migrant fervor and furious with a political system seemingly incapable of grappling with key bread-and-butter issues.



Voters have become angrier as the election campaigning has unfolded, as well as more violent. This was demonstrated this week as police in several towns scuffled with bottle-throwing far-left protesters to block them from closing in on provocative anti-migrant and far-right rallies, where speakers call for the mass expulsion of the more than 600,000 migrants who have arrived in the country in the past two years.

On Friday, political violence plunged the center of the coastal city of Pisa into chaos and sent shoppers scurrying as left-wing protesters mounted a violent demonstration against Lega leader Matteo Salvini, who was speaking at a public rally and repeating his pledge to fight Brussels to ensure that Italians come first. Protesters threw smoke bombs, stones and bottles at blue-helmeted riot police.

In Turin, six police were hurt Thursday as they battled anti-fascists trying to reach a rally mounted by CasaPound, a neo-fascist grassroots group turned political party. The skirmish was described by local officials as "very serious. They said the protesters clearly intended to hurt the police.

Anti-migrant fever

CasaPound itself has been eager in recent weeks to goad reaction from leftwing adversaries. It has been mounting highly provocative patrols in the multi-ethnic Esquilino neighborhood of Rome. This week group members in the district waved Italian flags and unfurled an anti-migrant banner emblazoned with the words: Rape, theft, violence, enough degradation in this area.

"Italians can no longer walk around this area peacefully, because of all the foreigners that continue to arrive end up here," Carlomanno Adinolfi, a group member told reporters.

On Saturday police imposed a major security clampdown on Rome as political tensions mounted in the final days of the March 4 elections. A Mai piu fascismo (fascism never again) march drew thousands, and beforehand police warned demonstrators from carrying blunt objects and rigid flag poles and from wearing helmets and hard hats.

The tone for violence was set earlier this month when a onetime regional candidate for the right-wing populist Lega party, a key group in a right-wing alliance with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconis Forza Italia, shot and wounded half-a-dozen migrants in a central Italian town 200 kilometers from Rome.

Street skirmishes between neo-fascists and leftists  as well as racially motivated attacks on migrants  have increased ever since. In the central town of Perugia, a campaigner was reportedly stabbed and wounded midweek while putting up campaign posters for Potere al Popolo (Power to the People), a coalition of communist parties.

Politicians targeted, abducted, beaten

And politicians have been singled out for attack.

Candidates receive death threats on social media. Laura Boldrini, the speaker of the Italian Parliament, who has been a vehement opponent of racism, has received more than most  she also received a bullet in the mail. She is competing for reelection in Milan but is living in a secure house, the whereabouts of which are a closely-guard secret. Effigies of her and the countrys current left-wing prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, were burned last month by youth members of the Lega in the northern town of Varese.

On Wednesday, a regional leader of Forza Nuova, a stand-alone far-right party that blames migrants themselves for anti-migrant attacks, was abducted in Palermo, Sicily, by leftwing activists wearing balaclavas, who bound and beat him. The activists sent a video of the assault to news stations, accusing their victim, Massimo Ursino, of spreading hate and racism across Italy.

We tied him up and beat him to show that Palermo is anti-fascist and there is no place for men like him here, they said.

Palermos mayor, Leoluca Orlando, said the attack was a sign of the shameful and disgraceful state of Italian politics. We cant beat fascism with violence. We cant beat fascism with fascist behavior, he added. The rise of the far-right has prompted the rise of a new far-left, which appears determined to be muscular.

Homegrown dangers

The day before the Palermo attack, the Italian intelligence services released their annual security report detailing potential hazards to the country. They identified radical Islamic terrorism as the greatest of the security challenges facing Italy, but the agencies also noted that home-grown extremism and the increased presence in Italy of far-right groups, and fierce Neo-Nazi networks promulgating racism and intolerance, posed a grave risk, too.

The Italian security services also raised the possibility of cyber-campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion and the countrys political orientation in the run-up to the March 4 election, worrying such campaigns would seek to introduce destabilizing elements by exacerbating online Italys political, economic and social divisions.

Although Russia wasnt mentioned by name, U.S. and Italian analysts have warned that European elections have been targets for Russian meddling. But La Stampa newspaper in an investigation has found scant evidence of Russian actors using social media and cyber-attacks to try to shape this election cycle in Italy.

The countrys domestic political actors have proven all too capable of poisoning the political atmosphere without a helping hand from overseas, analysts note.

Political violence must be stopped, said Pietro Grasso, leader of Free and Equal (LeU), a leftwing party contesting in the elections. A former anti-mafia prosecutor and Senate speaker, Grasso told a Facebook forum this week, I condemn violence, from whatever side it comes. It must be condemned and it must be stopped, and we must try to nip in the bud all manifestations of violence linked to political ideology.Three bombs exploded Saturday morning in Sittwe, the capital of Myanmars troubled Rakhine state, authorities said.

One of the explosions injured a police officer, but no other casualties have been reported. Authorities are working to determine who was behind the bombings, police said.

Three unexploded devices targeting government offices and other places were seized at other locations in Sittwe.

The blasts come three days after a bomb explosion killed two bank employees and injured about two dozen people in the northeastern city of Lashio, where several ethnic insurgent groups are fighting the Myanmar military.

Last month, at least seven Rakhine Buddhists were killed and a dozen injured when local police fired at protesters in the ancient city of Mrauk-U.

A massive military intervention in Myanmar's violence-torn Rakhine state against Rohingya Muslim insurgents since August of last year forced about 700,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

Myanmar has said that government forces have undertaken a legitimate campaign against what it calls Muslim "terrorists."

The United States and the United Nations have called the military crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, but the government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has blocked U.N. investigators and other independent monitors from entering the conflict zone.

Nearly 17,000 students in the Philippines gathered in a park in the capital, Manila, on Saturday in a bid to set a record for the worlds biggest art class.

Middle school students from about 200 schools listened for about an hour as a teacher taught them how to draw a mask.

I learned a lot, said one of the students, Kathleen Pareno.

Organizers said 16,692 students joined the lesson and the figure would be sent to Guinness World Records for an evaluation.

India holds the record for the largest art lesson with 14,135 people taking part in one in 2014, Guinness World Records said on its website.

The death toll from two suicide car bomb blasts that ripped through the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Friday has risen to at least 38 people, according to government sources.

Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan of the Aamin Ambulance Service said the bombings targeted the presidential palace and a hotel. At least 30 other people were wounded. Adan said that most of the victims were civilians.

The medical director of Mogadishu's Medina Hospital, Abdulkadir Husein Mohamed, told VOA that the remains of 27 people had been brought to the hospital following the explosion, and that two others had died of their wounds while in the hospital.

The location of other casualties was not clear.

The first blast occurred near the country's intelligence headquarters. Minutes later, another car bomb hit a checkpoint about 300 meters from Somalias presidential palace.

The al-Shabab Islamist militant group claimed responsibility in a statement posted online, saying it was targeting the government and security services.

Somali Security Minister Mohamed Abukar Islow told VOA that security forces had been tipped off about a possible attack. "Our security forces thwarted the terrorists' initial plans," he said. "One group blew up a car bomb in a parking lot near the headquarters of Somalia's intelligence agency because they could not find a chance to reach behind that point."

The security minister said the blast hit a group of people who had returned from Mogadishu's Lido Beach, a popular recreation area.

Additionally, he said, "another group detonated a car packed with explosives at a main security checkpoint around Villa Somalia," the country's presidential palace. He said that they killed one government soldier and that an additional five militants were shot dead in the ensuing gunbattle.

"We heard two big explosions, and gunfire is still echoing in two different directions of the city," Mogadishu resident Nur Abdulle told VOA. "After blasts, we could see a huge cloud of smoke into the air."

Al-Shabab has attacked dozens of government buildings, hotels, restaurants and other targets in Mogadishu in recent years.

Turkey, which has its biggest foreign military base and embassy in Mogadishu, condemned the car bombings. In a statement, Turkey's foreign ministry said Saturday, "we wish God's mercy upon those who lost their lives in the attacks, convey our condolences to the families who lost their loved ones, and wish [a] speedy recovery to the wounded.

"Turkey will maintain its strong solidarity with the government and the brotherly people of Somalia in the wake of terrorist attacks targeting stability in Somalia."A series of suicide bombings and militant raids in Afghanistan has killed dozens of people, a day after construction work on the much-awaited Afghan section of an international gas pipeline began.

An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman said a suicide bomber Saturday blew himself up near a security post in Kabul, killing at least three people and wounding several others.

The Islamic State terrorist group claimed it plotted the violence in the capital city.

Officials said the deadliest of the several attacks occurred in western Farah province, where Taliban insurgents in a pre-dawn assault killed at least 20 government forces before capturing their base in Bala Baluk district.

Separately, two early morning suicide bombings targeted Afghan forces in the troubled Helmand province.

The first attack occurred in the Nad Ali district where a driver in an explosives-packed armored personnel vehicle, known as a Humvee, targeted an Afghan National Army base. Officials citing initial reports confirmed the blast killed at least four soldiers and wounded several others.

A Taliban statement claimed responsibility, saying the attack destroyed the base and killed at least 25 Afghan soldiers, though insurgents often issue inflated tolls.

Just hours later, a vehicle-born bomb was detonated in the provincial capital of Lashkargah, killing at least one person and wounding nine others, including civilians, according to officials.

The Taliban insisted the target was an office of the Afghan intelligence agency, and that the bomb killed several security personnel.



Visiting U.S. permanent representative to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, while speaking to reporters in Kabul, condemned what she said was a fruitless effort by the Taliban and called on the insurgents to join an Afghan peace process.



We are not going to stand by and let Afghanistan be riven with violence again. So, we hope that the Taliban will see that this is a no-win game for them unless they come to the table and become part of something that would make Afghanistan stronger, noted Hutchison.

TAPI project

Farah and Helmand are among the provinces located on the route of a regional pipeline being constructed to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. The multi-billion dollar project, known as TAPI, is expected to be fully operational within next two years.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday hosted leaders from the participating nations in the western border city of Herat where they jointly inaugurated construction work on the portion of the pipeline passing through Afghanistan.

President Ghani, who was still in Herat on Saturday condemned the violence.

At a time when Afghans are celebrating the TAPI project, enemies of our homeland and people have martyred a number of our countrymen in terrorist attacks in Kabul, Helmand and Farah, Ghani told a meeting of provincial officials and business leaders.

The message for enemies of Afghanistan is that such attacks strengthen the governments resolve to fight terrorism and bring economic stability for its people, he added.

The Taliban in a statement issued Friday pledged to protect the TAPI pipeline, saying the project was negotiated and brought to Afghanistan when the Islamist group was ruling the country. But critics questioned the insurgency's claims in the wake of latest attacks.

TAPI will carry 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from the world's fourth largest reserves in Turkmenistan through a 1,814 kilometer pipeline linking the four nations and is expected to create up to 25,000 jobs for Afghans in addition to generating about 500 million dollars in annual transit fees.

Dubbed as the "peace pipeline," TAPI was conceived in the 1990s, but construction could not begin until 2015, mainly because of unending hostilities in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's tensions with rival India.For Gods sake help us! reads a message on Twitter attached to a video showing two small girls, bleeding and crying in a smoky, chaotic house. It is part of a social media campaign surrounding the crisis in Ghouta, Syria, where more than 400 civilians have been killed in the past six days, according to Human Rights Watch.

Im in the center of the city, said Mahmoud Bwedany, a 20-year-old activist and student in Ghouta, speaking on a Whatsapp call Friday evening from the basement of the building he used to live in. Im not near the front line but two days ago a mortar hit 3 meters away from our building.

The children were crying out loud, he added. I didnt see any guns they were holding.

Online, hundreds of messages, many including pictures of dead children, emerged in a Twitter Storm on Friday, an event designed to raise awareness. If the assault on Ghouta continues, activists say this could be the beginning of a devastating new chapter in Syria's 7-year-old civil war.

They are literally targeting everything that moves, said Adnan Hadad, a Syrian media activist in direct contact with civilians in Ghouta. There is no shortage of news, videos and still photos. But people feel that the world is just sitting there, watching them dying.

International war

Eastern Ghouta, about 15 kilometers from Damascus, is held by opposition fighters and has been under siege by Syrian government forces since 2013, HRW says.

More than 13 hospitals have been hit in the recent bombardments, and activists say they fear that if Syrian and Russian forces continue to cause mass civilian casualties in Ghouta, they will proceed to take other opposition-controlled areas in a similar fashion.

Russias envoy to the U.N., Vassily Nebenzia, disputes claims of mass civilian casualties, calling them rumors as a result of mass psychosis in global media outlets acting in coordination.

Iranian and Russian media accuse the Western press of ignoring the casualties caused by fighters in Ghouta lobbing rockets into Damascus. Iran, also allied with the Syrian government against rebel groups, has called for a de-escalation of the violence, but blames it on terrorist groups, according to Iranian broadcaster, Press TV.

Reacting to the fighting in Syria, U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday, "What Russia and what Iran and what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace." He made the comments during a press conference at the White House, adding, "What those three countries have done to people over a short period of time is a disgrace."

Online activists beg, plead and try to shame the world into hearing their message.

One professional-looking series of photos shows individual world leaders juxtaposed to photographs of carnage in Syria, reading, What are you doing for Ghouta except observing the Genocide?

But activists say their calls have done little to stop the violence. The United Nations has repeatedly failed to broker a cease-fire, and the Syrian government insists it is fighting terrorists, not opposition groups.

And even if a cease-fire is reached, it may not de-escalate the violence, according to Bwedany, the activist who has been living in the basement with about 30 of his neighbors since the assault began.

Beyond a cease-fire agreement, the international community needs to make sure that they respect it and fulfill what they agreed," he said.Another wave of airstrikes pounded the Syrian rebel enclave of eastern Ghouta Saturday, killing at least 24 people and increasing the civilian death toll over the past week to more than 500, including more than 120 children, a Britain-based monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and witnesses said Saturday the week-long bombing campaign by the Syrian government and Russia has been so relentless that first responders have not had the chance to count bodies.

"Maybe there are many more," said Siraj Mahmoud, a civil defense spokesman. "We weren't able to count the martyrs yesterday or the day before because the warplanes are touring the skies." Syrians often refer to their dead as martyrs.

In one of the deadliest aerial assaults of the seven-year-old war, the monitoring group said Saturday's strikes hit Douma, Hammouriyeh and several other towns.

Residents hiding in charitable medical facilities and basements denounced attacks on a dozen hospitals in the area of Ghouta, the only remaining large rebel stronghold near the capital of Damascus.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government. But the government and Russia have previously said they only pursue militants in an effort to stop their mortar attacks on the capital.

Russia has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's primary ally since the war began in March of 2011. Moscow entered the conflict in 2015, tipping the balance of power toward Assad.

The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Saturday on a draft resolution that calls for a 30-day cease-fire throughout Syria to allow medical evacuations and aid delivery.

The U.N. says nearly 400,000 people live in eastern Ghouta, which has been under a government blockade since 2013 - resulting in shortages of food and medical supplies.

Eastern Ghouta, about 17 kilometers east of Damascus, is under the control of two Islamist factions and Syria's former al-Qaida affiliate.As leaders and representatives of countries involved in the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline celebrated the projects inauguration, Afghan Taliban, in a rare announcement, vowed to support and protect the pipeline in areas under its control.

In a statement emailed to media outlets, Qari Mohammad Yusuf Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesperson, claimed credit for the project, implying that it was initially planned during the Taliban regime, and said the group will ensure its security in areas under its control.

The Islamic Emirate views this project as an important element of the countrys economic infrastructure and believes its proper implementation will benefit the Afghan people. We announce our cooperation in providing security for the project in areas under our control, the Taliban statement said.

The long-awaited 1,814-kilometers (1,130-mile) pipeline project, known by its acronym TAPI, which will stretch from Turkmenistan and feed gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, was officially inaugurated Friday by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in the countrys western Herat province.

Inaugural ceremony

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and India Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar participated in the inauguration ceremony, which was held amid tight security to prevent possible attacks aimed at disrupting the event.

The work on the Afghan part of the multibillion-dollar project has officially begun, and the project will take several years to complete.

Ghani said TAPI is the start of a new beginning for the region.

We hope that this project [TAPI] will pave the way for hundreds of other projects and the hope is that our future generations will view this not only as the inauguration of a project and an economic corridor, but the foundation of a shared vision which will help us fight poverty, unemployment, extremism and insecurity in our region, he said.

The policy of cooperation will ensure prosperity for our people, and economic prosperity is an important pillar of security and stability, Ghani added.

Talibans statement follows another statement by the groups breakaway faction, led by Mullah Mohammad Rasool, which also said it would support the project and prevent domestic and foreign groups from jeopardizing the prospects of its success.

We will not allow any group or state to disrupt this project, Maulawi Abdul Manan Niazi said in a statement sent to local media.

It is very rare for Taliban insurgents to support a government project. The militant group is often accused of destroying bridges, roads, schools and other places of public interest in their attacks across the country.

Militants linked to Iran

Meanwhile, provincial officials in Herat province told media that a group of 10 militants, who allegedly had been trained in Iran to attack the inauguration ceremony of TAPI, decided not to carry out the attack and instead surrendered to authorities.

Enemies of Afghanistan have instructed them to disrupt the ceremony, but they [militants] realized that this project would benefit the Afghan people and the next generations of the country, Herat province Governor Mohammad Asif Rahimi told RFE/RL Afghanistan service.

The Afghan Ministry of Interior said they would investigate the groups claims.

Every country involved in such disruptive attempts should know that one day their future generations will pay the price as the fire will reach them as well, Murad Ali Murad, deputy minister of Interior, told local media without naming any country.

Iranian officials have not commented on this issue yet. Some Afghan officials, however, blame Tehran for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, a charge Tehran denies.

TAPI vs IPI?

Another gas project by Iran, Pakistan and India, known by its acronym IPI, is also underway, and some analysts speculate that Iran might view TAPI as a rival to IPI and try to disrupt it.

Afghan President Ghani, however, rejected the notion that Iran is not happy with TAPI.

The United States supports TAPI and views it as an important project for all the countries that are party to it.

VOAs Afghanistan service has contributed to this report.The heaviest, the largest, the most impactful  those were the superlatives the Trump administration used to describe its latest sanctions against North Korea.

But were the Treasury Department designations of more than 50 companies and ships accused of illicit trading with the pariah nation really the toughest action yet by the U.S. and the wider world?

Probably not.

Here's a look at how President Donald Trump and a top lieutenant described Friday's sanctions to punish the North for its development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles  and how they stack up against past economic restrictions that have been piled on Kim Jong Un's government in response to its illegal weapons tests.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin: "The Treasury Department is announcing the largest set of sanctions ever imposed in connection with North Korea.''

Trump: "I do want to say, because people have asked, North Korea  we imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before.''

As for Trump's blanket assertion, in sheer dollar terms, the U.S. has actually imposed much costlier restrictions on countries such as Iran, a far richer economy than North Korea's. Washington and its allies cut off tens of billions of dollars' worth of Iranian oil exports and shut the country's central bank out of the international financial system, among other steps, before eliminating those restrictions under a 2015 nuclear deal.

Correct on number

In terms of the number of entities targeted Friday, Mnuchin is probably correct about the history of sanctions on North Korea.

The department blacklisted "one individual, 27 entities and 28 vessels'' located, registered or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and Comoros. That appeared to be the most companies or individuals designated by the U.S. at a single time. According to Mnuchin, there are now more than 450 U.S. sanctions against North Korea, about half of them levied in the last year.

But in purely economic terms, both Mnuchin and Trump are well wide of the mark.

The latest designations are primarily intended to crack down on North Korea's evasion of wider-ranging sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council and the United States that are more economically significant.

Over the past year, the council has adopted three sets of sanctions banning North Korean exports of coal, iron ore, textiles, seafood products and other goods. If those measures are properly implemented, that would reduce the North's export revenues by 90 percent from 2016 levels, or by $2.3 billion annually. Those sanctions are also heavily restricting North Korean fuel supplies. They capped refined oil imports at 500,000 barrels a year. That's a reduction from the 4.5 million barrels North Korea imported in 2016.

It's because of those draconian restrictions that North Korea wants to conduct trade on the quiet with "ship-to-ship'' transfers that the U.S. is determined to stop. With Friday's measures, Mnuchin said, the U.S. has gone after "virtually all their ships that they're using at this moment.''

That's certainly a significant increase in pressure on North Korea as its foreign trade diminishes. But the Treasury Department did not give an overall figure for how much revenue the North would be deprived of because of the latest actions, other than to say that nine of the newly blacklisted foreign vessels "are capable of carrying over $5.5 million worth of coal at a time.''

'Underwhelming' in scope

The conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation did not think much of the new steps.

"As impressive as the list is in length, it is underwhelming in its scope and fails to live up to the hype,'' it said. "Like his predecessors, President Trump remains reluctant to go after Chinese financial entities aiding North Korea's prohibited nuclear and missile programs.''

China is said to account for about 90 percent of North Korea's external trade and be its main access point to the international financial system. Past U.S. sanctions that have targeted Chinese companies have probably had a much bigger impact on North Korea's revenue streams.

In November, the Treasury Department blacklisted three Chinese companies that it said had "cumulatively exported approximately $650 million worth of goods to North Korea and cumulatively imported more than $100 million worth of goods from North Korea.''

An even bigger Chinese trading partner of the North was blacklisted in September 2016: Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development Co. According to a report by the U.S.-based research group C4AD and South Korea's Asan Institute for Policy Studies, Hongxiang carried out imports and exports worth a total of $532 million in 2011-15. It had also supplied aluminum oxide and other materials that can be used in processing nuclear bomb fuel.The Turkish government called it "extremely worrying" the U.S. will open an embassy in Jerusalem this coning May instead of by the end of next year as had been previously announced.

"This decision shows the U.S. administration's insistence on damaging the grounds for peace by trampling over international law, resolutions of the United Nations Security Council on Jerusalem," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Saturday in a statement.

Vice President Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament last month the move of the mission from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would take place at the end of 2019, but the State Department said Friday the administration would open the embassy in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's founding.

President Donald Trump announced U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December, angering Washington's Arab allies and Palestinians, who claim the eastern part of the Old City as their capital.

"Turkey will continue its effort to protect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian public ... against this extremely worrying decision by the U.S.," the ministry said.

The Palestinian leadership said Friday moving the embassy a year earlier than originally announced was a "provocation to Arabs."

Jerusalem is considered holy by Christians, Jews and Muslims and is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The move further strains relations between the U.S. and Turkey, already at odds on a number of issues, including Turkey's latest military offensive against a U.S.-supported Kurdish militia in Syria.

The U.S. is the only country to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a move that has also created dissension between the U.S. and the European Union over peace efforts in the Middle East.

Two more well-known companies said Saturday that they had ended marketing programs with the National Rifle Association (NRA), as gun control advocates stepped up pressure on firms to cut ties to the gun industry following a recent deadly mass school shooting in Florida.

Activists have posted petitions online, identifying businesses that offer discounts to NRA members, in a push to pressure the companies to cut ties to the gun rights organization.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were the latest companies to indicate they were ending discount programs with the gun lobbying organization. They said they would ask the organization to delete any references to their companies from their website.

On Friday, corporations that ended their discount programs with NRA members included insurance company MetLife, car rental company Hertz and Symantec Corp., the software company that makes Norton Antivirus technology.

The moves came after several other companies had cut their ties to the NRA this week, including car rental company Enterprise, First National Bank of Omaha, Wyndham Hotels and Best Western hotels.

The NRA is one of the country's most powerful lobbying groups for gun rights and claims 5 million members.

Florida shooting renews debate

Last week's shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has renewed the national debate about gun control.

Gun control activists have been mounting a campaign on Twitter, including using the hashtag #BoycottNRA as well as using social media to pressure streaming platforms, including Amazon, to drop the online video channel NRATV, which features gun-friendly programming produced by the NRA.

On Thursday, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told the Conservative Political Action Conference that those advocating for stricter gun control were exploiting the Florida shooting.

Receiving a rousing reception, LaPierre said, "There is no greater personal individual freedom than the right to keep and bear arms, the right to protect yourself and the right to survive."

Arming teachers

On Friday, President Donald Trump reiterated to CPAC for the third time this week the need to arm teachers with concealed weapons to prevent more shootings in U.S. schools.

"It's time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers. We don't want them in our schools," Trump said.

Trump has also proposed raising the age to buy assault-style rifles from 18 to 21, which the NRA opposes.

In his speech to CPAC, Trump indicated he did not intend to battle the powerful organization.

"They're friends of mine," Trump said of the NRA, which gave more than $11 million to his presidential campaign in 2016 and spent nearly $20 million attacking his Democratic Party general election challenger, Hillary Clinton.

The mass shooting in Florida on February 14 has sparked a wave of rallies in Florida, Washington and in other areas of the United States in an attempt to force local and national leaders to take action to prevent such attacks.The United States military has rejected Moscows claim the number of Islamic State militants in Afghanistan runs into the thousands, while at the same time urging Russia and Iran to support the Kabul government, not the Taliban, to help defeat IS in the country.

Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson made the remark Saturday while responding to recent Russian accusations Washington is intentionally downplaying the spread of IS militants in the country.

The numbers that are spread about the number of Daesh fighters by Russia is grossly exaggerated. It is around 1,500, Nicholson told a news conference in the Afghan capital. He used the Arabic acronym for IS.

The general said that IS militants are operating in parts of the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar and maintain a pocket in the northern Jowzjan province.

Nicholson said that Afghan forces, backed by U.S. counterterrorism troops and airpower, are attacking all three of the locations

We have cut their numbers in half over the last two years. We have killed their amirs' (chiefs), we have reduced their territory, again, we have driven their fighters out of parts of the country, explained the general, who also commands NATOs Afghan military mission.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while speaking in Moscow, asserted that thousands of IS terrorists are present in northern and eastern Afghan regions and are being joined by militants fleeing Syria and Iraq.

Questions about IS proliferation

Officials in neighboring Pakistan and Iran have also raised concerns and questions about what they allege is the rapid proliferation of Daesh in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say rising terrorist attacks against the country are being plotted in IS sanctuaries on the Afghan side of the border.

Nicholson acknowledged the presence of foreign fighters in IS ranks but said their number is very small and added, we have not seen a migration of foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan.

The American general said the Afghan branch of Islamic State was for a period of time receiving financial support and leadership guidance" from Syria and Iraq. But that assistance has dwindled since coalition forces have reduced Daesh in those countries, Nicholson added.

In his remarks earlier this week in Moscow, Lavrov again alleged that unidentified helicopters, most likely helicopters to which NATO in one way or another is related, fly to the areas where the insurgents are based, and no one has been able to explain the reasons for these flights yet.

Iranian leaders and military officials have in recent days also consistently accused the U.S. of covertly supporting ISs rise in Afghanistan.

American and Afghan officials, however, accuse Moscow, Tehran and Islamabad of helping the Taliban insurgency militarily. Pakistani officials deny any links to the insurgent while Russia and Iran maintain their ties with the Taliban are meant only to encourage them to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government.

U.S. officials are skeptical of those claims and see Russian involvement as part of efforts to undermine international mission to secure and stabilize Afghanistan.

It is widely perceived that Russia and Iran see the Taliban as blocking the growing IS Afghan threat because of a weakening government control in the country.

General Nicholson dismissed those assertions as a false narrative, saying Afghan forces with U.S. support have effectively degraded IS in their mission to defeat the terrorist group and regional stakeholders need to help in those efforts.

Visiting U.S. General Curtis Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, speaking alongside Nicholson, also called on Russia and Iran and other countries in the region to work together with the international mission to ensure stability in Afghanistan.

We would ask them to work with us to not support the Taliban or any of the other insurgent forces that are here but to work with us to ensure stability and that is in everyones interest here in the region, said Scaparrotti.It will be up to the White House chief of staff to decide whether the U.S. president's son-in-law is able to maintain his security clearance.

That is what President Donald Trump told reporters Friday, declaring that his daughter's husband, Jared Kushner, had "been treated very unfairly."

Trump, during a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, was asked whether Kushner would still be allowed access to classified information.



A top Justice Department official alerted the White House two weeks ago that significant information requiring additional investigation would further delay Kushners security clearance, reports The Washington Post.

Chief of Staff John Kelly, in a memo last week, said White House personnel whose clearances had been pending since last June would no longer have access to top-secret documents.

Kushner falls into that category.

Federal process

Trump expressed frustration with the federal government's process for security clearances, calling it a "broken system and it shouldn't take this long."

"People without a problem in the world" are facing unreasonable delays to receive clearances, he said.

Trump could personally intervene and grant his son-in-law an exemption, but he replied Friday  the day interim clearances are being revoked  that he would not do that.

"I will let General Kelly make that decision and he's going to do what's right for the country and I have no doubt he'll make the right decision," Trump said.

In a lengthy response in the East Room during the nationally televised news conference, Trump praised Kushner, 37, saying he is "a high-quality person" who "doesn't get a salary."

Kushner, a second-generation real estate developer, is "working on peace in the Middle East and some other small and very easy deals."

Trump said the U.S. effort to make a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians is "actually making great headway."

Administration officials are said to be examining ways that Kushner can continue to be engaged in sensitive discussions and his diplomatic missions, which have also included China, without needing a top-level security clearance.

Visiting Seoul, Pyeongchang

Kushner is married to the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who is currently engaged in her own diplomatic foray.

She received a red-carpet welcome in Seoul on Friday before dining with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the presidential compound.

Ivanka Trump is leading the presidential delegation to Sunday's closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

A top North Korean official is also scheduled to be at the event.

When asked whether the president's daughter or any other member of the U.S. delegation would be meeting with Kim Yong Chol  vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee  a senior U.S. official succinctly responded, "No."

Donald Trump on Thursday and Friday, when asked by VOA during brief encounters with reporters whether he wanted his daughter to meet the North Koreans, did not respond.

During Friday's news conference he said, "We cannot get a better representative" than Ivanka Trump in South Korea.

The current administration has not nominated an ambassador to Seoul. The top diplomat at the embassy there is interim U.S. Charge d'Affaires Marc Knapper, a top-ranking career foreign service officer.

While in Seoul, Ivanka Trump said she was there "to reaffirm our bonds of friendship and partnership." But she explained she wanted to "reaffirm our commitment to our maximum-pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized."Zimbabwes main opposition party says its acting leader will stay at the helm following the death of former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai earlier this month. But signs of internal division remain, something analysts say could handicap the opposition with elections just months away.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) goes into this years election without its founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who died in South Africa two weeks ago after a battle with colon cancer.

Since then, the MDCs three vice presidents have been fighting for the top post.

One of them, Nelson Chamisa, said Friday that MDC leaders have chosen him to be the partys acting head for the next 12 months.

There is a lot of noise in the cockpit, yes. This is just turbulences. It is a difficult transition. We had giant who was our head, our leader, and all of a sudden that giant is no longer there, Chamisa said.

Obviously, the small giants would want to fit in the shoes. But you can be assured that it will be resolved, he added. Dont listen to too much noise. Listen to the music coming from the cockpit, and the music is that we are going to win the election.

A coalition of opposition parties is expected to back Chamisa as their presidential candidate in the coming elections.

For the first time, the MDC will not be facing off against Robert Mugabe. The longtime president was forced to resign under military pressure in November, after 37 years in power.

Some in the opposition see opportunity in this time of transition in Zimbabwe, but independent analyst Rejoice Ngwenya says time is running out.

Elections are really about being organized, Ngwenya said. If I were to advise them now, I would tell the opposition that it is too late to start re-aligning their governance and constitutional issues now. They need to compromise and focus on the candidate who is the best to bring votes into their kit. The issues of governance and constitutional issues should have been solved two years ago, it is too late now.

The ruling ZANU-PF party has selected its top candidate, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from Mugabe in November.Rick Gates, a former associate of President Donald Trumps 2016 election campaign, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy and lying charges related to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the election.

As part of his plea deal with Mueller's office, Gates agreed to cooperate with the special counsel's investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian operatives. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop all other charges brought against Gates in two separate indictments in recent months.



Gates could face 57 to 71 months in prison, but prosecutors could ask for a lower sentence based on his cooperation, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson said.

Gates is the third former Trump campaign associate to plead guilty to criminal charges and agree to cooperate with Mueller's investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump team and Russia during the 2016 election.



Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos last year pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their interactions with Russian officials.



Gates faced decades in prison over a raft of charges brought by Mueller.A guilty plea to a lesser charge and cooperation with prosecutors could help him reduce jail time.

Meanwhile, Mueller's office has filed a superseding indictment against Paul Manafort, Gates' former business partner and a former Trump campaign manager, charging him with "secretly retaining a group of former senior European politicians" to lobby in the United States on behalf of the Ukrainian government and wiring "more than 2 million euros" from offshore accounts to pay them for doing so.

Friday afternoon, after Gates' indictment, Manafort released a statement via Twitter. He said, "Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me."

An indictment released a day earlier against both Gates and Manafort accuses them of bank fraud and tax evasion, among other charges. It alleges the two men avoided taxes by hiding millions of dollars in consulting fees from Ukrainian politicians as bank loans from offshore entities.

Manafort and Gates were initially charged in a 12-count indictment in October in connection with a multi-million-dollar money laundering conspiracy tied to their political work in Ukraine. They also were accused of failing to register as agents of a foreign government.



Manafort headed the Trump campaign from June to August 2016. Gates was brought into the campaign by Manafort and stayed on even after Manafort was fired a few months later following revelations about his Russian connections.

WATCH: Gates leaves court house

The charges against Gates and Manafort are not related to a key question Mueller has been investigating since his appointment last Maywhether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Last week, Muller's office announced charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for conspiring to disrupt the U.S. elections and tilt it in favor of the real estate tycoon. The indictment, however, did not allege collusion on the part of the Trump campaign.U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday recited the lyrics of a song seen as anti-immigration called The Snake to drive home his point about restricting immigration  an inflammatory move that harkened back to his days on the campaign trail.

In a speech to conservatives at a convention outside Washington, he also bashed opposition Democrats for failing to back his proposal for putting 1.8 million so-called Dreamer immigrants on a pathway to citizenship in exchange for tightening border security and severely restricting legal immigration.

During his hourlong address, Trump pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read The Snake, a ballad by Al Wilson about a reptile who repays a tender woman that nurses it back to health with a deadly bite.

During his campaign, as well as in a speech early in his presidency, Trump used the song, based on one of Aesop's fables, as a less-than-subtle allegory about immigrants entering the United States.

Some Republicans recoil

On Friday, he made no secret about the comparison he was making.

Think of it in terms of immigration, he urged attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he launched into the song.

You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in, he said, reading the final line of the song, before returning to his speech.

And thats what were doing with our country, folks  were letting people in, and its going to be a lot of people. Its only going to be worse.

Some mainstream Republicans have recoiled at Trump's continued recitation of the lyrics.

Trump's snake story is vicious, disgraceful, utterly racist and profoundly un-American, tweeted Steve Schmidt, a former campaign aide for president George W Bush.

Democrats totally unresponsive

In his wide-ranging speech, Trump warned that efforts to reach a deal on the status of undocumented migrants brought to the US illegally as children could fail  and blamed his opponents.

The Democrats are being totally unresponsive. They dont want to do anything about DACA, Im telling you, he said, referring to negotiations on Capitol Hill on replacing an expiring program that defers deportation for some undocumented migrants.

Its very possible that DACA wont happen.

Former president Barack Obama launched the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, whose recipients were given legal permission to work, live and go to school in the United States.

DACA-related bills

Last September, Trump announced he was rescinding DACA and called on Congress to craft a solution before March 5, setting off months of bipartisan negotiations.

The Senate held votes on several DACA-related bills last week, but none of them advanced.

Many conservatives in Congress including Senator Ted Cruz have been outspoken in their opposition to any legislation that provides amnesty to people who are in the United States illegally.Andrew Mambondiyani

MUTARE, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As dark clouds began to build on the horizon, Tarisai Nyakunu Zimunya, a single mother-of-three, looked worried. The fragile structure she calls home would struggle to withstand a drizzle, let alone a storm.

Zimunya is one of thousands of people living in expanding illegal settlements in the eastern city of Mutare, one of Zimbabwes largest, with a population recorded in the 2012 census of about 187,000.

Like her, many live in squalid conditions.

With the rainy season coming, it is going to be difficult for me and my family. I cannot afford to pay rent for a better house, so I have no option but to live (here), Zimunya said.

The daily quest for clean water and firewood is an unceasing nightmare for the residents of Mutares slums.

We get water from a deep well a few kilometres away, the 37-year-old said. The water is not all that clean, but we have no choice.

And without electricity - and gas stoves unaffordable - the women must head to the nearby mountains to forage for firewood. It adds hours to their working day.

But the wood is becoming scarce and we are now travelling long distances to get it. Its not safe, but that is the only way for us to survive, said Zimunya, who ekes a living by selling vegetables to support her children, who range from three- to nine-years-old.

NATIONAL CRISIS

Zimunyas story is repeated across Zimbabwe, which remains in the grip of a deep economic crisis. Unemployment is above 80 percent; as a result, illegal settlements are growing in every major city, said the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

But those settlements lack running water, sewerage, paved roads and electricity. Health experts fear when the rainy season comes in November they will become havens for disease.

World Bank figures show around one-third of Zimbabwes 16 million people live in urban areas, and that its urban population is growing about 2 percent annually.

Statistics from the United Nations Millennium Development Goals database from 2014 show that one in four of the countrys urban residents, or about 1.25 million people, live in slums. Experts said that figure is likely higher.

It is women like Zimunya who bear the brunt of the burden as they are forced to fetch water from tainted sources, gather firewood for cooking, and try to dispose of household waste.

And their position is unlikely to improve soon. The governments figures show a housing shortfall of over 1.3 million units, with the capital Harare needing 500,000 homes.

In the decades that former president Robert Mugabe was in power, government spending ballooned - however, more 90 percent of the budget went on civil servant salaries, which left little for investment needed to boost growth or for social spending. When he presented the budget in December, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa admitted many people had spent years waiting for affordable accommodation, and said the government must prioritise spending on housing.

Chinamasa, who acknowledged housing was a basic human right, allocated $182 million to support an array of strategies to improve housing.

He said it would work with housing cooperatives, and had developed financing strategies with the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and the Urban Development Corporation to provide low-cost serviced land for development.

Though housing experts welcomed the pledge, they said much more was needed, particularly in addressing accusations of corruption in the housing sector.

A Mutare-based housing expert, David Mutambirwa, said new slum settlements had mushroomed in the city since 2014. He said he feared the new housing facility would benefit only the political elite, not the deserving poor.

Corruption in land-allocation on both urban and farm allocation continues to benefit the political elite, said Mutambirwa, who is also the director of the Mutare Residents and Ratepayers Association.

Mutambirwa has long lobbied the city to provide cheap and affordable housing, and has worked closely with Mutares homeless people and the city councils housing department.

The political elite control everything from land-allocation, business, commerce and policies in the country to the detriment of the poor and marginalised, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

And, he said, the amount of money allocated for housing was insufficient to address Zimbabwes huge housing shortfall.

This clearly shows that there is no political will to address the housing shortage by the government, he said.

LONG ROAD

Difficult though the situation for slumdwellers is, it was worse in 2005 when, during winter, the government launched Operation Murambatsvina, which meant Drive out the filth.

It destroyed tens of thousands of illegal homes in urban areas, and left over 700,000 people homeless, according to the United Nations.

The governments actions - which were roundly condemned by rights groups - pushed many people back to rural areas.

But in the intervening years, with little work and few opportunities, people have been returning to the cities. However those like Zimunya and her children who live in Mutares slums look unlikely to get much help from city hall.

The mayor, Tatenda Nhamarare, said the city was working hard to alleviate its housing problem, including by building roads and sewerage facilities in high- and low-(density) residential areas prior to house-building.

And private land developers are also helping to provide decent accommodation to the people, Nhamarare said.

However he was quick to say the city would not tolerate illegal settlers.

We cannot do anything for them (illegal settlers) - they must vacate the areas they are occupying, he said.

Associations that represent Mutare residents said many homeless people could not afford the residential stands on offer.

Human rights lawyer Passmore Nyakureba said that ran contrary to the obligation by local and national government to supply housing to citizens - either by providing housing or by ensuring access to land for development at low cost.

But, as you know, our government has really done very little in this area as it has alienated its primary obligation through either the commercialization or politicization of the right to access to both urban and rural land, Nyakureba said.

He said given the governments approach, the only option was to keep urging it to meet its responsibilities to provide land for its citizens.

"On its own this government will not do anything towards fulfilling any of the rights of the people of Zimbabwe unless there is political gain to it," he said.Lenny Mac ($3.50) may have been the lone mare in the field in Buffalo Raceway's $9,500 Open Trot on Friday night (February 23) but it didn't matter to her as she roughed up the boys in taking a solid 2-1/2 length victory over Noble Legend in 2:00 on the sloppy track.

It was a battle to the front end early with Osprey Vision taking command over Empire Earl N in :29.3. Lenny Mac, sitting third past the half, put her head down and went to work up the backstretch the final time, taking the lead with a quarter=mile to trot.

In the stretch, Lenny Mac (Shawn Gray) found little competition as Noble Legend (Billy Davis Jr.) and Empire Earl N (Drew Monti) scrambled for second and third-place, respectively.

Owned by William Emmons and trained by James Clouser Jr., Lenny Mac earned her second win in four tries this year. The victory pushed the seven-year-old Kadabra mare's seasonal earnings to $12,635 and lifetime bankroll to $257,203.

Davis Jr. led the way on the night with four wins in the sulky, Monti finished the program with a triple while Shawn Gray and John Cummings Jr. each had doubles. Trainers J.D. Perrin, Jerry Nugent Jr. and David Russo had two victories apiece.

Racing will resume on Saturday night with a 12-race card scheduled to go to the post at 6 p.m.

(With files from Buffalo Raceway)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.In ordinary times, this would probably be a big deal, and the opponent or opponents would try to exploit it for what its worth, said council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), a frequent critic of the mayor. But theres a longer game here: The mayor cares a lot about how effective she is and whether shes able to accomplish her goals. To the extent shes seen as unable to do that, it will hurt her over the long term.February 14, 2018 started off like any day, like any Valentines Day. A day much known for its celebration of friendships and relationships was suddenly broken in Parkland, Florida at around 2:30 p.m. On that Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a school was broken. Families and friendships became broken as a result of a senseless act of violence.

Historically, in the wake of tragedy, people come together as a support network for others. Across the county, state, and country, people have helped aid the victims and the families of the victims with donations. A memorial covers the front lawn of Stoneman Douglas High School full of flowers, cards, posters, gifts, and more to commemorate those that lost their lives on Wednesday. GoFundMe accounts for those affected have raised a grand total of nearly $2 million.

Vigils have been held in Parkland, FL, at other Broward County schools, and at universities across the state. Students are protesting the crime that occurred at the school and are working together to make a change. The world has sent prayers and messages to Stoneman Douglas High, in an attempt to aid the healing process. All over, people have come together to support this cause.

The harness racing world itself is a closely integrated network of horsemen, in which news spreads like wildfire. Upon hearing about the situation of a horsemans daughter, Kayla Schaefer, there was outpouring support for the family. Other horsemen had family members involved throughout that day. Trainer and driver Rick Schauts son, Rick, is a police officer with the neighboring City of Coral Springs Police Department. Rick was one of the first to arrive on scene. Dan Daley, the son of Dan and Ann-Mari Daley, is the vice mayor of Coral Springs and played a major part in maintaining the peace in his city as well as speaking to the world on the issue at hand. Fellow longtime horseman Jamie Marra is a Special Agent with The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), the states criminal investigative agency. Miami region FDLE special agents were part of the mutual aid response to the school.

Jeff and Marie Schaefer are horsemen in the harness racing business. Jeff Schaefer is also a blacksmith for many horsemen around the track. Jeff and Marie have two kids; Eliott Schaefer, a Stoneman Douglas alumni and current college student, and Kayla Schaefer, a junior at Stoneman Douglas.

Kayla Schaefer was in class like any other day. Although, today was not only Valentines Day, but also her birthday.

Kayla was texting us from her class as the shooter was advancing through the hallway, Kaylas mother, Marie Schaefer iterates. We called 911 and the police were using us to ask her where she was exactly and what she was hearing to attempt to locate and capture the shooter.

The authorities reached the building and started by carrying the injured students out on their shoulders," said Marie.No parent is truly prepared to deal with horrific events, such as the ones the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas had experienced, but we are focused on healing.

The first thing we did was turn off the TV. We went to counseling sessions organized by the schoolboard on Thursday. We met many amazing counselors and Kayla was able to spend time with her friends there. Then, we attended various events where, again, the community and friends held hands, cried, and prayed. It was and it has been a difficult time. Our children and our community saw and experienced so much.

We attended Carmen Schentrups funeral this week as well. Carmen was in AP psychology with Kayla when the event occurred. I used to work with her mom, April, as she was my Assistant Principal at West Hollywood Elementary, Marie said.

We went to the vigil, a generously donated free acupuncture session from a local provider to relieve trauma and stress, and to the mall for retail therapy. She [Kayla] has been spending time with friends and family. We went to church, we celebrated her birthday last Sunday at the Melting Pot, and we keep focusing on happy and healing activities.

Prior to that Wednesday, Kayla had been asking her parents for a Jack Russell puppy. Now, her parents, Jeff & Marie Schaefer, had agreed to getting him or her. We decided on getting another dog to bring some joy to Kaylas life...[she] was not sleeping well and had flashbacks of what she had just survived, Marie said. However, finding specifically a Jack Russell puppy in a nearby location had been nearly impossible.

However, a group of horsemen found it in their hearts to embark on this tough mission. After a night at the races, standing at the edge of the track, five horsemen got the ball rolling on this endeavor. Those contributing to this cause include Cheri Clarke, Jamie Marra, Maggie and Marianne Audley, and Dr. Stacy Furgang.



Special Agent Jamie Marra and the Schaefer family with Gracie J Special Agent Jamie Marra and the Schaefer family with Gracie J

Cheri Clarke first initiated the conversation and told the group that the Schaefers had agreed to look for a Jack Russell puppy. Cheri is married to horseman trainer Edgar (Sparky) Clarke. The couple has a close relationship with the Schaefer family.

Jamie Marra also shares his birth date with Kayla. He has worked in public service for 28 years. Marra is a lifetime horseman and one of the top amateur drivers. He is a licensed trainer, driver, and owner in the harness racing business since 1983. He is currently driving in the Florida Amateur Drivers Club (and also former past president of the club), in which donates money to various charities every month. Marra has been actively involved in charity work throughout his life and was quick to act when he heard Kayla asked for a puppy. It [the puppy] was tough to find, but it was such an easy decision to make to help find her, he said.

After hours and miles of searching, many pictures and calls later, Jamie Marra found a Jack Russell puppy, a perfect match to what Kayla had wanted. Yet, the puppy was found eight hours from the receiving home and would need a ride. Marianne Audley offered to drive north of her farm to pick up the puppy and then, drive the remaining hours to South Florida. Marianne Audley is mother to Maggie Audley, a family of horsemen in the harness racing business.

We made the decision to help find this puppy and get the puppy from its initial home to its new home because we knew how many people were affected and it was just something small to help the Schaefer family, Maggie Audley says. Jamie had called us and said that the Schaefers were looking for a puppy for their daughter to help her get through the traumatic experience and asked us to put the word out on the search. Mom drove up and picked up the puppy, made sure the puppy was well-cared for and good to go. We, then, made the hand off to the Yoders to be taken to Kayla.



Special Agent Jamie Marra, JD Yoder and his fiancee, Cheyenne who helped transport the puppy to South Florida Special Agent Jamie Marra, JD Yoder and his fiancee, Cheyenne who helped transport the puppy to South Florida

The calls that had been made by Jamie Marra had spanned as far as Missouri.

Jamie deployed a whole task force spanning several states and spent countless hours on the phone to find Kayla her therapy dog. When Jamie mentioned the search to Troy Walker (Special Agent in Charge of the FDLE Miami Regional Operations Center) he set up an effort that included several FDLE agents across the state to deliver the puppy to Kayla, Marie said. This outpouring of love and generosity is truly humbling. Walker had begun organizing the delivery of the puppy using FPL Lee agents across the state.

There is a tightknit community between Jamie, Marianne, and JD in which they were all neighbours up at the farm at Gilchrist Training Center in Bell, Florida. At the last minute, they decided instead of having the puppy handed off to too many people, Marianne and JD would do the transport, with Cheyenne caring for the puppy on the long drive. And so, the puppy was sent down with a horseman already traveling south to race at Pompano Park that night on Wednesday, February 21, with JD Yoder and his fiancee, Cheyenne. Marianne drove north and picked up the puppy to give to JD for the trip south. The puppy made its way to South Florida comfortably riding on the lap of Cheyenne on the trip down and arrived safely to the racetrack. It was then driven to its new and forever home, with the Schaefer family.

The puppy would now become Gracie J. The name - Gracie - came from Kaylas great-grandmother, Grace. The J in Gracie J is the initial of Jamie Marra, a key player in the entire plan to finding the puppy and getting the puppy from point A to point B.

Dr. Stacy Furgang is a veterinarian with BocaMobileVet in Boca Raton, FL. Monday through Wednesday, including Saturday and Sunday, are race nights at Pompano Park Racetrack. Dr. Furgang spends these nights on the side of the racetrack, monitoring the horses that enter the track at every race and every warmup. She ensures the safety of the horses and is available in case of emergency. Stacy was among the horsemen that Saturday night where this plan was constructed. On Friday, she met with with Kayla and Gracie J for the first round of vaccinations as well as a health certificate.

The reason I got involved and offered my veterinary services for Kaylas new puppy was that I, myself, am a Parkland resident and I was heartbroken by this tragedy, Dr. Furgang explained. While a puppy cannot change what these students have gone through or take away what they have seen, focusing their energy on something positive will help with the healing process.

Animals are an incredible source of comfort during times of distress. They provide unconditional love and a safe friend in which to confide.

We welcomed Gracie J on February 21st, escorted to our house by special agent Jamie Marra and his partner, special agent Tony Martindale of the FDLE," said Marie. "A deep, heartfelt thank you to all who helped Gracie put a smile on Kayla and Eliotts faces and into their hearts.



L-R: Kayla & Eliott Schaefer with Gracie J; Kayla Schaefer first meeting Gracie J; Kayla Schaefer, Dr. Stacy Furgang and Gracie J after her first round of vaccinations L-R: Kayla & Eliott Schaefer with Gracie J; Kayla Schaefer first meeting Gracie J; Kayla Schaefer, Dr. Stacy Furgang and Gracie J after her first round of vaccinations

By Jessica Hallett; In memory of the 17 lives that were lost on February 14th, 2018. #ParklandStrong #MSDStrongShe tried several organizations, which said they could not help her because she had some income. She even called a homeless shelter, but was told she had to already be on the street to qualify for residence. Then she remembered that she had interviewed for a job with Friendship Place, based in Northwest Washington. It occurred to her that she was just the kind of person they might help.In one 911 call to the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office, a woman said that her son and another young man  Cruz, according to his lawyer who confirmed this call centered on his client  got into a fight, and she was afraid hes coming back and he has a lot of weapons. She also said that Cruz had aimed a gun at peoples heads before. In another 911 call, Cruz called authorities and, sounding distressed, said he was attacked.Faith and Family Groups Join Santa Ana Community in Opposing Drag Queen Storytime and LGBTQ+ Youth Fair

Contact: Desare Ferraro, 714-348-0808 (weekdays, evenings & weekends)SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- On Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 11:00 AM, pastors and other pro-family organizations will join Santa Ana church and community leaders at the front entrance to the Santa Ana Public Library (W. Civic Center Drive), 26 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA, to hold a press conference in opposition to the library's special event, Forest of the Enchanted Drag Queens: All Ages Storytime and LGBTQ+ Youth Resource Fair.The first of its kind to be held in Orange County, two local drag performers, Kunda Couture and Isabella Xochitl, will read stories to children of all ages in both English and Spanish. Funded through a library grant from the state, this free event takes place at noon the same day as the press conference.As advertised in both languages, "The drag performers will answer questions about the importance of educating the community about LGBTQ+ and drag culture. The LGBTQ+ Youth Resource Fair will also feature special drag queen-inspired crafts." The City's director over parks and recreation states that the drag performers "will be reading/performing children's books that focus on topics of kindness, tolerance and compassion, universal themes that resonate with all ages."Upon hearing of the children's event, local church and community leaders shared several concerns with library officials including the sexual nature represented by drag queens in today's culture and the concern that the presentation will be inappropriate for children. Furthermore, the drag queen event is offensive to a vast majority of religious groups (Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Evangelical Christians, Mormons, Catholics) who also feel that the public library should be a safe place for all children.Despite efforts made to ask the library to cancel or postpone this event until a community discussion about the issue can take place in a more thorough manner with all aspects of the city, including clergy, library staff, city officials, homeless advocates, LGBTQ advocates, and parents and doctors, the library insists on going ahead with the Drag Queen Storytime event.Star Parker, Founder and President of Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), and Orange County resident shared, "Under the guise of 'celebrating diversity' the library is promoting a lifestyle without providing scientific data of the dangers of transgenderism. Santa Ana families do not want their kids to be unknowingly exposed to these issues."Kim Bengard, president of the Family Action PAC asks, "Why would the state grant money to Santa Ana Public Library for drag queens to talk to children about kindness, compassion and tolerance? Why not invite a member of the clergy, city council member, firefighter or police officer to talk about those things? A man dressed as a woman sends a confusing message about healthy sexuality. We want to protect our children from exposure to adult topics not use them to advance agendas."When asked why he disapproves of the drag queen event, Bishop Gale Oliver, Greater Light Family Church, Santa Ana, said, "Some topics are too mature and overwhelming for a child that is still operating in its stage of innocence. Let's allow our children to be children and not burden them with adult matters."Pastor Refugio Sanchez, Santa Ana Free Methodist Church explains it this way, "Because we don't need someone else to teach our children in the wrong way of creation, we will stand and teach them according to our morals and bible values."Community leaders are also concerned with where this genderless movement is heading. Advocates for Faith & Freedom's constitutional attorney Robert Tyler warns, "Eliminating gender norms has led to the confusion we now see in Delaware where the Board of Education has proposed a new regulation that will not only allow students to choose their own gender, but also their own race. This 'anything-goes mentality' turns civil rights laws on their head. A white student will soon be able to apply for scholarships designated for minority students simply by claiming to be a different race."Here is a link to the Santa Ana website advertising the drag queen event:Family Action PAC based in Orange County is a California organization that supports qualified leaders who will advance a culture in which human life and family are valued, personal responsibility is encouraged and liberty thrives.Advocates for Faith & Freedom is a non-profit law firm that engages in cases that uphold religious liberty and America's heritage and educates Americans about our fundamental constitutional rights. www.faith-freedom.comOn Oct. 24, 2016, Bloomberg reported, Trumps team began placing spots about the super predator line on select African American radio stations and through nonpublic Facebook posts controlled by the Trump campaign. It was laser-focused so that, as a Trump campaign operative put it, only the people we want to see it, see it. They sought to turn off young women by rolling out the women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual improprieties and to drive down black turnout in Miamis Little Haiti neighborhood with targeted messages about the Clinton Foundations operations in Haiti.The pace of violence and paucity of resources had forced doctors to choose who lived and died. When theres a bombing near the hospital, the floodgates open and we can only focus on the cases with the greatest chances of survival, said Amani Ballour, a medic in one of the enclaves hospitals. There was a child with his brain hanging out and the mother was begging me to help. We had to let him die.Idsinga said at a news conference Friday that police were using fingerprints, dental records and DNA in testing the remains found in the planters and have so far identified three of the victims in that manner. He said police were continuing to investigate other properties associated with McArthur in the Toronto region and said he believed there were multiple murder sites involved.Jonathan Harris made it official on Saturday morning. He will attempt to parlay past experience as mayor of West Hartford, state senator, and commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection into candidacy for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The 53-year-old, who started a statewide exploratory committee 10 months ago, after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ruled out a third term, called for an end to partisan political negativity. He promised to try to unite people to solve common problems, while tackling the states major issues of job-creation, economic-development and education. He made the announcement in downtown West Hartford.WASHINGTON  Connecticut native Paul Manaforts one-time junior business partner, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to conspiracy and making false statements involving the pairs laundering of more than $75 million through offshore accounts.

The plea sets up Manaforts chief protege as a potential key witness against the New Britain-raised scion of a prominent family deeply involved in Republican politics there.

Gates, 45, entered the plea in a brief appearance at U.S. District Court in Washington Friday afternoon.

His plea comes on the heel of a 32-count indictment Thursday, which detailed a scheme to disguise millions paid to both men by Unkraines pro-Russia Party of Regions on behalf of that nations former president, Victor Yanukovych, who was driven from power in 2014 and replaced by a pro-Western president.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating Gates and Manafort as part of the ongoing probe of possibly illegal links between the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump and Russians, aimed at bolstering Trumps electoral prospects by denigrating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

It is not clear what, if any, relevance the widening case against Manafort has to the broader question of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and collusion with the election campaign  and perhaps Trump himself  in doing so.

Also Friday, Muellers team unsealed a new indictment solely against Manafort that included an allegation that he, with Gates assistance, secretly paid former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

The indictment accuses Manafort of paying the former politicians, informally known as the Hapsburg group, to appear to be independent analysts when in fact they were paid lobbyists. Some of the covert lobbying took place in the U.S.

The indictment says the group was managed by a former European chancellor. Court papers accuse Manafort of using offshore accounts to pay the group more than 2 million euros.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., suggested the possible cooperation of Gates with the Mueller investigation might ultimately lead investigators straight to the White House.

Securing a guilty plea from Rick Gates, Paul Manaforts right-hand man, is a significant step forward for the special counsels investigation, said Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that is also investigating the Trump-Russia connection and possible obstruction of justice by the president. Special counsel Mueller is clearly pursuing a longstanding prosecution strategy  collecting convictions as he climbs the ladder of criminal culpability  and potentially paving a path to the White House.

Manafort served as Trumps campaign manager between March and October of 2016. Gates was his deputy in the campaign, and went on to hold a position on Trumps inaugural committee.

Manafort insists he committed no crime.

Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence, Manafort said in a statement relayed through his spokesman, Jason Maloni. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise.

Manafort added: This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue, piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me.

Trump did not respond Friday to a shouted question about the Gates plea.

Muellers court filings lay out an astonishing scheme to launder money that Manafort and Gates received for their Ukraine consulting work. The document filed Friday accuses Manafort of using his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income.

The filing further states Manafort laundered $18 million to buy property, goods and services in the U.S.

It details $12 million of direct payments, mostly from an offshore account in Cyprus, to unnamed vendors in the U.S. to cover Manaforts expenses  $5.4 million to a Long Island home improvement company; $934,350 to an antique rug dealer in Alexandria, Va.; $849,215 to a mens clothing store in New York; $520,440 to a clothing store in Beverley Hills, Calif.; and $177,405 for the purchase of four Range Rovers and a Mercedes Benz.

Another focus of the case against Manafort is his failure to register as an agent of a foreign government for lobbying on behalf of Yanukovych and the Party of Regions.

A superseding indictment issued Thursday states that Manaforts overseas accounts paid $6.4 million for properties in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Arlington, Va. After Yanukovych was thrown out of office and Ukraine business dried up in 2015 and 2016, Manafort fraudulently secured $20 million in loans with the properties as collateral, the indictment charges.

Manafort and Gates both pleaded not guilty on Muellers initial indictment of them last October.Contributed / Contributed photo

WESTPORT  A New York man involved in an alleged moving scam was arrested following a months-long investigation into a Brooklyn-based moving company.

Westport Police first received a report of the alleged scam Aug. 16, 2017 from a former Westport woman who contacted a moving company in Brooklyn, N.Y., to move her possessions from Connecticut to California but said her belongings never arrived and she was unable to reach the moving company.The Prairie agri-food industry is expecting to receive about $150 million from Ottawas supercluster funding which, along with matching investments from the private sector, is expected to help ramp up innovation in the sector, potentially vaulting Canada into a global leadership role.

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The Prairie agri-food industry is expecting to receive about $150 million from Ottawas supercluster funding which, along with matching investments from the private sector, is expected to help ramp up innovation in the sector, potentially vaulting Canada into a global leadership role.

Protein Industries Canada (PIC), the Prairie group that was awarded a piece of Ottawas $950 million in innovation funding, is now in the process of negotiating contribution agreements with Ottawa before the funds will flow.

'Our job is to move up in the global rankings. We are now the world's fifth-leading exporter of agricultural products. Our goal is to become number one'  MP Terry Duguid

Ray Bouchard  who joins Wade Barnes and JoAnne Buth as Manitoba board members of PIC  said the process is just getting underway, and is likely to take three months to nail down final terms and conditions.

"The way I understand the negotiations, there will be a certain level of accountability, transparency and expectations that comes with it," Bouchard said. "Whether the funds actually flow before or after or in the middle of project is not clear yet."

The board will then figure out a governance model regarding how innovation ideas and projects will be accepted, and how they will be screened and selected.

Winnipeg MP Terry Duguid, in Winnipeg on Friday on behalf of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, said, "Our job is to move up in the global rankings. We are now the worlds fifth-leading exporter of agricultural products. Our goal is to become number one."

Funding will be focused on proposals that address improving seed protein quality and yield, sustainable production, and information technology  such as using artificial intelligence to foster innovation and processing technology in an effort to create new products and provide commercialization support for companies.

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Jo Kennelly, a strategic partner with the Winnipeg artificial intelligence company Sightline Innovations, and one of the active players in securing supercluster funding for the Prairie group, said, "Now the hard work begins. We need to make sure it is actually a supercluster and that there is technology that allows all the players to work together, and that it doesnt become just the refurbishment of a plant in Saskatoon."

Among other things, she said the funding of projects should take into account who the technology suppliers are. She said it would defeat the purpose if it meant just another contract for large multinational tech companies. Part of the goal of the supercluster funding is to allow for the development of home-grown intellectual property that can become the basis for further job and wealth creation in the region.

In addition to the federal money and matching private-sector investment  which is expected to be a key condition of the contribution agreement  PICs board is in the process of finalizing investments in a Prairie venture capital fund that could hit the $200-million mark.

Bouchard said it will have the potential to become another significant new source of capital for small- and medium-sized Prairie agri-food companies.

The province of Manitoba is in the process of seeking requests for pre-qualification for a venture-capital fund in the province. At least one insider said the hope is that the three Prairie provincial governments would somehow partner with the fund.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.caA company that has outperformed Google and Apple on the stock market over a 10-year period  and its not a tech company  has made its first investment in Manitoba.

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A company that has outperformed Google and Apple on the stock market over a 10-year period  and its not a tech company  has made its first investment in Manitoba.

Montreal-based Stella-Jones Inc. has purchased Prairie Forest Products, a second-generation family business in Neepawa.

Prairie Forest manufactures 50 per cent of Manitoba Hydros utility poles, as well as pressure-treated lumber for home renovation and home improvement retailers.

Its biggest selling retail product is cedar-toned decking and fencing  a two-step process where lumber is stained first and then pressure-treated.

Also part of the sale is the Birch River plant, used for peeling and pointing fence posts, which are then treated at the Neepawa plant. The biggest retailer is Federated Co-op for the farm market.

Prairie Forest is one of a group of companies owned by Prendiville Industries Ltd.

At the time of the sale, Prairie Forest employed 10 people at Birch River, just north of Swan River, and 50 in Neepawa, about 170 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg. Prairie Forest is Neepawas second-largest private employer, after much larger HyLife Foods with 1,300 employees.

Ailbe Prendiville, chief operating officer for Prendiville Industries Ltd., said Prairie Forest wasnt for sale until Stella-Jones came calling.

"Its been a very good company that weve had for many years," Prendiville said. "We decided to sell because Stella-Jones is an extremely well-run company, and they wanted us and paid us what we wanted. That doesnt come along every day."

A 2016 feature in the Globe and Mail portrayed Stella-Jones as a sleeping giant in the business world. In the 10 years leading up to the article, it had outperformed the most successful tech giants, including a five-year span where its stock returned 432 per cent on investment.

The Globe article marvelled at how an old-economy business could put up such fantastic numbers. Stella-Jones boasts close to $2 billion in sales annually. It employs about 1,900 people at 37 wood-treating plants across North America.

Now, Prendiville said, "Were the 38th."

Stella-Jones president and CEO Brian McManus said his company owns wood treatment plants across North America, but has a big hole in the geographical centre, where Prairie Forest is. It helps that Prairie Forest manufactures two of Stella-Jones three main products: utility poles and treated lumber. Stella-Jones also is a big manufacturer of railway ties.

"Its a great fit to our network in terms of its geographical location, as well as the client base they have," McManus said  including utility poles to Manitoba Hydro.

"We were already selling to them," said McManus.

The president said Stella-Jones was impressed with the operations of Prairie Forest.

"Hopefully, one of the things we always do with our facilities when we acquire them is we combine both of our best practices and see things that theyre doing that maybe are better than what were doing and well learn from that," McManus said.

There also could be some capital investment in areas where the plant needs upgrading.

"Ultimately  hopefully  we can capture some additional sales in the area so we can put through some more volume," he said.

Prendiville Industries still owns Norwest Manufacturing in Thompson, and Kenora Forest Products in Kenora, Ont. The company has had a long, steady but fairly quiet history in Manitoba. It was started by Joe Prendiville and is now run by his daughter and two sons: Maureen Prendiville is president and CEO, while Lawrence handles sales and Ailbe is COO.

"I believe our family business has survived so well because of family," Ailbe said.

Positions in the company are matched to each individuals skill set, he said.

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Joe Prendiville emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s and went to work in the mine with Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting.

He opened a sawmill in Flin Flon to support the mines lumber needs, and then opened another sawmill in The Pas and supported Thompson mining needs, as well. In 1972, he purchased the premises formerly run by Morton Timber in Neepawa for wood-treating, and installed a peeling machine for de-barking timber.

The company was initially called Prendiville Preservers Co. Ltd. and later changed its name to Prairie Forestry Products.

Prendivilles Norwest Manufacturing still supplies lumber for mining company, Vale Ltd., in Thompson.

Its Kenora Forest Products is bringing the forestry industry back to life in the northwestern Ontario town, following the closure of the Abitibi pulp and paper mill.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.caAn executive hired by Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries last April received 15 paid return-trip flights to her home in Calgary, valued at $7,142, and accommodation expenses worth more than $12,000 during her first six months on the job.

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This article was published 23/2/2018 (1301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An executive hired by Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries last April received 15 paid return-trip flights to her home in Calgary, valued at $7,142, and accommodation expenses worth more than $12,000 during her first six months on the job.

Deanne Carson, MLL vice-president of marketing and communications, incurred more than $20,000 in expenses under a "transition agreement" with the Crown corporation. The Free Press obtained details of the agreement through a freedom of information request.

Deanne Carson, vice president marketing & communications for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries.

A human resources expert said transition agreements are frequently offered to corporate executives. They can range from six months to a year in length, said Barbara Bowes, president of Legacy Bowes Group, which helps corporations recruit executive talent.

But a spokesman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation questioned the return Manitobans received for all of the paid flights and accommodation costs.

"Its hard to imagine how taxpayers were getting value for all of those flights," said Todd MacKay, the federations director for the Prairies. "What did Manitoba taxpayers get out of Flight No. 15?"

He said he could understand payment of some initial round-trip flights for interviews, compensation for moving costs and some initial accommodation expenses. But he questioned anything paid beyond that unless there were exceptional circumstances at play.

If there are, the Crown corporation should say so, MacKay said.

The $12,134 Carson received for accommodations from April through September 2017 is more than some people pay for a down payment on their home, he said.

The Crown corporation said in its freedom-of-information response the "relocation expenses" were negotiated as part of Carsons overall compensation and are a taxable benefit. The expenses included $1,171 for ground transportation.

According to the flight dates provided by the Crown corporation, Carson, more often than not, flew to Winnipeg on Mondays (or Tuesday following a long weekend) and departed for home in Calgary on Fridays. On several occasions, she also flew back to Winnipeg on a Sunday.

In January, the Free Press reported Carson, a former vice-president of marketing for the Calgary Stampede, had been commuting to her home in Calgary on weekends since her appointment. She said at the time she pays the cost of her travel between Winnipeg and Calgary to visit her family.

However, she only began to bear the entire cost of her commutes in November 2017. Her salary was not disclosed.

A senior executive at Manitoba Hydro, Siobhan Vinish, also commutes on weekends to Calgary. Previously, Scott Thomson, Hydros former president, commuted to Vancouver on weekends.

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Apart from the $20,472 she received as part of her transition agreement, Carson billed her employer $4,554 to attend a Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas in October. More than half of the cost  $2,624  was for the conference registration fee. She also incurred $560 in other work-related expenses from April through November.

Andrea Kowal, MLLs communications director, said Carson is the only member of the corporations executive team who is from out of province.

"When a successful candidate needs to relocate, we take into consideration individual circumstances in negotiating transition costs. This might include whether or not they have a spouse or family to relocate, how soon they would be required to start, they might have a home to sell and any other number of factors," Kowal said in an email.

MacKay said what worries him beyond the value of the transition agreement is what it may say about the culture within the Crown corporation.

"If you get the idea that 15 (paid return) flights is normal, that is something that can permeate through an organization," he said. "And all of a sudden, youve got money leaking out all over the place."

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.caOTTAWA  Moments after a jury in Winnipeg acquitted Raymond Cormier of second-degree murder, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett tweeted Thursday she was thinking of Tina Fontaines family.

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OTTAWA  Moments after a jury in Winnipeg acquitted Raymond Cormier of second-degree murder, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett tweeted Thursday she was thinking of Tina Fontaines family.

"Tinas is a tragic story that demonstrates the failures of all the systems for Indigenous children and youth on every level. We need to do better  we need to fix this," she wrote on Twitter.

On Friday, Bennett released a longer statement, saying 15-year-old Tinas death in 2014 "underscores" that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls "must complete its mandate," though that inquiry has been racked by myriad delays, resignations and budget issues.

"We need to examine all the factors that lead to these violent acts, including policing, child welfare, health care, as well as social and economic conditions. As a society, we can and must do better to improve outcomes for Indigenous girls and women," Bennett wrote.

Her office said Friday the inquiry still hasnt followed through with asking for more time and money, despite commissioners publicly saying four months ago they intend to do so.

Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott expressed similar thoughts to Bennett, saying, "Tinas story shows our failure to protect the safety (and) well being of Indigenous children," and the need for the Liberals nascent reform of Child and Family Services.

Both ministers comments were far less controversial than earlier this month, when the Liberals reacted to a Saskatchewan jury finding Gerald Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had said on Twitter he was "sending love" to Boushies family, while Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould tweeted the justice system "can and must do better." Neither had tweeted about Tinas death since the Thursday verdict.

MP Cathy McLeod, the Conservative critic on Indigenous issues, told the Free Press that Tinas death was "tragic and very disturbing."

McLeod said the incident showed the need to get the national inquiry back on track.

"People have invested so much into this being successful. The government has to listen to these red flags, and they make sure this is something that not only gives the family peace, but also gives a direction forward."

She also said Ottawa has to better support Indigenous communities in running programs to keep their children safe.

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McLeod noted a First Nations-led program in her Kamloops, B.C., riding that aims to deter children in CFS care from landing in youth court through housing and cultural support. In Manitoba, some 60 per cent of children at the youth detention centre are in CFS care.

On Friday evening, a few hundred people gathered in Ottawa around the Centennial Flame, holding posters and banners commemorating Tina, as well as Boushie.

They marched onto Wellington Street, stopping in front of the building that houses the Prime Ministers Office, and then in front of the Chateau Laurier hotel, where they chanted "Justice for Tina and Colten."

Among them was Cassondra Barnaby, a Mikmaq woman from Listuguj, Que., who said Tinas death has touched women across Canada. She came out to commemorate a two-spirit friend who has been missing since 2012.

"Our women are not disposable; theyre valued, theyre loved," she said.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caThe anguish and anger that abounds in Winnipeg this week would be best channelled in looking ahead to rescue the next Tina Fontaine before its too late.

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Opinion

The anguish and anger that abounds in Winnipeg this week would be best channelled in looking ahead to rescue the next Tina Fontaine before its too late.

Distressingly, there are many like her: youth from First Nations communities who enter the care of Child and Family Services, are failed by institutions that are supposed to protect them, and are preyed upon by predators who lurk in cities everywhere.

Tina Fontaine mourners march Friday. (Winnipeg Free Press file photo)

Let future historians record that the three-week trial was a watershed in Manitoba. It was the time when Manitoba decided the problems have been studied enough. It was the time when Manitoba decided to hasten systemic change. For Tinas sake.

Even after the trial that led to a not guilty verdict against Raymond Cormier, the public doesnt know important details of the final minutes of the life of the Anishinaabe teenager whose body was found in the Red River in August 2014.

We dont know how she died. And, after Thursdays acquittal, we dont know who killed her.

But Manitoba is well aware, too well aware, of the societal problems that led Tina to the streets, where she met ill-intentioned people that no 15-year-old girl should befriend, such as 56-year-old Cormier.

The acquittal sparked countrywide reaction, some from people who shouted stock opinions with only cursory knowledge of the trial and of Manitobas social problems. At least the national reaction didnt include federal politicians crossing the line that protects the independence of juries and criticizing the verdict. As the prime minister did earlier this month, in the acquittal of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley in the 2016 death of Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree man.

Independent legal observers say the Cormier jury did its job, which was to acquit if it had a reasonable doubt. The case against Cormier was flimsy.

There was no direct evidence such as DNA, witnesses or a confession that was indisputable. Possibly, it would not have gone to trial if there had been a preliminary hearing, the process designed to weed out weak cases.

The people who marched in Winnipeg on Friday and the people camped out on the legislative grounds, say they want to honour Tina.

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A way to honour her is to finally move beyond the countless studies that have examined the historic problems that plague Manitoba as a result of colonialism. The atrocities, including residential schools and the Sixties Scoop, have been well-documented.

It would honour the memory of Tina if this highly publicized case was the incentive to accelerate action on the root causes of the oppression of First Nations people that has been Canadas shame.

An appropriate guide to addressing those causes is the report delivered in 2015 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Some recommendations have been acted upon, many have not.

Its to be hoped the need to change is heard and shared by the legislators on Broadway, by federal politicians who largely fund First Nations and have been repeatedly urged to dismantle the Indian Act, by officials from Child and Family Services, by police officers who regularly encounter runaway kids heading for trouble, and by judges who can sentence Indigenous offenders with a Gladue report, which takes into account an offenders Indigenous background.

Of all the voices on this matter, none should be heeded more than the voices of Indigenous people. They can speak for themselves, and its essential they be heard by people at the top of societys power structures.

As Niigaan Sinclair, an associate professor in the department of native studies at the University of Manitoba, wrote in the Free Press on Thursday: "We must help educate others and join in a march together. We must help build families. Communities. Revoke, write and implement law. Consult meaningfully. Share land and resources. Demand change and never stop till it happens."BERLIN  In Poland, the president signs a law criminalizing anyone who dares suggest that the countrys citizens helped perpetrate crimes of the Holocaust.

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This article was published 24/2/2018 (1301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BERLIN  In Poland, the president signs a law criminalizing anyone who dares suggest that the countrys citizens helped perpetrate crimes of the Holocaust.

In Italy, a Mussolini-admiring neo-fascist goes on a shooting rampage targeting people with dark skin.

And from Hungary to Britain, leading government figures and their allies promote dark theories about a Jewish financier plotting to subvert the national will.

After U.S. President Donald Trump in August blamed "both sides" for violence in Charlottesville, Va., during duelling protests by white supremacists and their opponents, critics pointed to American historical amnesia as a contributing factor.

Europe, with its emphasis on remembrance in the service of "never again," was held up as a superior model for reckoning with the horrors of the past.

But six months later, events across the continent have served as a potent reminder that Europes grip on its history is far from assured. In particular, the 20th centurys dark detours into Nazism, fascism and state-sponsored anti-Semitism are again being subjected to revision.

"Youre getting the rewriting of history in the extreme," said Deborah Lipstadt, an Emory University professor who has written extensively on Holocaust remembrance and denial.

The evidence across Europe in recent weeks has been disparate and scattered, ranging from blatant acts of violence to subtle insinuation and casual omissions.

The reasons, too, are varied: a revival of nationalism. A surge in prejudiced thinking about and behaviour toward minorities. A social media culture that spreads information and disinformation alike with startling speed.

And then theres the American president himself.

"I dont blame it all on Trump," Lipstadt said. "But what Trump has done is given a green light, a dog whistle to those who would rewrite history, who would use that history as a tool."

That is certainly what Polands critics saw that nation doing when its lawmakers chose to push ahead  on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less  with a bill that would make it illegal to say the Polish government or its citizens abetted Nazi crimes.

Polands nationalist leaders saw the legislation as a chance to correct what they regard as a historical slur: the use of the term "Polish death camps," as well as other suggestions of Polish culpability. Unlike other European countries, Poland had no collaborationist government. About six million of its citizens died during the Second World War, half of them Jews, reinforcing Polands view of itself as a victim, not a perpetrator.

The legislation, said Franziska Exeler, a historian at Berlins Free University, reflects the desire of the Polish leadership to make "the official narratives of World War II less complex than historical reality. Less messy and more heroic."

In Poland in particular, as in much of Eastern Europe, historical revisionism is far from a new phenomenon. During decades of postwar communist rule, history was distorted freely for any number of political ends. For some, the new "Holocaust law" harks back to those times, when ideology often dictated history.

But the facts are the facts. Historians have documented anti-Semitic atrocities carried out by Polish citizens.

The law, which theoretically could criminalize researchers or survivors who point to Polish complicity, was condemned by Israeli leaders as amounting to Holocaust denial. But there was also a reaction in the other direction  an outpouring of prejudice toward Jews.

"The idea of the bill was not anti-Semitic in and of itself. They wanted to show their electorate that Poland has risen from its knees, and wont be humiliated," said Adam Michnik, a Polish journalist and historian who is editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyzborca, Polands largest newspaper.

The degree to which politicians are now stoking racial and religious prejudices  and legitimizing views long considered verboten  is exceptional in recent years, experts say.

An anti-immigrant party in Austria whose leaders have neo-Nazi roots recently joined the government. About the same time, a far-right party entered the German Parliament for the first time in more than half a century.

In Italy, meanwhile, far-right parties stand a chance of capturing the government in March elections alongside a more mainstream right-wing party. All advocate deporting hundreds of thousands of migrants.

The political atmosphere, said Noemi Di Segni, head of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, is rife with "very intensive signs of return to neo-fascism."

With the heated rhetoric has come a spike in violence.

A onetime local candidate for Italys far-right Northern League  one of the parties in line to govern  went on a shooting rampage this month in the central Italian hilltop city of Macerata. He wounded six African immigrants, one of whom sat in his hospital bed two days after a bullet passed through his lung and said he had never heard of Benito Mussolini or the Italian dictators fascist creed.

The shooting was condemned by mainstream politicians, and by thousands who marched in Macerata last week against racially motivated violence. But the shooter, 28-year-old Luca Traini, was also cheered, receiving a level of support that disturbed even his lawyer.

"Politically, theres a problem. In Macerata, people stop me to give messages of solidarity with Luca," the lawyer, Giancarlo Giulianelli, told reporters. "Its alarming, but it gives us a sense of what is happening."

The trend toward what critics see as a dangerous acceptance of bias also has infiltrated the cultural sphere. In France  where Marine Le Pen, the daughter and political heir of a convicted Holocaust denier, placed second in last years presidential vote  the recent revelation that the Culture Ministry had included the anti-Semitic writer Charles Maurras in a series of annual books commemorating key figures and anniversaries in French history set off a backlash.

Historians on the committee that drew up this years list insisted that commemorating Maurras was not the same as celebrating him. But the text of his entry conspicuously omitted the words "racist" and "anti-Semite."

Neighbouring Germany, as the country with the most to atone for historically, has long been hyper-aware of the potential damage from such an oversight.

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Instruction about the Holocaust is at the core of the nations education system, and the capital, Berlin, is full of reminders of Nazi-perpetrated horrors  from the small brass "stumbling stones" that commemorate individual victims to the chilling Topography of Terror museum, which traces the rise of the Nazis on ground once occupied by the Gestapo and SS.

Yet even in Germany, the anti-Muslim far right is growing. Protests against Israel in December, meanwhile, stoked fears that the country has an anti-Semitism problem among its Muslim immigrants.

The irony, said Andreas Nachama, director of Topography of Terror, is that Jews, Muslims and other minority groups "all sit in the same boat, even though they dont see it that way." He added: "We should not get accustomed to violence against minorities, whoever the minority is."

The story his museum tells is one of individual groups being singled out for discrimination, and ultimately persecuted by a state that uses prejudice as an excuse to abandon the rule of law. Its a lesson of history, he said, that has to be learned to understand the value of liberal democracy.

"You dont just have freedom. You have to win it and fight for it every day," said Nachama, a historian and a rabbi. "You have to speak problems out loud, and dont take anything for granted."

 Washington PostYesterday, European Union (EU) heads of state met for what was billed initially as an informal, technical summit in Brussels on EU financing and election procedures. The content of the meeting was very different, however, and far more ominous. EU Council President Donald Tusks report makes clear that the summits chief business was to discuss EU preparations for major wars.

We agreed that the EU will spend more on stemming illegal migration, on defence and security, as well as on the Erasmus+ programme, Tusk declared. This reference to the EU international study program was simply tacked on, however, to give a false veneer of popularity to a summit whose militarist and anti-refugee agenda has no popular support whatsoever.

It discussed military interventions in the Middle East and Africa, and stepped-up measures to keep refugees fleeing these wars from reaching Europe. This highlighted that the plans laid out at this weekends Munich Security Conferencedevoted to the EUs attempts to develop as a militarist power increasingly independent from Washington, and led by a Berlin-Paris axisdominate the EUs agenda.

Coming after US and Israeli strikes in Syria have killed Russian and Syrian troops and put the entire region on the brink of all-out war, Tusk attacked Moscow, Tehran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He said, The Assad regime is brutally attacking innocent men, women and children. Its backers, Russia and Iran, are allowing this to happen. We urge them to stop this violence.

This came just a week after President Emmanuel Macron of France, the former colonial power in Syria, called for restoring the draft in France, and bombing Syria over allegations of Syrian use of chemical weapons.

On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed Macrons threats in a debate at the Bundestag. What we see at the moment, the terrible events in Syria, the fight of a regime not against terrorists, but against its own people, the killing of children, the destruction of hospitals, all this is a massacre which has to be condemned, she said. Despite the rising danger of war between the major powers in the region, Merkel added that the EU should step up pressure on Assads main backers, Russia and Iran.

The summit started, however, with a minute of silence for two French officers killed in Mali on Wednesday and a discussion of EU support for Frances neocolonial war in that country. Emilien Mougin and Timothe Dernoncourt were killed and Colonel Francois-Xavier Heon was wounded when their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Gao and the border with Niger. In response, French Defense Minister Florence Parly boasted gruesomely that French operations had killed 450 people since the war began in 2014.

EU and international donors, mainly Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms, gave 414 million to the so-called G5 Sahel forcemade up of troops from the former French African colonies of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger that Paris uses as cannon fodder in the war and to keep refugees from reaching Europe.

To deny refugee fleeing their right to seek asylum in Europe, the EU is also helping Italy finance the construction of prison camps in Libya. In these camps, as a recent Amnesty International report found, refugees are tortured, sexually assaulted, and even sold into slavery. Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, who attended the summit, praised it for the financial aid and pledged that his government and states across the region would try to block immigration. The Sahel is one of Europes frontiers. The Sahel is a shield, a dike that must never burst, he said.

The EU summit also discussed growing border tensions with Turkey, including with Cyprus over gas exploration off its shores, and with Greece after Greek and Turkish vessels collided off an Aegean Sea islet on February 12. Disputes over the islet, known as Imia in Greek and Kardak in Turkish, nearly led the two countries to war in 1996. The Brussels summit heard reports from Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and unambiguously sided with Cyprus and Greece against Turkey in the disputes.

Tusk declared, On behalf of all the EU leaders, I would like to express our solidarity with Cyprus and Greece, and urgently call on Turkey to terminate these activities. He also threatened to call off a planned summit meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan next month in Bulgaria if Turkey did not cease its activities: We are ready to cooperate with Turkey and will assess at our March European Council whether the conditions are there to hold the Leaders Meeting with Turkey in Varna on 26 March.

The summit also discussed Brexit. Tusk bluntly warned that the EU was preparing an ultimatum to Britain over EU-British relations after Brexit, declaring: I will present the draft guidelines on the future EU-UK relationship at the March summit. Our intention is to adopt these guidelines, whether the UK is ready with its vision of our future relations, or not.

Conflicts are also rising inside the EU over how to resolve the budget shortfall that will result after Brexit and the loss of Britains contribution to the EU budget. Several smaller states including the Netherlands and Austria insisted that the shortfall not be made up and demanded that the EU slash subsidies to agriculture and to poorer regions of Europe.

This summit exposes yet again the bankruptcy of the EU. It is already widely unpopular, due to its role in enforcing austerity since its foundation in 1992, and particularly since the 2008 Wall Street crash. Now, after a quarter century of imperialist wars across the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa have turned tens of millions of people into refugees, it is emerging as a militarist Fortress Europe, that responds to growing conflicts across its periphery by preparing major wars with Syria, Iran or even nuclear-armed Russia.

Expectations that the EU could unify capitalist Europe have collapsed after Brexit, moreover, and the escalating international conflicts are tearing the European powers apart. Nor do leading EU officials bother to maintain the fiction that they seek to maintain European unity. Remarkably, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel decided to host a separate meeting with selected heads of state the evening before the summit, snubbing other EU states including Britain.

At the Chateau de Val-Duchesse, Michel invited leaders from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Bulgaria, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia. In the more informal setting with fewer countries represented, one Belgian official told Express, heads of state can really speak freely and discuss whatever is on their minds.

Premier Boyko Borisov of Bulgaria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, told journalists the Chateau de Val-Duchesse gathering was a regional leadership meeting. He said they had spoken on a range of Eastern European conflicts, ranging from Greece through Macedonia, from Serbia to Kosovo, Turkey, Russia, to the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia about the Piran Bay border delimitation.

He said the Varna summit with Erdogan would be heavy, declaring: If anybody imagines that its only a pleasant task to host [EU Commission President Jean-Claude] Juncker, Tusk and Erdogan for dinner, he is probably a newcomer to politics or has no clue. This is an extremely difficult meeting, extremely loaded with expectations and with tensions... Im far from imagining that we would find agreement on the questions raised, on all of them or on part of them.Florida put Eric Branch to death on Thursday after the US Supreme Court failed to halt his execution. Two lethal injections scheduled for the same day in other states did not go forward as planned.

In Alabama, the execution of Doyle Lee Hamm was called off after prison officials said they didnt have enough time to carry it out before the midnight deadline. In Texas, the governor granted clemency to Thomas Whitaker only minutes before he was set to die.

Eric Branch, 47, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 for the January 1993 murder of University of West Florida student Susan Morris. According to the Pensacola News Journal, after the victims family members, prison officials and the media entered the execution chamber at Florida State Prison in Raiford at about 5:30 local time, a curtain was raised to reveal Branch restrained and covered by a white sheet.

Before the deadly chemicals were administered, Branch told corrections officers that Republican Governor Rick Scott, who signed his death warrant in January, should be the one to carry out his execution. Addressing those in the death chamber, according to witnesses, Branch said, Ive learned that youre good people and this is not what you should be doing, Branch yelled, Let them come down here and do it! referring to Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The team warden announced that the execution would begin, and an anonymous executioner began injecting the lethal mix of etomidate, bromide and potassium acetate through an IV line from behind a long curtain. Branch repeatedly yelled, Murderers! as he violently thrashed on the gurney, according to the PNJ.

A Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman claimed Branchs screams were not a reaction to the lethal injection drugs. He was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m.

In the weeks leading up to his date with death, Branchs counsel argued that his execution was unconstitutional based on the argument that under a new Florida law, juries must recommend a death sentence unanimously. Branchs jury voted 10-2 to condemn him to death.

The new law, however, is only retroactive to 2002, eight years after Branchs conviction. The condemned inmate ultimately appealed to the US Supreme Court. Despite friend of the court briefs filed by a group of former judges, Florida Supreme Court justices and other professionals, the high court denied a stay of execution at 5:30 p.m., allowing the lethal injection to proceed.

Alabama

Doyle Lee Hamm, 61, was set to be executed in Alabama Thursday for the January 1987 murder of Cullman hotel clerk Patrick Cunningham. Less than half an hour before his death warrant expired at midnight, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn announced that the execution had been called off because there wasnt enough time to ensure the execution could be conducted in a humane manner, according to AL.com.

Recent appeals in Hamms case centered on whether cancer had left him healthy enough to be executed without excessive suffering, which is banned by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution as cruel and unusual punishment.

Hamm was scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. local time, but he was granted a temporary stay by the US Supreme Court just before that time. The stay was vacated by the court just after 9 p.m., clearing the way for the execution. However, at about 11:30 p.m., Commissioner Dunn announced that Hamm would not be executed that night because medical personnel would not be able to properly prepare him for execution before the midnight deadline.

Hamms longtime attorney Bernard Harcourt, a professor of law and political science at Columbia University, had argued in appeals that Hamm had cancer and his veins could not support the lethal injection. However, a federal judge in Birmingham ordered that the execution could proceed, provided the state used veins in Hamms lower extremities to inject the lethal chemicals.

Harcourt posted on Twitter Thursday night that they probably couldnt find a vein and had been poking on him for over 2 hours, as I had told them since July! Unconscionable. Simply unconscionable.

Early Friday morning, Harcourt called on Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Governor Kay Ivey, her counsel, and Commissioner Dunn to resign over what he described as a botched execution attempt. They should assume responsibility, or resign, he said.

Alabama authorities must seek a new death warrant for Hamm.

Texas

In a rare occurrence for the state of Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, spared the life of an inmate just minutes before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Thomas Bart Whitakers sentence was commuted to life in prison with no chance of parole for the fatal shootings of his mother and brother in Houston in 2003.

Whitakers father was also shot, but survived. He had led the fight for his sons life to be spared, as he was his last living relative. Earlier Thursday, Kent Whitaker had traveled to Livingston to visit his son. We touched hands through the glass and we said our goodbyes, he said. This has been such an emotional thing.

The seven-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended unanimously Tuesday that Abbott commute the sentence. Abbott had the option of accepting the recommendation, rejecting it or doing nothing.

It was only the fourth time since Texas resumed executions in 1982 that the parole board had recommended clemency at the last minute. In the previous instances, then-Governor Rick Perry, also a Republican, accepted the boards recommendation in one case and rejected the other two. Those individuals were put to death.

Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 1,469 people have been put to death in the US states that practice capital punishment. Texas has executed 548, far more than any other state.US President Donald Trump yesterday exploited a joint press conference at the White House with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to once again menace North Korea with crippling economic sanctions and a military onslaught. Trumps comments come as the Winter Olympics in South Korea are about to close and the US and South Korea prepare for massive joint war games in April.

Speaking just hours after the announcement of tough new sanctions on North Korea, Trump warned: If the sanctions dont work well have to go to phase two, and phase two may be a very rough thing. While not specifying what phase two might involve, he said it could be very, very unfortunate for the world.

Trump and his top officials have repeatedly warned that military action will be necessary if North Korea does not capitulate to US demands to abandon its nuclear arsenal and submit to an intrusive inspection regime. CIA director Mike Pompeo declared, in late January, that North Korea was a handful of months away from having a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missilesomething Washington has indicated is a red line for war.

In his comments, Turnbull said the US was Australias most important strategic and economic partner. He emphasised the military alliance between the two countries, saying it is as close as it possibly could be and yet keeps getting closer. He noted that it was 100 years since Australian and American soldiers fought together in France in 1918, declaring: A hundred years of mateship and a hundred more to come.

Turnbulls servile remarks, stressing the martial character of US-Australian ties, underscore the fact that his government is marching in lockstep with Washington into a war with incalculable consequences. Trump announced that one of the US navys new warships would be named the USS Canberra, as a symbol that the US had no closer friendship than with Australia. Turnbull responded obsequiously that this was a very rare honour.

As the US has ramped up its confrontation, not just with North Korea, but with China, the Pentagon has come to regard northern Australia as a vital base for its military operations in Asia. Admiral Harry Harris, the head of US Pacific Command and an anti-China hawk, has been appointed US ambassador to ensure that Canberra is fully integrated into any war.

In his comments alongside Turnbull, Trump made clear that the US was targeting China, as well as North Korea. He pointedly said he would love to see Australian warships involved with the US navy in freedom of navigation operations to challenge Chinese maritime claims in the South China Seaexercises that threaten to provoke a direct clash with the Chinese military. While Turnbulls government to date has been wary, the Australian newspaper today indicated that the Defence Department had drawn up detailed plans for such an operation.

Earlier on Friday, the White House announced what Trump described as the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that the US was putting companies and countries across the world on notice Those who trade with North Korea do so at their own peril.

The latest bans add another 27 companies, 28 ships and one individual to the Treasury Departments blacklist, which blocks anyone dealing with them from conducting business in the United States. The ships are registered or flagged not only in North Korea, but also in China and seven other countries.

Mnuchin, who met with Turnbull, declared they had a very productive discussion on North Korea and noted that hes very supportive and weve encouraged him to work with us on sanctions. The two men have known each other for yearsboth were partners in the giant US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Mnuchin refused to say whether the US sanctions ultimately would be enforced by a full naval blockade of North Korea. But he noted that UN Security Council resolutions allowed the US navy to board ships and inspect cargo with the consent of the country that flagged the vessel. The Trump administration has pushed in the UN for a resolution condoning the boarding and seizure of vessels on the high seaitself an act of war.

US Vice President Mike Pence, who signalled the latest sanctions earlier this month, defended his refusal to stand at the Winter Olympics when the joint North-South Korean team entered the stadium last weekend. He again blasted the Pyongyang regime on Thursday, declaring the United States doesnt stand with murderous dictatorships. He warned: We will keep standing strong until North Korea stops threatening our country, our allies or until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missiles once and for all.

Pences gesture at the Olympics, where he also snubbed top North Korean officials, cut across South Korean efforts to use the peace games to restart negotiations with Pyongyang. While not completely ruling out talks, the Trump administration has stressed that it will accept nothing less than North Koreas complete surrender to US demands to denuclearise.

South Korea and the US have already announced that joint military exercises, delayed to allow North Korea to compete in the Olympics, will proceed next month. The huge annual war games, which last year involved more than 300,000 troops, backed by heavy weaponry, warships and the latest US bombers and fighters, will inevitably raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The drills are a thinly-veiled rehearsal for full-scale war with North Korea.

The scale of the catastrophe that Trump is preparing to inflict on North Korea was underscored by the comments of US Senator Jim Risch at the Munich Security Conference last weekend. Echoing Trumps own warning last year of fire and fury like the world has never seen, Risch dismissed suggestions that the US was planning a limited, pre-emptive strikea bloody noseto intimidate North Korea.

Risch declared that, if war started, its going to be probably one of the worst catastrophic events in the history of our civilisation, but it is going to be very, very brief. He continued: The end of it is going to see mass casualties, the likes of which the planet has never seen. It will be of biblical proportions.

Risch will attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics on Sunday as an official member of the US presidential delegation. He is also in line to become the next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His bellicose remarks are a warning that the Trump administration is planning an all-out onslaught using conventional and/or nuclear weapons to totally destroy a country of more than 25 million people.More than 20,000 teachers and public school employees in West Virginia are taking a courageous stand in defense of their interests and those of the entire working class. On Friday, teachers completed the second day of a strike that has shut down schools in all 55 counties in the state. The teachers have defied threats of injunctions, fines and even imprisonment from government officials, who have declared any strike action illegal.

The American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) and the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) announced on Friday that what was originally announced as a two-day strike will be extended by at least one day, to Monday.

The decision of the unions to continue the strike reflects their nervousness over the prospect of the teachers anger erupting outside of their control, connecting with the opposition of teachers throughout the country and developing into a political movement against both the Democratic and Republican parties. The walkouts began largely spontaneously, with local strikes centered in the southern coal mining counties, culminating in a mass demonstration in Charleston last weekend. It was then that the unions announced the two-day strike as a means of letting off steam while they continued discussions with lawmakers.

Nothing that emerges from such negotiations will meet the demands of the teachers for decent pay and health benefits. Compensation for educators in West Virginia ranks 48th in the country, and the state legislature, with the support of substantial sections of the Democratic Party, passed a derisory pay increase of four percent over three years. This does not even make up for rising health care costs due to underfunding of the Public Employees Insurance Agency, which has resulted in a steady decline in the real income of teachers and other public workers.

The West Virginia teachers strike is of immense political significance. It explodes the narrative of the Democratic Party and the upper-middle-class purveyors of identity politics, who view the white working class of Appalachia as privileged and reactionary. It exposes the inane categorization of US politics as red states and blue states, in which the red (Republican) states are conservative and the blue (Democratic) states are progressive. The real division in American society, transcending every geographical divide, is by class.

The working class of West Virginia has a long and proud history of militant class struggle, captured by terms such as Bloody Mingo, the Battle of Blair Mountain and the Matewan Massacre. These traditions, suppressed and dormant for several decades, are reemerging under new conditions of social upheaval.

The significance of the strike, however, extends far beyond West Virginia. It is one expression of a national and international resurgence of class struggle. In its Perspective commentary from June 13 of last year, Palace coup or class struggle, the WSWS wrote:

The decades-long suppression of the class struggle by the trade union bureaucracy, the Democratic Party and the affluent sponsors of various forms of identity politics is coming to an end. The social counterrevolution of the ruling elites is about to encounter an upsurge of the American working class. The many different forms of social protestin work places, communities and entire citieswill acquire an ever more distinct working class identity, anti-capitalist orientation and socialistic character. Struggles in individual work places and communities will draw into unified struggle broader sections of the working class.

This prognosis is being confirmed. Among teachers, hostility to the decades-long assault on public education, under both Democrats and Republicans, is reaching a tipping point. Earlier this month, 94 percent of teachers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania voted to authorize strike action. As of Friday, nearly 7,000 teachers in Oklahoma had signed a petition calling for a walkout to demand a $10,000 raise. Teachers in New Jersey and Minnesota are also threatening strike action.

The conditions facing teachers are common to every section of the working class: declining wages, rising health care costs, historic levels of inequality, the destruction of public and social infrastructure. To this must be added the many malignant consequences of the social crisis in the United States, from the opioid drug epidemic, which killed more than 64,000 people in the US in 2016, to the endless series of mass shootings in US schools. The latest school shooting, in Parkland, Florida on February 14, has sparked demonstrations and protests by students throughout the country.

West Virginia teachers are expressing sentiments that are much more broadly felt. One retired teacher told the WSWS: I think its time for a general strike or protest, nationwide. Theyre doing everything they can to loot everything that belongs to the public.

The resurgence of class struggle, moreover, is developing as an international movement. The first two months of 2018 have seen a wave of protests across Europe and the Middle East, including mass demonstrations in Iran and Tunisia and strikes in Germany, Britain and Greece. Nearly 40,000 lecturers in the UK are currently on strike against attacks on their pensions. Defying threats of fines, 10,000 public school teachers in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia voted 82.5 percent in favor of a strike on Tuesday.

For decades, the ruling class has been given free rein by the trade unions to dismantle entire industries, destroy public infrastructure, wage war and accumulate levels of wealth previously unimaginable. The artificial suppression of the class struggle is the chief factor in the diseased character of American society.

All the filth and reaction of bourgeois politics in the United States has culminated in the Trump administration, which is waging an all-out war on the working class. The Democratic Party expresses the same disease in a different form. Since the inauguration of Trump, it has focused its energies on the development of a neo-McCarthyite campaign aimed at attributing all manifestations of social unrest to the actions of a foreign enemy.

The forcible entry of the working class into social and political life will upend all the calculations of the capitalist ruling elite. It will expose the absurd theory of the end of history and the claim, promoted particularly by the anti-Marxists of the pseudo-left, that the working class is finished as a revolutionary force. The emergence of the working class will create a new social and political dynamica way forward out of the dead end into which the capitalist system has led humanity.

The growth of the class struggle inevitably raises fundamental political questions connected to the objective social being of the working class. The fight by workers to defend their most basic rights places them in direct conflict with the capitalist class as a whole and its political instrument, the state. Every separate struggle raises the imperative of forming independent working class organizations, outside of the control of the pro-capitalist trade unions, to link the struggles of different sections of the working class and forge a powerful, unified and global movement.

For socialists, the critical question is to orient ever more forcefully to the working class. It is necessary to aggressively intervene in every manifestation of working class opposition, expand and develop the consciousness of workers, and explain the objective logic of their struggleswhat they are fighting against and what they are fighting for. A socialist leadership must be systematically developed in every section of the working class through the expansion of the readership of the World Socialist Web Site and the building of the Socialist Equality Party.Four years ago, in January 2014, the pseudo-left Podemos party was founded in Spain on an anti-austerity programme. It declared itself to be an electoral war machine aimed at the caste of corrupt Spanish politicians. By the end of that year Podemos was regularly polling around 30 percent of the vote to become the countrys number one party.

Since then support for Podemos has plummeted. In all the polls this year Unidos-Podemos (the alliance between Podemos and the United Left) lies in fourth place (16.5 percent) behind the Popular Party (PP), the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Citizens, which are neck and neck on around 25 percent. Of the 5 million people who voted for the party in the 2016 general election only a half say they will do so again. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias is considered the worst party leader.

Together with its ongoing programmatic lurch to the right, a major factor in the decline of Podemos has been the experience made by workers and middle-class people with the party in numerous town halls and city halls.

In June 2015 the Podemos-led coalition Now Madrid (Ahora Madrid), led by Manuela Carmena, gained power in the capital ending 24 years of PP rule. Similar victories occurred in other major cities including Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragozaleading to them being dubbed municipalities of change or rebel councils. There was talk of a municipalist front by various Podemos officials that would use citizen debt audits to stop the payment of illegitimate debts. Many councils, for example, were paying interest on loans of around 6 percent to banks that were getting money from the European Central Bank at 0.25 percent.

The head of finance at Madrid city council, Carlos Sanchez Mato, a leader of the Pabloite Anticapitalistas faction in Podemos, declared, The way to fulfil our obligations is to cast aside the spending rule battling until the last standa reference to the European Union requirement, incorporated into Spanish law in 2012, that eurozone members limit their debt to GDP at 60 percent and cap budget deficits at no more than 3 percent.

There was little battling, however, when the stand-off came, and the PP government sought to roll back the limited increase in social spending and investment the Carmena administration had carried out. (At the same time Madrid city council was also shelling out huge amounts to pay off the Madrid debtsome 357 million in just one year, 2016knowing it, or at least a good chunk of it, was illegitimate). Last year PP Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro invoked the Budget Stability Law to demand the council cut 238 million (or 7 percent) from its 2017 budget. Montoro added that until the council complied, the Ministry of Finance would take control of its finances.

Carmena duly capitulated. In November, she announced the first cuts of around 173 million and in December that a new Economic and Financial Plan for the capital that had been passed in the Madrid Assembly with the support of PP councillors had been sent to Montoro.

Carmena revealed that there were people in her own administration that greatly regret what weve done by application of the spending rule, but made it clear that the council would always toe the line demanded of it by the PP: I would say that we all regret it and we insist that our interpretation of the spending rule is different, but I think we all know that we have to comply with the norm and that we have to fulfil it ...

To ensure there was no doubt this was official party policy, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias declared that it is logical that the municipalities have to comply and that the Madrid council will remain a strong institution that will continue to be the benchmark for Madrid and Spain. He assured everyone that Carmena would be the candidate for mayor again in the next election.

Following Iglesiass endorsement of Carmena, Anticapitalistas Madrid Assembly member Isabel Serra complained, To think that we won Madrid only for Carmena is wrong, warning that Over the years Podemos has become normalised for a good part of the population, because they consider us to be part of the political class. Serra then declared, I believe that, in the face of this, a debate is now taking place not only in the city of Madrid, but also in the whole of the state, which has to do with whether Podemos is part of the restoration of the regime, or if Podemos is positioned outside of the restoration.

Serras attempt to cover for Podemos betrayal in Madridleaving it as an open question as to whether the party supports the state regimeis a graphic example of the role Pabloism has played in blocking the revolutionary upsurge of the working class. Time after time, it has apologised for every shift to the right by Podemos even when its own members are attacked.

During the Catalan referendum crisis last November, the Podemos leadership purged the local Podemos organisation where the Anticapitalistas were the majority current. Podemos had supported the new Catalan Republic declared by the Catalan separatists in October in opposition to the official party line endorsing a unified Spain and a negotiated referendum on independence. Iglesias said of the Anticapitalistas, They are politically outside of Podemos.

Despite all this, the Anticapitalistas continue to peddle the illusion that Podemos can be reinvigorated by social mobilisation along the lines of the Indignados movement protesting austerity measures in 2011of which Podemos, set up by a group of Stalinist academics led by Iglesiaswas hailed as the ultimate political expression by the Pabloites. A fresh mobilisation on the streets, they now insist, would put pressure on the leadership to return to the partys founding document (largely written by the Anticapitalistas) and all its words about debt cancellation, nationalisation, and membership controlpromises Iglesias and his associates had no intention of ever delivering.

Far from encouraging social mobilisation, Iglesias has made it clear Podemos is in the business of supposedly capturing the institutionsthat is, continuing its integration into the political establishment on the basis of Spanish nationalism. He appeals to the ruling elite to adopt a new plurinational patriotism, which Podemos would spearhead, to prevent regional conflict and Spains disintegration.

Above all, the invocation of patriotism is aimed at preventing the development of any independent working class movement in response to the crisis of Spanish and global capitalism, expressed in the breakdown of Spains two-party system. Iglesias insists: Podemos model implies dropping certain complexes and assumptions of the historic left. In particular, our symbols and narrative cannot be based on left-wing revenge for past defeats. For some of us, who are the grandchildren of those who lost the civil war and the children of anti-Franco militants, this can be painful. But it is something we need to recognize.

In line with its rightward lurch, Podemos has joined forces with the right-wing Citizens party, which has been the main beneficiary of the Catalan crisis, to press for electoral reform. Just last year Iglesias labelled Citizens the new Falangea reference to the fascist party that operated under the Francoist dictatorship. Now both parties will take part in constant dialogue to change the type of proportional representation system used in Spanish elections that is skewed in favour of larger parties, rural voters and the regions.

Under the proposed system the PP would lose 20 seats and the PSOE five, Podemos would increase its 71 seats to 77 and Ciudadanos from 32 seats to 44. Podemos secretary of organisation, Pablo Echenique, insisted that Podemos will not impose any type of red line that could prevent electoral reform.Thousands of West Virginia teachers and other school employees participated in the second day of a statewide walkout Friday, amidst maneuvers between the heads of the teachers unions and state legislators.

After initially seeking to limit the action to two days, on Friday evening the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and the American Federation of TeachersWest Virginia (AFT-WV) announced that it would continue Monday. The decision expressed the fear that calling off the strike could expose the unions and cause the struggle of teachers to erupt outside of their control.

The walkout by teachers has been carried out in courageous defiance of the threat of legal sanctions by state officials. Under state law, teachers are banned from bargaining over wages and benefits and have no legal right to strike.

Teachers are justly outraged by the paltry pay increase proposed by the Republican-controlled state legislature, which will do nothing to alleviate their abysmally low wages. A bill passed by both houses of the legislature Wednesday, with substantial support from Democrats, calls for an insulting two percent pay increase in 2019 followed by one percent in each of the next two years. Some Democrats have called for a slightly larger but still derisory pay increase.

Teachers rightly fear that higher health care deductibles and co-pays will eat up whatever gains are made in wages.

On Friday, the states billionaire governor, Democrat-turned-Republican Jim Justice, declared that teachers would get nothing more. Whens enough enough? he arrogantly declared. Our teachers need to be in the classroom. The Legislature has spoken, and Ive signed it into law. Our teachers need to be in the classroom, and our kids need to be in school, and our families dont need to be having to stay home from work in order to be able to take care of their terrible disruption.

In fact, the struggle of teachers has won the support of broad sections of the working class, who recognize in their struggle a fight to defend public education and the interests of all workers.

The continuation of the strike will be met by greater resistance from the state. On Thursday and Friday, school districts announced the formal closure of schools prior to the walkout, giving the strike greater legal sanction. This was no doubt done in careful consultation with the unions and the government.

If the strike is continued under conditions in which the schools are formally open, it will likely be accompanied by court injunctions and fines. This will be used by the unions as a rationale for shutting it down. According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the public schools superintendent of Kanawha County (which includes Charleston) has not yet decided whether to close schools on Monday.

In a completely inadequate gesture, the legislature this week voted to freeze health care rates for the next fiscal year by transferring $29 million from the states Rainy Day Fund. However, the director of the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) has said that $50-$70 million is needed to keep the program stable.

In the most recent political maneuver, on Thursday the West Virginia House passed a bill to dedicate 20 percent of any general revenue surplus toward stabilizing the PEIA. Teachers are highly skeptical of the measure, since the amount could vary depending on the size of the surplus, if any. That did not stop Christine Campbell, president of the AFT-WV from calling it a good start.

The unions have not advanced any specific demands. They are grasping for some sign of movement on the part of the legislature to justify calling off the struggle. In relation to health care costs, Dale Lee, president of the WVEA indicated the unions willingness to collaborate with the legislature in working out a formula that could be used to justify ending the protests. Were asking them to put a task force togetherand that we have seats at the tableso that we can discuss how to come up with solutions to PEIA.

West Virginia teachers must not allow the unions to channel their struggle behind maneuvers with various state Democratic politicians, who are in the pockets of the coal and natural gas corporations and who have demonstrated their hostility to the working class.

If their struggle is not to be betrayed, teachers must take the initiative by organizing rank-and-file and neighborhood committees in every school and community independent of the WVEA and AFT-WV.

These committees should fight to broaden the struggle of teachers and school employees by mobilizing all sections of the working class. They should link their fight with teachers in Pittsburgh, where the union is stringing out negotiations despite an overwhelming strike authorization. In Oklahoma, a petition calling for a walkout and a $10,000 raise has received 7,000 signatures as of Friday.

There is growing anger and opposition among teachers and other workers throughout the United States and internationally. A determined struggle by teachers in West Virginia will win widespread support.

The author also recommends:

West Virginia teachers take a stand

[24 February 2018]

West Virginia teachers call for expansion of their struggle

[24 February 2018]Can You Kill Every NPC In A Town In Kingdom Come: Deliverance?'I Hear You': Trumps Note Card Reminding Him to Listen to School Shooting Survivors Sparks Debate

President Donald Trump is facing criticism after he was spotted holding a note card reminding him to actively listen to survivors of the Parkland, Florida, massacre during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

The Washington Post mocked the presidents talking point, which read I hear you, in an analysis titled This photo of Trumps notes captures his empathy deficit better than anything.

Author Aaron Blake wrote: Thats at once pretty striking for a president and not at all striking for Trump. Through tragedy after tragedy, empathy has been the quality clearly missing from Trumps reactions. He has focused on first-responders rather than victims. He has joked around when he probably should have been somber. He has attacked a political leader who wasnt appreciative enough. Through it all, its been clear that expressing that he feels others pain just isnt his strength.

The Post was not alone in its criticism. While some on social media defended the presidents use of notes, many others mocked Trump for bringing a cheat sheet to the so-called listening session, where students, parents and teachers affected by gun violence in schools spoke about their experiences and suggested ideas to prevent more shootings.

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Since when do we need written reminders to show how much we care? Scripted emotions are fake. Sad! one user tweeted.

The point is: he cant hear anything but his own limitless needs. No one else really exists, said another critic.

Several critics argued that Trump didnt even heed his I hear you note given that, after several survivors pleaded for gun control reform, the president in turn called for arming teachers with concealed weapons.A 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl from Michigan were murdered Tuesday by their mother, who then turned the gun on herself, PEOPLE confirms.

The two children  Dariel, known as DJ, and Mikayla Walker  were each shot once in the head, according to the Bay County Sheriffs Office. The boy was found just outside the car where the bodies of Mikayla and the childrens mother, Nikita Landrum, 31, were discovered.

Landrum also died from a fatal gunshot wound to the head, investigators said.

Mikayla would have been 4 in April and DJ was turning 3 in June.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

The car was found in a Bangor Township industrial park some 100 miles from Farmington Hills, where the children were living with their mother. A handgun was also located at the scene.

A family friend told FOX2 in Detroit the childrens father, Dariel Walker, never thought their lives would have been in danger around his wife; the couple were separated and shared custody of their kids.

Those kids are little angels and I say it all the time, the friend, Kamal Miller, told the station. It was an absolute and total shock to the family.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

Efforts to reach the father were unsuccessful Friday.

Police are still trying to determine a motive for the violence.

A GoFundMe campaign has been established to cover the childrens funeral costs.

Suicide Prevention: What to Know

Experts say some common warning signs of suicide include discussing a desire to die or feeling anxious or hopeless, like a burden, or trapped or in pain; withdrawing from others; extreme mood swings, including anger and recklessness; and abnormal sleep patterns (sleeping too much or too little).

Many suicides have multiple causes and are not triggered by one event, according to experts, who underline that suicidal crises can be overcome with help. Where mental illness is a factor, it can be treated.

Reaching out to those in need is a simple and effective preventative measure, experts say.

If you or someone you know is showing warning signs of suicide, consider contacting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK, texting the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or seeking help from a professional.A West Virginia judge granted HBOs motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against the network and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver by a coal industry magnate.

Judge Jeffrey Cramers decision was dated Wednesday.

The suit, filed by Murray Energy CEO Robert E. Murray in June, accused Oliver of defamation for a June 18, 2017 episode of Last Week Tonight that featured a scathing critique of Murrays safety record, including a detailed look at a fatal coal mine collapse, as well as his business practices and political activity. The episode notably featured an actor dressed as a talking squirrel named Mr. Nutterbutter, who held up a giant sized check that read Eat S Bob.

Also Read: Why HBO Host John Oliver Can't Be Muzzled by a Coal Boss

Murray contended in his suit that the episode caused fans to flood him with messages calling him a fing scumbag, and rich greedy ahole. He also said people believed he was to blame for miners deaths, and that Oliver libeled him.

But in its motion to dismiss, HBO defended Oliver on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the episode was not defamation because it was based on a government report that debunked Murrays claim that a deadly coal mine collapse was caused by an earthquake. HBO also argued that other statements were opinions and jokes, not factual assertions.

Plaintiffs, HBOs motion said, do not come close to satisfying the legal requirements

for these speech-based tort claims. In fact, their complaint disregards long-settled First

Amendment and common law protections for the two types of speech challenged here: accurate

reporting on government activity, and commentary and satire on matters of public concern.

Also Read: John Oliver Confronts Dustin Hoffman Over Sexual Harassment: 'You Were a Creeper Around Women'

HBO said Murrays accusations were a matter of hurt feelings about jokes, and said jokes are protected speech.

The legal website Lawful Masses first reported that the case was dismissed.

Story continues

Attorneys for HBO and Murray did not immediately respond to requests for comment from TheWrap.

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John Oliver Wonders 'Is Anything About Trump Funny Anymore?' (Video)

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Dustin Hoffman Accusers Thank John Oliver for Grilling Actor on Sexual Misconduct AccusationsEmily Ratajkowski is a married woman!

The 26-year-old model and actress married Sebastian Bear-McClard in a surprise wedding on Friday, her rep confirms to ET. Ratajkowski took to social media to celebrate her nuptials, sharing photos from her courthouse ceremony in New York City.

"Sooo I have a surprise," she captioned photos on her Instagram Story, posing alongside friends (including The Fat Jewish), a pug and finally her betrothed. "I got married today." The Gone Girl actress could not have looked more chic for her special day, donning a black veiled hat and a mustard suit. Ratajkowski accessorized her look with strappy black sandals, a simple gold necklace and her new wedding band.

Instagram

Instagram

Instagram

"ny," she later captioned a photo of herself and Bear-McClard on Instagram, as her friend, Kevin Graver, shared pics from the celebration.

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Reports surfaced just weeks ago that Ratajkowski had called it quits with her last boyfriend, Jeff Magid, but by Valentine's Day, she was spotted getting cozy with Bear-McClard. See more on the model in the video below.

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Related Articles:Emotional support animals are at the center of another airline controversy.

According to The Washington Post, a emotional support dog injured a girl on a Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Portland, Oregon.

This is the latest in a string of emotional support animal issues for airlines, which also includes the eviction of an emotional support peacock and the death of an emotional support hamster.

The incident with the dog occurred on Wednesday night during the boarding process for the Southwest flight.

ABC 15 reported that a since-deleted tweet from fellow passenger Todd Rice claimed the girl tried to pet the dog, which boarded the plane as an emotional support animal for its owner, and the canine responded by biting her.

A spokesperson for Southwest told The Washington Post that the girl received a minor scrape on her forehead from the bite. The injury was treated by paramedics, who also cleared the child to return to the flight.

The emotional support dog and its owner disembarked the Southwest flight, which departed 20 minutes late. None involved in the incident have been named.

Issues like this encounter have caused some major airlines to rethink their pet policies. Delta Airlines recently announced it was overhauling theirs after an increase in pet misbehavior incidents over the last year.

As of March 1, passangers flying with an animal will have to provide proof of their animals vaccinations or health records at least 48 hours before their scheduled Delta flight. Additionally, travelers flying Delta with emotional support animals will need to sign a voucher before boarding the plane that states their pets can and will behave on the flight.

The first part of this new rule also applies to service animals as well, something Brad Hibbard, Director of Training at both the Guide Dog Foundation and Americas VetDogs, says is unfair and disruptive to those with trained, certified service animals.

There are issues there for our graduates and graduates from other assistance dog programs. Youre making things onerous for them. They have to upload documents for Delta for their trip 48 hours prior and provide all this paper work that they have to keep with them, Hibbard explained to PEOPLE. If they are in a situation where a flight gets cancelled, now they have to work with the airline to figure that out.

Story continues

Hibbard said that he and other representatives from service dog associations are working with Delta and other airlines to find something more balanced that allows the airlines to keep unruly, untrained animals in check, while allowing service animal graduates the ease of travel they are used to.

Southwest Airlines currently has a more lenient pet policy than other airlines regarding emotional support animals. According to their website, Southwest allows service and emotional support animals to fly on flights. The animal can be no larger than a child the age of two, and has to be able to be placed on the passengers lap or on the floor in front of their seat. Those flying with emotional support animals will need to bring a letter from a medical health professional that meets the requirements of Southwest.

Emotional support animals can be any pet (though rodents, reptiles and birds are often prohibited from air travel regardless of emotional support status) that a doctor or mental health professional has deemed beneficial to the treatment of the owners mental or emotional condition. Emotional support animals do not require any training, only a letter from a doctor or mental health professional.Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



When Coral Springs police officers arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, on Valentines Day, they saw not just the officer assigned to the school but three more Broward police officers with pistols drawn but taking cover behind their cars as a gunman was inside killing 17 students and staff, CNNs Jake Tapper reported Friday, citing sources.

When those Coral Springs police entered the building, the four original Broward officers on scene did not join them, sources told CNN. Its unclear whether the shooter was still in the building when they arrived.

One day earlier, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel held a press conference at which he acknowledged the armed deputy on duty at Stoneman Douglas High never entered the building where last weeks slayings were occurring.

Since Columbine in 1999, it has been standard protocol for authorities on site not to wait for backup or reinforcements but to engage the gunman immediately and disrupt the spray of gunfire. Instead, the deputy who was on duty at Stoneman Douglas on February 14, in uniform and armed, chose instead to stand outside the building for at least four of the six minutes it took the gunman in to dispatch 17 former classmates and school staff, a distressed Israel told reporters Thursday afternoon.

Tapper reported that video from the school campus is being reviewed and a report will be released next week. The Lead anchor said officials have cautioned that the official account could differ from officers initial recollections, as often happens in these high-stress situations.

CNNs report was on air a couple hours after President Donald Trump again pitched the NRAs proposal to arm teachers at public schools to protect students from shooters, in the wake of this countrys latest school semi-automatic weapon mass shooting.

Related stories

NRA's Dana Loesch Calmly Left CNN Town Hall As Attendees Chanted "Shame On You": VIDEO

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Eli Broad Joins Oprah Winfrey, Clooneys, Katzenbergs, Spielberg And Capshaw In Donations To End Gun Violence: Who's Next?

'Stand Up For Something' Being Used As Rallying Call For Gun Violence Prevention MovementStudents in Miami, Chicago, Iowa, Maryland and Washington D.C. walked out of class one day after the Florida state legislature refused to even debate a bill banning assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines. On Wednesday, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel commended the high schoolers who have been tearing up the news cycle since a gunman murdered 17 in a Parkland, Florida high school last week. Students at the school who launched the #NeverAgain movement after watching fellow students and teachers get gunned down should be applauded, Kimmel insisted. Unfortunately, some have been attacking the students on social, calling them fake student sand crisis actors.

Far right crackpots thrive on concocting conspiracy theories, Kimmel noted, citing global warming conspiracy theories, the Donald Trump-fueled birther movement, Pizzagate, etc. The conspiracy theories about Florida high school shooting survivors are being perpetuated by, among others, Donald Trump Jr. and NRA board member Ted Nugent.

If you are a Trump supporter or a member of the NRA and really do think these teens who spoke out after watching their classmates die are part of some deep state left-wing conspiracy, Kimmel has news for you: You are crazy.

But if you dont buy into this conspiracy theory, you cant just sit there and let these scumbags spread these lies about these kids, Kimmel cautioned.

Speaking of Donald Trump, he held a listening session of school shooting survivors and victims parents, during which POTUS suggested arming teachers, cafeteria workers, and custodians to cut down on school gun violence.

Trump showed up to the meeting with a notecard on which were written five things he was supposed to say during the meeting.

No. 1: what do you most want me to know about your experience?

Numbers 2-4 are covered by his tiny fingers, Kimmel snarked.

No. 5: I hear you.

A quick way you know you are not a good listener is if you need a note to tell you to listen at a listening session, Kimmel advised.

Story continues

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ch1ajtwbc&w=620&h=340]

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Oprah Winfrey Shrugs Off Donald Trump's Claim Of Insecurity & '60 Minutes' BiasWatch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



It's business as usual for Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.

The couple is back to their Los Angeles routines after a romantic few days in Jamaica, where they were celebrating the wedding of Bieber's father, Jeremy.





Bieber and Gomez traded their swimsuits for bundled up attire back in Southern California, where they were spotted attending church in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.

The Canadian crooner appeared to be sporting his famous hairstyle once again. He was seen rocking an oversized gray sweatshirt and dark baggy jeans as he left the service, while Gomez looked casual and cute in light-wash jeans, a black tee, warm jacket, and PUMA shoes which she designed herself. She accessorized her look with a long side braid and cup of coffee.



Backgrid

The former Disney star wore the same look as she stepped out with a friend for late-night shopping at Vons after church.



Backgrid

Then on Thursday, Bieber was photographed heading to the gym in an all-black ensemble.



Backgrid

A source told ET on Tuesday that Gomez and Bieber "are going strong" and are "together all the time" since rekindling their romance. See more in the video below.

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Related Articles:Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



Jimmy addresses Donald Trump Jr. around the two minute mark.

Jimmy Kimmel is calling out right-wing conspiracy theorists  as well as President Donald Trumps least favorite son  for perpetuating actual fake news in the wake of last weeks horrific school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

VIDEOSStephen Colbert Sickened By Florida School Shooting, Slams Senator Marco House Plant Rubio

There are always crackpots in situations like this who come out of the woodwork with [this] irrational, paranoia-filled nonsense. It happened after Sandy Hook, too, Kimmel said during Wednesdays monologue. The right-wing thrives on conspiracy theories: Global warming is a conspiracy, the Russia investigation is a conspiracy, Obamas birth certificate was a conspiracy, and those are just the big ones. There are hundreds of others, including Pizzagate, Scalias murder [and] the three million illegal votes.

It was then that he singled out Donald Trump Jr., who is among those liking posts on social media that suggest that David Hogg, one of the students who survived the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is actually a crisis actor planted by the FBI.

In this case, we have known people like Donald Trump Jr.  the presidents least favorite son  perpetuating this kind of stuff, he said. This is our presidents son doing that  liking a story that directly defames a student that survived a shooting.

VIDEOSKimmel Urges Trump, NRA Lackeys to Do Something, Now About Shootings: Children Are Being Murdered

He then turned his attention to NRA board member/pair of camouflage cargo shorts that came to life Ted Nugent, who shared a link on Facebook that also insinuated that Hogg is part of some grand conspiracy.

Story continues

The kid who just watched his friends die is a puppet to Ted, and its a puppet show. Is that OK? Should the person who actively spreads this garbage around be a member of your board if you are a reputable organization? Kimmel asked. I dont think so, but I want you to consider this, especially if you are a Trump supporter or a member of the NRA: Do you really think these kids  these teenagers who spoke out after a shooting at their school  are actors who are part of some sort of deep state, left-wing conspiracy? If the answer is Yes, I do believe that, I have some bad news for you: Youre crazy. Youre a crazy person. Your brain is not functioning, and Im worried about you.

Press PLAY on the video above to watch Kimmels latest monologue.

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Scandal's Bellamy Young to Headline ABC Comedic Soap False ProfitsLisa Marie Presley and her financial manager Barry Siegel are in a legal battle after it was revealed that shes $16.7 million in debt  Presley going after his reckless and negligent mismanagement of her inherited estate and Siegel claiming she squandered her own fortune due to her excessive spending habits.

According to two sets of documents obtained by PEOPLE and first published by The Blast, both are pointing fingers and demanding big bucks from the other.

In Presleys case, she claims Siegel spent 11 years whittling down the $100 million trust she inherited after the death of her father Elvis Presley in 1977 to just $14,000, dissipating her wealth through his reckless and negligent mismanagement and self serving-ambition.

Much of that, she alleges, began in 2005 when Siegel sold 85 percent of her interest in Elvis Presley Enterprises in order to align himself with a famous investor tied to the holding company of American Idol. When that didnt pan out, Presley alleges he began liquidating her assets in order to supplement the trust income without informing her, putting his own best interests ahead of her in order to put himself in proximity to [the investor] and his celebrity circle.

Siegel also allegedly bought a $9 million English home using the trusts money, pledging the entire trust as collateral when he couldnt make the $6.7 million balloon payment.

By 2016, Presley claims Siegel had liquidated almost all of the trusts remaining principles  especially after the Idol holding company went bankrupt. Her trust was left with $14,000 cash and over $500,000 in credit card debt, according to the documents.

Shes suing for breach of trust, negligence, constructive fraud, and recompense for the tens of millions of dollars that Siegel cost her through reckless mismanagement.

Graceland

Meanwhile, Siegels countersuit claims Presley twice squandered her fathers fortune after she inherited it in 1993 and is looking to blame others instead of taking responsibility for her actions.

Story continues

After Elvis death, his ex-wife Priscilla was the one who rescued Elvis Presley Enterprises from near bankruptcy, according to his documents  bringing in a CEO and turning Graceland into a money-making tourist attraction. But Siegel claims her daughter misused that.

[Lisa] was rescued from insolvency by a deal she now calls fraudulent and self-serving, Siegels suit says. After becoming wealthy again, she dissipated her second fortune over the next 10 years. As she spiraled downward personally, she refused to listen to the warnings of her most trusted advisors and her family. Unfortunately, she has only herself to blame for her financial and personal misfortunes.  [Her] continuous, excessive spending and reliance on credit far exceeded what the Trust could pay her from income alone.

Siegel and his company Providence Financial Management are suing Presley for $800,000 in damages. Siegels lawyer, Leon Gladstone, defends their actions in a statement to PEOPLE.

Its clear Lisa Marie is going through a difficult time in her life and looking to blame others instead of taking responsibility for her actions. The 2005 deal she is complaining about now cleared up over $20 million in debts Lisa had incurred and netted her over $40 million cash and a multi-million dollar income stream, most of which she managed to squander in the ensuing years, he says. My clients, Barry Siegel and Provident Financial Management, stuck by her and in return, Lisa Marie stopped paying them and is now blaming them for her uncontrollable spending habits. We are confident people will see through the talk and we will prevail in our case against her.

Lisa Marie Presley and her daughters

Reps for Siegel did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment, but Presleys legal counsel told PEOPLE in a statement that he predictably responded to Ms. Presleys lawsuit with false personal attacks in the press.

It is sadly consistent with his past behavior that he is now trying to pin the blame on Ms. Presley for the harm he caused the Presley estate, Amjad M. Khan of Brown, Neri, Smith & Khan LLP, counsel for Ms. Presley, wrote. Ms. Presley has paid Mr. Siegel well over $7 million in professional fees in just the past 10 years, and in return he has only caused her financial ruin. Now he has the audacity to sue her for $800,000 more. Mr. Siegel was not only Ms. Presleys business manager, he was the trustee of the Presley estate  so it was his legal obligation to make sure the estate was managed properly. This was Mr. Siegels responsibility, not Ms. Presleys. This is what he was paid and trusted to do, and he entirely failed to live up to his obligations.

Khan continued, He conned Ms. Presley into believing he was competently managing the estate when in reality he was just serving his own interests. Eventually, though, Ms. Presley discovered the truth and fired him and his company, Provident Financial Management. Ms. Presley regrets that legal action is necessary, but she must hold Mr. Siegel and Provident accountable for the harm they have caused the Presley family.

Presley states she currently receives a monthly salary of $4,361 from her fathers estate, as well as $100,000 in dividends and interest from investments.

Lockwood, Presleys fourth husband, married her 2006. The pair welcomed their twin daughters Harper and Finley in 2008 before the Graceland successor filed for divorce in June 2016, citing irreconcilable differences and claiming Lockwood was a poor father and took advantage of her financially.Its not guns, its the medias fault.

At least thats what the National Rifle Associations spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, told an audience at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday when she addressed the issue of mass shootings

Loesch appeared to accuse the legacy media for trying to capitalize on mass shootings.

Also Read: 'Morning Joe': Father of Parkland Shooting Victim Will Hug Marco Rubio If He Does 'the Right Thing' (Video)

Ill say it really slowly so all the people on the platform in the back can hear me loud and clear: Many in legacy media love mass shootings, Loesch said. You guys love it. Im not saying that you love the tragedy, but I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you and many in the legacy media in the back.

Loeschs comments come just one week after the deadly mass shooting at a south Florida high school. On Wednesday, Loesch took part in a CNN town hall, which included survivors of the shooting.

Loesch criticized CNN, saying that the network only covers mass shootings for profit.

Also Read: Josh Gad Pays Tribute to Family Friend Who Lost Son in Parkland Shooting

There are thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend and you dont see town halls for them. Wheres the CNN town hall for Chicago? Wheres the CNN town hall for sanctuary cities? she said.

The argument marks a departure from the NRAs usual silence immediately following a mass shooting, going on the offensive instead.

She also criticized the FBI for mishandling the case and not following protocol, which she said would have prevented the shooter from obtaining a weapon.

Also Read: 'Daily Show' Trots Out the NRA's Own 'Teenz 4 Gunz' to Counter Parkland Shooting Survivors (Video)

My condemnation is for those at the FBI  I know there are good FBI agents there  who dropped the ball eight separate times with catastrophic consequences, she said, referring to recent mass shootings.

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[Former FBI Director] James Comey, when he wasnt busy taking directions from [former Attorney General] Loretta Lynch as to what to call Hillary Clintons investigation or writing self-aggrandizing memoirs, said that they made a mistake. Maybe if you politicized your agency less and did your job more, we wouldnt have those problems.

See Loeschs comments in this video:

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Related stories from TheWrap:

Parkland Survivor Mistaken for Gunman at #NeverAgain Rally: 'The Law Has Failed Us' (Video)

'Daily Show' Host Trevor Noah Lampoons Fox News' Parkland Coverage With His Own Bad Ideas For Stopping School Shootings (Video)

Even Conservatives Denounce Dinesh D'Souza After He Mocks Parkland School Shooting SurvivorsTeam USAs Gus Kenworthy is leaving the Winter Olympics with a new rescue pet again.

In 2014, the freestyle skier went through the long process of bringing two puppies he found near Olympic Village in Sochi, Russia, back home to America. Those dogs (which now live with Kenworthys ex-boyfriend in Canada) are now healthy, full-grown social media superstars: Sochi pups Jake and Mishka.

And it looks like Kenworthy will be welcoming another pup to his life. In a lengthy Instagram post Kenworthy announced he and his boyfriend, actor Matthew Wilkas, visited one of South Koreas 17,000 dog meat farms during the Winter Olympics and rescued a puppy named Beemo.

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This morning Matt and I had a heart-wrenching visited to one of the 17,000 dog farms here in South Korea. Across the country there are 2.5 million dogs being raised for food in some of the most disturbing conditions imaginable. Yes, there is an argument to be made that eating dogs is a part of Korean culture, Kenworthy, 26, wrote in the post. And, while [I] dont personally agree with it, I do agree that its not my place to impose western ideals on the people here. The way these animals are being treated, however, is completely inhumane and culture should never be a scapegoat for cruelty.

Keep Following PEOPLEs Complete Coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics

The fluffy gray-and-white pup Kenworthy adopted is one of 90 dogs that was being kept at the farm under cruel, neglectful conditions. Even though the skier wrote he was told that the dogs at Beemos farm were kept in good conditions compared to other farms, he still found that animals were malnourished, abused and stuffed in tiny, dirty cages that were left exposed to the harsh elements.

Beemo isnt the only dog getting a happy ending. According to Kenworthy, the entire farm he visited is being shut down and all 90 of the dogs currently living there are being flown to the U.S. and Canada, with help from Human Society International, where they will be put up for adoption.

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Kenworthys new fur baby will arrive in America in a few weeks, after she completes all the necessary vaccinations. Like Canadian figure skater Meagan Duhamel, who rescued one of her pets from a South Korean dog meat farm, Kenworthy hopes his choice inspires others to help the millions of animals still caught in farm across the 2018 Winter Olympics host country.

Cant get enough of cats, dogs and other furry friends? Click here to get the cutest pet news and photos delivered directly to your inbox.

Im hoping to use this visit as an opportunity to raise awareness to the inhumanity of the dog meat trade here in Korea and the plight of dogs everywhere, including back home in the US where millions of dogs are in need of loving homes! Go to @hsiglobals page to see how you can help, he writes at the end of his moving post.Last week, a family of four was found dead in their Michigan home in an apparent murder-suicide. Police announced that the familys mother, Lauren Stuart, 45, had fatally shot her husband and two adult children.

A motive has not yet been released for the murder-suicide.

Here are four things to know about the case:

1. Relatives Asked Police to Conduct a Welfare Check on Family

Stuart and her family were found dead in their Keego Harbor home Friday after a concerned relative called the police and requested a welfare check, police said in a news release.

Lauren Stuart

Upon arrival, authorities discovered four bodies in the home. The victims had all been shot in the head, according to Keego Harbor police. A handgun was located at the scene, and the familys dog had also been fatally shot.

The victims have since been identified as Stuart, husband Daniel Stuart, 47, and their two adult children: Steven Stuart, 27, and Bethany Stuart, 24, according to a police news release.

2. Stuart Was a Model and Part-Time Personal Trainer at Local YMCA

On her LinkedIn page, Stuart listed herself as a model, and part-time personal trainer at a Detroit metro-area YMCA.

Her husband, Daniel, was a University of Michigan software architect at the schools Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Dan Stuart

Dan was an extraordinarily talented individual and highly valued team member who was making very important contributions, Kevin Ward, the executive director of CIRCC, said in a statement to the Free Press. Despite his immense talent, he was very humble and was always excited that his contributions may one day help save lives. He will be sorely missed.

Both of Stuarts children were in college, according to the Free Press.

3. Friends Said Murder-Suicide Followed Shunning by Church

Longtime friend Joyce Taylor told the Free Press that she and other friends believe an incident from five years earlier might have been a factor in Stuarts crime.

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The family were part of the local Jehovahs Witness congregation, Taylor said. But five years ago, the church shunned them.

According to Taylor, the Stuarts wanted their children to be college educated, which the church was against. She said being shunned from the church meant that no one from the church, not even other family members, can contact you.

PEOPLEs calls to Union Lake Kingdom Hall, the former church of the Stuarts, were not returned.

Lauren Stuart

4. Stuart Was Showing Signs of Emotional Distress Before Suicide

Taylor said she last saw her friend Stuart a week before the murders. She told the Free Press that Stuart and her husband had both been having a hard time.

She worshiped Danny. Danny worshiped her. They were like hand in glove, Taylor told the paper. But she was very concerned about Dan. He was prone to depression and she was always worried about him.

Authorities have not yet released a motive for the incident. The investigation is still ongoing.

[Stuart] was in emotional distress, Taylor told the paper looking back. She felt alone. I was her lifeline.

Suicide Prevention: What to Know

Experts say some common warning signs of suicide include discussing a desire to die or feeling anxious or hopeless, like a burden, or trapped or in pain; withdrawing from others; extreme mood swings, including anger and recklessness; and abnormal sleep patterns (sleeping too much or too little).

Many suicides have multiple causes and are not triggered by one event, according to experts, who underline that suicidal crises can be overcome with help. Where mental illness is a factor, it can be treated.

Reaching out to those in need is a simple and effective preventative measure, experts say.

If you or someone you know is showing warning signs of suicide, consider contacting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK, texting the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or seeking help from a professional.The father of the man whose execution was commuted just before he was scheduled to be put to death said on Megyn Kelly TODAY that he is grateful his sons life was spared  even after the sons conviction for plotting the murder of his family members and the attempted murder of the dad himself.

I feel a great sense of relief and hope, Kent Whitaker told Kelly, adding, Hes been given a second chance at life.

In an attempt to gain hold of the familys $1 million estate, Thomas Bart Whitaker, plotted the murders of younger brother and mother in a brutal 2003 attack he masterminded that left Kent severely injured.

While Kent was in the hospital recovering from his near fatal wounds, he vowed to forgive whoever was behind the murders. Months later, he was shocked to learn the identity of the killer: his own son, Bart.

Leaning on his Christian faith, Kent begged authorities to spare his sons life ever since Bart was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death in 2007. He argued that as the only surviving victim, he would be victimized yet again if his son were put to death.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

On Thursday, after an emotional goodbye with his son, Kent learned that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott commuted Barts sentence from death to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

People use the term bizarre, but thats what it was, he told Kelly. Ive never seen anything like it. We started the day not knowing what was going to happen, believing that Gov. Greg Abbott would commute the sentence but not knowing.

Abbotts decision followed a unanimous decision on Tuesday for commutation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

It is the first death sentence Gov. Abbott has ever overturned.

 For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard

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On Thursday, Kent and his wife, Tanya Whitaker, drove to the prison to say their final goodbyes to Bart.

It was extremely sad, he said. We touched the glass with our hands and said goodbye.

Officials ended the call at 5 p.m. While Tanya went to the observation room during the injection, Kent decided at the last minute not to go.

Then word came that his sentence had been commuted.

I want to thank all the people all over the world who have prayed for this, Kent told reporters just after he learned that his sons life had been spared.

From left: Kent and Bart Whitaker

Upon learning his fate, Bart told prison officials, Im thankful not for me but for my dad. Any punishment that I would have or will receive is just, but my dad did nothing wrong. The system worked for him today. And I will do my best to uphold my role in the system.

In a statement explaining his reasoning for granting clemency, Abbott said, In just over three years as Governor, I have allowed 30 executions. I have not granted a commutation of a death sentence until now.

The murders of Mr. Whitakers mother and brother are reprehensible. The crime deserves severe punishment for the criminals who killed them. The recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and my action on it, ensures Mr. Whitaker will never be released from prison.

The Governor said Kents pleas for his sons life influenced his decision.

Mr. Whitakers father insists that he would be victimized again if the state put to death his last remaining immediate family member, he said in his proclamation.

Whitakers friend, Chris Brashear, pleaded guilty to a murder charge and was sentenced to life in prison. His other friend, Steve Champagne, who drove Brashear from the house the night of the shootings, took the plea deal with a 15-year prison sentence in exchange for his testimony against Whitaker.

Im 100 percent guilty, Bart testified at his trial in 2007. I put the plan in motion.In the week following the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, weve watched the survivors and the Parkland community come together to demand real change. Students like Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and Cameron Kasky have proven many times that they will not be silenced.

Its truly inspiring that these survivors  teens who have one week of experience as political activists  can hold their own in heated conversations with seasoned politicians. Think about that. Theyre not afraid to ask the questions that we really want to be answered. And more importantly, theyre not afraid to steer a conversation back on track to demand an answer.

Their determination was on display in full force at the CNN town hall in Sunrise, Florida on Wednesday, February 21st. Survivors and families of the victims spoke with Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Bill Nelson, Representative Ted Deutch, and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. One of the standout moments of the night was when 17-year-old survivor Cameron Kasky bluntly asked Senator Rubio about accepting future donations from the NRA.

Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future? Kasky asked. Before he could even finish his question, the room erupted into applause. What followed was an exchange where Senator Rubio continually dodged the question. But Kasky was prepared and didnt back down.

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The answer to the question is that people buy into my agenda, Senator Rubio started. And I do support the Second Amendment. And I also support the right of you and everyone here to be able to go to school and be safe. And I do support any law that would keep guns out of the hands of a deranged killer. And thats why I support the things that I have stood for and fought for.

But Cameron Kasky wasnt having it. He interrupted Senator Rubio, asking, No more NRA money? More NRA money?

The answer is, people buy into my agenda, Senator Rubio continued, still dodging the question. The influence of these groups comes not from money. The influence comes from the millions of people that agree with the agenda.

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Kasky tried again. Right now, in the name of 17 people, you cannot ask the NRA to keep their money out of your campaign?

And again, Senator Rubios response was indirect. I think in the name of 17 people, I can pledge to you that I will support any law that will prevent a killer like this from getting a gun.

Frustrated, Kasky half-jokingly proposed a fundraising solution.

If Rubio is really taking money from the NRA just for the financial support, why not raise it elsewhere? No, but Im talking NRA money. Matter of fact, I bet we can get people in here to give you exactly as much money as the NRA would have.

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Youre right about that. Theres money on both sides of every issue in America. And where that leaves us in policymaking is to look at the issues and make a decision based on what we think is right, Senator Rubio continued. The First Amendment is as important as the Second. And therefore, you have every right to ask that question of me, and Im here to tell you that I will stand for the things

Cameron Kasky interrupted and made one final attempt to get Senator Rubio to answer his simple yes or no question.

Ok, Ill ask again. Are you going to be accepting money from the NRA in the future?

Finally, Senator Rubio delivered the closest thing wed get to an answer. I will always accept the help of anyone who agrees with my agenda, he said.

Ok, so I knew that was gonna happen, Kasky told the room. NRA, please just keep the money out of Rubio, okay?

Watch Cameron Kasky question Marco Rubio below.

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Its truly inspiring to see the next generation take the lead on important issues with such courage.Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, has been named the most powerful person in Trumps Washington, by GQ. (Photo: Getty Images)

Aside from Donald Trump, the most powerful person in Washington isnt the VP, the first lady, or even the first daughter  its Hope Hicks, the presidents longest-serving aide.

On Thursday, GQ magazine released a list titled The 50 Most Powerful People in Trumps Washington and White House communications director Hicks is ranked number one. The spots were based on a Shades of Power scale determined by degrees of ascendant, enduring, precarious, perplexing and surreptitious. Hicks power status was deemed perplexing.

Hope is feared and revered in the West Wing, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, who did not make the list, told GQ. To the public, she remains in the background. To the president, she is front and center.

The 29-year-old who formerly worked in PR for Ivanka Trumps namesake clothing line, joined the presidents campaign as press secretary after the then-candidate called her in for a meeting. Mr. Trump looked at me and said, Im thinking about running for president, and youre going to be my press secretary, Hicks told New York magazine in April 2016. I think its the year of the outsider. It helps to have people with outsider perspective.

According to the December book, Let Trump Be Trump, the president has referred to Hicks having about as much experience as a coffee cup but agreed that her good looks were a selling point.

Hope Hicks stunned at a Japanese state dinner wearing a chic tux. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Although Hicks herself doesnt engage in social media, she does manage the presidents controversial Twitter account and as Politico reported in July, has earned the presidents trust by letting him do just as he pleases when it comes to dealing with the press. The rest of the time, Hicks reportedly handles up to 250 media requests, solely determining which news outlet gets access to the president.

Despite her tireless work ethic and ability to fly under the radar, Hopes has been a subject of public fascination. The former model who worked for Ralph Lauren and Bloomingdales has been regarded as a fashion icon from her sharp black tuxedo with satin bowtie, $798 Stuart Weitzman boots, and gorgeous youthful looks.

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Her love life has also been scrutinized, particularly her former relationship with former staff secretary Rob Porter who resigned in February following abuse allegations from his two ex-wives.

And although shes managed to operate under the radar, in January, the House Intelligence Committee asked Hicks to testify regarding her role in possible Russian election interference, per The Hill.

Hope Hicks is listed among the most powerful people in Washington, per a new ranking, due to her role as the presidents gatekeeper. (Photo: Getty Images)

Hicks surpassed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who ranked #37 due to Jareds reported idea to fire FBI director James Comey, which triggered the Russian investigation and Ivankas fall from grace as liberal game changer to scapegoat.

Barack Obama scored 30th place due to taking up a rent-free space in Trumps head and outnumbering the presidents Twitter following and network Fox & Friends landed at #13 because more American presidents get their FBI conspiracy theories here than from any other source!

GQ did not return Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment on why First lady Melania Trump did not make the list. However, Celebrity Big Brother castmate and former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault squeezed in at #50 in a category called The Myriad Ghosts of Trumps Political Past.

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.In a tweet response to the NRA using a GIF of Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, creator Michael Schur says they should take it down and that Poehler texted him.

There's been no recent fictional television character more civically engaged than Leslie Knopeplayed by Amy Poehleron Parks and Recreation. Local government was legitimately her happy place, and she approached issues big, small, and ridiculous with an optimism and can-do attitude that was endearing and often hilarious. And last night Ms. Knope got dragged into politics once again the by way of a tweet featuring a Parks and Rec GIFby the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Obviously, the topic is a heated one in America, no more so than last night, on the heels of the CNN town hall, featuring survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School just a little over a week ago. The show's creator, Michael Schur, has been extremely vocal on Twitter about a range of political issues from the Republican tax cut, health care, Donald Trump, and yes, gun control.

He was less than pleased to find a beloved character of his creation used by the NRA to thank Dana Loesch for "being the voice of over 5 million NRA members." Schur tweeted, "Hi, please take this down. I would prefer you not use a GIF from a show I worked on to promote your pro-slaughter agenda." And he had a response from Poehler too, "Also, Amy isn't on twitter, but she texted me a message: 'Can you tweet the NRA for me and tell them I said f-ck off?'"

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Other members of the cast soon joined in. Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson on the show) wrote, "[O]ur good-hearted show and especially our Leslie Knope represent the opposite of your pro-slaughter agenda - take it down and also please eat shit. "

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And of course Leslie's ever-supportive onscreen husband Ben, IRL Adam Scott, had words too, warning the NRA to keep their hands off Leslie Knope.

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Well played, people of Pawnee. I love you and I like you.The remote town of Kotzebue, located on a sound bordering the Chukchi Sea, about 30 miles above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, has a surprising secret. The 2016 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), released last year, rates Kotzebue as the most toxic community in America after it has released a terrifying 756 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment. Thats more than the famous factory town of Gary, Indiana, the notorious mining town of Battle Mountain, Nevada, and Luling, Louisiana, located along a stretch of the Mississippi River dominated by petrochemical plants and nicknamed Cancer Alley.

The city features the Nullagvik Hotel, a number of B&Bs, several churches, and a restaurant called Little Louies that serves breakfast burritos and nachos. About 70 percent of the 3,500 residents are Inupiat Eskimo, and native traditions hold strong too.

Many residents stick as much as possible to a subsistence lifestyle, hunting seal from the sea, and journeying onto a rolling tundra landscape of braided rivers and majestic mountains to hunt geese, ptarmigan, moose, and caribou of the great Western Arctic Caribou Herd, which recently numbered 259,000, the largest in Alaska. But the city also has a less savory distinction, detailed in a little-known EPA dataset called the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

The inventory requires industrial facilities involved in manufacturing, mining, power generation, and other sectors to report exactly how much toxic chemicals, from a list of about 650, they release into the environment. Data from the 2016 TRI was released last year, and according to this metric, Kotzebue was the most toxic community in America. The Alaskan town released an astonishing 756 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the environmentthats more than the famous factory town of Gary, Indiana, the notorious mining town of Battle Mountain, Nevada, and Luling, Louisiana, located along a stretch of the Mississippi River dominated by petrochemical plants and nicknamed Cancer Alley.

It is really stunning to see this latest report, said Pamela Miller, executive director of the Anchorage-based environmental health research and advocacy organization group Alaska Community Action on Toxics.

THE RED DOG

Miller pointed out that all of Kotzebues reported emissions came from the Red Dog Mine, which is one of the worlds largest zinc and lead mines and located 82 miles north of Kotzebue. The emissions, said Miller, consist of lead, cadmium, and mercury. These elements can be toxic to humans and can linger in the environment for years, being blown about by the regions strong winds or accumulating in lichens, a source of food for caribou, which are then hunted by humans.

Do you think lead and zink mined at Red Dog increase the intensity of northern lights:

The Red Dog Mine opened in 1989 and is operated by Teck, a British Columbia-based metals and mining company. The mine is located on land owned by NANA, an Alaska Native Corporation of the Inupiat people. More than 600 NANA shareholders work at Red Dog as employees or contractors. Red Dog is more than just a mine, states NANAs website, it is a mechanism for hope and catalyst for the northwest Alaska and statewide economy.

Teck senior communications specialist Chris Stannell explained that the emissions in the TRI report represent the large volume of rock and ore moved around at the remote mine site, and that this material is contained in storage systems and well-regulated by state and federal permits. In 2016, over 99.93 percent of reported releases from Red Dog in the TRI remained onsite in the waste rock and tailings storage impoundments, said Stannell. The generation of such material is standard during the mining process, he added, and does not indicate any environmental effect.

Indeed, in Kotzebue, city officials do not appear to be familiar with the emissions. As far as I know it is safe, said Kotzebue City Manager Billy Reich. And as far as toxic releases, I wasnt aware of anything like that.

But in the Native village of Kivalina, about 90 miles up the coast from Kotzebueand located closer to Red Dogthere is growing concern about the mine. The village is located near the mouth of the Wulik River, a source of fish and water for villagers. One of the creeks that flows into the Wulik is the Red Dog, which begins near the Red Dog Mine. Treated mine wastewater is discharged into the Middle Fork of Red Dog Creek under an Alaska Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

We started hearing and seeing the people getting sick, especially the newborns, with issues we have never seen before, said Millie Hawley, the tribal transportation coordinator.

She described newborns being born with heart issues, including one infant that had to travel hundreds of miles for heart surgery, and said kidney problems were an issue for teenagers. We believe it is from drinking the Red Dog Mine over the last 25 years, she said, but there is no proof of that.

LOOKING FOR CLUES

In 2014, Hawley said the village asked the EPA to conduct an assessment to examine possible contamination in the area, but she said NANA and Teck got wind of the request and the assessment is yet to be carried out. The village is presently in private discussions with these partners. We are still working on things, and I am not at liberty to speak about the results of the discussions, said Hawley. Our main concern, she added, is the health of our people.

The village has long had issues with the mine. Ore from Red Dog is transported by eighty-ton haul trucks along a 50-mile road that links the mine to a port on the Chukchi Sea south of Kivalina. There its stored in buildings, then transferred via barges to awaiting offshore bulk carrier ships. The haul road runs through a section of Cape Krusenstern National Monument. A 2001 National Park Service report documented elevated levels of lead, cadmium, and zinc in vegetation along the road, as well as near the storage area by the port. Concentrations of lead and cadmium, the National Park Service report stated, exceed levels found in many of the most polluted countries in Central and Eastern Europe and all areas of western Russia.

The report brought attention to the contamination concerns of Kivalina residents, and since its issue Teck has made considerable efforts to improve their operation. Trucks on the haul road are now covered in a more comprehensive manner. Emissions along the road are monitored by Teck and reported to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Any spills along the route are reported to this office as well, such as a zinc concentrate spill that occurred in 2015, and another one that occurred in 2016. The mine also works with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to analyze caribou meat and organs for possible contaminants that could harm subsistence hunters. An independent subsistence committee, which consists of native hunters, also meets regularly to discuss mine-related risks to the herd, said Stannell.

Still, a paper on heavy metal deposition along the haul road published in 2017 in the journal PLOS One, and co-authored by several National Park Service scientists, analyzed data from the years 2001 and 2006 and found that, fugitive dust escapement, while much reduced, is still resulting in elevated concentrations of zinc, lead, and cadmium along sections of the haul road. Contaminants within Cape Krusenstern National Monument is an important issue which we are actively monitoring, said Peter Neitlich, an ecologist in the National Park Services Alaska Region and a co-author of the 2017 paper.

Maija Katak Lukin is superintendent for the National Park Services Western Arctic Parklands, which includes Cape Krusenstern National Monument as well as nearby Noatak National Preserve and Kobuk Valley National Park. There is some contamination, she acknowledged, citing Neitlichs research, but contamination is such a bad word, it makes it seem like the worse thing in the world, it is within human consumable limits.

Lukin pointed out that the mineral deposits being mined at Red Dog were always naturally visible at the surface and in the Red Dog creek, a point which both Teck and the National Park Service confirmed. There is responsible extraction of minerals and there is irresponsible extraction of minerals, and I believe Red Dog has gone through that phase of not knowing what they are doing, and then mitigating impacts, and I think now they are doing everything they can, said Lukin.

Lukin grew up in a small traditional hunting community near the tip of Cape Krusenstern called Sheshalik, without electricity or running water. I think that people who are indigenous are born with the understanding that the land sustains them, and they have to take care of the land for their survival, said Lukin. It is in our cellular history, and in our DNA.

Part of the reason that I came over to the park service, she added, is because the park service, as I see it, has a very similar set of values to the Inupiat people.

FUTURE OF ALASKAN MINING?

Mines remain an issue of contention in Alaska. Presently, a hotly debated topic in northwestern Alaska is the Ambler Road, a 211-mile-long industrial road that would connect an interior mining district to the Dalton Highway, in central Alaska. Approximately 20 miles of the proposed road crosses National Park Service lands. In southwestern Alaska, a proposal by the Pebble Limited Partnership to mine a rich deposit of gold, copper and molybdenum was halted by the Obama administration in 2014, put back on the table by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last May, then suspended again by the EPA this past January, after the agency received over one million comments from interested stakeholders.

From public comments to community meetings, stakeholders stressed the importance of balancing a singular mine venture with the risk to one of the worlds largest commercial fisheries, read an EPA statement issued on January 26.

Red Dog has permits to operate its mine through 2031. Miller worries the site seems destined to become a Superfund site. Teck spokesperson Stannell did not directly address a question as to whether the mine site upon closure would or would not become a Superfund site, though he explained that Teck was committed to the full reclamation of our mine sites.

While many Alaskans appear to embrace the philosophy of NANA, and believe that minerals and indigenous foods can both be safely harvested in the same region, Miller of Alaska Community Action on Toxics said she sees a growing number of Alaskans critical of the extractive economy. They worry that industry provides only short-term economic benefits while causing long-term harm to the states nature and communities, she says.

Ive spent my life here in the Brooks Range, living off the land, hunting and fishing, trapping, gathering berries and firewood, and clean water from the streamswith grizzly bears walking on the roof of my sod hut, and caribou flooding by the door, said Alaska native and best-selling author Seth Kantner, who lives in Kotzebue.

Those huge multi-national mining corporations, added Kantner, want this Alaska.

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via EPA, National GeographicPhoto: Getty Images

After the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., one Pennsylvania church is encouraging its members to ask for blessings  not for the victims and survivors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but for members assault rifles.

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, members of the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary of Newfoundland  a town located approximately 25 miles southeast of Scranton  church members who own an AR-15 assault rifle are being asked to attend church for a blessing ceremony for their weapons, and to pledge to defend their home and prepare for the coming biblical Kingdom of God.

Timothy Elder, director of World Missions for the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that despite the attention that has been drawn to this event in light of the recent shooting, planning for the blessing ceremony has been underway since October 2017. The event is not only for local church members, but for Unification Church members worldwide.

Elder explains that since planning has begun, church members have been instructed to purchase AR-15s wherever it is legal to do so. Elder says church members who live in other countries where it is not possible to obtain American-made guns have been encouraged instead to buy AK-47s, which are more readily available.

This Saturday night, Feb. 24, the Newfoundland Sanctuary Church is co-sponsoring a pro-gun rights dinner billed as a President Trump Thank You Dinner. Kahr Arms, a gun manufacturer, is the events other sponsor  an AR-15 will be raffled off at the event. Proceeds from the dinner will benefit the Gun Owners Foundation and its work lobbying for states to honor each others concealed carry permits. Kahr Arms is owned by Moon Kook-jin, the son of the Unification Churchs leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Elder says planning for this event began in January of this year.

According to Elder, the church has reached out to people in their community who have concerns about the upcoming events, namely state police. We havent really changed our plans, Elder says with respect to recent events. The people who were intending to come have already signed up. People are coming in from all around the world. A contingent from Korea has already arrived. A contingent from Spain has already arrived. Another group from Korea arrived today, as well as another group from Europe. People already have their tickets and have bought their rifles. People are driving in from around the United States and flying in by plane, so we are going ahead as planned.

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Elder explains that church members believe that we are living in end times  and that rods of iron, or AR-15s, are necessary to bring about the solvency of goodness that will be expanded following the Second Coming of God.

He adds that all weapons at the ceremony must be unloaded and that the ammunition chambers will be locked with zip ties, so they cannot be loaded at any point during the ceremony. He also said that security will be present the whole time.

We believe that the right to self-defense is a natural right that comes from God, and that everyone should have that right to defend themselves, Elder says.

Elder adds that the church is very grateful for President Trumps first year in office and Trumps work to defend our right to self-defense.

In regards to the relevance of the weeks events following the Parkland shooting, Elder emphasizes, The president has called for trained and screened teachers to be armed, or to allow so that people who have training and have been through screening can protect students, and we think that is a good thing. We think that is what is needed.

Sanctuary Church is affiliated with the Unification Church, led by by Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, another son of the churchs founder. The church has been identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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Gun Control Doesn't Matter Unless We Fix Toxic Masculinity For Boys And Men

Amid the swirl of debates surrounding mass shootings, gun control and mental health, where is the meaningful conversation about toxic masculinity?

On February 14, 2018, Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old boy/man killed 17 people and injured 14 more at his former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Another day. Another school shooting. Another dramatic loss of life that didn't have to be that way. Another social media assault against guns and gun owners. More thoughts. More prayers. People blaming mental illness. People blaming the president. People blaming God. People doing a lot of talking, but not for one second cutting to the quick of the actual problem.

We are ruining sweet little boys who grow into sometimes sweet but essentially ruined men who feel like the only outlet they have for their frustrations is violence. Because that is what we've taught them.

As Cruz's defense attorney Melisa McNeil told the press after he confessed responsibility in relations to 17 counts of premeditated murder, "He's just a broken human being."

RELATED: Awful New Details Revealed About Nikolas Cruz, The Florida School Shooter Who Murdered 17 People

Until this problem is addressed in a real and dynamic way it doesn't matter, not really, what laws we pass to regulate the sale and possession of guns in this country.

Do not misunderstand me. I think that the United States needs to seriously change its policies about firearms. I think we need for the NRA to be made to slacken its vice-like grip on Washington DC. I think this is something that's been obvious for a long time.

However, the bigger problem, the bigger conversation, the one no one seems to want to have, is what we are going to do to make the world our boys and our men live in one that is safe for and welcoming of healthy displays of their emotions so they no longer turn to senseless acts of violence as their only perceived means of expression?

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Comedian Michael Ian Black's series of tweets on the subject seemed to be the first time I had heard someone meaningfully address this issue in relation to the startling rise in mass shooting across the U.S.

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"Deeper even than the gun problem is this: boys are broken," he began. "Until we fix men, we need to fix the gun problem. The last 50 years redefined womanhood: women were taught they can be anything. No commensurate movement for men who are still generally locked into the same rigid, outdated model of masculinity and its killing us... Even talking about this topic invites ridicule because its so scary for most men (and women). Men are adrift and nobody is talking about it and nobodys doing anything about it and its killing us."

His thread grew into an oped in The New York Times titled "The Boys Are Not Alright," in which he expanded on his thoughts and shared some of the attacks on his own masculinity he received in response to his message on just that problem.

RELATED: There Was Almost Another School Shooting This Week  But The Shooter's Grandmother Stopped It

People are so focused on the debate around guns and mental health that we aren't focusing, not really, on the people wielding them in mass murders like the one in Florida. Guns kill people, yes, and so do the people who wield them.

There were 346 mass shooting in the United States in 2017.

There have been 34 mass shootings since 2018 began, less than two months ago.

Only three of the mass shootings in the U.S. since 1982 were committed by women.

There's no coincidence in the fact that the vast majority of perpetrators have been young men. It's the logical consequence of what happens when you build a world in which what it is to be a man has never truly changed throughout history.

This isn't a contest. I'm not saying men have it harder than women. That's not what this is about. All people of all genders have their own horrific set of issues to deal with. As women, we fight for recognition as complete human beings. Men struggle everyday with what it means to actually be a man.

The journey of feminism gave women the opportunity to explore all of the different ways a woman can be a woman. In high school, surrounded only by other girls, I constantly examined what it meant to be female, and even by the age of fourteen it didn't mean I ever had to become a housewife.

Say what you will about the males of our species, but they straight up do not get the same chance to examine all of the different ways a man can be a man.

I host a show on Facebook Live every Tuesday and Thursday, and both men and women come to me with all sorts of questions. Sometimes the questions are funny. Sometimes they aren't. Women ask about their health, about their bodies, and about their relationships.

Men tend to ask me one type of question: "Why are women doing this to me?"

They ask me stuff like, "Why don't women like good men?" or "Why don't women like me?" or "Why are women so rude?"

Women get more specific in their questions because we've been given the room to be curious about deeper emotional issues. It's what we know.

Men speak about women as though they are the enemy over the hill, waiting to attack not because they are inherently sexist, but because they are raised with a sexist outlook. They are raised to believe that doing the stuff women do, like expressing their emotions or making themselves vulnerable or being open about their preferences, makes them less of a man.

As a woman, you hear this and think "That's garbage!" And that's because it is. But when you're a man and it's all you know, is it any wonder we have been breeding generations of tormented teenage boys and raging men who see destruction not just as their moral inheritance, but as their only acceptable outlet for their anger, pain and frustration?

Michael Ian Black is right. Guns are a problem.

They continue to be a problem, they are going to continue to be a problem and it's a problem we need to solve.

However, solving the problem of gun violence in this country will only happen when we look at the boys and men wielding the guns and take proactive measures o teach them when, how and on which platforms they can freely and safely give voice to every single thing they may possibly think or feel.

RELATED: New Details About The Warning Call Made To DCF About Nikolas Cruz Harming Himself On Snapchat And Needing Help Before The School Shooting

Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cat, Batman. She hosts the advice show, Becca After Dark on YourTango's Facebook Page every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:15 pm Eastern. For more of her work, check out her Tumblr.

Keywords: boys, men, mental health, news, shooting, school shooting, gun control, mass shootings, school shootings

read moreEmma Gonzalez's Message to Michelle Obama Is How to Use a Leslie Knope Meme Properly

The National Rifle Association of America received a very clear message from actress Amy Poehler this week: F off.

Following a town hall meeting where students and the parents of victims of the recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting met with Florida lawmakers to discuss gun control on Wednesday, the organization shared a pro-gun Twitter message in support of spokesperson Dana Loesch.

In the tweet, the NRA used a GIF of Amy Poehlers Parks and Recreation character Leslie Knope to thank Loesch.

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A few hours later, the shows co-creator Michael Schur quickly came to the defense of the show and character. Hi, please take this down. I would prefer you not use a GIF from a show I worked on to promote your pro-slaughter agenda, he wrote. The kicker is that he corresponded with a message from Poehler herself, who was not having it.

He added, Also, Amy isnt on twitter, but she texted me a message: Can you tweet the NRA for me and tell them I said f off?

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While many of course lashed out at Schur, he did receive plenty of support.

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It was the message of an activist, however, that stood above them all.

Emma Gonzalez , a survivor of the Stoneman school shooting who has also been an active supporter and vocalist for gun control since the incident, replied to a tweet from former First Lady Michelle Obama with what we can only describe as the ultimate mic drop.

RELATED: George and Amal Clooney Donate $500,000 for Florida Students' March for Gun Control

Im in total awe of the extraordinary students in Florida, Obama wrote, praising those begging for change. Like every movement for progress in our history, gun reform will take unyielding courage and endurance. But @barackobama and I believe in you, were proud of you, and were behind you every step of the way.

To that, Gonzalez replied withwhat else?a Leslie Knope GIF:

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In the GIF case of the NRA vs. Gonzalez, she wins.From Good Housekeeping

Just when you thought Mae-Berenice Meite couldn't get any more awesome, the French figure skater did it again. The kick-ass athlete who already made headlines for performing to Beyonce wowed viewers yet again with a surprise costume change during the ladies' free skate last night at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Meite started the routine wearing a sparkly purple top and simple black skirt - a solid choice for her Chopin soundtrack. But halfway through the program, Meite pulled back part of her skirt to reveal a colorful, bedazzled layer underneath. Then the music shifted to another genre completely: the electronica track "Happy" by French DJ group C2C. Smooth, Mae-Berenice, smooth.

Check out a video of the quick change below:

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The choice seems especially daring considering the many wardrobe malfunctions that afflicted skaters this year, including ice dancers France's Gabriella Papadakis and South Korea's Yura Min. Meite, a Paris native, doesn't shy away from bold outfits though.

Her "Halo" and "Run the World (Girls)" short program also included a brave costume choice: a black, bedazzled unitard. In a sport rife with flouncy tutus and even elbow-length gloves (see: gold medalist Alina Zagitova), her fearless approach to dressing garners lots of attention.

Only a handful of figure skaters have gone that route, including American Debi Thomas before the International Skating Union required pants, and Russian Irina Slutskaya after the ISU repealed the rule. Latvian skater Diana Nikitina also embraced the catsuit this year.

The four-time French national champion would go on to place 19th overall after an unfortunate fall, but this fashionable skater still earned major style points. Now both of her looks from PyeongChang deserve a spot among the best figure skating outfits of all time.

You Might Also LikeTeam USA skier Gus Kenworthy may be finished with the 2018 Winter Olympics, but he isn't done making headlines in South Korea. On Friday, the Olympian uploaded an Instagram album full of pictures of a trip he'd taken to a dog meat farm in South Korea. He was there with his boyfriend, Matthew Wilkas, and what he saw there affected him so much that he decided to adopt one of the puppies then and there, as well as raise awareness about the dog meat trade.

"This morning Matt and I had a heart-wrenching visited to one of the 17,000 dog farms here in South Korea," he began in the post. "Across the country there are 2.5 million dogs being raised for food in some of the most disturbing conditions imaginable. Yes, there is an argument to be made that eating dogs is a part of Korean culture. And, while [I] don't personally agree with it, I do agree that it's not my place to impose Western ideals on the people here.

"The way these animals are being treated, however, is completely inhumane and culture should never be a scapegoat for cruelty," he continued. "I was told that the dogs on this particular farm were kept in 'good conditions' by comparison to other farms. The dogs here are malnourished and physically abused, crammed into tiny wire-floored pens, and exposed to the freezing winter elements and scorching summer conditions. When it comes time to put one down, it is done so in front of the other dogs by means of electrocution sometimes taking up to 20 agonizing minutes. Despite the beliefs of the Korean public at large, these dogs are no different from the ones we call pets back home. Some of them were even pets at one time and were stolen or found and sold into the dog meat trade."

Although Gus was describing some horrendous conditions, he had some good news to share. "Luckily, this particular farm (thanks to the hard work of the Humane Society International and the cooperation of a farmer who's seen the error of his ways) is being permanently shut down and all 90 of the dogs here will be brought to the [U.S.] and Canada where they'll find their fur-ever homes," he wrote.

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Gus wrapped up the post with an introduction to the puppy who'd be leaving the dog meat farm to become a part of his family, which also includes two other dogs  Jake and Mishka  he'd brought home from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, according to People. "I adopted the sweet baby in the first pic (we named her Beemo) and she'll be coming to the [U.S.] to live with me as soon as she's through with her vaccinations in a short couple of weeks," he wrote. "I cannot wait to give her the best life possible! There are still millions of dogs here in need of help, though (like the Great Pyrenees in the [second] pic who was truly the sweetest dog ever). I'm hoping to use this visit as an opportunity to raise awareness to the inhumanity of the dog meat trade here in Korea and the plight of dogs everywhere, including back home in the [U.S.] where millions of dogs are in need of loving homes! Go to @hsiglobal's page to see how you can help. #dogsarefriendsnotfood #adoptdontshop "

Previously, Gus had visited a polarizing raccoon cafe in Seoul, South Korea. Although the cafe has reportedly received negative reviews from customers concerned about how staff and guests are treating the animals, as well as warnings from animal rights activists about letting wild animals interact with humans in such close quarters, Gus did not touch on these concerns and kept his social media posts about the visit light and positive.

As a few Instagram users mentioned in the comments, hopefully Gus feels as strongly about all animals as he does about the dogs he visited 

including cows, chickens, and pigs in America's meat, dairy, and egg trades that are kept in just as horrific conditions.

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Related:Gus Kenworthy Reacts to Seeing His Olympic Kiss on Live TVStudents across the country participated in school walkouts this week to demand action on gun violence, and two more widespread walkouts are planned for the next two months  on March 14, to mark one month since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, and on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting. (A major Washington, D.C., demonstration, the March for Our Lives, is set for March 24.)

The protests are drawing attention not just for their impassioned plea, but for the ways in which various school districts are reacting to the organized action.

Students expressing anger over gun violence in the form of protests are being met with disciplinary action at some schools. (Photo: Getty Images)

Consequences for students participating in walkouts have been drastically different across the country. At Needville High School in Texas, students were threatened with a three-day suspension if they participated in the walkouts, according to a note posted on the schools Facebook page by Needville Independent School District superintendent Curtis Rhodes.

The Needville ISD is very sensitive to violence in schools, including the recent incident in Florida, the note said. There is a movement attempting to stage walkouts/disruptions of the school through social media and/or media outlets. Please be advised that the Needville ISD will not allow a student demonstration during school hours for any type of protest or awareness!! Should students choose to do so, they will be suspected from school for 3 days and face all the consequences that come along with an out of school suspension.

The schools Facebook page has since been taken down, but the note, which went viral after it was posted on Tuesday, was captured in screengrabs. Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative. We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved, Rhodes wrote, adding that even those who had notes from parents would not be spared from discipline, and asking the community to understand that we are here for an education and not a political protest.

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Photo: Getty Images

Other school districts made similar threats. According to the Los Angeles Times, Steven Walts, superintendent of Prince William County (Va.) Public Schools, wrote an email to parents and students noting that there would be disciplinary consequences for students who cause disruptions or leave school without authorization.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jerry Kalina, principal of Papillion-La Vista High School in Omaha, Neb., joined his students for a 17-minute walkout on Wednesday, one minute for each of the Parkland victims. I thought if kids are going to walk out, I want it to be controlled, and I want it to be a respectful situation in which our kids focus on the victims and their families, Kalina tells Yahoo Lifestyle. So I got on the intercom and we took a moment of silence for the victims, and I told the students that if they plan to walk out, that was their choice and they wouldnt get in trouble.

When the bell rang to end the class period at 11:55, Kalina says, about 250 kids joined him outside in 18-degree weather. I roamed around the crowd  kids were worried, they had looks on their faces I hadnt seen before, he says. I wanted to let them know that we are here for them, and to show some compassion and love. I didnt want to be a dictator; I wanted students to know that hopefully this is the start of something that will create change.

In St. Charles, Ill., administrators took a similar approach. Once we were made aware of the walkout, the high school principal sent a message to staff saying that if a student tells you they are walking out, please allow them to do so, Carol Smith, St. Charles School District 303 spokesperson, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. We made sure there was supervision. Students met under the flagpole. They had conversations about what this meant, and when the 17 minutes were up they went back to school.

Smith says that at St. Charles North High School, about 27 students participated in the walkout, and at St. Charles East, there were between 150 and 200. That discrepancy, Smith says, is likely because two St. Charles East students were killed as a result of gun violence just last year. Its been very, very difficult, so these students understood what they were doing, she says. As one of our students said, We may not be able to vote yet, but were a movement. Were starting to show people that we care and that we can make a difference. As a school district, how can we say no to that? How can we discourage them from doing something they are passionate about and they feel can make a difference [about] on a national level?

Plenty of schools seem to still be hashing out how they will handle the upcoming walkouts. On Tuesday, Todd Gray, the superintendent of the Waukesha School District in Wisconsin, sent an email suggesting that those who participated in a walkout would face disciplinary action, according to the Journal Sentinel. By Wednesday, Gray had amended his message, explaining that students would be allowed to participate if given permission by a parent.

Legally, schools can discipline students who ditch class for any reason, according to a blog post by Vera Eidelman, a William J. Brennan fellow with the ACLUs Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. But what the school cant do is discipline students more harshly because they are walking out to express a political view or because school administrators dont support the views behind the protest, she writes. In other words, any disciplinary action for walking out cannot be a response to the content of the protest.

Much of the backlash against Rhodes, the Texas superintendent who threatened suspension, seemed to be the result of the content of his message. Its a quintessential First Amendment violation, and most Americans have an instinct about that, Georgetown Law professor Heidi Li Feldman told the Washington Post. Whats really weird about this is that they announced they will suspend people over the content of their off-campus protest. Content-based restrictions on speech are anathema to the First Amendment. So this looks like a total problem.

Back in Omaha, meanwhile, Kalina says he believes that any good school administrator should react to specific situations rather than apply a blanket rule as moments like these come up.

You have to use the common sense approach; you have to be compassionate. I could sense even as our day started on Wednesday that things were different; theyve been different since this happened. Kids seem on edge, he says, noting that 17 minutes of the school day wouldnt be especially disruptive to a school that goes through seven five-minute class changes a day. Young people need to be heard; we have to trust them and give them boundaries and a controlled setting and let them know that were here for them. I didnt want to talk suspension and punishment  thats not what my students needed to hear. They needed to hear the opposite  that they will be taken seriously, and they will be safe.

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As teenagers around the country are leading the much-needed conversation on gun violence, some school districts are responding by vowing to punish them for exercising their first amendment rights.

A school district near Houston, TX, has come under fire for threatening to suspend students for "any type of protest or awareness" during school hours.

Needville Independent School District superintendent Curtis Rhodes wrote on Tuesday in a letter to families that students would be slapped with a three-day, out-of-school suspension if they participated in any of the nationwide walkouts or protests planned in the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

"Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative. We will discipline no matter if it is one, 50, or 500 students involved," Rhodes wrote. "All will be suspended for three days and parent notes will not alleviate the discipline."

Rhodes, a registered Republican according to public records obtained by The Washington Post, did not respond to a request for comment. Rhodes' office voicemail box  and the voicemail boxes of the rest of the administration  are now full. Needville High School's Facebook page, where the letter was also posted, is currently unavailable.

Scores of people on Twitter have been posting the Needville Independent School District's phone number and Rhodes' email. Some are calling for him to be fired and are encouraging teens to come out en masse despite the warnings.

A few students have made clear they aren't having it. "Needville wants to suspend me for three days because I want to walk out because I don't think it's fair that some idiot suspended 17 lives of someone that could've been me," one student tweeted. "But the best part of it all is that we're not delinquent kids just trying be rebellious. We're all the kids that have good grades and are involved in extracurricular events representing our school in the best way possible. Were the kids that have something to lose."After having her photo go viral, Anok Yai gained popularity on social media and now is a top model. (Photo: Instagram/Anok Yai)

Anok Yai decided to attend Howard Universitys 2017 homecoming, but little did she know that it would be a life-changing experience. After a photographer snapped her photo, the internet marveled over Yais immaculate beauty. Many declared that she needed to be signed by a top modeling agency ASAP. Thanks to social media and a growing fan base, Yai has not only become a sought-after model but also just became the second black model to open the Prada show.

Yahoo Lifestyle caught up with Yai back in October, and she revealed that she moved to the United States in 2000 and actually never modeled before. Ive always thought about modeling, Yai said. Its a dream that Ive wanted for a long time but always pushed to the side because of self-doubt and distractions from school. Now I see this dream as something a lot more obtainable.

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The 20-year-old also shared that she immediately started to receive offers after her photos went viral. However, she was keeping her options open before committing to anyone and confirmed that she wasnt going to ditch school for a modeling career.

Fast-forward to four months later and Yai has officially signed with Next Models, which has led to amazing gigs, such as opening Pradas Fall/Winter 2018 show. She shared a photo on Instagram from the runway with the caption: This is something that Id only dream of. The rising model also mentioned how she couldnt believe she was only the second black woman to open for Prada, after Naomi Campbell back in 1997.

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Fans continue to flood Yais post with admirable comments such as Loving the representation and My dear queen do it for black girls you are beautiful. To say the least, Yai is already making a huge name for herself, and shes on the right path toward success.

We will keep an eye out to see what other runway shows she slays this season. For now, keep scrolling to see some of her supermodel-in-the-making moments.

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Schools in the U.S. are receiving an average of 50 threats of violence every day compared with 10 per day at the end of 2017, NPR reported.

The Educator's School Safety Networkwhich tracks threats made against schoolssays it has recorded a sharp increase in the number of threats per day since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 17 people died.

Our research indicates that the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, is the latest of 81 school-based violent incidents and threats that have occurred in Florida just this school year, reads a statement on the networks website.

Trending: Strange Winter Weather: After 78-Degree Day in New York, Minnesota Might Get a Foot of Snow

Of the 81 threats and incidents that have occured in Florida this school year, 29 have happened in January and the first half of February alone.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School memorial

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Educator's School Safety Network mid-year report said there had been an average of one violent incident for every day of the school year so far, 105 in total. Almost half of these involved a gun being found or fired in a school. From August to December 2017, the group recorded 1,061 threats of violence against U.S. schools, at an average of 10.9 per day.

Don't miss: Putin Is Relishing the Mass Murder in East Ghouta

Violent threats or incidents have taken place in 48 of 50 states so far this school year. Just 10 states account for 48 percent of all threats and incidents that have occurred so far.

The organization listed its top five states of concern, which is headed by California where there has been a 62.5 percent increase in threats since 2016. Pennsylvania (14.7 percent increase), New York (33.3 percent increase), Florida (-3.3 percent decrease) and Illinois (44 percent increase) are the other four on the list.

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The report notes that the number of actual incidents would have been higher had authorities not been working to stop them. At least a dozen potential attacks (11.4 percent of all incidents) were identified between August and December of 2017. Many of these planned attacks were alarmingly close to actual implementation.

Most popular: Parkland, Fake News, Trump and Pence Headline Annual CPAC

The authors of the report also acknowledge it is highly unlikely that all violent incidents and threats were included in its dataset, expecting that many had not been reported or had been overlooked. Rather than undermining the findings, this potential under-reporting only seeks to emphasize the significance of the data found in the study, they argued.

Authorities fear that copy-cat attackers might have been inspired to carry out their own attacks by the Parkland shooting. A shooting in Southern California was thwarted On Wednesday after a staff member overheard a student saying his school will be shot up in three weeks. After police were informed, they searched the students house and found two AR-15 rifles, two handguns and 90 high-capacity magazines.

While talking to survivors of the Florida shooting on Wednesday, President Donald Trump suggested that up to 20 percent of all teachers should be armed to protect students against potential school shooters. The president also said he would be very strong on background checks and may open more mental hospitals.

Donald Trump holds a listening session with survivors of mass shootings

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekTashkent (AFP) - Uzbekistan has released an activist who was jailed for nearly 12 years after a bloody crackdown on protesters in the east of the country, rights groups said on Saturday.

Isroil Kholdarov, a human rights and political activist from Andijan, scene of a brutal crackdown on protesters, was freed from a jail in the capital Tashkent earlier this week, a member of the rights group Ezgulik said.

"He is well," Ezgulik's Abdurakhmon Tashanov told AFP.

"He wants to rest a while and undergo some health checks," he said, adding that Kholdarov planned to return to the eastern city of Andijan.

Kholdarov was a member of the Erk political party banned for its opposition to late Uzbek leader Islam Karimov and documented rights abuses in Andijan.

In 2005, the Uzbek government violently suppressed a popular uprising in Andijan, leaving hundreds dead, according to some estimates.

The bloody crackdown marked a watershed moment in the Central Asian country's descent into authoritarianism under Karimov.

Kholdarov initially escaped the country but was then brought back from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan in 2006 in circumstances his supporters likened to a kidnapping.

His six-year sentence was extended twice while he was in jail.

Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, called Kholdarov's release "a real moment of joy" but he also urged the Uzbek government to do more to break with the past.

"The government should move swiftly to end the practice of politically-motivated prosecutions and release all others held for peacefully exercising their freedom of expression," Swerdlow said in a statement.

"If the government is serious about changing the paradigm and moving beyond the dark Karimov legacy, jailing perceived critics has to become a thing of the past."

Kholdarov is the second prominent political prisoner released by Uzbekistan this month after journalist Dilmurod Said was freed after nearly a decade behind bars.

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Uzbekistan's leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was elected president in 2016 after serving as prime minister for 13 years, has moved to distance himself from Karimov's hardline policies.

Nevertheless, analysts do not expect Mirziyoyev to push through genuine political reforms that would lead to the emergence of a free press and political opposition.

Karimov, whose hardline rule spanned 27 years, died after a reported stroke aged 78 in September 2016.Fiesta Hermosa will be back for Labor Day weekend, but with a new local look, slightly different nameThis content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

Add another chapter in the Adam Rippon-Mike Pence saga.

Rippon, who won an Olympic bronze medal in the figure skating team event, had previously spoken out on Twitter against the Vice President after Pence was tapped to lead the U.S. delegation at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

In an interview with USA Today, Rippon said You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? Im not buying it.

The American had also turned down a phone call with Pence leading up to PyeongChang, which his office staunchly denied.

But on Friday, Rippon, who is openly gay, stated that with the competition now over, he was willing to talk with the Vice President.

Adam Rippon reacts following his routine during the mens free program. (AP)

I feel that Mike Pence doesnt stand for anything that I was taught when I grew up, and I think that its important if youre given the platform to speak up for those who dont have a voice, Rippon said in an interview with NBC

Rippon won a bronze in the team event and finished 10th in the mens event. Fellow Americans Nathan Chen and Vincent Zhou finished fifth and sixth respectively.

More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:

 Wetzel: Canadian hockey apologizes for taking off silver medal. She didnt need to.

 Casino outside Olympic site is meant for everyone but the South Korean people

 Russian bobsledder who wore anti-doping shirt just failed a doping test

 International movement to save dogs from South Korean meat farms gaining steam

 The shame in Shani Davis snubbing the media was that he didnt get to tell his incredible story

Television journalist Tahera Rahman is breaking barriers for Muslim women in America. The reporter has worked behind the scenes as a producer for years. However, earlier this month, Rahman transitioned to on-camera talent for Quad Cities WHBF-TV in Iowa. She is the first full-time hijab-wearing reporter in the United States.

Photo: Instagram

Growing up, Rahman always knew she wanted to be a journalist. She realized that achieving her goal was going to be difficult, especially because no one on TV news looked like her. But that didnt stop her from chasing her dream, the Des Moines Register reports.

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I live in America, and I was born and raised with the values of equality and democracy and hard work getting you to your dream, to the American dream, she said.

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Journalism is an extremely competitive field, and throughout her career, Rahman said she felt the pressure to remove her headscarf in order to fit in in the industry.

A small part of me feels like I am giving into the haters if I take it off, she said. Because thats the first thing people say is, Take that rag off your head and go back to where you came from.

I was born and raised here and I wear it, so I am where I belong, Rahman said. And you have to deal with it because this is my America, too.

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It was the 27-year-olds hard work and exceptional journalism skills that got her in front of the camera. After being a producer for the local station for two years, she had to apply for the multimedia journalist opening, like everyone else who wanted the job.

Mike Mickle, the stations news director, hired Rahman, but it was not because of her hijab. I dont care if Tahera is the first or the 30th or the 3,000th [hijabi reporter], shes been hired because she deserved the job, he said.

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Although Rahman is making history and paving the way for other American women who wear hijabs to become television news reporters, she hopes the focus will eventually shift from her hijab to the stories she shares as a journalist.

Story continues

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Florida's House of Representatives passed a bill that would require its schools to publicly display the states motto, In God We Trust. The vote comes one day after the legislature struck down a measure that would have banned semiautomatic guns and large capacity magazines.

In a 97 to 10 vote, the House affirmed HB 839, which requires that the motto should be displayed on public school building in a conspicuous place. While the bill would go into effect in July, the state Senate introduced its own version last month, which still needs a vote.

HB 839's sponsor, Representative Kimberly Daniels, a Jacksonville Democrat who also runs a ministry, discussed last weeks deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland during a Wednesday speech on the House floor.

Trending: Who Is Nirav Modi, the Wanted Billionaire Jewelry Maker Suspected in $1.8 Billion Bank Fraud?

Daniels told colleagues that the "real thing that needs to be addressed are issues of the heart," as she spoke about God and the importance of not politicizing the mass shootings.

On Tuesday, Parkland students loaded into buses and traveled 450 miles to their state capital in an effort to push state lawmakers for change. Their voices have reignited the national conversation on gun control.

We elected you to do things that we believe in. Now we believe in something, do it, Stoneman Douglas sophomore Daniel Bishop told NBC.

Outside legislature chambers on Wednesday, as lawmakers discussed HB 839, activists stumping for an end to school violence chanted Never again! and "Shame on you!"

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekOne of the two main suspects in the murder of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait this month has been arrested, Philippine authorities said Friday.

The murder of Joanna Demafelis prompted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to impose a departure ban for Filipinos planning to work in Kuwait, sparking a diplomatic flap between the two nations.

Duterte has vowed to bring justice to Demafelis' family, lashing out at the Gulf state and alleging Arab employers routinely rape Filipina workers, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.

The Philippines' foreign affairs department said Kuwait informed Manila on Thursday that Lebanese national Nader Essam Assaf was in custody in Lebanon for Demafelis' murder.

The 29-year-old Filipina's body, which allegedly showed signs of torture, was found inside a freezer in the abandoned apartment unit of the arrested suspect and his Syrian wife, who remains on the run.

"President (Duterte) welcomes the news that Nader Essam Assaf is now in the hands of authorities in Lebanon," Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Cayetano said in a statement.

"Assaf's arrest is a critical first step in our quest for justice for Joanna and we are thankful to our friends in Kuwait and Lebanon for their assistance."

Assaf and his wife have been the subject of an Interpol manhunt since Demafelis' body was found more than a year after her family reported her missing, the statement said.

Authorities say some 252,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, many as maids. They are among over two million Philippine nationals employed in the region, whose remittances are a lifeline to the Southeast Asian nation's economy.

About 10 million Filipinos work overseas and their treatment abroad is often a political issue at home.

Duterte this week sent a team of labour officials to Kuwait to seek greater protection for migrant workers.

The president has said he is considering expanding the deployment ban to other countries if Filipinos were found to suffer abuse there.People join together after a school shooting that killed 17 to protest against guns on 17 February 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A federal appeals court has ruled that the assault weapons banned by the state of Maryland are not protected under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Marylands ban on 45 kinds of assault weapons and 10-round magazines has been upheld.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia ruled: we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war.

Maryland had passed its law in the wake of the tragic 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut during which a gunman used an assault-style rifle to kill 20 children and six adults.

All fourteen judges of the court voted and Judge William Traxler wrote the dissenting opinion which said the court went "to greater lengths than any other court to eviscerate the constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear arms.

For a law-abiding citizen who, for whatever reason, chooses to protect his home with a semi-automatic rifle instead of a semi-automatic handgun, Maryland's law clearly imposes a significant burden on the exercise of the right to arm oneself at home, Mr Traxler wrote, adding that the court should have had a more thorough review of constitutionality.

Spokesperson Jennifer Baker for the National Rifle Association (NRA), the gun owner membership society with the powerful lobby over the US Congress told NBC News called the ruling absurd given that the assault-style weapon is the most popular rifle in America.

There are anywhere between five to 10 million AR-15 rifles in the US, one of the types of weapons banned by Maryland and the weapon used in the recent Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 14 children and three adults were killed on 14 February.

Judge Robert King had written the majority opinion and used the District of Columbia v. Heller case as precedent for the ruling.

According to Ms Baker, the courts ruling does take into account that in the previous case it was ruled that that the Second Amendment protects arms that are 'in common use at the time for lawful purposes like self-defence.'"

Story continues

Mr King wrote that the ruling was appropriate since these types of weapons had become synonymous with the slaughter, adding that assault-style weapons had been used in the December 2015 San Bernardino, California; the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in 2016; and the Las Vegas massacre in October 2017 - the deadliest shooting in modern US history where 58 people were killed.

"Simply put, the State has shown all that is required, the court ruled in upholding the Maryland ban to protect public safety.

There was a federal ban on assault weapons from 1994 to 2004, when the legislation was not renewed.Today in 5 Lines

Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed new fraud and money-laundering charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates. During a roundtable with state and local officials, President Trump defended the National Rifle Association and expanded on his proposal to arm teachers. In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said opportunists exploited last weeks mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, for political gain. The Pentagon is reportedly considering options that would allow Trump to replace National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. And a St. Louis grand jury indicted Missouri Governor Eric Greitens on one count of invasion of privacy.

Today on The Atlantic

Is This Time Different?: Over time, mass shootings have become increasingly normalized, but the CNN town hall on Wednesday may have been a sign of real change. (Vann R. Newkirk II)

The Potency of the AR-15: Heather Sher, a Florida radiologist, treated victims of the Parkland shooting, and noticed their injuries were different from other shooting victims': How could a gunshot wound have caused this much damage?

Can the ATF Ban Bump Stocks?: President Trumps suggestion that the agency ban the firearm accessories is more performative than meaningful. (Elaine Godfrey)

A Weak Cri de Coeur: While Freedom Caucus members were successful in pushing John Boehner out of the speakership in 2015, a coup against House leadership would likely fail today. (Elaina Plott)

Follow stories throughout the day with our Politics & Policy portal.

Recommended: What I Saw Treating the Victims From Parkland Should Change the Debate on Guns

Snapshot

Merritt Corrigan tends the Official Trump Store at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland. Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

What Were Reading

ICYMI: Here are the six most newsworthy statements Senator Marco Rubio made during the CNN town hall on Wednesday. (Daniella Diaz, CNN)

Americas Poison: Andrew Sullivan argues that the opioid epidemic is a product of American cultureand unless we resolve deeper social, cultural, and psychological problems, we wont be able to stop it. (New York)

Story continues

Recommended: Why Arming Educators Is a Bad Idea

A Fact of the Matter: In the wake of the Parkland shooting, President Trump suggested arming teachers. Doing so would come at a steep price. (Philip Bump, The Washington Post)

The Frat House of Representatives: Judging from the reel of nonstop unethicaland, in some cases, potentially illegalbehavior on display in the House this past year, Congresss ethical standards seem to have fallen. (John Bresnahan and Rachael Bade, Politico)

Visualized

Ranked: These are the 50 most powerful people in Trumps Washington. (GQ)

Question of the Week

On Tuesday, President Trump ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to propose regulations that would ban bump stocks, accessories that increase the firing rates of semi-automatic weapons. In the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, some have argued for a reinstatement of the nationwide ban on assault weapons, while others have suggested that the solution lies in improving access to mental-health care.

Do you want to see specific reforms from lawmakers to address mass shootings in the U.S.? If so, what reforms?

Share your response here, and well feature a few in Fridays Politics & Policy Daily.

-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey), Taylor Hosking (@Taylor__Hosking), and Lena Felton (@lenakfelton)

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.DHAKA (Reuters) - The Bangladesh police authority has freed all the foreign aid workers who had been detained near the city of Cox's Bazar after failing to show their passports, visas or work permits, a senior police official said on Saturday. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the elite force of the Bangladesh police, had on Friday detained 11 aid workers with a number of different non-government organizations (NGOs) and handed them over to local police. Mohammad Abul Khair, officer in charge of the police station in the Ukhiya sub-district, near Cox's Bazar, said two of the aid workers were from the United Kingdom, two were from Italy, and one each were from Turkey, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Brazil, Korea and Kenya. All of them were going to a refugees camp from Coxs Bazar by their own vehicles, but they could not produce their passport, visa or work permit, Khair told Reuters. All of them were freed later after their written undertaking that in future they will not visit any camp or will not come out without a valid passport or visa, Khair added. Nearly 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State and crossed into Bangladesh since August, when attacks on security posts by insurgents triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounts to ethnic cleansing. (Reporting by Serajul Quadir; Additional reporting by Nurul Islam; Editing by David Holmes)Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - German auto giant BMW said Friday it plans to build an electric version of its compact Mini in China, in a possible joint venture with local partner Great Wall.

The Munich-based group is in "advanced discussions" aimed at "a new joint venture in China", it said in a statement, adding that the two firms had signed a so-called letter of intent about the project.

If plans to build the Mini in China go ahead, it would be the first time the unmistakeable cars -- originally created by a British company -- have been built outside Europe.

But BMW and Great Wall have yet to agree on important details like where to build a factory and how much to invest.

China is the fourth-largest market for the Mini after Britain, the United States and Germany.

Some 35,000 were sold there in 2017, or around one in ten sales worldwide.

BMW follows a maxim that "production follows the market", making China ripe for investment in local manufacturing.

Reaching 560,000 units in 2017, Chinese sales of BMW-brand cars -- produced locally under a joint venture with carmaker Brilliance -- outweighed shipments in other major markets the United States and Germany combined.

"A similar growth strategy could accelerate development of the Mini brand significantly," BMW said.

It added that it would continue talks with Great Wall "without questioning BMW Group's commitment in the UK," where production of electric Minis is slated to begin at an Oxford plant next year.

The firm added that it would "further expand" its joint venture with Brilliance, but did not offer further details.Young women stand in front of a school in Maiduguri, Nigeria - AP

Nigerian officials have apologised after falsely claiming to have staged a dramatic rescue of a group of schoolgirls taken in a mass abduction by Boko Haram on Monday night.

Officials in northern Yobe State had claimed on Wednesday to have rescued at least 50 of the girls, in what they described as a "gallant" mission by the Nigerian army.

But late on Thursday night, they told families of the missing girls that there had in fact been no rescue at all, saying that the claims had been based on "unreliable" information from the security forces.

"We have now established that the information we relied on to make the statement was not credible," said Yobi state spokesman Abdullahi Bego. "The Yobe State government apologises for that."

The admission came amid claims from parents that four days after the initial kidnapping in the town of Dapchi, more than 100 girls remain unaccounted for. At least five parents who were present fainted with the shock upon being told at an official briefing that their daughters were still missing after all.

Boko Haram oppression in Nigeria, in pictures

One parent, Kundiri Alhaji Bukar, told BBC Hausa language service: ''[The governor] said soldiers were dispatched but the military commander told him they could not locate the girls with the Boko Haram militants. He said no-one is really sure whether the girls were taken away by Boko Haram. But we on our part, we believe Boko Haram abducted the children."

The backtracking by the Yobe state officials comes amid growing concerns about the government's handling of the incident. When reports of the attack on the school first surfaced earlier this week, officials initially claimed there had been no abductions at all, and that the missing girls had simply fled to surrounding villages.

Critics have drawn comparisons with the government's handling of the notorious Chibok school abduction case in 2014, where officials likewise made a series of denials and contradictory statements before admitting that some 276 children had gone missing.

Story continues

As of Friday morning there was still no solid information on the number of girls believed to be missing. While some are thought to have been abducted, others may have fled to safety in surrounding villages and simply not yet contacted their parents. Mobile phone reception is limited in much of Nigeria's remote rural north.

Sandals are strewn in the yard of the Government Girls Science and Technical College staff quarters in Dapchi, Nigeria, on February 22, 2018 Credit: AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images

On Wednesday, government officials told the Reuters news agency that around 50 girls were still missing. But one parent, Bashir Manzo, told the Associated Press news agency that parents had presented the state governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, with a list of 101 missing children at Thursday's official briefing.

[Mr Gaidam] told us the girls have not been found and we should continue to pray for their safe return, another parent, Rabiu Sani, told the AP.

The flow of official misinformation over the case is likely anger President Muhamamdu Buhari, who was critical of his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan's handling of the Chibok case. Earlier this week, he despatched a team of ministers to the area in an attempt to demonstrate that he was responding quickly to the situation.

I share the anguish of all the parents and guardians of the girls that remain unaccounted for, Mr Buhari tweeted on Wednesday evening. I would like to assure them that we are doing all in our power to ensure the safe return of all the girls.Companies are cutting ties with the National Rifle Association after Parkland students and gun control activists called for an end to their support.

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The hashtag #BoycottNRA topped Twitter's trends in the United States on Friday as a cybersecurity firm, six car rental companies, an insurance corporation, and a bank ended their partnerships with the NRA.

SEE ALSO: Parkland shooting survivors call for a march on Washington, D.C.

Companies like Enterprise Rent-A-Car and MetLife previously offered discounts to NRA members, but have now terminated those programs. Although the companies didn't acknowledge #BoycottNRA in their announcements or take a stance on gun control, many did cite social media backlash as a reason to end their partnerships.

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A spokesperson from the First National Bank of Omaha told the New York Times that "customer feedback" was a leading cause for the company to not renew their NRA Visa Card program.

First National Bank of Omaha was one of the first companies to terminate their affiliation with the NRA.

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In only a few hours, several more companies reportedly jumped ship, including Hertz and Norton.

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The move away from the NRA comes after the deadly massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. Grieving students who survived the shooting have become passionate advocates for tighter gun control laws, and are leading the effort to end NRA-affiliated discounts.

David Hogg, one of the Parkland students, asked FedEx why it hasn't cut ties with the organization yet.

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Amazon is also under pressure to end its relationship with the NRA. The e-commerce giant's streaming service carries NRATV, a show that recently published a controversial video claiming that "the mainstream media loves mass shootings."

The hashtag #StopNRAmazon is picking up steam on Twitter, as once loyal customers threaten to cancel their Prime memberships.

Story continues

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Amazon and the NRA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, who faced Parkland survivors during CNN's town hall on Wednesday, has not released a statement about #BoycottNRA.

Two more major brands responded on Saturday morning. Both Delta Airlines and United Airlines issued statements noting that they'll be ending their group travel arrangements with the NRA.

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Faced with a continuing exodus of corporate support, the NRA released a statement on Saturday afternoon. Here it is in full:

UPDATED Feb. 23, 9:02 p.m. EST with companies ending relationships with the NRA.

UPDATED Feb. 24, 11:20 a.m. EST with tweets from Delta and United.

UPDATED Feb. 24, 5:48 p.m EST with the NRA's official statement.

Adam Rosenberg contributed reporting to this story.Brendan Fraser became the latest actor to speak out about his own #MeToo experience this week as Hollywood continues to address its problems with sexual assault and harassment.

In an interview with GQ published Thursday, Fraser said that he was groped in 2003 by Philip Berk, a former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that hosts the Golden Globes. The incident took place at a luncheon hosted by the association, and Fraser alleges that when Berk reached out to shake his hand, the man instead grabbed Frasers butt.

His left hand reaches around, grabs my ass cheek, and one of his fingers touches me in the taint. And he starts moving it around, Fraser told GQ, adding that he felt overwhelmed with panic and fear.

Fraser then said he removed Berks hand and immediately left the event.

I felt ill. I felt like a little kid. I felt like there was a ball in my throat. I thought I was going to cry, he told the magazine.

The actor said he told his then-wife, Afton Smith, about the incident, but did not speak publicly about it until this week. I didnt want to contend with how that made me feel, or it becoming part of my narrative, he told GQ.

Berk, who is still a member of the HFPA, told the magazine that Frasers version of events is a total fabrication and has previously denied grabbing the actor to the New York Times. He also wrote about the incident in his memoir, according to People, but Berk said he pinched Fraser in jest.

After the 2003 luncheon, Frasers representatives asked the HFPA for an apology, and Berk confirmed to GQ that he did write one. However, he said the note did not admit anything. My apology admitted no wrongdoing, the usual If Ive done anything that upset Mr. Fraser, it was not intended and I apologize, he told the magazine.

Fraser said the incident led to him becoming depressed and messed with his sense of who I was and what I was doing. He also said it affected the trajectory of his career.

After the GQ story was published, the HFPA responded saying that it was investigating the incident.

The HFPA stands firmly against sexual harassment and the type of behavior described in this article, the association said in a statement, according to People. Over the years weve continued a positive working relationship with Brendan, which includes announcing Golden Globe nominees, attending the ceremony and participating in press conferences. This report includes alleged information that the HFPA was previously unaware of and at this time we are investigating further details surrounding the incident.- AFP or licensors

Britain and its Western allies on Thursday urged Russia to support calls for a ceasefire in Syria and an end to the "brutal and merciless" assault on Eastern Ghouta, which has killed more than 400 civilians over five days of intense bombardment.

As Russian and Syrian regime warplanes continued to pummel the rebel-held suburb of Damascus, world powers gathered at the UN Security Council in New York for an emergency meeting to discuss ways to end the killing.

The UK, US, and France called on Russia not to veto a resolution which would establish a 30-day nationwide ceasefire between Syrian rebel and regime forces and allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Eastern Ghouta and the evacuation of the wounded.

I am utterly appalled by the brutal and merciless violence that the Assad regime is inflicting on the people of Eastern Ghouta. They are enduring a hell entirely of the making of Assad and his enablers, said Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary.

The UK will press Russia to support a ceasefire to allow for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid. Protecting Syrians and getting them the lifesaving aid they need must be paramount.

It was not immediately clear when the council would vote on the resolution but diplomats were engaged in intense negotiations to try to craft the measure in such a way that Russia would not veto it.

A wounded Syrian child lies at a makeshift clinic Credit: AMMAR SULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images

Moscow has blocked several previous UN resolutions in the last seven years to shield its Syrian regime allies from international criticism.

Russia said it was prepared to consider the resolution as long as it made clear that any ceasefire agreement did not apply to either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. The resolution that is on the table, we are ready to look at it, but we have offered very precise phrasing, said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.

Russia told the UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon there is no agreement yet on the resolution and that it was demanding several amendments.

Story continues

Russia has often broadly accused the Islamist rebels fighting against the Assad regime of being members of al-Qaeda, an accusation that has derailed previous ceasefire efforts.

More than 400 civilians have been killed in the bombardment of Eastern Ghouta since Sunday Credit: AMER ALMOHIBANY/AFP/Getty Images

Several Western diplomats said they believed Russia would ultimately veto the resolution irrespective of any concessions made.

"If everyone in this chamber were to commit unequivocally [to the resolution] today it could have an impact on the ground," Jonathan Allen, the deputy British ambassador, told the UN council.

"It could save the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children being killed as we speak today in this chamber."

The UN security council gathered in New York as the bombing continued in Eastern Ghouta Credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

The resolution is being authored by Kuwait and Sweden. Olof Skoog, the Swedish UN ambassador, pleaded for a quick vote. "There has to be a decision very, very soon. People are dying," he said.

As the diplomats gathered in the UNs Manhattan headquarters, the streets of Eastern Ghouta continued to shake with the blasts of bombs and the roar of aircraft overhead. Anyone living in Eastern Ghouta is here waiting for death, said Omran Dumani as he sheltered in a basement with his family.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said 403 civilians had been killed since the bombardment began on Sunday, including 95 children. Activists said that more than 100 strikes were carried out by jets and helicopters on top of intensive artillery bombardment.

A video widely circulated on social media showed a father picking his sons body off the back of a truck, where it lay wrapped in a white shroud alongside several other corpses. The man wept as he rocked his dead child back and forth.

Bassem, an anesthetist at one Eastern Ghoutas beleaguered hospitals, said he and others in the besieged enclave had long ago stopped paying attention to what happened at the UN.

All the people in Ghouta will tell you the same thing: the international community has abandoned us. There is no humanity in the world because if there were then we would not be in this situation, he said.A Canadian Olympian might have gone a little too far in his post-Olympic celebrations in PyeongChang.

According to multiple reports, freestyle skier Dave Duncan, his wife Maja, and ski cross director Willy Raine were arrested in South Korea early Saturday morning after allegedly stealing a red Hummer.

The Canadian Olympic Committee confirmed that an incident involving police had occurred, but declined to offer further details.

Raine, according to police, was behind the wheel and allegedly had a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit.

The three were reportedly released after the arrest, but, per CBC, have been restricted from leaving South Korea for the time being.

Per Yonhap News Agency, Duncan and the others stole the car after a night of drinking. The car had been left running. The group was tracked down approximately an hour after the theft, after driving to the Olympic village.

We are deeply sorry, Dave and Maja said in a joint statement released on Saturday night. We engaged in behaviour that demonstrated poor judgement and was not ip to the standards expected of us as Members of the Canadian Olympic Team or Canadians.

Raines blood-alcohol content, per police, was 0.16. The legal limit in the United States is 0.08. The legal limit in South Korea is 0.05.

I would like to apologize profusely for my inexcusable actions, Raine said in a statement. Words are not enough to express how sorry I am. I have let down my teammates, friends and family down. I would also like to apologize to the owner of the vehicle that was involved.

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO Chris Overholt said at a news conference Saturday that Duncan, his wife and Raine are cooperating with authorities, and we take this matter, of course, very, very seriously.

The Korean police have concluded their investigation and our team members have been released, Overholt said in a statement. We expect our athletes and team members to conduct themselves responsibly and in keeping with our Canadian and Olympic values. We are deeply disappointed in the behaviours in these individuals. All team members are expected to respect the laws of South Korea and all places we compete in around the world.

Story continues

      

Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!Everyone experiences hardships from time to time  whether they be friendship dramas, boyfriend scandals, or job-related challenges. The Morning Breaths Jackie and Claudia Oshry generously devote time every week to guide their viewers as they overcome any predicament  big or small, trivial or consequential.

This week on Dear Breathers, a young social media manager struggles with the irrational demands of her clueless boss, while another employee battles with the debilitating stench of a neighboring colleague.

First up, a viewer writes in to vent about her work-life balance, or lack thereof. While completely pleasant and amiable, this particular Breathers boss is oblivious when it comes to her high expectations of her subordinate. Midnight phone calls, unproductive three-hour meetings, and disorganization are contributing to the viewers overall stress and poor quality of life. How can she implement a normal work schedule without rocking the boat with her boss?

In this situation, a simple sit-down with her supervisor would be the most mature, and perhaps effective, route to take. She should simply explain, I work from 9 to 5. If you cant finish whatever business you have to attend to, then itll have to wait till tomorrow, advises Claudia.

Or suggest different payment options, Jackie says. Perhaps being paid hourly will ease the burden of midnight calls.

She should ask her supervisor what her responsibilities are on a day-to-day basis, because obviously shes going above and beyond, says guest co-host and sister Olivia Oshry. If youre going to put yourself in that situation, make it work for you, she adds.

All in all, no one knows the job better than you do, so if youre experiencing this, simply find a plan that caters to both your bosss needs and your own needs for a solid work-life balance.

On to a far worse work situation: A long-time company employee has been moved to the basement of her office, only to be trapped with the stinkiest colleague around. While the occasional lapse of deodorant is acceptable, Peggys consistent hygiene issues are frankly intolerable for her neighboring co-workers, and measures need to be taken.

Story continues

HR has declined involvement because the situation is too uncomfortable, while the smelly colleague hasnt taken hints from the new air fresheners lining the hallway. Wanting to solve the problem without hurting Peggys feelings, the Breather needs advice on how to make everyones work experience more pleasant, or at least livable.

How do I tell this nice, clueless lady that she reeks? asks the viewer.

First of all, Claudia encourages her to walk back up to HR and demand that they reopen the issue of the stench: What are you being paid for? Thats literally HRs job.

Or, theres someone that will do it, and they need to be found as soon as possible. Theres just one person whos ruthless and will do it, and you just need to find that person in your office, advises Claudia.

Theres no way to go about this in a delicate way, sympathizes Jackie. I wouldnt do a thing about it.

Ultimately, she should take inventory of her job and decide whether this problem is a solvable one. If so, she should find the ruthless soul willing to lay down the deodorant. If not, she should stock up on Febreze until her next job comes around.

If you want a chance to have Claudia and Jackie answer your questions live on air, email DearBreathers@gmail.com.Laura Moser, a Democratic candidate for Texas' 7th Congressional District, is facing a spate of opposition research released by her own party. (Photo: Michael Stravato/for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A Democratic candidate running for Congress has attracted the opposite of an endorsement from her own party: A full-throated denouncement declaring her unfit for office.

Laura Moser, a U.S. House candidate from Texas 7th Congressional District, is one of seven Democrats running to unseat incumbent Rep. John Culberson (R). Her campaign has already garnered significant support, raising nearly $150,000 this year. But on Thursday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee came out swinging against Mosers bid, posting links that resemble opposition research meant to undermine her campaign, which some have called too liberal for whats expected to be a contentious election.

Voters in Houston have organized for over a year to hold Representative Culberson accountable and win this Clinton district, Meredith Kelly, communications director for the DCCC, said in a statement provided to HuffPost. Unfortunately, Laura Mosers outright disgust for life in Texas disqualifies her as a general election candidate, and would rob voters of their opportunity to flip Texas 7th in November.

Kelly then linked to a quote from a November 2014 article in which Moser said shed rather have her teeth pulled without anesthesia than live in the town of Paris, Texas, where her grandparents once resided. The DCCC, did not, however, provide context to the quote or note that Paris doesnt fall in the congressional district that Moser would represent if elected.

An email to the DCCC about the lack of context was not immediately answered.

Moser appeared to address the DCCCs move on Twitter late Thursday with a simple post referencing former first lady Michelle Obama.

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She expanded on her tweet later that day in a statement to the Texas Tribune, saying it was disappointing to hear the critiques.

These kind of tactics are why people hate politics, Moser told the news site. The days where party bosses picked the candidates in their smoke filled rooms are over. DC needs to let Houston vote.

Story continues

Moser, a journalist based in Houston, is the founder of Daily Action, a text-alert calling system meant to energize fellow progressives to take political action themselves. Her campaign website lists her support for a bevy of progressive causes, including single-payer health care, paid parental leave and campaign finance reform.

She spent several years living in Washington, D.C., before returning to Texas, a point the DCCC has leveraged to call the candidate a Washington insider.

The 7th Congressional District includes parts of West Houston and was carried by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. But the area is a traditional stronghold for Republican voters, and the 2018 race is shaping up to be one of the most contentious in the next election.

Other groups have come out against the DCCCs statement, including Democracy for America, which has long supported Mosers bid.

Laura Moser is a fifth-generation Houstonian building a genuine grassroots campaign in her home community and, while that might not get the Republican-lite cheerleaders at the DCCC their sweet consulting gigs after this cycle, its exactly the kind of campaign we need to win this critical race and retake the House in November, Annie Weinberg, the electoral director for the group, said in a statement.

But the DCCC isnt alone in its opposition to Moser. EMILYs List, a political action committee that works to help elect female Democrats, declined to endorse the candidate and instead threw its support behind another woman, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, in November.

Moser has been critical of the move, telling The Intercept that, rather than lifting us both up, EMILYs List has pitted us against each other.

I knew as a progressive, pro-choice woman running in Texas, I would face obstacles. I never dreamed EMILYs List would be one of them, she said.

Moser is set to host actress Alyssa Milano during a get-out-the-vote event this weekend.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.A man was allegedly somehow able to slip from his cuffs while inside an Ohio police station before cops say he fled, and it's all on surveillance video.

Police in Brooklyn, Ohio, say James Hlavsa is the man seen in surveillance footage, first as he speaks to a woman who was also under arrest and chained to a bench.

But as the man on the tape talks, he also appears to be wriggling about and soon it appears clear that he was getting out of his restraints.

In footage from a second camera, the suspect, now free, can be seen fleeing the building.

Cops say Hlavsa currently has a warrant for escape as well as several others from other departments. Prior to the escape, cops say he was arrested on a shoplifting charge.

As of Thursday afternoon, police confirmed to InsideEdition.com that Hlavsa remains on the loose.

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Related Articles:In Asia, women are 32% of fund managers in the industry. Thats more than double the number in the United States.

When Tina Byles Williams, the chief executive and chief investment officer of FIS Group, traveled to China she was stunned, not as much by the culture or the food or the Great Wall, but by the number of women she met in financial services.

The 30-year financial veteran was shocked by the number of female presidents, CEOs, fund managers and other corporate leaders she met during her stay.

I kept asking, Well, how come theres so many of you? Byles Williams recalled of her trip to China where she flew to meet with international clients.

Women have a bigger presence in Asias fund management business

Asia has by far the highest representation of women in asset management, comprising 32% of portfolio managers, according to the most recent study by management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. That number may not seem particularly impressive, but its more than double the global average.

In China, female managers run nearly a quarter (24.2%) of mutual funds, according to Chinese financial data research firm Wind Info. Just 2% of mutual funds in the United States are managed exclusively by women, according to a report by data provider Morningstar.

The presence of such a high number of women in top financial positions was understandably surprising for Byles Williams. When discussing the number of women in top positions on Wall Street, words like abysmal, pathetic and sad are frequent. And for good reason. Among U.S.-based firms, women represent just 10% of fund managers, Morningstar found in its most recent assessment.

FIS Group chief executive and chief investment officer Tina Byles Williams

The number of funds that have at least one woman as a manager is higher with U.S. equity funds and fixed income funds showing that 19.7% of funds have a female manager on the team. The problem is those numbers havent moved in 15 years.

Morningstars data tracks back to 2003, when exactly 19.7% of U.S. equity and fixed income funds had at least one woman manager on the team.

North America has a legacy boys club

Its a legacy issue, said Sandra Ackermann-Schaufler, emerging markets senior portfolio manager at investment firm SEI. Ackermann-Schaufler previously worked as a fund manager in Germany and noted that the situation in the Americas is also worse for women than in Europe, an observation backed by research from Oliver Wyman.

Story continues

I just think the U.S. and Canada have been two markets where the fund management industry is still a boys club. The boys still dont want to let women in.

Emerging markets have a different kind of legacy

The one place that has seen growth in the number of female fund managers is emerging market funds. The number of mutual funds with a woman as one of its managers increased from 24.8% in January 2003 to 31.3% of fund managers as recently as June 2017. Where only 10% of U.S. fund managers are women, for emerging market funds, its 13%, Morningstar data shows.

The orange line shows the percentage of emerging markets funds with at least one woman manager (0.10 = 10%). The blue line shows the percentage of U.S. funds with at least one woman manager between January 2003 and May 2017. Data courtesy of Morningstar.

Byles Williams surmises that the large number of women running emerging markets (EM) funds has much to do with the legacy issue.

[Emerging markets] werent considered serious, she said. If you wanted to be a real player on Wall Street, running an emerging markets fund [or other specialized fund] would not have been a natural career path.

Emerging markets rarely make up more than 10% to 20% of assets at major American financial firms. The thinking goes, said one fund manager who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the subject, EM isnt a big money item, so give that to the junior people, the ladies.

Fund management is a newer industry in China and much of Asia, and as such has a skills shortage, which creates more opportunities for women to move forward in their careers, surveys from Chinese newspaper China Daily found. The industry also lacks much of the legacy prestige it has in the United States, creating fewer barriers of entry for women.

On the other hand, relegating women to supposedly less prestigious positions has opened up opportunities in a growing market that is becoming more important and generating sizeable returns.

Emerging markets funds returned 35.2% in 2017 compared to 19.8% returns for U.S. diversified equity funds, according to data from Thomson Reuters Lipper analyzed by Yahoo Finance. EM has underperformed U.S. diversified equities over the past decade, though, returning an average of 14.89% vs. 17.08% since 2009. But that also creates an opportunity for active managers to set themselves apart from competition.

Women are starting to recognize where theres growth for them and where theres not, said Jeanne Branthover, managing partner at recruitment firm DHR International EM is an area that is different; its an area that is changing and making changes in the broader landscape and growing.

A chart showing the growth of emerging markets funds vs U.S. diversified equity funds since 2009.

Today the number of actively managed emerging market funds has grown at more than double the pace of U.S. equity and fixed income funds. Data from Lipper found that since 2009 the number of EM funds has increased by 92%, while the number of U.S. equity funds has risen just 7.6% and the number of taxable fixed income funds increased by 33.6%.

Women are getting very smart as to opportunity and where it is, Branthover said.



Dion Rabouin is a markets reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @DionRabouin.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.A Delta Airlines planes taxis at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia: DANIEL SLIM/AFP/Getty Images

A major American airline has stopped giving discounts to members of the National Rifle Association, joining a slew of companies that have cut ties with the gun-rights lobbying group in the wake of a Florida school shooting.

Delta Airlines announced on Twitter that they would be ending the NRA's contract for discounted rates through their group travel program. They also asked the group to remove all information on the airline from their website.

On Saturday morning, the NRA's annual meetings site still stated that they had contracted special flight discounts with United Airlines and Delta Airlines for members attending the their annual meetings and exhibits.

"By booking your itinerary with United Airlines for Delta Airlines, you will receive up to 2-10% off their online airfares," the site said.

At least seven major US companies have severed ties with the NRA in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 children and three adults were killed by a gunman with an assault rifle. The pro-gun group has become a focal point for those advocating for stricter gun control and more action from politicians since the shooting.

Student survivor Emma Gonzales said she wanted the organisation to "dismantle," telling CNN: "They are against the people who are dying. And there's no other way to put it at this point. You are either funding the killers or you are standing with the children."

Classmate David Hogg urged more companies to end their partnerships with the NRA on Twitter, using the hashtag #NRABoycott.

Car rental companies like Enterprise and Hertz, and moving companies like Allied Van Lines and NorthAmerican Van Lines have all ended partnerships with the organisation amid the backlash.

NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre defended the organisation this week in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, claiming that gun-control advocates wanted to "get rid of the second amendment" and make Americans "less free".

Story continues

They dont care if their laws work or not, he said. "They just want get more laws to get more control over people."

President Donald Trump also defended the organisation on Twitter, saying their employees were "great people and great American patriots" who would "do the right thing".

The president has suggested several gun control measures that put him at odds with the organisation, including raising the minimum age for assault rifle purchases and expanding background checks. He has also suggested arming teachers in order to discourage school shooters.Donald Trump has declared that he has had the most successful first year in the history of the presidency  and finally admitted he has a bald patch.finally

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, the US President also drew attention to his own bald spot in what many described as a freewheeling speech.

Before launching into the speech, Mr Trump admired himself on the big screen, telling the audience: What a nice picture that is. Look at that. I would love to watch that guy speak.

He went on to draw attention to his hairline, saying: Oh, boy. Oh, I try like hell to hide that bald spot, folks. I work hard at it. Doesnt look bad. Hey, were hanging in. Were hanging in. Were hanging in there, right? Together were hanging in.

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After declaring that some of his prepared comments were sort of boring, the President launched into a speech that included praise of his own first year as President, citing tax cuts and changed to regulations as some of his major achievements.

He also spoke about immigration and his promised Mexico wall as well as launching an attack on the Democrats and Hillary Clinton and quoting the snake poem that he often read on the campaign trail during the 2016 presidential race.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

Despite his promises to take action on guns in the wake of the Florida shooting, Mr Trump said that making schools gun-free zones would put students in far more danger.

It was Donald Trumps second appearance as President at the Conservative Political Action Conference, held just outside Washington in Maryland.Because ethics concerns and criticism mounted ahead of Donald Trump Jr.s foreign policy speech at a business conference in India, summit organizers decided to change its title.

Instead of Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The Era of Cooperation, as it was originally billed, the presidents eldest son's talk on Friday evening is now called Fireside Chat With Donald Trump Jr., Executive Vice President, the Trump Organization.

The initial title, and the visit in general, drew backlash from some politicians and ethics watchdogs, because they suspect that Trump Jr. would mix his fathers politics with business during the weeklong visit. In fact, the executive is also selling Trump-branded luxury condos in India.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be featured at the summit.

Related: Donald Trump Jr. called Russian interference 'disgusting' and 'so phony' while allegedly colluding

I am concerned that Mr. Trumps speech will send the mistaken message that he is speaking on behalf of the president, the administration or the United States government, not as a private individual, or that he is communicating official American policy, Senator Robert Menendez, a ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi earlier this week.

Don't miss: NRA Lobbyist Writes Florida's Gun Laws, Can Ruin Careers of Those Who Dissent: Report

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Earlier in the week, Indian newspaper ads said that real estate buyers who signed up early for Trump-branded condos outside New Delhi would get a conversation and dinner with Trump Jr.

"These advertisements brazenly suggest that people can purchase access to the son of the president of the United States," Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told CNN. "An instance where the president's decision-making may end up being influenced by those who support his businesses."

Story continues

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White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told The Washington Post on Thursday that government resources were not being used on Trump Jr.s trip.

Donald Trump Jr. is a private individual, and neither the State Department nor the White House has provided any support for this trip beyond coordinating with his Secret Service protection, she said.

The Trump Organization, which has been run by Trump Jr. and his brother Eric since the president was sworn in, has five ventures in India, the companys largest number of projects outside the U.S.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Alissa de Carbonnel and Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - International donors pledged half a billion dollars for a multinational military operation in West Africa's Sahel region on Friday, as Europe seeks to stop migrants and militants reaching its shores.

At a conference of about 50 countries including the United States, Japan and Norway, countries pledged 414 million euros ($509 million) for the G5 Sahel force, made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

"The number of countries who participated today in the conference gives a signal of the importance," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan told reporters.

The European Union, which believes training local forces will allow it to avoid risking the lives of its own combat troops, doubled its contribution to 116 million euros.

The pledges should allow the force, which has had difficulty raising funds, to be fully operational this year.

As violence has spiked, concerns have grown that the region could be a springboard for attacks on the West.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged donors to provide the funds quickly, while African leaders said the money pledged so far would only cover the first year of operations.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, the region's former colonial power with 4,000 troops in the region, said it would continue its own offensive alongside the G5 Sahel force.

GROWING THREAT

Islamist militants took over northern Mali in 2012 before French forces pushed them back in 2013, alerting Washington and others to the growing threat in the region.

The United States, the largest donor in Mali, has 800 troops in Niger, where four U.S. soldiers died in October, but global awareness of the vast desert region's importance for security remains low.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy struggled to name the five countries of Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania as he arrived at the conference.

Story continues

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the pledges showed the EU's commitment: "We cannot only start to fight illegal migration in Libya. We have to start in Mali, Niger, Chad. All of Europe is involved," she said, standing with Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

The G5 Sahel operation, whose command centre is in central Mali, is to swell to 5,000 personnel and will also carry out humanitarian and development work.

About 350,000 people travelled through Niger alone in 2017, mostly hoping to reach Europe but some trying to return home, according to the Red Cross.

"MIGRATE OR DIE"

Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said many young people in the Sahel felt they had only two options: to die in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe or to die at the hands of militants.

"We have to act resolutely to change the face of the Sahel region or risk seeing this region of the world fall irreversibly into chaos and violence," he told the conference, after asking leaders and ministers to stand for a moment of silence for two French soldiers killed this week in Mali.

Issoufou said the force would need around 115 million euros a year, and urged the West to take the fight against militants as seriously as it has taken the threat in Iraq and Syria.

Pledges have also come from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

France is set to spend 1.2 billion euros on development in the region over the next five years, a 40 percent increase over current levels, while other countries are expected to provide more aid for farmers, schools and water projects.

The European Union is investing 8 billion euros in development aid in the region, according to EU data.

($1 = 0.8132 euros)

(Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Kevin Liffey)By Mohammed Mukhashaf ADEN (Reuters) - At least 14 people were killed and 40 wounded when Islamist car suicide bombers and gunmen tried to storm the headquarters of a counter-terrorism unit in the southern port city of Aden on Saturday, security and medical sources said. Islamic State, in a statement carried by its Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility for what it described as two "martyrdom operations" targeting the camp in Tawahi district in south-western Aden. The agency provided no immediate evidence for the claim. Security sources said two suicide bombers detonated two cars laden with explosives at the camp's entrance while six gunmen tried to storm the facility. They were all killed by guards and their bodies taken to a military hospital, a medical source told Reuters. Aden police said in a statement on its Facebook page that security forces had foiled a major attack on the camp. "All the ... terrorists were liquidated immediately before they could reach the outer gate of the anti-terrorism headquarters," a police statement said. Security sources and medics said three security men, a woman and two children died in the attack, while 40 other people, many of them civilians, were wounded. The attack was the first of its kind in southern Yemen since gun battles erupted in January between southern separatists and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government over control of the city. Aden is the temporary capital of Yemens internationally recognized Hadi government, which is now operating out of Saudi Arabia. Backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition, Hadi's government has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement since 2015 in a war that has driven the country to the verge of famine. Residents described two large explosions in the area that sent up a cloud of gray smoke while ambulances raced to evacuate the wounded. In a statement carried by the state-run Saba news agency, Hadi described the attack as a "cowardly act aimed to destabilize security in the temporary capital ... but it will not dissuade people from their will to achieve security, safety and decent living." Al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited the war in Yemen to carry out assassinations and bombings, mostly in lawless southern Yemeni areas nominally controlled by the government. (Reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaf; Writing by Sami Aboudi and Marwa Rashad; Editing by William Maclean and David Holmes)Brussels (AFP) - EU President Donald Tusk warned Poland on Friday against "anti-semitic excesses" and other behaviour that risked ruining Warsaw's global standing.

Tusk, a former Polish premier, said he had told Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels that negative opinions about Warsaw were turning into a "tsunami".

"I told Mr Morowiecki that the situation is very serious, it directly affects Polish interests, the reputation of Poland and Poland's standing in the world," Tusk said when a Polish journalist asked him about tensions with the EU.

Tusk said there was a "wave that must be stopped... of very unjudicious anti-semitic excesses in statements being made in Poland."

Poland's right-wing government has faced an international row over a law making it illegal to attribute Nazi crimes to the Polish state.

Morawiecki then fanned the flames by saying there were "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones in the Holocaust.

Brussels has also taken Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) government to task in recent years over controversial justice reforms, breaches of environmental law and its failure to take in refugees.

Speaking in Polish through an interpreter, Tusk told Warsaw to "stop the wave of bad opinions about Poland... This wave is taking on the proportion of a tsunami."

"The government has the wherewithal to stop both of these waves if it has the will," Tusk said, recalling all what ex-communist Poland has achieved since joining the European Union in 2004.Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than two million euros ($2.5 million) to lobby for Ukraine's then-leader backed by Russia, US prosecutors have claimed.

The charges, lodged in a Washington federal court by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday, said Manafort retained the so-called Hapsburg Group of onetime politicians to "take positions favourable to Ukraine, including by lobbying the United States."

The group, which operated from 2012-2013, was managed by an unnamed "former European chancellor," who along with other members of the group lobbied US legislators and White House officials, the indictment alleged.

They were to "appear to be providing their independent assessments of government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine," according to the indictment.

Manafort, 68, has been accused by the team investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he did for Viktor Yanukovych from 2006-2014.

Austrian media reported that the former European chancellor in question was Alfred Gusenbauer, the country's leader from 2007-8.

Gusenbauer on Saturday denied to the Austria Press Agency and to public radio that he had conducted any such lobbying work, however, adding that he had never heard of the Hapsburg Group.

"I met Manafort two times I think... but I had nothing to do with Paul Manafort's activities in Ukraine or with Yanukovych's Party of Regions and his activities in the US," Gusenbauer, 58, told radio station Oe1.

- 'Highly personal relationship' -

Yanukovych served as Ukraine's president from 2010 until he was ousted in 2014 as a result of a popular uprising.

After that, Manafort stopped working for him, eventually returned to the United States and, in 2016, joined Trump's presidential election campaign.

Story continues

Backed by Moscow, Yanukovych was eyed suspiciously at the time in much of Europe for his pro-Russia stance and widespread accusations of deep corruption.

Manafort is believed to have been behind Yanukovych's spectacular political comeback after huge protests dubbed the Orange Revolution overturned his fraud-tainted victory in 2004.

With Manafort's help Yanukovych's Party of Regions won parliamentary elections in 2006 and in 2010 he beat rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a presidential poll.

Yanukovych's allies say that the shrewd political strategist had enormous influence over him.

A report in the Atlantic magazine said the two men developed a "highly personal relationship" and even swam naked together outside Yanukovych's bathhouse.

Yanukovych currently lives in Russia and is wanted in Ukraine for high treason.

The Hapsburg Group was meant to "act informally and without any visible relationship" to the Ukraine government, a memorandum written by Manafort in June 2012 read.

While the latest indictment did not charge Manafort with any crime specifically tied to the Hapsburg Group, those activities were cited to show Manafort had been actively lobbying for Ukraine and had allegedly broken laws by not registering as such in the United States.

- Ukraine wants to cooperate -

In Kiev, Ukrainian prosecutors said Saturday they wanted to cooperate with Washington over Manafort.

Sergiy Gorbatyuk, head of special investigations at the General Prosecutor's Office, said Ukrainian prosecutors would be sending a letter to Mueller in the coming days.

"We want to understand how they will be cooperating with us," Gorbatyuk told AFP. "We have criminal proceedings under way where we are looking into Paul Manafort's activities," he added.

"The accusations made against him overlap with our investigation and cooperation is important to achieve results," Gorbatyuk said. "That's what we should say in the letter to Mueller."

He added that Ukrainian prosecutors wanted to question Manafort several years ago but a formal request sent to the US authorities went unanswered.

"Until now we had practically no cooperation."

pmh-os-as-stuThe following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS. The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy. @realDonaldTrump : - MS-13 gang members are being removed by our Great ICE and Border Patrol Agents by the thousands, but these killers come back in from El Salvador, and through Mexico, like water. El Salvador just takes our money, and Mexico must help MORE with this problem. We need The Wall! [0628 EST] - CPAC Today! [0801 EST] - My daughter, Ivanka, just arrived in South Korea. We cannot have a better, or smarter, person representing our country. [0807 EST] - For those of you who are still interested, the Democrats have totally forgotten about DACA. Not a lot of interest on this subject from them! [0809 EST] - After years of rebuilding OTHER nations, we are finally rebuilding OUR nation - and we are restoring our confidence and our pride! #CPAC2018 [1206 EST] - We salute our great American flag, we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of Allegiance, and we all PROUDLY STAND for the National Anthem. #CPAC2018 [1208 EST] - Our nation's motto is IN GOD WE TRUST. This week, our nation lost an incredible leader who devoted his life to helping us understand what those words really mean. We will never forget the historic crowds, the voice, the energy, and the profound faith of Billy Graham! #CPAC2018 [1212 EST] -- Source link: (http://bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (http://bit.ly/2jpEXYR) (Compiled by Bengaluru bureau)Activists are demanding the National Rifle Association (NRA) reveal if it received donations from Russia, after it was reported the FBI is investigating whether a Kremlin-linked Moscow businessman channelled money to the groups campaign to help Donald Trump win the election.

With the influence of the NRA under mounting scrutiny following a school shooting in Florida and the campaign led by students to change the countrys gun laws, campaigners say it is vital that investigators uncover if the powerful lobbying group group used any Russian money to help elect Republican members of Congress and Mr Trump during the 2016 race. It is against the law to use foreign money in federal election campaigns.

It was recently reported the FBI was focusing its attention on Alexander Torshin, a former member of the upper house of Russias parliament and currently deputy governor of Russias central bank, who is said to have a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The 64-year-old gun enthusiast is also said to be a Life Member of the NRA.

Since McClatchy News first reported Mr Torshin and the donation were being investigated, campaigners have been seeking to pressure the NRA to come clean about its funding.

Kristin Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told The Independent that the NRA, which was founded in 1871 as a recreational group designed to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis, today got most of its funding from gun manufacturers.

Mr Torshin is said to be close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin (Getty)

NRA members should be outraged if even a portion of this alarming story is true. The NRA tells its members that it defends Americas freedoms, she said of the McClatchy News report.

If the NRA is actually a front for Russian interests and interfered with our elections, actively or passively, then they have undermined the very democratic freedoms they purport to represent. We can only wonder how many true patriots will decide that this is the last straw and give up their NRA memberships.

Story continues

Giffords, the gun safety group set up by former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in 2011, said if it was true the NRA had accepted a donation, it would be an insult to members and a threat to our democracy.

The NRA was once an organisation dedicated to gun safety and sportsmanship, but today its been overtaken by lobbyists and has grown increasingly out of touch with the gun owners it claims to represent, said Giffords Executive Director Peter Ambler.

The NRA spent a record $55m during the 2016 election cycle, directing money towards campaigns and adverts supporting members of congress it judged to be most supportive of its aims and polities. Senator Marco Rubio, who this week was publicly challenged by a Florida shooting survivor to vow to refuse to take NRA money, has received at least $3.3m from the NRA during his career, the sixth most of the current members of Congress. During the 2016 election, the NRA scored Mr Rubio A+, its highest ranking.

The largest amount of money from the NRA in 2016, a total of $30m, went to Mr Trump. It helped pay for advertisements supporting his campaign and attacking that of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. The money was spent by a wing of the NRA that is not legally obligated to reveal who its donors are.

Mr Torshin has long had been known for his links to Republicans and gun advocates. Reports suggest Mr Torshin was in 2011 introduced to David Keene, then the NRA president, by Kline Preston IV, a Nashville-based lawyer who has for many years done work in Russia.

Mr Kline confirmed he had introduced the men and said Mr Torshin was a gun enthusiast. Indeed, several years ago he established a gun rights movement in Russia called the Right to Bear Arms. The group is run by Russian activist Maria Butina, who completed her post-graduate studies in the US and has been active in forging links between gun rights advocates in both countries.

I dont know what Senator Torshin does with his money, Mr Preston said this week. The claims that these Russians funded money to the Trump campaign through the NRA are baseless.

He added: There is nothing there. Its a snipe hunt  hunting for something that does not exist.

ThinkProgress said that in May 2013, Mr Torshin attended the NRA national convention in Houston. Two years later, Mr Torshins gun group hosted an NRA delegation in Moscow.

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Among those who reportedly attended were Mr Keene, NRA Vice President Pete Brownwell, NRA donor Arnold Goldschlager and David A Clarke, who was then the Milwaukee County Sheriff and later came close to being asked to join Mr Trumps administration. He is currently a contributor at Fox News.

Mr Torshin attended the NRAs 2016 convention in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is said to have met with Mr Trump and shared a table with the Donald Trump Jr at one of the dinners.

Bloomberg News said the Spanish authorities for three years investigated Mr Torshin as part of a probe into how Russian criminals were allegedly money laundering assets in Spain. The investigation ended in 2013 and no charges were ever brought. Mr Torshin told the news site he was innocent of any wrongdoing. Im a public individual and Im not hiding anywhere, Mr Torshin said.

Senators on Capitol Hill investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscows alleged interference in the 2016 election have also been looking at Mr Torshin.

In November 2017, Senator Diane Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to several former advisers to Mr Trump, asking for copies of any communications they had with Mr Torshin, the NRA or Ms Butina.

Among those to receive a request was JD Gordon, a political adviser who was last year in the news after it emerged that during the Republican National Convention, he spoke to Russias US Ambassador Sergey Kislyat about Mr Trumps desire to reset the strategic relationship between the two countries.

Asked about the letter from Ms Feinstein, Mr Gordon said by email: I dont know Alexander Torshin and have never had any contact with him.

He added: Though I can say that those continuing to throw about unsubstantiated allegations related to Trump-Russia need to be prepared for legal action and Congressional investigations. Relying on alleged FBI leaks is a dangerous game because (a) leaking information from classified investigations is a felony, and (b) defamatory claims may be entirely false.

The FBI said it could not comment on whether it was investigating Mr Torshin. In keeping with our usual practice, we do not comment on whether or not we are investigating a particular matter, said spokesperson Carol Cratty.

The office of Special Counsel to the Defence Department, Robert Mueller, did not respond to enquiries, nor did Mr Torshin and Ms Butina.

The NRA also failed to respond to questions. This week, the groups president, Wayne LaPierre, claimed Democratic elites were politicising the mass shooting in Florida to try to erode constitutionally guaranteed gun rights.

The elites dont care not one whit about Americas school system and school children, Mr LaPierre told the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.We have forced our kids to take it upon themselves to save us all.

It goes without saying that every child deserves to be safe in school. That we havent achieved this is evidence of a horrific moral failing on behalf of every single adult in America. But I would be remiss if I didnt remind us that the other group weve been egregiously failing in our neglect of gun control is women. And, I am not just talking about teachers, the majority of whom are women.

It may surprise you to know that women are often the victims of gun violence. In fact, 54 percent of the mass shootings between January 2009 and December 2016 were considered domestic incidents, where the perpetrator killed an intimate partner or family member. Thats right, over half of mass gun violence is domestic violence. They say 150,000 young people have been touched by gun violence in their schools. But how many more women and children have experienced gun violence in their own homes?

The failure of the Republican Party to act on gun violence is yet another indicator of how little they value women (and by extension children, since our society first and foremost designates women as the caregivers of our children).

And its not just on gun control  the GOPs priorities from repealing the Affordable Healthcare Act to reforming entitlement programs for the poor and cutting taxes for our nations wealthiest, show how little they value women, children and our nations most vulnerable.

Havent we all had enough? I certainly have.

But in the words of my husband, Gavin Newsom  we cant just oppose President Trump or the Republican Party. We need a bold alternative vision: one that uplifts everyone. And we need that transformative vision now. We cannot wait one more second while innocent human lives are at stake.

So what would that courageous vision look like?

It should start of course with urgent priorities like combating the influence of the NRA and once and for all enacting common-sense gun legislation. Weve started that process in California and were successful in passing Prop 63, giving California some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

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Ultimately though, truly transforming our priorities requires transforming our leadership. And I dont just mean electing more women leaders  though that would certainly help.

This is really about a new model of leadership where we are not bound by self-interest, but bound in service of others.

So Ill bring up my husband once more because I believe in his example. Fourteen years ago, Gavin did a very courageous thing when he began marrying same-sex couples in defiance of the law. Even though he was not personally affected, he saw the injustice and was determined to do something about it.

This was a courageous act, not done for himself, but for others. And, all of us benefited as a result.

The Republican Party by contrast has become the party of entirely self-serving leadership, beholden to the NRA among other special interests. Just look at the bought and paid for legislature in Florida that voted against outlawing the semi-automatic rifle that was used in the Parkland, Florida shooting  less than a week after the massacre, which killed 17 people.

We must turn this egregious and unconscionable model upside down if we are going to achieve the positive, alternative vision for America we so desperately need.

The alternative vision requires current leaders, especially male leaders who hold so much of our nations power, to use their influence and platform to stand up for what is right for the entire community, not just their individual selves. And, its about the rest of us, using our power as citizens, unearthing our individual and collective voices and standing stand tall for justice and equality for all.

The students in Parkland, Florida understand this. Yes, they have been affected by gun violence themselves, but they are not motivated by self-interest. As Emma Gonzalez said in her now viral speech, We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks. Not because were going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because we are going to be the last mass shooting.

This takes courage. And, this is what real leadership looks like.

What are the rest of us waiting for?On a humid summer's day in 1996, President Bill Clinton appeared on the South Lawn of The White House and announced that NASA had discovered what looked to be fossilized bacteria on a Martian meteorite.

It was unprecedented for a President to publicly address potential evidence of alien life  and on television. But the American public didn't react to the unexpected announcement with panic, fear, or social upheaval.

"You didn't see droves of people abandoning their religion, spouses, or jobs," said Michael Varnum, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University, in an interview.

SEE ALSO: That 'alien' bacteria on the Space Station? It's probably not aliens.

Scientists, however, have never been able to prove that these microbe-like forms on the meteorite, which was found in Antartica, were clear evidence of extraterrestrial life. Those telltale shapes could have simply been bacteria-like shapes on a space rock.

A tube-like formation on the Martian meteorite, named Allan Hills 84001, which NASA cited as potential evidence of primitive extraterrestrial life in 1996.

Image: NASA

"Im reminded of that quote: An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence," said Rebecca Mickol, an astrobiologist at the Naval Research Laboratory's Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, in an interview.

"We cant just go off of what it looks like."

But NASA's search for extraterrestrial life continues  specifically with its Mars' rovers and planned future missions. Varnum sought to understand how humanity might react to indisputable evidence of the discovery of alien life. This research, published in Frontiers in Psychology and presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting last week, reveals that we would likely respond positively to such a discovery.

"If we discover evidence of extra-terrestrial life, we'll be fine with it  we'll be happy," said Varnum.

Varnum's research team asked over 500 study participants to write responses to a hypothetical announcement of an extraterrestrial discovery. Separately, over 250 participants responded in writing to the front-page New York Times article from 1996, which reported President Clinton's announcement of the potential finding of primitive Martian life. Additionally, the team also analyzed the way journalists wrote about 15 news stories involving potential discoveries of alien life or alien planets.

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The team ran all of this language through the same text analysis software, and the results were "significantly" more positive than negative.

This study, however, focused on the discovery of microbial life  not intelligent lifeforms. Still, Varnum believes the reactions to more advanced, perhaps communicative life would probably be positive, too.

"My hunch is just as long as NASA doesn't detect a hostile fleet of spaceships, it would be the same thing," he said.

This research contradicts a somewhat similar study carried out by the U.S. government in 1953. The Robertson Panel, which was convened at the CIA's recommendation, concluded that alien-piloted UFOs probably weren't real. But, the report noted the potential of "mass hysteria" among the public after being exposed to reports of UFO activity.

But there has been no such hysteria despite all that's happened since, including Clinton's televised announcement, NASA's multiple revelations of once habitable conditions on Mars (and beyond), and reports about the potential of alien life in other parts of the galaxy.

"If the Robertson Panel were right, then you would expect society to devolve into utter chaos," said Varnum.

The Mars 2020 rover, set for launch in 2020, will be equipped with a high-tech camera that inspects Martian terrain for the places most likely to have once harbored life -- or perhaps even harbors life today.

Image: Nasa

Mickol, like most astrobiologists, believes we'll find primitive life before learning about or coming in contact with a more intelligent persuasion of extraterrestrial.

"With microbial life everyone might be more excited because it's not threatening," said Mickol.

But, she notes, public reaction to smarter life might not be so enthusiastic.

"If theyre presented with a technologically-advanced civilization thats trying to contact us, they might have a different approach to that," she said.

Under extreme circumstances  well beyond a Mars rover coming across dead microbes near a once briny Martian spring  Varnum agrees.

"More than likely, I would guess it would be more positive than negative," he said. "Unless a spaceship lands on the White House lawn."By Zachary Fagenson

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott, a loyal ally of the U.S. gun lobby under mounting pressure to act in the aftermath of last week's deadly mass shooting, urged state lawmakers on Friday to tighten access to firearms for young people and the mentally disturbed.

Scott said he would work with the Republican-controlled legislature over the next two weeks to raise the minimum legal age for buying any gun in Florida from 18 to 21, with some exceptions for younger individuals serving in the military or law enforcement.

That proposal put the Republican governor at odds with the National Rifle Association (NRA), which has opposed higher age limits in Florida, where a person must be at least 21 to buy a handgun but can be as young as 18 to purchase an assault rifle.

But Scott, who has been endorsed by the NRA and received its highest rating for supporting the rights of gun owners, said he opposed an outright ban on assault rifles, as some gun control advocates have demanded.

He also backed adoption of a law, like those enacted in a handful of other states, allowing police and family members to obtain restraining orders to bar people suspected of posing a threat of violence from possessing guns.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who is leading the investigation of the Feb. 14 shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, welcomed Scott's plan as a "strong first step in giving us the proactive ability to keep Florida safer."

But critics of the plan, which closely mirrored proposed measures unveiled on Friday by leaders of the state legislature, said it failed to go far enough.

"He is doing the bare minimum," said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat widely expected to face a re-election challenge this year from Scott.

Julie Kessel, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, called Scott's proposals "very small, incremental changes."

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The 17 people slain in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland were shot with a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault weapon, which authorities say was purchased legally last year by the accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, when he was 18 years of age.

Cruz, now 19, a former Stoneman Douglas student who authorities said had a history of run-ins with the law and was expelled from school for disciplinary problems, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Broward County Sheriff's Office have since acknowledged receiving several tips over the past two years from callers saying they had reason to believe Cruz was inclined to commit a school shooting.

In one of those tips, an unidentified caller warned the FBI about the gunman's possible intentions a month before the shooting, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"He's going to explode," the woman, who was close to Cruz, told to a tip line operator on Jan. 5, according to a transcript reviewed by the Journal.

In addition to age limits, Scott said he wanted to change state laws to make it "virtually impossible for anyone who has mental issues to use a gun," echoing similar calls by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The governor called in particular for a new program allowing a family member, police officer or community welfare expert to seek a special court order barring the purchase or possession of a firearm by anyone shown to pose a safety threat due to mental illness or violent behavior.

Scott also urged amending state law so that anyone involuntarily hospitalized as dangerously mentally ill be stripped of all access to firearms, with a court hearing required before their gun rights could be restored.

RENEWED FOCUS ON BACKGROUND CHECKS

Federal law bars possession of firearms by anyone found by a court or other legal authority to be a danger to themselves or others. Convicted felons, fugitives and people with a record of drug addiction also are banned from owning guns.

But many states have been slow in furnishing mental health records to the FBI database used in flagging prospective buyers who are supposed to be prohibited from owning a weapon.

The governor's proposals come amid a reignited national debate on gun rights, led in part by some of the student survivors of last week's massacre, ranked as the second deadliest U.S. public school shooting on record.

Students and parents calling for tougher gun controls traveled earlier this week to meet with politicians in Tallahassee, the state capital, and with Trump at the White House.

Trump has suggested arming teachers as a way of curbing gun violence in schools, as advocated by the NRA. He has also called for raising the legal age for buying rifles nationally to 21, and for beefing up background checks on prospective gun buyers.

On Capitol Hill on Friday, a group of 18 House Republicans urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to schedule a vote on legislation strengthening background checks.

The legislation already passed the House in December. But it was coupled with a controversial measure aimed at significantly expanding permits for carrying concealed weapons.

The group of House Republicans urged Ryan to bring it to the House floor as a stand-alone bill so that it will have a greater chance of approval by the Senate and enactment into law.

Scott also called for posting law enforcement officers in every public school and for mandatory "active shooter training" for students and faculty.

He spoke as staff members were returning to Stoneman Douglas for the first time since the massacre.

"Everything was quiet, and looked like it was frozen in time," social studies teacher Greg Pittman said.

Outside the school, some teachers gazed at flowers and makeshift memorials. One woman who brought balloons to add to the displays fell to her knees in tears.

Classes are due to resume next Wednesday, but the building where most of the bloodshed occurred will remain closed.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump criticized the armed sheriff's deputy assigned to the school for doing a "poor job." The deputy, Scot Peterson, resigned after an internal investigation found he failed to go inside and confront the shooter, the Broward sheriff said on Thursday.

(Reporting Zachary Fagenson in Parkland, Florida, Richard Cowan in Washington and Jonathan Allen, Gina Cherelus and Dan Trotta in New York; Writing by Jonathan Allen and Steve Gorman; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis)President Donald Trumps qualifications as a consoler in chief have been challenged once again, this time by a survivor of last weeks shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, which took the lives of 17 people.

Samantha Fuentes, who was taken to hospital after being shot in both legs, said following a phone call with the president that she had never been so unimpressed by a person in my life.

The president had called the 18-year-old senior in her hospital room, where she was also recovering from having a piece of shrapnel lodged behind her right eye. But she said she was less than comforted by the exchange.

Trending: 'In God We Trust' Could Appear on All Florida School Buildings as Bill Advances Through House

He said he heard that I was a big fan of his, and then he said, Im a big fan of yours too. Im pretty sure he made that up, she told The New York Times after being released from hospital. Talking to the president, Ive never been so unimpressed by a person in my life. He didnt make me feel better in the slightest.

Fuentes added that Trump referred to the charged gunman Nikolas Cruz, as a sick puppy and said oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, like seven times.

GettyImages-923392246

Alex Wong/Getty Images

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It is not the first time Trumps efforts to console someone affected by tragedy has been strongly criticized. Following the death of her husband, Sergeant La David T. Johnson, during an attack on American soldiers in Niger, Myeshia Johnson said she was greatly upset by Trumps phone call, in which she said he had not referred to her husband by his name. She also said that Trump told her Johnson knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway.

Trump then turned the situation into a public war of words involving Democratic Representative Frederica Wilson, who heard the president's call.

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But the reactions to Trumps consolation efforts have not been uniformly negative. The president held a listening session with students and parents affected by the shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as well as other school shootings, this week.

Andrew Pollack, whose son was killed in the massacre, said that Trump met him in the Oval Office and showed us nothing but love. He added, The guy really cared, you know?

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA survivor of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, just threw some brutal shade at Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

On Friday, Sarah Chadwick suggested that Rubios symbiotic relationship with the National Rifle Association deserved some sort of tribute.

In a tweet referencing the AR-15 rifle, which the shooter allegedly used to kill 17 people at her school last week, Chadwick proposed nicknaming the weapon after the senator because theyre so easy to buy.

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For the record, Rubio has accepted $3.3 million from the gun rights organization so far in his political career.

Rubio didnt help his cause during a CNN town hall meeting Wednesday night during an exchange with Cameron Kasky, a high school junior who also survived the massacre.

When Kasky asked Rubio, Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA? the senator said hed continue to take its money because people buy into my agenda  and I do support the Second Amendment.

Kasky replied, So, right now, in the name of 17 people, you cannot ask the NRA to keep their money out of your campaign?

The senators reply showed how committed he is to the organizations lucre.

There is money on both sides of every issue in America, Rubio replied, and where that leaves us in policymaking is to look at the issues and make a decision based on what we think is right.

HuffPost reached out to Rubio for a comment on the proposed nickname, but his office did not immediately respond.

Rubio is getting lots of heat in the wake of the tragic school shooting because of his inaction on gun control.

Last week, three red billboard-sized messages appeared in the streets of Miami to shame Rubio, using a technique inspired by the Oscar-nominated film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

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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.WASHINGTON  Rick Gates, a former campaign aide to President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to two charges and will cooperate with special counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

Gates pleaded guilty on Friday afternoon to conspiracy against the United States in connection with avoiding taxes as well as a charge of lying to the Special Counsels Office and the FBI.

Gates could be sentenced to about five years in federal prison under the sentencing guidelines, though theres the potential he could get less time.

A criminal information filed Friday indicates that Gates will admit he lied in regard to what he knew about a March 2013 discussion between a member of Congress and a lobbyist. Gates will admit he lied to the FBI when he said he was told by [former campaign chairman Paul] Manafort and a senior Company A lobbyist that there were no discussions of Ukraine at the meeting, when in fact there had been discussions about Ukraine.

Manafort issued a defiant statement on Friday in which he continued to maintain his innocence and vowed to fight on.

I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise, Manafort said. This does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges contained in the indictments against me.

Gates is the latest member of Trumps inner circle to cooperate with the special counsel. Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December, signaling that he had cut a deal with Mueller. And George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump, has been cooperating with the investigation for months after he pleaded guilty to a similar charge in October.

Gates, 45, was indicted in October alongside Manafort, and he has been under house arrest ever since. Both men were indicted on charges including money laundering and violating foreign lobbying laws, and pleaded not guilty at the time.

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Gates reportedly had whats known as a Queen for a Day interview, which typically allows a defendant to speak openly without facing additional charges.

Speculation grew about Gates involvement in the Mueller investigation after he added a new attorney, Tom Green, to his legal team. Green is a well-known defense lawyer known for working on plea deals and had worked on cases tied to Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal. CNN first reported that Green was seen at Muellers offices in Washington, D.C., twice in late January, and the outlet noted that Muellers team appeared to be using a softer touch with Gates compared to Manafort.

Green has continued to visit Muellers office over the past few weeks.

Three of Gates attorneys asked to be removed from his legal team earlier this month, filing a two-page motion they said would explain their reasoning for doing so, Politico reported at the time. The document was filed under seal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

CNN noted Gates lawyers spoke in front of a judge in two additional sealed hearings in early February.

Muellers probe has heated up in recent days. Last Friday, the Justice Department announced a slew of charges against 13 Russians and three companies, detailing a sophisticated effort to sow discord among American voters in an effort to help elect Trump.

Read the court filing on Gates below:

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This post has been updated with details from Gates Friday afternoon appearance in court.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Rick Gates, who worked as a top aide on the Trump campaign, will plead guilty Friday in the special counsel's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Gates will plead guilty to two counts, according to court documents.

The news comes a day after Mueller unveiled new charges against Gates and his former business associate Paul Manafort, who was Trump's campaign chief.

Rick Gates, who worked as a top aide on Donald Trump 's presidential campaign, will plead guilty Friday in the special counsel's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Gates' plea is considered an indication that he may be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller. A plea hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. ET Friday. Court documents say Gates will plead guilty to two counts: making a false statement and conspiracy against the United States.

The news comes a day after Mueller unveiled new charges against Gates and his former business associate Paul Manafort , who was Trump's campaign chief for a few months in 2016.

Gates and Manafort were previously indicted in the probe in October.

The charges, which include bank fraud and an array of other financial crimes, stem from alleged conduct that does not relate to work that Manafort and Gates did for Trump's campaign. However, some of the alleged crimes occurred while they were working for Trump and afterward.

As part of the new indictment, the special counsel claims that after Manafort and Gates saw their income dwindle through at least January 2017, they "extracted money" from Manafort's U.S. real estate to obtain loans from several financial institutions.

Manafort claims he is innocent and is confident he will be acquitted. He is also suing the Justice Department, claiming overreach by Mueller because the charges he faces do not relate to Russian meddling in the election.

 CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

WATCH: Mueller investigating whether Manafort offered banker job in Trump WH



More From CNBC

By Laurence Frost PARIS (Reuters) - France's Emmanuel Macron was booed by angry farmers on Saturday during his first visit as president to the country's main agricultural fair, amid rising discontent over producer prices, European Union trade talks and Chinese land purchases. Macron was greeted by jeering farmers and activists soon after his arrival at the southern Paris showground, before stopping to talk policy with a group of hecklers. Elected last May, France's centrist president has promised 5 billion euros ($6.2 billion) in agricultural investment as well as minimum farm prices to prevent producers selling at a loss. But farmers and their FNSEA lobby group remain concerned about issues ranging from trade talks with the South American Mercosur bloc to a land-buying spree by Chinese investors. In a country with a profound attachment to its pastoral roots, the Salon de l'Agriculture is a mandatory rite of passage for political leaders, who tend either to relish the event - as former president Jacques Chirac visibly did - or endure it. Nicolas Sarkozy, during his presidential farm show debut a decade ago, let rip with an expletive-laden insult against a man in the crowd who had declined to shake his hand. His words were caught on video and haunted him for the rest of his term. Macron responded differently to provocation on Saturday, scrapping his itinerary to engage several of his hecklers in a lengthy and detailed exchange on trade policy, social charges and food standards in front of TV cameras. The budget for the EU's Common Agricultural Policy should not be cut by more than Britain's contribution as it exits the 28-member bloc, he also said. Thibault Guybert, a cereal farmer from the Paris region who had joined in the booing, said the president would be judged on his actions, and bigger protests should not be ruled out. "We wanted to jostle President Macron a bit to make our displeasure known and let him know we're not just going to leave it there," Guybert said on BFM TV. "We'll have to be very clear with him and find out whether he wants to keep French agriculture or not." ($1 = 0.8135 euros) (Reporting by Laurence Frost; Additional reporting by Gus Trompiz and Simon Carraud; Editing by David Holmes)The noisy back and forth may have settled down for a while, but the debate over health care in America is far from over. Leaders in Washington still must face up to the fact that health care costs continue to rise at unsustainable rates, while Americans are less healthy than their peers in other countries. In 2017, party politics overwhelmed any possibility of progress toward improving our health care system in a transparent and bipartisan way. Expect the debate to revive again soon, because this is a problem thats not about to go away.

But we firmly believe its also a problem we can solve if leaders will remove the partisan blinders that narrow their vision and block any hope of solutions. Away from Washington and back in the states, governors know that we can work across the aisle to increase value in our health care system, lowering costs while improving health. Over the past year, as two governors from opposite political parties, we have brought together a bipartisan group of colleague governors  most recently including Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska  to develop a blueprint for improving our nations health system.

Weve been struck by the fact that other sectors of our economy have seen dramatic improvements in recent years, boosting quality and performance while significantly reducing costs. This is in sharp contrast to health-care spending, where costs have steadily increased, but outcomes have not improved. As we watch improvements in almost every other area of business and industry, why should Americans settle for less from their health care system?

As governors seeking solutions, we reject false choices that pit high-quality health care against reducing costs or individual accountability against our obligation to support those in need. We know that lasting improvements to our health-care system will require harnessing private-sector innovation and competition, and that targeted government action is justified. We should work together in a bipartisan, transparent and inclusive way to build on what we can see is working.

Story continues

Based on these core beliefs, our bipartisan group of governors has identified key strategies that will improve health and lower costs. None is more important than paying for value instead of volume. Too often in our present system, doctors, hospitals and others get paid more when people are sick than when they are well. States are leading efforts to change this, increasing access to comprehensive primary care and eliminating incentives to provide unnecessary services.

We are already seeing evidence of better results, but government alone cant solve this and the nation needs to wake up to unsustainable, rising costs of health care. We are encouraged to see major employers starting to demand higher quality at a lower cost, with companies like Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase partnering to find a better health-care model for their employees. States are doing this too for their citizens, implementing innovative value-based reimbursement models for their Medicaid populations and state employees. The more businesses who partner in this work, the better the results will be.

Consumers also need to take a more active role in transforming our health-care system. All Americans should have access to affordable, high-quality health care regardless of their age, employment status or financial situation. To achieve this, we must give patients the tools they need to make value-conscious choices, and encourage the private and public sectors to develop technologies that make this possible. A patient who needs a knee replacement should be able to choose the facility and doctor that provides the best care at the lowest price.

Governors are willing partners, but states cant do this alone. As the debate over health care resumes  as it must  we sincerely hope that bipartisanship becomes the rule and not the exception in Washington. As health-care costs continue to rise, we will soon get to a point where the system is unsustainable. People will throw up their hands and say this doesnt work anymore, and well end up with an extreme response that stifles innovation and threatens the quality of care. As governors, we are ready to create a responsible roadmap that will lead us down a better path.Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump and America's powerful gun lobby on Thursday cast citizens with weapons as a solution to shootings, as it emerged an armed deputy was on campus during a deadly Florida rampage but failed to act.

National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre hit back at what he called "the shameful politicization of tragedy" and repeated the organization's position that "to stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun," while Trump made a controversial call to arm teachers.

The Broward County sheriff said Thursday that an armed deputy was in fact present during the Valentine's Day rampage that left 17 dead in a Florida high school, but did not act to stop it.

In his first public comments since the shooting, LaPierre reiterated long-standing accusations that gun control advocates were seeking to roll back the constitutional right to bear arms.

"It's a classic strategy right out of the playbook of a poisonous movement," he told an annual conservative conference outside Washington, hitting out at what he called "socialists" on the political left, and at the "so-called national news media."

"For them, it's not a safety issue, it's a political issue," he charged. "They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom."

Sheriff Scott Israel later announced that Scott Peterson, an armed school resource deputy, was at the high school but took up a position outside and "never went in" during the shooting.

He should have "went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer," Israel said.

Peterson resigned after being suspended without pay.

Two other deputies were placed on restricted duty during an investigation to determine if "they could have done more or should have done more" ahead of the shooting, Israel said.

- Teachers warn of 'arms race' in schools -

Story continues

The NRA's cause received a significant boost when Trump -- in his second meeting at the White House on school safety in as many days -- floated a plan to respond to the Parkland carnage by putting more guns in schools.

He declared "gun free" schools a "magnet" for mass shooters and proposed bonuses for teachers who are willing to carry concealed firearms.

Trump had earlier proposed raising from 18 to 21 the minimum age to buy more guns than at present -- like the assault-style rifle used by 19-year-old Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz -- and making it more difficult for the mentally ill to own firearms.

Currently under federal law, anyone 18 or over can buy a gun from a private, unlicensed seller, although a handful of states have set the minimum age at 21.

Those measures, which may struggle to pass the Republican-controlled Congress, could have put him at odds with the NRA, which donated to and endorsed his campaign.

"I really think the NRA wants to do what's right," Trump said. "I mean, they're very close to me, I'm very close to them, they're very, very great people. They love this country. They're patriots."

Trump insisted he was not advocating arming every American teacher, but only those with "military or special training" -- suggesting that would be around 20 percent.

That would mean weapons for around 700,000 educators, a potentially massive business opportunity for gun manufacturers.

"A gun-free zone to a killer or somebody who wants to be a killer, that's like going in for the ice cream," he said. "That's like, 'Here I am, take me.'"

Teachers' unions were quick to condemn his proposal, with the American Federation of Teachers claiming Trump was in favor of an "arms race" that would "turn schools into militarized fortresses."

- 'Toxic lunacy' -

"Anyone who wants guns in schools has no understanding of what goes on inside them -- or worse, doesn't care," the union's president Randi Weingarten said.

Summing up the opposition of many lawmakers, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal called the idea of arming teachers "toxic lunacy -- an NRA-backed distraction from common sense action.

"Arming teachers is inane and insane -- a sure path to reckless and panicky shooting, gun theft, and other deadly dangers. A non-starter in the Senate."

The US Congress has long been deadlocked on the gun debate, accomplishing nothing despite a spate of mass shootings and polls showing that Americans support stricter gun laws by a two-to-one margin.

According to a Gallup tracking poll, 60 percent of Americans now favor tougher gun sale laws.By Francois Murphy VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has fired a diplomatic warning shot at Washington by raising the prospect of building nuclear reactors for ships while staying within the limits set by its atomic deal with major powers, a U.N. nuclear watchdog report showed on Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump has long railed against the 2015 nuclear deal for reasons including its limited duration and the fact it does not cover Iran's ballistic missile program. He has threatened to pull out unless European allies help "fix" the agreement with a follow-up accord. Since Trump took office more than a year ago, Iran has stayed within limits on items including its stock of low-enriched uranium imposed by the deal, which also lifted painful international economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. A quarterly report on Iran by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which is policing the deal's restrictions, showed that Iran remained compliant, but also that it had informed the agency of a "decision that has been taken to construct naval nuclear propulsion in future". Iran has raised that prospect in public statements before. In 2016, President Hassan Rouhani ordered the start of planning on the development of nuclear marine propulsion in reaction to what he called U.S. violations of the nuclear deal. Rouhani was alluding to the lack of economic benefit to Iran from the deal because many companies including big Western banks continue to shun the country for fear of breaching separate U.S. financial sanctions that stayed in place after other sanctions were rescinded. Analysts have said Iran is many years or decades away from having naval nuclear capacity. But mentioning it evokes both projecting military might and potentially enriching uranium beyond the limit of 3.67 percent purity imposed by the deal. A senior diplomat said it was not clear from Iran's statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whether it was referring to those previous statements, but they appeared to be a reaction to Trump's comments. "Formally there is no clarity on this. But informally yes, why now? So obviously there is a link ... to the possibility that the JCPOA's future is questioned," the senior diplomat said, referring to the 2015 deal by its full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Iran's notification on marine propulsion could cover a range of intentions over any period of time, meaning there was no cause for concern, the senior diplomat said. Iran has yet to respond to the IAEA's request for "further clarifications and amplifications", the report said, adding that if Iran had reached a concrete decision to build new facilities for marine propulsion it must provide design information. The confidential quarterly IAEA report follows a statement by Iran's deputy foreign minister earlier on Thursday that Tehran will withdraw from the deal if there is no economic gains and major banks continue to stay away. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; editing by Mark Heinrich)By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin LONDON (Reuters) - Iran will withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal if there is no economic benefit and major banks continue to shun the Islamic Republic, its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday. Under the deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions that have crippled its economy. Despite that, big banks have continued to stay away for fear of falling foul of remaining U.S. sanctions - something that has hampered Irans efforts to rebuild foreign trade and lure investment. Adding to those concerns, U.S. President Donald Trump told the Europeans on Jan. 12 they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal" or he would re-impose the sanctions Washington lifted as part of that pact. But even if Trump relents and issues fresh "waivers" to continue suspending those sanctions, the existing situation is unacceptable for Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said. "The deal would not survive this way even if the ultimatum is passed and waivers are extended," Araqchi, Iran's lead nuclear negotiator, said in a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London. "If the same policy of confusion and uncertainties about the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) continues, if companies and banks are not working with Iran, we cannot remain in a deal that has no benefit for us," Araqchi said. "Thats a fact." 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 JCPOA. Araqchi said Trump's interpretation of the sunset clauses was wrong. "There is no sunset clause in the JCPOA. Although the U.S. administration and Trump are talking about sunset clause and that JCPOA is just for 10 years, that is not true," he said. "Irans commitment in the JCPOA not to go for the nuclear weapons is permanent." He also reiterated Iran's position that the JCPOA was a non-proliferation treaty and could not be linked to any other issue. If the nuclear deal is linked to Iran's ballistic missile program or its regional activities, world powers "not only will lose the JCPOA, but will make other issues more complicated and more difficult to resolve," he said. "If we lose the JCPOA, we will face another nuclear crisis," Araqchi said. "For the Europeans or the world community, when we talk about maintaining the JCPOA and saving it, its not a choice between the Iranian or the U.S. market, its not a choice for economic cooperation: its a choice between having security or insecurity," he said. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Robin Pomeroy)Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka has arrived in South Korea where she will attend the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

She said she was thrilled to be in the country to "cheer for Team USA" and to "reaffirm our strong and enduring commitment with the people of the Republic of Korea".

South Korea is rolling out the red carpet for Ivanka's first visit since her father became US president.

Her arrival at Seoul airport was broadcast live on TV, and she will have dinner with President Moon Jae-in later.

A North Korean delegation will also attend Sunday's closing ceremony, but the South Korean government has said it's unlikely that Ivanka Trump would meet North Koreans or defectors from North Korea.

Hopes are high in South Korea that she may deliver a message from President Trump on North Korea.

Video block textFirst daughter Ivanka Trump briefed South Koreas president on new North Korea sanctions her father imposed on Fridaydespite reportedly lacking permanent security clearance typically required to access classified information.

Related: Ivanka Trump Ready for PR Battle With Kim Jong Uns Sister at Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony

The first daughter was informed of the President Donald Trumps sanctions targeting North Korea's shipping and trading companies and vessels before meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin according to CNN.

Trending: Why Mattis Would Tell Trump He Needs Trans People in the Military

"She has been part of the team. She had dinner with President Moon and had a private discussion in advance about this occurring and this has been an interagency process," Mnuchin said.

But asked if she had the appropriate security clearance in order to carry out such a task, Mnuchin dodged the core of the question. She has the appropriate access to brief the president," he said.

02_23_18_IvankaMoon

South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty Images

Ivanka Trump, like her husband and fellow senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, reportedly only has an interim security clearance.

Don't miss: Jared Kushner's Security Clearance Depends on John Kelly, Trump Says

Two Democratic lawmakers in October demanded that both their temporary clearances be revoked for brazen disregard for ethics and their apparent intention to skirt good governance rules, among other alleged offenses.

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The eldest daughter of the president is currently in South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic. During a briefing with Moon before Friday's dinner, Trump said the purpose of her visit was to "reaffirm our commitment to our maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized."

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A North Korean delegation, led by Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, will also attend Sunday's closing ceremony.

Most popular: Russia, Iran and Syria Face U.S. Pressure and Turkey Military Threat Over New Operations to Win War

Moon has expressed hope for opening dialogue between his country and North Korea, which remain technically at war.

During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, President Trump said the U.S. implemented against North Korea the heaviest sanctions ever imposed by our country before.

And frankly, hopefully something positive can happen," the president said. We will see, but hopefully something positive can happen.

The Department of Treasury later revealed that sanctions were placed on 27 North Korean trading and shipping companies, 28 vessels and one individual.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekJohn Bolton.

The newest round of sanctions levied against North Korea is unlikely to make any difference, according to John R. Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the administration of George W. Bush.

Weve tried for 25 years, through pressure and diplomacy, and its failed, Bolton told Newsweek in a conversation on Friday afternoon during a break at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The famously hawkish Boltons skepticism comes as the Trump administration seeks to further isolate North Korea in hopes that it will give up it nuclear program.

Trending: Trump Misquotes Fox News in Attack on Top Democrat for Distorting Facts

The measures target 27 shipping companies and 28 vessels, registered in North Korea and six other countries, including China, The New York Times reported on Friday. The Treasury Department said the shipping firms are part of a sophisticated campaign to help North Korea evade United Nations sanctions restricting imports of refined fuel and exports of coal.

Bolton's sober warning comes as North Korea's nuclear program appears to be progressing rapidly. Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo recently said that North Korea could have the capacity to strike an American city with a nuclear weapon in "handful of months." As such, this last rounds of sanctions represents what could be among the last diplomatic measures available to American officials. According to Bolton, they won't do much good.

The principal diplomatic option at this point is to persuade China to remove the regime in North Korea, Bolton said. He added he liked another option, which was to reunite the two Koreas, essentially South Korean control. But neither of these, he acknowledges, is very likely. China has been a halting partner in containing Pyongyang. It is unlikely to participate in Boltons ambitious reunification plan.

Don't miss: CPAC Analysis: Trump's Success Leaves Conservatives With Little to FearExcept Trump's Troubles

Story continues

Given the ineffectiveness of previous sanctions, Bolton believes that the United States is heading towards a deeply unfavorable binary choice: Either allow North Korea to become the worlds 10th nuclear power or use military force to prevent that very possibility.

Now, neither of those options is good. Nobody wants to be there, Bolton says. His sober assessment comes as North Korea's nuclear program appears to be progressing rapidly. Central Intelligence Agency director Mike Pompeo recently said that North Korea could have the capacity to strike an American city with a nuclear-tipped missile in "a handful of months." As such, this last round of sanctions represents what could be among the last diplomatic measures available to American officials. According to Bolton, they won't do much good.

The possibility of a strike at Seattle or Los Angeles aside, Bolton is concerned that a nuclear North Korea would sell this technology to anybody with hard currency, like Iran, or even a non-state terrorist organization.

These sanctions, or any other sanctions, arent going to make any difference, Bolton said. Fifteen years ago, they wouldve made a difference. Bolton plainly favors a more muscular approach, and though he wouldnt say what, exactly, that might mean, he makes one thing clear. I will not accept a North Korea with nuclear weapons, he said.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekUnited Statess skip John Shuster makes a call during the mens final curling match against Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The United States mens curling team beat Sweden 10-7 on Saturday, winning its first ever gold medal in the event. Curling once again had quickly become Americas favorite sport over the past two weeks, and many across the country were following along in the middle of the night throughout the gold medal game in PyeongChang.

Curling is often seen as slow, methodical and precise. Yet this highlight from End 3 may just be the best and most exciting curling highlight you have, or ever will, see.

Down 2-0, American John Shuster was faced with what looked like a classic 7-10 split in bowling. Sweden had two stones on opposite sides of the house, yet the middle was wide open. Instead of just delivering the hammer to the center to score a point, Shuster went big.

He launched the stone hard down the ice, knocking Swedens back-right stone out. It quickly ricocheted to the left, crossing the house to just barely knock Swedens final stone out.

What could have been a simple scoreless frame had suddenly turned into a two-point swing for the Americans.

Watch the full highlight here:

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More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:

 Wetzel: Canadian hockey apologizes for taking off silver medal. She didnt need to.

 Casino outside Olympic site is meant for everyone but the South Korean people

 Russian bobsledder who wore anti-doping shirt just failed a doping test

 International movement to save dogs from South Korean meat farms gaining steam

 The shame in Shani Davis snubbing the media was that he didnt get to tell his incredible story

The list of companies terminating their partnerships with the National Rifle Association is growing as public outcry against the gun group escalates following the deadliest mass shooting at a public high school in U.S. history.

Delta (DAL) and United Airlines (UAL) said Saturday they will end group airfare discounts for NRA members and they were in the process of informing the gun group of this decision. Moving companies North American Van Lines and Allied Van Lines also ended their discounts with the group over the weekend.

FedEx (FDX)  though refusing to end special discounts to NRA members  condemned the prevalence of assault rifles in the United States and said Monday it supports restricting them to members of the military.

"FedEx views assault rifles and large capacity magazines as an inherent potential danger to schools, workplaces, and communities when such weapons are misused. We therefore support restricting them to the military. Most important, FedEx believes urgent action is required at the local, state, and Federal level to protect schools and students from incidents such as the horrific tragedy in Florida on February 14th," FedEx said in a statement.

FedEx added Tuesday that its discounts apply only to NRA members, not the organization itself.

"The NRA is one of hundreds of organizations in our alliances/association Marketing program whose members receive discounted rates for FedEx shipping," the statement continued. "FedEx has never set or changed rates for any of our millions of customers around the world in response to their politics, beliefs or positions on issues."

Here's a list of the firms that have discontinued their partnerships with the NRA in the wake of the shooting:

Avis Budget Group (CAR) and Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) cut ties Friday. First National Bank of Omaha cited a customer outcry in ending its NRA-branded Visa card with the group.

"Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA," First National Bank of Omaha told CNBC. "As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card."

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The National Rifle Association has defended itself vigorously amid the turmoil.

"Since the tragedy in Parkland, Florida, a number of companies have decided to sever their relationship with the NRA, in an effort to punish our members who are doctors, farmers, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, nurses, shop owners and school teachers that live in every American community," the NRA said in a statement. "Let it be absolutely clear. The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world."

Chubb said it gave notice to the NRA three months ago to discontinue its program, but made the announcement Friday. Metlife and Symantec also made their announcements Friday.

Hotel chain Wyndham Worldwide (WYN) told CNBC it ended its relationship with the NRA late last year.

The outcry comes amid signs Americans' interest in gun control is not waning like it typically has in the wake of past mass shootings. Google searches for "gun control" have remained elevated a week after the Parkland, Florida, massacre.

BlackRock (BLK), the world's largest asset manager, said it was going to reach out to the publicly traded gunmakers "to understand their response" to the shooting. BlackRock indirectly owns shares in companies like American Outdoor Brands (AOBC) and Sturm Ruger (RGR) as a provider of exchange-traded funds.

WATCH: Bank of Omaha not renewing NRA credit card contractA three-alarm fire in a three-story apartment complex in Pico Rivera, California: KABC-TV via AP

One person was injured after a massive fire broke out at an apartment complex near Los Angeles.

Some 100 firefighters responded to the three-alarm blaze in Pico Rivera, according to reports. Officials said they had successfully evacuated residents.

Firefighters were forced to exit the building and go into defensive mode to battle the flames, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

Responders were directing streams of water from multiple directions, including from an adjacent roof.

A shared attic allowed the flames to spread quickly across the complex, officials said.

Footage from the scene showed thick back clouds of smoke billowing from flames consuming the buildings roof.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs department was assisting in efforts to aid people affected by the fire, directing evacuees to shelter. The Red Cross also dispatched volunteers to help evacuees.

Southern California has endured an unusually intense series of wildfires in recent months, including around Los Angeles County, with dry and unseasonably warm weather helping to feed the flames.Rome (AFP) - Derided as an empty-headed puppet by his opponents, telegenic young gun Luigi Di Maio has been tasked with completing the Five Star Movement's rise from populist insurgency to Italy's party of government.

With boyish good looks and an easy-going manner, 31-year-old Di Maio symbolises a strategic shift for the anti-establishment party from the frantic conspiratorial ranting of iconoclast founder and stand-up comedian Beppe Grillo to a new measured, reassuring style.

If the last major polls were correct, under Di Maio's leadership Five Star (M5S) will become Italy's largest party following the March 4 election.

To achieve that the party intends to use its newly "mature" image to capture voters from the traditional parties that 69-year-old Grillo long railed against.

Instead of the expletive-filled rants of his shaggy-haired former boss, Di Maio offers calmer, considered political reflections.

"We do not want a populist, extremist or anti-European Italy," Di Maio said last year, in a marked change from Grillo's instinctive euroscepticism.

The revamping is a double-edged challenge though: Di Maio must appeal to moderate voters without alienating the radicalised portion of the electorate who took the movement into parliament in 2013.

"He is very popular among the party faithful and his strength lies precisely in being completely different from Beppe Grillo, both in his communication style and in his appearance," said Alberto Castelvecchi, a professor at Rome's Luiss University.

- 'Reassuring to mums' -

But despite the apparent differences, Di Maio is very much a Grillo disciple.

He has been involved with M5S since its creation in 2009, campaigning against corruption and the EU while promoting political transparency and direct democracy.

Following the February 2013 election, M5S won a spectacular quarter of the vote and Di Maio, then aged just 26, was among 108 M5S candidates elected to the Chamber of Deputies -- the lower house of the Italian parliament.

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A month later he became the chamber's youngest ever vice-president.

His astonishing ascent did not go unnoticed and the nature of his elevation to rank of prime ministerial candidate also raised eyebrows.

Selected via an online vote, in which Di Maio's competitors were relative unknowns, many commentators branded his election as a coronation organised by "puppet-master" Grillo.

"Is it the man who is being chosen or his readiness to take orders and advice?" asked newspaper La Stampa.

Others questioned his political authenticity, accusing him of being a hybrid creation of Grillo and consultants.

"Di Maio was created to be moderate, reassuring to mums," according to Italian political journalist Jacopo Iacoboni.

- 'Riding a wave' -

Di Maio was born on July 6, 1986 into a well-to-do family in Avellino.

His father Antonio had a small construction business and was an activist for a now-defunct neo-fascist party Italian Social Movement, while his mother Paola was a Latin teacher.

The eldest of three children, Di Maio studied computer engineering at Naples University, later switched to law and never completed a degree.

According to a CV posted on M5S's website, Di Maio founded his own web and social media marketing business while studying, as well as working on video projects.

That focus on marketing and presentation helps explain why M5S has managed to shift its to tone on key issues with Di Maio at the helm.

The party had consistently called for Italy to leave the EU and the euro, but Di Maio recently made more conciliatory noises about the idea of staying in the bloc.

His reaction was also noted following the murder of a teenage girl, blamed on a Nigerian, and a far-right revenge shooting that left six African migrants injured in Macerata earlier this month.

Amid a public outcry, Di Maio stayed silent on the gun rampage and instead focused on former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for creating the "ticking social time bomb of immigration".

"On matters like ethics and immigration," wrote Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana, Di Maio ideas are "like those of a surfer riding a wave".

Di Maio's balancing act means M5S is on course to become the single biggest party in a parliament that his mentor Grillo once promised to "open up... like a tin of tuna".

But Di Maio is unlikely to become prime minister, particularly as M5S has repeatedly ruled out governing with other parties -- although he recently said he could seek support from rival forces.Many years ago, I had the privilege of serving as a Marine Corps officer. I felt that serving my country was a calling and a duty. As an officer, I was charged with not only leading, but protecting the young Marines who served with me. I was not a combat Marine  I was an Adjutant/Legal Officer serving at the Camp Pendleton Correctional Facility. But I was trained to fire a weapon. Back then it was the .45 pistol and the M-16 rifle. I was an expert marksman on the M-16 and a sharpshooter on the .45. Not too bad for a nearsighted young Lieutenant who had never fired a weapon before.

Today I am a high school Social Studies teacher. I teach government and politics to some of the brightest young students in America. I love my job  and I love my students. I am responsible for protecting them too. But how far should that protection go?

I tell students at the beginning of each year, that if there is an intruder in the building we will exit my classroom to a second-floor roof through a window near my desk. Students usually laugh, because they think I am kidding. I am not. I have carefully considered the layout of my classroom and its proximity to doors and windows in the building. Going out the window makes sense. That is how I plan to protect my students.

But what else should I do? I will lock my door and barricade it with a file cabinet or a desk. I will pick up a heavy, stainless steel paperweight to use as a weapon to defend myself. I will call 911 and the main office. What I wont do is pick up a pistol or a rifle or another lethal weapon. Why?

Guns have no place in the classroom. First of all, teachers are in constant close proximity to students. I teach about 150 students per day. The chance for an accidental discharge is guaranteed. Second, I am not trained to make instantaneous life-or-death decisions in a school environment with 2,400 innocent children as possible collateral damage. Even trained police officers have trouble reacting to threats and properly executing the use of deadly force. A good person with a gun can still make bad decisions, especially in highly stressful situations. Lastly, a gun acts as an impediment in my relationships with students. Teachers are guides and mentors and discussion leaders and lecturers. We talk; we cajole; we jump up and down; we clown around. We prance; we laugh; we instruct; we care. We put our whole selves out there to students so that they can see that we are real people. A gun is a barrier that separates me from my students. It says stand back instead of stand up. Weapons are not conducive to the teacher/student relationship.

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But lets talk turkey. The reason the President and the National Rifle Association and others are suggesting that teachers carry weapons in the classroom is that it sounds like a quick and cheap solution to a difficult and expensive problem. I find it incredible that people who dont trust teachers to meet state and federal education standards now trust teachers to hold the sacred lives of children in their hands. I find it incredible that those who cant find an extra ten cents in taxes to pay for counselors and psychiatrists and new gun-proof buildings can now find money for weapons and bonuses for gun-toting teachers.

I dont pretend to have all the answers, and I dont trust folks who think they do. But I do know that we need to reframe this debate. Lets not talk about school shootings in terms of gun control and mental health. Lets talk about school safety. Lets talk about whether we as a society have the will to keep our precious students safe in the place that most demands safety. Its about getting all the stakeholders in a room: parents, teachers, police, politicians and students, rather than asking teachers to carry the entire load.

Parents must pay a bit more so that the schools can hire security guards and improve building safety features. Police must train a bit harder and faster. Politicians must compromise and risk their seats. And the NRA must stop its absolutist gun-freedom-at-all-cost position.

I pledge to do everything in my power to protect my students. I will run. I will fight. And I will hide if I have to. I will help students to survive an armed intruder if I have to. But I will not arm myself with a gun in my own classroom just because those in power refuse to wield the more powerful weapon of common sense. That is where I draw the line.Mexico City (AFP) - Negotiators from the United States, Mexico and Canada open a new round of talks Sunday on overhauling the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the Mexican hosts already warning of turbulence.

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said the renegotiation of the 24-year-old trade deal is entering a critical phase as the three countries head to their seventh round of talks, scheduled to run through March 5.

"It's going to be a difficult meeting, because the more you advance in the negotiations and wrap up work on the constructive issues... what you're left with are the highly complex issues," Guajardo told journalists.

"That's why, as of this round, there won't be any more easy rounds."

After the last round of talks, in Montreal, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the three sides were making progress, but "very slowly."

The uncertainty looming over the deal is only increasing as the clock ticks on.

Mexico, which sends some 80 percent of its exports to the United States, is gearing up for elections on July 1.

The presidential frontrunner, the fiery leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has sent mixed signals on NAFTA. At one point, he said he would start the negotiations over and "make Donald Trump see reason" -- though his campaign has sought to strike a more moderate tone.

Washington has also sent mixed signals since Trump triggered the renegotiation of what he has described as the worst trade deal in history.

While his message that NAFTA costs American jobs has played well with his base, the US business sector and many big players in his own Republican party are opposed to sweeping changes.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal last month he would be "a little bit flexible" on his threat to withdraw from NAFTA because he understood the Mexican elections were complicating the negotiations.

- Battle over car parts -

A series of thorny issues will be on the table in Mexico City.

Story continues

One is rules of origin for the auto sector -- the amount of a car's content that must be produced in the region for it to qualify for duty-free status.

The United States wants to increase the North American content requirement from 62.5 percent to 85 percent, and add a new requirement for a minimum of 50 percent US-made content.

Mexico, Canada and the automakers all reject that proposal.

At the last round of talks, Canada made a counter-proposal that would accept the new content requirement but change the way "content" is counted, including intellectual property and new technology in the calculation.

Lighthizer bluntly rejected the idea.

Guajardo has said Mexico is working on a compromise solution.

However, the head of Mexico's automobile manufacturers' association, Eduardo Solis, played down expectations of a Mexican-led breakthrough.

"The Mexican auto industry has no particular stance in this round. We aren't proposing anything different than what we have already said, which is that the rules of origin in the original NAFTA should be maintained," he told Mexican newspaper Reforma.

Still, analysts are generally optimistic the deal will survive.

"We still think the most likely scenario is a successful renegotiation, due to the fact that the agreement is positive for all three economies and the supply chains are tightly linked," Santander bank said in a note.(ST. LOUIS)  A St. Louis grand jury has indicted Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens on a felony invasion of privacy charge for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair in 2015, the city circuit attorneys office said Thursday.

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner launched an investigation in January after Greitens admitted to an affair with his St. Louis hairdresser that began in March 2015. He was elected governor in November 2016. Gardner declined comment beyond a brief news release.

Greitens attorney issued a scathing statement challenging the indictment.

In 40 years of public and private practice, I have never seen anything like this, attorney Edward L. Dowd Jr. said in a statement. The charges against my client are baseless and unfounded. My client is absolutely innocent. We will be filing a motion to dismiss.

The indictment states that on March 21, 2015, Greitens photographed a woman identified only by her initials in a state of full or partial nudity without her knowledge or consent. The indictment said Greitens transmitted the image contained in the photograph in a manner that allowed access to that image via a computer.

The penalty for first-degree invasion of privacy in Missouri is up to four years in prison.

Greitens was taken into custody in St. Louis and released on his own recognizance, said Susan Ryan, a spokeswoman for Gardner.

In 2015, the woman told her husband, who was secretly taping the conversation, that Greitens took the compromising photo of her at his home and threatened to use it as blackmail if she spoke about the affair. Gardners news release said it is a felony if a person transmits an image in a manner that allows access to that image via a computer.

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Greitens has repeatedly denied blackmailing the woman, but has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether he took a photo.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe, a Jefferson City Republican, said he was shocked by the indictment and called it certainly serious, but said he needed time to review it before weighing in on whether the governor should step down.

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Democrats were more forceful in their comments.

House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty said in a statement it will be extremely difficult for the governor to effectively do his job with a felony indictment hanging over his head. While the criminal justice system must run its course, the governor needs to consider whether remaining in office under these circumstances is the right thing to do for not only himself and his family but for the people of Missouri.

Another Democrat, state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed of St. Louis, called for an impeachment process to begin immediately.

Gov. Greitens has to go, Nasheed said. Missourians thought they voted for a person of character and integrity, and instead they got a liar and alleged criminal.

Greitens is due in court for his first hearing on March 16, before Circuit Judge Rex Burlison.

Greitens will be allowed to travel. He is scheduled to be in Washington this weekend for a meeting of the nations governors. It wasnt immediately clear if he would still go.

The indictment came about a month before the statute of limitations would have run out. The statute of limitations for invasion of privacy in Missouri is three years.

Ryan, asked if additional charges could be filed, said the matter is still under investigation. Several lawmakers were questioned this week by investigators from Gardners office. Kirksville Republican Rep. Nate Walker said investigators asked him about so-called dark money campaign contributions that are routed through nonprofits to hide their source.

Greitens, 43, is a brash outsider whose resume as a Rhodes Scholar and Navy SEAL officer made him a rising star in Republican politics. He admitted to the affair on the night of Jan. 10, shortly after he delivered the State of the State address to lawmakers.

At least five Republican legislators and several Democrats called for Greitens to step down after he admitted to the affair. He has said he will not resign.

Greitens emerged the winner in a crowded and expensive GOP primary before defeating the states attorney general, Democrat Chris Koster, in the November 2016 election to give Republicans control of the governors mansion for the first time in eight years.

Despite the partys strengthened clout in Jefferson City, there have been frequent clashes between lawmakers and Greitens, who compared them to third-graders and labeled them career politicians.

He has also faced criticism from some educators and lawmakers for working to pack the State Board of Education with members who would fire the education commissioner, as the governor wanted. Greitens also was investigated by for his use of a secretive app that deletes messages.

A former boxer and martial arts expert, Greitens portrayed himself as a maverick during the campaign. He responded to a Democratic attack ad with one of his own in which he fired more than 100 rounds from a machine gun as an announcer declared hed bring out the big guns to fight Democratic policies championed by then-President Barack Obama.

He joined the Navy in 2001 and as a SEAL officer was wounded in Iraq six years later. He also served as a White House fellow, founded a nonprofit organization for veterans and authored a best-selling book.

His charity, The Mission Continues, faced scrutiny during the campaign when Democrats accused him of insider politics for accessing the donor list to raise about $2 million through its top contributors.

Greitens and his wife, Sheena, have two sons, Joshua and Jacob.I choose the best from whatever is offered to me: Kajal Aggarwal

Action and comedy roles are on the wish list of actor Kajal Aggarwal. "I haven't done action before, I would love to do that. I also love comedies," the actor told journalists in an interview while talking about her dream roles. I personally enjoy watching emotional dramas and love stories. It's more about broadening my experiences," she added.

The Singham actor, who has predominantly worked in Telugu and Tamil films, says her career in Bollywood has not taken a back seat. "I choose the best from whatever is offered to me," she said at the launch of Pond's Starlight perfumed talc. I am open to all languages; I have never seen language as a barrier when it comes to performance, when it comes to acting. It's more about the script, story that I am telling, and if I get that in any other language, regional cinema or even international, I will be more than happy to do it."

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan floating his own party is a good thing, she said, while admitting that she does not know much about politics. "We all can totally trust his intentions for the party and I am sure he is going to do a very good job," she said of the versatile actor's recent plunge into politics.



BGR

Jack Black hinted in an interview before the pandemic that he may be ready to give up acting for good. Back in December 2019, he was telling people that after Jumanji: The Next Level, the hyperactive funnyman may give one more movie a go and then call it quits. And if and when that does  The post Jack Blacks best movie ever has returned to dominate Netflix appeared first on BGR.Podgorica (Montenegro) (AFP) - A suicide bomber who blew himself up after throwing a grenade into the US embassy compound in the Montenegro capital Podgorica left a farewell note seeking forgiveness from his family, local media reported Friday.

Montenegrin authorities continued to investigate the motive for Thursday's attack, in which no one else was injured. There have been no indication so far it was linked to terrorism.

Serbia-born Dalibor Jaukovic left a six-page handwritten note asking his family "to forgive him for what he is going to do," the Pobjeda newspaper reported, citing sources close to the investigation.

A veteran of Kosovo's 1998-1999 war, Jaukovic left the note at the house where he lived with his mother and brother, the paper said. He was in his forties.

Local papers also published several posts Jaukovic put on his Facebook page reflecting his anti-NATO views in a country which joined the military alliance last year.

"Montenegro it's a shame that fascists are closer to us than Russians" and "No to NATO," read some of his posts.

Prosecutors said Thursday that so far no evidence was found to link the blast with terrorism.

The small Adriatic state of some 660,000 people joined NATO last May, a decision that provoked violent protests by the pro-Russian opposition in 2015.Most Americans are no longer surprised by mass shootings, according to a new poll released Friday.

Fifty-three percent of respondents in the CBS News poll said they have "come to expect" mass shootings, while 44 percent said they were still surprised by the events. The results were part of a wide-ranging survey on attitudes toward guns and mass shootings in the U.S.

02_23_Florida

REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Trending: Russia, Iran and Syria Face U.S. Pressure and Turkey Military Threat Over New Operations to Win War

More Democrats than Republicans, 59 percent of respondents to 50 percent, said they had come to expect shootings. More Republicans than Democrats, 48 percent to 39 percent, said they were still surprised. The results come after several years of consecutive mass shootings in the country, the latest of which was in Parkland, Florida. A gunman there killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14.

The poll also showed increased support for stricter gun laws in the U.S., with 65 percent of respondents saying they were in favor of tightening general laws covering the sale of guns. That is a record for the CBS polling service. In more specific queries, support was even higher, with 75 percent supporting stronger background check laws.

When it comes to other strategies that have been suggested to prevent mass shootings, Americans are somewhat divided. Forty-four percent of respondents supported allowing more teachers and school officials to carry guns in schools, while 50 percent opposed that plan. A much larger group87 percentsupported more government spending for mental health screenings and treatments to prevent gun violence.

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The poll was conducted by phone, with a random sample of 1,012 adults in the U.S. The margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points.

Story continues

The findings are in line with a poll from Quinnipiac University released on Tuesday, in which 97 percent of Americans voiced support for universal background checks. Even 97 percent of gun owners said so. In that poll, support for gun control was at historic levels for the university's Polling Institute.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekNigel Farage, the former Ukip leader, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference - REUTERS

Nigel Farage has ridiculed the idea he secretly passed information between Donald Trump and the Russians, saying the only link he has to the country is drinking Russian vodka.

Speaking to Republicans on the outskirts of Washington DC, Mr Farage said that campaigning for the Trump campaign was the best decision I ever made in my life.

He told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) that Mr Trump was on course to become a truly great president.

Mr Farage praised conservatives on both side of the Atlantic for having stuffed the establishment in 2016 by electing Mr Trump and backing Brexit.

But he warned against complacency and said that if he had to fight a second referendum campaign on the European Union it would be no more Mr Nice Guy.

The former Ukip leader has built up a right-wing following in the United States after he hit the campaign trail alongside Mr Trump before the US election.

Mr Farage at the Conservative Political Action Conference Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

In recent months he has faced questions over Russian connections after claims he carried a USB stick of information to Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder whose website published the Democratic Party emails.

Mr Farage and his close allies - the businessman Arron Banks and friend Andy Wigmore - have also faced allegations about whether Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum.

Speaking from the conference stage on Friday, Mr Farage gave a lengthy rebuttal to the claims and suggested the only Russian connection he had was found in his drinking habits.

Ive read that actually Im at the centre of an international spiders web. Im the one person connecting Trump, Putin and Julian Assange, Mr Farage said.

Ive been running memory sticks back and forth from the White House and the Kremlin to Assange. And I have to tell you, I hadnt realised Im that important, I really hadn't."

He added: Well let me tell you: Ive never been to Russia, Ive never been to Moscow, Ive never met a Russian operative or agent, Ive never done business in Russia, Ive never taken money from Russia. I may be guilty of drinking the odd Russian vodka.

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But I know, from my own part in this story, that the whole thing can be summed up by a simple term. It is just fake news. Mr Farage also praised Mr Trump as exceeding expectations as president, saying he had proved wrong critics who said he would embarrass America.

He said the biggest single danger to those huge victories that were achieved back in 2016 is complacency and urged conservatives to get out for Mr Trump in the mid-term elections.

Mr Farage said: We have managed to change the course of history. But what we now have to do is to make sure that change of direction, that change of history, is not just a short-term phenomenon.By Ola Lanre

DAPCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Parents of schoolgirls newly abducted in northeastern Nigeria plan to join the Bring Back Our Girls movement that gained global prominence in a bid to win freedom for their girls, a community leader said on Friday.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is suspected to have kidnapped scores of girls on Monday from a school in Dapchi village, Yobe state. Most are thought to be teenagers.

It would be the largest mass abduction since Boko Haram took more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014, sparking an online campaign that went viral and spurring several governments into action to try and find them.

Many of those girls remain in captivity, though some have escaped or been ransomed.

A roll-call at the school in Dapchi on Tuesday showed 91 students were absent, though estimates of the number of missing range from around 50 to more than 100. Parents said they have set up a committee in the village, which is around 100 kilometres (62 miles) from state capital Damaturu.

"We have compiled 105 names of missing girls which we intend to give to the Bring Back Our Girls people in (the capital) Abuja," said committee chair Bashir Alhaji Manzu, whose teenage daughter, Fatima Bashir, is missing.

The group would present its case to President Muhammadu Buhari, he said, adding that the group was angry with the government's response to the kidnapping.

Boko Haram wants to create a state adhering to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Its name roughly translates as "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language widely spoken in northeast Nigeria.

The group has killed more than 20,000 people and put over 2 million to flight since its insurgency began in 2009.

On Friday, Buhari said he was sending more troops and reconnaissance aircraft to look for them.

"This is a national disaster," he said. "We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain." Earlier this week Buhari sent security forces and a ministerial team to the area.

Story continues

"Some ministers came but they didn't even speak with any parent, principal or teachers of the school," he said.

In a further sign of community anger, villagers confronted a convoy carrying Yobe state governor on Thursday when he said 76 girls reported to have been rescued were in fact still missing.

Amina Usman, a 15-year-old student, was among the pupils who escaped the attack on Government Girls Technical College.

She said she was washing when she heard gun fire and saw what appeared to be soldiers in vehicles. She fled when she realised that they were attackers and ran into the bush, later meeting a teacher and other escapees.

"We met other girls and the teacher counted all of us. We were 65 girls in all .... I thought I will never see my parents or family again," she said, adding that she was too scared to return to the school.

Kachalla Bukar, whose 14-year-old daughter was among those missing, said he had been told the insurgents fooled some students into thinking they had come to offer protection.

"When we went to school on Tuesday she was not among girls that have been found. Her colleagues ... gave us our daughter's school box with her personal belonging .... That was when we realised our daughter is actually missing," he said.

(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja and Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)More than a dozen companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) as a boycott campaign gathers pace in the aftermath of the school shooting in Florida earlier this month.

The firms range from car rental companies such as Hertz to insurance firms like U.S. corporation MetLife.

After Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his former school, on February 14, calls have grown for corporations to end agreements with the gun lobby whose aim it is to keep in place the gun laws that allowed Cruz to buy his AR-15 assault rifle.

Trending: Support For Stricter Gun Control Laws Reaches 25-Year High

Many of the terminated agreements include the companies no longer giving discounts to NRA members, a perk that attracted them to join the association. Hertz tweeted Friday: "We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRAs rental car discount program with Hertz."

Companies are throwing themselves headfirst into the gun debate by having agreements in place with the NRA. Just as ending the agreements will risk sparking anger among conservative supporters, it could attract customers who had previously felt they could not part with their cash to a company that supported one of the most powerful but divisive organizations in the U.S.

As the companies ended their agreements, their tweets went viral on social media platforms such as Twitter, garnering tens of thousands of retweets.

So have hashtags initiated by activists, including #BoycottNRA. Other companies being pressured but yet to announce any action include Amazon, FedEx and Visa.

02_24_Hertz_NRA

Justin Sullivan/Getty

One of the cancellations applauded by pressure groups was that of Chubb Insurance, which ended its legal cover, known as NRA Carry Guard, for gun owners who shoot someone then say they did so in self-defense.

For years, the NRA has pushed to allow guns for anyone, anywhere, anytimeno questions asked. With Carry Guard, the NRA has figured out how to profit from gun owners who are concerned about being accused of murder. Carry Guard is a danger to the American public, pure and simple, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Story continues

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Mass shootings have always rallied anger and calls for change to gun laws, but that feeling appears to have been magnified after the Parkland massacre.

Politicians have ramped up their calls for changing legislation in the country. Among them is Flordia Governor Rick Scott, who supports raising the minimum age for gun purchases from 18-years-old to 21.

President Donald Trump has said his administration would take measures that would ban the bump stock accessory that can convert a semi-automatic weapon into one that fires like an automatic weapon with the ability to fire hundreds of rounds a minute. It is the same accessory used by Stephen Paddock in his Las Vegas massacre in October last year that left more than 50 people dead.

The full list of companies to have boycotted the NRA so far:

Alamo Rent a Car

Avis

Allied Van Lines

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Bestwestern

Budget

Chubb Insurance

Delta Air Lines

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

First National Bank of Omaha

Hertz

MetLife

North American Van Lines

Paramount Rx

SimpliSafe

Symantec

TrueCar

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Rifle Association (NRA) on Friday honored the head of the Federal Communications Commission with a rifle after braving death threats and other opposition as he worked to undo the Obama administration's 2015 net neutrality rules.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was honored at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Maryland, by the NRA with the "Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award," an honor named for the late actor who was an NRA president.

The award is a Kentucky long rifle that will stay at the NRA's museum in Fairfax, Virginia. The NRA was not allowed to bring the weapon on stage, said Carolyn Meadows, an NRA official.

It was not immediately clear why the NRA was not able to present the long gun to the FCC chairman. The FCC, CPAC and the NRA did not immediately respond to questions.

A Reuters reporter at the event said there were no visible prohibitions against weapons at the event but metal detectors were present before President Donald Trumps address earlier on Friday.

At the event, Pai defended his aggressive approach to undoing numerous telecommunications regulations put in place under former President Barack Obama.

"Some people urged me to go for sacrifice bunts and singles and try to nibble around the edges  make some minor changes," Pai said. "But I don't play small ball."

Pai canceled his appearance in January at a large consumer electronics event in Las Vegas after receiving deaths threats, sources told Reuters.

The repeal of the net neutrality rules was a victory for internet service providers like AT&T Inc , Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc , conferring power over what content consumers can access and allowing them to offer paid fast lanes for certain content.

On the other side, technology companies including Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc have thrown their weight behind the congressional bid to reverse the net neutrality repeal.

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On Thursday, 22 state attorneys general filed sued to block the repeal.

Fight for the Future, a group that backs net neutrality, said in a tweet the NRA gave Pai an award that will "allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to censor websites and information about guns."

Several corporations have cut ties with the NRA after the group launched a counter-offensive against a student-led campaign for tighter U.S. gun ownership laws after a gunman killed 17 people at a Florida high-school.

Insurer Chubb Ltd said on Friday that it would stop underwriting an NRA-branded insurance policy for gun owners that covers legal costs in self-defense shootings. Insurance company MetLife Inc ended an auto and home incentive program for NRA members, while several rental car companies announced they were ending discount programs for NRA members.



Related Video:





Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



(This version of the story corrects "Oxon Hills" to Oxon Hill.)

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Additional reporting by James Oliphant in Oxon Hills, Maryland; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)Sunny Leone on her Tamil film debut: I'm beyond excited to start shooting

Former adult film actress Sunny Leone made a swift move into the Hindi film industry in 2012. And now the Indo-Canadian actress is all set to make her debut in a Tamil film. She says south Indian films would help her grow as a person and an actress. Sunny, whose real name is Karenjit Kaur Vohra, will be launched in the Tamil film industry with the upcoming film Veeramdevi.

Asked if she agrees that working in a south Indian film will help to broaden her reach, Sunny told IANS in an e-mail interaction: "Yes, I agree that this film will help me grow as a person and as an actress. Being able to learn about a completely different culture is something that I like a lot and enjoy." But won't there be a language barrier?

"It will be challenging, but I am not worried about learning it for this film. I am actually very excited about this whole process," she said about the film in which she will play a warrior princess. "That is something that I have always wanted to do. The amount of effort that has gone into this character is amazing and I'm beyond excited to start shooting. I will be taking riding lessons in Los Angeles and in India. And, of course, I will be attending workshops to learn Tamil," she added.

The actress does not want to limit herself to Hindi and south Indian films. She is interested in working in other regional language films as well.

(Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images)

On Thursday, Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association and unofficial leader of Americas largest cult, took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting in Washington, D.C.

In another universe  or maybe even just in another nation  one might imagine that the leader of the countrys largest gun organization giving an address less than one week after yet another school shooting had left 17 people dead would appear circumspect, contrite, even ashamed.

Instead, LaPierre was defiant.

Railing against the media and the growing socialist state, LaPierre vowed that the NRA would not retreat from its defense of gun rights. And as a student-led movement for gun control continued to build in Florida and across the nation, LaPierre depicted the NRA as the best protector of vulnerable children. Evil walks among us, LaPierre said, and God help us if we dont harden our schools and protect our kids.

This is the fantasy that the NRA has peddled for decades and that has created our current nightmare. But the NRAs delusion exposes not only its moral rot, but also its continual turn from its own history. Begun as an organization devoted to education and safety, its only in the last 50 years that the NRA has instead dedicated itself to preserving the very circumstances that most endanger Americans lives today, especially the nations schoolchildren.

In 1871, the NRA was founded by William Church, a lawyer, and George Wingate, a former newspaper reporter. Wingate explained his new organizations purpose as working to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis.

To that end, the NRA operated mostly as a sporting club and hunting association for its first 100 years. It put a heavy emphasis on gun safety education and training, especially for young people. Church and Wingate had been inspired to create their organization in part from their experience as soldiers during the Civil War, where they had been appalled by the poor marksmanship skills of their fellow fighters. Guns were dangerous, especially in untrained hands, the two men understood. The NRA organized safety clinics and target-shooting competitions to teach young men (and later women) proper gun use and the obligations of responsible firearm ownership.

Story continues

Guns were also dangerous in the wrong hands, so the NRA often supported gun control laws in the first half of the 20th Century. It backed the National Firearms Act of 1934 and, four years later, the Federal Firearms Act, plus a host of measures at the state level. These various laws, among other things, required licenses for gun dealers, levied heavy taxes on machine guns, instituted waiting periods for buying handguns and mandated permits for concealed weapons.

All of this work  education, safety training and gun control advocacy  represented the NRAs sense of the limits of gun ownership and the organizations obligation to protect Americans from gun violence in all its forms. Occasionally, the NRA also opposed gun control laws it saw as unnecessary or excessive, but it rarely invoked gun rights as the basis for doing so. As one scholar has noted, any mention in the NRAs publications and pronouncements of the Second Amendment was glaringly absent before the early 1960s.

All of that changed during the cultural upheaval of the late 1960s and 1970s. Citing rising crime rates and social unrest as their rationale, a band of gun rights hardliners wrested control of the NRA from the old guard safety and sporting advocates.

Amid the eras rights revolution, the NRAs new leaders put forward a new right of their own, one they claimed had been there since the nations founding. (Its no small point that the NRA promotes itself as Americas longest-standing civil rights organization.) The Second Amendment, the NRA now argued, gave individuals an absolute right to gun ownership, one that the federal government couldnt limit in any way. It was a radical reinterpretation of what had been the common perception of the amendment for nearly two centuries.

With its talk of rights, freedom and self-defense, the NRA has presented itself as the tireless defender of embattled gun owners for nearly half a century. The truth, however, is that such language has given cover for the modern NRAs real work as the craven lobbyist of gun manufacturers.

Gun enthusiasts view Sig Sauer rifles at the National Rifle Association's annual meetings and exhibits show in Louisville, Kentucky on May 21, 2016. (Photo: John Sommers II / Reuters)

Americans buy more firearms when they believe their guns are about to be taken away, a paranoia the NRA has been all too eager to exploit. (In the perverse pattern that now plays out after nearly every mass shooting in the United States, gun sales have increased in the week since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, for exactly this reason.) While the NRA warns gun owners that the Second Amendment is under attack, it stokes fears that help line the pockets of their gun manufacturing friends.

In return, gun manufacturers generously reward the NRA with vital funds. Those dollars represent a significant departure from the organizations early years when it routinely touted its independence from corporate interests, but its a necessary arrangement now as the NRA experiences decreasing membership. A 2013 report found that gun makers had given the NRA between $20 and $52.6 million in the previous eight years alone. The NRA also regularly makes money from some gun companies that give a portion of their sales to the organization.

When politicians argue that the only solution to mass shootings is arming more Americans, they play directly into the hands of the NRA and gun companies alike. They also reveal how completely the NRA, supported by self-interested gun makers, have limited Americans imaginations about what is politically possible when it comes to gun violence.

All of this is a result of the symbiotic relationship that has been highly profitable for both the NRA and for gun makers. But for thousands of Americans, it must be remembered, the cost has been deadly.

Neil J. Young is a historian and author of We Gather Together: The Religious Right and the Problem of Interfaith Politics. He hosts the history podcast Past Present.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Oprah Winfrey has said she decided not to hit back at Donald Trumps late night Twitter rant about her because she does not like giving attention to negativity.

The US President labelled the talk show host, who is rumoured to be considering a presidential bid, insecure in social media posts earlier in the week. He said he hoped Winfrey would throw her hat into the presidential ring in 2020 so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!

The world leader was commenting after watching her interview on 60 Minutes  a political panel discussion shown on US broadcaster CBS News.

Just watched a very insecure Oprah Winfrey, who at one point I knew very well, interview a panel of people on 60 Minutes, Mr Trump tweeted.

Winfrey has been careful not to say anything disparaging about Mr Trump in response and instead explained that she decided not to rise to his bait.

"I don't like giving negativity power, so I just thought, 'What?'" she told the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

But the media mogul said she watched the segment again to see if the criticism Mr Trump levied at her had any real basis. Winfrey explained producers of the show had even made sure to include an additional response from a Trump supporter at her own request to guarantee balance.

Winfrey was also pressed about Mr Trumps tirade about her on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Displaying Mr Trumps tweet on the screen behind them, Jimmy Kimmel asked: Have you ever been insecure anytime in the last 35 years?

Im trying to think about, have I ever ... Im trying to think when that would be, Winfrey replied.

Asked if she had ever thought about responding to Mr Trump via Twitter, she said: Not a second.

Kimmel replied: I would love to have your password so in case he ever does this again I can take care of this, you know?

But Winfrey remained careful not to explicitly criticise Mr Trump, saying: You dont win by meeting any kind of negativity head-on.

Story continues

Winfrey interviewed seven individuals who voted for Mr Trump and seven who voted against in the interview which the president fiercely criticised. Her line of questioning sparked a heated debate between the ideologically opposed groups in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Winfrey, a Democrat and steadfast supporter of Hillary Clinton, has repeatedly insisted she harbours no ambitions to run for president in spite of rising calls for her to do so.

Winfreys capacity to significantly influence public opinion has been branded The Oprah Effect. The talk show host, who is the first and only black person in the US to become a multi-billionaire, is a significant influencer in the country.

One estimate suggested that her endorsement of Barack Obama between 2006 and 2008 delivered over a million votes in the 2008 Democratic primary race.Lahore (Pakistan) (AFP) - A Pakistani court acquitted 12 men of child sex abuse and blackmail charges on Saturday, the latest verdict in a massive paedophilia scandal that rocked the country in August 2015.

The abuse and extortion scandal, which authorities have called the largest in Pakistan's history, allegedly involved hundreds of victims in Punjab province.

Two of the accused were jailed for life in April last year.

Judge Chaudhry Ilyas acquitted the men of "sexual abuse of a young boy and making a video to blackmail his family," a court official told AFP.

Prosecutors produced 16 witnesses against the accused men, but could not prove the charges, the official said. Another court official confirmed the details.

In the village of Hussain Khanwala in Kasur, southwest of Lahore, videos were made of at least 280 children being sexually abused by a gang who blackmailed their parents by threatening to leak the videos.

The police, who had conspicuously failed to act despite pleas from some parents, eventually made dozens of arrests after clashes between relatives and authorities brought the issue into the media spotlight.

In March 2016, Pakistan's Senate also passed a bill that criminalised sexual assault against minors, child pornography and trafficking for the first time -- previously only the acts of rape and sodomy were punishable by law.

Last week a court handed four death sentences to a man charged with raping and murdering a six-year-old girl, in a case that shocked the country and sparked major riots in his home district.

Imran Ali, 24, was on trial for killing Zainab Fatima Ameen in Kasur last month.

He faces further charges in the cases of at least seven other children attacked in the Punjab city -- five of whom were murdered -- in a spate of assaults that had stoked fears a serial child killer was on the loose.

Ali has confessed to all eight attacks, including the death of Zainab.Japan's military has witnessed a ship-to-ship transfer on the high seas that it

There are growing indications that international sanctions are taking a toll in North Korea, with even paper for the country's main publication running short.

In additional to the problems facing the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper that serves as the mouthpiece of the regime, Pyongyangs hard currency reserves are expected to dry up by October, the trade deficit is continuing to widen, and food and fuel are in increasingly short supply.

The head of South Koreas parliamentary intelligence committee briefed politicians this week on the state of the Norths finances, which have been seriously affected by the freezing of the regimes accounts overseas and a ban on virtually all exports.

Kang Seok-ho, a politician of the opposition Liberty Korea Party, later told Yonhap news that it is clear that the sanctions are having an effect and that Pyongyangs new-found desire for detente with the South is a direct result of the hardships it faces.

Reports from the North are already describing the shortages facing ordinary people as the new arduous march, a reference to the famine in the mid-1990s that claimed as many as 3.5 million lives.

What is Junche? | North Koreas official state ideology

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper has reported that two of the main energy plants that provide power to Pyongyang have been shut down for 10 days so far this year, resulting in shortages and blackouts in parts of the capital.

Coal mines are unable to operate at full capacity due to the shortage of fuel, while any coal that is mined cannot be transported. Imports of coke from China have also been halted, meaning that even the elite of North Korean society are having to put up with no power or heating.

Food rations have been cut by half and there is virtually no white rice available and the price of cooking oil has also soared.

The print run of the Rodong Sinmun has been cut from 600,000 copies a day to just 200,000 newspapers and home deliveries have been cancelled, the Chosun Ilbo reported.

Story continues

North Korea Imports exports

The recent visit to South Korea by a delegation from Pyongyang to the opening of the Winter Olympic Games also inadvertently revealed that North Korean has been cut off from the global satellite communications network for air traffic controllers after it defaulted on payments eight months ago.

Air traffic controllers at Pyongyangs Sunan International Airport were forced to use a conventional telephone line to inform their counterparts at Incheon International Airport that the flight had departed.

Still resisting the international communitys pressure to get rid of its nuclear arsenal and intercontinental ballistic missiles, however, North Korea is going to ever-greater lengths to obtain the money and materiel that it needs to survive.

North Korea war puff

Chinese and Japanese authorities are cracking down on reports of vessels carrying out illegal ship-to-ship transfers of goods and fuel in the East China Sea, while defectors in South Korea are suddenly receiving messages to send money to the North if they want their relatives they left behind to remain safe.

One defector has said a video was posted on a North Korean propaganda website criticising his escape and threatening his family. In a subsequent phone call, he was told his family was begging him to send them 10 million won (6,650). Others have used middlemen in China to buy rice and send to their relatives in the North, although it is assumed that the money or food does not reach its intended destination.Washington (AFP) - The body of Reverend Billy Graham, a spiritual advisor to several presidents, will lie in the US Capitol Rotunda next week so Americans can pay respect to the globally influential preacher, lawmakers said Thursday.

The rare honor of placing an American's remains in the Capitol is usually reserved for US presidents, military officials and politicians.

Graham, who died Wednesday at age 99, would be only the fourth private citizen so honored, and the first person since US senator Daniel Inouye in 2012.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Graham's remains will lay in the Capitol from February 28 to March 1. A ceremony featuring congressional leaders was being prepared, Ryan said.

"With your approval, we will move forward with these arrangements, so that Americans have this opportunity to pay their respects to Rev Graham before he is laid to rest," Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a letter to Graham's son Franklin.

Graham helped pioneer the role of television evangelist.

The one-time backwoods minister -- who eventually became the world's foremost Christian evangelist -- spread a message of spiritual redemption at tent and stadium revival meetings, in a career that spanned decades.

The last US president to lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda was Gerald Ford in 2007, less than three years after Ronald Reagan received the same honor.Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made his recommendations about transgender troops in a private conversation. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Defense Secretary James Mattis has delivered his recommendations concerning transgender troops to President Donald Trump, the Pentagon confirmed to HuffPost on Friday.

The Secretary of Defense made his recommendation to the White House this morning, said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Dave Eastburn. The recommendation was a private conversation between the secretary and the White House, and the contents of the conversation will remain private.

Reports this week suggested that Mattis would urge Trump to allow transgender troops to remain in the U.S. military, despite the presidents shocking announcement last summer that they would no longer be allowed to serve in any capacity.

In a series of tweets on July 26, 2017, Trump said that after consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow ... Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

He added that the military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Trumps announcement  reportedly a surprise to even Mattis, who was on vacation at the time  triggered nationwide outrage and questions about its legality.

The president issued a memorandum in August outlining the policy change, set to take effect by March 23, 2018. He instructed Mattis to present a plan for implementation with specific directives by Feb. 21.

Eastburn said the secretarys recommendations were delivered two days after that date because Mattis has said that this was an important decision and he wanted to make sure that they made the best recommendation possible, and thats how long it took.

Several federal courts have ruled against the ban and allowed transgender people to enlist in the military this year.

Eastburn said he could not confirm if any policy changes would be announced by March 23.

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The policy will be set forth by the president, and the White House will announce that policy when hes made his decision, Eastburn said. Were not putting a date on it.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he would extend his ban on sending workers to Kuwait to include other countries if investigations showed Filipinos were being seriously abused by employers elsewhere. The Southeast Asian country has suspended the deployment of workers to the Gulf state since last month after Duterte said the abuse was unchecked and had driven several Filipino domestic helpers there to suicide. "We are doing an audit now (to) find out the places where we deploy Filipinos and our countrymen suffer brutal treatment and human degradation," Duterte said in the central province of Iloilo. He was visiting the wake of a Filipino whose body was found this month in a freezer at an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, with signs of torture. The killing was the final straw for Duterte, who asked commercial airlines to help the voluntary repatriation of workers from Kuwait. The Philippine Senate began an inquiry on Wednesday into deaths and abuse of Filipino workers. More than 2 million Filipinos are working in Kuwait and other Middle East countries, including Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but many cases of abuse have also been reported elsewhere. They often work as domestic helpers, construction workers, engineers and nurses. Kuwait has sought to mend diplomatic ties by inviting Duterte to visit, its state news agency KUNA said on Monday. The Philippine labor ministry wants Kuwait to be able to assure safety of Filipinos before the ban can be lifted. Duterte said a list of both reported and unreported cases of mistreatment of Filipino migrant workers would be prepared, which he described as "a long, long task", without mentioning any timetable. He said he would not speculate on the countries to which the worker ban could be extended. Filipinos abroad sent home last year a record high $28.1 billion in cash remittances, money that helped fuel spending and sustain robust expansion in one of the world's fast-growing economies. Duterte has said his long-term aim is to slow the exodus abroad by boosting the domestic economy and creating jobs that provide workers with sufficient income. (Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel)President Donald Trump has been clear about one thing: hes vowing to take action in the wake of the massacre at a Florida high school that left 17 dead last week. As for whats going to change for Americas gun laws? Not even White House advisers can figure that out.

Trump sent mixed signals once again when he took the stage here at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday. In a sprawling, campaign-style speech to activists, the President vowed to make it tougher for those with mental illness to buy guns, suggested arming teachers and vowed to defend the Second Amendment from gun foes.

Such has been the pattern from the White House in recent days. A President who was elected with record backing from the National Rifle Association has sprayed a range of muddled ideas. Hes considered raising the age for buying weapons and directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to develop a plan to ban bump stocks, the gadgets that effectively upgrade weapons to automatic ones. Mental health is on the agenda, too, although there are serious worries among health professionals that the tone of the discussion is leaning towards stigmatization and not solutions.

With all these swirling ideas and so few specifics, frustrated White House advisers say theyve had a difficult time sussing out what the President wants. As is so often the case, Trump seems most persuaded by the coverage on cable news. And at this moment, much of it includes stories from survivors.

If the plan is a mess at the White House, its a disaster in Congress. Lawmakers are due back from recess next week and theres no clear vision for how to take up the gun issue. Clearly, the public is on board for action of some variety: in a new CBS News poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans said they supported stricter laws on gun sales, up eight percentage points from December, and the rise has come primarily from Republicans and independents. Yet its not clear theres much enthusiasm in the GOP Congress to do anything substantial.

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Republicans are facing an uphill climb to preserve their majority in the House, as well as a battle to maintain the Senate. Alienating pro-gun voters is a surefire way to suppress enthusiasm among a bloc that reliably votes for Republicans. The NRA still strikes fear in many officials stomachs.

On top of that, the two men who control their chambers are steadfast defenders of gun rights. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is an avid hunter. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky hoisted a gun over his head years ago at the same conference Trump addressed on Friday. Neither has much of an appetite for taking up gun restrictions, although they havent yet told their caucus to knock off talks on the issue. In calls with the President, they were open to hearing his ideas but did not pledge action.

Here at CPAC, the messages about guns have been scattershot. At a visit on Thursday, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre blamed the media for the school shootings and said Democrats sought to exploit the deaths for partisan gains. Minutes later, Vice President Mike Pence was on the stage to declare school safety was atop the agenda. (Hosting Governors at his residence the next day, Pence said the time has come for us to work together to find new and renewed ways to put the safety and security of our children and our schools first.) By the afternoon, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas cast the debate as one rooted in activists over-reach. The Lefts answer is always, always, always to strip your Second Amendment rights, Cruz said.

The next day, Trump was on stage praising the NRA. Theres nobody that loves the Second Amendment more than I do. And theres nobody that respects the NRAtheyre friends of mine, they backed us all, theyre great people, theyre patriots. Back at the White House, the President said he spoke with Ryan and McConnell about banning bump stocks and beefing up background checks, two ideas that stray from party orthodoxy. Theres a movement to get something done, the President said.

Washington is familiar with such talk, of course, only to watch the push for new gun laws fall short. But this time the momentum doesnt seem to be fading. The survivors are organized, vocal and demanding action. On top of that, the fact so many of the students hit the record buttons on their phones made it possible to see what it was like inside Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Were not going to let this happen again, the President told reporters in the White Houses East Room. Its a dangerous promise, since even the biggest efforts to stop another shooting can never guarantee success. Trump says hes determined to take steps to fix one of Americas intractable problems. Its just not clear how.President Donald Trump has again blasted Sen. John McCain for voting against the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act last summer  but did not once call him by name.

Were having tremendous plans coming out now, healthcare plans, at a fraction of the cost, that are much better than Obamacare, Trump said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Then, motioning a thumbs down,  which is what McCain did when he voted against the bill last summer  Trump continued, And except for one senator who came into the room at 3 in the morning and went like that, we could have had health care too.

Remember  one person walked into a room when he was supposed to go this way, Trump added, giving a thumbs up sign, and he walked in and went this way [thumbs down] and everyone said, What happened? What was that all about? Who was that? I dont know, I dont know, I dont want to be controversial so I wont use his name. What a mess.

McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in 2017, and is currently undergoing treatment. He flew in from Arizona just days after his diagnosis for votes on healthcare reform, and made the surprising decision to vote against the bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which effectively killed its chance of becoming law.

Trump has criticized McCain before on this vote, tweeting in September that the Arizona Senator let his state down with his decision.

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Trump was harshly rebuked in 2015 when he said the Vietnam veteran, who was taken prisoner during the war, wasnt a hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured, Trump said at the time.

McCain has also been critical of Trump, although recently that criticism has been veiled, making it obvious who the target is without mentioning the president by name. Last November, for instance, McCain cited high income people who used medically diagnosed bone spurs to avoid getting drafted into the Vietnam War, which is what President Trump did.

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McCains daughter Meghan told Politico earlier this month that Trump had called her to say he would withhold criticism of her father.

I dont believe he would go there again, Meghan McCain told Politicos Women Rule podcast. I dont think at this point in his administration it would be beneficial to him in any way.

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Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.Readers Forum

Save Sundarbans from humans :

Bangladesh celebrated "Sundarbans Day" on February 14. The largest mangrove forest in the world, the Sundarbans provides sanctuary for a large number of animals. The forest also shields millions of people living in coastal districts from cyclones and other natural disasters. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sundarbans also attracts tourists from both home and abroad.

However, poor management by the authorities and insensitive human activities have put the forest in danger. It has become a haven for traffickers and poachers who steal trees and animals from the forest. To protect Sundarbans, we must save its ecology. Its natural purity must be preserved in order to prevent its destruction. To do so, we need, first of all, to protect it from ourselves - the humans.



Amdadul H Sarker

By e-mailIn ancient Rome, castrated priests sacrificed animals in a theater that housed a cave to the underworld, also known as the "Gate to Hell." But the priests didn't use knives or other human-made weapons to kill the beasts; rather, the victims suffocated on a deadly gas seeping from the cave, a new study finds.

To ancient onlookers who didn't know the origins of the deadly gas  volcanic carbon dioxide (CO2)  the entire act likely looked supernatural, the researchers said.

"More than 2,000 years ago, these phenomena could not be explained scientifically, but only by the imagination of supernatural forces from Hadean depths or well-meaning gods," the researchers wrote in the study. [Photos: The Secret Passageways of Hadrian's Villa]

Scientists with the Italian Archaeological Mission excavated the Gate to Hell during an archaeological dig between 2011 and 2013, in southwestern Turkey's ancient city of Hierapolis. The archaeologists recognized the ruins as a Plutonium, a sanctuary of the gods of the underworld  Pluto and Kore. (In ancient Greece, these gods were known as Hades and Persephone.). The cave, or grotto, sat below the theater.

The Plutonium and a famous Apollo temple in the region are located on top of a fault line that emits deadly levels of CO2. It's possible that ancient herders learned about these toxic CO2 vapors when their animals got ill or died after venturing too close to the vents. This would have prompted priests to build temples and sanctuaries on top of these mysterious spots, said study lead researcher Hardy Pfanz, a volcano biologist at the University of Duisburg-Essen, in Germany.

Sites that release high levels of CO2 are called mofettes. And the mofette in Turkey is hardly the only one used by ancient priests, he said.

"The ancient gates to hell (which we are studying in southern Italy, western Turkey and Greece) are sometimes located directly on CO2-emitting mofette sites," Pfanz told Live Science in an email.

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But ancient people likely didn't know it was CO2 that enabled the priests to sacrifice the animals. Instead, as ancient writings by philosophers Strabo and Plinius indicate, people thought the breath from Pluto's hound Kerberos (the multiheaded dog that guards the gates to the underworld in Greek mythology) caused the strange, deadly vapors.

"As the three-headed hell-hound Kerberos is guarding the entrance to Hades, this makes sense: Kerberos was thought to have an extremely toxic and life-threatening breath," Pfanz said.

70 dead beetles

The researchers used a portable gas analyzer system to study the CO2 levels at the Plutonium. But even without the equipment, the dead animals in the grotto signaled the deadliness of the gas.

"The great number of corpses of insects and birds corroborated the existence of a deadly CO2 gas lake in front of the grotto," the researchers wrote in the study. "On our first day, two dead birds and more than 70 dead beetles were found asphyxiated at the floor."

Moreover, the researchers heard "locals report on dead mice, cats, weasels and even asphyxiated foxes," they wrote. Usually, these deaths happened during the dark evening and morning hours, they noted.

That's because the grotto had an actual CO2 lake, and the lake's gas levels change over the course of each day. "[The gas] was high in the early morning hours, was destroyed by the infrared of the sunlight, and thus very low during bright days, and increased again in the evening hours (around sunset)," Pfanz said. "Sacrificing bulls and goats must therefore have been carried out only in the morning or evening hours (or on cloudy days)." [Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire]

Priestly secret

The priests likely knew another secret: The deadly vapors only reached so high. While a beast would expire in the grotto within minutes, the priest could stand on a tall stone, allowing him to breathe far enough away from the source of the deadly gas, the researchers found.

"At this height, they could stand for 20 to 40 minutes without being endangered," Pfanz said.

But the priests weren't entirely out of danger. The CO2 concentrations were well above 60 percent to 80 percent at both the Apollo temple and the Plutonium, and humans can get dizzy at CO2 concentrations between 5 percent and 8 percent, Pfanz said. At higher concentrations, humans can asphyxiate, he said.

Audience members, however, were likely safe. The CO2 lake never got higher than about 5 feet (1.5 meters). Moreover, CO2 is heavier than air, so it stayed at the bottom of the grotto.

"From the seating rows (for hundreds of pilgrims), one could see the things happening down in the arena without being endangered," Pfanz said. "The pilgrims threw small birds into the gas lake and watched how they died."

The study was published online Feb. 12 in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's RecommendationsPresident Trump announced new sanctions aimed at reining in North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

If Washington's ultimate objective is deterring aggression and preventing war, this new set of sanctions will not help that outcome.

This action won't work without hard-nosed challenging diplomacy.

President Donald Trump on Friday announced , "the largest North Korea -related sanctions tranche" ever, which was "aimed at disrupting North Korean shipping and trading companies." If Washington's ultimate objective is deterring aggression and preventing war, this new set of sanctions will not help that outcome .

There are realistically only two ways to accomplish the denuclearization of the peninsula. One is through hard-nosed, challenging diplomacy and the other through the launching of a brutal and bloody preventive war. It is a virtual certainty that launching a preventive military strike will incite a major retaliatory attack by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un .

The all-out war that would likely result could see millions die and might prompt Kim to attack U.S. interests directly. Should the United States decide to press for a full World War II-style unconditional surrender by Kim, we could eventually win by virtue of our overwhelming advantage in industrial and technological capacity. But the cost to our country would be radically out of proportion to what would be gained.

But make no mistake  there will be no war unless Washington starts one. We have an overwhelming conventional and nuclear deterrent to check any aggression by the far weaker North Korea. That provides ample time to achieve our immediate security objectives  making sure Kim never uses his weapons  while providing all the time we need to pursue diplomacy.

Although senior officials often claim the U.S. seeks a diplomatic solution, actions indicate otherwise. We are not presently conducting genuine diplomacy. We are merely taking "actions" devoid of a coherent strategy designed to attain a rational objective. "Maximum pressure" will likely result in only a hardening of North Korea's resolve to maintain what they see as their lifeline to survival: their nuclear deterrent.

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The Trump administration made commendable progress last September when it got the entire United Nations Security Council to back meaningful and severe sanctions . They were further strengthened in November .

One could argue they helped lay the groundwork that prompted Kim to seek dialogue with South Korean President Moon. It can be assumed that North Korea is attempting to use the goodwill of the Olympic games to its advantage, but the U.S. and our allies don't have to play by North Korean rules. We must use our leverage to and our position of strength to negotiate with weak, yet brutal, North Korea to end the standoff on the peninsula.

However, if there is no discussion, if there are no established means of communication, diplomacy is, by definition, impossible; in its absence, war becomes the only outcome. Fortunately, there is a viable, rational alternative.

National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster has said many times that we are " running out of time " to find a solution. To the contrary, the United States holds all the most powerful cards. Unblinking deterrence and relentless diplomacy can achieve U.S. objectives at a justifiable cost. Powerful deterrence buys us time for diplomatic success.

Another fallacy often put forward: if we don't hurry, Kim will threaten America with nuclear blackmail and reunite the peninsula under his command. That fear is misplaced, and in fact illogical. First, the South Korean military is far, far superior to the North Korean armed forces, and by themselves could likely repel such an attack.

What the United States should therefore do is engage in a rational, logical, and powerful two-part strategy: communicate determined deterrence through our superior fire power to ensure the safety of the United States and our allies, and engage in relentless diplomacy. It would take many years of consistent application, but this strategy would keep America safe and prevent the deaths of thousands, if not millions.

The bottom line is there will be no war on the Korean peninsula unless we light the fuse. Let us instead exploit our economic, diplomatic, and military strengths to pursue a realistic strategy that keeps America safe.

Commentary by Daniel L. Davis, a senior fellow for Defense Priorities and a former Army lieutenant colonel who retired in 2015 after 21 years, including four combat deployments. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLDavis1 .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

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By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) - Rome's ancient Colosseum was lit in red on Saturday in solidarity with persecuted Christians, particularly Asia Bibi, a woman condemned to death under Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Hundreds gathered on a rainy night outside the Roman amphitheatre that is a symbol of the martyrdom of early Christians to hear the husband and daughter of Asia Bibi. The Catholic woman has been living on death row in Pakistan since 2010, when she was condemned for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbors objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International say the blasphemy law is increasingly exploited by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores. "The aim of the blasphemy laws is crush people who believe differently," Archbishop Nunzio Galantino, secretary-general of the Italian bishops conference, told the gathering. The law does not define blasphemy and evidence might not be reproduced in court for fear of committing a fresh offense. There are no penalties for false accusations. Asia Bibi's case drew international attention after the murder of two politicians who tried to intervene on her behalf. At the Rome gathering, her husband Ashiq Masih said his wife was innocent of blasphemy. "This is just hate against Christians, who are considered impure," he said. The husband and daughter, who broke down in tears as she addressed the group, were earlier received by Pope Francis, who told her: "I think often of your mother and I pray for her". European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, who has been tipped as a possible Italian prime minister after next week's election, said that persecution of Christians was "a genocide". "A message must be sent from this place. It is the duty of Europe to defend these values (of religious liberty) wherever on earth they are trampled on," Tajani said. Rebecca Bitrus, a Nigerian Christian woman who was held for two years after she was abducted by Boko Haram Islamist militants, told of how she was repeatedly beaten and raped. During the event, organised by the Catholic group "Aid to the Church in Need," there were live link-ups with Aleppo, Syria and Mosul, Iraq, both of whose minority Christian populations have been hit hard by wars. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by Alexander Smith)Last year  in a scenario that could double as the plot of a sci-fi flick  U.S. embassy workers in Cuba reported unexplained cognitive problems after hearing strange noises, with some initially saying that a "sonic weapon" was at play.

Now, the mystery deepens, as a new report reveals that while the embassy workers do indeed have symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury, the cause of the injury remains unknown.

In the report, published Feb. 15 in the journal JAMA, a team of doctors at the University of Pennsylvania examined the 21 embassy workers, documenting symptoms similar to those of a concussion, including cognitive impairment, balance issues, hearing problems, sleep issues and headaches. But their findings suggest that none of the proposed causes for these mass brain symptoms (including sonic weapons) really make sense. [The 7 Biggest Mysteries of the Human Body]

As Live Science previously reported, the workers heard loud, strange noises and felt movement in the air around them  even as others in the room sensed nothing amiss. The noises would stop when an afflicted worker moved even a few feet, according to The Washington Post. But afterward, serious concussion symptoms would emerge.

When the cases were originally reported in the press last year, it was widely suggested that the symptoms might be the result of some sort of "sonic weapon." However, the researchers said that this is unlikely: "Sound in the audible range (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz) is not known to cause persistent injury to the central nervous system," they wrote.

The cases also don't fit the typical patterns of a mass delusion they wrote. Mass delusions typically involve benign symptoms that resolve quickly and appear mostly in older patients. These symptoms were not benign, the patients were broadly distributed in age, and the symptoms did not quickly disappear despite the patients' demonstrated "high levels of effort and motivation" to treat them.

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And although the researchers couldn't rule out viruses or chemical agents as the cause, no typical symptoms of viral infections, such as fevers, accompanied the symptoms. And it's "unlikely," they wrote, that a chemical agent could damage neurological systems without involving other organs  or cause symptoms within 24 hours of arrival in Havana, as was the case for some patients.

The researchers did clarify that the patients' symptoms don't exactly match typical concussions, as the most unusual symptom that they documented was inner-ear damage  something not typically associated with concussions. But an answer to what exactly happened to the affected workers doesn't seem much closer.

Originally published on Live Science.

Editor's RecommendationsThe alliance fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was forced to confront new challenges Friday, as it has faced off with international forces working against its interests in Syria. From the West, the alliance ran into increased pressure against the operation to defeat rebels and jihadis outside Damascusand from Turkey, it confronted a military threat toward allies in Afrin.

Permanent U.N. Security Council member Russia has so far opposed a West-backed initiative to end the violence in eastern Ghouta region outside the Syrian capital for 30 days, arguing that the U.S. has declined to amend the draft resolution in a way that would allow fighters loyal to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and Hayat Tahrir al-Shamthe successor to former Al-Qaeda branch the Nusra Frontto still be targeted. Russia, Iran and Syria have accused the U.S. of shielding the jihadis and rebels that once received CIA backing.

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However, the U.S. has charged the pro-Assad axis with intentionally delaying the vote to continue bombarding the insurgent-held area, which has increasingly drawn concern from human rights groups. Along with jihadi Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Islamist groups Ahrar al-Sham, Failaq al-Rahman and Jaysh al-Islam were also active in the battle against the Syrian military and its allies.

The draft resolution, originally scheduled for Thursday, has once again been postponed for Saturday.

GettyImages-923465048

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

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Citing local sources, a correspondent for Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen, which is supportive of the Syrian government and its allies, wrote Friday on social media that Damascus was planning to announce a plan to evacuate children under the age of 12, men over the age of 60 and all women from eastern Ghouta via recently established safe passages. The correspondent said the Syrian government was awaiting the results of the U.N. Security Council resolution, but it planned to go on fighting ISIS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and their allies.

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Syrian military expert Wael al-Hussaini shared on social media Thursday what appeared to be a Syrian army leaflet that mapped out and instructed civilians on how to cross a humanitarian crossing point, an inspection point, an area for gathering buses and finally a canvasing point.

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In four points, the leaflet instructed civilians to "avoid getting close to the crossing point while armed; stop within eyesight of the checkpoint, raise this leaflet over your head and place your other hand on your head or in the hand of your child; wait for a sign from a member of the Syrian Arab Army, turn around and show your back; face forward and approach the exit slowly."

President Donald Trump said Friday that "what Russia and what Iran and what Syria has done recently is a humanitarian disgrace" and said the U.S.'s only goal in Syria was to defeat ISIS. Last month, however, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Trump planned to keep troops in Syria to also curb Iranian influence.

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GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish alliance of Arab and ethnic minorities supported by a U.S.-led coalition, and the Syrian military, assisted by Russian warplanes and mostly Shiite Muslim militias backed by Iran, have mostly defeated ISIS in separate campaigns that recently clashed with each other in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Despite at least two deadly incidents between the two factions, they have more recently united to defend the northwestern Kurd-held enclave of Afrin from an offensive launched last month by Turkish forces and their rebel allies.

Both the U.S. and Russia have worked closely with Turkey, but Ankara viewed the dominant faction of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), as a terrorist organization over alleged links to a separatist insurgency at home and opposed Assad's leadership as well.

Despite Turkish warnings, pro-Syrian government fighters have been deployed to the frontlines of Afrin to join YPG fighters, who the U.S. said it would not support in any battle that was not against ISIS. Turkey and the insurgent Free Syrian Army continued to exchange fire with the YPG and pro-Syrian government forces, and the Turkish military bombed a Kurdish convoy it said was full of fighters joining the battle for Afrin. Nevertheless, the YPG and Syrian government claimed the convoy was providing humanitarian aid to a region which, along with Ghouta, was suffering from civilian casualties.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekUnited Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia on Thursday said there was no agreement at the UN Security Council on a 30-day ceasefire for Syria and presented amendments to a draft resolution that would allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of civilians from besieged Eastern Ghouta.

The Security Council has been negotiating the draft resolution on the ceasefire for nearly two weeks as the Syrian government has pressed on with a fierce offensive in the rebel-held enclave.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Sweden and Kuwait, which drafted the measure, had requested a vote on the draft resolution even though they are "fully aware there is no agreement on it."

The Security Council needs to reach a "feasible" agreement on a ceasefire and not take a decision that would be "populistic" and "severed from reality," said Nebenzia.

More than 400 people have been killed in the five-day assault by the Syrian government on Eastern Ghouta, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described as "hell on earth" for civilians.

The ambassador cited concerns over measures to enforce the ceasefire and the safe delivery of aid before announcing that he would circulate proposals to amend the draft resolution.

Sweden and Kuwait presented the measure to the council on February 9, but negotiations have dragged on as Syrian forces backed by Russia escalated their fierce offensive.

The United States, France, Britain have called on the council to move to a vote as quickly as possible.

Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog urged the council to back the ceasefire to "avert a situation that is beyond words in its desperation."

The draft resolution would pave the way for the truce to go into effect 72 hours after the adoption of the measure and for aid deliveries and medical evacuations to begin 48 hours after that.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies earlier as saying that Moscow could back the measure if it did not apply to rebel groups who are shelling Damascus.

In a concession to Russia, the draft was amended last week to specify that the ceasefire does not apply to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda, but Lavrov appeared to put forward new demands.

"The resolution that is on the table, we are ready to look at it, but we have offered very precise phrasing that would say that the ceasefire would under no circumstances extend to ISIL, Jabhat al-Nusra and those groups cooperating with them and systemically attacking the residential neighborhoods of Damascus," Lavrov said.Russia has deployed its new advanced stealth fighter, the Su-57, to its Khmeimim air base in Syria.

The conflict offers Moscow the opportunity to battle-test its newest fighter, despite Russian President Vladimir Putins assertion last month that Russia would scale back its Syrian deployment.

The two Su-57 jets were filmed landing at a Russian air base on Syrias Mediterranean coast on Wednesday.

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Exclusive#Russia deploying its brand new fifth generation fighter jet the Su-57 in #Khmemeim AB #Syria



2 Su-57

4 Su-35

4 Su-25

1 A-50U were deployed in the #RuAF AB in Latakia/Jableh today pic.twitter.com/MA4NIKyMW7  Wael Al Hussaini (@WaelAlHussaini) February 21, 2018

The fifth-generation fighter jets appeared in Syrian skies amid a renewal of violence in the seven-year war. Syrian government forces have been bombarding the rebel-held Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, killing hundreds of civilians and drawing international condemnation.

The jets deployment came soon after a Russian ground-attack aircraft was shot down by Syrian rebels in Idlib province on February 3. The Russian pilot ejected from the aircraft but died soon afterward in a ground fight with militants trying to capture him.

The Su-57, also known as the T-50, has been designed to compete with the U.S. F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

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MAXIM ZMEYEV/AFP/Getty Images

"Not in keeping" with Russian drawdown

The addition of fifth-generation fighters into Syria would certainly not be in keeping with Russia's announced force drawdown," said Eric Pahon, Defense Department spokesman, according to Military.com.

"We do not consider these jets to be a threat to our operations in Syria, and will continue to deconflict operations as necessary," he continued.

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Russian-American cooperation in Syria has varied enormously in recent years. The two nations coordinated strikes against Islamic State militant group (ISIS) targets earlier in the war, but their support of different Syrian factions has brought them into direct conflict.

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On February 7, a U.S. airstrike near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor is reported to have killed dozens of Russians. The men were working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm and fighting alongside Syrian government forces. Reuters reported that the total number of people killed in the strike could be as high as 300.

Russian and American jets have also intercepted each other over Syrian territory.

Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told the Guardian, There is some operational merit in doing this, but theres also a publicity element, suggesting Russia might be showing off its new technology to potential buyers such as India.

How involved the jets will be in day-to-day operations is still unclear. On February 8, deputy defence minister Yuriy Borisov said the military [was] beginning combat trials of the Su-57.

If they are used in combat, it could be risky, suggested Ruslan Pukhov, a defense analyst and director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

If I were the minister of defence, I probably wouldnt do it, he told the Guardian. If you lose one of these planes, it could make for big problems. And what happens if the technology falls into the wrong hands?

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ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThere is an old formula in journalism known as the inverted pyramid. You put your biggest stuff at the top, then your next biggest and you just let it taper off.

At the end of big speeches or days in court, reporters go into huddles and decide on a ranking order for the day's revelations, and then write them up in that order.

But its ninety minutes since President Donald Trump stopped speaking now and I still havent got a clue where to start.

Would it be the attack on Senator John McCain over his vote on healthcare reform, even as McCain is at home dealing with brain cancer?

Would it be the poetry recital, casting immigrants as snakes that will only turn on the tender people who care for them?

Would it be the calling out of the apparent cowardice of the police officer in Florida who, armed only with a handgun, did not enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to exchange fire with the man a semi automatic weapon, in the middle of a murderous rampage?

Would it be the ramping up of his deranged solution to this latest horrific manifestation of Americas gun problem? The claim that this police officer didnt act because he didnt love and care for the students like teachers do? And that the solution therefore is to arm the teachers? If the teachers were armed, apparently, they would have shot the hell out of him in a second. Teachers rush in where trained police officers fear to tread.

Maybe it would be the wild ramblings about the apparently forgotten fourteen people who were merely wounded when a terrorist drove a truck down the West Side Highway in Manhattan last year, killing eight people. Only the eight are remembered, in Trumps world. Those who lost an arm, a leg, two legs, we forget them. Do we?

Or maybe its just the outright lies. That rogue foreign states are pressuring their citizens to enter the green card lottery. That its the Democrats that are killing off the dreamers scheme for child immigrants. (Its Trump thats doing that). The $100bn trade deficit with Mexico. The $500bn trade deficit with China.

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The generalised sense that America is turning away from globalisation, and can damage itself and everybody else.

Perhaps it was the wild boast that every time someone tells me I dont really want to build the wall, I say it gets ten feet higher.

In fact, its none of these things. A bizarre old man going on a bizarre long rant almost doesnt matter.

Most of this stuff has been said before, on the campaign trail. But back then, Donald Trump was merely an international laughing stock who definitely wasnt on his way to the White House. Now hes a laughing stock in it, its all a bit less funny.

In fact, it starts with the cheers. The thousands of workaday Americans in a convention hall in Maryland, cheering his every unhinged word. They still want to "lock her up." They still want to "build the wall." America has never seen this like before.

There are midterms coming, but moreso than that. It is hard to escape the sensation that the race for the White House is already underway. And despairing onlookers will again have to accept reality- they face a formidable candidate. And it really doesnt matter what he says.Apples Siri-powered HomePod goes head-to-head against its smart speaker competitors, but cant quite keep up.

There was a time when buying a speaker just meant grabbing a boombox off the shelf of the nearest Radio Shack and rocking out in your room until your parents told you to stop blasting Kenny G, because the neighbors were starting to ask questions.

Today, if youre buying a speaker, chances are itll also double as a smart assistant. And the standouts in this new age of smart speakers also happen to come from the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Im talking, of course, about Apples (AAPL) Siri-powered HomePod, Googles (GOOG, GOOGL) Assistant-powered Home and Amazons (AMZN) Alexa-powered Echo.

The HomePod is easily the best sounding of the group, but I wanted to know how smart they are. So I asked each one seven basic questions ranging from the weather conditions in my area to why my cats meow, and gave them three commands to find out which should apply for a Mensa membership, and which needs to go back to school.

Which one of these speakers gets no respect? (image:  1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

I also added in how many devices each speaker works with and whether you can use the smartphone of your choice with them.

First: the intelligence test!

The intelligence test

Googles Home graduates with honors in this test.

Below are the seven questions and three commands I presented and my findings.

Whats the weather like?

This is the most commonly asked question for smart speakers, so it makes sense that each device was able to provide the weather conditions for New York. Apple HomePod, however, also tells you the source of its weather report, The Weather Channel, which feels unnecessary. Whats on my calendar?

Want to check what appointments youve got coming up today? Well, if youve got the HomePod, youre out of luck. Apples Siri replies with a negative. For whatever reason, the smart assistant cant access your appointments, so youll have to manually check on your phone. Google Home and Amazon Echo can both check your calendar and add appointments. How long will it take to get to work/ home?

Running behind in the morning and want to know if youll get to the office on time? Well, if you ask your HomePod, Siri will give you an estimate for your commute via car, but not by mass transit. The Echo will also give you an estimate via your car, but you have to specifically ask, What does my commute look like?, instead of asking something like How long will it take to get to work? It also wont give you mass transit travel time estimates. Google Home will give you both driving and mass transit options. Can you get me an Uber?

Heading out to the bar with friends and plan to have a few drinks? You can try to ask Apple HomePod to call you an Uber, but unlike its counterpart, the iPhone, Siri on the HomePod cant call you a car. Both Google Home and Amazon Echo can get you an Uber and to the bar with ease. Why do cats meow?

This might not be a common question, but its something Ive wanted to know since I got my two cats. The HomePod, however, left my fluffy friends and I in the dark. The Echo gave me a detailed explanation on the topic, while Google Home gave me an even more detailed answer and cited the source it pulled the information from. Unlike the weather question, for which HomePod provides its source, it makes sense for Google Home to provide you with a source so you can do more research on your own. Where is my phone?

Think youve lost your phone between your couch cushions, but still cant find it? You can ask your HomePod, but dont expect Siri to help you find your precious handset. The Echos Alexa will tell you to download an app to find your device and walk you through the setup process. Google, meanwhile, will call your iPhone or ring your Android phone. How is the stock market?

Say youre doing the dishes, but still want to check how your stocks performed for the day. The HomePods Siri tells you exactly how the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq performed by points and percentage, while the Echos Alexa tells you how the DJI, Nasdaq and S&P performed by points and percentage. Google Home, meanwhile, provides the DJI, the NYSE Composite, and S&P 500. Strangely, the Google Home told me the S&P was down the day I tested it, when the index was actually up, but the closing numbers were correct. Play music on Spotify.

Want to pump up the jam on Spotify with your HomePod? Then Ive got bad news for you, because Apples speaker can only stream music from Apple Music. The Echo and Home can stream from multiple music sources including Spotify.

Add dog food to my shopping list.

Need to get some food for Fido? You can ask HomePod, Echo and Home to add some savory treats for your doggo to your smartphones shopping list. Its quick, easy and painless all around.

Set an alarm.

Have to get up for work in the morning, but already in your comfy bed? No worries, the HomePod, Echo and Home all let you set your alarm using nothing but your voice. So you can stay safe and warm under your blankets.

Winner:

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Amazon Echo and Google Home tie for intelligence, addressing all of the questions asked and commands given. Apple HomePod, however, was only able to complete half of the intelligence test.

Compatibility

Amazon Echo has all of the answers in this competition.

If youre buying a smart home speaker, you likely want it to work with your existing smart home products. Im talking about your smart thermostat, smart coffee maker, smart blender? Whatever it is, you want your new speaker to work with it. So how do these three stack up?

Amazon Echo is compatible with the most devices on the market. The e-commerce giant says its Alexa smart assistant can communicate with 4,000 different smart gadgets in your home. Google says the Homes Google Assistant can talk to 1,500 devices, a significantly smaller number than Amazons offering. Then theres the HomePod and its Siri, which works with hundreds of accessories.

As far as your own smartphone, the Echo and Home work with both Android and iOS devices. The HomePod, however, will only work with iOS devices. So if youre an Android owner, the HomePod isnt for you.

Winner:

Amazon Echo is compatible with Android and iOS, and can communicate with the most smart home devices. That means it takes the top spot in compatibility.

The smartest one in the room

Amazon Echo not only completed all of the commands and answered all of my questions, it also offers the greatest compatibility with other smart home devices. Of the three big smart speakers on the market, Amazon Echo clearly has the biggest brains. Google Home comes in a close second. Sure, it matched Echo in the intelligence test, but it just isnt compatible with as many devices to beat out Amazons offering.

Then theres the Apple HomePod, which is, well lets just say its not too bright. The speaker was only able to successfully complete half of the intelligence test and supports the fewest number of smart home devices. So if youre looking for the smartest speaker around, go for the Amazon Echo.

More from Dan:

Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedInWorld's last remaining wild horses aren't really wild after all

Reuters, Washington :

It may come as a disappointment to equine enthusiasts, but a new genetic study has found that no truly wild horses still exist and that a population inhabiting Mongolian grasslands actually is a feral descendant of the earliest-known domesticated horses.

Przewalski's horse, now numbering roughly 2,000 in Mongolia, was long thought to be the last wild horse meaning no history of domestication, unlike other free-roaming horses like the mustangs of the western United States that descended from steeds brought to North America centuries ago by Spaniards.

But researchers said on Thursday an examination of the genomes of dozens of ancient and modern horses concluded that Przewalski's horse, saved from extinction in the 20th century, descended from horses domesticated in northern Kazakhstan some 5,500 years ago by people in what is called the Botai culture. The research showed that the Botai culture offers the earliest-known evidence for horse domestication, but that their horses were not the ancestors of modern domesticated breeds. "The world lost truly wild horses perhaps hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, but we are only just now learning this fact, with the results of this research," said University of Kansas zoo archaeologist Sandra Olsen, one of the researchers.

The history of people and horses has been intertwined for millennia.

"Horse domestication was a critical innovation," said archaeologist Alan Outram of the University of Exeter in England, who helped lead the study.

"Horse riding was the fastest form of transport for thousands of years, from the Copper Age over 5,000 years ago until the steam train. Even then it was really only the motor car that replaced it on a wide scale. Horses revolutionized human mobility, trade and modes of warfare," Outram added.

Przewalski's horse, named for a Russian who described them in the 19th century, is relatively small and stocky. Like horses depicted in prehistoric cave paintings, it is dun-colored with a dark erect mane. The current population is descended from 15 individuals caught a century ago, with Przewalski's horse later reintroduced into the wild.

Some horses from the domesticated Botai herds escaped and became the feral Przewalski's horse, the researchers said.

"This means that we must continue the search for the true ancestors of modern breeds by gathering samples from places like Ukraine, western Russia, Hungary, Poland and that region," Olsen added.



Police in Russia have arrested the son of a wealthy family who tried to have his parents killed. Instead, the parents turned the tables on him, playing dead and covered in blood in pictures as if the hit the son had ordered went ahead.

According to reports in the Russian media, the 22-year-old man, who has not been named, was caught after he began making inquiries locally for a hitman to kill his parents in the hopes of cashing in early on the inheritance. He later confessed to police he had plotted their murder for some time, choosing to put out the hit because all his other attempts had ended without success.

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The young man approached a friend to ask if he knew where to find a hitman, but the friend immediately informed the parents. The family then alerted the authorities, who assigned an undercover officer pose as an assassin for hire.

The suspect supplied the officer with a map of his home, the details of where security cameras were, and even briefed him on the family dog. The son would pay the hitman the equivalent of $53,000, to be delivered once he provided photographic evidence of the killings.

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The required photographs were arranged with the help of the parents, who agreed to pose for the police in their family home, appearing dead and covered in fake blood.

When the 22-year-old was shown the gruesome photos, which have now been made public, he was reportedly enthusiastic, meeting the police officer in the back seat of a car to hand over the cash. As soon as the transaction was complete, officers pounced on the car, arresting the suspect.

Although he has been living separately from his parents for some time, the man was neither working nor studying, and local media reported that he had made several amateur attempts to kill his family for their money before resorting to a hired hit.

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FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIT/AFP/Getty Images

In one instance, he was reported to have filled a kettle with an assortment of pills in hopes they would kill the family when they drank from it. The father of the family noticed the strange taste of the tea and discarded the water, foiling the plot. Another time, the son tried breaking a small mercury thermometer in his fathers car, thinking the resulting fumes would be enough to kill him. They were not.

On a third attempt, he went to his parents' home with the intention of killing them but found they had visitors and got cold feet.

If he is found guilty, the man faces up to 15 years in prison.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA Southwest Airlines passenger's emotional support dog had to be removed from a flight to Portland, Oregon on Wednesday after the dog bit a child's face.

When the young passenger approached the dog, the animal's "teeth scraped" the child's forehead and caused a minor injury, a Southwest spokesperson told The Independent. Newsweek has reached out to the airline for comment.

The dog and its owner remained at the takeoff location in Phoenix after being taken off the plane, the report stated. An EMT evaluated the child and cleared the passenger to fly to its destination.

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The incident comes after a slew of airlines have tightened restrictions on emotional support dogs, which are able to ride in the plane's cabin with passengers provided the owner carries proper paperwork from a doctor and pays an additional fee. Companion pets are sometimes recommended for people who struggle with PTSD or anxiety disorders.

Southwest

Scott Olson/Getty Images

In recent years, the number of passengers riding with support animals has mushroomed. Last year, for example, passengers flying on United Airlines declared 76,000 animals as emotional support animals, a sharp increase from 43,000 in 2016, a United spokesperson told USA Today.

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Skeptics have argued that the increase is due to passengers attempting to skirt the airlines rules about animal weight and breed restrictions. As it stands, most birds, cats and dogs are approved to fly in the cabin if they are under 20 pounds and can fit in a carrier bag small enough to fit in under the seat, regardless of their medical necessity.

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Proponents of animal-friendly flights have argued that sending crated animals into the baggage compartmentwhere the larger animals typically ridefor long flights is inhumane and cruel; scores of animals die each year while in the baggage compartment, the Department of Transportation reported. The Humane Society of the United States also discourages flying with pets in the cargo load.

01_31_peacock

Instagram/dexterthepeacock

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Earlier this month, Delta and United Airlines also took steps to limit the type of animal that can be considered an emotional support companion and also made adjustments to the type of documentation they require owners to provide, including paperwork that confirms the animal can be well-behaved outside a crate.

The narrowed guidelines come after a slew of bizarre incidents, including one woman attempting to fly on a plane with her "emotional support peacock." and a U.S. Airlines passenger riding with a 300 lbs pig that defecated on the plane. The new rules will go into effect on March 1.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekArguing that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unconstitutionally seized the power to draw new congressional districts away from the state legislature, the two top Republican lawmakers in the state returned to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday night with a plea to block the judge-drawn map. The new request was filed 16 days after a similar plea was rejected by Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

The center of the challenge is the legislative leaders claim that the federal Constitution assigns to state legislatures full authority to devise new election districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, leaving no role for state courts. There are Supreme Court precedents from the past that seem to lean both ways on that question.

While much of the argument in the new filing seems to suggest that the violation of the Constitutions Elections Clause is clear and definite under prior Supreme Court rulings that should dictate the outcome now, the legislators say at one point that they were laying before the Justices an issue of federal law long overdue for definitive resolution by this Court.

One section of the document seeks to counter the historic reality that the Justices seldom will second-guess how a states highest court interprets its own state constitution. It argues that the task of drawing the lines of congressional districts is always a legislative one, so the Pennsylvania court used its power of constitutional interpretation to put itself in position to do the legislative chore itself. It also contends that, from the very beginning, the majority of the state court had no intention of giving the legislature time and opportunity to adopt a valid plan once it had struck down the legislatures 2011 plan, shortening the time to assure the court the option to create its own electoral map.

The filing says that the state court majority did not actually give the legislature guidance on how to remedy the state constitutional flaw it had found until two days before the legislature was ordered to come up with such an alternative. That, too, was intentional, the state GOP legislators concluded.

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The federal constitutional argument under Article Is Elections Clause seeks to rely heavily upon a strict construction of that provision, to appeal to Justices who follow an originalist and textualist approach to the Constitution  past and current conservative Justices. It quotes at length from those Justices prior writings on the Clause.

Although the document was heavily focused on constitutional arguments, it also supplied several other claims to attract the Justices attention: that the court-drawn plan was issued in a form and on a timetable that will cause voter confusion and polling place chaos in this years elections, that the court at the last minute came up with a plan for proportional representation of seats among the two major parties, and that it belatedly devised line-drawing principles that are nowhere in the state constitution.

In discussing the claim of confusion and chaos for voters and election officials this year, the document notes that the court is allowing the use of the invalidated 2011 plan in a special election on March 13 to fill a congressional vacancy in one district while mandating that the courts new plan be used throughout the state in the May 15 primary. The two candidates now running for the open seat, it said, do not even live in the new district the court crafted for that part of the state. (State government officials who conduct elections have several times moved to assure the state court that they can carry out both elections without difficulty or confusion.)

In a carefully worded portion of the document, the GOP legislators intimate that the four Justices in the majority in devising the new plan had run for office as Democratic candidates and drew up a plan with the specific aim of shifting seats to future Democratic candidates. (Pennsylvania chooses its justices for the highest court by election.)

The document, however, nowhere mentions that the 2011 plan  used in three separate elections since its drafting  has always produced 13 seats for Republican candidates and five for Democratic candidates, even though statewide voting totals in those elections were almost evenly split between the two major parties.

Those were results that the challengers to the 2011 plan had partly relied on in claiming it was an invalid partisan gerrymander in violation of the state constitutions guarantee of free and equal elections. The state courts conclusion that the 2011 plan was driven by a partisan motive was that the legislature had drawn oddly shaped districts that violated traditional redistricting principles in order to dilute the votes of Democratic voters.

Under the state courts new plan, election experts have suggested that it will lead to Democrat gains of at least three seats, for a split of 10 Republican victors and eight Democratic winners, and maybe a gain of as many as four seats, for an even split of party winners, nine to nine.

At this point, the GOP legislative leaders are only seeking a Supreme Court order blocking the state courts new plan until the legislators can file and the Justices can act on their constitutional challenge to that plan in a direct appeal from the states highest court. Under the Justices rules, they have authority to review a state court decision that was based on a finding based on a federal legal or constitutional question  in this instance, the state courts defense of its authority to draw new districts in the face of an Elections Clause challenge by state GOP leaders.

The filing was submitted to Justice Alito, who handles emergency matters from the region that includes Pennsylvania  the federal Third Circuit. Alito has the option of acting alone, as he did earlier this month in denying the previous postponement request by the legislative leaders, or of sharing the task with his eight colleagues. It is up to Alito to decide which step to take. It would take the votes of five Justices to grant the delay request, but Alito alone could deny it as could five Justices if the full Court were to act.

Ordinarily, the rules of the Supreme Court provide that such delay requests will seldom be granted unless such a request was first pursued in the lower court whose decision is at stake. As of Wednesday night, there had been no such filing with the state court, and the filing with the Justices did not mention that potential question.

Although Justice Alito turned down the prior request by the legislative leaders, their new filing said there had been further missteps by the state court majority since then  the delay in providing guidance for the legislature on any new plan, and the takeover of the final map-drawing by the state court.

Meanwhile, there have been discussions among state and national GOP leaders of a separate plan to challenge the state courts map in a federal court in Harrisburg, with that filing coming perhaps later today. If that separate lawsuit were to be filed in a way that involved the same parties on both sides, a provision of federal law that has existed since 1789 could require the federal court to respect, at least to a degree, the decision now made by the state court. New parties on one side would not be faced with that restriction, however.Yangon (AFP) - Three bombs exploded early Saturday in the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, a cauldron of ethnic tensions roiled by insurgencies and a military crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya, injuring one police officer, officials said.

The three blasts at separate locations around Sittwe included one at the home of a high-ranking official, police told AFP.

Besides the bloody campaign against the Rohingya in the state's north, Rakhine has been struggling with a decade-long rebellion fought by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist insurgents, though bombings in the state capital are rare.

"Three bombs exploded and three other unexploded bombs were found. A police officer was injured but not seriously," a senior officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The blasts hit at around 4:00 am (2130 GMT Friday), the officer said.

One was detonated in the compound of the state government secretary's home, while the two others exploded in front of an office in the city and on a road leading to a beach.

A local official from the state government confirmed the explosions. Photos of the sites showed shattered windows and scattered debris.

"Some streets are being blocked by police already because of the bomb blasts," Zaw Zaw, a resident of Sittwe, told AFP by phone.

In recent months, unrest in Rakhine has been concentrated in the state's northern wedge, where a sweeping military crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim community last August pushed nearly 700,000 refugees across the border to Bangladesh.

International attention has focused on that conflict, with the UN leading global condemnation of what it says amounts to a military-led ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

Yet restive Rakhine also hosts a lesser-known insurgency waged by a Rakhine Buddhist rebel group called the Arakan Army, which periodically clashes with Myanmar troops.

Unlike the Rohingya Muslims who are denied citizenship, the Rakhine are recognised by the government as an ethnic minority but are still marginalised in a country historically dominated by the Bamar (Burmese) majority.

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Tensions between the community and local authorities shot through the roof after a police crackdown on an ethnic Rakhine mob left seven dead last month.

That violence in Mrauk U township prompted the Arakan Army's political wing to warn of a "serious" retaliation for the deaths of the protesters.

Around two weeks later the town's administrator was found murdered on the side of the road.

- Ethnic Rakhine tensions -

David Mathieson, an independent analyst based in Myanmar, said the Sittwe blasts were more likely tied to ethnic Rakhine tensions than the Rohingya crisis, whose epicentre is further north.

The Arakan Army is "the only armed group operating in central Rakhine that would have the sophistication to do something like this", he told AFP.

Coordinated strikes in an urban area would however mark a "significant escalation" of that rebellion, which typically sees clashes outside the capital.

He said it was unlikely that the bombs were linked to the Rohingya -- who also have a militant wing -- as very few Muslims have mobility in the capital.

The coastal city of Sittwe was once home to a sizeable Rohingya population but most were forced to abandon their homes by deadly communal violence with ethnic Rakhines in 2012.

Today a small community of Rohingya are confined to a Muslim enclave in the city while more than 100,000 others are still trapped in squalid displacement camps outside the capital.

Further north, the vast majority of Myanmar's 1.1-million Rohingya population has now fled across the border to Bangladesh in a mass exodus that began six months ago.

Refugees say they ran from a ruthless army assault that saw troops team up with ethnic Rakhine mobs to torch homes, murder civilians and commit mass rape.

Myanmar authorities deny committing any atrocities and say they were targeting Rohingya rebels who raided police posts in August, killing at least a dozen officers.

The government has blocked UN staff from investigating the conflict zone in northern Rakhine, where thousands of Rohingya are believed to have been killed.Tehran (AFP) - Three environmentalists have been detained in Iran, a conservative-linked news website reported late Friday, the latest in a series of arrests of wildlife campaigners in the Islamic republic.

"Members of the Association for the Protection of Nature in Lavardin were arrested by a security agency. The allegations against them are unknown," Tabnak reported.

It said they were arrested in Bandar Lengheh in the southern Hormuzgan province on the Gulf coast.

It follows the arrest of eight members of the Persian Heritage Wildlife Association, Iran's most prominent nature NGO, in January on espionage charges.

Its founder Kavous Seyed Emami, 63, died in prison around two weeks later.

Officials say he committed suicide in his cell, but the family have questioned the verdict and say they were threatened by officials.

The deputy head of the government's Environment Protection Organisation, renowned water campaigner Kaveh Madani, was also detained briefly this month.By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday he will leave it to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to settle a security clearance dispute involving son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner, but left little doubt he wants the case settled in a way that allows Kushner to keep his job. Problems with security clearance for White House aides surfaced this month in fallout over the abrupt resignation of White House staff secretary Rob Porter over allegations of domestic abuse against two former wives. Kushner is one of dozens of aides operating under an interim clearance, not yet fully cleared due to complications in their backgrounds. In the case of Kushner, a wealthy New York businessman, his financial links have taken a long time to examine. Kelly a week ago set Friday as the deadline for adjudicating the cases of Kushner and others in clearance limbo. A source familiar with the matter said earlier this week that the situation had caused tensions between Kushner and Kelly. Trump, at a joint news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, said "General Kelly respects Jared a lot and General Kelly will make that call" on how to resolve the issue. With Kelly seated nearby, Trump said: "I have no doubt he will make the right decision." Trump heaped praise on Kushner, a leader in the administration's attempts to resurrect moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He noted that Kushner does not receive a salary. White House officials have been trying to smooth over the dispute in a way that would allow Kushner to continue his work, the source familiar with the matter said. The source said there were frustrations on both sides between Kushner and Kelly and they wanted to find a solution. Trump has the option of simply granting a security clearance to Kushner but officials wanted to avoid that option. There was no sense that Kushner would be leaving his job. Options included giving Kushner a lesser clearance that would allow him to keep doing his job. Kelly said in a statement on Thursday that he would not comment one anyone's specific security clearance situation. "As I told Jared days ago, I have full confidence in his ability to continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio including overseeing our Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and serving as an integral part of our relationship with Mexico. Everyone in the White House is grateful for these valuable contributions to furthering the Presidents agenda. There is no truth to any suggestion otherwise," Kelly said. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and David Gregorio)Seven years ago, in his first appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Donald Trump was booed. On Friday morning, he was the recipient of loud, raucous cheering as he delivered the keynote address at the annual gathering of conservatives in National Harbor, Maryland.

The speech had the feel of a campaign rally, especially after Trump declared that his prepared remarks were a little boring and indicated that he would be speaking extemporaneously. He did so to the audible delight of the audience. There were chants of lock her up and build the wall. A mention of CNN elicited the unsurprising shout of fake news.

That was not scripted, guys, said Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina, a close associate of Trump, in a subsequent panel discussion. About 90 percent of that was just from his heart.

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Speaking for well over an hour, Trump delighted the packed ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center with his freewheeling speech. This was the president in his favorite mode: as campaigner. He recounted his electoral victories in the upper Midwest, taunted congressional Democrats and promised that Republicans would not be complacent in the 2018 midterm elections.

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The crowd was plainly energized, even as both the Trump administration and the Republican Party face significant challenges, with the former subject to multiple investigations into electoral meddling and obstruction of justice while the latter faces a potential Democratic wave in November. Shortly after the presidents speech, news broke that Rick Gates, one of the top advisers to his 2016 presidential campaign, was expected to plead guilty Friday to charges in the special counsels Russia investigation.

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None of that mattered to those who listened to Trumps promises that he would protect your Second Amendment, build a border wall with Mexico and continue to strip away federal regulations. Nor was there any sense from supporters that Trumps first year in office was short on legislative achievements. Much like his predecessor, Barack Obama, Trump has governed by executive order, an approach he criticized as a private citizen.

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It was fabulous, said Erin Montgomery, communications director of America First Action, a Republican super PAC. I cant think of anything that he omitted. He covered everything. Montgomery was especially heartened by Trumps tough approach to immigration, which culminated with his reading of The Snake, a xenophobic song written in 1968.

I feel completely energized right now, said Dan Pelosi, a Republican activist from Suffolk University (no relation at all to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, he assured). He still wants to keep his campaign promises, Pelosi said, evincing no disappointment over setbacks like the failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a key campaign promise. To me, as a voter, that keeps me wanting to come back and vote for him and support him.

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Reminding conservatives to vote in the 2018 congressional election was a theme to which Trump returned on several occasions during his speech. Energizing the Republican base will be critical to Republican prospects in November. On Friday afternoon, Trump showed that he remained beloved by conservatives, who have largely tuned out criticisms of his administration.

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Silviya Toncheva, an attendee from Hawaii, had what amounted to gentle criticism. I did not expect its going to be so long, she said. The speech lasted for about 70 minutes; other CPAC speeches were half that length, if not shorter. He talked almost about everything, Toncheva said. Like many others, she supported his strict immigration policies. She also approved of his approach to the shooting, an apparent reference to the massacre of 17 teachers and students in Parkland, Florida, last week. Trump proposed arming some teachers.

I think hes real smart, Toncheva said, And hes been doing a good job.

Bradley Struss praised the president for his lighthearted speech, which included a joke about his famous combover, as well as many wisecracks and asides. At one point, Trump polled the audience on what they liked more, last years tax reform package or Second Amendment rights.

Daralyn Armbuster, meanwhile, found comfort in Trumps commonsense approach to politics. He thinks like I do, she said. Trumps historically low approval ratings did not bother her; nor did the array of Democrats seemingly determined to stifle his presidency.

Armbuster found a simple solution to any such despairing political developments: I just dont listen to the news anymore.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Sanjeev Miglani and Manoj Kumar NEW DELHI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's son dropped a planned speech on foreign affairs in the Indian capital on Friday after ethics experts said he should avoid wading into policy issues as a private citizen. Donald Trump Jr. is on a tour of India to promote real estate projects in several cities but ethics watchdog groups in the United States say there is a possible conflict of interest in pushing the Trump brand name while his father is in the White House. He was billed to make a speech on the topic "Reshaping the Indo-Pacific - The New Era of Cooperation" but hours before the conference began that was changed into a "fireside chat" where he spoke about his business and stayed clear of policy issues. "I am here on business, I am not representing anyone," he said at the conference organized by the Economic Times, a leading newspaper, and Yes Bank. He spoke before Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a keynote speech on preparing India for the future to a gathering of business leaders from India and overseas. U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to the U.S. ambassador to India this week to ask for guarantees that the embassy and the State Department will not offer any support to Trump Jr. beyond helping the U.S. Secret Service to provide him with security. Trump Jr. said he had been coming to India for more than a decade to build business for The Trump Organisation and it had reached a take-off stage but there were self-imposed curbs following the election of his father as president. "I learnt about doing business here through the school of hard knocks, we have built partnerships here," he said. This week he was wooing buyers to book luxury apartments in Trump Towers in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi as well as in Mumbai, attending champagne receptions. Trump's partners in India are playing up the Trump brand. In the days leading up to Trump Jr.'s visit, one of its development partners in Gurgaon began an advertising campaign in newspapers offering dinner and conversation with the president's son. But Trump said his company could not build on the gains it had made in India because of the curbs over the past year. "Ten years of hard work to get there, this would be a time to capitalize, but its a sacrifice, its a big sacrifice," he said. "But we will be back, once we are out of politics." Shortly before taking office last year, Trump Sr. said he would hand off control of his business empire, which includes luxury homes and hotels across the world, to his sons Donald and Eric, and move his assets into a trust to help ensure that he would not consciously take actions as president that would benefit him personally. Several government and private ethics watchdogs said he should have gone further, divesting himself of assets that could cause a conflict of interest. (Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)Trump Jr. drops planned foreign policy speech in India after criticism

Donald Trump Jr. speaks during the Global Business Summit in New Delhi, India on Friday

Reuters, New Delhi :

U.S. President Donald Trump's son dropped a planned speech on foreign affairs in the Indian capital on Friday after ethics experts said he should avoid wading into policy issues as a private citizen.Donald Trump Jr. is on a tour of India to promote real estate projects in several cities but ethics watchdog groups in the United States say there is a possible conflict of interest in pushing the Trump brand name while his father is in the White House.

He was billed to make a speech on the topic "Reshaping the Indo-Pacific - The New Era of Cooperation" but hours before the conference began that was changed into a "fireside chat" where he spoke about his business and stayed clear of policy issues.

"I am here on business, I am not representing anyone," he said at the conference organized by the Economic Times, a leading newspaper, and Yes Bank.

He spoke before Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a keynote speech on preparing India for the future to a gathering of business leaders from India and overseas.

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to the U.S. ambassador to India this week to ask for guarantees that the embassy and the State Department will not offer any support to Trump Jr. beyond helping the U.S. Secret Service to provide him with security.

Trump Jr. said he had been coming to India for more than a decade to build business for The Trump Organisation and it had reached a take-off stage but there were self-imposed curbs following the election of his father as president.

"I learnt about doing business here through the school of hard knocks, we have built partnerships here," he said.

This week he was wooing buyers to book luxury apartments in Trump Towers in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi as well as in Mumbai, attending champagne receptions.

Trump's partners in India are playing up the Trump brand. In the days leading up to Trump Jr.'s visit, one of its development partners in Gurgaon began an advertising campaign in newspapers offering dinner and conversation with the president's son.

But Trump said his company could not build on the gains it had made in India because of the curbs over the past year.

"Ten years of hard work to get there, this would be a time to capitalize, but its a sacrifice, its a big sacrifice," he said. "But we will be back, once we are out of politics."

Shortly before taking office last year, Trump Sr. said he would hand off control of his business empire, which includes luxury homes and hotels across the world, to his sons Donald and Eric, and move his assets into a trust to help ensure that he would not consciously take actions as president that would benefit him personally.

Several government and private ethics watchdogs said he should have gone further, divesting himself of assets that could cause a conflict of interest.



PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The owner of the Trump hotel in Panama City has filed a suit against four members of staff for "usurpation," accusing them of refusing him entry to the building, his lawyer said late on Friday. Orestes Fintiklis, managing partner of Ithaca Capital Partners, which now owns the hotel and the majority of the condo units at the Trump International Hotel & Tower, filed the suit on the grounds he had been denied access when attempting to enter the building on Feb. 22 to dismiss the four staff, said his lawyer Sarai Blaisdell. "We filed a complaint for usurpation by (the) employees," Blaisdell said outside the court where the suit was filed. It was not clear why the four staff members had denied Fintiklis access, but Blaisdell told reporters they had said they were acting upon orders from "superiors." The four staff belonged to the previous administration of the hotel, Blaisdell said. The hotel was sold last year, and in November it was reported that Ithaca wanted to take the Trump name from the building, but that has yet to happen. (Reporting by Elida Moreno, editing by G Crosse)President Donald Trump slammed a deputy police officer who failed to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while gunman Nikolas Cruz was at large, calling him a "coward" who lacked the "courage" to fulfill the duties of his job.

Hes trained his whole life but when it came time to get in there and do something, he didnt have the courage or something happened," Trump told reporters on Friday. "But he certainly did a poor job, there's no question about that."

Trump added: "He certainly did a poor job but that's a case where somebody was outside, they're trained, they didn't react properly under pressure or they were a coward. It was a real shock to the police department."

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Broward County Deputy Officer Scot Peterson resigned from his post on Thursday after word got out that the 54-year-old had been the only armed deputy on the scene and had done nothing to apprehend Cruz as he killed 17 people. Instead, Peterson waited outside for "upwards of four minutes," according to Sheriff Scott Israel and video footage capturing the incident.

"I am devastated," Israel said at a press conference. "Sick to my stomach. He never went in."

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Peterson appears to fear scrutiny not just from his former boss or the president, but from a community that has been roiled by the untimely deaths of children.

On Thursday, local news reporters were met with six Broward County officers who were standing guard outside Peterson's home in Boynton Beach, Florida, when they went to ask him about his resignation. Peterson's family reportedly called the officers there for "protection," according to WPTV reporter Andrew Lofholm.

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Peterson's lack of response might be said to fly in the face of the "good guy with a gun myth," which contends that if only the right person were equipped with a firearm, they would be able to stop a gunman and thwart mass killings like the one that occurred in Parkland, Florida, last week.

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Research shows thatin addition to it being potentially counterproductive for there to be multiple armed people in the same place as an active shooterhumans are prone to a "freeze" response when faced in situations that threaten our survival, often preventing us from action.

Peterson hasn't spoken out yet as to why he didn't enter the Parkland school to confront Cruz, though some of the shooting's survivors do not place blame on him.

There is no one that is going to tell you a negative thing about Deputy Peterson," English teacher Felicia Burgin told the Sun Sentinel. "He was committed to our school. I dont know what he could have done other than literally died.

Others weren't so forgiving.

Im in shock and Im outraged to no end that he could have made a difference in all this, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. Its really disturbing that we had a law enforcement individual there specifically for this reason, and he did not engage."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekAnkara (AFP) - Turkey called on the international community to end the "massacre" in the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta hit by intense regime bombardment ahead of a UN Security Council vote on Saturday.

"The regime is committing massacres in Eastern Ghouta," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.

"The world should say stop to this massacre together," Kalin said.

New air strikes hit the enclave on Saturday raising the civilian death toll from seven days of intense bombardment to over 500 including more than 120 children, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

"Have you seen or heard a country seriously react to the continued atrocity in Eastern Ghouta for several days?" Erdogan thundered later Saturday.

The UN Security Council had been due to hold a vote Friday on a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of seriously wounded civilians but diplomatic haggling delayed it.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday called on Russia and Iran to "stop" the regime's bombardment in one of the conflict's bloodiest episodes.

While Turkey has supported Syrian rebels, Russia and Iran are strong supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad whose removal Ankara has called for.

Ankara does not have any official contact with Damascus.

"There are still those wretched people who say 'let's come together with Assad'. What is there to repair, to instigate with a murderer who killed a million of his fellow citizens?" Erdogan asked during a speech in the southern city of Osmaniye.

As part of a peace process held in Astana aimed at stopping the seven-year war, the three countries sought to create de-escalation zones across Syria, including one for Eastern Ghouta.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions forced to flee the country or been internally displaced in the conflict, which began with anti-government protests in 2011.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States would move to "phase two" if sanctions against North Korea did not work, although he did not specify what that would mean.

"I don't think I'm going to exactly play that card. But we'll have to see. If the sanctions don't work, we'll have to go phase two," Trump told reporters.

"Phase two may be a very rough thing, may be very, very unfortunate for the world. But hopefully the sanctions will work."

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by James Dalgleish)London (AFP) - A vice chairman of Britain's Conservative Party on Saturday apologised to Labour's Jeremy Corbyn after tweeting that the opposition leader had "sold British secrets to communist spies".

Tory MP Ben Bradley sent the message following reports that Corbyn had met with a Czechoslovakian spy masquerading as a diplomat during the Cold War.

Corbyn's legal team threatened Bradley with court action for defamation unless he issued an apology.

"I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue," said Bradley.

"I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.

"I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology," he added, saying he would donate a sum to a local food bank in lieu of damages.

Labour said it was "pleased Ben Bradley has admitted what he said was entirely untrue and apologised".

The party on Friday brushed off claims by a former spy for then Czechoslovakia that veteran leftist Corbyn had knowingly cooperated with the communist intelligence agency, calling it a "ridiculous smear".

"The former Czechoslovak agent Jan Sarkocy's account of his meeting... has no credibility whatsoever," a spokesman for Corbyn said in a statement.

- 'Not registered' -

The Sun, a right-wing tabloid opposed to Corbyn, published documents last week purportedly from the Czech State Security Archive referring to meetings between an agent and Corbyn in 1986.

The Sun said Corbyn had been given the codename "COB".

Corbyn was a relatively new Labour MP at the time, having been first elected to parliament in 1983, and was an active member of the trade union, anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid movements.

A spokesman for the Labour leader said he met a diplomat but never knowingly talked to a spy and "neither had nor offered any privileged information".

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Svetlana Ptacnikova, who heads the Czech Security Forces Archive of the now defunct StB secret service was quoted in the Prague Daily Monitor saying Corbyn probably did not know whom he was meeting.

"Mr Corbyn was neither registered as a collaborator, nor does this (claim) stem from archive documents," Ptacnikova was quoted as saying.

She told CTK that if Corbyn had been an agent "his file would be in a different category".

Sarkocy, 64, who worked at Czechoslovakia's embassy in London and was expelled from Britain in 1989, told the Czech news agency CTK that he had met Corbyn repeatedly at the embassy in London.By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May will outline her wishes for Britain's post-Brexit ties with the European Union next week after winning support from key ministers, although European Council President Donald Tusk on Friday called the ideas floated so far "pure illusion".

EU leaders have repeatedly pressed May to detail her vision for future relations, but she has been hampered by divisions within her Conservative Party, with some backing continued close ties and others seeking a "clean break".

In an attempt to forge a common position, May hosted an eight-hour meeting of her so-called Brexit war committee on Thursday at her 16th-century country residence outside London.

Few details of the discussions were released, but one source said May had accepted the argument of those ministers who wanted to diverge more quickly from EU rules and regulations.

"It was a very positive meeting and a step forward, agreeing the basis of the prime minister's speech on our future relationship," May's spokesman told reporters, adding that she would deliver her speech on March 2.

"The prime minister has set out her plans clearly; we are working towards getting a deal that we believe will work for all parts of the UK and deliver as frictionless a border as possible and tariff-free trade."

Britain has little time to negotiate the terms of the divorce and the outlines of the future relationship before it leaves the EU on March 29 next year.

"NO CHERRY-PICKING"

The other 27 members of the EU, who together have about five times Britain's economic might, have a strong incentive to deny the UK a deal so attractive that it might encourage others to follow the British example.

The EU will not agree to the kind of "managed divergence" Britain is believed to favour in its future relationship, sources in Brussels said on Thursday.

That plan would have Britain sticking to EU rules in some areas, diverging moderately in others and opting for very different solutions for the rest.

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The EU says this smacks of "cherry-picking", or of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's view that Britain can "have its cake and eat it".

"I am afraid that the UK position today is based on pure illusion," Tusk told journalists after 27 EU leaders - all apart from May - met in Brussels.

"It seems like the 'cake' philosophy is still alive. From the very start it has been a key clear principle of the EU 27 that there can be no cherry-picking and no single market 'a la carte'."

He said the remaining EU states would adopt a joint stance on the post-Brexit relationship in a summit at the end of March, whether London provided input or not, and would be "extremely realistic in our assessment of possible new proposals".

Many businesses and investors complain that they still lack details on how trade will flow between the world's biggest trading bloc and its sixth largest economy after Brexit.

"SENSE OF MOMENTUM"

Finance minister Philip Hammond, the most pro-European of May's senior team, said he felt a "real sense of momentum" towards agreeing a transition deal with the EU at the summit.

But former prime minister Tony Blair said the government was not being realistic.

"They're basically still in 'have cake and eat it' mode and it won't work," Blair said. If Britain wanted a close trading relationship with the EU, it would have to keep in line with EU rules and standards, he added.

Opponents of Brexit in Britain are seeking to halt the process and even trigger a rerun of the shock 2016 referendum.

Eloise Todd, the chief executive officer of 'Best for Britain', which is about to launch a major campaign, said the odds of stopping Brexit were now close to 50-50.

Rebel Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry is seeking to amend the government's trade bill to oblige Britain to form a customs union with the EU after Brexit, a move that would complicate May's attempts to keep her party behind her.

That chimes with the main opposition Labour Party, whose spokeswoman for foreign affairs said it would seek to join a new customs union with the EU after Brexit.

"Technically, because we're leaving the European Union, we can't be in the customs union we are in now," Emily Thornberry said. "We leave and then we have to negotiate a new agreement that, we think, is likely to be a customs union that will look pretty much like the current customs union."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who says he supports leaving the EU, is due to give a speech on Brexit on Monday. His party has said it will have a strong emphasis on retaining the benefits of the EU's single market and the customs union.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kevin Liffey)The Pittsburgh Penguins now have three elite centremen after the acquisition of Derick Brassard Friday. (AFP Photo/Minas Panagiotakis)

After a strange and confusing few hours, the Ottawa Senators have officially started to tear it all down.

Derick Brassard, widely considered the most coveted centre available at this years trade deadline, is on his way to the Pittsburgh Penguins after an initial three-way deal was rejected by the NHL. News first broke of the trade early Friday afternoon, but reports had to be retracted following news of the league vetoing the deal  resulting in a lot of confusion for a lot of people trying to figure this thing out.

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Once all the dust settled, this is how it shakes out:

Pittsburgh ends up with Brassard, a 2018 third-round pick from Ottawa, and a pair of minor-league prospects in Tobias Lindberg and Vincent Dunn. With the addition of Brassard, who will have 40 percent of his salary picked up by the Vegas Golden Knights, Pittsburgh now boasts the most potent triple threat down the middle in the NHL, with the 30-year-old joining Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the Metro-leading Pens. The teams top nine now features the aforementioned three, Phil Kessel, Jake Guenztel, Conor Sheary, Patric Hornqvist, Bryan Rust, Dominik Simon and Carl Hagelin.

The Penguins are stacked in net with two-time Cup winner Matt Murray at the helm and talented youngsters Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith behind him, and this luxury of crease depth allowed the Pens to flip a very good young goalie in 2018 WJC top goaltender Filip Gustavsson to Ottawa. Along with (possibly) their goaltender of the future, the Senators also obtained Pittsburghs 2018 first-round and 2019 third-round picks, along with defenceman Ian Cole  who Ottawa is expected to flip before Mondays deadline.

The Golden Knights, for whatever reason, got in on the action as well by acquiring a 2018 fourth-round pick along with Pens forward Ryan Reaves, and using there abundance of cap space to retain 40 percent of Brassards salary. Its not yet clear what Vegas plans are with Reaves, or why exactly they took on a large chunk of Brassards salary cap hit, but those details may emerge over the next 48 hours or so.

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My initial thoughts (and those shared by many) on this trade are as follows: Pittsburgh did great in turning their top-nine into the best in the NHL. The Senators, for the tire-fire that theyre about to become, got a top goalie prospect and some daft picks  so they did decent as well. The Golden knights, well, it looks like they got hosed.

Golden Knights GM George McPhee may have another trick up his sleeve before this is all said and done, but for now its not clear what Vegas is doing here. Im sure we can just trust McPhee to figure it all out, though.

More NHL coverage on Yahoo Canada Sports:



Washington (AFP) - The United States said Friday it will relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in May, bringing forward the contested move to coincide with the Jewish state's 70th birthday -- and enraging Palestinians, who called it a "blatant provocation."

Palestinians object to recognition of the disputed city as Israel's capital and say the embassy move could destroy a two-state solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.

Palestinians also object to the date chosen for the embassy move -- they call May 14, on which Israel declared independence in 1948, Naqba, their "day of catastrophe."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement and thanked US President Donald Trump for his "leadership" and his "friendship."

The embassy move is expected to complicate efforts to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians -- and jeopardize the traditional, if disputed, US role as an "honest broker" in efforts to resolve one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

"In May, the United States plans to open a new US embassy in Jerusalem. The opening will coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert in a statement.

Until now, the US embassy has been located in Tel Aviv with a separate consulate general located in Jerusalem that represents US interests in the Palestinian territories.

The new embassy will be initially located in a US consular building in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood while Washington searches for a permanent location, "the planning and construction of which will be a longer-term undertaking," Nauert said.

The interim embassy will contain office space for the ambassador and "a small staff," she said.

"By the end of next year, we intend to open a new embassy Jerusalem annex on the Arnona compound that will provide the ambassador and his team with expanded interim office space," she added.

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Trump broke with decades of policy in December to announce US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and a pledge to move the embassy, drawing near global condemnation, enraging the Palestinians and sparking days of unrest in the Palestinian territories.

It ruptured generations of international consensus that Jerusalem's status should be settled as part of a two-state peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

- 'Destruction of two-state option' -

The Palestine Liberation Organization immediately decried Washington's embassy announcement as a "provocation to all Arabs."

"The American administration's decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and choose the Palestinian people's Naqba as the date for this step is a blatant violation of international law," PLO number two Saeb Erekat told AFP.

He said the result would be "the destruction of the two-state option, as well as a blatant provocation to all Arabs and Muslims."

Israel follows the Jewish lunar calendar, so this year's official independence celebration falls on April 19.

"It will turn Israel's 70th Independence Day into an even greater national celebration," said Netanyahu, whose right-wing government is facing an uncertain future due to corruption allegations and police inquiries facing the prime minister.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Trump said his recognition of Jerusalem -- making good on a 2016 campaign pledge -- marked the start of a "new approach" to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israelis and Palestinians alike have seen his move as Washington taking Israel's side in the conflict -- a view reinforced by the White House's recent decision to withhold financing for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas this week travelled to the United Nations to call for an international conference by mid-2018 in which the United States would not have the central mediating role in launching a wider peace process.

Trump's envoy for Middle East peace, Jason Greenblatt, and his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner subsequently met behind closed doors with UN Security Council ambassadors soliciting their support for a prospective Trump peace plan.

While the Palestinians want a new international mechanism to shepherd peace talks, the details of the Trump plan and its timing are still unclear.

The revised schedule on the embassy move comes after US Vice President Mike Pence pledged only last month to move the embassy by the end of 2019 in a speech to Israel's parliament that saw Arab lawmakers expelled after they shouted in protest.

"The hardest deal to make of any kind is between the Israelis and Palestinians," Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.

"We're actually making great headway. Jerusalem was the right thing to do."New York (AFP) - Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of US billionaire investor Warren Buffett, received a stunning $29 billion last year from the US government, thanks to a new tax law that massively lowered corporate tax rates.

In his much-anticipated annual letter to shareholders, Buffett explained that the company's net gain of $65.3 billion in 2017 was only partly due to his employees' efforts.

"Only $36 billion came from Berkshire's operations," he wrote. "The remaining $29 billion was delivered to us in December when Congress rewrote the US Tax Code."

Still, Buffett assured stockholders, "The $65 billion gain is nonetheless real -- rest assured of that."

The new law, greatly touted by President Donald Trump, lowered the tax rate paid by US corporations from 35 percent to 21 percent, allowing many to undertake major new outlays and others to book significant fiscal gains.

Berkshire Hathaway wholly owns dozens of companies -- from Dairy Queen to Duracell -- and holds significant shares in large and diverse corporations including American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Charter Communications, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Moody's, Wells Fargo and Southwest Airlines.

- 'The Oracle of Omaha' -

Buffett's newsletters are read with intense interest on Wall Street and beyond.

Known as the "Oracle of Omaha" -- after his birthplace in the Midwestern state of Nebraska -- he is one of the world's most successful investors and one of its richest men. Now 87, he has been investing since he first bought stock at the age of 11.

His latest newsletter reports that Berkshire's net earnings rose last year from $24.07 billion to $44.94 billion.

In the letter, he added: "2017 was far from standard: A large portion of our gain did not come from anything we accomplished at Berkshire."

The year also saw the company's war chest swell to $116 billion in cash and US Treasury bills, financial manna that Buffett wants to use to make significant new acquisitions.

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Berkshire's often-impressive pace of acquisitions had slowed last year, he noted, when the prices asked for businesses "hit an all-time high," amid what he called "a purchasing frenzy."

"Price seemed almost irrelevant to an army of optimistic purchasers," Buffett noted.

Still, he said, the company "will have opportunities to make very large purchases" going forward, with emphasis on those available at "a sensible purchase price."

Buffett said Berkshire would stick with a "simple guideline: The less the prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we must conduct our own."

- A hit from hurricanes -

Buffett also said that while Berkshire's insurance holdings would take a $2 billion after-tax hit from losses caused by hurricanes last year in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico, other reinsurance companies did far worse.

And he estimated the chances of a "mega-catastrophe" this year -- one causing losses of at least $400 billion -- at two percent.

"No one, of course, knows the correct probability," he added.

Buffett concluded with a little advice to fellow investors: "Though markets are generally rational, they occasionally do crazy things."

"Seizing the opportunities then offered does not require great intelligence... (or) a degree in economics," but rather "an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals," he added.

Forbes magazine estimates Buffett's personal worth at some $87 billion.

He has undertaken -- as part of the so-called Giving Pledge he co-founded with Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- to donate more than 99 percent of his fortune to charities, and has already given away some $32 billion.Copyright  2021 New Nation. All Rights Reserved by thedailynewnation.com(Photo: American Federation of Teachers staff)

Once it became clear West Virginia schools would close for a statewide teacher walkout this week, staffers from Nitro High School came up with a plan to keep hungry students fed while school was out.

The school normally puts out backpacks of free food on Fridays for students to take home for the weekend, leaving them in a few discreet spots so kids in need can grab them without embarrassment. This week, teachers and administrators increased the number of packs and left them out on Wednesday, so kids could make it through the strike on Thursday and Friday, then on through the weekend, without hunger pangs.

Even when we know a big snow is coming, we [make sure] those kids will get those backpacks, said Megan Meadows, a counselor at the school, which is in Kanawha County.

The teachers would have caught state officials off guard if theyd walked off the job with little notice. Instead, they announced their two-day walkout five days ahead of time  in part so that undernourished students wouldnt be left in the lurch. Roughly 1 child in 4 in the state lives in poverty, one of the highest rates in the country.

One the reasons that we didnt just go out overnight was to give people time to plan, to think about this food issue, and to also allow parents time to sort out what they would do with their children for two days, said Kym Randolph, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Education Association, one of the unions leading the two-day strike. We tried to make allowances so that no one would go hungry.

As ABC7 reported, teachers and volunteers filled a gymnasium in Martinsburg ahead of the strike, packing donations from local food pantries to give to students on Wednesday.

For a lot of our children, the meals they get at school are the only meals they get for the day, Christine Campbell, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, told HuffPost.

Teachers and other public employees in all of West Virginias 55 counties are taking part in the walkout. Teachers have not seen an across-the-board raise since 2014, and rising health care costs mean that some teachers have actually seen their take-home pay go down. They are demanding salary raises and a fix to the states public employee health insurance fund so premiums dont continue to rise.

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Only three states in the country have lower teacher pay than West Virginia, according to the National Education Association. HuffPost recently spoke to one elementary school teacher who needs to work at Hardees on the weekends to cover her familys bills.

Public-sector employees in West Virginia dont have the same collective bargaining rights that workers do in most other states. The states two teachers unions cannot bargain directly over wages, but instead must lobby the state legislature to pass legislation regarding wages and benefits. They also do not have the explicit right to strike, although they have done so before, most recently in 1990. West Virginias attorney general declared this week that any walkouts would be illegal, but as of Thursday night, the state had not filed for a court injunction to order teachers back to work, according to Randolph.

Teachers plan to return to work Monday, but its possible the unions will continue with isolated rolling strikes, with certain counties having to shut down schools periodically if teachers demands arent met. That, in turn, would mean more meal planning.

In addition to packing food bags, Nitro High School staff also collaborated with Cross Lanes Baptist Church to host pizza lunches at the school and the church on Thursday and Friday during the closure. Some students ended up coming out to the church to help feed other students. Members of the church took pizza out to the teachers who were on picket lines.

We want to make sure the kids are not hungry, and the teachers are appreciated, said Brandon Carter, associate pastor at the church. Were not in the political fray. Theyve made a decision they need to make for their livelihoods. Were not concerned with that. Were just letting them know we care about them and support them.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.(WASHINGTON)  The White House is on lockdown after a passenger vehicle struck a security barrier.

The U.S. Secret Service tweets that the vehicle did not breach the security barrier of the White House complex.

The agency adds that the female driver of the vehicle was immediately apprehended.

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Witnesses saw a commotion on the White House grounds as security officers responded.

President Donald Trump is hosting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House. Turnbull is remaining at the White House as the incident is being investigated.

The Secret Service says no law enforcement personnel were injured in the incident.Modern humans are not the only species to have produced art, according to a new study that has been described as a major breakthrough in our understanding of human evolutionary history.

Researchers have identified the worlds oldest known cave paintings, revealing that they were created by Neanderthals, not modern humans.

An international team of researchers, led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Southampton, dated cave paintings at three sites in Spain to more than 64,000 years ago.

Trending: Oceans Are Turning Acidic and Dissolving the Sand Holding Up Coral Reefs

Since the fossil record shows that modern humans only arrived in Europe 20,000 years later, the researchers argue in the paper, published in the journal Science, that these paintings must have been produced by Neanderthalsthe only archaic species of humans present on the continent at the time. This is the first evidence that Neanderthals created cave paintings.

163244_web

H. Collado

Significantly, the artworks suggest that Neanderthals were more sophisticatedand thought more like modern humansthan researchers previously believed. The issue of just how human-like Neanderthals were has long been a topic of heated discussion among experts.

Read more: Our ancient Neanderthal relatives went extinct much later than we thought

Early views of Neanderthals painted them as brutish and uncultured, being incapable of symbolic behavior, and this view has been very slow to change, Alistair Pike, Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Southampton, told Newsweek.

Symbolic behavioror symbolic cultureis the ability to learn and transmit behavioral traditions from one generation to the next through the creation of things that have no practical function, such as art. This ability was widely thought to have been unique to Homo sapiens, according to the researchers, but the new evidence challenges this view.

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Don't miss: Mogadishu Attack: Al-Shabaab Militants Attack Government Buildings in Somalia's Capital, Killing Civilians

The team determined the age of the cave paintings using a state-of-the-art technique known as uranium-thorium dating, which can provide much more reliable estimates than traditional carbon dating methods.

163243_web

Breuil et al

According to Pike, the cave paintings in questionlocated at La Pasiega (northeastern Spain), Maltravieso (western Spain) and Ardales (southwestern Spain)were generally thought to have been produced by modern humans between 14,000 and 27,000 years ago.

But the new findings suggest that these paintings are much older and are, in fact, the worlds oldest by some distance.

The previous oldest-known painting was from El Castillo cave, very close to La Pasiega; that one is more than 41,000 years old, Pike said.

The Neanderthal cave art includes dots, animals and geometric signs made using red ochre or black paint. In addition, the caves also contain hand stencils, prints and engravings. The complexity behind these symbols and the way they were produced suggests that Neanderthals had a symbolic culture, he said.

Most popular: Ivanka Trump Briefed South Korea President On North Korea Sanctions Despite Reportedly Lacking Permanent Security Clearance

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C.D Standish, A.W.G. Pike and D.L. Hoffmann

We cannot know what the paintings mean, but we do know they are meaningful, said Pike. They are not accidental but premeditated, with many requiring a light source. They are painted in deliberately chosen places. This is evidence for symbolic behavior. 

Furthermore, Dirk Hoffman, from the Max Planck Institutes Department of Evolution, told Newsweek that the new findings show Neanderthals developed symbolic culture without taking inspiration from modern humans.

He added that, previously, there was evidence for symbolic Neanderthal artifacts between 44,500 and 36,000 years ago but this could have been a result of contact between Neanderthals and modern humans, he said.

Symbolic artifacts dating back 70,000 years have also been uncovered in Africa, however, these are also associated with modern humans.

Wil Roebroeks, a professor of Paleolithic Archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study, told Newsweek that the new paper was a major breakthrough in the field of human evolution studies.

A few claims for Neanderthal authorship of some early cave art had been made before, but these lacked solid data. The concept is certainly exciting and surprising (a nice surprise though), possibly even difficult to accept for some.

Now, with minimum ages of 65,000 years for rock art from three Spanish sites, Neanderthal authorship of some cave art is a fact. They created liquid mixtures of red pigment, took them into caves and applied them to walls, and did so repeatedly, from at least 65,000 years ago, for reasons that will probably always elude us. 

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It may come as a disappointment to equine enthusiasts, but a new genetic study has found that no truly wild horses still exist and that a population inhabiting Mongolian grasslands actually is a feral descendant of the earliest-known domesticated horses. Przewalski's horse, now numbering roughly 2,000 in Mongolia, was long thought to be the last wild horse -- meaning no history of domestication -- unlike other free-roaming horses like the mustangs of the western United States that descended from steeds brought to North America centuries ago by Spaniards. But researchers said on Thursday an examination of the genomes of dozens of ancient and modern horses concluded that Przewalski's horse, saved from extinction in the 20th century, descended from horses domesticated in northern Kazakhstan some 5,500 years ago by people in what is called the Botai culture. The research showed that the Botai culture offers the earliest-known evidence for horse domestication, but that their horses were not the ancestors of modern domesticated breeds. "The world lost truly wild horses perhaps hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, but we are only just now learning this fact, with the results of this research," said University of Kansas zooarchaeologist Sandra Olsen, one of the researchers. The history of people and horses has been intertwined for millennia. "Horse domestication was a critical innovation," said archaeologist Alan Outram of the University of Exeter in England, who helped lead the study. "Horse riding was the fastest form of transport for thousands of years, from the Copper Age over 5,000 years ago until the steam train. Even then it was really only the motor car that replaced it on a wide scale. Horses revolutionized human mobility, trade and modes of warfare," Outram added. Przewalski's horse, named for a Russian who described them in the 19th century, is relatively small and stocky. Like horses depicted in prehistoric cave paintings, it is dun-colored with a dark erect mane. The current population is descended from 15 individuals caught a century ago, with Przewalski's horse later reintroduced into the wild. Some horses from the domesticated Botai herds escaped and became the feral Przewalski's horse, the researchers said. "This means that we must continue the search for the true ancestors of modern breeds by gathering samples from places like Ukraine, western Russia, Hungary, Poland and that region," Olsen added. The research was published in the journal Science. (Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)The video posted by Alex Jones' site was removed by YouTube for breaching its policies on bullying and harassment

A far-right site known for its false and outlandish conspiracy theories has reportedly been reprimanded by YouTube after it posted a video which suggester survivors of the Florida school shooting were actors.

InfoWars' biggest YouTube account, The Alex Jones Channel, is reported to have received one strike from the video-sharing site for the video.

YouTubes community guidelines stipulate the account will be shut down altogether if it gets three strikes in the space of three months, a source told CNN.

The channel, which is hosted by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, posted a video about David Hogg, who survived the Valentines Day bloodshed which left 17 dead.

The clip took screenshots of an interview Mr Hogg did with KCBS in order to falsely claim he and other students were "crisis actors".

The video  titled David Hogg cant remember his lines in TV interview"  was removed by YouTube for breaching its policies on bullying and harassment.

Mr Hogg, one of the most outspoken survivors of the shooting, gained headlines after it emerged he had interviewed class mates while the massacre was taking place and gave an interview where he looked into the camera and urged politicians to deliver change.

Jones, who has been dubbed Americas leading conspiracy theorist and a prominent voice of the so-called alt-right movement in the US, is famed for his far-fetched and erroneous conspiracy theories.

The host, whose channel has received over a billion views and 2.2 million subscribers, has suggested the Sandy Hook school shooting of 20 young children was staged, that the September 11 attacks of 2001 was an inside job and that the baseless reports about Hillary Clinton being part of a Washington pizzeria child sex abuse ring warrant serious investigation.

He has also claimed the US government puts chemicals into the water supply to turn people gay so they do not have children.

Mr Hogg has become a target for a number of false conspiracy theories in the far-right media accusing him of being paid to play a victim of the shooting in order to push an anti-gun agenda.

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Earlier in the week, YouTube condemned a similar video branding Mr Hogg a crisis actor - one of its most popular videos. A spokesperson for YouTube said the video was removed from the site "for violating our policies."

Mr Hogg was forced to defend himself on CNN after a tweet about the conspiracy theory was liked by Donald Trump Jr.

Im just so sorry that these people have lost their faith in America, because I know I certainly havent, he said.

The survivor said it was disturbing to hear he was being accused of being an actor. Its unbelievable to me that people are saying this, he said.

Other survivors have been the subject of conspiracy theories claiming they are crisis actors simply pretending to have been caught up in the deadly violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Conspiracy claims have spread across Facebook and Twitter and commentators have made jokes and claimed students are being used by anti-Trump press. An aide to a Florida politician was fired for suggesting two teens were merely actors pretending to be students.

YouTube and InfoWars did not immediately respond to request for comment.The events of February 10 in Syria took place on the backdrop of the Iranian celebrations marking 39 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

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This is a good opportunity to look into the relation between the Iranians regular daily activities and the major ideology guiding the unprecedented experiment known as The Islamic Republic of Iran. Do tactical actions stem from seminal principles? Not always, of course.

The present time has its own logic and isnt always attentive or patient towards vision. Having said that, the Iranian presence in Syria and Lebanon can be seen as an ongoing reflection of the ideas that stood at the basis of the Islamic Republics foundation.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a Revolutionary Guards parade (Photo: EPA)

Contrary to what we are used to hear in Israel, these seminal ideas cant be summed up as the destruction of Israel or a Shiite takeover of the world, and not even as speeding up the arrival of the Shiite messiah, the Mahdi.

The ideological aspect of the Islamic Republic isnt similar to the major ideologies that shaped the world in the 20th century. This isnt a well-organized doctrine that just stands there, pure and decisive, and makes reality surrender to its commands. The Islamic Republics principles are engrained and forged in reality. For example, the Iranian policys basic commandsurvival.

Survival as a religious commitment

Since splitting from the Sunni majority community following a dispute over the identity of Prophet Muhammads successors, the Shiites have seen survival as a religious commitment. Shiites must do everything possible to keep living, even if it means concealing the Shiite faith within a hostile Sunni environment.

This principle, however, isnt simply a religious commandment that must be enforced word for word. It is a truth based on life experience which has shaped a conceptual and political tradition.

In the Islamic Republics case, this principle became all the more important following the first decade in the new states life. It was a decade of a heavy and difficult war. The generation leading Iran today, both conservatives and moderates, discovered its commitment to survival in the foxholes of the terrible war with Iraq.

Documentation of the Iranian drones interception in Israeli airspace (Photo: IDF Spokespersons Unit)

The reality of this war made it clear to the Islamic leadership that Iran is alone in the world. This loneliness led to a policy that rejects seclusion and adopts presence and friction.

We sometimes hear about the Iranians different time perception. They are either waiting for the messiah or seeking to speed up his arrival as much as possible. Their activities, therefore, cannot be taken at face value. Every activity is a rung in a ladder or a slice of salami, on the way to the complete vision forcing the Iranians to move forward in a certain way.

Because they believe in any activity that fulfills a present interest, this perception asserts, they are also scoring points for the futureredemption or the world to come.

But the Shiite thought actually has an opposite intention. The Shiite perception of time is sharp and focused. A minority seeking to survive has no other choice. The present is the present, and its consequences are immediate and serious. The Shiite thought isnt different in the perception of time, but in the perception of finality.

A battle with endless steps

The religious faith guiding the Iranians sees every activity as creating the following activity. There isnt a step that can be taken which wont be followed by additional steps. A final, comprehensive solution to any conflict isnt part of the Iranian lexicon. The final and absolute belongs to God. Human reality is formed and created ceaselessly.

That doesnt change the fact that Iran is a threatening enemy, but recognizing the purpose of these ideas must influence the way Israel perceives this threat. For example, in the Israeli response to the Iranian drone launched into Israel. Bombing the control center which the drone was launched from reflects an approach seeking to convey an unequivocal message and draw a red line that must not be crossed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a fragment of the Iranian drone at the Munich Security Conference (Photo: AFP, MSC Munich Security Conference / LENNART PREISS)

The same applies to the response of senior Israeli government and IDF officialsthere will be no Iranian entrenchment in Syria, there will be no missile factory in Lebanon, there will be no Iranian soldiers in the Golan Heights.

All these demands are important and logical, but the way Israel defines their implementation is limited and actually limits Israel. Lets take, for example, the issue of soldiers in the Golan Heights. Is Israel really safe only if the soldiers are stationed 60 kilometers away rather than 50? Wont the Iranians be able to bring allies to the Golan Heights who will provide them with the required intelligence picture, even without having soldiers?

The definition of Israeli success is based on meeting clear and defined objectives. But the Iranians arent meeting objectives. The Iranians are moving, walking about and creating friction. Any attempt to curb or contain them must consider this seminal rule, which stems from the urge to survive in the region and in a hostile world.

The Iranians are moving back and forth and from all directions. They learn as they move and form their interests as they move. Red lines, as the Iranians see it, emphasize their movement advantage. Running water can melt even the most stubborn rock.

Dr. Ori Goldberg, an expert on political theology in the Shiite world, teaches at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and serves as a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking .

Idan Barir is a research associate at the Forum for Regional Thinking, focusing on Iraq.The security wings at Israels prisons are a mirror image of the Palestinian reality. The relations between Fatah prisoners and their brothers/rivals from Hamas have seen many ups and downs and reached a boiling point twicein the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, and with the Shalit deal in 2011.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



A series of interviews conducted by Ynet with some of the 104 prisoners, who were released in 2013 as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, puts a spotlight on the sensitive relations between the Palestinian factions, which Israelis wrongly see as a homogenous bunch.

Gilad Shalit. He was in an unbearable situation (Photo: Anat Mosberg)

Immediately after the Gaza coup, realizing the volatility could affect the situation inside the prisons, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) decided to separate Fatah and Hamas prisoners.

The relations werent good, says Mudqaq Salah, a Fatah member who murdered Israel Tenenbaum in Netanya in 1993. There was a mess. There was no violence, but each side spoke about the other side, hated the other side.

Mudqaq Salah, who murdered Israel Tenenbaum. Each side hated the other side

He says there were people in the prison who tried to ease the tensions and urged the prisoners to make a distinction between the reality outside and life behind bars, but the explosive situation on the ground was stronger than anything.

A report about Israel Tenenbaums murder in 1993 (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth Archive)

After the Gaza coup, everything changed, says Ziad Ghanimat, a Fatah member who took part in the murder of Meir Ben Yair and Michal Cohen in the Massuah Forest near Beit Shemesh in 1985.

When it happened, it sparked verbal confrontations. People began badmouthing each other. There were people in the prison whose relatives had been killed in clashes in Gaza, so we were separated. Those were very tense times. We saw our friends being murdered on the streets.

Ziad Ghanimat, who took part in the murder of Meir Ben Yair and Michal Cohen

How did the Hamas prisoners behave those days?

They were happy inside the jail. We said to them, How can you be happy when were fighting each other? And they replied, Youre collaborators.

A report about the murder of Meir Ben Yair and Michal Cohen in the Massuah Forest near Beit Shemesh in 1985 (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth Archive)

A year earlier, in June 2006, things looked different. Hamas, together with two other small organizations, launched a successful strategic attack on the Gaza Strip border, which ended in a way even they hadnt predicted: They managed to capture a living Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. The prisoners jailed in Israel, including Fatah prisoners, were overjoyed.

Yusuf Arshid, who served time in prison for the murder of collaborators. A prisoner serving a life term can only be freed by Gilad

A person is in the sea, he cant swim, and he starts drowning. If he sees straw, hell even grasp at straw to save himself. A prisoner serving a life term can only be freed by Gilad, says Yusuf Arshid, a Fatah member who served time in prison for murder of Palestinians who had collaborated with Israel.

So you were happy?

Most people were happy, and so was I. I said to the wardens, Inshallah (God willing), both Gilad and I will be released, each to his own mother.'"

Esmat Mansour, who took part in the 1993 murder of Haim Mizrahi in Beit El. We saw the Shalit familys distress

Meanwhile, Gilad Shalit became the prisoners most popular discussion topic. We spoke about him almost every day. We would discuss every little detail that came up on the news. We realized that Gilads release meant the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Esmat Mansour, who took part in the 1993 murder of Haim Mizrahi in Beit El, recalls.

A report about Haim Mizrahis murder before the Oslo Agreements (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth Archive)

We were afraid he would commit suicide. We hoped they were taking good care of him, so he wouldnt commit suicide, because he really was in an unbearable situation. No one can get through a year or five years underground without any contact with the outside world.

The veteran prisoners were touched by Aviva and Noam Shalits battle to free their son, although none of them concealed the interest behind the empathy. We saw their distress and their difficulties, Mansour says.

Karnit Goldwasser. We admired her (Photo: Moran Shavit)

Karnit Goldwasser (the widow of Ehud Goldwasser, an Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hezbollah in July 2006) became a symbol too, and we admired her, he adds. We saw her fight to find out if her husband was alive or dead. Some prisoners wrote to Noam and Aviva Shalit, We see your battle and we hope he returns safely.'

Did they respond?

No. Unfortunately, they didnt.

Sinwar bought Fatah men in prison

The negotiations over Gilad Shalits release was held inside the prison too. Yahya Sinwar, who would go on to become the Hamas leader in Gaza, was jailed in Israel at the time together with Tawfik Abu Naim (today the head of Hamas security apparatuses in the Gaza Strip) and Rawhi Mushtaha (a member of the Hamas leadership in Gaza). Sinwar was one of the people who had the power to approve or thwart the negotiations. His brother, Muhammad Sinwar, was one of the architects of the Shalit abduction.

Yahya Sinwar. A nervous person with no education (Photo: AP)

Khaled Azraq, who murdered Shimon Cohen in 1991, was one of the top Fatah prisoners who held negotiations with Hamas prisoners on the list of prisoners they would present to Israel for release.

Yahya Sinwar was Hamas prisoners leader in jail, and he spoke to us, says Azraq. He said the list of prisoners Hamas wanted to see released had been prepared during the split (between Hamas and Fatah), and that it was being amended, but it turned out he had lied. He took care of his own release. Had he not been released, there would have been no deal.

Were there prisoners who used to go up to him and beg?

Yes, there were people he bought. He moved them over to Hamas in return for a release. There were few Fatah members who did that.

Khaled Azraq, who murdered Shimon Cohen. Sinwar lied

And what about those who werent in good relations with Sinwar?

They paid for it. Anyone who failed to cooperate with him.

How would you describe Yahya Sinwar?

Hes very irritable. He speaks without thinking. He had no education. All he does all day is read the Quran. People saw him as a dangerous person, dangerous to our people. He is a man who speaks from his gut, without thinking. Anyone can change him.

A report about Shimon Cohens murder in 1991 (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth Archive)

Who were his friends in prison?

Tawfik Abu Naim and Rawhi Mushtaha.

Were there negotiation meetings between senior Hamas members and Israeli officials inside the prison?

Yes, Ofer Dekel (the coordinator on prisoners and MIAs at the time) visited the prison quite a few times. He sat down with Sinwar and Mushtaha. He met with them in the management offices. (Then-Shin Bet chief) Yuval Diskin came to meet with them too. Only with Hamas, because of the deal.

Did the prison management give them permission to talk to Hamas people outside the prison?

During the negotiation period, they let them walk around with phones. No searches were conducted.

Hamas are liars

Most of the top members of Hamas current leadership spent many years in Israeli jails: Sinwar, Saleh al-Arouri (the deputy Hamas politburo chief, who is responsible for the military activity in the West Bank), Tawfik Abu Naim, Rawhi Mushtaha and Husam Badran (the organizations spokesman abroad). According to Azraq, the Hamas leadership in prison was very cooperative with the prison management.

Celebrations in Ramallah after the August 2013 prisoner release (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Did Rawhi Mushtaha have conversations with Israeli wardens?

Inside the prison, Hamas are more moderate than Fatah. Hamas are more cooperative with the intelligence officers and the management.

Did Sinwar have meetings with the prison manager? He knows Hebrew, after all.

Yes, he used to meet with them a lot. In general, Hamas learned more Hebrew than Fatah. At the time, they learned through the Open University.

Prisoner release as part of the Shalit deal, October 2011 (Photo: EPA)

Did you meet Saleh al-Arouri in jail?

Yes, at the Nafha Prison.

What is your impression of him as a person?

Hes a smart person, but a liar as far as Im concerned. They lied to us. They lie inside their organization too.

Did he have good relations with the Israel Prison Service?

Yes, the entire Hamas leadership had good relations with the IPS, because they are a more close-knit group than Fatah.

When the prison gates opened, I felt bad

Almost all of Fatahs long-time prisoners say that in the final stages of the deal, Hamas leaders made them believe they were on the list of released prisoners, but their disappointment was as big as their expectations. Some said they didnt believe for a single moment that Hamas would include them in the lists, but most spoke about their big disappointment.

Khaled Asakra, who murdered French tourist Annie Ley

On the day of the deal, when the prison gates opened, I felt bad, says Khaled Asakra, who murdered French tourist Annie Ley in 1991. My friends were released, and I kept thinking: Why am I not being freed too? Why am I being left in prison after 20 years? I was very angry with them. I didnt speak to anyone. I sat on the bed and just smoked.

A report about the murder of Annie Ley in 1991 (Photo: Yedioth Ahronoth Archive)

The long-time prisoners are at odds about the ramifications of the deal. Israel was wrong to release prisoners only in a swap deal and not in talks with (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas, says Mustafa al-Haj, who murdered Friedrich Rosenfeld in Ariel in 1989. What kind of message are you conveying by doing that? Its not a message of peace. Its wrong and its illogical. Only blood on the hands. In the Shalit deal, you conveyed a message to the Palestinian society that you only understand force.

Esmat Mansour disagrees. What you did for one soldier points to the Israeli societys strength. When the entire society stands behind a soldier and his family, you gain from it. I look at it and I envy you. When it comes to these issues, I would expect my own leadership to act like the Israeli leadership and I would expect my society to be like the Israeli society.Amar Ekushey observed

Chittagong Bureau :

Premier University Law Alumni Association (PULA) observed International Mother Language Day and Amar Ekushey in a befitting manner on Wednesday .

To observe the day, PULA members brought out a pravat ferry from Hazari lane campus of the university led by Senior Judicial Magistrate Shoib Uddin Khan.

The PULA members paid tributes to the martyred language heros through placing wreaths at the Shaheed Minar.

Former President of PULA Adv Md. Imran, Joint Secretary Adv Shuvashish Sharma, Organising Secretary Adv Asifa Sultana, Office Secretary Adv Sakib Bin Sarwar, Cultural Secretary Adv Moinul Hossain Sohel, member Gazi Md Irfan, Lenin Marma, Adv Rakibuddin Jalal Fahim, Adv Mujibur Rahman and other PULA members among others were present on the occasion

Another report adds : In observance of the International Mother Language Day and Amar Ekushey, Bangladesh Homeopathic Parishad, Chittagong District Unit arranged a discussion meeting at BAHOP Office premises in city with its President Prof Dr Debratha Bhattachariya in the chair.

Divisional Govt representative of Bangladesh Homeopathy Board Dr.Saleh Ahmed Suleman was present as Chief Guest.

Vice President of BAHOP Alhaj Dr. Saleh Jahangir was the key speaker in it. Vice President BAHOP, Chittagong Dr. Sadhan Chandra Paul, central leader Ln Dr.Pranab Ranjan were present as special guests. General secretary of Chittagong Unit Dr.Enamul Hoque conducted discussions as moderator.

The chief guest in his brief deliverations expressed proudness over celebrating the International Mother Language Day across the world as the people of Bangaldesh demanded Bangla as state language of the erstwhile Pakistan and the sacrificed their lives for Bangla Language Movement on 21 February, 1952. He stressed the need for introducing Bangla language in all respects. He urged the govt to introduce Bengali in every spheres of Govt offices.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the US decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018 to coincide with Israel's 70th Independence Day.

"This is a great day for the people of Israel," Netanyahu said in a statement. "This decision will turn Israel's 70th Independence Day into a much greater celebration."

"Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and your friendship," the prime minister concluded.WARSAW - Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center is considering issuing a travel advisory for Jews urging them to limit their visits to Poland after the countrys relations with Israel were strained

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This month Poland sparked international criticism, including from Israel and the United States, when it approved a law that imposes jail terms for suggesting the country was complicit in the Holocaust.

Some three million Jews who lived in pre-war Poland were murdered by the Nazis during their occupation of the country. They accounted for about half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Israelis visits the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland (Photo: AP)

Polands nationalist ruling party says the new law is needed to ensure that Poles are also recognized as victims, not perpetrators, of Nazi aggression. It notes that the Nazis also viewed Slavs as racially inferior and that many Poles were killed or forced into slave labor during the German occupation.

In wake of the controversial new Holocaust Law in Poland and the anti-Semitism it has unleashed that has left the Jewish community shaken, the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is considering issuing a Travel Advisory for world Jewry, the organization said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

A Travel Advisory would urge Jews to limit their travel to Poland only to visit ancestral graves and Holocaust-era Death Camps, the NGO named after legendary Nazi hunter who died in 2005 said.

Many Poles believe their nation behaved honorably for the most part during the Holocaust. But research published since 1989 has sparked a painful debate about responsibility and reconciliation.

A 2000-2004 inquiry by Polands state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) found that on July 10, 1941, Nazi occupiers and local inhabitants colluded in a massacre of at least 340 Jews at Jedwabne. Some victims were burned alive after being locked inside a barn.

The revelation disturbed the Poles belief that, with a few exceptions, they conducted themselves honorably during a vicious war in which a fifth of the nation perished. Some Poles still refuse to acknowledge the IPNs findings.

Anti-Semitism was common in Poland in the run-up to World War Two. After the war, a pogrom in the town of Kielce and a bout of anti-Semitism in 1968 sponsored by the communist authorities forced many survivors who had stayed in Poland to flee.

The SWC with headquarters in Los Angeles is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States.KABUL, Afghanistan  A suicide bomber killed at least one person in an attack in the diplomatic area of Afghanistan's capital on Saturday, an Afghan official said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said six people were wounded in the attack in the Shash Darak area of Kabul, near NATO headquarters and not far from the US Embassy. Danish said the initial casualty count could rise.

No one immediately claimed responsibility but the Taliban and Islamic State militant group both have carried out past attacks in Kabul.Poland's ruling party must do everything it can to stop anti-Semitic remarks that are hurting Polands standing in the world and putting its interests at risk, European Council President Donald Tusk told a news conference on Friday.

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Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said after he met Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that discussions with other European leaders showed the situation of Warsaw was "very serious."

"I told the prime minister the situation... has a direct impact on Polish interests, Poland's reputation and Poland's standing in the world," Tusk said, adding that Morawiecki understood that.

Council of Europe President Tusk said the wave of anti-Polish sentiment in the world more resembled a tsunami (Photo: EPA)

"The ruling party has all the instruments to stop both these waves if it really wants to. We have all worked hard... over the last 30 years on good relations of Poland with the world, including Israel and the Jewish community. We cannot allow someone to ruin all that within a few weeks," he said.

"It is not too late for concrete action, just as it is not too late for common human decency," he said.

Poland angered Israel , the United States and Ukraine in February when it passed a law that imposes prison sentences of up to three years on anyone using the phrase "Polish death camps," or for suggesting "publicly and against the facts" that the "Polish nation" or state was complicit in Nazi Germanys crimes.

Polish PM Morawiecki told Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman that there were also 'Jewish perpetrators' in the Holocaust (Photo: AP)

Speaking to journalists at a conference of world leaders in Munich last Saturday, Morawiecki further angered international opinion by suggesting Jews themselves had a hand in the Holocaust.

Asked by Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman to explain the law, Morawiecki said, "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.

"Polish embassies had to react 260 times in 2017 alone with regards to the expression 'Polish death camps' or 'Polish concentration camps.' Well, ladies and gentlemen, there were no Polish death camps or concentration camps. There were German Nazi death camps.

Polish PM Morawiecki's conversation with Ronen Bergman

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"The mere fact that we have to explain it today stems from our history. For 50 years after the Second World War45 to be exactwe couldn't defend our case. There was no Polish independent state."

Naming "Jewish perpetrators" in the same breath as Nazis triggered outrage in Israel and added to growing concern about the rise in nationalism in Poland and tacit government support for far-right views since the Law and Justice (PiS) government took power in late 2015.KABUL, Afghanistan  The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.

In a statement posted on its news agency Aamaq on Saturday IS said the attack was carried out by a bomber with an explosive vest and targeted the gate of the headquarters of the Afghan intelligence service in central Kabul.The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Saturday on a draft resolution calling for a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire across Syria, but Russian insistence that such provisional halting of hostilities cannot be immediate may neuter the decision.

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More than 400 people were killed in fighting in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, with multiple countries warning the war torn country was on the verge of a humanitarian disaster and following US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster accusing the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad of using chemical weapons

Conflict rages on in the outskirts of Damascus

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Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, however, has called an immediate cease-fire unrealistic, and in an apparent bid to get Russian support, sponsors Kuwait and Sweden amended the draft resolution to drop a demand that the cease-fire take effect 72 hours after the resolution's adoption.

As Syrian conflict violently rages on, Russia blocks UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate ceasefire (Photo: EPA)

Earlier, after six hours of negotiations, Kuwait's UN Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaiba, the current council president, told reporters Friday evening that members "are so close" to agreement, and negotiations are continuing.

He said the council will meet at noon EST on Saturday and there will be a vote.

The latest draft resolution says a cease-fire must be followed immediately by access for humanitarian convoys and medical teams to evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

It states that 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities are in "acute need," including 2.9 million in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

A Russian-proposed amendment, which the sponsors rejected, would have ruled out an immediate cease-fire. Instead, it would have demanded that all parties "stop hostilities as soon as possible" and work for a "humanitarian pause" for at least 30 days.

Sweden's UN Ambassador Olof Skoog echoed Al-Otaiba, telling reporters that council members have been "very, very close" to agreement"but we have not been able to close the gap completely."

"We all agree there needs to be a cease-fire and it has to be urgent, immediately," he said. "There are still some discussions on exactly how to define that. So that's what we're working on."

Skoog said he was "extremely frustrated" that the council was unable to adopt the resolution on Thursday or Friday because the situation on the ground is dire and demands immediate council action.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley, who did not participate in Friday's negotiations, tweeted, "Unbelievable that Russia is stalling a vote on a ceasefire allowing humanitarian access in Syria. How many more people will die before the Security Council agrees to take up this vote?"

Sweden and Kuwait, and their council supporters, have been pressing for immediate action as deaths mount in a Syrian bombing campaign in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta.

"It is about saving lives," Sweden's Skoog said earlier. "UN convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go. It's time for the council to come together and shoulder its responsibility to urgently avert a situation that is beyond words in its desperation."

Bombing campaign in eastern Ghouta this week (: )

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The draft resolution would authorize one exemption from the cease-fire.

It would allow attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State group and all al-Qaida affiliates including the Nusra Front to continue. The Syrian government and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamic extremists they call "terrorists"and US-backed forces are also going after IS and al-Qaida militants.

The latest draft resolution does include several other Russian proposals.

It stresses the need for "guarantees" from countries with influence on government and opposition forces to support and create conditions for a lasting cease-fire. The sponsors also added language expressing "outrage" at the shelling of Damascus, including on diplomatic premises, which is a proposal Russia wanted.

Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate suspension of "all war activities" in eastern Ghouta, where he said 400,000 people are living "in hell on earth."

Additional Russian stealth bombers sent to Syria

Russian channel RT reported Saturday that Russia sent two more state-of-the-art fighter Sukhoi Su-57 fighter jets to its base in Syria, on the heels of an announcement earlier this week that the first two jets arrived to the war-torn country.

The two additional planes landed at the Khmeimim Russian air base, it was reported, bringing the total number of jets in Russia's ally to fourdespite the fact the Russian Air Force had yet to use them in routine operations.

Footage of the alleged landing of the Sukhoi Su-57s

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Vladimir Gutenov, a member of Russia's lower house of parliament, told the Sputnik news agency that the presence of the Su-57s will doubtlessly send a political message, serving as a deterrent "for aircraft from neighboring states which periodically fly into Syrian airspace uninvited."

The Russian lawmaker added that the Sukhoi fighter jets "needed to be tested in combat conditions, in conditions of enemy resistance," the lawmaker added.

A senior American military official, meanwhile, also said Russia sent the Sukhoi jets to Syria and said it was a development that may escalate dangers faced by American forces operating in the region.

The Russian army first landed two Sukhoi 57 jets in Syria, it was reported earlier this week by a Russian research institute and the Kommersant Russian paper.

While the reports were not corroborated by the Russian Defense Ministry, photos coming from Syria showed what it appeared to be the jets landing at a Russian base in Syria on the shore of the Mediterranean.

Photo capturing the alleged arrival of 2 more Sukhoi 57 fighter jets to Syria

The arrival of the cutting edge Sukhoi Su-57s was accompanied by earlier model four Su-35 and four Su-25 jets.

The aforementioned jet's model was only recently changed from T-50 to Sukhoi Su-57. The commander of the Russian Air Force described the plane as a "wonderful war machine" and said last month, "Every country wished it had such planes, and we do."

The Sukhoi Su-57 possessed the latest stealth technological capabilities, according to Russian sources, making it exceedingly hard for enemy radars to track it. Newsweek magazine previously reported the jet will carry a payload of K-77M missiles, which have a range of up to 200 kilometers.

Newly released satellite imagery by the Israeli company ImageSat showed the new Russian Su-57 jets at the Hmeimim Airbase near Latakia in western Syria.

According to ImageSat, this is the first evidence of the presence of these stealth fighter jets in Syria.

So far, according to the Russians and various other publications on the subjectthese aircraft are considered non-operational, and are still in development.

Aviation experts estimate that the Russians plan to test the aircraft's systems and use it only in intelligence gathering missions, using Syria as a "test ground" for the advanced aircraft.

ImageSat satellite imagery of Hmeimim Airbase (Photo: ImageSat)

Russian General Vladimir Shamanov said before the Russian parliament's Defense Committee that Russia tested more than 200 different kinds of new armaments in Syria.

"This is the manner in which we prove the world the superiority of Russian weapons," he said at a hearing held this past Wednesday for "Defender of the Fatherland Day." The Russia general did not, however, specify which weapons he was referring to and when and where they were tested.More than 2,500 American soldiers and officers from United States European Command (USEUCOM) have recently arrived to Israel to participate in Juniper Cobra , a joint exercise with the Israel Air Force to commence March 4 in southern Israel and last for two weeks.

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After the exercise concludes, further joint operations will continue until the end of March.

As part of the preparations for the drillwhich will also include some 2,000 soldiers from Israel's aerial defense arrayheavy military vehicle traffic could be spotted on Israel's roads lately, carrying air defense batteries such as American-made Patriot launchers and radar systems.

File photo. Iron Dome batteries will participate in the 2018 Juniper Cobra exercise (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Several live interceptions will take place as part of the drill, but most of the scenarios will be played out through computer simulations. The exercise simulates a scenario in which US forces would deploy to Israel in order to aid the IDF's aerial defense forces. Together they will carry out simulations of a variety of rocket threat scenarios in different regions.

Simulations include the use of the Arrow Patriot , and David's Sling systems. The David's Sling System was declared operational in April 2017.

Brig.-Gen. Haimovich (R) said exercise will 'serve as an opportunity for the IAF to enhance operational capabilities in the face of high-trajectory threats' (Photo: Avi Moalem)

Commander of the Aerial Defense Array, Brig.-Gen. Zvika Haimovich, said, "The 'Juniper Cobra 2018' exercise will serve as an opportunity for the IDF, and the IAF in particular, to enhance operational capabilities in the face of high-trajectory threats.

"The exercise demonstrates the strategic and fundamental cooperation between the IDF and the US Armed Forces. In the coming weeks we will train together to face complex and challenging scenarios, which are relevant to the dynamic range of threats that we must be prepared to face."

US Air Force Third Air Force Commander Lt.-Gen. Richard M. Clark said, "The United States and Israel enjoy a strong and enduring military to military partnership built on a trust that has been developed over decades of cooperation.

"The Juniper Cobra exercises continue to strengthen this relationship, providing us with the opportunity to bolster interoperability and develop seamless integration with our Israeli partners."

2016's Juniper Cobra exercise (: ")

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The IDF said that the purposes of the exercise are to strengthen cooperation and coordination between the two militaries, to promote bilateral learning and enhance aerial defense capabilities.

The Juniper Cobra exercise was first held in Israel in 2001, and will be held for the ninth time this year. It will be the largest IDF and USEUCOM joint exercise taking place this year.Hundreds of portraits of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers who were targeted for expulsion were hung around Tel Aviv Friday night. The hanging of photos is the culmination of a weeks' long project by a group of independent photographers, who documented more than 500 asylum seekers.

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Most of the asylum seekers whose photos were taken for the project are currently detained at the southern Holot facility , set to close at the end of next month as part of the program to expel African migrants from Israel.

Activists putting up photos of migrants across Tel Aviv

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Some of those photographed were transferred from Saharonim prison to Holot just this week, after they made known their refusal to consent to deportation to Rwanda

Some 500 asylum seekers were photographed for the project

The exhibit will also be featured at an anti-expulsion rally , to be held Saturday in south Tel Aviv.

"While the government is sending refugees to incarceration at Holot and Saharonim and to expulsion to third countries, the project wishes to give form to the people Israel wishes to make disappear from public discourse," a message put out on behalf of the photographers said.

"Through these photographs, we wish to remind (Israelis) that the refugees are seeking asylum and have instead received prison. Photos seek to remind the public, as well as decision makers, that even if they are sent to indefinite detention, the reason that brought them to Israel will not be forgotten: to seek asylum," the message concluded.

Michael, an asylum seeker who participated in the project, said, "We wish for the people of Israeland the worldto know that we are denied visas and thrown in jail, but we're not going to Uganda or Rwandawe will stay in prison, although I hope that won't happen.

"We want them to know we're truly refugees and that we escaped to save our lives. The Israeli government is lying when it says we're work migrants."

Preparations for the rally, to be held starting 8:30pm in southern Tel Aviv, are almost complete. The movement orchestrating the rally, known as "South Tel Aviv Against Deportation", is expecting thousands to flock to the area to attend from across Israel in a bid to display widespread opposition to the Knesset's approval of the deportation plan two months ago.

The demonstration will be held throughout Levinsky Street and roads around it will be closed starting 3pm. Journalist Merav Betito will host the rally, where south Tel Aviv residents, asylum seekers, author Sami Shalom Chetrit, social activist Shula Mula and other public figures are expected to speak. Musicians Omer Lev and Karolina will perform onstage.

File photo. an anti-expulsion rally will be held in Tel Aviv Saturday evening (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

South Tel Aviv has been seriously affected by the wave of illegal migration in recent years that swept through Israel's once-porous southern border.

In an effort to counter the demonstration, crowds are planning to assemble from the other side of the camp, led by "South Tel Aviv Liberation Front" under the campaign banner of "Remembering Esther Galili," a victim whose murder came to symbolize anger over the migrants' presence and galvanize protesters into action.Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay commented on the submarine probe and said, "Mixing corruption with state security will cause the Germans to pull out of the submarine deal and will directly compromise our security."

"If Prime Minister Netanyahu is questioned under caution on the submarine probe," Gabbay added, "he will have to resign."

On attacks against him, Gabbay said, "I'm neither offended nor impressed. The Right's silence in the face of these attacks is embarrassing."The Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry attacked the United States Saturday over its announcement the previous day of its intention to inaugurate the US Embassy in Jerusalem this coming May, to coincide with Israel's 70th Independence Day celebrations.

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The ministry's message said the American decision insisted on damaging peace and disregarded decisions objecting to the move by the United Nations and Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

In a statement, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said the decision was "very worrying". The US State Department said on Friday it would open an embassy in Jerusalem in May to coincide with Israel's 70th Independence Day and that the embassy will operate out of the current American consulate building in the capital's Arnona neighborhood.

Turkish President Erdogan's Foreign Affairs Ministry said the American decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem was damaging peace (Photo: AFP, EPA)

In December, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted an OIC summit of more than 50 countries in Istanbul, where Muslim leaders condemned the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will begin working at the Jerusalem complex and that a new embassy will open by the end of 2019, while the search for a permanent site for the embassy was ongoing.

"We are excited about taking this historic step, and look forward with anticipation to the May opening," Nauert said.

Palestinians were irate upon learning of the American announcement, and said it could destroy the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat's statement on the embassy move (: )

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Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian's chief negotiator in peace talks that have been frozen since 2014, said the US move showed a "determination to violate international law, destroy the two-state solution and provoke the feelings of the Palestinian people as well as of all Arabs, Muslims and Christians around the globe."

Erekat, who is also secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, went on to say that US President Donald Trump and his team "have disqualified the US from being part of the solution between Israelis and Palestinians; rather, the world now sees that they are part of the problem."

He further lamented the fact the move would coincide with the Nakba Daythe 1948 Palestinian exodus, or how the Palestinians refer to the establishment of Israel.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also slammed the move, saying, "This is an unacceptable step. Any unilateral move will not give legitimacy to anyone and will be an obstacle to any effort to create peace in the region."

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the decision by President Trump's administration was tantamount to a declaration of war on Arabs (Photo: Reuters)

In Gaza, a Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that "Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim nation, and the US administration must reconsider its move."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, praised the US decision, saying it "will turn Israel's 70th Independence Day into a much greater celebration."

"This is a great day for the people of Israel," Netanyahu noted in a statement released Friday night. "Thank you, President Trump, for your leadership and your friendship."Police intercept BNP`s black-flag demo

Alal, 150 others held: Over 230 hurt: Govt provokes BNP: Fakhrul

BNP activists at black flag programme charged batons in front of Nayapaltan Central Office in city by the police to disperse them on Saturday.

Staff Reporter :

Police on Saturday intercepted BNP's scheduled black-flag demonstration in front of the party's central office at Naya Paltan of Dhaka city.

Not only that, they picked up more than 150 leaders and activists including the BNP Joint-Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal from the spot and injured over 230 leaders and activists by swooping with batton, teargas shells and hot water.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir condemned the police action.

"The government is provoking the BNP to clash with police," said Mirza Fakhrul in a press briefing at Naya Paltan after the incident.

Afterward BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced fresh programme for observing in the capital city's thanas, and districts and other metropolitan cities on Monday.

Plainclothes police detained BNP Joint-Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal around 12:20pm when he came out of the party office soon after the press briefing.

The party's Assistant Climate Affairs Secretary, Mustafizur Rahman Babul, former MP Rasheda Begum



Hira, among others, were also detained.

Mirza Fakhrul and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi demanded unconditional release of Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal with all the party leaders and activists.

The BNP activists and leaders were scheduled to stage the demonstration in front of the party central office at 11:00am on the day in protest against police refusal for holding a rally on Thursday demanding release of the party Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Witnesses said the party leaders and activists started gathering in front of the party office around 9am. The police also take position surrounding the party office since morning.

At a stage, the police swooped on the BNP leaders and activists who were chanting slogans demanding Khaleda Zia's releases from jail and were waving black-flags.

Police have arrested some leaders and activists and drove away others from the spot. But the party men again took position in front of the party office and started chanting slogans and showed black-flags.

"Leaders and activists started to gather in front of the party office at 9:00am to join the hour-long black-flag demonstration, but police started arresting them from 10:15am," Fakhrul said in the press briefing.

Mirza Fakhrul said also, the law enforcers' unleashed attack on the party activists without any provocation, charged batons and sprayed coloured water from water cannon to foil the programme.

The BNP leader also alleged that teargas shells were lobbed inside the party office as the activists took shelter there from police attack, leaving many of them injured.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Motijheel zone) Shibli Noman said, "The BNP had no permission for staging demonstration. So the police obstructed them to ensure vehicles movement on the street."

He also said, the DMP imposed restriction on holding rally in the capital since February 6, and that was still in effect.

The party activists blocked the road for their programme where police dispersed those using water cannon, he added.

Replying to a query, Mirza Fakhrul said, "Why do we need to seek permission from the police for every programme? To hold a demonstration it is our fundamental right. Then why do we seek permission for every programme?"

He also said, "It means we need permission to hold a press briefing inside our own office. We need to get permission when we want to talk with our party leaders."

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also said in a separate press briefing at 2:30pm in the party office that the police are being used to foil opposition party's programmes.

He stated the police attacks on the party leaders and activists as sign of 'brutality.'

He said, "When the leaders and activists become thirsty after getting hurt by the police attack, they want water, but the police return them indecent words instead of water."Dozens of Jaffa residents demonstrated Saturday afternoon in solidarity with Mahdi a-Saadi , a local man shot and killed by police last year. Protesters criticized the police, claiming no action was taken against the shooting officer, who they thought deserved punishment.

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"We'll sacrifice our lives for Mahdi," chanted demonstrators as they made their way from Jaffa's famed Clock Tower towards the headquarters of the Tel Aviv District Police.

Arab Jaffa residents protest young man's shooting death (:  )

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"Rest, O martyr, we will continue the struggle" and "We shall not be intimidated, police is terrorism" were also chanted during the protest.

The Arab protest through Jaffa, decrying alleged police brutality

A Jaffa resident who participated in the rally said, "It has been several months now and no progress was made. We want to know what's to be done to the cop who murdered a man in cold blood. He should be punished and has no place in the police."

"We have not calmed down. We will continue the struggle until we are told when the cop will be indicted. The current situation shows the scorn towards Arab blood," he stated.

The scene of the shooting

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A-Saadi, 22 years old at the time of his death, was shot and killed during a police chase in July of last year. At around 4:30am Saturday morning, police received a report of gunfire on Yefet Street, with the window of a butcher shop having been smashed.

Policemen who were patrolling nearby were called to the scene. When they arrived, they noticed several masked men trying to escape via motorcycles.

Police began chasing after them, and eventually shot at them in an attempt to get them to stop, injuring two in the process.

One of the men, a-Saadi, suffered serious wounds to the upper body and later succumbed to his wounds and passed away.

Cars were torched in the wake of the shooting

The attorney who represents the family of the deceased said that "there was no reason to open fire (on the suspect) because he did not pose any danger to the officers. In my opinion, this was a wrong and unnecessary shooting that led to the loss of human life for no reason."

In the 24 hours after the shooting, a wave of Arab protests broke out in Jaffa, with cars torched, the windshield of a police cruiser smashed and several streets blocked off.Three Israeli tourists were detained in the Indian state of Rajasthan after taking photos using a drone.

Israeli Consul in New Delhi Eli Sneh spoke with the local police chief and the three were released.ANKARA  The United Nations should end a "massacre" by Syria's government in eastern Ghouta, the spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said ahead of a UN Security Council vote on Saturday on a demand for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

A draft resolution aimed at ending a deadly pro-government bombing campaign in the eastern Ghouta district and elsewhere in Syria was delayed by the UN Security Council on Friday after a flurry of last-minute negotiations caused a 24-hour delay.

The ceasefire will be put to the vote in the 15-member council at noon (1700 GMT) on Saturday.A language still spoken by the descendants of Jews expelled from Spain 500 years ago is getting a helping hand from the Spanish Royal Academy to keep it alive.

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Ladino, a language taken abroad by Spanish Jews expelled from Spain in the late 15th century, uniquely preserves many elements of medieval Spanish, but some fear it is dying out.

The Spanish Royal Academy has given it a lift by taking a first step toward creating a distinct academy for Ladino that will nurture the archaic language.

Ladino publication (Photo: AP)

I feel this is a very important moment, a historic moment, said Tamar Alexander-Frizer, president of the Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino i su Kultura (National Authority of Ladino and its Culture), established by Israel in 1996 to support and foster the language.

Alexander-Frizer spoke Tuesday at the Madrid headquarters of the Spanish Royal Academy, where Ladino experts signed an agreement to set up a new institution that will become part of the 23-member Association of Spanish Language Academies.

Sephardic Jews is the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian Peninsula. They fled to other countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The largest community is in Israel.

Granting Ladino the distinction of its own academy and locking it into an international support network aims to secure its future.

Only a few thousand people are thought to still speak the language fluently. At least 250,000 people in Israel are believed to have some knowledge of Ladino, according to Shmuel Refael Vivante of the National Authority of Ladino and its Culture. But outside Israel, the number is a mystery, he says.

UNESCO, the UNs educational, scientific and cultural agency, classifies Ladino as a language that is severely endangered.

Jacobo Sefami, a Sephardi born in Mexico and now a professor at the University of California, Irvine, is pessimistic. The truth is that no children are speaking it anymore and its progress toward extinction seems irreversible, he wrote in an email to the Associated Press.

Others, like Maria Cherro de Azar, a specialist at the Buenos Aires-based Center for the Research and Spread of Sephardic Culture, are less gloomy. There has been talk of the language dying for more than 100 years, she said by telephone.The leader of the radical Jerusalem Faction of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox sect, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, passed away early Saturday morning. He was 86.

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Rabbi Auerbach led his group's aggressive struggle against the enlistment of yeshiva students into the IDF and the arrests of Haredi draft dodgers.

His funeral will take place Sunday at 11:00 am.

Rabbi Auerbach (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

At the end of Shabbat, masses of his followers gathered at the Ma'alot HaTorah yeshivawhich he headedin the Sha'arei Hesed neighborhood in Jerusalem, where he resided for most of his life.

Outside his home, his students were seen tearing up their shirts in grief and crying.

In recent years, Rabbi Auerbach has distinguished himself from the mainstream ultra-Orthodox sector mainly by means of an uncompromising fanatical battle against the " draft law ."

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

In the run up to the last Knesset elections, he called on the ultra-Orthodox to refrain from voting , as opposed to in previous elections.

He objected to any negotiations between representatives of the sector and the Shaked Committee for Equal Sharing of the Burden, objected to their pragmatic approach on enlistment, and ordered yeshiva students not to report to the conscription offices at allnor to seek deferment of their IDF service.

As a result, several of them were arrested, which prompted thousands of Haredim across the country to hold violent demonstrations in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh, Safed and Modi'in for several days in a row, blocking traffic and clashing violently with both police and drivers.

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

While the Jerusalem Faction is a relatively small group and not represented in the Knesset, it still holds considerable public power, which was expressed in those demonstrations.

Dozens were arrested during the protests, while policemen were forced to use riot control and disperse demonstrators by force. Chants for "death before enlistment" and epithets hurled at officers, such as " Nazis ," became commonplace at such disturbances.

At the time, Auerbach called on his people to continue the fierce protests against the arrest of the deserters. The rabbi was quoted as saying: "We must fight to the last drop of blood."

"The only right of the State of Israel to exist was by virtue of the fact that it supported the Torah scholars and housed them," Auerbach asserted. "Now we are worried about its continued existence. We will fight and struggle without end."Some 1,500 demonstrators gathered Saturday evening in Tel Aviv against government corruption, chanting in support of Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, who came under fire recently for claiming that "powerful" elements hired private investigators against police officers investigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Protesters were heard calling Alsheikh "a dear" and accusing Netanyahu of operating against Israel's interests.

Opposite them were several dozen Netanyahu supporters with signs: "Bibi, the people have chosen you," reffering to the premier by his nickname.

(Photo: Tal Shachar)

The anti-corruption protesters carried signs saying: "Bibi, you are not above the law," "love Israel, separate from Netanyahu," and "corrupt go home." They shouted: "A mafia country and a corrupt prime minister."

Eldad Yaniv, who lead the demonstration in Tel Aviv, reminded participants that this is the 66th week in a row the demonstration is held, and added thateven though it's been so long and they fought so hard"It's not over yet."

"There will be a bitter and difficult battle, and it will not go easily," he stressed. "But we will not give up. We are heading toward difficult weeks as the investigation intensifies against (Netanyahu)."

Another demonstrationled by former Prime Minister's Residence superintendent Meni Naftalitook place at Goren Square in Petah Tikva, near the residence of the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, and was attended by about 100 people.

They marched around the square, protesting Mandelblit's conduct and what they called "foot dragging" in the cases against Netanyahu.

(Photo: Tal Shachar)

Carmi Gillon, former head of the Shin Bet security service, gave a speech at the rally, called for Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) to work with members of the Likud to replace Netanyahu in order to keep the coalition intact.

"I understand your desire to continue serving as Minister of Finance until the end of your term," he said, going on to lament on how this very desire made him "give up" his integrity.

"The whole mess is centered on one personBibi. There is no problem with the Likud. Contact your Likud colleagues(and together) choose another prime minister to replace Bibi and the coalition will survive until the end of its term.

"You have the key to save the Jewish people from Bibi's punishment and restore sanity to our lives. Do it and be forever recorded on the pages of history Do not, and forever remain but a picture on the wall in the corridor of the Minister of Finance's office."

Gillon then went on to directly lambaste the prime minister, calling on him to resign effective immediately.

"Three years ago, in another demonstration in front of your home, long before the affairs (you are embroiled in) were revealed. I called you 'egomaniac' and was promptly attacked from all sides that I dare call a prime minister that," he recounted.

"Well Bibi, you proved to anyone reasonable enough to see it that you were and remained an egomaniac that sacrifices the security of the state on the altar of your ego.

"The history that is so important to you will not forgive you for it."

(Photo: Tal Shachar)

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar, who served as commander of the IDF's Lebanon Division, the Givati Brigade and the elite Shaldag Unit and devoted 30 years of his life to the IDF, also took to the podium to castigate Netanyahu, his associates and his supporters in the government.

He called the war on corruption "a different kind of war, foreign and painful," one that is against a "corrupt leadership, which in turn undermines the values of integrity, justice and human dignity."

"Prime Minister Netanyahu is suspected in unprecedented corruption cases, surrounded by an obedient group of hedonistic and cowardly ministers and elected officials," he chastised.

He then went on to visioucly attack Netanyahu supporters within his party, claiming they lie and sow fear within the public to protect the prime minister.

"(Coalition chairman David) Amsalem hurls obscenities at witnesses and speaks in gutter language against law-abiding citizens and dedicated investigators. (Minister Miri) Regev , (MK Miki) Zohar, (MK Yoav) Kish and (MK Yaron) Mazuz are insulting us citizens and continue to sow discord and frighten the Israeli public away from the truth," he said, calling on the Israeli public to remain silent no more.

"Citizens of the State on the Right, Center and Left, religious and secular, rih and poor, Jews and Arabswe deserve a decent and honest leader," he concluded.News making rounds on social media in the last 48 hours suggests that a former student of the University of Ghana has become an adult film star in the United States.

According to the reports, Nana Kwame Opoku ,who completed a course in Business Administration in 2016 is now a full time adult film actor.

In a Twitter video YEN.com.gh sighted (which we cannot put here), a gentleman said to be Nana Kwame is seen in an action with a white lady.

READ ALSO: Video: Ebonys daddy hangs out with his 'girl' Fella Makafui

The video posted by Nana Kwame's production company's Twitter handle has received a lot of reactions from Ghanaians.

Notable among them is celebrity blogger Ameyaw Debrah (@ameyaw112 ) who wrote "I'm impressed lol".

@mamaVeeCandy was concerned with the monetary benefits "At least he's gonna get paid".

@soulja_boy027 posted a photo of kitchen stool with the caption "Low key next video Nana Kay for use the ultimate weapon"

@SamuelAbbey commended him for "Flying the flag of high and getting paid 5 racks as well. Man youre winning in life .

Further checks by YEN.com.gh suggests Nana Kwame has deactivated his Instagram account.

READ ALSO: 15 Ghanaian women reveal the shocking reasons why they are cheating on their husbands

But we managed to get these photos of him:

Nana Kwame looks very happy in the photo below.

READ ALSO: Prophet who 'saw' Ebony's death says another popular musician will die before March ends

Star Gist on YEN brings you an exclusive with upcoming star S3fa:

Your stories are always welcome.

Send us a message via our official Facebook and/or Instagram page to get it published on YEN.com.gh.

Source: YenMurder or suicide!

Staff Reporter :

A madrasa student was burnt to dead over rivalry in a bathroom of the madrasa in Nishchintapur of Thakurgaon district town on Saturday morning.

The deceased was identified as Abu Bakkar, 16, a student of Hifaj Department (Holy Quran Memorizing Section) of Darul Ulum Fayej AA'm Kowmi Madras. He was son of Sirazul Islam, hailing from Bahadurpara village of Sadar upzila, Police said.

Quoting students and locals, Abdul Latif Mia,



Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Thakurgaon Sadar Police Station, "Police rushed to the spot in the morning and recovered the body breaking door of bathroom in the madrasa."

Following the murder, police detained 10 people, including Madrasa

Superintendent for interrogation in connection with the murder, the OC said.

We are investigating the incident, the police official said. He said that the body was sent to hospital for autopsy, he added.

Madrasa Superintendent Yasin Ali said that they rushed to the bathroom as they saw flames there after Fazr prayer. The bathroom however was closed from the inside . A class fellow of the deceased, said that the madrasa authorities ware lying over the door closing from the inside.

Abu Bakar retuned from his hose was normal and he went to sleep with others as normal but some he did not find him after rising for Fazar prayer.

Family sources said, Abu Bakkar came to residence on Friday morning and returned to the madrasa before evening with Tk 200. Some one murdered Abu Bakar, they claimed and rejected the 'suicide drama' of the madrasa authorities.

Biman faces final test

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is expecting to pass the test for European aviation safety standards, creating grounds for the withdrawal of the UK ban on the national flag carrier's direct air cargo service from Dhaka to London.

A team of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) audited Biman's latest security arrangement from Monday to Thursday. The audit has been carried out before lifting the embargo, officials said.

"The team arrived Dhaka last week to inspect the enhanced security arrangements that have already taken Biman in handling its direct air cargo flights from Dhaka to London. It will review the technical aspects of the security measures and submit a report to EASA by this week based on its inspection," Biman's General Manager (Public Relations) Shakil Meraj told The New Nation on Saturday.

He said a positive report will help Biman to get the ACC-3 validation and the certification of "Regulated Agent Third Country (RA3)" required for operating direct cargo service by national flag carrier to the UK and other EU countries.

Prior to this several European teams visited Bangladesh to check security standards at the Dhaka Airport and Biman to lift ban on direct cargo flights from Dhaka to London.

"Biman is expecting to pass the security audit this time, as it has already been made significant progress in meeting a number of important security conditions set for transporting air cargo," said Shakil Meraj.

On February 18 this year, the British government withdrew the two-year-long ban on direct cargo flights from Dhaka to London after being satisfied with the improvement of safety and security measures at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA). But ban remained on Biman's direct cargo flights from Dhaka to London due to lack of ACC-3 validation.

"The audit has been completed to obtain the ACC-3 validation. An official announcement in this regard is expected to come in the first week of March lifting Biman's ban on direct air cargo service from Dhaka to London," said Shakil Meraj.

Cargo transport is one of the main sources of Biman's income. The income, however, came down significantly due to British sanctions on cargo transport.

Biman earnings from air cargo handling stood at Tk 244 crore in fiscal 2016-17, while the amount

was Tk 315 crore in fiscal 2015-16.

On March 10, 2016, the UK government imposed the ban on cargo flights citing poor security screening both of passengers and consignments, especially, lack of explosive tracking devices at the HSIA and its cargo village

Later on June, Germany's Lufthansa also imposed the ban on direct cargo while the European Union did so in June last year.

Australia was the first country to impose the ban in December 2015

Following the UK's ban, Bangladesh hired British firm 'Redline Assured Security' to upgrade the security management and training of personnel at the airport at a cost of Tk 73.25 crore. The firm will continue their project until March 2018.Election to be freed from captivity

Staff Reporter :

Discussants at a seminar on Saturday urged the country's civil society to impress upon the government and the Election Commission to hold the next 11th parliamentary elections in such a manner that every voter can truly reflect their aspirations.

They said this while addressing the seminar titled "Participatory Election and Democracy in Bangladesh organized by The Dhaka Forum at the National Press Club in the city.

"The civil society encouragement to impress upon the ruling party and the Election Commission that the only way to save the country from an impending political tsunami would be not to derail the next general election and hold it in a manner that every Bangladeshi voters hope would truly reflect their aspirations," said former Ambassador M. Serajul Islam, who presented the keynote paper at the seminar.

The seminar was chaired by former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed.

Serajul Islam said with the 11th Parliamentary election coming nearer, there are widespread apprehensions in the public mind whether they would be able to vote freely and regain their inalienable right to vote that was taken away from them through the January 2014 elections.

He also warned that another non-participatory election or one where the ruling party would come to power without the people being able to exercise their right to vote would speed up the slide to fascism and further strangle



democracy while encouraging extremism and violent groups that are too dangerous to contemplate.

Barrister Mainul Hosein, a former Adviser to the Caretaker Government, said free election is the people's right to choose their government freely. It is wrong to think that the general election is only a matter between Awami League and BNP. The people's election has to be freed from captivity so that the people can vote freely.

We have hopes only if the patriotic ones everywhere come together and raise voice together they can save the nation from the politics of greed and violence. If not election, then also the government needs some other support base to remain in power. Their support has come from some among us and we expect them to realise what is right for the country, he said.

Like in other countries, Mainul Hosein said we must have we had many achievements in British as well as in Pakistan days. In a free country the greatest failure is not have free the parliamentary election under a caretaker government. We have to agree on the form of the caretaker government for a free and fair election.

He said it is misleading to talk about achievements, because election for electing the people's government freely.

Barrister Hosein said we want free election to establish constitutional system of accountability and restoration of democracy.

"The main impediment to hold neutral election in Bangladesh is India. The second impediment is lack of education and mismanagement. Now there is no morality in our country,'' said Dr. Jafarullah Chowdhury, founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra.

M. Hafizuddin Khan, the Chairman of TIB Trusty Board, said the EC has failed to ensure the level playing field. The EC has not yet framed any proper roadmap for upcoming election.

He also raised the Rohingya issue as it would be great problem for the nation.

BNP standing committee member and former Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said, the main lacking of our democracy is the weak institution. There is no strong institution in Bangladesh. The government has been destroying the institution. He also criticized the EC.

Former State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury has said, election is not only a franchise. It is a culture also. There is no value of election in Bangladesh. He also said about the weakness of institutionalization.

Dr. Dilara Chowdhury, a political scientist, said, the weak civil society is the major problem of our democracy. The youths are leaving the country because they find no hope in the country. It's not a good sign.

Ali Imam Majumdar, Iftekharuzzaman and Sohel Ahmed Chowdhury, among others, were present.

Hearing on Khaleda`s bail plea today

UNB, Dhaka :

The High Court is set to hear on Sunday a petition filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia seeking bail in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

The bail petition has been kept asitem no36 of the High Court'scause listfor Sunday.

The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and

Justice Md Shahidul Karim will hear the petition from 2pm.

Earlier on Thursday, the same bench set the date after Khaleda's lawyers filed the bail prayer.

The court had also accepted for hearing another petition of the BNP chief filed challenging the trial court verdict sentencing her to five years' imprisonment in the case and stayed the fine of Tk 2.10 crore slapped by the lawyer court on her.

It had asked the lower court to submit all the documents relating to the judgment before it within 15 days.

Barrister Nowshad Jamir and Barrister Kaiser Kamal, on behalf of the BNP chief, had submitted the 880-page bail petition in the morning showing 31 grounds for granting her bail.

On Tuesday, lawyers of the BNP chairperson filed an appeal with the High Court challenging her sentence in the graft case. On February 8 last, the Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted the former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

She was then sent to old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city.

More pressure on Myanmar likely

UNB, Dhaka :

The European Union is likely to come up with "restrictive measures" against Myanmar generals as the Foreign Ministers of European countries sit on Monday in Brussels.

The Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union will begin at 9am with a discussion on current affairs, allowing ministers to review pressing issues on international agenda, an official told UNB.

The Council is expected to adopt a number of conclusions without debate, including a conclusion on Myanmar, the official said. The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini will chair the council.

Bangladesh is also expecting a 'very strong message' from the EU so that Myanmar creates conditions for the safe and dignified return of Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

"We expect a stronger message from the EU asking Myanmar authorities to take necessary steps to ensure conditions for the safe and dignified

return of Rohingyas," a senior official told UNB on Saturday.

Earlier, the EU Head of Delegation in Dhaka Ambassador Rensje Teerink also indicated exerting more pressure on Myanmar so that it acts promptly and creates an environment for the sustainable return of Rohingyas to their homeland from Bangladesh.

"I hope there'll be more pressure. The only thing is to put more pressure on Myanmar," Ambassador Rensje Teerink told UNB last month. In October last year, the Council of the EU in its conclusions said it may consider additional measures if the situation does not improve but also stands ready to respond accordingly to positive developments.

However, it is yet to know what the conclusions will contain-whether it will be arms embargo or targeted sanctions on Myanmar government and army.

Diplomatic sources said, the European Union might take preparations to impose sanctions against Myanmar generals over killings of Rohingya Muslims.

The Foreign Ministers are likely to urge Federica Mogherini to propose restrictive measures on senior members of the Myanmar military for systematic human rights abuses.

The mass exodus of Rohingya people following human rights violations makes it necessary for the European Union (EU) to reassess its relationship with Myanmar, said European parliament members after visiting Myanmar last week. The EU must reconsider its relationship with Myanmar and develop new policies based on incentives and disincentives in each sector, as well as robust conditions, they said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, over 100 British Parliamentarians have said it is time for the UK to state that Myanmar's military should be referred to ICC for their appalling 'security operations' against the Rohingya, described as ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide by OHCHR. It is time for the British government to unequivocally state that the situation in Myanmar should be referred to the International Criminal Court, they added.

The Parliamentarians wrote to British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday seeking measures in line with their call. "Further, the time is long overdue for the imposition of a UN-mandated global arms embargo against Myanmar," the letter reads. It mentioned that they must work to build an international consensus to convince China and Russia for their positive role in the UN Security Council. "This process should start the British government ensuring that the European Union announces support for a referral to the ICC in its conclusions on February 26," the letter adds.

"I've sent a letter to the Foreign Secretary signed by over 100 Parliamentarians calling for an ICC referral for Myanmar's military general Min Aung Hlaing," Rushanara Ali MP wrote on her Facebook wall sharing the letter. The United Nations has now documented more than 688,000 Rohingyas who have fled to Bangladesh since the Myanmar military began their offensive against Rohingya civilians in August 2017.

Medecins Sans Frontieres has recently documented almost 7,000 Rohingya civilians killed in just one month last year, including 730 children. They believe this figure is likely to be significantly higher than their initial estimates. Bangladesh has urged the international community to remain vocal for justice for the victims of the atrocities in Rakhine State of Myanmar.

"We remain engaged internationally," an official told UNB narrating the atrocities committed on the Rohingyas and the systematic flushing out of the Rohingya population by the Myanmar authorities through violence and rape. On Thursday, India and Canada called for voluntary, safe and sustainable repatriation of Rohingyas from Bangladesh to Myanmar and allowing of United Nations and other international organisations to facilitate the process.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau discussed the humanitarian and security crisis in Rakhine State of Myanmar and across the border in Bangladesh during a meeting at Hyderabad. On January 16, Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a document on 'Physical Arrangement' which will facilitate the return of Rohingyas to their homeland from Bangladesh. The 'Physical Arrangement' stipulates that the repatriation will be completed preferably within two years from the start of repatriation.

Thousands protest deadly drug war in the Philippines

Thousand of people staged demonstration to protest Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte deadly drug war in Manila on Saturday.

Al Jazeera News :

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Manila to protest Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, which has left thousands of people dead, and to express their opposition to plans to change the constitution.

Catholic groups held a pre-dawn "walk for life" on Saturday against the drug killings, as well as the proposed restoration of the death penalty.

In his message, Luis Antonio Tagle, the cardinal of Manila, denounced the growing "throwaway culture", which he said has left many "casualties" including human lives.

"We will not tire in walking for life even if the path ahead is winding and soaked in blood," Tagle said in Filipino, without directly referring to Duterte's drug war.

The church-led protest took place as the country celebrated the anniversary of the 1986 popular revolt, which ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and ended his 20-year rule.

Since Duterte came into office in 2016, the Catholic church has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of his deadly anti-drug policy. The death toll in the drug war already surpassed 20,000 in the first 20 months of the Duterte presidency, according to an opposition senator.

The government insists the death toll is much lower at 3,967 between July 1, 2016 to November 27, 2017.

In a video clip posted by online news site Rappler, Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo said Filipinos should not be indifferent, whether the number of drug war deaths is big or small.

"It's not about the numbers, because the policy continues," Pabillo told reporters. "If we are not vigilant, it's possible that the killings will escalate. So we should not ignore this."

More than 80 percent of the 101 million Filipinos are Catholics. But Duterte has managed to fend off criticism from the church, calling church leaders "hypocrites".

The president also enjoys high approval rating, with 71 percent satisfaction rate in December, according to the local polling agency Social Weather Stations.

Elsewhere in Manila on Saturday afternoon, an assembly of left-wing groups, students, church workers and activists held a separate march calling for "resistance" against Duterte, whom they likened to the dictator, Marcos. Demonstrators raised their fists as they carried banners denouncing the "dictatorship" and Duterte's plan to change the constitution. "We are here to show that we are capable of fighting the dictator Duterte," a leader of the march said in a video clip posted on social media. The protesters partially blocked traffic along the route of the march. On Friday, thousands of students across the country also joined a school walkout.

Harry Roque, spokesman of the president said, the anti-government protests are proof that "democracy and freedom are very much alive in the Philippines". Roque said Duterte is "open to constructive criticism".

Meanwhile, thousands of uniformed police officers, their family members and supporters held a counter-march near the national police headquarters in Manila in support of the Duterte's drug war. "Fight and defeat drugs," read one banner carried by the demonstrators.500 killed in eastern Syria Air strikes

BBC Online :

Syrian government forces have killed more than 500 civilians during a week of intense bombardment of a rebel enclave near Damascus, activists say.

The victims in the Eastern Ghouta include 121 children, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group monitoring the conflict.

Syrian government forces backed by Russia have been pounding the area since last Sunday.

The UN Security Council is struggling to agree on a ceasefire resolution.

A vote has been delayed several times since Thursday, and is now due to be held later on Saturday.

On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory said at least 29 civilians were killed, including 17 in the main town, Douma - bringing the total to over 500 for the week.

The group said the strikes were being carried out by both Syrian and Russian planes - although Russia denies direct involvement.

Barrel bombs and shell fire have been dropped on the area, where some 393,000 people remain trapped.

Aid groups report several hospitals being put out of action since Sunday.

The Syrian government has denied targeting civilians and said it is trying to liberate the Eastern Ghouta from "terrorists" - a term it has used to describe both jihadist militants and the mainstream rebel groups that dominate the enclave. The plight of civilians in the area has alarmed world leaders. Conditions there have been described as "hell on earth" by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The Security Council has been debating a resolution calling for a 30-day calm to allow for aid deliveries.

But Russia wants changes. Under current draft, any ceasefire would not apply to the Islamic State group, or the Nusra Front - formerly al-Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria.

Moscow says it must go further and exclude other groups "co-operating with them" and which have shelled Damascus.

These could include the two biggest rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta - Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman. Faylaq al-Rahman has in the past fought alongside the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of factions led by the Nusra Front. Western diplomats have accused Russia of stalling for time.

They suspect that Moscow wants to give Syria time to deal a final blow to forces defending the enclave on the edge of Damascus.Yes, the decision belongs on the local level

No, no one should be able to dictate whether people wear masks

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View ResultsThanks to the efforts of one TouroCOM Middletown student, dozens of infants in Bangladesh have a better chance at a healthy life.

OMS I Jarin Prasa was born in Bangladesh and came to the United States as a young teenager. She remained close with her extended family, frequently travelling back to the town where she grew up. Whenever her family visited the country, Prasa volunteered with local organizations, including a high school that catered to teenage mothers and a clinic that performed eye surgery.

During the winter break of her first year at TouroCOM, Prasa decided to return to Bangladesh to volunteer, though this time in the pediatric ward of the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), a major research center that also functions as a hospital focused on the survival of neonates as well as maternal and child healthcare.

Bangladesh is a third-world country and the healthcare system has a lot of issues, she explained. Since its a government hospital it treats patients for free. These patients couldnt afford treatment any other way: they live in slums or do menial labor. Most of them cant read.

Prasa performed rounds with the doctors.

Malnutrition is common, as is a general lack of hygiene, she recalled. You had a lot of babies who came in with severe diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever, and pneumonia. I had never seen anything like the cases I saw there. There were kids with severe malnutrition from lack of proper feeding. Some were just skin and bones.

Prasa continued: The doctors were amazing, but very frustrated with the lack of resources. In one case, there was only one hospital in the country that could test for a specific disease. One of our patients had to stay in the hospital for longer than they needed until the test results came in. By the time we received the result, the baby got hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Prasa, who is fluent in Bangla, the official language of Bangladesh, said there was a quick learning curve to talking with her patients. Theres a slang thats common in the area and you have to use language they can understand.

Working in the pediatric ward, Prasa had a special advantage. A lot of the patients were frightened by the doctors because they couldnt follow what the doctors were saying.

With her youth and experience working with teenage moms, Prasa formed quick connections with the mothers.

I wrote down the doctors instructions for each patient and then I went back to make sure the patients were following the instructions, said Prasa. 99 percent of the time they didnt understand them. Since they cant read or write I had to tell them over and over, Give this medicine every two hours and this much water every two hours.

In addition, because of cultural mores, many of the mothers believed that breastfeeding was unhealthy, a misconception that Prasa corrected. (Many of the mothers were also too malnourished to produce milk.)

The hospital also ran cooking classes to teach the mothers how to make healthy and inexpensive meals, like kitchuri, a dish made of rice, vegetables and lentils. After sitting in on a few classes herself, Prasa began teaching the class. She also worked at the nutritional rehabilitation unit and educated impoverished mothers about the importance of proper feeding and methods for preventing infections.

In addition, Prasa taught the mothers how to make Orsaline, a quick liquid remedy given to counter the loss of fluids and electrolytes from diarrhea. The new mothers also learned about the importance of sanitation and routine vaccination from Prasa.

She returned to the US after working at the hospital for three weeks. She has no regrets for her grueling vacation.

The days passed so quickly, she recounted. I was in awe most of the time. I would rather do this than anything else on my winter break. In medical school, when youre studying until 3 a.m. every night, you occasionally lose sight of the goal. The whole experience reinforced everything that led me to medical school. I cant wait to go back.UAEs Ministry of Economy, in cooperation with the National Research Council (CNR), has launched a new guide in both English and Arabic versions highlighting the Ministry's role in the implementation of the UAE National Innovation Strategy.



Launched by Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy, the The Innovative Guide for Companies in the UAE, was developed and released in line with the set goals and objectives of the UAE Vision 2021.



The launch was also held as part of the Ministry's celebration of the UAE Innovation Month 2018. The guide is considered one of the Ministry's initiatives towards innovation that was presented to the National Committee for Science, Technology and Innovation (NCSTI) issued by the UAE Cabinet and was considered among the National initiatives as an implementation of the National Innovation Strategy.



The UAE has positioned itself as an important centre for entrepreneurship and innovation--widely attributed to a conducive legislative investment environment based on best international standards. This has also resulted in the establishment of highly specialized institutions and an enhanced understanding of the important role of innovation, which has become part of the country's core economic policies and an essential part in the move to transform into a knowledge economy as led by distinguished Nationals said Al Mansoori.



Al Mansoori pointed out that the Ministry of Economy is publishing this guide as part of its pivotal role in the efforts to support the private sector and contribute in the promotion of a culture of innovation at the level of the state and in cooperation with all strategic partners at the federal and local levels, particularly including the Departments of Economic Development and the Chambers of Commerce and Industryall seamlessly working together to encourage companies in the UAE coming from all industry verticals to take advantage of this newly released guide in their efforts to enhance the competitiveness of the UAE economy.



He explained that the guide covers key topics like the scientific and practical aspects in terms of the definition of innovation and its types; the importance of innovation in the economies of developed countries; the success of companies and the role of social media in developing the innovation of companies and the achievement of quality focused successes.



The guide also includes extensive case studies of success stories, challenges and difficulties faced by companies on innovation and how to overcome them. He conveyed his appreciation and thanks to the Italian government, represented by the Ministry of Development for its cooperation in this endeavour, which falls in line with the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the two ministries.



Humaid bin Mohammed bin Salem, secretary general of the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry, pointed out that the UAEs private sector remains a strong strategic partner of the public sector in helping achieve the goals and objectives of UAE Vision 2021.



He said that the launch of the innovation guide represents a strong communication bridge between the Ministry of Economy and all the companies operating in the UAEreflecting the strategic move towards innovation, which has become the core of the country's economic policies and the move to achieve a competitive knowledge-based economy.  TradeArabia News ServiceSaudi Arabia has made a remarkable progress in its fight against graft by ranking 57 in the latest 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), moving up by five places from the previous year's ranking of 62, said a report by Transparency International.



While the Index reflects on last year, the news comes in the wake of recent efforts by Saudi Arabia to fight corruption in the country, which has seen the country make bold moves including establishing a National Anti-Corruption Commission in November 2017.



According to data released by the global anti-corruption organization on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's overall score is 49 out of a 100.



Among Arab countries, Saudi Arabia improved its ranking to third in the region and with a higher score than the regional average of 33. The recognition comes at a time of rapid development for Saudi Arabia, as it vigorously pursues its ambitious Vision 2030 agenda.



Top Saudi officials hailed the report, saying that, "it marks a tangible result of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan and its commitment to accountability and continual improvement."



The formation of the National Anti-Corruption Commission is just the latest move to increase transparency in the country, which involves several government agencies. These include Adaa, The National Center for Performance Measurement.



"We are dedicated to achieving the objectives in the Vision 2030 plan, which includes improving transparency and accountability in every facet of our government, and this report shows we're making progress," said Minister of Economy and Planning Mohamed Altwaijri.



"Saudi Arabia's use of The National Center for Performance Measurement (Adaa) to independently benchmark the performance of our public entities is one of many tools we can credit with improving our global standing."



Husameddin AlMandani, Director General of Adaa, The National Center for Performance Measurement said: "Enabling transparency in government is one of the key reasons Adaa was created, and we are pleased that our efforts, and the full efforts in support of achieving Vision 2030, are showing true progression. It is important for global leaders to establish organizations that help to improve government efficiency and transparency."



The Corruption Perceptions Index report analyzes public sector corruption perceptions in 180 countries annually and determines how each country scores against one another using a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 indicating highly corrupt and 100 as very clean. The 2017 report found that the global average corruption score is 43, unchanged from 2016.



While the report generally showed little progress in eroding perceptions of corruption, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's score increased to 49 from 46 since 2016.



The drive for greater transparency and improved performance measurement is a key part of Vision 2030, and emblematic of Saudi Arabia's desire to work alongside multiple international partners to establish and consolidate best practice across a spectrum of public and private entities.-TradeArabia News Service

The number of five-star hotel spas in Dubai is on track to increase by a compound annual growth rate of 11 per cent to 2021, according to data released by Colliers International.



According to the report, Spa and Wellness Travel - produced exclusively for Arabian Travel Market - the number of five-star hotel spas in Dubai will increase from 107 in 2017 to 157 in 2021, in close correlation with the emirates hotel pipeline.



High profile openings over recent months include The Spa at Palazzo Versace Dubai and The Bulgari Spa, which will contribute to projected annual spa revenues in the emirate of $495million, by 2019, according to Visit Dubai.



Simon Press, senior exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market, said: "Regionally, the spa sector is multi-faceted and sensitive to events and developments in many other sectors, including global health, beauty and wellness trends. In 2017, we saw focus increase across these areas and Dubai was quick to capitalise and innovate, with the debut of a number of luxury-branded hotel spas.



"However, spas are no longer associated exclusively with the luxury market. As a result, we see more choice at various price points, a diversification in treatments, competitive marketing techniques and an increase in the number of spa management courses available to professionals. In 2018 and beyond, we expect to see these trends converge, further cementing Dubai and the regions reputation as a leading medical, wellness and health destination," Press added.



In the report, Colliers analysed data from spas representing 369 treatment rooms across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, highlighting nuances in demand and revenue trends. In Abu Dhabi, the average treatment rate is Dh348 ($94.7), compared to Dh394 ($107.2) in Dubai, with approximately 17 and 22 treatments sold per day, respectively. In terms of the guest profile, spas in Abu Dhabi welcome more male and walk-in guests at 53 percent and 67 percent, whereas in Dubai, 58 percent of spa guests are female and 55 percent of guests pre-book treatments.



In 2015, wellness trips to the GCC increased 44 per cent compared to 2013, while the number of spas increased 27 percent, with Oman and Bahrain leading growth.



The report concluded that such performance indicates a mature market capable of absorbing new supply. Testing this, the UAE will welcome 83 new hotels in 2018, many featuring spa and wellness amenities and, across the Middle East, a further 500 new properties are due to open by 2020.



"The predicted growth in spa inventory is closely tied to the regions hotel pipeline. Yet, unlike hotels, the report shows spas enjoy a level of resilience to increased competition and, in part, this is due to their growing appeal to different demographics and income groups  from millennials to local residents. While this has been good for the sector, preserving the trend in 2018 and 2019 will require spas to offer a strong brand, unique treatments and continued focus on enhancing the guest experience. We are likely to see some performance fluctuations in 2018 due to the introduction of VAT, however, the regions spas are poised for another strong year," Press continued.



According to figures from the Global Wellness Institute, three key sectors drive the $3.7 trillion global wellness industry: wellness Tourism, which generates $563 billion; beauty and anti-aging, generating $999 billion; and the spa segment, which contributes $99 billion.



Detox regimes, gold facials and app-based on-demand booking services are just some of the innovations to re-define wellness in the GCC over recent years. However, in 2018, it is expected the industry will shift to offer more tangible health benefits with an increased focus on medical spa services, lifestyle make-overs and sleep therapies. - TradeArabia News ServiceThe commerical airline industry showed continued safety improvements in nearly all key metrics and regions in 2017 with the all accident rate (measured in accidents per 1 million flights) standing at 1.08 over 1.68 the previous year and the rate of 2.01 for the previous 5-year period (2012-2016).



There were six fatal accidents with 19 fatalities among passengers and crew. This compares with an average of 10.8 fatal accidents and approximately 315 fatalities per year in the previous five-year period (2012-2016). In 2016 there were 9 fatal accidents and 202 fatalities, stated the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its data for the 2017 safety performance released today (February 24).



The 2017 rate for major jet accidents (measured in jet hull losses per 1 million flights) was 0.11, which was the equivalent of one major accident for every 8.7 million flights. This was an improvement over the rate of 0.39 achieved in 2016 and also better than the five-year rate (2012-2016) of 0.33, stated the report.



According to IATA, none of the six fatal accidents involved a passenger jet. Five involved turboprop aircraft and one involved a cargo jet.



The crash of the cargo jet also resulted in the deaths of 35 persons on the ground, as well as the crew of the jet, it added.



IATA member airlines experienced zero fatal accidents or hull losses in 2017 with jet or turboprop equipment, said its top official.



"2017 was a very good year for aviation safety. Some 4.1 billion travellers flew safely on 41.8 million flights. We saw improvements in nearly all key metrics - globally and in most regions. And our determination to make this very safe industry even safer continues," remarked Alexandre de Juniac, the director general and CEO of IATA.



"In 2017 there were incidents and accidents that we will learn from through the investigation process, just as we will learn from the recent tragedies in Russia and Iran," stated de Juniac.



"Complementing that knowledge are insights we can gain from the millions of flights that operate safety. Data from these operations is powering the development of predictive analytics that will eventually enable us to eliminate the conditions that can lead to accidents. The industry knows that every fatality is a tragedy. Our common goal is for every flight to take-off and land safely," he added.



According to him, the world turboprop hull loss rate was 1.30 per million flights, which was a deterioration from 1.01 in 2016 but an improvement over the five-year rate (2012-2016) of 2.18.



A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and is not subsequently repaired for whatever reason including a financial decision of the owner, explained the top official.



All regions saw their turboprop safety performance improve in 2017 when compared to their respective five-year rates. Notwithstanding this, accidents involving turboprop aircraft represented 44% of all accidents in 2017 and 83 per cent of fatal accidents, he added.



Sub-Saharan Africa continued to make strong progress on safety. Airlines in the region had zero jet hull losses and zero fatal accidents involving jets or turboprops for a second consecutive year, said the IATA report.



Both the turboprop hull loss rate and the all accident rates declined against the average of the previous five years. However, the turboprop hull loss rate increased compared to 2016 (5.70 vs. 1.52). In turn, this largely was responsible for causing an increase in the all accident rate compared to 2016 (6.87 vs. 2.43), it stated.



"Airlines in Sub-Saharan Africa continued to improve their safety performance. The goal is to achieve world-class safety. For a second year in a row, airlines in the region experienced no passenger fatalities and no jet hull losses," remarked de Juniac.



But there is still a large gap to cover in the safety performance of the continents turboprop fleet. Global standards such as the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) are making a difference, he pointed out.



"Counting all accidents, the performance of African airlines on the IOSA registry was more than three times better than non-IOSA airlines in the region. Thats why we continue to encourage African nations to incorporate IOSA and the IATA Standard Safety Assessment (ISSA) into their safety oversight systems. ISSA, which is intended for those carriers that are not eligible for IOSA, also offers a one-term opportunity to operators of aircraft that would otherwise fall under IOSA, enabling an incremental approach to achieving IOSA," said de Juniac.



"In parallel, African governments must accelerate the implementation of ICAOs safety-related standards and recommended practices (SARPS). As of year-end 2017, only 25 African countries had at least 60% SARPS implementation," he added.-TradeArabia News Service

Historians will note the tremendous irony of the United States engaging in subversion and election meddling in Ukraine that surpasses anything attempted by Russia.

The ideological fissures that are growing in the United States are beginning to resemble the warring camps that characterize the Ukrainian political world. The divide in Ukraine pits groups who are described as "right wing" and many are ideological descendants of real Nazis and Nazi sympathizers against groups with a strong affinity to Russia. This kind of gap cannot be bridged through conventional negotiations.

Who is the United States government and media supporting? The Nazis. You think I'm joking. Here are the facts, but we must go back to World War II:

When World War II began a large part of western Ukraine welcomed the German soldiers as liberators from the recently enforced Soviet rule and openly collaborated with the Germans. IThe Soviet leader, Stalin, imposed policies that caused the deaths of almost 7 million Ukrainians in the 1930s--an era known as the Holomodor).

Ukrainian divisions, regiments and battalions were formed, such as SS Galizien, Nachtigal and Roland, and served under German leadership. In the first few weeks of the war, more than 80 thousand people from the Galizien region volunteered for the SS Galizien, which later known for its extreme cruelty towards Polish, Jewish and Russian people on the territory of Ukraine.

Members of these military groups came mostly from the organization of Ukrainian nationalists ka the OUN, which was founded in 1929. Its leader was Stepan Bandera, known then and today for his extreme anti-semitic and anti-communist views.

CIA documents just recently declassified show strong ties between US intelligence and Ukrainian nationalists since 1946.

Jump ahead now to the February 2014 "uprising" of anti-Russian forces in the Ukraine (Maidan 2). The US was firmly on the side of the protesters, who ultimately succeeded in ousting the elected President. And who were helping lead this effort?

Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council is Andriy Parubiy. Parubiy was the founder of the Social National Party of Ukraine, a fascist party styled on Hitlers Nazis, with membership restricted to ethnic Ukrainians.

The Social National Party would go on to become Svoboda, the far-right nationalist party whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok was one of the three most high profile leaders of the Euromaidan protests. . . .

Overseeing the armed forces alongside Parubiy as the Deputy Secretary of National Security is Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector  a group of hardline nationalist streetfighters, who previously boasted they were ready for armed struggle to free Ukraine.By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

New Delhi: Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) of India, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, started its three-day long All India Conference at its New Delhi office on Friday. The event, based on the theme Reclaiming Dignity, Designing Future, was started after Nahas Mala, national president of SIO of India, hoisted the flag.

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On this occasion, Wael Al-Batterkhi, Minister-Counsellor, Embassy of the State of Palestine was the chief guest of the session. Al-Batterkhi began his speech recalling the support of Muslim community and Indian government at the most critical times for the State of Palestine. Al-Batterkhi also criticised Israel and US declaration of Aqsa as Israels capital for violating international laws. The illegal colonial campaign led by Israel and US together has been restricting the economy and freedom of Palestinian people.

There has been immense pressure on us to leave our homeland, but we will not leave. Palestinian people consider Trumps declaration as illegal, illegitimate, and of no legal validity which will not change the fact that Quds is an integral part of Palestine. It has started escalating tensions in the debate. Israel considers itself above the international law and humanitarian values, continuing to occupy Palestine at demographical and physical levels. Its a modern form of ethnic cleansing. UN reports underlines that there has been attempts to make Gaza uninhabitable, He further said.

Al-Batterkhi appealed to Indian society and Muslim community around the globe to continue their support for Palestinian cause and to save Al-Quds.

Khaleeq Ahmed Khan, general secretary of the organisation, chaired the inaugural session. Introducing the theme of the conference, he urged that everyone in the community, especially the students, stand up to the attacks on the dignity of the community from the different corners of the country.

The National Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Syed Jalaluddin Umari delivered speech emphasising the importance of strengthening brotherhood among the community to face the novel challenges in the campuses in particular and in the society in general. SIO has paved a unique path in defining studentship, he said.

Syed Sadathullah Hussaini, the vice-president, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said, we should strive for reclaiming the dignity of Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, women and everyone whose dignity is under threat, unravelling theme of the conference.

The notion of future in our theme does not confine to worldly life, but extends to life hereafter, he further said adding that we could represent our country in huge numbers in near future if we are honest in our mission. Hussaini put some light on the functioning of SIO and said that SIO is a pro-active organisation, not a reactive one.

The last speaker of the inaugural session was Nahas Mala, who began the speech raising slogans in support of Palestine and Al-Quds. In his address, Mala said, Historically, it was Muslims who would come up to engage and actively participate in all the issues pertaining to the society. It is time we reclaim our dignity which is under threat, drawing inspiration from our glorious past.

Retrospection and strengthening our relationship with holy Quran would inspire us in our way forward, he observed. He also opined that community shouldnt be in any delusion that appeasing and compromising would make our path easier. He said, We should continue our mission we have been on since 35 years before without striding away from the straight path, reaching out to all nook and corner of the country.

Moreover, on the first day of the national conference, Heba Ahmad, Ansar Abubakar, Fasna Mian, Umar Khalid, Sreerag Poickadan, Rahul Sonpimple, PN Salih, Mateen Ashraf, and Anian Mehdi Qasmi took part in the following sessions presided by Nahas Mala.Lucknow, (IANS): Noted social activist Anna Hazare will visit Lucknow on Monday to moblise support for the Lokpal and Lokayukta, one of his aides said on Saturday.

The visit will be an attempt to mobilise public support for the Lokpal at national level and Lokayukta at the state level, Hazares close associate Sunil Lal informed IANS.

Following the forthcoming March 23 Satyagrah at Delhi, Anna Hazare would be in Uttar Pradesh for two days, he added.

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The legislation to have an effective Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in all the states  despite having been passed by Parliament in December 2013  has made little headway.

In fact, it was further diluted when in July 2017 it extended for the fifth time the deadline for filing of asset declarations by the nearly 50 lakh central government employees and their spouses, and NGOs receiving government funds, organisers of the Hazare visit said.

Anna Hazare will be in Lucknow on Monday and will spend the next day in Sitapur before leaving for Pune on Wednesday.By Daisy Katta, TwoCircles.net

The strike in Tata Institute Of Social Sciences called by the students of all the four campuses has entered day 4 as the Demand charter put forth by the students of TISS demanding fee waiver and financial aid for SC ST OBC students has not been fully agreed to by the administration. The students had demanded an open Public discussion regarding this issue, but the administration demanded that the administration will only speak to the delegate team to deliberate ever the issue. After a long meeting with the senior administration, the only one demand verbally agreed to was the fee waiver for ST/SC students of batch 2016-18. The demands put forward for a fee waiver for the 2017-19 batch and the OBC (NC) students have not been agreed to. The students body declared their dissatisfaction with the discussion with the administration and the TISS student strike is set to continue.

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Meanwhile, the Registrar of the institute shared a circular saying that the institute has gone over and above their required mandate to provide fee exception, again repeating that after the Direct Bank Transfer scheme for scholarship, the students have to ask the government for the scholarship money. This circular ignores the fact that there is an overall cut in the post matric scholarship, and the high fees of TISS cannot match the scholarship amount. In a response to this circular, the Students Union stressedin public universities across India and central universities, the charges for Dining Hall and Hostel are incomparably smaller than the fees in TISS, and the sharp manner in which it has been increased in the past three years. From a total of Rs 18000 (12k Dining fee and 6k for Hostel fee) in 2013-14 these two heads now amount in 2016-17 to RS 31000 (16k +15k). At the same time, it is to be noted that the Dining Hall Fee is a deposit fee. Students are charged as per their consumption and this amount is adjusted to their actual costs. In other universities (take for example HCU), GoI-PMS students are given a waiver on the Dining Hall deposit amount (it only amounts to Rs 5000 in these universities).

In response to the administrations charge that the students who receive the PMS amount do not pay back the amount to institute, they argued that that the scholarship received from states vary from Rs. 7,000 in Karnataka to 50,000 per year for OBC students in Kerala, the same variation is there for SC and ST PMS.

Amidst rumours that there is a complete blockade at the TISS main gate, the students body has clarified that the gate blockade is for senior administration and faculty only. Students body have clarified that none of the essential daily activities will be affected and its only the senior administration which is being blocked at the entry to protest.

Meanwhile, Birsa Phule Ambedkar Students Association- JNU, Mumbai University, Hyderabad Central University Students Union, Delhi University, Gujarat Central University, Jamia Millia Islamia have expressed solidarity with the TISS strike. The SC-ST Welfare Association and the TISS Teachers Association have also come in support of the TISS students strike and have written a strong letter of support to administration. Rashtriya Adhikar Dalit Manch has also come out in support of the issue. By evening, the TISS Teachers Association members also addressed the students gathering in support of the issues raised.By Shaheen Naqshbandi for TwoCircles.net

Recently, Pakistani politician Imran Khan married Bushra Maneka. During the Nikah, the bride wore the full veil and some people made jokes about it, called it a tent. There is nothing wrong with making fun or jokes about this but what people fail to realise is that they may be inadvertently falling for Islamophobia.

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Some well-meaning people who cannot be accused of Islamophobia also wrote posts and shared pictures of Imran Khans new wife Bushra Manekas veil using terms which all Muslims that I know of find offensive, not because it refers to the lady in question but because these terms are typically employed by Islamophobes to ridicule, demean, and demonize Muslims and their religious and cultural symbols. Such words that are used to ridicule a persons religious or cultural attire are offensive not only to observant religious people but even to other followers of that religion.

The point that I want to put across is that if the women in question dont find anything wrong in observing Pardah and an entire community associates it with the socio-cultural interpretations of religion, then we have no right to take away their agency. A recent incident of a video come to mind where an Australian politician Pauline Hanson tried to ridicule Islamic Burka by wearing it in Australian parliament and then taking it off while she was seeking to ban Burka in Australia. She was slammed by Attorney-General George Brandis who sternly reminded her that her stunt and ridicule of Burkha is insulting to Australian Muslims. This video became viral and George Brandis was praised by people of all faiths for his pluralistic stand.

If somebody is forced or a religious interpretation is thrust on anybody or if somebody outside that religion is harmed by it, only then is it right to seek ways to work against any religious edict or custom, whether by words or through actions. This is more pertinent in todays atmosphere where Islamophobia is rampant and every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to reform Islam and liberate Muslim women. To these liberators: let Muslim women liberate themselves if there is a need.

We often see in anti-Muslim narratives such accusations being levelled like, Muslims are regressive, Islam oppresses women, Islamic conception of gender relations is regressive, women who observe Pardah are oppressed. It is these small things that build up xenophobic narratives. Of course, you are most free to ridicule religions if you dont believe in religion at all, but I believe at times when a religious community is vulnerable & persecuted, one should be extra cautious in choosing the platform and audience of religion bashing.

Regarding Pardah, like the one observed by Mrs Bushra Maneka at her Nikah ceremony, it should be noted that a majority of Muslim women during the ceremony of Nikah wear various such types of veils. One thing that has to be understood is that occasions like Nikah are solemnised with religious customs and rituals and it is commonplace to see in a Muslim marriage a copy of Quran worn like a necklace, or Quran kept on the head or placed in the hand of the bride. This symbolism of Quran or veil are a few examples of how religious symbolism is visible in Muslim marriages. As a matter of fact, marriages of most religious communities are solemnised with religious symbolism. People of my family and most of the people I know had a veil on Nikah. It is interesting how women of other communities in India who wear Ghoonghat are never called regressive for their attire or derogatorily referred to as tents.

The limited point is that in the present atmosphere one should avoid using words that are used to demean and dehumanize Muslims. In India itself, and in fact the world over, Hijabi women are regularly targeted. Many times, violently. These jokes dont help as they further perpetuate a hatred of Muslims.

It is often the common Muslims who are the victims of Islamophobia. Calling tent to the Hijab-clad wife of Imran Khan wont affect her, but such words can be used as taunts for common Muslim women on the street. Sadly, this doesnt end at jokes and taunts. As we have seen in recent news, here are a few examples of what women with Hijab were subject to:

Someone tries to push Hijabi women in front on a train

A Hijabi woman is refused service at a restaurant

Hijabi women is denied job due to her Hijab

Some Islamophobe gets violent and tries to forcibly remove Hijab of a Muslim girl

The question is whether it is right to build narratives that seek to, directly or inadvertently, further perpetuate this anti-Hijab and anti-Muslim xenophobia.

*The author is a lawyer*German Chancellor Angela Merkel fired a warning shot at European Union member states that have balked at sheltering refugees and thrown democratic standards such as the rule of law into question. As Bloomberg writes in an article "Merkel Demands Solidarity From EU States Balking at Refugees", a day before an EU summit that will tackle the blocs budget planning after the U.K.s exit, Merkel said in a speech to the German parliament that Brexit offers an opportunity to reassess how the EU spends money. Funds should flow to EU members that have joined a bloc-wide plan to take in asylum seekers, she said.

Solidarity isnt a one-way street, Merkel told lawmakers in the lower house in Berlin on Thursday. Its the obligation of all member states never to lose sight of the whole -- and that includes respecting the values on which the European Union was built. Merkels comments were directed at countries such as Hungary and Poland, whose leaders have refused to participate in a proposed system of spreading the burden of sheltering refugees.

As Brexit tears a hole in the EUs 140 billion-euro ($172 billion) annual budget, Merkels caretaker government is seeking to use Germanys position as the largest net contributor to get wayward members back into line. Its relative power will increase as a result of Brexit, which is set to create a funding gap of about 10 billion euros a year as of 2021.

German-French Alliance

The German leader aligned herself with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has suggested aid should be linked to recipients adherence to democratic standards. Poland and Hungary have come under scrutiny for eroding judicial institutions and curbing media freedoms in a bid to concentrate power.

Five months after Merkel won the national election, the German chancellor is awaiting the result of Social Democratic membership vote, which will decide whether the SPD will join another coalition with her. Should the vote approve a government, Merkel could be sworn into her fourth term in March.

Reaffirming Germanys commitment to the EUs stability and growth pact, which seeks to enforce fiscal discipline, Merkel said funds should also be unlocked for member states who implement structural reform of labor markets and regulation. She made a broader plea for deeper EU cooperation to tackle challenges ranging from Chinas growing influence and the blocs waning competitiveness in digital technologies. Now more than ever, we need European answers to the big questions of our time, Merkel said. The world is not waiting for us. She also weighed in on the conflict in Syria, calling it a massacre and urging Russia and Iran to contribute to an end to the killing.The Southern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergencies of Russia has issued a warning in connection with the increased danger of avalanches in the mountains of the North Caucasus.

According to the Ministry of Emergencies, the greatest probability of avalanches is in the mountains on the territory of Dagestan and Ingushetia. At the same time, if in Dagestan the critical avalanche hazard is predicted to be above 2 km, then in Ingushetia it is already at the level of 1.5 km.

The increased avalanche danger warning is valid for the both republics until 18:00 Monday.Two car bomb explosions killed at least six people and wounded 43 others including civilians on Saturday in Yemens southern city of Aden, security officials and witnesses said, in an attack claimed later by the extremist group Islamic State, Stripes writes.

The first targeted an anti-terrorism military camp with detention facilities for suspected militants while the other, which also detonated in Goldmor district, targeted an office for the Southern Transitional Council, which is also the residence of Adens former governor Aidrous al-Zubaidi, witnesses and officials said. Al-Zubaidi was not present when the bomb went off.

ISISs statement, carried by its Aamaq news agency, said two suicide bomb attacks had hit the anti-terrorism camp in Aden.Today, the serial version of the special forces combat vehicle Chaborz-6, developed by the designers of the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes, was presented in Chechnya. The car was shown to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The assistant to the head of Chechnya, Daniil Martynov told Kadyrov that Chaborz-6 is superior to the Western and Israeli analogs in all characteristics and is a better version of the previous model, which has proved itself well in the battles in Syria.The UK's approach to the next stage of Brexit negotiations seems to be based on "pure illusion", Donald Tusk says. The European Council president told a news conference in Brussels that the UK was still trying to "cherry pick" its future relationship with the EU, BBC reports.

Mr Tusk said he could only go on media reports of Brexit talks at the PM's country retreat Chequers on Thursday. Theresa May is set to deliver a key speech setting out British ambitions on Friday of next week.

Mr Tusk, who is due to meet the PM the day before, said media reports suggested that the "cake philosophy is still alive" in the UK. He added: "If the media reports are correct I am afraid that the UK position today is based on pure illusion."

He went on to reject - as he has done before - any notion of the UK "cherry picking" aspects of its future relationship with the EU or being able to join a "single market a la carte".

Mr Tusk said the EU would continue to be "extremely realistic" during the forthcoming negotiations.The Ukrainian law, which comes into force on Saturday, on reintegration of Donbass confirms that Kiev wants to settle the conflict in south-east by force only, Russias Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, TASS reports.

"On February 24, 2018, the scandalous law on the so-called "reintegration of Donbass" is coming into fore," the Foreign Ministry said in a commentary, published on its website. "Thus, Kiev confirms aiming at settling by force the conflict in Ukraines south-east."

According to the Russian ministry, Ukraines President Pyotr Poroshenko by having signed the law "realistically dumped the Minsk accords, set loose the party of war."

"There is no mentioning a direct dialogue with authorities of the non-recognized republics, the de-escalation of the tension or the search for peaceful political settlement," the Russian authority said. "Right on the contrary, the document makes up conditions for Kievs occupation of the non-controlled territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, it legalized use of the Ukrainian military against civilians."

"There has been, though fragile, hope President P. Poroshenko - who three years earlier participated in offering of the Minsk accords, and later on kept repeating he adheres to the agreements - could think better of it, but, alas, the Ukrainian president in reality has inked a verdict to the Minsk Complex of Measures," the Foreign Ministry said.

The new laws coming into force coincides with an anniversary of the "coup, which the Ukrainian nationalists organized in February, 2014," the ministry continued. "The conclusions are evident: the current regime in Kiev, which had taken the power by a coup, would not accept any other methods but violence."

"The practical implementation of this law (on "reintegration of Donbass" - TASS) threatens with risks of a major escalation of the situation in Ukraines south-east," the ministry said. "We hope, the countrys Western supervisors realize this and would be able to use the influence they have on Kiev not to allow this scenario, which is ruining for the Ukrainian statehood, which threatens unforeseen consequences for the European stability and security."David Jincharadze, the graduate student from Batumi, told the local media that he had received a $ 1 million grant from Abu Dhabi to study at the New York University in the UAE.

"After graduation, I will continue my studies in Abu Dhabi and will study political science and international relations, as well as journalism. The New York University in Abu Dhabi fully will provide my studies at this university, accommodation in the Emirates and other related costs, which is more than $ 1 million, "he told TASSTajik President Emomali Rahmon will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan, Tajik ambassador to Azerbaijan Rustam Soli said at an event held on occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Tajik Armed Forces in Baku on Feb.24, Trend reports.

The ambassador noted that Rahmon is expected to visit Azerbaijan this year.

"Preparations for the visit of the president are underway. This visit will open a new page in the Azerbaijani-Tajik relations," he noted.

However, the diplomat did not disclose the exact date of the visit.According to the Russian Embassy in Tunisia, a Turkish ship belonging to Akdeniz Roro was detained in the port of Tunisian city of Sfax when it asked for permission to stop for repair after a storm.

It is specified that the cargo ship sailed from Novorossiysk to Cameroon and carried the government supplies for the CARs. "On February 15, the ship got into a storm and requested a call at the port of Sfax for repairs, where the customs inspection of the ship was started and continues to the present day," TASS cites the message of the diplomats.HCM CITY  Analysts expect the real estate market, especially the residential land segment, to continue to grow solidly this year thanks to huge infrastructure works in many places around the country accompanied by a raft of property developments.

A report from the Viet Nam Association of Realtors (VARs) said land prices have increased rapidly in places like Nha Trang, Van on District in Quang Ninh Province, Phu Quoc Island, and a Nang.

Nha Trang was among the places with the highest growth rate, with prices doubling last year. The average price in the central districts is around VN300 million (US$13,500) per square metre.

The city is among the hottest tourism destinations in the country.

a Nang authorities invested heavily in infrastructure, hotels and resorts last year to serve the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings and summits. This saw property prices and demand rise sharply, especially in Lien Chieu District.

A lot of major infrastructure works are ongoing in Lien Chieu, including a port, the Hai Van Tunnel No.2 and the a Nang  Quang Ngai Highway.

Around 8,000 pieces of land were traded last year, according to the report. The average price in the city hovers around VN 17 million (about $800) per square metre.

The situation is much the same in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, where the signs for the property market are optimistic.

In Can Tho City, average prices rose by 30 per cent last year. In Hung Phu District, prices skyrocketed from VN3 million ($ 140) per square metre to VN710 million.

Elsewhere in the delta, in provinces such as Long An, Vinh Long, Hau Giang, and An Giang too, land prices have risen steadily thanks to major developments by big developers like Vingroup, Sacomreal, Hoang Quan, and T&T group.

The land segment is booming in Phu Quoc Island and Van on District, which are expected to become special economic zones and have thus attracted enormous investments in urban infrastructure.

The island is also rapidly turning into a tourist paradise and attracting a lot of investment in the sector.  VNSHA NOI  Australia will cut 90 per cent of import tariff lines in 2018 and 100 per cent of them in 2020 under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) roadmap, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Pham Tuan Anh, deputy head of the Ministry of Finances Department of International Cooperation, said this was a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to promote the export of goods to the Australian market when those import tariff lines reduce to zero per cent.

Viet Nam has had many advantages in exporting agricultural products, consumer goods, textiles, footwear and wood products to Australia. These groups are eligible for many tariff preferences under AANZFTA.

Australia is now the eighth largest exporter to Viet Nam, while Viet Nam is the 14th largest exporter to Australia, according to MoIT.

Australia is a potential export market for Vietnamese goods, especially seafood as its consumption in that country has increased rapidly to some one million tonne per year.

The domestic output of seafood has reached 220,000 tonnes, so Australia needs to import more than 700,000 tonnes of seafood every year. Meanwhile, Viet Nam is the third largest exporter of seafood in the world, after China and Thailand.

Moreover, Australian consumers like Vietnamese seafood due to its reasonable pricing and the good taste of Vietnamese freshwater fish.

Viet Nams cashew is also a promising commodity for Australian consumers. Viet Nam is the largest exporter of cashew nuts to Australia, accounting for some 74 per cent of cashew exports to the nation.

Some items such as wood and wood products, bags, suitcases, textiles, machinery and equipment are also considered potential commodities in the Australian market.

According to MoIT, Vietnamese goods have appeared in a small volume in supermarkets in Australia, reflecting the great potential of the Vietnamese export goods as well as Australias high import demand.

However, it is difficult for the Vietnamese goods to join Australias retail distribution system directly, MoIT said, because at present, Vietnamese enterprises do not have professional knowledge of the retail system, including measures on approaching the system as well as regulations on food hygiene and safety and technical standards. They have forgotten how to introduce and advertise Vietnamese products in supermarkets.

To provide the necessary information about the Australian distribution system to Vietnamese companies, the Viet Nam Trade Office in Australia has introduced to local businesses the list of large retail groups in Australia with an annual revenue of AU$1 billion (US$782 million) and their basic activities to help them market their products directly to the Australian distribution chain.

The retailers include Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Woolworths Limited, Wesfarmers Limited, Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd, Metcash Limited and IGA. Currently, Viet Nams food stalls are present at the Coles supermarket chain, paving the way for more Vietnamese goods to reach Australian consumers.

According to MoIT, after more than six years of implementation of AANZFTA, the trade value between Viet Nam and Australia is increasing by an average of 5 per cent every year.

The General Department of Customs said in 2017, the bilateral trade value between Viet Nam and Australia reached more than $6.46 billion, a year-on-year growth of 22.9 per cent. Viet Nams exports to Australia reached $3.23 billion, up 12.5 per cent over 2016, while its import value from Australia stood at over $3.17 billion, up 29.7 per cent against 2016. Viet Nam gained a trade surplus of $480 million with Australia.

The bilateral trade value between the two countries in 2016 rose 6.5 per cent year-on-year.  VNSState Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has asked credit institutions to limit their lending to the real estate and construction sectors to better control bad debts. Photo vietnamfinance.vn

HA NOI  State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has asked credit institutions to limit their lending to the real estate and construction sectors to better control bad debts.

Under Document 563/NHNN-TTGSNH issued recently, SBV asked lenders to avoid too much focus on real estate customers and maintain credit growth in the sectors within safe limits.

The institutions must keep a close watch on lending to the sectors, continuously review and assess the progress of realty projects and their developers financial condition, particularly as it relates to their collateral assets, and have measures in place to handle any defaults, SBV said in the document.

Besides evaluating and processing lending applications with scrutiny, the institutions must also monitor borrowers to ensure that they refrain from using consumer loans for investment in property or securities.

Credit expansion should go hand in hand with strict supervision to ensure loans are used for their intended purpose and do not add to bad debts, the document said.

As an alternative, commercial banks were asked to increase their lending to the manufacturing, production and business sectors, particularly those in need of capital for growth, such as agriculture, export, supporting industries and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

This is not the first time the central bank has told local lenders to tighten the valve on credit meant for the real-estate and construction sectors. The move was made after consumer lending accelerated last year and a significant amount of consumer loans went to the real estate sector.

According to the National Financial Supervision Committee, the growth rate of consumer lending last year was three times higher than the average credit growth rate of 18 per cent to reach VN1.17 quadrillion (US$51.54 billion).

Notably, some banks dodged credit regulations by offering lending packages supposedly earmarked for house repairs or house construction to consumer credit customers. Loans for house repairs and construction last year soared 76.5 per cent and accounted for nearly 53 per cent of total consumer loans.

Pham Manh Thang, deputy general director of Vietcombank, told Phap luat thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law) newspaper that the capital limit in the real estate and securities sectors would help the banking system develop sustainably as banks would have to select feasible property projects to provide loans, avoiding non-performing loans in future.

Bad debts in the countrys banking sector, mostly incurred due to a slowdown in the countrys real estate market in the early 2010s, had been cut to 2.3 per cent by the end of 2017, down from 2.46 per cent at the end of 2016, according to SBV.  VNSHA NOI  Three major spring festivals  the Mother Au Co Temple Festival, the Tinh ien (Ploughing) Festival and the Vieng Market Festival  began yesterday, as part of the festive season in the north of Viet Nam.

Run by Ha Hoa Districts Peoples Committee in the northern province of Phu Tho from the seventh to the ninth day of the first lunar month, the Mother Au Co Temple Festival pays tribute to the guardian deity and prays for peace, good weather, prosperity and happiness.

The worship of Mother Au Co at the temple, practised in numerous forms, including worshipping Mother Au Co and her children, was recognised as national intangible cultural heritage in 2017. The temple was built under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong (15th century) and named a national historical and cultural relic in 1991.

The ploughing festival 2018 in oi Son Commune in the Red River Delta province of Ha Nam, which highlights the importance of agriculture and the role of farmers, and contributes to preserving and upholding cultural values of the locality, was also celebrated yesterday.

The event included a variety of activities, including dragon dance, drum performances, the enactment of the ritual when the King ploughs the field at the festival, traditional procession and decorating the buffalos with colourful paints. The festival began in 987 during the Le dynasty when King Le ai Hanh went to the field to plough in oi Son Commune, Duy Tien District to wish for bumper crops. The practice then became an annual tradition held through many dynasties.

Another festival in northern Viet Nam during spring, the Vieng Market Festival, in which the market goers exchanged products, opened last night in Vu Ban District in Nam inh. All kinds of goods are bought and sold without bargaining. People come to the market not only to buy things, but also to seek for fortunes and wish for a prosperous new year.

The spring market features handicrafts, antiques (both genuine and fake), household utensils, farm tools and many kinds of ornamental plants. Besides visiting the market, shoppers can also visit pagodas and temples nearby to worship Mother Goddesses and pray for prosperity.

Viet Nam has about 8,000 festivals each year. Of which, nearly 90 per cent are traditional festivals, 6 per cent are religious and 4 per cent are historical. VNSDiscrimination: Bac au (second from right) played by actor Cong Ly, was designed as a transgendered male mandarin in feudal court with dificult to follow characters. Photo kenh 14.vn

Viet Nam News

HA NOI  Two LGBT rights organisations in Viet Nam, namely iSEE (Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment) and ICS Centre have sent an open letter to Viet Nam Television complaining about discrimination of LGBT people in an annual comedy that "should not appear on a national channel".

The letter denounced discriminatory depictions of LGBT people in the popular Gap Nhau Cuoi Nam (Meeting at the end of the Year) programme, which was broadcast on lunar New Years Eve (February 15).

Huynh Minh Thao, Communications Director of ISC, confirmed the information to The Thao & Van Hoa (Sports & Culture) newspaper.

Established in 2008, ISC is an organisation aiming to develop the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the country.

In the letter, iSEE and ICS mentioned that for years the organisations have worked with the VTV to introduce LGBT people to the public and to introduce talkshows on policies to better protect the rights of LGBT people.

However, there are mistakes in various programmes that iSEE and ICS think should not appear on national television, the letter says.

For many years, LGBT community members have been objects to make fun of in Gap Nhau Cuoi Nam (Meeting at the end of the Year) comedy show, which presents distorted information and hurt the community with terrible words, the letter continues.

In the latest edition of Meeting at the end of the Year, character Bac au was implied by other characters as a human leading a life of not a male or a female, and a half woman.

Bac au has long been mocked for the characters gender.

As organisations with many years working for the rights of LGBT community, we object to the use of discriminating words publicly to hurt LGBT members due to their body features, especially people with different features than their biological genders. This deepens the societys discriminations and preconceptions of the community, the letter continues.

According to the shows makers, Bac au (played by actor Cong Ly) was designed as a transgender male mandarin in feudal court, who is quite different from Nam Tao (played by Xuan Bac), a clever mandarin.

When society gets more civilised, people should respect one another more, Hoang Huong, deputy director of iSEE told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, LGBT issues have been widely accepted. Societys awareness has changed. I think VTV as an influential body should be among the first to change its awareness on the matter.

Meeting at the End of the Year has had 15 editions in 15 years and has been among the most popular comedy shows on television.

The show, produced by the Viet Nam Television Film Centre, mocks burning issues in society in a humorous manner.

I have looked forward to the show every lunar New Years Eve, said audience Vu Thanh Binh, This is an entertaining show that seems to go along with other traditional customs at the lunar New Year.

Its funny and mocks various issues in society during the year, he said, But sometimes, details mocking Bac au, with different gender, go over the edge and arent funny. I think the director should focus on other details rather than making jokes about the characters gender like that.

Viet Nam News tried to contact the shows director o Thanh Hai but received no response. Viet Nam News also tried to reach actor Cong Ly, who played Bac au (the discriminated character) and Xuan Bac, another actor in the show but received no response as well.  VNSHA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has urged ministries, sectors and localities to finish the build-up and carrying out of the e-Government architectural framework at ministerial and provincial levels before September this year, as Viet Nam is determined to accelerate the formation of its e-Government.

The e-Government architectural framework displays the overall architecture of all components in the e-Government system of State bodies, their functions and correlations.

The establishment of the frameworks at different levels plays an important role in the development of e-Government systems, particularly the improvement of connectivity and data sharing among different State bodies.

According to the Deputy PMs recent request, all IT projects or plans to rent IT services of State bodies from 2018 onwards should meet the requirement of inter-level or inter-sectoral connectivity, integration and data sharing.

Electronic systems being developed to process administrative procedures should comply with the e-Government architectural framework at ministerial and provincial levels, once they are approved.

Ministries, ministerial level bodies and central-level provinces and cities are being asked to continue simplifying administrative procedures and issue uniform regulations of administrative procedures to further expand the application of online public service levels 3 and 4.

Level 4, the highest level of online public services, as defined by the Government, allows people and businesses to perform administrative procedures online, including the filling out of forms, submitting of forms and payments, while transaction results are available either online or by post, upon request. Meanwhile, level 3 means every task except payments can be done online.

Ministries, ministerial level bodies and central-level provinces and cities are also asked to incorporate current applications for public services into one uniform application for each ministry or locality.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is being asked to speed up the completion of the National Government Service Platform and instruct other ministries, sectors and localities to connect and integrate data through this platform.

Steady progress

After a resolution on e-Government, which was issued by the Government in 2015, steady progress on the creation of e-Government has been witnessed across the governmental spectrum with many ministries, State agencies and local authorities proactively applying IT in their operation and in offering public services.

According to the 2017 white book on IT and communication issued by MIC, as of 2016 the number of online public services reached 109,644, in which services at level 3 and 4 accounted for nearly 10 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively.

A recent report by the Government Office showed, in the last three months of last year, many ministries, sectors and localities, such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Science and Technology had opened online portals for public services to meet the commitment of administrative reforms.

Statistics showed that in 2017 a great number of dossiers submitted by people and businesses were performed through online public services level 3 and 4. For example, over 8.8 million dossiers were processed online by the Ministry of Public Security, nearly 772,000 dossiers by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and more than 225,000 by Ha Noi authority.

The Government Office has planned to publish the list of public services level 3 and 4 offered by ministries, sectors and localities in 2018 in April this year.

Large cities and provinces, including Ha Noi, HCM City, a Nang or Binh Duong, have also rolled out plans to become smart cities, with a focus of further encouragement of IT application in governance.  VNSPresident Tran ai Quang (r) receices outgoing Mozambican Ambassador to Viet Nam Gamiliel Sepul Veda Joao Munguambe during a reception in Ha Noi yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo Van iep

HA NOI  Viet Nam considers Mozambique a loyal friend and priority partner in Africa, President Tran ai Quang told outgoing Mozambican Ambassador to Viet Nam Gamiliel Sepul Veda Joao Munguambe during a reception in Ha Noi yesterday.

The Vietnamese leader lauded the ambassadors contributions to bilateral ties during his tenure, saying that both sides exchanged more than 30 delegations at all levels and carried out a number of successful projects such as Viettels telecom joint-venture in Mozambique and a US$2 million project on joint research on food crops.



He wished that the two countries would effectively build on the past achievements to extend ties to farm produce processing, transport, mining and education.



The host expressed his desire that the ambassador, with his wealth of diplomatic experience and knowledge about Viet Nam, would continue introducing business opportunities in Viet Nam, thus contributing to boosting ties between Viet Nam and African countries in general and with Mozambique in particular.



Munguambe, for his part, expressed his honour to be the first Mozambican Ambassador when the African country opened the embassy in Viet Nam in 2012.



He noted that potentials of the two nations remain huge and there are many opportunities to further raise two-way trade.  VNSViet Nam Communist Party (CPV)s Central Committee General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong hosted a reception in Ha Noi on Friday for ambassadors and charges daffaires of nine ASEAN countries on the occasion of Tet (Lunar New Year). VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung

HA NOI  Viet Nam Communist Party (CPV)s Central Committee General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong hosted a reception in Ha Noi on Friday for ambassadors and charges daffaires of nine ASEAN countries on the occasion of Tet (Lunar New Year).

The ASEAN diplomats congratulated the Vietnamese Party, Government and people on their great development and diplomatic achievements in 2017, particularly hosting the APEC Economic Leaders Week in the central city of a Nang.

They said they believed that under the leadership of the CPV led by Trong, the Vietnamese people would reap greater attainments in 2018 and beyond.

They also informed the host of the development of relations between Viet Nam and each ASEAN nation, vowing to do their best to enhance friendship with Viet Nam in particular and among ASEAN countries in general, contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in Southeast Asia.

For his part, Trong attributed Viet Nams 2017 achievements to the peaceful and stable environment in the region and effective co-operation with the international community, including ASEAN countries.

Applauding this years theme of Resilient and Innovative ASEAN initiated by Singapore as ASEAN Chair, the Party chief expressed his belief that with the efforts of member states, ASEAN will continue to make progress, enhance intra-bloc solidarity and co-operation, expand relations with external partners and foster common development goals.  VNSHCM CITY  Farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta growing Thai jackfruit are earning big profits from exports because of the high demand for the fruit in overseas markets.

Huynh Thi Nuong, who intercrops this and other fruits in her orchard in Tien Giang Provinces Cai Lay District, said she earned more than VN8 million (US$350) from selling Thai jackfruit at VN42,000 per kilogramme before Tet (the Lunar New Year).

The price of jackfruit has increased sharply since the middle of last year.

Duong Van Hung, who has dozens of Thai jackfruit trees in Cai Lay District, said growing the tree does not require much tending, fertilisers or pesticides.

They begin to fruit in a little over two years and do so year round, meaning farmers have a steady income, he said.

An owner of a fruit trading business in Cai Lay said he resumed buying jackfruits on Monday to sell to China after Tet.

Prices have fallen slightly now because China has not bought since Tet, he said but was hopeful they would increase by 20-30 per cent soon.

Tran Thi Nguyen, head of the Cai Lay District Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau, said prices had risen to VN50,000  52,000 a kilogramme before Tet and have since reduced gradually.

But even so their current prices match those of durian, which is considered a high-value fruit.

Jackfruit farmers said they earned profits of VN500-700 million ($22,000  30,800) per hectare last year because of the high demand in export markets.

The countrys exports were worth US$28 million last year, a 193 per cent rise from 2016, according to the Viet Nam Fruits and Vegetables Association.

The shipments included both fresh and processed fruit.

The high price means many farmers in the delta are scrambling to plant the trees.

Le Thi Thanh Hong in ong Thap Provinces Cao Lanh Town said she had 2ha of farming land that grew rice and soursop but was not effective.

In recent months, many people had asked to rent her land to grow jackfruits but she had not agreed, Hong said.

The rent for rice paddies is around VN10 million per hectare per year, but this year she was offered VN25 million by farmers seeking to grow jackfruit, she said.

Jackfruit is one of 15 fruits grown most widely in the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.  VNSTran Hong Ha, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, speaks to Viet Nam News Agency about his commitments to assure Viet Nam will be wealthy and clean

Will you please tell us key achievements that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment recorded in 2017?

In 2017, we focused efforts to achieve four major goals, such as to settle all major problems that had been left over in 2016; to solve policies that had prevented the utilisation of natural resources in production and business, in the course of national economic development; to further reform our administrative procedures; and to draw lessons learned in the course of implementing our policies regarding land, environment, mineral resources and the sea. In summary, Im proud to say that most of the targets set for 2017 had been achieved.

In short, what we had achieved last year was to aim to turn our country into an industrial nation and be pro-active towards climate change, while having better plans to cope with climate change, and to better manage the countrys natural resources, while being able to protect our environment.

I should say that 2017 was a successful year for us, regarding the issue of land use and management. As a result, we were able to contribute some 12 per cent of the nations domestic budget collection through land use taxes, and others.

In 2017, Viet Nam experienced an extreme weather year, with 16 typhoons, 4 low tropical depressions in the East Sea and 15 heat drives in the northern and central regions. The temperature sometimes was recorded at 42 degree Celsius. However, thanks to the application of high technology, we were able to come up with precise weather forecasts to help ward off its consequences.

In short, in 2017 the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) gained many remarkable achievements in the two most important fields of land management and environmental protection.

What are the major challenges that your ministry will face in 2018?

We have identified five major challenges, as follows;

First, there is the irrational and less effective usage of natural resources.

Second, though we have achieved certain gains in land management activities, our land use effectiveness is much lower than that of our regional neighbours. I have to admit that our land policies and laws have somehow lagged behind actual requirements in life. As a result, they have not been able to harmonise the interest between the State, the people and investors  the main reason leading to serious disputes between local authorities, the people and investors.

Third, there is the problem of environmental degradation in waste treatment, contamination of water resources and air pollution.

Fourth, the negative impacts of climate change and extreme weather phenomena have become a large problem for an agricultural based economy like Viet Nam. Adding to that is our limited resources to cope with the negative impacts of climate changes, particularly the infrastructure used in weather observations and forecasts.

And finally, there is the shortage of capable and competent human resources in the field

To overcome these challenges, does your ministry have any plan or measure to fill such gaps?

The requirements for a change in natural resources and environmental management have been written in the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly and the Governments resolutions and policies.

So, it is the task of MONRE to seize all opportunities presented to it to turn the challenges into motivations for sustainable development, along the line of green growth and low carbon emissions.

For the immediate future, we should make the best use of our natural resources for sustainable growth, while trying to harmonise between the management and effective use of resources for the goal of stabilising the macro economy and protecting natural resources, as well as the environment.

In the long run, it is MONREs task to serve as a catalyst in the course of restructuring the nations economy along the line of green growth and low carbon emissions.

Land is a precious asset. So in 2018, MONRE set a goal to put an end to the problem of land wastage and to put the issue of environmental management and protection under the umbrella of a market economy. As a result, we vow to pool efforts to create a lucrative investment environment to attract more resources for development and to harmonise the interests between the State, land users and investors during the course of national development. In the meantime, we also vow not to exchange the environment for economic benefits. Parallel with these activities, well launch a communications campaign to make the general public understand about their duties and responsibilities in protecting the environment.

Last but not least, in 2018 well try to improve our weather forecasting abilities for a longer period of time. For example, to extend the period for typhoons and low tropical depression to 72 hours in advance, or the warning time for an approaching typhoon to between 3-5 days, along with others.  VNSBA RIA  VUNG TAU  Thailand-based conglomerate SCG today broke ground at its US$5.4 billion flagship project of Long Son Petrochemicals (LSP) after 10 years of preparation.

The project, at Long Son Commune, Ba Ria  Vung Tau Province, 100km away from HCM City, is the first integrated petrochemical complex in Viet Nam with total olefins capacity of 1.6 million tonnes each year. It is designed to produce various petrochemical products, including essential plastic materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene and other products in excess of 2 million tonnes each year.

Non-petrochemical supporting infrastructure, such as a deep sea port and other facilities, will also be built.

The project is expected to begin commercial operation in early 2023.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc praised the efforts of related authorities to overcome difficulties for the operation of the project.

The project is a symbol of international collaboration between Viet Nam and Thailand. It must protect natural and social environments, preserve local culture and recover forests,

Related authorities must ensure living standards for those who had to move for the project by providing career training and job recruitment, he said.

SCG believes that the project will encourage the long-term investment in related industries throughout the value chain as well as improving competitive standard of products that will lessen the need of importing petrochemical products, President and CEO of SCG Roongrote Rangsiyopash said.

The Long Son Petrochemical project has an area of about 464 hectares and an additional 194 hectares of waterfront area for a deep sea port.

The project will create 20,000 jobs during construction. It is expected to contribute to the national state budget around $60 million annually as well as attract more than 1,000 high-tech workers.

After beginning operation, the project will have a great impact on the development of the petrochemical industry and downstream businesses, such as automobiles, electronics, electrical equipment, packaging and other services of the province, Nguyen Van Trinh, chairman of the Ba Ria  Vung Tau Peoples Committee, said.

SCG, one of Thailands best-known conglomerates, was founded in 1913 and has over 200 companies and 57,000 employees. SCG began its business operation in Viet Nam in 1992 with a trading business and gradually expanded investment in diversified businesses in the cement-building materials, chemicals and packaging industries. -- VNSIn the last fifteen years the history of individual wartime aircraft has begun to drive their value. In other words, if your warbird has combat history or was flown by a famous pilot or group, it could potentially increase its value. That all seems to make sense and is fairly typical across the spectrum of collectibles.

An unfortunate side-effect of this value approach is the temptation for the history to be artificially inflated or in some cases manufactured. Most warbird owners I speak with feel they are caretakers of these historic objects for the future, and I believe that to be true in the clear majority of cases. This is especially true of organizations that consider themselves flying museums. It is only through immense effort that these aircraft are kept airworthy. Recently one such group has capitalized on the approach of warping the history of their airplane as part of a well-orchestrated fundraising campaign.

I have been told the end justifies the means, but does it? Should we be misrepresenting history just to accomplish a goal? I dont believe we should, because I believe it dishonors those who came before us. The aircraft that we fly have great stories in themselvesit isnt necessary to embellish their individual histories to tell a storyor to raise money. At least that is my two cents.

Speaking of combat veterans, in this issue we feature the Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museums (FHCAM) Goodyear FG-1D Corsair. This unique survivor made it to the Philippines at the tail end of the war and carried out a number of ground attack missions. Amazingly, the original logbooks for the airplane survive and now rest in the archive at FHCAM. This has allowed them to be cross-referenced with the War Diary of VMF-115 with which it served. In an age when we are rebuilding combat aircraft from the smallest piece, this Corsair is one of the few that had not been significantly damaged or restored until present. Ezell Aviation did an excellent job of preserving the original look of a factory fresh FG-1D while returning it to the air.

On the other end of the U.S. Marine Corps spectrum is Rich Sugdens Douglas Skyhawk, which recently returned to the air after an extensive rebuild. While rebuilding a complicated ex-military jet can be challenging enough, Sugden has also been engaged in a nearly decade-long legal battle with the U.S. Government over Skyhawk parts. It is discouraging that nearly every time American citizens wish to preserve their history they are thwarted by their own government. From the U.S. Navy preventing the recovery of underwater wrecks to the recent destruction of multiple formerly preserved aircraft in Illinois, it is clear that we cannot rely on our government to protect our history. Warbird Digest updates you on the Sugden litigation as well as the effort to represent an all but forgotten part of U.S.M.C. history.

We appreciate all the feedback we have received on the new direction of the magazine as well as the great story ideas for the future. If you have a product or service that you would like to promote to warbird owners, we would love to add you to our growing list of advertisers. Remember, Warbird Digest is delivered to every registered warbird owner in the United States.

Tim Savage

Publisher

Inside Issue #77

COMBAT CORSAIR  Few surviving Corsairs can lay claim to having actual documented missions flown against the Japanese in World War Two. The latest restoration to emerge from Ezell Aviation can and is a great new addition to the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museums growing fleet of warbirds.

FAST FACSIMILE  Dr. Richard Sugden attempts to perform an operation that would transform a TA-4J trainer into an OA-4M Fast FAC. Whats the prognosis? Warbird Digest gives you the full treatment.

FORTUNATE FORTRESS  With a long history of both military and civilian operation, this Flying Fortress survives today as a result of its usefulness in the many roles it has performed over the years. It has been maintained in nearly continuous operation since being built in 1944.

IGNITING THE SPARK  Passionate about flying, this Texas businessman is eager to invest in the future by taking aviation-minded youth under his wing, setting a course for their future.

NORWEGIAN TROJAN WARRIOR  From flying combat missions over the jungle in Southeast Asia to scenic flights over Norwegian fjords, this well-traveled Trojan has found a new home.

FLYING WITH JUNIOR BURCHINAL  An unforgettable adventure in ParisTexas!

As a supporter of Warbirds News, we thought you would enjoy a little thank you from us, with a $15 one-time discount off the base price subscription for the print version of Warbird Digest. Simply enter WBN17 in the discount code when you register. To receive our high quality 100 page magazine six times a year click HERE and redeem your discount!YEAR OF THE TANKER AT EAA AIRVENTURE OSHKOSH 2018 BRINGS BIG IRON TO FLIGHTLINE

Air Force Reserve Command 70th anniversary bolsters Oshkosh presence

EAA AVIATION CENTER, OSHKOSH, Wisconsin  (February 20, 2018)  The Air Force Reserve is celebrating its 70th anniversary at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2018, bringing its impressive fleet of military refueling aircraft as part of AirVentures Year of the Tanker. The 66th annual Experimental Aircraft Association fly-in convention is July 23-29 at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The Air Force Reserve Command, which encompasses nearly 70,000 Citizen Airmen, will bring operational aircraft to Oshkosh in 2018 and participate in a unique display showcasing the past, present,and future of tanker aircraft.

We are honored that the Air Force Reserve will mark its 70th anniversary at Oshkosh, as it is a perfect place to showcase the Reserves aircraft and Citizen Airmen, said Rick Larsen, EAAs vice president of communities and member programs, who coordinates AirVenture features and attractions. Its presence will make the Year of the Tanker possible, but it will feature other aircraft and programs during the week.

Air Force Reserve Command aircraft will participate in the daily air shows at AirVenture 2018, and be displayed on Boeing Plaza throughout the week. Reserve Citizen Airmen will also participate in WomenVenture, creating opportunities for all to meet and connect in an event designed to encourage and inspire the next generation of women in aviation. In addition, there will be special forums and programs highlighting the Reserves mission around the world in support of military and humanitarian operations.

The 70th anniversary of the Air Force Reserve is a superb time to tell the story of our Citizen Airmen who provide a tremendous amount of operational experience to the Air Force mission and for aviation fans, theres no better place to demonstrate that than at Oshkosh, said Lt. Gen. Maryanne Miller, Chief of Air Force Reserve, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., and Commander of Air Force Reserve Command, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. Innovation is in our DNA, and it comes from the diverse experience our Reserve Citizen Airmen bring to the mission from various communities across the nation.

Announcements of specific aircraft and programming during EAA AirVenture 2018 will be made as they are finalized.

About EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is the Worlds Greatest Aviation Celebration and EAAs yearly membership convention. Additional EAA AirVenture information, including advance ticket and camping purchase, is available online at www.EAA.org/airventure. EAA members receive lowest prices on admission rates. For more information on EAA and its programs, call 1-800-JOIN-EAA (1-800-564-6322) or visit www.EAA.org. 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19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1)It's that time of year again where warm-hearted people take a very cold dip for a good cause. The Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Nebraska held its annual Polar Plunge Saturday at Holmes Lake.

"This is such a good cause, why would you not do it," said Jessica Shultis, Miss Lincoln.

The Polar Plunge is an annual event that challenges participants to show support for Special Olympics Nebraska by plunging into a lake - in the dead of winter. Plungers are encouraged to form teams, dress in costume and share their experience by using the hashtag #BeBoldGetCold.

This year, 173 people were registered, and the event raised more than $34,000.

Those brave enough to run into the icy waters raise money by collecting pledges from family and friends. Prizes are awarded for creativity and fundraising.

"Honestly it was on my bucket list, and I just did it on a whim," said Shultis.

Proceeds from the Polar Plunge support the over 6,000 Nebraskans with an intellectual disability who participate in Special Olympics Nebraska.

"The great thing about Nebraska and Lincoln is the camaraderie between the people, we are all here to raise money for a good cause and that money will stay local," said Shultis.

"We are always overwhelmed by the amount of support we receive at the Polar Plunge," said Carolyn Chamberlin, President and CEO of Special Olympics Nebraska. "Last year we had more than 400 participants and we raised more than $128,000. This year we hope to raise $135,000."

For more information or to sign up for the Polar Plunge next year visit

.Feb 24, 2018 | By Tess

This week in 3D printing saw records broken, new leadership appointments, and lots of new additive manufacturing equipment for the dental industry. Check out some of the week's top 3D printing stories.



Made In Space, the Silicon Valley company that sent the first 3D printer into space, has announced its latest additive manufacturing feat: it has received the Guinness World Record for the worlds longest 3D printed object. [Read more]

Brooklyn-based Voodoo Manufacturing is expanding its 3D printing service. Quite literally, in fact, as it is now offering large-format 3D printing to its clients. The company says the new service will enable customers to 3D print objects nearly eight times the size as was previously possible. [Read more]

Star Trek Online, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), now lets gamers 3D print their starships. The cool 3D printing feature comes thanks to a partnership between software company Perfect World, developer Cryptic Studios, and cloud 3D printing company Mixed Dimensions. [Read more]

3D printing marketplace and service Shapeways has announced the appointment of a new CEO. The companys new man in charge is Gregory Kress, who is filling the role previously held by Shapeways co-founder Peter Weijmarshausen. Kress is the former president and COO of Open Education, an online-based learning platform. [Read more]

New 3D printer releases for the dental market

Thanks in part to the LMT Lab Day event in Chicago this week, there have been several announcements from 3D printing companies about new dental-geared products. Here are some of the dental highlights:

Stratasys unveiled its new multi-material Objet260 Dental 3D printer along with the new MEDFX625 material and Pop-Out Part (PoP) technology for removing dental parts. [Read more]

Singapore-based dental 3D printing company Structo unveiled the Structo Velox, a dental 3D printer with integrated autonomous post-processing. [Read more]

3D Systems introduced its new NextDent 5100 3D printer along with 18 new NextDent resins for dental 3D printing. [Read more]

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Melinda D. Anderson in The Atlantic:

Brighton Park is a predominantly Latino community on the southwest side of Chicago. Its a neighborhood threatened by poverty, gang violence, ICE raids, and isolationin a city where income, race, and zip code can determine access to jobs, schools, healthy food, and essential services. It is against this backdrop that the Chicago teacher Xian Franzinger Barrett arrived at the neighborhoods elementary school in 2014.

Recognizing the vast economic and racial inequalities his students faced, he chose what some might consider a radical approach for his writing and social-studies classes, weaving in concepts such as racism, classism, oppression, and prejudice. Barrett said it was vital to reject the oft-perpetuated narrative that society is fair and equal to address students questions and concerns about their current conditions. And Brighton Elementarys seventh- and eighth-graders quickly put the lessons to workconfronting the school board over inequitable funding, fighting to install a playground, and creating a classroom library focused on black and Latino authors.

Students who are told that things are fair implode pretty quickly in middle school as self-doubt hits them, he said, and they begin to blame themselves for problems they cant control.

Barretts personal observation is validated by a newly published study in the peer-reviewed journal Child Development that finds traditionally marginalized youth who grew up believing in the American ideal that hard work and perseverance naturally lead to success show a decline in self-esteem and an increase in risky behaviors during their middle-school years.

More here.If you're anything like us, you love the local, personalized, private and affordable experience that comes with some of the best Airbnbsand you could really do without the grime in the grout and the owner's clothes in the closet. This week, in celebration of the company's 10th anniversary, Airbnb gave us some luxurious new reasons to book it.

At a news conference at the Masonic on Thursday, Brian Chesky announced that Airbnb Plus has launched with more than 2,000 homes in 13 international cities including San Francisco, Austin, Barcelona, London, Los Angeles and Cape Town.

Each stay has been thoroughly vetted based on a 100-point quality checklist designed to guarantee a consistently comfortable stay every time you book. In other words, as The New York Times reports, when you reserve a Plus home, you're guaranteed to arrive to a kitchen fully stocked for cooking, a bedroom with plush linens on a decent mattress, a bathroom with cushy towels and toilet paper and no Head and Shoulders in the shower, and squeaky clean interiors. You'll even find hang space in the closets, an ironing board, and toiletries just for you, including shampoo.

The polished kitchen of a luxe, loft-style stay in downtown San Francisco listed as Airbnb Plus. (Courtesy of Airbnb)

If it sounds like a hotel, that's pretty much the pointeven the online surfing experience has been elevated with boutique hotelworthy professional photography of every Plus home. So, it's unsurprising that the average price of a Plus stay ($200/night) is double that of your average Airbnb. But the company is betting big on the success of Plus, with plans to roll out more than 75,000 homes in 50-plus destinations by the end of 2018.



But the luxe mainstreamification of Airbnb doesn't end there. Chesky also teased the spring debut of Beyond by Airbnb, a collection of uber-high-end homes for first class travelers.

Until then, peruse the Plus offering at airbnb.com/plus.A few juicy stories you may have missed this week.

Mysterious Swings Pop up All Over San Francisco, Curbed SF

There's a rogue group in San Francisco called Swing Bomb SF that wants to turn the whole city into a playground. They have plans to hang 50 swings at random locations this weekend. Read more.





Thousands of Elephant Seals Crowd Point Reyes, Shut Down Popular Beach, SF Gate

So many seals flooded Drakes Beach that National Park officials have closed most of the area. With the rugged scenic coastline and rolling waves, we don't blame them for choosing it as romantic destination to get their baby-making on. Read more.





Survey of Downtown San Francisco Reveals Trash on Every Block, 303 Piles of Feces and 100 Drug Needles, NBC

SF is dirty, like really dirty. An investigation surveyed 153 blocks in some of our most popular tourist spots and found quantities of needles, trash, and feces to rival some of the world's worst slums. Read more.





World's Most Powerful X-ray Laser Taking Shape Near Stanford, Mercury News



Quietly taking form 30 feet underground is a giant, $1 billion X-ray laser that can examine matter at an atomic level. This is the stuff of superhero movies. Read more.





San Francisco's homeless are getting six-figure jobs in a gritty neighborhood that's been overrun by tech companies, Business Insider

Our streets are being compared to some of the poorest slums, and homelessness is at a fever pitch. In 2015, a fed-up homeless man created Code Tenderloin to provide job training and coding skills to other homeless or formerly incarcerated people. Since then, some graduates have landed jobs with six-figure salaries. Read more.Concerns about Russian aggression is driving billions of dollars in US arms sales to European nations. The weapons deliveries are also part of the Trump administration's wider efforts to confront Russia in the region.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that the State Department had approved a potential sale of the Patriot missile system, including some 100 missiles, to Sweden.

The system's missiles are capable of intercepting short- and medium-range ballistic missiles as well as drones.

US and European officials have expressed concern that Russia has recently deployed new missiles to its European exclave Kaliningrad, which sits on the Baltic coast between Poland and Lithuania.

A US defense official based in Europe said Moscow's recent deployment of its Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad was "the biggest move we've seen" in terms of Russia's militarization of the Baltics.

"They've always had ballistic missiles there; this kind of brings a significantly longer range than they had there previously," the defense official told CNN.

He said the nuclear-capable missiles can potentially threaten large parts of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany and Sweden.

"These sales are a response to not only Russia's increasing military activity, but also to the fact that Russia is modernizing its Air Force and long-range strike capabilities," Magnus Nordenman, the director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, told CNN.

"Russia may not have as many aircraft and long-range missiles as the Soviet Union did during the Cold War, but the Russian systems of today are far more capable than their Cold War ancestors," he added.

America's allies in the region have sought capabilities that would allow them to counter Russian missiles.

Poland announced its interest in the Patriot Missile System with the State Department approving its approval of a possible sale of $10 billion version of the system to Poland in November 2017.

While Polish officials initially balked at the hefty price tag, Poland's Minister of Defense Mariusz B-aszczak wrote on twitter late last month that his government had managed to obtain a lower price and accelerated delivery time for the system, adding that he expected Poland to sign a final contract by the end of the first quarter of 2018.

Romania, similarly concerned about Russia's military activities in the Black Sea following its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, has also sought the missile system. Raytheon, the manufacturer, announced last month that Romania had formally signed an agreement, known as a letter of offer and acceptance, to purchase the Patriot system.

Poland and Romania are two of only six NATO members that spend the recommended 2% of gross domestic product on defense.

And while Sweden is not a member of NATO, it has sought to reinforce its position in the region, increasing its cooperation with the Western alliance and sending troops to the Swedish island of Gotland which sits in a strategic location in the Baltic Sea.

"There is real concern in these regions about Russian aggression," Nordenman said.

The US State Department said in the statement announcing the sale's approval: "The proposed sale of the Patriot missile system will improve Sweden's missile defense capability. Sweden will use the Patriot system to defend its territorial integrity and promote regional stability."

"The proposed sale will increase the defensive capabilities of the Swedish military and support interoperability with US and NATO forces," the statement added.

Finland, another non-NATO member that has expressed concern about Russia's military activity following Moscow's armed intervention in Ukraine, has also sought to improve its military capabilities.

The State Department announced this month that it approved the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of naval weapons, to include Harpoon and Sea Sparrow missiles, to help bolster Finland's navy.

And while Finland and Sweden are not members of NATO, experts believe these purchases of equipment will strengthen their relationship with NATO and the US.

"Big equipment sales is a great way to invest in a defense relationship," Nordenman said. "You are not only buying a thing, you are also investing in training, exercises, and a linkage with the US that will last for decades."Chico, Calif. -- An elderly man was reunited Friday with the police officers who came to his rescue after he was assaulted next to Bidwell Park.

90-year-old Jim Goodridge was punched in the face by a transient on February 10th in the 500 block of Vallombrosa Avenue near Buttonwillow Lane.

Prosecutors say 24-year-old Christopher Braun punched Goodridge with a single blow to the face.

"I had three stitches on my lip, I had a bruised hip where I fell and a bruised elbow. When I was attacked, I fell like a wet dishrag onto the ground," said Goodridge.



Goodridge loves to go on strolls near his home, but while on one of these walks recently, he was approached by Braun.

"I thought he was coming up towards me that he was one of my friends who wanted a high five and chat on the street!" said Goodridge.

Goodridge fell to the ground and several witnesses immediately came to his rescue.

"Two young ladies saw what happened and got out of their car. And then two police officers showed up," said Goodridge.

Goodridge never had a chance to thank the officers who took the time to help him until now.

"He was just really concerned about his wife, Alice here, so he asked if we could stop by and check on her," said Chico Police Officer Robert Kurtz.

Officer Jack Ditty helped Goodridge at the crime scene.

"Feels great. This is what we want as police officers. We rarely get to see everything come full circle. This gentleman is very strong. These are the people we love to serve in our community," said Ditty.

"I don't feel a lot of ill will towards this person because I felt they're probably a mental health problem," said Goodridge.

Is this the end of his daily walks?

"Oh heavens no! I'm not going to let such a negative deter my life or lifestyle," said Goodridge.

Braun is charged in Butte County Superior Court with a felony count of elder abuse and a felony count of assault likely to produce great bodily injury.

He appeared in court Wednesday, but has not yet entered a plea. He is next scheduled to appear in court next Wednesday.

Braun remains in custody at Butte County jail in Oroville. Bail was set at $65,000.SAN DIEGO -- A California teen has been sentenced to six months in prison for smuggling in a Bengal tiger cub from Mexico.

The defense attorney for 18-year-old Luis Valencia told the court Tuesday in San Diego before his sentencing that his client had a lapse in judgment and wanted the endangered tiger as a pet.

But prosecutors argued Valencia's cellphone data showed he was running an animal smuggling business and boasted about getting thousands for monkeys, jaguars and lions.

The 6-week-old cub was found on the passenger-side floor in Valencia's car in August at a San Diego border checkpoint. The tiger cub was named Moka, and now lives at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Tigers are endangered and it's illegal to import them without a permit.

Exotic animal smuggling has grown into a lucrative business in Mexico, the BBC reports. Earlier this month, Mexican police intercepted a tiger cub after someone tried to mail it -- in a plastic crate -- from the Mexican state of Jalisco to the state of Queretaro.

A sniffer dog discovered the 2-month-old cub, who had been sedated.By James Lyons-Weiler and Marcello Pamio

Age of Autism links to James Lyons-Weiler's blog yesterday linking the seizure of Dr Gatti and Dr Montanari's to a recent report on vaccination in Italy's military. We also republish in English a report by Marcello Pamio of Informasalus.it "Final report of the Parliamentary Commission on the cases of deaths and diseases in the Italian military".

James Lyons-Weiler writes:

LAST YEAR, I INTERVIEWED Dr. Gatti and asked her reasonable questions about the study she and Dr. Montanari published, and then invited both to Pittsburgh, PA to present their findings at IPAK FOCUS 2017. They are the nicest people.

So why should this grandmotherly/grandfatherly pair of scientists have to suffer having their offices and home raided by Italian Polizia, and their computers seized, when they had to fight to make the information they had public?

It turns out their their equipment had already been seized by a judge. But for what reason?

They found that vaccines contain metals that are not supposed to be there  and they found that vaccines contain protein aggregrates  almost certainly an effect of copper and aluminum binding to vaccine antigen.

What would the government of Italy hope to accomplish? Surely they would like to help the world learn about Dr. Gatti and Dr. Montanaris study?

The Italian government is already aware of issues with vaccines. Consider this excerpt from an Italian report (translation provided by Google Translate, results provided by L. Larue) ...(Continue reading on James Lyons-Weiler's website)

Marcello Pamio's report reads:

"Final Report of the Parliamentary Commission on the cases of death and diseases that hit the Italian military

- The Parliamentary Commission confirms the total absence of scientific studies in the literature aimed at assessing the tolerability of the total quantity of vaccine components (adjuvants, preservatives, antigens, allergens, excipients and contaminants). The cumulative quantity of the various components of the vaccines exceeds the permitted limit for the marketing authorization!

- The Parliamentary Committee confirms the necessity of NOT simultaneously administering more than 5 monovalent single-dose vaccines on the military.

- The Parliamentary Commission confirms that vaccination involves risks in terms of immunosuppression, hyper-immunization, autoimmunity and hypersensitivity problems.

- The Parliamentary Commission confirms that the risk of the risks is reported directly in the data sheets of the pharmaceutical companies that expressly request the application of appropriate precautions for the use of vaccines and the verification of the state of health of the vaccine and the absence of diseases at the time of vaccination.

- In vaccines analyzed in addition to the active substance there are over 81 substances (such as formaldehyde, chicken proteins, chicken egg cells, hen's embryos, aluminum hydroxide, lactose, human albumin, human fetal cells, etc.) for which it is expected an assessment of sensitivity or allergy.

- The parliamentary commission confirms that there is a statistically significant association between neoplastic and lymphoproliferative diseases and other autoimmune diseases and the administration of vaccines.

- Vaccines used in military prophylaxis are the same as those authorized by AIFA for civil use.

Questions for the ASL [local health] doctor

Starting from the absolute equivalence between vaccines used in the military and those used in newborns (AIFA), the questions are as follows:

- How come the military can not overcome 5 MONODOSE vaccines in the same session and a newborn of 60 days of life receives 8 at the same time (hexavalent + pneumococcus + rotavirus)?

- How come the single vaccines for the military are available while for the newborns not?

- How come there are no scientific studies in the literature on the tolerability and safety of the sum of adjuvants (81 different substances) contained in vaccines?

- Why in the military are required advanced and customized prevaccinal examinations while not in the newborns?

- How is it possible that in the military there is a statistically significant association between tumors, autoimmune diseases and vaccinations, while in infants the vaccines are safe and harmless?"







Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus weeklong official visit to India, started February 17, 2018, is yet to meet any important dignitary of Prime Minister Modis government. (Reports CNN, February 20, 2018). The sojourn is considered a total disaster in Indian political circles. All the excitement and lustre for the trip to TajMahal or Mahatma Gandhis ashram, turned into a no love lostsituation.

The warm hunky-dory relations the two countries enjoyed back in fifties onward gave independent India a way forward especially in the fields of Atomic Research in Mining and Energy, nuclear power plants and smart cities projects. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) acquired the name after Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the pioneer laying the foundation stone for Indian nuclear program.

Sale of Uranium, business deals with Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation and Canada-India Reactor of 1960 facility developed a newly bonded relationship between the two countries; also enjoying joint workshop on nuclear security or collaboration in smart cities projects. Canadian education and private sector offered India help in college system and further economic growth as well. The two governments have also a Memorandum of Understanding for cleaning up the Ganga River.

The history tells us that Indian economic relations saw removal of penalties imposed on India in seventies when Canadian uranium offered for peaceful purposes was used in an Indian nuclear weapons test in breach of the agreement signed between the two countries. Nearly after four decades of active political disconnect, Canada is back in business selling uranium to India. India and Canada had signed a nuclear agreement in the year 2010.

Canadas Kashmir support

Historically Canada has always supported Kashmir right from the days of General McNaughton backing proposals of UNSC and the Resolutions adopted on August 13, 1948 and January 05, 1949. McNaughtons proposals contemplated an agreed program of progressive demilitarization on either side of the cease-fire line. Army withdrawal, disbandment and disarmament in such stages as not to cause fear to populace at any point.

Governments of India and Pakistan was to reach an agreement by January 31, 1950 on progressive steps taken in reducing and redistributing the forces to the minimum level complete with the maintenance of security and of local law and order. India turned a deaf ear to all these efforts made on international level.

The erstwhile Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially issued statement that Kashmir is an unresolved issue, considering intensification of systematic human rights violations against civilians a matter of concern. The agencies in India went into a panic mode and a smear campaign ensued to tarnish Kashmirs freedom struggle.

On a usual course of stone-pelting incident, fights between Indian army and Kashmiri populace, a stray stone hit Canadian High Commissioners car who with his family was on holiday visiting ski-resort Gulmarg in Kashmir. Grabbing the opportunity, the incident was blown out of proportion to discredit Kashmir uprising though the intended target of the stone was not the Canadian High Commissioner. The High Commission official later stated, it would be misreporting facts if someone said it was an attack on the Canadian envoy as such.

In the recent past Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited India receiving the famous symbolic Modi bear hug upon landing in New Delhi. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau also on an official visit was made to look a low-key affair attaching almost no importance. It is also reported that Donald Trump Jr., the son of US President Trump, who is in India on a private visit to promote real estate deals attracts more attention though he does not hold any position in the US government. However, according to an official statement released by the Indian government Prime Minister Trudeau is due to meet with Modi on Friday February 23, 2018) in Delhi.

While Canada is part of the US led coalition carrying out air-strikes against the ISIS, India has not joined this group. But the Indian government is believed to be looking out for those who are joining the ISIS or are trying to get in touch with the terror group to offer its help.

There are few factors responsible for India to show indifference to visiting Canadian dignitary. Prime Minister Modis apparent cold shouldering of Trudeau was significant as it is widely known in Indian circles that Trudeau administration is sympathetic to Khalistan political movement.

It so happened that an Indian CRPF police officer T S Dhillon was refused entry to Canada (May 18, 2017) on the grounds that he had served an organisation engaged in terrorism and gross human rights violation. The action prompted a huge reaction in India saying "such characterisation is completely unacceptable".

Canada has 1.4 percent of Sikh population (468,000), a small but very influential number of people who support the idea of Khalistan, a separate state for Indian Sikhs. Indian army soldiers stormed into the holiest Sikh site Golden Temple Complex in 1984 to crush rebellion by Sikhs demanding creation of Khalistan (A homeland for Sikhs). In retaliation a Sikh security guard assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi spilling violence over into Canada when an Air-India plane carrying 329 people aboard was hijacked and bombed.

The National Defence Minister of the Crown Harjit Singh Sajjan, a Sikh by faith, is the Canadian politician responsible for the management and direction of all matters relating to the national defence of Canada. The Queen of Canada is the Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces and has final authority. Minister Sajjan derives his political strength from the Sikh vote bank in his political constituency leading to hold the prestigious Defence Portfolio.

Prime Minister Stephen Harpers Foreign Minister John Bairds Kashmir comment that Kashmir problem needs a solution. The pro-Khalistan movement in Canada gaining strength day by day as a small minority of Sikhs have managed to reach out to other communities with the dynamism, hard work and political acumen.

Jagmeet Singh, a criminal defence lawyer by profession, the incumbent New Democratic Party elect Canadas first non-white political party leader, a practising Sikh, is set to lead left-wing opposition against PM Justin Trudeaus Liberals in 2019 federal election on permanent basis. Sikhs in general are impacting the political scenario of Canada across the board. The main political strength derived from Sikh electorate makes it impossible for a Sikh leader to avoid or ignore the wholehearted support for Khalistan.

To draw a comparison maintaining the balance of trade; Indias top exports to Canada in the list are Medicaments, Crustaceans: Fish frozen, chilled or fresh, Iron & non-alloy steel, Vegetable saps and extracts, heterocyclic compounds with nitrogen hetero-atom(s) only, -compounds containing an unfused pyrazole ring (whether or not hydrogenated) in the structure, furnishing articles like bedspreads, Cast iron & steel, Rice, T-shirts & other vests, bed & table linen.

Imports, on the contrary from Canada to India include Gold, Solid fuels manufactured from coal, Petroleum oils, Minerals, chemical fertilisers, Newsprint, Diamonds, Iron Ore and Chemical wood pulp.

Hindu Business Line reported (April 19, 2017) that Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan hinted at strengthening defence ties between Canada and India. Canadian arms-makers are looking to expand in India and as Minister Singh stated that Warship HMCS Winnipeg frigate will soon be coming to India.Iraqi Catholic Leaders Urge Assyrians to Remain Steadfast in Lent

Worshippers pray during Mass in 2017 at St. George Chaldean Catholic church in Tel Esqof, Iraq, which was damaged by Islamic State militants. Iraqi Catholic leaders are urging Christians to remain steadfast in this Lenten season as they encounter challenges of Islamic State's legacy in their historic lands. ( Marko Djurica/Reuters/CNS) Amman, Jordan -- Iraqi Catholic leaders are urging Christians to remain steadfast in this Lenten season as they encounter challenges of the so-called Islamic State's legacy in their historic lands. In a Lenten pastoral letter, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad urged Iraqi Christians to pursue unity with other Christians at this sacred time with "open hearts." "Many Christians today live in a crisis of faith and intellect because of the circumstances of war, instability, migration and the dominance of social media on the details of their daily lives," he wrote in the letter, released Feb. 21. Many Chaldean Catholics lost their homes, properties and other possessions as they fled the so-called Islamic State militants in the summer of 2014. Many are destitute, still living in camps for the internally displaced or sheltering abroad. "However, these challenges should not discourage their determination and dissuade them from renewing their faith and deepening it, to witness of the Lord and his church," the patriarch said, calling on Christians to "increase within themselves strength, confidence and enthusiasm." Sako also repeated his appeal to fellow Iraqis from different religious backgrounds to recognize Christians as "part of the national fabric of Iraq and to stop their decline, for Christians have had a historical presence in this country, where they have a role and a message." Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Yousif Mirkis of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah estimates that between "40-45 percent of the Christians have returned to the some of their ancestral villages, particularly Qaraqosh." But he and other Catholic leaders told Catholic News Service there are many challenges to those Christians hoping to return home after the Islamic State occupation and expulsion. "There are problems with Bartella. Although Bartella is not far from Qaraqosh, the Shiites have been imposing themselves and using the force of Iran to take over territory, etc. The Christians of Bartella are very upset by this situation," Mirkis told CNS by phone. "Maybe the Americans and Baghdad government are not very aware of what is happening in these villages," he said. "The Christians of Bartella tell me: 'We cannot go back. We don't dare to go back.' So, these people are still sheltering in Irbil or in the camps for internally displaced people in Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah," Mirkis said of the northern Iraqi cities providing Christians with refuge. "Qaraqosh is a little bit better. There, houses are being repaired. Now, the people are returning, but many houses are burned and are completely destroyed. These Christians cannot afford the prices to reconstruct the houses," he said. The archbishop and his dioceses have been helping displaced Christians with material and spiritual support as well as providing transportation for hundreds of their university students. Many Christian supporters claim Christian organizations have been the sole sponsors of reconstruction efforts, without help from the government. But Father Emanuel Youkhana told CNS that so far, the planned "return, reconstruction and rebuilding movement did not meet our expectations and hopes. Thousands of families are hesitating and/or unable to return, and they are still displaced in Kurdistan." The archimandrite, a member of the Assyrian Church of the East, heads the Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq, CAPNI. He spoke to CNS by phone and email.DHL Express has officially opened its new regional hub at Brussels Airport, almost quadrupling the integrators handling capacity at the European gateway.

An investment of over 140m, including lease expenses, has seen approximately 200 additional DHL jobs created at the airport, three years earlier than planned.

DHL Express chief executive Ken Allen said: Brussels plays a crucial role in the worldwide DHL Express network.

Brussels Hub is one of our largest hubs in the world and because of its location in the logistics heart of Europe, it also plays an important role in connecting companies from this region with the world.

This new hub is a key part of our worldwide investment plan and will support our growth, the efficiency of our network and the high level of quality for which customers turn to DHL Express."

The 36,500 sq m hub includes associated warehousing and office space. When operating at full capacity, the two automated sorting systems can process up to 42,000 packages per hour, making it the fifth-largest hub in the global DHL network.

It benefits from air and ground links to a wide range of European destinations, as well as direct intercontinental air connections to the Americas, Middle East and Africa.

Vice president of DHL Brussels Hub, Koen Gouweloose, remarked: This new hub is a great example of some of the latest state-of-the-art logistics technology.

It allows us to process even more packages even more quickly and efficiently. As a hub, this allows us to play an important role in the network, while paying close attention to security and working conditions for our 1,200 employees, who are in turn ensuring that our clients are receiving the great service they expect from DHL Express.

Managing director of DHL Express Belgium and Luxembourg Danny Van Himste added: We can help Belgium be even better connected to Europe and the world.

We are addressing the needs of customers of all sizes and from all industry sectors in the Belgian market. With the hub giving us extra capacity, speed and flexibility, national borders should be no barrier to our customers.

In keeping with DHLs GoGreen programme, the hub has reduced the companys ecological footprint by 768 tons of carbon dioxide per year, thanks to more efficient sorting techniques and better insulation.

The hub is also certified to the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) A security standards.

The new site is a welcome expansion in capacity, given that DHL said that its Brussels operation is now busier than ever, despite its demotion ten years ago to a regional centre when DHL moved its primary international hub to Leipzig (a move which Ken Allen described as a dreadful experience).

The hub handles 42 direct flights a day. It has air and ground links to a various European destinations, as well as direct intercontinental connections to Cincinnati, Bahrain and Lagos.

Allen predicted a bright future for the new hub, saying: This is the best time for business for 15 years.

Traditional B2B [business to business trade] is bouncing back and is now growing by up to 13%, but there is also the e-commerce revolution.

Belgium offers an exceptional environment for international business, particularly smaller firms who could, though the Internet, start trading globally almost instantaneously.

The hub also features sophisticated security equipment based on the same technology used in medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners which can simultaneously scan and X-ray around 96% of all consignments without further intervention.

Gouweloose said that, with the original 1985-vintage hub reaching full capacity, the express operator had considered a number of options, including enlarging the existing facility.

However, with growing numbers of truck movements, the existing hubs location on the passenger side of the airport, separated from the main cargo area, was not ideal.

We were lucky to get a greenfield site on the cargo side of the airport, he explained.

Gouweloose added that there are many European distribution centres in the Brussels region and the new facilitys offload-to-reload time of only five minutes will help facilitate the fast delivery times that todays customers demand.

Having multiple, high capacity hubs with automated routeing also gives the DHL network more resilience in the event of bad weather, he said.

During the recent Paris snowstorms, DHL managed to maintain a high proportion of on-time deliveries.

At the opening of the new hub, Allen revealed  speaking in French  that he had taken out Belgian citizenship.

Later, in a conversation with Air Cargo News, he said the move was made to forestall any difficulties caused by the UKs exit from the EU in just over a years time.

Allen, who said he voted to Remain in the UKs referendum on continued membership of the EU noted: Clearly, I hope that Brexit would not cause me problems, but its a precaution.

He did not reveal whether he would also retain his UK citizenship, saying only that he had not yet activated his Belgian one.

Allen added that he believed that there would be many other senior managers of international companies that had either taken or were contemplating taking a similar step.

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The Alabama Supreme Court has set execution dates for two inmates, one for the man convicted in the 1989 pipe bombing that killed a federal appeals judge in Mountain Brook, and the other from an inmate who asked the court to expedite his own death.

The court set April 19 for Walter Lee Moody's execution for the death of U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert S. Vance. Justices also set March 15 for the execution of Michael Wayne Eggers, the Alabama Attorney General's Office confirmed Friday.

Eggers was convicted of two counts of capital murder in connection with the Dec. 30, 2000 murder of Bennie Francis Murray, of Talladega, during the course of a kidnapping and robbery.

While the Alabama Attorney General's Office asked for an execution date for Moody, Eggers had submitted on Jan. 10, 2016 a hand-written motion to the Alabama Supreme Court asking that his execution be "expedited."

In 2016 a federal judge, after listening to mental health experts, declared that Eggers was within his rights to stop appeals in his case. "Eggers has made a rational choice to dismiss his appointed counsel and abandon his appeal. Eggers has the right to make that decision, provided he is competent to do so, and the evidence indicates that he is," the judge stated.

A three-member panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge's decision. The Alabama Supreme Court on Jan. 23 of this year set the execution date.

Eggers' former attorneys had sought a review by the full 11th Circuit appeals court but that court denied a review of the case on Feb. 7, the Attorney General noted in a motion. Eggers' former appellate attorneys with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Montgomery plan to file a request for review with the U.S. Supreme Court from the 11th Circuit's ruling in the next two weeks, according to Assistant Federal Defender John Palombi.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is also set to consider on March 2 a motion Eggers filed himself regarding competency.

In his 2016 motion asking the state to expedite his execution, he says he has not sought to delay his execution and a few times mentions getting closure for the family of his victim.

"Eggers now moves this court to expedite Eggers execution, sentence of death and the effective administration of justice, for the family members of one Bennie Francis Murray and citizens of the state of Alabama," Eggers wrote. "Eggers does not challenge the method of execution employed, or the drugs used for said execution by the state of Alabama."

Inmates have challenged Alabama's three-drug protocol in court. On Thursday the state called off the execution of Doyle Lee Hamm after apparently having problems with finding veins.

In his motion, Eggers also states that "Justice should be swift, not a facade." He said that death row inmates should not be exposed to double punishment - 20 to 30 years in prison "punctuated with an execution. One would argue it is cruel and unusual punishment."

Eggers noted the state of Texas where he said it's six to 10 years to execution. He wrote that "is on the right track."

"Family members should not be exposed to the procedural roller coaster, allowing for closure, while ensuring due process and equal protection under the state and federal constitution," Eggers wrote.

Moody

Moody, who at 83 is the oldest inmate on Alabama Death Row, on Jan. 8 had his request for a review of his appeal rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The next day the Alabama Attorney General sought an execution date from the Alabama Supreme Court.

"Moody has no further available challenges to his conviction and death sentence," the Attorney General wrote in its request.

The court should fix the date of execution for Moody "so that complete justice may be visited upon the murderer of Judge Robert Vance," the Attorney General states in the motion.

Moody was seeking to appeal an U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in March 2017. That appeal regarded his decision to represent himself at the 1996 capital murder trial. After convicting him, the jury voted 11-1 for a death sentence and the judge followed that recommendation.

Moody had requested that he represent himself at his trial. But once jury selection began, he asked for a 12- to 18-month continuance so he could hire two lawyers. The judge refused to grant a continuance.

"This non-unanimous death verdict resulted from a case in which the defendant represented himself, despite numerous requests for counsel. Our court system should be concerned about the obvious unfairness of such a situation," Spencer Hahn, an assistant federal public defender who represents Moody, said in a statement to AL.com after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled.

Judge Vance was killed Dec. 16, 1989, and his wife, Helen, was seriously injured after the judge opened a package that had been sent to his home, detonating the pipe bomb. A similar pipe bomb killed a lawyer in Atlanta two days later.

Moody was linked to the crimes through a similar bomb nearly two decades earlier that had injured his wife when it exploded. His prosecution in that case led to his resentment of the courts leading up to the 1989 bombings.

In 1991, a federal jury convicted Moody of 71 charges related to the pipe-bomb murders of Vance and civil rights attorney Robert E. Robinson.

Months later, an Alabama grand jury indicted Moody on two counts of capital murder and one count of assault in the first degree (for injuries suffered by Judge Vance's wife). Moody represented himself at his state trial, which took place in October of 1996.

Vance's son, Robert "Bob" S. Vance Jr., is a Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge who is running this year as a Democrat in the race for Alabama Chief Justice. He narrowly lost to former chief justice Roy Moore in the 2012 race after stepping into the race less than three months before the election.

Bob Vance's wife, Joyce Vance, is former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.

Updated at 8:45 p.m. Feb. 23 to correct that the federal defenders office did not file SCOTUS petition regarding competency

Eggers Motion by KentFaulk on ScribdBy KIM CHANDLER, Associated Press

Execution team members stuck an inmate repeatedly in the lower legs, ankles and groin in effort to find a usable vein before the state called off the lethal injection, according to a Friday court filing by the inmate's lawyer.

Attorney Bernard Harcourt said he is seeking more information about what happened during the attempted execution of his client, 61-year-old Doyle Lee Hamm, on Thursday night.

U.S. District Judge Karon Bowdre on Friday ordered a medical examination of Hamm and directed the state to maintain material related to the attempt.

Hamm, who has battled lymphoma, was to be executed Thursday for the 1987 slaying of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham. However, prison officials announced about 11:30 p.m. Thursday that they were halting the execution because medical staff did not think they could obtain "the appropriate venous access" before a midnight deadline. The announcement came about 2 1/2 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the execution to proceed.

The state prison commissioner said the execution was delayed because of a "time issue."

"I wouldn't necessarily characterize what we had tonight as a problem. ... The only indication I have is that in their medical judgment it was more of a time issue given the late hour," Commissioner Jeff Dunn said early Friday.

Harcourt said the execution was botched and that he had argued in court filings since July that lethal injection would be difficult and painful because Hamm's veins have been severely compromised by lymphoma, hepatitis and prior drug use.

Two execution team members, working on each side of Hamm's body, tried multiple times to insert the intravenous line on his left and right legs and ankles, and later turned him over and slapped the back of his legs to try to get a vein, Harcourt said. They then tried unsuccessfully to connect the line through his groin, he said.

"He's in great pain from yesterday evening, physically, from all of the attempts to access his veins in his lower extremities and in his groin," Harcourt told The Associated Press.

Early Friday, shortly after officials announced that the execution had been halted, Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said the only obstacle to a successful execution was that the team lacked sufficient time. Dunn said he didn't know how long the medical team attempted to connect the line. The Alabama attorney general's office didn't respond to a request for comment.

Harcourt asked Bowdre to let the physician who conducted Hamm's medical exam to review the notes state officials took during the attempted execution.

He argued that the lapse of more than two hours before the state halted the execution was a sign that something was wrong. The past four executions in the state began about an hour after final permission was given from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Records from Georgia show that it typically takes that state less than 20 minutes to prepare an inmate for lethal injection, although there have been exceptions. In 2016, it took more than an hour to prepare a 72-year-old inmate when staff were unable to insert an IV in one arm and ended up connecting to a vein in his groin.

Alabama carries out executions by lethal injection unless an inmate requests the electric chair.

Hamm was convicted in the 1987 killing of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham. Cunningham was shot once in the head while working an overnight shift at a Cullman motel. Police said $410 was taken during the robbery. Hamm gave police a confession and he was convicted after two accomplices testified against him in exchange for being allowed to plead guilty to lesser offenses, according to court documents.

Executions were also scheduled to take place Thursday in Texas and Florida.

In Florida, Eric Scott Branch , 47, was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. Thursday after a lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Branch was convicted of the rape and fatal beating of University of West Florida student Susan Morris, 21.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott accepted the recommendation of the state's parole board and granted clemency for Thomas "Bart" Whitaker , on death row for masterminding the fatal shootings of his mother and brother at their suburban Houston home in 2003.

___

Associated Press writers Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama and Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.A California man was indicted Thursday for trafficking heroin into Jefferson County, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

A federal grand jury indicted Alexandro Pedro Montes, 26, of Compton, California, on one count of possession with intent to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin in Jefferson County, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Jay Town and Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brent Hamilton.

Montes was originally charged Nov. 30, Town said.

"Enforcing drug-trafficking laws and attacking the epidemic of opioid abuse in our country is a top priority of the Department of Justice and we continue working with federal, state and local law enforcement to bring the most serious available charges against drug dealers," Town said.

If convicted, Montes could face between five to 40 years in prison and a maximum fine of $5 million, per federal law.

The DEA investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney William G. Simpson is prosecuting the case.A three-vehicle crash Friday on Interstate 20/59 near Tuscaloosa claimed one life and injured another, state troopers report.

Lovell Baldwin Jr., 53, of York, was killed when the 1994 Honda Civic he was driving was struck by a 2013 Toyota Avalon driven by Daphne Violet Palmer, 30, of Tuscaloosa, according to a press release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Baldwin was pronounced dead at the scene. Palmer was transported to an area Hospital for treatment of her injuries, according to the press release.

A 2016 Dodge Ram 2500 was involved after the initial collision, which happened shortly after 9:30 a.m. on I-20/59 near the 62 mile marker, eight miles southwest of Tuscaloosa, according to the press release.

No other details were available about the crash, which is being investigated by Alabama State Troopers.A Trussville veterinarian already facing charges that he bought 36,000 fatal doses of fentanyl with Bitcoin on the dark web is in trouble with the law again.

David Ray Wallace, 46, of Alabaster, was arrested Thursday on a felony charge of possession of pornographic material, according to court records made public Friday.

The arrest warrant states that Wallace was in possession of a visual depiction of a victim under the age of 17 "engaged in any act of sado-masochistic abuse, sexual intercourse, sexual excitement, masturbation, genital nudity, or other sexual conduct."

The alleged crime happened on Feb. 21 and was brought by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Wallace remained in the Shelby County Jail on $150,000 bond. No additional details about the latest charge against him were released.

Last month, Wallace and a woman were arrested on drug charges. The Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force assisted narcotics investigators and SWAT with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, as well as U.S. Postal Inspector investigators in the probe.

Task Force Commander Lt. Clay Hammac said the Alabama portion of the investigation began when law enforcement officers in the state of New York contacted ALEA to let them know a package of fentanyl intended for delivery in Shelby County had been intercepted at JFK Airport. ALEA, postal inspectors, and Shelby County task force investigators identified the intended recipients of the package and launched a search for addresses associated with them.

During the investigation, Hammac said, they learned Wallace, who at the time was a practicing veterinarian in Trussville, had bought the fentanyl from the dark web using Bitcoin.

The drugs were shipped to the U.S. in a stuffed teddy bear. Wallace was arrested Jan. 22 on a charge of conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime. Initially he was held without bond but was released two days later on $20,000 bond.

He is set to make his first court appearance on the child porn charge in March.School and law enforcement officials in two north Alabama school systems say a five-year-old law that allowed them to create an emergency volunteer armed security force is working well.

So Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla, now wants to expand the program statewide.

In a Friday afternoon press conference in Russellville, Farley announced he filed a bill allowing school systems to create a highly-trained and vetted group of volunteers who could be deputized by law enforcement officials to serve as a security force for a school.

No one other than appropriate school officials and local law enforcement would know who was armed and serving in that capacity, HB449 states.

After the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, school shooting where a former student killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Farley said he reached out to the 2013 law's sponsor, Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, D-Red Bay, to find out how the nearly 5-year-old law was working in Franklin County.

Noting that both Republicans and Democrats have signed on as sponsors of the bill, Farley said, "This is not about R[epublican]s and D[emocrat]s. That's where we mess up. We need to forget about Rs and Ds. We need to start talking about mommas and daddies. We need to start talking about kids and grandkids."

Farley said it is, "The love for our family---that's what joins us together" in the effort to improve school security.

Farley said he "knows something about violence" and was one of the first law enforcement officers to work inside Jefferson County schools and report to the school superintendent in the 1990s.

Farley said the bill requires volunteers to be properly trained and vetted by law enforcement personnel to "make sure these individuals have not only the skillset but the mindset," Farley said, to act if a gunman was terrorizing a school.

President Trump in recent days has suggested a similar strategy in response to the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, school shooting where a former student killed 17 students and faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The shooting has sparked a national debate about school safety, with pro-gun supporters calling for more guns in schools. Anti-gun violence proponents have put other solutions on the table, including more funding for mental health support and modifications, including adding metal detectors, to public K-12 schools.

Superintendents from both the Franklin County and Russellville City systems spoke in support of the 2013 law they're currently operating under.

Russellville City Schools Superintendent Heath Grimes said the security force created under the 2013 law generally serves as a deterrent because no one knows "if there are five or 25 armed teachers" at the school on a particular day and time.

Parents are not told when armed guards are at school, Grimes said, but he doesn't see a problem with that. "I think parents want their kids to be safe."

Waiting on law enforcement officials to arrive when an incident has occurred isn't practical, he said. "Especially in rural areas, the response time can be slower than we want it to be."

Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett said knowing there are more responders inside a school makes it safer for his police "The fact that we have the ability to have other people that are also possibly armed in the school setting that would increase the number of responders if something was to happen."

Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said the county district has no school resource officers, because they don't have the money to pay for them. Though Russellville schools do have school resource officers, Grimes said he'd like to see lawmakers provide funding for school resource officers statewide.

According to federal civil rights data from 2014, the most recent year data are available, 33 school systems in Alabama had no sworn law enforcement officers in any of their schools.

Farley said the cost of a school resource officer, is estimated to be $160,000 each year, including salary, benefits, training, and equipment.

The sponsor of the 2013 law, Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, D-Red Bay, compared the armed security forces created in the 2013 law to a neighborhood watch program, making it clear that law did not require teachers to be armed.

"I, personally don't want every teacher to have a gun," Russellville superintendent Grimes said. "That's scary to me," he added, not because they would do harm intentionally, but because, "There's a lot of teachers that would not feel comfortable with guns."

When pressed for details about how the law has been implemented, Franklin County Superintendent Greg Hamilton said he couldn't give details about how many volunteers have been trained or currently are working in their program. That information is kept confidential to protect the integrity of the program.

"Only the sheriff and myself know what we have or have not done," Hamilton said. "Obviously we want our kids to be safe. That's the main thing."

Farley's proposal states a school's principal would make the decision whether the school needs additional security. The principal could then ask for volunteers to serve on a "trained emergency security force" for the school.

The sheriff and local police chief, where applicable, would next determine if enough volunteers have stepped forward to begin the process of creating the security force, Farley said.

Volunteers could include current or former school employees, former firemen or former policemen, Farley said.

Those who volunteered to serve in the emergency security force would be vetted and highly trained, Farley said, by law enforcement officers where the school system is located. Those completing training would be considered a "reserve deputy sheriff," according to the proposal and could carry a gun on campus.

Grimes said he knows of no incidents in his district where a specific event has been thwarted under the 2013 law, and that while this proposal is only one piece of keeping schools safe, he is thankful the law is in place.

The bill is one of three Farley filed on Thursday that he says will improve student safety at schools.

One bill, HB442, would make it easier for law enforcement officials to confiscate weapons from students.

The other bill, HB452, would allow juvenile probation officers to disclose student information, excluding mental health and medical records, to schools to promote safety and enhance student-related services.

HB449 as introduced by Rep. Allen Farley, R-McCalla by Trisha Powell Crain on ScribdAround 20 young people spent their Friday evening taking the first steps to organize the Birmingham arm of a national event focused on improving safety for students in school.

The event, March for Our Lives, will take place on March 24 in more than 70 cities across the country according to the national group's Facebook page. The march was conceived after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a former student shot and killed 17 students and faculty members.

Ashley Causey, a senior at Helena High School in the Shelby County school system, led the meeting.

Causey told the group she has never organized an event like this but had participated in last year's Women's March and was incredibly moved by the unity she felt with those marching alongside her.

She said she wants to recreate that feeling at this event.

"Our main goal needs to be unification," Causey told the group. "We need to focus on how we're unified by the same things and the same goal."

"We all agree [school safety] is a problem that needs to be addressed," she said, and everyone's ideas need to be considered.

Causey said she knows people have different ideas how to address the problem and that some will try to politicize their efforts.

The 3,500-plus member local Facebook group and the nature of social media might pull participants in different directions, she said, but everyone needs to work to create an umbrella for all who want to find real solutions.

The message the group shares needs to be pro-safety, she said, "not anti-anything."

No solutions were discussed, as this meeting was all about getting organized.

The attendees came mostly from public and private Birmingham-area high schools. A couple of college students were there, too. They introduced themselves in roundtable fashion in the donated meeting space in Irondale, east of Birmingham.

Friday's meeting was only for students, the notice had said, but one parent who brought his 9th grade daughter was allowed to stay. Media were allowed to stay, too.

Most said they were there because they had always wanted to be a part of an event like this but hadn't had the opportunity until now. About half had attended the Women's March.

Causey went straight to work, asking for volunteers to help with creating a mission statement and sharing information on social media, which currently include Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.

The group plans to add Twitter, Causey said, and she needs help monitoring the Facebook group.

"I haven't had much sleep," she said, since being identified as the leader of the event.

Questions from attendees ranged from whether this is the group planning the March 14 school walkout (it isn't) to whether voter registration will be available at the March (it will) to whether t-shirts specific to Birmingham's march will be available (they won't, get them from the national March for Our Lives group instead).

Kat Walton, a senior at Vestavia Hills High School, said students at her school all agreed school safety needs to be addressed. "Everyone is concerned," she said. "It is a bipartisan issue."

Even though students at her school may differ in political ideology, Walton said, "There is unity in our diversity."

Anne-Kearney Patton, also a senior at Vestavia, said, "Right now we are so divided" on so many issues. This group, though, "is willing to put our democracy first."

Phousith Souphithavong is a senior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and said she attended because she connects with high school students, having been one not too long ago. "We're at school to learn," she said. "We're supposed to be safe there, and these things shouldn't happen."

Exact details, like the time of the march and the place where it will be held, are still being worked out, Causey said, but she hopes to have that finalized before Monday, when the group will meet again.

The next meeting is for anyone who wants to be a part of the march, and more than 100 people have indicated through the Facebook group that they'll attend, she said, and more than 500 have said they're interested.

After the meeting, Causey said she felt a lot better about moving forward. "I needed the help," she said, "and the people here were really really dedicated."

She said it's important for students to take the lead.

"People think that children are naive and they can't think for themselves," Causey said, "but we are more informed than people think we are, and we are dedicated and determined."

Monday's meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the same location, 7950 Crestwood Blvd. in Irondale.A Stanhope Elmore High School student was arrested Friday for allegedly threatening other students, according to WSFA News 12.

Students from the high school told Millbrook police about a 15-year-old male threatening other students with guns Thursday, police said.

Police contacted school officials and determined the boy was not on campus and had recently moved outside the school's attendance zone.

The student was arrested Friday morning, police said.

The boy has been charged with making terrorist threats and is being held in a juvenile facility in Montgomery County, police said.

"I want to commend the students that came forward and notified the school officials of their concerns," Millbrook Police Chief P.K. Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson also said there was misinformation on social media related to the case and said the school was never on lockdown.

"Watch what you say and what you post on social media. In today's climate and with recent current events involving school shootings, people are on edge and rightly so. If you make statements that cause people to be in fear, statements that alter school operation, initiate a response from law enforcement or emergency services, you will face criminal charges," Johnson said. "We will not tolerate anything that compromises the safety and security of our schools, nor will we allow disruptions of any kind without consequence."Some entrepreneurs whose businesses depend on weddings say a bill to eliminate the requirement for marriage ceremonies in Alabama would hurt their industry.

It may not matter, at least for this year, because the bill appears unlikely to pass.

Alabama law requires marrying couples to receive a marriage license from a probate judge and have a ceremony to "solemnize" their union.

A bill by Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range, would eliminate the requirement for a marriage license and ceremony.

Instead, couples would file sworn statements certifying they are of legal age, are not already married and are otherwise eligible to be married. Probate judges would record the statements as the certificate of marriage.

Albritton's bill has passed the Senate. But House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said its chances of getting to the House floor for a vote are "very slim."

Rep. Paul Beckman, R-Prattville, the House sponsor, said he's still hopeful of getting a vote on the bill. He said he knows there are concerns about it and says it's one that could spark hours of debate on the House floor.

Don Boozer and his wife own a venue for weddings and other special occasions near Pell City. Applewood Farm features a barn lighted with crystal chandeliers. Boozer said they rent it about 50 times a year for weddings.

Boozer said Albritton's bill would make wedding ceremonies superfluous.

"You won't be getting married at that wedding if this law passes," Boozer said. "You might have a minister read some, you might exchange vows. You might have some sort of ceremony. But 'I now pronounce you man and wife' will be totally meaningless because that man and wife union happens at the courthouse."

Boozer said he believes many couples would still choose to have ceremonies but fears that tradition could fade over time if the ceremony is no longer part of the official nuptials.

Albritton has proposed the bill for several years. It came after the 2015 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized gay marriage. Some Alabama probate judges stopped issuing marriage licenses because they did not want to issue licenses to same-sex couples. State law says probate judges "may" issue marriage licenses but does not require them to.

Albritton says his bill would make sure couples can get married in every county. He said the main goal of his bill is to sever the link between a religious ceremony and the state.

Albritton said he's talked to a lobbyist who represents wedding planners about their worries. He said he's willing to consider some changes to the bill. But he does not believe eliminating the state requirement for a ceremony will lead to the demise of ceremonies.

"I don't believe there's going to be a major issue in that regard," Albritton said.

Mike Alexander, who has a catering service, prom shop, boutique and a tuxedo shop in Anniston, said wedding ceremonies would diminish in importance if they become optional and not official.

Alexander, who has been in business for 27 years, said wedding ceremonies have already changed significantly over the past five years because millenials tend to get their ideas from social media and not necessarily customs handed down from their parents.

Alexander, whose business is called Alexander's the Great Events, worries that weddings could lose their status as must-attend events for relatives who are willing to travel long distances.

"They come in from other states for their granddaughters' weddings here," Alexander said. "If their granddaughter is not having to have that ceremony, they're just filling out a piece of paper and having a party, those people will not be coming into town.

"So it's not only hurting the wedding industry itself - the caterers, the florists, the barns, places like that - it's going to be hurting everything in the long run because it's going to be all the way down to the hotels, the restaurants, everything."

Albritton does not think wedding ceremonies would be diminished or less important for families.

"Families get together for bar mitzvahs, for baptisms, for other religious ceremonies," Albritton said. "And that's what this will become. It will become a religious ceremony more than the celebration for a statutorily required event."

Beckman said he does not think church weddings would lose any significance because of a legal change.

"They still have their wedding celebration," Beckman said. "We don't think it's going to take away from that."Doug Kohn

By Rabbi Douglas Kohn, Interim Senior Rabbi, Temple Emanu-El, Birmingham, AL

This piece is adapted from a sermon delivered Friday, February 16.

2500 years ago, our prophet, Isaiah, charged that we turn should our swords into plowshares, our spears into pruning hooks. And, the prophet, Micah, added that every man shall sit under his fig tree, and none will make him afraid.

Yet, here we are, but a day following another deadly school shooting, when today's swords were not turned into plowshares, nor swords turned into pruning hooks, but turned on children. And, here we are, on the day when the first of the 17 murdered souls, Jewish children, were laid into the ground for their eternal rest, instead of laying down for a safe night's rest.

Tonight, conscience dictates that I am not free to speak about banalities of the Olympics or the opening of Spring Training, nor the easy optimism of our Torah portion that we build a sanctuary wherein God might dwell. Today, I imagine God is pondering and reflecting, as well, saying, "What is the matter with these human beings, these creatures who are but little lower than the angels, that they allow and protect the right of some to bear weapons to destroy each other?"

And, I am offering these words, about gun control as a religious ethic, in north central Alabama, not in the Boston suburbs, where this message does not need to be spoken. Massachusetts has the strictest gun laws of any state, and the least amount of weapon-related crime. In Boston, the community is patently aware of the meaning of the Second Amendment, which we protects the right to arm a well-regulated militia, because it was in suburban Boston, along the road from Lexington to Concord, that the meaning of that Amendment was inspired, where the shot heard round the world was fired.

That shot was fired from a flintlock musket, a gun which took maybe half a minute to load and to fire, firing one small lead ball which more likely ended up in a tree than in human flesh. That well-regulated militia of Second Amendment fame, armed with muskets, was intended by our founding fathers to be a check on tyranny, to allow the people of our nascent nation to protect themselves from an outside army, or from a government which turned on them.

Would our prophets assert that a 19-year-old with an assault rifle shooting dozens of powerful rounds in rapid-fire succession, be a protected behavior? Can we, a people inspired by the words of our prophets, countenance protecting the right to bear dangerous weapons which have no purpose in civil society other than to do violence to other people?

Our Bill of Rights asserts that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Yet, our brilliant text failed to sufficiently limit that right, thus allowing a teenager to purchase an assault rifle with ease, and inflict massive death and suffering not only on the community of a high school in Parkland, but on untold others who are connected by friendships, Facebook, and caring. We are all vulnerable when we allow weapons to be the currency of our society.

North central Alabama is a place where likely there are far more gun-owners than in Massachusetts, in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. But, this is exactly where this discussion must occur.

2018, marks the 60th anniversary of the attempted bombing of Birmingham's Temple Beth-El in April 1958. Beth-El was almost destroyed but for five more feet of fuse because dynamite was readily available in Jefferson County, due to the prevalence of its steel industry, which required iron ore and coal be extracted from Red Mountain through the use of dynamite. Dynamite was readily purchased 60 years ago, as easily as an AR15 assault rifle could be purchased in Florida this year. The dynamite acquired in 1958 by a Klansman designing to destroy a celebrated synagogue, and who later was associated with the murder of four young girls at a celebrated church across town, is little different from the assault rifle of 2018, from which 17 people were murdered this week.

Would Isaiah call holy a community one in which weapons are as available as the plowshare, or where dynamite and guns are as available as the pruning hook at Home Depot?

What would Micah say about our tepid reactions to Sandy Hook, Aurora, Littleton, Blacksburg, San Bernardino, Orlando, Las Vegas, or Parkland?

None of these episodes is governed by concern for a well-regulated militia. In each of those episodes, assault weapons were used, and the 2nd Amendment was mocked. Any elected official in Washington or a state legislature who cowardly hides behind the 2nd Amendment should look at the families and the faces, the children and the graves.

Torah has many concerns: idolatry, Shabbat, Jewish identity, kashrut. But, I contend that its greatest concern is directing us to craft a holy society - one in which people are safe, free from fear, and secure in their fields and in their villages, under their fig trees and under their roofs. To turn swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, and assault rifles in to police stations, is a reminder that our ambition should be to feed, not to fear, to raise children, not bury them, to create the sacred, not the scared.

Soon, I imagine a high school campaign, like a new children's crusade, where our youth demand us to stand up for them and with them, to join efforts for rational gun control. I do not want to face my children, or my grandchildren, when they ask why did you fail to heed the message of the prophets and the youth? Let's not fail to do so, lest we fail another high school whose children and parents will ask again - where were you, and why did you fail to heed the words of Isaiah?From leaving their children with family or at orphanages, struggling parents make tough choices as they seek employment.

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan  Klara Karybaeva is 56 years old and has three daughters, all in their early thirties.

They are all single mothers who receive no additional support from their respective childrens fathers.

In total, Karybaeva has seven grandchildren.

Two of Karybaevas daughters, Anara and Munara, moved to neighbouring Kazakhstan to work as a seamstress and a cook, respectively.

Her third daughter, Bakhtygul, works in Turkey as a domestic helper.

There are regular buses from Bishkek to Moscow at the local station as the majority of labour migrants choose Russia as the country of their destination [Nikolay Korzhov/Al Jazeera]

They have been working outside of the country for seven to eight years already, Karybaeva tells Al Jazeera.

They come to Kyrgyzstan every three months for a visa run, and the children dont leave the house even for a second when they are here, she adds.

The youngest child, age three, begs to go to Kazakhstan all alone by taxi to see his mummy in her absence.



Karybaeva doesnt have a pension as she is two years below the qualifying age, nor does she receive any social welfare.

In order to afford to raise the children, she works at the local market, however the family is still mainly dependent on the money sent home from her daughters.

The last remittance they sent was about KGS 10,000, or some $150, with more than half of that going towards rent.

It is difficult to raise children without additional support, Karybaeva says.

I was very nervous when they first left, and afraid of not being able to take care of them, she says. As I have high blood pressure, my doctor always tells me to give the children back to their parents, but I cant as theres no one to look after them.

Remittance is common in Kyrgyzstan, accounting for up to 32 percent of the countrys gross domestic product, mostly provided by migrant labour workers in Russia.

In 2017, $1.5bn was remitted in only eight months, according to the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic.

You work for 12 hours to get nothing

A recent report by Resource Centre for Elderly, a prominent NGO in Bishkek, says that migration in Kyrgyzstan is characterised by a stable outflow of population, with an estimated 710,000 citizens currently living abroad as labour migrants; of these, 86.8 percent of them are in Russia and 4.2 percent in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Given that such a large share of the Kyrgyz population chooses to migrate, there are thousands of children left behind across the country.

My maximum salary in Kyrgyzstan would be $200. There's nothing to do here - you have to work for 12 hours to get nothing. Elvira Baysakova, 32-year-old mother of four who works in Russia

Many parents arent able to take their family with them because they fear difficulties in their countries of destination and do not have the financial means to cover living costs for them.

For 32-year-old Elvira Baysakova, to earn a living outside of the country is the only option. She has four children and has been working in Moscow for two years.

Although she initially moved with her husband, they divorced because he was physically abusing her.

Elvira Baysakova, 32, considers living outside of Kyrgyzstan to be the only option to support her four children [Nikolay Korzhov/Al Jazeera] Elvira Baysakova, 32, considers living outside of Kyrgyzstan to be the only option to support her four children [Nikolay Korzhov/Al Jazeera]

Every time she goes to Russia, she leaves her children with her mother. Her salary is barely enough to pay for an apartment in Moscow but its more than she could earn if she stayed.

My maximum salary in Kyrgyzstan would be $200, she says. Theres nothing to do here  you have to work for 12 hours to get nothing.

Abandoning children in orphanages

Poverty drives people to move from their home country, even if it means leaving their children to relatives, neighbours or even social institutions.

Social workers from several NGOs in Bishkek confirmed that there has been an increase in children left at orphanages.

I often receive messages from single mothers who want to find a suitable orphanage for their children while they go abroad. Igor Belyaev, activist

There are 13,500 children living in orphanages in Kyrgyzstan, however 94 percent of them have at least one living parent.

I often receive messages from single mothers who want to find a suitable orphanage for their children while they go abroad, says Igor Belyaev, an activist who founded Rights for Children at Orphanages.

Belyaev was raised in an orphanage himself.

I understand the system from within. I know how it works, he says.

He started the NGO in 2012 and since then has collaborated with 118 orphanages across the country, providing psychological support and financial help for children.

Feruza Kenzhetaeva was left at an orphanage for children with disabilities as her parents cannot adequately look after her [Nikolay Korzhov/Al Jazeera] Feruza Kenzhetaeva was left at an orphanage for children with disabilities as her parents cannot adequately look after her [Nikolay Korzhov/Al Jazeera]

Belyaev is active on social media to attract peoples attention to this problem, although he focuses on positive things and hopeful posts.

He visits orphanages every week, bringing food, presents, and clothing to the institutions that dont receive regular financial aid from the government.

One of the orphanages he patrons accepts children with neurological disabilities from across the country.

An hours drive from Bishkek, it is isolated and direly in need of support, however it still treats 230 children and only 10 percent of them have lost both parents.

The challenges of disability are heightened when parents receive low income and are forced to work abroad.

The parents fear of stigma, as well as their inability to care for children with such special needs, drives the majority of these abandonments.

Despite the fact that we have the most caring staff here, nothing can replace a parent's love. Svetlana Takyrbashova, head of orphanage near Bishkek

Feruza Kenzhetaevas father left her here last year. Suffering from cerebral palsy, regular epileptic seizures and moderate retardation, her family was not prepared to care for her adequately.

She had been badly neglected, arriving malnourished and dirty, in threadbare clothes with her only vocabulary being expletives.

Svetlana Takyrbashova, the head of the institution, begs parents to come visit their children, often to no avail.

It makes the children so happy when someone comes to see them  in the end they understand everything. Despite the fact that we have the most caring staff here, nothing can replace a parents love, she insists.The global humanitarian community is again in confusion. The Oxfam sexual misconduct scandal has made headlines. Policymakers and humanitarian leaders everywhere talk about the need for change. Over the last 30 years or so, there have been many scandals, and much demand for reform. However, business just continues as usual. According to Reuters, during the last year the Save the Children Fund claimed they fired 16 staff members over reports of sexual harassment and Oxfam reported it dismissed 22 of its staff. There are similar reports by various humanitarian agencies. What is terrifying is that the same person who quit his role with Oxfam 2011 after being accused of using sex workers while working in Haiti, was engaging in similar acts in 2006 during his time working for the charity in Chad. Oxfam knew about this but went ahead and sent this person to work in Haiti anyway.

Anyone connected to the humanitarian world knows about the scandals of sexual misconduct, corruption, discrimination, racism and many other issues in the system. In many ways, the Oxfam sexual misconduct scandal is just a symptom of the core illnesses that the humanitarian system is suffering from. Of course, the system is complex, and it is not easy to change.

It is one of the very few careers one could enter without any formal qualifications. A colleague from Afghanistan once told me international humanitarian workers comprise three categories: missionaries (those who come to help and change the affected communities), misfits (those who do not fit in their own societies, so they become humanitarian workers) and mercenaries (those who come for the money). Of course, there are honest, committed and genuine humanitarian workers, however, they are a minority and most of the time leave the field in frustration.

Since 2004, teaching in many higher education programmes in the UK on disaster management, humanitarian affairs, peacebuilding and sustainable development programmes, has brought me into contact with many young North American and European students who want to become humanitarian workers. They want to go to Africa, Asia and the Middle East to help people. Keeping in line with the Croatian Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich, I always suggest that they should think about helping the refugees, homeless and poor people in their own countries. Few decide to do so.

Regardless of all the issues, the humanitarian industry is growing. Since 1989, it has grown from some $0.5 bn to some $22bn in 2018. The responses to international crises are organised on a fast-phase, top-down and resource heavy basis. In a model of universal governance, the humanitarian responses are driven by specialised UN agencies and NGOs. In this specialisation, the responses are delivered within a medicalised approach  diagnosis and intervention. At the same time, the humanitarian system is suffering from under capacity and many other problems within.

Keeping in line with the colonial project, the humanitarian system largely assumes affected populations are vulnerable and need assistance and deliver aid based on this assumption.

It is also common knowledge that contemporary humanitarian structures are shaped by the philosophical and value systems of Europe and North America, which are predominantly Christian. At the same time, a large proportion of humanitarian funding is channelled towards the Muslim world. According to the Global Humanitarian Overview (2018), the 2017 humanitarian response plans are dominated by Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, occupied Palestinian territories, Libya and many other Muslim countries. It is also no secret that the United States uses humanitarian assistance as an extension of their foreign policy while the European Union use it as a substitute for foreign policy. In this, the contemporary humanitarian system is part of the global intervention to change the social, cultural, economic, political and environmental architecture of countries without the consent of the people. In my mind, this is a continuation of the colonial project. Support for regime changes, lack of accountability, and ongoing racism in the humanitarian system has helped destabilise countries in the grip of natural disasters such as Haiti and Nepal while at the same time it is estimated that only about one percent of humanitarian funds reach the affected populations as was the case in West Africa during the Ebola crisis.

Keeping in line with the colonial project, the humanitarian system largely assumes affected populations are vulnerable and need assistance and deliver aid based on this assumption. The reality is most disaster and conflict-affected populations in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have been experiencing these dangers for centuries. Most of them have been colonised by the European powers and still continued to be hampered by global economic interests. In this, most populations in disaster and conflict-affected countries in the world have developed sophisticated yet pragmatic approaches to effectively deal with uncertainty and danger. This is the type of wisdom and local knowledge of people which the humanitarian system has over and over failed to recognise.

The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition Report on the 2004 tsunami response by the International humanitarian system (TEC, 2007) heavily criticised the lack of genuine engagement and collaboration with the affected populations. It further recommended the international humanitarian agencies recognise the capabilities of affected populations and their skills and knowledge. The TEC Report strongly recommended the International humanitarian system establish formal performance feedback and begin to measure the improvements undertaken by International actors.

There was the expectation that the International humanitarian system would learn from their mistakes in their responses to the 2004 tsunami. However, we continue to hear the same narrations from Haiti, Nepal, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and many other countries. The current humanitarian system, which is embroiled in the global market, does not have space for affected populations. There are discussions, projects and interventions to professionalise the humanitarian system, but there is no understanding of care that the system should provide to the affected populations. The system, which is expected to care for affected populations, has forgotten, and in many cases, even harmed them.

While the international humanitarian system is busy dealing with scandals, developing policies such as the Grand Bargain and Charter for Change, hiring inexperienced and unqualified international staff, the affected communities continue to deal with disasters and conflicts. They do not come to New York, London, Geneva or Brussels to complain about the misconduct of the humanitarian agencies or to request funding. There are very few examinations of the power and corruption of the international humanitarian system  Graham Hancocks 1989 book, Lords of Poverty, is still the most honest account of this. The humanitarian agencies come and go  the long-term impact they make at community-level is never considered or examined. In the humanitarian programme cycle, there is no space for the long term  it is fast-paced, top-down and resource-heavy. As one of the colleagues in Eastern Sri Lanka told an international humanitarian worker, Dear sir, this may be your project, but this is my life.

Unless, the humanitarian donors, policymakers and practitioners are ready to change their current attitudes and values, examine the ways to change the system itself and genuinely collaborate with affected populations as equal partners, the Oxfam sexual misconduct scandal will be another news item that will fade away into the background. This is the only way to change the colonial nature of the humanitarian system and make it relevant and effective for affected populations.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.When Naqeeb Mehsud, a 27-year-old aspiring Pashtun model residing in Karachi, was killed by the police, there was an outcry on social media by his family and friends, leading to a police investigation and the eventual sacking of Karachis Malir district chief of police, Rao Anwar. While Anwar was found to be responsible for 400 other such murders, he has not shown up for court and remains at large.

Mehsuds murder has sparked an unprecedented outcry among Pashtuns against the trend of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances across Pakistan. Especially since 9/11, the term missing person has been very prevalent in Pakistans public narrative, with average citizens, political activists, journalists or people suspected of links with terrorist organisations disappeared or killed. More than 1400 cases remain pending before the Commission on Enquiry of Enforced Disappearances.

Pashtun Long March

Karachi, where Mehsud was killed, is home to the largest urban Pashtun population, who are also the second-largest ethnic group in the city. After Mehsud was murdered, his tribe (Mehsud), which is from the South Waziristan Agency (SWA) in Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), united with Pashtuns from other regions and tribes in what has come to be known as the Pashtun Long March to ask for justice and accountability.

Organisers of the march, which began with a sit-in on February 1 in Islamabad, and ended on February 10, submitted a list of demands to Pakistani authorities. They included the prosecution of Rao Anwar, the formation of an inquiry into extrajudicial killings of Pashtuns in Karachi and elsewhere, an end to collective punishment and discrimination against locals in the FATA, and removal of landmines from South Waziristan, which have killed at least 18 people.

The reaction to Mehsuds murder has not been restricted to the Pashtun Long March. In Dera Ismail Khan, bordering the SWA, locals set fire to the office of pro-government Taliban out of frustration after authorities failed to arrest the militant killer of a local man.

In Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency, protests have been held against mass arrests, brutality, and night raids of the houses of locals, and in Swat, protests have also formed against the increase in the number of security checkpoints and barriers in their areas and maltreatment at military checkpoints. Recently authorities agreed to hand over military checkpoints to the police.

History of FATA

These protests must be put in the context of the FATA regions history. FATA formed the buffer between the British Empire in India and Afghanistan, an area close to the Russian Empires sphere of influence in the 1800s.

The Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) of 1901 was a criminal law promulgated by the British to grant autonomy to the Pashtun tribes in exchange for a promise of security against Russian invasion. After the partition of India and Pakistan, the Pakistani state has continued to implement the FCR in the tribal areas, using it as a base to launch the resistance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with the help of the CIA.

Following 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan by the US, the tribal belt was relatively restive with large swaths of it under Taliban control, until the Pakistani military launched operation Zarb-e-Azb against militants there in June 2014.

The FCR had already left a legal vacuum in FATA, leaving the Pashtun tribal population without any recourse to fundamental rights, formal courts, or a policing system, as well as a lack of socioeconomic development opportunities. This is partially why there is a large number of Pashtuns in Karachi today.

After major parts of the FATA were cleared by the Pakistani military operation against the Taliban, millions of displaced persons are now returning to the area that has been left with little infrastructure. Many of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) have endured the trauma of living under the Taliban, then through a military operation and displacement, as well as widespread discrimination.

For instance, the Sindh and Punjab governments unconstitutionally barred entry of IDPs from FATA after the military operations, and citizens hailing from FATA are often profiled as terrorism suspects.

This public narrative, including in the media, has played a major role in making these extrajudicial killings possible. Additionally, anti-terror laws such as the Protection of Pakistan Act 2014, the Anti-Terrorism Amendment or Act and the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) of 2011 have legalised arbitrary detention of suspects without a warrant, as well as given policing powers and immunity to the military, both of which have affected due process and human security.

In the case of Naqeeb Mehsuds murder, the movement for justice picked up pace because the perpetrator was a civilian police officer. Had military personnel committed this crime, it would have been far more difficult to bring them to account.

When a Ranger trooper named Shahid Zafar was caught on video in 2011 executing an unarmed man in an extrajudicial shooting in Karachi, he was sentenced to death by a court, only to be later pardoned by the Pakistani president.

Protest achievements

Youth groups have led mobilisation efforts through social media and brought aggrieved groups together to resist the high-handedness of the Pakistani state towards Pashtuns. Several positive aspects of the Pashtun Long March should be noted.

First, protest leaders announced on February 10 that 71 missing persons whose photos had been put up at the protest site in Islamabad returned home after protesters held negotiations with the government.

Second, the Pakistani military announced that residents of FATA Agencies recently cleared of militants only require their national identification document, and not the Watan Cards issued only to them, to enter their homeland. The Watan cards had been meant for compensation purposes for people affected by the Pakistani militarys operations in FATA, but were instead being used to discriminate against locals, almost akin to needing a visa to enter their own territories.

Third, the movement has been entirely peaceful, in contrast to many other popular protests in the recent past in Pakistan, such as the Tehreek-e-Labbaik in Islamabad in November 2017 that turned violent. The current peaceful Pashtun Long March has even been compared with that of the non-violent political movement for independence led by Pashtun leader Bacha Khan.

Fourth, the movement has been refreshingly inclusive. The protest brought together participants from all major political parties across all Pashtun regions. The organiser of the protest, Manzoor Ahmed Pashtun, has been very clear that this is a non-political movement for justice. Women also participated in these protests, countering stereotypes about Pashtun conservatism.

Perhaps most interestingly, a new brand of tech-savvy youth leadership from FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has emerged. These youth are using social media to organise peacefully, lay out clear aims and achieve what the previous generation could not. During protests, the crowd could be heard booing any speaker who represented or spoke in support of the status-quo governance system in FATA under the FCR.

Youth are unequivocally ready for a change in the system, and it is imperative for the Pakistani state to implement the rule of law with equality and without discrimination, ensure the protection of innocent civilians during any anti-terrorism operations and follow due process according to the Constitution. All citizens of Pakistan deserve this.

More specifically, Pakistani authorities must end the illegal harassment and intimidation of journalists and activists. The impunity with which actors responsible for enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings function must stop. In an ideal world, the Pashtun Long March wouldnt have been needed for justice to be served, but the citizens have spoken in this case. The state, funded by the taxes of these aggrieved citizens, must listen.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.A growing number of US companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the gun lobby comes under immense criticism following the last weeks mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Several car rental companies, hotels and banks have cancelled the special offers and discounts they have for NRA members.

On Saturday, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines became the latest companies to join the list.

The moves come amid widespread calls to boycott companies and groups that have ties to the powerful pro-gun group.

At least 17 people were killed last week when a gunman opened fire on students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. According to police, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz confessed to carrying out the shooting. He allegedly used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

Since the shooting, students and their families have organised near-daily protests, demanding gun control reform. Online, the #BoycottNRA campaign has gained momentum, with many pledging to stop doing business with companies that have ties to the NRA.

Under pressure, more than a dozen companies  including car rental giants Hertz and Budget, First National Bank and MetLife insurance  have ended their relationships with the NRA, according to progressive news site ThinkProgess.

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Car rental company Enterprise said on Twitter that discounts for NRA members would no longer be effective starting March 26.

Thank you for contacting us! All three of our brands have ended the discount for NRA members. This change will be effective March 26. Thank you again for reaching out. Kind regards, Michael  EnterpriseRentACar (@enterprisecares) February 23, 2018

We have notified the NRA that we are ending the NRAs rental car discount program with Hertz.  Hertz (@Hertz) February 23, 2018

First National Bank of Omaha, the largest privately held bank in the United States, said it would not renew its contract with the NRA. As a result, the bank will stop issuing NRA credit cards.

Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.  FNBO (@fnbo) February 22, 2018

Insurance company MetLife and software company Symantec, known for the Norton antivirus program, also announced the cancellation of their NRA member discounts.

We value all our customers but have decided to end our discount program with the NRA.  MetLife (@MetLife) February 23, 2018

Symantec has stopped its discount program with the National Rifle Association.  Symantec (@symantec) February 23, 2018

This week, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre called on every citizen who loves this country and treasures its freedom to stand and unflinchingly defend the Second Amendment, the one freedom that protects us all.

"I call on every citizen who loves this country and treasures its freedom to

stand and unflinchingly defend the Second Amendment, the one freedom

that protects us all."  Wayne LaPierre @CPAC     NRA (@NRA) February 22, 2018

LaPierre was speaking to participants of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual politically conservative conference.

During that same conference, US President Donald Trump reiterated his proposal to arm teachers who are adept at firearms in an effort to stop school shootings.

Out of your teaching population, you have 10 percent, 20 percent, very gun adept people, Trump said.

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So this crazy man, who walked in, wouldnt even know who it is that has it, he added. Thats good. Thats not bad. Thats good. And the teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened.

The proposal has been slammed by survivors of mass shootings and their families, as well as a number of teachers, who say having guns in the classroom will only create more problems.

On Friday, the investigation into the shooting revealed that an armed deputy was present at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the incident. According to Sheriff Scott Israel, the deputy waited outside the school for nearly four minutes while the shooting took place. That deputy has since resigned.Unilateral US sanctions threaten to undermine cooperation efforts over North Korea, Chinas foreign ministry says.

China has demanded the US reverse its decision to impose fresh sanctions on North Korea, saying the unilateral actions could undermine cooperation between Beijing and Washington.

Chinas foreign ministry said it had lodged stern representations with the US over the measures  which prohibit US citizens from dealing with more than 50 vessels and companies, and one person, located in countries including North Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong  in a statement on Saturday.

The Chinese side firmly opposes the US imposing unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction on Chinese entities or individuals in accordance with its domestic laws, Geng Shuang, foreign ministry spokesperson, said.

The Chinese government has been comprehensively and strictly implementing the Security Council resolutions on the DPRK and fulfilling its international obligations, and never allows any Chinese citizen or company to engage in activities in violation of the Security Council resolutions.

US President Donald Trump announced the heaviest ever sanctions against North Korea on Friday, as Washington seeks to prevent North Korea from further developing its nuclear programme.

The measures  aimed at disrupting North Korean shipping companies and vessels  will heighten pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a US treasury department statement, said on Friday.

This will significantly hinder the Kim regimes capacity to conduct evasive maritime activities that facilitate illicit coal and fuel transports, and erode its abilities to ship goods through international waters, Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary, said.

The president has made it clear to companies worldwide that if they choose to help fund North Koreas nuclear ambitions, they will not do business with the United States.

The new sanctions target almost all shipping currently being used by North Korea, Mnuchin said.

Trump cautioned the US will have to go to phase two if the sanctions dont have Washingtons desired effect, adding that may be a very rough thing  very unfortunate for the world, Reuters news agency reported.

UN sanctions

The announcement comes two months after the UN Security Council said it was imposing its toughest sanctions yet on North Korea.

The Security Council unanimously voted to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea, and order North Koreans who work abroad to return to the country within 24 months, on December 22.

North Korea announced in November it had successfully conducted a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US mainland.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-uns government conducted several missile tests last year, drawing condemnation from the international community.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula appear to have eased in the last few weeks, however, with South Korea expressing it was cautiously optimistic of making progress with inter-Korean relations in the wake of a visit by North Korean officials during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.MOSS POINT, Miss. -- The City of Moss Point is again searching for a police chief after Keith Davis declined to accept the position in an announcement on Friday.

Instead, Davis will remain the Chief of the Marine Patrol division of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

According to MDMR Director Joe Spraggins, "Chief Davis and Moss Point were not able to come to an agreement. He will remain the chief of Marine Patrol for this agency."

After a special called meeting between the board of aldermen, Davis announced his decision.

Ward 6 Alderman Wayne Lennep released the following statement to the Mississippi Press:

"There have been many conversations and negotiations over the past couple of weeks in the effort to bring my friend, Keith Davis back as the police chief in Moss Point. I wish we could have made it happen.

As those conversations began to take shape, Chief Davis saw and even stated that the mayor and board of aldermen are committed to public safety in the City of Moss Point. Every vote and request in meetings concerning the position and future of the police department were agreed to unanimously.

I still believe in my heart, and as Keith previously noted, that we are genuinely sincere about changing the law enforcement perception in the city.

But, somewhere along the way, he obviously saw some things that concerned him and made him question whether we could fulfill our end of the deal. I guess we just were not able to be fully convincing enough for a man to give up a great job and trust us with his future. I cannot blame him for that. That is on us, and I wish him well.

It's like Keith also said, our city is hurting right now- our community is hurting, and we're going to have to give it all that we've got to fix this problem. He was right about that.

He was right about another thing too- this is not just about one person, or the Mayor or the Board. It's not just about a new police chief coming in. This is about a community standing together, bonding together, and saying enough is enough.

We still need our citizens, friends and neighboring communities to stand with us. Something else Chief Davis said is still true: "You're either with us or you're against us."

To Keith I say, stay safe out there on the beautiful south MS waters, my friend. The DMR is in good hands. We'll be seeing you."

Mayor Mario King took to his Facebook page on Friday evening to address the community and answer numerous questions citizens had regarding Davis' decision to decline the position.

King cited concerns Davis had -- specifically with the culture within the city. King also said that disagreements had between he and members of the board may have played a factor in Davis' decision as well.

A week prior on Feb. 12, Davis stood in City Hall and discussed his passion for the city and how he felt he was "sent back to Moss Point to help it out of this dark place it is currently in."

Davis was selected to replace former police chief Calvin Hutchins who is now the Chief Law Enforcement official for the Pascagoula-Gautier School District.

The Mississippi Press reached out to Davis for comment, but our calls were not returned.Doraleh Container Terminal taken over by government, says Dubai-owned DP World has damaged national sovereignty.

The government of Djibouti has seized control of a container terminal operated by United Arab Emirates-based DP World, saying that the contract between the two parties was damaging the sovereignty of Djibouti.

The government announced the nationalisation of the Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT) in Djibouti on Thursday, placing the blame for the termination of its contract with DP World  the worlds fourth largest port operator  on the Dubai-owned companys refusal to settle amicably.

A statement on behalf of President Ismail Omar Guellehs office said the government had decided to proceed with the unilateral termination of the concession contract  awarded to DP World.

DP World won a 30-year concession in 2006 to operate the DCT, which opened in 2009.

The Doraleh port is particularly crucial to its landlocked-neighbour Ethiopia: more than 95 percent of the countrys imports come through Djibouti, authorities say.

Despite being a tiny country, Djibouti has become a major strategic player because of its position on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the key shipping lane to Europe from the Gulf and Asia beyond.

Sources told Al Jazeera that the souring of relations between the two parties goes back to when Djibouti refused to allow the UAE to establish a military base on its territory.

For the UAE, Djiboutis location is ideal, along the Red Sea and close to Yemens Aden, one of the regions most important ports.

Somaliland connection

Sources tell Al Jazeera that matters took a turn for the worse when the UAE was seen as trying to undercut Djiboutis competitiveness by offering Ethiopia to use a facility in Somaliland at attractive rates.

DP World announced in November last year it would build an economic free zone in Somaliland to capitalise on strong growth at the Port of Berbera, which was already under the companys management.

DP World signed a 30-year concession agreement to manage the Port of Berbera in May 2016.

Announcing the DCT nationalisation decision on Thursday, Djiboutis transport ministry said that it was merely implementing a law adopted in November last year that sets a legal framework allowing for the renegotiation, if necessary, of contracts already concluded dealing with the management or exploitation of strategic infrastructure.

In the current case, the concession contract for Doraleh container terminal contains elements that are in flagrant contravention of state sovereignty and the higher interests of the nation.

The sources told Al Jazeera there was a heated meeting in Dubai in mid-February between Emirati and Djibouti officials where Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the chairman of DP World, said something to the effect that the UAE would send Djibouti back to the conditions in which it existed before 2005.

The threat prompted the Guelleh government to move to seize the DCT, the sources said. Al Jazeera could not independently confirm the account.

Incidentally, Abdourahman Boreh, the architect of the DCT concession, fell out with Guelleh and has been in exile in the UAE for the past 10 years.

Djiboutis account

In an official statement on Thursday, the Djibouti government announced that it has decided to proceed with the unilateral termination with immediate effect of the concession contract awarded to DP World.

The government made this decision in application of the law of November 8, 2017 which aims to protect, in the context of strategic infrastructure contracts, the best interests of the nation, especially those relating to the sovereignty of the state and the economic independence of the country, the statement said.

It should be noted that our country has terminated its collaboration with DP World as an extension of a continuing failure to comply that this economic partner would have opposed to all its efforts to settle amicably.

The statement said it should be noted that the DCT will now be under the authority of the Doraleh Container Terminal Management Company (SGTD), a company in which the state holds all the shares.

DP World, for its part, has accused Djibouti of illegally seizing the container terminal and said it is seeking international arbitration to protect its rights.

The illegal seizure of the terminal is the culmination (of) the governments campaign to force the DP World to renegotiate the terms of the concession, DP World said in a statement late on Thursday.





Those terms were found to be fair and reasonable by a London Court of International Arbitration tribunal.

It said DP World has commenced arbitration proceedings before the London Court of International Arbitration to protect their rights, or to secure damages and compensation for their breach or expropriation.

In 2014 the government of Djibouti had brought a legal challenge against DP World, accusing it of bribing the head of Djiboutis port authority and calling the overall agreement unfair.

DP World operates multiple related businesses from marine and inland terminals to maritime services across several continents.

The company was founded in 2005 by merging Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International, which had been founded in 1999.

It purchased P&O Group of the UK in 2006 for 3.9bn ($7bn), which was at the time the worlds fourth largest ports operator.At least 23 killed in separate attacks in Kabuls diplomatic area and the countrys Farah and Helmand provinces.

Nearly two dozen Afghan soldiers and three others have been killed in multiple attacks across the country.

At least 18 Afghan soldiers were killed on Saturday in the Bala Boluk district of western Farah province when Taliban fighters stormed an army checkpoint.

Meanwhile, two suicide car bombers killed at least two soldiers and wounded a dozen others in southern Helmand province.

In the first attack in Helmand province, Taliban fighters used a Humvee to enter an army base in Nad Ali district but were identified by soldiers and pushed away. At least two soldiers were killed in the incident.

A second car bomber targeted an NDS compound near a police headquarters in Helmands provincial capital Lashkar Gah. At least seven people were wounded.

In a separate attack in the capital Kabul on Saturday morning, a bomber killed at least three people and himself near the diplomatic area of the city. The attack was later claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

According to Najib Danish, the ministry of interior spokesman, the suicide bombing took place in Kabuls Shash Darak area, bordering the Green Zone.

The area is near the NATO headquarters, and is not far from the US embassy.

The ministry of interior also said six other people were wounded, two of whom are in critical condition.

Al Jazeeras Tony Birtley, reporting from Kabul, said that the Kabul attack particularly shows that ISIL is still active and capable of launching attacks.

Were also seeing an increase by the Americans in aerial bombings  on the Taliban and especially, ISIL, he said.

The equation is going from worse to worse. Every day, theres a new story about bloodshed, death, and dying here.

Hundreds killed this year

The Afghan army and US-led coalition forces continue to battle the Taliban for the control of areas in the country but the security situation has been deteriorating.

On January 21, the Taliban orchestrated a bloody siege at Kabuls Inter-Continental Hotel that left at least 20 dead.

A few days later on January 24, ISIL fighters killed three people at the office of Save the Children, in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

On January 27, a Taliban attacker drove an ambulance filled with explosives in the heart of Kabul killing at least 103 people and wounding as many as 235. A day later, at least 11 soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked a military academy, also in Kabul.

US President Donald Trump has committed an additional 3,000 US troops to Afghanistan in recent weeks, bringing the total number of American troops in Afghanistan to about 14,000.

But the recent deadly attacks have raised questions over the US presidents strategy for winning the 16-year-long war.Mueller investigation: Former Trump aide pleads guilty

Rick Gates admission of conspiracy and lying to FBI investigators means hes willing to co-operate and testify against others.Unanimously approved resolution, drafted by Sweden and Kuwait, to enable aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

The UN Security Council has voted in favour of a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

The unanimously approved resolution, passed on Saturday, will allow for aid deliveries and medical evacuations to take place.

The vote, held at around 2:30pm local time (19:30 GMT), had been delayed by more than 24 hours due to disagreements between Russia and other Security Council members over the wording of the resolution.

A meeting was originally scheduled for 11am local time (16:00 GMT) on Friday.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, criticised Russia for delaying the Security Council meeting saying it had belatedly decided to join the international consensus.

Hardly anything in the resolution has changed except a few words and commas, she said following the vote.

Every minute the council waited on Russia, the human suffering grew.

Al Jazeeras Diplomatic Editor James Bays, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said Russia had objected to an earlier version of the resolution which called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria.

The approved resolution calls for a ceasefire without delay, he said.

Syrian government warplanes launched attacks just outside of Damascus in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta minutes after the vote was passed, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

More than 500 people, including 123 children, have been killed in Eastern Ghouta since Sunday, according to the SOHR.

Russian-backed Syrian forces began a renewed offensive on the suburb of Damascus on February 18.

Eastern Ghouta, home to some 400,000 people, is the last remaining rebel-held area near Damascus and has been under frequent aerial bombardment by Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces since 2013.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in fighting during Syrias seven-year civil war, and millions have been forced to flee the country.Syrias war: Ghouta hit with incendiary rockets

Ghouta is being hit by incendiary bombs that are intended to start large fires when they hit the ground.Catholic cardinal leads walk for life and denounces throwaway culture, which he says has cost many Filipino lives.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Manila to protest Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes drug war, which has left thousands of people dead, and to express their opposition to plans to change the Constitution.

Catholic groups held a predawn walk for life on Saturday against the drug killings, as well as the proposed restoration of the death penalty.

In his message, Luis Antonio Tagle, the cardinal of Manila, denounced the growing throwaway culture, which he said has left many casualties including human lives.

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We will not tire in walking for life even if the path ahead is winding and soaked in blood, Tagle said in Filipino, without directly referring to Dutertes drug war.

The church-led protest took place as the country celebrated the anniversary of the 1986 popular revolt, which deposed Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos and ended his 20-year rule.

Since Duterte came into office in 2016, the Catholic church has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of his deadly anti-drug policy.

The death toll in the drug war already surpassed 20,000 in the first 20 months of the Duterte presidency, according to an opposition senator.

The government insists the death toll is much lower at 3,967 between July 1, 2016, to November 27, 2017.

In a video clip posted by online news site Rappler, Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo said Filipinos should not be indifferent, whether the number of drug war deaths is big or small.

Its not about the numbers, because the policy continues, Pabillo told reporters. If we are not vigilant, its possible that the killings will escalate. So we should not ignore this.

More than 80 percent of the 101 million Filipinos are Catholics. But Duterte has managed to fend off criticism from the church, calling church leaders hypocrites.

Cardinal Tagle greets families of victims of extrajudicial killings in Manila on Saturday [AFP]

High approval rating

The president also enjoys high approval rating, with 71 percent satisfaction rate in December, according to the local polling agency Social Weather Stations.

Elsewhere in Manila on Saturday afternoon, an assembly of left-wing groups, students, church workers and activists held a separate march calling for resistance against Duterte, whom they likened to the dictator, Marcos.

Demonstrators raised their fists as they carried banners denouncing the dictatorship and Dutertes plan to change the Constitution.





We are here to show that we are capable of fighting the dictator Duterte, a leader of the march said in a video clip posted on social media.

The protesters partially blocked traffic along the route of the march.

On Friday, thousands of students across the country also joined a school walkout.

Harry Roque, spokesman of the president said, the anti-government protests are proof that democracy and freedom are very much alive in the Philippines.

Roque said Duterte is open to constructive criticism.

Meanwhile, thousands of uniformed police officers, their family members and supporters held a counter-march near the national police headquarters in Manila in support of the Dutertes drug war.

Fight and defeat drugs, read one banner carried by the demonstrators.Several GCC leaders scheduled to visit Washington, DC, in March and April to discuss ongoing crisis.

Several leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are scheduled to meet US President Donald Trump over the next couple of months, a US official has said.

In a bid by Washington to resolve the ongoing Gulf diplomatic crisis, leaders of the region will conduct bilateral visits with Trump, Reuters news agency reported on Saturday.

Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani are scheduled to meet Trump in March and April.





According to the official quoted by Reuters, talks will revolve around the possibility of establishing a GCC summit later this year under Washingtons auspices, as well as the role of Iran in the region.

The dispute in the Gulf began in June 2017, when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar and imposed a land, sea and air blockade after accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Qatar has strongly rejected the allegations as baseless.

The US and the EU have repeatedly called on the countries to engage in dialogue.

Earlier this month, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that his country would be willing to participate in a US-GCC summit next spring, provided that the blockading countries motivation is based on real will and not coercion.

The last US-GCC summit was held in May 2017, in the Saudi capital Riyadh, just before the crisis unfolded.Strike over low wages and cuts to benefits will continue on Monday as teachers demand US state takes action.

From the first minute Ellen Shepherd  a kindergarten-to-5th-grade special education teacher  picketed Thursday morning, along with other school employees in Elkins, West Virginia, community members showed their support.

It was amazing, said Shepherd, who is also the president of the Randolph County Education Association. People were stopping to offer support, coffee, doughnuts, stuff all day long, she added.

Most importantly, those who werent sure about was going on stopped and asked us, so we were able to explain why we are here, what we are doing, and what got us to this point.

After months of writing legislators, attending hearings, and holding educational pickets before and after school, the three teachers unions representing educators across the US state of West Virginia announced a collective walkout for Thursday and Friday, forcing all public schools to close.

On Friday afternoon, the unions announced the strike will continue on Monday.

The teachers are demanding higher wages and better benefits as they struggle to afford rising healthcare costs.

On both Thursday and Friday, thousands sang and chanted at the state capitol building in Charleston, calling for an agreement before the end of the legislative session on March 10.

According to local media, teachers in the state set up food banks to ensure students who depend on school meals were fed during the strike.

Struggling to fill positions

While the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, and West Virginia Education Association have historically competed for members and influence, they unified in the face of reduced healthcare coverage and doubling insurance premiums, copays and deductibles.

Cuts to benefits forced Mary Stiles, a high school teacher in Morgantown, to stop taking a medication that was no longer covered by the mandatory Public Employees Insurance Agency plan required for all government employees.

Thousands of teachers showed up in Charleston, West Virginia to protest against low pay and lack of benefits [ John Raby/ AP Photo]

Critics in the government and local communities, Stiles said, are trying to make it look like were being greedy, that we want this big raise.

But, we want our medical insurance to be fully funded and we want good coverage, she told Al Jazeera, not just for educators, but for all public employees.

Organisers have said that salaries are so low, that many have had to take second jobs to support their families

As salaries and benefits have declined, so have teaching incentives, and the number of vacancies has risen to more than 700.

There are nearly 20,000 teachers employed by the state.

Shepherd told Al Jazeera: We cannot fill kindergarten positions, music positions  English, special ed, social studies: positions that were a given in the past.

Teachers risk fines by continuing the walkout [John Raby/AP Photo]

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice signed legislation this week that gives teachers a two percent pay increase in July. It will be followed by a one percent increase over the next two years. The bill, however, reduces the increase that had been previously proposed.

West Virginias public school employees are also concerned about legalising taxpayer-funded private school vouchers and increasing the number of charter schools, policies which have been at the core of US Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss policy platform.

A risk worth taking

Though teachers have not gone on strike since 1990, teachers unions in West Virginia rank 13th in the United States, according to a 2012 study which found that they were formidable and thoroughly engaged state politics and in developing policies.

Viewed as the birthplace of the US labour movement, West Virginia has a long history of strong unions that organised workers such as coal miners, craftsmen, and nurses to collectively bargain for improved wages, working conditions, and healthcare.

However, it is illegal under West Virginia law for public employees to go on strike, and teachers risk fines or imprisonment by continuing the walkout.

At a meeting to discuss legal ramifications, Shepherd told Al Jazeera that the response of the 300 assembled educators was unanimous: Our kids are more important.

Shepherd added: So, yes, we face that risk, but thats a risk thats worth taking because our kids and their education is so valuable to us.

Potential next steps for the unions include returning to work for a few days before resuming the stoppage, having rolling walkouts by county, or continuing the statewide strike until changes are made [John Raby/ AP Photo]

In a statement released on February 20, West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Steven Paine noted the illegality of work stoppages by public employees and encouraged educators to advocate for the benefits they deserve, but to seek courses of action that have the least possible disruption for our students.

While educators hope that an agreement will be reached quickly, the unions are taking it day by day.

Lets call a spade a spade: Its a strike, said Josh Nelson, who has been teaching high school Spanish and English in Huntington for three years. We dont know when this will end.

Potential next steps for the unions include returning to work for a few days before resuming the stoppage, having rolling walkouts by county, or continuing the statewide strike until changes are made.

West Virginia teachers have been terribly, terribly slighted for a long time, said Cindy Stemple, a retired teacher and union member who worked for public schools in West Virginia for 35 years.

People are fed up with it, theyve had enough, she added.With how massive China is, its not so much when is the best time to visit, but where to visit. Each season offers a different travel style and major city to explore, with local festivals and attractions opening their doors to travelers.

Spring

Though you may wish to experience Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, it should generally be avoided as this is a major public holiday, meaning all the locals are traveling as well, filling out hotels, transit services, and restaurants.

In April to early May youll experience Chinas wet season, but this isnt necessarily bad, as Guilin and Yunann experience a mystical morning mist.

If you want to hit up the big city, definitely visit Beijing and Xian, both of which will enjoy comfortable weather, letting you easily experience the Great Wall while the trees are green.

Summer

This is the peak season that most travelers choose, including local students who have July to August free. Major cities become extremely hot during this period, so pack light and buy lots of water.

In turn, Tibet experiences comfortable weather, making it a great time to explore this unique region.

If you want to experience a touch of Chinese culture, take in the Dragon Boat Festival in June, a major public holiday that features colorful dragon boat racing, drinking realgar, and eating foods related to the number 5. In August you can also experience the romantic Qixi Festival, Chinas valentines day that celebrates the meeting of the cowherd and weaver from Chinese mythology.

Autumn

September to October are perfect traveling months, as the weather has evened out across the country, especially in Xinjiang, which is normally too hot or too cold. If you head inland youll experience amazing fall colors across a variety of forests, gorges, and mountains  just make sure to bring a jacket.

The major tourist cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong all enjoy comfortable weather, unlike their intense summers.

If youre in the big cities, youll definitely want to enjoy the Mid-Autumn Festival, which takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month based on the Chinese lunar calendar. It is the second largest festival in China after the Lunar New Year and is another major lunar holiday. Enjoy stalls offering moon cakes, ceremonies at major temples, and celebrate the beauty of the moon.

Winter

Winter is a hidden gem of China, letting you experience amazing festivals and comfortable weather, especially if you travel south to Hong Kong, Macau and Yunnan.

But if you really want to brave the cold, head inland to Harbin, home to an enchanting Ice and Snow Festival that rivals Hokkaidos. From here you can explore unique Russian architecture, ski at a variety of comfortable ski resorts, and discover the majesty of the festival, including the colorful lanterns and ice sculptures.Dr Marc Lamont Hill is an award-winning journalist and author and is the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. Hill is known for his work addressing the intersections of race, justice, politics and culture. His latest best-selling book is We Still Here: Pandemics, Policing, Protest and Possibility which follows on the success of Nobody: Casualties of Americas War on the Vulnerable from Flint to Ferguson. Hill has received numerous prestigious awards from the US National Association of Black Journalists, GLAAD, and the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.Who could have thought that the delicate, fine, silky threads of a spiders cobweb could be woven into a canvas strong enough to withstand the abrasive strokes of an artists brush? But the hundred or so paintings that survive today in museums and in the hands of private collectors bear testimony to this incredibly ingenious, painstaking and time-consuming craft that the Austrian monks of the Tyrolean Alps practiced in the 16th century.

Cobweb painting, sometimes also called gossamer painting, are made on fabrics made of spider cobwebs or caterpillars' silk. The cobwebs are collected from the wild, and great care is taken to remove twigs, insect parts, spider droppings etc. that become trapped and entangled in the web. After carefully cleaning the webs, they are stretched over a cardboard to form a thin canvas. Over this canvas a coat of diluted milk is applied to add strength. The canvas is now ready to paint, but it is still extremely fragile. Even a gentle poke of a finger can completely destroy a cobweb painting.

A watercolor portrait of Philippine Welser, wife of Archduke Ferdinand II, made on an ultrathin canvas made out of cobwebs. Photo credit: Charles Deering Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library

Its hard to explain why monks went such great lengths to create something thats so vulnerable to the slightest touch. Perhaps they sought to express their spiritual devotion and unwavering patience by mastering the most difficult canvas imaginable, muses Ina Cassier in an article published in the 1956 issue of Natural History. The more fragile [the paintings] were, the more they were cherished, she explained.

Artists used a variety of opaque watercolors to create the paintings. But the background areas were left unpainted, so that when held against light, the figures seem to float in an opalescent haze. The most skilled craftsmen were able to create even engravings by applying just the right amount of pressure to the canvas.

The very first cobweb paintings were that of saints, and they hung in windows of churches and cloisters. As the techniques became more common place, cobweb paintings began to be found in homes and could be bought at marketplaces. An artist named Franz Unterberger (18381902) of Innsbruck, employed other local artists to produce cobweb portraits and sold them to tourists. These cobweb paintings were exported to England, North America and Germany in significant numbers. The subject of these paintings also became more diverse. In the 19th and early 20th century the cobweb artists of Innsbruck painted landscapes and scenes involving local peasants, as well as military scenes of the wars of independence.

There are possibly no practicing cobweb artist in the world today. The last skilled cobweb artist based out of Tennessee, in the US, died in 1956. Anne Bradshaw Clopton discovered the craft in the late 1890s after reading about it in a magazine when she was only 11. She began practicing and eventually mastered the secrets of the art. Over the decades Anne learned to recognize the species of spiders that spun the densest webs, and the times of year that the webs were the strongest. She also developed her own paint mixtures that would resist sagging, cracking, or tearing the webs. She applied the paint in microscopic dots, using a magnifying glass and a single-hair brush, painstakingly filling the gaps between the individual web threads. Even the smallest artwork took thousands of dots and many weeks to complete.

Unfortunately, most of Anne's fragile paintings have either been lost or destroyed. Some of them were donated after her death to the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Others can be seen at her old house in Huntsville, Alabama.

Photo credit: Charles Deering Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library

Photo credit: Charles Deering Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library

Photo credit: Charles Deering Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library

Photo credit: Charles Deering Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library

Photo credit: Charles Deering Mccormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library

Source: Atlas Obscura / WikipediaI had dinner with J, my high-school chum. We hadn't seen

each other for over 10 years but I spotted him right away in

the lobby. He lost some hair but was about the same size and

height. I was glad he didn't turn pear-shape. He obviously

had taken good care of himself.

Last year, J left his job for an opportunity, made a bundle,

but couldn't get back to his cushy old post where he spent

most of his working life. "The company is downsizing and

prefers young people." He said in a sad voice: "Our time has

passed." Age-discrimination is the phrase in the West. In

China the practice is complained about (by older people),

but not incriminating or even frowned upon. People just

accept it.

I reminded him of how thankful he should be. Owning multiple

apartments in Beijing, he's financially free. But the phrase

"mid-life crisis" came to mind --my friend seemed troubled

and looking for something to spend his life on now that a

regular career, if possible, would not be satisfying. He

said he would love to write a novel and told me of his plan

to leave the nation's capital for a smaller city in the

south. Both sounded great to me.

We talked about health, of course. He believed that a man in

his 40s should no longer aspire to becoming strong but

should "pay attention to and maintain" his body. This seemed

to be the prevalent mid-to-old-age attitude toward health in

the land of the Dragon. My dad in his infinite wisdom kept

warning me: "don't go too heavy" when I told him about my

progresses in weight lifting. He wouldn't tell me how much

was "too heavy" though. Both reminded me of the freakishly

strong dudes I know of in their 50s or 60s back in the US.

When talking about life abroad, I mentioned Bruce Lee, the

most popular Chinese outside of China. Someone said he

"single-handedly made being Chinese sexy." His physique,

stunts, and movies made him the big star but, to me, it was

really his understanding of the Tao that made him enduring

in the western mind. To my friend who seemed to be going

through a slump, I offered this quote: "Do not pray for an

easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."Brittany Wheatons Instagram feed is filled with colorful photos of a well-organized classroom, smiling students, and creative lesson plans. With more than 58,000 followers, her profile serves as a fount of ideas and tips for an active online community of educators.

But on Wednesday, Wheaton took to social media to address something elsethe idea that educators should carry guns. Her post followed comments from President Donald Trump , who suggested the same day that arming and training teachers to use weapons in school could be a solution to curbing mass shootings.

Trumps comments came less than a week after 17 students and educators were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

For Wheaton and thousands of other teachers across the country, having weapons in the classroom is not the solution to ending the widespread epidemic of gun violence in schools. And theyre ready to let lawmakers know it.

#armmewith the resources and funding needed to help students experiencing mental health issues, NOT guns. Teachers, now (more than ever) is the time to take and stand and say we will not accept another one of our students being lost to another senseless school shooting. We have to strive for MORE. Our students deserve it. Call, write, march... do whatever you can to show enough is enough-- we NEED stronger gun laws, we NEED funding for mental health issues, we NEED our students to L I V E so they can change the future of this country. #resist #standup #guncontrol #enoughisenough #notonemore #gunsafety #schoolsafety #mentalhealth #teachertribe #iteachtoo #teachersmatter A post shared by Brittany Wheaton (@thesuperheroteacher) on Feb 20, 2018 at 3:59pm PST

Teachers are speaking up now more than ever, because we have seen countless student lives lost and we are demanding change, Wheaton said via email.

Wheaton posted a photo of herself holding a piece of paper that said "#ArmMeWith The resources and funding needed to help students experiencing mental health issues. She called for other educators across the country to join the movement by using the #ArmMeWith hashtag to express how they think school gun violence can be stopped.

Through Instagram, Wheaton joined forces with Olivia Bertles , a Kansas-based teacher with an active social media presence, to spread the movement to as many teachers as possible.

R E A L  W O R L D  S O L U T I O N S  my friend @thesuperheroteacher and I think that we should find more practical solutions than giving teachers guns. I hope you'll take the same stance and read the explanation on my stories as to why. Join us. #armmewith A post shared by Olivia Bertels (@missbertels_) on Feb 20, 2018 at 5:58pm PST

When we launched the #ArmMeWith movement, we had one goal in mind: for teachers to have their voices heard and to present logical solutions to the horrific events that have been occurring in our schools, Wheaton said. There has been a lot of talk about arming teachers, and if youre an educator, you know that is simply not a rational solution.

Earlier this week, the movement garnered more than 7,000 responses overnight from teachers and school leaders on social media.

#armmewith common sense laws that protect my students, my fellow teachers , my kids and my community! Arm me with actions that create change and not just thoughts and prayers, arm with with a congress that is not bought by the NRA, arm me with #SAFETY, and #PEACE OF MIND! A post shared by Teaching w Sugar & Spice (@teachingwithsugarandspice) on Feb 20, 2018 at 4:03pm PST

Among the thousands of responses, a reoccurring theme was the demand for increased access to mental health resources. Wheaton said teachers and schools in general in the U.S. lack the appropriate funding to help students experiencing mental health issues.

Students need access to professional mental health service providers who can diagnose and provide proper therapy, she said. Give our counselors time to counsel so they are able to properly refer students to the appropriate mental health professionals.

The movement will soon transcend social media and have a presence at the March for Our Lives rally on March 24 in Washington, where Wheaton and Bertels plan to make signs to spread their message. In the meantime, Wheaton is encouraging teachers to be proactive by writing letters and making phone calls to their state and federal elected officials.

Im trained to teach, not to shoot. Instead of arming teachers with more gun, supply us with materials & resources we desperately need. From 1:1 devices to #2 pencils. From mental health care to healthy nutrition. #ArmMeWith #DeafEd pic.twitter.com/evR6ufuBw6 -- Darren (@DarrenHause) February 23, 2018

If given the opportunity to sit down with lawmakers, Wheaton said shed want them to help teachers have their voices heard.

It is evident through this movement that we do not feel comfortable being armed in the classroomarming teachers is not the solution, she said. Instead, arm me with the resources and funding needed to help students experiencing mental health issues. Arm me with stronger background checks. Arm me with change.

#ArmMeWith freedom, resources and funding to focus on the WHOLE child. Do not arm me with guns. pic.twitter.com/28dX3U58bQ -- Veronica Toledo (@ToleVero) February 23, 2018